The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover

Chapter 13: A Voice in the Wind

Monster X
High Beam
Mothra
Twilight Sparkle
Spike
?????
Xenilla

Archival Vault, Celestial Museum, Fillydelphia

High Beam let a long, drowsy yawn echo down the dark and isolated tunnel he patrolled down; likely not a single soul to hear it. The dim halls and cold air were the only company he had other than the occasional co-worker amongst the vast expanse. His limbs were getting more sluggish as time went on, a quick check of his watch thankfully informing him his near nocturnal work hours were nearly over. A shift down below the museum was a whole different experience than its counterpart. The staff was a skeleton crew over a huge area, with all the sights and sounds of the bustling city around them falling into the shade’s lull and stillness. It was a matter of interpretation on whether the quiet and darkness was better or worse than the beaming lights and crowded surroundings of the above-ground shift. High Beam paced down a long dark hallway, his hooves clicking on the cement and tile floors being the only noise in the artificial cavern. It was his turn to patrol the archives and vault, the hidden realm underneath the museum where the public wasn’t allowed. It was for their and everyone else’s safety; for what lay down here was priceless.

High Beam flicked on his magic and rays of luminance akin to a flash light shot out from his horn as he looked over said priceless artifacts. Each was stored away behind glass and metal vaults that lined the walls of the long chamber like hotel rooms. Occasionally one or two of them was put out for public display, with a heavy guard staff of course; but most of the time they lay here. High Beam glanced over some of them as he passed by. A gown from the original Crystal royal, an original edition of a massive tome by the great Starswirl, Commander Hurricane’s helmet and armor; and a pair of scimitars, a gift from a 2nd century Saddle-Arabian Sultan. None of them may have contained any inherit power, but the cultural worth of any of them was near a fortune.

One item here however did go against that ‘no inherit power’ description, and High Beam was on his way to check on it. After it had been given away at a glorified pawnshop, it had come into Celestia's possession after a mysterious Zebra passed it off to her. The official story was it was buried somewhere in the Everfree. The actual truth was it was buried under several layers of guards, concrete, and gates after the Solar Diarch had it locked away in the deepest and most isolated chamber in the vault. They had only put it on display once, and despite the heavy guard staff, an attempted theft quickly taught the museum to lock it away. Publicly they treated it like it was never there, privately they put it as mandatory watch every shift. High Beam yawned again.

-Well, hours almost up. Might as well give it another look before I head up top to clock out-

Turning the corner, High Beam saw something that instantly made his eyes snap out and banished any tiredness left in him in an instant. The gate way to the lowest catacomb was torn open. The heavy-wrought iron, magic proof bars that blocked all but those with an access key from entering had been torn or blasted open and peeled back like an open can of cat food. Large, wide foot prints lead to the darkness deep inside. High Beam’s breath quickened as he quickly grabbed at the panel on the wall to his right, slamming his hoof down on the silent alarm. Soon, maybe in a few minutes, the rest of the staff would be down there.

-Few minutes Later-

High Beam gulped back a disorderly breath.

-Not soon enough.-

Taking his own regarded safety and hurling it out an imaginary window, High Beam reignited his light magic and took off down the long hall. His hooves crashed and pinged off the still tunnel surface for some time, following the tracks until he spotted the familiar bend in the tunnel. Taking in his breath, the unicorn slowly crept up on the turn, still slightly fearful of what lay just out of his line of sight. The crash and smashing of glass confirmed what he suspected. It was now or never. High Beam jumped around the corner, lighting up his horn with a beam of visibility as he charged a magic burst.

“FREEZE! HOOVES IN THE AI-“

But what had its back to him had no hooves to speak off. Whip-like, black tails trailed across the ground, ink black skin and white body armor that resembled bones gleamed in the magical light. The back of its head turned at the noise behind it, and soon the whole body followed as the nameless looked to the named. Monster X’s red eyes glared into the awe shocked orbs of High Beam. High Beam’s voice died in his throat as he looked the demon before him over, its hiss slipping through the air. Between its hellish and other-worldly appearance and the fact it was holding something in its hand he was all too familiar with, High Beam’s hooves shifted and he made for his sword. X’s eyes narrowed as yellow energy built up in them every passing millisecond.

-He’s armed, a possible threat-

High Beam drew his saber and was about to charge when a flash of gold heralded a burst of the Xilian vanguard's signature weapon.

“I don’t have time for you…”

Energy ignited as time slowed. High Beam's magic wrapped around his saber as X locked on. Just before he could give the mental command, a feminine voice echoed through the corners of his mind. Soft as a breeze blown chime, personal as a whisper. It caught the kaiju off guard.

-"Don't do this.. There is no need to kill him..."-

-"?!"-

Whether he was taken but surprise of unknowingly following the command, X craned his head down at the last second and redirected the graviton flow. Regardless of not taking a direct hit, High Beam didn’t have the time or knowledge to react to a barrage of gravitons slamming into the ground in front of him, the kinetic force transferring back and hurling High Beam into the wall from the concussive explosion. He hit his head hard against the metal paneling, consciousness drifting away in flashes. He didn't hear what his attacker said next. Monster X stood in silence, looking around him rapidly as he thrashed his tails in frustration.

"Who said that?! Show yourself!"

There was no one there. There was only the isolation of his own voice, and his own mind. X couldn't hold back an annoyed growl as High Beam's eyes began to fall. The last thing the guard saw before the medical team revived him was something dangling from the monster’s fingers as it walked past him and out the door.

Official report detailed large tracks found heading into and out of the tertiary vault with the theft of one item from said vault. One guard was given paid medical leave for a concussion and fractured ribs. Tracks found began and ended mysteriously just outside the vault’s magic barrier with no sign of entry from any other area or flight. Several thousand bits worth of damage was done to the tertiary vault's gate, which needed complete replacement.

All historic and cultural relics, some of which had repeated theft attempts due to astronomical value were untouched…. but the Alicorn Amulet was gone.

Everfree Forest, Castle of the Two Sisters

Golden lights streaked across Mothra's broad wings before arching out, lightning spewing out of her body as if she was a massive Tesla coil. The skies became filled with shrieks and numerous smaller members of the gyaos flock were electrocuted and fell to the forest floor in a barrage of fire balls. The Guardian of Mortals could sense all of them to an extent. Across the castle and forest surrounding it were at least three dozen car sized but normal Gyaos, about one dozen Super Gyaos ranging from 30 to 60 meters tall; and the albino alpha, the Hyper Gyaos. Mothra flapped her wings, giving off a barrage of gale force winds to keep back some of the smaller demons away from her and the castle. If she could keep it at ranged, she had a chance against the horde; but she absolutely couldn't let them pin her down. This was a battle she couldn't afford to get knocked out of the air or surrounded. She screeched a telepathic shout to the gawking alicorn below as batteries of energy fired out from her forehead and pierced through the wings of an oncoming Super.

-"GET INSIDE! QUICKLY! I'LL HOLD THEM OFF!"-

Twilight didn't need to be told twice. Running over to scoop up Spike and plop the dragon onto her back, the alicorn rushed off into one of the still-intact halls. There may have been some gyaos inside the castle still, but there was far more on the exterior. The airspace outside the castle was hell on earth, so indoors was better than nothing. Mothra still cast a silent prayer as she shifted her attention back to the maelstrom of shadows surrounding her. Dozens of gyaos, ranging in size from the scale of a carriage to the mass of a train swirled around her like a sea of hungry piranha. Flickers of yellow shown through the black shroud before legions of piercing gold rays of sonic energy screamed through the night. Most, in their owners' chaotic thrashing, missed entirely and scourged the landscape around the castle. Trees were bisected, boulders slashed into; and trenches gouged into the ground. A shimmering light grew over Mothra’s scales like a spreading wildfire as several beams struck her. For a split second a silvery aura wrapped around her form like a cloak, before the golden rays were reflected off like a laser striking a mirror. Numerous attackers screeched and shrieked as their own attacks cut into them and sent several plummeting to the ground. Mothra reignited her wing born lightning strikes, trying to thin out the flock a bit more as well as keep several Super Gyaos from dog-piling her.

A flash of white ripped away her attention. Knocking aside several Supers, Hyper Gyaos dive-bombed the guardian with her jaws and talons outstretched. Turning midair, the moth barely managed to dodge getting her back shredded by extended claws and gnashing fangs, escaping with one gash across the back of her thorax. Spinning around to both fling off a few members of the flock trying to latch onto her and re-steady herself, Mothra soon found herself glaring back at the glints of pale that shimmered through the sea of darkness like a shark. Hyper Gyaos spread her wings to brake mid-air, the wing membrane between her bat-like fingers glowing into a hummed purple as members of her flock wisely got out of the way. The Atlantean creation's jaws flung themselves open and gathered energy. Sparks of power lit themselves on Mothra’s antennae, ushering forth dual beams of raw energy as Hyper unleashed her violet, hyper cutter ray. As the two beams crashed into each other, a miniature sun formed in the spot where divine magic and energized sound collided. Both kaiju fought to keep her energy flowing stronger, causing the bright, glowing orb of light in the struggle’s apex to grow stronger as it drank in both funnels of power like a siphon. The intense light and raw power drove back a good portion of the flock that would have otherwise been ganging up on the preoccupied Mothra at the moment.

Both kaiju poured more energy into her own output, but the glowing mass of energy forming between them swelled to a blinding light. They had initiated the beam fight too close to each other, a failure with explosive results. The ball of energy exploded into a miniature nova in the air space above the castle. The stony exterior of the surviving tower was incinerated and portions even turned to glass. Thankfully the shock wave expanded horizontally more than it did vertically. Good for the lower portions of castle and its occupants, very bad for any kaiju in the air. Multiple gyaos shrieked in pain, raining down into the forest in fiery infernos as numerous Supers were sent sprawling onto the forest floor; up heaving showers of dirt and stones. Mothra and Hyper both screamed and yelped as they were send hurtling backwards. Hyper Gyaos was sent flying down a canyon, snapping an aged and ragged rope bridge like a string of yarn before she collided back-first into the canyon wall. Mothra meanwhile was ushered into a backwards spiral, desperately trying to keep airborne despite numerous spots on her body having been ignited from the same sheer energy burst that near knocked her senseless. Crash landing on several quickly uprooted oak trees, Mothra groaned; trying to stop her vision from swirling so much.

A jolting pain quickly rushed through her body from her shoulder, green eyes darting over in the vertigo of vision, making out the shape of a recovered Super Gyaos. The beast had jumped onto her back, using its weight to try and keep her pinned as it dug its fangs into a lower section of her wing. Mothra shrieked out into the forest as the demon’s gnawing managed to breach her scales and usher out a trail of green-blue blood. The pain forced Mothra’s delirious senses back into action as more gyaos flew in to try and pile up on her. Craning her head over as energy sparked across her forehead, Mothra screeched before triple rays of piercing energy shot out and impaled the Super’s head. The malfunctioning creation of Atlantis barely had time to shriek before the beams came slicing and searing their way out of the back of its skull plate and into the blotted sky. Rolling the now burning corpse off her wing, Lea barely had time to get airborne and dodge two more oncoming Supers. Darting to avoid their lunges, Mothra took a moment to fry several normal Gyaos with her antennae beams before slamming downward on the Supers and driving her energy charged body into them. She may have preferred to fight at range and while she wasn’t as good in close quarters as her allies; the Guardian of Mortals was no pushover. But if she was going to win this, she had to thin out this flock, and fast.

Hyper Gyaos had taken a larger brunt of the explosion more than Mothra had, requiring a few more seconds to recover. After leaving a sizable imprint in the rivers of sandstone and granite, Hyper dug her claws into the canyon wall to climb her way out. After scaling up the cliff-face, the albino alpha felt something. A strong, ambient power not coming from any of the kaiju was present, and it was close by. It was further down, in a cave that connected to the crevice. Looking back to the ongoing battle a short distance away, Hyper spread her wings and let out a subsonic shriek to her flock. Against something like Mothra, the now greatly thinned normal members of her flock were basically cannon fodder. She and the supers on the other hand, could give the guardian trouble. So far their entire plan had been thrown a massive curveball since the benign titan showed up, but she had to improvise. Without all of the flock present, she had to.

The subsonic shriek rang out, barely audible to any but the members of her kind, and gave its orders. After looking to their alpha as the albino beast fanned her wings and retook the air, several of the smaller members of the Flight nodded and exited the battle. They flew down the crevice and headed straight for an isolated, glowing cavern. Hyper, having just dodged a barrage of wing borne lightning that fried another Super; slammed into Mothra. The crashing together of over 50,000 tons of kaiju split the air before the two began clawing and swiping at each other in a mid-air duel.

Meanwhile in the castle itself, Twilight was having a less than stellar time amidst the sounds of the warzone outside. Namely, running for her and Spike's life. Bolting down a long hall so fast the damage her hooves caused to the carpet would give Rarity a night terror, Twilight nearly launched herself off the wall to round a turn. One of her pursuers, the front runner in a small pack of gyaos, wasn't able to make the bend as sharply and crashed into the age stonework behind Twilight. Spike clung to Twilight's back and mane for dear life, his eyes darting up to the ceiling. The old wood was splintered and on the edge of splitting so badly it would bring the whole section of roof down on the hall behind them. Bravery swelled up in the drake as he took in a deep breath. Had it been any other situation, Twilight would have asked her little brother to excuse himself for such a loud belch before a brazen green fireball shot out of Spike's mouth.

The emerald flames struck one of the gyaos square in the face, sending the predator sprawling and reeling back as it clawed at its still burning face. Minding to keep Twilight's mane out of the inferno, Spike tilted his head up and trailed a stream of flame along the weak roof. It took a nanosecond for the wood to catch fire, it took a second more before it started coming down on their pursuers. Boulders and bricks fell from the ceiling behind the duo, the trail of destruction beginning to catch up to both they and the final gyaos chasing them.

"RUUUUN!"

"HANG ON!"

The gyaos was gaining on them despite Twilight's best efforts to put as many obstacles between it and them, but it just crashed through any table she leaped over and knocked aside any suit of armor she threw in its way. The collapsing roof was on both runners' heels, crashing down in a chorus of destruction. The gyaos was right behind Twilight, panting so coarsely the alicorn could practically feel its breath on her neck. It lunged forward, Spike acting fast and turning around, grabbing his sister's tail to yank it out of the way of the bat demon's lunges. Drooling, fanged jaws snapped at the air repeatedly, not caring about the crumbling hallway and only dreaming of warm blood on her maw. The doorway to the tunnels, to safety, was a few meters ahead. But the latter was a scattered dream with this monstrosity chasing them. Panting hard but stealing a glance back, Twilight didn't need a moment to think when she saw the gyaos change targets from her tail to its holder. Protective instincts flaring, the young alicorn seized a moment to rock both her hind legs back with as much force as she could, bucking the gyaos square in the jaw. Yelping in pain from a pair of purple hooves knocking several of its teeth out, the bat demon reeled back and was crushed under the avalanche of falling ceiling.

Not daring to seize another moment, Twilight partially spread her wings and shot forward with a flap assisted dive for the open doorway. Spike grabbed the door’s handle and slammed it shut behind them just in time to block the falling canopy behind the gate that came crashing down into it. Twilight tried to stick the landing but ended up half tumbling around in a circle upon her hooves hitting the floor. Several seconds passed before both of the Equestrians could pick themselves up from the tossed up mess of carpet and overturned tables. Spike rubbed his temple, trying to get the world to stop spinning.

"oooyyye... You ok Twi?"

Twilight had a hoof over her chest in desperate attempt to slow her racing heart. Success was minimum.

"I'l-I'll be fine..."

After a quick check over to make sure her younger sibling was okay and thanking Faust that dragon scales were tough enough to withstand a crashing table, Twilight lifted herself up. They were in one of the chambers dug into the cave tunnels leading down to the Tree of Harmony, one that was thankfully sealed on one end by the blocked door and on another by a bolted metal door. In the first good observation she had since Mothra transformed, there wasn't a single gyaos in sight. She could still hear them, their piercing shrieks ripping through the air outside as Mothra battled the swarm, cries of war giving a muffled echo through the reinforced walls. There was a single window in the darkened room, peering out to the forest lowlands below.

The sky may have been darkened by the flock's shroud, but between the occasional burning tree, blazing remains of struck down gyaos, and rays of power flying every which way, everything was fairly well lit. Mothra soared high above the tree line, grappling with the same enormous white gyaos Twilight had seen earlier. The guardian managed to free herself from a hold and after dodging a close bite to her neck, grabbed onto the demonic bat's head. Energy akin to lightning coursed through rainbow colored wings before conducting into the Albino's body, shocking her repeatedly. The pale monstrosity's cries rang out as mystical electricity arched across her body, burning it in several places. One by one, the membranes of skin that made up her wings ignited with a purple light to rival Mothra's. Throwing her head up to dislodge the moth, Hyper Gyaos activated her shield and deflected the lightning off in different directions. Twilight instinctively closed her eyes for a moment upon feeling a bolt strike the foundation of the castle and send a rumble through the whole building. Hyper Gyaos screamed in primal fury, forcing the energized shield forward to bash Mothra away before it dissipated. The guardian was sent reeling back, frantically flapping for a bit to re-steady herself as she hovered above the castle. Hyper Gyaos glared at her rival as she held position above the remains of the rope bridge. Taking in a deep breath, the bat threw her head up and let out a near subsonic shriek that was more audible to her flock than it was anyone else. One could practically see the waves of moving energy coursing through the air as the remaining members of the flock listened and listened well. Mothra didn't take her eyes off the swarm's alpha member, thankful none of the flock was still assaulting the castle as of now.

The dark flock shifted, the remaining few Supers flanking Hyper as most of the normal members grouped up between then. What Mothra didn't see was a small detachment of normal gyaos circling around and diving into the crevice surrounding the castle. She didn't have time to notice either, having to quickly put up her own barrier to deflect a salvo of sonic rays aimed at her and the castle. Twilight saw the detachment, and knew right where they were going. Knowledge lead to dread. There was only one thing that crevice lead to that was worth going after.

-The Tree.... They're going after the Tree!-

Frantically, she looked to the battle ongoing outside. Mothra had her hooves full and lacking any telepathy, Twilight couldn't call out to her. The sound of her own heartbeat's pulse snapped Twilight to her senses with a realization. Her heart beat again. The alicorn's face slowly hardened as her pulse slowed to a confident beat. Dread changing to something else.

-I am a Princess of Equestria, protector of the realm. I can NOT stand by!-

Twilight stomped her hoof into the ground and shot a glare at the bolted door. Looking over, Twilight barked her orders.

"Spike, some of those things are going after the Tree and Mothra's fighting for her life out there, I'm going after them. I need you to bolt the door behind me!"

Twilight barely made it two steps to the door before Spike shot up like a rocket.

"WHAT!?!? BUT THEY- YOU CAN'!- DON'T GO!"

Twilight kept her face firm as she could, she couldn't falter right now. She outstretched a wing and partially wrapped it around the dragon's quivering form.

"We've dealt with dire threats before, but I need you to stay safe right now. Mothra and the Tree need my help right now just like we needed her's. I'm just going to go down, get it done, and then I'll be right back up here for you ok?! I'll be right back up but until then you need to stay safe so lock the door for me."

Spike's shivering slowed somewhat, but he was still clearly terrified. The alicorn could hardly blame him, this was easily more nerve wrenching than the changeling fiasco and Sombra put together. Least those two weren't in gigantic swarms AND trying to eat them at the same time. Still shaking, the little dragon nodded, but not before giving his big sister a small, clinging hug on her foreleg.

"B-be back ok?...."

Twilight nuzzled his head briefly as he let go, making for the door as her magic wrapped around the locks and opened it for her. Already she could hear the distant echoes of several gyaos down in the chambers below.

"I promise..."

Twilight didn't look back to see the door shut behind her, taking off down the caverns as fast as she could. After several dozen nerve racking seconds of sprinting and gliding, she found the tell-tale glow of light she was looking for. And upon entering the chamber, she saw exactly what she was dreading. The Tree of Harmony, the paragon of Equestrian magic; was shielded against many things. Dark enchantments, chaotic magic; even less inherently malefic spells such as changeling hexes. One thing it wasn't protected against was something as mundane as near magic-less, flesh and blood creatures. Like the three gyaos flapping around and assaulting it's limbs. One of them perched itself on the limb containing the Element of Honesty like a wicked gargoyle. The beast held its jaws open and gathered energy to the sound of a screech in a manner that was by now all too familiar to the princess. Acting quick, the alicorn took to the air and ignited her horn in an enchanted aura, blasting back the hellish bat with a kinetic magic flare before it could finish revving up a sonic cutter.

The gyaos screamed and was sent sprawling across the floor with her chest and face smoking. Another hiss of compressed sound rang out and Twilight barely had time to duck behind a boulder and put up a shield spell before a ray of golden energy slashed through the stone like a hot knife through butter. The brittle stone fell in two pieces, but thankfully the enchantment Shining Armor had taught his little sister held and deflected the ray away. By sheer luck the ray happened to strike one of the other gyaos, who was busy gnawing through the Element of Kindness' stem, square in the chest and into the heart. The brown beast was dead before it hit the ground. Relief had no time as the gyaos Twilight had hit on her way in had recovered and was charging across the cavern floor, right at the alicorn as her shield dropped. She swung out her talons and just when her fangs would have meet an equine neck, Twilight called out in pain and disappeared in a puff of purple light. The gyaos wasn't able to halt its own momentum and crashed into the cave wall. One of the large gemstones that lined the roof of the cave was jostled loose from the impact and feel to the floor on top of the invader. A squashed yelp rang out before being smothered in shattered remains of the gleaming geode.

Twilight reappeared on the other side of the chamber, panting hard both from the effort and from the gash she'd gotten on her right shoulder from the beast's claws before she could warp away. Warm red trailed down her forelimb as she quickly looked about for the last gyaos. She'd lost track of it after she'd blocked the beam and had to teleport. The cavern was silent outside of the distant sound of the dueling kaiju outside echoing in. Twilight quickly looked about the illuminated chamber's airspace. She saw nothing and heard no wing beats, so she knew it had landed. She knew it was stalking her.

Backing up to the tree to keep in the light and put her back to something solid, Twilight held as firm as she could, ready to throw up a shield or concussive burst at a moment's notice. The sound of falling rocks caught her attention and drew it away, eyes darting over to catch the sight of a few pebbles bouncing across the floor. The alicorn didn't have time to look up when the swoosh of churned wind caught her mane, the gyaos springing out from a crevice in the ceiling with its jaws bared. It was much closer than Twilight had expected, too close and too fast possibly for the shield she was rapidly constituting.

A voice like a chime echoed through the alicorn's head, gentle as a mother's lullaby, but demanding none the less due to its sense of urgency.

-"Close your eyes!"-

Putting up her spell up, Twilight unconsciously obeyed.

Through the cloud of haze that was her eyelids, she saw a massive flare of light coming from behind her. The gyaos yelped in pain and judging from the thud the mage felt through the floor, crashed to the ground some meters ahead. Twilight opened her eyes, the writhing body of her attacker flopping on the ground before her like a fish out of water, swatting at its own eyes. The whited out orbs told her enough, pricking another question for the answer. It was blinded, but by what?

-That light was magic, massive amounts of it. Had Spike managed to get a letter out and have Celestia teleport in somehow? Had Luna sensed the trouble and arrived? And who said that?!-

The gyaos' flopping ceased at it lay still, struck down or knocked out by an unknown force. Noticing the large amounts of light emanating from behind her, Twilight turned around and expected to find her answer. What she saw almost made the alicorn question if the previous gyaos had struck her on the head and not the shoulder.

There was a tall figure, bathed in light standing before her for a split second. All she could pick up through the still radiant light was a forked horn and hints of a purple hue. Then, as the light dimmed, so did her rescuer; vanishing like a specter. All that was left was the Tree of Harmony itself and a flabbergasted Element of Magic. The sharp cry of another protector rang out, and Twilight's gaze shot up to the cavern's entrance. She prayed it was a cry of attack, not of pain.

She was half right.

Terra, several years ago during Final Wars

An idle, foreign craft hovered up just above the planet’s atmosphere. The shape, a bent, elongated pyramid; was all too familiar to the Terran forces fighting for their lives below. Just as the wood and mast sailing ships of old bore similar form, a small sloop having an outline akin to a titanic frigate; the alien craft all bore family similarities. If the 20 meter fighter ships below were sloops, than the 200 meter weapon platform orbiting the planet was the frigate. Lights streaked across displays and tiny windows as the Xilian warship took aim, the large cannon port on the underside of the forward point beginning to rev to life.

Inside the control room, the center viewing screen homed in on the planet. Alien characters lined the borders as the screen zoomed into the outskirts of a ravaged city. Giant forms of extraterrestrial and Terran kaiju alike were brawling all across the landscape amidst a storm of military crossfire from both sides. The point of view tracked to the bay area where three giants were locked in combat. The golden form of King Ghidorah thrashed his three heads and necks, spewing out torrents of graviton beams at his two foes before taking to the air and flying inland. One of his opponents, logged in the spy records as Gamera, retracted his limbs into his shell before they were replaced with jets of fire. The turtle took to the air like a spinning buzz saw and took off after Ghidorah and leaving his ally behind. Jagged, sharp back fins glinted in the sea water as Godzilla fully surfaced and began wading back to the city to rejoin the fight. Terra’s champion didn’t see the near invisible red targeting reticule taking aim at the back of his neck.

The captain of the frigate did, and she grinned.

“Take aim at that one. He’s one of the more powerful and seems to be the leader. Cut the head off the snake and the serpent ceases to strike.”

The ship’s crew rapidly tapped away at bizarre looking control panels, the viewing screen homing in on Godzilla’s spinal cord. The ship’s main cannon, a positron maser, revved up its charge. The invaders knew of the beast’s incredible durability, but taking hundreds of millions of charged particles to the neck and spinal cord was a death sentence to near anything. At the very least, it would punch through the bone to cripple the titan long enough for Ghidorah or one of the others to finish him off. Godzilla waded back to shore, oblivious to the tiny red dot and line on his back. The countdown clock spewed on screen, Xilian characters gradually diminishing.

Then the radar pinged and everyone in the room’s attention snapped to it. One of the crewmates rapidly typed at his controls as the screen before him pinged audibly a second time.

“Target on radar rapidly ascending to our altitude!”

The captain barked her order.

“Where from and how fast?!”

“Mach 1 and speeding up, coming from the planet’s surface it’s…. It’s following the aiming reticule!”

“Onscreen NOW!”

The central monitor switched away from the back of Godzilla’s throat and to a small glow rapidly ripping through the clouds. Sure enough, just as the helmsmen had warned, its path was exactly parallel to the aiming laser… Which meant it was heading right for the ship. The object lacked any of the combine fleets’ call signs, it wasn’t one of theirs. And that made intent seem all too clear.

“Terran aircraft?”

“Negative Captain, no exhaust or propulsion valves. Moving at mach 2 now and closing!”

The object was getting larger and larger as it approached, its length seeming easily on par with the frigate. Its exact form however was disguised by the reflective surface that coated it, cloaking the oncoming target with a glittering glow from the planet’s sun light. It breached the upper atmosphere, entering the void of low orbit without slowing down or changing course.

“RE-AIM THE CANNON! SHOOT IT DOWN NOW!”

The red targeting icon trailed up from the planet’s surface and briefly onto the oncoming threat. But for every millisecond they had a lock, the glimmering form shifted or banked and they lost it. The distance was closing, and the object was getting bigger.

“I SAID RE-AIM!”

“It’s moving too fast, we can’t get a clear shot! Breaking the atmosphere at mach 3 now!”

The red icon briefly flashed green, indicating a partially locked on shot. The gunner didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. Innumerable numbers of positrons left the cannon in a ball of light equal to the sun. The ship’s crew was momentarily blinded by the immense light. In that split second what they didn’t see was the UFO banking to the right just before the shot was fired. Thousands of degrees and millions of joules of heat and energy singed dark blue, reinforced scales as their owner dodged the shot. The maser shot impacted the pacific ocean below, instantly evaporating and ionizing thousands of gallons of sea water, but leaving the frigate’s pursuer relatively unharmed… and still coming right at them. Blood drained from every soul on board’s face as soon as the sight of enraged eyes and snarling fangs entered the viewing monitor. The captain’s terrified voice was one of the only things to call out as the object’s radar signature and the frigate’s nearly overlapped.

“P-PUT UP SHIELDS! BRACE FOR IMPACT!”

The ship ignited its entire hull as the energy shield charged. Such an action however took five seconds, they only had two. Another engineer instinctively and futilely put her arms up over her face.

“TOO LATE!”

There was a flash of red light along glittering crystals before coronal wrath ripped through the ship’s hull, impaling it before arching back around and striking the frigate multiple times until it and its attacker were enveloped in a quick, silent, and massive explosion. When the debris cloud fanned away in the dark void, shattered remains of the hull bounced off the healing hide of the destroyer. Clawed hands balled a raised fist, crystals siphoning off the excess energy of the frigate’s remains and sprouting all amongst the ship’s corpse.

Xenilla hissed silently into the blackness he was born into, batting a quick glance back at the mass war zone miles below. No other but he would know exactly what he’d just done, who he had just saved, and why he did it. Exactly the way Xenilla would have liked it. The cloned monster looked back at the blue and green world below.

-Not today Icka’brod…-

The crystal saurian shifted his gaze and glared at the remaining orbital stations with fiery eyes. Several smaller Millennium and Kilaak turned around to face the new threat. The kaiju knew what to make of their cautious movements backwards. He’d just taken down their strongest and they were afraid because of it.

-Second wave forces huh?… I’ll make it quick-

Streams of telekinesis wrapped around the rapidly sharpening crystals around him, Xenilla holding them alongside him like a spear formation.

-This is MY planet…-

Several hours later, NASA reported mass energy discharges in low orbit. The remains of nearly a dozen alien warships formed one of the largest debris fields every seen before most of them fell into the Atlantic Ocean several weeks later. The loss of one of their secondary fleets is often attributed to one of the leading reasons the invaders lost the ‘Final War’.

Chapter 14: Trust

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 15: The Guardian's Flame

Mothra Lea
Twilight Sparkle
Godzilla Junior
Blade Dancer
Cached Ire
Captain Blueberry Frost
Princess Luna
Princess Celestia

Outside Canterlot

Streams of nuclear radiation and heat seared through the midnight air and lit up the airspace like a barrage of firework. The burning lights fried anything they hit, roasting their way through a dozen or so gyaos that attempted to charge its owner head on. There were tales in Equestria, tales of behemoths and monsters, giants of fables who moved like living mountains. Yet in a world of dragons and ursine, none in Harmony's realm had seen anything like what was unfolding outside of Equestria’s capital right now. The days of titans had returned, and they were at war with each other.

Streams of yellow light sliced through the air, the beams of visibly condensed sound screaming into the night as they raked across the valley floor. Boulders were slashed in two and trees were bisected, but the towering figure half obscured by smoke refused to be cut down. Sparks flew out whenever the gyaos flock’s rays hit a scaly hide that had withstood the wrath of his home world's nuclear fires. The few rays that did manage to slice through a few layers of scales were shrugged off like paper cuts, any bleeding near instantly halting from the juggernaut’s healing ability. Pain, both from the few injuries sustained and the rapid mending of them; only fueled his inner fires.

Unleashing a roar that eclipsed any thunder crack, Godzilla charged forward to meet a diving portion of the gyaos flock head on; the earth below his feet pounding at each footfall. Lunging forward, he grabbed a cackling Super Gyaos by the neck as he ducked and raked his jagged back spines across another to a shower of gore. Ripping his hand to the side, he batted away another score of gyaos with the one he'd grabbed onto, the cracking sound between his fingers signaled he’d snapped the first Super’s neck like a dead twig even as he bludgeoned others with the corpse. Tossing aside his improvised club, the monster king continued rushing headlong into the flock, his back spines began to glow with burning might.

All over he was getting surrounded, hit with cutting rays that deafened him, raked with claws, and suffered dozens of teeth gnashing into the opened wounds.

Canterlot

Canterlot had always been a city of admixture. Varying fashion trends, dozens of different professions, innumerable travels from every nation under Celestia’s sun and as diverse as Luna’s stars. But for the moment, every single soul in the city save for a single changeling and a few alicorns had the same expression. Nothing but shock. Pure, unadulterated shock as their eyes stayed glued to the sights occurring beyond the golden barrier that encircled the city in a bubble. Gnashing fangs, sparks of fire; and bloodied claws held all of their attention in a death grip. It took the blaring voice of Celestia and Luna, both calling out in a voice of older days that yelled down at the entire city from castle’s peak, to rip everyone’s attention away.

“CITIZENRY OF CANTERLOT, NOW IS NOT A TIME FOR THOU’S RATIONAL AND WIT TO FALTER! A SWARM OF MONSTERS CALLED GYAOS ARE ATTEMPTING TO BESEIGE THE CITY! ANOTHER CREATURE CALLED GODZILLA HAS AGREED TO FIGHT ON CANTERLOT'S BEHALF AND HAS ENGAGED THE SWARM, BUT YOU ALL MUST SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS A ROYAL DECREE!”

Many were wise to follow through, quickly seeking the sturdier buildings of the capital such as the barracks and castle. Still, no small amount of chaos was beginning to break out. And for every soul who lost rational and panicked, two more were frozen in place where they stood; looking upon the war zone outside that had previously been the steps to harmony itself.

Dark forms outside the golden barrier shifted as Godzilla battled it out against the main body of the flock. Rising up from below to hover before the barrier, several gyaos hissed and cackled greedily as they looked down at the terrified ponies behind the fortification. One of them snarled, clinging to the side of the barrier before furiously pecking at the shield of solid magic. Waves and ripples coursed through Celestia’s shield as the crowds scrambled to get away. The barrier was holding, but as more and more gyaos joined in on the attack; the eldest alicorn was beginning to grit her teeth. Distant energy flowed through Celestia’s body, Luna’s presence reinforcing her prowess far beyond anything she could muster alone. Still, fending off an attack on this scale while making certain not to weaken the barrier at any inch of its span was strenuous even for her. But if there was one thing Celestia had a lot of, it was will. And in a realm of magic, will was power. She had a city, a citizenry, and a sister to protect. She had been prepared to fight the swarm in Godzilla’s place earlier, and still would if needed. For now though, the solar diarch would settle for not granting this ravenous flock a single foothold in her city, and not get within an inch of her beloved ponies.

Sparks of golden magic ripped forth from Celestia’s horn and impacted the barrier, drastically reasserting her power into it. Pure energy ripped across the entire force field and coursed into any soul from the outside who dared attack it. The gyaos, who had been so previously hell-bent on clawing their way through the shield, where shocked and burned repeatedly by strands of magical wrath. Several additional gyaos broke away from the main battle and attempted to try their luck at forcing their way inside the bubble of energy, only for a beam of white energy shot out of the Lunar tower to join Celestia’s in further charging the barrier to withstand and repel more of the assault. Luna looked down at her sister with a knowing nod and a smile, fueling more of her power into the barrier.

-I might have lent most of my power to the beast, but doesn’t mean you’re alone in this Celly-

Celestia stole a moment to smile, before the roar of more gyaos and their gargantuan attacker stole her attention back. Mighty and voracious as the newcomer was, the flock numbered in the hundreds. This was going to be a nail biting night.

Lea and Twilight watched on from a separate balcony. Several doctors and nurses were beginning to arrive to tend to the changeling’s shoulder, not bothering to ask why one of her kind was present. Seeing an ongoing conflict of giant monsters battling it out in front of one’s capital tends to distract someponies from the native strangeness, such as a changeling in the castle; at least for now. Twilight couldn’t rip her gaze away from the stream of burning blue and slashes of yellow. Lea said he was big, but she didn’t say he was something that could swallow a bus.

“So this is… what he normally looks like?”

Lea took a calmed breath, being the only soul in Canterlot probably used to seeing what was unfolding before her.

“Since the day I met him.”

Twilight was speechless. Even after seeing four different types of kaiju now she should have been a bit more used to the sight. She still wasn't. After several silent moments however, she finally managed to steal a glance down at the city below at the hundreds of ponies streamed into the barracks and lower regions of the castle itself. There were still those who looked upon the battle. Reactions were mixed. Some ponies stood mortified at the carnage unfolding just beyond a wall of magic, not caring who or what was fighting for whatever reason. Upon hearing the word ‘ally’ from their rulers, some ponies even were taking moments to cheer for the saurian creature. Most however, stood in silence; caught between shock and awe. It was a fact of life that most of the more dangerous events in the realms, a thunderstorm, a volcano, a wild fire, or an enraged alicorn; all held a visual draw to them. Perhaps it was the visual sight of so much raw power, perhaps it was the subtle fear inspired by that power. One way or another, it was hard to look away.

Twilight had fear, but for something rather than of something. She feared for those she was looking at. Their fate was in a leviathan's hands. And while there was no pale alpha to fight here, there seemed to be no end to the flock.

“Can he do it? Is he strong enough?”

Lea closed her eyes, able to sense the status of her best friend even from the distance. He was holding well, ushering the changeling to give a nod.

“I know him, he’s strong enough.”

The guardian opened her eyes, unable to quench the feeling of longing to aid in Junior’s fight as tiredness from before began to catch up to her. The changeling queen half fainted before Twilight and the doctors could catch her, the last image she saw in the flickers of her eyelids was Godzilla roaring defiantly at the hovering flock. She remembered the conditions of the transformation, of how it was temporary. She prayed Luna had given him enough of a charge to make it count. Otherwise her friend’s fight was with both the gyaos horde and against time itself. He couldn’t afford to lose either. Lea's vision faded, shifting into unconsciousness at the trumpeting of her oldest ally.

-Just please be fast enough too… Goji…-

Back up at the Solar wing, Captain Blueberry Frost had been glad she issued earplugs to everyone before the ruling alicorns let it rip with the Royal Canterlot voice, otherwise the world likely would be more muted and ringing than it was already. After giving the motion to pop the plugs out, the earth pony mare’s face hardened up. She addressed her lead formation of guards, ironically made up of the same members who’d escorted Junior to Luna earlier. The captain of the guards need only a brief glance to and an exchanged nod with Celestia to know the solar diarch was going to be fine, freeing up her little posse for other matters.

“AttttteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeenTION!”

Cached Ire, Incognito, Blade Dancer, and Hammerbolt all snapped into attention. Hearing their captain in this snappy of a voice would rip their attention away from anything. Captain Frost’s normally amicable expression was all gone as she looked back at them.

“Alright ya’ll, no standin’ ‘round lookin’ wide eyed and slack jawed at the big lizard and bats on my watch, we got a job to do. So congrats, you lot are getting some overtime hours! Right now Canterlot's going to Tartarus and back with all these ponies running scared, ya’ll and I need to get the other guards on duty and sort this mess out best we can. This is an A-rank mission detail!”

Incognito shakingly raised a hoof at the last part.

Captain Frost snapped around towards him, “Whaaaaaaat is it, Private?!”

Incognito quivered, “Ma’am sir- ma’am! A-rank?! That’s a bit ab-ove me. I mean I WANT to help a lot! I really do! But I’m just a private! What if I screw u-”

One could practically see the fire shooting out of the captain’s eyes as she gave her response, “GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF CORPORAL! This is no time falter!”

Incognito’s eyes widened. Some self assurance was trickling back in.

He still sputtered, “C-Corporal?”

Frost was unfased, “You damn well heard me right, I’ll give ye’ the new badge and star later if you pull this off. But for now I need you to go get Second Lieutenant Starlight, head down to the barracks and clear it out for all these refugees. Heck with it, tell him he’s promoted too if he goes with you, just get hustlin’!”

Incognito practically jumped up and saluted before bolting off. Blueberry turned to Hammerbolt, completely ignoring the stallion’s height overstepping her own.

“Sergeant, I need you to go round up some of night-watch and go help Kickback and the other medics clear out the hospital. Escort them all back here as fast and smoothly as possible. Got it?”

Hammerbolt saluted, brushing aside the half joking request for a promotion as well but sensed this was no time for even his dry humor.
“On it ma’am!”

As the stallion rushed off with speed betraying his size, Blueberry Frost turned to the two pegasi mares, “A’right you two. Special task. Luna was ‘posed to make an appearance at the School for Gifted Unicorns but obviously that’s been scrapped due to 'weather'. However the night class is still probably there and on lock down since the shield went up. I need you two to round them up, and escort them back here to get them with their parents. Bring any teachers ye’ find too, Lord Bonnie knows we’ll need the magic help.”

"Ma'am yes Ma'am!"

Blueberry Frost stole a look out into the battleground outside before rushing off to the front gate herself to aid in the evacuation, throwing on her lucky overcoat as she went. The air shook as the leviathan roared, roasting several demons with its blue flares before head butting another to the ground.

-Come on big guy don't let us down...-

Outside Canterlot

Godzilla quickly had to fight back to keep his footing as he stumbled forward due to 15,000 tons of Super Gyaos having dive bombed and slammed into the back of his head, dazing him and making the world tilt sidewards. Managing to glimpse the beast before it ducked back behind the dark shrouds emitted by the horde, the king of the monsters snarled. Flocks always had an alpha, and in the absence of the Hyper Gyaos that Mothra had taken out; the largest Super was a likely candidate. Heat and light crackled across his spines, roasting several smaller members of the flock who foolishly tried to gnaw at his back. The burning corpses rained down his body and into the forest below, igniting parts of it. Just before he could lock onto where he presumed the alpha had flown, several large forms blindsided Junior from the right at full speed.

Godzilla had to try his hardest not to fall over as four other Super Gyaos rammed into him and went on the attack. One clamped it jaws firmly down on his wrist, another began clawing at his upper thigh, and two more grabbed onto the back of his head and shoulders to try and yank him off his feet. Pain shot through the dinosaur's arm, heralding trickles of blood to signal the demon had managed to bite through his hide. Judging from the pain in his legs and the shriek of sound in the air, the second Super had fired her beam in a stream at a claw wound with enough concentration to cut into his muscle slightly. His healing factor would quickly patch the wounds, but he needed to get them off first. Ignoring the claws and fangs gnashing at his neck and shoulders, Godzilla snarled and grabbed the gyaos locked onto his arm. Fishing his claws under her top jaw, he bit back the wince inducing jolts and yanked back. The bat-like beast yelped briefly from the whiplash before being cut short from the loud crack of a broken neck and skull. His arms freed, a firm hammer-like fist collided with the skull of the second gyaos, cutting off her attempts to slice into his abdomen before he promptly acquainted the ravenous beast's head with the bottom of his multi-ton foot. A bony crunching sound was very audible.

The hissing in the air behind his head signaled one of his remaining attackers attempting to charge up her beam while poised at his throat. A similar sound to his right shoulder signaled her cohort had a similar idea. Junior braced his legs and flexed his tail. No time to charge a nuclear pulse, no range for his claws of beam. No problem. Jumping up and turning around midair as his attackers held on, Junior demonstrated why attacking a creature with sharp spines on its back was a bad idea, as he hit the ground back first. Gasping hisses behind him were all he heard as the charging beams were silenced. Rolling out of the way of several more sonic beams as his now crimson spattered spines burned with heat and evaporated their liquid coatings; Junior growled at the flock. Rising to his feet before smacking aside several fliers with his tail, he took aim.

-Four down-

The night was re-lit with burning lights. He swung his head around as another Super Gyaos lunged at him. It was either too slow or too determined to pull away in time as the side of his face caught it across the midsection. With a feral snarl, fangs tore into and pulped the hard sternum with a sickening crack of bone. Thrashing back and forth to ensure it was dead, in a manner not unlike a fox with a rat, Godzilla whipped around and hurled the gyaos into several other of its kind with so much force they impacted the mountain bedrock like a mortar!

The Monster King chanced a tired shrug, trying to ignore the pain he was in while bleeding all over.

-About one hundred and ninety four to go-

Canterlot

Blade Dancer and Cached Ire hovered above the ground as they held the school gates open, ushering the School for Gifted Unicorn's denizens out into the night a small parade. The captain's intuition had proved valid, the entire academy having gone on lock down and hiding in the auditorium as soon as the golden shield spell went up. Some of the staff and students hadn't known why the barrier had been put up exactly, only having heard noises through the walls or caught fleeting glimpses of blue-white light through the windows. As soon as they were outside however and became acquainted with what amounted to ring-side seating due to their placement on the city's edge, any speculations were squashed. Most adults were shocked or horrified at what they were seeing. And while some of the colt and fillies shook and cried at the sight of what was happening in front of them, upon hearing the words 'Monster Fight', most of the school children were giddy to watch had the adults not been quick to usher them out. Cached Ire kept a mental tally of the last group heading out.

"Aaaaand forty nine students and fifteen teachers. We're one kid short."

"Did you miscount any?"

"Probably there wa-"

An earth trembling boom and reverberating roar vibrated the ground and shook the air. All eyes cast themselves to beyond the barrier in time to see Godzilla slamming his tail down on a fallen gyaos repeatedly, before spinning around to fend off another lunging at his head. Cached managed to keep a flat look and tone regardless of the situation.

"... You always did chase after the odd ones but I think this one is a definite record setter."

Blade Dancer chewed on her lip with a dipped expression. There was a lot of things going through her mind right now, and if she focused on any one of them she could almost feel her mane drooping. Pursuing a strange, foreign unicorn was one thing. Finding out that the true form of said unicorn was the size of a battleship, had fangs as tall as she was, and was currently killing everything in its way was a whole different level; even for her. Her friend's words, intended for her feelings or not; only helped slightly.

"Well... least he's still on our side..."

Cached gave a half nervous chuckle, looking out into the city itself. The initial panic had definitely taken its toll. Emergency sirens blared into the night almost as much as the monstrous roars, as small firefighting teams and ambulances crisscrossed the city. Canterlot had been attacked by giants they couldn't have hoped to have prepared for and all hell had broken loose before the emergency crews managed to restore order.

"Talk about not in the training manual huh?"

"I doubt even Frost could have thought up a drill for this sort of stunt."

"Well best we can do is keep at it. This groups gotta roll out soon as possible. I'm going to escort this group over to the main halls. Sturdy walls, lots of guards; they'll be safer there. What about you?"

Blade Dancer rubbed her chin for a moment, glancing back at the school.

"Hmmm.... Can you handle the group by yourself?"

Cached Ire smirked, playfully punching her friend in the shoulder.

"Do you even know who you're talking to?~"

Blade Dancer couldn't help but chuckle, thankful she got what translated to a 'yes'.

"You go on ahead, I'm gonna do another sweep of the classrooms and make sure we got everypony. Don't wait up for me."

Cached Ire nodded, some worry being all too obvious on her face. Given the roaring echoing across the skies above, it was obvious why.

"Hey, Bladey listen. Tonight's going south at rainboom speed. I'd hate to come back to another terror tonight. So take care of yourself, okay?"

Blade Dancer didn't need to verbally reply. Raising her hoof and returning Cached her classic shoulder punch with a smile was clue enough. She promised. Cached's face warmed with relief before she turned back to the small crowd, hovering out above them before taking point.

"Alright fillies and colts, everypony step lively and keep a cool head; you're all getting a field trip. Looks like you lot might see Princess Luna tonight after all."

Blade Dancer sighed as Cached Ire spirited away the small parade into the night before flying back inside. She sailed down the darkened main halls, scanning empty room after empty to make absolutely certain and put her conscious to rest. The flares of blue and yellow light outside that shown through each window constantly reminded her of a subject she'd rather not think about at the moment. She had a duty to perform, and the sound of a tiny whimper amongst the screeches and roars reminded her all too much of it. Reversing her wing beat and rapidly flapping backwards, the pegasus halted herself before a small class room at the end of the hall. A small cry echoed out of the half closed door, confirming her suspicions. Nudging the door fully open, she entered and quickly spied how badly the room had been turned over in the initial evacuation. The teacher's thick desk was the only thing still on all four of its legs in the entire chamber, most of the student desks having been knocked over on their side or clumped together in crude masses. It was behind one overturned desk, next to some precariously tilted bookshelves that she heard a small, half shushed sobbing seep out.

The source was easy enough to spot. A bright yellow little foal, not even close to double digit age, was curled up next to the bookshelf with his head held between his hooves. The poor little colt was a shaking wreck, obviously having been alone and crying for awhile.

-Must have accidentally gotten left behind in the initial panic-

Blade Dancer pushed the desk aside a bit, speaking up.

"Hey, little guy, up here."

The colt was quick to shrink away at sudden noise and gasped, but looked up none the less. In the low light however, all he saw was the gleam of golden metal looking down on him. Fright obvious on his face, he backed up more into the base of the shelf. Blade Dancer thankfully was just as quick to wise up, and slipped her helm off just in time for a blaze of light outside to illuminate her calmed, smiling face. She held out her head armor away from her.

"See? Just a normal pony. I'm here to take you back to your teachers and parents okay?"

The little colt stopped backing up, swallowing back some drying tears as he nodded. At that sort of age in this sort of situation, any kind adult tended to calm a kid down some. Blade Dancer chuckled a bit to herself, setting down her helmet in front of him before kicking it over to the colt.

"Why don't you hold onto this for me while I get you out?"

His eyes lit up at the new treasure, eagerly pawing at it before attempting to pick it up. His fear was quickly dispelled.
"Coooool! Okay Miss."

She had to resist the urge to squeal at seeing the little one try on the armor only for it to be grossly too big and heavy for his head; causing the helmet to swallow up most of his upper body and make him flop over. Unable to reach the colt by hoof, she nudged the desk aside. However, due to how the tables, massive bookshelf, and desks were overturned; a lot of them had semi-locked into place. Moving one was like trying to move aside all of them. Grunting, she finally managed to shove the principle desk out of the way; only for a woody, creaking sound to screech out from the bookshelf above the colt. Trailing her eyes up, she was quickly met with the sight of several hundred pounds of wood shift several inches forward before stopping. Blade Dancer stayed trained on the shelf for several moments to make sure it wasn't going to tip any further. Few inches more was all it would have taken for it to lose its base it and have tumbled over on top of them. Thankfully it moved no more.

"Oh thank Celestia..."

Canterlot Valley

Godzilla was not having a pleasant night. True, he'd had harder times. Final Wars, fighting the specter of a previous namesake, Xenilla's surprise visit. And then there always was that time he died nineteen years ago. That hurt a lot. But this, this was quickly rising in ranks as one of his least favorite outings. Charging his beam, the successor king unleashed another tidal wave of radiation and pure heat into the shadows. Still, as he swept it to and fro into the spiraling horde above, ushering another avalanche of burning gyaos to plummet to the ground dead and dying; the darkness seemed without end. With each and every terror he cut down, two more went on the assault. Every moment he kept alternating between healing up his injuries and accumulating more of them, unable to dodge the torrents of yellow rays raining down on him every second. Turning aside to bat away a diving Super with his tail, Junior hissed.

-Note to self, thank Gamera for dealing with these things most of the time when back home-

Just as he spun back around to keep the city at his back, he spied what he was looking for. The presumed alpha Super Gyaos. It was flying under cover of the flock at most times, but yellow and red eyes tracked it through the darkness as it was busy shrieking orders to its cohorts. The flock being oddly more organized as of lately despite that big albino one being absent only confirmed the dinosaur's suspicions. Jagged back spines flickered with blue light, Junior ducking out of the way of another charging Super to get a lock onto his target. Throwing open his jaws with a booming roar, he would have hit his quarry dead center. He would have. Had five smaller Supers and at least a dozen normal gyaos not barreled into him from a blind spot at the last possible moment. Godzilla's beam swung wildly and missed its aim, only nicking the alpha on the side of its crest and earning a shriek of pain, before firing off erradically into the sky. Junior fell over onto his back with the ravenous horde on top of him, and 60,000 tons of dinosaur crashed down right into the base of Canterlot mountain.

School for Gifted Unicorns

Blade Dancer only had time to register a flare of light shining through the outside window before a thundering crash shook the building like an earthquake. Paintings and posters fell off their mounts, windows cracked from shifting frames; and a sizeable piece of wood framing tore itself free from the wall. Unfortunately said chunk of wall was right behind the row of bookshelves. She could have flown back in time, but the colt was still grounded. There was two seconds to act, and process of time slowed down. Ripping a wing-blade from its holster at her side, Blade Dancer tossed the sword up into the air several inches in front of her. Twisting her body around with a flap of her wing and aiming just right, her kicking hoof met the blunt of the hilt at just the right angle to send the blade rocketing forward point first. Slicing through the top of a binder, the sword buried itself into the back of the bookshelf and forced its way through the wood and out the back. Now having nailed the shelf to the wall and holding it back for a moment, Blade Dancer was quick to hustle. Not minding at all now about what as in her way, she threw the remaining desks aside and grabbed the colt. Jumping back as creaking wood hissed, she barely managed to dive out of the way before the shelf freed itself from its impalement and came crashing down where they had been. Splinters flew every which way as the guard darted out of the room.

Hovering outside the doorway, she took a moment to catch her breath as the colt clung to her shoulders. The school room was a complete wreck but the situation could have been worse. Had her aim been a bit off, had she been a bit slower, or had she not kicked hard enough; something told her there wouldn't be two ponies outside the classroom right now.

-Woah, thank dad for being an earth pony...-

She sighed to try and slow her heart down.

"Well that happened, phew! Next time how about you pick a hiding spot that's a liiiittle closer to the door, heheh. Now, how about we get you back to your class, okay?"

Still trying to wear her helmet best he could, the little one gave a tiny nod and salute before they were on their way out. Darting out of the school as fast as she could, Blade Dancer kicked open the front door. Cached Ire had listened up and was nowhere to be found, having headed off to the castle as requested. Looking up and around to try and find the best flight path to take up to the castle to join up with the main group, Blade Dancer felt a tugging on her neck. She looked down at the wide eyed colt, who had his gaze firmly planted on something behind them. A tall, dark shadow cast itself above them and swallowed up the front half of the school. Putting her free hoof on her remaining wing blade, Blade Dancer turned around and looked into eyes of pure blood.

It was a Super Gyaos, a massive one, standing just outside of the barrier with a fang filled grin. Half of its head crest was charred, blackened, and smoking; as if that part of it had been blown off. Bigger than almost any adult dragon, the Shade of Atlantis greedily eyed the pair in front of it. It was less than twenty feet away from them, close enough for the pegasus to feel the bat's hot, dank breath slipping through the barrier. Blade Dancer tried to keep her breathing and heart slow, backing up a bit with every wing beat while keeping her blade on a quick draw. She'd seen the power of the combined sisters in action, and knew the monstrosity couldn't get to them. Knowledge however couldn't quell how unsettling it was, seeing crimson eyes stare down at you with clear intent to devour. The barrier held, but judging from the gyaos' puffing chest and the steadily growing hiss that signaled an oncoming beam; the demon was about to test it. So focused on the prospect of a meal, that the alpha didn't notice an even larger shadow eclipsing its own. Blade Dancer recognized the outline in the darkness.

The flicker of blue light clued the gyaos in and it quickly turned around to try and meet its threat. She didn't have time to react when a bloodied and enraged Godzilla lunged down at her and clamped his jaws down on the kaiju's throat. Snarling and roaring, the dinosaur thrashed the smaller monster around in his jaws like a perverse parody of a dog playing with a rope toy. Spines glowing brighter and brighter despite several other gyaos diving down to try and rescue their cohort, Godzilla threw the alpha down out of Blade Dancers view. Curling his lips back and ripping open his jaws, the dinosaur hosed down its fallen foe as the heat from his spines drove back the other attackers. The beam continued for several seconds, the shrieks of the alpha being cut off midway. He stopped, the glow of his sails slowly fading. Blade Dancer was paused in midair, frozen. Trails of smoke seeped up from below the titan and the pegasus smelled something burning. The blood spattered across his jaws evaporated into wisps of smoke.

The living mountain stayed where it was for a moment, the death of the alpha having pushed the flock back slightly. They would resume their attack soon, their shrieks still calling out into the night heralding it. But for now, Junior had a moment to catch his breath. He lifted his head back up and noticed someone he hadn't, red-yellow eyes meeting blue ones. He paused for just a moment as his breath returned, looking down at the small form before turning back to return to battle. In that moment though, Blade Dancer shared a stare with and looked over the creature she'd known and not known over.

The comparison was jarring. She'd been used to the oversized, socially awkward; somewhat shy unicorn. Not this walking mountain of a juggernaut. Gone was any semblance of fur or mane, with only color being consistent with memory as familiar hues stretched themselves across cobblestone sized scales and scutes. All with a head and back not capped with a crooked horn or caped with a white shoulder patch, ushered out batteries and rows of sail-like spines that heralded unworldly fire. But it wasn't just the natural state that caused her eyes to widen, but what had happened to make him the way he did now. Claws and fangs, that were frequently spattered with red. Judging from the numerous cuts and scrapes across his hide, some that closed right before her eyes, it was as much his own as it was his foes. The fangs were what caught her attention most. Each curved, sharpened, and at the close distance she could even tell they were serrated. She'd seen first-hoof what they were for, when they buried themselves into the alpha's throat and half near tore it out. Teeth of a predator. Blade Dancer's mind would have sunk into fear had she not noticed something just before Godzilla turned away. She noticed it when he noticed her and the colt before going back to his battle.

His eyes. Two big, red and yellow eyes. For a split second when he'd calmed down to catch his breath, his pupils had uncontracted back into circles. Back into the eyes she had seen. Eyes of intelligence, of the amicable; of the benign. She'd glimpsed two windows back to a certain unicorn she'd known, one she'd so far been attempting to court. Familiarity mounted on the head and body of a creature she nor any Equestrian had ever seen before. A form she was afraid of. It was a mixed sensation, and Blade Dancer didn't know what to feel.

Instinct and mind in conflict, her reaction was mixed. She didn't know how long she'd been hovering in place when the voice of the colt snapped her back to her senses.

"Do you know that big lizard?"

Blade Dancer could only sigh. The truth was as clear as tar.

"Maybe..."

She started back on her duty, flying up through an alley to get back to the castle. The flare of light behind them indicated another burst of their protector's might, as the colt watched on from over his rescuer's shoulder. He adjusted his helmet, waving goodbye at something that could never have hoped to notice.

"Gooo get 'em big guy!"

Later in the waning hours of night

The battle had been raging on for hours now, and though war still brewed outside the barrier, a sense of calm had returned to Canterlot. Well, as calm as a city could be watching giant monsters fight it out just outside of a inch thick wall of alicorn magic. A duel to decide the city's fate. The slight calm quickly lead to many resuming their tasks. News cameras flicked on and reporters were put on live across the country. Soon, all of Equestria was watching what was unfolding at its capital's doorstep. Luna grit her teeth as she focused as much as she could on the barrier, shocking its surface and forcing another gyaos that had managed to get past Godzilla off it. Her night was not being kind.

Her city was under attack, the citizens she'd sworn to protect for the next millennium were under constant threat, Celestia's plan to try and keep the kaiju truth contained was dead the moment the gyaos showed up, and effectively extinct once the news cameras started rolling. She and Celestia had been toiling under constant assault for awhile now, keeping the barrier up to deflect multi-ton impacts and rays of energy that could slice a steel pillar in half. Even with the two sisters reinforcing each other and doing most of the brunt work behind the shield, the lunar diarch's power was beginning to wane. And having used up a sizable portion of her power to super charge and change a unicorn into a thirty five story tall monstrosity had been taxing enough.

A sound of thunder caught her attention, catching a glimpse of Godzilla stampeding over a few fallen gyaos to tackle another of their rank out of the air. The duo soon came crashing down into and flattening the outer portion of the hedge mazes, the impact shaking the mountain city with another small tremor. Not wasting a moment, the giant rolled to his feet and tossed away the crushed gyaos to turn around and fry another diving at his head with a stream of blue and white light. Princess Luna's nose scrunched at the memory of the burning light roasting her wing.

After watching the creature for several hours, she came to the conclusion his title of 'King of the Monsters' was accurate. So far he'd manage to prove to be far larger and more powerful than near anything she'd ever seen. Was hard to imagine the unicorn and the saurian were one and the same. She should have been more wary now. And true, every time flames danced across his spines she held her breath least one of his torrents of burning wrath hit her city. If he was a powerhouse before, he was at least a hundred times stronger. Still, some relief was present in her mind. The battle had been raging and at least the titan was keeping his word so far that he would protect Canterlot. The fight against the flock had been a valiant effort, and despite having all the strength to exact the revenge she still suspected he harbored towards her; not one flare of his flames or one vengeful claw had impacted the shield or city. At the very least he was honest.

Luna and Celestia shared a strained expression as they winced a bit from exhaustion. Reinvigorating the barrier to deflect a few sonic beams impacting its surface, ripples were sent flying across the bubble of magic. Victory was approaching. The flame was overpowering the shadows. But, it wasn't over. About forty or so gyaos remained, the battle was still joined.

Outside of the city, Godzilla turned and crushed a diving set of gyaos into the ground under his tail as his back spines flickered back to life. It was taking noticeably longer than normal for him to even summon a minor glow. Truth be told, even the King of the Monsters was not without his limits. He'd been fighting tooth and nail against a very unorthodox foe for what was quickly amounting to the longest battle of his life. Between constantly being attacked from all angles, accumulating wounds that required more and more energy to heal, and keeping his beam charged at near all times to shoot down foes beyond his reach; he was tired. And slowing down considerably.

-Only a few more left Junior, you're almost home free-

Trying to conserve power, he lunged at the nearest Super and ravaged it the old fashion way. Just after he'd managed to set it fumbling into the ground with a punch to the face and a stomp to the spine however, the desperation on the side of the gyaos flock became obvious. Rather than attack the kaiju in small groups like they had been, partly to avoid hitting each other and partially because too many had previously been distracted by the barrier shield; the sky above Godzilla blackened as all thirty nine members of the flock rushed him at once. Unable to get out of the way in time, Junior struggled to stay up right from the bulk of thirty something car sized and ten freight train sized kaiju piled onto him from every angle. Teeth gnashed and claws held firm as all members got a firm grip on his form. Struggling to loosen the coating of demons upon him, Junior quickly busied himself with grabbing two of the Super's by their necks, even resorting to biting another on the shoulder as he thrashed his tail. Anything to try and free himself. He managed to kill the first two, but not before all the flock began to flap in unison. Trees below were flattened and uprooted from the gale force winds that blew down in a single direction. Godzilla slowly began to feel his connection to the ground lightening under his feet. The flock shrieked and cackled, halting any fruitless assaults to further breach the dinosaur's hide and focusing everything they had into flapping harder and harder. Soon enough, Junior felt his body leave the ground, and begin to levitate higher and higher.

Relentless in his assault, Godzilla roared into the waning night air, thrashing and slashing every which way to cut more and more of his attackers down. Yet still, however many he killed, he continued to rise up. When a vulture wants to eat marrow but can't break open the bone it has; it will pick it up and fly off. Once it has risen high enough and is over a hard surface, it will drop it to crack the bone open. This is what the gyaos, lacking any other option they had in mind, planned to do. And Junior knew it. Lord knew he didn't take falls well. One killed him once. Brushing aside memories of destroyers and meltdowns, the dinosaur's mind raced.

-Almost out of energy, I can feel it. Have to get them all in one shot. I can't let them get back at the city! -

Rising above the level of Canterlot's highest tower, Godzilla's back spines began to slowly hummed into a blue glow. The light grew and grew with power as it slowly spread along his spikes and eyes, then virally spreading to his back. He was charging as fast as he could, all too conscious of his altitude.

-Come on come on! Can't let them drag me too high up!-

Godzilla ceased his thrashing, devoting all power to his growing charge up. By now the glow was seeping into the scales along his shoulders and hips, moving down his limbs. The gyaos began to cackle with glee as they broke the low cloud line. Low hanging stratus and cumulous swallowed up their forms from view. Cackles turned to shrieks of burning pain when the glow spread along the entirety of their captive's body. Still, they refused to let go. Bad idea. Very, very bad idea.

From Canterlot's perspective, all was quiet for several moments as the hole in the clouds patched itself. The glow amongst the atmospheric shroud ceased to falter, growing larger by the millisecond. It suddenly shrunk and near completely vanished for a moment. And then, a fragment of a moment later; there was a blue sun in the night sky.

Clouds were torn apart in an erupting shock wave that burst down from above, their fluffy masses being torn asunder. The black mist of the gyaos that had so long surrounded Canterlot was abolished, being scattered about every which way into strands so thin they evaporated into the sky. Following the shockwave was the single most enormous, explosive bang any of pony kind had ever heard. It violently shook the air in and outside of the barrier, breaking numerous windows, cameras, and glassware throughout the city. The thundering rolled off into the distance, and there was calm.

Little by little, ash began to fall from the sky. Then bits of flaming materials. And then, a downpour of burning, barely recognizable, almost entirely vaporized bodies of gyaos. Smoking pyres rained down on the valley floor like a batch of falling flares. A slow groan rolled across the air as something big tumbled through the air after them. Godzilla, riddled with wounds, partially blackened and smoking from his final assault. His eyes were shut and his falling call wasn't an imposing, thundering roar. It was a slow, pained, tired bellow. He made no effort to stop his fall, looking like he was barely conscious. His eyes closed.

Princess Luna's expression slowly changed from shock to dread by default. She remembered something. One of the last words she heard out of the beast before he went off to battle.

-"I can't fly, at all..."-

Godzilla's groan was cut short when he hit the valley side first, kicking up a massive dust cloud of upheaved dirt and rock. The impact of his fall rattled the earth in all directions for a kilometer. Finally, there was quiet. A lasting quiet. The gyaos flock lay scattered across the foothills and basins surrounding the capital, most burning away into ashes. There was no movement in the dust cloud that refused to wane.

The rattle of the monster king's impact partially woke the local changeling, rousing her momentarily to the realm of the awake. Lea's eyes flittered for a moment, earning her the quick attention of a frantic Twilight. She couldn't hear what the alicorn was saying, the world was still spinning and ringing. She muttered only one sentence before exhaustion took her again.

"Where's... Goji?..."

Half An Hour Later

The barrier still hung over Canterlot, most of the city still holding its collective breath. The story was raging across all of the major news lines flowing out of the city, a tale of monsters and emergencies. The dust cloud stubbornly refused to thin at anything resembling a speedy pace, obscuring the fate regarding the biggest topic on everypony's mind.
Celestia looked on from high in her tower, the captain and her returning company of guards surrounding her. As much as she wanted to be thankful in the survival of her city, and she was, sadness was trickling in. She'd succeeded. She'd protected her ponies again. But so had someone else. Someone whom she'd foreseen in a nightmare and prevented one from happening. The pale alicorn closed her eyes, deep in thought.

-Flame of my vision, have you burned out?...-

Maintaining the shield for safety's sake, Celestia managed to scrounge up enough energy to shift the sky itself. The moon kissed the horizon before it and its silvery glow departed. Skies above shifted from light purple to growing hues of orange and yellow, warmth trickling in from the horizon. The growing light was a beacon of hope and relief to most of Canterlot that the end of a chaotic night was over, but it was a signal of pain to another group. A group that showed the sisters' decision to leave the barrier up for a bit was a wise move. Movement stirred in the valley below as numerous forms dug themselves free of their resting places, sometimes shoving aside the burnt ashes and skeletons of their fellows. A little over a dozen normal gyaos, ranging from bear size to carriage sized, screamed in pain from the growing light. Apparently having only been knocked out or partially crippled as opposed to killed, the tiny fragment of the once mighty flock wasted not a moment before taking to the air and beginning a retreat over the mountain range from whence they came.
Almost as if their pained, retreating shrieks summoned her back into the conscious world; Lea's eyes snapped open as wide as dinner plates. She sensed something was amiss. Not minding at all what was going on or who was in her way, the changeling sprung up like a popped cork and began bolting for the balcony with a surprised Twilight in pursuit. The bandages on her wing unraveled with each step and wing beat, revealing fresh epidermis and scales having replaced her now almost invisible wounds. When the duo reached the balcony, halting as the sun peeked over the horizon. The changeling's heart was pounding, despite not fully knowing the events of last night. She knew something was wrong, quite possibly terribly wrong, looking around the valley frantically.

The gyaos retreated over the mountains while a welcoming sun rose further into the sky. Celestia and Luna, confident the danger had past, relented their power over the barrier. All eyes were on the dust cloud as it began to dissipate.

Godzilla, still riddled with injuries that were slow to mend, began a slow march back to the steps of Canterlot. Some citizenry held their breath, some dove for cover; and some roared into the air with cheering. The passive radiation he reabsorbed from the battle ground as well as the trickles beaming down from the sun was a warm comfort to him, seeping into his spines like a gentle hug. It wasn't nearly enough to restore him, he was far too exhausted for that. But it would help patch matters up. At this point it was nearly the only thing keeping him on his feet, the draining of having to heal half his ribs and pelvis from the fall having sapped all of his remaining stamina. His march was slowed, almost with a notable limp; but still he kept his head held high and relaxed. He'd won, and because he did; they had all won. Granting them a tomorrow for the pain of a yesterday was always worth it.

While the crowds who'd taken shelter in Canterlot's castle and barracks were slow to exit, a small group was far outpacing them. The moment she'd seen her oldest friend rise and advance, Lea shot out like a rocket. Twilight, half eager to welcome the kaiju at the gates herself and half wanting to make sure the changeling didn't hurt herself, pursued. Behind her Luna and Celestia, both shrugging off their own exhaustion to tail the young alicorn. Before long, all four had made it to the front gate, far ahead of any others; as they watched the King of the Monsters march up.

As he paced up towards the front gate, a surge of blue and white light overtook the kaiju's body in a wave. In a fragment of a second, the light shot out of Godzilla's form and into the chest of a flabbergasted Luna. As the light left him, the dinosaur's body grew smaller and smaller. With the fading flare, the kaiju was gone, and a unicorn with a bent horn limped up to Equestria's capital. A confident, smiling smirk was clad on his face despite blood trickling down from his lip and his eyes being half closed.

Less than four meters away now, the unicorn's hoof caught on the ground under him. He half fumbled over his legs, and would have fallen if a light green changeling not caught and helped hold him up. The alicorns approached as Junior chuckled, patting Lea's shoulder; looking his closest friend in the eye.

"You look like you'd been crying."

Lea's face scrunched up, her left eye twitching.

"Oh and I'm sure you'd be just peachy if these shenanigans were reversed?! Don't you dare scare me like that again you big dolt!"

Junior's ears flattened and despite bruised ribs, he couldn't stop laughing at watching the changeling spas out.

"Leleeeee~"

"Oh don't you 'Lele' me mister! You pull a stunt like that again and I sweeeear!"

Junior jokingly put a hoof up to protect himself.

"Okay oookay, I'll gladly leave the airborne stuff to you and Rodan!"

Lea grumbled, hugging the unicorn lightly as her wings fluttered. Junior smiled, returning the gesture lightly. He could feel her heart beat, previously racing, starting to slow. He chuckled before breaking the hug and trying to stand back up on all four hooves. He failed horribly and required the changeling half holding his form up to even stand straight. The unicorn looked up at the city as it looked back down to him at a distance.

"Is everyone alright?"

Princess Celestia sighed in relief, the previous exchange indicating her city's defender was in decent health. There was a great many things on her mind. A cleanup operation would be mandatory for the several thousand tons of ashes and charred bones in the valley below, there would no doubt be a press conference soon or she risked news sensationalism running out of control; and they might need to do something quick about the changeling before someone saw her. From a distance she might pass as an alicorn or large unicorn, but as the paparazzi undoubtly would be getting closer now; hiding her might be necessary. Canterlot had just had a giant alien attack, last thing the citizens would need to know is a royal changeling in their midst after the wedding fiasco. Still, despite the thoughts of troubles to come; she smiled. Some gyaos had gotten away, but the plan worked. Canterlot was saved without a single life taken. And thankfully, her city's champion still stood. There was no loss tonight on either side of the shield today. She approached, nodding her head slowly; unable to hide a smile.

"Yes, everypony is fine outside of some initial chaos. Thank you."

Even the King of the Monsters knew honesty when he heard it. He sighed contently with the new knowledge.

"Don't mention it...."

Exhaustion hit the unicorn like an oncoming train. For a moment his eyelids flittered, his legs wobbled. And then he was out like a light for some well deserved and much needed rest. A white aura partially wrapped itself around half of Junior's body, Luna walking over to his side and aiding Lea in holding him up. There wasn't a hint of hostility in her face or movements. She may not have fully liked the situation at hoof, but it had churned out far better than she'd hoped. Time for insight would come, but that would be later. For now she only looked over at the now sleeping unicorn with a tiny smile.

"Here, we'll take him to the Lunar wing and get the royal physicians on him. For one who has aided Canterlot, it's only right Canterlot shall aid him."

Lea sighed in overdue relief, a gesture Celestia and Twilight mentally shared. She knew full well how the dark mage felt about her friend. Seeing her magic around him without any ill intent was a godsend for her worry. Just as they began to advance up through the gate and walk back to the palace, Twilight's eyes widened for a split second upon spotting an approaching crowd coming down the distant streets. Apparently having shared one of her teacher's worries, Twilight's eyes darted around until she spotted something to alleviate her worry. A large cloak that had been discarded at the gate's head during the evacuation, possibly left behind by someone making haste. Taking a moment to levitate it up and clean it off, she draped it over Lea's shoulders. The changeling may not have known the alicorn's reasoning, but she trusted it and didn't reject the gesture.

"Just trust me on this one, I think Canterlot's seen enough for today."

The small group started their way up the main street in a silent parade. Far ahead the guards did their duty and herding the crowds to the sidewalks to keep the street leading to the castle clear. Some eyes were on the cloaked form standing beside Luna, whispering amongst themselves questions of mystery and speculation. Many more were on the limp body between them. It took only a few whispers and a couple observations about color for most of the citizenry to put two and two together.

If Celestia could have, she'd be rubbing her temple to passively ebb away an oncoming headache she felt coming. The masquerade she'd planned to try and avoid as much issue as possible for both the kaiju and the ponies' sake was dead and buried, and she could read the expressions of Canterlot's populace. A young yellow colt smiled and waved, tugging on his mother's leg while whispering something to her with an ecstatic expression. A news reporter chewed her lip as she jotted down notes, occasionally peeking up with frightened grimace. A familiar, red haired guard's face was broken from any signet of stoicism with obvious concern after stealing a glance at an ivory hued mane. Glee, cheers, fear, uncertainty; and worry. The battle was over, but something told the ruler of the day that this was only the beginning.

===================
FAN WORKS!

It never ceases to amaze me the hard work a lot of you put out. It never ceases to make me blush and jump for joy :twilightsmile:
So here's to you all!

Pyrus Leonidas
"Blade Dancer is grinning and the smile will never cease."
"QUICK! SOMEONE GET LUNA! WE NEED DREAM AID!"
Link

Please do check out the Reading List by Lance Omikron to navigate the Amalgam Universe most clearly :raritywink:

Icelance669
"I play this, in attack mode!"
Link

Mayozilla
"And now we know what could happen if Dimension Tide worked in reverse."
Link

Xian-Russell
"Kaiju Converts! Roll Call!"
Link

Link

Link

IceStormy
"And now I know who's pony design is a fan favorite."
Link

xXBlueFireDragonXx
"Now that's what I call 'Rainbow Power'~!"
Link

BlazingPheonix17
"For those curious what may be going on across the barrier."
Link to FanFic

Author's Note

What is it with me and saying I'll make the chapters shorter so I can shoot out more of them, then turning around and making them the largest yet? :twilightoops:
Ok BEFORE the Blade Dancer shippers come out of the woodwork with torches and pitchforks for her reaction in-chapter, lemme explain. She was aware a certain weird unicorn was far from a normal pony. She wasn't prepared to see a 350 foot killer dinosaur, let alone up close. She still recognizes some features, but the rest of it conflict with both her memory and her instincts as to what's safe. Sorta like an equine version of 'Uncanny Valley'. It causes a mixed reaction. I am not torpedoing you shipping, I'm just trying to give it a realistic reaction.

Proofreading by Skylark and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by Faith-Wolff

Mothra and Godzilla, as well as related roster property of Toho Studios
Gyaos property of Daiei
MLP:FiM property of Hasbro Studios
Guard OCs by Fiddlesticks, Akashic Brony, Vadram, Bluemoon1996, and Omega-Wing
'Waiting for Superman' song by Daughtry, used under fair use

KAIJU'VERSE TIMELINE
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/345509/the-bridge-kaiju-amalgam-universe-timeline

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Odd days in Ponyville when Anguirus runs an errand and Destroyah can't get a trio of fillies to leave her alone, rain ensues.

Chapter 16: Rainy Days

Anguirus
Destroyah
Hyper Gyaos
Rarity
Pinkie Pie
Sweetie Belle
Scootaloo
Apple Bloom
Monster X

================================

Ponyville, Day After Canterlot Incident

Destroyah almost rolled her eyes as she smacked the side of her forehoof into the trunk of a thankfully spry apple tree, earning a downpour of apples. As she watched the fruit tumble into the preset baskets resting around her, the former kaiju shrugged.

Destroyah grimaced as an overwhelming feeling washed over her in a despised mood. She wasn’t vengeful right now. She wasn’t bloodthirsty or wrathful. Heck, she wasn’t even angry or enraged. It was something far worse. She was absolutely bored out of her skull. The only reason she’d even agreed to roll out of bed in the morning and start harvesting was in a vain hope that repeatedly striking the trees would help her vent off any lingering rage she held over her current circumstances. It was a limited success at best. The fact she couldn’t hit the tree with anything more than a firm tap and not snap the trunk in two wasn’t aiding in any attempt at venting. At this point not even projecting certain faces onto the trunks when she hit them was helping much.

Her attention was pried away by a loud grumbling echoing out from her gut. Destroyah’s face sneered. If there was one thing about this world she disliked, it was how easily she got hungry now. A chipper, youthful voice squeaked from the fence line near the giant mare.

“Howdy Princess! Thanks for hittin’ the big trees!”

Destroyah’s face flattened considerably, clearly not amused.

-Make that two things about this world I dislike…-

She turned to the grinning Cutiemark Crusaders as they looked at her from the fencing, her tone having a minor hint of a growl.

“What do you runts want?”

The little trio crawled up and over, through, and under the fencing and trotted over to pegasus that was easily twenty times their size without a hint of fear. Scootaloo was carrying a picnic basket in her mouth before setting it down in front of the kaiju and digging through it.

“We were on our way to explore and heard you were working out here, so we packed you a lunch.”

Smiling, the little pegasus unwrapped a hay sandwich and a carton of apple juice before setting them down on a napkin.

“Don’t worry, Sweetie Belle didn’t make it.”

“Hey!”

Destroyah craned her head down as Scootaloo backed up. She eyed the food. Typically she was used to snacking on fish, whales; and the occasional human. Then again, it wasn’t exactly a typical situation she was in. The pegasus glanced up at the grinning young trio and momentarily felt a spark of something inside. It was a bafflingly odd feeling inside her ribcage, one of odd warmth for a moment’s passing. It felt weird and she hated it. Snorting, she eyed the small assortment of food before her mane and tail began to sizzle and crackle with strands of bright purple energy. Opening fang filled jaws, Destroyah exhaled with a hiss as bubbles of micro-oxygen gushed over the food and evaporated it into a ball of purple light. Condensed and evaporated biomass morphed into oxygen destroying particles, an old favorite. Destroyah widened her jaws and was just about to inhale when a voice caused her to pause.

“Hey um, Miss?”

“Eh?”

“Cool as that is to watch, didn’t you keel over last time you did that?”

Applebloom rubbed the back of her head with a nervous chuckle.

“Y-yeeeeeaaah, Granny Smith said you right near wrecked your stomach eatin’ that stuff last time with the Timberwolves.”

Destroyah closed her jaws and rose up, taking a moment to think the situation through. She’d been eating this way since she could remember eating at all. Spray, dissolve, absorb, repeat; killed quick and left no useful scraps. But as much as she loathed thinking it, the fillies that made her want to yank her mane out had a point. Last time she tried that was with one that one wooden wolf, and if there was one thing the kaiju didn’t want it was to knock herself out again. The orb of dissolved mass that had been Destroyah’s lunch faded away into nothingness. Her stomach angrily yowled loudly at the observation.

Thankfully for the kaiju, Scootaloo was quick to dig through her saddle bag and whip out a similar meal to those past.

“Here, I had a big breakfast anywho.”

The snarl of her stomach caused Destroyah’s instincts to fire off, the giant mare swinging her jaws down and snapping them shut on the sandwich and drink in one swift motion less than a half second after Scootaloo set them down.

The Pegasus filly jumped back as recurved fangs slammed shut like a vice less than an inch from her hoof. The fillies all backed up a bit as Destroyah chewed her food behind closed lips. Her brow leveled out as she glanced down at them. Her stomach had stopped rumbling. Between the food in her mouth and no small measure of reluctance saying a word she hardly thought of, much less spoke; it was hard at first to understand the two words she spoke.

“Th-Th-Th-Thaaaaan’k… yooou….”

The giant mare turned and went back to her work after swallowing her lunch whole. The CMC took a moment to catch their breath before trotting off back to their course.

“Pretty untidy for an alicorn princess.”

“Did you SEE her teeth?!”

They walked for a moment more, and then promptly exploded into a burst of glee and excitement.

“That was AWESOME!”

“I know right?!”

“Did anypony else see her teeth?!”

“IIIIIII like her!”

===============

White Tail Woods

Hyper Gyaos flapped her wings best she could to try and slow her decent, but her exhaustion had long since caught up to her and the best she could manage was a gentle crash landing. The battles of before had taken their toll on her, she'd only been only flying for about an hour at the longest after retreating before she expending the last of her master's energy boost. Now she was only about the size of the smaller members of her flock.

Hauling herself out of the small trench of dirt her crash had dug, Hyper Gyaos slumped against a tree trunk to catch her breath. She'd failed. She wasn't successful in retrieving this 'Tree of Harmony' nor did she manage to capture the Element of Magic. To her credit, she did the best she could upon suddenly finding herself fighting a ticked off angry moth thrice the size of a 747.

The sunlight was strong, forcing the albino to shield her eyes before picking herself up. Still worn out, she limped off through the wood, trying to find a patch of forest with more shade.

-Least I wore out Mothra enough for the second flock to make it to that city. The master probably has the alicorns right now-

Finally finding a darker patch, partly due to some clouds rolling in up above and partly due to the large, solitary cedar tree having broad branches; Hyper took a seat to catch her breath.

She'd been sitting there for some time when an isolated screech caught her attention. It was extremely distant, barely a whisper in the winds. But she knew that call, as well as the small chorus that followed. The meaning was clear, 'Where are you?'. Taking in a deep breath, she stood upright and shrieked back loud enough to send the nearby birds and squirrels scattering. 'I'm here.'. There was silence for a moment, before a similar, higher pitched scream replied, 'We're coming.'.

Squinting over the tree line, Hyper Gyaos quickly spied dark forms coming over the mountains. Broad wings that flapped without feathers as about a dozen normal gyaos glided over the mountain peaks and straight for the forest below. It was then that Hyper Gyaos remembered her situation. She was the same size as them for the moment and sporting numerous wounds. Wounds that smelled of blood that could send the flock berserk. Their kinds blood driven feeding frenzies put the most vicious sharks to shame. Hyper Gyaos screeched to the approaching flock, ordering them to stay back just in case.

But fate had other ideas. The winds shifted, and the scents from the wood trailed up to the high lands. All at once the flock erupted in crazed, gluttonous shrieks as they increased their pace. Hyper Gyaos slowly stepped back, shrieking again to order her flight to stay back. Words fell to deaf ears, the flock being close enough now the albino could see the craven hunger in their eyes. They were starving, and they smelled food. Her eyes widened in fear, mentally begging for a portal to Zenith to open for her, pull her away from this situation. None came and she had to dodge to the side to avoid a beam of sonic energy that sliced the cedar tree in two.

Unable to fly from weakened wings, Hyper Gyaos ran down a game trail full sprint; the berserk flock hot on her heels. One of them lunged at her leg, chomping down on her ankle before the shriek of wrath and a purple sonic beam to the head ended its life.

========

Ponyville

Anguirus was both mentally and physically grumbling something incomprehensible to himself. When he was told he wouldn't be a 'free loader' on society and should lend a hoof, he had expected much. He wasn't strong armed into the agreement, but he still agreed on his own terms. One thing he didn't expect was to be running an errand for a senior citizen. He pulled the note impaled on one of his quills and looked it over again. Thankfully, Equestrian was miraculously close enough to what his creators had instilled into him, so the hardest part was less mistranslation and more correctly understanding Granny Smith’s odd chicken scratch.

-Standard 1 centimeter bolt and nails, two dozen each-

The old mare had been very insistent they were needed for some repairs. Apparently Destroyah had lashed a few times in her sleep when being taken back to the barn and a stray kick knocked the door off its hinges. Given how the Apple Family’s matriarch had mumbled about the barn needing a fix up “again” in a very annoyed tone, the kaiju began to wonder just how often that building was torn up.

-They got magical hocus pocus and plenty of metal, should consider some bronze enchants. The Mu Empire had that knocked.-

As tedious as the task seemed, he had agreed to it. Didn’t help though that Granny Smith fell asleep not two seconds after handing him the note, and Anguirus quickly found that elder seemed nigh impossible to wake up. Still, as he approached the outskirts of town; the kaiju turned earth pony was having second thoughts. True, he knew more about civilization than most kaiju. Partly through observation and partly because his creator’s wanted him to recognize his charges, he was well aware how a society worked. Anguirus knew what a hospital, what a library, and what a restaurant all were. What he didn’t have the slightest inclination of was how this town was laid out, and Ponyville was no small settlement. Anguirus’s expression flattened.

-Buried in the woods or knee deep in a township, why do I keep getting lost?-

Grumbling, he started down a street. It was a brisk day with a slight overcast that might herald future rain, so many ponies were out and about to get their errands done in case they were stormed in later. As the kaiju walked down a street though, he couldn’t help but notice some wandering eyes. A trio of earth pony mares operating a florist stand kept staring at him, whispering amongst themselves in what Anguirus could tell was slight concern. It almost made him frown. He was no looker but he wasn’t THAT ugly was he?

The familiar mental tug of Terran magic quickly ripped his attention away and the familiar voice of a fellow guardian seeped into his conscious.

-“Anguirus, you there?”-

He needed only think the words to respond back.

-“Ah, Lea, was wondering when you’d give an actual long distance call.”-

-“Very funny, anyways do you recall what a newspaper is?”-

-“Those weirdly folded pamphlets the humans use to update each other?”-

-“Right, well Equestrians apparently use them too. You need to get one.”-

-“Ah come on Lea, I’m already running one weird errand. What's is so important?!”-

Lea’s tone paid no effort to hide a fatigue driven, tranquil aggression.

-“Anguirus… I had QUITE the day yesterday and can’t hold this telepathy up much longer… I REALLY recommend you get that paper before I need to teleport over there myself.”-

-“…Wait, you can do that?”-

And goodbye tranquility. Lea’s voice could have been shooting flames out of her mouth.

-“I’M ABOUT TO TRY IF YOU DON’T READ THE ******* PAPER!”-

Anguirus couldn’t stop himself from widening his eyes and talking out loud with his thoughts, thoroughly confusing anypony who looked over to see a frantic stallion reacting to absolutely nothing.

-“OK OK OK! I’m on it!”-

He could hear Lea sigh, her tone lightening back up.

-“Sorry just, something pretty big happened that you’ll need to know about. Pass word to Rodan when he gets back into town.”-

Anguirus’ heart thankfully was slowing back down now that he didn’t have an enraged and annoyed changeling mentally screaming at him.

-“Alright but what’s the news I’m looking for, can’t you just tell me?”-

-“Not without cutting out mid-conversation and confusing you. Best you read it in full. I have to go now so take care. Trust me, you’ll know it when you see it.”-

Anguirus shrugged to himself, adding another line to his mental checklist and putting it at the top. Now he had two things to look for in a town that he had no clue how to navigate. After wandering around without a hardware dealer or newsstand in sight, the kaiju was quickly beginning to get annoyed. Given the odd looks he kept getting from some ponies, something told him asking the locals might be out of the question. On his own and thoroughly lost, not a very peachy situation.

He’d just passed by a pottery store’s alley when something caught his attention. A small vase set on the ground was violently rattling when he walked past it, only to stop when he departed. Raising an eyebrow, Anguirus backed up only to find the vase resuming its shaking with increased fervor. He was just about to look inside it, half expecting some sort of small animal to be trapped within when an explosion of confetti and pink burst out of the vase. The Element of Laughter, Pinkamena Diane Pie burst out of her hopelessly undersized hiding spot to the heralding forth one of her celebrations. Confetti burst into the air and trickled down like rain, streamers flew everywhere, and a small banner with the word ‘WELCOME’ stenciled onto it flew like a flag. Anguirus nearly jumped out of his skin and had to quickly resist the instinct to lash out after at first thinking he was under attack.

“Happy Welcome-to-Equestria Kaiju Partyyyyyyy!”

There was an almost cinematic, musical trumpeting when the mare announced the celebration, despite the two being alone in the alley. Pinkie Pie stopped herself mid-jump, beginning to rapidly babble on in a manner Anguirus could barely understand as she rubbed her chin with her hoof.

“Well,ActuallyDoesItCountAsAPartyIfOnlyOneOfYouAreHere?!NotToDegradeAnyponyAtAllNoNoNo! ButItWouldBeBestIfWeGotYourFriendsTogetherToMakeItAFULLKaijuParty. Ooh!Ooh! IKnow! ThisWillBeAPrePartyAndI’llMakeAFullOneLater! That’sIt!”

Pinkie Pie braced herself to the sound of a spontaneous drum roll before shooting up into a gleeful jump to the sound of trumpeting.

“Happy Welcome-To-Equestria-Kaiju PREE-Party!!!”

Anguirus had no clue what to do first after wiping the blinding amounts of confetti and streamers off his face, trying to comprehend what in the world was going on with this pony or try and find out who kept playing that music. He chose the latter and glanced around, but was unable to find anyone or anything nearby that had been playing.

“How did yo-…”

He looked back to the hopeless small vase that had somehow been the mare’s hiding spot only to find it empty. The banner and celebration accessories still flew, but in place of Pinkie Pie was a note and a slice of cake on a plate. Several odd moments and a gentle breeze passed before Anguirus gave up trying to understand what just happened. Taking a bite out of the cake, he read the second note of the day.

“Pinkie sense detected diaper emergency with Pumpkin Cake, will see you later.- Pinkie”

Anguirus stopped chewing his bite of cake and looked at it with a blank expression. Given the note’s content and his bewilderment at what the pink one was capable of, he was questioning if he should eat food that mare was handling or not. Thankfully his reading of the note did make him look down at the right angle to see something inside of the vase. No return of the pink yet, but the recognizable grayed pages of a newspaper restored some faith in destiny. Putting the now suspicious dessert and note aside, he pulled out the pamphlet to hopefully get to whatever Lea had been trying to tell him about.

What he saw on the front page under the title “Canterlot Under Siege! Monsters Among Us!” made his eyes wider than dinner plates.

================

Sweet Apple Acres

Destroyah wolfed down a whole apple after gnashing it amongst her teeth. Quelling hunger was good, arguably the first good thing in her mind she’d had during these equine shenanigans; but she still couldn’t shake the off feeling she got from eating this way.

-Eating this is like walking backwards constantly. Do-able but… awkward-

She’d just finished gobbling down her morsel after clearing several trees of their fruit when a trio of high speed streaks zipped up to her. A trio of voices that cued an annoyed grumble called out as the high speed flashes of orange, white, and yellow dove under her tall form.

“PRINCESS DESTOROYAR!”

Destroyah maintained a blank expression, opting to ignore what was likely the most horrendously bad case of royal titling in recorded history. She lowered her neck and looked upside down at the three fillies hiding under and behind her legs.

“Get out…”

The Cutiemark Crusaders all shook their heads feverously from side to side in unison, shaking and shivering as they clung to hooves bigger around than they were. Destroyah snorted out of her nose as her brow lowered. Her hissing grumble was very audible. The stench of fear coming off the three was nauseating.

“What are you three runts up to this time? You’re about to wet yourselves.”

Sweetie Belle, still clinging to Destroyah's left forelimb in a death grip, spoke up as loud as she could with her face half buried in crimson fur.

“S-S-S-S-Slendermane!”

The goliath of a pegasus raised an eyebrow, her response devoid of emotion.

“…Who?”

“A t-t-tall monster pony with no face. H-H-He lives in the woods and snatches little po-ponies up!”

“…And this concerns me how?”

Apple Bloom managed to catch her breath and slow her racing heart enough to speak a bit more coherently, though she refused to leg go of Destroyah’s back left leg.

“W-Well you right beat the tar outta them timber wolves sooo…”

Scootaloo was in a similar to state to Apple Bloom, looking up at the kaiju from behind her other forelimb as she finished her friend’s sentence.

“We figured you were enough of a flank kicker to be a monster hunter!”

Sweetie Belle managed to compose herself again, perking up a bit at the last two words.

“Yah! Like the Whinnychester brothers on TV!”

“So will you do it?”

Destroyah blinked, most certainly not amused.

“So let me get this straight. You runts got scared of some deformed no-face on stilts and want me to take him out?...”

All three nodded in unison as rapidly as they had shook their heads before.

“Will you do it!?”

“We can help you find him!”

Destroyah was motionless for awhile, only blinking and staring blanking at the begging faces of the fillies. This excursion sounded hopelessly idiotic, but given her current bored and awkward mood; maybe getting into a fight and having some blood on her horn might cheer her up a bit? Was something she was good at after all.

“Alright, where’s this Slendermane?”

The CMC let go of Destroyah’s legs at last, and jumped up as they held their hooves in a three way high five.

"CUTIEMARK CRUSADERS ASSISTANT MONSTER HUNTERS!”

The giant mare loudly growled and grumbled, snapping the three back to attention. Sweetie Belle rubbed the back of her head and chuckled.

“Heh, oh right, sorry. This way!”

The little unicorn took point with Destroyah walking behind her, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo tailing them close behind. Apple Bloom turned to the young pegasus with a bemused expression.

“…’Flank Kicker’? We’re in private ye’ know, you coulda said it.”

Scootaloo shrugged with raised shoulders.

“Sister Rosary and Mother Superior don’t like us to cuss.”

========

Ponyville

Anguirus was good at a great many things. He could roll around at high speed. He could swim through lava and magma. He could walk through enemy fire like a champ. He had quite a few skills. Successfully sneaking around a town of sentient ponies despite his best efforts was not one of them. He was mentally kicking himself for not being more aware earlier. He felt the bursts of energy coming from the Everfree and Canterlot, and even saw some of the distant lights last night. But he’d been naïve enough to think it was just Lea and her new friend running some tests. After he had drove off what had to be most of the local dragons, what threat possibly could have warranted a transformation to deal with after all? That expectation as well as so many others had been shattered by a triple digit flock of gyaos.

The jig was up and Anguirus knew it. There had to be more kaiju in Equestria than the first six, that was for sure. He didn’t know how or why, but now it was almost like nowhere was fully safe anymore. The reaction from the natives wasn’t helping one bit.

Equestria’s opinion was split directly down the middle. One side was wary but thankful for the arrival of the big gray goliath. They cheered and applauded when he walked back to their city in victory. The other half however, noting Junior’s power and methods, were terrified. Parents saw violence they sought to shield their children from, other groups were livid at the damages Junior caused and could potentially cause; and numerous politicians were calling out what they saw as a menace to society their princesses were harboring. And adding fuel to the fire, the image of that dark blue alicorn carrying a tired out Junior confirmed that the ponies knew the bigger secret, monsters in disguise. Suddenly it all made sense.

-After seeing Godzilla change into one of them, the scared half of the populace is running around paranoid-

He looked out into the street goers as he hid behind an oddly circular shaped building.

-They see a weird looking pony and they might start suspecting things…-

He just rounded a corner when a familiar flash of pink erupted from a barrel.

“HIYA!”

“WAAAAAAAAA!”

Once again he had to resist the mental urge to lash out upon being subject to a benevolent ambush. Pinkie Pie evidentially had the stealth skills to impress a box wielding commando. It took a few moments for Anguirus to catch his breath again, with no small amount of annoyed growling. Pinkie Pie hardly noticed, smiling honestly with a titled head.

“Why yah sneaking around town all of the sudden?”

“Did you read the paper you left in the vase.”

“Mhm! I had to pass the time while waiting for yah silly!”

“…You were waiting for me? How did you know I’d-…”

Anguirus looked at Pinkie Pie as the words died in his throat. Something told him he shouldn’t even try touching that topic.

“...Never mind, did you read the front story?”

“After the Funnies and crosswords.”

“Then you know about Canterlot and there being a bit of a panic.”

“Yeppers! Fitting that monsters pop up right around Nightmare Night of all holidays, and someponies are running around spooked because some monsters can turn into ponies and-”

Anguirus just looked at Pinkie Pie blankly, motioning to himself. The truth dawned on Harmony’s element.

“-Ooooooooh, you don’t wanna possibly draw much suspiciooooon, I gotcha. I’ll make it a super secret private welcome party for you all then!”

Anguirus nodded his head affirmatively.

“Yes thank you- Wait party? I meant!… Urg never mind just go with the first part.”

The stallion crossed his hooves and sat down behind some cover, trying to think up a way to get through the now growing crowds all around him. Pinkie Pie rested her head on a hoof, puffing a bubble pipe Anguirus half suspected she pulled out of her mane; pondering as well. A minute and a breeze passed by before the mare got an off thought.

-Hmmmm no Nightmare Night costumes till dusk, so he might not pass off much like thaaat… wait a minute here! Costume! That’s it!-

Pinkie Pie sprung up in excitement.

“Aaaaah ha! I’ve got it!”

Anguirus cocked an eyebrow and actually felt a tad hopeful. This pink one was very… distinct, but she obviously meant well. Maybe she had a plan to help him out after all. He turned to look over to her as she was busy digging through the barrel she’d shot out from.

“What do you have in mi- MMMPHIPHHM!!”

He was cut short by a flurry of movement and before he could so much as count to two, Anguirus was covered in something. He looked down at his hoof, seeing it now cloaked in a covering of pink plush cloth that went up and coated his whole body outside of his face. He felt something very large sitting atop his head. Something inside told him he looked ridiculous.

"WHAT is this?!"

"My Pinkie suit! Now nopony will recognize you if from head to hoof you look like me!"

Anguirus looked into a low hanging window to check his reflection. It looked like some giant headed monstrosity that resembled the mare was swallowing his face. He couldn't hide a frown, eyes frozen.

"... You can't seriously expect me to walk around wearing this..."

Pinkie gasped with a frown, waving her arms before rapidly shifting to a joyful tone.

"But it's faaaaantastic! And it completely covers you, no CHANCE anypony would freak out seeing you now!"

"Yes and if I take one step into public with this thing on my head, I'm going to attract the attention of everything in town."

"Why is that?"

"BECAUSE IT LOOKS LIKE I'M GETTING EATEN BY A GIANT PINK PON-"

An accented, distinct voice cut the ranting kaiju off as a third party joined the conversation.

"What in the name of Celestia is going on out here?!"

Pinkie and Anguirus looked to the source and saw Rarity half standing in the open doorway with a bewildered look on her face. She looked back at the awkward sight before her, blinking in sheer confusion.

"Would, you two like to step inside for a bit?..."

============================================

Sweet Apple Acres Outskirts, in the Fruit Bat Reserve

Destroyah had expected something of a shelter when the fillies told her more and more about this so called 'Slendermane' they claimed to have seen in the woods. A long forgotten cabin or broken down house maybe? What she didn't see coming was a gaping cave burrowing halfway into a tall hill inside the trees that lead down underground. The entrance and cavern tunnel itself wasn't especially large, and had several holes in the roof where light filtered through. It hardly looked like the lair of a reclusive monster.

"So, this it?"

Apple Bloom nodded, pointing to a patch of ground just inside the cave.

"We saw 'em standing there. Ya' can see some hoof prints on the ground too!"

Destroyah glanced down and did indeed see a patch of grass and dirt that had been crushed down by a light weight, forming a vague hoofprint. She put her front hoof next to it, dwarfing the imprint. No blow to confidence taken, just some disappointment. She expected something bigger. Scootaloo tugged on Destroyah's tail, peeking past the mare and at the cave ahead.

"How can we assist?

Destroyah grumbled, flickering her tail free of the filly's hooves.

"Don't get in my way..."

She approached the cave with a self assured, powerful gait that thoroughly impressed the unwanted posse that followed suit in their own march. Reaching into their saddlebags and backpacks, the CMC whipped out their armaments. A shovel, a softball bat; and a particularly menacing looking broom. It, along with following what they still was convinced was an alicorn princess into battle dispelled all fear in the young trio. Destroyah didn't notice or care. At this point the only thing she was hoping for was this Slendermane having a lot of blood in him.

No sooner did they enter the cavern did Destroyah's eyes lock onto something moving in the darkness. It was moving too quickly to be identified and was diving amongst cover. Still, instincts flared and Destroyah knew a threat when she saw one. It didn't smell like any pony. Not wasting a moment, energy cracked amongst the giant mare's mane before she spat out a high speed orb of bright purple light. The basketball sized bolt of micro-oxygen rocketed through the air and briefly lit up the cave before impacting something down around a corner in the cave. A gust like shriek echoed out as the tell tale flash of light indicated the orb hit something. Once the CMC got over the shock of the sudden attack, their hearts were racing a mile a second.

"He screamed! You got him! You got Slendermane!"

Destroyah slowly approached the edge of the corner, not so sure. She sniffed the air. There wasn't even a trace of blood.

"WOW! You vapori'zied him!"

Something wasn't right. She was sure she'd hit someone, but such a relatively small orb couldn't have completely taken out something as big as she was told this monster was.

"I don't think so, something like that wouldn't disintegrate it entirely..."

Sweetie Belle worryingly looked past Destroyah with this new knowledge. The cave was very dark, and very still. She wished she'd brought her flash light. After several moments her eyes trained upon some movement around the corner. Stretching out like a ghastly specter was a tall shadow against the back wall. It looked like a pony with elongated limbs.

"There!"

All four braced themselves, the CMC cringing in fear as a large grin stretched across Destroyah's lips for a moment. But as a half second past, the latter faded. Destroyah relaxed, looking the shadow over with a raised eyebrow. Something wasn't right. Scootaloo, whom had been hiding behind the kaiju's tail half this time however felt a surge of courage. She adjusted her bicycle helmet with a snort, held high her softball bat and rushed out past her posse before anyone could stop her.

The little pegasus' shadow joined Slendermane's on the wall, only for the latter to not move at all. Scootaloo's battle cry spiraled down to a confused grunt.

"AAAAAAAAAAAaaaahhh-huuuh? What the?..."

Scootaloo looked at the shadow and followed it across the wall to its source. What she found wasn't a tall figure lacking a face. Instead the shadow shrank and shrank the more she followed it, seeing it was coming through a small hole in the wall that led back to the surface, the light streaming through it and casting the shade. Right outside the same hole was a tiny figure. The rest of the CMC and Destroyah came around the corner as Scootaloo turned around with the culprit in hand. A small, kitten sized, patchwork doll.

"IIIIII guess the light caught it funny to cast a big shadow eheh."

Sweetie Belle tilted her head as she combed her memory.

"Hey isn't that the weirdo doll everyone was going ga-ga over a few months ago?"

Scootaloo nodded.

"Yeah but what is it doing all the way out here?"

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes, knowing the reason. Her brother had probably brought it out with him awhile ago while doing chores and dropped it. They had all been terrified by Smarty Pants. She walked over, taking the toy from Scootaloo and quickly stuffing it in her bag.

"IIIIII think Ah'll take it back with us, Ah know where it goes."

A guttural, annoying grumble echoed out from behind them. The CMC slowly turned around to see a very disgruntled looking Destroyah sneering before she turned and started storming out of the cave. It didn't matter she somehow didn't feel quite as angry as she felt she should, the confusion swirl of emotions only making her more unhappy. The CMC's collective ears flopped against their heads as they ran after the giant, catching up to her at the cave entrance.

"Huh?! Princess where you goin'?! Did we do something?!"

The crimson pegasus looked back with a snarl before trekking off into the woods.

"I'm NOT some princess! Next time you runts get spooked by a shadow, don't waste my time!..."

Scootaloo sadly looked over to her friends.

"What's eating her?..."

========

Ponyville

Anguirus sighed as he sat down on some plush carpet. Being indoors still felt a bit awkward for him, but he was mostly grateful for getting out of the open and was praising Tanaka to be out of the Pinkie suit. Rarity hummed as she walked over to the Element of Laughter and the Fire Guardian, levitating over a porcelain tray with some steaming warm tea atop it. Anguirus crossed a hoof over his chest and bowed his head respectfully.

"I appreciate you allowing me inside."

Rarity beamed through her red glasses as she poured several cups of tea from the kettle.

"Oh don't mention it all darling, you looked like you and Pinkie were in quite the conundrum outside."

She set aside a cup for herself before levitating one over to Anguirus, nudging it at him via levitation magic to offer him some. Anguirus held up a hoof and shook his head slightly. Pinkie however was quick to look up from the party planning sketch she was working on to hold up her hoof and nod rapidly. The white unicorn chuckled and dropped in a few sugar cubes before giving her friend the cup. Anguirus could smell what the cubes were and raised an eyebrow as Pinkie gulped down the drink.

"Uum... are you sure that's a good idea?"

Rarity rolled her eyes slightly and shrugged with a chuckle. She leaned in and whispered to the kaiju.

"I've seen her guzzle down at least a baker's dozen worth of sweets a day. When you stay around Pinkie you learn she can't get any more hyper if she's already in a perpetual sugar high.

Anguirus nodded, shifting his attention to look the interior of the boutique over. Between the sketches, the mountains of fabric, large amounts of plush, some random feline, and the mannequins he didn't have much of an idea as to what he was looking at. Still, if his host was kind enough to invite him in he should least be courteous.

"Guess we weren't formally introduced, names Anguirus."

Rarity flipped her mane over her shoulder.

"Juliet Rarity Belle~, though personally I just go by Rarity."

She held her arm out to him, not knowing if she had a gentlecolt present or not and seeing if he'd shake or kiss it. When he just looked down at it with obvious confusion, the Element of Generosity just giggled and retracted it. Anguirus looked back up, or rather he looked less down than before given the height difference, at her face.

"Greetings. Though if you'd forgive my cluelessness, what is up with this place's layout? Is it meant for something?"

He motioned to his surroundings. Rarity smiled.

"Why I am a seamstress, considered best in Ponyville if I can risk a small boast. Haven't you ever seen clothes design in progress before?"

Anguirus knew clothes came from somewhere, his creators nor the humans weren't just born with them. Still, he didn't know the process and shook his head. Rarity raised an eyebrow.

"...Have you ever, worn clothes before?"

"I've seen things wear them, never had myself."

Now Rarity was the curious one.

"Oh why ever would that be? I understand most ponies go around nude most of the time, why just look at me and Pinkie right now-"

"Birthday suit's the best suit!"

"-but for special occasions and all those matters we feel like it, we prefer to dress up. I mean after all that Changeling friend of yours would look simply DIVINE in a dress with those wings and eyes of her's!"

Anguirus waited a few moments before spelling it out as bluntly as possible.

"For all but the last few days of my life I've been a 90 meter tall giant monster that looks like a cross between a lizard, an armadillo, and a porcupine. They never really had any shirts or shorts in my size back home."

Rarity blinked for a few moments, recalling just what she was talking to right now.

"Oh, pardon my confusion then... Well that size issue might not be much of a problem now that you're here in Equestria. Could aid in some of that whole 'blending in' parts you were worried about earlier. Just drop in if you need anything, I'm sure I could whip up something to your liking!"

Anguirus sighed but smiled. He knew kindness when he smelt or heard it.

"Thank you, that offer is very generous."

Rarity nodded approvingly.

"Tis my element my friend."

Anguirus's mind wandered back to a previous topic and previous sentence.

"So if you know about this whole 'me blending in' part, I take it you can guess why it's a concern?"

Rarity sighed, removing her glasses and nodding a bit sadly.

"Yes, I had read the paper. I was just finishing it when I found you and Pinkie."

Anguirus leaned back a bit with a disgruntled shrug.

"Your country is divided right down the middle on this whole 'Kaiju Emergence'. After all of the capital saw Godzilla in full and then not only had front row seats to a war but also spotted him change into a unicorn, a lot of ponies are walking around spooked. If they knew someone they passed in the streets was really a multistory monstrosity, there would be a panic."

Neither Elements of Harmony could really disagree with the assessment. They had enough problems with an immigrating zebra and the changeling fiasco. Rarity and Pinkie shared a look with an affirmative nod before straightening back up.

"Well, until your friend and Twilight can get you all home, we're going to help the public front then."

Anguirus fought back a quick smile before suspicion took route. It was one thing to stuff him in a giant costume and then take him inside for a bit. It was another to offer long term aid to a stranger. Such was not something he was used too.

"Why would you go to all the trouble on my behalf? You knew full well what's going on and even saw a brawl me and the others had right in front of you."

Rarity was thinking over her response for a moment, rubbing her chin. Pinkie just grinned and gave the stallion a giggling pat on the shoulder.

"Because we're nice silly!"

Rarity chuckled, adding on her part.

“Well when you’ve been on as many ventures as we Elements have, ones with changelings, living nightmares, tyrants, pirates, dragons, chaos beings; you tend to become accustomed to out of the ordinary. Besides, generosity means giving even when some parts of your mind say otherwise. True, you’d probably set the record for oddest house guest I've had short of Discord dropping in. But I know a good pony, er, kay'iju, when I see one. A bit vicious as he might have been in doing it, but your friend Godzilla putting himself in harms way to save Canterlot was a noble cause if I ever heard one. And if your description of yourself is accurate, you’d be the one I have to thank for saving Rainbow Dash back at the camp ground.”

Anguirus sighed contently, thinking it all over and half wondering now if these Equestrians were just born kind or if he'd lucked out. Pinkie Pie popped up beside Rarity with a small shower of glitter.

"Besides, everypony is entitled to a bit of laughter and joy from time to time. You might be a bit of a grump, no offense, but you seem nice enough. What kind of happy go lucky, party planning, cheer spreading Element of Harmony would I be if I turned anypony away from the start?~"

Anguirus was touched for a moment, before quickly squirming from a wet, fleshy feeling on his ear.

"Awww! See? Gummy likes you!"

================

Sweet Apple Acres

Destroyah hissed and snarled to herself as she trudged through the fringes of the orchard and towards the natural forests. Decade old apple trees surrendered ground to century old oaken wood. Small birds chirped and flapped amongst the glade, rabbits and opossum scurrying in the brush; as deer waded through the foliage to browse. The scene was serene, but Destroyah hardly even noticed. She was too busy trying to figure out whether she wanted to be enraged or not. Try as she might to strike up the flames of anger which she'd utilized since she could remember anything, it was like drawing a blank. Ungodly amounts of boredom and some small vibe she kept getting in the back of her mind kept keeping her from settling on any one emotion for longer than a second's breath.

She paused, noting her surroundings. Plenty of life around. Maybe she should try and be herself. Do what she'd done since the day she knew what was going on around her. The kaiju convert cracked a fang and molar filled grin as she curled her lips back, her horn humming and igniting to life.

Letting out a shrieking wail half way between a banshee's scream and an equine whinny, Destroyah lashed out at everything around her. She turned and gutted the oak tree behind her, burning and slicing through the wood with her horn. The song birds cried out and fled after Destroyah whirled around and fired several rapidly expanding pellets of micro-oxygen, tearing the shrubs the birds had perched on asunder. Destroyah snarled, planting her front hooves on the ground and bucking the slashed tree behind her. The roar of splintering and cracking wood filled the air as the tree trunk was completely snapped in two, sending the oak tumbling backwards. Energy crackled in the mare's mane before she looked up at the shocked herd of deer before her. Throwing open her jaws, a violet stream of power shot out of her in torrents. It ripped the ground apart and caused the foliage it hit to explode and disintegrate. A dark laughter rang out of the mare as she intentionally fired at the cervids' feet, making them dodge and run for their lives every second before they got out of range. Not feeling like giving chase and rage broiling, Destroyah roared into the sky above before assaulting the fallen tree. She bit, slashed, shot, punched, kicked, and smacked the tree with everything she had. Showers of splintered and partially vaporized wood flew out in every direction as the tree itself began to vanish. Destroyah didn't care at all, she was too busy projecting her hatred to kindle more wrath. With every blow she imagined faces, the images of her foes. Of that moth, the pteranodon, the dinosaur; that mongrel runt of a successor. She imagined each blow hitting them, showering blood and crushing bone.

She didn't know how long she'd been striking at what was below her, but with one last exhausted stomp; Destroyah stopped. Huffing badly for breath, she stood in the center of a sizable trench she'd cut into the ground. She stayed like that, her mind darkening. The feelings were still there. If she had a weaker constitution she'd probably be far worse off, but her resolve barely held. Killing, rending, breaking, and being a butcher were all things the Serizawan legacy was very good at. It was what she'd been doing for over a decade. It always made her feel better. But right now, she didn't feel better at all. Destroyah hung her head as her wings drooped. She only felt worse.

The fleeting surges of emotion were quick to fade when a damp cold tapped her nose. The sky was darkening high above, and a gentle drumming called out all around her. It was beginning to rain. Destroyah climbed out of the trench, briefly standing idle before grumbling and trudging off into the storm. Despite being amphibious, she despised the cold. And this rain was freezing. Attempts to raise her wings to shield herself only resulted in a chilled breeze broad-siding her and making her left flank begin to numb.

-As if my day couldn't get any worse...-

===============

Carousel Boutique

"So you actually think I'll be okay out there?"

Anguirus had to keep from mumbling the words as he looked himself over in the mirror. He already wasn't used to having hair period. But having hair more neatly combed down to the point it looked more like a mane and less like a mass of quills was a whole new ball game. Rarity finished off organizing his tail in a similar manner, a bit of a challenge given the actual quills present.

"Hmm... Yes I'd say so. You can excuse these spines off as some sort of hair pins. You definitely look more like a normal pony than some of your acquaintances. I'd say you can pass. I'd say pose as a foreigner if you need to explain yourself, but just don't draw too much attention and you should be fine."

She looked up in the mirror, immediately noting the gleaming ivory poking out from Anguirus' lips.

"Though as for the um, fangs, I'd suggest keeping them under your lips most of the time. If need be you could pass it and the quills off as some sort of outfit, given the time of year."

She'd just finished up when the tell tale pinging against the windows heralded the rain. Pinkie Pie shot up before scooping up Gummy and her plans, stashing them away in her mane and tail.

"Ohp! That's my cue to sca-doo! Rain tends to wake up Pound Cake and he'll want to fly around!"

Stopping briefly in a flash of pink to hug Rarity, Pinkie shot out through Opal's kitty door by means neither Rarity or Anguirus wanted to ponder. It took a few moments for Rarity to snap back to her senses.

"Well I guess I best be heading out as well. Sweetie Belle is out with her friends and wouldn't want any of them to get soaked before Nightmare Night later today."

She went for the front door, slipping on some rubber boots and a cloak before opening her umbrella. She glanced back at Anguirus.

"Storm should blow over in an hour or so. You can borrow an umbrella if you need."

Anguirus bowed his head a bit in a quick thank you, but made for the door anyways.

"Kind offer, but rain never bugged me much any who. Thanks anyways though for all the help."

"Was my pleasure.~"

The duo headed out the door before splitting ways.

==============

Whitetail Woods

The gyaos shriek was cut short, falling into a coughing wheeze before it slumped over. The purple beam that sliced through its heart and out its back silenced its hissing and dissipated. A weak groan sounded off over the rain as a soaked, battered, and bleeding form shifted the falling corpse off of herself. Hyper Gyaos fell to her hands and a knee, wheezing and choking on her own breath. The rain borne mud along with caked blood and bruises dirtied much of her pale skin. She looked up around her as the rain poured.

Gyaos lay everywhere in a 20 meter radius. Some crushed under a fallen tree, some with their throats torn out; and others sliced apart by sonic rays. They were all dead. All gone. She knew this. She was the one who killed them.

Hyper Gyaos looked up at the storming sky as the ramifications settled in. She never liked her flock, she hated them. Monstrous automations who’d been a threat since the day she hatched. She had spent more time fighting for her life against them to keep them in line than she ever did fighting other kaiju. But, they were all she ever had. All she ever had to share an unending hunger with. For a social species, she needed company. But that company would never come; there would be no more flocks. Their kind had always bounced back from oblivion. All it took was one adult female to self reproduce a clutch of her own before she expired, her daughters doing the same, her granddaughters following suit, and so on. There would be no bounce back now. She'd just reduced her species to a single individual. A single individual who was a sterile albino.

Her limbs were weakening, already numb, but she still looked to the sky. A tear joined the rain drops in soaking her face. Hyper Gyaos took in a deep breath and screamed back at the storm, her nose filled with the smell of death all around her. She was starving, a hateful pain gnawing at her stomach and nearly causing her to writhe in agony before it drained the last of her power. Her arms and legs lost all their strength and the albino demoness fell to the ground on her back. All she could look at as her conscious flickered away was the storm above, and the painful truth of what she knew. She was completely alone, with none to roost around. She was hungry, and there was only one thing around her to eat when she woke up. A small voice chimed into her head, lulling her to rest like a lullaby. A warm presence surrounded her, lulling her quicker into a comforted, sleepy state.

-"Sleep... Poor soul... Help is coming..."-

She obeyed, blacking out. The last conscious input she detected was footsteps approaching her rapidly before darkness took her. A tall figure stood over the fallen albino as the rain poured. It knelt down, bracing his arms under her shoulders and hips before slinging the unconscious Hyper Gyaos over his shoulder. Monster X's calm voice betrayed a strong sense of urgency. A mysterious voice calls out to him and directed him to the right location in his search for her, but that wasn't a concern of his right now. Gyaos was alive, but she needed attention pronto.

"I have found her, open the portal again NOW!"

===============

Sweet Apple Acres

The Cutiemark Crusaders had thankfully made it back to their clubhouse after the cave fiasco before the rains came. Fortunately the planning of their next big endeavor managed to take their minds off just how their last adventure ended. Currently they resigned themselves to playing a few board games to pass the time. As much as they loved playing out in a gentle storm like this, none of their party wanted to get soaked or muddy before Nightmare Night. Such would lead to a statistical loss of candy after all!

The sound of footsteps approaching quickly caught their attention. All eyes were at the front entrance as a rain cloak clad Rarity poked her head into the clubhouse.

"Figured you three might be up here. Sweetie Belle, I came to see if you or any of your friends wanted me to pick you up to wait out the storm back at the boutique or not."

The youngest unicorn present got up and threw her saddlebags back on her back.

"Guess it would be best to get ready for Nightmare Night. You two wanna come?"

Apple Bloom mulled over the thought for a moment before packing up too.

"Well plannin's all done and we've played Go-Fish fourteen times in a row. Would help. Can you walk me back to Granny Smith Miss Rarity?"

Rarity beamed and nodded.

"Certainly! And what about you Scootaloo?"

Scootaloo sat up from her game board, but didn't pack up. She began to put up the game while waving off to her friends.

"You guys go ahead, I got some things I want to handle before I head back. I brought my umbrella."

"Are ya' sure Scoots?"

"Yeah yeah I'll be fine! See you all tonight!"

Scootaloo smiled before exchanging goodbyes with her friends, waving at them from the clubhouse front door until they were out of sight. Her smile slowly faded with each step they took away from her. The sight of a big pony walking fillies home inherently killed her mood a bit. She turned and headed back inside after shutting the door, her own thoughts being her company and time waster. Scootaloo was a filly that had a good life over all. Sister Rosary was a great caretaker and Rainbow Dash had recently proven to be an excellent big sister figure. But, sometimes you can't quite substitute one of those for something else Scootaloo wanted. Something her friend's had. Something this day of the year reminded her of.

Some time had passed as Scootaloo doodled on a few pages of a sketch pad, trying to get her mind off things. The sound of beaten air heralded wing beats just outside the front door, making Scootaloo's eyes widened. Rainbow Dash wasn't in town at the moment, but maybe she got back recently? Maybe Rarity pointed her to the clubhouse! Scootaloo eagerly dropped her pencil and ran to the door, whipping it open. But instead of cyan blue and rainbow streaks, she got messy crimson and ivory. Destroyah stood in the doorway, getting rained on as she looked down at the filly with an emotionless expression.

"Oh... H-Hi Miss Destoroyerah..."

The kaiju didn't feel like correcting her, only ducking down more to get through the door.

"Move."

Scootaloo obeyed and got out of the doorway. It was a bit of a cramp, but once she was past the door the giant mare managed to, abet barely, fit inside the clubhouse. She still had to crouch a great deal. Shaking herself off a bit, whipping her tail outside the door to wring it free of some excess water, Destroyah tried to dry herself off some to reduce the biting cold that enveloped her. She wasn't succeeding much until a small tap on her elbow caught her attention. She whipped her head around to see Scootaloo sitting down next to her, holding up several large towels.

The kaiju shrugged, taking one and wiping herself down; finally managing to dry off and begin to feel warm again. Destroyah set the towel aside and laid down on the center of the room, looking out into the rain. She noted the small shape of orange and purple next to her and something caused her to blurt out two words she was obviously straining to say still.

"Th-ank you..."

Scootaloo laid down a short distance from the older mare, still partially astonished a pony could be this enormous. She looked out into the rain like the kaiju had. Several moments passed, as did the filly's attention span.

"So, what brings you here?

Something in the back of Scootaloo's mind was getting its hopes up. Her conscious on the other hand was just trying to make sure the kaiju wasn't angry at her still about the Slendermane fiasco. Destroyah's response was blunt and devoid of feeling.

"I hate getting cold and found this cabin on my way back to the barn. Didn't think someone would still be in it."

"Y-Yes this is mine and my friends' clubhouse."

A word in that sentence perked up some minor interest, even if Destroyah's voice didn't show it at all.

"Why are you still here? I saw the other two runts heading down a road during my fly over."

The word 'runt' would have been insulting in most contexts and to most persons. The CMC however just figured it was their new princess's way of saying kid. It made the little pegasus smile a bit for a fleeting moment before her face drooped in memory of the topic.

"I guess I... I just wanted to stay for a bit. It's a, special, day of the year I like to take some alone time on before going trick or treating. Call it an anniversary."

"Still, would think a whelp like you wouldn't want to be in the woods alone. You and your cohorts keep talking about monsters."

"Weeeell you DID kill the timber wolf pack, and disproved Slendermane. Guess there's no monsters left around here to be afraid of."

"I suppose. Still, if it's some sort of holiday most mortals I know go home for it. Least that's what the other two seemed to be doing. Don't you have one?"

Scootaloo lowered her head and pawed at the ground in front of her, trying not to think much about it. She had a place to sleep, a private room, warm suppers; and kindly aid. But she didn't quite have that five letter word nailed down just yet. She curled up into a small ball, sighing to keep bad thoughts and memories away.

"It's a bit complicated. I just like to go out on this time of day. Mother Superior will just think I'm with the Apples or Rarity at the moment... I'll head back after the storm."

Destroyah didn't take any sympathetic hints, either by lack of notice or choosing not to. She just rolled her eyes a bit and shrugged. Melodrama was never something she liked.

"I asked a yes or no question, not your life problems."

She looked back out into the rain before a tiny voice spoke up again. The kaiju looked over to Scootaloo, who'd nudged herself a bit closer to Destroyah either by intent or on accident.

"S-Sorry about dragging you over to that cave. Sweetie Belle was so sure she saw Slendermane standing in front of it and when we thought we saw him in there we freaked out."

Destroyah sighed this time, replying in a much calmer tone. Despite the annoying memories, she couldn't feel much anger right now. Her voice was still very blank and emotionless, but came off more as disappointed advice than it did an annoyed growl as it normally was.

"Next time just don't be so quick to jump at shadows in the dark. You scare too easily."

Scootaloo perked up a bit, raising her ears and looking up at the kaiju convert.

"Y-Yeah I suppose. But you didn't seem scared at all."

Destroyah looked down at her.

"Wasn't."

"How though? You didn't seem hesitant or cautious at all. I mean, that place was so dark in spots, who knows what could live in there!"

Destroyah titled her head as she lifted her head up a bit more, crossing her forehooves in front of her. Even laying down her massive horn nearly scrapped the ceiling.

"For one, I easily could have killed probably anything that could be in that cavern with my bare hooves. And besides that, you assume far too much just because something is dark and hard to see. There are just as many threats that walk in the daylight as those who roam upon nightfall. Danger is real, no matter time of day or circumstance. Being afraid of possible danger however, is a choice."

Scootaloo rubbed her chin, thinking over the words to summarize the meaning.

"So, don't choose to let fear of what you can't see or perceive control you?"

"If you'd rather put it in such words, yes. Fear leads to panic, and nothing good ever came for those who panic."

"I see."

Destroyah and Scootaloo both looked outside the open front door, watching the rain drops drum against the world outside. The kaiju didn't know how much time had slipped by before a little yawn sounded off. A short time later, she felt something brush up against the side of her stomach. Grumbling near silently she craned her next to the side to see the Scootaloo, dozed off and leaning against her flank after apparently rolling to her side a bit. A tiny smile was on her little face, sleeping contently against a warm tummy.

Destroyah didn't respond to it much at all. In truth, her annoyance at the fillies gave her half the mind to grab and toss the runt away, preferably through the wall. But her mood was against the thought. A small tightness in her ribcage bound away any insistence to shove Scootaloo away as much as she fancied the thought. After some thought and grumbling to herself, Destroyah resigned that she just must have just been too bored to bother. The runt was no threat after all.

Electing to ignore the odd flickers of emotion and the urge to maim, Destroyah laid her head down. The activities of the day had taken some toll and she could use a power nap. The gentle pressure against her stomach grew slightly as Scootaloo rolled in closer in her sleep. The kaiju still didn't bother with shoving her away as her own eyes began to close.

-You're lucky I'm not in a bad mood kid...-

========

Ponyville

Anguirus walked down along several shops, not minding the rain much at all despite its chill. The cold rain had worked wonders for his plans. Though confident Rarity’s handiwork on him would disguise him well enough, the downpour had helped ease his conscious somewhat by driving most of the town goers inside. Still, he was regretting not taking the unicorn up on the offer of an umbrella. Back home he’d moved through everything from sleet filled glacier fields at the South Pole to magma chambers kilometers beneath the surface. Temperature extremes, especially heat, never bothered him much. Least they used too. While he shrugged it off, he couldn’t lie and say this storm wasn’t uncomfortable right now with what was rapidly becoming water logged hair. The earth pony grumbled, mumbling a small curse to himself for being so bull headed. He spied an awning hanging over a building front up ahead, trudging over to it and getting under its cover. All the building’s lights looked like they were out so there thankfully wasn’t likely not a soul inside.

Anguirus plopped down in front of the door and tried to wring himself out best he could without spoiling Rarity’s efforts from earlier. It was taking awhile but something stopped him right in the middle of it. The kaiju convert felt a presence behind him, his suspicions being confirmed by a feminine voice talking about a meter behind him.

“Do you intend to sit under there all through the storm or do you plan on coming inside?”

Anguirus whirled around and saw the speaking pony, or least he thought it was a pony, standing cock eyed through a half open door. When he got a good look at the speaker he was almost questioning if he was looking at another transformed. The tea green fur was natural enough looking, given the color palettes he’d seen so far, but the ivory colored scales on the nasal bridge and chest stuck out like a sore thumb. And while he had so far seen equines with bird wings and spiraling horns, he hadn’t met one with antlers before. She looked almost more like an antelope or deer than a horse. The assumed store owner titled her head and snapped Anguirus out of confusion and back to attention.

“Well are you coming in or leaving?”

Brushing his theories about it somehow being another kaiju convert aside, Anguirus shrugged and tried to act natural. If this was her property she’d probably grow suspicious from him sitting down on her front door step for awhile. And despite Rarity’s words of assurance, he didn’t want to risk drawing attention any more than he had to. He should get going.

“Sorry, I was trying to pass the storm by. Didn’t mean to cause a bother.”

He turned to leave when he felt a tug on his shoulder. Stopping just short of sticking his head in the rain, he looked back to see a cloven hoof pulling him back slightly. The store owner looked at him with an honest smile.

“No bother at all. Please do come in and dry yourself off some. This time of year brings the cold gales upon us sometimes. Some ponies can get chilled to the bone in rain like this.”

Anguirus looked back at the odd creature. He really should leave, just to be on the safe side. He should have departed. But, subconscious acted on kindness. Nodding, he followed the store owner inside.

Soon as he was indoors he realized two things. For one, the windows had their blinds partially down and appeared slightly tinted. Explained why everything looked dark earlier despite being fairly well lit on the inside. Secondly, his host was most definitely not anything he had seen in Equestria so far and certainly wasn't a normal mare. Besides the aforementioned fish-like scales, antelope styled antlers or horns, and cloven hooves; the green and ivory shop owner had a long tail like a cow or lion’s, ending in a dark green tuft. And to add to the oddity, her height was quite tall and easily was the tallest mare he'd seen short of the two elder alicorns as she seemed even a few centimeters taller than him. If he had to put a description on it, she looked like a vaguely reptilian cervid. Definitely mythological. He swore he’d seen something similar before but exactly where eluded him. The long haired host looked back at him with a raised eyebrow and a giggle, causing Anguirus to realize he was staring.

“What, take it you’ve never seen a kirin before?”

The word ‘kirin’ jogged his memory, flashing back to centuries past. Back when magic was plentiful on Terra and myths of old were true. He remembered now and was kicking himself for not realizing it earlier. Still, wasn’t exactly like he could outright say “No I haven’t seen one in 77,000 years.”, not without rousing more questions than he cared to answer. Rarity said he could blend in as a normal everyday Equestrian if he acted the part right, so a normal Equestrian is what he’d pretend to be. He could tell the truth, just maybe not the whole truth. Lying never was a strong suit of his anyways. He spied a menu laying nearby with the title of the shop written at the top, along with what he had to guess was the shop owner's name.

“Nnnot in awhile, no. Thank you for allowing me inside Miissss See-ooong?”

The kirin put a hoof to her chest and bowed her head a bit, causing her long tassels of hair to drape down. She was fighting the urge to giggle.

“The 'e' is silent, it's pronounced 'Song'. My name is Seong, Ki Seong.”

Trying to pry out some more information, Anguirus went on. If he was going to blend in he needed to try and figure out as much about this world as possible. If there was another race he needed to know about, so be it.

“Doesn’t sound much like an Equestrian name. You an immigrant?”

The question caused the Seong to snicker. She rolled her eyes jokingly.

“Well I don’t look very much like your average pony now do I? The ponies around here tend to call me ‘Tea Song’ as well. Probably the local custom of name matching the cutie marks along with some mispronunciation.”

Anguirus had to nod. He’d learned what the symbols on the hips meant and how they were acquired. Still, he couldn’t help but find it a tad eerie that many ponies’ birth names or nicknames matched their future marks before they even knew what the latter would be. He glanced at Ki’s hip and saw the image of a steaming cup atop of a leaf.

“I can see where they got the ‘tea’ part from.”

Seong walked over to behind a counter, rummaging through some things out of the kaiju’s sight.

“Well we all do have our talents, and I don’t mind the title. My restaurant is known for its cup brews after all. New home, new name I guess.”

Anguirus looked around at his surroundings. The restaurant was fairly small, having a few tables with assorted chairs, and a single built into the wall surrounded by several cushions, door leading to what he presumed was a kitchen in the back; and a counter beside said door that reeked of sea weed, rice, and kelp. The building’s constitution was completely different from anything in this new world he’d seen so far, having a lot of wooden beams with no coverings. Like the kirin it all seemed vaguely familiar.

“I take it then you are a foreigner then? Excuse me if I’m prodding, I just haven't seen a kirin around these parts before.”

“Oh no problem here. I haven’t had any customers since the rains kicked up, so any conversation is good company.”

She apparently noticed Anguirus’ fascination with the store’s architecture.

“Like it? I enjoy taking some of the motherland with me. I’m from Carrea.”

“Where’s that?”

“It’s a peninsula near Neighpon.”

-‘Neighpon’… Neppon… Japan! Alright so if it’s a peninsula with a name like that near Japan, must be Korea. So this world must have an equivalent to eastern Asia.-

Anguirus sat down on the booth next to the window. He decided to feint knowledge, hoping his memories of life back on Terra would help him keep up the act. Even if it was risky, it was better than looking like an idiot and risking something far worse.

“Oh, near Neighpon eh? Long way from home aren’t you?”

“One could say that. I guess I kept traveling until I found a place I enjoyed well enough. Crossing an ocean is no blockade to finding happiness.”

Seong came up from the counter, her antlers glimmering slightly with a yellow light before walking over to the table with a tray of something wrapped in a golden aura. Anguirus added the mental note of ‘can do magic like unicorn’ to his mental description of kirins. Seong sat herself down across from him, lowering the tray to show two still slightly steaming cups of tea next to a kettle. Realizing he was being offered something by a store owner, Anguirus reached from the small coin pouch Granny Smith had given him before a cervid hoof reached across the table and stopped him. Seong smiled warmly.

“No need, it’s on the house. Besides, I was going to have a cup myself and tea is best served when it’s shared.”

The stallion relented, shrugging and bowing his head a bit before taking his cup to sip. It had a very distinct taste, but the heat ignited his core and banished off any lingering cold. Seong took some sips herself before looking at her guest in an inquisitive façade Anguirus dreaded.

“If you pardon my turn for questions and answer, you don’t seem to be from these parts either. Haven’t seen a face like your’s in Ponyville before.”

Anguirus had to bite down on his tongue to keep his eyes from widening a bit. He was a nervous wreck, and he didn't know why.

-**** **** **** **** **** ****! Make something up!-

“Yeeeaah, one could say I’m a bit of a traveler as well. Just came into town.”

“Oh? Where from? Judging from your dense build I’d guess you’re from a more rugged country. You from the frontier?”

Finally a spot in this newfangled world he knew about. Anguirus made the mental note to thank Rodan when he got back or otherwise he’d have no clue what the southern lands were like at all.

“YYYeeeeessss, down south a good distance. I never came into towns or cities much.”

“Do you have a name then or are you like that Eastwood character and have none? Apologies ahead of time, but I like to address my guests properly.”

-*************************************!!!!!!!-

Anguirus hid his panic well. If he just established he was from Equestria, having a name that translated to ‘New Hope’ in a centuries extinct language was a no sell. He fanned his tail, causing some of his quills to rattle against the seating. His eyebrows perked up, getting an idea after recalling Equestria’s uncanny ability to match names to traits.

"My name iiiiisss... Quill Coat!"

Ki Seong smiled, peeking over the seat and noticing the name sake.

“Pleasure to meet you Quill, I can see the fit.”

She looked back up at him, smirking.

“Though it’s a good thing I pulled you in when I did. Not sure what Nightmare Night costume you have on, but rain might have ruined it. The tail spikes and fangs are very convincing.”

-***- oh screw it I don’t even feel like cussing anymore. Just go with the idea!-

Anguirus kept his mood stable, shrugging.

“Guess I enjoyed the fit enough.”

Seong smiled, holding up her cup in a small toast. After some awkwardness to recognize the gesture, Anguirus opted to copy it.

“Well, original or different can be good. Here’s to today and new acquaintances~”

==============================

Sweet Apple Acres, Fruit Bat Reserve

The rain began to lessen to a mild drizzle as the forest slowly came back to life. Still, in the darkened corner of the woods, something unnatural stirred outside of a cave. It staggered out of its hollow, assured its attackers were gone. Rain drops fell down across a blank, pale face as its tall form stretched out. Slendermane's eyeless face looked out into the forest around itself to assure that the demon was indeed alone. The slit legged monster grabbed at its head as greenish fire raced across its form. Towering height shrank rapidly as the magical aura vanished. A clean suit and pale skin turning into hard, black chitin forged exoskeleton. The changeling grimaced and cringed painfully as it pawed at the blasted stump that had once been its horn before a burst of micro-oxygen evaporated it.

-Thought the monster pick be good for Nightmare Night! What in the realms of Tartarus was that thing?!-

The changeling stumbled off into the forest and away from the orchards. After some effort to fight through the downpour, it managed to buzz its wings enough to fly away. It had a lot of ground to cover, but the Queen had to be informed!

===========

FAN WORKS!

You all never cease to amaze me and touch my heart with your endeavors

Xain-Russel once again proving himself a master of his craft, both for the expect and completely unexpected!
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Please do check out the Reading List by Lance Omikron to navigate the Amalgam Universe most clearly :raritywink:

Mayozilla proving attacking the fanbase's waifu is a very bad idea! This is gonna be goooood...
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Pyrus-Leonidas, Man GOD DAMN! If I put every piece in here I'd double the chapter size. So I'm gonna throw this gallery link down and tell everyone to get over there.
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CLICK ME

Icelance669 says it's time to DU-DU-DU! DU-DU-DU-DUEL!

CLICK ME!

IceStormy, AnAppleforgotten, and Fluttersquee6 giving the shippers fuel for the fire with a Lunilla child.

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Genesis2014 exploring some romantic angles in his first story on FimFiction!
Junior's Secret

BlazingPhoenix17 brings us a new chapter update for the Bridge spinoff taking place across the barrier!
Humanity's Stand Chapter 2
Humanity's Stand Chapter 3

Author's Note

Figured we could use a slower chapter with some build up for later after the roller coaster that was Chapter 15.

Proofreading by Skylark and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by Faith-Wolff

Destroyah, Monster X, Anguirus, and ?????; as well as related roster property of Toho Studios
Gyaos property of Daiei
MLP:FiM property of Hasbro Studios
Ki Seong owned by Me

KAIJU'VERSE TIMELINE
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/345509/the-bridge-kaiju-amalgam-universe-timeline

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Blade Dancer comes face to face with something she never expected in the midst of confliction, and some odd happenings in both of Equestria's capital cities

PS: Here's the Seong reference on DA if anyone missed it
http://faith-wolff.deviantart.com/art/Ki-Seong-Tea-Song-the-Kirin-488887872

Holiday Special Part 2

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 18: Enemy

Xenilla
Blade Dancer
Princess Cadance

=====================

Crystal Empire Library

It was mid-afternoon, with a few hours until closing time in the Imperial Library. Not that its strangest occupant really minded. He just wanted his company to wake up soon, lest he have to carry her out. Xenilla studiously flipped through the pages of some study materials Key Ring had recommended him after they’d finished their short session. The unicorn might still be an option to aid Xenilla from time to time, but these would definitely speed the process up. The more he knew of this Equestrian magic, the more he might know to find a way to use it and get him and the others back home. It was fortunate that he came through the barrier as a spell casting species. From what he could tell, all of the major races, equine or otherwise, had some magical abilities of numeral varieties. Still, having a horn to channel said magic through made matters much easier, even if he couldn’t do some of the skills the other species had.

Then again rapid plant growth and somehow physically pushing clouds weren’t likely to help his cause.

Reading through a tome’s page and memorizing it word for word, Xenilla closed his eyes and concentrated on performing a telekinesis spell. True, he could pull that skill off since the day he was born with his innate psychic abilities, but practicing magic through his horn and not where his shoulder pylons used to be was necessary. After some trial and error, namely grasping the book's pages with magic and NOT hurling it across the library on accident, he finally managed to turn the pages of his book with his horn’s power.

-One spell down, several dozen to go…-

His company however was incredibly dull. Mostly because the guardsmare was still out cold on the cushion he’d set her on after keeling over. Shame, after finding out that she knew of his brother and reeked of him; Xenilla was looking forward to some entertainment with this one.

His wishes were answered when a slow groan called out to his side. Xenilla flicked his ears, turning his head in time to see the red maned guard starting to pick herself from her bedding, still obviously groggy. He closed his book and shifted to face her.

“Wondered when you’d wake up.”

Blade Dancer’s world had been a foggy, spinning mess when she first opened her dazed eyes. Upon hearing a familiar sounding voice, her attention snapped to and her eyes focused. Once she looked over at the being addressing her, she had to keep herself from being startled. Or, least not be startled after she jolted her head back to keep their muzzles from being less than an inch apart. Xenilla had a poor sense of personal space, but that wasn’t her biggest concern. Memories came rushing back to her as her eyes widened. She remembered all she’d seen at Canterlot, a pony who wasn’t a pony. She also recalled the words last heard before blacking out. In the past week she met a titan masquerading as a stallion, and her audience was its sibling.

“Y-ou’re one of those m-m-mo-mon!”

Xenilla had expected an amusing response when she woke up. But this babbling the guardsmare did as she braced up against the bookshelf behind her, it was just confusing. Poor thing couldn’t even get her sentence out. Now he was just getting annoyed. Xenilla rolled his eyes, shrugging.

“One of thooooose? What? Come on now, speak up if you want to be heard.”

Blade Dancer spoke up alright, her eyes narrowed in determination as her pupils and irises were contracted with shock. Her wings shot out beside her, the instinctual response to look bigger towards a possible threat kicking in.

“MONSTERS!”

Blade Dancer stood there, breathing harshly but otherwise motionless. Xenilla had leaned his head back and away at the outburst, cocking an eyebrow. It was less in response to what she was shouting, and more surprise that she had the gall to yell at him and not be a demigod of an alicorn. She had some nerve, he'd give her that. Still, wasn't to say her word wasn't accurate. Darker thoughts and memories he'd much rather deal without swirled in his head, ushering out a momentary trickle of mixed feelings before Xenilla stifled them.

-Monster? ....You have no idea...-

A moment of silence passed between the two. Blade Dancer's heart slowed down gradually and the shock wore off. Now she just realized she had just yelled at a complete stranger, kaiju or not. Mannerisms began to override fear ever so slightly. She tucked her wings back in.

"I-I'm sorry, I-"

She was cut off by a broad hoof being raised. Xenilla just rolled his eyes in mild annoyance.

"Sentimentalism is unnecessary. If you intend to apologize or revoke your words, don't. Tis an accurate description after all. As I am sure you saw with Icka'brod's handiwork."

Didn't stop her from lowering her neck a bit, her hair drooping.

"Still, was...kind of a kn-ee jerk reaction. Did come out a tad, harshly..."

She looked at the floor. Xenilla just smirked.

-Awww, is this regret on my behalf? Cute...-

The kaiju lifted his hoof up and gently put it to the mare's chin, tilting her head back up. Now that botched first reactions were out of the way, he wanted to know what title he needed to remember his audience under.

"Think nothing of it, miiiissss...?"

The pegasus tensed up a bit at the physical contact, taking a bit to relax her muscles some and get used to it. Though their mannerisms were completely different, this newcomer and a certain unicorn back in Canterlot had one thing in common. Not much of a concept of personal space. When she looked forward, the stallion's curious face was only a few inches above and away from her own. Unconsciously her cheeks felt a tad warm, the similarities between the stallions not helping.

"B-Blade Dancer."

Xenilla chuckled, pulling away from her and moving back to his books.

"Charmed. Back home I am called 'Xenilla'. Eldest son of Godzilla Senior and older brother to Godzilla Junior.... Or, I am the 'ambassador' from Terra if you follow the cover story the Empress cooked up to avoid a panic. Wise move in hindsight given what happened at Canterlot."

"Empress?"

Xenilla turned his head back to her with a clear look of annoyance on his face.

"The day I call this empire's leader 'Princess' is the day I personally dye my skin magenta and celebrate the winter solstice in August."

"But.. you can't-"

Xenilla's expression drooped and blanked out.

"Exactly."

The snarking, dry humor, even from the type of source she knew it was, couldn't help but earn a slight snicker from Miss Dancer. She came to the Empire to visit an exotic place and get away from a certain reptilian kaiju. Now she was stuck with another one. The pegasus could think of dozens of ways she had hoped this trip could turn out better. But while she didn't like being around this newcomer, some mental images and memories of Godzilla refusing to leave her head; she could think up hundreds of ways it could be worse. Besides, she had a duty to her princesses to perform. She'd been the bodyguard to a pervert before, this couldn't be as bad.

And who was to say there wasn't an opportunity here? Running away would just be avoiding the issue entirely and hoping it blew over. This kaiju, this Xenilla, he might look a lot like and be family to Junior... But at the end of the hour it wasn't him. Maybe some exposure in a manner like this could help out in some way?

Blade Dancer took in a deep breath, exhaling slowly to banish away some tension.

-If I can stop being so mixed up here, I can do it anywhere...-

"Well then, 'Ambassador', I've been assigned to be your escort and bodyguard."

"So you've been put up by the Royal Consort to be my new babysitter eh? Well then I hope you like libraries guardsmare, I have a lot of research to do."

Xenilla plopped down at his previous spot, levitating up an aged tome before flipping through the pages. He didn't bother to look up before striking up the topic he was really curious about.

"So if you could inform me, how is it you got my brother's scent on you? Don't tell me he's trying to go native now and closely fraternizing with you lot."

Blade Dancer's head was filled with awkward embarrassment and mental swearing. She shifted a bit in her seat.

"Um.... reeeverse that... He got put in the guard program back in Canterlot aaand... I, might have tried to get a bit friendly with him..."

Xenilla glanced up from his book. His grasp of romantic metaphor was better than his sibling's, but it still wasn't quite grasped.

"Come again?"

The pegasus mare felt a lump swallow itself down her throat. She tried to hold firm, and failed. Bladey was many things. She was a talented dancer, an experienced martial artist, heart throb of numerous stallions and mares; and BSBFF to both of her siblings. She was not however one who could hold her secrets well when put under some pressure. Soon she was doing something between babbling and trying to mumble.

"Tried to be friendly to him! Y'know, t-talking and stuff. Being nice. Not treating him like a prisoner when he technically was one at the time. He was tall, dark, and handsome; he seemed nice! That's all..."

She crossed her forelimbs and looked away, trying to shut her jaw. Xenilla was going over her words in his head, slowly figuring out what on earth the pegasus was talking about.

-'Handsome'?...Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaait a minute, she wasn't trying to...-

He looked at her with a tilted head and cocked eyebrow. Even with her trying to hide it, it was easy to see that Miss Dancer's face and snout was now roughly the same color as her mane. Curiously though, right when she spilled her words and began blushing, the pegasus' wings shot back out. But not in the threatening gesture like before, this time they were just literally sticking straight up out of her back. It all was enough to draw a conclusion.

-GOOD TANAKA ALMIGHTY SHE WAS! AHAHAHAHAHAHHA-

Holding in his internal uproar of laughter, Xenilla kept his voice calm and mellow.

"Your cheeks and snout are flushing... and your wings are sticking straight up. You were trying to court him weren't you?"

Blade Dancer let out an exasperated sigh, relenting.

-God damn body reactions-

"Fiiiine...Yes, I was attracted to him....at least back when he was some nice looking and kindly stranger and not....that..."

Xenilla shrugged, averting his eyes back to his book.

"Well after seeing his true self, it must have been jarring."

Blade Dancer sighed, her wings drooping back into place as she laid down. Her expression was mellowing and saddening slightly.

"Guess I was chasing something I didn't know about... Not like he was exactly the receptive type. Kinda like flirting with a brick wall actually, but I just assumed he was shy."

"Wouldn't cast any blame upon yourself. I've watched him for years, truth be told you're probably the first one to ever attempt to court him. Chances stand that he probably had no idea what you were doing.”

Xenilla turned his page, still not looking up or altering his analytical, flat tone. He didn't need to look her over much to read the mare's body language. Subtlety told him enough.

"And allow me to guess. You saw his true form, probably up close and half covered in gyaos guts; and now you are terrified of him?"

Blade Dancer bit her lip, slowly molding her response after much thought. She could think back to that night, to the walking thunder. She also thought back to the sleeping, hurt form she found in Princess Luna's bed. Her mind was mixed.

"Not really, terrified.. well, maybe a bit but, I guess mostly just confused. I wasn't sure what to think. Not like we exactly had a precedent for cases like that before..."

"So you travel abroad to try and get away from him, if only to clear your head. And yet the empress sends you to keep an eye on me?"

Blade Dancer giggled nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

"Weeeelll, not like I really said anything to her, she didn't know why I came here. Can't say I was really... expecting this."

Xenilla glanced up from his reading, his facial expression blank and unreadable.

"And does my presence cause you distress?"

Blade Dancer wasn't quite sure how to answer him at first. True, part of her mind was still screaming to get away from the kaiju, and fast. However, that part was ebbing away bit by bit like the tide. Exposure calms fears, and she had resigned herself to stay. She'd just have to get used to this 'Not-Junior' overtime. The pegasus managed to crack a small smile.

"No, I'll be fine. Don't worry with me."

She got up and stretched out her legs as Xenilla went back to his reading. She attempted to go about what she presumed she was assigned to do. Getting out of her seat she strode up and down the immediate surrounding aisle Xenilla had parked himself between, patrolling the perimeter. She managed to walk a few laps before she felt an invisible force coil itself gently around her. Before she could react, she was picked up and levitated over towards the massive stallion; who was still half buried in a book.

"Miss Dancer."

Xenilla released his psychic hold, easing her down onto the floor across from him.

"What are you doing?"

The pegasus was never going to get used to being carried around like that, shivering.

"Guarding. I'm supposed to patrol the immediate area to make sure there is no danger."

"A nice thought, but distracting and a waste of time. Do me a favor and be productive."

Before she could retort about her duty, Xenilla turned his page and pointed a hoof to a nearby shelf. Blade Dancer took a moment to try and theorize what he was implying.

"Um.. What are you trying to say?"

"I want you to read something."

Blade Dancer eyed the book shelf, looking over some of the archaic titles.

"Are you wanting me to help in your research?"

"No need, I have photographic memory. I'd like you to read something to distract your mind and calm down. Drop the guard act for a while and relax."

His tone shifted to one of sarcasm as he smirked, pride evident in his voice.

"You worrying for my safety, as adorable as it is, is unnecessary and distracting. As it stands I'm probably one of the single most powerful beings in this entire empire, there is no common threat that could possibly hurt me."

The kaiju's thoughts briefly shifted back to the night of his arrival. He'd seen and sensed a great many things in the empire. However, it was what he sensed but didn't understand that had his concern. Something was roaming the city, something of malefic power. He sensed it then, and he sensed it several times since then. It, whatever it was, could be a threat to him.

Blade Dancer, oblivious to the kaiju's inner thoughts, took the suggestion. After combing through the titles briefly, she recognized one with a smile and started reading.

Some hours passed between the two. Outside of an occasional banter, the time spent was in near silence. It was the arrival of Librarian Amethyst Maresbury that brought about the change. Adjusting her glasses, the kindly old mare tapped her hoof on the ground to get their attention.

“Closing time kids, you’re the last ones still roaming about.”

It was only now both Xenilla and Blade Dancer noticed the massive library was now completely barren aside from themselves. A quick glance at a nearby clock confirmed how much time had flown. Xenilla picked himself up before his horn and shoulder patch glimmered, a mix of magical and psychic telekinesis levitating his piles of books back onto the shelves before dropping a good half dozen into his saddlebags. Blade Dancer followed suit, slipping back on her helmet before packing away a novel into her pouch. The duo silently proceeded out of the library and down a long stretch of back roads to start a lengthy walk back to the castle.

They’d been walking for about a minute when Xenilla, noticing the top of the book poking out of Blade Dancer’s bag; broke the silence.

“Fiction or nonfiction?”

“Hm? Fiction.”

“About?”

A small smile crossed the mare’s face, fond memories of nostalgia for this tale coming forth. Was always a favorite of hers during her youth, and little had changed even if she’d found an older version.

“A bewitched couple with a curse. At day the stallion turns into an owl, and at night the mare turns into a wolf. So they can only see each other at dusk and dawn.”

Xenilla could only roll his eyes in mild annoyance. He only heard two lines and even he could tell where this was going. His tone was as snide as it was rude.

"Another love centric story… pfft…”

Blade Dancer caught the offense, shooting the kaiju a firm glare without even thinking about what was walking next to her.

“Well excuse you! You were the one who asked me the question, I was just giving an answer. It’s a good story.”

Xenilla’s response was, less than she expected to be honest.

“Oh I’m sure it is. The author is probably quite competent and the plot decent enough for it to be of such importance to you. Not the story or genre that I find ill.”

The pegasus mare was about to retort, but was too busy lifting an eyebrow. She couldn’t quite tell if he was insulting or complimenting the story.

“Um… what?”

“I just find some folks’ obsessions with love disturbing.”

=======================

The marketplace, the main hub of commerce for the imperial capital; was filled to the brim with attendees. Many were mingling and shopping, exchanging conversation as much as they were material goods. It was a pleasant afternoon in the empire, one that grew brighter when a small trumpeting sounded off.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza strode through the market alongside her husband Prince Shining Armor, with Flash Sentry leading a small group of guards behind them. Aside from her small crown, barely larger than a tiara, she had none of her regalia on. The crystal princess's look was passive with her mane in its casual, draping look as opposed to anything near extravagant.

Casual look for a casual appearance. Cadance enjoyed getting out of the palace frequently to mingle with the citizens. Life in a crystal tower was hardly anything an orphan raised in a small forest town was used to. And going out, seeing and talking with the city goers actually helped teach her how to rule. A useful learning tool given she originally went to the Crystal Empire to help protect it, not be made its leader. Talking with the citizens taught her their issues, what could be done to help; and reinforced that she was a personable ruler. That she was, above all else, one of them.

Her surprise visits always brought joy to the empire, something the young alicorn was very much trying to achieve. Word had spread fast from Canterlot. Within the arrival of the first train from her aunts' city, all of the empire knew of ravenous hordes and walking thunder. Whilst they would most certainly not be ignorant to the danger, the masses needed some good things to enjoy to avoid any panic. Needless to say however, the knowledge of how a kaiju transformed was the only reason Cadance herself didn't have a panic attack upon seeing the photos from Canterlot. She disliked Xenilla enough before she began to grasp that he was probably taller than the imperial stadium.

-Focus Cadance, he can't change unless someone intentionally revs him up and hasn't acted out yet. Just keep your attention on the populace, and everything will be fine... There is nothing here that will want to hurt you-

A good distance away however, one would find the princess's thoughts were very untrue. Cloaking in the shadow of an alleyway that oversaw the clearing below, red and green eyes glared at the alicorn with sinister intentions.

=======================

“Any sentient being with the power of reason will inevitably commit both good and evil deeds. However at their core, all decisions are based on two conflicting forces, love and hatred. The latter is the malefic flame, consuming all in its path. If you commit your decisions due to a hatred of something, you’ll soon find yourself hating everything around it.”

=======================

King Sombra snarled like an enraged beast, watching the alicorn from afar. The ancient tyrant couldn't even begin to list all of the factors leading to his growing malice. The fact the pink ascendant looked so much like her predecessor, the fact she was daring to touch HIS slaves, or the fact said slaves were lollygagging with a sickening amount of glee and not doing anything he deemed productive. A work force who did not work to his ideal was useless. Hatred spread from alicorn to pony as Cadance picked up a happily squealing colt out of a wheelchair, laughing as she gave him a nuzzle. King Sombra felt disgusted. Once he reclaimed his prize, the useless would have no place in his empire.

=======================

“But, if you think of love and hatred as the causes of actions; they can’t be equal. Call me sentimental but love always can overpower hatred.”

Xenilla was not phased in the slightest. Why should he be? He agreed after all.

“Very true, in fact I’d say love itself is easily one of the most powerful forces in the world. A fighter whom hates everything in front of them is no match for an equally equipped foe who loves everything behind them.”

Blade Dancer raised an eyebrow, clearly confused as to what in Equestria the kaiju was getting at. His words seemed to agree with her, but his tone was argumentative and snide as ever. He clearly showed distain for the subject matter, but why then was he speaking so highly of it? His next sentence was the beginning to the answer.

“That is exactly why love is so incredibly dangerous. It forces away all else to make room for itself and only lives to control actions in order to multiply itself.”

=======================

In the shadows of the alleyway, his curved horn flicked with a green and purple glimmer. An invisible cloud of malefic energy flowed out of King Sombra and into the crystalline ground. It slithered through the smooth surfaces, trickling down into the crowd below like a waterfall.

Just as it was about to reach the crowd however, the hateful tide was halted in its tracks. Something was blocking it. His fear inducing wave was being repulsed by something, and King Sombra quickly figured out what. It was Cadance and the entire crowd. The aura of benign magic surrounding them like a shield was keeping his influence at bay, even if they weren't aware of their own defense. The only thing that could defeat a negative emotion was a positive one, and this group had no shortage of it.

King Sombra glared at the alicorn as he called off his attempted attack. In his state and in the open like this, he couldn't risk a full on attack as much as he wished it. His assassination plot would have to proceed. He'd just wait until the alicorn was alone without any bystanders to aid her.

King Sombra slipped back into the shadows, leaving only a patch of black crystal in his wake. He'd fall back to the catacombs, his realm, and formulate his plan. A shame that the mare would have to go, she'd probably give him a decent heir as a concubine.

=================

“You and everyone else I know talk and think of love as this pleasant little warmth, bringing joy when it is fostered by those around you. I on the other hand, can scarcely think of any other force that has driven so many to die, act, or kill for it than love. I spent many years watching Terra. Love exerts far more control and has achieved far larger ramifications than hatred or fear could ever hope to achieve.”

Xenilla ignored Blade Dancer’s growing frown and continued his filibuster.

“This is why I respect the Empress' power. From what I can tell she's something akin to love's avatar in this world of your's. And if one loves something enough, they will bend over backwards and beyond to do its will. And because all actions are born by love, hatred, or some combination of the two; it controls everything and is in everyone. So for instance, say I killed Empress Cadenza."

Blade Dancer’s wings shot out at the words, almost thinking about going for her holstered wing blades before Xenilla quickly corrected himself.

“Relax! Relax, only hypothetically. I would never do that in the state I'm in, and I’ll tell you why. It is because I'm not stupid and understand the choke hold love can have. She is loved by the multitudes. She is loved, and thus that love exerts control over all those who adore her. Doesn't matter if the control is something she herself wills or not mind you. It's a contract that love itself holds. If she was removed from the action, if she died; that control is driven to the forefront. All those who loved her, be it her consort, the citizenry, her family, etc; would be controlled by their love to seek revenge. And revenge, the act of avenging something of value that was lost; is an act driven chiefly by love itself. Because you had to have given love to something to be angered at its loss.”

The pegasus moved away from her wing blades, but the grim turn the conversation was taking was quickly causing her mood to droop.

“You make it sound like love is some sentient force.”

“In a way, because it drives the actions of all sentient beings in some form or another; it is.”

“All actions? How?”

“You put your mane a certain way because you love the way it looks, or love the admiration of someone who loves it that way. You avoid stepping in a puddle because you love feeling warm and not cold-”

The stallion glanced over to her, recalling the information he’d learned in the library.

“You attempted to court my brother because you either loved his characteristics or presence. Your romance novels make this stubborn emotion out to be some beautiful, small catalyst of a bond between two beings. I see only a self serving puppeteer pulling the strings the way he likes it. Far as I see it, love only exists to grow itself by forcing the actions of others. And when the puppeteer doesn’t get what he likes, cue the bloodshed. All of the most horrific bouts of revenge were spurred by love or the craving of it.”

Xenilla chuckled lightly with a small smile, rolling his eyes.

“It’s almost humorous; those novels see a potential firestorm and treat it like a candle. Something that starts wars is hardly anything I'd consider pleasant. Love puts its hold on someone far more than any emotion or chemical drug ever could. Sometimes I wonder what some souls are addicted to more. Each other or the emotional high they get.”

Blade Dancer’s eyes practically ignited at the last suggestion. She didn’t go for her blades, she didn’t take to the air, she didn’t even rush in front of Xenilla to halt him. Instead she cocked a hoof back and punched him square in the face. True, it felt like she just hit a brick wall and the opposite force stung her arm; but it didn’t matter at all. The fact Xenilla actually felt it and stumbled slightly in response is what mattered. He froze in place, half tempted to strike back for the sudden insolence as the left side of his face stung from healing over a bruise.

Before he could entertain much of the thought over, Blade Dancer lurched forward, putting a hoof to his chest as she reared up to glare at him at eye level.

“Listen.Up. I am NO ADDICT. Hell with it all, I might have been with more than my fair share of stallions and mares over the years; but I loved every last one of THEM. The feeling was nice, but the fact it was being shared is what made it beautiful. The love for them never controlled me, it just guided me along! Sure some folks have done horrible things before with revenge, but what about all the good around to balance it? If you say and think love is so powerful, then wouldn’t those who have had it in the way I have only been made stronger by it? So what if someponies would seek revenge if Princess Cadance died? She or some emotion she evoked didn’t force them to feel that way about her. If they loved her so much, then it only proves she did something wonderful for them to earn it. I don't know what rock you crawled out under, because I don't think I've ever heard something so wrong!"

Xenilla stopped, returning the glare. The mare had a lot of nerve, daring to strike and back talk him. She was courageous and bold, he'd give her that much. Flickers of rage built up inside him and threatened to spew forth from his maw as a beam of burning heat. There was easily a thousand different ways he could terminate such insolence right now...

His anger cooled as his face returned to a neutral pose.

-But that's the way of a brute-

"Perhaps, or maybe I'm just ahead of the curve enough to realize it."

Blade Dancer's own glare evaporated, though she still was visibly angered. As much as she hated every last one of the kaiju's words, she had been listening. And from what she remembered, she'd noticed a hole in his 'perfect' logic.

"Or perhaps your orange and blue centered morality is so far behind the curve you don't realize it... Look, you said all sentient beings experience and make decisions based on love right? Is that true to you?"

"Inevitably. I don't lie."

"Then tell me this buster..."

She leaned up, prodding him in the torso with the edge of her hoof. Her facial expression was as determined as it was unafraid.

"How can you act so above it all? If you can think and act, then by your own theory that means YOU have love or loved something."

"...."

There was an eerie silence as the despised thought swirled through Xenilla's mind.

"I am a slave to no emotion... I have never felt a single romantic feeling in my life and never intend to..."

With that he turned his head from her and walked ahead down the empty road. It took a moment for Blade Dancer to process his closing statement. For a split second, something about the kaiju's tone had changed. It didn't grow angered or mellow, but she couldn't quite place exactly what it was she heard in his voice. Still, two realizations dawned on her as she followed along, heading back towards the castle.

For one how lucky she was that her little 'act before thinking' stunt involving a punch to the face hadn't resulted in retaliation. That first bit of information nearly gave her a heart attack, her pulse pounding in her ears. But combat nerves and the second observation slowed the beating. Blade Dancer followed the kaiju she was 'guarding', a small smile crossed her face.

-When I retorted, he never said 'no'...-

She caught up to him. Xenilla ignoring her presence only confirmed the pegasus' suspicion. She'd called him out, and won the argument.

-High and mighty as you act; even if not romantic, you're just as much a slave as all of us-

They'd walked together in silence for some time, slowly pacing towards the distant castle. Nearly half an hour had passed before Xenilla stopped suddenly and put a hoof out to his side to halt Blade Dancer. The latter party could only look around in a confused manner, trailing the kaiju's line of sight to nothing but an empty street ahead.

"... What is it?"

"Something's not right..."

Blade Dancer raised an eyebrow. She looked around but nothing at all seemed out of the ordinary. A small glimmer out of the corner of her eye grabbed her attention. Looking down, she could just barely make out faint, thin lines of red light traveling out of Xenilla's hooves and along the edges of the crystalline street. The straight lines traveled along the gemstone's angles, fanning out to all the nearby buildings in a wave. The pegasus was suspicious, having seen nothing like it before.

"What are you doing?"

"Sensing. Following a hunch."

The tiny streams of energy slithered through the entire crystalline street, crawling over every wall, door, and roof. After some time, the wave of energy dissipated. Or at least, most of it did. Though it was incredibly hard to see, Blade Dancer spotted another stream of tiny lights, this time purple in color. The needles of energy crept back towards Xenilla, disappearing under his hoof. The kaiju's eyes snapped over and he took off in the direction they came, diving into an alleyway.

"?!?"

The guardsmare quickly followed, the massive stallion not being hard to keep track of despite his pace. By the time she caught up to him, Xenilla had stopped at the edge of an isolated alley. The place he stood was elevated, the main market visible down below. But it wasn't the crowds below that had the kaiju's attention. His eyes were trained on the small patch of black gemstone growing out of the ground.

Xenilla didn't turn around, only changing his gaze to the unknowing crowds going about their business down below. He saw a flicker of pink the masses followed before it exited the street. He saw a long horn and wings.

"The empress, she was holding some sort of event here, yes?"

Blade Dancer looked over his shoulder, eyeing the crowds. She dimly remembered some event being listed on the schedule earlier for some of the other guards. Flash Sentry had been called upon for it. And if he, Cadance's personal guard, was going somewhere, she and Prince Shining Armor must have been out as well.

"Indeed, she likes to roam about and help the citizens. Looks like we just missed her."

Xenilla looked out at the crowd, before going back to the black crystals. The kaiju shrugged as his eyes narrowed, sensing the energy given off by the gemstone. Far from the benign radiance he felt coming off the gemstones near the empress or her artifact, this one's aura was pure black. Hatred, anger, loathing, pride, arrogance; he could almost taste them all coming from the dark gems. He'd felt this presence before.

Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. Blade Dancer was looking at the dark crystal with her head tilted in confusion. Curious, she reached for it.

"What's with this?"

"!!!"

Xenilla quickly reacted, whipping around and putting his hoof on her chest, gently but firmly pushing her back. The pegasus looked the kaiju in the face as he looked at the crystal. His typical smug, self assured expression was gone. Instead, it was a near unreadable mixture of anger and concern.

"Don't...Touch it... It's not safe."

He moved away from her, strands of telekinesis wrapping around the top of the jagged crystal. The psychic energy yanked at the stone, snapping off a pencil sized tip. The dark fragment hovered over towards Xenilla, as strands of energy flowed into the floor below him. In moments, shards of white crystal grew forth and flew up from the ground at the fragment. Blade Dancer gasped as a cocoon of light crystal formed itself around the dark shard. After completely encasing the black gemstone, the cocoon hovered its way into Xenilla's saddlebags.

"Miss Dancer, give me a second opinion... If Empress Cadenza was in the clearing below, would you say this would be a good vantage point to see her?"

Despite having a lot of trouble brushing aside thoughts about the bizarre magic she'd just seen, Blade Dancer glanced down at the marketplace below. Indeed, if the princess had been in the center of town, this would be a good spot to see the alicorn.

"Yes, I'd say so... Why?"

"Because the tall shadows from the buildings and elevation would make it easy to see, but not be seen..."

"Why would that matter-"

Blade Dancer was cut off by a brief flare of red light. She jumped back, yelping and looked at the source, spotting Xenilla spewing out a ray of twisting energy at the crystal for a split second. He closed his maw, a similar glow dissipating from his mane. Blade Dancer had seen an attack like that before, and the result seemed equally deadly. The blasted crystal had been utterly destroyed, vaporized beyond recognition and leaving behind nothing but scorched earth for several feet.

Xenilla snorted, red smoke briefly trickling out of his maw for a few moments. He turned away from the charred and melted ground, walking past the shocked guardsmare and pausing briefly without looking back. His tone was devoid of anger, but just as commanding as Captain Frost ever could be.

"Under no circumstances are you to speak of what you saw here. You saw nothing..."

Xenilla resumed his march back to the distant castle, his eyes narrowed.

"Let us return to our lodgings... We'll have an early morning trip to the library tomorrow..."

After snapping out of her shock, Blade Dancer turned and ran after the kaiju. She had a thousand questions on her mind, ones she was going to demand answers to. The unicorn was up to something, she knew it. She didn't see the sneer forming on Xenilla's typically calm face.

-Looks like I'm going to kill someone in this world after all...-

Far away from any ponies or kaiju, deep in the caverns below the crystal castle; a loud, angred hiss rang out. King Sombra snarled like a feral beast, smashing a hook down on the cavern's cold ground. He'd seen everything through his dark crystal. He saw the face and sensed the power he felt on the day of his return. He saw a pony with the might of a monster. He saw an obstacle between him and the princess. Hundreds of years ago, he lived by but one rule to maintain his reign.

Obstacles, be it the unicorns, the pegasi, that fool of a princess Amore, this newcomer; they had to be.... removed...

Little did Sombra know, but just as he observed his new rival; he himself was observed. And his watcher was something far darker and infinitely more monstrous than the fel-unicorn even imagine. The master of Zenith was watching the Empire with bemused eyes.

Author's Note

Proof Reading by Skylark and Faith-Wolff
Artwork (coming soon) by Faith-Wolff

Xenilla (Spacegodzilla) owned by Toho Company Ltd.
MLP:FiM owned by Hasbro Studios
Blade Dancer by Fiddlesticks

Next time on The Bridge!:
In a growing conflict with no heroes, between a tyrant king, and a city busting monster; the last place the Crystal Palace might want to be is in the middle...

Please do check out the Reading List by Lance Omikron to navigate the Amalgam Universe most clearly :raritywink:

Chapter 19: Returning a Favor

Xenilla
NotSpoilerIfYouRead (flashback only)
Melody Chime (flashback only)
Lead Choir (flashback only)
Key Ring
Blade Dancer
Princess Cadance
Shining Armor
Flash Sentry
King Sombra

================================================

23 years before present, Terran realm; Outside of Solar System

The black void, deep space. It was a quiet place, devoid of sound. But far from empty of essence. This system's star was dying, shrinking into a pin point of its once enormous span. Any of its remaining orbiting planets were sucked into the growing gravity well. But the vortex pulled something else in as well. Tumbling out of a small wormhole, an isolated fragment of crystal drifted through the void. Floating into the tip of the star's gravity field, the crystal just barely entered the range's fringes when the star's heart gave out.

The star had shrunk down to a speck, but upon its death throes, it came back in all its glory with a crash. The resulting, silent explosion was as brilliant as it was powerful. The remains of its child planets crumbled and shattered instantly before being engulfed by the super nova. What would be but a pin prick of light from Pluto was a blinding eclipse for hundreds of millions of kilometers. All matter within a million kilometers was blasted beyond recognition. The crystal however was far beyond that range. And the fragment of energy from the blast wave did far from destroy it. Something inside the crystal absorbed the energy like a siphon. Deep inside the crystal was a cluster of cells, torn off in a traumatic battle. After drinking in the soul of a deceased star, those cells came back to life and jumpstarted the regenerative prowess of their donor, albeit on an exaggerated scale.

Within moments, twelve cells became twenty four. Twenty four into forty eight. Ninety six, seven hundred sixty eight, four thousand; to the innumerable. The cells recited their genetic code like an oath. Twisting matter in the cold void, a massive skeleton was breathed to life. Muscle cells and tissue sprang up from the bone, forming a full system in a second's lifetime. The crystal that holstered the cells was split in two, growing alongside it before resting on the shoulders as twin spires. The host body grew around the crystal, altering to accommodate its form as the body rebuilt itself in divergence from its predecessor. Diamond hard scales emerged from the thick skin, coating the bare body from head to tail.

There was silence as the massive form drifted in the shattered void. And then, a heartbeat. Red and yellow eyes snapped open as a crystalline crown glowed. But as their conscious flickered awake; the windows to the outside world did not show the current space. Nor did they show the current time. What happened that day, in that dark corner of space, no one may fully understand. Maybe it was some leftover magic from the cell's carrier. Maybe it was an extension of the new soul's psychic abilities. Maybe it was just fate. One way or another, its eyes saw not the darkness of the void. They only saw ages past, and nightmares yet to come.

There was a planet, a small terrestrial world of blue oceans and green continents. The newborn being couldn't help but smile at the distant vision. The world looked so tiny, like he could hold it in his hands. It seemed so fragile, but he knew what it was. Terra, earth; home. It was his home.

And it would soon be in danger...

A flicker of red lit up from the orbital view, coming from an archipelago out at sea. The visions grew into a planet's view. Sights of peaceful oceans and calm days shifted to burning nights. Everything was on fire, everything was dying. Hell had come to earth, and all was being destroyed. A tall figure, dozens of meters tall stood in the blaze. Burning lights streamed from its maw as it towered over the murdering flames. He couldn't make out its features, beyond large spines and a long tail. It trampled any still living underfoot, scorching others with omnicidal flames from its maw. Everything turned to white.

The visions ceased, their owner floating alone in space's vacuum. His mind was a frantic mess, eyes still wide with shock and fear. It would come soon, the destroyer. And everything on Terra would die because of it. It would murder his planet, his home. Everything should fear the destroyer. It was inevitable to fear the unstoppable...

A clawed hand balled into a fist as a sneer slithered across a fanged maw.

-No... You don't scare me...-

The titan turned itself around in the dark void, shoulder crystals glimmering with raw power. He was rusty at first, but in time a cloak of psychic energy formed around his body to guide his flight. Rage broiled inside the core.

-You don't, you doooon't!-

Crystalline spikes lining a two hundred meter long spine flickered with red light before a crimson glow ignited across their surface. Enraged eyes glared at a floating fragment of a dead planet, before crimson coronal wrath spewed out of his maw in a silent roar. The fragment was completely obliterated from the oncoming energy beam, and the new life form cut off the torrent of energy.

He was shocked, feeling at his throat as he looked at the nothingness that had once been a chunk of a planet.

-...Did I just do that?!.....-

The titan calmed his heartbeat, refocusing himself at a passing small comet. Using the same method he used to right himself, the kaiju extended his hand and focused his mind at the comet. He grit his fangs, forcing the near invisible strands of energy out of his crystals, through his arm; and out his palm like a giant grasping hand. The comet ceased its movement, frozen in space like it was a ball caught in a catcher's mitten. Snarling, the kaiju spun around hurled the celestial body off on a new course like a fastball. The being watched the comet fly away into the darkness in silence, before the comet crashed into an asteroid. Both bodies were shattered into dust and debris, some of it harmlessly floating past the creature or bouncing off his skin. The kaiju looked down at his taught fist. Red strings of energy crackled across his body's surface. He grinned.

-So... this is my power?... Well then, if the beings on Terra are too feeble to stop the inevitable, perhaps I might have better success...-

The hybrid monstrosity turned kaiju looked to the wormhole that swirled behind it. The visions he'd seen showed him the way back home, having memorized all he'd seen previously. This wormhole was a shortcut there. He didn't know why he saw these visions, or when they'd come to pass. He didn't even know how long it would take him to fly home. All that mattered was he hurried to get there. The kaiju psychically flung himself forward and flew through the wormhole, cutting across hundreds of thousands of kilometers in the span of a few seconds. His long voyage home had just begun. Stars and planets blurred as they flew past him, while he crossed the cosmos. It was a beautiful sight to say the least.

It would take him several years to approach that terrestrial planet, the third from its sun; but his goal remained the same. He'd arrive on his home, and find this destroyer whenever it chose to crawl out of whatever hole it came from. And to defend his territory; he'd kill it. Before it could kill everything. Didn't matter how hard the fight was, how many minor lives were sacrificed in the crossfire; or how close he'd come to dying. Whatever it took to save his territory, his home. As he flew through an asteroid field, Xenilla sneered as he spotted a large, metallic object heading towards him. He knew harmful intent when he saw it, the beast of metal was trying to stop his advance. Then it was in his way....

-Whatever it takes...-

Xenilla's back spines crackled with energy as he fired his corona beam at the mecha called M.O.G.U.E.R.A.

============================================

23 before present, Equestrian Realm, near Hallow Shades

It was dark, and it was storming. Deep in the wilderness, a single light shown through the pouring rain. A cabin, owned by a young couple, stood on an isolated patch of a dirt road that weaved for a few miles before heading into town. Its aged lanterns dimly illuminated the outside forest as the storm raged on. Inside the living room, Melody Chime strummed her guitar and ran her hoof over the strings individually. The earth pony mare was the humble sort, having been a traveling musician during her younger days alongside her husband. Now, she was just wanting a quieter life in the back country with little excitement. Maybe even start a family? Success had been so far restricted to the latter wish.

She'd just finished her chord when a series of loud, forceful knocks, almost the level of banging; rang out from the front door. She instinctively looked over through her window, but found the outside lantern had either burned out or been blown out by the wind. All she saw was a massive shadow peeking out from the side, meaning something large was in front of the wooden door. More knocks rang out, much more hurried this time. A slightly muffed but nevertheless strong voice called out from the outside.

"Is there anyone in there?! Please!"

Melody bit her lip. A stranger at the door was never something that put her at ease, much less someone coming in the middle of the night in this weather. She'd heard enough spook stories with this kind of opening.

Still, she couldn't dissuade her guilt. Whatever poor soul it was out there was surely getting drenched, and their voice sounded urgent. The musician couldn't sit there and do nothing.

"Dear!"

Her husband, a blue earth pony stallion named Lead Choir; strode out of their bedroom. He nodded to his wife before looking cautiously at the door. The rapid knocks had not ceased.

"Yeah I heard it."

The couple tentatively approached the front door, which was near rattling at this point. Once they got close enough, the knocking stopped and they heard something else. Very deep, labored breathing. Almost like bestial wheezes. It sounded like someone who'd been to exhaustion and onward. The voice of the newcomer was as desperate as it was tired, haggard huffs spilling out between its words.

"Please...Help..."

Biting her lip, Melody Chime twisted the door knob after Lead Choir unlocked it. The front lantern might have been snuffed out, but they only needed one look at their guest's tall, shadowed form to know it was no pony. It was panting for breath in the darkness, not stepping forward through a door frame that barely would have fit it as it looked at the couple with reflective red eyes. In the low light, Lead Choir could just barely make out that the...thing, was down on one knee. Long claws and sharp teeth gleamed in their home's light as it stood outside in the storm. It was cradling something in its arms, shielding it from the pouring rain. Despite its fearsome but still heavily obscured appearance, its voice was gentle and calm, not threatening.

"Do not be a-fraid, I mean you no h-arm..."

It lurched down a bit weakly, clearly exhausted.

A-Are you ok?"

It took in a deep, labored breath to try and quell the pants and gasps its lungs demanded.

"Do n-not worry about me... b-ut please..."

The creature shifted, beginning to extend its arms. The ponies slunk back at first at the sight of broad paws, but stopped upon spying a bundle of cloth carefully held in its grasp. Moreover, they paid more attention to the bundle when it began to move. A tiny mumble called out as the source was revealed. Melody Chime didn't pay any heed to the recurved talons mounted on the beast's fingers when she reached forward. She only cared about the little pink hooves poking out of the cloth. After looking up at the newcomer and seeing it nod at her, she carefully picked up the bundle in her teeth before placing it in her arm. The face of a sleeping, little pink pegasus, snuggled into her blanket was what greeted her. The little one looked very new, only a few weeks old at most. She was bubblegum pink, with a soft mane composed of cream, magenta, and purple stripes. Even just looking at her, the couple felt something in their chest begin to glow with a soothing warmth.

Melody cradled the baby, before looking up at the mysterious visitor.

"Where did she come from?"

A saddened, tired, low voice responded.

"Her mother was.... a very good friend of mine..."

A tear joined the rain drops that were drenching a leonine snout. Lead Choir put a hoof on his wife's shoulder before looking up at the shadowed face that towered over him.

"Where is she?"

"... Gone..."

The being looked down for some time as it braced one of its hands on the doorframe to steady itself. It never made a move to enter the house.

"Please... I don't know the father either other than he is deceased. I ca-n't explain much, I don't have much time... I beg you!"

The creature looked up at the couple. Even in the dim light, its red eyes looked full of one emotion. Grief. It looked at the sleeping child.

"She must be cared for, but I cannot-"

Melody Chime walked up and fearlessly put her free hoof on the creature's lowered arm, balancing on her hind legs. She looked up at the tall figure, a small but honest smile forming on her face. She knew what was being asked, and nodded. A tiny squeak diverted all three adults' attention. The baby was awake, looking up at her surroundings with curious eyes. She looked at her audience, before giggling gleefully and reaching up past her wrappings, reaching out for them all.

Lead Choir couldn't help but smile at the tiny tot. Her eagerness to reach out and show affection to complete strangers was a strong tug on the heart strings. All of what was happening was sudden and demanded investigation later. But for now, he was more than content at what was being told to him. And the words of a soul clearly pushed to desperation's threshold were rarely lies. Besides, the couple was already adoring the infant that squealed with joy as they looked down at her. Lead Choir couldn't avert his gaze as he rubbed his head against his wife's.

"She will be loved here..."

The figure shifted, slowly extending one of its long arms. Sharp claws were carefully held away as it offered up a gentle paw to the infant. After a few looks of amazement and curiosity at a hand that dwarfed her, the little pegasus foal was soon rubbing her head up against its soft palm with a sweet smile. She snuggled up to the creature for a bit, before letting a drawn out, content yawn and curling up against it to nap. The stranger, the infant's protector, smiled as another tear flowed down from his eye. He very slowly pulled his paw back into darkness.

"It is well then... Be good parents to her..."

Before either of the couple could respond, the beast turned tail and bolted off into the storm. Melody, not wanting the child to catch a draft, was quick to carry the baby into the living room as her husband got the door. Lead Choir had just managed to grasp the handle when lightning flashed and lit up the forest. He spotted the newcomer standing almost a hundred meters down the road, standing up and looking up at the sky. It was not any creature or being he'd ever seen before in his life, but looked like it had a crown of some sort on its head. It was standing there one moment, and it was gone the next. It didn't run off the road or dive into the trees. It just, vanished.

Wanting to get one occurrence out of the way before he brought up a new one, Lead Choir closed and relocked the door before seeing to the baby they apparently just adopted. He found his wife sitting in her chair in the living room, gently rocking the newborn while inspecting the babe's wrappings.

"Dear, have you seen anything like this before?"

She hoofed over the cloth. But before Choir could ask why fabric would be so interesting, he saw his spouse's reasoning. It looked like a blanket and felt soft as cotton, but its reaction to light was completely distinct. It shimmered and gleamed in the house's lights, almost like it was coated with glass or gemstones. But a quick rub down confirmed it felt no different than normal cloth. Heck, it was actually incredibly soft. Lead Choir cocked an eyebrow and shrugged.

"Can't say I have."

He looked back down at Melody as she gazed lovingly at the sleeping baby, who was curled up against her new adoptive mother snuggling in as she slept. The stallion's heart swelled. Suspicious circumstances or not, he already knew an unbreakable bond was being set. Helped that the baby seemed to almost radiate joy and love to all those around her. Melody looked her husband in the eye as a joyful tear ran down her face. They'd been wanting a child for so long, now it seemed that nature itself wouldn't stop them.

The two earth ponies beamed at the sleeping pegasus foal.

"What should we call her?..."

Melody looked over to the song she'd just been playing. It was a foreign piece, but one she held very dear. It was her wedding song.

"...Mi Amore Cadenza."

===================

Crystal Empire Library

Key Ring packed away his notes as the class left the premises. New job was coming along well, excursion involving some oversized foreigner withstanding. Key Ring shrugged as he took down one of his historical displays.

-Still, it's been an ambassador-free day so far and-

Not one second after the door closed behind the last crystal pony did a broad hoof kick it back open.

"Key Ring!"

The brown unicorn couldn't help but roll his eyes, recognizing the voice.

"Oh no..."

He turned around to see 'Ambassador' Xenilla and a tall guardsmare walking through the door and into the now emptied class room. A glow ushered out from the white patch that crossed the stallion's back and shoulders, something glowing with a similar light through his saddlebag.

"Mister Ring, I have a sample I need you to have a look at."

The guardsmare, a pale colored pegasus with rose red hair stepped out from behind Xenilla, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment. Her grumbles were barely audible.

"I told you to not barge in like this!"

She looked to Key Ring, chuckling a tad nervously.

"Sorry about intruding, I'm Colonel Blade Dancer. I have the unfortunate of babysitting the ambassador here... We found some... odd crystal yesterday, and despite him barely talking about it he seems dead set on you having a look."

Key Ring perked up a bit at the word crystal. Given the empire, every type of gem stone could tell a story or hold a new power. Always the curious type, especially with any historic type of magic, his face softened a bit.

"Well, let's see it then."

The glowing light in Xenilla's bag hovered free, revealing a pointed strand of white crystal about as long as a ruler. On its creator's mental command, the pale casing cracked and shattered into dust; leaving a single shard of black crystal suspended in the air. Xenilla set the dark fragment down on the table before the trio, all eyes upon it as the black gem pulsed with a low light every few seconds. Despite the gemstone's small size, the two ponies could have sworn they felt the room grow colder upon its reveal.

Key Ring adjusted his glasses, looking at the gem with a wide eyed stare. He had read his history and magic books. He knew full well what he was looking at. Didn't mean he liked it one bit.

"Do you recognize this gem type?"

"Yes..."

Blade Dancer shrugged off a shiver as she stood beside the two. Spell casting or not, she could feel the magical radiance the crystal had. It was giving her one really bad vibe that made her skin crawl.

"Wha-what is it Ring?"

"An aerenth crystal. A pure one too."

"Strange. I am quite proficient in gem alterations myself, but in my own effort and days in the empire; I've never seen a crystal this color before."

"There is a very good reason it's so rare..."

"What?"

Key Ring averted his eyes from the aerenth and dug through his books. After pulling out a particularly archaic looking tome, he turned to a familiar page and read over a batch of details to reaffirm his memory.

"Key Ring, what is the reason it is so rare?"

Key Ring read over the targeted passage, not liking what he'd just confirmed for himself.

"Crystal creation magic is a skill native to the Crystal Empire. Each type of crystal has a specific spell tied to it that leads to its creation. Of all the gem stone types however, Aerenths are the only ones to be explicitly banned from generation through artificial means."

"Why so?"

Key Ring looked up from his ancient history book, exhaling a few times to slow down his heart beat.

"First... Where did you find this? Was it in the crystal fields outside of town?"

Blade Dancer and Xenilla both shook their heads side to side in unison.

"No, we found it near the marketplace on the way back to the palace yesterday."

"Key Ring, why are aerenths banned?"

"Because, all crystal creation requires magic when artificially created. If it wasn't from the fields, then that is not a natural aerenth. Someone must have made it. And if so, they made it with dark magic. They are banned because Aerenths are the only type of crystal that requires dark magic to act upon them and create them."

"Dark magic, normal magic. What makes the difference?"

Key Ring spilled out several of his history books and spell books onto his desk, reading through both the authors' and his own notes.

"Good magic, no matter the species of pony, is fueled by concentration and positive emotions such as will, hope, love, and happiness."

"Quaint.."

"DARK magic on the other hoof is the other side of the coin. It is fueled by wrathful intent and negative emotions like greed, anger, hatred; etc."

Blade Dancer's face was beginning to become more pale than it typically was. She looked at the aerenth with a worried expression, backing away from it slowly. The vibe she and Xenilla got from the crystal yesterday, that cold feeling of being near the aerenth. It all must have been some subconscious warning. She was thankful Xenilla refused to let either of them touch it now. The stallion accompanying her only gave a bemused glance at the aerenth before looking over one of Key Ring's books.

"Hardly seems to be anything worth worrying about. Some pony just grew negative and created a black gem, everyone feels wrath's lash from time to time."

Key Ring caught his breath, the ambassador's words reminding him of some logic that helped calm the situation in his mind. If only slightly. There were far too many harsh facts that flew in the face of anything resembling peace.

"Well, it is indeed true that dark magic can be used responsibly and reliably if kept under the proper control. The problem is very, very few outside of the princesses or top mages can pull the proper amount of control off. And if they don't..."

Key Ring rose from his book and looked down at the still pulsing aerenth.

"Understand this, good magic works easier because by its nature, it is controlled. Dark magic on the other hoof, has a controllING nature. If you don't keep a lid on it, it WILL take you over."

There was a point of contention Xenilla would have made about the emotions that fueled good magic. Quite a few sounded like the opposite of controllable. Then again, with a certain pegasus present he didn't feel the need to spark an old argument.

"And what happens if that occurs? If the 'dark magic' takes over?"

"Well, thankfully there is only one or two historical examples. The princesses keep a pretty tight lid on dark magic. But as the influence grows, the darkness brings out more and more of the emotions that spawned it. If you felt prideful and wrathful when first abusing the dark magic, you'll grow more prideful of yourself and more enraged at everything around you. It grows with time. First few hours it might just look erratic to others, but in a few days you might be completely consumed."

Key Ring's expression grew dimmer with each passing moment. The crystal almost seemed to be aware of their presence, something the unicorn was not fond of.

"Once you are completely overtaken, your mind is nothing but those negative thoughts. Hate, lust, envy, and pride. It all magnifies your hexes greatly and allows you to cast dark spells that require a completely black heart. Making aerenths is one such spell. It means someone in the empire has gone way off the deep end.... Still-"

He rose up and rubbed his chin.

"If they could only make this much, it means their magical prowess might not be the greatest."

"Um..."

Blade Dancer bit her lip and took off her helmet.

"There was... a whole chunk of that stuff at the market. Xen here just broke off the tip."

"The... the ti-..the tip?"

Blade Dancer nodded slowly.

"H-How big was the crystal mound?"

Xenilla only shrugged, forming another crystalline casing around the aerenth fragment.

"About as tall and wide as myself. I destroyed the rest of it after taking the sample I brought you."

Now it was Key Ring's turn to try and compete with Blade Dancer on who's face could go paler. He gave her a run for her money as his eyes shot open.

"By Bonnie's pen..."

"Let me guess... size indicates something?"

"S-Size scales with power... If you are telling the truth, whoever made an aerenth crystal that big had enormous magical potential."

"And allow me to guess..."

Xenilla applied more layers of his own crystal to cloak the aerenth, not wanting to take any chances.

"To fuel that potential in dark magic in the creation of large aerenths, they had to have been experiencing large amounts of malefic thoughts or emotions at the time."

"Enough greed to pillage, enough hate to murder."

Blade Dancer had managed to get a hold of one of Key Ring's history books, flipping through some of the pages about dark magic use. She was quickly becoming glad the most magic she ever used was shoving a cloud or two.

"Who all could do something like this in the past? What sort of ball park are we talking about with our suspect?"

Key Ring chewed on his lip, pulling up some slides he'd been using for his class. The young stallion whipped out the pair he'd been looking for and flipped on the projecter. The photograph of a dark alicorn with ebony fur and a starry mane illuminated one half of the white board, the illustration of a malefic looking unicorn in steel armor covering the other half of the board.

"Well if we are talking just straight up dark magic usage, the most powerful and notable would be the scourge of the Everfree, Nightmare Moon. In terms of crystal magic use, that would be the former ruler of the empire, King Sombra."

Xenilla studied the two images, the ancient illustration in particular. Something about the way the eyes were drawn in seemed vaguely familiar. However it was something Key Ring said that got his attention first.

"Wait... 'King' Sombra?"

"Um, yes?"

"He was a king, and yet ruled over, an empire?"

"I... don't see how that's important right now..."

Clad across Xenilla's face was the most blank, annoyed face one could possibly imagine. His neck and expression drooped somewhat, entirely dumbstruck.

-Then why wasn't he an emperor-.... oh Good Tanaka the male rulers aren't any better..-

Xenilla grumbled, shaking his head to try and clear away his annoyance.

"Never mind, move on. What can you tell me about them."

"Well, thankfully if you are suspecting what I think you are suspecting, don't. Both of them are out of the picture. Nightmare Moon was purified and Sombra was killed not long ago."

"Oh? Who or what killed Sombra?"

"The crystal heart so I'm told, by Spike Sparkle and Princess Cadenza."

Something in Xenilla's mind snapped to attention, making him quickly turn to face Key Ring. The gears in his head were turning. Something about the placement of the aerenth in the market place was beginning to make sense.

"Wait... It was Empress Cadenza who killed Sombra?"

"Through her rallying the nation into fueling the crystal heart, yes."

Xenilla turned and studied the ancient illustration. His eyes were beginning to narrow, as if staring down an opponent. Something told him he wasn't far off.

"And this, Sombra. He ruled over the empire prior to the Empress, correct?"

"Indeed, though they might not tell you much of that unless you dug for information. King Sombra ushered in the darkest age in imperial history. Almost all living crystal ponies lived during his rule and have a taboo about speaking of him."

-Hm... only lead to go on. If Terra's wars taught me anything, it's never assume an opponent is dead..-

Xenilla couldn't have possibly been more in the right to carry such a methodology. Though even he was unaware of the dark energies flowing into the library's roof as a shadowy form materialized from a blackened haze.

============

Crystal Palace

Princess Cadance groaned as she turned in her bed, waking at the eve of noon. The ascended alicorn rubbed at her temple and grimaced, rolling her eyes at the time. Her sleep schedule had been all over the place lately. Between that and the wave of dizziness she could feel washing over her upon sitting up; it looked like another rough, sick day.

After waiting a moment to let the haze in her vision fade, Cadance noticed the lack of a pale form beside her. Given the time however, she didn't find her husband's absence surprising. A note left at her nightstand confirmed the alicorn's suspicion.

-"Noticed you seemed to be having a rough night so I left you to sleep in. I'll take care of the morning courts and routines. Hope to see you soon. -Shiny"-

Unable to fight a smile but unwilling to leave her spouse to face the dreaded morning court alone, Cadance hauled herself out of bed. Ruling an empire, let alone with the benefit of its citizenry in mind, came with no small amount of paperwork and court rulings. Stretching out her wings and cracking her back, the pink mare slipped on her small crown and flew out of her chambers and into the halls; making her way to the central hall.

Hopefully the workload today was light and could be dealt with as fast as possible without skimping on the nuts and bolts of the matters. Her surprise visit to the marketplace yesterday had been fantastic for bolstering the citizenry's morale. She had physically felt their spirits rising upon her arrival. With half of Equestria still living scared of titans in their midst, they needed every reassurance they could get. Maybe their trip this time could be to the ewe stables, that was always a popular attraction. Besides, the stables were only a block away from the library. And there was a secretive visitor she wanted to keep an eye on in light of recent events...

====================

Library, two hours later

Cadance wasn't the only one thinking about the empire's newest member. Unfortunately, where she felt caution; the other observer could only look down at the blue unicorn with hate filled eyes. King Sombra fully materialized on the library roof, peering down through the crystalline structure at the trio down below him. He'd come here following an energy source, hoping it was that witch of a princess so he could tail her. What he found was a rival and threat.

-That blue unicorn again of all places!-

Red and green eyes narrowed, purple smoke billowing from their seams. The newcomer was imposing and completely alien to the tyrant king. Sombra sneered, firmly stomping his armor covered hoof into the roofing and cracking some of the crystal underfoot.

-Can't have any interferences...-

The unicorn's hellish horn crackled with a bright glow, green and black energy pouring down from it and into his hoof. The dark magic burst free from his body and flew across the roofing in a wave. Streaks of energy crisscrossed the crystalline structure like a spider web. In their wake, the roof began to crack....

Xenilla turned the page on his book, studying its contents. His theory was becoming more and more grounded with every passage of the historical records. King Sombra was back, this he was sure of. And considering it's widely hypothesized the dark unicorn was the one who killed his predecessor, 'Empress' Amore, and that he'd have a vendetta against Cadance for her hoof in his death; Xenilla could only think of one motivation the tyrant would have. He would be going after Empress Cadenza, which would explain him spying on her yesterday in the marketplace.

-Sombra is a stalking predator. And a stalking predator is soon to strike... He's one to attack when she is more vulnerable, isolated to avoid as big a conflict as possible. He won't attack her in public.-

He shifted his attention to some schematics of the castle that happened to have been close by, possibly part of Key Ring's curriculum or study. He pulled a few out and looked over the layout, memorizing each detail.

-If he strikes in private by slipping into the castle after nightfall when most are asleep, he might be able to pull off an ambush with minimal interference... Yes, he'll likely try that soon. And if I remain close to the Empress's chamber I'll be able to sense him coming...-

Xenilla crackled a smug smirk, chuckling lowly. He'd been wanting to let off some steam since he got here. Now there was but one question. When Sombra attacked the Empress, a given truth, how long would it take for him to intervene? The pink alicorn was no ally. Perhaps he should let the tyrant off a potential thorn in his side before he stepped in? Was all a matter as to what be more useful to him or what would impede his progress more. The alicorn living, or the potential disarray a leaderless empire might have, which one was worse?

-Decisions decisions...-

Something caught his attention after it bounced off his nose. The tiny, hard object tumbled down to the desk he stood beside. Averting his attention, Xenilla soon found himself looking at a small crystal fragment rolling across the hardwood. The tapping on the desk and blur of movement heralded another crystal shard's decent. Xenilla's point of focus slowly trained up and looked to the source.

"Yes, but regardless of who it is practicing it, if there is a dark magic user on the loose the Princess must be inform-...."

"...Xenilla?"

The kaiju didn't reply, causing both parties to look up at where he was. And what they saw caused both of their eyes to be wide as dinner plates. The entire section of ceiling above them was cracked and all but shattered, as small fragments of it began to rain down towards them. A crumbling roar sounded off and a large chunk of crystal jostled loose from the roofing and tumbled downwards. Noting its course, Blade Dancer was the first to snap into action and charged at Key Ring. Flapping her wings once to give her a boost, Blade Dancer grabbed the unicorn by the leg.

"HEADS UP!"

Using her momentum, she spun around and tossed the stallion to the side just as the cabinet sized hunk of gemstone that used to be roofing impaled itself into the ground they once stood on. Unfortunately due to the dust and fragmentation of the falling and then shattering gemstones, neither of the two saw a second, much broader chunk following its sibling. It fumbled through the air, heading right for a certain guardsmare. Key Ring struggled to get to his hooves and concentrate on a levitation spell to try and catch or slow down the killer debris.

"BLADE DANCER!"

The guardsmare looked up just in time to instinctively put her hooves up and try to dart to the side. However, not even she was quick enough to get out of her current position. Someone else however wasn't in such a bad spot.

A large blotch cloaked the pegasus mare's vision and an audible boom reverberated through the floor. Blade Dancer's face was caught in a grimace as she stood still for some time. A stray thought managed to shine through as the seconds passed.

-Wait... shouldn't I be crushed?-

She opened her eyes to something not quite expected.

Xenilla snarled lowly, holding up the carriage sized hunk of gemstone on his arms and shoulders. His horn and patches glimmered, adding powerful telekinesis to hold up the crystal in addition to brute force far exceeding most others. Red and yellow eyes slowly looked down at the pegasus the unicorn stood over.

"You should be more careful with your heroics little dancer.."

Shrugging, Xenilla threw his shoulders and tossed the crystal away, crushing a row of desks under it. Key Ring ran over to the duo, helping his rescuer up to her hooves. Blade Dancer coughed to clear her lungs of some dust, brushing herself off. Her face was feeling very hot.

"What was all that? The ceiling just crashed down randomly."

Key Ring's attention cast itself to the large chunk Xenilla had set down. Upon leaning in and giving it a closer inspection, the glimmer of black radiance told him enough. Embedded within the crystal proper, were dozens of tiny aerenths.

"This was no accident, someone used dark magic on the roof."

"So someone was trying to collapse it on us?"

"I'd say so."

Xenilla's eyes narrowed as he looked up at the roof. A flash of light birthed itself from his shoulder patches and traveled down into his hooves before shooting into the floor. Through the flooring, into the walls, and up across the ceiling; he scanned anything that was or was touching something crystalline. He only needed a glance at the echo of a large form standing on the roof to figure out the situation. The dark presence shifted, apparently noticing him. It began to fall back.

-Coward...-

"An accurate judgment Key Ring. HE is here..."

Energy crackled and wrapped around the kaiju turned unicorn, his large form beginning to levitate up towards the now room sized hole in the ceiling. Key Ring and Blade Dancer could only shoot each other an odd look before the latter stretched her wings and flew up after the 'ambassador'.

"He who? Ambassad- Xeni! What's going on?"

Xenilla didn't look to her as he hovered up higher and higher.

"Something I intend to finish now that the opportunity presents itself."

"Wait you're going after-"

"Don't get in my way Miss Dancer...."

Xenilla hovered above her, briefly glancing down at the pegasus. He shrugged, his tone mellowing somewhat.

"This is between me and them. Go to the Empress if you must. See to any wounded if you will it. You two just stay out of the crossfire..."

With that, the kaiju's eyes glimmered and the speed of ascent spiked, the unicorn flying up and out the ceiling. For the briefest moment, Blade Dancer saw what he was pursuing. A large, dark mass departing from the rooftop.

==========

Ewe Stables

The prince and princess' heads both shot up in unison as a loud rumble ripped through the air. Averting his eyes to the origin of the racket, Shining Armor's pupils contracted as his eyes widened upon seeing a large column of smoke billowing out of a roof top. The pillar of black was not two blocks away, and towards the library. His wife saw it too, Cadance's wings shooting out on instinct. It didn't take either of them to suspect what was going on, the distant flicker of a blue figure gliding across a rooftop near the smog only confirming it.

"Oh no...."

Xenilla 's mane flickered with a red light before a ray resembling fiery lightning shot out from his maw and raked across the roof of a nearby restaurant. The stallion was shouting something between attacks, but between the screaming crowds and distance, neither royal could quite make it out. Like it even mattered.

-I knew he couldn't be trusted!-

Cadance broke into a full sprint alongside her husband, fanning her wings and taking to the air. The alicorn briefly looked to Flash Sentry before flying after the kaiju.

"Scramble the guards quickly! I'll try and slow him down!"

Xenilla flew through the spire of smog in pursuit of the fleeing darkness. Sombra held himself in his shadowy form, racing across the roof tops and melding into the crystals to dodge the enraged kaiju's onslaught. Briefly turning around, the tyrant's eyes and horn flashed with a green light before a cabinet sized ball of emerald and black hellfire shot at the blue unicorn. Not having time to dodge, Xenilla threw his hooves in front of himself as transparent panels of psychic energy formed a shield in front of him. Despite the sheer force blowing him back a few feet and slowing him significantly, the barrier held and soon Xenilla came charging out of the resulting black cloud. Shifting his will to the rooftop itself, Xenilla snarled and flicked his wrist to alter the crystals. Numerous shards ripped free from their foundations and formed into barriers of spear-like missiles that hovered beside their master. Weaving out of the way of another pulse of hellish magic, Xenilla launched his energy charged lances at his rival.

A spear managed to land in front of Sombra, rapidly pulsing with a red and yellow light before the glow consumed it. The crystal exploded with imposing force, knocking the crystal tyrant out of his shadowed form and sending him tumbling off the roof and dropping into an alley. Xenilla hovered over to the edge of the roof, catching sight of Sombra as the unicorn got to his hooves and glared back at him. Before the kaiju could will the rest of his lances to fire however, a bubble of blue energy swallowed him.

"ENOUGH!"

Cut off from their master, the crystalline spears became inert and tumbled onto the rooftop before harmlessly rolling off the edge.

Xenilla's eyes widened in surprise, the world around him becoming tinted blue as the barrier encircled itself around him. Snarling, the kaiju smashed his forehoof against the edge of the bubble shield. The magical construct hissed and flashed with energy, noticeable cracks beginning to form along the surface. Princess Cadance flew up from behind Xenilla as Shining Armor poured more of his magic into their shield from the street. Neither royal could see the fleeing shadow. Cadance, a pretty pink princess of love, was giving a glare that nightmares were made of.

"We welcomed you into the empire, we grant your requests, we allow you your study; and THIS is how you repay us?!"

The alicorn yelled out, motioning to the still smoking roof top of a restaurant. Xenilla didn't even look at the structure, too focused on diverting energy into his forehoof to try and smash through the bubble shield with a nuclear pulse charged punch. What he was looking at however, gave him thoughts for pause. The fleeing shadow stopped momentarily, casting its eyes at the alicorn who unknowingly had her back to it. It's eyes were filled with so much hatred it was obvious from a glance's inspection. The kaiju's theory as to his attacker's identity had just been confirmed to him.

Xenilla canceled his attack, recalling his energy and standing motionless inside the magical prison.

-Patience Xenilla, you need just bide your time now...-

Cadance was not amused by the lack of reaction, still flustered at seeing the wreckage of the city block. Roof tops were either smoking, cracked, or had crystals impaled into the surface; debris littered the streets, and emergency crews were piling in from all angles to tend to some fires and the wounded. Cadance lips trembled in a mix of sadness and rage.

".... You don't even care, do you..."

"Princess Cadenza wait!

A second form flew up to the alicorn. Blade Dancer quickly saluted her monarch before spouting out what she knew.

"He was chasing after something that attacked him. Someone tried to collapse the library roof on us!"

Key Ring took a moment to catch up, racing up to the group and standing next to Shining Armor.

"He, might have wrecked some buildings in the process; but this was a counter attack. Blade Dancer is telling the truth. Someone in the empire is practicing dark magic and tried to kill us just before you arrived. The ambassador was giving chase!"

"By, 'giving chase', do you mean blowing up half the buildings by two square blocks?"

"W-Well..."

Cadance raised an eyebrow at what was trying to be sold to her, hovering down to the group whilst towing Xenilla's prison along with her.

"Do you have proof of this dark magic?"

"Yes, we found an artificial aerenth crystal!"

"Where?"

"Uuuuum..."

Key Ring bit his lip, looking back down the street at the damaged library. Namely at the crumbled mess he could see through the wall that used to be his classroom.

"Not, with us sadly. It must be buried under the debris in my office. We'd have to excavate it first... Please Princess, you can't just lock him up like this. What happened to innocent until proven guilty?"

"That law applies to Equestrian, not... "

Her voice just barely trailed off at the world 'monsters'. The youngest ruling alicorn shrugged, remembering duties ahead of personal views.

"If you’re telling the truth and he was chasing somepony, then when I see the evidence he’ll be free to go after the reparations for the damages are paid. I’ll also have some guards scouring for anypony suspicious in the meantime."

Princess Cadance rubbed her temple, trying to stave off a short spell of dizziness that chose the opportune time to strike. She held firm and kept herself orderly, though the venom in her voice upon looking at the unmoved Xenilla was evident. Given all that was happening, the poor mare was beyond stressed out. She refused to address what she was glaring at as an Equestrian. The alicorn stumbled slightly, her head spinning a bit. Her husband quickly walked up to steady her, putting a hoof around Cadance's shoulders.

"Whoa, you alright?"

Cadance's voice mellowed significantly as she cast a sweet smile to her prince. The alicorn caught her breath, the dizziness fading and was soon able to hold a stable stance.

"I'll be fine. Can you stay and direct the relief effort okay until I get back?"

"Alright, just take a few guards with you. I'll see you back at the castle alright? Listen, you've had a rough day, why don't you take the evening off and let me handle this once you lock him up. Bonnie and Faust know you'll need the rest for tomorrow. If anything happens I want you to-"

"Nothing will occur, Consort."

Just as Shining put his hoof to his wife's cheek and was going to finish his sentence, a loud grumble sounded off beside them. Xenilla, still standing in the bubble that floated beside them was rolling his eyes in annoyance. He was so incredibly tempted to bring up a certain philosophy had Blade Dancer not been standing less than two meters away. The amount of gushing he felt rising in the immediate area was disgruntling.

"I am helplessly imprisoned in this spell. Couldn't do anything if I tried."

The royal couple collectively narrowed their eyes, not believing it for a moment. Good thing there was something more potent back home.

"Now do you two plan on locking me up, or does the Empress intend to tow me along like some sort of kite?"

Cadance took in a deep breath and followed with an equally deep grumble.

"Prin-cess... I'll be back later."

"Cadance, let me handle this. I insist."

"Okay... Just, get me if anything bad happens ok Shiny?"

"You too Candy."

"Awww."

"Oooye...."

Cadance turned and departed with an escort, heading back to her homestead. A yellow and blue form glided down from above and landed before Shining Armor. Flash Sentry saluted his commander, the latter nodding in return.

"Report."

"No fatalities thankfully, but a couple thousand bits worth of public and private property damage."

"Injuries?"

"Some concussions, few bruises and fractured bones from falling debris. It's good you and the princess caught him when you did sir, looks like we lucked out."

Blade Dancer stood still as she watched the ever shrinking forms of Cadance and her captive move further and further away. Key Ring walked up next to the tall pegasus, quickly noticing the puzzled look on her face implied some questioning.

"Bit for your thoughts?"

The guardsmare kept her voice low as she could, not averting her eyes. Xenilla almost looked like he was smiling as he was being taken away.

"You may not know it, but if he's anything like his brother then that guy is on par with Princess Luna in power. He cracked the shield with brute force, he easily should have been able to free himself with some power thrown in."

Key Ring rubbed his chin, chewing at his lip. She had a point, some things weren't adding up.

"So he lied about the shield and let himself be captured?.... Why would he do that?"

"I don't know..."

Blade Dancer shrugged, her conscious yanking her forward as if on a leash. She glanced at the still talking Flash Sentry and Shining Armor, confirming they wouldn't notice her departure as she started down the street.

"But he's up to something..."

==========================

Hours Later, Crystal Castle Jail

Blade Dancer warily flew down the dark hall at a slowed, steady pace. She'd timed herself accordingly, but still wanted to avoid the jailer if she could. Less ponies to try to work around in-person the better. She passed by empty cell after empty cell, many of which looked like they'd been barren for ages. After Sombra's fall, there was far fewer desperate ponies out there. Crime rate plummeted once order took hold, so there was likely only one individual imprisoned at the moment. And as she reached the end of the hall, and down a flight of stars to an isolated portion of the prison, she soon found herself standing before a large cell. That one prisoner was whom she'd come to see was before her.

Xenilla sat in the back of his cell, leaning against the back wall. From his limbs to his neck to his midsection, the kaiju turned stallion was covered in an almost ludicrous number of shackles and cuffs. He held his head down, not reacting to the mare's presence.

Swallowing her breath, Blade Dancer looked around to ensure she was alone before tapping her armored hoof to the bars of his cell. The rapping noise along with her voice caught Xenilla's attention.

"...Xeni!.. Hey over here."

He looked up with an amused smirk.

"Ah, Miss Dancer I presume."

Xenilla got up and walked up to the other side of the cell doors as Blade Dancer sat down. The constant rattling of his restraints caused her ears to instinctively flop against her head. Her face drooped into a sympathy filled frown.

"Hey..."

Xenilla could only chuckle, nonchalant about the entire matter.

"Still showing concern or sympathy for my behalf? Adorable, but a waste on a monster like me," he bemused while patting at his chest, rattling the frankly ludicrous amount of chains he was bound in.

"Didn't expect them to put on so many chains.."

"A quaint matter, pay it no heed."

"But still, if I had spoken up more in your defense maybe Cadance wouldn't have gone so far."

"She's merely guarding her citizenry, a mark of a good empress.... And Miss Dancer-"

"Hm?"

The two looked each other directly in the eye.

"You mentioned the attack on the library earlier when they were taking me away... So I take it you saw our assailant as well?"

"Yes, briefly. Couldn't tell who it was, just a black mass on the roof that ran away and you took off after."

"....hmm...."

"....Xeni?"

"...Firstly, do you intend to make that a nickname Miss Dancer, or are you trying to jest?... Secondly.... If you must know the dark magic user is King Sombra."

The guardsmare's eyes widened and she shot up slightly.

"What?! How is that possible? He was destroyed, blown to bits when the empire came back."

Xenilla merely rolled his eyes and rested his cheek on his hoof.

"Don't know, don't care. If fighting wars back home taught me anything though, it's never assume someone is gone for good without very good reason. Given the magical shenanigans your realm has I'd say there really isn't any good reason for one to assume to begin with."

Blade Dancer did not share her audience's calm behavior.

"How do you know?"

"Caught some glimpses of him during the fight, matched the illustration Mister Ring showed us. And behavior lines up as well. He's been stalking near the castle for a few days now since I first sensed him. Yesterday, he was spying on Empress Cadenza at the marketplace just before we arrived. And today, he reacted negatively to the empress's presence when she approached. He's just biding his time until she is alone, then he'll attack."

"She must be warned then! If you were going after someone like Sombra she might free you and-"

Xenilla's slow laughter took away her drive to become frantic over assassination plots.

"Little Dancer, Little Dancer... Not only do I intend to kill that mongrel by the end of the night, I'm exactly where I want to be."

"....You're what?"

Xenilla looked up at the crystalline ceiling as pulses of near invisible energy poured out of him and sailed upwards through the roofing, flooring, and walls. He sensed large amounts of love and magic a little over a dozen stories up on one of the spire's chambers. Looks like the good empress stayed home after all.

"I can sense from most crystalline structures in the castle and memorized the blueprints back at the library. The empress herself is sleeping in her chambers. It just so happens the jail is 15 floors directly below her."

"And.. how does that matter?"

"Sombra knows I am aware of him. He wouldn't go after the empress if I was possibly in his way. That's why he attacked us at the library, thought he could off me with some collapsed roof. Now that I seem imprisoned, and her husband and guards are away; he'll see this as an opportune time to strike. The rook, knight, and pawn pieces are all away from the queen. He'll think it an easy take. And when he comes..."

"You'll be right where you need to be to see him coming and kill him... You're using the whole castle as a trap."

"And Empress Cadenza is the bait... You catch on fast Miss Dancer."

"But... what about breaking out?"

Xenilla held up one of his chained hooves, looking at the restraint with a bemused expression.

"Fine craftsmanship, very likely to hold any normal pony short of an alicorn. But, as I mentioned earlier..."

Biting down on the chain, Xenilla grunted for a moment before a loud snap sounded off. The broken shackle dropped to the floor as the kaiju casually tossed the torn off link over his shoulder.

"A quaint matter.... There is however one technicality I didn't anticipate."

"What's that?"

"Magic is rare back on Terra. I didn't account for an enchanted cell."

Xenilla answered her by extending his forelimb. Just when it was about to pass through the bars of his cell, it came to rest against an invisible force. He pulled back and tried to reach out again in a different spot, but to the same result. Squinting her eyes, Blade Dancer could just barely make out a sheet of near invisible, glass-like magic between every bar of the cell. Unless one knew it was there, they'd never have noticed it. At the top of the cell she just now noticed several noticeable crystals embedded on the roof. They pulsed and hummed with a bit of energy whenever Xenilla touched the barrier.

"Some kind of barrier the jailer informed me about. It's connected to an alarm system rigged up to the top of the cell doors. Already tried telekinesis to disable it, but it must block out magic-like energy just as well as it does physical force."

"Can't you still break free or blast your way out?"

"Likely, but given the system, doing so will set off an alarm across the entire castle. And for this plan to work I need the element of surprise to catch Sombra off guard."

"Any way you can get around it?"

"Aside from the key the jailer had, I am still figuring it out."

Xenilla shrugged, sitting back and puzzling as Blade Dancer stared at him with unsure eyes. There was easily a thousand reasons she shouldn't trust him or believe a word he said right now. He could just be trying to escape. He could be trying to toy with her sympathy. He could want out just so he could kill the Princess himself.

She held her breath, thinking through the ramifications. He spoke of an enemy she knew existed. He didn't bust out despite being able to. He could have laid ruin to her or the entire empire if he wanted to. But he didn't. And right now, with the life of one of Equestria's most beloved leaders possibly in the balance and her duty being to protect the crown and country; there were some risks maybe worth taking...

Blade Dancer looked the kaiju right in the eye and he looked back.

"Why did you do it?"

"Do what Miss Dancer?"

"Back when the ceiling was crashing down, why did you save my life?"

"Simple."

He reclined back a bit, and closed his eyes. The tone in his voice lost its typical smugness, but the attitude being projected was as clear as a white out blizzard.

"I don't dislike your presence, you don't spur my annoyance. And in this bizarre case of polymorphing I'm taking anything I can get that's not a detriment. Call me a pragmatist. Besides, you have a sharp wit and firm attitude; something I respect. You certainly have made the past two days more interesting and staved off boredom. More than the last dull clod the Empress assigned as my 'babysitter'."

He peeked out of his right eye, the red in his iris gleaming in the low light.

"Though tell me, why does it matter to you?"

The sound of hoofsteps echoed down from the halls towards the entrance. Shadows stretched across the floor and around the corner as two forms made their way towards the cell, coming down the stairs. Blade Dancer sighed, trying to slow her heart beat the best she could. She stared right into Xenilla's red eyes.

"Because, you did me a favor... If you promise to save the Princess, I will return that favor..."

"So, you want me to go out of my way to not just ambush Sombra, but head him off and halt his assassination attempt of a monarch I have no affection for?"

Blade Dancer refused to falter, her stern look bordering on a confident glare.

"Promise.Me..."

Xenilla put his forelimb across his broad chest, before slowly bowing his head. Signs of respect aside, he did it to hide a humorous grin forming across his lips. This female was impeccable.

"If that is what you wish..."

Blade Dancer slowly turned to face the oncoming forms. Armor glinting in the nightly light, two crystal ponies in guard-like attire approached her. One was a decent sized crystal earth stallion, about equal to her height. Beside him marched a crystal pegasus mare, about a head shorter. They were about ten meters out when they noticed her, approaching a bit more rapidly. Blade Dancer spoke to the kaiju behind her, glancing back.

".... You sure just telling them the truth wouldn't help?"

Xenilla grumbled audibly, holding up his chains with a heavily unamused look on his face. The message was clear.

"Well it was worth asking!"

She straightened up as the guards halted two meters away, looking at her with mildly confused expressions.

"I don't remember you being on the shift. What's your name and rank madam?"

"Colonel Blade Dancer of the Celestial-Lunar guard. You?"

"Colonel Lockdown. I'm the warden for the royal prison."

"Lieutenant Dusk Shift, second in command of the jail house. What are you doing down here?"

Blade Dancer took in a deep breath, snorting out her nose.

-Here goes nothing...-

"I was ordered by Prince Shining Armor to release and escort the prisoner to Princess Cadance for interrogation. May I have the cell key, the prince demanded he be moved twenty minutes ago."

She reached out, hoping the sound of urgency might cause them to slip up. Unfortunately Lockdown wasn't sloppy, even in front of a pretty face or risk of a superior. The fact he could see the prisoner had freed themselves from some of their shackles already was most definitely not putting him at ease. Dusk Shift picked up on her officer's body language as he reached behind himself for his hoofcuffs. She slyly moved and circled around Blade Dancer, keeping her distance as Lockdown approached.

"The princess or prince would have directed such orders over to me if one was made... Mi'lady, this is a very dangerous prisoner and I'd like to escort you to one of the royals to verify that order. Just following protocol."

Blade Dancer tensed up slightly, even if she didn't show it. She stared at the approaching stallion as her ears kept track of the circling pegasus despite not hearing any more steps. Even quiet wing beats still gave off noise.

"I am sorry, Sir. But that cannot happen. There is a matter of grave importance to the empire and Princess, whether you'd believe me or not. If you don't give me the key, I will need to take it by force."

Lockdown kept his voice calm as he unbound his hoofcuffs from his belt.

"Now now madam, no need to get hasty. I understand you and the subject probably spent some time together and every mare has, emotional needs... But I can't just let him out willy-nilly without it coming straight from a ruler's mouth... Let's just, take you to the Princess, and get this sorted out before it becomes a dangerous situation."

Blade Dancer could hear Dusk Shift drawing closer, knowing the duo was trying to sandwich her between them. Her eyes narrowed as her wings flared out, briefly giving Lockdown thought to pause.

"I... am not.. shallow... This has nothing to do with me or him, and everything to do with my duty."

"And what's that?"

Blade Dancer tilted her head down as she felt the air shift on her wings. Dusk Shift was diving at her right now.

"To protect the monarch and citizenry..."

The red and white mare whipped around and drew her wing blades. Twisting out of the way with the grace of a ballerina, she dodged Dusk Shift's lunge and smashed the blunt of her weapon into the back of the smaller mare's head. It wasn't enough to knock her out as intended, but the stunned pegasus then colliding helmet first into a nearby cell was enough to accomplish that. Blade Dancer was about to take to the air when Lockdown bit down on her long tail. One harsh yank later and she fell to the ground back first and crashed onto the floor.

"TRAITOR!"

Blade Dancer yelped in pain, her helmet rolling off from the impact. She barely had time to try and roll out of the way when Lockdown hurled Dusk Shift's spear at her. The sharp point of the spear that had been aimed at her shoulder instead raked across her face from her right cheek to her right ear. The pegasus flapped her wings to spring off the ground while lashing out with her leg, kicking Lockdown square in the jaw. Using the rest of her momentum to continue before he had the chance to counter, she brought down both of her wing blades side first onto either side of his head. The flat metal smacked into Lockdown's helmet with a loud crash before he dropped to the ground, out cold.

Not wasting a moment, Blade Dancer dropped back down and dug through Lockdown's belt and satchel to yank free a large, gleaming key. She looked at the key, then down to the unconscious guards and let out a loud sigh; shaking her head with a sad expression.

-If this is somehow a farce, I am so getting banished for this..-

Slow clapping caught her attention as she approached the cell. Xenilla sat behind the bars, free of his now demolished restraints; slowly applauding what he'd just seen.

"Quite impressive..."

Blade Dancer ignored his remark as she tinkered with the lock. After some trial and error she managed to slide the key in right and turn it. A clicking sound seeped out from the bars and the crystals in front of the cell ceased to glow. She'd turned the spell off. Xenilla got up as Blade Dancer opened the door. He stopped upon noticing the large cut across her face.

"You are injured..."

The guardsmare, still surging on endorphins, hadn't felt her wound yet. She touched her forelimb to her face, pulling it away to see blood staining her pale fur. Didn't feel too bad to her.

"Oh it's nothing, just a scratch. I've had-"

Xenilla put his forelimb to her chin, silencing her as he looked over the slash. Blood trickled down more and more at every twitch of her eye and facial muscles. Blade Dancer, her natural pain killers beginning to subside, began to wince. It was pretty deep.

"Hmp... First time anyone has been harmed on my behalf..."

The unicorn's shoulder patches flickered with light as energy surged out of them, down his free hoof, and into the ground. Emerging from the floor was small, brightly glowing blue crystal no bigger than a small pen. It freed itself from the floor and levitated up towards the mare's face. Instinctively she backed away, but a firm grasp around her shoulders and chest by Xenilla held her in place. Telekinetic energy constricted and shattered the glowing gem into a shimmering dust. The dust glittered with brilliance as it gently poured into the wound. Blade Dancer, still frozen in place, felt a slight tingling and numbing sensation go across her face. The wound pushed itself back together from the inside out, and within moments; closed without as much as a scar.

Xenilla let go of the mare as she ran her hoof over her face. Other than some dried blood clinging to her fur, it felt no different than the uninjured side of her face. The unicorn walked past her a few steps, heading for the exit.

"How did you?... Do that?"

"Healing crystal, hyper accelerates cellular regeneration... Call it a favor."

Blade Dancer couldn't fight a smile as she turned around, picking up her wing blades before starting after her cohort.

"Thanks.... Now, let's go save the princess!"

Xenilla stopped dead in his tracks and stood still for a moment. Blade Dancer raised an eyebrow as she walked up behind him. Unexpectedly, the unicorn whirled around and threw out his hoof as his mane and shoulders glowed. Strands of telekinesis grabbed the guardsmare like a giant hand and lifted her off her hooves. Eyes snapping open in shock, Blade Dancer struggled and kicked out best she could but to no avail. The hold was not crushing, but unfalteringly firm as it levitated her back into Xenilla's former cell. The door slammed shut behind her and the key popped out of the lock. Blade Dancer, landing on her hooves, tried to grab at the key as Xenilla hovered it towards him, only for a re-actived force field to keep her from reaching out of her cell.

"XENI WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

"I appreciate your aid Miss Dancer, but I can sense my opponent is closing in. I have engagements to keep that I cannot be late for. I would much rather you not risk yourself foolishly in some crossfire..."

"F-Fine but what's with throwing me in here?!"

Xenilla glanced at the key, inspecting it.

"I do not take unnecessary risks Miss Dancer, I simply do not. Dungeons are built strong, as hard to break into as they are to break out of. You will be... secure, here."

With that, he turned and walked down the long, dark hall, putting the key down behind a weapon's closet he passed by. He waved back at the mare, not bothering to turn around. He could already feel dark energy beginning to intrude upon the castle grounds.

"I will return to free you in a few hours, entertain yourself until then or something I don't care."

Silenced passed after he walked up the flight of stairs and exited the jailhouse. Blade Dancer was more than infuriated, her face as red as her mane.

"XENI!? XENILLA?!.......... TYPICAL STALLIO- KAIJU!-THING! GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

She slumped down and crossed her hooves, pouting.

==========================

Crystal Castle, Royal chambers

The air shifted, becoming cold and dank as a darkness settled in from a cracked window. A blackness, so dark that it cast a shadow into the very night, spread out from the walls and into the floor. Purple and black smoke seeped out from the crystals that composed the castle itself, mending together to reconstitute their master's form. A red cape flowed in the small breeze that seeped in from the window as an ethereal mane and tail crackled like a silent flame. Chilled mist seeped out of a fanged maw as a tyrant king sighed before chuckling. Cadance lay in her bed alone, occasionally twitching or groaning in her slumber. She'd never see him coming. This was far too easy.

King Somba's blood red horn crackled with malefic light, aerenth crystals silently tore free from the floor and slithered across the bed like serpents. The obsidian black gem stones coiled and grabbed at Cadance's hooves, creating chains and bonds to hold her still. If Sombra had any sense of it anymore, he'd almost call it a shame. Alicorns were a very rare breed, with magical potential far exceeding the normal breeds outside of extraordinary circumstance. In olden times, such a creature would be considered special, a demigod perhaps. Sombra grinned, standing at the foot of the bed as Cadance's eyes slowly began to flutter open. He held up a spire of aerenth with his magic, hovering it above the bed and aiming it at the pink mare's heart.

-Always wanted to assert myself over a demigod, but running one through the heart will do...-

The split second the young alicorn's eyes were opened and she saw who was looming over her, she was sure she was still in a nightmare. But as the cold air stung her coat, the aerenth binding constricted her limbs, and Sombra's slow chuckle resonated into her mind; she knew a nightmare wasn't bad enough. She'd woken up into Tartarus itself. She struggled and lashed at her bindings, her horn glimmering with magic as she managed to crack one of the aerenths. Sombra's chuckle matured into a maniacal laughter as he raised his spear, about to bring it down. If he stopped relishing the moment whilst mentally gloating, and focused more on the loud footsteps bearing down on the front door, he might have been able to get out of the way.

Xenilla rammed himself through the chamber's entrance, knocking the door off its hinges so hard it flew across the room and shattered the would-be-spear. He said nothing, he did nothing. He just kept bulldozing forward towards the very startled and confused crystal monarchs. He slammed chest first into Sombra's midsection full force and knocked the wind out of the tyrant with his tackle. Xenilla roared and kept charging forward, throwing both of them out a presently shattered stained glass window.

After tumbling through the air for a hefty distance, the two crashed through the roof of the main hall. Rolling apart, dark magic and regenerative prowess mending any broken bones; the two stallions glared each other down. Xenilla looked his opponent over, chuckling as he matched a now clear view of the being before him to the illustration Key Ring had shown him. He loved being right.

"King Nuestro Odio Sombra I presume? And just when I was beginning to think you wouldn't show up too.... I was getting bored."

"You again!?"

The dark unicorn narrowed his eyes in a sneer, slowly pacing forward as small aerenths sprung up around him with every step. The green glow in his eyes was only increasing, as more smoke billowed from his orbs.

"Who... are you supposed to be... to challenge ME!?"

The blue unicorn kept a stern glare, meeting the pace with his own as white quartz pierced the floor, flanking him during his advance. Red energy gathered in his mane and shoulder patches, sparks of crimson light dancing across his body like electricity.

"Well, if you go with the good empress's cover story with a false identity, I am Ambassador Damien Nassir Xenilla... But since you royals seem to have no immunity to imbecility, I'll make it easy for you to remember. My name however is Xenilla. You may think of me as Mordred."

"You dare to call me an imbecile?!"

"No, that would be a compliment..."

"Enough talk!"

Sombra lunged forward, raising a small pillar of aerenth crystal and swinging it down like a club. Reacting quickly, Xenilla stomped a hoof on the ground and brought up his own quartz to block the strike. Like locked blades, the crystals shuddered and stressed as they tried to push their foe away.

"Funny. From what I'm told, you've already spoken more than you did first time you returned. Progress."

Sombra's eyes became eclipsed in a green and black light as red energy built up in Xenilla's maw, licking out from his lips and fangs. Malefic magic and plasma born wrath collided point blank. The entire hall was covered in a flash of light before all the condensed energy flared out. The resulting explosion rumbled the entire castle like a seismic tremor, throwing both King Sombra and Xenilla in opposite directions. Fel Unicorn and kaiju slammed into opposite walls, cracking the surface significantly before struggling free. His shadow magic mending his wounds, King Sombra barely had time to look up to see Xenilla charging at him like an oncoming freight train. Kaiju grabbed tyrant and kept moving forward through the wall, despite taking several magic blasts to his chest and shoulder

The castle shook and trembled from the ongoing battle down below. Cadance, still tied down, took in a deep breath as she felt her strength returning. She didn't know how Sombra was back, why Xenilla attacked him and saved her life; or what exactly was going on at the moment. All that didn't matter. She was a princess of Equestria, a protector of its people. And two juggernauts throwing it down in her kingdom, even if one's threat was more ambiguous than the other, and putting her citizenry at risk was something she'd never tolerate. Her earth pony strength reaching its apex, she tore her right hoof free from its bond and shattered her left hoof's tomb. Not wasting a moment, she flew from her bed and towards an aged cabinet in the back of the room.

It was an ancient piece, even more so than most of the time-lost empire. The cabinet belonged to someone very important before her, as did its content. Cadance just hoped the one modification she made wouldn't cause any detriment to it. Throwing open the cabinet's doors, Cadance was treated to the sight of ancient armor gleaming in Luna's moonlight. She just hoped she was going after the right unicorn.

Author's Note

Proof Reading by Skylark and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by Faith-Wolff

Xenilla (Spacegodzilla) owned by Toho Company Ltd.
MLP:FiM owned by Hasbro Studios and Bonnie_Zacherle
Blade Dancer owned by Fiddlesticks
Key Ring owned by Himself

Next time on The Bridge!:
Cultural traditions can lead to confusion. Advise from your best friend might accidentally set something in motion. Hilarity ensues

Please do check out the Reading List by Lance Omikron to navigate the Amalgam Universe most clearly :raritywink:

Valentine's Day Special: There Will be No Romance Chapter

Author's Note

IMPORTANTE: Publishing early for the holiday, artwork will come later, please be patient

Proof reading by Skylark and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by Faith-Wolff

I also wanted to give a special thank you to all our TVTropers to your continued work on "The Bridge's" article. I would like to ask however, that if your TVtropes name is different from your FimFiction name (like ZimFan), that you say who you are in the comments so I can recognize all of you for your great work! Lance, Vampy, Vi, and the others, you have all done fantastic!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
A full on battle royale breaks out in the empire, Nightmares closing in; and puppet master makes himself known...

Please do check out the Reading List by Lance Omikron to navigate the Amalgam Universe most clearly :raritywink:

Valentine's Day Special: There Will be No Romance Chapter

The Bridge: Valentine's Day Special

What happens when you try to write a comedic chapter with Kaiju and Ponies

============

Maretropolis

In an isolated alleyway on the edge of the city, the air chilled and swirled. A large, oval projection of dark purple energy, akin to a wall mirror, opened up on the side of a building and three beings dropped out from it. One of them, a young woman in a white jacket, skillfully rolled across the ground and got to her feet. Her two cohorts had less success. While one did manage to nimbly land on his feet, the other, larger young man crashed into him midfall and toppled both of them.

Irys only needed a brief glance at how small she was in relation to the buildings and the inability to feel her wings to figure out she'd gotten turned into a human again. And much to her surprise, she wasn't the only one. Irys quickly turned around to help her still recognizable comrades up, unable to brush aside the huge amount of déjà-vu she was feeling. The one she quickly figured out had once been Gigan was the leaner of the two, looking about X's age. His hair was medium cut and silvery gray, his bangs noticeably jutting forward. She couldn't tell his eye color due to they and a good portion of his face being obscured by broad sunglasses. His attire, like those of X and Irys, matched his body colors for the most part and was largely gray and dark blue with bits of red. He wore a large long sleeve shirt with a flat jacket over the top, dark colored camouflage pants, a large belt knife; and steel plated boots finished the look. Dog tags wrapped around his neck shimmered in the noon day light. When Irys held his arm to hold the delirious kaiju turned human, she instantly felt something off. True, Zenith was far from the warmest place but his forearm felt incredibly cold to the touch. Glancing down, she got her answer.

Gigan didn't have an arm from the elbow down, least not one made of flesh and bone. Instead the entire lower half of his upper appendages were a pair of mechanical arms and hands. Right down to the digits poking out of his fingerless gloves. It took a moment for Gigan's vision to clear, but getting one look at his hand made him freeze up. That and the fact he couldn't feel his tail.

"Hey, Gigan, you with us?"

"I'm..."

"-human... ish... Side effect of the realm jumping, remember X and I's outing?"

"I... yes... It's just..."

He raised up his free hand and looked at it with a halfway bewildered and halfway disgusted expression, wiggling his fingers. This felt beyond weird.

"...New..."

"Well you'll have to get used to it while we're here. Guess the boss couldn't expend extra power to maintain our full forms."

Gigan balled a fist, fidgeting with the internal mechanics of his arm. To his delight, the hand cocked back slightly and a foot long blade resembling his old scythe sprung out of the top of his wrist. The sunglasses wearing cyborg smirked, welcoming back familiarity.

"A sound conjecture, though looks like some things don't change."

Irys couldn't help but feel a bit jealous. She'd lost her flight, beam, and shield. All she had left was a few diminished fangs in her mouth.

"Well I wouldn't keep the cutlery out any longer than needed. Being able to blend in will help in speeding things along."

"True. Personally I'd prefer to get back as fast as possible."

"Why's that?"

"....Let's just say some things that occurred last time need not be repeated."

A third voice broke the conversation.

"Hey guys, little help?"

Turning around Irys and Gigan spotted what had to be Megalon. Or at least Megalon's legs sticking out of a clothes bin. Taking one limb each, Irys and Gigan managed to yank him out. It took awhile because the third member of their party was ridiculously heavy. Soon as he was up and standing next to Gigan, Irys had to keep herself from laughing at the irony of Megalon calling the older cyborg 'big' brother. Gigan's build was fairly lean, a bit thinner than X had been but about the same height. Megalon was built like a block, broad all around and a bit bulky.

The younger cyborg's hair was shorter, but messy enough to the point Irys couldn't tell if the brown was natural or stained from the dirt that caked itself all over him. He had eyewear as well, but only in the form of dust coated goggles wrung around his neck. His attire was fairly simple. A light brown long sleeve shirt that tucked into elbow length work gloves, tan pants who's mud caked pattern resembled the cyborg's now missing wing shields; and pad covered mining boots. Megalon looked at his now fingered hand in mild facination as Gigan glanced around at their surroundings.

Taking notice of the mud caking his sibling unit, Gigan rolled his eyes and spoke with a grumble.

"I thought I told you to wipe that filth off in your down time or it'll get in your circuitry."

"You call it filth, I call it a healthy coating of minerals."

"Oye."

"Do you two just want to head back to base? If these bodies are too odd for you I can handle this myself if needed."

Gigan rolled his eyes, still feeling a bit odd that organ was now plural, as he wiped off some dirt Megalon's leg had stuck to him.

"We'll be fine, but where are we anyways?"

The portal back to Zenith had closed and the trio's attention shifted to the world outside of the alley. It looked like a decent sized city, though thankfully not heavily populated aside from about a dozen or so citizens walking between shops and a few cars in the streets. There wasn't a crowd in sight. Odd considering how many skyscrapers were there, which would make one think the city was packed. Megalon nudged Irys.

"Hey, you and Mr. X went to that one realm with humans. Think we're there again?"

Irys studied the sights she could see for familiar landmarks. Truth be told she couldn't stop herself from trying to spy a head of curly red and yellow hair. Unfortunately, she saw neither on both accounts. The settlement she was at last barely even had any buildings over five stories, let alone fifty.

"No, this doesn't look familiar. Besides the master said this was a new realm remember?"

She noticed Gigan looked intently at a billboard plastered to a street light bordering the park.

"Something up Gigan?"

His voice was noticeably sullen, though she couldn't tell if the gloom was from dread or annoyance.

"I think I know where we are..."

"Where?"

"Weee're back in a realm I checked out, or at least somewhere similar."

For one reason or another the elder cyborg had refused to talk much about what exactly occurred on his endeavor. Still, Irys remembered how surprised he looked upon noticing recent changes. Surprise like that means it couldn't have happened before.

"But you didn't change last time did you?"

"No, no I didn't. Just shrunk a bit. There wasn't any humans here either. It was all equines like back in loony land."

"Loony land?"

"The main realm, the one with ponies."

Bad memories were quickly swallowed back. Irys kept her voice quiet, but calm.

"Oh... Well, if this 'Equestrian Realm' has multiple side realms attached to it; maybe some of the smaller realms also link together?"

"Like the world you went to seemed like a human version of Equestria proper. If there is a human version of the other side realms-"

"Then we're in a human version of the realm you went to."

"Explains why the city's name is the same. You'd think they'd stop the equine puns if they were humans though."

"Meh, don't question it too much... Getting back to business though, I take it this is another search and claim mission?"

Gigan put his hand to the side of his head. Thankfully, some more things didn't change. Learning from experience he was careful only to turn on one vision setting at a time. After a few options he got something with results, smirking.

"That it is, picking up two odd energy signatures in the city limits."

Irys cocked an eyebrow and looked over.

"How are you-"

Gigan took off his sunglasses. Though he had two now, the eyes behind his eyelids were just as artificial as they always were, somewhat resembling camera lenses. Irys rolled her eyes, the Nebulan creation only chuckled.

"Right, cyborg. Keep forgetting."

He put his glasses back on, the world always looking better to him through a reddish filter anyways. He stepped out onto the sidewalk and pointed.

"First target is about a kilometer directly that way, in some building's first floor-"

He motioned to the large central park across the street from them.

"And picking up something else similar distance this way, probably in the center of the park."

"Well then, since you seem so eager to get back to base let's split up. I'll take the one down the street, you handle the park."

"Works for me, take Megalon with you."

"Anything I should know about him on the job?"

Gigan was about to answer her when he saw something behind them that made him hold in place with a slight frown. Raising an eyebrow, Irys looked behind them and followed his point of view. Megalon was still behind them, leaning over the edge of a trash bin and giving a hissing alley cat a fascinated look. Tilting his head, Megalon reached forward for the feline; whom promptly reacted by shrilling and tackling his head. Megalon jumped up and flailed, falling over onto his back as the cat jumped off and bolted away. Gigan was nonchalant about it all, but felt a bead of sweat drop from his face.

"Yeeeeaaaaaaaaah try to make sure he has direction or he gets sidetracked... a lot. Don't leave him unattended, ever."

Irys rubbed the back of her head, nodding.

"Ehehe, okay noted."

"Alright then, I'm off."

Gigan turned around and ran forward two steps. He leaped up into the air... and acquainted his face with the sidewalk. His voice was muffled, but still clearly annoyed. Of all the cybernetic systems he could lose in the transformation, it seemed his thrusters didn't survive the transfer...

"I... HATE... this body..."

=========================

Canterlot Castle, Lunar Wing

Godzilla Junior turned a bit in bed, tiredness ebbing away every millisecond as he started to wake up and open his eyes. Judging from how the sun beams trickled in from the window he'd slept in until about noon. Then again at Celestia's request he was to get as much sleep as possible to speed up his recovery. Seemed like a pleasant day nonetheless, quite like a few back at the institute he called his birthplace actually. Sun was shining through the curtains and windows, he could hear some birds outside, low rumble of many footsteps going about their business in the building around him, something was chewing on his tail; and-

Junior's eyes opened a bit more at that last thought.

There was a gentle back and forth tugging on his tail's hairs, akin to slight chewing. Craning his head up to look to the source, Junior reassigned the thought of "this day is like at the institute" to "this day is like one on Infant Island". Mothra Lea, guardian of all mortals, defender of the planet, and wisest kaiju Junior knew was harmlessly teething on his tail, looking up at him with a smile. He rolled his eyes and chuckled. Business as usual.

"...Really? Not even waiting until I'm awake?"

She let go of his tail's hairs and lightly booped his cheek with her hoof.

"Awww but this new body makes you look so adorable when you snooze!~"

"Leleeeee...."

She put her hooves up defensively, dramatically rolling her eyes. It was good to be able to loosen up again with someone besides Twilight. She was amongst her oldest friend and could afford it. Helped that their new situation had some perks to it. Not only were they more on the same level now, but in the body of a unicorn, Junior's appearance didn't cause certain nightmares to resurface. There were no bad flashbacks, only laughter.

"Kiiiiiiiiiiiiidding... ish... Anyways I was just popping in. Was waiting for you to wake up."

"Funny way of doing it."

"Hey I've been doing it since we met, you never minded."

"Except that first time you drew blood."

"Hey I thought you were an enemy! To be fair I only bit down on it because you swatted me with that thing."

"Mistakes were made, sue me."

Lea smiled, leaning forward and nuzzling her best friend lightly.

"Just wanted to see if you were alright Goji."

Rain or shine, sleet or snow; Lea wasn't just one of the smartest souls Junior knew, but she was also always one of the kindest. He returned the nuzzle with a smile.

"Never change Lele."

Lea pulled back and ground a hoof against Junior's scalp, ruffling his mane.

"Not until I can get someone else to keep an eye out for a numbskull like you."

A small laugh was shared and Junior rolled himself out of bed. Stretching himself back out, having still not fully gotten used to sleeping on a mattress, he checked over his limbs. Most of his scars had vanished entirely, those remaining being only a thin line or two across his limbs and presumably face. He felt so much stronger than the day before, the trickling power he felt from the sunlight seeping into him only making it better.

"Think I'm almost back to full strength."

Lea trotted over to the unicorn, tugging open the window shades a bit more to help out.

"Excellent. Think some sun might cap it off?"

"Probably."

"Then, why not a walkabout? Can't imagine you've fancied being bed ridden for the past few days."

"I'd take on two Orgas and an alien invasion over it had you or others not kept dropping in... Walk sounds good though. Captain Frost gave me extended leave from duty anyways."

He glanced over to the changeling.

"Pardon the curiosity though, but what have you been up to all this time in Canterlot?"

"Oh? Mostly going through the royal archives with Twilight for my studies. I did research some things about this world though."

"Like?"

"Apparently my new species are shape shifters."

Junior's eyebrows raised in a bemused manner. Shape shifting, least by means outside of the natural lifecycle; was incredibly rare back home. Lea with her aquatic form and division ability was the only being he knew personally who could do it. And he could count other examples he knew of like Destroyah or Hedorah with one hand. The idea that Lea could now have even more of this ability had his interest. After all it was shape shifting magic that got him into this predicament to begin with.

"Any limitations?"

"Apparently only to something of similar size, mass, and gender."

"... Can you do it?"

Lea backed up a bit, and rubbed her chin. She'd read all the pages, memorized the notes, and knew all the details; but hadn't attempted to pull it off fully just yet. She concentrated, squinting her eyes as her horn began to glimmer with enchanted light.

"Well... lemme just try toooo-"

For a split second Lea's entire body looked like it was ignited with white and green flames, nearly causing Junior to lurch forward to try and extinguish them. Before he could move an inch however, the changeling was replaced with a familiar purple alicorn. Standing before him was a replica of Twilight Sparkle. Or at least how Twilight Sparkle might look in seven years or so given the taller frame and different build. 'Twilight' lifted up her hoof and gasped, glee spreading over her face.

"Oh?! Wow it actually worked!"

The voice was pretty close to the one Junior heard in the slide show, though it was a smidge deeper like one would associate with aging. Still, rest of the look was pretty well done. If he didn't know it was her, Junior wouldn't have recognized a hair on Lea's head.

"Looks so, though I don't remember Miss Sparkle being about my height. She must be too small for your body mass. Maybe try someone taller?"

'Twilight' nodded, her horn glowing once again as she concentrated.

"Okay, just give me a moment..."

Same greenish fire, different equine. This time, the solar princess made an entrance. 'Celestia' fanned her wings and looked them over, running a hoof through her eternal mane. She grinned, very uncharacteristically wagging her tail like an excited puppy. Junior had to refrain from laughing at the sight of someone he'd seen so unfailingly regal act so chipper. Lea always did get excited about new spells.

"Looks about right, nice work Lea."

"Thanks, let me try a few mooore."

Another flare, another alicorn. Now Princess Luna was standing once again in her chamber. 'Luna' looked herself over, once again fanning her wings and feeling her ethereal mane with a hoof. Junior gave an amused nod, circling her a bit to give the new form a once over.

"Hm... pretty close, could definitely pass as her from a distance; but your posing is a bit off. She holds herself a bit taller, doesn't relax her wings as much."

'Luna' drew a smirk with a raised eyebrow.

"Spoken like someone of experience. Someone been spending a lot of time with the night princess? What have you been up too Gooojii?~"

She leaned in close to him, cracking a goofy grin. Junior narrowed his eyes and gently nudged her muzzle away with a hoof.

"She's dropped by a few times at night to keep me company and kill time. Besides I fought her, tend to notice some things."

'Luna' snickered, before disappearing into another flare of harmless flames. What emerged from the flames however was not anyone Junior had ever seen. Or rather, he'd never seen not looking at a mirror.

It was himself. Same crooked horn, same charcoal gray fur, the same spiky ivory hued mane. Only the body was a bit leaner built and the eyelashes noticeably longer. 'Junior' and Junior looked at each other. The latter stayed seated with a tad wide eyed expression, the former cracked a grin very uncharacteristic of Godzilla.

"Well... Now I know what I look like if my egg had been a bit colder when it was laid. You do that on purpose?"

'Junior' flushed a bit in the face, rubbing the back of her head in embarrassment.

"Whoops! Was curious what would happen if I tried to disguise as a stallion. Welp, now we know."

"Well it's a nice trick nonetheless."

'Junior' nodded before biting her lip. She looked out into the city below, remembering something that had been on her mind. Now with the shape shifting spell down, might as well give it a whirl.

"Stand back a second, gonna try something."

"What?"

"Make an original design from the others."

Junior backed up as requested as 'Junior's horn sparked and glimmered with a rainbow of magical light. Green and white flames appeared over her body at first, but soon took the multi-hue colors of her magical aura. It was a stunning sight to behold, as was the end result.

Lea was back, except she wasn't. The same sky blue-emerald green eyes were present, but compacted into a gradient across the iris. Body color was the same, abet now it was a coating of short fur as opposed to smooth chitin. Her tall frame was still very much present, but now capped off with a spiraling, conical horn that was no longer jagged. Small fangs and butterfly wings however? Completely gone. Not a tooth poked out from the lip line and now her wings more closely resembled a dove's than any insect. Godzilla Junior was looking at Equestria's newest alicorn.

Lea looked herself over best she could, walking in circles to try and get a better view of her wings and tail. She'd come up with this design by combining her changeling body with that of Princess Celestia. However, having formed it via a mental picture rather than a memory, she was a bit unsure. And given what she had planned for such a form, nervous.

"Now... this is important, so no bias ok?.... How do I look? Any issues? Flaws? Magic errors?"

Junior only smiled, bowing his head slightly for a few moments before looking up at her.

"Well I'd say you look stunning Lele."

Before he could react however, the new alicorn lurched forward and yanked him into a very strong, very unladylike bear hug. Lea beamed.

"Awwww thank you Goji! You can be a real softy when you feel like it."

The unicorn grumbled a bit, but couldn't help but return the gesture for a moment before breaking off.

"Don't get too used to it.

"I've seen 'it' for seventeen years Junior, it's not new.

The unicorn growled slightly, but opted to get back to business and address a question at hand... or was it hoof now?

"You mentioned it was important, why?"

"Well, turns out this city hasn't had the best history with changeling queens. They were attacked awhile ago and many still vividly remember it. And Twilight having to hide me if we go out in public has been a bit of a inconvenience."

"Beeecaaause you worried if you were seen, someone might get déjà-vu and panic. Right?"

"Precisely. And, inevitably the populace is going to have to meet us one way or another. If I could find a form that wouldn't scare them as much, I'd call it a good day."

"Well I'd say you have it fairly well set. If anyone panics at you right now I think they need their eyes checked."

Lea smiled for a moment before her face flinched and twitched in memory of something.

"Ooooooooh that... reminds me.... Goji, whatever you do.. Do.not.leave.the castle..."

Junior growled slightly, rolling his eyes as he looked at the city below. He didn't really want to go wandering in it much, but he'd been informed about the situation by Luna. By now he really should be used to such reception. Wasn't like he could go strolling up next to L.A. back on Terra and not cause a panic.

"Oye, I take it the ponies are still up in arms?"

"Divided right down the middle, and still debating. And unlike the others who can still hide, the papers got a clear as day picture of you. Step out the gates and everyone would recognize you."

Junior shrugged as Lea stooped beside him, stretching a wing over his shoulders.

"True, some of them are rallying in your support. Their defense of you is quite admirable. But, the other half is either running scared or calling you out. Country is split right down the middle. You showed a peaceful generation bloodshed for the first time. They, just don't know how to react to it I suppose... The princesses and I are working out some plans to help smooth things over, but they'll need some time."

Junior shrugged slightly, but rubbed his shoulder up against Lea some. Typical of an alicorn, her fur felt soft as velvet. He smiled slightly.

"Well from the sound of it, the city would be much more trouble than it's worth. Lord Tanaka knows I prefer peace and quiet. Besides, the royal gardens look nice enough from up here. Think I'll just stick to them and find something to do. Don't worry with me."

Lea playfully bapped him on the back of his head with her wing before turning to walk out of the chamber.

"I'm a clingy, eccentric, orphan with a mothering complex. Of course I'm going to worry."

Junior's smile diminished considerably and he walked after her. Catching up to the alicorn, he gave her the bear hug this time. Didn't matter it was a tad awkward due to her height. He said only that which was needed, in a tone only a handful of souls had ever heard. There was only one group who he'd let all his baggage and guards down around. His surviving family. And Junior had adopted a sister long ago.

"I'll try not to give you a heart attack Lea."

The new alicorn beamed as warmth flew over her.

"What spurred this Junior?"

"I'd lost count. But let's start with not letting me fall flat on my face after de-morphing."

She curled a wing and hoof around him.

"You always could be a sweetie when giving a 'thank you'."

Her words did ponder a question though as he let go.

"Anything else before I get back to the library? Twilight's probably fallen asleep on a tome pile by now."

"Well, not to keep you much longer, but there is one thing..."

"Hm?"

Thoughts trailed back to how morbidly bored he'd been while stuck in this chamber for several days. Or at least how dull it would have been without some outside help.

"Princess Luna, I feel a bit indebted to her."

"Oh? So you two are getting along well after all? I can hear the castle repair bills singing from here."

"Veeery funny. But I have been sleeping in her bed for the past few days, and as mentioned before she's dropped in a few times to chat. I probably would have put my head through a wall had she not... So, any idea how to return a favor? I know I don't do well without something to do."

Lea walked alongside him as they tread down a hall, turning more than a couple of heads.

"Hm... Well I did converse with a lot of different humans back home. Different cultures have different ways of exchanging formal thanks. As a royal she might take offense to a bear hug."

She glanced out the window to the gardens below, spying some of the relaxing castle staff amongst the shrubs, ponds, and trees.

"Maybe watch some of the locals while on your walkabout? See what they do."

"Couldn't hurt."

The two came to the fork in the halls, Junior going one way and Lea going another.

"That's the spirit! I'll probably be in the library for hours to come. Drop in if you need me."

======================

Maretropolis Central Park

Gigan could only be thankful for a few things. For one his unique mixture of mechanical and biological parts transferred over well to his new body and he didn't end up horribly mutilated. And secondly, much as he missed flying or teleporting, walking still worked about the same. And thankfully the park was fairly empty.

The central park itself was fairly large, consisting of large fields, a few clusters of small forest, a couple ponds; and a large circular ring in the core bordered by hedge walls. Forgetting about his missing warp drive or thrusters, he focused on the systems he still hard working. He swept his visual scanners to and fro, following the energy radiation along its trail. The energy seemed to be a type he'd only seen a few times over the span of his tours. One that instantly made him grumble upon recognizing it. Magic. Unpredictable, unstudied, unstable; magic. In his mind such a thing only existed to annoy the intelligence trying to understand it. Regardless of personal views, he followed the pulses of magic to the park's interior ring like a bloodhound and soon found himself standing before the source.

A three meter tall granite statue of a woman riding on a horse, resting on a two meter square pedestal stood before him. Aside from the invisible energy pulses, nothing really seemed out of the ordinary about the figure. Aside from how the woman's hair and mare's mane curiously looked very similar.

-Huh... well taking this back might be a hassle-

The statue, or more directly one of the sides of the pedestal surged with power. Gigan tried to back up as the energy readings began to skyrocket. Purple and pink energy danced across the side facing him. He didn't have time to get out of the way before a large figure came flying out of it and accidentally tackled him. Gigan slid across the ground and hit his head on a metal park bench, briefly dazing him. The figure laying on top of him was in a similar state, putting a hand on her wobbling head to try and stop the cukoo birds from flying around her dazed cranium.

Both of their vision cleared at the same time. Sitting on Gigan's stomach was a tall framed woman with royal purple skin. Her hair was a contrasting lime and leaf green, with the bangs being cut noticeably shorter than the back, which was easily Rapunzel lengths. Only a fretting glance at her gray and purple suit and crazed, green and red eyes were needed to recognize her. Sadly, wearing a pair of oakleys didn't hide Gigan from her memory for long.

Mane-iac's face lit up like a roman candle.

"My beloved Barberous Barber! You've come back to me!"

She made a lunge at his now beak and mandible less face. Gigan was a state of the art killer cyborg. He was an employed mercenary been involved in more ventures and covertures than he hoped to count. He'd slashed enemies to ribbons, set them ablaze with plasma fire; and then teleport away before they could even react. All while trudging through enemy fire with a forearm blown off and half his sails burnt away. He'd fought giant dragons, cosmic monstrosities, giant war machines; and mutated dinosaurs.

But this, this terrified him.

The noise that came out of his mouth as he threw his arms up to try and shove Mane-iac away could be favorably compared to a screaming sheep.

====================

Canterlot Royal Gardens

Junior looked up at the gleaming sun above the waterline, as the nipping cold slithered past him. He'd have killed for more calmer moments like this back home. He never could quite get a good grasp on any lasting peace with all the fighting. Life was busy. Busy traveling, busy pitting himself up against the newest name to the list of monstrosities trying to threaten the humans, busy healing up from the fight; busy doing it all over again. The quieter times with Lea or the others on Solgell were probably the one thing that kept him sane over the decades. He'd effectively been at war for seventeen years straight, and he'd craved lasting peace since the first year.

Judging from what he'd been told, this world could almost be a paradise then. Still had its conflicts, certainly. But for his little adventure to have scared so many by the merit of being their first taste of lethal combat, something certainly needed be said about the peacefulness they lived in. Some may call it naivety. He called it untaintedness. If Terra could be a place like this, he'd die happy.

Junior grumbled, bubbles leaking out of his lips, as he shrugged. Many of the pleasant thoughts were brushed aside. He couldn't harp on that which he wasn't going to get. Heroes were those inspired others around them. They were cheered for. Lea got cheers, the human mecha pilots got cheers; he was fairly certain this world's leaders and Element bearers were cheered for by the masses. They were heroes and heroines, they deserved it. Monsters like just terrified those masses. Always have, always will. Just like he since the day he was tall.

-This isn't for you Godzilla, don't grow too attached to this place's peace. Peace is for heroes and the unburdened. It never lasts long around monsters. It'll only hurt more if you hold out for it...-

He frowned and shifted, halfway swimming and halfway walking back to the surface. Crawling out of the pond he'd been meditating under, Junior shook himself dry and wandered off. He didn't even give some onlooking and confused staff a glance.

He'd seen much in his years. When he hatched into this world, he knew what it felt like to be small. To be vulnerable as a human, like his mother. It meant being terrified of those mightier than yourself, who'd just walk over you solely because they had the power to do it. He knew what it felt like to be powerless. And when the young prince was forced to be a king, he knew what it felt like to have gained great power. To suddenly both figuratively and literally tower over almost any other. Still, he remembered and wouldn't let his new height make him trample the small ones underfoot. He wouldn't do it, nor would he permit anyone to.

-From one who has been entrusted with much, much more will then be asked from them. You've been given great power Junior, more than almost anyone else. It's your job to use it for those who don't have that power...-

He walked between some small shrubs, disguised behind their stalks as he looked at some of the garden goers beyond them. He didn't want to think about what it might have been like for them had the gyaos gotten inside. Mortals deserve to have their lives guided by themselves and the heroes around them, not to be snuffed out by monsters.

-They have the luxury of normalcy. There are threats they can't face, but I can. Thus, I am responsible for their safety. That's why I stopped the flock, because I couldn't let them perish to monsters...-

It was incredibly easy to mentally overlay the ponies with humans. While not similar in looks, they were near identical in role. Normal lives who deserved to live unmolested. It only confirmed his argument. Peace was not for him. He had his burden.

-This is what I fight for. This is what I scar for. This is what I wait in recovery for. And the reward, I have to do it all over again until the day I kill over. That is my responsibility to them. If I sought out anything lasting for my own gain it would only be selfish. I have my health, my friends; my life. That'll have to be enough...-

The sigh he exerted could have vented smoke. Remembering Lea's advice, his mind shifted gears best it could. He still had that debt to work off. Moving surprisingly silently despite his large form, Junior trod along behind the foliage and watched the park goers. They were a varied lot. Some faces he recalled from the barracks, being off duty guards. Others were exterior staff hard at work trimming the grasses and foliage. Others appeared to be interior staff coming out to relax, such as a maid having a picnic with her family near the pond. If Lea suggested he mimic what the ponies do, there certainly was a lot of interactions to remember.

He frowned slightly, biting his lip.

-Too many... Maybe I should focus on a pair?-

Right on cue, he spotted a bat winged pegasus stallion and unicorn mare walking fairly close to one another. They were saying something, but he couldn't quite make it out. Whatever was spoken, she sat down under a tree with her eyes closed not far from Junior's location and the stallion ran around a corner in the opposite direction. Curious, Junior increased his pace and got to a point he could see. The stallion half ran and half glided over to a large flower cart. The exact process of buying and selling was a human concept Junior admittedly still didn't fully understand. But this exchange in particular was a bit eyebrow raising.

It appeared the stallion bought a rose from the cart owner, and seemed quite happy about it. Junior meanwhile was more confused at why he'd waste time buying a flower. They were in a garden surrounded by flora and flowers, including roses.

-Why not just pick one out of a bush or out of the ground? Seems like less trouble than finding a cart-

Still, he watched on and saw the stallion very eagerly run back to the waiting mare. The stallion said something, though this time Junior did pick up a "Thank you for-" in the sentence before a chirping bird cut his hearing's focus off. Whatever he said being important or not, the green mare looked happy enough upon opening her eyes and seeing the flower. She took the rose with a large smile and hugged her companion. They'd just begun rubbing necks when Junior walked off even more confused than he started.

-Sooo ponies give each other flowers, to show thanks?... Huh?-

He'd seen humans give each other flowers before. Years ago, some human male kept giving his adoptive mother Dr. Gojo roses during Junior's days back at the institute, but he never really understood the meaning. Still it was a nice man, even gave the then infant Junior some donuts or hamburger to chew on, and Junior's mother seemed happy enough to see the man so Junior never took it as anything big. He knew signs of affection well enough, be it pats on the head, hugging, or in his case letting Lea chew on his tail. But this did leave him groping for answers.

-Well, ponies and humans are herbivores and omnivores. Maybe it's like showing thanks by giving a friend a snack? Maybe Mum ate all those roses she kept getting?-

He walked over to a part of the garden littered with a vast assortment of flowers, both on the shrubs, in the trees; and floating on the ponds. Orange blossoms, dandelions, sun flowers, lotuses, you name it, it was there. Junior tried and failed to look at this like food. Even if he munched on a few herbs and petals as a baby, this seemed too weird.

-Odd choice... Eh, maybe they taste different to them? Who knows...-

Remembering the type the stallion got and not wanting to deviate from what he saw, Junior trotted over to a small rose bush. Still wondering who'd bother to purchase any from a cart when they were literally all right here, he bit down on the bush's thornless base and virtually uprooted the entire thing. Shaking his head a bit to get the dirt out of the roots, Junior hoisted it onto his back and made his way for the exit. Oblivious to several baffled onlookers, Godzilla Junior stepped into the castle.

-This should do the trick.-

=====================

Downtown Maretropolis

It didn't take long for Irys and Megalon to track down a promising artifact. Nestled inside what appeared to be an abandoned laboratory was a basketball sized sphere of condensed electrical energy, similar to the one Gigan had brought with him on his outing. Fortunately the owner of the lab seemed to have been away when they entered and exited, though Megalon was pondering the serious question of who'd build a cannon shaped like a Terran hair dryer. Irys was smiling slightly as she held the orb under her arm. Making good due on Sunset's words, she'd attempted to recruit the cyborg into her growing flock and was having good success. Megalon was much more outgoing than his 'sibling' or X, and was ever gleeful regarding just about anything. No matter if it was talking to others or ripping a steel door off its hinges. Granted, she did have to calm the spastic cyborg's eagerness to call her 'Miss Irys Gyaos Ma'am'. True, his attitude could be a bit annoying at times; but it didn't seem intentional.

And one could find the situation with the insectoid alien humorous. Judging from what she'd seen and heard, Megalon was easily physically stronger than his predecessor and packing even more onboard weaponry. In theory, this would have made him a far more dangerous fighter than Gigan. In practice, the younger cyborgs goofball attitude must have held back his destructive potential and seemed to require someone else to reign him in for there to be any focus on the job. Irys had lost count how many times Megalon had stopped and attempted to pick up something while on their way to the warehouses, be it a shiny coin or a stray cat.

"Alright, that was easy. Let's find Gigan and head back."

"On it Miss Irys ma'am!"

Irys rolled her eyes but chuckled lightly as she kicked an overturned garbage can out of her way.

"Just, Irys please. Can you tell how far he is from us since he decided to go lone wolf and wander off?"

Megalon's cybernetics were a bit reduced in this new body, making him feel a bit funny. Heck, everything about this new body felt funny. Kinda tickled. Nevertheless, the same old mental compass pointed true as it had since he was first put online. Megalon pointed with the hand not currently holding a domestic shorthair.

"About a kilometer thatt'a way."

"Good, we should make it back on tim-... Megalon you need to put down the cat."

"But he likes me!"

Irys didn't need to be any animal expert to tell the last statement was either an outright lie or hopelessly naive. Said 'cat' looked more like a scraggily raccoon and was curiously showing affection by trying in vain to gnaw off Megalon's robotic finger as it had his glove. The noises coming out of it were a mixture of growls and very angry sounding shrieks, and was quickly wearing on the former gyaos's nerves as it did her eardrums. Praises were to be held that this human body didn't have echolocation sensitive ears.

Just as she was about to choose between options to save her ear drums, a new sound ripped through the air and silenced human and feline alike. It was shrill, loud, and very distinctive. Sounded almost like a human scream mixed with some kind of barnyard animal. It lasted several seconds before abruptly cutting off. Several moments passed in silence.

"...What was that? Sounds like some girl screaming."

Meglon perked up, almost dropping the cat. His eyes were wide and voice hyper.

"That sounds like big brother!"

Irys raised an eyebrow at the cyborg's alertness. True, Gigan's voice wasn't exactly baritone, but it didn't sound that high pitched, usually.

"But, that sounded more shrill. Almost like some kind of animal actually."

Megalon waited several seconds to acknowledge Irys's statement... And promptly repeated himself with honesty and absolutely no change in his tone.

"Like big brother! Hold the kitty!"

Irys could barely get out a-

"Wait-What?!"

-before four and a half kilograms of fur covered, possibly rabies carrying feline was practically hurled at her. It just managed to scratch up the sleeve it landed on before she grabbed it by the scruff and threw it into the trash bin Megalon had yanked it out of. Irys looked up to see Megalon break into a full sprint with his hands in the air across a busy street, going far faster than one would think his bulky frame could move, before disappearing from sight. She let out a hard, long sigh before jogging after him.

It took Megalon about a five minutes, due to stopping to pick up up shiny coins on the way, to reach Gigan. When he did, the younger cyborg found his sibling rolling across the empty park's ground with a woman. A women who's hair appeared to be bear hugging him quite literally as much as her own arms were. She seemed busy planting lipstick-covered kisses across his cheek, while he was busy trying to get his arm free. To Gigan's alternating disgust and delight, both succeeded. Machinery inside the prosthetic limb revved up and a foot long blade popped out from his forearm just above the top of the wrist. Robotic eyes gleaming, Gigan swung his scythe right at Mane-iac's neck and got ready for blood.

He only felt the blade bounce off something without a trickle of warm liquid. His brow raised. True, he couldn't see her neck due to the angle of her head in relation to his point of view, but he was sure he'd hit it. He tried again to the same result. Switching plans and growing desperate as a line of lip locks to his cheek began to reach his mouth, he swung his arm hard as he could in a slashing motion across the side of her stomach. But instead of flying intestines and a kidney, the Nebulan alloy that could slash a skyscraper in two barely cut the seams of her costume. He quickly tried again whilst still attempting to wrestle the whacko off him. But all his efforts just bounced off without so much as an acknowledgement by Mane-iac. In a crowning moment of desperation he pointed the tip directly at her side, angled up to impale her heart, lungs, and stomach and swung with all his mechanical and biological might.

The blade broke off and went flying off into parts unknown.

A marvel of Nebulan and Xilien co-ventures into engineering with metallurgy and alloy experimentation snapped in two like a wooden toothpick. It didn't slice Mane-iac's internals to pieces. It didn't spill her blood all across the pavement. It only seemed to tickle. The villainess giggled like a hyena, running a hand along Gigan's flabbergasted cheek.

"Awwwww still trying to kill me deary? You're so thoughtful, but we can't do it here with the rating you know~"

Gigan's attention was pried away from the shattered remnants of his short sword as Mane-iac pointed up at the sky. What he saw gave he nor Megalon anymore clarity as to what was going on.

Hovering about fifteen feet above them was a giant, two dimensional black and white box with a large 'A' written in it. Gigan was slacked jawed as Megalon approached, rubbing his chin.

"What.... is.... THAT?!"

"A rating, part of a popular rating system in the United States and Canada. This one means the content in the comic book is appropriate for All Ages."

"Megalon, what the Daiei are you saying?!"

"Means the comic is alright for younger children and has no blood, gore, extreme violence, or sexual themes; or they are extremely censored."

Gigan's world was beginning to spiral more than when he found out the crazed witch on top of him could break physics.

"Wait a cycle... are you saying this realm is a-a BOOK of some sort?!"

Megalon shrugged, merely pointing to the big logo and doing absolutely nothing to help his sibling out of his predicament.

"Well, you explain the floaty logo thingy!"

The older cyborg brother was about to snap. If he still could, he'd probably be shooting optic blasts every single direction right about now. Mane-iac looked him in the eye, wiggling her eyebrows as she smirked. Her voice was quiet and sly.

"I can see if I can find us a spot to fix that last censor~"

And with that Gigan was about 50% done with this situation, 25% willing to murder; and 25% panicking to the likes of which he never had before. Mane-iac's smiling face drawing closer made that last 25% begin to skyrocket.

"GRAK! Never mind the d*** rating! Get this insane psycho off of me!"

Mane-iac never could read an insult very well. She took it as a declaration of adoration. The pounding in her chest exceeded a bass drum.

"Awwwwwwwwwwww! You give me the sweetest nicknames my love!~"

Gigan's eyes were glowing like the flames of hell.

"THAT WASN'T A COMPLIMENT YOU B- MHMHMHPHHH!"

He was cut off with his airflow. Gigan's body was smothered by mane and his mouth by lips. Mane-iac's face had turned cherry red as she gave her first big crush a smooch, her world turning to scented shampoos and flowers.

Gigan was going into systems overload, desperately ripping out the knife strapped to his belt and stabbing the woman in the back to about as much success as he previous had. She was blushing and cooing, he was beginning to short circuit. After several seconds of a literal spark-flying kiss, Megalon beamed happily and held his hands together.

"Awwwwww! Big brother you didn't tell me you had a wrestling buddy!"

Mane-iac cocked an eyebrow and snapped out of a blissful dream, looking up at the odd looking young man standing a few yards away from them. Just when she was about to send several strands after them to smack them into the next century for 'daring' to interrupt her time with her barbarous barber; the second and third word in Megalon's sentence registered with her. She broke the smooch and whipped her head around as Gigan lay fidgeting on the pavement, still trying to stab her with the remains of his knife.

"Come again? Who are you?"

Megalon pointed down at the sparking cyborg.

"I'm Megalon, I'm his little brother."

Mane-iac stood still and blinked, looking the cyborg over and glancing back to her soon to be fiancé.

-Huh... Absolutely no family resemblance...-

Megalon just gave off a stupid happy smile and waved.

-Like that matters!-

Mane-iac's expression warmed up and she giggled gleefully, reaching out and shaking Megalon's hand as she kept her other arm hooked around the spasming Gigan's neck.

"Oh aren't you just a darling! I am Mane-iac, soon to be your sister in law!~"

Megalon's face brightened up into a giddy gasp as he put his free hand on the side of his head.

"AAAAAAW! Big Brother you never told me you had a LAAAADY friend!"

"He never told you? We met last week."

"Well he told me nothin'."

Some sane minds question if a supposed loved one hasn't told their relation about them. Insane minds however...

Mane-iac smiled sweetly at her 'fiancé', nuzzling Gigan affectionately and partially nestling her head in the crook of his neck. At this point Gigan was debating the finer points of ripping his own power core out. He was stuck in an ugly human body, being targeted by a love struck maniac who was named exactly that, in a world he couldn't kill her; and at this point it sounded like his brother was about to volunteer to be the best man at the wedding rather than help him. The pros to the ripping out of said cores were really beginning to look appealing.

"Awwwwww he wanted to keep our romance a secret? Probably for fear of a no-name like him embarrassing my vile name. Such a sweeeetie!"

"Um... actually he's not a low life. Bro's blown up like a bunch of buildings."

She sprang up from his statement, eyes wide and grin even wider.

"A mad demolitionist?! Hot D*** I Know how to pick 'em! We'll have the wedding this evening!"

She swung her free arm in front of her and snapped her finger. For only having digits for about twenty minutes, she got the hang of them quite fast. Megalon jumped up joyfully.

"So soon?! I can't wait!"

Gigan barely managed to stay conscious, his voice more than desperate as she struggled beneath Mane-iac amongst half his systems going bonkers.

"MEGALON HELP MEEE!"

"But you can't get cold feet now big brother! I wanna catch the flowers! Ooh ooh! Can I be the best man?! Er, no, Mr. X probably be suited more for that. I know! The flower girl!"

Mane-iac only heard Megalon's part of the conversation.

"I know a store we can blow up for dresses! We'll rob a bank and kidnap a judge, kick some puppies, and be married in a salon by sundown!"

Gigan's cybernetics finally gave out.

-I'm surrounded by idiots....-

He sparked rapidly, fidgeting like he was having a seizure after his hands tore free from a shocked Mane-iac's hair. Just before he could wrap his hands around her neck however, he stopped. Or rather, froze would be the more accurate term. The cyborg's body went stiff as a well cut board and stayed like that. Seconds passed without movement. At this point he looked more like a fallen statue. Mane-iac crept back onto him, waving her gloved hand in front of his eyes with obvious worry staining her face. She put her hand to the side of his head when she got no response, shaking a bit with gradually increasing vigor.

"Barber?... Barber?... Barber!?"

Megalon walked up to them, nonchalant about the whole matter.

"Actually his name is Gigan, G-I-G-A-N."

Mane-iac took a moment to think the spelling over in her head. What was spelled and what was said didn't match.

"GEE-Gan?"

"Nah, GAI-Gan, first part like Gaia. It's pronounced 'Guy'. They took the 'a' out in the English spelling."

"Why would they do that, but keep the pronunciation?"

"I dunno!"

Megalon shrugged audibly as he crouched down next to the couple. His brother still hadn't budged. Megalon titled his head and pondered for a moment. A stray thought crossed his head as he smacked the side of it.

"Ahp! I know the problemo."

He reached down and removed the sunglasses that stood in for his brother's optical visor. Gigan's robotic, camera-like eyes were fully visible now. Their small screens however bore no artificial pupil. Instead they were sky blue panels with little white text on them.

-A systems problem has been detected in yo-...-

Mane-iac had no clue what she was looking at, her eyes beginning to water.

"What's wrong with him?!"

Megalon just chuckled and patted her shoulder.

"Oooooooooooh he's fine. You just shocked his systems, was all! This happens sometimes if something caused his internal gizmos to stop. Basically you gave him a heart attack so strong he's knocked out. I haven't seen him have it this bad since that time his head got blown off!"

Mane-iac's eyes widened for a moment as a thin line of liquid streamed down from one.

"A-a.. h-heart attack?... A... HEART attack?!..."

"Mhm!"

The insane mind is truly a wonder to behold at times. Mane-iac's mood instantly lifted as she clung to her would be hubby, burying his frozen face into her collar and neck after snaking her arms like pythons around his head and neck. Her eyes were practically sparkling stars.

"Heart?! IT IS TRUE LOVE! Onto the Mane event!"

Neither Mane-iac nor Megalon saw the Electro-Orb flying at them until it smacked into the back of Mane-iac's head.

"HEY!"

Mane-iac snarled and swung her head around with a feral growl, glaring at the pale woman standing at the park entrance. Megalon only chirped.

"Oh! Hello Lady Miss Ma'am!"

Irys only leered at the woman with the most bizarre hairdo she'd ever seen. Given her last outing, that was an accomplishment in itself.

"Hands off the jackass!"

Mane-iac finally let go of Gigan, who still was frozen stiff, and shot Irys a look that could shatter bricks. Her tendril-like hairs snaked across the ground to support her as others snapped at Irys like whips. She didn't even notice it was her prized orb that had just been chucked at her and was currently rolling across the pavement. She didn't care. Megalon wisely backed up.

"And WHOM are you supposed to be?!"

Irys narrowed her eyes, punching a fist into a palm. She may not be able to shoot a sonic ray that could slice through steel like butter right now, but the look on her face made it clear how much she cared about that. Mutant, human, or not. She was a gyaos. And a gyaos is never a meek creature when hungry. And she was ravenous.

"Irys, and that is my flockmate you were constricting..."

Upon hearing a very specific word in the albino's sentence, a window Inside Mane-iac's mind cracked. The supervillainess reeled back a bit, her hateful sneer shifting into shock. Her jaw quivered.

"M-M-MATE?!.. Y-Your his mate?!"

Irys held her fists up but her mouth dropped into a look of utter disgust. Some things about other species always sounded gross to the asexual reproducer. And considering what Gigan looked like, Irys was quickly wishing she could unseen some mental images.

"ICK! NO! LORD NO! GAK!"

Mane-iac either didn't hear or didn't understand what Irys said, it probably didn't make sense one way or another all things considered. Her eyes were beginning to drown in tears as her face scrunched up. And then she took one look at the still offline Gigan and all sadness flushed away. Tears broiled off in rage. She grabbed Gigan by the shoulders with her hands, surprisingly able to lift his still frozen form up and shaking him. He was still stiffened and unresponsive. Didn't matter.

"THERE WAS ANOTHER MARE AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME?! YOU TRAITOR! FROM NOW ON MY BROKEN HEART SHALL BE BLACK AND COLD AS A BOTTLE OF GIOVANNI COLORFLAGE! I SHALL COMMIT GRAND ACTS-"

Irys and Megalon sidestepped over to one another, eyebrows raised as they just watched one of the oddest sights they had ever seen and didn't quite know how to react.

"Should we stop her?"

"No no, don't touch her she might be contagious..."

"-OF FOLLICLE VILLAINY!... Come to think of it I already do that... BUT NONE THE LESS!"

With surprising strength she lobbed Gigan at the other two. Megalon held his arms up and open, jumping up and down a bit to try and catch his brother.

"I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM!"

The angle however was off, and the unconscious Gigan crashed head first into a hedge bush. He still was frozen in posing and hadn't budged. Megalon snapped his fingers, turning to try and pull his sibling free of the shrubbery.

"Don't got him..."

Mane-iac meanwhile was still monologuing, as her hair walked her back towards the large statue's base. She put her hand on the base and a faint, purplish pink oval formed across the surface. Mane-iac looked back at the group with a sneer.

"Unfarewell my barberous barber Gee-gan-"

"It's GUY-Gan!"

"-Whatever! Next we meet it shall not be a grand day! I shall be whom leaves YOU with something broken!"

And with that she somehow managed to jump into the statute and disappear with the glow. In the span of less than a day Maretropolis' greatest villainess had just confessed her loved, locked lips with said love, planned a highly destructive wedding, and then ended up bailing. In other words, typical weekend. Meanwhile back in sanity, Irys just stood there as the Electro-Orb rolled against her shoe, wondering what on Terra just happened. Shrugging it off, she scooped the ball up and turned to the two brothers.

Gigan was still frozen in pose and unresponsive, Megalon tapping on the side of his head.

"He gonna be alright?"

"Yeah don't worry, he's had worse. It's kinda a shock induced coma. He'll come back later, just gotta boot back up slowly."

Noises that could be favorably compared to a dial-up phone line began to seep out of the frozen cyborg's mouth. Irys put her hands on her ears, cringing.

"How long will that take?"

"Few hours."

"Fine but you're carrying him. Just think he's a giant cat or something."

"Anything else?"

"We got what we need. Let's go grab that corndog stand on our way out..."

==============

Canterlot Castle

The afternoon sun cast its waning beams into an open window and seeped into the room through the swaying curtains. A stray breeze managed to shift one curtain slightly, just enough for an unfiltered ray of light to catch a sleeping alicorn directly on the eye. Eyelids quivered briefly before sapphire blue orbs looked out into the world around them. Princess Luna rose up from her bedding, cracking her neck to help ebb away tiredness quicker. Quick stretching of her wings to pop the joints and she was out of bed. Her temporary quarters may not have been quite what she was used to, but after some time on the moon and Discord's reign; she could handle it just fine. Her room was occupied by someone who needed it more.

Slipping on her crown and regalia, still never knowing how Celestia managed to sleep in such attire; she looked herself over in the mirror. Her mane was still a dark blue to baby blue gradient, but the telltale, star-like twinkle was indicative that her full power was rapidly returning. She was just about to head out when there was a knock on the door. Grasping the handle with an aura of magic, she opened it. Considering the only residents in the castle, save one alicorn, were shorter than her; Luna had a habit of looking down when opening a door to someone. So at first she just saw a blob of gray fur before looking up at red and yellow eyes. Godzilla Junior stood in her doorway with a blank expression, blinking occasionally.

"Ah, salutations Sir Godzilla. I see that you seem to be back on your hooves."

"More or less."

There was a brief, awkward silence. Luna was wondering what he had to say. Junior was, for reasons beyond himself, having a hard time spitting it out. His tongue felt twisted up at random.

"Is, there something you need discussed? How is your recovery now that you are up and moving?"

Finally he managed to snap out of any momentary trance or mental fumble he'd stumbled into.

"Yes actually. I am more or less fully recovered and will be going back to my quarters. Your chamber is your's once again. I wanted to thank you for your assistance, with everything."

"Well, we are most gratefu-"

She was cut off by him pulling something out from the wall and holding it out with a hoof. A whole rose bush. She should have been asking why he was carrying around an entire shrub or why he was giving it to her. Unfortunately she couldn't pry her eyes off the batteries of red flowers. Her wings flared out and stuck straight up.

"W-ell... this was unexpected.... But, thank....y-ou....?"

"Was for the accommodations and nightly visits. Was quite kind of you."

She levitated the bush over to her, her face growing a bit hotter by the second. Junior only looked at the changes with a perplexed glance.

-Never saw her face flare up that much, is she sick?-

"You are m-ost welcome Godzilla."

"You can refer to me as Junior if you wish... By the way, are you feeling alright? Your face is turning red as a cherry."

Luna flinched, raising up the shrub like she was getting a closer look. In truth she was hiding her face behind it.

"Feeling fine!.... Thank.. you Junior, the flowers are lovely..."

Junior turned and started down the hall, his work done. True, Luna did react a bit odd, but he'd guess that was just normal for these ponies and opted not to prod.

"Hope they taste good. I'll leave you to your business then Princess."

He walked down the hall and turned the corner to move out of sight. Princess Luna mentally kicked herself in the flank to get her mind working again. She lowered her wings back down and looked down at the roses with a tilted head.

-What in the world did he mean 'taste'? Does he even know what these are for?-

Luna sighed, inspecting each of the flowers. A lot of things had changed since that dolt crashed through the castle roof. Back then she only saw the thorns on him. Over the past few days though, it was nice to see he wasn't all burning fires and sharpened fangs. It was good to see he had some flowers to him besides the thorns. She nuzzled one of the soft petals, a small smile creeping onto her lips regardless of the odd situation. Wasn't every decade she got something like this from a kindly stallion.

There was a soft chuckle not belonging to herself.

"Am I interrupting something Lulu?~"

Luna's eyes snapped back open and her mind back to reality. Swinging her head up, she saw the smirking face of Celestia standing in her doorway looking right at her. And her present. Luna the red faced alicorn made her grand return to the world, tossing the flowers behind the door.

"Sister!"

Celestia smiled, her still pink and golden hued mane only slightly flowing beside her; not quite having fully grown back to its full power. The elder alicorn giggled lightly, putting a hoof on her frazzled sibling's shoulder.

"I just came to wake you up for your shift. Judging from your mane I'd say we're both making progress getting back to full strength. Can you handle the moon alone?"

Luna's voice was slightly rushed as she tried to push past her sister. Her trying to talk in her royal lexicon didn't help much at all.

"Y-Yes we are feeling quite well, we shall lift the moon thyself tonight!"

Celestia smirked, stopping her and putting a hoof on her baby sister's cheek.

"Are you sure Lulu? You seem to be flushing red in the face and feel a tad warm. Do you have a fever?"

Luna's eyebrow twitched and briefly both alicorns were cloaked in a white aura of energy. They disappeared in a flash and reappeared in the hallway. Luna pulled away from Celestia and stomped down the hall, slamming the door to her chamber shut as she passed.

"NO! No! We are feeling quite well dear sister! GoingToRaiseTheMoonNow-"

"LUNA!-"

Celestia motioned to the hall behind her, rubbing the back of her head.

"You're heading to the guard chambers, your tower is that way."

Luna stood frozen in place for a few seconds before teleporting herself behind Celestia and marching down the hall to her tower. Celestia couldn't help but smirk with a wandering eye. She levitated a fallen rose petal to her face, looking at it with a honest smile.

-Was wondering what he was doing with that bush!... Hehe, haven't seen her smile like that in awhile... Note to self, see to Captain Frost getting Sir Godzilla transfered to the Night Guard as soon as possible...-

=====================================

Canterlot High School, Equestria Girls Realm

Rainbow Dash held her comic away from herself as mixing feelings of curiosity and sheer confusion washed over her. She'd read through the captions, learned about some characters she'd never seen before, and saw them leave the comic on a panel with a purple wormhole but she could hardly make heads or tails about what just happened. It seemed like a normal issue of Power Ponies when she picked it up, but the weirdness dial cranked up for no clear reason. And given this series that was saying something. Befuddled, she skimmed back through the pages.

-Space cyborgs and giant bats turned into humans and fighting Mane-iac as she crushes on one of them... What in the world were the writers thinking? This stuff never happened in the series. Is it some kinda weird crossover? I don't even recognize these characters!-

She shifted to her left at the lunch table and held open the last page of the comic, the one where this 'Irys' and 'Megalon' characters were having to lift the frozen 'Gigan' through a purple portal.

"Hey Sunset, you seen these guys before? They just popped up randomly in the comic."

Sunset Shimmer looked to her right as she was sipping some of her soda. Upon seeing snow white hair with a purple streak going through a portal however, she ended up spitting out her Colta-Cola out like a sprinkler head.

=========

Appleloosa

Rodan sat back on his perch, wolfing down a fried trout. Night had fallen, but the town was still very much alive. Good reason too, they were celebrating. Appleloosa was a town of settlers. Experienced and hard working folk by nature; a type the bison herd shared. Between the two groups, the town was patched back up in no time at all. Add Applejack and the aid workers, and the recovery was done in record time. Wasn't to say he hadn't played a part either. Someone had to hold up the support beams in the air as they were nailed into place. It felt good to put something together without fear of accidentally blowing it down with a wing beat.

True, some of the buildings were still in need of repairs, but everyone's homes were back in order. And apparently this was cause for a hoedown filled jamboree to spring up as the sun sunk down. It was a wild and pleasant festival, full of live music, bonfires, food; and township. Ponies dancing with ponies, bison dancing with bison, both with each other; everyone had been getting in on it. Granted Rodan flopped around like a beached squid at times, but everyone had a laugh. Food was good too, even though he found some fried fish from the river more palatable than the apple pies ol' Thunderhooves was scarfing down. Plants and herbs were more Anguirus' shtick anyways.

Rodan sighed from a full belly and leaned back on the support beam. True, while he was panicking beyond belief upon the gyaos scare, seemed like 'Chief put the final nail in that coffin alongside Lea. He'd still be on guard if any more funny business happened, but for now, he could relax a bit. However before he could attempt a nap, he felt a tapping on the beam he was leaning against. Looking down, Rodan spotted the smirking face of Applejack, surrounded by a small pack of fillies, colts, and calves.

The Element of Honesty chuckled, patting the head of one calf that hid behind her slightly; despite looking up at the gryphon with a wide eyed look of fascination.

"First time many of them seen a gryphon 'round these parts, let alone a big friendly one who helped put a town back together. Why don't ye' come on down and give them a closer look?"

An older, more serious, or more reserved kaiju might have objected. Grumpy folks Rodan called them. He was none of the above. The gryphon shifted his seating, spread his wings and glided down a short distance from the group. If the kids were skittish of him at a distance, they weren't shy about up close. Soon they were all over him, eagerly feeling his wings, tapping at his claws, playing with his tail; and everything in between.

Despite being quickly surrounded, the young kaiju only burst into a laugh and shifted, rolling on his back to play around with the group. He earned an uproar of youthful laughter, and was soon the base of a dog pile. Applejack leaned on the beam with a smile, shaking her head as she chuckled at the silly sight. She had have read about some issues back at Canterlot, and she couldn't lie and say the revelation on just how big their new guests were didn't spread some worry at first. It was one thing to hear about it from Rainbow and Twilight. It was another thing to see a picture of a forty story reptile in the newspapers. Still, she was a judge of actions, not origins. And this gryphon's actions would make him more than welcome around these parts. When Rodan arrived on the train, he said she and the others were part of his group now, his flock. Looks like the door swung both ways.

-Welcome to the herd Ro'...-

=========================

READER WORKS!

One thing I'm really honored to have done is to help inspire some of you guys. And because I never like not bragging about how awesome you guy and gals are, be it you lot's hilarious comments, reactions, or your own great creativity; here's a special spot to shout out to you all.

By BlueFireDragon
(Hazzah for the spin off!)

(oh look, there's a whole story attached to this thing! Maybe you should go and read it)

By PonyBytes and Omega-Wing
(Such a gentlecolt~)

By FallenAngel5414
(just showing 1 as not to make the page Xbox huge)
1. 2. 3.

By Issacholt
(And now we know what would have happened if Megalon and Irys didn't show up)

By Pyrus-Leonidas
(ditto. Man if put in all the timeline pictures, I'm fairly certain FimFiction would explode)

Gallery

by BlackSunEcplised
(Looks like a romance novel cover)

By Johng117
(This guy also did his own story 'The Arrogance of Man', read it)

By Akumuchann and IceStormy
(You know your readers ship a couple when:_______ )

By Gol llum123
(Me thinks me can guesses what some of the favorite character designs are)

Short story by Sideswipe217
(Let's get ready to rumblllllle!)
Godzilla Jr. vs. Yonggary

Chapter 20: Lilith and Abaddon

Author's Note

Disclaimer: This chapter contains slightly more cursing and violence than normal. It's not grimdark, but I felt you should have a heads up ahead of time

proof read by Skylark and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by Faith-Wolff

My Little Pony by Bonnie Zarcherle, Lauren Faust, and Hasbro studios
Godzilla by Tomayuki Tanaka and Toho Company Ltd.
Harmony by Heilos

Next Time on The Bridge!:
Some issues need to be addressed before they become problems.

Please do check out the Reading List by Lance Omikron to navigate the Amalgam Universe most clearly :raritywink:

Chapter 20: Lilith and Abaddon

Princess Cadance
King Sombra
Xenilla
Colonel Lockdown
Lieutenant Dusk Shift
Blade Dancer
Rarity
Monster X
The Big Bad
The Big Good

==============================

Crystal Empire Castle, Archives

Sombra skid across the ground, his steel armor sparking against the crystalline floor. As he rolled back up to his hooves, he looked up just in time to see Xenilla stampeding his way through the wall the dark unicorn had been thrown through, the kaiju not minding that his shoulder was still smoking from a hellfire blast. Lips curled back into fangs and Sombra charged his attacker, the ground drumming and cracking at their hoof falls. The noise made upon collision could be favorably compared to a gong. Hooves braced and dug into the crystal floors, quartz and aerenths beginning to erupt on either side. Emerald dark magic and crimson nuclear power crackled along both of their forms, shocking the other to dare them to yield. And after several long moments of struggle, the tide was beginning to turn.

Xenilla and Sombra had comparable height, both being far larger than an average stallion. But there was one important difference between the two, tied to their fighting methods. Sombra may have enhanced himself far beyond what an average unicorn might be physically capable of as was no slouch up close, but still preferred to fight at range when able too. Xenilla on the other hand, had been fighting up close as often as he did at range for over a decade. Even with Sombra having his armor on, the kaiju convert still had a weight margin over the tyrant; and that margin that was all muscle. And Xenilla was putting it to use in addition to his telekinesis. The dark unicorn began to be forcefully shoved back, despite his hooves cutting trenches into the floor.

Breaking the power struggle, Sombra weaved and smashed a hoof across Xenilla's face, only to get a stronger mirror move in return that dented his helmet. Dazed, he couldn't react to Xenilla lunging forward and biting down across his back. Using a mix of brute force and psychic tethers, Xenilla lifted Sombra off the ground. Barreling forward, the kaiju snarled and slammed his rival headfirst into a window as he charged. Sombra flailed to try and free himself, but was forced to shield his face as the kaiju dragged him across the hallway windows' length, frame after pane and muntin after frame smashing and splintering against him. Xenilla was just about to see how deep a trench he could cut into the wall with his enemy's face when Sombra physically melted out of his grasp. Briefly enveloped by a sudden dark shroud, Xenilla leaped back across the room with a telekinesis boosted jump. The shadowy cloud grew and swallowed up large portions of the room, Sombra's hellish facade forming in its darkness.

Not wasting a moment, Xenilla was quick to open fire. Horn glowing and mane sparking, red heat beams and psychically hurled quartz spears barreled at the shadowy Sombra. All only for the dark king to weave and dodge around them, some passing through his dark cloud as like a hand through mist. Sombra's dark laughter radiated through the room, strands of energy flying freely from him and spawning more and more aerenths. He cackled maniacally and charged forward in a black tsunami. Xenilla sneered, anchoring two towers of quartz to his sides and throwing up his barrier shield. Nevertheless, physical force flew through his guard with little resistance and he was sent flying backwards.

=============================

Crystal Empire Castle, Royal Wing

The air rattled as Princess Cadance bolted through the halls, enchanted crystal armor nearly covering her from head to toe. The determination on her face was stronger than steel. She wasn't as powerful as Celestia or Luna, and perhaps in some corner of her mind she was unsure how she'd fair against threats like the ones she could hear battling it out in another chamber. This armor might help even the odds some, but that was untested. This however, mattered little. She was an alicorn and a princess. The crystal ponies looked to her for leadership and protection, arguably being an avatar of the very emotion that fueled their empire's lifeblood. She couldn't falter, and was most certainly not going to flee and leave the populace behind; should the fight spill into the streets. She had to contain this possible catastrophe in progress, or at least give it her all while trying.

Cadance had just flown across a corner when two familiar guards turned the same corner in the crossroads, almost stumbling into her. The earth pony stallion and pegasus mare were quick to salute their monarch, despite panic being very obvious in their tone.

"Princess it's not safe here!"

"The ambassador has broken free and is fighting King Sombra! They're making a mess of the archives!"

Princess Cadance raised her hoof to quiet the two, before motioning to down the hall.

"Colonel Lockdown, Lieutenant Dusk Shift, I need to you two to go and round up as many remaining castle staff who may still be inside; and get them out of here!

Lockdown motioned forward, trying to grasp Cadance with his hoof as if to tow her along.

"What about you?! We are not leaving you here!"

Cadance nudged his hoof away with a soft curtain of magic, spreading her broad wings and flapping a few times to get airborne again.

"I'm staying to keep the fight contained and cover your exit."

"No you can't! This is King Sombra we're talking about! He'll kill you!"

Dusk Shift backed her superior up, hovering up to just below Cadance's level with begging eyes. Poor mare looked on the verge of tears. If the conversation didn't go their way, this could be the last she saw of her beloved leader; and with good reason.

"We can't lose... another Crystal Princess... Not to him."

Cadance knew the reason full well, she knew her history. It was that very reason she was so dedicated to shielding the entire empire during Sombra's first return. She wasn't going to let a murderous monster near anypony in the city. The alicorn closed her eyes for a moment, trying to focus her mind. The rumble of the clash in a distant spot in the castle tore her attention back to her goal.

-Now Sombra is within the city... And I'm not going to let him near anypony or anyone now either...-

Princess Cadance looked back to Dusk Shift, putting a hoof on her shoulder with a small smile on her face as she opened her eyes. She nodded to the mare, speaking in her characteristically soft tone.

"And you won't lose one now. I promise. But there are innocents who might be hurt, so I need you two and the others to get them to safety. Find my husband and lead the guards back here. But that all might not work if Sombra is bearing down on you all. Someone has to keep a lid on the fighting."

"But!-"

A brief flare of blue brilliance erupted from Princess Cadance's horn, banishing away some darkness and traveling into the walls and floors in a glimmering pulse. The Princess of Love looked as stubborn and determined as a sculpture, completely unflinching.

"I was a pupil of the greatest alicorn of our time. She gave me my horn, and I know full well how to use it. You can't protect someone with a shield if you are standing behind them, you need put yourself in front of them. And a true leader needs to do just that. I need you to trust me... I'll be fine."

There was a silence for some time, before the two guards slowly lifted their hovers. They saluted with solemn faces, though pinpricks of hope were evident between it all. Cadance had a knack for inspiring such emotions, even in dire situations like this.

"At, your will.... Princess..."

Cadance nodded to the two of them with a small smile, beginning to fly over the them.

"Stay safe, alright? You said Sombra and Xenilla were fighting in the archives?"

A very loud crash echoed through the walls and dark halls, a reverberating boom trailing it and rattling the floors and ceiling. The approximate location was clear based on the noise. Without hesitation, Cadance bolted down the long hallway, her armor and glowing horn radiating a brilliance as she zoomed past the moonlit windows. Banking hard, she headed towards the lower depths of the castle as she mumbled to herself.

"-Scratch that, I think they just broke into the catacombs."

==============================

Crystal Empire Castle, Catacombs

Xenilla crashed through a bookshelf and fumbled down a set of steps. Growling as he tossed a first edition novel off his face, he lifted himself up with a wave of telekinesis to get back on his hooves. The grounds before him were a vast cavern, akin to a natural cave that had been slightly dug out at one point to expand it. The expanse was darkened, the only illumination coming from the pulsing gemstones that occasionally jutted out from the walls. The castle blueprints had mentioned catacombs and he'd thought he felt something below him when scanning the crystalline grounds earlier. Looks like he'd just found what it was. According to those same blueprints, this was King Sombra's private sanctum when not in the higher parts of the tower; largely off limits to anyone. Brushing aside the theory of perhaps the fel unicorn having intentionally dragged their fight down here, Xenilla looked around for the tyrant in question as quartz spires stabbed out from the ground around him.

He caught a whiff of the dark, numbing scent of dark magic just upon hearing a metal coated hoof fall. Shooting his glare to the source, Xenilla spotted King Sombra perched atop a pillar of aerenth. He was on the opposite end of a long hallway, with giant statues of bowing, armored soldiers on either side. Sombra's voice was as malign as it was prideful, practically spitting venom.

"You don't know the might you face here, beast. I am of a purer breed, a unicorn above unicorns! The mighty crystal king has no equal here or anywhere!"

With a stomp of his hoof, dark energy shot through the floor and into the statues. The whirl of turning clockwork was audible for a moment before the entire battalion raised up from their bow and turned their lances towards their creator in salute. Sombra laughed as dark mist swirled around him.

"You dare interfere with my wrath! I stand higher than any-"

His monologue was cut off prematurely by a flash of red light, followed by a solar flare light ray blasting its way through several of the statue's heads and barreling straight at him. Reacting quickly, Sombra shifted into his shadow form and regrouped himself a safe distance away as the torrent of energy impacted his aerenth pedestal and exploded. Xenilla slowly walked forward, ignoring the shards of aerenth drizzling across the floor. His mane was still glowing with fiery light as crimson smoke slithered out of his jaws. He had the most bored, annoyed expression one could possibly imagine on his face; wondering if all the darker forces in this world just loved to hear themselves talk or not.

"Keep stroking that ego, I guarantee you'll impress someone someday."

"You brute! Have you not evolved the ability to address your better?!"

Sombra's horn gleamed with green and black energy, a spiny wave of aerenth crystals shooting out of the floor and headings towards Xenilla. The Kaiju stomped his foot, ushering up his own wave of quartz crystal to strike the aerenths at an angle to deflect it. Sparks of light and shards of shattered crystals flew around everywhere. Xenilla was completely unfazed.

"No words needed. I'd have a human gesture for you, but I don't have any fingers at the moment."

Sombra's eyes narrowed as they became overrun with emerald glow. The ground rumbled beneath the chamber, as if something under the floor was being dragged through the earth at high speeds. This was King Sombra's chamber, and he'd be a fool to not leave some toys here. The memory of one in practical ushered a cruel grin. He hadn't gotten to use this one in ages.

The earth beside Sombra split open, revealing a casket like box who's lid flew open. Horn glowing emerald and ink, Sombra's aura wrapped around a dark hued scythe as it levitated free from its holdings. The scythe was anything but ordinary looking. The handle looked only partially metallic, and the blade that hovered in the proper place via an invisible force looked to be composed of sharpened aerenth. It looked as cruel as its owner as green energy raced across its edges.

Sombra smirked as dark energy built up around him like a curtain of shadows. Xenilla tried to throw up a spire of quartz from the ground for what he knew was coming. He wasn't quite fast enough. A energy propelled Sombra rocketed forward and swung a razor thin blade with similar force, reaping through the growing pillar of quartz and right into the kaiju behind it. The only thing that probably kept Xenilla from being gutted was the scythe cutting through the pillar he'd tried to defend himself, which had slowed the weapon down enough that hitting his dense frame caught it before it hit organs. Had he been a normal unicorn, he'd probably be sliced in two right now. Instead he only yelled out as the aerenth blade buried itself in his side and cut down to his ribcage, stabbing pain shooting up his spine.

Still using his full momentum, Sombra whirled his scythe around. Hooking Xenilla along for the ride, he tossed his rival away as the scythe pulled itself out of him. Xenilla fumbled through the air before crashing into and knocking over a weapons and armor rack, a trail of crimson tailing him. Rolling himself off the fallen shelves, Xenilla grimaced as he tried to get to his feet, struggling. The slash was deep, and with his body still singed by dark magic the scythe was coated in, his healing factor was slowed. It took several moments for new muscle and tissue to tie itself together and naked skin to seal the wound like a scab. There wasn't any time for a complete patch up. As the kaiju looked up at the source of approaching hoof steeps, Sombra was already charging at him like a rabid beast.

Xenilla quickly charged up a coronal flare, his mouth igniting with red light as Sombra swung his scythe again, this time aiming for the kaiju convert's neck. But just before blade touched fur, something unyielding got in the way. A spear's shaft. There was a blur of blue and pink as Xenilla seized his opportunity and fired his signature breath weapon. Coronal wrath stabbed into King Sombra's chest before he had time to fully shift into his shadowy form, being blown back from the blast. When he reformed several dozen yards away, half his breast plate had been blown off and his smoking right shoulder was burned down to the lowest layers of skin.

King Sombra huffed briefly to catch his breath, glaring at the newest combatant in this duel. A sapphire spear was wrapped in a blue aura as its steel tip was yanked out of the ground. Princess Cadance narrowed her eyes, her gleaming helmet and armor sparkling brilliantly in the light. The dark tyrant's expression shifted from rage into minor shock as she approached. He thought he was seeing a ghost.

"A-Amore?! No... No I ran you through myself!"

Cadance's wings flared out as she trained her gleaming spear tip on her foe, alternating light and shadow slithering across its length. For the avatar of love, her face was of an iron lady.

"I am Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and I believe you just tried to kill me."

Sombra's shock snapped the moment he saw the wings, not paying any attention to his successor's words. Memories flashed back to fifteen minutes ago, and to 1,015 years ago. His lips peeled back, fangs gleaming as the glow from his eyes intensified. He loathed looking at those wings. His words were drowned in hatred upon the realization, seeing his successor in his predecessor's armor.

"So I was right. The child did live..."

"What are you talking about?"

Sombra snarled, lunging forward with a howl and slashing at Cadance with his scythe. She just barely had time to block and intercept the strike with her spear. The weapons sparked as they ground against each other in a metallic shriek, wobbling as their wielders tried to force the other's instrument aside. Cadance gritted her teeth, fanning her wings to push herself forward and force Sombra back. Sombra's eyes became eclipsed in green light as his dark power chilled the air.

"She stood above them all, a noble, pure blooded unicorn who could have had me for a strong heir... And then she defiled herself with a wretched pegasus?!"

Just as Sombra was beginning to get the upper hoof in the strength contest, Cadance's horn flashed with light. Twin curtains of blue and white energy formed beside her and shot forward in a wave. Sombra snarled as he was blown back by the charging wall of magic, being forced back a distance before rending the wall apart with the scythe. The enchanted blade cut through the magical barrier like butter amongst a rain of sparks, sending the two halves flying into the wall behind him. King Sombra huffed, aerenth crystals and shadows welling up beside him with every ragged breath.

"There will be no one to save you this time. There's no mongrel dog here..."

Cadance had no idea what he was talking about, but shoved her confusion aside. There were very few things she genuinely loathed in this world. At this point, Sombra's voice was rapidly climbing the top ten list. Black heart, black tongue.

"ENOUGH!"

Cadance was the first to spring forward, flapping her wings and beating her hooves across the ground in a charge. She jabbed forward with her spear, aiming for the portion of Sombra's chest the armor had been blown away from Xenilla's ray. Sombra raised his scythe and smashed it down in her charge, beating her blow away and pinning her spear into the ground. A surge of dark magic shot out of his horn, Cadance barely having enough time to throw up a shield in front of her face to block the torrent of green and black energy that shot off to her sides. Sombra cut off his magical assault and melted into shadows, swirling around the young alicorn with ever increasing speed, soon forming a twister of shade. Cloaked in the shadows, he started flanking her, taking swipes at the Crystal Princess with each pass. Some were blocked. Others, while partially deflected, still landed. Her legs were nicked several times and feathers torn from her wings every few moments. Her enchanted armor being the only thing sparing her from a severed limb or gutted torso. She just barely managed to roll out of the way of a crescent slash aimed for her throat with only the loss of some of her mane, when Sombra's echoing, hellish voice filled the room.

"Alicorn or not, you are a disgrace of a ruler. I have mastered the fel arts created by Grogar himself!"

Cadance threw up a magical shield a moment too late as Sombra came flying out of the haze at her, gleaming fangs aimed for her face. Averting her head to the side spared her from a facial bite, but Sombra thrashed upon chomping down on her helmet. The crystalline, ornate helm rolled across the ground as he spat it out. The swirling haze began to dissipate as he smashed a hoof into Cadance's armored sternum. The crystal crest was cracked and near shattered, as the alicorn was thrown back a short distance and skidding on her hooves. Her head was held low as Sombra raised his scythe over himself.

"Who did you learn under?!"

He was just about to swing down when a jolting pain surged through his system. Sombra's eyes contracted as he felt a liquid chill running down his leg. Casting his gaze downward, he spotted Cadance's spear embedded in his shoulder. The young alicorn sneered as she yanked on the weapon with her magic, prying it loose from Sombra's body with a spurt of crimson.

"My aunt..."

Cadance yelled out as her eyes glowed with a white light, and the tide of the fight had turned. Now Sombra was the one having to play defense, having to worry more with blocking and deflecting his successor's rapid lunges to avoid getting impaled than he did counter attacking. The air hissed and snapped as sparks flew, Cadance pressuring her attack and forcing Sombra backwards down the hall. An overhead swing and sweeping slash crossed one another, and scythe and spear became locked up. Cadance winced as some sparks poured down from above and bounced off her face, putting as much force as she could into shoving forward to break the lock. King Sombra however, was pushing harder and the tide was beginning to turn again. But even as his brute force began to take hold, the tyrant's gluttonous pride similarly started to flare up and he didn't notice a smirk growing on the alicorn's face. A more imaginative opponent that also had potent magic prowess charged hubris' price.

Blue energy built up briefly in Cadance's horn, growing along its spiraling rings until reaching the tip and releasing a massive spark of brilliance that lit up the cavern, momentarily blinding Sombra and snuffing his shadows out. Shifting her angle, Cadance twisted her spear's point, letting Sombra's force dry the tip downwards and sling the other end up. The spear shaft swung around, breaking the lock up and smashing the butt into Sombra's muzzle. Judging from the loud crack anddripping, black and red ichors seeping out of his nose, the lock up wasn't the only thing she just broke.

Sombra panted hoarsely as he shot himself backwards a safe distance. Bringing his hoof to wipe his nose, his feral eyes widened in rage at the sight of his own blood; before shooting a glare at Cadance sharp enough to cut diamond. Aerenths tore out of the ground next to him, flanking their master on either side. Hatred and wrath fuming out of his orbits with the smoke, he was practically foaming at the mouth as he roared. All elegance and mystique one would expect of a royal was gone.

"You... You BITCH!"

He hurled one manticore sized hunk of sharpened crystal at the princess. Cadance sucked in her breath as her horn and breastplate flashed. The magical barrier she put up barely held, cracking as the crystal shattered into thousands of shivs and impaled themselves on the wall behind her. Sombra lifted up the other aerenths, drool lathering out of his fangs.

"YOU BROKE MY NOSE!"

A red flash shot out past Cadance and tore into the first aerenth, smoke and shard flying everywhere as it exploded. A blue blur charged at Sombra with speed betraying its mass. There was a gleam of silver as a bearded axe cloaked in red sparks cleaved through the other crystal, splitting it in two. Sombra melted down into a shadow and retreated to avoid getting his head lopped off by the still oncoming weapon. Broad hooves settled down onto the ground as their owner cut off their telekinesis, quartz crystals strangling the remaining aerenths. Xenilla smirked as he rested the axe on his back.

"Honest opinion, I'd say someone beat her to it."

On instinct, Cadance held her spear at the ready as she slowly approached the kaiju. Earlier she'd thought she was walking into a three way brawl and was primarily concerned with stopping the more immediate threat and keeping it from spilling out into the city. There certainly was a hope that the save earlier had been intentional, but there always was that fear of the classic frog and the scorpion and her being swindled into being the frog. But then something subtle happened.

Fiery siam eyes surrounded by gold looked away from the reforming Sombra ten yards in front of them, and looked back into lilac. There was a silent nod before he looked forward again. Cadance advanced, crystal princess and crystal kaiju flanking one another as the walls began to glimmer with light. She braced herself and readied her spear, horn glimmering.

"So you did save me on purpose..."

Quartz crystals rose from the ground and fought the rising aerenths for control of the floor space.

"I made a promise, I don't break them... Though I will have to demand a pardon after this is over."

Xenilla readied his axe, having stolen it away from the weapons rack he'd been thrown into earlier. Quartz crystals that had been mounted onto the shaft and back of the head crackled with red energy. Sombra snarled as shadows choked the air around him, his horn flaring with out of control dark magic. He shot forward in a magic propelled charge. Cadance kept her voice low as her horn sparked.

"Granted..."

Spinning her spear, she threw up a magic shield to block an oncoming blast of dark magic. Xenilla roared as he sprang up, axe head and scythe chine colliding.

=========

Ponyville

Carousel Boutique was a place custom built by its owner to be a palace of peacefulness and comfort, meant to be nothing but inviting and charming. Worked out pretty well too. Barring a certain sweetshop, the fashion design's residence was probably one of the nicest looking houses in town. A mix of being surrounded by organized chaos and the ingredients of her talent were key for helping a young entrepreneur to keep her head together. Having just moved out from her family into a new town to set up shop, she'd needed it that way to keep steady without relatives around her. For years, it was her beloved home. A safe place that nothing too terrible could hurt her in. Tonight however, that protection unraveled. The sleeping unicorn was restless, and not by her own doing.

Rarity's face winced and scrunched, as she tossed and turned in her bed despite the veil of unconsciousness. Her reaction was to be expected. She was seeing her world being murdered.

Manehattan, population of three hundred thousand. Right now though, she would be as surprised as she was horrified if it had a tenth of that, judging from all the screaming. The sky was darkened, half choked with smoke. The only lights about where sparking street lamps and the bonfires that had once been homes or businesses. Windows shattered, streets torn apart; homes crushed down into coffins. Carneighie Hall was flattened into a smoking crater, mangled so badly it was only recognizable by the remaining half of its otherwise crushed entrance. Farrier Hill was on fire, a dark green form looming over the apartment complexes before digging its massive arms into the buildings. Rarity didn't want to think about what it was bringing up to its mouth after digging, but she knew it wasn't any construction materials. The dusty, dank air stung her nose and chest with every breath as she ran through debris filled streets. She had just past the ground level throne to the monolithic Imperial State Building when a large shadow with a glowing blue light flew over the structure like a massive bird. With a flick of its long tail, it tore the top half of the structure off its base, sending a tidal wave of falling glass, concrete; and metal crashing down towards her.

Rarity's coarse throat cried out, putting up her arms to brace a shield when a flash of light shifted her point of view. Now she was in the Crystal Empire. Or at least, what was left of it. The Crystal Castle still stood tall, but only as a dark bastardization of its once illuminated, glorious self. The beacon of love and hope had ravenous aerenths stabbing their way out of the sides and roof in a crooked, chaotic fashion that made the tower almost resemble a horned, snarling monstrosity more than it did any castle. The rest of the Empire was practically unrecognizable. The various neighborhoods were under assault from all angles, the Equestria Games stadium being little more than an ignited crater. Rarity panicked and raced through the streets trying to find somepony, anypony. All around her the landscape itself was being disfigured. Some houses were being gradually destroyed and flattened out by waves of obsidian. The dark plague tore the homes free of their foundations with a chorus of shattering gems before the buildings themselves were greedily swallowed up by the shade. All around her, unnatural shapes skittered about between the buildings, but they were far from anything recognizable Rarity had ever seen in her life as they darted past her. Multiple pairs of sword like claws dug into the sides of the crystal buildings, gorging their hosts on the remains. But it wasn't the demons running amok or the stabbing cold she felt on her fur that left Rarity's voice in a terrified choke. It was the fact that aside from the gnawing of the ravenous pests and viral obsidian, the broken jewel of a city was completely silent.

-Wh-Where did all the crystal ponies go?...-

She hated herself for pondering the answer when the scene shifted once again, and at first she almost thought the nightmare had finally ended. It was a calm, cool, gentle night atop of a grassy hill. The stars were glimmering, Luna's moon was casting a silver blanket across the land; and Canterlot stood tall and proud. The relief she felt upon seeing something something pleasant and normal was incalculable. Questions were ripping through her head as she closed her eyes and rubbed her temple. Why was she seeing this? She almost never had a nightmare in her life, let alone ones quite so, graphic. She'd been feeling a few headaches over the last few days, maybe this had all been some sick sequence of visions spurred by something she was coming down with. She took deep breaths and held it, trying to slow down the throbbing pulse in her chest and nerves.

She was strangled on her own air when a massive flash of light shot through her eyelids.

There was a low rumble that rattled the earth beneath her hooves. The curtain of air that slammed into her was so astoundingly cold it burnt. Her eyes were forced open, and what she saw left her lungs spasming. When she tried to finally empty her chest and yell out, the shockwave forced her scream back down her throat. Rarity was thrown onto the floor, coughing and hacking to try and fix her lungs.

The lands shifted. As she struggled back to her hooves, Rarity realized she was back in a place she knew well. And that fact was horrifying. She'd seen Manehattan, the empire, and Canterlot; now she was looking at home. It was barely distinguishable from Tartarus itself. Rarity limped forward on trembling legs, her lips and eyelids whimpering. She walked past tombs and morgues, barely able to so much as glance at what she was seeing. There wasn't anypony in sight, least anypony who was breathing. A stabbing thought lashed at her mind as her nose began to plug up. How could this happen to this place?...

A mature, feminine voice in the shades answered, whispering echoes as it circled her.

-HE, happened...-

Flashes shot before her eyes before Rarity could even ponder at who was speaking. She was looking at her own personal Tartarus, now she was looking at its Kronos.

He towered over the landscape like a mountain. A thick, long tail ending in many thorny prongs swatted down a bleeding ruin to its knees. Taloned feet slashed into the earth under thousands of tons of mass. A triple pronged crown rested upon a head that scraped the sky.

"Wh-What... in the name of..."

-If he comes here, this will be the result... Nothing else...-

Lines of glowing orbs glared down and through the Element of Generosity from high above. Then she saw what it was standing over. Like a lion over a gnat. A small shape barely visible laying beside the corpse of a door. Rarity's pulse sky rocketed to dangerous levels. She charged forward, throwing aside fallen homesteads and bulldozing through hellscape; not questioning how she was doing such feats. It didn't matter what monstrosity was in front of her. What mattered was what was in front of him.

"No..."

Rarity gritted her teeth as her magic wrapped around what used to be a hollow oak tree and threw it out of her way. Her eyes were beginning to be drowned as her chest felt crushed in from the inside.

"NO NO NO NO!"

Her legs gave out in front of it, but she didn't take her eyes off her treasured. The voice returned, practically whispering in her ear.

-If he makes it to Equestria... No survivors...-

That tone. If Rarity's heart wasn't being crushed, she might have recognized it.

"Who-Who are you!?! Show yoursel-"

She choked when she saw the source. Through blurring tears however, she recognized her reflection in a glossy, unmoving eye. A midnight gray coat, a sparkling, flowing mane; and eyes of blue starlight.

Rarity snapped back into the world of the awake. Not caring about the clamping sensation in her chest or her blurred, drowned vision; she flew out of her bed and ripped open her bedroom door. Sprinting down the hall so quickly she nearly stepped on Opalescence, she threw open the door to the second most frequently used bedroom. Rarity wiped her eyes and clenched her quivering jaw shut, looking through the darkness.

Despite the noise, the pony lay sound asleep on her plush bed with her back to the door. Rarity watched for a long while, standing motionless as she saw Sweetie Belle's rib cage flex steadily with her sleeping respiration; confirming her health. The Element of Generosity slowly gripped the door knob with her magic and got back onto her hooves. She turned and moved away, closing the door behind her without so much as a creak or utterance that would risk rousing her younger sibling. The slow walked back to her own room seemed to take an hour despite the relatively short distance. As soon as her form met the side of her bed however, Rarity collapsed. She dug her face into the sheets and let it all out, her eyes drowning. Her muffled sobbing was audible to only two in Ponyville. The first was Opalescence, who in a rare moment of tenderness to her owner crept over to Rarity and rubbed up against her. The second, was the cloaked shade beyond her window, peering in with glowing, yellow eyes. It stared at the weeping unicorn for a few moments, before fading away into nothing but wisps of shadow.

===============================

Crystal Empire Castle, Catacombs

Axe head and spear blade smashed into the length of a scythe, sparks flying everywhere as Sombra tried in vain to hold off two attackers at once, begin rapidly sent skidding back as he just try to hold them off. Horns glowed with green, blue, and red light as surges of raw power traveled down the length of their wielder's weapons before colliding together just as steel and aerenth had. But even fel magic fueled by endless hatred was no match for powers born from a dying star and the first student of the sun; and Sombra was sent flying backwards from a massive shockwave that split the air in two. Thrown into the edge of his sanctum, Sombra was slow to rise, a poor facade of his once regal self. His shattered aerenths surrounded him as they rolled across the ground. His royal cape was in tatters, slashed in several places, half burned, and smoldering. All of his dark handsomeness he had for a mask was destroyed, and the monstrous soul within had become his face.

Xenilla and Cadance cautiously approached, keeping at the ready with weapons close and energy crackling across maw and horn. The former had just stepped down upon and pinned Sombra’s scythe underhoof when a surge of green light ignited across Sombra’s horn. Shadowy fog flew forth from the tyrant as he let out a salivating roar, the wave of black energy flying at the two. Cadance threw up a magic shield and Xenilla his energy barrier, but it was to no use. This wasn’t an attack that could be deflected, it was a raw emotion given physical form. Fear, enough to suppress an entire empire; consumed them whole. The enchanted door was but a spark compared to this inferno that burned through the defender’s souls. Xenilla and Cadance writhed, dropping their weapons and stammering back.

Xenilla winced and snarled in pain as the scene before him shifted, no matter how many times he shook his head to try and clear his vision. There were no catacombs, there was no castle, there was no Equestria. There was only a blank shroud darker than the deepest space. Feeling in his digits had returned, heralding the reemergence of his old body. But once he saw his sole neighbor in this empty realm, that didn’t matter. A vice clamped down within his chest, a sensation akin to being impaled ramming through him. He couldn’t focus enough for any telekinesis, he could only run. And when he couldn’t run anymore, he crawled to it. He grasped the shoulder and shook it. When no response was ushered, he rolled the form onto its side and instantly felt something warm and wet on his hands. There was a gaping hole in the chest, right where the heart and spine would be. Deceased ichors gushed out of it and onto Xenilla’s limbs. The crystal kaiju panicked, dropping all his usual calm and collective nature. He pressed his hands to the wound, trying to force it closed with no success. Red energy crackled along his backspines and shoulders, the nuclear powered pulse shocks traveling down his arms and into the body in a desperate attempt to jumpstart a still heart. Failing that, Xenilla went for the most readily available source of high energy crystals, himself. He reached behind and ignored a stab of pain as he tore out one of his smaller spines. The crystal shifted and sparked, quartz white turning into radiant blue as it shifted into a healing gem. Xenilla jammed it into the wound and shocked it with a nuclear pulse while still holding onto it. The crystal shattered into a familiar blue mist, coating the wound. This couldn't be the end, this had to work...

But the blue glow faded, as did the healing crystal. It didn't work...

Breath quickening, he swallowed back his own pain and torn out another energized spine. Another conversion, another shock, another failure. At this point he was ripping out his tail crystals and practically stuffing the wound before shocking it, giving it everything he had. But nothing changed as he energized the body repeatedly. All the regeneration boosters in the world couldn't revive the dead. The same clamping feeling returned to his chest with vengeance, the pain almost crippling.

And the world flickered back to reality for a moment's breath.

For a split second, the enveloping blackness disappeared and he was back in a crystalline cavern. His hands were gone, replaced by hooves. The darkness above briefly flashed the grinning, laughing visage of a rising King Sombra. The dark king's horn glowed with a bright green glow as a beam tracked from its tip into Xenilla's chest.

Then the nightmare returned, the realization clawing Xenilla's mind.

Magic, Sombra's magic. What he saw was a trick, it had all been a sick illusion. His hatred broiled.

Xenilla's breathing and heart rate skyrocketed, but now equal parts grief and fury. The nightmare fizzled out again briefly as Xenilla rose and took a step forward. Every heartbeat, every pulse brought him in and out of reality. Quartz crystals tore out of the ground, strands of energy flying out of them and into Xenilla's shoulders as he levitated off the ground. The very air began to tremble as telekinesis lashed at everything around it. Nightmare, reality. Corpse, Sombra. Crushing fear, incinerating hatred. It rapidly swapped between the two as Xenilla's mane and eyes became overwhelmed with a red light. Sombra's smile vanished as Xenilla's lips curled into a snarl. Stoicism was completely thrown away. The blue stallion's trailing shadow stretched across the wall behind him, but didn't resemble any equine. Xenilla called out. The echoing shout, more a roar than a yell, rattled the air and shook the castle's foundations.

"SOOOOOMMMMBRAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The crystal kaiju charged forward too fast for Sombra to dodge or block, grabbing the tyrant and smashing through the roof in a blue blur.
The green smoke and dark shroud around Cadance's eyes vanished with Sombra's influence. Her nightmare ceased and her eyes dried a bit. Celestia's lessons on dark magic rang true as her horn glimmered. She concentrated on a lot, filling her mind with love. An old couple she called mother and father. A kindly princess who took her under her wing. A shy classmate who years later held her hoof under an alter. The darkness ebbed away as her horn lost its glow, and she fully returned to reality. It only took her a moment to see the gaping hole in the ceiling and loud rumbling from above to figure out where the stallions went. Slowing her heart rate, she spread her wings and half sprinted and half flew up the staircase to another chamber. By the sound of it, they'd just broken into the roof near the reliquary. Sombra was one of the strongest dark magic users in history. Dark magic's best counter is benign magic. In a desperate time and situation, she didn't know if she could risk her last resort option. But it looked like her back up plan was the best plan.

Sombra meanwhile skid across the floor, some of his armor being torn away as he flopped and rolled across the ground. Xenilla, eyes still caught in an inferno, stomped towards him. Red energy sparked along his entire body, the ground with every step. Sombra attempted to swipe at him with his scythe, but a furious smack by Xenilla's axe swatted it down. The crazed kaiju raised his axe and swung down, Sombra trying to intercept it with his scythe. But instead of locking up and pushing down as the sparks flew, Xenilla stomped down on Sombra's bare leg and smashed the weapon down again and again with ever increasing fervor. Each time Sombra tried to force him away, and each time he failed. Until, with a thundering crash, steel at least conquered aerenth. The ancient scythe shattered into unrecognizable pieces, shards flying every which way as expanding cracks flew up its length. The war axe continued to descend down, hardly even slowed down by breaking the ancient relic. Barely missing Sombra's head, it hit with such force that it buried itself in the floor all the way to the handle. Not that Xenilla needed a weapon any more. Strands of telekinesis strangled the dazed tyrant, lifting him up as an enraged Xenilla roared in his face.

"Do you have ANY idea what you did to me?!"

Sombra's eyes and horn ignited with a green flare, a fireball of dark magic shooting out and engulfing much of Xenilla's upper body. But the psychic hold never faulted, and Xenilla stood exactly as he was when the smoke cleared, despite half his torso and neck being horribly burned. The kaiju cocked his head back and head butted his rival hard enough to reopen the broken nose Cadance caused. Sombra struggled and writhed, attempting another blast; but a second face first crash broke his focus. Xenilla hissed, fighting through the nightmares that still plagued his vision with every heartbeat.

"Do you know what I lost?!"

A strong hoof to the face bruised Sombra from the cheek to the brow. The former monarch's crown flew off his head and rolled against the floor as Xenilla towered over him. A stray limb broke free of psychic control and ushered a return blow; smacking the kaiju across the face, bloodying his nose and snout. The retaliation was far from dignified.

Xenilla chomped down, bending the metal greave and rupturing skin under tooth and fang. A loud crack signaling a shattered hoof and leg bone. Nearly shocked by his own pain, King Sombra's entire body glowed with a flare of green light as he put as much force as he could into one more blast. Taking advantage of Xenilla being blinded by his hex for a split second, Sombra ducked his head down and lunged up. Recurved horn stabbed into Xenilla's collar, burying itself and almost the entire magical shock wave shot out from it into the kaiju's body. The psychic binding was fractured and Xenilla flew across the room with a trail of smoke. Crashing into a chair, Xenilla was a bit slower to rise than Sombra; falling back to the ground. The tyrant king struggled up to his hooves with a noticeable limp, keeping one limb off the ground.

"I fashioned a prison none could experience without living your worst fear."

Xenilla struggled to get up, his wound sparking as his healing factor tried to patch it to the best of its current ability. Sombra huffed coarsely to regain his breath, levitating up a sharpened shiv that used to be part of his scythe's shaft as he limped forward. He took aim as Xenilla's throat.

"For you, it must have been like tearing off your own arm... But it ends here, the beast dies alone..."

A third voice joined the conversation, shouting out from the doorway.

"He's not alone!"

Without warning, a wave of blue magic tore through the doorway and slammed into King Sombra, forcing him back and tearing into the floor. Princess Cadance forced her way into the room with a brilliant, blue gleam hovering in front of her. A new magic flooded the room, practically searing Sombra to the touch as it banished the nightmares from Xenilla's sight at last. The kaiju gasped for breath as new energy flooded his systems, shrugging off the weakness Sombra's hexes had caused. Sombra, now steaming, tried to force his way into a charge. But with a flare of her horn and memory of her husband in mind fueling her magic, Cadance sent a pulse of her power into the Crystal Heart. The artifact of hope and love amplified her power, the pulse turning into a shockwave that threw Sombra back again and vaporized his aerenths.

Bringing the heart in was a huge risk. If she fell without it, the Empire would least still have one weapon to stop its threats before they spilled over into Equestria proper. And when she was uncertain of the kaiju's intent, it was simply too big of a risk. But now, it was all or nothing. Another shockwave was charged as Sombra tried to fire a blast of fel magic, only for a ray of red energy to intercept the magic midflight and block it. Xenilla got back up, advancing alongside Cadance as Sombra was forced back. Try as he may with all his might, he was too expended to hold off two attackers at once now and was being overwhelmed. Every assault he launched, Crystal Kaiju or Crystal Princess would counter it as the other attacked. Alternating blast waves and coronal flares crashed into Sombra as he was shoved further and further back.

"I am a Princess of Equestria! Tasked by Celestia to protect!"

Cadance smacked aside a weakening hellfire blast with a barrier, smashing the energy shield into Sombra as the ruby red flare of Xenilla's nuclear pulse traveled through the ground and pounced upon the tyrant.

"And I will not let you kill-"

Another blast wave crashed into Sombra as he was thrown against the window, the wall and stained glass fracturing upon his impact. His eyes were no long fueled by smoking rage. His wrath , pride, and greed; his power source, had left him. For the first time in eons, one of the most notorious murderers in Equestrian history was terrified. He tried in vain to meld into a shadow, to sink into the floor and escape to try again one day.

"ANYONE!"

Twin suns of blue and red were about to try and guarantee that day would never come. Power condensed and flew forth, blinding beams of star corona and pure magic spiraling around one another as they engulfed the tyrant and blew the wall behind him out. The beams of light were visible for miles, and their target was devoured within them in one last yell that echoed through the night. After almost ten seconds of continued fire, the beams cut off.

Cadance and Xenilla stood in silence, huffing for breath and slowing their racing pulses. The Crystal Heart's glow soothed itself to a gentle gleam. King Sombra was no more, nothing but his torn helm and fractured horn remained on the floor. The wall behind where he once was had a massive circled burned into it, the circumference still glowing and smoldering. The blood red horn crumbled like dust, evaporating into nothingness in moments. The two walked up to the new window, Xenilla crushing Sombra's helm underhoof with his good leg.

"Think- we got him?..."

In the far distance, a circular hole had been burned into a mountain far outside the city limits. Xenilla could see the smoke from his perch.

"Likely, though speaking from experience it would be wise to check later..."

Cadance sighed, Celestia's sunlight beginning to trickle in over the horizon and kiss her muzzle. She looked to her aunt's symbol, keeping her voice barely above a whisper.

"When I brought you in here, I thought you might have been able to break through my shield."

"How so?"

"You overplayed your part a bit, and... guess I was still hoping somewhere that Key Ring and Miss Dancer were telling the truth. But you wanted to be imprisoned, didn't you?"

Xenilla looked to the world's star, feeling its rays begin to restore bits of his near depleted power. He was far too low on energy to completely heal his wounds, only patch them shut. And judging from how many riddled his form, it might take awhile to restore himself fully. The kaiju kept his voice low and emotionless as he responded.

"...Yes, I let you imprison me so I could sense Sombra coming and he'd think I was out of the way. I knew he'd come for you..."

"How did you know he'd come for me? And why didn't you tell m-..."

Cadance's eyes widened slightly with the realization. That familiar sense of ambiguity was rapidly returning to the 'ambassador'. She did not appreciate being used as a treat in a snare trap. Xenilla's response was nearly robotic.

"You used me as bait..."

"Yess... Worked didn't it? Now you only have one thorn in your side, Empress."

With that, the bizarre unicorn turned and began to depart from the room. But in the midst of all uncertainty surrounding the kaiju, Cadance glimpsed something for a fleeting moment on his face. When he turned, a wet line glistened in the sunlight leading from his eye. Whatever he might have seen when under the fear magic, Xenilla had been crying. Cadance shrugged as her wings drooped. She lowered her head, looking down at her city as Xenilla walked out the door.

"...Princess."

=============

Zenith, Temple

Monster X sat cross legged, his wrists laying on his shins as his hands dangled slackly over the edges. His split, twin tails slowly swayed behind him like a cat's; waving in psychic energy as if it was a breeze. He was levitating what seemed to be a relatively short distance in the air, though to a human observer he would have been hovering almost fifty meters off the ground. His quarters were darkened, the only light emanating from a pair of dragon-like statues at either side of the chamber's entrance; from who's maws purple flames billowed forth from to act as lanterns. The flickering flames barely illuminated X's body, their light barely lashed at the edges of his monstrous form. Wasn't like anyone was around to notice however, the Xilian vanguard was meditating alone. That meant there was no one to keep him from falling asleep.

X's face cringed under his helmet, blackened fangs glinting in the firelight as he dreamed.

He was no longer in Zenith. Or anywhere recognizable for that matter. Still, going about through the dark city that now surrounded him, a eerie wave of familiarity he couldn't shake off washed over him. Granted, the word 'city' was barely applicable; for the metropolis he saw around him for miles was morbidly deceased. It was almost like not all of the landscape was present. No moving vehicles, no illuminated lights, nothing one would expect to find here was present but the skeletons and corpses of skyscrapers. In life some of them might have towered over the kaiju, but anything of that greatness had been toppled and shattered. Smoke still billowed from some of the vast graveyard. He tried to look at the sky to garner a detail about where he was, but night or day, the space above was clogged with clouds which in turn were choked by the smog and smoke billowing from the ruins. He tried to look at the skyscraper's husks, but the detail in his vision deserted him. It was almost like he was looking through a filter at a blurred photograph. He could see the shapes and basic features, but nothing specific. And yet, the vagueness all seemed so familiar.

-Have I been here before?-

Where his sight refused to relinquish any information, his sense of touch was acute. For instance, there was something warm and wet on his palm.

Perplexed, he lifted his arm and looked to his hand. Unfolding his claw tipped fingers, he could make out a small form laying in his palm. Like the buildings it was of a vague detail, appearing blurry and distorted in color and specifics across most of its surface. But just enough of the image became clear as he held up his palm to his face to gain a closer inspection.

It was a body, of a form similar to an Xilian or Terran. Two arms, two legs, one head. And the more he looked, the more some minute features became apparent in the dark blurs. A pair of blank, violet eyes looked upwards into space; shoulder length, black hair splayed across his palm as blood flowed from its side. A single, almost foreign thought flickered passively through the kaiju's mind as he looked it over.

-She's dead.-

It took a moment for the thought to fully register, causing his head to snap up a bit and tilt. He could barely make out any details about this body, much less its exact species. Yet somehow the knowledge was irrefutable, he just was clueless to the reason.

-How did I know it was a she?...-

He felt more warmth across both his hands now. Looking to them, X was shocked and somewhat horrified to see both of his limbs coated in spattered sanguine all the way to his elbows. The blood almost materializing out of nowhere, and despite his best efforts, refused to be wiped or flicked off. More disgusting, fat, liquid heat was invading his form. There was black and red blood everywhere. Pouring from the building windows, boiling up from the streets; and flooding out from the alleys. Within moments X was up to his knees in life's currency.

Confused, repulsed, and disgusted; the kaiju lifted his legs to kick himself free. But the blood refused to leave, sticking to him like a vat of tar. And like a beast stuck in a tar pit, he was beginning to sink. The progress was slow at first, but the ocean of blood soon began gluttonously swallowing him up. X tried everything he could to free himself. Telekinesis, fighting for freedom, blasting the pool with graviton flares; but nothing worked. He was now up to his chest in blood, more of it creeping up his arms and shoulders like a virus. His dread and shock over took the usually calm kaiju's senses he tried to keep his head above the drowning gore.

Then came the tidal wave of pain. Every submerged limb, every patch of skin and every muscle or bone below it was ignited. X roared and screamed in agony as the blood came to his mouth's level and began to spill in, choking him. It was approaching his eyes when he could feel his bones breaking and being forced back together in a myriad of different ways, as if he was being torn apart from the inside and put back together differently. The blood over took his trembling eyes when he finally got some company in the darkness. A voice. More like a growl, it was dark, callous, deep; and threatening.

The source was invisible, seemingly swirling around and echoing to him in the dark void. It was remarkably similar and remarkably different from his own at the same time.

-Terrible things X... We've done terrible things...-

The voice cackled gleefully. The agonizing pains in his body grew only worse and worse, an especially wretched amount building up around his repeatedly broken shoulder blades. Then he saw the host of the voice. Three pairs of glowing red lights appeared in the darkness above him. By the time he realized they were a trio of glaring eyes that towered over him, they were already lunging at him. The eyes grew just close enough for X to see three sets of fanged jaws beneath them; when he felt something tear its way out of his back, the pain stifed his yell.

Monster X snapped awake at the same time his mental command to 'Fire' did. He hit the ground of the temple while unleashing a torrent of golden graviton beams from his eyes that impacted and annihilated the dragon lantern. Glowing purple coals and obsidian rubble scattered across the floor as X fell backwards onto his sides. Huffing and panting for breath, he tried to rise to his feet. Stabbing agony halted his attempt and he froze. Two spots on his back almost felt like he'd been impaled.

Reaching back, he felt at his armor. At the source of the pain, just between the bony shroud that covered his shoulder blades; he could feel his armor was chipped. Fragments of it fell away, and at first X thought he had indeed been stabbed while he was sleeping. But the more he felt around, the more he could feel the breach was convex rather than concave like one would expect from an impact. It was from the inside out. And fragments of bone weren't all he felt. Pulling back his hand, he saw a tell tale shimmer on his fingers reflecting the remaining lantern's light. Dark liquid dribbled down from his fingers.

He was all alone, and he had been bleeding.

===================

Crystal Palace, Jail

Xenilla trudged down the darkened stairwell, severely slowed by his limp and lack of energy to fly. He was hurting all over, but still had work to do. The kaiju shook his head slightly as his hooves clicked against the floor, trying to get the world to stop tilting so much.

-The things I do to get library privileges back...-

He passed by empty cell after empty cell, his approach being well noticed by the jail's last and only occupant. Blade Dancer jumped back up to her hooves and pressed up against the bars and barrier as she spotted the dark outline of Xenilla approaching the cell.

"Xenilla, is that you?"

The unicorn reached the cell door as he lifted up the key he'd picked back up on the way in with a quivering strand of psychic energy.

"Ah, hello there Miss Dancer."

He'd just managed to unlock the door when the guardsmare got a good look at him. Instantly her expression shifted from miffed and annoyed to worried. Her face only shrunk more and more as she noticed the burns, cuts, bruises; and stab wounds covering Xenilla's blue coat. One of his eyes held closed and was ringed in a purple bruise.

"Oh good Faust, Xen..."

The door opened as Xenilla cut off his telekinesis, stumbling over his hoof. He'd probably had fallen flat on his face had Blade Dancer not practically thrown herself into him to keep him from tilting. Not hesitating, she gently but firmly gripped his limping hoof and put it over her shoulders. Had she undertaken any other occupation that didn't require a lot of strength building regimes, she'd probably have toppled over upon making him lean on her. Xenilla was all muscle and probably weighed over twice as much as she did. Still, she managed to hold him up on his hooves as she looked up at his wincing face.

"Hey don't keel over on me now! You going to be alright?! Where's Sombra?!"

Xenilla shifted, starting to limp towards the exit with Blade Dancer quick to tag along to keep him supported.

"I- won, I'll be alright... I kept my promise and got pardoned, the Empress is still kicking."

Red eyes glanced down at red mane standing next to him. Xenilla tried to chuckle but cut himself short from the stabbing pain in his chest. Sometimes some things like a set of broken ribs skipped his mind.

"As are you thankfully. What happened to the other two guards?"

He mumbled, still slumping somewhat. Blade Dancer stretched a wing over his back, minding to avoid some scabs as she curled it around him to keep a better grip.

"Shhh, don't talk too much if it hurts. They woke up about thirty minutes ago to head up top, saying I'd be fine down here. I haven't seen them since... Now C'mon, we need to get you to a bed and a doctor."

"Hmph... Is this more wasted sympathy for a monster I see? No need for medical personnel however. I'll be fine, I heal fast. Though, seeing you fret is admittedly-"

Lips sneered briefly as a pain shot up his shoulder upon taking the first step up the staircase, his fangs glinting in the low light. A slithering hiss seeped out for a moment with his exhale.

"-adorable."

Blade Dancer narrowed her eyes slightly, playfully whapping the kaiju on the back of the head with some of her feathers as she helped him up the stairs.

"Oh don't you start that with me buster! I'm still miffed about the stunt you pulled with the cell."

Xenilla's lips briefly turned up, before flattening again. He knew full well why he'd locked her away. In addition to not wanting to work around anyone, he was, on some levels, the same as any other soul whether he fancied the thought or not. He didn't like losing stuff he liked one way or another. Unfortunately, this thought was ushering some darker kin; subjects he'd much rather not think about. He could already feel his chest chilling and tightening up a bit as he spoke in an uncharacteristically somber tone.

"I, apologize but I couldn't risk you being caught in the crossfire. You'd be bullheaded enough to get in the way and I didn't want to have to fight around someone. The castle took enough damage in the brawl as is..."

Looking away at the ceiling, a tiny smile crossed Blade Dancer's face as they finished climbing the stairs.

"Well, I suppose that's kinda sweet of you..."

Several long moments passed in silence as they trudged down a long hallway leading to some of the guest quarters. Feeling the stallion shift his stance against her shoulder, Blade Dancer glanced over to her cohort and her smile vanished. Xenilla's face was paled, and obviously going through great effort to remain blank as it could. The edges of his lips were turning down slightly and if one was looked very closely, his eyes were trembling. It wasn't the stallion she'd seen for the past few days. She paused in front of his room, looking him in the eye and putting a hoof to his chest.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

Xenilla summoned some of his old strength as the sunlight streamed through a window streamed and danced across his mane. He managed to free his hoof from Blade Dancer's back and he stood back up to his full height to try and return to his usual look. Chest puffed out slightly, neck raised, head held high, eyes forward, strong muscles showing through his skin. But try as he may, he couldn't banish the shell shocked look on his face any more than he could release the dreaded clamping sensation in his chest. He'd tried to forget something, and managed to for a few minutes. But he'd failed. The crystal kaiju had triumphed over the crystal king.

So why didn't he feel victorious?...

"I'll be fine Miss Dancer..."

He walked through the opened door, closing it behind him. The answer to his question was all too obvious with the words of his foe echoing through his mind as a chill settled over him.

-"I fashioned a prison none could experience without living your worst fear."-

He was Xenilla, the bastard clone of a son to the old king. He'd made a choice one day, and a decision on another; still never sure which was the horrid mistake. His error was written in time. It was too late to change anything now, he'd have to live with his hubris and who it wrought. And maybe that was his greatest fear. He hated feeling so weak, but some foes couldn't be fought. The cold sensation in his chest was growing so strong is overpowered the numb burning her felt from some of his patched wounds.

"I'll be fine, I heal fas-..."

Xenilla closed the door behind himself and locked it, unable to lie.

===============

Zenith, Interior

An idle, frosted wind churned through the dark halls of the obsidian temple. Purplish fires from archaic lanterns flickered as the gales sifted through the main chamber. The air hissed while it encircled the sole distinct feature in the room's core. A massive, featureless orb hovering above the ground. After some moments, it was featureless no more. Trails of a dim purple glow trailed over the surface of the orb, faintly igniting ancient runes that covered the entire surface. The runes pulsed with energy, fading away for a few seconds before another pulse lit them again. The beat was steady, living. It was a blood pulse, a heartbeat.

The ball of pure black, Zenith's throne, stirred with conscious thought. It's occupant, the one his forces called 'Master', shifted inside his otherworldly cocoon. Sets of eyes, long since closed in meditation, saw everything that had happened around it. He saw the gathering of his forces. He saw the monster without a real name knelt before him and presented the Alicorn Amulet. It saw when Gigan cautiously offered up the Electro-Orb, before the last of the gyaos offered its twin. The three treasures now hovered before it in a twisting nether space of the cocoon, grayed, cracked and brittle. He'd drained them dry. Their power was now his, wisps of power in his bottomless engine. He knew there was more where that came from, but some of the more recent endeavors had failed. The Tree of Harmony still stood rooted in the Everfree, and the immortal alicorns still lived.

A deep, slow growl echoed out of the sphere as its owner peered into the realm Zenith had connected itself to. This country, this Equestria; it had more power sources than anywhere else in its realm. But for a place with such seemingly feeble life forms, resistance had been far stronger than anticipated. He hadn't expected the Element of Magic and Guardian of Mortals to be present to fight off the first flock away from the Tree. And the prospect of the King of the Monsters coming to Canterlot's defense at the Alicorn's behest had been most unexpected. Otherwise, the two alicorns would now be in a similar state to their amulet. Aged, drained, and deceased husks.

Recurved fangs glinted in the nether at the thought of jagged spines and colorful wings. Near invisible tendrils of black psychic energy strangled some of the walls, cracked the obsidian as if held in a taught fist. Silent rage shook the very foundations of the temple itself. The modern Godzilla was just as troublesome as his father; and the new Mothra had the tendency to pop up at the worst of times, just like her grandmother. The temple’s rumble increased to almost earthquake levels, with building energy for several moments.

With a calmed sigh, the tension eased and subsided. True, things were not going as planned; but if there was anything he was, it was patient. He waited 77,000 years to begin his reawakening, he could wait for exploitable opportunities. After all, why flare a temper when not all endeavors had their short comings? Monster X, Gigan, and the albino gyaos’ missions had been a success, and his trip to the Crystal Empire's outskirts had worked. King Sombra had lived again, and he saw everything the monarch had done. The assassination plot was promising at first as an opportunity to snare the Crystal Heart and remove its conduit. Sombra had nearly done the latter just fine, though the old monster king's bastard son to get in the way was something he hadn't seen coming. The alicorn and kaiju had killed his pawn. For the second time in a year, King Sombra had been blown to pieces... Still, wasn't a total loss. The Equestrians just saw their tyrant rise from the grave and will seek answers as to why. More resources spent chasing the wind and less on him, the better.

-Besides...-

The malefic lord flicked a talon in his shadowy realm, swirling it around to call forth a thin mist of shadows. Summoning forth from the void was a familiar red horn from the nether. He looked at the remaining fragment of the fallen king slowly, levitating it before himself to inspect it for several moments; then ushering it out of his sphere and onto the wall of his chamber.

-I used my power to bring him back. I did it once; I can always do it again should the opportunity arise. He lived because I willed it, he perishes when I say so. He'd proven promising, and for such a low energy cost as well. Less than a tenth needed to send in a kaiju.-

Thoughts swirled through the demon's head. Native forces always could be so useful, perhaps he should look into some more? Seemed to be plenty of grudges to act upon, and it'd be less taxing to manipulate someone already in that equine realm, than to send in some of his forces in bulk. Conserved energy was utilized energy after all, and with how treacherous he knew someone like King Ghidorah was, he could use all the reserve forces he could and keep under close watch.

A quiet, echoing, deep chuckle was audible as he reclined back inside his throne. He needed to retain his own power. No use sending in all the kaiju in at once. Not without draining himself in his current, weakened state, and undoubtedly causing the destruction of promising energy sources, the artifacts. Artifacts that otherwise could be put to his use. He'd keep Ghidorah especially on a tight leash until the time was right. The time when kings and princesses would see how feeble they were before a god would come one day. That day that was ticking closer and closer. For every artifact found, for every life snuffed out on either side of this conflict, for every passing night and day; he was getting stronger and stronger. There was a time he could evaporate cities and rupture mountains at a whim. If he remained patient, this Equestria could make him exceed even that might. If he bide his time, this was inevitability. One day, he'd make worlds tremble at his roar and split upon his footfall.

He crossed his arms and curled his spiked tail around himself, levitating within his housing as dark energies swirled around his resting body.

Yes... it would return one day. And when it did, it would liberate them all. The pitiful, malign, fleeting bond that enslaved all this world's inhabitants would be severed. The chain of life force that held the immortal soul to those miserable, mobile piles of meat, its most loathed enemy; it would rend it asunder. Life was fleeting, corruptible, fragile; a mistake. Death was final, death was equal; death was the stasis of the eternal. One could crush a body, but not a soul. It realized this long ago, and they would make others see the truth if they had to force them to. Extinction would have its day. First in this Equestria, then Terra, and then beyond... For 'Extinction', the apex of death, was the very title the ancients had ascribed to them, a word in a long forgotten language it snuffed out of their world with its speakers.

They had called in extinction, so it was called, Bagan.

================

Everfree Forest

Deep within the ancient wood, a gentle glow emanated out of its hold. The nightly air was gently warmed with each passing glow, wrapping the forest in a heated embrace as half its denizens slept and dreamed. The source, the timeless Tree of Harmony, dazzled with a star like gleam as the energy pulses flowed into its roots and out into the Everfree and world around it. This was the source of it all. The source to the Elements, to the natural magic that emanated throughout the wood and beyond; and to powers unknown. In some ways, the tree was the heart of the Everfree; and in others, to Equestria as a whole.

And like all trees and hearts, it was alive.

And she was smiling.

The pulses grew greater, swelling into a flare of light that birthed a ghostly form. Glowing with hues of silver and amethyst, she stepped out of her realm and into the mortal coil. She strode forward in serenity, without a hoof so much as bending a blade of grass. The astral projection silently waded out of her cavern and into the forest proper, a dim glowing mist trailer her. All around her brilliance, the world came alive. Te creatures of the nocturne shifted their attention from their posts, looking in in awe. Flowers bloomed and leaves unfolded as she walked past them. Moon beams flowed down from above, lighting the way. It was a beautiful sight, on a beautiful night; and she had good reason to smile. The gyaos attack was chaotic and nerve wracking, but the terror had passed for now. Her forest and the innocent city beyond it were safe. And it wasn’t just the dutiful valiance of her ponies she had to thank, two kaiju had her gratitude for the calm.

-It seems Sir Caesar wasn’t the only one of his kind-

She lifted her head up, peering through the forest canopy into the distant Canterlot castle. Brushing aside old wishes for her alicorns to return to their old residence, her mind drifted and pondered of the two aliens in the city’s midst. One who helped save her home, and the other who saved the alicorn’s city. True, their methods were a bit more lethal than she may have liked; but lives were on the line. Life included death, because death could give rise to new life. If ten thousand innocents could be saved and allowed to live as they wished by slaying one irredeemable evil, so be it. It was rare to find souls so willing to put themselves on the line for strangers in the name of selfless protection. It seemed this world of Terra they hailed from might have just as much of a knack for spawning champions as it did monsters. However, their reception so far had been a bit mixed. For every Equestrian cheering and applauding their heroism, just as many were fearing them. It was natural really, to react to something unknown and powerful with caution and wariness. Celestia and Luna had similar reception during their arrival at first, and again with the former after the Nightmare.

She took in a deep breath and sighed, a smile grew over the spectral face; kind, beautiful eyes glimmering. Those who feared would come around in time and see into their hearts as she had. Happened with Celestia, happened with Luna; it could happen again if they gave them the chance. There was a lot of pain within those kaiju, but their capacity for good was as enormous as they were, equal to any Equestrians. To her now, they were as dear as a newborn foal.

Overtime as the moon shined down from above however, the good mood stiffed. Her smile drifted and vanished into blankness as she trod through the glade, mind drifting to the wrecked stench of dark magic she still vividly remembered upon finding some of the gyaos skeletons after the Everfree battle. It was almost as if they were coated in the malign energy. That same energy she sensed on two visitors to the human realm the other day. The darkness was biting and hostile, limiting her ability to look into the invaders at times and follow them to whatever hole they crawled out of. Something like that confirmed her suspicions. Something or someone was directing the malign kaiju around, turning the gyaos free onto Canterlot like a swarm of attack dogs; and was holding even more forces in reserves elsewhere. She had a true enemy now, one with powerful forces. This was worse than Discord or Tirek.

A relaxed sigh relieved some tension. Powerful as her foe’s destroyers and hunters were, she’d seen into some of their hearts just the same as Godzilla and Mothra's. And in there, she saw some glimmers of hope. Something that demonstrated value in friendship, selflessness; and camaraderie was far from irredeemable. She briefly paused, thinking back to her brief message to the one now calling herself Irys. For the kaiju to show such concern for an Equestria, one they'd only known for awhile; she had to say something. The presence of the darkness, her enemy, however limited how long she could reach out undetected. But, judging from young lady Irys's actions, she'd said just what she needed to. One way or another, that group showed promise.

-If I can just nudge them down the right path, who knows?-

She turned, dimly glowing fog trailing her as her nightly walk began to draw to a close. Her projection couldn't stay in this world for long as she liked and time was up. Still, her soft smile returned as she looked upon the forest and distant Canterlot like a mother would. For now, under the efforts of heroines and heroes from two worlds; her realm had peace and life. And there was nothing more precious than that. Life was the time to makes choices, to forge friendships, and to love. It was a precious gift and certainly worth defending. It was what the Element of Magic and Guardian of Mortals had given each other. It was the same gift the Celestial Avatars and King of the Monsters had granted to Canterlot. It had been one of her gifts to this world, that life can be enjoyed and maintained. And it was this gift, more than any other that she sensed her foe sought to snuff out. It was peaceful for now, but that could all change for the worst. For now though, it was in capable hands and hooves.

The astral shape walked up to the Tree of Harmony, the structure glowing to life as she advanced up to and into it. The world around her shifted into a starry, magnificent realm. Cloven hooves trod across a glassy walkway as illuminated windows to all across Equestria opened up all around her. The sights and sounds of her home greeted her, human and equine alike. She saw schools, homes, ocean depths, towns, cities, wilds; and everything in between. This is what her foe campaigned to bring to an end, they and their forces. A branched horn glimmered with radiance, the panels shifting to over fifteen specific souls. She looked upon them all with a knowing nod and hopeful smile. If the enemy sought to play the cards of destruction, she’d be on her toes to maintain this peace in any way she was allowed. And champions from two worlds might just be the ticket needed to stop all this, even if some needed some work. Peace and life had to be maintained…

After all, her name was Harmony.

Chapter 21: Old Problems, New Results

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 22: Facets

Moonbeams trickled down from the waving curtain hovering high above, ethereal silver dancing through shaded veil and across the watery plains. Ripples etched across the sandy sea floor shifted with the passage of time. Occasional strands of sea grass swaying in the weak current. In the far distance, the crash of roar of waves against beachheads and rocky shoals was a drumming echo through the dark waters. The moon was not alone in granting its light. Stars of the sky and of the sea glimmered, a rolling wave high above churning the nearby plankton into a green and blue fluorescence that danced across the surface like dozens of tiny will-o-wisps. No single word could describe how beautiful it all was, how calming it all was. She however, did have one word to describe what it was to her.

This was, home.

A peaceful current shifted in the illuminated waters, causing her mane-like fins to sway to and fro as she took in the breathtaking sight. A smile etched its way across her face as she lay back against the sea floor. Didn't matter that they'd botched charming some sailors. Didn't matter that it was hard hexing the seaside ponies at all with all the chaos going on at the surface recently. She didn't even pay much mind to the curious visage of an alicorn now staining the moon. She had no room to be upset or disappointed.

She was home, it was a good night, and she was happy. They could always try again tomorrow.

She then made the mistake of closing her eyes, stealing them from their watery void, and woke up.

Happiness and contentment vanished when the sensation of sea water against her form changed to bed linens. For the slightest moment, she prayed nothing had changed, opening her eyes and looking up to the moon. Unfortunately, when she could only see the silvery celestial through a window frame; fears were confirmed. She wasn't home, she wasn't dreaming, she'd been banished. Hubris had a price after all.

Aria Blaze sat up in her bed, pulling her legs up and hugging her knees. Her eyes looked around to the room about her. Plastered across every inch of back wall and door were pictures. Magazine cut outs, photographs, posters, even a small painting or two she'd 'appropriated'; all of home. Waves, reefs, sand flats, drop offs; and shores. If one blurred their vision and ignored the tape on some of the images, the mosaic almost looked like the sea for a moment. Aria stayed motionless and stared at the wall for a long time, zoning out and trying to ignore everything else. Her lips pursed as she closed her eyes and tried to fill her head with the sounds of her birthplace, attempting to return to her dreamscape. It only worked slightly.

She was a siren, a selfish, prideful, manipulative sea witch who caused strife in others for her own gain. She bore no regret over what she'd done. Didn't mean she couldn't feel sad either. She'd learn to move in this form, but it still felt alien. The ocean, deep or shallow, churning or calm, had been her home. Now it was just some place she'd drown in. Such drastic change was not something the group had taken lightly. Floating through the air at their choosing was one thing, you could still always go back to the water when you wanted. Being forced to claw their way across the ground, forever cut off from home was a whole different mater entirely.

-Not like you're alone in this regard, you all have coped somehow... Sonata took up swimming, if the flailing these primates do to move in the water counts as that. Adagio refuses to talk about it...-

Aria rested her chin upon her wrist, and her wrist upon her knees, opening her eyes and staring at a picture of a saltwater lagoon.

-Maybe I should see if Sonata's way helps any?-

A deep sigh slithered out of her nose. Aria chewed on her cheek. That idea wouldn't work, not for her. Humans can't breathe underwater, so she could only stay down for a few moments at a time. If siphoning hatred off the humans was her 'fast food' analogy for their magic feedings, going underwater for only about thirty seconds at a time would be like being offered a full course meal and only being allowed to nibble it a crumb at a time. It's not food anymore, just tiny samples. It would be agonizing. Didn't help that the last time she was underwater some random psycho in a mask was shoving her under.

A chill of cold shot down her back in memory. It took nearly an hour for her and Sonata to track down Adagio and tell her what had happened. Since then, there hadn't been any sign of their attacker. He'd vanished with as little of a trace as he'd arrived. Aria flopped back onto her bed, trying to brush aside thoughts of the days recently past and think about something else. Adagio was certain the magic was nearby, that detail got her attention.

-Maybe everything will change once we track down that magic? Being able to relax on a reef while being worshiped would be heaven right about now... And just as importantly-

Aria Blaze looked up at a poster of a sandy tidal zone she'd attached to the roof. It was a spot like this she'd been born at. The sight calmed her nerves some. She closed her eyes, assurance washing over her. It didn't matter her attacker was about as human as she was.

-I'd have power, enough power that no monster would ever scare me again...-

Time slipped away, and for a moment she thought she'd managed to fall asleep again. That's when she felt it. Eyes snapped open and widened as she jolted up. A dull red glow crossed her face, causing her to look down. Her Heart was pulsing, the necklace emanating a dull light. Cradling the gem, Aria's eyes flickered with realization. A slight sensation was in the air, nipping at her skin. It felt like what they all felt that night back in autumn, back at that diner. Only this feeling was much, much stronger. And far from an outburst of the benign, this was broiling with strife. It's flavor was much more to her liking.

An energy surge, a dark energy surge. It could only have meant one thing.

-Someone with a lot of magic was feeling very angry...-

Aria swung her legs around and got up from her bed, pointing her siren heart at the window leading to the woods outside. The red gemstone's pulses grew stronger and more rapid with the new direction. A large smirk crossed her face.

-And they are close by...-

Not wasting a moment, she threw on some outside clothes and her jacket. For the first time in months, she was the ecstatic one. They'd been tracking that magic for weeks, toiling as they narrowed down it's source. And now not only was it in the perfect state to siphon from, but it practically seemed gift wrapped to their front doorstep. This one night could change everything!

However, one step outside her bedroom door momentarily gave her pause. Aria bit her lip and tip toed to Adagio's door. She twisted the knob at a snail's pace to avoid it creaking, peaking an eye inside to peer through the crack. The orange siren was easy enough to spot, between the enormous mound of curly hair and glowing gem. However, she was still as a statue aside from breathing. Squinting, Aria could just barely make out that her cohort's eyes were closed and a smile across her face. Adagio Dazzle was still sound asleep, and probably dreaming. Aria slowly closed the door and moved over to Sonata's room. This time, she didn't even need to look inside to confirm that she was the only one awake, needing only to put her ear to the wood. Aria knew her fellow sirens well. And sure enough, Sonata's muffled snoring was all too audible. She always did have a strong voice despite her namesake.

Aria backed away from the door as numerous thoughts raced through her mind. The equation was simple enough to put together. She was the only one awake and the energy surge's source was close. Knowing those two it would take them a bit to wake up and head out. She could go after it alone, get it for herself....

A mock version of Adagio's voice echoed through her head, reciting lines of years long since passed that changed Aria's life more than anything. They were very charismatic and appealing back then. Not anymore.

-"The Equestrians will be easy pickings! The alicorns have their hooves busy enough as is and we've never been caught before. We'll take the show to the cities and reap our gains! No more running away! No more scrounging for power to get back what's ours! Even if they catch on eventually, we'd have more than enough time to get strong enough to beat even Celestia if we have to before returning to Mako. We'll be living like queens in days. What could go wrong?"-

Aria's eyes narrowed to a glare as she looked to Adagio's door.

-Bearded arch mage with portal magic, that's what could go wrong...-

Her mind was made up with that. Those two could wait their turn. She was going to get what she was entitled to back first. Creeping out of the house, Aria quietly locked the door behind her and sprinted off into the woods, using her gemstone as a compass. A shiver trailed down her spine upon seeing the darkened forest, thoughts trailing back to a mall trip turned into trauma. Aria couldn't stop herself from moving as quietly as she could, keeping an eye out for anything, or more importantly anyone who might be around. She paused for a moment and looked about her surroundings, hoping and praying that she didn't see a white mask and a black scarf. Being alone did no favors for any anxiety. Had the power surge not felt so strong or her gem not pulsed as excitedly as it did, she might have turned back to stay safe. Aria drew a deep breath to calm her pulse.

-There has been no sign of that 'thing' for days and you know this neck of the woods. It's perfectly safe and you are getting what you came for...-

She resumed her trek and it didn't take long for her gem to start constantly glowing. Trails of green smoke, hate energy, soon littered the ground. Aria flashed a smile, quietly humming a soft melody to draw the smog in. As soon as the first bit entered her heart, an exhilarating wave coursed through her system. To put matters bluntly, it felt a bit odd at first, but the surge of power she felt trickling in made her efforts on the humans pale in comparison. Magic or not, there was a lot of hatred around, and it had a lot of energy in it. So captured she was at her feast, that the siren didn't notice all the snapped branches littering the trees as high as two and a half meters up; going on the exact same path as the mist.

As she followed the trail, nearly silent aside from her hushed voiced, the siren slowly began to realize just how much smog there was. The energy around here was practically suffocating. She'd only been absorbing it for a few passing seconds now, barely scratching the surface of the smog mass, and already she felt about a tenth of her full power had come back. Her grin through her quiet song refused to subside. Her old self was coming back, and no longer one miniscule fragment at a time. An off thought cast her vision back to the faint outline of the cabin visible through the trees about two hundred meters away. Aria stopped her quiet melody.

-Maybe I should go back and get them... Seems safe. There is plenty to go around...-

Before she could turn around however, a sharp sound startled her attention away. The forest was moderately lit, pale moonbeams filtering down from the sparse canopy and reflecting off the snow covered ground. Looking in the direction of the snap, it took her a moment to spot the source of the noise; and the smog. There was a low growling. Standing under the shroud of an overhanging branch about twenty yards away was a large figure with its back to her. It was tall, easily a third of a meter taller than the siren. He turned around. The night and the man's dark coloration made its details hard to make out, aside from the glow anchored to its eyes, neck, and wrists. They were blood red, and looking right at her. Kaizer Ghidorah sneered under his breath, chilled mist emitting from his nose. He seemed unaware of the green smog seeping out from his form, nor would he care. He was far too berserk to see much of anything. Anything except the young woman he was glaring at with manic intent.

He'd been so close. So close to King Ghidorah. So close he could visualize tearing the demon's heart from his chest and crushing it. Something, someone had denied him that chance. Rational thought was long since deceased, seething hatred blotting all sense. The woman lived in this world, she must have done it. She'd taken him away from his right, interfered just like that cyborg.... She dared, and thus was good as dead. A fanged grin crossed his human face. Tree limbs never did give quite the same snap as a real limb.

He took a step forward, crushing another fallen branch and layer of snow underfoot as he began trudging forward. That was all Aria needed for primal fear to overtake her, turning tail and sprinting the other direction. Her hood flopped back as she sprinted for the cabin, trailing her long hair as she weaved around branches and trunks in an attempt to get away. Stealing a glance back, the frightened siren soon discovered her would-be power source wasn't walking anymore. Snapping a sapling that was in his way as he moved from shadow to shadow, Kaizer was barreling towards Aria faster than she could get away. Her mind was in an absolute panic for the first time since the attack at the mall. He was gaining on her, she'd never make it to the cabin and unlock the door in time.

Up ahead there was a massive, hollow oak tree illuminated by a moonbeam. As she approached, Aria gauged that she'd be just barely small enough to fit through. In almost any other scenario she'd think of what could go wrong. The hollow might be too shallow for her. Might be something already in there. Her pursuer might be able to fit in as well. But right now, the poor siren wasn't thinking straight. She just had to get somewhere remotely safe with something solid behind her. The footfalls of the dark figure were booming behind her ears, closing in. Throwing everything she had into a lunge, Aria dove forward into the hollow. She ended up roughing her shoulder and stunning her arm while forcing her way in, but the hollow was large enough to fit and was thankfully vacant.

She only had time to brace against the back wall, holding up her good arm in a guard as the footfalls drew in. The sound stopped, and a second passed. Then a broad arm forced its way into the hollow and nearly grabbed her wrist. It was covered in a black glove, but was thrashing around so much that Aria couldn't make out many details beyond the wrist, which was covered in a dull gold bracer with two red gems embedded in the top. The arm jerked and flailed around rapidly, as its owner tried to force his way inside and grab at her throat. Failing to grab the dodging siren, it retracted and two hands clenched at the edges of the hollow's entrance. Grip crushed in on fringes, the tell tale sounds of dead wood splinting striking the air.

Trying to act fast, Aria held her gemstone and attempted to sing. Startled and fear growing every moment, her shaking voice was to be expected, she was terrified. Her vision blurred slightly as scared tears began to clot her sight.

"Ha-Ha Kaa!-kaa-Haa-huu-haa-aaa!"
-"G-Go Away! Go Away! GO AWAY!"-

The attacker briefly reeled back upon hearing her song, but the reaction was the exact opposite of what she'd been trying. An enraged, deep yell almost akin to a roar called out from beyond the hollow. He attacked the tree even more vigorously than before, grabbing at its fringes and yanking upon them. The wood began to visibly crack under strain. A growling voice rang out, some of the words incomprehensible due to the heavy snarling.

"HE KILLED H--! WH--E IS HE?! WHERE! IS! HE!?"

A large chunk of tree trunk was torn away, enlarging the hollow's entrance. Aria nearly screamed through the spite inducing melody, fueled off her own disdain for her cousin Adagio, to try and control or ward him off but it only seemed to make the rabid creature in the shape of man more enraged.

"WHY HAVE YOU TAKEN ME HERE!? WHY DID YOU INTERFERE?!"

Unable to focus on her song, Aria's tune altered significantly and she unconsciously kept singing despite bracing against the back of the trunk. It was all she could do for a moment, singing a melody she'd never heard of. One that focused not on the now, but the past. Back to a time under the ocean's wave, tucked into a sea cave with her cousins cuddled close. Back to when someone sang her a lullaby and she felt the opposite of hatred for so many things in the world. It was a bygone time when she was loved and happy. She cut off her voice, gritting her teeth and closing her eyes; not wanting to see the end coming as a hand lunged at her...

It took Aria a few moments to notice that seconds had ticked by and nothing had happened aside from a cold feeling on her throat.

She peeked out one eye, half wondering how she was still alive. Looking down, she noticed the cause of the chill. Her Heart was glowing, gentle pulses coursing over it every few moments as red colored smog filtered into it. The same rush of power she felt earlier began to trickle out of the gem. It felt a little different in comparison to the green smoke however. In some ways, it chilled her to the bone. In other ways, it felt magnitudes stronger. Her power was rushing back into her by the moment. Trailing her vision up, her eyes widened at the source of the red smoke. Eyes met eyes, bloody cinnabar looking into fuchsia magenta. Having completely halted his attack, Kaizer loomed over the hollow's entrance, standing silently aside from coarse breathing. He retracted his hand that had been inches from Aria's throat and letting it flop to his side. Had she been a moment late, he'd probably have snapped her neck.

Despite the moon light behind him, it was hard for Aria to make out more than a few more his features. Hair was short but unkempt, jet black with the fringes being grizzled into a dull gold or yellow. The face was obscured, both due to the lighting and its midnight black tone. The only legible portion being the eyes due to the iris' slight glow. They had no whites, the entirety of the orbs aside from the red iris being an inky black. He appeared to be wearing a necklace or choker of some sort, which gleamed slightly in the reflection of Aria's own. It had the same pair of red embedded gems Aria had previously spotted on his bracers. Kaizer stood motionless, peering down at her with narrowed, studying eyes. The gleam of bared teeth subsided slightly.

Slowly, he leaned in slightly as the red smoke cut off; trying to get a closer look. Aria held up her arms to guard, still trying to stop her racing breathing and heart rate. Her attacker tilted his head to the side in an odd manner, not blinking once. His expression was completely unreadable, akin to trying to understand a wild animal. It was impossible to tell what was going through his head, if he was going to attack or not. A low voice slithered out of his maw.

".... Eleven?"

A loud footstep tore Kaizer's attention away. Pushing away from the hollow, Aria's attacker turned and glared at something she could not see. Kaizer's hairs raised slowly, growling like a rabid beast at something off to the right. Trying to see past the hollow, Aria barely caught a glimpse of another figure charging them before it tackled the first being. Kaizer grunted and snarled, shoved against the trunk hard enough to rattle the hollow before grabbing his assailant and tossing it to the side. The former kaiju wasted no time to go on the attack, blood thirst switching back on in an instant. Aria gathered her wits amidst a surging heart beat, as the sounds of close combat echoed in. Snapping branches, shifting feet in the snow, growling voices; and the thumping of blows. She jumped back slightly as a loud thud smacked into the side of the trunk, denting it and splinting some of the wood. After a few moments the noises grew slightly distant. Aria Blaze held her breath and jumped out of the hollow. She stole a glance at the dueling figures a dozen yards away, one tossing the other to the ground only to receive a branch to the face in return; before sprinting as fast as she could back to the cabin.

Elsewhere and several minutes of close combat later, Kaizer tumbled back through a thicket of river reeds. He groaned while rolling over, feeling and testing his jaw to ensure that last punch from his attacker didn't break it before he sprung back up to his feet. The thumping of heavy footfalls signaled his dance partner's return. Snarling, Kaizer focused his energy through his arm; attempting to channel a graviton torrent out of the limb. Despite feeling the air shift slightly, and several fallen leaves and pieces of snow briefly levitating off the ground from the altered gravity; the result was not what was asked for. There was a brief flash of golden light in his palm, but the world around Kaizer spun and altered into the unrecognizable. The dark, riverside forest blurred, briefly morphing back to darkened halls. The dark figure morphing into the snarling visage of Gaira as a black and white arm threw out and jabbed the ogre in the face. Kaizer snarled and reeled back slightly, trying to force the visions away and try again. Another charge up, another misfire, another vision. The purple haired woman tearfully looking at her necklace, a heavily injured Gigan kneeling before him; walking towards a statue with a pale shape beside him. Kaizer shook his head ferociously to clear his vision, stopping his attempts to attack. The visions ceased and he returned to the dark wood. Growling under his breath, he narrowed his eyes as he canceled his plans. His energy was there, but the control had gone haywire. Something, or rather, someone was wrong with his powers.

-I'll deal with you later, X...-

The footfall grew louder and his attacker came barreling at him from down a hill. It was time to settle this the old fashion way.

-Currently I have other arrangements...-

He waited for the black and crimson clad man to throw a lunging punch. Ducking to the side slightly as the fist raked across his ribs, Kaizer grabbed the arm by its wrist and smashed his forearm into its elbow full force. The arm bent the wrong way with a crunch. And yet, despite the pain it had to have been in, his bulky attacker didn't utter a single cry as Kaizer flipped him over his shoulder. Not that Kaizer particularly cared, the loud crack heralding a crushed joint and likely severed tendons was enough to give him a grin.

Pressuring his counterattack, Kaizer planted his boot on the back of his down assailant's head, twisting and yanking on the shoulder to earn another snapped joint. He kicked the masked thug in the face, sending it tumbling into the water's edge and breaking the thin ice sheet coating the river. But despite its mutilated arm, the figure was quick to get right back up without any sign of being slowed. Not taking it's eyes off Kaizer, it gripped its shoulder firmly and tore it to the side, a sickening pop being all too audible as the limb was snapped back into its socket. The self surgery continued with its elbow, slinging it back into the proper direction. Despite all possibility speaking against it, it began to move its arm like nothing had happened. All while not speaking a single word from behind the snarling facade clad across its white and red mask, the only change being a dull red glow briefly visible near the sternum. Kaizer huffed for breath, narrowing his eyes slightly while the gemstones mounted on his bracers and necklace gleamed in anger.

Crushed feet, busted knees, broken arms, shattered ribs, even stabbing it with a tree branch, it seemed like his best efforts only slowed this mute assailant down. His attacker was as strong as it was bold, daring to attack him. Pain shot through Kaizer's chest with every breath, indicating a fractured rib or sternum. A particularly nasty hit with a tree branch had rendered his left leg slowed and numb; and the trickle of blood down his brow and nose told him he'd been cut across the scalp or forehead, likely from one of the short spines jutting out from his attacker's knuckles. This body wasn't as durable as his old one, but he'd be fighting like it was. Monster X was the one who'd dodge oncoming attacks as often as possible. Kaizer Ghidorah was used to just bulldozing through them most of the time. A folly. One way or another, he was beginning to tire of this fight, but judging from the dark form lumbering up to him without a hint of pain; the feeling wasn't mutual. He'd give a lot to have his graviton attacks again, but judging from past failure it looked like he needed to stick to brute force. Still, didn't mean he couldn't use his brains too.

Looking to the sheets of ice, Kaizer noticed something. In the portions of ice that had broken, revealing water, several shards of ice and snow were floating on the surface. They were drifting in a direction, pressing up against the edge of the side sheet. The ice was unstable, and there was a reasonably strong current under it. One way or another, he needed to end this fight; or at least buy time for round two. And he knew just the way to do it.

Curling his lips and flashing his short fangs in a snarl, Kaizer charged down the incline and tackled his foe. The demon met him head on and refused to be toppled, grabbing onto Kaizer's shoulders as Kaizer did the same to him; digging his feet into the riverbed to try and avoid being forced back. But Kaizer had momentum on his side, winning the strength contest and shoving them several yards into the frozen river. Feeling a rapidly increasing depth, Kaizer changed his grip and grabbed onto his enemy's head; beginning to twist at it. The inhuman still refused to utter so much as a growl, letting go of Kaizer's shoulders and rapidly punching at his chest and gut. The former kaiju held his breath and braced as best he could against the onslaught, feeling more of his ribs begin to fracture and break. Spiked knuckles punched more and more holes into Kaizer's gut as he focused on twisting it's neck further and further around. Finally, the breaking point had its eve.

Kaizer roared out in manic laughter, throwing his shoulders and hips to add force until his assailant's neck finally gave out. The wet crack echoed into the night as a head was spun around behind mounting. The attacker's body went slack from a snapped spinal cord, twitching as it began to go limp. But the hybrid ghidorah wasn't finished. Grabbing the fallen unknown by its arm, he put the last of his strength into spinning around and hurling it several yards into the icy river. The limp body shattered the thin ice on impact, dunking under the surface before the current took hold of it. The dark form drifted to the river floor, sinking down before slowly rolling along the bottom and heading downstream.

Kaizer held an arm across his bruised and bleeding chest, trying to hold in the stabbing pain he got every moment while grunting for breath. Licking some blood trickling from his lip, he spat out the ichor before slowly trudging his way back to shore.

-Swim with that...-

Reaching solid ground, he grumbled and slumped against a tree to catch his breath briefly before lumbering back off into the forest. He was definitely going to be feeling all of this in the morning. However, as he wandered off into the woods; the former kaiju began to feel an odd tingling sensation wash over him as he grew tired. His mind was beginning to feel cloudy and numb, consciousness lost as he wandered off. He couldn't have noticed some strands of his hair beginning to pale, and the black sclera encircling his irises started fading to white. After a few moments, someone else entirely collapsed into a snowbank.

================

Tree of Harmony

Deep within her gleaming ethereal realm, Harmony watched on from her viewing panels. This development with the black and white kaiju was, troubling. When it crossed into the human realm from whatever hell her opponent ruled from, she'd felt the outburst of energy all the way to her chamber. So much energy had been put out, that the wall between the worlds couldn't strip it all away. This situation was most unwell. The comparison of how this 'X' acted compared to this new face was night and day.

-A rampaging dragon; sharing a body with a soldier-

Sympathy felt for the poor soul the beast inhabited was evident, but the facts remained. She looked through the realm which the terror had been released with grim recognition. This world had just rediscovered its magic, and already had its own growing problems to deal with.

-And now, the dragon dwells in a place without as many defenses to balance it...-

Harmony bowed her head, shaking it. Maybe she'd been too hopeful for all these kaiju. Irys was still a promising case, as was Megalon and perhaps Gigan. The poor soul that lay unconscious in the snow, X, had just as much of a chance... But the other personality, the Kaizer, it seemed to have been consumed by hatred long ago. And with so much potential power, even in a human form, it could grow to be a threat more dire than the demoness and sirens put together. And this was on top of that other creature suddenly arriving. The mere essence of that being's energy reeked of the malign.

It was times like these she almost wished she'd not divided her power all those centuries ago. With the elements only recently returned, it would be a long time until she could step into any fray personally outside of the briefest moment; having to resign herself to speed chess. And time might not be on her side. The human world only bore inexperienced champions, oblivious to the two growing monstrosities within it. Perhaps she'd need find a way to send in aid from Equestria?

-I could attempt to contact Caesar again... or send one of my!-

Her thoughts given pause by the sound of music. Harmony opened her eyes and looked to the source. Before her was the scene at the hollow, Kaizer tearing away at the trunk as Aria attempted to mind control him. Kaizer had just about forced his way in, startling Aria. In that moment, the tune changed; as did Kaizer. Harmony played over the scene again and again, looking closely. The beast was about to throttle the siren's neck for one moment, and stopped when the song changed. He was still far from tamed, descending into bloodlust right after being attacked by the dark agent. But, for the briefest moment, Aria had calmed him down. And then there was that red smoke...

Harmony's pronged horn glimmered, altering the scene to the riverside. Kaizer had thrown his hand out, the gravity in the area shifted. The flash of light that followed confirmed it was an attempt at an attack of some sort, but something blocked it. Judging from Kaizer's reaction, staggering briefly and mentally swearing; something was going on within his head.

-I'll deal with you later...-

It seemed Kaizer didn't have full control of himself after all. Someone was already fighting him. A small, hopeful smile crossed the watcher's lips. The vision before her shifted to the present, the unconscious Monster X laying in the snow. With this new threat running about, she'd need a counter. And if there were ways to keep the Kaizer 'aimed' in the right direction...

-Perhaps... You're not completely lost after all-

The main realm was relatively placid and had plenty of defenses. She could afford to keep her focus here for awhile. Try and keep the two beings that could hope to stop Kaizer Ghidorah close together. Perhaps, two wrongs could help make a right? She could only pray.

-You have one chance X...-

==============================

Hours later and nearly three kilometers downstream, there was movement at the bottom of a frozen lake the river fed into. Surrounded in the icy water, a masked demon opened his eyes. Enjin shifted his head, slowed by a broken neck and the suffocating cold. Slowly but surely however, he moved his neck back into the proper place. Nerves of shade began to branch out and mend themselves together, reinforced from their previous injury just as his arm had. Whatever killed him, made him stronger. The revenant oni balled a fist, before getting up and lumbering across the river bottom and heading for shore. Bagan had seen it all through his aspect's eyes. Kaizer was at war with himself, and still vulnerable. And now it seemed the ghidorah wasn't the only target of opportunity in this world....

========================

Sweet Apple Acres, next day

Anguirus grunted, shifting his weight to the side to dump his last load of zap apples into the storage bins. Work on a farm was something new to him, but on some level he liked it. The Fire Guardian never was a particularly active kaiju, so the slow, but steady and constant pace of rural labor felt decent enough. Plenty of elbow room on the orchards, a big step up from any city he might have ended up in. And a body purposely built to swim through magma and charge into combat was plenty strong enough to buck, load, and haul bustles and bustles of apples. Least the matriarch of the family thought so as she looked over at her new farm aid.

Granny Smith let an honest smile stretch over her wrinkled muzzle and made her way over to the bins. When he first got a look at her, Anguirus felt a brief moment of confusion surge over him; but swept it away. He was in magical technicolor horse world where a being like Pinkie Pie could exist, he wasn't going to bother asking why Mrs. Smith was half covered in painted-on polka dots and wearing a purple bunny suit. He just hoped it wasn't contagious. Granny Smith paid the perplex looking stallion no mind and looked over the harvest.

"Yeeeeep! I'd say between you and Lil' Mac, we 'bout got this harvest all wrapped up. I best hustle on this here jam prep or it'll be more late than it is. Jackie's gonna be grinnin' like a bride by time she gets back from visitin' Braeburn! Nothing like some jam for a homecomin'."

Granny noted with a nod. Anguirus looked back over the zap apple orchards. True to word, the trees had been cleaned out. Might have helped they had the other 'farm aid' keeping the fruit bats away. Anguirus would give Granny Smith props for one thing, she actually found a way to keep Destroyah busy. Certainly had helped him relax somewhat. Granny Smith looked through the bins, keeping a mental count of the fruit until she reached her goal.

"Yep! You boys done some good. This here's definitely enough for the first batch of jam for Mr. Filthy and then some."

She looked up at the stallion with a happy smile.

"Why don't ye' take the afternoon off. Yah been up and hauling since before the rooster was crowin'."

Anguirus raised an eyebrow, leaning back against a fence post. He'd been around the family long enough to know a few things. They had been a welcoming bunch, and he'd been welcoming in turn. He hadn't spotted Macintosh in awhile, Applejack was still with Rodan, and he hadn't seen young Bloom since morning. And given the matriarch wasn't getting any younger, leaving her alone didn't seem like the wisest option. She already looked like something out of a cartoon, he didn't want to guess what might come next.

"Are you certain Mrs. Smith? I could always keep present until one of your grandchildren return-"

Anguirus cut himself off when Granny put her costume and paint tipped hoof on his muzzle.

"Naaah Naaah, I'll be just fine. Mac should be heading in soon and Apple Bloom's with her friends in the barn. I'll have plenty of company."

"But-"

"Go ooon! If Princess Celestia wants ye' big critters learnin' to behave like us folks, how ye' gonna do it all cooped up in here all day?! Now g't!"

The old mare barked with a chuckle. Anguirus' protests died in his throat. One of the first things he learned about Granny Smith was that she had a stubbornness that made his attitude look meek by comparison. For such a seemingly aged old widow, she had an unmovable foundation. She was weathered, but most certainly not withered. Anguirus slipped off his holding harness.

"Alright, I'll be back before sun down."

He said under his breath, heading down the path to town.

"Take care!"

It took him several long minutes and approaching the outskirts of town for Anguirus to realize just what happened. Back home, most days were spent roaming to find the next threat, some sparring; or resting from his last brawl. The Anteverse invaders certainly helped make matters less quiet in the past few years. Truth be told, any spare time, let alone a day off was about as foreign a concept to the kaiju as working on a farm. Thankfully town was a safer place to be around than he'd previously thought. If Rarity, an expert about how appearance can affect social interaction from what Anguirus could gather, said he could pass ponies by without raising suspicion; he trusted the advice.

Anguirus absent mindedly kept walking, letting his unconscious guide him around as he try and dwell on the idea of just what exactly he was going to do. Sights and sounds blurred for a long while, until the strong smell of tea leaves shot up his nose. A familiar, cervine form looked over to him from behind a countertop.

"Quill Coat?"

'Quill Coat' froze in place and finally took a moment to take in what was going on. He was halfway through the front door to a familiar restaurant, warm lights cast from lanterns coating the entirety of the interior. By the looks of things the establishment was winding down for the day, with only a few townsfolk being seated and eating on the cushions and benches. That and the owner was looking right at him with a perplexed expression. Ki Seong raised her deer-like ears. Her recent acquaintance dropping in suddenly after several days absence had made her smile, but confusion took hold as to why he had been standing in the front doorway for about twenty seconds now without budging. To call Anguirus stiff as a board would be an understatement. He didn't know why he'd ended up here. He didn't know why he was frozen in place. And he, as someone who regularly slept in live magma, didn't know why his face was feeling hot.

Seong encircled the plate of food she'd been preparing in a golden aura, passing it to the thankful customer before getting out from around the counter.

"Quill? Are you alright? Would, you like a table?"

She asked with a mildly concerned voice as she trot up to him. It took her approaching to finally allow 'Quill Coat' to finally feel his joints unlock.

"I'll be closing up soon, but always room for another. We can have a chat as I wrap up if you'd li-"

"HI SEONG! GOTTA GO! WRONG ADDRESS! BYE!"

With speed far exceeding one would expect for his bulk and size, Anguirus whirled around out the door in a blur and closed it behind him. Seong lurched her head back with wide eyes and pursed lips, flabbergasted as to what just happened. Judging from the loud, exasperated-

"-AAAAARG!"

audible through the door, she wasn't the only one. Cloudchaser leaned over to the kirin from her seat, having witnessed it all.

"Um... iisss he okay? He kinda spazzed out when you got close there."

Ki Seong's face relaxed as she took a deep breath. With a slow exhale she giggled under her breath. She smiled slightly while reapproaching the counter.

-Shy around me huh? Adorable-

"Oh don't worry about him."

Seong rang up her next order and got to work, talking over it.

"He'll be back."

===========================

Elsewhere, back at the orchards

Energized horn met a thicket of reinforced vines, slicing the invasive parasites like a hot knife through butter. Purple sparks crackled along Destroyah's ragged mane before a stream of violet energy resembling a lightning bolt eviscerated and evaporated the falling vines before they so much as touched the ground. The giant of a mare grumbled as she left the now liberated apple tree behind her. Despite having enough strength to 'applebuck' even the strongest tree in the orchard, the apple family was quick to find Destroyah's talents related more to pest control. The agreement was passable to her, having given the kaiju something to shoot at. As a result she'd spent the better part of the day slicing apart vines, evaporating weeds; or shooting around, or rather when no Apple was around, at animal pests. Speaking of onlookers...

"I know you runts are over there. Out."

Destroyah spoke with a grumble, glancing at some nearby shrubs behind her without so much as turning her head. One by one, the Cutie mark Crusaders filed out of the foliage with sheepish smiles. Apple Bloom was the first to speak, rubbing the back of her head.

"Sorry 'bout spyin' on yah Princess, we were comin' to talk to yah, but got wrapped up watchin'!"

Sweetie Belle hopped up next to her companion as she looked at Destroyah's scimitar-like horn. The memory of what it did to the vines just a moment ago gave her a giddy grin and a hyper voice.

"How'd you do that blade thingy with your horn Princess Destoroyana?! Some sort of super secret princess spell?!"

Destroyah's jaw clenched. Several days on this farm and that title was really starting to get to her. From what she perceived so far, the 'princesses' in this world, the smallest one withstanding, were regal, elegant; awe inspiring feminine icons. Destroyah on the other hand was as far from that ideal as possible and wanted nothing to do with it. In arthropods, the female was the burlier, stronger, more dangerous gender; a principle that carried over to Docter Serizawa's legacy. There wasn't an inch of beauty curves or fine mane on her, just muscle and fangs. And if it was possible for someone like her, Destroyah took offense to the label first time she'd been called it. Now it just ticked her off.

She lunged down at the trio like a demon from hell, her horn igniting with fiery wrath as energy raced across her mane and maw. Fangs were bared, mist billowing out from between them.

"I!... Am NOT! A PRINCESS!"

Several long moments passed before the Serizawan legacy noticed something. Despite doing everything to terrify the children short of firing at their hooves, an appealing option in her mind at the moment, the CMC were completely unmoved. Quite the opposite, seeing a display of the kaiju's powers so close had widened their eyes and granted them gleeful expressions. Destroyah cut off the energy to her horn and mouth, closing her jaw. A deep, reverberating grumble came forth. Destroyah raised her head back up to her full height and looked down at the children as they wagged their tails. She had every wish and will to kill them right then and there. Crushed skull, chopped in half, evaporated, bitten to death; this group was more than annoying so the methods were innumerable. But with every thought, a pulse stabbed through her to banish it. Her chest felt tighter the more she attempted to dwell on the possibility. Every time she tried to think up a way to massacre one of the CMC on the spot, the tightening struck harder and dispelled it quicker than the last. Destroyah rolled her eyes.

-More trouble than it's worth Des-

"And why were you runts trailing me this time?"

Destroyah spoke with a grunt, only to have Scootaloo bounce up a bit towards her with her wings fluttering.

"We just wanted to see you do your thing. It's awesome!"

"Thing?"

Apple Bloom raised her hoof.

"Yah! Your powers! Haven't seen nopony ever do the stuff you do. Like that purple death ray!"

"Or the horn cutter!"

"And those purple exploding spheres that melted that boulder!"

Destroyah snorted, turning and starting to walk away from the group. Maybe she could forget about her annoyances and lift her mood if she managed to find one of those wooden dogs to tear apart.

"Hmp, I just guess mangling or wrecking things would be my talent..."

Apple Bloom's voice called out from her height. Destroyah looked to her right and saw the earth pony filly standing on a branch at the kaiju's eye level, a tad confused as to how something so small could have moved so fast and gotten where she was.

"Oh! Monster Hunter AND Demolitionist?! You'll be perfect then! We need somethin' wrecked!"

Destroyah gave her a fleeting glance.

"If this is about that Almond Tiara's clubhouse again-"

"No no! This is different! You see we had this ol' storehouse we needed to tear down so the plots clear for the upcoming build project. Mah' sister and Rainbow Dash were gonna bring it down like the last one soon as she's back visitin' cousin Braeburn."

Without warning, Sweetie Belle practically seemed to materialize on another branch opposite of Apple Bloom.

"But you could do it all in a few minutes and have it outta the way by the time Applejack gets back!"

Now it was Scootaloo's turn to break physics, popping up on the top of Destroyah's back and nearly causing the mare to instinctively throw her off.

"And you could use all your cool powers without worrying about wrecking the orchard! No having to cut around vines to avoid hitting anypony or any trees!"

The prospect was casually appealing to her, despite the group proposing it. Destroyah looked up for a bit, mulling over her thoughts.

"So... I could get to demolish some building, and there is no repercussions?"

She asked with a bemused tone, closing her eyes. The giddy voice of Scootaloo answered her.

"Nope!"

"And none of you three, nor anyone is going to get in my way?"

"Nope!"

"And most importantly..."

Destroyah opened her eyes, looking back to Scootaloo with as deadpan an expression as she could muster. She didn't even feel like questioning how in the world Apple Bloom or Sweetie Belle managed to get out of the trees and beside their companion.

"Will you runts get off my back afterwards?"

Scootaloo beamed, nodding a few times in unison with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom.

"Sure! We'll let yah take a rest!"

Destroyah stared at them for some time, before turning her head back around without her expression so much as budging as she walked through the orchard.

"... Maybe it'll do me some good, was bored anyways."

"Alrighty! Just lead on straight from here and make a right at the trail."

"Just warnin' yah Miss Desatroyah, it's a biiiiig storehouse."

"...I hope so..."

==================

Carousel Boutique

Baby blue magic encircled fabric scissors and half a dozen needles, sticking, cutting, trimming; and seaming layers upon layers of cloth together across the mannequin. Rarity bit her lip and adjusted her glasses, looking close at her handiwork to try and scrutinize it again. With a gala coming up and word of her expertise having spread through the grape vine, she'd gotten more than a couple orders in the past few days. Seems like even giant monsters popping up couldn't change some constants in Equestria. As attentive as she was to her work however, Rarity was unfocused and had redone this particular gown four times now. Dull pain slipped through the pale unicorn's head and horn with her pulse. Rarity groaned, sitting down and taking off her glasses before rubbing her temple to try and ebb the pain away. But as soon as she closed her eyes, the world flashed back to dreamscape. Her nightmare and Nightmare returned.

The boutique turned into charred ruin, her home and town reduced to a corpse by a tri-horned titan. Her heart practically stopped when she remembered her sister's still eye, starlight and gray in the reflection. Memory of her dark echo's voice seemed so close that it was as if the Nightmare was whispering in her ear.

-If he makes it to Equestria.. No survivors...-

Rarity's legs began to buckle, on the edge of choking when a voice she'd learned only a few days prior tore her back to reality.

"Hello? Miss Rarity? Are you present?"

Rarity shot up, quickly grabbing a piece of scrap fabric and wiping her dampened eyes, breathing deeply to slow her heart rate.

-Just a terrible, terrible dream Rarity. She is gone, and so shall it!-

She repeated her mental mantra several times in rapid succession, reaching some measure of limited success. She still had to force herself to remember it wouldn't be proper for a lady to appear as such around company to pound the memo through. Taking one last, deep breath into her minor mediation; Rarity turned and called over her shoulder.

"In here Anguirus. Come in."

"You certain? Are you in the midst of something? I had a question but it can wait."

Rarity brushed her mane back a bit, regaining her focus. A little company could be just what was needed right now. Friendship was magical, and some conversation might help keep her mind from wandering off into unfavorable waters. It's harder to scare someone who's not alone.

"No no, please make yourself at home. I needed a break anyways."

Anguirus stepped inside and closed the door behind him, taking a seat on the central carpet. An expert in body language he was not, but the stallion need only a glance at Rarity when she turned around to get a hint that something was off. Her usually uniform and groomed mane was slightly flayed and her ears were drooping for a moment before perking up. Even the way she carried herself before trotting over to him seemed a tad off from what he remembered.

"You okay?"

Anguirus asked, tilting his head slightly like a curious dog. Rarity shook her head, setting some of her design down before seating herself.

"Oh I'm quite fine darling, no need for worry. Just a bit of work stress giving me a bit of a headache I suppose. So what brings you here?"

Anguirus' mind briefly spasmed upon recalling his reasoning. It only took him half a moment to clench his jaw and affirm there was no way he was going to spout out his exact reasoning. Wasn't lying if you didn't tell the whole truth.

"Well, I've gotten some word from Mothra saying my team and I won't be incognito forever.. but..."

"Buuuut?"

"She said after Godzilla's mixed reaction to take extra care not to scare anyone."

"Hmmm, well that seems to be good thinking on her part. Ponies react better to things that seem more personable. How does this involve me exactly? You mentioned you had a question earlier I believe?"

"Well-"

Anguirus had to try his hardest not to think about a particular subject. His ears flopped down against his head.

"-I figured that since we might be here awhile and fitting in might calm the situation down some, I thought learning how to act around you folks might help out in the long run."

Rarity's eyebrows raised slightly as she rubbed her chin. What she thought was being proposed was fairly surprising to say the least.

"So, you want to learn some manners and came to me wondering if I could teach you any, did you?"

Anguirus nodded his head a few times, some small slivers of eagerness being apparent before he reigned it in.

"You seemed like the best to go to. Back at the farm I only got an elderly granny who sleeps half the day and a guy I've only heard about three sentences out of on any given day. 'Sides you got the most decorated home in town."

It had been a long time since somepony asked her about something like this, and she'd be the last mare to deny someone who wanted some help. The topics needing to be covered rapidly piled up. This could take some time. Yep, this sort of thing just might be the perfect distraction. A warm smile crossed Rarity's face.

"Alrighty, I'm here to help. How about we start with some specifics? Would you like table manners, addressing ponies, acting proper around a lady-"

"LATTER!"

Anguirus chomped down on his tongue so hard he nearly bled. If it were possible, he would have uprooted himself then and there and rammed his head into the nearest wall. Instead he felt his muzzle heating up slightly. Rarity did not let this outburst go unnoticed. She rubbed her chin as a large smirk crossed her face. The white unicorn leaned forward with a cocked eyebrow.

-Yep, this conversation has my attention-

"Any particular reeeason? Some pretty face in town catch your eye?"

At that very moment, Anguirus was appreciative of just how attentive he was when he frantically groped for a way out. A particular observation about the country offered an escape route. Didn't stop his tail hairs and quills from sticking up on end.

"NO!... I figured it be best to learn because most of this town seems to be mares. Most of the officials seem female, as do your rulers."

While the statement had some logic to it, Rarity didn't buy it for a minute. Still, opting that it would be rude to pressure, she went along with it.

"Ah, yes I suppose you have a point there. I guess the dice rolled in the feminine favor in that regard after all."

Anguirus shifted his mental gears as fast as he possibly could to live up to the half excuse. Truth be told the gender slant he'd notice did perk his interest somewhat. The society didn't seem especially matriarchal, so the shift had raised his eyebrow a few times.

"Any particular reason for that? Sometimes it looks like the females outnumber the males around here by a good margin, and why no male rulers?"

"Random chance I suppose. A lot of ponies around Ponyville aside from the Apples moved here from other places. By chance I guess more mares did. As for leaders, there have been 'kings' before... theeeey just weren't the best type to keep in office. "

"Point made. As for the instruction, could we start soon? I wouldn't want to impose."

Rarity giggled, waving her hoof before holding it out to him.

"Oh no imposing at all deary, I needed a distraction from work. Let's start with greetings shall we? Now, remember this if you want to be personable. When a lady offers you her hoof, you kiss it."

Anguirus looked at the limb for several long moments. The unicorn had done this on their first meeting. He had no clue what she was doing then and did nothing. Now that he knew, he still did nothing. Anguirus looked up at Rarity with a half confused half annoyed look.

"I'm not kissing your foot, you walk on those."

================

Sweet Apple Acres

Destroyah looked up at the storehouse with a blank expression as the filly trio hopped off her back. True to Apple Bloom's word, the building clearly had some age to it. Rusted nails, rusted pipes, beetle chewed wood; and loose roofing being all too obvious. Destroyah's mood was indiscernible as she looked it over. Something about the proposition pitched to her seemed all too fishy. Typically folks didn't like having their stuff leveled.

"So, why is it alright for me to demolish this?"

She asked with a slight grumble. Apple Bloom walked over to the edge of the storehouse, putting a hoof to the deteriorating wall boards as she answered the kaiju.

"Granny Smith is plannin' on this being the spot for the new raising for the next family get together. It's a bit of a ways away, but the storehouse is empty and we got plenty of room in the barn. So havin' this spot clear ahead of time could be a big help!"

Destroyah looked at the filly, glancing up at the store house. Smashing things up was something she was very good at, and right about now letting off some steam might kill some boredom. That all said, the idea someone would want something destroyed, and it not out of spite for someone else; was a concept so foreign to the kaiju it might as well have been spoken backwards. The last time she knocked a building over, there was artillery fire and a mech thrown at her over it.

"I thought you types liked your buildings standing. Always seemed to not care for your things being toppled."

Scootaloo tugged on the edge of Destroyah's matted tail, getting her attention.

"Well, sometimes yah gotta take something down to put up something better in its place..."

She said as she rubbed her chin, mulling over a thought. A small smile crossed Scootaloo's face before she looked at Destroyah with a nod.

"So I guess sometimes destroying stuff is a good thing."

"Or bad stuff. Like those vines you were chopping up earlier! Destroying bad stuff is okay if it helps the good stuff propujate.. propumate... propu-"

Apple Bloom fumbled her wording, causing Sweetie Bell to pop up next to her and put her hoof to her friend's muzzle. The young unicorn chuckled lightly, looking up at the giant mare.

"She means propagate."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes at the unicorn.

"What are you, the dictionary now?"

Sweetie Belle grumbled lightly as Scootaloo leaned against the storehouse, glancing up at it.

"Anyways, pretty much that. If taking down an old and rotting place like this means the Apple Family can put up a newer, better one; than wrecking the place IS a good thing."

Apple Bloom removed Sweetie Belle's hoof from her mouth, noticing Destroyah's expression. It was near completely unexpressive, but the look in the giant's eye clearly meant something was going through her mind.

"Why the odd question Desutroyah?"

Destroyah looked down at the trio as they looked to her. She looked each of them in the eye, and then silently looked to the store house. For someone who lived as she had for the last few decades and a half, almost none of it made any sense. Still, she supposed mild confusion did beat boredom.

"Never mind, just get back and out of my way."

-Time to cut loose some...-

She said while walking forward. Upon noticing the violet sparks arching across her ragged mane, grins the size of watermelon slices shot across the filly's faces as they darted past her. Having prepared for the possibility their plan would work, the Crusaders dashed over to a trench they'd dug just to the edge of the tree line. Scootaloo had just put on her safety goggles and looked up in time to see they'd gotten their wish to see their favorite kaiju in action. The first battery of purple energy spheres slammed into the old wood. Oxygen destroying particles sizzled and sparked, evaporating chunks of the structure away like steam.

Destroyah stopped her rapid fire sphere launching and charged the store house with a snarl, horn and mane glowing with might. Massive wings flaring out, much to the glee of Scootaloo, Destroyah shot up into the air. It was far from her favorite speedster's trick flying, but seeing somepony that big with a wingspan big enough to shadow all three of them was quite the sight. Destroyah threw her jaws open and trailed a beam of destructive purple energy across the rapidly imploding and evaporating roof. Blowing away the mist with her wing beats and ignoring the urge to absorb it, Destroyah cut off her beam. Horn engulfed into a veil of burning energy, Destroyah dropped and swung down. Sweetie Belle's eyes lit up upon seeing the horn sear and slash its way through roofing, tar, pipe, and timbers with barely any resistance.

Destroyah dove into and disappeared inside the store house, the sounds of rupturing wood, snapping metal; and rumbling earth rattling the air outside. Just when it seemed the sounds of energy blasts and laser horns died down, the outer wall of the store house creaked and pushed outwards. The wood splintered in two spots before a single, powerful kick ripped the wall and half the roof off its foundations and knocked it free of the barely standing structure. Apple Bloom was clapping her hooves, the rest of the Crusaders quickly erupting in cheers over their demolition derby as Destroyah walked out onto the fallen wall.

She stepped down from the wall, turning around to face the leaning corpse of the store house. The cheering of the excited trio were heard, and despite her conscious trying to avoid it, listened to. Destroyah hated their voices. The high pitched squeaks and antics typically annoyed her to no end. It was no small miracle they were still alive. And yet, as much as she hated it, anger didn't take root. Maybe it was being able to go all out on something like the good old days, maybe it was her fantasizing that the water pipe she sliced in half was Godzilla's neck, maybe it was the apples she wolfed down messing with her stomach, could have been many things. But despite all logic speaking against it, her temper refused to flare at the youngling's voices. More she puzzled over the thought, the more an odd sensation trickled across her core; and the more she was confused.

Destroyah stood motionless for a moment, letting the odd tingling settle over her briefly before a snap and snarl banished it. She didn't like being confused. It was time to vent.

Broad wings snapped out and fanned forward, a flap assisted leap back giving Destroyah some distance as her horn and mane glimmered and crackled. Energy flowed through her pulse, flowing down from her head, through her veins; and collecting in the white patch mounted on her chest. The pale, short fur drank in the energy; brimming with an ever increasing purple and white glow. Destroyah grit her teeth and dug in her hooves to brace herself. In her true form, she'd have to flip open her floral pattern to prepare to fire. A perk of her new body was no need to wait.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders watched on curiously. Scootaloo was about to call out and ask if something was wrong when a white flash silenced her throat and made her pupils contract into pin pricks. A massive plume of white energy encircled by electrified strands of violet erupted from Destroyah's chest and engulfed a third of the store house. Her apex ability, a trump card she'd developed since her duel with the old king. Venting off as much plasma and oxygen destroying particles as she could right out from her core. The wave motion cannon. Destroyah hissed as her own raw power was sending her sliding backwards slightly, the mare's hooves digging trenches into the dirt. She pivoted the blast to the side to swallow up the rest of the structure, rending it apart. The loose shards of wood, metal, and other composition that wasn't vaporized by the time she canceled the blast was tossed up into the air by the climatic explosion. Destroyah cut her onslaught off.

The glow died down from her chest, and she snorted jets of venting mist out of her nostrils as the scattered shards of the building rained down from above. After a few tumbling wood planks, bits of metal, and foundation hit the ground; there was nothing left standing of the old store house but a few scattered piles of rubble. To call what the trio of fillies did as they crawled out of their trench cheering would be an understatement. Destroyah gave them a fleeting glance over her shoulder as they approached, her deadpan expression with her ever present frown returning as she looked ahead again. Yet this time, the frown was a bit smaller. Wasn't any blood or guts involved, sadly, but her boredom had lifted.

-Still doesn't beat a slaughter, but perhaps an exercise in all my skills was what was required?-

With loss of boredom and a survey of all the littered debris, a stray idea crossed her mind.

-Still plenty of trash left, and I don't leave my artwork stained... There's that one ability I haven't tried yet.-

Without any warning to the Cutiemark Crusaders, Destroyah snapped her wings to her sides and was quickly shrouded in a smokescreen of white mist. All three put the brakes on, skidding to a halt just outside the cloud. The shroud was dense, completely impossible to see through as it fanned out to the side. The trio raised an eyebrow and tilted their heads in unison, looking amongst each other for a few moments.

"Prin-MISS Desatroyah?"

Scootaloo puzzled her jaw, reaching up to try and fan away some of the fog as it started to sink and shift. The little pegasus paused when the glow of a familiar pair of amber eyes looked back at her. Except instead of looking down, they were looking directly at her on the youngster's level. A second set of eyes opened beside the first, then a second, then a third; and then, dozens.

==============================

Carousel Boutique, half hour later

“Well now, let’s continue. Appearing non-threatening and personable can be altered with a simple change or two to appearance. Can you take those greaves of yours off or are they attached like your um… tail quills?”

Rarity muttered with a raised eyebrow, still harping on just how odd Anguirus’ tail was. The stallion in question looked at his hooves, unsure about the answer himself. In all his days here, it just now dawned on him he hadn’t tried taking them off. He could feel his skin around and possibly underneath them, beginning to fiddle with the spiked greaves.

“I believe so. Don’t know what may happen if I change back into a kaiju with them off. Seems like these things are the equivalent to my shell spines or horns in full form.”

Just as Anguirus managed to get the greaves off, his words of giants sunk in slightly and spurred another subject in Rarity’s psyche. The memory of her nightmares returned slightly, clouding her mind enough for a few moments to cause her to zone out of the world around her. Strengthened resolve and company’s presence were probably the key reasons she refused to buckle this time. Rarity took a sharp inhale, refusing to let the hellish imagery control her again. Still, didn’t mean she couldn’t investigate some to hopefully quell them. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out the three horned monstrosity she’d seen was a kaiju. Perhaps it was one she’d already met? Given her current situation, who better to ask about such a thing than another kaiju?

“Um, Anguirus? If I could risk altering the subject for a bit, can I ask you a question or two about you and the others' ‘giant forms’?”

Anguirus tested his wrists, having just now noticed how heavy his greaves were now that they were off. He did not look up when he casually responded.

"Yes, what about them?"

"Can you, describe them? Pardon my curiosity, but it's not quite like these sort of things happen around here often... On top of the current weirdness."

"Well to put it all simple and run down the list, Rodan looks like a giant red pterosaur or bird with scales instead of fur or feathers. You already know what Godzilla looks like from the photos and heard my description already. Mothra is basically a giant butterfly. Xenilla-"

He was cut off by Rarity uncharacteristically blurting something out, leaning in towards him. For a half second's breath, Anguirus swore he saw concern on her face.

"Do any of them have three big horns?!"

Rarity was quick to catch herself, reeling back and reverting her face to neutrality as best she could. Anguirus' eyes narrowed slightly, but relaxed. Something was clearly up and stressing her, but he thought it best just to answer his host and not stress the issue. If she didn't feel like saying it, then it wasn't his business to prod. He briefly combed through his memories.

"Well... No, not any of our group. Xenilla has a crest that's got three prongs, but it's not really big enough to call a set of horns. Destroyah has a large horn on her forehead, but only frills on the sides."

"So.. do, any kaiju have a triple set?"

Once again, the temptation to inquire was growing in Anguirus' psyche. Something was clearly troubling Rarity for her to be so specific and dead set on a seemingly insignificant issue. It was growing harder for Anguirus to let things be.

"Three big horns? Well there is a couple, but nothing to worry about. A dinosaur kaiju named Gomora who has two on the side and one on his nose; but he's fairly tame. There is also another, a guardian beast like me named Yonggary. He has three horns on his head and one on his nose. He's on our side... There is another one..."

Rarity's face drooped slightly, tilting her head. The stoic yet saddened look crossing the earth pony's face did not go unnoticed. She leaned closer, barely speaking above a whisper.

"And, that one is?..."

Her inquiry got Anguirus thinking about a subject he really would rather not think about. It was the very reason he was alive, but it just might kill him one day. There were some things even walking thunder had a right to be afraid of. Anguirus closed his eyes and took in a deep breath before erasing his expression, looking Rarity in the eye.

"He's nothing to worry with for awhile. He'll be pretty much dead for the next 30,000 years. Mothra's ancestors sealed him away."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I and others like me were purposely made 70,000 years ago to stop him when he came back. Due to some chaos in our times however, some like Rodan and I got woken up early."

Rarity listened to his response, but her mind was working like clockwork. The entire situation being spun to her was uncomfortable one way or another, but hearing Anguirus speak of not one, but three beings that fit her night terror's description stifled some fears. If she had gone to sleep with giant alien creatures on the mind, and the three horned look happened to be fairly common; it could all just be a coincidence. Canterlot had just been attacked by a dire threat, so it made some sense for her to see places she was most familiar with under destruction. And if night terrors did anything well, it was compound upon each other. She feared being alone, so she was the only one left in Ponyville. She feared something powerful she didn't know, so she imagined monsters attacking. She dreaded losing family, so she saw her sister... She feared... Her.. So she appeared. It all made sense. Cruel, twisted, horrific sense. Though the Element of Generosity hated thinking about it all, it did ease her nerves somewhat.

She was so wrapped up in the previous topic, it took the second reference about time for Rarity to notice the 'thousand' following the 'thirty' and 'seventy'. Having roughly 1,100 year old diarchs was one thing. This? This was a bit different. If she had to guess, the stallion still had a strong look to him. Maybe a year or two older than someone like Prince Shining Armor, but still clearly in his prime. Hearing thousands attached to that figure caught her completely off guard, leaving her jaw slightly slack and her voice raised.

"Wait... Your telling me you are SEVENTY thousand years old? As in seven with four zeroes trailing it?!"

Anguirus blinked slightly, the sudden change in tone catching him off guard. He swept his tail along the floor, startling Opalescence who'd been pawing at some of his quills. Rarity didn't even notice the jumping cat.

"Um, yes. But I was hibernating for most of it so I didn't age much."

Rarity chuckled a tad awkwardly, the kaiju's dry and probably unknowing humor helping to ease the tension and calm any lingering nerves. She spoke in a slightly flabbergasted, slightly giggling tone.

"Wow, you'll have to give me and the spa girls your aging secret!"

A small, smirking smile crossed Anguirus' face. With all the weirdness going on for him the past few days, new realms, new bodies, magical equines, awkwardness inducing kirins, and asking a purple and white unicorn about etiquette; these sort of things were nice. As radically different as they were, it was nice to have a new acquaintance he could relax a bit around. Friendship could be magic at times. He spoke with a chuckle.

"Energy based diet, mix of solar heat and volcanic thermals do a firebeast good."

Rarity was just about to speak when a loud, vibrating crash echoed through the window and wall and rattled the floor. Element Bearer and Guardian Beast looked at each other with a mutually confused expression for a moment, before both bolted for the door. Half fumbling over one another at first, they didn't know what to expect by the time they threw the front door open. Pegasus crash? Kaiju footstep? Rainboom? Godzilla tripping?

What they saw instead was a set of wheel tracks leading into a large kart-like machine, which had let its front half lead and crunch into the side of town hall. The writing on the side of the wreckage was barely legible, but if Anguirus squinted he thought he could make out two Fs and the numerals for 8,000. Beyond that, what it said or what in the world it was for was beyond him. Rarity however, recognized some of the traits even at a distance; and the double F was a dead giveaway. But for the second time in one minute, she was cut off by a noise.

Not a loud racket or sudden shock. But a squeaky, high pitched, adorable voice mumbling nonsense next to her.

"Ababu?"

Both sets of eyes slowly trailed down and to the left of the front doorstep in unison. Rarity raised an eyebrow and titled her head in clear confusion at how it was chewing on her mailbox. Anguirus' eyes in the meantime widened as his brow furrowed in a mix of anger and bewilderment.

"Good Tanaka...is that...?"

"Omnomnom!"

==============

Reader Works!

CrashXSpyro and IceStormy proving this ship is never going to sink!

Rookie109 making this cool compilation group shot that might just end up the cover image of the prequel.

Pyrus bring his tested talent back into the game with a pairing I've noticed picking up some steam.

Zeroviks, what was that I just said about this pairing? XD

FallenAngel5414 reeling in the diabeetus and Next Gen. trains to station!

ParadoxalOrder proving to me the world cannot handle three Discords.

An excellent character reference by TheGojirasaurus of everyone's favorite crystal kaiju.

A story update for BlazingPheonix's spin off detailing what's happening across the bridge in the kaiju homeworld in 'Humanity's Stand'.
Chapter 6

Author's Note

Proof read by Skylark and Faith-Wolff

Godzilla and related characters property of Toho Company Ltd.
Created by Tomayuki Tanaka

My Little Pony and related content property of Hasbro Studios
Created by Bonnie zacherle

Next Time on The Bridge!:
You wish it was a parasprite swarm!

Mother's Day Special: The Queen Mother

==========================================

1993, National Institute of Biotechnics, Kyoto, Japan

Professor Omae busily flipped through page after page of research booklets. He was an older gentlemen, approaching 60 with some graying on the fringes of his short black hair that contrasted with his pale undercoat and shirt. Alongside him was his busy body of an assistant, Doctor Azusa Gojo. A newer name in the institute, she stood up on her tip-toes with her long braided hair and curly bangs held out of her face by a band as she tried to look through Omae's papers. The laboratory itself was relatively small, fitting a broad desk, a few computers, and a handful of monitors. They had to avoid taking up too much space, for a two-by-three meter glass housing eating a large share of the floor space contained something precious. An egg, a one of a kind prehistoric, yet still living egg with a developing infant inside. Omae's page was full of hourly pictures of said egg, and it was this that had Omae's attention. Upon seeing the array of photographs however, Azusa raised a confused eyebrow. For the most part, the pictures looked exactly like the egg did now. Light hued with some speckling. Other hours however showed the shell taking on a bizarre, bright red color she hadn't seen since they loaded it off the island they had found it abandoned on.

"It's strange, it seems to still be changing color. I thought it was just a development cycle change from back on the island. Why now?" Azusa mumbled, tilting her head at the collage of pictures as Omae handed her the album.

He looked to the egg, rubbing his chin as the massive object lay still in its incubator.

"I have a theory..." the older biologist muttered as he looked on.

He motioned to the large egg, the wires connected to its outside linking to monitors that displayed a steady pulse.

"When we found it on the island and took it with us, it turned red. It turns red because the infant inside it is afraid or distressed, such as being spooked from the sudden motion on the helicopter."

Azusa brushed her long hair back, still scanning over the still images. The red phases almost seemed to have a pattern of some sort.

She grimaced, "I see... but why would it keep turning red on and off here? It hasn't been moved and I've made sure to keep conditions constant all day and night!"

Omae sagely shook his head, "Not all conditions are always constant, Azusa."

Omae picked up a log book, thumbing through the pages before holding open a set of them containing check in and out hours. He pointed to a particular set.

"Look at this. I checked your duty hours for the week. Compare them to the red phases' timescale. Every time you checked out, the egg turned red. When you came back, it instantly turned back to normal. That's why you never saw the red color before since it got here."

He said in a calm demeanor, pointing between the two page's written times to prove his point. Azusa's face shifted and she leaned her head back in visible confusion.

"W-Why would that be Professor?"

Azusa spoke with a stutter. She didn't like where the conversation was heading. She was just a rookie assistant, this was her first big study! The thought she'd been doing something to spoil the research was ratcheting her nerves in a vice. She wanted to disprove any association, but sure enough, the timescales matched without failure. When she left, the egg turned red every single time. Omae looked away from the books and back to the egg, oblivious to his assistant's internal panic as he puzzled.

"It's part of my theory. I think it is listening to outside sounds. Eggs can still conduct sound energy and if the infant inside is developed enough, it can hear the world around it to some extent. I think it's listening to identify something familiar, in the hopes it'll memorize its parents. If dinosaurs or pterosaurs nested like most birds, then either the mother or father would be present at nearly all times. So if the hatchlings are listening while in the eggs, they'll associate common voices with their parents and recognize them upon hatching."

The gears in Azusa's head churned as her nerves calmed. Bit by bit, a new conclusion was piecing itself together.

She stammered, pointing to herself while trying to articulate, "Y-You mean... It?... Me?"

Azusa looked up to the egg with widened eyes, stumbling over her own words as Professor Omae turned to her.

"You hum and think aloud a lot while you are working solo to keep yourself company, and you're the only one in here most of the time. So instead of its mother or father.." Doctor Omae hummed as he turned to his student, "Azusa, he's been hearing you!"

Omae uttered before he turned and headed for the door, taking some of his notes along with him. He had to pass along this theory to the board. It took a moment for Azusa to snap back into reality, looking away from the egg and jolting around towards him.

"H-He?!" she yelped as she took a step after him.

Omae back stepped through the door, poking his head through the frame as he held it open.

"Sorry, I just now remembered. I checked the data inputs from earlier against the growth patterns of baby crocodilians. Their gender gets determined by temperature when in the egg up to a certain point. We'll have to stop calling the egg an 'it'. By the numbers, well... Congratulations Miss Gojo, it's a boy."

He departed, leaving Azusa alone in the lab like she almost always was. She'd worked inside this room for weeks without so much as an off thought. Now however, things felt a bit different. She wasn't alone in here anymore. Step by step, inch by inch, she approached the glass terrarium's glossy edge. The young biologist hesitated at first, curling in her fingers and motioning away. But, as if drawn by a magnet, she reached forward and extended her hand. One fingertip at a time, she touched the glass before slowly putting her palm to it. Her pulse slowed to a placid beat. With the glistening sun shining through the window, she could just barely make out a vague outline within the shell.

"H-.... Hello there.. little one."

The outline shifted and wiggled, almost as if he was happy. In all likelihood, he was. After all the infantile mind knew he was safe, he could hear his mother!

===============================================

1993, National Institute of Biotechnics, two months later

Doctor Azusa Gojo's pulse throbbed in her ears as she rushed through the halls in a panic, her friends Miki from psychic research and Lieutenant Koji from G-Force attempting to keep up. She'd just returned from a brief date with Kazuma Aoki to discover her ward missing from his nest. Confusion quickly turned to panic when she found out who'd taken him for what test. Skidding around a corner, her heart rate skyrocketed to new highs upon a loud noise echoing out of room 23A. There was a reptilian hiss underneath it, but it unmistakeably sounded like a baby screaming. Azusa sprinted for the room, barreling past the guard outside and practically kicking open the door.

Ignoring the control room to her right as she charged past it, Azusa was soon greeted to a painful sight. The infant dinosaur she'd been taking care of, strapped to a table with a shock collar outfitted to his neck. Every time the terrified baby squirmed or thrashed to free himself, the collar crackled and sent ever increasing jolts through his body. At this point, his muscles and nerves were being shocked so often he was beginning to convulse with sparks springing out from the collar. All Godzilla Junior could do was cry out for his parent.

Azusa answered.

Grabbing a hanging jacket and wadding it into a makeshift insulated glove, the 29 year old biologist grabbed the offending collar. The jacket only insulated her so much, shocks ripping up her arms, causing her hair to become more frizzled than it already was as her muscles momentarily locked up. Working between shocks however, she managed to undo the buckle and toss it away. Azusa dropped the jacket, slumping weakly with panting breaths against the table as Junior groaned wearily.

A smug tone raked across her ears, "Sorry about the shocks, I didn't see you there Gojo."

The snide voice was as smug as the lie was obvious. Doctor Mitsuo stepped out from the control room, adjusting his glasses. Azusa's tired face quickly morphed into a scowl at the sight of her rival, though right now she could care less about their history and more about what he'd been doing in the last hour.

"Why were you shocking him Mitsuo?!" She snapped with a bark, reaching back and putting a hand on Junior's jaw.

The baby dinosaur cooed quietly at her touch, knowing he was going to be alright now.

Mitsuo Katagiri was unmoved and just shrugged, "He burns through the tranquilizers too quickly, we needed him to stay still for the CT scan. Professor Omae noticed you were out on your little play date so I volunteered to keep it still."

Azusa gnashed her teeth, "He was screaming!"

"Only for a bit, shock collars do that before the animal decides to shut up. Don't get yourself worked up, it's not like any lasting harm was done."

Miki and Lt. Koji finally managed to catch up, but were flabbergasted as to what they were seeing. The former was quick to rush over to Azusa and Junior's side as the later snapped to attention and faced Doctor Mitsuo. Despite his formalistic manner and speech, it was quite evident his blood was beginning to boil as soon as his wandering eye spotted the shock collar.

Koji didn't look directly at the callous doctor, "Doctor Katagiri, I understand that Professor Omae put Miss Gojo in-charge of all studies directly involving the asset. It's a rare species and can't be harmed. What is the meaning of this?"

Doctor Mitsuo crossed his arms nonchalantly and leaned against the door frame to the control room.

"Computerized tomography scan of the creature to map out its body layout. Commander Aso requested it of the institute in case anything about this thing could clue us in to a physical weakness in the adult Godzilla, giving us information that the MechaG team can exploit." Katagiri quipped with a shrug, "We are trying to kill that son of a bitch remember? However because the thing wouldn't stop squirming and tranquilizers didn't work, I had to resort to more aggressive, therapy, to get it to stay still."

He said with a razor edged tongue, earning a noticeable eye twitch from the lieutenant and a not so subtle glare from Miki. Azusa meanwhile was focused on the 'little one', rubbing the back of Junior's head and humming softly to calm him down.

"Alright little one, these people just need you to stay still for a few moments okay? The machine is scary but I'll be right here, alright?" Azusa made a point of humming softly as she so often did while working solo.

Junior seemingly understood, chirping softly once before resting his head and going slack. Azusa smiled before she and Miki stepped out of the room for the scan to finish. A few minutes went by as the large, donut shaped machine went up and down the dinosaur's body. Junior would have shuddered from all the noise and the bizarre mechanism, but he stayed still as his mother requested; all the while looking at her through the protective glass until the procedure was done. The moment it was however, Azusa, followed by Miki was upon the saurian, undoing his binds. Soon as the last strap was undone, Azusa shot a backwards glare as Junior got himself off the table.

"If you needed him to stay still, you should have gotten me! Professor Omae put me in charge of all study for the dinosaur so I must be alerted to all surveys conducted!"

Mitsuo was unmoved, getting up from his desk.

"Of course Miss Gojo, this was all a simple misunderstanding on my part. Would you like to join my division? We both could get a lot of intensive work done with you around."

Azusa's face slowly shifted to a simple smile, closing her eyes and walking up to her colleague as Junior and Miki trailed behind her. The moment she was about to walk by Mitsuo however, her face contorted and spawned a sneering glare that could cut through steel; before turning to her side and clocking Mitsuo in the face hard enough to tumble him.

Reverting her expression back to passive happiness, Azusa stepped over him and headed back for the enclosure, leading the infant dinosaur behind her like a mother duck.

"Come along now little one, I'll bring you the donuts Kazuma left me."

Junior chirped happily, wagging his tail so much it whapped Mitsuo in the brow as he passed him by while following his mother. Mitsuo groaned, climbing back to his feet with two noticeable red marks on his face. He turned to the nearest G-force officer on hand.

"Hey! Aren't you going to do anything about that?!"

Koji leaned against the wall, pretending to have been reading a pamphlet he pulled out a few minutes ago. He knew since the scan started what was coming and predicted it to the letter. Personally however, he'd have gone with a right hook. The lieutenant glanced up with a blank expression.

"Frankly I'm just bummed she beat me too the punch."

===================

2010, San Francisco

The waterfront of San Francisco was near dead silent compared to its normal well of busy city life. An hour ago, a new kaiju unlike any the world had seen before rose from the ocean and barreled through the Golden Gate bridge. Numerous jet and helicopter crews from the nearby base had managed to distract it long enough for the evacuation to begin. But alas, bullets and missiles could only do so much. The Trespasser made landfall and was flattening everything in his path. That's not to say the threat scared everyone away however.

Azusa Aoki, formally Gojo, grunted as she picked up an injured child, ignoring their squirming as she helped lift and load them into an ambulance. Having finished her work back home long ago, she and Kazuma had moved to the states a few years prior, shortly after their wedding. The years had been kind to her life, and she still lived much the same as she always had, plus some more friends, some wrinkles, and a few grayed hairs. Having experience with this sort of ordeal, they were some of the first volunteers to aid in the evacuation. However, focused as she was at getting the last person loaded onto the ambulance, Azusa hadn't failed to notice the ground shake beneath her feet. A tall shadow cast itself over the entire city block, a deep bellow rattling the air. Doctor Aoki looked up.

Trespasser loomed over the seaside cityscape, the broken, creaking remains of the Golden Gate all too visible behind him. Glowing yellow eyes locked onto the flashing beacons atop the ambulance, the titan picking up a taloned hand and beginning to reach forward as it advanced. For Azusa, time slowed to a crawl. They were currently right in front of her home, and that meant...

Trespasser nearly had the stalled emergency vehicle on the tip of his claw when rapid, loud honking tore his attention away. The Anteverse creation looked down and spied a bright red minivan driving directly towards and under him. Azusa blared the horn repeatedly as she circled beneath the kaiju, attempting to avoid the potholes and scattered rubble to the best of her ability. She swerved the wheel to turn, hugging a corner to avoid crashing into the beast's foot, trying everything she could to get and keep the kaiju's attention on herself like a mother bird feigning a broken wing to a cat. She succeeded, and soon the very earth beneath her jostled and shook as Trespasser roared, chasing after her van. Azusa floored the gas pedal while speeding down the only reasonably intact road, jostled by every footfall behind her that threw debris all around as she sped towards the already ruined part of town near the bridge. Even when a near miss by Trespasser's swiping claws ripped open the pavement behind her and sent a baseball sized hunk of asphalt through her now shattered rear window, she kept as much nerve as she could and focused despite the downpour of glass. Sadly, her success wasn't to last.

A low top speed and debris filled roads however couldn't contend nor outpace a 50 meter stride for long. Just as she neared the edge of the waterfront and bridge, one of the edges to Trespasser's claws nicked her back wheel and tore it out. The roar of the tires against shattered road was silenced and the van flipped up onto its nose, skidding across the ground to a shower of sparks. Tires and gears locked and screeched as they tore each other apart, totaling the van. The broken automobile creaked and groaned as it tilted off its nose and thumped back down onto the pavement with a tired heave.

Groaning from the face first impact into the pale airbags, Azusa clumsily managed to free herself from her tomb. Gripping the edge of what used to be the door frame, the middle aged biologist hauled herself out of the crumbling wreck and slumped onto the pavement. Day turned to night upon the arrival of a dark shadow swallowing her and the entire street up, an unearthly glow trickling down from above. Azusa warily looked up into the drooling maw of Trespasser, a fanged jaw with a shark's grin. Avoiding the broken glass and concrete, she staggered up to her feet and looked right back in stoic defiance. Seventeen years had eroded away any meekness long ago. She had accomplished too much to be afraid. She'd had a successful career, a happy marriage, many friends, and left her mark on the world for the better. Even if her little stunt bought the evacuees only a few precious moments, it was all worth it. Trespasser almost looked disgruntled by the lack of the human's response, but paid it little heed as he raised his forearm. Wouldn't be like she'd have a face to glare back at him with in a few moments.

Azusa's family had gotten to safety, except for one. One who was following her example and moving directly at Trespasser. One who would never tolerate his mother being threatened.

Before Trespasser could squash the woman into the pavement, a living tidal wave burst out of the water front to the invader's side. A charcoal gray tail erupted from the torrents of sea water and slammed into Trespasser's midsection. Between the mass of the tail, its velocity, and fact a nuclear pulse sent blue shockwaves into Trespasser on impact; the thundering crack of shattered ribs was all too audible. Trespasser was hurled back into the docks, writhing and snarling in pain from the massive welt encompassing half its chest. He didn't have time to react before an enraged King of the Monsters was on top of him, pinning the transgressor under foot. Back spines glowing in fiery neon blue fury, the 100 meter tall, fully grown Godzilla Junior roared before landing nuclear pulse charged punch after smack after punch. An earth shaking right hook breaking off the alien beast's axe-like crest despite Trespasser raking his claws across Junior's arms and legs; the saurian grasped Trespasser by his throat and hurled him into the bay.

Eyes still glowing in plasma charged rage, Junior put himself between the rising intruder and the city; before trudging into the bay to finish him off.

=============

One hour later

Azusa stood perfectly still on the edge of shattered remains that were once the Golden Gate Bridge, sea spray and brilliant blue light crossing her face. The battle was over, if one could even call it that. Trespasser lay dead in the bay, Junior having pried open his jaws to fire a fully charged, continuous beam down his throat. The ray of plasma cut and seared through flesh and broiled the sea until it hit flash point. Past the throat, there was nothing left of the beast. No bones, no muscle, no toxic blood; just smoke. The effort likely near completely drained Junior of his power stores, but he needed to vent. It was the first time in years he'd been scared, so the effort and scars that came with it didn't matter.

Finally deciding he'd killed a dead body enough as possible, Godzilla cut off his ray and dropped the decapitated head into the shallows. His pupils dilated back to orbs as the glow left them. Catching his breath as the glow died down from his spines, Terra's champion threw his head up and let out a roar that would eclipse rolling thunder. A warning to other would-be transgressors, a signal to the humans. A small smile crossed Azusa's face. She doubted she could have heard a better sound right now.

Junior's roar died down as he stood still to calm his racing pulse. All around the bay, lights across the city flickered back on. From her vantage point, Azusa surveyed the damage. Smoke was still billowing out of some establishments, many of the docks had been totaled, and she was standing on a landmark that had been ripped in two. Still, as the mass of lights and the distant sounds of emergency sirens wailed through the air, she knew it could have been much worse.

-Much worse if he hadn't kept the fight in the bay and docks-

Junior seemed to have been surveying the cityscape for the same reason, before grunting to himself and heading out to sea. But he wouldn't leave before seeing his mother. After a minute of walking, he paused 50 meters away from the Golden Gate's edge and Azusa; parent and child looking to one another. Junior wanted to get closer, but Lea's warning played through his mind again and again as much as he wished against it. The same energy that gave him his power and responsibility, was the same one that could kill a human if exposed too close to all but brief moments. Though he was careful to reabsorb any output he gave off in ambiance, as not to contaminate the areas he passed through or waste power; he couldn't decontaminate himself of his own radiation. This was as close as he could get in times like these without risking harm to any humans. Memories would need to be enough to get any closer.

Though he couldn't talk, the slight sadness and concern on the kaiju's face was evident. His mother bore no such expression, only happiness. Didn't matter if he couldn't speak, she'd known him since he hatched and could read his expressions like a book. It was the first time in over a decade and a half that she could look her child on eye level; and she could see familiarity in those golden eyes. Happiness shifted to selfless pride, as she beamed at Junior.

-Don't worry little one, I'm alright. We're alright...-

Junior cooed slightly, raising back up from his tired slouch and reaching his full height. Standing in the shallows near the start of the bridge, he towered over anything in sight. Azusa smiled, putting a hand above her brow to look up as her scarf swayed in the breeze. Sometimes even she had forgotten how an egg grew up into a mountain. She looked her adoptive son over.

Like any mother, she remembered the earliest times first. Azusa slowly shook her head. Even if he was the size of a cow the day he popped out of that egg and imprinted on her, it was still mind boggling to think that placid, gentle as a lamb infant has grown up to be something that could move mountains, walk with tremors and speak through thunder. And, she never could have expected he'd grow up to be so... good. And all the while those gentle eyes always looked exactly the same. If there was any proud parent in the world, she was standing on the Golden Gate.

A tiny, happy tear slipped down her smiling face.

"Anata ga sodatte kimashita... watashi no kodomo..."

("You've grown up so much... my little one...")

Author's Note

Just got repeatedly punched n the face by the writing muse and penned this short special up this morning between celebrating Mother's Day with family. Chapter 23 is still in progress and on its way, but I felt like doing something a bit cheery and shedding one light on probably the most unexpected driving force behind how the Amalgam Universe ended up the way it did. Hope you all enjoyed!

True fact, originally this chapter was going to end with Azusa's perspective right after being informed Junior was hit by Dimension Tide or the present day. But to avoid risking a downer ending, I elected to keep things happy for what amounts to a happy holiday for most.

Art by Faith-Wolff (Love you Faithy!)
Story by Tarbtano, Faith-Wolff, and Skylark

Godzilla Junior, Azusa Gojo, and associated humans property of Toho Company Ltd.
Trespasser property of Legendary Pictures

Chapter 23: Babes Gone Wild Episode 1 A New Nope

==================================

Munchkins run amok, 30 minutes earlier

The Cutiemark Crusaders were utterly speechless. They'd seen a lot of things in their day, despite having a combined age of under thirty two. But a swarm of babies suddenly materializing out of mist? This was new. The trio looked at the mass of dark crimson fur and short, shaggy manes; recognizing them and the small nub of a fiery horn despite the inexplicable diapers they were all wearing. Somehow in the span of a few moments there was a horde of baby kaiju sitting before them, at least five dozen in number.

"What the... Um.. Miss Des? Is that you?"

Sweetie Belle uttered as she slowly walked forward to the foremost infant, who was busy sucking on her hoof. The little thing looked up at her with bright yellow eyes, blinking occasionally as she sat on her rump. The tiny Destroyah let go of her hoof and for a moment cracked a very familiar, Destroyah trademarked scowl.

Before her expression instantly softened. The infant curiously tilted her head and squeaked at the filly.

"Auuaah?"

The young unicorn was about to turn back to her compadres when she noticed the baby doing something. Tiny sparks of purple danced across her little mane as she closed her eyes and cheeks inflated. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo dashed forward and yanked Sweetie Belle down with them as they hit the deck, dodging a micro-oxygen charged baby belch that fried a passing fly to nothingness. The fillies barely had time to look up when the baby started happily clapping her hooves together. That however wasn't the most important detail, the fact that half the crowd behind the first baby had glowing manes was.

Scrambling up to their hooves, the trio hollered and screamed as they had to dodge oncoming projectile fire that evaporated portions of the ground and surrounding forest. Ducking into a trench they'd previously dug to watch the mare who stopped existing a minute ago, they clung to the front wall as flashes of purple fired off above in all directions. A stray blast gutted an apple tree so badly it fell down onto its hollowed trunk and crashed onto the trench, raining a shower of dirt and falling leaves on top of the ducking school kids. After several long moments of mortar fire, the noise above ground ceased.

Scootaloo uncovered her head and shook her hair and fur out to clear it of some debris as the other two did the same. Her exasperated expression was universal.

"WHAT THE HAY IS GOING ON?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!?"

"Well she's still spitting energy blasts... And Scoots we are 'lone and old enough, you can cuss if yah want."

"NOT NOW APPLE BLOO-"

“Anababa!”

All three fillies froze in place and looked to their left in sheer horror. Either one of the babies had followed them into the trench, or one had happened to have been there earlier and they didn’t notice before they'd dove inside for safety. Currently however, the infant was too preoccupied with an apple. Holding it gingerly in her hooves, the curious little thing squeaked a few times as she tried to find a way to get the fruit in her mouth. She just managed to start gumming it when her little eyes looked up to the school fillies.

Summoning herself back to motion, Scootaloo slowly made her way forward towards the little one. Something they didn’t understand was happening and the quicker they figured out what, the better. After all, one baby was better than a horde. And the little one seemed happy enough, wagging her tail as she looked at the pegasus while gumming the apple skin.

Then a stray thought crossed Scootaloo’s memory.

-Waaaait a minute… Miss Des never acts so happy around us…-

The infant destroyah’s horn sparked to life, a sheath of energy coiling around it and extending the horn’s reach by a few inches as an energy blade took form. Scootaloo’s eyes widened and she backpedalled away. But before one could find out if the infant wanted sliced fruit or chicken wings, a new tiny form dove into the trench and tackled the baby. A second baby collided with the first, the apple rolling away. There was a flash of purple light and white smoke on impact. When the startled CMC opened their eyes to look, the remnants of the mist faded into wisps. What was left standing was, between the more developed horn, newly present short wings, and fang filled scowl was unmistakably Destroyah. Still far from her full form, she looked like she was a tad larger than the previous infants, but still smaller than the crusaders; about toddler age. And few words could describe how angry her tomato red face looked. Applebloom cautiously spoke as she addressed the disgruntled munchkin.

“M-Miss Des? Is that YOU-you or psycho-baby-you?”

The practically chibi version of her once enormous self scowled, almost the point of steam blowing out her ears.

“Yes it’s me! Appawently the only one it seems!”

Sweetie Belle brushed aside the urge to squeal. For someone who could have previously walked through town holding a sign with the letters “B.A” written on it and it be completely accurate, the being before her was just plain adorable. The fact Destroyah had previously been the largest equine she'd ever seen was now a full head shorter wasn't helping her look anything remotely close to intimidating. Shaking her head to clear it, she stammered a bit while looking around at the surface of the trench. The energy fires that had been sailing overhead stopped.

"Desotoroyah what's going on?", the young unicorn asked while looking up at the now clear sky.

"I twied to use a division abiwity and lost contwol of the swarm! Dang body!... Dang?... DAAAAM-NG!?"

Destroyah snarled, almost looking like she was about to bite off her own tongue. Only a world of magical technicolor ponies would give someone young a subconscious censor. Energy started crackling across her mane, the crusaders getting a horrible case of déjàvu. A frustrated, high pitched shriek of a roar tore its way out as she fired a lightning-like beam of violet hell into the sky.

"FUUUUDGE THIS BODYYYY!"

She cut off the death ray, panting and shrugging through growls for several moments.

"Now... I am going to fuse back togedder and you thwee are NEVER going to pester me AGAIN."

She climbed up the side of the trench, fumbling a bit due to her short limbs. When she managed to pop her head above ground level however, her jaw dropped.

"Oh fudge nyo..."

The trio started climbing their way up as well, Scootaloo calling out as she scaled the trench.

"What's wro-"

She cut herself short upon seeing it. Or rather, not seeing it. Aside from a large cluster of footprints littering the ground, heading down the road and towards the fringes of the orchard, there was not a soul to be seen.

"Wow...They can move pretty fast for little things."

Applebloom cocked her head to the side, rubbing her chin.

"Wait a minute, isn't that the road back to Ponyville?"

There was silence. Slowly, all four in attendance felt their eyes widening.

"....!!!!!!!!"

Destroyah had already scrambled out of the trench, sprinting as fast as her short legs could take her down the path.

"COME BACK ME!"

====================

Several Minutes Later

The magic propelled kart rumbled down the beaten path as it made its way to Ponyville, towing a wagon with the words 'Apple Peelcore 8000' stenciled into the side. Flim turned the steering wheel to round the bend, the kart creaking as it rumbled over the bridge. Flam pulled out his pocket watch and checked the time.

"Near 5 o'clock on the dot! I would say dear brother mine, we're making good progress to Canterlot!"

Flim looked up from the straight road, the distant mountain capital visible through the trees.

"Indeeed brother mine! We'll collect our dues for that scoundrel's property damage by the night's eve!"

He chirped while nudging his sibling with his elbow. His tone shifted to barely above a whisper.

"Just be sure to keep the details off about the 7000 being scrapped before the rumpus. We going with one of those birds landing on it or that forty story fiend stepping on it?"

The duo had previously been on the outskirts of Canterlot a few days ago. Publically they departed to receive the new shipment of the Peelcores. Privately they'd skipped town due to the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 7000 breaking down, leaving them to hide it in the foothills as they left for parts unknown before someone came at them. Fortunately the kaiju attack had been a blessing in disguise. Having a bunch of monsters start tearing each other apart tended to make any folks who might have gotten sick over a defective batch of cider forget about the latter, and the silver lining would be the 7000 was reasonably close to the fight. As such any damage could easily be passed off in responsibility to the Princess' new guest. No need to owe up, and free insurance claim on something already busted. Win-Win situation, for them.

Flam drummed his chin for a few moments.

"Best blame the overgrown iguana. And not a worry, this is foolproof. Already made sure the records lack any sort of details about our leave. We were merely just outside of the city to restock and sell a new product."

He said with a laugh, patting the dash box. Flim cracked a grin. Both brothers held their heads to the sky and clapped one another's hoof.

"Righteo then! To Canterlo-"

"Gagabu?"

The duo opened their eyes and looked down at something unexpected. A dark red baby sitting on its haunches in front of the windshield, looking at them with blinking eyes. The brothers collectively raised an eyebrow, tilting their heads slightly as Flim partially put the brake on for the kart to slow them. The little Destroyah wagged her tail as she pawed at the windshield.

"...Is that a baby?"

"Little one, where did you come from and how did you get up ther-"

A chorus of new, squeaky voices identical to the first cut them short.

"Kiniaba!"

"Shuu shuu pana!"

"Aba ba ba ba ba."

There was a bizarre menagerie of giggling behind them, the kart shifting and jostling slightly under a new weight. Flim and Flam looked behind themselves, and directly into the eyes of a horde of eager infants, all identical to one another, climbing or already climbed onto the kart. The duo were utterly flabbergasted, but managed to snap back into sense as some of the infants either began teething on or playing with the Peelcore boxes.

"Hey, put that down young lady!"

Flam grunted as he attempted to reach back at one infant who was trying her best to gum the cardboard box to death. Upon seeing him reaching for her however, the destroyah held her new toy away and shook her head. Flam frowned, his horn glimmering with green light and trying to grab a hold of the box.

"Give iiiit!"

"Na-naquista!

Just as he managed to pry it free however, the infant started her own glow. Flam barely had time to jolt to the side before a burp of purple energy shot past him, evaporating away a chunk of the windshield and taking half his mustache with it. Flim was so surprised at what he saw, that he lost grip on the steering wheel. The kart hit a bump, jostling the rest of the infants on board. More importantly it shook the one sitting on the windshield. The baby was rattled and fumbled, loosening some gastric gas. Noting the purple glow, both brothers bailed out and jumped out of their seats as the kart went over another bridge. They got soaked and drenched in mud from landing in a creek, but it was worth not getting hit by a micro-oxygen flare that burned a hole through the windshield, the seats, and the bottom of the kart beneath them.

The windshield baby looked through the hole curiously, before crawling through it. Fumbling through the hole and falling onto the seat, eyes tracked motion and locked onto the steering wheel above. Two more babies crawled down from the wagon, roaming about the interior of the kart. The first destroyah had just managed to stand on her tippy hooves and grip the wheel when one of them leaned against the brake pedal until it released. The windshield destroyah didn't care if she couldn't see over the wheel, the sudden burst of speed she felt the hijacked kart going through as it rolled down hill was enough to make her happily squeal. Weaving down the trail as if it had a drunk behind the wheel, the kart kept its momentum and sped through Ponyville, barreling at town hall.

==========================

Ponyville, Ki Seong's Restaurant

Ki Seong hummed to herself as she escorted Cloudchaser out the door and locked it behind her. Relaxing her body some, she shrugged out a long sigh. It had been a productive, but long day. Seong reached back and undid her hair tie, dropping the pins on a table while shaking her hair out. Was closing time, and at last she could start to unwind. She'd just started walking away from the front door when a stray memory crossed her mind.

-Hmm... Quill probably will be stopping by later, and I did just lock up..-

She looked back at the door, whapping the lock with her tail to unlatch it. Seong cracked a smile and headed back for the counter to start cleaning up.

-Always did like the shy types...-

She just reached her destination when the metallic crash of a dropped pan sounded off from the kitchen. Raising an eyebrow, Seong rounded the corner to check. Sure enough, a sizable skillet had fallen to the floor, evidently having bounced off the stove and was wobbling against the floor. Antlers encased themselves in a gold hued glimmer before doing the same to the pan. Seong looked it over with a scrutinous eye, tracking where it tumbled from. Between its hanging kin lining a shelf rack, she could see an emptied hook

-Strange, how'd it fall down from there?-

She levitated the pan back up to the rack and rehooked it. As soon as she did however, a new sound called out.

"Aguugabu!"

Seong's eyes widened briefly from the surprise. Something on the other side of the rack nudged several of the pans, visibly pushing them out. Noting its location behind her broadest skillet, Seong reignited her magic and lifted the kitchenwear aside. What she found behind it was a baby, plopped down on the shelf and teething on some of her spice rack's host.

"Oh?"

Seong gently wrapped her magic around the little one's tail and rump, levitating her out of the shelf. She puzzled at the infant as said baby seemed determined to open up a pepper container.

"How'd you get up there little one? Were your parents just here?"

Just as Seong stopped to ponder who in the world could be forgetful enough to leave their baby behind, the infant managed to pop open the canister's lid before the restaurant owner could stop her. She poured a big mouthful of pepper into her eager maw, but it seemed some of it went up her nose. Babies sneeze a lot. Most younglings however don't sneeze dissolving, plasmatic micro-oxygen. Seong only barely managed to duck out of the way of an energy shot that burned a hole through the floor behind her. She dropped the baby a few inches onto the main counter as the latter giggled maniacally, clapping her hooves before another sneeze started to build up.

"Dodaeche?!"

Ki Seong stopped herself as the entire kitchen started to come alive. Baby destroyah started piling in from literally out of the woodwork. In the span of 4 seconds the entire kitchen turned into chaos. Destroyah were hanging on the walls, play-dueling with utensils, crawling and swinging around the rafters, putting themselves through the wash, and knocking anything that wasn't bolted down over. One infant sat at the base of a table as it chugged the tea pouring down from above, giving a satisfied belch that evaporated a hole in the roof when she was done. Seong rapidly back stepped away as several devious looking babies came charging towards her with fork-skewers.

In the span of a second, Seong changed. Her typically calm face hardened to granite with a piercing glare. She stomped her hoof.

==============================

Outside Carousel Boutique, Present

Anguirus was just about to punt the soon to fire, glowing maned baby away when an identically colored crimson blur tackled it. Another destroyah, slightly larger than the first and sporting wings, wrestled with its counterpart for a moment, forcing the younger one's head away to fire its destructive ray skyward before the two were enveloped in a violet flash of light. The air shifted and blew back slightly, lingering mist still slithering through the wind. Only one destroyah remained, looking mostly like the second individual but slightly larger than before.

Rarity and Anguirus were still gathering their thoughts when the Cutiemark Crusaders came running up in the same direction the destroyah had come.

"RARITY!", Sweetie Belle shouted as she practically flew. She dived into and under Rarity's legs, hiding beneath and behind them. Her elder sibling was quick to figure out the trio's associating with the youngling.

"Sweetie what's going on?!"

All three fillies pointed to the now slightly older toddler.

"SHE DID IT!"

They shouted in unison as Destroyah advanced forward, trying and failing to look intimidating as usual.

"I twied to use my division abiwity, but somet'ing went wrong! Now they're all gone and doing who knows what!"

The little one rambled. Anguirus raised an eyebrow. He remembered a certain three way fight outside of Manila, when the Serizawan Legacy made her grand return to the world. He'd been there and encountered the division powers first hand when he suddenly found half a dozen aggregate forms trying to dog pile him. He spoke with a gruff voice, looking the micro-kaiju over.

"I remember last time you did this, I thought you had a hive mind where you could control them all."

Destroyah snarled, flailing her hooves angrily but was unable to reach so much as Anguirus' collar. She pouted and crossed her hooves, sitting back down.

"I don't ha'be any control in this swupid bucking pony body! They all got minds of their own now! LITTLE KID MINDS!"

She growled with a sneer. Anguirus cracked a smirk, lowering down to the grumbling three year old's height.

"Heh, someone need a diaper change?"

Destroyah's eye twitched noticeably as she got up and ripped the thankfully clean but still inexplicable attire off her before stamping her hooves.

"We don't habe time for this! Just bwing them to me before they eat awot and start multiplying or else! Get them all back here as fast as possible!"

Rarity took a moment to look around town. While the FlimFlam's accident had caused a minor ruckus, things seemed pretty peaceful despite not too many folks being around at this moment. True, could be because some of the town like Pipsqueak's family had temporarily cleared out to keep away from Canterlot; but if there was mayhem at hoof surely someone would be yelling by now. The Flower sisters hadn't even acted up yet. Anguirus had the same observation. Aside from just now, they hadn't seen a single baby.

"Or else what? How bad could a bunch of babies be? Aside from that random wreck, things seem pretty placid so far. Rest of them are probably just off waddling after a milk kart and we got a straggler... Besides-"

Anguirus chuckled into his smirk as he poked the toddler with his hoof.

"-I think I like you in a more manageable form."

Destroyah hissed and bit his hoof... Which considering she still only had tiny baby teeth fangs and was biting a hard part, the assault was completely ineffective. Anguirus had to resign himself from cracking up.

"Awww someone need's a time out."

Destroyah let go and pointed to the town behind her. Almost on cue, dozens upon dozens of baby destroyah popped out of every hiding place imaginable. Swinging and subsequently breaking down patios, riding stolen tricycles and bicycles, firing burp born beams into the air, tearing apart and trying to eat gardens, and singing badly dubbed carols. Ponyville turned to pandemonium.

"Naa naa naa naaa na-na! Naa naa naaaa na-na!"

The toddler Destroyah, evidently the only one not acting with a psyche that was a mix of an out of control infant and rampaging kaiju, pointed to the chaos with a grim expression.

"See that?! If they eat a wot of somet'ing, anyt'ing, they'll get bigger! And if they get bigger in these bodies, they'll gwow! And if they gwow like this you are gonna have a WHOOOOLE LOT more of ME walkin' awound! You don't wike one of me, imagine five dozen of me!"

Rarity and Anguirus' faces froze, eyes widening to dinner plates, the former trying to wipe away a train wreck of déjàvu. Anguirus' head snapped up to his full height, with a particularly horrified and shell-shocked expression.

"...We have to get them all back here as fast as possible."

Rarity looked over the situation, trying to think up something quickly. Infants or not, these things were dangerous. There had to be some way to get in close enough to grab and hold them safely. She'd already seen what a single adult could do, and even if these were babies there was dozens of them. All it might take is one stray blast at close range and... She shuddered at first, but upon thinking about the destroyah, the toddler's recent words came to conscious.

"Little kid minds.... You!"

Rarity shouted as she pointed to the toddler.

"You said they are all behaving like little ponies. That means they might do stuff normal foals do right?"

Destroyah bit her lip, mulling the thought over for a few seconds before nodding.

"Mm-hm, why?"

Without skipping a beat, Rarity turned to Anguirus as she nudged Sweetie Belle to him with her snout.

"Anguirus, take the little ones and keep them safe. ONLY go after any of the babies if it's absolutely safe alright? I'll meet you all in a few minutes!"

"Okay but where are you going?"

"Getting something that might help from the grocery store! Be back soon!"

Scootaloo bounced up and punched at the air as Rarity bolted away.

"ALRIGHTY! CUTIEMARK CRUSADER KAIJU KNAPPERS!"

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom enthusiastically joined in.

"GO!--"

Anguirus cut the crusader's cheer off mid-sentence, shepherding them back inside.

"Ooooh no you don't! Nobody wants you kids in the crossfire. YOU. STAY. IN. HERE."

Rarity whispered a not so small prayer as she galloped to the store fast as possible, having to dodge oncoming hijacked traffic. It was good the mayor wasn't in today...

=================================

Other side of Ponyville, 5 minutes later

Rainbow Dash reclined on her miniature cumulus as if it were a comfy couch, drifting along in a slow breeze about fifty meters off the ground. It had been a tedious but fairly stress free day for the weather mare, and after packing away some spare clouds and sending them out over the Everfree, she was ready to kick back. Or rather she would have had a shrill scream not echoed up to her cloud. A second scream followed suit, Rainbow Dash jolting up from her seat with waving ears to hone in on the noise. It seemed to be coming from below and to the south of her, on the outskirts of town near the bridge.

Rolling off her cushion while spreading her wings, Rainbow Dash flew down with a rapid acceleration, prepared to snap into action. A grin crossed her face while a thin rainbow hued contrail followed her dash.

-OOH! I hope it's another monster! Round two with Cerberus would be awesome!-

She rounded a corner and did see ponies running away, a trio of earth pony mares to be precise. Daisy Wishes, Roseluck, and Lily Valley came stampeding across the bridge and away from where their flower stands were.

"RAVENOUS!"

"SO CUTE AND FLUFFY!"

"THE HORROR!"

Rainbow Dash smirked and looked to where they'd been running from, thinking over the best way to box a three headed canine. Unfortunately for her and fortunately for Ponyville, there was no Cerberus or any monster for that matter in sight. Aside from its attendants leaving, the trio's flower stands looked completely unmolested. Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow.

"What the buck?..."

Hovering down and landing in front of the stands, she tilted her head and looked it over. It took her several moments to spot something moving amongst the flora. She instantly braced again for whatever might come as the shifting got close to the front. But just when she began to wonder if she'd prefer it to be a cloud gremlin or a cockatrice of some sort, she got her second let down in the last 30 seconds when a baby popped up with half a bouquet of lilies in her mouth. The baby idly munched and chewed on the soft petals, looking up at the pegasus with occasionally blinking eyes before lifting her little hooves up to her.

Rainbow Dash, still thoroughly confused, hovered low to the ground and picked the little one up. The baby didn't struggle or attack, just look at her placidly while gumming the remains of the last flower.

"Hamuumumuun"

Rainbow Dash almost pouted.

"Um.. hi there little gal, who the hay left you here? You see what those bimbos were running away from?"

The foal swallowed the petals and shook her little head. Rainbow Dash grumbled.

-Least she's old enough to understand that... ish...-

"Can you talk yet?"

Another head shake. The weather mare glanced back at the bridge the flower mares had ran over. It was only now she noticed something odd. There were several cavities in the ground a few meters away from the stands. At an angle but nearly a perfect circle, like a cookie cutter. They all looked fairly deep too. Guiding her vision upwards, she spotted a similar hole in, or rather going through, a nearby oak tree.

-Did the thing they were running from do that? Whatever it was?-

Just before she could puzzle some more, the baby in her hooves began to shake slightly, her mane flickering with a purple light RD spotted out of the corner of her eye. Rainbow Dash had been looking away before turning around, and thus had her head tilted to the side when the baby burped. Just enough to only have half her mane get blown off by the micro-oxygen stream.

"WHAT THE, HUH?!"

Rainbow Dash only managed to glimpse what was left of her hair when the giggling baby started glowing again. The pegasus was quick to put both hooves back on the baby to hold her mouth closed to avoid any repeat fire.

"Okay little missy, what was that?!"

The baby's glow settled down, grumbling at Rainbow Dash while squirming in her grasp. The latter was beginning to get a few ideas of what chased off the flower mares now. Suddenly, more noises erupted from in and around the stand before Rainbow Dash had time to continue her thought.

"Ginataba!"

"Ninbabu!"

"Grush! Nah!"

"Oh no..."

Several more infants popped out, chewing on petals, swinging on the stands' shelves, or hurling bouquets at Rainbow Dash. More importantly however, as Dash dreadfully noticed after ducking to dodge a hurled cash register, every single one of the babies' manes were starting to crackle with violet energy.

Rainbow Dash was just about to fly up and out of firing range when half a dozen objects cloaked in a familiar blue aura zoomed past her and into each baby's mouth. The purple glows dissipated one by one as each destroyah began to nibble and suck on her pacifier, calmly sitting down amongst the flora. Rainbow Dash looked in the direction the plastic saviors had come from and spotted Rarity galloping up as fast as she could, a bag and several pacified infants hovering behind her in a magical aura.

"Oh thank Faust! Rainbow Dash!"

"Rarity! GimmeOneOfThoseThingsQuick!"

The unicorn obliged, passing a sucker to Rainbow Dash who was quick to plop it into the first infant's mouth. Near instantly the destroyah stopped struggling and silenced herself, the pacifier doing exactly what was implied. Rarity had just magically grasped and levitated the six infants free of the flower stand and placed them and her previously collected three, along with Rainbow's incidental capture, on the ground when a larger destroyah charged up to them and tackled the cluster. All ten were enveloped in a flash of violet light and mist, before a single filly remained. Destroyah shook herself off. Judging from her size, she'd just grown from toddler to an elementary age filly slightly younger than the crusaders. She snapped up to her sadly still short full height before spitting out the remaining pacifier that somehow ended up in her mouth.

"I can't believe these things worked."

She grunted with squeaky disgust. Rarity merely rolled her eyes, pulling a fresh one out of the bag.

"They might be kaiju, but they are still little foals. So what works on foals works on them I suppose."

Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and grumbled, too thoroughly confused to be fully annoyed.

"Okay WHAT is going on?! WHAT happened to those death babies?! And WHO is this?!"

She ranted, pointing to the disgruntled looking filly.

"She's Destroyah. Remember? We met her back at Canterlot and she's been staying at the Apple's farm. Power mishap. Apparently she can divide into smaller monsters but in this new body it backfired. Now it's raining babies."

Rarity almost bluntly responded.

"Wait a minute, that gigantic mare with anger issues?"

Rainbow Dash looked down at the sneering filly. The crimson hues, orange horn, and bat-like wings were enough to bring back some memories. It was the sneering glare the filly gave that confirmed it. Several moments passed before Rainbow Dash began to snicker. Destroyah's eye twitched and her hair stood up on end.

"SHUT UP YOU WANCID WUNT!"

Rarity was quick to jump between the two, putting her hooves on their muzzles and pushing Destroyah and Rainbow Dash away from each other.

"Ooookaay now, let's keep on the same team before a bunch of ravenous monstrosities eat Ponyviiiiille!"

She quipped with a chirping, sing-songy tone. Rainbow Dash batted Rarity's hoof away, pointing to Destroyah.

"Waait wait wait wait. There's MORE of these things little trogs running around?"

"-Hey!"

"HOW MANY RARITY?!"

"At least five dozen."

Destroyah jumped up between the two, flapping her short wings to try and hover briefly to keep her height.

"We have to catch them all before they eat anything edible in town! I do NOT want them growing bigger!"

Rainbow Dash snorted at the humorous sight, hovering over the ticked off pipsqueak as she regained her composure. This wasn't exactly the first time Ponville had been attacked.

"Well okay miss prissy, what sort of things would they go after?"

The weather mare quipped, nudging the filly back to the ground. Destroyah growled, gritting her teeth before shooting a short puff of micro-oxygen to the side and disintegrating a passing dragonfly.

"They all have the mentality of young equines, so they'll be eating like equines, going after what they like. Starches, high energy grains, sugars-"

She stopped and flicked her ears at the sound of distant screaming. It wasn't quite a painful shriek, but the sharp shrill definitely was a hallmark of danger. It was coming from the center of town, right in the direction of a well known establishment. Rainbow Dash snapped up to alertness, speaking quickly without looking down.

"....DidYouSaySugars?"

"Mm-hm."

And with that went any of her collective, cool headedness.

"Oh good Faust no..."

Lurching out, Rainbow grabbed as many pacifiers as she could from Rarity's bag before rushing past her and into the interior of town. The sudden burst of speed sent Rarity and Destroyah spiraling. It was only after she fumbled back to her hooves that Rarity reached the same conclusion as her fellow Element. A few minutes ago numerous infants had vanished, like many of them had gone and converged somewhere. Now, Rarity had a pretty good idea where. Rarity rushed off in pursuit of the rainbow contrail, yelling behind her as Anguirus and the crusaders rushed up to her and Destroyah.

"ANGUIRUS! COME ON!"

Anguirus was quick to push himself, sprinting after the unicorn for what he knew was an emergency. The two adults longer strides meant the kaiju filly lagged behind. It was fortunate actually, as otherwise Destroyah might not have noticed a small crowd of crimson shapes moving between the buildings and heading outside of town. She threw on her brakes, hooves digging into the dirt below.

-Can't let any escape! If even just one gets out...!-

"HEY YOU TWO!!"

Unfortunately, Anguirus' and Rarity's tails rounded a corner and left earshot, and in her current state there was no way to catch up. Destroyah looked back to the cluster of baby-her heading to a hilltop. It was at that point the Cutiemark Crusaders, having disobeyed Anguirus' demands to stay at the boutique, caught up. Curious as to why Rarity had run off and why Destroyah had stopped, they slowed down upon advancing.

"Desotroyah what's wrong?"

The questioned party didn't answer, hardly even noticing Scootaloo's inquiry before she took off towards the hillside, half running and half flying to try and move as fast as she could.

===============================

Ponyville outskirts, moments later

Snails attempted to start pedaling away as fast as he could, Snips having already been overtaken. Unfortunately he wasn't quite quick enough to dodge the pipe that had been hurled at his face, clobbering him hard enough to knock the colt right off his bike as his hijackers made their escape. The duo had just managed to get up when a half sprinting, half fling filly bowled them over.

Destroyah launched herself off her stepping stones, lunging after a group of her rolling down the road on a skateboard. Unfortunately, shorter legs and even shorter wings could only do so much. Try as she may, especially as the wheeled getaway started going downhill, she couldn't catch up. Destroyah reluctantly began to slow.

"Dang!... It! Get! Back here!"

She wheezed, with the only response from the addressed was to sit backwards and idly wave goodbye. Destroyah had to catch her breath, and might have stopped entirely had something not come up behind her. There was a rolling of wheels upon dirt before two pairs of little hooves grabbed her from behind and scooped the little kaiju aboard their wagon. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom hoisted Destroyah in amongst them as Scootaloo beat her wings to speed them up. Going over the edge of the hill, the wagon jostled violently, forcing those on board to grab onto the edges to avoid being thrown off. Sweetie Belle helped Destroyah to her feet, yelling to the wagon's propulsion.

"HIT IT SCOOTS!"

Scootaloo grit her teeth, buzzing her wings at an increased pace, allowing the small convoy to catch up to their speeding quarry.

"WE'LL COME UP BESIDE EM! GET READY MISS DES!"

Destroyah climbed onto the side of the rickety wagon, taking sharp inhales to steady herself while trying not to inhale any insects caught in the wind.

"JUST GET ME CLOSE!"

Scootaloo towing them along in conjunction with gravity allowed them to catch up to the first infant quickly. One of Snip's attackers had a rather unorthodox way of traveling in a skate. Namely, due to her small size, the baby was sitting on the skate itself as it rumbled downhill, seemingly unaware of anything going on around her. The infant didn't even notice the scooter and wagon as it rolled up alongside her. Destroyah pushed as far onto and soon over the side as she could, putting her back hooves onto the edge to try and reach over and grab the infant. Unfortunately, each time she inched closer, the skate shifted its course and inched away in one direction or another. Beating her wings to keep herself propped up, Destroyah tentatively stood on the edge of the wagon and reached out. It was then the wagon wheel hit a rock, rattling the structure and sending Destroyah over the edge. She might have fallen off, had Sweetie Belle not lurched forward and grabbed onto her tail and haunches. The unicorn braced herself against the wall, Destroyah's weight pulling on her as Applebloom grabbed onto her back to hold her in.

Destroyah ignored the pain in having every single strand on her tail and her left leg being pulled on, as she steadied herself vertically on the side of the wagon. All she worried about was how close she was. She reached out as the skate rolled closer before throwing herself forward. But just as her hoof grazed the infant head, the little one rolled over a bump. Startled, she ducked down and tilted the skate so much it flew under the wagon.

"HANG ON!"

Destroyah barked at she clambered under the left side of the wagon. Sweetie Belle yelped as she was half forced over the edge of the wagon. Apple Bloom grabbed onto her friend's legs, gritting her teeth as she braced against the wall and held on for dear life. Destroyah clawed her way along the bottom of the speeding wagon, half squinting to keep the flying dirt and pebbles kicked up by the wheels out of her face. Through squint and snarl, she spotted the skate bound infant rolling backwards and pursued. The shifted weight began to cause the wagon and scooter to tip to its left, the right wheels of the former at times skipping off the ground. Scootaloo, who couldn't look back or risk flying off the road, didn't notice the tipping at first until the ground began to creep up the left side of her vision. Wide eyed at first, she quickly realized they were teetering and worked to fix it. The little pegasus grit her teeth, pounding her wings to try and level them back out.

"WHATEVER YOU THREE ARE DOING BACK THERE, STOP DOING IT OR DO IT LESS!"

Scootaloo barked between grunts, fighting gravity to avoid a spill. It was at that point that Destroyah managed to catch up to and grab her quarry. Grabbing the infant with one hoof while hooking the other over the right edge of the wagon, Destroyah was enveloped in a flash of purple light. The scooter and wagon drove through the puff of white mist just fine. It was the burst of energy caused by a growing filly that jostled the Crusaders. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were both briefly tossed up and lost their grip. Apple Bloom crumbled into the back of the wagon, falling flat onto her back with her legs sticking up, forcing the wagon to level again. Sweetie Belle however had worse luck than a minor bang to the head, tumbling off the side.

"OOF!... Uuuaah...!!! Sweetie Belle?!"

She groaned, taking note of her friend's absence. There was a loud screaming and the youngest Apple sibling lurched up to see... Sweetie Belle stand up outside the wagon, somehow moving just as fast as they were, screaming all the way with her eyes closed. Applebloom crawled up to the edge of the wagon and looked over.

Instead of falling and kissing the dirt, the little unicorn landed on something back hoof first. Sweetie Belle opened her eyes and looked down. By sheer chance or Bonnie's grace, she landed hoof first on the previously occupied roller skate. That said, her stability hopelessly precarious, weaving around in every direction.

"Whhoo-ooOAAA! GET ME OFF THIS THIIING!"

Sweetie Belle shrieked while waving her free leg and forelimbs in a desperate attempt to keep her balance. Apple Bloom leaned over the edge as much as she could, outstretching her hooves to the flailing unicorn that was just barely out of reach.

"GRAB ON TA' ME!"

As Sweetie Belle attempted to weave closer and do so, a slightly larger Destroyah clawed her way back into the topside of the wagon. It didn't take her long to notice the unicorn, Sweetie Belle always did have a strong pair of vocal cords. Acting on instinct, Destroyah quickly found herself beside a now only slightly larger Apple Bloom and reaching for Sweetie Belle before her thoughts had a moment to catch up to her. By that point Sweetie Belle was managing to lean over and reach for the duo. However, just as the trio were about to touch, Scootaloo, the only one looking forward, called out over the rushing wind.

"INCOOOOOOMING! HERE COMES TOM!"

Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Destroyah all looked forward at the stationary and yet seemingly oncoming half ton of mineral death rapidly coming closer. More importantly, seated on the interior of the left road half, getting closer to said side of the wagon. Earth pony, unicorn, and pegasi eyes widened to beacons. Scootaloo tried and failed to get to the right side of the road in time to avoid the boulder. The right side was too wide for Sweetie Belle dangling off the side, and the left opening was too narrow for the wagon.

-But if we go both ways...-

"PUSH HER! PUSH HER! PUSH HER! BREAK OFF!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle reluctantly but rapidly agreed and shoved away from each other as Destroyah let go of the latter. Scootaloo banked a hard right tilt to move as much to the side as possible. Sweetie Belle miraculously kept her balance despite her rapid arm flailing as she rolled backwards and to the left. Thankfully Tom, the inexplicable terror, claimed no tribute.

After some distance, both parties caught their breath and with no stony walls of death in sight, tried again. Apple Bloom reached forward with Destroyah steadying her. Shifting her weight and angle to close in, Sweetie Belle inched her way to them despite wobbling significantly. And then the first terror struck again. The second that the fillies' hooves were a hair's width from each other, a sharp impact jostled the wagon convoy from scooter to wheel. Snail's bicycle had returned and was running alongside the wagon with no less than four infants on board, one on the seat, another on the handle bars, and a duo spiraling up and down on the pedals.

The baby seated on the handlebars shifted, tilting the bike's forward wheel into the side and banging into the wagon yet again with more force. Sweetie Belle was thrown free from Apple Bloom and Destroyah's grasp, panicking as she tried to keep herself from being united with the dirt below. Unfortunately, the impact had a worse effect on one of the baby destroyah. The sudden jolt startled the little foal, sending her diaphragm into a spasm. She got the hiccups. Scootaloo ducked down the moment she saw a purple flash fly out of the little one's mouth.

"WHOA! HEADS UP!"

Each sudden spasm indicated by a surge of violet light bled into an equally rapid, energy fueled exhale. Spheres of detonating glowing micro-oxygen were soon flying at and over the wagon every few seconds before they exploded. Shockwaves from the detonations rattled the trees behind them, blowing apart branches and scattering leaves. Everyone on board the wagon was having to play dodgeball with potentially lethal results. A grapefruit sized sphere flew over the wagon as Destroyah and Apple Bloom ducked. Sweetie Belle grit her teeth as it sailed towards her, throwing her weight and form back to dodge an oncoming blast with incidental nimbleness that would make a ballerina applaud. Splinters and branches rained down on the trail behind them as the blast felled an oak tree, the baby squealing happily between hiccups.

One hiccup born death ball flew into the upper part of the wagon, burning through the metal instantly like flash paper before arcing up and exploding in the air above. Apple Bloom and Destroyah fortunately looked up in time to see the falling scraps of what used to be a tree crash down around them, frantically dancing and darting around the wagon to dodge from both a horizontal and vertical plane for several moments. Sweetie Belle, who'd kept low to avoid projectile fire, had been trying to return to the wagon to haul herself back in, but the shower of debris had sent her spiraling back. The little unicorn dizzily yelled as she fought to say upright, starting to unwillingly work away from the wagon and near the edge of the road. With the pebbles and dirt clumps growing larger beneath the skate wheels the further from the middle road, the fight for balance was rapidly becoming that much harder. She was out of reach and going to fall soon one way or another. Still, getting rained on by forest had one benefit. Scootaloo nearly got clobbered in the face by something useful and was thanking Faust she was wearing her helmet

Shaking herself off from a shower of leaves, Scootaloo held onto the scooter's handlebars with a death grip with her right hoof as she clutched a fallen branch that had bounced off her head with the left.

"BLOOM! THINK FAST!"

She barked before tossing the branch behind her, having to do so quickly as to duck under a sphere of energy flying past her and destroying half a spruce tree in the resulting explosion. Apple Bloom closed her eyes while she got rained on in a downpour of falling woodchips, but managed to catch the branch nonetheless. She kicked some debris aside and held out the stick to Sweetie Belle. Taking mind to keep her head low just in case, she held out the stick and gently put it behind Sweetie Belle's back.

With the branch against her, Sweetie Belle grabbed onto it and stabilized, before slowly reeling herself in hoof over hoof. Destroyah meanwhile clambered over to the right edge of the wagon, reaching over the side and swiping at the quartet in an attempt to grab the living mortar cannon. Try as she may however and as much as Scootaloo attempted to lean the scooter and wagon over to get her in closer, the infants just barely managed to stay out of reach. Rather, Destroyah's attempts only succeeding to draw the spasming infant's attention to herself. The baby looked at her older counterpart curiously, still plagued by hiccups. Unfortunately this attention only resulted in forcing Destroyah to dodge oncoming micro-oxygen grenades.

Between a potentially lethal game of dodgeball and Destroyah painting a big enough bullseye on her head to draw away most of the fire, Apple Bloom managed to load Sweetie Belle back onto the wagon. The unicorn, having to avoid a micro-oxygen flare that nearly singed her mane, fumbled over on top of the earth pony. The branch Apple Bloom had been holding onto rolled across the floor and thumped against the wall. This got Destroyah's attention, and she wasted no time grabbing it. The miniature kaiju scowled in frustration, swinging the branch rabidly at the infantile attacker. The bicycle, having been forced to the side of the road, rattled at its wheels ran over pebbles and gravel. The hijacked vehicle's movements became erratic, throwing off Destroyah's aim as she repeatedly swung down. She hit seat, she hit frame, she hit gear; but try as she may she ended up hitting everything but the prize in this game of whack-a-mole.

Scootaloo, still fighting to keep control over a finicky convoy, yelled out between ducking to safety.

"STOP SWINGING LIKE---- THAT YOU'RE THROWING OFF O----UR BALANCE! TRY TO SLOW THE BIKE DOWN!"

Destroyah snarled at the filly, ignoring the request and swinging away in failure. The infants' cackling laughter taunting her efforts enough her nerves broke.

Destroyah got angry. An angry kaiju acts impulsively. And anyone acting on impulse doesn't think.

"FINE! I'LL STOP THE BUCKING BIKE!"

She took aim and fired. Stabbing forward with the branch, Destroyah jammed it in between the spokes of the bicycle's front tire. The branch was torn from her grip as the wheel spun around until the stick hit the frame. The wheel locked up and the bike flew up, slamming the branch into the underside of the wagon just as the convoy ran over a large bump. The wagon and scooter doubled over, sending babies, crusaders, and kaiju flying. The world slowed down as the Cutiemark Crusaders and Destroyah tumbled through the air in an arch, the trio getting more airtime than a certain last Hearts and Hooves day. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle flailed their limbs as the horizon spun as many times as they tumbled head over tail, Scootaloo and Destroyah instinctively beating their wings in a vain attempt to gain control. The infants didn't react in the slightest, just sitting still as they soared through the air.

It all happened so quickly that the group didn’t have time to be thankful that they landed in a pond. Apple Bloom was the first to break the splashing surface. She ruffled her soaked mane, shaking off the lilypad that covered up her bow. She looked to her sides, seeing two ascending masses flanking her and putting the little filly’s fears to rest.

“Well, who’s still breathin’? Sound off.”
The pair of groans from the surfacing Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle were the only response. The unicorn grumbled, picking twigs and pond muck out of her mane.

“Well, least that was only the second or third worst spill into this pond we’ve taken.”

Scootaloo removed her helmet and wrung her hair our, looking about to see where the scooter and wagon had ended up. Fortunately, the convoy hadn’t seemed to have taken too big of a tumble and plowed into a batch of fallen leaves just off the road.

“Well either this or the zip lining polo for third worst at least.”

“Uuurg, don’t remind me.”

“Hard choice.”

Sweetie Belle mumbled as she took a moment to notice what was different about the situation this time around. She looked for a patch of disturbed water or bubbles to no avail. The water was fairly shallow, but the impacts had churned the bottom so much the pond was an inky mess.

“Wait… Where’s Des-“

Her answer arrived with a flash of purple light shooting out of the water behind them. All three crusaders looked back in time to see mist melt off the water’s surface with a cloud of bubbles. It was only after when the light that engulfed half the pond ceased that Destroyah surfaced. Except, now she looked different again; entirely different. Having apparently absorbed the infants either during or soon after crashing, her horn had grown a bit longer and wings broader. Overall, she’d grown. The mutated kaiju was now on par with, or even slightly larger and older than the crusaders themselves.

But the size change wasn’t what made the youngling virtually unrecognizable, it was her expression. Destroyah was grinning ear to ear. Not a manic bloodthirsty one like the smile Scootaloo or Sweetie Belle had seen during the bout with the timber wolves. She didn’t have so much as a hint of malign intent or disinterest, her calling cards thus far, stenciled onto her face. For the first time since they met her, the Cutiemark Crusaders saw Destroyah genuinely happy.

And happy she was upon swiping at the air with an honest smile, the adrenaline rush of the chase still pumping through her veins. Her voice had grown deeper from the previous squeaky toy, but still clearly child-like.

"WOOOOHOOHOOO! Who's up for round 2?!"

The crusaders sat still, dumbstruck. Destroyah similarly froze up, hoof held high. She slowly closed her mouth and melted back into a neutral stance. She turned and looked blankly at the crusaders. For a moment it looked like the kaiju filly was about to say something to the baffled trio. Whatever it was died in her throat. Destroyah turned back towards town, flapping her now useable wings to give a boost assisted double jump. Clearing her way out of the pond, Destroyah shook herself off, speaking as she slowly walked back to Ponyville. Pitch withstanding, her tone returned to exactly what the crusaders remembered.

"We're wasting time, we need to get back to town and get this over with."

The Cutiemark Crusaders were still stiff as statues for a moment, for the sudden child-like outburst had been jarring. It was one thing to see an adult they knew as a child. It was another to see said adult actually behaving like a child. They barely spoke above whispers, watching Destroyah walk back to town. For a split second her wings were drooping before perking back up to formality.

"D-Did that just happen?"

"Was she just-..."

Scootaloo finished Apple Bloom's sentence, frowning slightly.

"Happy?...."

=================

Sugar Cube Corner

Rainbow Dash dived in through the front door so quickly she nearly knocked it off its hinges. Her haste could be forgiven. The outside of everypony's favorite bakery was coated in little hoofprints, infantile cackles, and portions of the roof still smoking from being evaporated. The exterior had nothing on the interior however. Baby destroyah were absolutely everywhere.

With Mr. and Mrs. Cake out of town, Pinkamina Diane Pie had been the only pony manning the sweetshop. True, saved the couple from a heart attack; however this meant Pinkie was attempting to fend off the swarm the only way she knew how to deal with young attackers. A line of infants sat across the room, holding their mouths open as they wagged their tails happily. The first in the line doubled over from a vanilla cake to the face, making no attempt to free herself as she started gumming the sugary snack. The other babies in the line eagerly held their mouths open as Pinkie Pie reloaded from the counter. Just as she was going to attempt to clobber another invader with a chocolate cupcake, a wide eyed Rainbow Dash grabbed her hoof.

"NOO NONONONO PINKIE! STOP FEEDING THEM CAKE!"

Pinkie Pie snapped up at the pegasus, barking her retort.

"I'm NOT feeding them cake! I'm assaul-"

Rainbow plugged Pinkie's gob with her hoof, shooting a glare.

"DO.NOT.EVEN. This is worse than last time! Feed them and they might multiply!"

Spotting motion to their left, both mares ducked as a bag of flour sailed over them and out the window.

"Then what are we supposed to do?! That was my last bag of flour!"

Pinkie shouted, motioning to the window.

"Rarity and some of the kaiju are on their way to fix this, we just gotta keep them from eating anything!"

The Pie sister's face became sullen and her eye lids drooped in annoyance, pointing to the cafe area behind Rainbow Dash. Having tunnel vision upon entering, Rainbow Dash hadn't noticed it on the way in. When she turned around her bottom jaw became acquainted with the floor. The destroyah seemed even more active than when she came in. Climbing over the tables, swinging on the ceiling fan, knocking over anything not nailed down, playing with cooking equipment, chugging bags of sugar, or chasing Gummy around the floor space as pies, cakes, cupcakes; and all manner of pastries flew around everywhere.

Recovering quickly, Rainbow Dash zipped over to the crowd and grabbed as many oblivious babies as she could, Pinkie Pie galloping over to join her. All while having to dodge purple energy bursts that spewed out with every hiccup or burp.

"Get as many as you can! Keep their mouths shut and don't let 'em belch on you!"

Pinkie Pie grimaced upon snatching up one hiccuping foal who'd been guzzling the sweetener packs, a burst of micro-oxygen evaporating half of her tail hairs. It was amongst this chaos that chaos itself arrived.

Just when the duo of Elements had resorted to throwing rubber bands over the foal's jaws, there was a flash of yellow and white light. Everything in the cafe stopped, the infants looking up, or down in the case of those swinging from the fans, curiously at the new arrival. Standing nonchalantly amongst the horde, Discord looked around with a bemused expression.

Rainbow Dash clutched three foals up high, one kicking her in the cheek as another gummed her tail, looking to the draconequus with a face of bewilderment.

"DISCOWRD!"

Discord grinned, putting his leonine paw to his chest, not seeming to even notice the crowd of infants.

"Aaahaah! Hellooo my little ponies, I sensed quite the party going on in town and tracked most of it to these parts an- Oh monster baby!"

He looked down and snatched up one foal that was curiously pawing at his hoof, holding it up in front of his face. He knew the instant he saw the crowd that something was different about these foals. The destroyah limply hung in his paws as she looked at him, letting her hooves dangle.

"Who's a cute little monstrosity?~"

"Aawh?"

Discord tossed the little one up and down a bit. Evidently however, she didn't like being shook. The destroyah's cheeks puffed up for a moment, causing a curious Discord to stop. Raising an eyebrow, he leaned forward just as she burped. A flare of violet destructive power enveloped Discord's head, evaporating everything from the neck up as well as taking out the wall behind him. Discord's headless body stood still.

Just before anypony could scream however, the decapitated body shifted. Removing his scaly limb from the confused infant, Discord snapped his fingers and warped his cranium and neck back into existence. Rainbow Dash was slack jawed, Pinkie Pie was unimpressed, and the infants were all eagerly applauding. Discord smirked, taking bows despite not putting the held infant down.

"Thank you, thank you! You little trogs are too kind."

The mares grumbled, but were ready to call for aid from most anyone at this point.

"Discord stop showboating and stop them!"

"They're eating all the food! The Cakes are gonna flip! Sugarcube Corner can't be without sugar!"

Discord halted mid-bow, grunting in a confused manner. He rose up, putting the first infant down and snapping his fingers.

"Sugar? No no that can't be right..."

Instantly a pair of reading glasses and a bizarre, book shaped object appeared in Discord's paws. The spirit of chaos mumbled to himself as he put his leonine paw's index finger to the Kindle-Fire.

"Have they tried to eat anypony?"

Rainbow Dash looked up as she got back to banding some infants, glad the chaos ironically had toned down with Discord's arrival. Still, knowing the newest guest, she was well aware it might not last. Destructive as they were, least as infants, they thankfully hadn't grown up into mare eaters just yet.

"Um.. No? They just seem to like the sweets."

Discord puzzled, scrolling through on his device.

"Strange, Tohokingdom says they should be going after all food around them, mostly seafood or other meat. Micro-oxygen is supposed to eat through almost anything so they shouldn't be so focused on sweets."

"...Toe-what now? What are you doing?"

"Checking the TVTropes page aaaand AH! I've got it!"

"WHAT?!"

"Ulti and Lance's addition to the pages, the secondary powers requirement clause. Nooow it make sense."

By now Rainbow Dash had effectively given up on trying to understand what was going on.

"What secondar- URG forget it! Can you get them to stop?"

"Stop sweet guzzling?"

Pinkie Pie shot up behind them, holding onto the second MMM super cake in a tug of war with no less than twenty destroyah.

"YES! CAN YOU DO IT?!"

Discord rolled his eyes before chuckling.

"I've physically morphed bunnies into deer and buffalo into ballerinas of COURSE I can do some simple chemical work. ALAKAZAP!"

A flare of yellow light surged out of every destroyah in the diner, momentarily blinding all in attendance. It took a few moments for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's vision to clear. When they did, everything changed. All the infants who'd previously resumed their sugar craving rampage halted where they stood. The crowd Pinkie had been dueling with even let go of the MMM mk 2. Pinkie Pie grunted as she yanked the cake away and hoisted it to safety. Rainbow Dash glanced around at the seemingly placid crowd.

"... Wow!... That actually worked."

"Thanks Discord!-"

Pinkie Pie stopped beaming and shoved her hoof in her mouth to cut herself short.

-ICan'tBelieveIJustSaidThat...-

"What exactly did you do?"

"Fixed a power shortage so to speak."

The chaos lord's horns suddenly glowed with a dim light, inexplicably ringing and buzzing like an alarm clock. Discord stood up straight, looking to the horns.

"Oh! Would you hear the time! Late for my tea time with Fluttershy."

He summoned a wooden mallet and whapped himself on the head between the horns, cutting off the ring.

"Tah-Tah! I'll love to see the end result of this!"

Discord waved with his wrist before teleporting away. Several long moments passed as Rainbow Dash's mind tried to play catch up.

"Well... That happened. Least he got them to stop eating."

Pinkie Pie's conscious bounced back quicker, grabbing an oven tray and collecting up several stunned babies.

"Well weirdness solves weirdness I guess."

Rainbow Dash nodded, unable to disagree with that source on weirdness, hovering back up before she began to scoop up destroyah left and right.

"Alrighty, let's collect up these tikes then. Rarity and the others got a way to get rid of the swar-"

Movement returned to the crowd. A foal looking at the roof that Rainbow had attempted to pick up rattled as her mane crackled with purple energy. The pegasus dived to the side for safety as the infant spewed a ray of violet energy resembling lightning at the roof for several seconds. The death ray punched through floor after floor before shooting up into the sky like so many before it. Unlike those before it however, a thick cloud of mist followed the destruction after the beam was cut off. The infant eagerly held her mouth open and swallowed the mist, gumming it happily.

"Amnumnum!"

The instant she devoured what used to be roofing, every baby in Sugarcube Corner burst into action. Tearing apart and toying with everything in sight as they built up in energy. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash's eyes turned into dinner plates as each one's mane glimmered with light, a violet flare coating the cafe's interior. They dived out the back door before the glow reached its peak.

==========

Library

A ringing chime and flare of purple and rainbow light blinded the library. Two alicorns and a dragon re-emerged in the empty interior, touching down on the carpet. Mothra Lea stood back a bit, uncrossing her horn from Twilight's and shaking herself off. The changeling in disguise was still working on getting the teleportation spell down so a combine effort was necessary. Certainly left Twilight less winded than the rapid fire warps from the Everfree to Canterlot. Twilight meanwhile levitated her book bag behind her desk, giving herself a satisfied stretch in the company of home.

"Aaaah much better. As much as I love the Canterlot library, it's good to be back here."

She cooed before instinctively startling back at the sight of green flames in the corner of her vision. Mothra grunted, putting a hoof to her forehead and grimacing momentarily as green sparks raced across her body. Butterfly wings turned to aquiline feathers, velvety fur to smooth chitin; and back as she crossed back and forth as a bizarre hybrid of an alicorn and changeling queen. It took several moments and the constant glow of her alternating jagged and smooth horn for Lea to get her disguise to stop glitching. The 'alicorn' took several deep breaths, closing her eyes and concentrating while lowering her heart beat. It only took a moment for both Twilight and Spike to come running up to her.

"Are you okay?!"

"Miss Lea what's wrong?"

The little dragon yelped as he came up to her. Lea caught her breath, reopening her eyes as she batted the air with her hoof.

"I'm fine... No need to worry. Guess just trying that new teleportation spell kinda winded me. Lost concentration for a moment."

Twilight pouted as Spike gently put a hand on Lea's hoof, clad in a similar expression. During their time together, the former kaiju became well aware of certain misgivings from changeling to equine. Didn't help that with a dash of black and blue across her palate, and Lea knew she could easily be mistaken for the most dangerous changeling of them all. This was exactly why she tried to disguise herself. It would come out sooner or later, depending on plans, that she was just an avatar of a much larger true self. The best she could do was to try and make herself seem more presentable. As a novice changeling, she hadn't learned how to cloak her horn or wings. An alicorn wasn't her most ideal choice, but it was the only real option. In hindsight she thought the Equestrians might respond to it a bit better, giving the race's current track record. It just might do the trick, if she could keep it reigned in.

Twilight reluctantly had her doubts.

"Lea, you sure you want to go in public like this? We could change some plans and keep you hidden until things cool down."

The Element said under her breath. The taller alicorn smiled lightly, shaking her head.

"It's okay, don't worry about me. Given circumstances, we need to cool things down fast as possible. If this form can help in that, I'll take the chance. Besides... folks tend to take better to a monster that looks beautiful than a monster that looks like a monster."

Twilight couldn't disagree, putting a wing across her friend's back in a hug before heading back to her things as she talked.

"If you start feeling any problems next time we're in public though, signal me and I'll get us out of there... But at very least it seems to be working so far. Our walk back to the train station and the sightings of a fifth alicorn did grab some attention away from a certain over sized unicorn."

Lea listened while she leaned down, giving a little dragon who hadn't let go of her leg a soft nuzzle. Twilight smirked at the cute sight before Spike released his hold and got to some of the luggage, an admirable task given the royal library got raided by Twilight and Lea more than the gyaos ever could have. Lea levitated some of the brick sized books off Spike's pile, hovering them up to and setting them down near Twilight's bed.

"Let's just hope Goji is up to it when he steps out of the castle. He and crowds never did mix well without me around."

Twilight combed her memory, recalling a conversation she had with her mentor a day prior.

"Last I heard from her, Princess Celestia did say she had an idea in mind to make him more presentable. It should all work out fine, she knows what she's doing."

She noted, still a tad confused as to why Celestia was very uncharacteristically smirking after telling her that. When the elder alicorn headed off to her own matters, Twilight could have sworn she heard Celestia snickering.

"We'll get the public part worked out as we focus on the kaiju issue at hoof-"

The young alicorn jumped up like a cat, clinging to a shelf when two ponies rammed open the front door she was standing next to.

"ROWR!"

Rarity and Anguirus bolted inside, the former appearing so frazzled her hair was just as spiky as Anguirus'. And her voice could have given Luna's shout last Nightmare Night a run for its money.

"TWILIGHT!!! PLEASE TELL ME YOUR-"

The unicorn shouted before she noticed the startled alicorn. She took her hoof off the door and set it down as her hair noticeably flattened back down into its normal curls.

"-oh good you really are home."

"Hi Lea."

"Salutations."

Twilight let go of the bookshelf and hovered back down to the floor space in front of her guests. Something big had to be going on for Rarity to not notice the second alicorn in the room. Though the unicorn looked outwardly calm, the jittering in her knees and the fact she seemed to barely be fighting off the urge to walk in place were the calling cards of stress. It was just then Twilight noticed the weird bag Rarity had slung over her back. Peering down, the youngest alicorn was more than perplexed upon seeing her friend hauling an entire grocery bag full of pacifiers and nothing else.

-Rarity is running around, with a small town's worth of one foal care product... Yep, definitely big trouble in little Ponyville, again... I think we're at the third time this year by now...-

"Um, Hello Rarity, where's the fire?"

In perfect synchronization, Rarity and Anguirus stepped aside from the doorway and pointed outside. Twilight and Lea needed only a moment to see all the commotion to have both of their jaws hit the floor. Spike, unable to see amongst a sea of legs, squirmed his way through.

"What's going on no-.....whoa..."

Baby destroyah were in every conceivable place in town. Bursts of micro-oxygen shot through various walls and roofs, with the infants firing them devouring everything from restaurants' food stocks to the restaurants themselves. Those that weren't eating seemed to be doing everything in their power to turn the town into chaos. Reversing signs, playing in and with the market stands, chasing animals from mice to grizzly bears about, skeet shooting, running with scissors, playing haywire with the light's wiring, running after townsfolk with scissors, and grand theft and/or devouring of left horseshoes.

The normally calm Lea shot up like a rocket, her mane looking like it was about ready to ignite.

"HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!"

Apparently the Royal Canterlot Voice was innate to all alicorns as all around soon found their ears ringing. Anguirus shrugged off the siren in his head after a few moments.

"Destroyah tried to use her division ability and she ended up turning into a bunch of babies!"

He grunted in response, eying the mayhem outside. Spike evidently was still deafened, wobbling on his feet.

"WHAT!?"

Rarity, either ignoring or not hearing Spike, continued where Anguirus left off while still covering her ears.

"She lost control over all of them and now they're running amok! At first it was just food and now it's just everything! If they eat too much she says they might grow into adults!"

"We gotta gather them all up for Destroyah to reabsorb before they risk spreading! We spotted the magic flash while running by and Rarity hoped you'd returned!"

"....WHAT!?"

Twilight metaphorically picked her jaws off the ground and literally popped her ears to fully regain her hearing, looking out at the town with a dumbstruck expression. She was getting the worst sense of déjàvu right about now. Springing back to her senses, Twilight looked over to Rarity.

"Quick! Did Pinkie try her one-pony-polka-band like last time!?"

"It got eaten with Sugarcube Corner!"

Before Twilight had the time to start panicking, broad hooves grabbed her and Rarity, pulling them back into the library to safety. The larger alicorn galloped out the door and into the chaos outside.

"Lea what are you doing?!"

Lea skidded to a halt about four meters away from the library, turning around and calling out amongst the mayhem around her as her horn began to glow. The door to the library became cloaked in a rainbow aura and started closing.

"Anguirus stay inside and keep them safe! I have an idea!"

Both Anguirus and Twilight barged out of the door, forcing it back open as they both ran up to the alicorn. Even in the body of a equine, Anguirus knew that look on Lea's face well.

"You're not handling this alone."

"Lea whatever you're doing we can work together!"

Lea's face momentarily flashed a saddened, drooping expression before she closed her eyes. The glow on her horn grew magnitudes stronger. A glow encircled Twilight and Anguirus , yanking them off their hooves and gently but irresistibly shoving them back inside. This time the door slammed shut behind them. Terran magic worked through Lea's horn, causing the tree that composed the library itself to grow slightly and seal in the doorway. Twilight frantically scrambled back to her footing and slammed into the door. The frame, now sunken into the bark, didn't even budge. Magenta magic crackled across her horn, Twilight reluctantly taking aim at her own front door. A concussive blast was fired, ramming into the gateway, and stopped. The teardrop of magical energy swirled as it tried to press against the frame. But as the moments ticked by, it vanished into nothingness and fizzled out. All that remained was an archaic symbol, Mothra's emblem, stenciled onto the door.

Twilight tried again, Rarity following suit and working in tandem despite not quite having the same skill with the spell. But the failure was all the same. They tried twice more, but each time the glowing symbol swallowed up the magic.

"You two best stop..."

Anguirus grunted as he approached the symbol, practically smelling the mana coming off of it that fueled his world's spells.

"This is sealing magic, Lea's forte. Strong one too. She's enchanted the entire tree by the looks of it. Seems like Terran and Equestrian magic don't mix."

"M-Meaning?!"

Anguirus calmly turned around, hiding a lot behind the slow tone of his voice.

"Judging from how your spells worked, Terran and Equestrian magic must work off different sources. She couldn't open a locked door you ponies could make with a hex from Mu, you can't open a seal she made with a spell from Canterlot. Unless one of you has an Atlantean anti-charm up your nonexistent sleeve we're not getting out."

Twilight Sparkle responded to the information with a grimace. Her friend had told her once that Terra was magically inert from a catastrophe long ago, with only a few dozen or so places or beings with enough mana to use what was left. Lea also told her she was probably the strongest magic user left.

Mothra's familiar voice chimed in, not from speech but within the group's minds.

-"Just hang on in there, I'm going to collect them together."-

-"Lea let us out! We can help you!"-

-".. I'm not risking that Twily. I'm sorry. A calm Destroyah is one thing, but I can't risk you running around in the midst of a rampage!"-

At this point Twilight was instinctively shouting as hard as she was thinking.

-"Lea we've dealt with plenty in the past! We can do this, I handled some gyaos remember!?"-

It took a few moments for Lea to respond, she was hesitating.

-"That was different, I didn't know you'd go after them. I'm not taking that risk again... Just, just stay with Anguirus and I'll handle this. I got a lot more practice with division than she does."-

-"Wait! WHAT?!"-

Lea unfolded her wings, hovering up as her horn gleamed with magic from two worlds. There was a flare of green and white light outside of the library. The miniature sun beamed for several long moments, before slowly dissipating. There was no alicorn anymore. In her place was a living, moving cloud. In her true state, she could divide into hundreds of hawk sized 'fairy' Mothra to swarm a foe or literally spread herself out over a region. But once again, Equestria had a funny way of messing around with transformations. Where a changeling masquerading as a tall alicorn once flew, were dozens and dozens of ..... breezies.

Twilight and company watched from a window with a near flabbergasted expression. One of the breezies, evidently the leader, hovered up in front of the flock on buzzing wings. She looked around too and fro, clearly more than a bit surprised as to what just happened.

Still, determination took root quickly and she looked out at the town defiantly before turning and addressing the flock. Lea's usual voice was very calm, quiet, and mature while still seeming fairly youthful. Now, she sounded like a squeaky toy.

"GO GET EM, ME!"

The breezie swarm scattered across town, moving quicker than their natural counterparts before mixing in with the infantile destroyah horde. Anguirus cracked a deadpan expression.

"Well there goes the neighborhood..."

===========================

Ponyville, Vinyl Scratch's Studio

"Heellooo everypony! Your host DJ-Pon3 here with the next playlist of wubs and beats, dropping the base line on the heads of Ponyville and neighboring curbs on top of the hour! But first, we got call-in requests! Line five you just found yourself on live!"

There was some static as the phone clicked on.

"This is-"

A crashing sound akin to splintering wood echoed out from the background. The voice, clearly more panicked than before, shouted into the receiver.

"This is Aloe from the Ponyville Spa! We're under attack by monsters!"

"Wooooooah there, I know folks can be jumpy, but you need a chill pill. Calm down already, we've had like what, six of those in the last year? What's attacking this time?"

"Babes! We're being swarmed by babes!"

"...Well, don't pretty mares typically go to the spa a lot? What, did you refuse them a sponge bath?"

"Not those kind of 'babes'! I meant babi-"

A second voice, apparently in the background of Aloe's call, yelled out loud enough to be picked up.

"YEAAAAAAH!"

"BULK LOOK OUT!"

Vinyl Scratch tilted her head in confusion as a second crash, this time like shattering porcelain or pottery blotted out Aloe' voice. It had been a long time since she'd been to the spa, mostly due to her roommate dragging her along. Didn't seem this lively last time.

"NOOOOOOO!"

"Um... Is this some sort of movie tie-in advertisement? You gals pitching a Horson Wells drama or something? Because that last one he hosted with the fallout was good but a tad too apathetic for my liking."

Instead of a response, the DJ only got more shouting along with loud blast sounds that charioted more crumbling sounds. There was a loud bang that signaled a dropped phone. Vinyl continued to verbally muse over the distant yelling.

"Oh good Faust! It's the Parasprites all over again! ... Lotus, they ate the WHAT?!"

"-Don't get me wrong, the writing was great, better than most anypony! But I think it and the fan sequel tried too hard to be edgy at times. Dark writing is hard."

The phone cut off, but a new sound stole the DJ's attention and spirited her away from her musing about horror writing.

"Kanabu."

Vinyl Scratch looked over and realized she had a guest. While her back was turned to the phone. Sitting in the spare chair and wearing a pair of headphones far too big for her was a little crimson filly. The tiny destroyah looked up at Vinyl blankly, sucking on her hoof as she blinked. The unicorn DJ puzzled for a moment, turning her microphone off and yelling at the partially opened doorway the baby seemed to have come from.

"Hey 'Tavia! Who's baby is this? It another cousin of your's? And why is it wearing my spare headphones?"

Vinyl called out to the open door. The lack of response caused the unicorn to shrug.

-Huh, guess she stepped out to find the parents or somethin'-

"Keeeheeee!"

"Ababa."

"Nitaba!"

Evidently, her guest wasn't alone. Three more infants, all identical to the first save for slightly smaller size, crawled out from the doorway and into the studio before Vinyl Scratch could react. Two started climbing onto the turntable as the other hauled herself onto the top of her predecessor's chair. All looked at the music tracks with wagging tails. Vinyl Scratch looked the situation over, and then calmly shrugged.

"Huh, knew I had some young fans but the wublings keep getting younger..."

The unicorn's horn glimmered, switching her microphone back on.

"Well folks, sorry for that. Had a new development in studio. Until some ma or pa who's missing a set of quadruplets calls, I guess I got some little cohosts for the day- what the..."

Anypony listening in would have heard a loud crackling sound accompanied by a momentous crash. After the rumbles settled down, DJ-Pon3's voice returned to the airways, speaking in a bemused tone.

"There goes that wall. Huh, outdoor studio... Well here's our first track. Anypony misplace a laser spewing baby or four?"

=======

Zenith

Irys and Megalon crouched and sat alongside each other, looming over an unconscious Gigan as the elder cyborg lay slumped against the wall. Gigan's cycloptian visor had gone dim, only occasionally blinking with a low, red pulse that indicated he was resting. He'd passed out shortly after finishing his tale, one of a monster that dwelled within their... friend. Irys closed her eyes and pondered.

She might have only been close to their little posse for the past week, but she'd memorized their personalities and behaviors like a book. The idea one of them could metamorphose into some rampaging behemoth would have seemed impossible had she not seen 'X' flip out earlier and try to mangle someone he'd referred to as his closest friend. Still, even with his previous experience, Gigan only knew so much. Thoughts trailed to someone else who'd been there that day so long ago. Someone who was in Zenith right now...

Irys opened her eyes and straightened up, walking towards the doorway. Her departure didn't go unnoticed. Megalon shifted, tapping his drill to the ground to get the gyaos' attention.

"Where are you going? We need to stick together."

He inquired, some hints of worry evident in his usually amicable voice. Irys looked back at the cyborg, keeping as placid a look across her face as she could with fangs and a hooked beak. She barely spoke above a whisper.

"I'm getting answers. I'll be back soon."

With that, she strode out into the dark halls outside. Pacing turned to running, and with a leaping bounding on expanding wings, running turned into silent flight. Near undetectable sounds slipped out every few moments in rapid echolocation, practically giving Irys an x-ray map of the entire temple as she passed by. Quiet as a passive breeze, she honed in on the pattern of a familiar shape. A shape that in nearly any other circumstance her instincts urged her to avoid like the plague. Irys flew into the chamber under the cover of shadows, spinning around midair and anchoring herself to the roof like a bat in a cave. The being before the gyaos either hadn't noticed her, or didn't care. She took her chances.

"Ghidorah..."

The King of Terror slowly stretched up to his staggering full height, turning around towards the door way but not necessarily the source of the voice.

"KING- Ghidorah... and I was wondering when one of you would come crawling in here."

He hissed, an unimpressed expression clad across his three heads.

"I was expecting better. I presume, the older cyborg is still out of commission then? He'd have barred you from coming here."

Irys sneered, clawing her away silently across the ceiling. She constantly kept herself in random movements, circling the behemoth below as she retorted.

"Enough!.. Tell me what you know about X. Lie to me and I'll slice your heads off one at a time."

King Ghidorah was still unmoved, casually flapping his wings slowly. His very scent was igniting every atavistic instinct Irys had, mentally begging her to get away from this monstrosity. She hadn't felt the very air reek of danger to this degree other than the last time she'd been near the master's chamber. Reigning in her nerves, Irys mentally held her ground. Ghidorah needed no concentration to do the same.

"A substantial boast from malformed filth. I have no time for your ordeals. Your master's attention is elsewhere at the moment, I recommend you leave..."

The hydra-like dragon turned away from where he estimated Irys was, walking towards the chamber's entrance. There was a loud hissing sound that grew in strength by the moment.

"Don't turn your back on me!"

There was a shriek and flare of light that split the air in two. A purple beam of plasma and sound tore down into the floor and wall, cleaving them as a butcher's knife would venison. Severed obsidian tumbled from the wall in torrents, burying the doorway in rubble and snuffing out almost all light in the chamber.

King Ghidorah paused before the rubble as the beam cut off. Standing in near total darkness aside from the glowing, spilled coals from a lantern that had been overturned by the falling wall; he barely even budged. He was annoyed, but unimpressed. A golden glow began to build from his form as Irys circled around.

"Said the cockroach to the god..."

The gyaos' eyes widened, launching herself away from the ceiling before said ceiling ceased to be. King Ghidorah cackled, firing graviton beams alternately between his left and right maws in bursts. Irys rapidly flapped her wings, weaving and dodging to and fro to avoid the barrages that hit everything around her as she constantly kept ducking into darkness. Ghidorah sneered as more energy danced across his wing membranes, rays of lightning joining the gravitons and lighting up the chamber. Eventually, the sheer volume of beams became too much to avoid. Irys braced herself as she saw a graviton stream sailing towards her in slow motion as lightning cut off her exits. Spreading her wings out, a wave of purple energy swung across them in a shield. The sonic barrier blocked the gravitons, but due to her not bracing enough, Irys couldn't defend herself from their momentum.

The albino gyaos was hurled across the chamber, the reverberating crash indicating she'd been thrown against the back wall. Grand King Ghidorah cut off his assault momentarily, manipulating the gravity around him to hover into the air. There was a moment of silence in the dark chamber, the dragon focused on looking around in the dying light for his target. Little by little however the embers died out, and the isolated chamber in Zenith became darker than any span of outer space. It was pitch black all around but the small glow emanating from Ghidorah's form. Though he could smell her and sense her life force, the King of Terror had lost all sign of the gyaos.

There was a shifting in the darkness, echoing off the walls and roof. Something was moving around out there, circling him. Ghidorah turned to face it as it moved around him constantly, as if jumping from wall to wall and making it difficult to pin down exactly where Irys had gone. That was when he began to hear something else. Nearly silent, high frequency pinging calling out every few seconds from a different angle. Every time he heard it, he could feel something shift across the floor. It reminded him of something a certain, seemingly insignificant life form from Terra. Bats, and exactly how they could move around in the dark.

-Echolocation... And that means...-

Ghidorah frozen, before growling and narrowing his eyes. Why was it these pests always had such gimmicks?!

-She knocked the lights out on purpose!-

The pinging and shifting halted, several long moments passing in complete darkness and silence. Then there was a low hissing sound from high above. Ghidorah looked up and to his left just in time to see a purple glow barely illuminating Irys as she half climbed and half across the wall and ceiling, a sonic ray spewing out of her mouth and slicing into the floor. Swinging the ray wide like a harvester's scythe, she darted her head to the side and swung the beam at Ghidorah.

===================

Reader Works Section

It never ceases to give me a proud papa moment upon seeing the stuff so many of you great guys and gals do, both directly tied to my and my co-creators' story and many other projects I've seen some of you under take that I like to think Bridge had a hand in inspiring. But enough from me, let's see you! As a big suggestion, I highly, highly suggest following these gals and guys and looking at the rest of their galleries. It's great stuff.

Two Crazy Cuties!
FallenAngel never ceasing to be adorable in her cute art style. Here we have a next Gen with a Sunset-DuskShine and Xenilla-BladeDancer duo.

Humanized Bridge - Anime Style
Zeroviks man, I could literally make an entire gallery of this series and I've loved every entry. In the interest of not piling up the entire gallery I'm going to leave the link and picture here and tell everyone reading this to do what I said above and check out each of these artist's galleries. This series literally has almost every single one of the core roster.

Let's Get Ready to Rumbllleeee
Isaacholt supplies us with the 'What If' fight that I'm sure someone definitely wanted to see and preferred I not throw a curve ball.

神聖なたわごとは、これは正しい東宝の外に見えます!!!
WOW. Just WOW. I haven't seen vector art this good in a long, long time. I could easily see something like this coming out of Hasbro's Japanese side or a Toho distributed animation. Very easily.

That's One Big Flame
A body at rest tends to stay at rest. A Pyrus in motion tends to end up on these sections. Universal constant people, thanks Bill Nye. Pyrus has done a great series of kaiju concept art and original artwork, but here it stuck out to me a lot as it's something of an illustration of a sequence directly lifted from the story. Bravo buddy, bravo.

Hello Beautiful~
A female Destroyah (or the other 5000 ways of spelling that name) was something I worried wouldn't be very well received. Thankfully, seems I was wrong and Johng117 (author of Arrogance of Man, check it out) helped further prove me the fool. But whatever you do, don't look directly into her eyes!

"Go Get 'Er Angy!!"-Gollum123
Gollum here reminds me yet again who one of my favorite designs in the story is. Thank you my friend, my friend thank you!

Ensemble Darkhorse (see I DO read the tropes)
Monster X is best fur-less ape. I see Faithy and I's design is popular, he's popping up a lot recently. And Branded here definitely doesn't disappoint with the three she's made.

What did I just Say?
Yah double posting might be cheating but this is a commission so I'll count it separately. Branded's artistic talent and Vampy's fangirlism combine to give me a grin.

New update from across the Bridge!
Chapter update from BlazingPheonix's spinoff 'Humanity's Stand'

Villain Episode!
A wordy work by Kahnac detailing what he sees as going down on Attu Island thirty years ago.

Author's Note

Proof reading by Faith-Wolff and Skylark
Illustrations (COMING SOON!) by Faith-Wolff

Godzilla and associated properties by Toho Company Ltd.
Gyaos and associated properties by Daiei studios
My Little Pony: FiM by Hasbro Studios

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Pandemonium in Ponyville! Irys vs. Ghidorah! And recollections of ages pasts as well as threats present.

Father's Day Special: The King Father

=====================================

Equestria, Canterlot, several days ahead

"And that's the last time I got to see my mother up close. I left after the exchange so the humans could finish their clean up."

Junior continued, having spent the last half hour getting used to seeing his memories projecting onto a screen through alicorn magic. Celestia nodded in return, still eyeing the enchanted window tied to the kaiju's memories. Had she stepped into the Tree of Harmony's realm, she likely could have had him open up his entire history like she did with Twilight. Outside of it however, one panel was the limit but thankfully was enough for the series.

Both looked at the image of Azusa from the then 100 meter tall Junior's perspective with different labels. Seeing his mother again in any form, let alone smiling up at him was a welcome sight to the kaiju king who returned the gesture in stride. He saw his sole remaining parent. Celestia saw a catalyst. Great power can easily corrupt. She'd grown up with multiple guides, one in particular, who helped her stay a more moral course.

-Looks like some things stay constant across time and space..-

It had been a long time since she'd seen a human, though this one wasn't quite as colorful as the ones she recalled. The glow slowly wisped away from the alicorn's horn, the ethereal memory vanishing along with it. Celestia gathered up her thoughts and nodded.

"Well, some goriness aside on that last part, I can certainly see a proud parent smiling at her child. Now, are you sure you're alright with some of this history becoming public knowledge?"

"If it's a bit much just tone down the fights, but the more folks know about me the less they'll fear I hope, assuming these methods of your's work. If they know where I came from and who brought me up, we'll probably hear less wild mass guessing on the radio... That was a good choice to ask me to recall some of my memories with mum."

The oversized unicorn picked himself up from his seat and chuckled, shaking his head slightly.

"I suppose some of them are my happiest."

"It should likely help, many find it hard to call something a monster if it has someone like that for family."

Celestia noted as she wrote down some details on a scroll. It was fairly quiet in the Solar wing, with no one in the office room aside from Celestia herself and Luna's bodyguard. Late afternoon had arrived, the sun having already begun ticking down across the sky when Junior was called in to one of the most bizarre interviews he'd ever heard of. However what got Celestia to glance out the window wasn't something in the ordinary. Somehow the sky had already blackened, a dark quilt of stars and a silvery moon stretched across it. Celestia raised an eyebrow and looked at a nearby clock.

-Strange.. Nightfall isn't due for another two hours now. Luna's early-

The solar diarch looked out another window in the direction of the neighboring tower jutting out of the Lunar wing.

-She's usually always very precise about the start and stop points-

By chance she happened to catch a glimpse of blue coat and flowing mane departing from the tower. Luna flapped her broad wings with an owl's silence as she started to hover and glide her way down towards the gardens. Celestia watched with curious eyes. Even at a distance, she could see the stress in her sibling's body language. Despite her handling the situation of alien monsters and resurrected then de-ressurected tyrants in stride, something was very wrong.

Princess Celestia didn't take her eyes off the window as she spoke quietly in a half calm and half commanding tone.

"Godzilla."

"Yes?"

"Have you noticed Luna at unease lately?"

"Possibly, something didn't smell right but I thought it polite to not dig my nose in where it might not belong."

"Can you tell when it started?"

Junior combed through his memories. Shifting from being awake when he didn't feel tired to being away afternoon to morning had been a tad frustrating over the past few days. He hadn't had the best of dreams either. His mind wasn't always a nice place to be.

"Well, she started seeming a tad.. off.. two days ago."

"Did you have any dreams on that day?"

The question was odd, and despite memory giving him an answer he really would rather not think about, the answer was true. Though nightmarish flashback would be a much more accurate description.

"Yes, it was of my father.... I'm just glad it shifted away from it."

Celestia's heart started to sink. She didn't know the details about her guest's other parent, he specifically asked to not view that part of his memory and she respected it. But his slightly darkened tone and mentioning his father in past tense told her whatever happened to the aforementioned Senior wasn't something either of them would fancy seeing. And if Junior was dreaming of that and the dream suddenly shifted away from it, that means someone might have altered it. Someone who'd seen the dream. A dream about a lost father figure.

Celestia took in a slow breath and sighed, shaking her head slowly.

-I wondered when you'd stop running away Luna...-

By this point Junior had advanced up to Celestia and tracked her point of vision out the window. He looked forth just in time to glimpse and instantly recognizable shape floating down between tree limbs.

"What's wrong with her?"

He muttered, still tracking the moving outline through the canopy. She seemed to be heading for a back area to the gardens, set near the mountain itself and far isolated from any beaten trail he'd noticed.

"I sense it's a... family issue."

"Well,-"

Junior glanced up at Celestia out of the corner of his eyes; cocking an eyebrow as he spoke.

"-shouldn't you follow her down and help then?"

Before she could say yes, memory said no. Distant echoes of Luna's voice from ages long since past echoed out, memories from the worst time in Celestia's life clawed at her mind.

-"YOU were always the favorite! The favorite leader! The favorite symbol! The favorite pupil! The favorite chi-!"-

She forcefully cut the memory off, wincing slightly. She had her answer, as much as it stung.

"I fear that for now, and for this problem with her.. I'm not well suited for it."

"Well then, maybe she's best left alone to sort this out then?"

Celestia sighed, wanting to say no outright. Luna never was very good at sorting out emotions alone. She puzzled. Junior meanwhile could now see two distressed alicorns. One going off to parts unknown, the other forcing herself to look away from the window and walk back to her desk. Celestia extended and flapped her enormous wings before resting them against her sides.

"... If you could, I'd like you to follow her."

"....You certain of that?"

Celestia held her ground and kept her back to Junior. Still, her drooping slightly didn't go unnoticed.

"Yes, just go down and trail her... Make sure no one pesters her if she tries to get it out."

"Get what out?"

The princess tilted her head to the side and glanced back at Junior with a slight frown, before looking out the window.

"... You'll know it when you see it... And Godzilla, if she starts breaking, whatever you do; do not leave her alone..."

There was a silence for the life of dozen seconds as Godzilla Junior looked at Celestia, then back out the window. Taking in a shrug, he backed away.

"Alright, want me to throw myself out that window to catch up or take the stairs?"

"Stairs please."

A half a kilometer away a large form silently touched her hooves to the ground. Princess Luna retracted her wings and stood still amongst the darkened forest, rays of moonlight streaming through the breaks in the leaves above and crisscrossing both her and the understory. Any other instance she'd have admired how beautiful it all looked, this isolated wood that nestled itself behind the capital that built itself across an overhang of mountain. But this was an unusual instance. She was about to do something she'd been dreading, something that had been eating at her mind for the past few days. It was now or never.

She took a step forward, then another, and then another one by one as she very slowly made her way between the trees without so much as crinkling a dry leaf. The edge of the forest slowly began to clear out, oak and spruce leaves giving way to open sky and a downpour of moonlight. Moon and stars were doubled in view, reflected in the still water of a pond that encircled a small peninsula. The clearing was devoid of trees aside from a single, perfectly straight cypress rooted into the peninsula's tip. The landmark's extremely advanced age was evident by its wide trunk. It had been planted for an occasion over centuries ago.

Luna began to shake as she crept up the peninsula on jittering hooves until finally stopping two thirds to the end. Jutting from the ground a few feet from the tree trunk was a simple, half oval shaped slab of stone. Had the protection hexes Luna smelt coming off it not been maintaining it, it's likely the stone would have been far too heavily worn from age to be legible. But, when Luna saw the inscription, she started feeling tremors creeping up her spine. The dark alicorn sat herself down and bowed her head.

==============================================

Equestria, Canterlot, around 1,000 years before present

Star Swirl, the arch mage of the fledgling Equestrian union, puzzled as he jotted down several notes on some graphs. He'd been toiling away at this project for days, and even then he could tell he'd only just barely scratched the surface. Star Swirl grumbled, looking over numerous charts and graphs he himself had wrote down and only half understood. This confounded cutiemark study was going to make his beard fall out one day.

Solitude was interrupted by a familiar face. A young adult unicorn mare with a two toned green mane practically kicked the front door open so hard it caused her mentor's hat to pop up and spin. Star Swirl grabbed his cap and whirled around to see a clearly frantic looking Clover the Clever huffing for breath at his doorstep.

"Clover! Not so loud, you'll startle my heart out one of these days!"

Clover inhaled a deep breath to calm her pulse enough to breathe.

"T-eacher, two fillies have been foun-d in the Everfree!"

Star Swirl paused and tilted his head slightly. While yes he'd be glad to help with a missing children's case, hardly seemed like something to urgently come to him with. Certainly there were more qualified souls out there.

"And, whyyyy does it look like you've sprinted all the way from the forest to tell me this? Is something wrong with the two little ones that's magic related?"

Clover held her breath while trembling, managing to catch her wind while brushing her bangs aside. Her tone was still obviously hyper, both frantic and ecstatic about something."

"W-Well, they're not exactly... normal."

"Spit it out then, what's wrong or abnormal with them? Are they hexed and need me for a counter spell?"

"N-No.. it's not something that's abnormal is with them.. they are abnormal."

Star Swirl took off his reading glasses and walked over to his old apprentice while magically adjusting his hat.

"What, do they look funny or something?"

Clover didn't speak, instead she just raised a hoof and pointed out the door and directly at Canterlot's Castle. An iconic flag hanging from the main doorway swayed slowly in the wind. Star Swirl followed the mare's pointing and looked at the castle for a few moments before noticing the flag. That was then he noticed two creatures that didn't exist stenciled onto the tapestry. He fell silent, eyes slowly widening.

After nearly half a minute, Star Swirl finally managed to speak in a hushed tone that masked shock.

"And this is not just some jest..."

Clover didn't budge, just shaking her head. Star Swirl's whisper began to tremble, understanding why she'd come to him with this.

"Where are they now?"

"They're in the main castle now, Commander Hurricane and Smart Cookie escorted them in. They, Bullion and Platinum requested your presence for the inspection."

Star Swirl slowly exhaled a drawn out shrug, settling his nerves.

"Well then, let's not keep them waiting."

He muttered before walking forward. He restrained himself from teleporting, both due to age and Clover not having yet mastered that spell to keep up. Besides, given this situation he just might want to conserve as much magic as he could should he need it. Clover the Clever turned herself around and trotted after and alongside him.

"Who found them and how far into the forest were they, the fringes?"

Star Swirl muttered, eyes still glued to the castle as they drew close.

"No, deep in its heart. It was a survey party who found them near some sort of tree."

"A tree? That's an odd thing to note in particular for being in a forest full of them."

They walked through the opening front doors and towards the main hall. All around there were lines of ponies from all three branches, layering the fringes of the chamber and giving the center a wide girth. Even from out of the room Star Swirl could hear muttering from every emotion imaginable. Clover's ears drooped as they turned the corner.

"Um... let's just say the leaders wanted you to look at the tree as well. According to the report it's... not exactly normal either."

She whispered before hushing herself upon reaching the crowd. Numerous ponies fell silent as the arch mage advanced out from their ranks and towards the center of the chamber. The council stood in a semicircle ahead of the crowd, Hurricane, Pansy, Bullion, Platinum, Smart Cookie, and Puddinghead all looking forward and down in silence. Star Swirl stopped, looking up at a banner that stretched across the interior of the hall. A much more ornate version of the national flag hung above him.

The image of two alicorns, one dark blue and the other white, circled each other across the seams. It was symbol they'd all agreed upon. A fictional, ideal unity of all three races to embody their new cohesion. Star Swirl looked down and saw the image defictionalized.

Two alicorns, carbon copies of the image above abet much younger, looked up at Star Swirl. The larger of the two was sitting on her rump and holding her sibling. She was a white foal with a pink mane and appeared about half a year old or so. The second, a much smaller blue foal was a baby who looked barely a month old, was half snuggling and half hiding in her sibling's hooves. Despite their early age, a conical horn and set of wings were clear as crystal on both of them.

Star Swirl loomed over the duo as the chamber collectively held its breath. The youngest alicorn blinked as few times as she looked up at the stallion. After some time in silence, she partially wiggled out of her larger counterparts protective hold and reached up to Star Swirl, giggling and pawing at the tip of his beard like a curious kitten. Soon enough, a smile stretched across the older alicorn's face before she too reached up to the mage with a little hoof. Star Swirl sighed in relief, making no effort to stop the littlest one from playing in his hair as he nodded to the white alicorn who returned the gesture.

-Well, this is a good omen-

==============

Six Months Later

Star Swirl growled enough to rattle his beard, busy scouring high and low for a missing toddler. The siblings thankfully had proved to be as benign as they had hoped, but their growing magical prowess and rapid physical growth had certainly kept many on their hooves. In just a few months after being found, Celestia had started aging at a rapid rate enough that she'd breached the toddler line and now seemed somewhere in the realm of a four or five year old. Luna hadn't quite caught up to her sibling and only recently had hit the accelerant point, her maturity currently around the ballpark of a nine or ten month old. Or least that was Star Swirl's best guess about the ages of two foals that didn't grow like foals at all. However it was their magic potential that was causing them to be more than a hoofful.

A typical young unicorn might have bursts of magic, namely telekinesis, on and off for several months as they mature; and pegasi frequently exhibit constant urges to fly about fueled by the instinct to get airborne. The alicorns had both while being super charged on earth pony stamina and had more frequent instances due to an accelerated growth. Normal foals might have an instance every couple of days. In the past few months Star Swirl was lucky if either sister hadn't had one every few hours.

And as a premiere authority on magic of multiple types, it wouldn't take a genius to find who'd been commissioned as the two's primary over watch. Star Swirl could tear his hairs out one by one based on how much he regretted saying yes. Sometimes studying a new species just wasn't worth it.

The old mage grit his teeth as he followed the trail of familiar magic around a corner.

-At least Celestia is old enough to start studying. The library book I assigned her should keep her occupied long enough... Now where did Luna run off to?!-

His thought was answered by a hint of baby blue up on the staircase railing. Across the hall and near the stairwell, an infantile Luna was giggling as she slid down the concave rail like a slide. Star Swirl grimaced and rushed forward with magic igniting across it. Luna was too busy squealing happily from her slide to notice she'd been thrown off the tip. Instinct took over as soon as she was airbourne, the little foal spreading her wings and gliding forth, barreling at her caretaker. Between her small size, high speed, and Star Swirl's own panic; his magic born hand of telekinesis failed to catch her before the tiny alicorn crashed into his face.

Star Swirl doubled over onto his back, half knocked silly. When he first tried to open his eyes, the world didn't stop spiraling and there were stars everywhere. He closed his eyes and held his head, shaking it to get off the merry-go-round and pray he didn't get a concussion. When he did finally come too, he felt a weight on his collar and his beard was looking at him. Or, rather the foal tangled and curled up inside the mass of white was looking at him with beady eyes.

Sadly despite not being dizzied, little Luna did get one bad side effect of the sudden jolt. It had spooked her. Her little horn instantly glimmered and then she hiccuped. The moment she flinched was the moment she vanished in a flash of white light, ripping off half of Star Swirl's beard with her.

It took a moment for the pain to hit him, but it came alright. Star Swirl lurched up while clenching his jaw shut as much as he could to muffle the yelping groan of pain.

"HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!"
"STAR SWIRL!"

The pained mage managed to stop groaning quick enough to flop to his side and look at who was coming now. It took a moment for him to recognize the frantic mess of dough and flower as Vice Chancellor Smart Cookie. He only needed a glance at her to figure out what had happened. Star Swirl held his breath as his eyebrow twitched.

"Oh don't tell me Celestia got in there AGAIN?!"

"Got in?! She pillaged the pantry while I was busy and teleported out before I could stop her. I thought you were watching her!"

"Watch her?! I've had my hooves full with just tracking down the little one! Oyyyye!"

Star Swirl barked, throwing his hooves up before sinking back down and rubbing his horn. Smart Cookie shrugged, wiping some excess flour off her muzzle. There was a pause of silence for both to catch their breath and wit.

"... What.. did Celestia take this time?"

"What do you think? Mostly grains and sweets. There isn't a single pound cake left! And-"

-Hmm.. High energy foods. Yep, that accelerated growth definitely boosted metabolism-

"Star Swirl... Hey Star Swirl!"

The mage snapped out of his mental musing when Smart Cookie waved her hoof in front of him.

"What?!"

Smart Cookie gave him a perplexed look, eyes trailing up and down Star Swirl's face.

"What happened to your beard?"

The archmage's eyes narrowed considerably, not liking being reminded half his namesake had been torn off.

"My pupil happened."

He grunted with a growl, walking past and around Smart Cookie. Now he had two alicorns to worry with, again. Now he had to be on the lookout for a sugar high juvenile in addition to a randomly teleporting infant. Smart Cookie shrugged, chuckling slightly under her breath.

"Druthers of parenthood Swirly."

A long, drawn out snarl slithered out of Star Swirl's throat as he walked out of the chamber and left Smart Cookie behind.

"I'm their tutor and mentor, not their babysitter. The alicorns are unique entities that need instruction, they're not children."

Smart Cookie rolled her eyes with a smirk, calling out to the hallway as Star Swirl went down it.

"'Till the cards are down, 'Till the cards are down~..."

All she could hear in response was a low muttering as Star Swirl's voice echoed out of the hall; speaking in a growling grumble all the way.

"Sonofrana maernifrink freanum nirtrnraga..."

========================================

Meanwhile in the Library, near Star Swirl's study

A pink and white blur sped through the library so quick the air hissed with every pass. With every rush, half the section morphed. Stacks of books rapidly shifted to and fro, another sweet set onto a makeshift table made out of dictionaries vanished; and there was giggling all around.

-Okay! Reorganized de east wing! Alphabetized de west wing! And read through to get the good books from both! Got Memoirs of Shadowfax, Life and Methods of Masked Tornado, aaaaaaaaand EEEE! Ebony Beauty’s hex tome! TookMe5MinutesToFindAllThis! I am SET!-

The blur raced over to the table, plopping down a stack of tomes about everything from comedy acts to shield magic; and gobbling up a cupcake. Celestia's horn dimmed, the golden aura stretching across her form dissipating. Having figured out a telekinesis spell from Star Swirl a few weeks prior, it only took some experimentation for her to find out how much faster she could fly by literally lifting and throwing herself around with magic as much as she did by wing. And given she'd just wolfed down at least a hundred grams worth of sugar in the past five minutes and was jittering constantly, she wasn't slowing down.

She had just started reading when a flash of light shot out from above the table. Luna plopped down a few inches, landing on Celestia's book rump first.

"Dwoof!"

The youngest alicorn looked around at her surroundings before spotting her sister. Luna let out a tiny, happy gasp and waved her hooves, saying the only word she knew that everyone besides her sister could understand.

"Cewwie!"

Celestia grinned ear to ear, still bouncing up and down a few millimeters at a time.

"OhHiLulu! Cupcake?"

She squealed, holding out a little treat for her little sister. Luna nodded happily, reaching out and taking the snack. She'd just started happily gumming the frosting when another hiccup hit her. This time Luna, the cupcake, the entire table and everything on it disappeared.

Celestia froze up for the first time in half an hour. Moments came and went as she looked at everything she'd collected vanish right before her. All the passages she'd been working on memorizing, all the dictionaries put to use; and all the reading fuel she'd been stocking up. All gone and stolen away in an instant. Slowly, her eyes changed. First widening, then narrowing and twitching. Flickers of light came from her pupils as her entire body began to shake like a steam kettle. The fringes of her mane began to stand up on end and glow.

Celestia jumped up as he entire mane and tail ignited as she flew out of the library, letting out a roar that rattled the entire castle.

"LUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

========

Star Swirl's ears were still ringing from earlier, having the unfortunate case of being near the library at the time of the alicorn air horn when Celestia smashed through the door, when he managed to finally track down the magic surge and find the sisters. And when he saw them, he wasn't sure if he should be disappointed or annoyed. The two alicorns, the only ones of their kind, who's appearance had been heralded as a cause for celebration after the inspection, the two fillies with the highest magical potential the archmage had ever seen; were throwing a tantrum at each other.

Luna, held up by her own magic in a midst of a power surge, floated and slowly spun through the air like someone had switched off the gravity as a still on-fire Celestia flew after her in the airspace. The room, having once been a now barely recognizable guest quarters, looked like a hurricane had gone off in it. Books and pastries were flying around in every direction from the out of control alicorns while being chased by bickering one would expect between politicians or at least preschoolers. Insults were being thrown around as much as projectiles.

"Abgabu Cewwie!"

"It dwopped in where?!"

"Gaba!"

"Hey I like the pink!"

"Anaka nanqui!"

"Rainbows would not look better!"

"Kaka abububububub!"

Celestia dodged an airborne cupcake that hit Star Swirl's hat before smearing down its height. Still ignorant to the adult's arrival, she lunged at Luna while barking.

"It would nwot! GRR!"

Managing to grab her sibling, both alicorns dropped onto the burnt, tossed remains of a bed and wrestled, rolling about. Star Swirl stoically took a deep breath and wiped his hat and face clean of apple frosting. He looked at the two with a deadpan expression.

-The future protectors and symbols of Equestria fillies and gentlecoats...-

His vision shifted upwards while sitting on his haunches and holding his forehooves up in a flabbergasted motion towards any deity watching him.

-Why must you confound and torment us?...-

His patience wore thin both from lack of response and the two's audible squabbling. And eventually said patience snapped just like his voice did. Magical auras grabbed both alicorns by the horn and forced them a few feet apart as Star Swirl stomped on the ground with a pulse of magic behind it to add force.

"EE-NOUGH! I will NOT stand for any more insolence from my pupils!"

Instantly, both Celestia and Luna looked to him and both on conscious and instinct, cowered despite the mage's magical hold over them dissipating. Star Swirl paid it no mind, refusing to drop his voice beyond a stressed snarl.

"YOU are going to help clean all of this, the library, and the pantry up! I am putting a sealing lock on your bedroom within the hour!"

He roared, glaring at Celestia who sat back quivering. Star Swirl's wrath shifted targets. It didn't matter if he wasn't quite sure if Luna could understand him or not at this point, he was shouting his thoughts to himself as much as he was them.

"And YOU are getting an inhibitor ring until you can control your magic and have supervisor at ALL TIMES! No more going off on your own and certainly no star gazing tonight!"

If Luna couldn't understand his words, she could understand the tone. The little one quivered and shook, crawling over to her sister and hiding behind Celestia's tail while sniffling. All three in the room were too angered or frightened to notice dust seeping down from above.

Star Swirl didn't notice the ceiling beam, previously weakened in foundation by all the commotion and Star Swirl's stomping, tear itself out of the roof until he head the splinting hiss of breaking wood. Two chunks of hardwood fell free from above and rained down on either side of the room. Star Swirl felt time slow down as he looked to the fillies. Conscious mind and emotion blacked out to instinct. His horn glowed, magic grabbing and altering one of the beam's trajectories and forcing it away from the two and against the wall. It was only then he had time to see the shadow of at least twenty kilograms of hardwood cast over him. He braced, trying to refocus his magic to save himself.

But, as the milliseconds ticked by, he found himself not needing to.

A half bubble of golden hued magic arched over top of him, blocking the timbers' fall. A ripple-like wave seeped across the shield after the beam hit it like a gong, bouncing up slightly in time for a bolt of white hex to hit the wood and knock it aside.

The fallen beam crashed into the back wall as Star Swirl's breath left him. Perception still slowed to a crawl, he looked up in time to see an oncoming Celestia and Luna running across the bed and onto the floor with their horns glows still dissipating. Time only resumed its course when both came up and clung to his legs, still quivering.

Star Swirl's breath left him and he huffed to try and steal it back. He finally came to when they spoke. Through the shivers and crying, Celestia clung to Star Swirl's leg and spoke in muffled cries; Luna imitating her as best she could as the littlest alicorn hugged Star Swirl's shoulder.

"W-e're t'owwy M-m-mister Star Swirl! I-'ll cleanup everyting amb stuy hawder and never eawt and-"

"-Andaba baub bubububu bowwy bowwy bowy!"

Star Swirl looked down at the quivering filly and foal, and sighed. He recalled his words and beliefs from earlier in every definition of the term. He'd been focusing too much on certain aspects. Their uniqueness. Their uncanny resemblance to a symbol. And, perhaps most importantly, their magical ability. These months past he hadn't been seeing two ponies, just two beings the world had never seen before. Beings he secretly feared could be consumed by their own growing power had they not had instruction. They'd been another case study for him, however a frantic one.

Looking down, he didn't see two unknowns, two variables; or two equations to be solved. Just a pair of scared little ponies. His expression morphed. The mix of shock, stern anger; and fright shifted to mellow blankness. And then a tiny smile. He lifted a hoof and patted Celestia's head before giving Luna a soft nuzzle. He kept quiet until they stopped crying.

Star Swirl chuckled, sitting up and holding Celestia against him as little Luna perched on his shoulder.

"The damage can be repaired and apologies can be made, I'll teach you how. But, seems like you two just have too much energy to be cooped up inside all this time. How about we do some clean up and then have a walk in the back gardens?"

The two sisters' moods lifted at his words, Celestia whispering as she looked up at the old mage.

"C-Can we go by the pond and fweed the birdies?"

"Of course."

Star Swirl said with a chuckle, earning an affectionate nuzzle against his cheek by a very happy Luna as Celestia hugged his midsection. He usually hated his theories being wrong. But, as he held the two close; Star Swirl could relent that this time was the exception.

-Kids will be kids...-

===================================

A decade and a half later, Everfree Forest

Star Swirl the Bearded was undergoing enough stress that he might end up being known as 'Star Swirl the Bald' by the time the night was up. Not like he particularly cared, he was far too terrified. The old unicorn grunted, clenching his teeth to bite back the pain as he teleported himself dozens of yards ahead again and again. The strain was rapidly catching up to him from the distance he'd traveled. Ever since the Crystal Empire vanished, he'd been investigating the north. His search for survivors so far had been fruitless. All the old settlements and outposts of the crystalline nation vanished with its capital, the only crystal ponies remaining being the ones who had happened to be in foreign countries at the time. Still, there had been a trail he'd been sniffing. It was old, not much younger than the time the empire went dark after Sombra took over. But the trail of three toed paw prints and residual crystal magic was clear enough. Someone had possibly gotten away.

But he'd abandoned the pursuit in the instant a feeling engulfed him. He'd been consumed by a craven dread, one unlike anything he'd felt since Discord's takeover. There was something horribly wrong with the sisters. Thus, he turned tail and ran, teleported, and trudged cross country as fast as possible back to the castle. Now about two kilometers away from the Castle of the Two Sisters, his worst fears were confirmed. The air went cold despite it being a summer night and a terrifying stench hit him like a tsunami. Dark magic, more raw dark magic pouring out of the castle than near anything he'd ever experienced. Nerves screamed at him to run, mind roared at him to charge in despite the journey having drained him.

He looked through the canopy while grunting as he jumped a trench. Flares of light and beams of energy crisscrossed the night sky. Black and white beams were firing out of and, judging from the distant roar of falling rubble, through the castle walls in increasing frequency. Golden rays, Celestia's signature, were occasionally shooting out as well but in diminishing capacity. Every animal in the forest from marmots to manticores was running past Star Swirl and ducking for cover after a few beams impacted the ground and hit several trees with so much concussive force they exploded into nothing but showers of splinters. Star Swirl shielded his eyes from the raining debris as he forced himself along and up to the castle's back entrance. The chill of dark magic was ever stronger, fear stabbing through him with every step like each advance was met by a walking nightmare.

But he was a stubborn old fool of a stallion and kept forward despite the immense strain. Star Swirl blasted open the doorway and charged through it. He could sense both Celestia and Luna's signatures, they were close and fighting something! They needed his help! He mustn't be too late! He followed the flow of magic towards one of the upper chambers, the one where the Elements of Harmony were stored.

-They're trying to use the Elements again! It must be serious!-

Through the door he bolted towards, he could hear the cackle of shattering glass and a sharp cry of pain. He'd just managed to get the door open when there was a explosion of brilliance. Star Swirl was simultaneously blinded and thrown back by the expanding blast wave of pure light and energy. He flew back and hit his head on the wall hard enough to black out.

He didn't know how long he'd been knocked out when the world slowly returned. So much was gone. The explosive flash, half the windows, and all decorations in the hallway were all gone or thrown about from the wave. Vision fading in and out of blackness as the old mage got to his feet, Star Swirl managed to stumble back into the element chamber by the time his consciousness returned. The room was damaged just as much as the exterior, with only the elements' mounting being close to intact.

Celestia lay on the floor, partially sitting and limply slumping against the mounting's base. The element gemstones themselves lay scattered across the floor around her, occasionally pulsing in ever dwindling glows. Celestia herself was far from in good shape, riddled with bruises, cuts, and a large burn stitched across her left wing. But most distinct of all was her mane. The dawn pink Star Swirl had seen on her since the day she was found was joined by a barrage of new colors to form a rainbow.

If her wounds or new hair color gave her any heed she didn't show it, more focused on struggling to get onto her hooves and drowning her eyes in her sobbing. She managed to half crawl and half drag herself with weak limbs towards the broken window as moonlight streamed through it.

"L-Luna! N-NOO!"

She choked out as Star Swirl limped over towards her. In en route, he followed her line of sight and looked out the window. The moon, full and bright, shined through the broken glass. The image of a dark alicorn was stenciled onto its surface. Star Swirl could sense the dark magic's residue fading in the direction of the celestial. He was starting to figure out what had happened...

Celestia was either too focused or had her peripheral vision too clouded by tears to notice him. She scrambled across the floor despite dragging her back left leg from a bad limp, grabbing the red gemstone. The Element of Loyalty, one of Luna's.

"Br-bring her back! Give her ba-a-ack!"

She screamed with a gag, her hooves trembling as the glow from the element started to die away. She clenched the element closer to her as she sat up and grabbed one of hers, the Element of Magic. It too had a dying glow. The typically warmth, welcoming sensation she used to feel around both elements were gone. Bearer had used element against bearer. Her connection had been severed. It felt as terrifying as it did mortifying.

Star Swirl bowed his head as he limped forward, having put the last piece together of what never should have happened. Why there was a mare in the moon, where the dark magic had departed, why was Celestia injured... why Luna was gone. He had been too late...

The arch mage walked up to the mare he helped raise with a sullen expression. Memories played back before his eyes against his will. Bouncing fillies, joyful young alicorns running into this chamber eagerly in years past, long nights of instruction. Each vision constricted his core harder and harder. When Celestia called out in desperate panic, he could feel a knife between his ribs stab in and twist.

"I-I'll do anything! Take anything! Just b-ring her back! She's my baby sister BRING HER BACK!"

The glow finally vanished when Star Swirl sat down beside her. Celestia dropped the depowered gemstones as stony squares grew over it, as dull and lifeless as the stone floor. Celestia lost her will to sit up, slumping against Star Swirl as her crying blotted out her voice. Star Swirl did his best to help hold her up, slowly patting her back as he looked at Equestria's sole remaining alicorn. After some time, he looked to the moon. A trail of tears drained out of his eyes and glimmered in the moonlight as the blank face of a dark alicorn looked back at him.

============================================

Canterlot Night, half an hour after Luna's departure

Luna sat still before the stone, water dripping onto the grass below her. She really wished it was raining. She couldn't say anything to him, half choked on her own tongue.

There was a crinkle of grass blades behind her. The alicorn flinched, but didn't move from her place. Despite her distraught mood, her tone had a razor blade's edge behind its growl when she tilted her head to the side and glared back.

"How long.. have you been there.."

A pair of amber eyes encircled by red gleamed in the low light of the tree line. Junior took slow steps forward, surprisingly silent aside from his hoofsteps despite still being in most of his plate armor. He kept his tone neutral.

"A minute, I followed the hoofprints."

Luna glided her head back to its original position, keeping it hung low. She didn't want anyone to notice the glimmering lines below her eyes. Sh sneered with a flared nose and furrowed brow.

"..Leave..."

A moment passed before Junior resumed his approach.

"You know me better than that."

Luna shrugged, letting her wings droop slightly against her sides.

"You're stubborn..."

Coming up beside the alicorn, he sat himself down, reaching up and removing his helmet and setting it aside.

"I take after my parents."

He muttered with sigh, not making any motion towards his audience as he sat in silence. It was only when he'd gotten close enough the former kaiju noticed the stone and the writing scrawled across it. Literacy was still something he never had much chance to practice. He was more than a tad rusty, only memorizing some Kana or Roman English script from experience. It was something Captain Frost had him working to improve upon during his downtime here. Still, the words were few enough that he could make out some of it despite the heavy wear on what he recognized as an aged gravestone

-Star..swirl 'The Beard-ed' In-can-us... 52 B.A. to 145 A.A. -

Star Swirl, he'd heard that name before. Luna had mentioned it during that night back when he was still recovering from the gyaos battle.

-"A wizard named Star Swirl helped raise us among others."-

He didn't know the full situation or his history well, but some meaning behind what was going on found itself in his grasp.

-So, she did lie when she said she didn't have any parents...-

Junior glanced over, noticing Luna craning her head to the side and away from him out of the corner of his eye. It was all the confirmation he needed.

-Maybe even lied to herself...-

"My father died when I was two years old, barely a teenager... I black out one hour, come to the next, and he's gone."

Luna listened despite it all. She could practically curse herself for being curious. When she first sensed his distress she should have shut the nightmare of meltdowns and falling kings instantly. Instead she'd looked. She looked and was reminded of her own failures to her family. Not just to her sister but her... she stopped at the word, doubting her worth for it.

It took a few minutes of both of them sitting perfectly still for her to speak.

"I wasn't there when it happened... Celestia was... The citizens were... Bu-t, I had to turn into that THING... I wasn't there when he-"

She snapped and grunted, stomping her hoof against the ground. At this point her ethereal mane was beginning to sag. She loathed appearing weak, but she hated running away even more. Junior stayed still, looking down at the headstone and rereading the title over and over again.

"You don't need to finish that, I can guess..."

He said under his breath. After a moment, Luna began to chuckle and gag through mild choking to try and dry her eyes.

"N-ot like he probably even wanted me around when it happened... Celestia was always better for him. Better stu-dent, better leader; better successor.. He got to see her thrive for over a hundred and ten years, I was only looming around for twenty... He probably just remembered me as another failure or monster Celestia had to deal with like Chrysalis..."

Junior closed his eyes and shook his head a few times.

"Brief time can mean a lot... I lived with my mother for eight months, my father for a year and a half before he died. My mother is the only family I have left still alive, and I have grown so I can never be around her safely again. I'll probably outlive her by decades or centuries assuming someone doesn't put me down in the never ending struggle I call life.... But, time doesn't matter."

He whispered, before tilting his head over towards her. Junior glanced at the alicorn in the edge of his vision.

"Do you remember him?"

Slowly, the silent princess nodded.

"Remember anything he taught you?"

Luna swallowed and inhaled slowly to catch her breath. She shut her eyes and combed through memory before reciting it in a whisper.

"Don't get drunk off power... magic requires will and concentration... Don't forget or abuse those without your gifts."

Junior did the same, recalling experiences more than words but the lessons stayed the same. Star Swirl wasn't the only good teacher, Junior had two.

"Do the best you can at the thing you are best at. Don't let others force your way. A fulfilled life or action brings peace to others. Stand up for those weaker than yourself.... If you remember what one taught you, by word or by example, they never leave you."

Luna slowly shifted her head back forward and back at the stone with a sullen expression.

"..Sometimes I doubt I was worth it.."

She felt a gentle nudge against her shoulder.

"Listen. Remember when you told me once, how you thought my father would have been proud of how his 'prince' turned out? I believed you... Well, given your track record I'm pretty certain the wise old wizard would be amazed at how the princess he helped shape grew up. Best thing you can do now is honor his life and memories... Not just anyone who's willing to take me on in a fistfight. He'd have to have taught you something good to have knocked my lights out."

Princess Luna exhaled to reign in her pulse, before shifting her head slightly in his direction to glance over to her stubborn company.

"You flatter..."

Junior smirked and sat back somewhat, rolling his eyes.

"Actually I'm told I'm a very bad liar, so Lele advised me to not even bother trying most of the time."

A tiny smile slipped across Luna muzzle before she wiped her damp eye and cheek. She picked her head up to Junior's level and looked down at the gravestone, and then to the night sky. Maybe, she could keep this company after all...

High above, a constructed constellation, one Luna had aligned over a millennium ago, twinkled. The outline of a bearded unicorn smiled down at the sleeping Equestria, watching over his daughters. Across space, a long haired woman looked down at a small, twenty one year old portrait in her lap as she sat on her porch. She let her fingers trail across the image of a sleeping saurian, snuggling up against a younger her as she laughed; before looking up at the night sky. Azusa smiled. Either be instinct or by wish, she knew her son was still alive.

Children are shaped by the figures they'd call parents, be it parents by blood or circumstance. Behind every heroine or hero is a predecessor to guide them.

Happy Mother's Day and Happy Father's Day

Author's Note

LAST SPECIAL FOR AWHILE I SWEAR
Just something I thought up last few days. I grew up with such great parents I could NOT just make a Mother's Day chapter and not also honor Pa too. I was going to do it next year, but got some ideas, made some plot points, toyed around with explaining a perceived continuity error in the show (Celestia and Luna on the Hearth's Warmign Eve flag before they even existed); and got to writing. I know it's one hour late to be on Father's day, but I like to think it's thought that counts.

PS: I know a lot of people were wanting the Father's Day chapter to focus on Junior's time with Senior and I did pen a rough draft of that. However, I felt it was best to keep the crossover balanced and focus on the Equestria side of things. Doing so with the sisters and Star Swirl does that, allows for a tie in to the Mother's Day chapter to effectively make a two parter, and gives a nice gender flip from Azusa and Junior to Star Swirl and the Princesses.

Artwork and proofreading by Faith-Wolff

Godzilla property of Toho Company Ltd., created by Tomayuki Tanaka and Ishiro Honda
MLP:FiM property of Hasbro Studious, created by Bonnie Zarcherle and Lauren Faust
Banishment aftermath scene inspired by Lullaby for a Princess and it's animated video

Love you mum, love you pa.

Chapter 24: Chain of Memories

==================================

Planet Xilian, 370 Years Before Present

Grand King Ghidorah sneered as stray gravitons levitated up waves of dust and debris all around him, the golden dragon lifting himself off the ground and lunging at the mockery. Monster X put his arms up and crouched back on his toes, entering a guard stance to intercept the oncoming avalanche of kaiju; dodging the attempted stomp and counterattacking. While a sidestepping hook to Ghidorah’s sternum didn’t do much to faze the drake, the continuous momentum feeding into a leg sweep was enough to trip King Ghidorah up. The jumping uppercut to the chin caused Ghidorah to bite down on his own tongue.

Spitting out some of his own blood, King Ghidorah cackled and forced himself back onto the ground and into Monster X, stampeding forward and crashing into the smaller kaiju despite its attempt to block; using his left and right head to bite down and grab onto his foe. Trampling over and through several smaller buildings, the golden hydra bellowed before smashing Monster X into a large skyscraper. Black skin and white armor became eclipsed by a shower of falling glass, stone, and metal and was buried in the debris. King Ghidorah backed up and energy started to crackle inside his maw.

Before he could fire at the mountain of rubble, energy javelins and plasma mortars exploded against his golden hide. Turning around to catch a railgun shot to the throat, King Ghidorah quickly spied dozens of military landcruisers and aircrafts ducking in and out of cover to take a few more pot shots at him. The assault did next to nothing, the xilians may have been fighting for their lives and planet, but their efforts were more akin to biting gnats than an actual assault. Reigniting his maws, King Ghidorah took aim as a barrage of missiles to the foreheads blotted out his vision momentarily. There was a shifting in the rubble behind him.

Just before Ghidorah could alternately turn and fire through the smoke, he heard something not of the physical world. An urgent, feminine voice called out almost as if speaking into the mind.

-“094! Now!”-

Momentarily distracted, King Ghidorah misfired his graviton beams skyward when his attacker burst out of the rubble. Not one millisecond after springing to his feet Monster X dodged the stray beam and launched himself at King Ghidorah, ramming his knee into King Ghidorah’s right head. King Ghidorah felt a liquid warmth clog up his nostrils. His other two heads reacted quickly, grabbing Monster X’s arm as he was about to throw a right hook. Snagging him by the wrist and forearm, King Ghidorah yanked his enemy up and slammed him into the ground.

Grand King Ghidorah snorted to clear his nose of blood, a scowl etched across all three of his faces from the insult. Monster X, face down and dazed was still getting to his feet when Ghidorah’s foot hovered over him. Before several million kilograms worth of mass could stomp on Monster X’s helmet, the smaller kaiju rolled away and dodged the crushing blow and the graviton beams that followed; the dodged onslaught burrowing its way into the pavement. This caught King Ghidorah’s attention.

Monster X threw his hips, snapping around to get his feet beneath him. A flash of light across his eyes ushered a return fire of his own graviton streams, thinner and smoother than Ghidorah’s crackling wrath. His foe glided back on a curtain of manipulated graviton, shielding himself in a shell of his own wings. As Monster X’s barrages impacted the wing membrane, Ghidorah paid the energy based smacks little heed as he focused.

-That presence shielding his mind earlier, the voice, and him dodging an attack he couldn’t have seen coming… Someone’s helping him-

There was a brief lull in Monster X’s assault, indicating he was about to change strategy. King Ghidorah calmed his mind and centered his psyche.

-Perhaps, I just need to try a little harder…-

King Ghidorah unfolded his wings and sprung from his shield just as Monster X attempted to rush him from the side. Shrugging off a barrage of energy flares the Xilian aircraft was raining down on his back, King Ghidorah unleashed his focus in a mental and physical shriek. Air rattled and clouds split all around. Psychic energy flew forward in a tidal wave. Just like before, he could feel a presence working against it, but sure enough mass quantity overpowered quality and Ghidorah broke through. Monster X paused and flinched up as King Ghidorah ran headfirst into memory.

It was fuzzy, a clear indication of age. Dim lights both from the sky and fringes of the street indicated it was one of the race’s cities on a calm night. The point of view was relatively short and low to the ground. It looked to the left at what Ghidorah recognized as a Xilian male, approximately a meter and a half tall with jaw length white hair and gray skin that black veins showed through. It looked to the right at another Xilian, a female slightly taller than the male; very short black hair atop dark gray skin that hide all but the large veins on the throat and below the eyes. On the fringes of vision a smaller set of hands could be seen holding onto the adults'.

Before he could see more, a surge of psychic energy ripped into King Ghidorah’s attack and he was forced back into the real world amongst a flash of light. Monster X shook and staggered, holding his head and snapping it around to clear the spiraling vertigo in his vision. He didn't have time to dodge when King Ghidorah came flying at him, smacking the smaller kaiju off the ground. One hand grasped and tried to pry off the tails constricting around his midsection, while the other kept backhanding and trying to swat away King Ghidorah's snapping heads. Shrieking light built up and began to pour out of King Ghidorah's central maw. Reacting on reflex, Monster X grabbed the head by the throat and pointed it away, diverting the oncoming stream of gravitons towards the sky after it managed to nick and blow off part of his helmet. Swirls of gold sparked across the Xilian kaiju's eyes before several volleys of his own graviton torrents impacted and exploded against King Ghidorah's neck and shoulders, smoke and scales flying everywhere.

The crushing squeeze Ghidorah's tails gave Monster X's stomach and torso ushered the sound of fracturing armor and ribs, the pain canceling out the latter's eye beams. Cackling maniacally, King Ghidorah beat his wings and flew upwards and forwards in a large loop. Just before he could collide with the ground, the dragon pitched back up and unbound his tails, sending Monster X rocketing and smashing into the cityscape. The titanic impact flattened several blocks and sent out a wave that toppled even more buildings. Battered, bruised, bloodied and at the bottom of a crater; Monster X stubbornly clawed at the ground to try and struggle back to his feet. He just managed to get his head off the ground when Grand King Ghidorah came crashing down on top of him foot first. Foot holstered talons backed by dozens upon dozens of tons slashed into Monster X's head. X's bony helmet saved his skull from getting caved in, but at the cost of the front half being near entirely ripped off with three long gouges being cut along Monster X's face. Monster X crumbled over on his back as King Ghidorah kept crashing down, stomping on his chest.

The King of Terror rose back up and dropped himself on his foe again, laughing in gleeful mania.

"Pitiful! Miscreant! You dared to even try and challenge me?!"

Ghidorah's mass came crushing down again. Monster X started screaming when his armor started to snap and his ribs began to shatter.

Another stomp, another shriek, and that pesky psychic presence Ghidorah had been sensing started to weaken. He rose back up to crash down again, pinning Monster X's fractured body beneath his feet.

"Mortals are a waste. I am a god you insolent wretch! I have lived over a hundred thousand millennium. I decide when a world has ripened and as a god I shall not be opposed when I come to collect!"

King Ghidorah rose back up and focused his mental energy; mentally launching himself forword and breaking into X's psyche before he could his body.

The perspective of the memory was larger this time, roughly two meters considering scale to the walls and doorways the point of view was walking through. Everything in the rooms passed by were smooth and sterile, a laboratory or important facility by any estimate. Other presences were nearby, flanking the point of view on the corners of their vision. A series of lights on a panel lit up and a metal casing rolled itself back to reveal a small vial of familiar golden liquid. A hand reached out and took the vial to the protests of some behind it. Mentally, King Ghidorah sneered when he saw his blood being handled by a minuscule mortal; but kept watching with some curiosity.

The perspective turned to its right, revealing the room was half filled with Xilians. Judging from the mix of laboratory cloaks on some and body armor on others, he'd guess it was technicians and military present; all with varying shades of black, white, and mostly gray across their forms. All except for the one holding his blood. A fairly tall Xilian female in unique garb looked upon the canister of Ghidran blood, black hair and light gray skin contrasting with the curiously dark violet hues across both her irises and veins surrounding the eye. One of the technicians stepped forward and spoke, but the annoying presence from earlier was interfering with the viewing. Scowling, King Ghidorah did his best to force it away and listen. He was going to level and burn this planet one way or another, least he could do is have some entertainment as to what these fools tried.

The technician spoke in a solemn voice, rechecking some data on his device.

"No time f-- full cloning, gene grafting onto someo-- with M base -- -he only chance..."

The female he was addressing reached into a holster and loaded the vial's contents into the syringe, mixing it with the black fluid already inside. She paid her surroundings little attention, stoically filling up the syringe and clearing it of air.

"It's our species' only chance. I'll -- it. Prepare --- ray treatment sequence now."

King Ghidorah snorted, recognizing that voice. Back in the memory, if her audience was alarmed before, their eyes were visibly widening now. Even the point of view was beginning to shake some. Several of the military clad members, likely high ranks considering some of the ornamentation, shot up in protest.

"Cont--ller 011 no!"

"This is irresponsible!"

"We'll fi-- something else!"

Several of them stepped forward but quickly backpedalled when said 011's eyes started glowing through a rock splitting glare. Her tone was as punctuated as it was imposing.

"There. Is. No. Time for arg--ent! Prepare... the sequence. NOW!"

After a moment of hesitation, the group cast a salute. A reinforced doorway slid open with a mechanical hiss, leading to a dark hall. It was then the nagging presence Ghidorah had been feeling finally forced him back and out of Monster X's mind.

Back in the real world, the golden titan dropped down and trampled Monster X yet again; the splitting crack of a fracturing sternum and surge of blood the black and white hybrid coughed up silencing his screams. His hands, which had been desperately trying to push Ghidorah's foot away went slack and limply flopped onto the pavement. Dead silence fell across the city as the military forces stopped in their tracks.

Tracking the psychic signature to a nearby location, King Ghidorah swung his head around and looked in the direction of a wet cry. Standing atop one of the last remaining buildings in the sector was a single figure, that same violet eyed female xilian from the memory. Controller 011 didn't look up at the looming Ghidorah, not averting eyes that had laid upon the limp Monster X with frozen, terrified and crying expression tattooed to her face. The xilian wasn't in good shape, have covered in bruises with three long slices across her face clotted her tears with blood. In truth, the monarch of the Xilian empire looked as banged up as their kaiju did to a curious degree; their wounds were virtually identical. Ghidorah was intrigued. Grinning across his fangs, King Ghidorah redirected his mental assault towards her, meeting little resistance. Controller 011 grabbed at her head and crumbled to her knees as King Ghidorah tore through memory after memory.

They were back in the spot of the last recollection, abet now from 011's perspective as the scientists and officers filed out of the room, leaving her to look blankly at the dark void ahead. A form walked up into the corner of vision. 011 didn't avert her attention away from the blackness, gazing at the distant lights in the mammoth chamber before her. This time the conversation was crystal clear.

"Don't try and stop me...", the woman, Controller 011 muttered.

"You do know others could volunteer, they'd do it willingly for you.", the Xilian man grunted.

"Only at a 13% success rate. The augmentations of a Controller boost it to 22%."

"Not good numbers either way."

"Numbers are what we are made of 094."

The perspective glanced over and the other half of the conversation, 094 came into view as they put their hand on 011's shoulder. The Xilian male was slightly taller than 011, near pitch black skin contrasting with ivory pale hair and his uniform.

"Going to futilely attempt to talk me out of it?"

"We both are aware I know you better than that."

"The world's ending and you just now start acting smart enough for research caste."

"Says the controller who's more stubborn than a rowdy recruit to soldier caste."

011 shrugged with a slight chuckle, before reaching up and placing her hand atop 094's. She squeezed it, intertwining their fingers. They stayed like that for a bit before she lifted his hand away and started towards the doorway. Just before she could step through however, 094's controlled, quiet voice slipped past her ear.

"Forgive me. I'm not letting you kill yourself."

There was a blur on the corner of 011's vision before she was limply placed on the ground, something hitting her on the back of the neck. Between faltering vision, the last thing she saw was 094 taking the serum and running into the chamber, closing the door behind him.

A series of stings digging into his foot ushered King Ghidorah back into reality. His opponent didn't seem dead quite yet. He looked down to see a still mobile and stubbornly refusing to cease Monster X trying in vain to free himself from under Ghidorah's foot, grabbing back on and pushing up. On cue, the rest of the city began to act out. Aircraft and hover tanks converged on Ghidorah, peppering him with everything from warheads to railguns to plasma fire as a refocused Controller 011 desperately threw her mental blocks at the dragon. Planet Xilian wasn't going to give up.

Grand King Ghidorah looked at the struggling kaiju before guiding a few of his heads over to 011, ignoring the explosions and assault weapons pinging off his body. Memory superimposed 094 over Monster X, the near identical color scheme being uncanny. He paid attention to Monster X, 094, and 011's reactions to each other. Ghidorah had ravaged enough worlds to know what emotions to recognize. He saw the two attempting to fight him off splitting mystery's veil with memory of what might have been their last conversation. The truth dawned on him.

He'd figured it out, and couldn't stop himself from bursting out laughing. An entire empire and the strongest thing they could throw against him was a married couple of a psychic witch and a cheap knock off who probably didn't even know how his powers worked yet? Pathetic.

Before he could choose between which he'd do first, crush in Monster X's chest or evaporate Controller 011; a movement to his right caught his eye. Glancing over with his right head, King Ghidorah spied a particularly large hover tank moving across a desolated street. It's energy cannon revved up to life and took aim. To the sound of clapping thunder the tank loosed a bus sized mortar shell of plasma, the shell arcing upwards in the air before sailing back down and towards the dragon's central head. Ghidorah smirked, snapping his head out of the way and subtly sending a cushion of gravitons to divert the blast's direction. It sailed slightly to the right and straight into the midsection of building the Controller was standing on before detonating. The skyscraper and its sole occupant were eclipsed in smoke and exploding debris in seconds.

King Ghidorah snickered as he noticed Monster X's line of sight, ensuring he'd seen it. On cue, the other kaiju screamed and started convulsing as burns and more cuts appeared on his body despite lacking a cause. Not wanting to pay this particular curiosity any heed, having lost patience with this planet, King Ghidorah put his weight into his foot to smother the Xilian's last defense. Only when he stomped down against what had been Monster X's weakening defense, he was stopped. Grand King Ghidorah looked down.

Monster X, despite looking like he'd been dragged through a planet and a half with all his injuries, was glaring back at him while forcing away his foot. Light ignited across his eyes and smooth graviton streams fired out and impacted King Ghidorah's torso. Sneering as he withstood the blow, Ghidorah attempted to overpowered Monster X's defense, putting more force into his heel. They struggled for several moments, X's streams only growing in might. For a second, X cut off the blast. But before King Ghidorah could ponder if he'd finally expended himself, the lights from the former's eyes grew between the Xilian kaiju's fangs.

A screaming roar ushered out a blast wave of golden gravitons, this time from Monster X's mouth at least twice as strong as the eye beams. A miniature explosion engulfed King Ghidorah's shrieking form and he was sent flying back, tumbling into a small mountain of debris.

Ghidorah was quick to rip himself free of the debris, refocusing on his foe. The glare was not mutual, for the black and white kaiju was sitting on his knees facing away from the dragon. It seemed to be holding something in its hands, to what however the King of Terror could not see. Not like he particularly cared, quickly spamming waves of graviton beams at his enemy. X made no attempt to dodge, too focused on whatever he was holding up to notice by the time the beams struck and tore into his back. Armor was splintered and blasted apart on impact, hundreds of tons worth of bony mass and blood raining down on the desolate streets below. Planet Xilian's champion made no attempt to move, only wincing from pain deeper in his chest.

After several long moments of punishment, something started to change. A dim aura built up around Monster X, cloaking his entire body in due time. The layer of energy grew by the second and soon took effect, one by one Ghidorah's graviton beams started failing to make contact and were being absorbed by the shield. Monster X, choking on his own spit and blood, cleared his lungs in a sudden rush of utterance, a primal scream mixed with an earth shaking roar. On cue, the shield intensified, a shockwave of energy blowing back into King Ghidorah and sending air and debris flying in all directions.

Monster X put something down and slowly turned around. King Ghidorah paused when he saw, for lack of better terms, the creature. Blood and drool dribbled from recurved fangs and curled lips, tear and blood stained eyes that once gleamed with intelligence were replaced with the glowing fires of a rabid beast that took a step forward. In numerous places his armor had been entirely blown off, but instead of the jet black skin previously visible on his limbs, dull golden scales started erupting from the epidermis. In many spots it looked almost like the muscle and skeleton were convulsing beneath the skin, the extra mass cracking his armor. He continued to slowly walk towards King Ghidorah, unfazed by the extent of his injuries or the graviton streams the latter was firing at him.

He got within a few hundred meters away before he started sprinting. Eyes wide with bewilderment, King Ghidorah beat his wings and kicked off, ascending rapidly into the sky. Unfettered, Monster X continued his charge, dropping down on all fours at ever increasing speed before pouncing up. As soon as his feet kicked off the ground, bloody black and gold wings ripped their way out of his back. Ignoring pain that would cripple others, Monster X shrieked as he caught up to and grabbed the flabbergasted Ghidorah.

Momentarily screeching from a barrage of wing lightning to the face, the smaller kaiju refused to let go once he got a hold of his foe, constricting his fingers around King Ghidorah's left neck and repeatedly bashing his fist and elbow into its snout. The first few hits barely registered, but when the milliseconds passed by and Ghidorah saw X cock back his arm for another swing; he witnessed the flesh below the skin tear itself apart before rebuilding mid-swing with significantly more bulk. The resounding crack that followed that hit was King Ghidorah's head crest being shattered and several dozen teeth being knocked out from the skull fracture. For the first time in hundreds of thousands of years, Grand King Ghidorah shrieked in agony.

Repulsively unloading his energy payload point blank in a massive explosion, King Ghidorah managed to force Monster X to let go of the neck his fingers now had in a chokehold. Curling his tails around the stunned kaiju's throat, the hydra tore the transgressor off him and flicked him down into the ground below. Monster X hit the ground hard enough to create a mushroom cloud, creating more destruction around him. The barrage of lightning and gravitons chasing him further eclipsed X within destruction.

Panting to calm his pulse from the expenditure, King Ghidorah landed thousands of meters away and cut off his assault. Nearly a minute passed before any wishes for success or mass pondering as to what just happened could be killed by a single sound heard around the planet, rattling it to its core. Shrieking out from the veil of dust, smoke, and fires; a ghidorah's roar spat hatred at the King of Terror. Waves of energy blew back the debris, tidal waves of moving air forcing the flaming wreckage aside; revealing a badly wounded, winged Monster X staggering to his hands and feet. Burns, blood, and bruises coated his entire body, though he bid it no attention. All focus was shooting a single look shot right through King Ghidorah, all thought absent in his crazed eyes. X shook, a crown of additional horns erupting from his cracking helmet and skin, blood dripping down his snout. The glare in his eyes intensified to the point it glowed with hellfire and shown through the darkness. The already smoke and dust choked sky began to darken further as the twin suns began to set. As the last glimpses of light died on the horizon, so too died Monster X, Praetorian 094. Something else was in the driver's seat, and it was stepping out.

The convulsions of flesh hit their zenith, 42,000 tons worth of additional muscle, bone, and tissue rapidly forming. A humanoid build twisted and churned, becoming ursine-like.

Energy signatures skyrocketed, a glowing aura birthing blast waves that tore the air asunder and lit up the night.

Claws grew larger, digging into a cracking chestplate to tear it off as what was once greaves and a helmet simply broke apart from the growing mass beneath them.

Two additional heads mounted on serpentine necks erupted from his shoulders, as the core head formed from X's own.

Wings grew and flapped amongst churning lightning, a demon of black and gold calling out a war cry that sounded of screaming, roars, and bloodthirsty laughter all at once.

Grand King Ghidorah flared his wings to their fullest, but couldn't stop himself from taking a half step back as the energy waves hit him. His own glowing aura of energy built upon itself to rival this new ghidorah, this new enemy. Looks like this pathetic rock actually was keen on giving him a challenge...

Spitting out some blood and casting a glare, his telepathy reached out to the laughing juggernaut.

-"What the hell are you?..."-

The behemoth paused his laughing, looking upon King Ghidorah with a predatory gaze and demented smiles strewn across his fanged maws.

Zeroviks has a humanized Lea trolling Junior epically!

-"You call yourself 'King'? Then I am Kaizer... You are no god, but I am the Devil."-

King Ghidorah grimaced, the glow across his body maximizing as gravitons poured from his maw and wings, compacting into a miniature sun that lit up the darkened sky and sent hurricane force winds in all directions. In a crackling roar, he launched his assault amongst a hail of wing lightning. Kaizer Ghidorah as he'd named himself returned the roar, kicking his paws off the ground and charging his foe. Beating his wings on each earthquake of a step, the stampeding kaiju focused his own energy into himself as he was about to hit the energy ball almost as big as he was. Digging his forepaw in at the last moment, he focused all his energy into his left arm and smacked the projection. Crackling energy poured out everywhere, windows being blasted apart for several blocks from just the impact shocks. While just touching King Ghidorah's wrath blew off several scales and seared his skin, Kaizer Ghidorah was laughing too much to show the pain. Injured but unhurt, his own raw power and brute strength shoving into the assaulting energy. Slowly but surely, he started pushing the growing sphere backwards.

With one final rush and a dumbstruck expression from King Ghidorah, Kaizer returned it to its sender. Not in the sense he returned fire or heaved it back at him. More in the sense he regained his forward momentum, shoved himself upwards on a tsunami of gravitons, and punched the energy sphere into King Ghidorah with his swing. Unsated with the resulting explosion burning his arm and blasting off most of King Ghidorah's torso epidermis, Kaizer roared and rung his arm around to lariat King into the ground. The loud crunching sound following the impact was King Ghidorah's left wing being ripped out of its socket.

Drunk off the berserk, Kaizer Ghidorah reared up on his hindlegs and jumped up before King Ghidorah could unbury himself from the sea of rubble he was caked in; and came down paws first. 100,000 tons of enraged kaiju crashed into King Ghidorah's already bruised and charred chest and stomach in a grim parody of what the King of Terror had done to Monster X. The first time the King of Terror could feel his chest begin to pack in. The third time the rampant abomination smashed into him, the deafening crack and torrents of pain told him most of his ribcage had just been shattered.

He'd had worse. Didn't stop him from shrieking in pain all the same however.

Ichors and desperate energy flew free of King Ghidorah's maws, striking Kaizer in the face as he rose back up against him. The ensuing explosion and blast radius leveled the nearby buildings with the blast waves alone, the full attack itself forcing Kaizer back as gargantuan malice forced King Ghidorah up. His body was being broken and pushed to its limit, but overwhelming pride and ever growing loathing caused him to charge at the stunned Kaizer, commanding his three jaws to bite down on the offender's necks to try and tear his throats out. He was the King of Terror, the ravager of a hundred thousand worlds. He would not be beaten by an abomination born out of this gray rock.

Kaizer Ghidorah swung his arms inward and smashed them against either side of King Ghidorah's torso; grabbing hold of him and ripping himself free. Refined hatred and sheer malice burned in his eyes as golden energy churned in his grinning jaws. The kaiser roared in the king's face and fired. Unable to dodge or form a shield, all King Ghidorah could try to do was return fire. Dueling glows gave birth to dueling beams, the two having been too close together for a struggle. Instead a glowing sun formed at the apex, drawing in its fuel's power before detonating point blank.

The explosion forced them apart and King Ghidorah rocketed towards the ground with his entire front half smoking. Redirecting air and gravity's flow beneath him, he had just enough control to slow his fall and look up in time to see a laughing Kaizer Ghidorah plow into him.

================

Five Minutes Later

Grand King Ghidorah wasn't losing a fight. A fight implies both sides are fairly even. He was being beaten to a bloody pulp. Supporting himself on a stream of gravitons and broken wings, King Ghidorah pitched himself up as an oncoming Kaizer Ghidorah came barreling at him. Swinging out with as much force as he could, stubbornly biting back the agony in either leg as he slammed his full weight and force into a forward double kick. The blow and resulting cracked ribs hardly even slowed the quadropedal demon down. Kaizer Ghidorah cackled into the night as he bulldozed through the attack, grabbing a hold of King Ghidorah's central head in his paw. Pounding his wings to propel himself along as he acquainted his foe's face with the earth below, Kaizer Ghidorah flew across the ruined landscape whilst grinding King Ghidorah's face and body across the ground deep enough to dig a trench. Energy crackling along his fangs, Kaizer Ghidorah let go off Grand King Ghidorah and fired. Torrents of graviton beams coiled around the half buried ghidorah, shocking and constricting him all the while. Pitching his heads up, Kaizer redirected the streams up and over before cutting them off, dragging the screeching King Ghidorah through several ruins before tossing him into the air. A dazed and still sparking King Ghidorah crashed to the ground in a heap. Kaizer Ghidorah strode forward towards him.

The Berserk Abomination too was riddled with injuries, burns, cuts, broken bones; and was bleeding with every step. Only difference was the unyielding rage fueling him didn't allow any of it to register. He was being wounded, but he wasn't being hurt. He just clothslined and dragged King Ghidorah with an arm broken in several places, practically laughing all the way. Not that it mattered. As long as King Ghidorah felt even more agony than he did, the grin on the crazed behemoth's face that had been burned into his foe's consciousness at this point, never faded.

And there was another reason Kaizer was in better shape, as he halted his advance and grabbed the thoroughly pulverized King Ghidorah by the base of his neck. Kaizer held up his enemy and stopped laughing, a piercing glare ripping across his eyes as he lunged forward. With a firm bite to the golden dragon's throats and wings, Kaizer gained a firm hold. King Ghidorah shook off his daze, thrashing and shrieking, reflexively firing out triple graviton streams into the sky as his wing lightning tore into Kaizer Ghidorah's back. But the dragon of black and gold refused to let go, tiny tendrils of blue and green energy began to be siphoned off of the struggling King and into the feeding Kaizer. Several of Kaizer Ghidorah's wounds began to close up even under King's assault as the energy vampirism did its work. Second by second, he drained away not only the sources of the hydra's more fantastical powers; but even the fields of power that motorized his cells; literally devouring his life force. King Ghidorah's thrashing and beams weakened as more and more of his power was stolen. After almost half a minute, the draining ceased and King Ghidorah fell limp.

Kaizer Ghidorah tossed his practically comatose enemy to the ground, planting a paw on King's torso as he bent his necks down. He grasped the still King Ghidorah's left neck, one set of jaws on the base, the other two on the middle and upper end of the throat. He started pulling in toward different direction, only hoping the half dead king wasn't deceased enough yet to not feel the pain.

=========

Zenith

Grand King Ghidorah sat upon his throne, having fallen silent and stoic. He closed his eyes for a time, motionless as a statue and lively as a corpse. Irys tilted her head slightly, before noticing something in the dim light. A master of manipulating all gravity, King Ghidorah started pulling up a ring of his scales going across his neck to reveal the skin underneath. It was only then the gyaos noticed a small, practically invisible detail. There was a line of imperfections on King Ghidorah's left neck, where the scale pattern was slightly irregular. When he pulled up his scales and scutes, she could see why.

Swimming beneath the gold was a jagged, hideous scar that stretched all around King Ghidorah's neck and throat like a collar. The golden dragon's voice returned to the world, noticeably quieter than it had been before.

"The humans got part of the hydra myth wrong, two don't grow back in one's place. Tis an odd experience to suddenly lose a third of one's senses and vision."

Megalon might have machinery attached to his stomach and Gigan didn't even have one anymore, but both of them started to feel a tad sick. Irys found herself sinking more towards the floor as the implications hit her one after another. Gigan had been right about what he'd told her, possibly more than even he knew at the time. That, thing, their friend had turned into, and was changing into again... It wasn't their friend. She was getting some ugly dejavu from her old flock.

Casting her breath, Irys looked up to the frozen Ghidorah, trying to keep her voice from shaking.

"H-ow did you escape?..."

King Ghidorah slowly opened his eyes in the frigid Zenith air. A tiny smile eased its way onto the corners of his mouth.

"There lies the interesting part..."

==============

Planet Xilian

Kaizer spat his blood token aside, golden ichors pouring out into the streets and swelling around his feet. Grand King Ghidorah, after nearly passing out from the neural shock, shifted. Several breaths passed before he managed to slowly open his eyes in the dust choked xilian air, half wondering how he was still alive.

His vision came and went every few seconds, hearing phasing in and out every time the blackout came. Down the street, numerous xilian military vehicles moved forward. Through his fuzzy sight, King Ghidorah could just barely make out one soldier in a unique long coat crawling out of a hatch, the being soon standing atop a large, tank-like hovercraft. By some device, he managed to speak loud enough to be heard.

"Praetorian Guard 0-094, this is your commanding officer Field Marshal 973. Monster 0 a.k.a K-King Ghidorah neutralized. The mission... is ... com-plete-"

There was something hesitant in the xilian's voice, pinpricks of what sounded like remorse clogged by fear was causing the otherwise authoritative command to stammer. Shifting his gaze upwards and waiting for the blackness to pass, King Ghidorah got a good idea as to why. Kaizer Ghidorah, golden blood still dripping from his maws, had taken his full attention away from the other kaiju and was instead looking blankly at the marshal. Kaizer's eyes narrowed and his lips began to curl back as he became transfixed on the plasma mortar the marshal had been piloting.

"W-we're searching for Controller 011 as we speak. Return to base 13 and we'll-!!!"

A roaring leviathan cut him off, Kaizer silencing the whole of the city. Equal in strength to the physical bellow was the telepathic shout King Ghidorah didn't even need to focus to pick up.

============================================================================================

“Turns out, he and I were alike in more ways than just him being a knock off. With an unstable mind, power tends to make the uninitiated behave… erratically.”

-"Killed... her.. you ALL killed her! IT'S YOUR FAULT"-

Golden lights erupted from Kaizer Ghidorah's maw and half a second later, Field Marshal 973, half of his column, and several hundred feet of street and earth below them ceased to exist past the following torrent of energy. Screaming through his attack as the military fruitlessly opened fire, Kaizer Ghidorah stomped off of King Ghidorah and down the street, chasing and smashing every hover-tank and shooting every aircraft out of the sky.

It was at that point King Ghidorah blacked out, both from blood loss and Kaizer kicking him in the face as he ran over him. It was likely half an hour later when he came to again. King Ghidorah resumed to a realm unlike the one he left. The capital, the crown jewel of the Xilian Empire had been virtually leveled. Burning husks of buildings lit across the cityscape, burning funeral pyres to the dead and dying. Hellish cackles rang out from across the desolated hollows, heralding Kaizer Ghidorah’s continuous rampage as he chased the remaining military across the capital like a cat upon mice. The once vast defense column had been reduced to a mere half dozen vehicles that weren’t fighting as much as they were fleeing for their lives from a monster willing to rip its way through several blocks worth of skyscrapers just to get at them. Kaizer Ghidorah laughed a maniac's laugh as he flew down main street after an aircraft, his wings gutting several buildings as he passed.

King Ghidorah staggered to his feet, every twitch caused an avalanche of pain to shoot through a body with more bones broken than intact. As much as he hated himself for the thought and emotion, the King of Terror was terrified and had to get away; his pride being about as intact as his left head. Spotting the demon moving away from him, King Ghidorah built up as much energy as he could across shattered wings to get himself off the ground. His ascent up was more of an upwards limp than a powered flight, but was thankfully silent.

Or at least it was silent until he was a few hundred meters up and a drop of blood hit the ground.

Canceling out the graviton torrent he’d been spewing out to eviscerate the aircraft, Kaizer Ghidorah’s nose flared and he whirled around on his footing. Upon seeing the golden form fleeing across the sky, Kaizer’s blood red eyes widened. Wayward energy built up around the hybrid, gravitons crushing the mountains of rubble to dust before blowing it back. He just realized he’d failed. A mistake that he wouldn’t permit to last.

Black wings shot out and flapped as Kaizer kicked off the ground. Flying up at full speed, the oncoming freight train of raw power and hatred tore free a primal scream as he rapidly gained on King Ghidorah. Unable to sacrifice any of his power for an attack, or risk losing all of his lift, King Ghidorah was unable to do anything else other than try to move faster than the monstrosity that was flying up at least three times quicker than he was. Kaizer Ghidorah, beating his wings and running on the air, let drool flow free from his gnashing fangs, fanaticizing about seeing just how many brains he’d need to disconnect to be finished.

Breaking through the fringes of the middle atmosphere, King Ghidorah did his best to brace himself as Kaizer flew up to him.

And then Kaizer Ghidorah stopped. Frozen at an altitude, he was an inch away from reaching his prey. The hybrid levitated on a curtain of gravitons before rapidly thrashing in a mix of pain and frustration. Roars turned to screams as the former overpowered the latter. Kaizer Ghidorah grabbing as his central head frantically. Dumbstruck, King Ghidorah slowly levitated up as Kaizer began to sink. Even from the distance he knew what was happening. He’d done it to mortals before to kill boredom. A psychic attack, someone was launching a massive mental shock to the abomination's psyche. Running drool turned to blood and a large cut opened up on Kaizer’s torso. The mental shock became too great even for the leviathan, causing Kaizer Ghidorah to lose his altitude and fall to the ground as King Ghidorah stole what may be his only chance and left the atmosphere. He would never again return to this solar system.

=======

Zenith

"And that whelps, concludes our tale. Now, get out. I find your presence annoying."

Ghidorah spoke with a sneer. One by one, the trio looked to one another and limped back to their feet. Staying close together for safety, they silently started out of the chamber and back towards their hollow, regretfully wiser. The taunting voice of the dragon followed them out.

"Oh, and now that you are aware, I bid you this question."

Irys, Gigan, and Megalon froze up; tensing up outside the gateway to Grand King Ghidorah's realm to make ready. Even when away from him, the hydra's aura of atavistic fear was still strong and urging them to leave.

"Now that you know, what will you tell your ally once he returns?... Will you tell him what he had forgotten? What he did? Why the race he loyally served is terrified of him? Who he used to be and what he was tied too? Or will ignorance and his strive to find out be a more, merciful torment?"

King Ghidorah muttered in a low voice. Toothy smiles stretched across his triple maws as his tails lashed behind him. The trio cast glances to one another out of the corners of their eyes before they continued on, King Ghidorah's mocking cackle trailing their heels as they limped home. They walked in silence for nearly an hour before returning to their chamber, Irys weakly flapping her wings to roost on a low portion of the ceiling as Megalon dug himself a shallow burrow. Gigan stood motionless just barely in the doorway, his visor's glow dimming.

Irys sighed, wrapping her wings around herself to try and grant some measure of comfort.
"... Can we even tell X when he gets back? If he remembers, he just might turn into Kaizer again like he did before."

Megalon's usually perky voice was noticeably sullen when it echoed out of the hole in the floor.
"And his bargain with Boss Ball was to give him his memories back... So, it'll all happen eventually... We could, tell him to not too? Maybe?"

"But that would give away that we know something. If we don't tell him, how would he react to us withholding the one thing he wants?"

Sparking silenced both of them, Gigan still standing motionless in the dim illuminated doorway. He pitched his head up back to level before raising his arm up. With a twist of his wrist and snap of his nearly dislocated shoulder, the cyborg cleanly sliced through a broad portion of the wall in a spat of frustration. Ignoring his own outburst, Gigan moved inside and sat against the wall. The other two kaiju in attendance didn't react, not needing words for the explanation. Monster X was a ticking time bomb. One day, be it by some freak recollection or betrayal from a friend, he'd find out what happened. When that day came, their friend was going to die... and barring a miracle, there was nothing they could do to stop it.

Grand King Ghidorah might have called off a fight he'd have lost, but the harbinger of misery still won in the end.

============================

Forest, Equestrian Human Realm

Adagio Dazzle slung her last bag off her shoulder and into the van. The eldest siren gave their luggage a once over, running through her mental checklist to ensure they had everything. When Aria barged back into the house with a banged up shoulder and a half hysterical mind, they had the accord to bring her to the hospital. The situation was disturbing enough before she was told of the 'monsters' in the woods, having believed up until now this world had none. None of it was an ideal situation. Some whacko in a mask knew what they were, was immune to their control, and was after them. Until now she wasn't fully convinced something was amiss, however elaborate her cousin and her sister's story was. She didn't need much convincing after a second incident and a typically calm Aria nearly having a breakdown from post traumatic fright once the dust cleared.

They weren't strong enough. There was magic in this town, that was for sure. But they didn't know for sure who or what was the source. Until they did and got their hands on it, they were vulnerable. And with an attack so close to home, no point in staying.

-Silver lining? We charmed the salesman for the insurance. Let's hope we can keep this one...-

Her phone started bleeping, the alarm clock she'd set going off. Drawing it out to peek at the time and turn the annoyance off, Adagio closed the side door and made for the driver's seat.

-Noon, time to pick Aria up.-

"Sonata, come on!"

The siren in question was leaning against their small porch, looking blankly out into the woods before hopping up and following Adagio over to the passenger door. Attentive, Adagio didn't need to ask to figure out what was on her sister's mind. A wayward glance at the dense wood would make one half expect something to walk out from behind a snowcapped tree. Sometimes the most peaceful settings could look the most threatening.

===================================

White frosted glaze atop the frozen river shattered on a spiked fist's impact, its own breaking off more of the solid surface to open a hole to haul itself out of the river. Enjin stoically climbed out of the freezing water and trudged onto shore. Birds flew out of the trees in panicked chirps and beasts of the ground took off into their burrows or through the shrubs to break for cover, all fleeing based off overpowering instinct to keep away from this newcomer. Not noting any of it, the Aspect of Land started its controlled, brisk pace through the forest. Even from miles away and beneath the frozen river it was able to home in on its target, and now it was closer than ever. Helped that the nearest kaiser energy signature curiously wasn't moving. Moving through the old growth, it didn't take long for the dead forest to give way to snowcapped civilization when Enjin started reaching the urban realm. The signal he trailed was strong now, it was very close. Crossing into the fringes of town, Enjin trod towards a large complex of buildings with a red plus sign mounted upon its emblem. He homed in on one of the smaller buildings on the fringes of the compound.

Approaching the rear of the complex towards an access door, Enjin silently moved up towards the lone worker operating a maintenance panel. Poor fool didn't see what was coming until he was grabbed and tossed at parked ambulance with enough force to dent it. Ignoring the loud cracking sound, Enjin moved over towards the door and forced it open.

===================================

A black gloved hand sluggishly braced itself against a tree trunk, pushing off to roll its owner onto his back. The damp snow helped Monster X to force himself back into full consciousness faster. He sat himself up before a stinging ache on his stomach and chest caused him to flinch. X looked down as his vision cleared, immediately noticing two things. Firstly the lack of claws, inability to feel his tails, and the fact he was wearing clothes again told him he was somehow back in this form. Secondly, his white shirt was dotted with blood stains and a few holes. Checking himself over, scabs and bruises beneath his shirt confirmed he'd been stabbed more than a couple times with the wounds only recently having closed up. Groaning, Monster X managed to stagger to his feet and start walking.

While he didn't have a regeneration ability, he'd figured out long ago he tended to heal a bit quicker than normal beings. Inspecting a former puncture wound on his stomach and assuming some portion of his normal traits carried over, he'd estimate it been about seven hours since the incident. Now was just the matter of how he got here again and how he'd been injured. Swallowing back the soreness, he looked around whilst wandering; hoping he'd find something to jog his memory.

The last clear memory he had was walking back to his team's chamber. Everything else was a swirling blur. From the little he could see, it was less memories and more a brief series of still images that came with each step. The all too familiar visage of King Ghidorah and being in the master's throne room were the only vivid images.

Mulling over those two, Monster X retraced the faded footprints he saw in the snow up to a hollowed tree. As if pulled by a tiny string, he reached out and touched the aged bark where it seemed to have been torn open. His reward was another flash of memory. It was dark and someone he recognized was inside the trunk. Through the haze he could make out a terrified.. what was that purple witch's name again? Aria? Yes, Aria backed up inside the hollow looking out at him, or at least his direction. As he stepped away from the tree, he got another image blotting out his memory. Some, thing, he'd never seen before. He could only recall one blurry shot of it, the subject in question resembling a man entirely clad in dark hues with a white and red mask of some sort; apparently while throwing a punch.

-It seemed to be attacking, was that what stabbed me?-

He looked around his surroundings and managed to start walking further through the still forest. Scattered about were recently snapped branches, trampled shrubs, and clear disturbances in the snow. There definitely had been a confrontation here. Leaning back on a tree trunk to calm his pulse, Monster X did his best to comb over the big blank space he had on his recent memory.

-Alright... I was in the master's chamber at some point, and I'm in the human realm again. Maybe I was deployed? Another expedition perhaps? Maybe he's aware of the sirens and sent me here to make due on my shortcoming?-

Monster X shrugged, concluding that was the most likely and moving on; now focusing on his opponent and the throbbing headache he felt coming on.

-What was that thing?-

From just the brief still he could remember, everything just seemed off about his attacker. The way it looked, its posture, its lack of skin. It didn't look human. Judging from how torn up parts of the forest seemed, it had to have been one potent brawl he'd gotten himself into. And it seemed to happen in the same area as and right after he'd apparently encountered Aria again. Speaking of the area, a dark vibe seemed to be trickling up his feet just from standing there. Crouching down, X put his hand to what appeared to be a large foot print and instantly felt the numbing bite of faint, residual energy. He grumbled, rising back up.

-I've only felt energy like that in two places on this world. The sirens, or another kaiju. If it was here and so was at least one siren, hmmmm...-

X looked out into the forest, both putting together the puzzle in his mind as well as making sure the nearby sea of tree trunks wasn't hiding an enemy. The xilian kaiju's eyes narrowed despite the later being untrue.

-I have a challenge, or at least an obstacle. Blow to the head during the fight might explain the memory issues.-

The headache started to act up again, but X stubbornly tried to keep his mind focused on his new foe.

-Perhaps it's why I was sent here? Maybe it is competition and the master wanted it dead? Maybe it's an ally of the sirens? It will have to wait until I find them again...-

The throbbing pain in his head spiked momentarily, forcing X to grunt and reach for his head to rub his temple. Only when he reached up, he could feel it; and mentally kicked himself for not noticing yet. His skin, he could feel his skin. No helmet, no mask, no scarf, just his skin. Monster X's pulse spiked slightly as he began looking around for his articles, his face. Ignoring the cold, he stayed as calm as he could and paced through the forest to try and find what was lost. The wind suddenly shifted, a gentle gale forcing Monster X to shield his naked eyes and turn his head to the right. By Tanaka's luck, the motion caused him to notice a length of black sticking out of the pale frost beside a snowbank. Stepping back through old footprints, Monster X trudged over and pulled his scarf and mask out of the snow. He sighed in mild relief and started to fit them back on.

He'd just gotten the scarf around his neck when a shimmering in his eye forced a squint. A half step away from and hidden behind the embankment was a small pond, the sun casting a gleam from its reflective top. Of all the things in the world that could give a kaiju pause, few would suspect this would be one. Bluntly put, as soon as his vision adjusted Monster X was frozen. He was so close to the pond, that if he looked down he'd probably see his own reflection. It would be a human's visage granted, but it would be without any of his covers. No gear he came through a portal with or a fused bone helmet the gear spurred from. It would be him with no face. The idea both wrenched at his craving curiosity and tugged at the fearful unknown. On some level he both wanted to know and was repulsed about knowing, pulse alternating between racing and chilled.

Monster X leaned over and looked down, before quickly reeling himself back and putting his stuff on just after the corner of his vision grazed the pond's surface. It took a lot of mental strife to force all the past thoughts out of his mind. Taking in a deep gale of winter air, Monster X chilled his mind and nerves; focusing his vision ahead enough that it could cut through steel.

-You have a job to do X, no detours. Time to get your bearings.-

Pacing off into the woods, Monster X tried to steer himself towards any sign of civilization. While his last apparent run in with either party was in this forest, likely not far from where he woke up, the sirens seemed the type to seek out population centers to use their magic. And, ally or enemy, this new player in town might follow them to such a place. He'd been walking for several minutes when the wind suddenly gusted in a random direction like before. Stumbling for a moment, Monster X opted to walk in the direction of the gales as oppose to perpendicular or against them. He seemed to be having good luck with the wind today, as it pushed him to a patch of woods with a road clearing dead ahead. Stepping up to the paved path, the faint yet exhilarating traces of magical aura lit up his energy tracking sense. Someone with a good amount of power had come this way, likely multiple times over the past few hours. Looking up and down the road and noting the lines lacking snow going up and down the lanes, Monster X looked either way down the path, only to see more forest around either bend.

Someone, likely one or more of the sirens, have driven through her recently going either way. Now it was just the matter of trying to pick which way was used last. The winds shifted, chilled blasts moving down the road towards the south. Monster X shielded his eyes from the winter blast, but soon as it came it left. At the end of the gale, a tiny whisper moved across the winds. There was a subtle chiming tune to the feminine voice, despite the urgent tone

-"They went that way, hurry!"-

-Who said that?!-

X snapped around and onto his toes to make ready, trying to spot who it was. But with the dying wind, there was nothing else there but the forest. After finding for sure he was alone, Monster X grumbled and started down the road. A memory he actually had intact recalled the voice from days earlier, when it stopped him from killing that guard. More questions pilled in that he didn't care to think about. He was really starting to get tired of folks talking to him in his head. Refocusing on the mission at hand, Monster X shrugged off the cold fatigue and jogged down the road, hoping he was going in the right direction.

===================================

Aria Blaze sat up in her bed, feeling all weight begin to cease. Strands of her long hair, unrestrained due to lack of her ties, levitated up on their own as if afloat underwater. Feeling herself being pulled up slightly, Aria looked around and no longer saw her much maligned hospital room surrounding her. Sanitized white and blue was rapidly crumbling away to a dark void. As the urban faltered, stars began to ignite all around her. In a second's life, she was floating in a spacial realm. Floating out of her bed, a glow on the fringe of her vision caught her attention. Somehow her heart had dislodged itself from its necklace and levitated before her. Her eyes widened and she reached for it. But soon as her arm came into view, her hand did not. Instead, a magenta hued hoof with a fin-like fetlock tapped the edge of the gemstone.

Reeling her limb back, Aria felt her breath depart when she looked down, no more did she see anything resembling a human body on her form. A brief look in her reflection cast in the gem confirmed it when a hippocampus looked back at her on the shining stone's face. An uncharacteristic smile crossed her face as she held up her tail, fanning its flipper as a gleeful giggle slipped out. The usual sourpuss didn't mind it, she was back after all.

Before she could test to see if she could still do some controlled flight like this, a beam of light shot across the space below her. The panel of the illuminated solidified, forming a glassy walkway. The siren looked around in mild confusion, but her attention was stolen away by her heart. The gemstone grew in size and shape, becoming roughly the scale of a bathroom mirror. A breeze of warm wind blew across the starry veil, carrying an echo of a gentle voice.

"You, your family, and the world around you are in grave danger..."

Aria looked about to and fro, unable to pin down who was talking. The voice spoke again in a chime, this time from beside her as if it was circling the siren.

"You have taken in part of a great power."

The surface of the gem lit with a dim glow, displaying a familiar outline. One of a monster shaped like a man, red eyes glowing in unison to the stones embedded upon his bracers and choker. Red smoke swirled out of the figure as a tall shadow formed behind it. The shadow stretched across the gem, three serpents and a pair of broad wings fanning as the gem absorbed the smoke.

"In doing so, you've made yourself a target."

The image shifted, the monster turning into a demon with a red and white mask. Archaic armor stretched across a torso and arms that only vaguely resembled a human. Wisps of shadows seeped out from where skin was supposed to be. Even just looking at it seemed to make the temperature drop. Black cavities in place of eyes seemed to stare right through her. The monstrosity started to walk towards her, causing Aria to unconsciously back away.

"The world in which you dwell is unprepared. There is only one chance. You must work together with-"

The voice stopped. Stumbling over the chance to demand to know who was talking, Aria could only retort.

"With? With who?!"

She snapped, floating around to try and find who was addressing her. The calmness in the voice was gone when it spoke again.

"Oh no... it's already there!"

Aria's gemstone shrunk back to normal size and rapidly levitated back onto her chest. There was a bright glow on the walkway.

"You need to wake up right now! Help will come in 5 minutes, just persist!"

Aria looked over and caught a glimpse of a tall form with a pronged horn.

"Wh- wake up?! Who are y-"

In an instant the starry veil on her dream lifted and Aria snapped back into conscious, lurching up in her hospital bed. Heart pounding and breath racing, the siren's vision blurred from the sudden jolt; causing her to stop and rub her eyes. Her mind in a swirl, she could barely hear the sound of the orderly speaking.

"Ah good you're up. X-rays checked out and your shoulder is fine, just a bit of muscle bruising. Your family just checked in at the front to pick you u-!"

There was a gasping sound followed by a slick crack. Aria's pulse ceased and there was a heavy flop on the floor. Vision refocusing, she looked up and at her doorway. A pair of legs laying on the floor stuck out from behind a curtain, a large form standing over it. Not a human, but a walking shadow. An unmoving, white and black mask looked up from its latest kill and at its next one. The siren's gemstone pulsed and lit with a building, red glow. Enjin started to advance forward.

-Kaiser energy, detected-

=============

Reader Works!

Because talent demands display~

By Pyrus-Leonidas

(If I missed any body, give me a memo! No offense but there's kinda a lot of you ^^; )

Author's Note

Artwork by Faith-Wolff
Proof Reading by Skylark and Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Set off the alarms and batten down your limbs because its hell's hospital!
Elsewhere, it's been several days and Xenilla still hasn't left his quarters. A certain guardsmare starts to get curious.
And a peculiar letter comes to Appleloosa with a royal seal.

Chapter 25: Shadows

==========================

Hospital Non-Emergency Ward

Enjin stepped over the dead orderly, a stoic, masked facade staring at Aria Blaze as it approached. The shadowy mass comprising its body peeled back slightly from where a sternum would be, revealing a growing light. The eerie glow swelled, Enjin's chest opening up like a mass of tentacles. One tendril lashed out, snapping around Aria's wrist and jolting the siren out of her petrified state. Aria grabbed onto the bed rails and kicked out to try and gain a purchase, attempting to fight the biting cold that was starting to draw her into itself. Her necklace, almost as if aware of the danger, started blinking rapidly at the monstrosity's approach. Enjin closed in for the draining.

A surge of power tore out of Aria's necklace, a golden-hued brilliance briefly shooting across the necklace and into its host. All around her gravity altered, causing her hair to briefly flow as if in a breeze. Enjin tilted its head at the peculiarity that Aria still hadn't noticed. The power surge hit its peak when the panicked siren screamed. A blast wave of energy blasted outwards with her shout crashing wave, breaking off Enjin's hold over her and sending the aspect rocketing back and through a wall. Dislodged drywall and wood chips scattered across the floor, the glow around the siren rapidly dying down as she looked at her necklace with a flabbergasted face.

Down the hall Adagio Dazzle and Sonata Dusk waited inside the elevator after the doors closed on its way up. Ignoring the ungodly generic elevator music, the duo busied themselves impatiently checking the time and humming a tune respectively while their ride started on its way up. The small chamber had just chimed out its first ding, signaling they had just passed the first floor when outside noises began to filter in. Adagio warily looked around, snapping back at Sonata.

"SSSH!.. You hear that?"

The racket grew in clarity and magnitude over the annoyingly calm elevator music. Voices, lots and lots of voices all sounding off at once. All screaming at once. There was a virtual chorus of shouting and yells filtering in front of and soon to the left side of the elevator, growing in pitch as the vehicle reached the second floor, the non-emergency ward. Adagio bit her tongue and took a breath in as she faced the opening doors, Sonata nervously pulling up beside and behind her. The doors opened just in time for the duo to see everyone in the ward, staff and the recovering alike, rushing past them to file down the stairs and access ramp like a fire alarm had just been pulled. A flash of purple behind the departing mob caused both to rush out of the elevator.

Aria grunted after being thrown against the central desk, skidding across its surface and hitting the back wall. Shaking her head clear of any blurriness, her eyes quickly caught sight of the stairwell door just as the last person rushed out it. The siren rolled to get her feet under her, only to have her view of an escape blocked by chilled air and solid shadow. Enjin grabbed hold of the edge of the desk, hauling itself over the obstacle to get at its prey. It reached out towards her, small tendrils of shadow beginning to emerge from his form, only for Aria to lash out and try to plant her foot inside Enjin's skull. Briefly jostled by several kicks the head, Enjin retracted the tendrils back and cocked a spiked fist into place.

Aria grimaced and threw herself to the side, just barely ducking away from the haymaker that tore out part of the wall. Enjin gripped the desk with its free hand, its inhumanely strong fingers crushing down into the wood as it pried it off the ground to clear it out of its way. It had just managed to when a metal rack meant to hold an IV smacked into the back of its head. Enjin whirled around just as Sonata brought the impromptu weapon up again. Despite nailing it directly between the legs hard enough to snap the joints of the racks off, success didn't arrive for the blue siren. Enjin hardly even budged upon getting struck, looking down at the siren through an eyeless mask. Sonata's eyes widened slightly and she clenched her jaw.

-... Well phooey that worked last time...-

-No kaiser energy detected, refocus on prey-

Enjin grabbed the pipe, lifting it and Sonata up and away. Sonata's face fell as she soon found herself dangling a foot off the ground.

"Oh fffffffu-"

Was all she managed to get out before Enjin snapped its shoulder and tossed her across the room screaming. She likely would have hit a wall headfirst had a sprinting Adagio not intercepted her. Still, the kinetic energy was enough to send both sirens skidding several meters across the hall. Adagio gritted her teeth, shrugging off her jolted nerves and putting a hand on her spinning head upon sitting up.

"Urg! Stop swinging and start singing. Back me up!"

She snapped, pushing herself and Sonata to their feet. Enjin meanwhile had dropped the pole and loomed back around. Aria had risen to her feet and backed up against the wall as Enjin approached, clutching her siren heart in one hand and the dropped pipe in the other. She frantically rattled and clung to her necklace, desperately trying to repeat the energy surge that saved her life several minutes prior. But no matter how much Aria mentally demanded, swore, and begged amongst her yelling; no power came. She was just about to do the inverse of Adagio's recommendations when a soft melody flooded the air.

"Haaa aaahhaahh.. haayaaah haaa haaaa~"

A glow down the hall ushered Enjin to turn back around and track the growing power source, locking on to Adagio and Sonata as they sang, about to warm up into lyrics. Enjin homed in on their necklaces as a melody that could command a small horde of humans flew past and through it. It was so focused on studying the pair that it didn't notice the tiny energy spike behind it. Aria knew the tune and was about to join in when Enjin off handedly backhanded her as she swung the pipe, knocking her to the ground in a slump.

Adagio and Sonata meanwhile increased their volume after noticing Enjin not throwing itself out the window like they were commanding it to. Adagio glared, remembering Sonata's words about how peculiar Sonata felt upon trying to control her attacker from days past, but refusing to follow her into failure. But try as she may at directing her magic, even with her sister backing her up, it felt like trying to shackle smoke. Their eyes began to widen as the tendrils covering Enjin's torso uncurled and began to reach out, the glowing heart of the demon pulsing in tune with their necklaces. It had come for the kaiser energy, but seeing as the local signature was unconscious, Enjin was a generalist predator.

Aria Blaze lay still on the floor, leaning back against a wall with her head hung low. Blood dripped from her forehead and onto her slowly pulsing necklace. The crimson ichor filtered into the heart, which began to pulse more rapidly for a few moments before going out. Small arches of gold hued energy crackled within it and jumped out into its host's core. Aria's body stopped bleeding and the heart began to grow tinges of gold on its edges. For a brief moment her irises bled red hues.

The Aspect just started advancing upon the duo as their song began to falter when a new energy spike tore its attention away. The kaiser energy source was strong again, and it was coming up right behind it. A strong-

"HIIYAAH!"

-rang out over the dying song and pointed metal speared through Enjin's shoulder. The enraged revenant silently thrashed, forcing the revived Aria to hang on for dear life. She grunted, twisting at the pipe with unnatural strength despite attempts to dislodge her, shouting to her family.

"Argk! Trust me it doesn't work on these things! Do something else! Anything!"

Her cousins took her advice, lips falling silent and eyes darting across the ward. Sure enough, Adagio spotted something promising and rushed over it, grabbing Sonata along the way.

"Help me with this slowpoke!"

Aria Blaze meanwhile gritted her teeth and shifted her hold when Enjin slammed itself back first into a set of dry wall in an attempt to either rip her off or crush her, not seeming to care that it hit the pipe, impaling it hard enough to drive the metal all the way through. Now half covered in powdered drywall and more than a few splinters, she could only hang on through the pain when Enjin started bucking and snapping around in frustration. It stumbled away from the wall, reaching back with its unimpeded arm and voraciously grabbing at the siren so much it would have been twisting out its own shoulder if it were human. Enjin thrashed and clawed at the air to try and grab her, the siren starting to lose her grip when Sonata's voice chimed in.

"Ari'! Hop off!"

Still having half the wind knocked out of her from getting shoved into the wall, Aria did so as Enjin thrashed, jumping off just as Adagio and Sonata threw two pads with peeled back wiring over the pipe. Adagio cranked up the defibrillator's dials to their maximum and mashed at the controls. Enjin wasn't able to rip the wiring or pipe out of itself before thousands of volts coursed through the metal conductor and into it. The Aspect spasmed and sparked, barely able to keep its footing through the convulsions. Aria shook her head to stop the spinning, Adagio and Sonata sprinting over to pick her up. Slinging their half delirious member's arms around their shoulders, the duo was quick to run away from their attacker and back to the elevator.

Amongst the chaos, the electronic doors had closed. Setting Aria on Sonata, Adagio frantically bashed at the “Down” button, practically punching it. The moment she looked up was the moment she mentally swore. The elevator wasn't on their floor and was taking its sweet time getting up to them. The three stole a glance back at the struggling Enjin, who at this point was powering through the shocks to get to the machine electrocuting it. It wasn't going to be held off for long.

Sonata quickly yanked on Aria and Adagio, motioning for the stairwell.

"No time! Stairs! Now!"

She shouted, letting go and reaching for the door handle. Had the blue siren been half a second quicker she might have taken her last step. A bolt of half twisted metal flew past Sonata, a sharpened point stabbing through the slack of her sleeve and impaling itself into the seam and locking mechanism of the doorframe. The pipe rattled to a halt, shaking off the connected wires and thoroughly wedging itself into the frame. Sonata yelped and winced from the impact. The pipe's jagged edge had cut into her arm, but it was mercifully shallow. What was unmerciful was the growing, bronze glow starting to encompass the room.

Adagio and Sonata looked down the hall with horrified expressions to see Enjin, freed from the impromptu shock therapy and looking right at them. Rather than approaching however, the demon's torso opened up, tendrils of shadowy energy flowering out like a grotesque parody of a ribcage. The growing light that had been shining outwards sparked and crackled into a blinding flare. Jolts of energy radiated amongst and down from the tendrils. A ball of light formed amongst the rib-like tendrils, a sound akin to a flock of birds screeching gnawing at the air. Enjin drew its hand over the orb, pulling it out and holding it amongst its fingers while closing its chest back up. Enjin balled a fist, compacting the sphere of energy before silently charging with it in hand.

Adagio and Sonata ripped at the latter's sleeve to try and free her amongst frantic yelling as the monster closed in, but to no avail. Amidst the sea of panic, Aria's gemstone sparked. The jolt of energy revived the half delirious siren and she looked out as the world around her spun down to the milliseconds. Pulses of might from her siren heart fueling more adrenaline as Enjin got within five yards of them. For a brief moment, an unnatural color slithered into her sclera. Aria grabbed Sonata and Adagio and snapped her hips around as hard as she could, tearing to duo off their feet and ripping Sonata free from the pipe.

Both sisters flew off several yards behind Aria as Enjin crashed energy sphere first into the wall right next to Aria. For several moments the hall became blotted with dust and debris. Adagio and Sonata, half hyperventilating and trying to process just what happened, looked to the cloud of debris. Neither siren was looking well. Adagio's cheese puff hair was matted with chunks of drywall and wood, and she was now sporting a maturing bruise across her forehead due to Aria having thrown her hard enough to hit a wall. Sonata was clutching her now bare arm as blood trickled out from several shallow cuts along her forearm. But as the dust cleared, Aria was probably the worst off. She was the one being choked.

Enjin stoically pulled its hand free of the shattered pile of rubble that had once been a doorway, hoisting up a struggling Aria by the head with its other hand as two shadowy tendrils coiled around her neck. It stepped forward in front of the elevator, more dark tendrils folding out from its chest and snaring the siren. Ice cold grip numbed the purple siren's throat and gnawed at her core when they touched her gemstone. Enjin tightened its grip around her throat and Aria Blaze choked. She gasped as the pressure built, before the deathly cold forced away her conscious and she fell limp.

Adagio and Sonata felt their own throats constrict as they looked at Aria's body, feeling a frozen spear impale them through their cores. Watery glaze started to overcome their vision. Enjin's tendrils began to wrap around Aria's dimming necklace. But the silence in the hall was soon disrupted by a single chime.

Enjin entered the ward at 12:07.

It was currently 12:12.

The elevator dinged and opened up.

Monster X grumbled as the elevator's climb seemed to slow more and more by the second, half cursing himself for not trying to force his way up the crowded stairs. Still, he remained focused and on target. He could smell the energy coming off the building as soon as he got within its perimeter. The sirens were here, he knew that from the energy's signature, it's scent for lack of better terms. Still, some curiosity had crossed his mind and that was why he subjected himself to what he was quick to declare the slowest transport in history.

The sirens were still here, not running out of the building or going into lock down like everyone else, and he cared not why. After all, being out of public view just made his task easier. No more beating around the bush like before with that purple one. A stray thought crossed the xilian kaiju's mind as the elevator clicked to a halt with a chime.

-What was that purple witch's name again? Daria? Narica? Hmm...-

The doors opened up and Monster X spotted a familiar purple face, correctly recalling her moniker.

-Oh yes, she called herself Aria... Wait a minute...-

X looked out into the world outside the elevator. Sonata and Adagio were looking over at him with frozen faces, the former's eyes widening significantly more than the latter's. X swung his head around slowly and soon found himself looking upwards at the masked Enjin, who was still holding a limp Aria. The kabuki masked monster tilted its head in an almost confused manner, seemingly surprised at the newcomer's sudden arrival. X looked the situation over for several moments before shrugging away any festering befuddlement.

"That's mine..."

He grunted under his breath before lashing out too quick for Enjin to react. Moving in a blur he caught the Aspect off balance with a hook kick to the back of its knee. Enjin lurched down, falling onto its knee and right into an uppercut X had thrown at its throat. Enjin stumbled back, dropping its prey and attempting to counter attack but was still thrown off balance. X tucked himself in, weaving under a backhand to grab Enjin by the arm. Anchoring the balls of his feet into the ground before rotating on them under Enjin's momentum, X spun around and tossed the shadowy demon out a nearby window. Shattered glass, twisted frame, and wisps of shadow fell out everywhere as Enjin fell several yards and hit the pavement. Monster X leaned over and glanced out the window. Even moments after taking a fall like it did however, Enjin's body showed movement. X might not have known what this creature was, but a simple factor was becoming abundantly clear. It didn't know when to die and it would be back up here soon. Too soon for his original objective.

-Well, at least the theory that it's an ally of the sirens is debunked...-

A calm respite was momentarily granted to the hallway. X turned back around after catching his breath. He crouched down beside the still Aria before Adagio and Sonata could sprint over. X ignored them, hooking an arm under Aria's shoulder to lift it up and tilt her head back. Not knowing any other quick options to try and yank her back to the conscious world, he looked at her limp necklace and lunged an open hand towards it to test something. Sure enough, an invisible bubble of energy quickly shoved his limb away. As planned, a kinetic shock surged through the purple siren and she lurched up, coughing and gasping for air. X sighed as he started to get to his feet.

-Good, she is still alive after all.-

Adagio and Sonata, not caring who was holding up their cousin, rushed over at the sound of her life. Aria groaned after catching her breath, being more than a bit shocked when her vision refocused enough through the lucidity to recognize who had her. X shook his head slightly as he stood her on her feet.

"Can't stay out of trouble, can you witch?"

The other two sirens managed to get to them and pry Aria away from a noncombative X's grip just as a shadowy hand grabbed a hold of the window railing, partially crushing it in. Enjin, still unfettered despite having the equivalent to a broken spine in several places, began to claw its way back inside with limited success. Monster X glared at his opponent, facing it with the sirens behind him. He tilted his head sideways slightly, speaking in a controlled, if not threatening tone.

"I'll deal with you three later. Get away from this thing. You are of no use to me dead."

Adagio narrowed her still tear stained eyes and snapped, all the events of the past five minutes clearly having worn her to a limit. With that expression it looked almost like her hair was on fire as much as her voice was.

"Hey! Just what the hell are yo-"

Adagio's wildfire met an avalanche. X whirled his head around, the look in his eyes and roar in his voice were strong enough to split steel.

"LEAVE!"

He threw out his fist and backhanded the elevator's 'Down' control hard enough to break the button and dent in the panel. Sonata's eyes grew in comparable scale to dinner plates.

"YouHeard'Em!"

She piped before grabbing the other sirens and rushing into the closing doors. X turned and faced Enjin, readying his stance into a guard and whispering under his breath.

“I’ll keep you covered…”

Enjin hauled itself into the hall on half-broken limbs. The strands of animate shadows writhed and it burst into motion. The demon rushed past X and made for the elevator doors. Enjin reached out to seize its prey when X wrapped his elbow around its throat and halted its advance. All three sirens pushed up against the back wall, Adagio crouching down and rapidly mashed at the ‘Door Close’ button with Enjin’s arm flailing over her head. X gritted his teeth, bracing his foot up against the outside wall for an extra purchase. He kicked off and yanked back in unison, pulling Enjin away in time for the door to close and elevator to depart.

Both kaiju were snapped back and away, Enjin refocusing from one target to another. Snapping its still damaged joints back into place, it reached for its throat and grabbed Monster X by the wrist. Prying its attacker off, the Aspect whirled X over its shoulder and tossed him across the room. X righted himself in the air, managing to skid his feet across the ground to slow himself down enough that he only dented in the drywall he hit, rather than smashing through it. He fought off the ensuing daze, clearing his vision partially just in time to duck to the side and avoid a spiked fist stabbing into the wall behind his head. One of the wall's beams creaked and bent over with a copious amount of falling tile and drywall following it, momentarily burying Enjin's arm.

It had just pried its limb free after several yanks to receive a returning blow, a pivoted roundhouse kick to the mask from X. The solid wraith stumbled back due to the hit knocking it off balance, X giving it no chance to recover. The alien flew into a flurry of blows aimed at the head, both pressuring the assault and avoiding taking any hits he could. Diving around a hammer fist smash that split the floor tiles under them, X lunged at Enjin with a quick kick to the knee chased by a flurry of jabs and crosses to the face. Crouching down to duck under a grab, X finished his combo with a jumping uppercut that hit hard enough to numb his hand and knock Enjin off the ground slightly. X kicked back off the ground to clear some distance, panting through his nose to recover his breath.

Enjin stood still, half lopsided backwards from the hit with its neck craned back. Slowly it rose back up. Its face, if it had one, shifted under its mask and there was a crackling pop, as if shattered bone was being resettled. The kabuki mask serving as its facade was noticeably cracked in several regions, a dim bronze-hued glow along with tiny strands of shadowy wisps trickling out from behind the cracks. Enjin rolled its shoulders, popping its joints as the mask resealed and reformed its cracked mass. In moments, Enjin hardly looked like it been affected by the assault to begin with. It suddenly lunged at a wide eyed Monster X as the latter only managed to partially dodge the next attack, mentally swearing words no human would know as Enjin's spiked knuckles tore shallow grooves across his right arm and torso.

Monster X's mind raced as he found himself ducking, weaving, and jumping out of the way of an assault that refused to slow down.

-Alright, it has a healing factor that can counter striking wounds. Maybe breakages with more severe bone trauma will slow it down?-

He sidestepped a right hook, grabbing hold of the broad limb as it passed and ignoring the biting cold Enjin's skin gave to the touch. He yanked his attacker off balance and repeated the move he'd used most recently on Gaira. Pulling the arm out flat, he tore it downwards while putting a rising knee and a plummeting elbow strike above and below Enjin's elbow joint respectively. Sure enough, a crackling pop rang out as Enjin's arm bent over the wrong way. Unfortunately, as X soon found out, while the surplus of incoming strikes was cut in half, Enjin itself wasn't slowing down. Not even registering that one of its arms was flopping around useless, Enjin swatted, grabbed, and punched at a surprised X with its good arm. After being forced to half dodge and half block a cross he could feel bruising his forearm just to deflect it, X grabbed hold of Enjin's other limb. Seeing no reason not to, the Xilian kaiju repeated his patented limb breaker.

Except he didn't manage to, though not for lack of trying. Despite hitting the arm's weakest points dead center hard enough he stunned the nerves in his leg from the knee strike, Enjin's elbow refused to give. X yanked it down against the Aspect's pulling and tried to do it again, but the surprise and Enjin's immense strength fighting back against him forced X off. Skidding away on his feet, X glared at Enjin as he tried to figure out what just happened.

-What the hell?! I'm sure I hit the limb the same way as before and it has a symmetric body plan, that should have worked!-

Seeing the animate shadow begin to fiddle with its broken arm, pulling it back into place in some attempt at what X could best guess was to reset and heal the snapped joint, he brushed aside his confusion. Charging forward, he leapt up while twisting around and grabbed a hold of Enjin's head by the back and chin, beginning to twist it. Opposition or competition of his master or not, this opponent had proven to be incredibly stubborn to subdue alive and he had no reason for it to keep being so.

Maneuvering himself as to land on his feet, X let his body flatten back out and twist Enjin's neck along with it. Except X then heard a sound that stopped him cold.

The silence when Enjin's neck refused to be craned back past a certain point, and the sensation of being snapped back around when Enjin grabbed him by his hand and lunged its upper body downward. Monster X was thrown over Enjin's shoulder and into the cold tile floor hard enough he cracked several of them. His world in a spinning free fall, he wasn't able to land a defensive punch or kick to free himself before being lifted back up by his shoulders and smashed into the wall repeatedly. Hoisting its prey up, Enjin stared at the human-transformed kaiju through an eyeless mask before throwing X into a partially opened doorway. X grunted after slamming into the wooden frame, sliding across the floor before stopping against a hospital bed. He struggled up to his feet, panting to catch his breath through endorphin-numbed pain.

A swelling glow crossed his vision and Monster X heard an uproar of noise like the air was being torn apart. The chorus rose to an ear splitting screech and X, while unable to see clearly yet, instinctively dove to the side. The action likely resulted in him keeping all of his limbs, a sphere of energy the size of a beach ball sailing past him and ripping the hospital bed to shreds. X shielded his eyes from the debris flying about, hopping back to his feet. Enjin stood in the hall just outside, the tendrils of dark energy folding back up across its chest. The Aspect slowly advanced into the room as X's eyes narrowed.

X caught his breath and stood firm.

-Alright, striking doesn't work too well. Breaks just slow it down and are shoddy. I'll just have to blast it apart...-

The kaiju focused his thoughts and energy. Gravity was a near universal part of matter. It was all around him, and he could be its master. Swells of energy began to form around X's eyes, red turning to gold. Small particulates of dust halted in midair, and his long coat and scarf began to levitate and flap. The glows reached their proper peak, giving Enjin some momentary pause. But, just as he was about to fire, something went wrong. X winced and grabbed at his head, the energy collection flying out of control.

The vision of the demon was blotted out by a rapid series of images so brief X couldn't even see all the details. Eerily familiar, and yet foreign sights of a ruined city dotted by pillars of smoke, a battered and pulverized King Ghidorah pinned underneath the point of view, frozen wastelands with howling gales, Aria and then Enjin inside a thicket of woods. X gasped and yelled in pain, practically feeling something clawing at his head from the inside. There was a momentary flash of gold and black, and the well of gravitons he'd been collecting unchecked through the pain detonated.

A smoking X was thrown back from the explosion with enough force to shove him out the cracked window, falling a story down and landing back first on a parked car. The car's alarm sounded off amongst its flashing lights, X lazily slumping over and falling off the roof. He was already unconscious by the time he hit the ground. Enjin stepped out to the edge of the window, not even paying attention to the burn marks splotching its entire front. The Aspect of Land looked at the downed quarry before climbing down from the window. It moved towards the unconscious X, its external ribs beginning to unravel in anticipation of a mission completed.

Then a pair of headlights engulfed Enjin's form, the shadow robotically looking up just in time to see several thousand pounds of minivan slam into it before halting. Enjin's body crushed in, flying back into the hospital and crashing into a window. Enjin doubled over through the shattered glass, disappearing over the edge. The driver clicked a button, opening the passenger door beside X's body.

"Is he still alive?!"

"W-Well he's breathing."

"Good enough, pull him in."

Adagio practically flew out of the front passenger seat, one hand grabbing the steering wheel and the other motioning out the side door. Her tone was anything but placid.

"WWWWHAT!? One! How are you well enough to drive, and two-"

Aria Blaze snarled, shrugging off the pain she still felt ripping into her back and shoulders, looking back at Sonata.

"I said pull him in! That big one is probably going to be getting back up!"

Sonata unbuckled herself and started reaching out. But upon seeing that familiar pale mask and black scarf, even without a pair of blood red eyes glaring at her through them, she recoiled slightly. She looked forward at Aria.

"Are yo-"

"NOW SONATA!"

She roared and Sonata froze up. While the blue siren wrote it off as a trick of the light later, there was something terrifying about her cousin's eyes. For a split second, she could see pinpricks of red amongst the usual violet. It got her moving fast enough, reaching through fear and pulling the still knocked out Monster X inside.

"Ew Ew! He's bleeding!"

Aria refocused and looked forward, putting the van into reverse. As the van began to turn away from the hospital, they caught a glimpse of a pale mask rising out of the broken window. Enjin got back up, stitching its shattered form back into one piece and climbing out of the window as the van sped off with four inside. There were several long minutes of silence before Adagio stopped rubbing her temple and looked over at Aria.

"What, was that 'thing'?" She muttered, punctuating the first word. She tilted her vision up to the rear view mirror, seeing a skittish Sonata trying to prop the other monster up, recognizing it from the description she'd been given of the last encounter.

"And why did you insist on putting one of them in the back seat?"

Aria stayed focused on the road, turning onto a back street.

"Because we don't know what is going on. But,"

She stole a glance in the mirror.

"-he does."

======================

Appeloosa Train Station

"Phew! That there's the last of it!"

Applejack huffed after throwing off a haul of luggage nearly twice her size onto the train station docks. A second haul dropped onto the load from above, a pair of red wings flapping over to the Element Bearer's side before tucking in and dropping Rodan to the ground next to her. With Appeloosa back onto its feet, it was move out day for the relief teams. Still having a few hours to kill until the train showed up and having little else to do, the duo had opted to move all the luggage around for the teams.

"So when we get back to this Ponyville place on the way to Canterlot, sure you're alright with me roosting at your place?"

Rodan quipped, perching atop the small mountain of cargo. Applejack smirked, leaning her elbow against the pile and looking up on the gryphon whilst fixing her hat back to the proper tilt.

"Sure I'm sure! Yah said you weren't much of an urban kaiju anywho, so I figured a big farm would give you some elbow room. Just oooone promise Ro'."

"Hm?"

"If Apple Bloom asks yah for a flight ride, and she will, no dropping her like you did that one colt."

"Hey! I caught 'im before he hit the ground, it was all part of the show!"

Applejack cocked an eyebrow, tilting her hat's brow up at the defensive kaiju, pulling an unimpressed look that hid her smirk. She knew a lie when she heard one.

"You mean where you rotated 'nough midflight that he slipped off your back?"

Rodan rolled his eyes, hovering up into the air and crossing his arms.

"He slipped off! Not my fault we got this thing called gravity."

"Soooo what was that you just said about it being part of the show?~"

"Yes it- Just a- ARRG! Stop doing that weird magic pony lie detector thing! Still freaks me out."

"Said the formerly giant, fire breathing lizard bird to the earth pony."

Applejack chimed with a laugh. After snorting a puff of flames out his nostrils, Rodan shrugged his shoulders and rolled his eyes before he joined in with a low chuckle. The station clock struck the hour and rang out, both taking note.

"Alrighty then, train should be rolling in by 2. Sure yah gonna be okay with your plan to stay outside?"

Rodan hovered over and dropped down next to AJ, running down his ploy in his head again.

"Yeah, I can just fly around outside and trail the train just fine."

"Won't ye' get tired after awhile?"

"With plenty of sun and heat in these parts to recharge? Meh, not likely. I could fly cross-continent no problem back on Terra."

Applejack gave Rodan's head a gentle bap with her hoof. Past few days been more than enough for the two new friends to swap stories, so she'd come to understand a lot about the gryphon's life. Still, processing something that big being able to fly that fast was a finicky thought she hadn't quite grasped fully.

"Yeah ye' could, back when you had a crosstown wingspan. If you get tired out at any point, you land on the end of the train to hitch the ride back. Ye' hear me mister?"

"Aaaah but I like a challenge!"

"'Ah mean it! Don't make me have to climb onto the roof to lasso you and reel you in !"

Rodan offhandedly waved a raised forepaw at AJ, speaking in an annoyed groan.

"Yes 'mooooom'!"

"Oh don't you 'mom' me!"

Applejack barked, lunging to her left and catching Rodan by surprise. The previously mocking gryphon chirped, quickly taking to the air. The mare had just managed to put Rodan into a headlock, grinding her hoof into his headcrests amongst mutual laughter when a new voice joined the conversation.

"Delivery TO Appeloosa for a-"

The half crosseyed mailmare who was hovering in front of them turned the letter back around to reread the sending information.

"D-Dame Applejack and... Radar? Radon?"

Rodan lowered them both back to the ground, Applejack hopping off and holding out her hoof for the letter.

"Yah got her, and its Rodan."

Applejack was handed the letter and started opening it as Rodan cracked a raised eyebrow at the mail carrier. She looked familiar and his mind trailed back to probe his memory.

"Hey, weren't you the same one from the castle?"

She nodded with a beaming smile before saluting and flying off. Rodan glanced over to Applejack with a still confused look stretched across his beak.

"How did she get all the way out here? I didn't see her on the train."

Applejack, having just now gotten the letter free, merely shrugged.

"It's Derpy Hooves, don't question it."

She'd gotten the letter straightened out and instantly locked her eyes upon the gilded seal atop it. A sun and moon encircled by a dark and light alicorn. The royal seal of Canterlot Castle. Her eyes dug into the text.

"Thought something was up with the 'Dame' titlin'! It's from the Princesses! Looks like you're rearing for a summoning."

Rodan snapped to, popping up in the air to try and peek over Applejack's shoulder.

"Uh oh! Got a situation back at home base they need me for?!"

"Uuuuh, looks like they want to deploy you and Rainbow Dash to Neighagra Falls soon."

"What's going on? Who's attacking? More gyaos or someone else?!"

Applejack's head tilted a bit lopsided when she read through the last paragraph, eyeing it over a few more times just to be sure she read it right.

"Actually... No. Everythins' holding up right fine. They wanna enter you two in an airshow."

There was a long silence between the two. Applejack regained her wit and looked over at Rodan. The expression upon his face was a tad hard to read due to lack of lips, but best she could gander from the way he was holding his beak and eyes, it seemed to be a unique blend of confusion. The gryphon looked like he'd just been asked to construct a giraffe out of sardines and fly it off a cliff. Anguirus once said a simple phrase to best express his first meeting with Derpy Hooves, one Rodan parroted in tone and significance.

"....W'at?"

==============

Crystal Empire

All was quiet in the Empire despite the excitement a few days past. Officially, word from the castle was that a dark magic-using criminal managed to break into the palace and targeted the royal family. While the news did cause quite a stir at first, steady work by the crown in a rebuilding effort as well as assurance that the situation had been dealt with helped ease tensions. Only Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor, and some of the staff who'd been there that night knew how to make the description of their attacker a bit more specific; but kept word from leaking as to avoid a panic that would eschew their ongoing efforts.

There was just one problem. The ambassador who'd received a pardon for his efforts in thwarting the attack hadn't been seen during all this time.

Colonel Blade Dancer trotted up the stairwell leading into a familiar wing of the palace with Key Ring in tow.

"And you say he hasn't left his quarters since the fight?"

He grunted after climbing the last steps in half a dozen flights of stairs. Blade Dancer sighed as she looked at a certain door in the long hallway ahead, shaking her head.

"No. I've heard creaking and hoof steps so I know he's in there, but he hasn't taken a step out since I walked him in."

"And has anyone tried stepping in themselves?"

Blade Dancer stopped at the crystalline doorway leading to where Xenilla had been quartered to. By this point she'd lost count of just how many hours she'd stayed outside the door with barely a hint as to its occupancy. One could probably see the hoof marks she'd ground into the floor from her pacing.

"Have a look, Princess Cadance tried earlier and this stuff formed."

She muttered, pawing at the seam of the door. Key Ring leaned in closer and adjusted his glasses. Grown into the door's seal were thousands of tiny quartz crystals, the minerals pinning and fusing gateway and gate together.

"All the window curtains are pulled in and nailed shut with the same stuff. Anything you could do?"

Key Ring sat back and puzzled for a moment, rubbing at his chin as he looked the door over. He nodded slowly as he ran through the possibilities.

"Well, we could get a few crystalmancers up here to try and counter the quartz. Or we could try shattering the door. Or I could try hexing the door into opening up with my talent. Buuut it's not the locks that's stopping me there."

"What is?"

Key Ring shrugged his shoulders and motioned at the door.

"I could try half a dozen magical methods to get inside there that would likely work, so could the royals; but it wouldn't change the reason that Xenilla sealed himself in. If he goes to all this trouble, then the guy wants to be left alone and I don't think he'd respond well to us barging in there. Real question for all this is why?"

He glanced over at Blade Dancer, rubbing the back of his head in minor befuddlement.

"Never took him for the shy type, so why now? You've been around him more, any ideas?"

Blade Dancer looked at the door, putting her hoof to its shimmering seal. Her expression and wings drooped slightly.

"Xenilla is... a weird card to read. Slightly reserved, smug, brutally honest, and more than a bit rude at times. But not really a recluse. He seemed... off, after the battle. I don't know what happened."

"Well, just in case crystal magic is involved, here's the medicine you asked for. Whipped it up with my students this morning."

The unicorn's horn glimmered and reached inside his saddlebag, retrieving a shimmering sapphire hued glow from them. A blue, energized crystal floated over to Blade Dancer and settled down on her hoof. The guardsmare looked the brilliant gem over, letting it roll in her hoof as memories trailed back to the jail. When Xenilla patched up her gash wound, the gem he made had an uncanny similarity. Unconsciously she reached up with her free hoof and ran it along her cheek, feeling at the thin scar masked by fur.

"Aerenths are nasty little things. For all their uses in dark magic, they can make someponies sick, mentally or physically. If he's got any bit of aerenth poisoning, this should do the trick."

Snapping back to focus, Blade Dancer tucked the medicine crystal into her satchel and shifted back into the conversation.

"Thanks Key, how's your end of all this going? Surveys find anything?"

Key Ring rolled his eyes into a drawn out shrug. Ever since the attack, he was fairly quick to put two and two together as to who exactly attacked the palace, and oh how curiosity tended to rope him into things. After meeting with the royals to vouch for Xenilla, he dropped one tyrant's name and was then asked if he'd join in on the search effort.

"The prince and princess have been out with us in shifts. We've been trekking around the whole of the city interior to its outskirts and beyond. Had to cancel classes yesterday for a run over to the mountains. Found some aerenth crystals here or there, but nothing younger than the attack."

"Any idea how he came back yet?"

"Well there was this odd spot outside of the city limits where we picked up a weird energy signature next to aerenths and a dug out hole in the ground. Given how old the aerenths were, we think it was the first spot Sombra was at. As for how? Oye... Dark magic is some crazy stuff, maybe the first time with the Crystal Heart just didn't put him down completely and he pulled himself back together? We've sent our findings to Canterlot and Princess Celestia should get it in a few days. She's more an expert in dark and ancient magic so maybe she'll know something?"

"Let's hope second time's the charm."

"In light of there being a hole burned into the mountain he was standing in front of, let's."

Blade Dancer held herself up a bit higher, looking forward at the locked door and letting her eyes trail along its shimmering seam. In time, Key Ring did the same, puzzling over the "ambassador's" handiwork. There was a long silence before he broke both the quiet and the secret.

"... He's one of those kaiju, isn't he?"

Blade Dancer flinched at the word. Her hair drooped with her quiet words.

"…How long?"

Key Ring shook his head with a shrug, his horn drawing out a newspaper he began unfolding whilst he continued on.

"So you did know. To be honest, I had a feeling something was weird about that guy since the first visit. Then after everything that followed, I looked it all over again. Huge size, weird horn and rare nasal ridge, being stronger than any unicorn I've ever seen has any business being. So I took a look back at the Canterlot papers-"

The newsprint unfolded to an image circulated across the whole of Equestria at least several times by now. The reptilian kaiju called Godzilla, unconscious and being carried into Canterlot Castle after reverting back to the form of an oversized unicorn. Blade Dancer looked upon the picture for several moments, before a bizarre sensation trickled down her veins and made her glance off to the side with shut lips. Key Ring retracted the paper, looking it over again.

"Resemblance is uncanny. Same nasal ridge, colored patch on the back and shoulders; about the same size. Common traits of the species?"

Blade Dancer, still staring off to the side in a void, responded with a half hushed voice.

"Brothers actually... Xenilla is that one's.. is his big brother."

The tone wasn't lost on Key Ring. Quickly stuffing the paper back in his bag, he nudged the tall mare's shoulder.

"Hey, I won't tell a soul. Got one secret on me, I can handle two."

He hopped back up to his hooves, looking up to the wall mounted clock and minding the time.

"Almost 1, time to head out for that last sweep. You gonna be okay?"

Blade Dancer shrugged, getting back to her hooves and shaking off any lingering strains that stretched upon her. She gave her friend an assured smirk, playfully punching Key Ring in the shoulder while rolling her eyes.

"Oh save your worry. I'm a big mare 'Doctor' Ring, I'll be fine."

Key Ring cracked a smile and nodded, trotting past her and heading for the stairs.

"Atta' mare, keep your chin up! I'll be back later if we find anything."

Blade Dancer waved goodbye to the unicorn with a self assured smile on her face. She kept waving for a good five minutes, eyes trailing from the stairs and back to Xenilla's door. She stopped waving and her smile slowly flattened out. The guardsmare shrugged.

"Guess it's back to you and me, huh?"

Silence was the response, ushering Blade Dancer to dutifully get back to work and walk laps along the hall. In time, she stopped pacing, just sitting herself down with her back against the door. She waited for any noise, any vibration of movement, any muttering of voice.

The hour came to a close in an eruption. A tremendous yell ripped through air and foundation alike, followed by a thundering crash so immense it was like the room had an explosion go off inside it. The force was big enough to smash into the door, halfway tearing it out of its frame as spires of quartz crystals tore out through the cracks. Blade Dancer, half thrown up from the door getting smashed into and half taking to the air upon beating wings, took flight and spun around with fright stenciled across her face.

"XENILLA?!?!"

Fearing an attack, Blade Dancer whirled around and repeatedly smashed her hoof into the door. Despite her armored horseshoe actually managing to crash through the door itself, when the pieces of shaped crystal fell away all she could see was a thick mass of quartz braced up against it. Mentally swearing, she redirected her efforts elsewhere, rushing down the hall and throwing open a window. Taking flight after throwing herself out of the castle, the nimble pegasus whipped around to Xenilla's window. Any hopes that the window would have less of a blockade than the door was quashed upon almost running into a sheet of quartz jutting out of it.

Not one to give up easily, the guardsmare spun around, grabbing hold of the balcony rail as an anchor point and bucking into the window. While she did manage to kick through the window and the first few sheets of quartz, it quickly became clear it wasn't fast enough. Blade Dancer huffed after another buck, spinning back around and pawing at the quartz to try and scout out a weak spot.

"Xen?! Xen?!"

Spying a dying red glow through the layers of crystal, Blade Dancer's mind flew into a rush. Spying a cleavage point, Blade Dancer slipped off one of her wing blades and stabbed it into the edge. A few spreading cracks cluing her to some success, she drilled it in as deep as she could by hoof before flying back. Flapping her wings to ascend upwards and outwards, she stalled in mid-air to turn herself around, letting gravity and her own wing beats accelerate her. Either this works or she was about to give herself a concussion on impact.

Fortunately her aim proved true, the pegasus snapping back and dive kicking the base of her blade to drive it into the quartz. The fractures along the cleavage point tore through the structure and it shattered. Momentum carrying her through the explosion of crashing shards, Blade Dancer tucked herself in and rolled across the floor with her other blade at the ready.

The room was half eviscerated, broken crystal and wood furniture assaulted by quartz crystal spires that either pinned them against the walls and ceiling or just impaled them outright. Occasionally, arcs of red energy jumped from crystal to crystal as they swam through them in a brilliant, if not eerie display. The quartz erupting from the ground radiated out in waves, their creator at the eye of the ripples. Xenilla set down in an isolated portion of the room with his back to Blade Dancer, having not even seemed to notice her entry. The room's appearance was echoed onto him. While unwounded he was clearly haggard, with his already jagged mane and fur fraying out erratically. Blade Dancer stepped over the shattered remains of what had been a desk, warily approaching with hushed words.

"X-Xen?"

If the kaiju registered her voice, he didn't show it. Instead he kept all attention focused on something in front of him. As Blade Dancer approached a few feet closer she could hear him muttering incoherently. Taking in her breath, Blade Dancer rose her voice.

"Xenilla."

Xenilla flinched and froze. After a few second's breath, he slowly craned his head around to look at her. He hardly looked any better from the front, frayed bangs and darkened patches around his eyes making the stallion look both exhausted and erratic. His eyes widened and quickly looked more like the latter description. Xenilla curled his lips back, flashing his elongated fangs while rapidly taking in breaths. After puffing his chest out to its maximum capacity, he let it all out in one word. The air splitting yell was trailed by a very unequine roar, similar and yet distinct from one Blade Dancer had heard in Canterlot.

"LEAVE!"

Blade Dancer could feel air rushing past her, but made no effort to follow it out. When she left her home city, the call of a kaiju is what drove her out. It wasn't working on her twice. Pulse and instincts still pounding, Blade Dancer dropped her remaining wing blade and hardened her face.

"NO!"

She shouted, stomping her hoof, angrily ripping off her helmet and pointing her hoof at Xenilla.

"What is up with you?! First you lock yourself in here and now you half destroy the place in a tantrum! I've been patient and waited for you, wanting to give you your space because I gave a damn if you were alright. But I'm not waiting anymore, YOU are going to talk!"

Xenilla's eyes and mane ignited with red radiance as he tore himself up to his feet, several of the crystals around him cracking from the death grip his telekinesis was giving them.

"YOU WAITED FOR NOTHING!"

The shout was trailed with a star's corona, red plasma spiraling out from between Xenilla's fangs and rocketing at the pegasus. Blade Dancer flinched and braced, closing her eyes and grimacing. But just when the air around her was beginning to heat up to scorching levels as the milliseconds ticked by, nothing happened. Blade Dancer cautiously opened her eyes and peaked past her raised leg. She didn't have a mark on her.

The corona beam continued to spill out of Xenilla's jaws for several moments, the expression on his face going slack. Telekinetic strands had redirected the plasma safely around Blade Dancer and sent the beam out the window. Xenilla cut the energy stream off. Both ponies looked at each other after the plasma dissipated, huffing for breath.

Blade Dancer's mind rapidly tried to catch up to what just happened. Amongst feeling her pulse pounding inside her ears, it took a moment for her to notice the expression on his face. What she saw was the exact same expression she saw on his face the last time she'd seen him. Unexpressive, staring eyes with a flattened jaw and lips. A broken stare that could carry on for a thousand yards. She hit a eureka moment that was as desired as it was dreaded. Why he'd quickly pushed her back the night after the fight, why he'd just fired upon her just to try and scare her off.

-He doesn't want anyone to see him when he's vulnerable..-

The guardsmare's expression softened to a slight, concerned frown. Xenilla just shifted back around put his back to her in silence.

"You're not scaring or pushing me off Xen. You haven't been acting like yourself since fighting Sombra. I've been waiting outside your door because I'm your bodyguard, and like it or not I do worry about you."

The voice that replied was so unlike Xenilla's normal one that it took some time for Blade Dancer to even register it as him. Gone was any sense of smug pride or calculative wit, as well as any booming magnitude. What she heard could be described as a pained whisper as Xenilla went back to what he'd been doing before.

"... Please leave me, Miss Dancer."

The wind hissed outside from the broken window as the silence passed. Blade Dancer carefully stepped forward, treading over the last few yards to close in on him and sit down next to the kaiju. She said nothing, only putting herself beside him and looking at what her protectorate was up to as he ignored her presence.

What was sitting in front of Xenilla could best be described as a flattened board with colored crystal pieces atop it that he was moving via telekinesis. Not sure if Xenilla had given up on trying to drive her out and was electing to ignore her or if he was just too focused on the weird game he was playing, Blade Dancer stayed quiet and watched. The meaning as to what was going on was lost to her, but it seemed the two dozen or so pieces were arranged into several groups.

One piece caught her attention, if only for familiarity. Larger than many others and at the front of its group, the piece was colored a brilliant hue of neon blue that reminded her a lot of Godzilla's beam after she saw it stretch across the skies multiple times during the Canterlot attack. As soon as that piece moved up, Xenilla started to pick up his pace. Making multiple moves a second, he'd move other pieces up against the blue piece and they would clash with the blue piece as well as its group. Some pieces started to fall, but the attacking group swelled in number with more pieces from across the board trying to move in, assaulting both the blue piece's group as well as others'. Picking up a piece that had apparently fallen off the board, Xenilla placed it down. Almost identical to the blue piece, except bright red in color, Xenilla moved it around the most. What followed next was what Blade Dancer could best describe as some bizarre version of four way speed chess, Xenilla murmuring to himself as he raced piece after piece around the board. The guardsmare noticed some patterns. Three out of four groups had a larger piece or pair of pieces at their lead. All except for the first group to attack the blue piece. It's leader piece, the red unit, was flying around the board and primarily stayed at the front of its group. However, whenever a large amount of those pieces went towards the blue group, the red piece came to push them back or even knock one over before going and attacking someone else.

For every attack the red piece lead against the blue piece, it was pushing another one back no matter what team that attack was coming from.

Xenilla's movements began to quicken, his murmuring becoming loud enough that Blade Dancer could hear a few words under his breath.

"set".."my".."up".."right".."too much".."fault"..."failure"

More and more pieces began to fall. While the red piece was off attacking a group with a gold hued lead, more of its group moved around behind it. Cutting off the blue piece from its team, they surrounded it and attacked while the red piece cut off its attack and rushed them. While both red and blue were knocking over piece after piece, the blue was overwhelmed and knocked over; much to Xenilla's panic. All of the attacking group save a violet hued piece was knocked over and the game master frantically reset the game.

The scenarios played out again and again, all with the same reactions. If a piece fell, Xenilla barely reacted. There were even a few times that the red piece fell and the game played on. But when the blue piece fell, he frantically reset the game and tried again with growing strain. Eventually his telekinesis, both from his horn and shoulder pads cut out and the panicking stallion resorted to trying and failing to move the pieces with his hooves. Pieces fell off the board in droves, and now Blade Dancer knew what Xenilla had been up to for days. After Xenilla fumbled to try and place the blue piece back up and reset, Blade Dancer put her hoof on his trembling one.

"Stop..."

Xenilla froze. Carefully picking up a fallen red piece with her free hoof, Blade Dancer placed it on the board and lifted Xenilla's board hoof away from it. She kept her voice quiet and collected.

"You're only stressing yourself, Xen. Keep this up and you'll pop something worse than your room..."

Xenilla said nothing, only hanging his head low to look at the board. Blade Dancer looked over at him. Through a mask of frayed bangs and flustered fur, she could see a glimpse of his eye. There was a reflecting glisten building up on its lower point, and the fur below them had a darkened, damp line going down it.

"Key Ring told me one of Sombra's biggest fortes was a hex that made you live your worst fear. He really did something that got under your skin, didn't he?"

Xenilla remained silent, looking away slightly before a tiny nod followed. Blade Dancer sighed, stretching her wing out to curl it around his midsection best she could. The unicorn's hoof stopped trembling.

"Wanna speak your peace? Let it out?"

The lack of response after a long while gave her his answer. Blade Dancer sighed, reaching into her saddle bag and drawing out the healing crystal.

"Here, courtesy of Key Ring. It will help. I'll be right outside, okay? You best take it within the hour, or else I'll have to come back in here."

She placed it in his hoof and got up. Starting back to the window, she only got several steps away before a familiar sensation wrapped around her body. Blade Dancer smiled as the strands of telekinesis lifted her up and carried her back to her protectorate. Gently moved around, she was set on her haunches in reverse of Xenilla, the kaiju pressing his back to her's. Blade Dancer knew this position all too well from Captain Frost. Back-to-back, leaning on each other slightly, giving the two of you a view from almost all angles. It helped give a sense of security.

Xenilla finally spoke, in a hushed version of his usual tone.

"I believe... the good empress assigned you as my bodyguard."

Blade Dancer's smile grew slightly, shifting into a teasing smirk one could practically hear in her voice.

"I thought you said big powerful kaiju like you didn't need protecting."

She expected a retort of any kind. She didn't expect a nickname.

"Thank you, Blades."

Feeling a tad warm in the face, she reached over and put her hoof against his own; sighing contently.

-It'll all be okay Big Guy...-

Author's Note

Proof Read by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
All hands on deck to get some things sorted out. It's not everyday someone tries to enter an aircraft carrier sized pterosaur in an airshow. And elsewhere, you are what you eat Aria Blaze...

Chapter 26: Words of Wisdom

==========

Appleloosa

Hardly past noon and it was already business as usual at the Salt Block Saloon for it's lead bar tender. The black mare with a red fringed mane busily filled more drinks and juggled salt licks during happy hour. Thalia was her name, and she had just now managed to beat back to swarm. Least it was until a familiar gryphon pushed his way through the double doors and she noticed Rodan wasn't looking like Rodan. Picking up on somepony's body language was practically a job requirement of hers, and though her friend was a gryphon many of the same rules applied. His wings were slouching, he was holding his beak shut tightly, eyes were looking ahead but unfocused; and most notably of all he wasn't skittish about getting inside a building like he usually was. Thalia paused what she was doing and sighed, shaking her head slowly.

-Oooooh dear, something's definitely up.-

"Came to say my goodbyes."

He chirped, still with a half glazed look on his eyes.

"Headin' out of town already Ro'?"

"Yeah. Sorry, I'm a klutz with this sort of thing. And a scatterbrain, ehehe... Well, see yah around."

He turned and started to walk off, mentally cursing at himself in a manner that was all too audible to the older mare. Thalia sighed, pulling her work apron off her front and bringing up two filled mugs out from behind the counter. She barked a request to her coworkers after getting out from behind her work station.

"Hold down the fort gentlecolts, I'll be back in a moment."

Thalia marched after Rodan and despite her smaller frame, nudged him to the side just as they got out the double doors and the kaiju found himself parked at a table on the patio before he could even protest. Thalia passed him a cup before perching herself on the chair across from him.

"Missus Thalia, Iiiii really need to get going. The train's rolling up in a bit and-"

He attempted to get up but his host wasn't having any of it, holding up her hoof calmly while closing her eyes.

"Come on Rodan, we both know that wouldn't be a worry for you. You could probably be out of here and to the station faster than my salt licks at happy hour. That's not what's troubling you. Try to bolt off early from here and I'll show you the lasso trick my husband showed me."

"Dallas really showed you how to do that?"

"Depends on if you want to chance finding out."

She quipped, sipping from her mug before opening her eyes and seeing Rodan just staring at his cup. Having known better than to try and back talk, he just shrugged and pawed at the cup. Thalia reached across the table and put a pale hoof on his shoulder, casting a motherly smile.

"Come on dear, what's plaguing you?"

"Well, I've been roped into something suddenly and I'm not sure what to think of it. It's either the greatest idea I've ever been included in, or the worst idea I've ever heard."

Thalia raised a curious eyebrow, the dark colored mare leaning back in her seat a bit..

"And what's that?"

Rodan momentarily raised and then slouched his wings.

"Your Princesses want to put me in an air show."

A big grin crossed the bar mare's muzzle, fondly remembering the stunts her friend had been pulling off not long ago to entertain the town children. After a few 'showings', many of the town had started coming out to watch what some considered their own little Wonderbolts exhibition. This seemed like a perfect idea! Rodan certainly got a kick out of all the attention and he certainly had a talent for it. Another reminder of the occasional times she wished she was born a pegasus, at least temporarily.

"Oh wow! Must be that stunt show I heard about them hosting up at Neighagra! Congratulations! .... Whyyy is this bad? If that show you put on for the fillies and colts was any indicator I'd gander you loved flying."

"Well, it's the motive. They want me in to try and help clear the air and calm the situation down after Chief's debacle at Canterlot. A lot of ponies are afraid of the kaiju and they think this can help. Problem is, well, I'm a kaiju."

Rodan grunted, resting his cheek on one paw while swirling his brew with the other.

"Typical reaction I get while flying over was to dive for cover."

"But aren't you one of the good guys?"

"Y-Yeah, the folks back home don't exactly shoot at me, but let's just say applause is a gift Appaloosa was the first to give me.

-Helps I'm small enough any sonic booms trailing me wouldn't flatten any buildings...-

Rodan puzzled with a sullen expression, dipping a claw into his drink and churning it around in the cider; too focused on other matters to drink even absentmindedly.

"And, don't take this the wrong way; but even then I wonder sometimes if it'd be the same if folks around here saw me how I really was; like what the princesses want me to do."

Thalia knew Rodan's true form was far different than what she saw before her, and the general idea that kaiju were larger than normal animals. But matters about true states always were kept out of the conversation. After all, her mother raised a mannered mare; and she thought it would be rude.

Well, first time for everything.

"Well, just how big are we talking here? Size of the saloon? Size of a whale?"

Rodan lifted his head up and idly glanced at the wide double doors to the establishment before speaking in deadpan.

"If you remove the framing, that doorway is about the size of my eyeball..."

"Oh..." Thalia chirped before looking at said doorway and putting the context together, noticing that meant said eyeball was about two meters across. Her own eyes widened and she lurched her neck back from the surprise.

"OH! WOW! Haha! Someone was eating their vitamins!"

She snickered, too surprised to notice at first that Rodan was holding his wings in closer than normal, the gryphon's tail uncomfortably curled around himself. Thalia's smile disappeared and her jaw flattened, speaking in a much quieter voice that barely carried on past the table.

"Sorry... I take it that's a big part of what's bugging you?"

Rodan nodded, taking in a breath before continuing.

"Folks are afraid of those more powerful than themselves...-"

He flinched and jolted up, reminded all too much about just what exactly the word 'kaiju' amounted to for a lot of humans. Didn't just mean 'Giant Beast' to many, for good reason it often meant 'Monster'.

"-W-With good reason a lot of times mind you! My flock and I aren't the norm in a lot of cases. But... I don't know, I just worry I can't be an exception enough to keep the Princesses' plan from failing. I know how it is now, in this town. I like not being so enormous that I stick out in a lot of places. If this ploy doesn't work, I'd never get the feeling I get in this town back ever again.... I like having a big flock."

He drooped noticeably, and probably would have been resting his chin or forehead to the table had Thalia not outstretched a hoof to catch him.

"Maybe not. Listen up."

She pitched his head up somewhat, speaking in a mothering tone.

"You wouldn't be all wrong about the power and fear thing. If you shifted back into a titanic repto-bird in town square right now, I'm not going to lie and say no pony would be afraid of the walking mountain suddenly standing amongst them."

"I'd probably break town square if I was 'standing amongst them'..."

Rodan grumbled under his breath, earning a gentle bap on the beak by Thalia's hoof.

"Hush. Let me finish."

"Yes ma'am."

"As I was saying, I actually think it's something else besides the power that causes fear. It's not because the individual or force is so powerful that makes them afraid, if the uncertainty of what a force would do with that power that makes them afraid. And it's that uncertainty that fuels that fear."

She lifted Rodan's head up by his chin and helped prop him back against the back of his seat.

"However, I think the Princesses know what they're doing. I grew up around Canterlot and from those old days I remember, one of the things I remember most was Princess Celestia. She's a distinct mare alright. Immortal, literally and figuratively standing heads and shoulders above everypony, immensely powerful, and, at least until Luna and Cadance came along, completely unlike anything else in the world. The closest things Equestria had to her were mythological monstrosities like Nightmare Moon and malign warlords like Chrysalis. For over a millennium, Princess Celestia was and probably still is the strongest pony in Equestria by a wide margin."

Memories flew back to the, incident, at the Castle against Xenilla and Destroyah. Namely what caused the fighting to stop almost instantly. Rodan unconsciously shuddered slightly as the phantom sensations of being thrown and pinned against a wall by a tidal wave of magic returned momentarily.

"Ehehe yeah I'll buy that last part."

"And yet would you believe some ponies were once terrified of her? The Nights rebellion 1,000 years ago called Celestia a 'Tyrant Queen' after she banished Nightmare Moon, and there was a growing uprising that declared her the greatest threat to Equestria. There was almost a civil war!"

Rodan's jaw snapped shut and his eyes widened. This just didn't compute.

-Civil War?! Or let alone war at all! Here?! This place looked so peaceful!-

He gave Thalia a good long look, his left eye twitching somewhat.

-Good Tanaka! These ponies are so cute though, how the Daiei could they try to kill each other like that?!-

"Y-You're kidding. You mean like a 'pie war' right?"

Thalia blinked several times, trying not to snicker considering the 'war' that almost broke out in Appaloosa several years ago.

"No. I mean full blown, armed conflict. The Nights rebels were well supported at the time, they were gearing up to take Canterlot, force Celestia away; and were ready to do so with their hooves dirty if need be.... But, that didn't happen. Princess Celestia stopped it."

"How? I doubt intimidation would have worked at that point."

"She actually did the exact opposite. Ponies were afraid of her because they didn't fully know her yet. When she banished Nightmare Moon, the nation realized just how unique the sisters were and thought that if Celestia could beat the Nightmare, by logic she was even worse! Celestia dispelled that by showing them just how she was. She's been holding festivals, renovating towns, putting on shows, and holding galas for almost a millennium now. And since her return, Princess Luna joined in on these endeavors, and ever since then fears of Nightmare Moon Round 3 died within a year."

Rodan pondered it all for a moment, starting to pick up on the train track he sensed Thalia was laying down before him. If the Princesses once had a similar problem that he and his companions were facing, maybe their methods could work out for them too. Would explain them being the ones to send the letter after all.

"Sooo, they threw a bunch of parties and the rebels gave up?"

"To an extent, like the Gala and Chucke-Lot. The parties, the shows, and holidays showed everypony that the alicorns didn't see themselves as unknowable forces. They could dance, smile, laugh, and celebrate just like the rest of us. You can't say something is a monster if it's just like you. And, there were other important events too. Like the Summer Sun Celebrations and nowadays Nightmare Night. They are times the Princesses showcase just what gifts they possessed and what powers they have that makes them unique."

"Showcases of power tooo, what?... You sure they weren't trying to intimidate and keep you all in line? I thought you said they did the opposite."

"Oh nonononononono!-"

Thalia snorted and sputtered, waving her hoof in front of the confused gryphon whilst restraining herself from laughing aloud.

"It's not like that at all! The showcases are entirely harmless and are done to amaze and thrill, not intimidate. If the parties and galas were meant to show just how similar the Princesses are to the rest of us, these sort of celebrations exhibit that yes, they are still unique, but in a fantastic way. A way that shows how they can do things few to none others can. My mother took me to several Summer Sun Celebrations when I was a little filly and bless my word they were fantastic! The anticipation, the beautiful set up, and then Celestia rising into the sky with the rising sun behind her oooh!"

The mare closed her eyes and giggled in nostalgic glee of years past, the warmth washing over her being proof positive about the moral she was driving home. Impacts had been made. She took in a deep breath, still beaming as she continued.

"And nowadays I hear Princess Luna joins in on the festival as an equinox with the moon. I couldn't even think about how many colts and fillies are growing up now with such a spectacle ingrained into their memories.... Now, are you starting to follow what I've been saying Rodan?"

The gryphon thought it through and bit by bit, the trail Thalia blazed began to make more and more sense. Nerves a bit calmed, he took his first swig of the drink he'd been given.

"Yes, yes I think I might be. If you show folks who you are, how you are both the same to be relatable and different to be cherished for your skills, even great power can be looked up to."

Thalia's beaming turned into a grin after an affirmed nod.

"Might can be imposing, but it can also be beautiful. After all, a rainbow follows every storm."

"And, you think I could pull this off?"

"Equestria is a land built up by the use of talents my little gryphon. If there is something one can do well to help others, they should do it. If you don't get into that air show I'm gandering lots of folks would be missing out on something special. Play on that, show them your good side while trusting them; and it'll all work out in the end. Just promise me one thing."

"Yes?"

Thalia playfully punched at Rodan's shoulder, speaking with a smirk.

"When you take to the air at Neighagra, you can only fail if the cheering isn't loud enough for me to hear it from here!~"

Rodan took it all in for a moment before downing his entire drink in one gulp, before sitting tall and puffing his chest out with spread wings.

"Allllright! I'll give it a shot! Cynicism is for idiots anyways."

Thalia muffled a laugh with her hoof, the mutual excitement and optimism was infectious both ways.

"That's the spirit!"

The air was ruptured by a steamy whistle, causing both mare and gryphon to look towards the station. Sure enough, the sight of both the frontier train pulling into station as well as a confused Applejack galloping down the center of town greeted the duo.

"Ohp? Looks like you've got a train to catch."

"You were stretching out your speech just so you could say that, weren't you?"

"I shall neither deny nor confess."

"Riiiight, "A rainbow follows every storm.", you come up with that or hear it from someone else?"

"A lady has her secrets."

Thalia's snickering was cut short by a pair of scale-covered arms wrapping around her neck and shoulders. She opened her eyes to find Rodan crawled around the table and was hugging her neck.

"Thanks for the peptalk Missus Thalia."

He whispered, a low pitch sound akin to cooing or purring seeping out of his throat. Thalia beamed and returned the gesture best she could, patting the kaiju on the back.

"Anytime Rodan. Just remember, if it all goes south, you just head on south to Appleloosa. We're always eager for newcomers, and family is more than welcome here. I'll make sure my husband keeps the roof open."

Reinvigorated, Rodan left Appleloosa that day with spirits high as he could fly. His new flock in the frontier town gave him, Applejack, and the other aid workers a family's send off.

========

Ponyville

Ponyville was enjoying some peace and quiet in stark contrast to the storm it weathered not long ago. With Discord's assistance, the 'Great Baby Attack of 1013 A.A.' had been mended within a single afternoon. Probably would have taken even less if Fluttershy didn't take several tries to convince the chaotic spirit that raspberry flavored chocolate Jell-O didn't make for a good material to patch the broken walls and roofs with. Life returned to business as usual, at least as far as the town's measure was concerned.

That is until Derpy Hooves delivered a napping weather mare her mail. Well, there goes Friday.

BOOOOOOOMMM!

A cyan blur streaked across the sky with a rainbow trail following her, gaining speed again and again despite the accelerated turns, dives, and spirals. Vibrant explosions of colored sonic booms shattered clouds and tore the sky apart in the airspace above town. Having gotten used to it after the first hour, most of the towns folk outside just put in ear plugs and kept doing what they were doing. Rarity however found herself grumbling and marching to the front door, picking up a mannequin that had fallen over on her. The unicorn stepped outside, a startled Opalescence still clinging to the back of her owner's head, looking more like a cotton ball with eyes due to her puffed out fur and dilated pupils. One glance up at the sky confirmed the suspicions she had formed the first time the sonic booms rattled her studio

-Yep, she's at it again. Wonder what it is this time..-

Rolling her eyes, Rarity winced momentarily while prying her cat off her scalp and thanking Faust she got her off before the claws came out. Picking up a megaphone Pinkie Pie had stashed next to her porch, of which Rarity didn't feel up to questioning why, she trained it on the stunt show blur.

"Rainbow!"

She got only static from the phone and a barrel roll in oblivious response. Grumbling, Rarity played with the switch to try and turn the volume up.

"Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr.!-"

The unicorn was nearly knocked off her feet by the gales of wind her speedster friend was kicking up after a squealing aileron roll. Coming out of her maneuver, Rainbow Dash slowed down just enough for her to stop breaking the sound barrier and started doing what can best be described as subsonic dancing. Rarity shrugged, blowing her bangs out of her eyes and picking herself up.

-Alright, time to bring forth the big guns. Mentor don't fail me now!-

She dialed the megaphone to full blast.

"Cus! I'm the bestest! And-And they know i-"

Her self cheering routine and frolicking was cut short by a blare of a sing-songy voice.

"Rainbow Dash Always Dresses In Style!~"

Pavlovian conditioning instantly caused RD to stop, coming to a screeching halt midair about twenty feet above a snickering Rarity. She scowled, groaning in her words.

"Dang it Rares, you're using my Ma's lines on me? Mood killer! Mood killer!"

"Not my fault her description gets that reaction out of you.~"

Rarity snickered, the near memetic phrase attributed to her mentor, Rainbow Dash Senior, having done its job. Her daughter might have had her body color and multihued mane, but nothing ever proved the apples could fall far from the tree than that family. Rainbow Dash, the junior, hovered down to the unicorn as Rarity tossed the megaphone away.

"Forgive me, but someone had to get you to slow down a moment. Another sonic boom and you'd probably have sent Opal up the wall, claws and all."

"Ehehe, sorry about that."

The weather mare awkwardly sniggered whilst landing, rubbing the back of her head.

"Now, what seems to have gotten you so excited deary?"

Rainbow's face instantly returned to a mile wide grin, wings shooting out to either side so fast Rarity thought she'd have to retrieve the megaphone again. Thankfully, she just snapped out an unfolded letter for the unicorn to levitate up before her.

-Salutations Dame Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr. ... Protector of the Realm ...Bearer of the Element of Loyalty.... Invitation ... represent Canterlot and Ponyville... join Wonderbolts at Neighagra Air show... End of week... Your talents would be greatly appreciated... Official request by the Equestrian Alicorn Diarchy!!-

Rarity, filled with glee, sprung up into the air with a loud -

"WAHAHAAA!"

With heir mane and tail sticking up on end before landing and glomping Rainbow Dash. Had the bear hug the surprisingly strong unicorn gave her not pinned her wings down, Rainbow probably would have shot up into the air with Rarity along with her. Instead the two just started prancing around mid-hug. The excitement was contagious.

"OOOOH OOOH! You'll need a costume! Flight regalia! PresenTATION!"

"IKNOWIKNOWIKNOW! Gonna look awesome! Fly out with the best! Strut my stuff! Crowds cheering me on!"

"You and your teammate will be the best fetching flyers in all of Equestria!"

A record scratch sounding off mentally within the pegasus's head. Rainbow Dash froze up momentarily, plopping them back down on the ground.

"Wait, teammate?"

Rarity, still jittering at the enticing thought of designing attire for a national show, managed to magically whip the dropped letter back between her and Rainbow as they separated. She reread the short paragraphs a few times to confirm it to herself.

"Yes, you'll be flying in a two flight team alongside one of the kaiju; aaaaa Ro-dan fellow."

Rainbow Dash pawed for the letter and was given it, busily reading it over. In her excitement over the first paragraph she'd completely missed that detail. Rarity rubbed her chin with the side of her hoof, pondering at her shop.

"Must have been that gryphon fellow that went with Applejack. Have to either make a custom mannequin or get live measurements once he gets back, don't believe I have a gryphon one-"

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarg!"

Rainbow Dash cut her off with a drawn out groan, falling over on her back.

"Oh whatever is the matter darling?"

"I have to fly with someone in front of the Wonderbooooolts..."

She grumbled in an annoyed tone, flailing her free forelimb in the air. Rarity blinked a few times before tilting her head.

"And that's a problem, how?"

"Means I'll have to slow down for them and not do all my most awesomest stunts, that's the problem! If I'm stuck with a slower flyer I can't go all out or I'd worry I'd make them look bad and then I'd look bad!"

"...Darling, I can't tell if that's selfish or selfless of you."

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahrg! Oyeeeeeeee..."

She lurched up off the ground, a noticeable slump in her face that looked of both sadness and annoyance.

"Just let down..."

"Well, Rainbow, you might be getting ahead of yourself a little. If the Princesses included you in this, that gryphon must have some talent for sure!"

"Yeeaah, I guess. Still gonna have to slow down, and I don't mean to sound like Gilda on this; but aside from one or two ponies I'm probably the fastest flyer in Equestria! Nopony except the Wonderbolts themselves or those in the academy could keep up with me. Oye this is gonna be weird, I don't want to make 'em feel like a turtle."

A stray thought crossed Rarity's wandering mind and she drew up a smirk. Experience had taught her, somewhat, how to reason with Rainbow.

"You know, you are probably right. You are one of the fastest, if not the fastest flyer in Equestria. Buuuut-"

She quipped, putting an arm around Rainbow Dash's slumped shoulders.

"- The kaiju aren't from Equestria, are they?"

Rainbow Dash lifted her head up somewhat, her pout flattening slightly as she raised a previously flopped ear.

"You're right, they're aliens. Which means-"

"-That this one is talented enough that the Princesses had faith he could keep up?"

"-That he could be just as cool as I am! He could be like the me from their world, like that weird mirror place Twilight talked about!"

"W-Well let's not get ahead of ourselves now-"

Rainbow's eyes widened and she started to grin, Rarity awkwardly giggling as she felt the pegasus start to jitter. And then Rainbow Dash's expression of glee turned to fear.

"If he's the fastest from To'rra and is like me, what if he's even faster!? That changeling is just as big of an egghead as Twilight so what if this Rodan guy is like me 20- no 40% cooler!?"

"N-Now now Rainbow, remember how confident you were going to the Academy? Plenty of other great flyers there you knew you'd outspeed!"

"Yeah but the Wonderbolts Academy is in Equestria, not To'rra!"

Rainbow lurched out of Rarity's grasp, darting up into the air. Her wings began to buzz fast enough to form into a blur as she wound herself up.

"Gotta go! Be back soon!"

"But what about your flight attire?!"

"JustGoCool!UseGalaSpecs!MakeItLean!Bye!"

And with that Rainbow bolted up several dozen yards above Carousel Boutique before making a 90 degree turn into a sonic boom to speed off to Celestia knows where. Rarity just stared at the sky before slowly shaking her head. She didn't even react to Pinkie Pie spontaniously popping out of the shrubs in front of her house to retrieve the megaphone.

"What's the problemo Rarity?"

"I fear I have awakened a sleeping giant, and filled her with terrible resolve...."

"What, a kaiju? Where?!"

"No.... Rainbow Dash's ego..."

=========

Canterlot

Making their way down a long haul, Princess Celestia and Godzilla Junior trekked their path towards the barracks, the former having caught the kaiju between her meetings and was heading the same direction.

"So, who exactly is escorting who here?"

"Yes. Now, are you sure being up at this hour is not an issue?"

Junior shrugged his shoulders, having been jostled awake a good five hours before schedule by some distant booming that passed by the castle.

"I never did have a normal sleep rhythm. Terra always kept me on my toes so I usually just grabbed a short nap whenever I could and was a light sleeper. Threats don't have a morning to evening schedule."

Celestia knew this song and dance well enough, restraining herself with her usual poise to avoid narrowing her vision.

"I can understand that logic. Equestria was a regular mess until around 900 years ago and filling in for Luna over a millennium was anything but normal."

"Don't worry, I can still keep watch over Princess Luna tonight just fine."

He grunted, having predicted some of the reason for Celestia's concern. What he didn't predict was her poise momentarily breaking into mild snickering and a hushed voice he couldn't quite make out.

"Oh I hope you will~"

"Come again?"

"Oh, nothing of importance, hehe."

Once again, confirmation in Junior's mind that ponies were weird. Kind, very generous, but weird. Shifting the subject's gears, he retrained his focus on other recent events. He kept his tone controlled through his speech.

"Princess, about the memory spell."

Princess Celestia raised an eyebrow, glancing over at the kaiju and hoping this wasn't some last minute regrets of his memories going public. They were past that threshold already.

"Yes? Is there a problem?"

Instead, yellow eyes looked up at the alicorn as a small smile crossed the edge's of Godzilla's lips.

"..Thank you, it was nice to see my mother again."

Celestia returned the smile as relief and happiness returned to her after the momentary worry.

"You're quite welcome. It was a good choice of memories in my mind. The others have taken a shine to it as well."

"Oh?"

"I aired it before today's noon court amongst the noble heads and elected officials earlier today. It had a favorable reception and helped to edge in some more favorability."

"I'll consider that a victory."

"There will be another one if the plan for your friend Rodan works out."

"I wouldn't worry too much. He always was the type who liked to fly around and cut loose, and you just gave him an excuse to. If he agrees to it, he'll deliver."

"Comforting, seems like the plan is falling into line. However we can't slow down on the plan just yet. Some of the noon court requested your presence so you probably will be called in tomorrow for it. There was one minor detail some of them were hung up on."

"What is that?"

"Your title."

Junior grunted and raised an eyebrow in brief confusion. Celestia looked away from him and turned her vision to straight ahead, her face growing noticeable stoic.

"Equestria has had an-"

Godzilla notice there was an odd pause in her speech. Her emotion was unreadable but there was an occurrence there that between her posture and height obscuring her face and the forcefully controlled tone, Junior couldn't make out. Something was going through Celestia's head she wasn't wishing to be known.

"-,off, relationship with the last large unicorn who called himself a king. And your title is "King of the Monsters", a combination that could raise some alarms. And yet, Luna tells me it's mostly just a title. So tell me again, why are you a king?"

Well this certainly was an odd question. Fortunately, it was an odd ball ordeal he'd been pondering over since he was given that title. Time and consulting with Lea had given a few satisfactory answers despite how much the title confused him first time he heard it.

"To be honest, I never set out to become one. That title was placed upon me not by my own volition. Maybe it's because of power, maybe it's because of experience, or something else but over time others came to trust and follow my lead. I really can't say what caused it. But, I'm told a good king looks out for the well being of those around him and I've been trying to do that for as long as I've had the power to. Both for my allies and world, as well as here if need be. My mother believed in making the world better by doing what you did best for the benefit of others. My father believed in carving out your own path by your own choices. I like to think I've done both."

Junior took in a deep breath, closing his eyes before exhaling slowly. The edges of his lips were beginning to turn upwards to a small degree. As stressful as life like his could be, leaving plenty of physical and mental scars behind, it was his life after all. Junior cast a sideways glance out the window and at Canterlot proper. Seeing the city alive, let alone thriving and not being reduced to a pile of gyaos chewed bones lifted his spirits. San Francisco, Sydney, Manilla, Tokyo at least four times over, Mumbai, Busan, and more cities that he hadn't learned the names of, Canterlot was another to add to the list. If his choice in another fight and another scar meant another land kept breathing for awhile longer, there was no room for argument.

"I have the powers of a monster and I know it frightens a lot of folks; but I'll use them in the best ways I can think of. As far as I'm concerned, because I have this power the well being of those who don't should be my responsibility. If that burden makes me a king, so be it..... Just don't expect me to annex anything though. I had my hands full with just one world."

Junior let himself take a minor chuckle from the slight jest, but it was cut off almost as soon as it was birthed. Something seemed amiss about his audience. Celestia has been listening, but now had turned her head opposite of Godzilla to the point he couldn't see the expression she was cracking, despite clearly not looking at something else in that direction. A moment of silence passed over the duo before Princess Celestia sighed.

"You remind me of another good king I once knew..."

She half whispered in a tone Junior couldn't quite place. It seemed saddened and happy at the same time. Junior pitched his head up somewhat and raised an ear.

"I thought Equestria had a fickle relationship with recent kings?"

Celestia shifted her attention, still holding her head very high but tilting her head just enough for Junior to see a slightly damp eye atop a tiny smile.

"He wasn't exactly from around here. I'll tell you about it another time, 'King Godzilla'."

As mildly confused and curious as he was, the kaiju opted not to prod at the details to play it safe. Instead he just chuckled lightly under his breath and returned the smile.

"You're the one wearing a crown here Princess Celestia."

"Just Celestia will suffice. After all you aren't exactly a subject of mine Godzilla. Consider this a peaceful conversation between leading bodies."

"Then you can just call me Junior, my friends do."

"Ah yes, how could I forget after Lulu told me."

She snickered, mood noticeably lifting. It took Junior a moment to pause and notice she brought up someone he didn't know.

"Wait, Lulu? Who's Lulu?"

The barracks were just ahead, several of the guards just inside already noticing the approaching diarch and kaiju and calling up the captain. Celestia raised a hoof and looked over at Junior, hiding an enormous smirk.

"Say the name next time you're alone and near my dear little sister. You'll see what I mean."

"Um, if you say so."

They stopped at an intersection not far from the barracks and departed with a mutual bow, Celestia heading off to tend to her next court planning and Junior trotting up and into the guards' training hall. An all too familiar, boisterous voice chimed in with a Dixie accent.

"Well buffer my hooves in, look who's up! Why aren't you racking out till sundown?"

Captain Blueberry Frost strode up beside the kaiju and gave him a friendly whap on the spine; earning a metallic clang from hoof greave meeting back plate. Normally Junior would be a tad cautious about the lance secured to the captain's armor being so close, namely when it was waving around near his head due to Captain Frost having it pointed up when at rest; but by now he'd gotten used to it. In truth he hadn't ever seen her without it and word from the other guards was she slept with it on.

-Yeesh it's like a pony version of Raiga... Huh, a Raiga pony, now that's a weird thought.-

"Good afternoon Captain. I was restless so I just figured I'd come here."

"Glad ye' showed up, some of the more rambunctious guards wanna try somethin'."

"What's that?"

Captain Frost tugged on Junior and helped guide him over to the emptier part of barracks. Or at least it was usually empty.

"Ye' ever play a game called tug'o'war where y'er from?"

She pulled her hoof off his back and stepped to the side to reveal a line of guards and even some night guards standing on one half of a stretched out chain with a line dividing it and the empty half of the chain. Most of the attendees' expressions ranged from cheeky grins to confident smirks as the line of stallions and mares awaited their turns. Swap out the chain for a reinforced length of nylon and the guard staff for Lieutenant Koji and some of the nicer G-force operators and Junior was getting some fond memories from his youth. Life in the Kyoto Institute wasn't all tests after all.

Captain Frost elbowed Junior's side with a whispered laugh.

"Settle a bet will ye'? I put down fourteen bits against Hammerbodlt that it'd take 'least ten to budge you, beat that and I get to take the mares out for rounds tonight."

A grin crossed Godzilla's face and he moved over to his side of the line as a large white earth pony stallion with a blue mane took up the chain on the other side. Briefly combing through his recollections, Junior recognized his face and momentarily felt a slight unease. This wasn't a stallion he'd seen before in the barracks, and that also went with several other guards waiting in line behind him.

"You're the one who grabbed my hoof after the crash landing aren't you?"

The stallion nonchalantly smirked and nodded his head.

"Yep, that'd be me. First contact with an alien and he knocks me out. Just got cleared from the medical ward."

"Sorry about that..."

"Naaah don't be. We wouldn't have signed up if the job didn't have good medical. Mistakes happen. Besides the nurses ar-ARK!"

He was cut off from whatever he was saying by the mare behind him kicking him in the flank. Figuring there wasn't a problem Junior picked up his length of the chain, having a bit of awkwardness of holding it in his hooves at first, and waited for his new compatriot to do the same... Before promptly yanking him off his hooves and over the line.

With one victory, the next challenger stepped up in the form of a duo. A gray pegasus mare with a red and white mane grasping the chain alongside a brown earth pony stallion with a red mane. Junior recognized the pair as Cached Ire and Hammerboldt. They smirked and yanked on their end and Junior felt a momentary tug, but held firm without pulling back. Instead he looked over at the giggling Captain Frost watching the little contest.

"Aren't you participating?"

"I'm stubborn, not stupid."

"Well alright then."

Junior pulled hard on the chain.

===================================================================================================

Ten minutes, ten rounds of yanking stallions and mares off their hooves, and ten bits in Blueberry Frost's satchel later....

Twelve guards of every subrace and size imaginable were pulling as hard as they could on the wrought iron chain with a kaiju pulling on the other end. The group effort had paid off in that the initial pull only pried a few of them off their feet at first and they'd since started to hold steady. Junior's hooves just started to budge forward when the central link to the chain snapped and both parties fell backwards onto their haunches or in the case of the guard team, a dog pile. Captain Blueberry Frost blew harshly into a whistle, waving a small bit of cloth like a flag.

"Aaaaalrighty, that there's the fourth chain we've gone through so let's give them blacksmiths a break!"

She shouted with a trailing laugh, collecting a second bet she'd place into a now full satchel. However before any further action could be taken, an unfamiliar shout billowed out of a speaking funnel and into the courtyard.

"Announcing the presence of the Archduke Prince!"

"Huh?"

"Speak of Tirek and he shall appear.."

A small group of guards in different attire than the royal and night guards marched up to and through the entrance to the barracks, stopping several feet inside and facing inwards. Amongst their midst a white unicorn with a blonde mane filed out with his head held high. Captain Frost marched up to Blueblood with a curious facade on her face.

-Oh great let's see what it is this time...-

"Can I, help you?"

Prince Blueblood lowered his vision to the mare for a moment, but kept his head high and closed his eyes again before speaking in a dignified tone.

"I wish to see the one known as Godzilla, I had been told he had been recruited to the Royal Guard Canterlot Garrison and presumed I'd find him here. Is he present?"

Captain Frost waited a moment to hear the heavy hoofsteps behind her before giving him his answer.

"That'd be him."

Blueblood opened his eyes to see the good captain smirking as she held a hoof up, a tall shadow eclipsing her frame. Blueblood, a very tall stallion looked up slightly, until he realized he was eye level with a shoulder plate and proceeded to keep raising his head to see Godzilla Junior towering over him. He backpedaled slightly.

"Wow ho!-.... Ahem, my my, someone's a specimen. You certain you're not an earth pony with a crooked horn glued on?"

"As far as I know it's attached. Why did you call me out?"

"Princess Celestia had much to say and show about you in the Noon Court meeting. So, I have thusly come to do what should be done."

Blueblood affirmed, shaking himself off slightly to regain his gentlemanly poise. Junior tilted his head slightly as Captain Frost shrugged whilst mentally bracing.

-Yep, here comes a Blueblood rant. Let's see if this one tops that time an impersonator swiped his ticket and got into the gala...-

She nudged Junior, whispering out of the corner of her mouth.

"Incomiiiing..."

Before Junior could ask why, Blueblood started chewing the scenery.

"As Archduke Prince heir apparent of the Canterlot Unicorn Monarchy lineage of my ancestress and Canterlot founder Princess Platinum, I astride forth and enact encompassing illegitimation and redaction of all outside financial and judicial accusations and or legal intrusions into your personage and those of your compatriots for the actions partaken in days prior and to come. In association with your royalship as the apparent crowned authority body of the Terran refugees, I, Archduke Prince apparent Auric Leon Blueblood of the Platinum Noble Household of Canterlot extend to you this commemoration in the service and preservation of house and resources."

Gold hued magic glimmered over Blueblood's horn, a pendent with the family crest levitating up before flying over and clipping itself to Godzilla's chest plate. Blueblood, having not yet had his fill of the background, continued chewing the scenery and talking through it all.

"In further endeavors and altercations to come requiring further compensation and assistance, the Platinum Noble Household of Canterlot will entrust a share of funds to the refugee leadership under the reign of King Godzilla the 2nd for ensured admitted assistance. Have a good day your lordship."

And with that, they left before the flabbergasted Junior or Captain Frost could react. Godzilla blinked several times, glancing down at the captain.

"... What just happened? I could barely understand a word he was saying."

Blueberry Frost's jaw had dropped slightly and her eye was twitching somewhat. She regained her bearings, still blankly looking wide eyed at the closed door.

"I... think, ye' just got a thank ye' from a world class prick."

"..Why?"

"If I'm understandin' his fancy talk right, because you didn't let those gyaos buzzards break his stuff."

"Sooo, good right?"

"Yeah,-"

She managed to nod and smile lightly, elbowing Junior playfully.

"-I think so. Yeesh if you could get a medal out of blonde hair bleach brain, you might get Bold Rush to rejoin...."

Blueberry Frost turned around and was about to take a step before pausing. Her tone dropped to a threatening grumble, her lance lowering back down.

"Second thought, do that and I'm demoting you..."

===============

Motel Parking Lot

The faint buzzing of the waking world slowly helped to ease Monster X back into consciousness. One by one his senses started to filter back in, giving him the feel of his surroundings. There was a tightened feeling across his chest and arms, pulling him up against the force of gravity. His head slumped over, blurry vision briefly clarified before it faded out again, just long enough to unveil several lengths of cord and cloth wrapped around his torso. The buzzing in his ears began to fade away and he heard voices.

"He's coming to!"

"Back up girls.."

-Who... where-

"Stay calm."

-I know that voice...-

X growled and shook his head to force it to clear. The haze lifted from his senses and he looked up to see three sets of eyes and three gemstones looking back at him.

The sirens stood still as their 'guest' wordlessly looked about his surroundings, noticing the impromptu bindings they'd made from bungee cord and a few jackets to tie him down to the car seat. He began to shift, seemingly forcing himself against his bindings all while casting a blank glare at the trio. The sirens stood several feet away from the side of the van, looking at the bound kaiju through an opened window to a locked door. Still didn't help much for their nerves, poor Sonata was trembling and stood further back than her companions, partially hiding back as Adagio and Aria stood front and center. The former held one of her arms out to shelter her little sister while the latter crossed her arms in front of her chest and glared back.

X stopped his subtle shifting and looked back at the three, still without muttering a word. Sonata's discomfort might have been the most obvious, but to her credit none of them were in high spirits. Aria and Adagio might have been better at hiding it, but the taut muscles under violet skin and the pale knuckles in Adagio's free arm were clues that X picked up on. Worry could be forgiven after all. It is few in number who'd look at a predator through an open window and not worry about it pouncing through it. Even monsters have monsters.

After some time, X averted his vision. He didn't struggle against his bonds, but instead started looking around in all directions, peering out the windows. Aria Blaze narrowed her eyes at the kaiju.

-Well, he didn't make a lunge for our necklaces yet. Something else have your attention?-

"..Hey Masky."

She grunted, knocking on the window's edge and getting X to whirl back around to look in her direction. The stress in his eyes was obvious.

"If you're looking for tall, cold, and murdery; we drove about 160 kilometers out of town. Unless you're about to tell me it has a learner's permit, it will take awhile for it to get here on foot."

She grunted, moving back only slightly when bloody cinnabar looked into violet. It would have taken a lot to coax Adagio into willingly getting any closer to the thing sitting in the back passenger seat, Aria stepping on her word would be one of them. Plus there was the side of wanting to make sure the creature didn't get his hand free while they weren't looking and reach through the window to throttle her cousin, that too. She stepped up beside Aria, putting herself in front somewhat while coaxing Sonata up with her. Safety in numbers after all. There was a slight snap in her voice, but it was hard to tell who it was directed at.

"We pulled you in after you fell out of the window and hit the car next to us. We left that shadow thing behind a long ways back."

X took in a breath and finally spoke, abet in a voice far too calm for the siren's liking.

"Why have you taken me?"

"We need answers, you have them."

"You assume too much."

"Off words from the one tied down with about twenty bungee cords."

"A number high enough to indicate worry. You must be very scared of the fact your kind can't mind control me like you can the humans."

Adagio's eyes widened and her jaw sneered. Not even half a dozen full sentences with this thing and she was already getting her buttons pushed. Apparently Aria and Sonata forgot to mention how irritating this thing was in their first encounter.

"We're not tal- URG! Just start talking!"

She snapped, but only got silence in response. X moved his attention away from her and back to his bindings, shifting in his seat slightly and leaving Adagio debating if they should risk opening to door or leaning in closer to see if he might be undoing his binds somehow. As the orange siren seemed to puzzle over their next move, Aria sneered. She dropped the bottom of her fist on the car's paneling with more force than one of her size would be expected to exert, causing Monster X to flinch.

"Listen up jackass! The only reason you're still breathing was due to us turning around to pull your tail fin out of the fire! Now are you going to be a courteous monstrosity or do I need to start putting back all those glass shards Sonata had to pull out of your back where we found them!?"

The outburst earned a wide eyed surprise from Adagio, enough that she didn't even notice she was letting a subordinate have an outburst; and caused Sonata to cringe under her grimacing.

"Jeez Ari.."

Monster X stayed perfectly still, looking up and ahead blankly.

"... Last thing I remember is blacking out after flying backwards, and now I am here in relative safety... Hmp, point has been made."

He muttered with a shrug, looking back at the trio as they all breathed a sigh of relief. Or least Adagio and Sonata did, Aria was still glaring knives at him.

"I do not know the exact individual, but there is only one thing I've encountered in this world with that kind of power. If I had to guess, it's a kaiju."

"... A what?"

"Loose term, giant beings of great power. If it's come here, your realm must have changed it like it did me and I presume you three, only less so."

Sonata shrugged her shoulders, thinking back to the hospital. Getting hit, impaled, and thrown out a window hardly seemed to slow their attacker down.

"Yeah! Not even the cup check worked like it did on you!"

Adagio grumbled, trying to force back a growing headache after shushing Sonata.

"Shh! ... What does this 'kaiju' want with us? It came after Aria in the hospital when we came to pick her up."

"If I had to guess, same thing I was after. A power source no one else in this realm has."

He grunted, briefly glancing at the dim red glows coming from the three sirens' hearts; causing all three to uncomfortably raise a hand to clutch their necklaces. X lifted his head back up and looked them all in the eyes.

“Which leads me to wonder, why not let one enemy kill another?”

Uneased glances were cast amongst the group.

“Don’t suppose we could talk you out of the hunt in repayment for saving you, can we?”

Sonata mumbled with a hint of meekness, lowering her head between her shoulders. X shrugged.

“The mission isn’t mine to quit.”

Brushing aside some minor confusion about what exactly the kaiju was talking about, Adagio cleared her throat to call in attention.

“Aside from hoping you knew something about our mutual attacker, two things became apparent. Firstly, you and it were obviously not on the same side. Secondly and as much as it pains me to admit this, our magic isn’t enough to overcome it. Our powers were diminished upon coming to this world and we’re still working to get them back. What magic we have however didn’t even faze it.”

Her train of thought was quickly picked up upon, X slowly nodding his head as the logic came to him.

“And because I was able to hold off and actually fight it, and you are clearly unable to control me, you three wish to strike up a bargain. You help me, I destroy the mutual threat. Is that correct?”

“Yes, that is the jist of it.”

“Even when you know about what I’m after and my assurance to you that I won’t quit?”

Monster X expected them to flinch back. He didn’t expect a retort from Adagio.

“You told me we were no use to you dead. That thing after us though? No such qualms. We go, what you came here for goes. You say you aren’t ready to quit. So how ready are you to fail a mission?”

A slow silence crept amongst the four. X closed his eyes in a brief moment of contemplation. The logic was sound enough, and they seemed willing to work with this. It had an appealing sales pitch and that last point was solid.

-Clever witch…-

Adagio broke the quiet, looking down at her gem that she still hadn’t let go of.

“And as you hold it back, we’ll focus on getting our powers back. You destroy it or we get strong enough to do so ourselves, either way it’s out of the picture."

“… If you think you have any reason to trust me, you shouldn’t.”

X grunted, looking at the three out of the corner of his peeking eye.

“Trust us, we don’t.”

“Nnnnnnnnnnope!”

“Not even as far as I could throw you.”

“Feeling is mutual.”

X cracked his neck, speaking in collection.

“I don’t tolerate threats to mine or my allies’ goals, and I probably wouldn’t leave until that shadowy creature is dead anyways.-”

He slowly nodded his head at the three.

“This alliance is temporary, but acceptable. No harm or attempts will come to you three until the problem is dealt with. If you seek to gain more power, the prize would be greater anyways. Just know this, by one way or another, the cease fire is off as soon as it is killed.”

Adagio crossed her arms, looking to her little sister and cousin. Sonata’s lips pursed and puzzled for a moment before she nodded her head rapidly, still looking a tad skittish at the pair of red eyes looking back at them. Aria took a bit longer to react, both in noticing Adagio after an elbow nudge and to give her answer; but her simple head tilt was enough. Adagio looked at X with an affirmed look upon her face.

“Deal.”

“It is so then, though I do have one request for this.”

“And that is?”

“I have powers of my own, but something seems to be wrong with them. If I could take any guess, it’s because of this body change. I’ll require some time to readjust. Give me a few days to regain control, and the creature will be killed that much easier.”

The sirens cracked cringes and sneers, Sonata moreso on the former and Adagio more so on the latter, Adagio’s protective grip on Sonata growing a tad stronger. Aria just kept glaring.

“This wasn’t brought up before. You expect us to just let you to grow even stronger?”

X rolled his eyes and he flared his nostrils slightly under his mask and scarf.

"I'm giving you the same luxury. Call it extra assurance that I will be able to kill that thing. And, I'll add this one promise."

"That being?"

"No matter how strong you three get, threat to me or not-"

If looks could kill, the red hued glare could impale. Little strands of alerted graviton flow churned the cold winter breezes as Monster X's eyes glowed slightly under the shade of his brow and mask.

"I won't kill you when I come to collect."

Adagio took in a long breath, reaffirming her wit, both confidence and ego; after getting several of her buttons pushed.

"Well, aren't you a cheery one?"

She muttered in a deadpan tone. Aria took a step closer, now just outside the window and joining her siblings in shooting a strong look back at the kaiju. She growled lowly.

"It's a deal-"

Unseen by Adagio or Sonata, a momentary glow settled upon her violet eyes. Monster X momentarily raised an eyebrow, glancing over at the other sirens and noticing they lacked this trait. Her voice dropped to a half whisper, partially masked by a passing breeze.

"-just don't expect the same from us."

Sonata felt a bead of sweat drop down her brow.

-Jeeze guys, let us get the rooms first before you start something...-

Adagio eventually broke the unsettling mood with an awkward chuckle. First the creep in the back seat and now Aria was acting weird. Today was not a good day.

"Eheh allllllright then... We're far enough out of town and it's late. That thing doesn't seem to be the hitchhiker type so it'll be following us on foot if it knows which way to go. Even then it'll take over a day or so to get here. We'll check into this motel for the night and move out by noon tomorrow."

The siren alpha female held herself high and walked away from the car, calling over her shoulder.

"Sonata, with me; Aria you keep an eye on our guest."

"Coming sis!"

-Well today's just f***ing peachy. Random monster attacks, we just struck a deal with something straight out of Tartarus, and now Aria reacting to something. McCarthy above I need some hard cider...-

The duo departed, leaving Aria and X in a perpetual glaring contest that lasted for a good minute before either of them budged. Aria took the final step forward and reached out towards X's face. She smirked when he leaned away slightly but was unable to move back enough to keep her from reaching his mask.

"That thing creeps me out."

Just when her fingers were about to curl around the edge of the shroud, a strong grip shot up and snapped around her wrist. Aria flinched momentarily, but held her ground. Monster X gently but unflinchingly pulled her hand away with his freed hand.

"The cables were quite secure, took me awhile to undo the hooks without alerting any of you."

Aria kept her face flat despite the setback, instead glancing down into X's raised sleeve. Sure enough, she saw a tell tale, golden, metallic glimmer in the faint light. She peered through X's eyes as she managed to lift her arm up slightly despite his grasp.

"Don't think I buy that nonlethal bullshit. I remember last night."

Trails of memory coursed through X's head as he tried to recall what all had unfolded upon the last moon rise. But, past a point where he blacked out on Zenith, it was nothing but a hazy blur no matter how much he tried to strain his memory. All he could recall were a few scattered still images. One of which was Aria cornered inside a tree trunk, but the context and connection was still lost upon him.

"What are you talking about? What happened?"

She took X's sleeve in her free hand and slid it down slightly, revealing Kaizer Ghidorah's golden bracer still clad upon his forearm.

"Other than you not acting like you? I attempted a hex and.. well.."

X's attention was drawn away from wondering about the armor and back to Aria. The subtle glow upon her eyes metamorphosed. Trickles of red overtook the violet in her irises as another waving stream of stray graviton churned the air.

"Got a few changes."

She spoke with a stern expression. X looked at her for some time. He was facing Aria Blaze, but it felt like he was visually squaring off with something else entirely. He didn't like it one bit, let alone why she was bringing this up in private.

"So I can see... Does the alpha siren know?"

"Adagio...doesn't...need to."

"You're planning something, aren't you witch."

"Only keeping it less complicated. If Adagio knew she'd just try to take control again and muddy the waters. Back at the hospital, this power was the only thing we had that could hurt it. It came from you, so you are going to show me how to use it."

X let go of Aria's wrist, speaking in words of caution as he looked at something he did not know.

"Let me guess, so you can protect your family from our enemy?"

Aria let go of X's sleeve and turned around, crossing her arms. She turned her head around, eyes still glowing red for some time until it slowly started to dissipate.

"And then protect them from you..."

==============

Reader Works!

I've always been honored to have entertained such talented people. I'm even more honored to have my and my co-creator's efforts end up in someone else's art collection. Now because many pictures have been made and many of these artists have turned out HUGE numbers of pictures, but Bridge related and unrelated; I'll put some of my favorites here and leave the links to their profiles. And hey, this way you take the link and get to see all there cool artwork besides the gifts granted to Bridge. Win win for everyone!

Also updating is the next chapter to the Spin-Off to The Bridge detailing the epics back on Terra, by our own SMJames- Humanity's Stand Chapter 7-9!

FallenAngel5414 is launching the shipping lanes!

Falljoydelux is proving you can make a Ghidorah adorable with their version of a Equestri-fied Guardian Ghidorah

Veteran Artist Pyrus-Leonidus is doing a whole series of kaiju'fications, so I'mma bee greedy and pot his take on my OC! :rainbowlaugh:

LionPatriot proving Azusa Gojo is an almighty mom. Beware.

Saurian96 dumping more jet fuel on the ship fires in hopes of melting steel beams.

ParadoxalOrder doing their take on an Ponified (or is it Kirinfied?) Manda =D

SpawnZillaFinalWars doing a great animation for Bridge's first transformation!

Redlin Ranger giving us a nice slideshow of Bridge up to that point to a kickin' soundtrack!

Author's Note

NOTICE: Thalia is an OC of a friend of mine. A married OC. So please shippers, grant my one request here and do NOT make ship pics of her and Rodan. I based their interactions off myself and my big sister so on top of messing with TGB's ship, you'll be creeping me out.

Proofreading by LanceOmikon and Faith-Wolff
Illustrations (COMING SOON) by Faith-Wolff
Thalia by TGB-Jerga
Blueberry Frost by Akashic Brony

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Rainbow X Rodan - Airspace SOS (now with 100% less Rainbow Factory involvement!)
Congratulations Aria Blaze, you just agreed to boot camp to a dude with issues.... A lot of issues.

Chapter 27: A Sudden Detour

=========

Ponyville

Twas a warm and sunny mid-day when the southern train from Appleloosa groaned through its tracks, as it slowed down to a halt on the fringes of the quiet town. Applejack and Rodan stepped and flew off from the train respectively to find a small crowd of friends, family, and beyond awaiting them at the station. Rodan, spotting Anguirus standing next to Rarity, hovered down to them and Anguirus cracked a small smile upon seeing the like behind Rodan's beak and spoke in a kindly tone.

"So, how was the vacation?"

"Oh pretty nice actually! Gyaos chewed up the town quite a bit but we got it all patched up. Nice folks out there in the frontier, I'm glad to say my flock keeps getting bigger!... How'd you hold down around here? What I miss?"

An awkward, mutual silence between unicorn and kaiju as Rarity and Anguirus glanced over at each other out of the corner of their eyes. A slight twitch of a nod affirming their mutual election to not bring up the destroyah swarm incident. Especially considering the aforementioned kaiju was standing five feet away from them and lazily approaching. Rodan got one look at his enemy and instinctively jolting back a bit, gripping the ground with his claws enough that the retractable set on his hindlegs flicked out. Before he could worry about a fight breaking out or Anguirus' lack of reaction to her presence, the gryphon spotted something amiss with Destroyah.

For one, she wasn't scowling as she usually was and just had a stoic calm to her muzzle. And more importantly, as he noticed when she walked past him without reacting; she had a trio of fillies on her back. One of them, Applebloom, squealed with delight and pounced off the giant mare, taking a single bound off the ground and tackling her big sister in spurt of mutual laughter. Rodan's jaw dropped a few centimeters and he turned to face the sight. Had he been mechanical, there'd probably be sparks and smoke coming out of him from the confusion. Anguirus just shrugged and moved beside the younger guardian beast. Rodan just stared in befuddlement at the remaining two fillies; a white unicorn waving happily at a mutually beaming Rarity and an orange pegasus perched atop Destroyah's head.

"Are they on-?"

"Yes."

"But that's-?"

"Yes."

"And she doesn't-?"

"Nope. And they've been around her the longest."

Rodan could only close his jaw and blink a few times, still a bit dumbstruck. He shrugged his shoulders, muscles relaxing.

".... Huh."

Rodan's attention was taken away from the odd sight of Destroyah being close to others and not murdering them, by a tapping hoof on his shoulder. He looked over to Rarity, though he had trouble remembering her name, as she looked up at him. She was currently glancing down at a pocket watch strung out from her saddlebag before bearing a close eyed, deadpan look with her ears flopping against her head.

"Could I, speak with you in private for a moment. We're short on time."

Rodan shrugged with a nod, following her over to an empty part of the dirt road about five meters from the others. Rarity sighed, glancing back at the group, then up a the sky, and put a hoof over Rodan's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry about this, she's on a rampage."

She muttered with a half annoyed tone. The confused gryphon tilted his head and looked back over at who he thought she was talking about, the draft horse sized pegasus mare with the beaming filly on her head.

"Really? That's the calmest I've ever seen her. Nice change actually."

Rarity groaned, casting a brief glance to the horizon near the Smokey Mountains.

"No... Not her. I apologize ahead of time for this... 3...-2.."

She mumbled whilst pulling out a cloak to shield herself from what the unicorn knew was coming.

"-1..."

"What are you countin' do-"

The slight hiss in the air was the only forewarning of the crashing sonic boom that followed. A cyan-blue blur dug her hooves into the ground, coming to a sliding halt that cut grooves into the soft dirt. In the span of a second and a half Rodan found a pair of cerise-colored eyes inches away from his.

If that didn't make him jump back, the shouting did.

"YOU!"

"WAH!"

"RARITY!"

"Yes yes, I've got my stop watch and the tape for the finish line in my bag, darling."

Recovering from his initial jolt, Rodan landed back on the ground and canceled out the growing plasma charge he had been building up due to being startled. A quick inspection of the pegasus' rainbow clad-mane helped confirm to him who he was looking at, remembering the name from the latter.

"Oh uh, you must be the mare I'll be flying alongside, Rainbow Dash right?"

Rainbow Dash however was stuck speaking like her caffeine had some drink in it instead of the other way around.

"Yes,That'sMe!"

"Aaaare you okay?"

"I'mFINE!BeenSettingItUp-"

Rarity freed herself from her cloak, having successfully shielded her mane and coat from the uproar of dust and dirt Rainbow Dash's landing kicked up, and had gotten behind the pegasus. Gently putting her hooves over Rainbow Dash's back to push her taut wings back down, she rocked her friend back and forth while patting her back.

"Ssshhh shhhh Breathe Rainbow, don't forget to breathe."

As requested, Rainbow Dash stopped hyperventilating and took in a gasp big enough to swell up her torso before slowly easing it out.

"Aaaaalright, I'm not meaning to be rude in doing or saying this sorta stuff but, the Neighagra Falls airshow is going to have aaa-lot of important fliers there. I want to look my best for all those ponies who are going to be there and show 'em just how awesome I am too! However, since we'll be flying together I'd need to know if you can keep up with me or not. Wouldn't want to make either of us look bad if there is a big difference or not."

Rarity puzzled for a moment, rubbing her chin as she sifted through memory.

"But-"

She whispered with a raised eyebrow.

"-weren't you mostly freaking out over the thought he might be faster than yo-HMMRRPH!"

She was muffled by Rainbow Dash sticking her hoof into her muzzle to shush her, chuckling awkwardly to try and take attention away from that statement.

"Well, if you're worried about speed, I got only one thing to say to you."

Rodan deadpanned as Rainbow Dash looked back over at him, flexing his wings lightly.

"Don't."

"Oooooooh we'll find out alright..."

=======================================

Several Minutes Later at the edge of Ponyville

A small crowd was perched at the top of a large, broad hill. Two posts flanking the road with a chalk line drawn into the dirt between them marked a start-up line. Rarity strolled past said line, glancing over a map she was levitating out in front of her.

"Alright everypony and everykaiju, we all understand the rules and the course?"

She quipped, moving the map over in front of the duo taking their marks on the star line. They both looked and while Rainbow Dash was the one who knew the path to travel already by merit of having set it, Rodan didn't worry too much with memorization. If this mare was worried if he could keep up with her, doing that was his primary concern and he'd just follow her. Fortunately though, Ms. Dash had picked some easily remembered trail markers.

"Straight shot westward over White Tail Woods, north to Big Smokey Mountain, east across Canterlot Mountain, around Foal Mountain; and then back here to Ponyville. One lap across the large loop and first one to hit the tape I'll put up across the finish line wins."

With a nod from the racers, Rarity trotted over to the audience. Most of the familial flock from the train station had come, plus one Pinkie Pie who'd ambushed them on the way to the hill. Scootaloo wasn't wasting any time to cast her name to her desired vote.

"GOOOO! RAINBOOOW!"

The little filly cheered with some mild prancing, already having summoned her rainbow mane hat from her saddlebag. Anguirus, mildly amused by the young one's enthusiasm, as misguided as he thought it was. He merely rolled his eyes and spoke in a manner that implied the earth pony was already certain of the outcome.

"Hey Rodan, try not to embarrass her too much out there."

A pink blur shot up next to him, Pinkie Pie's eyes inexplicably popping out of their sockets in manner that left Anguirus momentarily horrified.

"Pffft! Pleeeeeaase! Dashie's got this one in the saddlebag!"

Recovering from his confusion and reaffirming his choice to just give up on trying to understand whatever eldritch jester in the skin of a equine was before him, Anguirus grunted.

"Wanna bet?"

"Sure! I take cupcakes and bits!"

Rarity groaned and just levitated up the pull cord to a loaned party cannon, making sure to point the barrel away from everyone. She slipped on a pair of plush ear muffs and yanked the cord. At virtually the same instant the muffed 'POW!' of the cannon sounded off, both pegasus and gryphon had kicked and bolted off from the starting line. By the time the dust cloud they kicked up settled, the echoes and shades of the two tearing through the air were already distant.

===============

White Tail Woods

Fall in White Tail was serenity's reign. Amidst the seas of burned gold leaves and beams of sun light filtering through the trees, the Running of the Leaves was underway. Numerous racers trot and sprint down the earthen trail, in no particular rush despite the competition. A few yards ahead of the main pack, Apple Fritter jogged around a bend in the trail with her head turned to the forest parallel.

And then a distant whistling sound started to pool into the air, bouncing off many of the nearby trees to give an echo. Apple Fritter slowed down her pace and curiously raised her shifting ears. Finding the direction was a tad hard due to the forest bouncing around all the sound, but it seemed to be coming from above. It grew louder and louder as a growing pace until-

fffffffffffffFFWOOOM!

The double sonic boom crackled just above the tree line. Apple Fritter's eyes went wide and she hopped up with stiffened legs in a startle, the curtain of air behind the crash having torn many leaves off their branches. Apple Fritter landed back on her hooves amongst a downpour of autumn glow.

Now hundreds of meters away and several meters above the fading tree line, Rainbow Dash and Rodan continued to accelerate through the vapor cones forming around them. They pitched up, the tsunami of dead leaves that chased them gradually dying away as they ascended and began swinging in a wide arc around Big Smokey Mountain. Even as they slowed down slightly to curve around the peak, neither one dropped below 500 kilometers per hour

As they straightened back out but hadn't yet sped back up, Rainbow Dash turned herself around and began casually flying backwards despite the rate they were moving at.

"Alright! You can definitely break up to mach 2! Not bad! You'd make Wonderbolts academy!"

She shouted at the top of her lunges to be heard over the streaming air. Rodan cracked a cheeky smirk as he too started flying backwards, offhandedly rolling his eyes.

"THAT was the goal? I wasn't even trying!"

"Oooh you're gonna!"

A mutual smirk was brokered and the duo turned themselves back around and instantly accelerated back up at ever increasing rates, bursting vapor cones and resulting shockwaves signaling the breach of over 3,000 kilometers per hour speeds. Curtains of screaming air easily mistaken for thunder sliced into the snow capped mountain peaks, cutting trenches along their lengths.

For a moment though the cold blasts of air filtered through the mach cone and Rodan felt a brief dip in his thermal energy. Lacking his original state's sheer size to ward off the cold thanks to gigantothermy, the cold was slowing him down enough for Rainbow Dash to pull ahead. However the tie breaker was brief. As he crashed through more and more curtains of air, Rodan got an idea. Spreading his wings out as far as he could, he intentionally subjected himself to as much air friction as possible. It slowed him down at first, but friction with even cold surfaces can cause a lot of heat. And heat was exactly the sort of thing the omega guardian beast ran on.

The stunt paid off, for the moment he returned to a more streamline position, Rodan's velocity spiked enough to easily catch up with Rainbow Dash and shoot ahead of her going fast enough to breach Mach 3. Not one to be deterred and only emboldened by the display of speed, Rainbow Dash took away some of her restraint. She had been wanting to gradually build this race up to keep it interesting for the kaiju. Something she couldn't do in second place.

-Okay wise guy, let's kick it up a notch!-

She put her hooves out before her and arched her back slightly to kick off, knifing through the air and multiplying her top speed. A glowing path of dueling rainbow hues and burning light began to take shape as they sped away from the mountains. They had just begun to pass a Cloudsdalian weather factory, a sight Rodan found so bizarre he almost slowed down to get a better look at it, when the gryphon noticed something else directly in front of them. Rainbow Dash saw it too and both racers struck a confused expression as they dived upwards to avoid an impact.

Skidding to a halt, they looked over at each other and then back at the intruder before hovering down at it. Rodan, dumbfounded, just looked at the dark mass with a slack jaw and raised eyebrow.

".... Does that cloud have a face on it?"

"Yes, yes I think it does."

"Did you put it there for the course?"

"Nope, I didn't have anything to do with this."

"Are, evilly cackling clouds normal around here?"

"Nnnnope!"

They quickly caught up to the lazily moving mass, which Rodan was only now noticing was hilariously tiny for a cloud at only house sized. The rolling croaking coming out of it halted and instead a nasally bark called out from the rolling cumulus.

"Ey! Get out of my way you gutless mocking birds!"

".... Rainbow, I've seen a lot of weird things in this realm. Should I put verbal weather on the list?"

"No, this is new to me too.... Seems oddly familiar though."

Rodan hovered in front of the cloud, looking at its grinning facade over as several long moments of silence passed. The face itself seemed to shift in the rolling epidermis, tracking the fliers as it it was looking at them. Now debating if he somehow hit his head at some point today, Rodan awkwardly waved his paw at it.

"Um... Hi?"

"Hello yourself you beaked tongue lizz'aurd you! I said't move out of our way! We are on an erround!"

"We? There's more of you?"

Instead of directly answering Rodan at first, the cloud seemed to mumble something to itself in a hushed tone.

"Chercher la foudre!... Ahem!... Yes, there are more of us! Now go away or we shall taunt and smite'd you a second time!"

"Smite?"

Rainbow Dash had been pawing at her memory while the conversation was going on. This was new, but something about this was jogging parts of her memory.

-'Talking' black clouds with evil grins on them... Haven't seen that sin-....!!!-

The weathermare just managed to recall a particular event in time to dive to the side, grabbing Rodan and yanking him out of an oncoming dark thunderbolt's path.

"Cloud Gremlins!"

As if on cue to her shout, a small figure popped forth from the top of the cloud. The reddish brown imp in wailed with laughter while tapping the top of the cloud. Rodan and Rainbow Dash, while more than nimble enough to get out the way as soon as the shots were being fired, nevertheless has to dive, roll, and swoop about in all directions to avoid getting hit. Rodan tucked his wings in and let gravity and his narrowed frame put him into a diving aileron roll that shot him past a spiraling Rainbow Dash.

"They're what?!"

"Cloud Grem-" Rainbow shouted before cutting herself off to duck under a bolt that sailed over where her head had been and demolished a tuft of cirrus behind her.

"-lins, some of them once tried to blot out the sky around Ponyvill-!!"

She was once again forced to cut herself off again to divert all her focus into dodging.

"Agrk! Follow me!"

Rainbow Dash called out before zipping past the cloud and taking cover under a particularly large cumulus cloud. Rodan followed suit, granting a respite from the lightning bolt fire . Their cover rattled and chipped slightly from the pursuing thunderbolts, but managed to hold up long enough for its purpose. Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath and snorted before continuing.

"As I was saying! They came after Ponyville once to try and work their stuff. They hijack clouds and juice 'em up with dark magic, literally causing gloom to rain down on everypony."

"Where are these jacks from anyways?"

"Not sure, the accent is new."

"Silly Dashie, the ones you handled were from Neigh Jersey. These ones are from the Hanc region of Prance. Can't you tell by their outrageously exaggerated accents?"

"Oh thanks Pinkie-........"

"...."

Rainbow Dash and Rodan looked at each other and then back at the source to the noise. A patch of the cloud in front of them seemed disturbed, but no more than the spots that were hit by the gremlin's bolts; and there wasn't anypony there.

".... Did you just hear a voice?"

"Y-yah let's just focus on the gremlins for now."

The gryphon and pegasus, noticing the lack of continued electrical artillery fire, popped their heads up from the top of the cloud. The gremlin's cloud was easy enough to spot, between the raving goblin atop it and the fact it had drifted off towards the factory. Shoving several other clouds out of its way, the mass implanted itself into a line directing itself to the base of the floating complex. Far ahead in the line, cloud after cloud was sucked into broad tube that drew them into the interior. Rodan puzzled, pointing a claw at the oddity.

"Okay, I got no clue how something is sucking up clouds or what you ponies do with them, but looks like the gremlins are trying to get in on it."

The gears in Rainbow Dash's head did their work. Her eyes widened and jaw clenched up gradually as the realization began to dawn on her.

"OH...BUCK! If they get that hexed smog in there, they'll filter into and clog up the whole system!"

"Which means?"

"W-Well, either their cloud will infest the rest of the supply and spread the contamination, or considering the factory's pressure valves...."

Rainbow Dash put her hooves together, rattling them briefly before throwing them apart while squeezing a "Pooouuuuuwww!" sound from her cheeks to simulate an explosion. Rodan and Rainbow looked at the cloud for about three seconds before scrambling out from their cover.

"STOP THAT CLOUD!"

Rainbow Dash, already anxious, shot out ahead of the kaiju, knocking several smaller clouds further back in the line aside, and set to crash into the dark mass's surface.

"I got this!"

She roared a battle cry and lashed out in a diving kick. Her hoof sunk deep into the surface, but instead of being shoved out of the way like its uncorrupted brethren; the hexed cloud didn't budge. Instead its surface rebounded with an elastic snap, flinging a careening Rainbow Dash back. Rodan, having caught up, reacted quickly and grabbed the spiraling pegasus by her shoulders. Flipping around head over tail a few times from RD's momentum, he pounded the air with his broad wings and slow down enough to right himself. The lead gremlin's nasally croaking filled the air.

"Haun haun haun! We learned of your run in with those Neigh Jersian rapscallions! Thusly, we took the time to improve our transportati'on's constituti'on. We are buck proof you crayola brained fou!"

"Do these things ever shut up?"

Rainbow Dash shrugged free of the gryphon's grip and put a hoof on his chest to push him back a bit whilst she hovered up.

"Urg! Just let me handle this!"

She barked, motioning to the weather factor ahead with her hoof.

"I'll try and break it up or slow it down, you get up to the factory and get help. Tell them to turn the intake valve off!"

While he felt the urge to argue the point, not one to be pushed aside when he felt needed, Rodan just groaned and did as requested while rationalizing that a magical ponylander would know more about dealing with magical ponyland clouds than he did.

-Just do as your asked, Ro', and we can get this over with. She knows more about this stuff than you do and you can still tag in if it really goes foul. Probably lots of staff in this cloud factor... that's made of clouds somehow... That'll know what the heck to do. They're professionals after all.-

The thoughts ran through his head as he sped at the building, already dreading having to go inside. Swallowing his looming unease, he put his claws forward and rammed through a doorway. He was ready to meet a whole herd of ponies inside, professionals to the factory who'd know exactly what to do....

Instead he saw a single mare with a work jacket and helmet labeled 'Volunteer' sitting at a desk.

-DAMN IT TANAKA!-

Cloudchaser, more than a little confused about the oddly featherless gryphon having just barged in and was now looking like he was mentally cursing the sky above, stopping spinning around in her chair. She kicked off from the desk and rolled over closer to him.

"Um... Can I, help you?"

She muttered, wondering just what was up with this whacko. Rodan shook his mental cursing towards his bad luck aside and shoutingly parroted what Rainbow Dash had asked of him.

"Yah we got a bit of a situation! I need you to close the lower intake valve quick!"

Cloudchaser's eyes quickly cast a stern glare and her wings flared out on instinct.

"Shut off the intake?! Are you nuts?! Captain Spitfire left me to-"

Before she could further her response however, whooping cry shot out through the hole the gryphon busted into the factory.

"OW ARGK!"

"Haun haun haun! Is that all you've got you silly chicken winged equid?! Your mother was a poultry and you father smelt of elderberries!"

Rodan quickly looked into the hole, hopping up and hovering in the air.

"Stand still you little weasel!"

"AHP! Prenez couvercle! Fetchez l'éclair!"

There was a flash of crashing light that blinded the factory interior for a brief moment. As odd as the display was however, Cloudchaser's head shot up in surprise and she too took to the air as memories from the academy filtered into her mind.

"Wait a tick, I know that buccaneer blitz!"

She shouted as she zipped over to join Rodan at the new window. When she got one look at what was going on a few dozen meters from the factory, the confusion and shock was justified as she saw Rainbow Dash spiraling through the air after another failed attempt at popping the cloud.

"What the hay is going on out here?!"

"Cloud Gremlins, Rainbow Dash said they're-"

The aforementioned pegasus had quickly recovered despite a glancing blow from a thunderbolt and gave it another try with similar success.

"-trying to get into that intake pipe the other clouds are getting sucked into and cause a mess. Can you close the pipe or not?!"

Grasping the situation after putting together just what would happen if the gremlin cloud got into the system, Cloudchaser instinctively saluted.

"Well why didn't you say so?! Consider it done!"

The purple mare barked before flying over to the machinery that controlled the factory, mashing at the controls to enact the right protocol. Rodan looked back at Rainbow Dash's repeated assaults, this time a high speed dive kick to the central mass of the cloud. Acute vision spied the manner that Rainbow's hoof seemed to bury into the mass for a moment, before stopping its inward sinking and rebounding back.

Trying to think up a plan, he turned his head and hollered over to Cloudchaser.

"Hey! Why is she trying to physically beat a cloud?"

"Shaped clouds can only take so much force at a time, or else they get holes punched into them or pop entirely!"

-Alright, so if Rainbow Dash thinks she can rupture it with brute force, breaking a normal cloud shouldn't be too hard. That gremlin said something about reinforcing it. Think Ro' think!-

He pondered, quickly flying over after spotting Cloudchaser had gotten up and was turning a large hatch crank, likely connected to the intake valve, with some effort. Rodan shot over her head, gripping the crank and assisting her in turning it a bit quicker. He cast the mare a question as he hung upside down while the duo spun the crank wheel around.

"So if she can't burst through it, those gremlins probably did something to make it denser right?"

"Yah! That probably iiigrk!- would be the ticket!"

"Right, now are clouds here still- grik! made of water?!"

The crank halted with a groaning sound echoing out the wide tube behind, signaling that the valve had been shut. Cloudchaser briefly huffed to catch her breath, heart still racing as she got to the other controls to make sure the shut off intake wouldn't interfere with the other system's pressure. She was so quick at her work the pegasus didn't even fully notice the seeming stupidity of the question.

"Uh! Yah, what else would they be made of?!...! And hey! Why don't you have any fea-"

By the time she stole a glance upwards however, Rodan had already bolted out the hole he came in through.

"-thers?"

Relieved already to be outside again, Rodan didn't have much a chance to gather his wit before having to react to a out of control Rainbow Dash catapulting right towards him. Once again he managed to catch her, beating his wings into gusts to resteady them. This time however, he didn't let go when she started to try and struggle free for another go at the cloud.

"Ag! Just get back and let me at em! I'm going to give em my-"

"Trampoline act with you bouncing off again?! Listen, I might not know much about this magical cloud stuff, heck I probably couldn't solve this on my own unless you feel me turning back into something bigger than that factory. But your efforts alone aren't getting us anywhere! I know you want to prove yourself capable, but how can we team up with the Princesses' plan if we can't do it for something like this?! Let. Me. Help."

A moment of silence passed over the two, Rainbow Dash drawing in a long breath before letting loose an equally large sigh. Admitting she needed help wasn't ever her strong suit, and this was little exception.

"Alright... You can let go of me now."

Rodan obliged and after briefly rolling her shoulders, Rainbow Dash hovered up next to him as they kept out of range from the gremlin's fire.

"So, you got a plan for this?"

"I might. Your clouds here work differently than back home, but clouds are clouds. Meaning they still work like water does. I can do something to soften it up enough to make a difference, can you wind up for another blitz? Needs to be a big one."

He was half expecting pride or clashing egos to flare up again and muddy his idea. Thankfully, a chuckling tap on the shoulder told him otherwise.

"Heh, does the rain fall?"

The gryphon let a cheeky grin stretch over his maw and the duo split off. Rodan dove out in front of the oncoming cloud to put himself between it and the factory, as Rainbow Dash ascended up to a higher altitude to build up some speed. The lead gremlin adjusted his goggles and sneered at the gryphon in their way.

"Eh! Move out of our way, we have a date with thaut fac-toray!"

-Heh, fat chance...-

Spreading his wings to increase his surface area, Rodan soaked up as much heat as he could from his surroundings, both from the sunlight and the air heated by the thunderbolts. Trickles of light built up across his wings and rushed into his veins, collecting into the pterosaur gryphon's scale covered torso. A lightning strike shot forth from the cloud, but the excess heat building up across Rodan's body deflected the bolt just enough to miss. Before they could fire another shot, the trails of energy traveled up from Rodan's torso and into his throat. Crests glowing from the crackling energy arcing between them, Rodan snorted a small puff of sparks from his nostrils before opening his mouth. The hissing shriek, both from the glowing eyed saurian's war cry and from hot plasma spiraling out his mouth, split the air in two. Controlling the mana charged inferno, Rodan fanned out the attack, forcing the beam into a wide flamethrower. The lead gremlin squawked and dove for cover just before the flames engulfed the front half of the cloud.

The force and heat wasn't enough to burst through or impale the cloud, too much dark magic at work for that. But it was enough to affect the water inside it. Forced apart by the heat, more and more of the dark mass started evaporating into water vapor. The mass expanded from the state change, but was becoming less and less dark as its density faltered. On cue, Rodan shut the attack off just in time for a streaking rainbow to swoop down for above. Rainbow Dash hit the cloud with a full force blitz, blinding all in sight as soon as she made contact. Moments after the light faded however, success was obvious. Bits of explosion propelled dark cloud flew off in random directions, the central mass having been completely obliterated. Half a dozen cloud gremlins tumbled into a controlled hover as they flew down to the forest canopy below.

Rainbow Dash was grinning ear to ear and practically prancing in midair. She flew up to a similarly smiling Rodan.

"Hahaaa! Nicely done! Sorry about the mishap at first."

She chimed, holding her hoof up and out to him. Rodan just shrugged it off with a smile and waved a paw at her, not knowing the gesture she was trying to do.

"Nah don't worry about it. You did great!"

Rainbow Dash didn't say anything else, just glancing at her hoof held high and shaking it a bit at him. Rodan wordlessly glanced at it, not recognizing the gesture. Figuring it was some sort of salute, he mimicked her. Rainbow Dash left herself chuckle and reached out to tap Rodan's paw.

-Note to self, teach kaiju the high-hoof.-

Cloudchaser's voice calling down from above brought the two out of their celebration.

"Um... Guys?"

Rainbow Dash and Rodan hovered up to her level, the pegasus leaning out the entrance Rodan busted into the factory. Cloudchaser was looking out with a pair of binoculars at something past the duo.

"I'm not gonna ask about the chili pepper breath stunt you just pulled, but..."

She removed the binoculars, pointing outwards. Cloudchaser's ear flopped against her head and her muzzle bore a tight lipped pout. Turning around in the direction indicated, the flight team looked out over the horizon. They didn't notice it at first, but sure enough something unsettling came into view as it started poking out from around the north mountains. Another gremlin cloud, easily five times larger than the last one with the same cackling facade clad on its rolling head wave. Rodan muttered with a groan evident in his voice. Rainbow Dash wasn't any better, speaking through a lowered brow and face enveloping frown.

"Is that what I think it is?..."

"Oh you gotta be joking..."

"Haun haun haun!"

A very annoying tone called out to the trio from below. Eyes cast down to see the lead gremlin perched atop a high branch with his laughing crew below him.

"Did you think we would deprive our'salves of reinforcements?! We were just les scouts! That is la mother cloud! With it we will infest Cloudsdale and then-AAAP!"

His fist shaking monologue was cut off from having to rapidly bail out of the tree and dive for cover due to the series of fireballs spat his way. Rodan growled with narrowed eyes, smoke seeping out of his nostrils. Ignoring the fire breathing gryphon, Rainbow Dash turned back to Cloudchaser.

"Cloud, who else is in this factory?!"

Cloudchaser, having been wide eyed at what Rainbow Dash ignored despite earlier election, jolted slightly and shook her head.

"Ju-just me!"

She yelped.

"WHAT?!"

"The other academy fliers were here with me a bit ago but they're out for now. Spitfire had us doing community service by manning this factory on the worker's day off, but I drew the short straw so everypony else is on lunch break!"

Rainbow Dash let out an exasperated groan as she mentally begged Bonnie and Faust as to why she was having so much rotten luck.

"Gals that cloud is heading right this way!"

"Rodan!"

The Element of Loyalty whirled around to the gryphon.

"Think you could wreck that cloud if you monster'd out?"

Rodan's eyes widened and he eyeballed the distance between the factory and the cloud. If physical force was needed to burst a cloud, 32,000 tons of pterosaur going thousands of kilometers per hour definitely would be enough. He'd just have to gauge the back draft to avoid hitting the factory with the aftermath. He gave an affirm nod and turned to Rainbow Dash with clenched paws.

"Alright, but we'll have to be quick! Hurry up and hit me with your magic!"

"Pegasi don't shoot magic."

"Well do you remember what you did with Anguirus?!"

Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath, probing her memory. Cloudchaser, not having a clue what they were talking about, just awkwardly looked between the two while occasionally stealing a glance at the cloud steadily growing closer and closer. Rodan bit his tongue and nudged Rainbow Dash.

"Um... Rainbow?"

Rainbow Dash's closed eyes twitched and she threw her head back in exasperated groaning.

"Aaaaarg! I can't remember! Just sorta happened! I can't even recall what I was thinking about when my element popped up!"

"Well can we redo what you did last time?"

"Not unless you can hand me a scared pony and a bridge to drop on top of us!"

Rodan glanced over at Cloudchaser with a deadpan expression, whom noticed and defensively put her hooves up.

"Hey leave me out of this!"

"Sorry."

Rainbow Dash mulled over her options fast as she could. Taking in a deep breath she slowed her nerves and looked the situation over.

"Alright...Aalllllright! No time to figure out those details so we'll go for plan B. Cloudchaser, can you use the thermals coming off the valley to nudge the factory southward along with the headwinds?"

"Yah, but with that cloud using the same drafts we can't outrun it."

"You won't have to. Just use the right drafts and try and play keep-away as long as you can. You'll see what I mean. If all else fails, head towards Cloudsdale and try to get help. Seeing the factory on the move and a big cloud chasing it will definitely get everyponies' attention."

Cloudchaser, now glad to be in on a plot that didn't involve being literally thrown under a bridge, nodded to her classmate and dove for the control boards.

"On it!"

"Rodan come with me!"

Dash shouted as she darted away and upwards from the factory. Rodan quickly followed suit, stealing a look down below. The factory rumbled from shifting machinery before it slipped into a wind and started moving. With the cloud coming along the same path at a slightly faster rate, the world's slowest chase down was in play.

"What's the plan?"

"Plan is we're about to see if we really do have the same speed or not. You remember the path we've flown so far on the race? Well I need you to do it in reverse."

====================================

A Short Time Later In Ponyville's outskirts

Rarity adjusted her opera binoculars' focus as she spied something streaking across the sky over Big Smokey Mountain.

"Oh! I do believe I see one of them approaching!"

Everyone, baring a stoic Destroyah, perked up at the news. Scootaloo, now resuming her perch on the taller object she could climb, Destroyah, eagerly turned her head to the indicated direction.

"Who is it? Who is it?!"

She squealed, jittering in place until Destroyah put a hoof to her shoulder. Rarity bit her tongue and clarified the focus a bit more, not a stable task given the speed at which the flier was traveling. Soon enough though, she spied reddish brown hues through the flames streaking across the sky.

"Looks liiiiike... Rodan!"

Scootaloo pouted and flopped onto Destroyah's scalp as Anguirus, not having the slightest sense of surprise, just nodded affirmatively. However, amongst worried thoughts about how Rainbow Dash would handle a lost race, a sudden realization crossed Rarity's mind. She took the binoculars away as Rodan flew close enough to be seen.

"Wait a minute-"

Rodan's acceleration only seemed to be increasing, the midair bursts accompanying him signaling that the gryphon was had long since ruptured the sound barrier. He was rapidly approaching and wasn't slowing down.

"-why is he going the wrong way?....!!! EVERYPONY HIT THE DECK!"

Grabbing everypony in arm's reach, Rarity dropped to ground so fast she would have been kissing the dirt had she not previously put down her picnic blanket. Everyone not named Destroyah dropped down and hid as the speeding gryphon zoomed over head after breaching mach 5. The resulting sonic crash was enough to shoot a gust of hot wind so violent it tore leaves off the surrounding trees and eviscerated the clouds. Fueling himself off the air friction, Rodan pushed himself further and further. The building heat ignited the very air around him as his speed increased further and further by the second. Preceded by a burning mach cone, fires stretched across Rodan's wingspan and overtook his form, making the gryphon more closely resemble a phoenix-shaped fireball than anything else.

Kilometers away and at the very same moment that Rodan arced around Big Smokey Mountain, a cyan blur had overtaken the skies above Hollow Shades and Foal Mountain. Exploding forth from an uproar of snow as she zipped past the peak of the latter locale, Rainbow Dash blotted out all other thoughts but the necessary. Going so fast often made the world around her distort, first stretching and pulling before slowing down so much it almost seemed like the normal was frozen and the quick ground to a crawl. Being the one causing her acceleration, this was one of the key times she really focused on everything. Every wing beat, every touch of air, every subtle movement to compensate for both the g-forces and disrupted air was to pulling herself through. Everything had to be absolutely perfect for this.

Equestria had thousands upon thousands of fliers, most of which could fly faster than anypony could run.

Equestria had dozens onto dozens of speedsters, many of which could easily break the sound barrier.

It had only one specialist one whom could exceed even that, at least when she put her mind to it.

And Rainbow Dash couldn't be any more focused as she sped towards her race track's halfway point. The sky behind her began to illuminate with streaks of her namesake as the mach cone narrowed before bursting forth. A curtain of radiant hues washed over the sky in a blast wave, Dash flying out at top speed with a full sonic rainboom in her wake.

Back at the factory, Cloudchaser kicked the controls into overdrive and had even taken to flying outside and pushing against structure as hard as she could. The effort was valiant, she even managed to match the speed of the gremlin cloud and pull ahead of it slightly. But, she was still just one soul literally pushing a building and the attackers were now less than one hundred meters away. Seeing the oncoming attack, she darted to the side to dodge a dark lightning bolt that hit the intake valve below her, blowing the hatch off and exposing the opening. The invaders however were too preoccupied with their own gratuitous laughing that only Cloudchaser noticed the glowing lights rapidly approaching from either horizon. She wisely dove back inside the factory, ducking and covering for what she guess was coming.

Rainbow Dash and Rodan, both traveling at over 12,000 kilometers per hour rammed into either side of the cloud at the exact same moment. Between the sheer kinetic impact and blazing heat, the duo utterly obliterated any reinforcement built into the structure and the entire cloud ceased to exist within a second of them crashing into it. Ripples of rainbow lights and waves of fire shot across the sky in magnificent display. The weather factory survived, at the cost of the concussive blast wave blowing out every window above the ducking Cloudchaser. Despite having lost a vast majority of their momentum the moment they hit the cloud however, Rodan and Rainbow Dash half collided and went spiraling southward across the sky in an careening arc.

============

Ponyville

"....Ah buck not again!"

Rarity yelped, dropping her binoculars as everyone took cover from the twisting ball of mass and smoke that sailed over them. The streak of vibrant light and trailing flames zoomed past them, colliding and obliterating the finish line and splashing down in the nearby pond.

The dust torn free from the ground slowly cleared and everyone, save Destroyah who hadn't budged through it all aside from letting Scootaloo duck under her hooves and now had her mane sticking up on end, got to their hooves. The pond was steaming in many spots with a mass of bubbles in the middle, the tattered remains of the finish line flapping down in the wind and landing on the surface. In an instant, Rainbow Dash and Rodan burst forth from the surface. While they both looked a tad ruffled, Rainbow's fur being slightly singed, Rodan missing a few scales, and both were gasping for breath while sporting a black eye each. Everyone else broke out of the stupor gripping them and quickly started making their way down the path to the pond with Scootaloo in the lead.

Still huffing from the effort they both just went through, Rainbow and Rodan tiredly looked up at the broken remains of the finish line, then back down as a fragment of the checked stripe dropped down between them. The two looked over at each other, labored breathing shifting into wide smiles. It took only a few moments for the speedsters to burst out laughing. Rainbow weakly held up a hoof, this time Rodan recognizing the gesture and following suit. Rainbow Dash cracked a grin following the smacking high-hoof.

"Yep! I think you and I are gonna fly together just fine!"

==============

Human World

"Try that again, you're throwing your shoulder too much. Punches come from the hip, not the shoulder."

Monster X barked, sidestepping and snapping his forearm over to divert away an overextended punch, repeating the action every time he took a step back. This went on until the strikes didn't push themselves out too far and weren't so easily batted away. Only problem now was he didn't even have to keep watching to know what was being thrown his way.

"Too predictable, use the unorthodox."

There was a lapse in the punching and X refocused. He dipped his head backwards to avoid being smacked by a flying pigtail and jumped over a leg sweep that actually managed to trip him up briefly. However he quickly reaffirmed his stance to duck around the incoming elbow strike aimed at his throat.

"Good, but follow through quicker."

Shifting from defense to offense, X snapped around for a spinning backhand. The impact was cushioned by a raised forearm reinforced by the right arm holding it by the elbow. His attacker shuddered slightly from the impact, stumbled backwards after absorbing the blow. The upper body was strong enough to take it, problem was the lower body was too taut to move and vent off the momentum.

"Keep your knees bent. You're holding your stance too rigidly."

He was about to throw a elbow strike out when a sudden jolt shot up his side. X glared down to see a foot stomping down on his toes and a jab burying itself in his stomach. While this was exactly what he was hoping for, it was hard to stifle a snarl. Redirecting his attack on the fly, he bent around and turned his strike into a grab, snatching an oncoming uppercut aimed at his sternum by the wrist and snapping his hips around. Aria was yanked off her feet and hit the snowy ground back-first. The second that followed had her opening her eyes to an elbow pressed against her throat. X snorted, lifting the halted blow away.

"Now too loosely."

He rose back up to his feet, offering the siren a hand up. Sneering, Aria batted away and sprung back to her footing. As she grumbled, the gemstone hooked to her necklace begot a dim glow. Gravity around their briefly distorted, snowflakes being repulsed in their freefall by curtains of manipulated air as some strands of her hair stood up slightly.

"This is pointless! I asked for training on how to use these powers because you thought it might help out against that shadow thing. I didn't ask for a full blown sparring. What do you expect me to do, fist fight that thing?"

Monster X merely dusted some of the snow off his sleeve and looked the siren over. Though he wouldn't voice it, he was impressed. Skill wise she was still a rookie, but her strength, durability, reflexes, and stamina had all improved since the first time they fought; and she was listening to instruction well outside from a few outbursts. The witch even actually managed to land a few hits on him. Whatever new power she'd come into possession of was definitely causing some changes. Keeping his formality, X maintained his voice at a calm mellow.

"First off, gravity control is a full contact ability, using both your own form as well as all the ambiance around you as a weapon. It's just as much a force of your body as it is your mind. Much of it is augmentation of physical ability and motion. Gravity is something tied to all matter in existence. How do you expect me to teach you how to control that kind of force if I wasn't sure if you could throw a punch right? Secondly, you told me you came from a form far different than the human shape, so I had to be sure you knew how to control that body first."

"Then why not show me some of your moves instead of making me use the ones I know already?"

"Who has better mastery? The person who's practiced 1,000 kicks 10 times, or the one who's practiced 10 kicks 1,000 times? What you know already did fine for the test."

At this point, Aria was narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Only silver lining to this ordeal had been the times X struck back and hit her, the blow had felt much damper than before. That and the few times she struck back, she could tell she was hitting harder than the first time they met. She was definitely tougher and stronger than before, a change she enjoyed even if it probably gave X the idea for this test while Adagio and Sonata were away. Still close enough to sense an emergency if it cropped up, but after a few more hours of driving Adagio felt it safe to take a stop and scout around for that magic source they'd been taking and left her on watch duty to make sure X didn't run off. Least that is what she told Aria, the purple siren was half convinced her cousin was at least partially aware of her little power boost and wanted to get at any energy source first to keep a leg up on her.

-You always did hate a challenge to your rule Adagio...-

Focusing back on another individual she could just barely tolerate, Aria barked at X with a groan.

"Any other 'sage advice' Maskey?"

She snorted as Monster X looked at her in a manner that never ceased to creep her out. Monster X shifted and walked past her, speaking in deadpan as he passed her.

"Your hair is too long. It's a liability. I'd cut it."

He closed his eyes as he moved away, not expecting a strong yank on his scarf to stumble him backwards. He snapped his eyes open and twisted around to see a glaring Aria Blaze holding onto his scarf.

"Says the jerk wearing a cord around his neck."

After a moment to return the glare out of the corner of his eyes, X relaxed. He mentally cursed himself to putting his back to her, the ever present reminder about the temporary nature of this alliance smiting any trust he might bear for the sirens. And he knew the feeling was mutual. Taking his scarf by Aria's hand, he gently though firmly pried her fingers off it and got himself free.

"You passed the physical test enough, it's my turn now."

He took a step backwards into the center of the clearing, making sure not to turn his back to the siren. If there was a place in this realm to test out gravity, this snowy forest was a good fielding ground. The slow falling snow was useful for tracking air movements and the under story with its wide gap between trees allowed both for lots of roaming space as well as, more importantly, plenty of view distance to see any incoming individuals. Last thing X wanted was that shadow monstrosity sneaking up on them, a detail aided in that it would stick out greatly among the gray spruce wood and white snow surrounding them.

The xilian kaiju closed his eyes and controlled his breathing as Aria stood back. Gravity was one of the basic fundamental forces in the universe. Stars, planets, persons, even the air gave off the gravitons responsible for the pull between atoms. With the planet underfoot and all manner of matter around him, Monster X was swimming in gravitons every passing second. He could feel it now, running over his fingers and right through his glove in a shifting breeze. Trick was manipulating it and the matter attached too it.

He started to twist and divert it with a sway of his arms and shift in his stance. Palms facing downward towards the ground, he altered direction, weight, and density of what was beneath him. Little by little, his feet started to leave the snowy ground. With some further flocculation he managed to levitate upwards about half a decimeter into the air.

-Alright, got walking down, now to run…-

X grimaced and struggled slightly as he both maintained the levitation and refocused his other efforts to his face to prepare a flare attack. Manipulating molecular pull and weight was child’s play compared to using this force offensively. Creating a directional gravity vortex in front of one’s face, condensing nearby matter into pressurized plasma, and then firing said torrent of energy while keeping it tightly bound in a graviton net to create a beam was no easy task; and to be practical it had to be all done in under a second. X’S brow twitched as balls of condensed plasma started to flicker several centimeters away from his face, barely the size of a water droplet. The sensation of trying to further condense and manage it could only be compared favorably to trying to ball up a handful of smoke and throw it out. Straining, and just when he was beginning to have some success, overwhelming.

The energy charge skyrocketed up and down in flux. Monster X visibly started wincing in pain from fruitless efforts to control it, a difficult effort when someone else was trying to fight for the controls. Emotions and visions hit him like a ton of bricks. Hatred, anguish, and unending rage murdered any sense of calm he was trying to maintain. He'd sought to use his powers, and in the process loosened the lock on someone else's cage. The energy flows flew out of control and X grabbed at his face in a reflexive attempt to shut it off, snarling in pain.

Aria Blaze's eyes slowly widened at the sight of a familiar terror when she spotted the changes. All she needed was a glimpse of Monster X's ivory white hair morphing and growing a burned black and gold fringe to know what was coming. Taking a step back with her necklace pulsing in alarm, the siren frantically dug through her memory. She remembered a night past and an action done, the only hurdle was reciting the lyrics to a song she hadn't ever sung before that night.

Just before the glowing mass of energy in front of X's face showed signs of exploding again like it did at the hospital, a soft melody carried itself across the stirred air. Monster X felt the hateful chokehold on his weaken, the waves of anger ebbing away slowly over time. He kept his eyes shut to avoid firing off the energy mass at whatever was in front of him, taking advantage of the calm settling in to slowly siphon it off into the surroundings. Aria carefully continued reciting a siren song completely alien to her. A normal siren call was meant to rile the listeners up, and then drain away energy from the ensuing adoration towards them and discourse towards everyone else. It could be shaped into a number of tunes and songs, but the undertone remained the same. This one however took that weave of anger and slowly unraveled it, pulling it apart string by string. Aria never had been one to try out completely new songs, that was Adagio's field, but something told her this was a different ball game entirely. Still just as haunting, but in a distinct manner. If the red smoke she was pulling out of X in such large quantities didn't make her feel so energized, she probably have cut it out long ago based off how weird it felt. As much as she hated the creature, he made for a good power source.

Regaining his focus, X let out a slow breath and retraced his steps. Now lacking the sudden emotional and power surge to disrupt him, he went back to basics. Gripping all the nearby gravitons around him as he levitated a meter into the air, he threw out his arm with a spread hand and gave a simple command to the surrounding snow.

-Stop.-

On cue, every snowflake around him in a two meter radius halted its descent and suspended in the air. A wave of gravity hit the packed snow beneath him, erupting it in a frozen explosion. Pulling half of the snow into a single spot, Monster X aimed the nexus of gravitons to just above his upwards facing palm, before crushing his fingers in somewhat. He finally opened his eyes when the song stopped. Aria Blaze and X looked up and down at each other, surrounded by red smoke and suspended snow, siren heart and a ball of packed ice in hands. Each one of them could practically smell the energy coming off the other even as X levitated back down to the ground and Aria absorbed all of the red smog.

X blankly dropped the ice ball to the ground, eyes focused on Aria's gem as it glowed its brightest. Aria herself looked a tad different. Her hair and skin seemed to be slightly darker than then norm and the red in her irises was even more obvious than before. X didn't even feel the need to guess as to where that singing came from.

"What did you just do to me?"

Aria Blaze snorted, flicking one of her pigtails back.

"Kept you from flipping out. I like to keep my neck unbroken."

Author's Note

Proof reading by LanceOmikron
Illustrations (Coming Soon) By Faith-Wolffy

Merry Christmas guys! No matter what spirituality you pray too, or none at all, I wish you all good tidings this season in a celebration of good will towards our fellow carbon-based lifeform

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!
Powers unlock and shadows draw in.
Everypony start heading back to Canterlot!

Chapter 28: Ties That Bind

============

Human Realm

Following the last secret lesson, Aria and Monster X regrouped with Adagio and Sonata. The tension among the three from having X sitting in the back seat was omnipresent throughout the drive. After the failed scouting mission to find the Equestrian magic source, as well as to play it safe, Adagio drove them far outside of town. While some clues were found, failure to locate the power source had soured Adagio's mood and diverted her attention. She kept glancing at the kaiju calmly sitting handcuffed in the seat behind her, a scheming look crossing her face as she looked at both X and her cousin. This was one face that Aria knew all too well. When Adagio began tossing one falsely light hearted question after another at Monster X; Aria unconsciously felt herself holding her necklace. One bad response would blow the lid off her ploy, and the thought was giving her the temptation to lash out if it came down to that. Fortunately the short, blank responses X gave her annoyed Adagio as much as they did Aria. There wasn't any interrogating, any prying for more information. Just the same blunt responses that answered her questions, but failed to give Adagio what she really wanted to know. Eventually, the alpha siren gave up.

That was nearly twelve hours ago and Aria Blaze was still just as restless. Getting dressed and heading out of the hotel room for the woods behind it, she didn't need to open the van door before seeing a pair of red eyes looking back at her through the glass. She instinctively jolted back a few millimeters, barely any more used to those blood red irises than the first time she saw them. Shaking it off, she popped open the door.

"You're already awake."

"Sensed your energy on the move. I've been trying to be careful to keep my awareness up in case 'it' comes."

She stepped back as X hopped out of the van and into the brisk winter night.

"We're safe. Over 100 kilometers in the opposite direction since last time."

"I don't take chances.... Now, why are you still awake?"

Aria motioned to a small divide in the pine trees just beyond the small parking lot.

"Empty patch of woods back there, you're awake and I can’t sleep. Do the math."

"... So be it, keep up and stay close. Consider this a warm up."

Monster X grunted before turning on his toes and sprinting hard enough to kick up an uplift of snow behind him with each kick off. Twisting around to keep her eyes tracked on him, Aria grumbled and ran after him. While nothing superhuman speed wise, keeping up with X through the wood was easier said than done. He wasn't moving in one direction, seeming to turn around and divert his path every time he saw a distant light to indicate civilization. The forest itself offered no favors. While the moon was half full, the tall, thick tree limbs and branches obscured most of its light. Accounting for the snow and pale light coming principally from the distant moon, the forest was a backdrop of solid black and white with little in-between. It looked otherworldly even without the irregular snowfall.

X spun on his heel, leaping up and kicking off a tree to change direction away from the fragmented glimmer of a street light. While she nearly stumbled while doing it, Aria successfully managed to copy most of the quick evasion maneuver, though was slowed down a bit. After running for a good three minutes straight Aria was wondering if they'd ever stop when she lost sight of X after he crossed by a wide tree trunk. Throwing on the brakes, the siren managed to avoid tripping on the snow underfoot despite her forward momentum. Just as she slid by the tree that made her lose track of the kaiju, a black arm swung out at her from the darkness; poised for her face.

She reacted on reflex, dodging before blocking and ducking her head down and to the side to let the limb sail over her. Just before she could counterattack however, an uproar of snow burst out in front of her and obscured the siren's vision. By the time she threw a side kick at where the attack had come from, her shoe's sole only managed to hit tree bark.

Aria kicked back from the blacked out region shadowed by the tree trunk, lifting up her arms and keeping a slight bend in her knees to enter the guard stance X's previous coaching had hammered into her head. She busily scanned her surroundings for a moment, before spotting movement just to her right. The flurry of blows that followed were barely even conscious, most actions and reactions to each other built off reflex. Incoming cross diverted away with a forearm strike to the inner side of the elbow. Her grabbing the wrist to yank it down and forward while launching an elbow strike that was caught by the underarm and ducked away from. Short hop to avoid a shin kick, only to have the dropping stomp avoided. Advice of hours past replayed through her head and she acted accordingly.

-"Try that again, you're throwing your shoulder too much. Punches come from the hip, not the shoulder."-

Without a pair of seconds spent, she pushed herself away and ducked under a spinning backhand; snapping her hips to throw a left cross punch that actually managed to land against a rib cage. Having not over-extended her arm, Aria was able to quickly reset and continue the attack. She pressed her offense, only to find her ensuing strikes easily predicted and batted away.

-"Too predictable, use the unorthodox." "-follow through quicker."-

Switching away from punches, Aria spun and pivoted herself around by the balls of her feet and launched a roundhouse kick. The shadow was forced to break off its attempted counterattack and block it. Shoving the kick away, it lunged at her too quick to dodge and forced her to brace both her arms in front of her head and chest.

-"Keep your knees bent. You're holding your stance too rigidly." "Now too loosely."-

Minding her stance with just the right amount of fluidity and firmness, she managed to absorb the shock despite the sting upon her forearms. Hissing as her gem glowed, she rolled her form along the outstretched arm. She was just about to land a weaving uppercut to the chin when the dance of combat forced her assailant into the moon light. Her fist froze up an inch away from X's scarf covered chin, the kaiju's red eyes looking back at her out of their corners. Aria felt something press up against her ribs and she stole a glance down, grimacing upon spying X's elbow from his other arm frozen right in front of her solar plexus.

The pair stayed frozen in that pose for a good minute, a cold breeze filtering through the woods and wrapping around them. Aria could barely hold back the temptation to shriek and yell obscenities at the kaiju for having the nerve to pull the stunt he did, being plenty steamed about the surprise sparring session. If X noticed her enraged shaking, he didn't react to it, instead gripping the siren by the wrist and turning around slightly. He peeled back her sleeve and checked her forearm for any bruising spurred by the heavy blow she had to block. Finding none, he glanced over and looked the siren in the eye, unreactant to the death glare he was getting.

"Your form has greatly improved. Still, had to be sure you remembered what I taught you earlier. No quicker way around it."

"You, are the worst..."

Monster X grunted, rolling his eyes and letting go of her arm to trudge past her.

"And your opinion implies I care.... Now come on. Time to give the gravity control another try."

Still fuming as she was, that got Aria's attention and she held back any further insults. Didn't stop her from leering at him as they entered a small clearing, but did give her thought for pause upon seeing Monster X entering a familiar stance. He stood about four meters away from her with his side facing the siren, as he still minded not to turn his back to his student. X took in a deep breath, snapping his arms out to either side with grasping hands. The trickle of snowfall around him stopped, each individual flake frozen in the air and idly drifting in complete weightlessness as the gravitons amongst them were redirected. X slowly shifted his stance, sliding one foot back into guard while crossing his arms in front of him, palms inward to continue shifting the graviton nexus to right in front of his face.

A familiar, golden light started to appear just in front of his eyes. Aria snapped to attention and gripped her necklace, remembering what happened last time and having made it her business to memorize the calming melody should things go wrong again. Fortunately, as X levitated a few inches off the ground, control was maintained. No flashes of nightmares obscured his mind, no surges of emotion that blotted out the world around him; just focus on manipulating a primal force. The graviton nexuses ignited and glowed with light, the tightened pull between the atoms combusting the matter into golden plasma. Despite the blinding light inches away from his face and having his eyes closed, X took aim and fired. Aria's eyes widened and she jumped back upon seeing spiraling beams of energy fly out of Monster X's face and hit a tree about twenty meters away. The beams exploded on impact with something large and solid enough, utterly destroying the trunk from the combined concussive and thermal blast forces.

Monster X reopened his eyes, stoically hovering half a meter in the air as the tree groaned and crumbled. Fragments of uplifted snow and flaming wood shards rained down on the snow several meters in front of him. Aria was a tad less calm about the exhibition, eyes wide. She was justifiably startled.

-Haven't seen firepower in full like that since last fall...-

She stole a glance to her necklace, eying the dim glow as the crisp air around them was released from Monster X's hold and blew across her face. The necklace, her heart, was glowing brighter, increasing to scale with her raising pulse. Tinges of gold shown through the crystalline surface and Aria could feel the energy flowing through her from it. The siren cracked a wide grin.

-And now I have it as well...!!-

X didn't have a moment of freedom after landing before Aria's words were upon him.

"Show me how to do that!"

She barked, biting at the bit for the opportunity. X looked back at the siren for a long moment, contemplating his options. This was the first time since she asked to be trained that she seemed eager for a lesson, and that was exactly what was making him hesitate. It was the first time he'd seen her crack any expression beyond the negative, but that grin didn't look like a smile he cared to see. His eyes scanned her glowing necklace and irises, which were now about as red as his were. Just when Aria's grin began to turn to a scowl, Monster X shrugged and took several steps away from her to make room, motioning to the patch of snow he'd been standing on to call her over.

"We'll start with levitation."

Aria's half crazed grin returned, forcing her to consciously stifle it as she hopped over to the spot indicated.

"Levitation is about manipulating yourself and the air around you with a balance, creating a self-directed telekinesis by canceling out your attraction to the ground and bolstering your attraction to the air around and above you. First, sense the matter around you and beneath your feet, get a feel for the gravitons they give off."

Aria nodded, attempting to mimic what she had seen before her. She closed her eyes and ignored the slight cold around her, focusing in on the matter itself. It took more effort than she'd hoped, but little by little, she started being able to feel it all. The air particles blowing past her, the water melted onto the top layer of her sweater, every snowflake tumbling down around her; and the ground beneath her feet. It was a bizarre sensation to say the least, but one she willed herself to get used to. Monster X watched on, able to sense and virtually see exactly what she sensed.

"Alright, now comes the remolding. Lift your arms out and focus on the air around you and increase the pull between you and what is directly above you. Keep the graviton movement rigid and straight."

She felt at the air above her and did as she was instructed. She could feel the gravity between the air and herself across her arms, but the process of consciously manipulating it wasn't coming to her without a fight. While she had managed to rattle the air and distort the gravity around her before, it wasn't quite the same as this. Those times were like tearing apart a house, just disrupting what was already there and tossing its remains all around. This was more like trying to tear down a house and then put it back together again in a new way. She had the pieces, but they refused to stay in place as she worked at them. Aria's upper lip winced and sneered a bit, the siren gritting her teeth as she tried again and again.

"Keep the movement straight, use the span of your arms as anchors."

"I'm trying!"

Straining grunts turned to snarls. Each attempt only gave marginal success. She could keep a hold of the particles and will them to move the way she wanted them to, but soon after would just lose control of them. The snowflakes falling around her, visual indicators for which way she was altering the air currents, began to fly around in erratic directions and collide with each other instead of moving in unison in any semblance of order. Failure was only furthering the siren's anger, this motion being completely alien to her. It was like having to learn to walk as a human all over again. Just before she could practically roar in frustration-born rage, a curtain of air flew past her and all her attempted graviton manipulation was canceled out. Knowing the source, she opened her eyes and turned to her side with a sneer still etched across her face. She tried to speak but X, having outstretched a hand in her direction to send out the canceling wave, wasn't having any of it.

"That's enough."

"No, I can handle it! I just need to-"

"I said THAT'S ENOUGH. You are too unfocused to hope to control it right."

Aria fumed for a short while, never breaking her glare.

"Yeah, your advice just isn't working at all! So what if I got a little angry?!"

X narrowed his eyes, pointing a finger at the siren as he loomed over her.

"An unmanaged fire will burn down everything around it before starving itself into coals. This power is a tool, but if you lose focus you'll make it and yourself a liability."

Aria, eyes still practically glowing red with bits of black invading her sclera, stomped a foot and balled a pair of fists. Monster X momentarily flinched, making ready in case a tantrum spurred fight broke out.

"I want. To use it. I'm just, having trouble with directing the flows!"

She barked, giving her instructor a glare he was obliged to return. The fringes of the siren's aqua green hair were beginning to turn gold at the base. X, despite being slightly alarmed at the observation, kept his voice as calm as it was stern.

"Then take a moment, and calm.. down..."

The siren stood there steaming for a moment, but much to the kaiju's relief, turned and stormed over towards a boulder nestled on the edge of the clearing. After watching her sit down on it for a few minutes, chin and arms stacked atop her knees; X silently followed her over and stood about a meter away with his arms crossed behind his back. A slow breeze passed through the clearing, lazily dragging Aria's long hair and X's scarves along with it.

Another ten minutes passed before one of them spoke.

"In the car ride, I could tell the alpha siren's questioning caused you some distress. Why haven't you told her about your...-"

He took a glance at her hair streaks. While the neon green had returned, her features remained slightly different on other parts of her body. Her skin was a slightly darker hue of purple, as was the majority of her hair; and while he wasn't quite sure, she seemed to have grown a few centimeters taller than when he first met her.

"-condition?"

Aria Blaze was still for a moment, raising up a palm looking at her hand in a manner that made X curious if she too had notice the slight color change. Regardless, she still said nothing.

"You must know she suspects something."

Aria's hand balled into a tightly bound fist.

".... Sometimes I trust my dear cousin only a bit more than I do you."

"Thought I sensed some internal hostility."

Aria Blaze shivered and jittered for a few moments. Her lips quivered briefly before turning into a snickering smile. Before long she momentarily broke into a spurt of laughter that was more than a little eyebrow raising for the kaiju.

"Hah..aha.. AHAHAHAHA! Aaaaaah! Hostile?~ Oh why would I eeever want to be hostile towards the Great Adagio Dazzle?! Out great leader who always strove to be the best of us with noooo competition? The prettiest, the most confident, the apex and the main singer of our little choir. The bold siren who spurred our glorious rampage across Equestria that got us stuck here! Cut off from home! In the bodies of some naked monkeys!"

Aria lashed out, but in the opposite direction to where X was standing. She threw backhand to the sapling beside her perch, hitting hard enough to snap a limb and crack the trunk despite opening up a cut on her hand. She hissed out her breath, letting her head droop down and fall limp. She still spoke with venom on her tongue, but a manner that seemed more saddened than enraged.

"I tried to caution her... I should have tried harder, but she. Never. Listens....If she knew about this power, how much stronger I am with it, she'd just mess it all up by wanting it for herself to avoid a threat. I'm done singing second chord."

"So, you want to exceed her, despite also wanting to use that same power to protect her and the other siren?"

Aria shrugged, pulling her striking arm out of the trunk and looking down at her amulet as she held it out.

"With our little choir, family never is a simple matter."

Not wanting to risk causing another tantrum and wasting the night, X diverted the subject away from Adagio. There was something about what Aria had said he'd taken notice of.

"You said before you came from a form different than the humanoid and lost your home with the change, but didn't specify. What was it? Where did something like you come from?"

Aria sighed, sitting back up. Memory traced itself back to another world, both figuratively and literally. For a split second, she had to resist a tiny smile from the nostalgia.

"The sea. We sirens can travel overland by floating if we wanted to, but we're supposed to live in the ocean."

"Haven't seen an ocean in a long time. We didn't have those where I was stationed most of the time. Hard to imagine all that water in one place sometimes."

Monster X muttered whilst staring off into space at the thought. Aria pulled her legs up and rested her chin upon a knee, shrugging as the tiny smile flat-lined. Being cut off wasn't something she fancied reminding herself about.

"Yeah, it's where I grew up. We'd travel overland sometimes, but always went back to where we came from soon after."

Monster X tilted his head in her direction, looking the saddened siren over out of the corner of his eye.

"You missing it is what's fueling your anger for the alph-.... for Adagio, isn't it?"

"You wouldn't be wrong... Tidal ebb and flows, kelp forests, moon beams at night and sun rays by day near the surface, with all the calm blackness in the depths; all the sailors or coastal folk we could ever hope to prey upon.... Yeah, you wouldn't be wrong in guessing at that reasoning."

She murmured with a snort. After a few moments in silence she picked her head back up and looked over at the soul she'd been conversing with, unconsciously shivering and growing a frown when she spotted his red eyes looking right at her.

"... And what's the deal with you? One week you're running me through the wringer and asking me to hand over my lifeblood on a platter, next week you're asking for my life story. What sort of place did a monstrosity like you come from? Did Starswirl go dredging through Tartarus to find a bounty hunter?"

She grunted with a raised eyebrow. X fortunately didn't get invested enough to take any offense, instead wordlessly looking up at the magnificent carpet of stars high above. It was a fortunate side effect of him picking a spot far away from any habitation for the session, meant less light pollution to filter out the cosmos. He waited a moment, moving his focus of vision about as if trying to locate something in the black sea of light and blackness beyond.

"I do not know who this Starswirl is; I'm not of this realm or the one you came from. But, based off the constellations above-"

He muttered, raising a hand and pointing at a particularly bright star near the middle of the horizon just above the treeline.

"-that blue one is actually two stars close together, you just can't tell from here. My earliest memory comes from orbiting the fourth planet in that system."

Aria squinted, spying the star, or rather stars, in question for a good five seconds before the realization dawned on her. She spoke in a disgruntled tone, half convinced she was being lied to or misdirected again. If there ever was a concept she found ridiculous since learning human culture, it was the sixty year old science-fiction movies Sonata kept watching.

".... Seriously, you're a space alien? That's ridiculous."

"Said the mind controlling sea witch in human form ."

"...."

".... Touché."

Monster X shrugged, leaning back on the boulder Aria was still perched upon.

"Anyways, I woke up on an asteroid orbiting a planet called Xilian."

-Woke up at? Odd way to word it-

Aria briefly pondered at the wording before deciding to close that bit of thought, shifting to something else she'd been wanting to know.

"Well, if Starswirl didn't sic you on us, then who? Why are you hunting us anyways?"

"It's nothing personal, I'm just following orders. My master told me to come here and scout around, bring back anything of value. Your necklaces just happened to be the most promising targets."

"Your 'Master'? Who is he?"

In truth and hindsight, Monster X's response should have been "I'm not telling you that.". However the last few days had caused some wavering of faith. Maybe it was his lack of word from command, maybe it was the lack of back-up that had been sent after him; or perhaps the strain the visions and mental attacks he'd undergone punching holes in his resolution. This was the longest he'd ever been deployed without word of instruction. Even when he returned to the statue briefly during the day to try and contact Zenith for information or call for help, the old portal site was barren. When he first resolved to destroy the shadow being, it was in the name removing a rival to his master. At this point, he was starting to hope that its destruction would at least get his master's attention more than anything else. For the first time in his life, the Xilian Vanguard felt vulnerable, abandoned for reasons he couldn't guess at no matter how much he simultaneously wanted and dreaded speculating why. He had always been loyal to those he called 'master', what had he done to be left here? His unease affected his answers before he could catch himself, growing stress overriding common sense to silence him words.

"I don't know."

"Why do they want our power?"

"I don't know."

Aria grew more than a bit miffed at getting what she had since dubbed the "X Treatment" and feeling like she was talking to something that was somehow less alive than a telemarketer. She turned towards the kaiju and lifted an arm in a confused gesture to match her facial expression.

"Why are you working for them then? What are they offering you in return? You don't seem like the wealth and power type, so what is it that you could want?"

The winter air around Aria and X halted under a tight grip that matched the fist balled in Monster X's hand. She couldn't have guessed she hit a chink in the armor until X shifted his stand to turned to face her. As one who literally fed off of emotional energy, Aria could tell there was something strong going on with him despite the creepily deep monotone he spoke in. Exactly what emotion was being projected by the Xilian kaiju however was extremely hard to tell. He was definitely angered, but seemingly in more of a frustrated manner than enraged at something. However, a stolen glance at his red eyes seemed to convey something else. For a split second, they almost looked saddened.

"Because, I want to know something.... Anything. My first waking memory is finding myself entombed in a rocky prison I later found out was an asteroid, with no recollection of how I got there or how long I'd been trapped. I was alone with nothing but my voice and thoughts for decades before I saw what was outside. By the time I was let out I found myself orbiting a planet I somehow knew by name, but not by memory. I've been across a dozen worlds and seen more species than I could ever hope to count, and still there is nothing close enough to me for me to even get a hint as to where I came from."

He shrugged his shoulders, his body language shifting from angered to strained. The graviton flows that were shaken by X's frustration relaxed and ebbed away.

"... And now, I find myself grappling with some kaiju I've never seen before, dealing with power surges I've never had before; and getting bits of memories about things I never recalled doing while apparently having bouts of insanity and never remembering it. The master has promised me a reward for my service, the first time I've ever been offered anything. He offered me clarity, and I do believe him to be powerful enough to do so."

"And yet you're willing to obey someone just because it might help you out in the end? No questions asked?!"

The kaiju shrugged, holding up a hand and placing it on his mask. Despite his brief outburst, Aria felt herself curiously leaning closer when she thought he might take it off. Her wish went ungranted, when all he did was put his hand over his face, shifting the white mask up just enough to rub his temple. X closed his eyes and let a tired shrug push its way out. His voice sounded equally tired and spent.

"It's the only thing I know how to do right.... I am 'X', a placeholder for something unknown. Whatever happened in the past is in the past, unlike you, I have no sea I can hope to go back to. I just want... something to make sense so I can move on. Following orders is the only thing I'm good at, and if doing so for the right master can earn me some clarity, so be it."

He removed his hand, pushing his mask back into place without so much as offering an unintentional glimpse. X rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck, pulling out of his slouch and lifting himself up from his seat. He took several steps away from the boulder, letting something run through his head. Aria frowned and snorted, still thinking through just what exactly happened. If anything, the fact she saw something actually get under X's shell did raise an eyebrow and got her attention. X shifted and looked back at Aria as she did the same to him.

"... Break's over, are you ready to resume?"

He muttered with a grunt, still looking at her through the bottom of his eye.

"Already?"

"Only if you are fit enough for tonight. Your recollection gave me an idea. I think I know why what works for me failed for you. I was using an unfamiliar lens."

Curious and a bit of her previous eagerness returning, Aria hopped off her perch and took up a place a meter away from X.

"What's your game?"

"You said you were a marine creature, a sea witch. Whereas my true form still had a similar pasture and body plan to this body, I've always been terrestrial. Thus, yours must have been very different."

Aria ignored how annoying the "witch " label, accurate as it might be, was getting and just answered simply with a snippy tone.

"Yes, so?"

"That means you wouldn't feel the kind of familiarity I do when controlling the gravitons, because your mind is wired for a different type of body. You've got the physical reflexes of a human martial artist, but the instincts of a creature that lives underwater. Your oldest memories are about moving amongst a more variable environment than the terrestrial. Stuff like currents, flows, and the like. Shifting the water at point A to push off with a fin also causes movement at point B. Am I correct?"

Aria was able to follow the logic being laid out for her, nodding. X returned the gesture and continued on with that bit of affirmation.

"Then forget what I said earlier about rigid movements and use those aquatic principles here. Close your eyes and hold your arms out and down."

Ignoring the annoying worry that this would just result in another failure due to the similar set up, Aria Blaze closed her eyes and did so. X's instruction continued.

"Now, like before, focus on the matter around you and feel the way the gravitons flow between them all to cause the gravity that ties it together. But, instead of just shifting one place like I told you, treat it like water. Don't pull yourself up through it, push yourself against it and let your movements affect the graviton flows around you like a current."

Taking in and releasing a deep breath, Aria embedded her focus in what was around her; feeling it all like seawater on her scales. Instead of fighting the resistance, she used it to push off from and felt every action and reaction to those movements. Instead of a rigid control, this felt natural and more like an extension of her sense of touch. With fluid, weaving motions instead of X's rigid commands, she could feel herself pushing against the ground and air beneath her. Admittedly, the sensation caused the siren to zone out. X said something, but in the state she'd entered she couldn't quite catch it. She was too... happy. For a moment, she almost felt like she was back home, able to swim again without breath.

Her movements were stopped by a downwards tugging, something holding onto her arm. She was forced back into reality and momentarily lost her focus. Reopening her eyes she could see Monster X stoically holding onto her arm by its wrist, though the first thing Aria noticed was the curious fact she seemed taller or higher up than he was. As it turned out however, despite her brief falter, the last statement was entirely correct. Both of them were hovering a good three meters in the air, hair and scarves floating about in the weightlessness.

Monster X let go of her, crossing his arms and levitating up to her parallel. Despite a quickened breath and being a bit rough on the controls enough to cause her to bob a few centimeters up and down, Aria managed to maintain her height.

"I think I'll call this a success. The next step will be energy projection. I have a regretful feeling you'll be wanting to move onto that."

To his surprise however, Aria put her hands out, briefly causing her to drop a few more centimeters before compensating, and shook her head.

"H-Hey, I know I was in a big hurry earlier but.. Could I, keep doing this for a bit? Kinda reminds me of home-"

Not to express genuine happiness in front of the kaiju however, she quickly backtracked. Aria closed her eyes and offhandedly waved her palm, speaking in the familiar, defensive snippiness as per her usual tone.

"To get fully used to these powers of course!"

Even with her eyes closed, she sensed a distortion in the gravity flow that indicated X had levitated closer to her. She expected a scolding or offhand remark to cause her to fume. Instead, she heard three words that brought a tiny smile to her face as soon as she was sure he wouldn't see it after floating away.

"... As you wish."

==================

Miles outside of Town

Enjin took a pause in its otherwise tireless pursuit. The kaiser energy was still detectable, and in many ways the signature was stronger than before despite the distance only growing. Standing atop a forested hillside, the echo of the land aspect regarded the low lands before it. Literally able to sense the energy it hunted like a radar, it knew which way to go. Just after it started in a downhill sprint and crossed over a frozen pond, Enjin stumbled on its footing and nearly doubled over like it was in pain. The shade halted and held its chest, the dark energy composing its solid form briefly writhing and twisting. Fiery lines across its form emitted a stressed, rapidly pulsating glow. Completely losing its footing, the revenant stumbled out onto the ice, slipping across the surface. Enjin’s mask was beginning to melt off amongst the smoke billowing out of its body by the time the revenant re-established its bearings. Unable to pick itself off the ground, the deformed Enjin clawed its way across the ice to get back to solid ground. Reaching the edge of the pond, Enjin swatted away the snow on the ground to dig its fingers into the rock and dirt below. Dim lines of energy, almost invisible, traveled up through its arm and into its energy core. The convulsions, evaporation, and melting halted; allowing the aspect to successfully reform its constitution.

Picking itself off the ice and walking back onto solid ground, Enjin looked back at the lowlands and to the kaiser energy signature far away. Had it the will to emote, it would have scowled. The signature had been relocating every twelve hours or so, swinging through and around the town too fast and too far for Enjin to catch it despite getting close a few times. And now it was experiencing a whole different problem, one Bagan had never encountered before.

-Prolonged existence in separate realm from host causing aspect instability. Next convulsion estimated in one celestial cycle or less.-

All too conscious of the time, Enjin regarded its situation with calculative logic. It was too far away and it was running out of time. Desperate times called for desperate measures, or at least creative ones. Concentrating and recalling its form’s alterations when it was undergoing deterioration, Enjin’s core pulsed with light through its chest after it planted all hands and feet on the ground. Repeating the process in a controlled manner, the shadowy mass again convulsed and writhed under its black epidermis. Excess bulk evaporated off, ribcage tightening and contracting, the heel traveled off the ground and into a new leg joint, and a growing light slicing into the cold forest air sent any lifeform that could see it fleeing for their lives; as the earth rattled beneath them.

The hunter kicked off from its position and broke into a sprint, moving in a series of bounds and lunges as much as it was running, and covering much more ground than before.

==============

Crystal Empire

Xenilla reflexively winced and shifted upon feeling an encompassing cool wrap around him from multiple angles, the familiar sensation of being immersed in liquid cloaking him all around. He felt his eyes lazily open for about a second before shutting again, glimpsing sun beams dancing across a rippling surface. While he tried to keep his eyes open to get a clearer picture, they continued to just open and shut in a loop that granted him only glimpses at his surroundings. Mounds of rolled sand at the bottom with a wall of blue in either direction eventually confirmed he was somewhere on the sea floor. He unwillingly felt his eyes shut and stay that way, momentarily sensing drowsiness slithering down his eyes.

It was in the theater of blackness behind his eye lids that the visions were projected. A voice akin to Xenilla's and yet distinctly different muttered through his head almost like it was speaking between his ears.

-What? What's this?-

He saw a distant island alone in a cold sea, a grassy landscape largely devoid of trees and bearing a series of jagged highlands in its interior. The view zoomed in abruptly and Xenilla spotted three lights across the three realms, in the air, amidst the sea, and on the ground. The blue lantern, a slithering leviathan cut and coiled around the waves with thrashing tentacles occasionally breaching the surface. A green sphere of light moved amongst a shroud of storm clouds, a crack of lightning revealing a long form with four wings. The last of them was in the darkened highlands. Waves rattled and the earth shook as a simian form, with a fiery light from its chest that reminded Xenilla of lava, tore its way out of a mountain.

The voice from before that was and yet wasn't Xenilla's spoke again like something was talking to it; but Xenilla himself only heard one side of the conversation.

-Aspects? Who are they? Why should I care?-

A white flash settled over the view, taking Xenilla away from the island and across brief glimpses of a myriad of lands. Seas broiled into a savannah of steam, with thousands of every manner of sea life limply floating to the surface or sinking to the bottom in droves. Another flash took him to an overhead view of a biome so featureless he couldn't even begin to guess what it once was, the land scorched to a sea of glass and half melted rock. One last flare of light brought him over the only really recognizable biome in the form of a large conifer forest bordering the ocean. He saw many lifeforms below, the odd sensation that such a place made for a good territory settling over him. Though Xenilla felt baffled by such a thought, as he didn't seem to be the one thinking it. Regardless, such thoughts were silenced when a sudden blast wave of energy blew through and left no guessing as to if there would be any survivors.

An aggravated snarl rang out around Xenilla, heralding that familiar voice he was starting to recognize.

-"A threat then... Where?"-

The view was engulfed by white, filtering back in to show a similar shot of the seafloor Xenilla spied at the beginning of the vision. The focus quickly shot up to the surface and headed north at blurring speeds. That same island as before came back into view, seas roaring and lightning striking a peak before the white shroud followed by the blackness returned.

Xenilla, or rather whatever was in control of his body, woke up to find themselves yet again at the sea floor's basin. The sun's rays from above had been replaced by eerie moonbeams that raked across the blankness all around.

-"They'll try to kill everything..."-

The voice muttered to itself, the gears in Xenilla's head still turning as to where he'd heard it before. The view looked up to the surface and movement ensued, first upwards to the illuminated upper levels and then racing northward with a thrashing tail. The water temperature began to grow colder as time slurred by, the alternating avatar spheres of night and day indicating a journey of at least a day.

-I care not for any humans, but they're a threat to me as well.-

Suddenly the voice clicked and Xenilla's eyes widened considerably. The view breached the surface, passing a spooked pod of whales and rushing headlong into the storm engulfing the horizon. In the flare of lightning, a single island could be glimpsed coming into view through the downpour of icy rain.

The narrator's thoughts, the speech of a ghost that died almost two decades ago, muttered one last line.

-"I will stop them..."-

-F-Father?-

Xenilla unconsciously choked in a small gasp and snapped himself awake, thankfully for real this time. He stood his head and neck up as he hyperventilated for a few seconds. The sight that he was on his bed in his quarters, repaired of the damage he caused some time ago, helped the unicorn calm down and catch up to his pulse. It still took him a good few minutes to calm himself back down. With his senses back in working order, the first thing he noticed was the calm breathing and soft, warm, furry feeling on his back. Xenilla tilted his head around and looked down, instantly deadpanning upon seeing an armorless, and judging from her tiny smile, very content Blade Dancer laying her head across his stomach and midsection; apparently napping. Instantly the baffling confusion of his dream was lost and Xenilla narrowed his eyes.

-Well... this is mood whiplash and a half.-

Xenilla flexed his shoulder muscle, which the mare had rested her chin upon, to try and jostle her awake.

"...Why are you in my bed?"

Either a light sleeper or having just been resting her eyes, Blade Dancer maintained her close eyed smile as she spoke.

"Because you requested I come in last night, but were so drawn up with your study you fell asleep."

She peeked at him through one of her eyes after opening it a sliver.

"And you didn't tell me to leave before you conked out."

"That doesn't explain why you are in my bed, while I'm still in it... And were you using me as a pillow?"

"Because I'm a lady. I'm not sleeping on the floor if I have the option. Besides-"

She winked out the half opened eye, before rubbing her neck and chin further into Xenilla's fur.

"-you don't seem to mind, given that you've yet to throw me off of you~."

And now it was Xenilla's turn to close his eyes, half mutely grumbling in a manner that earned a tiny giggle in response to his accidental roommate.

"Well, just don't do this when we get to Canterlot."

"Canterlot?"

Blade Dancer grunted in a half confused tone. She lifted her head up, still keeping her hooves around her heated pillow, and raised her ears. At the mention of her older post she let the momentary worry that she'd been replaced fly past her.

"But my shift here isn't done yet? I'm not due back there for awhile."

Her fears were unknowingly put to rest by the kaiju's next comment.

"Nothing to do with your 'vacation'. The Celestial Diarchs requested the six kaiju meet back at the capital one week after we were first dispersed to check in on progress and our 'resettling'. Given a few days delay due to recent events, my summoning letter came in yesterday. They especially want me present along with Empress Cadenza to give the full debriefing about King Sombra's sporadic return and second violent impeachment."

"Aaand, this involves me how?"

Xenilla shrugged, rolling his eyes slightly as if half annoyed he had to fully explain it all.

"Simple, you're my bodyguard and I put a request in to the good Empress that; should I go, that you accompany me. Means you would be stuck with me. That is, unless you'd wish otherwise?"

He let himself crack a tiny smirk along with a raised eyebrow. It got the exact type of reaction he was hoping for. Subtle, but effective. A slight redness settled over Blade Dancer's muzzle and her jaw clenched. Just when her eyes were beginning to contract, she must have mentally kicked herself in the rear. Grunting a bit to clear her throat while putting a hoof to her chest, the guardsmare managed to regain a sense of professionalism.

"Ahem, it would be my honor to continue my role as your protector, Ambassador Xenilla. When do we depart for the capital?"

Though Blade Dancer's smile faded under her facade, Xenilla's grew slightly even as he held his head high and crawled out of bed. He spoke while casting an idle stare out the window towards the imperial city below.

"This evening, we'll be due to arrive tomorrow morning on the first train shift."

He could hear the rustling and joint popping behind him that signaled Blade Dancer had followed him out of bed and had stoically come up behind him to share the sight.

"Alright then Ambassador. I shall leave you to your morning.... Oh, and Xen?"

The kaiju raised an eyebrow but didn't bother to glance down. If he had he would have seen the devious smirk slithering across his bodyguard's muzzle before she turned around.

"Yes, Blades?"

....Whap! A playful wingslap shot across his flank and elicited a disgruntled frown from the kaiju. He shot his head around to spot a smiling Blade Dancer heading towards and out the door with swishing tail and rocking hips.

"You make for a good pillow~."

Xenilla, leader of the Mutation faction and first 'born' son of the great Godzilla Senior; was stuck standing in place for a good three minutes after she left with a flabbergasted scowl stenciled onto his face. Eventually, with no small amount of effort, he managed to steal a moment to think back to his restless sleep.

Too early to have been spurred by Sombra's hex. That was like back at the Apple family barn. Definitely not a dream, but a memory.-

His expression shifted into a slight frown, the visions of a distant island with three terrors surrounding it raking its claws across the back of his head. Thankfully, if the eldest son of the old king was anything, he was savvy. While he'd had no clue what was going on with these memories he had no recollection of, be it the entities and sights within them or voices he could not remember talking to him; he knew generally what caused such baffling circumstances.

-Magic is afoot here... Oye...-

Xenilla shrugged, turning around and starting out the door to follow Blade Dancer. He managed to mask the pondering look on his muzzle for a neutral deadpan. As much as he hated to admit it, Terran magic wasn't something he was acquainted with, and he needed an expert. Fortunately or unfortunately, just such an expert would be reachable in Canterlot tomorrow.

=======

Everfree

Mothra Lea followed Twilight down a narrow, descending tunnel. Having dropped her alicorn disguise, she rolled her shoulders in relief, shifting the loaded saddlebags thrown over her middle. All of her and Twilight's packs were filled to the brim with the ancient tomes and manuscripts from the ancient castle. Having a flock of gyaos randomly drop down on one's study tended to throw off research plans, so the duo had returned to the abandoned castle to recover some of the materials left behind during the attack. After having done such, Twilight had shifted the focus to something she'd mentioned to Lea but hadn't gotten the chance to show her just yet.

Upon entering the chamber of the awaited, Mothra stole a gasp as she beheld the Tree of Harmony's sanctum. The radiance of the structure was complemented by the way the breeze from the forest beyond moved about within the cavern, the ensuing melody favorably comparable to a wind chime. The Guardian of Mortals and the Biosphere's response was an understatement, spoken in low breath as the sight instinctively gave her a smile.

"Wow, you didn't exaggerate."

The little alicorn beamed, trotting around the dazzling formation while holding her gaze up to it with a twinkle in her eye.

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna say this predates even them. Starswirl the Bearded once described it as a nexus. Just being around it is enough to feel some comfort, and good magic seems to be even stronger around it."

Lea still felt a tad odd around Equestrian magic, light or dark. Being so closely tied to Terra's magic, she was used to her home's rules. Equestria has been a whole new ball game, but one she was beginning to understand well enough. Yet, even as a novice in Equestria's hexes, the peacefulness and warmth of the Tree's aura was infectious.

"I can see what he meant there."

Lea said, looking across the Elements of Harmony and recognizing them based off Twilight's descriptions. After looking over the two other emblems on the trunk, a stylized sun and moon, her eyes were soon upon what Twilight was looking at. A growth from the floor about two meters in front of the tree supported what would best be described as an ornate, hexagon shaped box. Raising an eyebrow, especially after seeing the slight frown on Twilight's face, Lea looked closer and traced her friend's line of sight to the six openings resembling key holes ringing the box.

"So, what's the story with this?"

The changeling muttered, motioning to the box with a hoof. Twilight shrugged in response, pouting somewhat.

"That's, the problem I was working on until the kaiju showed up. That chest emerged from the tree when we put the elements back into it and nopony seems to know what's inside."

"Well-"

Lea quipped, looking up at the Tree of Harmony as it subtly pulsed with a comforting light.

"-if it's tied to the Tree of Harmony it must be important.... Hm, seems to have six keyholes. Looked into that any?"

Twilight didn't share the hopeful expression, half mumbling in a downtrodden voice.

"To be honest it was the first thing I did look into. Nothing so far though. There isn't a single mention of the chest in any records from Ponyville, Canterlot, or the castle above. I was just about to look through all my old notes to see if I might find some inspiration or clue when you showed up."

The alicorn shook her head slightly, mind still locked onto the kaiju problem at hand. For practicality's purposes she and Lea had switched up their study on finding the kaiju a way home to finding any sort of method to locate any stray kaiju who'd ended up in Equestria. With Gamera's word to go off of, the gyaos were just the tip of the iceberg. In some ways it gave her some ease. If they focused on sending the original six kaiju back home and somehow managed to do so, they'd just leave themselves even more open to attack by who knows what else that crossed over from Terra. Still, the thought of a myriad of monsters running loose in the far reaches of the continent wasn't doing her nervousness any favors. So far the primary study had been on trying to track and locate any stragglers as an early warning system.

"I just hope I'm up to the task. Whatever is in there, I have a feeling we'll need it now more than ever..."

Lea moved over and put an assuring forelimb around Twilight, pulling her distressed friend in closer to her. She cooed softly with a dim glow, letting some of her aura rub off on Twilight to ease some of her stress away.

"We'll find the solution to this, just like we'll solve the dread my world has brought to your's."

Twilight let a tiny smile cross her lips, stretching up a bit to put a wing around Lea's back to return the hug while she rubbed up against her friend.

"It's not your fault Lea."

The changeling sighed, not sure if she should nod or not. The thought of her arrival bringing her conflict onto this peaceful world wasn't something she fancied. Fortunately a stray thought crossed her mind after looking again to the Chest of Harmony.

"You know, Equestrian magic might be a different breed than Terran; but magic is still magic on some level. And I think I know someone, or rather someones, who could take a look at this."

"Oh? Who?"

Lea smirked as she looked upwards towards the ceiling.

"Two folks you haven't seen in awhile. Moll, Lora, are you with us or are you back in the castle?"

Two tiny orbs of light, one red and one blue, zipped down the stairwell the alicorn and changeling had come from to take rest on Twilight's muzzle. The Princess of Friendship's eyes widened, earning a giggle from Lea.

"Hello friend!"

Two tiny, feminine voices chimed. While their true forms were heavily obscured by the glow accompanying them, Twilight could swear she saw the twins take a bow or curtsy.

"Oh, nice to see you two again! Where have you been?"

"Yes, we've been gone for awhile. I almost worried you forgot."

"We've been making use of the wings these new forms have given us to scout around this castle."

"New forms? Can I see? Sorry, with the light show it's a bit hard to make out what you two look like other than Epona's assistants."

A dual giggle ensued and as requested, the lights dimmed to reveal two tiny breezies on Twilight's muzzle. Miniscule, even by breezie standards, they both wore relatively simple garb that vaguely reminded Twilight of south seas attire. Moll and Lora, clad in red and blue respectively, also were covered from head to hoof, and in light of their breezie bodies, wings, in rune-like tattoos that seemed to glow dimly. The twin faeries giggled and waved at the alicorn, thankfully used to addressing folks hundreds of times their size.

“Moll and Lora have been in service to my mother’s family for generations, with their sister Belvera back on earth serving my father's line.”

“Yes it’s true,”

“, we were the ones who stood watch over Lea’s mother’s egg for centuries.”

“And we spent much of that time on one of the few remaining, heavily enchanted areas on Terra.”

Lea nodded and smirked, “My thought was to let them have a look at the box’s locks. If Equestrian magic has no account on how to open this thing, maybe an outside magical authority could offer another perspective.”

“Huh… Well it certainly couldn’t hurt. Would you two mind doing that?”

Twilight chirped, literally looking down her nose at the duo. Moll and Lora turned around and regarded the puzzle box for a moment before turning back to Twilight and giving her a smiling nod. With that, they fluttered off her nose and returned to their glowing, will-o-wisp-like state to inspect the chest. Knowing it would take the twin fae a moment, Lea looked away from the inspection and noticed something shimmering on the edge of the cave. Trotting over to it, she avoided the urge to reach out and grab it, instead biting her tongue and furthering her telekinesis practice. For someone used to channeling magic through her whole body, directing it to specific points was a bit of a reflex taboo. Doing so in her old body either meant a very powerful spell was being cast, or that she was about to fire out a beam of mana charged plasma out of her eyes, antenne, or chest. Successfully reminding herself that concentrated energy in horn didn’t automatically equal death beams, she picked up the half buried object and brought it closer while Twilight trotted over.

The object in question was small, about the size of a large coin, and rectangular in shape with rounded points. It’s exact color was hard to match, given the way it glimmered with an iridescent vibrancy in the sun and Tree’s light, though it most often bore a turquoise hue. Twilight recognized the shape from the biology books she’d devoured between chewing on magical tomes, namely from the microscope section.

“Looks like a butterfly scale. Oooonly much, much bigger judging from I don't need a magnifying glass to see it…. Let me guess, one of yours?”

She said, casting a glance to Lea in time to see the changeling confirm her with a nod.

“Must be one of the scales I shed during the battle with the gyaos flock. Haven’t seen one up close like this in while.”

She glanced over to her friend, noticing the sparkle in the alicorn’s eye.

“Would you like it?”

Lea chirped with a snicker, causing Twilight to blush sheepishly. Smiling, she levitated it over to Twilight and placed it onto the alicorn’s outstretched hoof. Twilight managed to forget some of her earlier stress as she nudged the scale with her nose.

“Haven’t ever seen this sort of light reaction outside of the Elements. Wow, Rarity would do a backflip if she could make a dress of these!”

-Attire huh? Well maybe not a dress buuut...-

Lea smirked, nudging Twilight and motioning for her to sit down. The alicorn did so, with the changeling plopping down across from her.

“I know the situation is dire, and there is no doubting it is. And with someone as kind and bright as you are, your mind is growing in worry just like mine was back at Ponyville.”

The guardian spoke whilst running the edge of her hooves across the ground to trace her symbol. Weaving her flora magic into the ground, Lea called forth an altered root she began to work towards the surface, narrowing it over its journey.

“You worry about that offering from the tree just like I did for you when Destroyah was on the loose. I thought your world was, vulnerable, not as hardened as mine and thus unable to cope with this conflict. I thought I had to protect all of you and keep you completely discluded from the chaos; that you needed to be coddled... But, I learned something from the little exhibition back in that town. Our two worlds might be cut from completely different cloth, but then again, so are most dresses.”

Twilight, still eagerly watching Lea’s work as the root emerged from the ground, snickered.

“You should tell Rarity that idiom… Sorry, go on.”

Mothra Lea snickered a bit before she sighed contently, waving her hoof around in a slow circle. On command, the root twisted and spun itself around, binding the fibers into a tight cord.

“Different as they might be, as long as we stick together in this situation and keep up the balance between rational calm and controlled fear’s readiness, pool our resources and maintain morale; I doubt there is many an issue that we can’t weave a solution from.”

She cooed in a placid voice, before motioning for the scale. Upon having it hoofed over to her, Lea plucked the root from the ground and bored the tip through the scale; before looping it around in a wide arc and tying off the tip.

“After all, you and I both know what magic can accomplish; and in this world, friendship literally is magic.”

She finished, gently easing the new necklace over Twilight’s head and under her mane. The little alicorn looked down at her new piece of jewelry with a growing grin, some of her previous tension being exhaled out with her sigh.

“Like it?”

“Tis regalia fit for royalty, Lady Lea.”

Twilight chuckled with a playful, spread wing bow before holding her hooves out. The changeling giggled and shared a hug with her friend, whispering a few last words of encouragement.

“We’ll all get through this, you’ll see.”

“Thanks Lea.”

As if on cue, Lea’s horn, the magical focusing stand-in for her true state’s antennae, hummed with an alternating red and blue light that both took notice of.

“What’s that?”

“Oh! Looks like Moll and Lora found out something!”

The duo split a smile and raced back into the chamber to find both faerie hovering above the Chest of Harmony. Taking their halt, word came after Moll and Lora landed before them and bowed.

“The magic in this vessel is different than Terras,”

Moll explained, pointing to the box.

“-but magic itself comes in many forms and we did notice a few similarities.”

“Go on.”

The blue faerie, Lora, fluttered up to the chest’s side and landed atop it before motioning to a keyhole.

“There is a powerful locking mechanism spell in each of the ports, each unique to it and using a magic different from the others. While we can only infer so much, it seems that the mechanism is deactivated by a specific form and magic associated with it. Both must be present.”

“So they really are keyholes. And the keys are both physical and magical in nature so an unlocking spell, no matter how strong, won’t work.”

Twilight muttered, rubbing at her chin. Lora’s ruby red sister, Moll, took to the air again but levitated up higher and approached the Tree of Harmony itself, motioning to the lowest hanging element’s holster.

“While we don’t know where the keys might be, it seemed the energy given off by the key ports is similar to the energy given off by these articles on the tree. It’s not exact, but it is similar.”

“So whatever is in the box is related to the Elements of Harmony.”

“Could the Elements themselves be the keys?”

Lora and Moll exchanged a puzzling look at Twilight as the latter rubbed at her chin. After some thought, she shook her head.

“Hmm, doubt it. The box only emerged after we put the Elements in. Wouldn’t make sense for the Tree to unlock the box right after we gave it the keys. For all we know, taking the Elements out might cause the box to retract.”

Mothra Lea similarly put the available puzzle pieces together in her head, motioning between the Tree and the Chest.

“So the Elements themselves and the keys are related to each other, but they aren’t the same thing. That’s a conundrum and a half.”

The twin fairies hovered back down to Twilight’s level with tiny frowns across their faces, speaking in unison.

“Our apologies for being unable to figure it all out for you, your majesty.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle took in a deep breath, shrugging off the stress before it could even become such. She shook her head slightly with a widening smile.

“Ah don’t fret. We’ll figure this out just like we will the kaiju problem.”

She beamed at the breezies while playfully nudging Lea with her wing, parroting the changeling’s words.

“Stick together, pool our resources, and keep our chins up and every problem will have a solution. After all, what’s today’s challenge but tomorrow’s achievement?”

=======

Zenith

Flashes of pale and indigo wings entered Bagan’s chamber from one of the open tunnels. Dropping to the ground and letting her talons scrape against the obsidian below to give Irys enough traction to stop, she shivered as she tucked her wings in. Zenith as a whole was as cold as it was dark, but the central chamber within the dark temple was near unbearably so. Between the gnawing pain in her stomach that tore through her innards and the numbing stings that engulfed every inch of her skin, the last of the gyaos was miserable within moments of entering the circular, impossibly tall throne room. Panic had fortunately driven her here quickly, as while Gigan had far too much machinery to seem palatable, Megalon was still a pretty even fifty fifty split. Fortunately the older of the cyborgs got the memo as to why she was bolting off again after assurance she wasn’t about to suicidally pick a fight with Grand King Ghidorah again. The chamber itself looked slightly different than when she had last been here, almost like the room with its multiple entrances and ever growing ceiling were slowly morphing. Most curious to her however was the minuscule swirl of black and purple energy on one of the far walls, looking almost like an inky whirlpool sinking into the structure itself. She did her best to ignore it and walked in, stopping just short of the central pedestal.

Noticing that the rune covered orb in front of her seemed to be glowing dimly, Irys figured her master was conscious enough to listen. She bit back the pain within her and kneeled, bowing her head.

“M-Master, in return for my service I was promised food to curb this hunger. I, understand I failed my mission to secure the tree, but I promise to try harder again like I have continued to!”

It took an eternal five seconds for her to get a response, and by that point her hunger was maddening enough cause her pulse to pound between her ears. If she didn’t eat something quick, she was about to maul the first thing edible she saw.

“I know of your battle with Ghidorah,-”

The gyaos winced, about to cast her plea before the orb pulsed with an eerie light and word. The master’s voice seemed to be coming into the chamber from all angles like an omnipresent force.

“-but it is of little concern. I would have intervened had I felt it had grown out of control, like I did with Monster X. You are a loyal servant, greatest of the gyaos. You did supply me with the latest artifact, and a god doesn’t go back on their word…. Very well, I shall set aside a portion of my power to maintain your true form so you may graze.”

“A-Actually, that might not be needed my lord.”

Irys, still shaking from having a voice feeling like it was both all around her and in her head, rose up slightly. Even with the promise of food, she could practically feel the knife’s edge she was tentatively standing on.

“There was... a realm I know of that wouldn’t require that. You said your reach was limited in some realms, but you m-may recall the place you sent me alongside Monster X on my first mission.”

The gyaos grunted, holding her stomach inwards to try and suppress the pain.

“As you recalled, I was turned into a human there. My hunger persisted, but to a lesser degree and required much less to curb. If you sent me there you could save expending any bit of yourself with me. After all, which is easier to feed? Someone of my stature or one human?... If, this is agreeable to you, master. All I would need is an hour.”

In truth, there were two realms Irys could visit that she knew for sure would turn her into a human. She only brought up the one because not only did she know the layout of the town better than Maretropolis, but there was the off chance she’d find someone else there. It had only been a short time, but with all the chaos within her flock with Monster X’s rampage and exile, Irys couldn’t shake the paranoid need to check in on...her.

Unbeknownst to the gyaos however, fateful luck was on her side. With Enjin deployed, a constant psychic tether between the aspect itself and Bagan was needed. Given dimensional differences, that required an open portal. And with holding a portal open whilst controlling an aspect was doable for Bagan in his current state, the conditions weren’t right for opening a second. Doubling that feat to send Irys to the human Maretropolis, a realm twisted and woven into the realm Enjin was in, was too chaotic for him in this state despite an invisible attempt. If he tried to force it to send Irys through, the tether to Enjin might be severed. There was also the issue of having a ravenous Hyper Gyaos being stuck in Zenith. Irys was more use to him alive than dead; and given her recent ties to Gigan and Megalon, offing her would only drag in more problems. But if he left her alive here, instinct would quickly take over and she’d endanger more of his forces. And as the final compound that meant he couldn’t either just kill her on the spot or send her away was appearance. His troops didn’t know their true role in matters yet. To most of them, he was a generous benefactor that earned their loyalty out of gift as much as he did threat. True, he was well aware some like Ghidorah were, or already are, plotting against him; but Irys wasn’t in that number.

-And with wild cards like Ghidorah, I’ll require as many loyalists as I can. She and the cyborgs have already proven themselves formidable, had the battle continued they might have slain the hydra with the loss of only two of their number…-

He didn’t like the possibility of the gyaos spoiling his plans for Monster X’s termination, but fortunately there was one loophole. While two portals to two different realms was more trouble than it was worth at the moment, twin portals to two different locales in the same realm was child’s play. He’d opened over six times that number when pulling his forces out of Terra and into Zenith in the first place. Bagan gave the mental command and reshaped his surroundings to his will. The swirl on the back wall widened and expanded into a full sized portal, momentarily flickering as Bagan set the second location to kilometers away from both the kaiser energy signature and Enjin.

“You have one hour, no more. Don’t test my patience.”

Irys wasted no time charging through the portal with a mixture of eagerness and desperation, reappearing inside a city not far from Crystal Prep Highschool.

Forty five minutes and a raid on a local corndog stand with some clever misdirection later, and Irys managed to fulfill one of her objectives after wolfing down her fifth dog. Still, as she stood on a street corner whilst looking to and fro, a frown crossed her face as soon as she was done ripping into her sixth corndog. Not only had she not seen hide, hair, nor detected any energy signature to tip her off to X’s whereabouts; but she hadn’t been able to find Sunset Shimmer. Still ignorant to how humanity functioned at times, she tried to stick to the obvious and stay in the well populated areas on the grounds that humans were social creatures; but that in some ways only complicated the search. She remembered Sunset’s look and smell, but in huge clusters like this it was hard to pick people out. Inability to locate her friend only drove her fear, misplaced as she told herself it was, further; not helped by the fact she was running out of time.

Still resolved to look around while making her way back to the pick up spot, Irys started down a new street whilst using her energy tracking to home in on the master’s portal. As the former kaiju passed by a group of young females however, she couldn’t help but overhear some of the conversation.

“I tell you, I was z’ere when it happauned! Fortunately, I had my camer’ra on my person. At first I z’haught z’hey were shooting a movie with z’he stunts and explosion.”

“Why were you at the hospital?”

“My unc’ale had a turkey fry’ar incident during z’he holiday. Turned into a mortar on him. He’s fine, but I was near z’he back parking lot when z’he alarms sounded off and explosion happened. Saw z’his chap flying out z'he back window!”

One of them, light blue in color with white hair, held up something. Keying in on the movement, Irys unconsciously glanced over in time to see the woman hold up a photograph. Noticing something on it, she paused in her walk and leaned closer.

“What happened to him afterwards? Don’t remember seeing this on the news.”

One of the other women muttered, holding up another photograph whilst tilting her head curiously. Irys’ eyes locked onto the large black shape on said photograph and slowly widened.

“Z’here seemed to be some other fellow in a costume who followed suit-”

The first woman belted in a loud, heavily accented voice that Irys largely ignored as she loomed over her; all focus on the newest photograph.

“-z’ehn some van pulled in and rammed into z’he second one before pulling z’he first guy in. Since z’he second guy got right back up afterwards, I z’haught it was some kind of stunt scene with bad timing.”

Irys lurched forward, snatching several of the photos and busily looking through them. Her initial thought was entirely confirmed, immediately recognizing Monster X’s human form lying unconscious on a partially crushed car roof. A second being was unrecognizable, between the dark coloration and odd distortion it seemed to cause to parts of the image, making it into nothing more than a vaguely human shaped blur. It approached the downed X before a larger blur flew in from the side and knocked it out of frame. Flipping through the last few images revealed to Irys both the second blur, evidently a human automobile with some very colorful drivers, pulling X in and leaving; and the black blob getting back up and running off into the nearby forest on the last image.

The owner of the pictures however was quick to notice the theft and whirled around to glare at Irys through her huge, purple glasses.

“EY! Z’hose are mine and- HAAAAAAAAAAUH!”

Her shouting ending in a gaping gasp, causing Irys to look up at the worst possible time; looking right into a camera lense.

“HOLD Z’HAT POSE!”

Gyaos, being largely nocturnal, hate bright light. Being an albino meant Irys hated sudden flares of light even more than most did. So needless to say, looking directly at the flashing camera whilst Photo Finish opened fire on her wasn’t a good experience. Momentarily blinded by the explosions of light, Irys reflexively jolted back and tried to cover her eyes. Thinking she was just eager, Photo Finish didn’t let up, hopping around her to get more angles.

“Oh you are GORGEOUS! Z’he coloration, z’he snow white, z’he royal pur’ple accents, are z’hey natur’raul?!”

Now with alternating seas of white flashes and red dots all over her vision, Irys got a whole new feeling upon hearing the loud hum of a fan being started up by one of Photo Finish’s aids. The machine revved up and blew into her. Clothes and long hair now billowing in artificial wind, Irys could only blindly flail around to try and grab or tear at her ‘attackers’.

“Oh yes yeeeesss! No! NOOO no no! Yee-No-Yeeeesss! Oh you are a radiant swan, an iridescent statue of marble with a flowing mane! Z’hese poses you make, strike z’hem, strike z’hem!”

While Photo Finish was getting glamor shot after glamor shot of the pale beauty, Irys’ modeling was actually her snarling and lunging at the sea of flashes and red around her; the photographer’s quick stepping to get a new angle unknowingly causing her to dodge away from her attacker. A cold feeling washed over Irys’ mind and she could feel a loud ringing calling out to her, the tell tale signal that her master’s time limit had waned enough that she needed to return soon. Fortunately the camera barrage stopped as soon as it started. In an instant following a finger snap, the blinding camera flashes and fan blowing in her face stopped.

“ENOUGH! I go!”

And like that Photo Finish and her posse took their exit. Irys stumbled around for a good minute, rubbing her eyes to encourage her vision to return. There were still red dots attacking the world around her, but it was seeable enough to be workable and she was quick to head back to the pick up point a few blocks away. Photo Finish and her crew might have reclaimed the photographs of X, either to take them back on purpose or to remove an obstruction from their latest surprise model, but Irys remembered the details to the number.

-X is definitely in this realm with Tanaka knows who and obviously in conflict with something. He’ll need back up!-

She rounded the corner to the alley containing the portal, the tiny swirl of black energy hidden behind a covered fence that stretched across half the alley. Irys had just reached the middle of the alley right before the turn to the portal, when a glimpse stopped her in her tracks. In a plaza in front of the other end of the alley was a sizable crowd gathering outside a movie theater. While Irys didn’t know it, Photo Finish being in the city was no coincidence. Many Canterlot High students were here for the new Daring Do red carpet premiere. Including one wearing a pith helmet and khaki vest while talking with her friends, fiery hair and amber gold skin visible as she stood with her side facing Irys. The gyaos spoke on reflex before catching herself, the master’s call only growing in strength.

“Suns-!”

Sunset Shimmer, being on the edge of the crowd nearest of the alley, had a clear line of sight when she caught a blur of white out from the corner of her eye. She found herself locking eyes with the gyaos and both froze up. As the seconds ticked by, an instinctual smile spread across Sunset Shimmer’s face. True, she had a lot of stuff on her mind to ask Irys; not the least of which being what in the name of her teacher Irys was doing in a Power Ponies comic, but happiness upon seeing a friend again took precedence. For a moment, Irys’s lips looked like they were about to curl up into a smile as well; but quickly turned sullen. The expression on the albino’s face was a bizarre one to read, but the mixture of sadness and fear was evident. Irys started taking steps back into the alley.

“Irys?...”

Sunset mouthed, tilting her head a bit at the first step Irys took back; before reflexively holding out an arm as Irys continued to back away slowly. Irys turned and ran away from the crowd, a worried Sunset breaking out of line to follow her.

“Irys, what’s wrong?!”

Sunset shouted as the one called upon turned a corner, pulling down a trash can as she fled to obscure the path. The former unicorn almost thought she saw Irys crying upon glimpsing the side of her face.

-Stay back! Stay back! Stay back!-

In the darkness Sunset noticed a brief flicker of purple hued light reflecting onto the brick walls surrounding them. The confused senior rounded the corner Irys had lept into, only to find herself at a shallow dead end. Even with the winter air around, Sunset Shimmer unconsciously shivered at the biting chill seeping through the air in the pocket of the alley. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, having noticed her departure, ran up behind Sunset in a state of bafflement as to why their friend had suddenly charged off. Sunset felt a frown cross her face as she touched the back wall that Irys’ trail through the shallow snow and debris lead to before disappearing. The aged brick was so bitingly cold it practically burned.

======================

Zenith, a sometime later

Irys flew back into the team’s quarters so fast she had to weave around Megalon, who was entertaining himself by juggling and bouncing napalm grenades off the flats of his drills; and nearly collided with Gigan in her haste. Managing to avoid slamming into the startled mountain of walking cutlery, she swung her feet around and drove her claws into the roof. She was shaking and jittering constantly during her roost with her back to her flock. Gigan whirled around to face her, the cyborg’s visor glowing in the darkness.

“Hey where’s the fire?!”

Megalon, having been similarly taken by surprise from the white blur zooming past him, hopped backwards on one foot before tumbling over. The napalm grenades got tossed into the air and rolled past them, hitting the back wall and unleashing a liquid curtain of flames streaming down the wall. Megalon snickered, laying on his back and happily clapping his drill’s flat together while watching the distant inferno.

“Hehe! There it is!”

He giggled, oblivious to Irys dropping her head down and bending her neck so far backwards she was looking at the pair behind her. The wide eyed expression on her face and fact she was completely ignoring the flames past her instantly tipped Gigan off to something being wrong.

“Irys what’s wrong?”

“I-I-I-”

"Spit it out!"

She took in a deep breath and smacked herself on the side of the head, hissed her breath out of her nostrils to regain her focus.

“I FOUND X!”

“What?! Where?! How? Is he back here?”

Gigan turned off his visor’s charge and took a step towards the bat kaiju whilst a squealing Megalon lurched off the ground and broke into a clapping dance.

“Found out on a food run, he’s in the human realm-”

Irys quickly clarified her words upon spotting Gigan’s visor instantly clicking back on and phobia born fear causing him to revv up his buzzsaw. She flicked her wings out and held up her hands.

“NONONONO! Not that one with the crazy hair lady! The one X and I got sent to on my first outing.”

Gigan relaxed his stance and cycled his saw back down to a halt almost instantly.

“Oh. Well that makes some sense then. If the master needed to send him somewhere he’d be less destructive, putting him somewhere he’s stuck as a human would work. How’d you find out, did you meet up with him?”

“No, I found out some human had taken a few pictures of him. But there’s more, there was something else in that realm with him. I don’t know what it is but whatever it was, it was strong enough to give X trouble. And now he’s in the hands of some other group. I have no clue what’s going on over there, but it’s obvious he’s in conflict and it’s with something in that realm on the attack! We have to help him!”

Irys barked, still obviously a bit frantic. Gigan flinched before taking a moment to process everything, putting the blunt of one of his scythes to his beaked chin whilst clicking his horizontal mandibles together. He puzzled through his thoughts as he turned his back to the others, running some simulations through his mind with growing uncertainty. He wasn't fond of the idea of them rushing into this. He had to be sure the threat his own friend posed had past, as that side of X, the kaizer dragon, was something he knew well to fear. After all, Kaizer Ghidorah was the reason he was the way he was now; after that fateful encounter a century ago that all but destroyed Gigan’s original mostly organic, gold and green body. That attack had left him to be rebuilt as he was now, much more mechanical than he was supposed to be. That attack left him so badly damaged it spurred the creation of Megalon. X never did know he was responsible for his oldest friend being mauled so badly he required as much machinery as he did now just to stay alive. Gigan never told him, leaving the Xilian kaiju to assume King Ghidorah had done it. Basic point was, Gigan knew better than any of them just how dangerous Kaizer Ghidorah was; getting a reminder every time he looked at a reflective surface. He wasn't letting that sort of danger near his little brother, or his team if he could.

Still, all too conscious of his promise to Megalon and Irys that they’d get X back as soon as possible; Gigan resigned himself to keeping only a rational caution.

“...Was he still in the Kaizer Ghidorah state? If so, we'll need to wait longer; even if there is a risk.”

“No, from the photographs I saw he has definately reverted back. He looked the same as when I crossed over there with him. Gigan, X is not Ghidorah anymore.”

“… Well, if something over there is attacking X, usually I’d be content to let him handle it, but since we have no clue how Mothra suddenly popped up during your mission we can’t assume he’s somehow figured out how to return to his true form while over there. That could mean trouble....”

Gigan grumbled, the uncertainty still evident in his half robotic voice. The ground beneath Gigan shook. The older cyborg calmly stepped to his right just before a spinning Megalon burst out of the ground next to them, sticking his torso out of the shattered obsidian like some kind of giant gopher. Megalon, cracking the closest approximation of a grin one could manage with mandibles, chirped.

“Oh oh! So if Mr. X isn’t hulking out and stuck in a human form, he'll need some back up! Can we pop back over there for a team reunion and bust some legs!?-I call kneecaps!”

Irys couldn’t help but crack a tiny smile at the younger cyborg’s eagerness, as weird as Megalon was. The situation was serious, but seeing some enthusiasm to back her up was well meaning. Gigan however kept his head down, clearly thinking things over. He shifted, walking past the two and stopping just short of the chamber entrance with his back to them, like he was blocking their way out.

“Big brother?”

Irys’ maw flat lined. She clawed and crawled across the ceiling, each of her talon’s holds digging out bits of raining black stone. Being amongst a non-verbal flock for so long, body language was something she had to learn at a young age. Saved her from getting eaten more than a few times. And even though the Nebulan creation was far removed from any gyaos, some features still played true.

“Gigan, I know he’s dangerous. We all are. But he helped me out once when I needed it, and I wouldn't be here without it. if Kaizer has passed and X needs our help now, I’m inclined to return the favor. That’s what teams… friends… are supposed to do right?”

Gigan picked his head up and straightened his posture. His tone was as stoic as it was formal.

“This isn’t a reunion run, it’s a rescue mission. Come on.”

Irys’ smile returned, the gyaos dropping down from the ceiling and following Gigan into the main hallway. Even at the near impossibly long distance the duo could see the light coming from the master’s chamber. The nonverbal command was given and the pair broke into a sprint, kicking off the ground and taking flight on pounding wings and ignited booster rockets. Trailing them, a trail of arched and cracked floor grew in size mid-pursuit. Megalon shot out of the ground like a swimming dolphin, unfolding from his drilling stance and flipping open his beetle-like wing casings to fly.

“TOOO THE BOSS BALL! Danenenea!”

==============

Human Realm

Adagio Dazzle sat at her desk, chewing on her pen whilst propping her head up with another hand on her cheekbone. Below her and splayed out on the hotel room’s desk was an extensive portfolio of pictures and notes taped to a large fold-up map of the county. It was something of an investigative spreadsheet, tracking both the sirens’ feeding grounds as well as magic signatures they’d picked up across town. Someone in Canterlot had Equestrian magic, that she was certain of since last Fall. But who exactly remained to be seen. They’d discovered traces of magic in a few neighborhoods, the mall, and music stores, but no smoking gun. And with as many humans as there were, wasting time trailing only possible suspects was too monumental and too tedious for her.

But, as the tightening series sketched lines, circle marks, and trail of leads indicated; they were getting closer. Whoever it was seemed to frequent the Canterlot residential area. Adagio narrowed her eyes at the map, almost feeling the pair of red eyes looking at her from the van parked outside. Had she been the more nervous type, a bead of sweat might have rolled down her head. Her rush to find the magic and regain her full power was only heightened in the past week, and the kaiju’s arrival was a big reason. Hate was a strong word, even for a being who spreads discourse. Adagio hated Monster X about as much as she did that shadow demon. She hated how tight lipped he’d been about just where in the realms something like him crawled out of, she hated that creepy as all get out look he had stenciled onto his face 90% of the time, she hated the threat he posed to her family; of which that he was quite adamant about when they struck the deal, and she hated the fact that by song or by force of will he had the gall not to back down when she commanded for top spot in the pecking order like everyone else should.

-Then again I barely got more than a few seconds of song out before Aria and Sonata stopped it…-

Adagio leaned back in her seat while still fuming. Setting aside her frustration, she focused back at the map.

-Just need to find the magic to get back to full power. Then we’ll be able to overpower these monsters and not worry with them again…. Or control them? Hm, that’s an appealing thought.-

“It’s probably tied to the high school.”

The voice of Sonata chimed in and interrupted her big sister’s thought. The siren in question was laying across the bed on her stomach, eyes poised to the television. Adagio raised an eyebrow and turned around in her seat to shoot her sibling a confused look on her face that might as well had been reacting to Sonata saying “My wallet tastes good.”.

“The what?”

Sonata glanced over to Adagio with a small smile.

“The high school. In TV, power shenanigans are almost always at least partly tied to the nearest college or high school. Seems like with humans, crazy magic or weird powers tend to happen a lot at a young age. Teenagers getting summoned by a giant head in a tube, geek bitten by a spider, magic portals to fantasy realms across a veil; you name it, it spills into the nearest school.”

Adagio raised her hand with the palm facing upwards and cracked a confused scowl, before rolling her eyes. Sonata was her little sister so Adagio did occasionally give her a little leeway during these bizarre ideas she cooked up, but even that had its limits.

“That’s-”

Adagio stopped herself upon glancing back down to the map. Sure enough, most of the notes and locations they’d picked up magic traces at were in the heart of the town. A location that happened to include Canterlot High School. While it wasn’t a smoking gun and Adagio felt half tempted to lecture Sonata for bringing up such ridiculousness, there was nothing to immediately discount the school.

“Um… Sis? What’s up?”

Sonata quipped, tilting her head slightly after Adagio had suddenly dropped out of the conversation and gone back to puzzling over the map.

“Nevermind.”

While making a mental note to check the school out next, Adagio’s attention shifted to the groan of the bathroom door opening. Aria Blaze, having changed out of her sleep attire, was back in her outdoor gear and heading for the front door without a second thought. Oddly, despite being inside, she had her hoodie’s namesake slung over her head and obscuring her face. Adagio put her pen down and slid her chair back to cut Aria’s route off.

“And where do you think you’re going?”

Adagio was used to a grunting tone from Aria. Her cousin had been noticeably grumpier ever since they arrived in this human world, and it showed up in her speech. Still, she knew Aria; and while Aria might throw a snark her way, her cousin never had to the gall do so while looking her in the eye. The dark purple siren in question didn’t avert her vision or hide behind a slouch or grumble, instead she just answered Adagio while looking directly at her through a pair of sunglasses.

“Out. X will be wanting another bit of training soon and we can’t exactly do it in the parking lot.”

Sonata called up from the bed. All too obvious to the glaring contest between Adagio and Aria, she cracked an awkward chuckle whilst gritting her teeth.

“Um… Sooo how it’s going? You’ve been his babysitter past few runs.”

“... Efficient.”

“Hmmm, so it’s paying off and he is stronger than before?”

Adagio, voice still full of swagger, pouted and rolled her eyes whilst scratching her cheek with a nail. Aria narrowed her eyes before trying to move past her.

“Seems like it’s not the only one who’s changed.”

Adagio Dazzle snapped, grabbing Aria by her arm and causing the latter to stop.

“You disappeared last night. I was still awake when you crept out and I saw you two running off into the woods. And don’t think I’ve been oblivious to your recent behavior.”

Adagio turned Aria around and grabbed her by her shoulders, taking in a deep breath and closing her eyes. She had to work to keep her tone from wavering. Couldn’t let any of her genuine concern show through, instead entombing it under piles of scorn and suspicion to maintain dominance. Adagio opened her eyes back to a leer, lifting a hand and pointing it at her cousin’s obscured face.

“You’ve been running off without telling me, acting out more than usual, you’re a lot less reserved than you are supposed to be, and you’ve been insisting on keeping an eye on that thing more than anyone. I’m not an idiot. You’re hiding something Aria Blaze, and unless you feel like speaking up about it, I think I’ll go and watch the kaiju this time. Maybe see if I can get him to squawk after we get our powers back.”

Aria didn’t budge nor speak as the seconds rolled by. Adagio’s leer grew into a frown and she rolled her eyes.

-Hmp, push over…-

The older siren attempted to straighten her arms to push her cousin back, but again, Aria didn’t budge. A tiny glow trickled out of Aria’s siren heart. A lustrous streak of gold momentarily passed across the ruby red surface, grabbing Adagio’s attention momentarily. As it turned out, Aria Blaze had been slouching under her baggy clothing. It was when she straightened out that Adagio got her first indication something was wrong. The siren’s human forms all had some variation. Sonata was the shortest at about 1.55 meters and with a bit of pudge from her eating habits despite taking up swimming. Aria was in the middle at 1.6 meters, having a tomboyish figure with some slight muscle toning. Adagio stood the highest at 1.75, and had paid attention to fit the human beauty standard for more adoration. But when Aria stood up straight, she didn’t just match Adagio’s height, but exceeded it by a few centimeters.

Before Adagio could react, Aria snapped into motion and grabbed her right arm by the wrist in a firm grip Adagio couldn’t break. Aria Blaze rocked her head back to swing her hood off, reaching up with her free hand and removing her sunglasses. Adagio and Sonata’s cousin looked noticeably different than before. Her violet hued skin and magenta hair had considerably darkened to the point some of the fringes of her hair looked almost black. The neon teal streak in the middle siren’s hair had swung towards a yellow-green hue. And, most disturbingly, blood red had bled into almost all of her usually purple irises.

Adagio’s face instantly shifted away from surprised and into something she didn’t openly express often. Her brow lifted and her jaw dropped slightly, the alpha siren’s whispering tone having plummeted from smug superiority to a mix of concern, sadness, and confusion.

“Aria, what’s happened to you?...”

Aria meanwhile bore no such softness in her voice, almost as much a growl at it was speech.

“Don’t. Ever. Get in my way again.”

And with that she turned to the side suddenly and effectively yanked Adagio off her feet to toss her onto the hotel bed, and clear her path to the door. Sonata scrambled to help catch her sibling whilst Aria stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut hard enough to rattle the walls. Sonata was saying many things to Adagio, mostly worried demands as to if her unresponsive big sister was okay. Adagio, eyes still just as wide as when Aria first stood up to her and revealed her altered form, just stared out the closed door. She was petrified like that for a good minute, still processing all that had just happened. Her brow furrowed and her upper lip winced and curled slightly every few seconds. She absentmindedly touched the wrist her cousin had grabbed, the skin and nerves still tingling from the rigid grip and toss. Sonata, oblivious still, sat up with her sibling propped up against her and shook Adagio every few seconds to try and elicit a response.

“Sis? Sis?! ‘Dagi?!”

Adagio’s face winced and contorted into a scorn upon spotting Aria release Monster X from their van and walking off with him. By the time they were in the woods, Adagio was scowling. Sitting up away from Sonata, an irritable Adagio Dazzle swung herself off the bed and marched back to her portfolio to snatch it up. Swinging on her jacket, Adagio marched for the door.

“Get the room key and lock up, we’re going on a drive for an hour or two.”

“Without Aria? With everything happening to her-”

-If she wants to sing her own tune, fine!-

“She’ll be occupied for a bit and I don’t feel like inviting her right now to be quite honest. Now come on! We’re doing some location scouting around the high school.”

Sonata Dusk flinched from the snap in her sibling’s voice, but grabbed her hoodie and rushed out to follow Adagio.

“But, what if that thing shows up? We haven’t relocated yet and we’d be leaving Aria behind!”

She yelped, lowering her head into her shoulders a bit upon seeing Adagio stop in her tracks and clearly fuming at the moment. It wasn’t often when she or Aria did something contradictory to Adagio’s orders, but it never turned out pleasant. And what her cousin had just pulled was easily twice as worse than anything prior. If Adagio could get cranky over losing a lead chord to someone, Sonata didn’t want to test her too much. Still, family was at risk and she had to at least bring it up.

Adagio took in a deep breath and at first Sonata was worried she’d get a very, energetic, reaction out of her sibling. Thankfully the alpha siren kept her voice to a tranquil level of infuriated; and if Sonata really dug into it all she almost swore she could hear hints of the previous concern in the words.

“With as much as we looped around yesterday and it walking, it’ll still be far outside of town by the time we get back to pick them up. Besides she’ll have the other monster with her, and with as strong as he’s gotten there shouldn’t be a problem.”

-Not a problem for that shadow thing anyways… With mask mouth getting better and whatever in the name of McCarthy he’s done to Aria happening, I’m NOT getting left behind in the dust…-

“Now get in.”

Adagio snapped as she climbed into the driver’s side after unlocking the vehicle, and slammed the door shut.

============================

In the Forest about an hour later

Monster X held his head down and his eyes closed in standing meditation. The air around him churned from the manipulated gravity surrounding three soccer ball sized stones he had been manipulating, stacking them on top of each other in a pillar before repeatedly moving the bottom one to the top whilst suspending the others in the air in zero-g. The unending loop wasn’t a strenuous activity, but it along with the sirenous melody carrying through the air, it kept him focused. Aria moved her hands in tandem with her song, almost as if guiding her magic to physically pull the anger and discord out of a compliant Monster X; spinning it into plumes of red smoke that she was all too eager to absorb into her gem. If the session to make sure he wouldn’t lose control again was helping Monster X feel focused, it was helping Aria Blaze feel powerful. Monster X still had far more questions than he fancied having present. About the power surges of days past, the blank spots in his memory both old and new, nature of his newest enemy; and the ever present questions centuries old. Ever since that blue witch had sang to him, his problems had only grown; as if Sonata’s discord-inducing melody had helped to open a flood gate. Magic was still a force that confused him a lot, to a degree he tried not to think about it too much. But, he knew progress when he saw it. If the blue witch had helped open a gate, the violet witch was helping to close it.

After all, he wouldn’t have willingly asked to be subjected to Aria’s singing if he didn’t think it would help. Last thing he’d want is to lose control during the approaching battle with the shade, so this was a preventative measure. With his strength returning to near full power, the time to stop running and confront the demon was drawing near and he wanted no mistakes.

X stacked the last stone and Aria let her song fade out. X opened his eyes and immediately noticed Aria’s heart glowing. The change in her was subtle, but attention to detail noticed it none the less, especially since he first saw her. Her skin and hair were even darker than they were in the morning, getting patches of black in a few places. Gold strands had crawled up the fringes of her hair and were beginning to displace the teal just like the same color had done to her necklace’s edges. Between that and the red hues that had completely taken over her irys, encircled by a medium gray sclera, he almost grew worried she was about to have another outburst. Thankfully her content smile that shifted to a confident smirk upon testing one of her strengthened hands said otherwise.

“Lovely melody.”

“Pfft, someone as weird as you would like a tune that strange.”

Aria quipped, rolling her eyes after a chuckle. As blunt and near robotic as the way he said it though, X was being honest. A melody that liberated strain and helped keep a calm mind seemed strange to someone who’d spent her life singing variations of a tune meant to control and stress, but the kaiju actually did enjoy hearing it. In some ways he almost felt even better now than he did in his calmest moments inside his prison within the asteroid of Gorath.

Aria shrugged her shoulders, not noticing or at all minding the changes she’d undergone.

“Still getting used to singing as a soloist I guess, usually I’m on backup.”

“About that. I saw how you were with Adagio.”

Monster X muttered while crossing his arms, keeping in mind not to refer to the oldest siren as the “alpha witch” or "alpha siren" again. Aria Blaze’s smile melted away in an instant and her expression went through a morph. For a split second it looked like a sneer was forming on her face. She dropped her arms, balled a fist and slid a foot forward in a defensive half step, gritting her teeth and looking Monster X in the eye. The kaiju didn’t move, not wanting a reaction to possibly set her off. Instead he locked vision with her, red eyes looking into the like. Aria winced in frustration briefly, before straightening her stance back up. Confusion mixed into the anger, causing her to relax her hands and look off to the side with a quiet grunt. She felt like she should have been happy. She’d finally stood up to Adagio Dazzle and stopped her cousin from holding her back. This was something she’d been wanting since they got here, to exceed the siren who’d taken her away from everything! The martial arts classes she’d taken, the disagreeable attitude she’d given herself, her hoarding the biggest power source she’d ever seen in this world instead of sharing it; everything was about going against or subverting her control freak of a cousin. And it had finally come to a head today, she finally did what she’d been wanting to do for months!....

Aria Blaze shifted between shrinking back and scrunching her eyebrows in anger, not sure if she should be confused or frustrated at being confused. She stood up to Adagio Dazzle, something she’d been wanting. Then why did remembering the scared expression on the faces of her family, her only remaining family, bring a cold drop of sadness to her conscious?....

Monster X took a few steps forward and planted a hand on his protege’s shoulder. He didn’t have to bend his knees as much to look at the siren on eye level thanks to her growth spurt.

“Don’t burn the bridges you got while you still have them.”

“She started it anyways…”

Aria muttered, before flinching and turning her head back around to shoot Monster X a defensive look.

“And- What? Going to say my plan is stupid after hearing me out last night?!”

Monster X maintained his stoicism, merely shaking his head.

“...No. If you want to assume leadership, that’s your call. Just be sure not to isolate yourself and make you a leader of none. The lone are never the strongest.”

Aria’s leer loosened a bit, some of her anger ebbing away to make way for more confusion. The only deadset thought she had in her head was to make sure not to show any sadness in front of the kaiju. She wouldn’t display weakness.

“You seem to get well enough by yourself…”

“Personal might has its limit, and everyone reaches it eventually. From there, it’s the ones beside you, not against you that make one stronger.”

A silence passed between the two of them. Aria Blaze forced the image of the shocked, concerned Adagio out of her mind. She shrugged and rolled her eyes in a masking display X saw coming a mile away.

“Oh look, more fortune cookie advice? What a shock.”

“It’s the truth. Strong as I may be, I have a team I work with. And, if you need proof.”

Monster X nodded his head subtly as he tilted it to the side a bit.

“I couldn’t have regained my strength here without your help.”

He motioned to her siren heart. Upon seeing a hand moving towards her gem, Aria flinched and normally would have instinctively sought to clutch it protectively. But oddly enough, she didn’t do much more than budge. She told herself it was confidence in that he couldn’t yank it away if he tried, buying her own lie.

“Neither could you have allotted yourself such power without my help. What happens in your family is your choice. I’m just saying not to deprive yourself of one. You’re not the only one of your kind… Aria, so don’t force yourself to be.”

Hearing Monster X speak her name instead of “witch” was such a rarity that she almost didn’t even catch it. It spurred a tiny smile for a few moments. Aria Blaze took in a deep breath and shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, I guess a run as lead singer does sound better than a solo run.”

She rolled her eyes before looking back up at Monster X. His jaw moved a bit under his scarf, as if he’d been frowning at first but was now infected by her smile. He took his hand off her shoulder and backed away a half step.

“You’ll need all the help you can get after the shadow is disposed of. I promised I wouldn’t be maiming or lethal, but I did not promise to hold back.”

Aria Blaze snapped her fingers and mock pouted. While she didn’t like remembering the nature of their temporary alliance, the talk overall had helped her feel a bit better nonetheless.

“Darn, and I was just starting to like not completely hating you.”

X paused momentarily. He didn’t show anything outright or expressive, just closed his eyes and shook his head in a mildly jokative manner; letting his professionalism slip for a moment.

“The time will come soon enough. As for the present, ready for another round? This time it’s energy projection.”

He noted, taking a step before making a few quick movements to flawlessly manipulate the gravity around him, and levitate upwards a few meters. Upon hearing about what she was about to learn, Aria Blaze didn’t bother to try and suppress her grin. With a few movements, more curved and weaving than X’s straightforwardness, Aria joined him at about ten feet off the ground.

“Let’s begin!”

A half hour of explaining, demonstrations from X, half a dozen failed test fires from Aria; and they were on attempt #7. Good choice in number as hopefully this attempt wouldn’t result in an explosion or a runaway torrent of gravity sending the siren falling sideways against a tree and to the ground before X could catch her. As instructed, Aria focused her breathing and fine tuned her movements to manipulate the graviton flows around her. X hovered a short distance away and studied the siren closely. Like her levitation technique, she added her own flair to the steps after her attempts to copy X became a no-go. More fluid and arcing currents were present in the graviton flows and her movements that directed them, each playing off the other like Aria was immersed in a liquid. And contrasting to X’s calm focus whilst using the attack, Aria’s focus instead was coming from energetic drive emanating from her necklace; a controlled fury and pride that kept her mind honed. X nodded his head amicably as he saw the seconds tick by and witnessed that the alterations were having a positive influence.

-She’s definitely adapted the methods to suit her. Changed formula yet with similar results. And she does that in a few days while I haven’t changed up much of anything in a century. Impressive, to say the least.-

A ball of energy formed just in front of one of Aria’s closed eyes. The heavy compressed atoms, engulfed by a pressurized net of gravitons; were converted into a contained plasma and packed in tightly.

“And now, take aim. Then, quickly release the compression on the point you want the beams to go by breaking the graviton net. Release the grip and let the beam decompress and fire in that set direction.”

Aria grunted a bit from the strain. The luminous pile up from the energized plasma was growing to an apex. Just when it got to the proper strength, Aria swung her head out and did as she was instructed. Spiraling beams of graviton-encased plasma shot out from her vision and rolled through the air in a uniform manner. However as the encircling beams reached about three meters away from their sender, the tight radius they wound around faltered and the rays flew off in random directions. One managed to skim the target, a dead pine tree, but the others either took a nosedive and hit the ground, shot off into the sky; or arched around and shot out into a random part of the forest. Momentarily overwhelmed by focusing on the beams, Aria’s levitation faltered and she dropped. She would have hit the ground, which thankfully wouldn’t have been too dangerous on several feet of loose packed snow, had Monster X not been quick to react and hook an arm around her midsection.

Had she not been frustrated at being so close to succeeding and yet still managing to find ways to fail, she probably would have wondered why he didn’t just let her take a tumble. Instead she was too busy hissing, leering at her target like she blamed it for her failure and crossing her arms with a grunt.

“Damn it! Lost it again!”

Monster X rolled his eyes and shrugged, taking note of where the energy streams had all flown off to.

“Close. Controlling not only the gravitons directly, but also a dangerous discharge of mass through said gravitons is nothing simple. It didn’t blow up in your face like it did for me, so we’re making progress. The fact you managed to pull it off with your own variation of the technique is commendable. In fact, your innovation actually gives me an idea.”

“What’s that?”

She muttered, still a tad snippy in her tone.

“New technique. I’ll try it out once you manage to pull off the graviton flares.”

“Oh, great!”

Aria Blaze shrugged, rolling her hand by its wrist in a circular motion.

“I can’t do this spell and you’re already coming up with a new one.”

Monster X shared her expression upon her calling his abilities ‘spells’. Spells were magic, a force with often few rules. His however, while fantastic to the layman’s eyes, were all physics. True, even he didn’t fully understand how exactly all of it worked, hence his surprise at Aria’s unique methods, but they were all tied to a universal law. He elected to ignore it for the future. Still, through her words he got an idea.

“Well if your attempts at the flares today fail, my test comes tomorrow. So there is little need to rush.”

“... You think I can’t handle eye lasers today? What was that you said about me being commendable?”

X didn’t need to see a raised eyebrow and pout on Aria’s face to know she’d taken the bait. Few days in training with her had taught him a few ways to get her motivated if she was caught in a frustration streak.

“You were the one speaking in a defeatist attitude, not me.”

“Oh wanna bet?!”

She spun around in the grip X had on her thanks to her baggy clothing, pointing a finger at X’s nose.

“Two more tries. If I can’t get the flares down on attempt number nine, we’re getting to your training right away without waiting for me.”

Monster X expected an energetic reaction out of her, he wasn’t expecting it to go all the way into a bargain. He raised an eyebrow under his mask.

“That sounds like only part of the conditions, you haven't stated your half yet. And what happens if you do manage it within the second following attempt?”

Aria Blaze paused briefly for about two seconds, eyes scanning around as she thought up the rest of the bargain. Couldn’t exactly ask for a new technique to learn, they were already on one of the two she’d been biting at the bit to get at; and it wasn’t like she could ask to learn something X hadn’t even tried out yet. A sideways glance to an ivory white caught her attention and a smirk crossed the siren’s face.

“You. If I can get this flare stuff down in time, you have to take off your scarf and mask for the rest of this training run.”

X actually flinched. He had a lot of reasons for keeping his mask on all this time. Since this attire seemed to be an approximation of his true form’s body, the mask was one for his helmet. If he wasn’t wearing it and he ended up going back to Zenith, he worried a bit about if he’d end up harming himself due to his helmet equivalent not crossing over with him. But, he knew an obvious lie when he heard one, especially if he said it. The helmet he’d been wearing for centuries had been secured to his head all that time. It was what enemies saw standing against them and what friend’s saw standing beside them. For all intensive purposes, it was his face. He couldn’t remove it if he wanted to……

… at least in his true form. Monster X unconsciously reached up with his free arm and touched the edge of his mask, pressing against it slightly and feeling it freely shift. He had a chance to see what he looked like without it, and as much as the thought disturbed him; he was curious. And evidently, so was Aria.

-Maybe…-

The siren in question rolled her eyes and waved her hand nonchalantly, having noticed the kaiju’s uncertainty but ignorant of the ramifications.

“Fiiine fiiine Mr. Melodrama. If I win the bet, mask comes off and I’ll promise to make good with Adagio when we get back.”

A brief silence passed, Monster X taking in a deep breath and shrugging it out his nose as they levitated down towards the ground.

“So be it. But everything goes back on when we return.”

Aria’s smirk however was cut short soon as they touched down a few secondly later. Monster X hadn’t released her, infact he’d only tightened his hold on the siren to pull her up against him. A red flush briefly crossed Aria’s now dark purple skin and her eyes briefly widened with embarrassment upon becoming conscious of their position. She put a hand on the kaiju and shoved herself away a bit to loosen the hold, but to her confusion X hadn’t budged. His eyes were locked onto the rocky wall twenty meters behind them, and when Aria pushed against him she could tell his muscles had tensed up. Something had his attention. Monster X stayed locked in place, gripping Aria firmly by her wrist and pulling her behind him after widening his stance.

“Aria, get. Behind. Me…”

His use of her name again instantly got her attention and the siren stumbled around to his side, X letting go of her and instead holding his arm out in front of her. Aria snapped into a readied stance, popping up on the balls of her feet and curling a fist. She followed X’s line of sight to the top of the rock wall after several pebbles bounced down the side.

What she saw on top was a cloud of shadowy mass blowing away in the cold breeze. It was perched, standing on the top of the uplift and looking directly at them. Monster X mentally swore, having been too focused on Aria to sense the dark energy coming until it was too close. A blur of blackness swung itself around an outcropping and slid down the steep stoneface. Knuckle spikes dug into the rock amongst a shower of sparks as they cut trenches into the face. Reaching the bottom, Enjin kicked off the stone face and landed on the ground with a crash and uproar of thrown snow.

=============

Reader Works!

Time to brag about you guys and gals again! Now be aware boys and girls that the creators listed here got TONS more artwork, both original and Bridge related. To keep this section from being enormous, I'll just be listing one creation, but I highly advise you check out the rest of these creative folk's galleries.

Evowizard giving his video making a spin with this picture show of Faith's and Pyrus' art, set to Fairy Tail's music!

Falljoydelux giving us their version of a female Gojira!

Zeroviks definitely showing where he stands on the shipping lanes!

Gollum123 giving us our first Enjin fan art!

Issacholt trying to give us diabetes!

LionPatriot show us genetics influence behavior in these lineages :rainbowlaugh:

Pyrus-Leonidas never ceasing to deliver on the good stuff with this 4v1!

Author's Note

Proof Reading by LanceOmikron and Faith-Wolff!
Illustrations (COMING SOON) by Faith-Wolff and Pyrus-Leonidas

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Two forces that were never supposed to cross paths become aware of each other. With the sirens and dark hunters separated, Enjin has made its move.
.....
"Henshin!""Henshin!"
-HENSHIN!-

Chapter 29, part 1: Siren Dame

===============

Harmonium Nexus

Harmony narrowed her vision and ushered forth another pulse from her horn as she stood before the window to the human realm. Having been watching the sirens and kaiju closely, she’d seen Enjin coming and had been trying to give Monster X and Aria forewarning of its arrival the first moment she saw it. But unfortunately, like trying to push a bubble underwater, something was keeping her from reaching out to the group. Something was keeping her power from influencing the realm, and that observation was the most startling for her.

It meant someone was blocking her. As for who, they weren’t slow to make their presence known. A low voice echoed across the ethereal chamber, more akin to several voices speaking in unison from multiple directions than just one tone.

“I suspected someone of importance was tied to the tree…”

It muttered as a hazy shade filtered across a majority of the dimensional window. The visual of Aria and Monster X was blotted out by an invasive nothingness that swallowed up half the window. A second portal to another realm revealed itself, having been forcefully opened on top of the first and being responsible for Harmony’s communication being cut off. Her words of warning had gone to another source, another realm, and someone had been listening. An energy spike the likes of which the harmonic nexus had never encountered began to gush out of the dimensional black hole. A heavily distorted, blurry mass of pure mana and physical mass began to step through the window. Harmony’s hooves clicked across the glassy walkway as she backpedalled away. A figure, heavily obscured by a black energy shroud and a blurry image of its body, stepped onto the platform. Multiple sets of eyes, the only part of its body with any clarity, opened and looked about its surroundings. The intruder’s visage bore a distinct outline, one broad nasal horn flanked by two bull-like brow horns. A long tail lined with several spines slithered out of the portal and thumped against the glass walkway. While still not nearly at full strength, the lord of Zenith’s presence was wrought with waves of unnatural power that seemed to taint the very air around it. The Avatar of Extinction, Bagan had arrived.

Harmony didn’t need to be told what she was looking at. She’d suspected there was a master pulling the strings to the recent ploys, and now he stood before her. She winced slightly from a gnawing chill, a highly unusual feeling for someone like her. Far from a normal cold, the snowless blizzard was clearly an unnatural aura that passively accompanied the eldritch; for even she could sense it was coming from Bagan himself and not the portal. Still, the incarnation of the realms’ world tree held her nerve as well as her ground. Bagan locked all of his eyes upon Harmony as the portals behind him resettled to an even split between Zenith and the human realm. One set of eyes mounted on the shoulders glanced over at the visage of Enjin as it dropped down in front of Monster X and Aria.

“I suspected you’d be watching that conflict, if you existed. Tracking down this realm was difficult, so I made sure I’d get your attention and draw this place close enough to Zenith.”

Bagan spoke in a disturbing calm. He’d gambled from the beginning there might be some sort of celestial or magical higher ups in this realm as there had been on Terra. An overseer much like he’d been once. True, Enjin’s deployment had mostly been an endeavor to acquire the kaiser energy. But, as Bagan had correctly guessed, the Aspect’s arrival would cause enough logistical trouble in that realm that it would require someone he suspected existed to draw in closer. Close enough that her realm got near enough to Zenith that Bagan could open a second portal without burning too much energy. With them both connected to the human realm, all he needed to do was patch the tethers together. With eons of experience, Bagan never was one to just have one plan at a time.

Harmony tilted her head up and let her radiance shine, pushing back the wayward energy and cold emanating off of Bagan. She brokered a stoic expression and retained all of her focus without a hint of faltering. Bagan wasn’t the only experienced immortal in the realm.

“So, I presume you are the one who brought the kaiju here?”

“The apes were the ones who begot that folly, I needed only take the reins away from them. Their slight will be corrected in time when I return to Terra.”

As it spoke, Harmony detected a spike in its energy output. It was mana, much like Mothra Lea’s or the Shobijin, but in a far purer form that was magnitudes more potent than even the former’s. Even without a direct, active comparison she could tell the entity before her was easily four times stronger than the guardian moth; and this was just its passive output. That monstrosity in the human realm was easily one of the most powerful forces there, but it was merely a fraction of the whole. And, something told her this wasn’t even the full extent of itself.

“And allow me to guess that you chose to invade this dimension and its accompanying realms to regain your strength?”

Bagan turned its head away from Harmony, casually looking back over at the standoff between his hunter and its quarry.

“Invaded is a misnomer. But, I do plan to grant this place and the realms tied to it a gift as I restore myself, before I return to Terra. It has worked thus far and I am not without gratitude.”

“And, what might that gift entail?”

An eerie silence passed over them for a short while. One by one, each of Bagan’s sets of eyes looked back at Harmony as he stood still, the action done in a disturbingly unnatural manner that wasn’t helped by Bagan never raising his voices above a tranquil stoicism.

“The inhabitants of these realms have souls, do they not? I shall unbind them.”

The horrific realization slowly dawned on Harmony, granting Bagan the first genuine reaction he could get out of her as her eyes widened and jaw dropped slightly. In an instant her brow furrowed and the avatar’s glow intensified. The white and bright purple light overtook her eyes and she spoke with a shaking tone that would make the royal Canterlot voice seem like a whisper.

“You. Will. Not!”

Her declaration shook the nexus realm with a gust of wind that was soon chased by a wave of energy flying free from Harmony’s pronged horn. The white wave crashed into Bagan, who turned and dug his hand into its forefront. Brilliance crackling along the invader’s arm, he physically grasped the crescent of magical energy and stopped its forward advance. He then shifted his stance and tossed it into the space off to the side of and below the walkway. The blurred visage of multi-rowed fangs with liquid shadow drooling out from between them snarled, Bagan advancing forward to stampede towards Harmony.

=============

Human Realm

Enjin stoically began to advance upon Monster X and Aria, the latter two attempting to keep a distance by backpedalling in tandem with Enjin’s steps. Monster X held a low voice, keeping an arm outstretched in front of Aria and pushing her back with it.

“Run. Now.”

Aria Blaze however, be it by her own pride or the influence of Kaizer Ghidorah’s power, wasn’t feeling keen to oblige too quickly.

“No! If I can fight, I can help!”

She snapped, her eyes already flashing with a ruby glow. Monster X’s low tone shifted to a growl.

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Aria.”

“And don’t try to make me go anywhere!”

Before Monster X could retort, the pair had to spring into action due to Enjin moving at a quicker rate than an impeccable stride. It lunged forward with a balled first, forcing X and Aria to spring back with a levitation assisted leap to get clear of the blow that shattered the rotting corpse of an old tree. Splinters and decaying bark flew out every which way as the two fell back into dodging Enjin’s continued attacks. Monster X rolled himself along a leaping strike aimed at Aria, ramming his elbow into Enjin’s temple to try and force it back. He had to resort to grabbing its forearm with his free hand and snapping his hips to get enough force to equalize Enjin’s relentless advance.

“Your!- Training isn’t done yet!

Monster X grit his teeth during the struggle, his feet sinking into the packed snow. Aria however wasn’t staying still. With X diverting the blow, she forgoed her need to dodge and with her necklace and eyes flashing, landed a strength enhanced leg sweep into a mule kick that broke Enjin’s stance. The siren lurched forward together with X, shoving the dark being back and over a steep incline. While stumbling a bit, Enjin easily grabbed hold of the gravel laden ground and righted itself. Aria’s attention however, wasn’t solely on the kaiju in front of her as it was the one taking a unified guard stance beside her.

“And it won’t be if this thing kills you! You’re not at your best either X, you’ll need the help!”

Monster X and Aria backed up as Enjin clawed its way back up the incline’s drop off.

“We’re not fighting it yet. On my signal, go and run fast as you can back to the hotel and get your pod to ready our escape.”

“What about you?!”

“I’ll distract it for a moment, then break off and follow. I’ll be only a short distance behind you. One of us has to keep this thing occupied and your cousins wouldn’t believe me if I showed up alone and not you.”

Monster X lowered his voice, shifting his position to put himself between Enjin and the siren.

“So. Get. Going! I can hold it off for awhile. Then I’ll be right behind you… Don’t make me repeat myself again Aria. Your time will come.”

Aria Blaze sneered, but the glow around her still red eyes dissipated somewhat. She dropped her guard and half turned around, mumbling just loud enough for Monster X to hear.

“... Be careful you idiot, I still want that last lesson.”

“I’ll make it a promise. Now go!”

He barked with a partially turned head, having long since lost his patience as was evident in his tone. Aria Blaze’s expression never faltered from a scowl, but she nevertheless made her turn and sprinted away at a surprising speed. Enjin’s eyeless mask trailed her and sure enough, the smoking shadow started to charge forward in a collision course with Aria. It cut across a small clearing bordering a lake, starting to gain on her due to the shorter distance traveled. Or at least it would have had it not been for the black and white blur coming up beside it. Monster X leaped off a fallen log and twisted around on a curtain of gravitons whilst outstretching his leg. The jumping axe kick caught Enjin on the back of the head, snapping its neck forward and driving its entire body in a downward arc to place its face into the ground. The stun was only momentary, but having to pick itself up did stall it just long enough for Monster X to run past it.

Aria Blaze heard the commotion and glanced back, seeing Monster X running after her and swatting his hand through the air to signal her to keep running. She smirked at the still rising Enjin, turned her head and kept running through the adrenaline rush. Just when he got four meters away from the Aspect however, Monster X jumped and spring boarded off a broad tree trunk. Turning himself around mid-air, he came to a sliding stop facing Enjin.

Enjin’s mask bled inky blackness along its crack through the middle, Monster X’s kick having smashed it head first into a snow-buried boulder. The darkness was sucked back into it, mending the crack as it was drawn back into the Aspect. Enjin cracked its neck stoically as its sternum pulsed with a burning light, lines of energy that reminded Monster X of magma flows crossing over its body in an almost runic-like manner. Monster X’s eyes glowed dimly, the irises crackling with golden energy that signaled a gravity distortion. With the surrounding snowfall and his scarf flapping in weightlessness, he put himself into a guard.

It would take Aria Blaze about three minutes of high speed sprinting for her to reach the edge of the parking lot to the hotel bordering the national park. Adrenaline and focus died down enough for her mind to wander and the siren looked behind her, expecting to see her ally sprinting up the forest to meet her. She had wanted to gloat about outrunning him, but her smirk vanished when a few seconds ticked by without any sign of Monster X. Quickly snatching out her phone while frantically looking through the sea of trees in hopes of spotting his black and white attire, she speed-dialed Adagio.

“The person you have dialed is unavailable. Please leave a message at the tone!~ PUUUUUOOOWP!”

“Adagio pick up and get ready! I’m almost to the hotel! It’s here-!”

The phone was still receiving when her ears and siren heart picked up the muffled but unmistakable rumble of a distant explosion, one that had traces of a very familiar energy. Aria froze as the only sound she could hear now was the low static fizz of the answering machine, her eyes widening. Monster X wasn’t just doing a quick skirmish to hold it off, he wasn’t coming at all. Aria’s face twitched as her brow lowered.

-He tricked me. He knew I wouldn’t run from the fight, so he lied… THAT FU-

Aria’s angered grip tightened to such a degree she crushed in the casing on her phone before dropping it.

===============

Harmonium Nexus

Harmony held her stance and the barrier put out by her horn rigid despite sliding back across the walkway, sparks bursting out from her hooves’ contact points as she held back the neon blue onslaught. Her shield split the bulk of the force behind the mana beam in two and sent it shooting off in either direction beside her. Still, her barrier could only hold up for so long, the blizzard of energy burning through it like a jet of flame through wood. Casting a spell upon herself, the source of the elements that bore her namesake turned her form intangible and phased through the floor to dodge Bagan’s attack. Not stopping his assault, Bagan just adjusted his aim and raked the mana beam across the glassy walkway, trailing it along after the high speed, violet light he interpreted as Harmony’s location. Eventually losing sight of the vanishing light trail he’d been firing at, Bagan wasn’t aware of Harmony, who now had several of her hair braids undone and was looking a tad scuffed up, phasing out of the floor behind him until she’d stomped her hooves on the walkway.

Glimmers of light raced through the walkway like electricity across a circuit board. The tiny arcs of power begot enormity, gigantic tree roots similar in coloration and texture to the Tree of Harmony, burst from the floor and coiled around Bagan in a spiral. Just as they formed a solid wall that started to crush its way inwards, the God of Extinction smashed his palm into the ground and mentally recited an incantation. Glowing runes of long forgotten magic native to Terra burned their way across the root system, singed trails stretching out from the runes themselves outwards across the majority of the roots’ mass. With a single thrash of the tail, the rotten and burned roots simply crumbled apart on impact; turning into nothing more than a cloud of dust.

Mentally holding up a curtain of energy above him to block and force away the debris, Bagan readied his response. Honed upon a simple command, Bagan’s horns and claws sparked with a mystical brilliance.

-Shatter-

With a mere clap of its hands giving the order, a wave of mana charged magic flew out of Bagan in all directions. Every piece of the realm for a wide radius, save the portion of the walkway he was standing on, erupted and fell to pieces like it was hit by a shockwave. The walkway blew apart and cracks of black emptiness formed in the starry void around them. Harmony was sent flying back briefly, disappearing in a bolt of light as she teleported away before she could be knocked off the walkway.

Several hundred meters away from Bagan now, she pressed her horn to the ground and halted the shockwave. Advanced telekinesis took hold of some portions of the walkway and stray starlight, pushing them back into their proper places; the act thereof looking like the shockwave played in reverse. Pooling her energy out of the repaired walkway and back into her horn, Harmony reared up on her hindlegs. A beam of light shot upwards from her pronged horn and crown. After shooting up an enormous distance, the beam halted and was molded into a shape, no longer resembling a beam of magic as much as it did a sword blade composed of light itself. Commanding the blade dozens of times longer than herself, Harmony lowered her head and swung it along parallel to the walkway. The sweeping dawn of energy swiped towards Bagan, who attempted to put up an energy shield to block it but either didn’t have the time or raw power necessary to do so fully. Despite taking a glancing hit from the blade in his shoulder however, the deity’s barrier was enough to take away much of the sword beam’s momentum and deflect it away after getting hit more seriously.

With his index finger glowing with a malign energy, Bagan slashed a symbol into the air in front of him and swiped at it before Harmony could take another swing at him. The light and space around Bagan was swallowed up in a darkness so thick it looked less like blackness and shadow and more like a nothingness in space itself. The black void swelled up as it swallowed the mass around it, briefly pausing on contact with Harmony’s return swing. Sparks and arcs of energy shot out from the blade, but the massive gravity well caused by Bagan’s pool bent the straight length of the sword. Force on both sides increased, but just as the light shone into the darkness, so too did Bagan’s veil twist Harmony’s blade into a spiral before tearing it free from her horn and engulfing it. The nothingness spread out like a plague despite the energy blasts Harmony shot at it, the storm only swallowing them up. She halted her onslaught and thought fast. The goddess knew she couldn’t cut through the veil, as it engulfed her ranged attacks.

-Only solution then is an ouroboros scenario, make it engulf itself!-

Levitating up numerous sections of the broken walkway and telekinetically redirecting some of the intact walkways into a new shape, Harmony formed two structures. A long straight line in front of herself, and a circle outside the void’s radius. With her crown of elements glimmering, an encompassing light washed over Harmony from horn to hoof. She sprinted forward, rapidly compounding her speed by the millisecond until she was nothing more than a streaming blur of blinding radiance. Teleporting herself onto the circular track with her full momentum, Harmony banked into the turn and ran dozens of laps around the track within the span of just a second, and had done so hundreds of times by the time the spreading void reached the track. At that point the trail of light behind the speeding deity had grown so solid that it formed a wall. The light barrier spread above and below the track into a sphere to form a shell around Bagan’s void.

Harmony, still a mobile mass of light and pure magic, teleported back to the walkway proper and slid to a halt whilst turning herself around to look at the spectacle. Nothingness and light were in constant flux, ebbing and flowing like rapidly shifting tides. Gradually, the twin masses shrunk more and more as they engulfed one another, before dissipating entirely.

The only problem was despite the walkway it had been standing on surviving, Bagan was not in the former epicenter. Thankfully Harmony knew all too well that a singularity such as that wasn’t enough to have done in her opponent, the coldness she could still detect was proof of that. Savviness might have saved her ichor, as a distant flicker of light that turned out to be a portal opening a far distance away was her only warning. An unharmed Bagan burst out of a new portal that opened up right behind her. Still in her speeding state, Harmony easily was able to dodge out of the way and sprint off to clear a distance. Bagan pulled his hand free of the cracked walkway, unfettered by the display. Magic glowed within the deity’s palm before he pressed it into the glassy floor. A new rune momentarily flickered across the surface, fading as a line of energy shot through the floor and into a space of its length directly in front of Harmony.

The smoothness of the ground quickly metamorphosed into a liquid slurry that caught Harmony by her hooves like tar. Snagged to the ground, the glow accompanying Harmony’s form vanished and she struggled. Jolts of energy shot through Bagan’s eyes and shoulder spikes. The openings on the bottoms of the shoulder protrusions glowed with a sapphire blindness before ejecting multiple barrages of diamond shaped energy bursts. The salvo of mana charges shot into the starry realm before arching up and raining down on Harmony’s position. At the last minute, her body was consumed with a brilliance and split apart moments before the hellstorm came raining down on her with a rolling thunder.

The smoke cleared in time. Spheres of light, six in number of different colors, flew back into each other from the corners of the realm. They spun around briefly before colliding, the ensuing flash of light revealing a staggering Harmony at their epicenter. Her mane had come completely undone and her eyelids and head were hung at half mast, glimmering light leaking out from several spots of her body like trickles of blood. Shrugging off the strain upon her, the goddess flashed with brilliance. Upon a booming shout, a shockwave of energy shot through the entirety of the realm. Several star points of light were ripped from the sky, more and more following suit. A chain of the heavens was formed and swung at Bagan like a lash. While he tried to block it, the rupturing of the floor beneath his mass destabilized as Harmony’s telekinesis tore it apart. With ichor dripping down her face and a powerful scream that echoed across the realm, Harmony snapped her energies together. The chain swung around Bagan’s distorted face, throat, limbs, and tail to bind them all together, sending the titan plummeting into the void.

Bagan’s rumbling bellows echoed through the realm in a gradually diminishing volume. Harmony slumped back on her stance and stumbled a bit, heaving for breath. This realm of hers’ main locale, the location of the fighting, might have been large but it had it’s limits. Falling off the path however? That was a direct drop straight into enormity that very well might not have an end. And those chains she snagged her foe in were to bind evil. Fellow deity or not, those with a black soul weren’t breaking free or pulling out any escape portals any time soon. She sat back on her haunches at the entrance to the memory hall, looking over at one of the memory windows. One of the very same Celestia had walked young Twilight through, it had become active during the fighting; most likely from the sheer magic output by both titans. Except it wasn’t one of her memories.

The haze on the moving image was evident of age, but it was clear enough to distinguish its features. A group of humans and human-like creatures Harmony didn’t recognize stood in a crowd. Besides their pale hair and dark skin, even the humans were far less colorful than what the goddess was used to. Behind them was a magnificent city, one far more akin to the Crystal Empire in construction than the one she’d observed King Caesar in. Just looking at the fantastic architecture and mythic glow some of the buildings gave off was a large clue to the major difference between this city and any other human settlement Harmony had seen in the realms of the kaiju or realms of her own. This one had magic. And its source revealed itself. Hovering above an assortment of humans moving through the crowd was a mass of light that could best be described as a burning, blue crystal. A similar light was emitted by the necklaces many in the crowd were wearing, most of which were fading away much like the dimming crystal. They carried the heart of their island city to a cliffside rimming the edge of the city, setting it down and waiting. They didn’t need to wait long.

A mountain rose up from the seafloor on the other side of the cliffs, slowly ascending straight up as not to cause a tsunami from water displacement. Harmony’s eyes widened with recognition of a triple horned crown atop the gargantuan. Her opponent stood calmly in front of the crowd, same in shape but differing in color from how Harmony had seen it. A far cry from the distorted mass of blurry darkness, this titan carried itself with a gilded presence and coloration to fit a regalia. It reached towards the crowd, energy glimmering across the mammoth talon tipping its index finger. With careful movements, it traces a rune into the air directly in front of the large crystal, before pressing the tip of its claw to its surface and pushing the rune into it. In an instant, the crystal reignited with more brilliance than it ever had before, the city bursting with more life and light by the moment. The crowd erupted in cheers and praises as the titan backed away, almost looking like it was smiling briefly before wading back out to sea.

Harmony briefly flashed likewise, before her face became sullen. There was so much she didn’t understand about the invader, but she knew enough to know that they hadn’t always been this way. The other memory panels flickering on were proof of that. A time of three entities, land, air, and sea; standing against a firestorm and holding the carnage back. The group seeing the continents move and shift as the celestials zoomed by, watching the first fish swim in the seas. The trio, now one, marching across a barren landscape. With an etching of a rune and exertion of magic, plant-life began to spring back up over the charred wastelands; growing over a graveyard of massive skeletons. Another of a giant paw gently helping pull a newborn Mothra free of the eggshell stuck on her head. Then that same paw blocking a graviton onslaught aimed at the now adult Mothra and her counterpart, a horned shadow looming over a young pair of ghidorahs. And finally, a young she-ape walking on her hind legs, cowering in fear of a massive, blackened entity near a fruit tree. Before any transgression could be made; a gilded titan grabbed the demonic force and pulled it away, lifting it up by its throat and destroying it into smoke as it was exorcised. That same hand then carefully nudged the primate back onto her feet before turning away.

The chants from the first memory played in the background.

“Reijuu! Reijuu! Reijuu!”

Harmony dipped her head and closed her eyes, sighing. She’d won, and that was why her expression was one of despair. It all was necessary, casting the monstrosity into the void; lives had to be saved. But these memories weren’t ones of a destroyer. They were ones of a protector. In another position or time, they easily could have been her’s. Now her mind was left wondering just what had happened to her foe. Had he been corrupted by something? Controlled by someone else? It had to have been something strong, something she hadn’t ever seen or encountered before. Seemed impossible! Had he gone insane? He seemed perfectly rational of mind, however wrong he was. Then what had happened?! Why had he changed?

Harmony shook her head, now wishing she’d tried to find some method to change him back to how he had been before.

-If I hadn’t divided up my power long ago, maybe I’d have been strong enough to restrain him there and figure out what was wrong. Strong enough to fix what was wrong. Now I have to condemn a former hero to a void…-

It was two observations that snapped Harmony out of her dread induced stupor. The first was the fact more and more memory panels were lighting up, despite the opposite being more likely given Bagan was plummeting further and further away from them. The second was a certain memory that lit up. One of the titan watching a sunrise over the edge of the planet. A sunrise it was watching from just above the surface of the moon, glowing wings spread from its shoulder spikes. Bagan could fly via magic...

A gnawing chill shot through the hall as a large mass hovered up from the side of the walkway. Bagan rose up from the depths with an enraged snarl evident over its blurry maw. Wings of energy emitted from the ports on each shoulder spike, only partially held down by the star chain Harmony had bound him in. Bagan flexed his form, energy crackling across his surface as the chains became taut. Harmony only narrowly had enough time to jump up and surround herself in a bubble shield when Bagan thrashed his form and shattered his bonds, sending its remains flying every which way. With light eclipsing his eyes and maw, Bagan threw open his jaws and emitted a physical and psychic roar that shook the dimension with a tidal wave of cold blizzard winds and malefic sensations. In an instant the entire hall was blotted out with the deafening roar; the air wrought with painful emotions and a consuming cold, and a whirlwind of heinous memories.

Memories of serenity and benevolence literally going up in flames. What once taught a congregation of guardian moths was now standing atop a mountain of their remains, and quickly adding to it. Mu, Ninai Kanai, Lemuria, Shambhala, and half a dozen other centers that would hold parades for their protector’s arrival were now all wiped out within hours, their screaming, pleading citizens begging to know what they had done wrong before they were atomized mid-sentence. Not so much as a stray plant or bacteria was left. Eventually the images overloaded the windows, the panels becoming coated in stress fractures before completely shattering.

Bagan climaxed his attack with a glowing light from his maw. Raw mana drooling out of his fangs, the deity fired an enormous beam that engulfed Harmony and her shield. Harmony strained behind her shield, sliding back on the floor from the sheer force despite trying to hold her ground. The physical and mental onslaught was taxing her every fiber just to hold back. Some of her coat began to singe and the screams of those Bagan had killed invaded her mind from the fallen windows. Her crown and each of the gems atop it glowed to their apex, each element working to their limit just to keep Harmony from being mentally and physically overpowered. Bagan knew how strong she was, even with the Elements only recently returned to her and the suspicion she’d divided her power even further by ushering out that box. Had he sent anything under his command here, even sending both Mizu and Doragon at once or deploying Ghidorah would have been suicide. He had come himself, because the reward was too great of a chance, and with the battle taking place in her realm, he was the only one who’d stand a chance. It takes a god to kill a god. Honing his energy, Bagan began to walk forward and increased his energy output.

Outside of her realm, one by one, each of the Elements of Harmony began to crack. Honesty was challenged with the vision of the first attack, the sinking of Thule moments after its monarch had invited Reijuu into the city. Generosity was worked to its limit by the vision of Bagan stepping on a begging, now screaming crowd. Loyalty and Laughter found themselves taxed by Bagan vaporizing a citadel that bore his image in patronage. Kindness found itself splintering as forest and urbanization alike were glassed from the onslaught, billions of lives, human and animal and beyond literally going up in smoke. Even Magic was taking blow after blow as Bagan rampaged across Terra, wiping one nexus of that world’s magic after another.

Harmony was forced onto one of her forelimbs’ knees, tears staining her eyes as the flashes of betrayal and devastation filled the hall. Out of the corner of her wincing eye however, she spotted something. Drifting freely after the fight destroyed the part of the walkway it was anchored to, the portal to Zenith and the human realm had veered close to the fight and was floating off to the side. There was movement at the half of the portal leading to Zenith, Harmony spotting a trio of figures approaching the point of view with a familiar color palette. Face contorting from the effort, she threw her hoof to the side and sent a wave of magic to the portal. For a brief moment, just as Gigan, Irys, and Megalon reached the Zenith portal, Harmony forced it and the human world portal together to create a link.

Bagan was quick to realize what she’d done, but was too slow to cut off the connection. Silencing his assault with a bellow, he shifted his magic to the human world portal. While unable to cut it off, he was able to partially redirect the end location in the middle of the transfer, flinging the trio miles away from Enjin and Monster X.

With a glare, he looked back at Harmony with all sets of his eyes; just in time to see the worn unicorn smirking back at him.

============

In the Portals

Irys and the cyborgs whirled through the flurry veil that composed the portal's transitional phase. They’d hopped in the moment they saw the portal inside the throne room, needing only a glance of Monster X confronting the shadow beast to know where it lead. Fate had played Bagan an irony, in that not only had his attack on Harmony left the portal to Enjin’s tether visible; but the trio actually thought the dimensional window was meant for them.

“So nice of Boss Ball to give us a free ride here!”

Megalon chirped, spinning around the spiralling void alongside Irys and Gigan, squealing like he was on a slide.

“How’d he know we were coming?”

Gigan, nonchalantly crossing his arms despite flying down the spiral backwards, just shrugged.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if he heard our discussion. Magic isn’t anything that makes sense and he’s basically a god anyways. Wouldn’t think about it too hard.”

“Any game plan once we get there?”

“Sniff X out with energy sensory. He shouldn’t be too hard to pick out from the humans there if we’re close enough. The portal showed some forest so we should end up near there.”

“And if we’re not?”

“Then I know someone who knows the area and could help us cover more ground a lot quicker than walking.”

“Who?”

Irys sighed, not wanting it to come to that as there was one friend she had she didn’t want to rope into this situation. Humans were too fragile for this sort of thing most of the time. Still, desperate times called for desperate measures.

“I’ll tell you more if it comes to it, but her name is Sunset.”

Irys saw a familiar light ahead at the nexus of the void. She readied herself alongside the cyborgs, Megalon stopping his back first slide and righting himself as Gigan turned himself around. They barreled into the light and exited the portal. Despite leaving the void however, they could still feel air rushing past them. They quickly analyzed their surroundings, seeing not a forest but a neighborhood. Gigan’s sunglasses and Megalon’s goggles flashed with light, systems booting up and running several scans. Unable to do the same, Irys glanced over to the two to her sides.

“You two picking up anything?”

“Negativo!”

Gigan was about to state the like when a sudden realization dawned on him and caused his head to snap down and observe they were airborne despite the lack of wings or thruster rockets.

“Wait, why are we still flying? Couldn’t do that last time.”

Irys had the same realization dawn on her, looking down and then back at her cohorts with pursed lips and wide eyes. Megalon cut her off before she could speak, pointing ahead of them in the direction they were tumbling in.

“Guys we’re heading for a wall!”

Irys and Gigan looked away from each other and peered forward. Sure enough, they were barreling directly at a small apartment building. Irys and Gigan froze up, speaking in deadpan tones.

“Yep… This is gonna hurt.”

“Good eyes Meg…”

“......WAAA-!”

The seconds ticked by, then all three kaiju started spazzing out midair. Megalon whirled his hands around, converting his mechanical fingers into a pair of drills and pointing downward for a fist first nose dive. Irys frantically flapped her now wingless arms, the length of fabric between her sleeves and hips working like a makeshift wingsuit but only barely managing to slow her down and shift her course. Gigan shrugged, crossing his arms in front of himself as he tried to aim his tumble towards a window.

Sunset Shimmer sighed to herself, turning off the shower faucet and wrapping a towel around herself. Try as she may to be happy about having gone to a good movie premiere with friends, thoughts of another friend was driving a deep unease through her mind. Irys’ sporadic appearance and disappearance was worrying her. Still thinking the albino was from a broken home and not having found a trace of Irys despite looking everywhere in the area surrounding the alley, in either sweep she did before and after the movie, the situation gave Sunset more than a few plaguing thoughts she didn't want to have. Her confusion over the situation regarding her friend wasn’t helping matters. A frown crossed Sunset Shimmer’s face as she chewed on her finger.

-You vanish behind a statue, then reappear in a comic book. Then you show up again in the city, and vanish without a trace… Irys, just what the heck is going on with you? Are you from Equestria too?-

Sunset Shimmer shrugged, shaking her head in a defeated manner. A hot shower alone hadn’t helped calm her nerves like she was hoping it would.

-Maybe I should have stuck with the girls, got them to help. You don’t need to keep doing everything yourself Sunset.-

Celestia’s former star student rolled her eyes, stepping out of the shower.

-Looks like you’re still a rookie at this friendship gig after all.-

She had just taken a step off the bathroom mat when a new sound perked her attention. At first it sounded like distant, muffled voices beyond her wall. Then it quickly morphed into a gaggle of yelping outside her window. It was fortunate she forgot to put the bath mat close to the shower, as the long stride she had to take to step onto it put her out of range when someone came crashing into the bathroom window and fumbled through it. Gigan, groggy from the impact but otherwise okay, stumbled to his feet with the dislodged window frame still stuck around his neck. Sparking in a few spots, the cyborg whacked himself on the side of the head to reorganize his visuals and put his glasses back in place.

Sight returned to him in time to see a screaming woman with a towel wrapped around her conking him on the head with a hair dryer. Either due to the fact the dryer had just been plugged in when Sunset Shimmer hit him with it and it subsequently shocked him, the lingering daze from smashing through the window and face planting into the sink, or his new phobia of hair care products thanks to Mane-iac, the Nebulan cyborg was stunned momentarily and Sunset fled out the door.

Having watched several human horror movies, Sunset Shimmer was savvy enough not to run to her room in case of a home invader; instead grabbing her cell phone off her table and rushing for the apartment’s front door. As soon as she opened the wooden door however, she saw familiarity. Irys was outside the glass gate door just beyond the wooden one. Or rather, her impromptu wingsuit had slowed her fall enough that she collided with the door instead of hitting the ground and was still plastered cheek first into it. Irys groaned groggily, sliding off the glass and falling onto her back. She lifted herself up a bit, putting a hand to her head and shaking off the spinning freefall the world was in. If colliding with a door hurt her any, she didn’t show it upon seeing the slack jawed, eye twitching Sunset. She cracked a grin upon seeing a geode hued choker, her old necklace, around Sunset Shimmer’s throat.

“Sunset!”

“Wh-Whaaa Irys?! What is going on?!”

Sunset Shimmer lifted her head after seeing a dark object out of the corner of her vision. There was a hole rimmed with unchurned dirt in the backlot lawn. And it was talking.

“I’m O-kay!”

Was the only forewarning before the earth on another spot pushed up. Megalon emerged with an uproar of thrown dirt, popping his torso out of the ground like some sort of giant gopher.

“WHAT?!”

She belted, motioning to a waving Megalon. Sunset Shimmer spun around at the sound of rabbling coming from behind her. Gigan stumbled out of the bathroom, slurring his mumbles into incoherent grumbling as he tried to adjust his cracked glasses and pull the broken remains of a hair dryer and window frame off his head.

“WHAT?!”

Sunset yelped, her eyes widened as she advanced back, Irys catching her in a loose hold and putting herself between Sunset and Gigan. Irys chuckled awkwardly, this certainly not being the way she expected going to Sunset for help if it came to it.

“Ehe, nice to see you again Sunset… Meet.. myyy...new friends…”

Sunset Shimmer’s face shifted away from surprised and into a deadpan. Taking in a deep breath while closing her eyes, the former unicorn flared her nose and snorted out whilst looking back at the albino, who was rubbing the back of her own head with a grin plastered onto her maw. Said grin contained a pair of long fangs that helped confirm many of Sunset’s suspicions, as last she checked inch long canines weren’t normal for humans. She pointed at Irys with a half leer, using her other hand to hold up her towel.

“... You have some explaining to do, missy…”

Gigan trudged over to them, pulling the window frame off his neck and tossing it behind himself.

“Look lady, I don’t like most people and most people sure as Daiei-”

“Hey!”

Gigan ignored Irys’ retort and nonchaleontly continued.

“-don’t like me. I’m assuming you’re the ‘Sunset’ Irys mentioned earlier so that’s why I’m even bothering speaking to you. We’re in a crisis scenario right now so I’ll cut to the chase to avoid the unnecessary.”

He grumbled, snatching his glasses off and Sunset Shimmer yelped slightly. The cyborg was leering at her with a pair of robotic eyes that more closely resembled camera lenses than orbits. He did so while flexing his mechanical fingers, unsheathing the retractable wrist blade that stood in for his scythes and letting it pop in and out from between his hand joints irritably as he spoke.

“Yes, we’re not from this realm. Yes, we just crashed into your residence after Irys mentioned you. No, we weren’t trying to do that; and no, that doesn’t matter. What matters is we got a teammate in peril and Irys mentioned you could help us somehow. So, am I going to have to ram my metal plated skull through another wall of yours to get a quick answer outta you, or am I just wasting time and am better off cutting my way out of this place and be on my way?!”

He snapped, ushering a slight wince from Irys and Sunset; the former tightening her hold on the latter and would have been trying to hide the girl in her wings if she still had them. Gigan snorted, retracting his blade but maintaining a stern glare on his face. Sunset Shimmer looked between the older cyborg and the younger one, who’d hauled himself out of her lawn and was approaching without bothering to dust himself off. She looked to Irys. The albino’s grin from earlier faltering and flatlined, the nearly closed eyed nod she gave Sunset was a nonverbal confirmation of Gigan’s assertions.

“S-Sorry, we didn’t mean to drop in on you like… this… And I’m sorry for running off earlier...”

She muttered, looking away while doing so before looking back at Sunset with a plea practically written on her face.

“Look, I know this whole mess is confusing and I didn’t want to drag you into the thick of it, but a friend of ours is in real danger and he’s too far away for us to reach on foot easily and we don’t know which way to go. We need to-”

Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and waved her hand upwards and towards Irys’ face to shush her. In truth she was used to most of this level of craziness by now through her own accord. No student of Princess Celestia, let alone an adoptee, ever had much degree of normalcy in their lives.

“Say no more. I’ve had my suspicions ever since I saw you three in a Power Ponies comic. First, give me a minute to dress so I don’t turn into a human icicle out there. And secondly, you’re going to tell me what exactly I need to do to help…. I’ll be back.”

Sunset Shimmer affirmed before nonchalantly marching past Gigan and to her room. The kaiju trio looked at each other as the door snapped shut. Megalon, seriousness never being a sticking point to him, was quick to voice his opinion.

“Iiiiii like her! She’s got a good weirdness filter!”

He quipped with a clap. Gigan meanwhile shrugged and looked over at Irys out of the corner of his lenses for eyes.

“You sure about this Irys? I’m not exactly a human person.”

“She’s as much the reason I got my new flock with you all as X and you two are. We can trust her, I know it.”

================

Back in the Forest

Monster X bit back the pain as he dodged to the side, avoiding the brunt of Enjin’s strike but still getting its claws raked across his chest and shoulder. Rolling along Enjin’s arm, Monster X smashed his fist into its face. Immediately following up with a mule kick that snaked around Enjin’s guard and connected with its jaw, the former Xilian hit the Aspect hard enough he could hear its mask crack and jaw pop out of place. He’d noticed something about it when it recoiled and rebounded from his strikes, current and past. The resistance to injury and ability to mend itself all seemed toned down slightly, it took longer to heal back the damage than it did before with a marked difference from how it was at the hospital. Each time Enjin mended a wound, it seemed to convulse slightly in a manner he hadn’t seen it do before. Monster X didn’t know about the Aspect's structural degradation, but he was noticing the effect it was having.

-Something’s changed. It’s not as strong as before.-

Monster X shoved through his kick and knocked Enjin away. Whirling around with trails of light streaming from his eyes, several graviton flares sprung forth from him and detonated on Enjin’s form. The shadow reeled back, smoking more than normal and obviously damaged. Ignoring the holes in its chest as it regained its footing, the demon lifted and hurled half a fallen tree trunk at Monster X. Focused on recharging as he did so, Monster X dove to the side to dodge the missile and was soon set upon by Enjin. Like a boxer he weaved and dodged around the slower Enjin’s haymakers and would-be power blows with only scratch damage at best. Moving inside of a haymaker and blocking Enjin’s arm, X sneered and rammed multiple jabs and backhands into Enjin’s still cracked mask and exposed torso.

While physical blows didn’t do much damage in truth, it was helping pummel Enjin down between times Monster X could charge up to fire upon it. It was enough to keep Enjin from healing up entirely between the times Monster X could use his beams again, which seemed to be the only thing doing any noticeable harm. Enjin struggled to recuperate and reinforce against the damage incurred, but the mix of its degradation and Monster X’s relentless assault with both physical and energy attacks was making it difficult to adapt to the harm it was subjected to like before. It was taking too many types of different hits in too rapid a succession.

As Enjin tried to grab hold of its opponent to crush him, Monster X snapped his shoulders and hips, sending several full force uppercuts into Enjin’s chest and widened the previously blasted holes. A gravity assisted jumping knee to the face was enough to knock Enjin’s neck off kilter and force it away. The shade didn’t even have time to snap its head back into place before several quick fired graviton flares exploded against it. Sent flying back and crashing through a tree, Enjin rolled across the forest floor.

Monster X held his fists at his sides as he levitated up into the air, eyes still blazing. His original plan had been to just blitz Enjin and hit it as hard as he could to slow it down, then fall back to Aria like he said he would. But, when he saw he could actually hurt it now, plans changed. Now, he just opted to try and kill it then and there.

Ducking out of the way of a mana grenade Enjin had thrown at him and turning around as its resulting explosion turned a tree to splinters, Monster X called out and unloaded on Enjin’s still rising form. He must have blasted it at least eight or nine times before he had to stop. Falling out of the air, Monster X fell to his knee huffing before the smoke cloud before him. Keeping his eyes locked on the obstruction as a breeze blew it past, X’s eyes narrowed when they saw burning lights and blackness inside the smoke. Enjin lay half slumped on the ground, heavily damaged. Parts of its mask seemed to be crumbling or sloughing off, only held to the face by strands of half melted blackness. The torso itself was practically turned outwards and covered in holes, most of the ribs blown off and only obscuring, rather than covering, the glowing core of energy in the central torso.

Most of the stomach region was see through and one of the legs had been blown off at the knee, explaining why it couldn’t stand; and its right arm seemed dislocated or partially ripped off at the shoulder. Enjin looked torn up, damaged, and spent. Monster X swallowed back his own tiredness, reigning in pools of gravitons before his eyes and taking aim at the core, figuring firing upon its insides would incur more damage.

But Enjin wasn’t done yet. Monster X held an advantage over it because it hadn’t managed to greatly damage him despite the exertion tiring the Xilian out somewhat. X was much more nimble and now out in the open instead of inside an enclosed hospital, the Aspect of Land couldn’t land a hit. Couldn’t at least, in its bulky base form…

Enjin lurched forward in a very inhuman manner, planting its hands into the ground. Swells of energy rapidly built up around its core and hands, a tremor kicking through the dirt and snow being the only forewarning. Enjin’s shadowy composition convulsed and bent, limbs twisting around and bending back into place as excess bulk was either evaporated or refitted to regrow its leg. The shadow practically turned itself inside out and back again, refitting itself into a sleeker, thinner form. Whereas the last state was gorilla-like, built for raw power and a sturdy constitution; this new state was leaner, longer limbed; and more closely resembled an uncanny mix of mandrill and human. It crouched down on the dirt like a spider, long limbs digging into and bracing against the ground below.

Taken aback by the new form change but not letting it destroy his focus, Monster X fired his beam attack. Just as they were about to connect however, Enjin sprung to the side in a pounce. Moving so fast it seemed almost like a blur, the Aspect swung around the misfired attack and charged Monster X. Quickly taking hold of the gravity around him, X jumped off the ground and tried to levitate up to a safe distance. Unable to fly but undeterred, Enjin sprinted up to and springboarded off a tree trunk and tackled him out of the air. While he did manage to grab Enjin’s swiping hands by the wrists and kick it away, he didn’t get a chance to land and take a breath before Enjin was upon him again. The two were soon trapped in a melee deadlock, blocking, striking, and dodging each other blow for blow.

Monster X more than Enjin was forced onto the defensive. While his opponent’s sheer force seemed to have decreased, its agility and speed had more than doubled. The hits didn’t hurt as bad, but he was getting hit with a lot more. Amongst the melee deadlock, X’s eyes sparked and Enjin’s palm glowed as they drew energy from their respective power sources. In a single, swift motion from either side, Enjin grabbed X by his jaw and pointed his eyes away as X did likewise to Enjin’s wrist. Both energy attacks fired off behind their target, the combined shockwaves shaking the forest and throwing up masses of gravel, snow, and wood all around. Monster X, more affected by his ear bursting explosions, tried his best to fight through the disorientation and free himself from Enjin’s cold grip before his foe either choked him to death to broke his neck. He only attained partial success, a few kicks to the chest to sunder Enjin’s foundations followed by twisting his legs around Enjin’s arm and whipping around, managed to free him from the choke hold; but no sooner than he was free he was tackled to the ground mid-recovery.

Pinned beneath the Aspect, Monster X’s ringing hearing fizzled back to normalcy as he found himself having to deflect and block an onslaught of punches and strikes. Raising its arms up at blurry speed, Enjin brought down both of its limbs with a double hammerfist. Monster X caught both arms by the wrist, but the strength contest was clearly a struggle. Enjin tilted its head silently, bending its arms around to point its knuckles at Monster X’s chest. Now working with a worse angle of leverage due to his elbows being flared outwards, it took all of X’s strength just to slow their descent. The knuckle spikes mounted on Enjin’s fists extended several inches, descending to a degree that they began to stab into X’s chest. Gritting his teeth and tasting his own blood from a stream flowing down his face, Monster X jolted his hips forward and repeatedly rammed his knee into Enjin’s head and back to try and loosen its hold to little avail.

Falling back to a last resort, the red upon Monster X’s eyes became engulfed in gold from an energy charge. Likewise, Enjin’s now reduced ribcage glowed and crackled with energy that raced across runic lines across its form. Taking aim there, Monster X knew that regardless of if he just fired or they both did, firing the flares point blank like this would probably hurt him just as bad. But it was either that, or fight the losing battle against the claws that were slowly stabbing their way through his pectorals and threatening to go through his ribs.

Before either could fire however, an air-splitting wail shot over them. It was the precursor to a blast wave of golden energy, gravitons and magic combined, crashing into Enjin. Sent flying off of Monster X, the black and white kaiju stole his chance and fired at the Aspect mid-air. Enjin, propelled by both blasts, smashed through the ice sheet of the nearby lake and sunk beneath the surface. Monster X, gasping for breath to slow his pulse, staggered to his feet and managed to stand for a few moments before the pain and fatigue caused him to collapse. Fortunately, a pair of arms caught him in the middle of his tumble and held him up. X needed only a glimpse of the dark purple skin to know who it was supporting him.

“Thought I told you to- urgh- run.”

He grunted, breath a bit unsteady from the stab wounds on his chest shooting pain through his torso each time. Normally Aria would have given a snide or snarky retort to this as per her usual. But the mutated siren was completely silent as she looked Monster X’s injury list over. Feeling a warmth on her hand she had pushing on his stomach to help prop him up, she looked down at her palm and spotted the redness leaking onto it. Her eyes widened slightly as she brought her shaking hand up, the metallic scent of X’s blood filling her nose. Her wide eyed expression persisted as it looked to Enjin, who was busy clawing itself out of the lake. Her lip quivered momentarily as the siren’s heart necklace crackled and sparked with energy, the golden glow beginning to completely overtake the red in all but the fringes. Muscles convulsing and tensing up, Aria Blaze’s expression shifted into a snarling sneer with pure rage overtaking her face and body language. And if there was anything that got Kaizer Ghidorah’s power going, it was fueled indignation.

Taking hold of X, Aria Blaze put him behind her this time and faced off against Enjin, ripping her hoodie off. Enjin paused and stood its ground to analyze the newcomer and mend its body. Gravity twisted and bent as Aria swayed in her movements, manipulating the gravitons like water currents. More and more kaiser energy began to trickle out of her siren heart. Her snarl ruptured, a mix of a wail, roar, and scream tearing into the evening air as the flood gates on the siren heart broke. Aria’s form was engulfed with runaway magic and kaiser energy, out of control gravity thrashing around and alternatingly throwing or crushing anything near it.

The energy sense Enjin had skyrocketed to the highest it had ever detected in this world. Likely because this world hadn’t seen an outburst of power like this since the Fall Formal. Aria Blaze’s joints cracked and popped, her skin turning a dark shade of fuchsia with golden scales wisping into existence on her arms, neck, under eyes, brow, and jaw. Her hair lengthened noticeably, sprouting a long ponytail while losing her star ties. Gold completely overtook the former green in her hair, the already dark purple becoming a jet black indigo. Twin, draconic horns with alternating black and gold stripes crowned her scalp. Growing several inches taller, the siren opened her glaring eyes; black sclera ringing blood red irises that in turn circled slitted pupils. Finally, as she levitated into the air, energy collected across her back. The spheres of light condensed and flicked out, a pair of wings and a set of twin tails made of golden energy bursting into existence. The transformed siren scowled at Enjin.

She’d fed off Kaizer’s power, and now she’d become a kaiser herself. Aria cracked a simultaneously bloodthirsty and crazed grin, flashing the fangs that her canines and premolars had morphed into.

Enjin pounced forward with a lunging strike. While nicked by the blow, Aria avoided most of it with a wing flap-assisted back step. She whirled around, gravitons and wing power amplifying her movements as she snapped her hips and drove a down swinging haymaker into the side of Enjin’s face that planted the Aspect in the ground. Shooting herself forward with a wave of gravity, she grabbed hold of Enjin’s nape and cut a trench into the gravel with her foe’s face before letting go and kicking it away hard enough to make a small shockwave. Enjin pinwheeled through the air for a bit before grabbing hold of the ground and regaining its bearings. This new foe didn’t have the same skill as the last one, but it made up for that with plenty of raw power. And unlike X, who was worn out from fighting down its base form, the kaiser siren was fresh. A less direct approach was needed.

Making use of its speed, Enjin took off to the side, sprinting on two feet for a short time before vaulting over a fallen tree and circling Aria at high speed on all fours. Aria landed and turned about, keeping her guard facing the blurry shadow as best she could. It suddenly diverted its path, pouncing forward and diving past Aria while throwing out its knuckle spikes for a swing. Remembering the form taught to her, the siren turned around the hit; skillfully dodging it. Enjin ran around for another lunge, this time managing to punch the siren in the gut at the cost of Aria grabbing onto it. Yanking Enjin’s arm back, she rammed her elbow into Enjin’s cheek region. The mask upon its face, already severely cracked from the haymaker and drag, chipped and began to crumble. A brutal melee ensued. Monster X’s instruction rang through her mind as time seemed to slow down around Aria. She did take some hits, but being drowned with anger and lacking in fatigue, her given instruction was helping her land and block far more than she took despite Enjin’s boosted speed. It helped that with Kaizer Ghidorah’s raw power backing her up, she was hitting harder than a tired X was. Keeping to the unorthodox and following through quickly, she succeeded a cross-jab-cross combo with a roundhouse kick that completely shattered Enjin’s mask and cracked whatever approximation of a skull it had.

Enjin leaped back to get out of range. The remains of its mask sloughed off with the motion and revealed a blurry simian face beneath it. Locking the black pits that stood in for its eyes upon Aria, Enjin gripped and pushed its busted snout back into place with a sickening crackle. Fixing its face and snapping its jaw into socket, the beastial Aspect let out a low bellow. Runes of light flushed across its body like magma flows, several of them lining Enjin’s now exposed snout and face. Smacking its palm to the ground, a tremor ripped through the earth as Enjin drew the energy from both below and inside its chest into a palm. Aria shot up into the air to dodge the mana grenade thrown her way, soon shifting to constantly keep darting and swimming across waves of gravitons to avoid getting hit by the continued volleys. Each time Enjin drew power into one hand and tossed it away, it just repeated with its other paw to maintain a continuous barrage. Getting an idea as she flew out of the way of an explosive that destroyed a boulder behind her, Aria snapped herself around and outstretched her hand towards the still airborne rubble. With a strong sweeping motion, she gripped the gravitons emitted by the stones and flung them at Enjin.

Having several dozen kilos of rocks being thrown at it did cause Enjin to have to pause its attack, but having half a forest hurled at it forced it to retreat and dodge. Aria Blaze cracked a crazed grin, throwing her arms out and back to and fro, her gravity born telekinesis sending everything laying on the ground from chunks of boulder, to gravel, to torn or blasted off chunks of trees rocketing towards Enjin at various speeds. Sprinting on all fours and hopping to and off of various trees for cover, Enjin had to focus on dodging rather than counterattacking for a time. With growing speed however, the blurry shade took a 180’ degree turn on a dime by springboarding off a tree and pouncing onto and off of a hunk of tree trunk that had been thrown at it. The siren braced as it lunged towards her, only for a flash of golden light to flare up from her side. Spiraling graviton flares shot through the air, impacting and detonating on Enjin’s approximation of a hide; blowing it off course and up into the air with a trail of smoke. Aria Blaze shot a look downwards to the source, seeing a wincing Monster X supporting himself on a tree trunk. Biting back his pain, he called out to her.

“Ene-rgy attacks hurt it worse, use those!”

Aria put her hands above her siren heart and pooled the energy out of it. Seeing she needed time to charge, X watched Enjin as it fell. Having been given a chance to catch his second wind, he sprung back into action. Charging over to Enjin as it fell, Monster X growled and tackled it with a shoulder ram to knock it off balance. Shrugging off a return blow to his hip, X slugged it across the face to turn it around and grabbed onto it from behind, ratcheting one of its arms behind its back as he hooked his free arm around its neck. The two struggled, Enjin forcing its foe to use all the strength he had just to keep a hold of him. With its free arm, Enjin repeatedly rammed its elbow back into Monster X’s gut to try and force him off; but X powered through it. After all, Aria was almost ready. Golden surges ignited across her gem and shot up into her eyes, gold blotting out the red. Needing no command to know it was time, Monster X grunted and kneed Enjin in the back of the leg just before he spun around. Tearing Enjin off its foundations, Monster X wrung the Aspect around before tossing it up into the air. Outstretching a hand, Aria clawed at the air in an upwards motion and altered the gravity in tandem with her movement; ripping Enjin up higher to get a clear shot. Eyes glowing, she built up her breath.

With a shout, the energy flew down into her mouth and was propelled by her voice, graviton torrents firing from in front of her mouth like lightning bolts. The torrents struck Enjin dead on with a brilliant explosion. Enjin tumbled out of the smoke cloud, now missing a leg and having sustained damage to its other. Unfettered and unable to tire, it ignited its body and charged a pair of mana grenades at Aria. With another swiping motion, she yanked the falling Aspect back into the air and charged her own attack. This time both of them let loose their respective energy base assault at the same time. Balls of burning red and orange clashed with a river of golden, but an amplified roar and scream from Aria overpowered Enjin’s attack and shoved all three energy blasts into it. This time the resulting shock wave and smoke cloud were significantly bigger. Enjin, still smoking and burning, tumbled out of the blast but was far more heavily damaged this time. Both of its legs and lower torso were gone now, along with its right arm past the elbow and the left arm seemed to be only dangling from a few threads of attachment. Curiously enough, as it sailed through its arc, it didn’t seem to be healing despite its core flashing with a frantic light. The Aspect of Land fell through the air, looking to the ground and outstretching its remaining arm. Whatever it was trying for, Aria wasn’t allowing it.

Flying forward and grabbing onto Enjin by its sole remaining limb, Aria glared at the voids it had for eyes. Her heart shining to a blinding degree, the ghidoran siren snarled with raw power lighting up her mouth and eyes entirely. Taking in one deep breath, she held the struggling Enjin in her grasp and fired point blank. The graviton torrents ripped through roaring Enjin’s body, completely obliterating it from the wrist down. It was several long seconds before she cut off the attack that burned a hole into the mountainside hundreds of meters away from her. Enjin’s wrist and hand crumbled away into rapidly evaporating dust that blew away in the wind generated by Aria’s wing beats. All that was left of the Aspect was the formerly glowing light originally mounted inside its chest. The ball of burning light dimmed away, revealing it to be an amber like oval bead roughly the length of a soft ball. It tumbled to the ground, the blinking light going out like glowing lava cooling. By the time it hit the ground, it was inert. Aria Blaze held her guard as she hovered down to it, looming over the dud core as it lay slumped in a small pit of crushed gravel and churned snow. The unearthly cold and aura of primal fear Enjin’s presence wrought was gone, replaced by winter’s comparatively warm chill. The core was dead.

Far away from the conflict, Adagio Dazzle snuck about near Canterlot High School and Sonata Dusk held down the fort in the van. The elder siren moved around the edge of a building with her glowing siren heart guiding her.

-Huh, looks like Sonata was onto something after all. The magic traces here are a lot stronger than elsewhere across town.-

As she rounded a corner, now hearing voices far up ahead, Adagio’s mind was soon plagued with thoughts of why she’d come here. Namely why she’d come here one siren short. Her lip pushed up into a slight sneer upon remembering how her cousin acted out, disobeying her and throwing her across a room. She could practically smell it then, the power boost Aria had gotten that was driving Adagio into a spite given how her pride just wouldn’t swallow one of her subordinates exceeding her. It was the main reason she’d come here in such a rush, to follow a lead that might help tip the scales back in her favor. After all she was the oldest, the best singer, and the one who kept the lead all these years, obviously she needed the best by default! The voices were becoming a bit clearer now, Adagio advancing on a lit window on the first floor that her ears and heart told her was the right direction.

-We’d always been a three tone chorus with me in the lead, and she goes off and breaks that because she can’t keep herself in line!-

Still, as she closed in, flashes of emotion and memory were gripping most of her attention and sent her sneer into a flatline. Times of ages past in the eastern seas. A very lonely time for her family.

-We’d always been a three tone chorus with me having the lead, because most of the time there was only three of us…-

The edges of Adagio’s jaw began to wince slightly into a frown, recalling Aria storming out on her again. True, Aria was just a cousin by blood and Adagio did often let Sonata get away with more loopiness than Aria did because the blue siren was her little sister; but that extra closeness by biology never did amount to much in her mind. Adagio Dazzle was a stuck up, scheming, controlling, arrogant sea witch with a huge sense of entitlement. Still, no matter what level of snideness, control, or insults she gave the two; it didn’t change that she had to care on some level. Facts were facts that she, Sonata, and Aria were the only three sirens ever in existence. They had other family of course, but for the longest time it wasn’t just they, the sirens three, but just “they” period. Her mother had gone right after Sonata was born, but in truth Adagio was so young she barely remembered anything of her other than the colors she passed to her sister. Most of her early memories were of her Aunt Hymnia. Least up until that storm…

Adagio walked to the window and robotically looked inside. If she were paying any attention she’d seen the conversing forms of five young women and a young man helping them set up in a music studio.

“Thanks for the practice room Flashie, but why’d you pick here? Kinda outta the way.”

“The wall thickness helps dampen noise from outside and the place was unused otherwise… So, you sure Sunset was okay? You said she ran off pretty quick after the movie.”

“Been thinkin’ about that myself. But, I’m sure if she’s set on somethin’ of her own business, best leave her to it.”

Adagio’s stood still, half her face illuminated from the edge of the window. A quiet sigh slipped out of her nose, the siren’s mind occupied by memories of Hymnia superimposed with both flashes of Aria in those early days and ones of her earlier today, the quiet little cousin nestled up against her replaced with a snarling hatred directed at Adagio herself. Trickles of shame came over Adagio Dazzle, looking down to and holding her necklace while rubbing her thumb over its face.

She was Adagio Dazzle, the oldest, largest, and greatest of the sirens. She was the leader, because they never saw their aunt again after that storm. Someone had to take charge, keep things together.

Adagio saw her frowning reflection in her gemstone.

-She was your responsibility Adagio, your family… And now you’ve driven her off into hating you.-

The oldest siren shrugged, shaking her head slowly as the five in the room beside her began to build up a musical beat.

“Adagio Dazzle, what have you done?...”

Just as her gemstone began to build up a slight glow, a shout called out to Adagio from around the corner. Accompanied by pounding footfalls, Sonata Dusk’s yelp raced over to her sister.

“‘DAGI! IT’S ARIA!”

Adagio snapped around in time to see her sibling swing around the corner, grabbing onto her by the shoulders to keep the younger siren from colliding with her. Sonata’s already light blue skin looked pale as a sheet. She was holding up Adagio’s cellphone, which she had left in the van, up with a quivering hand. Clicking the replay button, the phone parroted its last recording.

“You Have- One- New message! First message!- “Adagio pick up and get ready! I’m almost to the hotel. It’s here-!”

There was a low rumble in the background along with the noise of Aria breathing. Just as Adagio thought she heard a low growl, a loud crumbling noise that sounded like breaking plastic preceded a blank tone. The message repeated again, but Adagio didn’t need to hear the full recording again to be filled with dread and sheer terror. Feeling her own hair stand up on end, Adagio ignored the growing music behind her, gripped Sonata by her arm, and bolted for their van.

===============

Harmonium Nexus

The eclipse of light receded across the harmonic nexus, Bagan’s mana beam and Harmony’s magic barrier shorting out. The unstoppable force had been halted and the unbreakable shield had faltered. They’d been at this for far longer than it seemed, time moving differently in this realm than it did most others. And still, the result was an indisputable impasse. Bagan closed his jaws, glowing smoke trails of energy streaming out between his teeth and from his shoulder spikes’ wing vents. Harmony struggled in her breath, the remains of her shield fracturing away into glowing dust. The overseer of Equestria had seen better days. Each of the Elements mounted on her crown were cracked through the center and her mane had come almost completely undone. Scuff marks and glowing cuts, which more closely resembled fracture marks upon glass then they did flesh wounds, were scattered across her body.

Bagan too was covered in injuries, the locations of which were harder to make out however because of the visual distortion accompanying his form. And yet, both refused to give any sense of faltering. The nexus realm around them was all but torn apart, a vast majority of the walkways torn asunder, black blotches that swallowed up any light engulfing large patches of stars; and all the memory windows were shattered to dust or broken fragments floating aimlessly through the air. Bagan rose up to his full height, looking upon Harmony for a time before turning around and walking towards the portals. Harmony, a bit confused, tilted her head slightly and took a step after him. For something as deadset as he seemed, the oddity of Bagan just walking away from the duel was eyebrow raising.

“Weren’t you attempting to kill me?”

Bagan took no pause, nonchalantly heading back for the portal to Zenith that hovered just to the side of the surviving walkway.

“You truly are my counterpart in this realm, I expected such resistance and now realize I lack the strength to kill you presently. This won’t be the last time we meet.”

Harmony stopped her advance as she felt something click under her hoof. Looking down, she saw she was stepping on a shard of a memory window. This particular one displayed Reijuu calmly sitting on a mountainside as a newly metamorphosed Mothra perched herself on the blunt of his horns while happily chirping.

“Wait.”

Harmony spoke in a calm voice. Bagan stopped in his tracks. While he didn’t look back to see it, Harmony’s expression had shifted considerably. From a stressed glare she cracked in battle to the minor befuddlement of earlier, now the best worst to describe the look on her face as she relaxed her brow and let her lips droop was, sadness.

“If you truly are my counterpart on Terra, then you were very different once. The memories show it. Your world’s magic might be different, but I recognize some of the spells you used as similar to Lady Lea’s abilities… You were the one who taught her family magic, aren’t you?”

“I respect your position but not your ploys. These facts should matter to me why?”

“Because if you were the one who taught them, taught most souls magic in your world…”

Harmony spoke solemnly, levitating up the memory shard and sending it slowly drifting towards Bagan. Bagan turned his head slightly to look his own past in the face.

“These aren't the memories of a monster, they’re of a hero. A hero to how many countless lives in how many ages passed on your world?... This change in you was recent, wasn’t it?”

Bagan seemed to regard his memories for a time, giving Harmony a tiny glimmer of hope. Or at least some until Bagan slowly gripped the memory shard and crushed it into sparkling dust that fell off into space. The titan spoke in a whispered tone, neither prideful or strong; but quiet.

“I was lied to for over four and a half billion years. Not again... The past is dead to me...... I will go through with my plans, and nothing in Equestria can halt it. Out of anyone in your realms, you stood the best chance at stopping me. Had you been at full strength you probably could have overpowered me in the state I’m in. But, you divided your power. Gave it to others with elements and chests. My return and purge is inevitable....”

“I divided my power three times and gave it to those who needed it, because I was afraid I might do what you have if I kept it all myself… Please-”

Harmony pleaded, taking several steps towards the bloodthirsty deity ahead of her.

“-you have to stop this madness, this war between worlds before there is more bloodshed on either side! You’re right, I can’t stop you and I can’t stop this. But you can! You don’t have to do any of this, you can choose. Choose good again.”

A silence passed for a time. Bagan turned himself around halfway and saw Harmony, now right up next to him. She was still covered in fractures and wounds, but a tiny smile was stretched across her lips. Bagan’s monotonal chorus of a voice never changed beat or pitch, an unnerving level of mixed emotions evident.

“You would honestly offer me forgiveness, mercy, in light of what you know I have done and must do?..”

Harmony held up a hoof to him, shaking her head a bit.

“I offer it in light of what you could do... You once were the greatest good for your world, spending over a millennia of millennia watching it and its life prosper under you. You can do that again. Equestria is a land for second chances.”

Bagan waited for a time, looking towards her hoof. Amongst the blurs and distortions going across his body, Harmony spotted him moving his closest arm to her. There was no swipe of the claw or blast of magic, instead Bagan lifted up his hand and put it to Harmony’s hoof; fingers wrapping around it in a gentle hold. It pressed up against it, and pushed it back down to the ground before moving away. Harmony's lips parted into a small frown and she looked up, seeing Bagan had closed all of his eyes for a moment of contemplation.

“Extinction comes to all, and it’s the only finality. You ask of me to turn to your concept of good again, yet I see no evil in my actions.”

He muttered quietly before shaking his head, no boast in his tone. The God of Extinction pulled away and turned back to the portal.

“This encounter served three purposes. Firstly, confirming your existence and your connection to this realm’s world tree. Thirdly, optimally kill you if I could in this state. I achieved two of the three.”

“And… what was the second?”

“Look around you, your realm is in tatters.”

Harmony regarded her vast surroundings and realized now just how much damage had been done to her chamber. Able to perceive the Tree of Harmony itself, her eyes briefly whited out as she checked. Harmony gasped quietly, seeing the tree in barely any better shape than her realm. Branches were drooping, cracked, or completely snapped off. A jagged scar had been cut right through the central trunk, snaking around the alicorn’s symbols. Every single one of the Elements of Harmony was cracked through the middle and chipped along their edges. The Elements and the Tree’s once lustrous glow had receded considerably to a few stressed pulses and sparks. Only the chest, a part of herself she’s completely removed from the Tree like the Elements before it, remained completely intact and retained its brilliance. Bagan’s voice played over the sight.

“Did you think I was ignorant to you whispering in the ears of others? I might have missed the word given, but I knew what the source must have been. If my hypothesis is correct and this realm is truly tied to that world tree, any damage here would be reflected upon it and cut off its connection to the other realms. Judging from the collateral this place has sustained, you won’t be communicating with or warning any soul for some time now. I had several plans set out for this time, and I only needed to win once. When I make myself known to your protectorates, you won’t have warned them ahead of time”

Truth was present in his word, Harmony going over the damage in her mind and noting how long it would take to repair all of it. Her realm was tied to the dimensional singularity, the Tree of Harmony. The Tree could repair itself overtime, mending the nexus, but it would be a while. Even though she’d managed to survive the assault, Bagan had still won. The aforementioned deity started back on his course. Following Bagan’s resumed motion to the portals, Harmony glimpsed something from the other half of portal. The sight of Aria, still very much alive but in a state Harmony didn’t recognize, standing over Enjin’s dulled core gave her some measure of hope. She might have failed to defeat Bagan, but Enjin at least had been stopped.

“It seems your hunter underestimated some powers in my realm. You won’t be adding a second victory to your rank today.”

Bagan regarded the vision of the fallen Enjin for a time, before stoically raising his arm towards the portal. There was a brief energy crack and the god’s eyes lit up with a flash due to the mass energy transfer shooting through the portal before Harmony could cut off the flow with a wall of magic. Bagan recoiled his hand, not showing any pain from the blast wave that shot over him and looking out of the corner of his facial eyes at Harmony.

“It has already been done…. When I am fully restored, I will be thrice the strength I am at now. Make peace with that end, I will come for this realm last.”

And with that, Bagan disappeared back into Zenith. Forestalled and defeated, and yet still victorious.

==============

Human Realm

Monster X managed to struggle back to his feet, requiring a moment’s respite to recover his balance and stability enough to not fall over again. He gained his sight to a black angel looming over Enjin’s ‘corpse’. The flashing core that had once been the shadow beast’s heart must have gone out, but that didn’t stop the empowered siren from brimming with lingering wrath. She repeatedly screamed and blasted the core, deepening the crater it had sunken into. Yet despite her wrath, the dull gem refused to fracture. Even from this distance, X could feel the flurry of anger propelled gravitons distorting all that was whirling around him. He walked forward, each step requiring him to shield himself from the onslaught of energy with his own power.

“Aria!”

The winged, horned siren in question momentarily flinched and stopped her attacks. Even though she didn’t turn around, X could tell from her tone that she was spitting venom.

“It’s. Dead.”

She sneered in a manner that X couldn’t tell if her disdain was at the battle or, as the back of his mind entertained the thought, frustration at her foe dying too quickly for her liking. He didn’t see all of her battle, but it was clear that through the unending rage she was enjoying herself; but whether if it was from the power or born of bloodthirst eluded him. It caused the action of putting his hand on her shoulder to be done with no small amount of caution.

“Then calm…. down….”

He muttered in a quiet voice, masking his worried excitement and readiness to spring into action. Several long moments passed, but X’s prayers seemed answered by Aria relaxing her erratic energy output. The kaiju could still sense the siren’s enormous power, but it was now more or less back under a controlled anger and rational. Aria Blaze shrugged, rolling her shoulders and new wings. Eying her changes, Monster X cracked an eyebrow as he took his hand away.

“I see you’ve become quite the fearsome creature.”

Aria Blaze’s scowl shifted with a smirk, clenching a fist and flexing her arm as she admired how powerful she felt right now. She had reason to be happy, after all this was a dream realized. She’d wanted to get strong enough that nothing could ever hurt her again. That desire ironically lead her on the path to where she was now. And despite all the trauma these kaiju had caused her; in her eyes, she’d succeeded.

Her smirk flattened when she heard a tired shrug behind her. There were several footsteps leading away as Monster X turned and walked away several paces, beginning to distort gravity as he focused his energies.

“But, with it dead; you know what this means for our alliance…”

Monster X muttered in a stoic tone. Aria Blaze spread her wings to their fullest, taking several wing flap assisted jumps back to clear a good five meters between her and Monster X. Both siren and xilian spun around to face the other like a pair of pistol duelists, Monster X bending his knees and lifting his arms into a fist clenched guard as Aria Blaze levitated a meter off the ground with a similar stance. Both of them charged an energy attack, gravity distorting so much that the falling snow all around froze in place or started drifting upwards. Monster X made his eye beams ready, taking note of Aria’s brightly glowing gem. It seemed to have grown blindingly luminous for a moment, before dimming significantly. Enough so that the glow didn’t obscure Aria’s face. A far cry from the initial sneer crossing the siren’s face, instead the now black and gold sea witch was frowning in a downtrodden manner. Speaking quietly despite the menacing glow forming within her eyes and throat, Aria paused.

“We don’t have to do this.”

“You have to protect your family, and I have to follow my orders. This was inevitable.”

She really wanted her words to be different and have them born of a snarl. She had every right to be enraged at Monster X, both for pulling this stunt and being a threat to her and her family. The gem’s contained energies, her very power source, they demanded she be spewing her aggression and hatred right now towards anything. The typically unbridled wrath that gave her the new coloration had such a nature, so logically hers shouldn’t be any different. And yet, it was. Memories of the past days, all the extended hours she was stuck with this alien monster from another realm played through her mind. Aria remembered the frustration at his teaching methods and harnessed malice when he pushed one of her buttons. But, topping that, she remembered the good of it. Her improved martial arts, the talks that kept her level, the feeling of nostalgia when he taught her how to levitate. She had every reason to attack and all the will to fight him if he pulled that trigger, but that didn’t mean she wanted that to happen.

“... If you’re so assured, then why are your hands shaking?”

Monster X finally took his attention briefly off the siren and onto himself. True to her word, he had muscle spasms and the shakes all over his form; like his own body was fighting his decisions. He looked back at Aria, half expecting the siren to having seized the temporary distraction to attack. Instead the glow had faded down to barely a quarter of its original strength, at this point only obscuring her eyes and siren heart itself. She’d relaxed and dropped her raised guard, letting her arms fall to her sides. Aria lowered herself to just slightly above the ground, keeping the tips of her toes several centimeters above the snow. Monster X slowly did the same with his own guard, straightening his legs and rising back up to his full height in a calm manner.

He took a step forward and she levitated herself closer. They repeated the action again, and again, and again. At two meters apart, their respective energy glows died away entirely. At one meter apart and at each other’s eye level, they stopped and froze in place. Aria started to reach towards Monster X’s face, causing him to narrow his eyes a bit and take a step back with a clenched fist. Aria paused for a moment. Monster X loosed his first, the siren waiting a moment to continue reaching out. Her fingers started to pressed against and curl around the edge of his mask.

There was a glint in the crater behind Aria when Bagan’s energy transfer had gone through. Monster X instantly tensed up and he lurched forward.

“ARIA LOOK OUT!”

She tried to see what he was reacting to as he tried to shove her out of the way, but both were too slow. Within a fraction of a second a mass of tendrils burst out of the ground and ensnared Aria around her torso and wings. Enjin’s glowing core had revived and was reeling in the siren. Fiery, magma hued tentacles wrapped around her and siphoned away more and more of her energy, tearing it off her body and carrying it to the dilating core. Having enough slack and fighting every step of the way, Aria roared whilst whipping around and expelling bursts of gravitons and plasma. She fired at the tendrils and core, but just as the core survived her original onslaught, it’s tendrils were enduring the energy blasts. Monster X caught back up to them quickly, grabbing Aria around her midsection and yanking in the opposite direction. His efforts however, born of both brute strength and his own power, failed to do much more than slow down the rate the siren was being pulled in. Aria was making no small effort to free herself either, rapidly flapping her unbound wing whilst swiping at the growing number of tendrils that were attempting to wrap around her throat and limbs. While she was able to cut a few with a combination of force and her newfound claws, there were simply too many.

They were only about three meters from the epicenter now, Enjin’s revived core now easily the size of a large car. Eviscerating itself down the middle from top to bottom, the tendrils began to uproot themselves from the ground and pull Aria towards the innards. Horrific realization washed over the siren, despite her raging survival instincts going ballistic. She grabbed onto her siren heart and tried to turn herself around some.

“X!”

She shouted, the kaiju in question having stubbornly refused to let go despite the futility. By now his feet had dug trenches into the snow and gravel, flashes of golden light shooting past Aria as Monster X fired around Aria to hit Enjin with several explosive barrages of graviton flares. Aria grabbed him by his jaw before he could fire again, using all her strength to twist herself around to partially face him. Despite all the strain and stress, the transformed siren’s face was nearly flat and unreadable. It was her eyes that bore the most expression, and that stopped Monster X in his tracks. She looked scared. Wincing from the effort, she slipped her necklace off herself and put it on the kaiju’s neck. Still holding onto his head as she hovered close, Aria muttered only two words.

“Don’t lose.”

She spoke with a quiet tone, before grunting through her teeth and throwing the kaiju off her. With no one holding her back and her own efforts stopped, Aria was quickly drawn into Enjin’s core. The two partially opened halves snapped shut after she and the tendrils were drawn in. The glowing oval’s brightness rapidly grew and it levitated further and further off the ground. A few moments of sparking was the only warning sign before a massive blast wave of energy shot out of Enjin. Trees all around were bowled over or snapped at the trunk, with tons of gravel, dirt, and snow being thrown in all directions away from the epicenter. Lacking a firm footing, Monster X was hurled backwards into the lake behind him hard enough break through the thin ice. Earthen mana was torn free from the ground and converted into dozens of tons of dark magic, solid shadow forming up around the core that was compounding by the moment….

A minute later and a kilometer away, a van’s brakes screeched upon it coming to the peak of a towering, long bridge that straddled two high plateaus bordering the lake. Adagio and Sonata wasted no time scrambling out of it and into the frigid cold outside, that seemed even more so than usual. Hands upon their necklaces, they held them up and meandered around to figure out which direction their gems were glowing brightest. It wasn’t a tested idea, but in light of Sonata finding Aria’s discarded phone both she and Adagio had flown into full panic mode. Driving in a direction they thought she might have gone, their stop had been brought upon by their siren hearts beginning to experience pulsating lights and power surges. They could only have hoped that meant a siren nearby had been exerting large amounts of magic so Adagio prayed it meant they would use them a jerry rigged compass to point the way to Aria. And if it was Aria exerting all that magic, something they’d been careful to conserve since they got here, it only heightened Adagio’s terror as it meant her cousin had to have a good reason for it.

Like fighting for her life.

What they were met with however, was the resounding crash of a blast wave petering out into a curtain of air that passed over them. The sound of trembling earth. Any surviving trees were knocked aside or simply crushed as a fifteen story shadow pushed through them. While it’s form was now devoid of the kabuki mask and was more akin to an upright simian than a humanoid, it only took Adagio a second to recognize it as the monstrosity from the hospital. Words of days passed played through her shocked mind, word of beings of great power. Kaiju. And it was looking right at them. Enjin stood tall and regarded the bridge. For a moment, it sensed a dim energy signature in the lake, but the siren’s arrival had gotten its attention. It was currently being powered by a mix of kaiser energy and a siren’s magic, but seemingly only half of what it’s captured prey had been putting out. Denied of its full size, the Aspect of Land had been reduced down to a mere 50 meters in height. And with its time running out in this realm, it needed to maintain stability long enough to complete the rest of its mission. It craved energy. The other two sirens lacked kaiser energy, but they had far more magic than the norm of this world. They would do.

The feeling of terror Adagio felt as the walking mountain started to advance towards them was only compounded by the panicked observation that the rapid blinking her gem was giving to her. She thought it was evidence of her heart pointing towards her cousin, and reached a horrified realization when it reached its apex upon her pointing it at Enjin. Breaking out of her stupor, she grabbed her little sister and practically threw Sonata into the van. Revving it up and flooring the accelerator, they just barely reached the far edge of the bridge when the high beamed headlights caught a black blur devouring the land in front of them. Enjin had closed the distance with a lunging swat, cleaving its arm through the historic bridge and one of its support beams.

Twisted metal and stone flew off in all directions and several flying debris cracked the windshield. Stomping on the brakes, Adagio rapidly ran the wheel around to divert their course. The van nearly rolled over, popping up on only half of its wheels at two points during the sharp turn and grazing the side rail with a shower of sparks. Reigniting the engine, Adagio’s eardrums nearly burst from the sound of Sonata screaming in trepidation as Enjin dragged its arm out of the bridge and took another swat at them. Her sibling’s cries were blotted out by the shrieking of twisting metal as another section of bridge the van rolled over was snapped off. They had just began to cross the slight arch in the center that marked the middle when the sound of Enjin wiped out all noise. It was so loud that it seemed impossible, carrying a curtain of sound and frigid air that shattered all the van windows and seemed to replace all conscious thought with primal fear. Adagio could only manage to throw on the brakes before Enjin cut off their escape by caving in the other side of the bridge, trapping them on the sole remaining section.

Inside the lake, Monster X’s body sunk down to the deep lake bottom. Knocked half limp by the blast wave and unable to swim, he could do nothing but sink down in slow motion amongst a cloud of silt. Upon his neck, Aria’s necklace began to crackle and pulse dimly. Unseeing eyes blankly stared up at the surface far above. He saw not the broken ice sheets on the surface, felt not the icy cold of the water or the extensive pain of his injuries. The only sensory input X could feel was a voice. A quiet, singing voice that wrapped around him as Aria’s heart began to usher a consistent glow. Jolts of energy began to spark out of it, causing Monster X’s body to twitch. A gloved hand reached up and clutched the glowing heart.

============

Reader Works!

Showing off the beloved creations of the best readerbase a guy could ask for!~

-Dark God's Fury- by Kahnc
While not in the Amalgam'verse canon, Kahnc is a solid writer who has used elements of Bridge's kaiju version for his own works. Have a gander!

Check out the newest installments in the first Bridge Spin-off, Humanity's Stand Chapter 11 - by SMJames

Here's Zeroviks making Xenilla's human form go a mix of Kamen Rider and Super Sayain!

FallenAngel4514 introducing the Dark Hunters, complete with a couch (and a prequel!)

AstralAnomly and IceStormy presenting us with a gorgeous pair of pictures of Bridge's main two fandom ships

CrashedEileen helping bring in the diabetes!

Pyrus-Leonidas once again proving his skill with his illustrated series for my "Godzilla meets Gorgo" short!

Mayozilla opening bunches of shipping lanes here!

DragonBlitz85 giving us a series of stylized group and individual shots, set to music!

Isaacholt proving you can flip most anything, even chromosome!

Our own PMB-Brony giving us a mix of adorableness and an unofficial crossover with the other big G-MLP crossover here on FimFic

Superior-Doc-Fossil a.k.a DinoCam1795 putting the Bridge pics to an anime opening!

Author's Note

Illustrations by Faith-Wolff
Proof reading by LanceOmikron and Faith-Wolff
Monster X, Gigan, Megalon, and Bagan by Toho Company Ltd.
Irys and the gyaos by Daiei Studios
Harmony by Heilos
MLP by Hasbro Studios and DHX

Next Time on The Bridge:
The dragon knight appears, and the siren isn't out of her own fight yet.

Chapter 29, part 2: Dragon Knight

Inside the lake, Monster X’s body sunk down to the depths until he hit the bottom. Knocked limp by the blast wave and unable to swim, he could do nothing but crash down in slow motion amongst a cloud of silt. Upon his neck, Aria’s necklace began to crackle and pulse dimly. Unseeing eyes blankly stared up at the surface far above. He saw not the broken ice sheets on the surface, he felt not the icy cold of the water or extensive pain of his injuries. The only sensory input X could feel was his own heart beat, and a voice. A quiet, singing voice that wrapped around him as Aria’s heart began to usher a consistent glow. Jolts of energy began to spark out of it, causing Monster X’s body to twitch. X’s vision returned as he leered up at the surface, hearing the distant bellowing of Enjin.

-No…-

A gloved hand reached up and clutched the glowing heart.

-Not yet.-

Enjin

Back at the bridge, an unworldly, fiery glow invaded the van window. Adagio Dazzle could hear and feel her pulse racing through her head despite the siren’s ears still ringing, but she was petrified. She slowly looked over towards the source of the glow as it enveloped her face. The deep river below and towering height of the bridge put the road on chest level with the burning behemoth. Part of Enjin’s chest opened up and several tendrils grasped the van, beginning to reel it in closer. But it wasn’t just Enjin she could see. Though it hurt her eyes to look into the brightness the eldest siren could clearly make out a familiar black outline in the haze. She didn’t need to mentally blot out the wings and horns to recognize the long haired being banging on the inside of Enjin’s core to no avail. Adagio lurched out and grabbed Sonata to try and pull her out of the van as it was her little sister’s side that was closest to the monstrosity, but the terrified Sonata reflexively clung to her sibling and sobbed. Adagio stopped trying to fight to free Sonata, accepting that even if she got her out of the van, this demon would still have them cornered on a pillar with no escape route. She stopped screaming for Sonata to let go and run for it, crumbling into her seat and putting her arms around one of the two beings she promised her aunt she’d look after, knowing she’d failed Hymnia for both of the two. The oldest siren patted Sonata’s back as her little sister pushed into her neck. Adagio Dazzle closed her eyes, her hearing returning just enough to detect Sonata's crying.

She could feel the van being lifted off the road beneath it. Well… at least they’d get to be reunited with their cousin soon.

…..
…….
………
………..
………….

A flash of light burst across the outside of Adagio and Sonata’s eyelids. There was the crash of ruptured water and the roar of breaking ice, followed by Enjin grunting. Suddenly the inside of the van was hit with a whiplash and free-fall like a drop on a rollercoaster. The jostling ended almost as quickly as it started. Adagio opened her eyes again as the light faded, greeted to the sight of the stone laden river before her that fed into the lake. Had the feeling of weightlessness not come over her, accompanied by shards of their broken windshield, snow, and fragments of the bridge levitating in midair, she’d probably have fell out of the van and tumbled to the ground below. Instead, Sonata and herself were kept in their seats, clothing and hair floating about as if underwater. The van shifted, gently being raised up and wheels put beneath it. Placed back on the surviving portion of the bridge still connected to the road, the distortions to gravity subsided in a fraction of the second. Shrugging off the jolt, Adagio looked out where her window once was.

Another titan had arrived. While only at half his normal height due to the divide in Aria’s power, the fourteen story giant was still strong enough to equal Enjin’s stature and hold onto his opponent. Having burst out of the river, the newcomer stood behind Enjin with an elbow around the shadow’s throat in a tight hold. Having been previously holding an opened hand out towards the van to catch it with a gravity net and put it back on the road, the newcomer used its now freed limb to catch a snapping hand from Enjin by the wrist. While it was clearly struggling to hold Enjin still, based off its subtly stumbling feet, a dragon’s roar called out from past recurved fangs and it twisted itself around. Enjin’s neck remained unbroken, but that didn’t stop the back throw that hurled it away from what remained of the bridge from dislocating its skull as it crashed into the forest and knocked over another battery of trees. The new kaiju turned to face where Enjin had fallen, putting itself between the downed Aspect and the van. It shifted its head slightly to the side, red eyes glancing down at the vehicle.

While the new entity looked hardly any better than the demon of before and was so alien it was nearly unclassifiable as to what exactly it was supposed to be; it only took Sonata a second to recognize the black and white color scheme on the skin and armor, along with the distinct hue of cinnabar red in its eyes. The fact Monster X was wearing a glowing, giant version of a siren necklace around his neck, with a power output high enough both she and her sister could practically smell the magic coming off him, only confirmed that identification.

“That’s X!”

Sonata yelped, still more than a tad dumbstruck. Upon seeing the alien and confirming her sister’s declaration, Adagio was hit with a sea of confliction. She clenched her jaw, face twitching every millisecond to alternate between a jaw dropped frown, a scowl, and the unreadable as she ripped through thought after thought. She wanted to place all blame on the kaiju, both of them, for causing all of this. For threatening Sonata and swallowing up Aria. She hated them….

The scowl twitched away to a defeated frown. Adagio closed her eyes, scrunching up her face as a tightened grip on her chest crushed in on her. She could blame them, but no amount of pride or aloofness was able to wholly exclude her from the equation. Aria was driven away from herself by her own hand, and now she was in more peril than either of them could have imagined. Adagio grimaced and breathed through her teeth, turning and tearing open the door handle to get out of the van. She opened her eyes and looked through tears before sprinting to the guard rail.

“X!”

She roared so loud it stung her throat. Monster X’s eye shifted, looking down at the siren out of its corner.

“G-get her…. back….”

Adagio stammered, speaking in a mix of crying, shouts, and pleads. She ripped her necklace off her head, ignoring the cold feeling stabbing through her upon doing so as she literally held her magic out at arm’s reach.

“Whatever you need to do! You can take them all if you want, JUST GET HER BACK!”

She wasn’t alone, as a second red glimmer joined Adagio’s necklace. Sonata, having followed her sister out of the van, looked at her necklace briefly whilst chewing her lip. Without a moment of pondering, she slipped it off her neck and held it out to the kaiju. Monster X let a slow breath gush out of his nostrils, forming a veil of mist in the winter air that wreathed over his face. He hadn’t been expecting this. Aria’s heart pulsed beyond its usual glow for a moment, in unison with its cousins’ gems. Monster X looked forward again at the source of shaking earth. Enjin had gotten back up, rearing up and smashing its fists into the now fractured ground beneath it before roaring at the group. Monster X outstretched an arm and pointed a finger in the direction of the road, motioning for the sirens to get out of the crossfire he knew was coming.

The sound of van doors being shut behind him and an engine revving ushered Monster X to alter his stance into a readied pre-guard, arms spread out forward to the sides slightly with his hands uncurled. A snowflake kissed the ground and both kaiju charged at each other. Just before they would have collided, Monster X stopped his sprint and leapt up whilst spinning around. The double attack landed, first a backhand to Enjin’s jaw followed up by a double tail smack that toppled the Aspect as it struck in retaliation and buried its knuckle spikes into its opponent’s chest armor.

================

Kilometers away

Heading onto the highway as her namesake began to occur behind them, Sunset Shimmer didn’t know whether she should be vexed, confused, frantic, or frightened to a degree. While Irys and company’s insistence helped set the seriousness of the situation, her friend’s friends were, well, odd. Then again, she probably should have expected such from aliens after the affirmation that they definitely weren’t from Equestria. Megalon, who was humming to himself in the back seat, was nice enough, if a bit ditzy at times in a Pinkie Pie manner; though the older cyborg in the front riding shotgun, Gigan, made her skin crawl even after he put his sunglasses back on to cover up his mechanical eyes. Sunset wasn’t sure if it was just his general mannerisms or the fact over half of him seemed mechanical that was spurring her unease. While this new world of humans did have some more advanced, or at the very least, more widespread technology than back in Equestria; stuff to the grade of what was sitting in the passenger seat was beyond anything Sunset had ever seen. Or perhaps just as Gigan, a being reforged by metal and machinery, was confused, alienated, and annoyed by magic; so too was Sunset, a former student of magic itself, was having a similar reaction to the Nebulan technology. Still, while she managed to keep a calm face during the drive and had been able to near completely ignore the half metal men back at her homestead, the uneasiness was building for Sunset over the course of the extended drive.

That and the pale hands clinging to her chair proved a bit distracting. Megalon and Gigan, both having ridden in container vessels for when the Nebulans would move them planet to planet and system to system, were more or less unsurprised by the sensations of a car ride. The former busying himself in examining any trinket or book he could find in Sunset’s back seat pockets, and the latter focused on scanning the world whizzing past them for energy signatures. Irys had no such experience nor any distraction. As it turned out, she discovered she was terrified of car rides. The gyaos had been a nervous wreck since they closed the doors around her. The claustrophobia and roar of the engine made her react on instinct, clinging to the back of Sunset Shimmer’s chair like a startled cat and had stubbornly refused to let go or drop her wide eyed expression.

Sunset eyed the rear view mirror to check her positioning in the lane.

“Which fores- Megalon could you get Irys down some? Please? Thanks… Which forest did you say he was in?”

Unfortunately it was Gigan, who was busy looking over a roadmap, who dryly answered her.

“We don’t know the exact one, but the visual we got his location had a large lake and rocky uplands in view. Judging from this map, your ‘Everfree National Park’ seems to fit best…!!!”

Just as Sunset went by a road sign with the park’s name and turned onto the parkway to head into it, Gigan had dropped the map, flinched up, and looked in the direction of the park. At nearly the same time, Megalon and Irys did the same; freezing up and looking off in a set direction.

“!!”

“!!

The trio’s heads slowly pivoted around to face 2’oclock. Sunset could feel a strange vibe pass over her, as much from her confusion at the trio as it was almost feeling like something was in the air. Managing to keep her eyes on the road outside of idle glances, Sunset Shimmer broke the silence.

“What-what is it?”

Gigan popped his glasses off to get a stronger reading, rolling his window down and sticking his head out. The readings his eyes picked up were kilometers away, and yet so clear as day even Irys could sense it. In all his years experience, there was only one thing that gave off that kind of power in such a relatively compact, mobile state. Kaiju. And he got two readings. One of which was definitely Monster X, but the other was an enigma and that did nothing to calm his nerves.

“He’s here. That way, go… GO!”

Not having to be told twitce and knowing it had to be serious for Gigan to be acting out, Sunset floored the accelerator and sped down the parkway.

============

National Park

Enjin stumbled back across the lake shore, still smoking from being hit with several graviton flares. Catching itself on its heels, the Aspect of Land rocked itself back into a forwards stance and smashed a palm into the ground. A wave of energy shot into the ground below and back into Enjin, the titan quickly expelling most of its excess mass with the blast and shifting back into its speedier form. Caught off guard by the uproar of churned earth kicked up around Enjin, Monster X wasn’t able to block the clothesline the sprinting kaiju threw his way whilst lunging past him. Tremors quaked and armor cracked as Enjin got several lunging passes at the Xilian dragonoid, the latter’s armor being the only thing saving him from being sliced into by Enjin’s spikes that extended with each of its punches or swipes. Digging its arm into the ground after another pass, Enjin kicked off the ground and swung itself around to charge Monster X at full speed without needing to slow during its turn. Monster X managed to brace himself from the impact, but was still knocked backwards a full hundred meters, first through the remains of the bridge and then into the rock wall leading up to a looming plateau that bordered the bridge.

Pulling himself out of the imprint his back caved into the stony face, Monster X shook his head free of the dizziness; clearing it only in time to see Enjin lunging towards him with its extending spikes outstretched. He might have been stabbed had he been the only one fighting Enjin. Deep inside the core, Aria Blaze was still trying to free herself. Condensing her power within herself, the transformed demi-kaiju called out in a sirenous roar that exerted blast waves of gravitons and magic in all directions. The energy burst she gave off was taxing, only worsened by the leeching cold that seemed to be sapping her more and more every moment, but while it did fail to do any real damage to Enjin it did have one desirable effect. The power surge given off by the siren-turned-battery briefly caused Enjin’s core to spark and flash. The Aspect of Land flinched up and was thrown off course. At the same time as the malign power surge coursed through the Aspect, a benign one shot through Monster X, as indicated by the uproar of golden energy arcing out of the necklace and across his body. Born of the siren heart, something directly tied to Aria’s life force and magic, the rush of power he felt instantly shot him like an adrenaline rush. With bolstered strength and a sharpened reflex that seemed to slow down time briefly, Monster X reacted to the oncoming Aspect.

-Time to see if that idea I wanted to test works!-

His eyes flashed with the golden light, but instead of firing the netted graviton energy, the arcs of gold shot down from Monster X’s eyes, through his neck and into his arm as he threw a crackling punch that hit Enjin’s hand head-on just below the spines. The energized gravity magnified the weight and thus the force behind the strike, while also concentrating the energy burst of his eye beams into one point. Having literally just punched his attack into Enjin, the result was obvious enough when the front half of Enjin’s hand exploded from the combined physical and energy outburst. Enjin cackled in surprise, now missing its arm past the wrist; being thrown back a bit and unable to stop Monster X from using a more tried but true energy attack, firing a quick graviton flare at its other forearm that detonated and destroyed that hand. While Enjin was able to start regenerating its hands, its enemy wasn’t giving it time to focus on regrowing its claws. No sooner than it was back up on its feet, Monster X was already set upon it and the Aspect of Land had to make due with fisticuffs. The two began trading blows back and forth, smacks, backhands, and lunge punches from Enjin being fought with rapid fire jabs, backhands, and uppercuts from X. Going back and forth with their duel, the two had destabilized chunks of the rocky uplands above, boulders ranging from man to car size raining down on them with torrents of dirt and snow.

After the armored dragonoid weaved around a strike to launch a jab-cross-jab-uppercut combo into Enjin’s chest and head; the Aspect lunged forward and managed to grab Monster X by the middle with a tackle. Body slamming X into the stone wall, Enjin reorganized its hold and grabbed Monster X by his head; proceeding to repeatedly bash him into the granite. While his armor was more durable than the stone and saved him from being crushed, the multiple bashings on an already cracked helmet was causing chunks of it to splinter or break off. The head-crest on the anterior portion of Monster X’s helmet broke off entirely, as did the left eye guard after the last bash. Enjin charged up a mana grenade in its free arm and swung up, intent on smashing it directly into Monster X’s head for a killing blow. Unable to get out of the way fully in time, Monster X could only swat the hand aside and force the explosive into the cliffside next to it. It blew up about a dozen meters away from his face, blowing Enjin back amongst a tidal wave of debris. Monster X, burned and smoking from the explosion across his armor and exposed skin, slumped against the cliffside under haggard breath, his hearing blown out and his vision blackening in and out every time he took air in past his bleeding jaws. Blackness surrounded him as another voice entered his mind amongst the fractions of seconds ticking by.

-Too weak...-

Flashes of memory shot across his vision, alternating with the real world every passing moment. The forest and cliffside metamorphosed into corpse of an unearthly city under two moons. Hundreds of screaming voices calling out at once in a droning chorus dueling with the howling winter gales. The image of Grand King Ghidorah stretched across his vision, approaching him during the times the visions overtook his sight, and morphing it back and forth into a recovered and advancing Enjin as the real world became visible for brief instances.

A gargantuan roar ripped through Monster X’s mind. Someone was tearing through his mind as if clawing at the inside of his skull, and they wanted out.

-I remember, everything. I’m real. You’re the fake, you’re too weak… You are losing, I’m not letting a fake kill me…-

Kaizer Ghidorah’s voice hissed with dripping venom. A overwhelming power began to overtake Monster X’s body. Enjin took a pause, readying itself as the delirious Xilian kaiju screamed in pain and clutched his head, trying to keep the internal intruder back. The visions of the past flashed before Monster X’s mind too quickly to observe in detail, out of control gravity causing debris to fly about in all directions.

-You don’t belong, you don’t even have a name. Ghidorah is still alive because of you!-

All mental focus was completely gone as Monster X’s psyche was assaulted by Kaizer Ghidorah’s personality, X’s only feelings were those of being torn away from his body as someone attempted to hijack it. He tried to fight it, but it was like trying to hold back an ocean of hatred, rage, and raw power. He couldn’t beat Enjin with his body, and he couldn’t beat this entity with his mind. He’d failed, he’d lost.

Aria Blaze felt a throbbing pain shoot through her head with the last burst, enough to open a cut across her temple and send her ears ringing. With X wearing her heart, the siren was all too aware of what was happening to him. Aria grimaced and looked towards the outer edge of the core.

-It’s happening again, X can’t resist it on his own!-

She was choking on the dark matter that composed Enjin’s core and rapidly losing all her strength, but her determination burned as brightly as her power did. She drowned out all the pain she was in, the crushing cold that surrounded her, and her struggle to even breathe. Her entire body began to light up with energy that was magnitudes greater than it ever had before.

-But he’s not fighting this alone…-

The siren channeled everything she had to reach a peak, feeding both the powers that fed off rage which she duplicated from Monster X’s other side; as well as her inherent magic that drove that discord. Dozens of memories played through her mind, each giving its share of strength in both remembrance and potency.

The loneliness of being forced away from the mermare pod, chased out to the depths.

Being booed off a stage during their first performance at Canterlot.

First crashing down in a trash alley as a naked monkey, struggling even to walk.

Dread and horror when her first attempt to go underwater to sleep nearly drowned her.

The frustration she felt consume her when she realized she couldn’t return to the sea.

The anger at Adagio for bringing them here and never once admitting it was her fault.

Disdain for her cousins upon seeing them become accommodated to this mockery instead of wholly loathing it.

The dull, bickering rooms full of hexed humans at the mall whose praise meant nothing.

Her rage and terror upon her first encounter with a monster in this world, then the second and third encounters.

At first struggling to learn her new powers under a stern teacher that repeatedly felt the need to lecture her.

Her alternatingly loathing her lamented situation during her brief break down last night, and then herself in hindsight for doing that in front of someone.

Storming out a door to get away from her cousins as a human.

Her full flung fury upon returning to the battlefield and seeing Monster X hurt, his blood on her hands….

Aria paused briefly upon that last thought. That memory, that moment, had infuriated her. It ignited the power she’d copied from the kaiju and made her how she looked now so it had to be strong. Why had it done that, why was that memory so strong?..

Her memory trick had worked to reignite the power she could muster, but she’d hit rage’s limit no matter how many more painful or hateful memories she mustered. Even with it fueling her gained powers, it wasn’t enough. She backtracked to the puzzling recollection, her power once again beginning to wane; drained away by Enjin as the milliseconds ticked by. As if it were her last chance, she clung to that last memory, ripping through it to find out why it was so befuddling. She’d become enraged, but not out of frustration, self loathing, or general hatred aimed at those around her. Her fury had been ignited by something else.

The realization dawned on her like being struck by lightning. Righteous indignation, anger for something rather than against it. For something in a selfless way….

-Maybe…-

She pushed side thoughts out of her head and reorganized as her world began to go dark, desperately filtering through memories of a different breed, fewer in number overall but equal in power.

She and Adagio playing in the kelp beds with an infant Sonata.

Curling up and sleeping next to her cousins in a sea cave as a siren.

The rush of cheering crowds of adoring ponies in Canterlot after their first big break.

The first time she managed to levitate and X letting her enjoy the nostalgia.
The calm surge she always felt when X allowed her to sing that weird melody to him.

The distant voice of a mother she never saw, feeling her muzzle tucking her daughter and nieces into a reef crevice to evade a storm.

She knew no face or detail to put to the memory, Aria was too young at the time. All she could remember was what Hymnia was doing. But, the feeling was still strong and she focused on that. Her conscious was jogged, remembering several cords of Hymnia’s voice. Her mother had been singing to them, singing to them a lullaby whose effect was opposite to the other one she’d taught them and they’d been using all these years. It wasn’t a chorus of discord, but something else entirely. Hymnia’s only daughter jolted with the realization. That night Kaizer attacked, Aria had panicked and she pulled something out of her subconscious. A song she’d repeated every time she sang to Monster X to keep him placid. A song she’d heard before from Hymnia.

Her mother’s lullaby had saved her life and given her a great power. And now, as Aria concentrated on the melody and sang it out into the void around her with everything she had, it was giving great power to someone else.

The memories of calm, triumph, and happiness flowed through her mind. A new energy rushed across Aria Blaze. Equestrian magic was partially emotion based. As it turned out, sirens could feed and grow off more emotions than those associated with discord and strife; they just didn’t know it. Until now. Her magic was born of an emotional attachment, and she had a whole new emotion to use alongside her rage fueling the kaiser powers. Nirvana and wrath worked together, ushering out an enormous power surge that ripped through Enjin’s core. Exerting as much energy as she could to the point of exhaustion, Aria Blaze extended a tendril restrained hand towards the outer edge of Enjin’s core. The last thing she saw before darkness overtook the spent siren was the glow of her own heart shining so bright she could see it from within Enjin. Someone needed her help and she just gave them everything she had.

Monster X crumbled to his knee as his body threatened to convulse, desperately fighting through the visions and the alternate personality trying to rip him out of the conscious world. Despite trying his hardest, just like back in Zenith, X couldn’t fight it off and was being consumed by the memories and drowning hatred that accompanied them. Kaizer Ghidorah’s assault only growing in strength and volatility, threatening to rip the rival personality apart and throw X into the cage he’d been trapped in for two hundred years.

-You’re the fake, I’m the real thing. I should have been in control but your amnesia locked me in that cage! This is MY body!-

Just as Kaizer Ghidorah roared out, having fully broken free of whatever mental prison his personality was sentenced to; a third party joined the depths of the tumultuous consciousness. A quiet melody, sung in a language Monster X didn’t understand. While the lyrics were maybe incomprehensible, the soothing tone of the choir and whose voice it sounded like wasn’t lost on him. Pulses of warm feelings washed over X’s body from Aria’s necklace. Each successive wave forced the nightmares back, forcing Kaizer Ghidorah away from X. Someone was holding him back and away from X, fighting back against the more monstrous personality. And both Kaizer and X knew who it was.

-You!-

-Aria…-

The memory of that someone’s voice echoed through Monster X’s mind as a black stillness overtook the visions.

-”X…X…X…”-

Kaizer Ghidorah had been calmed by the siren’s song once, when he’d mistaken her for someone else. But all those times he had tried to reemerge and was halted by Aria's song had taught him otherwise. He knew another fake when he saw it, and like anything associated with the personality it loathed, he hated her. The raging dragon roared so loud it blotted out all depths of the shared mind, lashing out and pushing back against Aria’s attempts to reseal him.

-Imposter... Get out of my way!-

For a moment Aria’s influence was shoved back as Kaizer Ghidorah reasserted his power grab. Gold and black overpowering the violet like it had the black and white. The nightmarish visions tormenting Monster X returned with double the force, this time memories of stalking a siren in the forest accompanied them as Kaizer tried to tear the Equestrian out of their conscious. He might have succeeded had his other target not joined back in. Aria’s voice echoed again across the void despite her weakening influence. For a split second, Monster X could practically feel her hand on his face again as she recited her command.

-”Don’t lose.”-

The flashes of memory, this time of a terrified Aria in a forest and his team back in Zenith sent Monster X flying into a rage and on the offensive for the first time. He had a mission to complete, a life debt to pay back; he couldn’t have some nightmare ruining it all! He couldn’t fail! Not here! Not now! Not with who was at stake! He wasn’t letting himself black out and let this thing take over, not again. This time he was fighting back. The two personalities and the siren’s influence grappled with each other for control of their body, literally fighting each other with tidal waves of memories and emotions. Slowly but surely, the combined force of Aria and X was starting to push Kaizer and all of his influence back. The ghidorah’s overwhelming force had finally met its match, dame and knight forcing the dragon back, back into his cage.

-Why do you fight me?! You wanted to remember! I have our memories! Our past! Not this fake life!-

-What’s in the past is gone. If getting my memories back means releasing you and hurting them, then a fake I shall be!-

-You call yourself by a placeholder, I remember our name-!!-

Aria and Monster X shoved Kaizer Ghidorah back into the depths of the kaiju’s deepest subconscious, back into the cage Sonata and King Ghidorah released him from. The chance to remember his name, the very thing his placeholder of a title reminded him of every time someone spoke it, didn’t even give the dragon knight pause. It didn’t matter to him, not anymore. This monstrosity, this dark echo of himself that tried to take control; he didn’t know what it was called or where either of them came from. That origin didn’t matter anymore. He had centuries of memories of his life since waking up in an asteroid, his experiences, his loyalties, his team, and his morals. Those mattered. There was something his team… his friends… his family called him. It’s what Aria called him. It was what they’d use to think about him, so it was a name by every definition of the term. It was what mattered.

-My name, is Monster X… And you are NEVER going hurt any of them again!-

The mental prison door was slammed shut, muting out both Kaizer Ghidorah and all the visions and memories he bore. X regarded his conscious briefly as the very thing he’d been craving for decades died away in front of him like smoke in the wind. The last one to go, Kaizer’s core memory that was buried under all the hatred and devastation, was the outline of an Xilian couple in a private moment, putting their foreheads together as they stayed quiet and looked upon each other. While he couldn’t see the details of it as he let the past go, X knew the context behind the gesture in the dying memory. On the world of two suns and two moons it was the closest equivalent to a kiss the culture had. The glimpsed memory faded away like dust in the wind as the outside world returned to the conscious. Monster X sighed and prepared to return to his other fight at hand, thinking above the container Kaizer Ghidorah was locked in as Aria’s song pushed it into the depths of his subconscious, ushering away the dragon’s presence as his power which Aria had absorbed over the recent past days remained behind. While he had just resigned himself to ignorance of what he’d been chasing for decades, he knew now why the dragon bore so much hatred it had been consumed by it. Usually the worst of furies were often begot by something cherished being lost. As the last of Kaizer’s roaring echoes died down in his subconscious, X brushed the remnants of the memory away and dissipated it entirely.

-I’m sorry…-

The tumultuous second within Monster X’s mind ended. Enjin screeched in agony and surprise as it felt torn into from the inside out by Aria’s energy outburst, letting go of Monster X and thrashing. The lines of burning energy across its body virtually ignited like running lava as its power briefly flew out of control. Just as it was scorched under its own might, a tidal wave of power hit it from the outside. Enjin looked up just in time to see Monster X’s head snap up, eyes already burning bright. The Xilian kaiju let a screaming roar fly out as spiraling graviton beams shot out of his eyes and mouth. Enjin stumbled back from the blow, its foe already lunged upon it before the second was up. He swung a downwards punch into Enjin’s face that hit with so much force it split the air. Monster X felt a familiar rush of energy overtake him. Weakness instantly vanished as he felt revitalized and replenished to a degree even greater than before. Shrugging off his daze and multiple bleeding and bruised wounds, Monster X roared and lashed out at the Aspect.

Energy coursed out of Aria’s heart, literally pumping through X’s veins. He grabbed Enjin, and in a display of titanic strength even for him, twisted around at his hips and threw the Aspect so hard it bore into the solid rock over two dozen meters into the plateau’s side. He rushed Enjin with a storm of commanded gravity, ushering another explosion of snow and solid rock as X crashed into the shadowy demon. Enjin’s kaiser energy detections went off the charts so much that it thought Kaizer Ghidorah was about to emerge. But, there was a different power at play, binding that side of the Xilian Vanguard in its cage and holding it in like a net. Kaizer Ghidorah was being held at bay by a siren’s magic, but his power was still bursting free with X still in the driver’s seat. Physical changes accompanied the energy spikes, the Xilian kaiju already growing several meters taller and adding on literal tons to his body mass. Kaizer Ghidorah’s strength, put to use by Monster X’s skill, and further enhanced by Aria’s magic made for the strongest opponent the Aspect had ever encountered. And Enjin was being completely overpowered.

Monster X threw out a rising uppercut, striking with just as much physical form as he was his own gifted energy, each blow sending a crackling shockwave through Enjin's body. He repeatedly assaulted the Aspect again and again, blasting off chunks of Enjin each time from the sheer force that snapped the air with every crackling blow. Monster X was easily twice as physically strong as he’d been before and Enjin’s sleeker speed form, that lacked its original state’s bulk and armor, meant it was getting manhandled. He’d been launching the Aspect up so much that they left the ground. Monster X unconsciously shot himself up into a forced levitation, digging a trench up the side of the plateau by consecutively punching Enjin through it. With a good chunk of its body broken at this point, Enjin whipped out a desperate attack to clear itself some breathing room. Redirecting much of its own power into its palm, doubling its usual power output for an even bigger charge, Enjin drew out a sphere of mana from the energy and smashed it into Monster X’s chest. The ensuing explosion blew the two apart, sending Monster X rocketing to the ground and launching Enjin skyward. The Aspect, now missing its entire left forearm, tumbled through the air for a few seconds before spiraling beams of gold burst from the dust cloud below and shot it down. Enjin was blown back and onto the plateau itself, knocking over several trees as its smoking form rolled across the ground.

After a few moments, ragged breath echoed across the woods. Monster X levitated himself up to the plateau’s level, one hand on his bleeding torso. While his chest plate had saved him from the brunt of the blast at the cost of completely shattering, it didn’t stop half his front from being blackened and bleeding in many places. The black and white kaiju’s chest was covered in bruises and fragments of destroyed bone armor; the loss of the torso covering also exposing a large, old scar near the sternum just to the side of where the heart would be. In just as many places that had lost their ivory shell however, golden scales were beginning to erupt from Monster X’s skin. In the places white ringed his form, such as on his horns and tail, gold was leaking up the ivory hues and taking it over. A ring of the scales formed up around X’s eyes as he glared at the recovering Enjin. Deciding it was best to trade speed for defense, the Aspect fought through the power surge and shifted back into its bulkier form. Monster X paid close attention to the fact he was touching the ground when the form change occurred.

A flash of memory shot across his mind to when the transformed Aria confronted the demon. It had begun to regenerate from her attacks just like it normally would, but there was one instance it didn’t. When Aria had knocked it into the air and unleashed her onslaught, it didn’t heal.

-That’s it! It needs to be touching the ground to adapt and heal!-

He knew now how could beat it, but it would need the right set up. He glanced about his surroundings and noticed the edge of the plateau peak. There was a good several hundred meter drop over that edge, enough to keep them in the air for a few seconds at most. He regarded the blinking siren heart still slung around his neck. He leered at the rising Enjin’s torso.

-If the hearts are tied to their life-force, then its power might cut off if she dies in there. And if it’s her power that returned me to this, then that means I’ll demorph.-

Enjin charged Monster X as soon as the latter landed. Weaving under the shadow beast’s swing, X spun around and collided a knee strike with Enjin’s torso.

-I might not be able to keep this up forever and Aria’s been in that thing for minutes now. We’re both running out of time, I have to put this thing down quick.-

Throwing caution into the wind, the partially transformed Monster X rushed the behemoth and re-engaged it full on. Shrugging off the return blows it gave him, Monster X busied himself with a full onslaught of everything he had. Punches, kicks, throws, close range energy blasts; anything to force Enjin back and closer to the cliff’s edge. Grunting from the pain of punching the adapting Aspect hard enough he could feel several bones in his hand break, Monster X gave himself a gravity assisted jump and double kicked with both legs to force him backwards. Using the same momentum to leap back, Monster X landed feet first; digging his clawed toes into the ground to stop himself from sliding too far backwards. Repeatedly blasting Enjin with graviton flares from his eyes and now roaring mouth as he slid back, Monster X bought himself a moment’s respite of breathing room.

Enjin reacted instinctively to its prey being out of arm’s reach. Mending its wounds from X’s beam assault, it pooled its own wrath into its core. The lines and stripes across its body burned, the ribcage of tendrils on its chest opening up. It grabbed hold of the mana bomb its core brought forth, hurling it at Monster X before drawing out another. The first was intercepted mid-flight by the Xilian kaiju’s eye beams, knocked off course and sailing off into the lake before detonating. Hundreds of gallons of water and tons of ice were blown apart or vaporized in an instant, the surviving mass being hurled up a full hundred meters into the air. Unphased, Enjin redoubled its efforts with the second energy bomb, clutching it in its gnarled hand to compress more of the Aspect’s might than before. However when the second bomb came sailing at Monster X, rapidly expanding mid-air to double the size of its previous kin, the kaiju didn’t fire back. The milliseconds ticked by, the burning sphere of energy encroaching closer and closer to him, melting the falling snow and scorching the ground it sailed over. It was on a direct collision course, and yet Monster X didn’t get out of the way.

X caught hold of his pulse and centered his focus, practically able to feel all the power around him. The arcs of energy shooting out of his eyes and necklace to course across his body became so numerous and concentrated that they formed an all encompassing aura. An outline of golden energy formed around the kaiju, two flanks of it extending out to resemble a pair of wings. Able to perceive the energy in all its forms, Enjin saw the image of a golden dragon flanked by a violet hippocampus that swam around to its side. X slowly turned his torso around as the energy ball flew closer, concentrating the glow into his right hand. He could feel the heat on his skin, causing several burns as it got close to his fingers and palm. Enjin’s attack was magic in origin, mana based. But regardless of origin, the plasma it contained was still matter. And all matter is subject to gravity. X’s own energy beams were plasma contained within a net of gravitons, so the idea was there. It was just pulling it off that was the hard part. Fortunately, the heart of a siren had given him access to exactly the strength he needed. Kaizer Ghidorah had pulled off this sort of thing before.

Time ticked back into full speed. Engulfing the energy bomb in a net of gravitons projected out of his hand, Monster X compressed and grabbed onto the ball of plasma. Redirecting its momentum, he swung his arm around and snatched it off its previous course. With a shoulder roll and a hip snap, the roaring kaiju spun the sphere’s course around and smashed it into the plateau. The new course for the sphere sent it forward and downward, burrowing through solid rock for dozens of meters. Fractured earth with beams of blazing light searing out of the cracks were the only forewarning before the bomb detonated right below Enjin. The entire last third of the plateau outcropping that the Aspect of Earth was standing on exploded, torrents of runaway gravitons and blast waves of mana throwing everything into the air and over the edge. Monster X’s eyes tracked the airborne Enjin. Ignoring the smoke coming off his hand, he took a crouched stance with his arms spread. Sweeping his right foot across the ground, he tapped into all the energy he could call upon, both from himself and from Aria’s gift. Eyes engulfed with a golden radiance that traveled across his body and down to his leg, Monster X kicked off and sprinted towards Enjin.

The Aspect, seeing the charging kaiju rushing it with a growing luminance, did it’s best to brace itself and protect its only vital. It enclosed its chest and crossed its forearms over its torso to block, even as it began to plummet over the edge of the cliff. Monster X pushed himself to his physical limit, propelling himself forward with a tsunami of gravitons. Practically a blur, his right leg continued to constantly glow brighter and brighter than before, arcs of energy jumping off it and burning footprints into the ground. Monster X roared, reaching a hand out to Enjin and snapping his hand back; causing a brief spike in the gravity above Enjin that yanked the airborne kaiju towards him. He reached the edge of the plateau and leaped off after Enjin, shifting his position into cocking back his blazen leg and taking aim at Enjin’s chest. Rapidly extending his leg into a diving kick, X struck his target dead on. The surging ball of light that had engulfed Monster X’s entire lower leg collided with Enjin’s torso with a blinding eruption that swallowed them both up before exploding out into a smoke cloud.

A low groan flew through the air, both kaiju tumbling out of the smoke cloud and plummeting to the valley below. One of Enjin’s arms flew off in a random direction along with a majority of its chest, bouncing off the corpse of the plateau before falling alongside the rest of its body. The remaining arm was closer to the body, though just barely; free-falling beside the rest of its body. The impact from the “Gravity Kick” had completely destroyed the outer front of Enjin’s torso and ruptured part of its core. The amber-like gem bore a large crack along the front, bright, liquid light bleeding out of the core. Tendrils of solid shadow shot out of Enjin’s shoulder and reconnected to the sole remaining arm. Not even waiting for a stable bond, Enjin roared and lashed out at the kaiju on top of it, grabbing Monster X by his horns and attempting to force his head backwards enough to snap his neck. The alien kaiju, while battered, wasn’t having any of that. This fight was over. Monster X snarled, swatting away Enjin’s malformed limb hard enough to bend its shoulder around the wrong way. He roared, drowning out his foe’s call before plunging his left hand straight into Enjin’s exposed core and jammed his claws into the crack.

Claws and brute force achieved what energy could not alone, Monster X’s taloned fingers breaching the shell and ripped outwards, with the whiplash tearing the core in two. The two halves, not having enough energy to reconstitute themselves after such an extended period of trauma and being away from the ground, sparked briefly before going dead and crumbling away like ash. Enjin, the Aspect of Land, muttered out one last bellow that echoed across the valley and forest, its body quickly evaporating away like scattered smoke. Still plummeting, Monster X only had the strength to control the gravity enough to slow his fall. He turned himself around mid-air, clutching his left hand and its contents to his chest before hitting the ground back-first.

It took several minutes for the exhausted kaiju to regain consciousness. When his eyes finally gave himself something more than blackness, Monster X could see he was laying at the bottom of a shallow crater. Trees lay shattered, or at the very least knocked down, all around him; with walls of snow kicked up in a shockwave. His ears were still ringing and he could taste his own blood on his tongue. Every single part of his body ached and it hurt to so much as twitch. Didn’t stop him from sitting up, he’d had worse. Bracing his burnt right hand on the ground, Monster X cast his tired eyes to his left hand. It was still numb from impaling Enjin’s core, but it was what was in his opening palm that had his concern.

Aria Blaze, the object Monster X had focused on tearing out of Enjin’s core, lay splayed out in the kaiju’s trailer sized hand. Her power having been drained away, she’d returned to her normal human form. However, it was another quick observation upon his tired eyes that sent him into a world of panic. Several seconds had passed, and Aria wasn’t responsive.

-No…-

A closer look confirmed that she wasn’t breathing.

-NoNoNoNo!-

Quickly setting the siren down on a bank of snow, Monster X didn’t hesitate to remove the giant necklace off his neck. The moment it was off his head, the kaiju was engulfed with an encompassing light. Within seconds his form shrunk back down to that of a human, a wave of energy that surrounded him dissipating. Now several meters away from the still siren, Monster X clutched the necklace in his hand; running as fast as he could to her side despite the surge of pain every step gave him and a limp in his right leg from kicking Enjin so hard. Had he been aware he’d torn nearly half the tendons and fractured several bones in that leg, he might have been surprised he could even stand. Granted, his injuries did catch up to him enough that he stumbled to the ground upon reaching the siren and fell onto his knees.

A check of her nose in the cold air. Still, no breath. He held up her arm and tried to check her wrist, but his fright and injuries meant he couldn’t keep his hands steady enough to gauge for a pulse. An attempt to get a pulse from her throat had no such luck either, the muscle shakes were throwing off his sense of touch and leaving him to resorting to putting an ear to her chest to listen. There was nothing, no heart beat. Desperation climbing, Monster X regarded the necklace he’d dropped while trying to search for a pulse. Memories of earlier at the hospital, and earlier still at a creek side, returned to him. A siren’s necklace couldn’t be removed except by the wearer, otherwise there would be a blowback. That blowback managed to jog Aria back into consciousness both times. Holding up Aria’s head, he put the necklace back around her neck. The necklace didn’t give off so much as a dim glow, not even a single candle compared to the brilliant star shine it had once bore. There wasn’t much power left in it after fueling two kaiju, if any at all. Monster X just prayed otherwise.

With ragged breath, he braced himself and swung his hand down towards the necklace. To his dread, there was no magical shield or blowback to keep him away. Not giving up, he tried again, and again, and again; loathing each time he was able to so much as touch the necklace. He wasn’t deterred despite several minutes of failure.

“C-ome on!”

He grunted with a bleeding lip, his voice nearly croaking at this point.

“Stubborn- Sea- Witch! Siren! You saved my- life, so don’t you dare die on me yet!”

He stuttered due to the cringes of pain his movements ensued. He made one last lunge.

“Wake up!”

He shouted, getting nothing in return. Huffing under his breath and slumping over, Monster X slowly picked up Aria’s necklace, surges of sadness and frustration coursing through him. He ran his bleeding thumb over the smooth face of the gemstone, shutting his eyes after a few moments as he dared not to look at it. A warm dampness ran down his cheek, accompanying a clenching feeling within his ribcage. The scar on his mid-torso was beginning to hurt. Invisible to Monster X, even if he had his eyes open at the time, a small trickle of red smoke seeped out of his hand and filtered into the gem. The dim gleam caught his attention through his eyelids. Monster X held his breath and froze, opening his eyes and looking at the heart that lay limp in his hands through a watery blur. The former kaiju closed his lips and lowered his hand before tilting it, letting the necklace slip off his fingers and back onto Aria. The tiny glow it gave off was his only hope.

Monster X cocked back his hand and spread his fingers, making one last lunge for the necklace. An invisible bubble forced his hand away, the force reflecting back into the still Aria. A small jolt of gold energy shot across her, causing the body to flinch and spasm briefly. Aria Blaze’s eyes shot open and she gasped for breath desperately. She had lurched up with her gasps and hard breath, pausing upon feeling a hand on the back of her shoulders to prop her up. Violet eyes with tiny tinges of red looked up into Monster X’s. They both stood still for some time as Aria and X both caught their breath and quelled any raging pulses. At the minute’s end, Aria finally spoke as she looked to the crater beyond them. There wasn’t any sign of their attacker.

“Did, we get it?”

“Yes, for sure this time...”

“Thanks, for pulling me out.”

“You saved my life, I save your life. Only fair…”

“What’s this make us, two to three?”

“Three to three if you count me pulling you out of the river on the first outing.”

“Well you caused that one so I don’t think it counts.”

They spoke to each other in whisper. Aria Blaze shifted her gaze away from her surroundings and up to the kaiju still holding onto her, the absence of her necklace on his neck hadn’t gone unnoticed. The fact her gemstone, her heart had been returned to her caused the siren gently hold onto the gemstone as she closed her eyes and cracked a closed, but large smile. After a deep breath and sigh through her nose, Aria peeked out an eye at X with a semi-sly look on her face.

“You know, I sorta did get the beam thing down with that whole ‘blast scream’. So, kinda won our bet we had.”

She muttered. Monster X flinched slightly before looking back down at her. Aria sat herself up a bit more, displaying something she hadn’t openly in a long time and to only three beings in her lifetime’s memory. Concern.

“Hey. You once called your mask your face, if it’s too much to take it off-”

She had been whispering before the Xilian cut her off by shaking his head and giving a quiet admittance. When he first consciously woke back up in this world, he didn’t have his mask on. He’d had an opportunity to see his face, no mask or helmet obscuring it. He’d been too scared to look, as curious as he was. He wasn’t so afraid anymore, least if someone else did it.

“You won the bargain, so go ahead… Can’t do it myself.”

A few moments passed before Aria slowly reached up towards the kaiju’s face. She hesitated for a moment, only proceeding when she saw no sign of X shying away this time. He just closed his eyes and stayed still while waiting. With aching fingers, she slipped the scarf down and took the mask off their host, the siren finally able to see the alien face to face.

He wasn’t anything exceptional, a fact not helped by the fact he’d clearly been roughed up from the fight with Enjin; though to be fair she hadn’t gone unblemished either. Numerous cuts and bruises stretched across jaw, brow, and cheeks, a still trickling cut on his upper forehead was spurring a stream of red down his brow and cheek after staining his eyebrow crimson. Looking him over, they obviously weren’t his first facial wounds. Several lines of deep scars cut through one of his eyebrows, dug into his nose bridge, and had gouged into his lips. Didn’t matter much to the siren though, she liked the subtle expression he bore on his lips and eyes. He had a nice smile. Aria Blaze cracked a tired smile of her own. She let her thumb trace across an aged scar on Monster X’s nasal bridge down to his cheek just below the eye. She could feel a slight dampness on his skin.

“You look like you’ve been crying…”

“Fight was painful.”

“Hmph, I’d bet…”

Aria chuckled lowly and shifted, sitting herself up some more. Bundling up part of X’s scarf, she dabbed it on a cut going across his cheek and brow to stem the bleeding. Not content with having just himself be dressed, X took the other half of the scarf to wipe off some of the dried blood trickling down the siren’s face from a cut on her temple. They kept at it for a good minute or two, stopping when violet eyes looked into cinnabar eyes and they paused.

Quiet as it might have been, the forest began to take notice of the death that had befallen the demon, Enjin, and came back alive. A gentle breeze, totally unlike the howling, numbing gales that followed the Aspect, filtered through between the trees. Clouds above were gently eased out of the way of the celestials, the lack of trees in the crater X and Aria sat in ensuing a flood of soft moon beams raining down on them. Despite the cool breeze and falling specks of snowflakes around them, both kaiju and siren’s faces felt a tad hot. Wordlessly, X leaned in and put his forehead to hers and closed his eyes, staying like that as the edges of his scarred lips curled up a bit. The necklace around her neck pulsing dimly, Aria’s smile grew into a confident smirk and she sat herself up a bit higher and put a hand on X’s face. She tilted her head a bit to shift the head bump into something else.

It might have been a spur of the moment; but for all the trauma they’d been wrung through, they’d earned this.

Sunset Shimmer’s car brakes screeched as they halted the car shortly after rounding a corner leading into the national park. The road ahead of them was still drivable, but littered with fallen rocks and boulders obscuring the car lanes. Not even waiting for the door to pop open and teleporting himself out of the car and onto the road. On the edge of the safety rail, Gigan slipped his glasses off and let his eyes do a scan over of the lake valley and plateau uplands in the distance. Still thankful this world didn’t have nearly as much magic to play haywire with his sensors, he detected several familiar and several unknown energy signatures all over the forest. The strength of the readings had both become more detailed and yet fainter since they entered the park. More specifications in identities but more generalizations in location.

“Still fresh, he’s definitely down there somewhere. Stray energy readings too strong for anything human sized in several spots, some closer than others, but nothing huge and active right now.”

Sunset Shimmer leaned over and called out from the car window.

“So, no giant monsters?”

“If there were we’d see or hear them from here. Maybe the fight moved off somewhere else?”

Megalon fumbled with the window controls a few times, constantly shutting the window on himself before finally managing to roll it down and pop his head out.

“What about all the rocks and boulders in the road? Was he over here?”

“Probably, or a stray beam shot this way. Would explain the rocks. Fight musta been something else.”

Sunset Shimmer stepped out of the car, still not quite understanding what in the world they were talking about or what Gigan was doing but least able to grasp the reasons and results behind the actions.

“So where is your friend now?”

“Not sure. Magic's involved so it's all over the place, getting one way over in the other direction but several up ahead in random spots. Getting strongest reading from the valley near the lake but they’ve declined a lot since we entered the pack. With all this background traces I can’t get a pin point. In this tiny body the trees of all things are obscuring my readings!”

Gigan grunted and teleported another twenty meters down the road to try and get a better angle of view. He was just about to run another scan when a pair of headlights crossed his figure. Megalon, Sunset, and Irys spotted them too, spying a van heading down the road after swerving around several boulders. Irys, who’d stepped out of the car and was forced to block most of the headlights shining in her eyes, was quick to spot something familiar behind the wheel. She need only a moment to positively identify the orange haired and blue haired young women from Photo Finish’s pictures.

-Those humans who took X!-

As the van rolled closer, the gyaos took a stance in the middle of the road and audibly sucked in her breath. She let out a low hissing sound that gradually built in strength as Megalon, now glad he had fingers to do this, plugged his ears.

“Ooooh dear..”

Sunset, not knowing what her friend was doing was about to lunge over to her to yank Irys out of the car lane as the van sped closer and closer.

“Irys?! What are you doing move-!!”

An ear splitting screech ripped into the night and ushered out a bright purple beam of condensed sound. Like a hot knife through butter, the focused sound sliced through the bottom of Adagio’s van, cutting the front fender along with half both the front and back wheels in one clean stroke. The van instantly dropped several feet straight down and roared to a grinding halt amongst a shower of sparks. While Megalon, Sunset, and Gigan were half baffled as to what had gotten into Irys, the albino gyaos was quick to storm over to the driver’s side and attempt to wrench the door open. Her efforts were invigored by her being able to smell X all over the van, confirming her thoughts. After tearing the door handle off, she’d just resorted to grabbing and starting to pry off the windowless car door itself when Adagio managed to fight past her shock and speak.

“Wh-Who are you?! How did you just?!”

“Where’s X?!”

“You know X?!”

Irys snarled and was about to grab what she thought was her friend’s kidnapper and yank her out the window when Gigan, Megalon, and Sunset grabbed the gyaos from behind. The former two baffled at why their teammate had just lashed out at what seemed to be a random passerby and the latter at just having seen her friend scream and slice a van in half.

“Heel gyaosy heel!”

“Irys! Get a hold of yourself!”

“What did you just do to that van?!”

Adagio, still in shock from her encounter with Enjin and not thinking straight, leaned out of the now broken car door with a dumbstruck expression on her face. The only clearly coherent thought she had was the name this crazy demon had called for.

“How do you know X?!”

Fighting through Gigan’s binding cables, Irys snapped back.

“We’re here to take him back, what have you done with him?!”

Despite Gigan’s attempts to restrain Irys and Sunset forcing herself between Irys and Adagio, a shouting match was quick to ensue with one demanding question just being replied to with another. Megalon stepped away from the strife to try and figure heads and tails of the situation when he noticed another pair of eyes looking at him from the van. Sonata Dusk crouched down in what remained of the passenger seat, shuddering and holding her knees to her chest. Megalon blinked a few times, looking between her and the shouting match. Cracking a small smile, the younger cyborg lowered his head to try and look non threatening as could as he waved at her. Sonata sniffled her half plugged nose, raising her head up from her knees and returning the gesture with a tiny smile. Megalon tilted his head towards their compatriots and Sonata looked over and watched them. The youngest siren frowned, slowly shifting and getting out of the van and walking up beside Megalon.

“Let me guess, you’re more kaiju right?”

“All except Sunset, the pretty lady with red and yellow hair. You?”

Seeing as she wasn’t talking to a human at the moment and the wears of the night having long since stressed her out, Sonata shrugged and saw no need for secrecy.

“Siren. We’re not exactly from around here either.”

The two looked back at the argument going on in front of them, the other four no closer to gaining any information out of the other as the stress and angry broiled.

“Oh boy, looks like another fight's gonna break out.”

Sonata mumbled under her breath, a frown stretching across the siren’s face. The night just seemed to get worse and worse. The ever present questions regarding her cousin’s safety played heavy on the young siren’s mind and offered her little peace. Fortunately however, as he watched the fruitless interactions between the rest of the group, a light bulb went off in Megalon’s head and his goggles flashed a glow.

“Hey wait a minute!”

He chirped, raising and pointing a finger to the sky during his eureka moment. Sonata tilted her head at the kaiju.

“What ya’ got?”

“We’re like a crossover story!”

Megalon might as well have said “My wallet tastes like good” for Sonata to give him the raised brow look she did.

“.... For realzies?”

“Nonono, think about it. How do most crossover stories go when the two sides first meet in groups? They always have a conflict due to misinformation. That’s what we’re in now.”

Sonata combed her brain through the titles of shows, movies, comics, and fics she’d read over the months they’d been here. Superhero meet-ups, manga crossovers, half the stuff on FanFic.net; they all have the two sides square off even if there is a team up in the end. This train of thought was just crazy enough to put the tracks down.

“Okay… So we’re in a miscommunication phase of the process, that causes trouble for both sides. Comics and shows usually fix this by letting everyone punch for a bit and then the real villain shows up… If it’s all the same, I’d like to not do that. Aria’s the one who took up karate.”

“Sooo, how do we avoid that? I’m all for a scrap but yah, we’re kinda pressed for time at the moment and there’s something else that might need a whoopin’! What do folks in crossovers almost never do that could be done to avoid the conflict?”

“Calmly sitting down and explaining stuff like normal folks?”

“Works for me! You hit me with your summary, I’ll hit you with mine.”

They turned around and huddled close to each other, Megalon stealing a glance back at the growing scuffle.

“Though let’s give each other the sparknotes outlines in terms of detail, I think Irys is trying to chew through my big brother’s cables.”

A half minute later at Irys and Adagio’s shouting contest, the stressed verbal confrontation had barely broken any ground when it was cut short by a literal pair of whistleblowers interrupting everyone. Sonata and Megalon, clad in an otherwise inexplicable pair of referee uniforms Sonata had in the van, were blowing into a whistle and holding up a red flag respectively. Sonata, who’d been making the “Time-Out” signal with her hands, spat her whistle out and shouted.

“Aallllrighty-iety! Let’s clear the air here! We already got the required crossover fight done earlier this arc.”

Megalon tossed the red flag away and pulled up a white sign and marker. Quickly scribbling face sketches of his own, Irys, Gigan, and Monster X’s human forms, he held out the sign in front of the dumbstruck quartet of kaiju, unicorn, and siren.

“WE are kaiju from another realm. We came here looking for our buddy X, who also ended up in this place on accident.”

Sonata picked up a stick and pointed to the image of X on the sign.

“He, X, got into a fight with some monster and my family and I got pulled into the crossfire. Since we saw him as the best bet at beating the other monster, we helped him out when the first fight didn’t go his way. Since we, my family and I, traveled around in this thing and X was bleeding pretty bad when we rescued him; that is why his scent was all over it. X, after waking up, realized he couldn’t beat the other monster alone and knowing it came after us too, agreed to the team-up.”

“And when Irys saw a picture of them pulling X into their van to save him, she thought they had kidnapped him so she acted accordingly.”

Sonata closed her eyes and pursed her lips as she nodded.

“And thus our van got totaled for the second time in this crossover.”

Either by the realization of just what was going on or the dumbstruck nature of just what in the world Megalon and Sonata just did, the other four actually quieted down. Irys, who really had been trying to chew her way through Gigan’s cables, spat the cord out and managed to speak a coherent question.

“So if he’s not here with there, where is he?”

“Back there,-”

Sonata chirped, pointing up the road and back into the heart of the national park.

“He turned giant and engaged the other monster as it turned giant and got a hold of our cousin. He motioned for us to get to safety, so we were on our way out of the park when we bumped into you lot.”

“Big brother, what’s the visor say about any energy levels up the road again? In the spot Sonata indicated.”

Sonata giggled as Gigan, beyond questioning anything at this point upon reaching this degree of insanity, just turned around. Not wanting to let go of Irys just yet, he opted to tire out some of his warp drive and teleported the both of them about four dozen meters up the road and then checked the direction Sonata indicated. Sure enough, that spot was literally riddled with trace energies. Two of which he didn’t recognize, and two he did. Positive identification of Monster X’s trace gave him some hope, but the worrying amount of slightly different energy readings were giving him some thought for worry.

-It’s not Kaizer Ghidorah… But not exactly X either. And then there is those two other readings… Just what the Daiei went on over there?-

Furrowing his brow, he teleported back to where he had been and startled Adagio for a second time.

“If there was a full scale kaiju brawl, that would account for all the trace readings I’m picking up. But it also confirms what I thought before. If there were kaiju where she says there was, there aren't now. All the readings are traces, no active hotspots to show a kaiju is up and moving.”

He muttered with a shrug. Megalon’s expression flattened a bit into worry.

“S-so.. Did they take each other out maybe?”

Fortunately before any moodiness could settle in, Sunset Shimmer pushed off her own befuddlement and spoke up. Combing through her own memories of the last Fall Formal, she brought up a different theory.

“Well, if she says this X guy was human once and grew into one of these kaiju again; maybe he just won and powered down? If he is human again, maybe he’d be harder to scry for?”

Gigan snapped his neck back with an almost disgruntled and insulted look on his face upon having his abilities compared to magic. Magic made no sense. And after all, he was the teleporting chimera blade happy cyborg made by a race of giant insects, by Tanaka he made sense!

“Scry?!”

Thinking it was a question and not an impulse, Sunset rolled her eyes and continued.

“Sorry, habit. Distant searching, being able to find stuff you can’t see. Your scan thingy can do stuff like that right?”

Adagio’s eyes widened. Her expression shifted to stressed excitement, she charged over to Gigan before he could speak, grabbing onto his shoulder and shouting her plea.

“Wait! You! You can scry here?! Tell me, was there another?! Was there any other kind of signal over there besides the kaiju?!”

“U-ur, there was something weird over there, but I couldn’t tell exactly what. I’d need to get closer to tell for sure.”

Megalon popped up next to them with a half excited, half worried expression on his face.

“Well what are we waiting for?! If X won and demorphed, he’s probably hurt!”

Adagio busily ran her trains of thought through her head.

-If they aren’t giant.. things… running around anymore it’s not as dangerous, and that glasses one says there is another signal that means Aria might!- .. McCarthy please give us some luck here…-

“Come on Sonata!-”

She barked marching towards Sunset’s car.

“Since you clods totaled our van and our cousin is stuck out there with X, you’re stuck with us. Let’s get going already!”

Sunset Shimmer dropped her neck a bit and frowned a bit as she opened the back driver’s side door.

“Y-yes sorry about that. Hop in with us. Might be a bit cramped in the back, but-”

She was cut off by Adagio shoving back her and getting into the car. The action was a tad rude, but Sunset opted to drop it. The terrified look in Adagio’s eyes told her that the snappiness was born out of stressed worry more than hostility.

Megalon and Sonata sighed in relief and high-fived each other before hopping into the back on the other side. Releasing Irys to pile in after them, Gigan seated himself into the front passenger seat. He stuck his head out the window for continued readings as Sunset got into the driver’s side and buckled in. Revving up the engine and starting down the road, she shot a question over her shoulder aimed at two of the members occupying her back seat. While she wasn’t quite as dumbstruck at the two’s antics as the others, she still hadn’t seen stunts like that pulled off outside of Pinkie Pie handling the chocolate milk incident.

“By the way um… Where did you two get those whistles and signs?”

Before the snickering Sonata or Megalon could respond however, a half annoyed Gigan and Adagio spoke in unison.

“Don’t question it…!?”

The duo shot each other a look and earned a giggle from their little siblings. Squeezing her own hands until her knuckles were white, Adagio trained her eyes back out the window as Gigan went back to scanning.

Trudging through the plateau turned rubble and fallen snow, two forms limped along through the snow on the hill leading up to the remains of the parkway’s bridge. Having definitely broken something in his leg delivering the shattering blow to Enjin’s core, Monster X couldn’t protest Aria taking his right arm and looping it over her shoulders to help support him on the uphill walk. They’d just reached the edge of the forest road, thinking it best to follow that to increase the chances someone would find them there as opposed to the middle of the woods. Neither of them were in much condition to spend the night in a snow field with how injured they were. Fortunately favor was at their side when a pair of headlights strobed across them after coming around the mountain’s corner. The car gave a short screech as it stopped about thirty feet away. Due to the bright headlights, both kaiju and siren had a hard time seeing who was in the group piling out of it and thusly tensed up for the worst on instinct.

“Who is it?”

The grip Aria had on X’s right hand loosened a bit in relief when the voices gave her the answer.

“Aria?! Aria!”

She sighed with a tiny smile, whispering back.

“It’s okay, just my family.”

Adagio and Sonata came sprinting down the road towards them. Following suit behind the duo of sirens were a odd-looking trio Aria didn’t recognize and she flinched. Monster X took his arm out from around her shoulders as he balanced on his good leg and gave their intertwined hands a reassuring squeeze to snap her out of her confusion. The edge’s of his lips, still visible from he not putting his mask and scarf back on, upturned. Tilting his head towards Aria, X spoke in a rare pleasant tone as Gigan, Irys, and Megalon, the latter shouting in excitement, raced the siren sisters in who could get to the duo quicker.

“Don’t worry, that’s just... mine.”

X and Aria separated as the double reunion hit them. Adagio skid to a halt about a meter away from Aria after running up to her in a frantic panic. Her eyes quivering, the oldest siren's eyes were quickly dampening but despite her best efforts it was a strain to talk.

"I-I-I... I know y-our angry with me, r-really angry. And, you're not wrong for that... Aria, I remember you tried to warn me back home and I didn't lis-en.."

She held back the tears best she could upon seeing Aria's face flattening into a neutral expression. Cringing a bit and swallowing a lump in he throat, Adagio forced herself to keep a distance before finally spitting it out.

"It's... my fault we're here... I should have listened. I never did. I wanted to make sure we were strong enough, after Aunt Hymnia- I was-!!"

She was cut off by Aria lurching forward and yanking her cousin into a bear hug. Her head planted on Adagio's shoulder, Aria spoke in a quiet whisper.

"I forgive you 'Dagi..."

Adagio was shocked at the hug, but was all too happy to throw her usual aloofness out the window and return it, not surprised at all when a giggling Sonata wrapped her arms around both her relation. Like a worried parent, the oldest of the sirens pushed soon herself away from the group hug and rapidly drove herself down every aspect of Aria’s health that could come to mind, fretting over every blemish from her ruffled hair to her bruises and cuts. The flush that had been on Aria’s face since the car showed up convinced Adagio her poor cousin caught a cold, causing her to spew out rapid fire health questions about how nauseous she was or not. Aria just zoned out from it all, now jokingly wondering if she liked the aloof jerk-Adagio more, and looked at her other cousin. Sonata slyly looked between Aria and X, ignoring the fact the latter wasn’t wearing his usually covering and instead noticing the redness on both their faces. Knowing full well the cause of it, the youngest siren started giving Aria a goofy grin. Aria shrugged and rolled her eyes at her cousins, but was unable to fight a grin of her own as she ignored her soreness and pulled them both close to her. Happiness begot forgiveness, and Aria’s brush up with death and discovery of the new song had changed some of her outlooks on life.

They were the sirens three. They were her cousins, her family. And for the first time in a long while, she couldn’t be happier about that.

It took visibly noticing his limp and Irys and Gigan holding him back to keep Megalon from tackle-hugging X, so thankfully he settled with a friendly forearm bump before shifting position to help prop X up. Irys, not far behind felt her eyes widen as she looked X over. She didn’t particularly like guessing on just how many bones the Xilian kaiju had broken. The scars on his face only slightly calming her nerves with the knowledge this probably wasn’t the first time this sort of damage had happened to him.

“I see you’re plenty roughed up. Where’s your dance partner?”

X winced, speaking in his usual professional tone despite the slight pricks of pain in his voice.

“Dead. Where were all of you? I tried to call for backup but couldn’t get an open portal.”

“Whatever you did, we never got the memo. The master has limited vision in this world so maybe he couldn’t sense you? I’ll explain later but soon as I found out you were here thanks to a human, he gave a portal to get us over here so he should be picking us up soon.”

Gigan came up beside Irys, crossing his arms in front of him as he and X looked each other in the eyes. Back when he had been detecting energy signatures from a distance, he’d picked up a signal similar to Kaizer Ghidorah briefly. And as he looked over X now, it was faint but still there. The color scheme of choker around X’s neck, distinct from the usual black and white, was only fueling some of his caution. He kept a quick draw on his wrist blade.

“Speak now, two things about me my best friend would know. And then tell me right now, who are you?”

Monster X closed his eyes and sighed.

“You stopped that radio incident with the Kilaaks using what I will still consider an ingenious use of your warp drive, my asteroid, and a satellite dish. And your first words you ever spoke to me when we talked during that first military parade our masters held were expletives aimed at your surprise you could understand me.”

Gigan glanced down and to the side, looking back through his own memory and recalling the day to the detail.

“Yes… I was so blindsided I nearly stepped on a hover tank and you used your gravity control to push it out of the way. We nearly broke the pace in the parade…”

X’s mood took a shift. His usual professionalistic expression relaxed, opening his eyes and speaking in a placid manner he reserved for four beings.

“I remember well, Gigan. I am your oldest and best friend, I am X.”

Gigan eased up on his tension and relaxed the draw on his blade. Behind his sunglasses, Gigan raised an eyebrow.

“X, the placeholder?”

Monster X shook his head slightly, letting go of the unknown and the past to take hold of the known and present.

“X, my name.”

Gigan let a few moments pass before a tiny smirk slipped onto his face and he chuckled in relief briefly under his breath. He held his robotic hand up and out with a 90’ bend in his arm, Monster X returning the gesture and bumping the flat of his forearm to Gigan’s. For a duo whose cyborg member didn’t have hands for 99% of his life, it was a century-old stand-in for a handshake between two staunch allies.

“It’s good to have you back, old friend.”

Sunset Shimmer stood by the car and watched the reunions unfold. Irys walked back over to her first friend, briefly flashing a smile upon seeing her new flock all back together without a hint of Kaizer Ghidorah returning to tear it all down again. Letting the smile fade, the gyaos shrugged under her breath and spoke in a downtrodden tone.

“Sorry...”

“For?”

“Dragging you into this crazy life of mine.”

“Everything seems fine with them.”

“You didn’t see them when they’re… not human.”

Standing where she exited, the former unicorn cast her eyes to the forest, mountains, and lowlands all within sight. Beyond the totaled bridge that formerly straddled the river were swaths of leveled forest, a good four dozen trees thick as car lanes snapped over like toothpicks. Looking up to what used to be the plateau on the national park signs, she could see the gouged and in some cases melted marks from where the latter half of the infamous outcropping used to be. At the base of the plateau, just barely visible from the road, she could make out an impact crater. And on the stony wall bordering the crater was a massive handprint, one easily bigger than her car, punched into solid rock.

Looking back to the trio before her and the one beside her as she proportioned the hand to the rest of the body in her mind, Sunset wasn’t able to shake off a slight unease that the knowledge gave her.

“Y-yeah, I can see why… This realm has had some, odd, visitors,-”

She muttered, certain very familiar she-demons coming to mind.

“-but wasn’t quite expecting this.”

“Still surprised you believed us about needing help back at your roost with this sort of thing in mind before you saw me yell and, well, cut a van in half.”

“Megalon popping out of my lawn and Gigan having camera lenses for eyes helped. I used to be a protégé of someone very prominent, in my experience a lot of crazy stuff tends to happen in my life. I’m not exactly from around here either.”

Before Irys could respond or ask what she meant, Sunset Shimmer cast her eyes to the trio of aliens as Monster X looked back at them. Irys trailed her vision, casting a small wave when she saw X’s eyes upon her. The Xilian kaiju nodded, muttering something to Megalon and Gigan before they helped him limp closer.

“Interesting friends you got.”

Irys sighed, nodding subtly. The sight of her new flock all together made it hard for her to fight a tiny smile. Memory of Sunset’s words of wisdom played through her head as she saw her family of choice, her smile becoming too hard to fight.

“Wouldn’t have them without your help. ‘Adopted’ them right after I met you.”

Irys’ smile was infectious to Sunset, who leaned up against the albino. Keeping her excitement or worry reclined by the logic that Irys’ friend must not be mortally hurt, judging from lack of panic from her or her cohorts, Sunset whispered back to the gyaos.

“Well, what goes around comes around I guess. This wasn’t exactly how I imagined out reunion be, but… if it helped someone out in the end, what’s the harm in driving out in the middle of nowhere to pick up an alien?”

Irys put her arm-standing-in-for-wing around the shorter woman’s shoulders and widened her smile, making a quiet clicking noise that was barely audible. In bats, the gesture was something done amongst flock and colonymates to show affection. While the gyaos rarely did it to each other and Sunset’s hearing wasn’t sharp enough to catch all of it, the meaning wasn’t too hard to guess at. Basically, she was purring.

X approached Sunset, signaling Megalon to stop when he was about a meter away from her. Carefully bending his good leg to get more on her level, X crouched down and looked the former unicorn over; needing only a moment or two to recognize her from before. Sunset restrained herself from cringing at the dark skinned man’s scarred and injured face, time as the protégé of a princess helping her mind her manners.

“Recognize you from last time, don’t believe I got your name.”

She said after a breath, holding her hand out to X. After looking at the limb for a moment, X snaked his arm off from around Gigan’s shoulders, leaning on Megalon a bit more in the process, and took Sunset’s hand loosely.

“My name is, X. Megalon here tells me you’re the one who helped them get out here. Without that, them finding me and getting us all back to base would have taken far longer.”

Sunset Shimmer chuckled a tad awkwardly and shrugged.

“Well they kinda crashed into my house asking for help, so what else was I supposed to do? Hehe.. Name’s Sunset Shimmer.”

She shook X’s hand, careful not to try and jostle him and aggravate any of the kaiju’s multiple wounds. If he bore any discomfort or confusion from the gesture, X didn’t show it, only replying back in his typical dry manner.

“You have my thanks, Ms. Shimmer.”

============

Back in Zenith

Bagan sensed exchange going on from within his throne with only mild annoyance. True, Enjin had failed, just barely; but today wasn’t a total loss. Harmony’s existence had been confirmed and her connection to the realms severed for now, and Monster X had somehow gained enough stability he could hold Kaizer Ghidorah back and was no longer a liability or wildcard running rampant through Zenith. He and the rest of them would be useful to Bagan’s future plans. If the God of Extinction had to seize the kaiser energy, he’d just do it himself next time. Until then, with no one the wiser as to Bagan’s connection to Enjin, X and his companions would loyally serve him. They’d acquire more power sources for him in the future or be used as enforcers where he’d need them. After all, to them, their master was still their benefactor. A role he’d play as necessary until the time came to free them as well. Why waste a good asset after all?

Reclined, but far from expended, Bagan carved a rune into the air and reopened the portal to the human realm a short distance from the group. Confident to just bide his time again, Bagan closed up the sphere that composed his throne and set himself to continue regrowing his strength. He’d waited over 70,000 years, he could wait some more.

-All in good time…-

===========

The dark portal back to Zenith opened up about ten meters down the road and got everybody’s attention. Gigan looked to it and ran a quick scan, a familiar and yet still baffling energy returning to his registry.

“That’s our ride home.”

Irys’ smile shifted into a small frown, knowing the portal meant their master was summoning them back to base. They definitely had to go, as it was the best way to keep Sunset safe and get X patched up. Still, she liked all four members of her flock being in one place again. Sunset Shimmer, not oblivious to the mood shift in Irys, gave her a friendly bump with her elbow to get the kaiju’s attention.

“Hey, we’ll see each other again. Don’t you worry too much, okay?”

Irys sighed, glancing over to Sunset as she faced the portal ahead. She muttered in a slightly downtrodden tone at the thought of others in the master’s army being deployed here instead of her flock. The idea of Grand King Ghidorah being around here was as nerve wracking as Kaizer Ghidorah being turned loose.

“Just, if another kaiju comes over here and it’s not us, stay away and be careful. We’re not all exactly on the same team.”

Sunset Shimmer didn’t share the low tone, choosing to keep her chin up and try to get Irys to do the same. If her friend was leaving for awhile, they shouldn’t leave with low spirits.

“I’ll keep that in mind, I’ve had more than my fair share of experience with danger before though. Don’t worry too much about me, instead I want you to promise me something.”

“What?”

“How’s about next time you walk with me into the movie theater instead of sprinting away from it? Deal? They got those corndogs you like insiiiide.”

Sunset Shimmer goofily drew out the last word with a chuckling smirk. Irys’ expression lifted after a moment or two. True, she could inform Sunset about the time table missions often entailed, but the happiness she felt, a very rare feeling in her life until recently, wanted to keep the mood up. She’d been depressed, angry, lonely, spiteful, and sad during her life amongst her old flock; so the resolution to not let her life be the same amongst this new one was plenty strong.

“I’ll try my best Sunset. Deal.”

Sunset Shimmer’s smile grew and she turned around, hooking her arms around Irys’ neck and middle for a goodbye-hug. After a bit of surprise about the gesture, Irys flashed a fanged smile and returned the gesture, a quiet, content clicking noise seeping out of her throat as she enjoyed the moment. A nod from Gigan gave Irys and Sunset to memo it was time to go. Irys tightened her grip on her first friend for a bit before they let go. Wordlessly the four kaiju started to make their way to the portal. Gigan took point and stepped through first. After a moment passing, he popped back out of the portal with an affirmed look on his face.

“Alright, this definitely is the right way back. Everyone pile in.”

He grunted before hopping back through. Irys stole a glance back at Sunset and shot a smile her way before jumping in after Gigan. X, supported by Megalon, approached the portal soon after. Just before he could step through however, someone called his name from behind him.

“X.”

The black and white kaiju looked back to see Aria had managed to break free of Adagio’s grip and approached. She’d stopped about three meters away from the duo. Monster X glanced at the siren for a moment, before taking his arm off from around Megalon’s shoulders. Looking to the cyborg, he tilted and motioned with his head towards the portal. Quick on the uptake, Megalon beamed and saluted in a silly manner before skipping into the doorway back to Zenith. Holding back a wince from supporting himself on his leg, X spread a downwards facing hand to alter his gravity field and support himself somewhat. He turned himself around and walked up to Aria Blaze. An awkward silence passed over the two of them as whatever the siren especially was trying to say just couldn’t get past her lips. Instead she fell back to her classic snideness as she looked down and held onto her necklace, though this time there was a subtle, different emotion behind her typical deadpan. She spoke in half whisper so only the remaining kaiju could hear her.

“You know in hindsight, kinda stupid you put my necklace back on me. You’re the first non-siren to ever have one around your neck, and you gave it back not ten minutes after I put it on you. Now you’ll have to come back here again to reclaim it.”

Monster X return the tone verbatim, shaking his head and looking off in a sideways direction.

“Was nearly drained of power anyways, so it’s useless to me right now. I won’t be back here for it for awhile, so consider this being me granting you time to charge it up and make it worth targeting again.”

Aria Blaze rolled her eyes and crossed her arms defensively. While faint, both from how winded she still was and the subtlety of the action, there was small gravity distortion filtering through the air when she grunted. When X looked close out of the corner of his vision, he could still see tiny little red dots amongst the waves of violet in Aria’s eyes.

“Won’t be easy you know. Gotten better since first time and I think I might still have some of your tricks left in this thing.”

Aria’s pout morphed slightly, the one edge of her lifts smirking. While he’d only let her take off his coverings this night as opposed to all the other times she’d seen in him a mask and scarf, and he wasn’t one to grin, Aria had already decided she liked tiny smile X cracked in response to her statement.

“Good, I never did like targeting what couldn’t fight back. Easy pickings never were something I was fond of doing.”

“Oh it won’t be easy, taking a siren’s heart never is.”

“Then I’ll accept the challenge….”

Monster X straightened up and stoicism returned to his expression. The kaiju turned around and stepped towards the portal. If there was any pain in his step, he didn’t show it too well.

“Keep well. I’ll be back.”

Aria Blaze turned back around with a dry expression, stepping towards her cousins. While firm, there was a tiny spring in her step.

“Keep alive. I’ll be waiting.”

Monster X stepped back through the portal to Zenith. Upon re-emerging in the cold, dark realm, he was actually glad the air here was so unnaturally frigid. He wasn’t able to hold back the pain from his multiple injuries much longer and the chill helped numb it. Stumbling a bit on his first step through, he quickly found himself held upright by the blunts of drill and scythes. White wings flapped and bat-like feet gently gripped his shoulder pauldrons to help keep him steady. Aided by his friends, X was helped along for the long haul back to their chamber. Life was mysterious, but well. His team was safe, together, and larger than it had ever been before. The dark half of him that had been plaguing him with nightmares was locked back in its cage, at least for now. As the healing energies that seeped into him and helped start mending his wounds once they arrived in their chamber proved, for the first time he had a master to give his loyalty to, that as far as he knew, who’d reward such loyalty.

Monster X went to sleep soon after, back to back with Gigan with Megalon burrowed below and Irys clinging to the ceiling above. He had a dream during his rest instead of another nightmare, having not had one in so long he almost forgot what they were. Still, he liked it. After all, as another first in memory for his life, he had something to look forward too.

Concurrently to this, Aria Blaze walked back to her cousins. Just when it looked like Adagio, who was still emitting some of the aftershocks of her frantic stress, was about to say something; Aria lurched forward and yanked her family into a tight bear hug. They stayed like that for some time, before Sunset Shimmer placed her hand on Aria and Adagio’s shoulders to get their attention. Silently motioning to her car, the sirens followed suit and piled into the back seat as Sunset revved up the engine and headed back for town. While Sunset was unaware of just what the trio were, as they never directly stated anything suspicious in front of her, her mind wouldn’t fully accept the idea they were just three normal women caught up the same alien crossfire she had. While the threat seemed to have passed, Celestia’s former student was now all too aware of the strange happenings in her adoptive world. She’d make a mental note to increase her vigil for the fantastical in the future, probably starting with the three sitting in her back seats.

The sirens said little on the trip back. Aria’s strain and tiredness caught up with her after the adrenaline ran out, so she slept through most of the ride back leaning on Adagio. The oldest of the sirens was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief as she held her cousin and kissed the top of her head while Sonata slipped her coat off and put it over Aria as a makeshift blanket. Sometimes it takes the traumatic to make realizations about oneself and what's important to you. In the fallout of kaiju incursion, Adagio would relax grip she’d put on their little choir. She and Sonata would tell Aria of the power source they’d discovered at Canterlot High, and Aria would tell them about the new song she’d rediscovered.

The Dazzlings were back together, and would soon be stronger than they ever had been before in this world of man.

Author's Note

And that ladies and gentlemen is how you kill an Aspect.
-Mass internal damage
-Prolonged beating by one of the strongest kaiju in existence w/ a big power boost
-Weakening their cohesion by waiting for days
-Knowledge of weakness
-Finding the core
-Hitting them directly in the core during said weakness with an attack strong enough to 1-shot some other kaiju
-Overpower their healing ability
-Then with great strength, damage and destroy the core

And before anyone asks about Aria and X; yes, yes they did. And yes, I'm using the L word here to describe the feeling.

Proofing by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Sound of Thunder's hits its finale! Then, back in the Equestria we all know, everyone's favorite baby dragon is having a bit of a question of existence and has some time out with the oldest Guardian Beast.

March 32nd Special Part 1: You Broke the What?!

DISCLAIMER:
The following is a non-canon joke chapter. Don't think about it or anything in it too hard.

Megalon sat on his haunches, tapping the tips of his drills together as the Nebulan ship surrounding his containment pod shot across the galaxy. Sighing to himself in boredom, the cyborg touched his drills to the floor and sensed the vibrations going through the ground. Able to detect everything moving on the ship, he could literally see the comparatively tiny and insectoid personnel, the Nebulans, moving about the hanger and halls. Across the hanger, he could faintly pick up a detection of Gigan’s pod. Still as a statue, his brother was likely sleeping. Megalon shrugged and regarded his surroundings, those being a blank metal coffin that would give a claustrophobic a nightmare. Having nothing to do in his pod and knowing he couldn’t play with his brother, Megalon could only look forward to the next deployment; something he knew was coming based off how fast the ship was moving. He didn’t always like his deployments; Gigan was usually a constant professional in them and wouldn’t let him fool around too much. Still, they might see X again on the assignment. Sometimes he could get X to laugh and he liked that. Still, the hope of stretching his legs didn’t quell the sadness taking hold of him due to the dullness of his situation.

Megalon clicked his mandibles and leaned against the back wall.

-Wish I had someone to play with…-

Glancing over to what few others could see, Megalon looked at the fourth barrier.

-Hm.. Wonder what’s up past there?-

=============================================================

Meanwhile in Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie Pie was cursed with the worst fate imaginable. A slow day and not being able to move. Resting her jaw on the counter as she half-heartedly hummed to herself, a very unwelcome experience had over taken her and caused her mane to deflate halfway. Boredom. There were no customers coming in, Mr. and Mrs. Cake were out on errands that would last 'till the end of the day; and they’d taken the babies with them. But with no one else to pony the store, she couldn’t leave and go about the town today. And she’d already gone through all the leftover bags of flour and sugar cooking up more sweets to kill time. She was completely out of recipes to do! The typically spastic pony even made licorice. Li-cor-ice!

Reaching up and taking off her chef’s hat, Pinkie Pie let out a long groan and rolled herself upside down over the counter. She looked up at the ceiling with a small frown.

-Wish there was somepony around…-

Having nothing else to do, she shifted her attention to what lay beyond. Raising an eyebrow at what she saw, she raised a hoof up to it.

-Hm… Wonder what’s up past there?-

=============================================================

Back in the human realm of Equestria, Sonata Dusk leaned back into her car seat as the highway sped by them. Driving them back into town after an excursion, Aria was at the wheel and was already passive-aggressively arguing with Adagio after one snide remark from the eldest siren caught her attenton. Frowning and shrinking back into her seat as her cousin and big sister argued for the fifth time this week, Sonata pulled out her cellphone and headphones. Flicking on the screen, she put on some music to drown out her fellow sirens. Leaning on the nearest window, the youngest of the sirens cracked a neutral expression. Despite listening to her favorite song, the boredom and the fact Adagio and Aria were riling each other up again were being a real downer.

-Wish everypony loosened up some, this choir is getting droning...-

With literally nothing on her mind, Sonata regarded the fourth barrier. Usually blank, this time she could swear she saw something on it. Or rather, something through it. She reached out with a raised eyebrow.

-Hm… Wonder what’s up past there?-

At that moment, Nebulan drills, a hoof, and a hand all touched the wall at the exact same time and broke it like none of them ever had before.

=============================================================

All three looked about their surroundings as they walked about, the bright pink pony, bright blue human, and the 3 meter tall cyborg beetle miraculously not noticing each other.

“Hellooooo?”

They spoke at the same time, finally hearing the other presences. Sonata, Pinkie, and Megalon froze up and turned around at the same time and spotted one another. Staying perfectly still otherwise, they slowly turned themselves around and stood in a perfect triangle. Keeping like that for a full thirty seconds, the stillness was broken by Megalon, Pinkie Pie, and Sonata Dusk all raising their right forelimb. Each of the three started waving their limb, and upon seeing the other two do the same; each of the three were convinced that it was some sort of weird mirror.

“Huh, weird.”

The unintentional mimicry was broken when a curious Megalon did what pony and human couldn’t, revving up his drill and causing his forelimb to spin around at its base. Pinkie Pie and Sonata Dusk both stood up straight in such a jolting motion one could swear there was an exclamation point above their heads. Their surprise tipped off Megalon to the fact he wasn’t looking at a mirror and he joined in on the shocked reaction. The trio of wall breakers screamed and yelped in fright, at first pointing and screaming at one of the three before pointing and screaming at the other. Megalon jumped up, configured himself to his burrowing position and tunneled under the white void. Pinkie Pie and Sonata Dusk levitated several feet off the ground while running mid-air to gain traction like some sort of Hanna-Barbera cartoon, before bolting off in opposite directions. After a stint of running away in a panic, both Equestrians noticed they weren’t being chased.

Stopping and skidding across the ground, Sonata and Pinkie halted their run and looked behind themselves and at each other. Megalon poked his head out of his new hidey-hole and looked back and forth between the two. After some shared glances in silence, the Equestrians walked back to where they were. Megalon, staying in his burrow, ducked back into his cover. Pinkie Pie paused a meter away from Sonata, looking up at her with curious eyes and sniffing at the human.

“You’re not gonna attack me, are you?”

Sonata shook her head and peeped.

“Uh uh.”

Sonata reached out with her hand, eliciting Pinkie to lean out and rub her head against it. Smiling, the former siren scratched the pony behind the ears. Now standing together, they turned their attention to the third party member. Leaning over the edge of Megalon’s burrow, the two could see a pair of yellow eyes looking back up at them as Megalon chirped like a cricket. Sonata puzzled for a moment before crouching down and addressing the shadow veiled cyborg. It did look dangerous when they first noticed it, but judging from its reaction it was just as spooked by them as they were it.

“And you? You gonna hurt us?”

Megalon tapped his mandibles with his drill for a moment to think things through. After a short while he shifted and climbed up the edges of his burrow enough to poke his head into the light. He had been startled earlier, after all he hadn’t exactly ever seen a human or equine this color or around his size before, and on top of that they looked like something from one of the cartoons he data-mined off Terra’s internet. He couldn’t tell if he’d shrunk down to only a few meters tall or if they were of similar gargantuan proportion. Then again the barrier rarely did make sense so he’d given up trying to understand it fully awhile ago. Looking between the two, he replied shortly.

“Hmm…. Uh uh!”

Sonata and Pinkie backed up as Megalon fully climbed his way out of the burrow and dusted himself off. The trio stared at each other for a time, occasionally looking around to the white void surrounding them. Megalon clicked his mandibles while thinking things through. Years ago he’d hacked into Terra’s internet like his big brother had. Gigan said it was to learn and form strategies, though there was one big difference between the two. When Megalon encountered the safesearch option, he didn’t follow Gigan’s logic of turning it off for quicker results and thought it was a neat thing to have on. And he was starting to recognize some features on the pair in front of him from the old results.

-Bright palettes, colorized outlines, cute proportions… They're certainly from a cheery series…!! Maaaaybbeeee...-

Megalon cracked his equivalent to a grin, raised up, and swung one of his drills towards Sonata. He aimed it at her face, stopping short just before impact and causing the young woman to yelp and jump back. Undaunted, Megalon leaned over on his toes and gently booped the tip of the startled siren’s nose.

“Tag! You’re it!”

The Nebulan cyborg chirped before running off. Sonata Dusk blinked for a few moments before touching her nose. A short contemplation later, Megalon’s grin spread to her face and she twisted her head over to a curious Pinkie Pie. Gently bapping the earth pony mare on the shoulders, Sonata Dusk yelped-

“You’re it!”

-before bolting off after Megalon, happy her wish had come true. Pinkie Pie blinked for a few moments, her entire body starting to vibrate and shake as a massive, cheshire grin crossed her muzzle. She squealed and hopped up into the air, going through a running motion mid-air as if to gain traction, before hitting the ground sprinting.

A good half-hour of play, ranging from tag, to blind hide-and-go-seek, to keep away with an inert grenade Megalon spat up later and a fourth entity puffed into existence amongst the trio. Discord, reclining on a couch that hovered in the air thanks to the orange juice filled fishbowls on its legs, caught the grenade.

“Aha! I thought something was up.”

After a quick application of some powdered milk, the chaos being plopped the dud explosive in his mouth and didn’t react to the smoke coming out his ears afterwards. Dabbing his mouth with a feather boa he pulled out from the couch seat, Discord looked down and regarded the trio below him.

“Looks like you three really screwed the pooch on this one.”

Pinkie Pie, the only one to know the chimera from experience, was the first to speak and bounced up to the couch.

“We did what now to the puppy?”

She quipped at the peak of her bounce before falling down. Megalon caught the pony with his upper arms as to avoid her falling on his drills, still looking perplexed up at Discord. He hadn’t seen season 2 in a long time.

“And who are you?”

Discord puffed out of existence on his couch and materialized in front of Megalon. Now clad in a Star Trek fleet uniform, he shook the cyborg’s drill.

“Discord Q. Draconequus, spirit of chaos, rule breaker, and resident moderator of this portion of the quartential barrier a.k.a the fourth wall a.k.a comedy. You three observers all broke it at the exact same time in the same way, the girls yanking you through the wall to break it and you pulling them through the resulting hole in with you. Thus, now we’re in a space-time-dimension wedgie called a paradox…. So, why’d you three do it? Not that I mind breaking cosmic rules mind you, but am I to presume there was a dire event at hand to necessitate this?”

Looking between themselves for a moment, the trio responded in a short, deadpan tone.

“We were bored.”

Discord’s eyes widened with shock and dread.

“... Well that is a travesty! Even I got a few apps to kill time during my rocky rest!”

“Nothing going on and no one to play around with or talk to!”

Discord’s jaw dropped to the floor and he had to wind it back into place by rotating his tail around behind him. Truly, he had just heard the worst fate he could possibly imagine. Reclining back to the previous topic, Discord snapped his fingers and phased a cartoonish alarm clock into existence in his hand. He put on a pair of spectacles and read the time.

“Hmmm, well these paradoxes aren't too big of an issue. We get these sort of things at random all the time. The wall will clear itself and we’ll get a time reset in about, ooooh; 87 minutes 51.99008 seconds.”

“Why that time?”

“What? Did you expect a flat number from me?”

“Point made.”

“Reset huh? So what happens exactly.”

“You all will be returned to the exact moment you ruptured the wall with no memory of what happened since.”

“S-So I’ll just go right back to being stuck in my container and forget everything!?”

Megalon muttered with a pout, hugging Pinkie Pie closer to him as he held his head a bit lower than before. The sour mood infecting her, Sonata Dusk stepped closer to the duo and patted Megalon on the shoulders while petting Pinkie Pie, whom responded by holding the human’s hand in her hooves and rubbing her head up against Megalon’s bicep. Discord raised an eyebrow at the sudden tone shift.

“Why the long mandibles?”

Megalon clicked the referred body part, speaking in a hushed tone as he tightened his hold on the Equestrians.

“I only got two friends back home and I don’t ever really get to play with them. I dun’ wanna lose two news ones so soon!”

Sonata Dusk shrugged, starting to cartoonishly tear up.

“Same song, different choir. Everypony’s too serious back where I am. I haven’t been able to be with anyone lively in a while.”

Pinkie Pie popped up her up, stretching her neck far too long than one would think possible as she fought back tears. Despite being the physically smallest of the group, she somehow managed to reach out and pull the other two into a hug.

“And I don’t want my new friends to be unhappy! Even if they don’t remember, they’ll still be sad like they were before and I wouldn’t be around to throw them a party! They aren’t meanies, they deserve to be happy!”

Spoken from the mouth of the Element of Laughter herself. Discord took his head off like some sort of MacBeth parody and scratched his chin.

“Hmmmmm…. Reset is inevitable, but we could arrange soooomething.”

On cue, Megalon, Sonata, and Pinkie all shot up to him and shouted in unison so loudly it startled Discord enough to drop his head into Megalon’s burrow.

“WHAT!?”

“Doof! Oh I hate it when this happens.”

Discord’s voice echoed out of the burrow. His still standing body pulled out a plunger and stuck it into the hole as he continued talking.

“We can armmgm mh mrossmvmr.”

“Eh?”

Discord fished the thankfully unused plunger out, now with his head attached to the other end by his face. Popping it off, he screwed his head back on, albeit backwards. Unfazed by having it attached the way it was, he continued.

“I said, we can arrange a crossover. Equestria gets a bit dull sometimes,-”

He pointed forward in a way that had he not had his back to them, he’d be pointing at Megalon.

“-maybe we could bring in a bunch over from your realm for some fun. Yes the reset will still kick into gear, but if you lot set it up for a convergence, you three will cross paths eventually.”

Sonata, Pinkie, and Megalon exchanged a look before cracking a grin and raising a hoof, hand, and drill up in excitement.

“Let’s do it!...”

“.... How do we do it?”

Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his fingers. Instantly what looked like a giant elevator box folded up around them. With a ding, it took off in an unseen direction and after a few minutes of travel time, dinged again at their stop. Once the doors opened, the surroundings outside had changed. Discord held his paw out to the rows of doors and walkways set up like a hotel, or at least he would have if he were facing the right way. Instead he swung his lion paw out backwards and whapped Megalon on the horn.

“Welcome, to the Hall of Media!”

“Shiiiiiny.”

“Isn’t this a bit off the wall even for our norms?”

“Non-canon and happy March 32nd… Aaanyways, step lively now.”

Discord walked forwards, or rather backwards, and lead the trio out the elevator. Sonata looked around at their new surroundings. Like a hotel, the largely white walls were lined with doors that bore simple symbols upon them. To the side of each door were panels that contained what looked like colorized keyholes, and below each door frame was a line that bent and weaved into the central walkway like lines in a computer circuit. The hall the doors went down seemed to be endless.

“So, how are we supposed to make a crossover here?”

“Simple really, you cross the doors.”

Discord stated while walking up to a door that bore an alien insignia with a beam sword poised in front of it.

“Each door represents a different series or closely related group of series, including crossovers. We got books, television, film, games, comics, you name it. Each door has a series of slots beside it that show the basic elements, the core principles and concepts of the series and how it had affected both other media and its viewership. What you three will need to do is find both the doors to Equestria and the kaiju realms and find a common element between them. Then all you need to do is pop the elements out, swap them, and the doors will link together in a time-space-dimensions blur and spur a crossover.”

“And it works?”

“An imp dressed like a bat and that Wilson guy pulled one just a while ago to get the Avengers and Justice League to obligatorily butt heads. Trust me, this is how all crossovers happen.”

Megalon looked down the lines of doors, seeing no end to them in sight; and in this weird realm he could seemingly see for dozens of kilometers at a time! And the situation wasn’t being helped by the fact that while he could recognize some of the door symbols, he suspected they were standing in front of Star Wars, he saw nothing within eyesight that matched Godzilla or My Little Pony.

“But how are we supposed to get the right doors in time? There’s gotta be millions of them in here! Is there a map or something we can use?”

Discord snickered, patting Megalon on the head.

“You lot just need to not think about the series themselves, but who made ‘em and why. You can’t sequester anything. Ohp!”

He stopped as his horns began buzzing like an alarm clock.

“Happening again, best of luck you three. Ta-Ta now!”

“Wait you’re not helping us?”

“No.”

“I’ll tell Fluttershy on you!”

Pinkie Pie belted while bouncing up to Discord's eye level and pointing her hoof at his face. Discord just shrugged.

“Sorry, my pool's on fire and the cat got the launch codes again. I’m off!”

And with that he snapped his fingers and puffed himself out of existence like he had before. The intrepid trio shared a long, deadpan groan as they hung their heads and looked at the daunting number of doors ahead.

“Ooooh boy, where do we start? We can’t check each and every door individually till we find the right one!”

“Well, he said we need to think of the creators and the influences.”

“Yeah, he said you can't sequester anything.”

“What did he mean by that?”

Pinkie Pie rubbed her hoof along her muzzle for a moment of contemplation. Her mane was starting to flatten from the sour mood, but suddenly a lightbulb went off in her head as she remembered all of what Discord had said and it caused her mane to poof back out.

“I got it! Nothing is new!”

“Eh?” “Huh?”

Pinkie Pie bounced up on her hooves as she spoke, motioning to the doors with her left forehoof at the peak of each bounce.

“Every series or creation was influenced by what came before it and was coming out at the same time as it. One series inspires another, one creator sees something and makes something in reaction; media is everywhere and influential to everything that comes after it. Everything is connected!”

“Huh… I think I’m following yah!”

Megalon muttered and pointed to a door.

“If these doors all lead back here, then they might also be connected to each other. We just gotta find which doors link to our series through those connections. As we narrow down the connections and jump world to world, we’ll eventually find the right series!”

Sonata Dusk nodded a few times before shrugging her shoulders. In this whacko world with this trio, that sort of crazy logic from a chaos monster just might be the one thing that worked! She grabbed hold of Pinkie Pie and Megalon, making for a door with an M/DC symbol on it.

“Well we better give it a go! We’re on a time limit!”

They pounced forward and hopped through the doorway.

“Tally ho everypony!”

==================================================

The world around them swirled, twisted, and pulsed for a few moments before they found themselves standing in a city street. They paused for a moment to look each other over. It seemed the form shifting traits indicative of Sonata’s exile realm played true here as all three had been turned into humans this time around. They seemed to be in a fortunately empty alleyway inside a metropolis, with scores of people walking past them. The three poked their heads out of the alley and had a look around. It was definitely a big city, with skyscrapers visible in every direction. Megalon spotted the Empire State Building, recognizable from his data banks, poking out from the skyline. However this clearly didn’t seem to be a very, for lack of better terms, normal world. Aside from the distinct, large tower with a distinct “A” emblemed on the side, there was the newspaper headline on the stand that made it abundantly clear they weren’t on a slow newsday; “New World Beyond! Avengers vs. JLA!”. It also didn’t help the wall breakers were all clad in very colorful costumes one wouldn’t expect for street wear.

“Welp, there goes our first try success.”

“I think we jumped into that Marvel-DC crossover Discord mentioned.”

“Just my luck, I jump us into a double trouble.”

Sonata grunted, then had to fight the cape she had attached to her back flying up into her face from a stray breeze.

“Pffbt! And great, I get the guy who thinks a pair of glasses and idiot coworkers is a good disguise.”

Megalon, while trading the cape and S symbol Sonata had for a body suit and spider symbol, was having to worry about the bronze and brown, web patterned jumpsuit giving him a wedgie. He squirmed and pulled at it to try and get comfortable, his voice slightly muffled by the mask.

“Why do they wear these things again?”

Pinkie Pie, clad in a similarly patterned pink and blue body suit that left her hair poking out, with a pair of swords on her back; shrugged.

“Fight crime and foes?”

Megalon held up his hands in befuddlement, “Yes, because nothing screams defense against injury and bullets like spandex.”

Sonata tapped at her chin before picking up and flicking a pebble into her face at a extreme speed, letting it just ping off her eyeball, “Well I’m already bulletproof without this sooo...”

Pinkie Pie and Megalon were about to shout, “I’m not!”, when Megalon noticed something about Pinkie’s mask. Whenever she changed expression, the eyespots on her mask moved with it like they were her actual eyes. Discord baffled him, but this did that and creeped him out.

Megalon shot back, “Gah! Pinkie, your mask!”

“What about it?”, Pinkie Pie tilted her head and squinted an eye, the mask’s eyespots copying her movements somehow. Megalon didn’t know if he should be concerned or curious.

-Good Tanaka is she okay?! What, did Wade Wilson glue his eyelids to his mask? Oooow!-

Before he could verbally express his reaction to a confused Pinkie squinting her mask at him, Sonata interjected.

“Seamstrestry second, portals first. We’re in a Marvel and DC story so that means we’re in American media. That means Hasbro’s closer so I vote we go for that one first.”

Megalon, still not able to look at the cockeyed expression Pinkie’s mask was giving him with a straight face, did his best to jump topics.

“Um, okay we’ll go with that. Now if the worlds are connected, that means we gotta find a way to link the degrees of separation between this and My Little Pony.”

“Okie dokie Asgardian-Loki! So what links this to something tied to Equestria?”

The trio looked down and murmured as they pondered, oblivious to the dumbstruck crowd they were attracting. A distant hum of turbines caught Sonata’s attention and she was hit with a eureka moment.

“I got it! Clench up and hang on!”

It was her only warning to the two before grabbing them around the middle and spring boarding off the ground.

“WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

About twenty seconds later they were well above the Manhattan skyline and rapidly approaching what looked like a flying aircraft carrier. Suspended by several massive turbines on either side of the craft, it had the acronym, “S.H.I.E.L.D.” clearly written on the side.

“The shield helicarrier!”

“How’d you know it'd be here?”

“It’s New York in a comic book. Half of everything in big cities with comics happens in New York. Seriously it’s got like five A-lister super teams in the state alone.”

“And villains still attack this beehive? Why not just go after Jersey City or something?”

“Yeah, villains are kinda stupid like that.”

Pinkie Pie, no longer having her hands in the air and screaming joyfully like she was on a rollercoaster, was quick to spot a familiar glowing doorway on top of the helicarrier deck.

“Portal dead ahead!”

“I see it!”

Sonata landed and the three hit the ground running, completely ignoring the dumbstruck and surprised SHIELD personnel they rushed past as they dove into the doorway.

==================================================

Emerging on the other side in the world connected to the last, the trio still found themselves in human form. However, the surroundings had completely changed. Where they once found skyline and city, it was now what appeared to be a darkened warehouse. The trio were now clad in slightly stylized military uniforms, save Pinkie Pie, who was wearing a black body suit with a visor. The former earth pony looked around, spotting nothing distinct about their surroundings save for a symbol resembling a stylized snake on top of a doorway. That and the tank parked in front of it.

“Mmhmhm mphrw?”

“Eh? Pinkie speak up.”

“Mmhmhm hmhm mphrw?”

Sonata, recognizing the outfit Pinkie Pie had been tossed into, was quick to lurch over and help her cohort roll up her mask a bit to uncover Pinkie’s mouth.

“Oh! She got Snake-Eyes, never talks so I guess he wouldn’t mind a muffling mask. Hang on!”

The mask was rolled up and Pinkie Pie let out an exasperated gasp. Catching her breath, she repeated her first question with clarity.

“Phew! I was asking, where are we now Sonny? Hard to see out of this thing.”

Pinkie Pie muttered while adjusting Snake-Eye's visor to make the outside world more visible.

“G.I. Joe. Looks like I got Ripcord. Back in the 80s, it was planned to tie it into the Marvel Universe’s Nick Fury and SHIELD, but they went an alternate route. So a lot of stuff from the early Joe series was based on SHIELD’s stuff.”

Megalon, clad in Tunnel Rat’s suit, helped the two off the ground they landed on and scratched the back of his head.

“Well least we’re in Hasbro country. Now what?”

Pinkie Pie raised her hand with a chipper smile on her face that showed she knew exactly what to do.

“We just need to get to a franchise the 80s Joes were tied to. And fortunately, since this is 80s Hasbro, there should be one we can use not too far away. Though I think we’ll need a ride.”

“And where do we get one of those?-”

Sonata Dusk was cut off by a legion of masked mooks popping out from behind the boxes and containers surrounding them, all armed and pointing rifles right at the three. The portal, in its infinite wisdom, had dressed them up like Joes and dumped them in the middle of a Cobra base. Pinkie Pie, Sonata Dusk, and Megalon stood back to back in a triangle as they were surrounded on all sides. They could have gone for their weapons to fight back, they could have dove for cover. But instead, Pinkie Pie belted an order at them when she remembered something.

“Put your hands in the air, stand up straight and don’t move!”

She shouted, doing as she asked. Sonata was less willing to jump along with her.

“What!? Are you crazy?!”

“Yes! Now do it!”

Not having any other option, she did as instructed and Megalon followed suit. The three closed their eyes and heard the Cobra mooks all open fire with their laser guns and hit everything… except the three they were aiming at. In fact their aim with their guns was so horrendous they ended up all taking each other out and dropping to the ground twitching and spasming from the shocks before passing out. The jumper trio peeked out one eye each, even Pinkie being dumbstruck at their success.

“Huh, that actually worked!”

“How did you know they’d all miss?”

Pinkie Pie leaned over a downed mook and nudged him with her boot, eliciting a dizzied groan.

“Simple; even with family friendly firearms, against named characters mooks can’t aim at all in these sort of series! They’ll hit everything except what they aim at!”

Megalon snickered after breathing a sigh of relief.

“Plot armor is the best armor.”

Sonata, heart still racing, looked over at the tank and had some ideas crossing her mind.

“Well what works works, now about that ride you said we needed. I hope-”

“Haha! We are almost finished, the commander will be pleased!”

The three whirled around to see Cobra sub-leader, the metallic faced Destro pop his head out of the tank hatch. Oblivious to absolutely everything around him, he started monologuing about something involving another superweapon being made at the base. At least that’s what the trio thought he was saying, they honestly weren’t paying much attention as they looked at each other and then started sneaking up behind him.

“Is he seriously monologuing to himself right now?”

“Iiii think so. Hey Pinkie, he’s a named character. That mean he can aim?”

“Yep, we should probably knock him out and tie him up before he gets to his third paragraph and pulls out his gun.”

“And we steal the tank?”

“We steal the tank.”

Destro got to his second paragraph when he finally took a look around and noticed the room full of KO’d troops along with the three ‘Joes’ rapidly approaching him.

“Oh no…”

“Get ‘im!”

Several minutes later, a pair of headlights shown against the warehouse door before the stolen Cobra tank burst through it Dukes of Hazzard style. And Pinkie Pie was at the wheel, something that concerned Megalon.

“Hey, have you ever driven one of these before Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie, either from having so much fun barreling down the thankfully empty road or still amped from the taser backfire Destro tried on her, replied in a cheery tone.

“Not in my life Meggy, have you?”

Megalon felt a bead of sweat drop down his face and he rolled his eyes.

“Eeeeh nevermind, so where we heading boss-pony?”

Sonata, having finished shoving the unconscious and tied up Destro off the back of the tank, climbed back down the ladder and joined the conversation.

“Yeah you said something about other Hasbro properties but didn’t specify.”

Pinkie Pie, whom by some miracle of god didn’t swerve her driving despite not looking where she was going, waved her hand at the siren in a nonchalant manner.

“Silly Sonny, we’re in an 80s Hasbro cartoon!”

“Which means?”

“As I said earlier, they reference and tie into each other like, all the pancake flippin’ time! And there’s one that should work for us!”

Fishing through her still wild hair that poked out of the Snake-Eyes mask, she pulled out a folded piece of paper and handed it off to Sonata. Sonata unfolded it and held it up to the tank’s internal light, revealing an inexplicably, stupendously detailed, hand drawn road map made from crayon.

“Did you have that on you the whole time or did you make it just now?” Sonata said as she tilted her head.

Pinkie Pie waved her off, taking a hand from the tank's steering wheel, “Whipped it up while Megalon had Destro in a headlock. Just tell me which way to go to get to the star!”

Leaning over to see the map, Megalon cocked an eyebrow at the name under the star label.

The cyborg puzzled, “... Who’s Megan Williams and why are we driving a tank into her house?”

==================================================

A short time later and they were rapidly closing in on their destination at the same time the heroine of the household was. Megan Williams, humble farm girl, multi-time savoir of Dream Valley, the first modern wielder of the Rainbow of Light, and staunch ally of the ponies, was flying back home on Firefly’s back. They had just crossed the Rainbow Bridge and touched down beside the Williams house when a loud rumbling roared down the street. Looking in the indicated direction, Megan and Firefly’s jaws dropped as an oncoming tank tore through the William’s property fence and barreled past them. Soon as the mobile hill of metal touched the tip of the bridge leading to the valley, it disappeared in a flash of light.

The Cobra tank, transformed into a carriage with a cannon strapped to the top, emerged through the doorway into the new world. Rolling to a halt, Pinkie Pie popped her head out of the front window.

“Here we are! My Little Pony, Generation 1!”

She yipped while hopping out the window and onto her hooves. Finally back to a pony, she closely resembled her old self; just in with some changes to her proportions and sporting a less wild mane.

“This is more like it, but different. My body feels… more accurate. Miss the colored outlines though. Weird.”

Sonata Dusk found herself pouting upon her exit of the carriage however, for both she and Megalon were still human. Sonata had changed out her military uniform for what could best be described as a pair of pink overalls with a white undershirt. Megalon meanwhile was stuck in a pair of jeans, a blue T-shirt, and baseball cap. They also looked noticably younger than their previous bodies, more in the 11-13 year old range. Sonata grumbled, undoing her hairties to get her hair out of the pigtails and into her previous form’s signature ponytail. If she was going to still be human, she wasn’t going to be taking her cousin’s look gosh darn it!

“Aaawww! We got hitched with Molly and Danny. Why’d you get a pony and we’re still humans?”

“Hmmm, well G1 had humans but didn’t have any sirens. Unless you’d prefer to get turned into a seapony-” Pinkie Pie beeped as she looked over to the siren.

“NO!”, Sonata belted in what seemed like an honestly upset reaction, throwing her hands out and causing Pinkie to jump back a bit. After a few moments of awkward silence and glancing about at her outburst, Sonata quickly recoiled.

“Um, no. Sorry. I guess it just be useless here, am I right?”

Pinkie Pie pouted a bit, knowing she’d hit a nerve from the way Sonata reaction and then tried to laugh the subject off. She knew a fake laugh when she heard one, but she also didn't want to prod.

“Um, right. And G1 certainly didn’t have….. Megalon, don’t take this the wrong way, but what are you anyways?”

Megalon’s eyes widened and his tone shifted into a robotic playback despite being completely flesh and blood at the moment. Maybe some programming persisted in his conscious or maybe he’d just done this every time the question was asked of him to the point it was Pavlov symdrone.

“Nebulan-Hunter-Line-Prototype-Cybernetic-Beta-Series-2-Arthropod-Based-Lifeform-Megalon-!”

He affirmed, causing a bead of sweat to drop down Pinkie Pie and Sonata’s faces and the girls to rub the back of their heads.

“Um, let’s just say Megalon is a megalon… Back to business.”

Megalon was oblivious to their awkwardness and just carried on with a smile.

“Alrighty! So we’re in the first generation of My Little Pony. To get to the link for you two’s world, we need to jump to the fourth generation, right?”

“Right.”

“Oh oh oh oh oh!”

Megalon and Sonata looked over at Pinkie Pie, who was grinning and bouncing up on her tippy-hooves in an admittedly adorable manner. Sonata put a hand on her knee and snickered, placing her free hand on Pinkie’s head to get the excited pony to stop bounding around.

“You don’t have to raise your hoof Pinkie. What’s up?”

“We just need Spike!”

“Who’s got a spike and why do we need it?”

“No no no, the Spike! He got used in all other generations and he started here. We find him, we find a portal to a later generation!”

Megalon, after a couple tries as he was still a tad unused to having digits, snapped his fingers and pointed his finger. Or least he attempted to, he’d forgotten it was the index finger that did the pointing and he accidentally did something else before the gasping, shocked expression on Sonata’s face told him he’d fudged a detail. Ignoring that, he just closed his hand and continued on.

“I remember now! He was a core cast member so he should be in Dream Valley right?”

“Okay so we just follow the road and we should get ther-”

Sonata was cut off by a wide eyed Pinkie Pie jumping up in front of her, waving her hooves in obvious distress.

“GUYS WE NEED TO RUN!”

Megalon tilted his head.

“What’s the rush?”

“We landed in the G1 movie!”

Sonata tempted fate and shook her head while waving her hand in an off gesture.

“It’s an 80s children’s cartoon with colorful ponies in a place called Dream Valley, what could be a problem here?”

Pinkie shrieked, grabbing both humans by the side and whirling them around to look behind them. On cue, a living tidal wave of purple and black mass poured out from over the distant hills. Populated by moaning, goopy mouths and disassembled eyeballs among the dark muck; the force spread out and consumed everything it touched like a plague.

“IT’S THE SMOOOZE!”

Five minutes later and the trio were still running for their lives. Having been forced to ditch the carriage and unable to both ride atop their equine party member, Sonata and Megalon had hoisted Pinkie Pie over their heads and were sprinting down the golden road in a way that would make Usain Bolt proud. Sonata clearly was not happy about the situation.

“HOW IS THIS THING IN A KIDS’ MOVIE?! A LITTLE KIDS’ MOVIE!”

Pinkie Pie, held up by her shoulders and hips by her friends, could only point and shriek at the living mass barreling down the road behind them and trying to swallow the three up.

“BECAUSE HASBRO HIRED A SADIST! JUST KEEP RUNNING!”

Beyond them, in the exact direction they were heading to, the Dream Valley inhabitants were abandoning the castle and settlement around it the moment they saw the Smooze coming down from the hills. Spike, who had been practicing his piano with Lickety Split, grabbed the dancer filly by the hoof and bolted off the stage together. Unbeknownst to him however, there was a telltale glow coming out from around the seams of his piano’s roof that the oncoming trio spotted and tipped them off.

“Portal up ahead!”

“Inside the piano!”

"Get in quick!"

They didn’t break for a breath for even a second after the moment they got to the piano with the Smooze hot on their heels. Sonata lifted the roof open, revealing it to truly be the portal’s doorway. Grunting from the effort, she tossed Pinkie Pie through the portal before climbing up on the piano keys and hopping in herself. Megalon clawed up the piano after her and swung himself inside of it, keeping mind only to reach back out and slam the cover shut just before the Lovecraftian-Horror-For-Kids swallowed up the stage.

==================================================

The world around them changed, but in some ways stayed the same. Namely they were still stuck inside of a now grand-piano as opposed to the little homemade, ramshackle-y instrument the original Spike owned. With fatigued groans, the three shifted across the wires and keys to lift the piano lid open and spill out of it and onto the floor. There were no humans in sight this time. Pinkie Pie was still an earth pony, though now Sonata had gotten her turn with the hooves and had been transformed into a blue and navy unicorn. In a twist of irony, Megalon was currently the tiny one. Barely a twentith the size of the girls, he got shifted into a butterfly winged breezie. Still, thankfully they were out of the Smooze mess aside form some gunk stuck to Pinkie Pie’s tail that she was quick to kick off and confirm it to be inert.

The surroundings beyond were a bit more urbanized than before, with a good many more larger houses or businesses. Instead of the very pink, but still somewhat realistic Dream Castle; they were now at the footsteps of a very, very saccharine, smaller citidel that bordered a town. A town that just looking at it too much was risking giving someone a cavity. There were more ponies visible in the distance, going about their business or out playing across the town. Oddly enough though there wasn’t a single stallion in sight.

Oh and a mirror image of Pinkie Pie had noticed the trio and was trotting up to them after running in place for a moment like she was revving up. The duplicate wasn’t a perfect replica of Pinke, being a hotter shade of pink for her body coat and having a tamer, light pink mane. Still, the blue eyes and balloon cutiemarks were virtually identical. ‘Pinkie’ looked the three over with a tilted head, noticing the smooze gunk on the ground and then turning her attention to the piano as if she already knew something was up. Megalon and Sonata shared a glance before looking forward to address the newcomer, but before they could speak Pinkie Pie and ‘Pinkie Pie’ had already locked eyes. Pinkie picked herself up and mutually narrowed her eyes at her copy. Both mares stood up and reached behind themselves like they were about to have a high-noon showdown-

-before promptly whipping out two sets of confetti poppers and balloons for each other. The Pinkies of the third and fourth generation shared a grin, throwing their hooves up in the air and glomping each other. Soon they were holding hooves and spin-dancing around on their hind hooves. Sonata breathed a sigh of relief even as some popped confetti fell on her muzzle.

“Pheeew…”

The third generation 'Pinkie' bumped flanks with her counterpart and snickered. Her voice had some of the same hyper active energy as the Pinkie Sonata and Megalon had been trekking with, but slightly more reigned in and placid.

“Looks like someones’ not just been breaking the fourthie, but jumping it too! Discord send you here?”

The trio’s eyes widened and they realized ‘Pinkie’ the elder was referring to the Smooze residue as said pony walked over and closed Spike’s piano like she knew exactly what was what. It appeared they could add their ‘Breaker’ count to five.

“W-Wait, are you a-”

Megalon stammered, being hushed both at the surprise of just how squeaky his voice was and from ‘Pinkie Pie’ gently hushing him with her hoof.

“No need, I got a squink telling me you were coming, so I already guess why you’re here.”

She smiled before turning and trotting towards her house, turning her head and calling out behind herself.

“Balloons all fired up! Follow me everybody!”

Pinkie Pie the younger bounced after the mare with a chipper grin.

“Everypony!”

‘Pinkie Pie’ gasped a bit and closed her eyes with a snicker.

“Awww, that’s such a cute way to say it!”

Relieved that there was no mayhem going on, Sonata and Megalon were quick to follow the pair. Several minutes later, they were sailing across town and the surrounding countryside in ‘Pinkie Pie’s’ hot air ballon. The intrepid trio all looked down at the passing sights as ‘Pinkie Pie’ called them out. They weren’t alone in the air for long. The many chipper townsponies saw them passing overhead and soon took to the air in their own balloons. While all were hot air balloons, one pony passing them by was being held up by three party balloons tied to her tail.

“How does that even work?”

Sonata quipped as Minty flew past them while waving, not showing the least bit of distress at her situation.

“Hey, I’m somehow smaller than everyone, just saw a functioning hot air balloon get pulled out from behind a building half its size, and we’re in the presence of two Pinkie Pies; and you choose to question the gravity?”

“Touche.”

“Oh oh! Who’s that one?!”

Pinkie Pie, in her own little conversation, chirped while pointing at a pony sitting at an artist’s stand. True, she already knew most every pony by sight alone, but she was Pinkie Pie being taken on tour by ‘Pinkie Pie’. Factual knowledge be thrown out the balloon, she was going to have a fun tour!

“Oh that Toola-Roola! Looks like she’s painting away at some flowers and bunny rabbits! Oh! And there’s Rainbow Dash's House of Adventure and Style! And there’s the Christmas Peppermint mixing patch! And there’s the Posey Parlor! And over there’s the flowery Breezie glade! And-”

Sonata Dusk looked down at the sights below while rubbing her head. True, much of it reminded her of Equestria. But everything seemed so cheery and cutesy that it seemed, off.

“Yeesh, living in this place you could get diabetes from all the sugar in the air…”

She mumbled to herself while resting her chin on the edge of the balloon, unaware Megalon had heard her. The former kaiju pawed at his friend’s ear to get her attention, intentionally lowering his voice not out of any negative emotion, but to keep himself from sounding like a puppy’s toy.

“Oh it’s soft and sugary and different alright, but look over there.”

He whispered while gesturing to the balloon’s other passengers. Pinkie Pie and ‘Pinkie Pie’ had paused their tour as they drifted along and were hitting each other with rapid fire gag humor and returning it with laughs and giggles. A lot of the gags were different, but that didn’t stop one from making the other laugh. And, every so often they pulled the same one on each other. Random musical instruments, Groucho Marx masks, and rubber fowl galore. All while having such a good time the two were starting to laugh themselves to tears.

“When you really look at two things that might be very different, maybe sometimes you see more similarities than you’d think? Just look at our little trip. You’re an ancient mythological hybrid, I’m a giant cyborg bug, and Pinkie Pie is a pinkie pie. Yet we got some things alike and that must be good. This place is different from the Equestria you and Pinkie are from, but for it to be this big it had to have done something right and done some good in its own way.”

Megalon let a smile draw across his tiny cheeks, seeing the two Pinkies laughing and high-hoofing each other.

“After all, this is the third generation of My Little Pony. Just like with the first generation, there wouldn’t be a fourth one without this one!”

Megalon’s smile spread to Sonata as she looked down at the original Ponyville again. What he said seemed right. This was different, but, good in its own way. Certainly was nice to have a portal search that involved a peaceful balloon ride and not them having guns pointed at them, or being forced to outrun eldtrich abominations, or having to flag down Helicarriers.

And it was about to send them exactly where they needed to go. Coming into view up ahead through the trees was a sparkling castle atop a mountain. ‘Pinkie Pie’ operated the balloon’s controls to set them down on the peak of the twisting road winding down from the mountain top to the town below. The castle itself was fairly large. With a medieval-like structure, it was primarly pink in color with an aqua hued roofing and trim. Many parts of the castle had a crystalline sheen to them, that beautifully reflected the arching rainbow going over the top of the mountain. ‘Pinkie Pie’ hopped out of the balloon, with Pinkie Pie, Sonata, and Megalon soon following her.

“Oooooh! Reminds me of the Crystal Empire!”

Pinkie Pie gasped with a beam, seeing her reflection in the castle’s crystal-like heart emblem clad across many parts of the structure.

“Welcome to the Crystal Rainbow Castle of Unicornia! Princess Rarity lives here.”

“Rarity? Princess?! Pfft… Pftt……. Pfff-PWAHAHAHA! OAHOHOHOHO! AHAAHA!”

Pinkie Pie let her breath out with enthusiastic laughing, falling over and rolling on her back at the thought of her fashionista friend becoming royalty. Megalon quickly noticed a glimmering coming from the castle wall just below a heart emblem, his eyes soon training upon a doorway portal. ‘Pinkie Pie’ saw it too.

“That should be the right one for you three!”

“PWAHAHAAHAHA AH HAAAAAAAAA!”

Sonata neighed a bit with glee before heading for the portal.

“Alright! Let’s go everypony! Thanks Pinkie!”

Megalon soon followed suit.

“Thanks Pinkie!”

Pinkie Pie rolled back to her hooves and bounced after her friends, turning and waving at ‘Pinkie Pie’ despite still cracking up like a lunatic at the mental image of Rarity in a gaudy frill.

“PWAHAHAHAHA!”

‘Pinkie Pie’ giggled and waved goodbye to them.

“Best of luck you three!”

The world swirled and shifted again, this time the trio falling out in the courtyard beneath a towering castle of crystal. All around them were glimmering buildings and shining streets, with the snow capped mountains visible in the distance. The trio who spent the voyage since the Hall of Media with at least two of the three looking the same were now all completely different. Sonata was the longest of the group now, flopping around a short time on her siren tail before mentally lifting herself back up to levitating. Megalon was still an insectoid Equestrian, but now took the form of a brown, slightly oversized changeling drone. With his brown and yellow-like wing covers, rhinoceros beetle horn, and metallic tips to his forehooves however; it was abudently clear he was no ordinary changeling. He more or less looked adorable, even more so after looking over his new form and squealing.

Pinkie Pie had changed to her old self, complete with an even poofier mane than usual. And she was still laughing senselessly at the thought of ‘Princess Rarity’ giving her decrees of fabulousness.

“This is the correct place right?”

Sonata, squealing not only finally being in the right world but also at having her old body back, pulled both Pinkie Pie and Megalon into a bear hug. True, it will be a bit of a bummer to lose her flippers again when they leave this place; but without Aria and Adagio here it wasn’t as important to her. Still, she was plenty happy.

“Yeeep! One world found, one more to go!”

Pinkie Pie gasped and finally opened her eyes, drawing out the gasp as she recognized the Crystal Empire around her. And once she had her breath in her, she promptly resumed laughing.

Author's Note

Proofreading by Lance-Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff

World's Jumped!
Marvel/DC -> G.I. Joe -> MLP: Gen 1 -> MLP: Gen 3 -> MLP: Gen 4
Up next, trying to track down Godzilla's world. It's father reaching than you'd think!

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And who sent me all these apples?

March 47th Special Part 2: Insanity is Relative

Within the interdimensional space between worlds and door jumps, the wall breaker trio hurtled along after another run through. They had just gotten done with a rapid fire portal jumping spree after getting turned around once they found the Fourth Generation 'My Little Pony' portal, though hopefully now they were getting back on track. Still, a disgruntled Pinkie Pie whapped the side of her head to clear out some seawater from her ears as she and her compatriots zoomed along the glowing tunnel to the other door like they were falling sideways.

“Phew, that was close! Hopefully this one leads up back to the Japanese stuff and not Italian animation like the last detour.”

“Hey! It was one wrong turn!”

Sonata, flying alongside Pinkie Pie, shouted while crossing her arms defensively despite the atrocity they’d just witnessed.

“Yeah, and it got us stuck with a rapping dog and a giant octopus on the Titanic! That’s like, the worst kind of party time even for me!”

Megalon came up between them and the formally thirty tall, cyborg death-bug was forced to act as mediator between the technicolor magical singer and fluffy tiny pony. Truly this was a normal day.

“Personally I thought of the iceberg as the hero of the animated ones like how the live action one took out DiCaprio. I’ll be sure to make some Korean barbecue and fried calamari if I find the two again with my real body, cookin’ with napalm and all, but we got a door up ahead! Brace yourselves!”

==============================

Sonata landed on her rump, spurring a groan as she sat herself up and looked around. The last portal jump was a bit of a panic one and they must have flown through several doors in the blitz, so she’d lost track of which world exactly they’d hopped into. Upon hearing a jingling on her belt and pulling the offending item up, she quickly realized which one it was when she saw that she was holding a white ball with a red top half. The siren snickered, despite having fallen into a world where parents apparently thought it safe to send ten year olds into the wilds filled with fire breathing lizards, aircraft destroying birds, giant insects, and mice that could electrocute elephants. Then the pokeball started waggling along with another one on her belt, giving a quick answer to the question of where Pinkie Pie and Megalon were.

“Ah, Pokemon, right.”

She clicked the buttons on the pokeballs, the devices popping open and streams of light shooting out of them. The brightness faded, revealing two pokemon. One, a child sized, bipedal, blue rhinoceros beetle; a Heracross. The other was a filly sized young horse with a tan body and fire in place of its mane and tail, a Ponyta. Otherwise known as Megalon and Pinkie Pie.

“Herac cross heracross!”

Megalon grunted unintelligibly, spurring a giggling but similarly incomprehensible response from Pinkie Pie.

“Ta! Ponynynynynyta!”

Sonata just sat there confused as a bead of sweat ran down her face.

“Ummmm uuuuuh…”

Noticing her confusion, the two new pokemon slowed down their “speech” and waved their limbs in an attempt to pantomime what they were trying to say.

“Her hera hera cross! Cross! Herarc-rac cross!”

“Taaaaaaaaa-aaaaaaaa~! Ponynyta!”

The attempt was not working, though it was cute when Megalon tried to pat Pinkie Pie on the shoulder and comedically, though thankfully harmlessly, set his hand on fire and earned a frantic response from Pinkie. Now the blazing horse was chasing the beetle around trying to make up for it with the fire type-vulnerable bug type steering clear of her by climbing up a tree like a cat chased by a dog. Pinkie Pie, putting her forehooves at the base of the tree, kept trying to jump up at him, which only panicked Megalon more.

“Tatatata! Ponyta! Pon!”

“Heeeeeeerac!RacRacRacRacRac!”

“Well, this ain’t gonna work.”

Sonata grumbled, recognizing a spray-on Full Restore on the ground next to her and picking it up. Reaching up, she spritzed it on Megalon’s hand and helped instantly patch up the minor burns. Putting her hand on Pinkie’s muzzle to settle the ponyta down, the siren-turned-trainer helped get the heracross out of the tree and keep things calm.

“Sorry guys, you’re really adorable right now but I think we best find another portal so you two don’t have to try and sign things out for me… Just gotta figure out where, haven’t seen the show in a long time so my memory is fuzzy. Megalon you mentioned you played the games, did you watch the anime any?“

Megalon tapped his chin with his twin digits, trying to think back to his times on Terra when he’d hacked into the human’s systems. He’d mined a lot of the internet back then and took it with him, including a few emulators of the later games. But, for all the shows, comics, or games he swiped, the anime for the Nintendo series wasn’t one of them.

“Hera cross cross.”

He grunted, shaking his entire upper torso due to lack of a movable neck. Sonata did manage to understand that as a “No” and resorted to plan B. They were in the middle of a forest clearing bordering on a pond and based off the articles on the ground, had warped into a camp site.

-Well, best get our bearings. Maybe something here could offer a clue?-

“Megs, Pinks, help me with this stuff. See if you can find anything to help figure out where exactly we are and who I ended up as.”

Megalon saluted with a chirp as Pinkie reared up while whinnying happily.

“Herac!” “Ta!”

The trio hopped to it and rummaged through the camp. It appeared that it all belonged to just one person, whoever Sonata was doppelganged as, but even that left the siren scratching her head as to how in the world a presumably normal human ten to fifteen something year old was supposed to carry around all this gear in a backpack. Pinkie Pie was looking through some stuff on the side of the tent when she noticed a fishing pole halfway in the water. Raising an eyebrow, she took it in her mouth after fumbling it in her hooves and tried to pull it out. However, after a certain point, it snagged. Curious but thinking it was just snagged on a rock or branch, she fiddled with the rod and tried to pull again. Fortunately, she got it free. Unfortunately doing so was met with an uproar of exploding water. An enormous monster burst out the water roaring. The sea serpent was primarily blue with white accents and a yellow underbelly, and was easily over six meters long despite looking far too large to have even fit in the pond.

“NYTAAAAAAAAAA!”
“CROOOOSSS!”
“WHAT THE F*****!?”

The truly enormous gyarados roared at the trio, who all jumped back with eyes stretched to the size of dinner plates. As the beast slithered its way onto land and leered at them, Sonata remembered what series she was in and decided her best option was to get in character. After all, if 10 year olds could handle these things, how hard could it be? She stomped back forward, caught her breath and pointed at the gyarados.

“Um, ah! Pinkie Pie use Flamethrower! Megalon use Cross-Chop!”

Exchanging a shrug, the former pony and kaiju sprung into action. With her mane flaring, Pinkie Pie took in a breath and spat forth a stream of burning lights that engulfed the sea serpent’s face; Megalon meanwhile spreading his wing covers and flying forward with glowing arms that he slammed into the gyarados’ belly multiple times with “x” shaped crossing motions on each impact. They kept attacking for several moments before they ran out of juice. Megalon’s eyes widened when he tried to hit the gyarados again, only for his arms to stop glowing and he lost power with the swing.

-Ooooh no, outta PP!-

It didn’t help that when the blitz cleared, the barely harmed gyarados tail swiped both of the pokemon and sent them flying back past Sonata. With its face only slightly singed and belly scales just dented in a few spots, Sonata was hit with a dour remembrance about one of the core elements in the franchise’s battles.

“....Oh, right. Type effectiveness.”

The gyarados bellowed at them, its face looking like it couldn’t possibly scowl any harder. Sonata picked up Pinkie Pie and Megalon, helping them get to their feet as she spoke under her breath.

“Kay then, option two… RUN FOR IT!”

Several minutes later and the trio were still running down the forest road with the ticked off gyarados slithering right behind them. With no effective moves to use from the fire and bug/fighting type against the water/flying beast, Sonata resorted to other methods to try and slow it down. Slinging the backpack on her back around, she dug through it and tossed anything she could dig out at the gyarados. At first it was what she expected to fit inside a backpack. Candy bars, some trail mix, first aid kit, and a book. But then she couldn’t fight a raised eyebrow at the other stuff somehow inside the bag. A full sleeping bag, one severely burned wreck she thought might have once been a bicycle, several towels, two fishing poles, a bunch of CD looking things, several swimsuits, goggles, and flippers. There also somehow was an entire picture frame inside there, which Sonata stole a glance at it instead of instantly lobbing the frame at the gyarados. It was of four younger and older teenage females in front of what looked a bit like a marine park, the words “The Sensational Cerulean Sisters!” scrawled on the top of the frame. Three of the four were much larger, obviously older, with long pink, blue, and blonde hair. The fourth was a short haired redhead in the exact same tennis shoes, yellow top with red overalls straps, and short shorts that Sonata was currently in; helping to jog her memory.

-I get it! I musta gotten Misty! Wait a minute, that might mean...-

She dug back through the seemingly infinite pouch while saying a prayer to McCarthy. Sure enough, her wishes were answered when she noticed a familiar glow and felt something in her hand. Cracking a smirk and thinking on her feet, the siren spotted a small cave up ahead.

“Inside there! Quickly!”

She shouted, pointing it out with her free hand to get the panicking heracross’ and pontya’s attention. Diverting off the beaten path, they hopped over a fallen tree the gyarados just smashed through and dove into the cave. Ignoring the shower of startled zubat streaming out of the cave, Sonata got a strong grip on what was inside Misty’s bag and pulled as hard as she could. With some grunting and effort, she pulled free an entire doorway just when the gyarados, too big to fit through the entrance, started smashing its armored head into the cave’s opening to try and widen it. With rubble raining down from the ceiling, Sonata ripped the door open, grabbed her companions, tossed them inside before hopping in herself, and closed the door behind them.

==============================

The world stopped spinning and the trio came to in a thankfully gyarados-free chamber. And as the icing on the cake, they were all back to human so Sonata could understand the tired groans everyone was giving as they got to their feet. Judging from the artstyle, they were definitely still in an anime, but which one wasn’t immediately apparent. It seemed of an older style with the aesthetic and attire everyone ended up in. Pinkie Pie looked like she was ready to try and tackle the Gala again in a rosey red ballgown with a golden trim and tiara. Megalon was also saddled with stuff one would expect for a big occasion, a primarily white dress uniform with blue jumpsuit pants. Sonata was also in formal wear, but in an odd mishmash of attire. Sporting a black colored dress suit one would expect for a young man, it clashed with the fact she seemed to have forgotten her pants and instead had a short skirt on top shorts.

Still, thankful he could speak and be understood by more than one of his compatriots, Megalon thought back to their latest jump.

“So, where are we now and how’d you find the door in the bag?”

“Well judging from the quasi-gothic scenery, I’d say Revolutionary Girl Utena. Rachael Lillis did a lot of anime voices so once I figured out I ended up as Misty I figured a portal had to be close by. Didn’t know where we’d end up, but figured most places were better than where we were.”

“Well best work with what we got. How are we gonna get to the kaiju from here?”

Pinkie Pie interjected as Megalon seemed to be pondering through his thoughts. Muttering a quick gasp and a snap of his fingers, he had his eureka moment.

“Actually this jump by Sonata might just be the ticket! We need to find Sailor Moon.”

“....Eh?”

“How would finding that show get us to Godzilla?”

“That show’s by Toei animation. We get to there, we can find the live action branch of Toei, the tokusatsu stuff. Godzilla practically is the kickstarter and codifier for the style so if we can get to there, we’ll find my series."

"And since Sailor Moon is the codifier for the Magical Girl genre, there should be a portal to it here. That’s what you’re thinking right?”

“That’s the plan, since we're already in the genre here it's easier than scrambling around for another jump.”

"So Sonny, since you know this series better; what's the plot with this shin-dig?"

“Crossdressing tomboy named Utena has to fight duels with the school student council and the Black Rose to protect the Rose Bride, Anthy. Has a lot of sword fights.”

Pinkie Pie snapped up at that information, regarding her surroundings. The darkened chamber with the megalithic structure that surrounded them didn’t look like any education center she’d seen. The surroundings to the chamber were largely blacked out by some sort of shady shroud, with the most prominent landmark being the marble stone structure at the end of the hall they stood upon, resembling a stone eagle with its wings spread to either side of the walls.

“Wait, this is at a school?”

“Uh huh. Though this place is separate, it leads to the arena.”

“And the teachers just do nothing about students waving swords at each other or this apparently homicidal student council?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Why do they want this ‘Rose Bride’ anyways?”

“To bring about the titular revolution.”

“Which is?”

“It’s complicated.”

“Is she magic or something and grants them a wish?”

“It’s complicated.”

“And nopony questions any of this plot too much?”

Sonata, who’d had her back to the other two after taking a step forward to get a look around, turned herself to face them. She held up her palms and shrugged her shoulders while a flattened expression crossed her face.

“.....”

Megalon and Pinkie spoke in unified deadpan.

“It’s complicated.”

Sonata nodded while rolling her eyes.

“Anything else we should know?”

Megalon grumbled.

“Yeah, Pinkie’s wearing the Rose Bride’s outfit.”

Finally taking notice of her beautiful gown, Pinkie gripped the fringes of her dress and gave herself a little twirl while standing up on her left leg’s tip-toes.

“Ooooh! Rarity would love this!”

She giggled, earning a half annoyed groan from Sonata.

“She’s a complete and total doormat who gets passed around like a hoofball and does nothing about it for a majority of the show.”

The siren deadpanned. Pinkie halted her spinning sharp enough one could practically hear the record scratch. She snapped around with an exasperated shout.

“Rarity would hate this!”

Megalon popped up between the two, making a time-out gesture with his arms.

“Female archetypes second, portals first. Sonata you know this place more, so what does this place do?”

“Actually I was just getting to that. Follow me!”

She chirped, skipping past Megalon and Pinkie Pie and heading down the walkway towards the giant stone bird with the other two following suit. They soon reached the end of the platform that hung under the bird’s beak. Directly beneath it was a swirl pattern with an outstretched handle in the center, two effigies of roses bordering the pattern on either side. Amongst the swirl was a current of moving water that somehow followed the carving and didn’t spill out. Eying the ring on her finger bearing a matching signet to the rose symbols, Sonata reached up and placed her hand upon the lever. The moving water halted, a single drop splitting from the body and floating outwards to tap Sonata’s ring.

In an instant two things happened. One, torrents of water shot out of spouts bordering the traversed walkway and coated the path behind them in curtains of water. Secondly, dramatic chorus music started blaring into the hallway from seemingly every angle and caused all three explorers to levitate off the ground like startled cats.

“Zettai! Unmei:!! Mokushiroku!”

The trio had to shout to each other while covering their ears to even be audible over the booming, completely random symphony.

“WHERE IS THIS MUSIC COMING FROM?!

“I DON’T KNOW!”

“Zettai! Unmei:!! Mokushiroku!”

“I THOUGHT YOU WATCHED THE SERIES?!”

“I DID! I JUST THOUGHT IT WAS BACKGROUND MUSIC!”

“Shussei touroku! Senrei meibo! Shiiiibou toooouroku!!!”

“MEGALON WHAT ARE THEY EVEN SAYING?!”

“TRUST ME, IT DOESN’T MAKE MUCH MORE SENSE IN JAPANESE!”

Massive gears beneath the floor roared and grinded, the scenery moving with their motions. The gothic stone bird split open and changed, a gateway to beyond opening up beneath a giant stone flower. Hoping to get free of the blasting music, they stampeded through very unceremoniously. Thankfully, the room beyond was much quieter despite the chorus still being present in the background. The chamber they were now in was much brighter, almost like much of the floor a walls was made of polished crystal. The path lead on straight for a about four meters, flanked by beautifully cut marble masonwork and hanging garden plants, leading to a truly enormous spiralling staircase. Having open sides so every step and level was visible, the white stone staircase was easily some five meters in diameter and seemed to go on for dozens of meters up. The trio stopped at the edge of the stairs and looked straight up as the music finally died down. If the world behind them made little sense, what was above was hardly any better. Hanging above the flat plane the stairs lead to looked like what at first Megalon mistook for an enormous chandelier, but upon second glance it was actually a slowly rotating, dark, cathedral styled castle with glowing roofs floating upside down on whatever roof or sky this loony land had. Megalon blinked his eyes a few times, squinting to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him.

“.... Okay what’s that?”

“It’s- uuurhf...”

Sonata shrugged, placing her palm to her face.

“-soooorry, complicated.”

“Oye.”

“Hey who’s that?”

Pinkie Pie muttered, pointing up the distant top level of the platform. Leaning on the edge was a tall man with dark skin, shoulder length, bright, almost white colored purple hair, and wearing an elaborate dress suit. He seemed to be saying something, but the exact details of what exactly as well as his appearance were obscured due to the altitude until the trio got a convenient split screen.

“Welcome, O’ Utena Tenjou. I trust you have been well? And you have brought the Rose Bride as well, -”

Megalon ignored the man currently chewing the scenery and turned to Sonata while pointing his thumb at the newcomer.

“Okay, really. Who the heck is that and why can I tell what he’s saying from all the way down here?”

“Akio Ohtori, sorta the main baddie.”

“What’s he so interested in?”

“Anything that moves really…”

Pinkie Pie wedged herself between her friends and altered the angle of her point from twelve o’clock to three thirty.

“Well to give a different interest, look to his left!”

Off to the oblivious Akio’s left was the familiar visage of a world portal. However, before any word could be said, Megalon noticed something out of the corner of his eye. Looking to his right and angling his head a bit to look behind and around a stone pillar was an exit of sorts from the chamber, with the sign “Student Council Access” inscribed above it. He presumed that might have been how Akio got into the chamber without them noticing, assuming he hadn’t been waiting up on the platform for them, but that’s not what had his attention. The glowing portal beside it was what did. Megalon hooked an arm around the girls and turned them around to see what he saw.

“Heyo, got another one.”

A brief silence passed over the trio as they looked between the two portals. One was right next to the resident villain and up at least twenty stories worth of stairs. The other was about eight meters to their right.

“....”

“....I vote door B, all in favor?”

“Yep.”

Completely ignoring Akio’s monologue, they stepped off the beaten path and through door number two.

==============================

The white flare of going through the dimensional door blinded them momentarily before settling back out. When the world came into view, it was clear they’d left the north Atlantic, and the frenzy of jumps afterwards to get back on track, far behind. The darkened outlines on everyone as well as the semi-realistic, semi-abstract art style still looked Asiatic enough.

“Yep, I think we’re still in an anime.”

“Yeah but this looks way too cartoony to be Sailor Moon. We musta made a wrong turn.

“So which one are we in?”

Sonata stood up on her tiptoes and leered at the urbanized mountain they seemed to be settled upon. At the top of the multitiered mountain was what could best be described as a bizarre fusion of a school and a stylized fortress. She’d recognized it from her times on CrunchyRoll.

“Loooks liiiiiike, Kill la Kill!”

“Huh, I feel short again... Hey, why do my clothes feel funny?

Megalon grunted, shifting the wheat steam clenched in his jaws. Clothing in general felt strange, especially the ‘Spider-Wedgie’, but something in this world felt… off. Sonata, the member of the trio most used to attire also picked up on it with her own observation.

“Why do I feel like I’m not wearing any? And where’s Pinkie?”

Noticing a wall mirror, a thankful trait in a lot of Japanese productions being plot convenience playhouse rules, the pair turned to face it. The moment they did the two had completely contrasting reactions. Megalon was, for lack of better terms, “chibi’d”, being a lot younger and shorter than his typical forms came out to be. His outfit was three parts awesome, silly, and cutesy, looking like a school girl’s uniform under a sailor’s cap, wind blown longcoat that was somehow staying on despite his arms not being in the sleeves, and a pair of energized, spiked fists emerging from the coat’s cuffs that were mimicking his actual arm’s movements.

“Awww I look adorable! Oh check me out Sonny, four hands!”

Megalon chirped, waving his arms and watching the uniform’s ‘power fists’ copy him. He was completely oblivious to how beat red in the face the siren was, the only muscle movement on her body being her slack jaw and eyes twitching. She looked like she was stuck in skimpy armor that looked like it was supposed to go over a body glove, but someone forgot the glove and was away from their girlfriend for far too long when at the design office. Aside from the large fins sticking up on either side of her collar, which stuck out beside her head, there was barely a single piece of Sonata’s pink ‘uniform’ that wouldn’t make a stripper blush. While nothing private was showing, she was quick to jump up on one leg and use all of her remaining limbs in a desperate bid to cover herself.

“GAK! ARRG!”

“What’s wrong Sonny?”

“I wanted to be the one to get Mako, not Ryuko!!!! How the **** is this supposed to be a combat suit!? It’s even got a little mini-skirt!”

She roared, still redder than a tomato while pointing at said inexplicable skirt.

“We really need to get out of here, fast… Where’s Pinkie Pie?!”

She grumbled with narrowed eyes, having thought she’d become quickly done with this situation until the third member of their party revealed herself. One of the fins on Sonata’s suit twitched, a band of color moving across it like an opening eye with the new coloration resembling a bright blue iris. One that was the exact same color as Pinkie Pie’s, complete with curly eyelashes.

“Oh hai everypony! Did you know that the life fibers this suit's got taste funny? Kinda like whipped cream. Haheheheh!”

She giggled, vibrating and jiggling Sonata’s now obliviously living clothing and cuing an exasperated scream from the siren that carried on for a good twenty seconds. Megalon, plugging his ears with the suit’s pair of hands, looked up and saw a blinding light at the top of the citadel. While he didn’t hear the accompanying dramatic music over Sonata’s shrieking, he did know his tropes well enough to know what was coming. Still keeping his ears plugged, he grabbed the girl-girl and girl-clothing.

“Oh! Dramatic entrance, that means that’s our main baddy! Time to go!”

Hoisting the two over his head before running away roadrunner style, he fled from the brightness bearing down on them the while racking his mind for something to at least port them somewhere less over the top and stable.

-Let’s see, if the first door with that dolt atop the staircases was the right one, that means we gotta get back into the last world. But there wasn’t a return portal where we started out so we gotta find another route back...-

Looking up at the fortress-school while dodging rapid fire sword swings coming from behind him, the idea dawned upon him like a lightbulb.

-Ahah! Sonata said that Utena show took place at a school! A school with whacko architecture! Since this show’s newer than Utena, it probably got the idea from it and the portal would be up there!-

The booming voice chasing them down was getting close enough to drown out the arguing Sonata and Pinkie Pie.

“DO NOT RUN FROM YOUR FATE, YOU PIGS IN HUMAN CLOTHING!”

Megalon’s eyes widened to dinner plates as he saw what was chasing after them as the brightness faded. Typically he’d be questioning why she had an attire as ridiculous and perverted like, or possibly even more so than, Sonata’s “Pinkie Suit”, but instead he was too focused on the fact that said villain was rushing them with glowing eyes and a sword. He popped up into the air to jump over Satsuki’s swing, and clicked his heels together like Roadrunner before taking off fast enough to leave a dust cloud.

“...MEEP-MEEP!”

Thankfully outrunning the semi-homicidal woman behind them, Megalon managed to sprint up to the school’s steps and dove into the first doorway he could see.

==============================

The world twisted and warped and they were soon back in the same bafflingly constructed courtyard either of them had ever seen. Snapping out of any pre-existing stupor, the trio got back to business and sprinted up the stairwell as all manner of bizarre dramatic stock music began to blare during their ascent. The villain they’d left behind, Akio was still at the peak’s edge when they got to the top of the steps. His arms crossed over his chest and his back to them, he started to say something that Sonata was quick to ignore. She had had enough of this crap. Turning to Pinkie Pie she dipped the former pony over, pulled a glowing sword that appeared out of nowhere out of Pinkie's chest before Pinkie could ask what was going on, and lobbed it at the back of an oblivious Akio’s head.

“You don’t belong here Utena, your claim to the Rose Bride is over-AHP!”

The typically, unrealistically, cool headed academy chairman squawked as he stumbled. Having expected a duel and having been standing on the edge to look dramatic, Akio didn’t see the sword tossing coming and the metallic pommel and guard smacked him in the back of his head hard enough to knock him over the edge. Pinkie Pie however was more focused on the sharp implement having been pulled out of her chest.

“How did?! Where did that sword come from?!”

Pinkie Pie yelped as she pawed at her stomach and collar to try and figure out just what happened.

“Rose Bride can do that.”

Sonata just shrugged as she picked up the fallen rapier and leaned over the edge alongside Megalon to have a look, both soon cringing at the sight.

“Ooooh that’s gonna leave a mark!... Why was he just standing there like that?”

“Anime villains tend to do that, a lot. Stand around and talk in a precarious position.”

“Why don’t they just attack?”

“Hey just be glad we didn’t get a filler arc or we’d run out of time just with this chit chat."

The former siren turned back around and put the sword in a pant loop.

“Speaking of which, let's get going shall we?”

Pinkie Pie waltzed her way over to the doorway and popped it open.

“We shall. This stuff is more Fluttershy’s alley anywho.”

They stepped in and closed the door behind them, the typically collective and master manipulator named Akio’s groans of pain echoing up the stairwell.

==============================

Tumbling out in a comparatively much more normal looking school’s pool room, Sonata and Pinkie Pie picked themselves off the ground and got their bearings. Kill la Kill’s outfits were the product of insanity, Utena’s gear looked fairly reasonable though still bore closer resemblance to ball gown attire than anything from a high school; and the Sailor Scout uniforms the pair were in now seemed like a border in between. And good McCarthy above did they look dainty, knee high boots, short dresses, opera gloves, and tiaras with a blue/pink and white color scheme respectively.

“Yep, I’d recognize this get up from Fluttershy’s collection. We’re definitely in Sailor Moon now.”

Pinkie Pie uttered while giving Sonata a hand to help her get up. Sonata meanwhile was regarding her outfit with a mildly confused expression. It wasn’t necessarily at what the attire itself had as much as what it didn’t have. Aside from Pinkie Pie’s hair being styled into two gigantic pigtails, there wasn’t any change in them at all from their normal human looks.

“Worst. Transformation disguise. Ever. No hair color change, age alteration, no mask; how does everyone not recognize anyone in these shows?”

“Well Tuxedo wears a mask.”

“He’s covering his eyebrows and cheekbones, that hardly counts!”

Megalon opted to join the conversation, whiskers and all.

“Eh, when in doubt with this sewies; blame the Nega’verse.”

Sonata Dusk and Pinkie Pie looked down to see a dark brown domestic short haired cat with a crescent moon shape on his forehead looking up at them. The latter had to quickly restrain herself from squealing as she picked up the kitty and held him out in front of her.

“Awwww! You got turned into Luna! Who's a cutie kitty?”

“Awhp! Stop that meow!”

"Nyo!"

-Great, now I can’t tell if I'd prefer I'd gotten the cat or Tuxedo dolt.-

"And Pinkie?"

“Mhm?~”

The tom cat pointed out with his paw the best he could.

“Munsta’ behind you at 6 o’cwock!”

The girls turned back in time to see an unholy abomination, that could only be reliably compared to if Medusa, a vampire, a member of KISS, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon all decided to have a demon baby; burst out of the pool and started charging them. Megalon hopped out of Pinkie Pie’s hands and spied something else from across the waters, a shimmering doorway on the other side of the pool.

“And powtals at 6:30! You two hold it off, I’ll go see if this is our ticket!”

Megalon darted away as the she-demon took a swing at the remaining two and they had to jump to the sides to dodge it. Sprinting his way around the pool fast as four short legs could take him as the battle began to rage on, he managed to pull the doorway wide enough to try and get a look of what lay beyond. Sonata Dusk and Pinkie Pie weren’t having as easy of a time after the monster clawed her way out of the pool to pursue them.

“How am I supposed to fight this thing?! This convention gear doesn’t have any weapons!”

Pinkie lunged and ducked under a claw swipe to baseball slide across the wet tile and get behind the beast, calling out to the other scout.

“Use the twirly wand thingy! It’s your weapon!”

Sonata pulled the object in question out of her belt and was soon questioning the writer’s sanity to consider this decameter long rod with a heart shape on the top a weapon.

“Ah come on! I went from a sword to this?! I might as well be batting it with a lollipop!- AHI!”

Her rant was cut short by the roaring reptilian lunging at her with a taloned swipe that tore into the tile floor and sent debris flying. Sonata stumbled back and it looked like the monster was going to take a second swing at her when it was forcibly yanked back. Fighting to hold it in place after grabbing onto its tail, Pinkie Pie called out the best she could as the flippers on said tail did the best they could at smacking her in the face.

“Just! Fffppt! Jus-t say the code word and go for the finisher! It’s a kids show, you’ll automatically know how!”

“Umm! Uh!”

Sonata panicked as she held the baton up high, the ‘weapon’ starting to glow brightly. True to Pinkie Pie’s word, somehow the phrase to call out for one of these scenes was automatically coming to mind. Problem was it was a really long phrase and Pinkie Pie was having trouble keeping the beast in one place for more than a few seconds at a time.

“It’s more like code words! I don’t have time to spew out all that with it moving around so much!”

“Then ju-st say it faster! I’m not used to hands fully, losing my grip over here!”

Sonata shrugged, took aim, and struck a pose while sucking in her breath.

“InTheNameOfEquestriaIWillPunishYou!”

She wasn’t quite expecting a several meters wide energy blast to shoot out and got blasted into the back wall from the recoil. She hit the wall hard enough to dent it in and became stuck in it even after the energy blast stopped. Still, hurt the monster more than it did her. After a few moments there was no monster left. Pinkie Pie, who’d wisely dove out of the way and landed in the pool, pulled herself up from the water’s edge and surveyed the aftermath. Sonata was still stuck in the wall with a wavering, dizzied expression and there was a two by two meter burn mark on the wall opposite her and behind where the monster had been.

“Huh, talking fast actually worked!”

Sonata's slow groan echoed out from the back wall.

“Aaagiiiwaaaa…”

“Sonny!”

Pinkie Pie pulled herself out of the water over to her still delirious, but thankfully mostly unharmed friend. As weird as the scout outfits were, it seems like they somehow worked as Pinkie could see first hand after helping pull Sonata free of her human shaped cutout. The recoil-propelled Sonata had been smashed through drywall and dented brickwork when she hit the back wall, and yet she seemed completely fine aside from being knocked dizzy and scuffed up in a few places.

“Sonny? Sonny! How many hooves-er, fingers am I holding up?!”

“Pingie Poie? Have you triebd d’hs thing? Cus it got one hewl of a kick!”

Sonata dizzily giggled, still seeing stars in her spinning eyes. By the time she came to, Megalon-Kitty darted back over to the duo, his facial fur ruffled and singed slightly.

“Girls I found the right portal, and boy is it a fireworks show!... What I miss?”

==============================

Light flashed and time-space twisted, a doorway opening up in a rock quarry and the intrepid trio hopping out it. The detailing and color palette was much more restrained this time and was within the realm of familiarity for Megalon.

“Yep, goodbye Animation, hello Live-Action!”

“So this is Tokusatsu, huh?”

“Yah it’s kinda like a live action equivalent to anime or American comic books in Japan. Toei makes the most prominent series with their Magical Girl shows sorta being like a distaff counterpart.”

“Which one we in exactly?”

“Well-”

Megalon muttered as he looked over the edge of the quarry to the sounds of combat. Down below in the flats of the quarry was a massive battle that had just kicked off. On one side was a horde of vaguely humanoid monsters that resemble everything from the mechanical to the mystical, on the other was a crowd of costumed humans in costumes that ranged from individual suits with distinct body armor to themed groups in brightly colored, if not in some cases gaudy, spandex.

“I see both Kamen Riders and Super Sentai teams down there so I think we landed in the Taisen crossover movie.”

“Why are they fighting in a quarry?”

“Because it’s always in a quarry in these sort of shows.”

“Sentai? You mean those Neighpon comics Fluttershy told me to never read?”

“Eh?....!!! Nononono! That’s spelled with an ‘H’, I dunno what’s in it but my brother told me never to look into it.”

“Why? What’s in ‘em?”

“He just told me, “You don’t wanna know.”. My brother’s smart so I just took his word for it. All you need to know is Sentai is what they made Power Rangers out of.”

"Ooooh I know that series! Gotcha!"

“Well that explains these.”

Sonata quipped as she pulled out what vaguely resembled a golden cellphone at first, but upon her holding it up it automatically folded out in a straight line to approximate a rod or wand with a glowing tip. Pinkie reached for her pocket and found she had one too, identical in form down to the stylized ‘M’ on what the top cover of the phone flipped out from, with the one difference being that the glow given off by her’s was pink instead of blue. Megalon checked his belt and pockets but didn’t find any such device, just a hand sized metal square on his belt that looked like an empty slot. Upon touching it however, a buzzing rang through the air and a blurry object sped towards Megalon. Managing to react in time catch it after it smacked into his face, the former kaiju looked down and saw a red mechanical rhinoceros beetle in his hands; one the proper size to fit onto the belt slot. At first it seem apparent that in this world unlike their previous runs, they hadn’t gotten a costume change into something native to that world; but the trinkets implied otherwise.

“Yep, Kabuto zecter. And you two got Magiranger’s wands. We got morphers.”

“Nifty!”

Pinkie twirled around her wand, giggling at the sparkly bands of light it painted into the air. Sonata gave her’s an impressed nod before turning back to address Megalon.

"So what all can these three gizmos do?"

"Well you guys basically got wands tied to the air and water elemental magic. So you got stuff like flight, spell casts, element manipulation, and so on. The zecter has a powered up kick attack and a time slowing power."

“Cooool! So why bring us to this place again?”

“Because Tokusatsu. While today it’s mostly superhero stuff, its techniques and style have their roots in the kaiju series. And the codifier for all Japanese giant monsters is Godzilla himself!”

Megalon chirped before turning around and using the high ground to peer out into the distance.

“So that means there should be a portal somewhere around here that leads directly into the kaiju series.”

Pinkie Pie bounced up alongside Megalon, putting a flattened hand above her eyes to shade them as she looked about.

“Well shouldn’t be too hard. Given how big this stuff is in Japan, the portal to your show should be close by!”

“Um…”

“What?”

“We never really got one. A TV show.”

“.... Seriously?”

“Uh huh. 60 years old and we never got a live action show. Closest we got was two American shows and a short series with toys.”

Pinkie Pie shared Megalon's frown and gave him a pat on the back.

“Your studio is weird then. Sorry.”

“It’s okay, not the weirdest thing. You should see the continuity problems we had in the 2000s! But, nevertheless, portal to the movies should still be around here.”

Sonata, having joined in on the scouting, quickly had her eyes home in on a distant shimmering on the far side of the quarry near the forest’s edge.

“Ah! I see a portal! Over there by the big oak tree.”

Megalon however had been looking in another direction and spotted another shimmering doorway near the construction equipment.

“There too!”

“Uuuum, guys?”

Pinkie Pie, standing in between the two while having turned to face another direction and at the highest vantage point, looked at the horizon and literally could see over half a dozen portals in addition to the ones Sonata and Megalon had spotted. And none of the widely spread group had anything to distinguish them from the others as to which was the right one. She grabbed Megalon and Sonata by the head and turned them around to face and see what she was looking at.

“Thats.. aaaaa lot of portals!”

“Eh, Toku stuff is influential in Japan. Guess we shoulda expected this with the crossover we landed in.”

Megalon grumbled, only seeing more and more portals come into view.

“How much time we got Sonata?”

The siren pulled out her actual phone and checked the stopwatch countdown she’d set at the start of the journey. Her face instantly cast a frown after seeing how reduced the clock was, speaking in a downtrodden voice.

“Accounting for being a minute or two off from setting this during the tank ride? Seven minutes left until the reset… Hey Megalon, you got Kabuto’s zecter, can’t you use his time stop feature on it? Just clock it in and check each one!”

“Discord said the reset was in the Hall of Media and had weird space-time shenanigans going on. Even if I slowed stuff down here it wouldn’t affect our time limit. We gotta find some way to narrow down the numbers and get the right portal first try.”

Thankfully thinking on her currently nonexistent hooves, Pinkie Pie was hit with a eureka moment.

“Giant Robots!”

She exclaimed, earning a raised eyebrow from her companions.

“Eh?”

Whipping back out her wand morpher, Pinkie whirled around as she recalled the details of the ranger comics the Cutiemark Crusaders read from time to time.

“Almost every episode of these Sentai or Ranger shows ends in a giant monster fight with the big zord robots!”

“Of course! The megazord fights are technically kaiju brawls! If there is one going on nearby, the portal's gonna be close to it.”

“Uuuum, just one problem.”

Sonata mumbled as she got a lay of the land again without any multistory behemoths in sight.

“Giant Monsters aren’t exactly hard to spot and I don’t see any.”

Unfettered, Pinkie Pie twirled her wand and cracked a grin as she pointed it at an isolated region of the quarry. Megalon and Sonata looked in the indicated direction and spotted the weirdest sight they had on this run. A big starfish man with a square mustache, Third Reich hat, and a crop whip. The most infamous enemy of Kamen Rider X, Starfish Hitler!

“...Okay seriously why are all these monsters attacking a quarry? It has rocks in it.”

“Maybe he's attacking the rocks?”

Pinkie Pie gasped as her wand’s glow magnified, the rock farmer glaring at the demon.

“THAT FIEND! ATTACK!”

“So we using martial arts first or-”

“Stamp that! He’s hurting someone’s rock farm! Just morph up and blast ‘em!”

Pinkie rushed out past the siren and kaiju with a battle cry, Sonata and Megalon shrugging and following suit. Thankfully because they were in that kind of show where a majority of people automatically know how to work the transformation trinket of the season, no fumbling on the activation codes were to be had. The girls wands and voices called out in unison upon dialing in the spell cast with the mechanical voice on Megalon’s belt making its own activation cry after his once he put the zecter beetle into place.

“Mahou Henshin! MAGI-MAGI-MAGIIRO!”

"WOAH! Was that Japanese?!"

"Henshin!"

“HENSHIN! CHANGE-BEETLE!”

Starfish Hitler stopped attacking the rocks after hearing the ruckus behind him and started to turn as a second set of calls rang out.

“Nani?”

“Magi-Magi! Mizu Taihō! Kaze Tsunami!”

“CLOCK-UP. 1!-2!-3!"

"Rider Kick!"

"RIDER KICK!”

Before Starfish Hitler could lose his clam schnitzel after turning around to see what that noise was, he got a hit with a high pressure water tendril, a flurry of razor wind, and a high speed, energized divekick to the face. The monster fidgeted and spasmed before violently exploding. Sonata and Pinkie floated back down to the ground about a dozen yards away, now clad in the morphed suits for the blue and pink Magirangers; their primary color across most of their body with white pants, a gold and black band for the trim on the suit and short cape and cowl trailing behind them; and a stylized mermaid tail and sprite wings forming the shape of the black helmet visor. The blur that kicked Starfish Hitler in the face ran up to them and came to a sudden halt. Too blurry to see at first due to the time distortion, the mechanical voice speaking from the belt unit called out-

“CLOCK-OVER!”

-and Megalon returned to normalcy. Or at least as normal as one could be while still in Kamen Rider Kabuto’s outfit, which was primarily a black bodysuit with red and silver body armor on the torso and limbs, and a horned, red helmet and mask with blue compound eyes that made it resemble a rhinoceros beetle. Sonata twirled her main weapon, the transformation having altered her trinket into something of a wand-sword hybrid.

“Ah good to have a weapon that actually looks like a weapon again!”

“Why don’t they just go for the finishing move right from the start more often in these shows? Seems like wailing on the monster for five minutes doesn’t make much difference.”

“Eh, stunt actors gotta be used somehow. Looks cooler but we’re in a rush.”

“So when is this thing supposed to grow-”

On cue, a giant space laser out of nowhere hit any surviving bits of the slain fiend that persisted and in a flash of thunder and light, the trio were now looking at a fifteen story tall asteroidae führer. What got their attention more was the shiny portal coming into view just behind it.

“There’s our exit! Scram everypony!”

The trio flew and sprinted for the portal, dodging stomps and smacks from the now kaiju sized kaijin that kicked up droves of gravel and bedrock all around them. Sonata mid-flight, whipped back out her phone and checked the clock while pulling a barrel roll to dodge a stomp.

“Five minutes left on the clock! Will they be okay with this thing running around?”

Megalon, flightless and sprinting at high speed on the ground, hopping onto and over a tentacled fist and tore the door open for them.

“There’s like twenty Sentai teams and Riders in the next quarry over, they’ll be fine! Let’s go! Let’s go!”

“This is it everypony! Alley-Oop!”

====================

Three minutes later the trio emerged out of the Godzilla realm door and into the Hall of Media with dour expressions. Pinkie Pie wasn’t bouncing anymore, she wasn’t even walking and had to be carried out by a downtrodden Megalon. If the cyborg could frown as he petted the deflated, straight maned mare, he would have been. Sonata Dusk emerged last, closing the door behind her and wiping her eyes. Pinkie Pie pawed at the flats of Megalon’s drill to signal him to put her down and he did so. The pony stood up straight for a moment before rising tears stung her eyes and quickly caused Sonata and Megalon to form a hug around her, patting her and stroking her mane to try and get her to stop crying. With the bizarre continuity present in the series, they’d just rushed through forty one years of film history in a matter of seconds. And what they’d seen had brought the Element of Laughter to tears. Tokyo going up in flames in 1954. A hospitalized girl, no more than eight, having a geiger counter pointed at her as the counter went berserk. A repeat incident thirty years later with multiple cities destroyed by angry titans in the years following. The last sight seen was strong enough to cause even Megalon to recoil in fear, one of a 118 meter tall engine of destruction with a Glasgow grin lined with teeth and a body littered with open wounds.

Sonata wiped her own eyes and sighed, looking up at the slots beside the door. Each element key was within its slot, lighting up the displays next to it with the core elements of the franchise.

-Horror
-Tragedy
-Darkness
-Disaster

“S-So… this is what your world’s like?”

Megalon replied in a saddened tone and quiet voice that was in stark contrast to his norm.

“Sometimes… This is what it’s been like a lot lately…”

“And, this what your fans like?”

“... Most of the time….”

Sonata swallowed with the back of her throat and cast a gloomy expression to the cyborg before looking across and down the hall some to the ‘My Little Pony’ door. Even from here she could recall the core elements upon that door, and their stark contrast to the ones at the Godzilla door.

“I… I don’t think we’ll find much in common. I don’t think this crossover is gonna work…”

“Maybe!-....”

Megalon shot up a bit and held up one of his drills in a brief moment of hope. But one look between the two doors shot down any words in his throat before they could form up.

“... Me neither. Probably for the best. People would think it’s too weird anyways…”

Sighing to herself, Sonata cracked one tiny smile and punched Megalon in the shoulder after she stood up and took a step away from the Godzilla door.

“Hey, it’s nothing against you Megs. I’m sure you’ll find some more friends there. Come on, we only got a few more minutes. Maybe we can fit one more quick game in?”

“Okay… Thanks Sonny.”

Megalon sighed and got up to his feet once Pinkie Pie stopped crying. He paced after the siren, only noticing the pony’s absence after a few long moments. He turned his head and called out over his shoulder.

“Hey, Pinkie! You coming?”

Pinkamena had moved from her seat, but in the opposite direction. She stood transfixed in front of the door, but not at the passing images that flickered across the portal behind the doorway; but instead at the element panels.

“Pinkie?”

She reread the panels one by one, stopping at the bottom. Directly underneath the console was six buttons, three glowing, two blinking, and one muted. Taped to the wall was a little slip of paper. Raising a brow, Pinkamena Diane Pie peeled it off and opened it up. It was fairly blank, just a white slip with a couple sentences of black text in the middle in small print. She squinted to make it out.

-”I produced a lot, not just the dark stuff so I know there’s more than one way to do it right. But, some people forget. You’re Laughter, so maybe you should see how he’s given them laughter?” - T.T. 田中友幸 -

Looking back to the buttons, she noticed that underneath each was scrawled some short form letters, “ORGN”, “SHWA”, “HESI”, “MILL”, “LGND”, “SHIN”. Of the ones glowing, it was “ORGN”, “SHIN”, and “LGND” shining the brightest, with “HESI” and “MILL” flickering off and on. The one labeled “SHWA” had gone out entirely. Pinkamena nudged the "SHWA" button with her snout and it clicked back on to brightness. The buttons' glow modulated, almost like turning “SHWA” back on rebalanced the system. The door swung back open on command and the portal behind it light up with an image. The visage of the nightmarish future Gojira stopped and warped. The buttons labeled “ORGN”, “LGND”, and “SHIN” stopped shining so much and dulled down, not going out but not outshining the others. The image on the screen shifted to a human woman sitting down beside a young dinosaur, the young Godzilla Junior wagging his tail and holding one of Azusa’s stolen shoes in his mouth.

Pinkamena's frown flattened a bit.

“Heh, kinda cute.”

The image rewired itself again, now showing a friendlier looking Godzilla rushing into a fray to shove Titanosaurus away from from a building and some children. More and more images of the sillier, more light hearted times in the franchise flashed by in place of what had previously been nightmares. Baragon’s puppy dog face and floppy ears, the infamous breath propelled flight, everything that is Jet Jaguar including a notorious drop kick, Minya playing with Godzilla’s tail, Godzilla’s bodyslam on Megaguirus, even the blank eyed titan of 2001 now looked a bit silly once the pony spotted his big potbelly. A neutral expression turned to a smile, a smile turned to a grin, and a grin turned to laughter that got Megalon and Sonata’s attention. The element boards to the side of the door reshuffled, more and more previously invisible elements becoming visible.

-Adventure
-Narm Campy
-Family Friendly Action
-Restrained Violence

And then, shining clear as day was the final element. The view on the door warped, this time to people watching the movies at home or in the theater. Many of them with their series T-shirts on and action figures in hand, were children. The final element, one Pinkie Pie recognized from the ‘My Little Pony’ door, was

-Childhood

Her mane instantly reinflated as she popped the element out of its key slot.

“That’s the ticket! That’s what’s the same!”

Pinkie Pie turned around and held up the element to her cohorts, who’d approached and had been watching the fun along with her.

“Most G-fans became G-fans in childhood because most of this stuff has some inherent silliness to it and it’s safe for fillies to watch! Godzilla is many folk’s childhood and My Little Pony both is as well, and brought many folks back to their childhood! If we keep the sillier side of the kaiju in mind, it’s a fit!”

Megalon was delighted, hopping up into the air and clapping his drills together.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we got our crossover!”

A puff of light and smoke poofed into existence beside the trio. Discord moved a pair of spectacles down his snout to give the group a glance, the chaos entity leaning on a grandfather clock that was ticking down to the last minute. With a raised eyebrow, he waved his lionpaw at them with a circular motion before pointing his thumb at the countdown clock. Even as he tried to appear aloof, there was a tiny smile evident on his muzzle.

Oh, and there was only thirty seconds left.

“Not a moment too soon! Quick!”

Sonata barked and the trio sprung into action. Megalon took a flight assisted jump over to the My Little Pony door and popped the ‘Childhood’ element out of its slot as Pinkie Pie tossed Godzilla’s element to Sonata. Sonata threw the element to Megalon with a basketball shot as the cyborg batted the other element over to her with his drills. Sonata caught it and quickly passed it to Pinkie Pie as Megalon caught the other element. With barely two seconds left, the element of one series was put into the other’s slot. A line in the floor lit up, linking the two doors together as the world around everyone began to white out from the dimensional reset. Pinkie Pie, Sonata Dusk, and Megalon exchanged a smile and salute, knowing they might not remember this, but that they would see each other again. And, with the rebalancing of the Godzilla portal, it would be a happy reunion.

=============

Tarbtano, as he was known on the internet, snapped awake, his head flying off his keyboard and eyes refocusing on the blurry, darkened room around him. He groaned, popping his neck and rolling his shoulders as he read the computer clock.

-Urrrrg, 12:13; fell asleep at the computer again…-

Looking back to what he’d been doing, as the sudden jolt had caused the monitor to flick off sleep mode and turn back on, and he spotted the word document he’d been typing at after finishing his lab report for the dragonfly experiment.

-”Untitled Crossover of ????? and _____”
-P.Ranger and WITCH?
-Digimon and Pokemon?
-Star Wars and Trek?
-Maybe something Hasbro?
-DC/Marvel mash-up?

Getting up from his desk to rub his head and stretch his back, he tried to think of what to do. He must have been sleeping for hours so after getting up his tiredness had left him. Had to kill time somehow now. Heading over to his TV set, he looked it over to try and decide if it was going to be a few rounds on the Gamecube or something from the big VHS rack. His eyes trailed onto a certain section of the rack with taped on labels exposed. A bunch of old Godzilla movies arranged in order, mostly VHSs recorded off Sci-Fi channel in his early childhood. He chuckled and picked up one with a typoed word label whose writing was scrawled in eleven year old marker, “Godzila vrs. Magaleon!!”.

-Heh, hello there old friend.-

He snickered from the nostalgia rush, popping it out of the movie sleeve and setting the VHS player to receive it. He’d begun to turn the TV on, but upon looking onto the flickering screen he spotted something else on top of the television. Cast in soft plastic and illuminated by the TV monitor was about a half dozen Blind-Bag My Little Pony figures. Gifts from his girlfriend through the mail when she got a figure or two that was a repeat, each of them brought their own little smile. Picking up a clear Pinkie Pie figure in his free hand, he didn’t fight the widening smile from the nostalgia rush returning for a second run.

That’s when he froze, looking between the toy in one hand and the VHS in another. Tarb grinned as wide as he could, teeth flashing in the TV light. He popped the VHS in and practically flew back to his desk, putting Pinkie Pie on top of the monitor while pounding away at the keys to make a new list and outline.

-”Godzilla and MLP Crossover!
-Kaiju in Equestria
-Campier, funny balance with the darker stuff. Character building focus.
-Showa styled reconstruction
-Dimension Tide causes it
-Title: The Rift? The Merge? The Link?
-The Bridge!”

He scrawled out more details before clicking up skype and seeing a familiar icon still online. Tarbtano popped open the chatbox, scrolling down from the anime list their conversation previously had been going through.

“Faithy, you awake?”
“....”
“You’re up later than usual. What’s up?”
“....”
“I got an idea to bounce off you and Skylark. My first big fanfic!”

Author's Note

Proofread by Lance Omnikron and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by Faith-Wolff (whom I blame for making me watch the hilarious insanity that Utena and Kill La Kill) and my good friend FallenAngel5414

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Back to business with a certain dragon and a certain Guardian Beast in Ponyville as parties show up in Canterlot

Chapter 30: Different Views

====================================================

Over 70,000 Years Ago, Shambhala, Exact Location Unknown

A towering man in flowing, gem and gold dotted robes adjusted his now heavy crown as he paced down a long, dead hallway. King "Manju" Manjusandra, Lord of Shambhala, busily scanned his notes and message, eyeing the parchment illuminated by his glowing, crystalline necklace as he approached his destination. Passing through ancient halls filled with now dusty rugs, corroded luster, and chipped mason work, the sovereign of the paradise stole a look out a window and scanned his domain. What he saw ushered a small frown.

Shambhala, known to some as Shangri-La, was in decay. They’d survived, albeit barely, Bagan’s wrath but had been dealt a mortal wound during the rampage. In the span of five minutes, before the Battra and Mothra flocks could stop him, Bagan had leveled seventy percent of what had once been Asia’s crown jewel. A population of hundreds of thousands cut down to a mere two hundred in seconds. The temples and machining works were crushed underfoot. The glowing waterworks, vaporized. The residency district, once home to all manner of man and faerie folk alike, nothing more than a mountain of shattered glass and the scattered ash of what had once been a thriving society. But, the wound was still bleeding out. Bagan was gone, imprisoned in the far north. The once vast flocks of Mothra and Battra, who policed and protected the world alongside their mentor Reijuu, now Bagan; were no more. The effort of sealing their rampaging predecessor cut their protectors down to a single Mothra and Battra each, but there was so much more damage beyond that.

In time, the world might mend physically. The ash clouds choking the sky would eventually die down, the volcanoes would stop erupting, and tremors as well as the tsunamis they begot would cease. The glassed fields that had once been cities would chip and break away into sand to be swallowed up by the forests. Mystically however, the act of imprisoning the destroyer might have destroyed all those who survived; driving a sword through the mana stream’s heart. Across the world mana levels were plummeting faster than they could ever hope to be refreshed. Magic itself was dying out. Shape shifters were losing their gifts and becoming stuck in their forms, dragons vanishing into nothing more than mists or becoming mundane reptiles, Immugi’s losing their gifts of wisdom and enormity to turn into mere pythons; and more and more rakshasa, yokai, and faerie were looking more and more human each passing day. Even the once numerous humanity had been driven to near extinction.

Magic required mana, the energy of the planet's life itself, and the world had been once so brimming with it that the civilizations that rose tapped into the planet’s mana to use a little bit in everything. Anything that had been so much as touched by magic during its creation or operation was going to ruin. Bones and fossils of anything mana reliant disintegrated into dust. Their technology that helped move mountains and construct their cities had started to stop working and crumble away into unrecognizable rock and sand. Even seemingly normal aspects of life were being affected. Some researchers told him it'd be fortunate if any of their grandchildren lived to see 500. They might die at 150, from old age of all things! Further generations might be even lower!

Currently, Terra’s global mana had been so heavily damaged it remained at full strength in only a select few areas and beings. Within Shambhala’s domain, only thirty percent persisted and that was only thanks to the vast amount of mana crystals in the royal treasury surviving the apocalypse. Even then, it was only temporary. King Manju sighed as he finished reading his notes. It had been the first time in centuries he actually held up his reading material in his hands as oppose to a spell, not daring to waste one sliver of mana with levitation. They needed as much as they could for one more act, quite likely the city’s last. That didn't stop the once beloved king from feeling old.

The good king felt a cold shock travel down his back. He reached up and shifted his glasses, rubbing his tired eyes. The loss of all magic, his grandchildren dying young, never living to see his society prosper again; it was… something he’d rather not think about. Manjusandra took in a slow breath, passing into his old palace that had been refitted as one final factory. He put the notes in his cloak and bowed his head to further wrestle with his own mind. Time traveled by through his mental storm until he entered what used to be the main hall. Any exotic decorum, dazzling pillars, and gilded stairwells were entirely cleared out. The palace itself had been almost entirely gutted to clear up space, retrofitted into a makeshift warehouse more than anything. It now more closely resembled a near abandoned and only half lit laboratory than his old home. Standing before a massive, dark container filled with a murky liquid, Shambhala’s last remaining best and brightest busily worked at an intact control panel. One, an old man clad in long robes and beads one to expect of a monk was the city's former archmage, Ghoshana. Beside him and tapping away at the control inputs was a middle aged rakshasi woman in attire resembling a stylized version of a modern day laboratory coat. She was the former grand architect and life weaver, Kootakaar.

Manjusandra looked up at the gargantuan culture vat beyond the controls. Through the dim lighting he could just barely make out something floating within it, curled up in a ball the size of the capital’s entire courtyard. Simply put, it was enormous. The king eyed the half jerry rigged glass container and vast metal shell that had some intake pipes sticking out of it; motioning to it.

“Will it hold?”

The architect turned to him, nodding her head. Even in the low light it was easy to see the bags under the faerie folk’s eyes and droop in her ears. Her formally, almost luminescent, navy blue skin had dimmed considerably and was being replaced with patches of human tones, her claws had turned into pointed nails, and her fangs were becoming smaller and blunter by the day. In a few years time, Manju wondered if she’d look indistinguishable from a human.

“I used up the entire treasury’s worth of philosopher stones and mana chargeable crystals, this will probably be the last enchanted object we leave behind… but…”

She muttered, drowning out her own speech with a pause.

“But?”

King Manju whispered with baited breath. Kootakaar sighed, shaking her head slowly whilst looking down.

“… My estimates from earlier were off. It’ll take all the remaining mana...not just the city, but the entire region to keep him fully energized. 100,000 years is a long time for something this size.... Are you certain it had to be this enormous?”

King Manju felt a flash of horror and dread fall over him like a smothering wave, spurring his retort.

“Bagan wasn’t-“

The archmage interrupted King Manju with a near unreadable expression that seemed to be at least partially comprised of sadness and fear, despite reigning in his tone to sound calm.

“ISn’t…”

Manju paused, taking a deep breath as he closed his eyes and nodded; continuing.

“Isn’t, small either. We need something vast… I only regret we can’t make more, your notes said this one is still smaller than Bagan.”

Kootakaar pulled out some more of her notes and reaffirmed some facts as she read the report's information off.

"Still, 90 meters tall is no slouch. Besides, this is just going to be the first one. We have already received confirmation from Anitun-Tabu, Amaterasu, Enoch, and even the Atlanteans receiving the schematics we've made for this prototype and making their own versions; some of them have more mana than us so they'll be able to make more than one. The world will have its vanguards, these 'Guardian Beasts', yet."

King Manju nodded, reaching up and adjusting his crown that lay upon his tired forehead. For someone only four hundred, he felt four times that age but was keeping up his appearance the best he could.

"And what species are they all using?"

Ghoshana chimed in after a breath. The ancient mage actually being sixteen hundred, he wasn't as good as the king at hiding his weakness and had to support himself with an old staff that bore a glowing crystal entwined into the wood upon the peak. The poor soul hadn't been able to speak well without breaks of breath since Bagan razed the city. King Manju tried to insist someone else, another mage, be brought in to help with this process; but Ghoshana both insisted out of duty and necessity. Many of his apprentices he'd hoped succeed him were the first to be turned to glass when they welcomed 'Reijuu' at the city temple, there were none left to take his place.

" Anitun-Tabu ...is using a theropod, some kind of amphibious species from Lagos island. Amaterasu is working on a tusked turtle... and pterosaur. Enoch hasn't started.... yet but he mentioned something.... about a monitor lizard that can glide and a big ....eared, horned therapsid of some sort. The Atlanteans are supposedly using bats and pterosaurs.... I'm s-sorry I-I'm feeling dizzied..."

King Manju put an arm around his mentor from his youth, helping the old man stand up straight and catch his breath.

"Th-Thank you sire. I'm alright now."

-I have a feeling I won't be a sire to anything much longer...-

Manju puzzled as the thought passed over him. Giving Ghoshana a gentle pat on the back, he turned back to the culture vat and the being inside.

"And, what species are we using Lady Kootakaar?"

"We've blended in several types but the basis is mostly a Tarchia, a type of Ankylosaur dinosaur. There is also some Polocanthus, Nine-Banded Armadillo, and Diictodon was also added in. So far his blend is stable and we'll be adding the fire elemental mana in shortly."

Kootakaar muttered as she typed at the controls. The tubes feeding into the vat shifted in coloration and glimmered as a new substance, almost like a liquid light, poured in and surrounded the growing Guardian Beast like a cocoon. King Manju looked out, not through a window but instead a piece of the wall that had been torn out, and surveyed the scattered ruins of his kingdom as the architect and archmage cast the final spells and carved the last runes. Any surviving lights were going out across the city, the mana crystals powering them being drained dry. More of the surviving structures started to crumble away at a faster rate, and the enchanted gold plating that gave the glorious capital its shine began to rapidly lose its luster as the alchemy charging it cut out. Even Manju himself could feel a cold tug settle over him as the crystals upon his regalia sputtered and died off. He was seeing a sight no mortal had ever witnessed before. He watched his capital take its last gasp, the magic inside going away right before his eyes.

Manju felt his voice stutter a bit, both from the unnatural sensation overtaking him as well as from the somber sight.

"A-Are you sure he'll require so much mana for so long? That we can’t, perhaps, keep some to last the survivors for awhile?"

The glowing liquid forming up around the prototype beast began to shift and harden, becoming an enormous chrysalis of mana imbued crystal that would feed in its power to the growing creation like nutrients in an egg.

"We can't take any risks. He'll need to absorb as much mana as possible from the crystals overtime to reach his full potential. Due to our inability to perform this task properly, the process will be rougher on him than the next beasts. He won’t wake up until it is time and stay in the cocoon."

"Yes, but we can't have him oversleeping when the hour at Attu island is rung. The world is going to need ones like him to lead the charge against that monster."

King Manju sucked in a breath and regarded the enormous shape slumbering within the crystal nexus. He eyed the rows of spines lining a reinforced shell of armor plating, as well as the row of horns lining the back of the beast's head like a crown. This was to be the world's first new guardian and possibly, probably, Shambhala's last success. King Manju pulled off his crown and plucked the dimly glowing crystal in his hands as Kootakaar and Ghoshana removed their own last crystals from their necklace and walking stick respectively. Without a word of debate, they placed their crystals upon the panel before them and watched the glow of their last bits of magic exit the gems and join the collective surrounding their new Guardian Beast of Fire. Ghoshana crumbled a bit in his stance, requiring both former king and architect to hold him up. He held his head low despite the burning light before him, sadness obvious in his tone as he knew he looked upon the end of an era.

"So, this... is how Shambhala dies."

"No,-"

Manju sighed as he felt a tiny, bittersweet smile cross his face.

"This is how the world keeps living... Can he hear us?"

"Perhaps.... You know, your majesty; we never did name the prototype."

Kootakaar muttered. Manju the king, the former king, watched as their mana crystals crumbled away to dust and the last bits of magic, a force he'd felt since birth, faded from the room. He knew what would come. In a few years, his gilded kingdom would join the crystal. In a few millennia, there would be nothing, not so much as a corpse of Shambhala left. His people's descendants might carry the legend, but this place would be no more. But he focused not on the thought of his son bearing the crown or the loss of experiencing a walk with any grandchildren through the shimmering glades. He instead trained his eyes upon their lasting legacy as the last spell cast of Shambhala arranged to teleport the crystal capsule to a safe location underground for it to grow uninterrupted.

"The prototype will be the last of our works left, but it's for those who succeed us. An act from the future’s yesterday for their world's tomorrow.... I have a name for it."

"What is it?"

Manju nodded his head and spoke a single sentence before the chamber and its listening occupant. In it was an older word, but a strong word for a strong name. This was to be the first of the Guardian Beasts, the first and probably the greatest. The word that meant both, it meant "A New Hope, Alpha".

"Grow mighty and keep our...your world, safe; Anghi'ras."

Three days later, with all the mana in the area drained and their creation sealed away; an enraged Battra leveled what was left of Shambhala . Enraged at the loss of even more of the world's magic and its impact upon the world, he concluded humanity and the fae-turned-human needed to be exterminated. He would have finished what Bagan started had the last Mothra not stopped him. Sealing him away in the north but gravely injured from the fight, the wounded protector of mortals' last act before limping back to her island to die was to cause the forest to regrow over the ruins and give the survivors a fighting chance in a renewed landscape as opposed to a desolate waste. She returned to her island and expired after laying the egg that would hatch in the mid-1990s into Lea's mother. True to its last king's prediction, Shambhala, and all the other city states who weathered away after creating their Guardian Beasts, crumbled out of the mortal coil and into legend. Anguirus, like his compatriots, would remain sealed away for tens of thousands of years. However, instead of reawakening on the date of Bagan's release; they instead awakened in the early 2000s to confront other threats. Threats of when the Age of Man became the Age of Monsters.

=================

Sweet Apple Acres

The last act of Shambhala, christened titan by its last and greatest king, and the alpha Guardian Beast, Anguirus; loaded his last bustle of apples into a crate. Nudging the crate into place, he took a glance at the elderly clock set next to an elderly pony.

“Last load Mrs. Smith, got a train to catch.”

Granny Smith jogged herself awake from her half nap, eying the crates of zap apples loaded up next to her stands without a single bit of colorful fruit still clinging to the orchards beyond.

“Well ‘ay do say, that’sa grade A pick for a first timer. Thank ye’ kindly for the work Mr. Gear Las.”

-It’s Anguirus..-

Electing to ignore the qualm, the kaiju did look about the orchard for a moment and noticed something big missing.

“Where’s Destroyah? She’s supposed to go to Canterlot with me for the summit.”

“Oh she got her clearin’ duty done early and was off with Applebloom and her little friends in town, so she’ll be at the station. You best get’ now so you make it on time yerself!”

“Right, I will return once this ordeal is sorted out. Place grows on yah, almost feels like back home.”

“That why you slept in the orchard like some crazy-pony rather than the barn?”

Anguirus just shrugged before turning around and heading off, waving a forehoof.

“You could say that. I'm off.”

Picking himself up to a steady trot, a few minutes passed before Anguirus noticed something else in the sea of dirt paths and tree trunks. A bright purple and green baby dragon walking around aimlessly with a juice box in hand, a ruby in his maw, and downtrodden stares from his eyes. In any other context that sentence wouldn’t make much sense. Fortunately Anguirus’ already strong weirdness filter had only broadened upon being stuck in this technicolor world and he trotted up to Spike, more questioning what the baby drake was doing out here rather than him existing.

“Hey kid!”

Spike didn’t hear Anguirus calling him, his eyes cast downward but his focus instead being on what was going on behind his eyes rather than what was in front of them.

“Kid, there’s a hole right in front of- urrg…”

Spike only took notice when he suddenly started to fall forward into a hole before a hoof shot out in front of him and shoved him backward back to level ground.

“Huh! Wah?!”

Spike chirped, looking around before noticing the hoof holding him up and the large stallion it was attached to. Anguirus rolled his eyes and grumbled.

“Tried to get your attention.”

“Oh, sorry Mister... Angilas was it?”

-Why does everyone keep calling me that?!-

“Anguirus.”

Spike shrunk a bit more at the blunt words, something impressive given his already small size.

“S-Sorry… Didn’t mean to bug you, so don’t mind me.”

The little dragon pulled himself off of Anguirus’ hoof and tried to walk off in a new direction. However not two meters into his downtrodden march and whatever going through his head had already taken precedence over what was going on in front of him. Anguirus planted a hoof on the drake’s head, stopping and turning him around to keep Spike from walking off the path absentmindedly and right into a tree trunk.

“You know, despite carrying your head low, you don’t seem to be looking at the ground you're treading over or what lies ahead of you.”

“Guess I get like that when I try to walk and think, my mind is drifting.”

“Well where you walking to?”

“Just back to the library for now.”

“That near the train station? Haven’t quite memorized town.”

“It’s about five-sixths of the way to the station from here, why?”

Before Spike got a verbal answer, he got a physical one when Anguirus hooked his hoof under his belly and hoisted the young drake onto his back. Resuming his own march, Anguirus angled his head backwards slightly to address his temporary hitchhiker.

“I'm on my way to the station, consider this letting you think without you risking walking off a cliff or something.”

“Ah, well it wouldn’t be a problem! Dragons got tough scales.”

Spike quipped, tapping a claw to some scutes on his chest with an almost metallic clang that reminded Anguirus of Yonggary’s living metal armor, just to a lesser degree. While the dragons he battered and bruised at the campground took damage from his assault, it still took mostly beating them down with blunt force as just stabbing through dragon scales took some effort. They were tough creatures for sure, one Anguirus sometimes wished he got for his Equestrian body rather than an ‘earth pony’ as he was informed. Then again, maybe he was just miffed at the loss of a chance to breathe fire again. Anguirus grunted at Spike’s comment when he spoke.

“Hardest armor in the world can’t always save you from everything. Trust me, I know… So, what’s got your mind in a twist anyways?”

“Oh, I uh. I don’t wanna be a bother. Just thinking of some stuff.”

Anguirus rolled his eyes, knowing from experience with youngsters like Gorgo and Rodan, when he first woke up, that “some stuff” was usually code for “I don’t wanna tell”.

“Come on then, out with it. I got nothing to gain from blabbing and if you don’t tell me, I’m dragging you to Canterlot with me to get that purple alicorn to make you spill it.”

He grunted while walking towards town with Spike still on his back. The young drake’s reaction was to jolt and levitate about a meter into the air before landing back down on Anguirus. He looked at the spiny stallion with wide eyes.

“You wouldn’t.”

“Kid I’m not afraid to throw myself in front of blade happy cyborgs, three headed alien dragons, and whatever in the name of Tanaka Destroyah is. Whatever fear you got of a pretty purple princess pony, it ain’t mutual. Oh, and there’s some snacks in my right saddle bag, help yourself.”

Anguirus felt some shifting on his back and someone digging through the bag. Spike cast a smile upon pulling out another juice carton and small jar of zap apple jam, plopping on his haunches and opening the two. Anguirus let a few minutes of sipping and munching sounds carry out before returning his addressing.

“Alright now, let’s have it.”

Spike, having gulped down the entirety of the carton and jar and now having a slightly swollen belly as a result, put the two back in the bag and spoke up.

“I guess, I just feel like I could be doing more. Like I should be doing more.”

Anguirus raised an eyebrow, not having expected that sort of answer but rolling with it. He didn’t seem to be lying. Typically a lie was a simple explanation to pass off a more troublesome scenario, not a more elaborate or vague one.

“Specifics?”

“Twilight and Lea are busy finding a magic solution to the problems and you kaiju are all at the ready to fight off any other attacks coming around; and meanwhile I’m just a useless baby dragon walking around through it all. Maybe if I wasn’t a baby, maybe if I was smarter, or stronger, or bigger I could be more useful!”

Yep, not the sort of problem Anguirus was expecting at all. Age was hardly a fault of anyone, though there was something he was recalling from his experience with the rampaging dragons at the campground.

“I remember the dragons at the campground changing. They grew from a bit bigger than pony size up to whale size in a few minutes. Why are you worried about being bigger if your kind can just do that? Aging must be quick.”

“Greed growth, definitely greed growth. Zecora told me about it. Dragons have two ways to grow up. Natural, old fashioned long way; and greed growth. Greed can make us grow up in the span of hours, or even less, but-”

Spike pulled his knees into him and shuddered slightly. Anguirus was able to put two and two together based off what he’d heard from the dragons themselves shortly before they turned enormous. That and the term “greed growth” was more than a bit self explanatory.

“It makes your greed grow out of control and you go berserk. The drakes at the camp were greedy for territory and revenge against that mare named Rainbow Dash. Saw them get a lot less chatty once they were elephant sized… That and I recall them trying to eat some ponies.”

“Y-Yeah, kinda makes us go more than a bit crazy. I did it once and nearly broke…Ponyville.”

Spike sighed, putting his paws on his cheeks and looking down and to the side. Anguirus took a pause as they neared the edge of town and glanced back at the little one.

“And yet, something tells me you’re considering it again.”

“I just-”

Spike looked up at Anguirus with a glum expression.

“I just wanna grow up, be useful. To help everypony. I can be stronger than I am now, I know I can! Maybe I can find some way to control it!”

The earth pony kept a neutral expression despite the topic. Wanting power for a good reason wasn’t greedy or necessarily wrong, it was something he knew well. Still, he kept face and remained at a semi stoic attention.

“Doubt it. You already got your head on straighter than those punks at the campgrounds kid, especially that red one. But if this greed growth is serious enough you could flip out of it, I wouldn’t risk it.”

“But, what if it’s worth the risk? Even just a little bit of growth might be good. I mean, I’m friends with Equestria’s biggest heroes and heroines! And I’ve helped out myself more than a couple times sure, but this time around I just wish there was more I could do. I feel it in my scales, like it’s destiny; you know?”

Anguirus’ flattened jaw dipped into a frown and he muttered a tired shrug.

-You had to say ‘Destiny’ didn’t you?-

“You shouldn’t rush it kid, destiny can be a hard thing to read even if it looks clear as day to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s just say I have experience.”

=============================

2001, Somewhere in Japan

Anguirus, Guardian Beast Alpha and Elemental of Fire could feel it in his pulse. His power, seeping into his body from every direction as he lay entombed in his crystalline cocoon. He lay with his eyes closed, curled up inside the mana charged crystal as it slowly fed into his power. He was the first of the guardian beasts, the prototype. His successors had been made with techniques refined from King Manju’s blueprints so they were quicker to soak up the mana in their surrounding crystals. It had been seventy millennia and Anguirus hadn’t yet reached that level, but he would. He was stronger every day and so long as he stayed like this, he’d reach the peak his creators intended. He just needed more time to unlock it all, but he’d get there. Until then, he rested.

Across the underground chasm that the alpha model’s cell lay, the earth began to rattle and shudder. A set of large, mole-like claws ripped through the cave’s floor. A second kaiju limped its way out of its tunnel. He was known as Baragon, Guardian Beast Epsilon and Elemental of Earth, and he’d been digging through his escape tunnel for several hours to find this chamber. As he limped his way across the ground, dragging one of his hind legs and leaving a trail of blood behind him, it was clear why he’d come here. There was another monster running amok on the surface, one so evil and dangerous that the last mystic in Japan had sent a prayer pleading for their aid. Baragon and another of he and Anguirus’s kin, the beast of water called Gamera, had awakened to try and stop the monster. Baragon confronted it in the highlands near Hakone. He’d managed to cover the escape of many humans, but was drastically outmatched and was beaten to near death. Had he not taken the chance to burrow away under the cover of the mad titan’s beam attack he would have perished. Gamera was moving in to head the threat off at Tokyo, but Baragon knew he’d need help.

And so, he’d crawled his way across the chamber to plead for it. He had to get the alpha, the alpha was the strongest of all of them! He could stop that monster! Baragon held fast to the hope he got from seeing the glowing crystals and the massive shape within. Half choking, he barked and called out to the crystal.

-”Anghi'ras!”-

The diictodon stumbled onto his last good leg, literally clawing his way desperately to his predecessor while calling out to rouse him with another roar.

-”Anghi'ras! Alpha we need you to wake up! It’s too strong, it’s gonna kill-!!”-

Baragon’s leg gave out from under him and he flopped to the ground before the crystal without any sign of change within it. Wincing from the effort and drooling blood, Baragon raised a weak paw and banged on the glowing crystal cocoon. Laying on his side, Baragon whapped on the crystal hard enough to crack it before his eyes rolled into the back of his head.

Anguirus’ eyes snapped open at the sight of a weak paw leaving a blood smear on the distorted crystal surface. He flexed his muscles and thrashed, cracking more of the crystal around him.

=========================================

“Sometimes, when you think it’s your time to shine you’ll find there’s other things to think about. I am the first of the Guardian Beasts, wielder of fire. I was supposed to be the strongest of my kind, so my element took longer to mature than others. I hadn’t even reached the first tier of the powers I was destined to have whereas the others already had, but I was getting there. But, just when I thought I’d rise to greatness to fulfill my destiny when the time came and lead my kin to save the world one day; I lost the force, the mana, that would give me my flames.”

“W-What happened to it? Someone steal it?”

“I gave it away to someone who needed it more… Remember Baragon?”

=========================================

Anguirus, having forced his way free of the crystal, nearly recoiled in a nerve shock upon breaking out into the open air. Being free of the mana that had been nourishing him since the day Kootakaar and Ghoshana put his genome together and engineered him was like suddenly stepping out from a warm room and straight into a blizzard. But, that didn’t have his attention because that wasn’t what was important. The smaller, bloody heap of a barely alive red kaiju he was lifting up was. Carefully balancing Baragon’s limp form on his forelimbs and jaws, Anguirus placed him down within the hollow cavity he once occupied. The cracked and broken crystal he’d torn free from was glimmering brightly at the tips in an erratic fashion, but the entry of another body put an end to that. Anguirus pulled away and pushed the large sheet of crystal he’d kicked out to free himself back into place.

The cocoon reformed itself, stray fragments that lay about the floor levitating back up and falling into place as the crystals grew around Baragon and perfectly encapsulated his form. The mana that would have gone into fostering Anguirus’ powers flowed into the comatose earth guardian. The blood flows closed off and he started to heal. The injuries such as his shattered ribs, burns, and bite wounds would take longer to mend, but the mana would do its job at patching him back up.

Turning up to a tiny hole in his chamber’s ceiling and seeing the beams of moonlight glimmering down from above, Anguirus could sense now what was wrong. He felt for his power like he had before, closing his eyes and concentrating while trying to call up any flame he could. He could feel his spines heat up and give off a dim glow, but every time his metaphorical hand reached out it seemed like what he sought was out of reach. He tried and tried, but the blockage was clear. He hadn’t incubated long enough or absorbed enough mana, he was incomplete.

Grunting after another failed attempt, Anguirus nevertheless made his way into Baragon’s burrow entrance and started to crawl into it, burrowing as needed to widen the tunnel. Incomplete or not, he had a job to do.

=========================================

Spike rubbed his chin as Anguirus finished his story while passing through the fringes of town.

“So this ‘mana’ stuff, the stuff that would have given you all that power. You just, gave it up?”

Anguirus sighed, his tone a mix of affirmative strength with a few hints of sadness.

“Was either that, or someone who’d come to me for help would have died. Two living, milder guardians are better than one strong one I suppose.”

He nodded with a bummed frown.

“But you’ll never be as strong as you were supposed to be?”

“Mana is life force, and I got a lot of life. So, maybe I could grow it back over time and break the block I got now, or perhaps it’ll never happen. I just have to wait and find out. Till then though, incomplete doesn’t mean useless. We all got our parts to play.”

“So it looks like we both got a ways to go to grow up, huh?”

“That’s one way of putting it.”

Anguirus shrugged as the train station came into view.

“What I’m saying is, you got guts kid; you just need to wait awhile for your body to catch up with that spirit of yours. Trust me, a strong will is the first step for the great.”

“But, what about right now?”

Spike muttered as Anguirus kneeled down and shifted his shoulder to indicate to the drake it was time to get off. Spike hopped off Anguirus’ back and turned to face him for his answer with a tilted head.

“For me, I just contribute any way I can to back up those who get their time to shine for now. For you, leave it to us 'old folks' to handle things for now. You got a lot of heroes in your time kid, take some notes from them and be ready when destiny truly comes calling. It’ll come to you, you can’t force it.”

Taking in a long breath, Anguirus broke a small smile before lifting a hoof and patting Spike’s head. The little guy had the workings for future greatness and his will to help was plenty familiar to the Guardian Beast, he just had a ways to go. His smile widened when Spike giggled and tried to push his hoof away from his scalp.

“I’m sure you’ll be a mighty dragon one day, one that will make your home here proud…. But ‘till then, you’re just giving the world more time to prep for your big arrival as you prove your worth. At, the size you are now. Deal?”

“Hehe, okay okay, deal. I’ll drop the greed growth plans and grow up the right way.”

“Good choice. Make your big entrance to the world a surprise party like that and I’ll have to kick your tail like I did those punks at the camp.”

Anguirus pulled his hoof away and Spike put an ‘x’ over his heart before nodding. They stood at the train station with Destroyah and the Crusaders at the other end of the boardwalk. As the distant train whistle blew and signaled the locomotive’s pending arrival, Spike spoke up as he and Anguirus watched it come over the crest of the hills.

“Hey, Mister Anguirus? Just between you and me, did Garble scream like a little girl when you beat him up?”

“Oh like you wouldn’t believe, kid. Then Rodan decided to use him as a landing pad.”

“Hehehe…”

Spike chuckled along with Anguirus as the train pulled in. Anguirus pulled the door to the train car open and stepped in. Turning around, he saw a waving Spike standing on the edge of the walkway as both ignored the protests of the Cutiemark Crusaders trying to hop into Destroyah’s car only to be told to stay. A stray thought crossed Spike’s mind and his eyes lit up.

“Oh, and Mister Anguirus?”

“Just Anguirus works.”

“Right. Well, so you can see what you can do when you get your powers.”

“If I get them.”

“When you get them!”

Spike insisted as he stood up on his tip-toes, sucked in his breath, and shot out a stream of emerald hued flames over the roof of the train; his little form managing a good three meter wide spray for a couple of seconds. Anguirus raised a bemused eyebrow and shook his head as his smile grew. Sitting on his haunches, he clapped his hooves together while chuckling as Spike fell backwards and cut the stream off due to running out of breath. He didn’t raise his voice in cheers, but his encouraging tone put a grin on Spike’s face.

“Well done kid, well done! I’ll try to keep that in mind when I get my shot.”

==================================

On the Crystal Empire to Canterlot Train

Xenilla had not been absent in thought during the long train ride back to Canterlot, nor was he alone in his cabin. His personal bodyguard and now confidant Blade Dancer was sitting and leaning against him whilst the mare read through another book she’d taken from the library before their departure. Though she’d been quiet as a mouse and chewed through five chapters since they left, the guardsmare hadn’t cast a blind eye to the previously sleeping kaiju’s actions.

“So, you lurched up again when waking up from your nap. Just like last night. Feel like telling me now what’s up?”

Xenilla stayed silent for awhile. He’d dozed off briefly during the train ride due to off and on sleep last night, each time he’d been reunited with alternating recollections. Either it was a rush of the same experience in a storming sea he expected might be from his father’s memories somehow, or his ‘birth visions’ as he’d dubbed them long ago; the sights and sounds of Terra and its fate that greeted him when he first came into consciousness over two decades ago. Each time jolted him awake for awhile before he tried to nod off again, both to get some more rest and to purposefully re-experience it all and keep the memory fresh. When one was rechecking their mental notes, this was about the only way to do it. The fact neither of the two visions altered or changed in any way each time he saw them again was a big warning sign that the new visions of a fight in a storming sea were no more fictitious nor an ordinary dream than the visions that came to him at birth.

Breaking his silence in a tired shrug, he rubbed at his temple without verbally answering Blade Dancer. Frustration born of worry flashed across Blade Dancer’s muzzle as she snapped her book closed and tilted her head slightly in Xenilla’s direction. That got his attention, though thankfully the Colonel let a moment pass over her before speaking so her tone wasn’t sharp.

“Was it something Sombra caused?”

She muttered, still all too familiar with how utterly disheveled the typically pristine and smugly prideful looking Xenilla appeared. It took a few days for the bags under his eyes to lift and her own personal help to get him back to at least looking normal in public. Took some time, a process that she pondered was affected by the fact he refused to let anyone but her see him like that, making everypony from the clerics to Princess Cadance unaware. When asked, he only replied, “Habit. To Mutations, a weakened appearance means weakened status.”.

Thankfully or unthankfully, she couldn’t quite be sure, this wasn’t the case and Xenilla shook his head. Sombra had given his visions and night terrors all to their own. While they were strong enough he admittedly couldn’t sleep for the longest time without Blade Dancer’s presence to help anchor him back to reality, they were still a fiction. These visions he’d had since the Apple Family farm though, they were definitely something else.

“No, those were a farce. Just nightmares. I’ve had these visions since before setting foot in the empire, they’re something else.”

“Visions? What do you mean?”

“I’m not sure.”

“That can’t be good. Last time I heard you say you were unsure, I was risking treason getting you past a jail cell alarm. Must be serious.”

“That remains to be seen, but it’s persistent. I think it’s a memory, but how I’m having it I can’t be sure. It’s hard to explain, but there is someone I intend to find as soon as we’re in Canterlot to clarify it.”

“Well, that’s fortunate I guess. Though to continue this interrogation, I have another question for you before you attempt to doze off again.”

Blade Dancer quipped, reorienting her seating to be sitting parallel to the larger stallion instead of leaning up against his mass. She looked him right in the eye with a strong look that elicited a rare response from the Mutations leader. Of all the multitudes of life forms, including dozens of kaiju, human and alien mechanizations, and now incredibly powerful Equestrian magical demigods he’d encountered over the years, there were very few he’d give a respectful look back to. They’d have to earn it through show of force or character. One of those rare number was a cream colored mare with a dark red mane.

Xenilla put his thoughts aside and gave her his attention. Seeing she had it, Blade Dancer continued.

“...What’s up between you and your brother? Your, “Icka'brod” was it?”

Xenilla blinked a moment before responding.

“Between me and Junior?”

“Yes. I’ve been wondering about you and him. I cornered him in his room one night just to see how far I could push things with him.”

“Yes, you are courting him if I recall.”

Xenilla grunted in a slightly off tone that caused Blade Dancer to raise a brow slightly.

“Was, I’m not interested anymore. But, I was then. I was trying to see what sort of stallion he was and see if I could get some giggles by getting him hot under the collar or under his skin. I play around with a lot of ponies like that, all in good fun of course. Anyways, it didn’t work. But I did get him talking and he mentioned his family more than a few times. He talked about his father, his mother, and talked about his allies almost like they were his family too. But...”

Still hoping that she wasn’t about to, but also knowing she probably was about to hit a nerve anyways, Blade Dancer sucked in her breath and continued.

“ .. He never mentioned a sibling. Probably why I was so surprised when you did so when we first met. When he did mention you, it was only by name and it wasn’t with very much happiness… or, any really.”

Her volume grew quieter at that last part and a moment of silence passed over the two of them. When Xenilla still said nothing after twenty seconds, she continued.

“I also found out from Princess Cadence in a letter she got from Princess Luna that a fight broke out between you two the minute you were in the same room together, at least until Princess Celestia stopped it. Luna said she saw Godzilla attack first, and did so more ferociously than she’d ever seen him fight until the gyaos attack; not even when he fought her.

Xenilla crossed his forelimbs, closed his eyes and took in a slow breath. When he replied, it was in a forcefully quiet, controlled tone.

“... Yes, that fight between us happened. It was far from the first nor will it be the last, merely the latest.”

Xenilla felt a hoof place itself on his, Blade Dancer’s quiet voice being a bit louder in his ear due to her leaning in closer.

“You two are enemies, aren’t you?”

Xenilla let out a sigh that sounded far more tired than it did annoyed. He rubbed at his forehead, spurring Blade Dancer to press the topic despite his silence.

“Xen, come on. I can tell something’s been playing on you and whatever is going on between you and your brother is part of it. The weird chessboard with you two having pieces on it, your breakdown after Sombra hit you with the fear magic, the fact you call him a sibling and he never said so… Talk to me, I want to know so I can help.”

Had that been Xenilla from ten days ago, he’d probably have said no right off the bat and deflected the topic with his typical calculative wit topped with an annoyed comment to show how little the questioning party mattered to him. But, this wasn’t the same Xenilla who could swagger around with ten mental and physical barriers while figuratively and literally looking down his nose at most anyone not named “Destroyah”. To Blade Dancer, he kept his nose down and looked at her on level. Didn’t stop him from mentally cursing himself as he spoke and still trying one last deflection.

“I am his enemy.”

“But is he yours?”

“...... No.”

“Because?”

“Our world is securer with him than without.”

“Xen... what happened between you two?”

Xenilla sighed, casting his gaze downward due to the bad memories confronting him. The question of how the bridges between him and his kin had been burned was clear as day. After all, it was the first thing he did upon his homecoming. His tone was falling back into bluntness.

“I tried to kill our father.”

Blade Dancer’s eyes widened a bit and she stood up some more in her seat.

“Why would you do something like that?!”

“It’s not something simple to explain-”

Xenilla glanced out of the corner of his eyes and saw the look on Blades’ face. Surprisingly, she looked less angered and more attentive and readied with the same determination he’d seen her display several times now. She was wanting answers and would be too stubborn for deflection to work. And after she’d seen him without his barriers after Sombra came close to breaking him, he knew any other routine wouldn’t work anyways. No more excuses.

“-but, this is a long train ride. Get comfortable.”

===========================

Canterlot Celestial Courthouse

Godzilla Junior walked into the large chamber with Captain Blueberry Frost flanking him. The courthouse had been loaned for the conference. The court room itself was sizable, about fifteen meters in any direction for the square shape and a tall ceiling. Windowless, the main light came from a wide skylight covered in barred glass that layered the roof across half of the room. The streams of sunlight glinted off the lunar guard armor Junior was coated in as he walked up through the center aisle past the rows of seated ponies. Being a public inquiry, a wide assortment of Equestrians were present ranging from nobles, elected officials, reporters, and other VIP representatives from across the nation. Junior recognized a nodding Archduke something, he never bothered to memorize the whole name, Blueblood in the second to front row. He also saw a lot of different expressions as he passed. Some excited reporters jotting down notes between quickly looking up at him every couple of seconds, an older mare he’d eventually learn was the mayor of Ponyville giving him a pleasant smile and a nod, more than a couple worried looks from various other members of the crowds; and a few enthusiastic ones who had to be told to stop clapping for a hero’s welcome after a few hoof clacks. The reactions were actually quite familiar to the new King of the Monsters, it was usually about the same sort of response he got every time he stopped by a human city. Some happy, some worried, and some on the fringes of both.

-Huh, another thing to prove these ponies are a lot like humans after all.-

Junior gave a slight nod as he got near the front rows. He paused when he spotted a pony seated just ahead next to the aisle that had the back of their head to him. He held his head up a bit and tilted it slightly in curiosity. As he passed by, he took a moment to look over at them and was somewhat surprised to find them turning their head and looking right at him. His eyes locked with the mare and he did a quick survey of her features. She was a pegasus with an average size and build, around the same height as the captain but less muscular. Her body fur was a light periwinkle that contrasted with her multi-toned blue, dark purple, curly mane. However, it was the expression on her face and the look in the mare’s eye that gave Godzilla a brief pause. Her lips and brow were nearly unreadable with the slightest traces of a frown and lifted brow that signified a mix of negativity and fear. However, her aqua green eyes were completely still and studious; locking onto his in a manner that made it almost seem like she was looking right through him rather than just at him. Of all the reactions he saw, it was this one that peaked some attention because he frankly couldn’t tell if she was glaring at him in determination or studying him in a saddened manner.

The second passed and Godzilla broke back into his stride and headed up to the front towards a seat Captain Frost indicated to him. A pale unicorn stallion wearing a monocle, “Fancy Pants” as he was often known, was sitting in the judicial seat just above and to the right of Junior’s spot. Clad in formal attire and robes, he gave the Captain of the Guard and their guest a happy smile and nod as they took their seats. Following Blueberry Frost’s example after she took her seat off to the side, Godzilla sat himself down behind the wooden half wall and removed his helmet.

Fancy Pants coughed up his breath before tapping his hooves together to call the murmuring to a close and for the guards stationed in the back of the room to close the doors. He pulled up a bit of paper and adjusted his reading monocle.

“Ahem… We welcome to the committee floor of the City of Canterlot, King Godzilla-... Um, I do apologize if this is a typo but there appears to be no family name listed. Do you wish to keep it anonymous?”

He muttered while tilting his head and raising his ear in Godzilla’s direction. Junior waved his hoof a bit. While in truth he didn’t have a surname, he needed no pause to use a meaningful replacement.

“It’s Gojo.”

“Ah, yes. Thank you.”

Fancy Pants quipped as he sat himself back up and continued.

“We welcome, King Godzilla Gojo the Second from the Kingdom of Terran Kaiju. Thank you for coming your majesty.”

Junior ignored how weird it felt to be given an official royal title. In truth once he found out the ponies were very serious about his informal title given to him by humans, being he didn’t lead, he had suggested just dropping it entirely. However Captain Frost had stated word had already gotten out and too many were focusing on it. “Something fascinating to them that monsters could have a king, despite our track record with them. Might as well use it to give yourself some respect.”, she’d said in retort. Letting his mind waver for just a moment to eye the rest of his surroundings, Junior noticed something else in the courthouse.

Two large seats flanking Fancy Pants' spot were vacant, the sun and moon symbols indicating to him it was tied to the diarchs.

-Celestia told me she would be coming. Where is she?-

“Yes I was told it would be good that I come and give some clarification to some things you ponies were wondering about me. Though I thought one of your leaders was going to be here. Something happen?”

“Yes. Many of us in the Canterlot electoral and noble houses have reviewed your biography as given by Princess Celestia’s memory spell and entered it into public record. As you can imagine, some questions have arose.”

Blueblood rose up from his seat.

“It is the opinion of some of our elected parties and nobility, that the public record of our esteemed guest be as robustly thoroughgoing as possible as to avoid overaudious reactions and or misinterpretations by some members.”

“Quite so good fellow!”

Fancy Pants said with a smile. Godzilla however was still just as confused as to what exactly the archduke just said as he was the first time he heard him talk. Thankfully Blueberry Frost nudged him in the side and whispered to him.

“He says he wants to be sure everyone understands you and doesn’t misunderstand stuff.”

“Ah, thanks.”

Junior leaned back up and Fancy Pants continued on.

“Princess Celestia will be coming in shortly, she needed to step out for a minute regarding a personal entry that was called in late. She said we can wait for her if desired or move on.”

“Well, if you all want to we can proceed as you wish. Speaking isn’t exactly a skill of mine but I can try. Who’s first?”

A noblemare raised her hoof, eliciting a nod from Fancy Pants.

“Do you plan on asking to annex any lands for your kind in return for the alliance with the crown and service in dealing with the attacks?”

Godzilla shook his head after shrugging his shoulders.

“Not interested. I have a home already back where I came from and I intend to get back to it. Canterlot has been kind enough to take me in during my stay so I’d have no use for seizing any territory here even if I did want it. This world is beautiful and all, but you can keep it.”

A pegasus stallion behind the first mare raised a wing to pop his billycot hat off and wave it to get Junior’s attention, busily jotting down his notes.

“Yes?”

“What sorta creature are you chap?”

“I’m a dinosaur.”

“Wha’do you eat? You got some pretty sharp fangs there and had a mouthful in your big form.”

Junior blinked before nonchalantly replying. If the questions were going to be this straightforward he might not have much to worry about with this public speaking business at all!

“I don’t need to eat anymore, I get my energy from my powers. But I’m an omnivore.”

His eyes trained on motion and then he spotted her again. That purple mare with the weird look from before. She had tilted her head and raised her hoof for a question, sporting an unamused but still nearly unreadable expression on her face.

“So you’ve eaten flesh? You’re a predator.”

A slightly odd feeling settled over Junior momentarily, but soon passed as he kept to the truth and just stated the facts verbatim. He always had been a terrible liar so he didn’t even consider that route before he blurted out what started to follow. In hindsight, not the best statements to give to a herbivorous species.

“Um, yes I suppose. But I haven’t done that since I matured decades ago. And I didn’t eat anything smart or could talk.”

“What did you eat?”

“Whales and dolphins mostly.”

Junior responded without breaking stride, soon a bit confused as to why that elicited a lot of worried murmuring in the room. His head tilted and he looked about at a few cringing faces. Turned out Equestrians were a lot like most of Westernized humanity in a few more ways than he was aware of. Namely how tropes played when it came to popular culture’s ‘cute’ and ‘scary’ animals. Furry, warm, and cute were good; scaly, cold, and toothy were scary. To him, dolphins were hyper aggressive surplus killers who killed for fun, forced mating to reproduce, and displayed a cruel intelligence he found more than a bit nasty to him in his earlier days when pods would attack him when out for a swim. He later got big enough that they wouldn’t even try. Reptiles, like the lizards or snakes he’d find here and there were pretty passive, didn’t eat too much, and largely just minded their own business even if they didn’t seem too smart.

Unfortunately to the Equestrians, to each view their own. And to them, Junior just admitted to eating ‘Flipper’ while looking like something out of a horror film.

And the mare, a psychologist named Moonbeam Glimmer who’d previously blasted Godzilla on the radio by calling him a predator and a sociopath; just got verification on that first point. And she, mildly worried as she looked, wasn’t done with her questions.

“So, if you don’t hunt to eat now, how often have you… killed?”

“I’ve killed because I’ve been at war constantly for over a decade. I don’t kill anything I meet right away, it's just for when the situation calls for it. Like with the gyaos attack here, sometimes lethal means were needed for obstacles.”

“And what constitutes an, ‘obstacle’?”

“If I can’t stop them otherwise and lives are on the line.”

“But, obviously not all life is equal to you. After all, you seem to think killing is okay if it stops problems, yes?”

Not knowing he was being lead along and Moonbeam thinking she was illuminating a truth like the full moon illuminates the night, Godzilla answered plainly with one of the worst responses he could give.

“Well, yes. For some problems at least.”

Captain Frost cringed, eyeballing Godzilla Junior and Moonbeam Glimmer, as well as the concerned glances and murmuring the crowd was now giving the former.

-Thaaaaaaat wasn’t a good idea to say out loud…-

A reporter stallion near Moonbeam began to raise his hoof, but a sideways, stealthy glare by Moonbeam caused him to retract his hoof. No one else wanted to ask any questions with her standing up, all eyes now upon the psychologist and the kaiju.

“I read your biography notes as given by some of the nobles. Your father was the king before you, yes?”

“In a way. Why?”

“Well, it’s so intriguing. You obviously have a distinct past and as a psychologist I can't help but see trends.”

“Such as?”

“Well, the fact your father and mother were obviously not married, which makes you a bastard son in some ways with all of its psychological damage and implications. And your father, the old king, seemed to hate these ‘humans’ that raised you. Yet, you lay claim to protecting them. Opposite views, but why? You still clearly respect him and call him your father and king, so what makes you two so different?”

Moonbeam said with a tilted head, seeming remarkably calm despite the wide-eyed expression on Godzilla Junior’s face. She’d hit a nerve there. Junior wasn’t oblivious to his father’s hatred for humans for multiple reasons. He himself obviously begged to differ, but the aftereffects were still there. He’d been the world’s ‘Godzilla’ for almost twenty years and most humans still gave him an admittedly justified caution and fear because of what his father and grandfather did. Didn’t matter much, he still kept doing what he was doing; but he was conscious of it. And despite the difference, Senior was still his protector and father.

“He was my father and I loved him but-”

“So you’re saying you are similar?”

“That’s not what I’m saying. Humans hurt him and he hated them for it.”

Moonbeam’s eyes narrowed and the look was mutual for Junior. The sharpness in the mare’s arguing tone and the frustrated growl in the background of the kaiju’s was just starting to become audible. Swallowing her fear, Moonbeam got out of her seat and stepped closer to Godzilla.

“And on the day of your arrival at Canterlot, you were harmed by Princess Luna and members of the guard. So Equestrians have hurt you before haven’t they?”

“Yes, but why would that matter? That was a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding with someone as powerful as you. Did your father lash out immediately after being hurt?”

Godzilla managed to get a hold of his pulse by taking in a deep breath and letting it slither out of his nostrils with a very faint blue glow.

“He didn’t talk much about it, but no. It took awhile and he-”

“So you said he was the old king, your father, and he hurt those who hurt him but not immediately after. And you two are similar. So, let me please ask you… one last question?”

Junior wanted to do a lot of things right now. Walk out of the room, take a swim, roar at this mare to shut up, but as he was right now he was being diverted in just the right path Moonbeam wanted him to go on. For someone not too versed in communications to not know what flirting was, he also wasn’t too good at recognizing when he was being funneled and pressured into the right state of mind. And state of mind was the realm of psychology, Moonbeam’s forte. Still breathing a bit hard, Junior locked up and bluntly responded.

“What?”

Moonbeam’s face finally broke into a more recognizable emotion as her brow raised and her lips lowered into a frown. The pegasus looked at the crowd around her, then out the skylight above, her position letting her see the top of Canterlot Castle. Moonbeam Glimmer let out a long, tired sigh. The pony then shifted her gaze back down to Godzilla Junior and looked him right in the eye. She looked frightened, no, terrified.

“How do we know, that we’re safe around you?”

“I, don’t want to hurt any of you.”

“And yet you did when you arrived. And you could have done much worse. You still can. You call yourself a king, look like history’s worst tyrant, kill what’s in your way at your own choosing, and follow an example of a father when it comes to dealing with those who hurt you. You’re one of the most powerful monsters Equestria has ever seen...if you decided to one day you didn't like us, I dread how much damage you could do before anyone could stop you, if they could. So, what if you decide you don’t like us one day? Or what if you went berserk like your father did? Then what? Who could keep you in check? Power needs to be feared.”

“Your Princesses are powerful too, why don’t you fear them?”

“We had 1,000 years to learn to trust the alicorns, and they’re of this world with our morality. You look like one, but we all know you’re not. So why would you follow our morals to begin with? You’ve already broken some, why not more?”

“I don’t want to- I’m not going to-”

Junior was beginning to stutter as he was trying to piece his words together in a defense but his sentences just weren't coming out right. His frustration was as obvious in his mannerisms as it was his powers, a blue glow beginning to settle on his mane and back fur. Frantic whispers coursed through the crowd as they began to get more and more riled up by Moonbeam and Junior’s actions. Fancy Pants, quick to notice the problem rung the gavel on the desk to try and call things to order, but the uproar of the crowd and Moonbeam’s raised voice meant it was to no avail.

“Order, order! Calm down everypony! Miss Glimmer stop antagonizing our guest!”

“I am- not my father!”

Moonbeam Glimmer ignored Fancy and took several steps forward towards the kaiju’s seat, beckoning Godzilla in a half demanding, half pleading tone.

“So please, give us something and answer the question. How do we know we’re safe around you?! What if you're worse than you could imagine?”

Junior snapped his head up, his anger reaching up to a new peak as his eyes began to pulse with a red light like it had when he was young.

“Why are you asking me this?!”

He barked, causing Moonbeam to half step into a short backpedal. She pursed her lips before returning her determination and stepping back up to him.

“Because, I care about Equestria. Because a horde of monsters has shown up out of nowhere. Because Equestria is in a crisis and who are we supposed to trust with this, you? We’re scared of you, I’m scared of you. I honestly think the last thing Equestria needs is the greatest monster it’s ever seen, one who’s more than ready to kill as a first option, sitting in one of its cities accountable by next to nopony. If you really want to prove you’re not a threat, why not let the Princesses petrify you and then we revive you when the situation calls for it. You wouldn't be conscious and we could then call you up when you're needed.”

Junior hissed through the stress and snapped up from his seat so quickly the motion broke the wooden halfway in front of him and smashed it to the ground. He lurched towards Moonbeam Glimmer before forcing himself to stop as he loomed over the mare.

“.... You’re that scared of me? Is there- any way, deed- cause I could do to prove otherwise?”

He muttered through a contorting face. Moonbeam Glimmer sucked in her breath and in an impressive show of courage, stood up to the obviously frustrated kaiju of a pony despite the fact he towered over her and she had to practically throw her head back to look him in the eye.

“You’re not of this world, you’re not a pony; so we can't expect you to be like us… So, I really don’t know how you could. To me, you’re a sociopath; and I’m terrified of what you might do to others...”

By now the courtroom was half frantic. Many ponies were trying to get out of their tightly packed seats and make for an exit as others looked to and fro at the growing chaos. Several tried to go up and pull Moonbeam back, half convinced she was about to get herself killed as Captain Frost put herself between Moonbeam and Junior while shouting orders to the guards to try and restore order.

“Why do you hate me? Why do you want them to?”

“I don’t, but I can’t trust what’s dangerous and don’t think others should. Not until we know more.”

“Will somepony shut her up?!”

Moonbeam whispered under her breath.

"I was wrong once, I can't be again."

"What are you talking about?!"

Junior raised himself up a bit more, both stressed and confused as to what was going on and what the mare was talking about. The back doors to the courtroom flew open as a massive flare of light shown through them. Instantly everpony gave it their attention and quelled their arguments, worry, and rowdiness. Gradually dying down to a glorious radiance, Princess Celestia walked through the doors and into the chamber. She had just arrived, but had heard enough. And the stoic, narrow eyed look she sported upon her towering figure showed all in the room that she wasn’t very pleased, even as she maintained a tranquil anger.

“Captain Frost.”

She spoke plainly, Blueberry Frost picking up on what was being requested and nodding back after stepping into attention.

“Yes, your majesty. Sergeant Hammerbolt, please escort Dr. Glimmer out.”

Hammerbolt saluted and loomed over Moonbeam. The pegasus mare sighed, casting one last half-glare half-saddened frown to Junior before turning and heading out of the room without a fight. Princess Celestia walked down the central aisle with a graceful gait that would put any deer to shame, striding up to the still heavily breathing, stressed Godzilla without a hint of fear or hesitation. She put a hoof over the stallion’s back and tapped her horn to his reassuringly to help send a bit of magic into him to help him calm down. She rose back up and addressed the courtroom.

“I apologize for my lateness, I didn’t expect things would be this dire. Somepony requested a late entry as soon as she heard Godzilla was being questioned and I needed to lead her here as fast as possible.”

Princess Celestia affirmed while turning and motioning to the door. Soon, flying in from the doorway was a flock of glowing, golden butterflies that looked almost as if they were composed of light itself. They fluttered along until reaching the airspace about a meter away from the royals, swirling together in a magnificent display before colliding together and begetting a small explosion of rainbows and radiance, both dazzling the audience as well as masking the changeling magic shift. In the light’s place was a tall, pale alicorn with beauty rivaling that of Celestia herself; white fur with a slight green tint contrasting with a flowing, leafy colored mane and tail. Even Junior, who’d seen this ‘alicorn’ before couldn’t help but be impressed. And for all the stress he just went through, he couldn’t fight a smile knowing his oldest and best friend had arrived. Mothra Lea returned the smile with a dignified bow, rising up with a grin.

“Ah, it appears I’ve come just in time!”

She chirped, ignoring the audience’s gasps as she trotted over to Godzilla and motioned for them to take a seat again after using her magic to levitate his podium back into place. She took her spot next to him. Princess Celestia extended a hoof to Lea.

“I introduce to you, my little ponies, Princess Lea Mosura of the Terran kaiju Kingdom.”

Fancy Pants was agasped and adjusted his monocle.

“I do say my lady, you’re an-”

“Alicorn in this body, yes. Though typically butterflies are more my thing.”

She replied with a confident but happy snicker. Junior was already relaxing considerably the moment he saw them show up. He trusted Celestia and Lea always was more presentable and articulate than he was. The fear of being backed into a corner was rapidly diminishing, which was a welcome change that Captain Frost picked up on. He leaned over and whispered to his best friend as she parked herself next to him.

“Glad you’re here, it was getting rough. Some influential ones are still afraid of me.”

Lea sighed, briefly sporting a frown as she gave Junior a reassuring nuzzle before replying.

“Some are. On top of your true form, I found out from Twilight that you have more than a passing resemblance to a pretty bad king in your unicorn body. I’ll explain later, but until then, let me do some of this talking. They trust an alicorn’s authority more.”

“All yours, but what about your disguise? What if it goes off and they see you’re one of those ‘changelings’?”

“Well if it does go off, you won’t be the one they’ll be afraid of at least.”

Lea whispered, earning a groan from Junior as he raised his voice just slightly; but was sure enough to keep it quiet enough that no one else could hear him.

“Lele! I’m trying to be serious. Can you keep it up?”

Mothra Lea cracked a confident smirk and wiggled her eyebrow slyly.

“My dear Goji, when have you ever known me to not practice a spell?”

Hoping for the best, Godzilla nodded and faced forward alongside Mothra. Casting a smile of her own, Princess Celestia raised a hoof and called all to her attention.

“Now that all parties are present, there is something I’d like to say….”

The solar diarch paused, her eyes sweeping along the silent room to take in each face before speaking.

“Forty five thousand, six hundred seventy, and counting several births at the emergency hospital, two. That’s the population of Canterlot, a city founded a thousand years ago that nearly came into ruin for the third time in its history. That population isn’t just a number my little ponies, but the names of every pony, gryphon, minotaur, and beyond in both our city’s citizenry and visitors that were here on that fateful night. These two kaiju, and their associates, came from another world; and yet they both fought to protect Equestria as if it were their own home on their own free will. Both here in Canterlot alongside myself and others, and in the Everfree alongside my beloved student and her company. I think they’ve earned enough for us to give them some real questions and not an interrogation. I trust any of those in attendence to respect the names of all present. Canterlot and Equestria have no enemies in this room, we shouldn’t try to make any. Don’t you all agree?”

Lea beamed at her ‘fellow alicorn’ and nodded as Junior cast a relieved smile; it being clear to him now why the princess commanded as much respect amongst the populace as she did.

-Guess power isn’t always feared.-

Fancy Pants, Mayor Mare, and Blueblood looked amongst each other before smirking and leading the crowd in a gradually building, impressed clap. After a bit of applause, Lea stood herself up and motioned to Fancy Pants.

“I apologize for any scare my colleague caused, he’s not used to this sort of thing and didn’t mean to frighten anypony.”

“Oh understandable, given the antagonizing. Though, to continue the questions I have one myself. How long ago did you two meet?”

“Fourteen years ago. We teamed up to save a mass of kidnapped children from a true monster called King Ghidorah.”

“Did it work?”

“Well Ghidorah got away, but every child was accounted for without any marks that wouldn’t wash off in the bath. So I’d call that a win.”

Mayor Mare, one of the ponies who remained in her seat this whole time to verbally defend Godzilla, having not budged due to the court not getting nearly as chaotic as her usual sessions at Ponyville, composed herself and raised an eyebrow at her hoof to get Princess Celestia’s attention. The diarch gave her a nod as she sat herself at the sun inscribed seat flanking Fancy Pants' spot.

“Excuse my confusion but, if there is a king and a princess, then who’s in command?”

“Oh, Godzilla and I are co-leaders.”

“Are you married?”

Junior and Lea shot a wide-eyed look to each other. In truth the mistake was justified given Lea’s first course of action to calm her friend down was to sit next to him and give him a friendly nuzzle, and then there was the whole title debacle. Lea knew exactly what marriage was and while Junior didn’t know much about social organizations, he had come to understand ‘married’ was basically code for ‘life mate’ among humans and was quick to figure that it was the same for Equestrians. Still, that didn’t stop the two of them from thinking it was the most ridiculous thing ever; Junior mimicking a motion he’d seen Captain Frost do and putting his hoof to his head as Lea burst out laughing for a good few seconds. Wiping her eye, the alicorn shook her head.

“Hails to Tanaka no! Just old friends, Goji here’s been like my kid brother since I met him!”

She smiled and gave Junior a friendly whack on the shoulder. The moth’s playfulness did bounds to help Junior rebound from the stresses of five minutes ago. He turned his head over and gave Lea a deadpanned look.

“I hatched three years before you did, Lele.”

“Aw don’t ruin the joke!”

The happier mood was infectious and did wonders to calm down the courtroom; the Mothra species tended to have that effect on mortals. The literal neighsayers of before had largely simmered down, captivated by the new kaiju. She was beautiful, bore a heavily respected title and form, had a sense of humor, and gave an aura of benevolence not unlike that of Celestia. At the duo’s antics, bits of giggles and snickers spread through the courtroom. A curious reporter from the back stood up and earned a nod from Lea.

“Yes?”

“Do you know when the next kaiju attack might happen? Seeing as some gyaos got away.”

“Ah yes, I’ve been working on a detection spell with Princess Twilight Sparkle that should be done in a day or two that will scry for them. But, rest assured your Princesses, myself, and my allies are well prepared to counter any incursions that might happen.”

‘Princess’ Lea affirmed with a hopeful smile that spread to the eager reporter, who quickly went to jotting down the cliffnotes for her paper. Blueblood, giving an impressed gaze towards the green haired ‘alicorn’, slouched and raised a hoof of his own while briefly averting his glance towards Godzilla Junior.

“Who was it that christened Lord Godzilla with his title of king?”

Junior, feeling he could take this issue, began to sit up to respond. While he figured he could hold onto the king title as others had suggested, if Lea said he resembled some sort of evil king he did feel some record needed to be set straight. Namely, how he didn’t take the title for himself but rather had been given it by others; the opposite of any conqueror. He hoped this would help disassociate himself with his similar-in-form counterpart.

“Well actually-”

But before he could finish, Lea cut him off. Junior was about to protest when he saw the affirmed look in his friend’s eye. She gave him a sweet smile and nod before turning and speaking herself, though not before planting a hoof playfully on the tip of Junior’s muzzle to shush him.

“His father got it as a sort of moniker. The humans feared and respected him for it, so they called him that. But his son was a different case. As humbled as my dear friend here is about it, I’d say he’s more than earned it by now. Our faction grew out of both of our efforts to find those to protect our world and its inhabitants, but a big part in it was Goji here’s magnetic quality to the kindred souls we’ve encountered. He’s a strong one for sure, but he never had to use force to assert himself to a future ally. Honestly, I’ve lost track of how many times he’s brought a new ally before me to fight alongside of or a new friend to live in peace with. All because he’s earned their respect and trust, and all while saving hundreds of thousands of human lives in the process.”

Lea looked at Junior in a deep gaze. For the slightest of moments, her view of him drastically changed. Flashes of her parents’ memories with a nightmarish Godzilla Senior caused her to momentarily wince. But just as quick as the recoil started, it was quelled before anyone but Junior could notice it. Overlaying the traumatic sight of Senior was over a decade’s worth of memories involving the Godzilla the modern Mothra knew, the one she called her best friend. The gnashing visage of a blood soaked Senior was replaced with her oldest ally pulling a monster away from innocents, leading a new friend to the Mu islands; or peacefully sitting on her beach with her to enjoy a sunset and letting her perch on his head. The contrast was like night and day and was strong for all the right reasons. Lea’s smile grew as her vision changed to the present, despite Junior having seen her momentary wince and raising a worried eyebrow.

“And if you’re beloved by those who’d be loyal enough to follow you into battle, certainly wouldn’t that make you a good king?”

Junior lowered his head down a bit and sighed quietly. Lea was a better at verbally expressing herself than he was, he’d known this for fourteen years. Didn’t mean she couldn't sway him just like she could those new to her. Wouldn’t expect any less magic, as much figurative as literal, from the most powerful sorceress on Terra.

“Lele…”

He muttered in a quiet tone. Lea cast her friend a smile and a wink before addressing the intrigued crowd with her speech; as much a clever sales pitch as it was an explanation.

“I know he might look a bit scary and I know Equestria has had a rocky history with its kings in the past; but I ask you to rest assured. Just as Terra bred a completely different sort of magic, it’s bred a completely different sort of king. Equestria has another quality protector looking out for it now. You’ve got nothing to fear from one kaiju I’ve felt honored to call my best friend.”

Princess Celestia sported a refined smile as she closed her eyes, Blueblood gave an impressed nod, and Mayor Mare sat back in her seat with a beaming smile. Fancy Pants shook his head while giving a hearty chuckle.

“Touching, most touching. I can hear the scriptwriters and directors clamoring for the movie rights from here!”

The audience broke into small spurts of giggling. Princess Lea snickered and nuzzled the top of 'King' Godzilla’s head, just as happy to show her sibling figure embarrassing public affection as she was that her ploy had worked. After a few more minutes of Lea handling the questions, Junior felt himself confident enough to step back up to the plate upon an inquiry by a representative from Manehattan, Valencia Orange.

“If I may ask without suggesting Ms. Glimmer’s… drastic suggestions, why are you staying in Canterlot? Well with all the ruckus about here, I’d imagine you may want to go elsewhere in Equestria during your stay?”

Junior took a glance over at Captain Blueberry Frost and only needed a glimpse of her unamused expression and line of sight trailing to his helmet.

-Really, wanna try it?-

Rolling his eyes and tapping his helmet, Junior turned back to the crowd.

“Well occupations aside, I may be the king of the monsters but I doubt Captain Frost over there would let me leave even if I tried.”

His first attempt at a joke earned some laughs and a firm nod from Blueberry Frost. The ‘interview’ closed soon after, having resolved much smoother than expected despite the initial fright. By the end of the hour word of the account had spread across the nation. The gryphons called off their state of emergency, King Leo of the seaponies sent in a letter asking if one of the six kaiju would be willing to make a state visit, and ticket sales for the Neighagra Falls airshow skyrocketed upon word that Rodan was being placed on a flight team sponsored by the crown itself. The only word from Prince Rutherford from Yakyakistan was a letter asking how someone as strong as Godzilla ended up as a pony and not a yak. National polls at the end of day showed the approval rating for the alliance with the Terran refugee kaiju increased thirty percent, many citing ‘Princess Lea’ for being a contributing factor.

==============================

Downtown Canterlot Tavern, about an hour later

Two hours later and Junior found himself in the second situation he didn’t expect to be in within a 24 hour period. Namely, about an hour after the interviews closed and he returned to the barracks; Captain Frost had instructed him to-

-”Drop yer’ gear and go to your locker for new attire. It’ll already be in there. Put it on and meet me at the back in ten.”-

Assuming she meant ten minutes, he hurried and arrived at the backgate with some help from Cached Ire. The 'new attire' was a duster coat, scarf, goggles, and medical mask scaled to his size to a degree he didn’t bother wondering where the captain got them. Blueberry Frost met him there and walked him out of the castle in the disguise for something he assumed was important….

He was still waiting for her to tell him what was of such dire need as he sat across from her in a booth seat at the back of a pub.

Blueberry Frost nonchalantly leaned in her seat with her hooves behind her head, out of her armor for the first time ever since Godzilla met her. Though, true to some rumors he’d heard amongst the guard, she didn’t part from her lance and instead had it propped up against the wall and resting on the rest of her booth. She took a swing of cider as Junior looked about the room, still covered from head to hoof in his disguise.

“Captain, why are we here again? The Princesses didn’t want me leaving the castle to avoid any attention… And why do I look like I just walked out of the infirmary?”

He grunted dryly with a slight muffle, minding to keep his voice to an appropriate level so that only she heard him. Captain Frost waved her drink in Godzilla’s direction and shrugged her shoulders before putting the mug down.

“Because I like my job, so I put ye' in a suit to keep anypony from recognizing ye' on our way here. And because I’m on break and need a designated trotter to get me back to the castle.”

She snickered in her usual carefree tone. While the joke might have been lost on Junior, the false reasoning wasn’t. Even through the goggles and mask he gave her a head tilted slouch that couldn’t possibly be mistaken for anything else other than annoyed confusion.

“.....” Godzilla didn't replu, too confused to get the wordplay.

Blueberry Frost rolled her eyes at the kaiju of a stallion easily three times her size, winding her hoof in circles in his general direction.

“Besiiides, ye' need to relax.”

She snickered, drawing out the first word with a half trill, “The interview for ye’ is over now so this is the time to chill some. Unwind and all that jazz. Th' storms ova’ for now.”

Godzilla just shrugged with a frown all too obvious through his mask, “I’m not one to relax even if something apparent isn’t going on. Priority rule on Terra was it’s what one can’t see coming that I need to be wary of.”

Blueberry Frost raised an eyebrow, “Then why do I remember ye’ calmin’ down right fine in the chamber once yer’ gal pal showed up?”

Junior lowered down more, “Lea always wanted me to relax more. I didn’t want to fight it and cause more problems so I allowed it. My break is over now, so I need to be alert again.”

His captain shot him an incredulous stupor, “Ye’ call all that drama a break?!”

Blueberry Frost lurched up a bit off center, banging her forelimb on the table while shooting Godzilla an incredulous expression. Junior just shrugged and responded in a blank tone like he was reporting for duty at the barracks: attentive, stoic, and by Bluberry’s count, completely dull.

“It would be irresponsible for me to drop my watch for any longer. That’s why we’re guards right, to stay alert?”

Blueberry Frost rolled her eyes and put her hoof to her head while rubbing it.

“Godzill-.. Junior, one can be alert and all without bein’ so strung up. Yer so wound ye' might snap in two!” She groaned like she was fighting an oncoming headache.

Junior looked off to the side.

“It’s a habit of mine…. Look, is there any real reason you took me here after all that exposure?”

He grumbled, looking back at Blueberry Frost and actually being surprised at what he saw. For first time he could recall aside from a brief flash of it in the halls on his first day in Equestria, the Captain of the Celestial and Lunar guard had a completely serious look on her face. Her expression was utterly devoid of any of its usual casualness or energy, instead maintaining a commanding look one would expect for her rank. Godzilla even found himself straightening up a bit once her stare locked with his.

“It’s ‘cause ye’ have. no. I.Dea.”

He blinked, “Come again?”

Frost frowned, “Aside from that Moonbeam gal gettin’ yer goat in the courtroom, Colonel Blade Dancer is coming back from the Empire today.”

Junior’s eyes rolled up a bit behind his goggles, looking up to the ceiling in an annoyed manner. Blade Dancer was still an enigma to him. She had given him the rundown on Equestrian history like he asked and was friendly enough. Problem was, she was too friendly and kept behaving strangely to him in a manner that he could tell she wanted a response of some kind; but he honestly had no earthly idea what her antics were or what she was looking to get out of him. When he reacted with confusion, she just kept doing ‘it’. When he reacted negatively, she mumbled something about “hard to get” and kept acting weirdly. And when he reacted kindly on that first night, she seemed frustrated and just redoubled her efforts at whatever it was she was doing; leaving Junior completely baffled as to her reasoning. In the end it just left him confused and annoyed more than anything else.

“Greeaaaat…”

“I can see ye’ r'member her well enough. Keep ye' tongue in mind, she was on the same academy team trio as me and Armor.”

“I... meant no offence. She just," he squirmed slightly, unsure, "Left an...impression… Last time someone managed to confuse and creep me out like that involved a giant, psychotic bug.”

Blueberry Frost grumbled lowly and pointed at Junior.

“Aaaaand at that there, my point’s been proven. Besides the fact Moonbeam got under yer hide and ye’ nearly spooked half the press, yer the first stallion I’ve seen rebuke Blades without much reason and lookin’ confused through it all. That means something's off with ye'. So I'm gonna take a guess and think ye’ didn’t get much socializing back home, did ye’?”

“No” Godzilla replied dryly, not needing to exposit that truth.

He was a workaholic that belonged to a ‘race’ not in the double digits and physically barred from the major sentient species of his planet. Long chats, wordplay, speaking skills, and socializing in general weren’t his strong suits.

“Well then, consider this something I’m gonna help ye’ with. Those ornery things that Blade Dancer did around ye’ that creeped ye’ out? She was flirtin’, and heavily at that.”

“... Come again?”

“I see yer skull really is dense…” Captain Frost mumbled before taking another gulp of her second mug of cider.

Once it hit her stomach she wobbled briefly for a moment and Junior noticed a slight flush in her face. Still, commendation to where it was due; her voice and focus were unwavering through it all.

“It’s somethin’ somepony does when they're courtin’ somepony or want to court somepony they got their eyes on. Just to make a short run’round of an explanation, ye’ know what… uh… mating is, right? Or do I gotta go over 'the birds and the breezies' too?”

Via both instinctual knowledge, information from Lea, and natural observation of the species he’d watch growing up; thankfully that route was something already known and needed no explanation.

“I’m aware of it, why?”

“Well, I don’t know how it is with Terra, but here in Equestria we pony folk like to hitch saddles with one pony we really take a shinin’ to and stay with ‘em ‘cus we like each other a lot.”

She spoke as Junior nodded. Some of this was still new to him, but the basic jist of it he actually did have a context for,

“Life mates, like a lot of birds right?”

“Huh.. yeah that’s one way of puttin’ it. Anyways, courtin’, flirtin’, dating’, and all that other stuff is our way of testing’ the waters. See who we like, if they like us; and if it’s lastin’, pick ‘em as a ‘life mate’ as you put it. Ye’ accounted for back home by anypony- er, anykaiju?”

“As far as I know I’m one of only two males left for my species and the females I know has about are either my sister or has the same interest in me as I do her. None.”

Junior deadpanned with a shrug.

“I’ve had too much to think and be committed to, none of which includes hatchlings.”

Blueberry Frost momentarily broke her train of thought to raise an eyebrow.

“Hatchlin's?”

Godzilla motioned to himself.

“Dinosaur, remember?”

“Oh, right. Eggs,” Frost muttered, not seemingly too shocked, and just going back to business.

“Anyways, findin’ yer partner isn’t all about reproducin’. There’s an emotional tie. Both are each other’s support and confidant. Being together just in presence makes both happy. With Blade Dancer? All those things she did around ye’? She was trying to present herself and see if ye’ were interested in linking saddles with her. She’s still lookin’ around for her match.”

And suddenly the fog parted and Godzilla Junior finally understood just what exactly was going on with that crazy mare. True, there was no reciprocation on his side; but now confusion was just replaced with mild self depreciation. Blade Dancer just went from a crazy mare who confused him to a mare crazy enough to try and seek him.

“And she, in her quest to find emotional stability and friendliness, seriously chose to look at me?”

He muttered dryly, emphasizing that last word to make his point. Blueberry Frost rolled her eyes and let her shoulders sag.

“It’s Blade Dancer, she flirts with anythin’ on four legs in her size that she likes. She and Cached Ire used to be an item ‘bout a year ago until they broke off, but they seem to be on good terms now. Heck, she even did it to to me a few times during our years together on the ol' trio with Shiny ‘till she figured out I don’t swing for both sides.”

Blueberry Frost glanced around in a way that Junior guessed was to insure no one was looking their direction, before she crawled across part of the table and lifted up Junior’s goggles to uncover his eyes. She rubbed at her chin while looking over the exposed portion of his face as Junior wisely pivoted his head towards the wall to avoid being seen.

“Hmmm not that surprised she did it to ye’ actually. Personality plays a big roll and yer a nice enough guy; and for someone who’s really a thirty story dinosaur yer unicorn form isn’t too shabby. A bit ruffled but I’d think ye’d clean up nicely. Mares do like a tall stallion.”

“Thanks I guess… Can I have my goggles back now?”

“Hey, listen to what I’m telling ye’! Stay on topic”

Blueberry Frost snipped, holding the goggles away from Godzilla.

“My point is, this whole ordeal brought somethin’ to my attention. Regardless of if Blade Dancer tries to come at you again or not when she gets back, if yer gonna be stuck here awhile I think it best I learn ye’ some social skills. That way anypony, be they Blades or that Moonbeam gal don’t ruffle your fur like earlier and ye’ get yer'self in another mess like the one Princess Lea had to pull you outta.”

“So I can blend in better and not frighten ponies as much?”

“That, and because I can tell you need it.”

She muttered, motioning for Godzilla to come closer. After some hesitation he did so. Blueberry Frost sighed and put a hoof to his cheek to push the medical mask a bit further down.

“I ain’t a bookworm recently, but I ain’t stupid either. Equestria’s a peaceful country, but we in the guard still get called out to trouble. I was a cadet once too y'know, looking at some of the older soldiers. Ye’ can see the stories in their eyes. I looked at my first captain, me and Armor's captain, Stalwart Sentry after he got called off to a case near Foal Mountain; dragon attack burned a whole frontier settlement down. He never did act much the same after he came back. He'd seen some shit. Yer reaction to Blade Dancer’s flirtin’ got me lookin’ at ye’ and I noticed some similarities.”

She brushed some of Junior’s brow fur aside and saw a scar going across his skin under where the fur was slightly ruffled. The captain kept up her quiet tone.

“When I look at yer eyes and body language like I did my first captain, I see someone who’s wound up too tight for all but brief intervals. I didn’t even need to read the medical reports after yer tussle with them gyaos to know you were marked up. Not sure if ye’ used yer quarter’s mirror, but when ye’ look close enough ye’ can actually see the little blemishes in the fur flow to indicate a scar. Yer ‘bout Armor's age, but I can see between yer marks and eyes that ye’ been through loads more and are prepared to take on even more.”

“Being on the front lines to try and keep Terra spinning kept me busy… My mother’s human, and I’m stronger than a human. So if a human was in danger of something they can’t handle, but I can; I gotta do something.”

“Ye’ don’t like bullies, huh?”

Junior sighed, pulling out of Blueberry’s reach while keeping his head down. His tone was more tired than anything else.

“Add in lethal consequences for my inaction and that's one way to put it...”

“Hey, I’m not here to talk ye’ down from yer heroics. I’m sure plenty of these 'hoomans' back on Terra are alive thanks to ye’ and that yer Ma is the proudest parent on the planet. But if there is anythin’ I learned from my service and watchin’ the service of my first captain, it’s how important a good ‘leave’ is…. He’s retired an' taken up painting. Yer one of Terra’s champions, but yer not on Terra right now; so consider this yer ‘leave’ time.”

Godzilla Junior tried hard to listen, he visibly was with the stiffeness that had overtaken him. But it didn't stop his frown, “Captain I’m not sure I-”

Blueberry Frost smacked her hoof onto the table and rattled it along with the nearby wall; a pretty impressive show of strength for a mare of her size, instantly getting Junior to shush as she pointed her other hoof at him and shot him a commanding look.

“My name isn’t ‘Captain’. I’m trying to get ye’ to be more informal so we’re being informal. My name is Blueberry, Blueberry Frost. Ye’ see me in five kilos of platemail right now?”

“You did still bring your lance here.” Godzilla mumbled quietly, glancing aside while trying not to be disrespectful, nodding his head in the direction of the sharp implement as if to verify his statement.

Blueberry, taking a moment to realize he wasn't trying to be rude to someone he clearly held in a regard, snickered, returning to her typical demeanor and hugging her weapon like it was her best friend while waving her half-hanging, free hoof at Junior.

“Awww, but she’s my baby though! the mare sniggered, resisting the urge to laugh at seeing the kaiju shoot her a confused head tilt, "Whaaaaat? Some mares got their saddlebags, others got a hat; my personal carry-on just happens to involve a pointy stick! Heheh! Though, back to the issue at hoof-”

Godzilla stopped listening to her when he noticed something else out of his peripheral vision. The pub wasn’t very crowded so his eyes quickly locked onto the line of sight crossing his easily. The pub waitress, a pinkish purple earth pony mare with a curly mane and grape cutiemark named Berry Punch, was looking directly at him. Unlike before when he first walked in and got a few wayward, odd stares on account of sheer size, this time he had a portion of him uncovered. And his exposed gold eyes with red sclera were as distinct as they were recognizable by the public at large by this point. Berry Punch kept looking at him with widened eyes before muttering something he couldn’t quite make out from the distance and quickly made her way to the bartender.

Godzilla lurched across the table, cutting off Blueberry Frost midspeech and snatching up his tinted goggles.

“I’ve been spotted. We have to go.”

He quickly grunted, fumbling his hooves a bit to get the goggles back on to obscure himself. Needless to say, he was more than surprised when Blueberry Frost, leaning on the backboard behind her, kicked her lance over the table and blocked his exit with it. Reluctant to smash the obstruction, though he easily could, Junior caught the captain snickering and whispering something to him.

“I know. Waaaait for it.”

Junior lurched his head over to Blueberry Frost, the baffled expression across his mostly covered face still plenty evident in his mannerism and eyes. He growled and looked back down, popped the lance free of its wedging between the floor and seat wall just in time for him to see a pair of pinkish-purple hooves walk up to the upper edge of his field of view. Godzilla looked up to see a smiling Berry Punch tilting her head in a relaxed manner, several plates filled with food and two drinks occupying the tray mounted on her side carrier. She pulled the dishes off the carrier and slid them onto the table.

“On the house.”

She whispered while serving the seated pair. Afterwards Berry Punch stood up straight and looked directly at the both of them, collecting herself before smiling to the point of beaming, “… Thanks!”

Berry Punch chirped with a beaming expression before trotting off to get back to work. On the other side of the room, Junior caught a glimpse of the bartender mare giving him a quick smile and nod before returning to business as usual. Godzilla looked back at the food, Blueberry Frost wasting no time to snatch up a hayfry and pop it in her mouth.

-The food smells fresh. They couldn’t have made this just after the goggles came off and they recognized me...it must have taken longer.-

His head snapped up to see a smirking Blueberry Frost reclining in her seat.

“You told them I was here…”

“They knew as well actually.”

“And the free food?”

“Payback for not lettin' them be food to them gyaos.”

Blueberry Frost quipped, taking a long sip of her drink. Lack of motion towards the delicious looking plate caused her to raise an eyebrow at Godzilla.

“... What’s wrong? Allergic to hay?”

Junior twitched his nose and muzzle. The food smelled good and he understood the good will behind the gift, but he still felt a bit weird accepting it.

“First that confusing duke, now this. Guess I’m just as unused to thanks as I am to courting.”

“Well, as I said; consider this time here yer leave. And I’m going to try and help ye’ understand both a bit more so you can enjoy it some.”

“I’m not good at relaxing for other than brief moments. The threats looming are- MPH!”

He was cut off by a very insistent and growling Blueberry Frost lurching over the table and stuffing several hayfries in his mouth. He shot her a grumbling look, snatching them up behind his fangs and gulping them down while admittedly quite liking the salty taste. Blueberry Frost smirked at the kaiju before giggling and reclining back to her seat.

“Ponies are herd animals, and herds look out for each other. Ye’ got us guards, the princesses, the Element Bearers, and yer kaiju buddies all here to stand up to any threat that comes a callin’; just like ye’ are. Equestria’s one big herd and yer lot are now roped into it."

She seemed to pause for a second and collect her breath. She had every ounce of Godzilla's attention at that moment. She was huffing, her ears were erect, and her eyes were intensely focused. For some odd sense, he felt she was talking to the both of them.

"Even... Even if we're different than the normal folk, we're all the same herd. This is your herd, clan, flock... hive. Whatever ye' wanna call it. You look out for them, but they will look out for you. They don't want us to be standing on the sides and watching over them, but to be amongst them. Were we should be," she took in a deep breath and calmed, shooting him a pleasant smile, "So... Stop trying to shoulder watch detail all by yer’self or thinking you're all by yourself. If you worry so hard on what could happen or what has happened, you'll never appreciate the present for what is happening. We’ll all be alert in shifts to protect each other, so yer gonna need to relax some and stop hoggin’ the shift. What ye’ couldn’t give yer’self on Terra, have some in Equestria; ye’ need it. Enjoy the benefits of yer break time.”

She affirmed, whapping her hoof across a fry hanging off the side of his plate and causing it to flip into the air. The mare skillfully caught it in her maw, shooting Junior a goofy snicker as she chewed and swallowed.

“I am.”

Junior sighed, looking down at the food for a time before casting a glance across the bar. There were plenty of ponies present, most of which he recognized as off duty guards from the castle. Some of Equestria’s protectors relaxing in a restaurant, calm but not oblivious. Most were going about their business, with some glancing over and giving him a nod, smile, or wave. Reminded him a bit of the G-force officers he’d see at the institute. Blueberry Frost, already chewing on half her meal proper, gave him a friendly punch in the shoulder. After a bit of thought, he leaned over and took a sip from the drink he’d been provided. With a loud sigh, he let more than the stale air in his lungs sag some; almost like he was taking a massive weight off his back. Having managed to down most of his cider in single gulp, he let himself lean back into his seat.

“.. Alright, Blueberry, well if we’re gonna start anything I want something cleared up. I heard it from someone and it just makes no sense.”

“Oh? What'd they tell ye’?”

Blueberry chirped while bringing her mug up to sip from it.

His ears flopped down, “So I can stop thinking it’s some sort of gruesome act involving mutilation and cooked meat, what’s in the realms is with ponies and 'digging' when it comes to flirting?”

Blueberry Frost half choked on her drink as her eyes expanded to dinner plates. Gagging, she lurched to the side and spat out a spray of cider from her muzzle before erupting in roars of laughter.

“Oooookaaay, who talked to you about that?!”

=============================

Mothra Lea was thankfully having a calm moment of her own up in her and Twilight’s study. The latter party having gone out to grab some more books from the library for their efforts, Lea did a check around to make sure she was out of prying eyes before stomping her hoof on the ground. In a flash of rainbow light and green flames, the changeling hex was called off and a royal changeling stood where an alicorn once did.

-Phew! Glad I could keep that up!-

She shrugged, rolling her shoulders and wings after taking her costume off. While on some level she didn’t like deceiving Equestria as a whole, Princess Celestia and Luna agreed with her and Twilight’s assertion it was for the best; at least for now. With Junior scaring half the country and adult alicorns being seen as a symbol of beauty by the populace, thanks to 1,000 years of benign rule from Celestia; giving them a public face that seemed prettier and more friendly than Godzilla was a useful scheme. And already being a shapeshifter, it wouldn’t be much problem for Lea to keep the act up as long as it was needed.

Unbeknownst to Lea however, she wasn’t alone. There were two eyes watching her from the window. The train from the Crystal Empire had rolled into station several minutes ago, and someone wasted no time flying up to the castle as fast as they could. A psychic grip choked the window latches and locks, forcing them undone and popping open the window to an unnatural wind. Lea whirled around to face the noise just in time to see Xenilla float himself through the window frame. Her wings flared out and horn ignited with a radiance that was quick to spread to her antennae, chest, and eyes. Had Xenilla not dropped himself on his hooves and canceled out any sense of a glowing energy charge of his own, she’d have blasted him with everything she had and probably taken out the back wall and a chunk of the mountainside along with unloading him. Xenilla kept a cool head and neutral expression, raising a hoof offhandedly while closing his eyes in an uninterested manner.

“Nice to see you too Lea. Let’s not waste time on that business however, you can drop the light show. I saw the purple alicorn on the way up here and I know both Empress Cadence and the two bigger ones are also on the castle grounds. I’m not here to pick a fight, you know I’m not stupid.”

“Some of your entrance and timing says otherwise Xenilla. You got me cornered alone without my usual company around. Couldn’t wait for all of us to be in the same room?”

“And yet I don’t see Destroyah anywhere in sight, so I’d affirm this is an even meeting. So can we please cancel the magical light show? I’ve already had one rough fight in the last week, I’m not in the mood for another.”

Xenilla grumbled, sitting himself down and keeping his distance to lower his apparent threat level. Lea glared at him for a good while and didn’t stop glaring as she wound down her energy charge. She didn’t completely cancel it, just hid it in case. She trusted Xenilla about as far as she could throw him and she needed to keep her powers on a quick draw in case he tried anything. Xenilla was fully aware she’d do this and didn’t act on it.

“What do you want Xenilla?”

She muttered, raising herself back up.

Xenilla glanced behind him, his horn glowing as his magic shrouded the window and gently shut it.

“Your expertise in something.”

“And why would I ever willingly do anything for you? Going to try and force my hand?”

“No, you’ll do it willingly-”

Xenilla plainly spoke in a creepily calm tone as he turned back around to face her.

“-because you are a mothra, and you owe me.”

Lea couldn’t hide her confusion at that. Xenilla might as well have told her that the window drapes were a theologian.

“Wh-What are you talking about?”

“Infant Island, 4 years, 254 days, 16 hours, 2 minutes ago. You know, the day of the invasion?”

=================

Infant Island, 2009

Mothra Lea flew as fast as she could back home, back to her birthplace. The telepathic plea from Moll and Lora had come screaming at her an hour ago and in that time she’d flown faster than she even thought possible, crossing most of the Pacific in her route. She pulled out of her mach speed in a tremendous crack that split the sky and parted the clouds. Her worst fear had been realized as she saw what was making landfall on Infant Island’s beachhead. A stampede of walking mountains charged up the shores and swarmed the skies on the island’s northern side. The Mutations had somehow broken through her illusions and hexes to mask her island home, and were rushing her homestead. Afterwards she’d find a GDF submarine had been investigating her magic and unknowingly found a weakened portion of her protection spells. Its passage through her maze of misdirections and barriers had gotten half the Mutations’ attention and they were invading the island after sinking the submarine, attracted by the high energy levels the abundant mana gave off.

She would have dove down to confront them instantly and mow down the entire area with beam fire, but she spotted someone else on the ground. As Krystalakk lunged at a glowing object near the tree, a reptilian hand grabbed his and threw him back with such force that Krystalakk flew into Agon and sent them both crashing into a mountainside. The opposer was tall and saurian. At first Lea thought them to be Junior, whose warning ability had perhaps guided him here, with the Mothra’s safeguards not affecting him. But the gleam of broad shoulder crystals and a triple tipped crest quickly told her how wrong she was, utter confusion replacing her momentary hope; even more so when she saw that Xenilla throwing aside one of the Mutations wasn’t an isolated incident.

Xenilla levitating himself several dozen meters into the air, floating himself around weightlessly to put himself between the other Mutations and Infant Island’s treasures, the nexus tree that created the local mana and the twin faeries that were themselves hotspots of magic. He roared at his own forces, barking commands as he himself made no move on the prize. The Mutations snarled, screeched, and cackled in response before charging Xenilla. Gaira and Zedus, the man eaters, both rushed forth and tackled him to try and shove him to the ground. Their initial impact did stagger Xenilla enough to force him to land, but he quickly caught his footing and grabbed the two by their throats to double choke-slam them into the ground.

No sooner did he do that however, Megaguirus came strafing in from the side to slash her claws across his left flank as Jiger launched an arc of her heat beam to set Xenilla’s right half on fire. Xenilla fired a corona flare at Jiger and forced her to take cover after splitting the skin of her back with a glancing hit. By now Dagahra had taken to the air and attempted to launch himself at the nexus tree while Xenilla was distracted. Despite the fact half of him was still ignited and shrouded in smoke and flames, Xenilla still saw the beast’s attempts to sneak past him. His shoulder spikes glowing yellow, Xenilla grabbed Dagahra in a tornado of telekinesis and smashed him to the ground before flicking his arm and tossing him away. That’s when Megaguirus came rushing in again, crashing into the back of Xenilla’s head and sending him stumbling. With Xenilla’s back turned, the recovered Zedus unhinged his jaw and fired his dagger-tipped tongue through his own leader’s arm. Xenilla shrieked in pain, grabbing the impaling organ to keep Zedus from retracting it. By this point Zigra had adjusted into his terrestrial form, cackling as the jewel above the goblin shark-like kaiju’s ignited and fired a thunderbolt-like beam.

Seeing it coming out of the corner of his eye, Xenilla extended his good arm and flicked his wrist. A crystal spire with a perfectly flat face shot out of the ground and intercepted Zigra’s paralysis ray, reflecting and raking it across Zigra before rotating on its base at just the right moment to redirect the beam into Zedus. Both kaiju jittered and rattled as the beam shocked their systems. A nuclear pulse from Xenilla that shot up Zedus’ tongue sent the sea monster pinwheeling back as Zigra went limp and fell down on his face. Mothra Lea watched it all from afar while still trying to find Moll and Lora, completely baffled as to what she was seeing, nor knowing for sure who to attack. Xenilla kept taking and healing from more and more hits, returning them with gusto. While he was far stronger than the individual mutations, it was a one against nine battle.

After needing to blast off the shower of acidic barems launched at him by Dagahra with a nuclear pulse, Xenilla felt his still healing right side go numb. Ice crystals ran up the length of his arm, torso, and shoulder; freezing them all in place under the blizzard of Bar'ugun’s freezing mist. Then Megaguirus came at him again after flying out at high speed and dive-bombing Xenilla. She hit his frozen shoulder full force and shattered his shoulder crystal as she did the ice. Megaguirus cackled gleefully at the sound of Xenilla’s agonizing shriek. Her grinning stopped when she felt a crystal tipped tail stab into her own and wrap around it. Xenilla whipped the slippery Mutation back and smashed a swiping, crackling paw into her thorax with so much force it completely shattered huge chunks of her exoskeleton. Pulling his tail free from her’s, Xenilla spun around and smashed it into her hard enough to ground her. He staggered, crackling with out of control energy. Xenilla drooled blood and reached for his shattered shoulder crystal’s base. That’s when all the still standing Mutations swarmed over and dogpiled him. Teeth gnashed, claws slashed, beams fired, and feet stomped; Lea only catching a glimpse of Xenilla via a flailing arm and thrashing tail.

Then the micro-oxygen spheres began flying into the crowd, physically blasting several off and sending others scrambling for cover. Destroyah hissed steam from her maw and frill, stomping her thundering footsteps as she advanced from the shore. Momentarily distracted, the remaining number pinning and trying to maul Xenilla to death couldn’t get off in time. The red glow beneath them grew to be blinding, being the only forewarning before a massive nuclear pulse fired off to the sound of Xenilla’s booming roar. A small mushroom cloud and uproar of smoke and dust were the following result. Lea kept where she was, hovering several thousand meters above the island.

As the mushroom cloud dissipated, numerous Mutations struggled up to their feet. One of the first instigators, Krystalakk, lay with the back of his head shoved into the ground and a battered but standing Xenilla grinding his heel into the rebellious mutant’s chest. He had lost one of his two control crystals anchored to his shoulders and the other was cracked severely, putting him in more restrained agony than the missing teeth, numerous bite wounds and cuts; and swollen right eye were. At least the latter set of injuries were quickly and painfully mending, said pain fueling the earth rumbling roar he gave the group. The Mutations still conscious looked amongst themselves to see if any of their number still wished to fight and claim leadership or the treasures behind their current leader. The loud hiss coming from the right of Xenilla signalled which side Destroyah was taking as she stood beside him.

Xenilla kicked the pinned kaiju beneath him away, barking at the group while lighting up his back spines and eyes. The Mutations winced and unanimously lowered themselves, backing down. With a single growl, Xenilla ordered them to leave and they did so; by sea and by air for those who could. Destroyah took several steps to follow them, sharing a silent, mutual glance with Xenilla as she passed him. He nodded to her before flicking his good wrist and summoning up two, ten meter tall crystal spires, one blue and one yellow. Plucking them from the ground by hand, Xenilla kept the blue one and tossed the other to Destroyah. She caught the energy crystal in her maw, hissing as she marched off. She crunched and devoured the token by the time she waded into the surf, surges of power coursing over her. With the blue crystal in hand, Xenilla sucked in his breath before stabbing himself in his broken shoulder with it. The gem flashed and shattered into dust, the sapphire powder accelerating his regeneration and closing the wound. It would take him a good few weeks to grow back his shoulder crystal in full, but he’d stopped the bleeding. Pausing only to catch his breath, Xenilla composed himself as he levitated up into the air. The glowing object from before, the one nestled in the trees and having been the target of most of the Mutations trying to get past Xenilla, floated up with him and revealed itself to be a sphere of crystals roughly the size of a car.

Xenilla regarded the crystal for a time, glancing back at the retreating forms of the Mutations to ensure they were all out of range by now. Shrugging off her confusion and knowing anything involving crystals and Xenilla couldn’t be good, Lea began to silently swoop down in a dive whilst charging up all of her attacks. Xenilla was weakened but if she knew anything about Mutations, it was that they were both hopelessly destructive and always in quests for their own power. Xenilla was alone with the greatest surviving source of mana on the planet and her beloved shobijin, Moll and Lora, were nowhere to be found; something Lea wouldn’t tolerate. And with him weakened, she might be able to finish him off then and there.

Xenilla poked the crystal with a claw at just the right cleavage point, shattering all but its bottom face to form a dish that he held in his good hand. Mothra Lea had just come up behind him, having everything from her wing lightning to her prism eye beams to her buster cannon primed. That was when Xenilla turned around and looked directly at her with an expression devoid of surprise.

He’d known she was there the whole time. And instead of launching a counter attack or calling up any nearby Mutations to defend him, he just swayed slightly in the wind amongst his levitation. Xenilla looked Lea dead in the eye and held the dish of crystal out to her. He extended his arm as far as it could go, letting go of it and seamlessly pushing it the remaining distance via his psychic ability. He said absolutely nothing before or after the time Mothra stole a glance at the dish and froze. He merely turned around and levitated himself away in a slow, weak flight back out to sea and off of Infant Island. By the time his telekinesis cut off due to range, Lea was holding the dish with her own hands.

Inside the dish, having been shielded by a barrier of crystals, were the awakening, albeit groggy, forms of Lora and Moll. While they had been imprisoned in the improvised lock box, there wasn’t a mark on what had been the prime target for the rebelling kaiju.

“Nennen korori yo, okorori yo….Bōya wa yoi ko da, nenne shina…
Bōya no omori wa, Doko e itta? Ano yama koete, Sato e itta.
Sato no miyage ni, Nani morotta? Denden taiko ni, Shō no fue.”

===============

Back in the present day, Xenilla stopped his recollection and sat quietly where he had landed upon his entry.

“Surely, after all these years to sort your mind out; you must have suspected the worst motive for my actions as possible.”

He affirmed dryly. Mothra Lea, having shared the trip down memory lane, still spoke with a sour taste on her tongue and in her tone. The shobijin had been loyal aids to the mothra lineage for eons, she never liked to think of any instance they could have been hurt in. That day when her island was breached and attacked while she was away? It was one of the scariest days of her life and any remembrance of it left her dour.

“From you, I expected no better.”

Xenilla grunted, rolling his eyes before climbing back up onto his hooves.

“Regardless of if you suspected it or wished it to be so, you know full well what I did that day. I kept the Mutations from devouring every bit of power you had on your little island, including those faeries of yours. And I suffered my own share of injuries from the effort, all while not seizing the opportunity myself.”

Lea winced, keeping a glare on the stallion for a few moments that caused him to stay where he was; before silently looking away and keeping her eyes off of Xenilla’s own.

“....Why?”

“You’re a smart one, I’m certain you could think of plenty of motives. Maybe I didn’t want one of them getting strong enough to topple me, maybe I wanted the power for myself but left since I knew you were there and would be no match for you in my condition, or maybe something else entirely. We really could play multiple choice for hours here and it would amount to nothing.”

“And what, pray tell then, matters?”

She muttered, sighing before picking herself back up. Her eyes momentarily flashed with surprise at seeing Xenilla had silently closed the distance between them and was right in front of her. The only thing that kept her from jumping up into the air and blasting him through the floor with a buster cannon shot was the fact that he made no move of his own. Even so, he had to keep a calm voice by conscious choice after seeing Lea’s chest give off a dim glow to indicate a narrowly aborted cannon shot.

-She’s on a hair trigger, careful…-

“The fact you owe me, and you’re going to pay me back…”

And then Mothra Lea heard words she never expected to hear addressed to her coming out of the kaiju they were being spoken by, as Xenilla sighed and rubbed at his head.

“Because I need your help. ”

=======================

Hours Earlier on the Train

“-but, this is a long train ride. Get comfortable.”

After a few moments later of Blade Dancer doing so and Xenilla resigning himself, he continued.

“The circumstances of my ‘birth’ weren’t exactly normal. I won’t bore you with the details, it’s complicated enough as is, but when I say I was born of the blood of my father I’m being very literal. I have no mother.”

While she wasn’t a big science fiction reader or film fan, Blade Dancer did know the tropes well enough to make a guess as to what sort of tracks to truth were being laid out in front of her.

“You’re, a clone?”

Xenilla’s eyebrow twitched a bit, speaking with clearly some restrained anger as he stated his correction to something that was technically true.

“I am not, a clone… A clone is a replication, a copy. I was altered, improved in some ways, changed in others. I am no genetically closer to my father than I would be if were his son born of a mother, so his son I am. One of the alterations were a series of visions, I got them right after I was ‘born’.”

“Visions of what?”

Xenilla shrugged. After over twenty years he was still unsure exactly what he saw, but he had put the pieces together the best he could long ago.

“Home. A blue, brown, and green planet swirling in a void. Terra, the place I was born of, belonged to, and deserved a place in. It really is a sight Blades, seeing a world like that from such a distant viewpoint it looks small enough to hold in your hand. It made it look so fragile, so vulnerable. Like the slightest wrong move could break it…”

Xenilla muttered, holding his hoof out as memory and vision overlay each other. The visage of an outstretched hoof towards the window replaced with the sight of a clawed hand holding a tiny island of a planet amidst a sea of black, clutching it carefully for fear the visual might crack from the slightest miscalculation. It was both the most beautiful and most vulnerable thing he’d ever seen. Xenilla’s almost awestruck face soured and he retracted his limb.

“Then I saw my father, and I saw him killing everything. The fires would burn the greenery, glass the deserts, immolate the animal life and seas alike; leaving the planet itself burning down as it wreathed him in its ashes...”

He hissed in a dead tone. Had he still had fingers, Xenilla wouldn’t be sure if he’d be clenching a fist or gripping his seat like a vice so hard he’d have bent the metal.

“I don’t know how I got those visions, but I knew what I was seeing would become real. My father would destroy the world before I even got to see it because there was no one strong enough to stop him.”

Xenilla looked off to the side in a long stare.

“Except maybe, me…. Someone had to keep the world alive, no matter the cost. I had to pick between the life of my father and the life of an entire world, my world and territory. So, I took a shortcut across an ocean of stars until I found the right sun, having picked the latter. I’d found Terra, my father’s kingdom, and rushed to where he was to usurp him. To stop what was going to happen. Junior had already hatched and been living with our father by the time I arrived, and he saw me go on the attack.”

A slow silence passed between the two of them before Blade Dancer, in a whirlwind of thought and not quite knowing what to make of all this, broke it.

“Did you… do it?”

Xenilla remembered what he did in 1994 well. How close he’d come. Yes, he had to do what he did. Banish the humans from their city to use it as his fortress, goad his father into fighting him with an imprisoned Junior, all to lure Godzilla Senior into his trap. Had the humans not shown up with their mecha M.O.G.U.E.R.A. to rebalance the duel in Senior’s favor with a two on one fight, it would have gone differently.

“... I failed, though not for lack of trying. I ended up having to fight two enemies at once and nearly got myself killed. I barely managed to escape and limp back to the dark side of Terra’s moon before slipping into a coma for years, not ever sure if when I woke up it'd be dead or not. By the time I awoke, I saw the planet still lived. Feeling I had a second, and possibly last, chance; I rushed back down again only to find my father was already dead.”

“What killed him?”

“His own power grew too much, even for him. It consumed him and would have burned the world to ashes like it did him. Had my brother not been there to absorb the energy, our father would have destroyed Terra after all, so at least I know that part of my visions would have come true and I wasn’t insane… But, by the time I found this all out; there was no going back with my brother. To him I was just another monster from the stars who tried to kill his family and threatened his beloved humans. No chance at all at rebuilding the bridges I’d burned. So, in interest of keeping an eye on both him and Terra, I had a back-up plan to bear.”

“If you couldn’t be his brother, you’d be his enemy. Keep your friends close, enemies closer taken to the logical extreme.”

Xenilla chuckled in a bit of empty humor, glancing over at the guardsmare.

“Your wit is as sharp as your weapons Blades… But, yes. Telling a lie is one thing, it’s easy to do but easy to be caught on. Acting a lie for over a decade is a whole different issue. Our father died because he was too weak to contain his own power. My little brother is a hero, but even heroes can grow weak. In the interest of keeping the world going, I wasn’t going to let that happen. So I played the role of the threat, testing both him and his allies to keep them strong and make them stronger. I always have reasons for what I did of course. Being the big threat also allowed me to keep the other abominations opposing my brother in line. Had I not taken command, the true monsters, the Mutations, would have run wild across the planet and probably destroyed it just as badly as my father could have in their nonstop rampages. I could barely keep them in line even with my own and Destroyah’s power. I do not jest when I say I had to fight my own forces just as much as I did Icka’brod’s when one of them grew too prideful and tried to usurp me. A couple of the cleverer ones even tried to ambush and gang up on me a few times and I got the scars to prove it.”

Xenilla grunted, shaking his head at old memories. On one occasion, the only time he’d ever seen the Mutations work together without his command, nine of them tried to gang up on him all at once. He hurt them badly for it, but they returned it all with gusto. They thought him a weak leader for calling them off from attacking a promising power source he knew would make them run wild. Had Destroyah not arrived to back him up, he very well might have been overrun. Megaguirus and Bar'ugon even managed to break one of his shoulder crystals, causing Xenilla’s entire right side to sting for months afterwards. The giant of a unicorn grumbled as the thought of the multitudes he’d commanded over the years came running back. The early GDF and Defenders never would have been able to counter them all at once.

“Had I let them run loose and with only inexperienced Defenders and weakened humans to oppose them, it would have been the end. By seizing control I tempered the damage and used them to train the opposition. Before we came here, my brother and I commanded the two most powerful forces the world had ever seen. Except unlike mine, his actually were improving and coordinating; and most importantly, loyal to him. When I took as many Mutations as I could directly to his doorstep, I knew exactly which side would win even if I disguised the intent as an invasion. I set it all up to get my brother as much help as possible to overrun my forces. Had the fight dragged on much longer, he’d have won decisively and the world would be much better defended than it ever could have been.”

“So all this time, all those years and fights you spurred with him; not even until the very end, you never intended to triumph.”

“I’ve successfully trained my kin to be one of the strongest protectors our world has ever seen, stronger than our father ever was. I got him allied with a group of like minded souls that could defend my home from any threat thrown at it, and I managed to play damage control over a horde of psychopaths and megalomaniacs for years. The world is safe because of me and it’s still spinning despite all attempts to the contrary from all angles! We even had a mass alien invasion I didn't see coming and Icka’brod lead his forces in a charge that repulsed the invaders so badly I barely had to mop up the stragglers. That’s how much stronger they got, thanks to me. All while the only one who’s figured any of this scheme out being my associate Destroyah. That’s probably because she’s the only Mutation actually loyal to me and not power hungry enough to be too oblivious to not notice some things. No Blades, I think for what I’ve been wanting, I’ve already won!”

Xenilla’s lips curled back into a chuckling smile that lasted for a short while. Each low burst from his lungs growing more and more sullen and empty. Blade Dancer’s muzzle cast a frown, unsure if what she was hearing was the most elaborate gambit she’d ever seen or controlled madness from a chaotic world. It was probably a bit of both.

“There’s a difference between an empty win and a triumph. You gained that, helped save your world, but cut yourself off from your only family in the process.”

Xenilla fell quiet and closed his eyes. Even without a word, Blade Dancer could tell from the twitches of his brow and lip that there was a lot going on inside his head.

“Some sacrifices had to be made, I reap what I sowed. I was beyond that event horizon before I even woke up on the moon to find out I hadn’t died of my wounds. I just chose the lesser of the two evils and pursued the one that ensured my home’s and my brother’s long term survival.”

“And the Mutations?”

“Eventually they were too dangerous to keep alive. Even for me. The night we were sent here, I lead them to Icka’brod’s isle at the right place and timing that I knew it would attract as much attention and supports for him as possible. I planned to keep Destroyah around, she’d proven her worth with the other missions I’d sent her on. The rest of those monsters I was purposefully trying to get killed or beaten down enough they'd back down. If I couldn’t contain them much longer, I wouldn’t put the world at risk by letting them persist. The strategy was growing too dire.”

Blade Dancer’s memory was jogged at the word “strategy”. That day she broke into Xenilla’s room to save him she’d found him frantically fiddling with a chessboard. She couldn’t tell what the game or pieces were exactly, but she had noticed something. Two of the larger pieces were two familiar colors, one red to match Xenilla’s energy color, the other blue that matched the same radiance she’d seen at Canterlot during Godzilla’s battle with the gyaos. Most of all, she recalled how much of a panicked, jabbering mess Xenilla became when the blue piece got knocked over.

“That chessboard at the castle when I found you. You freaked out each time the blue piece fell. That one was your brother right? And the board itself was this war-game you’ve been playing, wasn’t it?”

“... You are correct. And I reset it each time because a world without a Godzilla is a weaker one.”

“King Sombra’s penchant for fear magic is legendary, often showing what you fear the most in a way you experience it.”

Blade Dancer hesitated for a moment. She’d just gotten Xenilla to confess to a lot. Patricide, staging a war with years of conflict, and gambling so much on a goal. And she could tell he was telling the truth the whole time. And, there was good intent behind his actions in there somewhere.

“Did you know you were crying when I found you? I can imagine you didn’t notice, you were really caught up in things. Your eyes were still wet by time you fell asleep.”

She slowly put her forehoof on top of his, causing his head to tilt around and look at her.

“He made you see your brother dying, didn’t he?”

Xenilla face twitched, practically cursing the mare. As much as he didn’t like admitting it, that monster of a pony managed to hit him in his only weak point, forcing him to see exactly what he’d been working for over a decade to prevent.

“You didn’t just do what you did to protect Terra, you didn’t want to lose him, did you?”

His silent stare gave her the answer. Blade Dancer couldn’t help but think back to the walk after their first library trip. Her hoof still stung with a phantom twitch from slugging Xenilla in the face, the action having felt like trying to punch a boulder. But she remembered something else, something in the conversation that followed. She’d turned his logic around and told him that if all actions are driven by love and hatred, like he said, he must have loved something once. His response was,

-”I am a slave to no emotion... I have never felt a single romantic feeling in my life and never intend to…”-

She thought he was just disputing her again, but now it made sense. He’d been specific and said he’d never felt romance, he didn’t say he’d never felt love for something. He’d been agreeing with her this whole time.

-There’s more than one kind of love Xen.-

“You didn’t just want a strong Godzilla to protect your home and not succumb like your father did, you wanted him to be strong because you wanted to protect him.”

“.... He is my brother, he never did anything wrong to me or our world. With father gone, what else was I supposed to do but try and look out for him?”

Xenilla tried to get up and look away, tried to stop the discussion where he could. But Blade Dancer wasn’t having any of it. It might have been him only fessing up now because Sombra had broken his haughtiness down, but she wasn’t going to let him do this and go right back into his own persona as soon as they got to Canterlot. She shot up into the air, swung around, and in a surprising show of force given how much heavier Xenilla was than her, put her hooves on his shoulders and pinned him back down to the seats. Before Xenilla could react and throw her off, she relaxed the pin into a hold, putting a hoof to the side of his face to force him to look her in eye.

“Then you’re going to tell him!”

Xenilla could end the conversation in a dozen different ways. He could physically pry her off and force her away, shock her with a nuclear pulse, use his beam, use his telekinesis; anything. But of all the options, none of them involved anything short of physically forcing her away in a harmless manner; none were his usual verbal shtick. There was no words of deflection to get out of this one. So he didn’t even try, instead letting his typical stalwartness fall just a bit more to cast a saddened look at Blade Dancer as he spoke in a whisper.

“It’s too late for me. Even if I told him everything, it wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve done too much, I’m hopeless...”

He muttered, for the first time hopelessness becoming evident in his tone. Blade Dancer cut off her hovering and relaxed her hapless pin on the kaiju. The hoof on his cheek softened, gently patting at him.

“In Equestria, we don’t know the definition of the word. You got doubt, but I can tell you got some hope to even if you can't see it.”

Quiet passed between the two. After some time, Xenilla sat himself back in his seat by his own accord. Blade Dancer got off of him and resumed her seat beside him. She looked to him for a long moment before speaking.

“I’ll be honest, had I not seen otherwise when Sombra attacked, I’d probably think of you the same way Godzilla does. But, I’ve experienced and heard otherwise. You may not think so, but I don’t think this is as set in stone as you think. When we get to Canterlot, I want you to talk to Princess Celestia or Luna about this. Promise?”

She nudged Xenilla on the shoulder with her hoof, daring to pucker a small smile. Xenilla looked over at her for a long time.

“You yourself said Junior’s grown up strong and undid plenty of wrong. Maybe it’s time to stop lying, starting with yourself.”

Xenilla slowly leaned into the smaller mare, causing her to carefully curl her wing over his back. He closed his eyes and nudged Blade Dancer back, leaning on her while keeping his head on his hooves to avoid knocking her over.

-I really hate it when someone makes sense I don’t agree with. Damn stubborn mare is going to be the end of me…-

He shrugged, not knowing to be hopeful or hopeless.

“I’ll consider it.”

Blade Dancer sighed with a smile, leaning up and rubbing the side of her head against Xenilla’s throat just below his jaw. It was as far as the tall mare could reach due to the height difference. She closed her eyes as the distant form of Canterlot mountain came into view from the train car’s window. She spoke in a slightly jesting manner.

“And I’ll be your stubborn bodyguard who’ll hold your hoof if you get scared.”

Blade Dancer felt her cheeks get a bit warm when she felt Xenilla’s hoof place itself on top of hers.

Author's Note

Blade Dancer owned by Fiddlesticks
Cached Ire owned by Vadram

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Not so happy family reunion and Bagan sends in a queen to seek local help

Chapter 31: Sins

========================

Canterlot Castle, Solar Tower

Xenilla and Mothra Lea stood across from each other, at work doing what neither of them ever expected to be doing. A coventure.

The rune of the mothra line was drawn across the floor with some magiwood ash loaned from Twilight Sparkle’s supply, its end points and circumference lined with energized quartz crystals that bore a containment field above the circle. Having set the last crystal and minding the ash, Xenilla sat down on one end of the mothra symbol’s central cross with Lea taking her seat at the other end about a meter away from him. Xenilla looked at the symbol surrounding him with a wary eye as it began to glow dimly with a golden light. Lea had a similar expression cast to the quartz crystals as short bursts of energy arched across them from crystal to crystal to form a small dome above them.

“And these, crystals, won’t disrupt my magic?”

“Human knowledge of magic is hilariously lacking, and I got much of my knowledge from them so what they know not, I know not. But, given my crystals worked fine on your island, the answer is no.”

“Then why bother with them?”

“Energy is energy, by science or sorcery. But, if something goes wrong they’ll contain it.”

Xenilla grunted dryly, catching an unamused, unconvinced look from Lea.

“Still convinced I’d try to kill you?”

She quipped, crossing her forelimbs before herself. Xenilla just shrugged.

“No, I know you’re smarter than that. Adding any large amount of energy to me can throw my power off balance, and you know very well how dangerous it can be for any of my family when we lose control. I know you won’t try anything due to the populace being so close to us, lest my meltdown eradicate all.”

Lea’s eyes narrowed at Xenilla, an expression he gave in turn especially after seeing her horn and antennae glow in unison with the increasing brilliance of the rune they were sitting on.

“And are you sure this graffiti of your’s won’t disrupt me?”

“Runes, not graffiti.”

Lea muttered with a bit of snippyness in her tone. Even when working together, something she was still dumbstruck by the idea of, Xenilla was managing to push her buttons.

“And if you’re experiencing visions of any kind I’ll need a route to get into your conscious and subconscious. This is the best one and I’ve done this before, perfectly safe.”

The glow across both the runes and the arcs of energy going across the crystals reached a peak, brilliant radiance staining both transformed kaiju’s forms as well as every wall around them. Xenilla took in a breath, knowing it was time, and closed his eyes. On one hand, he was afraid Lea might find more than his visions while poking around in his mind; an act he still didn’t particularly care for but stuck with it for sake of getting this ordeal over with. On the other hand, aside from solving this visions problem, some part of him almost wanted her to find out some of the truth he’d already spoken to Blade Dancer. After years of keeping it between himself and a cohort whom Xenilla suspected just pretended she didn’t know, maybe Blades was right? Maybe it was time to let the secret out?

“Anything I need to do?”

He whispered to Lea, already feeling the magic around him increase ever still in magnitude. Mothra Lea leaned forward as the Shobijin, Moll and Lora began to chant an ever familiar song in a quiet melody.

“Stand still-”

The rune’s glow pulsed in a like-manner to the tips of Lea’s antennae and horn. A small radiance shimmered across Xenilla’s form, like he’d been covered in incredibly fine glitter.

“-I’m taking an initial scry so I know how the magic will interact with your form. It’s a delicate process and I need to know the specifics for this sort of thing. Even if your form is similar to Godzilla’s and is now a pony, it’s needed for your-”

“-mutation?”

Xenilla grumbled lowly. Lea paused briefly in her speech, Xenilla not needing to open his eyes to know she was shaking her head at him.

“-I was going to say constitution, since everyone is different. But, very well. Mutation it is. Just hold still.”

Xenilla breathed out slowly, feeling the magic work up from the floor and move its way over his body; first on the points of contact his hooves had with the ground and upwards from his limbs. It was a bizarre sensation, both foreign and comforting at the same time as it seeped through his skin and into his internals in a wave of energy. Every vein, every bone, every muscle and tendon could be felt when the magic crossed it; like a bath that seeped across one’s entirety. It had just worked its way up to his crest when word from Lea broke him out of the magical lull the spell had brought him to.

“Hmmmm…”

Xenilla cracked an eye open, seeing a sight that probably would have made him jump up a bit had his nerves not been so steadied. Mothra Lea was studying him with an eerie green and golden glow having enveloped her eyes and antennae like a pair of lenses.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong, just unexpected.”

Lea muttered, cracking a perplexed expression.

“You have magic.”

A few long seconds passed before Xenilla retorted in an incredulous manner.

“.... How? My powers are biologically based!”

“No it’s not the cause of your powers like it is mine, but you definitely have the residual energies to indicate it. Like a stain imprinted onto you.”

“Can you tell its origin?”

Lea narrowed her eyes, focusing the unnatural vision she bore. The world around her was less imagery as much as it was a tapestry of auras and auroras, some molded into the shapes to which she recognized. Xenilla had mana like every other living thing, in this case his was a hue of neon red that approximated his form’s shape. But among the red, in thin lines stretching through his veins and nerves, was a very distinct mix of green and gold. Colors familiar to her because they were identical to her own.

“It’s…. It’s my family’s….. “

She spoke in a half whisper. A few seconds worth of thought passed before she gave Xenilla a miffed look.

“Have you been sneaking onto my island?!”

Xenilla raised his hoof up both defensively and offhandedly at the snappy remark, shaking his head with a mild sneer.

“Of course not! Why would I after the first time? Could the stain have come from our skirmishes?”

Lea puzzled, curling in her lips and biting her tongue, a new sensation she was still getting used to, as she focused her vision further. The interior of Xenilla’s signature energies became more obvious, and so too did the green-gold patterns across the red. This wasn’t merely a residue or stain, this magic was literally impressed upon every cell and part of his being. This couldn’t be an additive. She’d had Junior stay and rest on her island and be sung to by the twin faeries for hours, much to Lora’s delight, and he didn’t have nearly this much of her family magic left on him. For this degree of magic, you usually have to be born with it.

“No, no this is something that’s been there far longer than our first meeting. It’s… imprinted on every bit of you there is. This is something you’ve had for years, decades even.”

Xenilla lowered his hoof and raised an eyebrow, letting his mind drift back to all the times he’d been in contact with a mothra. For all but one of those instances, the mothra in question was Lea. But there was that one other time…

“Your mother, she was the one to carry my father’s blood into space on her voyage to stop that asteroid in 1992. Is it possible that, maybe some of her magic transplanted onto me during my birth? And this magic may be causing these visions?”

Lea chewed her lip before sighing, thinking the scenario over as she revisited the memories of her mother. Her parent never could have thought or imagined what she accidentally allowed to be created.

“Yes, it is possible… Especially considering-….”

“Considering?”

Xenilla muttered with a hint of concern, given the odd expression on Lea’s face.

“It’s this particular type of magic. It’s what gives me my family’s memories. Each generation passes it to the next.”

“You have genetic memories? Color me surprised.”

“From every Mothra there ever was onto the next. It ensures the line gets stronger. Anything my foremothers could do or learn, I have. The magic is carried along at the same time as the blood and imprints itself from parent to offspring… It appears, you have some of these memories too. Your connection to them isn’t strong enough for active recall like me, but it’s ingrained enough to lurk in your subconscious.”

The full ramifications of what Xenilla had just been told took a moment to sink in. And when it did, it filled him with a horrific dream that momentarily showed itself across his face and earned a curious, almost concerned look from Lea before Xenilla stifled his shocked expression His mind felt like it was growing cold, a creeping chill trickling out from the depths and across his entirety. One of his greatest fears, one he’d tried to keep smothered since the day he was born, was returning. Doubt. Doubt in the visions he’d been met with the moment he had a conscious thought. All those sights, feelings, smells, and experiences of foreboding doom that drove him to do what he did, drove him to try and kill his ‘father’; all of them he’d managed to live with for two decades by telling himself that future had been averted. All of it just might have been worthless because doubt told him he might have been wrong.

Those visions of a future may have been of some past tied to Mothra’s family, the time being of passed days only making more sense when Xenilla recalled that the reoccurring dreams he had were from the perspective of his father. If the mothra lineage had genetic memories and some of their magic rubbed off on him, maybe it gave him some of Godzilla Senior’s memories as well?

The affirmation of that particular train of logic being sound did little to calm Xenilla’s lost wit. Quite the contrary, for now he was practically choking on his own uncertainty and worry. The idea the second most important decision in his life, between family and a world, might have been completely meaningless because he misinterpreted something. Xenilla whispered with a slight quiver in his lip.

“... Look at them.”

“... Are you sure? That would require me to phase into your mind.”

“Please… I need to know.”

He already knew the answer but like a desperate criminal awaiting a surefire sentence, he was both dreading the reveals coming and unable to bear a dreaded patience in it’s arrival. Mothra Lea acted as she normally would upon seeing someone like this, only surprised in hindsight as to who it was, by reaching out with her hoof and putting it on Xenilla’s shoulder reassuringly. Following the steps verbatim, she reenacted the motions her mother and father once partook in during a fateful battle over twenty years ago by gently placing her glowing antennae and horn to Xenilla’s as golden dust flew from her and surrounded him.

“Show me everything.”

Time and space bent and twisted around once Lea “looked in”. The mind wasn’t just the material and immaterial so it was less like just reaching in to read something and more like entering another plane entirely; one made of soulbound conscious and unconscious, physical networks of memories archived in the brain, emotions, and self perception. That all accounted for, Lea only needed a fleeting glance at Xenilla’s mind to immediately tell that something wasn’t adding up to what she expected to find.

Evil was a very real thing, she’d seen it, and any sentient being with the power and capability for reason can commit evil deeds and thoughts. There were two types of mentalities in the realms she’d known of that she’d seen labeled as evil with justification from the perspectives present, she having looked into the minds of both. The first was due to drastic values dissonance, rare to such a degree, but possible nonetheless. The second, and sadly far more common, was genuine malice. Hatred, greed, uncontrolled wrath, gluttony, lust, selfishness, megalomania, and sociopathy. Looking at the mentalscape around her however, Lea was honestly shocked she didn’t see any of that. Xenilla’s mind was uneasy and likely unhealthy in some regards, but all the signs she expected weren’t there. And this was no jest. A lie strong enough even the mind believes it is hard enough to do, but a complete overhaul like this was impossible even for a high class psychic. This was truth.

Minds tend to be more symbolic than overt with their details at first, you need to understand the general scheme before you can find what you’re looking for in specific.

Rodan’s was almost always a bright blue sky that lay above a long sea of clouds, with a view of the atmos above that refused to stay blemished for long. Problems, like the occasional storm cloud, still lingered about ever so often on the bottom, but they never reached very high and went away as soon as they were dealt with. He was naive and inexperienced in some ways and had his issues, but he was wholly content with life; never giving any foothold or patch of sky for cynicism or dread to fester.

Anguirus’ mental realm was stoic and study, often taking a state one could compare to a rocky canyon. Problems came and went like a surging flood down the canyon rivers. They’d take some toll and there was a sense of lacking in some ways, as indicated in how the rivers might erode away some of the land. But for every bit affected, it was less a loss and more of a change; and even then the grounds surrounding them largely remained constant. Anguirus was a hardy soul, having issues, doubts, or sadness; but stayed the course and remained a constant despite them.

Godzilla Junior’s mind was a bit more worrisome. If Rodan was an unblemished sky and Anguirus a stalwart land, Godzilla was a variable sea. Sometimes calm, sometimes churning uneasily, sometimes roaring among a storm with only a strong sense of duty and morality acting as tidal breaks to keep the more worrisome elements like anger, worry, and isolation at bay. It was sadly to be expected for him, hence why Lea cast this exact spell on her best friend more than any other to check in on his mental wellbeing. There were many days on her island she all but forced Junior to stay there to try and relax or vent the strain off with their chats. While Godzilla bore no monopoly on losing a family member, something that he and Lea had bonded over, his situation with his family and worldview was fairly unique. Junior was stuck both wanting to honor and live up to the legacy of a father who was kind to him, and not wanting to succeed him in regards to how said father wasn’t kind to others; all while unable to talk to the only family he had left. At least Lea could always visit family known and unknown in life through her memories.

All and all, Lea knew Godzilla Junior’s mind well. What she didn’t know nor would have ever suspected was how similar Xenilla’s mental scape was to Junior's. She’d call it familial resemblance if Junior wasn’t so adamantly against the label.

Inside Xenilla’s mind was a constant storm across a dark ocean. Not a raging typhoon or a roaring thunderstorm, but a steady, grayed drizzle upon ruffled waves that ticked along at varying paces; sometimes constant and sometimes irregular. It wasn’t expressive, it wasn’t energetic, and it had none of the typical signs of extreme selfishness or narrowed minded delusions of grandeur that was the norm for the amoral. Quite the opposite actually. What she saw was both incredibly expansive but also so very isolated at the same time, with no features in sight other than a few darkened islands of thought visible in the distance. Nothing else but the drizzling downpour that seemed to leak into Lea’s own mind as it drenched her. The mind was often a symbolic thing. Rodan’s clear skies showed his unfettered optimism, Anguirus’ sturdy lands and canyons were a display of his unchanging, but benign stubbornness; and Junior's shifting seas were an uneasy mishmash of driven determination and anger born confusion. With Xenilla, Lea was only finding that behind all that raw power, ferocity, and often cruel cunning was a similarly determined being that worked with a never-ending downpour of doubt, sadness, and guilt.

This wasn't a mind of evil, leaving the Mothra doubting if she'd ever actually seen the real Xenilla before now. Except, maybe on her island some years ago. And on some level, she was sure Xenilla knew she was understanding what she saw and was aware of her discovery.

-Xenilla, we're going to have a lot to talk about once we're done here...-

Mothra Lea sighed, putting up some determination of her own to stave off the infectious doubt the rain was giving her avatar. She flew for a long time, displaced in space and time as she moved from the conscious world to the blank subconscious. Among the dark void she spied a shimmering up ahead and moved over to it. The light reflected onto Lea's representation as she stopped short of flying into it. The glimmering mass was a set of glowing, vaguely rhombus shaped doorways; one she recognized a gateway to a memory.

-Appears we were right, those are genetic memories!-

Lea looked closer at the group Xenilla had floating before her. His volume was far smaller than her own. Lea had entire halls of gateways in her mind, one for each ancestor. In Xenilla's case though, she actually wasn't quite sure of the actual number beyond it being smaller. There were two shapes, but one of them was so hopelessly irregular it looked less like a rhombus and more like a clustered mess of angles. And even then, the defined and clean rhombus was an unnatural color for the gateways she'd seen. Her maternal line's gates were greens and golds, and her paternal lineage was orange and dark steel. This one was neon blue of all hues. More specifically a kind of bright blue that reminded her a lot of a certain kaiju. Lea's eyes widened as her mind trailed back to her explaining the magic behind the lineage memories not five minutes ago, how it "traced with the blood". The same blood Xenilla was literally born from after it had been exposed to her mother's magic.

-Oh my Tanaka... He really does have some of Godzilla Senior's memories!-

The shock was understandable, after all this was the first time she'd ever seen someone else display a trait that until now; had been completely restricted to her family. They’d have much to talk about indeed.

Lea turned her attention to the other glowing spot, but this one was just as perplexing at first as the other. While it was green with a gold trim, as indicative of the mothra line, the shape was hopelessly irregular and looked more like a bunch of haphazardly set imperfect angles. The glow given off by it was similarly erratic, the organized golden trim her memory gates had that formed the family seal upon the center was jumbled up, messy, and almost unrecognizable. Really the best way she could compare it was that it looked like six or seven gates stretched, pulled, and then melted together.

-Looks like my mother did rub off on you in more ways than one. Xenilla, what all did you see?-

Lea worked her magic upon the gateway and after some trial and error, managed to pry it open to fly through. The parade of imagery that greeted Xenilla on the day of his birth became known to Lea, memories of a dozen dozen ancestors from seven hundred centuries ago all forced their way into her mind at once. Everything was on fire, everything was dying. Hell had come to earth, and all was being destroyed. A tall figure, dozens of meters tall stood in the blaze. Burning lights streamed from its maw as it towered over the murdering flames. As Lea winced and strained through the cornucopia of pain assaulting every one of her senses, she forced the vagueness of the memory away to see the details.

More of its features became apparent as it turned to the point of view. Almost impossibly large wings of eerie light, spurn from broad, spike capped shoulders; snapped to the sides across the smoke and flames. A set of three horns, two upon the brows and one upon the snout, reflected the glow coming from the rampaging deity’s eyes. What Xenilla had mistaken for his father turned out to be someone magnitudes worse. It trampled any still living underfoot, scorching others with omnicidal flames from its maw before calling down light from the sky like falling stars to glass everything else that remained.

This wasn’t destruction wrought by a kaiju, even that left rubble or scattered survivors in the wake; nor was it the actions of a predator taking life to sustain life. This was completely erasing what once was, hundreds upon thousands upon millions of life; human, fae, animal, and beyond, all giving silent or verbal death cries as they were no more. Even the world’s life stream itself, its magic, its mana, was crying out in agony.

Lea felt herself grow cold as she was forced to see the points of view for the multitudes of mothra and battra long since passed as they began to be killed off in droves by the same being who’d nurtured and mentored them since the lines began. It was rare for Lea to access the memories of her father’s side, but here she had no choice. Dozens of mothra were dying every moment and just as many battra were being extinguished with them. Many were so shocked at first they didn’t even see it coming, many more were so filled with horror and grief to the point their only conscious thought as their lives were torn away by claw, beam, or blade was “Why?”. The last hundred rallied together, still wrought with grief, panic, and fear as they swarmed the one once called Reijuu, lifting him up for a desperate flight to the north seas. Only thirty were left by the time they were forced to land on Attu island. Unnatural auroras filled a sky crisscrossed with energy beams and magic bursts. Falling masses of flames, the burning corpses of guardian moths, were so common they littered the ground and evaporated huge swaths of sea into fog midst their smoking remains.

With more and more dying every second as the island-sized rune and spell was drawn, calling forth every scrap of magic the world could muster, only two were left alive by the time the seal was complete and Bagan was entombed.

And Lea saw all of this play out in a matter of a few seconds. Every haunting or flashback she had of her father’s death at Godzilla Senior’s jaws were nothing compared to this horror. There had been a reason she avoided looking at this time period at all in her own memories, and she had just been forced to watch it over and over again more than four hundred times.

Lea broke out of the spell and fell to the ground, uncontrollably convulsing, screaming, and spasming like she was having a seizure and panic attack at the same time. Ripping out of the realm he’d been caught up in as well, Xenilla had to hit himself in the gut to unclasp his chest after he’d felt the wind get knocked out of his contracting lungs. Heaving in breath and shaking himself off to refocus, he was quick to spot the thrashing changeling. His mind was still playing catch-up to what all just happened, but for now he had to focus on what was in front of him. He scooped up the squirming Lea, craning his head back to avoid getting smacked in face by one of her hooves, and carried her free of the now sparking circle of runes and crystals.

He didn’t have a second of free thought before he was soon joined by the frantic Shobijin and a similarly alarmed Twilight Sparkle, who’d just returned from a book run and came running herself as soon as she heard the screaming.

“What’s going on in here-!!!! LEA!”

At the same time and just outside of the castle, Captain Blueberry Frost was tipsily walking back to her quarters with her “designated trotter”, the disguised Godzilla Junior in tow. Or at least he was disguised in theory. Thinking back to Berry Punch recognizing him despite having only possibly being able to see any portion of him, and a small portion at that given he only had his goggles removed, he was beginning to suspect the only soul meant to be tricked by this set up was himself. After all he was a good head to two heads taller and much bulkier than any equine he’d seen in life, sans a pair of alicorns, and from what he’d found out about the species there was only one or two outlier individuals across the nation even approaching his size. Even covered up from horn to hoof, Junior literally stood heads and shoulders above the crowd he stuck out from. With this in mind, he gave Blueberry Frost a slightly unamused look he was sure she could see right through his mask.

-You knew I’d need a push to leave, so you made a trick to get me to even before asking. Frost, you’re half drunk and talk weird, but it seems like you’re a lot smarter than you let on.-

Blueberry Frost, still blushing in the face from her buzz, snickered and leaned on Junior as they approached the barracks door.

“Anyone evah’ tell ye’ that ye’r real warm and muscley? I mean ye’r built like ‘ah tank an’ tall as a horse, but ye’r actually kinda snuggly~!”

She babbled, laughing and rubbing up against the stallion easily five times her weight due to said build and height. Junior just grumbled.

“This that flirting we were talking about? Don’t tell me you’re-”

“Naaah naaaah! I just being friendly, ye’r not m’ah type hehehe!”

Godzilla rolled his eyes at her slurred laughter.

“And are you sure no one will have noticed my absence?”

“Oooh don’t ye’ worry ‘bout nothin’! Other guards, they gottts an honor code so no snitchin’, and Proincess Celestia and Luna are ooff welcoming Proincess Cadance and Prawnce Shining Armor back from the Crystal-... Oh lookie! Thar they are!”

Captain Frost pointed her hoof out to the south. Looking in the way as indicated, Junior spotted the now familiar forms of the alicorn sisters trotting down the path immediately leading up to the main castle gate, which was visible from the side route they’d taken up around the western side of the castle to get to the barracks and training yard. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were enjoying a happy reunion with a pastel pink alicorn and blue-on-white unicorn.

-That must be the Crystal Empire royalty I’ve been told about… Hey wait a minute, why do they have those titles if they’re ruling an empire?-

He started to raise an eyebrow to ponder this next bit of Equestrian bafflement when he felt something else course over his senses. It wasn’t a sight nor a smell nor a sound, but rather almost like all of his major senses going off at once in a very specific manner. That could only mean one thing. Godzilla Junior stole the moment to close his eyes and focused on the sensation, his mind practically pointing out the offending information almost as blatantly as if he were looking at a picture. There was another of his species nearby, another godzillasaurus. Male, healthy, and was close-by recently. Junior’s expression turned to a very slight sneer as it showed the only possibility.

-Xenilla is up there…-

He mentally hissed, his special homing practically pointing him to Xenilla’s location like a compass now that it had been revealed after Xenilla; unbeknownst to Junior, left the rune circle Lea had contained him in. He could already feel his blood broiling. Junior looked up, almost like he could actually see his rival through multiple walls and floors. Xenilla was less than fifty meters away, across several floors and walls. The consideration of how he’d managed to get there without Junior noticing caused even more alarm and worry.

-He must have come while we were at the pub. This can’t be good.-

He tried to reign in his anger and suspicion best he could, reminding himself of what Luna had told him on another one of her nightly visits when he was recovering. How after about two weeks since their arrival, a delayed time given the gyaos attack and some happenings in the Crystal Empire, the kaiju were going to be brought back to Canterlot for some sort of assessment. And now that they knew more kaiju were in Equestria and not the kind that could probably be brought over, he suspected some sort of defense planning might be in order. It would have worked to throw some water on his burning anger.

Except it failed because of what Blueberry Frost said next as she looked at the reunited royalty.

“Crystal Empire train musta’ come in while we were chowing down. ‘Ey, wonder where that kaiju they were watchin’ is? He was trekkin’ with ‘em.”

Junior froze, looking back in the direction Xenilla was.

-... Why IS he so far ahead of them? Not like Equestrians to be careless. He's up to something...-

That was when the second feeling pulsed through his veins as it settled over him. The unmistakable traces of Terran magic sent a chill into every pore, muscle, and bone within himself. A Terran magic Junior was so familiar with he didn’t even need his very sharp hearing to detect the faint screams to know who it was and that something was very, very wrong.

Junior’s eyes burst open, traces of a blue grow crossing out from both them and his mane as he tore past Blueberry Frost. He snarled beastially, ripping the doorway to the barracks open to charge through the castle at a breakneck pace so quick he didn’t even hear Blueberry Frost calling after him after being snapped out of her drunken daze.

“What the-Huh?! Godzi- Junior! Junior what’s wrong?!”

All she heard echoing down from the halls and exiting the doorway was the aftershocks of a tremendous roar and the sound of floor-cracking hoofsteps.

At the same time all chaos had broken loose in Twilight and Lea’s study. The shobijin were attempting song after enchanted song to try and rouse their patron out of her panic attack, Xenilla doing his best to try and restrain the flailing, crying, and screaming changeling without hurting him; as Twilight Sparkle rapid fire-flipped through book after book on Equestrian medical magic to try and find a local solution or anything that might help.

“O-Oh okay! I think I got it!”

Twilight yelped, spinning around with a good dozen books still being held up by her magic. With her horn glowing, a light flashed over her eyes, giving Xenilla ample warning to turn his head to the side and put up a small barrier just in case things went south… which is exactly what happened when the mass of purple light born spell energy ricocheted off Lea’s horn and would have smacked him right in the face; the barrier shredding the blast into smaller particulates of light that fizzled out into puffs of violet smoke. Twilight grunted, wincing as the room became muted out by another one of Lea’s pained shrieks.

“What’s happened to her exactly?!”

The alicorn yelped, covering her ears. Moll and Lora cut off their sixth failed song attempt and responded, fluttering up to her on their tiny breezie wings.

“Phantom pains, she’s experiencing what her ancestors did, in the extinction hour!”

They spoke in quasi-unison, earning a baffled look from Twilight.

“The what?!”

“An hour 70,000 years ago on Terra, the humans called it the Toba extinction. She’s been avoiding looking at that hour for all but glimpses.”

Lora and Moll muttered, tearfully looking back at the squirming Lea as Xenilla was forced to pin her down to keep her from hurting herself in her flailing.

“Now she’s living it from all of her ancestors that died that day. Hundreds of them…”

Twilight was just about to try another spell when a low rumble ripped through the floor, shaking the dust off some of the cabinets and ceiling. It didn’t stop, only growing louder and stronger. The sound of the double doors down the hall shattering as they were blown off their hinges canceled out everyone but the still oblivious and screaming Mothra Lea. Xenilla sensed who it was before they rammed down the doorway to make their entrance in a shower of splinters, wood dust, and other debris.

Heavy breathing shoved some of the particulates away, an eerie blue light visible through the cloud. The cloud vanished as soon as it came, revealing Godzilla Junior standing in the doorway with the burnt remains of what looked like a cloak falling off his back and into cinders. He looked about the frozen room with wide, bright red in his eyes that drowned out the yellow of his irises. He saw Twilight Sparkle, Lea’s collaborator and the Shobijin off to the side of the room with Twilight readying some kind of magic. He saw Lea’s symbol etched onto the floor, showing she had been working her magic. He also saw Xenilla’s crystals intrusively stabbed into the symbol. And of course, there was the matter of his best friend screaming in agony with a ruffled looking Xenilla pinning her down.

Junior’s breaths turned to bestial snarls as he drew all the wrong conclusions, blue smoke puffing out from between his jaws and nose. Xenilla could feel the blood draining from his face. He had cared for this being most of his life in his own way, he was family, and he was now stuck in the form of a colorful equine. By all accounts, his little brother shouldn’t have been what he was right now with that look in his eye. Terrifying. The oldest son of Godzilla Senior tried to slowly rise to his feet and step away from Lea, keeping his posture and face as calm as he could without any of his usual mannerisms of smugness or pride to try and look as unthreatening as possible. Had he not needed them for locomotion, he’d have his forearms raised up. With Twilight Sparkle and Shobijin in too much of a stupor to do anything, it fell upon Xenilla to try and defuse the situation.

Unfortunately, in his covertly panicked state, he picked the wrong word. He picked the worst label possible.

“Icka-Icka’brod… Brother, this isn’t-”

Junior sucked in his breath and let out a monstrous roar and declaration that gave Celestia’s Royal Canterlot Voice a run for its money, cracking windows several floors away and rattling the castle as he repeated the exact line he spoke to Xenilla weeks ago on Solgell Island.

“I’m not YOUR BROTHER!”

He rushed forward with such ferocity and speed Xenilla couldn’t dodge out of the way or attempt to push back by physical might or telekinesis. Junior rammed into his brother with a magnitude of force, charging backwards after yanking the other kaiju-stallion off the ground and slamming into the stony wall behind them. In an instant the rock shattered like glass and the two were in freefall, barreling towards Canterlot Mountain in the rural rocksides bordering the castle. Not content with using the stunned Xenilla as a ram once they hit the ground, Godzilla Junior bit down loosely on Xenilla’s collar and unleashed a torrent of nuclear fire that flooded over Xenilla’s torso and right shoulder area. He kept firing until they hit the mountainside outside the city, the resulting crash loud enough to sound like a meteor had just come falling down.

Xenilla coughed as he picked up his bruised, burned, and bloodied form out of the crater he’d created. His wounds started to mend, pain as much unto him in healing as it was in affliction, as he tried to stand. His mind was in a whirlwind of panic, pain, and confusion as everything from his survival instincts to Blade Dancer’s words played through his mind. He could fight and perpetuate this conflict or he could try to talk and end it.

But as far as the enraged kaiju ripping himself free of the rubble to lunge at Xenilla was concerned, he was ending it in a different way.

===================

Canterlot Mainstreet

Princess Celestia and company were anything but oblivious to the impact force coming from the mountain, all eyes trained upon the spire of rock and forest that jutted out from behind the castle.

“What was that?”

Princess Cadance muttered in a half hushed tone.

A beam of blue light shot up into the sky briefly, parting some cumulus clouds on its way up to scorching the heavens. Princess Luna recognized it before her sister due to past experiences. Instantly the blue alicorn felt a filter of dread and selfless fear wash through her.

“Junior…”

She whispered with bated breath, eyes wide as she spread her wings to take off. For Godzilla to be busting out the beam attack and for that impact to be as tremendous as it was, it had to be serious. She didn’t know what her friend was fighting, but she’d be condemned to Tartarus before she let him break into a serious brawl near her and she stay on the sidelines. Princess Celestia was all too observant of both the situation and her sibling, taking a pre-take off posture and spreading her even more enormous wingspan.

“Sister, Cadenza, with me! Whatever is going on up there we must contain it. Shining Armor, keep everypony away from the mountainside and be ready to evacuate the castle grounds if the fighting gets too close!”

She barked in an authority-riddled tone very few had heard and even fewer could resist. Princess Celestia was a gentle soul, but not one to be questioned when she called for action; as souls over the millennia ranging from minotaurs to unruly gryphons to fully grown dragons had found out. Falling back on his still sharp military training, the former Captain of the Canterlot Guard saluted the lead alicorn as the trio all assumed the same pose before launching themselves up into the air in a surprising burst of speed and wind. As they headed towards the mountainside, Shining Armor turned to address the guards present, a couple of the the Canterlot night guard, a castle guard, a pair of crystal guardstallions; and Blade Dancer. It didn’t matter really anymore if he technically traded his military rank for a royal one, he still was a protege of Captain Stalwart Sentry; and he knew how to bark some orders.

“Alright you heard the Princess! This will be an S class mission detail! I need three of you to clear this block, three for the next block south, and two to go to Captain Frost to send word for the castle grounds to be prepared for evacuation!”

Blade Dancer nodded as the commands were given, listening but unable to totally zone out from the now glowing light show visible on the mountainside. Another explosion shook the premises as the alicorns turned around the edge of the mountain and left view. This time however, among the rocks and dust thrown into the air, Blade Dancer spotted something else. Crystals. Her heart nearly stopped cold.

-Xen!-

=============

Mountainside

Xenilla was sent rolling and tumbling backwards across the ground in a shower of shattered crystals he’d attempted to use as cover. Patches of his fur were still smoking and smoldering when he struggled up to his feet, spitting out the metallic tasting wad of blood that had pooled in his mouth. Still dazed, he couldn’t turn around in time to avoid the sole surviving crystal being used as a club to smash itself across the back of his head, following by a return blow to the side of his face that shattered half the crystal.

Godzilla Junior hissed, biting down and crunching the surviving half of crystal. Glimmering fragments littered the ground, reflecting the blue light coming off the smoke and plasma constantly flickering out from between Godzilla’s teeth. Xenilla’s healing was working overtime across the more important parts of his body like the numerous shattered ribs and fractured skull, leaving the numerous bruises, cuts, and burns across his skin slow to mend. He managed to shove himself into he air with a wave of telekinesis, hovering his ragged body a few feet off the ground. The crystal kaiju spat out a broken tooth, coughing and huffing haggardly in his breaths.

“I- wasn’t- trying t-o hurt your friend!”

His plea fell on deaf ears and a closed mind. As far as Junior was convinced, everything spoke to the contrary. Lea was on the floor screaming and bruised, obviously having been attacked. Princess Twilight Sparkle, Lea’s local collaborator, was off to the side with the Shobijin and readying her magic; assuredly to protect the faeries and launch a counterattack on the invader. And Xenilla wasn’t with the royals he was supposed to be, he’d snuck away and invaded the castle to find Lea while she was alone since Junior had been outside. As far as Junior was concerned and convinced, his worst enemy had just intended to break the peace honor the Equestrians called for and tried to kill his best friend while she could be taken by surprise and be alone; with none of the kaiju or older alicorns present to help her. It all made perfect sense to him. And if Xenilla intended to break the peace, Junior was going to make sure he broke nothing or no one else.

And the fact he hated the kaiju before him arguably more than anyone else definitely helped. Xenilla had been a nightmare for him for over two decades. A nightmare he intended to wake up from now.

“When have you ever not hurt anyone, Xenilla?!”

Junior was admittedly a bit surprised at Xenilla’s response. He was used to the smug boasting or callousness he’d seen for years, both in their personal battles or when Xenilla was commanding some Mutations Junior was fighting. Instead though, Xenilla actually seemed saddened when he responded. He picked himself up as best he could, not puffing his chest out or holding his head high but instead maintaining a passive posture.

-He’s on a warpath. If I fight back, it’ll only make it worse.-

He sighed, coughing a bit due to exhaling, while looking at Junior in what could best be described as a mix of tiredness and sincerity.

-Don’t say I didn’t try, Blades…-

“Not you, I never wanted to hurt you… What happened was-”

Godzilla Junior cut him off with a roar one couldn’t expect an equine to be able to make, for it was one Xenilla had heard dozens of times before from a beast as big as a walking mountain. Junior cut the roar off, huffing and snorting through his flared nose before speaking with a hateful growl.

“You invaded my home, you hurt my friends, you threatened my world. You caused a war!”

“I know I did! But I had a reason! I had to do it and I hated every second of it!”

Xenilla called out in his plea. The response he got was an enraged stream of nuclear energy aimed at his face. Xenilla threw his hooves up and the patches of slick fur on his shoulders lit up as he summoned forth a shield. The beam and barrier clashed for a time, Xenilla’s effort successfully deflecting portions of Godzilla’s beam off to the sides. But Junior was far from done. He yelled in berserk fury while emitting his ray, amplifying the glow and intensity while taking a shaking step forward. Xenilla grunted and strained, his hindlegs beginning to slide backwards across the rocky mountainside. The malice and hatred within Junior intensified by the second as Xenilla still withstood his assault. His reactor of a heart began to work overtime, siphoning power away from all sources and intensifying itself to match its owner’s wrath, going to dangerous levels. Numerous scars, some decades old, returned to Junior’s outward appearance.

Xenilla squinted through the assault, holding off his brother’s attack for a time. But even he couldn’t withstand the out of control power spike Godzilla was going through and soon the beam ate through his shield. Xenilla was forced to dodge out of the way, the beam burning him across his right arm and shoulder before it raked itself across the mountainside and carved a six meter-deep gouge into it.

Seeing Xenilla alive, even if he was smoking and sent sliding a good three feet backwards, only caused Junior’s rage, hatred, and fury to become totally unbridled. His mane and eyes were glowing so bright now they were practically white. As his body drew in all the power it could from his tissue, it caused some of his other powers to turn off and on at random. Each step was a small nuclear pulse that shattered the rock underneath it, and Junior’s regeneration all but turned off entirely as the intense glow from his mane and eyes spread to flesh under the scar tissue and lit them up.

Seeing the old wounds on his sibling caused Xenilla to start getting flashbacks to the dozens of wounds he’d see Godzilla incur from just fighting the Mutations alone. Duels with the new Megaguirus leaving him slashed and stabbed, several rounds with a gorged Pulgasari that left him battered; or the numerous times Xenilla was sure Godzilla would kill one of his pawns outright if it was one on one so he’d send multiple Mutations out to places he knew Godzilla would be close to and respond. All the Mutations Xenilla had all but forced him to fight time and time again, winning the battles but not going unscathed. This state Junior was in, one riddled with signs of injury and trauma, was Junior’s true appearance; not the one typically seen where said marks were largely masked by his regeneration. This was the first time Xenilla saw him like this, filling his mind with horror soon replaced by deep guilt as the memories flashed before him.

-What have I done to you…-

Junior meanwhile grunted and hissed, obviously in a world of pain from his ferocious powers tearing at his own body.

“You hurt the humans, you threatened my mother!”

“I know! I’m sorry! But you-”

Godzilla roared as sparks of red replaced the sparks of blue jumping across his body and mane. The same wrath that his father felt after Junior’s apparent death, one that caused his already strained powers to run wild; the same fury that ultimately killed him and the same power Junior absorbed from his predecessor. It was happening again. Xenilla felt a stone of dread and horror fall into his stomach as he saw the patches of red flicker across his sibling’s body, his temperature spiking so badly that steam was coming off him. Junior had completely lost control by the time he stomped on the ground in a massive nuclear pulse. The resulting shockwave ripped into the mountainside and leveled several trees that lay within the ten meter radius.

Xenilla groaned as he struggled back to his feet, the world having gone black after the shockwave threw him so hard against a boulder that his vision had been knocked out temporarily. He felt the ground shake as footsteps approached him.

“You’re a threat to this world and my own, Xenilla. You took away any chance at peace I’d have…”

A searing hot hoof knocked into Xenilla’s jaw and pinned him against the rocks behind him with a searingly hot hoof. His vision was restored in the eye of his that hadn’t swelled shut, greeting him to the sight of a brother teetering on the edge of a metaphorical and literal meltdown. Godzilla’s burning eyes and flaming breath burned at his muzzle and mind. Xenilla felt a tear sting his good eye, vision locked on the growing, death bringing red spreading through Junior’s body.

“Br-Brother! Your power! Your heart, it’ll kill you!”

He choked. The enraged kaiju ignored his warning and instead spoke in a shockingly and terrifying quiet voice, throwing one final guilty charge against Xenilla as the burning judgement grew in his throat.

“You tried to kill my father…”

Just before Xenilla could see the final light that meant a permanent lights out, a golden ray of magic slammed into Godzilla’s broadside and knocked him away from Xenilla and into the mountainside. The solar beam was soon joined by a glimmering ray of sky blue magic that Xenilla recognized, and finally a bolt of dark blue magic he did not. Princess Celestia, Cadance, and Luna flew over, hovering in the air while keeping their beams locked on Godzilla Junior for several long seconds as he bore backwards into a small hill of rubble. They cut off the assault and watched. Celestia watched the rubble with stoic determination, Cadance cast a shocked glance to the still downed and battered Xenilla, while Luna watched the rock pile while bearing a more shocked and worrisome expression than her sister.

All knew not to waste time asking what was going on, their priority was breaking the fight up once they saw the parties involved. A task not so easily fulfilled when a tremendous bellow rattled the rock pile. A flash of red and blue light and a nuclear pulse forewarned the ensuing explosion as Godzilla came charging out his entombment. His body littered with burning lights, his eyes were trained on the still downed Xenilla with a killing intent. He charged, as much galloping across the smoldering rocks as he was gripping and ripping his way along over them. Not once did he look to the alicorns, even after a few bursts from Cadance shot around him or glanced off his shoulder. A continuous beam from Celestia struck him on the chest, stopping him to a grind. But even as he was enduring the continuous solar flare, Godzilla didn’t detract from his goal. Crackles of light surrounded his body and a nuclear pulse tore free from his torso, deflecting the blast and shattering it. Now conscious of his faced resistance, Godzilla screamed out in a wrathful tone.

“DON’T! INTERFERE!”

The alicorns could feel the burning air rushing past them at the call, but nevertheless readied for another barrage with Luna leading the effort. She craned her neck up and closed her eyes as energy pooled up the spiral of her horn and collected in a sphere on top of it. With a frown on her face and a glow in her cutiemark and now opened eyes, she was about to fire when a blur of red shot past her. The speeding form launched itself at Xenilla just as Godzilla got within the last five meters, and as soon as he saw what it was he stopped.

With her breath and heart racing and the alicorns hovering up above, Blade Dancer stood above Xenilla with one of her wingblades leveled at Godzilla’s throat. It didn’t matter if they both knew it’d probably be useless in this situation, she wasn’t budging. Godzilla snarled, stepping to the side like a flanking predator as he spat venom and licking flames. Blade Dancer quickly adjusted her stance to avoid the flanking and reaffirmed her outstretched blade while keeping the other at the ready. She snapped in her tone.

“Get! BACK!”

Godzilla snarled, baring his char covered fangs. There was a thousand different ways he could get through such a defense. Beam of burning light, a massive shock wave, just getting close and using the sheer heat to force her away, a use of his titanic strength. But of the near endless means to overcome the opposition of a mortal with a blade, none of them were harm free, just as few non lethal. That was the only thought that could momentarily rupture his chain of fury, and was the only thing keeping him away. Didn’t mean he was giving up however, slowly circling the rotating mare to try and figure out something, flanking Blade Dancer to get at Xenilla like a stalking predator, only for Blade Dancer to adjust her stance each time to keep facing him. The alicorns stay closed but held their fire just in case of the worst. They were all on a hair trigger with their pool of magic. While separation and containment was the priority, the main reason they weren’t directly launching themselves into the fray was a full on burst from the magic spheres held up by the three combined could easily level a mountain if directed to. But Princess Luna saw Godzilla’s pause in motion upon being confronted with Blade Dancer and got an idea. She canceled out her magic and hovered down, putting her hooves to the ground directly between Godzilla and Blade Dancer.

She did have to hold up a field of magic to cloak her form to protect her from the intense heat, but she didn’t use any spells or hexes of any sort. She tucked in her wings and looked at Godzilla. At first her face was plain, unemotive; but slowly it morphed into a tiny, saddened frown as she shook her head slowly. The Princess of the Night looked at the kaiju, her friend and in some ways confidant, and spoke in a whisper.

“Junior… stop, please.”

Godzilla growled lowly, looking at the saddened alicorn and determined pegasus that stood in his way; as well as a brief glance at the two other alicorns hovering overhead with magic at the ready. He looked back at Luna when she spoke to him in a quiet, pleading tone.

“Whatever he did to cause this, we’ll handle it together… Please, calm down.”

A long time passed. Godzilla’s expression lightened a bit, from a fang bearing snarl into only minorly dulled shock. The glow across his form dimmed and the redness receded, as if burnt off by the steam coming off his back and shoulders. There were dozens of ways he could play out the next two seconds that ended in him doing what he set out to do several minutes ago and wanted to do for twenty years: end Xenilla. But every single one meant harming two innocents, Cadance and Blade Dancer; as well hurting his friends, Celestia and… Luna.

What finally stopped Junior wasn’t just the fact he would have to do so to finally stop this nightmare, it was the fact that somewhere inside he was heavily tempted to, consequences be damned. To be a hateful force of nature like the all those previous who bore the name “Godzilla”. To throw out every bit of restraint about putting others first the way he’d valued it and lived by for twenty years. Deep inside, some part of him wanted to do just that and that is what terrified the kaiju enough to stop him cold. The partial meltdown receded, and a scarred Junior stood still even as Celestia and Cadance’s magic placed him in light born restraints, the alicorns in question landing on either side of Luna. Princess Celestia looked at the battlefield carnage, both on the mountainside and the two kaiju. She sighed in a saddened tone while keeping a firm face, having hoped this was not going to be the result of the reunion.

“.... I see maybe I was wrong about some things…”

She whispered to Luna, looking to the bloodied and beaten Xenilla as Blade Dancer tried to tend to him.

“Sister please, there must be an explanation! He wouldn’t do this without a reason.”

Celestia felt her frown grow as Blade Dancer tearfully propped up the much larger stallion on her shoulder.

-I really hope so Lulu…-

The attention was quickly drawn away by Princess Cadance, but not by her own volition. The pink and pastel alicorn’s face briefly contorted with pain and she winked an eye shut whilst sucking in a breath to try and dull the sudden jolt she received. The leader of the Crystal Empire crumbled a bit in her stance, twitching in pain while putting a hoof to her aching lower stomach. So much focus was drawn away from the moment that her magic faltered entirely, leaving Celestia as the only one retraining Godzilla Junior. Luna gasped, leaning over and putting a hoof and wing around the stumbling alicorn.

“Cadenza, what’s wrong!?”

"I don't- know! Argk!"

With two of three alicorns distracted and Godzilla now looking back at Xenilla, Celestia had a long moment to worry about what hell might break loose when two sprites of light and a fourth alicorn zoomed over to their position. Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Shobijin pulled up beside all parties, Twilight yelling to her teacher as Moll and Lora did the same to Junior.

“Princess Celestia stop!”

“Godzilla Junior, you must cease!”

“He didn’t hurt Lea, this was all a misunderstanding!”

Princess Celestia blinked twice and straightened up, more than a bit confused.

“What’s this about Lady Lea?”

Moll and Lora turned around and faced the alicorns, dimming their magic and revealing their breezie forms.

“A memory spell gone awry your majesty! Mothra Lea got stuck experiencing the pains her ancestors felt while re-living their memories. And so, she collapsed screaming. And by the time Godzilla heard her screams and rushed to come and see what was wrong-”

This time it was Twilight finishing the twins’ sentence.

“-Xenilla was already in the room with me trying to help. He was holding Lea down so she didn’t hurt herself, so when Godzilla came in he thought Xenilla was attacking her and me behind your backs.”

“And how is she now?”

Celestia said, looking between the newcomers and the tower in the castle that now had a hole in its side several stories up.

“We finally found a spell that worked to cancel out the memories when paired with one of the faeries’ songs. She’ll be unconscious for awhile but she’s out of the painful ordeals.”

Godzilla listened close and played out the scene that unfolded with the new information in mind. While he didn’t know Princess Twilight Sparkle very well, he wasn’t going to reject what she said on the fact that if Lea trusted her as much as he knew she did than she had to be on the right side. And even if he was questioning the youngest alicorn, it didn’t take him knowing Lea and the Shobijin for years to know Moll and Lora would be the last souls to lie on someone like Xenilla’s behalf, especially when a hurt Mothra Lea was involved. All this bit of chaos he’d stirred up, busting holes in the castle that had welcomed him in, probably terrifying Twilight and the Shobijin half to death, violating the peace agreement he’d promised Celestia and Luna, and finding himself so lost in rage and hatred that he nearly lost control. He nearly lost it so badly he was tempted to hurt a friend and an innocent to get at what he wanted to.

And it was all because he misunderstood something and nearly mauled someone who wasn’t doing any harm. And that was something he still wanted to do on some level, even now that he knew it was wrong. “Moron” was added to the long list of ‘not very pleasant’ labels Junior was mentally taking onto himself.

Princess Celestia may have been about to say something to the kaiju when a groaning Princess Cadance stumbled and let attempts to summon forth magic again falter entirely. Her brow quickly raised, Celestia nodded to Luna and they rearranged themselves even as the two alicorns kept the bindings and containment on Godzilla. Lifting up her left wing, Celestia tucked her adoptive niece into the underside of it, holding her close and nuzzling her while humming softly to help ease away the pain. Cadance still winced a bit, but the pain was gradually replaced by soreness and she was able to bear standing up on three hooves while applying gentle pressure to her belly with the fourth. Princess Celestia sighed with a small frown.

“One thing at a time… Accident or not, I’m afraid he’s proven the need to be restrained for both his own and everypony else’s safety. At least until the situation quells some.”

Many eyes fell upon Godzilla Junior. It looked as if he was about to act or say something while glaring at the wounded in the crowd’s number, perhaps a return to wrath and break free of his bonds. Before such could happen however, a raspy voice interjected.

“Let him go…”

Xenilla, propped up by Blade Dancer, wiped down blood off his previously busted nose. He held his head low, letting his bangs fall down in front of his downcast eyes. He couldn’t look his brother in the face as he spoke again.

“It’s alright… Let him go.”

“Xen!”

Blade Dancer yelped in a protest, she was about say more when Xenilla tilted his head over to glance at the mare and look her in the eye. He wasn’t expressively sad or downtrodden, she knew him better than to be that. But, the expression upon his eye and brow was more telling than most words could be. Xenilla’s grayed eyes, filled with deep sadness, drowned her vision before he looked back at the ground after silencing her. He whispered quietly.

“Told you, hopeless…”

He sighed, hanging his head downwards in a way that his bloodstained mane covered most of his face.

“It was an accident, and I heal fast. Princesses, please let him go. He won’t hurt anyone…”

A long moment of contemplation and silent conversation between the more conscious alicorns, Celestia and Luna stole a breath and removed their magical bindings from Junor. While the former kept at the ready immediately, Junior held his stance even as he looked down at his rival. Blade Dancer patted at Princess Luna’s side, signalling her to stand aside for a moment. When she did so however, Godzilla couldn’t help but be quite surprised, if still unmoved, by the sadness broiling into anger rippling across her twitching face. Xenilla might have given up, but she hadn't. And kaiju or not, she was Blade Cheryll Dancer and she was giving him a piece of her mind!

“It. was all. An Act!”

She snapped at Godzilla, eyes still damp as she held Xenilla close to her.

“.. What was?”

“He told me and if he’s not going to tell you; I will!”

She snapped, standing up to a stallion easily four times her mass. The edges of her eyes were a bit damp.

“The war, all the conflict he caused between you two. He wanted to toughen you up, keep you safe so that what happened to your father wouldn’t happen to you. He never wanted to take your world, he was just trying to protect and keep his little brother safe!”

A pair of voices spoke up from beside Blade Dancer, the glowing forms of the shobijin, Moll and Lora, sheepishly hovering out from behind the alicorns and over to Junior.

“She may be right. We too saw Xenilla’s mind when Mothra traveled through it. He doesn’t have an evil one. Careless, angry, and smug for sure; but not evil. And… we saw the guiding trait of his conscious.”

“And what was that...?”

Moll and Lora turned around, looking to each other before casting their dour eyes upon Blade Dancer.

“Guilt.”

Junior’s eyes widened slightly as he very unwillingly gave the thought some contemplation. Blade Dancer’s words on their own he wouldn’t believe, not in this circumstance. But the shobijin were a pair of names he trusted unconditionally. In the decades of knowing them, he never knew them to lie or be wrong about what they knew. He trusted them and their word, and he was desperately trying not to do that for the first time. Xenilla was a patricidal monster who threatened his world, his friends, and his sole surviving family, lost his chance at forgiveness a dozen times over, killed any chance for peace Junior would ever have, constantly reminded him of parents past every time Junior even looked at him, and was something he’d never see as anything short of a threat to be put down. He had to be this and nothing else for it to make sense. Junior was brought into this world of Equestria while trying to kill him, and he had an unspoken vow to do just that once they were back on Terra. Xenilla was a mistake the world was better off without and he intended to see that mistake corrected. This nonsense about him being anything else had to be a lie.

And yet, in some tiny back corner of his mind, there was the possibility it was the truth. But if the rage that was born of being lied to was bad, the malice he was soon tasting at the thought it could all be truth was ten times worse. He wanted to rush forward and finish off his foe while he was weakened and unaware, but that would mean probably killing Blade Dancer. He wanted to unleash his wrath via a beam or shockwave to burn Xenilla out of existence, but that would mean burning or seriously hurting the alicorns, especially Luna and Celestia, two souls that had unfailingly been kind and understanding to him since a rough start. Taking revenge on Xenilla would mean hurting or killing an innocent or friends. He hated having to control himself, the thing that he felt divided him and the Mutations he fought the most; but he also hated the fact such thoughts even tempted him.

And then there was the fact this whole talk of Xenilla trying tough love and playing the villain made Godzilla out to be a lot of things he didn’t like. It meant so much of what he'd sacrificed and slaved over was all for some act like a work of fiction. It didn't matter. Filled with anger and confused sadness, he could only mutter a hollow chuckle and force a small, toothy smile.

“Everything I’ve done… Every sacrifice or pain I went through to try and prove myself different and save lives. Twenty years of it all; and it was all because of an act? Two decades of worthlessness… So, I’m a monster and a fool...”

Blade Dancer cringed, shaking her head in a concoction of confusion and frustration.

“N-No! That’s not what he or I meant at all!”

Godzilla ignored her, looking at Xenilla. Feeling the eyes upon him, the older kaiju raised his head back up, looking through his messy bangs with a solemn expression. There was a hint of glinting under his eyes. This was why he lied to Blade Dancer about having any form of love for anything, in this case familial. When he let it show, it hurt enough to even break his mental barriers and force him to emote.

“Br-.. Junior, I-”

He was cut short by a half hushed, growling voice from his brother. Junior’s glare cut right through Xenilla even as his eyes flashed red.

“I, hate you.”

“... I know.”

His mind caught in a storm and not wanting to risk another blow up, Godzilla turned and started to walk down the mountainside and towards the woods, not looking at anything else as he blankly stared ahead and marched off.

“I apologize for the noise and damages Princesses, I’ll remove myself to avoid any more.”

Princess Luna pursed her lips and started to take a step forward after him. But before she could move a full pace or call out to her friend, she felt a warm hoof push itself out in front of her. Princess Celestia, still holding a quietly groaning Princess Cadance, sighed and sadly shook her head. It was utter pandemonium at the moment and would take time to sort out, but she at least knew what needed to be done now.

“Leave him… As Xenilla said, he won’t hurt anyone; but he needs to be alone.”

=====================================

Somewhere deep in the Southern Swamps

Queen Chrysalis was not happy, as rare as that occurrence was. Life had been a long, strange, often anger-inducing series of ups and downs for the changeling monarch. When she decided to first make herself known 950 years ago, life was surprisingly easy. Unlike the other “monsters” she’d bided her time, not wasting her campaign right in the middle of the alicorn diarchy like Tirek and Sombra had. With only Celestia on the throne and her forces being very mobile, Chrysalis had easy pickings for the first few months. Places like Trot and Timbucktu, once notable and cornerstone cities upon the maps, were little more than crumbling ghost towns once she moved off after having her fun. At least, it was easy pickings until Celestia finally caught up to her!

The royal changeling sneered and winced upon looking at her raised leg. Nine centuries old and she could still vividly remember the solar flare induced thrashing the enraged alicorn gave her that left the nonliving parts of her hooves lined with holes and her horn warped and crooked. After escaping imprisonment, she had to lay low for the next few centuries, acting in secret, building her hives and back-up hives, and planning. But her chance to finally get revenge on Celestia only came at the cost of meeting another damned rival. Twilight Sparkle, Celestia’s little brat Chrysalis had initially used as a psychological chewtoy. The unicorn wasn’t even on her level without Chrysalis gorging herself and yet she’d still managed to have a hoof in foiling both the Canterlot invasion and her plans involving a magic boosting comet; all while also screwing up one of her new favorite fortresses with her friends; making it into a new prison. Chrysalis in the present only managed to avoid an outburst over the memories of failures by recalling the look on Twilight’s face when Chrysalis had suckered her into thinking the changeling wanted her pity and a chance to “redeem” herself. She played the young alicorn’s eagerness and ignorance like a fiddle, tricking her into opening the prison door just enough for the queen and her hidden guards to spring a trap and burst out.

That was weeks ago and the Element Bearers and the older alicorns had yet to find her and her changelings. To their credit, not like Chrysalis ever would give most anyone any, most wouldn’t think to check inside an almost invisible cave entrance in the middle of a rock pile in the middle of a heavily forested swamp and follow the tunnel down for several dozen meters until they reached a massive cavern where Chrysalis had built this hive decades ago. Structured into the limestone caves and river, the hive was a close facsimile to a fortress, with high and thick walls of black resin as hard as rock, glowing pustules of green liquid that provided a dim light, stockades, inner halls, living quarters, and tunnels with scavenged material from the surface and past conquests, and of course, a throne chamber in the back where Chrysalis was now. To call it a hive, castle, or a fortress would all be accurate, all would aptly describe the grim, darkened, and alien structure. And the queen of the installation was good at biding her time, even if this didn’t stop her from craving revenge as if her last defeat was still fresh.

She stomped across her throne chamber back and forth, having been pacing for the better part of three hours; filled with hate and filled with thoughts on how to get back at those who dared trouble her. She had been weighing between her options, some rash and playing to her desire for vengeance as soon as possible; and others being more long term plans. She could try an elaborate scheme in the years to come, either targeting Sparkle and Cadenza when they grew elderly or alone, or perhaps a personal scheme by kidnapping any offspring they had covertly and turning them into her own successor as a changeling. Chrysalis grumbled.

-Or I could just try to slip poison into their breakfast tomorrow… No, no that’s not nearly good enough!-

She sneered, swatting a spire of resin growing out of the floor and shattering it.

-They have to know it was me who did them in!-

Chrysalis scowled to herself. Revenge wasn’t something you rushed, and revenge was only fulfilling if your prey knew who it was who did them in. But even as she dwelled on the thought of rendering the alicorn species a myth yet again, a stray thought broke up her planning cycle like a thrown monkey wrench.

She had a lot of information about what was going on in Equestria proper at any given time and was constantly getting more, having spies spread out across the nation in any place they could remain undetected. Chrysalis knew of the giant monstrosities that had appeared suddenly, and at first planned to exploit their arrival. Perhaps in the chaos any ploys to take out Celestia or one of her ascended proteges might work out easier. However that was quickly quashed when news came from a now hornless scout that not only were there a good many “Kaiju” out there now; but most of them were now allied with and placed right next to most of the alicorns and Element Bearers. The scout had been going around the fringes of Ponyville, using the look of an urban legend in what the changeling queen would admit was a clever move. If anyone saw this “Slendermane” they clearly wouldn’t approach it and try to get friendly, and if the scared witnesses told anyone who knew of the myth they’d get written off as a liar for seeing fiction.

The scout had been at the apple orchards in this disguise to try and spy on the Honest Element, or maybe even nab one of those three annoying fillies tied to the Element Bearers again. That was when they unfortunately found out there was a kaiju there of all places and would have lost more than their horn if they hadn’t ducked and hid themselves. The damage wasn’t life threatening, but their days of being an infiltrator or scout were over. Can’t conjure up a disguise without a horn to channel through.

But any glimmer of concern the queen had for her changeling paled in comparison to the frustration she’d caught hold of. It just seemed like the world joyed itself in throwing more and more problems at her. For nine hundred years the only soul that could have stood up to her greatness one on one was Celestia. Now in the span of a few years, Chrysalis found herself faced with four times as many alicorns, a new batch of Element Bearers, the Crystal Heart back in action, and just when she’d thought she might have a chance at isolating a few targets during this sudden chaos, now there were six creatures that come flying in out of nowhere and park themselves exactly where she didn’t want anypony to be.

One fact became clear, this was too much for her to handle alone.

-This solo approach isn’t working anymore. If they want to stack their alliances, it’s time for a collaboration…-

As much as she hated that last thought, having not done anything resembling an alliance in over a millennia, she hated the thought of losing again even more. Queen Chrysalis trotted over to a portion of the throne room floor off into the corner. She magically gripped and slid a heavy pedestal and its trophy, the King of Timbucktu’s spear, aside. Underneath the pedestal was a long, narrow, black tunnel that was almost impossibly deep and equally hard to see down. Nevertheless, Chrysalis felt around with her magic until she caught hold of the familiar, channeling every lustful thought and memory she could to fulfill the required “code” of dark magic needed to hold, lift, and open what she was dredging up. A fool would think lust was merely a craving for someone, maybe even try to sexualize and fetishize it. But any channel for dark magic wasn’t a fetish or plaything nor something to be trifled with. Lust was far more and it was far darker than most could imagine. Lust for power, lust for pleasures, lust for revenge, lust for seeing your enemies suffer as you destroyed everything they loved. And lust to start the cycle of torture all over again. That is what Chrysalis only thought of, both for what she had done and planned to do again. And it drew out the umbra tome like a magnet.

Setting the incredibly heavy book on the floor with a resonating boom echoing through the air and floor, Chrysalis caught her breath and blew the sea of dust off the over millennia-old writing. The umbra tome was an abomination to the eyes of most beings, looking evil to the eye in almost every regard and it’s writing equally heinous to read and beyond unpleasant to the ear. Considering the contents, the reaction most would have is understandable. All the books in the Canterlot library about dark magic were by second hoof of second hoof sources, written by or from the knowledge of some rookie warlocks who got too caught up in bad thoughts and “discovered” a new type of magic. They were literally sparks of dark magic spun off in parts unknown. The book that lay before Chrysalis, one of four of its kind, were the original inferno. Dark magic straight from the source.

She hadn’t opened this thing in decades but the writing was still completely intact and the pages unworn. Lighting up her horn and coating the previously illegible text with her magic’s glow, she unscrambled the wording and read through familiar writing. Chrysalis almost robotically recited the opening mantra, bowing her head to the text before reading on. To her dislike, the section on promising coventures was very lacking. The text having changed in real time, it was a short list.

Discord’s gluttony had simmered off by a large degree ever since he decided to play the traitor card in the truest way and change sides. There was still plenty of overconsumption present but he was too close to Chrysalis’ enemies for her to even consider a team-up. Little lost there, she never did think much of that moron. The original centaur warlock, Sendak, was ancient even when Chrysalis knew him; though his magic, tome, and greed had transferred well to his student Lord Tirek. Tirek could have made for a good co-schemer, having a good wit and plenty of strength to back it up. Chrysalis knew the younger centaur demon better than his predecessor anyways, but the problem was the tome couldn’t get a clear fix on where exactly Tirek was. Either he was still in Tartarus or so drastically weakened to the point it couldn’t find him. In either case, useless to her.

Chrysalis felt her lips curl back over her fangs, licking at them with her forked tongue when she saw the next page. King Sombra would have been perfect. Filled with wrath that’d be easy to point in a favorable direction, plenty powerful, and the only soul Chrysalis knew with enough preparations and back-up ideas to rival her own. And if she could keep his lid on to the point he stopped being so obvious, very lethal. The only problem was something that caused Chrysalis to raise an eyebrow in confusion. According to the tome, Sombra was both dead and alive at the same time. It kept flip-flopping between the two, like it couldn’t make up its own mind. Chrysalis grumbled, about to give the book a good whack to see if that would get its 1,100 year old mind running properly; but she stopped immediately upon feeling a biting cold rip through the air.

The normal air within the cavern hive was constant, an even mix of warm, humid swamp air with the cold dryness of the subterrain airflows; making the temperature and humidity an unfailing temperate. So when a chill strong enough that Chrysalis felt it bite right through her exoskeleton instantly coursed into her, the shift in focus was as instinctual in reaction as it was her mind telling her something was very wrong. She snapped around, hair and tail flailing in strands before she locked her gaze upon a dark, swirling mass of purples and blacks so dark and unreflective it seemed to swallow up nearby light and looked like holes in space more than they did a color. Multiple forms emerged from the portal, quickly filling the room as one after another piled in. Each of their number was initially nothing more than a glowing outline, its shape composed of a mass of spines, sword-like insectoid legs, a pair of small eyes on either side and an unpaired fifth eye at the central ending tip of what one could best describe as it’s “head”. As the lights faded from the shape it revealed a roughly bear sized insectoid of some variety Chrysalis had never seen before. It was chiefly black in color with a yellowish trim on the edges of its individual exoskeleton plates, with bloody amber coloring the iris portions of its almost disturbingly uninsectoid eyes; which looked closer to a pony or mammals’ than the compound lenses most arthropods had. The body layout was mostly bug-like only by merit of having an exoskeleton and six pointed legs, with the leg arrangement all being focused on the bottom of the back segment and the rest of the segments pointing forward in something of a telescoping, bending neck. Numerous horns and spines lined the body, chiefly on the dorsal plane going down the middle of the back, with a set of stag beetle-like mandibles and a dorsal horn pointing forward out from the head forming a three-pronged pincer in front of it’s “face”. Know of it she didn’t, but Chrysalis was looking at another insect queen’s soldiers as her own personal guard charged into the chamber to face off against the symbiotic legion soldier as more of its kind popped into existence alongside it. With no great innate power for the realm to strip away like foreign bodies, they were able to maintain their natural state without any change to an Equestrian form; at least not for a long while that was far to come. The portal closed off behind the invaders with the throne chamber cut in two with ten legion troops on one side and ten of Chrysalis’ praetorian guard flanking their queen on the other.

But even as the spiny beasts chittered and hissed to one another while snapping their pincers or sword-like legs at the changeling praetorian’s spears, Chrysalis’ mind trailed to another observation. While she didn’t know the species, she knew soldier insects when she saw them.

-Soldiers, so where’s their leader?-

With that in mind she wasn’t very surprised by the massive flash of light streaming through the windows leading to the outside cavern. In the space before the fortress a second portal to Zenith burst open, hundreds of times larger than the first. With none of Harmony’s magic or any good magic here to dampen or interfere with Bagan’s influence, there was nothing to stop a whole kaiju from being summoned right at Chrysalis’ doorstep as opposed to kilometers away. The portal magnitudes larger than the throne room gate soon begot a similarly gargantuan form, even by kaiju standards. 168 meters tall at the top of the spine erupting from the back, the mass was about to stomp down on the floor below when a mix of the realm’s own traits reacting to her powers and Bagan’s own will caused the glowing form to rapidly shrink. Rows of extra limbs folded back and stretched into wings, pincers flattening into hooves, and a tail extended out from a new backbone once the endoskeleton grew within milliseconds.

Flying as fast as it was shrinking, the newcomer charged the fortress and crashed through one of the windows. The final intruder skillfully settled onto the floor among a shower of shattered resin as the glow receded from her now revealed form. Originally having the newcomer facing away from herself, Chrysalis felt her cold heart stop briefly upon seeing something she’d never seen before turn around and face her, another royal changeling. Similar in form to Chrysalis, in the dark echo of a mature alicorn, the queen was very large and taller than herself. Pale as bone or ivory with a black trim and red patch on her chest, the changeling’s oddest trait was a seam going up her long, straight horn that made it look like it was split or could split in two. Chrysalis stole back her resolute stance and stood up against the invader as the latter looked upon her with icy blue eyes.

Her forces were many, for she was Legion.

“I presume you are the one known as Queen Chrysalis?”

Legion asked in a cold tone. Chrysalis fully regained her nerve but was still surprised to see someone so much like herself, especially from her earlier decades, undamaged and unscarred.

“I am she. And you are Queeeen...?”

“I am Legion.”

“Well, Queen Legion-”

Chrysalis muttered, keeping a calm tone while stepping closer to the intruder.

“-before I give the command to turn this throne room into a brawl house; I’m going to need to ask… HOW DID YOU GET IN MY HIVE!?!”

Chrysalis snapped, hissing at that last part while lunging towards Legion. One could practically see the venom spitting out from between her teeth as her magical charge painted the front of the pale changeling queen’s body green. Legion’s eyes flashed with light and she made multiple high pitched clicking sounds that seemed to be aimed at her soldiers that looked poised to pounce the moment Chrysalis approached their matriarch. Whatever Legion “said” to them got the beasts to back off, even as a blue glow started to gush out of the seam on Legion’s horn to match Chrysalis’. With both royal changelings in what amounted to a Mexican Stand-Off, the tension in the room threatened to snap at any moment. As such, Legion spoke softly.

“From one queen to another, I know how important the sanctity of a hive is. Good world here for a good hive, a good conquest. However I come here for another and not to lay a claim.”

“Another? So you follow orders? Some queen you are.”

Chrysalis grunted with a scoff. Legion was unmoved.

“Two and a dozen solar cycles ago I’d agree with you, but times can change. My rule is unchallenged, just adapted. Even a queen can have a god.”

“So what does this ‘god’ of yours want? And you best hope it’s enough to somehow convince me not to do what I’m tempted to do to all trespassers…”

Legion tilted her head and clicked to a subordinate. The soldier chittered before rustling its limbs and bringing up a dark chunk of obsidian roughly the size of a volleyball. Before Chrysalis could try and wonder what was so important about volcanic glass, the soldier legion did something just plain bizarre. It held out the obsidian in front of its “face” with its pincers and seemed to instantly vaporize and suck in the glass like it was breathing it in. Teaming up with Bagan had given the Legion numerous perks. Powerful allies, a stable base to make a central hive, portals to other worlds once their service was done, and all the glass they could eat. Silicon based lifeforms tend to have unorthodox dietary schemes. In a matter of days the queen’s brood had grown from a few dozen to hundreds, this force just being the tip of the iceberg.

However as confused as she was at just what in the world the soldier legion did, it was what it held now that the obsidian was gone that gave her pause. When it passed the object to its queen and Legion held it out with her hoof, Chrysalis recognized it in full and stopped cold. It was a gray-black, curved cone with a burnt red tip. Despite how dark her form was, Chrysalis went pale.

-Sombra’s horn!-

Wide eyed, her voice was half hushed in stupor.

“... Where did you get this?!”

Legion continued on like she hadn’t heard her.

“My god isn’t one for questions to itself, but has plenty for others. We’re new to this world and it wishes to know more. And, it’s a benevolent deity to those whom aid it…”

“And.. am I to guess it has some questions for me?”

“Your hive probably wouldn’t be standing if it didn’t.”

“..... Well then,-”

Chrysalis sucked in her breath to try and quell her nerves some, even if looking at Sombra’s horn was causing her plenty of unease.

“-call me an atheist until times yet to come; but you’ve gotten my attention. Do you know what perk I may get for my little patronage?”

Fortunately, Legion had the exact context to say what was needed. It and the fact her species would become a changeling given her location and biology were the exact reasons Bagan had sent her, knowing Chrysalis would need the likewise to agree to what it wanted her to agree to.

“All queens have enemies, rivals. Given your age my god is probably right in guessing you have quite a few. Would you like them, removed? What does the queen of the changeling hive wish for?”

Queen Chrysalis’ face contorted, but not in anger. It’s muscles condensed and twitched, forming a vile, hate filled facsimile of a smile that was drowning in maleficent thoughts and lusts. One could practically see the flames spurting out from her lit eyes.

“My lord already brought your colleague Sombra back, and can easily do it again. And I have seen its power beyond that, it can do far more. We all have our wishes, so why not see them through with appropriate aid from beyond?... So, I’ll ask again. What is your wish?”

Chrysalis needed not much thought to the question, her expression bore all the answer. She turned away from Legion and raised her hoof. Her eyes slithered their gaze across every solar flare burned hole in her beautiful form as well as the subtle blemishes upon her torso from magic blasts, meshed with the memory of the pulse of magic that spoiled her greatest invasion ploy ever. She was filled with hatred, and filled with lust for retribution.

“Your liege, how powerful are they? Could they really get what I want done?”

Legion’s response was slightly quieter. In truth as great as she found the perks of her new loyalties, still a recent concept to her, it would be a lie to say in some way the intense cold she felt near her master’s presence and the immense power they displayed just by shouting at them didn’t affect her. Even a world-traveling, conquering alien queen could get scared. She wouldn’t have agreed with its self definition as a “god” if she could find any other way to describe it.

“It’s the most powerful being I’ve ever encountered, probably impossibly so… Give it a favor, and it’ll give you any favor.”

Chrysalis paused for a moment. She turned around halfway, a sly grin on her fanged face.

“Rid this world of alicorns, and I’ll kiss your liege’s hooves myself!... So! What questions does our patron have for my little self?”

She quipped, putting a hoof to her chest while speaking with fake humbleness. From Chrysalis, that was about as genuine as it got. Not knowing this but similarly not caring, Legion scratched another goal off her mental checklist and went to the next.

“It’s aware that all “good” magic used by the alicorns, ponies, other races, and their artifacts seem to all come from the same original source. A “teacher of teachers”, a nexus of that type of magic in both a literal and metaphorical case.”

Chrysalis narrowed an eye and raised a brow. She’d already figured out she was talking to a transformed kaiju, albeit one on a different side than that the big lizard one in Canterlot, based off her soldier’s alien appearance and word of “not being here for awhile”. That itself wasn’t the surprise, what was the surprise was the fact this Legion seemed to be implying her similarly alien master was aware of an ancient secret Chrysalis only learned about from someone even older than herself.

-They know about the Tree of Harmony?!-

Chrysalis conscious thoughts shifted back into real time as Legion continued on.

“But, not the kind of magic used by King Sombra, yourself, Lord Tirek, and the one called Discord. And as my master was looking into these, they couldn’t help but notice all of you four were the earliest cases and you all appeared within a few solar orbits or cycles of each other about one thousand orbits ago. An oddity.”

Chrysalis listened and remembered well. There was a reason so many of Equestria’s calamities struck it and its neighbors one thousand years ago, after the Windigos were banished. After all, she was there, just laying low for a few years once the plan went south and Tirek was imprisoned and Sombra sealed away. She’d made her return once she learned one alicorn attempted to kill the other and was banished, figuring the possibly weakened and grieving Celestia wouldn’t be able to come after her until the changeling horde’s strength had grown too great. Then she hoped to free Tirek and Sombra. A hope she unfortunately discovered to be naught after the razing of Trot. So for nine hundred years she hid, planned, and waited. There was a reason her magic was more akin to her old allies than it was to the Equestrians. Legion finished her thought, turning to face the tome Chrysalis had pulled out and seeing the illustrations of a demonic centaur, mutated unicorn, and changeling queen all standing before something.

“I know little of magic, but the same can’t be said for my patron. So it wishes to know… If your magic came from a different source, who taught you?”

Queen Chrysalis held up King Sombra’s horn before her, practically able to feel the very familiar magic radiating off it. It was so much like her own. After all, lust and wrath were close relatives. Her mind trailed to wonder and ponder. This was something she swore to secrecy, but the opportunity was clear as crystal and good as gold. She looked at Sombra’s horn, imagining the unicorn standing alongside her with Tirek and even Discord before she banished the traitor from her mind.

-Her master definitely seems powerful. Strong enough to end the alicorns!... And… maybe strong enough to enact our old plan and bring “him” back... They’d fight soon as that happened though…-
She felt a grin cross her muzzle.

-But if back to full strength, who could oppose him? Legion, come a year and you’ll be bending the knee to another master!-

Chrysalis approached Legion with a snicker, gripping the page she saw Legion looking at and turning it. The illustrations of the terrors of the past took a more distant point of view, showing the four, TIrek now replacing the aged Sendak, standing before a dark visage of a vague form. Simple in design, and yet somehow with the image radiating a dark and grim magic from the pages themselves, terrifying at the same time. Legion only felt that same way when Bagan addressed her. Recurved horns, deep red eyes, a studded collar with eerie, glowing gems, and cloven hooves were some of the only traits plainly visible on the almost moving picture. Chrysalis stole her breath before looking fully at the image of her mentor. After all, even queens can have tutors.

“Does your master know of a place below a lot of crystals called Tambelon?"

Author's Note

Proofread by Lance-Omikron and Faith-Wolff (IRL this time!)
Artwork to come by Faith-Wolff

Blade Dancer created by Fiddlesticks
Blueberry Frost owned and copyrighted by Sword-of-Akasha and licensed by Shadows of Shattered Dreams, all rights reserved

Next Time on The Bridge!:
An unexpected visit and the history of dark magic

Chapter 32: Absolution

==========

Ponyville

A new face in town trotted along the beaten path towards Ponyville from a stretch of road leading off to the east. She wasn’t a remarkable pony by any means, a slightly below-average height earth pony mare with a reddish-pink coat. Her mane was a nearly black level of dark brown, though the slight graying in some fringes and the lines on her face were fairly clear, designating that she was around the middle-aged range. The only clothing on her form was a white hair band and a red scarf that billowed a bit in the strong breeze blowing past her, sometimes obscuring her magnifying-glass-over-an-egg cutiemark.

The traveler had been humming to herself as she went, but her attention was soon diverted by a stallion sitting on a bench. While he had a newspaper in hoof, his focus was clearly on whatever was causing him to suck in his breath and wince. Judging from the position of one of his hooves on the side of his face, something in his mouth. The traveler plodded over to him.

“Hey, are you alright?”

“Urrrg ah! Um, I think so. Just something hurting on my jaw.”

He grunted, sucking in his breath as a jolt of pain shot through the pegasus stallion’s mandible. The mare leaned in closer, motioning upwards with her wrist.

“Here open your mouth, I’m kind of a doctor. Say Aaaah if you can.”

The stallion opened his jaws as wide as they could and did so as requested while the traveler looked in closer.

“...Aaaaaaah?”

He could tell she was looking his mouth over, but couldn’t help but be a bit confused at what she was mumbling to herself.

“Hmmm flat grinding teeth, definitely herbivore. Shorter muzzle and flexible tongue to assist in speech like in a-”

“Oouh finn eet?”

Sure enough the mare spotted what she was expecting: a deep red coming from the top jaw’s teeth line along with some swollen gum tissue.

“Ah! Upper right premolar has some debris near the gumline. Looks like part of a maize seed gouged into it. Might want to head to a dentist, and try not to probe your mouth any or it’ll cut the gum up more.”

She quipped, pulling away. The stallion smiled as best he could without wincing, holding a hoof to his cheek after giving a relieved sigh.

“Phew! Was starting to worry it was something real bad. Last time I get a jumbo popcorn bag at the flicks. I’ll head up to the office and see if Minuette Colgate has an opening. Thanks lady!”

He muttered with a pleasant expression, kicking off from his seat and starting to walk off. The traveler beamed and nodded, soon casting her eyes to the newspaper her sudden patient had been reading as it lay face down on the bench. Her eyes took only a moment to instantly recognize an outline of a picture visible through the back of the front page.

“Hey, can I borrow this?”

The traveler asked, picking up the newspaper. The toothache-bearing stallion chuckled and waved to her as he started to flap his wings and ascend into the air for a low hover.

“I’m done with it, read it mostly for the funnies and Wonderbolts report. It’s all your’s if you want it. Bye-ow! Um, bye!”

He yelped after a brief spurt of pain before flying off. The mare smiled, pulling up to seat herself on the bench after a bit of awkwardness with her limbs. Managing to get the hang of it, she opened up the newspaper to its front page. The image was of something not of Equestria. A composite image, one frame of it was a part of what had been now dubbed the “Fourth Battle of Canterlot”; displaying a picture taken of Godzilla Junior as he squared off with half a dozen Super Gyaos outside of some sort of barrier going around the city. One gyaos was biting down on his wrist as the saurian titan fired his beam to vaporize several more and grasping another with his free hand. The second half was much more recent, at a now infamous interview. A charcoal gray unicorn with a bent horn, wearing dark hued armor, and being of enormous proportion sitting next to several of Canterlot’s nobility and royalty. The caption below reading “King Godzilla Gojo the Second interviewed”. The title to the article in question being, “Friend or Threat? Canterlot votes Former!”.

Peculiarly enough despite the action and magnitude of the first image, it was the second picture that had the mare’s attention. Her curiosity and rapid paced reading only grew upon seeing a follow up image, showing a purple and blue pegasus the caption dubbed “Moonbeam Glimmer” staring down a clearly stressed Godzilla Junior. The traveler paid close attention to the unicorn’s red eyes and a frown crossed her muzzle.

Several minutes and thorough readings later, the traveler continued to make her way through Ponyville. She was just starting to pass what appeared to be an outdoor diner when the familiar sound of infantile crying caught her focus. The Cakes had so far been having a very pleasant afternoon. They had a break in their work orders so they’d elected to eat out and bring the little ones. Pound and Pumpkin Cake had been absolutely delighted just a moment ago, especially given they got to bring their second favorite playmate Gummy out with them. Which was all the more confusing for the married couple as to why Pound Cake just started sporadically crying. As Mrs. Cake soothingly shushed and rocked her child while she and her husband attempted to find out what was wrong, Pumpkin Cake seemed to not notice her brother’s distress. The tiny filly was sitting down next to Gummy, pawing her little hooves over the gentle alligator’s back. But as her hooves bumped across Gummy’s scutes, the reptile remained completely unresponsive. Pumpkin Cake’s face began to contort and scrunch up, sniffling as her eyes started to water. She and her brother wanted to play with their pet and show him affection, but Gummy didn’t notice them. In their little minds, it meant it was bad and they were bad and they cried when things were bad! To a toddler, this was serious business! Pumpkin Cake sniffled and tried to rub Gummy again, but to no success.

Fortunately before the first tear could fall, a hot colored hoof very gently nudged her side and got the little one’s attention. Pumpkin Cake, sucking on one of her hooves, turned her head and looked up to see the traveler crouched down and smiling at her. With a light push the mare rolled Gummy onto his side and patted at the alligator’s exposed stomach. Pumpkin Cake blinked her eyes, her young mind pondering the sight for a moment before following the basic instinct to mimic and rubbed Gummy’s stomach. Now the reptile was responsive, twitching his tail and hissing contently in an almost purring-like manner.

“Most reptiles have thinner scales and more nerves on their stomachs to sense heat. If you want to give them a rub and show them some love, the tummy’s the best spot.”

The mare said to the family now all watching her. Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at each other, then to Pound Cake, who was stifling his crying and reaching for Gummy; and sighed with a smile, glad that it wasn’t anything serious that had their son suddenly crying. Having been set back down Pound Cake was quick to eagerly join her sister in giving Gummy belly rubs after waddling over. Mrs. Cake put her hoof on the mare’s shoulder.

“Oh thank you so much Miss! They sometimes cry at random but we always worry it’s bad.”

The traveler beamed, returning the gesture in almost the manner of a one armed hug.

“Oh it’s no problem at all, I’ve got experience with the scaly and with kids, hehehe.”

She giggled. A moment later and her face lit up and her brow lifted. Turning her head back around, she pulled the newspaper she’d thrown onto her back off and moved it to her free front limb.

“Sorry, I hate to pester; but could you two possibly point me the way to get to Can-ter-lot?”

She muttered, spacing out the name of the unfamiliar city and hoping she was pronouncing it right.
Mr. Cake blinked for a moment before getting his mind back onto the track being set.

“Oh, you mean Canterlot? Yes, just take the north train at the station just past the spa. Should be rolling into town in about five minutes.”

“How much is the cost? I found some coins on the walk here but, ehehe IIIIII’m not sure it’s it’s enough. They take barter?”

The traveler muttered, pulling out two bits from under her hairband as her ears flopped down in an embarrassed manner. In truth the train fare was four bits, but that didn’t stop the mutual glance and smile from the Cakes ignoring that little problem. Mrs. Cake pushed the mare’s hoof back into it.

“O' deary, you just tell them you’re running a Cakes business order and they’ll put it on our tab. We get a discount.”

“Oh but I don’t want to impose!”

Mr. Cake just chuckled at the mare’s benign insistence, putting a hoof around his wife as he motioned to the now happily giddy twins playing with Gummy.

“Believe you-me, helping with the twins is worth five times the fare!”

Mrs. Cake similarly grinned, but the expression soon vanished when she saw her husband’s watch ticking down out of the corner of her eye.

“O'! You best get a move on sweetheart! Or else you’ll miss your train!”

She yelped. Almost on cue a train whistle called out from several buildings away. Not wanting to waste time arguing, the traveler chose to take the aid and keep going. After all, she had to get to Canterlot!

“Thanks!”

The mare barked after revving up into a sprint and bolting off towards the station, thankful equines were able to gallop so fast.

=================

Canterlot Hospital

Xenilla has had worse, like that time he nearly exploded. This though was probably somewhere in the top five. The kaiju convert lay in a hospital bed hooked up to numerous machines and had been wrapped up in an almost comedic amount of body casts before he insisted he just needed to be wrapped up on account of his fast healing. Even after several magical treatments and lots of sunlight, he still had more broken bones that he did intact ones and as the ticking monitor indicated, occasionally an erratic heartbeat that spiked whenever he forcefully mended an injury. Using one of his few intact skeletal systems to bite down and crunch a healing crystal, Xenilla ignored the searing pain in his chest caused by the crystal forcing his ribs to unshatter and go back together properly. Hurt to Daiei and back, but he wasn’t in the complaining mood. As far as he was concerned, he had it coming. This pain would pass.

However, the worst pain in his recovery wasn’t so easily ebbed away. The hole in the back of his mind, whose gripping tendrils slithered all the way down his back, was ever present. It wasn’t as bad as it had been hours ago, at that point he was borderline catatonic mentally. Functioning enough to respond but too shell shocked to really think. For over two decades he’d played his life and all his plans off a fear that if he did nothing, a worse catastrophe would follow. It drove him to try and kill his father. An act he found out recently had been completely meaningless. All he was now, all the pain he’d caused as he tried to pick up the pieces and keep the world from being torn apart; all because his otherwise great intelligence had been wrong once based off of an impulse reaction.

-Guess I’m more like father than I give credit… -

Xenilla put the crystal down and looked back at the alicorn he’d been speaking to. Princess Luna held a neutral expression on her face the entire time Xenilla had been telling her everything. It was more an affirmation of what the alicorn already had been told, to make sure there was no lies on his end after Blade Dancer had given the diarchs the full lowdown while he was unconscious on the way to the hospital. Though as Xenilla corroborated the story previously told, he could tell there was something on the alicorn’s mind. She, even if only for the briefest moment, looked markedly uncomfortable when Xenilla got into the parts about fighting his sibling. He needed little guess why that was so, but elected not to prod.

“And that’s how I made the biggest mistake of my life and have been… trying to keep the world spinning ever since.”

He grunted, only needing to pause briefly to avoid reacting to a jolt of pain in his torso. Princess Luna closed her eyes and let herself breathe out.

“... He never told me you were his brother…”

Xenilla paused, looking off and away from the alicorn as he felt her eyes upon him again.

“.. To him I’m not. Judging from what Miss Dancer and Mothra have told you, you can see why… How is Mothra by the way? I can sense her down the hall.”

“Recovering. Exhausted, but in good health.”

Luna muttered in a stiff manner, picking her form back up a few more inches. Xenilla seemed to ponder for a moment, pursing his lips. With a couple of winces he raised his hoof and squinted. A glow pulsed down from his shoulders and through his hoof. As if condensing itself in the air a small, yellow colored, brightly glowing rhombus appeared upon his hoof pad. Xenilla moved his hoof over to offer it up to the alicorn.

“Can you give her this?”

He muttered as Luna picked the crystal up with her magic and levitated it before herself. The alicorn cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head curiously.

“What is it?”

“Energy crystal. Restores cell efficiency to restore stamina to the body. She’ll know what to do with it. Still don’t expect her to trust me at all but- agk!”

Xenilla snipped, sucking in his breath as he fell back into the bed with a tooth-baring wince on his muzzle as the pain momentarily caused him to lock up. He caught his breath and pulse again, as indicated by the heart beat monitor, and saw a nodding Princess Luna looking back at him.

“I’ll take it to her.”

“... Thank you, Princess.”

With crystal in magic, Princess Luna turned from her spot and headed for the door. Just as she was about to head on her way out however, the blue alicorn stopped short of opening it. She turned her head halfway to the side, not looking back but enough to throw her voice to the room’s only occupant.

“That form Junior took, you recognized it. You were horrified by it.”

Xenilla's chest tightened up as phantom fear pumped through him and accelerated his heart rate.

“Not from personal experience. But yes, I know of it.”

“What was it? I've seen it in his nightmares before, but I know not what it is.”

“...”

Luna turned around, her eyes practically glaring daggers through the kaiju so sharp he didn’t need to look her in the eyes to feel them as he cast his gaze to the floor.

“Xenilla, tell me.”

“... The Burning. First time seeing it myself, but I never want to again… Family trait, it’s what killed our father.”

Xenilla could sense Luna’s glare momentarily falter as she shared the same fearful expression he was hiding.

“How is it done?”

“A loss of control over the source of our powers. It makes you stronger, magnitudes stronger. But if kept up for any length at full force, it’ll burn you out. Literally… One of the reasons I did what I did was to force my bro-.... Godzilla Junior, to learn to control his powers. He’s stronger than our father ever was, making it all the more important. With our father it required him overdosing on radioactive energy.”

“And Junior hates you so much that once worked into a rage, he entered it all by himself…”

Luna averted her glare and looked off to the side, worry and panic flashing across her face. So much attention was diverted to thought she barely heard Xenilla’s whisper.

“Princess.”

“Huh?”

Xenilla’s vision met the alicorn’s, and to Luna he almost looked unrecognizable. He was looking forward and off into space, almost shell shocked in expression as his face drooped down in anguish.

“I can tell you are friendly to him, so I need you to promise me this.”

“Promise what?”

“I failed him, more than any ever could. But, his life means more than mine; even to me. Promise me you’ll try to help him never take that form again. If he does, it could kill him. Protect icka’-”

He stopped himself from saying it or a synonym for it again, no longer feeling like he was allowed to.

“Protect him, even from himself.”

Luna stuttered a bit, confusion and shock messing up her speech pattern.

“W-Why are you asking me this?!”

Xenilla shrugged.

“Because I fully expect him to make it so my trip to your world is cut short. And lacking one last deed I might need to do for someone else, I’m not sure I care. And if he does what I think he's going to do without someone to help him, he may be trapped in that state.”

A long silence passed between the two figures, even as both minds raced and rambled in ponderance. Princess Luna took in a deep breath, exhaled, and managed to compose herself reasonably well.

“And, there is no chance at him forgiving you?”

Xenilla, having done enough thinking already, didn’t need a moment to think about his answer.

“His family line never was very good at forgiveness, takes after his father there. And especially not for me. I could always be wrong, but consider this a measure taken in case I'm right. I made my mistakes and climbed into my grave awhile ago. I just want you to promise he won’t be joining me when he decides to fill it in.”

A depressing sigh echoed across the room from Luna’s lips.

“I promise... My sister and myself will want to talk to you later. Until then, rest and remain here.”

And with that, Princess Luna took her leave. A long drought of interaction settled through Xenilla’s room, leaving him alone with his thoughts for what felt like hours. He managed to get off his emotional rollercoaster and push himself back into some semblance of order when he felt a familiar presence approaching from the way that Luna left. Had it been anyone else in that hospital bed, they’d probably be startled out of their skin if they turned and looked over in the way Xenilla did and saw the towering form of Destroyah looming over them. The Serizawan Legacy looked over her oldest ally with a blank expression before rolling her eyes.

“They said it was bad, but I’ve seen you worse. You’ll live.”

“I intend to, for what amount I'm allowed anyways.”

“Haven’t heard you sound like that before.”

Xenilla sucked in a breath, biting back a wince as he gave a long, tired shrug. He put his hoof to his brow.

“Destroyah, we can stop pretending you don’t know now.”

The giantess of a mare adjusted her position and took a seat next to Xenilla’s bedside and got comfortable, having previously needed to hold her neck out to avoid her horn bumping the ceiling.

“Wondered how or when I figured it out?”

“Yes, actually I have.”

“Was about four or five years ago, didn’t care to count days. Was when you had me divert a few of the lackies from running rampant while you handled another group. You didn’t want them going off in a spot the runt or any of his friends weren’t at.”

Xenilla probed his mind for a second, going through his memories like storage and quickly recalling the instance.

“Yes, we were in the Atlantic and some of the Mutations wanted to attack New York City while not even the resident guard dog was present. You seemed to have enjoyed yourself then when I gave the order to beat some sense into them.”

He grunted, earning a nonchalant nod and head tilt from Destroyah.

“I did.”

She said, shrugging her shoulders as the memory of flinging Krystalak around with her tail pincer after the bugger tried to pull a fast one on her played before her eyes.

“But then it occurred to me when I saw the human city in the distance. With all those lights on at night it wasn’t hard. Here you and I were, fighting other Mutations. I’d lost count before and since that day how many other times you called upon me to do that while you did the same; but it was more times than you or I ever directly fought the beings you said were the enemy. So, I questioned why when I got bored and remembered how you always called the runt that word for sibling; and it made sense.”

Xenilla raised his brow some. True, he’d suspected for a long time Destroyah had somehow figured his scheme out. But the question of how and why she first had always taunted him. While he always respected the accidental creation of the Oxygen Destroyer, something mandatory for someone who could stand up to his father at his peak and almost beat him, he wouldn’t have expected her to be the first to make any keen observations.

“If you saw through it, I wonder if any of the others did.”

“Some may have wondered it, but I doubt it. You know how they were.”

Xenilla chewed on his cheek and shook his head in a manner Destroyah recognized. Spending years as someone’s right-hand kaiju tended to help you pick up on their body language pretty well and Xenilla’s headshaking and expression said less “I don’t know” and more “Thanks for reminding me”. There was a good reason Xenilla thought the Mutations would have been a serious threat to all life on the plane if not put on a leash.

“Too prideful to see straight, too monstrous for even Mothra to try and redeem; and power hungry to the end. If we’d let them run wild-”

Destroyah cut him off with her own brand of creepy monotone, speaking in complete seriousness without an ounce of anger, frustration, or levity.

“Terra would be scarred, probably hundreds of millions of humans instead of a minuscule number would be dead, and probably some of the runt’s gang going down with them until we toughened the survivors up.”

“So, you really did figure it all out…”

Xenilla deadpanned, earning a shrug from Destroyah.

“Play the threat, make the opposition stronger over time; and keep the destruction down to a tiny fraction of a fraction. Worked.”

Xenilla laid back into his bedding and stared up at the ceiling in an empty manner. In some ways, the affirmation of any kind that his scheme paid off in some form was very welcome. Especially after the Final War’s alien invasion, it seemed more important than ever that he had to ensure his brother and those who’d follow him needed to be strong enough to survive whatever might come next. And with so many Mutations coming out of the woodwork, too many for Xenilla to kill off entirely; he’d instead cowed them into restriction and tried to make the situation work for him and unknowingly, others. And Destroyah was right in many ways, it did indeed seem to work. His brother had grown mightier than their father ever was and was surrounded by his own army of mighty allies, battle hardened and greater than before. While Xenilla bore no love for the humans, something he felt was vindicated by who Princess Twilight said fired that blasted satellite gun at them without regard for who else it hit, the effect appeared to work on them too. Even just four years ago the Global Defense Force, humanity’s pinnacle of power and advancement, would have been utterly destroyed by rampaging Mutations if Junior and Mothra’s Defender faction hadn’t stepped in and Xenilla yanked back on the Mutations’ leashes. Now with the return of their mechas and further advancements after the Final War, they stood a chance and could bolster the planet’s defenses.

Part of Xenilla took note of them and affirmed to himself he made the best of a bad situation and played it out to the most optimal outcome. In some ways, he had succeeded.

And another part of Xenilla was calling him a fraud and reminding him of how carved up and scarred up his sibling is thanks to his near constant fighting against the Mutations over the years. And how close Junior might be to dying if he could activate the burning form and risk a meltdown. That empty, engulfing feeling from before was returning with a vengeance. It took everything he had to avoid an eye wetting. The silence between himself and Destroyah was broke with a half whisper.

“Why did you go along with it? If you knew it was all fake, why did you stay?”

He wasn’t expecting as quick an answer as he got, nor one so concise.

“Because of what you told me.”

Destroyah grunted, shrugging. Now Xenilla was confused enough for it to show.

“Wait, what?”

“When you dug up that fragment of me that was still alive after my fight with your father, you helped me grow my body back after those missions inside the GDF, once you knew I wouldn't try to eat you soon as I returned to this stage. Getting my final form again was like getting my mind back together in some ways, made me think. And memory of near death gave me some new things to think about. Previously it was all instinct. Feed, grow, adapt, find a threat, kill it, continue. Even after I became more aware by my final stage, I still just did what instinct told me to. But when you helped me return, one thing I hadn’t considered before was my origins. And you knew them well.”

“I remember. I was actually surprised when you asked, up until then I hadn’t thought you to be able to speak. I’d gotten the information from the human’s networks, it being why I knew where to find your remains to begin with.”

“And, you told me of how I was created.”

Destroyah looked to her flank, the emblem of Dr. Serizawa's final creation emblazoned upon it as her cutiemark.

“Yes, about how you were born from the oxygen destroyer device set off sixty years ago.”

Xenilla said the name of the creation with a bit of lowered breath. The oxygen destroyer was nothing to joke about, being the only device that was a surefire way to kill a kaiju not specifically built to resist or survive it. Arguably the most terrifying weapon humanity ever devised, it was what killed the original Godzilla, Junior’s grandfather, six decades ago. Apparently the creator of it agreed with what Xenilla’s sentiments were after the latter found out about it, taking his own life with his weapon upon activating it to kill the first Godzilla; already having burned his research. Despite a lot of attempts by scientists operating for decades to replicate the process that destroyed all oxygen bearing atoms in a space, no luck was to be had. When Dr. Ijuin accidentally and for a time unknowingly rediscovered the process, he was wise enough to follow Dr. Serizawa’s example to less lethal extremes and wiped out his research after finding out the truth following Destroyah’s grand entrance in 1995. Since then Xenilla had been watching the development very closely, despite the UN ban on the research. If anyone ever got close, he’d handle it with as little attention drawn as possible. The oxygen destroyer was one weapon no one was ever going to have. After all, aside from the catastrophic destructive properties to the lifeforms it did affect, there was the effects it had on those it didn’t kill. Twas an odd irony the bigger the weapon used, the bigger the genies it let out of the bottle; sometimes literally. Xenilla was talking to one.

“A weapon.”

Destroyah grunted, speaking back in the present.

“And a weapon exists just to do it’s purpose and follow the command to attack whatever it’s pointed at. I was born from Serizawa’s weapon so I’m one myself.”

“So, you just kept destroying because you thought it to be your nature.”

Destroyah frowned and rolled her eyes.

“If we’re done stating the obvious. If I ever actually opposed or actually cared about what you were doing, I’d have done something about it. But as long as you were pointing me in an agreeable direction, I didn’t care.”

“If you don’t care, why bring it up now?”

A quiet passed over Dr. Serizawa’s legacy. Destroyah’s expression was one Xenilla wasn’t very used to seeing. She didn’t emote much, only the barest hint of what was going through her mind. Unlike the expressive Equestrians, in many ways Destroyah still expressed her thoughts like she was still a 120 meter kaiju that didn’t have moveable lips or ears; emoting more through non-facial body language. Her wings were sticking up slightly, shoulders slouching, neck craned back, and staring off into space with her jaw stiffened. All in all, Xenilla knew she was stressed and confused, clearly homing in on a specific thought but not quite sure how to express it.

“... Destroyah?”

“....”

“Destroyah?”

“... I’m…."

She sighed.

"Xenilla, what did you plan to have happen to me once the Solgell plan was done? If it had gone off without a hitch.”

Xenilla blinked a few times, honestly a bit surprised still she was asking about this. But, knowing better than to try and dodge around the topic, he shrugged and relented.

“If it had gone smoothly, most of the worst Mutations like Megaguirus would be dead with the less aggressive ones like Obsidious and Pulgasari cowed into surrendering or backing down. After that happened… well, I was actually going to leave the choice to you.”

“And what were my options?”

“Terra was rightfully your home as much as any. Once we stopped pretending you didn’t know and you said you wanted to go off on your own, I’d release any debt you had to me. If you wanted to be left in peace though, the second option was to go back to one of the habitable but sentient free worlds I passed by on my initial rush to Terra. If you wanted to be left alone, I’d take you to one.”

Xenilla frowned, knowing both options had their problems. But trying to make the best of an unideal situation was the only thing he’d been able to do since he existed. He looked back at Destroyah, now noticing the giant mare’s stare was directed at something. Outside the window and down the Canterlot city limits going southward, he saw a wide expanse of rural lands. On the peak of the horizon were a couple of buildings discernible in the distance. Trailing Destroyah’s vision showed she was looking directly at them.

-Map said that apple orchard she was sent to was to the south. Must have ended up going back to Ponyville.-

Xenilla knew the subject and the effect it was having on Destroyah, and with the previous topic in mind he already knew what was on her mind now.

“You want to stay here, don’t you?”

He said with a calm breath. Destroyah looked down to the floor as her wings drooped some more. She spoke with a hint of confusion in her tone, still straining to express it properly.

“... I’m… happy here. No one hurting me or attacking me. I know this sounds strange coming out of me but, I don’t want to be left alone anymore. And I don’t want to go back to Terra. These ponies’ lives are strange, and there's still a lot to try and figure out here. I’d like to stay here to try and do that.”

Her speech pattern and body language were clear indicators there was something more specific she wasn’t talking about. Xenilla chose not to risk pushing any buttons. With a deep breath to shrug off any flabbergasting he had, he put his hoof on Destroyah’s shoulders in a kindly manner. She called herself a weapon and others called her a crony, but whenever the kaiju came to his mind there was only one word that he called her. Friend.

“Destroyah. Look at me.”

The requested kaiju glanced over at Xenilla, her reaction showing she was actually a bit surprised to see him smiling at her.

“I have a lot to answer for and a lot more to try and fix, but I won’t force you to answer with me. I release you… To put it in your words, you are no longer any weapon of mine.”

Destroyah’s surprise became visible as she stared at Xenilla for the longest time, her jaw even dropping a few millimeters to part her lips. Slowly, the edges of her maw began to turn upwards a bit as her wings relaxed and lifted. It was the first time Xenilla ever saw her smile in a manner free of any bloodthirstiness or crazen excitement, but instead in the same earnest happiness Equestria had taught her in some fairly unorthodox ways. Xenilla’s eyes actually widened a bit. She looked completely different with that expression on.

It stayed for awhile as Xenilla let himself return the happiness. It only faded when she looked back out the window at Ponyville, stifling itself back to gloom.

-I just hope Equestria has a place for a weapon...-

Shrugging, she leaned over a gave Xenilla a nudge with her hoof, accidentally bumping him a bit too roughly in his ribs but not noticing him sucking and choking on his breath briefly.

“Plan over or not, take care of yourself. If you’ve been looking out for Terra all these years, you might still be needed.”

“Gk!-Noted!

Xenilla gagged momentarily. Destroyah got up and began to make her way for the door. Before she could however, Xenilla’s word chased her down.

“And Destroyah, remember something.”

She paused, tilting her head back towards her oldest ally.

“Dr. Daisuke Serizawa didn’t intend to make the oxygen destroyer as a weapon and even when he used it as such; he used it to save others. Just because you were born from a weapon doesn’t make you a one-note being. You choose how you use your power, weapon of war or life. If you want to keep your creator in mind, remember that part about him. These Equestrians got a good world going for them, I’m sure you’ll find your place. You don't make my mistake and you won't have to correct it.”

Destroyah raised her wings somewhat in a manner indicative of her happiness as she looked at Xenilla while opening the room door.

“Keep alive Xenilla, don’t die soon.”

-Thank you friend, be safe.-

Xenilla cracked a smile, not sure himself if it was true or false. Just like how he wasn’t sure if it was true or false that the same idea he’d pitched to Destroyah about everyone having their place applied to him. What mattered though was despite losing one reason to keep himself from being put down by his brother, seeing to Destroyah’s fate; he was happy for his friend.

-Might not be broken down, not just yet... I got work to do.-

“Pay mind for yourself, old friend.”

==============================

Meanwhile in the neighboring ward

Princess Celestia hadn’t left Princess Cadance’s side since the incident on the mountain. Ever since her exertion against the rampaging Godzilla Junior, the younger alicorn had felt nausea strong enough to unsteady her and pains harmful enough to knock her off her hooves. Golden brilliance engulfed a stirring spoon dipped in an old, homely cup as it churned the tea. Celestia hummed an almost motherly tune as some of her magic infused itself into the mixture. She finished her little tune after a short while, blowing on the drink to cool it a bit before she gently handed it to Princess Cadance, whom was laying down on her propped up hospital bed.

“Here, drink this.”

Celestia whispered softly. Cadance sniffled her nose before being done as told despite a sickly look on her paled face. True, it felt like she’d swallowed a thunderstorm and the world was still a bit tipsy, but the trust in her aunt had overridden any worry of the tea coming back up after she gulped it down. The moment the tea went down her throat and hit her thrashing stomach, it was as if the sea inside her instantly quelled. Having drunk half the cup in just one go, she gave a very unlady-like, loud exhale of relief once she finished. Taking several deep breaths and thanking every blessing she could to be free of the nausea, Cadance flopped back onto her bed and groggily rolled towards Celestia with one eye half closed from exhaustion.

“Th-Thought I heard a doctor come in earlier. What all did he say was up with me? I couldn’t quite catch it.”

“You must have been phasing in and out of consciousness, we thought you were out cold after you fainted. It was nothing serious dear niece, worry not. You were just having some bad maternal hormone fluctuations brought up by all this stress. The baby is just fine too.”

Cadance tiredly nodded, half chuckling as she recalled all that had happened to her recently.

“Well, I’ve had quite a pair of weeks-!....”

She stopped, both eyes snapping open and widening.

“B…. Baby? Did-Did you say-?!”

Her breath was quickening for a moment like she’d just been shocked, thankfully slowing when she felt a hoof on her jaw. Celestia's beaming face shined down upon her beloved niece before she leaned down and kissed the top of the smaller alicorn’s head. The solar diarch wiped a tear from her own cheek before speaking again.

“Don’t worry about the fight with Sombra or restraining Godzilla. They can’t tell what kind of race it is yet because your alicorn magic is blocking the more detailed scanners, but they can tell it is completely healthy. I see you and young Shining wasted no time in making an heir!~”

She said with a snicker. For a moment she cherished, she got to shove back both all her fears and worries as well as any queenly facade she typically wore to enjoy a happy moment with someone who’d basically been a daughter to her for years. Cadance still visited her parents frequently of course, but Celestia still vividly remembered the joy she felt of not being the only alicorn anymore when a young Cadenza found her way to her in a very unorthodox manner. To the solar matron, she and her child were family. That train of thought was quickly vindicated when Cadance lurched up and clung to Celestia in a bear hug, burying the side of her face into Celestia’s neck.

Truth be told, the younger alicorn was still in shock. But as her face began to crinkle and her eyes watered; that too faded and was replaced with joy.

“W-Well, this explains all those tired spells and appetite uptakes I’ve been having. I just assumed it was the daily grind of ruling, like your cake pillaging.”

“Hey, that sugar was what kept me from passing out during double shifts for a millennium!”

The duo enjoyed a cackle of laughter before Cadance pulled away and looked at her stomach region in a whole new way. Princess Celestia pulled out some notes written by the doctors to review.

“It appears you’re actually pretty far along despite not showing much. Your lack of visible change on the outside is probably because you were ascended and thus have a larger body than if you remained a pegasus. More mass has obscured the growth you would be seeing otherwise quite a bit. This happens sometimes in larger mares.”

At this point Cadance was near the point of crying. Celestia had assured her years ago her ascension hadn’t affected her fertility or made her sterile, but the worry had always been there. But now she need worry no more. For a moment she let herself forget all that had happened over these last few weeks, despite them being some of the most stressful weeks of her life. All the chaos with the kaiju or being nearly killed by some monster she thought was dead was second in her mind as she practically meditated in on her own form and blocked out any other sound, sight, or smell in hopes of catching just the slightest hint of her child’s presence.

When she got it, Cadance sniffled her half stuffed nose and whispered through a smile.

“I want to see my husband.”

Princess Celestia shared the expression, nuzzling Cadance affectionately before gracefully lifting up and heading for the door.

“He's right outside, wanted to let me have a turn. The room will be crowded with three, especially with me around. I’ll swap places with him.”

The diarch glided out of the room, opening the door to see a clearly stressed Shining Armor practically having worn a trench into the floor in his pacing outside the hospital chamber. Despite his frayed mane and dilated eyes, his guard training came rushing back into him and he instantly straightened up the moment he saw Princess Celestia. Without a word between them, Celestia knew what was going through his head. She stepped out of the doorway and held it open with her hoof, nodding her head to the inside.

“They’re perfectly fine, both of them.”

Prince Shining Armor sucked in his breath and let it out in a long, relieved sigh. Thumping himself on the chest to test his foundation and make sure he wasn’t about to keel over, the unicorn nodded to himself and headed in to join his wife. Princess Celestia’s smile lasted until the doorway behind Shining Armor shut and revealed a stoic Princess Luna coming down the hallway. Celestia knew what was going through her mind too. Stealing a shrug, the white alicorn stood up straight and adjusted her crown to brace herself for a much less pleasant topic than a new royal.

Luna walked up to, stopped in front of, and nodded to her sister.

“Xenilla is stable and with some magic help and a crystal from him, Lady Lea should be well enough to be walking soon.”

Celestia gave a silent nod to Luna before the latter turned her head downwards. She looked blankly at the floor for a short moment, obviously thinking more with her mind’s eye than her physical ones; then shifted her gaze upwards and to the side to peer out the window. Canterlot mountain and the surrounding forests were in good view, making it quite obvious as to what Luna’s mind was playing onto it. Celestia shrugged, standing beside her sister and joining in the ponderous staring.

“Seems fate never fancies to hoof over simple situations.”

“Two siblings split apart with one of them trying to kill the other…We..I really hate how familiar that’s sounding in some ways.”

Luna muttered with a hush, a pitying mix of sadness and depression evident. Celestia tried to stay firm and not share in his sister’s frown despite that last sentence feeling like a buck to the gut, putting a wing around her little sibling. Luna didn’t oppose the gesture, instead leaning into it and rubbing up against Celestia. They stayed like that for awhile, minds obviously racing about before Luna stopped the silence.

“... Why did you forgive me so easily?”

Celestia craned her neck back a bit with a small jolt.

“Lulu-”

Luna cut the indignant sentence off before it could hardly start. She shot a stony look, keeping a solid expression despite twinges of confusion and grief flicking through with every twitchy nerve or muscle.

“I mean it though! I tried to make myself an only child for beyond petty reasons, destroy our home and endanger others, force you to go through what you did, then plague your nightmares for years as you kept me from going after the ponies in their sleep. And then when I get back, I start doing the start of the mayhem all over again, only for you to accept me again the very next day!”

With no hospital staff in this hall and the diarchs all alone, Luna held nothing back in regards to the exasperation in her rambles. Xenilla and Godzilla’s conflict had been plaguing her and opening up a few hard questions she’d been trying to lock away, and now some of them were bubbling back up. It took a lot of restraint for her not to bring up a plan involving a self-inflicting nightmare entity she’d put on hold after Godzilla showed up. Luna looked into Celestia’s eyes while practically begging.

“Tia, how hard was it to forgive me?”

Celestia was frozen in place for a time. Then she began to tremble, closing her eyes to hold her nerves back down as she reached up and removed her crown. When she opened her orbs again, they were looking into her reflection on the gleaming metal. A full thousand years had passed and she still felt like the reflection staring back at her wasn’t her own, not with a mane stained by using the Elements of Harmony alone and against another bearer. She could still practically feel the cold snap that went through her when her connection to them was severed while doing so.

She sighed, chewing at her lip a bit.

“In some ways, very hard. In others, very easy… It’s... difficult to describe… Why are you asking me this?”

Celestia looked Luna in the eyes, locking gazes with her for a time before the younger alicorn almost shamefully looked away and back out the window.

“I’ve always admired you sister. If I were in your horseshoes, I might not have been able to forgive. But with these brothers… I fear that with all that’s happened between them, what happened before will just repeat again and again until one of them is dead. Given his remorse about it all, probably Xenilla.”

“Yet you’re worried about Junior, aren’t you?”

“That force we encountered on the mountain, I looked into his eyes then. All I saw was wrath and bloodthirstiness, destruction given a body and a face. He didn’t even look like that when we fought… Tia, what I saw on the mountain was as far removed from Junior as Nightmare Moon was from me. And I'm scared that if that form returned again, there might not be any going back. It wasn't Junior...”

Princess Celestia kept her voice down involuntarily as the memory pushed back into her. When she saw that burning monstrosity trying to get to his prey with her sister between the two, the oldest alicorn was more terrified than she’d ever been in her life. That same fear shot through her again in phantom sensations that persisted even as her mind pulled up the memory of the interview chamber. Luna was right on the money when she said Junior didn’t look like himself. The visage of the flaming beast and laughing unicorn just refused to mesh together, so alike in body form but so completely different in image.

“I think.. Even he was aware of that, how he wasn’t like himself. That's why he left.”

“There was a moment I remember best, like its burned into my mind. He looked…”

Celestia expected the answer to be something in the ballpark of demonic, terrifying, or out of control; something to express how chaotic and dangerous the King of the Monsters looked. Instead she got-

“-scared.”

Sensing the raised eyebrow she was getting, Luna elaborated.

“In the last moments before he canceled out the blazing glow around him, when he was trying to find a way around myself and Colonel Dancer. I could tell he was thinking about how to get past us and finish Xenilla off. It was only for a brief instant, but whatever he thought of left him terrified. That’s when he cut his powers off. I think he realized what he would have to do, and he was scared the thought occurred to him… Tia, he hates Xenilla so much he went out of control and nearly did something I know he’d never do, all in an attempt to finish it. If even you could have a difficult time forgiving me, what chance does Junior have at forgiving his brother?”

“... You’re afraid for him.”

“I’m afraid of what might happen if he loses himself again, on here or on Terra. Please, Tia-”

Luna felt her eyes grow a bit damp as she pleaded to her sister.

“You know more than me about forgiveness. I still have a hard time managing to do it to even myself… Do you know anything, anything we could do to help? I don’t want him falling into the same trap I did...”

Celestia puzzled a moment, sighing and swallowing the lump in her throat to join the one in her stomach.

“Equestria’s a place for second chances. We offered one to Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis, Discord, and others. Xenilla can have his. If Junior wants to follow the example, it’ll have to be his choice. I know what you want to do, so do all of us. But I don’t think any of us could or maybe even have the right to try and force him to calm down now and make such a decision. It’s something he’ll need to do himself. For now, we need all the kaiju to work together. If Junior can learn to tolerate Xenilla until they return home for judgement on Terra, we’ll have to accept it. Only time will tell if he chooses to forgive him as well.”

Luna’s frown became apparent, unable to argue even when she knew her sister was right.

-But after all that anger, who could make him listen enough to even consider that option?...-

Princess Luna rolled her shoulders and adjusted her neck. Straightening back up, she snorted and returned to a more refined manner.

“One of us should remain at the castle for other businesses for now, especially with the condition of some of the kaiju and Princess Cadance. We shall take the first shift.”

She grunted, walking off towards the exit of the isolated hall. A quiet voice called out after her.

“Lulu.”

Luna paused. She didn’t need to look back to see the broken expression on her sister’s face in the shining door. It would have stopped her cold and left her a bit agape had she not been so dedicated to being resolute moments earlier. She’d only seen that look on Celestia’s face in private and secret, when the older alicorn was alone in her chamber and looking at the broken shard to the mirror world portal. The shattering of that portal cut her off from someone... personal, and Luna knew not to ever bring it up.

“Don’t go looking for someone unless you’re prepared for failure. He may not want to be found yet.”

==============================

Ponyville to Canterlot-bound Train

The traveler from Ponyville had luck on her side, quickly finding the right train as per the Cakes’ instruction and getting on board. Now she was humming a tune to herself as she sat in the fairly scant train car. Despite the high number of comfortable seats, the only other passenger in this particular car was a pegasus stallion sitting across and a few seats down from her. At first she only absentmindedly noticed his presence, still humming as she saw the trees and hills roll by. But an idle glance at his expression caught her attention. He was a younger adult, probably in his early twenties at the most. Judging from his attire, some sort of platemail gear that blended into his citrus-colored fur and blue mane, he was military; and he was bearing a worried, puzzled expression that made it clear something was going through his head that was troubling him.

The traveler spoke up, throwing her voice at the soldier.

“Hey, you alright sir?”

The pegasus jolted upwards a bit, clearly surprised and taking a moment to register the real world around him.

“Huh, wha? Oh!.. Um, don’t mind me. Just, stuff on the brain. Nothing to worry with.”

“Oh okay…”

They returned to silence again, but after three more minutes of seeing the poor guy puzzle and mentally toil while stealing almost shameful looks out the window; the traveler decided she wasn’t letting the conversation drop.

“Would yooou like to talk about it? I won’t judge.”

The soldier groaned, shaking his head loosely.

“I don’t wanna pester anypony pointlessly. It’s a bit personal, so I don’t want to force you to try and understand.”

Despite his protests, the traveler got up from her seat, walked over, and plopped down in the one across from him with a smile on her muzzle.

“I can try. Heading for Canterlot?”

The soldier was quiet for a moment, clearly a bit taken aback by this newcomer's insistence to hear him out. But, he wasn’t the type to be rude and turn down an offer for help, even if it was an ear he was probably about to bore to death.

“Yes, part of the job. But I’m worried I’m… well, where to start? Oh boyo.”

He let out a big sigh, resting his chin on his raised hoof once it was done.

“I think I’m a failure.”

“Now why is that?”

“My family has been in the guards, flight teams, and law enforcement since the founding. My mother was a guard turned rescue flier who retired with more honors at a young age than ponies ten years older. My father, Stalwart, was the Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard for ten years. My great-grandfather was in the great dragon incursion in Los Pegasus and has a statue in the Canterlot gardens. His great-great-great--great-great-grandfather was one of the first undercover cops in Manehattan and wrote the book on detective work. Hayfries, it was his great-great grandmother who was the one who lead the charge in the liberation of Trot from the changelings. She saved so many lives and fought so bravely alongside Princess Celestia that she’s the reason Captain became the commanding rank in the royal guard!”

The traveler raised her brow and gave an impressed nod. She didn’t even need to know the events listed to understand the great meaning behind them.

“Seems like you come from quite the distinguished family!... So, why the downtrodden face? What makes you feel like you’re failing anything?”

She muttered, frowning and tilting her head at the soldier, or rather guard’s, saddened and confused expression. The guard looked at the ground and spoke lowly.

“Because I always seem to find a way to be away from where I’m needed. I wasn’t there when Discord tried to turn Canterlot on its head. I was on break when King Sombra attacked the first time. And then when an assassin attempted to kill Princess Cadance, the princess whose husband mentored me for years and hoofpicked me to be on her guard team, I wasn’t on call! The assassination failed, thank McCarthy, but I’m never in the right place to be needed! And now it seems there was another incident involved and I’m off gallivanting in Ponyville because I got held up while the royals and other guard went ahead. Four times in a row! Urrgh!”

He let out an exasperated groan, flopping his face into his hooves and whispered through them.

“My ancestors were heroes, big and small; how am I supposed to live up to them when I’m constantly botching it every time?”

The traveler let it all sink in for a moment before she pawed at her chin with a hoof, looking off to the side as she filtered through her thoughts.

“So, you worry about disgracing who came before you by what you see as a lack of duty and a lack of valor. Question is, are you trying to live up to them just to do so, or are you trying to live up to and follow their example?

The guard looked up at her, honestly still a bit shocked he was having this conversation; let alone with somepony who clearly knew more about this sort of thing than she appeared to at first. He studied her face for a moment to make sure he wasn’t talking to one of his retired superior officers that he’d failed to recognize at first due to a lack of helmet. When his observation failed that outcome, he carried on with his answer that thankfully took no time to materialize.

“They set their example by helping so many ponies and others. That’s what counts and made them heroes I guess. I wanted to help too, it’s why I joined the guard. I learned so much in it that it just makes it all the more frustrating I’ve yet to be able to use them properly to help anypony. With the assassination attempt a week back, I wasn’t around during the attacks to evacuate castle staff or even launch an offensive with the other guards. Hayfries to Tartarus, the blasted assassin wouldn’t have even gotten in if I was on watch detail! Ponies got hurt, ponies I know; because I wasn’t there when the problems went down.”

As he fumed at himself, the traveler weighed the information she’d been given; pantomiming the action thereof with her spread forelimbs.

“Well, you’re not a glory hound doing it for reputation, that’s a step in a good direction.”

“But which direction is right when I’m just, you know, stumbling around like a clod?! The last incident at Canterlot was far from the first I missed, so why can’t I just stop being useless? It’s frustrating you know? I feel like I flunked and things would have been so much better if I hadn’t…”

“Well what were you off doing when the last few incidents occurred?”

“An assassin got near the princess because I was off on cleanup duty. There was an, incident, earlier in the town square and I was on-scene till well after dusk moving ponies and debris back and forth. And at Ponyville when we made a detour from the empire train, I stayed behind to escort a crying gaggle of fillies we found at the train station back to one of their houses. A lot of ponies in the Crystal castle and in Canterlot, including the flippin’ princesses, might not have been in danger if I hadn’t taken an hour to run some colt his lost stuffed animal and convince that trio at the station NOT to sneak onboard! GRAAK!”

He growled, throwing his hooves up before whapping himself on the forehead. Gritting his teeth, he was so focused on his own frustration that it took a very surprising word from the traveler to get him to listen up.

“Shut up.”

She grunted in a calm but still commanding voice, almost sounding like a disappointed mother commanding her kid when they were acting up. The soldier peeked out from under his hoof, seeing the mare looking at him with a raised brow and flattened lips. He blinked a few times before voicing his confusion.

“.. E-Excuse me?”

The mare pulled his hoof away from his face before poking his forehead with an unchanged expression.

“I said. Shut. Up. You need to stop lying young man.”

He was too confused by the sudden accusation to notice her odd wording, instead replying with a baffled stutter.

“Wh-I-Ma’am I told you the truth! I wasn’t around to help in a crisis because I was playing bagpony to get a tyke his ewe plushie and babysitter to get three tots back home!”

“It’s more important at times to remember the good you’ve done rather than beat yourself down thinking of what you weren’t able to do. It’s the fact you helped who you could that counts. No one can be everywhere and it’s not like you missed what you did because you were lazy or apathetic, if you were we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

“But-But I didn’t do anything noteworthy so why would it matter in light of what I missed? Anypony coulda been doing what I did.”

The mare’s expression softened into a little smile. She put her hoof on his shoulder and changed her tone to a much softer, happier speech.

“Because, anyone can do good. And folks forget good works in cycles. Sometimes fate has weird ways of putting us where we need to be, even if we don’t think so at the time. You did good where you could to those you helped. In doing so, you influence the future for the better in ways you might not even think possible.”

The guard took in a deep breath, letting the words sink in and play through his mind. Almost reluctantly, despite any joy he’d have to let his guilt go, he slowly nodded.

“Lemme guess, ‘big things have small beginnings’?”

Despite the small snarkiness in his voice, the recipient of the statement giggled through her smile.

“Sometimes literally. My point is, all good deeds and influences affect someone and are worth something. Your ancestors did great things, that’s no doubt. But, behind each hero were those who influenced them to become what they were and give them the opportunity. And heroes or not, if your behavior with these last two incidents is proof to the cut of your character, you've influenced plenty by doing the good you could. The world is a better place because of all of us doing that.”

“So, all the little stuff; it wasn’t all for nothing?”

He muttered, frowning despite a glimmer of hope starting to spark up inside him. The older pony’s smile grew and she put her hoof on his chin to prop his head up.

“No, and neither are you. So!-”

She removed her hoof and playfully punched him in the shoulder, making a small clang from hitting his breastplate with her hoof.

“Keep your chin up, I have a feeling you’ll do some great things yet! Don’t see this as a missed chance to do some good, just a time you did it elsewhere while someone else had their chance.”

The stallion mulled through his thoughts while slowly nodding. Thankfully the peptalk took effect and he raised his head up high and grinned.

“You’re right… You’re absolutely right! Ah ponyfeathers, I gotta write this stuff down once I get a pen! Mind telling me the title of the book you got all this from or are you freehoofing this?”

The traveler giggled, waving her hoof and rolling her eyes.

“Oh I’ve just got some experience with these sort of things. Just don’t forget them deary and you’ll be fine.”

The rumbling train below them shifted gears and rumbled down the tracks at a slowed pace. Casting eyes to the window, both passengers were greeted to the sight of Canterlot’s train station rolling into view just beyond the doors. A flip down sign popped out just above the doorway, illuminating itself with a sort of magic in a manner akin to an electric street light. The words “NOW EXITING - CANTERLOT STATION” lit up for all to see. The traveler beamed, hopping up to her hooves.

“Ah, this is my stop! Oh! Almost forgot. Here I am talking your ears off and I never got your name.”

She quipped, holding out her hoof for the shake. The guard, spirits lifted far higher than they were when he got on this train, was more than happy to return the kind gesture.

“Oh it’s Flash, Flash Sentry.”

“Well then young mister Sentry, you keep on doing what you’re doing and everything will count.”

She perked up, remembering something and looking out the door. Turning her head back around to Flash, her ears flopped down and she snickered in embarrassment.

“Would it be possible for me to ask for some help with something real quick. I just need a bit of info if it’s no burden.”

“Hey, after that peptalk I’ll hoofwrite you directions to Los Pegasus! What you need ma’am?”

“Well you see, I need to get into the castle at Canterlot, or at least near it if it’s doable. I want to meet with someone in the guards but I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the right clearance if that sort of thing is needed. Could you tell me maybe who I need to talk to or what form I gotta fill out to get a visit?”

Flash Sentry smirked, hovering up on his wings and taking the mare by the hoof to guide her outside the train.

“Oh I can do one better than that! If you can put up with me flying you up to the castle, I’ll take you to the barracks entrance and get you cleared for entry in no time myself!”

The mare looked up at the hovering pegasus offering her his hooves, then to the castle. She shrugged and spoke with a chuckle as she reached up to Flash Sentry.

“Not my first time flying with someone, but not too high please!”

Several minutes later and Flash Sentry and his companion landed softly on the cobblestone road leading up to the side of the castle into one of its courtyards, in this case the barracks. Two guards, Cached Ire and Hammerbolt, stood watch over the entrance with stony expressions. Upon seeing Flash Sentry; an old classmate, trot up to them however, their mood shifted into a far more casual, friendly manner. To the traveler who was experienced with the military, it was no surprise.

“Heh, well well well. Haven’t seen you in awhile over here Sentry! How’s the empire business?”

Cached Ire chuckled, leaning on the doorframe to the gateway entrance.

“Certain excitements withstanding, good. I’ll be crashing here for awhile until Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor head back so you’re stuck with me. I just wanted to clear my friend here for entry, she needs to see one of us on the inside.”

Hammerbolt, still a bit stoic and professional, raised an eyebrow at the new face standing next to Flash Sentry.

“No appointment with an official or one of the princesses?”

Flash Sentry shook his head as the traveler shrugged her shoulders and raised her hooves.

“No, just one guest entry for the day. It’s a personal visit.”

“Hmmm… Well, if you vouch for her, we’ll allow her. She doesn’t look like paparazzi and she certainly isn’t armed.”

The traveler snickered while holding out her limbs to show she wasn’t hiding anything on her, no camera and certainly no weapons.

“Nope, sharpest thing on me is my wit!”

Cached Ire chuckled at the jest and goofy expression on the mare’s face as Flash Sentry crossed his chest with a hoof.

“She’s clean, on my honor.”

Hammerbolt thought things through for a moment, puzzling his jaw before nodding his head and pulling his spear clear of the doorway.

“Eh, don’t make me the first to doubt the honor of a Sentry.”

Cached Ire did the same, prompting the traveler to beam and trot her way inside.

“Thank you lady and gentleman! Take care of yourself Mister Sentry, I got someone to find!”

A good half hour passed as the traveler wandered the wide halls, most of which were empty. The sun was beginning to set at a quicker pace, Princess Celestia more than able to work her magic despite still being at the hospital wings. Trotting through the golden orange beams slipping out through the windows, she had resigned herself to not worrying about inconveniencing others and asking for directions from the first pony she’d see next. It just so happened the pony in question was noticeably taller and had both wings and a horn.

“Ah, hello? Excuse me miss, but could I pester you a moment?”

Princess Luna was honestly a bit dumbstruck at how placid and laid back the unfamiliar mare was being to her. While her sister was beyond humble to any who crossed her path, Celestia had been doing that for a thousand years and it didn’t stop Equestrians from practically revering the air she breathed and fretting about her non-existent temper. And once the whole Nightmare Moon dust settled, same thing tended to happen around herself; especially stallions. Honestly one of the reasons she liked chatting with Godzilla Junior during his recovery was because he didn’t do that. Granted here it was a bit heavier on the surprise part of the happy surprise.

“Um, yes? How may we help thee?”

“Oh thank you! I’m looking for someone here but I seem to have gotten turned around. Can you point me in the right direction maybe?”

“To whom doth thou wish to proceed to?”

“Is Godzilla Junior around here? It’s a personal visit. I’m not from Equestria so I’m not sure where to go.”

Princess Luna raised her head up and eyed the traveler suspiciously. After all, this individual didn’t look like a kaiju. Flicking on her magic and covering her eyes with the spell meant to detect changeling disguises, she replaced her vision of the pony herself with an imprint of the individual’s aura. With the converted kaiju, it revealed their true form. But the form overlaying this pony was both completely unequine and unlike any of the kaiju seen. Luna cut the spell off, eyes widened as she spoke through a broken speech pattern.

“How do you know Junior!?”

The traveler just smiled sweetly.

===============

The two mares, Princess Luna and her companion, headed out the side gate to the castle in a hearty, brisk trot. The former had just finished filling in the latter about everything that had happened earlier.

“And he just ran off after that?”

“Yes. The other kaiju can find him if needed, either by species sensing with Xenilla or trace magic with Lady Lea. Myself and Celestia probably know some tracking spells that could work too.”

“Are you using any now?”

The traveler quipped, noting the lack of glow on the alicorn’s horn. Luna instead just kept looking forward as they entered a forest trail cutting through the treeline.

“No. But I believe I know where he is.”

The traveler smiled and giggled almost gleefully.

“Well then lead the way, your majesty!”

=================

Luna and her companion walked for a long time through the thickets of wood untended to by gardeners and tranquil as the open night sky, almost as if the latent magic of who was buried here preserved the place exactly as it was the day he was interred. The only sound was the quiet conversation between the two mares as they power-walked towards a break in the trees a dozen meters ahead.

“And he really ate the bouquet your eventual spouse gave you?”

Luna muttered with a raised brow, resisting a chuckle at the humorous story that had been told to her along the way. The traveler snickered.

“He tended to snack on flowers a lot as a youngster so he probably thought they were for him. Soon as Kazuma turned his back to the enclosure, Junior poked his head out through the bars and started munching on them while Kaz was trying to ask me on a date. Poor Kazuma didn’t know why I was laughing until he found himself holding out a lovely arrangement of half eaten stems and Junior wagging his tail.”

“Huh, well that explains the roses he gave me. He said he hoped they tasted good.”

The traveler cracked a goofy grin and raised her brow at Luna.

“He gave you roses now?~”

“Indeed, a whole bush. I think he uprooted it from the back garden.”

The traveler snorted into her own breath, having so much wished she could have seen it all. Princess Luna on the otherhoof was soon finding her attention taken away by the clearing when they reached it.

It was just as she last visited it, Starswirl’s gravesite. About nine meters of mixed river rock gravel and grassy meadow before it reached a single tall tree shading the single headstone. Beyond it was a large, undisturbed lake that fed into the mountain’s streams. And just like the time she’d come here and Godzilla followed her, it was empty without a soul; much less a kaiju, in sight.

She sighed quietly, letting her frown grow.

“I, must have been mistaken.”

Before she could wonder where else Godzilla Junior might have gone, the alicorn felt a hoof on her shoulder. She glanced over to see the smiling face of the traveler looking back at her before the mare cast her gaze to the clearing.

“Thanks for showing me the way, Princess Luna. Stay put and let me take it from here.”

The traveler stepped out of cover and into the glade, bathed in the moon and starlight from above. She slowly advanced towards the lake at a slowed pace, occasionally glancing around to admire the gravestone, even grass, quiet trees, and polished river stones that added to the beauty of Starswirl’s glade. She began to sing something, something quiet and beautiful. Luna didn’t know the lyrics but she could tell right away it was a lullaby and felt drawn in by it. Memories of a hazy vision and a voice like a wind chime came to her, and she smiled while she hid away and imagined her mother singing the melody to her.

The traveler’s melody continued until she reached the edge of the lake, closing her eyes as she took a seat on it’s edge and sang the last few chords. Upon the echoes of the final verse crossing the glade, she took in a breath and looked to the center of the lake at the glimmering radiance of the night sky’s reflection in the calm waters. She let her eyes slowly trail down to her hooves, detecting a very subtle disturbance in the water. By the time she was looking straight down, she could see one pair of glimmering spheres blink at her. Not starlight, but the eye shine of another pair of larger eyes looking back up at her from under the surface.

The eyes, reflecting in a manner akin to a feline’s, got closer as they rose up from the deeper parts of the lake. A darkened mass surrounded them, and to any soul except the one looking down at those eyes now; it looked terrifying. But the traveler didn’t speak, she didn’t panic; she didn’t even flinch. Instead she patted the ground next to her and looked back at the eyes calmly.

The water surface broke, unveiling the head of a massive equine with a crooked horn and riddled with scars that broke up his charcoal gray fur; the newest being a broad burn mark on his chest from the near Meltdown. Godzilla Junior looked at the mare for a time, confusion and thought obvious on his face. The mare cast him a smile, starting to feel her eyes dampening as she reached for his face. Still confused, he craned his neck back and pulled away.

The traveler sighed, not letting her smile fail as she stayed where she was and spoke in a soft, reassuring voice.

“It’s alright, you can come out. It’s safe here.”

Godzilla blinked at her a few times, studying her again. Slowly, through the form Equestria had granted her, he began to recognize her features by sight, sound, and smell. Just like he had on the day he welcomed the world. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped several inches. He leaned back in towards her, conflicting hope and disbelief in his watery eyes.

“... Mother?”

Azusa's smile sweetened, putting her hooves on his cheeks like she was holding his face. A tear fell down her own cheek as she heard her son’s voice for the first time in her life.

“So that’s what your voice sounds like. It's deeper than I expected.”

Junior’s jaw was quivering, causing the King of the Monsters to stutter in a total loss for words.

“H-How are you here?! What-”

Azusa put her hoof on his muzzle to silence him, using her other limb to wipe the wetness coming from his eye that she could tell wasn’t from his submersion in the lake.

“Shhhh shhhh, that’s not important. I’m not going to be here long, but I am here. And I heard my little one needed me.”

Azusa shifted, hooking her hooves around Godzilla’s neck as she hugged her son. Godzilla Junior was frozen stiff for a few moments, but he was soon to return it while paying mind to control his strength and not hurt the parent he still dwarfed even in these new forms. Azusa could feel his breathing occasionally quicken and strain. Mountains of stress, confusion, doubt, and anger from two decades were being vented off in the hug; in the presence of the only family he had left, Junior was letting it all out. In this moment he wasn’t the mighty King of the Monsters that inspired and lead an army of kaiju, he wasn’t the current bearer of a name with a terrifying lineage; nor the destroyer and dreaded horror of Mutation and invader alike. He was a scared, confused, stressed out veteran with way too much baggage finally getting the chance to put it down in the presence of someone he trusted wholeheartedly.

Azusa only pulled back when she felt his breathing stabilize and silent crying stop. She motioned to the patch of glade next to her and tilted her head at her son.

“Now, why don’t you tell me about what all is going on?”

Some minutes later, Azusa Aoki and Godzilla Junior sat side by side on the edge of the lake, chewing on some flowers as the latter finished telling the former what Luna had already informed her of; vindicating the most out of left field revelation she’d ever heard about Xenilla.

“... So, that’s what he’s actually been up to all this time huh? A staged war.”

She muttered, nodding her head a bit as she puzzled away at the thoughts. Godzilla Junior shrugged.

“And it’s not a lie. Lea’s faeries vouched for him along with one of the alicorns.”

“Well, he certainly fooled the lot of us. Even for the more extreme minds I’ve seen at the GDF recently, like that Langoud group. I doubt even any of them would have guessed it.”

“... And I still wanted to kill him.”

Junior grunted in a drastically lower tone. If he had a hand he'd be clenching a fist hard enough to whiten his knuckles.

“I wanted to force his last breath out myself no matter the cost, even when I found out he didn’t hurt Lea. I wanted revenge regardless of who got in my way…”

The cold feeling in his chest stung him at every nerve all the way up to his head. Junior looked down and away, ashamed of himself.

“... Just like a Godzilla would…”

Azusa frowned, leaning into the unicorn that was easily four times her mass.

“I take it you have an odd view of your father?”

Junior kept looking down, quietly muttering his words as he contemplated his own reflection.

“He was my father… He kept me safe, gave me my power, and he loved me. I was family. I try to honor him but… I don’t want to be just like him. And now I think I failed that too.”

Azusa put a hoof atop her son's with a frown grown over her muzzle, “What do you mean?”

“Colonel Blade Dancer and Luna put themselves between me and Xenilla when I tried to finish him off.”

Azusa couldn’t help but notice that while this “Blade Dancer” had their name prefaced with a title, Junior hadn’t done the same for Princess Luna. Every time he’d said her name, it was almost always just “Luna” in a very familiar way. Some cogs in the back of her head turned as she shifted her main gears back to the business at hand.

“But you didn’t hurt them.”

Junior was quiet for a time, before sucking in his breath and sighing. So much was surging beneath the surface, so much pain, so much thought, so much strife. It made a wet line seep from his eye while his muscles locked up. The reflection below was a snarling visage, contorting and growing.

"I don't care what most think of me, see me. If they think I'm a monster, it doesn't matter if they think right or wrong. This world even gave me a chance to hear the opposite, have other see the opposite," His face lowered towards his chest, shadowing his expression in his frayed mane.

The voice was so quiet, it was in dissonance with the speaker, "But when I'm forced to see, know myself as a monster...."

A droplet hit the pond below, disrupting the surface. The reflection within his mind's eyes, even when he looked away, became a fiery, burning leviathan.

"I feared... knew, they saw what I was forced to remember, about what I really am," He trembled, the memory of burning heat was contrasted with a lance of ice to the core.

“I wanted to kill Xenilla. I wanted to kill him more than anything else at that moment, no matter if it was just. No matter the cost. Part of me wanted to go right through the ponies because they got in the way of my revenge. Father would have… Mother, what else could I be when tempted such evil?”

A pair of hooves reached up and, as best they could, took hold of Junior’s head to turn it towards their owner. Azusa pulled her son in closer, giving him a steel cutting stare right in his eyes.

Azusa kept her tone stern, potent and directed as a spear, punctuated by her hoof pushed to his chest, “Not. Evil.”

She muttered in a lecturing tone. She took in a deep breath and sighed, softening her expression.

“You are my son, and my son is a hero. Even the best of us get tempted, the point is you didn’t act on it. Even if you wished to god you could have in the moment.”

“But, what if some day I don’t resist it? How can I be a hero with the powers I got? I'm a threat to everyone around me!”

He shrank back and looked away, half mumbling.

“Heroes shouldn’t scare people they’re trying to help or worry about killing them if they get too close… All my actions don’t matter anyways, the war was all an act.”

Azusa ran a hoof over Junior’s brow, propping his head up with her other limb as a tiny smile crossed her face. She was recalling a number, one she’d tallied from all the news stories and events she’d seen first hand over two decades. She got it and felt her heart swell.

“I can find you over 130 million people who’d beg to differ on both accounts.”

Junior blinked, lifting an ear up a bit and tilting his head.

“Why that many?”

“Because, from the day you first put yourself between fleeing crowds and a rampaging kaiju to today, I’ve been keeping count. Three million in Vancouver two years ago, seven million in Hong Kong three years ago, more than a few hundred thousand in Boston ten years ago, few dozen million here, tens of thousands there; it adds up over the decades. Put one hundred random people from across the globe in a room and chances are two of them are alive because of what you did… And heck, this is all you acting alone and just by direct actions, not counting indirect aid or times you and all your friends pitched in like against the aliens’ Final War.”

Junior’s eyes widened and zoned out for a moment as the thoughts hit him. All these years he’d been hard at work, humanity’s well-being had been his first priority in stopping the kaiju attacks. But every time he’d intercepted the attacking party he was always so focused on getting them out of the populated or unevacuated areas he completely forgot just how many humans there could be in a city. A flicker of hopeful happiness crossed him, suggesting maybe he was wrong in his doubt; only for that same benevolence to risk being choked out by more oncoming doubt.

“But, if this conflict was all an act by Xenilla, did I really save anyone?”

“Well, for one I doubt the Mutations were in on the secret if they acted the way they did. That Mothra Lea friend of your’s no doubt tried to sway them to stop like her mother did Battra. No success there. And if they didn’t stop trying to kill you the first five times they attacked, nothing was going to change them. Besides the Anteverse kaiju weren’t even working for Xenilla and you stopped dozens of them. But there is something even more important…. Look at me.”

Junior slowly shifted to do so, looking into Azusa’s firm but calming expression as she held up his face.

“All those times you rushed in to save the day, stop the monsters; did you do it to fight and kill your enemy; or to keep them from killing anyone? Because only the first of those would be affected by this revelation.”

Junior let his mind trail to the same scenario he’d lived out dozens upon dozens of times. For someone not typically very cerebral, he realized he’d been thinking things through so much they became instinct. Confronting the enemy and keeping them from chasing the humans, putting himself between the enemy and the city, keeping the fight outside of the populated areas, sometimes moving to physically intercept an attack to keep it from hitting a building, sometimes not chasing them down for the kill if there was something else more important; it never was about the fight or the kill. Either or both could happen, but it was always keeping the death count as low as possible that came first.

He sighed, already knowing why Azusa was beaming at him because she already knew the answer before she even asked it; he’d needed the reminder. It was the same two decades ago in Tokyo as it was two weeks ago in Canterlot.

“Because I don’t like people dying… But, what if I get tempted again and can’t fight it? What if someone good gets hurt, or worse!”

Azusa let her son’s quickening breath take its time to slow before she put a hoof around his shoulders and sat back down on the lake side. Looking out onto the star filled lake, she gave him his answer.

“That’s why we trust.”

She muttered the words with a sigh, not letting any hint of anger, sadness, or frustration show through. Her mind was pushed back to both weeks ago and years passed. A lot of very vocal humans, both in politics and the Global Defense Force, had forgotten how to trust in the years before and after the Final War; forgetting just who it was that had been leading the charge to turn the final battle’s tide. To them, any factor or force that questioned humanity’s dominance, an ideally sole dominance, of the planet was a potential threat. Azusa had to watch for years as her son became a face of the problem. There were still many who thought differently. Many G-Force veterans were neutral or hopeful to the new King of the Monsters and his allies, even hardasses like Major Yuki still had a soft spot for the kaiju they’d seen grow up in the 1990s. But it seemed like each passing month, the opposition just got louder and louder, especially after the Defenders spared numerous neutral kaiju like Titanosaurus or Orka. And then when it became clear just how powerful Junior had become, the fears started to fester.

Azusa remembered the news coverage from Acapulco three months ago. Godzilla Junior had shown up to stop an Anteverse kaiju attack by some new model the GDF dubbed Raiju. Within the same footage of Junior firing a beam to blast the lunging kaiju away from a boat, the world newscaster was bringing in property experts to estimate the potential calamity that could ensue if Junior “missed” and hit the city behind him. The entire segment went by without so much as mentioning whom was actually attacking and who was defending. And then they started doing something that caused the biologist’s blood to boil. The news, the papers, and the internet made article after article comparing Godzilla Senior to his successor, all noting how much more damage Junior could cause since he was much more powerful. They spoke of her son almost like he was bound to turn out like exactly like his father, some even speculating on… countermeasures.

And the fear the apple wouldn’t fall off the tree at all didn’t stop at the news. Once Azusa had gotten word of what the GDF had done on Solgell, she was as unsurprised as she was horrified. Soon as the UN had found out there was a mass gathering of kaiju in an area devoid of humans and they had a clear shot at Xenilla and Destroyah, the vote didn’t seem to care who was in the blast radius. True, the final vote actually came from Commander Pentecost as part of an elaborate plan of his; after he'd secretly done some tests to determine Dimension Tide wasn’t lethal. It was a ruse for him to avert the Anti-Kaiju growth trend and cause a 180’ in views by forcing people to realize their folly and not speak ill of the “deceased”. Clever bastard’s gambit paid off, but sometimes she thought even he hadn’t expected the scale of the mourning that followed.

It was almost surreal seeing the same condemning voices backpedal or hit their realizations, sometimes on the air, as the world reacted. Hundreds of thousands of flowers set to drift onto Infant and Solgell Island, moments of silence on the airwaves, the entirety of Kyoto Institute and the rebuilt Golden Gate bridge covered in black. And of course Pentecost probably didn’t expect Azusa to bust out her old clearance passes and barge into GDF headquarters to give him an epic grade earfull in his office after he invited Mrs. Aoki in. Security even came in thinking he was being attacked before Pentecost explained everything.

And with the announcement of the information Gamera had passed along to Miki, trust was something a lot of the world woke up one day realizing it was lacking. Azusa mentally shrugged.

-Guess we’re all only human…-

She forced herself back into the present, looking at her son.

“Sometimes trust is the only thing keeping things together, as much trusting yourself as it is others.”

“Are you referring to how a lot of humans didn’t trust me?”

He muttered, knowing what she was talking about. Azusa responded quietly.

“Yes.”

“They thought I was going to be just like my father and grandfather, right? Sometimes I worry I am.”

Azusa closed her eyes in contemplation before giving Godzilla a firm stare.

“Then now’s your chance not to be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Something your father and grandfather never did, was forgive.”

She said quietly. Junior flinched, clenching his jaw for a moment as the words “Forgive” and “Xenilla” caused his mind to spasm.

“Y-You, want me to forgive… Him?”

Junior spoke in a stupor of a voice. The mental panic and confusion was slightly calmed when Azusa put her hoof on his.

“I want you to choose to or not without jerking your knee or having anyone force you to. He’s got a lot to answer for, but, by many accounts so did your father. He may be lying or he may be telling the truth. I want you to collect yourself, don’t rush in. Get your center and then decide if you want to hear him out or not. You don’t need to forget what he did if you choose to forgive, but you have a chance to resolve things without one of you two ending up dead.”

Junior swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling a bizarre sensation in his chest that was pushing out of him, one that was as much afraid as it was confused and angry.

“I… don’t know if I could do it. Not for something that wasn't an accident.”

“And I’m not commanding you to, no one is. You don’t even need to forgive him entirely if you do, just enough to let your anger go… All I’m saying is, if you want to prove yourself different than those who came before you, this is one way to do it.”

Azusa muttered, holding Junior’s hoof as his face twitched and puzzled with thought. From the distance, Princess Luna listened on with bated anticipation. When she learned of who this pony was, and asked a few questions to prove it to be true based off what Junior had told her of his mother during their nightly chats, she let herself hope. Forgiveness might have been a huge step, maybe an uncrossable one. But she remembered the events at the mountainside all too well and the desperation in Xenilla’s tone when he made her promise to not risk Junior being consumed by his own power like their father had. And if Godzilla’s hatred for Xenilla spurred the burning, something had to be done to rid him of that. Azusa, his mother, seemed like the only candidate who could have possibly talked him out of it; Luna just prayed she could.

At the very least, Junior seemed to be thinking things over. Azusa nudged him to get his attention as her thoughts brought forth the newspaper she’d read earlier, retrieving a clipping of said paper she’d tucked under her hair band.

“I understand, he’d be a huge first attempt. But maybe he doesn’t need to be. There is something else you might want to look at.”

Junior looked at the paper, not even needing to try and read it to see what his mother was talking about. The picture of Moonbeam Glimmer and him in the interview was obvious enough.

“That pegasus?”

He grunted with a raised eyebrow. Azusa nodded slowly.

“The same. If you want to give forgiveness a try, always a place to start. You don’t seem to know why she had a beef with you, doesn’t seem like anyone does. But I have a feeling the things she said to you were actually spurred from something else.”

Godzilla was quiet for a time, looking at Moonbeam’s picture and then back to the distant form of Canterlot, in the direction Xenilla was. He took in a breath and shrugged.

“... I’ll try.”

“You’ll succeed.”

Azusa quipped, giving Junior a playful punch in the shoulder.

“You’re too stubborn to quit.”

“With my parentage, can you blame me?”

Azusa snickered at her son’s deadpan retort, knowing full well it was referring to both his paternal and maternal lines. Junior joined in on the low laughter for a time. He relaxed noticeably until a stray thought, years old, crossed his mind.

“Mother, there is something I want to know.”

“Yes?”

He looked out over the lake, almost imagining it as a calm sea and thinking of someone who once lived in said sea.

“When you told Miki to get my father to take me in, how’d you know he’d do it?”

Azusa blinked for a few moments, almost in a surprised manner before joining her son in the water gazing.

“Because I knew why he’d come to where he did… Did you know Ms. Miki looked into his mind a couple of years earlier? It was back during the Biollante incident. Do you know of that? Where is she anyways?”

“Biollante wants to be left alone and I leave her to it. I told Lea to spread the word.”

“Well, when your father emerged out of that volcano he’d been trapped in, he sensed Biollante and headed straight for her. We wanted to know why so Miki looked into his mind to try and find out what he was wanting. It was assumed he sensed Biollante as a rival and was seeking her out for the sake of territory. But do you want to know what she actually saw going through his head?”

“What did she see?”

Azusa sighed, a frown crossing her lips.

“A lot of pain. Pain from life, pain from conflicts, pain with memory. But, most of all, pain from loneliness. He was made one of a kind by humanity and he hated them for it. He sought out Biollante because he thought he’d found another one of his kind. The same thing happened a few years later when you hatched. Your father came looking for you because he wanted to find someone like him.”

Azusa’s word sunk in, causing Junior to lower his head into his shoulders in light of recent and years-old choices he’d made. He didn’t regret them, but for twenty years the thought of how badly his father would react to how he treated the humans and others had been a constant sting within his mind. Either way he’d try to grapple with the truth, it was meddlesome. If he tried to be more like his father, it was a terror to himself and who he was. If he tried to go against what his father would have wanted, doubt and disapproval from his imagined ghost was a constant plague. There was a reason he’d sometimes invoke his father’s name in a battle cry, it was his way of trying to appease the doubt in his mind regarding how enraged his parent might be at him for what he’d done.

“Then I just disappointed him then, and I’d disappoint him now.”

Azusa’s voice was quiet, but it begged to differ.

“I doubt that, he seemed to take care of you well enough so he must have cared even when you showed how unique you were in your youth. There are differences to be sure. I couldn’t be a prouder mother based on how you turned out, but you were and still are his son too. And, for all the right reasons. I can’t talk to you all back home or enter your minds to see what you're thinking, but I’ve learned to know the strengths of a kaiju when I see one. And I’ve never known a kaiju, or anyone in general, be able to channel all the pains and strife they’ve gone through into their actions than I saw with Godzilla Senior…”

Junior looked to his mother as she did the same in a quiet moment. Azusa’s eyes trailed over the dozens of scars lining her son’s form. It was both an exercise in memory and a saddening realization that she recognized many of the markings, but there were batches more she couldn’t place. Seeing all his old wounds like this in full was a saddening reminder of just what her son had been throwing himself at for two decades. But, the sadness ebbed away into a bittersweet mixture of pride and melancholy as she homed in on a few cut marks on the side of his collar that she saw Trespasser give him firsthand. Azusa moved her eyes to her son’s and smiled warmly.

“Except maybe for you… I won’t pretend to know everything going on with you, this is the first time you’ve been able to express it in words I can understand fully. But, if I could leave such an impact on you for all our time apart, then all the compassion and love I knew your father gave you should prove that he'd be proud of you. If not that, then little will prove it. There are plenty of differences between you two, I think you got a much bigger heart than he did. But there are plenty of similarities for all the right reasons too. You don’t have to be like just him to honor him nor do you need to be the exact opposite to be your own life; you’re not his replacement, you're his son.”

Azusa stood up on her hind limbs and hugged Junior’s head and neck.

“Just like you’re mine.”

The mare felt a limb gently wrap around her as Junior returned the gesture, nuzzling the top of his mother’s head.

"Thank you mother."

Azusa giggled, pulling back and rubbing her kid’s scalp to playfully ruffle up his still damp mane. She cast a quick glance to the forest, not spotting anyone but knowing full well who was still present.

“There is something else though.”

“Hm?”

Junior grunted, tilting his head. He was about to look in the direction Azusa had but his mother quickly turned his head around to face back to the lake. Knowing a question was coming as to what was going on, she wisely opted to start talking a bit early.

“I know you have friends with the other kaiju. But, since you're in a whole new world, maybe take the opportunity to make some friends here? You’ve been carrying Terra on your shoulders for a long time, maybe your first time off Terra is a sign you need a break? These Equestrians seem nice enough. Relax, let them hear you out and you may be surprised at the responses you get. You’ve already gotten some of them to care.”

Godzilla Junior turned his head towards Azusa, not even needing to turn around to look or try and sense any energy to know they weren’t alone and Azusa’s last sentence made it almost obvious. He gave his mother a half deadpanned look.

“... Which one of them lead you here?”

Azusa turned to her son with a cheeky grin on her muzzle and a sly look on her wiggling eyebrows.

“Who do you think?”

Junior flared his nose a bit, catching a very familiar scent coming from the treeline; the same one he tracked to find this place the first time he was here. Slowly at first, a happy smile crept over his face; causing Azusa’s grin to widen even as Junior gave her a playful nudge.

"I for one think she's a very kindly young lady."

"She's one thousand years old."

"She ages well then!"

"Motheeer!"

They talked for several hours more. About sights either had seen so far in Equestria, about the depths of the ocean and the trials of teaching, about friends gained and happy marriages endured; and about happiness. The final hour had been struck, and just as Junior’s scars faded away with his calmed heart; Azusa began to fade herself. She hugged her son, particles of glimmering light lifting off from her as she began to become see through.

Junior buried his muzzle into her shoulder and mane.

“I missed you mother.”

Azusa smiled, rubbing her head against her child affectionately even as both their eyes became wet with tears.

“You never needed to. I never left…”

Even as she was almost gone, she left as she came. Singing her son’s lullaby, one that seemed to echo through the glade long after Azusa vanished and Luna stepped out from the trees.

===================

?????????????????????

Azusa wiped a tear from her eye, now feeling her face with the back of her hand rather than a hoof as she was back in her human form. Her surroundings were near pitch black, so dark she couldn’t see nor paid any mind to what she was standing on, with only a few distant wisps of light akin to stars twinkling in the distance. A greater source of light shone across her face and she opened her eyes to see it, a pleasant smile crossing her face.

"Two decades and I never got to hear his voice before.”

Her guest, the entity that summoned her there and was able to give her this visit, bowed her head.

“Glad you enjoyed it, Mrs. Aoki.”

Azusa’s host spoke, her voice echoing through the void with a magical glow. The biologist chuckled a bit, sniffling her nose.

“Call me Azusa… Thank you so much for this chance.”

“You are very welcome, your son needed you. He was on a breakdown and you were probably the only soul he’d listen to completely... Did you, succeed? The time travel spell I used to bring me here will only work once and the mana displacement spell I used for you to take my place in Equestria won't change that part.”

“If he forgives Xenilla, that is his choice; but his anger is calmed. What you feared transpire has been canceled. Your world has another quality hero looking out for it. I just had to remind him of that.”

“Thank you, for the sake of things to come. Small changes have large effects, and I can't risk anything bigger.”

A glowing gateway opened up beside them, showing the image of a quiet home outside of San Francisco; a rebuilt Golden Gate Bridge visible in the background. A week had gone by since the world found out the Solgell Island victims were still alive and Azusa and Kazuma were still getting all the black and white flowers off their lawn. Azusa faced her home, taking a step to the portal before turning her head to her host.

“Are you alright deary?”

The white and pink, teenage alicorn’s ears and wings drooped as she looked to the side sheepishly.

“S-Sorry, I hope you don’t mind but, I was... listening to your conversation with Godzilla.”

Azusa tilted her head and raised her brow a bit as the pony went on.

“I never got to hear my mother or father. They died shortly after I was born. But, from all I’ve read and heard from clips; you sound a lot like them.”

The empress sighed, feeling her chest clamp up. All this power she’d managed to scrape together to pull this meeting off, all this effort to change the fate her history had recorded; and sending Azusa in to talk sense into Godzilla was the best she could manage. But at the same time, using her best shot on so little was filling the young empress with doubt as to if she’d done enough. Part of her was reminded how she didn’t have the time or ability to fill in the past about Bagan, about Grogar, about the war and who it took. Changes had to be as small as possible as not to be noticed by Bagan. If she tried more it might not only waste her chance, but also cause tidal waves of alteration instead of ripples of change and make things worse. The risk was just too big and it was too soon. Any drastic changes and Bagan might accelerate his plans after finding something amiss, or worse even; discover her meddling. The fact Auntie Twilight warned her about how this spell was finicky at best, even with the added mana magic, didn’t help. She had to hope for the best, even if her gut was making her worry for the worst.

“You think my parents would be proud of me? What if I haven’t done enough?”

She whispered in a downtrodden voice. A gentle hand placed itself on the alicorn’s cotton candy-soft mane, gently scratching behind her ears. Empress Flurry Heart looked up to see a beaming Azusa Aoki looking back at her.

“The future’s always changing, you said it yourself when you asked me to come. As for you, your mother and father would be so proud of you, because I already am.”

She cooed in a motherly tone. Flurry Heart let a tiny smile cross her scarred muzzle, fanning her sole remaining, gigantic wing along with her equally huge prosthetic wing happily. She rubbed her head up against the giggling woman.

“Thanks Azusa…”

Author's Note

Proof reading by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron
Illustrations (more to come later) by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Junior takes a day out, happenings at Ponyville, and truths unveiled

Chapter 33: Awake

==================

Carousel Boutique

The day of Azusa’s visit coincided with the departure of both the resident kaiju and the Ponyville Element bearers to all meet up back in Canterlot. There was much to be discussed, ranging from updates on all the kaiju refugees’ settlement status, to a magical survey conducted by Princess Twilight Sparkle involving the Elements themselves, to recent revelations about Xenilla that would all go easier if all or at least most of both groups were present. At the moment, it was the latter option as Juliet Rarity Belle was home sick when Flash Sentry escorted the Cutiemark Crusaders to her doorstep as per Sweetie Belle’s directions to the gentlecolt. Considering Applejack was heading for Canterlot on the same train the likes of Destroyah and Anguirus were on and the Crusaders wishing to be around should she get sicker, the fillies were all very keen on a sleep-over at the boutique. One Rarity wasn’t so enthusiastic about, but agreed to.

It helped that with Applebloom and Scootaloo around, it meant someone other than Sweetie Belle would be offering her their home cooked toast or soup and it would actually look like what they said it was. How exactly her little sister managed to make toast into soot-black liquid mush was a mystery beyond her grasp still to this day.

Thankfully though the three staying over wasn’t a risk to spread anything. Rarity knew well why she was feeling under the weather. The airshow was within the next few days and she was still toiling away at Rainbow Dash’s and Rodan’s flight uniforms. Normally she’d have this sort of thing done long ago, but restless sleep over the past few days had left her mind very dulled and she couldn’t focus no matter how much she tried for it. Ignoring the Crusader’s offers for help or relaxation, Rarity toiled fruitlessly at the outfits for hours clear into the night. She’d just managed to get the basic suit done when the rest deprivation caused her endurance to give in and she passed out at her desk.

Through her overdue slumber, neither Rarity nor the Crusaders in the other room swapping GooseLumps stories could see or hear the work room window creak open. Pushed open by a tendril of darkness, the window’s void was soon filled by a black presence that entered the room. Totally lacking in substance and instead composed of dark magic given form, the spectre’s outline bore the facsimile of a pony wearing a cloak that concealed all but its glowing yellow eyes. Upon closer inspection however, one could definitely tell it wasn’t a flesh and blood being due to the fact the window frame and boutique walls and decor behind it was visible through it; the transparency getting more noticeable at its fringes. The last fragment of the Nightmare, born of Princess Luna’s darker aspects to her subconscious and the alicorn’s immense potential, known by modern myth as the Pony of Shadows; had returned again. And she or it, the matter of which was more accurate being up for debate, was scowling at their former host while striding up to them. With a glint from where the wraith’s horn would be, it touched it to Rarity’s own conical protuberance and invaded the unicorn’s dreams.

The surroundings Rarity found herself in were as bleak as they were dark. The only discernible feature around her was an eerie, unnerving fog that seemed to riddle this dreamscape in all directions. Lacking any other options despite not being able to see more than a few meters ahead of her, she walked forward. There was a strange feeling to this realm. While she met nothing by flat, firm terrain where she tread; it almost seemed like her movement was only in effect at certain points. She could feel like she’d been walking for almost an hour only to turn around and see the fog not disturbed in the slightest, almost like she’d been walking in place the whole time. Other times she’d take a mere step or two ahead and look back to see a trail of cut fog her body had apparently sliced into, and the cut was nearly far as the eye could see like she’d jogged a kilometer. Attempts to double back resulted in discovering she’d apparently been moving in the same direction the whole time. Seemingly straight paths could result in odd bends and turns she didn’t even notice until checking her progress with the fog disturbance. And deliberately, if not just flat out desperately, rushing off in a random direction only left her skidding to a stop once she found herself intersecting a path already taken.

Hours felt like they’d passed and Rarity was left in a cold sweat, aimlessly trudging along through the darkness. A break in the otherwise featureless horizon left her sore legs sprinting towards it. As if by providence, direction actually seemed to function properly this time and she was soon upon it. The object looming over her had vague features, obscured by a black cloak. At first she reached for it, tempted to investigate after being trapped for so long in this mind numbing wasteland that lacked detail. But she managed to stop herself at the last moment, pulling away as some instinct deep within her subconscious screamed of danger.

The caution however did nothing to stop fate. A gust of screeching wind shot out from behind Rarity, ripping the cloth off of what it concealed to reveal an old styled dressing mirror. While Rarity would at first notice how the back of the mirror was gushing the same mist and fog that veils this dream realm, she was too distracted by the pair of bright eyes upon a dark body staring back at her. The evil reflection of herself towered over her, the demoness’ flowing mane slowly moving as if in a water veil. Instantly Rarity attempted to backpedal, but the mist surrounding her strangled her limbs and kept the unicorn in place. Wisps of fog slithered up her shoulder and anchored her head to face forward into Nightmare’s glaring visage.

“Do you think I am nothing?! Do you think I am to be ignored?!”

The demon sneered, lurching forward to practically push up against the other side of the mirror. Rarity’s jaw and mind quivered in fear and guilt due to literally seeing the Element’s darker echo.

“You were destroyed!”

Nightmare’s eyebrow twitched and her voice dropped several tones while raising in maleficent fury.

“Do I look destroyed to you?! I am part of you! I’ve been part of you since you accepted me and I shaped myself to this!... You are me, and I am you. I exist in this form because you desired yourself to be. We forged this body, you and I, molded by mutual desires. A favor, I intend to remind you of as I return it. After all, do you really think everypony has forgiven you if I can still exist?…”

Nightmare hissed as the mists around Rarity swirled. A black, tar-like pitch began to gush out of the mirror’s base, race across the floor, and climb its way up Rarity’s hooves even as she struggled and screamed to free herself.

Out of the dream, the poor mare began to fidget and cry in her sleep as the Pony of Shadows watched on, the black from the latter’s horn beginning to seep onto Rarity’s.

Back in the night terror, the liquid shade had begun to stretch across Rarity’s throat in a vein-like pattern.

“We need notice. Fear is always noticeable, and everypony fears a Nightmare-”

But new sounds soon joined the dreamscape, echoing in with a tonal distortion from the transition of the real world to the mental one.

“Mis-Mis-Miss Rarity-ty-ty?”

-Scootaloo.-

“Ra-a-a-a-arity ma’am, are you okay-ay-ay-ay?”

-Apple Bloom.-

“Sis-s-s-s-s-s-s-s?”

-Sweetie...-

Rarity’s eyes snapped back open just as the tendrils of blackness started to creep up to them. She emit a spaced out stare for a moment before looking upon Nightmare with the realization of salvation stretched across her face.

“This is just a nightmare… Fear, you need me to be afraid of you so you can return. So you can run wild.”

She whispered in disbelief both to herself and to her attacker. Nightmare recoiled a bit, cocking her head back with a confused sneer. The tar-like strands of dark magic began to recede from Rarity’s form.

“What?!”

“Th-That’s why you plagued me with those awful nightmares with a kaiju, because I was afraid of them then. You need to get me to give into despair so you can take over…”

“No… No! You are a fool!”

Rarity wasn’t having any of the demon’s hissing. She broke free of her restraints and stomped her hoof, throwing off another shower of blackness with her action as she took a defiant step towards the mirror.

“Well I've got something to tell you, you plod! I met kaiju! I am friends with two kaiju. I taught a kaiju a full etiquette class to get him to understand a hoof kiss! I am not afraid of kaiju. Sure there's some out there that mean us harm, but with the ones we've got helping us their days are numbered-”

She roared, stomping closer to the mirror and literally staring down her darker side.

“And yours already expired... You can be here all you like! You’re all alone! My friends have forgiven me, Equestria has forgiven me just like both forgave Princess Luna! I am not guilty and I am not afraid of you. … You hear me?...”

She got right up to the mirror with a sneer on her face. Right now it almost looked like Nightmare was the smaller of the two as the Element of Generosity loomed over it. Rarity snorted for breath, grumbling in a low tone.

“Whatever corner of my mind you represent, manifest from whatever fear I had, I am NOT afraid of you.”

Nightmare’s breath quickened, sucking gusts in between her fangs before she lunged up towards the edge of the mirror in a frantic rage; her form growing so unstable and out of control it seemed to constantly shift back and forth between the visage of a corrupted Rarity, a corrupted Luna; and the Pony of Shadows.

“I. Need. Our. BODY!”

Rarity however refused to recoil from this, even if her primal fear and instinct were driving stressed tears through her eyes. She scowled and put a hoof to the mirror frame.

“And you’re never getting it! Good-DAY madam!”

She shouted, snapping her hoof over and knocking the mirror off and face-down. The moment it hit the ground, the unicorn found herself jostled awake back into the real world. Her heart was still going ten kilometers a minute and half dried tears stained her muzzle, but she was alone in her workspace and she’d won.

Standing up on shaking hooves, Rarity limped over to the knocking door as a familiar voice called out from behind it.

“Sis? Are you okay? We heard noises.”

Rarity opened the door to find the Crusaders all standing behind it, still clad in their sleepwear. The instant they saw the stressed and partially disheveled Rarity, concern flashed across all their faces and Sweetie Belle walked up to her big sister.

“Rarity, why are you crying?”

As the fillies would learn in years to come, adults have a lot of reasons to cry. And when Rarity saw the still living, unharmed visage of her beloved baby sister’s face; she had another reason to cry that night as she scooped up all three fillies into a bear hug. A worried frown crossed Sweetie Belle’s face even as she hugged back, the little unicorn closing her eyes and rubbing her cheek up against Rarity’s affectionately.

“It’s nothing Dearies, nothing at all. Only a bad dream.”

Rarity whispered while burying her face into the gaggle of fillies. Already she’d planned ahead. They’d enjoy the night if sleep came as an option, but it seemed like she was going to Canterlot after all; if only a bit fashionably late. There was someone there she wanted to talk to.

Outside the boutique, the Pony of Shadows writhed in silent pain, hissing with a muted voice as it’s unstable form limped back to the Everfree to try and pull itself back together. It hadn’t expected the unicorn to be able to fight it off, especially after tormenting her for the past week. A lapse in judgement and a setback, but not the end. It would have it’s body eventually…

Unbeknownst to her visitor, Rarity merely repeated her mantra to calm her heart rate back down.

“It was only a bad dream.”

===========

Canterlot

Early on the next morning, a mobile mass of cloak, scarf, face mask, and goggles trod through one of Canterlot’s less populous roads. Literally standing heads and shoulders over the other passersby, Godzilla Junior drew in more than a few odd glances while plodding around in the get-up Blueberry Frost threw together for him days earlier. Still, nopony was approaching him so that fortunately was to be appreciated. Either they were of the crowd who didn’t know about this disguise or they knew who he was and correctly assumed he didn’t want any interaction at the moment, evident as he hadn’t been stopped by a soul yet.

There was a destination in mind, but a notice out of his peripheral vision gave him pause. It was a glass store front, evidently a news distributor based off the newspapers, tabloid, and radios on sale; some of which were broadcasting. He turned to the store and listened.

“Hello fillies and colts, this is Horson Wells on Equestria Wide Radio. In light of our coming show tonight at ten, we at the station felt many of you listeners might like some background on our two guest speakers attending our follow up to the King Godzilla interview some days ago. For those of you returning after the break or just tuning in, we’ve just covered the career of Francis 'Fancy Pants' James Pantero; whom retired with an honorable discharge after serving as a rank 2 Sergeant medic during the Foal Mountain Dragon conflict. According to him the term of service was a family tradition in his nobility line and he is enjoying a less exciting retirement. Moving carriages to the next topic is our second guest, Doctor Moonbeam Alissa Glimmer. Born in the foothills of Foal Mountain and raised in Hollow Shades by Gale Burst and Evening Glow Burst along with her little sister Starlight Glimmer-”

Junior lowered his brow reflectively, frowning through his puzzling. He didn’t like thinking about that pegasus, on account of her incredibly stressful “interview” reminding him of everything about himself he was scared of; but he found himself doing just that. Pushing aside all thoughts about personal experience, he instead homed in on what this Horson Wells just said.

-Wait, why wouldn’t her parents have the same name as her? Shouldn’t it be Glimmer like her sister?-

Godzilla sat there for a time, more pondering than listening. With his mind still tinkering, the kaiju set off again to a new course and new goal in mind. He fortunately only needed to ask around once or twice to find out where he’d need to go to achieve it.

============================

Rarity nudged the door to her boutique open and gracefully kicked off her booties and studded poncho, glad she always packed both of them in her saddlebag as it started drizzling outside on her way back from the orchards. After the night terrors and incident last night, the mare had been resolute in canceling her planned opting out of joining the others in Canterlot. That left the Crusaders to tend to. Flash Sentry was a gentlecolt for escorting them to her; but after the first two boredom-born demolition derbies, she knew she couldn’t leave the Crusaders to host themselves at the boutique. So she’d walked them to Sweet Apple Acres to see if Big Mac or Granny Smith could keep an eye on them while she was going. Fortunately with the Zap Apples harvested, that turned out to be the case and the Crusaders were more than eager to join in on making the jam and having another sleepover.

Which left her with one other problem, mounted upon a set of mannequins. Rodan and Rainbow Dash’s flight uniforms were looking back at her, and in light of the days available to work on them Rarity couldn’t help but cringe at her current progress. Neither uniform was past the very plain chest and head pieces of the body suit, both of which were still unpainted and unaccented; and far from the respectful look a team hosted by the Princesses themselves and comprised of an Element of Harmony and allied kaiju demanded. Usually at this point she’d have had far more done.

Then again, usually she wasn’t having constant nightmares that resulted in restless sleep and untold amounts of stress during the day that destroyed her focus. While she managed to mentally beat them back for the first time last night, doing so left her feeling like she’d run a marathon through Whitetail Woods twice in a row; any sense of accomplishment marred by worry of just what these night terrors meant. And after what happened last night with a psychological plague in some corner of her subconscious? The possibilities only added up with her time-consuming pondering and left her only a fat chance at progress.

-You’re not staying silent Juliet Rarity Belle. You’re going to Canterlot and getting either Princess Luna or Twilight to see why you’re being treated to a horror movie when your eyes close before you go batty!-

A frown crossed her muzzled as the unicorn looked upon her unfinished work.

-Still, these need to be finished and leaving for a day would only set you back further!... Hmmm…-

A lightbulb lit up in her mind and Rarity trotted over to her antiques cabinet. Pulling out tea sets and setting statuettes aside, her blue magical aura wrapped itself around a cushioned lock box. Despite the elaborate number lock and pristine black wood casing, what she pulled out of the velvet cushioned interior was of dissonance to what one would expect. It was a seemingly mundane conch shell. While large, about the size of one of her father’s hoofballs, there was nothing remarkable about the item or anything seemingly out of the ordinary save for the odd coloring on the prongs, each one unique, coming off the pinkish pearl shell body. To the knowing or trained eye however, this was probably the rarest item in her storage. A mermare shell caller, one she knew how to work.

Taking in a breath, Rarity let her magic pour into the conch shell’s opening while she gently recited a simple, pleasant sounding melody. After a few seconds of singing to it, the conch shell buzzed with vibration and she stopped. Holding it in her magic, Rarity gently pushed down on the colored prongs in a specific order; each tap uttering a half muted bleep from the inside of the shell. After ten taps and bleeps, she put it to her ear and hummed idly while the dialing tone buzzed into her ear. A buzz signalled a connection and Rarity cast a smile upon hearing a familiar voice on the other end.

“Yes hello your ladyship! Oh thank you, I do try to mind my manners- Oh this is Juliet Belle-.. Um, Rarity? You know, “Your little diamond student”?”

She was barely able to get that last title out before her eardrum nearly ruptured from hearing-

“DAHLIIIIING! IT’S BEEN SO LONG!”

-come blasting out of the shell in a booming voice. The startled unicorn jumped a good meter in the air and had to juggle to keep hold of the shell. Awkwardly snickering, she swiped her mane out of her face and put the shell back up to, but now a few inches away from, her ear.

“Uh, yes yes yes! Lovely to hear from you again teacher!... The occasion? Well I figured you’d be near Ponyville after Rainbow told me she mailed you an invitation to her show and I was needing to take a brief reprieve from designing her flight team’s uniforms for the spectacle. You know me, worrywort; so I wanted these done and fitted soon as possible but I need to head over to the capital on Element Bearer business. Since I learned everything from you, I wanted to know if you’d mind jogging over to the boutique until we’re all back from Canterlot to give it your two bits? I hate to ask work from you but-”

“SEE YOU IN A MOMENT DEARY!”

The chipper tone yelled through the shell before there was a knocking on Rarity’s front door. The tone on the shell clicked off and hummed idly for a few seconds before turning off entirely. Rarity stood still, glancing back and forth between the door and then the shell a few times.

-She’s here already?... Huh, so that’s where Rainbow got her speed from.-

Rarity put the shellcaster back up in its case and trotted over to the doorway. After a quick peek into the eyehole, the white unicorn flashed a relieved smile and pulled the door open. To call the earth pony mare on the other side of the door “Fashionably decked out” would be a gross understatement. The enormous sun hat, bejeweled red glasses identical to the pair of sewing spectacles Rarity got as a hoof-me-down, and glimmering, iridescent gemstones studding her saddlebags in the manner of her namesake shown well in even the cloudy sky. The mare herself was shorter than average, having a cyan-turquoise body coat with a unique pink-magenta-green-orange striped mane and tail that hung down with a curl at the ends. She was the mentor to one Element of Harmony’s seamstry and mother to another, Rainbow “Radiance” Dash Senior.

And she was soon throwing her hooves in the air while squealing before putting said hooves around Rarity in a bear hug.

“Ah dahling! You’ve grown so big since I last saw you! And stunning as ever! Mix that mane and those cute eyes with one of those evening gowns I showed you how to make and you’ll be beating back stallions with a stick!”

She yelped with a grin, releasing the hug and walking inside soon as Rarity stepped out of her way. While she passed however, the retired track runner and now senior fashionista reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a thick, iron wood cane with so many metallic studs it might as well have been a mace. She nonchalantly passed it to her former student.

“Here’s a stick by the way deary should you find yourself in such an endeavor.”

She muttered offhandedly, popping off her enormous sun hat and plopping it onto a nearby hanger. Rarity looked at the cane, which had embedded, polished green stones that made it look very beautiful and yet also very painful if it was used to bonk anypony on the head. Ten years since her parents brought her to apprentice under the fashionista and she was still wondering if it was a case of like mother, like daughter with Radiance; or the opposite. Probably a bit of both. Brushing that thought aside, Rarity hung up the cane and trotted up beside her old teacher.

“It’s great to see you again too Mrs. Dash! You sure you don’t mind taking over for a bit? I know you’re still very busy and all.”

“Oh not a bother at all dahling, after all this is for my little flygirl! And a Rainbow Dash always dresses in style after all!”

Radiance quipped in a chipper tone that was infectious, leaving Rarity to raise an eyebrow and reply with a bit of playful snark.

“You or your daughter, Dashie?”

The older mare whirled around to face Rarity with a mile wide grin.

“YES!... Now, let me have a look see at this challenge you’ve set and you get yourself packed for your day trip now.”

“Thank you, so much. Next room over, corner to the left. Rainbow and her flight partner’s suit are on the mannequins.”

Rarity sighed, relieved, and pointed to the corner to her workspace. Rainbow Dash the elder trotted over to the room indicated while Rarity turned to her desk to begin filling her saddlebags for the trek to Canterlot. The only interlude in her packing was snickering at the ecstatic yell coming from the other end of the boutique.

“WwwwwWOW! Who is this chap flying with my little rainbow? Haven’t seen this sort of mannequin before.”

“Oh, I had to custom make it by putting together the stallion and gryphon kits. She’s flying with one of the kaiju!”

Rarity took a brief pause on account of a flash of worry. Before she could fret over the idea that her guest and one of the ponies she respected most would voice opposition, an ecstatic shout spoke the opposite.

“AHAHAAA! Even better than I could hope! Big designs are the best.”

===================

Godzilla Junior had no clue where he was supposed to check for what he was looking for. Thusly, he was in a spot pretty much any person at the GDF would burst out laughing knowing he was there. The front desk of a library. The librarian was writing away at a logbook when a low voice spoke up.

“Is this the library? I was told I could find writings here.”

“Yes, welcome to the Canterlot Library. Do you need something?”

“Do you have old newspapers?”

“Yes whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy-”

Her voice trailed as a tall shadow climbed over her desk. She adjusted her glasses and looked up, eyes widening to twice their normal scale as they looked upon the figure towering over her desk. Blinking a few times to cut short her stupor, she thankfully just seemed more excitedly surprised than shocked.

“WOW you’re a tall one!”

She spoke with a snicker. Glancing about a few times to her sides, she leaned over her desk with a hoof covering half her face to muffle a whisper.

“You’re him aren’t you? I was at the interview, you’re even taller up close! Thanks for the get-up your majesty, we don’t like excitement in here.”

Junior, still covered in wrappings, just nodded.

“I’ll keep that in mind. Title not needed though, sounds weird. Can a search be made to narrow down the stock? I’m looking for a certain year in particular from a specific place and I don’t know how to navigate this place.”

The librarian nodded with a smile, turning the sign at her help desk around from “Open” to “Assisting” and hopping out of her seat. With a waving motion, she trotted past Godzilla and to a specific part of the vast library.

“Indeed we can, I’ll get you them myself. Follow me.”

An hour later and Junior was still sitting in an empty spot in the back of the library, surrounded by the selection the librarian had pulled out and gone through for him despite the short length of the material. A three newspapers articles, chapter from biography of a “Captain Stalwart Sentry”, and a town record from a place called Hollow Shades. Despite the librarian helping to pick out relevant parts from each selection, it still took him quite some time to read through everything. Blueberry Frost’s tutelage on literacy was working and he understood well enough, but speed wasn’t a forte. Still, with the librarian helping him out he’d found what he was looking for. And when he did, Junior put down the last book and found himself going back up to the desk for one last question requested to the thankfully very patient librarian. A map and a set of directions.

=====================

Ponyville Train Station

“And are you certain you don’t mind taking over?”

Rarity muttered in a worried tone, flanked by Radiance Dash as the two stood side by side at the Ponyville train station. The earth pony mare grunted, waving her hoof nonchalantly as she looked over at the pieces of drawn-on paper in her other hoof.

“Pah! Not at all dahling. Your design sketches are a fantastic starting point. It’ll keep me pleasantly busy while you fillies are all in Canterlot.”

“Well, given timing you might need to bring the suits to the show if we’re not back beforehoof… I just hope the mannequins are accurate enough…”

Rarity mumbled that last portion with very slight frown she’d been wearing since they left the boutique. It grew enough to become visible as her mind thought back to the boutique and her eyes looked ahead to the distant face of Canterlot Mountain.

“Gah, not an issue of notice at’tall! I’ve made my little flygirl’s attire since she was a foal. And if I find need for refitting her companion, I’ll get to the capital myself.”

“Well, do plan ahead on that. With how long the train takes it might end up being a day trip.”

Radiance only snickered, shaking her hat-wearing head.

“Who said anything about me taking the train Deary? You think I took it to get here when you rang?”

She giggled, stamping her hoof to the ground a few times and cocking an eyebrow. In the distance the aforementioned train whistle blew through the air, all eyes reflexively looking to the steam-puffing locomotive coming over the hills. Rarity could hear a sigh come from Radiance and practically felt her mentor’s presence grow closer.

“Juliet, I can tell something is troubling my little diamond student beyond Element business. You always did get quiet when something was... I can also guess your trip to Canterlot might relate to it.”

Rarity listened to the half-whispers and let her head hang a bit, slowly nodding upon feeling the studious eyes of Dash the elder upon her. Olden stress was beginning to force her frown to grow and cause her to instinctively lean closer to Radiance.

"Oooh... I see, I see.”

The older mare muttered in a motherly fashion, putting a hoof around Rarity’s shoulders for a half hug. A silence passed between the two before Radiance whispered.

“... Do I need to hurt somepony?”

With every bit of seriousness in her accented voice. Rarity jolted up a bit, rapidly shaking her head.

“O-Oh?! No! Not at all! It’s… just…”

She stuttered before sighing and mumbling.

“Personal stuff.”

“Well then snap out of it! I can smell the anxiety in that tone dahling.”

Radiance deadpanned, pulling away from her student. Rarity reflexively shuddered and bit her lip in a wince.

“Sorry I-”

At this point exasperated didn’t even begin to describe Radiance demeanor.

“Whaaat is there to be sorry aboooout?!”

She moaned before jumping up and throwing her hooves out towards Rarity like she was presenting something.

“You are a rarity! The Rarity! My star pupil whom I myself learned from! We fashionistas have no room to be sorry to ourselves! You walk with your head up and let Equestria gaze upon you to set the example!”

She broke her demeanor, leaning in and whispering into Rarity’s ear with one hoof over her mouth and the other passing the unicorn another improvised mace.

“And do keep the sticks on hoof in case you get some less desirable gazes dahling-”

She muttered before jumping right back up into the benign shouting.

“-But as I was saying! Show the world how great you are and do not apologize for it as you spread that greatness to others! That’s why we’re seamstresses after all.”

She yelped with a grin. Huffing between her teeth for a few breaths, Radiance sighed and let her grin distill in happiness and selfless pride to mold itself into a warm, beaming smile. She took her sewing glasses off her nose and let them hang around her neck while putting a hoof under her former apprentice’s chin.

“And the great have no shame in seeking whatever help they need to show their greatness again. Even diamonds get blemished and sometimes need help buffing dahling.”

Rarity looked into the warm visage of her mentor, in many ways a second mother as beloved as her own, and let her mind race. It had been a full year since she and her friends voyage to the moon, where she let the despair get to her and she suddenly found her body running under a dark reflection of herself as the second Nightmare. She’d had plenty of night terrors over what happened for the first weeks after. Since then it had always been a memory that brought the sting of guilt and worry of relapse. How great could somepony be if they let themselves get controlled by something they knew was evil? And based off how the Nightmare worked, taking what was already there and exaggerating it to perversion; what did that say about the cut of a mare she was? What did it say about her mental well-being that she was having those night terrors again, throwing some dark corner of her subconscious at her in the form of her dark echo?

However that sting was dulled by her mentor. True, Radiance was probably thinking Rarity’s negativity was born of asking her to finish her work for her; but it was a pleasant irony that some advice had multiple applications. Sometimes being sorry for yourself and being sorry for others can be addressed in the same way. Rarity took in a deep breath and sighed it out her nose, feeling some levity come to her chest. She felt a gentle tap to her leg as the train rolled into the station. Looking over she saw Radiance Dash smirking at her.

“So don’t you worry about these flight suits deary, let me settle them out. You have bigger stitches to sew.”

Rarity chuckled lightly, stepping onto the train; her mind lighter and goal affirmed. It didn’t matter if she worried, if she had her blemishes, or was plagued with any doubts. She wasn’t alone in shouldering what she had to carry. Sometimes the first step to solving a problem is asking for help, and a friend won’t think less of your for it. And that felt like she was getting a full course spa treatment.

The Element of Generosity smiled and bowed to her mentor.

“So speaks the Great Radiance, one of the best?”

Rainbow Dash Senior laughed happily, shaking her head as she returned the kneeling bow.

“So speaks the proud teacher to one of the best.”

They waved goodbye and the train whistle blew before it set off for Canterlot. Rarity sat down in her window seat, pulling up the window to take in a breath of fresh air. She was still plenty nervous, but affirmed and determined. She’d probably get some shaky knees heading up the castle to talk to one of the Princesses, but nothing was stopping her now.

However her train of thought was stopped by loud, accented shouting coming through the open window. Rarity broke out of her meditation and peeked outside the train. Cyan-turquoise body, giant sunhat, pastel rainbow hued mane; yep it was her mentor again. Keeping pace with the train. Running backwards on three legs with one hoof holding her hat down.

She couldn’t help but get a bit wide eyed and impressed.

“Oh! Almost skimmed my mind! Do say hello to my little Dashie while you’re up there!”

“Will do-!! TREE!”

Rarity barked, pointing at the offending oak tree as the backwards sprinting blur of Radiance raced into it. Evidently Rainbow Dash’s penchant for crashing into things without injury also was genetic.

“I’m O-kay!”

====================

Canterlot Train Station

Fancy Pants sat in the quiet of the largely empty train station, seated upon a bench inside the pavilion with his only company being the distant drizzle and damp air of coming rainclouds and his curled umbrella. That changed when a large form walked up beside him off the edge of the bench, one with hoofsteps so heavy the noblestallion could actually feel them through the bench.

Some seconds passed before the silence was broken by a familiar, low voice.

“Mr. Pantero.”

Fancy Pants chuckled quietly, letting a smile draw over his muzzle. He took his monocle off, casually polishing it while replying to his new guest.

“I’d say “Hello, your majesty”, but I have a feeling you don’t want too much attention given the disguise. Though, you must know there aren’t many ponies the size of an alicorn, I have a feeling I’m not the first to figure out it’s you under there.”

Godzilla Junior shrugged under his mask and cloak, sitting on the ground next to the bench and still managing to loom over Fancy Pants.

“If they figure it out or not, everyone at least has determined I don’t want to talk so they haven’t stopped me unless I asked them first.”

He mumbled.

“And since you spoke first, I’m no record breaker. Though not many ponies noticed me leaving early to get to here. I take it you knew of my presence here from Fleur?”

Fancy muttered with a head tilt, adjusting and putting his monocle back into place and playing at it with his eye socket to ensure it was in well enough.

“Yes, she directed me to here after saying you weren’t home. To be honest I mostly just followed the scent trail though. Still fresh when I got to your dwelling and there was something attached to it that was strong.”

“Ah! Pact cologne. You should try it sometime.”

The unicorn grunted with a snicker, still casually glancing about the train station without a hint of worry or concern about who it was he was talking to. Something Godzilla Junior picked up on and let him relax a tone or two in his voice as he shrugged his shoulders in retort.

“I think I’ll pass…”

Junior looked out past the station, off to the east of Canterlot. Even from here he could see it, that spire of dark, almost burnt looking rock with a snowy cap that jutted forth from the highlands ridge like masonwork. His expression flattened a bit under his attire.

“... I have some questions for you about what happened about two decades ago at a place called Foal Mountain.”

“Ah yeesss, my medic service days. Family tradition to serve for a few years you know. Then again under Celestia’s rule most of my predecessors had a peaceful eight years. That excursion was… certainly an outlier….”

Junior cast a glance over to Fancy Pants after that last sentence. The unicorn’s typically jovial, nonchalant, gentlemanly voice had dropped like a stone. He was still pleasant of sound, but clearly restraining himself. Replacing Fancy Pant’s typical pleasant, warm expression was a still-as-statue stare off into the distance that looked through anyone in front of it rather than at them. Junior shrugged, looking forward again and leaning back some.

“Newspaper from the library told me you were there. I take it you were there when Moonbeam and her sister were found?”

Fancy Pants slowly shook his head with an empty chuckle.

“My good gentlecolt, I’ve known Ms. Glimmer since she was a filly... I was the one who pulled them out of the well, being of the first on scene in the group; myself along with Captain Sentry.”

The screech of metallic wheels upon iron track followed by a huff of steam echoed through the station; the dulled colors of the Hollow Shades to Canterlot rail rolling to a stop before them.

“Heading for that radio show with Welles over near Hollow Shades. Fastest train in the station so it’s a quick ride there and back, only twenty minutes; you’re welcome to join me since I’m not much for mind of quiet.”

Fancy Pants muttered, gathering his belongings and heading to the train doors as they opened up. The heavy footsteps behind him told him it wouldn’t be another silent train ride despite being almost alone in the car.

“So give me twenty minutes of talk then.”

Fancy Pants nodded his head to the kaiju while getting into his seat, a mildly depressed expression crossing his sunken face and lowered eyes.

“You imply you need even ask.”

============================================

Canterlot to Hollow Shades station 1, Foal Mountain

It was early afternoon when Junior found himself trailing a nostalgic smell across town after he left the train station in the shadow of Foal Mountain. It would be a stop along the way to the place he was heading for now, which was a place a good ways outside of town as per the instruction Fancy Pants gave him before the two split away with Junior’s solemn thanks for the talk. The train ride was informative, but definitely not in an uplifting manner. Fancy Pants might be a jovial individual most of the time, but Junior remembered well Captain Frost’s words when she talked about old soldiers. For those who’ve seen the worst, there is nothing funny about when they get stone-faced or cry. He got that inclination when Fancy Pants took a pause to “adjust his monocle”. He paid mind to mimic the salute Captain Frost taught him, one that gave Fancy Pants a smile as he saluted in turn before departing. He left the kaiju with some departing words that still murmured through Junior’s mind even after they went separate ways.

-”Remember; The 1600th hour on the seventh day of the week, five kilometers out of town on the south road; take a right at a burned boulder. You have two hours to get there. Good luck to you.”-

On his way out of town, Godzilla came upon the scent so familiar to him when he caught sight of the flower stand. The Flower Sisters of Ponyville were doing some traveling at the time and were in Hollow Shades to pick up some stock. Having a surplus, they pulled in shop to sell off some before returning home. Roseluck, Lily Valley, and Flower Wishes were a bit perplexed at the tall walking pile of cloaks and cloth walking up to them; but gave service with a smile nonetheless. Junior paused in front of one of the flower stands, looking the flora over. Roseluck glanced about with a degree of awkwardness, speaking up after letting the customer browse for a few minutes in silence.

“Um, hello there. Can I help you with something?”

Godzilla glanced over at her, shrugging his shoulders.

“I know little about this sort of thing, but Fancy Pants mentioned to me one picks different flowers for different reasons.”

The florist mentally sighed with relief and beamed.

“Ah, yes of course! He didn’t lie. Fancy Pants is a regular customer when we’re in Canterlot or he’s traveling through.”

Her coworkers, Lily Valley and Flower Wishes joined in on the cheeriness; grinning as they popped up beside Roseluck with bouquets in hoof and recited their motto.

“Petals for every occasion! And Bouquets for every celebration!”

Roseluck snickered, pawing at a set of perfect dandelions.

“So what’s the happy circumstance?”

She chirped chipperly. Unfortunately what she got in response was a dull shrug and low, blunt mumble.

“Someone died.”

One could literally see the mares deflate some. Ears flopping down against their heads, tails curling in, and if one squinted it almost looked like the flowers wilted a bit. Lily Valley and Flower Wishes glanced at Roseluck, getting a nod from the latter that cued them to back up and go to their stalls in order to give the customer some privacy. Roseluck steeled herself, sighing and turning to her stall to dig into a selection she always felt melancholy just looking at.

“Oh… We, got something for that.”

The florist muttered, turning around and holding up a couple gorgeous, solid colored red and pink flowers.

“You’ll want these then. Carnations keep their scent for a long time and thus are good for more enduring arrangements and statements of time. You want red carnations for admiration to those passed or pink carnations for remembrance?”

Junior regarded the flowers with an odd eye. Giving away these sort of things still seemed weird to him and in all honesty he still didn’t quite understand it even after being told they weren’t treats after all. Least not as a primary meaning. Still, there was an odd beauty to them that told him it was the right pick.

“Two of each please. How many bits?”

He grunted, reaching for the coins Captain Frost had given him a few days back. Roseluck put a hoof on his and shook her head.

“For this sort of thing, take ‘em. My condolences by the way.”

Junior blinked a few times at the frowning mare, only moving after Roseluck gave him a nod and placing the four flowers in a pocket on his cloak.

“Thank you, I was in a rush anyways. You’re quite kind. I’ll repay this one day.”

“You’re him, aren’t you?”

Junior paused, turning his head back around to look at Roseluck with a confused expression. It was less shock and more he didn’t know where the quiet statement was coming from. Roseluck looked back at the kaiju blankly.

“Godzilla I mean.”

Junior slowly nodded. Roseluck looked off to the side, trailing her hoof on the ground back and forth as a frown stretched across her face.

“I, wanted to apologize. I don’t know if you read, but some paper interviewed me and I think what I said might have scared someponies because… I was scared. To be honest, I still didn’t know if I should be or not this morning.”

Roseluck whispered, chewing on her lip. She took in a deep breath and sighed, picking her head back up.

“I don’t know who the flowers are for, but the fact you’re trying even if you seem confused says enough. You can tell a lot about folks by the flowers they get, especially as a florist. And I didn't know what to think about you this morning, but I think I do now. And if those-”

She motioned to the petals sticking out of Godzilla’s pocket.

“-help clue in others to the same conclusion, then you owe me nothing.”

Godzilla Junior looked at the flowers for a time before glancing up at the floral stand to see the smiling faces of all three mares looking back at him. Roseluck nodded, Lily Valley waved, and Flower Wishes beamed. He let himself suck in his breath slowly through his nose, paying mind to what his mother had told him the night prior.

-“They thought I was going to be just like my father and grandfather, right? Sometimes I worry I am.”-

-”Then now’s your chance not to be.”-

He straightened his head and lowered his neck to the trio in a bow he saw humans at the institute do all the time; letting himself hope this crazy plan of his might actually work. At the very least, he seemed off to a good start and intended to see it through. His actions elicited some giggles from the mare before he turned and departed southward at a brisk pace.

===================================

Moonbeam Glimmer twitched and contorted in her rest. After a sleepless night, she’d tried to catch a power nap before her entry tonight on the radio show. But be it from her anxiety of being around Fancy Pants again or lingering dread from the disastrous interview, she only got the daylight hours equivalent to a night terror of the worst caliber. One born from truth.

It was years ago in the happiest place Moonbeam had ever known. A little house out in the country, under the almost watchful shade of Foal Mountain; the one place she’d ever call 'home'. A lower point of view was her vantage point as the memory of her almost twenty years ago played in her mind. She was a bouncy, seven year old filly again running through the house. The calm, sweet voice of her mother called down from the observatory room, chasing her down the hall.

“Be back soon for dinner, we’re having the neighbors over!”

“Okay momma!”

Moonbeam skittered through the kitchen, hooves skidding to a halt just before reaching the back door. Her little wings buzzed to take the pegasus filly up towards a colorful safety seat set up at the head of the oak wood kitchen table. Moonbeam grinned, kissing the little unicorn foal snuggled into the padding on the top of her head. Starlight Glimmer squealed happily, wriggling a bit from the ticklishness of the affectionate display. Moonbeam put a hoof around her baby sibling.

“I’ll bring you back some pretty pebbles or a poppy lil’ Sissy!”

Starlight giggled before being mesmerized by the beautiful sapphire necklace her seven year old sister was wearing, eyes dilating as she pawed at it.

“Agabaaaa!”

Moonbeam snickered, patting Starlight on the noggin before pulling the jewel away to keep it from getting gummed on.

“Don’t worry silly filly, Papa is making you one too to wear once you’re big like me!”

With Starlight bursting into a fit of happy giggling and clapping, Moonbeam flew away and headed out the door to see what sort of adventure she could have before dinner time. The memory flashed to white.

It was twenty minutes later and down a game trail when the whiteness of the memory flash subsided. The short vantage point of the filly-aged Moonbeam beheld a massive form sitting in a clearing just off to the side of the road. The dragon was young but already huge, easily as big as an elephant and two stories tall. Gray-black scales with an ash hued underbelly, burnt gold eyes, and an almost regal expression, in the manner of an eagle, looked down at the filly with a raised brow. And Moonbeam looked back up without a hint of fear, holding out her hoof to the drake with a smile upon her muzzle.

“You’re not really a scary meanie, you just look that way. Wanna be friends?”

The dragon’s eyes trailed to just below the point of view and locked onto Moonbeam’s necklace. Eyes widening momentarily, its muzzle contorted into a fang-filled grin. Another lapse of memory drowned the vision in white, the last thing to fade being the dragon’s cruel facsimile of a smile.

Now Moonbeam was back home later that night, passing down the hall to see her father hard at work at his jewelry set. She knew the emerald he just fit into the silvery charm was meant for her sister and couldn’t contain a squeal. Her father looked over at the filly, jeweler's glasses comically dilating his eyes to the size of dinner plates and eliciting a fit of laughter from his daughter. The stallion chuckled in response, putting a hoof over his lips in a shushing motion.

“Shhh, don’t tell Starly now.”

Moonbeam nodded rapidly. Her father perked up and looked out the window past his child, pulling his glasses up and squinting.

“Ah, think I see the neighbors coming from up the road. Beamy could you get the door for them?”

Moonbeam saluted while hopping up into the air and heading for the front door.

“Okay Papa!”

She unlatched the door and pulled the green painted wood open. But instead of Mr. Choir, Mrs. Melody, or Cadenza coming to visit; the form walking around the bend in the road and out of the forest was a dark hued reptilian. It was that dragon from before, sniffing at the ground as if it was tracking something. The something it was tracking was soon spotted standing in the doorway waving at it. The drake grinned, fires licking out of its fangs.

This time the fade was to blackness. The next memory was anything but cohesive, only flashes of sight and the rumbling of burning wood and crackling flames audible everywhere. The choking feeling of smoke stung Moonbeam’s lungs and the screams of her mother stung even deeper.

When coherent memory returned, it was no less nerve wracking. Moonbeam held the little form close to her, the silent Starlight squirming and clinging to her big sister’s chest and neck. Like darkness swallowing up the world above, the only thing Moonbeam could see was the frantic visage of her father operating the well crank after placing them in the dipping bucket. A deep, shrieking roar and the sound of crashing wood clashed with each other above, hot wind blowing embers and ash over the top of the well. The sisters' father, half choking on smoke, looked around frantically. Moonbeam was crying, but too choked to speak. Her father looked down at her, sobbing himself after managing to crank them down to the bottom and have them float in the still water.

“Take care of your sister and please, be quiet! No matter what you hear, be quiet!”

He begged in a half whisper, not waiting for Moonbeam to nod before he pulled away from sight. Then Moonbeam heard his voice and the sound of something banging on the metallic storm shutters.

“Hey hey! Over here! I’m over here!”

Her parent’s call was silenced by the dragon’s roar and earth shaking footsteps. They carried on, pounding the ground for a time in a frantic pace that told her the monster was chasing something. Then they stopped, a blue explosion of fire tearing into the air and flowing over the top of the well. At this point Starlight started crying, squirming and shaking in Moonbeam’s grasp with wet sobbing. Remembering her father’s plea, the pegasus tried to hold her sister close and shush her; but at this point she was fighting her own tears to stay in one piece.

A couple rocks dropping from above made the pegasus look upwards, right into the glowing eyes of the dragon. Wreathed in flames, the predator held onto the edges of the well, tearing parts of the masonwork aside with its claws as it loomed over the opening. Moonbeam followed the burning eyes' line of sight to her necklace. Cold, terrified, and shaking; the only action she could do was remove it and hold it up as some sort of offering; all while trying to shield her baby sister from the murderer. The dragon smirked, cutting through the air with its talons and snatching up the treasure. In doing so, one of its claws slashed Moonbeam across the forelimb and opened up a ribbon of redness.

In pain, mentally broken, and in shock; all the little Moonbeam Glimmer could do was huddle down, sob, and cradle her bleeding limb and crying sister close to her. The worst hour of her life turned into the worst afternoon of her life with no signs of stopping.

She lunged up from her bed, back in the present and covered in sweat. Cringing with stinging tears in the corners of her eyes, the messy-maned mare held up her hoof and looked at her old scar she’d gotten from the dragon’s claws. Even now, she could still feel the phantom pain from the worst day in her life with every pulse across the raw tissue. Moonbeam Glimmer sat in place for several minutes, breath gradually slowing and deepening back to normalcy before she got up. Eying the clock, her frown remained as she gathered her things to set out.

-Almost 2:30. Just enough time.-

She headed forth from her living room, past a fireplace and its mantle. Upon stepping one hoof past it however, she paused. She didn’t even need to look over to know of the picture frame placed upon the stony shelf, set face down so one could only see the dusty frame and not the image it bore. Moonbeam chewed her lips, reaching for the picture with enough caution that one would think she was about to touch a hot coal. Her hoof shook and she almost touched it, but Moonbeam snapped her limb back almost like it got bit by a snake. She looked at her limb with a dour expression, sighing and continuing on her way out her front door; feeling like a coward.

The guilt within her chilled her body and wings even more than the drizzling rain did.

A half hour later, Godzilla Junior passed the black stone Fancy Pants directed him to and headed off the road. After the story he’d been told, he knew why that rock was blackened and heat-cracked; even if the regrown forest masked the other signs from two decades prior. The setting was quiet in detail and in sound, not a building or paved road in sight. Had it not been for the faint smell of a pony and the fainter smell of charcoal, he’d have thought it was just another clearing in the woods. The directions given however matched up exactly to what he’d been told of and been read to about. This was where it all went down twenty years ago. Junior looked around the clearing, which was set upon a hill with only a couple shrubs and a single pine tree breaking it’s openness.

-That’s the place.-

Junior walked up to the pine tree on the far side of the clearing, heading downhill as the drizzling rain wept upon the ground. He could immediately tell someone had been through here repeatedly. The grass had been partially disturbed in a thin line leading to the tree’s shade and some shrubs looked like a game trail had inhibited their growth. And a familiar scent told him who’d come here over the months and years, confirming his assertion his was in the right space. When he got to the cloak of the tree, the two flat pads of stone underneath it were the final confirmation. He never was a good literate, but he knew what he was looking at before he even managed to make out what it said after a few seconds.

Forging Glimmer - Beloved husband and father, master jeweler
960 AF - 992 AF

Dr. Statos “Sphere” Glimmer - Beloved wife and mother, respected astronomer
959 AF - 992 AF

Pulling his drenched cloak up, he drew out the four flowers and set two upon each wet stone. Junior drew in breath and shrugged, already feeling the dour mood settling over him even before he looked up at the hill in the middle of the clearing and practically able to see where the house once was. If one squinted and had senses sharp enough, you could still see scattered masonwork from a dug well and smell bits of the buried charcoal that stunk up the rainy air. He didn’t know how long he’d been frowning when a familiar voice shouted at him from up the trail.

“Who are you?! What are you doing here!?”

Moonbeam Glimmer saw the figure move quickly to duck behind the pine tree and out of her sight. This was a special place, her special place; so she tended to react on reflex upon anyone trampsing around in it. Especially if they ducked under the tree and almost stepped on her parents headstones! Moonbeam Glimmer, face still wet with tears and rain drops, marched forward to confront the intruder. When she glanced at the headstones however to make sure they weren’t damaged, she was stopped in her tracks upon seeing the flowers set upon them. And with carnations not naturally growing here, she quickly figured out where they had come from since they weren’t the set she’d gotten from Roseluck on her way out.

Shame flashed over her form, causing her face and wings to wilt as droplets poured down her face.

“I’m… sorry. I just, don’t really get visitors here. Y-You can come out.”

Chewing her lip during the silence, she took the subtle sound of the newcomer shifting as a sign to approach. She walked over to the cover of the pine tree’s branches, setting her own flowers down upon the headstones. Godzilla Junior moved back to where he was and sat down beside her. A minute ticked by in raining silence before Moonbeam got the gumption to talk again.

“Did you… know them?”

She whispered, still not recognizing the newcomer. Not looking at them directly didn’t tip her off to his well above normal stature. All she could tell was that of the two ponies that knew of this place besides her, Fancy Pants and Stalwart Sentry; this was neither of them.

“... No. But, I’m sorry. I know they must have been good ponies.”

He muttered, the mask muffling and obscuring his voice just enough to throw Moonbeam off; looking back at the headstones through his goggles. Moonbeam hadn’t taken her eyes off the masonwork. She sniffed in her breath unevenly.

“The best… That dragon took so many that day. Papa, Momma, the neighbors, anypony who tried to be a good samaritan when they saw the smoke. My family and friends died because I trusted that thing… I was seven, thought anything in the world could be a friend. And then I lead it back home…”

Junior didn’t need any guesswork to see where this was going. Fancy Pants told him she had it, the scenario said she might have it; and he knew when to recognize survivor’s guilt besides his own.

“You blame yourself for their deaths?...”

The blunt retort caused Moonbeam to stiffen up some and curl in. Had she been in a sound emotional state, she’d have told the speaker to back off on something so intrusive. But, time and context didn’t favor that outcome.

“You wouldn’t be lying…”

The whisper was met with a sigh from Junior.

“And this is why you disappear every week? Visit them?”

His muttering earned a nod and the two sat without a word between them for awhile, doing nothing but listening to the rain and watching the drops roll over the flowers and headstones. Eventually, Moonbeam felt the stab of guilt subside enough for her to look over at her guest.

“You sound pretty coherent for someone with a cough mask on… Who are you?”

“Someone with experience.”

Despite the drizzle of the storm, Moonbeam could have heard a pin drop when the mask, scarf, and goggles were pulled off. Godzilla kept a flat expression as distant thunder rolled. He reached over to her and for a moment, the past and present intermixed before Moonbeam’s eyes; the visage of Junior reaching to her atop her parents' graves mixing with the memory of the dragon reaching down the well while wreathed in her parents' ashes. The petrified mare braced. Only for a gentle pressure and heat to come over her shoulder, where Junior had placed his hoof and snapped her out of her fear.

Junior bit the inside of his cheek, mulling over a thought before managing to make it into a clear sentence. After the stuttering stupor this mare put him in last time they met, he had to take care to say what he meant this time. And what he said caught Moonbeam completely by surprise.

“I’m not too good at forgiveness, you’re my first real attempt. But it sounds more like you need to forgive yourself.”

He muttered, turning and starting to walk away after shaking his cloak off his shoulders. He never minded getting soaked then and he didn’t now, now that there was no need to keep the disguise on. He only stopped once, tilting his head back to throw his voice behind him so the frozen mare could hear him.

“But for what it’s worth, I guess I forgive you.. If you ever want to share stories, you know where to find me.”

Moonbeam Glimmer heard the words but couldn’t move, feeling almost like her mind had gone cold. She could only stare at the flowers upon the gravestones and bear the knowledge of who left them. It was like her mind was spun off record and groping at the air to try and reorganize itself.

==========================

It was night’s eve by the time Godzilla Junior got back to Canterlot, taking the barracks entrance to the castle to avoid too much notice. Captain Blueberry Frost was the only one in the barracks at the time, the solar guard having already retired and the lunar guard starting to fan out across the city. She had been waiting for him. She didn’t confront him forcefully, just a welcome back, and told him to suit up and head for the Solar Tower where the other kaiju were.

“And try not to break any walls down this time.”

“Yes, Captain.”

“And Junior?”

“Captain?”

Blueberry Frost sucked a breath in and looked him in the eye with the same studious gaze she’d given him at the pub.

“Are you going to be alright?”

Godzilla Junior looked back at her for a moment, before quietly putting on his helmet and giving her a slow nod. Captain Frost sighed, chancing a smile and punching him in the shoulder for good measure before retiring to her quarters. Geared up, Junior was just about to head for the Solar Tower when he spied a familiar form approaching the castle by way of the main road. Without much hesitation he poked his head out the gate and combed his memory to match the face to the name.

“Um… Hey, Rarity was it?”

He barked, throwing his voice to the unicorn and obviously getting her attention. After looking around to see where the voice was coming from, she locked eyes with him and trotted over with a tilted head.

“Oh, do pardon me. You’re Godzilla right?”

She muttered, thankfully knowing the face from the papers and their first encounter at Canterlot despite his helmet.

“I am. You heading inside?”

“Y-Yes, the other Element Bearers were called in by Twilight and I um… I, need to see Princess Luna about something.”

“About what?”

“It’s.. personal. Sorry, your majesty.”

Rarity, both from the topic and sheepishness of addressing what she saw as royalty, reclused back a bit. But any movement backwards was quickly countered by Junior hooking a limb over her back to pull her through the gate.

“Then I’ll take you to her. The Lunar Tower is closer to this entrance anyways and it’ll get you past the front gate guards.”

Rarity pursed her lips somewhat and stepped through as direction. Junior’s manner was a bit ungentlecoltly-like, but she kept a complaint restrained on logic that if Anguirus didn’t know etiquette; the other kaiju wouldn’t.

“Oh, thank you your majesty!”

“No need to call me that. It’s just a title.”

Junior grumbled, escorting Rarity into the castle walls.

“Sorry. Lady just trying to be polite you know, hehe.”

“Oh…”

He grunted, shrugging his shoulders.

“Sorry then… So, I take it this issue of your’s is pretty big to want to see Luna about it?”

Rarity let her head tilt down a bit to hide her frown, trying to force her mind not to remember the night terror it seemed dead-set on reliving through memory.

“You wouldn’t be wrong.”

They walked like that for some time, Rarity with her head hung low and Junior pacing beside her to lead the way through the long halls bathed in rising moon light. Over time, Godzilla started to notice a shift in Rarity’s motion. Whether she noticed it or not, likely the latter as the manner seemed as unconscious as breathing; she started to walk along with a smaller and smaller gap between herself and Godzilla. Junior heard a quiet sniffling and noticed how the unicorn seemed to be making an effort to keep her head up. Her eyes were forward, but her mind clearly wasn't. He puzzled.

-Something’s really got her spooked.-

Remembering how she seemed to be unknowingly wanting the opposite of isolation, he minded his strength in case they touched and shifted his walking direction as he stood closer to the mare; almost to the point where they were in contact. He hoped he’d figured it out properly and was reacting in the right way, for he really didn’t know if either was the case. Standing close together thankfully is a fairly universal bit of body language and translated as well between kaiju and archosaurs as it did equines and mammals. Sensing another’s presence next to you was a pretty surefire way to ensure you knew you weren’t alone. And nothing helps dampen fear like company. Junior glanced over at Rarity and shot her a smile. Normally Rarity would actually feel a bit sheepish being next to a form much larger than her own, but the gentle heat radiating off Godzilla and the surprisingly kindly smile the stallion gave was a reassurance of a gentle giant.

Her sense of isolation quelled, she returned the smile. By the time they reached Luna’s chamber, her mind was less a plague and her expression had lightened considerably; Rarity standing firm and holding her nerve. Steeling herself for a moment, Rarity got her nerve, adjusted her bangs, and knocked on the lunar symbol-bearing doorway. Distant hoofsteps on the other side grew less distant and soon a dark blue alicorn was looking back at the unicorn with a mildly perplexed expression. Rarity breathed in and sighed.

“Salutations, Princess.”

Princess Luna tilted her head at Rarity, not paying any attention at all to who she was with.

“Lady Rarity? Is thee in need of something to our person?”

Rarity chewed her lip for a moment before nodding slowly.

“I’ve been having… Nightmares.”

Princess Luna’s head shot up a bit at that last word due to Rarity accentuating it a tone, knowing what it meant and what was wrong. She leaned down, hovering in front of Rarity’s face with a hoof on her shoulder. The royal speech pattern dropped even faster.

“You haven’t had one since a week after the incident… You say you’re having them again?”

Rarity nodded again, earning a frown from Luna. It was at this point the alicorn noticed who was with her and added another problem to her checklist.

-One at a time then Luna…-

The Diarch of the Night side stepped, holding her chamber door open with a wing and gently nudging Rarity on the back to step forward.

“Come, step into my chamber. We shall be with thee shortly.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna.”

Rarity whispered upon her entry. Luna let the door close behind the Element of Generosity and turned her form in one fluid motion to face Godzilla Junior. Equal in height, Princess of the Night and King of the Monsters stared at each other in silence.

“Still worried I’m going to try and kill Xenilla?”

“On some level. You never did say anything last night after your mother left.”

Junior let a few seconds tick by, letting his head drift off to the side and throw his gaze out the window. If he let his vision set forth a trail around the bend in the mountain slope, he could almost see the entrance to Starswirls’ glade from here.

“Didn’t feel like I could really speak to be honest, but… thank you, for bringing my mother to me. She was probably the only one this stubborn idiot would listen to. You saved a life yesterday.”

“Xenilla’s?”

-Wouldn’t be wrong… but,-

"Maybe not just him."

Luna could see Junior’s mouth puzzle, like he was trying to think on how to articulate himself in a response. Having verbal wit was still apparently new to him so it seemed the kaiju gave up trying and instead shifted to the more direction approach. He walked up to the alicorn, stopping less than a head’s length away from her and interlocking his vision with hers. She could feel a hoof and limb brush up against hers gently, not even needing to glance down to confirm who it was visually as the radiating heat coming off the unicorn was a gentle heat she could clearly feel at such a close distance. Both of them could feel a momentary spike in heart rate when Luna tapped her horn against Godzilla’s, sharing a smile before pulling away from each other.

“Take care, Goji.”

“Yourself too, Lulu.”

They muttered and turned to an about-face. Despite what both of them faced ahead, both of the two were bearing a half hidden grin along with Luna’s wings sticking up and Junior’s tail wagging slowly. Challenges or not, they had the other at their back in a pleasant way.

And with that, Luna returned to her chamber and patient as Godzilla trod across the castle into a new hall and a new wing. He came upon a familiar door, identifiable by the smell of recently applied mortar and masonry work done to repair the damage he’d caused. Credit to the Canterlot staff, the build team as it seemed was already well adjusted to repairs to the capital castle long before even the kaiju showed up; and they worked fast. Familiar voices slipped out from under the door, their identity and the smells chasing them confirmed to the kaiju he was in the right spot. Reigning any bit of himself in that still protested, Junior opened and stepped through the door. Instantly the conversations fell off, having apparently been focused on some magic ordeals with Xenilla’s mind. It was an almost surreal sight seeing the likes of Lea, Rodan, and Anguirus sitting across from Destroyah and Xenilla in a peaceful, if tense manner that only increased when Godzilla showed up. With all eyes upon him, Junior shrugged and walked in. He passed the rim of the circle, going by Rodan, Anguirus, and even Destroyah without notice of action. When he got behind Xenilla however, he paused and all other kaiju present felt themselves on a hair trigger in case of the worst.

The room held its bated breath as both sons of the old king stood still within a foot of each other, neither looking each other in the eye as Xenilla closed his and stealthily braced himself. But it seemed such action was unneeded as Junior wordlessly resumed his route and walked past him, taking his helmet off and sitting down next to Mothra Lea.

Back in the Lunar Tower, Princess Luna ran the frightened unicorn through some deep breathing; telling her to focus on the nightmare plaguing her. The alicorn’s horn glimmered with a dull blue light and a whiteness overtook her eyes as a previously cast sleeping spell overtook Rarity, causing her to lay down on the mattress and lull into a slumber. The twitching of the unicorn’s eyes were proof the night terrors had replayed themselves, tugging at Luna’s heart with guilt. It must have taken a mountain of resolve to come this far with as much on one's mind as she could see poor Rarity going through; one could hardly blame her for quickly re-experiencing it. Luna had created the monster that hijacked the unicorn’s body and she felt it was her responsibility to tend to that mistake whenever it appeared; which was exactly what she was doing now. With a variant of her dream walking magic prepared, Luna stepped into Rarity’s mindscape and witnessed all the Element Bearer had gone through over the past few nights.

Kilometers away in the Everfree forest the last remnants of that mistake, the Pony of Shadows, turned itself towards the direction of Canterlot after licking its metaphorical wounds. While unable to see the mountain, it knew what was going on and who was onto it. Clearly more extreme measures would be required. It knew what was coming the moment she felt the power of the Alicorn Amulet, it’s creation, get drained away; and who’d done the draining. An angry god had come to this realm and none of these fools, not the Equestrians or these invaders; and especially that wretch Celestia or its idiotic progenitor, Luna, would know how to handle it. It needed a body. It would have a body back. By any means necessary.

As the radio tones were muted out, all eyes in Horson Well’s studio were soon upon Moonbeam Glimmer when she stepped into the room. The moment he got a look at her however, Fancy Pants knew something had happened. Moonbeam’s eyes were still wide but so unfocused within a stupor, one hours old she still hadn’t broken out of; that she obviously wasn’t looking at anything in front of them. The retired medic pursed his lips and sighed, knowing it meant she had to have encountered King Godzilla after he’d directed the latter to the old Glimmer homestead. He could only hope the flower idea and whatever the kaiju had said himself worked properly, as with the zoned out state Moonbeam was in at the moment; it was hard to tell. Horson was the first to break the silence, putting back on his professionalism and addressing the microphone in front of him.

“And joining us now for the counterpoint is returning guest, Doctor Moonbeam Glimmer. Miss Glimmer?”

Horson quipped, eyeing the pegasus to his right as the microphone in front of the mare went unused. Moonbeam sat herself down, but beyond that she only stayed in her seat completely still and unresponsive while blankly looking down. Horson Wells glanced over to Fancy Pants, seeing the noblestallion only shrug and look towards his would-be talking rival. Horson looked about a tad awkwardly, leaning over and putting a hoof on Moonbeam’s shoulder to try and rouse her to awareness.

“Ahem, Miss Glimmer?”

She sucked in her breath, eyes darting back and forth while pointing downwards as her mind raced around in circles.

“... I-”

She squeaked before cutting herself off. Horson Wells bit his lip with concern that showed through his whisper as he made sure to quiet it enough that the microphone and thus radio wouldn’t pick it up.

“Miss Glimmer, are you alright?”

She blinked a few times before swallowing a wad of spit and stale air. The pegasus closed her eyes and shook her head slowly before speaking directly into the microphone.

“... I think I’ve made an error in judgement. I forfeit this discussion. Goodnight Mr. Wells, goodnight Mr. Pantero.”

And with that she got up from her seat and left out the backdoor, ignoring the calls after her as she grabbed her umbrella and flew off into the storm with speed only surpassed by her racing mind. Time seemed to blur as her body moved almost on its own upon a predetermined path. The wingbeats and steps only slowed when her home came into view. She didn’t become conscious of the world around her until she shot herself through the front door and stood in front of her mantle.

Finally breaking free of the lock of stillness, Moonbeam Glimmer let her hooves cautiously approach the downed picture frame. Her limbs stopped shaking upon contact with the dust-caked old wood. With as much effort as one would expect behind a pony lifting a carriage above their head, Moonbeam set the picture frame upright again. She shut her vision and held her breath, letting a hoof gently drag across the glass surface to wipe off the encrusted dust. The voice of something- of someone she couldn’t have ever expected returned to her mind’s eye and ear.

-”I’m sorry…”-

-“You blame yourself for their deaths, don’t you?...”-

-”Forgive yourself…”-

-”For what it’s worth, I forgive you.”-

Moonbeam Glimmer felt the yoke around her neck lift away as the minutes ticked by and she looked upon the picture frame when the guilt had finally left her. For the first time in years, she took in the sight of the past. One of a happy small family. A wise mother, inventive father; and a squealing, happy baby filly being held in her grinning big sister’s hooves.

A tear unlike any of its brethren tapped the floor and a tiny smile crossed the pegasus’ muzzle.

=================

Reader Shout Out

Usually I plug the reader's artwork and stories here but in this case I feel a special notice is needed for some hardships in our little community. First is FallenAngel, a name many of you on the DeviantArt side I'm sure know of for her amazing and adorable artwork. Recently members of her family have found themselves under hospital stays and the entire experience is an emotional rollercoaster for all involved. Some good news has thankfully arrived, but I felt this wonderful member of our posse I'm happy to call a friend deserved notice.
Next is Corona Blaze, co-writer of Bridge's Spin-Off Humanity's Stand which recently celebrated it's 18th chapter. He is awaiting a hospital visit due to a bad bone infection in his jaw that's been causing him a lot of pain. He's getting his treatment thank god, but special prayer or hopeful thought (if prayer is disaggreeable to you) for him as well please.
Lastly is a wishes for good health to DarthSonic one of our main commentators. I won't divulge any details unless he does himself but he too has had to recently go through a medical issue that he thankfully is passed the worst of it. Special thoughts for a speedy recovery if you can manage for him there.

If you all could, drop this trio and anyone else a line or a message to give your regards or best wishes. Humans are a bunch of weird, naked apes but apes nonetheless and primates are social creatures. Just being around others to talk can lift someone's day in more ways than you'd think. If you're a religious person, than we are all siblings and companions in a distinct creation. If you're an atheist, than remember how evolution promotes altruism and socialization in the species; which lead to the first sapient creature the world has ever seen. Either way, you are never alone.

On happier trails, here is some love works done by you guys and gals. Enjoy!

Chaos Ax

Spawnzilla

Kahnc
Bagan's Hellfire Song Fic

FallenAngel

IceStormy and Evehly

Zeroviks

uhZeeamigo

There is so much more these generous, skilled folks have done. Please do check out their other works!

Author's Note

Proofreading by Lance-Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Artwork (To Come Later) by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE:
Now that Junior's come around the circle, let's see what other folks are up too and what plans lay ahead!

Chapter 34: Review

Rarity felt herself lapse back into the waking world, the gentle chills of Luna’s magic trickling off her like she was stepping out of a bath. Yawning momentarily and taking a stretch from the first relaxing sleep she’d had in days, brief as it was, Rarity didn’t need to ask to be given her diagnosis.

“There are definitely still trace amounts of the Nightmare in your consciousness and magic.”

Luna muttered with shame in her tone. Her horn was still glowing as lenses of magic had condensed over her eyes like glasses. The alicorn emitted a pulse of magic across the room and in a second’s lifespan the same sort of lenses had formed over Rarity’s eyes. The aura visible to Luna became visible to her too and the unicorn immediately followed Luna’s line of sight to gaze upon herself. Aura revealed the truth of one’s self. Despite having originally been made to counter changeling disguises, it had also proven useful to detecting the nature of one’s being. In the case of weeks earlier, revealing the true nature of Canterlot’s six most recent guests. In this case, Rarity could see a veil of royal purple identical to the Element of Generosity across her form, hugging it like a flickering aurora. But here and there were blotches of blackness and dark purple that stained her personal aura, so dark they looked more like holes in space than they did coloration. Understandably, Rarity was struck with a jolt of terror, instinctively swiping at the darkness to try and force it off her. She was about to cry out when a hoof gently held her mouth shut. Rarity quivered, stifling tears and closing her eyes. The Princess of the Night’s voice quietly hugged her.

“Contrary to what some believed, the Nightmare is not solely some outside force that possessed us and is entirely responsible for the end result. Rather, it’s a manifestation of what dark potential is already there, bringing out the thoughts of that individual that are usually suppressed or tempered and not acted upon. To bond, it requires something already there and a willing host.

The Element of Generosity looked up to the source and saw Luna, aura and all. In her case the aura emanating from the alicorn was positively blazing, no doubt tied to her vast magical potential as a near peak individual of all three races. Largely radiant blue in color, sparks of auburn, sky blue, and neon red that indicated her former Elements. And just like Rarity, the aura coming forth from her predecessor in Nightmare was similarly scarred with dark blotches that mired her appearance like some parody of somepony spattered with paint. Rarity looked back at her own dark patches.

“S-So, I shall always be prone to such horrific dreams and reflections because deep down, I-I am some monster out of Nightmare Night?!”

She sobbed. Luna sighed, tilting the unicorn’s head back up. Her face was a mishmash of concern and grief.

“Juliet Rarity Belle, listen to my words. Any sentient being with the power of reason will have the potential for good or evil thoughts, words, and deeds. The Nightmare is an expression of the latter. Had that darkness been fully expressed and let loose in anypony, then anypony from my sister to the Bearer of Kindness could have the potential to become a Nightmare.”

Luna spoke, looking to herself and pointing to her aura’s blemishes.

“Guilt, shame, envy, anger-”

She punctuated each statement by pointing to a black blotch.

“-it’s in all of us. Some more than others.”

Luna shrugged and lifted her wings to fan them out, revealing even more blotches. Luna didn’t need to look to know how many she had, she’d known for a long time. There was good reason why her views of Godzilla Junior had changed as much as when she saw his true self lying wounded in her bed as she did after the gyaos attack. She was looking at a physical reflection of her mental mires. Rarity’s eyes widened.

“Princess Luna you’re-!”

Luna cut her off, raising a hoof and shaking her head slowly.

“Getting better, fear not for your princess in this regard…”

She lowered her hoof and sighed.

“Miss Rarity, it is a belief of mine that knowing of something entirely makes one fear it less.”

Rarity puzzled her lips and swallowed the rock in her throat, nodding with a mild shrug.

“Your point is proven given the initial reaction that King Godz- Junior, got.”

“Verily. And I feel that there is more you should know about the Nightmare as I believe the case of its origin wasn’t ever fully told…”

Princess Luna took a seat next to Rarity. With an assuring, curious nod from the unicorn, she took some moments to steel herself before turning her gaze to the star and moonlight streaming in from the window.

“Many a pony has speculated about the exact nature of the Nightmare. Some thought the force that created Nightmare is the dark reflection of anypony’s magical potential combined with dark thoughts and desires. Others, that it was a malevolent, outside force that possessed and seized control of a host. The truth is some of both in a particular order.”

Luna let her mind drift back to so long ago she need not focus on the words she spoke, merely uttering on instinct the flashes of memory that came to her mind from a millenia ago. She was smaller then, younger, and like most teenagers; temperamental. Plaguing thoughts from the waking world fed into plagues of the dreaming time, the blue alicorn tossing and turning in her daylight resting hours with sneers upon her muzzle. The tip of her horn began to crackle with a dark light.

“It wasn’t some cursing foe my sister and I fought or an ancient being I bonded with; I created Nightmare, albeit unintentionally at first. I was different then, those temperamental years. I misunderstood the importance of my role and thought myself ignored. I began to neglect my duties to watch over ponies as they slept just as my sister watched over them in awakeness.”

In the past, Luna surged from her bedside and found herself glaring at the illuminated window. She saw the ponies across the land from her high tower in the then much shorter Everfree. She saw how they went about their business, occasionally looking up to the glowing, warm orb in the sky and the archon who moved it with beaming smiles and waves. The historic alicorn sneered, leering blades through her sister before returning to her slumber full of envy. She hadn’t noticed the dark sparks starting to pry free of her horn yet again.

“I wanted Celestia’s role and being, but I couldn’t do it in my current state. I was the younger sibling, with less experience and physicality than my elder sibling. So, I dreamed up a form in which I could cast off those boundaries. I wanted to do away with all I saw as inferior in me versus my sister. My age, my power, and my appearance.”

As the young Luna turned in her sleep, the darkness in her horn spiralled down and stretched across her form like dripping trails of water across a glass window, rolling and marking her form as they spread over her.

“I craved a body as mature as Celestia’s to take the adoration she had, so I imagined a state that looked older and more regal by my standards; with bolstered power to match the greater experience my sibling had. In essence, I dreamed up an idealized form of my older self and just as that dream became a nightmare; so too did this vision become a malefic mare of the night herself. Alicorn magic is a more exaggerated form of unicorn magic due to the other two races being included, and dark magic as a base is more energetic than light magic because it feeds off more controlling emotions. Nightmare was the result of both mixing at a peak. And with as powerful as I was at the time, bolstered by my connection to the Elements, it was strong enough to make it real.”

The Luna laying in her bed awakened hours later, her fur remolded into a near pitch black with eyes opening to reveal the gleam of stars in her now slit-pupiled orbs. Centuries later, in the ruins of the same castle she was born in, Nightmare Moon was set upon by the same Elements of Harmony she once wielded, now utilized by six new heroines. Within the blinding flurry of light and magic Luna was pried free of Nightmare Moon like she was torn from a cocoon, the elements snapping the ligaments of magic that held the embodiment of her darkest magic to her. Out of view from anyone, the husk of Nightmare Moon melted into a shapeless mass of dark magic that was flung into the moon.

“The effort was strong enough that it became a duplicate of those desires and thoughts, feeding off them so much it was able to exist even outside my body when the Elements were used on me a second time.”

Rarity found herself drawn into and spacing out in the same viewpoint Luna had become entranced in, quietly looking upon the night sky with a worried expression when her eyes met the moon. The memories of the past, one much more recent than Luna’s, flashed before her eyes. Ones of how a journey to the moon resulted in her being separated from her companions, the dark whispers in her ears that pestered her for hours about how they’d forget her. About how she was replaceable. About how that voice, the swirling blackness, offered to make that never come to pass. And about how when she dropped her guard and opened up, she found herself more alone than she ever had been before as a twisted version of herself stole her body.

“When it came to bond with me on the moon, it showed me visions of my fears. Of being forgotten and replaced… I guess, if it exists as a corrupted version of one’s dreams, that is why I ended up looking the way I did when I took the form.”

She whispered, earning a frown and nod from Luna.

“You feared being replaced or forgotten, as it was early on in you and your friend's adventures before you six had bonded so heavily. It sensed that fear so it took that part of you to make you both look completely unique and seize power to keep that attention.”

Rarity remembered both the dream she had the night prior and about the pictures she’d seen taken of her after her transformation. Photo Finish, whom was in town that night and participated in the defense, had found out the warped, nightmare-corrupted moon beasts Nightmare Rarity brought to Ponyville with her during the takeover could be blinded by camera flashes. Against some of her better judgement, Rarity had asked for and kept the photos in her dresser to look upon occasionally before rationale flared up again and she’d find herself slamming the cabinet drawer shut.

Nightmare Rarity and Rarity had enough similarities to be discernible as the same being, but differences were striking. While Rarity always prided herself on being a beauty, her dark echo was nothing short of an eerie knock-out. Flowing, glimmering hair with a pearly stripe down the middle, unblemished dark purple fur; and a towering height compared to the genuine article. In shape Nightmare Rarity almost looked more like a wingless alicorn than the real Rarity.

“Would explain why my body shape changed. Narrow snouted, tall mares are the beauty apex thanks to the alicorns. It explains your admirers. But how was Nightmare even created by mere thoughts?”

“Alicorn magic is a strange thing, even more so for each specific alicorn. In the same magic I used to manipulate dreams, I accidentally discovered I could pool that same power to mold something out of magic to emulate those thoughts and wishes to make them real. At first it was unconscious and I took time to notice it. But once I did, I finalized and imprinted more of my thoughts upon it, enough to give it a final shape in the real world. The greatest mistake of my life that lead to even more mistakes…. And one I nearly repeated.”

Luna sighed, taking pause and shifting. At first Rarity thought she was turning away or leaving. But as she turned her head to look, she found Luna still present in the room, hovering before a wall mirror. Luna’s horn flickered with a soft glow, a line of magic traced across the mirror before spreading out two flaps of glowing magic like a curtain being peeled back. Reaching into this hidden pocket of magic, Luna drew out a dimly glowing sphere which approximated the size of a beachball. Hovering it next to her and closing the curtains of magic behind herself, she approached Rarity again and resumed her seat. At a slow and steady pace, the sphere of dim, dark purple lines along its outline weightlessly drifted over to Rarity. Peering in closer, Rarity soon spotted the familiar inky darkness and hazy texture that brought back a plague of bad memories of her possession on the moon. True, it wasn’t exactly like the Nightmare, but the similarities were as obvious as they were jarring and they were enough to send her scrambling back.

Luna fortunately prepared for that, levitating up a pillow behind the unicorn to catch her. Rarity, breathing heavily, looked at the thing in the sphere and then at Luna in time to receive the solemn but completely calm expression on the diarch’s face. Luna gave her a slight nod and waited for the unicorn to calm down. After a minute or so she managed to calm herself, albeit with an air of fright and adrenaline in her tone.

“W-What is that thing, Princess?”

“It is incomplete. It was to be something called the Tantabus. In essence, the Nightmare was a more self aware, complete, stronger version of what this would have been.”

“Whatever would such a ghastly thing be for?”

Princess Luna shrugged her shoulders, not fighting a slight frown that in truth was far larger on the inside than it was visible. She swallowed the rock in her throat and bit the bullet.

“Me… I planned to subject myself to it each day, to intentionally plague me with nightmares for a long while as penance for all I’ve done. I destroyed my old home, attacked and maybe tried to do even worse to my sister out of envy, broke our connection to the Elements; and released an echo of my darker side as a magical entity that lived to plague you as well. I started work on creating the Tantabus a year ago, and now you look upon my guilt taken a physical form….”

Princess Luna shrugged and gazed upon the still mass of dark magic. For a flicker of a moment, Rarity was almost fearful the bubble would pop and the Tantabus would spring into the active world. But Luna, without needing to even give Rarity a sideways glance, managed to address the concern as she slid a hoof across the rim of the Tantabus’ container.

“Do not fear, it is inert and would be even if I let it out. I never plan to finish it now, I stopped working on it two weeks ago. I merely kept it around in case I could get the idea to rework it into something useful.”

“Princess Luna, what made you stop working on it? Not that I oppose you not finishing such a dreadful thing mind you!”

Rarity stammered, still unable to take her eyes off the frozen form of the Tantabus. Princess Luna however, could. She closed her eyes and steeled herself and her thoughts. Her mind motioned to the reason why, seeing several places in her mind’s eye. This very chamber multiple nights in a row, a private gravestone that next to nopony knew of, an hour long walk back to Canterlot she endured twice without a thought of just flying back because it meant losing the company she kept; and an encounter not too long ago in the hallway just outside her room. Had the room been a bit brighter and one paid her the attention, one would have seen the blue alicorn’s muzzle grow a bit redder and a happy, yet almost shy smile spread across her lips. She sighed and let the happiness continue to flow, for it was the antithesis of any guilt, shame, or any other servant of despair that would have plagued her conscience.

“Someone helped me realize I wasn’t as unique in my ills as I thought, and the ones I did face I didn’t face alone.”

Luna looked over to the unicorn and outstretched one of her broad wings to gently drape it over Rarity’s back like a blanket over a scared filly. Rarity finally broke her stare away from the Tantabus and looked up to see absolute sincerity and compassion looking back at her. When Luna smiled like that, she could give her sister a run for her money when it came to beaming.

“Just like I’d wish to do for you, Element of Generosity.”

Luna spoke in a soft tone, continuing on as Rarity leaned into her somewhat.

“I know the night terrors can be ferocious, your idea they might be brought on by all the stress and excitement Equestria has had lately is sound. I intend to keep a closer watch over your rest until things settle down to be sure. If you fear in sleep, I will be there.”

Rarity let her legs wobble and droop some, laying her stature and weight against the larger pony to be supported as the mental weight upon her felt like it was evaporating off. She felt wetness condensing at the corners of her eye, scrunching her nose and sniffling to wipe off the glints born of stress and fear of nights prior.

“Thank you, th-ank you.”

She croaked.

“I was so worried and scared that I was becoming that- that thing again! You’re sure that trace magic won’t amount to anything? W-What of the dreams?”

Luna cooed softly, patting Rarity on the back gently.

“Merely a side effect of having been a Nightmare once to begin with. A reminder of evil, but just a reminder and nothing else.”

Luna, knowing those words could cause a brief reprisal of shame from personal experience, tilted Rarity’s head up with her hoof at the unicorn’s chin and clarified her point quietly in a personal tone she normally kept reserved for her sister and another.

“Listen to me, Element of Generosity. You… You are one of Equestria’s greatest heroines. Not only alongside the other Element Bearers, but if I recall correctly it was you standing up to and breaking the Nightmare persona’s control that allowed for triumph in the first place. Even if by some horrific miracle it returned I have no doubt you’d be the one who could stand up to it the most!”

Rarity pursed her lips and puzzled mentally at the alicorn’s words. True, the other Element Bearers were able to purify her of the Nightmare; but only after she managed to break free of despair and reassume control from her bastardized ambitions. She’d beaten Nightmare, both in the waking world in days past and in the night prior in the dreaming world. Confidence began to broil inside Rarity, her lips teasing at a smile.

And Luna knew how to bring it out.

“And to show you that you control the dark, not the other way around; how about you aid me in locking away this mess?”

Luna quipped, motioning to the Tantabus’ orb. Rarity looked between Luna and her creation for a moment. But before the alicorn could worry of the fright being too much, Rarity collected herself, stood up, straightened out her curly mane, and ignited her horn with magic as a smirk crossed her face.

“Well! It would be improper not to assist a friend.”

Rarity’s smirk infected Luna. The two’s magic auras wove together to grasp the Tantabus’ sphere and guide it back to the magical storage it had been pulled from. With each step, Rarity’s stride got a little firmer and a little taller. When she was halfway there however, the unicorn just now noticed the hues of Luna’s aura had vanished from the sphere and were now just holding open the curtains of the stowaway spot. Rarity’s eyes flickered with confusion and she glanced to the alicorn walking along side her. Princess Luna gave her a wink.

“Remember, you bested the Nightmare. If you could beat it, you can beat this. And I’m going to be right here beside you as you do.”

Rarity sucked in her breath before turning her eyes forward again. Even as she looked upon something that could have been a second Nightmare, even as she might have wobbled in her hold some on the surprisingly difficult to wield bubble, and even as uncertainty and latent fear that would probably never go away threatened to eat at her focus; Juliet Rarity Belle furrowed her brow and narrowed her glare. The victory was small as she shoved the Tantabus back into place, but it was hers.

She breathed deeply in relief after Luna closed back the magical curtains, looking back at the alicorn with a smirk. Luna, sitting on her haunches, beamed and clapped her hooves together. Rarity’s smirk grew into a grin.

================================
Twilight Sparkle
Rainbow Dash
Pinkie Pie
Fluttershy
Applejack
Princess Celestia
Princess Cadance
Prince Shining Armor
Xenilla
Godzilla Junior
Mothra Lea
Anguirus
Rodan

Destroyah

Elsewhere in the castle, the other alicorns, Prince Shining Armor, and Element Bearers sat in a semi-circle in a large room, five beings unlike the which Equestria had ever seen seated opposite of them. Rodan was perched inside a nearby, opened window after an explanation from Applejack. Princess Celestia, holding herself high with as much poise and regalness fitting her stature and position, broke the quiet.

“This reunion was much more long-coming than the week-after phase had intended, but unexpected delays aside I am glad you are all here. And in light of calamities that could have happened, I am very grateful some of you all were where fate needed you to be. I would be asking now a report on how you all have settled in, but I’ve already heard glowing reports from my little ponies and there are more pressing issues at hoof to deal with. So I will abide by their word that things have gone well. Twilight?”

Celestia muttered, nodding to her student. Twilight bowed and nodded her head, pulling out several sheets of parchment and looking them over before reading their contents aloud.

“Since and before the Gyaos attack at the Everfree Castle and Canterlot Mountain, there have been several sightings of strange beings. A pegasus now recovering in Batlimare hospital said that near Hollow Shades he was seen and pursued by some sort of carriage sized giant bugs that managed to ground and corner him before he blacked out.”

“Yet if he’s giving that report, thankfully he survived the encounter. How?”

“The victim’s memory was fuzzy from the trauma, but he says some figure with red eyes attacked the insects. When he came to he’d been moved to a stream with bandaging applied to some wounds. The merchants who found him reported seeing a large biped with black and white coloring running away from the scene after it lost the cloak it was wearing. The material of the cloak matches the fabric of the bandaging”

The kaiju present tilted their heads, pursed their lips, and or puzzled as they brain stormed for an identification. Anguirus, remembering instruction from Rarity in addressing ponies respectfully and figuring this was the time for it given the royal audience, raised a hoof up equal in height to his head and coughed into his throat. Twilight popped her head up and blinked at the strange earth pony.

“Hm?”

“Any other reports on that last entity?”

“Uuum-”

Twilight flipped back and forth through the witness accounts before finding what she was looking for.

“Ahah, yes there are two more that seem to be the same being. One is from a social worker in Manehattan who says she encountered a black colored biped wearing white bones in an alley after she offered the obscure figure a rain shroud. That shroud would explain the reported cloak from the merchants since this sighting occurred earlier. Another and the most recent is an injured museum guard who reports a break in at an artifact vault by an unknown assailant whom wasn’t captured. The guard wasn’t seriously hurt, but says he remembers seeing red eyes and black and white on the figure before a flash of yellow light rendered him unconscious.”

Prince Shining Armor lifted his ears and looked to the kaiju.

“Does that description sound familiar?”

Godzilla Junior tilted his head before nodding.

“Could be that alien kaiju we fought in the invasion, it was called Monster X.”

Princess Celestia motioned for Twilight to pass the reports over to her, reading through them as the kaiju’s words left her raising an eyebrow in response.

“Monster... X? Is that a name or a title?”

Mothra Lea raised her shoulders and her upturned hooves.

“We’re not really sure. If he had a name we never found out what it was, but those who were ordering it around referred to it as that.”

Fluttershy chimed in to the conversation.

“W-well, if he rescued a pony he can’t be all bad.”

“He did show some restraint at the times we fought him. Didn’t seem interested in attacking the populace like other invaders and just appeared to go after whoever he was pointed at. Still, he is incredibly dangerous. He is one of the few kaiju strong enough to fight me or Junior here one on one in even terms. And he did rob that museum.”

Fluttershy looked over to Princess Celestia.

“Princess Celestia, didn’t the report say something was stolen from the vault? If it’s true, that might show why he was there.”

Princess Celestia read the last few lines of the report and a frown grew over her muzzle.

“It was something Zecora wanted me to seal in there to avoid anypony from finding where she hid it. The alicorn amulet.”

Five of the Mane Six and the Imperial Royal Couple were caught in a collective gasp and frown. The kaiju were just confused. Anguirus glanced about in an air of awkwardness, belting out two words.

“.... The w’at?”

Princess Celestia took in a deep breath before clarifying to the other half of the audience.

“An artifact made by my sister just before she physically changed into Nightmare Moon. It was to be a last resort weapon to tip the scales should she be unable to overpower me on her own accord during the coup. Is this… ‘Monster X’ capable of magic?”

“Uhhhhh, no. No, as far as we can tell magic is something we’ve never seen expressed in the alien creatures. They can have innate powers, but they always seem to be biologically based. Whatever Monster X’s species is, his powers seem natural to them and aren’t caused by spells or mana magic.”

Mothra Lea muttered, clearly confused at the turn of events. Rainbow Dash shared in on the confusion.

“Then why steal something useless to him? Seems about as useful to him as a bottled thunderstorm would be to a mane salon. And how the hay could he have known it was even down there? If nopony aside from Zecora, Princess Celestia, and the museum staff knew where it was, how’d he find out?”

“Could be the magic it was giving off. A lot of kaiju can sense high energy sources at a distance.”

Lea said, Xenilla picking up the ball where it was passed.

“It’s also why a lot of attacks happened to cities back on Terra. All the electricity, the lights, power plants. If any others sent here by Dimension Tide decide not to hide, they’ll probably do the same.”

Xenilla mumbled with a half hidden grimness in breath. Some kaiju being drawn to places with a lot of energy was a time-proven fact he had personally confirmed in a less than pleasant way. Most of the time his organizing of the controlled Mutation attacks was less him pointing a Mutation in the desired direction and more him stopping five incursions from happening and letting another play out. And because of how ravenous many Mutations were, it was a near constant quarrel to keep most of them contained. He shrugged, pushing history into the back of his mind.

“If any of the kaiju brought over here are the more wild of their kind, like most Mutations, that’s what they will do eventually.”

Mothra Lea grimaced slightly, not needing telepathy to know why the dour tone coming out of Xenilla was there.

“And with any kaiju here being diminished in power, as according to Twilight and I’s study, they might be on the hunt for more energy to power their bodies and get back to full size.”

“Well at the very least without any magic to activate it, the alicorn amulet should be useless to this... Monster X, even if he could tell how strong it might be.”

Princess Celestia muttered with a slight reprieve evident in her tone.

“Let’s hope so. But to not chance it, what other powerful sources of magic are in Equestria? They may be at risk”

“The Tree of Harmony, myself and Luna, the Crystal Heart; formerly the physical Elements of Harmony before we put them back in the tree as well as the actual element bearers themselves”

Princess Celestia noted, motioning to each as everypony and everykaiju kept count. Anguirus gave a nod as he interjected.

“I can attest to that. You may not have these elements on you personally anymore, but I can literally smell a marked difference in magic between you all and other Equestrians.”

Some odd looks were shared across the Element Bearers. Rainbow Dash nudged Rodan with her elbow with Rodan giving her a bemused nod before she could ask the inevitable question. The pegasus’ puzzled her face for a moment before sniffing at her underarm. Princess Celestia couldn’t help but give a tiny chuckle as a slight glow crawled up the spirals of her horn. A bubble of aura soon shot across the room and spread to everypony present, revealing to them what the diarch had seen in weeks prior when she and Luna first used this aura visibility spell to inspect the kaiju when they were first gathered in Canterlot. Lenses of golden magic hovered just above the Element Bearer’s eyes, changing the visible space before them.

The six kaiju all had their equine forms overlaid by the glowing outlines of various shapes, some completely alien to Equestria. It was an eye opening experience for sure for even those who had seen one or two of the newcomer’s true forms. When they glanced between themselves they were in for another surprise for they too had an aura to their forms, each in the color of the Element of Harmony. Because, naturally, they appeared in the shape they were supposed to be in; said auras hugged their form and more closely resembled glowing, smokeless fiery outlines. Neon red for Rainbow Dash, auburn for Applejack, rosey pink for Fluttershy, magenta for Twilight Sparkle; and sky blue for Pinkie Pie. Had Rarity been present, she’d have gotten a royal purple aura. Element Bearers accounted for, some of them soon took notice of the Royal Couple. While Shining Armor did have a respectably bright aura to him as well, one cast in mulberry purple that hugged his body in a solid piece like a second skin, it wasn’t as bright or radiant as the Element Bearers. It didn’t take long for them to figure out that this was what Anguirus was talking about, for Shining Armor’s magic was all inherent to himself and not tied to the Power of Friendship or being an alicorn. Who could give the six a run for their money was Princess Cadance’s aura. A sea of bright blue that reflected light in sheets almost like she was encased in a crystal much akin to the Crystal Heart. The glimmering display was as beautiful as it was imposing. As the Avatar of Love, a magical power comparable to friendship, it only made sense.

The sense of awe was invoked again when the group inevitably noticed arguably the brightest aura in the room, the one coming out of Celestia. It was absolutely blazing, near white brilliance that made the eldest alicorn look like she was encased in a hot flame. But here or there across her glowing outline were crackles of color, spurts of magenta, rosey pink, and royal purple. The echoes belonging to the Elements of Magic, Kindness, and Generosity. Celestia shrugged while looking at her own hoof as said crackles crisscrossed her limb.

“Once an Element Bearer, always one. My connection was broken when I was forced to use them on Luna, so I’m less tied to them than all of you, but your ties are still strong.”

She put her hoof down and canceled out the aura spell to bring back the normal world.

“They may be back in the tree, but you all exhibited those core principles to such an extent it made you six eligible to be bearers in the first place. Moving them back to the Tree doesn’t change that.”

“Hence how I accidentally turned Spikey Hair over here into an Armadillo-Saurus, right?”

Rainbow Dash quipped while elbowing Anguirus, earning a nod from Celestia.

“Yeah, we might want to work on how to do that on purpose in case things get dicey. Point is though, if the kaiju follow the same pattern on Terra that means some of them may inevitably go after magic sources. That means you all too now.”

Rodan muttered with a puzzled frown on his maw. Applejack stood up.

“Ah’ actually think ah’ can validate that.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle titled her head as her friend headed over to one of the chalk boards she and Lea had been working with.

“Do you have something Applejack?”

“That Ah’ do, Twilight. Ro’, Fluttershy; hop up. Time to show what we talked ‘bout on the train.”

Applejack righted the board with Fluttershy and Rodan coming up beside her. The earth pony reached into her saddlebags and drew up a bound scroll, unwinding it onto the board to reveal it to be a large map of the Equestrian landmass.

“Them Gyaos, as Rodan told me, would mostly go after large population centers to try and feed so they’d behave like most large carnivores. Makes sense why they rushed Canterlot and first attacked Appleloosa. Canterlot’s got the biggest headcount past Manehattan an’ Appleloosa is the only town for dozens of kilometers out in the frontier…. Fluttershy.”

Applejack nodded to and passed a pointer to Fluttershy. The meek pegasus took a moment to steel herself and grasp her nerve, taking a deep breath before casting a remarkably affirmed expression to her audience. She pointed to the section of frontier around Appleloosa.

“Assuming they’d use air currents to fly easier like eagles or other fliers and would keep going in the path from the first attack in Appleloosa, here-”

She shifted her focal point from Appeloosa to just north and east of it, eventually tapping a settlement labeled Dodge Junction.

“It doesn’t make much sense they’d attack the Everfree Castle next, here. Not if they were just looking for food, they’d gone to Dodge Junction but they didn’t.”

Fluttershy motioned to Rodan, queuing the kaiju to step up to the proverbial bat. Rodan glanced at the map and tapped a claw on the vast Everfree Forest’s green mass.

“As I understand it, this Everfree does have lots of animal life and plenty of places out of sight during the day time. Gyaos hate bright light so it could be a reason they stopped there. However it still doesn’t explain why they headed there first and not another settlement.”

“Findin’ a hiding place? That makes some sense, but ‘ccording to the write up Twilight made, they actually seemed to have just then showed up and were specifically going for the Tree of Harmony itself and herself. If they were just lookin’ for food, they wouldn’t have attacked so suddenly and certainly wouldn’t have gone after the Tree. Them rootin’ around for energy and being drawn to it makes sense in my book.”

“Is it even possible for something like them to actually harm the Tree?”

Rainbow Dash sneered, scratching at the back of her noggin in confused puzzlement.

“No one knows for sure. That tree is before even my time. But considering how powerful some kaiju are, it is fortunate young Twilight, Lea, and Spike made a heroic stand there. It certainly wouldn’t be a good idea to leave the Tree of Harmony unwatched.”

Princess Celestia muttered. Godzilla Junior tossed a sideways glance out the window and in the direction of the Everfree.

“Yes, but we probably don’t want you all to all be clustered together at it too long. If any enemies sensed us all there they’d just go after the easier sources of power and attack elsewhere. Plus it’d leave many undefended.”

“All the more reason I ask of you all to stick close to the bigger magical sources in case such an event does happen. Keeping some of you in Ponyville and Canterlot should work fine, but perhaps rotate a guard shift over the Tree of Harmony? We can work out the specifics after this discussion.”

“What about moving some of these sources out of populated areas?”

“Unfortunately, that isn’t very possible. The Crystal Heart is paramount to the stability of the Crystal Empire. The Tree of Harmony can’t be moved either. As for those gathered here, Luna and I are needed for management here at Canterlot; though we can quickly remove ourselves should a threat come that we could draw away. But the Element Bearers, save Rainbow Dash, aren’t as mobile.”

Pinkie Pie thankfully broke the dour tone to the conversation in her usual Pinkie Pie manner. By popping up out of nowhere from inside Anguirus’ tail wearing a pair of boxing gloves, further confirming the Guardian Beast’s theory she was some sort of eldritch monstrosity put into a pony’s body.

“Awww don’t worry about us! We’ve handled plenty of problems before and Ponyville is surrounded by biiiiig open places with noponies around. I’m sure our interdimensional giant buddies can set up the ringside seating there!”

Twilight Sparkle took the suggestion in stride with a bemused nod.

“If there’s a place in Equestria used to disasters, it’s Ponyville. Besides if we’re possibly targets now, keeping us all in the same area with several kaiju around could give optimal coverage. What do you six think?”

She said, motioning to the six kaiju.

“No complaints from me. Besides with two or three of us near Ponyville, we’ll probably be able to sense if anything is coming.”

Lea chirped.

Destroyah just grunted and rolled her shoulders.

Rodan glanced over between Rainbow Dash and Applejack, giving a wink and a smile.

Anguirus nonchalantly shrugged, having some reason to stick around Ponyville based off preference and logic with no reason to speak otherwise.

“I’ll do as I’m needed.”

Godzilla Junior repeated the motions taught to him by Captain Frost and saluted.

It was Xenilla who puzzled over it for a time, soon finding all eyes upon him. The eldest son of Godzilla Senior sighed, closing his eyes to end his contemplation.

“I’ve made a mess across my past. Enough to make me question a lot of things. But if this helps me atone by doing something good for the right reasons, I’ll do what is asked of me.”

His depressed manner contrasted with the response he got like night and day. Namely the pink set of hooves now devoid of boxing gloves, tilting his chin up from below. When he opened his eyes however, Xenilla saw Pinkie Pie wasn’t standing in front of and below him like he’d think given their height difference; but instead had managed to hover above him by tying herself into a swing looped through a ceiling rafter. The Element of Laughter beamed before the kaiju could scramble through his mind to try and figure out what just happened.

“Aawww, keep your chin up Xenny! You saved Princess Cadance after all, so you’ve got a good track record so far here!”

There was something that could be said that would put a big damper on the earth pony’s optimism. Be it the part where Xenilla tore up a city block making a scene, the fact he attacked king Sombra for his own reasons rather than genuinely trying to rescue the royal family out of the goodness of his heart; or the part about Xenilla using Cadance as bait to draw Sombra out without her knowing. During their more antagonistic, hair trigger phase, Xenilla would have expected Cadance and Shining Armor to bring this up. For a moment it almost looked like this was the case with Prince Shining Armor. He seemed like he was opening his mouth to say something, but paused.

-I could cause you a lot of trouble in retribution for what you did…-

Shining Armor felt his words stay in his mind’s voice and not his actual one as he felt a hoof had brushed up against his. It was Cadance, whom unknowingly had leaned up against him a little more. Shining Armor saw the visage of those he loved, both visible and the invisible one within her. For a millisecond’s gasp he almost got even more invigorated to blab, for it was Xenilla’s secret ploys that nearly cost him this family he’d one day have the honor of having. But his eye caught onto something, the stare of red surrounded by yellow. Evidently the thought of the two beings in the room who could add to both the insults and injury he’d incurred was not lost to Xenilla. The kaiju looked upon both of them in a manner Shining Armor found animalistic when he first saw it and he still found it such now. A blank, seemingly spaced out stare that one could never tell what he was looking at in particular. But Shining Armor knew Xenilla was looking directly at the Crystal Royals.

Shining Armor felt himself coasting through time as the conversation carried on around him, Cadance finding herself doing the same about the same issue.

-He could have seriously hurt somepony.-

-He kept a horrid secret to himself that threatened the empire.-

-He’s got a lot to answer for by his own accord.-

-Used me as bait.-

-Risked my wife’s life on a gamble.-

The royal couple paused and watched their partner through the corner of their vision. Xenilla’s pulse chilled for a moment, expecting condemnation.

-Yet I’m… We’re still here because of him.-

-I’ll have a family because of him.-

-....-

Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor sighed, letting a tiny smile creep across their muzzles. The latter held his hoof up to return to the conversation.

“It seems the situation has reversed from weeks prior. Back then Princess Celestia and Luna wanted all of us to be around our guests to help them settle in and keep an eye on them. Now, it’s they who are keeping an eye on us. If this is how it’s going to be, the Crystal Empire would be happy to host 'Ambassador' Xenilla again.”

“If he wishes to not remove himself and let another visit.”

It took a moment for Xenilla to snap out of his stupor. He didn’t smile, he wasn’t one to do that much. But he certainly wasn’t frowning. He bowed his head slowly.

“I will protect the Empire. Thank you Empress, Prince Consort.”

Both Cadance and Shining Armor deadpanned their expressions and narrowed their eyes at the titles that caused small amounts of snickering and raised eyebrows across the room. Twilight Sparkle was in the first crowd, but upon taking a deep breath and letting it settle she reluctantly hopped back onto a slightly grimmer topic.

“What about possible attack on other cities though? If kaiju are attracted to magic in general, all the magic fueled lights at places like Manehattan might draw one in and we saved Canterlot by the skin of our teeth last time. We’ll need a way to predict things that could happen away from Ponyville, the Empire, or capital.”

Rodan nodded to the side while crossing his arms.

“We might have actually lucked out. Gyaos are known to rush into things but if Monster X being here is any sign, it means any kaiju present here are probably confused and hiding. If the were going to launch an attack, they probably would have already.”

“Still, not exactly a risk we’d want to take.”

Princess Celestia took the moment to chime in.

“A sound worry Twilight. But you and Lady Lea have not been the only ones working on a magical aid regarding our crisis. I already set anti-changeling wards around several major cities to disrupt their disguises. I’ve modified them once already to not disable Lady Lea’s disguise, I can try to modify them again to detect any kaiju intrusions.”

Mothra Lea winked at the white alicorn.

“Twilight and I can definitely help you with that, your majesty! Any other options we got?”

After a pause in thought, Princess Celestia let a tiny pulse of magic phase in and out across her horn.

“There is another. I was born with some level of foresight, but it had always been limited and happens outside of my will. I’ve been working on focusing, improving it to serve a function. It’s not going to be perfect, future is always changing, but it should help give us some fair warning to where some possible calamities might happen.”

The glow across her horn increased and very briefly an image was projected from the tip. It was very vague and fuzzy, but if one looked close enough they could just manage to make out the visage of a sleeping white alicorn before the visions shifted to a mass of dark wings followed by a familiar plume of blue plasma fire.

“The last time it happened was just before the Gyaos attack, hence why young Twilight and Lea found me in such a panic when they arrived. Only trouble is frequency and will. While I’ve been working it to show me things intentionally rather than unconscious forewarnings, it tends to show me so many locations where bad things, major or minor, may occur. Could be anything bad from a stuck cart and a stubbed hoof to a kaiju attack.”

“I think I know someone who can help with that Princess.”

Princess Celestia canceled the blurry visage and looked to Lea.

“Whom?”

Mothra Lea smirked and pointed to Godzilla Junior, whom honestly looked a bit curious as to why he was being pointed out until the thought occurred to him.

“Lele that is hardly something to rely on.”

“Yes, but it could definitely help Goji.”

“What are you two referring to?”

Godzilla Junior shrugged, grumbling a bit as he rubbed at his head.

“Magical I am not, but I do have a level of psychic gifts. Not nearly to the level of talking to someone’s mind or moving things, but I get sensations that can offer a heads up.”

“Godzilla Junior has a level of precognition not that different from your own, your majesty. It’s how he’s managed to have time to travel as far as needed to be where he should be.”

“It’s not something I can control at all and it doesn’t say what is coming, just feelings about where it is going to be and how long I have to get there. But, it hasn’t failed me yet. Only reason I can think it didn't go off at the gyaos showing up was that I was already where I would be needed.”

“Besides-”

Anguirus grunted.

“If both Junior and Princess Celestia get bad vibes about some place and are too far away to act on it for whatever reason, you all can always just give one of us the warning if we’re closer to where it’s going to go down.”

Destroyah, whom had been largely quiet the whole ordeal, just sneered at the anxiety flying around her.

“The Runt’s ability is tested and if the princess can do the same, we’ll be fine. Worrying with needlessness is useless.”

Princess Celestia took a deep breath and rolled her shoulders and wings with a shrug, shaking off at least the visible signs of her anxiety. She levitated up a scroll to her eye level, unrolling and scanning through it.

“Well with that settled, a review of the tally regarding the kaiju we know are present?”

“Of course.”

Mothra Lea quipped, pulling up her copy of the scroll.

“Currently we know the device that brought our party here fired at least seven other shots at kaiju on Terra. None of our ’Terran Defender’ compatriots were brought here for better or for worse. But if we assume every single one of the kaiju hit were brought here that means a decent number of potential threats.”

Rainbow Dash rocked back and forth in her seat, clicking it on the floor as she waved her hoof in the air. Lea gave her a nod.

“Yes?”

“Well just wanted to point out again what Rodan said. If they were the super dangerous and aggressive variety, they should have attacked by now right? Maybe we lucked out and got the milder ones?”

At this Fluttershy slid her hoof back and forth across her chin, leaving the conversation outside her mind to deal with one inside her mind. Not wanting to break the other Pegasus’ concentration, Lea instead just focused on what Rainbow Dash had stated.

“Maybe. Hopefully. We know Monster X is out there and while he isn’t especially aggressive, he is still incredibly dangerous.”

Princess Twilight Sparkle pulled the tally scroll over to herself, reading it through as she spoke.

“The albino gyaos is out flying about somewhere we don’t know of because she fled before the battle here at Canterlot. And judging from the gyaos skeletons found at Whitetail being… cleaved in half-”

She and the other Mane 6, sans Fluttershy on account of zoology knowledge and not paying full attention and Rarity on account of being absent, collectively gulped or shifted their gazes a bit awkwardly.

“-and from Lea’s account on gyaos behavior, we can infer the flock turned on her, resulting in her killing them and thus is now alone… As for the other kaiju, aside from some brief sightings of lights in the Lunar sea and bugs near Hollow Shades, the only other kaiju to reveal themselves fully was Monster X.”

Xenilla was about to say something when a quiet tone pepped out and cut him off.

“Um, ex-cuse me.”

All eyes which had been on Twilight were now on the speaker, a squeaking Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was holding pretty firm all things considered, though the fact her massive bangs meant she was literally hiding behind her own hair might have helped in some regard. That nerve grew as Celestia’s motherly tone gently coursed over her as the alicorn gave her a gentle nudge with her hoof.

“You have something to say, Fluttershy?”

“I had a- oh-...”

She cut short in her studder when she saw Xenilla’s eyes upon her. Even after all that had happened she still couldn’t help but mentally jump back to her first encounter with those burning orbs. At the time he looked like he was about to attack. True, she’d had tea with him after holding her ground and was perfectly willing to be amicable to the kaiju; but she still did find something about him a bit unnerving. Maybe it was the power she learned of only after their first encounter, maybe it was the fact Xenilla had a look that could stab through and figure you out instantly; but she sometimes felt like she needed The Stare again to look back at it directly. But when she let a second pass and see Xenilla as he was now, she thankfully found she didn’t need it. The piercing look was gone, replaced by a much softer, for lack of better terms, normal one. Together with the peacefully bemused expression on his face and Xenilla looked completely different than he did weeks ago.

-Note to self, thank the ponies responsible.-

Xenilla gave her a tiny nod and Fluttershy caught her pulse, canceling out any preset to The Stare she had been bringing up on instinct.

“I would like to make a request… I’d like, barring crisis situations were it can’t be done, for any of the roaming kaiju found to be given the chance to surrender… Now, before anypony and anykaiju worry, I’m not echoing what the meanie on the radio said. I’ve worked with animals, dangerous ones included. I know sometimes that the circle of life works in ways other ponies don’t like and some things just need to be done.”

Rainbow Dash’s expression flattened to a deadpan on a level that rivaled the Royal Couple earlier.

“Like that time with the chupacabra and the carnivorous bunnies that chased us?”

Fluttershy continued on without breaking stride, her tone controlled and astute.

“The same!... But, these aren’t all crazed predators like the gyaos. If the fact we’re sitting here talking to six kaiju doesn’t prove most of them are as self aware as we Equestrians are, what will? I also know some of those present in here were once bitter enemies on Terra. If you six met months before coming here, some of you’d try to take each other out on sight. Correct?”

The six kaiju present all had different reactions. Anguirus rolled his eyes but nodded truthfully. Lea sighed, chewing at her lips while doing the same. Xenilla and Godzilla both looked down and to their side, Xenilla at Junior and Junior at the floor, refusing to make eye contact in what amounted to shame for both on different accounts. Rodan lifted his paws and shoulders up and shrugged at the circumstance. Destroyah just grunted.

“And yet look at you all now? Some problems sure, but you’re all in the same room in the same conversation! If this Monster X can save a pony’s life, for whatever reason he did, these other kaiju can’t be all bad. I think ones like him should be given a chance to change just like any sentient being. Even some really really bad folks can change if given the chance.”

Pinkie Pie looked out the corner of her eye at her friend while nodding in attestment.

“We doooo have Discord putzsing around at your cabin.”

Celestia’s lips curled up into a smile, beaming at the reminder that one of her old Elements was in a very worthy wielder. She turned her gaze to the six kaiju.

“Well? You six know more of whomever may be out there and what we may be facing better than my little ponies and I. What is your judgement of this clause?”

Anguirus grumbled to himself quietly, before affirming thought and standing up to address both his fellows of Terra and his new acquaintances and hosts of Equestria.

“There’s a lot I’ve never expected in life.”

He grunted, rubbing at the back of his head.

“Never expected I’d be woken up three hundred centuries early. Never expected I’d see one of my kin in an airshow with a rainbow-colored flying pony. Never expected I’d get to say I sat in a room with no less than two examples of that last descriptor… And, honestly I never expected to see some of things I’ve seen now after I’d been shown something else for years on Terra.”

Anguirus tilted his head over to the side, motioning to Destroyah and Xenilla as the two former leaders of the Mutations sat calmly next to heroes of Terra and Equestria alike without issue. He gave the latter a nod, raising his brow in an impressed expression.

“I gotta hand it to you ponies, this Equestria seems like a miraculous place for turning over new leaves. If the enemy proves far too dangerous or manic to keep alive, just like on Terra, we’ll have to take them out. No other way to it... But, if it’s a kaiju we know has a working brain and we got the means to restrain them just in case things go south... If no one else voices opposition to it, well I guess I’m willing to let bygones be bygones too.”

Anguirus muttered, looking around at his five cohorts. All were silent. Anguirus sighed, turning to Princess Celestia, the Crystal Empire Royals, and the Elements of Harmony.

“Then that issue is settled, we’ll play by Fluttershy’s method if we can. Now all that needs doing is finding them. That’s going to be the hard part since they seem to want to make themselves scarce.”

“Investigations will be carried out. Equestria as a whole can help be our eyes and ears, now that the media situation with Godzilla Junior here has calmed down. Having you six in public, especially with the upcoming airshow, should definitely help ease any paranoia. The hiding clause from our first meeting is void if you so wish it. Show Equestria who’s on their side. And a happy announcement can follow it.”

Princess Celestia said with a growing smile.

“What’s that Princess Celestia?”

Twilight peeped. The Royal Couple blushed, Cadance snuggling up against her husband and vice versa. Most in the room cast looks of curiosity ranging from great to mild. Cadance snickered, giving her aunt a rapid nod to speak it. Princess Celestia cast a perky smirk, winking at the happy couple.

“Turns out the next Gala is going to be a Royal Baby Shower. Cadance here is with child.”

The Mane Six were elated, Twilight virtually bouncing off the walls with stars in her eyes and squeals of aunthood as her five companions, the Element Bearers and Lea, bombarded the couple with eager questions. Junior managed to crackle with mellowed chuckles, having not seen Lea this bouncy and joyful since Gorgo moved to Solgell. It was Xenilla’s very confused expression and tilting head that caught Cadance’s attention through the elation.

“Xenilla?”

With a baffled look still on his muzzle, Xenilla belted.

“... You didn’t know?”

Cadance and Shining Armor stood up straight with such exclamation one could practically see the point pop up above their heads.

“Wait, what?! You knew?! How long?”

“Since during the fight with Sombra. I can sense anything touching a crystal and the empire is covered in them. The Empress was knocked to the floor and I felt a second heartbeat.”

Xenilla’s quiet confusion and the couple’s exasperation contrasted in a manner that would give anypony roars of laughter in hindsight.

“Why didn’t you tell us?!”

“Thought you two knew.”

“How?! We never brought it up!”

Xenilla narrowed his eyes and muttered in deadpan.

“... Because I figured the alicorn of heart magic could hear a heartbeat before the mutant space dinosaur did.”

========

Zenith

Queen Chrysalis
King Sombra
Bagan

Chrysalis stepped through the swirling gateway, leaving her guards behind to click her hooves down upon the smooth ground of Zenith. Even before her hooves touched the obsidian the changeling felt her wings jittering as her whole body went numb. Even the frozen north had nothing in comparison to this sort of freezing gnash, which seemed to chew its way through her in seconds. Still, the Queen of the Changelings was anything but frail in constitution. One whom survived imprisonment in a volcano and a full on blast from an enraged Celestia wouldn’t let this violent chill give her pause. She held her composure and beheld what summoned her here, rising to her full height.

The chamber was of a great enormity, easily over five kilometers across in an octagonal or circular shape. She stood upon the floor near the center, looking up and seeing a sphere levitating atop a pedestal throne. The rune-covered sphere easily was vast enough that it’s diameter could fit a castle. A surge of light trickled down the sphere’s runes and shot across the room in a pulse. Instantly everything began to shift, black glassy surfaces popping up to form platforms and spires that elevated the Changeling Queen to the middle of the sphere. Like puzzle pieces folding in on themselves, part of the sphere pulled itself open at the jigsaw meshwork of runes. The dark void was impossible to see into.

King Sombra’s horn levitated free of Chrysalis’ side bag before she could react. It hovered beside her as wisps of pure shadows slithered out of the black void. They coiled in on themselves below the horn, approximating the shape of an equine before condensing just as they had before in the frozen north. Features emerged, regalia of a fur cape and dark steel plates atop ash gray fur. Black heart beating, the being’s curved fangs gnashed while his demonic eyes snapped open, Sombra springing to action the same way he did the second he lost consciousness from Cadance and Xenilla’s combination attack. He roared, throwing up a barrier of magic before himself while swinging his body around in a thrash to face the oncoming assault he thought was about to hit him. It was the tidal wave of light he saw in his last moment being absent and the sneering mock of someone he knew that caused him to finally notice Queen Chrysalis.

“Relax you moron.”

“W-hat?! Chrysalis?!”

Sombra barked, dropping his shield and pawing at himself to try and find some sign of mortal injury. Bagan’s magic however was powerful, having recreated the norms of the mutated unicorn’s body to their prime and free of injury. Chrysalis rolled her eyes.

“Calm down, you’re not dead.”

“But I was-!”

Before Sombra could ask what was going on, an engulfing voice swallowed up all conscious thought as it spoke from the opened sphere in a way that shook the mind as it did the ear.

“If he were truly dead he would not be brought back. He merely needed more power to reform.”

KIng Sombra slowly turned around, taking notice of the seeming infinity before him. It took a shape from the haze. The cocoon folded itself back more, collapsing in on its runes as a titan stood up. Multiple glowing rhombi akin to eyes peered down at the changeling and altered unicorn, a crown of three horns equalling the height of any skyscraper. It was almost as if a mountain had stood up from its lounge and loomed over them. It made the shadowy tyrant and horrific queen feel as they hadn’t in centuries. Trifle, as an ant is to a whale. What they hadn’t experienced since the time of their master.

To Be Continued In "Shimmer In the Dark"!

It seemed to take an hour for Sombra to finally speak.

“Chrysalis, what is that?”

Chrysalis was narily lost for words, still mentally aghast at how impossibly enormous such a living thing could be. Her pride was tested to regain her nerve.

“Our ally.”

“An ally, for what?”

“To restore the master. It summoned for me not long ago. Seeing as your attempt to seize the empire and free up our entrance to Tambelon failed, I figured we could use the help.”

Bagan lowered down to the two’s level, its features so blackened and distorted one could only make out its outline. But even in this diminutive form, being in the presence of such a well of power felt like standing next to a black hole; internally crushing and gripping one at the same time.

“The tome.”

It spoke, nearly causing Chrysalis to flinch. Keeping her wit she pulled the requested object out and opened it; shooting Sombra a sideways glance.

“Still have yours?”

She muttered, causing Sombra to feel a rock in his throat while he looked up to one of the ‘eyes’ that was easily the size of an elephant. He felt as if he was treading on a set of blades, careful with each step as not to split his hoof. Still, Grogar never picked those of a weak constitution for a pupil; and even though he was shocked in a mix of awe and terror inside, Sombra kept his poise even as he gave a negative response.

“No, it’s not in a place I can access from here. Can you transport me inside the city?”

“At the moment I cannot. Places of high magic obscure my sight and I cannot place you in the city limits reliably. You could be seen and lose all control of the situation. Or the teleportation spell could suffer an accident from the unstable portal and tear your form asunder. It’s why the first time you were resuscitated, I left it to you to kill the Alicorn of Love rather than simply place you next to her or send any of my other forces.”

“So, you were the one who brought me back?”

“Indeed. Why is this tome needed?”

“If one wishes to unlock Tambelon, they will need all four parts of the gateway spell. The four parts of the spell are spread across the tomes Grogar gave to his students. With all four parts and the magic of who sealed the realm, Tambelon can be restored. The latter portion is the hard part though-”

Chrysalis was cut off by Bagan “speaking” a name she did not expect it to know.

“Harmony’s magic is needed? Fortunate I did not kill her then.”

If Sombra and Chrysalis were worried or surprised before, now was the time they showed some visible panic. They glanced to each other with no small amount of shock in their eyes at the fact that this being not only knew of Harmony, the one entity native to their realm which could actually fight their master and, albeit barely, win; but also that it had fought her and survived.

“Y-Yeeess, Harmony is the one who sealed Grogar away originally.”

Chrysalis stammered slightly.

“So it is her magic that is needed to open the gate? Troublesome.”

“You fought her, correct? The result?”

Chrysalis muttered with a raised brow.

“Stalemate.”

Sombra dug through his thoughts and recalled something that helped give him a bit more poise in his stance.

“There is a work around. The four keys Grogar gave us to open Tambelon itself are still needed, but Harmony herself can be avoided. She doesn’t have to open Grogar’s tomb within Tambelon willingly… and the magic doesn’t have to directly come from her, something from her or with magic very similar to her own might work.”

“Is there such a source?”

“There is, we were trying to get it one thousand years ago. Alicorn magic. I was to take control over the Crystal Empire as it sits atop Tambelon’s entrance, and hold it while the others got what was needed. But one would need stealth to get in close. Chrysalis was supposed to be the one to do it.”

Queen Chrysalis shot Sombra a sideways glare.

“Yes but I didn’t expect Harmony to intervene so quickly and give Equestria the means and allies potent enough to disable Discord and Tirek before either of us knew, let alone give me a chance to act on their distraction. The fact the Equestrians took out the Windigos before they had a chance to soften the ponies up ahead of time didn’t help.”

Chrysalis shrugged.

“And after my last… excursions in Canterlot and Ponyville, none of my changelings can get through the wards Celestia put up that are locked onto our hive. If one of us tries to pass through it, it’ll disrupt our disguises and reveal us. The closest we can get is the fringes of the mountain and an apple farm.”

“Infiltration will take time. So I suggest we first focus on tracking down Tirek.”

“That too, will take time.”

Bagan was as mobile as a mountain for a time, unblinking and unmoving as if it had turned into a monolith. Without movement, a portal opened up behind Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra.

“So it shall. Return to your hive and do so, but do not reveal yourselves to the Equestrians. I will deal with the wards.”

=====================

Changeling Swamp Hive

The temperate swamp was almost blazingly hot in comparison to the snowless blizzard of Zenith. After stepping back into the dull, relative heat, King Sombra waited only for the portal to close behind them before he lashed out to his side. He tackled Chrysalis, pinning the changeling up against the wall with his hooves at either side of her head and a snarl in her face.

“What have you made a pact with Chrysalis?!”

“Oh, we’re going to do this again? Always did get aggressive during this...”

Queen Chrysalis muttered while defiantly looking back at the tyrant king, snorting her nostrils.

“Chrysalis!”

“Oh right, Grogar fueled you with wrath.”

She deadpanned, debating whether she should ask if he wanted her to look like Amore or not again. Deciding not to, she rolled her eyes.

“In regards to exactly whom or what it is, still don’t know.”

She looked about to insure her new guests at the hive, Legion and her lackeys, weren’t present. After verifying the entrances were sealed, she tapped at Sombra’s chest.

“Off.”

Sombra snorted, but even though he was clearly steaming, did so after a time. Queen Chrysalis shrugged, dusting herself off.

“All I know is it can help us do what we failed to do a millennium ago.”

“And you trust it?”

“.... No.”

==============

Human Realm

Bagan was scanning for magic akin to Celestia’s, having been able to remotely sense the alicorn and knowing what to look for. It was scanning multiple realms and was slightly surprised to detect something like it here, in a world largely devoid of magic. A portal briefly opened up near Canterlot High’s statue and something slithered out of it. It’s body was originally an outline of various sea creatures assembled into a chimera of sorts, but it quickly remodeled the dark magic composing its body into a vaguely humanoid shape. Blue lines of light criss-crossed its body like some fusion of Polynesian styled symbols and a circuit board, feeding into the pulsing light mounted on where the forehead would be on the tangible shadow. With the portal closing behind it, Mizu, the primordial Aspect of Water, stepped into the side of a car and melted into the reflective surface.

It swam across town at a rapid pace, its shadowy visage and teal glow crossing through puddles, windows, mirrors, and ponds. No human saw anything as hardly any were awake at this time of night, but animals all across the neighborhoods and towns began to panic. Some bayed and screeched into the night, others nearly ran themselves ragged trying to jump over fences or cross roads to flee from the terror they sensed off instinct.

Mizu sensed two magical traces. One from Terra and one from Equestria akin to Celestia’s.

Perfect.

================

“Like it or not Sombra, it’s here to stay though."

================

The young woman groaned and rolled in her bed, but remained asleep even as multiple neighborhood dogs started barking and trying to claw their way over the yard fencing; the night erupting in yips and howls. Mizu materialized itself from a large street puddle and approached the small rental house, eyes trained upon the room next to the one with a broken window patched with several boards and a sheet of wood. It paused beside the parked small car. It’s attention was not upon what was within it, but what was stuck to the bottom part.

Placing a hand upon the hood, trails of energy dripped off Mizu’s hand which rolled onto the undercarriage like water droplets. This car had been in Everfree National Park on a fateful night and drove past the rubble the Aspect of Land had touched. And old echos can be revitalized.

Mizu’s lent power pried a glowing fragment free from the bottom of the car, a tiny sliver of what had once been Enjin’s core that got ripped free when Monster X tore into it to free Aria. The fragment hummed back to life, rattling on the ground before Mizu picked it back up. True, a new copy of Enjin could have been created as well rather than this tiny portion, but this was an easier method and one that would get the magic needed. Mizu melted into the car door’s reflection and worked its way up, one reflective surface to another, inside the house and up to the bedroom.

================

“I don’t know what this creature is capable of. But I know it scares me. I can tell it rightfully scares you too. Grogar is the only thing that stands a chance to stop it. And if it intends to revive Grogar, let it dig its own grave and do our work for us.”

================

Mizu materialized into the room through a wall mirror, setting the fragment of Enjin’s energy onto the base of a bed before melting back into the mirror. The fragment slithered like pooling liquid, moving towards an exposed hand. It could smell the magic. Magic like Celestia’s which could deactivate the wards Celestia put up. Magic taught to the user by Celestia herself. Sunset Shimmer’s eyes snapped open due to the ungodly chill crawling up her arm just in time to see the dark mass throw itself at her and cover her face enough to muffle her cries.

================

“How do you suppose it intends to disable these wards messing with your changelings without tipping off the alicorns?”

“Honestly? No idea. Those things go off if anything not resembling the kind of magic who put it there messes with them. But if it is strong enough to fight Harmony, we’ll have to assume it’s smart enough to find a way.”

================

Sunset Shimmer’s legs thrashed and kicked, sparks and jolts of orange and yellow magic shocking her body. Her kicks became weaker and weaker, before her whole body went slack. Seconds and minutes passed before a new form again moved. Eyes snapped open as the whites and irises were drowned in black, soon replaced by a dark void encircling the ancient symbol for “Land”. The new Aspect sat up, her shadow casting the visage of a horn as the portal claimed her.

=================

Bagan sealed up its cocoon as the taxing portal to the human realm was closed behind its new asset. The form of a human teenage woman was cloaked in light as she took her steps forward, seamlessly molding into its original, natural shape of an equine. She was taller than in her years in Equestria, and at first bore a distinct coloration that was clearly different from the natural yellow and red. But any unnatural colors or limbs that would have caused the former unicorn to stick out were soon gone as her body remodeled itself like Enjin had to switch between forms. In moments, she was visibly indistinguishable from a normal unicorn and looked exactly like how the Equestrian Sunset Shimmer should.

What was and at the same time wasn’t Sunset Shimmer walked across the throne room’s floor space and towards another portal leading to Equestria proper. Mizu, basically in its leviathan sized and shaped form, swam across the smooth obsidian that made up the floor, passing under the new Aspect of Land. It poured out of the floor into another portal to another shimmering realm Bagan had detected briefly and sought to investigate, while the possessed Sunset Shimmer entered Equestria proper. After all, having a back up plan never hurt.

================================

The portal opened up in downtown Manehattan within a secluded alleyway. “Sunset Shimmer” closed the gate to Zenith behind her and regarded her surroundings. Sunset Shimmer’s personality wasn’t present, but her memories of both places and abilities were. Recognizing the illuminated statue in the harbor and getting her bearings, she watched several crowds of ponies pass by the alley entrance with glowing eyes. With each passing crowd, she began to look more and more different. Enjin’s ability to reshape, heal, and settle it’s body was taken to a new level in regards to color, height, and build.

Several minutes later, an average looking unicorn mare with a cold blue body and magenta mane walked into and disappeared within the crowd.

Author's Note

Proof Reading by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Illustration by Faith-Wolff

Next Time on The Bridge!:
Not your average airshow in store for our flight team, nor does Ki Seong expect the guest she gets.

Christmas Special 2016: Mirror-Gigan "Saves" Christmas

It was a cold, snowy day in the otherwise magnificent city of Maretropolis. The winter holidays were soon to arrive and many were eagerly awaiting the arrival of the community donation drive the city had been holding, the biggest of the decade. Hundreds of thousands of gifts to be sent in for all with millions of bits pitched in by both the more humble city slickers to the rich CEOs like Mica Hackett. But trouble is afoot and soon even the city’s beloved heroine will find herself in need of the boldest, bravest, most heroic help she couldn’t imagine to assist her!

But instead she got-

“Holy ****** where the ***** am I?”

The green and gold cyborg creature squawked after stepping out of the white portal from Zenith, looking around to and fro from the alleyway he’d landed in. This was Gigan, though not one most of the world knew. He’d come from another realm, just as this city did, one that was a reflection of the prime dimension. This Gigan was a “hero” where he came from, the Nebulan Confederacy’s ranger unit whom was deployed to protect their worlds and fend off incursions. In summary he got the job done. In details he typically caused excess property damage, had obscene behavior, little to no inhibitions; and a more extensive swear category than five systems put together. Overall, kind of a di-

“Don’t think I didn’t hear you ********!....?!”

Gigan paused and would have been blinking in confusion had he the multiple eyes.

“...****?... ******.... ***!... *******! *******!......”

He sucked in a deep breath.

“********************************************************************************************-”

Are you done? And how are you going off the page?

“-********************************************************************************************-”

Oh for the love of god.

Gigan took a split second to correct the narrator before continuing on with the impossibly long swear word.
“Tanaka- **********************************************************************************-”

With a clap of magic, Gigan’s body was covered in a pale light that receded as his form was reshaped. Gone was his long tail, retractable dorsal fins, hooked forearms, cycloptian visor, and metallic spines. Now he had taken the form of a man vaguely in shape and wearing clothing referential to his true self. Whereas the prime universe Gigan’s human form was consistent with dark grays, blue, and camouflage patterning that gave him a mildly militaristic look, this version was more, outgoing. He wore a large, thick dull-green jacket with a saw pattern for a zipper that was left open with no undershirt, a pair of torn green pants with a golden trim and patterning down the sides, torn fingerless gloves, a pair of red riding sunglasses that wrapped around his eyes and green headband, dark green, steel plated boots; and several gold or steel piercings on his ears and brow. His skin was a messy, faded green, lighter than his clothes; with a red bead on his forehead that corresponded to his beam emitter in his true form. The only similarity between the two Gigans was the steel colored hair which arched forward, though in this one the hair on the sides pushed inwards enough to make it vaguely resemble a mohawk akin to his true form’s spine pattern. If the prime timeline Gigan’s human form looked like a soldier or mercenary, this one’s look was more akin to a chopper biker, complete with the letters P.T.R.U-A, the serial code from his creators, tattooed onto the sides of his neck.

And whatever cursed word he was speaking was so long it was still being censored by the same bleeping that had caused him to belt it even after he finished transforming.

“******************ches!”

Impressive, he actually managed to briefly overload the censor function.

Gigan, not minding or noticing he was in a human form to allow him to blend in better, sneered at the narration caption.

“What did you do to me ********?! My first appearance and did you put me in a ********** A-Rated comic book?!

Yes, and this is a T rated story. Needless to say such vocabulary would be, excessive.

“Hey, I’m already trolling them by showing up instead of the other Gigan, so why troll my ****** dubs? I got the TvTropes swearing tag on my profile, what am I supposed to say in this special?!”

Gigan growled, gritting his nonexistent beak.

How about stand-ins? Worked for Deadpool and Lobo on TV.

Gigan’s eyes twitched behind his sunglasses, raising his hand up in a distinct human gesture only for his limb to be covered in a pixelated censored mess. He grumbled, not even caring at this point because of how livid he was.

“... Narrator, Grendelson, you’re a fraggin’ geekwad and a tool.”

Yes and how unnice it is to see you too.

“Gonna keep flabbin’ your eat-meat or get back to telling this shin-dig?”

Shut the frag up Gigan.

And so in this story which may or may not be canon, Gigan has been sent to this reflected realm of Maretropolis on a mission he intends to see through without pause. Assuming he doesn’t get distracted multiple times, which is likely a guarantee if given five minutes. Not minding at all the odd looks he was getting, swaggering and blustering his way down the street despite the cold which largely didn’t affect him. Walking his way past several skyscrapers and to a large, multi story shopping center, Gigan kicked the door open and walked in. Striding his way up to the front desk, Gigan ignored the confused expression on the woman manning said desk’s face, leaning on the table top with his elbow and scratching the side of his head.

“Hey punko, new in town. Can you show me how I find this dame?”

His glasses flickered and Gigan tilted them up, projecting an image upon the table top like a flashlight from his eyes hidden behind said glasses. The clerk, still thoroughly confused, could only look upon the projected image of a costumed woman with a matching wide brim hat and dull golden with a pink trim bodysuit that covered all but her chin, a long scarf, and a truly astounding amount of purple hair coming out from under said hat. In motion she seemed to be swinging from a light pole by said hair. The clerk’s face instinctively perked up at the sight of the heroine.

“Oh that’s the Mane-iac.”

“Choice label.”

“Well what else would you call someone eager to go up against the Malice Mares by herself? How’d you get this picture anyways, newspapers always trying to get a shot of her.”

“Didn’t say and didn’t care, so how can I find her?”

“Oh, no one keeps tabs on her. She just shows up when there’s trouble.”

Gigan put his glasses back on, looking at the scenery around him. Dozens of merry shoppers and employees going about their business. He shrugged his shoulders before rolling them, the red spot on his forehead beginning to light up. A big dumb smirk crossed his lips.

“I can do that.”

======================

Marilyn “Mica” Hackett, cosmetics CEO, shot her head up as a pulsing alarm rang out from the computer monitors at the core of her bunker garage. Tilting her welding goggles up, she reached over with a strand of purple hair to click a remote control on the tool rack next to her. The computer flicked on and over to a news station, displaying her favorite department store now sporting several smoking holes in the side. The offscreen newscaster spout out his broadcast in a panicked, rushed tone as several blasts of red light shot through several windows and walls.

“Energy shots fired through the roof of Rich Barnyard Bargains in downtown Maretropolis’s south district. Thankfully there have been no confirmed fatalities but the subject is unapproachable by police. The shooter is a large green man in a motorcycle jacke-”

Scarred, tired eyes groaned angrily.

“Oh for the love of…”

Marilyn rushed off from her work and towards a cylindrical tube that closed shut behind her. After a moment’s notice and a whirl of machinery, the glowing chamber popped back open and the fully costumed Mane-iac sprinted to her car. At the minute’s end the custom dark muscle car, the Black Beauty, roared out of a hidden road and towards downtown.

==================================

Gigan reclined back on the side wall of the escalator he rode up to the 4th floor, still casually igniting his emitter unit above his eyes and firing a short burst out one of the windows or walls in sight. By now the entire shopping area was riddled with scorch marks and holes. Reaching the top, the cyborg impatiently lowered his glasses to look at a wall clock.

“Come on, I shot around the dweebs’ feet for the last five minutes and made four skylights.”

He grumbled, looking around with a quick X-ray scan to ensure he hadn’t shot up any major beams. As much fun as it’d be, in this form he wasn’t too keen on dropping a building on his head. Finding a fortunate lack of blown support beams, he found himself again growling at the clock he soon blasted to bits with a flare of red plasma.

“Thought she’d be here by now-WHOA!”

Gigan roared, jumping back with his head snapping around to face the oncoming threat. He locked onto the tiny, buzzing life sign menacingly hovering towards him.

“MOSQUITO!”

The Black Beauty roared down the road towards the department store as rapid-fire plasma blasts opened up several windows like machinegun fire. Mane-iac grit her teeth and whirled the wheel around to dodge some of the plasma fire ripping into the road. Not having any time to waste, she slammed on the breaks and hit the button to open the roof while activating her seat belt quick release. Within a few second’s span the Black Beauty’s brakes screamed and its cab roof folded back into the rear of the car. The momentum transferred into the driver and Mane-iac was sent flying out of the car with her hands at her sides and her legs held straight. Uncurling some of her hair out from under her wide brimmed hat, she coiled it around a street light. Gripping it enough to swing around and change her direction, the heroine let go and catapulted her way into the fourth floor of the store.

Mane-iac flexed her body and curled up to roll across the floor, rotating herself to her feet and slamming a hand down on the tilt to stop her momentum. In coloration she was in something of an inverted, alternate costume to the Mane-iac the prime timeline Gigan met. She was covered from head to toe, save the chin and jaw, in a dull golden bodysuit with a pinkish-purple trim on the elbows, knees, hips, and collar; and white eye spots on the face to look through. The forearms, knee-high boots, and abdomen were all white. A long, purple scarf billowed in the moving air behind her almost like a cape. A broad, wide brimmed burnt gold hat with a white ring and a white colored utility belt around her waist was the final piece to the look. Maretropolis’ lead heroine leered at the intruder with an air of determination despite the slightly gaudy look of her costume.

Gigan miraculously didn’t look as imposing after he’d just finished his last “fight”, covered in an almost comedic amount of soot and smoke with the ground all around him blotted with scorch marks. He was still standing straight with his arms crossed, deadpanning in tone.

“Showed ‘er.”

Mane-iac reached to a space on her forearm and pressed a hidden pad. The lights all around them dimmed, their hum dying down before the illumination flickered out. Cloaked in darkness, Gigan wasn’t able to adjust his vision settings in time before Mane-iac rushed him and clocked the cyborg in the jaw. Gigan fought a smile, kicking off the floor to get some clear space and activated his infrared vision. Though she was partially obscured by her suit, which may have been insulated, he was clearly able to peg the athletic figure charging at him from down the aisle.

“Okay I know we’re obligated to do the standard 20th century hero greeting with the punch-kick tango but I usually don’t hit witche-”

He muttered, crossing his arms and blocking Mane-iac’s lunge punch and throwing her off. Unfettered, the heroine grabbed onto a hanging light and swung herself back around in a dive kick. Gigan was knocked clear across the room. Keeping still for a moment, his head jolted back up with an enormous grin on his face even as he saw Mane-iac stalking towards him, cracking her knuckles. He swung his legs up and out, head springing back to his feet with the window behind him.

“-aaaaand TANGO IT IS!”

“You’re made of metal.”

Mane-iac muttered lowly, uncurling her mane from her hat and gripping two support pillars on either side of her and Gigan.

“Means you’ll live… HRRAAH!”

Gigan’s grin didn’t fade, instead watching Mane-iac’s form in slow motion even as she slingshot herself into him foot first and sent him out the 4th story window.

Falling down in a rain of shattered glass, Gigan spun his metallic left hand around into a broad hook and gouged it into the side of the building. Ripping into the cement with a spurt of dust and sparks from the trail cut into the sidewall, Gigan slowed his fall by the time he met the second floor. Just as he was getting his bearings again and adjusting his hand and foot holds, Mane-iac gave him no time to breathe. Jumping out of the fourth story, she vaulted herself onto the side of the building next door and slid down the windowed walls. Keeping herself calm, she ground the side of her foot into the crease of a window to divert her fall before kicking off, closing the building gap, and tackling the cyborg back into the department store. Not to let her get away again, Gigan grabbed the heroine by her wrist while she blocked his hook arm with her forearm to keep it from swinging. They wrestled and rolled across the floor, knocking over several store racks before tumbling into the open elevator. In the middle of the melee the top floor button got whacked, the doors closing behind the two as the machine made it’s way to the roof.

Several minutes later and on the rooftop, the elevator dinged and the doors opened just as Gigan and Mane-iac threw themselves out of it, still tussling and wrestling each other in a deadlock. The former managed to pry the latter off the leglock she had his head in and toss her off him. Mane-iac, scuffed up and her costume torn in a few spots, managed to combat roll across the ground and stagger back to her feet in a guard stance. Gigan, his jacket ruffled, one of his glasses cracked, and a trickle of blood coming from his lips, stood up straight and gave the heroine an impressed nod and smirk. He adjusted his glasses and raised his brow a few times, able to see her clearly now in good light.

He liked what he saw, she didn’t.

“What are you planning?”

She snapped, stoically approaching the cyborg.

“Nothing you wouldn’t like to hear toots.”

Mane-iac’s eye and eyespot twitched and she lurched forward, shooting out all of her hair and pinning Gigan against the wall by his wrists and ankles with a metallic clang. She walked up and punched the sheet metal besides his head.

“Talk, what are the Malice Mares planning and how’d they send you?!”

Gigan’s expression went from a cheeky grin to a confused head tilt.

“The who?”

“Don’t act like a smart-flank! Only reason I’m not breaking your collarbone right now is because I know they’re planning something for the celebration and they probably sent you to distract me! SO TALK!”

She snapped, Gigan actually flinching a bit.

-Huh, stronger witch than the hair-loon the other Gigan fought. Scan’s lookin’ nice too.-

Still T rated fic Gigan.

-FRAG YOU!-

Turning his attention off murdering the guy writing this and back to the dame threatening to break his shoulder, Gigan shrugged.

“Look lady I don’t know any M&Ms, other than the candy dweebs at Kilaak Steam Load eat, I’mma Skittles guy myself. No clue on S&M either but somethin’ tells me gals like you would be good in tha- ACK! Take a joke you letch!”

He yelped after Mane-iac kicked him in the shin. She narrowed her eyes and curled her maw into a frown as she crossed her arms before her.

“You’re trying my patience! I get unhinged when that happens and no one likes that….. What are you doing right now?”

“In theory I was sent here to help you out with somethin’, probably these M&Ms. In practice? Eh, right now I’m takin’ advantage of the fact you can’t see where I’ve been lookin’ all this time because of how tinted my glasses are. Must say, view’s kickin’!”

A flush shot across the heroine’s face before she started both gasping in bewilderment and snarling with rage.

“What- have you been?!-”

-Spoiler warning audience, I still couldn’t tell you the color of her hat at this point.-

Mane-iac sucked in a deep breath, mentally counting to ten before shoving forward into Gigan with her forearm pressed against his throat. Placid fury was the best way to describe her tone of voice now.

“......You know what, at this point I’m so livid I’ve come full circle into apathy. I could break every bone in your body and still not frown. You literally just caused thousands of bits in property damage and forced me to fight for no real reason, with your priority on being how fit I am under this thing. You are so unbelievably off-kilter you couldn’t be working for the Malice Mares. You’re just insane.”

Gigan waved his still pinned hands around in a clockwise motion, passively looking at her while sporting a pleased smile on his maw.

“Hey, if you had nothin’ to kill time but surf the net; lots more’d be off the reservation. I on the other claw have been doing some other things.”

He muttered back in a bemused tone, causing Mane-iac to raise an eyebrow.

“Such as?”

“Well, you know there’s a bomb in the red present, fourth from the right under that tree set to go off in about 50 seconds?”

“WHAT?!”

Gigan’s nonchalance contrasted heavily with how quickly Mane-iac’s eyespots shot open in alarm. She looked down from the side of the building at one of the city trees, one merrily decorated with charms and lights with a myriad of donated gifts at its base. She naturally questioned how truthful the cyborg was, but with this area being as populated as it was she couldn’t take any chances. She tossed Gigan aside with her hair and dove over the edge of the building. Clasping her arms and legs against her, Mane-iac counted the building stories as they went by until she hit the last ten. Twisting around midfall, she caught hold of a flagpole and kicked off sideways from it, then again on another pole she was sent careening towards. Gigan looked over the edge of the building, watching as Mane-iac expertly slowed her fall by running along the side of, jumping off, and using her hair to sling across various ledges, flagpoles, and water spouts. She did break a few on the way down, but the fact that she managed to hit the ground rolling and then running left him lifting his glasses and whistling as he disappeared in a flash of green light.

Gigan reappeared alongside the sprinting Mane-iac, having teleported the distance to catch up. Before the confused heroine could ask what he just did, Gigan shrugged as he ran along.

“Got some good moves in ye’, give ye’ that. It’s the red one with the dumb-ox purple wrapping, fourth from the right on your side.”

Electing to ignore who it was a few feet next to her, Mane-iac just looked ahead and focused. She baseball slid and sprung herself back up next to the present, quickly observing that Gigan’s statement seemed correct as the red present with purple ribbons had a familiar ticking sound coming from inside it. Tearing open the wrapping with her hair, Mane-iac felt her heart pounding between her ears as she recognized the telltale mechanism belonging to one of the Malice Mare’s trademark timebombs. It could have been a fake. It could have been a distraction. For all she knew Gigan could have planted it. But none of that mattered as the clock ticked down to twenty seconds left. This was a risk she couldn’t take. Setting the bomb down, Mane-iac dug into her utility belt with both her hands and prehensile hair, drawing out and manipulating several tools at once and diving in to disarm the device with a ticking countdown on her heels.

Gigan watched on with curiosity on his face, observing both the blurring speed Mane-iac attacked the device with, using a good half dozen pliers, screwdrivers, and cutters with surgical precision; as well as the fact they were being watched by many onlookers who were stopping and staring at the scene before them.

-Bunch of friggin’ Darwin awards in the makin’.-

Growling, he fired up his emitter and eyes, turning and throwing his head up into the air.

“CLEAR OUT YE’ FREAKS LESS YE’ BEGGIN’ FOR A FRAGGIN’!”

He roared, firing multiple short-ranged shotgun blasts of red plasma into the air. The range was far too little to hit anyone, but the exploding light show and his booming voice got the message clear and scattered any crowds for a good two blocks. It was a testament to her constitution that Mane-iac didn’t get distracted by the display at all while she worked. Gigan cut the fireshow off and looked down just as the clock began to tick at a higher octave. There were five seconds to go and Mane-iac was still working the last few wires. Before Gigan could put plan B into order, which was to grab Mane-iac and teleport the both of them as far as eyeshot could take them, the masked heroine lined up four wire cutters in a row at several different angles, and in perfect synchronization, gutted the device’s last connections. The clock ceased and Mane-iac pried the dull gray pack of C4-like explosive charges free of any primers. Two seconds to spare and she finally took a breath.
Mane-iac sat back some, letting her heart calm back down to a normal pace. Brushing her hat back into place, she noticed an open, metallic hand offering her a hand up. While the gesture wasn’t lost on her, she wasn’t that trusting and brushed it back gently, getting up on her own. Gigan, not taking mind he was brushed off, gave the heroine an honestly impressed clap while nodding slightly.

“Gotta hand it to ye’ toots, for a moment I was wonderin’ what in the worlds you were doing; running towards the soon to be fragged crater and not aways from it. Then it hit me, you were running in ‘cuse you didn’t want any dweebs on the sidelines gettin’ hurt!”

“They’re human beings, that’s why.”

She mumbled dryly, wondering if she found his voice less grating when it wasn’t doing what she thought was complimenting her. Gigan roared with laughter, slapping Mane-iac on the back while sporting a huge grin on his face.

“Ye’ ye’, never was one for live collateral myself, ‘cept bloodsuckers. But what do you do when you find you got less time than it takes to take a wizz on the clock? You get down, pull out your tools, and go ham on the boom-box! Hahaha! I’m likin’ what I’m seeing and I’m reaaally likin’ what I’ve seen do!”

Mane-iac sighed, at least relaxing some at the cyborg’s outburst. At least now he wasn’t idiotically picking fights. And after their chat at the top of the department store and his actions at the bottom, she was at least willing to give him the spatial proximity while she turned her attention to more important matters. Both Gigan and Mane-iac looked over the device arrangement the latter was holding, Gigan’s eyes trained upon the small bit of explosive clay Mane-iac put into a capsule for safety.

“Puny tyke of a charge there for such a big device.”

The cyborg mumbled, eyeballing a comparison between the charge about scale of a pill capsule and the device which housed it that was easily the size of a large desk printer. The comparison was not lost upon Mane-iac, whom was tinkering around with the other housings in the device with her hair.

“Too small for a shockwave to be the intended means of damage. Could be a dirty device, meant to just throw debris around an area.”

“No shrapnel besides the casing though, pretty pansy frag grenade then. Dirty bomb?”

Mane-iac wasn’t electing to ask why Gigan knew so much about this sort of thing, but his last theory held water when she opened up a casing next to where the explosive charge was and pulled out a two liter sized plastic tube. Putting her ear to it to make sure no secondary device and verifying this wasn’t the case, she slipped a filter mask over her exposed mouth and assessed the canister’s traits. It was jerry rigged from a PVC pipe and glue with a screwed-on lid.

-Too heavy and not airtight enough to house gases. Radiation couldn’t be stored inside it. Likely solid mass or liquid.-

She held the device aways from herself and unscrewed the pipe lid, shaking out a small bit of what was contained inside into a disk held out by a strand of her hair. What came out was a sickly, oozing green and purple fluid that was as viscous as crude oil. Mane-iac sealed the canister shut again and observed the material from afar.

Gigan watched on for a time, and soon found himself crossing his arms and tapping his foot after fifteen seconds of getting bored. Finally movement came when Mane-iac put the canister down beside her and the sample as far away from her as her hair could stretch. Drawing a capsule from the back of her belt, she opened it up and drew out a small, marble-sized sphere that she reached out and plopped into the sample. Instantly the sphere, which she had made specifically to test for one chemical concoction in particular, melted with a puff of smoke almost instantly. When Gigan looked at Mane-iac’s face and saw how she was trembling slightly, he recognized the shellshock. There were a lot of questions he’d have, some relevant and most weren’t; but in both his good deed for the week and to get things rolling again, he wasted no time firing an optic blast and vaporizing the toxic looking chemical.

Mane-iac breathed slowly, forcing herself back to her senses. She turned to Gigan, eyes narrowed and her voice free of tremble and full of command. Whatever it was plaguing her mind a few moments ago, she’d shoved away from the controls entirely to the point she was no different than before.

“Chemical weapons, bomb box was packed with it. The explosion would have distributed it over a full block. In such high concentration in a populated area it could have splashed hundreds. How did you know it was there?”

Gigan tapped his glasses with a finger.

“Trust me babe, I didn’t plant it. I can scan things out with my eyes adjusted to the right channel, had it set to that when you knocked me out the window and I was getting some airtime. Noticed some things before you crashed into me again.”

Part of Mane-iac’s mind was still wandering from earlier to the question of why he had some kind of sci-fi version of X-ray vision turned on when they were fighting, another part of her mind said a reunion between her fist and Gigan’s face was not far off if she kept thinking about that; and the last and loudest part of her spinning mind told her to keep focused. Things just got a lot more serious in Maretropolis.

“Do you have the setting on now?”

She muttered, taking a step towards him with her arms crossed.

“I confirm nor deny nothing.”

Gigan mumbled, tilting his head down some despite the fact he and Mane-iac were almost of equal height. Mane-iac spotted the lie, eye twitching, before groaning and grabbing the cyborg in a headlock while picking up the bomb and hazardous chemicals with her hair. She pointed out in front of them at the city ahead.

“Listen. Up. There are fifteen other city trees, I suspected the Malice Mares were going to rig at least some of them and that puts a lot of people in danger. There are fifteen thousand presents to be donated under each, you are going to help me find which ones are rigged and then you are-”

“Kay.”

Mane-iac blinked in surprise, having expected to have to strong arm him a bit more into helping her before getting compliance.

“What?”

Gigan rotated his head to look up at her, effectively having to flip himself over behind her. He moved in a way that she could tell was him shrugging his shoulders into her back.

“What, your ears got gum in ‘em? I say o-kay. Told you, I was sent here to help you out anyways.”

“Where did you crawl out of?”

She muttered, honestly so confused it was bordering on dumbstruck right now.

“Outta town, extradimensional if you could believe that.”

Mane-iac rolled her eyes and released Gigan from the headlock, clicking a button on her belt that called the Black Beauty over to them with the doors popping open.

“Pfft, figures. First that equine duplicate of me and now this. You’re not the first other-dimensional being I’ve met, so I’ll put it as a hypothesis for now. There’s things more important going on so as long as you follow my rules and follow the mission, we’ll be fine.”

Gigan, always with a swagger and back in his stride after fixing up his jacket, strode his way up to the muscle car after whistling quietly.

“Hey I’m always fine and you’re definitely shapin’ up to be, now let’s get this crossover on the way. Time to save Christmas!”

Mane-iac shrugged, nonchalantly pushing another button the instant Gigan’s hand touched the car roof and electrocuting the cyborg like the car was one big taser. Gigan’s mowhawk stuck up even more on end and he fidgeted through the shocks, muscles locking up and machinery sparking. One could swear steam was shooting out of his nose.

“GGAGAGAGAA 6 21 3 11 THAT HURT!”

Hey, language! Don’t try to get smart with me-

“6 21 3 11 YOU! CRUD! I’M LOSING IT!”

Mane-iac turned the shock guard off and Gigan fell backwards, stiff as a board with a distinctly human gesture on his hand meant for forces the heroine did not know. She nudged him over with her foot, handcuffing the groaning cyborg behind his back and placing him into the passenger seat. He was quick to revive from the shocks, groaning lowly.

“Did anyone get t’e numba off t’at wit-ch?... Wh-what the slag?!”

Gigan growled, testing at the reinforced handcuffs while Mane-iac stepped into the driver’s seat and revved up the beast of a car.

“Those are meant for someone a lot stronger than both of us. Sorry about the shocks but I don’t trust you even as far I can throw you. They come off when we’re done.”

Ever the one to bounce back, Gigan smirked while the doors closed around them, darkening the car before Mane-iac drove it down the street.

“Well if you’re into this sorta thing babe, I can adapt.”

Mane-iac’s face deadpanned, groaning through her nose as they drove along.

-Please McCarthy do not make me gag him.-

-Oooh catty!-

How did you-

-Read her thought box. Now jump to the slaggin’ time skip!-

=================

Some Hours Later

An hour later and with eight more defused bombs in the reinforced trunk, the Black Beauty roared down the road with its two occupants looking ahead. Gigan hadn’t shut up the entire time.

“-and that’s how I saved Nebulan Halloween with a stray carbon rod. Fragged Ultra never tasted so good.”

Mane-iac couldn’t afford the luxury of mentally blocking his voice out almost the entire time either, her eyes trained upon the road with a sullen expression across her face.

-This is why I work alone.-

“As difficult as it must be for you, can it. Last tree to check is three kilometers down this road.”

A full three seconds of silence passed them by, but just as Mane-iac was about to thank any deities watching over her, Gigan opened his trap again.

“Sooo, in review; I’m a biotech cyborg made to be a ranger unit. Been workin’ as that and bounty hunter, good reason to slag up some bolts for brains who get too big for their shoes and try to take over.”

“...And you tell me this why?”

“Bored and it’s a crossover.”

Mane-iac had to let her mind process the level of insanity she was getting exposed to out of her passenger seat, briefly looking over at Gigan.

“Do… you… live in some sort of bizarre world all to yourself?”

She muttered, earning a chuckle from Gigan.

“Willing to share.”

“.......”

“How does it feel, to be so monumentally stupid you don’t notice the darkness?”

Mane-iac said in a dour tone that actually left Gigan quiet for a few moments to ponder it as it didn’t sound quite like her typical insults she’d thrown at him for the past hour.

“Huh. You know, I can’t tell if you’re insulting me or turning into a freakin’ guru on me. But the answer for both is yes. Reason I asked your tale is I could see those marks on you when I peeked. Hot bod’ but I noticed the blemishes, mostly big ones on your neck, side, and legs. Chem’ burns by the looks of it.”

He poised. Mane-iac’s grip on the steering wheel audibly grew tighter, enough that had she not been wearing gloves one would have seen her knuckles going white. Gigan tilted his head in a sideways nod, looking over at her and reconfirming his previous guess after adjusting his vision setting.

“Not like I got any dweeb to tell around here to sell it out to. Paid well enough already.”

Mane-iac reached over and gripped the top of his head a bit roughly, turning it around to look forward again. When she spoke her voice had lost a lot of its angered edge, but none of its command.

“... First, keep your eyes forward. Deal?”

“Ye’ ye’ alright your humorless clod.”

Mane-iac sighed, removing her hand from his scalp and turning her attention back to driving.

“Secondly, because I know you’re not nearly cunning enough to use it against me; I was pushed into a chemical vat.”

Gigan raised an eyebrow, letting one of his eyes drift to the side. He was quite tempted to ignore Mane-iac’s first request-

-Extremely.-

-but the back of his mind reminded him of his one unbending rule. Never break a contract. Now adding his own conscience to his “Things I Intend to Gut” list, as impossible as that was, he kept his eyes trained upon the road ahead.

“So, who did the pushing? I like to keep my mementos labeled for what’s left after I frag ‘em.”

Mane-iac didn’t know if she should be disgusted at the morbidness or take it as a nice gesture. Electing to ignore both, she continued on.

“Same monsters I’ve been fighting since.”

Her mind wandered back, recalling the events in such vivid detail she could tell someone how many of the fifty six ceiling lights were burnt out or blinking that fated night years ago. She was just Mica Hackett back then, or Marilyn as many friends and employees whom were also friends knew her as. CEO of Hackett Cosmetics and Industries, she was already one of the city’s most liked people before she put on the suit and scarf. Ran a successful franchise without underhanded tactics, was nice to and knew most of her office employees by name down to the intern who got her coffee, and had always rigorously drilled the idea of making her products reliable and safe to use under the slogan of ‘anyone can be beautiful’.

It was when some of her products were not doing any of those that she suspected something was very wrong. Shoddy design, certain mixtures not being in the right containers, even some unsafe trace chemicals that were bleaching people’s skin or dyeing their hair in extreme cases. She didn’t take it laying down of course, stopping production of the faulty lines to see what was going on. After having narrowed it all down to one factory in particular, Mica Hackett found some sort of red tape barring her from checking the site for several days. Gas leak, it said. She didn’t buy it for a second and had gone to see what was going on herself in an unannounced appearance once she saw the lights were on late into the night.

She’d expected the factory head to be doing some last minute damage control and forcing the workers to operate after hours. She didn’t expect to find the security fence torn down and the factory head and most of the workers locked up under guard. And she really didn’t expect the one operating the show who noticed her attempts to free her employees to be several of the Malice Mares, led by Masked Matter-Horn.

“They were using a place I knew as a production facility for chemical weapons, having extorted the staff and locked them up. My orders for the factory to be investigated just sped up their production run. I stumbled upon it, they found me.”

Breaking free of a hench-goon, Mica Hackett smashed the silent alarm to alert the police as she sprinted across the factory floor. But at every exit she tried there was a plethora of hired goons or the likes of Saddle Rager, Fili-Second, or Zapp. She fled up the only route open to her, the catwalks going above the bubbling chemical vats that once made baby shampoo and skin tonic. Masked Matter-Horn was the one to block her exit there, cutting off the CEO’s routes with frozen walls of ice she raised herself above. Eyeing a particular vat below them, the villainous woman smirked and flicked her hand, shoving a wave of kinetic energy into Mica Hackett’s side and knocking her off the side of the catwalk. Mica screamed, watching the ceiling grow more distant as she felt the sickly warmth of the churned concoction she fell into envelop her.

“One guess how they tried to keep me quiet with a vat of potentially lethal chemicals next to me.”

The last thing she saw before being pushed under was Matter-Horn taking a scoop rod used to take samples from a distance and jabbing her in the forehead with it. She blacked out, falling back and sinking into the viscous, green and magenta liquid.

“Aaand the crazy hair and buffed strength?”

A wet tendril of hair gripped the edge of the chemical vat long after the Malice Mares and the Hackett Industries employees had fled the scene. Several moved to join it, flexing and pulling a half conscious, sopping wet form out of the chemical vat. Her legs were shaking, barely able to stand, so her own now freakishly long hair did most of the work as she carried herself out of the building in a half drowned daze. She would never forget the look upon her face when she passed by an illuminated window. What once was unblemished, pinkish skin and sky-blue hair had now been bleached green and dyed purple; with sore, very obvious chemical keloids splotched across almost a third of her body. All she could do was cry and laugh at the same time.

Back in the present, Mane-iac finished her summary with her pitch and tone having dropped several octaves from start to finish. She tilted her head down some, letting her hat block out some more of the afternoon sun that irritated her mutant eyes.

“...Side effects. I hide it all in public. I can change colors on my hair and skin if I concentrate, wear baggy clothes to-”

“-not show off your beach body?”

Gigan quipped, earning a growl from the heroine. She was about to say keloid scars, but frankly Gigan didn’t seem to care. The cyborg rolled his eyes, glancing over at Mane-iac with a cheeky smile on his maw.

“Whaaaat? Beat yourself down as you like for having them, I’d still paint the town red with you at the drop of your hat.”

Mane-iac snorted out through her nose, little jets of mist coming out due to the chilly air.

“I take it any machine parts between your brain and mouth are cross-wired together? What comes to one just spouts out the other?”

Gigan’s face was elated, crudely chuckling like they’d been flirting this whole time.

“Ooohohoho!”

“Stop. It.”

“Aawww come on, you need to let your hair down more!”

“....”

Mane-iac deadpanned her expression, the hair draped over her seat beginning to snake and curl. Gigan grumbled, slinking back into his seat. Had they been free he’d be waving his hands around in a deflective manner.

“Ye’ ye’, realized it the moment I opened my trap.”

Mane-iac sighed, grinding her heel into the brake pedal as they entered the main square of the city. The wide, empty space amongst the crossroads was several dozen meters in diameter every which way, lined with a myriad of shops. And at the peak of it all on the north side, erected in a small picnic park set aside for the holidays, was the largest of the giving trees; a venerable mountain of present at its base. Mane-iac put the Black Beauty into park, taking several moments before slowly unlatching her seatbelt and looking around the square. She opened her door and took a half step out, keeping the door open as she surveyed the empty square surrounding them. Gigan, impatient as ever, kicked at the dashboard while attempting to move his arms inside the handcuffs.

“Gonna get these friggin’ cuffs off me yet toots?”

“Not yet, wait here.”

“I got a choice?”

Mane-iac ignored the cyborg, closing her car door behind her as she stepped out in front of the Black Beauty to look around.

-At this time of day, this place should be bustling. Where is everyone?-

She took several more steps, the snow beginning to fall from the sky and litter the cold streets. Mane-iac stood in silence, steam misting from her nose that wreathed her face and hat. She noticed something just off the ground, a few feet ahead. The snow was stopping just above the ground in a barely visible line and forming frost. Drawing a collapsible baton, she flicked her wrist to extend it, took a step back, and tossed the weapon atop the barely visible wire. The wire snapped and in an instant all hell broke loose.

Smoke bombs went off in every alleyway and sideroad that lead out of the square. Judging from how several birds startled by the sudden explosives fell into the snow after flying through the smoke, twitching but alive, Mane-iac knew at an instant it was paralytic gas and obviously a trap. Knowing the Black Beauty had air filters in it, she started to run back to the car to pull back when the second phase of the trap was sprung. High on a rooftop, the figures of four individuals sprung into action upon getting the nod of the one standing in the center.

One of them sprinted out with speed almost too fast for the eye to track, running down the side of the building and towards the left side road leading out of the T shaped square. Glass shattered at the blur’s running and within seconds the exit roads were littered with sharp debris, road spikes, and caltrops that would severely slow or halt any cars that tried to drive over them. When she stopped moving, Mane-iac recognized a dark magenta body suit with glowing, white lines trailing across its contours; leading up into a blue full-face visor.

The second turned a medical dial mounted the back of her wrist, inducing an overload of hormones that supercharged her rage. The woman blew up in size and mass, rapidly morphing into a fiendish looking hulk. With an inhuman roar she jumped down to a neighboring building, hopping rooftops and knocking over good chunks of them with both her landings and physically ripping into the concrete with her bare hands. Soon the roads she crossed over were choked with debris of twisted metal, broken glass, and shards of concrete; along with the crater the behemoth left upon landing. Through the dust Mane-iac felt her pulse chill when she saw the luchador-like mask, black and camo-green suit; and glowing green eyes of rage.

The final exit, the one the Black Beauty had taken, was set upon by the air from a figure flying in the storm clouds. A winged harpy of a woman threw her hands up into the snow clouds and grasped at lightning bolts as she flew over to them, heaving the wrath of the heavens down upon the road. As the onslaught came, Mane-iac only had time to jump on top of the Black Beauty, the insulated tires saving her from the electrified icy road. The sides of buildings were shattered outwards and explosions littered the ground, tearing open enormous potholes and sinkholes into the compromised road.

In a few moments between the efforts of Fili-Second, Saddle Ragger, and Zapp; Mane-iac, Gigan, and the Black Beauty were boxed in with them and their leader. She was a cruel witch of a woman with the looks of a succubus and a heart to match. The last and worst of the Malice Mares calmly jumped down from the buildings, turning around midair and catching herself by firing two pillars of ice from her hands and into the ground, cutting her fall. Clad in a dark steel-pink suit with dark blue and rose banded gloves, a set of silver goggles, and a wide blue mask; she slowed, eventually landing atop the star mounted at the peak of the square’s tree and balancing herself perfectly. Masked Matter-Horn smirked, a hand upon her hip and the other hanging down, as she eyed the recovered Mane-iac looking up at her.

Matter-Horn and just about everyone else in attendance looked over to their right to see Gigan standing right next to them, spinning Mane-iac’s handcuffs around his finger with a bored expression on his face. Matter-Horn blinked in confusion, glancing between Mane-iac and this random newcomer with a slight loss in breath.

“Well well well... looks like we did get something good this year, girls,” Matter-Horn called down from her perch.

If Mane-iac was intimidated, she didn’t show it, instead calmly standing up at the ready.

“Thought you four would come eventually, after I locked two of your posse up.”

“Hm, yes that was an unfortunate turn of events. After you did that we’ve had far more trouble as of late, and not just from lowered numbers.”

Zapp hovered high above, emerging from the storm clouds that had obscured her before, her outfit consisting of a scaled body glove that was storm-cloud gray, black accents on her gloves, boots, metallic wings; and lightning bolt-motif helmet; and silver bands with lightning bolts on her wrists, belt, and ankles. She held her arms crossed before her while clashing with Saddle Rager on who could scowl harder.

“All those other times you only managed to drive us off because you proved too much trouble. You didn’t defeat us outright. That changed when you ambushed Marevelous and Radiance, taking them in. It showed all the knaves and serfs that we could be held and vindicated your opposition. They fear us less now.”

Saddle Rager, bulging veins and muscles nearly bursting out of her leotard, bent a lamp post she was holding over in a U shape with her thumb. She spoke in a grumbling low tone, her stoic glare morphing into a toothy grin over time.

“A problem to be fixed like all others, by breaking it.”

Fili-Second sprinted up onto a traffic light, sticking her landing with a handstand and crazed smirk.

“We’re not just gonna beat yah to a pulp, we’re gonna make you fail outright! Hehe!”

The speedster snickered, earning a half annoyed groan from Matter-Horn.

“Yes yes, the thing we used to draw you in.”

Mane-iac felt her pulse chill slightly, even as she remained composed, slowly turning to keep tabs on and not put her back to any of the terrors for long.

“The chemical bombs. Filled with the same mutagenic concoction from the Hackett Cosmetics factory.”

Matter-Horn rather boredly inspected her fingernails, hardly giving the ticking device below her under the tree any second thought.

“Oh those party favors? They’re the upgrade, much stronger than what you were exposed to. Anyone exposed to enough of it would be changed into a bleached, raving lunatic.”

Mane-iac’s hands instantly tightened into fists and she charged forward, feet pounding the ground. The other three Malice Mares predictably charged in after her, spurring Mane-iac to draw several smoke bombs from her belt and throw her hands to the side, pelting her path and the grounds around her in a haze. Her mind slowed time down around her, allowing her to react on an instant. The hulking form of Saddle Rager broke the haze to her left, swinging out with a lunging punch. Mane-iac curled her hair around the fist, jumping and twisting around. Too weak to stop its forward momentum, she instead gave it a large amount of horizontal momentum to throw it off target and cause Saddle Rager to throw herself off balance. Snaking up her arm, Mane-iac twisted herself around and slammed both her heels into Saddle Rager’s temple to knock the burly villainess to the ground.

Next came Zapp, shooting down from above with the scream of broken air. Balled lightning in her hands, the ancient monster of a woman peppered the ground with flashes of exploding light; Mane-iac dodging and weaving to avoid being on target for too long. Spying a piece of debris she recognized as metallic, she stomped on one side of the pole to knock it into the air, catch it, and hurl it at Zapp. Zapp, unable to see it coming through the smoke bomb haze, kept throwing thunder bolts as the metal sailed towards her. The airborne metal absorbed and conducted the electricity like a lightning rod and returned it to the sender as it struck Zapp in the stomach. Zapp’s body locked up and spasmed, only able to cry out while being electrocuted and falling to the ground.

Mane-iac sprinted free of the smokescreen, teeth gritted and chest burning with rage as she glared at the blunt face of Matter-Horn. Hatred chewed at her mind, wanting so badly to thrash that smirk off the villain’s face. Not just for what she’d done to her, but for what she and her team were willing to do to hundreds of innocent people just to lure her out. This wasn’t a matter of yin and yang or personal vendettas relating to sides of coins. This was about stopping a monster.

Mane-iac got within three meters of Matter-Horn, the closest she’d ever been since their first encounter, before a pink blur slammed into her from the side. Fili-Second, avoiding the snowy street and running along the sidewalks, spun back around and landed another punch into Mane-iac’s gut. The force wasn’t great, FIli-Second was very lanky in upper body build like many sprinters, but the speed amplified the momentum enough to knock Mane-iac back. Dazed, she wasn’t able to dodge Saddle Rager charging up behind her, grabbing her by the hair and slamming the heroine into the ground. The hulk lifted Mane-iac up by her hair, Zapp and Fili-Second grabbing onto her arms with the latter holding some charged lightning to Mane-iac’s throat. Masked Matter-Horn lowered herself down to them, placing a hand on the struggling Mane-iac’s cheek. With her free hand she tugged at a tear in Mane-iac’s costume just above the hip, exposing old keloid scar to the frigid air. She saw how Mane-iac winced and cooed, slowly running a finger over it to tingle at the flesh almost intimately. Her tone was as callous as it was eerily serene.

“Think of it this way, we’re giving you a gift this season too. In a few hours, you’ll have half a city of deformed, scarred freaks just like you...” Matter-horn's fingers curled around the raised keloid and Mane-iac held back a grunt of pain.

“Now, I want to see that ugly face of yours.”

Matter-Horn smirked, starting to peel back Mane-iac's cowl, digging her sharp nails into Mane-iac's cheek when a flash of green light and an annoyed voice gave her pause.

“As hot at this is, gonna need to stop you there ye’ dunt.”

“Who- Where did you come from?”

“Her car. Didn’t know what the frig was going on so I waited a sec. Finished my scan of it all.”

“Scan? Scan of what?”

Matter-Horn hissed. Mane-iac saw a motion in Gigan’s eye. Though she couldn’t quite tell what it was due to his sunglasses, she could have sworn he was winking at her. In her mishmash of emotions and threat in situation, it actually gave her a tiny smile as circumstance had gotten bad enough that this idiot couldn’t possibly make it worse. She tensed up and got ready for whatever distraction he was about to pull, intentionally or not, bracing her legs against the ground and holding her breath.

“Scan on who’s the first to get my boot up their rear-end yah friggin’ bastich!”

Gigan stopped spinning the handcuffs he’d teleported out of when he warped out of the car, gripping them with a taut hand. He disappeared in a flash of green light, reappearing right next to Matter-Horn and slapping her left hand and ankle into the cuffs, locking them while grasping the central bar. The cyborg’s expression instantly morphed into an unholy mixture of rage and bloodthirsty glee, his voice something deep in bellow.

“I love my job!”

A deluge of red light flew out of Gigan’s glasses, the plasma shotgun blast sending Matter-Horn flying back several meters and into a window. On the same instant Mane-iac bent her arms in and jumped up with her legs, spinning around and locking Saddle Rager’s head between her legs and using her sudden momentum to double the hulk over. Mane-iac, freed from Fili-Second and Zapp’s hold by the falling Saddle Rager, grabbed Gigan’s outstretched hand and let him swing her foot first into Fili-Second’s stomach. Reeling Mane-iac back in like they were in a dance number, Gigan wiggled his eyebrows at the heroine pressed up against his chest.

“And this is the part you say-”

“Get down!”

Mane-iac belted, shoving into Gigan and toppling him over to shove them out of harm’s way from Zapp’s lightning blast. Rolling across the ground before halting, Gigan grabbed hold of Mane-iac and teleported them out of harm’s way from a called-down thunderbolt. The duo re-materialized back in the center of the square in a flash of green light, breaking apart and getting back to back as the recovered Saddle Rager, Fili-Second, and Zapp encircled them. Mane-iac drew some equipment from her belt and readied her hair while Gigan swapped out his hands for his iconic hooks, forehead emitter and glasses glowing red. In one of the abandoned shops, a stray blast from the ensuing battle clicked all the radios into blasting the Nutcracker Suite’s dance portion.

Gigan stood his ground and fired his plasma beam full blast at the charging Saddle Rager, managing to inflict some burns and singes but not enough to halt the bulldozing locomotive from barreling into him with a clothesline. Half knocked silly, he recovered quick enough to try and counterattack while Saddle Rager sprinted to the nearest brick wall with the intent of pancaking Gigan between it and her arm. Lashing out with his hooks, Gigan slashed and gouged at the villainess but only managed to rip into her costume and inflict scratch damage because this was an A-rated comic. He then began swearing so wildly the narrator dared not even try and transcribe it.

-Ah freak it! If guttins’ a no-go, bashing’s always safe for the pansies!-

He held his arms out and activated both of the force drivers in his arms, dramatically increasing their gravity fields and swinging them out to smash his metallic limbs on either side of the hulk’s head for a double hammer-arm. Saddle Rager called out in pain, her head wobbling with a sound one would expect a gong to make. Able to pry himself free, Gigan kicked away from Saddle Rager as the latter barreled herself through a brick wall like a bull in a china shop, leaving a burly-woman shaped imprint in the surface. Grinning, Gigan was eager to charge in after her to get back into the thick of the fight.

With Gigan occupying Saddle Rager, Mane-iac turned her attention to Zapp and Fili-Second. Knowing being out in the open was a death sentence, she cracked multiple smoke bombs and set them off in a wide field all around her. The smokescreen shrouded a good half of the square, clothing Mane-iac’s form with her glaring eyespots being the last thing Zapp or Fili-Second saw. Against these two however, a cloud of haze wouldn’t persist for long. Zapp flew up above the smokey shroud, spreading her hands to the heavens. The storm above churned and bellowed, gales of wind coiling above the city square. With swiping motions, Zapp outstretched talons of wind to rend Mane-iac’s smokescreen. It began to thin with every ravaging, allowing the outline of what was inside to be visible. However the cloud wasn’t fully pulled apart when Fili-Second did what she did best, crack a frenzied smirk at the first second she saw a figure in the haze and rush in.

“I got her!”

“No, Fili! Wait!”, Zapp barked in vain as Fili-Second charged in and out of sight.

Fili-Second rushed the figure head out, vibrating her fist to increase its force. She lunged and struck home, impaling her foe with her fist. Just before this looked like it turned into an M-rated comic however, a stark realization dawned upon the villainess. Firstly she couldn’t pull her arm out and when she tried to brace her hand against the body to push back, it got swallowed up and constricted too. Secondly, a pair of hands grabbed her by her ankles. Fili-Second looked down to see the smirking face of Mane-iac, whom was laying inside the snow and had been holding up her hair and hat in the shape of herself as a decoy. Something she had learned from fighting a speedster too fast to chase down: Best way to get at them was either remove their room to dodge or get them stuck trying to attack you.

Mane-iac yanked Fili-Second backwards, nailing her in the back with a heavy knee strike that knocked the wind out of her. Not done yet, Mane-iac skillfully swung her legs upwards, grabbing Fili-Second by the head while holding onto her hands and legs, and effectively suplexing her foe into the snowbank. Tackling Fili-Second before she could get back up, Mane-iac put her in a headlock to keep her head steady while using her hair to maintain the pin. Before Fili-Second had much time to struggle, Mane-iac had already put her in a sleeper hold. With the smoke all around, having the wind knocked out of her, and Mane-iac’s tight grip on her neck; Fili-Second passed out in seconds. With that threat down for the moment, Mane-iac turned her attention to the force that caused the last of her smokescreen to vanish. Zapp looked at her unconscious teammate and hissed in rage, balling up several spheres of lightning and rushing Mane-iac.

Across the square, Saddle Rager’s roar echoed out of a shop’s ruins. Following it, Gigan’s limp form went flying out of it at high speed, skidding across the ground and plowing into the snowbank like a thrown javelin. Saddle Rager snarled, stepping out of the shattered wall with a much less-than-pleased expression. She too looked plenty roughed up, covered in scratches and bruises from a foe that stubbornly refused to keel over. Seeing the cyborg not moving and deciding she’d finally shut him up, the burly giantess took some time to catch her breath while locking onto the part of the square Zapp and Mane-iac were fighting in. Sparking in several spots, Gigan poked his head out of the snow with a grin upon his face because only he would take getting a super strength-fueled haymaker that almost literally knocked his head off as a sign of good fun. Shaking himself off, Gigan took a moment to assess the situation.

-Riight guttin’ or slaggin’ here doesn’t work in an A-rated comic. What’s some wanton violence I can get away with?-

One could almost literally see the light bulb pop up over his head when he spied a black funerary car parked next to him. He knew this particular model and smirked, getting up and sprinting over to it. Working on overcharging his warp drive, Gigan rather reluctantly addressed the person writing this.

“Hey geekwad! Spot me a favor. Any living dweebs in that black pinto?”

Just a cadaver set to be buried, why what are you-

Gigan grabbed the car, digging his hooks into either side.

“Sorry buddy, looks like you’re getting cremated!”

Saddle Rager dug her fingers into the side of a street light, ripping it out of its foundations and taking her aim in order to hurl the structure at Mane-iac. She was almost ready to heave it when a familiarly annoying voice barked at her from above.

“HEY! ROID RAGE!”

She looked up, spying the form of Gigan appearing two stories above her with the entire pinto car he’d been holding onto just as he chucked it at her. Saddle Rager’s eyes widened and she dropped the light pole to catch the car. While she did manage to stop the pinto from falling on top of her, catching it by the front wheel’s rims and bending the screeching metal in her grasp, she couldn’t halt the incendiary, red plasma beam Gigan fired to stab through the gas tank before he drop kicked her through the top of the hood. The resulting explosion sent the smoking Saddle Rager flying off into a traffic wall, breaking it with her impact. With her ears ringing from the explosion and almost knocked out from the impact, she was largely immobile as Gigan strode out of the flames. His hair smoking and covered in char that risked ruining his jacket, the cyborg sparked a few times as he walked up to the downed hulk. At first thinking she was out cold, Gigan was both amused and annoyed when he saw her shakingly reach for the dial on the back of her hand. Intending to dump another dose of rage hormones and adrenaline into her system to keep fighting, Saddle Rager got no chance. Gigan pinned her hand down with his boot, gave her the one fingered salute with one hand while morphing his other hand into a round mace.

“Night night.”

He quipped with a smirk before using said mace to conk her on the head and throw her into unconsciousness.

-Guess we’re saving the guts and braining for the special where I get to kill the Krampus.-

Seeing Saddle Rager shrink back to her normal state, Gigan spat on the ground and headed back to the main brawl. Mane-iac and Zapp were battling it out across the city airspace, the former swinging her away around by acrobatics and her hair while the former was constantly hurling lightning at her.

Mane-iac swung herself onto the third story of a fire escape, quickly stealing a glance behind her as oncoming light cast her shadow across the building. Looking up and using her hair to hoist herself up higher in a leap, she kept ascending while dodging the projectile fire from an enraged Zapp. Shards of shattered metal and brick dust rained down on the street below with each ensuing explosion. Swinging herself to the top of the building to gain some altitude, Mane-iac turned and sprinted back over the side and leapt off it to lunge at Zapp. Her hair outstretched like gaping snares and she threw a bola pulled from her belt for good measure. But Zapp had learned from before, hurling a gale of wind at the bola to blow it off course and flying back just far enough that the outstretching tendrils of hair couldn’t reach her. Mane-iac tucked herself into a ball as she plummeted, her hair grabbing onto a light pole and spinning her around 360’ degrees before she skillfully landed foot first atop the pole and perfectly balanced on it. At first surprised Mane-iac got so close to grabbing her, Zapp smirked while making sure to maintain a higher altitude to ensure it didn’t happen again.

“Hehe, can’t hurt what you can’t reach, can you bimb-”

Zapp was cut off and had to quickly react to the stream of red flying at her from the side, shoving her hands out to call down some lightning that deflected the neon red beam Gigan had shot at her. Gigan stood his ground a distance away, charging up for another shot. With his warp drive overcharged from that teleporting car stunt, he couldn’t just teleport up behind Zapp and knock her out of the sky so he fell back on special plan B. Shoot and keep shooting until it stops twitching.

Zapp’s eyes widened and she found herself having to rapidly dodge through the air just to avoid getting pelted with Gigan’s incendiary beam. Finding he couldn’t land a hit with the solid blast, Gigan sprinted up closer to her while the entirety of his glasses and emitter unit swelled with a bright red light. Baseball sliding underneath her with a smirk, the cyborg fired one solid, thick ray from both his eyes and emitter. The half-meter thick block of a beam shot upwards at Zapp while she dodged to the side, only to seemingly vanish a few feet away from where she’d been. Zapp and Mane-iac both shot Gigan a confused look, but Gigan could only smile.

“Burn Bastich.”

Suddenly from the point Gigan’s beam had vanished a mass eruption of light shot out, spreading around like a shotgun pellet blast of shorter, smaller beams. The scattershot only flew a short distance but Zapp was well within the cone when the individual beams reached their maximum distance and detonated like a shower of firecrackers. Zapp was sent spinning back, the kinetic force of the shockwave smashing her back into a window, shattering it on impact as she tumbled through it. An eerie silence brewed through the square, Gigan and Mane-iac looking upon the site of the vanquished Malice Mare.

High above storm clouds continued to grow in literally forboding strides. A haggard, smoking figure stumbled up to the window with a leer upon her face. Zapp limped up, her costume charred and she herself coated in light burns and cuts. She sported some blood and possibly a dislodged tooth. She muttered in a low tone before it grew into a shout as she thrust her hands up into the air to catch six falling thunderbolts.

“I’ll show yOU BURNS!”

Zapp roared, her body engulfed in light. She threw out the deadly torrent towards Gigan, who quickly charged up as much as he could to counterattack in light of not having the means or time to teleport or physically dodge. The emitter on his forehead and glasses were engulfed in luminance that left the latter shattered from the ensuing river of red plasma that burst out of them. The artificial and natural forces clashed with one another, shoving each other back and forth, threatening to swallow the other up. However Zapp had one advantage over Gigan she was quick to exploit. She could always give herself a boost. Calling down more lightning bolts, Zapp enhanced her beam’s power, gradually pushing back against Gigan’s counterassault. Without his full size, the cyborg’s power was limited. Limited too much to win.

The energy torrent was shoved back into him and exploded in his face. Gigan was sent tumbling head over rear across the snow to his left. Sparking and bleeding from several spots, he swore every time he hit the ground.

“Frig! Frag! Bastich! ***************************************************************************************************************!”

He hit the snow face first and became lodged in it from the shoulders up. His left arm had been blown off above the elbow, exposing bent metal and sparking wires from the cyborg’s inner workings. Mane-iac’s eyes widened and she found herself unconsciously reaching out to her ally as he lay face down in the snow.

“GIGAN!”

Zapp breathed heavily, having been pushed to her threshold in that assault but tiredly laughing in victory. Her laughs drew a pause when Gigan’s head jolted up. Now lacking his glasses, there was nothing to keep Zapp or Mane-iac from seeing the enraged, mechanical, piercing glare in Gigan’s camera lens-like orbits. He burst his intact right arm free of the snow, reconfigured it into the mace-like formation and fired it out with a burst of pressurized gas that blew back the snow. Sailing right past Mane-iac, the metallic weapon rocketed towards Zapp, but evidently his aim was off as instead of impacting her it lodged itself in the ceiling above her. In the corner of her eyes, Mane-iac saw Gigan wink at her.

Zapp breathed a sigh of relief, spreading her valkyrie wings to take to the air again. Except this time she had no free space to avoid attacks. She only got a few feet, eyes turned to the heavens when she instinctively looked down to the source of an oncoming clanging noise. Mane-iac was rapidly catching up to her, running along the edge of Gigan’s chain like a speed tight-rope walker. Jumping off and catching the chain with her hair, she used her weight to stretch it down just before Gigan yanked back on the chain to cause it to go taut. Catapulted back up, Mane-iac landed a solid uppercut on Zapp before the villainess could fully charge up a lightning bolt. By the time she did, Mane-iac had tossed a metal bola around her. Zapp was, naturally, resistant to electrical shocks so long as she discharged them quickly. With the metal ropes and spheres around her, she got no such chance and shocked herself into screaming. Bound, her muscles quickly locking up, and her conscious mind passing out; the last active Malice Mare tumbled into the snow-covered top of the nearby building.

Mane-iac grabbed hold of Gigan’s chain on her way down, her sudden weight and Gigan’s internal mechanisms pulling back on the chain dislodging it from the wall. Reeled back in towards the cyborg, both tired heroes tumbled into each other; falling back down next to each other in a panting heap.

Rolling off of the cyborg, Mane-iac helped prop him up as they lay back and surveyed the square around them. Gigan, sparking and one of his eyes’ lights flickering off and on, groaned while holding his busted arm close to him.

“Well, Roids is tapped out. Quicks-y isn't running around; and pretty sure you turned pikachu into her own bug zapper. You not dead?”

Panting a few times to catch her breath, Mane-iac took off her hat and fanned at Gigan’s sparking forearm to make sure it didn’t catch on fire.

“Y-Yes, for now. Are you going to be okay?!”

“Oh this? Hahah, never got slowed down by this before. Whadduyah think I am, a pain pansy?”

“So, it doesn’t hurt?”

“Oh it hurts like a witch!”

Gigan cackled, kicking his legs and howling with laughter. After some time reveling in the afterglow of battle and lividness of his own pain, he heard something he didn’t expect. A snickering, snorting, half hushed laugh coming from beside him. Averting his gaze to the direction he spied Mane-iac, now hiding her face behind her hand, trying to muffle herself and her laughter. It being the first time he heard her utter anything outside of her typical growling or low muttering, it only caused Gigan to sport a cheeky grin and playfully whap the heroine across the lower back with his busted arm. She was snorting with almost every breath and losing a lot of her composure, it was absolutely adorable. They sat there, enjoying some fun in the gentle snowfall.

Until two pillars of ice tore their way through the department store behind the donation tree and gouged into the street like a frozen wave. Something came flying out from a window, tumbling through the air and tumbling across the snow as it came to a stop in front of Gigan and Mane-iac. It was the handcuffs Gigan had slapped onto Matter-Horn’s hand and leg. The linking bar had been warped by an intense heat, then stabbed into by a hunk of ice that expanded outwards to further damage the mechanism. With such intense damage to the locking mechanisms across the cuffs, the locks had come undone. A third pillar of ice impaled the storefront and street, a still singed Masked Matter-Horn shaking in rage as she slowly walked out across the pillar with an absolutely livid expression on her face. Her overcloak had been partially burned off and one of her goggles was cracked, causing her to tear her goggles off and let her wild hair that slipped out from behind her mask run ragged. Gone was her original, smug and stoic expression. Now her face was continually contorting with rage and twitching at every muscle upon seeing a still-living Mane-iac and Gigan along with the rest of her team unconscious.

She said no words, just hoisted her hands back at her sides and threw them out while shrieking in hatred. On her command, enormous streams of freezing ice swept across the city square, turning the peaceful snowbanks into jagged, frozen walls of frost. Mane-iac hooked her arm around Gigan’s middle and tossed them upwards with her hair, the pair hitting the ground running away from the tsunamis of frozen water. Mane-iac mashed a button on her belt as a stream rushed towards them. The Black Beauty clicked back on, engine roaring as it sped towards them. Spikes gouged out of the tires, gripping the ice and snow easily even after it jumped the curb. For a moment it looked like Mane-iac and Gigan were going to be sandwiched between the oncoming car and the walls of ice behind them.

“Jump!”

Mane-iac belted, doing her best to do so as well while carrying a leaping Gigan along with her. They dove over the car as its front brakes roared, the roar of the tires being near deafening while the back end spun around to perpendicularly face the freezing rays. Landing on the other side, Mane-iac ripped the driver side door open and beat her fist against one of a myriad of buttons built into the steering wheel. On cue the passenger side of the car reconfigured, panels on mechanical arms popping out of the side and transforming the side of the muscle car into a single, broad panel like a shield. The metal hissed against the frigid air, heating up to a red hot temperature. When Matter-Horn’s beam hit the hot shield, the resulting ice melted instantly and either evaporated or fell to the ground as buckets of hot water. It wasn’t stopping the beam, the car was still being pushed back by the kinetic force slowly but surely even as Mane-iac and Gigan pressed against it for cover. Still it was keeping it from freezing over for the time being. Mane-iac and Gigan turned to each other, breath quickened and minds racing.

“So, what’s this witch’s deal? Not get to fourth base in awhile?”

“She’s the MM leader and the most dangerous. Her powers are elemental control. In this weather that means she can make a blizzard by looking at something hard enough.”

Matter-Horn’s manic roar of a laugh was heard over the howling snowstorm she had started to cause. The Black Beauty creaked, it’s spiked tires cutting grooves into the road under the ice as it was pushed back further.

“Well bastich needs to get fragged before she reenacts a certain Disney movie. Weaknesses?”

“Matter-Horn has no experience fighting up close, if we can reach her through the ice walls and barriers we’ll be able to stop her. Can you use your eye beams or teleport?!”

Mane-iac yelled over the storm, drawing several gadgets from the still open car door. Gigan held up his still sparking arm and pointed to his eyes.

“Not with these shorted out I ain’t! Freakin’ Roid Rage made me overcharge my warp drive and the Thor cosplayer fried my eyes. Can’t blast crap for now! And I can’t cut through those ice walls without my buzzsaw-”

Gigan’s vision was, rather reluctantly, averted from a good profile view of Mane-iac’s lower figure when she leaned in through the car door to grab something else from the far side. The cyborg spotted a particular type of store, one Saddle Rager had opened up during their fight. Mane-iac drew out the sonic projector from her glove box when she felt something smack her across the rear. Eyes blazing, she jumped out and glared at Gigan as he ran out of cover with one of Matter-Horns freezing beams chasing him. Giving the raging villainess a less than flattering hand gesture with his remaining arm to try and enrage her more, Gigan yelled out behind him before diving into the storefront and combat rolling inside.

“Keep her busy! I got a Tanaka dang plan!”

Mane-iac slipped a circular camouflage device onto her belt buckle, turning her costume pure white and blue to blend in with the snow; still leering at where the cyborg had dove in even after Matter-Horn’s ice walls engulfed the front end of the store. Equipment in hand, she dove out from the Black Beauty in the opposite direction, rolling behind an ice wall for cover.

-A plan? First time for everything. Don’t die, Gigan.-

Gigan swore, tumbling through several store aisles after getting thrown in by Matter-Horn’s ice wave. Gigan groaned, rolling himself off a half-frozen rack of garden gnomes. He kicked himself up to his feet and shook his head to clear his vision. A pain in his side caused him to brace his remaining hand there while he straightened up. Busily looking towards the power tool and utility section, the cyborg cast a grin before he casually tore an icicle that had gouged into his side out and tossed it over his head.

“That’ll do it.”

Matter-Horn focused her powers through her feet this time, stepping off her perch slow enough that another pillar of ice formed under her feet. Then another with the next step, and then the next step; as she walked herself across the square while keeping a high vantage point. She knew she hadn’t slain the interloper who tried to flee, but she least had sealed it inside the store for now. If it didn’t do something equivalent to bleeding out due to missing an arm, she was sure her team would have fun dismantling it once they woke up.

-Now it’s just the matter of her.-

Matter-Horn looked around the frozen landscape beneath her, trying to spy the long-haired dame amongst the walls and waves of ice.

“Come out come out, deeeary!”

She hissed in venom, clutching a glowing fist before she snapped around, threw her arm out, and opened the hand to fire a cryo-blast of blue energy at an ice wall she thought she saw movement out of in the corner of her eye. The blast smashed into the wall with a shower of icicles, but no frozen body. Huffing, Masked Matter-Horn tried and failed to control her rage. Something Mane-iac was quick to capitalize on. Darting out from the cover of a snow-caked car, she rushed Matter-Horn when the latter had her back turned. Her cleated boots giving her purchase, she ran vertically up the icy tower while using her hair to grip around the surface like a tree climber’s rope. Reaching the top she vaulted herself over the following ice wall while pointing a device shaped like a megaphone towards Matter-Horn. The ungodly mechanical wail that was loosed from it was strong enough to shatter the windows behind Matter-Horn and force the villainess to her knees from the shocking pain to her ears. The world going mute and ringing, Matter-Horn swiped at the air in Mane-iac’s direction with long talons of ice shooting out of her fingers. Mane-iac cracked open a smoke bomb, tossed the haze-streaming device to the side and dove after it to avoid getting shattered or rent into by the claws that ravaged the pillar she once stood upon.

Matter-Horn staggered to her feet, her pupils having dilated with light. She fired one freezing blast after another into anywhere the smoke was, sending the haze and shards of shattering ice in every direction. Her ravenous mind keyed in on a slight disturbance to her right. Darting around while waving her hand upwards, the ensuing wall of ice blocked and caught a would-be drop kick from Mane-iac, whom had vaulted herself off a pillar. Matter-Horn grit her teeth, shoving her arms out with blasts of blue energy to hurl the slab of ice Mane-iac was stuck to back. Reacting quickly, Mane-iac gripped the slab with her hair and crushed in to shatter it, yelping slightly as she pinged and skid across another frozen wall before hitting the ground running to avoid another blast.

Gigan quickly set the nanites in his arm stub to work, consuming some of the nearby metal from the shelf he was resting it on to repurpose it into his structure. Tearing open the back of what he’d selected to get at the wires, he more or less shoved it onto where his new forearm was taking shape and melded the two together. Cannibalizing other parts from another source in a shower of sparks, the nanites partially deconstructed, retrofitted, remolded, and married the replacement parts into his new weapon arm. It wasn’t a hook and it wasn’t a mace, but the cyborg cracked a toothy grin while hoisting his jerry-rigged work high and powered it up to a mechanical roar.

“Groovy.”

Matter-Horn heaved in breath, but cracked a slightly bleeding grin as she took aim at the form before and below her. Both of them were breathing heavily and worn down, nicks, scratches, bruises and the like dotting the foes; but Matter-Horn couldn’t be happier. She had her. After all this time she had her. True, Mane-iac was hardly beaten. Her hair was coiled around Matter-Horn’s middle and right arm and the exhausted heroine still had a grip on Matter-Horn’s arms, but the villainess had one hand on Mane-iac’s throat and the other glowing bright while pressed onto Mane-iac’s belly with a cryo-blast charged. When that had happened, Mane-iac froze before she was literally frozen, not budging as long as Matter-Horn didn’t. Neither of them heard the distant cackling in the background coming from the home and garden store, it being drowned out by the churning of the winter gales.

The villainess spat out some blood and drool before chuckling.

“Knew you’d come running once you found what was in the first bomb. Think of it this way, your company will have a lot of business when the big one goes off and makes a thousand more freaks like you, all those poor souls wanting to look presentable again. You could merchandise your outfit.”

Mane-iac sneered, tightening her hold on her foe in an effort to show she could constrict her just as easily as Matter-Horn could freeze her. With one tendril caught around Matter-Horn’s neck, she intended to do so.

Matter-Horn gagged briefly, her eye twitching as she hissed. She was about to see what a cryo-blast through the heart would do to a mutant when someone chucked this very piece of narration box at her and conked the villainess on the back of the head.

The whirl of power tools crossed the winter gales and Gigan came charging in from below, having already carved his way out of the store he was trapped in with the dual chainsaws he had currently mounted on one arm.

“Mane-iac get clear!”

He swiped at the pillar Matter-Horn was standing on. The sudden jostling caused Matter-Horn to lose her grip on the heroine, whom was quick to return the gesture and kick out with both legs planted into Matter-Horn’s stomach. Gigan fired out his mace and cable line ahead of the falling heroine, who took the cue and grabbed on. Rushing away from the falling ice pillar and the explosion of shards that came firing out of it, Gigan reeled his ally into him, jumped up, and caught her with his free arm.

“Well good news, I found where the red paint is for the town tonight. Bad news-?”

Both of them looked back as they heard Matter-Horn’s manic roaring, quickly rushing behind cover as they were chased by flailing beams of blue that froze everything in their path.

“-three’s still a crowd. Solutions to ditch this witch?”

Normally Mane-iac would be chewing him out for both time and place as well as a subject she had no interest in. But for now, ducking behind cover with someone who might just prove to be a friend; she could only smirk.

Matter-Horn raised herself up on a pillar taller than any before, not wanting to get caught up close with either of her two opponents. Several explosions rang out to her left and she soon spotted the telltale haze of Mane-iac’s smoke bombs. Not falling for that trick again, she rapidly punched in the air, sending out spheres of energy with each swing that peppered the smoke until they completely choked it out. She moved downwards across a walkway grown under her feet, intent on seeing the frozen forms of her foes in the smoke they tried to hide in so consistently. But instead, she found nothing more than some darkened ice with some captured bubbles of smoke dotting its insides. Before she could even try to find another target in her icy fortress, the roar of chainsaws screeched into the air. Gigan ran full sprint in a seemingly chaotic path, slashing, spinning around, and jabbing at every pillar or wall of ice he encountered and carving a path through them all. The severed structures shattered against the ground or fell into each other in a domino effect. Soon the air was flooded with the roar of breaking ice, thrown icicles, and the trapped smoke from all of Mane-iac’s remaining bombs. Matter-Horn couldn’t see a thing, coughing and swiping at the air before feeling the platform beneath her shake.

Gigan had reached her, able to see through the haze with his mechanical eyes. Ramming his saw into the pillar he dug up into it in an uppercut motion. The augmented metal teeth of the twin saws chewed through the ice faster than most people go through their holiday budget. Matter-Horn felt the ground beneath her give way as the pillar fell to the side and she started to tumble towards Gigan. Throwing her hands down she unleashed a torrent of cryo-blasts, intent on both freezing the cyborg and generating something to catch her. But in this contest between the two, the Nebulan Ranger won out compared to the exhausted Malice Mare; the revved up saw biting through any ice that formed quicker than it could fully solidify. Knowing he couldn’t hit her directly with the saw due to the comic book’s rating, Gigan instead just balled a fist and uppercut Matter-Horn in the gut, hitting her hard enough to send her hurtling back.

Heaving, panting, but nonetheless full of wrath; the Malice Mare threw her hand back even as she slid across the icy ground. Unable to intercept the blast in time, Gigan’s body began to freeze over from the point of impact at the torso and down. Masked Matter-Horn briefly smirked victoriously, until she noticed two details.

-... Where’s Mane-iac and why is that idiot smiling?!-

The roar of a car engine rumbled through the last wall of ice. Gigan smirked coolly. A pair of headlights shown through the ice wall as the prelude to the Black Beauty ramming through the structure with Mane-iac at the wheel. Speeding up between Gigan and Matter-Horn, the car slammed on it’s brakes and spun around to its side. The heat shield folded back out and was set to full blast, a roasting temperature firing out that overpowered Matter-Horn’s cryo beams and melted down Gigan’s casing enough for him to break free in a show of strength. Matter-Horn squinted her eyes at the intense light and heat, sitting up and aiming both her arms at the infernal car. With a full blast, she knew she could overpower the device at this close distance. Unfortunately for her, the distraction made her forget about the other contender she had. Gigan pointed and fired his mace at Matter-Horn’s shoulder throwing off her aim and causing her to harmlessly fire into the stormclouds above that Zapp had summoned. The roof of the Black Beauty popped open and the ejector seat activated, Mane-iac nimbly launching herself out. Spinning in the air, she turned herself around and landed a solid diving dropkick right into Masked Matter-Horn’s face. The leader of the Malice Mares and the terror of Maretropolis was knocked back and her mask came flying off, sliding across the ground and knocking aside some fallen shards of frost. Before she could move again, Gigan planted his chainsaws on either side of her head with her neck in the U shape between them, a clear threat to revv them up should she struggle. Matter-Horn reluctantly stood still while Mane-iac fit a special pair of handcuffs that covered the villainess’ hands together, keeping her from using her powers.

With the last of the Malice Mares down, the two heroes finally caught their breath. Mane-iac achingly rose up to her feet, walking over to the last remaining chemical bomb to disarm it. With no ticking clock this time, it was substantially easier than the last. Noticing the discarded mask from the woman still pinned down under his weapon, Gigan peered over his arm with a curious eye to look at the leering face looking back up at him. In a surprising tone of seriousness, he looked back at the returning heroine and tossed his voice out over to her.

“Hey, you ever seen her without her gear on?”

Mane-iac stopped a short distance away with the deactivated bomb tucked under her arm, the direction she was standing meant Gigan’s saws obscured her most hated foe’s visage.

“No. She’s the only one I don’t know.”

“Well you wanna fix that? You seemed pretty focused on this bastich to charge in like you did earlier and feelings mutual.”

Gigan muttered, glancing down at Matter-Horn. The villainess was looking in Mane-iac’s direction with a puzzled expression, clearly thinking through something. Slowly, a cruel smile crossed the crazed villain’s face. Defeated as she was, the knowledge that her worst enemy was just as obsessed with her as she was brought a macabre satisfaction to Matter-Horn. Any moment Mane-iac would look upon her and have her face stained upon her memory. Every waking hour she’d know who it was who brought her to where she was since that fated night at the factory. In a twisted way, it was an ultimate victory for Mane-iac’s worst enemy.

And she was defeated. Mane-iac, not even giving so much as a passing glance downward, walked past Gigan with the bomb in hand, stepping on and crushing Matter-Horn’s mask underfoot without so much as a fleeting pause. Matter-Horn’s face froze, almost in catatonia as she saw the boots walk past her, not getting so much as a peek backwards at her or her mask. In the twisted mind of her own morality, it was a breaking and shattering for her as Mane-iac’s boot was to her mask. Gigan shrugged, shaking his head slowly while making a tssk tssk sound with his tongue. He smirked at Mane-iac, impressed yet again. He looked down at the spaced out villainess while putting his mace directly to her face before he fired it.

“And to all a good fight~!”

CONK!

“After a grueling battle with the city’s heroine and a still unidentified individual known for causing excessive property damage earlier in the day, all four of the remaining Malice Mares were taken into custody. Thankfully most collateral damage was done to a single square and department store, which Hackett Cosmetics and Industries’ CEO Mica Hackett has already pledged to help pay for the repairs; and there were no casualties. This year’s donation drive has been a smash success and all the presents, now thankfully bomb-free, are being distributed to those in need across our fair city. In other news-”

The newscaster station flipped over to a stop-motion special. Mica Hackett shrugged, leaning back in her couch to look over at her guest seated in the lounger across the room.

“Warning next time?”

‘Ehm, mmrmy mambm.”

Gigan finished chewing on the spare crowbar he’d been given, swallowing it and checking progress on the growth of his missing hand. So far its growth in human equivalent was somewhere between fetal and infant, looking comedically small compared to the rest of his build. He tossed Mica the remote while he went for a circuit board, still digesting the last one and the crowbar to spur the aforementioned regrowth. They were back at the Hackett residence in an expansive living room that definitely had an old time feel, complete with some book shelves and a fireplace beneath the television. Mica was, on account of numerous cuts and bruises, half covered in medical wrappings that still poked out under her fuzzy robe. Her hair was let down and draped across her couch, resting in some tubs of mineral water put on stools all around her seat. Some of her old keloid scars were visible on her legs, feet, and throat; but for once she relaxed and made no effort to cover them. While Gigan had refused to change, he was likewise patched up to keep from sparking or leaking oil on the floor. The cyborg’s new chainsaw arm was detached and resting up against the chair he’d been occupying for the last hour.

“Not like we needed some recap really.”

“Point made… So, how long should it take for your boss to recall you?”

Gigan, watching the antics of a certain ruby-nostriled reindeer, just shrugged.

“Eh, I’m not gonna be in the canon for awhile, so just fraggin’ time ‘til we find out. Nice of ye’ to let me crash here.”

Mica ignored the confusion in his words and sighed, laying back and figuratively kicking back for the first time in what felt like years.

“I don’t trust you on the street. And I guess I appreciated the help. After tonight? Might consider hiring it.”

“Bright red and yellow is good for sidekicks, draws fire.”

Gigan snarked, crunching the circuit board in one bite soon after. Mica rolled her eyes, laying back and letting sleep drift closer. She muttered what wouldn’t be the first time she said it, but this time the tone was devoid of any edge or anger. It was an insult with a degree of warmth.

Learn More and Donate Here!

“Shut up, Gigan…”

Author's Note

Proofed by Lance-Omikron, Faith-Wolff, and Evowizard!

Happy Holidays everypony and everykaiju! Whatever your beliefs are, or lack of them, now is a time for good will towards man in a celebration of belief or just good memory and hope. I bid you all a good night and a hopefully even better tomorrow in some way or another! Life is too precious to waste in anger or dread.

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Shenanigans and stunt flying at the airshow, goings-on in Zenith with Bagan and Ghidorah; and some unexpected company for Ki Seong!

Chapter 35: Flight

Neighagra Falls always was a breathtaking sight to behold and the pegasus cloud sculptors had outdone themselves in readying the show. Hovering several hundred meters above the massive, roaring waterfall, a massive cloud foundation hovered in place. Built atop the megalith of cumulus was an entire launch pad, seating area, and center stage. All of which had been constructed and then flown in from the weather factories of Cloudsdale. Connecting the floating platform to the ground was a long escalator-like ramp made of packed cloud. With the aid of the cloud walking bands that had been prepared for the show, crowds of unicorns and earth ponies were free to join in on the event from a place higher than ground level. With all three races, in addition to foreign guests from Saddle Arabia, Gryphonstone, and the Minotaur lands; the airshow was poised to be far larger than any show Cloudsdale or the Wonderbolts had been associated with before.

And it was on the moving ramp where a gaggle of such guests were making their arrival. Rodan breathed in the atmosphere, more than happy to be out in the open and high up again as he beamed with pride. He’d remembered the promise he’d made to a certain barmare to make the show big enough she’d hear about it first time on the radio, but he found himself not wanting such. Afterall, why settle for the radio when you can use your entry to snag a couple of tickets? The pterosaur-kaiju-turned-gryphon stepped off the escalator and onto the main platform with several friends from Appleloosa right behind him. The first was a familiar black, white, and red earth pony, the aforementioned barmare who got Rodan to join this event in the first place; Thalia. As Thalia gaped at the altitude and scenery around her, her husband Dallas stepped off the moving walkway beside her and stoically looked about the land. Dallas was a tough piece of work, a densely muscled gray unicorn with a black mane and a coat riddled with old work scars he’d gotten as a rancher. Never was one to talk much and frankly Rodan was terrified of him for the first few days. Still he was happily hitched to a kind soul like Thalia so the young kaiju just figured he was reserved.

-Must be kinda like Chief. He hasn’t opposed anything yet so I think he likes me.-

Rodan was still quick to look off to the side when he thought he saw Dallas about to meet his glimpse.

-I think.-

Fortunately his other two guests were a deal more jovial. The hovering blur of pink shot over the edge of the escalator and pulled Rodan into a bear hug. The curly-maned, bow-sporting, pink pegasus rubbing her cheek up against Rodan’s collar was another good friend from Appleloosa. Phoenix was her name and stage dancing was her game, a game she’d roped Rodan into to teach him how to walk and move around with six limbs instead of his original four. Without her, he wouldn’t be able to walk up to the show Thalia had talked him into.

“Thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank yooou! Oooh, I might be a pegasus but I’ve never been to a show like this before! The stage is enormous!”

Rodan smiled and patted Phoenix on the back before she pulled off him, earning a giggle from Thalia as she trotted over to them.

“Neither have most of us Phoenix, though I think the sky is going to be our friend here’s stage.”

Braeburn had turned down chance to come, a minor disappointment as Rodan figured he could use a vacation after getting attacked by a gyaos like that. Said something about a strong heart wanting to check in on his healing, but admittedly Rodan didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. Braeburn just seemed happy about it so he opted not to prod. Instead he’d passed his spare tickets over to Rainbow Dash for her group, which had gotten up the escalator before Rodan could see who all was there. Needless to say he was more than a bit surprised when he saw a tall shadow loom over him. Shaded, Rodan looked up and squawked quietly as his eyes bugged out at Destroyah of all creatures looking down at him.

If a tumbleweed could be present at this high up, one would have been blowing by due to the extended awkward silence. A trio of little forms popped up from behind Destroyah’s shoulders and head, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo beaming as they waved at the group from their living vantage point. Giving himself a mental kick in the rear to speak up at the goliath mare that still gave him the creeps even in her Equestrian form, Rodan awkwardly returned the wave to the fillies.

“Oh, hi. Didn’t expect you here.”

Destroyah shrugged, looking away from the gryphon and at the cloud platform around them, scanning each flight team, the myriad of guests, and paparazzi that seemed to have definately noticed her as well.

“Scootaloo wanted to watch the flight teams, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle wanted to come too once they heard about the glowing bands; and there was a spare ticket.”

The Cutiemark Crusaders slid down from their perch at the sight of a familiar cyan blue blur hovering over to them from the ramp. Rainbow Dash looked around frantically, her body twitching with anticipation.

“Not late am I?! Woulda flown up but the fun-police said it could mess with the loaded cloud!”

“Nope!-”

Scootaloo chirped as she jumped off Destroyah’s head and towards her idol, hooking her hooves around Rainbow Dash’s collar and giggling from the glomp.

“-Shows not up for another half-hour silly!”

Shooting out a sigh of relief on breath that misted the cold air, Rainbow grinned and started trying to playfully shake Scootaloo off and eliciting a roar of giggles from the filly whom refused to let go.

“Oh thank Celestia!”

Applebloom and Sweetie Belle snickered and joined in, soon the three fillies were grabbing onto and play-wrestling with the mare who grinned and spun them around while balancing on one hindhoof. Rodan, his typical confidence returning, smirked at the happy sight while propping himself up against Destroyah with an elbow on her forelimb.

“Really, why’d you come?”

Destroyah stayed silent for a moment or two, sighing quietly at she watched the fillies. If Rodan didn’t possibly write it off as sun in his eyes, he could have sworn she was smiling.

“If I’m to stay here, I thought I had to try something new. We both know my old habits, or would you prefer I remind you?”

Rodan pursed his beak, if such action is possible, glancing back and forth between where he was touching Destroyah and up at the mare’s face; wondering if putting a hand on Destroyah was a good idea or not. Always was a good idea to question life decisions when one wonders if they’re about to lose it. Before he could further dread the idea of whether she had figured out what sarcasm was or not, Destroyah nodded her head subtly and whispered.

“And, I came because it made them happy.”

Trailing her line of sight to the laughing CMC, Rodan’s face swelled with a grin while he watched the ponies alongside his former enemy.

“You know? Could get real used to seeing this side of you.”

“Don’t push it.”

Destroyah grunted, earning a shrug from Rodan.

“Just saying, not having you trying to kill me or everyone else is a welcome change.”

“It’s one I wanted, so I took it. I’ll still kill when I see reason to though. Don’t give me one and you keep your head.”

Rodan let the growl in her voice go right through his head and shrugged it off.

“Hey, with all the other kaiju who might be running around; that’s a good note in my book. You and Xenilla that is. Six on Tanaka knows how many is better than four.”

Rodan hovered up to Destroyah’s level and took a good look at her and the ponies. After a few moments span he gave a slow nod, pushing the visage of Destroyah the Mutation off to see Destroyah the Pegasus. He smirked, getting the gall to lightly elbow her in the shoulder.

“You’re off to a good start and I’m sure the hatchlings will love the show.”

Back with the ponies, Scootaloo looked between Rainbow and the other flight teams with a realization that caused her brow to lift.

“Huh? Rainbow where’s your flight suits? All the other fliers got them.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged, looking at the colorful goggles and flight vests the other teams were clad in. Usually they were simple in design with a primary color and accent color for the lines and stripes, with said color palette either matching the whole of the team or in the case of pairs, having the primary color taken from their teammate’s body coat and vice versa.

“Don’t you two got them? I thought all those competing needed them.”

“Yeah, I remember Rarity working on them. But, where are they? She said she wasn’t coming though!”

Sweetie Belle piped, starting to flash worry across her face. Rainbow Dash just smirked and ruffled the filly’s mane.

“Hey, don’t you two pipsqueaks worry. Remember how me and Ro’ got four tickets a piece? Well he used his three on his friends from Appleloosa and gave me his spare. Aaaand there just happens to be somepony about as awesome as me who was at the top of my list.”

Crossing her forelimbs, she tapped her hoof against her body with each count.

“3...2...1!”

A distant swooshing sound grew even louder with each count and a venerable shockwave shot up and over the elevator. In the clearing of a second a multicolor-maned earth pony mare with a near identical cyan body coat to Rainbow Dash had charged up the elevator and barreled at the speedster flier, whom turned and held her forelimbs out to embrace the newcomer. Mother and daughter collided in a bear hug and spun around in a gleeful roar of laughter. “Radiance”, legally Rainbow Jennifer Dash Senior, beamed at her progeny, Rainbow Jennifer Dash Junior; even as everyone short of said junior looked at the earth pony in shock with some looking between her and the dust-and-cloud trail she’d kicked up that seemed to stretch down the elevator, to the ground, and to the sight’s limit. Rodan chuckled in a half hearted attempt not to burst out laughing, shaking his head while giving an impressed, slow clap.

“Took you long enough ‘Ma! Almost thought you were competing!”

“Oh do come now dah’ling, you know I wouldn’t want to embarrass my little rainbow in front of all your friends!”

Radiance snickered, pushing in her daughter's cheeks like Rainbow was in her twos rather than her twenties. Rainbow groaned playfully, getting out of her grasp while holding the fashionista's hooves. Glancing to Radiance’s saddlebags, she started to bounce up and down on her tippy hooves.

“Oh oh! The suits in there? Or did you bring extra ‘sticks’?”

“Both!”

Radiance beamed, drawing out the one-piece flight suits and passing Rainbow Dash hers. It was a single piece of magic fabric, not dissimilar in make up from the one used at the Wonderbolt academy and for the team themselves. The primary color was a burnt cinnamon hue very close in shade to Rodan’s primary body color, with cyan ringed armholes, stripes, and arrow pattern. The accompanying goggles were a standard set gold rings with tinted glass.

“Latest and greatest of enchanted threads. My star pupil truly outdid herself in getting her stock. It’ll stretch to any needed size without tightening or coming loose. Virtually heat proof and friction free on the outside to avoid interfering with flight or burning up. And, unlike the first suit I made for you after that first air show you watched, washable.”

Radiance turned her head towards the other guests, taking off her trademark, giant pink sunhat to hush her words from the Rainbow Dash standing in the opposite direction.

“Ooooh the sweat stench she cooked up! Phoouw! Took me weeks to clean that one!”

Rainbow Dash, red in the face with her ears flattening down, pulled the hat away and shook Radiance.

“Moooooooooom!”

Before anyone could say anything else, the loudspeakers mounted on either side of the bleachers belted out Soarin’s chipper voice.

“Attention everypony and guests! First flight teams launch in ten minutes so park your seats and teams file into the waiting area behind the bleachers. Show’s about to begin folks!”

“Well, guess that means we best get moving. Best of luck Rodan!”

Thalia quipped with a beaming smile as she walked past, waving to her gryphon friend as her husband followed along behind her. At first he looked like he was sporting his trademark, squinting, blank scowl; but the gryphon got a pleasant surprise when the stallion tipped his head to him in a subtle nod. Outwardly Rodan returned the gesture slightly, inwardly he was sighing hard enough in relief he’d be venting steam. Phoenix sauntered up to Rodan with a sly smirk on her muzzle. Reaching out with a hoof, Rodan recognized the gesture and grinned; taking her by the hoof and twirling the showgirl around in what looked like a showdance maneuver as she used her momentum to spin him around as well. With the brief maneuver done, they clapped hoof-to-paw and snickered at the completion of their goodbye routine.

“Break a leg Rodan!”

“Hey, as long as it’s not a wing; I’ll be fine!”

Destroyah paced over to the Crusaders, reaching down with her neck to scoop Scootaloo up onto her head while picking up Applebloom and Sweetie Belle in her wings to deposit them on her back.

“Come on.”

“Break a wing Rainbow Dash!”

The fillies waved at Rainbow Dash and Rodan as they hung off arguably the most powerful and unlikely babysitter Equestria had ever known, Rainbow Dash clicking her tongue, grinning, and winking at Scootaloo as they passed. Destroyah gave Rodan a fleeting glance.

“Break every limb, Rodan.”

She grunted before plodding off, causing a roll of sweat to run down Rodan’s deadpanned face. Scootaloo’s ears flopped down and she started whispering to Destroyah as they left.

“Ehehe, you’re supposed to just say break a wing. For luck.”

“So wouldn’t breaking more mean more luck?”

“Doooesn’t really work like that.”

Snapping the gryphon out of his stupor, Radiance turned to Rodan and offered him the second flight suit. Otherwise identical to Rainbow Dash’s in motif and patterning, it’s only real difference was the red and cyan had been flipped to make the latter the more prominent color. Didn’t take a genius or a fashion lover to know why Rarity and Radiance had done it like some other flight teams had, as the contrasting colors matched well, showed they were on the same team; and used the other’s color as the primary body as not to blend in with themselves. Rodan curiously pulled at and stretched the fiber some once he got a hold of it, instantly noticing that it didn’t feel quite like normal fabric and was incredibly lightweight.

“Gotta hand it to you Mrs. Dash, never seen stuff like this before. Sure it’ll fit me?”

“Tis my prodigy student who should get the thanking. Rarity must have spent days gathering all the magic-infused spools of thread and cloth to make it. I was merely the chef compiling the batter together to bake it. It’s virtually tear-proof and reconfigures to the form it’s in. You might be an odd one Mr. Kaiju, but if it could fit both my smallest and largest gryphon mannequin; it’ll fit you just fine.”

Rainbow Dash beamed at the flight suit she held. True, it was hardly the first one her mother had made her and it wasn’t the first one she’d worn in relation to the Wonderbolts. But it was still oh so special for both those reasons and more. A lot of ponies would think having a nationally recognized fashionista for a mother would result in some friction with her life choices, but it surprisingly wasn’t ever the case. Radiance looked over at her daughter, noticing Rainbow Dash Junior was looking upon her, and tilted her head.

“Are you alright, deary?”

Rainbow Dash’s face curled into a beaming smile and she put a forelimb around her mother, a slightly hushed sniffle being audible after she put her head and neck around Radiance’s. Here she was, about to amaze the nation in a Wonderbolts event with a sponsorship from the Princesses themselves. And she was going to do it flying with patterns made by a good friend and a parent she’d never gotten to perform in front of before. Happiness was an understatement.

“You’re the best, mom.”

Radiance, briefly surprised at the public sign of affection, beamed and returned the hug… before the tender moment was promptly ruined by a snide, dry voice in a manner that one could practically hear the record scratch.

“Oh joy, you’re here too.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes snapped open and she soon spotted a familiar green-furred, yellow-orange streak-maned pegasus mare wearing a white and green flightsuit. Breaking off the hug, Rainbow quickly put herself between an old rival and her mother.

“Lightning Dust.”

“Rainbow Dash. So the kaiju came after all. Great, there goes the whole showtime for us given the crowds came to gawk at the Princesses’ big beast. Looks like we’re all wasting our time here.””

Rodan had no clue who this newcomer was, but he was a quick study of body language and tone. And what he saw quickly caused him to conclude he did not like this mare. Rodan straightened up and started to put himself in front of his flight partner and glare at Lightning Dust. If Lightning Dust was intimidated by the looming gryphon, she hid it very well, only leering back defensively while tensing up. The latter part did give Rodan a small degree of muted satisfaction as he snorted his nostrils.

-Show it or not, she’s scared. Good.-

Rodan glanced back at his teammate.

“Friend of yours Rainbow?”

“Opposite of that.”

Rodan looked ahead and started to advance on Lightning Dust, not wanting to even bother listening to whatever dribble she came to spew out.

“Then I will escort her out.”

A hoof stuck up in front of Rodan and gave him pause, glancing over at its owner to see Rainbow Dash standing beside him and looking at Lightning Dust blankly.

“It’s okay Rodan, don’t need to defend me. Why don’t you go off and stretch before we get called up? I’ll catch up.”

Rodan sighed, nodding and toning his demeanor down. Giving Radiance a happy smile and nod, he walked past Lightning Dust, only momentarily pausing to glare at the pegasus out of the corner of his eyes before moving off to the flight teams’ waiting area. With the kaiju gone, Rainbow Dash and Lightning Dust’s tense looks turned to each other. Radiance watched on with quiet breath. Typical reaction from her seeing her daughter so stressed out was to acquaint the stressor with what she kept in her saddlebags, but her little Dashie’s reaction to Rodan jumping to her defense told her to stay back and let her daughter handle herself.

“What’s your game Lightning Dust?”

“No game, just anger for him and pity for you.”

“What?”

“All these flight teams who showed up? This was supposed to be their five minutes of fame, a chance to amaze and maybe catch some attention.”

Lightning Dust motioned to the various flight teams in the launch area Rodan was heading to, pegasus and gryphon alike from all over Equestria and beyond. Lightning Dust narrowed her eyes.

“And you dragging that kaiju here has ruined it.You think any of the press or photographers are going to put the Los Pegasus flight duo on the front page of tomorrow’s daily?”

Lightning Dust pointed at the packed stands, cuing Rainbow Dash to return the leer and deflect her hoof.

“Not everypony here is in it for the fame, Dust. This was a voluntary show and they accepted more than just stunt fliers. They’re here because they want to be, unlike you apparently. Look at me, I’ll be right next to the guy in flight and you don’t see me flipping out about it!”

Rainbow Dash barked, earning a deadpanned pout from Lightning Dust. The green pegasus shrugged, like she was having to lecture Rainbow again like when they were in the academy together with her as lead flier; talking down to the cyan speedster.

“Dash, Dash, Dash… If there is anything I know about you, it’s that you love attention. Why else strive to get me kicked out so you wouldn’t be second fiddle?”

“You getting kicked out was all on you.”

Lightning Dust’s eye twitched briefly and her ears shot up. After a moment of strain, she kept a cool composure and muttered back.

“And can you tell me upfront you hated the fact somepony was getting more spotlight than you? Because you’re going to get more of that today than any of us. You’re honestly a good flier Dash, you made second spot to me at the academy after all. I’m just sad to see such talent wasted.”

“What are you on about?”

“Your flight partner isn’t just going to blot out the other teams.”

Lightning Dust crossed her forelimbs and pouted.

“I know about your Rainbow Falls team, a skittish Pegasus and someone who just barely made the Academy and couldn’t pass the speed test. You don’t pick teams that fit you, you pick ones you’ll shine over. Won’t be the case here. Somepony like you having to resort to free-loading off a pet monster to get into this show? It’s nothing but pitiful.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes nearly dilated as she shot up to a hover and loomed over Lightning Dust.

“Look if you’re just here to talk smack, you’re wasting your breath. So what if I’m here on the Princess’ pick? Just means they picked their best.”

“And yet they picked you in a PR stunt, sticking you on a team with someone you couldn’t hope to outshine if you were twice the flier you are. Good or not, you’re gonna be an afterthought as he steals the show out from under you. Unlike the rest of us, we don’t need to fly at the same time he does… And-”

Lightning Dust huffed, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

“The only reason I’m wasting my breath is because I wanted a challenge. We never did find out which one of us was the better flier for sure and I didn’t want you embarrassing yourself with your so-called teammate.”

Rainbow Dash twinged slightly at Lightning Dust’s words. As much as she loathed the thought, some parts of her mind began passing the idea around. She didn’t mind the idea of her being in this show just to help out a friend, loyalty is part of friendship after all. But she felt the flight suit on her limb, Rarity and her mother’s own work, and heard the murmuring of the crowds gathered. With so much effort given to her and such a pressure to give the crowds something to amaze them, some part of her was worried about being shortchanged out of the show. Maybe it was selfishness, maybe it was ego; or just desire to live up to her standards, but one way or another Lightning Dust’s seed of doubt had taken a marginal root.

Poising herself and snapping back with her typical bravado, Rainbow Dash snorted and leered at Lightning Dust.

“Oh I can handle a challenge alright, not like some jerk like you would be one. And I’ve seen what Rodan can do. He or I coulda gotten into this show easy with or without the Princesses backing us up just to embarrass competition freaks like you.”

“Oh yes, you’re here. And no one will remember it. Anything you do, he will outshine you even if he’s only half as good as you think. These crowds?”

She muttered, motioning to the packed bleachers and even larger crowd of ponies trickling up the escalator. There had to be hundreds of them.

“They came here because they heard he was coming. Thanks to your partner, how many of us do you think are gonna be in the papers tomorrow? You got here because of the princesses, you got to the academy because of your friends in Ponyville. Wouldn’t be surprised if you got your house and fame by lifting your mother’s name, Junior… No. I’m just pitying you because you are going to get the least amount of attention out of all of us, since you’re right next to him. Can’t freeload your way out of this, Rainbow Crash. At least I just made you look bad back at the academy.”

Rainbow Dash’s ears shot up and her teeth gritted. Her fur bristled with rage at the accusations, both the slams against her friends’ honor and her own. Freeloading, that was taking advantage of one’s ties to another for your own benefit. As much an opposite of loyalty as treachery was. It went against Rainbow’s very nature and the thought she didn’t get where she was at least based off some of her own merit left her blood boiling. It was no small miracle she didn’t lash out and acquaint Lightning Dust with her hooves, as tempting as the thought was. Rainbow Dash’s body tensed up, she closed her eyes, and counted to ten.

After counting to twenty, she let out her long breath and looked at Lightning Dust’s bored expression. Straightening herself up, Rainbow Dash just turned to her mother and gave her a quick hug.

“Thanks for the suit mom, I’m going to find Rodan to get ready and review flight plans.”

“Oh, okay. Do be safe in this show, dah'ling.”

Rainbow Dash cracked a cheeky grin that did little to dismay any fears.

“Hey, it’s me!”

Radiance chuckled quietly, shaking her head slowly as her daughter turned to hover away. As Rainbow Dash faced Lightning Dust, she gave her a dull look that was devoid of investment. Deciding to be the better mare, to Rainbow; she just wasn’t even worth the effort of getting fired up over. Radiance walked up beside Lightning Dust, waving goodbye to her daughter with a handkerchief in her hoof. The proud mother’s muffled sniffling and dabbing at her eyes caused Lightning Dust to groan in vexation. The latter began to lift off with spread wings to head to the flight zone. She’d gotten five yards when something zoomed up behind her and yanked back on her tail. Lightning Dust hit the cloud to see a gleaming eyed, stone faced Radiance looming over her. Radiance tilted her head up and looked upon her departing daughter with a smile.

“Remember, she’s my little Dashie. I think you misunderstand what her sharing my name does for the crowd.”

Radiance muttered sweetly, but with a bite of sternness behind her voice. Lightning Dust yanked herself free of the older mare with a glare, glancing over at Rainbow Dash’s form.

“Remind them who her mother is so she gets another boost? The amount of freeloading here is nauseating. The kaiju carries her into a show, she’s going to carry it through the show; and she’s carried by your name everywhere she goes. It’s reliance.”

Radiance shook her head slowly like she was scolding a bratty child, clicking her tongue to accent the shakes with “tsk tsk tsk”.

“You mistake loyalty for reliance, and relationships with dependence. And, the name part.”

“What, so she can fall back and be a cloth cutter if she ever broke a wing and still get rep?”

Radiance Dash zoomed up to Lightning Dust’s face so fast one would have swore she teleported. The typically composed and cheery fashion designer’s face was absolutely livid with barely tranquil fury as she got right up to the bully’s smug mug. Her voice rapidly shifted from barking to downright demonic sounding.

“No, she and I sharing a name gets to remind ponies what an amazing mare I get to have for a daughter you insolent, miscreantLittlePieceOf!-”

Rodan finished some wing and limb stretches just as he heard someone approaching from his left. Turning around he expected it to be Rainbow Dash having caught up to him. Instead, he found himself looking into the beaked face of a female gryphon wearing a light green flight suit with white accents. The gryphon seemed to be looking him over for a bit, then glanced off to the sides as if she were searching for someone. Fact she instantly turned her attention back to him told him whoever she was on look-out for hadn’t shown up yet.

“Your partner is Dash, right?”

She muttered in a quiet tone Rodan detected a hint of anger in. Giving a slightly suspicious eye to the newcomer, he nodded.

“Rainbow Dash Junior, yes. Only specifying since her mother is here.”

The gryphon rolled her eyes, sighing out of her nose.

“Pff, figures…”

She crossed her arms and looked sideways. Her eyes absently twitched back and forth and her head bobbed with it oh so subtly, clearly mulling over some thoughts for several moments before Rodan grunted to get her attention back.

“Yooou were saying this, why? Come to wish me luck?”

She breathed in and sighed, frowning slightly.

“Come to warn you.”

A few seconds past and Rodan tilted his head own in a manner one could practically hear it creak like old wood.

“...Come again?”

The gryphon’s eyes hardened even as she looked off to the side.

“You do know she’s just using you for herself right? You two have been all over the headlines, half the crowd is here just because you’re in on this.”

If the feathered gryphon was trying to make a point, it was bouncing off Rodan’s head rather than sinking in.

“Um, you’re point? Just because she’s competing with me doesn’t imply anything. Besides if I’m drawing crowds-”

-Rather than scaring them off, reverse of the norm there-

“-that just means more notice to everyone else. Why shouldn't Rainbow be happy about that?”

She groaned, rolling her eyes at the statement. Tilting her head, she looked to Rodan and tapped a fist into his shoulder.

“This time? Chance for fame in a Wonderbolts-hosted event and getting a sponsorship from the Pony Princesses themselves? Do you really think she could have just grabbed a random flyer to get that on her own?”

Even as the negative gryphon continued railing on, Rodan couldn’t stop his eyes from narrowing and muttering,

“Considering she’s helped save this continent three or four times by now, she should be able to.”

“-I don’t care about you. I don’t care what you do. I’m just warning you one gryphon to another. That Rainbow isn’t loyal. If you’re half the flyer you seem to be, she will do everything in her power to put herself above you. Getting any sort of attention is all about her, no matter who else is around. For Rainbow Falls she grabbed some novice dweeb who barely finished flight school and another who didn’t know a thing about relay, just so she could carry the stable and be the team. It wasn’t about her team, it was all about getting herself in the spotlight. Just like she’s doing now for you.”

Rodan growled quietly as his claws dug into the cloud under him. He was quickly adding another face to the list of flyers he really was beginning to not like and he didn’t even know her name yet. He straightened up, standing over the brown gryphon and moved forward just enough to loom over her. True, the effect wasn’t as intense as it would be if Godzilla Junior stood next to Prince Blueblood, as Rodan wasn’t as freakishly big as Chief; but he was enough to stand a bit above the already tall gryphon.

“Listen chickadee, I’m a really hard guy to torque off. But unless you give me something valuable enough to waste a thought on, you’re wasting your breath.”

He growled. She steeled herself, defiantly glaring back while flexing her wing muscles in tensity.

“You two practice any maneuvers?”

“Plenty. And we’re all in equal parts for them.”

“Then just wait. I give you two acts tops before she goes off track to do something on her own. Just watch, I bet you she’s going to ask for a change of pace right before you two kick off. You’re not her wingmate, you’re her excuse for an audience and she will-”

She closed in on him again, trying to command space through position and body language in a way the kaiju understood fully. Get right up to someone and force them back, and you’ve already commanded the argument in your favor. Command he wasn’t about to give her. Rodan dashed forward enough to close the gap, pushing into the gryphon’s space and putting his crested forehead to hers to force her head and neck down.

“You have few words more to speak before I stop caring.”

She let the momentary surprise shake itself off her, pushing back against the pterosaur-gryphon best she could. To her credit she might have been forced away and backing down, but she was holding herself well enough. A five second pause ensued before she obliged.

“I’m someone who’s known that traitor longer than you have. She will leave you behind, no matter how much you think you know her.”

The gryphon soon felt a strong paw on her shoulder, glancing over to it to see Rodan had grabbed onto her at the same time she felt a great heat coming from where his forehead was pushed into hers. Rodan’s eyes seemed to be burning with a glow as his voice spat embers.

“I’d call the Element of Loyalty the last one to ever be traitorous.”

The vice grip on her shoulder stopped and she felt herself shoved back a short distance. Her face was definitely flashing with emotion but something that did pique the kaiju’s interest was the cracks that formed. Try and look angry as she did, and she very likely was on some level, it was evident that this gryphon was putting up a bravado to hide something else.

“I call it ironic. You could think you’ve known her for years, all the harder to see the turn coming.”

-You know, if I didn’t know better on this one; I’d almost thought she looked sad there for a moment.-

Rodan kept up his stern look for a time before shrugging and he relaxed his stance. Chuckling lightly as he bounced right back to his typical, jovial tone, Rodan just patted the gryphon’s shoulder and quipped.

“Silly birdie, cynicism like that is for hatchlings.”

Her face contorted into a confused mix of bewilderment and trying to see if she could scowl any harder, all the seriousness she’d been cultivating having rolled off the side of the cloud and plummeting to earth.

“A-Are you that blind?!”

“No, but I am trusting. I’ve seen the sort of things that mare throws herself at, some in-person. She’s got my hope and that’s what I run on half the time.”

“You’re a fool.”

“Probably, but you’ll never find me wallowing. Cheer up featherhead,-”

Rodan patted the obviously fuming gryphon on the head, only electing not to bring up how cute the beings of this world looked even when angry. Looked like some kid’s toy trying to throw a tantrum.

“-keep your thoughts so low and you’ll find yourself doing the opposite of flying. Let me worry about what I think need of worry”

With that, Rodan rolled his shoulders and putzed off to a quiet spot on the cloud. Having done his stretches but still not seeing Rainbow Dash yet, as she was still conversing with Lightning Dust out of sight, he opted to stretch out on a patch of cloud to absorb some sunlight. Literally walking on clouds, let alone laying upon them, was still baffling to him; but Rainbow had assured him it was safe and he wasn’t one to turn down a comfy resting spot with an open sky all around. It was so comfy in fact that the moment his eyes shut, he slipped into a micro-nap and wasn’t conscious when a brief flash of a portal to somewhere else popped open inside the cloud and vacuumed him up when no one was looking.

Where did Rodan go? Find out here!

He reappeared a millisecond later, in the exact same position and space he’d been in before save for some char flaking off his wings and body. Rodan winced and groaned in his sleep, grimacing from subconscious emotions for a few seconds before something touching him woke him up with a panicked shout.

A ways away, the brown gryphon walked to her team’s spot and plopped down on her haunches. Giving a tired, melancholy shrug, the gryphon’s mind was plagued with memories she wanted to forget. From days at a flight academy to a day in a place called Ponyville, the conflicting emotions were tearing at her mind in a way that the only thing she was glad of was the fact Rodan hadn’t seen her like this. Care for the kaiju she did not, but if Rainbow Dash was involved; so were she and her accomplice. Gilda quickly regained her bravado and just stared blankly ahead of herself with a sullen frown. She crossed her arms as a slightly scuffed up Lightning Dust, still rubbing her ears from the verbal blowout she’d gotten, sat next to her.

“You do your part?”

Lightning Dust winced a bit from the ringing in her left ear, turning her right one to Gilda and tapping the gryphon with her hoof.

“What? My left ear is still ringing.”

“I said, did you do your part?”

“Yes, but not for lack of difficulty. Her mother isn’t what I expected her to be.”

“Radiance? Yes you don’t want to underestimate her. Ever.”

“But before Mrs. Mace-In-A-Bag barged in, I could tell I unnerved her.”

“What she deserves. When she sees our team, it’ll drive the nail in.”

“Thrown off their game, we got one less rival to worry with.”

“Whole reason I agreed to fly with you.”

“Well that and you could keep up with me.”

“Don’t push it dweeb.”

Rainbow Dash mulled about through the small crowd of flight teams, half wondering about how she could lose someone like Rodan even in a mass while the other half of her mind harped on what Lightning Dust said. The second part was especially unavoidable when she overheard some of what the crowd were babbling about as she passed by.

“I heard the kaiju is flight number 3.”

“Flight team 3, yes.”

“Team? I thought he was flying solo.”

“No apparently they got some Wonderbolt academy member Princess Twilight knew to go up with him. Just make sure you got your camera focus set right to catch him.”

“I heard this kaiju was fastest on his homeworld, wonder if his partner can keep up?”

“Well we’ll just-”

Rainbow Dash growled, covering hear ears and storming away. Much as she showed anger, in truth a lot of the words said had stung and caused Lightning Dust’s taunts to replay over and over again in her head. Chewing the inside of her cheek, she glanced back at the crowd where her mother was sitting; on the side of the bleacher’s front row next to where Destroyah and the Crusaders had sat down next to the stands on account of the former’s size.

-Is anypony even going to notice I’m here if they came for a kaiju and not a pegasus? First time Mom’s been able to come and I wanted her and the kids to enjoy it…-

She looked around some more and spied Rodan squirming atop a small cloud he was using as a bed. Pursing her lips in a mixture of reluctance and worry, she trotted over to her partner all while a new train of thought pulled into her mind.

-Maybe if I stepped up my game some and tweaked the plans? He wouldn’t mind too much, right?-

Rodan’s squirming spiked when he felt a hoof jostle him awake. He sprung up and shouted on instinct, startling the cyan pegasus who jumped back and puffed her wings out.

“Hey! Hey! Easy easy! You dozed off on me there.”

Rodan frantically snapped his head to and fro, still obviously groggy from what had happened and not sure what was going on.

“Wh-What happened!? Where?! Sun-ACK!”

Rodan yelped, grabbing his head and shaking it as he hyperventilated. Sensing his distress, Rainbow Dash risked grabbing onto the superstrong, talon-bearing kaiju by the shoulders to try and focus him.

“He! It’s okay! We’re alright. Eyes on me, eeeeyes on me!”

Rodan did as asked, focusing on his friend and falling still as his breathing slowly wound back down. Rainbow Dash sucked in her breath and held it, motioning for Rodan to mimic her. After holding that breath for a good twenty seconds each, they both let it out and the shakes Rodan was going through ceased.

“You okay?”

Rodan winced a bit, nodding shallowly.

“Sun. Sun set. Where?”

He muttered in a manner that showed even he was confused at his choice of words. Rainbow Dash cocked an incredulous eyebrow and glanced over to the horizon to quickly double check the skies hadn’t suddenly turned red and yellow yet.

“Um, it’s midday Ro’. Won’t be sunset for awhile. You have some sort of weird dream?”

Rodan’s face puzzled from a myriad of emotions crossing through the inside of his skull and he not knowing at all why. The purpose for such feelings was as elusive as trying to capture smoke in a bare hand. Everytime he felt like he was beginning to recall what was on his mind, he’d just lose all but wisps of it and be back at square one without any more context than he had before.

“I.. I guess. Having trouble remembering a thing though. Head feels weird when I try to focus on it.”

He grunted, still holding onto his cranium to try and ensure he didn’t get dizzied vision again. Rainbow Dash cast a small frown, leaning in closer to him and putting a forelimb across his forehead to check for a fever.

“You don’t feel any warmer than before so ‘least you’re not sick. Are you gonna be okay to fly safely?”

Rodan waved his paw at his concerned teammate, chuckling lightly as his classic optimism settled back in and he was able to shrug off most of the confusion and worry.

“Hehe, don’t worry about me too much. I’ll be fine. Just some temporary vertigo from one of those weird dreams where you can’t remember upon waking up, I think. Used to get them all the time… We up for flight yet?”

Rainbow Dash paused, earning a curious look from Rodan especially after she seemed to briefly mull over a thought that left her ears lowering down. Sighing, she shook her head.

“No, but we will soon. I, I wanted to ask you if we could maybe make a last minute tweak?”

Inside Rodan’s head something started to ping and he involuntarily began to have recollections of Gilda’s warning. Electing to hope it wasn’t going where he thought it was going, he just tilted his head and grunted quietly.

“... Tweak how?”

Rainbow Dash rubbed a forelimb against the back of her head in a second of awkwardness.

“Well, would it be okay if we.. just in theory, replaced maneuver three with that one we threw out?”

-Uh oh… To quote Applejack, strike one.-

“You mean the one I got trouble describing?”

“The… buckaneer blitz, yes. Listen I know you don’t really know what to do for it, but you could try to do that beam thingy we talked about as back up!”

Rainbow Dash belted before biting her lip, practically kicking herself mentally for every word even as she tried to scramble and not come off as the glory-hog the suggestions were making her sound like. Rodan’s face began to shift to a frown as he played the hypothetical maneuver through his mind.

-Strike two.-

“Would be risky for me to shoot. I’d have to be really far away from anyone, you included, to get them all in sight and avoid hitting anyone…. Which means I’d be in the background with you right up front of the crowd…”

He muttered, a mental image of Gilda practically laughing at him with an “I told you so” expression painted onto her face. Upon seeing Rainbow’s face, which was turned away from him in an obvious expression of awkwardness and possibly shame, the kaiju shrugged and reached out to her.

“Rainbow-”

He paused, adjusting his tone to remove any instance of possible anger that might be seeping in.

“-Dashie… What’s up?”

Rainbow Dash’s ears flickered before laying flat against her head and her tail drooped. Possibly realizing how uncharacteristically glum she looked, the mare quickly shook her body down and straightened up best she could but had an obviously forced neutrality pasted onto her face.

“Huh? What you mean, I’m?-”

“I mean, what’s on your skull? We agreed on the routine days ago and you want to change it just now?”

“I-”

A mental representation of Gilda’s warning tried to finish her sentences for her.

-"Want to get more stage time for myself."-

“-just want to-”

-"Get everyone to focus on me."-

Rainbow Dash paused, shrugging and rolling her shoulders. She put a hoof up and shook her head.

“-You know what?… Nevermind, it’s not real friend-ish of me to drop this on you last minute; I don’t have a good enough reason.”

Gilda’s warning was shut out, leaving Rodan blinking in silence for a short time as he mentally caught back up. Seeing Rainbow Dash’s forced smile as the pegasus tried to cheerfully talk about something else left Rodan sighing and frowning for whole different reasons than before.

“Dashie, talk to me.”

Rainbow Dash fell silent, knowing she couldn’t just blow this off as she looked to the absolutely packed audience bleachers.

“This is a record breaking audience. Give you one guess who’s a big reason they showed up for.”

She muttered, causing Rodan to sheepishly point to himself and earning a nod from his partner. Rainbow Dash looked off to the side, sighing.

“It’s just, you know, kinda worried I’m the side piece mooching off you. And I love entertaining ponies!... Even if pride worms into it.”

“And that a bit of extra show time to yourself could help you stick out? Show them you’re not a tag-along?”

Rainbow Dash held up her hooves, frowning.

“I’m an Equestrian surrounded by Equestrians. Some of which are about as awesome and good a flier as I am! You’re something nopony has seen before and my only time in the sky is when you are too. And with my ma here it’s all the more- you know, big deal.... But, me scrapping part of our show to get me some extra fun isn’t fair. We are a team after all so, just forget I said anything.”

The intercom voice of Soarin spewed out of the loudspeakers mounted on the tall posts surrounding the waiting area.

“Flight Team 3 - Canterlot! Please report to the launch platform! You’re due in five minutes! And don’t worry, Spitfire isn’t gonna get spooked this time! Over.”

Rainbow Dash smiled best she could, shrugging off her previous druthers and patting Rodan on the shoulders.

“It’ll be alright! Just some weird words from someone I probably shouldn’t have listened to to begin with. Come on!”

She turned and headed for the launch area when a gente grip seized her by the leg.

“Hey!”

She looked back to see the smiling visage of Rodan coming back up to her as he let go of the mare’s wrist. Any worry he had previously was gone now, Gilda’s words chained up and thrown off the side of the cloud. He’d been concerned at first, but he was a trusting type to those who earned it. And he had just been reminded he was flying with someone who had. Let any seeds of discord try to take root if they wished, he knew his flock.

“They might have come for me,-”

He muttered, pointing to himself with his thumb. Rodan then pointed to Rainbow Dash, poking her in the chest with the blunt side of a claw as his smile grew.

“-but we’re going to make sure they remember us! I’ll find a spot to where I won’t fry anyone, you give your ma a front row seat to that blitz of yours.”

Rainbow Dash stood frozen in place for brief time, the gears in her head catching back up to what just happened. When she did, her face rapidly grew into grin as she rapidly nodded before lurching forward and yanking the gryphon-kaiju into a bear hug while her tail wagged in joy. It was that moment a bearer of an element tied to the magic of friendship remembered that she wasn’t flying with just a teammate, she was flying with a friend.

A few minutes later and the loudspeakers buzzed to life again, this time invading and commanding the airspace above the muttering crowd.

“Ladies and gentlecolts, the Wonderbolts now proudly present our next performing duo from our own academy and a place far beyond! Now premiering is Flight Team 3 under sponsorship from the Princesses themselves, Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr. and… G.B.O Rodan!”

The crowd went wild in fanfare, Radiance and Scootaloo competing for loudest voices, as Rainbow Dash and Rodan walked up to the runway in front of the bleachers in their contrasting flight suits; occasionally giving a wink and wave to the crowd upon spotting a familiar face. Upon reaching the start line, Rainbow Dash snickered while slipping her goggles over her eyes and elbowed Rodan with her free forelimb.

“GBO? What, did your creator name you Germaine or Gregory?”

The countdown lights hanging above them ticked to red as Rodan shrugged and fit his goggles on, earning another smirking jest from the mare.

“Geoffrey?”

“Oooye, it’s my title Dashie! Stands for Guardian Beast Omega.”

“Hey, just saying it’s a pretty rad label so you might as well use it!”

The light clicked to yellow.

“What did you run out of room George Berns Omar?”

“Yes I did Jenny Junior!”

“Hey!”

“From now on I’m calling you nothing but Jenny Junior!”

“Oh you wouldn’t dar-”

The light clicked to green and instantly the two were airborne and dashing into the sky with luminous trails behind them as they spiraled around one another.

=========

Ponyville

Anguirus and Ki Seong stepped off the brook bridge and headed back into the town limits, having just spent the former’s typical daily visit on a long walk. As was natural for the kirin, conversation was struck and this time it was focused on the events going on in Neighagra.

“And you’re sure your...cousin was it? That he’ll be alright at the airshow without you.”

“Eh, I’m the oldest but he’s got his head built on straight. He’ll be fine. Limited seating and I’m not partial to not having my feet on the ground. I’m sure I’ll see plenty of him in the newspapers.”

“Wow, if you’re so sure I guess he must be a pretty good stunt flier. He in the Wonderbolt academy?”

“No, but he’s pretty well known where we’re from.”

Ki Seong’s eyebrow peaked in a sly expression that gave “Quill Coat” a momentary pause.

“The south frontier, right Quilly?”

“... Yes the fr-...”

He shrugged, shutting his sentence off. Not one to articulate himself verbally often, keeping up the facade for weeks had chewed away at his typically armor plated resolve.

-Junior is well liked now and Rodan’s drawing crowds in a good way. Maybe I can finally give it a shot. She’s not a flimsy piece of work, handled the Destroyah swarm well enough. Maybe that’s why I like her company. Let’s just hope I don’t lose it.-

Swallowing his breath, Anguirus glanced over to Seong as they approached the restaurant.

“Listen, Seong. I’ve been visiting you a lot.”

The kirin smiled with a momentary flush peaking out from between her facial scales.

“Least once every other day since we first met those weeks back.”

Anguirus grumbled under his words, practically choking on his own air and wondering why in the realms he was doing that.

“Right… I trust you and.. Appreciate your company.”

“Aww, thanks. I trust you and like your company too, Quill Coat!”

Upon hearing his pseudonym again, the Guardian Beast couldn’t stifle the pained groan.

“Uurrrrgha.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, fine. Just. Words aren’t something I’m able to do well… Would, you mind changing the subject for a bit while I try to get them back together?”

Despite the uncharacteristic weirdness the stallion was exuding, Seong just giggled and playfully whapped at “Quill Coat’s” side with her hoof. The deep “thud” on impact gave her momentary pause after literally hearing just how solid his build was. Peaking her brows, she looked ahead again.

“Well, I’m expecting company. Family actually.”

“Family? From Carrea?”

“No, not by blood. My niece of sorts. Her parents were two Equestrians I met when I journeyed here, helped me settle in. Since they’re on an extended leave on a boat trip they sent her to Ponyville to stay with me. Pretty excited about it too with the kaiju activity around the region, she’s been writing to me nonstop since she got back from camp.”

Anguirus pursed his lips and glanced over at the kirin with a curious look in his eye after locking on to that last word.

-Camp? Like that one I-... No, couldn’t be.-

“Oh, she’s here!”

“Hm?”

Anguirus snapped back to attention as Ki Seong pointed forward to the restaurant about ten meters ahead. A carriage had been parked outside, the driver having unloaded a couple large roller bags onto the ground outside the front door before patting something or someone hidden behind the big luggage. The driver noticed the approaching kirin and pony, tipped his hat to them while saying something to the luggage owner before he hitched himself back up and pulled away. Recognizing a bag’s Carrean symbol she’d sewed onto it, Seong smiled and called out.

“Over here sweetie!”

On cue a little head popped up from behind the bag and looked over to them, the little filly being one both Anguirus and Ki Seong recognized instantly. She was a small, leafy green tot with a darker green mane. The new parts were the ivory colored spots she had dyed onto her nose and shoulders in what looked like an emulation of Anguirus’ spike spots. The Anguirus similarity was even more evident at the quill she was wearing on her left bangs as a hair accessory. And upon seeing both Ki Seong and her hero, Gentle Leaf’s eyes virtually dilated before she sprung up into the air running in place. Hitting the dirt sprinting, Gentle Leaf zoomed over and jumped into Seong’s waiting hooves, a single happy thought in her mind.

-Auntie Seong!-

Seong audibly laughed for the both of them, catching and spinning herself and the filly around a few times before nuzzling each other’s nose. Seong looked at Gentle Leaf’s accessories and giggled, brushing the filly’s mane aside.

“Nae jag-eun joka! Neo eolmana yeppeun ji bwa!”
(My little niece! Look how pretty you are!)

Gentle Leaf muttered a muted giggle, wagging her tail as she pulled herself into Seong’s collar and neck before happily rubbing herself up against her auntie. Holding her joyful niece, Seong snickered and looked over to her companion.

“So, Anguirus, you wanted to talk to me about something?”

One could practically hear the record scratch coming out of the dumbstruck kaiju’s head.

-She’s known… She’s known your name, what you are, what you really look like....WWWWWHHAAAAT!?!-

Just as the cold sensation began to set in like it had before when he asked for a change of subject, Anguirus mentally rebooted when he saw the pair of smiles aimed at him, Ki Seong and Gentle Leaf snickering at a prank set up weeks ago.

“... H-...H-...H-Hoooow long?”

He muttered blankly. Seong glanced down at Gentle Leaf, who’d hopped off her neck and was cracking a cheeky grin. Seong giggled, looking back up at Anguirus.

“That first rainy day. She had come through here when being sent home since I’m on her guardianship papers, wrote me all about the heroic big friend she’d made at camp and then I recognized you. She’s never shushed up about you since she got back home.”

On cue Gentle Leaf pulled out a small notebook from her bag, flipping through it before hopping up to stand in front of the kaiju and hold the book out to him. The pages showed what Anguirus presumed was a page dated to the day of or day after the campground dragon attack. Pasted across the pages were numerous sketches of fairly good quality for someone her age, depicting Anguirus in his pony form looking down at the point of view as well as a larger illustration of his true form with beaming lines around it to give dramatic, heroic flair. Along the edges were attempts at transcribing his name, “Angurus, Angilas, Anguillas, Anguirus!”.

Letting his mind wander to catch up to what all had just happened, the cold around his mentalscape began to thaw. All the memories he had of his times with Ki Seong replayed from newest to oldest, starting with a peaceful walk around the town’s borders, into their numerous lunches or dinners shared, stories exchanged; right up to that one rainy day.

-Her first name is Seong, family of Ki. Moved to Equestria from Carrea eight years ago. She likes a bit of spearmint in her tea and while she can sew, cross stitches give her trouble... She’s known about me this whole time, and still gave me the time.-

Anguirus sighed, letting a tiny smile peek past his fangs that got Seong to beam back at him.

Anguirus train of thought was broken by a gentle tapping on his sternum. Looking down he got to see the adorable visage of Gentle Leaf beaming up at him with her forelimbs spread in a reaching motion. Glancing at her and Ki Seong for a moment, Anguirus puzzled and hoped he was doing it right when he bent his head down and let her hug his snout. Gentle Leaf’s tail wagged rapidly as she rubbed her cheek up against the much larger pony’s brow. Ki Seong looked upon the two sweetly as Gentle Leaf let go and Anguirus brushed her bangs lightly to tap the quill he’d given her before patting the filly’s head.

“Heh, nice to see you too kid.”

==================

Neighagra Airshow

The dual shockwaves of fiery purple and red intersecting bands of rainbow split the sky thousands of meters above and caused the crowd to go wild upon the completion of Team 3’s dual sky bursts courtesy of Rainbow Dash and Rodan’s top speed in their second maneuver. Thankfully performed so high up and not at full power to avoid damaging the cloud stands, the brilliant light from the display flooded the bleachers and escalators with roars of cheering from the crowds. Far below, the sight of the magnificent display spurred some members of the crowd to try and push forward for a better picture. The pushing built upon itself with cameramares and stallions trying to get the best shots while the rest of the crowd attempted to keep their views. The mob worked their ways onto the escalators and the all important lever to control its motion was broken by the shoving. Soon dozens of eager ponies spilled past the gate and headed up to the platform far above, some trying to run ahead and get seats while others got carried along by the crowd but weren’t much to complain. In the chaos, the warning sign stating a weight limit was knocked over the edge and out of sight by the crowd who had their heads pitched skyward.

Oblivious to the change, Rodan and Rainbow Dash zoomed toward each other with color contrails behind them. Just before they seemed like they’d crash into one another, the daredevils turned sharply to the side and flew parallel as they raced along. Moving too fast to hear one another if they spoke, Rainbow Dash nodded three times to Rodan while the latter held up three claws to verify which maneuver they were shifting to. Rodan began to pull away and charge up his beam, slowing down his speed to let Rainbow Dash zoom on ahead for her buckaneer blitz. It was then when things went off the plan. Rainbow Dash hooked her forelimb around Rodan’s, smiling and shaking her head as the confused gryphon looked to her. While they couldn’t talk the expression on her face which ran from beaming to determined and her speeding up while towing him along told him what was on her mind in this last minute change of plans.

-You said they will remember us, and I am loyal to my wingmate.-

Rodan smiled before lowering his brow to mimic Rainbow’s expression and matching her speed while they held onto each other. Much to his joy, his friend had proven Gilda wrong. Rodan and Rainbow Dash held onto each other’s hooves and forepaws, spiraling around in almost a high flying dance as their contrails began to fuse together. If one looked close, they could see the symbol for the Element of Loyalty appear on Rainbow Dash’s chest with sparkling brilliance coating her form that bled onto Rodan. They spiraled into a dive, going over and across the bleachers just as the buckaneer blitz shot off. The great flash of light and awesome crash temporarily blinded the cheering crowd. But when the boom died down and vision returned, both of team 3 were out of sight. Several long seconds passed before a new awe inspiring uproar fired off. An enormous pillar of olive green light erupted from beyond the edge of the platform, firing off into the space above and out of sight. The winds hissed and the clouds beyond the platform began to shift around the pillar, dragged up by an updraft.

Then, in an instant, two forms exploded free of the cloud bank and into sight. One was a flying sphere of red magic, leaving a vast curtain of rainbows as she flew upwards with her hooves spread and her wings out wide. And the Element of Loyalty, the supersonic mare, wasn’t alone. With wings the size of battleships that stretched out the entire diameter of the light pillar, an enormous shadow in the form of a Pterosaur mirrored Rainbow Dash’s pose as he ascended. The light show cut off, revealing the glowing Rainbow Dash soaring skyward with the fully formed Guardian Beast of Air, Rodan, bathed in her rainbows.

To call the crowd jubilant would be a severe understatement, roars of awed cheers called out as the sun was blocked out by a kaiju and replaced by a spectrum of light. Radiance was having the time of her life, jumping up in her seat and waving her hat to her smiling daughter when Rainbow Dash passed overhead.

“HAHAHAH! BRAVO! BRAVO! THAT’S MY LITTLE DASHIE!”

The Crusaders were her only competition for loudest audience members, each nearly squealing their heads off in exhilarated joy despite all the stunts they’d seen previously. Even Destroyah seemed content as the dazzling curtains of rainbow light crossed over her, though admittedly the tiny smile on her face was more a result of the three fillies around her. Scootaloo, tail still wagging, tapped Destroyah’s brow and looked at the kaiju upside down while being perched atop her head.

“So that race wasn’t a fluke! He really is as awesome as Rainbow Dash! Aren’t you impressed Miss Destroyah? Why aren’t you cheering?”

“I’ve already known his capabilities for years and he didn’t disappoint.”

She shrugged. Nodding a few times after some thought, Scootaloo decided she just wasn’t the expressive type outside of a fight and took what she could get.

“Well, guess that counts for something!”

Rodan and Rainbow Dash shared a glance, both mentally gawking at the other for different reasons. Rodan on account of Rainbow Dash’s stunning light show and gleam, and Rainbow Dash on account of seeing Rodan’s gargantuan size and the strange magic at work that somehow meant neither of them had torn out of their flight jackets. Despite practically igniting with light, Rainbow Dash’s suit was untarnished and the stretching fibers Radiance had mentioned were nothing to undersell given they had conformed to the kaiju’s new body shape and size. Hearing the cheering crowds below and looking to one another, Team 3 couldn’t help but burst into a fit of joyful laughter. Trust and teamwork had paid off in ways neither of which expected. Nodding between each other they broke off and continued on with their maneuver routine, their flight having now far exceeded expectation. Unfortunately, not all the surprises were positive.

When the crowds pouring onto the escalators saw the new act they too had been worked up into a gleeful frenzy, too hyperbolic for any staff to try and contain. They poured onto the cloud platform, eyes and cameras all pointed skyward. Like all structures, clouds could only hold so much across their surface before they hit their limit. For this platform, with the addition of all the airshow equipment and sets like flagpoles and bleachers, it was meant to hold up just three hundred ponies’ worth of mass. For safety and accounting for shifting air currents shaking the structure, it could hold up an extra hundred before it started to sag. Accounting for the new arrivals the current population on the cloud had gone from three hundred to five hundred in a matter of seconds.

A loud creaking cried out from underneath the bleachers, alerting the few who could hear it over the crowds’ uproar. The entire cloud shuddered, groaned, and trembled for several long seconds and clued in more and more to what was going on. The cheers died down just as the shaking stopped. And then, with a single budge, the entire structure broke apart at its heaviest point; right beneath the bleachers. On instinct many pegasi and gryphons attending took to the sky, hovering up and maintaining altitude. However many of them were not the most skilled of fliers and the panic of suddenly falling caused many to plummet alongside the numerous earth ponies, unicorns, and minotaurs who were in the crowd. Of the five hundred souls on the cloud, four hundred of them were now plummeting with only a precious few thousand feet between them and the ground.

Their perception of time when moving at high speed slowing down, both Rodan and Rainbow Dash quickly noticed the calamity and drove into a dive. Rainbow Dash instantly locked onto the sight of a giant sunhat and scarf, rocketing down with only a momentary pause to match Radiance’s fall velocity before grabbing her mother.

Then Thalia.

Then Dallas.

Soon the Element of Loyalty had a half dozen ponies and two minotaurs clinging to her and each other. However even her great speed had it’s limits, both from the added weight and fact she couldn’t suddenly accelerate for fear of throwing some poor soul off. Rainbow Dash grit her teeth, beating her aching wings as hard as she could while trying to fly over and catch a falling earth pony despite lacking any hoofholds to grip him. The shocked stallion’s terrified expression was burning its way into her mind as she beheld both him and the rest of the falling crowd. She couldn’t catch them all. But fortunately, she didn’t need to.

Dozens of mobile streaks zipped through the air just as she did. The flight teams, the Wonderbolts, and many pegasi attending were following her example and grabbing every free falling soul they could. The stallion Rainbow Dash was trying to catch was picked up by a streak of yellow and green, Lightning Dust slinging him around her neck while Gilda caught a unicorn mare with her hindpaws. Elsewhere Phoenix, Drizzle, and Cloudchaser strained as they packed themselves down with the attendees. Even Destroyah was flying about, the Crusaders wisely clinging to her head and neck while the kaiju grabbed whole loads of plummeting ponies. Despite the mass heroics however, there were still too many falling and the ground was fast approaching.

Only at eight hundred meters more to go, the earth beneath barreling in on them. Rainbow Dash looked at everyone else still falling and bit her cheek.

-We gotta land to dump the ones we got before we crash, but we can’t dive to get down quicker. Might lose those holding on and there’s no time!-

A massive shadow crossed over her vision and the solution came to her. Needing only give a quick nod and gesture with her head, Rainbow Dash and Rodan coordinated. The kaiju dove past the falling crowd and rescuers, turning around mid flight with his back to the ground. Rodan sucked in his breath and spread his enormous wingspan to its fullest extent, roaring out while pounding his wingbeats upwards. The ensuing tidal wave of moving, hot air hit Rainbow Dash hard enough to ring her ears, but she and the other fliers held strong. The sudden, galeforce updraft was enough to slow down and momentarily reverse the falling crowd’s tumble. The unicorns, earth ponies, and minotaurs flailed around in shock as they paused midfall and were slung upwards in an arc before resuming their now slowed tumble. Pushed up another hundred meters and their falling velocity reset, Rodan now had enough time to turn back around and hold his wings out stiff in a slowed glide. Rainbow Dash pitched her head over to the other rescuers, shouting at the top of her lungs to ensure they could at least hear she said something and follow her, even if they couldn’t make out what she said.

“ON HIS BACK! FOLLOW ME!”

She dove, flying over Rodan’s back as she shook to signal her passengers. They thankfully followed Radiance’s example and bailed off, spilling onto and then clinging to Rodan’s back. Radiance held on tight, securing her sun hat. The proud parent beamed at the stream of rainbows that dashed back up to catch more of the falling. In all the dress-ups she’d given her progeny, in all the suits her daughter had worn; Rainbow Dash had never looked so stunning before. The other rescuers deposited their saved across Rodan’s upper back and dorsal surface, the kaiju carefully maintaining his speed to ensure those put onboard had a chance to hang on without shaking them off. Soon the falling crowd thinned, Rainbow Dash grabbing the last of them in the form of a tumbling colt and flying over to Rodan. She landed, gasping and gripping Rodan’s back as Destroyah landed beside her with what could best be described as a comically large crowd of twenty ponies and minotaur with the Crusaders still clinging to her horn and head.

“Off.”

She snarled. The crowd piled off the kaiju on command, helping each other hold on while Rodan tilted his wings slightly while keeping his back straight. The kaiju turned in his glide, slowing descent and spiraling around in long sweeps to prepare to touch down as gently as possible. Rainbow Dash climbed up to just above Rodan’s shoulder, panting in her breaths. The kaiju’s enormous, olive green eye glanced back at her and the two shared a smile. Well spent from her endeavors, Rainbow Dash flopped onto his shoulder with a smile. Tiredly patting the titan’s hide, the beaming look she gave him and the distant sunset said it all.

-Way-ta go big guy! We did it...-

Rodan cooed, looked into the sunset and letting the gentle rays wash over his face. Still minding to keep everything steady as he pulled in for a landing that wouldn’t shake anyone off or wreck where he dropped down, he briefly entertained the distant parts of his mind while beholding the beauty in the sky. Something was troubling him, but he couldn’t recall if it was an ill memory or not. It was almost like a dream one couldn’t remember, the thoughts that lay in his head. He didn’t know why, he wasn’t about to harp on it given more important things to worry about and his own personality; but he knew something was missing from memory. Instead of the question though, he choose to focus on the result while he dug his claws into the soil in a large meadow to slow to a halt.

Of all the features in the sky, he thought he now liked Sunsets the best… Right next to rainbows of course!

=======

Zenith

A wave of energy pulsed out of Bagan’s throne room and covered the entirety of Zenith’s temple and beyond, trails of light crawling across runes in every wall, ceiling, pillar, and floor. As the pulse carried on beyond the temple grounds, the temple itself began to contort. Obsidian folded in on itself, some walls disappearing and some springing up in different areas. Second by second the temple looked less and less like RED’s original design coated in black and more like something completely different. The throne room and bordering chambers remained much the same, but the other sectors each kaiju was housed in physically separated away and split off to their own areas of Zenith, connected to the temple via a tubed walkway. Each chamber expanded greatly, incorporating other spaces within Zenith as it was reconfigured to best suit it’s occupant.

Hedorah’s quickly metamorphosed into a duplicate of the Kilaak moon, the acidic monstrosity being downright gleeful as it smashed its way through a recreated cityscape and began to coat the landscape in tar and grime. Every time it would finish destroying the city, the process would reset in one area and effectively keep Hedorah in perpetual destruction forever. If Bagan hadn’t won its loyalty yet, it did now.

The legion were already well-liking their current accommodations, so their reward was more a matter of expansion than alteration. Under the heat of an artificial sunlight, dozens upon dozens of legion soldiers and workers got to work vacuuming up the obsidian glass, consuming the silica, and then spewing it out to construct a hive. Their numbers would swell soon and the simple minded beasts intended to give their queen her own hive and a throne greater than even her planned one for Terra when she returned.

The Anteverse kaiju’s realm became flooded with dark waters and small volcanic vents, quickly resembling the deepest oceans. A mental command was sounded by an additional pulse of runes that crawled across the room. The master of Zenith beckoned them to several pod-shaped chambers on the floor and they obeyed. Upon their bodies going comatose, the smaller monster’s pods lit up and trails of light glowed and flowed into Slattern’s pod. While the Anteverse engineers had indeed made powerful creatures, they were in need of more for what was to come. Bagan had seen who defended Equestria now and a few upgrades were direly needed.

The quartet of Monster X, Gigan, Irys, and Megalon had been sleeping when the change began to occur, the three aliens sitting up back to back with Irys hanging down from the ceiling above them. When the chamber started shaking they all instantly snapped awake, the latter three following up to guard the still recovering X with Megalon and Gigan jumping up to the ready and Irys dropping down between them to form a triangle. Before they could question what was going on, their chamber shifted. Bagan had been careful to not rouse suspicion amongst this group, they having been his most successful group while also being the one it was most at risk of losing with the last endeavor. Reluctantly it had decided against splitting them up, a choice bolstered by the fact Irys’ psychological health would be damaged if separated. Thus their chamber was expanded into four zones, one for each kaiju. Bagan’s voice whispered into each of the alert teammate’s minds when the room began to finish the changes.

-”You are safe. This is a reward for loyalty and patience. Go.”-

Looking between each other as their body language indicated they had all heard the same thing, the four relaxed their stances and approached the new surroundings. Gigan’s was the most simplistic, an upright structure in his locale resembling his nebulan hanger. One thankfully devoid of nebulans as the thought of more roaches crawling over him was on his top two things he did not want a repeat of; right next to fighting a ghidorah. Upon stepping into the metallic, shiny, space-age bay the machinery came alive all around him. Gigan turned around, retracted his sails, and stepped into the hanger itself and instantly felt a connection to all the machinery around him just like he was back in the M Nebula. Bagan had reconstructed this place from Gigan’s memory, likely when it repaired his body after his fight with X. Everything worked perfectly and Gigan couldn’t hide the equivalent to a smile his toothy beak gave off.

-No little bugs, figuratively or literally. I could get used to this boss.-

Megalon also received a hanger, but his was of far simpler design than Gigan’s and didn't have the attached machine shop. Instead his domain was chiefly composed of one thing that had the younger cyborg skipping towards it and diving in. A rock quarry with a massive depth. Whirling into a drill formation, Megalon barreled into it with roars of gleeful laughter. Soon he was dolphin jumping in and out of the rocks that reformed behind him.

“Wahahaaa! This is the best!- Whaaaoo!”

He slipped and fumbled into a reconstruction of a dam, getting drenched in water that left him flailing and giggling as he was washed back into the quarry.

Irys’ domain remolded into something most would see as far from ideal. The obsidian calcified into solid rock, forming spires on the floor and ceiling that one would recognize as the features of damp, dark cave with stalagmites and stalactites. Gigan wasn’t the only one whose thoughts Bagan had been reading while he rested. Irys stood before her cavern with a stunned expression, reaching out and running the back of her fingers along a rocky pillar and recoiling back once she felt it. Monster X walked over from his section, which was between Irys’ and Gigan’s, and nudged his teammate. If the slight limp or his still-recovering broken leg harmed him much, he didn’t show it. Irys winced at the touch, shuddering.

“Irys, what’s wrong?”

The bat kaiju sagged her shoulders, slowly shaking her head.

“Nothing X, I’m fine… I just remember this place.”

She muttered, starting to walk into the cave.

“You going to be alright? You don’t do well alone....”

Irys looked back at X with a slight glint in her pink eyes, the edges of her lips curling upwards slightly.

“Not when I got you three, and not when I’m here.”

Monster X nodded to her and backed up to give her some space. The gyaos looked back into the cave, her acute eyes and echolocation giving her a clear readout of the terrain. If she projected her mind’s eyes, she could see it clearly. The first place she ever saw, the few scant happy moments she had in an otherwise harsh life back on Terra. The outcropping had even been recreated perfectly, so much so she could practically see what she remembered. Breaking out of her shell, the chirping of other infants, her sisters; and the massive form that lowered hunks of food into the nest. Maybe it was because she was a mutant of her kind, but she could remember her birthplace clearly. As did the one who read her thoughts on the matter. A few wisps of energy trickled out of the floor and condensed, transmuting the elements of some surrounding rock, the air, and water into something that caused Irys’ eyes to dilate and pounce at it to dig in. After all, what effort is creating several tens of thousands of tons-worth of meat to something that could reshape an entire temple to include metamorphosis chambers and a machinery hanger? Bagan didn’t want to risk another blunder like it had before when it sent Irys to the human realm.

Monster X tread back to his domain and looked it over while it still took shape. For a moment it looked like it was going to be a recreation of the interior to his old prison, the asteroid Gorath. But, manipulated by what would be the optimal choice for him, the scenery changed. It fluctuated between several cities he’d seen before, before settling on a more natural setting. The snow fell gently upon the recreated forest, trees scaled up to match a human perspective. Monster X walked through the cold that didn’t phase him, reaching out and touching some tree bark that had some burns on it. There were the edges of a crater on the border, with a familiar clearing that he would never soon forget. It was the place he’d decided he was done not knowing things after all, where he put his forehead to another’s and she placed her lips to his. He closed his eyes, sat on his knees with his hands upon them while slowly swaying his tail behind himself; levitating into the air to hover. A content smile crossed his maw while he meditated. If he focused, he could almost hear Aria’s singing.

Bagan ushered its last pulse of magic and reviewed its works. Legion, Gaira, the Anteverse beasts, Hedorah, and the four were all happily adjusting to their new accommodations. There was a long game to play in this campaign and it needed them all at their peak and of high morale when they needed to be called for service. Which for some, would be quite soon. There was one chamber however that was barren and empty. Both in design as well as its occupant. Bagan’s cocoon’s runes glowed briefly as it spoke.

“You are out of your quarters.”

Three pairs of red eyes looked back at the sphere from one of the connecting hallways, having been shrouded in the darkness though both of them were well aware Bagan had noticed Grand King Ghidorah long ago. Grand King Ghidorah strode into the large chamber, not even bothering to try and sneak his way in.

“Hardly the first time.”

Bagan’s cocoon lit up with every word it spoke.

“I have augmented this realm to suit the needs of my forces. What is it you wish for?”

One could swear Ghidorah rolled all six of his eyes, right to left, as he approached without caution.

“You never acted on the fact I nearly killed three of them.”

“I knew you wouldn’t risk killing them.”

“Those who know me know I don’t leave stragglers.”

“And yet you spared them.”

Ghidorah put a foot down on the throne’s upper platform, standing before the cocoon with a disappointed look clad across his faces.

“Because I know you about as well as you know me, Reijuu.”

There was a long pause in Bagan’s glowing. It went out entirely and the sphere touched down to earth. The runic markings upon it folded in on each other, a burst of biting cold air shooting out of so strong that Ghidorah felt like a man standing before a hurricane. The titanic form within stood up. Even with Grand King Ghidorah’s heads stretched up high, Bagan still stood taller and was more massive by a good margin. Yet, unlike almost any other soul who’d see the God of Extinction looming over them; Grand King Ghidorah, the King of Terror, held his ground.

Bagan spoke without alteration now, a voice that echoed within itself in a manner Grand King Ghidorah recognized clearly even 65 million years later.

“You utter that name like it has importance. It does not.”

“So, it is you.”

“And what have you to gain from this?”

Grand King Ghidorah mentally steeled himself, his energy senses going off the charts just standing next to Bagan.

“Nothing really, though you had to have known I do not serve anyone.”

He quipped in a surprisingly casual tone that would suggest he’d have his arms folded behind himself if he had such appendages. Bagan’s glowing eyes shifted slightly, narrowing as it raised one of its hands. The sword-like claw upon the index finger began to crackle with small spurts of energy, visibly powerful under the inky shadow that cloaked the God of Extinction.

“And yet you haven’t given me reason to remove your core from your chest.”

“Simple really.”

Ghidorah grunted, looking off to the side as he turned his back.

“Because I am intrigued, by multiple things. And because I know I am an asset. Same reasons I played along when the Xilians and Kilaak believed they had turned me into their attack dog for their assault on that rock you called sacred, Terra. And just like with them, I will still pursue my own accord the first moment it suits me.”

“Your words do little to justify your existence-”

In an instant Grand King Ghidorah snapped around. With a flash of light and no charge time required, he loosed torrents of graviton beams from all three maws while conducting rays of lightning from his broad, glowing wings. The multitudes of death sailed towards Bagan. The ancient god’s eyes closed and he waved a claw, a rune of archaic language cutting its way into the space in front of him. The rune faded as it overlayed his hand, which the torrents of beams were drawn into like a magnet. They stopped just short of hitting Bagan’s palm, condensing into a white hot sphere that sucked their entirety into it. The blinding light was shut out when Bagan closed his hand upon it, fist trembling slightly from the choking power. Before long there was nothing coming out of the crushing grip but smoke. Stride unbroken, Bagan finished it’s stoic sentence.

“-nor do your actions.”

Grand King Ghidorah snorted gusts from his noses, appearing to scowl for a moment. Suddenly he erupted with cackling laughter, beating his tails together in a form of applause. He may have just gone all out, he might not have; he was just confirming that this wasn't a doppelganger. That didn’t matter to the King of Terror for he was far too entertained. Fanged grins crossed his triple maws.

“Ahaha, you haven’t weakened at all! And the new motive, so intriguing!… And to answer your statement, yes my actions may. I know you are investigating the magic of this new realm we’ve encountered; magic found in almost every lifeform there to varying degrees and types. I have some experience acquiring what you may need for your, study. There is also the matter of a certain, Kaizer Ghidorah. You wanted his power, yes? I know you tried to get it but failed, I know why. I might also just so happen to know how you can unleash him, permanently.”

The sly expression upon Ghidorah’s maws was met with Bagan’s shadowed stillness. After some moments of thought, the latter party stepped back into his cocoon and let it form back around himself. Hovering to the exact same height it had before, the rune covered sphere pulsed with purple light.

“Talk.”

=============

Celestial Seas

An earth pony couple sighed contently, kicked back in their sun chairs. The stallion was a rusty red color, short in stature, and sported a messy dark green mane atop his head with the image of a fall leaf on his flank. The mare was even shorter, colored leaf green with a long white mane atop her head, a pair of glasses on her snout; and a steaming pitcher of tea forming her cutiemark’s emblem. On the deck of a reasonably sized boat in the Celestial Sea, the couple, Fallen Leaf and Tea Leaf, were taking a business trip to Trottingham on the S. S. Mermare. Having departed from Baltimare a day ago, there was nothing in sight but calm seas and relatively clear skies save for a few harmless white clouds. One crew member even said they thought they’d seen a mermare earlier, but most wrote it off as a joke. All that lay ahead was the long voyage, but with notice their child was in good hooves they’d allowed themselves to kick back.

Tea leaf stretched out her limbs and glanced over at her husband out of the corner of her eye.

“Think she’ll be okay?”

Fallen Leaf gave a hearty chuckle, reaching over and putting his hoof upon his wife’s.

“Not the first time we’ve had to go on leave. Besides you know how seasick she gets.”

“It’s a long trip dear, sure she won’t be upset?”

“With where she’s going? I doubt it. We already got the Whinny Land tickets ready once we get back. And besides, ever since she got back from the Day of the Heart-Attacks-”

“Oh don’t remind me of that afternoon! We were already up the walls when the guards escorted her back to the house!”

“Quite! But you remember who she met that day?”

Tea sighed, giggling under her breath.

“How could I, she never stopped writing about him.”

“Well-”

Fallen Leaf nodded, cracking a silly smirk.

“The certain kirin she’ll be staying with just so happened to give me the description of a kindly fellow who recently moved into town.”

Tea Leaf’s eyes widened as her husband’s smirk grew into a playful grin. Fallen Leaf shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, obviously pleased with himself.

“Besides her aunt, she’ll have pleeenty of fun where she’s going.”

Tea Leaf let herself crack a smile, gently patting at her chest to slow her heart rate back down.

“That’s a weight off my chest. With all that’s going on, where safer to have her than next to Seong and him?”

“My thoughts exactly, deary.”

The married couple shared a laugh as they let themselves relax in each other’s presence and the warmth of Celestia’s sun, minds only focused on the one holding their hoof and thoughts of what mementos they might bring back from Trottingham for their child. It was some time later that their quiet on the deck was interrupted by the sound of hoofsteps. After some time, Tea Leaf peeked out from under her eyelid and adjusted her glasses to see who the newcomer was. The pony on deck, currently looking out over the rails she was propped up against, was an unassuming red earth pony mare with a curly, golden mane. Not anypony she recognized, but she would amend that shortly after she saw the confused, saddened look on the poor girl’s face. Tea Leaf tugged on her husband’s hoof and nodded towards the mare once he looked at his wife. They looked between themselves and the mare before Tea Leaf got up and walked over to the newcomer.

“Are you alright, Miss?”

The mare, a social worker named Marigold, snapped out of her stupor and half jumped back at the voice despite it’s motherly warmth.

“Huh?! What?”

“Eeeasy, sweetie. I’m sorry to startle you.”

“Oh, eheh it’s nothing really. I was just zoned out and didn’t notice anypony so you just gave me a jolt.”

Tea Leaf propped herself up on the rails parallel to Marigold, looking over at her.

“Still, apologies for prodding. You just seemed deep in thought. Something on your mind?”

“Eh, of sorts. Would, you mind listening? Kinda my profession, I work best talking to folks. I know it’s pretty weird but-”

“Say no more!”

Tea Leaf quipped with a smirk, scooting closer to keep the conversation private.

“So, what is going on behind those pretty eyes of yours?”

Marigold went silent, the small, pleasant smile she had on her face was tested. It flattened, skirting back and forth between a smile and a frown as her ears flopped against her head.

“I took this trip to try and clear my head. You see, I’m from Manehattan. I’m a social worker there. Wanted to be one all my life to help folks, you know?”

She muttered a half chuckle, sighing through her nose.

“I never would want to hurt anyone. And, I worry I did….. Some weeks ago during a big storm, I think I might have met one of the kaiju the radio said could be on the loose.”

Marigold let herself settle back down after some moments, glancing over at the older mare flanking her. Tea Leaf’s face definitely showed some surprise, given her raised brow, slightly widened eyes; and perked ears. Still, the brewer held her composure, gently nodding towards Marigold to keep going. Content her company wouldn’t call her crazy, she did just that.

“It was raining and I had just gotten past the train station when I saw someone in an alley. They, a he I think, was trying to cover themselves with a tarp. I offered them my spare raincoat.”

Marigold went quiet for a moment, as did the surprised, but not stunned, Leafs. Contemplating a moment of thought, the former continued on with the visions of memory still as vivid as they were that rainy night. After some confusing banter where she had to assure it that she was no threat; the figure she had assumed to be a minotaur stood up to his full height, towering over her even in that diminutive form. Rain drops curled, pinged, and rolled off inky black skin and jagged, bony armor as eerie red orbs for eyes looked down upon her. She remembered it all and trembled slightly from the fear, clearly recollecting the raindrops rolling off visible claws, twin tails; and a mouthful of fangs. He reached towards her with a robust forearm and curled claws, as if seizing prey. However her fear though, the memory lightened when she recalled what happened next.

It calmly, almost gently, took the rain cloak out of her hoof without so much as leaving a mark on her; and jumped away out of sight. And the quiet, almost lost tone she remembered the being, which she didn’t know was called Monster X, spoke in when it replied to her previously asking what his name was.

-”I don’t remember.”-

She did her best to hide the intrigue she felt, instead focusing on the fact she wasn’t torn to pieces like one would assume upon being literally caught in a dark alley with such a ghastly looking being.

“It, he I think, took the cloak I offered and bounded away. Last I saw him, he was jumping atop the east bound train to Hollow Shades. I put my report in towards the princesses last week when they asked to report probable sightings since it didn’t match the description of the six allied with Canterlot.”

“And, what is concerning you about this? Are you worried this being might turn out to be like those awful gyaos after all and attack somepony?”

Tea Leaf muttered. While she and her husband had been in support of the kaiju allied with the crown since the start given certain events, they knew to beware of those who weren’t. Marigold shook her head, sucking in her breath.

“No, no I don’t think so. Oh don’t read me wrong, it looked terrifying! But, he never laid a hand on me. Spoke weirdly, but didn’t seem to want to hurt anyone and just seemed confused. Certainly looked like it could be dangerous, but it didn’t seem to when it had the chance.”

Marigold muttered before her ears drooped more.

“Which, is why I’m worried I made the report… Yeah the princesses asked for it and I’m sure they can sort this out with a level head, I’m just worried I spurred a changeling-hunt and someone’s going to go after it to do him harm. He might not have attacked me, but one thing he asked me was if I was a threat or not. I don’t like thinking about what may happen if it meets someone who answers yes for their sake and his.”

Tea Leaf let her mind drift in contemplation. This certainly was a peculiar situation this poor mare had gotten herself into.

“Well, if it helps we have some experience with!-”

Tea Leaf was cut off when a gale of cold air blasted across the boat deck; as frigid as an arctic blast. The seas roared and waves crashed against the deck. Tea Leaf and Marigold jumped away from the rails and covered their eyes from the gnashing winds. Fallen Leaf rolled off his chair as it was torn away in the winds, struggling along and reaching the two mares. He shouted something at the top of his lungs but it was inaudible over the roaring winds that blew down from above. They managed to make their way to under the roofed section of the boat, looking through squinted eyes alongside many other passengers as to see where this roaring weather had come from. Managing to poke her head out from the cover and look up, Marigold was agape at what she beheld far above. An enormous, swirling, dark purple and black void in space easily two hundred meters across in any direction. Something emerged out of it, at first caked in the darkness that oozed out of the floating whirlpool. The darkness peeled away to reveal a heinous set of three grinning jaws, golden scales, and manic cackles that sounded as much like laughter as they did cracking thunder.

Grand King Ghidorah swooped over the boat, barely avoiding a collision course, and flew off into another portal. The S.S. Mermare rocked against the gradually calming waves before falling still and adrift. Minutes grew to hours as the ship drifted along. Away from the calm sea, it careened into turbulent waters yet again and touched upon a veil of mists so thick they were impossible to see through. This mist was one filled with sights, many of clear waters as well as jagged, stone reefs in multiple directions. Had the ship been under control, any wise captain would have avoided the latter and drove towards the former without knowing most of the reefs were illusions. But lacking that, the usual method of keeping the boat away from what lay in the center of the sea of fog wasn’t effective. The ship chugged along until well into the night, eventually pushing through the mist. The hull groaned as it rubbed up against and made a stop upon a wide sandbar that stretched around in a wide ring. Once the mouth of an enormous sea volcano, the atoll ring contained a wide blue hole of water that in turn encircled the entirety of a small mountain island at its center.

The calm waters were parted by a trio of heads poking out of the surface, one large individual flanked by two smaller ones. The former turned to those beside her and whispered,-

“Stay here, I’m gonna look.”

-before swimming up closer to the stalled boat. Ducking under the surface momentarily, she vaulted herself out of the water an impressive distance. Anyone watching would have glimpsed a scaly lower body, colorful fins, and the glint of a shell necklace around her neck before the investigator’s body became lined with magical light and landed upon the sandbar as a blue furred earth pony mare with a long, rosy magenta mane. Aside from her wet hair, the only indicator of her true nature was the small set of scales dotting her stomach and hindhooves. Shaking herself off some and walking with some unease, she cautiously approached the boat that bore her species’ namesake and poked her head above the rails.

“Hello? Anyponies on here? Your ship ran aground.”

The searcher’s two smaller companions, a pair of seahorse shaped, filly sized beings called seaponies; swam closer. The first was a blue and yellow striped seastallion named Arrow; and the orange and purple striped seamare following suit was his sister, Coral. Reaching the boat, they called out to their friend with curious and worried expressions respectively clad on their faces.

“Electra, is it empty?”

“Or are the land ponies playing peek-a-buoy?”

The transformed mermare, Electra, climbed on deck, slowly pacing around while on the lookout for anypony around or hiding. Not too many pirates in the Celestial sea, but she knew well to be cautious.

“First I think. Check the flanks for lifeboats.”

The seaponies ducked underwater, backed up, and with determined expressions, mimicked their companion in vaulting themselves out of the water. Managing to fling themselves over the sandbar’s three meter span, they landed outside of the atoll and into the open ocean. They swam around to the ship’s back and flanks while Electra paced to the upper deck. With the wooden planks creaking with every step, she could practically cut the tension with a knife. She found herself at a pause when she reached the top of the steps that lead to a stretch of walkway that fed into what she presumed to be passenger cabins. Various articles like loose glasses, deck chairs, hats, what looked like somepony’s wig, and books lay strewn about the deck without a single soul in sight. Electra bent down and picked up a small book with the name “Fallen Leaf” scrawled on the front. A half snapped pen lay on the floor beside it and upon inspection of the book she could see some ink staining on one of the last pages. Flipping through the pages she keyed in on an assortment of notes and drawings, mostly sketches of various trees and ponies, with dates written upon the top. Curious, she turned to the last page drawn on and found her head tilting in perplexity. The voices of Arrow and Coral called out from either side of the boat.

“Lifeboat and raft still here on this side!”

“This one to! Doesn’t look like anypony bailed. Find anypony up there Electra?”

Elecria stared at what she could tell was a hastily drawn sketch, seeing three lines with two fans flanking either side, some sort of stout body, and a pair of lines coming out the other end almost like a split tail. She looked away from the sketch and back at the ghost ship without a single soul in sight to meet her.

“What in the name of McCarthy happened here?...”

Seong’s eyes fluttered awake and quickly looked around her bedroom. It was a small room on the second floor of her building, compact to save room for the restaurant. In truth the guest room Gentle Leaf was sleeping in was actually bigger than her’s. Aside from a small closet for her clothes, the only decorum in the bedroom was the bed itself, windows on either wall, and an old, ornate but corroded chest. Not like she minded necessarily, the compactness was comforting and it’s simplicity allowed her to quickly verify the noise that jostled her from rest wasn’t coming from inside the room with her. Staying perfectly still, she focused and listened. The noises sounded off again and she looked towards the directional source.

It was very quiet, but the manner in which she heard the tapping outside and scratching on the wall sounded much less like something very light or small was making the noise; and more like something intentionally trying to be quiet was at fault. The sounds were ordered and localized, steadily creeping across one section of the wall to another and getting closer. It wasn’t windblown debris or rain, but, much to Seong’s curiosity and confusion, footsteps. Something was just outside the first story wall below her, walking along the perimeter.

-Who would be up at this hour?- And why here?-

The tapping footsteps stopped and all went quiet for several seconds. Just as Ki Seong thought she heard breathing, there was a sizable thumping on her roof. Now the scratching sound was coming from there, moving around with every step. Ki Seong’s mind was in a flurry, wondering just what could manage to vault itself up a two story jump without any wingbeats and why would it be doing so. Before she could call out to ask what was going on, a sly, seductive, eerie tone muttered her name in a way that made the kirin’s blood turn frigid in an instant.

“Seeeeooooong?....”

Ki Seong’s pulse chilled, recognizing the voice as horrific flashbacks greeted her mind. She launched out of her bed and tore open the chest. Reluctantly pushing aside an old, unfinished jeonbok; Seong frantically pulled out a box of candles and needles with haste that only increased when she heard claws methodically scratching and tapping at the top of her window. Levitating up several needles in her magic, Seong launched them into the wooden frame. The scratching stopped and the kirin glimpsed a limb retracting away from the window. Just as Seong managed to strike a match to light a candle stick however, she heard the intruder again. This time it was the most disturbingly serene giggle one could imagine, moving away from her and across the roof with accompanying footsteps. Seong could hear her own heartbeat pounding between her ears when she remembered what room was across the building midline hall from her bedroom. She was heading for the guest bedroom.

Kicking out with her feet, Ki Seong levitated up several batches of needles, a candle, and a set of pen and parchment before tearing open her bedroom door to sprint across the hall. Not minding she ripped the door open hard enough to smash the handle into the wall, Ki Seong’s horror reached new peaks when she saw the window directly above Gentle Leaf’s head being slowly pulled open. A clawed paw snaked its way in, reaching out to the oblivious, sleeping filly's head. There was a quiet giggling as a broad shadow cast itself through the window and across Ki Seong’s terrified face.

“Who’s this you got here, Seong?”

When Gentle Leaf would awaken moments later, she’d find her temporary bedroom turned upside down in the matter of a few seconds. She was baffled at the half dozen needles jammed into the otherwise pretty doorframe and windows her aunt had, what was written on the prayer tags Seong had pinned to her bed; and why was their a burning candle directly in front of the window if Auntie Seong didn’t like her playing with fire. But most of all, as said honorary aunt pulled her into a rocking, tight hug; she wanted to know why Ki Seong was sobbing in fear.

A pair of dimly glowing eyes watched the pair from outside their window and on the edge of town. Smirking along a narrow snout and flashing a mouth of carnivorous fangs, she sank back into the leaves and shadows before bounding away. She could afford a little patience and have some fun with this town. After all, she’d found the major prize.

Author's Note

Proof Reading by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff
Thalia and Dallas by TGB-Jerga
Phoenix by Fallen-Angel

Next time on The Bridge!:
A song's nightmare has returned and fire is not a passive element.....
And Terra's most unorthodoxly eligible bachelor royal gets sent to an island full of bachelorettes to pick up something.

Chapter 36: Travels

Standing in the solar wing before sunrise, Captain Frost bowed to Princess Celestia and removed her helmet.

“Sorry to wake ye’ up early yer’ majesty, but ye’ did say that ever since the kaiju showed up you wanted any suspicious activity reported immediately. Think this counts.”

“That I did, Captain Frost. Proceed.”

Blueberry Frost nodded before pulling out and passed the dried kelp parchment scroll to Princess Celestia, the latter furrowing her brow after reading through the note.

“From the Mako Mermares? It’s not common for them to chime in unless Leo got them involved… Stray ship found. S.S. Mermare. Nopony on deck. Boat ran aground at Mako atoll.”

“Accordin’ to charter, the S.S. Mermare was s‘pposed to have at least four dozen passengers and a dozen crew on board. Not a soul in sight when the seaponies and mermares found it.”

“Is there any indication of what caused the disappearances?”

“Nothin’ the fishtails could find. Ship’s intact so a dragon or maybe kaiju attack isn’t likely. Pirates maybe.”

Princess Celestia shrugged, rubbing at her temple as she pursed her lips. On one hoof the fact that the ship was found and in one piece indicated something climactic like a seastorm or monster attack hadn’t occurred. At least she could hope so. On the other hoof, several dozen ponies were missing out of the blue with agonizingly little detail or even a clue as to what happened. At the very least she took solace in the lack of reports of blood onboard, which gave hope that the passengers were abducted.

-If Frost’s pirate suggestion is sound, it could be for a ransom attempt. They might be waiting for an announcement of payment offered.-

The alicorn’s nostrils flared and her expression darkened momentarily.

-Whoever or whatever took my little ponies won’t be getting away with this. I may need to remind them of who I am… First things first however, the finding and safety of the missing.-

Celestia rolled the scroll back up and turned to Captain Frost, nodding to her as she put her crown back on.

“We’ll need the ship up close to assess for clues.”

“My thoughts exactly Princess, only problem is Mako’s got weird currents and is surrounded by storms an’ fog.”

“Yes, the first queen put The Shroud up some years before Equestria was founded to keep away windigos. Now it’s for keeping out passing dragons and pirates.”

“An’ it makes sending a boat to tow the S.S. Mermare back complicated. Can they drop the cloud wall?”

Captain Frost muttered, weighing through her options and being forced to do so again when Princess Celestia shook her head.

“The Shroud is older than I am and is ingrained to the atoll itself by now. Such effort would require a small army of experienced mages and probably myself and Luna working alongside the locals to try and open a hole in it after probably a week of work. Unfeasible given timeframe and effort.”

“Plus, that much magic in one spot puts out a lotta energy. Might as well be ringin’ any kaiju in the area’s dinner bell…”

Blueberry Frost groaned with a wince, shrugging her shoulders, flummoxed.

“So, can’t go on a boat an’ they probably can’t tow the boat out any easier. Can’t get through The Shroud. Now what?”

Princess Celestia paused, leaning back in her seat while tapping her hooves together in tandem with a clock’s second ticks to hone her mindscape and focus. Thankfully a moment of clarity wasn’t far behind, for she remembered the first fundamental rule of magic taught at the unicorn school that bore her patronage. If one can’t go through a path, then there must be a method around it; one only fails for lack of trying.

The alicorn clicked her hooves back together, using her magic to draw up a quill and waterproof parchment before writing away and addressing the captain.

“Captain Frost, I have a solo mission detail for one of your own. The more infamous new recruit.”

Blueberry Frost’s head snapped up slightly and she straightened up, but was unable to stop from raising an eyebrow.

“Ye’ sure Princess? Boat’s in one piece so I don’t think it was a kaiju attack. Ain’t he s‘pposed to be guardin’ you and Princess Luna?”

“That he is, but this should only last for a day if he leaves immediately. We are close enough to Ponyville to call upon Rodan, Anguirus, or Mothra Lea’s services if need be.”

Princess Celestia noted, nodding to herself and the captain as she put her seal on the scroll and levitated it over to Captain Blueberry Frost’s awaiting hooves.

“Be sure he takes this with him. The Gifted Unicorn school is taking a trip to Baltimare on the fast train. They should be there by sunrise and the train is leaving in the hour. Have him accompany them and enact the shift once they reach the coast.”

“Well alright then! Junior might enjoy a leg stretch. But if I could ask what had ye’ come up with this idea?”

“Storms and fog chiefly affect only the surface, not what’s under it.”

===================

Godzilla Junior had dealt with youngsters before. Some of the psychic research children would visit and play with him at Kyoto Institute during his own childhood, he once had to very carefully play keep-away with a school bus during a fight; and of course there were a few very young kaiju he’d interact with like Gorgo. What he had not experienced was sitting in a speeding train surrounded by tots with half of them either stuck staring at him wide eyed, one half asking him rapid fire questions about magic he didn’t even begin to understand; and one particularly persistent little filly asking him for hoofprints and autographs.

Mariner Chi Bi Moon was talking fast enough to impress Rodan, sitting in front of and looking at the stationary Godzilla like an eager puppy trying to get the big hounds’ attention.

“SoWhyAreYouHere?!”

“Princess Celestia dispatched me.”

“AAAAAH! IsThereAKaiju?!YouGonnaFightIt!? CanIWatch?! CANICOMEANDHELP!?”

It took a solid constitution for Junior to not look completely baffled at the insane request.

“Wha- Nevermind. No and if it was so, no!”

He had to alter his point of focus as in the span of a half second, the pink-maned, cream-furred filly had teleported on top of Junior’s head and was looking at him in the eyes upside down. Hardly the first time she teleported into him either, a minute earlier she was in his mane. As they talked he slowly began reaching up to try and grab her before she could teleport again and risk flying out of the train.

“HowDoesYourMagicBreathNotBurnYourTongue?”

“Not magic, and I’m heat proof on the inside.”

“OhReally? BecauseICopiedItOutOfMyHornEarlier!”

Junior’s tone took a noticeable deadpan.

“Yes, I remember.”

“WannaSee?! PinkSugarHea-”

“No!”

Junior attempted to grab the filly before she could fire, only for her to disappear in a poof of pink colored magic and reappear on his chestplate.

“HeyYouGotLuna’sSymbolOnYourArmor.”

“I’m her bodyguard.”

“WhyIsn’tSheHereThen?”

“She’s a heavy sleeper, I checked on her before leaving.”

“IThinkShe’sBestPrinces-Wait! InHerBedroom?! YouGotInHerChambers?!”

“Yes. Slept there too."

Mariner Moon’s eyes lit up so much one could swear they turned into stars. It wasn’t the only thing glowing on her, as in a more literal sense her horn spirals were beginning to light up again for another teleport.

“AreYouTwoDat-”

With speed and precision one wouldn’t expect from something his size, Junior’s hooves reached up and snatched the filly off his head and held her out in front of him. He took extreme care to be gentle and not hurt the eager fangirl, but he didn’t hesitate to use his other hoof to push up on her lower jaw to keep her mouth shut. Mariner “Chibi” Moon blinked at him a few times as the train’s hissing machinery and lack of rumbling showed they’d reached their stop at Baltimare. Junior shook his head slowly.

“No more of that, please.”

The eager filly nodded, moving her entire body up and down given Godzilla was holding onto her head. Still ever hyper, even if she agreed to stop her normal antics, Mariner Moon had one last act for her idol before he could leave. Reaching behind her back, she pulled out a large ink stamp pad and parchment sheet; before looking up at Junior with sparkling eyes and a wagging tail.

Junior shrugged, snorting his nose and putting her down on the floor.

Several minutes later and after a large magic shot by the Gifted School teachers, anypony in Baltimare was scrambling for their cameras once they were alerted to something happening by a massive flare of light. Taking note to enter the river and sea slowly in order to avoid displacing tonnes of water so quickly he might flood the shore, the titanic true form of Godzilla Junior waded out to sea with scores of school children’s cheers pursuing him. Mariner Moon joyfully bounced up and down on her hind limbs, clutching an inked hoofprint autograph to her chest. Her typically bemused teachers however soon found themselves diving for cover when the magic prodigy got so excited she started firing heart shaped, pink deathrays into the air while she spun around on her hoof.

=============

Mako Atoll

Electra had been on patrol for hours circling the large circumference of the atoll, having swum herself in circles ever since the boat showed up and the letter had been dispatched to Canterlot. The queen put her on border watch in an attempt to put the mermare’s nerves at ease by exhausting her after Electra turned down “shore leave” to relax. She was on the lookout for any sign of a response by Canterlot while brainstorming solutions to the current problem of the beached ship. No response courier from Canterlot had arrived yet, leaving her to presume that the landponies were also still trying to figure out how to get their boat back and the S.S. Mermare wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

She’d just begun trying to think of a way to tow it past the reefs when a magnificent flash of light got her attention. It came from the waters inside The Shroud, the dark waters under the storms and mists masking the cause from sight. At this point not knowing what to expect, Electra swam closer to investigate and quickly felt a curtain of unnaturally warm water radiating forward before going cold again. Pressing on, she squinted and looked over her surroundings. Movement below and off to the side gripped her visual focus. When she first saw the outline the mermare felt a momentary sense of illness and dread, thinking it to be a sunken body of a drowned landpony being moved around by the undertow current. That theory was quickly sunk when she saw its legs moving, and rather than in a panicked, swatting manner of a drowning soul trying to get to the surface; but in a controlled, almost casual walking cycle. When it passed under her without giving the mermare any notice, Electra quickly figured out the pony’s lack of reaction to drowning wasn’t the only oddity about them; for they were about twice the size and mass of a typical landpony.

Utterly perplexed, Electra took a moment to break from a stupor and rang up the grotto on her shellphone. The conch clicked and the composed, mature tone of the young monarch, Queen Maui, came through.

“Electra was it? Why have you called upon me?”

“Your majesty I found a landpony just off the atoll!”

“Oh?... Hm, perhaps a dispatch by Princess Celestia or Luna. What manner of a ship are they on, I’m surprised they made it through The Shroud.”

“No ship, they’re in the water or.. under.. the water actually.”

“Alone? Are they using a gill-spell like Celestial’s apprentice did to try?”

“Not that I can see, your majesty.”

Queen Maui's tone grew a noticeable edge to it, both annoyed and frantic in detail to the manner it caused Electra to wince.

“Then why didn’t you start with saying they’re drowning? Stop talking and get them out of the water!”

“That’s just it, they’re not drowning! Somehow they, it's a he I think, is walking on the bottom- Hang on there’s an angry dolphin getting a bit too curious.”

Electra put the conch away for a moment and reached a fin to her necklace. Just as she was about to sing a melody to drive the large bottlenose away before it might try ramming into the intruder, she saw something that left her eyes nearly popping out of her head. The not-drowning stallion glanced over at the dolphin and after a moment of looking more annoyed than anything else, spewed a bright ray of blue plasma from his maw that matched the glowing colors of his mane. Despite not being hit, the male bottlenose didn’t need a second warning shot, screeching in panic as it swam off into the blue beyond. Godzilla Junior cut the beam and energy charge off, snorting glowing bubbles out of his nose before casually looking up at Electra with a tilted head; having finally noticed her.

Electra had to force her jaw up after it dropped, fumbling to put the shellphone back to her ear.

“What’s going on? Is the dolphin acting up or did the pony drown?! Electra can you hear me?!”

“... Your majesty, this is not a normal pony.”

=======================

The royal grotto at Mako was truly a sight to behold and one not known to many who tread on land. Accessible only by an underwater cave in the interior of the atoll, it was located inside the central island’s extinct volcano. During the night especially it was in possession of a beauty to rival King Leo of the Seaponies’ coral estate or Canterlot Castle’s main chamber, sporting a volcanic glass ceiling that would refract and rain sun or moonbeams down into the grotto. Half submerged and half above the waterline, the cavern was approximately circular and ten meters across. Queen Maui reclined on her partially submerged throne, her tail laying off the side of the smooth, carved sandstone. She wasn’t what one would expect for her species, being actually a bit below-average in size. Or at least that was Godzilla’s guess given that Electra and some of the other mermares he passed on the way in here as well as those guarding the queen seemed up to a fourth larger. The queen herself was fairly vibrant in color, black and white patterns coating her form in a manner that reminded Junior of an orca or Maui dolphin appropriately enough, with a long white mane that obscured half of her face. She definitely had the look of a leader with her piercing rose-red eyes and shell crown, composed and domineering in a way much like Princess Celestia or Luna when they were being serious. It said a lot without being verbal, something the kaiju knew well and appreciated. Certainly was better than the weird looks and wide or fluttering eyes he was getting by the other mermares on the way here.

Queen Maui managed not to stare at the newcomer who turned many flummoxed heads on his way through the atoll and into the grotto, instead holding up the note he brought with him and instantly recognizing the solar emblem.

“Dear Queen Maui of the Eastern Sea Mermares and ruler of Mako,

I took the precaution to seal this note in a canister and used waterproof parchment and ink, so I trust this message is still legible. If not the intent can be gleaned from my compatriot I have asked to give you this letter. I appreciate your haste in alerting myself to the situation with the lost boat, the fate of her missing crew and absent passengers is of the utmost concern of the Canterlot Diarchy. While I trust you and your resources’ assessment of the contents, given the nature of the alien incursions and general chaos of this type of scenario; I wish to bring the boat back to Equestrian harbor to investigate. No doubt you and I both know of the problems undertaking such a regard, which is why I have sent the one who ferried this letter. This is King Godzilla Gojo Junior of the Terran kaiju. Yes, he is the same giant entity who aided in the defense of Canterlot some weeks ago. Do not fear, for if treated well he is a gentle giant whom I call a friend. In his true form both he and I believe him to be large enough and strong enough to physically lift and carry the S.S. Mermare through The Shroud and out to the open sea, where he can bring it to calmer, clearer waters to be towed to shore. All he will require for this action is burst of benevolent magic to return to his true form and a bubble spell to ensure all items on the ship stay aboard while he’s carrying it.

I hope we can continue this cooperation and get to the bottom of this mystery in good time. Additionally, the back of this letter contains an invitation to the upcoming gala being hosted in celebration of the Crystal Empire royal couple’s first pregnancy as a form of a state babyshower. You are more than welcome to come if you please.

Sincerely and with good will,
Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor

Queen Maui re-read the letter in silence before passing it off to an aid who was poking her head out of the water next to the throne. Straightening herself up, she looked upon the silent kaiju stallion before her.

“How soon can this transformation be done?”

Junior shrugged.

“Magic is not something I know well. But according to a friend of mine who does know well, there is a waiting period before forms. One duration was long enough for me to make it almost the entire way here from Baltimare; so only one other charge will be needed to do the change. My best guess is it will be nightfall when it can be done.”

“Very well. Your track record at Canterlot and Princess Celestia vouching for you speaks enough. You may stay here as long as it takes to pull this plan off. As fellow royalty, I wish you well during your time here at Mako. Go and speak to Electra, I’m pulling her off border watch and assigning her as your guide here.”

“As you wish. My own home back on Terra was an island and I lived in the sea often. I think I’ll do just fine here.”

Junior and Maui shared a nod, the former turning around and beginning to walk off the sandstone platform he’d been standing on when the mermare monarch’s voice called over him. Junior gave her an over-the-shoulder glance.

“King Godzilla.”

“Yes?”

“My kind have been one of isolation since The Shroud was put up, and often with good reason. Windigo attacks in ancient times, pirate or unscrupulous sailor crews trying to kidnap mermares for a variety of reasons in historic and recent times, sea dragon attacks; and more. However, I have considered working towards opening a hole in our stormy wall, allowing guests beyond the seaponies into this domain.”

“And you wish me to be something of a tester for your capital.”

Queen Maui’s brow raised somewhat, showing a hint of surprise.

“You think fast for one who doesn’t seem to talk much, I respect that. And yes. You’re about as much of an outsider as one could call upon in this age. So tell me what you might think of the atoll before you depart, if you please.”

Godzilla Junior remained silent for a short time, before flicking his ears and giving the mermare a slight nod.

“The ponies of this world are friends of mine, and under my protection. If you wish the share the first label with them, I’ll keep their interests in mind best I can.”

Queen Maui smirked briefly, letting her eyes rescan the individual in front of her.

“Thank you, your majesty. Enjoy your stay.”

Junior elected to ignore how weird being called by royal titles still was for him, choosing to just go forth with it if it helped smooth matters out as he returned it in kind.

“I trust I will. Thank you for your accommodations, your majesty.”

Queen Maui’s brow raised a bit more and the edges of her lips curled up a bit when Junior turned around and almost comedically dove into the water like he was walking off the edge of a pool.

-Huh, for a reptile in form of a land stallion; not shabby looking.-

Junior just kept looking around at the bustling mermare-filled reef and underwater town after he stepped out of the tunnel that led to the grotto, Electra flanking him while he didn’t at all notice the looks a lot of the mermares were giving him as he walked by.

-Wonder if I can find something for Luna or the Imperial infant here? First thing’s first, inspect the ship.-

============================================

It was barely a moment past dawn when Seong, still levitating a lit candle and having half a dozen needles stuffed into her hoof bands and saddle bag, sprinted across town towards the forest’s edge. The focus of her mission was singular, even if she kept frantically looking around to check and make sure there was no sight or sound creeping up on her. Making it to the spot she’d memorized, the kirin pulled back some shrubs and rolled away a few stones to get at where she remembered putting a small lock box. Only when she found what she was looking for, half of said box and the rocks around it were gone. Not moved or shattered, but completely gone like something had caused half of the ironwood and rocks to vaporize in an instant. When she’d have a greater moment of clarity, Seong might realize what had happened to her ward; but now was not that moment. Now was the time she could feel her heartbeat between her ears and her skin crawl from a frigid cold; terrified. Seong looked at the destroyed puzzle box, a handcrafted, intricate design that took days to make. There was a fruitless hope it could be repaired, one that was quickly dashed when the loss of half its structure caused the interwoven wooden planks to fall to pieces.

-That’s how she found me. The seal must have been broken during the baby destroyah rampage by a stray shot!-

Seong frantically looked around, pulling out some iron needles and holding them before her in a magical grip like a weapon. She slowly started to back away from the trees, trying to get back in the open where she might not jump at every creak or tap coming out of the woods.

-With the ward destroyed, the seal was broken. She must have picked up my trail again and was now able to cross the boundar-!!!!-

The kirin heard a creak and darted her eyes upwards just as she got back into the meadows surrounding the town. There was a pair of little blue birds sitting on the branch above her, quietly chirping and looking at her in a curious manner. They hopped up and down the branch they stood upon, tilting their heads at the crazy kirin. Letting the dead air free of her lungs, Seong shrugged and started to turn around to head back to town with her mind alight with plans on what to do. But before she could get far however, an odd noise passed by her ears. It was the birds again. Only this time Seong noticed something about their chirping. They were squeaking in unison without fail, making it sound slightly off putting. The kirin glanced back and saw that the two song birds were now on a closer branch, hopping one right after the other like they were in some sort of pattern while moving their heads and eyes in perfect synchronization.

A cold chill drowned Seong’s mind behind her widened eyes and she acted quickly, hurling several needles that embedded themselves in the tree branch just before the birds. In an image comparable to one painting being half painted over by another, the space from the branch itself and upwards a short distance morphed. Gone was the steady branch and four bird legs, replaced instead by a branch clearly bent under a decent weight with a pair of hand-like paws gripping the bark with oversized claws, flanked by lean, vulpine hindpaws. Despite the visible space above the wrists still looking like a pair of song birds, a very un-avian giggle slipped through the air. Seong quickly lifted a large paving stone with a fist of magic and heaved it at the predator which had gotten so close to her. The heavy stone crashed into the tree branch and split it with a loud snap, but the vulpine monster nimbly jumped back several meters and landed in the forest thicket. Seong panted, arming herself with more iron needles that now surrounded her as she stepped backwards away from the woods; step by step. Folktales from her parent’s bedtime stories replayed in her mind as she glimpsed multiple fluffy tails slip out of view and dart away.

-She’s come for me and she’s not leaving.-

Seong glanced at the town behind her and went pale.

-I need to get another box…-

===============================

Gentle Leaf was so confused. She didn’t know why Auntie Seong was so scared last night. She didn’t know why Seong was up so early. And right now she was confused why her aunt was in her guest bedroom frantically packing her saddlebags and a small suitcase.

-Why is she packing my stuff already? We just finished unpacking!-

The little filly waddled over to the kirin, evidently taking the latter by surprise due to how much Seong flinched and spun around. Instantly Gentle Leaf knew something was very wrong. Seong’s mane was frayed and she was sweating heavily under heaving breath. Still, Seong did make an attempt to look and sound presentable as she brushed a few bangs away from her eyes and kept her voice down despite it shaking.

“Oh h-hello sweetheart! Didn’t mean to wake you.”

Taking her little chalk board she carried around out, the filly scribbled and held up a message.

-”What’s going on Auntie? Why are you packing?”-

“Oh I just need to head out of town for a day.”

-”But I just got here! Why?”-

“I n-need to take care of something, something very very important.”

-”Why?”-

Seong’s eye twitched as she zipped up the now loaded saddlebag.

“Because something unexpected came up. I promise I’ll spend lots of time with you when I get back. I just need to take a day trip.”

Gentle Leaf’s eyes beamed as she gave a little gasp, coming to a logical if faulty conclusion.

-”Oh! So you’re packing my stuff so I can go with you! I wanna help I wanna help!”-

Seong’s response wasn’t nearly as joyful as Gentle Leaf expected. It was actually exactly what finally convinced the filly something was very, very wrong. Ki Seong shouted at her.

“ANI GENTLE LEAF!”
("NO GENTLE LEAF!")

The kirin roared with a stressed snap, causing Gentle Leaf to cower down and quiver. For a minute the only sound in the room was their labored breathing. Seong didn’t even bother to fix her bangs again when she saw how scared and saddened her beloved neice’s quivering eyes were; even if it was the kirin’s eyes which were stung with the salt of stressed tears. She slowly moved forward, controlling her breath as she pulled the filly into a tight embrace. Feeling her aunt’s warmth and heart beat, Gentle Leaf’s panic slowly waned away. She returned the hug, wrapping her hooves around Ki Seong’s collar and neck as she wondered why Seong was hugging her like she thought it would be their last.

“I’m so sorry. It’ll all be okay, I promise… I won’t be gone long.”

Gentle Leaf looked up at the kirin, hiding the choking sense of dread gripping her.

====================================

It was an hour later and a now much more composed Seong and Gentle Leaf were at the front of Sweet Apple Acres after a hurried walk out of town. The fact Seong seemed apprehensive about some passing birdies and a townspony was more than a bit confusing for the little filly. Still, she seemed to think her aunt must be doing better. After all, why else would she give Granny Smith a pretty kitchen frying pan as a gift the moment they saw the Apple Matriarch?

Seong inwardly breathed a huge sigh of relief when she saw Granny Smith touch the iron skillet without any signs of illusionary failure. Keeping a jovial appearance, she beamed and snickered when Granny Smith plopped the skillet onto her head like a hat.

“Yeeeeep! This ‘ere pan will do nicely! Been needin’ a new one.”

“Thank you so much for this Missus Smith, I’ll pay this back double in time!”

Granny Smith just smiled and waved at Seong, albeit in the direction of Gentle Leaf given she couldn’t see with a skillet on her head.

“S’only for one night deary, no need to jumper y’erself up ‘n down over. ‘Sides I’m sure my granddaughter and her lil’ friends would love to have her join in on the jam makin’.”

“Still, next two dinners in town for your family are on me!”

Seong chirped, clicking her hooves and bowing to the matriarch while Gentle Leaf did the same.

“Oh, just checking. Your family owns a dog, yes?”

Granny Smith, still talking to Seong while facing Gentle Leaf, pointed on towards the barn house.

“Why yes, Winona. Good pooch, never bites. Why ye’ ask, missy?”

“Oh, just curious. Been meaning to get one myself. Take care, I’ll be back soon!”

-Hope to your forerunners that you do Seong…-

With that Seong and Gentle Leaf turned to face each other and embraced, both fighting frowns as they bumped foreheads and Seong kissed her niece on her brow. Seong brushed aside Gentle Leaf’s bang that bore Anguirus’ quill, casting a bittersweet smile when she looked into her niece’s confused eyes. Ki Seong nodded, her body language saying enough as Gentle Leaf reluctantly nodded back. While the filly may not have known it, her aunt was committing the sight of her to memory. Just in case she didn’t get the chance to see it again later.

Ki Seong rose and bowed to Granny Smith, clicking her hooves before turning and sprinting away.

=============================

It was an hour later at the orchards and Gentle Leaf was settling in decently despite the dark sense that seemed to loom over the filly like a storm cloud. Eager to help out in the jam process, she was waddling back and forth between the kitchen and tables to set up the sorting jars for Granny Smith to use. She had just set down a third set of jars, smirking in victory after having balanced one on her nose all the way from the kitchen, when something caused her smile to vanish. A breeze from the forest on the far side of the settlement filtered in and she froze.

Gentle Leaf didn’t know why, nor did she know exactly what caused it; but something wasn’t right with the air. An equine’s sense of smell wasn’t the greatest, but she could just barely make out that something, some scent, was staining the air and making it seem wrong. She didn’t quite know whether to be afraid of confused, but something was making her extremely curious. She wanted to investigate. Turning away from the jars, Gentle Leaf almost unconsciously started walking towards the forest. The sweet scent was getting stronger, like sizzled sugarcane. Gentle Leaf smiled as she got close to the shrubs, the quiet giggling she heard infecting her.

Had a blur of brown and white not sprinted up in front of her, she might have walked right into the forest in a trance. Winona did not share Gentle Leaf’s jovial attitude as to what was in the forest. The ranch dog was snarling rabidly and gnashing her fangs as her ears were perked up straight, growling viciously at the danger she sensed instinctively. Winona didn’t know what it was but she could tell it was evil and had no business being near her family. Her rapid-fire barking snapped Gentle Leaf out of her stupor.

From the point of view of the shrouded predator whom was less than two meters away from Gentle Leaf when the petulant dog interfered, each of Winona's high pitched barks was multitudes louder. Every bark was like a gong crash in both ears.

Gentle Leaf nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard the vulpine shriek coming out of the woods and glimpsed something large and covered in pale fur bound away. Winona didn’t pursue, instead staying by the filly’s side as Gentle Leaf fell on her back and scrambled away from the woods. The mute’s eyes were getting wet and her heart was beating between her ears. There was so much she didn’t know but there was almost as much she knew. She knew something terrible was out there and almost got her. And simple deduction screamed at her that Auntie Seong knew about this ‘thing’ as well and that was what had her so scared.

-I have to get help! Auntie Seong is alone! She could get hurt or- or!-

Gentle Leaf would have screamed if she could. She flew up to her feet and sprinted back to the farm to find anypony, any adult. Someone had to go and help Ki Seong! By sheer coincidence and a matter of happy fate, she ended up slamming into what could easily be the best possible result. Even as she flopped back on her rump and shook her dizzied head to clear it, Gentle Leaf recognized the gruff tone addressing her.

“Well, what are you doing here? Your aunt with you?”

Gentle Leaf opened her eyes to see the tilted head of Anguirus looking back down at her. Her chest pounded and her nerves were shocked back to excitement as she sprang up and began motioning rapid-fire sign language while pointing to the forest where Winona was still barking.

“Winona will you cut that racket out!”

Applejack barked while she trotted up to her dog but stopped where Anguirus and Gentle Leaf were. Raising a brow at the filly, she nudged Anguirus while the latter watched Gentle Leaf shrug and run over to the table.

“What’s she doing here?”

“Granny Smith says Miss Tea Song dropped her off.”

“Dropped her off? That’s not like her, Gentle Leaf here just got in town yesterday. Last I heard Seong and her had plans for today.”

“Maybe somethin’ came up?”

The adults turned back to Gentle Leaf when the filly ran back to them with a notebook and a pencil held in her mouth. One page had several quick notes written in shorthand talking about goings on the night before and then what happened several minutes prior, along with a single phrase written in large print on the other page.

-”SEONG’S IN DANGER! HELP!”-

=====================

Anguirus and Applejack skidded their hooves to a halt, having sprinted all the way from Sweet Apple Acres into Ponyville proper right up to the front of Ki Seong’s diner and house. It was still very early in the morning and few other townsfolk were awake, let alone out and doing rounds, leaving them alone in front of the shop. The moment he got close, Anguirus could feel his hair and quills bristling, curling his lips back at an unfamiliar scent that was irritatingly faint, but just strong enough he could tell it wasn’t familiar and he didn’t like it. As such he put a hoof out in front of Applejack to stop her from entering the restaurant front door, which was still cracked open slightly.

“What’s eatin’ ye’?”

She whispered, not oblivious to Anguirus’ reaction to the place which clashed horrifically with how eager he was usually to be there.

“Something’s wrong.”

He whispered and growled back. Applejack eyed the ground near the door, thinking she could see something disturbed in the dirt and grass bordering the house. The mare elbowed Anguirus slightly, nodding her head to the side of the house.

“Think ‘Ah see something fishy around the sides. Might be tracks and in a weird spot for them to be.”

“You check the sides then, I’ll check the interior. Be careful.”

“On it.”

The duo split off, flanking and entering the restaurant. Logically they had little cause for caution, after all their reason for coming here was to find Ki Seong and ask what the hay was going on. But the encounter at the farm and the eerie quiet of the restaurant was setting both of their nerves on edge.

Applejack quickly discovered her hunch was correct. The grounds all around the building had been disturbed and recently, the isolated nature of the depressions showing it wasn’t something being put down or dragged across the ground that pushed the grass and dirt aside. Instead she could practically place her hooves in the depressions and walk along them in a trail, indicating they were prints lefts by something of comparable or greater mass to be enough to push the dirt and grass down like she could.

-Tracks look fresh. Not like someone to go snooping around somepony’s house like this in middle of the night and nothing here for Seong to pace like this.-

Perplexed, Applejack’s confusion and intrigue only grew when she noticed something above a set of tracks leading right up to the outside wall. Some of the paint on the restaurant's wooden walls had been scratched in thin, parallel lines that dug into the wood slightly. She recognized it from the scrapes Winona left on some of the tables when she was a puppy and liked climbing, just on a much larger scale. She could put the edge of her hoof on one scrape and the other edge of her hoof would touch the other outermost scrape.

-Big dog.-

Applejack let her focus pitch upwards higher and higher, seeing a second set of scrapes, then a third, then a fourth. All along the side of the wall going all the way to the roof as indicated by a notch cut out of roof tile. Applejack’s eyes widened, seeing the numerous claw marks crisscrossing the wall like something had crawled along the wall and tried to claw its way into one of the windows the numerous trails lead to. She shook her head slowly in growing disbelief.

-Okay, not a dog.-

“Anguirus! Think ye’ might wanna see this!”

Anguirus had stepped through the front door, saying nothing while he glanced around. The restaurant looked eerie without the numerous happy patrons or the ever present Seong telling stories or humming old Carrean songs while she prepared the food and tea. Yet it looked clearly like someone had been through here. The needle wedged into the doorway had been torn out, something Anguirus noticed when his hoof bumped into it on the floor and sent it rolling away. Several chairs had been knocked over, candle lamps blown out, and the doorway leading to the upstairs was swaying open. The last part clearly a big red flag in Anguirus’ mental checklist given he’d been here over a dozen times and never saw that door open during the day.

As he stepped further inside, Anguirus did not see a pair of reflective, blinking eyes looking down at him from the rafters.

Applejack’s voice called out from outside.

“Anguirus! Think ye’ might wanna see this!”

Anguirus, looking over to a knocked over table and seeing a scratch mark going across the edge, leaned in while throwing his voice.

“Be there in a minute! Something funny going on, you better check the other walls.”

“‘Kay!”

Hearing Applejack’s hoofsteps outside circle the house, another set of hoofsteps on the restaurant's wooden planks caused Anguirus to whirl around with his teeth bared and quills bristling. His eyes locked onto and quickly relaxed upon seeing Ki Seong halfway out the door to the upstairs room. She was clearly frantic in manner given her near hyperventilating breath and frayed mane.

“H-Hello…”

“Seong!”

Anguirus, dropping all aggression, rushed forward and put his hooves on Seong given she looked about ready to fall over. To his surprise though, she shrunk away from his grasp.

“S-Sorry. I didn’t want this to happen so quickly.”

Anguirus’ head recoiled back and his face contorted in confusion.

“Wh-What? So quickly? Seong what is going on?!”

“Pl-Please don’t shout. I don’t want… more attention.”

She whispered, shrinking back more into her corner and instantly deflating Anguirus’ volume. He relaxed, shrugged, and bowed slightly.

“Sorry. I-I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to shout, never at you. It’s just, something’s very wrong. You dropped Gentle Leaf at the orchards right after she shows up, run off and by chance I find you back here; and then the restaurant looks like a mess…”

Ki Seong sighed, raising back up to her regular height and shaking her head.

“I had… situations come up. It was best she was out of the house until I got it settled. I’ll make it up to her, not like we had plans.”

Anguirus’ expression flattened slightly.

-One.-

“Needed her out... For what? Granny Smith says she was sad and you were frantic when you dropped her off.”

“Oh, it’s a … private matter. One I’m… glad, you’re here for.”

She muttered in a slightly sly tone, walking past Anguirus and curling her tail around his figure as she circled him but just barely avoiding any touch. Anguirus’ eyes followed her around with each step.

-Two.-

“She says something tried to get her to walk into the forest and thinks it was tied to you.”

“Oh, poor poor deary. Probably just her imagination though. I’ll deal with it later, something more important now.”

“Which is?”

Seong giggled and shut the door with her magic, whirling around at Anguirus’ face and pushing her lips onto his. For a moment the kaiju felt paralyzed and it wasn’t from the suddenness of the action, giving lip to lip contact wasn’t indicative of his species even though he knew what a kiss was. No, he literally felt paralyzed in place, muscles locking up as Seong pushed them to the ground in front of the bar and got ontop of him. Even as she deepened the smooch, the kaiju held onto his dulling mind and held fast to the mana that pumped through his veins. If he had more power, a stylized “alpha” symbol might have flashed on his chest, but instead his body temperature just spiked with the burning mana searing off the Equestrian magic that had spread across his still form like spider web on a caught fly.

Freed, he pushed the kirin up slightly, still internally stupefied as to what was going on even as he kept a stoic tone in his voice.

“What’s my name? What did you last call me?”

Ki Seong seemed momentarily surprised he was able to push her off him but she kept the straddling pin, biting her lip with seductive eyes.

“Silly Quill Coat, I thought you wanted this-”

He stopped listening to “it” and narrowed his eyes.

-Strike three, my name's not Quill Coat and you’re not Seong.-

Anguirus snorted and growled, bracing himself against the bar behind him and launching the imposter off him just as he began to feel a set of claws try to dig into his stomach. “Ki Seong” yelped as she hit a table and knocked it over with a crash, rolling across the floor across the front doorway. Along the way she let out a vulpine yip and Anguirus glimpsed a glimmer of metal stick into her shoulder, the imposter having rolled ontop of and got stabbed into by the discarded needle Anguirus bumped into on his way in. When she sprung back to her hoof in a predatory manner, the kaiju-earth pony’s eyes expanded when he witnessed the visible space around said shoulder seem to fizzle and warp, removing the sight of Seong’s short green coat and scales while replacing it with long, light gray fur.

-An illusion!-

He growled and charged but “Seong” cracked an unsmiling, manic grin and nimbly jumped away and over him after she pulled the needle out with her teeth, giving Anguirus another glimpse of its true form with a momentary sight of carnivorous fangs clenching the needle between themselves before it was spat out. Smashing through an overturned table, Anguirus dug his hooves into the floor to turn himself around and face the creature. The imposter giggled in a disturbing fashion, tilting her head and speaking in a tone unfitting for the kirin.

“Oooh, you’ll be more fun than her last one. I’ll come back for you after I finish the main business.”

She cackled before bolting into the kitchen faster than Anguirus could close the distance again. It scampered through the room and rammed down the back door just as Applejack had walked past said doorway. The mare yipped and spun around just in time to see a blurry object with multiple long, furry tails sprint past her and head into the woods going eastward out of the town.

“What’n tarnation!?”

She looked back after hearing the crash of kitchenware and jumped back a bit on instinct when Anguirus, who’d slammed into a rack after sliding across the tile floor and was now sporting a rice pot on his head, jumped out onto the fallen door. Looking around frantically to see where his enemy was, the guardian beast only managed to glimpse something running off into the shrubs when Applejack pulled the pan off his head.

“Thanks!”

“What in the Samson Hills was that?!”

“Best guess, whatever tried to nab Gentle Leaf and spooked Seong.”

“Speakin’ of her, found the way she went. Look!”

Applejack barked as she motioned with her hoof to the ground in front of her. Leading away from the backdoor, away from town, and towards the forest was a set of cloven hoofprints. And now, running alongside or even in them in some cases, were sets of abnormally large, canine-like prints going the same direction. The words of the adversary replayed in Anguirus’ mind while his face went pale in panic.

-”Oooh, you’ll be more fun than her last one. I’ll come back for you after I finish the main business.”-

One could practically see the exclamation point shoot out from Anguirus’ head. He broke into a sprint, charging after Ki Seong’s prints as Applejack’s voice called out after him.

“Wait! Anguirus!?”

“It said it was going after her first! With any luck I can catch up!”

He was almost to the forest’s edge when he heard another pair of pounding hoof-falls come up alongside him. Applejack was booking it, managing to catch up to the stallion despite his fast pace and greater stride after a lot of practice doing such with Big Mac. Anguirus barked at her, concern giving his tone a sharp edge.

“No! Go get help!”

But the Element of Honesty just snorted and kept sprinting into the forest in pace with Anguirus.

“Nooo ti’me! That thang’s bearin’ down on Miss Song fast!”

She snapped back, eyes narrowed at the path ahead of her.

“By the time I got anypony ye’d be way outta ways and could lose the trail!”

“You don’t need to endanger yourself like this, AJ. I can handle it!”

“Ah’ve rustled my varmints more times than ‘ah can count! And if this thing thinks it can threaten mah friends and come on mah family’s orchard, then this bumpus has got fourteen bucks with her name on ‘em!”

Stubbornness was something Anguirus knew well and he knew when not to even bother. If this realm had any equivalents to Terra, it was the fact Applejack was just as bullheaded as he was when they got determined. He respected that on a day to day basis. And now with Tanaka-knew-what causing a mess, part of him was actually happy someone was on hand to help. He could already tell it was going to be one rough day.

==============

White Tail Woods

Applejack and Anguirus, a very fit earth pony and mana-fueled kaiju, managed to keep sprinting down Ki Seong and her pursuer’s trail for hours; going over both gametrails as well as old dirt roads heading west out of town. The familiar surroundings for the pony and presence of a few sunbleached gyaos skeletons for the kaiju told them they were somewhere near or in Whitetail Woods, not far from where the marathon was held in the fall. The continued tracks along the path left the pair both impressed Ki Seong managed to run for so long as well as a looming sense of dread given the intruder’s prints were ever present as well.

They kept running down a forested path, jumping over a fallen tree trunk one of the gyaos had knocked over in its death throes. The woods around them had cleared somewhat and Applejack threw out a hoof to call them to a stop. Grinding to a halt, the pair surveyed their surroundings. The forest pulled back slightly, revealing a worn, small cabin or large shack just off the beaten path. The structure had two windows, both of which had a flickering light flashing across them to indicate a candle or small fire inside. Applejack let her eyes follow the hoofprints, seeing their trail lead directly towards the cabin.

“Seong’s trail leads in, not out. Bet my bottom bustle she’s in there.”

She whispered, raising up on her tippy-hooves to try and get a better look through the shrubs bordering the path they were on. Anguirus meanwhile had his eyes focused down, looking at the other trail of prints, the pawprints, that seemed to stop short of following Ki Seong’s trail to the lodging.

-It chased her this far, why stop now?-

He let his eyes retrace the trail, seeing it divert off the dirt path and towards a tree. Mentally replaying the path taken in his mind, he noticed scratch marks and bent or snapped branches going up the tree, and onto the neighboring tree; and so on. Just as he followed the path to the left of the trail, the breeze shifted and he smelled it. The same pungently sweet scent he picked up at the restaurant. And it wasn’t alone in what the winds carried, they also carted with them a sound. Hushed, eager, but disturbingly manic giggling.

“...Ah Daiei…”

“What is it?”

“Run... to the shack, as fast as you can…”

Anguirus’ slowly pitched his head up and saw what he at first thought was some dew glinting in the sunlight of some leaves blink at him, revealing it to be a set of eyeshine. The giggling grew louder.

“Now! NOW!”

Anguirus pushed Applejack forward and ran forward while keeping his head back to stare down the approaching monster. Applejack sprinted forward at top speed, scrambling into the clearing and towards the shack with Anguirus right behind her while the sound of heinous giggling and crashing branches called out behind her; growing closer at a pace so fast one would be hard pressed to guess whether they would reach the structure in time. Anguirus kept at the ready to do an about-face and charge forward to protect or buy Applejack time. Their pursuer had jumped down from the trees and was charging at them from the brushline. He was beginning to get a better look at just what this creature was. It was fairly large, slightly taller than himself or Ki Seong and much longer due to multiple long, fluffy tails trailing it. The creature was largely a pale color but seemed to have very bright, blue eyes and accents on parts of its body. Matching the tracks, it definitely seemed to be a fox or canine of some sort; likely the former given the fact it could climb so well.

They reached the door just before the creature was about to bound into the clearing, Applejack turning and bucking it open after the latch seemed to jam; ducking inside while yanking Anguirus in as well. They slammed the door shut, Applejack relocking everyone of its multiple latches before joining Anguirus in bracing her shoulder against the door to protect against a potentially bursting impact.

Except instead of roars of laughter continuing to chase them down and a large who-knew-what trying to ram the door down, the pair were given a near total silence. No footsteps, no giggles, no impact. Just tense, labored breathing behind them. Glancing at one another, Applejack and Anguirus slowly turned around while keeping their backs to the door. They weren’t alone in the cabin after all. A near hyperventilating Ki Seong, whom was clearly exhausted from sweat wetting her frayed mane and the twigs stuck in her hair, sat with her back to the opposing wall and brandishing a hot metal fire-poker.

The three stared each other down, shock, confusion, and uncertainty especially evident in each of their eyes given the suddenness of the situation leaving them all in a panic along with the fact they were dealing with a creature they knew could cast illusions, not wanting to even dare risk being fooled. Fearful tears stung Ki Seong’s eyes and she grimaced, shaking the rod.

“Give me your arm.”

“S-Seong?!”

“I SAID GIVE ME YOUR ARM!”

Anguirus and Applejack stole a moment to keep their nerve, assured by each other’s presence as they presented a forelimb. Ki Seong held her breath and levitated an iron sewing needle from a box resting on a shelf, moving it over and tapping each limb with it. Seeing no change, she finally breathed out in obvious relief.

"N-No change… it is you.”

Before either pony could speak, Ki Seong stuck the fire poker back in the small, burning fireplace and lurched forward to sling her hooves around their chests to bear hug the both of them.

The ten minutes had tension strong enough to strangle someone of a milder constitution. Instead they were spent with Applejack and Anguirus alternating on turns watching the windows to keep a vigil over the forest while Ki Seong tended to the fire. It was increasingly obvious this small cabin wasn’t a random stockade the kirin had dove into when being pursued. The interior was sparsely decorated with symbols and spell or prayer tags the newcomers recognized as Carrean in origin given they were identical to those back at the restaurant. Ki Seong had obviously been here before and was coming to it on purpose. The interior was largely devoid of any furnishings aside from a small table, single chair, and a set of saddlebags Ki Seong had evidently brought with her. Lining the small shelves were boxes of candles, jars of liquids, needles, a tuft of what looked like dog hair; and salt. While such might have seemed bizarre to Applejack, Anguirus recognized some of the items from his own place of origin. Oddly specific items, weird symbols, and tools to make fire if his guess as to whatever was in the jars being flammable was right. Tools for warding off something supernatural. He didn’t know what counted as supernatural in a world full of magical talking ponies and other species, but if he could make a guess an illusionary carnivore that could cause this amount of distress was a sound estimate.

After verifying their guest wasn’t making a move towards the small cabin, Anguirus looked to Applejack and nodded; both walking over to the working Ki Seong, who’d dived back into toiling at some mixture she was cooking up in the fireplace and hadn’t spoken since.

“Seong, what in the realms of Daiei is going on? Just what is that thing out there?!”

The kirin didn’t look up from her work, magically levitating over some of the dog hair and throwing it into the fire; magically grasping some of the resulting smoke and pushing it into a case of ink.

“Did you see it up close?”

“Well only for a moment. Tea Song what is that thing-”

Anguirus’ eye twitch and he barked, cutting Applejack off. He hated getting sharp with a friend and- whatever Ki Seong counted as, but he needed to snap the kirin out of work mode to get some answers.

“Up close?! The thing practically straddled me!”

Applejack’s jolted up in surprise and looked over at the kaiju incredulously; who just shrugged his shoulders and nodded. Ki Seong on the otherhoof got a more, enthusiastic response once she processed what he said.

“It followed me all the way fr- Wait WHAT?!”

She roared, whirling around with frantic eyes and her face half covered in smoke. Before one could make a joke about clingy females however, the true purpose for her fretting became obvious when she jumped up to Anguirus and lifted his forelimbs up to look at his torso.

“Are you okay?! What happened?! Oh thank McCarthy, she didn’t finish!”

“Finish what?!”

Ki Seong answered the question by lifting Anguirus up slightly to expose his lower chest. A set of shallow claw wounds were evident through the kaiju’s short fur, set just below the center mass where the ribcage ended and the liver was. Dried, black flakes around several of the marks showed they had punched through the skin and bled some; but thankfully not to any significant degree. Applejack leaned in closer, surveying the light wound.

“‘Ah seen this before, looks almost like a timber wolf attack. Claw wound.”

Anguirus glanced down, not reacting much to the injury given he’d had much worse.

“Thought I felt a sting when it tried to immobilize me while looking like you. Guess I’ve been too hyped up to have noticed it. What was it trying to do?”

Ki Seong went silent for a moment, bowing head down and shrinking away. Looking at Anguirus' wound was leaving her quivering in fear. It looked like she was about to go back to silence, but when she turned around to resume her work she didn’t stay quiet.

“It… She… was trying to rip your heart and liver out.”

“... You said it followed you.”

Ki Seong made herself seem smaller than before.

“All the way from home…”

She muttered, staring into the fire. Applejack looked to the kirin momentarily before taking another glance out the window. Storm clouds were being moved in from high above in the Cloudsdale jetstreams, darkening the land below so much it was almost like twilight.

“All the way from Ponyville?”

“All the way from Carrea….”

Steeling herself for a moment of contemplation, Ki Seong mixed the infused ink together and began to scribe symbols onto a scroll of parchment. They deserved to know. Time for a story she wasn’t fond of telling...
"She's called a gumiho."

=====================

Carrea, Some Years Ago

A younger Ki Seong paced down the street of her little town, hauling a load of groceries and ingredients for the family restaurant on her saddlebags as well as with a curtain of magic. Looking much the same then as she did in the present, except for being a touch smaller and her antlers not having grown the forward prong yet. The largest resemblance however was in demeanor, for she carried the same smile Ponyville would know her by every which way she went. Life had its troubles for sure. Learning the family business was tedious and her family was stable, though not particularly well off. And of course with her being of age, the countdown to a very specific date that once seemed so far away was now in the double digits of days away. Her wedding day.

It was an arrangement made between the Ki clan and the Cho clan lines a dozen years ago. By the end of next month she was to be married to Cho Yon. Seong, upon first taking active notice of the arrangement four years ago, resisted. She, like many kirin youths, had been influenced by an influx of Equestrian culture which had migrated to Carrea decades ago. She wanted to pick her husband, not be roped into an archaic arrangement organized several years ago. She did know Cho Yon, just not very well as she’d only met him a half dozen times and mostly just as another in their age group during big festivals or fairs. He was nice, but not a friend.

Still, time changed ordeals. Pre-arrangements had flaws, but selected unions had their problems as well. Sometimes folks pick themselves the wrong partner because they didn't know what they really wanted. Her parents and Yon’s certainly knew more about marriage than either of them did so leaving it to them while they focused on their skillset did have some logic to it. And the fact their parents’ had been adamant the two know each other more beforehoof caused a big shift in the last year. Cho Yon was a gardener and florist by trade, leaving Seong little to imagine who it was whom left her several white carnation flowers at her doorstep. The next set of flowers had a note on them with a request to meet. Her parent’s snickering after seeing her blush at the invitation indicated this was anything but a secret meeting.

More meetings came as the days went by. Sometimes they’d eat together, or rather eat what Seong brought as poor Yon was as clumsy with a pan as he was skillful with a flower; other times they’d just talk sitting down or on a walk. Cho Yon wasn’t a prince charming or character of a romance story, but lies were hard to keep up over such a long period of time with both Seong herself and her parents constantly giving Yon study. The truth was made known over time. He was a gentle soul, if a bit meek at times, dedicated; but always eager to please. A kirin Seong was confident she’d grow to love after marriage.

But a few pinpricks of trouble stirred on one such “date” three weeks before their big day. It wasn’t anything Cho Yon did to her, far from it. He was as kindly and quiet as always, even bothering to ask first before he did so much as touch her hoof. Rather it was at the confusion showing on the kirin buck’s face. He was utterly perplexed when Seong came running up to meet him at a small glade they’d come to multiple times.

“What’s wrong? I’m not that late.”

Seong muttered, tilting her head at her fiance. She had gotten held up at the restaurant, only able to leave at the time she was supposed to meet him and as such was ten minutes after time. Cho Yon’s brow raised and he looked between Seong and another path on the opposite side of the glade.

“But, you’re not late. I just saw you! Didn’t you just run off that way?”

He said, motioning to the path opposite the way Seong came.

“I thought you circled around after forgetting something, since you had to go in a rush and all.”

“Huh? But I just got here.”

“N-No I was just with you. You snuggled up beside me and were really affectionate for a bit, then jumped up and said you had to go.”

Seong’s head lurched back slightly as her face flushed red. True, the thought of cuddling up against Yon wasn’t a bad idea. He was a larger buck, smooth in scale, and sporting a longer than average white coat; something her mother told her made a great pillow as her father had a similar build. The problem was she’d just never asked for so much contact before.

-Yon’s a shy one, something like that could startle him; why you never pushed much Seong. Slow and steady.-

Seong slowly shook her head slightly.

“Yon, I just got here. There was a rush order at the shop and it held me up ten minutes overtime.”

“B-But you were just here. Bit more cuddly than normal but I swear you were!”

Yon belted, looking thoroughly flummoxed in a manner it seemed like he was half expecting to be the butt of some prank. Seong puzzled, not wanting to doubt her fiance as she looked down. Before she could ask if he’d been dreaming perhaps, another odd detail made itself known. Yon always brought her a small gift from his flower and garden shop. A few fresh vegetables for her cooking, a set of bamboo pins, and or a couple of flowers. He wasn’t trying to woo her with just such, as her father said it was just his way of showing affection; but he’d always done so since the first time they met after the arrangement. But this time, he had nothing. Her observation was vindicated when Yon traced her vision to the ground around him and conferred another claim.

“Y-Yeah! I brought you some of those sprouts you like and you gobbled them up before running off. Was half expecting you coming back to ask if I had anymore given you seemed ravenous!”

Ki Seong's face slowly sunk into a worried frown and she curled her tail around Yon's. She couldn't put her hoof on it, but something was very wrong with this picture.

========================

READER WORKS AND PSA

The ever talented FallenAngel showing her stuff in both comission and free drawn format!

Kendell2 (GodzillaWolf) showing his take on a scene from the Mirror Universe timeline!

ShinGodzilla recruiting the talents of ScarisWolf and NorthernLights to display some Fan Kids and a certain couple!

Zeroviks showing off his stuff with an upgraded Irys and gender swapped X (and apparently bisexual Aria), as well as Junior's revenge thanks to an idea from Chance the NEO Warrior

Wolf2541 and FuyuStorm giving us what might as well be the icon couple for the fic!

Pyrus displaying his stuff with a compilation mash up of Bridge and The Little Pony Legend by MaggieHeartLove

The queen of colored pencils TGBJerga excels with her semi-realistic artstyle on the always lovely Thalia!

And of course my friend and collaborator EvoWizard supplying this delightfully silly birthday present!

Got a piece of art, video, or writing I missed and want added? Hit me up with a PM or comment and I'll add it right away!

PSA - Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary

Ever wanted to help an animal without an insanely sad commercial guilt tripping you and knowing your money is going to direct use? Here's your chance. Today I hit a major detour when I found an injured young bird in the parking lot being accosted by another bird. Nature can be cruel, but I'm not so I chased off the offender and gently collected the injured bird. He was pretty weak at first and I won't share the pictures I took of him for the shelter for content, but the next 5 hours was me running around trying to tend to it. Closing up some gashes on the back of its head, getting it some water, making a holding box with bedding to keep it secure as I drove through busy Orlando traffic to find a place to get it medical attention. I found that spot with Brevard Wildlife Hospital and Sanctuary. It's a small not-for-profit establishment on the coast of the Indian River Lagoon and it handles calls from all across the region. Wildlife ranging from squirrels to pelicans to snakes to eagles all get attention here. What this place may lack in size it more than makes up for with heart, effort, and being equipment savvy. They care for injured wildlife on their own time and without a profit out of it.

I know how stressful and worrying just caring for a single bird for 5 hours is, these folks do that with multiple animals every day. Funded by donations, you can donate directly to the hospital and sanctuary to provide medicine, keep the machinery like the X-rays running, and the supplies for recovery for multiple injured animals at a low price. You can also "adopt" an injured animal to sponsor it, be it one on the road to recovery or a permanent resident of the facility who can't return to the wild. I vouch for these people and I've already made my donations. So if you got some spare cash, give them a drop. They take PayPal.

Author's Note

Proof reading by Lance-Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Illustrations to come by Faith-Wolff

Next time on The Bridge!:
Seong's take and a harrowing day at Whitetail, more than enough horror to go around...

April Fools One-Shot: Babysitter

Author's Note

Wrote this just for fun, next chapter is all outlined and being written as we speak.

Proofread by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron
Based off Godzilla and Chibi-Usa characters from Godzilla and Sailor Moon series

And, yes this is canon. Just an AF special for comedy

and being out of left field

April Fools One-Shot: Babysitter

=========================

Sometimes after Chapter 37

Godzilla Junior never thought he’d be thinking it, but he was glad to be away from the ocean or any islands in a thoroughly landlocked place. Patrolling the perimeter of the castle, he’d been enjoying some solitude and quiet, but when it was Princess Luna flying down to him from the ramparts he didn’t much mind the interruption and smiled on reflex. Though he couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the uncharacteristically big grin the alicorn was sporting that practically screamed hidden intent. Still, it was Luna, so he gave his confidant a pleasant nod and bow that she returned upon landing.

“Lulu.”

“Goji.”

Her tone was carrying an edge to it, tipping Junior off to her not being in the best of moods or trying hard to hide something.

“Still upset? Haven’t seen you most of the night.”

“Me? Upset? Don’t jest. I’ve just been… busy.”

“Busy?”

Junior muttered as he leaned back on his hooves and looked Luna over. Now he was certain she was up to something and was already lowering his eyelids and deadpanning at her. If Princess Luna noticed his suspicion, she waved it off after clearly holding back a giggle.

“Oh it’s of little importance, however I require your help. Can you guard somepony?”

“I already do that for you, Lulu. Doubt my abilities?”

“Oh not at all! Faaar faaaar from it!”

She yelped with a smirk, pacing around Junior in a circle with body language that screamed she was keeping herself from bursting out laughing.

“In fact, your duty is exactly why I asked for your aid in this! I require watch over a very special pony to be entertained for twelve hours. We agreed to meet while you were off at Mako.”

Junior didn’t know why he started to narrow his eyes or his fur started to bristle, but it did.

“And who would that be?”

“A guest heree.”

Luna quipped while playfully rolling the last word. She was clearly enjoying this game of twenty questions as well as the rise she was getting out of Junior.

“A foreigner? Didn’t know you had guests that often.”

“Oh no nooo, she’s from Canterlot.”

“Oh.”

And like that Junior’s tensity dropped off- somewhat. Luna used her magnitudes of mental might to keep herself from poking fun at what she’d observed. Between the body language and drop in his tone, she could swear he sounded jealous before the word “she” was used.

-GOOD!-

“Ahem-”

After clearing her throat, Luna stopped circling Godzilla and stood beside him while speaking in a much more astute tone.

“You see, the School for Gifted Unicorns has held a contest ever since young Miss Sparkle achieved what she did. Ponies with outstanding entrance exam achievement or continued exemplary behavior can be entered and for their prize, spend a day or night in the castle accompanying myself or Celestia; or a visit to the Crystal Empire or Ponyville for Cadance and Twilight Sparkle.”

Noticing the lack of student accompanying Princess Luna after he glanced around, Junior tilted his head at the alicorn and raised an eyebrow.

“And let me guess, one called for Celestia and you want me to be on day guard to guarantee their safety?”

“No, actually! The meeting has been this night.”

Luna piped with a stupidly happy smile.

“The student requested myself and we hath spent many a good hours together! But alas, as this halfway point in the night I am forced to attend to private royal princess matters she can't accompany me on.”

“What about the child? Need me to escort them away?”

“Aww, quite kind of you to offer. And yes, take her to the dormitory in six hours.”

One could practically hear the record scratch inside Junior’s head when he heard the “six hours” part.

“... What about the other six?”

“That’s just it! This little filly actually picked you as her replacement accompaniment! Still counts I suppose given you are technically royalty as well.”

Godzilla Junior’s eyes slowly started to widen and he began to look around a bit more diligently both trying to glimpse a pink-furred mass and fearing he would.

“Lulu please tell me it’s not-”

His growl was cut short by a grinning Luna whapping on his helmet with her hoof playfully. Ignoring his previous statement, she called up to the ramparts.

“Come on down youngling! Your guardian awaits!”

A flash of pink colored magic and Junior feeling something push his helmet up from the inside confirmed his fears. A light cream colored, pink-maned filly with large pigtails and bright red eyes had teleported under his helmet, currently now looking at him upside down with a wagging tail.

“HelloKingGodzilla!”

Junior deadpanned with a twitching eye. Savoring a brief moment he could ignore the persistent filly, he quickly glared at Luna.

“Luna I swear if this is over Mako-”

“Oh would you look at the time! Moon’s at low noon! DutyCallsFarewell!”

And like that in a burst of blue hued magic with a lingering lunar symbol, she was gone. Godzilla Junior clenched his jaw and shook, not taking his eyes off the sky as he reached up and pulled Mariner “Chibi” Moon off his head. His mane and eyes started to glow.

A few minutes later he stopped roaring and firing his plasma beam off into the sky. Chibi, who’d been eagerly watching from a couple of meters away while sporting a pair of sunglasses, gave a round of applause at the outburst.

“AgainAgain!”

Restraining himself, Junior closed his eyes and sucked in his breath, holding it while trying to vent off his fuming. Chibi’s high pitched voice bounced across his ears.

“HereLetMeShowYou! PinkSugarHeaartAtta-!”

Upon hearing the vocal shout which heralded a giant pink death ray that was ironically shaped like hearts, Junior launched himself from his position so fast one would swear he flew.

“NO!”

Not wasting a moment when he saw her horn starting to glow, he gently but firmly grabbed the filly by her horn and held her mouth closed.

“We are not doing that again. You can’t control that power yet.”

Uttering a muffled sigh and pouting, Mariner reluctantly acquiesced and nodded; moving her whole body back and forth given Junior was holding onto her head. Confident he wasn’t about to risk a dangerous burst of pink energy to the face or one hitting the castle, Godzilla put her back down and let go. Mariner flopped onto her rump, looking up at her idol and needing only a moment to return right back to her excited state of mind.

“WellWhatAreWeGonnaDo?”

Godzilla Junior shrugged, reaching up and rubbing at his temple before walking past the filly; leaning over to scoop her up onto his back. Like it or not he was stuck with her and after his latest trip, getting on Luna’s bad side wasn’t a likable option. He’d had worse company.

“First, I’m going to finish patrol.”

“O-OkayI’llHelp!”

Chibi chirped, striking a dutiful expression and saluting as she held onto Godzilla’s back and looking around tirelessly. Junior got a grand total of four minutes of silence before she started speaking again and he mostly ignored her through it all.

“AndThat’sHowIGotMyCutieMarkSensei!”

Though he’d just finished his lap of the perimeter, it was Mariner’s words that stopped him cold. While he didn’t speak the language fluently per say, his extended time in Kyoto through his principle development left him with a reasonable grasp of the local language. Sensei was a word he picked up on from both the G-Force platoon that had him as their unofficial mascot as well as what his mother called her superior, Dr. Omae. It was also a word he himself used to describe a certain individual he met long ago on an island surrounded by storms. Come to think of it, that situation also involved a veteran being hounded by an eager youngster with a lot of power.

Definitely an odd thought, one he needed more time to think on. Junior slowly looking back at Chibi’s smiling face, the filly sitting down between his shoulders with a pleasant expression.

“You hungry kid?”

“FAMISHED!”

===============================

The local tavern and pub was one of the less uptight places in Canterlot, located in the lower square. Junior knew it because it was Captain Frost’s and many of the guard’s favorite hangout, with several others on the night guard already there and giving him waves and nods after he walked in. Thankfully unlike the time the good captain brought him here, he wasn’t having to wear that disguise she whipped up; though he did turn a couple heads walking in with a filly on his back.

Berry Punch, another recognizable face, beamed at the pair and guided them over to a table after pulling out a kid’s menu from the day shift. The duo sat across from one another at a booth, looking almost comically mismatched in size with Godzilla barely even fitting on the bench seat and Mariner “Chibi” Moon having the table come up to her shoulders. No sooner than Junior took his helmet off and put it down, Chibi snatched it up and tried it on. The armor completely swallowed up her entire upper body, with the only thing not obscured being her enormous pigtails that stuck out of the eye holes. Rolling his eyes, Junior reached across the table and tilted up the helmet so he could at least see her face.

“No teleporting or magic, okay?”

“Kay!”

Chibi chirped with a stupidly big smile. Junior sighed and leaned back, confident that at least she wasn’t about to lose his helmet trying to teleport across the room or blow a hole in it with that big spell of hers. The armor smiths might have built his gear strong, but he didn’t want to worry them.

Berry Punch trotted back over with a starter tray, passing water for Junior and some sort of steaming, brown liquid to Chibi that took Junior a moment to recognize as coffee. Berry Punch recognized the youngster. He couldn’t stop her before she managed to down the whole thing in one gulp, earning her a short spurt of impressed applause from Berry Punch as the latter left to get the rest of the orders.

“Your helmet smells funny! Hehe!”

Junior puzzled, flummoxed on how something he chiefly remembered humans drank to get hyper had somehow slowed down the filly’s speed talking. Then again he reminded himself he was in a magic world of ponies sitting in a restaurant and decided not to overthink it; just take what he could get.

“Thank Tanaka.”

“Who’s that?”

"Nevermind… Why did you call me Sensei? Do you know what that means?”

Mariner Moon nodded eagerly with her ever present smile not wavering.

“Uh huh! Teacher! My grandparents immigrated to Neighpon. I came back here for the magic school.”

Godzilla Junior paused for a moment, clearly in thought before sitting back more in his seat. Rather than the typical instinctual mix of verbal and body language he usually used that most kaiju almost miraculously understood, which seemed to translate out to Equestrian in their new bodies and vocal cords; he tried something else by stringing together old words from his youth.

“Anata wa nan-saidesu ka?" (How old are you?)

Mariner Moon tilted her head up proudly, closing her eyes and snickering.

“Juuichi!” (Eleven years!)

Opening her eyes, the filly tilted her head at the kaiju-stallion as she managed to get his helmet off her, briefly shaking her head to fluff her pigtails back out.

“How do you speak Neighponese?”

“Only some. I was raised in a place called Nippon and it’s what the people there spoke. Lea tells me this world and mine have a lot of parallel locations. Guessed that this Neighpon must be like where I’m from.”

“I thought you hatched in Japan?”

“Different name, same place.”

The filly’s eyes lit up so much one could swear they were stars. In Junior’s case the reaction was to have a fit of annoyance and worry she about to try another crazy magic spell. Thankfully for the latter worry, she was just ecstatic.

“S-So! SO! You were maybe from my hometown!?”

She yelped, clearly over the moon. Letting the tension fall back down, Junior shrugged his shoulders.

“Possibly, Kyoto sound familiar?”

-SO COOOOOOL!-

“Back to business though,-”

Godzilla Junior grunted, crossing his hooves and giving her a studying look.

“-why did you call me that?”

Chibi hopped up in her seat, throwing one forelimb forward to point at him while using the other to punch into the air. She closed her eyes and joyfully yelled,

“Because I wanna be like you when I grow up!”

A long silence settled between the two of them. When Mariner opened her eyes again, she could see Junior slowly close his and let out a tired sigh while shaking his head.

“You don’t.”

In her first negative response of the night, Chibi’s face ran the gambit of briefly angry, defiant, confident, and then to deflated sadness at what she took as her idol’s disapproval.

“But, we’re already alike! We’re named after our parents, we’re both from Neighpon, we both like Princess Luna, and we both got cool powers!”

She yelped, tiny flickers beginning to grow across her horn before Junior’s restrained, growling tone hushed them.

“Don’t you dare start charging that pink beam, hatchling.”

Chibi crossed her eyes, squinted her eyes, and scrunched her nose at the kaiju in a fittingly childish manner.

“Aaaaah! You sound like my dad!”

Junior’s voice was nothing but pure deadpan.

“Wise stallion.”

At the thought of another fatherly lecture, which she got plenty of before and after transferring to Equestria for the unicorn school after discovering her talent; Chibi did the typical reaction for her age to express disgust. She stuck her tongue out and blew her breath under it.

“Blek!”

“Mariner, you’re a student at that school so I expect you to be able to listen…. Power is not something you have just to boast about.”

Surprised at the sudden shift in tone, Mariner glanced back at Junior and tilted her head while perking up her ears on instinct.

“Huh? But you’re a king, don’t you boast a lot to strike fear into your enemies? Like with all that roaring!”

Junior shook his head.

“If it’s to intimidate an enemy, doesn’t hurt. But otherwise it’s not something you just flaunt around.”

Chibi’s face puzzled and she found herself leaning in more. Seeing he’d gotten her attention instead of a face full of magic, Junior continued.

“Power is a responsibility. Think of it like this. Imagine you um… had a spell that could-”

He paused, mulling through his thoughts and keeping quiet before his lack of tact in speech might disrupt the message he was trying to get across. Chibi was a student and recalled the teachers at the magic school often used analogy to have the student figure things out for themselves after being given the basics. He just had to take a moment to draw one up as the first couple analogies he could give about probably his biggest lesson involved certain situations he felt might disturb or confuse the youngster.

“That coooould...?-”

-Fight off and kill a monster so it didn’t murder your mother.-

Godzilla mentally kicked himself to avoid blurting that part out, instead catching a fleeting glance at a painting of a storming sea hanging on the wall.

“-keep… ponies… dry in rain.”

He muttered, straining on some words though thankfully his audience was still entrapped in what he had to say. Clearing his throat for a moment to recollect himself, he continued.

“And it rains. What happens to those around you if you don’t use that spell?”

Chibi Moon pawed at her chin like she was answering a question on a test, looking upwards as she muttered the response she thought fit.

“Uuuum… some-.. pony.. else does it?”

“What if there isn’t anyon- anypony around who knows that spell? Or they’re too far away to help? It’s all up to you.”

“Theeen, everypony gets drenched!.... Right?”

Godzilla Junior crossed his hooves in front of him and nodded.

“Right. Now if you saw all your friends, family, or even just random nice ponies you didn’t know, drenched and miserable, how would you feel knowing you had the power to try and stop it?”

“Hm…”

Chibi Moon’s ears began to flatten against her head and Junior could swear he saw her pigtails drooping as well. Her tone was slightly dour when she mumbled.

“... Mad I didn’t do the spell. And I’d just have to remind myself to do so next time!”

“What if you don’t get another chance? What if somepony…”

“Got drenched again?”

Junior paused in his speech and withheld his retort. The faded scar on his collar from Destroyah’s bite all those years ago began to ache and twinge at the skin around it from phantom pains. He unconsciously touched at it with a hoof to get it to stop, not even realizing what was going on until he’d already done it. Chibi Moon however could see the droop in his expression, causing his frown to infect her.

“Didn’t come back because you didn’t try or try hard enough?”

Chibi held her breath, casting her eyes to the table as her pigtails and ears hung low. It was several long minutes before she spoke again.

“Like, your papa?”

Godzilla Junior breathed in and held it, collecting up the aches in his collar into his lungs to exhale them out while nodding subtly.

“Yes.”

Her mood deflated, Chibi let her chin rest on the table while she mulled through the small parable she’d been given. Having a lot of power wasn’t usually a glamorous thing if you had enough morality to still care about those who didn’t have that blessing. She looked up at Godzilla, still frowning in an expression that made her look like a hurt puppy.

“Sorry… So, that’s why you gotta be careful and responsible with power, right?”

Junior shrugged, curling the edge of his lips up a bit as he reached over and patted the filly gently on the head.

“You’re a smart kid, I can see why you’re doing so well.”

Chibi Moon’s expression lifted a bit, rolling her head into the pats.

“King Godzilla? I’m sorry I blew a hole in the roof or scared you with my spell.”

She mumbled, earning a shrug from Godzilla.

“Been hit by worse, I was more worried for those around you. You scared them quite a lot… except Luna.”

Chibi Moon let out an exasperated groan as she rolled her head around before banging it forehead first on the table. She started saying something but Junior couldn’t catch it due to her mumbling into the hardwood, causing him to deadpan and put his hoof to her horn to gently tilt her limp head up.

“Mmmhphr-orry! I just, sometimes have trouble controlling it! I get so excited and- BOOM!”

Chibi yelped, waving her hooves up in the air as Berry Punch brought their orders over and snickered at the amusing sight. Rolling his eyes and shaking his head with a slight chuckle, Godzilla tilted her back a bit more to be sure she wouldn’t fall forward again and faceplant into her food this time; before pulling his arm away. Surveying his food, he continued on.

“Apology accepted. Sounds like you got plenty of powers, just need to learn the skill for it to use it right.”

Mariner Moon grumbled, more pawing at her hayfries than eating them as she pouted.

“Yeah but the teachers at the school are too scared to show me! They keep saying I need to try other things instead of what I can do! If it wasn’t for Best Princess demanding I get an A, I might not have passed the entrance exam!”

Chibi fumed, while still fiddling with a fry.

“I’m good at copying stuff. Hayfries, I’ve always been copying stuff ever since they named me after my mom.”

“Hence the nickname?”

“Since I was a cute little Mariner Moon, a mini version of my momma, yep. Chibi. Problem is once I find something I really really like copying, I get so excited my magic just goes out of control and everypony’s too scared to help…”

Junior let his thoughts mull through themselves and they sat in surprising silence for several minutes, Chibi taking tiny bites out of her meal while Junior sat back in his seat. He tapped the table with a hoof while leaning his chin on the other, sporting a neutral expression when Mariner looked up at him.

“... Did you know my own powers could cause some damage to me and everyone around me?”

“How’d you learn not to?”

“Had some teachers and practice.”

“Wish you could teach me then…”

Mariner grumbled, ears flopping against her face as she almost angrily chewed a hayfry as memories of the school returned to her. With as much damage she accidentally caused she almost half-expected the reason she won the contest was a last resort measure by the teachers to get her disciplined by a princess. So when she heard the words come out of Junior’s mouth she almost choked on her own tongue.

“I am your sensei aren’t I? Eat up kid, we got practice to do. Five hours to do it and I don’t go easy.”

Chibi Moon couldn’t have sprung up quicker if she’d been electrocuted. She was so excited she broke the previous request and disappeared briefly in a teleport spell, moving three feet ahead to wrap her hooves around Junior’s neck to hug him while her tail wagged so fast it was a blur. She was so over the moon he couldn’t hear what she was rambling about, only catching bits of “domo” “ari” “gato” and the word “sensei” at least five times in the span of two seconds. Just as quickly as she launched into him, Chibi Moon teleported back into place and started scarfing down her food so fast it became an honest contest on who could wolf down their plate faster; her or the stallion ten times her size?

-Note to self, take coffee with me.-

===============================

“So you say you’re good at seeing something and then following along?”

“Hai!” (Yes!)

“Jūbun ni yoi.” (Good enough)

Junior rolled his shoulder to indicate for her to jump off, the two standing in the back area of the guard barracks. Chibi Moon gawked at all the training equipment, thickly reinforced walls full of scuff and burn marks; as well as a curious tally chart near what looked like a tug-o-war set up. One side of said chart had several marks with none on the other. She was curious where her training was going to be, but it seemed that surely her sensei had chosen this place for it’s dedication to the art! After all if they were going to get her to master her new favorite spell, where else but a place with double reinforced stone walls that clearly had withstood previous damages?

It thus came as a bit of confusion to her when Godzilla Junior promptly turned and walked towards the back door leading to the courtyards between the castle and its walls.

“Huh? What are you doing, sensei?”

“Training you, come on.”

He grunted over his shoulder, not looking back as he started out the door. He could hear a curious youngster following along behind him, occasionally piping a question he promptly would ignore; only glancing back at her every so often to assure her he was aware of where she was. Seeing Chibi following in his hoofsteps, literally, brought him back to memory.

-Huh, so this is what it was like for Kong.-

They walked along for a short time, Chibi eventually hushing up and observing the sights and sounds around her. She did stick close, both for craving instruction as well as letting her imagination run wild looking at some of the long shadows in the trees. Why exactly Junior was doing this and why they kept taking such a winding path instead of the straight and easy one was beyond her. Action only finally came when Junior put a hoof out in front of Chibi and halted. The filly tilted her head, looking around to try and see what stopped Godzilla but she couldn’t see anything distinct on the dark forest terrain ahead.

“Going to be more direct with you than I got when I was your age. What do you see?”

Chibi Moon nudged Junior’s hoof aside to get a better view, letting herself turn around the whole way while looking up at the trees to try and get a clue. But all she saw was the dirt path behind them, the shrubs beside them, and the trees above them.

“Uuum… What am I looking for?”

“Look down.”

A squeak caught Chibi Moon’s attention and she looked where indicated, spying a small field mouse crossing the dirt path not one decimeter away and directly in front of her. It had stopped to look at something behind it and wasn’t watching who was coming. Chibi Moon started putting the facts together.

-If he hadn’t stopped me, I might have flattened the little guy!-

“Iiiss it the mousie?”

“Correct.”

The rodent scampered off the path and Junior tilted his head to the side to indicate for her to follow.

“Not everyone is on the same level of power, even someone your age has things weaker than you.”

Godzilla again changed his course, this time walking around a shrub bush he looked like he easily could have stepped through. Chibi Moon jogged along after him, taking a moment to look and see what might have caused this behavior and soon spying several nests of sleeping birds inside the foliage. Birds that Junior would have shoved into and probably hurt if he just blustered through the shrub. Suddenly all his weird twists and turns on his walking path were beginning to make a lot of sense.

“So, how does this relate to controlling my power like you did?”

“First thing I learned from another good king, my sensei. It’s that you need to watch for those underfoot.”

“Figuratively and literally?”

“Yes. See who’s around you, then gauge your act. Or take the act somewhere without bystanders.”

Chibi Moon nodded as she caught up to Godzilla. They walked along for about ten minutes more, this time Junior stealthily observing his protege as she followed along, this time keeping her eyes and mind focused in front of and around her rather than on him as she tried to converse like she was before. When he saw her take notice to avoid stepping on a tiny snake slithering by, making note that the scale of snake-to-filly was about the same as train-to-kaiju with a couple memories from Osaka; he couldn’t help but smirk.

===============================

“Now why is this a good spot for next lesson?”

“Beeeecaaause-”

Chibi Moon drew out the word as she looked around the empty barracks as they stood in the sand and gravel coated back area.

“Nopony’s around because even Nightguard find this place drab?”

“Chibi.”

Junior grunted curtly.

“Okay okaaaay...”

She straightened herself up, closing her eyes and astutely reporting her observations to her teacher.

“Because there is nopony and no critters around and thus this place is safer to practice.”

“Good. First thing about having a power is your skills with it build off each other. If you’re using magic to copy what I can do I’m going to assume it works off same idea. So, what happens when you use your beam?”

Chibi Moon sat in the middle of the barracks yard, putting a hoof to her chin and puzzling as she tried to articulate the experience into words.

“Well, I feel the magic build up and it swells like a balloon, then it gets pressure-y, aaaand then shoots out my horn. Kinda like opening up a balloon’s tie!”

She pipped and Junior nodded.

“Easiest path to vent off the pressure, good. That’s exactly what happens with my beam.”

“Want me to-”

“Don’t do it.”

“Huh?”

Godzilla shook his head even as a slight glow began to build up across his mane.

“Don’t let it out that way. You can’t control the flow and that’s why you flail around when you fire it.”

“But unicorn horns are the easiest way to cast spells!”

“Who said this would be easy?”

Godzilla rolled his shoulders comfortably as his mane glowed a touch brighter, opening his jaws briefly and letting out a very brief puff of plasma upwards. The fireball only traveled a few meters before fizzling out.

“Force the power to stay locked in. Then-”

Junior’s mane however didn’t stop it’s glow and instead the energy visibly arched down his body and across all four of his hooves. A brief shockwave shot out of him from the contact points between himself and the floor and when the dust settled the impression of the shockwave was visible on the disturbed sand and gravel as a series of circled emanating out with his hooves at the epicenter.

Junior cracked his neck, brushing some dust off his shoulder.

“-redirect it elsewhere.”

Mariner, now half covered in dust, sported a wide eyed and excited look before cracking a determined expression and nodding. The filly took in a deep breath, the first few spirals on her horn starting to light up. For a moment they raced upwards like the beam was about to fire out when the final spiral was lit, only for Junior’s barking to halt it in place.

“Close off the vent, hold it!”

“Grrk! Try-ing!”

Chibi shook and grit her teeth, clearly straining.

The first few times she tried this she was forced to cut the magic off entirely because she either couldn’t risk holding it back or it fizzled out due to not being able to build it. On the sixth one however, something else happened. Through gritting of teeth, muscle shakes, and some vocabulary Junior recognized Lieutenant Koji saying more than once, things he was rather surprised to hear out of a filly; the magic build up successfully arched down from Mariner’s horn and into her legs. The only problem was it only came out of her back left hoof and rushed out uncontrollably, resulting in the filly getting launched up into the air at a spinning angle as a rotating pink blur.

“WEEEEEEEEE!”

Godzilla’s eyes snapped open and he rushed forward while looking up to try and position himself to catch her on the way back down; shouting something that would cause the shobijin to reprimand him for terrible language.

“KUSO!” (****!)

There was a stupendous crash which Junior’s thundering hoofsteps chased after.

“Ooooooooww!”

===============================

Another three tries later and now Chibi was covered from head to hoof in as much padding from sparring gear as they could find, looking more like a walking mass of padded training gear with a pair of pigtails than a pony. Standing in the same place as before, which now looked like a bomb blasted mine field, she waited for her sensei’s go ahead to try again.

“We sure this will help me with my beam?”

“You lose control from getting excited or hyper and you’re hyper by default. So if you can learn to redirect it and cancel it, you can control it. Focus like you did before when you looked out to avoid stepping on that snake.”

“What about the magic build up?”

“Go with it but do not let it expand too much. Just be glad I’m not having to step on your tail to get you going.”

Junior grunted with a small tail flick, standing by in case she accidentally launched herself through the door this time. Mariner took several deep breaths and charged up just like she’d done before. Her horn spirals ignited up to the last mark before they held at that point. Then, slowly but surely, they started to spiral back down with pink arcs of energy jumping across the filly’s body through the padding. She growled and shook, clearly holding back a lot of magic but managing to keep it contained as she split it four ways to go down all four limbs at the same time.

“And now stop it!”

Chibi Moon bit her lip and rattled, the arcs of energy halting at her ankles while they practically begged to be vented out via her grounding at her hooves. It was strong, but her will was stronger. She wasn’t going to let her magic run rampant for as long as she could. Ten seconds passed before her teacher’s voice called out again.

“That’s enough, release.”

Chibi did as told and in an instant her built up magic fired out of her hooves in an admittedly impressively sized shockwave for someone of her size. Elation from relief and success set in as she was launched up into the air like a bottle rocket, Mariner glancing back and seeing the even, perfect set of four circles left behind at her launch point and bursting out in gleeful laughter. Godzilla Junior readied himself and closed his hooves around her as she fell, catching and matching her speed before slowing back down to reduce whiplash. Chibi eagerly looked between her sensei and her launch point after Junior placed her back down on her hooves.

“I-I-I DID IT!”

She shouted, bouncing up on her hind limbs and prancing up and down while kicking her forehooves out. Godzilla shrugged but gave a nod to her launch point.

“Start of it at least. We’ll work on canceling it out-”

He extended a hoof without even looking down to catch the wobbling filly as she fell over from exhaustion and landed on his limb.

“-another time.”

===============================

Godzilla Junior walked along the Canterlot road in the early hours of twilight, an exhausted filly flopped across his back as he headed for the school to drop her off. Despite her exertion, Chibi was simply too excited to doze off just yet and had been bombarding her new sensei with questions since they left the castle. This time however, he was honoring a few and replying rather than just ignoring them.

“So you and Princess Luna?”

“She’s a good confidant. My mother certainly liked her.”

Mariner Moon giggled before pawing weakly at Junior’s mane.

“You said you had a sensei once, what were you like when you trained under him?”

“... Actually, wasn’t that different from you. Was a long time ago though… Let’s just make sure your first test isn’t as harsh.”

“What happened?”

Junior briefly paused and puzzled electing not to blurt out the memory of nearly getting himself killed defending a village from a monster known as Gaw, or the part about him “passing” said test by using his sensei’s signature move on her until he crushed her skull and tore her jaw out of it’s socket.

“... Something you don’t want to hear until you’re older.”

“Awww but I-”

“Different subject, Chibi.”

“Aaaaah okaaay…. Sooo, what happened at Mako? Princess Luna sounded… weird about it when I asked about where you were going on the train.”

A long silence passed between the two before Junior rather quickly mumbled,

“Island was nice. They were weird.”

“Weird how?”

“When you’re older.”

“Blek! Senseeeei you’re supposed to be cooler than my mom and dad!”

Chibi Moon whined, crossing her hooves and pouting. Junior just grunted.

“Once again, wise parents.”

As they approached the magic school, Junior felt his passenger shift as she climbed up to his neck to look out from between his ears.

“Hey Sensei? If you’re a unicorn now, can’t you use magic in addition to your powers to make you even stronger?”

Godzilla shrugged, passing through the front gates and retracing his steps from previous visits with Luna to find the right place.

“Don’t know any magic, probably not very talented either since I haven’t done any even on accide-”

Mariner “Chibi” Moon’s eyes dilated while both her ears and pigtails shot up on end. All she heard was the words “Don’t”, “know”, and “Magic”. On an instant she sprung back up and jumped onto Godzilla Junior’s head, holding onto his bent horn like it was a flagpole.

“Hold it right there!”

“Urgk, get down!”

“NO SENSEI! You don’t know magic and you need to be as big and strong as you can be to protect everypony until I grow up! I will teach you everything I know!”

She shouted with gusto, instantly losing her previous drowsiness. Godzilla just deadpanned at her.

“Chibi.”

“From now on I am your magic sensei! Training starts-!”

Her declaration was cut short by her flopping onto his scalp. Within the life of a second she was out like a light, holding onto the base of Junior’s horn like a pillow while snoring in a very unlady-like manner. Junior glanced up at the little form fast asleep on his head. Had he been on a shorter fuse he might have grouchily removed the obstructor, but he just carefully held his skull level to balance her as he walked to the dorms and it’s staff. She had a lot of training to do, but lots of potential; not too different from a growing dinosaur who found a sensei of their own in a time that now seemed distant. Memories of Skull Island and when he himself was a lot like Chibi were close to mind. Mariner “Chibi” Moon was a child and Junior wished she could play that role for awhile longer, it wasn’t one she’d get to enjoy forever. He could only hope she wouldn’t have to grow up as fast as he did.

He sighed, chuckling quietly as the filly twitched and clung to his horn in her sleep.

“Hatchlings…”

From a hidden shadow on the towers not far away, a pair of eyes who’d been watching the pair all night let the rising sun briefly crawl over her snout. Princess Luna spread her wings and flew back to Canterlot Castle and the Lunar tower while Godzilla Junior had his back turned as he let one of the teachers take Chibi Moon. The alicorn of the night briefly glanced back and beamed at the kaiju-turned-unicorn. What she intended as a prank over his latest journeys had turned out in ways she couldn’t have expected, and she couldn’t have been happier about it.

============

Reader Works

============

Every wonder what Bridge might be like if the ponies went to Amalgam'verse Terra? Well Kendell a.k.a GodzillaWolf wants to give his crack at it! Check it out!
Jaunt 4.16 - Kendell2 Kaiju Ponies Pt 1 - http://brutalityinc.deviantart.com/art/Equestria-Across-the-Multiverse-Jaunt-4-631905133
Jaunt 11.0 - Kendell2 Kaiju Ponies Arc Pt 2 - http://brutalityinc.deviantart.com/art/Equestria-Across-the-Multiverse-Jaunt-11-660095066
Jaunt 15.6 - Kendell2 Kaiju Ponies Pt 3 - http://brutalityinc.deviantart.com/art/Equestria-Across-the-Multiverse-Jaunt-15-666637177

The adventure continues across the barrier on Terra! The Humanity's Stand crew has given a chapter of their on to read on this day!
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10804354/22/The-Bridge-Humanity-s-Stand

Chapter 37: You're Gonna Die Running

Ki Seong paused her story and looked up from her work of pouring some more ingredients for the spell tag ink into a chain-hung cauldron, her gaze traveling over towards a small case she’d brought with her from the shop. Raising a curious eyebrow, Applejack glanced between the kirin and Anguirus, who was still guarding the door, before moving over to the bag. Gently nudging the flap open, she found a large article of folded clothing. Unfolded it looked like a leaf green vest on top of an almost white-green long sleeve shirt with ringed sleeves, all together resembling a sort of dress jacket. Applejack looked between the silk garb and Ki Seong, noticing the fact the vest portion perfectly matched the coloration of her fur coat.

“Was this for...?”, she muttered, earning a shaking head from Seong. The kirin sighed and put a hoof on the decently made jeogori.

“It was for Yon. Family tradition, bride makes the groom’s attire with her colors.”

Seong’s breath left her and she turned back to her work, speaking with her back turned; “It was in the only case that washed up with me. He never got the chance to try it on....”

===============

The weird circumstances seemed to cumulatively stack with the days and nights as they passed. Cho Yon would swear up and down she’d been near him despite her never having memory of being present, something she couldn’t write off when others would see her in places she wasn’t at. Yon would speak of nights he awoke to find his window cracked open and articles in his room shifted, like someone had been there despite the window being latched shut. Dogs would start frantically barking at random hours in the night and day, and kept going for hours despite the best attempts to hush them. But what unsettled Seong the most was one particular night.

It felt like a dream. She moved into a state of half-awakeness by a quiet noise coming from across the room. It felt like a dream as she turned to look at it and her delirious mind didn’t fully register what she saw at first; but there was something in the room. A pair of dim, blue light reflections were on the far side of the room, hovering a meter in the air. Seong groaned tiredly, her barely conscious mind trying to focus her eyes and figure out what was reflecting the light.

And then the lights went out for a moment before coming back into existence, revealing themselves to be a set of eyeshine that just blinked before getting closer. Crouched against the far wall, the new moon made the room almost pitch black, but one could just barely make out the outline of two pointed ears and body squatting in the corner with paws sporting long, finger-like digits splayed out on the floor in front of it. With as little as an inch of movement per minute, it started to get closer to her bed. A sweet scent filled the room and the already groggy Ki Seong was completely devoid of the will to move. The intruder took its time to stalk closer and closer, tilting its head and sniffing at the kirin like it was studying something about her. Its only visible features, a pair of unnaturally blue eyes reflecting in the dim light, stared down at her.

When her mind finally focused, Seong’s eyes widened and practically launched herself out of bed. The kirin threw up her hooves as she revved up her magic, frantically looking around to see where the intruder had gone to. It took her time to figure out she’d dozed back off to sleep and multiple minutes, potentially hours had passed. Seong put a hoof to her racing heart.

-Y-You’re going off the rails Seong… All these weird happenings are making you lose your mind! That does it, no more sake before rest!-

But before she could further write off the fright as a product of the mind, a stray glance towards her window stopped Ki Seong’s pulse cold. Eyes wide and mouth agape, she slowly turned to the open window. Not only was it open despite her never doing so. Not only was the frame pressed down and bent like something heavy had stood or climbed on it. But very clearly impressed and scoring the surface of the wood were a large set of scratches that tore the paint off. Claw marks.

The sound of enraged dog barking coming from a neighbor's yard drew her attention and Seong followed the line of sight to the angry hound leashed outside. It pointed to the forest bordering the town and Seong got the worst type of confirmation possible that what just happened had been no dream. When she saw a pair of blue eye shine looming at the forest’s edge stare back at her before diving off into the foliage, she knew she wasn’t going back to sleep.

Seong didn’t wait until dawn, she was banging on the library door to be let in before the place was officially open but fortunately she cashed in a favor the librarian owed her. A dozen old scrolls and books were dug through before the hour was up. Zoology books, local legends, folk tales, home invasion records; anything that remotely could relate to what was out there. The sun had come up by the time she finally found something relating to what seemed to be going on. An old record from a frantic, extremely old kirin eighteen years ago whom many wrote off as insane ramblings.

The account claimed that in his youth, the kirin was the oldest of three brothers who lived on a farm with their parents. The family wished for a daughter, the parents openly praying outside for one but an injury left his mother barren. Still, their wish seemed to be granted when a young kirin doe was found at their doorstep. Lacking a family, she was welcomed in as a little sister. Life was well for a year. The new sister was pleasant, hard working, and diligent; but naive in so many odd ways and sometimes a chicken or truffle hog would go missing despite her being on watch those nights. The brothers left for town to find the magistrate to get their sibling officially added to their clan, and when they returned with the documents the farmhouse was alive with festivity. Lights were strung up, their parents were dancing, and their sister had prepared a wonderful meal. As they all sat down to eat a meal they found delicious, the sister was extremely curious about a great many questions.

“Why do families live together?”

“Because they love each other, little sister.”

“What’s love?”

“Oh, it comes from the heart. Father and mother love each other, and they love us, so we have love.”

“So if father and mother were together and you were all together in hearts, it’d be love collected?”

“Well, I suppose so. Weird way to put it.”

The oldest brother dropped his fork and knelt over to pick it up. But as he had done so he noticed something when the iron instrument rolled next to a lit candle. It rolled right through it and for a brief moment he saw a dark black and red stain on the floor. That was when the world itself seemed to change, like a forgery revealed. There was no celebration going on, the house was decrepit, dark, and covered in scratch marks as well as things the survivor never wished to speak of again when the smiling visages of his parents and siblings as well as the dinner turned into something else. He claimed his adoptive sister became something else entirely, shedding her original appearance as a snake did an old skin.

Sitting before him with a dark, rusty red color caking its maw and paws was a large, multiple tailed, pale fox that stared at him with icy blue eyes. A gumiho. It was only by a stroke of luck with an iron skillet and a lit grease fire that he escaped. The already fantastical tale had an even more fanciful ending, with a claim that a monk who found him on the road gave him aid in the form of three jars, white, blue, and red. When the fox came after him again, he broke open the white jar at it and it ensnared the creature in a mess of thorns and vines; seemingly sealing it away. But years later when he returned as an old buck, he found a hole in the vine tomb with paw prints leading out. Hysterical, he’d stumbled into town screaming about something so few considered even a legend. When he’d been restrained by his family he gave his account and the two remaining jars, which despite the archaic writing inscribed on them contained nothing but normal water in the blue and oil and a wick in the red.

Ki Seong studied the picture, the only image showing the old buck actually existed. He lay in a bed, worn out, tired, and weak with his family around him. The caption read he died of heart failure later the day. But it wasn’t just that bit of morbid information that caught her eye, it was the clan name of the old buck and the family he’d given rise to. The Cho family. Ki Seong’s eyes glided over to the infant fawn being swaddled by his mother and father, whom was the old buck’s son. She recognized that white-red coloration and blue eyes.

-Yon! Th-that’s a little Cho Yon! The old buck was his grandfather…-

Instantly Seong was filled with more panic than she thought possible. She had to get to Cho, warn him and his family. There was no possible way Cho Yon could have known, he couldn’t have tried to keep this terror secret from her if he tried! If this gumiho, this jeog, this enemy was after them to do to them what it did to the farmer’s family in some twisted means to try and understand what was alien to it; they were all in grave danger and didn’t realize it! She practically flew out of the library, frantically sprinting off with a book of old seal magic and mythology on her person. Having previously made arrangements to meet with her fiance at their usual spot the day before, the joy she felt upon seeing him waiting for her under that tree was palpable.

It took almost five minutes for her hysterics to die down enough to even hear what he was trying to tell her, causing her to realize she’d been crying so much she wasn’t audible. They settled down and he waited for her eyes to dry.

“I don’t know what’s got you riled up, but probably best we give you something happy to balance it so you don’t break yourself down trying to tell me.Whatever is going on, I promise you’re safe here. So… our wedding is at the end of the week and I wanted to ask you a question.”

Yon muttered in his typically shy but oh so sweet tone, as he rubbed at the back of his head. Chewing his lip, he reached over and drew out some truffle and kelp soup from his bag; setting a warm cup before Seong and gently nudged it towards her. The gesture was obvious. Comfort food. Seong could feel her cheek flush and warm slightly as she sniffled; touched at how considerate her fiance was.

“And, I know you had reservations about the arrangement. I know I’m not someone from a fairy tale. Well, I was spooked too if you don’t take offense to it. But, as my folks told me; love can come after the marriage. Still, doesn’t hurt to have some hopes beforehoof. Soo… Miss Ki, Seong.”

Yon cast a wide, sweet smile and lifted his soup bowl up to Seong like he was toasting her. Seong giggled on instinct, for only her fiance could be so goofy he’d try to act gentlebuckly and toast with a soup bowl. Then again neither of them could hold their sake. Yon chuckled as he nodded to Seong and she raised her own bowl up.

“Does your heart have room for the Cho clan’s love?”

Seong felt her eyes wet again for a different reason and the blushing came back with gusto. She pursed her lips and eagerly nodded a few times. She tilted her head down to drink the soup, but the mix of emotions caused her hooves to shake. In her unsteadiness to avoid spilling the contents, one of her hair pins fell out and dropped in.

In hindsight, Seong really should have remembered one important detail she overlooked in her earlier panic. Firstly, that all the food brought to their get togethers was from the local store. No harm in that, as he was a terrible cook. Secondly, said store didn’t stock truffle and kelp soup.

Because when the iron in the pin touched the bowl, it showed something that more definitely wasn’t soup.

Even in recollection, the trauma of what she saw left Seong’s memory foggy. She remembered screaming and falling back to throw the contents of the bowl away, only for them to be snapped up by a lunging set of vulpine jaws. Her fiance had been there, three meters away and slumped against the tree with a red streak going across the trunk. She ran, ran faster than she ever thought possible with that nightmare in pursuit as they rushed through the woods. Cruel laughter chased her down as much as ravenous jaws, claws, and sailing spheres of foxfire did.

Ki Seong was blown off her hooves by an icy blue fireball of foxfire that detonated the tree beside her. Hitting her head on a stone she landed on, the kirin doe was knocked delirious and unable to get up despite her struggles to do so; the world was spinning too much. A blurry, pale mass jumped down from a tree and sauntered over to her, using a single claw to roll Seong over onto her back. The gumiho placed her paw on Seong’s chest just above where the heart would be, grinning in anticipation. The toothy smile was cut short by distant barking that was rapidly becoming less and less distant. The movement of shrubs and the loud growling heralded the arrival of several large hound dogs that emerged from the shrubs a dozen yards away. Instinctively sensing the fox-like monster’s threat, they began to close in with even louder barks and bare-tooth snarls.

The gumiho winced and sneered, leering down at Seong just as the kirin’s vision began to focus again. The gumiho cracked a smile, patting Seong’s chest with a look that made it clear she intended to collect what she sought. The gumiho backed away into the shrubs, not taking her eyes off Seong even as the dogs formed a protective line around the kirin. The last thing she heard before the search party who owned said dogs caught up was like a whisper in the breeze that carried on after the gumiho disappeared.

”You’re gonna die running…”

Seong didn’t remain in the village for long. More angry dogs sounding off at something that tried to creep closer to her, more sightings of eyeshine watching her from the forest, or a glimpse of someone unnaturally staring at her in a crowd made it clear. With Yon and the rest of the Cho family gone, the reason there was a search party out looking for the former in the first place, the fox demon had only one target in mind. What had haunted the family Seong was going to marry into for three generations was now solely focused on her. And as long as it was, anyone around her wasn’t safe. Attempts to recruit help didn’t work, not helped by the gumiho using her as a disguise when fleeing the scene at the Cho household and causing a panic. So there was only one solution.

A solution that lead to a young Ki Seong taking several bags of luggage and savings with her up a dock ramp and onto a ship heading for Equestria. The ponies had dealt with their own nightmarish creatures before and in higher frequency than any other nation she knew of. If there was any place she could find help, it was there.

Hours later and seas had not been kind. The ship was a small merchant vessel, as Seong lacked both the money and time to try and obtain a ferry pass. Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers and the crew was nice enough. Sitting in her “room”, which was little more than an emptied cargo closet with a cot and lamp, Seong flipped through the old mythology book she’d gotten ahold of.

A gumiho was a type of female nine-tailed fox-like entity, similar to the kitsune in Neighpon. However whereas the kitsune were known to have a range of personalities ranging from benevolent, even marriage partners, to neutral tricksters, to the malign; all but one account of the gumiho described a malevolent entity. Whether it was out of actual evil or having a morality system totally incompatible with civilizations’ however was variable, but that just meant one was stuck dealing with either a sociopath or a psychopath. Some of the tales told of traits Seong had witnessed upfront. Illusions of both scenery and disguises, being extremely agile, firing blasts of “fox fire” or will-o-wisps that weren't fire despite resembling it, caused agony or grievous wounds on impact, and extreme aversion to dogs. Evidently the tales seemed to indicate the gumiho were much more common in times past and plagued ancient Carrea, much like the Windigo did to what became Equestria and the oceanic regions to the east. In addition to the dogs part, which made Seong wonder if that was the reason canine companions took off to fast in times past, several stories repeated three possible weaknesses she was sure to underline. Iron, fire, and the fact they couldn’t swim.

Taking note to stick an iron needle in the doorframe to her room, Seong let her sigh and pray for her luck.

-Yon’s grandfather had a jar filled with water and something that could make a firebomb. Maybe that monk he talked to was trying to tell him what to do?... Can only hope crossing an ocean helps embellish the “can’t swim” part.-

There was a knock on the door and Seong looked up from the book.

“Miss Tea? May I?”

Seong sighed, opting to not bother correcting the Equestrian first mate’s tendency to mispronounce her name. Why’d she think her name was tied to her cutiemark?

“I’m okay, what is it?”

The firstmate opened the door, adjusted her hat and nodded to her.

“Crew’s gonna eat up top, good night out an’ the ships shakin’ a lot so stayin’ down here will make ye’ seasick. So ye’r welcome to join us!”

Ki Seong shrugged, putting on a smile as she waved the offer off. After remembering what she did, she wasn’t much for an appetite.

“I’m alright, thank you for the offer, First Mate. Stomach is a bit queasy so I’ll just keep to some reading and come up in a bit.”

Seong turned around to return to her book, but after twenty seconds of hearing nothing but the sea waves slap against the side of the boat; she didn’t hear anything from the first mate or the door closing back. Just as she lifted her head up to say something, the kirin noticed a matter quite amiss out of the opened loading hatch on the hull wall she’d left open for some ventilation. While the ship was on decently calm seas, it wasn’t going to be that way. They were heading directly towards a large storm bank that had curtains of rain visibly pouring down from it. Seong pursed her lips.

-Wait, the helmspony or captain should have turned them around to avoid that if they were going to eat on deck. What is going on?-

Seong’s thought was cut short and her eyes widened when she remembered that First Mate hadn’t budged yet. There was a sickeningly sweet odor seeping into the room and the tell tale sound of scratching on wood. Her eyes widened.

“Oh no…”

Her head snapped around and Seong beheld the last thing she wanted to see. The chipper smile of the pink pegasus pony that was First Mate, who stood outside the doorframe with one hoof reaching in to grasp said frame. As the limb passed under the point the needle was stabbed into the old wood, the pink fur and smooth hoof gave way to pale fur and a clawed hand. The First Mate doppelganger grinned, baring cruel fangs and giggled before lunging. Seong screamed, kicking out with her hooves and slamming the door shut on the gumiho’s limb. The fox beast shrieked, rabidly snapping and slashing about to shred the door to splinters as she repeatedly mauled and rammed into it. Lacking any other escape route, Seong was forced to claw her way out of the hatch frame and grab onto the network hanging off the side of the ship. She barely made it out and started to climb upwards to the top deck, just in time to be out of range of the swiping paw that lashed out of the hatch after a small explosion of splinters indicated the gumiho smashed through the door. Sneering at her prey, the gumiho ducked back into the hatch to no doubt scamper along the ship’s halls and meet her prey on-deck.

Seong’s mind was in a barely coherent panic as she scrambled to the deck. With the illusions dropping all around her, it was increasingly obvious the ship had been ransacked. Claw marks, overturned broken barrels, snapped ropes, and scorch marks that still bled blue foxfire littered the deck. She could only hope that the absence of a lifeboat was a sign somepony had managed to get off the boat before they suffered the same fate as some of their comrades because the ship stunk of death. Hearing a wooden crash from below leading up to the torn-open hatch on the opposite site of the ship, Ki Seong quickly looked around for something, anything to defend herself with. By the time she found and lifted up a long pole ending in a metal boat hook, a loud, vulpine shriek tore her attention away. It was followed by a sickeningly sweet giggle as the glowing eyes pierced out of the veil of darkness.

“I told you… You’re gonna die running…”

Seong backed up against the edge of the deck near a lantern, able to feel her heart pounding between her ears as those horrifying beautiful blue eyes crept out of the hatch. The boat had begun to swing into the storm by now, a drizzle of rain and hissing wind beginning to come down on the deck in a deluge. The jeog, the enemy, the gumiho sauntered onto the deck with a cruel, pleasant look on her muzzle. She wasn’t bothering with any illusions for a reason as she approached. She wanted Seong to see her coming. Seong winced and lurched forward while she swung the hook pole, but her sluggish attack was easily dodged by the snickering fox monster. The gumiho only laughed, managing to avoid the attack by mere centimeters.

“W-What do you want?! Go away!”

The kirin screamed, drenched, cold, and terrified. The gumiho ducked under another swing, creeping her way closer and closer with each dodge.

“Hehehe! What the family gave the son, the son’s family to their son, and the son’s family to their son-”

She lunged forward and tackled Seong, pinning her against the bow. She sported a smile with too many teeth and eyes that bore too much joy while pressing herself far too much against the kirin for it to seem pleasant.

“-and now in you. I only want what’s mine little dear, how else am I supposed to get it?”

Seong tried to bring the hook upwards to swing it back down but the gumiho acted before she could bring it down, pinning her forearms to the railing beside her and forcing a cold kiss on the yelping kirin. Seong tried to fight, she tried to struggle, she tried to do so much as twitch one of her limb muscles or cast some magic, but nothing was responding. Her entire mind was going numb as her lungs locked up and her eyes started to roll back. Smiling pleasantly at the paralyzed kirin, the gumiho kept the lip-lock up as she traced a paw to Seong’s lower torso just above the heart. But just as the fox demon’s paw became alight with a ghostly flame to phase into Seong’s chest, a stray stroke of luck happened upon the would-be victim. With her magic cut out the hooked pole dropped out of Seong’s magical grasp and nudged over by a stray breeze, snagged on the hanging deck lantern. The added weight snapped the lantern’s rope and brought it down right on top of the gumiho’s back, shattering it.

On an instant the fox monster’s dorsal was covered in flaming oil and she recoiled back in a shriek. Instinctively falling on her back to roll and try and smother the flames, the gumiho only succeeded in spreading it across the deck as the rainwater carried it further. One of the previously broken barrels from either contained more flammable liquid and by now it had soaked into the entirety of the deck. Soon the whole of the ship was starting to go up in flames not even the storm could smother. Gasping for breath after the paralysis hex wore off, Ki Seong struggled off her knees and looked forward.

There was so much fire now she could barely see through the flames and smoke. But what she did see gave her both hope and dread. The gumiho was still alive, burned in a few places and backing away towards the back of the ship to try and avoid the spreading flames she sneered and snapped at. Looking forward she could see the boat was heading further into the storm, streaks of lightning giving a clear forbiddance to what was coming. Weak, hot and cold at the same time by fire and rain, and with every instinct screaming at her to get out of there; Ki Seong did the only thing she could. Lean back and slump over the rails to fall off the dying ship.

Her timing was impeccable, for no sooner than the ship passed her by it was struck by a lightning bolt. Already weak from the fires and the gumiho’s ransacking, it didn’t survive and was split asunder. The last thing Ki Seong would remember from that day was clinging to a piece of debris and closing her eyes to the sound of that nightmare shrieking in its apparent death throes.

If only she could wish that last part was entirely true…

==============================

Ki Seong stirred up more alchemic ink and wrote down another symbol on a spell tag as she finished her story.

“I washed up on shore and the Leaf Family found me amongst some of the wreckage that washed up with me like my case. I was too broken down to speak for weeks. By the time I was finally back on my hooves I stuck around more to help care for their new filly.”

Applejack, who’d been keeping quiet through the story to both listen and keep herself on watch out a window, finally muttered.

“Lil’ Gentle Leaf right?”

“The same…”

Ki Seong placed another one of the spell tags into the puzzle box, having finally made some good progress on the replacement ward she’d been working on for the better part of two hours. Standing up and tracing the earth pony’s line of sight, she looked out the glass portal and locked gazes with the blinking pair of blue eyeshine watching her from up in a tree just outside the edge of the clearing.

“I always assumed either the lightning and flames got her or she drowned at sea. Almost no kirins remotely believed me much anyways back home so nopony would buy the story here. It would be like saying I saw a windigo. The ship was ruled as an accident and lost at sea from a storm, I can only hope some of the crew survived and got back to Carrea or washed up elsewhere. But... because I’m paranoid I went ahead and made these. I knew if she was still alive she’d come for me and me alone.”

Anguirus hadn’t moved from his post guarding the door and keeping himself braced against it. As the physically strongest present and most durable thing in the cabin, he figured he’d make the best shield just in case the gumiho attempted to ram the door down. He didn’t need to move to know what AJ and Seong were looking at with narrowed eyes.

“And why’s that?”, he grunted.

Seong stoically watched the gumiho’s eyeshine blink a few times before disappearing, a slight rustle in the foliage showing the fox monster had jumped down from the trees and was moving to elsewhere. She knew what the creature was doing.

“Once a gumiho focuses on something it won’t turn away or replace it. The gumiho wanted Yon’s love which he got from his family and he gave it to me. With all of the Cho clan dead, I’m the only one who’s got what she wants. So logic dictates I’m her only target. In her mind she’s now my jeog, my enemy, so she’s all focused on me and those around me. That’s why I had these surrounding the town.”

Ki Seong said as she raised and shook the puzzle box slightly. It still wasn’t finished, but it was coming along.

“Wards. They both disrupt her ability to find me and come to me. I thought that...if by some cruel miracle she survived and ended up in Equestria, if I settled as far away from any coast as possible and surrounded the place with these; she’d never be able to find me. No target, no focus so she’d just wander off aimlessly.”

“What’s love got to do with de-organin’ ye’?”

“This kind of creature...it doesn’t think or feel emotions like we would. It’s not evil per say but-”

Anguirus grumbled as he finished the sentence for her.

“-but it’s morality is so different it doesn’t understand ours. It’s like trying to explain color to someone blind since birth, perception is totally different. To her, love is something literally in a heart. Get a heart with the Cho family’s love, she’ll have it herself. That’s why she ignored Applejack at the restaurant or the Apples at the orchards, or thankfully didn’t go on a spree here or anywhere else in Equestria. If she’s been watching you since that ward got destroyed, she went after the two individuals you spent the most time with.”

Seong sighed, almost reluctantly nodding.

“What Yon passed to me I passed to my niece and…”

The kirin paused and lowered her head. As she pursed her lips and hid behind her bangs, a noticeable flush began to creep across her muzzle and lowered ears. Applejack took one look at it and then at the similarly blushing Anguirus as the kaiju looked away and upwards as his face itched, and let out an exasperated shrug. Growling as she put a hoof to her forehead, she grumbled.

“Oh will ye’ two lovebirds just fess up already?! Gaaaarh! Seriously ah’m about to join in on the bettin’ pool if this keeps up!”

That last sentence got both kirin and stallion’s attention, head snapping around to shoot the mare a wide-eyed expression of pure confusion or exasperation.

“Betting pool?!”

Applejack rolled her eyes and waved her hoof, speaking in a mutter before clearing her throat.

“Questions for later… Ahem! Now, we got a fox monster outside an’ two of the three things it wants inside. Winona’s back at the farm and givin’ she’s already caught wind of this witch she ain’t lettin’ it anywheres near lil’ Leafy.”

A moment of visible, palpable dread flushed across both Ki Seong and Anguirus’ faces at the thought of that fiend getting a hold of the little mute filly; Applejack’s confidence in her canine companion’s abilities the only thing steeling her resolve to not share in the foreboding fret.

“I pray you’re right Applejack…”

The stand-off turned into a siege as another hour ticked by, Applejack and Anguirus taking rotating shifts of watch from the points of entry as Seong toiled away at the alchemic formulas and enchanted writing to try and finish the menagerie of seals, trinkets, and ward built to combat the monster that lurked outside. But not long into the siege following Seong’s recollection, the jeog was being stubbornly elusive after previously making little effort to hide herself. After glimpsing her circling the perimeter once to try and maybe find a place to attack from, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her or heard a single sound that might betray her presence. It was Seong’s paranoid worry and the pragmatic readiness of Applejack that kept either stallion or mare from checking outside to investigate where it had gone. Anguirus didn’t believe for a minute she’d left, narrowing his eyes at the forest beyond the clearing to try and catch any hint of anything being out there.

“Why hasn’t it tried to rush the cabin? If she’s as powerful as she seemed I doubt some old wood would do much more than slow her down.”

“The clearing around the cabin is covered in some wards I put under the dirt in a circle, she can probably sense them and knows not to cross.”

“An’ if she did try?”

Ki Seong glanced over at Applejack as the mare passed her a canister of thin oil, the kirin very carefully pouring it into a jar already half full with pungent sulfur and black powder.

“The wards are meant to keep gumihos out and anything inside cloaked from her magical tracking ability, just showing sight or sound. If she tried to cross it would repel her.”

“An’ it’s why you surrounded Ponyville with ‘em, keep her out and not knowing where to look for you.”

Ki Seong nodded, hoofing over the jar to let Applejack very carefully feed a fuse into it. Of all the weapons to be used against the monster, this might have been part of a batch of last resorts but Applejack was adamant the danger of using them was outweighed by the danger of only using iron and not fire.

“Ponyville and any other places I’d been to a lot.”

“What if she found her way inside the field? Every barrier can be broken into one way or another. Lea once tried to contain me inside the pony’s library tree.”

“Oh that’s riiiight, Rares’ told me ‘bout that.”

“To be honest, I don’t know. But I can’t imagine being inside a place meant to not contain you would be fortunate.”

The kirin doe muttered with a shrug before suddenly going stiff as a piece of ice. Applejack’s eyebrow raised and her nostrils flared, taking in a new scent that was so powerful it even managed to blot out all the sweaty stink the three of them had accumulated along with the vast collection of alchemy parts Ki Seong stored. She and Anguirus recognized it from the restaurant and instantly furrowed her brow. Ki Seong on the other hand felt her eyes dilate as she remembered the pungently sweet smell from many more places of terror. Slowly the three looked out the same window, the one the supernatural smell was strongest in the direction of. A pair of grinning, crystalline blue eyes and teary brown eyes looked back at them.

The gumiho sat on the edge of the clearing, not even making any effort to hide or test the wards around the cabin anymore. She wanted to be seen, and she wanted to be seen with who she was holding. Ki Seong instinctively sucked in a gasp as Applejack narrowed her eyes after a brief moment of widening them in shock, Anguirus’ fur was bristling to the point he looked agitated enough to ram the wall down and rush the fox; all understandable reactions upon seeing the gumiho holding up a sobbing Gentle Leaf by her head. The fox gripped the filly across her scalp, tiny dark drops at the tips of her claws eliciting more flailing and mute crying from Gentle Leaf. Not taking her eyes off the trio in the window, the gumiho let her lips part as her smile grew into a grin filled with far too many fangs. Gentle Leaf, hoisted off the ground, flailed and kicked to try and free herself, but it was to no avail as she simply couldn’t reach or swing hard enough to break the hold. She froze and Ki Seong lurched forward when the gumiho put her other hand-like paw to Gentle Leaf’s chest, the fox demon tracing the claw on her index finger across the filly’s belly and up to the point just above the heart.

Ki Seong knew what she was about to do even before the pointing hand was cloaked in an eerie, fire-like light that preceded a go for the heart. What she was both relieved beyond reason and baffled out of her mind to see was the gumiho stop short. The gumiho kept her paw out of Gentle Leaf’s chest, pushing in just the very tips of her claws and holding them there as Gentle Leaf visibly flinched and struggled to try and move free.

Applejack evidently was thinking the same thing, “M-Much as Ah’m glad it’s not happenin’ how Ah’ think it would, why’d she stop?”

Anguirus curled his lips back into a snarl but stayed still after letting Applejack’s words sink in. Ki Seong remained frozen in place from terror, able to feel her heart about to burst. The gumiho kept her eyes locked firmly on the kirin with an eager smile, shifting and rubbing her snout up against the mute filly’s cheek with Gentle Leaf’s motion showing that she’d clearly be screaming if she had the capability.

That did it. Ki Seong sprung up and went for the door, tearing the latches off while brandishing an iron fire poker. In her fret to get outside to rescue her niece she even shoved Anguirus hard enough to force him back. She would have gotten out the door within a moment’s further notice had a pair of orange limbs not wrapped around her middle and earth pony strength yanked her back.

“Hey-ey-ey-ey! Don’t go out there!”, Applejack shouted as she tried to hold back the flailing kirin.

“She’s got!-”, Ki Seong tried to retort but was cut off by Applejack’s head shaking, the earth pony being forced to cover Seong’s mouth so she could get a chance to talk.

“Song it’s one’of her illusions! That ain’t Lil’ Leafy!”

Anguirus struggled both physically and mentally to act, clearly torn. He didn’t put the latches back on but he did press against the door to make sure Seong wouldn’t bolt out if she got out of Applejack’s bearhug. He put a hoof between the females to give Seong some breathing room while not taking his eyes off the gumiho and what he hoped to Tanaka wasn’t really his old charge. He kept quiet, thinking things through as Applejack tried to calm down Seong.

“Songy, it’s gotta be an illusion!”

Ki Seong tore Applejack’s hoof away from her mouth and glared at the mare through tears.

“And if it’s not?! What if she actually has her? She disappeared for awhile and moves fast, she could have doubled back and taken her if she got past Winona!”

"Song, ye' know this Gumi-ho thing will do ANYTHIN' to trick ya! 'Ah know this is scary but 'Ah have trust in Winona. She protected Gentle Leaf from this thing once an' she'll do it again!"

"I-I know....I know she would. But I also know that this creature will do anything to win.....we don't know if she found a way to get past Winona! I can't put Gentle Leaf in any more danger!"

Applejack’s brow furrowed and she returned the look, anger born both out of worry and insulted pride in her canine, “Winona would never let it! Not’a chance! After the stunt earlier she’s gonna be glued to that filly’s side for days.”

“There’s always a chance Applejack, always with this thing! Are you telling me you think your dog could go toe to toe with what thing?!”

“Look’at her Song! She’s standin’ outside of the cabin’s magic ward doohickeys. She wants you to rush out an’ knows this can get a rise outta ye’ since she can't get to ye' herself!”

Ki Seong looked to Anguirus pleadingly for aid. The stallion tensed up, shaking all over from his thoughts struggling with each other. He looked away in shame, unable to lock gazes with her, “This does sound like something she’d do to get you out there…”

Perhaps sensing the stress was about to cause Seong to lash out, especially after her crush seemed to not back her up; Applejack relaxed her hold on Seong. “Tea Song listen, you know this beastie better than any of us. Ye’ know how much she uses those illusions.”

Seong couldn’t take her eyes off the image of what she dreaded was her niece in the clutches of that nightmare. A tear fell as Applejack’s logic nailed her hooves to the ground and she hated it for that. She stepped towards the window, angrily punching a hoof into the wall after pressing her forehead to the glass. Her defeated voice was barely more than a whisper.

“I can’t take that risk Applejack… not with her… not with anypony… This is my burden and it’ll keep spilling onto others unless I stop it…. Let me out.”

“You know I won’t do that, Seong…”, Anguirus muttered; his deep voice was the only thing hiding the pain in it, wrath at both himself for contributing to the kirin’s grief being only eclipsed by that which he bore for the fox monster.

Seong sniffled wetly, “Why do you think I came alone? Either I got the ward to protect everypony or she caught me far away from everypony and-..... It ended. If she gets me, it'll give you time to escape...”

Applejack’s and Anguirus’ expression widened in shock before quickly sagging.

“S-Song, be serious here-”

“I AM!”, the kirin cried out, breathing harshly as more tears fell and she slammed her head against the window again. For however much energy her breaths and words had, it was clear what the kirin was calling for when at her wit’s end after all these years.

“If I go out there!.... I-If I go out there… you two can run. If i-it has Gentle Leaf, it’ll let her go to go for me… and if n-not it’ll buy the real one time…. I can’t lose anyone else, not even risk it…….. Let me go,” she muttered, clearly addressing one of the ponies in the room more than the other with that last part.

A hoof was placed on her shoulder and she quickly turned to throw it off, but stopped short when she saw Anguirus had silently moved closer to her and gently pulled the kirin into a comfort hold. She tried to pull away, even push him off, but kaiju density on top of earth pony strength meant she wasn’t going anywhere. After ten seconds, her struggle slowed and she let herself lean into him; mumbling a slur of Carrean words that were descriptors with half of them being swear words and the other half being the opposite. He held the top of her head under his chin until she stopped shaking before backing off, keeping a collected look that bordered on stoic.

“If you’re trying to be selfless, you’re not. I know you think doing this might help save Gentle Leaf, save anypony from having that creature come after them to get to you; but you’re forgetting something. I’m stubborn,-” he said before nodding his head towards Applejack. “And so is she. Like it or not, folks give a damn about you and we're going to try and help if you like it or not…. No more secrets, no more running off without telling us why, no more acting alone. Because you’re not.”

Seong closed her eyes and tilted her head down, letting her ears droop. Another tear began to run down her snout but she felt a gentle hoof rub it away. She peeked out an eye to see Applejack standing beside Anguirus, giving the kirin a small but incredibly sweet smile as she took her hat off.

“Think my honesty’s rubbin’ off on the farm aids! Might not like ye’ as much as this bumpus,-” she snickered, elbowing Anguirus. “-but think y’er forgettin’ this is Equestria. We help our herd. An’ if some dino-bird can add me to his flock after a day, ye’ joined this herd long ago… So, hows about we help ye’ out?”

Ki Seong sniffled to try and clear her nose, eyes reddened and tender from her stress and crying. She croaked out a tiny word after quietly nodding to Applejack. "Gentle Leaf…”

Applejack put her signature article back on and slid her hoof across the rim of her father’s cowboy hat. “Who said anythin’ about not seein’ to that filly? She won’t hurt her if that is her, it’s called a gamble hoof. Just need a plan for this round of poker instead of rushin’ in blind is’all ah’m sayin’!”

Ki Seong felt her heart swell as much as her confidence did once the reality set in. She saw Anguirus, her crush, Applejack, her friend, a cabin full of supplies, and a mind full of knowledge about the creature outside. And she was getting a plan.

Several minutes after the curtain was drawn over the window, the front door slowly creaked open. While the gumiho looked to the entrance to see if her turtle finally wanted to come out of the shell, she didn’t notice several small jars get bucked into the air on the other side of the house. The clay spheres hit the ground and smashed open, releasing a clogging gout of smoke that obscured the whole of the area around the cabin. It wasn’t a full blackout, but it did muddy the field of view enough for one figure to walk up to the edge of the cabin ward’s range with him counting his steps as he went to ensure he stopped just short of stepping out of it.

They waited, each heart beat punctuating the second until they got what they were waiting nerve-wracking seconds for; getting it in the form of a faint shift in the air of smell and warmth of breath in front of them. Anguirus wasn’t the best of the kaiju for detection, but he could smell better than an average pony or else it’d be Applejack covered in powder with branches on their head as fake antlers while wearing Cho Yon’s outfit. The gumiho had used so many illusions on them, now they were returning the favor. In the haze of the smoke as well as the overcoat he was wearing on top of his garb, they’d gambled he could be mistaken for the late kirin, especially by an unhinged mind like the one he knew was directly in front of him now even if he couldn’t see or hear anything.

Pulling back his lips and being sure to block his throat on the inhale, Anguirus pointed the hidden tube in his mouth with his tongue before sharply blowing out. The spray of fine iron shavings and dust shot out of him in a dust-like, glimmering mist. Like a projection that was shorting out, the visage of the gumiho holding Gentle Leaf flickered off; revealing the both of them to thankfully be an illusion. The real gumiho was right in front of him, looking at what she thought was someone she killed years ago with a head tilted, baffled expression. The tiny iron powder was clinging to her fur even if she hadn’t noticed the fine dust spray or the fact she was visible to them now, effectively canceling out her ability to cast more illusions. Making sure not to look directly at her, least he give away the fact he could see the fox beast less than two feet in front of him, Anguirus stepped back further into the smoke to ensure the ruse wasn’t discovered yet.

Entranced by the curiosity, the gumiho started to step forward. She’d have hit the ward’s boundary and been shocked back had Seong, off to the side and behind Anguirus while obscured by the smoke, not removed one of the spell tags on the ward. With a hole now present where Anguirus was, the kaiju calmly walked backwards as a focused gumiho slowly tried to creep up to him; noticing the ward seemed to have a hole in it but not aware yet they could see her and her ambush was busted.

Then again the fact the trio could see her became plainly clear to her once a country accented voice called out from the side of the cabin the smoke bombs had been bucked out from; “Now!”

The gumiho paused and puzzled, but was unable to react in time when Anguirus suddenly lurched forward and grabbed her. Enhanced strength was enough to yank the startled fox monster off her paws. Lifting her over his head and rearing up while doing so before falling back, Anguirus tossed her behind him and quickly got out of range of her lethal claws and fox fire as a hidden rope moved to tighten its noose and ensnare the gumiho’s back legs at the ankles. Before the gumiho could struggle enough and even realize what was happening, Applejack proved herself not to be outdone by Anguirus’ show of strength. Having gripped and tied the other end of the rope around herself on the other side of the cabin where the line fed out a window she crawled out of, the Element of Honesty lined up a buck to the back of the cabin and kicked out as hard as she could, pressing off while doing so. The resulting force was more than enough to both launch herself off to a kickstart and the following charge kept the momentum going.

The gumiho was pulled off her paws and slammed into the side of the cabin. She yipped sharply, flailing out with her paws to try and find a purchase while Applejack continued to pull back. But any trenches she cut into the wood of the cabin door frame or dirt of the ground didn’t give her enough leverage and the strong mare managed to win the tug-o-war. A louder crash sounded off as the gumiho was yanked inside the cabin, no doubt from a shelf of table falling on top of the fox monster. Beside Anguirus, golden magic aura put the ward back into place and in proper alignment, Seong reactivating the seal with the gumiho inside of the protection zone. Still gritting her teeth as she held the gumiho inside the cabin on the other side of the window, relief came to Applejack when Anguirus ran around to her side and bit down on the taut rope. Sharp fangs cut through it easily with an audible snap, Applejack and Anguirus both getting clear for safety as soon as the cut rope hit the ground.

The trio reunited at the front side of the cabin as the gumiho let out another shriek. She had tried to leap out through the window, no doubt to try and get at where she thought Applejack was, but a glowing panel of light briefly flickered a meter away from the cabin and she slammed into it. For a split second the adjusted wards’ field of effect, the entirety of the cabin plus a few meters, lit up as it reacted to the movement of what it was supposed to guard against inside of it. The panel of light shocked and sent the gumiho recoiling back as soon as she hit it, shoving the fox monster back through the window and taking a chunk of the surrounding wood with her. The gumiho did not stay quiet, ravenously lunging at or throwing things at the barrier walls in an insatiable bid to find a way out and let her claw her way towards the ponies and kirin. Applejack, Anguirus, and Seong just watched on stoically, the kaiju shrugging in relief.

“Ye’ said fire can put her down. Any way we could light the cabin up?”, Applejack muttered, glancing over to Seong.

“Not practical yet. That wood takes a lot to burn so we’d have to be close. Besides it could damage the wards and release her, we’d need to hold her down in it for it to work.”

“How long will that there ward field hold ‘er for?”

The kirin watched her nemesis’ struggle coldly, the relief of the Gentle Leaf abduction truly being an illusion and the plan going off without a hitch quietly overcoming the freefall of other emotions she was feeling being next to her ex-fiance and neighbors’ killer. “Long enough. The spell’s specifics are that it’s supposed to keep gumihos from moving even one step into the zone and she’s zero steps away from the zone. Every time she moves, it’ll knock her back.”

“It’ll be long enough for us to get prepared. We’ll get some help and be sure to finish it.” Ki Seong shrugged, before looking to Anguirus. She had to keep her breath from leaving her again seeing him standing there dressed like a dead kirin. Closing her eyes to breathe in and sigh to the sounds of the gumiho’s struggle she gently tapped his shoulder before walking past him and nodding to Applejack, “Let’s go, we’ll be back.”

“Darn tootin’ we’ll be back. Come’on ya’ll, we’ll take a short cut. Either the princesses can lock 'er up or might call up RD to send for Rodan. They figured out how’ta shift him with her flight magic an’ ah can’t imagine a full blast of that heat ray of his ‘be too pleasant if she don’t fancy fire!”, the mare grunted with a snort and tip of her hat.

Seong turned and started off with Applejack, leaving Anguirus behind momentarily. Noticing his absence she glanced back to see the kaiju-stallion stoically looking upon the cabin. The gumiho made another lunge, this time smashing through a wall and letting her crazed eyes lock onto both Anguirus and Seong. After looking between them, the white-blue gumiho let out a blood curdling shriek and made another lunge. This time she managed to keep close to the wards’ limit, if only by sheer force of will, before being sling-shot backwards so hard the beast made another hole in the wall she was thrown through. Be it by both mention of another, more complete Guardian Beast, as well as visibly seeing the hated thing that had so damaged the lives of so many, include those he cared for; the Alpha Guardian Beast furrowed his brow and imagined accessing his element. He fantasized about spewing out jets of fires, barrages of fireballs, and waves of solid flame to wash over the cabin and let the murderer burn if she came at Seong or her company again.

In some ways he felt sorry about lacking those powers he was supposed to be grown with at the diner, or else a lot of stress and potential danger might have been avoided if he could have ended or restrained the gumiho earlier. But, life had a cruel joke where the one thing he should have but lacked was exactly what could kill the jeog of his crush that had become his jeog as well.

The stallion let his lips curl for a moment in a scowl before dropping the expression, turning away, and walking up to the females to join them; letting his frustrations rest aside. No point in getting angry at himself again for what he couldn’t fix. It was trapped and could remain that way for all he cared. One way or another, this monster wasn’t going to be a threat again. The gumiho’s struggles turned to frantic screams that sounded almost pathetic, still futilely throwing herself against the barrier time and time again. The trio just kept walking away, heading back on the long road to Ponyville to recruit some more help and tools. After a few minutes of repeatedly trying to smash or claw her way out however, the gumiho finally stopped.

She huffed enraged breaths through bared fangs, dilated eyes locked onto the trail leading back to the pony town. She was beyond the threshold for desperate; desperate to get what she’d been craving to finally get after near one hundred years. And now here she was, trapped like a kit in a hunter’s snare with the one thing she wanted in this world walking away. Why oh why did these ponies interfere and why couldn’t the kirin just give what was hers?! The gumiho’s eyes began to glow with a ghostly blue light that traveled and spread to the tips of her waving tails.

-No. It is my love...-

The tails bobbed up and town like a octopus’ tentacles, oscillating in an almost hypnotic manner.

-I will know it…-

They suddenly flared out, eerie blue, burning spheres of foxfire forming on the ends. The spheres doubled, then tripled in size before launching at the ward meant to only keep out. Even before they struck it, another barrage was prepared with another to follow.

-I will have it!-

A quarter of a kilometer away, Applejack, Anguirus, and Ki Seong froze mid-step when they heard the distant rumble behind them. Stealing only a moment to look between each other, they ran back towards the cabin and skid to a halt at the start of the clearing that lead to the cabin. Remnants of blue and purple fox fire and will-o-wisps still littered the ground or blew by in the breeze. The line of wards surrounding the cabin were all sparking from glitching magic, the puzzle box Ki Seong had made to act as the new foci of the ward’s protection zone lay kinked over with jolts of magical charge arcing across it. The cabin itself was only halfway standing, the magical disruption igniting some of the substances within as well as the dry wood to set some of it ablaze. Debris from inside the cabin lay thrown around, from various chunks of wood, her caldron and its chain were rolling across the ground. Through the fires and smoke, a pair of piercing blue eyes looked upon Ki Seong. Like a demon from hell, the gumiho pounced outwards with her paws outstretched. She was half-covered in soot and burnt in a few places, marring some of her beauty and making her look more like the disgusting danger she really was. But neither injury nor hitting the ward’s barrier stopped her. After being shocked for a few moments, the gumiho shrieked and pressed on.

The barrier began to bend outward, the tips of the fox monster’s claws piercing through it. Finally the breaking point was reached as indicated by the puzzle box popping open and falling to pieces, the barrier was torn through. The gumiho didn’t get through scott-free, two of her nine tails were hit by the shocking ward magic so badly they were destroyed, bursting into fox fire and evaporating off as she screeched in pain. Rolling across the ground, panting and smoking, the gumiho however needed only one look at Seong to flash a fang filled grin. Struggling up to her feet, the gumiho loosed a roar of giggling laughter while curling her lips to expose the entirety of her maw.

Jeog didn’t try to run off into the foliage to ambush the now backpedalling trio, she didn’t try to taunt, she didn’t move slowly; she did none of her typical toying. Seong’s mind bore only a moment to go cold with dread when she realized the look in the gumiho’s eyes spoke one simple fact. Jeog was done playing.

The gumiho let out a cackle of un-laughter, quickly filling the space around her with an illusionary fog that resulted in a near total white out as she rushed them. Anguirus tried to charge and meet her head on, but the gumiho demonstrated the nimbleness of foot fitting for a fox and dove around him; dodging out of the way by a factor of a few centimeters to get around him. The kaiju only had time to call out as he dug his hoof into the ground to turn himself around, “Incoming!”

Ki Seong’s increased perception saw that horrifying shape with multiple tails begin to bound towards her in the fog in slow motion. Before she could fire a concussive magic blast however, it became clear the gumiho was moving too fast. Jeog jumped towards her and cocked a forelimb back, wreathing it in blue fox fire with the intent to phase the burning limb into Seong’s chest and claim what she’d been craving for decades. She’d have been upon Seong had Applejack not jumped in the way. The mare was fast, able to quickly break into a hoofstand with her forelimbs to pivot around and buck at the attacker with her hindlegs. The gumiho yipped from the impact hitting her in the ribs, launching her back and into the obscurity of the fog.

The mists only seemed to grow in intensity, so much so Anguirus, Applejack, and Seong completely lost sight of each other despite only being a few meters apart. Ki Seong kept her magic at the ready, tensing at every sound as the racket of crashing foliage and then beating earth told her the gumiho had already gotten back up from Applejack’s kick. Blunt force was something that only seemed to slow them down, inhibiting but not truly harming. She was circling them.

And then it all happened so fast. Ki Seong glimpsed a large form before her she first assumed was the gumiho and almost blasted it with a concussive magic burst before she recognized the trademark hat the outline was wearing to identify them as Applejack. A second figure appeared near the other, being noticeably stocky and wearing a garb that indicated Cho Yon’s wedding garb Anguirus was wearing. But before she could crack any semblance of a relieved smile, join her comrades, or call out however, a third shape rushed the first. The gumiho blitzed Applejack and Anguirus like living lightning, darting in and out of the fog back and forth. Both of them were thrown free of view, Applejack grabbed around her middle by a battery of tails and flung to the side with monstrous strength and Anguirus’ form was engulfed in multiple blasts of fox fire when he tried to come to the earth pony’s aid and grab the gumiho. Ki Seong heard them call out, she heard the sound of a cracking tree in the direction Applejack had been thrown, she heard the splash of water following an earthy smash where Anguirus had been blasted; and she heard giggling. Applejack’s hat, now sporting claw marks on the brim, and some scraps of clothing that had once been Anguirus’ attire before they were burned by the blue fox fire still stuck to them, fluttered in the breeze and landed at Ki Seong’s hooves.

She fired at every glimpse of noise or sight she saw, turning the fog into a swiss cheese of mist from her magic blasts going off in every direction. The gumiho was circling her at high speed, sometimes high, sometimes low, and always moving ever closer.

The scratch of paws on ground behind her spurred the kirin to whirl around and her eyes widened in terror upon seeing the shape bounding towards her, only a meter away as she fired. The beam of magic shot upwards, out of the mist and into the sky like a pillar. The mists pulled apart and Ki Seong was on the ground. Her entire body had locked up and she could only move her eyes. To her left lay a shattered young tree, traces of red and the hint of an orange form lying slumped against the fallen trunk revealing a fallen and hurt Applejack. To her right towards the river were multiple packs of earth still burning with the eerie fox fire that wasn’t flame, a large chunk of the river bank having been torn out by Anguirus being blasted into it with the kaiju’s limp hoof laying around the bank being the only thing to show he was still there. And the gumiho was on top of her, pinning her limbs at her sides with her lips locked on Seong’s. The fox monster pulled out of the paralyzing kiss, letting her unnaturally long claws run across Seong’s cheek as she cracked a fang filled grin.

She’d won.

The gumiho drew her paw and claws over Seong’s neck and chest, taking aim. Seong tried to close her eyes, but couldn’t either by the spell or her own vain attempts to resist. The haunting taunt the creature straddling her gave the kirin years ago replayed in her mind as it was coming to fruition.

She remembered a pair of reflective eyes backing off into the foliage as several hounds came to her rescue, giving a vow that would last for years.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

She remembered the ship that went up in flames before being swallowed up by the sea, the same creature as before repeating the prophecy even as the ocean consumed her. Even with no solid land in sight, Seong was still running then when she jumped overboard.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

And she remembered all she’d done in the last twenty four hours. Not told anyone or asked for help. Left her niece behind to try and martyr herself if things went wrong. Left Ponyville without word and tried to deny help from others. Years later she was still running scared, and now she was going to die.

But then the gumiho paused, flicking her ears. She glanced over at the river bank after a soaked hoof gripped the shore and Anguirus tried to pull himself up. Jeog smirked, cradling Seong’s head and picking her up to slump the frozen kirin on her hooves so she’d have a good view. She had something special in mind.

Any sentient being with the power of reason will inevitably commit both good and evil deeds. However at their core, all decisions are based on two conflicting forces, love and hatred. The gumiho lacked reason and barely qualified as sentient, having a morality system totally unlike any other creature. But in her quest to learn of love however, perhaps she’d begun to learn the opposite. Be it from wanting to “condense” the love of the heart in one body like she did for the whole of the Yon family or out of acquired spite for Seong; she approached Anguirus.

The kaiju groaned, still singed with blue magical flames that seared even his extremely durable flesh, as he tried to pull himself back onto land. The gumiho calmly walked closer to him. Anguirus snarled in defiance, struggling to get up to his hooves against the magnificent pain and surge of the river interfering.

Seong felt herself choking on her own breath while fighting tears. She tried to move or cast magic, but her muscles remained locked up and any golden glow across her antlers fizzled out. The gumiho’s taunt replayed through her conscious like an echo.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

The gumiho giggled, extending all of her remaining tails out in a fan with balls of blue fox fire forming on every tip while a similar burning glow engulfed her forelimb and claws. Ki Seong looked to the side where Applejack had fallen, trying to will herself to call out to her friend, to anypony, to help Anguirus.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

The tree was still broken and still had some drips of red stretched across it, but Applejack wasn’t in sight. Seong tried to heave her frozen chest to breathe, managing to cause her torso to budge slightly. It was like trying to push cement out of her lungs, but the cement was cracking.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

The gumiho took aim and the same fear Seong felt when it came for Gentle Leaf crushed down upon her. The fear was added to as flashes of sights including Anguirus’ claw wounds and Applejack being slammed through a tree played before her. Ki Seong’s head began to budge.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

The memory of Cho Yon’s body, the hated speculation if he died painlessly or not, clung to her. She’d ran then and she’d been running since. There was a hunk of twisted iron that used to be the fire poker embedded in the ground two meters ahead of her and four meters behind the gumiho. Ki Seong tried to will herself to move to no avail. The kirin shallowly panted for breath, closing her eyes in collection.

The taunt was remembered one last time, echoing out like a drop of water in a cave.

-”You’re gonna die running…”-

The pressure inside her built up-

-No… No more running...-

-and burst.

“NO!”, Ki Seong screamed as she used every fiber of her will to move and what was fueling that will was stronger than the gumiho’s magic. The kirin sprinted forward, breaking out of the hex that broke off her like shattering glass. Seong charged forward in a full gallop, grabbing the end of the fire poker with her hoof and throwing herself at the gumiho. The fox monster shrieked as the sharp, twisted end of the poker smacked into her shoulder and opened a cut that bled fox fire.

The gumiho turned around to face her attacker, her eyes dilating in a mix of shock and hints of fear. The confident, beautiful predator was gone, replaced by a frantic, marred wretch that was forced to constantly keep dodging as Seong advanced with more swings of her weapon. Ducking under a swing that cut her across the ears, the gumiho snarled and lunged forward with her jaws bared. Seong winced and grimaced as the fox’s claws went past her and grazed her across the flanks, shoving the shaft of the poker in front of herself to catch the gumiho’s jaws and keep them from snapping shut on her face.

They fell to the ground, rolling across it until the stronger gumiho halted the rolls with her on top. She drew up her paw and after wreathing it in fox fire, attempted to swing it at Seong’s chest. Seong rolled out from under her attacker enough to avoid the swing that burned into the rock behind her. Not to leave an attack unanswered now, Seong flipped the poker up with her magic and drove it down through the gumiho’s other paw to earn a shriek of pain and flicker of bleeding fox fire.

Getting out from under the fox monster, Seong cried out to someone she hadn’t seen but knew was there; “NOW!”

Before the gumiho could react after yanking the poker out of her paw, an attempted pounce towards Seong was cut short by a whirling cauldron chain swinging out behind her and wrapped around her middle. The fox demon screamed, frantically trying to blindly claw or wrench away the iron chain links now coiled around her middle and throat; but Applejack wasn’t giving her the chance. Having gotten the chain after it was blown free of the cabin with the gumiho’s exit and tore it off the cauldron, the earth pony was giving it her all to both keep her distance and keep a firm grip. Not an easy feat given the chain was much shorter than her lasso and she had only a few feet of breath between her and the fox. Grasping the other end of the chain around her tail and hooves, the Element of Honesty dug her hindhooves in and pulled back with great strength to yank the gumiho off her paws and knock her back towards the burning cabin.

Upon crashing against the flaming timbers, the gumiho shrieked in terror and got back up. Applejack attempted to rope-slap the chain and force her further back, Seong running over to help grasp it with her, but the panicking gumiho’s first instinct was to get away from the fire and lunge at the two. She only managed to do the first for about half a second before a whirling, spinning ball or wheel slammed into her after he pulled himself free of the river. Anguirus curled out of the thunderball and grabbed the gumiho around the back, putting his fangs to use and chomping down on the fox monster’s shoulder as he ignored the pain of the fox fire seeping out of the wounds. He was far too stubborn to care enough and let go.

With Applejack’s chain binding her claws so she was safe to hold onto and the brute strength of Anguirus pulling her back, the gumiho couldn’t do anything but shriek for mercy as the Guardian Beast of Fire pulled her into and then held her down within the burning, collapsing cabin like he was dragging her down into tartarus. The fires engulfed the two of them and only hurt one of them; Seong and Applejack watching on silently.

The kirin collapsed to her knees as the gumiho’s shrieking was stifled out, seeing only Anguirus’ outline standing in the flames. Applejack, still bleeding from a cut ear and wincing from broken ribs, put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder as Seong sobbed from the freefall of emotions and relief.

.............
....................
.........................

It was an hour later when Anguirus walked free of the flames, having stayed until he was absolutely certain. He, Applejack, and Ki Seong looked at each other silently as the kaiju kicked something over to the latter. A burned fox skull, all that remained of her tormentor and the murderer of dozens. Seong steeled herself as she earned a nod from Applejack and Anguirus, before stepping on Jeog’s skull and crushing it underhoof with tiny wisps of blue fox fire sparking out.

The nightmare was finally over.

Ki Seong and Anguirus looked to each other as a smirking Applejack watched on. Neither of them were a basket of fruit by any means. Ki Seong had twigs and grass stuck in her frizzled mane, all of her hair ties had fallen out, she was covered in cuts and bruises as well as large scabs across her flanks from the claw wounds; and had tired bags under her eyes. Anguirus was naked again, as Cho Yon’s attire was long since burnt off and the kaiju was covered in soot. Some of his quills had fallen out and parts of his lips looked burnt from biting into the gumiho with his fangs, as well as one eye being partially closed from smashing through the river’s rocky bank headfirst.

But they couldn’t take their eyes off each other and found themselves especially close after a snickering Applejack hip checked Seong into the kaiju. Needless to say when they found themselves bumping into each other, were of roughly equal height, and had already been put through the stress wringer over the past hours; they didn’t fight it despite flushing bright red in the face. Ki Seong let her eyes drift into his and placed her hooves atop Anguirus while the Guardian Beast followed Rarity’s instruction, though thankfully not demonstration, and put his nose and snout tip to her hoof and then her face to share a kiss to show affection. The kirin went in for more, giving someone who was both her second and first love her approval.

Applejack chuckled as she flipped her hat back onto her head, having won the betting pool and began heading back to Ponyville to collect; “Come on now ye’ lovebirds, let’s get cleaned up before y’er courtin’!”

==============================

Our Town, North Eastern Frontier

Starlight Glimmer stood before the enormous stone slab, fitting a cutie mark resembling a set of three snowflakes taken from a stallion named “Double Diamond” into the hunk of enchanted mineral. Was a stroke of luck the prospector passing by happened to know the kind of stone that could hold all this power. To be honest, she half expected it to blow up when she put the first few marks in, such magic wasn’t something to trifle with. Even just standing next to it she could feel all the power radiating out of it from the dozen or so cutie marks imprisoned with it already. Even just spending time near it for so long was making her feel... stronger. Originally the first few marks took her hours to pry off and she had to quickly shove them into the rock’s slots before they tore out of her magic’s control. But the last few ones? She could do multiple ponies at once and hold the marks out for all to see for a minute or two before simply pushing them into place like books on a shelf.

Either she was just getting better at the spell or the stone was affecting her. One way or another, it was a good thing. Perhaps if Sunburst or Moonbea-

-NO!-

She mentally shouted to herself, gritting her teeth for a moment so tensely a vein was popping in her neck.

-I can handle this. I do NOT need them! I do not need anypony until our equality is final… Then, then we’ll all be together.-

The mare apprehensively stole a sneaky glance at a reminder to inequality on her own flank to make sure the dye and powder was holding to cover up her own magic-themed mark. Thankfully it was holding well, though she’d probably steal away to re-apply just to sate the paranoia tingling in the back of her mind. She looked back up to behold the cutiemark stone. It was almost filled, but there was still plenty of room. Six slots on one of the frontal faces were still wide open.

Starlight Glimmer’s eyes widened as the cave noticeably darkened and looked to the source, seeing the entrance to the cavern eclipsed in a darkness like it was night. There was a rush of wind, bitingly cold air smashing into her face and forcing Starlight to cover it with her hooves. The so called “Staff of Sameness” was sent flying back and smashed itself into splinters upon colliding with a stalagmite. Before she could think about having to quickly fashion a replacement to maintain the facade, a horrific uproar deafened the cave. A deep cackling that rattled the ceiling and floor so much it knocked dust and a few stalactites loose. Pushing herself through the hurricane gales of wind, Starlight Glimmer managed to cling to the side of a stalagmite at the mouth of the cave and force an eye open.

It was devoid, her town. At this hour it was time for the communal song piece so ponies should be bustling in the streets to welcome the new recruit. But there wasn’t a soul in sight even as the winds suddenly died down. Starlight Glimmer panted for breath and frantically looked for any sign of her citizens. She was just about to run down from the cave to check the houses. Logic said they might have hid from the sudden gales, but her paranoia whispered something else.

-They left you again.-

A hurt sneer crossed Starlight’s face, anguish quickly turning into out of control rage as she started to sprint down from the cave. But just as she did however, something changed. The blocked sunlight was revealed again, then blocked once more; like something was standing over her. There was a deep rumble that sounded like breath and Starlight Glimmer looked up.

There was another mountain standing above the cave’s, one made of shining, golden scales and serpentine necks. Wings that seemed to swallow the sky spread and clawed feet gripped the slopes. The creature, the thing, it’s size could only be described as impossible. Had the town gotten the newspaper instead of remaining hidden, she’d have known another name to describe it. Kaiju.

Grand King Ghidorah’s eyes flashed, finishing the job of teleporting the town’s populace to locations unknown instantly. This settlement was as remote as the boat from earlier, a perfect target even if the life energy of its ponies was... peculiar. It was a curious detail that he could smell the energy, the life force coming off the town just like everywhere else, but it wasn’t in the ponies. That was the reason he’d not done a simple fly-by, instead landing on the far side of the mountain to home in on it. And he’d found it. King Ghidorah’s body glowed a little brighter, expertly applying gravitational pressure to the mountain in just the right way to create a stress line going from the cavern upwards. A little more force and the entire mountain cracked open like an egg.

Telekinesis sifted through the rubble and the cutiemark stone was dragged up out of the debris. Grand King Ghidorah leaned down to inspect it, able to literally see the energy coming off it. Wasn’t quite like the life force of those he’d devoured back in his home realm, but it was noteworthy. Bagan would probably want such an item.

A tiny voice called out from a distance below, so small from so far away Ghidorah could barely even hear it; “Give that back!”

A charge of magic shot out in a bolt and pinged off Ghidrah’s cheek like a stone thrown at a tank. The eldritch dragon peered down with one of his heads as the others further inspected the cutiemark slab. He lowered his right head to near ground level and opened all three sets of his eyelids to look around, soon spying the transgressor in the form of a single pony.

-Appears I missed one, must have been in the mountain.-

He let his neck drift and move his head closer to the pony, Starlight Glimmer being forced to backpedal when she saw how gargantuan the creature was up close. Just one of its fangs was taller than she was and the head was bigger than a house. The pony started saying something, probably some show of bravery or bravado, Ghidorah didn’t know nor care which and ignored her while he set his focus to the slab of rock.

-Feels almost like the energy of a whole populace in there. Reijuu would most certainly desire it, it’s at least as strong as those trinkets the Xilian splice and his crew have fetched.-

King Ghidorah chuckled quietly, teleporting the slab to where he was keeping the ponies.

-And Reijuu won’t be getting it.-

His causing the slab to disappear however elicited a strong reaction from the pony. She screamed, both from shock as well as some sort of demand. When Ghidorah merely stared at her to try and figure out why her energy smelled a bit different than the other ponies in the town, Starlight Glimmer proved she was a special brand of crazy. She attacked the King of Terror.

A green beam of energy flew out of her horn as she shrieked, using every bit of magic she could with the same spell she’d used to tear away a cutiemark. True, this dragon lacked such but the concept of the spell, shaving off a chunk of someone’s potential, should work in principle. And to her credit, she did get a response out of Ghidorah. For a split second, he flinched as the aura wrapped around his head and tore off a piece of golden energy. The problem was the blowback. While Starlight Glimmer had managed to shave a piece of King Ghidorah’s power away for a brief moment, it was like trying to suck up an ocean with an eye dropper.

The energy instantly shot back into King Ghidorah and Starlight Glimmer was thrown backwards into the rock wall. By the time the unicorn struggled up, her horn glowing and smoking and her mind clearly in a daze given her struggle to stand up straight. A hurricane force of wind from King Ghidorah’s spread winds shoved her back to the ground, the kaiju beginning to lift off with humored cackles of laughter. She cried out, trying not to be blown away.

Starlight Glimmer’s scrunched eyes were forced open as they briefly flashed red. Minds were an easy gateway for alteration if they were vulnerable already, so Ghidorah simply tore his way in. He could see it all. The frustration, the anger, the ambition; but most of all he saw what many would call loneliness. He called it pathetic, but there was some potential there for proper use. Bagan’s orders were to remain unseen, but there were two problems with that. Firstly, it had neglected to mention specifics. Secondly, that wasn’t in Ghidorah’s plans. And such plans now included this mare. Intriguing prey she was, and the Grand King could collect later, he had a job for her. With enough forced mental suggestion, such as the commands he was shoving into her subconscious’ depths, she wouldn’t even realize it wasn’t her desires once he wiped her memory of seeing him…

The Grand King gave his command as Starlight Glimmer’s face went blank and she was teleported away.

-Seek him.-

==========

Hours later

Starlight Glimmer gasped as she got up from her rest. She was laying on a cobblestone and dirt road, one she recognized as being due south of Our Town’s range. Instantly her blurry mind was filled with shock.

-The town! There was so-something at the town that!.... That!-

She grimaced, feeling at her head and feeling a migraine working its way in. There was a nagging tug on her mind, like there was something she was aware she was forgetting. But at the same time, there was something else pulling her to somewhere else. Unbeknownst to her, Starlight’s eyes flashed red and a vision filled her mind. One of a tall figure with jagged spines and a long tail. Someone unknown to her but part of the plans of whom was manipulating her. And Starlight knew what she was ordered to do, even if by all accounts it seemed to be her own thought regardless of if she knew why or not.

“Godzilla.”

Starlight hit the road and went about it the same way she always did when confronting a new goal, be it town construction, mental persuasion, or self-taught magic from an old tome of an Imperial archmage; she researched. And what she found in the next town over was certainly eyebrow-raising once she saw whose picture it was in frame with her target. A certain familiar pegasus. Starlight Glimmer’s face flattened to a blank look of conflicting frustration and anger, scowling on the inside as her straining dark magic burned the edges of the newspaper’s headline.

“Psychologist, Moonbeam Glimmer, Revokes All Accusations Towards King Godzilla Gojo Junior. Walks out of Radio Debate!”

-Sister…-

Author's Note

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Artwork to come by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
What the hay happened at Mako and origins of star lit magic

Chapter 38 Part 1: Big Fish in a Small Pound

Author's Note

ATTENTION: This is only the first half. The whole of the chapter is done, I just cut it in two due to two different narratives, so my proofers could relax some as they were busy; and and to keep things coming out at a consistent rate without dumping a 25k chapter on you guys.

Part two SHOULD be out by Monday or Tuesday of next week. The next reader work section will be uploaded with it

Also happy birthday Chance! Hope you like the gift!

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff

Chapter 38 Part 1: Big Fish in a Small Pound

==========

Mako Atoll

Godzilla Junior paced through the atoll settlement with cursory glances at some of the sights he passed on his way through, Electra swimming along beside and behind him to offer her service as a guide should he ask of anything as per Queen Maui’s instruction. She expected a lot of questions, given this King Godzilla was the first landpony to ever visit Mako on peaceful terms. Any previous who made it through either before The Shroud was put up or got through by some fortune were lusting pirates with much less than pleasant intentions, so to have someone from dry land walk right through the middle of the township settled upon the reefs without concern was a new sight even if he wasn’t a normal landpony. And judging from the wandering eyes they were getting from a lot of the passing mermares, not a sight that was going unnoticed. Be it sheer surprise at seeing a stallion stroll past them or the fact Electra knew some of them hadn’t had “shore leave” in a long time, just about everymare was looking at them when they passed by; everything from half lidded eyes at Junior to jealous leers at Electra that left her swimming a little faster.

Electra glanced awkwardly at Godzilla.

-He really can’t have not noticed by now, he must be very determined to get to the boat!-

Electra cleared her throat and tapped Godzilla on the shoulder with her fin, “Ahem, excuse me your majesty. Are you alright? Enjoying Mako’s first impression? Anything I can help with?”

Junior glanced over at her sideways and shook his head slightly and speaking with some bubbles in his voice, “Pretty town, not used to seeing them underwater. Which way to the boat?”

Electra altered their course slightly to take a path with slightly fewer residents in the way, “This way. The local investigators should still be there. What do you think caused it?”

“Investigation isn’t my best trait. I don’t expect to find out much of anything unless there is a clear scent or energy trail to follow. I just wanted to have a look through it myself to check for such and talk to whoever’s been searching for evidence. Conscious issue and keeping something in mind to mull over. Or report back upon my return.”

“Fair enough.”

They soon came upon the rim of the atoll and Electra couldn’t be happier about it. The upheaval of earth to form the atoll’s ring was covered in fencing and the equivalent of police tape made out of kelp. Spying the beached hull of the ship poking into the water slightly, Junior kicked off the bottom and swam up to surface, shaking himself off slightly after climbing on shore. Electra shot herself out of the water and hummed a few tunes to activate her charm necklace, a set of clam shells strung next to two shark teeth. Her body was covered in a brief glow of light and soon landed with all four hooves upon the shore as a near-identically colored earth pony mare. Flicking a wet bang out of her face, Electra paused as she noticed Godzilla staring at her. His expression was fairly stoic, but carried the barest hint of confusion and or surprise at what he’d just seen.

An awkward silence passed between them before Junior reminded himself just what kind of world he was in and shrugged it off, turning his attention back to the boat. The vessel itself was largely untouched, just pushed further onto the sandy atoll rim and anchored to make sure a storm or freak current didn’t drag it off to sea. Several mares were milling about the hull of the ship or the setup next to it, where all the belongings on board were spread out for inspection by others.

Junior noticed how each of the mares had a few of the same peculiar traits like damp manes and occasional glints of what looked like a stray scale or two on the insides of their hindlegs. He leaned over towards Electra, stooping down given their height difference, and muttered, “Don’t recall Celestia sending anyone else. So are they all...?”

Noting his motioning towards the investigators, Electra nodded and replied, “Mermares, yes. We’re not as good as changelings but we can shift to one equivalent land mare form as well as some minor tweaks like color.”

“Right…”, he grunted, letting the surprise die off.

After getting a nod from Electra, Junior approached and caught the attention of one “unicorn” investigator who pushed up her sunglasses. Her eyes widened slightly and she stood up to attention before vaulting herself over the bow of the ship to land in the sand below. She pitched her head back and hollered, “Royalty present girls! Act sharp!”

She didn’t hear a slight grunt coming from Junior at the descriptor before she paced up, minding to give a slight bow.

“Saaaaaaaal-utations, Your Majesty; I am Amethyst Pearl. We thought you might swim by, so we’ve been amassing our findings that started since the boat was found by Electra here.” the purple-bodied, pale-maned unicorn noted while motioning to Electra.

Electra noticed Godzilla Junior straighten up and pause, holding himself up with a slight puff in his form that left no illusion to how well built he was; at least Pearl seemed to take notice.

-Must be how he usually is, he is a king after all.-

“What have you and the other investigators found?”, he grunted simply.

Amethyst Pearl sighed, waving her hoof a bit, “No need for formalities Your Majesty, we’re all just friends here on Mako-”

She walked over towards the flattened out, towel-covered spot the loose belongings had been splayed out on to keep them dry and free of sand. Most of it was what one would expect ponies on a voyage to bring, sunglasses, hats, some spare clothes for special occasions, cases of luggage; along with a few more unique knick knacks like some jewelry, somepony’s toupee, a sword, red and green hats and matching overalls, and a large number of books. Effectively, anything not part of the ship and not nailed down was taken off to be documented and looked over for clues.

Amythyst Pearl continued to speak, some other mares coming around to stand beside her, “-we pulled everything off that we could find. So far no signs of damage from looting, no weather damage beyond some winds or moisture from mists, and a lot of valuables were left untouched. It’s like the only thing missing is the crew and passengers; but thankfully no blood, signs of a struggle, or anything to suggest they were harmed. Probably not pirates. Deck was pretty dry and even the inner hall was emptied so it’s unlikely they fell overboard. We’re not sure what caused this.”

“I see. Give me a moment.”, Godzilla spoke plainly as he walked up to the organized articles and started to move over and through them, bending down to more closely inspect and sniff at them. He kept at that for a good half hour as the investigators went back to work on the boat itself, though some would occasionally glance over and call out to him to ask if he needed assistance only to go unheard and unnoticed. The glances Junior would get for other reasons also went unnoticed by everypony but an awkward feeling Electra.

After the half hour was up, Godzilla gathered himself up and stepped away from the potential evidence giving subtle head shakes. When Electra came back up to his side, she heard him muttering something almost silently. It took her a few repetitions to understand what he was thinking aloud to himself, “There’s nothing. Nothing there…”

Godzilla paused while he passed by the boat, throwing his voice up to it, “Keep up the good work. I will return when it’s time to depart.”

Amethyst Pearl, calm due to lack of suggestions as to violence being afoot in the disappearances, gave the stallion an almost playful salute and nodded. Electra noticed her eyes wandered on Godzilla for a while after he stopped glancing in her direction.

“We’ll be sure to call you up if we find something overt!”, she piped, only to earn almost no reaction from Godzilla at all as he just walked into the water and sank under the surface.

Electra looked to the rows of lost artifacts, the boat, and to Godzilla where he sunk under the atoll’s waves. It was very true what Pearl spoke of and she didn’t fault the investigation crews for finding no clear signs as of yet, that the boat itself looked almost completely spotless. It had seen some wear over the years of its usage for sure, all saltwater vessels needed to, but none of the dings or kinks upon the old metal or wood looked remotely fresh given all the staining and corrosion on them from age. She could just pray the hope that no foul play was involved was true.

She dove into the water, changing back to her true form before finding Godzilla waiting for her. His eyes were averted upwards to beyond the glimmering surface of the water and back to the boat. Clearly mulling over something in his mind, the unicorn shrugged out a jet of bubble from his nose and turned back to his guide.

“So, your Queen asked me to scout the island for outsiders. Where should I go?”

=================

King Godzilla was remarkably quiet when they went back into the township reef. Electra puzzled for a moment while he looked the plaza and shops over.

-For a legged one, would have thought he’d be more surprised at an underwater town. Maybe his kingdom back home is like Mako? He does seem to not drown easy.-

“Hey, excuse me,” she muttered, tapping his shoulder with a fin to get his attention; “I hate to pester, but out of curiosity what’s your domain back home like?”

King Godzilla looked over at her, nudging his head a bit to keep his mane from blowing into his face due to the waterflow. He shrugged slightly and spoke plainly, “If you count where I am if not on patrol or visiting Lea or my sensei, it’s an island, Solgell.”

“Is this reminding you of it at all, your majesty?”

Electra worried it was something she said that gave him pause, he seemed to almost flinch at that last sentence. Still, if something plagued him it wasn’t visible in his response. Godzilla smiled slightly and shook his head, giving a bemused chuckle, “It’s different, bigger for sure. Though this Mako place is just as pretty, more shops too.”

“Wooould you like to see them?” Electra pipped, idly rotating around until she got a nod from her escortee.

“Lead on.”

The first shop was a crocker kiln, which presented its own little surprise given the shop was built into a part of the reef that broke to the surface. The front half of the store, the area for customers and stock with the front desk, shelves, and register, was flooded like the rest of the plaza. But contrastingly, the back half was behind a set of glowing shells that formed a line between them on the floor and walls, holding back the water from the crafting area with numerous in-progress china and pottery as well as the kiln visible through the curtain of air. If viewed from above the waterline, one would see the kiln’s chimney poking out of the waterline to vent the smoke off.

“And here’s the crocker house. Most metals don’t keep good down here for obvious reasons so china and clay are the best for utilities. Parts are above water to keep the fire good and the clay settled,” Electra said, motioning to the goods on the racks which ranged from ordinary for function and extremely elaborate with ingrained shells and pearls.

“Makes sense. I’ll have a look around, thank you Electra,” Godzilla noted with a nod before walking around with some uncertainty. Electra took another moment to puzzle and survey him as she leaned against the front desk.

-Strange, he looks interested and confused at the same time. This the first time he’s done this?-

Movement in the water behind her signalled an arrival. Electra glanced over to see a unicorn in an apron and glasses walk into the veil of water and transfigure into a solid green mermare, the tray of china she was holding in her hooves now held in fins.

She sighed and put the tray down while flicking her head fin out of her face to wipe down her glasses, “Hey there ‘Lectra. Not often I've see you in here.”

Electra shrugged and crossed her fins, “Here escorting someone Nixie, Queen’s orders.”

Nixie raised her brow, fitting her work glasses back on while peeking around Electra to try and see who it was making noise in the shop as they moved through it, “Oh! Is it that-”

Godzilla Junior rounded a corner aisle, attention on one of the racks as he was muttering something to himself. Before Electra could try and listen in to what was he saying to himself, Nixie grabbed her from behind and yanked her behind the counter.

“Gakp! Nixie what’s gotten into you?” She growled, struggling free of the grasp.

Nixie grimaced, practically jittering all over, “Sorry sorry! Is that him? Is that?”

She was practically jumping up and down, an admirable feat given she was underwater. Electra rolled her eyes and nodded as she muttered the title robotically, “King Godzilla Gojo Junior of Terra. Princess Celestia sent him to Mako to pick up that lost boat.”

Nixie practically squealed, earning a surprised look from Electra. She looked between her friend and the giant, still oblivious stallion and started to notice how red Nixie was getting in the face.

“You do know he’s a giant dinosaur, right?” Electra muttered with a deadpanned expression. Nixie just still had gleaming in her eyes.

“Yeaaah, but I know he’s not now thooough!” Nixie said with a glazed look in her eyes as she watched the customer from under the counter.

Electra promptly acquainted her face with her fin as she recalled the similar looks her escortee kept getting as they moved through Mako as well as Amethyst Pearl’s reaction, “Yeah, you and the rest of Mako seemed to have noticed that.”

“Hey, he’s a ‘Junior’, not a ‘Second’. That means he’s still single. Not hard on the eyes either!”

Electra’s eyes narrowed and she grumbled, “Wouldn’t he be into females of his own species?”

“I can fix that!” Nixie quipped with a wink.

“No, would have noticed by now… Hiding is not something that’s the norm,” Junior absentmindedly thought aloud to himself, looking over Nixie’s crafts. When he pulled one off the rack, he found a green and red snout with half-lidded blue eyes looking back at him. Momentarily paused as he locked eyes with the mermare, Junior casually greeted her before going back to looking at the vase.

“Hello, you must be the shop owner.”

“That I am, name’s Nixie. You can shorten it as you like though,” she whispered. In the back behind the counter Electra was groaning.

-Seriously? That line? He’s a royal giant dinosaur Nixie, not a drunk at a club for shore leave.-

“Nixie is good enough, rather cute actually. Some people back home had names like that,” Junior noted while looking over the vase still so he didn’t see or didn’t take notice to the stars forming in Nixie’s eyes nor see how much her tail flukes were wagging on the other side of the shelf.

“O-Oh, so happy to be of service to your nostalgia Your Majesty. Enjoy Mako so far?”

Junior nodded, letting his eyes drift over the other racks. He stepped away from the aisle he pulled the vase from somewhat to turn around, unknowingly dodging an outstretched fin from Nixie trying to settle itself around his midsection or flank. He sighed, looking out a window to the rest of the reefs and letting a tiny smile form on his muzzle, “Reminds me of home, too. At least my other home.”

Nixie held back her grumble over failing to touch him, instead pulling her head out from the shelf and swimming around to get beside him, “Ooooh? Have more than one domain back on Terra? You must be quite the royal.”

“No, I just move a lot. I couldn’t return to my hatch place if I tried. Still remember Kyoto well enough though.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I… hit a nerve-”, Nixie whispered showing some concern and some other things while slipping closer to him. She whispered up into the stallion’s ear, “-could give you something to remember Mako by.”

Nixie kicked a shell over across the floor with her tail flukes, rolling it to the doorway. The water shifted again as a wall of almost transparent magic formed between the new shell and several more in the doorway, identical to the one separating the shop from the work area. The water in the shop instantly evaporated off and vented out the window, leaving the shop dried off if still a bit misty. Electra flopped on the ground behind the counter, her magic activating again and transforming her into her earth pony disguise. She grunted, putting a hoof on the counter and clawing her way up it with gritted teeth, not very happy about getting shifted without a little warning. Nixie had also changed, having now flopped to the floor beside Junior in her own unicorn disguise.

-So that’s what she meant by “I can fix that!” when I talked about ‘his own species’...-

Junior quickly glanced around, clearly confused as to what was going on when all the water was suddenly gone. Not oblivious to what was on the floor next to him though, his attention soon turned to Nixie as the ‘unicorn’ stretched out and flicked her mane back with her hoof. When Junior’s next action was less ogling her form and more putting the vase down to pick her up, she opted to try and be a bit more overt in her action and grabbed onto his hoof.

Ten seconds later and Junior was rapidly power walking out of the crocker shop with a deadpanned expression stretched across his face with a facefinning Electra following along behind him.

“I am so sorry, she is never like that…”

==================

Having gotten through the experience with Nixie that won’t be recounted in words, Junior and Electra found themselves moving, walking and slowly swimming respectively, into the core of the town square. Electra had been studying the stallion so closely after he shot down Nixie that one might think she was “switching teams” of interest, but moreover she was mostly just baffled. True, the unicorn was very quick to put his metaphorical and literal hoof down, but the rise Nixie got out of him seemed to lack the disgust one would expect from a failed courtship. She couldn’t put her fin on it, but it almost was a mixture of ignorance and mild confusion one would encounter at somepony speaking gibberish they couldn’t understand.

-He’s single and royalty, shouldn’t he be used to suitors by now?-

“What is this?”

Her train of thought was derailed by Godzilla’s calm tone. Glancing over she noticed he was looking up at something, a rarity given his stature, and she traced his line of sight to the central hub they were closing in on. Arranged in a ring of sorts, the hub of the market district was cleared of coral and rock, leaving just the pale sand and what stood upon the stony strata under said sand. Arranged around the center of the circle was a spiraling ring of busts showing mermares of all shapes and sizes, carved out of seastone and bathed in the dazzling sunbeams filtering down from above. Some were smiling, some looked out stoically, one or two was frowning, and a particularly perky looking bust had a jestful smirk; but each seemed regal in some way or another. A trait unified in the fact each of them was wearing some type of crown and necklace, with the back portion of the former being identical to each. Junior recognized it from Queen Maui’s adornment as well.

Electra swam over to the busts and circled around the ring, “These are all of Mako’s past queens. Whenever a queen reaches a certain age, she partially abdicates to train her successor. Once the training is complete, the old queen has her bust finished and the new one takes on part of the regalia.”

Junior walked over slowly, standing just slightly shorter than the outermost bust which he surmised based off its position to be the most recent addition, “So this was Queen Maui’s predecessor. And the reason Maui doesn’t have a bust-”

He glanced at Electra to finish his sentence, which she did after a nod, “She took the throne only recently, yes. So we won’t be seeing her entry for a while. We mermares might be a bit longer lived than a pony, most queens especially because their power is bolstered during the ceremony, but we can’t all age like Princess Celestia did!”

She giggled.

“You mentioned a ceremony, what is it?”

“See this?”, Electra muttered while pointing to the spiny shell portions of the crown each queen wore that stuck up high, “These are Queen Amatheia’s, quite possibly the greatest mermare whom ever lived. She founded and settled Mako over one thousand years ago, even before Equestria. Some say a sort of magic on the island drew her to it and bonded to her. Her magic rubbed off on her regalia and the island itself, giving them both her power. It’s how such magic as The Shroud can exist. And since then the magic of each queen fed into the island and vice versa, with Amatheia’s last act ensuring a strong successor.”

Junior’s eyes glided to the looming form in the heart of the spiral. Rather than a mere bust, a life size statue of a very large mermare was seated like she was perched on a rock and watching over the town. Based off the elaborate pearl necklaces, coral fans, and shells adorning her form; she was as clear a cut of someone of importance as one could find. The mermare’s expression was stoic, but just looking at it Junior could feel a sense of motherly or grandmotherly warmth coming from the visage that glimmered in the sunbeams. Closest comparison he could give is what he felt looking at Azusa mixed with what he assumed ponies felt when beaming up at Princess Celestia.

“And I take it, that is her?”, he noted after pacing up to the statue and standing before it. If it really was life size, evidently this Queen Amatheia had another trait in common with Princess Celestia. Compared to her, Queen Maui looked like a teenager in scale.

“Mmmmhm! Until she came around, all mermares lived in smaller pods. She did such a good job organizing and helping everypony settle, they practically begged her to be the first queen. Not that she minded the role, granted hehe.”, Electra snickered while looking up at the statue fondly.

After a moment of thought however, Junior puzzled and turned his head back to the busts of Amatheia’s successors.

“So if she was chosen, is that a rule for all the queens after? No princess daughters or lineage to take up the title? I don’t know much of how other leaderships work, but I thought that was the general rule for kings or queens.”

“For most and it was supposed to be that way. There were two princesses, Amatheia’s daughters Melpomene and her little sister Hymnia.”

“What happened to them?”

Electra’s demeanor wilted slightly after she paused, uncomfortably looking down and off to the side; “It’s… a long story. They were exiled.”

Junior snapped his head around towards Electra, grunting incredulously while motioning to the Amatheia statue, “She banished her own children?”

Electra could only shake her head, “No. Others did…”

She sighed, looking up to the statue.

“Records are… scant. Not too many mermares like to record what happened so a lot of it was lost to history. Some years after the founding, invaders came and ran rampant; sowing discord and malice by misery or magic. They froze over the top of the island and its surroundings, trapping the mermares under the water beneath and between the ice. They almost froze to death. Crown princess Melpomene and her younger sister Hymnia offered themselves up, using themselves to draw the invaders away to give their mother time to prepare a spell to expel the invaders; one that put up a barrier around Mako to keep them out…”

Junior, catching onto the train of thought being set, chimed in, “The Shroud?”

“First version of it, yes,” Electra muttered with a nod, “It took a lot out of her though and added with the grief of her daughters sacrificing themselves…”

She cast a solemn look up at Amatheia’s statue. If viewed with that in mind and from the right angle where the sunbeams cast shadows on her face, the statue’s expression shifted from welcoming and motherly to grieving. Broken.

“Not even she could survive that… Her second cousin, Li’ban, was the next closest relative; so she was reluctantly coronated as regent until another queen could be picked. That’s when they found out the lost princesses weren’t so lost. Either they got free or their captors were destroyed by something else, but they came back carrying something. Something that reacted with The Shroud’s magic.”

Junior tilted his head, having been listening close but that last sentence threw him off slightly; “How did that work? They couldn’t just swim under the storms like I could?”

“No. The Shroud has some magic to it that keeps the mists, illusions, and storms up, but that is just part of it. The other part was tailor made to keep out dark magic… Like what was growing inside the princesses.”

Both of them went dead quiet for a time, especially after Junior realized what was being implied. Electra sighed, rubbing at her forehead to ease the aches. This whole story wasn’t one told often, that part especially.

“Pirates aren’t the only ones to try and do that to mermares… And, whoever or whatever the fathers were, The Shroud reacted to their children growing inside the sisters and kept them out. Some tried to find a way to get the princesses through, get past the barriers; but others feared what the children might grow up into and suggested against it. The experiences prior had warped Melpomene, one can’t blame her, and the magic used on her by her captors to incite hatred or discord probably didn’t help. Tensions grew and before Li’ban could stop it, a fin-jerk reaction was cast that so many have regretted for centuries. They were exiled.”

“Search parties didn’t find anything, though legend says Melpomene’s regalia was found on a shallow grave. Hymnia and the children were never found.”

Junior shrugged. Not one unaccustomed to sad tales, but that didn’t grant him immunity from empathy; “Who were these ‘invaders’?”

Electra lifted up her fins with a defeated expression, “The story was a mark of shame for centuries, over time it got mystified or details forgotten because so few told it. Some versions it was magical raiders, others it was evil spirits who can physically manifest; one I heard spoke about a stormy king. It’s been so long and it was so poorly recorded that a lot was lost.”

“I can believe that. Memory fades with time. Princess Luna had told me a lot of details about her got lost to history... What happened to the children?”

“Being honest, I don’t know for sure. Some think beings that came to Equestria about a decade and a half later might have been them, but when Starswirl the Bearded beat them he moved them somewhere where they couldn’t hurt anypony. Details are iffy and most archivists or older mermares don’t like talking about them…. Thiiiiis whole um… exile and tragedy tale, iiiit’s not muddying your view of Mako too much; right? You’re kinda the first landpony to hear it.. eheheh”, Electra muttered apprehensively, biting her lip and putting a fin behind her head.

King Godzilla turned his head towards her and looked between her and the statute, regarding both before shaking his head, “No one is perfect. You’re not, Mako’s not, anything in Equestria is not, the humans who raised me aren’t, and I’m certainly not.”

He closed his eyes, recalling one of many long talks he had with a certain alicorn in the late hours of the night during an escort, “As Lulu tells me, it’s not the mistakes we make that matter as much as how we make due on fixing them. Times change, and I’m sure if the events happened now things might be different.”

Electra’s face slowly warmed to the reassurance, having briefly fretted that she just screwed up her own job by muddying her homewaters right when Queen Maui was trying to open them up, sighing. She was about to say something when her face froze before tilting and scrunching up in mild confusion.

“Wait… Who’s Lulu?”

Godzilla said nothing, promptly shutting up and snapping around to pace off; though Electra could have sworn he got some red color to his snout right before he did so.

“... Lovely plaza this way I can see.”

Electra narrowed her eyes before taking off after him.

-Okay, NOW I’m curious!-

==================

The plaza diner was Electra’s pick for a location, partly because she was starving and partly because she needed him to sit down and stay in one place to give her time to ponder with him still close by. Unfortunately them being in a open area that was frequented meant many a gaze was upon them. Which, much to her worry, meant basically a good three-fourths of all the mermares passing by were either stopping in their non-existent tracks and staring or hadn’t so much as looked at their food since Godzilla walked passed and sat down.

Electra grunted to clear her throat, setting her menu back down, “Sooo uuuh, been to a restaurant before? Your majesty? Sir? King?”

Godzilla Junior was dense, figuratively and literally, but thankfully he noticed how nervous she was speaking as well as looking around at the mermares also in the restaurant.

“Calm down, I’m not going to eat you in here-”

He didn’t however notice how red in the face Electra and some mermares close by got at that sentence, just shrugging, “-I’ve been to a place like this before. Captain Frost brought me to Berry’s Tavern more than once.”

The server mermare, a particularly stunning mermare by the name of Ondina floated over and one didn’t need a guess as to which of the two at table 3 she looked at more, “Welcome to The Cove, what can I do for our special guests today?”

Electra instinctively shifted closer to Junior a bit, partly to make sure the server saw her and partly because she didn’t want a repeat of what happened with Nixie. Unfortunately her actions didn’t go unnoticed, just not by Godzilla. Rather, most of the half lidded looks directed at Godzilla promptly turned to narrow-eyed glares aiming daggers at her. Electra gulped, able to read some of the gossiping lips the others were whispering.

“Pffha, figures she’d be clingy.”

“I thought she swung for the same team?”

“Evidently not, was holding out on us.”

“He already mentioned eating her, probably used a hexing song.”

“We’ll just have to outd-”

Godzilla Junior’s radiating heat and hard hoof nudged her shoulder to snap her back to her more local senses, “Electra. Ondina here offered drinks, how does that even work underwater?”

Electra shook herself down to clear her mind and tried to force her way through a mental reset to answer a basic question, “Oh um The um, Cove haa-aas above-shore seating. For those who want a mixed drink or to sunbathe.”

“Or be free of the fishes, you know for some more… private accommodations,” Ondina chimed, leaning a bit closer to a still stone faced Godzilla even as she curled her tail and flukes around his seat. With a similar flash of magic that Nixie and herself used earlier, Ondina's shell necklace glowed and for a brief moment her mermare body was replaced with a beautiful pegasus mare with long blonde mane and orange fur that flowed in the ocean water. Her pose transitioned to leaning in very close to the comparatively huge stallion, practically draped across the back of his chair. Godzilla Junior seemed momentarily surprised at the show of magic, lurching over to the side and looking back to look the pegasus dead in the eye as she looked dreamily into his. A silence passed for a full ten seconds before the contact with seawater broke the spell and she reverted to her mermare form.

“....Yes, might as well try it while I’m here. Had enough to eat but I’m still plenty thirsty. I’ll drink anything you got,” he said bluntly, earning some surprise from both Ondina and Electra.

Electra, eyes wide, looked between what was easily one of the prettiest mermares on the atoll and the guy she’d almost literally thrown herself at while flashing her looks. Junior hadn’t budged the entire time, even as his last line left them both red in the face. Ondina, while momentarily surprised, gathered up the menus and flashed a sweet smile and a wink, “W-Well! Should have taken you to be forward! I’ll get right on it, ‘Lectra be a dear and show our guest up to some quieter arrangements.”

“Looking forward to eating out your stuff,” Junior said plainly still unfazed, blinking blankly as he looked over at Electra without a word. Electra's face was bright red and her eyes were wide as dinner plates in shock. If sweat could have fallen from the side of her straining-to-grin face, it would have. Both from Junior’s reaction, or lack thereof, and the fact Ondina was clearly blushing up a storm as she swam away like she was eagerly skipping.

-He just no-sold the Ondi’wink! A-AND outdid her! Last time she tried that on a Baltimare club we all had to bail before half the mosh pit rushed her! AND he just turned the tables on her without flinching! What the kelp is this guy?!-

“Y-Yeah, sure... “, she choked, motioning for Godzilla Junior to follow her. A motioning that got a bit quicker when she saw all the glares being directed at her from all around the restaurant.

-Why couldn’t they be looking at me like this without the hundreds of kilos of stallion meat in the room?-

She mentally whined as they surfaced on the sandbar that was atop The Cove’s roof. Shaking herself off in her new pony disguise as Junior calmly surfaced near her, she apprehensively got seated at one of the above-water tables. Electra bit her lip and leaned in, glancing cautiously at the water.

“I saw the others down there-”

She looked up to see Godzilla Junior looming, albeit accidentally given the height difference, over her.
“-I don’t know what’s going on with you and them, but panic is something I know well when they were looking at you. Hope this gets you out of the line of fire.”, he shrugged.

Electra blinked a few times, still tight in the nerves but the edges of her lips were beginning to curl upwards, “O-Oh, thanks. It’s just eh-heh, off day. Not something that happens often.”

-Because you’re not something that happens often around here.-

“Soooooooooo!-”, she chimed, leaning in closer with a sing-songy tone to try and defuse the tension, “-What do you do often? I know the basics but what do you do a lot on Terra in specific? I’m a racer, it’s why I do patrols a lot. Raced Rainbow Dash once you know!”

“Oh, that blue Element Bearer pegasus Rodan flew with? How did that work?”

“Was a race under the water, long story. We were talking about you? What you do back on Terra?”

Godzilla paused for a time before curtly replying, “I get physical. A lot.”

Electra chewed the inside of her cheek, trying to figure out what he was implying.

-Weeell, if he swings for the same team that explains why he wasn’t buying what Ondina or Nixie were selling…-

“With um… boys or girls?”

“Either, I find plenty of both.”

Electra nearly choked on her breath, blinking as she puzzled.

-... Huh! Guess he’s just very open about it.-

Electra was about to say something, only for a sharp cooing sound cut her off. She darted her head to the side and spotted a set of familiar eyes looking up at them seductively from the water. Ondina stepped out of the sea carrying a tray with two china vessels of liquid.

“Glad to know that isn’t something you’re opposed to. I won’t judge if you want to bring another stallion in.”

Godzilla idly glanced around, observing the admittedly beautiful setting of the atoll, its forest, mountain, and seas.

“Rodan would probably like all the sun, though Lea's female but she's always was partial to islands,” he noted casually.

“More the merrier!”, a heavily blushing Ondina chimed.

Electra acquainted her own face to her hoof. One could practically hear the sound of cracking glass when her eyes snapped open to the sound of beautiful singing. Electra’s vision darted to the source. Ondina, still giving Godzilla the bed-reef eyes, evidently wasn’t content to give up on a wink and a flaunt. Her necklace glowing to apply the magic, a harmonious, beautiful melody was seeping out of her voice. It was gentle, gentle as an undercurrent that massaged the seagrass beds like the music massaged her ears. Electra blushed, sighing as she leaned in closer. While it was true that one mermare’s courting song didn’t work on another in terms of telling them their intentions, she could understand the lyrics and was entranced. Ondina truly was as good a singer as her looks implied, spelling a beautiful solo about traversing the seas and finding something she didn’t know she wanted so close by; hoping they’d show similar thoughts.

Electra smiled, resting her cheek on her hooves as she closed her eyes; her earlier shock and confusion quelled by the gorgeous melody.

Godzilla Junior just tilted his head and blinked at Ondina, who was too entranced in her singing to notice.

What she did notice was the fact her solo turned into a duet as Nixie returned and climbed half her body onto land, assuming her land pony disguise and mimicking Ondina’s melody after adjusting her glasses. Ondina narrowed her eyes through her sideways glance and tried to sing louder, only for Nixie to follow her pitch.

Then another customer from The Cove joined in. And then another. And then another. Within the space of thirty seconds a flash mob had corralled around the table. Godzilla Junior maintained his stoic visage, even if his inquisitive glances were beginning to show more and more signs of confusion. Electra meanwhile was broken out of enjoying the music when the melody and lyrics shifted. From the peaceful ballad to a more lively tune, the content had changed from emotional to… expressive.

Electra’s eyes dilated in surprise as her ears flopped against her head and she covered her gaping mouth with her hooves while sporting the complexion of a cherry.

-OOoooh myyyyy Faaaaaaaaauuuust!-

Evidently, some of the crowd were making their lewd intentions much more overt than metaphor. Electra gritted her teeth as her mind raced with a panic, especially after seeing some of the improvised choir giving each other jealous glares.

-Gotta think of something! Gotta think of something! If he goes into that crowd Queen Maui will kill me for the PR blunder!... L-Lulu! Whoever Lulu is, she’s important enough for him to remember!-

“H-Heeeeeeey! King Godzilla!”, She chimed with faked glee, putting a chummy arm around his shoulders and sporting an extremely forced grin especially after looking at the crowd.

Godzilla Junior’s reaction was per the norm of his reactions so far, in that he was hilariously unreactive to the libido-driven chaos going on around him, “... Yes?”

“What color is someone you like?”

“... As in friend or ally?-”

“Just a pick a colooooor! What color is something you like?!”, she muttered through her grin.

Fortunately he didn’t need much time to blurt out an answer without thinking, too stupefied at what he was seeing, “Night sky blue.”

As soon as he said that, some of the mermare crowd quickly started trying to adjust their necklaces and disguise magic. Waves of light washed over the flashmob, many trying to reconfigure their landpony disguises to match the color description. Arguments broke out, derailing parts of the song. Some debated whether he meant a dark blue mane, coat, or both; with others angrily barking at their cohorts over the act of ‘swimming in on their claim’. Godzilla Junior looked on upon the now quarreling mob with stoic befuddlement even as a jittery Electra grabbed him from behind to lead him away.

“Quick, while they’re distracted!”

==================

Junior and Electra stood still under and behind the cover of some sea boulders, the kaiju sitting on and bracing his back against one as the mermare rested the upper half of her body on it while placing her chin upon her crossed flippers; both looking out into the sea as far as one could witness before running up against The Shroud.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen that many mares stepping in on each other’s song before. Gotta fin it to yah your majesty, must have nerves of titanium to just shrug that stuff off...”, Electra muttered quietly while shaking her head in disbelief.

Junior didn’t budge, just grunting curtly, “Who’s shooby?”

Electra raised a brow and looked to him with a tilted head, sporting the sort of expression of befuddlement one would have upon hearing someone exclaim their wallet tasted like purple, “What?”

“The mermares singing, they kept referring to it or them. Shooby, doo, and some combination of those. Shooby doo and other lyrics like that. At least I think they were lyrics, I really had no clue what was going on.”

Electra’s eyes shot open and she went dead still for a moment, before budging as a gust of hushed giggles erupted from her throat involuntarily; “Pfft….ppfft...Pwhahaaaaaaah-”

She sucked in before resuming her roar of laughter, smacking the rock she lay on with a fin as if tagging out for mercy, “-hoooooooooo … Fwwwahahahaha! Aaaaaah! Y-You know what they were doing right?”

“No,” Junior deadpanned.

Electra rolled on her back, still snorting with laughter, “And here I was thinking you were either the biggest prude ever, swung for the same team harder than I do, or the densest guy ever.... Hehehe haaaaaaa! A mermare’s song is supposed to telepathically tell what they’re singing to what they want. Not mind control or suggestion, but it can help break the ice for any gal on shore-leave if the mister or miss she’s eyeing up seems interested. Doesn’t work with some species.”

Junior sighed and finished her sentence for her, “And must not work on me because I’m actually a kaiju. So, they were trying to court me like that Nixie friend of yours at the shop.”

Electra held up her flippers and shrugged her shoulders, “So you have been noticing how many of them had their eye on you the moment you came here. Yeah, pretty much… You know, first few cords were really sweet but how it turned out... King Leo’s beard it turned lewd reaaaal fast.”

Godzilla Junior puzzled, before casting his eyes down and to the side. The expression on his face shifted, even if he was unaware of it and it caught Electra’s attention. For someone who’d kept a pretty astute composure since he got here, let alone with how big and powerful his pictures in the landpony papers made him seem in either form; seeing him frowning sadly and his eyes almost quivering with clearly confused or somber thoughts was jarring.

Electra glanced around awkwardly, rising up and putting a flipper atop her head while chuckling half heartedly to try and defuse any tension; “Hey um... Your majesty, maybe we should get you ready for tonight? Queen Maui requested you return early for a state dinner.”

“Why?”

His single word retort left her tilting her head, “King Godzilla?”

Junior shrugged, “Just Junior works. I’m just, baffled. Your kind isn’t the first to try and court me and so far I’m still so confused why it has happened.”

“Why’s that? You’re a king right? The pool of options can’t be too small back home if no guys or gals out of your league.”

“... I have no interest in males. And as far as I know, there’s only two females of my kind back on Terra whom are kaiju like me. One is a friend, but no interest in the slightest.”

“And the other?”

“My sister.”

“Oooooooh,” Electra groaned as she rubbed at her chin with her fin, “So this is not just a bigger pool, you’re literally in your first pool.”

Junior shrugged, “Aside from one actual pegasus mare whom was about as physical as Nixie was, yes. I didn’t even know what flirting was until some days ago. And why me is something I still tilt my head at.”

Electra rolled her eyes at Junior’s slight pout, sitting up some and punching him in the arm after deciding to drop the formalities, “Hey, for a guy who’s tall as a mountain you sure put yourself down a lot. As for why, I can answer that somewhat even if I don’t share the interest… No offense, I’m just not into males.”

Junior glanced over at her and shrugged his shoulders, giving her the go ahead to speak.

“Not sure about the landponies, but you see most mermares are… tricky when it comes to these sort of things. Not gonna lie, some were throwing their flukes at you because this unicorn body of yours ain’t shabby. You’re no Prince Blueblood or Shining Armor, but hey nopony’s perfect. So if they were going for purely physical flirting, you fit the bill pretty well and the royal title is a plus. For some mermares who want to form an emotional attachment, your credentials are pretty good so far. News travels fast and lots of them heard of this otherworld king who literally threw himself into the fray to protect a city, and we’ve heard of your released background. Then there is the factor of you not seeming to drown easy,” Electra quipped with a giggle, remembering her own stupor upon first meeting Junior.

“... I fail to see how that’s a factor,” Junior deadpanned, blunt but still listening.

“Well, if a mermare wants to find a guy to settle down with; most of the time she has to leave home to stay with him; regardless of if he realizes she’s a mermare or not. I’ve known of mermares who lived whole lives with children and grandchildren and her family never even knew she was one until she revealed herself. Sometimes this means moving pretty far inland. You heard of a place called Dodge Junction and Appleloosa?”

“A friend of mine and one of the Element bearers was sent to that last one.”

“Would you believe me if I told you there are two mermares living there and been there for years? Just saying that many times for the mermares who are wanting or are considering getting a male partner, it’s a pick between sea and stallion. Home or a new one... You? Not the case. In fact, between decent looks, heroic persona and fact gals can get attracted to someone with some past troubles, and you being the first thing with Y chromosome to be able to safely cross through The Shroud? I’d say by most standards around here you’d be a prize catch! To be honest I’m surprised you’re not showing even a little interest, lots of pretty dames around here iiiif I do say so myself!”, She giggled with a smile, rubbing at the back of her head.

Junior shrugged, even if he did fancy a brief chuckle at Electra’s humor, “I guess I just don’t think too highly of myself. Probably just me still being stuck in the mindset Terra hammered into my head for years. Constantly worrying for the sake of other kaiju and humans, always being cautious as not to poison or kill anyone on accident, constantly patrolling. Never had time to even think of any real future with anyone even with my abysmal ‘pool’. Daiei, if any females of a similar species ever showed interest in me I probably was too focused on work to have ever even noticed!... My mother told me being here in Equestria might be a blessing in disguise, a chance to relax; maybe try some things I never could before. But, what’s the point in trying if I’m just going to go back to Terra one day and go right back to what I was doing?”

He growled, more out of frustrated confusion then anger. He wrung his hooves through his mane and pressed them to the sides of his head while hissing, before frustratingly slamming them down on the ground before him hard enough to leave cracks in the stone. Electa jolted up slightly, eyes wide but listening close to the surprisingly quiet whisper coming out of Junior’s downturned face.

“All I’ve ever wanted was to not think I was going to get another scar the next day… And when I finally got peace I don’t know what to do with it.”

Electra frowned, sitting up and looking at Junior as he put his gaze to his hooves. A touch cautious, she reached out and messied his mane with her fin. He’d look up to see a calm, sweet smile coming from the mermare as she spoke in a gentle pitch, “My mother met my dad when he was saving a little colt from a riptide, he was a beach lifeguard. They only knew each other for a month before he… passed. And yet, I know everything they did in that month because she and him lived up to the moment everyday and she never regretted or forgot it. Sometimes memory can overpower even the worst heartbreak… So, coming from someone who has seen it first-fin, if you make use of the time you got and don’t hold back, you won’t regret it when you lose it. And if you fumble a fin, try again.”

Junior looked up, first at Electra and then out to sea with a blank expression that still betrayed tiny hints of surprise. He considered it all. Words and wishes of his mother to unwind more, his own wish for decades, some slight fantasizing and speculation of how Electra’s parents must have been in their allotted time, and a half dozen other facets in the time he had to think in quiet. The thought of why his answer to the question of “What’s the color of something you like?” was “dark blue” didn’t elude him either.

-Lulu...-

Memories weren’t elusive. The time he refused to leave her alone when she was vulnerable, and she did the same by bringing herself and his mother to him when he needed the help. The quiet or speaking time shared when he’d wake her and she’d help him get some sleep free of nightmares. Most beings he’d known had one reaction to seeing him enraged, and it logically was to get out of his way. But Luna, she was too stubborn and too caring to quit. If the peace of mind he’d been feeling since he got here in Equestria could take a form, it would be a dark blue alicorn his mother definitely seemed to approve of.

He unconsciously reached up and touched the faint line going across his jaw and cheek, tracing the same facial scar Luna would during a quiet moment when he’d do the same to the one beneath her wing. She said it was a trust sign, showing they knew the real Luna and Junior respectively. He was starting to feel more to it with some redness forming on his snout.

Junior sighed, this time with some measure of content on his face rather annoyance or tiredness, “You’re right… This world is the most peace I’ve had since I was grown, I should make the most of it.. You’re a wise mare Miss Electra.”

Electra blushed, snickering, “Aw shucks, thanks your majesty. Sounds to me like you’re living in the ‘now’ finally.”

“Going to try to. And again, just Junior works,” he muttered, standing up from his seat as the familiar sea air blew across his face and he closed his eyes to let the salt, spray, and calm meditate his mind.

“On Terra, I thought next to nothing about anything else but where my power would be needed next. I thought and cared for others, but only as family or friends. Didn’t have a chance for anything.. different, even if I wanted to. Maybe the thought didn’t occur to me from lack of chance or maybe I worried I was selfish, get in the way of duty.”

“Hey,-” Electra smirked, punching him in the shoulder with a flipper, “-if it’s a two way street, this sort of thing is never selfish. And personally I can’t think of a better motivator if pulling stunts like you did at Canterlot is your norm… Soooo, who’s the lucky mermare?”

Junior shrugged, chuckling quietly even as he felt nervous, much to his surprise, about the thoughts he was having; “As lovely as your homeland is and as welcoming as your neighbors are, she’s not here.”

Electra let out a loud, impressed whistle and clapped her fins even as she shook her head, “Woooooow! You must be from another planet! Not too many stallions would take being on a pretty island surrounded by beautiful mares trying to throw themselves at him in stride like that…. Huh, sounds like a Neighponese comic.”

==================

Princess Luna turned herself over in her bedding and elegantly stretched out her wings, a tiny smile working its way across her face as she heard a set of hoofsteps walking up to her.

-Humph, he’s a bit late. Wonder if it was accident or he wanted me to rest more?-

Luna muffled a giggle, her face feeling a bit warm. One could practically hear the record scratch go off in her mind when instead of Junior’s deep, calm tone after some heavy hoofsteps; the sound to greet her to the evening was the lighter steps and chipper tone.

“Rise and glow, your majesty!”

The voice was masculine, but not even close to Godzilla’s pitch. Luna froze and her smile flattened, eyes snapping open as she lurched up out of bed to see the beaming grin of a solid red pegasus stallion with brown hair wearing dayguard armor. The alicorn of the night blinked a few times in confusion, glancing around her room and not seeing a trace of the typical red-yellow eyes and towering figure that had been greeting her to the waking world for well over a week.

Shaking her stupor off, even if she was still confused on the inside, Princess Luna cleared her throat upon sitting up and addressing the good captain; “Ahem… Good evening, thou is Private Chance correct? Ex-..cuuuse us if we sound cautious, but isn’t it usually Godzilla whom is sent on this shift?”

Chance nodded, keeping up his salute dutifully, “Captain said he got pulled for a special assignment by Princess Celestia. He should be back in a few hours, but so you didn’t oversleep more she sent me up here to get you.”

Princess Luna nodded, hovering out of her bed and using her magic to neatly set the covers back on straight, “Understandable, the night is young and there is much to do. However we believe the agreement was Godzilla would remain in Canterlot to repel any attacks to come here. We wish we were counseled on this decision our sister has made.”

There was a tiny hint of annoyance in that tone that Private Chance thankfully didn’t pick up or act on. Petty as it was, Luna was slightly miffed something dealing with her… confidant-

-Yes, confidant. No need to get flustered like when he called you ‘Lulu’, Lulu!-

-had been sent off both without her notice and making her wake up slightly less pleasant. Private Chance awkwardly watched Princess Luna puzzle and mull over her thoughts, not oblivious to the redness forming on her snout and cheeks but not knowing if it was from some embarrassment or some other matter he wasn’t in the know of.

He grunted, putting a wrist to his mouth and clearing his throat, “U-uhem, your majesty. As far as I was told, it was considered safe as the kaiju called Mothra Lea and Princess Twilight Sparkle were going to be making several back and forth trips between Ponyville and Canterlot, effectively covering both regions. So Godzilla’s temporary departure should be safe, ma’am- princess!”

Snapped from her inner musings, Princess Luna shook it off and walked up to Private Chance and gave him a pleasant nod and curtsy bow, “No need to worry, young mister Chance. We just tend to dwell on many a’thought. Now, enjoy thou’s night off for we shall ensure it is a calm time in thanks for the pleasant rousing to awareness thou gifted. We merely need to counsel our sister some over pleasantries.”

Private Chance had been shaking in his knees since he stepped into the chamber, anxious at the moment’s passing. Finally after to silently exhale in relief, he straightened himself up and trotted alongside Princess Luna with a smile; “Thank you princess, birthday night! Princess Celestia is waiting for you in the dining hall. Something about she expected you to show up when you saw me… whatever that means.”

Princess Luna deadpanned in expression, muttering under her breath as she suspected another one of her sister’s pranks, “Whatever that means indeed, Celly…”

=====================

A short time later and Princess Luna was seating herself at a table across from her sister. Not a grand ballroom banquet table, that would be a laughable waste of space and require them to throw their voices just to hear each other from across the table. Instead the two most powerful equines to ever live were sitting across from each other at a small wreck room booth, crowns set aside and able to step out of their regalia. It was Princess Celestia’s idea when her sister first returned, reconnecting by parking themselves at the same spot they used as fillies between Starswirl’s lessons. Back then it was usually Smart Cookie who flipped them up some food on the skillet, these days it was Princess Celestia. Not that her sister minded, without fail she managed to utterly destroy what she attempted; somehow managing to fry iced tea and freeze fried potatoes. Needless to say, they were both plenty happy about whom handled the high stacks of flapjack pancakes quickly being devoured.

Regalia off, sitting in seats almost too small to fit them, wolfing down huge stacks of food without an ounce of poise or refinement, this was the favorite time of the day and night for the both of them. Not Princess Celestia, constant paragon for an entire species whom couldn’t falter for a moment in the populated day, and not Princess Luna, keeper of the nightly vigil over the worlds within the dream; but “Celly” and “Lulu”. Two sisters who ate their pancakes way too fast and then burst out laughing when one of them feigned composure to sip some tea in an over-the-top dignified manner.

Snorting, Luna gulped down another pancake and the remainder of her tea in one go, setting both plate and glass down onto the table with an audible clunk, “Victory is mine, dear sister! First done, first question’s mine.”

“You may fire when ready then, Lulu,” Celestia snickered, taking a sip of her tea with an expression that instantly screamed she was being persnickety like she was up to something.

Luna narrowed her eyes to try and look serious as she leaned forward, an effort partially ruined by how Celestia noticed the manner in which her wings were perking up and her face was turning red.

“You told him my nickname, didn’t you?”

“That seems likely to suppose, I am one of few whom know it and the only one allowed to use it… Unless, you don’t mind him calling you such, Lulu.”

Celestia raised a jesting eyebrow that left Luna narrowing her eyes, the night alicorn reaching back to push her wings down as they were about to have a mind of their own and shoot outwards. Celestia regarded a pancake slice, running it over some syrup before devouring it, “Not like I do not already know the answer to this, but you’ve grown affection for him haven’t you?... Ooor, do you wish for me to presume it is entirely platonic in how you seem chipper that he’s the one to wake you each night? Don’t think I haven’t noticed that either.”

Luna sunk down in her seat while her wings started to stick up more, wanting to ask why the room was suddenly feeling very warm as she dropped her forehead onto the side of the table. She sucked in her breath while closing her eyes, wanting to bark a retort. But, truth overpowered the urge for the easy and likely-to-fail path out. She kept her head against the table, nodding slowly in a manner that tapped her horn against the table’s edge.

Celestia giggled, only to be cut off by a quiet whisper by Luna.

“Celly, am I in love?”

Much to Luna’s shock when she raised her head to look to her sister, she saw Celestia shake her head and affirm the motion with a calm, “No.”

Luna tilted her head, lifting it up a bit more and giving her sister a baffled expression. Celestia sighed, adding to the confusion spurred by the negative affirmation with a warm smile as she reached over and placed a hoof at her sister’s chest just above the heart. “Love takes time, it’s not the first step; but a progression. Affection, platonic or romantic, takes many routes and many speeds. What you have is affections, romantic ones. No one knows when they will fall in love, but you won’t need to ask when it happens. You’ll know.”

Luna blinked, putting a hoof to her lip and puzzling, “So, why nudge me towards Goji?”

Celestia lifted her hoof and put it to her little sister’s still flushing cheek, beaming at her. “Because I saw the potential for love there, someday. And I think it’s something you both should strive to; it’ll help you both. Relationships don’t stop progressing when romantic affection goes both ways, it’s a journey. So, you tell me, why is it he being the topic is making my baby sister so red in the face? What did he take notice of with you?”

Luna chewed her lip, looking up and to the side while mentally going through all her interactions with the kaiju king, first impressions withstanding.

“Might sound weird… but, I think it started because he didn’t notice. Didn’t notice whom I was. When most ponies address me, they always seem to focus on the ‘Princess’ part like it’s my first name. Oh, they can mean it endearingly for sure!”

Celestia nodded as she counted off some names she’d heard, “Best princess. Cool princess. Hot princess, though my temperature is higher-”

Luna shrugged, chuckling before she continued, “Point being, endearment or.. even lust with some stallions and mares, it was about or at least related to appearances and positions. Even young Twilight Sparkle and her friends had my past as a subject of focus, though of no real fault of their own granted. I guess, for this sort of thing; I wasn’t looking for somepony with forgiveness and pity or just fondness. I didn’t know it until I found it, but that made it stick out. I was unknowingly looking for somepony- someone with understanding…. He knows what happened and never brought it up again in focus. I’m… normal to him. Instead of regarding me as royalty and following any wish, he was too stubborn to be ordered away when I visited Starswirl’s grave!”

“What I’m trying to say is, when I got to know him; I found an understanding. He’s seen me vulnerable, and I for him. No judgement or pity either way.”

“You like him because he reacts to you as yourself, not as a princess, not as a redeemed; just you. And based off how you act around him, seems the sentiment is mutual. You don't even to notice he's literally too big to fit in the castle in his true state anymore when you dangle him upside down on a return flight,” Celestia pulled her hoof back and tilted her head with a tiny smile and glow in her eyes, “That’s why you let him call you Lulu, right?”

Luna’s face returned to a bright red color and she nodded slightly like a shy schoolfilly.

Celestia chuckled, “It’s just be a start, a lovely one though. You don’t have to treat this like you’re going to marry in the evening, just enjoy it for what it is and see how it shifts once the start is made. And if it doesn’t work out, then you’ve at least tried and it sounds like I’ve arranged you with somepony who does understand you where you needed it. And friendship is not a downgrade from romance, it’s just different.”

A stray thought gave her a tiny, worried frown as she looked up at her sister.

“Did you do what you did because he… reminds you of somepony?”, she whispered, nervous about stepping on any hooves. She knew why her sister kept a shard of the mirror portal Starswirl and Celestia worked on in the solar wing.

If she was pained, Celestia only showed it briefly; sighing in a slightly tired fashion though not from labors of the day, as she nodded; “There are many similarities which I’ve taken notice to. And not just being tall, dark, and handsome either.”

“So, was this whole thing like with you and that other world’s Sombra?” Luna muttered, reaching out and placing her hooves on her sister’s to comfort her just in case she hit any nerves.

Celestia shrugged her shoulders, pulling out a gentle smile, “We both went into it not knowing how long it would last. But, then again, no romance does. I might not be pursuing anypony, but I have grieved enough so fret not for me.”

“This is your time, and I feel you should let him know that... -”, her smile grew into a sly smirk as she leaned in, “-smart as he is, I think he is a little dense in the skull in more ways than one. As Ardent Sentry said, romance is like settling sky. First you stake your spot in open sky, then worry with the invasions constantly.”

Luna didn’t know Ardent Sentry too well, having only met the pegasus a few times before the whole Nightmare Moon debacle. Needless to say, hearing about what happened to that unsure rookie after hoof was a hugely head tilting moment and such declaration from her caused a reflexive snicker.

“Well, explains why the Sentrys are always so forward about these sort of things!”

“Tis true, Stalwart first asked his future wife out by showing up with a full guard escort… and she was one of the guards!”

Both alicorns burst out laughing, rattling the table with tapping hooves and kicking legs. Eventually Celestia squealed, melting into a mischievous giggle as she covered her mouth with a hoof, “I am soooooo sorry!”

The overly hammy line caught her off guard and Luna peaked out from her laughter to glimpse Celestia sporting an enormous, extremely suspicious looking, smirking grin. Luna’s expression changed from cackling with a blushing face to snapping her head and neck up to look at her sister so quickly one could practically hear her neck ratcheting; a narrowed glare aimed at the jokester.

“Whaaaat.. did you… do?”

Celestia rolled her eyes and looked off towards the ceiling, “You see, a lost ship ran aground in a remote spot and I was made aware of it. His amphibious nature and ability to swim at high speeds made him ideal for retrieval in the harsh environment. When I and Captain Frost explained the situation to him, he volunteered.”

“And.. praytell-...” Luna growled through her teeth, leaning across the table and turning her head to raise an ear directly towards the snickering alicorn, “-wheeeere was it you sent him?”

“Mako island,” Celestia muttered plainly with a slightly sing-songy manner.

Luna’s face quickly turned to a blushing scowl and her eyes widened in horror.

“Th-The mermare capital?! Where he’d be the only male for hundreds of kilometers?!”, she roared, levitating figuratively and literally out of her seat.

“Oh assuredly! I would have told you sooner buut-”

Luna cut her off, now remembering asking the exact question of where Junior had gone right when Celestia turned around levitating two super stacks of pancakes, “You fiend! You distracted me with your pan pastries!”

“Oh but you loved them! And you remember the rule you made, first one done gets first question”, Celestia piped, beaming with her eyes closed. She motioned to the kitchen area in the back of the room with the stove, “I got enough for seconds if you so wish it!”

“I was two when I made that rule!”, Luna roared defensively, blushing beet red and quickly getting her regalia back on.

“Oh where are you going so early in the night, Lulu? Want to wait a moment before somepony sees their dark, beautiful night princess so flushed in the face and straight in the wing?”

“No time! If I don’t get there soon those aquatic seductresses are going to have a population explosion in ten months!”

Lulu the Red Faced Alicorn awkwardly bellowed, barely getting her crown on, albeit putting it on backwards, before teleporting out and flying so quick she broke the sound barrier in a second.

==============================

It was an odd observation Godzilla Junior made about where he was right now. Second time in the day he’d been sitting at a table and yet despite his surroundings shifting from a public restaurant to the queen’s quarters, he found himself seated at something even smaller to the point his hind hooves were touching Queen Maui’s tail.

“Small table, you sure this isn’t cramped?”, Junior grunted.

Queen Maui leaned forward, crossing her fins while resting her chin upon them, “I prefer, intimate. Wanted to make you comfortable and keep matters casual. Has Mako been accommodating?”

Junior nodded his head slightly to the left, “Your species is kind, if… upfront.”

“Well tis a saying in the seas, mermares make. Make crafts, make time, make decisions. I certainly did.”

“How so?”

Queen Maui reached up and pulled her crown from her head, finally taking her eyes off her guest and looking upon the relic with a puzzled expression that almost seemed to have hints of sadness in it. A quiver of the eye, very slight frown on the lip, hesitance in breath.

“When I was young, I was always exploring. If I could, I’d go weeks without ever seeing Mako Atoll. I was constantly on dry land or sneaking onto ferries. Call it a bit of teenage rebellion or call it my focus of interest, but I always liked spending time with and learning more of land ponies. Magic, mannerisms, dress, food, books, anything really. I can’t begin to tell you all the stuff I have stashed in my quarters, it’s a packrat nest!”, Maui snickered in a very unqueenly manner.

Finishing her little laugh, she shook her head and let her fin brush across the crown, “Came to bite me in the flipper though. On one trip I snuck aboard and spent time on a ferry, and one of the ponies saw me sneaking back off and what I really was; which way I went. Turned out they were a pirate spy… Next time I head out I found the same ferry in nearly the same spot and didn’t stop to think of why other than maybe they needed help or had run into some boat trouble.”

Junior puzzled as Maui went silent for a time, letting the ‘bangs’ of her mane shadow her face. He wasn’t clueless to what was being implied, “It was a trap, wasn’t it?”

Queen Maui shrugged and nodded, “Pirates had taken the ship over, thrown the crew and passengers in the cargo hull, and waited for me to come. When I crawled onboard to investigate I had a bucket of sea water dumped on me when I began to sense something was wrong. Large contact with salt water breaks the disguise spell if you haven’t figured that out yet.”

“I have. Continue.”

“Right…. Well, let’s just say I was glad in hindsight that I was very young back then and hadn’t developed any. Didn’t mean the pirates didn’t want me though. Mermares can excel in luck magic, how much so can be exaggerated in some landpony tales, but it’s there and they wanted me to be forced into being their good luck charm. Better plunder, easier boardings, good fortune at gambling dens; be a good haul to have a mermare coerced into helping…. But ooohohoho, I gave luck alright, bad luck.”

“How much?”

“Enough that the next boat they tried to raid just so happened to be loaded up in a sting operation by the Canterlot Royal Guard who’d come looking for the ferry,” Maui muttered with a chuckle.

Junior leaned back in his seat, raising an eyebrow as he started to recognize the story from one of his talks with Captain Blueberry Frost, “Captain Stalwart Sentry’s pirate errand. One of his last missions before retiring.”

Maui smirked and nodded, “The one and only, and let me tell you that the dragonslayer’s reputation didn’t do him justice. Who told you of this?”

“Captain Frost, she was also on the mission wasn’t she?”

“Her and former Captain, now Prince Shining Armor. She ever mention freeing one prisoner who was tied up in the ship captain’s quarters and not the hold like the other hostages?”

Junior pursed his lips and raised his brow slightly at seeing Maui’s smirk growing, “Yes. She noted how weird it seemed a young mare was in there in particula-....”

He didn’t finish that sentence, knowing his audience didn’t need that information. After all, he was looking at the subject of that last sentence.

“Yep, that was me in disguise. I put it back on after being tied up to keep from drying out. I honestly doubted her or Shining Armor knew I was what I was when they freed me, but I was inclined to return the favor. Couple of good ideas, hostages out of the way, a few well aimed waterspout twisters later and the pirates were all captured, nopony got hurt much; and I was going back home.”

Her smile gradually flattened into a pout and then a full on frown as she regarded her now much heavier crown, “My little stunt got me notice. Not for getting captured, but for how much magic I pulled off once they found out what I did. Queen Rita picked me to be her successor the next week. With training for a few years and then my coronation, my little spat as a hostage was the last time I ever left Mako.”

Maui shrugged her shoulders, setting her crown on the table, “Might be why I wanted to finally open The Shroud some. Call it shallow but if I couldn’t go to the outside world anymore, I’d want the outside world to come to me.”

Junior pondered it for a moment before grunting a retort, “You had a fondness for something you couldn’t experience anymore, pretty clearly given you still had that liking after getting taken like that. For what it’s worth I had the inverse situation, same wanting. You want to go back to what’s beyond your birthplace but can’t go due to duty, I can’t go back to my hatchplace for that and other reasons.”

“Oh? Why’s that?”

“I’d squish it,” Junior deadpanned, spurring a snicker from the mermare on account of the unintentional snark.

“Hehehehe, charming. Still, apologies for the tangent and any, trouble, the good folk of Mako gave you. Any speculation on the boat?”

Godzilla Junior went silent for a time, reflecting on what he had been for most of the day in private and losing that last distinction, “Your team seemed to be eyeing it up as much as they were me. Doesn’t appear to be pirates thankfully… There is one entity I know of that could cause peo-ponies to vanish like that, and it’s one I’d never wish to be unleashed on this world. Fought it-.. Him before and he did kidnap hundreds.”

Queen Maui leaned in closer, tilting her head slightly while sporting a commendably serious look after seeing the clear distress on Godzilla’s visage, “Who is it? If it’s as serious as it seems, I’d have expected you to panic”

“Grand King Ghidorah, space faring sociopath and probably the most powerful being I’ve ever faced. Pray he never ends up in this world, his lack of being here is why I’m not as frantic.”

“How can you tell he’s not?”

Junior shrugged, “Simply put? A ship, even a dozen of them, that’s far from enough for him. When Lea and I fought him over a decade ago he literally emptied a city of it’s children. The boat incident might be curiously similar and I intend to report in on it, but Ghidorah is far from someone not to make himself known. Hiding isn’t something he does.”

Queen Maui gulped, not sure if she could breathe a sigh of relief or not, “Well, I guess we should take the good news as it comes. Too gentle to be pirates and too… small.. to be this Ghidorah creature. Still someponies missing however.”

“All the more reason to get it back to Equestria for a more thorough investigation.”

“To that I can tip my crown to, I really hope for the best in this situation. There will be more distant patrols to investigate if more ships or any ship which may have the hostages are found…. Now, on a hopefully more pleasant subject, what do you think of Princess Luna?”

“....”

“Weeeeell?” Queen Maui chimed, letting the word roll off her tongue as she let the rest of her previous apprehension slack off.

Junior’s eyes slowly narrowed and he leaned back a bit further in his seat, hoping not to get a repeat of what happened at the crocker house, “She is… valued. Why do you ask?”

“Oh because the letter you gave me back from Princess Celestia also had this little gem written on the back,” she quipped, flicking out the waterproof paper and holding it up to her. While at first the back of it seemed blank, the glow of her crown and necklace charm revealed luminous inkings scrawled across the back with invisible ink.

“Magic ink, only visible in a magical aura’s glow. Princess Celestia always has them in use if she sends me a letter with a notch in the side like this one did.”

Queen Maui straightened up and pulled out a pair of glasses to magnify the writings and make them legible, “Ahem… Dear Queen Maui, as you probably presumed by the notch on the upper left corner; this is a special message for yourself and those you trust it to. Know that I say all of the following not as a threat, but as a friend. You must know that King Godzilla Gojo Junior is most certainly not available, for he and my dear little sister have bonded quite well. She hasn’t said anything yet, but I don’t see her walking around red in the face and her wings stiff as boards for her not to be thinking it.

Do not attempt flirtations as he is under claim. You would be wasting your time anyways, I do not believe he understands them at all. It would also be wise not to provoke my sister, for I approve of his company around her and wouldn’t wish to see that stopped. Especially given she doesn’t know he’s gone to Mako and won’t be finding out until the evening.

I have never seen Luna so happy in centuries and I have good reason to believe her ‘confidant’ is responsible. Why I intend to find out, but I know what I’ve been seeing. I like this one.

Consider this a test of multiple fronts in addition to the practical reasons of my sending my friend to your shores. I am well assured my dear little sister will most certainly be questioning me as soon as she awakens to find he’s not the one by her bedside.

Wishing you well and trusting your judgement, Princess Celestia.”

Queen Maui chuckled and leaned over whilst cocking an eyebrow, “Needless to say, the elder alicorn seems to most certainly approve of your presence around her sister. Rare feat to be sure.”

Junior’s mind was wrought with implications and possibilities. He knew what he was starting to think and after his talk with Electra, what he was heavily considering trying. But this? This was a shocking swerve. Celestia was an individual he knew nothing but respect for. Calm of mind, always looking out for others, watching over those who didn’t even think she’d bother; it reminded him a lot of his best friend Lea and had Celestia been born of Terra he was almost certain she’d have been a mothra. He’d never gotten the idea she didn’t like him being around her sister, after all she wouldn’t have sent him after her that night at Starswirl’s glade otherwise. But by the sound of things it seemed like he’d gotten much more than just approval of presence, it sounded like-

For the first time in the day, a mermare could say that the King of the Monsters went dead quiet while flushing slightly on the snout. Shaking off his stupor, Junior looked back up to Maui.

“And what are your views on this?”, he grunted.

-Last time one of them thought another was approaching me they started stepping on each other’s fins, could do without an encore.-

Queen Maui shrugged, “Well, let’s just say Princess Celestia’s timeless wisdom rings true when she had to leave me a note saying you’re ‘under claim’.”

“... Just please tell me you’re not going to break into song,” he deadpanned, spurring a mischievous snicker from Maui.

“Oooh don’t think the thought didn’t cross my mind!... But alas, I am not one to attempt to swim my way through another’s reef. You’d make a most interesting pursuit for sure.”

Remembering Electra’s explanation, Junior grumbled as he half speculated this jest by Celestia was set up with her knowing the reasoning behind his reception before he did, “So I’ve been told…”

Queen Maui rolled her eyes and swam out of her seat, rolling upside down in the water and tapping at Godzilla’s shoulder, “Oh lighten up some will you, I’m just attempting to be a friend. If I am to guess right and from Princess Celestia’s notes here, you clearly can act casual based off how you act around Princess Luna. Yes?”

“Wouldn’t be wrong. Feeling is… mutual, to be honest. I’m not exactly one whom can go around without a lot of attention back on Terra. This whole ordeal here in Equestria has been quite different in some ways.”

He paused, letting his eyes travel back and forth even as he closed them; a clear indication he was thinking back to something fond as Maui glimpsed a smile briefly forming on his muzzle before he returned to his stronger demeanor.

“So with all do respect, don’t try anything. I’ve seen it before today and I’m not interested.”

“Noooot even a little?”, she quipped, leaning closer with a teasing smirk.

Junior just deadpanned, “No.”

Queen Maui struck a pout, but one that coupled with her putting a fin across her forehead like she was gasping made it clear she was intentionally being over the top. She spun herself around slowly underwater, looking at Junior upside-down.

“Makes sense actually. You’re a dinosaur, right?”

“...Last I checked.”, he grunted, a bit confused at the relevancy.

“Remember how I said I snuck out a lot? Well one thing I did was a lot of reading. Lots of smart ponies on the shipping boats or at port. If dinosaurs on Terra are like the ones that once lived here in Equestria, that means they’re like birds and crocodilians. Most of those types of animals get one partner and stick to it. If your species is the same, I wouldn’t be surprised if you’re literally hardwired for monogamy. Two-way connection with just one partner after bonding or courting.”

“... So, in a plainer explanation?”

Queen Maui shrugged, “You’re libido literally doesn’t activate until after a courting cycle. You’re reactive, not proactive... Huh, guess that’s why you shot down that choir faster than most of us would a drunk. And if what Princess Celestia is implying is true, I take it you’ve been spending a lot of time around Princess Luna?”

“Wouldn’t be wrong…”, Godzilla Junior grumbled while letting his mind think through the implications. Every single time he’d been around a female of the same or similar species, before or after Equestria. Before getting warped into a talking equine there was a few female saurian of similar types to him back on Terra. Raiga, Orka, Titanosaurus, some of which he got along fine with, but circumstances or behaviors could explain why there wasn’t a temptation, even a subconscious one, to bond. Titanosaurus didn’t like humans at all, Orka was raising Gorgo, Raiga and he got along fine but didn’t seem to compliment each other well; and he was always being too quick to rush off onto patrol to let any thoughts do much more than bounce off him.

Even after showing up in Equestria to a relative peace, Blade Dancer was a no-go as beyond the baffling flirting he didn’t understand, she was too upfront, and Lea was too close as to be seen as anything other than something of a sibling. Every other female he’d been around from Captain Frost to Moonbeam Glimmer still frequently brought up his nature, well meaning or ill meaning as it was. All outside of one, and even then it was only after the two got some understanding beyond King of the Monsters and Alicorn Princess that he grew fond of being around her.

It all dawned on him like a eureka moment. He knew previously whom he enjoyed being around in this peace time his mother and Electra brought up. Now he was beginning to think he knew why. Godzilla Junior slowly nodded as he felt the phantom sensation of a hoof tracing one of his faded scars. For all the abnormal things in his life, the power, the war, the circumstances; Luna was just about the only normal thing that ever happened to him since his days at Kyoto.

“... You would have a point there.”

Queen Maui chuckled, “Well I’d say you’re off to a good start, you have to be able to be dedicated or be the densest stallion on the planet to go through an island full of mares and not stray.”

Junior raised an eyebrow, “This was one of those tests Celestia mentioned?”

“Wouldn’t be surprised. She sneaks these sort of tests with her students all the time… Just with less risk of population growth.”

“So I was informed by Electra… Is that usual for mermares to sing about that stuff oooor?-”

“O-ohoho Faust no! But then again, most males aren’t you…. Now, since we have time before departure; I do believe I can help you with something.”

“Hm?"

Queen Maui’s eyes, necklace charms, and crown all became encased in a magical aura that preceded large stone slabs on either end of the chamber closing shut. Water began to rush out of the dinner chamber, either draining out through vents in the walls or being steamed off by a slight heat Maui activated with her charm. In the drop of a minute, the dinner hall was perfectly dry and now scattered with salt crystals on the ground from the evaporated waters. Queen Maui’s body became encased in the same light and after a few moments she was replaced in form by a stunner of an earth pony mare. While she might have been about average or even slightly below average in size for a mermare, Maui’s landpony form was reasonably tall; slightly shorter than Blade Dancer. She kept her dual colored coat of a white underbelly with a black or dark gray dorsal shading, her large head fin replaced with a flowing white mane.

From what he knew of pony standards, Junior could tell she was quite the looker. What he didn’t know was why she was walking towards him with half lidded eyes.

“If you try anything,” he growled with narrowed eyes.

Queen Maui just rolled hers, waving her hoof in a jesting manner. “Relaaaax King Godzilla, I might be shore hungry but I’m not looking for any heirs. I merely was going to offer my humble help.”

Junior paused, stiffening up some even as he let some suspicion waver, “... Go on.”

“Well, that celebration gala for Princess Cadenza and Prince Armor’s child is coming up. No doubt both you and Princess Luna will be attending, yes?”

“Likely. I’m supposed to be around Canterlot for awhile anyways and I am her guard.”

“Well then,-”, she whispered with a playful and yet suspicious tone and a wide smirk.

“-hows about I give you something you can give her?”

===============

One Hour Later

Queen Maui held her hooves around Junior’s muscular neck and shoulders as he loomed over her. The heat between them was intense with each motion, especially when he went in closer after she coached him through it. Eyes fluttering, she started to lean in towards his nuzzle when his hot breath steamed her face.

“None of that.”

The growl made her giggle like a little filly, gently booping the stallion’s nose with her hoof, “Juuust making sure you were paying attention!”

================

Outside the queen’s citadel in the extinct volcano, Electra sat on a sea boulder; munching on a kelp wrap while watching the sunset beyond The Shroud. Flashes of light within the fog bank caused her to furrow her brow. Lightning wasn’t unheard of in The Shroud’s dense fog and low lying storms, but this looked different. Instead of flashes of white that were brief bursts, the coloration was bright blue and persisted for several long seconds. Thunder-like rumbling echoed out as the flashes raced up and down The Shroud, getting closer every time. They encircled the atoll island with the unbeknownst intent of finding a weak point.

There were legends of some finding their way onto Mako island. Sometimes wayward sailors who got lucky and washed ashore, other times romanticized tales of pirate crews who got extremely fortunate and navigated through them at the sway of a dashing and skilled captain. One tale that didn’t previously exist but was sure to be retold time and time again after this day was of a frantic entity thinking it was on a rescue mission brute-forcing their way through the barrier with pure flight skill and magical power alone.

A blue magical comet tore out of The Shroud and barreled towards Mako Island. Electra grimaced with wide eyes as she dove back into the water to ensure she was clear as the screaming projectile sailed over her.

The comet slammed into the volcano and made it a new skylight, the one driving the burst of magic homing in on a familiar magic trace she’d accommodated herself to awhile back. Princess Luna rammed through the thin stone wall and hit the ground hard enough her hooves made dents and cracks in the ground. The Princess of the Night was not looking well, not regal in the slightest. Sweat and dust clung to her mane and body, she only had two of her four horseshoes on, her collar was only on half straight, the night crown was on backwards, she was huffing for dead breath as her horn smoked; and she’d lost some feathers ramming her way through The Shroud.

And when she saw “Goji” holding a mare below him with their forelimbs around each other like they were in some sort of dance, the blood rushed into her head as quickly as it rushed out. She blushed bright red in the face, looked like she was about to shriek something, and them promptly fainted from exertion. Her eyes rolled back and she started to fall, her last conscious thought being something pushing up.

Queen Maui blinked several times, flabbergasted, “Huh! Must have worn herself out getting here.”

Godzilla Junior sighed, shaking his head in a mute stupor as he picked the alicorn up after having rushed over when he saw her going down. He propped the alicorn up against him, sighing at her limp form. With a gentle hold, he picked her up and carried her with him.

========================

Princess Luna’s eyes fluttered open and instantly she felt a throbbing pain at her forehead. Still effectively blind, the alicorn reached up for her horn and quickly winced at feeling how hot it was.

-Ow! Why is it?!... Oh, right. Teleported across a continent while flying at top speed while using a barrier spell…-

Her vision still blurry and her mind spinning, the alicorn’s thoughts tracked back to why she’d worked herself up into such a frenzy.

-GOJI!-

She tried to spring up, only to feel a set of gentle, but firm hooves help push her back down onto a bedding that felt like a mattress.

“Hey-ey-ey-ey! Take it easy now, don’t hurt yourself.”

The tone was gentle, feminine by the sound of it, and close. Princess Luna pitched her head up slightly to see the source, the grey and white blob in front of her gradually stopping its spiralling to become the same white and black mare she saw before. Princess Luna didn’t need to see the necklace she wore or her crown to recognize who it was.

“Queen Maui,” she grunted sternly.

Queen Maui, still in her earth pony disguise, returned the look in kind with crossed forelimbs, “Princess Luna.”

“Wh-ere?”

“Oh, you’re still on Mako; tide-yanker,”, Maui quipped in a teasing tone, “You passed out after deciding to give me a lovely new skylight, please don’t do that again by the way. You’re on the S.S. Mermare.”

“The-the boat that went missing?”

Maui nodded, “The same, captain’s cabin in fact so you got the best bed in the boat! You’ll find the hull loaded up with my girl’s investigation written down for your teams to go through as they check it all out.You’ll be happy to know we found no blood.”

Princess Luna huffed for breath, gradually winding down into nods, “Good. Ve-ry good. Hopefully they will all be found soon. At least this means they’ll hopefully be safe when they are.”

“That’s the hope… Though, something tells me you’re also concerned with another matter a touch more trivial.”

Maui snickered after seeing the gears in Luna’s head go to work, especially after the alicorn began to sport a very unprincess-like redness in the face and straightness in the wing while flashing the foreboding of a glare at Maui. The mermare in disguise laughed, getting off the bedside she’d been sitting on.

“Don’t worry, nothing happened. Not between me or any of the gals here. Had Electra with him the whole day…. Oh, and yes. Before you ask, pleeeenty of dames tried.”

“Then, what were you two doing?...”, Princess Luna muttered with a slight growl in her undertone. Maui’s jestful, almost sultry tone was not helping and in this state of mind or exhaustion, Luna wouldn’t have realized the mermare queen was just playing it up as a joke.

“Ooooh just something I was showing him to show you at the gala. You’ll see!”, Maui quipped while poking Luna in the nose.

The mermare straightened herself up and began to head for the cabin’s exit door. Princess Luna groaned, sitting herself up and massaging the headache forming at the base of her horn. A quiet voice gave her pause.

“It’s mutual, you know?”

Princess Luna looked up and over to see Queen Maui giving her a warm smile over her shoulder. Luna blinked, stumbling her way off the bed still in a slight daze to walked up to her some.

“Wh-whaat? What are you implying?”, Luna stammered, squinting and rubbing at her sore head.

Maui chuckled and nodded, knowing she’d been heard the first time.

“He’s a picky type, has to be to survive getting as much thrown at him today as he did. Your sister got us both good during this little errand trip. Pretty romantic by the way, rushing in boldly to save your… ‘confidant’, right? Think he returned it when he carried you into her and laid you down.”

Maui wiggled her brow at Luna and giggled seeing Luna’s blushing and quivering wings, “Seemed to have figured out what makes him take a fancy to somepony and it’s not most of my kinds’ way, never would have worked out between us. Yooou on the otherfin.”

Maui opened the door, giving Luna a glance back with a smile on the seam of her lips, “Don’t waste your shot if you even think it’s a small chance. This guy’s real dense.”

Princess Luna pursed her lips and reflected upon it all. Oh she was mad as Tartarus right now, both over the prank, this stupid, stubborn, plasma spewing reptilian for making her get flustered and embarrassed at herself rushing into a rescue; but it was mostly in a petty manner devoid of actual spite. Not small enough to not let them be aware of it once they got back to Equestria, but she was getting some ideas. The fact she knew firsthoof how effective flirting was on Junior was helping validate the story being told.

Didn’t mean she wasn’t going to grill him once they got back in some way.

-Make me act like this will you?!... Hmph! I do have that gifted unicorn student who seems fond of him...-

The alicorn sighed, nodding respectfully to the mermare queen, “We thank thee for thy hospitality towards our… treasured associate. Next time, we shall request to be made aware of the situation beforehoof and accompany him.”

Queen Maui smirked and rolled her eyes, “Whatever floats your boat, Princess. Oh, buuuut if by chance things don’t work out? Do let him know I’m not one for ‘most of my kinds’ way’ either. Haere rā! (Goodbye!)”

She wiggled her brow as she stepped out onto the deck and then vaulted herself over the railing in a dive. Princess Luna’s eyes widened and she rushed forward to the guard rails of the ship just in time to hear the splash and see the now true, mermare form of Queen Maui breach the water’s surface and wave goodbye. It was upon seeing how tiny the mermare looked that Princess Luna realized the boat was at least sixty meters off the sea level. Looking further down the railing she could see a mammoth claw, one at least four meters long and two meters thick at the base, curled around the edge of the ship. Looking to and fro over the edge she could glimpse a thick, scaly leg wade out further into the sea. Putting it to a mental picture the alicorn realized that if she were to fly out and look back, she’d see the gargantuan form of Godzilla Junior gently cradling the S.S. Mermare in his arms like it were a toy. All while moving slow enough to not cast a big wake into the crowd of mermares closer to shore bidding him farewell, or to jostle the alicorn he thought was still resting inside; tenderness many on Terra would never have expected to come from something so massive.

Princess Luna peeked out from beyond the ship’s edge, holding onto the railings as she pitched her head up. A familiar, warm glow filled her chest when she saw the same attentive, concerned eyes scanning the coming fog bank she’d seen at her bedside many nights before and glimpsed for the first time when staring down a horde of gyaos with Canterlot at his back. A tiny, sweet smile crossed her lips even as she quietly walked back inside the captain’s cabin to get some rest.

Celestia was right. She might not be in love, not yet. But she knew what made her happy, and what she was willing to give a chance……

…. After she got some revenge for today of course.

A few minutes further into the voyage, the captain’s window to the sea outside shifted beyond just the fog growing stronger. The ship was slightly raised up as something else lowered down, putting an enormous eye to the window’s presence. Fiery red sclera and a burnt gold iris encircled a pupil that focused in on what lay beyond the opened window. Junior held his breath, as to not rouse the resting form he saw reclined on the bed inside.

He could hope a misunderstanding didn’t ensue too much over this ordeal. He waded into the deeper waters, stealing one last look at the seemingly sleeping alicorn before putting his head under the surface to look ahead whilst holding the boat up. What he could do now was try and make sure he didn’t stomp on a reef or hit a seamount on his way out of The Shroud. What he could do later was make due on more than just trying to make sure she could rest peacefully.

He didn’t see a smiling Luna peek back out of her eye briefly before going to sleep, thinking only thoughts of nights at a certain glade.

Chapter 38 Part 2: Lost History

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Chapter 39: Transformation

=======

Zenith

Zenith’s inner chamber was shut behind multiple gates, keeping the conversation within private to only those inside and hiding it from even the most prying ears. Contrasting gold glowed against pulsing runes of dark purple as Grand King Ghidorah stood before Bagan’s sphere and the enormous god partially stepped out of it.

“And of this, you are certain?”, Bagan's voice boomed.

Ghidorah didn’t flinch from Bagan’s word as others would, even if he knew better than most anyone just what it felt like to earn this being’s ire. He stood resolute.

“I have had eons of destruction to find your original offer, underwhelming…. This is my wish, take it and I will do as you have asked as long as what I have asked for is given.”

The demand was cast and all was quiet. Bagan leaned in closer, towering over even Ghidorah’s one hundred and fifty meter tall form. The deity raised its paw with its sword-like index claw creating a rune before the hand. A trail of light filtered through the floor like electricity down a circuit board, crisscrossing to one of the blocked entrances. The doorway opened silently, with the glow of energy traveling even further down the long halls until it was out of sight; it’s destination a far ways away.

“It will be arranged, go.”, Bagan noted and earned a nod from Grand King Ghidorah, the three-headed dragon casually lifting off the ground and flying out to his exit as Bagan climbed back into the sphere.

They’d conversed for hours to enact this plan, but neither brought up their respective agents in Equestria; the Enjin-possessed Sunset Shimmer and the mentally altered Starlight Glimmer. Only a fool shows their full hand on the first bet, and the King of Terror and God of Extinction were anything but.

-Let the games begin..-

===================

Monster X helped to hold Gigan up, gripping his friend by the shoulders to assist in securing him into the cyborg’s new hanger.

“Little to the left- too much. Back up some.”, Gigan muttered.

X grumbled, “Couldn’t have waited a moment before locking up for these updates?”

“Give me a break, I usually have a crew of bugs to help me on this.”

“You never did seem fond of the Nebulans.”

“When I say I have a bug in my systems, I like not being literal.”

There was a click as X moved Gigan into a spot on the hanger door, the machinery around him firing up with the hanger arms gently clamping down onto Gigan’s body. Wires and cables, controlled remotely, affixed themselves to Gigan’s body and directly fed him through to the machine.

“Ah, there we go.”, Gigan quipped, glancing over as the displays on the side of the hanger lit up and he rapidly began filing through dozens of systems and lines of code per second.

“Are you sure this will work, Gigan? No chance of backfire?”

X could tell his best friend was rolling his eye behind his visor, even if he didn’t see it directly; a sentiment reinforced by Gigan’s sarcastic drawl shortly after, “That time with those Ultras I lost an arm. Then Megalon set me on fire twice. Less than a decade ago on Terra, that moth took my head off. Last time on Terra I nearly got a replay. And since we met whacko-pony-world, I’ve nearly broken my everything hitting Ghidorah too hard and had unspeakable things done to me by that insane hairy female, twice! ...I’ve been in the same gear for two hundred solar cycles, time for another upgrade.”

X snorted, shaking his head. The Xilian kaiju briefly looked to behind Gigan and if one looked close, they could see the edges of his maw curl upwards.

“Thanks.”

If Gigan had one, he’d be raising his brow, “For? What are you looking at, I can’t turn my head.”

X sighed, watching the two resting forms propped up against the back of the hanger. A giant beetle half emerged out of the ground with a blanket of white shrouded over him. Irys, rather than sleeping on the ceiling like she usually did, was instead napping on the ground with a wing stretched across a chirping Megalon protectively. The gyaos looked entirely content despite the odd sleeping arrangement.

Gigan and Monster X quietly listened to the sound of their teammates resting.

“Protecting them. When I was gone, when I almost turned into… him… I wasn’t there when the fight with King Ghidorah broke out, I should have been; I shoul-Ahp!”, X was cut off by something broad whapping him on the back of the helmet with a metallic clang.

Gigan was smirking as his detached forearm, held up by a mechanical assembly arm and cables, waved around after thumping X behind the head with the broad side of his scythe to kick him off the dour topic.

“Someone has to keep this idiot team alive, whether you’re here or not. As for that other side of you... Don’t fear him. Fear him and he’ll win. You just keep a lid on him, got it? You’re the only one of us who could beat him like you did.”, Gigan muttered, clicking his mandibles.

X rubbed at his helmet with briefly narrowed eyes, mind trailing back to the conflict in the human realm. When he fought Enjin on the outside, he was also fighting Kaizer Ghidorah on the inside. But without the power and aid of someone he loved, without that stubborn sea witch Aria Blaze, he’d have lost both.

He whispered quietly with a shrug, “I didn’t win that battle alone Gigan, I had help… Lots of help.”

X’s eyes shifted over to most of the assembly and disassembling process. Over a century of knowing each other and Monster X still wasn’t used to seeing Gigan’s internal mechanics, metal bones, and artificial pumps for veins. For someone who seemed so indistinguishable from a fully flesh and blood being in manner, he was so much machine. And X remembered a time he wasn’t, a time heralded when Monster X phased out of consciousness and Kaizer Ghidorah phased in.

“...I was the one who originally mauled you, aren’t I? You were more organic when we first met, then there was that one mission I blacked out on. Then you were like this...”

X lowered his head; expected a time of quiet, maybe some repressed anger, or the bite of harsh words. Instead he got Gigan’s remaining mechanical arm whacking him on the back of the head.

“Hey! Before you jump off a self-pity cliff, do what I do best and ‘cut it’. I’ve had two hundred cycles to consider blaming you over it. It wasn’t worth considering for even one cycle,” Gigan growled, more frustrated than angry.

“Don’t make me shove one of these impact charges I’m working on upside your head to make myself clear. You’re going to listen, and listen good.”

Gigan used the assembly arms to lean his body forward and stare down Monster X. His visor was lifted away, exposing a single, camera lens-like, robotic eye to look into X’s fleshy ones. Gigan’s voice dropped considerably in tone, but despite the slightly static filled distortion in it as it was coming from his speakers rather than his mouth; it carried a lot of mixing emotions for being so robotic. His tone was remarkably quiet.

“I don’t... blame you… And loyalty sure as Daiei ain’t something I give away cheap. Only three have won it.”

He poked the shocked Monster X in the chest with one of the assembly arms, “And you were the first, so don’t you fragging dare pity me… After all, old me could lose a limb and die. New me can lose my head and just get annoyed.”

Gigan’s tone shifted from quiet and dead serious to casual snark, “I’d call that an upgrade!”

Gigan quipped while making the assembly arms perform a collective shrugging motion. The words died in Monster X’s throat as he remained motionless, only shifting ten seconds later to take his eyes off of Gigan and towards one of the cyborg’s detached forearms. He just now noticed the forearm, after bonking him on the head, was held upwards and diagonally; like a salute or greeting motion. He recognized the gesture, moving to complete he and the Nebulan cyborg’s stand-in for a handshake by crossing his forearm over Gigan’s. He smiled with a sigh as Gigan chuckled.

“Just, promise me one thing…”

Gigan made a tilting motion with the hanger arms, “Ye’?”

Monster X opened his eyes again and looked past Gigan to the pile of resting kaiju that made up the rest of their team. His best friend might have forgiven him for what his other half did, but he didn’t want to ponder a reality anyone else he was bonded to needing to ever give a similar speech. Not Megalon, not Irys, not Adagio and Sonata, and especially not Aria.

“If I lose control again… And, if I can’t end it, and he wins next time it happens... You’ll keep him from them. End it.”

Silence ensued from the cyborg, doubly so when X looked to him again with an expression dour and filled with restrained terror. X made a slicing motion across his chest, just above where the heart would be.

“... Promise me, Gigan.”, X whispered.

Gigan’s mechanical eye pivoted to the side, as far as it could go to try and glimpse the source of the content chirping he knew was coming from his sleeping brother, and the calm breathing that seeped out of his newest ally, Irys. The robotic lens pivoted back to look to X, nodding with no small amount of hidden reluctance.

“I only promise to try, but only if you don’t give up.”, he muttered.

Monster X shrugged, slowly nodding as he stepped away from his comrade, “Hopefully it won’t ever happen. But you’re my best friend, so I trust you the most to do it if it comes to it.”

“Oooye, don’t get sentimental on me now. Organics, yeesh!”, Gigan groaned, rolling his eye as the upgrade process began. Monster X walked around to the back of the hanger and sat down, crossing his legs to meditate while floating himself over close to Megalon and Irys. X let his mind drift off to the sound of his two teammates sleeping and his oldest friend’s automations.

=================

Monster X’s awareness of the world around him came back screaming. His eyes snapped open and he dropped from his meditating levitation, landing instinctively upon the balls of his feet and looking around himself. Zenith, his team’s chamber, it was virtually unrecognizable. Torn apart with chunks of the walls littering the floor, scorch marks, and reeking of ruin. Irys’ cave had been collapsed upon itself, Gigan’s hanger was ripped to shreds with exposed wiring and sparking metal, and Megalon’s quarry was a sea of glassed rock.

-How?! How could this-?! Where are they?!-

Monster X’s fright only magnified when he saw the manner of three scorch marks that fanned out from the entryway, a trio of lines that seared the ground while crushing it under intense force. Graviton beams. His blood ran cold.

-Ghidorah! He attacked, but-!! How?!-

A loud, bat-like shriek called out in the distance, followed by a pained insectoid rattle, and metallic screech. X didn’t think, he didn’t ponder, he didn’t speculate; he just rushed forward out of the chamber and sprinted after the noises full of rage and terror at what the King of Terror was doing to his team.

Ripping down the halls and kicking off Zenith’s walls, Monster X prayed he was closing in, prayed they’d still be alive when he got there.

-Hang on guys, just hang on!-

Another echo sounded off, emitting a pitch Monster X reluctantly recognized as Megalon crying out in agony. He hadn’t heard him make a sound like that since Terra. Panic and worry caused a dampness upon X’s red eyes.

-If you three get hurt, it’s my fault!-

Not even waiting to find a doorway once he heard that hated, horrid cackle of Grand King Ghidorah, the Xilian kaiju bellowed a war cry and rushed towards the wall. His leg ignited with graviton energy, crackling with yellow light while he closed in.

-I don’t know what I did to deserve your loyalty, I’m a threat to you all.-

Upon it, he pounced, rocketing forward and thrusting his leg out in a dive kick that caused the contacting wall to explode outwards from the energy smashed into it.

-But you won’t fight alone this time!-

Monster X flew through the entryway, sliding across the ground expecting the worst and dreaming of ripping Ghidorah apart with his bare hands if he found so much as one scorch mark on his team. He was braced for the worst. Instead, he found nothing. The room was entirely devoid of kaiju, ally or enemy. The enormous, blank space’s only feature was a glowing dome of energy on the far end of the chamber. Monster X kept his guard and surveyed. The noises had stopped. Everything he’d been seeing or hearing had stopped. His brow furrowed under his helmet.

-Was… was I dreaming? Or, am I dreaming now?-

Still panting from rushing here and kicking down the wall, Monster X put his attention to the only thing in the chamber. The dome. He approached cautiously, hands still raised in a guard stance should he need to fight. Step over step, he closed in, pausing momentarily when the fifty meter tall and hundred meter wide dome flickered and changed from a swirling mass of darkness into transparency.

There were figures, dozens of them. Leaning in closer, Monster X recognized them as ponies. All passed out and scattered around the flat, snowy space inside. All except one. She, an earth pony mare, bore a red-furred body and yellow mane. Monster X leaned in closer as she came into awareness. He looked down, she looked up, and they recognized each other. For a split second neither was in Zenith, aware of what that place was or not, and they were back in a Manehattan alleyway during a storm. Marigold stood back, stunned at the being whom once stood as tall as a large minotaur, now seemingly as big as a mountain, surveyed the dome.

Monster X slowed his breath.

-Ghidorah can absorb souls for energy and the master told us to only go after artifacts to minimize exposure. This, this couldn’t have gone unnoticed!-

His eyes widened in realization only to narrow in spite soon after. The large, fanged sneer forming across his face sent Marigold stumbling back in fear.

-He’s doing it without the Master knowing, charging up to attack while we’re all unaware. A coup!-

What followed next left Marigold screaming in fright. The black and white titan, after feeling at the dome above her, struck it with a fist. The monster she showed kindness to seemed to snarl in rage as he attacked at the barrier between them like a rabid predator trying to get at a rabbit in a cage. The momentous crash accompanying every blow was deafening. Marigold dropped into the snow surrounding her and covered her ears with whimpers of pain and fear being the only action she could muster. The crashing continued, intensified. Through her eyelids she could see a gradual build up of yellow light that swelled into what surely would have been a brilliantly blinding display of light. Then there was a shattering.

As the rumbles of the explosion petered out slowly. Marigold stood there, whimpering and shaking all over. A gentle rumble settled over the ground below her and she finally looked up. A black, armored hand the size of a train car was laying itself out before her. Marigold let her eyes trail up to its owner as a low huff sounded off. Monster X held his maw closed, leaning down with one hand braced against the edge to the hole he’d blasted and smashed into the barrier and the other before Marigold. He was completely quiet aside from a slight rasp of breathing, eyes devoid of the glares from before. He didn’t know what he was doing or what he could plan. He could only hope to do what he felt was right.

Marigold slowly got the message, glancing between X and his hand.

“Y-You’re trying to help me?”, she yelled, trying to be loud enough to be heard.

Monster X slowly nodded, still thankful he could understand what the Equestrians or humans of these worlds were saying. He truly didn't know what he was going to do with her or the others, aside from taking her as proof of Ghidorah's treachery. Perhaps the master could wipe their memory of the experience to maintain their cover, which would go threatened should they remain missing. It was a deity after all.

Marigold panted for breath, but slowly a smile worn over her face. She could be suspicious, she could be wary; but right now all she could do was hope. Hope this creature she showed kindness to was sincere, that he meant no more harm than when they first met. That he honestly was trying to help. She looked to the other, still sleeping ponies and puzzled.

-If that racket didn’t wake them up, what’s keeping them asleep?... And why was I the only one to wake up?-

Marigold felt at her head, trying to force back a migraine of a headache as she tried to recall the last thing she could remember before being returned to awareness. There was the boat, then the storm, that figure in the sky… No, that wasn’t it, that was too long ago. There was something else. Dim, faint, like a glimpse in a blinking eye. A whisper heard amongst a racket. A hint of something she consciously recalled that tried to spill from her mind like a freshly woken dream.

Her face went pale with horror, both at the memory of three sets of red eyes bearing down on her mentalscape as well as seeing those same six glowing spheres slithering through the doorway behind Monster X.

-It’s a trap… That presence, that three-headed titan. It got into my mind... It knew I met the black and white one…!-

“LOOK OUT!”, she shrieked, earning a confused grunt by Monster X.

Marigold’s voice went shrill as she pointed above and beyond him at three glimmers of gold, “IT’S A TRAP FOR YOU! IT’S A TRAP!”

The hiss of splitting air was the only other warning X got before three graviton bolts slammed into him from the side and knocked him away from the dome. Pulling himself free of the dent he’d caved into the obsidian and smoking on one side, Monster X whirled around to see a tower of gold striding slowly closer.

“The dome is my way of storing food, for amusement and later use,” one head cackled.

The middle head sneered in an identical voice, “Ghidorahs feed off souls, collecting and imprisoning them inside.”

Monster X narrowed his eyes and assumed a combat stance, attentive mind forcing him to listen. Just like Ghidorah wanted him to as the right head hissed.

“You’ve done it before… Have you ever wondered why your mind is so fractured? You ate something…disagreeable.”

“Care to, try again?”

“Might find it more to your liking with some variety…”

All three heads sneered and snickered vilely, opening their maws and exposing the glow within. Rather than gushing out gravitons, the light from within wasn’t an attack but an expression of what lay within. Millions of voices, thousands of species’ calls seeped out, repeating their death cries. It all blurred together into forming King Ghidorah's trademark cackle. The chamber was filled with a cornucopia of death wails. It was Ghidorah’s masterpiece symphony.

==============

Back in the team’s quarters, in minds unaffected by Ghidorah’s mental alteration used to draw X out, Gigan’s visor beeped with a dim red light. Inside the screen, numerous lines of code, numbers, and protocols booted up.

-Grapple detonation charges, armed! Transported armaments, armed! Dual beam fire mode, enabled! Napalm, restocked!... Alert, detecting high level graviton fluctuations eight point two clicks away!-

Gigan’s booted up and awakened at that. Jolting to consciousness, he didn’t even try to force himself out of the hanger and instead disappeared in a flash of red light to teleport out of it and reappear a few hundred meters away. Instantly he whirled around and observed the chamber was one teammate short. The aftershock vibrations of a distant explosion filtered through the floor, the ensuing groans showing Irys and Megalon were beginning to wake up.

-X is missing, graviton flux, and explosions…-

Gigan grit his beak, quickly putting two and two together. He threw up his head in an exasperated roar, which caused both Irys and Megalon to levitate off the ground and scramble up to their feet. Gigan stormed past them, clanging his scythes together to get their attention.

“Wake up! Come on, get up you two!”, he roared while rushing towards the entryway.

Irys, whom literally levitated off the ground and was already airborne and flapping her wings, shook off her daze.

“Wh-What’s happening?! What are we doing?! Where’s X?!”, she screeched.

“We’re saving our idiot again, follow me!”, Gigan barked, kicking off his feet while activating his thrusters to fly forward. The halls in Zenith were soon filled with the sounds of roaring afterburners, flapping wings, and whirling drills.

====================

The roars of war echoed throughout the rumbling chamber along with deluges of shattered floor, wall, and ceiling. pried free of the crater he'd been slammed into, Monster X was gripped around the leg by constricting tails. Torn off his bearings by a strong yank, the Xilian daikaijin was dragged across one of the walls, his upper body cutting a thick groove into it as he shielded his face from the debris with his crossed forearms; before being flung off towards another wall. Spiraling in the air, X managed to lock his aim to the oncoming wall and outstretched a hand. Gravity warped and flowed, at first repelling him away from the wall to slow himself down; and then intensifying so he could grab on and gain a purchase. Monster X sneered as he looked back at his hovering foe.

Grand King Ghidorah almost looked amused, “You’ve been practicing your gravity alteration. Took you long enough.”

The dragon surged forward, fangs bared. Monster X let him draw close, before releasing his hold on the wall and dropping down, momentarily increasing his gravity’s attachment to the floor to increase the fall speed. The effect was falling out of the way faster than Ghidorah anticipated, ducking under his lunge. Spinning around, Monster X cocked back a leg and lashed out; landing a roundhouse kick into King Ghidorah’s back and smashing him into the wall.

Monster X nimbly dropped to the floor as he retorted, “Had some motivation.”

Grand King Ghidorah intensified the gravity around his body, pulverizing the wall to free himself. Unmoved with neither glares, sneers, nor cackles; he resumed his flight and encircled the room. One of his maws became alight with power and a current of energized plasma and gravitons ripped across the floor in front of X and pitched up towards him. Unfettered, Monster X whirled his head back as an identical glow took hold of his eyes and he returned fire with his own beam. The two contrasting waves of gravitons, born of jaw and eyes, clashed back and forth with no clear advantage until Grand King Ghidorah’s other maws opened fire as well. The three rays together rapidly shoved X’s own assault backwards, the amassed ball of energy rocketing towards him.

Mentally cursing, Monster X cut his ray off and dove to the side as the result of the beam lock smashed into the wall with a monstrous explosion. Ghidorah didn’t cease fire after he landed a ways away, only pouring more of it on after the wall combusted. His three maws and the accompanying lightning from his wings tore across the battlefield chaotically, their master relishing in the mayhem. Monster X sprinted off to the side, putting one armored forearm in front of himself to block any stray beams the best he could while dodging the rest. His agility was quite commendable, but it could only do so much against so much firepower. He was taking hits as the terrain around him was exploding in all directions, and even his armor couldn’t withstand even the small portion of the assault landing hits forever when the total onslaught was on such a magnitude. Still, Monster X was far from hopeless or helpless. And he knew what to do.

-He knows my old moves and I can’t defend forever.-

Energy collected up in his leg with every rushing stomp, X jumping aside behind a small mountain of upheaved terrain for a moment of cover.

-So I’ll give him something new to ram down his throat.-

Grand King Ghidorah demolished the cover in seconds, eviscerating the battlefield with an ungodly amount of beams. Through all the exploding ground and smoke however, he briefly lost sight of Monster X. Didn’t stop him from firing, as he knew he had to be hitting the smaller kaiju at least occasionally, but those ten seconds of obscurity were ended by two surprises. Firstly, the foe he expected to be trying to dodge or hide instead came rushing right at him, jumping out of the smoke cloud straight towards the Ghidorah. Secondly, the time bought was all Monster X needed to get a full charge.

Monster X was smoking, burnt, had chipped his armor in more than one place; but defiant in the face of injury. The dragon knight let loose a loud, roaring call as he closed the distance and extended his right leg; which was fully engulfed in a wreath of graviton energy with a sphere of condensed power under his heel. The diving graviton kick was met with all of Grand King Ghidorah’s beams aimed at one point. But unlike against X’s eye based graviton flares, this attack was something he was more accustomed to despite the new invention. More natural to muscle memory from a life gone by, more powerful. Strong enough and charged enough it stopped Grand King Ghidorah’s assault cold and the growing sphere of energy canceled out and blew the both of them back rather than detonate against either of the combatants; ending the deadlock in a draw.

Monster X skid across the ground, rolling back up to his feet and digging trenches into the ground with his stabbing fingers and grinding toes to slow himself down. Grand King Ghidorah, thrown back into the wall behind him so hard he left an enormous crack going up its entire height, pried himself out of the structure. Monster X growled but momentarily raised an eye in mild confusion when he noticed Ghidorah almost looked like he was smirking. It disturbed him even as he brushed it away and prepared to resume the fight.

Only as Grand King Ghidorah spread his wings and took flight again, something not from X gave him a greeting. A greeting in the form of double burst shotgun blast of exploding red plasma to the back, a shrieking beam of purple energy across his left wing, and a bolt of broad lightning to his right wing. The assault did naught to harm him in any meaningful way, largely just generating a large shower of sparks and crackling energy across Ghidorah’s golden scales; not even disrupting his flight. What did manage to do just that was two high speed forms, one propelled by thrusters and the other by wings, slamming into his shoulders. A third, rapidly rotating form burst from the ground like a giant dolphin and collided with Ghidorah’s back. They shoved down and bounded off him, vaulting or flying themselves over to Monster X’s side of the battlefield. The sheer mass and kinetic force sent the dragon hurtling to the ground, Ghidorah altering gravity and stopping himself just inches from hitting the floor. The golden hydra sneered.

Gigan dug his scythe into the ground while clicking off his thrusters, spinning himself around mid-flight and kicking his feet into the floor to grind to a halt to Monster X’s right. The Nebulan Enforcer threateningly revved up his buzzsaw, not taking his eye off Ghidorah.

Megalon dove into the ground again, before erupting from the terrain to Monster X’s left. Unwinding himself from his drilling configuration, the Nebulan Wrecker landed on his feet beside his comrade and clanged his drills together.

Irys nimbly dove through the air in a wide arc, flying up to the ceiling. After briefly grabbing on and then kicking off, the enormous Shadow of Atlantis landed upon the ground in front of Monster X with her hand claws digging into it; hissing with her wings spread.

Monster X could only afford a brief moment of elation that whatever he witnessed or heard earlier, it wasn’t reality. There were many visions he’d have not of the present, and for now he was content to think of the last as such. The Xilian Vanguard took up a guard stance amongst his team.

Grand King Ghidorah rose up from the group’s assault, narrowed six eyes upon the four forms briefly before grunting. Ghidorah intensified his golden glow, stomping upon the ground and letting loose a deafening, cackling roar from all three maws that rattled the entirety of the chamber from top to bottom. One Dark Hunter could give him some issues. Three of them could wound him. But against the four, the answer to why he wasn’t afraid was simple.

He was the King of Terror.

Monster X tightened a fist, Megalon clicked his mandibles, Irys tensed her wings, and Gigan drew up his blades. They slowly moved together, side stepping and keeping eyes trained upon Ghidorah at all times. They did what friends did even when in a stressful situation, they bantered while keeping at the ready.

“One day, you couldn’t wait one more day?!” Gigan muttered in a hushed growl.

“Are you three injured?”

“Us? How injured are you?”, Irys barked, “You’re the one who went gallivanting off to fight this guy!”

Gigan couldn’t resist the temptation to brush up on his frustration regarding the last time a teammate had a death wish, “Ironic, isn’t it Irys?”

Megalon chimed in as he leaned over towards X slightly and covered his maw with a drill, “Why did you think we were hurt Mr. X?”

Monster X winced, recalling the nightmare, vision, illusion...he still wasn’t sure which, but pushed it aside after a moment’s thought, “Nevermind, I’ll explain later. He’s betraying the Master.”

Gigan deadpanned, “... Nooooo, really?”

“Took him long enough!”, Megalon quipped.

Irys narrowed her eyes and threw her voice back to the alien trio, “So this capture or kill?”

X only needed grunt two words, “It’s Ghidorah.”

“Kill it is then,” Gigan shrugged, managing to hide just how scared out of his mind he was.

Megalon tapped his elbow against X’s and glanced to his brother and Irys, “Uuum, he’s got three sets of ears. We know he can probably hear us right?”

Irys gulped after glancing at Grand King Ghidorah’s scowling maws, “Something tells me he already knew it before we said it.”

The golden titan started to approach, crushing the ground with every footfall and the four braced.

“Any plans?”

“He’s got three heads, give him one too many things to keep them occupied with.”

In unison the four burst out of formation in different directions, Irys taking to the air and circling around in a swooping arc, Monster X sprinting forward to close the gap, Gigan jumping up and teleporting to a high vantage point; while Megalon dove into the ground shouting the one thing the four had agreed not to have. A team battle cry, let alone one Megalon insisted seemed familiar to him after meeting a certain blue siren.

“YOOOO JOE!”

(Click Video for Audio)

Monster X dodged to the side, weaving and diving to avoid the oncoming graviton beams that threatened to keep him at bay. A blur of white swooped in and Irys passed in front of her teammate, projecting a shield of sound waves from the underside of her glowing wings. The barrier diverted and reflected the golden torrents, sending them chaotically raking across the walls or floor directly in front of Grand King Ghidorah. Ghidorah intensified the beams, shoving the gyaos off to the side as he overpowered her shield; but the flash of red light and swing of blades behind him kept him from frying the gyaos. Gigan raked his scythe across Ghidorah’s back, searching for an old wound and getting a shower of sparks in the process. He got a few hits in, managing to knock off a few scales as he scanned for blemishes to indicate where the scar he and Irys might have given Ghidorah might be; but was grabbed around the neck and leg by King Ghidorah’s tails. He was hurled back and slammed into the floor so hard his skidding cut grooves into it, Gigan screeching in pain. Ghidorah quickly found himself grunting in pain from an armored knee smashing into his left head.

Monster X, having closed the distance thanks to his allies’ aid, followed the jumping knee with a double hammer fist to the same head. He grabbed the flailing head by the horn and smashed his other fist into its cheek repeatedly, not letting up even as Ghidorah’s other necks constricted around him. Grand King Ghidorah lifted off into the air and tightened his hold upon Monster X, fracturing bone armor and bruising muscle in retaliation for the chipped horn and several lost teeth. Hissing, his rightmost head bit down on X’s elbow, between the armor plates, while the central head charged a graviton ray. At this range, even with a helmet, a beam by Grand King Ghidorah to the face would have done quite a hefty amount of damage.

Two cables shot to the two, one going slack across Monster X’s shoulder and the other hooking its barbed tip behind King Ghidorah’s central antler. Monster X, wincing from the pain, still managed a smirk as he let go of Ghidorah’s left head and grabbed a hold of the cable. The other cable retracted just as a large mass burst from the ground under and behind King Ghidorah. Halting his spinning, Megalon emitted several hacking noises and peppered the dragon’s back with multiple napalm grenades. The fire failed to do any damage even as it drenched King Ghidorah’s scales in liquid flame, but the concussive bursts that could shatter buildings did cause him to flinch briefly; just enough to loosen his hold on Monster X. The moment King Ghidorah fired his golden wrath from his maw, X disappeared in a flash of red light, teleported away along with Gigan’s grappling cable due to holding onto it. It was a risky move, as teleporting one entity alongside of himself was taxing on the cyborg’s warp drive and he couldn’t get X back to the ground due to him holding onto the end of the cable; but Irys was able to dive in and grab X by the shoulders and slow the fall.

Grand King Ghidorah snarled, glaring down at the four with dim eyes. Alone or even just two of them, he’d have crushed them with ease. Three could occupy him. Four all together? That was giving him more trouble than he sought to be worth it, even if they’d only managed scratch damage thus far. Every time he managed to get one where he wanted it, two or three others piled in. The golden hydra breathed in as he soared high above, letting out a massive bellow from each individual jaw with the question of who to eviscerate how only being interrupted by two observations.

Why was the older cyborg smirking at him and why was his crest beeping?

The internal display in Gigan’s visor showed King Ghidorah’s outline and readouts, such as energy readings going off the charts. It also showed a red patch highlighted on the dragon’s antler where his cable had been flashing. One of the upgrades worked, as indicated by his head-up display showing some very welcome text.

-Detonation charge, primed!-

The explosive pack atop Ghidorah’s cranium went off, earning a shriek of surprise and dull pain. While he wasn’t harmed greatly by the pack of powerful explosives, proximity and Gigan’s mix being far more potent than any missile or bomb got a reaction of deafened hearing and rattled vision. Ghidorah’s middle head was billowing smoke that crowned his form.

It bought the team a moment’s respite and when Ghidorah’s vision cleared, only Gigan stood before him. King Ghidorah hadn’t seen a single, silent signal that had been cast between the team while he was momentarily blinded. The cyborg held his arms upwards, cocking his forearms back and loading another detonation charge onto the tip of his scythes and grapple hooks with a sound akin to a racking shotgun. The two took a step forward, then another, before thrusters and wings powered to further close the distance. They fought, laying into each other with a myriad of swings, swats, the swipe of tails and slashes of blades. Gigan used his thrusters to augment his agility, managing to dodge the heavier blows even if the lighter ones still hit like a nuclear pulse to the face. Gigan by comparison was failing to do anything more than bat aside one of Ghidorah’s head or knock a few scales off, but he was doing exactly as he intended. Teleporting behind Grand King Ghidorah, Gigan lashed down with his scythes upon Ghidorah’s back and slashed them down to stab them in as far as they’d go. It only pushed aside the top layer of scales, but it was enough. He leapt backwards, firing out his grappling hooks to stick two more charges in atop Ghidorah’s dorsal where he’d stabbed in before landing a good distance away. Half of King Ghidorah’s form inside the cyborg’s display was covered in beeping red signals.

Gigan re-cocked his arms and smirked, wishing he’d come up with this that time he and X had to fight Zone Fighter.

Grand King Ghidorah roared in surprise and confusion as explosions went off all over him, planted by Gigan’s scythe swings or hooks. The four implanted into, rather than onto, his scales upon his back exploded with noted force and blew off a large number of scales to expose the fleshy scar beneath it. While the other body shots didn’t manage to actually damage him to any real degree, the sheer number of them was leaving him concussed if only for a moment. A moment Irys and Megalon seized upon. Bursting out of the ground, sprinting from the side or swooping down from above, the three came at Ghidorah from opposite sides; Irys pounced upon his back as the more durable insect cyborg and dragon kaiju fought him from upfront. Coordinated, Megalon dropped into the kaiju foot-first almost looking like he was sliding across the ground on his tail and drop kicked Ghidorah in the face just as Monster X lunged from the side and landed a roundhouse kick from the back. Both kicks collided at the same time and it was a testament to his durability that Ghidorah’s skull wasn’t instantly crushed on impact. In a normal state, Ghidorah could have smacked Megalon and Monster X aside easily. But in the daze and deafening of Gigan’s explosives and the double kick-sandwich his world was spinning too much to land any meaningful hits on Megalon or X. The younger cyborg was the physically stronger of the two cyborgs and made good use of it, smacking, swatting, and whacking the dragon with his drills and horn while the respectably powerful Monster X stood shoulder to shoulder with him and loosed a barrage of backhands, jabs, and knee strikes.

Just as Ghidorah managed to bite down on the cyborg’s shoulder, splintering chitin and warping metal in his fangs, a god awful shriek that rang all six of his ears came from the form perched on his back. Deafened, Grand King Ghidorah didn't hear what Megalon's chirping called for as the partially restrained cyborg called out to Monster X and pushed him away. Monster X bolted off out of sight as Megalon did what he could to hold Grand King Ghidorah and keep him from turning around. Despite the cyborg's meddling, the dragon did glimpse what the cause of the Tanaka awful noise was. Irys’ sonic cutter had been revved up into overdrive and the gyaos was scratching at Ghidorah’s armored hide with the purple ray as she clung to it. Sweeping it back and forth, she looked for any spot that resisted the beam slightly differently and found it where she expected it; about three quarters up the back and slightly to the left of the spine. The gyaos and her team had remembered how Grand King Ghidorah still bore a scar from Kaizer Ghidorah tearing on of his heads off centuries ago, so they knew he scarred even if he healed; meaning Irys knew where to look for an easy chink in the armor. She’d found the scar Gigan and her had given their foe in their last encounter and had every intent to re-open it.

Struggling about to dislodge the stubborn insect and bat, Ghidorah caught a glimpse of the team’s fourth member. Monster X was standing a few hundred meters behind Irys, arms spread and one of his legs sweeping across the ground as a golden aura and sparks of light built up on it. The plan the group had coalesced earlier was simple, one Ghidorah quickly wised up to. Expose the weakness, hit it with the strongest attack possible. Grand King Ghidorah sneered, wincing lightly as he felt Irys' beam hack at his back and draw some light bleeding.

Fat chance at that.

Grand King Ghidorah roared, forcing his vision to clear and bathing his own form with the lightning he usually shot forth from his wings to electrocute Irys and Megalon. He lashed out, seizing Megalon by the shoulders with his jaws and Irys around her ankles with his tail just as Gigan rushed forward. Megalon was torn off his feet and slammed into the ground behind him before being thrown back with tremendous force into Gigan hard enough that the two went flying and skidding across the ground, while Irys was yanked back and slammed into the floor repeatedly by the dragon's tails. But as Monster X nimbly dodged a graviton beam Grand King Ghidorah fired in his direction and came charging back in, both to attack his enemy and aid his ally, Ghidorah didn’t let go of Irys. Instead he lifted the dazed gyaos up by her feet and held her in front of him as a shield. His three maws smirked, dangling the gyaos in front of his back wound as a tantalizing choice for X to attack through her and take the shot or blow his chance at landing a meaningful hit. X threw on the brakes just as he jumped, trying to cancel out the energy and avoid hitting his teammate He launched a wave of altered gravity to his right to change his direction and avert his collision course with Irys, just like Ghidorah knew he would.

As Monster X went flying off to the side, stabilizing his fall with more gravity alteration, King Ghidorah smacked him with Irys and blasted the both of them with a pair of graviton beams from his central and right maws. Monster X, the more armored of the two much less dazed, and knowing she couldn’t activate her shield in her condition, grabbed Irys and put her behind him to shield both of them from the onslaught with his back armor. But even he could only take so much as the both of them got blasted into a wall. The Xilian kaijin cried out in pain from the beams burning lines across his back, trying to keep Irys out of the blasts.

Megalon and Gigan shook off their daze, Gigan whacking himself on the side of his head to clear his visor. Despite the both of them sparking and leaking artificial blood in a few spots, Megalon needed one look at his friends getting blasted to jump up and start buzzing his giant, beetle-like wings; fully ready to launch back into the fray.

“They need help, come’on!”, he barked.

Conscious that they had only one spot to try and hit Ghidorah at that count and worried for his brother launching himself at the stuff of nightmares again, Gigan grimaced.

“Wait, we need a plan!”, Gigan squawked as his thrusters kicked on.

Steeling a quick glance between his sibling and their teammates, Megalon's eye lenses seemed to dilate as he tapped his drill against his brother's scythe with a metallic clang, “No time! Free style!”

Megalon rushed Ghidorah at full speed with Gigan following alongside him. Grand King Ghidorah’s left head swiveled its eyes around to lock onto them, snarling and loosing a barrage of wing lightning upon them. As the waves of electricity and cyborgs were about to collide, Megalon brought his rotating drills up and activated the magnets within it. The wing lightning was absorbed by the whirling drills, igniting a glow across Megalon’s eyes and horn as he cracked a satisfied giggle. King Ghidorah snarled and cut the feed, instead opening fire with a graviton ray from his left head upon the two.

Gigan reached over and grabbed his sparking brother, revving up his thrusters to full speed and accelerating the two of them far faster than Megalon could typically fly. The two cyborgs disappeared in a red flash of light, teleporting out of the way to dodge the beam and reappear directly in front of King Ghidorah. Over one hundred twenty thousand combined tons of Nebulan cyborg crashed into Ghidorah with a metallic crashed, Megalon venting his absorbed wing lighting to electrify Ghidorah with his touch and grabbing him around the hips as Gigan snagged a hold of his collar, securing a hold with a grappling cable cast around Ghidorah's wing. Sparks burst, insectoid wings beat, thrusters roared with enormous plumes of light; and the force of the two along with their momentum knocked Grand King Ghidorah off his feet to free their teammates of his beam assault. They flew Ghidorah backwards across the chamber, arcing up before crashing down into the ground with all their momentum intact. They used him as a battering ram to cut out an enormous trench into the floor as deep as they were tall, earning a sharp grunt and shriek from Ghidorah. Tens of thousands of tons of earth was thrown all around, Ghidorah cackling in rage as he tried to dislodge the two. The brothers dredged him across the floor for the length of the chamber, reaching its end and colliding into the wall. There was a fantastic crash with a crater bursting into the edge of the chamber and large cracked spreading out even further. Megalon's wings beat harder and Gigan's thrusters roared louder and brighter, continuing the backwards momentum and grinding the dragon deeper into the wall slowly; intending to crush him between their force and the depths of Zenith.

After being effectively a snowplow for several hundred meters and slammed into the wall, Grand King Ghidorah got his chance at freedom when he ejected a large burst of gravitons from his maws, coiling the beams around them like nooses cast around their bodies and prying them off. Yanked away, their momentum upon him died and his backwards advance had ground to a halt. Grand King Ghidorah whirled the two cyborg’s around before lobbing them into a mountain of debris dislodged from their trench building run. Grunting, Ghidorah altered his own gravity to pick himself up and take wing into to the air.

Megalon hit the mountain back-first, cracking part of his wing covers in the process; with Gigan landing next to him. The impact was enough to cause both of them to spark and sport cracked eye lenses and visors respectively; but Ghidorah underestimated just how tough Nebulans built their technology. When he came flying at them with the intent to stomp the both of them to pulp, both cyborgs instantly came back online and had their respective beam platforms primed. Both Gigan’s visor for his beam and the emitter above it to fire the shotgun burst fired up to life with a mechanical hum, one of his other upgrades getting it’s trial by fire.

-Dual fire mode, online!-

The stolen electricity Megalon had diverted from the wing-lightning surged up the cyborg's spinning, electromagnetic drills and collected up on the grinning beetle’s horn.

-Thunder cannon at: 356%!-

“Dejavu for yooou!”, Megalon joyfully chimed before throwing his head forward and letting loose alongside his sibling.

Both cyborgs opened fire, Gigan unloading both his incendiary eye beam as well as the explosive shotgun bursts from his forehead emitter while Megalon unleashed a torrent of plasma and electricity a dozen meters thick from his horn’s star shaped point. Grand King Ghidorah’s forward momentum was averted with the onslaught, especially when the brothers lurched out of the dents their impacts had carved and slowly approached. Ghidorah landed and pulled his wings in front of himself to shield his faces as his heels began to slide back against the ground. The brothers couldn’t keep this up, they were both unloading a lot of energy doing this for a few seconds. And Ghidorah was charging up something of his own.

But as few seconds were all they needed. The brother's back-up had arrived.

Gigan and Megalon cut off the feeds, smirking as a black hand gripped Gigan by the shoulder and a pair of white and purple wings soared over Megalon. Monster X vaulted himself over Gigan and grabbed onto Irys’ outstretched foot as her talons gripped him around the forearm. She soared up, skillfully gaining speed in a wide loop before diving down at high speed. At the last second they let go of each other. Just as Ghidorah, having been blinded by his own shield, was opening his wings to rejoin the fray; Monster X came down upon him. The Xilian Vanguard cocked a leg back and sprang around, landing a falling roundhouse kick to the back of Ghidorah’s head so hard it nearly sent the kaiju doubling over off balance. Following up the kick, Irys swooped down around Monster X. The most agile in the air of the four, she had little issue arching up in her flight and using her thick, flattened skullplate to effectively uppercut Grand King Ghidorah from below his own ducking.

The Ghidorah’s body began to glow dimly and everything from pebbles to boulders across the room started to vibrate, but in the thrill of the duel none of the team noticed. They were too busy following up on each other. Every blow, every attack, every block, one of the others followed up on. A lunging swipe by Gigan was paired with a jumping backhand by Monster X. A deflected beam by Irys’ sonic shield was joined by Megalon absorbing the wing lightning she couldn’t deflect, then a retaliatory dual eye beam assault by Gigan and Monster X. Megalon swinging up with his energized horn was capitalized by a dive-bombing Irys stomping on Ghidorah’s back to push him into the blow more. Grand King Ghidorah was fighting back, scoring hits, even forcing one of them sprawling or back with a smack of a head of quick burst of gravitons; but only for a moment. Every time he forced one back, the others piled in to protect their comrade, who'd come charging back in either not harmed enough to stay down or simply being too stubborn to quit. Grand King Ghidorah wasn’t fighting four kaiju at the same time, he was fighting a single unit, a team.

The full gambits were cast as both sides rushed each other. A full barrage of graviton beams and wing lightning was intercepted by streams of red plasma, graviton flares, solid sound waves, and a stout thunder bolt. The energy clashed and pushed back and forth at near point blank range. Two cyborgs and two failed experiments launched their beams in a contest against the King of Terror’s full brunt, and they won.

Grand King Ghidorah, smoking, missing scales, and huffing snarls, skidded back on his heels and dropped to a knee. He tried to rise but the ground beneath him fractured and shook, Megalon erupting from below. His tunneling chewed up the earth and caused Ghidorah to sink into it from the waist down. Napalm from his grenades burst out, melting and re-solidifying the ground to hold him in place as the cyborg grabbed hold of his feet and refused to let go. As he flailed and struggled to kick the stubborn beetle off and free himself, Grand King Ghidorah spied Monster X several hundred meters behind him. The Xilian kaijin lowered his arms and focused, sweeping his leg across the ground in front of him as energy was collected within it; charging up for his strongest strike which was no doubt aimed at Ghidorah’s exposed scar. Stuck, Ghidorah tried to fire his graviton beams downward to blast through the terrain and get Megalon off so he could free himself; but he couldn’t when the sound of roaring thrusters and flapping wings heralded a pair of cables hitting him in the necks. Irys, holding something in her talons, slammed into Ghidorah's heads full force, knocking her off her flight balance but succeeding in dazing the dragon when her headplate smashed directly into his faces. Gigan, with his grappling cables extended, and Irys, still holding onto the other end of the cables, flew around in circles going opposing directions with Ghidorah at the center. The cables coiled around and bound his three necks together. Irys let go as her end tied down and Gigan landed a few dozen meters in front of Ghidorah. The dragon’s heads were wrenched forward and he roared, beginning to pull against the cyborg’s cable winches and pull them back, managing to tug the cyborg closer and raise his heads up slightly until Irys landed on top of the cables and pinned them under her feet and wings.

“X go! He’s wide open!”, she screeched; her and the cyborgs still struggling to hold the gargantuan dragon in place.

Fortunately, her teammate was finished. A bellowing voice he couldn’t see called out from behind Grand King Ghidorah.

“Alright guys, let’s finish this!”

Monster X stomped his energized leg down with an eruption of shattering earth, before sprinting forward. Irys, Gigan, and Megalon all called out as they pulled as hard they could muster; intending to keep Ghidorah locked down until X could hit him with the team’s strongest attack on his weakest spot. The blow could kill him. X knew it, they knew it, and King Ghidorah knew it. This could be how the King of Terror died. Ganged up on by a well-coordinated team of beings whom were quite powerful in their own right, a vindicated strategy given his success against groups was lacking. It could have been this day, this hour, this minute, this second.

It wasn’t.

Grand King Ghidorah felt the three pulling against him and he didn’t fight back. He could hear the vibrations of the fourth’s footfalls and he didn’t try to counterattack. He instead felt the gravity all around him build in a growing charge he’d been cooking up for several minutes. And he crushed it in his jaws, condensing it before letting it loose. With his roar, a golden shockwave of energy shot out of Grand King Ghidorah just as Monster X had just jumped forward to enact the diving graviton kick. Instantly the gravity of the room was intensified by magnitudes. The ground was utterly pulverized, almost turned to dust that was forced deeper down. Gigan and Irys both lost their footing and were shoved to the ground, half buried and unable to stand. Megalon yelped and was forced even deeper down, freeing Grand King Ghidorah’s legs. Monster X, having been airborne, got yanked downwards and his attack was slammed into the ground less than a dozen meters away from Ghidorah’s back. The ensuing explosion helped the dragon, unaffected by the mass graviton wave, to free himself from the ground and cables, throwing his heads outwards in a massive roar. Grand King Ghidorah tore free from the ground and cackled as he slowly turned around to face the wincing, half buried Monster X.

“I thank you, whelp. Haven’t had a fight like that in sixty five eons. Had that last hit landed you could have ended it,” his coy tone cackled as he surveyed the battlefield.

Gigan and Irys were fighting the gravity, managing to look up defiantly at the golden dragon as they started to push themselves up despite clearly struggling. Shifting in the ground below indicated Megalon was doing much the same, and Monster X sneered while trying to slowly reach over and pry his sunken body free of the terrain.

“I can’t maintain this for more than a short time longer, not enough to kill any of you. You’re not the battle I’ve made my arrangements for. But this isn’t the battle I prepared for you either today, 094.”

Monster X grunted as Grand King Ghidorah landed and kicked him over, pinning him underfoot while hovering over his helmeted face with his own trio of jaws. The hydra’s expression was something new to the Xilian kaijin. Not rage, not smug superiority, not even stoic. If anything it looked, disappointed.

“This form is not your prime, not as I see it. But, I can arrange a little test to see if succession picks the right heir,” he quipped out of his alternating maws.

Monster X winced from the weight and the fact he was still fighting the extremely multiplied gravity, “W-What.. are you… talk-ing about?!”

“Have you ever wondered why Kaizer Ghidorah isn’t your normal state despite him being more powerful and more… passionate, about his notation? There's been, interference. It’s all because someone’s been holding him back….”

Grand King Ghidorah ground his heel into Monster X’s chest armor, fracturing it as he loomed closer and forced the smaller giant to lock eyes with him and experience the psychic force he was projecting.

“But, he can still arise… If properly motivated. For awhile I thought it to be myself that was the sole causation, but I’ve found something far… far more effective once I reviewed a certain memory…”

Ghidorah’s eyes flashed red and X’s did likewise.

-”Let me show you something, Kaizer.”-

The world in both their minds changed, from Zenith… to Planet Xilian, just over three hundred years ago.

=======

Earlier

Bagan and Ghidorah had been talking for hours, a detailing of a testament and a will.

“Yet, you wish for Kaizer Ghidorah to emerge?”

Grand King Ghidorah only shrugged at the question, “Why else do you think I tried to antagonize him before you.. removed him from the situation. No luck in that venture I presume?”

“So, you want a chance to draw him out again?”

Grand King Ghidorah nodded slightly, “Ah, that’s the first part of our deal. I want him out, and lastingly so. I didn’t know what force compelled that other side, this “Monster X”, to persist so much. At least, not at first when every time I’ve managed to get that other half out; it stubbornly emerged again and resigned Kaizer back to his prison.”

“And how is it you believe X manages to overpower Kaizer each time?”

“Simple, my dear deity,” Ghidorah muttered while his eyes flashed red and he projected a memory to Bagan of centuries past, “It’s not X who’s holding him back.”

Bagan was silent, observing what was shown and knowing Ghidorah wouldn’t dare try to manipulate the memory to trick it. Deceit was not nothing the dragon needed. Its own eyes pulsed with light when the memory halted.

“Your desire is to unleash that which is dead set upon killing you?”

“Me and anything around it. And if any lingering threads happen to be in the chamber with him when the Kaizer emerges, I’ll offer to you a moment’s ponderance as to what it will do if it can’t get its vengeance upon me...”

================

Monster X writhed in agony, his mind torn into as King Ghidorah forced him to see sights only glimpsed before. His consciousness was in a white, empty space that hung over him like a massive dome. His form represented by a gray outline of himself, he tried to behold his surroundings. Upon the ceiling formed a screen of memories. A female Xilian, a Controller with purple markings and violet eyes, standing in a laboratory with her forehead to his. He was frozen upon her face. Grand King Ghidorah’s presence slithered through his mind, filling all the space around him with various memories of Controller 011. The laboratory, a union ceremony, a quiet meeting, courting, a first meeting involving a punch to the face between two young teenagers. In hindsight or a calmer time he might speculate that he did indeed recall some of these details instinctually or subconsciously given her eye color and build were almost identical to Aria Blaze, perhaps unconsciously seeking someone similar to what his old life had right down to demeanor and an associated color, purple, that stood out across the otherwise monochrome Xilian race. In the present though, he couldn’t do anything but scream as the vicious force deep in his mind clawing at its cage to get free.

Grand King Ghidorah chuckled.

-”Your… wife. Controller 011 by your race's number. Your attached, before she was… replaced.”-

Some of the memories were shifted to much more recent events, one with a sea witch turned human in another realm, another life. His current love, Aria Blaze, played in memory most recent to distant. A kiss in the forest, a promise made before a final battle, mutual respect and hidden affection, ventings and understandings, training sessions, a punch to the jaw on a riverbank. They were superimposed with 011's last day. It brought out a hate-filled, grieving roar from the depths of Monster X’s mind.

Grand King Ghidorah, represented by a glowing, golden outline of himself, dredged up a cage Aria and X had shoved away. Monster X could already feel who was inside before they became visible through the fog of memory and consciousness. Pure hatred and unadulterated wrath. Kaizer Ghidorah’s form launched itself at the bars like a rabid bull intending to maul the two beings he sought to destroy most, both standing before him.

Grand King Ghidorah smirked, changing the visions above to all show a single one from that fateful day on Planet Xilian. One of a white cloaked figure, Controller 011, standing atop a building to try and psychically aid her husband. A projectile from a deflected Xilian artillery piece sailed towards the building in slow motion as she beheld her fate in horror. The building came crumbling down in full view of 011's husband.

===================

Grand King Ghidorah momentarily paused his monologue to Bagan, cracking a small grin with all three of his maws as he toyed at the plan he was concocting, “Kaizer hates two things most of all, Reijuu. Myself and his other half for forgetting. Fill him with enough resolve to end both and anything tied to either-”

=====================

Grand King Ghidorah began to try and approach Kaizer’s cage, unfazed by the raging manifestation of Kaizer Ghidorah's personality with lay within. He only momentarily paused when he felt some force trying to keep him away, repelling his initial will upon the cage like it was the cage itself fighting back. Kaizer Ghidorah roared and Grand King Ghidorah sneered. Another voice called out to say something, one King Ghidorah roared over.

-"I’ve had enough of you!"-

It was indeed the cage itself was trying to resist being opened, but it couldn't resist a foe like Grand King Ghidorah for long. He psychically threw his consciousness at it and overpowered the defenses. The memory above changed, showing Controller 011’s limp body laying across from an enormous form, a fallen Kaizer Ghidorah whom huffed in ached breaths. In the sky above, Grand King Ghidorah, missing one of his heads, escaped out of the atmosphere. Controller 011 wasn't moving. Her dress was blemished and torn. Her broken, grief-filled, still eyes wept tears as her chest wept blood from a piece of debris stabbed through it. Just looking at it caused the corresponding area on Monster X and Kaizer’s torsos to ache, for that was where they had their largest scar and the former was realizing just now where he got it. The latter only bellowed in rage and tried to smash into the cage again.

=================

Standing before Bagan’s sphere, Grand King Ghidorah had never looked so excited before, sporting a demonic grin as he finished his pitch.

“-and he’ll overcome the barrier, overcome the X personality. He’ll become what I’ve chosen for him. A true Ghidorah! A world killing machine! Crowned not a king but an emperor!”

==================

Grand King Ghidorah seized the cage, Kaizer Ghidorah on the other side. The cage resisted, but it could only hold for so long against such force. The cage shattered like glass and Kaizer Ghidorah broke free of the mental barriers. And with Grand King Ghidorah’s avatar fading away as he left their mind, Kaizer did the only thing that came to his mind and attack what he despised. The personality who’d let them forget about their only purpose and goal, forget their past and tried to replace it. Forget her while locking him away.

They collided, they struggled… and Kaizer Ghidorah took control as Monster X was thrown into the remains of the cage. As his strength drained, X almost thought he could hear someone crying. There was weak whisper of someone else just barely audible below Kaizer’s horrific roars.

-”Forgive me…”-

===================

In the real world, the gravity surge subsided and the Dark Hunters were all free of its crushing grasp. But as soon as they were, Grand King Ghidorah vanished into a gold-hued portal of swirling energy different from their master’s; taking the Equestrian dome along with him. Soon, all eyes were on the source of the screaming.

Monster X tore himself free of his partial entombment, clawing at his own head. He struggled, gasping in agony and shrieking in incoherent rage. Beams of gold erupted from his eyes and burrowed into the ceiling, wreathing him in falling debris and blinding light. A ray of gravitons spewed out of his mouth and shoulder pads as his roar deepened. Wings burst out of his back. What the three remaining kaiju saw made them want to retch, seeing their friend’s body twisted, broken, hulked up, and deformed into a true monster. Gravity intensified again around its emperor, pulverizing huge swaths of terrain.

Irys, Gigan, and Megalon huddled together, loss and horror clad across their faces as a towering form shadowed them from the golden light. A massive paw crushed the earth beneath it and dug in its talons. A hulking behemoth, somehow even more monstrous in appearance than Grand King Ghidorah, huffed and growled through tripled sets of sharp fangs. The ebony and gold monstrosity looked about for its target and found him departed. With no King Ghidorah around to crave the destruction of, blood red eyes sought the second-most hated. But, obviously with no Monster X around to behold, they instead looked upon his bonded with pure malice and craven rage.

“No,” Gigan whispered breathlessly even as his red visor looked up stoically. The cyborg put himself between his teammates and the new foe, revving up his buzzsaw and igniting his visor with more regret than he ever thought possible in his life.

Kaizer Ghidorah, fully formed for the first time in over a century, lifted his maws and let out an unholy wail of a roar that shook Zenith to its core.

==============================

“8..7...6…-”

The beam of bright pink cut through the night sky, bisecting several specially arranged clouds into fourths, then eighths, then narrower without losing any force.

“-5...4...3…-”

An aura of bright blue magic collected up into a wave of energy, forcing back a heinous looking dark mist, shoving the Tantabus back.

“2...1… Stop.”, Godzilla Junior and Princess Luna noted in unison from opposite sides of the field.

The ponies with them, the Element of Generosity, Rarity, and a magical prodigy, Mariner “Chibi” Moon, stopped their respective magic bursts. Rarity successfully having shoved the Tantabus back into its containment with Princess Luna’s banishment spell as Chibi Moon cut off her energy beam she emulated from Godzilla’s breath ray. Mare and filly both sighed and fell back, Chibi flopping onto her sensei’s hoof as Rarity sat back and dabbed at her forehead with a cloth.

They were all situated in a quiet field just outside of Canterlot’s city limits, Princess of the Night and King of the Monsters having opted to train their requested at the same time. By sheer coincidence they claimed, but Rarity had noticed Chibi was thoroughly unconvinced and had a grin a mile wide despite Luna and Junior not talking to each other much. Chibi had come for further practice on control of the powers she copied from her sensei, Rarity for another lesson on dark banishment to calm her own nerves. But even a mare who was used to dealing with the perpetual motion machine that was Pinkie Pie and a hyperactive filly whom drank what Rarity and Luna at first thought was a ludicrous amount of coffee, provided by Junior naturally; both of them were at their stamina’s end after a few hours.

“We believe that will be all for tonight, thou hast’ done well Fair Lady Rarity!”, Princess Luna piped proudly as she nudged Rarity’s shoulder and earned a smile from the mare.

Rarity giggled sheepishly, “Only with your instruction, Princess Luna. Thank you for bothering with this, it really helps a lady sleep at night!.. Besides all the dream walking, of course.”

Junior bemusedly lifted up his forelimb, a chipper filly hanging off it and looking him in the face.

“Are you proud of me Sensei? Are yah, are yah?”, Chibi Moon begged chipperly with a wagging tail.

Godzilla Junior cracked a tiny smile even as he grunted an obvious lie, “Nope.”

"“EEEeeee!...-” Chibi Moon squealed, scurrying up his limb and faceplanting into Junior’s neck, “-... I’m tired.”

“She’s not alone, ehehe.” Rarity chuckled as she trotted up to the kaiju with Luna in tow.

Princess Luna nodded proudly, “Indeed, not all a’pony are suited for a nocturnal excursion. The instructed need rest.”

Godzilla Junior gently used his hooves to nudge Chibi Moon around his throat and onto his back, the filly happily climbing up onto his shoulders and curling up in her mentor’s mane as Rarity reached up and tenderly rubbed at her head. As Luna and Junior faced one another, the cutiemark upon the former began to pulse with a glow.

“It appears somepony is having a nightmare,-” Luna pitched her head up, lenses of magic forming over her eyes and creating a vision of aura only she could see. Sure enough, there was a blinking light back in the castle behind them. “Back in the castle in fact, likely a staff pony from the day shift.”

Junior looked to Luna, “Don’t let me slow you down. I’ll walk the little one back to the school.”

“Would it be a bother for you to also escort Lady Rarity towards the train station?”, Luna poised as she hovered a touch close to the stallion.

“I never was one to turn down one of your requests, Luna.” Junior grunted, keeping mind not to drop her nickname in public.

The slight temperature increase in Junior’s face and Luna’s wings shaking slightly was not lost on Rarity or Chibi Moon, whom glanced to each other, to Junior, and then to Luna, before looking back to each other. Rarity’s cocked eyebrow and slight smile showed amusement, Chibi’s enormous grin and barely restrained squeal made her look about ready to bounce off her sensei’s back.

Godzilla Junior and Princess Luna exchanged a courteous nod and both turned to the city, the alicorn lifting off to fly back to the castle ahead of them and do her duty as Junior, Rarity, and Chibi hoofed it back at a slower pace. After dropping Rarity off near the train station, as the mare insisted she was capable of securing her seat again on her round trip ticket, Junior slowly made his way towards the School for Gifted Unicorns. Chibi Moon had been quiet for a time and he could feel her nestled up against the back of his neck, no doubt feeling both very safe and very warm in her sensei’s mane. Before he could tempt the thought she’d fallen asleep however, he felt her crawl through his mane and take her common perch by flopping down atop his head, enjoying the high view as she looked ahead.

“Heh, thought you were asleep,” He muttered.

Chibi Moon shook her head, rubbing her cheek against the giant unicorn’s horn. Her tiny voice piped up in a surprisingly calm tone.

“You know she’s not actually mad at you, right?”

“Hm?”

“Whatever happened at Mako- whenever you feel like telling me what those sea dames did.”, Chibi Moon whispered as she lifted an ear towards her sensei eagerly.

Junior grumbled, “Leaving that to your parents.”

Chibi Moon groaned loudly, rolling over onto Godzilla's head, “Ooooooye… Whatever. Anyways, the cordialness? She’s just teasing at you. She hasn’t been mad at you since you got back.”

Junior raised an eyebrow, “And how would you know that?”

“Silly Sensei-,” she pawed at his brow, “Remember I spent half my school awards night with her before you! I tell you, she smiled every time I mentioned you and that was right after your mission. Not a scary smile either, a really happy one!”

“And… how often was it you mentioned me exactly?”

“I’m eleven and I already am president of your fan club. You do the math,” her persnickety tone didn’t fail to earn a slight smirk from her sensei.

"She likes you, a lot… No tattling on me though, okay Sensei?”

Junior let his smirk grow into a smile as he reached up and rubbed the back of his student’s head, earning a pleased cooing sound as she kneaded her head into the rubs along with a fluffy tapping on his ears that told him Chibi was wagging her tail. Godzilla chuckled, content.

-And here I was thinking she stuck me with you as punishment. Don’t regret it either way.-

They resumed walking along, exchanging the sort of words one might think an eager student would bombard her teacher with.

“So, tomorrow can we try using the beam to fly?”

“Not how it works, Chibi.”

“Aaaaaw, come on! Getting tired of flying with the pulse!”

“You’re not flying, you're throwing yourself around with the blowback. Big difference.”

“What if I aim it down then?”

“Then you better hope no one is beneath where you’re shooting.”

“How about a victory dance?”

Junior's eyebrow twitched noticeably from memory, “We’ve done enough dancing.”

As they reached the gates of the school dorms, Chibi pursed her lips and smirked while leaning over towards one of Junior’s ears. Cupping her mouth with a hoof while pulling the ear closer, she whispered, “Soooo, still not gonna tell me what happened at Mako?”

“Mada jūichi?” (“Still eleven?”)

“Aaaaarg, Senseeeeeeeei!”

He reached the dorm gate and lowered his head down so Chibi Moon could hop off. Yawning, she turned herself around and beamed at her mentor.

“... Tochū de arigatō,” (Thanks by the way), she muttered tiredly.

Junior tilted his head, “For?”

Chibi Moon looked at and tapped her horn, “My talent for copying… less than pleasant powers scared my teachers and friends sometimes. Sometimes, it scared me too a little.”

“Are you scared now? Won’t lie, you’re going to be quite the powerhouse when you’re older. There’s a lot of energy in that horn of yours.”

Junior watched as Chibi Moon slowly struck up the warmest, most exuberant smile he’d ever seen her wear, “Well, that’s why you’re my sensei right? Teach me control for it. And around you I’m always safe right?”

The kaiju sighed, leaning down and hovering over the filly to shadow her in his size protectively, much like his father or Kong once did for him, “You’ll always be safe with me.”

He felt a tap on his wrist and saw Chibi Moon sitting on her haunches, looking up at him with her little hoof outstretched.

“Hoofie promise?”

He looked at the gesture, not knowing what it was or the exact manner; though he could guess as to the context. Opting to try and just copy her while hoping for the best, he gently put his own hoof to Chibi’s and beyond dwarfing it.

“Hoofie promise.”

Unbeknownst to either of them, a distant figure in a black cloak was watching. Waiting.

====================

-Aaah, tiring but works wonders on curbing the night terrors! Princess Luna you just got yourself a free dress… I wonder if she likes star sapphires or moonstones?-

Rarity pondered amusingly to herself as she headed towards the Canterlot to Ponyville train. But even as the train began rolling into the station, a physical and verbal altercation caught her attention. She looked to another station and saw a pony struggling, largely in vain, against one of the train staff.

“Please, let me go! I need to speak to the Princesses or King Godzilla!”, the mare, a dull blue pegasus with a white mane, shouted desperately.

The train stallion held her still while sporting visible worry despite the annoyance, “You seem to have snuck aboard and are acting irrationally, I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay-”

“It’s urgent!”, she yelped while trying to flap her wings. Yet despite doing so rapidly, she didn’t even budge the lanky unicorn physically holding her in place.

“Where is your ticket, where did you come from?”

“She’s gone and I need to!-”

The two were interrupted by a slip of paper, held aloft in a blue aura, shooting up between them.

“Oh, here is her ticket!”, Rarity quipped pleasantly as she trotted up to the confused pair and read off what was on her own ticket, “It says so right here, round trip from Ponyville!”

Rarity hooked a hoof around the mare’s back, rubbing at the back of her own head with her free hoof while waving at the train stallion.

“Oh I do so apologize sir, she’s such a butter hoof with these things it slipped right out of her feathers when she stepped off!”, she quipped with a wide smile.

The train stallion glanced between the unicorn batting her eyes at him and the worried, still confused pegasus looking at said unicorn. Likely in an attempt to play up the chumminess, Rarity pulled her in closer to the point their cheeks were touching.

“She with you?”, he muttered to the both of them, not quite knowing who to ask.

Needless to say, it was obviously Rarity who spoke up first even if the mare seemed to try and say something, “Why, this is my dear friend from Ponyville good sir! I was considering opening up a new clothes shop here in Canterlot and wanted her to come along and help me scout locations!”

Her exuberance was met with mild skepticism from the train worker, “And.. her name?”

“She iiiiiiiiiis-”, Rarity stole a glance at the mare’s cutiemark hoping it would be one of those marks that offer some clear-cut hint as to bearer’s name rather than a more symbolic one like Cheerilee’s or her own. She found a mild puzzlement at the mare’s cutiemark looking like a equals sign. Curiously it almost looked like the two black marks making the equals sign were smooth like glass or crystal embedded in the skin rather than part of the fur. Rarity gulped back that unpleasant thought and put her good wit to use.

“Equaaal… Value! Yes, my accountant friend, Equal Value. I thought it would be good to have somepony who knows her manner around finance for this endeavor. Come along now Valy, I found a lovely spot in the west district! SorryI’llTakeHerBackThankYoooou!”, she shouted while turning around and marching off with the mare before the flabbergasted train stallion could stop her.

They kept marching, awkwardly cheek to cheek, until they rounded a corner and were well out of sight, finally breaking apart.

Rarity shrugged out a deep sigh of relief, “Ooooh, I do say that got my heart going! You know you shouldn’t sneak aboard trains, Darling. Makes the good guard think you’re some sort of ruffian!”

“I-I’m so sorry to burden you! I’ll pay back for the ticket, I swear!”, she yelped, practically throwing herself at Rarity’s hooves and causing the unicorn to awkwardly glance around and chuckle before picking her back up.

“Ehehe, it’s… quite alright, darling. Generosity is my inclination after all. Now, what’s the rush to see the Princesses or Junior? And your actual name so I don’t have to repeat a lie?”

“N-Night Glider. S-Something happened to my town… Something that includes giant footprints on a mountain. One of those big alien monsters Godzilla fights, I think. Everypony I knew there is missing, jus- gone! Starlight never wanted us to leave but when I found out she survived too and that she’s not acting like herself, I had to get help!”, Night Glider belted, looking up to Canterlot Castle with a pleading look.

Rarity took a deep breath and banished any of her tiredness, at least for the time being.

“Well then, you are in luck!”, she noted while taking Night Glider by the hoof and trotting up the street with her, right towards Canterlot Castle.

“Element of Generosity, chronic do-gooder if I do so say so myself, and somepony who knows both parties personally, at your service! You may call me Rarity.”

==================

Across town, Godzilla Junior took a pause. He was going to double back to the train station, just to be sure Rarity didn’t have any problems getting her ride back to Ponyville before he returned to the castle, but something had gotten his attention. A slight, muffled clicking about a dozen meters behind him. He recognized it quickly from his time in this world, just the sound of hooves on cobblestones. Nothing too unusual in it of itself, plenty of ponies came out later in the evening or worked night shifts. What did perk his attention slightly was the fact nopony was there when he stole a glance back.

Shrugging, he continued on, but heard it again. Then when he set off again, it started up again. His eyes dilated slightly and he withheld his breath to tune in even more to the noises around him, mentally filtering out anything he could plainly see the cause of like the trickling of a fountain or flapping of a bat. Every time he started walking, somepony was moving in the same direction or just off to the side. Godzilla was naive about a great many things, but he wasn’t stupid by any stretch and paranoid didn’t even begin to scratch the surface with him. Usually a slight buzzing in the air was the only warning he’d get before Megaguirus tried to tackle him again.

He was being stalked.

Godzilla Junior intentionally ambled around, pretending to admire fountains, look up at the stars, or just meander around the city’s main district. Every turn he made, he made it intentionally at just the right speed and angle he could look behind him without it being obvious. Other times he’d double back to where they’d been and sneak a whiff of their scent. By the time the figure followed him into a back way, he’d already deducted from sight, sound, and smell. A single, normal pony in a white cloak, likely not an earth pony based off the light weight in the step; based off the scent it was female. From a fleeting glance in a mirror, she looked purple. And she smelled vaguely familiar even before she unknowingly walked past Godzilla hidden behind a dumpster.

Junior observed her as she advanced past him, taking note of her posture and stride.

-She’s walking unsteady, shaking. Either she’s extremely nervous or weak.-

His eyes narrowed as he stepped on the trail of her cloak.

-Not a threat.-

The mare stumbled as her forward momentum stopped, nearly tripping up over her own hooves as Godzilla’s low growl bore down on her, “For someone who doesn’t want me noticing you, you seem keen to follow my trail a lot.”

The mare flinched and her voice was shaking as she didn’t look back, instead letting her head and neck droop, “I-I’m sorry. I was trying to meet y-you somewhere private so I knew we’d be alone.”

Her voice was so tired and scared he almost didn’t recognize it, but when he did his eyes slightly widened even before the pony turned around and pulled her white hood off to reveal a grayed, weak, clearly tired Moonbeam Glimmer. Bags were under her eyes and judging from the redness and slickness going down her cheeks, she’d been crying very recently as she winced from obvious strain or pain. She shook her cloak off, unable to spread her wings as she just let them droop. Junior’s eyes narrowed studiously at her quivering, reaching out and putting a hoof to her chest in a way that made the mare freeze up. He let his eyes study where the pain was coming from.

A shaking hoof wrapped around his forelimb when he saw her cutiemark was missing, replaced by two black crystals, aerenths, embedded on the skin forming an equals sign.

“P-Please, I know I don’t deserve it bu-but-t-t-t-!”, she weakened, losing her footing and would have tumbled to the cobblestones had Godzilla not caught her.

Moonbeam Glimmer clutched as close as she could to him, burying her face into his collar as she wet it with tears and whispered in a sobbing voice, “I need y-your help…”

Moonbeam’s mind lapsed into unconsciousness. The last thing she felt before passing out was Junior holding her and her being placed on his back.

“You’ve got it.”

=================

Chibi Moon thumped on her pivoting mirror stand, spinning it around and nimbly catching the nightcap it flung up into the air upon her head. She couldn’t help but have a minor prance in her step as she got towards her tiny dorm room’s bed. Life had certainly taken an upswing from a few weeks back. When she first arrived in Equestria she didn’t have any friends, her first visit to the school was interrupted by the gyaos attack, and her power freaked out many of the teachers in Canterlot just like they had back home in Neighpon. In the past week however, she’d gotten a new sensei, met the alicorn she idolized, the teachers were more cordial now that she was learning power control; and now that she wasn’t just the “Little Miss Maser Head” she was suddenly one of the coolest kids in school with lots more friends!

Humming the dance music she’d gotten her sensei to dance with her to, Mariner Chibi Moon bounced into her room and onto her bed. After a bit of turning in place and pulling of covers, she curled up with her head atop the pillow, a content smile upon her little face. However, her brow soon furrowed in puzzlement when she felt a slight chill. Scrunching her nose, Chibi Moon looked over and quickly saw that her window was open, a nippy draft seeping through.

-Huh, thought I’d closed it.-

Blinking a few times to clear her vision, Chibi sat herself up and rubbed at her eyes. When she got a better look at the window however, she quickly realized the situation was more wrong than it merely being open. The lower half of the glass pane had been entirely torn off, snapping the lock at its pin, and the stack of books she’d had set up on the short cupboard below the window had been knocked over outwards into the room.

There was a creaking along the back wall behind her.

“Huh?-”, Chibi Moon turned around to see the source of the noise just in time to see a large shape come out of hiding from behind the door.

The filly’s eyes dilated and her horn quickly ignited when she saw an aura of neon teal magic lash out towards her.

====================

Happy fortune caused Night Glider and Rarity to end up on the same main street heading for the castle as another traveler who also happened to be shepherding a pony with an equals sign cutiemark. Recognizing Godzilla’s large form up ahead, Rarity pitched up her voice and waved.

“Oh! Oh! Junior! Back here!”, Rarity shouted loud enough for Junior to stop and look behind himself to spot her.

“Miss Rarity?”

“Yes yes, hold up a moment, Deary!”, Rarity yelped as she kept a hold of Night Glider and trotted up to Godzilla as he turned around to walk towards her.

Needless to say as they approached, Junior was just as curious about the weak looking pegasus Rarity was towing by the hoof as Rarity was about the passed-out pegasus on Godzilla’s back.

“Well! Looks like we found ourselves in a predicament! Who’s this?”, Rarity quipped with a tilted head as she looked at Junior’s cargo. Junior meanwhile was studying the nervous looking Night Glider, raising an eyebrow at her cutiemark.

-Same mark? Not seen that on a pony before. Frost said they were personalized. Can’t smell as much magic coming off her, energy seems… wrong. Just like Moonbeam.-

Briefly snapping back to his senses, he glanced back at the still blacked out pegasus, frowning slightly from the tear rolling down her muzzle. It appeared even in sleep, Moonbeam wasn’t any less distraught.

“Her name is Moonbeam Glimmer. Met her before but she came to me this time, said she needed me. Not someone I have the best experience with but I’m not one to turn down a plea for help, seemed desperate.”

“Well she’s not the only one asking for you tonight,” Rarity quipped while nodding to Night Glider, who was now looking at Moonbeam with a wide eyed, gaping expression.

Junior raised his brow at Night Glider, “I take it she means you, what’s your name?”

“Oh she’s named Night Glider, she asked for yo-”

Rarity was cut off by Night Glider surging forward and trying to take hold of Moonbeam’s form, shock and elation on her face; along with hints of what Junior oddly recognized as fear.

“A-A Glimmer?! Please! I need your help-!”, Night Glider yelped as she tried to get closer.

Godzilla put a hoof up and caught her a forelimb’s length away, shifting to put Moonbeam behind him protectively.

“Be careful! She’s unconscious and weak!”, he snapped and instantly cowed Night Glider.

The pegasus quivered, not taking her eyes off the limp Glimmer and still trying to reach for her. Rarity grimaced and stepped in, gently grasping Night Glider’s reaching hooves and lowering them down.

“Now now!... Let’s just, caaalm down here like civilized Equestrians.. and Kaiju...um Terrans?” she muttered, glancing between Night Glider and Godzilla.

“S-Sorry, King Godzilla. It’s just, a Glimmer, Starlight Glimmer, was the leader of our town and.. she-... mentioned having a sister named Moonbeam once or twice,” Night Glider whispered with flopped ears, ”I-I thought maybe, she might know where Starlight went.”

Rarity puzzled before asking, “I thought you said everypony in your town went missing?”

“Th-They were! All gone, just, poof! I was out on patrol when it must have happened. When I got back, I found a trail of hoofprints leading from Starlight’s cave and going south. I figured it must have been her and followed them.”

“All the way to Canterlot?”, Junior muttered even as he withheld the gears turning in his head at the words ‘town went missing’.

“I found she headed south, stopping near Hollow Shades and Foal Mountain. Then boarded a train. Seemed most likely she came here. I thought maybe she was coming here to find help so-so I can here too!”

Everypony’s ears perked up at the sound of groggy, tired moans. The weight on Junior’s back began to shift back and forth. Junior turned his head to see Moonbeam begin to fidget and wince.

-She's having bad dream or waking up, either way I doubt she's too pleased with it.-

Godzilla gently reached around and gripped her as he sat down, pulling her into his lap and holding her up straight against him. Might have been a tad awkward as a pony, but as a former biped it helped him keep her steady as the movement jostled her out of her nightmare.

“Uh-... Huh?... Wh-Where?”, her tiny, coarse voice peeped. On instinct she tried to struggle, only for Godzilla to tighten his hold slightly and Rarity to extend a hoof to her chest.

“Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay. You lost consciousness,” Rarity calmly noted.

Moonbeam took in her surroundings, both the two watching mares as well as who was holding her. The pegasus’ ears flopped down a bit and her face heated up.

“Thanks… You c-an put me down now,” she mumbled, completely red in the face while shaking. At this point she didn't know if she should note how warm he was or the fact he wasn't the only one heating up.

Junior just snorted, noticing plainly how wobbly she was, “No. Get your bearings first, you’re exhausted.”

“W-Wouldn’t be lying,” she squeaked, balling herself up more, “Ran all the way here from my house.”

Rarity frowned and nodded to her, “Whatever happened to you, darling?”

Moonbeam’s eyes rewet themselves and she made herself look even smaller, curling into Junior’s chest some more to hide; “My sister happened…”

Sniffling, Moonbeam looked up at Godzilla, face damp and red with flush and stressed crying, “Y-You had to be warned.”

“About?”, Godzilla muttered with a raised brow as he quickly was putting together what was making Moonbeam so stressed.

“M-My sister. I don’t know what’s gotten into her but sh-....she…!”, Moonbeam’s words were choked out as her eyes widened. She gripped at Godzilla’s arm, trying to tug it as hard as she feebly could in her weakened state.

“LOOK OUT!”, she shrieked.

Godzilla Junior followed her vision to above and in front of him and just barely had enough time to see the magic blast coming. Lacking time to dodge, he followed the same instinct he had when having to grab a boat out of the way from Orka all those years back. Picking up Moonbeam he spun around and put his back to the blast, momentarily grunting from the impact bursting against his back. Thankful to have kept some of his old durability even when out of his armor, Junior partially whirled around to see where it was coming from. This time he saw the second bolt coming with enough moments to react and dodge out of the way. The teal-colored aura scored the ground he had stood upon. Junior clutched Moonbeam close and rolled across the ground. Managing to roll himself up slightly, he covered Moonbeam with a forelimb and returned fire with a beam of blue plasma from his maw; aimed at the roof across the main street the perched attacker was firing from. The pony, dressed in a black cloak, swore and teleported out of the way, reappearing on the ground a block away and sprinting off. Junior snarled, gently setting Moonbeam down before bolting off in pursuit.

The trio following along where Godzilla had gone wasn’t hard at all. Magic blast marks and rays of blue shooting off into the sky were common even when they couldn’t see him directly. Looking above a low building, Rarity glimpsed teal magic lift and throw a loaded wagon cart in the direction of the loud stomping of hooves. Rounding the corner she could see a Junior-sized hole smashed through the hardwood, effectively bulldozing through it as another magic blast sounded off. A very unequine bellow called out as they went down the main street and back to the train station. Spotting Junior wasn’t hard, both due to his large form standing out in the open but also due to the fact he was shrugging off multiple magic bolts striking him from the top of the train station’s roof. Godzilla’s mane and tail flickered to life and he took aim. The cloaked attacker, obviously a unicorn from the magic blasts, stopped firing and put much of her force into a continuous, burning ray of energy that sailed towards the stallion. Unfettered, Godzilla loosed his own ray and the beams smashed into each other.

However unlike his accidental clash with or subsequent benign spars with Princess Luna, where the alicorn’s magic and Junior’s plasma were on roughly equal footing; the difference in raw power became evident after a couple of seconds. Godzilla’s beam started eating away at the magic stream, drawing closer and closer even as the unicorn put more force into her blast, which only resulted in slightly slowing the inevitable.

But as the beam lock grew closer to the attacker, illuminating her and blowing her hood back slightly from the billowing energy, Moonbeam’s mind was filled with horror.

“STOP!”, her blood-curdling shriek called out.

Reflexively and just trying to wound, not kill in the first place, Godzilla Junior pivoted his beam up and away just before the lock could hit the pony. When he did, the shockwave was mostly thrown off into the sky and away from everypony; but it did blowback the attacker’s hood to reveal a purple unicorn mare with an identical mane style to Night Glider, one Moonbeam breathlessly named aloud as she walked forward with a broken expression.

“... Starlight.”

For all the notice her sister had to her, Starlight Glimmer didn’t return it. She glared only at Godzilla Junior, staring with a deadly intent at somepony she had never met before in her life. She sneered, eyes briefly flashing red and perking Godzilla’s interest, before turning around and jumping off the roof. Train whistles blew and before anypony could stop her, Starlight was atop an outbound train heading north.

All eyes soon cast to another train rolling into station and in a glance amongst each other, little conversation was needed to confirm the next course of action. Four ponies rode on an emergency secured train following the last train on the north track. Unbeknownst to any of them, they weren’t the only boarding party. Ghidorah’s agent hadn’t gone unnoticed by most others, especially after her brief fight with Godzilla Junior across downtown Canterlot. Clinging to the back of the second train and pulling herself onto the back balcony was a seemingly unremarkable green unicorn mare. But at a blink of her eye, her irises shifted from blue to red and her fur metamorphosed from leafy green to pastel orange. Within the span of a moment, Enjin was completely unrecognizable as itself or Sunset Shimmer.

She opened the back door and entered the back cabin, being sure to stay far away from anypony just to avoid extra attention or possibly tip Godzilla’s energy sense off to her presence. Ghidorah and Bagan had an agreement for this scheme, but the latter knew full well Grand King Ghidorah would do something behind its back. Ghidorah himself admitted to it. And given current events and the fact Starlight seemed to ignore or not notice Enjin operating inside Canterlot, Ghidorah either didn’t know or didn’t care that Bagan’s field agent had wised up to his control over Starlight Glimmer, having confirmed it by sensing the same psychic command indicated by the flash of red in her eyes that Junior had witnessed. That and Enjin could literally see Ghidorah’s taint on the pony enough to know they’d been in proximity before.

The possessed Sunset Shimmer had done her duty as a pawn to open a hole in the anti-changeling wards, but the best tools have multiple uses. Perhaps one could be found seeing what Ghidorah didn’t tell the lord of Zenith in their little agreement. If Ghidorah saw fit to play a hidden ace, Bagan would respond in kind. Such was the matter of dealing with monsters.

However, there was yet another entity hitching a ride on the train. This one made more of an effort to hide entirely rather than hide in plain sight like Enjin was. Holding onto the side of one of the cars was what could best be described as a smoking, shadowy mass that vaguely resembled a pony. Yellow eyes stole a peek inside as the echo of Nightmare Moon, Nightmare the Pony of Shadows, watched Rarity and Junior help lay Moonbeam Glimmer out on a bench seat. Nightmare might not have known about Enjin also being on the train, or else she’d be panicking and acting far more than she was now, but she too had witnessed the confrontation with Starlight Glimmer. And with the visions she’d been having, inflicted upon Rarity as nightmares as a warning, along with what she’d seen in the past few nights convinced her one thing.

For Equestria to survive, she had to become whole again. But in her weakened state, she couldn’t seek just anypony to try and bond to them. It required a specific type of dark emotion, a certain loneliness, past or present. And the destination of this train bore more than one possible candidate.

======================

Moonbeam Glimmer hadn’t taken her eyes off the floor since waking up on the train, having passed out soon after boarding. After a brief moment of surprise and reddened faces upon finding her pillow had been Godzilla’s flank, she’d been frozen in place ever since Night Glider asked the inevitable question.

One she meekly repeated, “S-So, you’re Starlight’s big sister?”

Moonbeam sighed, not picking her head up more than an inch to slowly nod.

“I was…”, she croaked.

“Moonbeam,” Junior’s low voice muttered from beside her.

The pegasus flinched momentarily. Slowly, she tilted her head over and looked up at the giant unicorn with mixing emotions. On one hoof, the grief and regret of her past actions was all too familiar to her, heightened by the kaiju’s gentle demeanor and quick insistence to come and help her the moment she asked. She’d never been so grossly, outlandishly wrong about something in her life. But on the other hoof she couldn’t help but wince remembering the beam lock between Godzilla and her sister, dreading the idea of what might have happened if Junior hadn’t diverted his assault when she called out and what all that power could do to her little sibling on a direct hit. That gentle heat radiating out of him belied an enormity of might within.

Junior kept himself focused and slow, taking a nod from Rarity and lowering himself down to get closer to eye level with Moonbeam.

“What happened?.. Between you and her,” he finished.

Moonbeam chewed her lip, knowing what he meant. Not just about what happened to her cutiemark, but also in context to her sibling. Moonbeam’s breath hitched when she felt a hoof upon her own. She looked over and saw the beaming face of the Element of Generosity. Rarity scooted over as she climbed onto the bench seat to put Moonbeam between herself and Junior, then looking over to Night Glider and patting the seat next to her. Soon, they were all sitting together on the same bench as the train rolled along, flank to flank in a comforting manner as many a herd do. Moonbeam wiped off her face and sniffled, emoting a solemn expression as she picked herself up and leaned on Godzilla slightly while letting her wing rest against Rarity.

“I hadn’t seen my sister for a decade…”

========================

Years ago, Glimmer Residence

“It’s okay Starly, it’s okay,” a much younger Moonbeam whispered as she rubbed her sister’s back while they hugged.

Starlight nestled into her sister’s embrace, recognizing her scent, softness, and warmth. In the cornucopia of negative emotions she’s been drowning in for the last twelve hours, it was the only real comfort she’d gotten. For a moment, she felt happy, believing her sister’s words entirely. Things were bad and she was a terrified little girl, but this nightmare seemed over.

That all changed with a crack of a twig.

Starlight’s eyes snapped open and she looked past Moonbeam, seeing the glint of armor in the tree line. She saw more of them, some with what looked like weapons. Soldiers, police, she didn’t know who they were exactly but she recognized one form clear as day even when she tried to duck out of view. One of the teachers from the School for Gifted Unicorns, the very same one whom Starlight mistakenly thought had tried to degrade or hold her back.

The teachings of Archmage Saros, King Sombra, turned on and deep inside her there was a flicker of wrath. The filly’s maw curled briefly, twitching into a momentary snarl as she tore her way out of Moonbeam’s grasp and quickly turned around. She saw them coming for her, whether they were there or not. She saw the menace even when Captain Sentry silently called for the approaching guards to hold position. And Moonbeam Glimmer saw the gritting of teeth and widening of eyes upon her sibling accompanied by sparks of magic.

“N-No no no! Starly, Starly you need to calm down!”, she pleaded and tried to scoop her baby sister up again.

Starlight hissed, her fear turning into hatred rapidly that broiled up in the glowing magic settling over her horn.

“Th-They’re here! They’re going to!-”

“They’re here to- help you. We n-need you to calm..down. Please, Starly!”

“They followed you! The school teacher-”

“She’s just here to-!”

Moonbeam’s hushed begging was cut off by the look Starlight gave her. It was wide, with a blank facial expression. It was the flicker in her sister’s eyes that stopped her cold. Those weren’t the eyes any child, any pony, should have. They begat disbelief, shock, and anguish.

“They made you distract me…”, her whisper slithered out.

Moonbeam’s lip quivered. Starlight’s expression slowly shifted to one of pure wrath, her lips curling, eyes dilating, and ears flattening backwards. Starlight’s bright purple eyes became cloudy with dark magic that seeped from the edges like smoke.

“No… You led them to me,” she hissed quietly.

“S-Starlight, you need help! They won’t hurt you, I promise! Please… Please don’t,” Moonbeam begged, shakingly reaching out.

Both Glimmer sisters shed tears, one of grief and fear and one of rage and betrayal.

“YooOU LED THEM TO ME!”, Starlight roared and unleashed her wrath.

Aerenths burst out of the ground in a radiating shockwave. Starlight’s magic flew forth and seized Moonbeam Glimmer. A fantastic pain took hold upon her flank, accompanied by Starlight screaming from the out of control magic. Moonbeam’s cutiemark began to peel slightly before the feed of magic was cut off. Black smoke billowing from eyes that glowed of green, Starlight shrieked and held her horn. She dropped her sister and stumbled back. But, as Moonbeam reached out and Captain Sentry charged in, Starlight’s berserk magic flared out yet again. In the span of a second and in a burst of light, both the filly and her spell book were gone; teleported far, far away from all that wrathful dark magic being used up at once.

==================

“That was the last time I saw my sister,” Moonbeam muttered, looking down at her flank and wincing at the sight of where her cutiemark had once been. Now she only saw an equals sign embedded into her skin.

“Until a few days ago…”

Night Glider whimpered lightly and winced, but kept the emoting to herself.

=============================

Moonbeam’s home, several days ago

“R-Remember this?”, Moonbeam muttered softly as she held out something she’d been keeping in safe storage for years.

Starlight Glimmer, sitting on one of the chairs, hardly looked bemused as she magically lifted the kite out of her sibling’s hooves and inspected it.

“My old kite,” Starlight grunted, taking a sip of tea prepared for her.

Moonbeam hid her sadness that the gift didn’t get more of a reaction out of her sister, hiding it along with the same fear that had gripped her since her sister inexplicably returned. It was an odd experience being so elated, frightened, and confused at the same time; but she drew up hope the first of the three could be increased. She smiled pleasantly and put a hoof to the old green kite, gently stroking at its ribboned tail.

“Remember? Your third birthday present. We used to fly this every day we got. I used to help keep it aloft with my wings on days without much wind,” she chuckled at the nostalgic memory while a warmth glowed across her face when she touched a spot with dried wood glue seeping out of a crack in the frame, “You crashed it more than once despite our best efforts, but it’s held together nicely. Would you maybe like to, for old time’s sak-!!!”

Moonbeam quickly ducked as the kite was suddenly lobbed across the room and right past where her head had been. The toy spiraled, crashing into the Glimmer family portrait Moonbeam had finally dusted off and displayed some time ago. The photograph fell to the floor, the frame cracking open and spilling glass out along with the picture. Moonbeam looked to the broken picture and thrown toy, then back to her sister with a paled, agape expression. Starlight Glimmer growled, eyes briefly flashing red as she stood up.

“You are wasting my time. I didn’t come back for you, I came because you met Godzilla. Take me to him, now!”, Starlight snapped.

Moonbeam Glimmer took a deep breath and kept her wings from flaring out in surprise or fear, lifting up a hoof and gently waving it downwards in a defusing motion.

“Starlight, it’s o-okay… I was just.. trying... to make you comfortable…”

-Okay, NO. No way in Tartarus could she act like this! Something’s very wrong with her.-

“Now, why do you want to meet King Godzilla?”, the older Glimmer whispered, keeping her voice contained in a ploy to try and bait down Starlight’s sharpness.

It didn’t work for the large part and was met with a narrowing of eyes and snapping of words, “That is for myself to judge. But you met him before, you can do it again.”

Moonbeam perfectly masked her befuddlement.

-I’m hardly the only pony to have met him, and it’s not like he’s making an effort to hide himself. Why couldn’t she just go and meet him herself?-

“Starlight, how about we go to Canterlot together? Just you and me. I’m sure we could get a meeting with him together-”

“NO!”, Starlight barked, kicking over the coffee table and spilling the tea as she grit her teeth, “A meeting would take too long to arrange. I need him drawn out!”

Moonbeam’s breathing grew a touch heavier and she took a slight step away from her sibling, having more than enough experience with the mentally unwell to value a bit of space. The key was trying not to get so close it was a danger, but not so far away they caught onto you trying to keep a safe distance. Trying not to look at how damaged her living room was by now due to this family visit, Moonbeam’s brow furrowed.

“Drawn… out? Starlight I fail to see why you’d want to do that. And how would I help in doing that?”, she noted.

Starlight’s lips curled slightly as her eyes cast a narrowed leer, “You met with him once, insulted him, agitated him. And then,-”, she drew up a newspaper from her saddlebag and threw it over towards Moonbeam, whom only needed a cursory glance to know the headline was made after her walking-out of the Welles debate.

“-You apologize.”, Starlight’s eyes narrowed slightly more as venom spat from her maw, “You never apologize. Something changed your mind, something I’m sure that creature will be fond of hearing.”

Moonbeam grimaced from the emotional and guilt bullets shot her way. Starlight approached, stalking forward in a predatory manner and looming over the larger mare whom seemed to try and make herself smaller.

“I’m not going to ask again. Take. Me. To. Him.”

Moonbeam Glimmer froze, her back literally and metaphorically to the wall. A thousand ways out of this scenario. Nine hundred of which were an easy fix, done with a single word for agreeance. Another ninety nine included trying to take a third option and escape, fight her sibling, divert the subject, anything to avoid a confrontation or confirmation. One used another single word phrase. That one, was the only right choice.

Moonbeam Glimmer rose up and stared her sibling down, “No.”

Moonbeam took a step forward now with a measure of courage and assertion, causing Starlight to briefly step back as her sister used her larger size and wingspan to gain a height advantage in the contest of hardened gazes.

“Starlight, I love you. But I’m not going to let anypony get hurt and I’m not going to stand for how you’ve acted so far! I’ve made mistakes, I’ve made ones to him and I’ve made ones to you. And I do want to work to correct them. Before you came, I was figuring out how I could help him.”

Moonbeam’s face softened, her brow raised as she extended a hoof and wing to her sibling. She tenderly touched her baby sister's face, “Let me figure out how to help you too. Then we can see Godzilla, together. As sisters... Moony... and Starly.”

Starlight Glimmer was quiet. Slowly, millimeter by millimeter, her flattened jaw began to turn downwards and her eyes opened from their narrowing. Moonbeam Glimmer sighed, letting a smile creep over her face. Starlight was a grown mare now, but for that moment she looked just like the memory of her beloved baby sister. Moonbeam let herself forget about the dark magic, the rude home entry, and the threats. She saw her baby sister the same way she did the first day Starlight crashed her kite, needed help on her homework, or skid her knee while playing. Her little Starly. Moonbeam sighed and moved forward to put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, maybe even embrace her if it seemed do-able.

Then Starlight’s eyes glinted red and before Moonbeam could react, she was strangled by a magical aura and slammed into the back wall.

“If you will not help me, you’ll just have to make due for when you betrayed me!”, Starlight Glimmer snarled.

Moonbeam cried out and struggled, feeling a cold, biting pain in her flank that was horrifically familiar to her. Those years ago it had been done by an overly emotional, out of control, scared filly who barely knew what she was doing. And now, the times and intent had changed. Starlight Glimmer snarled as two aerenths formed on Moonbeam’s flank, forcing her cutiemark off her body like shaving off a piece of the soul.

“Let me show you how much I’ve grown, Moonbeam Glimmer…”

====================

Moonbeam quieted down and sniffled, feeling Rarity lean in closer to comfort her as Junior’s radiating heat turned up. The Godzilla cast his eyes towards Night Glider, whom was looking uncomfortable even before she found the kaiju staring at her flank.

“Why is it you have the same mark? I’ve been around Equestria long enough to know that doesn’t happen. You said Starlight was in your town, did she do this to you all too?”, he muttered with a suspicious leer.

Night Glider couldn’t look him in the eye, only rub at her forearm.

“N-Not like she did to Moonbeam. We all volunteered for it-... Wait… Wait wait wait!”, Night Glider yipped as her head snapped up.

“She… she still used her spell on you? How?... How could she?!”, Night Glider yelped in a pleading manner, desperation showing in her voice.

Moonbeam wiped her eyes, managing to pick herself up, “She’s… known that spell for over a decade. She first used it as a filly.”

Night Glider’s expression turned to sheer horror, much to the confusion of all looking on, as she dug into her saddlebags. The confusion only grew when Night Glider pulled out two broken pieces of wood, which looked like they went together to form the snapped ends of some kind of staff shaped like a tuning fork.

“Th-this! She can’t use her spell without this!”

“And that is?”, Junior grunted with a raised brow, putting a hoof in front of Rarity and Moonbeam when Night Glider’s fidgeting resulted in the odd object being accidentally pointed at them. Knowledge of Equestrian magic he was lacking in, but he was savvy enough to know that when someone treats something so nervously it often paid to expect the worst.

“The Staff of Sameness! I-I found it in the ruins of the cave when I went looking for Starlight! She always used it to remove our cutiemarks. She had it done to herself!”, Night Glider yelped.

Rarity, recalling something Princess Luna told her about the kaiju in regards to the meeting her sister and the Element Bearers had had with them, whispered to Godzilla.

“Junior, can you sense anything about that staff? Any magic or energy?”

Godzilla narrowed his eyes and leaned closer, both sniffing at and trying to sense the staff for any sign of some latent power.

“... You're right, I can sense energy fields-”, he muttered, glancing over to Rarity, “-Miss Rarity here has a strong signature because she’s an Element Bearer. You two have weak ones. I’d gander it’s from the mark removal spell.”

“A-And the Staff?”, Night Glider begged, holding what had been a prize object of her town for months.

Junior checked it again, only shrugging.

“... Only physical scent, nothing magical. It’s dead wood that’s been in the sun a long time. Is this town of yours in an open area? Desert? Mountain steppe?”

Night Glider quivered, her hooves beginning to shake as the implications settled in. Our Town was in the northern plateau steppe, a fact Godzilla couldn’t have possibly known about. And yet he could keen in on that so accurately it gave credence to his assertion she was just holding onto some dried oak. Perhaps sensing it was timely to chime in, Rarity put a hoof onto Night Glider’s shoulder.

“Miss Glider… I think Starlight may have been lying. I’m good friends with a very learned librarian and magic study, and another alicorn princess. I’ve heard stories of magical artifacts from stormy islands to amulets. I’ve not once heard of any staff that… removes cutiemarks,” she gulped and hid a cringe, “That is just a piece of dead wood. I think it’s becoming clear that the spell you and Moonbeam were struck with was from Starlight’s own horn. Not that stick.”

Night Glider’s frown quivered and she shook, the staff-no, the stick, fumbling out of her hooves and dropping to the floor.

Her tone had dropped, barely above a whisper it seemed so shocked, “Sh-She said she was the first to give up her magic…”

Junior shrugged and had to be blunt, “You saw Starlight use magic when she attacked me. Why is this a shock to you?”

“I-I thought… m-maybe… she put her cutiemark back on. It was stored with all the others. Give herself her magic to go after whoever attacked the town or get help…”, Night Glider’s eyes cast themselves to Moonbeam’s flank.

“But, she left the staff at the cave. That’s where I found it. If she could still remove cutiemarks without it, then she really was never using it to work the spells. It was always her magic, magic she never gave up... She really never was our equal.”

“Why would you remove your cutiemarks voluntarily? It wasn’t pleasant when it happened to me. I still feel…”, Moonbeam paused, chewing at her lip and trying to put to words the horrible weakness she felt all across her body. Every pulse of blood in her veins that went past her flank tingled and chilled like ice to skin.

“Weak? Emptied?... We thought that would make us all friends. Cooperate more. That it’d be better if we were all equal. We were all vagrants when she found us over time, it seemed so tempting! But all this time it was a farce…”, Night Glider choked with increasing dourness.

As her face turned down however, a white hoof helped to prop it back up. Rarity slowly cast the mare a smile and nodded to her.

“I know some wonderful ponies who can help you to know friendship very well, very well indeed. After this Starlight and missing town debacle, we’ll be glad to help out! And, without taking the cutiemarks off I might add!”, Rarity quipped with a smirk and a wink.

Night Glider could let a small smile crack. There was a maelstrom of problems in the future, not the least bit including finding her townsfolk and former leader; but the thought of a happy life without the stinging numbness in her flank or dullness in activity was extremely tempting. At least, she could hope.

“I’d like that," she whispered with a tiny smile.

“That still leaves Starlight Glimmer though,” Godzilla muttered as the gears of the mind worked behind his eyes.

Night Glider chewed at her lip, “If she’s taking this train, she’s going along the route to head back to the town.”

“Which is?”, Rarity whispered with a tilted head.

Night Glider shrugged, “Literally in the middle of nowhere. She’s probably heading for Hollow Shades’ station before heading on the path to get back to it.”

“I’ve been the way to get to Foal Mountain before, it doesn’t take long to travel there from Canterlot. Starlight went after Moonbeam a few days ago though, so why take so long to show up in Canterlot?”, Junior grunted as his eyes briefly met with Moonbeam's in memory of their last encounter at the old Glimmer residence.

Moonbeam grimaced, “Best guess? She’s been there longer than tonight. And given you’re her target…”

“She’s been stalking me,” Junior grunted with narrowed eyes.

Rarity chewed at her lip, “Could make some sense. She is still a normal pony. Threat or not, to someone of your stature if you weren’t looking for her in particular...”

Junior finished the train of thought for her, “I would have sensed her magic as just another pony’s in a city full of them…. It’s a trap, she’s definitely leading us into a trap set for me.”

“Should we.. call this off then?”

Godzilla shook his head, “If we lose her now we’ll have a hard time finding her again. Even if she can’t harm me very much, she’s a threat to those she can harm.”

He glanced over to Moonbeam's equals sign clad flank, “She already has… No amount of magic training can prepare somepony for something like me though. Your world doesn’t have a context.”

Night Glider was unsure about the kaiju’s confidence, “A-Are you sure? Starlight’s magic has to be very strong if she removed all our cutiemarks by herself. All this time we thought it was the staff.”

Junior only grunted and snorted his nostrils at the memory of his first introduction to Equestrian society being a 1,000 year old alicorn tackling him through a brick wall, “... I’ve had worse. And you all will be coming along.”

“So what’s our plan?”

“I’ll do what I do best. Draw attention. When we get to the town,-”

Rarity raised her hoof and interjected, “-which no doubt will be where Starlight is going to await us.”

Junior lifted an eyebrow at that remark, “-You sure?”

Rarity shrugged, “Happened to me and the girls more than a few times. Nightmare Moon with the castle, Chrysalis with another castle, King Sombra trying to get into a castle, gyaos trying to get into a castle. If it’s a big structure in Equestria, it’s got a villain either already in it or trying to get in it. The town is Starlight’s castle.”

Night Glider hummed in a pondered thought, “... She does have a point.”

“... Huh, not too different on Terra. Most kaiju go for cities even if there are huge spaces of open land around it,” Junior grunted and shrugged before going back to business, “Anyways, I’ll confront Starlight in the town. Either I take her down myself or hold her attention while Rarity circles around. I take it you’ve already been in a confrontation Miss Rarity?”

The unicorn emitted a humored chuckle, lifting what could best be described as a studded club out of her saddlebag despite it being far too long to have seemingly fit inside it.

“Not much for magic use, though I’m getting better. As for other matters, I have this gift from Radiance, got a back up stick in the other bag. Trust me darling, a true lady is never helpless in a conflict!”

Godzilla gave the weapon and the seemingly dainty unicorn an impressed nod, amused at some broken expectations.

“Well then, this should be more than enough for one pony.”

Godzilla Junior was just about to nod when a pair of hooves took him by the cheeks. He got the sense it would have been a rougher grab had the owner not been so weakened. Moonbeam Glimmer, in spite of her condition, still managed to give the kaiju a steely, stoic look.

“Promise me one thing… No killing.”

Junior returned the look, in hindsight noting Moonbeam was a fairly exceptional mare for being able to repeatedly stand up to him regardless of if they were working together or opposing.

“If you’re worried with that again, don’t. I wasn’t planning on it.”

“... Thanks, but you came close already.”

“I was going to hold back. You do know she’s dangerous, right?”

“She’s not herself, I out of anypony can vouch for that. Something is altering her, and not just the dark magic.”

“Not my first time dealing with something like that. I’ll be careful.”

“Promise me,” Moonbeam whispered as she leaned in closer to him.

“She’s my baby sister. I don’t want any red eyes aimed at her.”

Junior grunted, remembering how he and Moonbeam first met. How the talk between the two managed to hit every inner turmoil he had and heightened his fears, how it caused his eyes to flash red for the first time since San Francisco and his mother with Trespasser’s attack. Moonbeam didn’t understand what red in the eye meant for him, something he’d correct.

“I promise, not my first for the tonight and I'll keep both. And little secret, my eyes only flash red when I’m scared. Terrified actually,” he whispered.

Moonbeam’s expression softened as the realization hit her. The pegasus’ ears flopped against her head, her lips flattening and brow raising apologetically.

“And… are you now?”

The train creaked as it slowed down to pull into the station ahead. Out the window, Junior could glimpse a black-cloaked pony running away from the station a few meters ahead of them. Starlight Glimmer, as determined by her teal colored magical aura, was carrying something in a box with her. His mind could wander as to what kind of trap was he walking into.

“I’ve been afraid since I was two years old. Monsters.”

“Which one?”, Moonbeam whispered with a frown, deflating.

Godzilla picked his head up out of her grasp and got to his hooves, heading for the doorway, “Myself.”

=====================

“So, this is it? Looks a bit drab, no offense. Could use some flair,” Rarity whispered as the four looked out from beyond some rocks at the town below, which consisted of nothing but two orderly rows of houses with a large house at the end to give it a rough horseshoe shape.

“That’s Starlight’s house there at the end,” Night Glider noted as she pointed to the largest, only asymmetrical home.

“Then that is where I’m going. Rarity you circle down from the right side once I get down there and got her attention, try to stay out of sight,” Godzilla muttered as he stood up.

“Duly noted, Darling!”

Moonbeam, still in hiding, looked up to Godzilla Junior and Rarity as she whispered, “And us?”

Rarity shook her head and noted, “I think it’s best you two keep back for now, just in case. With you weakened it’ll be harder for Junior and I to protect you if we’re already trying to restrain Starlight. Come in when it looks like we’ve got it under control.”

With reluctant nods, mostly from Night Glider, Element Bearer and Kaiju set off. A few minutes later and the only sound echoing through the ghost town was Godzilla’s stomping hooves. He intentionally was stomping his hooves a bit harder with each step, intentionally trying to draw as much attention to himself as he could and mask Rarity’s approach.

He drew up to the center of town, right before Starlight’s house and took in a deep breath through his nose as the breeze hissed by.

“I know you’re there, Starlight Glimmer. Smelled your trail coming here and it’s all over this place. Going to make me start knocking down doors to find which one you’re hiding behind?”

His calling-out was answered by a black cloak floating in the breeze, floating past him before tumbling across the ground.

“Who’s hiding?”, the coy, female tone called out.

Godzilla knew who it was even before he looked up to above Glimmer’s house. Starlight Glimmer was perched on the roof like a gargoyle, a smug expression clad across her smirking lips and bemused eyes. Junior wasn’t intimidated when she suddenly teleported to the ground in front of him.

“Well, you wanted me. And here I am. How long you been following me?”

“Long enough for it to count,” she quipped. Even with her calm demeanor, the inner rage was evident in every twitching vein or bead of sweat. Junior could literally smell it coming off her.

“Surprised you’re not attacking me outright again,” Junior grunted as he kept his eyes upon her at all times when she approached a building off to the side, just in case she was trying to flank him.

“Oh I know your type. My magic might work on you, might not. But I know not to try it upfront.”

“Then don’t try it at all.”

“Getting anxious now? Am I managing to scare a kaiju?”, her voice slithered.

Junior snorted out his nose, “I’m afraid of a lot of things, you’re not one.”

Starlight stopped before the smaller building, her back turned. She raised herself up slightly before seeming to give a tired shrug. The unicorn mare glanced back at the kaiju.

“My sister put you up to this? Is that why she’s here?”

For a moment, Starlight almost seemed to frown; earning a sigh from Godzilla.

“You know she just wants to help you.”

“She’s got a poor way of showing it. Dragging me to our parents’ graves every week, butting heads with the Bursts when they tried to stop her after she was old enough to go out on her own, selling me out to that school-”, Starlight's growling was cut off by Junior's sharp grunt.

“We both know she didn’t do any of that to hurt you.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“Folks make mistakes, have regrets. I know what it's like to have powers that scare people, you don't need to do anything stupid. Now this can go two ways. She’s apologized to me, she can to you… Listen, despite my reputation I don’t like a brawl,” he grunted.

Godzilla Junior shrugged, taking a step closer while being careful to keep his tone down just as he would when approaching a new kaiju. Sometimes his luck paid off in cases like these, and the newcomer was just scared, confused, or had some unselfish goal in mind instead of a reckless destroyer. He hoped this was the case here, that the mare before him was that same scared, confused little girl who tampered with things she shouldn’t have.

Rarity watched on from cover as Junior and Starlight had their standoff. But just as she was about to try and sneak to a new, closer hiding place, the wind shifted and she sensed something. It was a chill within the air, one that sent Rarity’s eyes wide and her lip quivering in recognition. She was feeling the pinpricks of fear even before she glimpsed a dark mass moving across the shadows of one of the other buildings. She’d seen something similar to it in Luna’s lesson with the Tantabus, and she’d felt this exact presence before. Several years ago in the Everfree Castle, a little over a year ago on the Moon, and very recently in her nightmares. A pony made of shadows that created a dark echo of its host. As she stalked Nightmare, Nightmare stalked a presence.

She could sense it. The fear, the frustration, the anger. It was intoxicating to her so much she had completely overlooked Rarity. This presence, this would be her new host. A perfect host.

Unaware of all of this, Godzilla Junior and Starlight continued their conversation and unorthodox stand-off.

Junior shrugged and continued, “And we both know what’s going to happen if you turn around and launch a magic bolt at me. So you can give yourself up, or you’re going to have to force me to risk this town to get a hold of you without breaking you.”

“And why does my safety matter to you?”, Starlight whispered.

“I made a promise to care, one I intend to keep. And, I want to know what happened here to your town," Godzilla muttered as he motioned to the ghost town around him, devoid of souls, "I’ve seen things before Starlight Glimmer, something a lot like this. That is some being I don’t want to ever see released in this world, and you can help me find out if I will.”

There was silence and Starlight pitched her head back up. It looked like she was about to say something, something dour given her sudden frown and a spark of fear in her eye. But that time was momentary. Redness flashed across her sclera and the frown instantly turned into a sneer. Starlight Glimmer looked back ahead and magically gripped the lock on the door in front of her, busting the jail house’s padlock open.

“You’re right, I couldn’t get you in an upfront fight,” she muttered as she teleported away.

Before he could wonder as to what Starlight was on about, something else caught his attention. Muffled, high pitched, sobbing. A child was crying. Godzilla Junior’s gaze locked upon the inside of the jailhouse. The room was dark but after a moment, his eyes adjusted easily to see what lay within. Junior’s pulse stopped cold even before a large burst of teal magic hit him from behind.

Starlight said something about a diversion and her magic started to tug at Junior’s cutiemark. But he paid it no attention, despite the pain. Crying red eyes looked up to his shocked, golden orbs. Mariner Chibi Moon sat in the middle of the floor, a collar around her neck bolted to the ground. Her hair ties had fallen out and her usually bouncy, happy pigtails draped free and messily drooped across her face. The poor child looked absolutely terrified, having been through a harrowing experience since her kidnapping at Canterlot. And Junior saw her flank. Absent was the typical red heart and upwards crescent moon shape, replaced by an aerenth black equals sign surrounded by sore, red skin.

Chibi Moon, her face caked in tears and mucus, cried out in a whimper as she reached forward weakly.

“S-Sensei…”, she croaked with a hoarse throat sore from crying.

Junior recognized the motion she was making. The hoofie promise. His own words of such rang in his ears at such a promise he’d made not a day before.

-“You’ll always be safe with me.”-

Starlight had made him break his promise with harrowing consequences. And all the guilt and hatred over it was directed at one source. Godzilla Junior whirled around with a titanic roar just as Starlight was beginning to peel his cutiemark off. The deafening loudness caused her to reel back even before a torrent of blue plasma shot in her direction. Starlight's eyes widened as the burning curtain of air blew into her before the ray that was ripping through her magic reached her. Cutting off her magic beam, Starlight Glimmer was forced to teleport to safety but Godzilla was already storming towards her new location.

He heard nothing even as Moonbeam Glimmer and Night Glider rushed in. He didn’t hear Night Glider’s shock at the scene inside the jailhouse or Moonbeam’s frantic pleading when she clung to his forelimb and insisted her sister could never do this. It was all like voices underwater, muffled and drowned out by the roars of the sea. All attention was solely on Starlight Glimmer as she teleported to the ground across the street from him. Her body became covered in a teal magic that ruptured the ground around her, erupting with aerenths that channeled power into her. Dark smoke burst from Starlight Glimmer’s eyes and a torrent of magic half a meter thick flew out of her. The ensuing shockwave and heat of Godzilla Junior’s retaliatory plasma beam forced everything back.

Everything except the dark mass Rarity was chasing into the square. The Element of Generosity tried to act fast, tried to cast the dark magic containment and banishment spell she’d been going over with Princess Luna just a few hours ago. But try as she may, she wasn’t fast enough and Nightmare swarmed onto her host.

The darkness within was vast and she could feel every insecurity, every negative emotion. She saw the same wrath for an older sibling she was born from, a mountain of guilt, and such a low self view it was subterranean. She grabbed hold of it, fueled by it and tethering herself to her host by it. The flow of negativity was revitalizing to her as a cup of water to a parched throat. Her psyche cracked a cruel smile as she delved into their mind.

They'd lost family once and are separated from the rest. Loneliness. She could make it so all demanded their attention.

Fear of their own powers. With her they'd only see the glory that put them above others, power begot greatness to the deserving.

Rage at and yet a similarly strong loss at what to do about a sibling. An oddity, but with her instruction she could relieve that confusion.

And insecurities about themselves which abounded. One night with her in charge, and they'd be thanking her for showing them what was due to both of them.

So much potential darkness for her to work with, so much that made this pony such an ideal host. They were perfect, the best she'd seen since Luna. Together, they would be perfect. She beheld the mind around her with glee as she took it all in. Adoring it, lusting after it, loving it. With this joined to her, nothing could possibly every stand before her.

Her roar of laughter was cut short by a deluge of anguish deep within the mind that smacked into her like a tidal wave. This mind was like a churning sea and each wave was another piece to a darker subconscious. One wave knocked her beneath the storming ocean surface and dragged her down to depths darker than any night.

Nightmare was forced to see it all, choking on it. So much frustration and confusion. Creatures called mankind, there so was much love for them, so much pain undergone at their expense. And they'd tried to kill him. He forgave, but forgetting was another matter. Anger towards them and then anger at himself for feeling enraged at man.

Even stronger was the feelings towards a sibling, a brother as much as the host loathed thinking of them as such until recently. He had forgiven, or at least drastically wanted to. But he was unable to muster the force to do so. The pain, the pain of decades of war was stabbing and dragging down like an anchor tied to a harpoon.

All around Nightmare was war, both the presence of it and fear of it. Ever increasing in volume, drowning her mind like the dark ocean was her form. It swallowed her up in a mutated reptilian maw filled to the seams with mishmashed fangs and a split jaw.

Nightmare experienced the pain of a hard life filled with conflict, confusion, paranoia, and lusts for peace unfulfilled. She brought forth a possibility of a life unaltered by good. Where the warmth and kindness of Azusa Gojo for a mother, the stern but protected childhood under Godzilla Senior as a father, the guidance and example that King Kong set, and the comradery of many allies old and new thrived; never existed. Where any semblance of loyalty, morality, and selfless worry that created one of Terra's champions never took root. In such a barren possibility, only the pains and what came with them persisted. Instead of a pained, scarred, but functioning do-gooder; the trauma, unchecked power, and malice begot a horror. Some within humanity feared what he might have been like should he become like his father or grandfather before him. And now the answer was laid bare, for it was a fear he himself had had for decades and now it was being unleashed. Should things have played out differently, had he lost himself to what had happened, he'd have been worse. This was Godzilla Junior's greatest fear, how he saw himself. And this is how his form reflected such as his mind went berserk at the notion.

In her bid to siphon power from the negativity of this mind to seize a hold of it, to make it want her to be in control like she had Luna or Rarity, Nightmare had shut out the positives. And now, drowning in the maelstrom of this mind she'd created by attacking Godzilla during his moment of hatred, she couldn't get free. It was too much, she'd unleashed too much and amplified it beyond her own control of freedom. The anchor sunk further down into the sea of the mind, dragging her down with it as if the chain was a noose caught around her neck. He wasn't her prisoner to make use of his body with her power, her power was now his prisoner. An out of control Godzilla Junior was in command, pointing everything at his sources of pain or rage.

With memories of pain, temptations of wrath, and monstrous desires engulfing the realms all around her, the Nightmare could only scream for it all to get away from her.

In the real world, dark magic swirled around Godzilla’s form. It was molded, twisted, and deformed by the conflicting mixture of magic and out of control radiation. Instead of a partial meltdown born of rage, red hot stripes almost resembling fiery wounds lined the body. The mane ignited like burning embers with a bright purple flushing across them. The eyes, briefly flashing a brilliant red, became flooded in a blackness that swallowed both the Iris and sclera. Disorderly fangs erupted from the jaws that now drew back in a constant snarl. Godzilla Junior’s equine form was rough around the edges, but could be seen as admirable in some veins, even handsome. His true form was bestial and gruff, but in the right light could carry a regal power befitting his title or heroic nature. Nightmare typically made her hosts into stunners, born of the insecurities within demanding beauty none could ignore. Luna desired what her sister had, envying her in every way from a warped, impressionable teenage mind. She wanted Celestia's stature, age, beauty, power to impress a father figure she mistook for playing favorites, and status to force all of Equestria to bow to her and her alone. Thus she was granted the form of Nightmare Moon, an older, idealized but dark echo of Luna's desires. Rarity suffered from similar insecurities. Not too far into her adventures with the other Element Bearers, she'd questioned her worth in the face of Twilight Sparkle's magic, Rainbow Dash's speed, Applejack's stability, Fluttershy's gifts, and Pinkie Pie's inexplicability. Whether she could fall behind, be forgotten, or be replaced. Nightmare preyed upon it and offered her a corrupted fruition of the solution, a beautiful, stunning form none could forget and the promises of status none could replace. And so, Equestria met the most powerful unicorn of all time and the queen of the nightmarish beings invading from the moon; Nightmare Rarity.

Nightmare took what was deep inside, those often selfish but unfulfilled desires, and gave them to her host while letting their darker aspects run wild so much the host's typical personality wasn't even in control anymore. But what she brought out now, dredged up from the depths of the King of the Monster's mind, was what Junior saw himself as in his worst fears. For as tall as he was, Junior did not carry a high view of himself. As scared as he'd be at the possibility of someone like Grand King Ghidorah running loose or the legends Lea had told him of millennia past coming to fruition, nothing terrified him more than what he knew he could be like unrestrained. Unrestrained, hideous in appearance and manner, and above all else, destructive. A true monster.

Smog erupted from his maw, then a jet of flame, and then a screeching beam of purple that divided the sky. Multiple rays erupted from his back, hacking the clouds above to pieces. Nightmare Godzilla let out an unworldly wail as all looked on in horror.

There is a word in Japanese that has many meanings depending on the context. One such meaning describes something new, especially if it’s drastically different in form as it once was.

Shin.

==================

Grand King Ghidorah watched on, momentarily distracted from his actions elsewhere as he watched the events unfold from the aether gateway between Zenith and Equestria, unseeable by either. The appearance of Nightmare had been unexpected to say the least, his glimpsing of the fragmented future had only told him to get Godzilla to Glimmer’s town and have her antagonize him by the worst means possible to her. He’d hoped to awaken that inferno of a meltdown form in the beast. But, it seemed things chose to play out not precisely as planned.

Still, he wasn’t angered, even if it seemed the statement of “the future is always changing” was proving sound. The King of Terror gave the scene a bemused glance before the annoyance acted up again. Starlight Glimmer was not the only one he was exerting a mental hold over, but his assault on the other priority target had proved... irksome. Even more so with another intruding upon the mental assault. Ghidorah grumbled, turning his attention back towards Canterlot. The machinations of his master plan, not for Bagan but for himself, demanded fine tuning. He’d be back to deal with Godzilla shortly.

Author's Note

....Well.. I HAVE been asked to put Shin Godzilla into the story and his fan nickname before we got the title was "Nightmare Godzilla". So, there you go. And no, Kaizer is not fighting Shin. It's the heroes stuck with this mess and the point is to show X and Junior's parallel. The video is meant to show what's happened to two of our protagonists.

Artwork by Faith-Wolff and introducing FallenAngel5414!
Proofing by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
Grand King Ghidorah's scheme rolls into high gear and even the dead are not idle.

Chapter 40: Hero

Rarity toiled at the bolted chain, gritting her teeth as she tried to pry the link binding Chibi Moon to the floor free. A blasting roar deafened the air and cracked the windows, nearly making Rarity recoil in pain. Part of the roof groaned and started to give. Quickly noticing it, Rarity threw her magic upwards and grabbed the cracking ceiling beams, holding them in place with telekinesis. Rarity did get some instruction from Twilight and Princess Luna, but she was no Gifted Unicorns entry. Like most unicorns she knew very few spells not relating to her talent aside from telekinesis and in her frazzled, frantic state even that was barely enough to hold out. She winced and grunted, falling on a shaking knee as she put her attention on holding the ceiling up.

Moonbeam and Night Glider weren’t far behind her thankfully, soon launching upon Chibi’s binding as they tried to wrench the bolted chain out of the floor mount. Hooves clutched the chain and wrenched with all their strength, both mares kicking their slipping legs against the floor for a purchase that was hard to come by.

Another roar sounded off, followed by a flash of neon aqua light. Starlight Glimmer, eyes choked with dark magic smoke and the red gleam from Ghidorah’s influence, hissed as she fell out of the teleport and slid across the patio for the jailhouse. From inside the doorway, Moonbeam managed to peek out an eye and catch a glimpse of her sister firing a burst of magical concussive blasts at the source of a loud, audible stomping approaching. Whatever spell Starlight was using though wasn’t working, the stomping only grew louder without its pace being slowed in the slightest. Starlight’s eyes widened and however small, the red gleam over them cracked like fracturing glass. She teleported away just as Nightmare Godzilla’s titanic form advanced after her and passed the doorway. The implacable monster was cracking the floorboards and ground with every step.

“S-Starlight!”, Moonbeam yelped as she began to make for the door.

“M-OONBEAM NO!”, Rarity cried as she forced the ceiling back up, “We need you!”

“He’s gonna kill her! If I don’t save her or stop him, she dies!”

Night Glider wheezed as she tried to break the chain, a feat harder done than said given the lack of cutiemark left her and Moonbeam’s whole body weakened, “And if we don’t leave, we all die!”

Chibi Moon stood motionless and stoic, eyes still flooding with tears as she held her hoof out to the distant, nightmarish echo of her sensei.

Rarity growled against the force of the caving roof. With a great heave she forced it back and knocked part of the room away to let it fall, “Nopony’s dying today!”

The debris falling on the far side of the room tumbled, a metallic clanging signalling something made of metal. Rarity chanced a glance and spotted a sturdy looking metal rod akin to rebar.

“G-rab that rod!”, she shouted and hastily pointed to the object in question.

Following the trail indicated, Night Glider spied the rod and rushed towards it. Grasping it hastily, she dove back towards the other mares and skid to a halt.

Rarity stumbled as something very heavy, likely debris from the fight outside, slammed into the wall of the small jailhouse and fractured the wall; forcing her to hold it up too or risk it getting crushed down by the roofing.

She barked, “Use it- urg! Wedge the chainlink! Quick!”

Night Glider jammed the rod inside the chainlink next to the one closest to the floor, she looked to Moonbeam as the latter pegasus gripped the chain and pulled it taut.

“Ready? One… two… three! PULL!”

The burning wreckage of half a shed, several wheelbarrows, and a kart crashed into the street, erupting in a shower of wind blown smoke and sparks. Starlight Glimmer was an exceptionally gifted unicorn, one of the few with the topic of spell magic itself as her special talent. She was young, healthy, driven if with a warped perception, and unintentionally had an exceptionally powerful teacher giving her access to a source of magic almost nopony knew how to use; let alone extensively. In another time, in another world where it was Tirek who stormed Canterlot instead of an army of Gyaos, she would have been a notable adversary against a less combat inclined Twilight Sparkle. But this wasn’t a battle with time on her side or against a young alicorn without much active combat experience. This wasn’t even a battle in the truthful definition of the term.

This was her frantically trying one trick after another against an unstoppable force who had her death on the mind. As such, there were all sorts of deadly hazards she had to dodge or teleport out of. Vaporization from a purple ray of plasma that bisected one house. Crushing by falling debris being thrown at her after Godzilla walked through another house. The latest one was her panic-teleporting to a random spot across town as Nightmare Godzilla lunged out and bit down and through a support beam she’d been in front of; tearing the structure in two with his jaws before turning around and setting off after her again.

Starlight was tired.

Every beam she tried, every concussive burst she launched, every wagon or barrage of wooden planks she launched at him; Nightmare Godzilla just walked through it like it was rainfall. Another torrent of dark magic beams shot through a window and raked across his chest and flank. Nightmare Godzilla slowly turned towards the source and began to charge, not even slowed down by the magic splintering off his enlarged sternum; which cut through the raw power like the bow of a ship across a wave. Starlight yelped and teleported away just as Godzilla rammed down the wall she’d been behind. The unicorn stumbled across the front porch of her quarters, wood splinters caught in her hair indicated how close the call had been. Falling upon her side, she struggled to get back up.

A loud stomp silenced her attention and she froze. The stomp was followed by likewise, getting louder, closer. The monster was stalking up to downed prey, and Starlight felt like a rabbit in a coyote’s gaze. The red sheen across her eyes cracked again and the dark magic smoke flickered as fear began to overpower any wrath fueling it. And when her eyes fell upon what was advancing towards her, it was hard to blame her.

Ground was cracking underhoof, almost napalm-like purple light leaked from a myriad of misshapen fangs that seemed too densely packed in the jaws that bore them. Nightmare Godzilla’s body was covered in red markings that seemed less like colorations and more like the skin had been stretched so much the blood and glowing power beneath it was visible through it. Such a body should have been in horrific agony, which logically would have made her attacks more potent. But she had no success and here death was, advancing towards her. A lion taking its time to close in for the kill. With a mane of burning wrath and eyes that tore through her, Godzilla remained voiceless but far from silent.

Starlight reflexively put up a shield to protect herself, a half bubble of magic forming in front of her hoof. Too winded to dodge, she could only hope to block. It was a false hope as Nightmare Godzilla closed in further, unfettered. If Godzilla shot forth his beam, he’d surely have burned through the shield and killed her right there. But a quick end was not what his warped perception craved.

He bore upon her, sucking in air before throwing his jaws open. He didn’t strike at the shield physically, be it to smash through or pry it away; he didn’t need to. Instead Godzilla threw his jaws open at an angle far too wide for almost any living thing and let out a booming, deafening, unholy wail that was unbecoming for any living thing.

Deep within Junior’s subconscious, Nightmare struggled. Junior’s mentalscape had taken the form of a raging sea and she was now its prisoner. She tried to glean freedom from what held her captive, but the force was far too strong. The loneliness, the hatred, the confusion, frustration, and self-loathing were all too powerful after they caught her off guard. The bindings pulling her down into the depths turned into a giant hand that gripped her, crushing her. The form, the manifestation of Godzilla Junior’s subconscious, took shape in a dark outline of his true self. The massive eyes glared and it roared through the depths of the mental ocean, letting loose a booming wail that matched its pony counterpart.

Real and mental world, it was a type of sound no worlds had heard since 1954. The sound of a saurian with a hate-filled heart eclipsed any hatred that even a possessed Starlight Glimmer could muster. Her shield magic cracked and splintered before shattering. Starlight Glimmer yelped as she was thrown back and through her front door. The unicorn winced and gasped for breath while struggling to her hooves. She rapidly backpedalled, partially fumbling across the floor as her eyes stayed locked upon the death closing in upon her. Nightmare Godzilla’s shoulders hit the doorframe, his great mass too wide to pass through; though slow down he did not. Instead in an instant the wood splintered and shattered into a shower of debris. His mane raked across the ceiling, scorching it to blackened crisp at just a glancing flicker of a touch.

Starlight fled through her home with Godzilla stomping after her, almost seeming to take his time. A tiger need not surge over and rush to seize a fawn. Furniture was thrown, windows were shattered and thrown as a makeshift flechette storm of razor sharp glass, and magic bursts scourged the roof to bring it down on top of him. Nightmare Godzilla just walked through it all without ever being phased. Starlight’s demeanor had changed drastically, almost like the overpowering malice of Godzilla was draining her of her source of dark magic, and it was showing. Her magic blasts were getting weaker, her strength to stand fading, and the red gleam above her eyes from Ghidorah’s control was continuing to crack and flicker. She was hitting a tsunami with a slingshot and the wave was still coming, Godzilla breaking through her house just by walking after her. Already stress cracks were overtaking the walls and ceiling, as admittedly Our Town was not particularly sturdy when it came to engineering.

But it gave the desperate unicorn an idea.

She fled, fled down the stairs to the storm cellar and basement. She practically fell down the last half of the flight, but managed to make it without tumbling over. Eyes darted to the top of the stairs as the crashing booms of Godzilla’s hoofsteps grew louder and louder. An eerie, purple glow began to overtake the cracking doorway. Starlight gasped and wheezed for breath, managing to summon enough control out of the whirlwind of fear and mind control to muster up just enough magic bursts to hit the cellar’s four support beams, three more so than the fourth. The basement floor groaned and whined, loud, woody cracks bursting out of the walls and floor even before Godzilla got into the doorway. The Nightmare-infused kaiju wasted no more time, he knew her to be cornered. Rather than step down the stairs, which he likely would have destroyed with his steps anyways, he bounded forward and pounced down to clear them all in one jump. Nightmare Godzilla hit the ground with a terrific crash just as Starlight used the last of her focus to hit the last support beam and teleport through a line of sight out a side window.

Having broken the chain holding the filly down, Rarity, Night Glider, Moonbeam Glimmer, and Chibi Moon rushed out of the jailhouse and had gotten only a few houses away from the fighting when Starlight appeared in front of them. Night Glider nearly jumped out of her skin, Moonbeam Glimmer tried to rush forward, Chibi Moon frantically backpedalled, and Rarity pulled the filly and mares behind herself while holding her own glowing horn full of magic at the ready. Starlight Glimmer looked like a mess as she panted harshly, covered in scuff marks and sweat. Her hair had fallen out of her orderly mane and was both frayed and burned in a few places. Her strength waned, collapsing onto a knee just as her home let out a shrieking roar of demolition. Wood snapped, shutters crackled, and stone brick snapped all at once as the house seemed to fall down upon its center a full story; halfway burying itself in its crater.

Starlight Glimmer didn’t smile, but she could finally take a real breath, sitting back and weeping stressed tears from her eyes in relief that the horrible thing chasing her was now buried under several tons of house. If not killed, at least pinned down. She was going to live, she wasn’t going to die! A pitiful, sobbing laugh crept from her mouth; the red lenses over her eyes the mares took notice of flashing and cracking more and more as elation finished what fear started. Her eye smoke fizzled out with its dark magic, wetness drenching her nose and cheeks.

For as much a victim of bad fate she unknowingly was, first of King Sombra and then King Ghidorah; she lived. She wasn’t going to die! She wasn’t going to die!

That same, bellowing, unnatural call rumbled across the plateau’s grounds. An unnatural wail by an unnatural beast fueled by what no animal was supposed to know.

The sky seemed to darken with clouds above, the moon’s light replaced by a beam of purple light erupting from the center of the house. It cut through the debris effortlessly, setting radiating fires to the rest. The beam, accompanied by a roar, swept down close to the ground and swung around in a circle, effectively slicing the house off its foundations while taking off the tops of the surrounding homes as well. The ray cut off and after a moment of silence, the entire house shook. Nothing emerged from it, no beast bursting forth to continue the hunt. Instead the house started to rise up and move. Meter by meter, torn free of its surroundings and moved out of its own crater; held aloft by its central support by Nightmare Godzilla. Not by magic, but by sheer brute force. A unicorn had picked up something big enough to be a home for two families and hoisted it up over himself in the manner a circus strongstallion would a weight, with the outer portions snapping off due to the stress.

The show of strength elicited awe from some and screams of terror from Starlight. It was too much. This unstoppable force was far too potent for any amount of warping by dark magic or control by Grand King Ghidorah’s control to power through unheaded. The red light blinking across her eyes seems to increase in fervor before the cracks spread more and finally shattered; falling off like broken glass. For the first time in the week and potentially in years, Starlight Glimmer was not in the thrall of another, not Ghidorah, not out of control dark magic. She had finally woken up, and when she saw the house getting thrown at her, she woke up screaming.

She’d have been crushed had the mares who’d accompanied Godzilla to this fated town not acted. Moonbeam surged forward with sisterly instinct compensating for her weakened, cutie markless frame, with Rarity following close behind her. In the opposite direction, Night Glider grabbed Chibi Moon and dove into the space between two other houses for cover. When the pair of mares got next to Starlight Glimmer however, Nightmare Godzilla's body seemed to fidget and flinch; sparks shooting out from his mane like his mind was tearing away at itself. Moonbeam Glimmer and Rarity just barely managed to get to Starlight in time and begin to tackle her out of the way, when a purple ray shot out from down the street. Rarity winced as it shot over her head, narrowly missing Starlight’s scalp and instead hitting the very same building Nightmare Godzilla had lobbed at them. With part of the house burned away, they managed to finish the diving save and tackled Starlight Glimmer into the opposite alleyway just as the unicorn’s old house hit the ground and exploded into a rain of smoke, char, and splinters.

Nightmare Godzilla sneered, purple fires licking out from between uneven fangs, before stomping forward and going through the wall of another house as he closed in unfettered.

The mares’ minds were in a complete whirlwind. Starlight Glimmer had no idea what was going on and was still shaking all over from fright she didn’t fully understand as she had only consciously seen Godzilla for a brief moment. Moonbeam’s attention was on the sister she held, trying to help rouse Starlight to her hooves so they could flee with the ever present knowledge Godzilla was closing in. Rarity’s focus was on getting both Glimmer sisters out of harm’s way as well as the question of why Nightmare Godzilla’s beam would suddenly miss a stationary target, the last blast shooting directly over Starlight’s head to hit the house he’d pitched at them. Night Glider was frantically trying to protect Chibi Moon from the shower of fallen, often burning shards of wood raining down from the destroyed house. And Mariner Chi Bi Moon could still only sport the same silent, teary expression she’d had for the last several minutes as she glimpsed her mentor smashing his way through another house.

“He’s heading right for you! Come on!”, Night Glider shouted out to her compatriots as another enormous crash of wood signalled Nightmare Godzilla was only two homes away.

Hoisting Chibi Moon into her forelimbs, Night Glider turned and bolted for more cover as the two unicorns and other pegasus followed suit. Starlight Glimmer, still in a blurry confusion, looked behind her just as Nightmare Godzilla walked through the last wall that had been separating them. When his eyes fell upon her, the unicorn flinched. In an instant her mind was completely blocked out and she outright froze. Be it the intense fear she was experiencing normally or some sort of hypnotic ability the seized Nightmare had given Godzilla Junior; she was still as a statue. Intense thoughts ripped into her mind, devoid of solid cohesion and more like an amorphous mass of raw emotions slamming into her. This was what broke Grand King Ghidorah’s hex and shouted out the fires of her dark magic. Flashes of an untainted Godzilla Junior and a young filly Starlight didn’t recognize drowned out all thought. They were of over several days and locations, talking, eating, training like a master and pupil. They could have been chance memories dredged up from Starlight Glimmer’s subconscious, formed from her stalking them while under mind control; or perhaps Nightmare really had unwillingly done more than warp and augment Junior’s actual power set and they were projections of his own memories explaining wrath for Starlight.

Logistics didn’t matter when Nightmare Godzilla’s maw opened with a glowing purple light and his lower jaw split apart.

Starlight Glimmer saw flashes of a failed magic school entry, flying a kite with her sister, snuggling and studying alongside Sunburst, and a largely forgotten acquaintance she met in infancy. A tear rolled down her cheek, the muted world around her not perceiving Moonbeam’s frantic screams as the older Glimmer sister turned around. She didn’t hear a gradually growing hum of moving air approaching from the west either. She fainted from the pressure, collapsing to the ground.

Moonbeam would have been an only child had a blue blur not slammed into Nightmare Godzilla and tackled him back into the house, Godzilla’s violet ray swinging up into the sky and slicing the house in two. The house wasn’t silent for a moment, soon erupting into the sounds of a great struggle. Dents were smashed into the wall that appeared on the exterior, flashes of light burst out of the windows and door frame as they blew the latter off, wood exploded and stone shattered; and finally the entire house was torn down as one combatant was thrown through a wall. Xenilla slowed himself down with telekinesis, but even his best effort couldn’t stop his momentum from causing him to collide with a house across the street.

==================================

Sometime Earlier in the Crystal Empire

Princess Cadance laid back in her bed as Flash Sentry and the doctor he was escorting departed. Another check up on the foal, another clean bill so far. With the knowledge she was actually with child, the alicorn had found herself looking her form over more and more. While greater body size than normal meant she wasn’t especially showing like a normal mare, as Princess Celestia indicated, she and the doctor did notice a slight roundness on her belly. Said roundness was what she couldn’t take her fond eyes off of while she laid back. Glow didn’t even begin to describe the look upon Cadance as she very tenderly rubbed at where the doctor indicated and bit her lip in any anticipation of a movement or kick. She was anxious, terrified even on some level; but it was a lesser fear than what she once had when she worried her ascension from pegasus to alicorn rendered her sterile or incompatible with a normal pony. And any fears now were drowned out by the joy she and her husband shared. Now she got two kisses every morning when Shining Armor woke up, one for the both of them.

A soft hum filtered out of her throat, tiny tears wetting the corners of each eye as Cadance sighed contently. With a slow day in the empire, Shining Armor insisting he tended to what needed doing, kindly young Flash Sentry on duty, nothing could foil her mood; not even morning sickness.

Though the very large unicorn knocking her closet door open and marching into her room certainly could give it an honest effort.

“Ah good, you're already seated.”

Xenilla’s calm tone contrasting horribly with the great fright he gave the alicorn, who nearly jumped out of her skin at his sudden entry.

“WHAA!?! What the!? How did you?! The closet!-”

Xenilla paid no attention to her fright, walking over to her bedside with several small bags levitating in front of him, “Quite cramped, you’d think a royal would have larger.”

“But-But! It was open just a moment ago?! How could you have possibly hid in there?!”

“I didn’t.”

“So how did you?!”

He waved nonchalantly, “Not important…. Though out of curiosity, are the pink garments for you or your husband?”

Cadance suddenly went from the pinkest alicorn ever to the reddest one and she was silenced. A one-way awkward silence passed between them as they stared at each other, before Xenilla apparently figured out he wasn’t getting his answer and shrugged it off. Drawing up a tray, pestle, and grinder, he started to toil at them; emptying multiple bags of odd materials into them along with several glowing crystals.

“Regardless, I have come to help ensure the future of the empire,” he noted as he worked with his back turned.

Cadance, still breathing a bit heavily, put a hoof over her heart to slow it back down while trying not to look angered or flustered.

“And, pray tell-”, she grumbled, “-how do you plan to do that?”

“I have studied equine infancy, extensively. Early childhood to gestation to conception. Yes, Dame Dancer helped. Besides the point. I endangered you and the life of you and Prince Consort Armor’s child with my ploy against Sombra, a situation made more into question at your lack of knowledge regarding the imperial heir until after more stressful situations. I made a vow to protect you, your family, and the empire. The heir is paramount and I intend no harm to ever come to them during my stay. Their health is priority one, surprises withstanding.”

Cadance blinked a few times, processing what was being fed to her. In some ways she was actually touched and felt a smile growing across her face even if her brow stayed raised in confusion as to what this oath of protection had to do with what Xenilla was doing right now.

“Well, thank you... I'm-.. actually kind of touched! I’m happy to see you’re taking promises to heart. You really have started to turn things around, Xenilla. But you need not worry about Shining Armor and my’s baby, the doctor just confirmed they’re in a clean bill of health!”, she beamed though with a slight, anxious giggle in the back at worry over what exactly the kaiju had in mind.

This was the individual who's plan to kill a despot included purposefully getting thrown in jail and then smashing up half a castle; her worry was sound.

Xenilla grumbled and waved a hoof, “And pray tell, have said doctors been able to determine the sex or type of this offspring yet?”

He kept working; mixing and grinding up something in the pestle that included, but was not limited to crushed energy crystal, surge crystals, orange peels, something that looked like moss, and about four other items Cadance couldn’t even see. It was starting to make her more nervous than curious.

“Hehe…eeeh… No, that-that is still in question.... Um, Xenilla? What are you doing?”, she mumbled with a bit lip.

Xenilla casually shrugged his shoulders even as he fired a brief spurt of a corona flare into the pestle, short enough it flash fried whatever was inside and made Cadance yelp in surprise from the flash of light and smoke.

Xenilla glanced back at her and cleared his throat, “Ahem, sorry about that smoke, Empress-”

Cadance’s eyes narrowed, seeing they were back to that again, “-Princess.”

He didn't even break stride, “-My my you seem delusional as to your title, must be the hormones. You really do need this after all.”

Cadance’s visage widened in confusion, not knowing if she should be confused or afraid that she just thought Xenilla cracked a joke; or angry at him still being stubborn about her choosing to follow in her aunt’s hoofsteps. Instead she could only stutter as Xenilla turned around with what looked like some sort of powder filling the pestle like a bowl.

“...Wh-Wh-Whaaat isss thaaaat?”, she cringed and apprehensively pointed a hoof at the bowl.

“Ah, my solution and insurance policy. Ingrained here is all the essentials for the healthiest result possible for the young imperial heir. A vast majority of expectant mothers only meet the minimum of what is needed for their developing offspring and gestation is the most important time of development for a new life. This mixture is all the essentials magnified to greater extents and enhanced in proportion to ensure your’s and Consort Armor’s progeny is better than safe. I have experience in biochemistry with my crystals,” Xenilla noted almost proudly.

Cadance was still far from sure, glancing between the concoction and the kaiju trying to serve it, “And um… what kind of experience do you have exactly?”

“Surge crystal making. Energizing and revitalizing myself or other kaiju to keep fighting harder and better after injury. The Mutations regularly tried to kill myself and my comrade, Destroyah.”

Princess Cadance took a few seconds to ponder what exactly he was implying before her eyes seemed to almost explode out of her angered expression.

“... Steroids?!”, she barked incredulously.

Xenilla snorted almost like he took offense, “None of the sort! Besides most steroid use is in the medical fields anyways even if they were. My crystals merely work by energizing the cells to rapidly regrow to promote healing and ionized cell waste to restore stamina… Though some did include increases in certain abilities. And this formula is properly made so it bypasses your system and goes straight to the umbilical cord, you’d feel nothing but some tingling.”

Cadance sat there, mouth agape at how in the realms of McCarthy somepony could somehow be so genius and yet so dense at the same time. Then she remembered she was talking to a giant alien space dinosaur.

She shook her head and crossed her arms, “.... X-Xenilla I appreciate the sentiment… But I’m not eating that.”

“... Why?”, he grunted.

Princess Cadance rolled her eyes and let out a loud shrug, “Aaagh! Because I don’t want to end up with a baby who could blast holes in the ceiling or have wings the size of mine!”

Xenilla was unmoved, “Sounds like a strong heir, I fail to see how that’d be faulty Empress Cadenza. I could mix it into a tea if you like.”

This time she didn’t even bother to correct him, narrowing her eyes and barking at the kaiju, “Because you’re not the one delivering the baby!”

Xenilla was a good deal more knowledgeable in many things than Godzilla Junior, but he was still his brother and they had more than a few similarities even if neither ever noticed. One of which was just how thick their skulls could be at times, “... Are you saying you’d prefer I be in the operating room to assist? Could try and make a surge crystal to hel-”

Cadance finally looked over at him after his pause. Xenilla’s entirely demeanor was different than it had been a moment before. The kaiju turned unicorn had frozen stiff like he’d been shocked, eyes contracting to points. The tray he’d been holding dropped onto Cadance’s bed with a clack, but Xenilla paid no attention. Instead he just seemed to stare off into space sporting a look like he’d just been shocked. Princess Cadance’s anger turned to bewilderment and then to concern, she tentatively reached up and put a hoof to Xenilla’s shoulder, nearly recoiling from how ice cold his paling skin felt. She could feel him, feel that he was shaking all over in a manner Cadance was familiar with.

Xenilla was terrified of something overpowering.

For a moment the room seemed to roast. The alicorn felt a burning heat pass over her and into Xenilla before it vanished. Hear it she could not, but there was a voice. One that seemed to fade in and out like a scent in the wind. Not of word, but of mind. Xenilla’s mind.

-”Save your brother…”-

It was familiar, though not of recent memory. If he had time to ponder about and recognize it, Xenilla might have considered himself insane for thinking so. But that didn’t matter. His sudden departure from Empress Cadenza’s chamber didn’t matter. Only the sight of a misshapen demon in his brother’s skin mattered. Xenilla suddenly bolted from Cadance’s bedside and into her closet, slamming the door behind him.

Key Ring was, simply put, flabbergasted at what Xenilla demanded when he emerged out of their test doorway a few moments later. In the catacombs of the castle what was once a realm of malefic experimentation was now replaced by such of a benign nature. Aerenth replaced by quartz, dark tomes by both modern Equestrian and arcane Imperial spellbooks and magic diagrams, and enough used powdered chalk upon a nearby chalkboard to pale an elephant. At the center of the laboratory was a plain looking doorway connected to numerous crystals and emblazoned with a single rune, a combination of a Canterlot symbol and a Crystal Imperial one, on the frame. It was from there Xenilla burst out of just after he exited via Cadance’s closet.

That was a minute ago and Xenilla was currently running through adjusting the crystals powering the contraption as he spouted out the coordinates he needed to ‘jump’ towards.

“50 kilometers south-southeast?! Xenilla we just got this thing working and the biggest jump we’ve done so far is quarter of a kilometer!”, Key Ring roared as he scrambled after the kaiju and tried to keep his shaking from causing his glasses to fall off.

Xenilla just kept milling through the power grid and threw his voice behind himself towards his collaborator, “Your special talent includes connecting and unlocking doorways isn't it? And we’ve been making use of the portal magic we read up on with Mr. Burst. Last jump worked fine.”

Key Ring cringed before pointing towards a very heavily drawn-over chalkboard showing records of their previous ‘jumps’, “Yes but we've only done so to places physically linked. Same building, down the street, across the path. The places need to be touching so far!”

“We’re on the same continent as the plateau, it counts for being connected. Besides you’ve used similar spells for years and our last test just worked.”

“I used it to get to my office quicker from the library front door! You’re talking about jumping four Manehattans!”

Xenilla roared back as he whirled around, “And I’m not taking no for an answer!”

He huffed in labored breaths, the stress causing a dampness to emerge from the creases of his eyelids. Xenilla growled as he manually created several more large energy charged yellow quartz crystals and forced them into the network powering the doorway. He grunted but didn’t pause, instead looking for his other collaborator. Ever since he vowed to protect the Crystal Empire, he’d seen fit to do so by any moral means he could. And to quickly catch himself up on Equestrian magic for knowledge in use of defensive spells as well as utility purposes like the doorway, he’d sought help from one of Key Ring’s colleagues also brought over from Canterlot. Not the best magician but he was hard-pressed to find a better archivist. Now if only he could find him.

Lacking time, Xenilla elected to go for the simple route and let loose a roar that was unbefitting of an equine and instead sounded more like his true form was calling it out, “SUNBUUUURST?!”

The entire building seemed to shake, but it got the result. A mobile pile of books started to scramble down the stairs, losing half his load of tomes as he did. Sunburst tripped, the last stack of books thankfully being caught by Key Ring as he lurched over the stairwell railing.

He winced, rubbing at his ringing ears and adjusting his glasses, “Um.. You rang? Ehehe.”

Key Ring deadpanned and groaned, “Xenilla’s trying to kill himself.”

"Wait! What?! How?!"

"He's wanting to port himself here."

Key Ring’s words were accompanied by him setting the books down and pointing towards a map set upon one of the walls with a levitated pen. Sunburst puzzled, getting down the rest of the stairs and trotting over to the map. He froze in front of the map and for a moment shook, before quickly whirling around with an expression that made his eyes seem bigger than his glasses.

“50 kilometers south-southeast?! Xenilla we just got this thing working and the biggest jump we’ve done so far is quarter of a kilometer!”, he pleaded.

Xenilla snarled, steaming at his eyes and unmoved.

“Yeah, that’s what I told him,” Key Ring grumbled as he rubbed at his still ringing ear.

The kaiju snorted, “Don’t act like it’s not possible. Starswirl managed to link whole worlds together. Space, time, and dimension.”

“Yes but-,” Key Ring belted as he looked between himself and Sunburst with a lost visage, “We’re no Starswirl though! I’m a historian and magic teacher!”

Sunburst came alongside his colleague and put his hoof across his chest as he pleaded against insanity, “And I’m a scholar!”

Xenilla shook like a broiling kettle. For a moment his lips curled back and his eyes dilated with rage. He swung down, spurring a wince from his cohorts. But instead of a tackle or smash like they were expecting, they felt his trembling hooves upon their shoulders. They looked to him, Xenilla hanging his head low and disguising his face behind his bangs.

For a moment there seemed to be a breeze that passed through the chamber, despite no windows or doors being opened. And despite it being a cool day outside, the air briefly flashed with a great heat. The voice spoke to Xenilla’s mind again. While quiet and distant, it’s power was evident.

-”This is your chance…”-

-My chance to atone…-

“I’m not asking you to be…”, Xenilla whispered quietly with a slight quiver in his voice.

Slowly the three stallion’s gazes met, or at least the closest they could given the lost sight the kaiju had. He looked out into a distance south-southeast, to where his species’ sensing ability told him the source of his terror was. His expression was the same one he bore when his brother attacked him in a meltdown state at Canterlot, lost, horrified, stressed, and nearly breaking. Sunburst and Key Ring remained quiet, their own visages slowly drooping from concern and worry.

Key Ring gulped and finally spoke in a quiet sigh, “... Then what are you asking us to be? Asking us to do?”

Xenilla slowly took his hooves off them and picked himself up, solemnly bowing his head, “To get me as close as we can… Please.”

The two Canterlot unicorns looked to one another, sending flashes of questioning, confusion, and concern to one another. But, by twitch of muscle and narrowing of brow, they hardened their expression with visible resolve. The silent conversation was concluded with a determined nod.

Instantly Sunburst went to the tomes and dug through the piles of books, pulling up multiple spells of both recent and arcane making.

He busily scanned the pages and adjusted his glasses, “For long distance casting we’ll need a stabilization spell matrix cast through the far sight foci. The quartz crystals can magnify the energy so cast through them in an upward-downward pattern twice, then two left-right patterns, followed by Clover the Clever’s far sight spell on top of the focusing rune.”

Key Ring took to the controls for the doorway as his horn glowed. Standing before a sort of console of buttons made of crystals, his magic took hold of them as he repeated the gestures as instructed. The maroon red unicorn’s cutie mark glowed in unison with his horn, a power magnified by Xenilla’s glowing crystals. Key Ring struggled and grit his teeth, but the rune upon the doorway flickered to a glow.

“I-I can sense a door!”

“Where?!”

Key Ring’s struggle gave way to elation at his own success, “Not the exact spot, but it’s over 24 kilometers out! New record! Must be on the back of a train!”

Sunburst’s eyes popped open, “Holy Celestia! We managed a moving target?! Must be the Clever spell addition! Xenilla, it's your best shot!”

The orange unicorn looked to the kaiju, finding him standing before the doorway as it opened. Wind gushed out, blowing papers free of their resting places upon the desks and deafening the room. Sunburst and Key Ring covered their faces with a hoof to shield their eyes from the gales as Xenilla looked on. In the distance of the doorway’s view, he could see a beam of purple light rip across the sky from somewhere on a distant plateau. Xenilla steeled himself.

“It’ll do. Do NOT follow me! Close the gate as soon as I’m through!”, he shouted out to them before charging through the doorway.

The door slammed shut to the sound of his echoing farewell.

“Thank you-ou-ou-ou…”

Over twenty four kilometers out, the back door on the last car of a Manehattan bound train snapped open. Xenilla launched himself through the metal railing and off the back of the train. Using the momentum, he caught himself on a cushion of telekinesis. Golden light wrapped around his form, born from his shoulders and horn, before rapidly changing his direction; from falling to rocketing forward across the arid basin’s ground several feet in the air. A massive dust cloud billowed behind the flying unicorn, Xenilla accelerating towards the plateau far ahead. A hot wind blew across the basin, watching.

==========================

===================

Present, Plateau

Grunting as he pried himself out of the pony-shaped dent he’d made, Xenilla hovered back to his feet and staggered to a ready stance. He panted several times before feeling eyes upon him, looking over to see he’d landed right next to Rarity and company who’d stopped to turn around and grab the fallen Starlight Glimmer. The glare he gave them, mostly born of worry and battle attunement than actual malice, made Night Glider yip. Turned out there was a family resemblance beyond blood.

“What. Happened?!”, he barked in an absolutely livid, panicked tone.

Rarity, still keeping her horn alight as her eyes darted between the collapsed house Godzilla had been inside and Xenilla, gulped.

“Nightmare possession. The same force that created Nightmare Moon and-,” she cut herself off from going on a tangent, “Junior felt intense rage at his student being foalnapped and cutiemark removed, it must have drawn Nightmare to bond to him resulting in-”

An earth shaking roar ripped out of the house and a fireplace was kicked out of place to get it off whom was under it. Xenilla’s eyes widened, knowing that kind of roar. He’d heard Junior make something similar that fated night at Solgell, right when he was about to kill something or die trying. That time it had been himself.

Shaking off a stab of guilt, Xenilla frantically summoned up several quartz crystals and barked to the ponies, “It's too dangerous! Get out of here!”

He threw himself and the quartz orbiting him at the mountain of rubble just as Nightmare Godzilla burst out of it, still throwing his voice backwards.

“I’ll hold him off, run! As far as you can!”

Xenilla and Nightmare Godzilla crashed into each other with the former being the one to lose the strength contest outright. Losing ground, Xenilla loosed his word.

“St-Studied dark magic with Key Ring,” Xenilla strained and grunted as his hooves cut trenches into the ground with his forehead smashed into Nightmare Godzilla’s.

“Know what- you’re going through! It corrupts, takes what’s there-,” he was headbutted back but quickly shook off the daze when Godzilla advanced again and threw himself at his sibling, “Makes it- worse! You’re angry. Angry at me, angry at her, but it’s a nightmare, not you…!!”

Xenilla’s legs crumbled under the sheer force and his back hit the ground a half second before Nightmare Godzilla’s powerful hoof slammed into his chest. The Protector of the Empire gagged, matching Nightmare Godzilla’s one limb's strength with his two to shakingly push the hoof off from crushing in his sternum.

“It’s j-just a nightmare! So wake up!”, he defiantly barked into Nightmare Godzilla’s fire-drooling maw.

Pinned down, Xenilla predicted the beam he saw his brother charging was meant for him; crossing his forelimbs with two levitating crystals embossing themselves above him as his shoulder pads glowed to relay the energy into the guard. With his barrier shield up, Xenilla braced with gritted teeth but soon found his eyes dilating in surprise when Nightmare Godzilla instead tilted his head up and prepared to fire past the two of them. Shocked but not clueless, Xenilla quickly dropped the shield, grabbed a crystal and shoved it against his brother’s cheek to throw his aim off.

Managing to only bisect several houses with his beam, Nightmare Godzilla cut the feed off and snarled at the kaiju beneath him. The roar he made was ferocious and only vaguely discernible as having some sort of speech to it. What exactly he said was utterly lost, but the context was made clear as day when his next course of action was to chomp down on Xenilla’s shoulder hard enough to draw a none too insignificant amount of blood and jerk his head about to throw Xenilla aside like a ragdoll.

=====================

Not five seconds after Xenilla yelled to the fleeing mares, Rarity skid to a halt and looked back in time at the ensuing brawl.

Night Glider noticed and stopped running to look back, “M-Miss Rarity?!”

The unicorn quivered for a moment, clearly terrified. But memory overtook sight, and memories of times training one particular spell with Princess Luna proved the Element of Generosity hadn’t been idle. And if she couldn’t give her comrades time or chance, what kind of generosity did she even have? Rarity steeled herself with a slow inhale, before fully turning back around and unironically parroting Xenilla.

Her face hardened as she shouted, “Everypony get out of here and run!”

“Wh-What?! You’re going back?!”, Night Glider squawked in a dumbstruck tone.

Rarity narrowed her eyes in controlled nerve, “It’s what heroes like he and I do. Keep going, as far as you can!”

With a mind full of resolve and a heart of terror only eclipsed by the kind of courage that helped save Equestria time and time again, Rarity did the opposite of run away.

The other mares were stunned, seeing the white unicorn run back into the now over half destroyed Our Town just as a bleeding Xenilla was thrown back by an obscured Nightmare Godzilla. Night Glider saw Rarity’s horn ignite and she saw Xenilla pull himself back up after ironically being thrown through her very house. Every instinct screamed to run, but all of her conscience told her to help her fellow pony. A national heroine, the king she’d gone to for help, and a valiant good samaritan were all in harm’s way; something unacceptable. This wasn’t like when she was cowed into submission by Starlight Glimmer under a false belief, this was something worse and yet grander. She’d been cowed for the past year, but not now. In another life she’d have been inspired among others by six heroines in need. In this one she was by half that number.

Night Glider gently hoofed Chibi Moon over to Moonbeam Glimmer, whom was still propping up the passed-out Starlight Glimmer, and put her hooves on the older pegasus’ shoulders.

“Aaaaah McCarthy!.... You heard Miss Rarity, get the three of you out of here!”, she yelped before throwing everything her weakened body had at surging back towards Our Town.

Moonbeam Glimmer was stunned in such a manner the term flabbergasted didn’t even begin to adequately explain it. She stood by in a stiff stance, watching as Night Glider ran to join Rarity and the entity she recognized from the newsprint as Ambassador Xenilla of the Crystal Empire. It was what Rarity said that replayed within her mind.

-”It’s what heroes like he and I do.”-

-”he and I”-

Rarity’s earning of the title was easy knowledge as it had been won over multiple times during the Nightmare Moon return and since. Her rushing in to help somepony else made perfect sense. It was the “he” that gave her minor pause. Rarity could have been speaking of Ambassador Xenilla, which might fit given his last minute rescue as well as some vague details about him thwarting an attempt on Princess Cadance’s life some weeks back; but Moonbeam knew whom Rarity spoke of.

Shame flashed across her face even as a flash of light burst from behind a house, magic or energy beam she couldn’t be sure of from this distance. There was a time she’d have scoffed at anything involving the words “heroic” and “Godzilla”, times she was gripped by fear that made her irrational. She’d slandered him, distrusted him, practically gave him contempt even as she begged him to prove her paranoia wrong. It took a surprise meeting at a gravestone to leave her so shocked it dispelled all that paranoia in one swoop. She’d even gone to him for help when she thought she didn’t deserve it.

But watching now, having seen Godzilla taken by the same things they both feared he’d be, it affixed her hooves to the ground. Could something so terrifying, so out of control and dangerous, be a hero?

A gentle pressure against her throat caught the mare’s attention and her breath hitched in her throat. Moonbeam Glimmer looked down and saw a pair of small red eyes peering up at her. Chibi Moon was finally reactive to the world around her and locked gazes with Moonbeam. The poor filly was in a sorry state with puffy red eyes that were dried with salt crust, having long since ran out of tears from her experience. They gazed at each other, attention only torn away by a flash of light. Looking up to it they could see one of the houses had caught on fire now, a battery of purple beams raking the night sky behind it.

Moonbeam Glimmer felt a pit grow in her stomach as she heard and then looked to the filly, who still had her eyes transfixed on the burning town.

-He flew into that rage seeing this filly hurt, then Nightmare took him… That.. That thing is not him. The sensei this little one knew was real…-

In the town, a deep voice, Xenilla likely, was shouting something but neither could make it out from the distance. Through the smoke they could glimpse a spurt of blue light, indicating Rarity’s magic, and a blur of dulled blue to indicate Night Glider flying as fast as she could markless. It was evident the conflict wasn’t an all out fight.

-The one they’re trying to get back was the real Godzilla…-

A whirlwind of thoughts streamed through her mind as she observed Chibi Moon, the town, and the limp form of her own unconscious sister. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, shaking. The memory of Godzilla Junior meeting with her, talking to her… forgiving her. They started to contrast and overwrite the more recent visages of the Nightmare-infused abomination. But even then she could recall the peculiarities. When Godzilla had thrown that house at Starlight Glimmer, he was no doubt trying to kill her. But then he shot at the house himself and burned it to such a degree that it missed.

An odd miss was understandable for anyone, but to do so in such an upfront way seemed unbecoming of someone who’d previously shot down scores of high speed gyaos. She started to think it through, but there was only one logical conclusion to it all. One that left her eyes widened and shudders stilled.

-He only shot it down when she ran into harm’s way. He did it on purpose…-

Moonbeam Glimmer watched on as the echoes of another roar rattled the air.

-He’s still in there…-

She started to get ideas, compulsions. Every single action she could think of was a bad idea in some form, insane in many other forms. But there was only one right course of action, only one that aligned with a promise she’d made before encountering Starlight again.

-He’s still in there… If they’re going to help the real Godzilla, I’m going to help the real one too!-

Moonbeam Glimmer gently laid her sister out, propping her against a small boulder to hide her behind it before setting Chibi Moon down. She gently put a hoof to the filly’s face to embrace her, remembering this wasn’t the first time she’d had to hold a crying filly during a traumatic attack. Moonbeam stroked Chibi Moon’s mane softly as she pulled back, keeping her voice as calm and contained as possible as not to rouse or frighten the poor child anymore than she already was.

“Alright.. I need you to staaay… baaack. You can hide here or you can run, I promise I and the others will come back for you okay?”, she whispered before pausing as she got little response from Chibi.

The echoes of Nightmare Godzilla’s bellowing rang out again, Moonbeam closing her eyes and wincing as it rattled her ears even from this distance.

She sighed and leaned closer, “And we’re going to come back with your... Sensei, okay?”

She kept her eyes closed but could slowly feel a sullen Chibi Moon nod her head, rubbing her cheek against Moonbeam’s wrist. Moonbeam leaned her head and gently put it to the little one’s, staying so until Chibi Moon’s shuddering stopped and she calmed.

“Stay safe, I’m going to go get him for you.”

Chibi Moon watched on as Moonbeam Glimmer rushed off to help in any way she could muster. Only the groaning to her left roused her attention away. When Starlight Glimmer managed to struggle to a sitting position and rub at her head to clear away a blinding migraine, the first thing she saw when her vision cleared was a pair of stoic, red eyes peering back up at her.

Starlight froze, letting her mind reawaken and slowly let the realizations return. While she couldn’t recall everything she’d done under the mental influence of a, to her, still unknown party; and dark magic tended to warp memory of past events anyways, she didn’t need recollection to tell her what was going on. Before the words could even leave her throat to ask what was going on, Starlight Glimmer saw the equals sign made of aerenths on Chibi Moon’s flank, and was thusly silenced.

Quiet settled between the two unicorns as they sat across from each other, the filly resolute even if her features betrayed great grief and sadness; and the mare looking like she’d just been run through. Starlight, mouth agape, reached towards Chibi Moon’s flank with a shaking hoof; almost like she was praying in some corner of her mind the equals sign was just forged like hers was or natural fur patterns from perhaps a mathematical themed talent. For a moment, Chibi Moon shied away, partially springing up to shrink back like a frightened kitten. However when red eyes looked upon Starlight’s quivering maw and glistening eyes, she slowly moved back into place.

Starlight’s hoof gently touched the seem of the mark, feeling the smooth aerenth to confirm what kind of mark it was; and instantly Starlight Glimmer’s heart was clutched in a cold vice; a heart filled with silent shame. While she’d eagerly gobble up any passersby or wayward souls for her town project in equality, Starlight Glimmer had maintained one rule in recruitment. Only those of proper age, no children. Aside from the obvious point of many children already lacking cutiemarks and the pragmatic reason of her using her spell on a blanked flank might indicate her magic didn’t work exactly as she preached, she’d had a very personal reason. One tied to sadly not isolated or short memories of a young filly running out into the world on her own, taken to a cause devoid of family.

“I… I… I’m so… sorry,” Starlight whimpered in a tiny voice.

Chibi Moon very slowly wrapped her little hoof around Starlight’s wrist as she looked upon her. The mare seemed so much different now without the smoke in her eyes or red gleam clogging her irises. In truth she was still frightened, but the apprentice of Godzilla wouldn’t be weak in the knees. And she’d heard all of what Starlight Glimmer had been ranting and railing about as her kidnapper dragged her out here. About her talent, her past, and her strife that fueled such wrath in her dark magic. An eager young filly with a talent for magic. An entry to a school for gifted unicorns and the excitement thereof. An unorthodox entry exam that went awry. A knack for more destructive spells that left the teachers terrified and the filly socially isolated. Said filly then seeking a greater source for instruction.

The only difference was Starlight was driven down a foul path, whereas Chibi lucked out and attracted the attention of both Princess Luna and Godzilla Junior. Without Princess Luna to vouch for her getting an A+, Chibi would have failed the entrance exam. Without Godzilla Junior to start helping her to control her force, she’d have been a social outcast that terrified others. Starlight Glimmer’s tragedy almost could have happened again, with her. Without those two lucky strokes of fate, Chibi was looking at the mare she could have grown up to be like.

And perhaps by conjecture from any scattered bits of memory she had from her time under Ghidorah’s thrall, or perhaps some compulsion she deduced herself as she looked upon Chibi Moon as a distinctly hot wind blew by; the similarities were not lost upon Starlight Glimmer.

Chibi Moon shook her former foalnapper’s hoof while pointing to the town with her other one. Starlight Glimmer nearly recoiled when she saw the destruction, but clearly heard the tiny voice of Chibi Moon croak out a single word.

“Please.”

===============

Princess Luna’s night certainly had taken a turn for the dour. When she recalled herself to the castle to tend to the pony she was sensing to be undergoing a nightmare, she hadn’t expected to end up in the Solar Wing’s tower at the side of her sister’s bed. And an experienced alicorn having bad dreams was not a welcoming proposition, with Princess Celestia’s vigorous tossing and turning in unwakeable sleep not being the main problem. That problem lay in the fact what Luna first suspected was merely a scary dream when she left Godzilla Junior and Lady Rarity turned out to be a full blown night terror. Her sister was covered in a cold sweat, whimpering and grunting unknowable words as she fought back against something within her mind. And naturally due to it being Celestia, there were more than a few scorch marks on the ground from spurts of sleep-spell casts. Already Luna had called for all staff to evacuate the tower, just to be safe should a stray blast go in the wrong direction.

Princess Luna ignored the great heat coming from her distressed sibling and collected her own magic upon the spirals of her horn. Reciting the same mental commands and lullaby-like whispers she used recently on Junior more than once to calm his rest, she found herself perplexed when the tap of her horn against Celestia’s resulted in nothing. Princess Celestia whimpered and began to flail, forcing Luna to try and hold her sibling down and try again. Again she tried to banish the night terror, and again, nothing happened. There was an odd sensation about this that left her puzzling. She tried again and this time held her horn to Celestia’s and focused.

Try as she may she couldn’t will the negativity away, but she could almost sense something else. Like sifting through muddy water, she could almost feel something but not visualize it. Luna furrowed her brow.

There was definitely something there and it was totally unfamiliar to her. If she could gander and grope for a comprehension she’d almost note it felt like there was a line of thought attached to her sister’s mind, like an invisible limb grasping at Celestia’s consciousness. Luna had never seen anything like it, but one thing was clear. This was not a normal night terror and trying to banish it externally would do nothing. She needed to get inside and see what the problem was, hopefully gleaning something from her sister’s conscious or finding her in the mentalscape to get some answers.

Luna put up a magic shield around them, just in case Celestia thrashed about more and shot out magic that might harm anypony, and dream walked into the other alicorn’s psyche.

She didn’t expect there to be so much fire. Princess Luna had to squint because of the ungodly brightness and intense heat of it all. Adjusting, she took a lay of the mental lands. Large piles of rubble betrayed the former presence of massive city walls that had since crumbled. Houses were burning, the water was flash fried, even the masonwork on the pillars and roads looked warped by heat with melted hoofprints moving down the latter. Several large buildings had noticeable holes in them, all lined by scorch marks. The only thing Luna could ever compare it to in terms of appearance was that of a meteor impact striking the area and igniting a firestorm. Luna put a bubble of magic around herself, both as a means of precaution and to block out the blinding heat and smoke; then looked about for signs of her sibling.

The presence she felt before returned, moving across the mentalscape like a pulse.

With the pulse came new visions, some Luna remembered and recognized while some she didn’t.

A slow motioned moment in time at the apex of their Mirror World voyage. The landscape outside of the mirrored Canterlot partially destroyed from the fight between an enraged Princess Celestia and her counterpart. Said counterpart and Luna’s own duplicate now cleansed of the evil within them, which was condensed into an enormous mass of dark emotions and thoughts the valiant King Sombra had forced himself to bear alone. The once noble king, the first to find her sister’s heart, had his blue-streaked hair and kind eyes marred by familiar dark smoke and a fanged maw. It was the moment right before the prime Princess Celestia could last see her lover, before he forced himself away for everypony’s safety. The last fleeting span they locked eyes.

The world around Luna seemed to dim, almost like it was grieving.

The pulse came again, altering the vision like it was peeling further into the mind. And when Princess Luna saw where they were now, she flinched like a cold lance had been driven through her chest. It was the Everfree Castle’s element room, the glass of one of the windows already shattered, for the point of view’s owner had already been hurled through it. Silvery moonlight streamed through it, slightly altered by the very visible image of an alicorn mare embossed onto the nocturnal celestial body. This was right after Nightmare Moon had been banished, and that cold, darkening feeling in the world around Luna seemed to do so more and more; mourning.

Luna watched on as an all too familiar voice pleaded, sobbing, begging the Element of Magic for another miracle. Like a ghost, Celestia’s voice haunted the halls of the castle as much as it would now do so for her sister’s memory.

“Bring her back… She’s my baby sister so bring her back-ck-ck-ck!....”

In all her dream walks, Celestia was adamant about not worrying with her if she was having a bad dream. Luna could guess now why that was so, feeling a growing pit within her stomach for honoring that wish.

Princess Luna sighed, forcing herself to move about in the dream and out of the forced perspective. But the moment she did, she was taken off guard by two things. Firstly was the fact when she moved ahead and looked back, she was so shocked at the lack of Celestia present that she wasn’t temporarily struck still by the memory of Starswirl the Bearded walking into the room. The old unicorn instead walked into and seemed to react to, even comfort absolutely nothing. The world, the memory seemed to fit Celestia in it; but her consciousness was absent in it. This wasn’t where her sister’s consciousness was in her dream.

-Then… Where could she?-

Luna looked about busily. Failing to see her, she cast a spell across her horn specifically to home in her sister, memorizing Celestia’s magic signature and trying to scan the mentalscape around her for a match. The split second she sensed something far, far away in another instance; the presence returned. This time it was anything but subtle. Princess Luna was thrown back, out of the memory, out into a dark void like a swatted fly.

Luna briefly snapped into the waking world, mind and eyes spiralling. She was still in Celestia’s room, still at her bedside, and judging from the flinching upon Celestia’s face; still needing to help her sister. Half dumbstruck but now all too determined that something afoul was at work in her dear sister’s mind, Luna recovered from her mental spiral and dove back into the dreamwalk. Recasting the spell to find her sister’s magic, Luna willed herself towards it.

Again she was pushed back and again she dove back in. The presence refused to give her much time, now only glimpsing what was going on and seeing the perspective of dream indicated her hypothesis that Celestia was reliving all of her worst memories.

-Reliving them … Or rather, somepony is forcing her to. Foul cretin! Thou shalt not do harm to thine Celly!-

Each time she was kicked out quicker than the last, like the presence fighting her became aware of the intrusion when she cast the magic and was now actively trying to keep her away from her sister. Princess Luna’s brow furrowed as she was punted out of the mindscape again.

This time she less dreamwalked and more dream-battering rammed her way into Celestia’s mind. But when she found herself willed to where Celestia’s consciousness was, she found herself back in the burning city. Detail was even grimmer than it was before, as now it seemed like it wasn’t just the masonry or carpentry on fire. Luna opted not to focus on the appropriately sized and seemingly limb-bearing forms smoldering in ash and smoke, pressing on. It wasn’t hard to find her sister but she could wish she didn’t do so the way she did, it wasn’t comforting to close in on your sibling by tracking them through the enormous bursts of light and her sobbing.

Charging forward and putting up a magic barrier before her, Luna smashed through a barricade of burning rubble and braced for the worse.

Princess Celestia sat before her. Younger in appearance, but only in a way so slightly in variance from how she appeared in the modern day that only Luna could recognize it, the white alicorn was in a sorry state. Devoid of regalia, half covered in ash, and sobbing in total heartbreak. Luna instantly dropped all pretenses and stood with her mouth agape. In some ways, seeing her sister like this was even worse than seeing the reaction following her banishment.

-She’s not much different from that memory, so this must be right afterwards… When she was alone.-

Celestia, having her back turned to her sister, sobbed pitifully as she clutched something close to her chest. The debris around Celestia started to rattle and float off the ground weightlessly. Luna quickly ran to her, feeling a dampness sting at her eyes. Her mistake of dropping her magical barrier cost her when Celestia exploded out with another shockwave of light-colored, burning magic. The debris that had been levitated by Celestia shot outwards like burning meteors and Luna was thrown backwards into a wall so hard she caved a crater into it.

Luna grunted and gasped, barely having time to recover before another shockwave slammed into her and blew much of the surrounding scenery away. Smashed through the wall, Princess Luna managed to throw up a shield of magic and anchor herself down to the floor. The shockwaves came in greater number and strength, ever growing in burning might. Finally, like an exploding volcano, Princess Celestia’s entire form was engulfed in an enormous pillar of fiery brilliance; the inferno’s roar only eclipsed by the sound of Celestia’s screaming.

Princess Luna steeled herself and shielded her eyes with a hoof, gritting her teeth as she got closer, step by strained step. The massive surge of light made it almost impossible to even see anything, let alone her sibling; but the glimpses she gained were not comforting. Celestia’s mane was not its natural pink and gold nor the afflicted radiance of rainbows, but the very dangerous looking flames that shot out from around her. The burning magic changed in essence in such a way Luna could practically taste it, shifting from chaotic, uncontrolled bursts to the negativity that screamed of dark magic. It was like witnessing the change that occurred in her that led to Nightmare Moon, the good alicorn burning off to give way to a destructive echo.

A breaker of day’s eyes snapped open, a slitted, very unequine eye briefly visible through the fires before it was engulfed in the searing light. In a scene lost upon the history books, words utterly failed Princess Luna.

There was a low hiss, one Luna was surprised she could detect over the screaming alicorn and fires before she realized it was coming from the mind rather than the dreamscape. It was back, that indescribable presence. The night sky of the dream distorted, and three pairs of red gleams emerged above her.

-”Your family is most unusual, as far as your supposed species pertains.”-

The world seemed to freeze in place aside from the speaker and the vile voice’s audience. Luna whirled about to look directly at the red gleams as they circled around. The red light blinked, indicating them to be three sets of eyes.

“Vile scourge, what business have thee assaulting Celestia such as this?!”

A low, mocking cackle that seemed to come from all directions rattled the dreamscape. Through the dark void, an enormity closed in. And as it did, the distant pinpricks of light that indicated the eyeshine grew larger, and larger, and larger still until the word magnitude was appropriate. Like a moving mountain, radiant golden scales came to reflect Celestia’s light and Princess Luna’s eyes widened in recognition. She recognized this titan from her own talks and dreamwalking forays into Godzilla Junior’s mind, the shock being enough for her to break speech pattern.

“YOU!”

Nightmare Godzilla made his way back towards the Glimmer house, stalking towards it step by step. A corona-like ray of plasma shot out in front of him and forced him to stop. Looking towards the source as it cut out, Xenilla clawed his way out of the burning ruins he’d gotten buried in; red plasma smoke wreathing his face. Xenilla’s meltdown patches were flashing erratically, occasionally showing spurts of red.

Grand King Ghidorah, hovering alongside the evidently floating pegasi city for which this memory took place in, towered over the alicorn despite only being visible from the chest up. In the frozen landscape, his form’s sheer size and mobility made him as glorious as he was terrifying. Grand King Ghidorah’s maws curled into what Luna couldn’t tell were either scowls or grins.

-”You have proven quite irksome.”-

Princess Luna was, in truth, as terrified as she was shocked. Junior had warned her of this demonic drake multiple times when they’d sit and swap old stories. This was the one being he could never truly defeat, or fend off on his own. And while she lacked personal experience to give it context, hence why she wasn’t petrified with fear and no doubt most beings justifiably would be, she was extremely uneased by his mere presence. Still, the nerve of whom was behind her gave the alicorn gumption and she stood her ground, flying up to get on eye level with the golden monstrosity.

“What business have you with my sister? Why have you assaulted her in such a way?! The kaiju told me of you and you typically never moved in such a subtle way.”

Ghidorah remained silent, eyes locked upon the Princess of the Night. Princess Luna, mustering up the same legendary courage that ran strong in her family, narrowed her gaze at the three glares shot her way.

“Answer me coward! Are you too afraid to lash out at Equestria and its allies upfront?”

Her shouts were met with stoic non-reaction by Ghidorah, whom began to extend his mental capabilities. Eyes beginning to glow red, Princess Luna felt a wall forced up against her. That presence that shoved her out of the dream realm returned, and as she fought against it she lost ground. Princess Luna beat her wings and extended her magic, pushing back as much as she could to dodge or shove away the wall of psychic energy beginning to exorcise her from her sister’s mind. The alicorn grunted and strained, slowing but not averting the force. Forced sideways and still fighting back, she caught a glimpse of her frozen, transformed sister. Luna’s heart chilled seeing the paragon of a pony her dear sibling often was reduced to such a state.

“Why?! Why have you put my sister through this?!”, she shouted while fighting back, still just as confused as to why Grand King Ghidorah was doing this as she was at his lack of outright attack like Junior said he favored.

-”I was bored. I found the experience and memories of one so aged... amusing.”-

Princess Luna blasted the wall with magic, temporarily halting it while keeping her eyes trained upon the frozen Princess Celestia. Amidst the horrific changes and frightening appearance she witnessed one crucial detail. Lenses of red had formed over Celestia’s eyes, identical in color to Ghidorah’s.

It all but confirmed her previous hypothesis that an outside force was making her sister experience this mental torment, and that gave the dream walker all the motivation she needed.

“Yoooou DAAARE?!”, Luna roared with an outburst of magic that shattered Ghidorah’s mental wall.

The golden dragon visibly snarled after a moment of surprise, his eyes igniting and a second, larger wall being summoned. But just before he could dare the petulant alicorn to break through this one, Luna’s voice called out again in a tone that could only be described as mocking.

“Have you experienced defeat so long that you have become weakened? Is that why you refrain from showing yourself?”, Princess Luna barked as the wall of power sped towards her.

Unmoved, she called out again, “Are you afraid that Godzilla would do you in, or does a world of ponies finally give the King of Terror fright?”

Princess Luna hovered in place with magic at the ready, calmly flapping her wings as Grand King Ghidorah’s mental wall shattered right before it hit her. Grand King Ghidorah’s expression had completely shifted, from stoic to all three of his faces appearing nothing but absolutely livid.

-“That mongrel is a mistake I intend to correct soon enough, and when I return to Canterlot to finish this ordeal I will enjoy seeing your subjects weep for your catatonic body to revive after I burn your mind down,”-

Ghidorah’s maws all began to snap open, revealing a cornucopia of screaming voices that meshed together into a hellish cackle. Golden light began to build up and crackle along his fangs. But right before he opened fire on the magically readying alicorn, the King of Terror roared one last phrase that left her so baffled she nearly didn’t dodge the oncoming graviton torrents.

-”Survive!”-

=======================

“Hold him still!”, Rarity shouted as she readied a particular spell and gathered up her magic.

Nightmare Godzilla sneered and snapped his head around at the unicorn’s voice, only to be distracted by multiple quartz crystals shooting up from out of the ground to form a cage of sorts. Xenilla, spattered in bruises and burns, ground his teeth and concentrated on rerouting his power into the cage. Arcs of power lept off it and linked between the crystals, forming the same sort of structure Xenilla trapped a much younger Junior inside two decades ago. The problem was Xenilla wasn’t the only son of Senior whom remembered this fact, enraged roars shattering the air.

Nightmare Godzilla opened his jaws and loosed a thin and deceptively destructive torrent of purple plasma into the structure. The barrier projected across the crystals flared up, cells of energy forming a massive mirror that absorbed and diverted the beam into the empty ground around Nightmare Godzilla’s hooves. Danger to himself was completely unnoticed however, for he just kept firing at the same spot to no avail. Both in a panic to get this nightmare over and fret that a friend might end up hurting himself, Rarity shot out her magic through the barrier and hit Godzilla with the dark magic containment and banishment spell she’d rehearsed over and over again with Princess Luna.

Rarity was no magical prodigy. Twilight Sparkle or Sunset Shimmer she was not, even if she was certainly no novice with having to so skillfully levitate the contents of her boutique all at once to work. But magic was magic, and training under an alicorn princess wasn’t anything to sneeze at either. Her magic enveloped the distracted Nightmare Godzilla and as she winced and struggled, she could feel a tug drawing Nightmare off of Junior.

Deep within Godzilla Junior’s mind, Nightmare struggled and cried as a tether of light slipped down from the ocean’s surface and wrapped around her hoof. She grasped it, begged it for deliverance, did everything she could to hold fast to it and leave this mistake she’d made. But the leviathan whom clutched her in its hand; clutching the negativity and lowly self view that caused Junior to dub himself a monster, clutched at the power it had gained to enact its revenge. It refused to let go and Nightmare found herself in a tug-of-war that salvation didn’t have a surefire victory over.

In the real world, Rarity gasped and strained, trying to pry her head backwards as if to pull the Nightmare off as Applejack would yank something to her with a lasso. She was being dragged forward despite her best efforts. Moonbeam Glimmer and Night Glider grabbed hold of the unicorn and helped the only way they could, trying to force themselves backwards. But in their weakened state, devoid of cutie marks, they could only do so much as all three mares dug trenches into the ground. Nightmare Godzilla’s breath attack increased in intensity, causing some of the crystals in the prison to crack and spurring Xenilla to exert himself creating waves of replacements to reinforce the cage that was now rapidly being broken down. A streak of purple rushed past Rarity and made for the wreckage of Starlight Glimmer’s house. Nightmare Godzilla briefly cut off his breath attack when he saw and recognized the younger of the Glimmer sister’s just before the cage enveloped him.

Starlight Glimmer gasped and panted, rushing up to her house and not hesitating for a moment when she blasted one of the surviving walls with magic to tear it down. The repentant soul dove inside, digging through destroyed walls and burned debris to find the one thing present that might help.

“S-STOP FIGHTING IT, JUNIOR!”

“CAN’T- HOLD HIM!”

Rarity and Xenilla’s voices shouted over her head as she threw aside an overturned cabinet, scrambling through the fallen drawers.

-Come on, come ooon!-

There was another of those hellish roars. Starlight Glimmer glanced up and saw through a hole in the wall that a barrage of beams had shot out of the crystal prison, burning through it after overpowering the shield. She tore back into the casings, spilling out a myriad of special glass containers before elation chanced a visit across her face. Starlight Glimmer held up and beheld two jars whose contents glowed with a friendly light. Inside were the floating symbols of a moon with blue and teal rays streaming down from it and another, more crescent moon accented by a cute red heart. Moonbeam Glimmer and Mariner Moon’s cutiemarks. She didn’t wait for a moment before shattering the both of the enchanted jars on the ground and letting the cutiemarks fly out through the wall and back to their owners. For a moment, Starlight Glimmer sighed and smiled at her deed, praying it gave the heroes a better chance.

She started to claw her way out of the wreckage, almost free when an explosion rocked the fallen house and rattled the air. Dazed and ears ringing, Starlight Glimmer just managed to find her exit and regain her hearing when Night Glider’s screaming tone caught her attention.

“STARLIGHT! GET OUT OF THERE! GET OUT OF THERE!”

The piles of fallen, splintered wood to her side creaked under a weight and Starlight Glimmer’s eyes widened. She tried to teleport away, tried to levitate out, tried to do anything. Her magic wasn’t quick enough when Nightmare Godzilla erupted through the side of the house in an explosion of roars, splitting timbers, and flying debris. His broad hoof smashed through the house and tore a massive chunk out of it, Starlight included. The fourth of the building that was torn free flew over and shattered against another of the townhouses, collapsing the both of them down in a torrent of broken homes. When the dust cleared, Starlight Glimmer lay half buried in the debris, unmoving as a trickle of blood streamed down from her forehead and lips.

Xenilla pulled himself out of the shattered debris of crystals he’d landed in and saw the sight, stunned. Xenilla knew and didn’t know many things. He knew he was needed here. He didn’t know whom this mare his brother had taken such an issue with was or what exactly she’d done. He knew the Nightmare entity had possessed his brother. He didn’t know to what extent the resulting monstrosity’s actions were of its doing or Junior’s. But he did know his brother’s traits, and he knew one thing that differed Godzilla Junior from Godzilla Senior was consideration of force. Their father would go full force in any situation, no questions asked. Junior always held back unless absolutely necessary. He’d sooner take another hit than let a human get hurt, how the apes paid him back for it be damned. And he treated the ponies just the same.

Nightmare Godzilla charged his ray with his face trained upon Starlight Glimmer. Xenilla growled.

-Whatever Nightmare did to him, it warped my brother. Warped him... to be how like I was!-

An inexcusable offense. The air around him started to heat up, caution burning up with it. Xenilla shook, patches of his skin beginning to glow with a light all too familiar in their family.

-No... He's supposed to be better, I strove to be like him!-

The nuclear reactor within his heart surged, overclocking itself. He didn’t have the same control his brother did, this was beyond risky; but Xenilla had spent the better part of his life afraid. Afraid for his world, afraid for his family, afraid for what came tomorrow. No more. Equestria was at risk, his brother was out of control, and there might not be a tomorrow if he didn’t take this plunge.

-Twenty years he's been a hero, I will not let him become like me!-

The gates to the power within were torn open. Whiteness burned through his fur’s typical navy blue and his eyes became engulfed in light. Xenilla slammed a hoof into the ground, releasing a miniature nuclear pulse with a step and breaking the bedrock. He wasn’t done, not by a long shot, not when he had so much to still atone for and too much at risk. Time for some tough love.

“Iiiiick’abrooooooOOOD!”

The bellowing roar sounded off and the partial meltdown sporting Xenilla threw himself into Nightmare Godzilla, corona beams and purple plasma rays cutting through the air. A hot wind that blew through the town seemed to chill in grief.

===================

Princess Luna teleported out of the way, dodging a barrage of graviton blasts that eviscerated a mountain. Her return fire, a blue ray of concussive magic that raked across her foe, glanced off Grand King Ghidorah’s brow and barely got him to wince an eyelid. Their battle thus far had been an utter stalemate, Luna too small, agile, and adept in the dream realm to take any hits and Ghidorah was far too massive and durable for Luna’s return strokes to do so much as annoy him.

-”This is meaningless.”-

Surprisingly unfettered from the prolonged conflict, Princess Luna smirked. She smacked her wings before herself in a thundering clap, emitting a shockwave of magic that rang out across the dream realm.

“We concur!”

The wave of magic wrapped around all present, Celestia and Ghidorah. In an instant it constricted down upon the latter while being absorbed by the alicorn. Grand King Ghidorah’s manifestation started to shrink, condensing in size.

“Thou might have the ability to intrude upon another’s mind, but this is the dreamscape in which we tread. I walk the grounds here!”

Grand King Ghidorah, about the size of a large dragon and shrinking more by the second, snarled and thrashed against the curse afflicting him. After failing to blast the magic off with his beams, Grand King Ghidorah folded in his wings and focused. Collecting up the power channeling from the core within him, the dragon’s entire body lit up with raw energy. He threw out a roar and swung his extremities out, shattering the magic like a circus strongman breaking his bonds. Ghidorah hissed and examined himself, feeling not much loss in power but a great diminishment of his one illustrious scale. Comparing himself to the Trot building he hovered beside, Ghidorah’s projection was roughly 3 to 4 meters tall. Still quite large, but enough for it to count when Princess Luna smashed a beam of magic into his torso and blasted him through a building.

The debris from the exploding structure didn’t erupt out, but rather were fractured and pushed to the side in the weightless, time frozen environment around where Ghidorah plowed through the building. Princess Luna gained some altitude and surveyed her options.

-He’s not taking me seriously as a threat, Junior spoke of his arrogance and assured superiority. No magic either, even if the gravity powers are very potent. Which means I can try to catch him off guard with versatile use of my spells, drag this out until-!! -

She quickly had to dive off to the side to avoid the barrage of beams ripping out of the house that heralded a speeding dragon flying after her. Luna acrobatically looped above the three sets of lunging jaws and shot downwards at full speed. Had time been moving for the world around them, she’d have loosed a thundering sonic boom, Ghidorah unleashing an even louder one as he took off after her. Two beads of light streaked across the sky at dazzling speed, sky blue being chased by burning gold. The streaks darted to and fro, sometimes colliding with bursts of light as unicorn based magic barriers and earth pony based physical magic fought against massive, sheer brute force.

Sent careening off by a heavy impact by Ghidorah, Luna tumbled through the air and towards the ground with the dragon bearing down upon her. Looking back while gritting her teeth, Luna’s eyes lit up and she vanished in a burst of light just as Ghidorah would have snapped his jaws upon her. Reappearing behind him, Luna was quick to acquaint her foe with the bedrock of a mountainside by loosing a machine gun-like salvo of concussive bursts. Lacking the mass he once had, Ghidorah got smashed into the side of the stone face and kept getting driven further and further in as Luna poured on the barrage until he was out of sight and likely halfway smashed through the mountain.

The alicorn panted from the effort, but kept her hooves and magic at the ready; making a further mental countdown that was both drawing in close but not doing so fast enough. Briefly winded, she could only try and mitigate what came next. Grand King Ghidorah, letting out a blood curdling roar, erupted out of the mountain opening fire from all ports. Princess Luna spammed the teleport spell, sacrificing distance for speed as she darted up, down, left, right, forward, and back in a small sector of air to try and dodge the onslaught of graviton beams and wingborne lightning. But as valiant as her effort was, the sheer volume of attack overpowered the greatest of agility and she got clipped across the chest by a burst of wing lightning, burning her fur and shattering some of her regalia right through her magic.

Luna yelped out, flying backwards with a smoking chest. Her descent was countered by Ghidorah’s rapid ascent. The dragon slammed into the stunned alicorn from below and arced upwards. With a tail coiled around her legs, one head chomped down on her foreleg, and both feet braced against her stomach; Luna was helpless to free herself as Ghidorah collided with the bottom of Trot’s grounds and used her to break the pavement. Spearing out from the roof of a ruined house, Grand King Ghidorah let go of his bite and swung the Princess of the Night around with his tails. Luna was smashed through the roof again, before a strong fling made her careen off through a stony pillar.

Princess Luna fumbled and skid across the old Pegasi capital, coming to a halt before where she’d started. Slowly, body still crackling with sparks from getting electrocuted, she rose. She was dazed, covered in bruises, scuff marks, and cuts that marred her fur, and had lost most of her regalia. And yet, to Ghidorah’s growing annoyance, she managed to stand despite some momentary, dizzied stumble.

Perturbed, he advanced; cracking the grounds with every step as erratic bands of increased gravity fractured the frozen world around him. Princess Luna gained her breath, shooting him a defiant glare that could bend steel. Her horn ignited with a flurry of brilliance as her wings spread, eyes glowed, and cutie mark sparkled. In a moment after swinging her head down, the alicorn let loose a two-meter thick torrent of magic. Grand King Ghidorah folded his wings before himself and energized his body to form a shield. He withstood the attack, even as his claws dug trenches into the terrain underfoot. Golden light burst from his maws as his wings snapped open, three graviton beams clashing with Princess Luna’s ray and halting it. Wing lightning joined in, combining with the previous assault in a blinding display that quickly began to devour Luna’s assault. As the epicenter of the beam lock swung towards the alicorn, Ghidorah’s mocking tone cackled between her ears.

-”You may call this domain your own, but many have called their worlds theirs before I saw fit to snuff them out.”-

Luna gasped, it now being her turn to get forced backwards even as she dug her hooves in.

-”So many others declare themselves ruler of their lands, yet I am the arbiter of dominion. I can destroy when I wish, toy with lives on a whim. I can command such control over any rule. I am king!”-

Grand King Ghidorah stood taller, stretching his full height as he loomed over the alicorn.

-”And if it am such an arbiter of life, then I must be a destroyer. This is my nature, and you have failed to survive or overcome it….”-

Luna struggled against the onslaught, trying desperately to hold it back. But as she peeked out a quivering eye, she saw a bit of rubble moving on its own from the shockwaves of the struggle. First slow, then speeding up; returning to normal time. She chanced a strained smirk. Her spell had done its work, the countdown had ended.

-Hehe, I wasn’t supposed to, not alone…-

Behind Luna, magical energies swirled around the frozen Daybreaker Celestia. Soon enough, the flames of her burning mane flickered and slit-pupil eyes snapped open. To his side, Grand King Ghidorah heard a fantastic, screaming roar he glanced towards only to be blinded by a searing light akin to a miniature sun. Daybreaker had broken free with a vile sneer across her face. She was about to engulf Trot in her fires, but upon seeing what was before her; she had different ideas.

Luna’s mind was filled with a panic upon seeing the fire maned, dark echo still standing instead of reverting back to her sister like she’d intended.

-B-But I tried the dark magic banishment spell! She should be normal! Ah Tartarus it must not work the same way in the mind!-

A horn was pointed towards Luna, engulfed in a swirling flame that caught the younger alicorn in a flurry of momentary fear as it was loosed. She could feel the flames stream towards her as she closed her eyes.

Grand King Ghidorah’s shriek washed over her ears. Opening her eyes, Luna beheld a sight she could never have expected. Daybreaker wasn’t her normal self, but she was still Celestia. And she recognized her baby sister. Standing beside Luna, Daybreaker poured a burning pillar of fire magic over the dragon while spreading her wings with one wing over her shorter sister protectively. Now fighting on two fronts, Grand King Ghidorah was forced to take some pressure off of Luna and divert half his beam assault to locking up Daybreaker’s attack.

Luna beheld the alicorn beside her in awe, momentarily wincing when she felt and saw one of Daybreaker’s eyes upon her. But in a moment’s span, fear was replaced by elation. Her form might look monstrous, the memory of this state might be traumatic, but they were still in Celestia’s mind during this battle. And it was still Celestia looking back at her sister with a now fanged smirk. It was a distant, fond memory Luna bore that she didn’t get to relive very often. Fighting against evil side by side with the pony she admired and confided with the most, her sister; her “Celly”.

Both Luna and Celestia stood strong, re-energized by each other’s presence just as in real life. Light magic surged out, fueled by decades worth of happy memories. Eating snacks with Smart Cookie, getting flight lessons from Commander Hurricane, closing her eyes to the sound of Starswirl’s grandfatherly voice as he read an old fable aloud, embracing after Luna was freed of the Nightmare, spending the Gala night at a donut shop with a beloved student and her friends, spending Nightmare Night with young Lady Twilight and the other Elements, a quiet midnight at a familiar pond beside one so much like either of them.

Ghidorah fought against the tidal wave of magic, managing to hold it back with all of his effort. But as he did, he witnessed something that left him, a millions year old traveller of space, stupefied. A presence, a shift in the wind that sounded almost like a chime. Watching the alicorn sisters fight back against him tooth and hoof, he saw a shape take form behind them. A glowing outline, radiant in light and power. Visible only to him, the soul was of an equine with a tall, forked horn. The visage of Harmony hovered behind the alicorns, seeming to push back against him in symbolic union with the sister’s struggle. It might have been symbolic, “in spirit”, or whatever terminology one wished to ascribe to it. But the answer was clear.

-Seems there are far more to these ponies than I thought…-

Grand King Ghidorah let a millisecond tick by as he took it all in. He looked upon the siblings, a goddess and those whom embodied her, in a way reserved for only two beings he’d ever encountered. Reijuu, a god of Terra, and Kaizer Ghidorah, the Grand King of Terror’s chosen successor. He looked upon them with surprise, some confusion, and then, stoic respect. Ghidorah dropped his assault and let himself get blasted out of the dream realm by the combined force.

-Maybe this world has a chance after all?... Regardless, my work here is done. They won’t interfere...-

===================

“Oh McCarthy, Starlight!”

Night Glider was the first to get to Starlight Glimmer, as Moonbeam and Rarity had been thrown back into a building when Nightmare Godzilla exploded out of Xenilla’s cage by firing a barrage of beams from his back to overload the shields. Tears in her eyes, she dug into the debris pinning the unicorn down despite her weakness, straining to move the timbers out of the way to pull her free. The debris crushed down into the void the unicorn left, but Starlight still did not rise. Night Glider’s blood ran cold as she leaned Starlight back on a destroyed piece of wall, the sounds of Xenilla and Godzilla’s battle echoing into the night behind her.

“S-Starlight?! Starlight stay with me!”, she fret as she patted at the unicorn’s cheek.

Much to her elation, Starlight’s breathing continued, shallow as it was, and her eyes fluttered open. But instead of the face of her citizen, Starlight’s vision perched upon what was behind her. And whether she saw it clearly or not mattered for naught, for she knew enough to be filled with remorse.

“M-My… fault….”, she croaked.

“N-No, you were- were under the influence of something, you didn’t-”

Starlight couldn’t focus on her words, only on the tragedy behind her. The glowing, burning Xenilla and Godzilla throwing each other around like a pair of rabid bears in stomps, bites, bashes, and smacks. Rarity with a restored Moonbeam Glimmer holding her as the latter flew them around to dodge beams and try and get the unicorn at a good angle to try the spell again. What the spell was she didn’t know, she just knew it had to be a hope to fix this mess. Fix her mess.

“I used dark magic.”

Her whispers seeped out as Xenilla flew into Nightmare Godzilla to try and halt his forward charge, the ground being torn up in their titanic strength and radiating shock waves.

“I hurt my family.. And f-”

She caught herself at that word, one she hadn’t truly known for years. Years since she lost contact with Sunburst and Flash Sentry due to her own obsessions and isolation to craft her magic. Friends. She didn’t deserve that word for them or for any of the town denizens.

“I hurt others…!!”

She lurched and coughed, dripping blood out of her lips and down her face as they mixed with her tears. Night Glider was saying something, something she couldn’t hear anymore as she was losing her senses. No doubt it was words of encouragement, assurance. Night Glider was always such a nice soul, even after she tore her cutiemark off.

Starlight saw Night Glider’s still altered flank, the equals sign upon it having once been a source of pride for the Glimmer. Now it was nothing but shame. She’d hurt others as a filly when she dabbled in magic she couldn’t control and lost herself to, she’d hurt even more as an adult when she continued to let it do so.

And there was only one thing she could do now to try and help. Xenilla wasn’t the only sibling looking to atone tonight.

Starlight’s horn sparked and dimly lit up, taking aim and casting the cutie mark removal spell. She couldn’t miss at this angle, all she had to do was let the magic fall like everypony could. Fall right down upon herself.

“No…”, Night Glider whispered breathlessly in amazement as Starlight Glimmer removed her own cutie mark.

The unicorn held the beautiful symbol, a star with a ribbon attached. As with Starswirl and numerous unicorns since, it was the celestials whom often indicated great magic. Starlight Glimmer cradled it in her hooves, slowly reaching out and putting it to Night Glider’s chest despite the latter’s protests.

“Take… it…”

Starlight Glimmer mouthed in faltering breaths, her eyes fluttering shut at the sight of her sister and Rarity. Night Glider’s body became alight with power, such the pegasus had never experienced before. Sensing it was in a new body, Starlight’s talent for magic reorganized itself like a transplanted organ. While it didn’t cause Night Glider to suddenly grow a horn, as unicorn magic was unusable outside of a unicorn or alicorn body, it did fill her natural pegasus magic potential to the brim with extra to spare. The pegasus’ body glowed with a brilliance, Starlight Glimmer’s cutie mark appearing on her flank.

Night Glider beheld herself, amazed as she was shocked. Starlight Glimmer cracked a weak smile as she laid back down on the broken wall, grayed and now sporting an equals sign made of aerenths upon her flank.

“You can… help them now….. Forgive me.”

Actions spoke louder than words for those trying to atone.

=======================

“THIS IS NOT YOU!”

Xenilla roar called out as his forehead crashed into Nightmare Godzilla’s. Even with the momentum of flight and the boosted power from his partial meltdown, Xenilla was losing out in the strength contest. If anything, him overclocking his reactor was the only reason he could stand any ground at all. Xenilla pushed his flight propulsion forward as much as he could, summoning a quartz crystal from the ground and grabbing hold of it to try and use as an anchor to keep his brother from bulldozing past or through him.

“It’s all the Nightmare, you have to fight it! Damn it, shake it off!”

Nightmare Godzilla’s eyes gleamed and he stomped into the ground, forcing Xenilla back an inch before pulling away. Just as Xenilla started to rocket forward due to nothing being present to oppose him, Nightmare Godzilla ducked down and swung his head up. Like a bull tossing a foe over its head, Godzilla smashed his head into Xenilla’s chest and flung him off to the side. Xenilla skid across the ground in a hail of sparks, plowing into the debris of one fallen house and instantly setting it ablaze.

Snarling, Nightmare Godzilla turned away from it and tried to advance again on Starlight Glimmer’s residence; predatory eyes trained upon the now muted-purple form laying in front of it. He paused mid step when a surge of magic tried to seize him. He kept moving forward however, slightly slowed while towing the unicorn along with him. Rarity, mane frayed and fur scuffed, was proving to be just as stubborn as Xenilla. Her magic gripped Godzilla as best she could.

“We are not your enemies Junior! I’ve been where you- are, listen! Nightmare works by causing your darker emotions to run wild, makes you feel worthless, pitiful, incomplete to the point you want to lash out,” she strained, trying not to get yanked forward.

Nightmare Godzilla paused and leered back at the source of the magic, making Rarity’s blood run cold. But to her credit, she didn’t let go.

“My sister and my friends reached out to me, and you’re stronger than I ever was then! All those dark thoughts make you think you’re a monster don’t they?! You’re not!”

Nightmare Godzilla’s eyes narrowed and he took a step towards Rarity as a snarl seeped from his jaws. The snarl was followed by a beam of purple light that tore the ground apart as it swung towards Rarity. Unable to teleport, the unicorn could only scream as she feebly tried to shield herself with her arms. But while she found herself facing a wall of radiating heat, no death by flash frying ensued. Rarity peeked out and saw to her amazement, the ray had stopped a meter or so away from her body, swinging around her and off into the empty plateau straits.

She looked to Nightmare Godzilla, whom had his eyes trained upon her; the sight witnessed by Moonbeam Glimmer and Xenilla.

-Wh-Why did he?!-

Moonbeam Glimmer remembered the house getting blasted before it could hit them, seeing a similar incident now.

-His aim wasn’t thrown off for sure this time, he intentionally missed! Part of him is trying NOT to kill us!-

“Look out!”

A blue blur screamed as it dove down and into the battlefield. A raincloud was shoved into Nightmare Godzilla’s face and bucked several times, eliciting an annoyed bellow from the now electrocuted kaiju as the blue blur shot over and grabbed Rarity. Speeding along at far more velocity than she’d ever known before, Night Glider shot up into the air with her hooves around Rarity’s middle.

“W-What?! You’re cutie mark looks like-”, Rarity stammered as she noticed Starlight Glimmer’s mark upon Night Glider’s flank.

“No time to talk! Plan now!”, Night Glider stammered.

“I-I can try the removal spell again, but I don’t think I have enough magic to pull it off and we need him standing still."

Night Glider breathed in as Starlight’s cutie mark glowed, feeling invigorated.

“Not a problem, I can help with that!”

-If I don’t turn the meltdown off soon, I’m going to kill myself… or worse. Got a minute, tops.-

He took in a deep breath, watching on at his altered brother.

-I’ll have to make it count.-

A second went by and Xenilla lunged at his sibling. A nuclear pulse fueled punch smashed into Nightmare Godzilla’s chest, forcing him to stagger back briefly. Xenilla followed it up with one strike after another, releasing shockwaves with each punch, smack, headbutt, and shoulder bash. Nightmare Godzilla roared and retaliated, hitting back every time he was struck.

“I failed you, I tried so hard to succeed at protecting you and I failed miserably! You have every right to hate me...”

Xenilla staggered back from the force of Godzilla’s downwards smash against his shoulders, caving a crater into the ground around his hooves. Struggling, he gripped his sibling’s arms and shakingly rose while matching against his strength.

“I... know you're... in there! Didn't kill that pony earlier!... C-an feel you… holding-!! B-back!… Would have crushed me by now otherwise. Always were better close quarters.”

Xenilla locked grapples with Nightmare Godzilla like a pair of wrestlers, arcs of energy flying off the both of them.

“You’re the best of the family. Best of a lot of our kind. Father hated humans, and yet you slaved yourself protecting them to no gain. Millions, hundreds of millions better off because of you! What do you do right after some tried to kill you, you do the same thing for these ponies!”

Xenilla’s knee was forced to the ground and he began to slide backwards.

He growled in his prayer, “Old term for hero meant ‘beyond normal people’, that’s you. You’re the strongest hero I’ve ever known, is this how you want to be remembered?!-”

Xenilla was forced to jump away as burning lights collected in his maw, “Mutated and breaking what you lived for because of some self-loathing disease?!”

Nightmare Godzilla saw the glow and prepared to return fire. Xenilla, quicker on the draw, threw his jaws open and fired. Except it wasn’t a corona ray that spewed out of his jaws. It was more singular in shape, blue-white in color, and less erratic in appearance. The trademark of their family and Junior’s main weapon. The thermonuclear beam. And what was blue quickly turned to red, orange spirals streaming along it. Xenilla had used the breath of the Old King, his father. But instead of firing it into his brother, the spiral fire sailed past him and shot off into the night sky.

Nightmare Godzilla and Xenilla looked on to each other as the latter kept firing the beam for several long seconds, in a dialogue devoid of words. Xenilla could have continued fighting, probably even drastically wounded his foe with such an onslaught; only to intentionally waste his shot. And evidently it was his only shot, as the meltdown marks on his body faded and the beam reverted back to a normal thermonuclear breath before completely fizzling out. Xenilla, covered in sweat and bruises, huffed in breaths as his sibling stoically watched on. Nightmare Godzilla slowly closed his mouth and the glow upon his back began to dwindle away.

For a moment he didn’t move and Xenilla could only slowly nod to his brother as a dampness of a bloody tear streamed down his cheek.

But then a stray groan from the unconscious form behind Xenilla broke the silence. Nightmare Godzilla’s gaze locked upon the downed and unconscious but despicably very much alive Starlight Glimmer and he sought to correct the last of those adjectives. He started to stomp forward, forcing the exhausted Xenilla to swear and surge forward. Tackling his brother, Xenilla tried to lock his hooves into the ground to halt him but devoid of meltdown’s surge and weakened from exertion; he could only slow him down.

Nightmare Godzilla’s scowling maw opened to show a growing brightness within it, when another form dashed towards the scene. But instead of tackling Godzilla as Xenilla had, this one did such to Starlight Glimmer.

“NO!”, the sobbing cry called out.

Moonbeam Glimmer, clearly run through the ringer herself, threw her body atop her baby sister and held her close, cradling Starlight’s head. She beheld the monstrosity bearing down upon her and her sister and for a moment her memory traveled back. In that moment she wasn’t a grown mare in a destroyed town being threatened by an out of control kaiju, she was a young filly hiding in a well with a baby in her hooves and a murderous dragon looming down from above. Stinging tears streamed from her eyes as she whimpered and looked back up at Nightmare Godzilla.

“...Junior… I know you can hear me… I-I,” she choked, “I was wrong… I was so wrong…”

The glow in his maw seemed to pause, not dying away but not growing enough to fire. She bowed her head and sobbed. Moonbeam could only pray it was because she was in the way, a fact confirmed when a low, gravely, outright demonic sounding voice caused her ears to perk up.

“Mooooove-ve-ve-ve.”

It was echoed, distorted, but recognizable. Moonbeam Glimmer shook her head slowly as the tears fell upon her sister.

“No… I can’t… And you won’t make me…. This,-” she looked up to the dark titan as the memory of a quiet evening at her parent’s gravestones when Junior confronted her overlayed what she saw, “-this isn’t you. I met the truth that day…”

“You’re not a monster, never were, never will be. I did a horrible thing to you, and I’m not the f-irst to do so. You deserve better, you can get better. But only if you can forgive and give us the chance…”, she croaked.

Nightmare Godzilla paused at the word ‘forgiveness’, his own memory streaming back to a particular visit he’d gotten recently about that very topic. Unbeknownst to Moonbeam, another wise mare had told him about forgiveness before.

Seizing any break she got and putting her psychology to work even as her mind was crumbling with fear for her sister, Moonbeam continued her plea.

“You saved… millions. Saved Canterlot. Saved me.. from grief… You took that little girl under your wing, helped save her from the fate my sister had. That’s not what monsters do, no matter what the Nightmare made you think…”

Nightmare Godzilla’s lips curled back and he spoke again, striding forward a step and hissing in a tone that now sounded more agitated than anything else.

“Mooooove-ve-ve!”

Every fiber of Moonbeam Glimmer’s self-preservation instincts screamed at her to do so, but every feeling of the heartbeat beneath her compelled her not to.

Through tears she shouted back, “NEVER! She’s my sister!...”

She sniffled out of her now damp nose and spoke now only in whisper, “...I was scared once, just like you are now… We make mistakes when we’re scared. You told me to forgive myself, now it’s your turn, and I’ll help anyway I can to atone for what I did....”

She saw how his eyes were trained upon her sister and clutched Starlight’s head a bit closer to her chest, “You’re not scaring me away from her… She’s my baby sister. She made a mistake and got scared too. Just like you…”

“She ran away and cut her ties to me because she thought I sold her out… She can hate me, attack me, never forgive me for what I did; but I’ll never leave her. And I’ll forgive her.... “

Nightmare Godzilla’s mouth slowly closed, shifting his scowl to a stoic blankness. Something shifted below him and he looked down at Xenilla. Still holding fast to Godzilla, Xenilla had stopped trying to push him back. Instead he had his hooves and forelimbs wrapped around Godzilla’s torso as his head weakly slumped across his collarbone. Xenilla’s strength left him, causing the kaiju to lose his grip and fall to the ground before his brother. Godzilla could feel a dampness trickle down across his shoulder from where Xenilla’s face had been, Xenilla’s tears, as Moonbeam’s voice soothed his ears.

“Because that’s what being a good older sibling is about, protecting your brothers and sisters, even when we make mistakes doing so or are hated for it…. All that matters is if we can forgive...”, Moonbeam Glimmer whispered before resting her head atop her sister’s.

Nightmare Godzilla flinched and strained. Deep within he felt a surge of discord from the emotions and frustrations that propelled his nightmare transformation; only now contested by their inverse. Pain of having to endure another battle to save others contrasted with the joy of instructing a pupil. Wrathful frustration at being betrayed by some of humanity clashed with the faces of every smiling human or pony he’d ever met who was alive thanks to him. Strife and malice during the fight with Xenilla at Solgell standing opposed to Xenilla now, defeated and holding Junior to comfort him in the first genuinely brotherly act he’d ever done. Restlessness at his duties he’d forced himself into fought by restful peace he’d enjoyed with “Lulu”.

His mind was tearing itself apart, not knowing if he could let go or hang on to Nightmare. Shaking and snarling, Godzilla threw his head up and split the air with a frustrated, agonized roar; needing direction in the lost turmoil.

He got it when a high pitched, young voice screamed out four spell words and a beam of bright pink magic resembling the thermonuclear breath shot out in front of him and sailed off into the sky. Just as it came, parting clouds upon its exit into the heavens above, it extinguished.

“Stop.”

Nightmare Godzilla slowly turned his head to the source. A tiny, pink filly slowly staggered out of the shadows emanating from a half collapsed building. Mariner Chibi Moon’s face was stoic, collected and even a bit commanding even as a glistening tear fell across her cheeks.

“N-No more fighting….”, she muttered before doing something remarkable for any pony her age.

"Let the World Burn" having very ironic timing by ShinGodzilla111 and GypsyCharm

She ran up to the monster, threw her hooves around his forelimb, and buried her sobbing face into the fur she clutched against her.

“Please Sensei…”, she croaked, “No more…”

Chibi Moon was a magical prodigy, the sole student of arguably the most powerful stallion on the planet, and she was incredibly brave. Not only to run towards the rampaging kaiju while not being another kaiju, in a mecha, or an alicorn; but to react the way she did when she felt Godzilla shift slowly. She opened her eyes to see he’d lifted up his other forelimb and held his hoof up to her. The same gesture they’d made when he swore to protect her, an oath Starlight Glimmer had made him break. A hoofie promise.

Chibi Moon put her tiny hoof to his gigantic one, still hugging the other limb and pulling herself up into him to muffle her tiny crying. Starlight Glimmer, in an altered state of mind, might have forced him to break his promise and catalyzed this whole catastrophe, but Chibi forgave him.

And now it was Junior’s turn to forgive. In the end, it wasn't any measure of magic of Equestria or raw power of a kaiju that defeated Nightmare Godzilla; just the soul of a hero making the right choice.

He bowed his head, gently putting his hoof around his student while throwing his voice to the mares he knew were behind him.

“Take… it….”

Rarity solemnly nodded and enacted the spell. Night Glider put her hoof to Rarity’s and focused on the intense magic she could feel coming out of Starlight Glimmer’s cutiemark. It fed into her, down her hoof, and into Rarity, lighting up the pegasus’ whole body with a magical aura that spread to Rarity. The spell was cast and wrapped around Nightmare Godzilla, beginning to peel back the darkness of a self-titled monster to reveal whom was within.

Deep inside his mind, the storming seas calmed as their waves ebbed and waned away. He remembered so much.

He remembered walking his student back home with her rested atop his head.

He remembered standing by not one, but two grieving mares before their parents’ headstones and stubbornly refusing to leave.

He remembered the platoons of guards smiling, clapping, and saluting him as he was welcomed into their ranks as a valued colleague.

He remembered putting an entire city he barely knew behind himself while confronting the ravenous horde seeking to consume it.

He remembered blocking a beam meant for a building, pulling a boat out of harm’s way, holding up a falling bridge, and earning a menagerie of scars just so no one else did.

He remembered using the very powers he saw himself as monstrous for used again and again to save countless lives he’d both see and never see.

He remembered the faces of every ally, every comrade, every friend he’d made over the years by fighting alongside and then leading them.

He remembered every quiet evening with his mother at the institute, spent learning a moral and determining what future he’d have.

He remembered walking back to shore with a boat and Luna in his palm, how his chest felt looking upon her.

He remembered it all, and what he remembered was nothing a monster would have. He was the King of the Monsters, but he’d never been monstrous. He’d been something else entirely. And that something else thought of only three words as he envisioned Xenilla, Starlight Glimmer, and the numerous humans who chose to shoot at him with Dimension Tide.

-I forgive you…-

The rage, frustration, doubt, and loathing at both himself and others lifted. The manifestation of his consciousness eased its grip, letting go of Nightmare and watching on as Rarity and Night Glider’s magic dredged downwards and pulled her out.

The dark muck that made up the nightmare form was pulled away, revealing a normal, calm Godzilla Junior underneath. The nightmare, both the one who’d seized him an hour ago and the one that had been seizing him for twenty years, was finally over; and he couldn’t have possibly been happier.

Rarity saw the sight and let out a large, content sigh as Night Glider nearly fainted from the emotional rollercoaster they’d been on. Spying one of the cutiemark containment jars that had rolled out of the house debris, she wasted no time in stuffing the dark mass that constituted the weakened Nightmare into it.

“Gastly spook has caused enough trouble I’d say, no doubt Princess Luna will want to be dealing with you!”

The warm wind blew through the basin, an inclination of calm and pride.

============================

From his vantage point in the dimensional ether between the portal from Zenith he’d taken to avoid Kaizer Ghidorah and to Equestria proper, Grand King Ghidorah opened his eyes again. The swirling tunnel around him, a walkway between worlds, still stood.

-Reijuu is holding up it’s half of the bargain.-

He shrugged at the happenstance that lead to him being banished from Princess Celestia’s mind. He might not have been able to mentally crush the alicorn in his allotted time, but failure to follow-up on his distraction would be the failure of Reijuu’s agent, not Ghidorah himself. After all the rest of his plan was going so accordingly. Kaizer had been released and lacking his primary target, the King of Terror’s successor would be consumed by his own power and wrath and live up to his legacy. And while Grand King Ghidorah hadn’t managed to disable the alicorns, that was only an optional objective. The primary goal, distracting them so they wouldn’t interfere; was more than achieved. In fact, the dragon could even find himself somewhat pleasantly surprised at what he’d witnessed in that mind. This world might have a few surprises for Reijuu yet, and Ghidorah would cackle madly from whatever afterlife that might exist if he witnessed it blow up in his old foe’s face. He could only wish he’d get to see it all, knowing he wouldn’t.

If only he could get that stubborn future vision he tried earlier to work. After briefly considering enacting it one last time before he started the real trial, Grand King Ghidorah shelved the thought and beheld what lay before him past the moving mirror into the Equestrian realm.

He stood before the final gateway, the final steps towards his one and only wish. Everything of worth was beyond this swirling doorway to Equestria. Taking flight and floating through the portal leading to the plateau with the dome of captives and cutiemark rock in tow, Grand King Ghidorah readied himself.

Readied himself to either correct a mistake, or see it realized as success.

===============================

Reader Works

Because I love you guys and gals, I'm showing you off! Do check out the links I drop here and many, many of these fine artists and writers have written and drawn far more than just the one picture I show (otherwise this be HUGE and make scrolling a flippin' nightmare). So I get scoutin' folks, here's to you audience!
And if I missed one of you, give me a shout and I'll happily add your content in!

"Day at the Amusement Park" by Branded-Rose giving us her precious X-Aria babies!

"Kiyari, Ayako and Notta" by Lsniaca showcasing the children of the readerbase's first couple!

"The Bridge Voice Actor Meme" by Randoman92 showing the story cast in this hallmark DA meme!
[PICTURE TOO BIG - SEE LINK!]

"There's a Demon Inside" by FallenAngel5414 hallmarks last chapter's infamous scene!

"Dancing Lessons" by Zeroviks makes a recursive appearance for Maui given Zero was the first to illustrate her!

"Blade Dancer Human Form" - By Pyrus-Leonidas showcasing everyone's favorite OC looks good in any form!

"MLP Goji" by Invader Franky showing sketch art is still classy art!

Equestria: Across the Multiverse by GodzillaWolf stars the appearance of Amalgam'verse's own favorite terrapin! Gamera joins the party!

The Bridge: Humanity's Stand's 24th chapter has been published! Written by the HS crew, I guest-authored one of the seconds for this one. Can you guess which?~

Author's Note

Proofread by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Illustration by Faith-Wolff

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!
Ghidorahs' attack! Machinations unknown come into play!

Chapter 41: End of An Epoch

“What do you remember?”

“…You all. Past that? Nothing concrete, more like feelings than memories. Fear, sadness, cold, grief. Is that… ?”

Rarity finished his sentence for him, “Normal. Sorry to say, darling, but it won’t be fully going away anytime soon.”

Junior frowned and shrugged, giving the dark mass sealed in the cutiemark containment jar Rarity was keeping in her saddlebag an idle glance. The situation had calmed down significantly, even if the group hadn’t removed themselves from the now smoldering wreck that had once been a town before Nightmare Godzilla carved and burned a path of destruction through it. Xenilla and Starlight Glimmer still hadn’t regained consciousness from exhaustion, Night Glider was making use of her restored flight speed and strength, scouting out the best route to take everypony down from the plateau safely. Moonbeam Glimmer, having taken some medical training alongside her psychology studies, was giving the two incapacitated ponies check overs. Poor Chibi Moon, who hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep after a long night of training and then foalnapping, was currently curled up between Rarity and her sensei, still not daring to take her hooves off the latter’s forelimb.

Rarity sighed, “Nightmare brings out the worst one can fear. The important thing is knowing it’s not the real you. I was lucky that my little sister and my friends managed to ‘chink the armor’ as it were and help me break free."

Rarity glanced over to see Junior looking at her with an unreadable expression. Odd in tone as it was, she could at least take comfort in that it contrasted like night and day with the nightmarish echo she’d seen. Junior pitched his head down at the resting Chibi Moon nestled between them, then at Xenilla, Moonbeam, and then back to Rarity. He gave a subtle nod that gradually begat a tiny, but warm smile.

“And I was lucky for others to set the example for me… If there is something I can do to make up for-!”, he was cut off by Rarity tapping a hoof to his muzzle.

She flashed a stern visage, “Don’t you start pitying yourself again now, I don’t dare risk the thought it could draw out and get this fiend free again… Listen, this?”

She motioned to the destroyed town, something that gave Junior much more pause than her. On Terra a wrecked town meant wrecked lives, but in Equestria it was less so. This sort of thing happened to Ponyville at least twice a year anyways.

“It’s just possessions, it can be replaced. Lives can’t. And before you go off worrying on our account, you certainly have a much higher track record of saving lives than taking them!”, she punctuated her tone with giving Junior a playful whack across his sternum; expressing mild surprise at the deep ‘thumd’ sound that indicated just how dense he was.

“My… my you are dense.”

Junior just nodded, “Captain Frost said same thing once.”

“… Right. Point is, you ultimately beat it. Not us, even if we did give you some push of course.”

Junior sighed, but wasn’t one to leave a note unfinished.

“Just like you confronted and sealed Nightmare more or less by yourself… With ‘some push of course’…”, he muttered with a slight tease in his tone while mimicking her words, “Even humans who know I mean them no harm run in terror the moment I show up. You saw me specifically on a rampage and stood your ground. And that’s on top of confronting Nightmare, something I can’t imagine you’d be too fond of. Never underestimate yourself, Lady Rarity.”

Rarity pursed her lips and let her ears flop against her head in a small moment of bashfulness at the praise, capped off by the ‘Lady’ title. She didn’t care whether it was Junior just mimicking what Luna addressed her as, or if it was earnest praise.

“Oh please, I was only able to capture Nightmare with Princess Luna’s aid and teachings!”

“You’re still the one to succeed with the spell, and against something I recall you justifiably being disturbed by. Tonight will only end as well as it did because many pitched in,” Junior noted solemnly while looking over their group. Had fate handed him any other party… he much preferred to not consider that scenario.

Thankfully a playful nudge by Rarity derailed the stubborn thought.

“As a good friend of mine once said, the most powerful thing in Equestria is magic; and friendship is magic after all.”

Junior chuckled, unable to argue with that logic, and relaxed.

Godzilla Junior gently nuzzled the top of Chibi Moon’s head, earning some hushed mewls from the filly, who still had her face buried in his limb, as the adrenaline wore off over the lot of them. Junior sighed, nudging her aside as he quietly looked upon an approaching Moonbeam Glimmer. Both of them were loomed over their respective sibling, Moonbeam still cradling Starlight and Xenilla slumped against Junior’s feet. Godzilla’s gaze shifted to how she held her sister, letting his mind think back to how he’d realized Xenilla’s last charge had been less a headlong tackle and more the older kaiju throwing his arms around his brother to hold him. The whispers of Xenilla’s apology rang true in Junior’s head, as did the relief the latter felt when he thought of the three simple words that changed his whole life. Three simple words he learned from his mother and these ponies’ example.

-I forgive you.-

It was like a mountain, no, a continent had been taken off his shoulders. His bliss was palpable. Not only from the release of all that frustration, rage, and confusion; but of the sheer joy he’d felt to be relieved of it all. The dark stains upon his psyche had been washed off in a renewing rain; an emotional baptism if he knew of the word.

The hideous, destructive monstrosity wasn’t who he was deep down; not from the circumstances of his birth nor from the life he led after.

Moonbeam Glimmer saw him slowly nod to her and a tear streamed down her smiling face. She reached forward and put a hoof on Junior’s cheek as their foreheads touched. Junior felt them all now. Chibi Moon, the one who sought to be like him, nestled up against his side. Rarity, the one who sought to help him, walking up from the other side and rubbing up against his shoulder. Night Glider and Moonbeam, the ones who turned to him for help, patting him on the back and touching foreheads with his. And a radiating heat to indicate Xenilla, the one he saw change in ways he never expected, who while out cold was still clinging to Junior’s arm.

That last form wasn’t the real him. It never was, and never would be. It was just a nightmare. Just a stupid, arrogant nightmare. And he'd finally woken up.

A tear rolled down his muzzle. Junior was in a good mood in ways he hadn’t been for years, not like since before 1995 when he found a mantle and its power thrust upon him without warning. He was at peace.

He was unmoved when the sky opened up and an all-too-familiar stench filled the sky. Not of scent in nose but scent in mind, the kind of reek that caused all creatures born of Terra to instinctively recoil from it because of what their ancestors endured millions of years ago. Godzilla Junior stood up and stoically leered at Grand King Ghidorah’s form as it levitated down to the ground and violently shook the earth with his footfalls.

He put himself between everyone else and the King of Terror, watching on as the others who were conscious looked up and gawked at the sight before them. Junior’s gaze locked with Ghidorah’s three red-eyed glares, leaving nothing to the imagination as to who was on the King of Terror’s mind.

-He’s come for me. He wouldn’t have come here from whatever hole he crawled out of otherwise.-

Junior regarded Grand King Ghidorah, half expecting him to charge immediately. He knew this titan and he knew that while subtlety wasn’t his strong suit, Ghidorah was never to be underestimated for both raw power and sheer intelligence. Typically foregoing strategy and being stupid were two very different things. And the intelligence in Ghidorah’s eyes piqued Junior’s interest as he glared back.

-He almost looks… confused. And he’s not attacking outright.-

-…-

King Ghidorah wasn’t alone in his arrival. Shifting free from the portal was the curiously broken remains of his biodome. When it landed on the far side of the plateau, near the caverns, the stress cracks Monster X’s assault rendered upon it spread before the whole structure partially shattered. Now only half-standing from several feet upwards, the cutiemark slab within it glowed and pulsed brightly much to Night Glider’s recognition.

Rarity and Junior quickly looked at each other and to Ghidorah, both noticing but not making discussion on the fact that the golden titan wasn’t attacking instantly; instead seizing the opportunity. They both remembered the presentation Twilight Sparkle and Mothra Lea had given, how magic freely given was the only thing that could change one of the six altered kaiju back to their original state. They knew what needed to be done, looking back to the Glimmers and Night Glider.

“We need to revert me, get clear!”

“Get to the caves or over the edge of the mountain pass! We can carry Xenilla and Starlight, now go!”

Moonbeam Glimmer looked like she had something big to say, be it at the shock of the situation or a question as to who this new kaiju was. But whatever she was about to utter, it died in her throat looking at Junior. She gulped and deeply inhaled, nodding her head. Positioning Starlight into her forelimbs with Night Glider’s help, the trio started to make for the mountain pass with Moonbeam looking back at Godzilla.

The elder glimmer mouthed a prayer as she turned back around to make for the pass, “Stay safe… Please stay safe.”

Junior paid her a fleeting glance and slight nod before shifting his attention to the enemy briefly. Sure enough, the titanic monstrosity hadn’t budged; all but confirming Junior’s sneaking suspicions. Knowing he had a moment of time, he looked to the filly partially burrowed into him and lifted her up between his hooves.

He grunted in a even, stoic tone, “Chibi, hanareru (leave).”

Even before he had the time to say his words, his student was already gaping at him and shaking her head, utterly aghast. She was realizing what he was about to say and wanted no part in it.

“No, no! You just c-came back!”, she yelped while struggling in his grasp to try and conjure a teleportation spell.

“Chibi, Listen to me-”

She sobbed and flailed, trying to paw at her sensei’s muzzle and hooves, “You need to st-stay with-!”

“I need- listen!”, his tone was being tested from Chibi's frantic pleas cutting him off.

“I can hel-”

Her plea was cut off by a sharp bark, “Chibi, kiku!” (Listen, Chibi!)

Chibi Moon froze. Instantly Junior’s tone softened and he shifted, briefly pulling her in close just like how his father had done with him once. Feeling a larger body heat up against them, the beat of the heart in the chest to show signs of life, and the knowledge of the power the greater one possessed. It was a quick, instinctual way to assure a young one that they had a powerful protector, be it sibling, parent, or guardian. In some ways, it was Chibi Moon’s sensei doing for her what she did for him just a few minutes ago.

Mariner Chibi Moon was pulled away after returning the hug briefly, set back down on the ground quieted and attentive.

Junior sighed as he crouched down to her level, “I can handle this one, won't take any longer than a few gyaos. Remember how I beat them?

Chibi gulped back a tear and nodded a few times, having been in Canterlot that fateful night.

He strained for a moment, but pressed on, "Now listen, your Sensei needs you to do something very important to me. I need you to watch over Xenilla and the others for me. Keep all of you safe, okay?”

Chibi Moon’s lip quivered and her eyes were still damp with tears that made her look even more stressed and disheveled, compounding the state she was in after her foalnapping. But in a show of strength and spirit that made her sensei proud, she stood up straight and bowed her head and neck respectfully towards Junior and Rarity.

“Go join the others Deary, we shall catch up shortly,” Rarity noted while the filly impressively lifted Xenilla’s still body with her magic.

As Chibi departed, Rarity looked to Godzilla Junior and steeled herself. Just as she was readying to eject as much magic as she could onto him with a plethora of good memories at her disposal, a deceptively quiet voice seeped out of the giant stallion.

He sighed in solemn resolution and muttered in a half hushed tone, “Whatever you do, don’t let Chibi look back…"

Rarity paused and her brow furrowed in confusion, momentarily caught off guard by the almost remorseful tone coming out of somepony with typically such a deep voice. She also couldn’t help but notice Junior wasn’t looking back at those fleeing this time. Now with the child gone, he didn’t need to keep it all up.

“Once you get out of here, get help as fast as you can. Get everyone, even Destroyah.”

Her eyes slowly widened and her reply came in a dead quiet voice, “…Can you beat this one?”

Junior didn’t seem to answer her, “Give my thanks to Lulu, hehe…”

Rarity furrowed her brow and flattened her ears, “J-Junior… Can. You. Beat. Him?”

Junior only chuckled dryly while shaking his head, this time giving half a response; “I’ll do what you all did, got a good example to follow.”

“Aren’t you afraid? What are you planning to do?”

Junior looked at the unicorn and despite a wet drop rolling down from the corner of his eye, he smiled honestly. For the first time in his entire life, Godzilla Junior, son of a bold mother and courageous father, student of a king, ally to the many, savior to millions and terror to the vile; called himself for what he really was.

“Being brave means you’re scared too. I’ll just have to do what heroes do.”

The Element of Generosity flared and the plateau was filled with brilliant light. Grand King Ghidorah watched on as what he’d been waiting years for was finally before him.

With the ponies fleeing, they were alone. The King of Terror against the King of the Monsters. The cackling of a million upon billion trapped souls and the thundering roar of Odo island battled it out across the airspace before the two lunged forth at one another.

=======================

Kaizer Ghidorah blindly lunged for the remnants of the portal Grand King Ghidorah had long since exited through, snapping all jaws shut on the frigid Zenith air. He thrashed and roared violently, visibly broiling like a volcano about to explode. And when he whirled around and saw the three kaiju before him, one hybrid bat and two alien cyborgs, the sheer wrath radiating from his countenance was practically visible. Three pairs of eyes locked onto Gigan’s form in particular as the three began to back away with the oldest cyborg putting his arms out beside and behind him to beckon Irys and Megalon further away from the maniac.

“… You,”

Kaizer’s hiss stung the air and he remembered the three times he’d seen Gigan while being in charge of his and X’s body. Once was decades prior, the first time Kaizer had met a much younger and much less robotic Gigan; after the cyborg got in the way of his attempts at revenge upon Grand King Ghidorah. Another time was when he first took control of Monster X’s body after Sonata’s song and Ghidorah’s mental intrusions helped to rouse him with his strife-fueled melody. And now Kaizer saw him once more, the same being whose every appearance resulted in Grand King Ghidorah getting away.

The first time was annoyance, resulting in a mauling.

The second time was malice, coming from furthered interference.

The third time had all but condemned Gigan in Kaizer’s mind, whether Gigan being related to King Ghidorah getting away each time was logical or not. There was no coincidence at this point.

“I… remembeeer you!”

Kaizer Ghidorah let out a shaking roar that rattled Zenith. Runaway gravity fluctuations swung out of him, alternatingly crushing, levitating, and cracking the grounds around him in a whirlwind of force. Truly titanic gold and black wings spread and Kaizer kicked off the ground to lunge forward with speed betraying his enormity. Half-flying and half-sprinting, he closed the distance of several hundred meters in less than half a second. The trio began shouting something, no doubt pleas and prayers to get through to Kaizer’s alternate personality who lay comatose and dormant in the ruins of the prison Kaizer had been confined to all these years.

Gigan saw the miliseconds tick by and remembered two promises he’d made to his best friend. If Kaizer Ghidorah broke free, Monster X had entrusted him to do what was necessary. That one he’d accepted with an incredibly heavy heart and the binding of that duty had burdened his mind all through his upgrade sequence. The other promise however, Gigan had taken up without pause. If X wasn’t around to do it, someone had to look out for their team. Gigan didn’t have the time nor focus to teleport, so he had to resort to cruder means. He swung to the sides, whacking both Irys and Megalon with the blunt sides of his scythes and knocking them off balance and away from him to get out of Kaizer Ghidorah’s path. Seeing the charging ghidorah like one would see an oncoming train, Gigan could only brace for impact and jump backwards to reduce the sudden acceleration as Kaizer slammed into him. Unyielding in his charge, Kaizer Ghidorah focused all of his attention onto Gigan; just as the cyborg had wanted, and slammed the both of them into the back wall.

The blow fractured the entire wall on impact, with a crater formed around the stunned cyborg who now slumped back, half buried in the obsidian. Gigan sparked and bled artificial blood, crossing his scythes before him to block against the lunging heads of Kaizer Ghidorah. The dragon’s heads snapped at the air about Gigan’s face and neck, forcing the cyborg to push back with all his safety level’s power just to hold Kaizer back at his throats. Seeing a ghastly golden glow begin to form in the dragon’s central maw and knowing he was too close to use the cluster shot, Gigan resorted to another weapon system; a recent addition. Two slots opened up just below where the collar bone would be and a mechanical whirl heralded a loud hiss as two projectiles flew out of Gigan’s collar at high speed. Circular in shape, they whirled past Kaizer Ghidorah’s middle head and glanced off in a shower of sparks, before boomeranging back and managing to cut the dragon across the brow; one getting shallowly embedded in that spot and revealing it to be a sort of mixture between a circular saw and shuriken.

Kaizer Ghidorah shrieked, reaching up and clutching at the saw to try and rip it out. A blur of white swooped down from above and the ground behind Kaizer Ghidorah exploded to reveal Irys and Megalon respectively. They grabbed at Kaizer, Irys with her prehensile feet by Kaizer’s shoulders and Megalon around the massive drake’s hindquarters. Gigan would have been thankful for their dedication and bravery in facing such a foe, heck in some ways he was very proud of the little brother he so rarely complimented; even if Megalon knew he didn’t have to. But as Kaizer was wrenched off of him and he started to pull himself free of the wall, the only thought on his mind was pure blind panic at that same hated glow starting to come from Kaizer’s side heads and wings while his body was tensing up to lash out. Gigan could see how it could happen.

Irys, trying to fight Kaizer like she would King Ghidorah, wouldn’t expect to dodge the grabbing arm the former had and would be wrenched off from her position. Megalon would be grabbed at by Kaizer’s broad tails and stomped underfoot to pin him. They’d both then endure a point blank broadside by all of Kaizer’s energy projectiles, unable to dodge or block. And that went against Gigan’s promise.

There was one credo the Nebulan knew of as a mercenary and he intended to use it, even if he panicked and in hindsight thought himself insane.

Gigan dropped his chance to fly away or teleport to safety, instead firing his grappling cables out and snatching Kaizer by the necks just below the head. Forcing the monster to point everything at him, Gigan’s glowing visor spewed out a burst of red plasma fire. But no return fire came despite the threat. Gigan’s mechanical eye widened. He expected Kaizer Ghidorah to reactively fire back with his own energy attacks, the combining collision of plasma and gravitons would set off an explosion at point-blank range and thus stun or damage Kaizer enough for Irys and Megalon to get clear. But that sort of reaction was something Grand King Ghidorah would do, either trying to smite something with his rays or behaving reactively to a threat before him. Irys wasn’t the only one who’d forgotten Kaizer Ghidorah didn’t behave like that. Despite the rage, bestial appearance, and almost psychopathic behavior, Kaizer Ghidorah was still as trained a fighter as Monster X. For one reason or another Kaizer didn’t fire back like Gigan gambled he would, instead he wrenched an arm up and slammed it into Gigan’s head in hard enough of an uppercut that it bashed the cyborg’s head back and into the wall and kept it pinned there. Gigan screamed as his beam fired into his own face point-blank and his senses flatlined.

With the frontman down, Kaizer’s piercing red eyes settled upon Irys and Megalon. Blood trickled onto the cracked earth and a taloned paw of walking thunder smashed against the ground to claw its way to them.

=======================

Night Glider zoomed back to Rarity and company from over the edge of the plateau with a solemn expression.

“What’s wrong?”, Rarity winced while sensing trouble.

Night Glider frowned, “Mountain pass up ahead is half-covered in boulders, rock slide probably. Going to be very rough trying to cross by anypony not very fit. It’s practically blocked off!”

Rarity nevertheless pressed on, all too familiar with the titanic battle behind them they most certainly did not want to get near.

“Well I guess it’s never been easy on these sort of excursions… Get ready for a rough jaunt everypony!”

They neared the caverns and pass, but soon found themselves at a halt upon getting close to a particular curiosity that came through the portal with Grand King Ghidorah.

“What in the world?”, Rarity gasped upon seeing what had been inside the odd dome that had arrived with Ghidorah. They had been making their way over to the mountain pass when the cracked dome dissolved and revealed what was within.

Dozens upon dozens of ponies of all ages lay upon the ground, slowly coming to. Looking them over, Rarity couldn’t help but notice half of the group was duller in coloration and sporting Starlight Glimmer’s dark magic induced equals sign cutiemark. One small group of that latter cluster seemed to notice Rarity’s party and looked like their eyes were about to pop out of their heads.

“N-Night Glider?!”, a pale stallion gasped and perked Night Glider’s attention.

“Double Diamond, Party Favor, Sugar Belle?!”, Night Glider squealed as the quartet rushed up to one another and joined into a four way bear hug.

Party Favor nearly recoiled when he saw Night Glider’s hair was undone, her color had returned, and a very familiar cutiemark was clad across her flank, “Wh-What the?! What's with the weird cutiemark? What happened to you?”

Night Glider shook her head as joyful tears peaked out of her eyes despite her friends’ shocked expressions, “Haha, long story, what happened to you?”

“I-I don’t know!”, Double Diamond muttered while pawing at his aching head.

“First it was just a day in the town, then the sky just seemed to open up and this… thing moved us all to some place… cold… After that, we all blacked out until just now,” Sugar Belle strained through the migraine.

Party Favor tapped at his chin, “Dragon I think it was.”

“Like that?”, Night Glider deadpanned as she pointed back. Peaking over the ridge behind them, one could see the enormity of Grand King Ghidorah swooping up and hovering over a portion of the plateau before a beam of blue plasma surged into him.

Sugar Belle gulped as her face became even paler than it was before, “…That’s the one…”

Rarity, having been busy helping up the Leaf couple, sprinted over to the group.

“We have to go, now!”

Night Glider backpedaled momentarily, “Wait, can’t King Godzilla beat him?”

Rarity paused before gulping. She took a deep breath and hardened her face; not sure if she was about to tell a white lie or spout out a hopeful truth.

“He can, but he wanted us to get clear of the crossfire. We need to get everypony down that pass-,” Rarity yelped as she motioned to the pathway off the plateau and down into the foothills below her, “-and work their way down, back to the train station to get everypony safe and get help. Everypony who can’t move too well will need help.”

Night Glider gulped as she looked about them and saw how many ponies were drained and having trouble moving. With the sounds of titanic clashes ringing out across the plateau like walking thunder, there was a very real possibility they couldn’t get everypony out in time with the pass blocked up the way it was. So many ponies not fit to navigate the steeper slope and so many ponies too weak to move the obstructions.

The Our Town ponies, sans Night Glider, listening winced, feeling the weakness in their muscles, horns, and wings due to their lack of cutiemarks.

“W-We’re drained after being equalized… W-We’re-,” Party Favor gasped as his face visibly turned horrified, “-slowing everypony down…”

By chance however, something caught Sugar Belle’s eye from the edge of where the dome had once stood. A familiar slab of glowing rocks.

“Th-There there! The cutiemark slab!”, she chirped while motioning to it.

“I-If Starlight could open the doors to put the marks in, she can open them to take the marks out! And then all the cutiemarks will return to their owners!”

“B-But-,” Double Diamond stammered, “-that would take away the equality, the friendship we worked for! It-it would- be… ark!”

He strained, clearly fighting both the mental conditioning and logic. A white hoof placed itself upon his shoulder. He opened his eyes to look into Rarity’s as she slowly bobbed her hoof up and down, breathing in tandem with the slow motion to get him to mimic her and slow his pulse.

“Listen, a very smart princess helped teach me that friendship comes in all colors; not just one equal tone. We’ll be happy to help you out with this friendship ordeal after this has blown over, darling. But for now, these ponies need your help.”

She kept her tone slow, a bit stern, but still carrying a strong warmth that infected the ponies around her.

“Generosity is giving up for others what you could keep for yourself. None bigger than giving up what you think is best for the sake of others. Want friendship? Try that. Generosity is a core element of friendship after all… Trust me, I tend to know more than a few details about it!”, she said with a brave face and warm smile as her cutiemark seemed to hum with a slight glow.

The Our Town group mulled, murmured, and puzzled. But one by one, second by second, they all looked up to the Element of Generosity; at first stoic, then nodding.

“C-Come on everypony! Let’s not just wait for it to happen, find who needs help and give ‘em a hoof!”, Double Diamond yelped as he waved to several Our Town ponies behind him and marching off to lend aid with the others.

Rarity took a moment to beam before Night Glider tapped her shoulder.

“U-Um, Miss Rarity? I hate to spoil the magic but… Starlight can’t open the slab. She’s out cold and kinda passed me her mark. And I don’t think I can do unicorn magic,” Night Glider muttered with a chewed lip.

Rarity didn’t look back to her, instead picking herself up straight as she looked upon the slab and saw more of Godzilla and Ghidorah’s beams light up the dark clouds and sky above. She hid her dread, the near overpowering fear, and crippling shudder wanting to seize her legs. Part of her mind started to recall not more than a few minutes earlier when she was the one questioning Junior about staying behind to confront King Ghidorah. Now she was in his hooves, she found herself following the example he’d attributed to her.

She was about to get closer to a kaiju fight, a hurricane fighting a volcano. She stood on the precipice of terror and was terrified, just as Junior had been.

-“What are you planning to do?”-

She asked herself that question this time, grappling with it. The sounds of the ponies trying to flee were still audible, palpable. Godzilla had hurled himself into a fray expecting to cover for just a handful of ponies. Now he would need to do so for several dozen, half of which couldn’t move too fast and lacked strength. The sobering realization hit Rarity like an icy lance through the chest. Be it a stray bolt of energy, a shaking of the ground beneath the steps of giants, or Ghidorah getting away from Godzilla for just a moment, many ponies had a good chance of not getting off this plateau alive.

-“What are you planning to do?”-

The question and fears came to her again, bringing back many memories of all the times she and her friends, Element Bearers or otherwise, confronted danger or evil. Alone or in a group, this feeling was not new… Neither was the retort born of both personal experience and Junior rubbing off on her. After confronting Nightmare both in her dreams and reality, Juliet Rarity Belle had little time to let fear grip her much more.

-”What heroes do.”-

Equestria or Terra, a true hero’s courage could move mountains. Rarity’s face hardened and she sported a calmed, confident, almost cheerful facade. She started to advance towards the slab as she spoke, “Leave this ordeal to me, get the others as far back as you can; I need you to do that.”

“W-What? What are you going to do exactly?”, Night Glider piped and tried to tug at Rarity’s hoof.

Rarity calmly stepped out of the grasp and looked back with a perked brow, “You were this town’s scout, so you’d know the way down this plateau best. Go on now, the group needs you to lead them with you being the fittest of your settlement. I and King Godzilla shall join you shortly. Step lively now deary, mustn't tarry!”

Night Glider stood still, almost flabbergasted. Slowly her agape expression closed and she gave a subtle nod. Rarity smiled and nodded back before advancing opposite the direction the crowds were fleeing. She thought she heard Night Glider whisper a prayer and stole another moment to steel her resolve. The sounds of Godzilla’s battle with King Ghidorah echoed like thunder, and Rarity whispered her own prayer as she advanced closer.

She was unaware someone, or rather, something else was creeping towards the slab.

=======================

Gigan didn’t know how long he’d been out when his visor flickered back on to life, but the time spent had clearly come to a toll upon him. He struggled against locking up servos and joints to free himself from the wall he’d gotten slammed into, having to tear his sparking head free of the partially melted obsidian. Managing to pry loose his head from its imprint, the cyborg’s world was darkened from his systems taking a moment to reboot. But when he beheld the world about him through his cracked visor, his mind was drowned into a horrific panic when he saw the state of affairs around him.

Evidently his explosion ploy had indeed hurt Kaizer Ghidorah, even if it ended up hurting himself far more, because the dragon’s front half was covered in char and bleeding from several spots where the scales had been torn away. But his team’s fates had left him stunned, having been forced to fight the likes of Kaizer Ghidorah in a two on one right after facing Grand King Ghidorah for Tanaka-knew how long.

Irys was clearly in dire straits. After a point-black graviton burst to the chest, she was thrown back and smoking across half her body. The gyaos was grounded and grabbed by her chest, screeching while defiantly raking her beam across Kaizer Ghidorah’s chest. Kaizer Ghidorah bellowed and swung the smaller kaiju around like a ragdoll, tanking the blow that splintered against his armored sternum. At first Gigan thought she might have a broken wing to not be airborne but a second glance at her intact forelimbs spoke otherwise even if she was half covered in scuffs, bruises, and a few bite wounds. Instead she hung close by and recovered from a midair tumble after Kaizer Ghidorah threw her. She dove back towards him without a hint of stealth. She was spreading her wings and keeping directly in front of him to both make herself look more intimidating as she shrieked an earsplitting shrill. Such a scare tactic was useless against the crazed dragon she was facing and Gigan knew Irys was smart enough to know that.

Because, Irys wasn’t trying to scare him away, she was intentionally trying to keep his attention. A gambit akin to a constantly squawking mother bird feigning a broken wing to a predator. Or in this case, Irys trying to incur Kaizer’s wrath so that he dropped the limp form he was carrying in his other paw. Megalon. The youngest cyborg was held in Kaizer’s right arm around the middle and by the right jaws clamping down on his shoulder and elbow. And judging from his wounds of cracked chitin and leaking hydraulic fluids, Kaizer Ghidorah had been mauling him… Seeing his brother’s split carapace, chipped horn, and shattered left drill renewed the older cyborg’s efforts to get free as much as seeing that hated colossus toss his sibling at Irys’s feet to lunge at the bat. The giant bat scrambled closer and spread her wings to physically shield the groaning cyborg behind her.

They were all injured. Gigan himself was far from optimal condition either. His front half was scorched, artificial blood and oil were leaking from multiple breaches, sparks flew out from most of his joints; and the huge, jagged, blurry line in his vision was a sure sign both his visor and artificial eye were cracked. Still, though, he struggled and snarled, managing to rip his left arm free from the half melted crater he’d been caved into with a showering deluge of obsidian boulders rolling past it.

His attempts to access some systems resulted in a myriad of warning displays clogging the peripherals and edges of his vision. Multiple warning alarms, harsh diagnostics, and urgent notifications demanded attention Gigan didn’t give them. He was too focused on two of his teammates about to get trampled on. Fighting a locked servo in the elbow of his still trapped right arm, the Nebulan cyborg didn’t give any heed to the warning heads-up window that tried to obscure his vision.

-Repairs Required. System Override Necessary For Continued Function. Non-Life Support Operations Shutti-

Non-life support was code for anything and everything not directly related to keeping the remaining skeleton and internal organs he had left alive, which included the musculature systems and numerous armaments Gigan was mentally snatching up in a bid to protect his brother and Irys. His computerized commands became more and more glitched as he resisted the safeties.

-”Override and re̵mo͘ve ́saf̡ȩty lo̷cks o̶ń c̸ombat ҉system҉s̀!”-

Another shower of sparks accompanied a jolt of motion as Gigan pulled his other arm free. Locking on to the approaching three-headed monstrosity, the computer system lady tried to again be reasonable.

-Mass Override Can Cause Critical Failure In This State. Limit Operations For Safety. Which Combat Operations Do You Require?-

There was one big rule he followed in life as a mercenary, one he was living now. Use any means necessary to get the job done!

Gigan felt multiple systems and machinery within his body whirl to life, heat vents beginning to work overtime as he pushed the measured units on numerous display dials into the red zone. Jumping up a tiny distance, Gigan swung his arms out to the sides before disappearing in a flash of light that appeared in front of Ghidorah with a teleport.

He shrieked out both in the virtual world and real one, forcing control away from the safety modes and restrictions installed into him. It was do-and-die time and he was going to do his best to make Ghidorah just do the latter. Gigan’s voice was as loud as it was full of radio-like static.

”E͞͏̡̀̀V̸̢͝É̛͞R̢̛̕͟Y͏̷͠͡T̴̵͘͡H̴̢͘͝I̸̧̕Ǹ̀Ģ̀!”

In an instant, the cyborg’s visor ignited from intense amounts of energy being charged up across Gigan’s body. He brought both tips of his scythes down onto the sides of Kaizer Ghidorah’s middle head just as the new explosive tips were primed. Ghidorah groaned in pain from the double detonations that engulfed his head in smoke, but he wasn’t able to react and block or dodge when Gigan let every weapon system out at once.

Gigan landed between Ghidorah and his downed teammates, walking forward while firing an incendiary beam so wide it engulfed the entirety of his visor. His forehead emitter was spewing forth one concussive shotgun burst after another. The chest ports launched loose one barrage of zooming buzzsaws after another, the rest of the explosive tip clips were loaded onto his grappling hooks which shot out back and forth to deliver the explosives even if they were rapidly destroying the hooks in the process. Even older weapon systems were brought forth in the final gambit, Gigan opening his mouth to reveal a metallic box with a nozzle loading into place that soon was spewing free a massive jet of napalm as a flamethrower. Amongst the onslaught, Gigan’s sails glowed and sizzled from the sheer heat they were trying to vent off; but the cyborg ignored the fact that it was too much already and pressed the attack. Even while hosing down the dragon with every ranged system he had, Gigan activated his rocket thrusters to get in close enough to bring his scythes into play.

The Nebulan cyborg shrieked aloud as he pounced upon his foe with a glowing visor and burning thrusters, Kaizer’s enraged bellows meeting him with golden energy crackling out of each eye and maw.

Sparks flew in every direction with the blurred flurry of swings that intended to carve up Ghidorah like a Christmas turkey. Gigan was moving far too fast to track visually, teleporting and using his thrusters at full blast to rapidly reposition and lash out. The friction from the blows and the speed was causing the Nebulan alloys adorning his scythes to glow red hot, leaving glowing trails in the air every time they were swung. A few swings were even drawing broiling blood. Not ignorant to the fact the cyborg was actually managing to hurt him, Kaizer Ghidorah shrieked and managed to force its leftmost head out of the beam assault to get a clear shot. He bit down on Gigan’s left scythe to stop a swing and fired a graviton blast point-blank. The stress fractures born from impacting against something as solid as Ghidorah over and over again made the beam of gold too much for Nebulan engineering, with half the scythe snapping off and sailing away into parts unknown. Even through the melee of managing every single weapon system at once, Gigan didn’t miss a single second and compensated. With a titanic swing that probably broke several servos in his joints, Gigan hacked at Ghidorah’s shoulder with his remaining arm and managed to shallowly bury that scythe into the dragon like an ax in a tree. Jets of steam and sparks shot out from the seal that bound Gigan’s scythes to his forearms and the scythes detached at that point. Now with stumps of arms, Gigan lifted a knee up and kicked against Ghidorah’s chest, using so much force he actually managed to stumble his foe as he himself was launched backward.

The ejected scythes, one jammed into Ghidorah’s torso and the other still in the drake’s jaws, rapidly beeped from both of their remaining explosive clips being set to blow. Before Ghidorah could tear the first out or throw the latter away, Gigan skipped the arming process and dragged the flamethrower stream across them both. The resulting explosive and flying shrapnel, along with the resuming onslaught of plasma beams, shotgun blasts, and napalm earned an extreme rarity. Kaizer Ghidorah shrieking in pain. Getting his feet beneath him and digging trenches into the ground, Gigan exerted his legs to their limit to launch himself upwards. His back jets were firing off so extremely they clashed with the radiator fins for which would be brighter, the exhaust flames looking almost like a pair of giant wings. With a mighty push, Gigan leapt back and landed in a readied stance. Twin bursts of light identical to Gigan’s warp teleportation fired off just above the cyborg’s raised forearm stumps. Teleporting into existence and locking onto the limb were a pair of massive, dual chainsaws set in a U shape each.

Gigan crossed them and revved them up to full speed. Kaizer Ghidorah stomped upon the ground, smoking, charred, and enraged beyond all reason. Gigan, like a skilled swordsman, assumed a readied stance as the dragon charged. Perhaps aware of who was observing him, Gigan briefly glanced back and locked his cracked visor looking upon the shocked Irys and Megalon as he turned around. Gigan stood still, leering at them a single silent command.

-Stay.-

Just before Kaizer could reach him, Gigan swung himself around and teleported out of the way to the space beside the dragon. The warrior kicked off the ground and ignited his thrusters to meet his foe, partially tackling Kaizer to the side before engaging in a voracious close quarters brawl.

Had the Nebulans and Xilians witnessed what their creations did, the feats would be passed down in legend for centuries. Megalon could only watch on in total awe of his sibling, pride and cheers welling up inside him in a zeal that would have spurred him to rush into the fray to join the glory had Irys not held him back. He relished seeing the big brother he admired so much in action, and he was seeing his sibling do the virtually impossible. This was Gigan’s real fight and he was giving Kaizer Ghidorah something the dragon only had experienced from the King of Terror and the combined force of a siren princess and xilian knight, a challenge in a fight.

He was standing up to Kaizer Ghidorah, he was winning. Gigan weaved around Kaizer’s blows and counters only for Kaizer to retaliate with thundering strikes that the cyborg shrugged off. Like a pair of boxers going at it in the final round’s last breath, the blows rocked the air and blurred in speed. Terrain all around them was smashed and carved to pieces.

Inside Gigan’s system, monitors meant to safely limit his muscle strength to keep him from breaking down his own structure spewed out their warnings. Kaizer smashed away one chainsaw and caused Gigan to cut a trench into the ground.

-Muscle torque limit: 83%-

Gigan cocked back and swung the other saw into Kaizer’s sternum in an uppercut, soon following it up by spinning around and unleashing a flurry of blows.

-Muscle torque limit: 97%-

Beams were fired at close range, narrowly dodged or just tanked through depending on the target’s dedication to follow up. Gigan’s movements were as rapid as they were heavy hitting. Glowing metal hissed in blurry swings and dark talons shattered the sky. Gigan didn’t slow down. Each blow hit harder, cut deeper, and swung faster than the last; the teeth on each saw glowing white hot with the friction and heat.

-Muscle torque limit: 100%… 109%!-

The computer monitor cracked and started to spark.

-122%… 162%!-

Gigan at this point being little more than a blur of blades and red lines given off by his visor. In the battle between a cyborg that could feel no pain and a monster that never stopped at such, it was as brutal as it was a spectacle.

Rocketing down towards Ghidorah with both arms cocked back to swing, Gigan gave everything he had left aimed at Ghidorah’s chest. The buzzsaw launchers fired until they clicked from emptiness, the shotgun bursts punched against the dragon until the forehead emitter broke and flashed from exertion, the napalm launcher practically drowned the dragon from head to toe in flames that stung on open wounds and blotted out its vision before it went empty and only fired smoke; and the optic blasts that fired out of the entire span of Gigan’s visor rather than a singular point screeched and sparked against his foe until the growing stress crack from earlier spread so much it shattered the lens. The exertion was taking an obvious toll. At this point, Gigan’s “heat proof” radiator sails had caught on fire, indicating his systems were well beyond the event horizon. The momentous effort was tearing his body apart from the inside.

-Not. Yet… N-not finished… with you!-

Sparking, bleeding out, and with most of his systems offline, Gigan put everything he had into his thrusters. Cackling in rage, Kaizer Ghidorah rose up from the cloud of napalm smoke. With speed betraying his great size, the three-headed dragon timed its move and swung down with its feet in a combination kick and stomp. Gigan was caught in the chest, the blow so strong is reversed his momentum and pinned him to the ground under Ghidorah’s foot. The force of impact left massive fissures in all directions that only grew as Ghidorah ground his heel into this painful nuisance. Such a sheer impact would have probably put many living creatures into shock from the pain of a shattered ribcage or broken spine, but Gigan had long since burned out any pain sensors. Shrieking a mechanical cry, he revved up the other two weapons systems left. The first was obvious, being the trio of saws he sported across his arms and chest. The chest buzzsaw screeched against Ghidorah’s armor plating and it whirled around at three times its normal torque. Every single tooth was snapped off in the process, but they sacrificed themselves in tearing a gash into Ghidorah’s foot that covered Gigan’s midsection in golden ichor. The other weapon system activated as Ghidorah’s eyes widened and he recoiled from getting his foot sliced open; teleportation.

He only had enough juice for one jump and his fizzling vision made it difficult to target a spot, but he made it count. Ghidorah stumbled back, smoking, burning, riddled with cuts and char. A skyward shriek caused all three heads to look upwards in unison just as Gigan crashed into him. The cyborg, who had teleported high above and fell into the dragon to give him momentum, brought both chainsaws down across Kaizer’s torso in a whirlwind of sparks and smoke.

-Muscle torque limit: 264%-!!!-

The monitors broke in showers of sparks. The twin saws roared, Gigan only briefly pausing his strike to rotate one of the saws around to use the fresh set due to how many saw teeth he was losing per second. In a fantastic show of force the cyborg tilted his arms upwards and all 100,000 tons of Kaizer Ghidorah had his momentum reversed and he was lifted off the ground. Gigan screamed in exertion and battle fury even as his body broke down all around him. In desperation and agony, Ghidorah lit up both wings and all three of its jaws and aimed inwards with a golden tsunami. The resulting explosion engulfed both alien kaiju.

Gigan was sent tumbling through the air as a sparking, smoking mess that crashed through several towers of obsidian; half buried in the ensuing rubble. One of his chainsaws and half the arm it was attached to plummeted down from the sky and crashed not far away. The twisted, half-melted metal of the saw embedding itself in the ground; the sparking forearm it was attached to revealing exposed wires and both real as well as artificial bone sticking out of it. Gigan didn’t get back up, likely on account of his other saw being buried in his stomach up to the hilt. The sparking, cyclopean eye set behind his shattered visor blinked weakly.

When the smoke cleared, Ghidorah shakingly rose to his feet. Heaving for breath though, he wasn’t standing for long. He stumbled upon a knee and was forced to brace himself against the ground to avoid collapsing. Gigan was down or worse, but the cyborg had gone down swinging and did a number on the dragon. The most prominent of which, amongst the plasma burns, cut marks, bruises, and bleeding feet; was from Gigan’s final strike. In the ultimate statement of defiance, Gigan had left a signature in Kaizer Ghidorah’s very flesh. Smoking, bleeding, and cut to the bone, Ghidorah’s chest now bore a massive “X” carved into it.

Gigan’s blinking eye began to dim as his brother screamed. A weak, staticy voice electronically filtered itself into Megalon’s head.

-”Make… Him… See. Reflection.”-

Gigan’s eye sparked and went out.

Rarity was sometimes a fearful pony, both for herself and for others. But Harmony’s Elements never picked weak souls, and she wouldn’t let that fear stop her. After all, if Junior could give her such good words after taking inspiration from her; not obliging him the same would just be hypocritical!

=======================

Irys screeched sharply as she was thrown through a section of obsidian wall, fumbling down in a torrent of broken debris that half buried her after she hit the ground. Kaizer Ghidorah bit back the pain of Gigan’s assault and stomped forward despite the dark gold ichors spilling out of his deep chest wound, intending to finish the bat off after he’d smacked her out of the sky. The ground in front of, and soon beneath, his feet rattled and shook. Suddenly in one of his steps, his massive paw shot down into the ground and caved into a hollow burrow. A loud drilling sound shrieked out of the dirt, the ground cracking and fracturing around Kaizer Ghidorah’s placement. Megalon soon shot out of the ground, whirling about as he unwound from his drill form and landed on his feet as Kaizer Ghidorah stumbled into his pitfall trap and sunk a full two hundred meters into the void opening up under him. A quick burst of the cyborg’s thunder cannon and a few spat napalm grenades and the ground around the pitfall caved in to bury the dragon under partially melted glass.

Seizing the moment he’d bought them, Megalon turned back around to see the source of the noise beside him. Irys had dug herself out of the debris field and flapped her wings to hover over next to her sole remaining ally.

“He’s pinned for a moment, come on we need to get the Master!”

“NO!”, Megalon barked in such a strong tone it left the gyaos stunned; even if she begged to differ. This wasn’t the first time she’d seen what she considered family go mad in a bloody frenzy, such was practically the default for all the experiences she’d had until meeting X and company.

Irys strieked in as much frantic worry as she did anger born of said worry, “Megalon I’m trying not to lose you too!”

“And we didn’t lose X yet, we can get him back! We just gotta get Kaizer to see his reflection!”

“Wha- huh?! Who told you that?!”, Irys barked incredulously.

“MY BROTHER!”, Megalon roared in a manner whose tone was illustrated by the artificial fluids leaking from his eyes in the manner that made the cyborg look like he was crying.

Irys’ tone and expression softened some as she whispered, “M-Megalon. We don’t know if we can do that… I really want it to but-”

Huffing and shaking, Megalon soon followed up while pointing a drill at the enormous blast mark Kaizer and Gigan’s battle had left in it’s climax.

“He- he told me… Cyborg message,” Megalon whimpered while tapping at the side of his head, “My brother was amazing. He could have won. He wouldn’t have wasted a shot at taking Kaizer out if he didn’t think it would work.”

Irys struggled with it for a moment, resisting the urge to try and comfort the shaking entity she saw like a little brother of her own as the time and place weren’t right. But she let a flicker of hope well up inside her, and a Shadow of Atlantis knew even the smallest brightness can be seen in the biggest shadow; something she ironically symbolized from the old days of her flock with her albinism. In her old life, cynicism was the easy way out, even if it seemed logical.

Megalon muttered, “If we get him to see, the only one of us who can beat Kaizer will…”

It seemed crazy, insane even. But, Irys steeled herself. The risk was great but the reward, the reward of having her team; her family back in a more complete state. She could hope for that-

A golden light crossed her face. Her eyes widened and she rushed sideways, “LOOK OUT!”

The ground exploded in a brilliance of golden rays as Kaizer Ghidorah blasted and smashed his way free of his prison, barreling at them with ignited jaws bared and roars thundering. As the milliseconds ticked by, Irys had done the only thing she could manage to do. She shoved into Megalon and pushed him aside just as he was reactively firing a napalm grenade while spinning from Irys’ push. Kaizer Ghidorah slammed into her like a freight train as both he and the grenade threw themselves forward. Irys winced as she felt teeth score across and cut open her stomach, the wind knocked out of her by an impact that echoed through her whole body. Just barely lacking precise enough aim to land a bite, the bleeding and stunned bat was hurled back.

The whole world was deafened when she hit the ground and skid across it, bleeding and barely able to see. Her eyes rolled about involuntarily, vision fading in and out. She glimpsed movement and thought she heard Megalon cry out as he launched himself into Kaizer Ghidorah’s side. She could only hear her own shallow breathing and heart beat and was unable to move as an object bounced across the ground and rolled past her face. If she were lucid, she’d have recognized it as a napalm grenade rolling over and tapping her belly before all became fire.

There was brightness, there was sensation, there was the clogging, gagging smell of smoke; and she couldn’t feel the agony.

…Because there was no pain. Irys gagged and winced as she tried to weakly rise. The moment she saw herself, she’d nearly died of fright when the near-blinding, flickering lights across her confirmed that she was indeed on fire. She’d been burned before, by plasma fire; that Mothra probably left a mark on her somewhere, but she’d always made a point to avoid flames. She saw them first early on when humans came upon the cave. She knew full well, be it then with a flamethrower at that cave or in years of conflict after against Gamera, that gyaos burned. And yet, she wasn’t.

Irys touched at the flames apprehensively with her hand to check and make sure she wasn’t in some bizarre state of mind after Kaizer collided with her. The fires flickered and reacted to her touch, but didn’t burn her. Quite the opposite actually, the tingling she was feeling felt like how she would after gorging herself and mending a wound. The fires seemed to die down rather quickly for napalm and when Irys looked to see why, she found herself gazing at the source of the tingling. Her stomach wasn’t cut open anymore, sealing shut as it seemed to almost vacuum up the fires in tandem with the healing. Soon there wasn’t a jet of fire or embers left, just smothered remains of some napalm crust. She could have sat there questioning it, but when she looked up to see Kaizer Ghidorah and Megalon in a deadlock, she didn’t.

Megalon strained as his heels sunk into the ground, trying to brace his drills against the massive paws that gripped them. Sparks shot out of the cyborg’s shoulders. Panicking as he could physically hear the metal twisting and bone starting to fracture, Megalon opened fire with his thunder cannon and commanded his drills to spin at high speed. But lacking time to charge, the resulting ray of lightning only scorched a line across Kaizer Ghidorah’s middle neck. The dragon retaliated by roaring and chomping down on the horn, crunching down on it as his paws gripped the drills. Despite his palms bleeding against the sharp edge, they halted the spinning. There was a horrible screech of metal, Kaizer’s grip crushed handprints into the drills and fractured their surfaces as he snapped off the top of Megalon’s horn. A shower of sparks and fluids shot out of the now screaming cyborg’s horn and drills, but he stubbornly refused to pull back.

Instead Megalon pushed to the side, trying to direct Kaizer’s view to a large slab of reflective obsidian on a nearby wall.

-Gotta… make him… see… reflection! Gotta… !-

His knee gave out under him, punching into the ground and stopping his attempt cold. Kaizer Ghidorah bellowed and smacked the cyborg across the side in a thunderous backhand that sent him hurtling back. The cyborg slumped out of the ditch he’d carved out from getting ragdolled, and in a show of defiance that would leave his sibling proud, sucked in. He made a sound like he was preparing the biggest loogie in the world, and spat a barrage of napalm grenades at the advancing Ghidorah. He soon came to regret that decision when a white blur flew over him and directly into Kaizer Ghidorah. Grabbing onto his left head to divert it and the graviton torrent it was spraying away, Irys smashed her flattened head plate into Kaizer’s middle snout before beating her wings hard as she could to try and force him back with her forward momentum. Megalon’s eyes sparked and he cried when the napalm grenades hit Irys in the back and exploded.

“IRYYYS!”

His scream was answered by a loud shriek from the now obscuring fireball that had engulfed both Irys and Kaizer Ghidorah from the grenade cluster.

“KEEP. SHOOTING!”

Megalon was so stupefied that his friend wasn’t screaming about being on fire that he almost forgot to worry that it was happening, seeing a now flapping inferno before him in the form of Irys’ immolating wings.

“A-Are you crazy?!”

Kaizer Ghidorah bellowed and raised his right head to fire upon the now burning interloper, only for an extremely surprising amount of strength in a burning wing to smack it aside. His forward charge at last was stopped, met by a similarly awesome force.

Irys, thoroughly on fire and yet not harmed, bellowed her answer,“YES!”

Megalon watched in awe as Irys’ body started to absorb the fire, practically drinking it up as wisps of flame spun into tendrils that seemed to seep and pour into her. Whatever it was doing, he knew it wasn’t hurting her. And if it was the only thing left at his disposal, even if it was a Hail-Mary gambit, he was taking it. Throwing caution into the wind, he opened up the clip and started emptying grenade after grenade into the two kaiju; aiding Irys and managing at least some chip damage on Kaizer’s open wounds.

“I am crazy! Just like everyone else in this damn group!”

Irys rammed her forehead into Kaizer’s, gritting her fangs as she amazingly managed to give the, admittedly weakened, dragon a physical run for his money.

“You guys are the most insane posse I’ve ever seen to think some miscreant mutant like me belonged with you all, to give me a second thought!”

Fire exploded across Irys’ form over and over again, getting siphoned into every wound and the numerous lines that flashed across her body. Odd symbols started to light up and her force seemed to magnify. In a feat few had ever achieved, Irys budged Kaizer Ghidorah backwards. The dragon roared, reeling his necks back and swinging a forelimb in a hammerfist that shattered the ground and would have shattered Irys if she didn’t dive out of the way; only to arc back around and ram back into her foe.

“You throw around power like this, but you’re not half as great as X is! He said you wanted to avenge someone close, but you don’t even know what love is anymore; I should know because I didn’t!”

Graviton beams were fired at close range, spread wings and projected barriers of sound blocking and redirecting them up towards the ceiling. Debris rained down in torrents from above, mixing with the seas of smoke and flame.

“All of them… All of them are greater than any souls I’ve ever known before or will after! They’re more than just my team, and they’re something you’d never understand!”, Irys screamed as she pushed on forward.

“Gigan, he led a charge against the scariest thing I’ve ever met just to save my hide even when I had a death wish! My old flock would have left me for dead and picked the bones clean and yet here he goes throwing his body into the trash to save all of us!”

She winced, backstepping briefly from the onslaught. But as more flames streamed into her, the glowing markings, runes, started become more solid. She felt more power than she’d ever imagined before, but hardly paid it any mind.

“Megalon, he’s the most persistent dolt I ever met! He didn’t care if we were screw-ups, he just kept everyone’s morale up enough that we’d care about him like he did us! Devoted to making others happy? Being happy?! That’s not something I ever had before, because I never had a little brother before!”

Irys growled and shoved forward, forcing the energy wave back and slamming it into Kaizer full force. Ghidorah bellowed and stumbled, smoking all over after being engulfed in light. Unfettered for all but a moment, his attempts to trample the small gyaos before him were met by her pouncing into his face and whirling around onto his back. Irys strained and snarled, her bones risking breakage despite the remarkable power coming over her. The runes flickered in and out with increasing frequency, almost staying on entirely.

“And X, what would make a guy like him with that many problems give a damn about me, give a damn about anyone enough to start this whole team? He saved my life doing what he did so others could too. I owe him now and I’ll owe him until the day my blood runs dry!”

Irys screamed as she grabbed onto Kaizer Ghidorah’s side necks with her feet as he thrashed and grabbed about with his arms, back, and wings to try and throw or snatch her off.

The gyaos were Atlantis’ attempt to forge a Guardian Beast in the same vein that led to Gamera, Yonggary, Raiga, Baragon, Varan, and Rodan based off Anguirus’ design. It was a resounding failure with numerous genetic errors working like glitches in the system, shortening lifespan, lowering intelligence, decreasing power, and driving them insane with hunger. But after dozens of generations, some fluke incidents had a way of correcting past mistakes. Runes lit up across Irys’ form to a continued finish, casting her in a brilliant pink hue as she drain in the fire, the lifeblood of a Guardian Beast. Just as Rodan was unharmed by Sunset Shimmer's fire and Raiga walked through Agon's flames, she was the opposite of harmed. A stylized “Eta” symbol appeared on her wings.

“I’m surrounded by a group that actually cares about me, more than just a flock, more than just a team; and they’re all batshit crazy!”

Irys screamed out in a booming voice of magnified sound as she managed to lift Kaizer Ghidorah off the ground, “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve them but I’ll die before I ever let them down!”

The Eighth Guardian Beast began to arise, awakened at long last, spread her wings and slammed Kaizer Ghidorah into the ground as the latter opened fire upon her mid fall. The true battle was just getting started.

Megalon’s grenade belt clicked dry; meaning he could only watch in awe as he physically felt Irys’ power radiating out. But empty with explosives as he was, his heart was filled with hope at seeing his friend’s new might. They might just have a chance at winning this. He winced and punched a broken drill into the air.

“Come on Irys! KICK HIS ASS!”

=======================

Rarity hurried along to the slab as fast as she could, only cocking an eyebrow during her approach when she found somepony already present before the rock. The cutiemark stone’s sheer numbers took the Element of Generosity off guard, storing what had to be the equivalent cutiemarks, and thus magic, of a good four dozen or more ponies. Her first instinct was to call out to the pony observing the stone to tell them to get to safety and try to help the others, but seeing that they were a unicorn and seemed to be studying the slab gave her hope that out of the random assortment of ponies coming out of the dome, perhaps one of them might have some magic school training and be able to help after all.

“Hello over there, deary!”, she yelped as she rushed up to the yellow and red mare, “I don’t suppose you know how to get this blasted vault open?”

She nearly backpedalled when she got close to the pony. Despite the fiery hues and sunny cutiemark that made one think of warmth, the moment she got within a meter of the mare she felt a biting chill that stabbed into her.

The mare slowly turned around and Rarity cringed. At first it was subtle, an almost subconscious concern that there was something very off and wrong with this pony. But that became extremely evident when ‘she’ stopped being a pony in the traditional sense. Enjin had noticed two things. The slab of cutiemarks would make for a valuable prize, one she intended to claim now that it was revealed Ghidorah had been hiding it. And the second was the aura coming off Rarity. The ponies not sporting the equals signs on their flanks had power to them, each in a way different to the other such that Bagan hypothesized it was related to the mark. But this unicorn compared to them? It was like comparing a bonfire to a candle. Harmony’s traces were obvious in Rarity’s element, as was the residue of some sort of dark magic that Enjin could sense more of nearby in Rarity’s bag. There were no Equestrians around on this region of the plateau, they were too busy trying to scramble down and unblock the mountainside. It was just Rarity and her, and she acted upon it.

Sunset Shimmer took a step forward as Enjin’s influence became more obvious. Inky black mass like a living shadow drenched over her body as fiery energies in the hues of magma washed up her hooves and formed a pattern of glowing runes. She grew in height, doubling so and becoming more robust. Her horn grew in length, becoming sharp and craggy. Magma blazes overtook her eyes and wings of ash and rock formed out of her back. Soon what stood before Rarity resembled a hellish mixture of the demonic form Sunset took during the Fall Formal and a living volcano. And it approached her on burning earth that seemed so hot it chilled the bone as it seared the skin. With a stomp of the hoof, a crack raced across the ground towards Rarity and she wisely jumped back just as a spire of rock burst out where she had been standing. Sunset Shimmer, Enjin, whichever one wished to call her, let out a deafening cry that sounded like a mixture of a horrific roar and a banshee scream that rang in Rarity’s mind to cloud the world in terror.

Rarity screamed and backpedalled while trying to conjure up magic, blue glows flickering on and off across her horn due to fear.

“N-NO! STAY AWAY!”, She cried while wincing to try and force her magic up. She managed to levitate a hoof sized stone and lobbed it at the incoming monster, but despite the force she’d telekinetically pitched it with the stone just shattered against Enjin’s sternum.

Rarity gasped and forced her magic to work again, trying anything she could. She might have been skilled in telekinesis, both for precision in her seamstry and even carrying Tom around, but she wasn’t a magic school entrant. The things Twilight could do always amazed her as much as they would an earth pony or pegasus. She kept stumbling back, lobbing any loose rock, gravel, or other miscellaneous object she could get at Enjin to try and force it back. Gritting her teeth, Rarity drew up a table sized boulder and forced it forward with a shout. Enjin regarded the oncoming projectile and raised a hoof, holding still and letting the boulder crash into it. The moment the hoof made contact, Enjin made use of a combination: Its own earthshaping and Sunset’s magical knowledge, more specifically fire spells.

The boulder glowed and hissed with smoke and steam. A red hot indent appeared on the far side just as it started to break apart. It spread, melting stone into lava that spilled across the ground and broiled the air so much it ignited the nearby shrubs in a flashpoint. The fire and lava spread quickly, the latter through cracks in the ground from Enjin’s hoofsteps and the former from the windblown embers. Rarity coughed from the smoke as sweat ran down frayed bangs. She heard something that made her take her attention off Enjin and look behind her. The fires weren’t stopping, instead traveling to the edge of the plateau near the blocked paths and some of the ponies were noticing it, shouts and cries of alarm calling out from over the edge.

-The fire! It’ll chase them down, get to them before they can clear the path!-

Rarity winced and looked back at the cutiemark slab, then to the monster between her and it. There was no way she could get to the slab and figure out how to open it in time, and stopping the wildfire would take a mage. She couldn’t do it, Juliet Rarity Belle couldn’t do it.

Enjin advanced and Rarity backed up to a darkened boulder, watching the Aspect of Earth step through the fires and become wreathed in the smoke. She took in a deep breath as fear threatened to choke her. But, perhaps by hearing his distant roar; Junior’s last words replayed through her mind.

-“Being brave means you’re scared too. I’ll just have to do what heroes do.”-

Like a drop engendering ripples in a pond, Rarity’s mind stilled to all but just that one thought. She opened her eyes even as a tear streaked out of one and took in all that lay around her. Crowds of ponies she was responsible for were noticing the fires creeping up on them and were screaming in fear, the smoke and heat was muddying her vision and stinging her lungs, the cutiemark slab she needed to activate was so far out of reach, her friend was locked in a titanic death match against a foe he confessed he couldn’t beat unless somepony got him help, and a monster who for all intents and purposes had come out of nowhere was bearing down on her.

Rarity was sometimes a fearful pony, for justifiable and silly reasons alike. She was afraid of an eternal night killing the sun and she was afraid of a bad mane day ruining her mood. She was afraid of a time-lost tyrant of the north returning and of having to eat her baby sister’s cooking. And of course, she was afraid of nightmares, figurative and literal. But fear led to effort. She’d plan around Sweetie Belle’s visits to take her out to eat, she’d study up on the best shampoos to use to keep her mane curled and bouncy, she’d play crowd control for hours in the Crystal Empire to keep morale up, she’d find herself chosen for a legendary power to help stop a night that wouldn’t end. And when she worried her dark echo would seize control of her again, she took the effort to combat it from the expert.

She felt the cutiemark containment jar in her saddlebag radiate with a dark power contained within.

Rarity drew up the jar and though scared out of her mind, she smirked as she prayed; smashing the jar open on the rock above her and letting the dark mass flood over her like a drawn shower.

-And a lady is anything but a hypocrite!-

Dark thoughts and fears seemed to trickle into her mind. Declarations of weakness, unfulfillment, and failure. But Rarity commanded them to cease, feeling the influence having been weakened from the recent excursion into Godzilla Junior’s mind. This time, she was the one in control and giving the commands; influenced but not superseded. Waves of black and sapphire magic shot across the ground in waves, blasting back smoke and snuffing out the flames as a glimmering haze took its place.

Eyes of starry sapphires, a flowing mane of jewels in purple and white.

A giantess statue covered in fur of the night.

Begat by a princess, with rushing magic carrying all of her might.

Nightmare Rarity stood tall, ready to fight.

=======================

Irys zoomed around Kaizer Ghidorah as the much larger kaiju swiped and snapped at her heels and tail. Spreading his own wings to take to the air, Kaizer Ghidorah filled the chamber with a rattling roar that could deafen all in earshot had his opponent not been sound itself. Irys, surging with power she never could have dreamed before, was the nimbler flier and made good use of it. Like a falcon chased by an eagle, she dove, swerved, and weaved to circle and flank her pursuer, not able to fully shake him off but still keeping a good distance. The Guardian Beast of Sound let out a single, high pitched ping as the ‘Eta’ symbol on her wings flashed. The wave of energy washed over the chamber and in an instant , it was entirely drowned out. Everything was muted by a persistent, unending static of sound that left one practically unable to hear their own thoughts. Kaizer Ghidorah could ignore it at first, letting it only invigorate him to rip the petulant bat wing from wing. But ambition for that outcome was snuffed out when the gyaos unleashed her smokescreen of dark haze, causing a complete blackout. Unable to see nor hear, he was forced to hover and halt his forward advance to avoid crashing into the ceiling or wall.

He sneered, trying to shake his head and clear the deafness. Unable to see in the haze, he had no way of dodging when a speeding blur of white blitzed towards and divebombed him in the face. He fired in the direction the gyaos, unsure if he hit anything on account of being blind and deaf. He got his answer through his still working sense of touch when Irys swooped in and smashed her empowered wing into his right head from another direction. Then another blow, then another. Wing strikes, divebombs, headbashes with Irys’ reinforced skullcap, kicks, and scoring with beams fired from out of the dark ether. Kaizer snarled, not really hurt but thoroughly annoyed by the onslaught. He tried to get free of the haze but everywhere he went just had more haze, not helped with the disorienting deafness and blows to the face making it hard to even tell which way was up or down. He started firing wildly into the haze, scoring every direction with graviton torrents and wing borne lightning to little success.

And Irys kept it up, using every ounce of this new power she had. Even with it she knew she couldn’t chance a full on assault, let alone up close, against Kaizer. But the ancients of Atlantis would be proud of their legacy, because by trickery to fight on her terms, cleverly striking at the areas Gigan had opened up, altering the terrain to avoid retaliation, and hit-and-run tactics she was managing to outpace one of the most powerful kaiju to ever exist. By luck, Kaizer Ghidorah happened to fire in a direction Irys was coming from, forcing her to stop her attempted divebomb and stop short, spreading her wings as a wall of projected sound shot out of her runic wing membranes. Mana-fueled sound and gravitons clashed, this time the former not cracking under the pressure of the latter. The dark haze was blown back somewhat, cluing Kaizer Ghidorah into the now oncoming shield which he poured more beams into. But by grit of fangs and the same steely will that carried her all these years, Irys simply refused to yield. She slowly pressed forward, trying to close the distance and shove the built up energy into her foe. Fortunately however, she wasn’t fighting alone.

Kaizer Ghidorah’s wing lightning arched back, almost vacuumed up by still-functioning magnets below. It hurt like Daiei for Megalon to draw in electricity on damaged drills, sending barrages of painful sparks out of the cracks marring his forelimbs, but it hurt Kaizer Ghidorah more when the overclocked thunder cannon ray smashed into his back. Stunned briefly, Kaizer Ghidorah wasn’t able to focus as the world of sound returned to him. The only thing he heard was Irys’ screaming war cry as she smashed the charged sound shield into him and sent them both rocketing to the ground. Irys skidded across the floor, carving a trench into it but managing to shakingly regain her flight mid-fall and swoop around on bleeding wings.

Kaizer Ghidorah instead found himself crashing to the earth with the grace of a meteor, impacting the ground hard enough to crater it. He gasped and bellowed in pained rage, hurt but his injuries weren’t debilitating. He could still fight with a broken leg, bleeding from forty percent of his body and burnt across almost as much. Half his skeleton was broken when he tore Grand King Ghidorah’s head out. Irys, Gigan, and Megalon’s assaults, while admirable and definitely damaging him, hadn’t given him significant pause.

What did was what he saw upon regaining cleared vision. Just outside the crater, standing tall in a location Irys had intentionally shoved him towards, Kaizer Ghidorah beheld a massive, smooth slab of obsidian that bore his reflection. When his eyes locked upon the enormous “X” carved into his chest from Gigan’s last act, along with the reflected forms of Irys, Megalon, and the downed elder cyborg; Kaizer Ghidorah did something for the first time in his life. He winced and paused.

Not by his own will, he still was crazed and bloodlusting enough to want to kill everything around him. But something, someone, gripped him in an icy grasp. A sensation trickled over him like freezing water droplets, first slow, and then drowning. Then the voice of Irys, Megalon, and Gigan’s teammate came roaring back into his head and now it was Kaizer’s turn to be mentally assailed.

Gigan’s message had been received in unbridled fury that rivaled Kaizer’s.

=======================

Inside a shattered mind, Monster X’s consciousness twitched. He felt weak, so incredibly weak, like moving even a finger was a momentous task. Something was trying to call to him, a faint whisper that almost sounded like a voice but it was far too dispersed and tiny to make out what it was. He tried to listen, tried to move; but to no avail. That was, until a fantastic echo called out through the mentalscape. X looked up and saw the cause, able to see what the manifestation of Kaizer Ghidorah’s consciousness saw.

Kaizer Ghidorah’s reflection, marked by a massive “x” carved into his chest. X was puzzled, trying to figure out what had happened; only to gain his answer shortly after in a manner much to his horror. His team on the edge of death. Irys in a state he didn’t recognize along with a defiant Megalon making a noble last-stand. X’s brow furrowed.

-Only… only Gigan could have left that mark on Kaizer, he should be with them… Where is he?!-

He felt like he’d been run through when he saw the form slumped into a pile of rubble behind Irys and Megalon. His best friend’s body lay limp, missing one arm and having the other impaled through the stomach with not a sign of biological or mechanical life from his blacked out, mechanical eye to his exposed internals and sparks occasionally spraying from a busted joint. Gigan had definitely left that mark, no doubt fighting Kaizer as according to he and Monster X’s promise to protect their team from him should X fall. And the mark was deep, extremely deep, but aimed at a heavily muscled and bony part on the body. Monster X furrowed in confusion.

-Why? I-If he could get the power to swing that hard and c-cut that deep, he’d go for a weak spot. The belly, the underarm, the necks and faces! G-Gigan… Gigan would know that! And he promised he’d take Kaizer out! How, how he miss?! He should have-!…-

Monster X felt the cold of grief flood him when the realization hit him. Gigan hadn’t missed, he almost never missed and with such high stakes he couldn’t miss. His best friend had intentionally wasted a potentially mortal or debilitating shot. Gigan had carved X’s name into Kaizer Ghidorah as both an insult to his greatest enemy… and a message to his best friend. The cyborg’s words from back in team chamber were of recent memory.

-“I only promise to try, but only if you don’t give up.”-

And he saw the consciousness manifestation of his other half, the cause of three hundred years of pain and agony to those around them, trying to return to attacking Irys and Megalon. Monster X’s weakness left him, his fingers digging into the ground hard enough to form tightened fists that bled. All his will fought against any binding Grand King Ghidorah or Kaizer Ghidorah imposed, and shattered them all. By the time Kaizer Ghidorah’s avatar turned around after becoming alert to the scream of rage behind him, Monster X’s avatar was already upon him and smashing a graviton kick into the dragon’s faces. Gigan’s last act was sending a message to the one member of their team whom could stop Kaizer Ghidorah once and for all, and it had been received.

“MURDERER!”, he roared through tears.

In the physical world, Kaizer Ghidorah shrieked as he recoiled, being battered repeatedly by the other side of him whom fought like he was possessed. Even as Kaizer Ghidorah recovered, Monster X pressed the attack as both mauled and mangled each other. In a herculean show of strength, Monster X picked up and shoved Kaizer Ghidorah into the white wall surrounding their mentalscape, the view around them shifting to show a myriad of memories swirling around the image of Gigan’s body. A fateful military parade of the Xilian and Nebulan forces, that mission to first confront Grand King Ghidorah, being introduced to Megalon, casually chatting after rescuing Irys, a pair of odd humans crossing forearms in a snowy forest.

“Look, look what you’ve done!”, X shouted as he pushed Kaizer face first into the view of Gigan’s body.

Something spilled out of the memories and view, flooding the both of them with the myriad of emotions and sensations associated with any of them.

“Are you determined to prove yourself like King? What kind of sick creature,” Monster X shoved back against Kaizer’s attempt to free himself, flooding the both of them in the whirlwind of happiness from memories of friendship and grief from the present time, “-would murder his own friend?!”

“He wasn’t-… my… friend!”, Kaizer choked as he sneered at Monster X’s teary face.

Another wave of emotions hit him when Monster X chucked him into another wall of memories and forced him to experience them. Years, sometimes decades trapped inside asteroid Gorath and the only truly happy times Monster X had ever experienced in those years was the joint ventures with the Nebulans, where he got to see his oldest and then second oldest friends. In a life of solitude and service, it was his only respite. And now he was forcing Kaizer to see it all. Kaizer Ghidorah strained and snarled even as he gasped in pain and tried to clutch at his head to block it out.

“Those are your- memories, they’re not mine!”, he bellowed defiantly and started to lift up to his feet to rise.

Monster X’s cold, hardened gaze glared back as the Dragon Knight slowly approached. With each step, more memories of Gigan, Megalon, Irys, Aria Blaze, even Adagio Dazzle and Sonata Dusk, anyone X cared for that was at risk, started, to flood the world around them.

“Then why do you remember them? Why are you in so much pain?!”

Kaizer Ghidorah flinched, perhaps only now feeling tears licking at his cheeks as the stabbing feeling in his chest intensified. In one way or another, he was feeling what X was for a being who was supposed to not care the slightest for. Grief.

“These memories, they aren’t mine,” Kaizer growled in flinching denial, “Once you’re gone they’ll never be a part of me anymore!”

He sneered and swung out. But whereas grief turned to stunned pain in Kaizer, that same grief drove Monster X further and further. Monster X blocked the strike, even if doing so resulted in him getting a shoulder pad torn off, and braced both forearms into Kaizer Ghidorah’s sternum to shove him back into the memory wall. He grabbed Kaizer by the central face and forced him to look, forced him to feel.

“Arrogant fool, I am you! These are your memories, they’ll always be a part of you!”

Several dozen decades flew by and Kaizer Ghidorah saw each and roared at what he saw.

“You lived a life of servitude and ignorance, living by orders alone. I wouldn’t have!”

“And look at them!”

The views all shifted to show Monster X’s loved ones, from fleeting moments in time including the dramatic and stressed to the quiet and calm ones. Stepping through a portal with Irys, taking battle positions side by side against Grand King Ghidorah to fight him as a team, resting together in a pile with Gigan and X back to back, Megalon half buried in the middle, and Irys roosting directly above.

“No one gave me the command to take them in, they were the only part of life we chose!”, Monster X yelled as he pushed forward and forced Kaizer into the memory, forcing him to experience it all.

Kaizer lashed out in a blind rage that had fueled him for over three hundred years, grasping at Monster X’s face and trying to claw, twist, or bash him away. But even as they struggled, even as some of Kaizer Ghidorah’s memories fought for space in their mindscape, Monster X didn’t quit.

=======================

In the real world, Irys cocked an eyebrow at seeing Kaizer Ghidorah flinch and grimace. His eyes were dilated but unfocused, and she could see the seams of them glisten. She stayed ready to fight, to protect what remained of her flock; and for the first time in her life, she prayed.

=======================

“Look at them!... You’d abandon them, our new family!”

The sight of Irys and Megalon standing up at the ready with a fallen Gigan behind them from Kaizer’s real world point of view was overlaying a memory of Aria Blaze putting her hand to an unmasked X’s face. These in turn were combined with a much more distant memory of a young xilian man standing beside an older male and female, parents, and later memories of an xilian adult with a similarly aged woman, their rival, then friend turned fiance, then wife. The feelings that flooded out from the memories were the same for both Praetorian Guard 094’s family and Monster X’s team, much to X’s confirmation and Kaizer’s denial.

“Yet you’d throw them away for what’s gone! Tossed it aside like trash,” Monster X surged forward and smashed his glare into Kaizer’s as they struggled for supremacy, “If you destroy what you were trying to avenge, you don’t deserve to be free!”

Kaizer Ghidorah screamed from overloading memories as Monster X bowed his head. The world around them began to turn white, enveloping them both even as Kaizer started to fight back. Both of them started to change.

=======================

Irys’ prayer was answered in a way she didn’t expect. Tears began to stream down the gold and black dragon’s eyes. He tossed about and reared up in a mixture of blind stress and turmoil, before letting out a long, piercing call that permeated across Zenith. It was a mixture of cries. A wrathful roar of a dragon under attack, the grieving wail of a knight, and what almost sounded like a scream of a man not heard in over three hundred years. His aura flared, oscillating between three shapes. A three headed, golden dragon. An ivory hued knight. And a shape some would recognize as an xilian man.

Kaizer Ghidorah flared out his wings and took to the air, smashing through a backwall and flying off into the depths of Zenith.

=======================

Monster X and Kaizer Ghidorah’s mental avatars were in a deadlock, grabbing each other by the shoulders and trying to push the other back. As time passed in a struggle that felt like it was taking hours, the forms of a knight and dragon occasionally flickered out and the shapes of two humanoids briefly would take their place. The broken parts of a male xilian, Praetorian 094’s, consciousness were grappling in both their past and present forms.

Unseen by either of them, the broken cage that had held Kaizer Ghidorah’s personality back for hundreds of years outside of brief instances, started to shift. The bars disappeared into a haze, collecting back up into another shape. New memories started to flow into the mindscape, showing the Xilian homeworld during a golden age. Many of them were of Praetorian 094, but from a point of view looking at him rather than from him. A pair of eyes opened.

By now the two quarreling halves of 094 had beaten each other senseless, shoving the other back and collapsing to the ground. Monster X’s side, 094’s personality and mannerisms represented by a gray avatar, managed to rise even through tired heaves. Kaizer Ghidorah’s side, 094’s out of balance memories represented by a golden avatar, managed to struggle to his feet. But just as he balled a fist that crackled with graviton energy, something held him back.

Or rather, as a quiet voice called out, someone.

“Please, don’t do this…”

Monster X flinched, the voice almost sounding like Aria for a moment before he noticed the differences; it being similar but not identical. This was someone else. Kaizer’s side looked back and saw a vaguely solidified cloud of fog wrapped around his arm. The mist collected, forming a violet-hued figure in the shape of an xilian woman both sides of 094 recognized from memory. One from direct recollection, the other from impressions and feelings that only resurfaced due to the actions of Ms. Blaze. After all, Controller 011 and the siren had more in common than just being violet.

Kaizer Ghidorah’s side ceased, his voice barely above a disbelieving whisper, “Y-You.”

011’s spirit slowly shook her head, “I can’t bear to lose you again.”

Monster X’s side didn’t drop his tired guard, but he did manage to shake through his stupor and speak, “W-what? Who are you?”

011 sighed, turning her head and casting her hand to the mentalscape above them. She waved her hand to bring up some more of her memories.

It was of the battle with Grand King Ghidorah over 370 years ago, this time from her perspective. However this was far after she’d taken her fall from the skyscraper and Kaizer Ghidorah had first emerged, as the black and gold dragon was rampaging through the city to chase after the xilian military and leaving behind a comatose, now two-headed Grand King Ghidorah.

“I didn’t die from that fall, only unconscious and badly wounded. Controller augments made me out of sterner material so I awakened after a time.”

The view shifted to look about the ruined city, seeing the controller’s loyal soldiers dying at the hands of a husband whom was blinded by rage, grief, and overwhelming power he couldn’t control; lost to the destructive tendencies inherent to a ghidorah. Grand King Ghidorah, the catalyst of this all, had gotten back up and was attempting to flee with Kaizer Ghidorah noticing and roaring in berserk fury.

“I saw how you’d lost yourself, how I’d lost my beloved and thousands of our kind lost their lives. We were linked and I felt what you felt. I knew you avenging me by their and Ghidorah’s deaths wouldn’t sate such rage, it had to end.”

The view point showed two hands digging through the debris as Kaizer Ghidorah took off after Grand King Ghidorah. They drew up a sharp piece of broken metal shaped like a crude dagger.

“We were bonded, we’d have each other’s wounds. You were far too powerful to be put down, but me? I was just a mortal woman.”

The dagger was raised over the view and then plunged downwards into the chest, flashes of pain overcoming them all. Monster X reactively reached over and touched at his chest on the left, just above where the heart would be. In the memory, Kaizer Ghidorah paused and screeched in agony as a stab wound appeared on his chest at the same spot. X now knew how he got that scar.

The memory shifted to just after Kaizer Ghidorah had fallen, miraculously ending up right next to a mortally wounded Controller 011, who crawled up closer to him. The wound was fatal, though not instantly so.

“I was already wounded, so I knew I’d perish; but you’d survive,” 011 muttered in a muted tone.

In the memory, a dying 011 gently put her hand to a brow that bore scales taller than she was. She pulled herself closer and put her forehead to the now comatose Kaizer Ghidorah’s, a farewell kiss to a bounded husband lost to a monster she’d stopped. In the last moments however, it almost looked like the view was perplexingly dragged out of 011’s body. It started to go towards the heavens, only to be dragged back down and passed what looked like Kaizer Ghidorah’s jaws. Grand King Ghidorah’s words of him swallowing something right after speaking of souls was beginning to make a lot more sense.

Controller 011’s spirit sighed, “Grand King Ghidorah could devour the souls of those he’d consumed. Unknowingly, you did the same to me. And I’ve been here since, holding this berserk side of you back as your cage.”

Monster X was honestly intrigued and extremely grateful. It had been an effort to move heavens and earth to stand up to Kaizer Ghidorah, and this loved one from a past life had been aiding him to do just that from over three centuries. All the life he’d had thus far was thanks to her.

Controller 011 seemed to nod and smile at X’s avatar even as she shrugged, “But I can’t do it forever. I’m at my limit and I can’t persist as much as I wish to. You two can’t endure this life split and trying to vie for supremacy, I wouldn’t want that. I didn’t die for that. Something has to happen to end the cycle.”

Kaizer Ghidorah however, was lost for words. He tried to speak, maybe to apologize, plead, rationalize, anything; but all mental thought seemed to break. His entire world was shattered and he was dead quiet for a long time. Upon learning the very thing he’d been trying to avenge was also the very thing that protected X from him all these centuries, he couldn’t do anything else.

Movement before him finally spurred a reaction. Monster X’s avatar was storming up to them with a steely resolve on his face. Kaizer saw his tightened fist and thought he knew how his enemy wanted to “end the cycle”, especially after X seemed to notice he’d been spotted and rushed forward to no doubt attack now that his cover had been blown. Kaizer Ghidorah started to rise up and ready a counterstrike, but he was too slow as X dove forward. X wanted to savage Kaizer, wanted to rip him to shreds for what he’d caused their people, their comrades, their best friend. But that wasn’t going to amend this situation, not after the epiphany he’d gotten realizing Kaizer was a fractured piece himself and vice versa. No, this called for drastic action. Kaizer desperately swung a wide hook as X’s arms lashed out to seize hold of his neck and-

-held him.

Monster X embraced his other half after spending years fighting him, pulling Kaizer into a bear hug. Numerous memories of Kaizer’s side, being trapped in the depths of X’s mind and unknowingly imprisoned by his beloved for centuries filtered through; as well as the joyous and happy memories of 094’s life that Kaizer still bore. Walking in between two caring parents, graduating from the military guild academy as a youth, quickly rising through the ranks, a punch to the cheek by another young soldier who’d one day be the eleventh Controller, a deceptively quiet wedding for two of such high ranks; and numerous others. Monster X saw them and took them all in, even holding back a chuckle at seeing the memory of a young 011 slugging 094 in parallel to how Aria reacted right after he pulled her out of the river. He tightened his hold on the frozen Kaizer.

“Hatred works in cycles of conflict, neither one of us can kill the other… So I’m trying something new to break that cycle…… I’m sorry,” he whispered and caused Kaizer Ghidorah to flinch.

“I’m so sorry I hurt you… because of everything I forgot. You’ve been locked away so long, you can’t really control yourself any more now than you could when you were mad from grief. But you can’t run rampant like this, not with what I have-… what we have now.”

The memories of Monster X’s happiest memories took prominence, some distant and some recent. Some only moderate like the time a certain ultra whose life he’d saved tried to free him once. Some more dear and intimate such as a sea witch’s hand upon his face and his forehead to hers in a snowy forest. Some from centuries past, like the first time he ever met Megalon during a half bungled mission involving the cyborg harmlessly setting his own foot on fire. Some very recent like bantering with Gigan and getting thwacked on the head by a best friend whom stubbornly refused to let him sulk. Times with his team, time with the sirens, times at peace before his new master. They merged with Kaizer’s recollections of 094’s experiences to paint one big portrait of a life lasting over three centuries. It had more than its fair share of issues, much more than its fair share of trauma, but it was far from hopeless for those too stubborn to quit on it. In some ways, it was beautiful even without a conclusion.

Controller 011’s spirit cupped Kaizer Ghidorah’s cheek and nodded to him while motioning towards the new memories Monster X had forged, “I chose what I did, so there is nothing to avenge for me. Don’t throw this all away because of me.”

Monster X sighed and smiled slightly, glad to meet the approval of 011 on all aspects. She must have been a great match for 094 for Kaizer to want to spend over three centuries trying to avenge her, as well as her not being sour about X unknowingly moving on to a second love. He readied himself for what he said next. Some of those memories she looked over included Aria.

Monster X backed away from Kaizer slightly, admiring their life and nodding to him, “This could all be yours too, if you’ll forgive me. Because I’ll forgive you…”

“The only way to truly end a vendetta, is to forgive. He’s not your enemy, nor are those around him,” 011 noted.

Monster X felt Kaizer slowly grip him around his torso, holding it briefly before pulling back. At last he spoke, this time in a voice very much like X’s. Free of hatred, free of wrath, just a voice of a man who’d just woke from a terrible nightmare he’d put himself through for over three hundred years. He sounded completely different than the raving maniac of before, surprisingly quiet.

“…You made this life, I tried to destroy it… There was a good reason you got to be the one outside for these centuries, you’re the better man,” he whispered before bowing his heads down and yielded, “I forgive you…!”

He flinched and jolted up slightly.

“But what of our friend? The brave cyborg who stood up to me?”, Kaizer noted in what sounded almost like a plea; especially after putting emphasis on the word ‘our’.

Monster X surprisingly smiled in recollection of a conversation he’d had with Gigan right before all this choas with Ghidorahs in the past few hours started, “As you’ll remember, this isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened to him… I have an idea that just might work, if we hurry.”

Kaizer Ghidorah straightened himself upwards and nodded towards his other half while raising his hand, “Then make it so.”

Monster X clasped hands with his other half and Kaizer surged towards him. He advanced forward, but instead of running into Monster X’s personality and avatar, he melted into it. There was a flash of brilliance and as the light faded, only one of them stood. Back in their kaiju state, the embodiment of their conscious was largely Monster X’s figure, now sporting some golden accents, for the reunified mind clearly took more after him; but they were both present to some degree. Monster X beheld his new form in awe, feeling a sense of both power and completeness that had been alien to him except that time Aria managed to funnel Kaizer’s powers into him during the fight with Enjin. No more mental cages, no more struggling personalities, he was whole again.

Kaizer Ghidorah’s voice echoed across the mind, gradually fading.

-”Live this life for the both of us, largely in your state…. X, I’ll be with you when I’m needed.”-

Monster X or Kaizer X, whichever one prefered to call them, slowly looked towards Controller 011 as she strode up to them and cupped his cheek. X, moniker withstanding, smiled upon her while letting a finger run across her bangs before resting on her shoulder.

“Listen, I’m sorry if you worry with Aria. I do honestly love her, so I'm sorry if that is offens-”, he was shushed by the spiritual woman, who giggled.

“I’d have wanted you to move on and be happy even if you did remember me... My time with you was great, but it passed. This is her time. She’s good for you, I felt the love coming out of that song of hers even from in here. Protect her,”

X sighed and nodded slowly, “To be fair she does a good job of doing that for me too.”

“I’d hope so,” 011 smirked before solemnly bowing her head.

“My task is done, it’s time for me to pass on,” she whispered to him as she drew closer, “Let me go…”

Rapidly ascending through the stratosphere, Grand King Ghidorah and Godzilla Junior mauled one another, shockwaves of gravity and nuclear pulses ripping the sky apart alongside barrages of beams fired point blank. At this point both of them were covered in ichors and blood and smoking from a myriad of burns. They shot up, past the clouds, past the high atmosphere that would have grown ice crystals across them had Godzilla’s intense nuclear heat and Ghidorah’s air friction not steamed the water before it could even make contact. They kept ascending until they were well above the clouds, on the rim of the atmosphere.

X swallowed a heavy breath as he closed his eyes and placed a hand upon Controller 011’s head, doing what no Ghidorah had ever done before in their eons of existence. Praetorian 094 was dead for 370 years, it was time for his wife to join him in whatever realm those that passed faded into.

“I release you…”

=======================

Irys had taken off after Kaizer Ghidorah, both to try and keep him from rushing anyone else, possibly call for help from the rest of the master’s forces, and see if her distant wish was answered. She’d stopped her approach when she saw Kaizer, perched at the edge of a dark cliffside, slowly turn around. His face was free of the typical, scowling, snarling, rabid expression he typically bore. It was calm and collected, at peace. It looked like X despite the different body. That resemblance increased when it slowly started to approach. At first she was reactive, about to ready an attack and shout out to not make her do what she must. But the albino gyaos was in for a bigger surprise when Kaizer Ghidorah’s body began to contort and shift. He rose back up on two legs, bone armor replacing golden scales, two side heads shrinking back into shoulder pads. Aside from some scales persisting, including a golden ring of them around his eyes, and the presence of wings; what stood before her looked exactly like her first comrade. X looked to her, seeming to admire the glowing runes splayed across her body, and gave her a knowing nod while the edges of his maw curled up into a calm smile.

Irys was at first dumbstruck, spurring X to speak as he reached over and put a hand upon her head, stroking a claw behind her ears affectionately with a proud smile upon his jaws.

“Proud of you, Irys…”

“A-Are you?.. Are you back?...”

He nodded, “One and only. Come on, let’s save Gigan.”

“W-We can?!”

X smirked, “Not the first time this has happened to him. It was before your and Megalon’s time, let’s get going though. Lead the way, will you? I’m still new to this flying business and don’t think I can keep this boost up for long after the beatdown you and the guys gave me.”

Irys flinched, but soon enough her shocked visage slowly turned to one of joyous elation at the chance. They spread their wings and flew back to the temple as fast as they could.

=======================

A horn burning of molten rock met one blazing in dark magic. Even with her boosted power and strength to match her grown stature, Rarity winced and struggled. Crashing into and clashing with Enjin felt like hitting a train! She dug her hooves in as Enjin did the same, gem stones and shadows emerging from one side of the clash as magma and fires did the other side. Gritting her teeth, Nightmare Rarity surged her magic and grabbed hold of the monster in a wave of telekinesis. Grasping living things was harder than static objects for most unicorns and in her normal state Rarity couldn't hope to budge the monster, but matters change when one is infused with a thousand years of magic born of an alicorn. She grabbed hold of Enjin and with a terrific shout, ripped her foe off their hooves and slammed them into and through a boulder. Snapping her head to and fro while stomping her hooves, Rarity dragged Enjin through the earth, fires, and smoke before tossing it up into the air.

But Enjin remembered. It recalled the last time it had been defeated by a siren dame and dragon knight exploiting a weakness it had of being unable to regenerate when not in contact with or surrounded by earth. And with all of Sunset Shimmer’s magical knowledge to draw upon, it wasn’t letting itself fall into the trap the same way twice even if Rarity’s toss was less her knowing its weakness and more a lucky coincidence. It was an adaptable Aspect after all. Enjin disappeared in a flash of fiery magic and reappeared right in front of Nightmare Rarity, silently grabbing hold of her and sensing the ground beneath its hooves. They disappeared in another burst of magic and reappeared in the nearest open space below that the teleportation spell would allow their combined volume: a mountain cavern a dozen meters underground.

The cave would have been pitch black and in a way Nightmare Rarity almost would have preferred it that way, at least compared to the burning liquids spilling out of the walls and parts of the ceiling. When Enjin engendered the lava flows on the surface, the stores of molten rock had to come from below after all, melting holes in the walls and lighting up the surroundings with clashing shadows and burning heat. Nightmare Rarity grunted and managed to telekinetically and physically shove her attacker back. Enjin stumbled back into a pool of lava, but reacted as if she was a sponge in water, drawing in the molten earth and literally burning off its wounds. A burning sphere appeared on her horn and Nightmare Rarity reactively threw up a barrier shield, thankful she could draw upon a few of Nightmare’s previous hosts’ abilities, in this case Luna’s spell knowledge, to do so. The mana grenade exploded and shattered the barrier as it took the blow, sending Nightmare Rarity sliding back on her hooves.

She grit her teeth and kept her eyes trained upon Enjin before noticing she was sliding and leaning back dangerously close to a lava pool, unceremoniously windmilling her arms to throw her balance forward again; aided by a telekinetic shove into her back for stability while wrapping herself in a bubble of magic to avoid being set ablaze by the convection heat coursing through the air. She sighed in relief, double checking to make sure her mane and tail hadn’t caught on fire. Enjin took notice of this and acted upon it. She might already have a home field advantage, being away from any water source or skyline, but assurance was not something to be trivial with.

She stomped on the ground while charging up several smaller grenade bursts, launching them into the ceiling and walls. Glowing cracks erupted from the superheated earth that glowed and melted. Nightmare Rarity reinforced her aura of magic and turned into a dark mist, reforming across the chamber to avoid the shower of lava spewing out of the magma vein Enjin had created which gushed onto the floor space she’d been standing on. Seizing her breath, she stretched out tendrils of darkened magic, her starry blue contrasting with the burning seams of lava Enjin had created. Massive hunks of stone and crystal were ripped free and launched at Enjin, whom returned the projectiles by bashing through a boulder and hurling a swung wave of lava at her foe. Nightmare Rarity shielded herself with a massive crystal torn free from the ground to block the molten rock before crushing her shield into a barrage of shards she used as a salvo of flechettes; firing them rapid-fire at her enemy.

The two mares, Sunset Shimmer and Rarity, possessed by and using a dark force respectively, enacted a gun fight shootout of sorts. Dodging, blocking, and returning fire. Waves of lava and bursts of flaming stone on one side being retaliated against with boulders and crushed crystal shards, given apex when a mana grenade impacted a beam of dark magic in a clash that rattled the entire chamber.

=======================

A mountain all but shattered when two enormities smashed into it, the larger golden one using the smaller gray one as a battering ram to bore through the peak. Godzilla Junior shrieked from the pain but thrashed and countered, grabbing hold of one of Ghidorah’s jaws who’d seized him by his arm. With a spat of pain and a spray of blood when he ripped the teeth out of his bicep, Godzilla held the head and loosed a fully charged plasma beam into it, raking it across the face and arching his head around to sweep it across Grand King Ghidorah’s necks and torso. While it failed to do any significant damage, the effect of suddenly taking a bright blue torrent of plasma to the eyes and throat did blind and disorient the dragon and he dropped the dinosaur.

Godzilla Junior braced when he clipped the mountain slope and tumbled down it in a shower of falling debris. Shrugging off the daze and rolling himself upright again, he shook and heaved with a hand braced against the bedrock as he looked up. Grand King Ghidorah had shaken the smoke and soot from his eyes, surprisingly quiet whilst he hovered above and started to land a distance away. Junior however couldn’t help but wonder why the dragon wasn’t his usual, laughing mad self.

-He didn’t attack outright when he first arrived either, waited for me to shift back. Something’s different.-

His suspicion was confirmed when Ghidorah did something else different from the usual cackling, he spoke to him in a voice so plain and dispassionate it honestly caused him to mentally backpedal.

-”You knew you couldn’t defeat me, only giving those spawn false hope. Why did you deny yourself your greatest power? The entity was there for your taking and yet you confront me without it?”-

Junior looked to Ghidorah’s faces, seeing an odd mixture of confusion and anger hidden under a thick layer of similarly out of character stoicism.

-”It wasn’t me.”-

Junior mentally grunted, knowing Ghidorah could hear his thoughts. The dragon seemed to sneer, rushing at Godzilla and smashing both of his heels into Junior’s midsection, sending the dinosaur crashing through a hill. And even so after such a vicious blow that was followed upon by a rain of graviton beams, Ghidorah seemed more confused than enraged.

-”Yet it was mightier than you are now!”-

Wincing under the onslaught, Junior reacted as quickly as he did cleverly, swinging his tail through the hill’s rubble to launch a shower of house- to mansion-sized boulders at Ghidorah and obscuring himself behind a wall of dirt and dust. Grand King Ghidorah closed his wings over himself and snapped them back out, blowing away the debris. Stomps behind him clued him to look out, but Junior was quick and after running up a steep slope beside his foe he pounced off it and landed on Grand King Ghidorah’s back. 60,000 tons of flying dinosaur managed to knock King Ghidorah off balance and he stumbled, though did not fall.

-”And why is it that you’d care?”-

Godzilla Junior viciously tore at his enemy, grabbing one of Ghidorah’s necks with one hand, a wing with another, and clamping his jaws down on his middle throat. It was a strain, but fantastic jaw strength and Junior going after a spot that, unbeknownst to him Gigan had slashed at, allowed him to spill a trickle of ichors through Ghidorah’s split scales. Grand King Ghidorah stumbled, trying to thrash and dislodge his attacker. He even lept back and slammed into a nearby mountainside, dragging his back across it; but Godzilla refused to let go. Ghidorah’s entire body started to glow with a building charge. Gravity distorted itself all around them with boulders to scale with small fortresses or castles getting levitated off the ground, then crushed to dust under the gravity pulses. Energy crackled across Grand King Ghidorah’s body, shocking and electrocuting Godzilla Junior; who wisely threw himself free to avoid the ensuing shockwave of gravity and lightning that flew free of the dragon. The blinding blast leveled a mountain and carried with it Ghidorah’s answer.

-”FATE.”-

Rolling across the plateau and smoking all over, Godzilla Junior groaned as he put his feet and hands beneath him. The golden brilliance over took his vision and he lifted his eyes to gaze into it. Grand King Ghidorah was stepping out of the crater he’d made around himself, crushing boulders between his talons. Golden energy seeped from his eyes and jaws, shocking lights arced across each wing membrane, and his voice seemed to come from everywhere at once.

-”For once, I thought fate had finally bestowed upon you something.”-

Grand King Ghidorah scowled and charged forward, kicking Godzilla hard enough to punt him off the ground and land several hundred meters away.

-”Of all those who stood against me, none have baffled nor annoyed me such as you. They all had fate bless them.”-

Godzilla Junior rolled over as his backspines flashed, firing a quick burst of blue plasma that Grand King Ghidorah walked into and kept walking through without slowing. His scales reacted to the energy, distributing it across the body and dampening the concussive impact even as sparks flew out from every which way and wreathed the King of Terror in smoke.

-”The Mothra has a pedigree to her family name, the last of two lineages of legendary guardians whom grow stronger with each generation. The Xilian creation was a blood after my blood, there was little chance it could have been weak. Even those beings during Final Wars had an excuse, the last desperate act of their world’s greatest civilizations. I have stood against folk whom became ultra and fighters of zones, people turned angels and archangels. I have walked upon a world and time tread upon by a god!”-

Grand King Ghidorah closed in, covered in light, sparks, fires, and smoke like a literal devil from the bowels of hell.

-”All had a destiny, a decree of fate for greatness. I have roamed this universe for a hundred thousand millennia, I know fate. Fate made me what I am, fate decided whom die and whom survive at my will. And such a grand fate as to face me always comes with a destiny to match. And what do you have?!”-

He loosed a barrage of graviton beams, snatching Godzilla Junior off the ground in a manner mimicking Kaizer Ghidorah’s technique. Continuously shocking and lifting his foe, Ghidorah continued his tirade of a rant.

-”You’re a mutation, an unnatural accident. You have no legend, no destiny. What made you worthy of being Terra’s champion? Your survival was either a mistaken fluke or there is something more. I almost hoped it was the latter…”-

Grand King Ghidorah added the wing lightning in, unloading on Godzilla Junior whom shrieked in pain from the combined onslaught. Soon a fantastic explosion engulfed him and Grand King Ghidorah cut off the flow, letting Junior’s limp, burning, smoking body drop to the ground and flop against the earth. Grand King Ghidorah watched it for a time, waiting. When a minute passed, he scoffed and kicked at the limp head of Godzilla Junior.

-”I am not impressed.”-

No response. Grand King Ghidorah slowly turned and shrugged, looking perturbed and thoroughly annoyed more than anything else. He was victorious and annoyed.

-”Fluke it is, good riddance to the mistakes.”-

It was a rare feat for him to be bemused, practically get his hopes up, about anything. It meant disappointment was all the more bitter. He started off, wondering how much longer he’d have to try and salvage his plan before Bagan decided to strike him down. Falling back on his visions, he stole a moment to concentrate and try to glimpse the future again. Once again he focused, once again he turned himself into a gravity well, and once again the sight of what was to come was slippery and foggy.

He saw Bagan, or at least it was his best guess given he knew not of anything else that massive in such a shape. It was fighting something. That alone had been what spurred Ghidorah’s intrigue, the idea of something being strong enough to stand up to what he himself thought unstoppable. So far his only inclination was his hypothesis this Equestria bore a godly counterpart, a theory supported by the figure he glimpsed in the mental confrontation with the alicorns. That alone had been his reason to resign from that conflict, confident he’d done enough.

But this, this was something different. Ghidorah tried to home in more. If he could only-

-”Is that it?”-

A hand grabbed Grand King Ghidorah by the tail. Even before he snapped out of his vision and looked to see his attacker, the intense heat was all too obvious.

-”Is that all you got?”-

Godzilla Junior, now covered in burning white and blue meltdown markings, took hold of Grand King Ghidorah’s wing and in a show of titanic strength even for him, yanked the dragon off the ground. He threw his foe upwards, before ripping back with the tails and smashing Ghidorah against the ground again and again.

Refueled by his second wind, Godzilla Junior twisted and spun around while still holding onto Grand King Ghidorah’s tails. Around and around the dragon went, gaining speed until he was let go of. But even as he was sent hurtling back into a stone cliff face, Grand King Ghidorah retaliated and fired multiple streams of graviton beams behind him. Wounded but not reacting to the pain, Burning Godzilla Junior bulldozed through the attack and charged after his enemy. The two hit the cliff face, one after another, in a massive ball of rage, plasma, lights, and debris.

Getting in close, Godzilla Junior weaved around the beam onslaught and ignited his body. As he fought on like a man possessed with caution thrown out the window, Junior was focused only on what the stakes were. No matter what game Ghidorah was playing, he was still on the loose and putting those around Junior, those he cared for, at risk. The day he let a monster like this free to destroy what it saw fit was the day he died. And if that was today, he was taking Grand King Ghidorah with him.

At equal power, Godzilla Senior likely would have fallen to Grand King Ghidorah’s might. A similar theory could be poised for the first Godzilla. They fought only out of necessity or revenge, things which could only go so far. It was an uncanny coincidence both Xenilla and Junior agreed with one piece of logic. A monster who fought because they hated what lay before them couldn’t exceed a hero who fought because they loved everything behind them.

And by his own efforts and clairvoyance given by his mother, Azusa, his bonded, Luna, and his friend, Rarity; Junior had decided what he was.

If Grand King Ghidorah wanted to test him, see him at his best, he was about to give him a demonstration without some magical disease interfering. He didn’t need it.

Godzilla Junior grabbed Grand King Ghidorah’s left head by the jaws and in a motion he’d seen his mentor, King Kong, do time and time again; wrenched down and up in a specific sequence. A sickening pop cracked the air and Grand King Ghidorah screeched in pain from having his left lower jaw completely torn from its socket. It would heal and wasn’t too damaging, but it hurt every strand of his body. And despite the onslaught of graviton beams and lighting raking across the dinosaur’s body, the burning titan just kept up the attack. Godzilla Junior grabbed onto Ghidorah’s wings with either hand and pushed against the dragon’s thrashing. The heat around them spiked, melting the rock and igniting the air until it became too much for the damaged dragon scales to take. Much to his shock and agony, Grand King Ghidorah literally saw his scales melting off his skin into golden slag around Godzilla’s contact points and sear the flesh underneath. If Junior couldn’t blast or cut through the armor by beam or claw, he’d burn through it.

Godzilla Junior fell atop Grand King Ghidorah, radiating nuclear pulse shockwaves, punching, burning, and crashing into him as they rolled across the plateau grounds. Through the flashes of battles present and in the future, Grand King Ghidorah started to see more.

Minutes later, a mass shot out of the ground and into the sky almost like a reverse meteor.

=======================

-”I’m beginning to suspect I might have been mistaken before, so I’ll give you a secret!”-

Grand King Ghidorah managed to seize his foe with his two good jaws and tails, prying him off with a massive gravity surge. The two floated apart weightlessly, blood and ichor floating around and between them.

-"I’m dying.”-

Battered, near exhausted, and still prepared to fight on as he was, Junior paused momentarily and looked upon the dragon. Devoid of any rage, confusion, or menace, Grand King Ghidorah almost looked… scared, unsure, solemn.

-”…What?”-

-”Sixty five thousand millennium ago, I met my first defeat. Thousands of lifetimes later I decided for the first time a battle with the Ultra wasn’t worth it despite striking down some of their number. Three centuries ago I was beaten to the ground, mutilated partly because I was caught off guard and partly because a race I’d written off managed to make something strong enough to face me. Then there was you with the Mothra and your allies on Terra a decade and a half ago. Just a few hours ago a group of failed experiments and cockroach creations nearly killed me… A million lifetimes of existence I’ve been on top, an arbiter to decide life and death. Sometimes I fancied fate gave me a role to play and ensure creation grew stronger each generation from my wrath. In some centuries I even fancied my purpose to be culling the herd until a new power could be discovered or evolve… And now, fate seems to finally have made a present time in which I’m not opposed by all but a few. Creation has caught up to me and I am no longer king.”-

Grand King Ghidorah motioned to the world beneath them, they were so high up even the curvature of the world and outline of its continents was evident.

-”Destruction seemed my only meaning, and I see it coming to an end. I've run out of time battering worlds into being stronger and culling the weak. Worlds can fight back against me now and I will eventually be overtaken. Even this world has forces capable of opposing my will. Sooner or later, something, be it born of Equestria or Terra, would kill me. This battle is my last will and testament.”-

-”Which would be?”-

-”I’ve told you before. You’re either a mistake to survive me, let alone this long, or fate has a reason for making you Terra’s champion. I want to know why before I pass. You hold such power, such as I’ve seen, yet you had no destiny decreeing you bear it for others’ sake!”-

Godzilla Junior exited his burning form and calmly watched the world below, almost thankful for the fantastic view. His eyes laid upon the central mountain range in the core of Equestria, and the pinprick of a castle he could see from this distance. His heart warmed upon memory and knowledge of who resided there. So visible, yet so isolated. They looked so vulnerable from this high up, like it could be plucked up in a hand and held. He could almost wonder if this vindicated Ghidorah’s world view to himself, seeing so many worlds from a view like this. Shrunk and helpless.

-”It’s an abomination that such power is wasted on your use of it, you should be ruling that planet of yours like a god, those vermin you call humans worshipping you or being destroyed! Yet you bleed for them, suffer for them, and what do they do? They cast you out only for you to do the exact same thing for this world’s filth. With your family’s history, you should have been everything you’re not! What changed it…? Tell me, tell me why?!”-

Grand King Ghidorah roared with a plea. Godzilla Junior only looked upon Canterlot as he floated over it, closing his eyes and chuckling. He thought one clear picture after another, ones so overt Ghidorah wouldn’t be able to miss it with his psychic sensing. A young woman in a lab coat holding a young dinosaur close, calming him as he huddled up against her in fear of the thunderstorm outside. That same woman was seen again, slugging an unruly coworker for daring to harm the son she led out of the CAT scan room. A tearful goodbye at a helicopter landing pad when she bid her baby farewell. An equally teary reunion when she marveled at the titanic, fully grown son standing victorious in San Francisco bay.

-”Because Azusa Gojo didn’t raise a monster,”-

More memories flew by. Learning under another king whom he saw as much more deserving of the title than Ghidorah. Acts of valor with the faction he came to co-lead. Acts of tender kindness upon those grieving for their lost parents, be they future lovers or antagonists. The role of a stern, but content teacher with an energetic student. The displays of compassion and heroism in the face of an out of control nightmare, all by normal ponies who’d inspired him.

Junior looked to Grand King Ghidorah, meeting the dragon’s cold, unreadable visage with a content smile.

-”, she raised better. No destiny, no prophecy or fate, just a choice as my father would have wanted. Azusa wasn't fated to be my mother and the Old King my father, they chose it, and I chose to be a hero.”-

Grand King Ghidorah narrowed his eyes and sent a pulse of gravity into the dinosaur, shoving him back into the atmosphere.

-”Then do this, hero.”-

The air began to heat up, igniting as Godzilla Junior started to burn from re-entry.

-”Survive.”-

It sounded less like a coy dare and more like an instruction from a teacher. Godzilla Junior however didn’t intend that. He had enough power left in him to try one last trick, one last ploy to make good on his vow to ensure this king of terror could never again threaten anyone; for all the souls he’d murdered and all those he still could. And he took inspiration from two members of his family.

Burning lights crossed his form, growing in intensity as to rival the flames of re-entry. They coated his body before shifting from white-blue to bright red. Spiralling red lights lined Godzilla Junior’s jaws as he took aim at the distant, gold form high above him. Grand King Ghidorah made no effort to dodge, letting his mind drift to the future as energy collected across his body. If this was how his most peculiar foe wished to die, he’d face their threat head on. To disprove Godzilla’s survival as a mistake, or see it through as such.

It was a final gambit for both.

But another spoke otherwise when a speeding, white and blue meteor of a blur broke free of the atmosphere and slammed into Ghidorah. In an explosion of crystal, the light quickly redirected and shot downwards. Godzilla Junior canceled out his spiral fire when, through the burning heat and searing light, he felt a hand grab his arm.

Back in atmosphere, he could only hear three simple words forming a roaring decree.

“Don’t. You. Dare!”

Junior chuckled, not sure whom Xenilla was more enraged at. Him or Ghidorah.

“Took your time,” he grunted casually as he canceled out his beam charge as Xenilla desired.

=======================

Earlier, at the Plateau

=======================

A hot wind blew past a crowded mountain slope that hung around the edge of the plateau and fed into a stretch of caverns leading to safety below in the foothills. The fires above that risked bearing down on their heels had been shouted out, but still many ponies teetered on danger’s cusp. The ground-shakes from the battling kaiju had only paused a moment ago, but they and their aftershocks were risking to collapse the mountain pass or bury it under a landslide. Many a pony helped their fellow Equestrians along, assisting those weakened by circumstance or lack of a cutiemark down the slope, trying to inch and budge obstructing boulders out of the way, and scouting about under Night Glider’s lead to try and find ways to creep down to sea level. Many paused to look up and gawk at the massive, near blinding mass that shot up from the plateau above and sailed upwards into the heavens of an illuminated night.

The gust of warmed air blew across an unconscious stallion’s bangs and his red eyes encircled in golden sclera snapped open, Xenilla choked and gasped a breath. Several ponies around him scattered back in surprise but much to Xenilla’s own surprise he didn’t find himself dropping to the ground. Instead he felt his hooves grounded but his mind and eyes gazed up. But instead of the awe or bewilderment of the equines around him, his face only paled with horror. The sensory ability indicative of his species was working strangely, picking up an additional reading almost like it was scrambled from his daze. But it indicated him as clear as a pointing compass that his brother was in that bright mass that was currently several tens of thousands of feet up and climbing.

“No,” he whispered breathlessly before curling his lips back and screaming a shrill roar that sent many ponies backpedalling.

Moonbeam Glimmer, one of the ponies who’d been close by and helping steady him, summoned her courage and tapped at Xenilla’s shoulder with utter confusion on her face.

“A-Ambassador Xenilla, right…? W-What was that?”

Xenilla whirled around to face her, the sheer, wide eyed panic on his face being palpable. Moonbeam gulped.

“You recognized it. W-Was that the dragon fleeing?”

Xenilla’s breaths became coarse through a strained grimace, “That… was…”

He gagged briefly after almost saying “Icka’brod”, having swore to never call him that again for Junior’s unspoken wishes, “Godzilla… Please,-”

He gulped before breaking into a shout, “-please I need your magic, I have to save him! Where’s the Element Bearer?!”

Xenilla swung himself around, trying desperately to pick Rarity out of the crowd of confused, worried, and saddened onlookers.

“RARITY!?”

His roar was met by Night Glider’s cautious plea, “X-Xenilla, Rarity’s not here!”

Took a lot out of her not to freeze in place when Xenilla turned in her direction, but focus on holding an infirm Our Town pony helped keep her nerve even when she felt those burning eyes staring through her. He looked as terrifying as he did terrified.

“She went back up to release the cutie marks from the vault, but with all the fighting up there she could be anywhere!”

Xenilla shook, both with frustration and fear. Had he further lost it he might have started ripping energy crystals out of the ground while smashing them into himself in a desperate gambit to try and restore himself despite knowing it shouldn’t work. Instead he thankfully remembered Princess Sparkle and Mothra Lea’s presentation. The change didn’t just work with alicorn magic or an Element of Harmony, just that those seemed the best bet and had been the ones used so far.

He shot up into the air and roared out while looking every which way for possible salvation of his kin, “I-I need unicorns! The more magic you know the better! Please, if I don’t change he’ll die!”

Despite being fraught with worry, several unicorns stepped up. Unfortunately, every single one of them sported a grayed coat and equals sign cutie mark. By sheer dumb luck of Daiei, all the passengers onboard the S.S. Mermare when Grand King Ghidorah had abducted it were earth ponies and pegasi. Sporting magic for sure, but not able to project it like unicorns or alicorns could. And Xenilla could practically smell the diminished power across the volunteers that stepped up.

“Wh-What’s wrong with your magic?”, he half whispered and half blurted in disbelief.

“We-”, a turquoise stallion, Party Favor swallowed back the hollowness forming in their stomach, knowing the desperateness of the situation and feeling nothing but choking shame for it, “- we gave it up… She’s the only one with any.”

Xenilla quickly looked at the pointed direction of this “she” and instead of a grown mare with a full magic school degree as his wildest dreams could hope, he was looking at a small, eleven year old pink filly. Mariner Chibi Moon paced out from between the Our Town unicorns and looked up to Xenilla as he landed before her. Poor girl didn’t have a single dry eye.

-The child from earlier.-

“I c-carried you, I have my magic… back,” she winced after glancing back at her cutie mark to again confirm that it was there.

“B-But she’s a child!”, Party Favor yelped, “…she might not have enough magic for whatever you need!”

Xenilla frowned slowly as he got a feel for her energy radiating off her. It was much stronger than most fillies or colts he’d met, but her age clearly downscaled it compared to someone like Rarity or Prince Consort Shining Armor.

“… She does not, it's not enough.”

Chibi Moon’s teary eyes widened and she gasped, stomping a hoof to the ground. She remembered all too well how Junior took a fall at the end of the gyaos battle and his assurance to her he most certainly could not fly. When she tried to show him wrong in a spat of childish spunk by launching herself around with a half misfired beam or pulse shockwave, he described it in two words.

-”You can't get around like that, it’s impossible.”-

“No… NO! Take it! Take all my magic! Please! You gotta save him! He can’t die! HE CAN’T!”, she sobbed in half hysterics completely justified given her age and experiences.

Xenilla’s body twitched and strained under monumental dread and emotional agony as Chibi Moon flung herself at his hoof and beat on it.

“It can’t be impossible!”

Xenilla beheld the filly, beheld the unicorns, and beheld the onlooking crowd that had gone dead quiet. His thousand-yard stare turned into a scowl of iron. Energy surged off his shoulder pads as he drew up a hoof and created a spire of crystal he stabbed into the ground.

“Never!”, he roared as more crystals burst from the ground in spreading lines.

“I was born from blood and crystals hit by an exploding sun!”

More crystals started popping up, much to the onlookers shock, next to almost everypony immediately in front of Xenilla.

“My best friend was born from a weapon meant for life that gave death!”

More crystals spread across the pass, appearing before everypony with each crystal connected underground in a chain.

“We are kaiju of Terra, we do not know ‘impossible’!”, Xenilla roared in a selfless boast as he put Chibi Moon down next to a glowing yellow crystal that sprung up between the two of them. Xenilla placed his hoof onto the crystal and after a moment of observation, Chibi Moon did the same.

“And you are Equestrians, you don’t either.”

“What do you want us to do?”, Moonbeam Glimmer muttered.

Xenilla looked over towards her before looking back at Chibi Moon with stoic resolve, “At their core, all decisions are based on two conflicting forces, love and hatred. And love, both in itself or in friendship, is magic. A lot of you gave up your cutiemarks, but you never gave up your sapience. You keep your mind, you have love, you retain some magic. Find it and project it towards this young heroine while holding onto the crystals!”

There were glances of doubt, looks of confusion, and clear signs of worry. But one by one, marked or markless, hooves were placed upon the crystals and thoughts were cast. Moonbeam remembered helping her baby sister fly a kite. Night Glider remembered her first time meeting her friends at a ski slope. Marigold re-experienced the joys of her first social case. The Leafs recalled both a wedding day and their own little filly the same age as Chibi Moon. Despite the lack of marks in a good portion of the crowd, the crystals started to chime and glow.

Xenilla thought up a prayer and held his breath, glancing down towards Chibi Moon.

“This is risky, are you-”

He was cut off when he noticed her expression. It was steely and resolute, clear worry upon her mind but any hesitation was burned away under the bravery welling up inside the filly. If she seemed any more strong of will or fiery in courage, he’d swear she’d be a Godzilla. Instead, the apprentice to the King of Kaiju only nodded as her horn spirals lit up and sparked.

“Save. My. Sensei.”

Xenilla held back a tear and nodded while flashing a faux smug smirk before the heart shaped beam fired out of the filly and seeped into him.

…

Seconds after a large body threw itself off the side of the plateau’s pass, a massive pillar of gushing, red light pierced the sky.

=======================

Xenilla dodged to and fro, avoiding the barrage of graviton beams chasing him across the sky. In his normal state, he could just outspeed the aim and avoid them entirely, but with 60,000 tons in his arms, he was slowed down and much less maneuverable. Something Junior was privy to as the King of Terror swooped down at them and unleashed another barrage Xenilla couldn’t fly through in time, forcing the latter to put up a strained energy shield. Xenilla grunted and winced, struggling more and more to hold back the tidal wave of gravitons, plasma, and lighting smashing into the crystalline barrier. Stress lines spread in cracks and the energy Ghidorah was putting out condensed into a glowing sphere.

Suddenly Grand King Ghidorah disengaged, leaving Xenilla to have to focus on holding back the blocked power as he dove under him and came up behind them. As he flew beneath the pair however, Junior noticed something. A wide, open, still-bloody gash across Grand King Ghidorah’s back on the middle torso. He studied it for the millisecond he could, not remembering either himself or Xenilla inflicting that wound, but the fact it was there left the gears in his head whirling. He eyed the ground and a tiny smirk formed across his maw.

Azusa and Senior didn’t raise an idiot either.

Shoving off the initial sphere of destruction and letting it detonate in the high atmosphere, Xenilla shrieked in pain as multiple graviton beams raked across his back. He tumbled and spun through the air, leaving a large smoke trail as he went. As he struggled to stabilize, the eldest son of the old king was forced to intermittently try and return fire with his own beam and block the onslaughts coming from their foe; all while holding onto Junior and attempting to maneuver quick enough for Ghidorah to not close the distance. He couldn’t keep it up, even as he tried to descend and get them on the ground.

Then the youngest son of the old king called out the only two words whose context could stop Xenilla cold.

“Drop me!”

“WHAT?!-!!!”, Xenilla snapped before having to put up another barrier and block some wing lightning; something he was clearly having trouble doing one handed.

“I said, drop me!”, Junior snapped as he tried to pry Xenilla’s arm off him, only for the latter to desperately cling to him more.

“Xenilla, look at me!”

Xenilla winced and strained, looking back down at the being he’d been trying to protect all his life and was attempting to do now.

Godzilla Junior locked eyes with Xenilla in a visage that was both stern, direct, and said so much. Words didn’t need to be spoken; gold looking into red.

-I need you to trust me.-

Xenilla winced with the edges of his orbs glistening and shook his head disbelievingly, red looking into gold.

-I can’t, not with…-

Junior put his arms on Xenilla’s, starting to pry it off and showing he could do what he planned do even if Xenilla fought him over it or not. Godzilla Junior slowly nodded to Xenilla.

Xenilla closed his mouth and sighed, starting to loosen his grip while praying to anything that could hear him. He could only hope if his father could see them, no matter how complicated Xenilla’s view of him was, that Senior would forgive him if this played out like he thought it would. They were over 80,000 meters up, the clouds below almost looking like a landscape.

Junior’s voice was almost a whisper when Xenilla let go of him and he started to fall, “Make sure his back is facing the ground, stay alive.”

Xenilla stole his breath as he saw his brother fall, looking back to Grand King Ghidorah through the barrier. He shook, tears evaporating from a growing heat. Glowing patches started to flicker across his body as he snarled. With a tremendous roar, Burning Xenilla tore apart his own barrier and launched himself at Ghidorah; tanking a fury of graviton beams to the chest to close the distance.

Godzilla Junior sighed as he watched the airborne battle, flashes of red and gold igniting the sky above in a brilliant dogfight. He watched on with pride until he fell through the highest clouds, turning around and facing the distant and closing ground below. His took in a deep breath while his back spines started to glow, remembering a speculation Chibi Moon of all individuals had and when she more than once went flying across the training yard from recoil during practice. It was just crazy enough to work.

=======================

“This not way to Pony Lands!”, Prince Rutherford roared as he looked up from the map he and his entourage had been using to try and navigate their way to Equestria.

They’d been journeying for a day now to find the quickest path south through the mountains so they could find which was the best route to go by later for the Canterlot gala and baby shower for the Crystal Imperial couple, having been sent an invitation.

Instead he found himself staring at a big pile of rockfall rubble a kilometer up the pass, likely loosed from one of the mountains on the side of the pass during an earthquake.

The yak prince grumbled, “Little baby princess pony will need strong yak gift to make sure they strong like yak when older, make better pony leader!”

The yaks accompanying him murmured and nodded in agreeance. One of the prince’s oldest and wisest advisors grumbled after rubbing his chin.

“Yaks strong, tough enough to beat up yetis! Yaks smash up stupid rocks!”

Spoken like a true yak philosopher and wiseyak, earning a rousing “YAK SMASH!” cheer from the entourage. But before the bellowing bovines could charge forward and do as they decreed, a blinding blue ray shot down from the heavens above and obliterated the rock fall. It continued in intensity and power, burning through the pass and melting the stone. Looking skyward, Rutherford saw a distant but massive form at the end of the beam rocketing to the ground. Its descent slowed, before stopping several hundred meters up. In the manner of a rising geyser, it started to rise back up. The beam shortened, lifting off the ground and fraying out like an exhaust of steam. Soon the beam and its spewer disappeared up into the clouds, leaving an opened pass now full of glassed stone.

“Huh,” Rutherford grunted, “Not something yak see every day.”

=======================

The explosion of clashing mana and magic, shards of crystal, fragment of rock, and droplets of lava lit up the cavern. Nightmare Rarity shook her head and cleared her vision, temporarily deafened by the echoes of the blast. She looked about for her energy, but found nothing across the smoke and flaming debris across the lava flows she avoided. Suddenly, in a burst of fire magic and teleportation spell use, Enjin came charging out of nowhere to her side and bulldozed into Rarity.

The unicorn gasped from bruised lungs and tried to grab onto her enemy, lacking the focus from the explosions’ daze to melt into smoke and rematerialize, in an attempt to avoid getting bowled over or worse; pushed into the lava flow some meters behind her that Enjin was shoving her towards.

-Hayfries! Damn thing is fireproof and I’m not sure if Nightmare is!-

Rarity grit her teeth and struggled, digging her hindhooves in but she couldn’t stop on account of Enjin’s greater physical strength and having a lowered center of gravity based off how they were posed. Her hooves kicked and cut trenches into the dirt and bedrock, but failed to halt. Her magic strained with her. Thinking quick, Rarity grabbed at the ground beneath them with tendrils of telekinesis and crushed down; collapsing the floor and stumbling the both of them. Enjin sneered and lunged, pouncing upon the dark unicorn and pinning her beneath itself. The ground started to steam and char as it heated up. Lava trickled into the collapsed floor space several meters away and the convection heat set the fringes of Rarity’s tail smoldering past their flashpoint. Enjin stomped down, pinning Rarity’s face under her hoof and charging up a point blank mana grenade upon the tip of her jagged horn. Rarity gasped and coughed both from the sweltering heat and impact. The ringing in her ears subsided and started to shudder, parts of her body steaming off as dark haze. Knowing she couldn’t vanish in time, she did the only thing she could:

Grab Enjin by the face and force her to point her horn upwards just as the mana grenade fired. The glowing, compact sphere of fiery mana shot upwards and exploded against the ceiling, carving a path through the solid rock like a cannonball through a ship. The cavern quaked and groaned, massive stalactites falling from up high. Nightmare Rarity just barely managed to turn into her smoke form and shoot out of the depressed ground as several large, partially molten boulders collapsed on top of it.

She reformed some distance away, rolling across the ground and coughing up a lung as she staggered to her hooves. Heaving, Rarity prayed for a moment, only to see them go unanswered as Enjin did as she did best for the past endeavors of their battle. No matter how many magic blasts she was struck by, no matter how many tons of rock Rarity lobbed at her, she kept getting back up. The rubble and dust cloud it covered glowed and smoked, before melting in the manner of wax in a lamp. Enjin clawed her way free, emerging from the half-melted slag like it was just a shower. She exited her tomb and quickly locked glares with Nightmare Rarity, tirelessly marching forward. But this time however, something was different. It turned out Rarity wasn’t the only one showing wear from the battle, her dark fur being riddled in small bruises, cuts, and a few burns.

To Nightmare Rarity’s amazement, Enjin stumbled, if only for a moment. Enjin was an adaptive entity, even before the crisis long ago in the Permian period forced the original Enjin to fuse with the primordial Aspects of Air and Water, Doragon and Mizu, to form the being that one day would be called Bagan. It reacted to what was attacking it and adapted to withstand it. That held true here, as the dark mass making up a majority of the Enjin body was still adapting to Rarity’s attacks. But there was a part it couldn’t adapt, a part not originally part of its physiology. The mortal mare underneath that covering, Sunset Shimmer. On Enjin’s flank, a brief glimpse of bleeding orange was visible; Sunset Shimmer’s hips had taken a nasty bruise from Rarity dropping several tons of rock on her at sharp enough angle to hit her through the Enjin coating; hard enough to sprain a leg and cut into the muscle. It wasn’t enough to cripple Sunset Shimmer or Enjin, but the effect was obvious when it limped and Rarity heard a sharp, though muffled, cry of pain come out of her enemy.

-Wait!-

Rarity’s eyes widened as Enjin looked to their injury. Previously the Nightmare user had seen what looked like a normal pony turn into the monster. But now it was beginning to look eerily familiar. She looked to her hoof and concentrated as hard as she could. Nightmare was resisting her, she could feel it. Nightmare after all was not keen on something else controlling their fused body, used to being the one in the driving seat for all but the briefest of times. But Juliet Rarity Belle bore a strong will and Nightmare was still mentally drained from her ordeal against Godzilla Junior’s typhoon of a mind. She managed to peel back the blackness and reveal her own hoof beneath it, showing an uncanny similarity to what she saw on Enjin. She didn’t recognize Sunset Shimmer’s cutiemark or coat on account of never meeting her, and Twilight’s tales of what happened in the realm beyond that mirror weren’t coming to mind, but Rarity could figure out enough.

Nightmare’s influence roared up again, demanding she strike at the weak point and slay the mortal beneath to stop the monster that threatened them, threatened Equestria. Her horn started to ignite and Rarity had to mentally shove Nightmare back, gasping and wincing from the psychological strain with all of her fortitude. She didn’t let the darker aspects control her, not again. She stood up to Nightmare in dreams and she stood up to her now. She had a better idea and they would use it!

-NO! You listen to ME now!-

Nightmare resisted and kept resisting, but was pushed back to unwillingly relinquish control again as Rarity got to work.

She refocused all her power at Enjin, but this time not needing to draw upon the impression of Luna for magical aid. This was a spell she learned from said alicorn all on her own. The dark magic banishment spell hit Enjin dead in the center as she surged forward, slowing her advance but not stopping it. Rarity wasn’t sure if this was a case of possession or the pony underneath using her coating as a power-up willingly, but she knew more than anyone how an outfit worked. The strongest armor to the most glamorous of dresses, everything had its seams. Enjin’s body was made of mana, something that mixed with Equestrian magic like oil on water. But it was tied to Sunset Shimmer through “seams”, and Rarity imagined her magic taking the role of the seamstry scissors. This was her master work.

Enjin pressed forward even as parts of it were flayed off, determined to get within striking distance. More and more of Sunset Shimmer became visible, causing Rarity to sweat and gasp from the effort. A massive surge of light engulfed the chamber from the hole in the roof, the result of the struggle of titans of stature in the skies above as two other titans of magic clashed beneath the earth. Even as Enjin was pried off more and more as Rarity cut its bonds to Sunset Shimmer, the Aspect of Earth refused to pause. It stretched itself out, first by hoof and then by a distorted version of its apeish hand when Sunset Shimmer’s limbs were freed.

At last the remaining threads connecting Enjin to the unicorn were severed, the poor mare collapsing to the ground unconscious. But just as Enjin was torn free from Sunset, it grabbed onto Rarity. Like a vengeful ghost, it gripped her horn and engulfed her body in its inky, tar-like body as tentacles of gold mana coiled around Nightmare Rarity’s neck and body. Rarity’s mind flew into a panic and she gasped, Enjin starting to spread down her face and neck to either smother or conjoin with her. Gold tendrils and tar started to try and force their way down her throat as she tried to scream, invading her body with the intent to gain hold over a new, stronger host.

But as Rarity’s magic grabbed it and tried to tear it off and hold it at bay, her focus was taken off suppressing Nightmare. The dark entity surged up again. But this time instead of fighting Rarity, she threw herself at the invader. Maybe it was to save her own existence, since Enjin possessing the same body as her might result in one of them having to go; maybe in her weakened state she had to guarantee the safety of her two main hosts as best she could. Or, maybe just as Nightmare had rubbed off on Luna and Rarity, as evidence by the aura reading, the same had happened in reverse as well. In any case, Nightmare pooled her memory of ability from all her prior hosts and sought the one she loathed the most.

She hated doing it, hated thinking about it, hated ever using such a source, but it was do or die. Nightmare called forth the powers and memories of who’d worn her an hour ago and Rarity’s entire body started to glow with a crackling energy. It was a magical duplication rather than a direct copy, but it got the job done. A massive surge of energy begat an even larger emission of it, beams of magical plasma firing out of Rarity’s back just before an enormous shockwave from the replicated nuclear pulse crashed into and fried Enjin’s glowing core. The crystalline central node that had possessed Sunset Shimmer cracked and shattered as Enjin was blasted upwards and back in a fantastic explosion. Nightmare, spent, reclined into Rarity’s subconscious and the unicorn followed up on the opening given to her.

She seized the dark,writhing mass in her magic and pumped more into it, overloading the attacker as indicated by the glowing cracks spreading across its form. Looking upwards at the battle high above, Rarity narrowed her brow and took aim at the golden side of the clashing powers.

“From me to thee, enjoy!”, Rarity barked as she shot Enjin out the hole in the roof and rocketing into the sky directly towards Grand King Ghidorah.

=======================

Gold tackled red in an ignition of the sky and if Grand King Ghidorah was any semblance of angered before, he was flat out enraged now. Lightning flashed, fangs gnashed, and shockwaves rang out as he did his best to maul Xenilla and Xenilla did his best to return the sentiment.

-”Miscreant interloper! You deny my dues!”-

Xenilla recoiled from having 100,000 tons of angry dragon tackle him and was sent spiraling in the air with a cracked ribcage. Using telekinesis he righted himself and tried to repair the damage, only to have to brace against another oncoming meteor of terror. Rather than dodge, he met it head on; Ghidorah and Xenilla hurling themselves at each other full speed with a propulsion of psychic powers and gravity control to strike with more force or speed than one would think their mass be possible of. Crackling with energy, the full body graviton burst and nuclear pulse begat an explosion that rattled the sky and lit the night.

In the melee, Burning Xenilla grappled with King Ghidorah.

-”I swore to protect him, that oath doesn’t stop at you or anyone!”-

-”And yet you hurtle him to his death, deny him his final chance at victory!”-

Xenilla winced, but smirked even as he was being forced back. A point blank barrage of corona flares and graviton beams struck home on both of them, shattering one of Xenilla’s shoulder crystals and melting the scales off part of Ghidorah’s weakened midsection.

-”He’s my brother, I trust him now and I always will, even if he's an imbecile!”-

Ghidorah scoffed, having the opposite view of brotherhood to his opponent. To him, DesGhidorah had just been a future kill he had no need for at the moment. His return to Terra after his brother’s loss wasn’t for vengeance but to correct what he took as an insult.

-”He never seemed to call you as such, he’d kill you without a second thought on Terra.”-

Xenilla withstood the beam assault as he took a good hold on the King of Terror, fighting back against his foe’s movement with all his will.

-”Doesn’t matter, he was always the foolish son and he’s still better than me.”-

-”And yet you trust him so, you fling yourself wounded into a battle you can’t win?”-

-”And why would you care?”-

Grand King Ghidorah loomed over Xenilla, overpowering the kaiju. Though at full strength he had the sense the astral saurian would be an equal to Godzilla Junior and could have given him plenty of trouble, clearly events prior had worn Xenilla down.

-”Because I thought he might be something I sought. He bore great power with no prophecy, I wanted to know why. I spent eons engineering struggle to breed or discover an ultimate. His otherwise inexplicable power drew my interest.”-

Grand King Ghidorah sneered and poured on the pressure, forcing Xenilla backwards with a breaking defense.

-”Either he’d be the success, or I’d kill him to prove him a failure. I culled the universe for eons because destruction is my purpose, sometimes I fancied myself to cull the weak in hopes of finding an apex. He intrigued and infuriated me enough to care. I came here to answer that one question, the only quest I’ve ever had. And that… Is what you have taken from me!”-

The mental sneer was carried by a deluge of hatred and power, burning Xenilla’s hide.

He was losing and Ghidorah knew it, already seeing his remaining shoulder crystal starting to crack as his hide was scorched and bloodied from the biting energies. Xenilla strained and gasped, fighting through the injuries that bore more agony than they did damage by Ghidorah’s will. But he didn’t relent or cave. A hot wind blew past, despite the coldness of the high atmosphere. Junior hadn’t been the only one to live up to their family’s indomitable spirit.

-”I once thought… a lot like you. That I could change events to cull weakness and cultivate strength. Hated every moment of it then, and I know I was wrong now.”-

Xenilla started to push against the onslaught, not even bothering to block as he inched forward to get Ghidorah within grasping distance. He focused on his mantra to work through the hurricane of pain and twisting energies that surged over him.

-”Any sentient being with the power of reason will inevitably commit both good and evil deeds. However at their core, all decisions are based on two conflicting forces, love and hatred…”-

He pressed onward even as an annoyed Ghidorah amplified his onslaught, but even so Xenilla only seemed to gain speed. Xenilla only saw images. Destroyah sporting the first smile he’d ever seen her with, the Empress and Prince Consort-… no, the Princess and Prince welcoming him back to the empire, Blade Dancer curled up against him, his sister Biollante on New Birth Island, the brother he’d dropped just a minute prior. Xenilla was possessed by a force that made the Crystal Heart seem to flicker even dozens of kilometers away.

-”And a guardsmare and a hero reminded me which one was stronger…”-

Power was the deciding factor in fate to Grand King Ghidorah. He had more power than others, so he decided their fates. Sometimes he’d find himself wiping a planet clean, other times sparing the few who survived the initial onslaught. All in the goal to find a power suitable to do what he envisioned, be it in him or another. It had been done for millions of years in the realm Terra hailed from, going virtually unchallenged the whole time.

But this wasn’t the Terran realm. This was a world where powers of bonds, something Grand King Ghidorah never understood, were all too real. Both of Godzilla Senior’s sons had experienced them. The power of friendship to teach others to set the past aside and forgive. The power of love to forge a new bond or restore an old one and struggle together.

Xenilla let out a titanic roar and shot upwards and forwards, crashing into a dumbstruck Ghidorah and grabbing onto him. With a mighty heave he shifted them, forcing Grand King Ghidorah below him and holding him there whilst the dragon’s maws became enveloped in a golden light to unleash the final volley. Through the blood leaking from his nose, jaws, and eyes, Xenilla chuckled.

In Equestria, heroes win.

Godzilla Junior came rocketing up from below, flying into Grand King Ghidorah while firing a short ranged version of his beam to launch him along. His sharpened, largest dorsal spine stabbed into the dragon’s back in the manner of Saint George’s lance. It dug into the wound the Dark Hunters had made and impaled the King of Terror, the tip erupting out the chest wound Xenilla had opened up. A blinding light spewed out of the wound. Deep inside Ghidorah’s chest cavity, the crystalline sphere that functioned as both his heart and brain, the prison of the souls he’d consumed, had been cleaved in two.

Spent from their effort, both Godzilla and Xenilla fell away from the now shrieking dragon, falling to the stratosphere together.

Grand King Ghidorah thrashed and flailed, leaking ichors everywhere as more light shot out of his wounds. A cornucopia of voices cried out, millions of glowing wisps flew free of his body, their prison. The glowing light streaked up his body like fracturing glass as more spirits left him. All the souls he’d consumed were breaking free and starting to tear his body apart. But even as it happened, Ghidorah endured. He struggled, flinching and straining while glaring daggers at the two brothers as they fell away. His golden scales ignited in crackling energy that consumed his body in a blinding aura.

He would not die quietly, nor alone.

The graviton torrent that flew out of his maws and opened chest was a powerful as it was enormous, a continuous stream of gravity and plasma several hundred meters thick. All his beams below had merely been ventings of the power that lay within. Now in his death throes, Ghidorah had opened the floodgates in an attack that could level the small continent.

Godzilla Junior and Xenilla watched the milliseconds tick by, watching doom come. If this attack hit, they’d perish, the ponies below would perish, possibly everything as far as the Crystal Empire and Canterlot might perish. A hot wind blew past them, despite them being well above any gales. There was a voice in it, one they both recognized.

They were the sons of what had been the most powerful creature on the planet, and quitting was not in the dynasty’s creed.

Burning blues and orange-red power danced across their dorsal spines, arcing between the brothers in a bond.

Godzilla Junior and Xenilla let all go loose, continuing to fire their combined beams that spiraled and twisted around each other in a vibrance of orange and blue, clashing against Ghidorah’s torrent. The enormities were in deadlock, forming a new sun across the sky that all could see. Slowly but surely however, Ghidorah’s tsunami of a final gambit started to push back the struggle towards his opponents and country below, forcing the brothers to double their efforts just to push back enough to grind the advance to a crawl. Red light started to crackle between the two saurians’ dorsal spines, indicating a change. Sneering and not wanting to give them the chance so easily, Ghidorah directed some of the last of his spare energy onto his remaining good wing. A large sphere of energy formed, crackling and surging with condensed power he aimed at his foes to throw them off and win the beam struggle, to glass them and dozens of square kilometers of earth beneath them with anyone on it. But just before he could fire it around the struggle and seize victory, a mass of dark magic shot up in front of him and got in the way. He could only glimpse it briefly, as it’s unstable core made it blindingly bright and more importantly it collided through the massed energy, drawing it in and overloading. The combined power begat a fantastic explosion. Enjin and Ghidorah’s runaway energy combusted with the force of multiple megatons directly into the King of Terror’s wing membrane. Grand King Ghidorah’s wing snapped back and cracked, a smoking, burning hole blasted into it that caused any lingering lightning to chaotically spark and flail about the wound. Out of the corner of his eyes miles below, he thought he glimpsed a tall, dark unicorn mare smirking at him as cutiemarks flew free of the now opened cutiemark slab.

He cursed her interference, cursed the timing, cursed everything for disrupting his plans. His one wish was being denied and as far as he was concerned; everything could tempt perishing for insulting him in such a way. Rarity had bought Godzilla Junior and Xenilla enough time for their rays to become engulfed in a blaze of burning hues and spiraling red plasma, a dual spiral fire ray fighting back against Ghidorah’s finale. Grand King Ghidorah roared in prestigious power and let it all loose, amplifying both his oral beams and chest beam into a tsunami of energy so massive and strong it was pushing back the force of a double spiral fire.

The spirits spilling out of Ghidorah shifted and flew past the pair of heroes like darting meteors, collecting behind and between the brothers in heralding of a call, the hot wind now a howling gale. As the trapped spirits started to condense behind the heroes, the roar of an old king called out to one who’d listen.

In the Harmonium, Harmony watched on from her vantage point, taking note of the figure forming behind the brothers. She saw where the brothers were falling towards, near Foal Mountain. She saw the others rallying to aid them. There was little she could do, her realm was too shattered to open any portals or stretch out her hoof to directly guide them.

That’s when the wailing roar hit them. To most in life, it would sound like a terrifying bellow of an angry titan. But in spirit and to Harmony, it was a plea as clear as day. The goddess knew the risks, knew such action could risk further damaging her slowly repairing connection to Equestria; and she didn’t care. She amplified the roar, redirecting it, and used all of her awesome power to send it to those that counted. Deep in the spiritual aether, she could feel a presence, a hot gust of wind, thank her.

The call was sounded and every soul tied to Godzilla Junior and or Xenilla heard it, acquaintance, family, and friend alike. Across Equestria, ponies, mermares, and beyond all looked on in confusion and awe. Princess Celestia and Luna instantly knew there was trouble and made for the north as bright streaks of flying magic. The four kaiju in Ponyville quickly gathered with the nearest Element Bearer they could find and were taken to the sky to try and get there in time by mix of flight and the Princess of Friendship’s teleportation magic, Destroyah not hesitating to carry Anguirus after yelling for Scootaloo and company to get to cover. Unfettered, the rest of the Mane 6 were quick to join in the teleport spam that guided them to the north.

Down below, Nightmare Rarity quickly looked in the direction she heard the chime-like voice coming from, even if she had been gripped by the beam clash going on above. Having just opened up the cutiemark slab as the marks flew free towards their owners and getting a comatose Sunset Shimmer to the surface, she wasted not a moment and burst into a dark cloud to rush across the landscape to try and chase down where she was compelled to go towards. Towards the sight of a fall.

Back on Terra, Azusa felt a shock go through her and halt her heart. Her breathing became shallow and she quivered with a tear running down her face. She suddenly found herself on her knees and praying, praying for the safety of her son and for thousands she never even met despite not knowing why. On New Birth Island, the flora shifted and creaked at the movement of its queen. Biollante pitched her head up and gazed off into the milky way and stars above despite not looking at either, sensing and knowing something was happening after hearing a voice she hadn’t heard since 1989.

Grand King Ghidorah’s eyes twitched when he saw not two, but three kaiju before him, the spirits collecting into a form with blazing eyes, a face like Xenilla’s but devoid of tusks, and spines like Junior’s but rounder and shorter. Different, but no less regal. Dorsal spines ignited and a roar sprung forth a tidal wave of power. A third spiral fire ray joined the brothers’, combining with them and breaking the tie.

Slowly, the struggle pushed back towards the King of Terror. Ghidorah cursed, he roared, he shrieked, he fought; not just against his opponents but against fate. Fate and prophecy, those had always been the only two things Ghidorah ever saw as truly great. Fate made him what he was so he did what was in his nature to do. But now, it seemed the one time he set out to achieve something that mattered, fate abandoned him. Why? Why prolong his existence for ten hundred thousand centuries if he was to end like this? Achieved of nothing?! He couldn’t, not until he got his wish! He had to know if he had succeeded!

But as he fought against the fantastic; for a second, time seemed to still in the gravity well. He froze. He could finally see it now, see what was to come. He’d damaged dozens of worlds back in the kaiju realm with the wish to either create or discover a being powerful enough to kill Bagan, or to become strong enough himself to be that being. Ghidorah could see that entity now. A titan to finally rival the one opponent he couldn’t beat. Somehow, somewhere lay a force aside from the one he glimpsed with the alicorns was capable of facing Bagan. A force able to stop extinction. If he’d glimpsed a Goddess of Creation before, he was now reveling at the sight of her counterpart. The sight of the future was clear, Bagan’s final opponent would come by the form of a horned God of Destruction. And somehow, Ghidorah had changed fate to make such an outcome so. His life’s work, a the dream to manipulate events to unleash the most powerful creature in existence, one who stood a chance at destroying Bagan. And he’d succeeded. He wouldn’t, he couldn’t do it. But another would.

Time crawled back to normal and he stopped struggling. He let his onslaught die away just in time to let the last souls he’d been housing free. For the first time in his life, Grand King Ghidorah felt peace. He'd spurred events so the stronger of his successor's halves would win, whichever it was. He'd no doubt caused things to get much more uncomfortable for Reijuu, setting that ancient enemy back. His hundred million year long story was at last finished with it’s first and only wish fulfilled. These kaiju and ponies could learn of Reijuu on their own accord, it seemed something of them might just be something Reijuu would wish it didn't learn of. He let the power of the Godzilla Dynasty baptize him with a content smile upon his face when the light overtook him…

Godzilla and Xenilla plummeted, drained and spent as the ground barreled towards them thousands of meters below. Xenilla was far too weak to fly and Junior was in a similar state as to not manage his newest trick.

Junior groaned, “Think… we got him?”

Xenilla glanced weakly at the giant hole in the sky they’d made that Ghidorah had once been hovering in, “Yeah, he’s dead… Icka-… Junior, scare me like that again and I’ll kill you myself next time!”

A quiet chuckle seeped out of Junior despite Xenilla snap, “Assuming there is a next time, though couple of minutes earlier wouldn’t have been bad either, Icka’brod.”

Xenilla growled, “Don’t you-!”

The realization Junior just said the word he himself stopped himself from hit him like a tidal wave. Xenilla froze, his shocked visage contrasting with Junior’s weak smile.

“Wh-What did you call me?”, he croaked.

Junior shrugged as the air rushed past them and shook his head. They’d probably perish when they hit the ground, so he wasn’t holding anything back. After the last acts of courage, he’d more than forgiven Xenilla, “Going to take my word or you going to make me repeat myself?”

Xenilla felt a dampness streak out his eyes and the tears flew up into the rushing air. Godzilla saw the look on his face and croaked out a soft chuckle that infected his brother. It grew in strength and heartiness, a reunited family sharing a laugh for the first time as doom seemed to come rushing at them from their descending height. The scar splitting their family asunder had finally healed before their end could come...

....

......

A burst of alicorn magic and a teleportation spell in the space just northeast of Canterlot said otherwise. Three pillars of light lit up the sky, gold, green, and white beacons to the heavens. Flying out of the golden hues, Mothra Lea flew directly into the two with a magic boosted sprint, furiously beating her wings to divert or slow the gojirans’ fall as the Guardian of Mortals mentally swore up a storm. A red blur, having taken a moment to build up more momentum, dove in under the moth with a thundering sonic boom. Rodan gasped from the impact force but bit it down and joined forces with Mothra. A third form came whirling in behind them, unfolding from the spinning ball configuration to reveal Anguirus. Working off an angle, the ankylosaur kaiju threw his momentum upwards and helped to yank the group likewise as he grabbed onto Rodan and Mothra. Godzilla and Xenilla’s fall began to divert from straight down to angular, but more power was needed. Fortunately the one who’d lobbed Anguirus at the ground had just that. After a brilliant flash of purple light had shot up to join the previous pillars of light, a massive horn and spiked wings burst from a cloud bank. Destroyah threshed gales from her wings and met them, braced both hands onto Anguirus’ shell’s sides and pushed forward while pulling up. They all strained and fought together to save the unconscious brothers. In a moment, there was no Mutation or Defender faction. Just one group of titans doing a titanic deed.

Managing to slowly but surely divert the fall into an almost horizontal path however, was draining endeavor. A mass eruption of light shot out and now six of the strangest equines Equestria had ever seen were plummeting with Lea, Rodan, Anguirus, and Destroyah still fighting tooth and hoof to save their comrades. But their numbers were soon to swell.

Yellow and blue blurs of light, like streaking comets, shot out from Canterlot’s direction and braced against the group. Princess Celestia and Luna used earth pony strength, pegasus flight, and unicorn magic in the form of telekinesis to put everything they had into saving the endangered and slowing the fall. The group started to make contact on the ground, first carving a trench into a pond before skidding across sand and dirt at breakneck speed. The sisters might have been the strongest ponies in Equestria, but the call to act had been heard by many and even those of less power weren’t going to just lie back. In a burst of purple light and crash of a rainboom, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and even Fluttershy grabbed onto any limb or braced against what they could. The images of the elements ignited across their chests, invigorating the five with a rainbow of hues. More alicorn magic grasped, pegasus flight beat, and earth pony hooves dug their heels in as the ground made contact with firmer ground. The rescue team of Terrans and Equestrians was carving a massive trench into the dirt heading towards Ponyville, practically splitting dozens of meters of hills in half. The final play came with the arrival of a dark mist and brilliant magic.

Had it been any other situation, most anypony would have reacted in shock when a burst of purple magic to indicate the element of Generosity arrived in the way it did. Nightmare Rarity made a surprise appearance and threw herself into the fray; bracing against Destroyah’s back and joining her magical grip to the alicorns’ while putting her empowered physical strength to dig her hooves in. But in such a desperate situation with everykaiju and everypony figuratively and literally throwing their backs into it, none had any spare focus to spare on details like noticing a returned enemy. Anything and everything else than fight the now igniting friction and overwhelming velocity of the fall. Kaiju, princess, and ponies; all heroes and heroines doing what heroines and heroes did.

Pinkie Pie, bracing her back against Princess Celestia, grimaced as she saw them barreling towards Ponyville even while skidding and grinding across the landscape.

-Well, this is gonna hurt, time to cut down on the hospital trip! Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Cake, good thing you all are out!-

Her mane flexed on its own and pulled out a buttoned control, which she clicked by biting down. If there was one constant with the queen of parties, it was never to question where she hid her utilities. She had party cannons and other equipment around town and in places nopony would expect. With the button clicked,‘Party Protocol B’ was activated and a salvos of party cannons fired off across Ponyville in a path line leading towards Sugar Cube Corner. While the blasts of air and confetti hitting the group didn’t do much to slow them down, it did help guide them towards the shop; almost pinballing the group to slide and fall in a different direction. More importantly however, the corner’s front door popped open and, had several thousand kilograms of speeding equine not been blitzing towards the door, a massive, already finished cake was to pop out. Typically the protocol button was for if Pinkie got caught off guard and needed to give somepony a party pronto; complete with party cannons and a pre-made cake. Unfortunately the poor, delicious confectionery didn’t even make it out the front door before the combine mass of kaiju, alicorns, and the Mane 6 slammed into it. Frosting, filling, sprinkles, and the like went flying in all directions, but the slowed fall had been drained by the improvised, sugary sweet airbag at the cost of Sugarcube Corner’s back wall being blown out when they hit it.

The restaurant and bakery looked like it had been hit with a mortar shell deciding to come through the storefront, now sporting a massive trench leading up to said storefront that was literally on fire in a few places. In one big heap of jumbled up limbs, the Alicorn Diarchy, Elements of Harmony, and now unified kaiju lay groaning or unconscious. Taking advantage of her host being passed out breaking the rest of the Mane 6’s fall, Nightmare split off from Rarity and slithered out a blown-out window. She reformed into a diminutive version of the Pony of Shadows slumped against the back wall. Weakened and knowing what would follow if she was caught by the recovering alicorns, especially after the stunt pulled at the plateau; as well as wanting to get as far as physically possible from Godzilla, she limped off into the dying night while the group of saviors started to come to consciousness.

“Isss ev-verypony okaaay?” Princess Celestia, unceremoniously doubled over with her legs slung over the counter, groggily groaned as she tried to pull herself up.

A myriad of whines, groans, slurred speech, and other strained noises followed.

Moments later, Godzilla Junior’s eyes weakly fluttered open and he took in the sight around him. No King Ghidorah. No falling skies. Just solid ground around him and a myriad of eyes looking to him with acknowledgement and relief. Forelimbs curled over him to embrace him, first Luna, then Lea, Rodan, Anguirus, Celestia, and soon a gaggle of bright hues to show a smiling Mane 6. He looked to each fondly, then to the gold-encircling red eyes gazing back at him. Xenilla, with Destroyah’s hoof wrapped around him, gave his little brother a tired nod Junior returned. The younger brother wasted little time shedding any visage of vendettas in pulling his sibling and even Destroyah into the group embrace as a laughter of the Mane 6 spread across the group of heroes.

It took a visit to a world where friendship is magic and love was power, but a burned bridge had finally been restored. A warm breeze traveled past Sugarcube Corner, before departing off into the sky as a father smiled upon his sons.

========================

One Month Later

========================

The month that followed was a peaceful one. One of rebuilding, celebration, achievement, and relaxation. Just as it seemed Equestria, with its magical friendship and palpable morals of forgiveness, redemption, and love had affected those whom it graced; so too did the greatness of the kaiju inspire equal change and greatness across the realms which they tread. One look at the Equestrian newsprint headlines was proof enough.

Cloudsdale Times-

A new record has been reached! This day at the height of noon, the world’s biggest snow fort has been crafted. But, given those involved, “worlds’”, plural, might be a better description! The flight team who churned the clouds for the snowmaking process was led by none other than Cloudsdale’s own Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr. and her flightpartner, Rodan of the Terran Kaiju; two of the heroes from last month’s historic stage collapse at Neighagra. In a brilliant show of speed and mass wingspan, they along with the other flight teams made the endeavor possible. When asked to comment on the undertaking, Rodan, after changing back to pony size, had this to say-

“Need to ask Mrs. Dash about making size shifting coats. N-N-Not a big fan of cold!”

Canterlot Daily-

Oddities and surprise abound at the School for Gifted Unicorns on Extras Week. For the specialty teachers day, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Lea Mothra joined the staff in instructing the children on exotic magic in a class hosted by Princesses Celestia and Luna themselves! Between Her Majesties, Ms. Sparkle’s vast spell knowledge and Ms. Mothra’s Terran magic use, we expect the fillies and colts to be bringing back some exciting stories to their families with magic never before seen on the campus!

As for said family, another guest on the premises turned quite a few heads. Student Mariner Chi Bi Moon, citing her family being unreachable due to distance from her homeland, walked into the Parent-Student classes with King Godzilla Gojo the Second; much to the surprise of the actual parents. His Majesty evidently had been tutoring young Ms. Moon regarding some power she’d gained since her winning of last month’s contest, where they met; and lacking any family close by, they suggested she bring him in their stead. Despite the oddity, King Godzilla seemed in a good mood throughout and was seen walking back to the castle with Mariner Moon atop his head alongside Princess Luna.

Imperial Print-

In light of notoriety in assisting in the rescue of some fifty and seven ponies and the attempted assault on the Crystal Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Ambassador Xenilla has recently asked all citizenry to please refrain from moving any crystal protuberances he places on the borders of the city and to be left alone while doing so. When asked about what the objects were for, Ambassador Xenilla’s research partners Dr. Ring and archivist Burst, the former has taken the joyous news of the imperial pregnancy to heart and is aligning defenses to ensure the future heir of the empire has safety.

When asked to comment on what would happen if the quartz spires were moved, Ambassador Xenilla noted on quote;

“You don’t want to do that.”

Upon thusly being asked of the manner of the smaller, glowing blue crystals he was placing inside the former, his only response was;

“You really don’t want to do that.”

Ambassador Xenilla, with a guardsmare escort, has been confirmed to be attending the upcoming Gala in accompaniment of the Imperial royal family; citing “Familial visit” alongside duty to protect our empire’s beloved leadership. Safe travels, Ambassador!

Ponyville Almanac -

Chaos, pastries, fruit, and… “Micro-oxygen”. Such a fate befell the monthly farmers fair. It started as normal with the various growers, artisans, and bakers setting up their wares and goods when a sudden flash mob of animate food, chiefly pastries from the Cakes booth, suddenly started flying about everywhere. The barrage of tasty treats literally floating about and trying to pie everypony in the face grew a deal more profuse when the magic spread to half the other goods, which in turn drew in several groups of nearby wildlife; which ran about the town chasing down the food. Several noted town residents moved in to try and contain the chaos. Fluttershy flew in trying to chase down a pack of bears in an attempt to stop them, Pinkie Pie bravely fended off several ursines via rapidly plucking pastries out of the sky and launching them out of rather inexplicably placed cannons, Rarity, the Flower Siblings, and Tea Song defended the booths; all while the newest resident, Anguirus, physically started hoisting up the booths and moving them off to safety.

The calamity was finally contained when the Sweet Apple Acres group moved in, having come for set up. Between the Apple family’s skill in rounding up crowds to organize the mobs of animals and scared ponies and farmhand, Destroyah, shooting down airborne foodstuffs with intimidating bursts of “micro-oxygen”; order was restored when brought alongside the previous efforts. The source of the flying pastries is still under investigation, with runaway magic being suspected.

Sometimes, even across worlds where hooves didn’t beat the ground….

Zapped Crystal News Blog -

“Dazzlings” is a fitting name for the latest winners of yesterday’s amatuer entry singing competition. Despite their lack of instruments, though this journalist is told they are capable of it, the three person team of Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk, and Aria Blaze blew the competition out of the water. Their song, which has not been publically released and is an original piece, had the audience entrapped by the first chorus. And after Adagio winked and motioned for her cousin, Aria, to take the center lead, they were almost in a trance. Music can spur many emotional experiences, energy, solemness, dread, pride; but this peace left every soul in earshot breathless. Let this writer speak for themselves when I say I never had felt so relaxed and warmed to the heart. The bright glow on the trio’s necklaces shone true with the core lyrics, love was most certainly in “bloom”. In another grand surprise, Dean Cadenza of the local esteemed Crystal Prep School is now engaged! Soon-to-be husband and fellow staff alumni, Shining Armor Sparkle proposed during the finale to the song, and the Dean’s tearful acceptance was met much to the approval of Sonata Dusk and the audience.

But, just as fast as they arrived and swept up the prize, the trio departed; last being seen walking off towards the rural regions with a group of four. While their compatriots are unknown, evidently one of them was previously seen earlier devouring half the corn dog stock at the free buffet before running off at Photo Finish’s approach.

This is Indi-A-Go-Go, signing off!

================

Reader Works!

================

Who's awesome guys and gals? You're awesome guys and gals! Thanks so much for the huge ride this arc and beyond, so here's to you all!

Xenilla Alucard

Lion Patriot, capitalizing off Xenilla's voice of choice matching the Hellsing star and more than a few shout-outs, gives us the crossover we've all wanted!

Queen Maui (Mermaid)

Shortly after she was described, Zeroviks drew his take on Queen Maui, which ended up influencing the finished design. Now, it comes full circle with a mermare turned mermaid!

Luna and Junior

Isniaca supplies some feels and probably quite a few shipper grins with this beautiful piece on Bridge's power couple!

Blade Dancer Human Form

Pyrus-Leonidas adds fan favorite Blade Dancer to his lovely Bakugan series, check it and the others out!

Dead of hope

Mayozilla turns on the heat (literally) as the Vs. Bagan comic broils on to a fiery climax!

Heart to Heart

Holycross supplying the will and Sorelstrasz supplying the talent to show us what goes on at the restaurant after hours!~

My Little Kaiju AU: Your in the Wrong Neighborhood

If one wishes to flirt with diabetes, check out FallenAngel's gallery. This (pre)school yard stare down is just one of many and I need insulin injection now, brb-

Equestria: Across the Multiverse - Jaunt 39

The Multiverse hopping shinanigans continue in GodzillaWolf and company's run, no guest-starring The Amalgam'verse incarnations of Gamera and Rodan!

Author's Note

Five Battles Tally -
Godzilla Junior vs. Grand King Ghidorah
W: Inconclusive, edge Ghidorah due to initially overpowering Junior.

Nightmare Rarity vs. Enjin Sunset
W: Nightmare Rarity for managing to force Enjin out of Sunset and finishing her goal to opening the vault.

Gigan, Irys, and Megalon vs. Kaizer Ghidorah
W: Draw, team effort to draw back out X succeeded and Kaizer was too disrupted by Monster X to keep fighting.

Monster X and Controller 011 vs. Kaizer Ghidorah
W: Draw, Kaizer gave up and finally stopped the conflict after granting X's request for forgiveness.

Godzilla Junior, Xenilla, and Senior vs. Grand King Ghidorah
W: Godzilla Dynasty, Grand King Ghidorah had no more reason to fight and went out with a content smile.

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron!
Artwork by Faith-Wolff!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!
Rainbows start ............
to rock!

PS: If you're wondering why Irys is the 8th beast to awaken but Eta is the seventh letter, its because Rodan, Guardian Beast Omega, is number seven in terms of awakening.

Holiday Special: A Kaiju Carol, Past

A loud groan echoed through the Crystal Empire library halls. Alone and focused typically was Xenilla’s favorite state of mind. Empress Cadance’s “get well soon” gift was an all-hours pass to the library, and though Xenilla was half-convinced she was just trying to get him to stop harping on her pregnancy, he was keen to oblige. Usually hours of uninterrupted study was something he’d enjoy, even if it was for some dire task. Stopping King Sombra from returning, ensuring the health of the imperial royal family, keeping tabs on the humans to ensure they didn’t recreate an oxygen destroyer, the usual quests he’d been busying himself with for decades. He took a small matter of pride or joy in his study, it had been an extremely long time since he got frustrated in it.

Had been, for he was now.

Xenilla grumbled and rubbed at his temple, looking back through the pages of the thousand-year manuscript about Hearth’s Warming celebrations; mentally dragging himself through the exact same arduous, repetitive banality he’d been subjecting himself to for the last few hours. Good will towards each other, a special day for all derived from an ancient tradition, festivities, and constant barrages of stories repeating the exact same morals over and over and over again. He’d lost count how many books he’d gone through talking about Snowfall Frost and the Hearth’s Warming tale, as well as all of the instances he’d read through that same carol in some other incarnation. He telekinetically tossed aside the latest book into a stack that was taller than he was.

-Book number 59… Another repetition…-

Xenilla shook his head and cracked open book number sixty, the recollection of Blade Dancer’s last interaction still echoing through his mind. It seemed to have started well at first, back to back reading. He didn’t even make a snark at her romance novel this time!

“Sooo, I was wondering if you could join me at the castle?”, she whispered.

Xenilla had cocked an eyebrow, “Yes.”

He sensed she was smiling, but not exactly sure why, “Of course I’ll be there, there every day I’m here.”

Blade Dancer shifted, he could feel that on his back.

“G-Great! We can join in on the feast and maybe the community ball, then the games, I’m sure the colts and fillies will love you once they hear you’re Godzilla’s brother.”

“Yes, I hear Icka’brod has become quite popular with the younger crowd. Long deserved… But, Blades?”

He tilted his head to glance over at her, “Why the festivities?”

Blade Dancer paused but giggled like he said something as silly as ‘what does purple taste like?’.

“Hehehe, silly Xeni. It’s a holiday of course!”

Xenilla just deadpanned, “I’m aware.”

“Well, then you know the works then!”, Blade Dancer quipped as she elbowed him gently, “Good will, enjoying time with family and friends, gift giving, being thankful, typical Hearth’s Warming fare!”

She looked at him and her laughing grin gradually died away upon seeing Xenilla’s completely serious and completely confused face. A silence grew between them.

“Why? Aren’t you supposed to always do those sort of things any time of the year?”

“W-Well, yes.”

“Then, what’s the point of not doing that everyday? Why make a big fuss about it this particular date?”

“B-Because it’s… Hearth’s Warming? A holiday for those things.”

She said it like that answered the question, not so to her audience. Xenilla just blinked at her a few times before holding up his hooves, putting more emphasis on his tone to make himself clear.

“... Why? What could make this day more important than any other day?”

Confusion turned to disagreement, disagreement into debate, and that became something he was most certainly not proud of. And so, he did as he usually did after being left alone. Fix it. Spending hours poring through holiday books and records to try and grasp everything in hopes it could help make amends to Miss Dancer.

The problem? Every single story he could try to pull a moral out of delt with a Scrooge who hated the holiday. Not applicable here to try and solve his confusion. He was no Snowfall Frost, the holiday didn’t evoke spite or anger from him. Instead, it just seemed so… redundant. These ponies were the cheeriest sentients he’d ever seen, if anyone could live up to the “keeping the holiday spirit” year round, it would be them. So in a nation literally founded on unity and friendship amongst others, why even bother with a day dedicated to it?

His pleasure at having seemingly lost his growing headache after face planting into a book in frustration was palpable. Taking in a deep breath, as if somehow smelling the holiday book would clue him in to its purpose, he felt another sting of failure.

-Onward then…-

The Protector of the Throne groaned and rose back up to resume reading before he started book number sixty one. He was so drawn out in attention he didn’t immediately notice the three pairs of clawed digits on the top of the page. Xenilla grunted and glanced up to behold the form of a brightly glowing, beautiful moth with a familiar wing color pattern of pinks and gold.

Xenilla’s face contorted in confusion, “.... Mothra?”

The Fairy Mothra hummed solemnly, her glowing body flickering like a tiny flame.

“Xenilla, son of the Old King and protector of two thrones, you have failed to grasp the purpose of this hallowed day-”

Xenilla’s confusion quickly dialed up, looking around as the library to see if there was anyone or anypony around and if this was really happening.

“-you whom strive to correct it shall-”

He mostly ignored her, mostly, instead he was focused on glancing about awkwardly.

-...Am I being pranked or am I dreaming this?-

He looked back to the monologuing moth sprite he couldn’t sense the energy of and slowly shut the book she was standing in, not hard enough to harm her but enough to move her if she was really there. The Fairy Mothra was engulfed by the pages, but instead he now just heard her continuing on, unfettered, but now muffled by the book. He opened it back up to see her unmoved, eyes shut and foreleg to her chest.

“-with the aid of three varieties of spirits. Because you-”

He shut the book again and popped it back open.

“-lack spite in your heart for this day, you shall not be scrutinized-”

Xenilla’s lips began to flatten and his brow lowered, shutting the book on her again and opening it back up.

“-as harshly as those who come before you. But to help you-”

He snapped the book shut back and forth, completely deadpan in expression as he found it mildly amusing as much as it was annoying.

“-understand the-”

“-holiday we will-”

“-help you-”

“-experience it’s meaning-”

“-through-

“-yo-”

“-ur-”

“-own-”

“-life-”

The Fairy Mothra’s tone shifted after several closes.

“-Are-”

“-you-”

“-done?”

Xenilla snapped the book shut and held it for a time, slowly collecting himself and shrugging before opening it back up.

“Yes, and it told me something,” Xenilla noted.

The Fairy Mothra perked up, “Excellent! You’re the earliest one to get it! Well, I am the Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings past!”

Xenilla’s expression didn’t shift in the slightest, “No, no you’re not.”

The “Spirit” scrunched her brow, something that looked adorable in her tiny form, and stomped her tiny legs.

“Yes I am! I’m a part of this holiday!”

“No, because if you were some Equestrian entity I wasn’t aware of, or at least was aware was real, I’d have sensed you.”

The Spirit raised her brow and crossed her claws, “And is a literal holiday spirit really so unbelievable? I’m talking to a space dinosaur that flies.”

Xenilla was going to retort to that directly but had to give her a slight nod after some thought, this wouldn’t even be the first time he seemed to encounter a spirit. But there was another flaw he could and would make note of.

“Then why do you look like someone from Terra? If you’re an Equestrian Spirit, why look like a non-native?”

“Non-native, but still naturalized. I rather like this newcomer. Besides this form is one you’d be more acquainted with!”

“How convient", Xenilla groaned in disbelief, "And barely.”

The Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Past rolled her eyes, “Look, I went to all the effort to come here and it looked pretty, would you prefer something else?”

Xenilla shook his head, “No, because none of this is real.”

“... What?”

“None of this is happening.”

“... Are you really sure about that?”

“Look down.”

The Spirit did so and saw the text of the book she was standing in that had been repeatedly closed upon her about sixteen times in the past minute or so. To Xenilla, the writing looked like gibberish now.

“I can’t read that. Different parts of the brain make dreams than skills like reading comprehension. I just fell asleep while droning through this Hearth’s Warming content and since I had it on the mind, you’re here. Your form is just because I expected someone from Terra since I’ve been there longer.”

“Of course!”, the Spirit chimed as her glow swelled, “I reached out to you through your subconscious! Why else do you think we reached out to the scrooges in their beds? They were already asleep!”

Xenilla was unmoved, “I try to justify everything. It makes sense that my subconscious would do the same.”

He got up and turned to the shelf, gripping it with his magic. The Spirit in the form of a Fairy Mothra shot up and flew in front of him.

“Wait! What are you doing?”

Xenilla picked up the shelf and started to raise it up, “Trying to hit myself as hard as I can to wake myself up.”

“I thought mortals just pinched themselves to wake up!”

Xenilla didn't pause in his action as he spoke, “So I am dreaming?”

“I didn’t say that!”, the flustered sprite chirped while flailing her antennae.

“You implied it,” Xenilla grunted as he wound up for the swing to his noggin, “Besides, I’m really durable. I need a bigger hit.”

The sprite flew up to his face and landed on his snout, “Why do you want to do this?”

Xenilla paused to at least answer his subconscious’ question, “So I can get back to my studies and figure this holiday out.”

The Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Past crossed her little arms, “And how well has that been working out for you?”

“... When I endured through my years on Terra, I would observe the world from the edge of the moon. Holiday or not, I noticed no difference and saw no point in what morals should be typical nature. I’ve, been studying to distinguish it.”

She smirked, he knew she was smirking despite the fact her mouth was a pair of mandibles.

“With all the material you’ve gone over, who better to help you put it all together than your own mental depths, eh?”

“... So you are my mind acting up?”

“Never said that, but if it gets you to listen and not give yourself a concussion...”

“I think I’d break the shelf first.”

The spirit shook her head and groaned, “Okay, then before you break library property-”

Xenilla put the shelf down instantly.

“-hows about we try this jaunt out? Couldn’t hurt.”

Xenilla took a moment to let his mind drift. As much as he was somewhat annoyed to admit it, she had a point… or rather he himself had said point given he was still convinced this was a bizarre fever dream born out of trying too hard and stuffing so many stories into his brain at once. And truly, what did he have to lose?

“So be it. Lead on.”

The spirit smiled and bowed, “To your days past then, we shall experience…”

Xenilla groaned under his breath as he felt himself getting pulled along.

-Oh really? A spirit of holidays past going back in time, who’d have thought?-

Given time spent in Equestria versus time spent back around Terra, he really should have expected some psychotic illusion claiming to be the spirit of the past to bring him to the latter. Still, he felt almost cheated when he felt himself not in his old body as he floated in the void to behold Terra.

This was a view he knew well, seeing that blue and green sphere of life passing through the darkness; away from the scorching infernos of the sun and departed from the chilled black space. As beautiful as it was fragile. Xenilla didn’t know if the sigh he let out was of content at seeing it not blown up, on fire, or invaded; or of restrained worry that it probably would be in a year. Sometimes he worried that same paranoid, frantic protection would migrate to the Equestrians and the Royal Family; before noting it probably had already.

Taking his eyes off of home, he looked to the surrounding to figure out where exactly he was; the dull gray hues and sensation of weak ground beneath him telling him he was on Terra’s moon. More specifically on the border between the illuminated light and dark side near a large crater. Instantly any questions died in his throat, he knew where this was and when they were. His head bowed, darkened under the horizon of the moon.

Deep below as the moon rotated as it had for billions of years, a crease of light slipped over the edge of a crater that had been deprived of it for years. It ran across the uneven stony echos of the impact that begat the crater, before trickling over a sea of blue. The navy hued scales, dried and bruised from a battle a decade ago, bathed in the sunlight; unfiltered radiation. It was just enough to jumpstart a long coming regeneration and jostle a long coma.

Eyes snapped open and sparked with red light. Then, slowly and weakly, hand after hand of claws stabbing into the crater wall for a purchase, the Xenilla of the past dragged himself out onto the lunar surface. He sprawled out and rolled to his side, covered in lunar dust and sporting numerous old, barely closed wounds across an almost emaciated form. He might have laid there for minutes, hours, maybe even a day before slowly rising up. His body drank up the radiation and was restored, crystal spires rebuilding, spines, teeth, and tusks were replaced, and lost muscle and broken bones refilling back into their proper places. Fragments of the natural satellite flaked off him in a cloud that haloed his form as he beheld the world from the edge of the moon.

Fairy Mothra spoke up, revealing herself to be hanging off modern day, equine Xenilla’s horn.

“This memory, you remember the date?”

Xenilla grunted quietly without emotion, “Human Gregorian calendar, 2004. December 25th. Attained that by hacking into the satellites.”

“Christmas, a holiday in this world much like my own; sacred or secular it seems.”

Spoken like a true outsider, as Xenilla’s mind would have wanted this “spirit” to be.

“This memory troubles you?”, she quipped with a tilted head, looking at him upside down.

Xenilla didn’t give any answer, spurring her to look up and gaze upon his past self. The titanic figure was drowsy, lethargic, still processing what was going on. Finally, the moment of realization visibly came and his shock froze him. The saurian titan gasped, choking on his own voice in the breathless void.

“You were surprised, joyful.”

The past Xenilla staggered to his feet, witnessing the beautiful world before him. He was in disbelief that bled into elation.

“I saw my world alive, yet I knew I’d been out of commission for awhile.”

The Xenilla of the present narrated as his past self wordlessly trembled pure joy. Water leaked from his eyes and floated off into space. He was muttering something, though the vacuum of space made it impossible to make out what he was saying. But he was visibly jubilant, an extremely rare sight for Xenilla.

“I thought I hadn’t failed after all, that maybe some force or fate had given me a second chance,” Xenilla noted drly

“That my father hadn’t destroyed the world yet, there was still time to save it and all those on it.”

The Xenilla of the past heaved his chest up and down, clenching a fist as he focused and collected himself.

“You seemed blessed,” The Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Past chirped as she got closer to her ward.

Xenilla was as quiet as his past self, face cloaked in the shadows of his mane and the dark of the moon.

“I felt like it, had I known of holidays then or the date I might have been even more so. But I realized two things… after.”

“What happened?"

The Xenilla of the past kicked off the planet as he rocketed towards the planet like a glimmering comet. His heart was brimmed and aflame with resolve and duty. His modern-day counterpart felt a cavity in the same place.

“Always plan, always assess the situation… Because I felt a fervor, and just made the second greatest mistake of my life.”

The Xenilla of the present knew exactly where his past-self was flying. Planetside, the Pacific. Towards an island he didn’t recognize at the time called Solgell. His mind directed him there, guided by the sense that connected him to his own kind. And he only detected one adult male Gojirasaurus on the planet that seemed familiar. Thinking it was his father, he’d get too close before taking time to look things over. If he had he’d have avoided two errors.

The past Xenilla landed on the island and spurred several crystals, prepared for battle in manner and mind. Except the Godzilla that stood to face him had toned sinew instead of mutated bulk, sharpened dorsal spines instead of partially melted round plates, and paid heed to not swat the human research vessel behind him when he turned around to instead carefully move his tail over it. Xenilla was too convicted and fired the first shot before he realized who it was and could cancel the full powered blow that struck his brother in the chest and sent Junior flying through a hillside and nearly crushing the humans. Eyes alight with shock and knowing something was different, the past Xenilla dropped his guard and ran forward to pick his sibling up. Godzilla Junior, eyes brimmed with hatred, only needed to see the nightmare of his childhood running towards him, arms spread, to let out a thundering roar and burning plasma beam.

Xenilla’s greatest mistake in hindsight was attacking and trying to kill his father over a misunderstanding, something that took him years to realize. He only took a few seconds to realize his second greatest mistake was starting the Mutation and Defender conflict over a lapse in judgment.

Junior’s mind in the ensuing first battle between brothers was focused on killing whom he saw as one of the greatest monsters in history. Xenilla’s mind as he fought back to keep from being killed was a single, strong thought that carried into the two from the modern era witnessing. It was the same thought that played through the eldest son of Godzilla Senior's mind every passing winter as he observed Terra from his hide-away on the meeting place of the light and dark side of the moon. All those holidays he saw no change and yet felt the pain of consequence.

-”What have I done?”-

Xenilla never needed to lift his head up, no sight possible could give him more shame than he felt right now.

“Why?”

He felt the spirit’s eyes upon him without needing to look up.

“Why show me something I already knew?”

“... All actions have consequences, Son of the Old King,” it whispered as she drew closer.

“Some of which we’d all regret.”

Xenilla’s lip curled slightly, exposing the seam of his fangs,”You seek vindication for such common knowledge? Does tormenting me drive home some point?”

The spirit paused and he knew she was shaking her head, “Torment was never the intention, only to demonstrate.”

“Choice memory to drive that point home,” Xenilla snarled.

The spirit let out a patient sigh, pulling close to him in a way his heartfelt was a comfort against the contrasting grief. Like a tiny candle against a battering cold.

“You are a soul driven by worry for others, even if you don’t show it. You bear a good heart, Xenilla of Terra; but a blunt head… Admit it, the clearest means of which to get through to you was the strongest memory. Regretfully, this was so.”

Xenilla grumbled, but conceded.

“Typically these carols start with a happy past first. Would it have killed you to show maybe my meeting Blade Dancer or ‘freeing’ Destroyah?”

“My visions are limited to Hearth’s Warming and the equivalent two days from Terra in someone’s memory. I am sorry for the pain... But, there is another reason. This was when you, in hindsight, started believing something…”

Xenilla regretfully took the implication and looked. A clash of blue and red that blinded the sky, his beam clashing with his brother’s. Junior would never have noticed the shocked, horrified expression on his sibling’s face through all the light. The present-day Xenilla resigned his voice and waited, knowing his subconscious masquerading as some holiday entity had more to say.

“You found this day was a cherished day across the world for multiple reasons… But if this day, meant to be spent with family, was the one on which you tore your own one apart before you even realized it-…”

Now was the time to speak and he did so plainly as the lights of the past shown across his face, “-then how could this, or any other day be anything special.”

The words he said to Blade Dancer echoed in his mind, “What could make this day more important than any other day?... If this happened?...”

His silence permeated around him in the realization he felt. It wasn’t just him observing Terra from the edge of the moon for years afterwards without change that made him say what he did.

“So, not just logic behind that statement; even if you didn’t realize it at the time… The past is meant to show us clarity when we look to it, that’s why it’s called hindsight.”

Xenilla stayed in solemn silence for a time, before rising up and looking to his guide.

“I think I get the point here. Anything else; ‘spirit’?”, he whispered with only a slight snip in his tone.

The Spirit of Hearth’s Warming sighed, nodding to him.

“Not of mine, though more falls into my domain with time. All actions have consequences, Xenilla of Terra. But not all are bad. Come-”, she noted as the world began to shift and changed through time and space all around them.

The spirit in the form of a Fairy Mothra extended a wing in the direction of where a dirt path now stood, Xenilla noting the darkened sky and abundance of fruit trees and the visage of a barn in the distance that meshed with his memory to identify it as Sweet Apple Acres outside of Ponyville. The Hearth’s Warming of the past melded into the Hearth’s Warming of present.

“They’ll show you why it matters…”

And with a smile, his subconscious’ manifestation faded away. Xenilla sighed and started down the path it indicated, resigned in the back of his mind to kick himself in the face really had when he finally woke up for thinking all this up. This was the last time he read holiday books before falling asleep. He was already speculating on how he could rest his head with a crystal under his neck to jab him in the throat and wake him up should his head begin to droop while reading again.

-Still, might as well follow this line of logic my addled mind has concocted…-

He took several steps before finally noticing the spirit’s last words in depth.

-Wait, ‘they’?!-

He turned to face a towering figure in a wind blown cloak!

Author's Note

Merry Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and all the other dandy, lovely hallowed days this time of year to give your fellow man good cheer!

Try not to think too hard about when this takes place, show holiday timeline makes no sense either :rainbowwild:

Proofed by Lance-Omikron and Faith-Wolff!

Chapter 42: Restart

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Zenith

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In a flash of motion grabbed Megalon’s attention and he spun around to face it, revving up his good drill and emitting weak sparks from his horn. He was still banged up pretty badly from the back-to-back fights with Grand King and then Kaizer Ghidorah, but it would take both of them at once to force him away from who he was guarding. Instead he momentarily dropped his guard when he saw it was Irys flying in, though he brought it right back up when he sensed a graviton surge and saw a winged form fly in behind her. Irys reacted as soon as she saw his horn sparking.

“It’s okay, Megalon!”, she yelped as she threw herself up in front of him with her wings spread, before motioning downwards with her arms, ”... It’s okay, it’s okay, he’s back.”

Megalon paused and looked behind her, recognizing the shape rising up from a slightly rougher landing the moment he saw the pale armor, even if it was now accompanied by multiple gold accents and a pair of wings. Elation in him soared and his compound eyes lit up in glee, the only thing keeping him from charging forward and glomping his returned comrade was the knowledge of whom lay propped up behind him.

Kaizer X sighed, feeling at his new power. It would take time to get used to, likely being temporary for while. He could already feel it waning down to a more reserved state. In a few hours he might not be that much different than his original form and might as well still be called Monster X. In a calmer time he might muse this to be a side effect of the Kaizer Ghidorah personality resigning itself to not be dominant and letting Monster X be the chief one in the driver’s seat given he was the one to form them a life; but this was no time for that. Instead he pushed the thoughts aside and focused his sole attention on the form beside Megalon.

It wasn’t the first time he saw his best friend like this, only this time there was even more damage despite there being less blood.

Gigan lay limp and cold, slumped against the wall with occasional showers of sparks spurting out from his joints or multiple injuries. There was no life or flicker in the cyclopean mechanical eye that was plainly visible in the absence of a currently shattered red visor, one of the two huge dual chainsaws he’d used in his overclocked beatdown on Kaizer Ghidorah was impaled through his chest. X’s newest scar in the making, a dual slash wound in the shape of his namesake ached when he observed the weapons.

Nodding to Megalon, Kaizer X got on one side of Gigan as the other cyborg got on the other with Irys in the middle. Lifted by hand, altered gravity, and Irys’ careful talons; Gigan’s body was brought up and carried.

“We must hurry, follow me!”

=========

Canterlot

=========

The dreams of her subconscious were fading away beyond recollection, with her focus upon a moving light high above her. For a while she couldn’t tell if she was still asleep or not, the pinprick of light growing and moving across her field of view. For a single frightening moment, she wondered if this was the end of her epoch.

Then the light moved in a conscious manner, and the world started to trickle back. The light swung to and fro, and cyan eyes slowly opened to greet it. One by one her senses returned to her beyond blinded sight. There were other ponies going about business, barely audible through muffling walls and obviously not in the same room like the scribblings on paper she could hear. The air carried the scents of antiseptics and cleaners. And the pressure on her back belied a firm mattress covered in a sterile comforter.

Sunset Shimmer wasn’t dying or dreaming anymore, she was awake in a hospital room. The light from before emanating from the headlamp of the attending minotauress. Citrus orange in color overall and holding a clipboard of notes, she’d been the source of the scribbling noises Sunset had heard earlier.

“Mmmmmhmm!”, noted the cow-like professional sporting a white coat of her trade, “Good, your eyes can follow the light perfectly! Seems you’re fully conscious without repercussion.”

“Wh-Where?”, Sunset Shimmer murmured, still too confused by her general circumstance to be shocked at seeing an Equestrian in the flesh.

“Canterlot General Hospital young mare, you were in an attack.”

Sunset Shimmer winced, feeling an ache in her sides as some foggy, distant memory surged back into her without recognition. She winced and grabbed at her head, shaking it to clear her vision and feeling at her body to assure herself she was fine.

-Attack, huh? I’ll say…-

Doctor Taurus pursed her lips, knowing to expect some delirium and dizziness after what her patient had gone through.

“You’re recommended to take it easy. But don’t worry too much; other than some bruising and a minor concussion, you seem right as rain. Do you feel anything otherwise?”

Sunset Shimmer groaned and sat herself up, shaking her head slowly.

“Well enough I guess… just... head’s a bit fuzzy.”

Taurus sighed, “It’s to be expected since you were concussed, it’ll pass.”

Sunset winced, “Feels like more than that.”

“Can you remember anything?”, Taurus noted with a perked eye from her clipboard.

Sunset Shimmer paused and squinted, groping at her memory. But the more she tried past a certain point, the more it felt like trying to pick up smoke with her fingers… Or hooves, given current circumstances that still amazed her. But there was a point where her lapse in memory stopped, but even then she strained at the recollection. The foggy memory from earlier, that night she was laying in bed before dark mass stretched upon her and she… She felt…

“Cold, I-I remember being cold… I was in bed and right after I woke up I… It was dark, and I remember cold,” Sunset Shimmer shivered, recalling the chill was as unnatural as it was intense.

Doctor Taurus furrowed her brow and made another note, “Amnesia is not unknown in concussions, do you have anything else you might remember? Anything about the event at the plateau you were recovered on?”

Sunset Shimmer tried, she tried as best as she could. But that smoke refused be held for more than gasps of vision. There was something about flashes of bright light, the ground shaking; and a single pony, a white unicorn mare with a purple mane in the style of Rarity’s hair. After straining her brain, she relented with shrug.

“I… I didn’t even know I was on a plateau until you just told me. I don’t even know how I got here. I’m sorry...”

Doctor Taurus sighed and perked the unicorn’s chin up with her hand as she adjusted her glasses. The minotauress beamed and pulled a lollipop out of her coat pocket. Sunset Shimmer cracked a tiny sheepish smile in turn at the sweet she was offered. Taurus patted her shoulder.

“You’ll be just fine here deary, recovery takes time and thankfully it's nothing seriously, I expect to release you today. And some more good news? You have a visitor wanting to check on you, you want me to give her an update so you can send for her when you’re ready?”

Sunset Shimmer let her mind ponder.

-Okay, somehow I’m back in Equestria. There was some sort of attack involving Rarity’s counterpart here, must’ve been the element bearer one Twilight is friends with, and somethingmust have literally and figuratively pulled me out of bed to get me here… Batten down the hatches Shimmer, you’re going to need to talk to folks to figure out just what’s going on.-

Instead of giving it time for the visit, Sunset nodded, “I’m ready now.”

===============

Blade Dancer hesitated outside the door leading to the hospital room Godzilla Junior was inside. She was aware he’d been conscious for a time, and she’d been waiting even longer. That waiting was something she’d been wanting desperately to not have to do, but after hearing voices inside the room she waited more.

-Xenilla’s okay, you know that. You checked four times yesterday...and were up all night. That just leaves Godzilla. If-If somepony is in there talking already it would be rude for me to just barge in!.. Y-Yes, I’ll just wait until they’re done….-

She looked at the floor, her lie not convincing herself for a moment that she wasn’t just hesitating.

Inside the room, both Lea and Destroyah were back to back between two hospital beds in a sight and scenario that would be downright surreal to anyone on Terra. The co-leader of the Terran Defender faction and part-time second-in-command, part-time attack-dog of the Mutations faction were standing together grilling Godzilla Junior and Xenilla in their own specific way. Lea was flustered and chewing out her best friend in a manner one could practically see her flailing her antenna at him, whilst Destroyah just silently loomed over Xenilla’s recently moved hospital bed without a single word and a deadpan expression.

Lea flailed her wings and narrowed her eyes, “After both of us nearly died just fending him off together and we had to have Gamera and company help us the next time, what do you do when you see Ghidorah again?”

Godzilla Junior groaned and rolled his eyes as he knew exactly she was about to say, “I rushed him solo?”

Lea threw her hooves up into the air, “YOU RUSHED HIM SOLO! Dang it Goji why didn’t you get help?!”

“Was kinda stuck on a plateau and needed to buy time for the ponies. Not like I could fly over.”

Lea lurched forward and put her hoof to his nose on leering at him, “Didn’t stop you from doing that afterwards to fly back towards the planet busting space dragon!”

Junior just looked back at her despite his scrunched face making his voice comedically nasally, “Lele, you’re fretting.”

Mothra Lea’s eye twitched, “Oooooh don’t you Lele me Mister!.....”

Junior just kept staring, wisely waiting for it to be over. She’d been at this for fifteen minutes.

Lea’s face scrunched up as she let out a loud groan, “uuuUURRAAARG!.... Yes, yes I am fretting!... Oooooye.”

Junior, having done the sort of thing before on Terra, just with a large tree instead of the pillow he picked up; held it out to Lea as she lurched forward and faceplated into it. The altered moth shrugged and slung her hooves around the pillow and Junior’s collar.

“... Thank you, Goji,” her muffled voice whispered through the pillow.

Junior sighed, nuzzling his best friend’s head; knowing full well the fretting was just her way of showing she cared for being scared so much.

Xenilla meanwhile didn’t know if he had it better or worse. Destroyah had come and helped him move into the same room as his brother without question, but she’d been standing over him this whole time without saying a thing as she quietly regarded him.

“... Well?”, he muttered under her stare as he genuinely started to feel unnerved, especially when she moved in closer.

At long last she said something, but in a tone sharp enough to cut despite how blunt it was in wording, “Well. What?”

Xenilla shifted a tad awkwardly in his hospital bed, “Icka’brod’s friend seems quite talkative, you got anything to say?”

Destroyah leaned in closer, practically looming over him; “Should. I?”

“You’ve been staring at me for 5 minutes, I know something’s on your mind, Destroyah….”

“Such as?”

Xenilla looked off to the side, “Sometimes I swear you try to be unpredictable on purpose even when you’re not threatening to maul someone. I guess I supposed with you turning over a new leaf in this world you’d be a little bit more verbal with your concern. You definitely have it after the rescue effort, very commendable by the way.”

Destroyah hovered over Xenilla, visibly towering over him, “Flattery is distracting, you should know I get to the point.”

Xenilla shrugged, “Forgive me then. I just presumed that by now we’d get a ‘Don’t do that again, Xenilla’, ‘I was worried for you, Xenilla’, ‘You gave me a heart attack before we saved you, Xenilla’...”

His eyes trailed off as he rambled, noticing Destroyah was getting above him and casting her shadow across him. It was a very rare sight to see Xenilla’s coy bravado take a hit.

“...’ Why didn’t you get me so I could help, Xenilla’, ‘You made me miss a fight, Xenilla’...”

‘Her’ questions she wasn’t even having to say out of her own mouth were getting more aggressive. She loomed above in a way that cast her face in shadow as her eyes gleamed at Xenilla with a slight purple glow across it and her mane.

Xenilla looked up into one of the scariest faces he’d ever seen and muttered one phrase, “...’Do that again and I’ll put you in the hospital myself, Xenilla’?”

Destroyah’s building glow paused.

“... Close enough.”

Her tone carried no growl or sneer to belie anger. Xenilla, having just now realized how far back he’d leaned into his pillow, felt his pulse slowed back down and he leaned back up with a sigh.

“Should’ve known.”

Whether that was aimed at him correctly stating her unspoken question or the fact Destroyah could show kindly concern by terrifying someone; wasn’t affirmed. It probably was a little bit true for both, though it didn’t leave Xenilla questioning slightly when he noticed a very tiny upturn in her lips’ edge. A near microscopic smirk in her nod.

-Did… did she just do this as a joke?... DID SHE JUST PULL A JOKE?!-

Destroyah glanced at the now groaning Mothra Lea and rolled her eyes.

“I’ll get Miss Meltdown out of here so you two can have some peace if anyone else shows up,” she muttered whilst getting up and turning around towards Lea.

Without any real effort at all, Destroyah picked up the also fairly large mare and slung the Guardian of Mortals across her back as the latter incoherently rambled into the pillow about suicidal teammates. Destroyah carrying Mothra out a hospital room while the moth had a dorky breakdown, another surreal sight for the history books.

The Serizawan Legacy paused before the door and pitched her head back.

“Recover well, you to do that better than most anyone.”

She paused again and seemed to glance about slightly while trying to think of something friendlier to say. She thought back to the trio of fillies she’d come to Canterlot with that have been trying to coach her on this sort of thing.

-Departures are often done with wishes of good fortune until the reunion. What would I hope neither of them do until I can keep an eye on them again?.....!-

A light bulb went off in her head and with a completely straight face and tiny smile she said two words that caused the nearby glass cup to crack.

“Don’t die, that would be… bad.”

Destroyah pulled the door open and paced out of the room, proud of herself.

================

“Don’t die, that would be… bad.”

Blade Dancer perked up at the sound and got up from her chair as Destroyah walked out with Lea in cargo. She steeled herself as the door slowly started to swing closed.

-Now or never…-

Closing her eyes in a silent moment of contemplation, she paced forward and caught the door before it closed. With her eyes still closed, she pulled the door aside and stepped in. But the moment she heard it click shut behind her and she beheld the room, she was instantly aghast when she saw the form of Xenilla laid across the second bed. A pair of familiar eyes were upon her in addition to his and mind instantly was in the backpedal.

-X-Xen?! Here?! B-But he was across the Ward when I checked this morning! He’s right next to?!-

When she had left in the morning to resume training at the barracks, Xenilla had still been asleep since he’d arrived at the hospital. When she’d found him not in the room, she speculated that he had moved to see to one of the princesses over what happened given all three ruling alicorns were present in the hospital. She never expected him to be here, in the absolute last room she would ever think to look for him in. The room of someone she had stopped from killing him last week.

Her mind was completely out of whack in a spiral of confusion, only clearing up slightly when she finally looked forward at what she had been staring at and seeing the confused expression on Junior’s face. He wasn’t enraged or passively angered like every other time she had seen him in Xenilla’s presence. It baffled her so much it broke through the confusion and left her aghast at seeing Xenilla present. After a good mental minute of reorganizing herself, she remembered what she had come here to do.

Junior cast a suspicious eyebrow when she started to approach, the mare’s past advances and then, justifiably, angered defenses were still in recent memory. But when he saw her bow her head in a clearly shameful manner, it was his turn to mentally take a pause.

“I came to apologize,” Blade Dancer whispered.

Junior blinked a few times in sheer confusion, glancing over to see his brother silently shrug and frown, before looking back up at Blade Dancer. He motioned to the seat next to him and sat up.

“Talk.”

===============

Princess Luna sat in a shadowed chair in the corner of her room. She thankfully was not a name that appeared in the hospital too often. Sometimes she would for charity or an event for the magic school of course, and then there was that one mishap when Junior first came to Canterlot that spiraled out of control. But of all the few times she had been to Canterlot’s chief medical facility, reading out state offenses and breaches of law was not something she had done before. Let alone for a solid minute on a large scroll.

“-foalnapping, reckless magic use, dark magic use, coercion, assault, theft, and train jumping.”

Princess Luna shrugged and pulled the list away as she glanced at the unicorn mare sitting in the bed across the room. Starlight Glimmer said nothing as the pit in her chest got deeper and deeper.

“Quite the repertoire for someone of thine age. Thou hardly looks a day older than Princess Sparkle. And yet, thou didn’t flee when you had the chance. Clearly such an attempt was doable in your current state of health,” she muttered suspiciously.

Starlight Glimmer frowned and kept her bandaged head down, solemnly shaking her head as she remembered everything she had done to others without thought until she finally realized it.

She gulped, “I was guilty before Ghidorah drove me to do what I did, I really messed up.”

Princess Luna narrowed her eyes and snorted, “Indeed thou has, and does thee understand the consequences of such action? Not only to foreign leadership but to your fellow pony?”

Starlight Glimmer only nodded, not even trying to justify it. What could she blame it on? Lack of friends? Bad influence? Botched entrance exam? No, she just had herself. Princess Luna put the scroll away without relaxing her slight leer.

“All ill deeds to such magnitude require more than just forgiveness, they often call for atonement.”

Her sharp words bit into Starlight, who winced. Biting her lip, Starlight lowered her head and looked out the window to Canterlot for a short while before mustering the courage to look at Princess Luna’s strong gaze in the eye.

“Yes Princess,” she whispered with a gulp,”I-I was wrong and I want to correct it. Please, please let me try, I’ll do anything to atone for my mistakes!....”

She winced and shut her eyes fearfully when Princess Luna leaned forward from her seat. It was several seconds before the Princess of the Night’s voice returned. But instead of the harsh starkness of before, this time it was calmer, quieter, and warmer with an understanding even as it was authoritative in tone.

“You’ve already begun to do so. You are not evil. Misguided, mistaken, and endangering. But not evil.”

Starlight Glimmer’s ears perked up slightly. She mustered the courage to look at Princess Luna, and instantly noticed how the alicorn’s face was no longer one of grief, and shadows cast a gleam in her eyes. She wasn’t smiling, but it didn’t look like she was about to incur the wrath of the moon.

Princess Luna nodded her head slightly to the side, “A certain pair of mares named Night Glider and Lady Rarity came to me personally. The Nightmare Godzilla incident was catalyzed by your hoof, but its ending was also cast by your choice.”

The alicorn motioned towards the unicorn’s restored cutie mark emblazoned on her flank, “Especially before that Mark returned to its owner. Why was it removed in the first place?”

Starlight looked at her own mark, remembering two things. First was the cold weakness she felt upon removing it, it came with a gasp of guilt in memory of what she had helped put the Our Town denizens through even if they all joined by choice initially. The second though, brought back memories of why she removed her own mark. When she had done it after rushing back into the fray at Chibi Moon’s request and granted it to Night Glider in a last-ditch effort to help when her body no longer could.

She contemplated for a long time before giving her answer.

“S-Somepony might have died, I-... I had to do something,” she whispered with a sniffle. She hadn’t stop thanking any being of fate that might hear her when the answer to her first question upon reawakening was Moonbeam saying-

-”We’re alright… we’re all alright, Starly."-

Princess Luna nodded slightly while sporting a stoic expression, “Such drastic action does not speak of a pony who runs away from duty, not the true self uncorrupted by dark magic at least.... While your ultimate choices were your own, your original intentions were benign. Dark magic is not a matter a growing filly should have ever delved into...”

She frowned briefly before gathering her up in an astute manner befitting the teacher asking a question, “Tell me, young Miss Glimmer, what emotions drive dark magic?”

Starlight Glimmer gulped but answered truthfully, “Angers, jealousies, and wants.”

“Among others,” Princess Luna corrected before continuing on, “Despite the negative connotation, all of them have a benign application as a dark magic is no more inherently evil than other magics. Anger at the pain of innocents, jealousy at an injustice, and want for things to better oneself and others. But in the mind of those not prepared, these can be corrupted into sins that serve only to propagate themselves. Can you guess them?”

Starlight Glimmer pursed her lips and puzzled for a moment before looking back up, “Anger into wrath, endless rage at everything around you.”

She paused momentarily when she remembered her rage at the magic exam right before it went awry.

“That one, I’m guilty.... Jealousy into envy, spite over what others have to the point of hatred.”

She remembered all those happy fillies and colts who attended the school and got to have a life after, something she could never be around both before and after getting her magic.

“Guilty of that one too.... Want into greed, craving anything one wants no matter how much you already have...”

Her tone quieted down in recollection of the past that came flooding forward, how she browbeat and practically brainwashed the whole town into following her if they resisted rather than just settling for one friend. A tear of remorse ran down her muzzle as the cold feeling clamped down in her chest, curling up into herself.

“Guilty… as charged…”

Princess Luna regarded unicorn before sighing, “And to those unprepared, these feelings only reinforce each other. Once lost so heavily to out of control dark magic, it’s impossible to pull free by yourself…. I know from experience.”

A long span of several minutes passed before Starlight realized not a word had been said between them, just the steady ticking on a nearby clock was the only sound in the whole room. Finally she looked up to see Princess Luna looking out of the window and towards the Solar Tower, then beyond into the Everfree and the abandoned home that lay within.

She tilted her head, “...Princess?”

Princess Luna closed her eyes and drew in a slow, pained breath.

“A young mare, gifted in magic beyond her peers….. Overconfident and thinking she could handle anything… Maybe even trying to get ahead of what she saw as competition by enacting something upon herself that she didn’t understand….. But as the confidence on the outside grew, so did the insecurity and isolation on the inside.”

Princess Luna slowly shook her head at thousand year old memories, “Finally, she lashes out at those she should have loved, should have trusted the most. She hurts her sister, her family, her friends, and cannot be free of what she’s become.”

Princess Luna went dead quiet for a while, before looking at Starlight.

“... Which one of our life stories am I telling?”

The realization soon leaked into Starlight Glimmer, and she was solemn. She pulled the pillow in close to her chest for comfort.

“... I guess…”, she muttered while looking off to the side shamefully before managing to avert her gaze back to Luna, “-we both screwed up?”

Princess Luna slowly nodded, “In a way, yes. We did. And the knowledge of what we’ve done will never go away... “

“But,” she took in a deep long breath and regained her composure, “I was pulled free.”

Princess Luna stood up from her chair and stepped closer to the table, into the cast of the warm glow coming through the window.

She calmly said one single sentence that shocked Starlight’s world, “And I’d like to do the same for you.”

Starlight could only blink in dumbstruck surprise as she rapidly looked between the hoof pointing at her and the Princess attached to it.

“W-What?! But I!... After all I did?!”

Princess Luna was unmoved by her shocked shouts, “If we threw you in prison, all those old feelings would just fester back up. The dark magic is known to you and it will never go away. It is better you learned from an expert with past experience on how to control it, not be controlled by it.”

Tears stung at Starlight Glimmer’s eyes as she gripped the blanket across her in her hooves, “B-But after what I’ve done, after what I need to make up for?!”

Princess Luna nodded her head slightly whilst keeping her tone stable, “You will atone. And I will guide you in doing it. This isn’t a free pardon, the road ahead will require toil for which you will have to tread through. Equestria is a land of second chances. Trixie Lulamoon got one, Ambassador Xenilla got one, and I got one.”

Princess Luna looked Starlight in the eye and said one simple word, “Stand.”

Starlight Glimmer bit her lip, pausing to wipe her eyes with her blanket before obeying. She stepped out of bed and stood before the alicorn as Luna spread her wings and held them out to her sides, breaking up the light across her face in the shadows of her wing feathers.

“Starlight Emilia Glimmer, do you accept the responsibility to atone for yesterdays and better tomorrows?”

Starlight Glimmer felt a rock in her throat when she initially tried to speak, her word coming out as but a tiny whisper, “... I will..”

She flinched, feeling a strength in her chest growing enough to burn out the metaphorical stone in her veins and rock in her voice. She felt drive, concentration, even a flicker of hope as she dared to look Luna in the eye.

She stomped a hoof to punctuate her word, “I will do better! I will make better!”

Luna hid a tiny smirk on her lips as she continued, “Do you accept the study to learn magic and all its uses for the good of others before yourself?”

This time there was no hesitation in Starlight’s voice, only the same eagerness that initially drove her to that bookstore so many years ago before she went down a darkened path. This time, the path, nor the future hopes would be anything resembling vile.

“I accept!”

Princess Luna paced forward slightly and held up an upturned hoof, looking Starlight dead in the eye as the unicorn’s orbs glistened with a joyful tear. The Princess of the Night chanced a small smile Starlight returned with gusto as she put her hoof to the larger mare’s.

“Then from this date forth, you are my student… Welcome back to Equestria, Starlight Glimmer.”

Her smile grew as she saw the glow coming off the jubilant pony’s face, reading every word upon it. This was a magic prodigy who was a quick study, capable, and driven. And now that she was steered onto the right path, Luna knew she’d forge into a force of good.

On a less grandiose topic however, Luna couldn’t help but ponder how close this was to when Celestia recruited Twilight before she returned. Princess Luna chuckled to herself internally as she had a spring in her step.

-Well, if dear sister can manage a school and one personal pupil; guess I always wanted to try my fare myself! Starlight, Student of the Moon; it fits already!-

=========================

Sunset Shimmer was so out of the loop as to what was going on and how she got back to Equestria she didn’t know who she could expect to want to see her. This world’s Rarity to check in on her? Some authority asking if she could help in some investigation? Maybe even Twilight given she was just about the only pony who knew who Sunset Shimmer was, or cared…

But when it was Princess Celestia who stepped through the door she couldn’t help but be dumbstruck. When the alicorn and unicorn locked eyes there was a long silence in voice and conversation expression. Celestia was unmoved, holding firm in a neutral expression that belied nothing. Sunset tried to look back at her but slowly her brow begin to turn upwards and her lips turned downwards. Celestia tilted her head slightly with oh so subtle frown forming on her muzzle, Sunset quivered and shrugged her head down. Both felt a strong pressure on their chests, the origin of which was both the same and different. The overly ambitious student who had seen herself above any other because of a sense of power, a negligent teacher who hadn’t taken caution to teach her student about what that power entailed. In a way, two failures reunited.

Princess Celestia dipped her head down slightly and started to advance forward at a glacial pace. With each step, the quivering and stinging tears in Sunset’s eyes grew. The pressure and clamping in her chest were too strong to speak coherently.

“Prin-ia.. I… I! Can’t… I’m- Sorry I!-”, she spat out, trying to say three sentences at once and failing every single one of them.

Princess Celestia paused before spreading her wings slowly and braced. Sunset Shimmer was in a whirlwind freefall of emotion and unable to act coherently. She could only slam her eyes shut and flinch when she saw the alicorn lunge forward.

The entire world around Sunset Shimmer went fuzzy for a while. She was unable to truly sense and feel it, as though she was in a dream. The haze in her mind was slowly ebbed away by a soft hum. Her senses found more stimuli. Extremely soft warmth was wrapped around her even as she marred it with tears and spit. There was a nuzzling from a kind muzzle on her forehead as a limb wrapped around her. The humming was coming from Celestia, a soothing melody she remembered from the back of her mind. Where she learned it was unknown, but it was so placating, sounding almost like windchimes in a gentle breeze.

Princess Celestia pulled back and looked down at the comparatively little unicorn she held. Her own glistening eyes were soon accompanied by the warmest smile Sunset had ever seen in memory as the alicorn used the edge of her hoof to brush away Sunset Shimmer’s tears.

“Sunset, are you alright?....”

Sunset Shimmer felt weak, leaning in close and resting her head on Princess Celestia’s collar.

“W-Why would you worry?! After I-”

Princess Celestia muttered a single word in a tone only a flabbergasted mother would use, “Sunset.”

The hug around Sunset Shimmer tightened very slightly, “I’ve always worried about you.. And how I could have done better…”

Sunset Shimmer blinked, her expression turning aghast. She pushed against Celestia very slightly, not feeling worthy of the embrace.

“N-No! Y-you did great!”, she cried while helplessly pushing against Celestia’s forelimb in a contest between an untrained and not very athletic unicorn against the most powerful alicorn in existence who was at the peak possible strength for an earth pony.

Sunset Shimmer sniffled, “I was, I was the idiot who messed it all up! I was so jealous after Cadance was ascended that I couldn’t take it, I got so jealous I-”

Her eyes crammed shut and she started to curl up weakly, remembering the intense envy and shattered pride she’d felt when Celestia discovered her “niece”. The thought that she, Celestia’s own pupil, didn’t become the first alicorn ascended from a normal pony was bad enough. But finding out that it was some random pony from out in the country who had never taken a day of magic class when she had been studying it for years? That had destroyed Sunset’s worldview. It ramped up everything that was bad about her and she had been regretting it ever since because of all the trouble she ended up causing others both in Equestria and the human world.

“I messed up so much…”, she cried into Celestia’s chest.

The spite at a young alicorn just trying to help her, the terror she wrought where she went.

Her classmates, her fellow pony, the denizens of high school who took her in, the relationship she used and abused before he cut it off, the teacher she once idolized more than anything else in the world? She could have had so much and saved so many so much pain, but that didn’t happen. All spiraling out because of a spoiled brat’s broken pride…

“... and I kept doing it.”

Her defeated tone echoed through the room before Celestia brushed Sunsets mane out of her face.

“But you didn’t do it this time, and you clearly did not enjoy the last time… Sunset, look at me,” Celestia muttered in a calm tone.

Sunset Shimmer looked up and listened, sniffling as she did to avoid her runny nose.

“Rarity told me about what happened. That... entity that covered you, that came through with another monster. You had no control. You’re not responsible for anything it did through you. Known or unknown.”

Sunset Shimmer winced, relenting that her teacher thought she was grieving over an apparent mind control incident whereas in actuality she was remembering and grieving over every timea greedy, envious, controlling witch named Sunset Shimmer was consciously causing problems.

“N-No! Not just that! I chose to steal the Element! I chose to lord over a whole school!”, she gasped and threw her hooves up into the air,”I turned into a she-demon at a dance!”

Princess Celestia chuckled, knowing she had to get some levity to the conversation.

“My my,” she shook her head, “if you’re a demon of the dance I’ll have to ask Twilight to take lessons from you then. Poor girl can’t dance to save her life!”

“I’m serious!”, Sunset Shimmer bellowed, “If I became an alicorn I’d have been the next Nightmare Moon! I could hav-”

She stopped after she snapped and hyperventilated when she saw the look on Princess Celestia’s face. The alicorn of the sun, often seen as a paragon of strength, beauty, wisdom, and grace across the entire species and beyond; was morously frowning and looking off to the side in a defeated manner. Sunset Shimmer slowed her breathing and rubbed her forelimb with her hoof awkwardly, having realized her mentor was trying to lighten the mood and keep her from having a breakdown. There had been enough gloom between them as of late.

Princess Celestia sighed and whispered, “And what have you done after?”

Sunset Shimmer was silent, gulping down a lump in her throat. Princess Celestia drew in a breath and repeated herself a touch more authoritatively.

“Sunset Shimmer, what have you done after?”

Sunset Shimmer collected her memories and recited them.

“... Helped at a farm with Applejack, fell off a horse there… Cheered for Rainbow at a game, nearly fell off the bleachers there. Babysat with Pinkie, fell down catching the baby when she climbed up the refrigerator. Volunteered at Fluttershy’s shelter, took a dive dodging a flying bird. Ran errands for Rarity, the other one…”

“And, what happened there?”

Sunset Shimmer looked aside with a slight blush on her face, “Escalators, several rolls of fabric, gravity, and my feet don’t mix.”

She felt Celestia’s breath hitch, knowing it was a contained snicker she shared.

“Anything else you been up to?”

Sunset Shimmer shrugged her shoulders, “... Got a job at a sushi spot. Kelp wraps are good, but the tilapia fish still smells weird to me.”

Princess Celestia grunted, “Hm, I’d bet.”

Sunset Shimmer blinked her eyes and took a deep, long breath; exhaling to vent off all the tension she felt building up. When she did, she realized their position had shifted. Princess Celestia was now sitting on the side of her bed stroking her student’s hair and back as the unicorn partially leaned and partially curled up against her comfortably. Sunset smiled and snuggled in a bit closer, finally relaxing while silently pondering when Celestia had altered their positions when she was distracted talking about her friends.

Princess Celestia paused, “Are you happy there?”

Silence came from Sunset Shimmer she pursed her lips and pondered. Raising an eyebrow, Princess Celestia leaned in a bit closer and whispered to her.

“Would you be happier here? Your room is still there, kept it so.”

Sunset caught her teacher glancing at something out the window and followed her line of sight, spotting the Solar Tower and library at Canterlot Castle. Her old room had been there when she was the student. Sunset Shimmer blinked in mild surprise and perked her ears.

“A-All this time you... you kept it? Why? I thought Twilight Sparkle got it. After all she was the success, I-I’m the failure! An anti-social, control-freaking, bad attitude failure!”

Princess Celestia only raised her brow slightly and tilted her head, “Do you seem like one now?”

Sunset Shimmer remembered more than the bad this time, even if that was fairly common. This time, she focused on what happened after the last fall formal. The contrast was much like day and night.

“Other than failure to not fall down as much…” She muttered and heard a snicker from her teacher.

Princess Celestia put her hoof under Sunset’s chin and and pitched her head back up.

“Failure is temporary to those who make it so,” she explained, “That room was always yours.”

“S-So…”, Sunset Shimmer paused, “I could stay? I’m… not exiled?”

“You never were,” Princess Celestia slowly shook her head, “I just didn’t think you’d want to be back…”

Sunset giggled a teary smile, astounded at what dream she’d woken up into. She was a pony again, she was home and she was welcomed back into a life she’d thrown aside and in many ways still felt she didn’t deserve. The one being she was wanting forgiveness from was literally awaiting her with open hooves! She wanted to shout in glee, jump for joy and embrace Princess Celestia, maybe even run back and see just where she left everything in her room just to experience it all again. Even the thought of having to dust for years worth didn’t give her pause!...But a pair of pink eyes did.

Sunset Shimmer flinched as the faces crossed her memory. Five human women, a kindly boss and job, a school she was determined to make amends with, and a pale figure with purple-white hair and albino eyes Sunset herself named her for. Irys stood in a small crowd of memories, promises and bonds.

“P-Princess… You’re giving me everything I’d have wanted a few months ago,” Sunset Shimmer sniffled and wiped her eyes, “But…”

Swallowing, the unicorn looked up to the perplexed alicorn. Her expression was pained to a degree, but still sported an honest smile.

“I’d like to finish High School first, I have friends to see and promises to keep. Maybe then we’ll see… if the offer still stands…”

Princess Celestia looked over her pupil, unable to fight a slight frown. But the more she gazed upon the composed young mare, the more a proud beam began to emulate from her visage. She leaned forward and nuzzled Sunset’s forehead.

“You have a life there, embrace it. You having friends is what I wanted for you most, Little Sunspot.”

Sunset Shimmer giggled and waved her hoof slightly, “Thanks… The other you there is almost as cool, almost.”

Princess Celestia cocked an eyebrow and rolled her eyes coyly, “Negating the chance that she’s much older than she looks, I’d chalk it up to mostly experience…!”

Her eyes widened when Sunset Shimmer pounced up and wrapped her forelimbs around her collar in a glomping hug. Smirking sweetly, Celestia embraced the unicorn of whom she’d finally made amends, her conscious and worries at ease as she drew her wings over Sunset Shimmer’s back.

“You’ll always be welcome here, Sunset. Always.”

Sunset Shimmer practically purred as she tightened the hug briefly before pulling away and blowing a bang out of her face.

“Thanks Princess, here’s hoping I don’t have to wait four years to see you again.”

She could practically see the light bulb go off in Princess Celestia’s head as the alicorn tapped at her white chin.

“Weeeell, maybe not see per say, but there is something that might help. Sunset, would you enjoy accompanying me to the museum?”

Wiping off the rest of her face to look more composed and restraining her jubilancy at what sort of wonder the alicorn had on the brain, Sunset Shimmer nodded rapidly.

====================

“So, been waiting for several minutes and you haven’t said anything. Still waiting?”

Blade Dancer flinched at Godzilla Junior’s question but sighed, knowing she couldn’t keep dodging this forever.

“Remember, last time we met?”, She whispered.

Godzilla Junior paused but slowly nodded.

“You… got between me and Xenilla, told me everything he had really been up to…”, He muttered with no small part of regret in his tone.

Blade Dancer gulped and continued.

“I fear…”, she shivered, “I might have made a knee jerk reaction spilling things out like that. Telling you what was going on the way I did and when I did, I mean.”

Godzilla Junior raised up slightly with a cocked eyebrow, glancing over to Xenilla to silently ask if he knew anything about what she was going on about. Xenilla only shook his head. Junior looked back to Blade Dancer and furrowed his brow.

“Colonel Dancer, you do know it was something I had to hear eventually right?”

Blade Dancer flinched and curled her lip back, “I know that! It’s not what I said that’s been stressing me out but why and when I chose to say it!”

She shot up from her seat and into the air on beating wings, pointing a hoof at Xenilla as she hovered.

“You’d given up after he stopped attacking you and the fairies were present!”, she took only a moment to breathe before pointing at the other brother, “and you were still ready to kill him after the situation calmed down!”

“And then this moron bum rushed the situation! Not only did I stop trusting either of you two to act like mature adults, but my blabbering it all out rather than wait for things to settle down more could have just added fuel to the fire!”, Blade Dancer shouted as she smacked her hoof across her heaving chest.

Realizing she’d snapped, she took several long labored breaths before lowering back down to her seat and restraining herself.

“I just wanted it to end and acted on emotion, not logic. Can you imagine how many ways I could have made it worse or tried to play it better?”

“...Such as?”, Junior muttered.

“Trying to get the Princesses to mediate?”

“He wouldn’t agree,” Xenilla muttered.

Junior didn’t disagree and spoke directly after his brother, “I wouldn't agree to meet with how I was.”

Blade Dancer winced, “Waiting until everything was calmed down?”

“You said it yourself, and you were right. I was on a warpath even if I didn’t act on it at that very moment.”

“Moments waited were moments of risk.”

Blade Dancer furrowed her brow in frustration, “Getting Lea and the faeries involved? And before you say anything! Think of how many ways it could’ve gone wrong with what I did! Can’t you two get angry at me for five seconds because of how I could have botched all this and didn’t trust you all to fix it yourselves, like you did?! I just.. I just think of the risks and…-Gah, I could hav-”

“BLADE DANCER!”, both brothers yelled in unison and finally got Blade Dancer to stop.

Protracted silence carried between the three of them in an air of stillness and cold. Just the ticking of the clock and distant voices from the rest of the hospital. Blade Dancer felt their eyes upon her and looked to see Xenilla’s gaze. He frowned and shrugged.

“We all take risks, no one knows that more than me. I’ve done a lot of things I regret, and they were wrong. Junior had every right to hate me.”

Godzilla Junior closed his eyes in solemn quiet. A flare of different emotions came upon him, some sad and many angry. Some of them wanted to point themselves at his sibling directly before he consciously decided to push them aside. The difference between forgiving and forgetting was that with the former, you remembered all the pain but chose not to act on it. At least the latter has blissful ignorance.

With a deep exhale Junior followed up on Xenilla’s word, “And don’t think I didn’t make things impossible either. I’m different than my father in many ways, but alike in others. Takes a lot to get under my skin, but if something takes deep roots it would take more than me thinking I was wrong that one time to think otherwise… You saw me explode over one misunderstanding and it took three alicorns and seventy thousand year old faeries in the right place and time to stop me. What about when it happened again with the mindset I had?”

Frustration and shame bore heavy on the monster king’s tone. Blade Dancer glanced worriedly at Xenilla, seeing his face growing sullen before a shrug. She soon found herself gazing to the ground with a tightened grip on the chair as she could begin to guess what Junior was implying. A warmth nudged Blade Dancer’s shoulder and she lifted her ear.

“But… it all worked out in the end though.”

“But what about all the stupid risks I took? Can’t somepony be upset about that? I feel like I gambled lives here… ! And that scares me a lot, I became a guard to prevent those sorts of things,” she whispered, still feeling sick to her stomach after realizing all the danger she’d tightroped in the past with one spur of the moment reveal.

Xenilla sighed and spoke up, “Blades, look at me.”

Slowly she gave him her eye and ear, glancing over without raising her head and looking to him through her drooping bangs.

“We’re our own worst critics. Tanaka knows I hate what I’ve done before. But if you were using too much emotion then you’re not using enough now. You seem to have forgotten your own lesson you showed me... Logic, emotion, especially love; they’re not opposites,” he rolled his eyes.

“Having a drive of emotion to convince you to act can make you seek a logical course of action to give it the best chance at seeing it through. No emotion means you just give up on it like I did. You however? You did what you did because it was needed, no matter what source it had,” he quipped with a slight glow in his face as he gazed upon her gratefully.

Blade Dancer rose back up slightly, still feeling weighed down to a degree, “And what about all the other ways we could have tried to end the conflict without me butting in or not letting you two have a say in it?”

“As the Captain of the Guard says,” Junior shrugged, “Could-have or Would-have aren’t the same as ‘did’.”

“He’s right. We’ll never know what those other options could have done, but to be honest any of them could have gone wrong anyways so we should just be happy the one taken didn’t.”

Junior nodded, “And he’s not lying. Trust me, I have enough fretting about what “will” happen to worry much with what “could have” happened. I was on a warpath even after the faeries cleared up the misunderstanding. I was thoroughly convinced Xenilla would show what I thought was his true colors ever since we got here and I’d have to put him down…”

He paused, glancing over to Xenilla with a raised brow,“No offense.”

Xenilla just closed his eyes, crossed his forelimbs, and astutely nodded almost like he was as proud as he was resigned to his brother’s conviction despite the subject matter, “None such offense to be had. I expected you to.”

“Point is,” Junior noted as he looked back to Blade Dancer and saw he had her full attention through worried eyes, “Even if I was wrong when I thought it was the time I predicted he’d go rogue and I’d have to put him down, I’d still been on a hair trigger. If you want worry about anything, think about all the ways this could've gone tragically worse if I didn’t know the full picture as soon as possible…”

Blade Dancer mulled through the thoughts as she drooped down slightly, entertaining the possible outcomes and dreading each of them. Junior shrugged his shoulders.

“Look, impulsive, risky, likely emotional or not; I’m happy you did it… I don’t want to think of what I might have done, what I might have lost. What I might find myself regretting in hindsight if I lost my brother to my own wrath.”

Blade Dancer’s ears shot up at the word “brother”. Her eyes dilated and she shot back up. If seeing the two neutral in each other’s presence was shocking enough, hearing Junior say that one word; the one word Xenilla swore up and down when they were in the Empire and beyond he’d never call him, was flabbergasting. She could only slowly widen her gaze in utter surprise as she witnessed it all.

Xenilla cast her a warm smile before rolling his eyes and daring to tap Junior on the shoulder, “We’re a stubborn family, Blades. Just as he was stubbornly convinced how I was, I was stubbornly convinced I could never atone or be forgiven.”

Junior actually smiled, Blade Dancer observed, he smiled at Xenilla and shrugged casually before looking back at her, “We needed somebody to break the ice and our sister isn't present to give us the kick in the tail to do it. Could have been someone else to do it under calmer circumstances? Maybe. But we all make mistakes or take risks. We just make sure to not make a habit of doing it.”

“Or else you become very acquainted with the hospital,” Xenilla deadpanned, “-like I am.”

The sight of Godzilla Junior, someone she still vividly remembered trying his damndest to kill Xenilla with utter spite and wrath at a wrongdoing done to him, laughing and playfully swatting his sibling was surreal. She sat by in a stunned manner, watching the two bicker and tease at one another in black comedy.

-They’re.. They’re laughing together. He called him brother..They seem like a…-

The brothers still had a lot to get through, old wounds to close and an atonement to be made; but they just seemed too happy at the prospect of having a brother to care about details. A tiny smile quivered across her maw.

“You both forgive me for not trusting you both?”

Junior nodded, “If you need it. Desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures.”

“Every risk has consequences, not always bad. Someone, somepony had to break the boundaries,” Xenilla added in before being overcome with residual chuckles.

Before Blade Dancer’s smile could widen, Junior groaned and spoke with a slight coyness in his tone as he raised an eyebrow at the mare.

“You never did have many boundaries to begin with, you did break into my bedroom and laid in my bed all night.”

Xenilla’s chuckles ceased and Blade Dancer turned a bit red in the face. One could practically hear the older brothers neck bones grinding against each other like a creaking door as it turned towards Junior.

“... Excuse me?”

Junior glanced towards him, now knowing what it felt like from the other side when some of his guard friends misunderstood what he said first started out. Though he was quite curious why he was getting this sort of reaction from Xenilla.

“Not what you’d think, Icka’brod.”

Blade Dancer kept her head and raised her hoof before punching herself in the gut with a loud clang. Both brothers jolted up in surprise, Xenilla nearly figuratively and literally levitated out of his bed. The mare winced and coughed a few times, before she melted into an unsteady chuckle. After coughing a few times, she rose back up with laughing elation on her face. Pausing to sniffle and flick a bang out of her face, the old Blade Dancer brand of confident playfulness returned to her speech.

“Agk!... Sorry boys, just wanted to make sure I wasn’t dreaming!”

=====================

Sunset Shimmer gave her surroundings some vital glances as Princess Celestia led her through the Canterlot Museum. The latter had been filling her in further on any of the known details as to what had been going on since Twilight Sparkle’s trip to the human realm, from the friendship lessons all the way up to the kaiju arrival and beyond. Sunset Shimmer could admit to feeling pale in the face after hearing what all happened the last two days.

“And that’s all we know regarding what has happened until now. Your arrival coincided with that of “King Ghidorah” when he emerged from a portal, so we suspect he had something to do with your possession.”

The word portal caught her attention, causing her mind trail back to that bizarre happening in Everfree National Park with Irys’ group. How they left through just such a portal and, judging from what she had heard as well of the giant handprint she saw on what had been a battlefield of some sort, the fact that the group were also very likely kaiju as well. Irys’ words rang through her memory, recollection of her friend trying to warn her about other kaiju.

-”We’re not all on the same team.”-

Sunset Shimmer puzzled.

-They used a similar type of portal to King Ghidorah, does that mean they were on the same team? Or does that mean they’re on the same team as King Godzilla and company against Ghidorah?-

An uneasy pit formed in her stomach, unsure and trying to rationalize it. She had no clear answer, though some details didn’t hesitate to speak up.

-Irys was surrounded by humans and never hurt anyone. And that X person seemed to have destroyed what was attacking the area with that Aria woman, something that clearly had the others freaked out… Y-Yes, they must not be allies to that Ghidorah monstrosity! With how Celestia talks of it, Irys could never be its ally...-

She shook her head, still unsure and not certain if she was just lying to herself for convenience. She was about to say something, maybe an inquiry to Celestia to ask a little bit more details to try and sort things out, when she found herself in the shadow of a giant skeleton she didn’t recognize. Sunset paused in her step and slowly looked up, realizing the shadow was not coming from the skeleton, but just its carriage sized head. Looming above her was an enormous, 30 meter tall form with wings that stretched across the long hall. The bones vaguely resembled a bat of some kind, but the skull was much more reinforced and sported an arrowhead shape pointed plate on the cap. The teeth were practically as long as her limb and left no illusion as to if this creature was a carnivore or not. Sunset Shimmer stammered, dumbfounded as to the identification. It was the size of the dragon, and some dragons could get even bigger, but it didn’t look right at all.

“What in the name of…”, she muttered breathlessly and spurred Celestia to pause.

The alicorn walked back over to her student, gazing up at the towering figure.

“A gyaos. New addition, I consider it a bit grisly but the Research Society wanted to put it on display for easier access and the court nobles and mayor committee thought it’d be a good morale boost since these creatures terrified the city so much that fateful night. They came to eat the populace.”

“S-So, this is one of the creatures that King Godzilla and Princess Lea fought off?”

“The same, though they could get a lot bigger than this and there were dozens of them. Most terrifying feature however were their piercing rays that they emitted with their screams.”

Sunset Shimmer paled when she heard mention of the attack method. A ‘piercing ray they emitted with their screams’ was sounding very familiar. She masked the confusion and horror filtering through her mind in a neutral voice.

“Y-you said there were dozens, were they all captured or destroyed?”

Princess Celestia frowned, both for the uncertain matter of the subject and the grizzly realizations investigation brought.

“Several got away, along with the albino alpha. We suspect she finished off the flock when they turned on her because we found several bodies in Whitetail Woods that were cleaved in two. Mothra Lea informed us gyaos are often cannibals if they see an injured and the albino was.”

Sunset Shimmer’s mind clung to the description of the attack, recalling when Irys surprised her so much when she sliced Ms. Adagio’s van open. The knowledge that the gyaos, whom she had only heard of in vague description, having such an ability and were led by an albino leader was causing her mind to spiral. Her breath became strained and she lowered her head slightly.

“Did… did the albino… kill anypony?”, she whispered with dread coursing through her mind.

Princess Celestia was not blind to Sunset Shimmer’s turmoil. Something was clearly wrong and on her mind that she wasn’t being vocal about. To a great extent she wanted to inquire more directly about what was wrong, but she gave herself some pause.

-Just act calmly Celestia, if she wants to tell you what’s wrong she will. If you two have made amends, trust is a two-way street. If something dangerous was at hoof, you have to trust her that she would tell you.-

She sighed and gave Sunset her answer with the hopes that maybe that would help calm her some, “No. She didn’t participate in the Canterlot attack, Lea and Twilight repelled her and the flock came on its own.”

Sunset Shimmer nodded and went quiet, clearly mulling over her thoughts. She might’ve been about to say something, but she was stopped when she saw the burn marks on the gyaos’ bones; char no doubt from Godzilla’s plasma beams. Irys’ face flashed before her vision in context to the burns that meant death, and her words on the subject died.

Sunset sighed, “Well, that’s fortunate then! Let’s hope nopony gets hurt in all this.”

“Quite…”, The temptation to try and inquire further was nearly overpowering Celestia, but will to give allowances in a show of restored faith was even stronger.

She couldn’t go about prodding into Sunset Shimmer uncomfortably if she was trying to assure the unicorn that she had faith in her.

“Well, shall we resume?”

“Oh, yes! S-sorry, back to business Princess!”, Sunset Shimmer chirped as she trotted up behind the alicorn and waving her teacher off to assure her it was okay.

She resumed following Celestia through the museum as she and her mentor spoke plainly about events in Equestria, leaving the gyaos skeleton behind. But in the depths of her mind, she couldn’t dislodge Irys’ face from the burned gyaos skeleton. She had assumed her new friend came from an abusive family she had run away from, in some ways she was thinking she might’ve been right on the money for all the terribly wrong reasons; at least until Irys grouped with the current cohorts. But, there would have to be some very big questions for someone next time they met…

After ten more minutes of walking in idle chit chat, Princess Celestia led them to the archives.

“And that’s how things are at school right now. The girls are helping me get suited in again, and the general student body doesn’t really know what to make of me,” Sunset paused as she glanced off to the side with an obvious look of strain.

“Flash Sentry avoids or is awkward around me unless the others are around, Applejack mentioned he brought my lack of presence up a few times when I’m not with them that day; so I have no clue what’s up with him.” she sighed with a frown.

Princess Celestia shared the expression, “I know of his counterpart here, what’s his human version’s ties to you?”

Sunset Shimmer’s bit her lip slightly, “First one I met across the mirror, helped me get on my feet, literally. Then, when I made a grab for popularity later we dated.”

“Really now?”

The alicorn raised a curious eyebrow at the unicorn whom seemed to be flushing slightly, though she couldn’t tell if it was because she just admitted to the Princess she dated an alien, not that Celestia would have objected given her nudgings of Luna and Junior together, or if it was for other reasons.

“Though, you used past tense there.”

Sunset Shimmer pursed her lips, “Break up of sorts a year ago… I... got walked off after the fall formal before Twilight showed up.”

She swallowed a rock in her throat and let her ears drop, momentarily wincing from a prick of recollection she didn’t enjoy, “I don’t blame him really, I caught him trying to help that world's Rarity in the competition.”

Princess Celestia shared the expression as she laid an instructional wing over Sunset Shimmer’s back, “And you are certain you wish to stay there?”

Sunset Shimmer picked herself back up, took a deep breath, and nodded, “If I made this kind of mess, lots of messes... I want to try and fix it. Staying gives me the opportunity to.”

Seeing her student keep her chin up gave Celestia a small smile out of selfless pride as she nodded back. Turning her head back towards the bookshelf in the archive before her, her magic hummed to life and drew up two hidden old books stashed away in the back of the shelf.

“On a happier note then,” she chimed as she brought the books closer.

Sunset Shimmer furrowed her brow when the books got brought up her.

“Two of your record tomes, Princess? They look ancient.”

“They are,” Celestia noted as she opened one of them and drew up a pen from a desk nearby, “Though these two I never used much, and since it’s born from my magic each has its own magical aura. It’ll work even across the mirror, Starswirl and I tested it long ago.”

Turning one or two pages of scribbles and odd, esoteric notations that curiously appeared copied on both tomes, to a blank sheet of parchment visible on both books; Princess Celestia brought the pen to the page and wrote what she said word for word.

“We’re still investigating the entity that possessed you. Much has changed in Equestria these past few months, things I’d like for you to be informed of before you return. But should anything strange happen across the mirror or you just want to talk,-”

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widened as the message appeared in tandem on the other book like the ink was writing itself.

“-this will let you reach me for help. And Sunset, never hesitate to write even if it’s not an emergency. You have been missed... Your teacher, Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor.”

Princess Celestia finished writing and looked to Sunset Shimmer. The unicorn carefully regarded the tomes as one levitated closer to her in offering, then looked into the reassuring beaming of the alicorn. Her heart warmed and she graciously took the tome into her forelimbs.

“..I-I don’t deserve this, but I’m never letting go.”

===========================

Junior groaned at the latest antics of his current guest trying to push a vitamin-rich meal into him, “Yare-yare…”

Chibi Moon puffed out her cheeks and pouted, bringing up several colorful fruit.

“Oh don’t you yare yare me Sensei! You fibbed to me about how dangerous that Ghidorah was and I’m gonna make sure you recover from it!”, she barked as she levitated several of them into Junior’s face to try to force them into his mouth.

Godzilla just rolled his eyes and closed them as he pushed the fruit away, “Chibi we’ve been over this. I don’t need to eat. It’s nice but this will just complicate things.”

“Then why bring me to that pub the night you made me your student?”, the little unicorn snipped as she crossed her hooves whilst sitting on her teacher’s bedside.

Junior let out a long sigh, rubbing the side of his head, “That was for you mostly. I get my power from radiation. I just need sunligh-”

He was cut off by a click and an illumination coming over his face. Pausing, he opened his eyes and looked up to see a full spectrum lamp like one would have for their pet lizard attached to the bed railing above his head. He glanced down to see a smug smirk on his student’s face.

“You were saying Sensei?...”

To this he could only sigh, a tiny flicker of warmth in his chest ensuing as he reached over and patted her on the head. Chibi mewled and rolled her scalp into his hoof in a way that risked adding insulin shots to his hospital list. The amount of radiation the lamp generated was pitiful, not really having any effect; but the gesture was kind enough.

“Arigatou, Chibi-chan.” (Thank you)

Chibi Moon pulled free of his hoof and crawled up the side of his bed to wrap her hooves around his neck as gently as she could. After all the nightmares she’d been through recently, a calm moment with someone she felt safe around was what she needed. Someone had to make sure he didn’t go gallivanting off to nearly get killed again when Princess Lea and, more importantly to Chibi, Luna wasn’t around! She rubbed her cheek against his collar while her tail wagged.

She spoke into his neck, holding on to him, “Le-ie, Gojira-Sensei.” (No problem)

She gradually let go and plopped down on her rump at the side of the bed, pouting slightly.

“Sensei?”

Junior raised his eyebrow and tilted his head, giving her a nonverbal go ahead to ask what was on her mind.

“...Can I do my homework here? Mr. Sentry offered to walk me back to school but…”

Her twintail mane and eyes drooped slightly, not finishing the sentence but making it very clear what her intent was. Junior paused for a moment before chuckling, shifting to sit up some more and give her a bit more space.

“You’re my student aren’t you? You’re supposed to learn how to control your power and use it well, I’d want you know as much as you can even if it's not directly from me,” the edges of his lips curled up slightly more, “and since you said you wanted to teach me some magic later, maybe you can show me some of the ropes along the way?”

Chibi Moon blinked for a few moments before her eyes and mouth shot open a beaming grin. Speaking at a mile a minute as she got out some of her papers and pencils, the King of the Monsters shook his head slowly as he reached over and brought over some coffee for her to down and hopefully slow down with it.

-Hehehe, Kids…-

With his student fully focused on her studies, an off sound peeked Junior’s interest. Raising an ear to the direction, he noticed it was coming from Xenilla’s side of the room across from the drawn curtain. Junior tilted his head, having just now noticed the curtain was drawn over due to being distracted by Chibi’s entry. He heard it again, this time sounding like a tiny mewl or moan. After a moment of awkward glancing to make sure that there wasn’t an answer, he leaned over and peeled back the curtain just enough to be able to see around it to either figure out himself or ask what was going on.

He froze when he saw quite the eye-full.

It turned out he didn’t miss Blade Dancer exiting the room after all, she was still there and on top of Xenilla. They were curled up against each other, asleep with Xenilla’s head atop her’s. There was a very content smile on Xenilla’s face as he slept, shifting just slightly enough to rub one of his hooves along her flank absentmindedly. The result was the source of the noises, Blade Dancer making quiet, almost kitten-like mewls as she snuggled up to him to enjoy the high body temperatures both brothers had. If, in his rest, Xenilla moved around she’d moan in protest and unconsciously chase him over the bed until she was directly on top of him.

Junior just stared at it with a deadpan expression, eyes wide and jaw flat in bewilderment. He closed the curtain and stared at the ceiling, completely befuddled.

Chibi Moon looked up from her notes and nudged him with her hoof, “Something wrong, Sensei?”

Junior remained in the exact same position as his mind tried to catch up to what he just saw. He knew Blade Dancer had been around Xenilla in the Crystal Empire, and she cared enough about his brother to stare Junior himself down in his defense. But this? Them practically holding each other in their sleep with Xenilla obviously enjoying it and not protesting her curling up with him? That caught him off guard and his mind was desperately trying to catch up to understand it all.

-... When the Daiei did THIS happen?-

====================

To any passerby, they were just a random pair of mares waiting at the train station. One a young yellow unicorn mare with gold and red hair, the other an older white earth pony with a pink mane. But if any could see past the glamor the latter used so often to move amongst the crowds without much notice, they’d have seen Princess Celestia and Sunset Shimmer sat side-by-side at the train station bench before the stop leading back to the Crystal Empire, Sunset with the magical tome in her saddlebags.

“Now, since it seems that there’s some odd goings-on across the mirror I could arrange for one of the kaiju to accompany you back to the human world and investigate. … Would you feel safer with that…? I... know some things must have been happening over there,” Princess Celestia muttered with some concerned hesitation.

Sunset Shimmer let the thought drift over her for a moment, before shaking her head.

“I won’t lie, some weird things are up and happening there, but they seem to have their way of sorting themselves out. Equestria needs all the help and defense it can get right now, especially if these monsters are attracted to magic. It’d make much more sense for any of them to cause trouble here than there. Between you and Princess Luna, a pregnant Princess Cadance and the Crystal Heart, and the Element Bearers all being potential magnets for them; I’d want all of our strong allies who know what they’re up against here.”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips before frowning and glancing down at the unicorn, “Sunset, you were just attacked though. Possessed. Are you sure you wouldn’t like me to request one of the six kaiju to maybe accompany you for a while, just to make sure it’s safe?”

Her worry was palpable and it was hard for Sunset to shake her head at her mentor’s frown, “And what did it was destroyed. Princess, give me this chance to investigate what’s going on back there... I have to… I need this chance to do something to atone for what I’ve done in the past.”

Sunset put a hoof to her heart as dim memories of rejected mentors, exploited trust and goodwill, deserved breakups, and literal she-demons rang through her head. She sighed and looked back to the alicorn.

“So, let me by allowing me to keep a vigil. And if something goes wrong again and I know it’s out of the ordinary? I’ll contact you at the first sign of trouble I can’t handle, or arrange for someone else to write in this book to call for help. Life’s promise!”

In addition to the memories of the poor choices, she recalled something else. The face of a pale skinned girl with beautiful pink irises, flanked by three odd men whom weren’t men. It briefly overlayed the gyaos skeleton, the char marks around the eyespots intermixing with the sight of Irys’ namesake.

-If Irys came back when the other kaiju was around… No, I have to avoid that.There are some things I need to find out, one of the kaiju might get in the way or scare her off and I won’t get answers… I’m sorry Princ-

Her train of thought was cut off by Celestia’s low tone.

“Sunset, I know there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Princess Celestia’s tone was hollow and hinted with both authority as well as sadness. Sunset snapped back to attention and looked up at her mentor, seeing the alicorn’s face wreathed in shadows. It wasn’t an angered look or a grim one, in fact in many ways it said everything in volume and nothing in detail as she was clearly troubled, concerned, and maybe disappointed all at the same time.

Sunset Shimmer flinched and felt pain in her chest, which she put her hoof to. She bowed her head, knowing it was pointless to lie.

“I’m… sorry, Princess. I’m caught between a bit of a rock and a hard place right now without an easy answer.”

Princess Celestia didn’t raise her head, speaking quietly.

“And did I put you there?”

Now regret joined the ensemble of emotions in her voice, quickly spurring Sunset to shake her head.

“N-No! Like always you’re just helping, guiding.”

Sunset swallowed coarsely and put her hoof to Celestia’s chest as a ray of light crossed her face. She looked to the horizon in time to see the sun beginning to set, it’s glorious beamstrickling between the mountains outside of the city limits. Sunset Shimmer and Celestia admired it together.

“There’s just something I really have to look into myself, for someone’s sake. I-I know we just had this whole trust thing again but-”

Celestia lifted a hoof to silence her momentarily and whispered in an astute pitch, “Is this another friend?”

Sunset Shimmer sighed, “... Yes, yes Princess. I’m her first one it seems.”

She heard the alicorn exhale slowly before a wing was drawn over her back. In the mind of Princess Celestia, she hadn’t felt this proud since Twilight learned her lesson. Perhaps one day, Sunset might be able to draw one into an embrace in such a way with a pair of wings after all.

“Then you’ve learned exactly what I was trying to teach you, for you must help them.”

Sunset Shimmer stammered, having been expecting to at least be chewed out over her secrecy. But it seemed 1,000 years blessed the Princess of the Sun with a patience in others many would find astronomical.

Sunset jolted up and looked to her mentor, “E-Even if it’s all a secret?”

Princess Celestia lowered down to her level and spoke plainly, “Let me be clear. As long as nopony gets hurt and you call if it gets out of hoof, I’ll trust you to keep it and help who you can. Just promise me you’ll let me know the moment anything amiss might happen... I don’t want to lose you again, Sunset.”

The train started to roll into the station and for the first time in a long time, Sunset Shimmer felt total content and relief. She snuggled up to and hugged Princess Celestia’s collar, enjoying how soft and warm the short fur was, a gesture not lost on the passersby who saw her hugging the glamor disguise. She held on until the train doors opened, pulling back and holding her hoof up.

“As Pinkie says,” She began to wave it around before her, “cross my heart, hope to fly-”

To her surprise and amusement, the most powerful pony of all time and regal ruler of the most prosperous kingdom in the realm for a millennium, emulated her student from memory of the Equestrian Pinkie Pie to finish off the promise rhyme. It seemed some things were constant no matter what world.

“-stick a cupcake in my eye!”

==================

Equestria Girls Realm

==================

The announcer’s voice buzzed through a car radio, “And now performing, The Dazzlings!”

Eyes rolled and the cheers went ignored as bored attention was given to the squabbling that had overtaken the once peaceful diner. Seeing the naked apes argue, leer, and cast spite as ice began to fester on the tables and chairs was so dull it was barely worth attention. But there was little else to give any notice towards… at least until they heard it.

Coming through the radio was a female chorus, a lead with two in back-up. The entire diner noticed it as well and seemed to freeze in place as much as their drinks had.

“Loooove is iiin bloooom!”

One by one, those who’d be arguing started to silence their bickering.

“A beautiful- bride, a handsome groooom!”

The glaring turned to confused glances and off chuckles of awkwardness.

“Two hearts be-coooming one!”

And the few who’d just about grabbed something to get physical soon found themselves dropping it and wondering what came over them.

“A bond that cannot be undone because!-”

Three figures scrambled out of the diner as the chorus kicked in and peace returned to the diner. Two men and a woman looked to a direction of a sight far beyond their vision, feeling rather than seeing. They thought they felt something stir months ago, but were too far away to investigate. But now, now they felt it in full. Song magic, Equestrian magic. More specifically a type they were very well familiar with, well acquainted through experience.

A mermare’s melody was the catalyst to wide grins. This had been a long, long time coming.

Gales of chilled wind flew out from the bodies, something invisible flying free of the humans and into the night as their hosts collapsed to the ground. They were but wraiths in this realm, only able to influence those weak of will and already on edge, spreading discourse in spurts like a mild plague, but the story was very different in their realm of origin. A place that magic could return the three of them to.

================

One month later

================

“Right, next time tomorrow girls!”, the Rainbow Dash of the human realm hollered as they left the band practice room.

She waved as the van drove off, Flash Sentry having volunteered to commute the rest of the five. Real nice of him to offer it to them on some of the days Sunset wasn’t present for, though Rainbow always preferred a good night jog home. Stretching her toned arms above her head and cracking her back out, Rainbow smirked in anticipation before turning around to lock up with the keys Principal Celestia lent them for practice nights. That was when she felt a prickling on her neck in the crisp air. Rainbow paused and glanced around the darkened school yards. Between the towering buildings, access ramp, and staircases to carry one to the higher stories, there seemed to be nothing but an occasional moth or fly buzzing around a light.

When she turned around however, the corner of her eye caught movement far off to the street. On the edge of a street light she just barely glimpsed someone stepping off down the road to the east. Rainbow Dash paused, hitching her breath as she watched that spot.

-...Nothing.-

With some reluctance she shrugged and locked up, blowing a bang out of her face.

-Must have been someone with the same idea, no need to.-

She stopped when she heard an extremely faint echo, guiding her eyes back to the east. Something wasn’t right with the nurse’s office. A pinging indicated a stick tumbling off the top and Rainbow Dash’s eyes shot to the roof, quickly locking upon a protrusion on the roof that was shifting slightly. Before she could speculate if it was an opossum or raccoon, it stood up to, as indicated by it towering over the one foot ventilation pipe, a very large height. A head seemed to tilt before it or they jumped down from the roof, hitting the ground and taking a step towards the young woman. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she recognized a sprinter’s brace as it tensed up before a charge.

“Ooooh f*********- no!”, she muttered under her breath before kicking off in the opposite direction, grabbing a handrail and swinging around to get onto the stairwell.

Rolling back to her feet with the pound of approaching footfalls bearing down on her, Rainbow Dash sprinted up the stairs, skillfully kicking off the walls to change direction and keep her speed up. Her pursuer wasn’t far behind, Rainbow glimpsing the dark figure vaulting itself over a railing to cut a corner with almost as much haste. The cyan teen didn’t however just go up rather than run away in a straight shot on impulse however, having gauged the taller pursuer’s stride the first few steps they took and knowing she couldn’t command a strong lead in the fields behind the school to the west. To get away best she could, she’d have to misdirect them. And where better than the spot she’d gotten her most airtime on?

Shooting through her works, Rainbow Dash reached the top of the stairs and jumped off to the right, grabbing the edge of the roof and swinging herself up to it. Sliding up to her feet, she sprinted on the angled tiles and across the classroom building. She took a glance back to reluctantly verify that yes, whomever it was that had the bright idea of chasing a parkour free runner across a building was still chasing her. She could almost grunt begrudgingly on how they kept up till now, but instead just focused on her next maneuver. Spying the gravel-covered lunchroom building ahead and several meters down, Rainbow jumped for it and braced while tucking herself in. If one landed on hard rocks, even loose stones, like her pursuer had when landing on the grass by Nurse Redheart’s office, foot-first with their knees straight they were just begging to break something. Knowing she had just enough of a lead to be unseen on her landing, Rainbow nimbly rolled across the rocks to break her fall and scramble up to her feet and jumping back while turning around.

She smirked when the dark figure reached the edge of the roof, spreading her arms with her palms up as a taunt.

-Alright buster, either you wise up and stop, or you jump while showing off like last time and bust a leg. What’ll it be?-

She raised a brow when they jumped off the roof without much hesitation, bracing herself for the breaking joints and sickening pop when they showed no sign of doing a break roll. Her eyes went from narrowed squeamishly to bursting open when they were about to land foot-first into solid rock… and then inexplicably slowed down in midair. Several stones levitated weightlessly in unison with them, before the invisible force cut off and safely deposited all of them to the roof. The figure stood right up like it was nothing.

Rainbow Dash could have heard a pin drop, but kept her wit, pulled her jaw off the floor, and sprinted for the other side of the roof to jump into some shrubs for cover. Pounding footfalls echoed through her ears, telling her they weren’t far behind; a bigger stride equaling her faster pace.

-Faster…-

Rainbow Dash felt time dilate and her perception grow. She could see everything from a moth buzzing by to a drop of sweat flying off her hand, focusing on a hole in the shrubs she homed in on.

-Must… go faster..-

The pounding of her heartbeat and the stomping on the gravel was tuned out, only her own breath echoed through her mind. A hand reached out to grab onto her hair, scraping over the strands. Rainbow Dash narrowed her eyes and felt a surge she didn’t know nor focused on, just used. A brief spark of blue light radiated around her and she shot ahead in the pursuit, taking several long strides before launching off the rooftop.

Rainbow Dash felt the air rushing past her without her feet on the ground, relishing it. Times like these she wished she could have her wings all the time or at least got them years earlier, for flying felt so natural. She crossed her arms to cover and shield her face from the foliage she was about to crash into.

She stopped. Not by impact, pull, or fall. Just stopped. Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes and looked back as time seemed to slowly wind back up to speed with her perception coming off its rush. She was floating in midair, not even a breeze on her face, with wisps of gold coiled around her in a very thin aura. Her hair flowed up and around like she was underwater, droplets of sweat flying free. Rainbow Dash gasped and struggled, trying to get free of whatever was gripping her; but it was useless. She was weightless and held up by nothing physical, resulting in her spiraling and flailing in a set spot. Rotating around, she felt herself getting towed back and heard a strained grunt trailing into a growl. A strong grip snatched up her shirt and shoulder, hoisting her off the ground just as the weightlessness of altered gravity left her, Rainbow Dash soon finding herself staring into a golden glow slithered out of blood red eyes.

Before she could comprehend just what happened, she was whipped around and shoved into the gravel with a white mask staring her in the face. Rainbow winced and kicked at their side, but only landed one hit before her legs got grabbed and pinned.

“I recognize that power, you have Equestrian magic. Listen well,”

Rainbow Dash glared back even through her daze and fear, balling a fist to throw but the force on her shoulder grew in a clear threat. She held her breath and relaxed, the pressure relieving slightly. Message was clear, they were going to talk and she was going to listen, reluctantly.

“Valiant effort, but futile. I can sense where you are. You... and your friends can’t hide. I know now where you all are except the one I need to know. You are going to fix that.”

They loomed in closer, looking her dead in the eye while hovering directly above her. The dim moonlight wreathed pale hair and inky black skin. She took in the features to memory, even catching a glimpse of what looked like a blemish or scar poking out of “Phantom of the Opera’s” eye holes.

“Where is Twilight Sparkle?”

“Wouldn't you like to know?!”, RD spat before she felt a firm retort of increased pressure pressed down into her almost like her weight was being increased by a magnitude.

“I would. Where. Is. She?”

Rainbow winced and pushed back best she could, “This is pointless! She went back to where she came from after dealing with the Fall Formal.”

“You’re lying.”

“Prove it!”

Her captor reached into their cloak and drew out something Rainbow could see clear as day in the moonlight air. A picture, taken from a phone camera likely. It showed Twilight Sparkle, clear as day near what looked like the mall. Same skirt, same top, same draped down hair, without anything from a sweater or glasses to make her look any different from the last time Rainbow Dash saw her at the fall formal. And yet the picture didn’t even need a timestamp to show when it was taken. Rainbow, naturally the most competitive of the band, had taken pains to scope out any competition at the amateur band concerts. She saw and recognized the winter clad figure of a member in the Dazzlings band in frame.

“This is a week old,” the stalker sneered before jamming the picture into the wall beside the young woman.

Rainbow Dash was momentarily agape. That concert had happened almost exactly a week ago, her mom built the attire for one of the bands and the Rainbooms missed it due to a flat tire. Yet, Twilight Sparkle had come back and not told them. A pair of red eyes loomed closer as they narrowed, almost reading her mind.

“You weren’t aware, she didn’t tell you.”

Rainbow flinched and grimaced, pushing back as best she could. Confused or not, she had a principle she absolutely wouldn’t break.

-If Twilight came back and didn’t tell us, she had to have a reason! Maybe something up with the Dazzlings or some other band? Magical freaky-deaky stuff? This guy?! Whatever it was she wouldn’t just dump us!-

The grip on her tightened and so too did her struggle against it. The stalker grumbled, “And despite her actions, you are still so loyal to her.”

Rainbow knew it was more of a statement than a question and smirked assuredly.

“Damn straight freakshow!”

The eyes narrowed and flashed a glow as golden light from the skin bordering them flared. The gravity intensified even greater and forcefully pinned the young woman to the ground.

“Then let's hope your loyalties aren't misplaced…Call Twilight Sparkle. Call or tell anyone else and I’ll know.”

In an instant she was let go, the attacker towering over her with a reddish gleam and gold outline showing through his eyes through the shadows, even if it seemed to fade slightly from before. She almost she thought she saw him shrink slightly.

“Call Twilight Sparkle, and hope she sees you again before I do….”

At the drop of the second they were gone, rustling and footsteps telling her they’d jumped off the roof and ran off. Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr. panted as she lay on the roof staring at the sky, still trying to figure out just what happened and dreading the answer. One way or another, they had a serious problem.

========================

An hour or so later of sprinting through the town, hitching a ride on the back of a night bus, and staying out of sight, Rainbow Dash’s attacker stopped at the treeline’s edge and ran along the clearing just inside it, looping around the perimeter surrounding an isolated house to check their trail and ensure they weren’t being followed. Confident he was alone, Monster X finally took a deep breath and approached the familiar house, walking across a fallen log to cross over a large creek. Walking right up to the front door, Monster X paused at the entrance and placed a palm upon it. Closing his eyes and focusing, the golden outline encircling his eyes trickled with light while the gravity shifted on the other side of the hardwood. A heavy brace put up against the handle he himself insisted on was lifted out of the way, nudged aside by shifting gravitons that canceled its weight for a brief moment. Finished and knowing the sound had roused the occupant, Monster X waited a few moments for the quick pace of footsteps to rush up that preceded the sound of multiple locks being undone.

Adagio Dazzle peeped out the eyespot and breathed a big sigh of relief, opening the door and stepping aside to let him in. Monster X nodded his head and entered, putting the brace back into place as Adagio latched all the locks. Slightly winded from his rush across town, Monster X placed a hand on a countertop as Aria Blaze leaned back on the hallway wall opposite him with Adagio coming up beside her.

“...Well?”, Adagio muttered under her breath, chancing a hope.

Monster X shrugged and shook his head slightly, “Sadly, Twilight Sparkle was not there, but she will be soon.”

Adagio frowned and tilted her head, “Are... you sure of this? Were you seen?”

“Gave her cause to crawl out of wherever she is hiding. And no, stuck to the rooftops when I gave the message.”

Aria Blaze gave a slightly bemused roll of her eyes and her cousin blinked in confusion.

“Rooftops? How or why did you-”

Monster X shrugged, “She started it.”

“-Never mind.”

In unison the three looked down the hall towards the end of the house, roused by the subtle sound of muffled crying and sniffling. All three deflated slightly. Aria cast her gaze off to the corner of the floor, hiding some pain behind crossed arms.

“... I just checked on her, thought she would stay asleep.”

Adagio felt a clenching in her chest.

“Somehow I don’t think asleep or awake matters... I thank you for the help, X. Is there anything else?”

Monster X slowly shook his head and kept his eyes trained on the hallway, “No, go. I’ll keep watch.”

The Adagio Dazzle of last year wouldn’t in a million years have let someone like X be alone with her cousin or invite him into their house. Thankfully the current day Adagio Dazzle, having seen and experienced what she had, would just about only accept someone like X to be alone with her cousin or invite him into their house. Freakshow or not, trust had been earned.

Adagio hurried along towards the sobbing, “Think I’m going to stay in there tonight.”

Aria let the edges of her lips curl downwards even before X’s whisper came over her.

“Is she?...”

“Any better?... No. Same as before.”

Aria sighed and rubbed at her eyes, having been near run ragged. X’s hand patted her shoulder and she felt him draw closer.

“You should rest, I told Adagio I’d keep watch.”

Aria grumbled as X walked away before she could give a retort, the Xilian-kaiju sitting down on the couch facing the door. After several moments of being on the watch he couldn't help but let his mind drift. Sonata Dusk, while not especially close, was a friend; and in addition to that family to Aria. As such his desire to safeguard his allies and Aria naturally extended to her and when he first saw how she was it sparked a fury within him that hadn't quelled. It was fortunate for Rainbow Dash's fate the fusion of Monster X and Kaizer Ghidorah leaned more on the latter.

He shrugged, recalling memories and accounts of others from a month back and melancholy about how stark the change was in the end. He wished to much it hadn't been.

===============

One Month Ago

===============

Deep inside Zenith, a hurried flight across the realm streamed down the halls. Passing eyes caught a glimpse of a trio sprinting on thundering steps and beating wings as they carried a still body to hopefully his salvation. Passing lights above reflected off a single, cracked mechanical eye that refused to light.

Passing illuminations reflected off a motionless, cracked eye lens as the three remaining Dark Hunters ferried the body of their comrade down Zenith’s halls. Sparks and ichors ranging from hydraulic fluid to artificial blood trickled with each step. As they kept their eyes forward in their mad dash for hope, none of them could resist glancing back at Gigan’s body in some desperate hope for a sign. They received none.

To save them time, Kaizer X’s eyes became alight with power to herald the onslaught of a graviton flare far stronger than his normal optic blasts. The spiraling beams shot ahead and burst the wall down, giving them quick entry into their sanctum.

“There! There! There!”, X beckoned as he motioned towards Gigan’s hangar.

The trio hurried over and set Gigan upright, acting quick without a moment to lose.

“Megalon, try to interface with the computer and get the repairs online. Irys help me get him in place!”

“On it!”

Megalon put his eye level to the display screen and let it scan him, the cyborg’s machinery and cybernetics beginning to wirelessly link to the console. Irys and Kaizer X propped Gigan up into the hangar bay and worked on securing the body.

“H-Hey I got it on!”, Megalon yelped as the display screen registered to him.

It seemed this machine custom built from Gigan’s mind was also suited to work for his brother, a considerate gesture they didn’t have time to focus on.

Kaizer X nodded as he helped close the hangar bay arms down with Irys, “Engage anything that seems like it would be for emergency repairs or vitals!”

Megalon’s eyes flickered and he seemed to squint. But sure enough the hanger hummed to life and a diagnostic scan illuminated the screen. All three Hunters held their breath as it surveyed Gigan.

========================

Gigan’s body was propped up in his hanger, the carriage’s arms snapping his broken form into place. The monitors attached to the frame gave no benign message. Only errors, glitches, and signs of failure. Seeing them centered around Gigan’s chest, where the broken off forearm sporting a chainsaw had been impaled through his torso, Monster X felt a cold come over him as he read one of the messages.

“-Heart core compromised, foreign object lodged in core. Imminent failure likely.-”

The data core, the reason the cyborg could survive having his head blown off. He was put in the most heavily armored area of his body for safety, transplanting the majority of his surviving nervous system there to save his life the first time Kaizer mauled him. And now, Kaizer’s actions had managed to cause history to repeat itself. Gigan would be a corpse by now if he was biological, but even as a mechanical being; he was dying. The scar hurt even more.

====================

“No…”

Megalon whispered breathlessly and his eyes begin to spark, tears.

“NO!”

His roar rattled the hall and he took a swing at the infernal display screen that showed his brother’s failing vitals. Circulation was plummeting, muscle systems paralyzed, multiple shattered metallic bones, and a burned out coolant system. But the worst of all was the internals. It was a wise decision by design, be it the cybernetics or whatever genetic hodgepodge that went into making Gigan’s biological parts an emulation of nature, that his head lacked the centralized control organs. It was still important for sensory via vision, smell, and some hearing; but the organic and cybernetic portions that made up Gigan’s nervous system were more distributed; chiefly in his torso and stomach like in some invertebrates. The Nebulan and Xilian designers probably hoped to make it harder for him to be dizzied or potentially killed from a heavy blow to the head by housing the most important parts across the more armored torso and abdomen.

In theory and most practice, not a bad idea. In the instance where Gigan had a chainsaw lodged in his chest that just meant both his heart and neural controls were right in the strike zone. And somewhere along the way, some cords had been cut and plugged by it. The diagnostic readout showed his heart was having trouble pumping and damage to the connectors of nearby neural clusters, his ‘brains’, making it difficult to pinpoint for repairs.

If they pulled the chainsaw out, he’d bleed out before the machines could save him.

If they kept the chainsaw in and kept the wounds plugged, Gigan’s heart would give out and he’d die anyways.

Kaizer X felt like his chest was caving in as Irys caught Megalon’s arm as she tried to quiet the bawling cyborg. He stared at Gigan as his best friend’s lifeless eye stared back at him. The scar on his chest felt like it was on fire and he was glad it did.

This mechanical mercenary, who barely had a request in his life, barely a problem following orders, and had never raised a scythe to those who he called friend. Gigan had been taken apart, put back together, trapped in containment, and freely chosen to carry secrets from his own best friend about the identity of who destroyed most of his original body. And when a threat came to his brother and teammate, he destroyed himself to protect them before throwing away his one and only chance at victory to give his oldest comrade a chance at victory himself. Gigan’s life, his actual life when he wasn’t taking orders from the Nebulans or Xilians, had proven one thing.

A being with a body chiefly made of metal and artificial blood running out of his heart, had proven just how enormous that heart was. Few can boast a greater love, than he who lays down his life for his friends.

Kaizer X’s fists bled from between their fingers.

-No…-

He shook, gravity distorting around him; loose mechanical fluid and broken earth rising off the floor.

-This is not how this ends!-

Kaizer X lifted his arm and outstretched it towards Gigan’s body. Raw power from Kaizer Ghidorah and refined focus from Monster X combined into one task that demanded both. He increased the gravity around Gigan’s heart in extremely precise intervals, gripping inwards to contract and attracting outwards to expand to keep the heart pumping. Technology couldn’t save Gigan, but something else could.

“GO!” Kaizer X roared as he strained, “I’m already exhausted from all that’s happened, I can’t keep this form up forever! Go, get the Master and bring them back here! As fast as you can!”

Irys and Megalon wordlessly stared at what was before them and comprehended his words. The chance, the chance Gigan would live through this after all caused both of their eyes to glimmer. Megalon didn’t care how painful it was to tunnel at high speed with one good drill, he did it. Irys likewise felt a spark travel through her indicated by a brief flash of the runes for the symbol “Eta” appearing across her body, not knowing that she could fly that fast until she found herself dashing towards the center of Zenith.

=====================

Megalon was naïve about many things, mostly on account of not bothering to care much to look into them. Messing your mind with things that didn’t matter just led to fretting about things outside of your control. Some might call him stupid for thinking that sort of way, narrow-mindedness may be another way of thinking about it; but he liked to disagree. Naivete just meant less troubles, in if nothing could be done about fretting about things outside his control; why bother? When life included months, maybe years locked up inside containment tubes; the cyborg brothers went about it in different but equally effective ways. Gigan focused on study, trying to find out as much as he could about anything he could to busy his mind. Always thinking, always pondering. Megalon just took the simple route and avoided thinking about things that troubled him to begin with and redounded to the good to pass his time.

Point to be made, he was naive; but he wasn’t stupid… But right now he almost wished he could reverse that because he knew full well what was going on. He burrowed through the ground of Zenith, going under or in many cases through walls and chambers as he barreled towards the center.

Technology, the very miracle that made he and his brother possible, couldn’t save his only family. Only a god could.

A god.

Of any words he did take time to harp on and ignored, that was one of them. He could pull up the dictionary term of a god, sure. Powerful magical entity with abilities beyond the mortal. But what exactly did that entail? Someone who was just really long lived and pretty really strong? Was Grand King Ghidorah a god then? After all if Ghidorah was stronger than he was, he’d probably seem completely invincible to someone like an Xilian or M Nebulan! But what about him? He was a lot stronger than the little sapients who built him, he even knew he could demolish them like he did elsewhere even if they didn’t want him to. Did that make him a god? He wasn’t quite sure, but he didn’t think so. If being a god was something special, he didn’t feel that way; he felt normal.

But he wasn’t so uncertain of the Master, the “Boss Ball” as he called it. After all Grand King Ghidorah was a lot stronger than he and his friends were, and Megalon saw how the Master floored not only him; but every kaiju in the room! It made him in comparison to the Master feel like what he could only guess a puny little Nebulan felt like in front of himself. A speck in the face of enormity. If there was anything that seemed to be a god in all his travels across the cosmos, Megalon thought his employer seem to fit the description best.

And according to the little he bothered to know, he knew those who served their god asked them for help when they needed it. With his arms already clasped in his drill formation, he could only attempt to pray all the same.

-Please, please if you are a god; can you listen to me?-

Irys sped along above Megalon, flying down the halls at full speed as she felt a massive energy building up ahead. Something was up in the Master’s chamber.

I’ve never had a good boss in my life…. All those tiny bug people, they locked me in a tube for a really, really long time before they ever let me out. You, you’re different!-

Back in the chamber, Kaizer X strained as he maintained a precarious balance between forcing the heart to contract enough to keep the pulse up; and risking applying too much forcing crushing it. The prolonged combat had strained him, both Monster X and Kaizer Ghidorah giving it their all to keep it maintained. Megalon continued to pray.

-You’re different. You let me play, have friends.. have my brother. Please, please don’t let me lose the last one…-

The diagnostics on the hanger flashed, reaching critical levels. Gigan was dying of organ failure. And be it some link of the soul or by silicon circuits, Megalon knew that. Sparks streamed from his eyes.

-You’re a god, r-right? You can do almost anything! S-So when you hired us, you offered to give us what we wanted. I didn’t want anything back then, I already had everything I wanted at the time… But I want something now.-

Megalon felt a mass of energy ahead that seemed to be moving, and he burst out of the ground as he begged and pleaded through his soul.

-Please… Please be what I pray you are…-

He got his answer when he found the throne empty….

===================

Kaizer X gasped and panted, feeling his energy weaken.

“No… NO NO!”, he growled and kept as much focus as he could.

But the kaizer’s energy was slithering away from exhaustion, the gold across his form starting to dampen as he reverted back towards the more stable form of a tired and spent Monster X.

A Monster X whom was alone when the very walls of the chamber were split open. The enormity that intruded in didn’t burst through the obsidian, it didn’t break through it, it walked through it as if it were a liquid. Opened up at their masters’ command. Through the corner of X’s eye he could see it as he fought to keep his best friend alive. It’s enormity exceeded even Grand King Ghidorah’s height, but even that greatness in physical scale was eclipsed by mere presence. It felt like standing before a star, an energy bursting out from the entity and seemed to permeate every atom of the room from the ground to the air. It would make one realize something. Zenith hadn’t become the dominion of a god, it had become a part of that god.

Ever since Bagan had overtaken this realm from the demonic spawn it once sired and ferried, it had alchemically rewritten every fiber of the realm’s making. Every molecule of air, every fragment of the ground, every interlocking piece of the Dark Hunter’s chambers from the recreated cave, forest, and quarry to Gigan’s hanger; existed because Bagan had rewritten the basic elements around them to forge it, taking what had been there and altering it into forms none could imagine.

Monster X dropped to his knee, both from exertion for his friend and a show of loyalty to his master.

Bagan advanced forward, multiple pairs of glowing eyes visible through the haze and distortion abounding its body. It extended a hand, arcs of energy jumping between clawed fingers that aimed directly at the scene before it.

Its plans had not been proceeding as it wished. That would mean alteration and correction.

A rune was carved into the air.

================================

Gigan’s vision flickered and he felt an unfeeling. Like looking through a projection he felt as if he weren't really present in the space around him. So much was glimpsed, too much to process. There was no voice, nothing so clear, but it felt like a presence. Something, some sensation of feeling calling out to him. He liked it, feeling welcomed in a glimpsed starry sanctuary he did not recognize by his various travels across the cosmos. But he felt so at ease he didn’t pay much mind to the unfamiliarity of it all or the fact he somehow was seeing it without his normal heads-up display, even if, to someone like him, that should have been as abnormal as a human seeing in ultraviolet and discovering a new color.

The presence called out again and yet again he couldn’t understand, his consciousness a weightless leaf floating through the harmonious sanctum. While the context was still elusive, he still could not shake the sensation he was being called out to. The sensation warmed, suggesting his thought was right. Was he being reprimanded? A warmth washed over him in a wave as he thought he might have glimpsed a broken… glass walkway drifting past him?

An amicable disagreeance. So, if this was the opposite of a punishment, was he being rewarded for something? Some kind of deed undergone? The sensations and distorted calls almost seemed to wrap around him in an embrace, confirmation of the question. He beheld a bright light just outside of his field of vision, having been floating limp and unable to move other than a drift. The voice seemed to call out one last time, seemingly with more haste then before. Almost to the point of annoyance however, he just couldn’t comprehend what they said. It was like listening to someone in a cavern full of chambers that were all echoing at the same time and effectively making them sound like they were talking over themselves. He would commit one detail to memory though, before his consciousness, spirit, whatever was moving, was pulled away from this place.

The voice sounded like a windchime.

====================

True vision slowly returned to the elder cyborg, finding a stark contrast from the clarity and ease in which he beheld the starlight sanctuary before. This was fuzzy, distorted due to the lack of a focusing lens. Had he been in human form one might reliably classify him as having overly sensitive eyes, beholding too much without a filter to the point it was painful and blurry due to everything from thermal to radiation to normal spectrum viewing all trying to overlay each other. He could just barely make out three sets of reflective shines, logic telling him, given two of them blinked, they were eyes of three individuals… he felt a momentary sense of dread before he recognized they were different colors and nearly give himself a heart attack, thinking it was a Ghidorah.

The view however became more focused as a sheen of familiar red started to climb over his field of view, almost like a broken window putting itself back together piece by piece. Because that is exactly what was happening and his visor was put back together. Gigan felt an enormous, unmeasurable power nearby and though he was too weak to fully behold it, relief washed over him.

He liked his new boss.

Bagan’s taloned fingers glided through the air with the skill of a fine craftsmen, precise movements controlling runes stretched out between the digits with each movement shifting the command. Streams of minerals were broken out of the ground in torrents of pebbles along with gusts of air from the sky, encircling the deity’s arm like a serpent before coursing down to its palm and extending outwards. As they passed through the runes, material was transmuted into the proper building blocks that made up the cyborg’s body; both biological and cybernetic. Exact replications of “Giga-N” metal for plating, nanotube wiring for circuitry, even cells both natural and artificial; everything that went into making the Space Hunter Cyborg.

Bagan stoically observed the trio as they celebrated and embraced, both at the return from near death of their bladed member and the resolution of the turmoil within their other compatriot. The Dark Hunters were among its most loyal enforcers and aides. They were capable in the face of conflict, commendable in respect to their success rate, and cooperative amongst each other; doing exactly as they were told without issue or major distraction. Not many amongst its forces the deity felt confident it could dispatch in groups without infighting, blown cover, or someone neglecting their role. The Anteverse creations lacked their ingenuity, Hedorah and Gaira were marred by being too gluttonous or sadistic to be stealthy, and Legion was locked into a role she couldn’t leave effectively. The group had even managed to surprise Bagan more than once. The power of Kaizer Ghidorah was now stable and no longer a liability like it had been when Bagan dispatched Enjin to take care of it.

While yes, of course that action was done to gain the power for itself and speed along the restoration process; it was also done to ensure the safety and stability of Zenith and its denizens-

Bagan saw Monster X and Gigan crossing forearms, the latter noting the gold ring around his compatriot’s eyes.

-that action for termination no longer seemed needed. The four slowly ended their festivities and turned to their master, in awe of the vast might they could feel permeating through the air. The gyaos seemed momentarily confused, like something was firing off in the back of the Guardian Beast’s mind at feeling such a presence. But evidently, it wasn’t enough to stop her from joining in what happened next. Gigan stepped out of his hanger and, after a moment to test his limbs, dropped down and knelt before Bagan alongside the rest of the team. There was no question as to their loyalty.

https://saurian96.deviantart.com/

Bagan had many reasons for doing as it did, as a deity does. It didn’t have to save Gigan, it could have left him to pass on to the immortal coil like all life would. But it chose to save his life and bring him back from the brink of death. Yes, one could posit it did this to ensure that meddling Harmony didn’t get her hooves upon him. After Gigan’s vast act of friendship enacted some of her magic and got her attention, Bagan could sense that she attempted to reach out to him. Bringing the cyborg back to this realm kept her away and from interfering, thus had a fully pragmatic reason. But there was another reason.

Bagan wasn’t evil, just doing as necessary. All lives would have to be saved from this coil eventually, but it had waited 70,000 years to be free. It waited over 4 billion for civilization to come to Terra. It could afford to wait for the natural end for those whom had proven so loyal. Impatience was unbecoming of a deity. Call it fondness, call it mutual loyalty, call it graciousness towards followers or pragmatism for its best soldiers; no one really knows what a god wants.

Bagan turned and walked back through its realm to return to the throne’s chamber. Monster X and his team just watched on in pride and joy towards their master.

===============

Monster X absentmindedly shook his head. It had all seemed so much happier then. For one of the few times in his life everything was well. His friends were all together and alive, he'd finally resolved the turmoil within his mind to fully claim his identity, and he'd gained the greatest master he could ever have asked for. He accepted a scouting mission to the human realm in a heartbeat when it came, only to find what awaited for him on the other side. In the present he hadn't noticed a siren narrowed her eyes and march after him, seating herself alongside the xilian. He finally did notice when she punched him in the shoulder. X tilted his head towards Aria and raised his brow.

"You're thinking about something," she muttered and pointed to his cheek, "You get a line just below your eye when you're thinking."

"Observant," he grunted.

Aria just shrugged, "Only part of your face I could see for the longest time, had to pay attention... You still didn't tell me anything."

Monster X took in a deep breath and held it, cast a glance towards the back room, "A month ago I realized what it felt to have a friend almost be lost. When it didn't come true it was one of the greatest moments of my life."

Aria's lips drooped, "And then you come here."

"Can you imagine elation I felt at being able to return, and to just search for something not you three?.. Then I find out what happened."

Aria said nothing as she absentmindedly put her hand over her siren heart.

"Awhile back we were doing pretty good for ourselves to. New song, new outlook, new unity. We were topping the charts and trying the whole 'going legit' shtick," she winced and look off to the side, "Then the attack happened."

"I could have been worse Aria, a lot worse. And I won't let it get so... Rest, you'll need it."

Aria Blaze however was not one to be coddled, especially after noticing the slightly strained slouch X was sitting in to indicate fatigue. She narrowed her eyes at her beloved and poking him in the chest.

“You’re the one who should rest, you thought it was a bright idea to sprint all the way here from town,” she grumbled.

“How can you tell?”

“You’re sweating, so you had to be rushing… to get back here… where we are…!”, Aria’s face momentarily flushed red when she realized why he was rushing, punching him in the arm as a very brief flash of gold glossed over her eyes.

“Told you I can handle myself!”

X gave her a bemused, deadpan glance as the same color outlined his eyes, a change since he and Kaizer had merged.

“You imply I doubted,” he muttered while glancing lower down.

If it had been almost any other guy not noticing her eyes were up higher, Aria’s next punch would have been higher up. Instead she noticed he was looking at how she hadn’t let go of her necklace this whole time. Instead she frowned and shrank away.

“...”

“You’re afraid…”

Aria deflated slightly and let a few fingers remove themselves from her heart necklace, swallowing a rock in her throat. Her bangs wreathed her face.

Her voice was but a whisper, “Not of you, no. Not anymore… Just, confused… I don’t know how this all could have happened. The spell on these should have made it impossible, not even you or that thing could brute force it…”

Monster X sighed, “Magic eluded me in the past and it does now, but I will admit when I learned what happened I was a bit dazed. Shocked even.”

Aria Blaze tucked her body in a touch closer to him before attempting a touch of humor to lighten the tone or at least quell some of the turmoil in her gut.

“...Are you sure you weren’t dazed from me kicking you in the head?”

Monster X picked up on the slight shift in her voice and cocked an eyebrow as he glanced at her. After a moment to puzzle he tried to return the sentiment with something to try and keep both of their minds off worse matters.

“No, that time I was more impressed you managed it and had been practicing, you’re quite angry when you thought I did it... It was what you did after that caught me more off guard.”

His remark got Aria blushing slightly and she elbowed X with a proud smirk on her face, “Well after you clarified it and you had my hands pinned when your scarf had fallen down, had to break out somehow other than what Sonata did the first time. You always did say to be resourceful.”

He taught her that in combat lesson to not just rely on punches and kicks, he didn't exactly mean to add 'grab them with your legs and lip lock them' into the instruction. Seeing the dark kaiju-convert shifting a bit awkwardly and knowing full well the red peeking out from his mask wasn’t just his eyespots gave Aria a momentary snicker. It lasted a good few seconds, giving the man a none too small smile before he sighed. A scarf and mask were set aside and an unobstructed face looked upon Aria Blaze.

A broad hand cupped her jaw.

“Aria, it’s okay to be afraid… What do you think I was when I rushed back here so fast?”

The purple siren let out a long sigh, moving into Monster X’s hand and shifting closer until she was right up against him. She rubbed the side of her head up against his shoulder and collar, causing him to recognize a call for comfort from memories old and new. Mentally retracing his steps, he rested his chin on her scalp and closed his eyes. They stayed silent for a time, listening to each other’s breath and heartbeat. Unconsciously Aria found her fingertips slipping off her heart necklace and starting to curl around his as he did likewise.

Monster X peeked out an eye, keeping a wary watch on the door and world beyond.

“There is a different magic in this area, one I can’t pinpoint but I know it’s there. I’m willing to bet everything it’s from Twilight. I was sent to investigate and if the chance arises to get it, I will.”

“Promise to your master? It’s your mission...” Aria whispered.

Monster X leaned his head up and back, opening his eyes and looking down as Aria did the same facing up. He slowly exhaled when she traced a nail across a scar framing his cheek, shaking his head slowly. He was loyal to his master, but he had other reasons in mind.

Inside Sonata Dusk’s room, the pictures of happy sea creatures, cartoons of Mexican foods, and beautiful kelp gardens were contrasted with the gloom within by its occupants. Adagio Dazzle held her baby sister while straining not to frown, humming a soft lullaby as the blue siren sniffled in her sleep. Wetting her sister’s arm with tears and mucus, Sonata flinched and curled up against Adagio. An ugly scar was lined across her collar and neck, making it look like she was burned were her necklace would have been. “Would have been”, because she didn’t have it anymore.

Monster X held Aria’s hand as she guided them both and momentarily touched her lips to his, shifting in a sign of an oath as he put his forehead to her's in a gesture they both knew by now.

“... A promise to you and them.”

A promise the transgressors would pay.

"You're not facing it alone."

Author's Note

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron

Don't worry too much, while Monster X does feature in the next arc, he's mostly the catalyst and part of an ensemble. The one in focus will be a certain fan favorite whom hasn't much spotlight lately!~

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
What happens when someone calls in back-up? Someone else does the same. Conflict begins to root and the raiders watch it all greedily.

Holiday Special: A Kaiju Carol, Present

“You seem... confused.”

It, of which Xenilla could best assume was the Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Present, noted in a voice that sounded like multiple entities speaking at once with just enough dissonance in their voices for him to pick out the differences.

Though thankfully it was right and the oldest son of Godzilla Senior was made of sturdier stuff than most, being more puzzled than unnerved.

-Past said ‘they’ and it certainly sounds like a ‘they’, but still it looks like just one figure… Why oh why does my mind have to be so confusing with its constructs?..-

Instead of harping on that detail, he instead decided to focus more on the fact the figure really did not look the part for any version of Snowfall Frost’s carol he’d read. Past was different, but it still mostly fit the bill of a small illuminated figure. The big cloak and foreboding voice? That sounded more like Hearth’s Warmings Yet to Come then the jolly, jovial Present he read of. Xenilla narrowed his eyes.

“You look off,” he grunted.

Present stood still for a moment before shifting, wriggling as if something inside it was moving. And then a blue… “horse… thing with fins” head popped out of its chest in a manner that would make Ridley Scott want to sue someone.

“Whaddya mean?!”

Xenilla’s brow scrunched and his jaw dropped slightly in sheer befuddlement as the figure wriggled and squirmed more.

Another voice called out, “Sonny!”

Now Pinkie Pie’s head burst out of the top of the cloak, directly on top of the unidentified being Xenilla guessed was “Sonny”.

“You spoilsport!”

“Eeeeh?! You’re the one who ruined the act fully by bursting out too! Now he thinks we have two heads!”

A third, deeper and more masculine sounding voice chirped below them as the cloaked ghost wobbled and staggered in instability, “Eeeyeyee girls! Kinda throwing off our center of gravity here!”

Any semblance of seriousness or foreboding the spirit had cultivated upon its first appearance was completely shattered, as it stammered around off balance with hooves, a glimpse of a horn, and flippers poking out of the edges. Xenilla deadpanned and just wrapped the cloak and anything inside it in his telekinesis and held it up. Illuminated by his glow, the spirit froze.

“This is getting ridiculous, as if it wasn’t already…” Xenilla grumbled before he ripped the cloak off.

Before him now were three figures, stacked atop each other. Pinkie Pie was on top of the water-something with the latter holding her hind limbs around it shoulders like it was about to jump in the pool to play a game of chicken fight. Then below that with the blue entity’s tail curled around it was a rather peculiar looking brown changeling with a rhinoceros beetle-like horn, along with metallic-looking tips on its forelimbs that looked strange. And yet somehow familiar…

Xenilla combed his mind as the trio that collectively comprised the Spirit of Hearth’s Warming Present were released from his grasp and toppled over.

-The bug and the marine-something look vaguely familiar, but from different places. Like I’d read about them… Huh, buried memory must have manifested with all this stress. Might as well ask my subconscious.-

Xenilla shrugged, “Okay I recognize one of you but not the other two, what’s the situation I’ve found myself in now?”

Pinkie Pie hopped up and put a hoof to her chest proudly, “We are the Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Present! Here to show you the importance of the partytastic holiday through the perspective of those who are living it!”

“Joy,” he muttered dryly, noting his memory had even taken note to copy Ms. Pie’s speech pattern.

The blue one levitated up like she was swimming, something that did cause Xenilla to raise his eyebrow briefly, “Thus we have taken the form from a collection of party lovers-

The brown changeling, whose features were just in the back of Xenilla’s mind, finished the sentence off, “- from across Equestria’s and Terra’s realms!”

Pinkie Pie’s emulation struck a pose with a hoof pointing upwards towards the moon, “Pinkamena Diane Pie!”

The blue one swam up beside her and also motioned towards the moon, “Sonata Dusk Seirína!”

The changeling, whom Xenilla had lost track of for a moment, burst out the ground beside them like some giant flying gopher in the exact same pose, “’Nebulan-Hunter-Line-”

He must have noticed his two compatriots glancing at him with raised eyebrow and he cut to the chase, “-Megalon!”

Pinkie Pie cried out in a gleeful tone, “Because you have failed to grasp the meaning of this holiday, in the name of tonight’s festivities-!”

The three crossed their forearms in front of them and laid their other limb across it to point at Xenilla, “We will elate you!”

A stiff breeze, no doubt from embarrassment, rolled through as they noticed the figure they were pointing at had seemingly vanished while they were posing.

Spirit Pinkie Pie felt a bead of ethereal sweat drop down her face, “... Where’d he go?”

Sonata, not dropping her pose, glanced around, “Uuuuuum? I think he walked off.”

Pinkie Pie pouted, “Party pooper! Party pooper!”

Sonata stuck out her tongue, “Humbug!”

Megalon’s drills whirled, “Daiei!”

Sonata shrugged as she failed to see a sign of where their charge had gone off to, “McCarthy he’s quick for someone that big! Got anything Meg?”

Megalon’s eyes flickered, from spiritually emulated cybernetics, and scanned the ground.

“I got ‘em!”

Xenilla, having thoroughly felt he was surrounded by idiots and wanting to kick his subconscious personally, had made his way towards the Apple family farm; retracing steps from memory from when he accompanied Fluttershy and Applejack to the barn to discover Destroyah. The building of focus in the evening hours however, was the house he never entered. Glowing with multiple lit candles and lanterns, the old timey residence’s rustic charm was enhanced by the wreaths strung up on the doors and holiday bird feeders set out amongst each window. Xenilla paced around the house, taking it all in and studying every detail as if he would a dire problem. Voices drew him to the back windows and he flew his way to them, standing beside the window in question before stepping out in front of it after speculating and then confirming his presence could not be seen. Made for better observation, a convenient plot device in fiction his dreamscape evidently emulated.

Within the house, the core members of the Apple Family were hard at work; though free of toil judging from the elated smiles on all their faces.

“An’ what happened then, Granny?”, Applebloom chirped as she helped flatten out a batch of cookies with a rolling pin.

The matriarch of the household had her head half buried behind a counter, likely inspecting or prepping the oven, as she continued whatever story she was reciting.

“Now mind ye’, he wasn’t ‘bout to give up after ‘ah turned him down flat the first time. Ye’ know how a young stallion’s mind works, an’ ‘ah was quite the looker at Applejack’s age!.. Well, first he tried courtin’ me on the holiday season! Thought he could butter me up with pretty pear tree!”

Applejack’s eyes looked they were about the explode out of her head, “A PEAR tree? Did he seriously not know what we grew? Ontop’a who the neighbors were?!”

Big Mac, either concentrating on his work and not feeling he needed to comment much in this story or possibly having heard this tale before; just shook his head, “Eeeenope!”

“Bes’ I can figure is he got our addresses mixed up an’ thought I was a Pear!”, Granny Smith snapped like she was about to spit, “Well needless to say it didn’ work. So he tried next day with a pair o’ pretty birds.”

Xenilla and Applebloom, unbeknownst to each other, both glanced up at the preserved dove feathers hanging off the hearth.

“Turtle doves?”

“Ye’ betcha! Cute lil’ critters too… Still said nope!”

“Sooo, then how’d you an’ Grandpa get hitched?”

Granny Smith got up from the oven, taking a moment to collect the breath in her old bones before chuckling, “Kept’ him going till he gave me a twelve-pony drum ensemble.”

Applejack paused for a moment before the connections sprung into her head, “Waaaait a minute! Ye’ tellin’ us our grandpappy wooed you by reenacting THAT ol’ song?”

Granny Smith burst out laughing, the warm glow on her face coming not just from her candles but also in the infectious, jovial benevolence that wreathed the Apple Matriarch’s visage. Even Xenilla found himself conceding a tiny smile at seeing someone so old and so worn, so happy.

-I can see why so many people like having grandparents.-

“Reenact it? Ye’r grandpappy’s stubbornness got so many’s ponies’ attention someone made that tune outta it!”

The three apple siblings looked to each other in mild shock and confusion before the realization caused them all to burst out laughing, an uproar that carried on into their tasks. Xenilla sighed quietly, finally noticing he had company that could notice them. The three emulations of the Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Present were all perched upon the lip outside the window, chin in hooves as they had been watching and listening to the story and scene before them.

Xenilla shrugged, “Pleasant as this is, this is something I could’ve seen anywhere in Equestria.”

Sonata Dusk shook her head, “Not the sight, the meaning! Don’t you see it?”

“See what?”

Megalon motioned to the window with a beaming expression, “The lesson! Have another lookie-see!”

Xenilla relented and did so, watching intently. He saw how Big Mac carried some more logs in for the fire in both the chimney and stoking the oven, Applejack carefully prepared all the ingredients and set them up, and Applebloom helped her grandmother in decorating a small army of gingerbread cookies; apple flavored naturally. Some more family knocked upon the door and some relation Xenilla didn’t recognize were met with much elation. Babs Seed, Aunt and Uncle Orange, and others like Apple Fritter or Apple Crumble soon filled the house and kitchen.

Xenilla dug from his memory of the books he’d read talking about holiday morals to try and grasp at the answer as to what he was supposed to talk about. He found it, but he also found frustration. Wasn’t that the moral was bad, just that it was extremely repetitive and not locked in to a time of the year indicating it had to be something related to a holiday.

“... So what now, some banal about holidays bringing families together? Already knew that fact and it’s not the holiday that brings family together, it’s the family that does. Even I know the value of relation,” he grumbled.

Pinkie Pie shook her head quickly, “That you do, especially for your brother and sister. But you’re missing the point! It’s not the fact about family that is unique to holidays, it’s the memories! Especially with Granny Smith.”

Xenilla only rolled his eyes, now truly feeling like he was trapped in some children’s programming special trying to teach an after school moral message, “Memories? That’s hardly unique either! They'll be with her next week too and that isn't some sanctified day. Those not living here can always drop in and forge more memories. The matron has at least another ten or so years in her, she’s spry.”

Pinkie Pie turned and looked up to Xenilla, “But making memories of somepony is finite to when they’re there. Nopony lasts forever after all or can always be in one place.”

“Doesn’t change the fact they can always have more experiences with each other and the matriarch before or after this holiday and it not be some grand ceremony that pesters for attention.”

Megalon put his hoof to Xenilla’s lips, “But what do you think is going to leave a bigger impression? Last weekend when they were scattered around and doing their daily tasks and occupations?”

Pinkie Pie tilted her head towards the window, “Or taking time to travel and spend Hearth’s Warming with somepony who’s their mother or grandmother?”

Before Xenilla could answer, Sonata followed up upon it. She didn’t turn around like Pinkie Pie or Megalon did and her tone kept a minor somber hint to it.

“Especially when that family is gone. Which do you think they'll remember most often?”

Xenilla closed his mouth as he watched the Apple family, for the first time noticing how Applebloom and some others had to help Granny Smith with some of her actions. She was getting older, and eventually one year, she’d be unable to do anything for good. And yet, there was laughter, there was elation, storytelling, and memories to be had all around in spite of mortality. The three imbeciles he was stuck with finally managed to say something he couldn’t retort to. Xenilla lowered his head slightly and let his breath leave him, muttering under it.

“I know how the carol goes. There’s always more than one place Present shows… Take me to it....”

The trio of a changeling, siren, and pony all nodded with slight smiles and put a hoof on Xenilla as if they were holding him. The vision shifted to a new place of which Xenilla did not immediately recognize, though judging from the buildings he could see outside the window he best presumed he was back in Canterlot. The room of which they stood was filled with a small bed, a desk and lamp, and a few decorations around the walls and window. The presence of textbooks indicated a student and, judging from the telescope pointing towards the distant moon alongside several rabbit plushies on the bed, likely one that was as studious as she was childish. Several posters and pictures upon the walls were put in places of great prominence. A family was in one, set upon a desk that seemed to bear a shrine of some sort. The tall, red furred and black maned unicorn stallion in a tuxedo stood next to what Xenilla presumed was his wife, a pink furred and gold maned pegasus mare wearing a pale dress embossed with a lunar symbol. Between the two was a tiny pink foal, held between their mother and father. Upon the walls were multiple pictures of a country Xenilla did not recognize, though the aesthetic seemed familiar to Japan. And flanked together on the largest wall were two large posters. One of Princess Luna striking a dynamic pose atop the lunar tower with radiating lights streaming down towards the city, the other an artistic representation of Godzilla Junior standing in front of Canterlot with his arms crossed as if he was daring something to try and come at what he guarded. Both of them were signed, though the one of Godzilla just had a hoof print as opposed to Princess Luna’s eloquent signature.

Xenilla put the pieces together well enough. He was in the room of a student, likely in one of Canterlot’s schools, whom came from a foreign land. Said student, like most of her age group, idolized others and in this case it was the Princess of the Night and the King of the Monsters. An assertion that was clarified when the occupant of the room stepped inside and he recognized her.

“Icka’brod’s apprentice,” Xenilla noted as Mariner Chibi Moon passed over to the desk and started writing.

Pinkie Pie, seated on the bed and unseen by the child, beamed at the filly, “Ah, you know her?”

“Seen her once or twice, my brother brags of her often.”

Xenilla observed the filly as she started writing something at her desk. She kept scribbling before there was a knock at her door. Chibi Moon’s ears perked up and she beamed.

“EnterSensei!”

Despite her rapid talking, that got Xenilla’s attention as it was none other than his brother whom poked his head out from behind the door.

“Finished?”, the King of the Monsters quipped with a raised eyebrow.

“ChottoMatte!” (Wait a minute)

Chibi Moon went back to her writing and scrolled down the rest of her work at breakneck speed. Hopping down from her chair she levitated up the note and an envelope for it and approached the door, momentarily pausing to bow to her family portrait and set a holiday arrangement of flowers upon it. Godzilla Junior smirked, pulling a sealed cup out of his saddlebags that steamed with warmth. Chibi Moon eagerly bounced up to him and accepted the drink.

“Got the letter to mail?”

“Hai!” (Yes)

“Know where we’re going?”

“Hai!”

“Walk or ride?”

Chibi Moon snickered and teleported up onto her sensei’s back, giggling to give her answer.

“Lazy little student of mine,” Junior chuckled and started on his way, sipping the cup of hot cocoa Chibi levitated out in front of him.

The three spirits and Xenilla started to, much to the latter’s surprise, slide across the floor like they were on a moving walkway. They phased through the walls and into the hallway to follow master and student out of the school dorms.

Sonata Dusk sighed with a smile on her face, floating above the mobile floor with her chin on her wrist; “A monumental effort, this will make that girl’s year.”

Xenilla, getting over the confusion of movement, raised his eyebrow.

“He saved her life before and she got to be student to a hero. With all the time spent so far, why would this evening be any more special?”

The Ghost of Hearth’s Warmings Present in the form of Megalon, though Xenilla still didn’t quite recognize him, chimed in, “Because earlier this year she was worried she’d spend this Hearth’s Warming alone. Be it from her first year far from home or with alienation from her peers. The students and teachers used to be scared or not know what to do with her.”

“That little filly has some talent for more... eeeeh,” Sonata paused and looked to her earth pony compatriot, ”how’d you put it, Pinkie?”

“Overt? Eruptive? Bombastic powers?”

Megalon raised a drill, “Keyword on “bomb” in that bombastic label!”

Xenilla nodded, having remembered his sibling telling him some of the reasoning for taking in young Ms. Moon being her need for control, “So I'm told, she blew the roof off in her entry exam.”

“And you better bet it freaked out the teachers!”

“Quite, had Princess Luna not been there to applaud and demand she be given an A+ as a prodigy, she'd have failed her entrance exam. And after she passed, her peers and teachers were wary of and tried to restrict her too much; neglect her talent and focus on restraining her.”

“With the best intentions of course!”

Xenilla shrugged, “I think I can imagine what might have happened there had my brother not stepped in.”

Sonata, Megalon, and deflated maned Pinkie all nodded in unison with frowns upon their faces.

“What do you think that would do to a child already isolated far from home with a lot of power?...”

Sonata Dusk pointed towards Chibi Moon as the filly bantered and joked with her sensei, “That child could have become the next Starlight Glimmer or worse.”

Pinkie Pie’s face, and mane for that matter much to Xenilla’s further befuddlement, perked back up, “And yet look at them now!”

Godzilla Junior and Chibi Moon exited the school grounds and entered a quieter part of Canterlot’s nightly streets. The filly hopped off her sensei’s back as they admired the beautiful light and candle displays strung up across all the shops, complimenting the gorgeous night sky filled with stars and a full moon high above. And the custodian of said night sky flew down to join them, Princess Luna landing on the opposite side of Chibi to put the beaming filly between her and Junior. The now trio were all taking three steps forward and one step back in tandem, slowing down to take in more of scenery. Chibi Moon started to hum a familiar tune, one her accompaniment were soon to pick up on. The unity wasn’t perfect. Junior was slightly less nimble in his skipping step as the females and Luna, not knowing the language, had some trouble carrying the neighponese tune Junior and Chibi had down; but it didn’t make a hint of a difference to the group.

“Laughing with her favorite coffee on a particular night of the year,”

“Walking through town humming a familiar melody from home in a way she did with her parents,”

“And between two beings she associated with power and kindness, masculine and feminine in the manner a child thinks of their mother and father. For the first time since she got here, Equestria feels like home and her company feels safe as family.”

“She might be away from Neighpon, but this Hearth’s Warming of present will feel just the same to her.”

Xenilla watched on, seeing not only how joyful Chibi Moon was but also how elated both Princess Luna and Godzilla Junior seemed on this particular night. Not a drop of blood or marriage shared between them, and yet it looked so much like the Apple Family house in regards to feeling. Mare and stallion with a filly between them, going out on a tradition the latter had with her parents. For a split second Xenilla had to kick himself off the thought he was seeing his brother’s mate and niece alongside his kin, they looked so much like a family.

Xenilla let the thoughts run through his mind, lowering his head and whispering to himself, “She’ll remember this, they’ll all remember this for sure…”

“Now you’re getting it! And not only is she going to remember, Luna and Junior are bound to as well. They both have a soft spot for children,” Sonata sighed with a smile as she saw mare and stallion steal a smiling glance at each other as Junior helped Luna through the song.

Pinkie Pie shrugged and playfully rolled her eyes, “That and Chibi got Luna and Junior to see the other is good with kids. Probably intentional on that part too, ten bits says she plotted this.”

Xenilla sighed and watched on at his brother and his compatriots, content in his sibling’s joy. At peace with others he enjoyed being around, that was what Icka’brod and Princess Luna deserved. Chibi Moon wasn’t the only elated one in the group. If the holiday was tied to this circumstance, maybe he could let his mind wander as to how that would apply to him. If memory and spent time with others were the point of this holiday his subconscious locked-onto, he let his focus go and imagined.

A quiet evening walking through the empire and attending a festivities with Blade Dancer, admiring the sights and spending time with the Imperial family. Perhaps that, even if some importance of the idea of a holiday was lost upon him, was what he should do when he awoke.

Xenilla stood up straight, “Alright, I’m ready!”

He felt a pause and after hearing nothing, turned to the three spirits. The smiles upon their faces subsided slightly.

“No, you’re not,” Pinkie Pie pouted with flopped ears.

“But it’s time for us to go,” Sonata sighed.

Xenilla blinked in surprise a bit more before stamping towards them a few steps, “Yes, yes I am ready! How could you be leaving now if I’m not ready?”

“The present is the gateway between the infinitely expanding past and infinitely stretching future,” Megalon nodded as he patted Pinkie on the back, “Our time on this holiday is short and will be added to the record of Hearth’s Warmings Past.”

“You are aware of the meaning but you do not know it,” Sonata sighed as they started to fade with the scenery around them.

“Know it?! Not know it? I spent hours studying it, I’ve witnessed it, I know what to do to make Ms. Dancer happy tonight!” Xenilla snarled as if he tried to will them to stay and release him from this rest, “Relinquish me to wake! You’re wasting my time, I’ll miss it all!”

“Not until you witness whom we preceded,”

“Your last trial,” they spoke in unison as they blew away like snow in the wind, “Is Yet To Come…”

Author's Note

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron

Holiday Special: A Kaiju Carol, Yet to Come

The world around Xenilla seemed washed out and faded as if it had no fully solid form and was shrouded in mist that seemed to change it to and fro in a nearly constant rate; tiny deviations ebbing in and out of existence. To some extent, it made sense to him. After all the future was always changing, never constant. A butterfly would flap its wings and shift the air oh so slightly, causing a hurricane across the world in its effect. If everything from how the particles in the air fell to the decisions made by others was in constant flux and could go in a myriad of different directions, nothing but inevitabilities were constant. He was still in Equestria, that much was certain. He could see a none too distant mountain through the mists that seemed to be Canterlot mountain, but the town around him was unrecognizable. In essence, the best he could ascertain was that he was somewhere in central Equestria in one of the many towns built upon the routes filtering back to the capital; like capillaries and veins that stretched out from a heart.

His previous hosts had left him, but his new one had not made themselves known. In the back of his swirling mind, between the confusion as to where he was and the frustration he had with his subconscious creations refusing to let him wake up; Xenilla felt an unease. Across all versions of the carol, he was familiar with, both here and on Terra; the Spirit of Times Yet to Come was little to joke at. If Past was placid and small, and Present was big and lively, one way or another, Yet to Come was another matter entirely. He steeled himself and, after a moment’s more of contemplation, moved on. He paced down the town with barely a soul in sight. All the distorted, shrouded houses were lit with occupants, all the passersby were in the distance no matter where he tried to move; he was completely alone. Xenilla cursed his subconscious.

-Does he intend to lock me down in a psychedelic dreamscape to waste even more of my time?!-

His lips curled, not knowing how long he’d spent wandering the dark streets in mental isolation. He just wanted this dream to get over itself already so he could try and salvage this holiday. After finding himself in an empty plaza, he finally stomped and roared.

“I CALL YOU OUT-UT-UT-ut-ut-ut!...”

His voice echoed in a distorted way like he was speaking in an empty room despite being out in the wide open.

“SPIRIT! SHOW YOURSELF-SELF-SELF-self-self-self!...”

The mists shifted in a slow breeze coming from behind him, a slow gale of wind passed over him that was both frigid cold and unnaturally hot. The distortion affection the echoing sound petered out, replaced with an eerie feeling of company. Xenilla sneered and whipped around to face it, being savvy enough to know this was whatever demented ghost his mind had conjured up making its entrance. When he turned, however, he instinctively froze. Obscured by the mists was a dark figure, and unlike Present’s paltry attempt to look intimidating at first, this visage did so without a single word. It stood away from him on the edge of the illumination of a streetlight, tall and imposing as the mists and falling snow wreathed its form. He saw no eyes, and yet he knew whatever was under its hood as it stood in the shadows was looking at him. Xenilla took in a deep breath and lower his brow, refusing to be cowed. He advanced towards it, stopping less than three meters away; the close distance offered no more indications as to its form.

They stood in silence, Xenilla leering at it like it was a challenge, until it slowly turned and began to walk away into the snowfall to partially vanish into the storm. Xenilla’s lip curled and he wanted to shout at it to either say something or do something to get this pointless dream finished already. But, his patience presided over his frustration and he followed. The Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Yet to Come continue to pace along as though it didn’t even notice him, staying just out of reach no matter how fast he tried to move to overtake it.

Xenilla resigned to walking and followed for a time, so focused on it he didn’t notice the scenery change; be it from some sort of magical shifting of location or them having just been walking that long.

They were back at Sweet Apple Acres. The home was just as lively as when he’d left it, even if he couldn’t quite make out any voices anymore. Forgetting his company, he almost mentally wondered aloud why the spirit would bring him back to somewhere he had just been; when he stopped to notice the Apple Family. There was another young mare present, one with a magenta mane and pale pink coat. What caught Xenilla’s attention was she was a unicorn, unlike the rest of the Apple family, and how she seemed somewhat familiar. Like he’d seen her face in passing recently, such as at the hospital where everyone on the plateau had been brought to recently. She was nuzzling Big Mac as another mare walked past Applejack. It took Xenilla a few moments to notice the mare, laughing it up with a slightly more gray-haired Aunt Orange, was a much larger Apple Bloom, now sporting a much more heavily braided tail and twin tail mane. Applejack and an old stallion sporting a pear cutiemark stepped outside and stood beside an ancient zap-apple tree moved near the house.

Xenilla paused and watched as Applejack and the old stallion put two open jars of zap-apple jam down at the base of the tree, the latter putting an arm around his granddaughter as the other family came out to join them. His eyes drifted downwards with uncertain feeling, thinking he knew now why Granny Smith wasn’t present.

Xenilla sighed in momentary respect, “Sayonara, Matron Smith. Only old age could do you in.”

He felt the wind shift again and looked towards it, seeing the spirit standing on the path ahead in the moonlight with its head slightly turned around under its hood. It was beckoning him.

With a mind unsure, he did so.

He kept walking for so long, mind unfocused on time. He didn’t even really notice he’d been looking at the ground all this time until he beheld where he was now. The setting was almost astoundingly beautiful, the moonlight above perfectly streaming down into the glade they now stood in. A creek slithered by and moon flowers reflected up to a sea of white against the silvery beams from above. Several rabbits hopped about, not disturbing a single leaf nor showing any caution around the occupants. The gravestones indicated a cemetery, the multitude of which in such a small locale was likely indicative of a family graveyard. Less a western tombstone and more a small shrine, with an octagonal pillar of marble sticking up. Hollow in one part, the individuals present had opened the twin doors on the bottom part of the pillar. Two names were written on the stone, a husband and wife Xenilla could tell from the gesture. One side bore a small locket inscribed with a moon while the other side sat a pair of white glasses, a rose and moon lily crossed between them. The attendees were predominately female, two mares and three kirin does. Of the fairer sex, all but one of them were clearly in advanced age with graying hairs. The kirin doe in red was in a robe burning incense on a pole, clearly a priestess of some sort. Floating down from above, Princess Luna landed in the grass amongst the group without so much as a hint of sound. She looked slightly different than recent memory portrayed her as. Taller and larger in wing, looking a bit more mature and akin to her sister in stature and build. The sole youth and sole male stood next to each other, the latter patting the former on the back as she walked up and placed an offering inside the tiny crypt.

Xenilla’s eyes briefly widened when he recognized the massive stallion was none other than his brother, looking only slightly weathered with a growth of hair upon his chin. But, as the metallic coil around his horn glimmered in the moonlight, he looked ancient in his solemn silence. His company was easily recognizable as his student, all grown up. Evidently, Mariner Chibi Moon would grow up to be quite the stunner by pony standards, her pigtails having grown into long twin tails that trailed her form. She stumbled at the altar as it was closed and the others came to her, without a single word said.

Xenilla watched on in likewise silence, trying to contemplate as to what this all meant. Granny Smith was dead, Ms. Moon’s parents had passed on, such was nature of life and death. It was a fact he was aware of since his first year and first moments. Xenilla’s heart sunk slightly with some sympathy and even more confusion. One family going on with the festivities in remembrance and another family was quietly morning those departed on the same day. He couldn’t help but remember Blade Dancer’s words about how this holiday was about festivities and spending time with others, and how the Spirits of the Present had and forced upon him the importance of memory. And now he was trying to connect this to all of that, something especially difficult with the solemn quiet in the ceremony for Chibi Moon’s parents.

The wind blew past him again and he looked at it, no longer angry or frustrated but now overcome with so many questions. Xenilla looked to the Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Yet to Come and slowly asked the greatest of them.

“... Why?”

The Spirit looked to the memorial session without verbally answering him, then to Xenilla. Still, nothing.

“Y-Yes I know her parents are dead. Everyone dies eventually, it’s sad but no one can fight time. If you’re some projection of my mind trying to make sense of this holiday to me, why are you showing me something so dreary on a holiday that is supposed to be so happy? What am I supposed to think now? That it’s not worth anything now because eventually someday someone won’t be alive to enjoy the holiday?!”

The Spirit only seemed to nod slightly at the procession. The group had gotten back up and evidently, the silence was finally broken. The red-clad priestess kirin had made some sort of remark towards the grave, something Xenilla couldn’t quite pick up but he thought he heard the words “Bun head” in there. She’d gotten some odd looks, but Mariner Moon quivered. Before he could wonder if she was crying, he heard an indication of laughter. The group seemed to lose their intensity, and other remarks were being thrown around. A yellow mare with a red double bow in her hair picked up a rose growing in the ground near the grave and goofily waved in front of her face before chucking it at the blue kirin, whom dramatically clutched her chest and fell over. Even Princess Luna seemed to get in on the fun, pulling off her tiara and dramatically throwing it at the yellow mare, who squealed and ducked under the projectile. Mariner Chibi Moon, tears still streaming from her eyes, was lifted up by Godzilla Junior and a seemingly similarly strong, quite tall green kirin doe. She loosed a burst of beautiful magic that trickled down with the snowfall as her family friends reenacted more scenes of her parents’ lives.

What had been a scene of quiet mourning became very comparable to the Apple Family. Memorialization in two different means with the same result. Xenilla watched on with a tiny sigh. A bead of happiness started to slither into his heart before he remembered something else about the carols. How the Scrooge saw the wake of their own end. A dourness took hold over him.

-Never had the best opinion of myself..-

Xenilla closed his eyes and tried to brace himself as the wind blew past him, knowing the Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Yet to Come was guiding them to a final destination. He tried not to think of Blade Dancer, about the Empire, about the myriad of things that might be shown as thriving in his passing now that he no doubt ruined this day to them and, given the time he’d spent with Yet to Come; had missed his chance to correct it. A similar hopelessness that played his last thoughts when he first crashed into the moon following his battle with his father took hold. Then he thought he’d wake up to see his world harmed. Now he thought he’d wake up to see some things that meant the world to him harmed.

The burning and yet freezing gales blew across his face again and he was back in the town he had started in. Xenilla slowly opened his eyes, knowing his company was hovering beside him in a manner could determine if it was threatening or trying to comfort.

“Spirit, projection of my mind, whatever you are… I doubt showing me my end will affect me like the scrooges. I’ve made peace with my end since the day I was born. Since then, I’ve only wanted to atone for what I’ve done… Please, let me do good for others,” his head lowered down and his bangs cloaked his eyes, “Just tell me the answer I need for their sakes?...”

The Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Yet to Come stared at him as the mists and snow fell all around them. A feeling, almost like it was projected by the entity onto Xenilla, was washed over the latter. It indicated direction, guidance towards his answer. Xenilla turned around.

He’d been standing in front of gravestone. Brushing off his momentary surprise, he was about to plead with the spirit to stop toying with him and just show him the answer. He didn’t want to see his own grave, he didn’t care about his own grave. His subconscious needed to stop focusing on the stories and get to the point! He was infuriated, brimming with frustration and anger in a rush.

The Spirit’s wind came at him again, this time a howling roar of a gale that forced him back down, forced him to look at it. That was when Xenilla finally realized he wasn’t in a normal carol. It wasn’t his gravestone.

‘Brenda “Bl-’, the rest of the stone was covered in snow and yet he felt he knew already what it said. Xenilla was still like he’d been impaled by a cold through the chest. His legs gave out and he fell to his knees and haunches, slowly extending a hoof. He begged he pleaded for it not to be what he thought it was.

He was right and hated it all for it.

‘Brenda “Blade” Cheryll Dancer’

Her titles, no doubt many, were obscured by the snow and frost; and Xenilla didn’t have the heart to remove them. He shook, sparks of red power uncontrollably arcing across his body. Crystal ripped out of the ground and shattered uncontrollably in the broiling flurry of emotions. The Spirit’s breeze blew past him, echoing his own words into his mind.

-”Everyone dies eventually”-

Xenilla twitched, slowly beginning to rise up through his convulsions.

“I-I’ll… KILL anyone, ANYTHING that tries to harm her! I won’t allow it!”

The Spirit ‘spoke’ again, repeating Xenilla’s own words.

-”Only old age could do you in”-

“I’ll.. find a way!”, Xenilla choked, “Find a way to extend her lifespan! There must be-”

He didn’t want to see Blade Dancer, his Blades pass, he’d scour the world for a way not to have to see that. Xenilla didn’t even know why he was getting so worked up over this, but that didn’t matter. It only got worse when the Spirit echoed him again.

-“no one can fight time”-

It mocked him with inevitabilities, Xenilla snarled. It dared mock him about this, with her?! He’d witness his own grave a thousand times before he ever wanted to see this! He’d miss a million Hearth’s Warmings and fight Ghidorah solo again than see this! This Spirit, this cruel bastard toyed at his heart like the alleged love did all those months ago. He swore he’d never have romantic feelings then and he broke that promise, love was controlling and hurting him all the same and he didn’t do a thing to stop it. He just acted like a broken heart did.

Xenilla loosed a booming roar and whipped around, spewing out a torrent of plasma that bypassed the coronal flare and went straight into a spiral fire. His tears evaporated in streams of vapor trails coming from his blazing eyes as it engulfed the Spirit. The projection of subconscious, actual holiday entity, or cruel manifestation of pain Xenilla thought of it as; which it truly was, it didn’t matter. It was swallowed up by all his grief, all his pain, and all his wrath.

It just walked towards him and he continued to try and destroy it in retribution, as the heavens and earth shook.

It was only after about thirty seconds of prolonged fire that weakness began to reside within Xenilla. Like he was physically spewing out all his energy with his anger, the spiral fire torrent grew steadily smaller and smaller, canceling down to a normal plasma beam. The awesome heat across Xenilla’s body began to fade, steaming tears becoming regular ones. The Spirit of Hearth’s Warmings Yet to Come continued to approach, unfettered by the onslaught. Xenilla’s breath cut out, depleted and spent; he couldn’t care enough to hate it anymore. He didn’t care about most anything right now. He couldn’t must up the strength to fight more, will himself awake, or even will himself to stay on his hooves.

He started to crumble when something caught him and held him up. Xenilla felt something against him and his teary eyes. The Spirit was holding him up. In the battle against Grand King Ghidorah, he thought he heard a voice, a roar, that he hadn’t heard in twenty years. He heard it again.

“We’re not immortal, neither are they. Every reign, great or small, has its end.”

Xenilla felt the snow close around them, falling on their forms as he felt the very physical spirit embrace him in a way he had never been before.

“What’s left is what others remember, and days like this are for doing that…”

Xenilla finally understood. The Past reminded him some good can be found on the illest of days. The Present showed him the importance of memory in the current day. That which was Yet to Come just taught him what remained in the end of it all, for when the end comes. This wasn’t a typical carol, for their sentiments would have been wasted on him no matter how poignant they were. For someone who’d courted death for so long, casting him into his own grave wouldn’t have gotten the message through. It took love, something he once scoffed at, to understand it. Xenilla slowed his tears and returned the embrace, departed father and lost son reconciling in the snowfall as the world faded to white.

Xenilla’s eyes snapped open and he reeled up from his seat, gasping in coarse breath. Feeling like his body was reassembling itself, his consciousness returned in pieces. His face had been leaning on a book, he was seated in a quiet room, inside the Crystal Imperial Library; just where he had left himself. Xenilla quivered and felt at his cheek, pulling his hoof back to reveal a shed tear. He choked and froze. Memories of the past events drifted across him and he desperately clung to them. Origin or sensibilities regardless; he would never let them go. He compartmentalized them to memory, storing them in the most essential portions of his mind.

Had it all really just happened? A visitation by some mystic beings of this world using effective forms to reach out to him, or just the effects of a stressed mind influencing his subconscious to show forms he wanted to see on some level; it didn’t matter.

All his research didn’t matter. All his previous, now retracted statements didn’t matter. Now he knew what did.

Xenilla launched himself up from his study and flew towards the front to make an exit, hoping and praying he could beg for forgiveness from Blade Dancer and the others. He landed in a skitter across the ground when he saw the clock at the front.

About 5:45 PM, only about half an hour after he last checked the time. Xenilla’s eyes darted around and his mind worked at breakneck speed. A broad smile formed across his face as he brushed back his mane. His brow began to lift while a shocked but earnest laugh of joy cycled up from his throat.

He hadn’t been out for long, by time dilation within a dream or the work of something beyond it was still Hearth’s Warming Eve. He still had a chance, one he had sworn he wouldn’t squander! The images of Fairy Mothra, the Trio of Present, and the Old King appeared in his mind and he praised them with all his heart. Xenilla roared with jubilant laughter even while he rocketed out of the library and got to work.

===============================

On the eve of the day and dawning twilight of the night, a large congregation of Crystal ponies started to move out of the opera house. The local talent had put on a pageant of the classic Hearth’s Warmings Eve tale, with the addition of their own history in being an empire forged by the first united expedition, a co-venture to the North by the three races that discovered the Crystal Heart. In such a light, one could see the Crystal Empire as the first truly unified city of the new Equestria given the other large settlements that were the Imperial city’s contemporary were originally founded by one of the races with the others joining in later; such as how the unicorns founded Canterlot. It was an important piece to the imperial identity and a welcome surprise for any visitors born outside of the originally time-locked settlement.

Blade Dancer moved in file along with the royal family and the other guards, flanked by their extended families. It turned quite a few heads when her old captain Stalwart arrived with his wife to visit his son for the holiday, any non-crystalline guards and Prince Armor were elated to see their old commanding officer whilst many of the crystal guard showed an intrigue at seeing a commanding descendent of Ardent Sentry. Blade Dancer personally was just more surprised to see Stalwart relaxing as much as he was when he jokingly slipped behind Shining Armor.

“ARMOR! ATTEEEEN-TION!” he roared in his old authoritative tone he used as a captain.

Prince Shining Armor, royalty but drilled by instinct, dropped whatever he was doing and snapped to attention. He saluted while looking like his eyes were about to burst out of his head in shock. Blade Dancer had to resist the knee-jerk urge to do the same, only stopped by Flash Sentry putting a hoof across her and shaking his head. A small silence passed before Stalwart let out a snorting chuckle, eliciting a roar of laughter from all the guards.

Blade Dancer joined in with the laughter, thinking she heard Princess Cadance muttering something to Stalwart about a recording of that command.

-Seems that Empress Cadenza has another-.... Empress? Why did I just call Princess Cadance that?! URG!-

She scrunched up her nose and shook her head.

-Damn it Xeni, you’re rubbing off on me!-

While she did jokingly ponder for a moment, her expression soon turned melancholy. Looking around to see all the ponies having such a good time caused her frown to grow. Family spending the day together, friends laughing at the festivities, couples leading each other along as they all left the building. It carried a pang of frustration and minor loss that she shrugged and reluctantly brushed aside.

-He has his reasons. Xenilla’s smart, but he’s still a bit of an idiot at times… Maybe I should make myself more overt? Oye, he’s as dense as his brother at times…-

There was a murmuring in the crowd up ahead that gave her pause, spurring her to reach up on her tippy-hooves to try and see over. When her section of the hoof traffic reached the big doorway leading out to the main plaza, she soon saw what it was along with the roar of ecstatic children rushing forward. Multiple fillies and colts surged ahead into the mass of shapes and configurations forged out of crystal that were now laying across the main plaza like a playground. Tunneled play forts, brightly colored spires that flashed illuminations of the holiday hues, flying rings, and a large figure that got many of the youngster’s attention. A three-meter tall scaled statue of Godzilla Junior in his kaiju form, crouched down with a slide built into his tail. The front of the impromptu playground bore a symbol Blade Dancer recognized well, a pair of crossed wing blades with a ribbon attached to them. It was her cutie mark, set as a tribute. Before anypony could stop them, if they even wanted to, the children ran free and surged onto their new playground.

High above a bluish glow filtered down, emanating from a slowly rotating set of crystal pillars suspended several hundred meters above the ground, supplying a dazzling display for the plaza and was only enhanced when tiny pieces of the crystal started to flake off and harmlessly trickle to the ground like snowfall. To the cityscape’s denizens, who didn’t regularly experience snow within the city walls, this was an awe-inspiring and beautiful substitute even if the surge crystal dust wouldn’t last more than a few hours once it hit the ground.

Many ran out to greet the beautiful setting before them, moving in groups amongst the brilliant light or indulging in playing in the simulated, thankfully not freezing snowfall. Princess Cadance and Shining Armor however just stood by stunned, taking it all in.

“How. Everypony was inside for only two hours, who…”, Melody Chime muttered breathlessly as she watched on with her adopted daughter.

Princess Cadance stood by her mother and looked to the surge crystals, recognizing the cyan blue color. Her face flashed through the motions. Confusion, disbelief, slowly puzzling, and then her mouth became slightly agape in surprised pride and elation. It became more so as Cadance’s husband, aid, and father; Shining Armor, Flash Sentry, and Lead Choir, carted over a gift box about as big as they were. Naturally, it lacked wrapping paper as it was made entirely of crystal spires woven together.

Cadance slowly shook her head, “I think I might know who…”

Melody Chime raised her eyebrow, “Another friend of yours, deary?”

Princess Cadance let herself drift in the memory, everything from a tense encounter at the train station, an infuriating standoff after an apparent rampage, a joined confrontation across the catacombs with the shadow, and a pledge of protection cast upon her entire family, current and yet to be born. Even if said pledge included him trying to give her baby steroids. She sighed contently and nodded.

“A good friend. How about we see what’s inside?”

She gripped the spire going across the top, which seemed to hold the other ones in place like a pin. Upon drawing it out, the spires fell aways and turned to dust, revealing a large construct inside it. It looked like the work of a master craftspony. Smooth as fine glass but without a single sharp edge to it. With a dangling mobile hanging over the center with small carved images of the crystal heart hanging from the strings, it was a baby crib. Cadance and Shining Armor beamed upon the gift, their hooves touching as they felt each other’s presence. The touch upon their hearts was not only from the gift but whom they knew it was really for.

Lead Choir slowly shook his head and beamed, “Looks like my grandchild is going to be well taken care of… Hm?”

He reached in after spying something and drew up a small bundle inside, checking the tag on it.

“Oh, looks like your friend left you lovebirds something too, Happy Hearth’s Warming!”, he sang as he passed Cadance and Shining Armor a pair of peppermint sticks without a second thought to the slight trickle of power just barely visible in them.

Blade Dancer had left a minute earlier, as soon as the package showed up. The pounding pulse in her chest told her where to go even before the minute was up. She knew where he was.

============================

She soon heard the sound of labored, tired breaths from inside the room even before she flew in through the window, taking note of how the window had been deliberately left open. She settled her hooves gracefully upon the floor and beheld the sight before her. Xenilla sat on the ground, tiredly huffing for breath. Some of the luster in his coat was gone and the glow his horn usually gave off was absent. His demeanor, while uplifted, carried with it a sense of haggardness that belied exhaustion. But none such draining stopped him from cracking a warm smile he didn’t typically sport as he looked at her. Not choosing to- or perhaps too tired to -use telekinesis he lifted up a small package in his hooves.

“Merry Hearth’s Warming, Blades…”

Blade Dancer stepped forward towards the gift, and slowly felt it slip into her hooves. It wasn’t encased in any fancy crystal, but something told her that wasn’t on account of Xenilla being too exhausted to generate any more. No, she knew why the box small enough to fit a pair of shoes was, albeit slightly crudely, wrapped. Just like with why he didn’t use telekinesis to hoof it over to her, she could tell he had wanted to do it the old-fashioned way. The Equestrian way, at least for her.

She quivered as she slipped the box’s lid off after undoing the ribbon, finding a familiar novel inside it.

“Romance, one of your favorites in it,” Xenilla noted as he sighed, “I remember this one, it’s where the mare and stallion turn into a wolf and hawk at different times to be kept apart. I’m told the separation didn’t work.”

Blade Dancer looked upon the gift with shock and confusion, starting to shake. Xenilla perked his brow.

“... Did… Did I pick wrong?”, he muttered, sounding so much unlike himself when he was unsure.

Blade Dancer let her bangs cover her downturned face as the sight of the gift and memories of the deeds for the children and royal family played before her, “...Why? What happened to you? One moment you’re-... you’re-”

Xenilla picked up on her cut off, knowing that she was trying and failing to think of a way to put it without it sounding insulting. He on the other hoof had no such reservations.

“Acting like a dense jerk who stomped all over something important to you? Yes, that would be true.”

Blade Dancer winced at the blunt summation, though not exactly denying it, “Yeah… but then...”

She sighed and shook her head as she motioned towards the window, “Then you’re turning into a regular Santa Hooves. Full playground for the kids, improvised snowfall for the crowd-”

Xenilla nodded his head to the side in mild pride, “With about a ton of healing surge crystals. Completely safe and they’ll find fixes for everything from sprained heels to scraped knees on it. That took the most out of me-”

Blade Dancer nodded her head rapidly, “YES! EXACTLY! Then on top of that, you got the royal couple their package!... What was it anyways, I left as they were opening it.”

Xenilla shrugged, “Baby crib with some decoration and some infused peppermint.”

Blade Dancer’s brow lowered slightly, “Infused?! With what?!”

Xenilla glanced off to to the side and shifted slightly, “Had to get the Empress to consume the formula somehow.”

“..........You spiked the candy cane?”

“Both of them, yes.”

“And if Prince Shining Armor eats one?”, Blade Dancer deadpanned.

Xenilla paused like he was about to say something but had a think about it for a moment, running calculations in his head before just shrugging it off, “Couldn’t hurt him.”

Blade Dancer just sat back flabbergasted and shaking her head. Before Xenilla could inquire what was wrong and flashed a worried expression, she cried out in a sharp groan.

“AARG! Come here!”, she yelped as she tackled him and knocked him onto his back with her atop him.

“Ahp! Blades what’s wrong?”

Blade Dancer didn’t get off, almost like she was trying to pin the much larger stallion under her.

“First you’re a humbug and then you might as well be in a red suit, did you always intend to do this and were just pranking me earlier?”

Xenilla shook his head, not removing her even though he probably easily could even in his tired state.

“Then why? Why turn around so quick?!”, she snapped with pained befuddlement.

Xenilla closed his eyes almost like he was meditating, reliving all the flashes of vision he’d experienced in his own adventure. Whether it was just some span across his subconscious showing him what he wanted to see to convince himself, or something genuinely beyond his grasp showing him what he needed to see to do the same; it taught him well.

“We all have lives Blades, busy ones. Jobs, hobbies, commitments, duties, events, travel, necessities, all of it. Things like friendship, trust, and love are important things in those day to day lives.”

Blade Dancer blinked and let her ears flop down, “But you said holidays didn’t matter for that reason. Why have a holiday like Hearth’s Warming when camaraderie, love, and unity should be year round?”

Xenilla sighed and slowly shook his head, “Wasn’t wrong, but I wasn’t right there. We should do those things year round, but we don’t always have the time for it. Holidays, they’re hallowed days. Times everyone agrees to set aside so they can have time for things like those. Because if we don’t form memories of the time we have with others….”

His eyes closed and Blade Dancer felt a slight grip upon her middle, he was hugging her to him like he didn’t want to let her go.

“What do we have left later on?...”

Blade Dancer stayed in silence for a time, looking to Xenilla as he did to her. After a few minutes, a pair of tears hit the floor together and pooled as one. Blade Dancer sniffled and wiped her eye, giggling happily in a way that infected Xenilla. Soon they were sitting up together, chuckling and embracing.

Xenilla sighed, entirely content, “So… like the book?”

Blade Dancer snickered and pulled back, kicking off her shoe and running her hoof across his cheek, down his neck, and across his sternum.

“Love it… Ready for yours?”

Xenilla raised up slightly, too surprised to notice his cheeks heating up, “Eh? You got me something?”

“Well, had a pause after this morning buuut, you’re lucky I didn’t have time to stash it away before going to the theater.”

She looked at him with sly, half-lidded eyes as she slowly peeled off her armor and tossed it aside. Letting her hair down out of its tie, she pulled a small bundle of leaves from a pocket in her chestplate. Before Xenilla could get a good look as she held it, she tossed it to his face and let it flop against his horn. At this point, he recognized it from the smell and the up-close view.

“Mistletoe?.....!!”

Xenilla was tackled to the ground with her on top of him as she captured his lips with hers.

====================

Reader Works Section!

A new year and another year to look forward to the most awesome readerbase a guy could ask for. Here's to you all guys!

FallenAngel5414

Rhinstonearts and Sabre-Burst

Kendell2/GodzillaWolf's Round Robin Jaunt continues with Bridge crew and many more in tow!
https://brutalityinc.deviantart.com/art/Equestria-Across-the-Multiverse-Jaunt-51-720812853
https://brutalityinc.deviantart.com/art/Equestria-Across-the-Multiverse-Jaunt-52-722222573

HeatseekerX51 was kind enough to give Faith and I an extends appearance is his own saga!
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/278529/path-of-the-unforgiven

Author's Note

In the end, all we have left is our legacies. Holidays give us those times forge them, taking time out of our busy lives to do so. That, in my mind, is the truth meaning of holidays.

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron

PS: I am not going to go into full detail of what BD did when she tackled Xen, other than say "Yes, yes they did more than kiss."

Chapter 43: Collision Course

“And presenting, your Fall Formal Princess! Sunset Shimmer!”

Principal Celestia’s voice chimed through the intercom as the smirking teenager waltzed her way up to the stage. The crowd was cheering in a frenzy, some earnestly and some from being browbeaten. One way or another though, she’d won for the second time in a row. It was a gratifying stroke of the ego when the principal who looked like her estranged old teacher placed a crown upon her head. Her Celestia had failed to recognize her greatness and gave away all her hard work and study’s dues to adopt and reward some random bumpkin and granted her a horn instead of gracing her own student with wings. This Celestia she had bent around her finger praised her academics and granted her the fame she deserved. In the hindsight of years, Shimmer would see each of these crowns as a hollow, undeserved victory.

But her mind wasn’t on that this time, a year back. She was only gushing with relief and pride at how she’d beaten the competition. Sunflower Orange had her worried for awhile, some of the students even seemed to gun for her run again especially to dethrone Sunset. Pretty, popular, older, definitely a threat. But after the gymnastics competition she got a stroke of luck when the Orange pulled out of the ballot in the aftermath of her friend taking a bad fall. The only other opponent was the Belle; Juliet by given name, Rarity by friends. She had a chance, a fighting chance. Not one Sunset took a risk on. The schemes flew free, even though something caused several of them to fail unexpectedly; no matter how private she made them. But when she changed her strategy, kept her ploys to just herself and two new idiot lackeys, it all worked out in the end. Rarity wasn’t beaten, she was destroyed with her four cohorts all taking hits. As she looked upon the crowd from the stage, Sunset Shimmer held back a burst of laughter as she saw the teary eyed, purple haired fashion designer run off in a partially frayed dress.

-Pathetic, did she really expect to have a chance and actually showed up in that mess?! Surprised she even had time to put it all in one piece!-

The devilish diva rolled her eyes at the pain of another and looked about for her other status symbol aside from her new crown. But when she spotted a bob of spiky blue hair, it wasn’t coming towards the stage like she commanded with a curl of her finger. She couldn’t see his expression, but Flash Sentry just stared at her before turning back into the crowd to go off in the same direction four other girls had gone after Rarity.

Anyone watching would have seen the Fall Formal princess stiffen like she’d been shocked before a twitch in her eye begat a shake in her limbs. Sunset didn’t hear a thing as Principal Celestia called for the school dance to fully begin, and when she left the stage she didn’t wave to the crowds and pride-step down the stairs with her arm around another. For the first time she came off the stage alone, and she left stomping off in a rage after someone. She caught up to him beside the statue with them. Flash Sentry said something to motion Applejack away as she and Rainbow Dash helped to hold a sobbing Rarity, she didn’t hear it nor care. The girls departed and her boyfriend stood where he was, not even bothering to turn around. A very selfish, arrogant, rude, ungrateful Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and gritted her teeth before she shouted at him and the fleeing Rarity; mind full of anger, wounded pride, and pain.

A much different Sunset Shimmer’s eyes slowly opened, mind full of sadness and painful regret. She stared up at her small apartment ceiling as a wetness slithered down from her eye. One really knew they’d changed for the better when memories you caused became nightmares. Shimmer was all too aware of the dark path she’d been walking on and after being forgiven eight times by others, the only thing left she could beg for was for some impossibility to let her go back and kick herself really hard in the head. She pulled up her phone to check the time and saw her own reflection in the dim screen illuminated by moonlight. She was still unsure of her own appearance, knowing it was a face who ravaged a whole school of innocents for years over a petty spite, planned to do mayhem in her own home out of anger, and ran away from comfort and kindness out of misplaced jealousy. She gazed upon the frozen, stoic face of Sunset Shimmer, remembering all those who might see her with pain in their eyes. Eight times forgiven by others. The first was by Twilight after the dance, in a moment just after the worst or second worst decision in her life. Then when she assisted in a rush order and crudely repaired a familiar old dress she’d found by the previous year’s Fall Formal, Rarity yanked her into a hug. Rainbow Dash high-fived and gave her a noogie after she recorded a parkour run by the athlete. Fluttershy smiled and invited her to tea in the aftermath of Sunset assisting in delivering no less than four litters of kittens and puppies at the animal hospital. Then when she got herself dirtied up teaming up with the Apple siblings and Mrs. Smith in preparing the school bake sale, Applejack gave her a smile and tip-of-the-hat nod. Pinkie Pie practically launched herself into her and got them both covered in flour when Sunset had watched the danger-prone Cake twins while she handled the baking. And Princess Celestia shone like the sun when she found herself back in Equestria, blabbering and crying like an idiot before a potential mental breakdown was averted by her warm embrace.

Sunset could feel the book granted to her still under her pillow, a comfort keepsake.

It was the other forgiveness, seventh in chronological order, that gave her some pause. It was said with such an eye roll and a chuckle when the words ‘No point in harping on it, it’s in the past’ were said. She couldn’t tell if it came from warmth in heart or a phantom sting in the face. The fact that he didn’t look directly at her when he said it and that Flash had been passively avoiding her while she knew he was keeping an eye out didn’t help, and it brought back all the poor memories from the Fall Formal a year ago.

Sunset Shimmer looked at her own reflection again, knowledge of the cringes and avoidance half the school still gave her fresh in mind.

-Some still think I’m the old me when they see me. Some think I’ve changed. Maybe... he hasn’t decided yet. Can’t blame him, more than anyone.-

Right now not even she really liked how she saw Sunset Shimmer, seeing the same face that was a bully, egomaniac, and source of cruelty to many that never deserved it. A flash of her demonic state crossed her mind and she frowned when she looked upon it. When the world thinks of you as a monster, what does it matter? Your view counts most, the world is wrong. But when you start to think of yourself as a monster… Princess Twilight’s call to atone had been the catalyst for change, but Sunset needed only recollection and memory to keep driving her.

She drew up her phone and started typing something, but part of the way through it she paused. Her mind fought itself, part wanting to proceed and finish the message to send it; and another part voicing futility. The latter part, as indicated by her growing frown, won out in the end.

“Probably blocked the contact anyways,” she muttered and clicked away as the message saved to a draft.

Maybe another night would be the time to finish it and the following tomorrow be the day to act on it; but she wouldn’t have it be just yet. She wasn’t strong enough just yet. Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and tried to exhale away the strain tormenting her. Turning aside she was just about to put her phone away when it started ringing. Perplexed, she answered and put it to her ear.

“Rainbow?”

The voice on the other end was haggard, clearly huffing in breath and Sunset Shimmer thought she could hear rapid footsteps in the background.

“DOOR!”, Rainbow barked.

“U-Um, what?”

“OPE- YOUR FRONT DOOR!”

Eyes widening in confusion, Sunset Shimmer flinched when she thought she could hear the exact same voice, albeit more distantly, outside her window in the street. The lights were all out aside from a few porch lights some houses or apartments kept on, but if she looked close she could just barely make out a figure sprinting down the sidewalk in her apartment’s direction. Thoroughly confused but knowing it had to be serious, she flew out of her bed and sprinted down to the front door just as the pounding footsteps got closer to the point she could hear them through the door. Sunset Shimmer just barely managed to open the door by the time Rainbow Dash rushed through it, the former unicorn yelping as her friend crashed into her. Fortunately it wasn’t a hot night and she had been fully covered up in her pajamas, or else her entire back would’ve gotten serious rugburn.

“Gak! Rainbow?! What is going on?!”, Sunset cried out as she tried to fight through the stars she was seeing in her thoroughly dizzied vision.

Rainbow Dash didn’t answer her, only frantically scrambling off her friend and pouncing off the ground to get to the open front door. She slammed it shut and frantically tried to lock; but was having issues with the slider due to how much she was flailing.

Sunset Shimmer groaned away the dull pain in the back of her head before looking at her friend. Her brow relaxed as she blinked in confusion, “...Rainbow?”

Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr. didn’t respond, she just kept trying to fiddle with the lock. Upon seeing a key lock above the slider one, she snatched at the key ring hanging up nearby and rapidly checked every single one of the keys to try and jam in the right one.

Sunset Shimmer slowly managed to pull herself up, observing Rainbow Dash’s actions and realizing just how unsettled she seemed, “...Rainbow!”

Rainbow Dash kept all her attention on the lock, frantically trying to get the right key in, smacking her fist on the door and frustration as she incoherently cursed at it. Sunset Shimmer strode up behind her and grabbed Dash by the shoulder and placed her other hand on the keys. Rainbow Dash froze, not looking back at Sunset and only staring out the window with a painting breath. She was shaking, trembling.

It was the first time Sunset had ever seen the typically so self-assured, energetic, dare she even say cocky young woman like this. Sunset Shimmer closed her mouth and swallowed her breath, gently guiding the right key into the lock and taking them away. She drew in closer, keeping her voice down.

“Rainbow...? What’s going on?”

She tugged on Dash’s shoulder and was rewarded with the cyan teen turning around. Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widened in the dim light when she saw the dilated pupils, messy hair, coat of sweat, and tears running slick from her eyes and nose. Before she could say another word, Rainbow had surged forward and burrowed her face into Sunset Shimmer’s chest. Having been terrified out of her mind and running to the closest safe haven she could, she just wanted to finally close her eyes with some comfort so she’d stop seeing red eyes surrounded in black and gold chasing her. In truth Kaizer X hadn’t pursued her since he departed the school, but after being isolated, chased down, grabbed, and pinned down in the dark by someone unnatural; intentionally or not, he didn’t need to.

Sunset Shimmer frowned but embraced her friend to try and hold her still, but the moment the frowning unicorn-turned-woman touched Rainbow Dash’s head she felt a spark shoot up her body. It stunned her nerves and caused her to lock up. Her eyes flashed with a bright glow and the conscious world became clouded by a subconscious one. She saw brief, unorderly images, barely more than one would see by blinking their eyes rapidly over a series of moving pictures. She saw a woman resembling Rainbow Dash but with longer, wavier hair and a sunhat towering over the point of view she seemed to pick up. Then a shy girl with white hair sporting purple tips in a youth soccer uniform looked towards her, the point of view showing a hand the same color as Rainbow’s outstretched to her. The next memories were even briefer, like they were on fast forward. Seeing what looked like younger versions of Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie in a variety of settings.

-These.. these are her memories?!-

The group of friends were jogging up to what Sunset recognized as Canterlot High with the century banner stretched over the entrance.

-That was almost four years ago! I showed up right before it was taken down. How am I seeing this?-

More faces and places blurred past. Principal Celestia welcoming them, a kindly Mrs. Smith giving Rainbow a special cider for her birthday, Flash Sentry getting crashed into by a slipping Rainbow and their lips- Sunset Shimmer’s face momentarily reddened and her eyes widened.

-When did that happen?!-

They laughed afterwards before Flash noticed someone and ran to them, bits and pieces of a red- and yellow-haired girl Sunset Shimmer knew all too well walking awkwardly so much she had to be helped up the stairs. Then bits and pieces from years after. One bad Fall Formal, another bad Fall Formal... An even worse Fall Formal Sunset herself just dreamed about. There was Twilight Sparkle in a soccer game, picking a dress, and then Rainbow flying through the air with Scootaloo. The last memories were so happy, so gleeful, like things were on a big upswing… Only to contrast so jarringly with the most recent recollections.

Emotions and memories tied together. Happiness can make a pleasant memory seem perfect, sadness can make a sour memory painful. But the terror wrought here? It made them a nightmare turned real. When Sunset saw Rainbow Dash’s point of view, she didn’t see a Monster X with a differently-colored hair and outfit, she saw a demon chasing her down and refusing to be shaken. A brief moment of respite that seemed to give deliverance was ripped away when she was violently yanked back and pinned down with it, on top of her. No matter how much she kicked, struggled and fought, she couldn’t get it off. And being at the mercy of something that looked of a shadowy fright with glowing red eyes and burning gold gleams with a powerful hand strong enough to snap yours like a twig pinning your own down was about as scary as it got.

“Call Twilight Sparkle, and hope she sees you again before I do….”

The voice was distorted with rage and seemed to echo, snarling in each syllable. While Kaizer X did indeed leave her alone afterward, Rainbow’s justifiably fraught mind didn’t think so or project that. When she sprinted for the nearest safe haven, red eyes followed her from every shadow, every length of road and sidewalk. All the way to looking at her through the window from across the street after she’d crashed into Sunset Shimmer.

The visions stopped and Sunset Shimmer was choked for breath as the sensations ceased. Sunset Shimmer let the trembling Rainbow Dash sink with her to their knees, holding onto her sobbing friend until she could finally get a hold of herself. She stayed like that for a good hour, staring at the window next to the door with wide eyes of both confusion, fright, and wariness. Both would pray no red gleams would peer through nor for their owner to bash their way inside.

============

Princess Twilight Sparkle beamed as she pranced off the train to the Crystal Empire with “Princess” Lea in company and Spike on her back. Neither of them could help but be happy. The citizenry was happy that research on the dimension portals was going well, it hadn’t been raining kaiju attacks like some of their earlier worries held, and the last month had been remarkably kind to their friends old and new. Some of the other Elements of Harmony were taking turns visiting the rebuilt “Our Town” to good reception. After the locals decided the markless life of equal weakening wasn’t the true route to social betterment, they’d been very receptive to hear from the Princess of Friendship and her close comrades. After all if somepony wanted to build a good community, learning about one of the core facets of comradery was a great way to start. As Twilight quipped in a speech she gave to the townsfolk, something like friendship might sound a bit childish by definition; but in context it and love were what made cooperation and civilization worthwhile and what kept the species thriving. Starlight Glimmer had settled into her role as the instructed apprentice of Princess Luna well, aside from some brief interactions she had with Twilight indicating social skills were not on the criteria for education. It was kind of hard for Twilight to imagine she’d caused so much havoc under the influence of dark magic when she could give her old self a run for her money in social awkwardness.

And much to Lea and her’s delight, the other five original kaiju had settled in swimmingly with the changing affairs. When the Wonderbolts hosted a celebration for the townsfolk and returned missing ponies, the “Energetic Enormity (of Awesomeness, according to its co-creator)” act put on by Rainbow Dash and Rodan was a spectacle in of itself rather than being seen as some foreign gimmick act, being just as “Equestrian” as the other performances. Having the big pterosaur wearing a flight uniform with Equestria’s emblem on it tended to do that. The lack of notice to the newness was felt even in Ponyville. Much to some confusion by visitors, it seemed the town had accepted Anguirus and Destroyah as just two more citizens amongst their ranks. Twilight distinctly remembered the surrealness of Destroyah at the Apple Family sale stand alongside the CMC, especially when Aloe and Lotus trotted up to her to ask for the crab apples and have her direct to Anguirus as he walked into town with Big Mac to tow the harvest behind them. Though the title of most surreal newness coming to Equestria quite possibly belonged to what happened with the two Godzilla brothers.

Godzilla Junior had already been gaining wider acceptance across Equestria since his dynamic entrance to the public eye, especially after his opposition speaking words of caution was kneecapped by Dr. Moonbeam Glimmer working to hush the fires she started with abandon. Public fascination, already growing with the release of his history spiked when the aftermath of the plateau incident occurred. The public never quite got the whole story. According to record after disabling a mind-controlled Starlight Glimmer as his normal self, Grand King Ghidorah arrived and Rarity enabled Godzilla to immediately engage him; with the damage to the town being solely due to the battling kaiju with Godzilla holding the monster at bay with Rarity discovering and evacuating the discovered captives. It was agreed upon to both avoid hysterics of Nightmare still being out there, possibly muddying perceptions of Godzilla Junior, and avoiding questions about the entity that possessed Sunset Shimmer. Officially, Sunset Shimmer was merely one of the many Grand King Ghidorah had kidnapped, Nightmare Rarity hadn’t voluntarily come into being again, and Nightmare Godzilla never existed. With only a few ever aware of the three aforementioned entities and all of them either being the Mane 6, Princesses, and kaiju with the only civilians being Night Glider, Moonbeam and Starlight Glimmer, and Mariner Chibi Moon; the vow of secrecy was as understood as it was voluntarily accepted.

Still, it gave a much cleaner, kinder, and more heroic image to the public. Another epic for the times. It caused focus to also grow towards his brother, who was now taking a public role as the protector of the Imperium just as Junior did for Equestria’s capital. Two super powered siblings with one somewhat turning to good to unify with their heroic counterpart? Equestria under the current diarchy ate it up. Several books and magazine issues got published, especially after Photo Finish managed to ambush and blitz both of the brothers on two separate occasions and some articles by Ghost Story had been put out. Colts and fillies were frequently asking for toys or posters inspired by the two and other kaiju to put up along with those of other Equestrian heroines and heroes. There were already talks of potential adaptations of past adventures, naturally with Equestrians standing in for the humans for those taking place on Terra. Last Twilight heard of the subject, there was talks of a movie adaptation directed by Canter Zoom regarding the events on the plateau with Rarity being equal parts amused she was to be played by Chestnut Magnifico and annoyed they didn’t ask her to play herself. Twilight was just wondering where several pop songs by Sapphire Shores and Coloratura were supposed to fit in.

Privately, she couldn’t help but share a laugh with Lea along the train ride as she read aloud one of her sister-in-law’s letters, and how jarring the three images of Xenilla seemed. To Lea, Xenilla was a cunning, powerful, and up until very recently vile and dangerous adversary. To the Equestrian public, he was a reformed anti-hero with a stoic gaze and undying will to protect his brother and keep the Crystal Empire safe. According to Cadance’s letter, he was an overzealous nutty professor of a nursemaid who randomly walked out of her closet, kept quizzing and drilling Shining Armor about proper pregnancy care, and she found literally hovering over her and her husband’s bed several times doing ever increasingly jubilant scans of her baby bump.

Neither of the two knew whether they should be more confused, stupefied, or curious before bursting out laughing. They were going to the Empire anyway to run some tests with some remarkable work Key Ring, Sunburst, and Xenilla had been doing for their own projects, it wouldn’t hurt to poke around a bit and look into the ‘last’ of the three faces of Xenilla.

Back in the present, Twilight and Lea had been quietly enjoying their trotting stroll, bantering some small talk, and making their way towards the Crystal Castle in no particular rush when the reflection of something caught Princess Sparkle’s eye. Raising her brow and soon shielding it, she looked into the dim obsidian.

“Something amiss Twilight?” Lea muttered as she glanced over to see the alicorn peering at a reflection of the sun.

Twilight Sparkle puzzled, using the reflection to gaze at the fiery celestial without hurting her eyes. She perked an ear and tilted her head.

“The sun. It looks… lopsided.”

Lea joined in on the gazing, trying to see what it was that caught her friend’s eye, “Lopsided?”

Twilight Sparkle held a hoof over her brow as she tilted her head again, “The center of the shining and corona looks, well, tilted.”

Lea still didn't notice it best she could see it, “How would you say so?”

Spike chimed in and shrugged, “When you religiously look forward to summer sun celebrations as a filly like most does their birthday, you learn the cycles.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the slight jab, “Princess Celestia’s work always has a finesse to it, a gradual tilt of exposed angle throughout the year to keep things stable and orderly. She wouldn’t rush or forget or else the seasons might seem off.”

Lea pursed her lips and lifted her ears to the air, letting the thinner skin be exposed to the warmth radiating down, “It is a tad warm compared to yesterday. Shouldn’t it still be a bit nippy?”

Twilight Sparkle, “Only if the sun’s not off kilter.”

“Huh,” Lea muttered, still more than a bit unused to the weather, seasons, even celestials being sapiently controlled in this world. She ground the edge of her knee against her chin before shrugging it off, “Well she is over a thousand. I think anyone can have an off day. Maybe she really was in a hurry?”

“Am I interrupting something?”

On reflex that voice, even devoid of a reptilian bellow, still caused Lea to flinch up. Ten years of instinct born of conflict will do that, even if thankfully Xenilla no longer bore the typical scaly visage that could cause Lea to have a nightmarish flashback to his father. The bemused giant unicorn levitated down to them from a rooftop, silently touching down on the ground beside them with a raised eyebrow. Even if the war between Defender and Mutation had all but ceased, at least in Equestria, Lea still could feel prickles trail down her body in Xenilla’s presence and she could similarly tell that he was at least slightly tense around her.

She noted curtly, “Xenilla, salutations.”

Xenilla nodded his head somewhat, “Mothra Lea, an unexpected surprise. I didn’t know you were accompanying Princess Sparkle.”

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and bonds after all, and Spike, her dutiful aid who’d gotten saddled along with all the past ventures, thankfully was able to pop up between the two with a cheery expression on their faces while pushing the two apart.

“Long time no see, Xenilla! Though should I call you ‘ambassador’ or since your brother is a king, would something else be in order? Archduke? Lord Protector? Princ-”

Xenilla cut her off with a mildly deadpan expression and drooped eyes, “Anything but the latter, though just Xenilla works. I believe I had my fill of royal title shenanigans on my first day to the empire, much less to the later date to today, Princess Twilight Starla Sparkle.”

Twilight just snickered, waving her wing in a diffusing manner, “Aaaww please, then just call me Twilight! Besides, I thought you didn’t like the whole ‘Princess’ gig from what Cadance told me in her letter?”

Xenilla paused for a moment, as if he was trying to think through what might’ve been in that letter, before shrugging it off, “... Just making sure I’m not out of the loop since I’ve barely left here since I arrived, do you rule a country and are you married?”

“Uum, no?”

Xenilla needed no pause before blurting his thought out with a completely serious and yet utterly deadpanned expression, “Good, then you’re the first individual I met who was called a princess and actually was one.”

“Ahem,” Spike coughed and narrowed his eyes while twirling his hand in a clockwise motion, "Hi! Here too by the way."

Xenilla glanced at the dragon, “Ah Spike Kenbroth Sparkle… Shouldn’t you be a duke?”

Spike’s eyes widened and he tapped a claw to his lip with a growing grin.

Twilight and Lea blinked in mild confusion before glancing towards each other to see if the other one had anything to say about that. Much to Twilight’s curiosity, Lea awkwardly glanced about before shrugging her shoulders and nodding slightly.

“He has a point on both counts,” the changeling-alicorn muttered.

“Oooye,” Twilight Sparkle groaned as she rolled her eyes and waved at the air like she was pushing the topic away, “Enough of that!... Ahem!”

She shifted her position and stood facing Xenilla with her nose perked up and her eyes closed in a formal manner, “Xenilla, as you know Lea and I have been investigating methods to try and find a way to create a pathway back to Terra to transport the kaiju who wish to return back home safely. Recently Key Ring wrote to me about a collaborative study you, he, and an archivist named Sunburst had been working on. Namely with the topic of spatial relocation with magical doorways between two places, akin to Starswirl the Bearded’s works on dimensional shifting. Lea and I came to look into your group’s work and see if it might help offer some outside insight.”

Xenilla cracked a pleasantly surprised expression in response to her notation and nodded, “Your intuition is a welcome outlier amongst many species. Indeed, my colleagues and I even reference and used some available information from the late Starswirl the Bearded and still present Princess Celestia’s voyages long ago through their magic mirrors. Follow me.”

Xenilla motioned with his hoof before picking off the ground and hovering over towards a large warehouse adjacent to the castle with the changeling in disguise and alicorn following suit. The doors opened from a wave of mentally projected telekinesis from Xenilla and welcomed the guests into their workspace. Princess Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened and twinkled as she beheld the realm. The original warehouse stores had been removed, effectively gutting the inside to clear space. Each of the walls were further supported by grown quartz spires, adding to their gleam which helped illuminate the various work tables, desks, and book-laden stores that held a mountain of data. In the center of the room was a doorway, which appeared unremarkable other than the crystal it was built with being embedded with what Lea recognized instantly, and Twilight recalled from Lea’s teaching after a moment, as Xenilla’s yellow surge crystals. Surrounding the doorway was a mishmash of crystal charging towers of Xenilla’s and the crystal ponies’ design that occasionally arced with energy, and the myriad of pipes and wires leading to Equestrian machinery that was near constantly spewing forth readouts.

Staffing the room were Sunburst, Key Ring, and a few crystal pony helpers functioning as crystal shapers to help the upkeep of the structures; along with several guards. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes briefly locked with the one non-crystalline guard’s and she recognized him by his orange fur and blue hued hair. To the mild notice of Lea and Sunburst, even if they didn’t see the cause, both Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry ended up glancing away at the same time for different reasons.

“I won’t lie, I originally looked into this idea of gateways because I thought I might be able to find the answer independently of you two’s own projects. But due to changing priorities, my colleagues and I looked into different possibilities. Currently the goal, in light of the need to cooperate and safeguard Equestria alongside my need to remain here in the Empire, is to hopefully make a transportation system in case of future kaiju attacks. Create a safe means of evacuation and allow the proper response team to get to where the problem is, unburdened by travel speed,” Xenilla noted as he motioned to the doorway and the glasses-wearing stallion beside it, “Ring? You want to take over?”

Key Ring smiled and trotted over, the burnt red stallion giving both his guests a courteous bow, “Your majesties. Either by none of us cutting it like Starswirl could or lacking something he had, our doorways work in a similar but distinctly different manner. Starswirl’s doorways worked off dimension, ours work off space.”

Key Ring held up his hoof to motion along and pantomime his point, “Starswirl and Celestia’s doorways work kinda like an elevator. You don’t really move too much from side to side, but you step into more or less the same place but at a different altitude. No matter where you come out of the elevator, you’re always coming out next to the elevator entrance. Starswirl and Celestia’s doorways to the human world Princess Twilight Sparkle took and the mirrored world she and the other heroes took all spat you out at somewhere matching up to where the mirror was set to.”

Lea, seeing as her friend was still in a bit of a minor stupor from something earlier, beamed and chimed in, “Oh! So for instance the portal to the human world was originally made in Canterlot, so it was set to the Canterlot of that world? That’s why even when Twilight used it here in the Crystal Empire, it still took her to a place called Canterlot and not presumably any equivalent the Crystal Empire has?”

Key Ring rapidly nodded, “Indeed! Same reason the now broken mirror world portal, according to reports, dropped the users off somewhere close to that world’s Canterlot for the same reason! However the portal door we made doesn’t work like that. Remember that elevator analogy I made earlier? Well imagine ours like a flat, moving walkway on the floor of the same building. It can link two places on the same dimension, the same ‘floor’ together and transport somepony from point A to point B on that same floor.”

“But it can’t transfer someone or something to another realm,” Xenilla shrugged, “Though it does have some benefits even if it is limited.”

Twilight Sparkle snapped to attention and perked up her ears, “Oh? Any related to the door itself? I see you implanted it with surge crystals.”

Xenilla glanced over his shoulder to see the subject of her pointing, the glimmering yellow crystals embedded in the doorframe and occasionally arcing energy between them across the panels, “You are attentive as impressions and reports suggested and memory served, well done. The crystals are mostly my touch to ensure it has proper energy supply for safety. But a healthy benefit of it is that it makes it independent of outside power sources, like the astrological sources Starswirl often tied his portals to.”

“Hence why the human world portal only opens up for brief instances every so often,” Key Ring noted while looking to his and his colleague’s creation with no small measure of pride, “Ours is up 24/7 once it’s charged. While range is still limited for..-”

He gave Xenilla a glance as Sunburst coughed into his hoof behind them, “-safety reasons after a very frantic test run expanded the boundaries, we still need something to anchor the doorways we use to where we’re going.”

“What could anchor it?”, Lea questioned.

Key Ring nodded, “Since we based it off parts of my talent and Sunburst’s studies after fueling it with Xenilla’s power, we have a lot of options. We can swap around the doorways we use for instance, so it could be the doorway we use and the one we connect to or from the same manufacturer, were on the same street, on part of the same continent if you don’t mind sacrificing precision. Something that helps really narrow it down to make absolutely certain you come out the right door is having something from the area we are trying to link to so you can walk out of a doorway in said area.”

“Oh? How precise can you get it?”

Sunburst was trotting up and nodded back towards the current door, “That one currently has a crystal sample from the Imperial residence.”

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head, “Why? Isn’t the castle right next-door?”

Sunburst shrugged his shoulders, “Made for a good test-”

Before a dead panning Xenilla cut him off, “It allowed me to visit the Empress and check in on the well-being of the heir unimpeded.”

An awkward silence filtered between the five, especially between Sunburst and Key Ring as they knew 'check in one well-being of the heir' meant teleporting into Cadance and Armor's wardrobe. Everypony glanced at Xenilla before the quiet was stopped by Twilight's snickering; the young alicorn stuffing her hoof into her muzzle to keep from bursting out laughing.

-Oh my Faust Cadance wasn’t lying about him randomly busting in on her and Shiny through their closet!-

As Twilight tried as hard as she could not to make herself look like a fool before the more than slightly bewildered station staff, Lea chimed in and drew attention to her inquiry.

“So this contraption you have here seems like a powered base and a nonpowered entryway to wherever you’re going, yes?”

Key Ring nodded, “Indeed. Power comes from emulating my talent, Sunburst’s replication of old Starswirl spells with the crystal shapers, and Xenilla’s energy charge to fuel it. While the doorways are needed, there’s nothing magical about the doorways themselves. They just help direct where all the magic goes to transport the voyager. Why you ask?”

“The portal mirror to the human world is in the Empire too,” Lea noted as Twilight perked up from memory, “-in the vault catacombs for safe keeping. It was actually something Twilight and I were coming to look into with Princess Cadance’s and Prince Shining Armor’s permission. Now given it works on its own with none of the elaborate set up here, it’s magic must be self contained.”

“I am aware of the item in the Empress’s and Prince Consort’s vault,” Xenilla replied curtly, putting emphasis on the titles with a hint of an annoyed grumble in the back of his throat, “-And yes your logic is sound. Sunburst isn’t one to talk much, but if he were so inclined he’d confirm the previous assessment that the mirror draws power from the celestial bodies and recharges between activation periods.”

“Hence the whole ‘only works once every thirty moons’ detail I was warned about last time. It’s a good thing Sunset Shimmer was found when she was, given the portal happened to be active as soon as she was out of the hospital,” Twilight Sparkle added to Xenilla and company’s nod.

“Well,” Lea quipped as she glanced at the charging array for the doorway, “What if we attached the mirror where you guys put the door frames?”

Key Ring, Sunburst, and Xenilla all opened their mouths like they were about to say something; but they paused. After a few awkward blinks, glances were cast and the trio looked aside before grouping together to huddle and whisper, an extremely surreal sight for Lea. After some deliberation, Sunburst ran off to double check some spells in his archive, Key Ring trotted over to his desk to confer with his class, and Xenilla straightened up and turned back around.

“... More intensive study might be needed, but this station just might be able to power the mirror; assuming it doesn’t all take the alternative.”

“Whiiiiich would mean it would be?”, Twilight muttered with a perked brow.

With a completely straight and inhumorous visage, Xenilla just grunted, “Negative feedback loop into an explosion and subatomic scattering… That was a worry when we first started devising this contraption, hence the need to anchor the gateway to something to ensure what goes in comes out in one piece in the right place.”

“So for instance even if the mirror was attached, it might need something from that world to make a stable connection,” Lea asserted to no disagreement from Xenilla.

“Sadly before you get any hopes up about using this to return anyone to Terra, the mirror portal likely only works between Equestrian realms. The world Princess Twilight here visited may have had humans, but it certainly wasn’t Terra.”

“Not unless you guys got just as vibrant a population as Equestria does, eheh,” Twilight mumbled with slightly drooping ears, having hoped for a moment Lea might have gotten them a lead, “Well, could be a start though; attaching the mirror to the power chamber here. Since I’ve been there I could tell if we got the right place once we find that anchor.”

Sunburst gulped back his shyness as he threw his voice over his book laden work desk, “Princess Twilight has a point! It’d be a way to test broadening our scope in safety. Presumably all we’d need is something from that world or tied to it.”

Before any pondering on what that might be could ensue, a low rumble shook the warehouse enough it caused the windows and crystals to rattle; followed by a thundering crash that shook the very foundations. Instantly everypony’s eyes widened and a paled Lea and Xenilla looked to each other. They recognized that kind of noise. That was the booming noise of something breaking the sound barrier before the chasing echo of something very big and very strong hitting the ground hit them as well. Instantly both thought the worst and looked to Twilight Sparkle. The alicorn hyperventilated but nodded rapidly, looking to Spike and tilting her wings to help him slide off her back.

“Keep an eye on things and get ready to tell everypony to get to the palace if need be!”

“You got it Twilight!”, a hopping Spike piped as he saluted.

Twilight nodded, taking to the wing and racing with Lea and Xenilla out of the building.

“Everypony get ready to get somewhere safe!”, Twilight shouted as she blasted the front doors with her magic to force them open and flew out with Xenilla and Lea flanking her.

The three rapidly ascended into the air, back to back with steeled nerves and tense bodies as they all tried to spot just what was going on.

Xenilla swung around, putting his hoof to a nearby wall to extend his senses across the entire crystal-covered ground, trying to see where the shockwaves were coming from, “I’m picking up one pressure wave from the south. Big.”

Lea steeled herself as she turned her gaze south, seeing a small pillar of smoke arising from the edge of the empire and thankfully out of the populated area, in the snowy fields beyond. With luck, she or Xenilla could engage the threat before it got to the populace. Her eyes dilated and she blinked with a wave of mana washing over them to enhance her sight. But other than a crater she saw nothing sizable through the snow storm.

“There’s an impact crater but nothing else, is it traveling underground? It might be Megalon!”

Xenilla shook his head as he removed his hoof from the wall, “Nothing. No tremors from something burrowing or walking.”

Far beyond them, they heard the crowd cry out and an uproar took root; causing the trio to promptly fly over and investigate while keeping magic and energy blasts on a hair trigger in case anything happened. They expected a kaiju, perhaps shrunken down, or maybe some native Equestrian threat to cause such an entrance. Instead what they found was a set of tracks leading from the crater in the snowfields and a crowd of gawking Crystal Ponies pulling aside to get out of the way of a very livid looking Princess Celestia. The paragon of good magic and avatar of the sun was stone faced, leery eyed, and tense in muscle as she marched down the street; but if that wasn’t enough to cause everypony to clear back then her fiery mane and fact she was cracking the street with every step was.

“P-Princess Celestia?!”, Twilight muttered as her face scrunched up in confusion and she flew down to her mentor but quickly shrank away when she realized one of the reasons the crowd had fallen back was the intense heat convecting off the white alicorn.

Twilight, thoroughly flabbergasted looked up to Lea and Xenilla, “She’s upset about something!”

“Explains the fire and the glaring look, she must be seeing red.”

“Tell me something unknown,” Xenilla deadpanned as his horn and mane glowed briefly before he gestured up with his hoof.

On command the crystalline ground before Princess Celestia shot up, creating several spires of quartz crystal that blocked her way. Expecting her to pause, now that her path was obscured and knowing she wouldn’t move out of the middle of the street or risk getting too close to the civilians, Xenilla hovered down towards her and tried to get through to her.

“Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor, your demeanor is threatening those around you and I know this is very uncharacteristic, so stop what you’re doing and act accordin-”

He was cut off when the crystals in front of Celestia didn’t slow her advance, not even when her nose and horn made contact with them. She paused for a moment’s notice, if only to press more of her against the crystal, before she kept going through them. Xenilla winced and sneered, launching up multiple walls to block her advance. But each time he did, Princess Celestia just kept marching forward; more focused on whatever she was rambling incoherently about than any obstacles that got in her way.

“LEEEAAA! Make yourself useful!” Xenilla roared as he kept fruitlessly trying to impede the oncoming alicorn, “She’s heading for the heart of the city!”

“Ah Daiei!”, The changeling-in-disguise put her hooves together and started to channel her mana.

“Don’t try to hurt her!”, Twilight yelped as she reluctantly gripped Xenilla’s latest crystal wall with her magic to reinforce it.

“Trying not to!”, Lea barked as her family symbol appeared on the ground in front of Princess Celestia. Her plan was to create a seal like she had on Twlight’s library during the baby destroyah attack. Equestrian magic might have its zenith with an alicorn, but it still should have a lot of trouble dealing with mana based spells outside of sheer force.

Unfortunately due to not having a structure to anchor the spell to, panicking and trying to not harm the princess diarch, and her earth pony parts giving her all the sheer force Celestia needed, Princess Celestia was only briefly impeded by the seal. A glowing dome of energy flared up around her as the Mothra family seal ignited across the ground, clearly straining. After almost cartoonishly walking in place for a moment or two against the edge of the seal like Celestia’s face was scrunched up against a glass wall, she smashed through it while similarly shrugging off a violet hued barrier of Equestrian magic Twilight put up.

The virtually comedic routine continued on for several blocks, Princess Celestia, still on fire, implacably walking through anything Twilight Sparkle, Xenilla, and Mothra Lea put in front of her.

“Hold her still!”

“I’m trying!”, Xenilla roared as he threw caution into the wind and practically threw himself at Celestia head on, bracing his back hooves against the ground as he tried to slow the larger mare down.

Celestia, still rambling incoherently and out of her mind, kept advancing forward at a slightly slower pace. Xenilla’s efforts had managed to keep her inside a new Mothra seal appearing below the two, encircled by a purple star symbol as it was bolstered by Twilight pitching in. Between the strongest Terran magic user alive and an Equestrian prodigy who picked up the craft quickly, the seal did manage to put a damper on Princess Celestia’s magic output. The flames across her mane were less intense and though they still roared, the heat was no longer causing so much convection nopony but somepony on Xenilla’s tier of durability could get near her.

Princess Celestia however, eyes locked on the Crystal Castle like it just insulted Smart Cookie’s cooking, still didn’t even acknowledge the group. Whatever it was she was roaring about clearly had her distressed as much as it antagonized her. Now she was waving her wings and rocking her head to accentuate what she was rambling about.

Xenilla felt his hooves grinding into the crystal behind him. Mothra Lea swooped down and tackled Princess Celestia to try and reinforce him, but she ended up getting that plan derailed when the solar alicorn got particularly enraged at something and swing her wings out. Unknowingly bashing the kaiju enough to daze her, Celestia still didn’t notice Lea frantically flop about in the air and grab onto her wings to try and restrain them; getting half towed and half dragged along the ground for her trouble.

“How is she so lithe and still this strong?!”, The Guardian of Mortals whined as she was dragged along while holding one of Celestia’s wings in her hooves and the other with her magic.

“Agk!”, Xenilla barked as he put all he had into holding her back, managing to finally slow her down to a sluggish but constant pace with Lea’s aid. Clearly the frustration was building to his wits end judging from the flickers of plasma light slithering out from between his teeth along with his roaring tone, “What the Daiei is she rambling on about?!”

Twilight Sparkle gulped and flew down above Xenilla, rapidly beating her wings to hover and trying to not accidentally shove one of her feet into Xenilla’s face as she held her hooves to her teacher’s cheeks. Even with the magic reduction, Celestia still felt like she’d steam water!

“Princess Celestia! What’s going on!?”

“ANDWHENIGETMYFIRSTNEW-”

“Heading for a wall!”, Lea cried out as she flopped about.

Xenilla stole a glance back and saw they were slowly sliding along towards the portal door warehouse. No doubt given previous actions, Princess Celestia didn’t see the wall there through Twilight and was going to ram through it like it was paper.

“-MESSAGEFROMHERINAWEEKITSBECAUSESOMEFOOLWITHADEATHWISH-”

“STOP! HER! I am NOT letting her into my workspace like this! I need to change!”

“Are you crazy?! In the middle of the city?!”

“Crazy enough to not want an out of control alicorn near an energy crystal array and warp door!” Xenilla grunted as he tried to push back against Tidal Wave-Tia, “I can fly! I’ll just grab her with my hand and stop it!”

“Princess you need to get ahold of yourself!”, Twilight cried as she tried to push back against her mentor’s face and only managed to scrunch back her cheeks and expose her toothy maw. Which was still rambling.

“-DECIDESTOTHREATENMYLITTLESUNSPOT!”

Celestia’s rambles reached their zenith when finally her beloved student’s voice pierced through the haze, “andmostofall WHY HATH THOU PARTY IMPEDED ME?!”

The Royal Canterlot Voice she used put Luna’s to shame once again and broke about every single window for a good block. Xenilla, Lea, and Twilight had to physically grab hold of each other’s heads and clench their jaws shut to keep their teeth from rattling out. The trio managed to, after a good minute of recovery time from nearly having their eardrums ruptured, collect themselves and stood before her. Or more correctly a tired Lea and frantic Twilight got between a still flaming Celestia and an equally livid Xenilla with the son of Godzilla Senior not budging from getting between the alicorn and his workshop.

“Um eheh, Princess Celestia yoou think you could… maybe… cancel the fire show?”, Twilight chuckled nervously as she rubbed the back of her head, “Kinda intimidating to talk to.”

Princess Celestia straightened up and took in a deep breath, relaxing tightened muscles and exhaling at the same time the flames in her mane died down. It was only after she started looking more like her old self that Twilight realized how stressed she looked. Her breathing was a little bit more rapid, there were dark patches under her eyes, bits of her usually velvety fur and flowing mane were frayed, covered in ash, and messied, and her body posture indicated no small degree of haggardness. Yet her eyes were still determined, facing forward and locked onto the Crystal Palace aside from brief glances to her student. Twilight Sparkle frowned, landing before her and tilting her head.

“P-Princess, what is going on?”

Celestia flinched with taut lips, “Agh… I am.. Sorry, Twilight. I suppose I let the stress and fright come over me so much it made me tune out to what was around me.”

Xenilla grunted, “Pah, you’ve been rambling and breaking things for the last five minutes. You nearly ruptured my workshop and the energy surge field I had set up inside it.”

Twilight perked an ear up and turned her head towards him, “Which would mean?”

Xenilla, “If it reacted to the heat and magical energy she had been putting out in the way I think it would…”

Xenilla levitated up a piece of crystal in front of him that he charged with double of some of his energy loaned out by his glowing shoulder pads, the resulting fragment glowing and vibrating in increasing amounts until it exploded in a shower of dust. Xenilla narrowed his eyes and leered, motioning with a hoof to the building behind him to indicate what the demonstration was a scaled experiment for. Twilight and Lea’s eyes widened and Celestia finally took the first backwards step at she’d done in the hour.

“Your majesty,” Lea whispered as she stood up and looked to the alicorn at near eye level, “What happened?”

Princess Celestia sighed and dipped her head with closed eyes, “Been a thousand years since I lost control….”

The hum of her magic preceded the retrieval of something from the saddlebags the party just now noticed she was wearing. An old book with two symbols Twilight Sparkle was quick to recognize, one of Princess Celestia herself and the other of Starswirl the Bearded. The book was opened to a page that contained seemingly innocuous writing. Twilight squinted her eyes to look closer and see what the scrawling was about.

-Rainbow Dash… Attack? Rainbow hasn’t been attacked, and if she was why wouldn’t I know about before Princess Celestia did?-

She read on, eyes widened.

-Highschool? Burst into the house?... Out for me?!-

Her eyes could practically be as wide as dinner plates at the last line.

-From Sunset Shimmer?!-

“As you can see,” Princess Celestia muttered under her breath that clearly withheld wrath, “There has been an altercation. I need access to the mirror.”

=========================

“Be right with you, just gonna grab a snack from the machine!”, Sonata Dusk hollered over the crowds as she trotted behind the stage.

“Make it quick, movie’s in fifteen minutes!”, her big sister called back and caused Sonata’s already bouncy step to get a little extra spring in it.

Life was going good for the blue siren as she practically skipped to where the vending machines were out back. Chaos and calamity with a giant demon monkey behind them, she’d been on quite the upswing! Aria and Adagio didn’t fight anymore besides normal familial bickering, she’d gotten good working wi-fi set up at the house and was able to play with some online friends beyond at an internet cafe, their songs were hit after hit at the amateur competition circuit, and she’d even gotten Aria and Adagio to take up swimming! All and all, the home life was finally happy again and they all seemed to finally be able to find some enjoyment in being turned into naked walking monkeys.

She had just hopped out behind the outdoor stage to get to the vending machines when an unworldly cold bit into her exposed arms and legs. Sonata reflexively grabbed her extremities and tried to pull down her stage dress further to ward off the chills. Had she been more observant like Adagio might be in this sort of situation, she might have instantly knew something was wrong as it had been a temperate evening and a sudden chill strong enough to give a siren a cold snap couldn’t be normal in such weather. They might not be marine anymore, but it still took more cold to affect them than it might a normal human. But instead it just caused her to scamper closer to the vending machine to speed things up. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up when several shadows joined with hers and she turned around.

“Huh, who are-?”, Sonata muttered before being cut short by the three figures closing in on her.

The biggest one in a hood, a male judging from the shoulder span and height, grabbed her by her shoulders and pinned her down against the vending machine. Sonata gasped and tried to kick out, but a hand from one of the others stuffed onto her face and held her mouth shut to keep her from crying out for help.

“Can’t risk a siren singing,” a low tone grumbled to the two shorter members of the party.

Sonata, eyes wide with panic and emitting muffled cries, kept trying to struggle as she looked to her assailants. None of them were anyone she recognized, but the way the biggest one looked at her almost made her wish she was back in the mall with a non-friendly X chasing her down. The look was… hungry, predatory in a way, even if she couldn’t make out much of the finer details in their faces. The two shorter ones, one of which was wearing glasses, didn’t seem as enthusiastic and she almost thought she could see them frowning.

“Now, quickly! Before the other two investigate,” another one whispered.

The short one with glasses drew closer and outstretched a hand towards Sonata’s necklace. For a moment the siren’s eyes became alight with fear as the purple fingers nearly touched her siren heart. For a moment she felt a respite, remembering what Aria told her had happened with X. That unless given permission, the only one who could ever risk tearing her beloved magic and last reminder of home away from her was another siren. There would be a force barrier to throw the hand back and she’d have an opening to use her magic and get away! Sonata tensed and got ready, waiting for the barrier to flare up. But just when it looked like it was about to… it didn’t.

Sonata’s eyes widened and she looked to a hand clutching her necklace, feeling an invasive push into the magical aura that surrounded her. The violet hand was held by the male’s and somehow the two had pushed through the barrier. The hand on Sonata’s mouth from the shortest individual had slipped down somewhat just as Sonata felt the hands begin to pull back with her heart their grasp.

“P-Please no…”, a quivering Sonata choked out.

The shortest and glasses wearing individual flinched, but the biggest one yanked the hands back, tearing the gem away. Sonata’s eyes flashed and she gasped a scream that refused to come out, finding herself falling to her knees and clutching at her throat. The burning sensation, the horrid burning sensation felt like someone had wrapped a red-hot chain around her throat and made her swallow the rest of it! She tried to gag, tried to scream, but nothing could come out.

“W-What’s wrong with her?!”, a voice gasped.

The reply came from the first voice, “She has been separated from her magic, she’ll be a normal girl now. Twilight, you must contain it quickly!”

“R-Right!”

Sonata’s crying eyes tried to look up and she reached for the red glimmer through the haze of tears before it seemed shut away inside something. That begat a shock that all but sent her crumpling had a pair of hands not grabbed her from the third figure opposite 'Twilight' and the first form.

“S-Sorry for this, here. It won’t hurt anymore,” a uneasy and quiet tone muttered from the owner of the arms that were holding her up.

Sonata wheezed as she glimpsed a green light before it was snuffed away.

“We can’t do that, not yet!”

The arms holding her were pulled away and Sonata fell to her knees, still clutching her throat.

“But she’s in pain!”

“And she could have put a lot of others in that too, what do you think she was gathering energy here for? You remember what her kind do,” the gruff tone called out as footsteps began to lead away, “We have to go, before the other two come!”

Sonata pathetically tried to reach out, wheezing in a vain attempt to get her heart back. Her free hand felt bumpy, craggy, uneven skin across her throat........

In the present, Sonata Dusk absentmindedly touched the very ugly scar coloring her neck and upper chest. Sonata could admit to liking a lot of characters with scars. Lots of heroes and heroines had them, from serious retired swordsmen with a cross on one cheek to goofy revenge driven swordsmen with a dash on each side. Aria had a couple and she was pretty sure she saw a few on X. But those scars were either not too distracting from one’s looks if visible or were covered up. Sonata’s was blatantly visible and hideous, more like a branding mark covering most of her neck and upper torso. She swallowed and tried to force the memories back and ignore how raspy and rough her throat felt, instead exhaling mutely and focusing on the computer screen in front of her displaying “Victory!”.

The chat log lit up with familiar names

-WarHawk101: GG, Nice rush there AzureEve!

-RckrGrlKn1p: Nexus destroyed 19 min in before they could FF rage quit, new record!

-WarHawk101: Group up for another round?

Sonata smiled for a moment, thinking it over before shaking her head and typing in; glad that her ‘voice’ to the friends beyond still worked.

-AzureEve14: Thanks guys, but I think I need to stretch my legs and go out on a good note.

-AzureEve14: Need one. Thanks a bundle!

-WarHawk101: Take care!

-RckrGrlKn1p: Later!

Sonata exited out of League and sat back, feeling at her neck. She felt as good as she could from the small happiness of being victorious with friends and she could feel it. She chewed her cheek, thinking it through and noting how she always sang best when happy or dedicated. Might as well give it a try right?

She took in a deep breath, holding it down for a moment to make sure she didn’t cough it right back up. Closing her eyes to concentrate she grasped at the small fragment of joy she could still hold onto and let what she felt be said.

But when she opened her mouth, the only thing she got was a burning sting in her throat and a weak, raspy hiss who’s feeling made her choke on her own air. She tried again. And again. And again. Each time a more growingly painful failure. Sonata Dusk didn’t break down as tears stung at her eyes, she was too stubborn for that. If feeling happy wasn’t enough to try and bring back the lost vibes that helped her to sing, she was going to do more. She needed more familiarity. Her eyes drifted to the window showing the river outside and soon the back door was opened as she walked out, still trying to get more than a dry wheeze out of her throat.

Maybe getting her feet wet would help?

The back door opened and she slipped outside into the brisk midday air. Noises drew her attention and Sonata briefly glanced over to see what was going on. Aria, Adagio, and X were all at the front or side of the house, mostly out of view. Aria was running through her workout and martial arts kata in her exercise attire, though Sonata had noticed she’d forgone the long sleeve sweater in favor of her normal tank top. Had she been her normal chipper self, she’d probably have poked good fun at her cousin conveniently choosing to show off some more skin when X was present rather than the reality of probably just opting to forgo the bulkier attire now on account of the weather and wanting more freedom of motion. At least that’s what Sonata could imagine the flustered Aria snapping back. Adagio and X were conversing quietly while looming over something.

For a moment this gave Sonata pause. Her big sister and Aria’s likely significant other rarely spoke amicably to one another when they were running away from Enjin. Most of the time it was just Adagio trying to dig into X’s motives and information to glean something useful to her. But it was clear they were collaborating on something, freely sharing information like they were steadfast allies. She almost wanted to pace up and ask what they were doing, but she stopped herself midstep. A frown crossed the blue siren’s face and she felt at her dry, scarred throat.

Maybe she would have walked up and asked if she could talk effectively. Instead the smell and presence of water drew her back in like a moth to flame. She’d been born in the ocean, she spent most of her life surrounded by water. To her water was representative of home, the happiest childhood she could’ve gotten given the circumstances, a time Adagio and Aria didn’t butt heads before now, and the place her faded, dim memories of her beloved aunt dwelled. Being submerged was like being wrapped in a babe’s blanket, a comfort Sonata found herself running to.

And for a moment, she did feel it all around her. The cool and encompassing embrace that touched every speck of skin and nook of joint. Sonata felt a slip of liquid leave her eye and join the vastness of the water around her as it rushed through her hair and across her back. She felt peaceful again, the pain in her throat dulled. She didn’t need to think, just use instincts from a sorceress of the sea. She felt the comfort, the calm, smooth flow going across her. She was happy, jubilant even. At last, she tried to sing, tried to banish away the burnt, craggy feeling stuck to her throat on the outside and to her heart on the inside. She took in a deep breath, remembering Auntie Hymnia’s tune as Adagio and Aria retaught it to her!

And the very human, magicless Sonata inhaled a mouthful of water.

Adagio flinched, dropping the pen she’d been dragging across a map to scrawl out a shape across Canterlot City and Crystal City.

“Adagio?” X muttered as he tilted his head at the siren who had just been in the middle of the sentence she didn’t finish, “Why would Twilight Sparkle be at Canterlot Highschool if she’s enrolled in Crystal Prep?”

Adagio didn’t answer, only feeling a tug at her chest that made her clutch her necklace. The same tug she felt when Aria had been taken by Enjin and even more recently, when her baby sister was assaulted and mugged.

“Sonata…,” she whispered breathlessly before looking towards the river just in time to see a blue hand thrash above the surface before going under.

Adagio’s entire nervous system shocked and her eyes were wide.

“SONATA!”

Her scream was out as she bolted towards the river with a similarly stunned Aria and soon X in tow. Sonata Dusk sank to the bottom, rolling with the current as a limp body before three forms jumped in after her. X's hands grabbed the drowning siren and carried her to those of her pod.

It was a godsend Adagio was protective of her pod. When they found themselves human, that didn’t change. What did change was what might need to be done if a human got hurt. So she’d looked into fixing the issues that might arise should she not be able to get a human doctor. Multiple chest compressions, blowing breaths of air into Sonata’s throat, and a heart full of fear later resulted in Sonata Dusk gasping and hacking up river water, phlegm, and some mucus. Adagio Dazzle panted from exertion and held her little sister, letting her continue to cough and purge the water out.

Adagio Dazzle just tried drawing in her breath and slowing down her racing heart while doing the same for her sister. There might be a time anger born of worry could cause her to shout, demand to know what her baby sister was thinking. This wasn’t the time. Instead she and Aria just helped prop her up and rub her back to not interfere with her purging.

A shadow cast over them after a series of footsteps and she looked up to see Monster X looming over them. Aria and Adagio had both been so focused on Sonata they hadn’t noticed him pace away after Sonata regained consciousness and started coughing up river water and sick. After helping lift and carry Sonata out of the water, he’d stepped aside to let Adagio perform CPR. Now he was back, gently reaching out to touch Sonata’s shoulder and hold it.

“Will she be alright?”, he quietly spoke in a tone at odds with the situation.

“Y-Yes, for now,” Adagio heaved as she weakly nodded, having winded herself physically and emotionally while saving her sibling, “She’ll need a doctor to double check.”

“I can drive us,” Aria whispered as she helped hold Sonata’s head up, “You’re too drained to.”

Sonata hacked up and spat out the last bits of water, heaving for breath as sore, reddened eyes looked up to Adagio, then to Aria, and then to X. She shrank down and felt a salt sting at her wettening eyes, spurring Aria and Adagio to cradle her more. Monster X remained still, but the way he was holding himself and the look upon his eyes told Adagio he was frowning. He reached out and with the same hands Adagio had seen bash a door down and carry a load heavier than she was, very gently caress Sonata’s scalp until her shivers slowed. His eyes remained closed the whole time.

“Can you two take care of her?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Aria sighed as she looked up to him with a sort of understanding, like she knew what was on his mind in a way Adagio was clueless too.

X nodded and shifted. When Adagio saw him open his eyes again she would have gasped had she not been so focused on her sibling.

X’s irises were surrounded in a sea of black sclera, and the red in them was changed in hue from a dull crimson or cinnabar to a burning, almost bloody scarlet. He was shaking slightly as he got up and Adagio could swear she saw him growing slightly, muscles tightening up under the looser parts of his attire and his hair started to darken. He immediately started to pace away, biting back the pain of the transformation mid stride. She could now see that his copy of the Twilight Sparkle map he and Adagio had been working on was now visible in his other hand.

“X? W-Where are you going?!” Adagio called out as he started to storm off.

She was so confused she’d have risen had she not had Sonata on her lap and Aria’s hand on her shoulder. To her growing confusion, said cousin only quietly whispered, “Be careful” in a way Adagio could tell it wasn’t principally aimed at her. The purple siren knew that look in her significant other's eye, pure conviction working through wrath. At this point it was best to stand back and let him do his job.

Kaizer X’s fist was already so tightened down that his knuckles were whitened and popping even before it snapped to the side and backhanded his fist outward. It hit the flank of an aged old growth trunk that still erupted from the ground long after its tree had fallen over, instantly shattering it into a spray of splinters and moss. He didn’t say anything or do anything else other than momentarily glance back to the sirens, fully trusting Sonata’s safety to Aria and Adagio. They had their job, he had his. And he was going to drag Twilight Sparkle’s body, any condition above death being acceptable, back here by her hair if he had to!

====================

It took a lot of jury-rigging, but Princess Celestia was deadset. She’d stormed up to the Crystal Empire intent on accessing the magic portal mirror to access the human world. If it wasn’t working, Twilight Sparkle had found she’d come packing half of her and Starswirl’s old study notes. With enough raw magical power and a millennia of experience, it would have been quite possible to brute force it open regardless of whether the moon was correct. The Solar Princess’ plan, upon learning of some force daring to threaten the two young mares by targeting Twilight Sparkle and being around Sunset Shimmer, was to do it the ‘old-fashioned way’. It took a lot to get under Princess Celestia’s skin, but that was a way to do it. And if anypony could figure out how to get their magic working again in that world, it was her.

Thankfully cooler, not-formerly-on-fire heads prevailed and a new plan was drawn up. Remembering Xenilla and company’s explanation on how their installation worked and its shortcomings, Twilight Sparkle proposed an alternative that was readily accepted. To move the mirror portal to the doorway slot of the station and use the correspondence book between Princess Celestia and Sunset Shimmer as a tether to link the two places together, as was required for the station to work. And to much shock, enthusiasm, and triumph; the odd Frankenhoof compilation of Xenilla’s energy crystals, Starswirl’s books and mirror, the ingenuity of a research team, and plenty of motivation resulted in a success when the mirror hummed to life.

But when it came time to pitch the next part of what was on her mind, she got a colder response from a burning hot mare.

“No,” Princess Celestia grunted, “You’re not going.”

“Princess!”, Twilight pleaded as she looked to her mentor to try and pry Celestia’s eyes off the activated portal, “I should be the one going though!”

“No, you are not,” Celestia dryly noted as she peered at the alicorn with a face of stoicism her audience knew hid great concern, “This threat not only directly shows awareness of yourself, but it is abundantly clear you are their target. I’m already concerned enough for Sunset Shimmer, endangering you would only exacerbate the threat.”

Xenilla grunted and pitched his head while crossing his forelimbs, “Her majesty has a point. You yourself stated you largely had no magic when you ventured there. Now there is some super being, one with powers, trying to hunt you down.”

He sensed at the energy fields coming off all the ponies in the room. Key Ring, Sunburst, and the extended guard all have varying degrees to them. More than a human for sure, but largely small stakes compared to the infernos he could practically smell coming off of Mothra Lea and Princess Celestia. Princess Twilight Sparkle was somewhere in between.

“I admit, your potential might be vast but in terms of raw power even here you’re not the highest caliber Princess Twilight. If I had to gauge it, I’d say the amount of energy potential I can smell coming off you is about three eighths that of Empress Cadenza. In an unrestrained conflict between your might and myself, power and experience would leave an undesirable outcome,” Xenilla dryly noted.

Twilight tilted her head, “Um, define undesirable?”

Xenilla looked to her with a deadpan expression and grunted, “Admirable as your abilities are, you are young and not experienced. I have more power and been at war since you started primary school. I’d crush you outright.”

The young alicorn squeaked and Xenilla got a stiff glare from both Mothra Lea and Princess Celestia.

He held up his hoof in a motion to convey non-threat, ”I only speak in accordance to truth for caution. I swore an oath to protect the Crystal Empire and her majesty Sparkle is kin to both the royal house and beloved by the populace. Harming her is the opposite of any intention for myself. I’m only speaking of security and her well being. If the probable kaiju is a strong one and didn’t hold back, her safety would be in jeopardy. Princess Twilight, the fact of the matter is that Princess Celestia is,” Xenilla muttered while he remembered how hard he had to try just to stop her from advancing when she was dead set on that, “-and I bear little shame in stating it, stronger than I am in this state. If either of you two encountered a threat, she has both superior experience, knowledge, and raw power to combat it. And not just in magic.”

Princess Celestia shifted slightly to reluctantly make a point, popping several joints in her shoulders and neck. While her lean figure had long since become a beauty standard, anyone who would ever experience a physical motion from her would know that just as she was at peak or beyond normal magic potential for a unicorn; the same could be said for earth pony stamina, durability, and strength. The main reason the solar princess didn’t look very burly or bulky was mostly due to her tall frame stretching any muscles out to even her build, akin to the same reason Godzilla Junior and Xenilla’s unicorn forms were so physically strong without looking like Bulk Biceps.

“So if a threat is present, her going has the greater chance for success in a confrontation.”

Princess Celestia sighed and nodded, still tense but honestly a bit thankful somepony seemed to be speaking logically today.

But Twilight Sparkle wasn’t having it, darting out in front of her giant mentor and spreading her wings out.

“You can’t!”

“I’ve done this before Twilight.”

“And what about moving the sun?!”

“I’ll be gone for a day at most, Luna can tend to it.”

“And what about not causing a panic at your absence? You know how the populace is!”

“Luna’s glamor spells and physical disguises are a match for my own. She can be very creative.”

“But what if we lose you?!”

Princess Celestia paused and closed her eyes, exhaling slowly before lowering her neck down and opening her eyes to look directly at Twilight at the younger alicorn’s level, “...And what if I lose you?”

Her much quieter tone caught her student off guard and she shrank back for a moment. It sounded like how her mother might say that, and the fact her teacher had become a third parental figure was not something lost on either of them. But her backpedaling hoof soon dug its proverbial heel in.

“Princess… This entity, it attacked my friend. Right now it’s threatening my friends,” she shuddered and chewed the inside of her lip briefly, “... It knows of me, and is probably seeking me because of what I did and what I showed at the Fall Formal.”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips, “... You don’t know that. You’re projecting the blame baselessly.”

Twilight Sparkle frowned and shook her head, “There’s a very good chance the entity is a kaiju seeking energy, magic. And I not only allowed magic to be brought there, I was the biggest, the only source of it. Why else would they be after me? I brought this on my friends, maybe I can fix it?”

The frown slowly spread onto Princess Celestia, who was almost cursing the fact that sending her to Ponyville had made Twilight so empathetic before quickly taking it back. After all, that fact had helped her come so far even if she didn’t like where it was going now, “I know of your friends Twilight, but going would just be putting yourself at risk as well.”

“That would imply she’d go alone,” A voice called out behind them and caught both alicorns’ attention. Mothra Lea strode up to them.

“I will accompany her. The portal seems to be working fine and last time young Spike journeyed with her, I don’t see why I couldn’t to ensure her safety,” the disguised changeling smiled and winked to her friend.

“What about potential power loss?”, Xenilla noted as he looked to the Guardian of Mortals.

Mothra Lea just shrugged as she glimmered with a glowing energy that radiated across her vibrant wings like dazzling waves of sparks, “A kaiju’s power is biological and our very physiology relies on having them. Given we didn’t experience loss of powers here in these forms, no matter how different they're from our true selves, it stands to reason at least some of said powers will persist in a human body as much as an equine one.”

A dual glow of orangey red and blue light emerged from Lea’s wings and hovered above them, Moll and Lora dimming their glow to look about before bowing to Princess Celestia respectfully before gazing back at their old savior, Xenilla.

“We apologize for eavesdropping, but we can assure you there is no concern.-

-The Mothra lineage draws their power from their own mana, their lifeforce.-

-This is how they’ve maintained their magic even when Terra’s mana was largely depleted.-

-So as long as Lea lives, she produces mana and her magic will remain with her in any form!”

“Well, there’s my answer,” Xenilla noted as he couldn’t help but hide a small smirk at the cleverness of the argument, “But powers did diminish in our Equestrian forms. Should prepare for that if you turn into a talking monkey.”

Lea shrugged off the worry, “And if any losses are present, they’d affect the suspected other kaiju or failing that category, Equestrian threat, roaming about as well to even the playing field. If something happened, I’d be far from helpless.”

She noted with a smirk and earning a wave of relief from Twilight at finally getting some back up in the argument.

And she got some more when a little green and purple form slid down Lea’s leg from being perched on her back and hopped up to the princesses, “Not like Lea here would have a counterpart there to get mixed up with like the other Element Bearers. And she’d probably not end up a mutt like me either! Besides, if you go in swords blazing Princess Celestia; the crook might hide away and not come back out at all!”

Twilight Sparkle took in a deep breath and smiled, rubbing the top of Spike’s head, “Princess, I know there is a danger. But I’ve met danger before. I was the first of us to ever experience a kaiju attack, and I’d have the two friends who saw me through it right with me.”

“And hey, optimism? If it’s a kaiju he might be freaky, but not all of them are real nasty right? Last I checked there was an agreement to try and capture them alive and rehabilitate them. Don't get me wrong, seems like a bad dude threatening Rainbow Dash an all, but he could have done worse so maybe he's not totally evil and might be receptive,” Spike quipped as he motioned to his adoptive sister and Terran protector, “And who’s better at outstretching the hand of friendship than Twilight? And with Lea there we’d probably be able to tell who it is we’re up against!”

Lea nodded her head and put her wings around both of her companions, “And I’d guard them both with my life while doing it, regardless of who it turns out to be. Besides, experiencing a new world and portal magic might do some good for Twilight and I’s study of the subject.”

Princess Celestia remained still, unmoved but much to the party’s elation, not disapproving as she backed off slightly. Princess Twilight Sparkle bowed respectfully and put her hoof to her mentor’s.

“And if it becomes too much, we can still summon for help by getting to Sunset Shimmer and writing to you, or failing that Lea's faeries could call up that there is something wrong.

Moll and Lora bowed to Princess Celesia, "Our magical tether is strong, enough we can still feel our third member back on Terra. If something is amiss with Mothra Lea and a message from the book cannot be transmit, we'd feel it."

The younger alicorn nodded at the appreciated backup, "Equestria might need you and you might not be able to come, but there are the other allies we could call upon,” Twilight quietly said with a sweet, reassuring smile.

Princess Celestia took in a long, long breath in before finally exhaling out the tension she’d been holding onto for hours. With great reluctance, she nodded.

“.. On condition you partake with the utmost safety, you have my blessing for this voyage,” the diarch stated in her returning typically authoritative and kind tone, ”If help can be readied here at a moment’s notice should something occur.”

Mothra Lea, Spike, and Twilight Sparkle all shared a look with one another before smirking and nodding.

“Allow me a moment to issue out a ‘call’ so to speak,” Lea chimed as her antennae glowed, Moll and Lora joining hooves between them as Twilight put her horn to Lea’s to lend her power.

==========

Appleloosa

==========

Rodan let out a long, relaxed sigh as he slunk back into a chair still clad in his dance attire as he had just finished off another number with Phoenix Flamez. Much to the still cheering and applauding pair of parents’ glee, they’d managed to rope Rainbow Dash into joining in as Phoenix had a spare dance dress. The Guardian Beast of Air still remembered his puzzled comment at such a seemingly direhardly unfeminine mare, least by the standards he understood equine femininity, would want to dance and dress up; only to get his answer from an unexpected source. Rainbow ‘Radiance’ Dash Senior seemed to appear out of nowhere. Neither Rodan nor his flight buddy had seen her in the town prior but Rainbow Dash Junior hardly seemed surprised. Given the nature of her daughter being genetic, Rodan half suspected she sprinted here from somewhere else upon getting some vibe her daughter was going to dress up; dragging her husband in along the way.

Evidently the reason Rainbow Dash was less shy about dress up and more meek about her parents praising her was she used to do so all the time with her mother’s works and wares.

“No no no DON’T YOU-”, Rainbow Dash roared as she tried to speed by and swipe the picture only for an equally quick Radiance to pass it to her other hoof and proudly put her baby when she was a baby on full display.

Rodan’s brow raised and a laugh blurted out of his beak, “Ooooh my Tanaakaaa, you look good dressing in style Dashie!”

Phoenix Flamez’s eyes dilated and her mouth dropped open. Rodan’s ear was still ringing from how loudly the resulting squeals were at seeing the baby pictures.

Back in the present, the gryphon smiled and nodded to Thalia as the kindly barmare slid him over a mug of cider. But just as he gripped the handle and eyed the frothy liquid, a familiar tone echoed into his mind.

-“Rodannnn…. Rodan?... Rodan can you hear me now?”-

Normally one would feel startled, even shocked at voices literally between their ears, but Rodan was just momentarily surprised and smiled while absentmindedly looking to the ceiling on instinct to see what wasn’t there.

-”Oh hey Lea!”-

-”Ah, good.”-

-”Wow you must be getting better at this to pull this off such a long ways out!”-

-”Have some new help. I’m in the Crystal Empire.”-

-”That place Xenilla roosts in way up north? Wow that help must be good, I’m still in Appleloosa in the other direction and I can hear you loud and clear!”-

-”Thanks!”-

The new voice gave Rodan minor pause even as he recognized it.

-”Princess Sparkle?”-

-”Yep!... Oh wow this feels weird, sounds like your voice is coming between my ears.”-

-”You get used to it. Count yourself lucky, usually when Lea uses this she's screaming at us.”-

Lea’s tone came through with just a touch more tightened nerve and grumbling in her mental tone.

-”Not. The time. Rodan. There's going to be a situation. Is the Element of Loyalty with you?”-

-”Dashie? Yeah she's here.”-

-”Put your forehead to her’s.”-

-”One moment.”-

Rodan got up from his bar stool, where Thalia’s already confused look at his staring at the ceiling grew more so when the gryphon hopped off his seat and hovered over towards the west booth. Rainbow Dash, still in her stage dress, was chattering with Bo and Radiance alongside Phoenix Flamez when her flight buddy landed behind her.

“You sure you didn't want to use one of the stallion stage costumes?”, Phoenix chirped with a tilted head.

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry, “I’m a tomboy, but I can still rock a dress- Rodan what are you?-”

Rainbow was cut off by Rodan pulling her face up to his and pressing the base of his crests to her gnoggin, just as the Element of Magic called out to Loyalty.

-”Rainbow, can you hear me?”-

-”WOoooooah! What the hay?! Twilight?!”-

-”Telepathy, Lea’s patching us through. I needed to be in contact with you and headbump’s the most straightforward way.”-

For having literal voices in her head, Rainbow took it surprisingly well after a brief moment of befuddlement.

-”Huh… Okay then. What’s the situation Egghead?”-

Thankfully the tease was made with more enderment than insult, less they’d hear Twilight groaning over the ‘conference’.

-”Long story short. Got a situation in the human world and after making sure Princess Celestia didn’t get involved just yet, Lea, Spike, and I will be going to investigate. Princess Celestia however brought up the good idea of insurance plans just in case things get dicey when we get there.”-

-”There is a high probability the culprit of an attack in that world was caused by a transferred kaiju.”-

-”So, wait. The monkey-us got giant monsters too?”-

-”Humans Rainbow.”-

-”But you said they were primates.”-

-”Apes technically.”-

Lea hummed and shrugged, -”Point being, thankfully or unthankfully the suspected kaiju was also in a human form. Threat lessened in that case or else the attack might have been more widespread.”-

-”Who got attacked?”-, Rodan chirped, -”If I remember right, that world’s got counterparts to a lot of Equestrians. Any name I’d know?”-

-”... Well, Rainbow Dash actually..! Oh she’s okay! Shaken up but not hurt!”-

There was a pause, almost as if all four were looking at Rainbow Dash despite the fact none of them could see her on account of distance with Lea and Twilight and having their eyes closed like with Rodan.

-”.... Did not-me get some hits in?”-

-”Not the point Dash. Point of this is just in case our expedition needs help, we got the mirror working 24/7 so we’re going to have Godzilla Junior and Anguirus transfer and stay in the Crystal Empire for a time so they could be on call to be sent in.”-

-”Any particularly reason we’ll miss the party Twilight? I can get me, two of me is way too much awesome for one world to handle. But why not Rodan?”-

-”Well for starters it seems the kaiju would be a good help to call upon. Might be more experienced with the enemy if they turn out to be from Terra too and they’d lack a counterpart in the human world to cause confusion with.”-

-”Godzilla Junior and Anguirus are both… at least largely until recent events with Godzilla's recoil boost, ground based. So they wouldn’t suffer too much from it if they ended up in human bodies.”-

Rodan whined, -”Hey but you gals are going to be in a messy situation, I’d still want to lend a wing! I could be useful.”-

Lea’s tone shifted into a deadpan, -”You’d probably lose your wings.”-

Of which Rodan, the kaiju who heavily relied on air speed to give power to his strikes and dodging for defense, quickly responded with a quick, -”I’d be useless.”-

Rainbow Dash sniggered but thankfully Twilight swooped in to mend bruised pride, -”Or more correctly you’d be more useful here. The places most likely to be attacked, given kaiju are attracted to energy like magic, are Ponyville, Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire. Destroyah, Xenilla, and you are all capable of powered flight at varying speeds. Destroyah might be the slowest in the air, but she is quick enough to cover Ponyville and Canterlot with Junior and Anguirus leaving. Xenilla can stay here to guard the Empire… not even sure we could convince him to leave if we tried anyways. Which leaves you Rodan, or more correctly you two with Rainbow Dash aaaass…”-

The lightbulb went off in both Element of Loyalty and Guardian Beast of Air’s heads, -”The fastest fliers inall of the skies!”-

One could practically hear the grin and the prideful high-five the two shared over a well earned title. Lea chuckled, earnestly glad to see Rodan so well integrated with a good friend, -”Which means should one of those two need backup, or an attack happens elsewhere, your dynamic duo could be the fastest response and cover the most ground.”-

-”Gotcha, anything else we should watch for?”-

-”Other than my fleeting sense of irony given I just said we’d rely on Destroyah and Xenilla to not break things, no. I trust we won’t have much issue.”-

-”And if we do, help will be soon coming. We just need you two especially to keep an eye on things around here.”-

Rodan and Rainbow Dash in the conscious world and still touching at the forehead, both raised an arm and saluted, -”You can count on us!”-

Twilight Sparkle beamed, -”Knew we could! Wish us luck!”-

And with that the bizarre feelings of Lea’s reach faded and the supersonic duo exited back to the conscious world. The scene that greeted them was initiated by a gasp. Rodan and Rainbow Dash froze, peeking out an eye and looking around. Around the table expressions varied. Rainbow Radiance Dash Senior was quiet but wide eyed, having pulled down her sunglasses and giving the two a wide look. Phoenix Flamez’s wings were sticking straight up into the air as her ears were flattened and pointing back; and her pouting, half hoof-covered face was far redder than normal. Rainbow Dash nearly squirmed when she saw what looked like, dare she say jealousy flicker in the dancer’s eyes. Thalia, who had come over to the table was just whistling awkwardly.

“Do uum,” she chuckled, “You two want some privacy?”

“Uuuuuuumh,” Rainbow Jennifer Dash Junior muttered as her eyes trailed around, “What?”

Thalia motioned to the two of them. Causing the two friends to realize they’d been flush against each other, forehead touching and half holding onto each other the entire time.

“Oh oh! This will go great in the books! My super special awesome pumpkin’s first!”, a very eager Bo chimed as he snapped away several pictures with the flash half blinding both gryphon and pegasus before they recoiled back and away from each other.

“Yeeeeeeeeeuuck!” Rodan squawked as she shook himself off, “You’re still sweating from the dance!”

“Not like you’re a basket of fruit Rodey! You’re just as bad,” Rainbow snapped between gritted teeth.

“Lying mammal, I don’t have sweat glands!”

“Oh trust me, you don’t need to to reek the way you do,“ Dash muttered before she stuck her tongue out before she punched him in the arm with a hoof.

The flash of the camera caused her to whirl around and look just in time to get flashed again by a grinning Bo.

“Awww, my number 1 daughter’s first relationship spat! Oh oh! Honey, lean in so I can get you in frame and try to give her advice!” Bo cheered.

“Weell, not the sort I expected but you two do fly beautifully together!” Radiance giggled as she leaned in and wrapped a hoof around her daughter to pose, “Now, my little Dashie the first part of a healthy relationship is-”

It was lucky his wife was holding their daughter, least Bo would have been tackled by Rainbow Dash in a bid to rid her father of his offending camera.

“Give me that! It’s not what it looks like dad!”

================================

After a swirling haze of lights and colors that greeted her when she stepped through the mirror, Twilight Sparkle yelped as she landed, now on two plantigrade feet, upon terra firma. Swinging her arms about to try and regain a composure of balance, she stumbled about briefly but managed to keep steady after relying on old muscle memory.

-Humans, how oh how did such creatures learn to walk bipedally without a tail to balance them?-

Groaning as she shook her head, she managed to turn herself around upon hearing the chiming of shifting magic. The surface of the school statue she’d emerged from wavered like a curtain of moving water. A small furry form was spat out and moving towards her in mid-air.

“W-Woooah Twilight!” the little purple and green dog yipped.

“I gotcha Spike!”

The small hound was caught in the now young woman’s arms, almost knocking her over as he caused her to hop back on one foot and throw her weight back forward to avoid bowling over. Twilight Sparkle sighed in relief, Spike instinctively wagging his tail and nuzzling her happily as he was put back to the ground. The puppy glanced about for a moment.

“Where’s Lea?”, he muttered with a frown growing across his face.

The expression spread to Twilight and she pursed her lips, “I’m not sure she was with us in the void so I’m sure she got through the mirror-”

Twilight couldn’t finish her statement nor thought for the statue shifted again, this time more violently. Dealing with something it never had before and a mass amount of power indicative of Mothra Lea’s true form, the process had taken slightly longer. But soon enough, the void spat out another young woman who came into the human world calling out and her arms flailing.

“Bwaah! What the-”

Both Twilight and Spike hopped up to the occasion, “We gotcha!”

Twilight grabbed the stumbling woman by the arms and shoulder, pulling back hard to keep her from falling forward. Lacking size or mass, all Spike could do was grab onto her shoe and pull back on it with all his little puppy might. They all three still ended up falling over in a groaning heap. Twilight Sparkle moaned and rubbed her bumped head, managing to pick herself up and grasp the shaking, light teal green hand to pull.

“You okay, Lea?”

The Guardian of Mortals mewled like she had a horrible headache as she tried to stand, “I went from six legs to four and now to two. I might be a shapeshifter but this will take a moment.”

“Well, silver lining?” Twilight muttered with a smile as she helped the wobbling woman up.

Spike hopped over and sat at their feet with a beaming smile and nod as he held up a paw like he was giving a thumbs up, “You’re lookin’ good!”

Maybe it was because her true form was often considered beautiful even by those fearful of kaiju, maybe it was some side effect of coming into the human world still in her alicorn disguise, or maybe it was some inner beauty shining through to a form visible; but one way or another the effect was true. Mothra Lea was a stunner as a human in terms of natural beauty.

For one, she was tall in a similar manner to her changeling form about a head above the youngest alicorn. Twilight would easily peg her as similar in height to Vice Principal Luna or even slightly moreso. Her build was slender, but more in a lean manner rather than a modelesque form as she had some visible muscle toning like what one would expect of a gymnast or swimmer. Her skin tone and hair color had carried over from her changeling form, though her odd iris colors had blended together into a gem-like turquoise iridescence much like her alicorn form. Her arms were decorated in what one would recognize as Polynesian tattoos, matching the ones her faeries wore. They trailed up her arm and onto her back. When Lea was stumbled forward, Twilight saw an outline resembling Mothra's butterfly wings marked upon her shoulders.

“Hehe, uh, thanks Spike,” Lea chirped as she carefully patted the little pooch’s head and looked herself over while testing her limbs, “Will take some getting used to, but I am familiar with transformations. Shouldn’t be too long.”

“Pretend you got a board strapped to your back you gotta keep upright,” Twilight quipped with a shrug, “Helped me.”

Lea pictured the mental image and worked with it, lining up her torso directly atop her hips and keeping her form rigid and straight like she was in the situation described. After some practice and much arm waving, she managed though it took some muscle memory for her to stop holding her arms curled like they were hooves in the manner they had been for the past few months.

“How’s your mana, still feel it?”

“Hm, let’s see…”, Lea whispered as she closed her eyes and concentrated, meditating to feel at her own life force. Like the radiating heat of a flickering flame, she could still feel it. And with some coaxing and stoking of the proverbial flame, it ignited.

Just a tad more literally than intended when her eyes opened and a purple prism beam spewed out of them, firing out into the air and bisecting a branch of a nearby tree. Twilight yelped and a yipping Spike shot up into her arms. Lea’s eyes glowed to a gradual dim and she blinked a few times before shaking her head.

A wide eyed Spike nodded, “Yep, I think you got still got it! Just uh, little warning next time please?”

Lea grinned awkwardly as she rubbed at the back of her head, never losing her sunny disposition, “Ehehe, sorry.”

A familiar red car drove past carrying several passengers whose heads all collectively turned and looked to lock eyes with a similarly stunned Twilight. Flash Sentry’s car screeched to a halt and four young women rapidly spilled out to rush them.

About a two kilometers away, the pounding of concrete snaked down the backstreets in tandem with a set of heavy footsteps. In a blur of motion, a dark form quickly scaled and vaulted themself up a street light pole, superhumanly strong fingers slightly bending the metal in grip and spurring several sparks to drip down from the structure. X looked about from his vantage point, ignoring the rare passerby who noticed and momentarily gawked at the oddity. But aside from an odd snapped photo on a phone or two, the weirdness tolerance for the citizens of Canterlot made them pay the sight little heed. Fortunate, as he was very keen on not letting anyone or anything get in his way. A quick check of the map caused him to turn east towards the school.

Closing his eyes, he reached out with the probing ability keen to all kaiju or kaijin. It might be diminished in this human body, but it was still present. And he sensed Equestrian magic, a flare of it and some sort of energy discharge not far away. In this world that could only mean one thing if it wasn’t a siren. X’s lips curled and he gripped the light post a bit tighter before strong legs launched him off of it, across roofs tops and sprinting towards the east.

-Target acquired….-

Author's Note

Proofed by Lance Omnikron and Faith-Wolff!
Artwork by Faith-Wolff!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
"Don't. Interfere," the snarl carried visible strength as the iron grip clenched around the throat before he tossed her aside.

Before he could fully turn aside and retarget, a voice cried out.

"HEY!"

A brief flare of orange hued light shot past him from behind. Senses detected a spike of Equestrian magic for a brief moment, spiking and fading in herald to the thrown glass bottle that shattered across the back of his head. He actually stumbled from the surprisingly heavy force above what was to be expected from a normal pitch, pausing for a moment.

Pinkie Pie cringed and Rarity grimaced as Fluttershy ducked behind them with a squeak. Applejack just stared at Kaizer X and her outstretched arm, surprised herself at what just happened.

The Xilian-Ghidorah cracked his neck, before whipping around with a burning glare. An inhuman growl one would expect from an angered panther hissing out.

Jacklyn "Applejack" Susan Apple never was so honest, "Ah shit."

Omake: Gojira tai Chibi-Tsuki - Furīkī Furaidē

Author's Note

Made this just for fun and to decompress after an extremely stressful and busy week.

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron
Artwork by Faith-Wolff!

Omake: Gojira tai Chibi-Tsuki - Furīkī Furaidē

Various assorted plush toys, articles of clothing, and scrolls bounced off the walls after being flung across the room. Mariner Chibi Moon looked at the clock and her pigtails stuck up on end in fright when she saw the time. Not even chugging half a liter of coffee could calm her down now!

“Kuso!” (Oh s***!)

She practically had a panic attack, now knowing she only had a full hour and a half for prep. Her eyes quickly darted amongst her belongings, which were in much disarray given her room looked like a hurricane had blown through it. But they were quick to train upon an old, slightly ornate box partially tucked into her shelf. She closed her eyes and tried to take in a deep breath to stifle her shuddering. Only quivering slightly now, she drew the box in her magic and took it into her hooves. It wasn’t particularly large, only about 20 cm tall by 40 cm long by another 20 cm wide, all in all only slightly larger than a human would consider a shoebox to be. Upon the visibly aged wood and pattern-coated metal bands crisscrossing it was a familiar lunar symbol, one not that different from her cutie mark despite the box clearly being much older than the filly. Chibi bit her lip and glanced about, both to the side then upwards like she was worried somepony might be spying on her from both the mortal coil and beyond. She had hoofie-promised her mother and father not to open this until her sixteenth birthday, but desperate times called for desperate measures!

She put her hoof in the lock and bit her lip, hoping the little bit of inheritance she’d already gained would be enough for the seal to recognize it. Biting her tongue and concentrating, a few drops of sweat rolled down her face as her cutie mark almost seemed to blink with a dim light for a brief moment.

-Come ooon, why isn’t it working?-

She shook and tried to rear up on her hind legs briefly, impulsively shaking the box up and down as if thinking that would somehow jostle it loose. She squinted her eyes and threw her weight up and down so much she didn’t notice one of her hind hooves had caught on a bed sheet when she stumbled back, causing her to slip over.

“Eeeeeep!”, the little filly yelped when she fell over and tossed the box up.

Not much sooner after she fell over face first into the floor, the lockbox came falling back down and pinged off her head.

“Ooouooooooww!…”, she groaned in pain while rolling over and rubbing at the spot on her head that was sure to welt up into a goose-egg.

However, she paused when she saw a flash of light in her peripheral vision. She picked her head back up and her blinking eyes were quick to snap open when she regained vision and saw the box before her. The metallic seal on the front forming a lunar crescent moon symbol seemed to break apart and wind up like clockwork, rearranging itself and changing in display almost like the moon going through its phases. The symbolism was not lost on the little filly. The waning of a full moon just meant the coming waxing of another. The symbol rearranged into a full moon and there was a click, the seal of the box blinking with a light before it popped open.

Chibi Moon gasped and squealed, “I did it!”

Her tail now wagging, she sat herself up and pulled the box over. Her eyes were agape at the contents inside, even if they seemed rather mundane by most standards. Mostly it was a bunch of old scrolls or letters written in neighponese. Most of them had their seals broken, having been read beforehoof; however, the most modern envelope remained unopened.

Pulling through them slowly, Chibi Moon cooed at seeing the aged writing and old photographs. Some of the records grew so old in dating that the photographs went from colored, to colorized, to just black and white before they were replaced by charcoal etchings or paintings. Each time it was the same subject, even if the individuals changed. Six individuals in total standing in a group shot, five female and one male. The former were mostly kirin does and occasionally pony mares, though every so often a gryphon or mermare was included as well, dressed in blue, green, red, yellow, and pink in the pictures or paintings with color. Flanking them each time was a dark-clad, masked male, most often a kirin buck though Chibi already knew the most recent envelope would show an earth pony stallion standing next to a blue-clad unicorn mare. That most recent envelope contained the initials for her parents on the back and though Chibi already knew it would contain a memoir from her mother and picture of her parents’ team, she respectfully put it aside and left it unopened for reasons beyond not wanting to get caught in five years.

Some things are best left to wait for, it was the other letters and memoirs that had her drooling. A thousand years of records by those who faced dark magic on a daily basis and left behind advice for their successors. This would be perfect!

A half hour later and she was groaning, throwing her head back and whining while childishly kicking her hooves. Chibi Moon grunted as she put the next memoir away, crossing her forelimbs and pouting. She expected super secret special magic arts of the utmost secrecy, so she’d scanned almost every last one for clues that might give her an edge. But much to the fuming filly’s chagrin, it seemed all her predecessors were a bunch of saps! Crystals and caring and caring and crystals, stuff she expected out of an early-morning cartoon or one of her comic books alongside stuff far out of reach.

-Knew I shoulda asked mom if I could borrow the wand for just a little while! Even dad’s silly flowers might work with a good flair!-

In truth, she’d been scanning the letters so much she’d skimmed over almost their entire contents and barely even read them, much less understood them. At this point, she was just wondering if her parents intended to troll her by making her wait this long just to open an envelope with her baby pictures, or if there was something surprising inside.

“Whyyyyyyyy are Senshi sooo boooring now?!”, she groaned after pulling out the last memoir.

However, before she could read it one item caught her attention. Mariner Chibi Moon paused and perked her eyes, setting aside the scroll that contained, unbeknownst to her, the original ‘Moon Senshi’s Super Secret Special Magic Arts of the Utmost Secrecy’; and she picked up a small sack. Judging by the sifting inside it, it seemed to contain a powder or sand with a small label attached to the outside.

She read the tag aloud, "Convergence formula, based off of Mistmane’s design. To provide understanding between parties. Mei Hino, 28th Lunar Senshi.”

Her ears perked at seeing the same surname as her godmother.

-A Hino? Must be an ancestor to Mrs. Mars.-

She turned over the tag, expecting more, but was quickly met with befuddlement when all that was present amounted to a date. More specifically, tomorrow. Chibi Moon stopped to ponder for a moment on why something that had to be at least 200 years old would have a date so close to the modern time, so she searched for an answer. The tag was worn, evidently damaged before it had been stored away, like part of it had been burned or torn off. But when she looked very closely she could just barely make out the top part of some word in the corner.

-Sho.. Shou...Shoumikigen?!-
(best used by)

“An expiration date?!” Chibi squealed.

Thoughts raced through her mind. She didn’t quite know what this would do, and it appeared she only had one dose. But it didn’t seem to be destructive magic and that’s what she needed pronto! And she’d lucked out and gotten to it a day before it apparently expired. If mom taught her anything involving magical items, it’s that they tended to get wonky past a certain date. Chibi Moon couldn’t fight a huge sigh of relief. Seems disobeying her parents and casually disrespecting her predecessors slightly might have just gotten her out of a jam!

Securing Mei Hino’s magic powder into her saddlebag she hopped, skipped, teleported, and jumped to the front door of her room. But when she rushed out, she found herself charging face first into a solid wall of fur and muscle. She pinged off a wide forelimb like a bouncy ball would a brick and landed on her rump.

“Someone’s in a rush.”

The voice calmly noted, Chibi instantly recognizing it and when she looked up she had a grin on her face and stars in her eyes.

“Sensei!”

In an instant she sprang up to him, briefly teleporting into the air to reach his face. Landing on Godzilla Junior’s muzzle, Chibi Moon hugged it as she wagged her tail happily. Junior chuckled in a humored manner.

“You seem happy,” he muttered while rearing his head back and swinging his neck around to slide her off his face and deposit her onto his back.

Chibi Moon, too gleeful to show her other emotions still lingering, just voiced them, “Terrified actually! But less so with Best-Sensei here!”

Junior paused and cocked an eyebrow, as much at the context as he was the seemingly cheerful way she said it, “....Nani?”

“Sensei,” Chibi Moon chirped as she looked up at him, “After drills, can I borrow you for a few hours after you drop me off at school?”

“Uuum, sure? Princess Luna doesn’t wake for another ten hours and Captain Frost insisted I have a day off,” he muttered with a mildly perplexed look upon his face, “What is it you need?”

“Moral support,” Chibi piped.

“.... Eh?”

After an hour of training, in which Chibi focused so much on her magical work she never clarified exactly what she meant to her teacher, he ended up asking her the same question and got the exact same answer. And then made the exact same noise and confusion as they quickly found themselves standing in the halls outside the large auditorium, the very same one that they first met months back during the entry exams. Fortunately, most of the students were not awake, those enrolled in the school largely having this as a holiday based off what Godzilla could infer from a couple of posters and their lack of presence. Which just made the situation all the more confusing to him.

“Chibi, what’s this about?”

Junior’s questioning tone drew over the ears of a filly who was digging into her saddlebags. She drew up a tiny tag and scrunched her face, running some scrying spell over it to try and divine out some message she might have missed. She didn’t reply and spurred her sensei to repeat the question.

“Chibi, what is going on?”

“Moral support!”

Her barking chirp barely answered anything.

Junior grumbled as he looked at her but she kept toiling away at her work, “For what?”

“I just!-”, she squirmed and frowned both from the conversation as well as her lack of success at finding some hidden message, “-I need it okay!”

“....For?”

She snapped her head up and flailed her hooves, “Reasons!”

Godzilla Junior’s face deadpanned in annoyance. He opted not to press further, getting up and starting to pace down the hall while giving an exasperated shrug.

“Where are you going?!”, she yelped with a plea when he started to walk off.

“Just pacing, calm down,” Junior grunted as he turned around and went back over his steps to prove his point, “Just finish whatever it is you’re doing.”

Chibi Moon breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief, bowing to him multiple times before plopping back down on her rump in fiddling with something that looked like a satchel the tag was attached to. Godzilla Junior glanced over at her as he passed by and shook his head slowly.

-She's still a child, children act like this. Her mane is drooping and she’s fidgeting every time she talks. She’s clearly stressed out about something.-

He groaned and snorted, turning around and walking the other direction again while eying his surroundings for clues.

-Don’t have anything better to do anyway. She’ll speak up or I’ll find out soon enough.-

He had just gotten to the other end of the hall when he paused. There was a very slight shift in the air, no more than one would expect from someone opening the door around the corner at the end of the hall. And within that air, Godzilla recognized a smell.

His eyes briefly widened and then narrowed. He rapidly power walked back the way he came and went by Chibi Moon at a rapid pace.

“Eh?” The filly piped as she looked over before her face contorted into a grimace, “Hey!”

She and her project disappeared in a flash of pink light, reappearing in front of Junior.

“Where are you going?!”

“Away for a moment,” Godzilla grunted as he tried to make for the broom closet behind his student, only for her to figuratively and literally levitate in front of him.

She'd been practicing that ever since she learned how her teacher copied her recoil propulsion trick, currently managing to just barely hold herself up to his height enough to grab onto his face. Junior just kept walking forward with her attached to his head, not even noticing the added weight. Chibi Moon, thinking he was dragging her away from the auditorium, yelped and flailed about.

“No no no! You need to stay!”

“If I don't move we’re both going to get into a mess,” Junior grunted as he tried to make for the door.

Voices were beginning to trickle in from the other side of the hall, indicating multiple individuals starting to approach the round of the corner. Chibi still refused to let go of Junior’s face and in fact turned around to brace her back legs against the doorframe to try and push them away from it.

“Please! The testing begins soon, I’ll fail!”, she yelped between tears stinging at her angry eyes.

In truth her attempts to push them away didn’t do anything to avert his course with force, the strength and sheer mass difference between the two was far too great. Instead, Junior only paused to try and maneuver his head so she would be pulled away from the door and his attempts to enter would not result in her twisting or pulling a leg.

Patience drawing thin he ended up grumbling and shaking his head to try and dislodge her, “Chibi, Princess Luna herself called you a magical prodigy. If it’s some sort of test I’m sure you’ll do great and I’ll only be gone for a-”

“You can’t leave now! No! No! No! No! No! No!”

The 11-year-old was showing her age as she desperately clung to his face. Junior growled, not knowing what had gotten into her as he angrily griped back while trying to pull her off in increasing desperation. Unable to safely dislodge her without hurting her, he resorted to just turning to the opposite end of the hall and started to run down it, dragging her along for the ride. Chibi angrily shouted back incoherently, creating a wall of magic in front of them behind her hooves that forced Junior to tilt his head up so that when he smashed into it he didn’t pin her between his face and the wall. Grunting from the effort as he bulldozed through the magic barrier, the giant unicorn was knocked off kilter and now effectively blind.

Any passersby would’ve seen a rather bizarre sight indeed. An angered King Godzilla Gojo Junior running down the halls with an equally livid Mariner Chibi Moon on his face, the big unicorn’s path bending and twisting unevenly enough to result in him dinging off multiple walls or obstructions; all while the two angrily rambled in Japanese/Neighponese. Both due to the obscured line of sight and not looking in the proper direction, neither of them noticed how Chibi Moon’s saddlebag was glowing. At first, it was only a little trickle of light, then a sporadic series of small bursts. And then, a torrent.

A flash engulfed them both and subsided in the span of a minute.

Two young mares rounded the corner, a pair of unicorns seemingly between Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance’s age if one were to guess. While contrasting in colors, one coated in lime green fur with a teal mane and the other sporting a white mane and orange body coat, they’d both be quite fetching by Equestrian standards even if they curiously sported manes that had a reflective dampness to them that indicated they were wet, despite it being a clear day outside and the rest of their bodies were largely dry.

The one up front, the lean built green mare paused as she looked down the hall with a raised eyebrow.

“Huh,” she muttered while leading the other down the long hall, each glancing about like they were looking for something, “Could have sworn I- oh sorry miss! Don’t mind us!”

Though she spoke with a chuckle as she and her friend walked off, her audience was just more confused than anything else.

-... Miss? Nopony’s ever called me that. Weird thing to s-!!!-

Mariner Moon flinched up when she realized something. The door to the auditorium, the same one she’d been fretting over all day for the test, looked a lot lower than before. In fact, the whole hall looked smaller, like someone cast a shrinking spell. She rapidly snapped her head around to look about, so stupefied she didn’t notice the suspicious lack of giant stallion sensei with her. That’s when she first got a glimpse of her hair. When she rapidly swung her head around, the momentum tugged up a massive twin-tail far longer and puffier than her typical girlish puffy pigtails. Chibi Moon’s eyes widened.

“Nani?”

She pulled up a hoof, clearly able to see her limbs had grown considerably longer and accounted for her boosted height.

“Nani?!”

Pulling forth her hair resulted in her dinging her forelimb on her now much longer horn before she managed to pry forward some of her mane, confirming there was a mane much larger and near the length of her mother’s attached to her head, a yank on it confirming it wasn’t a wig. Mariner Chibi Moon’s eyes widened and she whirled around to look at a window. Looking back at her wasn’t a cute, bouncy little filly. Instead a young, but still fully grown mare similar to Princess Cadance in age was peering back at her.

“NANI?!”, she lurched up to her hooves, almost falling over due to being unfamiliar with such long limbs.

She froze when she heard a high-pitched grunt behind her and swung around, eyes quickly training upon a little green-hued colt. He wasn’t particularly large for his age, barely coming up past Mariner Moon’s hips. As he groaned and rubbed at his head, having fallen out of Chibi Moon’s considerably larger tail, she could see he actually was a bit on the chubbier side with light green fur and a tanned yellow-green mane arranged in a curly set of clusters that resembled a rounder version of Godzilla Junior’s spiky mane. The resemblance was even closer when she noticed the trademark pale patch across his shoulders and nasal ridge below his tiny no longer bent horn. Even before she saw his cutiemark, Mariner Moon recognized him instantly when the colt’s burnt gold eyes opened.

And when a now eleven-year-old Godzilla Junior looked up to the now twenty-five-year-old Chibi Moon, he recognized her as well.

Several golden seconds of slack-jawed, stunned silence ensued before they both cried out so loud one would swear it caused the whole school to jump up into the air from being startled. However the shrieking wasn’t what got everyone’s attention, but what followed. Both Mariner Moon and Junior flailed about in recoiling shock and in the pandemonium, the former misgauged the reach of her hooves and ended up accidentally stomping down on her now shrunken Sensei’s tail. Junior’s eyes bulged and he clenched his puffing cheeks like he was about to belch, only holding it in for a moment before an uncontrollable burst of blue plasma spewed out. Thankfully the beam only shot out a thankfully open window, but the convection heat was enough for the ceiling mounted fire sprinklers to detect and respond accordingly.

A half hour later and the fire wagon was pulling away from the now reorganizing school. As the crowds of students and teachers dispersed back into the building, the now grown Chibi Moon found herself looking at the same duo of mares from before. Her eyes narrowed and brow lifted perplexingly, noting how the pair seemed to be looking around for something or somepony before shrugging and going inside.

She pouted and pondered for a few seconds before a tiny voice squeaked behind her.

“Are they gone?”

Mariner Moon glanced over at the shrubs next to her and saw a pair of little eyes peering at her from it.

“Who?”

“Those two mares from before,” Junior grumbled.

Mariner Moon looked up to visually confirm they had indeed gone inside before nodding, “Yep, they’re gone. What’s gotten into you?”

Junior, still the size of a young colt, paced out of the bushes and leered, “Other than the fact I feel like what I haven’t been for two decades!”

Mariner Moon’s ears drooped from his high-pitched, squeaky snap while also trying to keep herself from laughing.

“I recognize what they are….”

Her drooped ears perked and she tilted her head, “You mean who they are?”

Junior sniffed the air again, looking into the direction the duo had gone; a curious detail to his student given she knew he hadn’t seen which way they had gone.

“Yes, but that's not what's the problem. They're Nixie and Ondina, I'm sure of it, that’s the less important part. They’re mermares,” he grunted with visible annoyance.

“R-Really?! How can you tell?”

Junior just shrugged, “They smell-”

“-Sensei how rude!”

“-like fish,” the kaiju corrected before he awaited a response that didn't come verbally.

Instead, he got bopped on the head by Chibi Moon’s hoof, quickly snapping around, “What was that for?!”

Mariner Moon’s face had gone from pinkish to reddish and one could practically swear they saw her fur standing upon on end, “Sensei how rude! You don’t go around saying ladies smell like fish!”

“What, they were dripping wet and reeked of it! Just like on Mako Island. Surprised you didn’t smell it yourself,” he deadpanned.

At this point, Chibi really was red in the face and now her twin tails were sticking up on their ends like an enormous pair of rabbit ears.

“Agpaop,” she sputtered incoherently whilst waving her hooves in front of her back and forth, “N-None of that! Too much information, too much information! B-Back to business!”

“Yes, business…” Junior snarled as he jumped up in the air with steam gushing out of his ears, one could practically swear they heard the roar of the monster king gushing out with his shout, “LIKE HOW YOU TURNED ME INTO THIS?!”

Mariner Moon mewled and cried out as she ducked down and covered her ears. Multiple passersby outside the school gates were greeted to the extremely perplexing sight of a seemingly grown mare getting barked at and hiding like a child from an actual child scolding her like a parent would for misbehaving. At least they couldn’t understand what was coming out of their mouths on account of both student and teacher reverting to their native languages, especially when Mariner Moon started yelling back.

By the time the shouting match wound down, both of them were huffing and out of breath.

“A-Alright!...” Junior panted as he pointed to his student, “You got us into this, you gotta fix it or I find someone who will!”

“I-I said I don’t know how I...I…!!!!” Mariner Moon jolted up and dug into her saddlebags, which had slipped off her back after the change.

Drawing out a familiar sack that once housed a special powder, she turned it over to find it had been emptied. Mariner Moon’s eyes dilated and her ears flopped.

“... Kusoooo… It was the powder,” she mumbled.

“What powder?”

Mariner Moon took in a deep breath and sighed, “Spell powder I was gonna use for my retake test.”

Her now shrunken sensei tilted his head in visible confusion, “... Your what? You mentioned it before, what test?”

The hot pink mare sighed morbidly in some measure of defeat, “Yesterday I found out I was on a list by the administration sent to the Dean. Schools here are different than back home but I know if you get sent to the dean, you’re in trouble. With how much I scared the teachers on the entrance exam, I know I’m gonna get kicked out.”

Junior blinked momentarily before his traits softened some and his voice lowered in volume, “Are you really sure of this?”

A frowning Mariner Moon nodded, “Fifteen on the list, fifteen slots on today’s entry exam. They’re gonna replace us… I-I thought maybe if I retook the exam with softer, prettier magic they would take me off the chopping block. Your training in control helps a-a lot but, I wanted to be sure....”

Her ears drooped noticeably more and her expression all but broke her sensei’s heart when the bottoms of her eyes started to gain a wet glisten, “So I broke into my deposit box early and kinda stole an ancient Moon Senshi spell powder that was supposed to give others understanding. I-I thought maybe if I used it in the tests the teachers would understand, just in case things went wrong.”

“... Staying here really means that much to you, huh?”

Mariner Moon nodded with her neck hanging so low it practically made her face touch the ground, “I finally have some friends. I have my sensei. I want to stay in Canterlot, learn magic, make my parents proud of when the time comes for me to take the role. And now that I’m like this, I’ve doomed my academics…”

A gentle nudge touched her forehead. Mariner Moon peaked out an eye to see a little, but a familiar set of eyes looking back at her with a tiny smile.

“Hey, one way or another you’re going to be a great successor to your mother’s role if that is what you choose. You’re young… despite some,” he motioned to her body which now dwarfed him, “-recent events. Maybe you get back on track, maybe you find a new track. I got where I was because I had to, as far as I understand with this Senshi succession gig you have a choice.”

“B-But the trickle of power from my mother to me has already started since I was ten and I did nothing so far to stop it!” Mariner yelped as she pointed to her cutiemark, “The world will need a Moon Senshi when she retires! I-I don’t even know what might be happening to her now that I’m practically fully grown! There can't be two at the same time at the same age!”

Junior’s face hardened somewhat, but not in an angry manner. In truth he probably couldn’t even pull that off reliably looking the way he did now, “And my mother, wisest soul I know, told me about putting too much weight on your shoulders when growing up. I heard it too late, you haven’t. Look, before you worry too much think of this: I don’t do magic much, but I knew something as far back as Terra from Lea. If you can do it, you can undo it.”

Mariner Moon frowned slightly while she did perk her ears up to listen, “But I don’t know how… I don’t even know how this powder was made.”

Junior, “Well, where might you get information on it or magic?”

“... The lockbox, or failing that the library. Either way, we need to stick around for awhile.”

The colt motioned to the school behind them, “Sounds like we need to head in there.”

He got up and started forward, but a pink hoof shot out in front of him and slid him back, “W-Whoa hold up problem.”

“Which is?”

Mariner Moon looked like she was about to say something when her hair sprung up slightly and her cutiemark glowed. The moon making up its image seemed to wax slightly, growing fuller. Instantly her face lightened up and she cast a level of assertiveness that made her sensei more confused than anything.

“... There is no way we can go in as Legendary Warrior Monster King Godzilla Gojo the Junior and Lunar Senshi Successor and Kaiju-Trainee Chibi Moon!”

Junior’s brow lowered at both the sudden, almost campy change in tone, as well as the flowery titles that seemed both too long and redundant in labeling in an attempt to look imposing or important.

“... What’s with the massive titles?”

Mariner Moon clutched him closer to herself, “All the manga I read does it! Even the weird one's mom and dad won’t let me read from their shelves!... Point is, we have a mission and we will let the world know we’ll succeed with such grandeur!”

“I’m lost.”

“Fret not noble Sensei,” Mariner Moon yelped as she sprang up with him placed upon her back by her magic, “For while I face expulsion if I am caught and you threaten hampered ability and notoriety if discovery is made of your condition, I have come upon our solution!”

She swung a hoof out and pointed to a poster upon the school’s walls. Following her line of sight and reading the poster, Junior wasn’t sure if he should be more worried about her sudden change in behavior or the content of the poster. Eventually, he just gave up and shrugged, cuing Mariner Moon to march them to the attendance office.

“... Just keep me away from the mermares… This is about to go full Showa Daiei.”

Full Daiei it was indeed, Showa edition, all the way to the attendance office.

“And you say you want to enter your… nephew into the school, Miiiiss?”, the attendance clerk, a swarthy old unicorn mare muttered with a raised eyebrow and perked glasses as she looked at the seated forms of Mariner Moon and Godzilla Junior.

“Black Moon is the title of which evildoers know me as!”, Mariner ‘Black’ Moon decreed in her still overly theatrical voice that at this point was really beginning to worry Junior. At the very least the now stronger Neighponese accent and deeper tone along with a slightly different cutiemark kept the clerk from recognizing Chibi Moon.

The clerk looked between ‘Black Moon’ and the seated colt for any sign of familial resemblance, finding none to be spoken of. She was also fairly keen on how uncomfortable the colt looked, mistaking Junior’s confusion and awkwardness around his now grown up student for shyness.

“And, who would you be young gentlecolt?”, she whispered as she leaned down with as pleasant a smile as she could manage.

“Uuum, uuuuuh-” Junior grunted as he looked to Mariner, having been caught off guard since they got there and not knowing he needed a pseudonym.

‘Black’ Moon looked at him and paused with a hum in the back of her throat.

-Christen him with a name, yes! All good children require such so that parents can call out such a title to warn them of danger, such as crossing the street without looking! He is little, now Sensei is chibi. Hmmm no, ‘Chibizilla’ would be too close to my name and we are trying to dissuade attention! Hmm, a synonym for chibi iiiiis mini! Yes, Mini-zilla!... No no, that’s not right. Minilla? Mini… Oh oh! I have it!-

Her face brightened up and she pulled her ‘nephew’ into a hug, “He’s just shy! This is my beloved nephew, Minya!”

Godzilla Junior’s eyes shot open and twitched. He heard the sound of glass snapping and cracking between his ears, and yet he didn’t know why. He just barely managed to summon the mental grit enough to nod his head.

“Uuuh huh,” The clerk grunted as she pulled up the papers and started to scrawl some notes down, “Iiii don’t believe we have you down for the reserved entry slots to our school, usually parents or legal guardians write ahead of time to reserve one…”

“Oooh hahaha, the jests you make fill me with laughter! You see, as you might tell by my curved horn, we are from Neighpon!”, ‘Black’ Moon yelped as she motioned to her gleaming horn.

The fact there was a pony population across the ocean was common knowledge, chiefly descendants of a large expedition from the years before the founding ended up getting misdirected by currents. Landing in Neighpon, the ponies assimilated to the local kirin culture and intermarried between them. In the centuries past, there was limited flow back and forth between the lost expedition and Equestria, allowing a couple physical differences to emerge. While Chibi Moon’s horn might have only looked marginally arched as a filly, it was now much more obvious and almost antler-like, the side effect of a kirin ancestor.

“And while I come as the humble envoy of my elder sister to shepherd my dear nephew, I assure you a written induction was put forth!”

Finally, Junior spoke up, “W-we might have… beaten the letter here? You did rush dragging me into the office.”

The content wasn’t a lie, even if the context was.

“... Huh, well,” the clerk hummed while organizing her papers, “Thankfully all the slots are not filled for today, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue. He clearly speaks Equestrian just fine… And not as rapidly as that filly-”

‘Black’ Moon zoomed up to her and leaned over the desk, “What is it you say?!”

“Nothing nothing!”, the clerk flailed while holding up the paper atop the stack, “Calm. Doooown. You need to just fill out this form and wait to be called up when the entry exam occurs this afternoon. I’ll write you up two guest passes to the campus.”

‘Black’ Moon and ‘Minya’ let out a huge sigh of relief, the latter tugging the former back to her seat.

“However,” the clerk muttered, "Since your nephew is a last minute sign up from a foreign country, he’ll need to complete the pre-exam to use his entrance exam slot this afternoon. He’ll be the only one taking it today and if he gets in he can have the 15th slot we have open. We probably won’t fill it anyways.”

‘Black’ Moon and ‘Minya’s’ faces both flattened in tandem and they both thought the same word.

-KU!-
-SO!-

Exiting the office, Junior whirled around and grabbed Chibi Moon by the face to pull her down to his level.

“What were you thinking?! You put me in a magic exam?! ‘Black Moon’ I barely understand small-scale levitation!”, he roared in a high-pitched squeaky voice complete with a youthful voice crack.

“Hassle not Legendary Warrior Monster King Godz-”

“And what is with that voice?! Seriously you’re talking like a cartoon character from Japan badly translated!”

"And given a weird Dub by DiC?"

"Whatever that is, yes!"

‘Black Moon’ fidgeted and flinched, arcs of pink colored magic zipping across her body in such a volume Junior was forced to let go. She spasmed and jumped up into the air with stiff legs, leaning back down with a dazed look on her face and glow upon her cutiemark. Now the moon was about one-third full, having grown from last time. Chibi Moon’s head wobbled on her shoulders and her voice was slurred so much it was unintelligible. Gripping her head, Chibi Moon groaned and shook it to clear the stars in her vision while her horn continued to spark. She froze up before sinking down under her haunches and sniffling.

“Iii can’t stop iiiiiiit!”, she whined in a manner unbecoming of a grown mare, showing her true age.

Chibi Moon sniffled and sobbed, causing Godzilla Junior to frown and pace over to her. He was frustrated, afraid in some ways, and more than a little annoyed; but he had to stay mindful on how old his student was. Looking like a late twenty-something or not, she was still an eleven-year-old little girl.

He pawed at her side and held up his tail in a hoof, “Heeeeeere.”

Chibi Moon took hold of it and thankfully didn’t blow her nose in it, rather just dried out her eyes.

“Ar-ar-arigato Sensei,” she sniffled.

Godzilla Junior, the sensei one fourth his student’s size, shrugged.

“You’re the magic expert of the two of us, so I’m gonna count on you to fix this unless you want me to go to Princess Celestia and Luna or Princess Twilight,” he muttered with a frown.

“I-Iie iie iie!” (No), Chibi moaned pleadingly, wrapping her arms around and grabbing her shrunken teacher’s hoof like she might when their sizes were normalized, “I might get expelled! I think can fix it, I promise!”

“Well you’re gonna have to make it quick before my absence gets noticed too much. Last time it wasn’t me waking up Lulu-", he paused when he saw Chibi Moon's eyes dialate with stars and grunted, "Princess Luna, she flew across a whole continent and bashed her way into another royal’s castle to find me.”

“I-If I can get to my room or the library still, I’m sure I can make a counterspell.”

“And then I gotta flunk out of the pre-exam-”

Chibi Moon’s eyes widened with a dawned thought, “You need to pass it!”

“... What?”

“If you pass it, then flunk the entrance exam, that guarantees one last new student to replace those on the list I’m on!”

“Chibi, how do you expect me to pass any sort of magic test? Let alone flunk one.”

“I remember the pre-exam, it’s mostly to make sure foreigner students are able to speak and write Equestrian fluently and know the history! You can pass it easily,” she yelped, but her sensei wasn’t convinced.

He shrugged whilst waving a hoof, “Okay okay, say I managed to make it that far. What about the actual exam? If I don’t do any magic in front of them they might get even more curious and start prodding more. Or, they might think I’m just having some off day and ask me to come back.”

Chibi’s eyes brightened, “Your beam!”

“Eh? But it’s not magic. Lea tells me it’s plasma and photon-”

“No no no,” Chibi muttered as she waved her hooves back and forth, “You know that. I know that. But the teachers don’t know that! They only know King Godzilla can do that, and they don’t think you are King Godzilla! Heck, we’re even more lucky that you went through a color change and your horn isn’t bent anymore, looking less like yourself. Lots cuter!”

Junior kept a wary eye out for any marine mares about as he crossed his forelimbs, “Thanks for reminding me… But if they think it’s magic would they possibly let me in? If I get accepted and then ‘Minya’ falls off the face of the map, it’s gonna get even more confusing.”

“Trust me, if the judges are anything they’re judgmental.”

“Is that right? Who’d have thought?”, Junior deadpanned.

“Remember my entrance exam? They really seemed like they were considering booting me out until Princess Luna started cheering,” Chibi Moon said with a neutral expression that hid the pain behind a slight smile, “They seem to worry with any entry that isn’t the cute, peaceful magic they like, thinking it’s bad unless changed like they try to do with me. They don’t always accept the gifted, just the ones they like. Standardized I think it’s called.”

Junior paused and frowned, putting a hoof on the filly-mare’s leg, “You know they were just trying to help you afterward. And you don’t know for sure if they would’ve let you in or not.”

“Yeah,” she sighed while shifting uncomfortably and casting her eyes down, “But I still feel like you were the only one actually teaching me.”

“We both got our legacies to live up to, I know that more now since you told me about your folks. I wanted to help, besides my sensei would whap me over the head if I passed up the chance he took with me,” Junior chuckled as he lightly punched her shoulder.

“We’ll get this situation sorted out, I’ve been in far worse,” Junior sighed as he held up his hoof, “I scare the judges, you get a counterspell.”

Seeing the signal and knowing what to do, Chibi sniffled once before smiling and putting her hoof to his in a hoofie-promise. Felt very weird not having to see him hunched down to do this with her.

He waited to speak until her smile came, glancing at her cutiemark, “Sooo, what’s the deal with the random speech pattern changes? It came out of nowhere and you said you couldn’t stop. Something you recognize?”

Chibi Moon winced, “I-... I think I’m sounding like my mom during her work routine.”

=====================

Meanwhile in Neighpon

A golden-maned, pale-furred unicorn mare stood tall against the tapir-like monster lurking about behind an old neighponese styled house. She was pretty tall for a mare, possibly due to kirin genes, and had a body type remarkably similar to ‘Black Moon’ except she was wearing a tiara and her hairstyle consisted of two longer but narrower twintails that were straighter and less curly than the comparison’s. Thankfully to any viewers, her dialogue had translated subtitles for convenience.

“Halt you fiend!”

The yellow and brown creature, a baku, flinched and looked back to the mare facing it.

The mare struck a pose with her forearm pointing up to the moon above, “Dreams are the substance of aspiration to the children of this world! My kind has been fighting against the nightmares of reality whilst your kind is supposed to dutifully devour the nightmares of the mental realm! But you have crossed a line in gorging on the ambitions of the helpless as they slumber!”

The moonbeam shined down from above and revealed her to the baku, crystal blue eyes leering, “In the name of the Moon’s light, I shall punish you!”

She intended to hurl her tiara at the creature. Just conk it on the head and drive it off so it would get the point. After all, baku weren’t evil like the more malefic yokai about, so it was more akin to a problem bear who kept breaking into people’s trash. Unfortunately, a spark of energy shot through her and she convulsed for a second while she was in the process of hurling her tiara. As a result, her aim was off and the metallic, far heavier than it looked, weapon masquerading as jewelry arced over the tapir-yokai’s head as it was energized with magic. The Lunar Senshi’s jaw dropped as it boomeranged back towards her and the magic convulsions acted up again, making her unable to move out the way.

-Uh oh….!-

The mare was unceremoniously clobbered in the face by her own weapon and stumbled over, the baku being just as confused and curious as she was. The Senshi warrior was paralyzed, twitching on the ground as stars clouded her vision even as the baku loomed over her. Its trunk sniffled at her and she could feel it poking her with its hoof-like index finger while it tilted its head. Suddenly a streak of red shot through the air and lodged itself in the ground next to the downed mare. She wisely closed her eyes just as the baku grunted in curiosity. Just before it could wonder who threw a rose at it, a burst of magic flew out of the flower like a bolt of lightning. The flare of light, acting almost like a flashbang, caused the baku to yip and scamper off back towards the woods in a daze.

A set of hooves beat the ground and a grey stallion in a cape, white domino mask, and top hat brought the dizzied mare into his lap.

“Hey! Hey! Bunhead, you okay? Naoko above, your mark!”

Mariner Serena Moon groaned and gripped her head as she flinched and sat up in her husband’s grasp, looking to her cutie mark and seeing the former full moon emblem had begun to wane. At first, she was just as shocked as Ensemble Darien Shroud, as after all her mark’s diminishing should be gradual as it was with all Senshi. After so much time as one, the mark would begin to wane whilst growing on their successor so the power transfer wasn’t abrupt. This both helped to train the successor, ease the predecessor into retirement, and also allow them to have time to cancel the shift should the successor not want it. That’s how it was with her and her predecessor, and both she and her team were quite surprised when the lunar mark started to show up on her daughter. But at this point in time, she still should have been at a good 95-98% power with her little Chibi having only but a trickle.

-And there can only be two at once maximum, and the age scales with the waxing and waning. So that means….!-

Her face scrunched up into a frown and she looked at her husband, “... Sweetie, Chibi just did something.”

“How do you know it was her?”

She looked at him plainly, “.....”

Ensemble shrugged, “...Right, forget I asked. She does take a lot after you.”

Mariner Serena Moon ignored the comment and gritted her teeth.

“Our daughter. Is so. Grounded,” Serena snarled with crossed arms.

End of Part 1

Chapter 44: Righteous Clash

The ride in Flash Sentry’s car and the reunion were alike in one measure: they were both rushed. The reunion was met with much enthusiasm, at least after the initial shock the remaining Human Five and Flash Sentry had upon seeing Twilight Sparkle back wore off. But while elation was a welcome change of pace for both groups, the reality sunk back in quick when Flash Sentry brought up the urgent text messages the group had gotten from Sunset Shimmer.

There wasn’t much time to catch up or explain what was going on with Mothra Lea, something Lea herself was privy to when she pushed past Twilight and motioned to the car.

“For now, all that is essential is that I am called Mothra, I’m a friend, and I’m here to help. There might be something very dangerous around here and I need to talk to your friend to find out if it’s what I think it is,” the Guardian of Mortals noted as she awkwardly tried to climb into the car.

Applejack popped the door open for her, “And what do you think it is, sugarcube?”

Lea shrugged as she tried to ignore the sheer oddity of being inside a car for once, “Well to put it in terms understandable given past situations…”

Spike thankfully picked up what she was laying down as he hopped into the car, “For now, let’s just say big monster, probably counts as an alien, in a human skin.”

Already being acquainted with magical entities, she-demons, and enchanted equines either through experience or observation, the Human Five and Flash Sentry just glanced at each other, then towards Lea as she was petting Spike, and finally at an awkwardly shrugging Twilight.

“... Works for me!”

A few minutes later, Flash was trying to get them to Sunset Shimmer’s apartment at the speed of his namesake. As they rode, Lea was able to observe the five humans in detail. While she hadn’t spent as much time with the Element Bearers back in Equestria as she did with Twilight Sparkle, she was familiar enough with them personally and by word of mouth to figure out their characters. For the most part, things seemed fairly similar with this group to an almost uncanny degree. The differences seemed more slight than anything else, such as the human Applejack not having as thick of an accent due to possibly growing up in a town rather than raised in a barn or this Fluttershy being marginally even less talkative than her equine counterpart.

Flash Sentry was a bit of an outlier as the most she knew of his Equestrian counterpart was that he was tutored by Twilight’s older sibling and was mostly in the Crystal Empire as part of Princess Cadance’s entourage, as Lea never really met him in person. One thing she did notice however was this one’s interactions with Twilight. The hint of red in Twilight Sparkle’s face when they spoke and her adjusting her hair subconsciously was obvious to both Lea and, evidently, the other females in the car. But what got Rarity muttering something to Applejack was Flash’s reactions; or lack thereof.

-He’s being courteous enough, definitely a kind soul and acknowledging her; but his mind is elsewhere even if he’s trying to hide it.-

Lea puzzled as she saw how even when the car was stopped and Sentry was talking to someone, even Twilight, he barely looked over at anyone to talk and instead had his eyes transfixed on something unseeable ahead.

-Sentry’s not ignoring her but... He’s not nearly as reactive as she is, or receptive. Everyone’s focus is on Sunset Shimmer and Rainbow Dash mostly, but there are some things unspoken.-

She sighed and leaned back in her seat, trying to relax and meditate to both make light of the situation and focus on her powers to try and rein them in. They were there for sure, but in this new body she could tell she wasn’t at 100 percent. She’d need to practice or at least hone herself. Fighting without flight, if it came to that, was going to be hard enough. And then there was the matter of Rainbow Dash’s attacker.

“Applejack,” Lea noted calmly whilst keeping her eyes closed.

“Hm? Ye’?”

“What was Rainbow Dash’s description of her attacker again?”

Applejack pursed her lips and tapped at them as she drew up her phone to double check the text from Sunset. It was a morbid one in content and she couldn’t fight a frown, Sunset stating she sent it after she finally got Rainbow Dash to sleep or pass out after 4:50 AM.

“Let’s see ‘ere… Tall, masculine soundin’, really damn strong and quick on ‘is feet, red eyes… er... glowing red eyes.”

Numerous other passengers cringed at the descriptor and Lea puzzled as she put her palms together.

Twilight looked over to her friend and saw her meditation, “What’s up?”

Lea kept still and her eyes closed, a slight glow forming around her hands that grabbed everyone’s attention. Mothra maintained a steady breath and focused as much as she could, feeling at the auras and energies all around her.

“Thinking it over to see if I can narrow down the list of who the attacker might be, if they’re from where I’m from. All living things give off an aura of mana, which I can detect,” she explained.

“Ah, like that spell Princess Celestia and Luna know that showed ours?”

Lea nodded, “I used to use something similar on Terra while meditating to figure out if an attack was approaching and warn the other Defenders. Kaiju give off a much stronger aura than other beings on Terra, and that holds true even in these forms.”

She strained slightly, “Though, this world has a lot more free flowing energy than Terra does. It’s harder to detect the contrast.”

Twilight Sparkle’s brow furrowed, “Wait, but this world doesn’t have any magic.”

Rarity tilted her head, “Um, Twilight? Then what about that last Fall Formal?”

Twilight cringed and rubbed the back of her head, “Oh oh no! I mean, free flowing magic to the degree of Equestria. What we pulled off I always chalked up to my crown being here and you all being Element Bearers back in Equestria. Besides, wasn’t it the first time it’s happened around here?”

There was an awkward silence amongst the native humans, Flash Sentry glancing at the girls in the rear view mirror.

“Sooo, you girls wanna tell her or should I?”

Twilight paused and looked between them while Lea went back to focusing on her scan, “... Tell me what?”

Fluttershy giggled apprehensively and pulled out her phone, flipping through her files to get a video she started before quickly holding out the device for Twilight Sparkle to see. The video showed them at a music room with apparently Fluttershy holding the camera and showing it focused on Rainbow Dash.

~”Okay, r-ready. Pony-up sound check”~

Rainbow Dash spun around her guitar, ~”Alright time to shred!”~

She smirked a wide, toothy grin before ripping the pick across the strings. The electric model guitar let out a quick series of musical pings to an impressive tune Twilight was soon nodding her head to slightly as she wondered what was the matter. She promptly got her answer when Rainbow Jennifer Dash Junior the human started to glow.

The former alicorn’s eyes expanded, “No… Way…”

With another loud riff of the guitar, the light burst from Rainbow Dash’s back. Her ponytail grew out more to resemble its namesake, her ears lengthened and pointened, and a pair of cyan wings came into existence. The rocker bellowed in delight as she started to lift off the ground. Unfortunately before she could begin to fly, her foot caught in a loop of her guitar cable.

~“WAHOOO-huh?!”~ she yelped before the cable went taut and yanked her off in a different direction, ~“What the-!”~

The video froze as she began tumbling to the ground, the blurry forms of Applejack and Flash Sentry rushing in to frantically try and catch her from her airborne spill. Twilight Sparkle was still speechless and slack-jawed a good ten seconds after the video ended.

“Aaaand closing up,” Spike muttered as he pawed up on Twilight’s chin to make sure she closed her mouth.

“Been happenin’ whenever we play music a lot,” Applejack shrugged.

“Sunset Shimmer, the only one of us who knew much about magic after you went home, said it might be tied to the last Fall Formal,” Rarity added in while scratching the side of her head.

“Only ones who know are the Flim Flam shopkeepers, the D-Dog boys, Trixie, Vinyl Scratch, and yours truly,” Flash Sentry added in, "The gals wanted to only try this out in a few spots just to be sure until they knew exactly what was going on.”

“Has Sunset had any instances of this? She was exposed to magic at the Fall Formal too.”

All the natural humans alternatively shook their head or groaned in confusion slightly.

“Eeeeh... we don’t really know, she’s never tried playing anything. Least not while I’m there,” Flash shrugged.

“Yeah because she doesn’t even try when you’re not around lately, Flashy,” Pinkie Pie half whispered and half muttered in a way not lost upon Twilight.

But before much more could be said the kaiju in the car chimed back in, “Well there is a lot more magic about than just a few spots. Something other than you lot must be using magic or spreading it. Or it was already there dormant and something is waking it up.”

From Lea’s perspective, half the town was covered in blots of it. Random passersby had bits of it clinging to and fusing to them without any of their notice whatsoever. Mana was all around like a fog of variable thickness almost to the same degree as Equestria in a few spots.

“There is mana and magic all around us,” Lea winced as she noticed an oddity, “And…”

Spike leaned in closer, “And?”

Mothra Lea grunted and forced her detection through the fog. She glimpsed something. A high energy source, one that was moving but distant. Or at least it had been. It went away for a moment, only to come back in another spot for the briefest glimpse through the fog.

“Agh, wh-what’s on our left?” Lea muttered.

Fluttershy, the one sitting further to said left, looked over through her window, “Uuum... uuuh... strip mall... Vinyl on a grooving walk... and, huh?”

Applejack leaned over closer to try and see to little avail, “What is it?”

“There’s,” Fluttershy tilted her head to look around, “Someone on the light pole?”

The dark form lurched its head down and instantly she felt a line of sight go straight through her with a gleam of red. Fluttershy shrank back instantly and yipped, “Eeep!” as everyone looked a bit to their left and Flash slowed the car down.

A glimpse was caught of something atop a roof jumping behind a store’s edge but its fall seemed off, like it floated for a moment before hitting the rooftop several streets away. The wave of energy it used was picked up by Mothra and on instant, all the hairs on her body stood up.

She recognized that type of energy, and she recognized that aura. A graviton discharge from a massive body of energy. She started to tremble from memory both fourteen years ago and from Final Wars.

“No… no no no!”, she gasped, earning Spike and Twilight’s attention.

“Huh? Lea? Lea are you okay?” Twilight grimaced as she tried to shake her friend out of the meditative trance.

“He’s dead... He’s supposed to be dead!”

“Lea!”, Spike yelped as the former kaiju started to act almost hysterical, shuddering and quivering. Soon, she was thrashing.

“He’s dead! He’s dead!”

Twilight yelped as she tried to hold her friend still with Spike, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie soon joining in.

“Hold ‘er still!”

“I’m trying! She’s in a trance!”

“Well, snap her out of it!”

Fluttershy looked to a confused and worried Flash Sentry as she held onto her seatbelt, “Um, brake jolt?”

Flash Sentry grimaced as he turned them into a side road where he could safely speed up, doing just that.

“Rarity, grab the pooch! Hang on folks!”

Rarity rapidly nodded and did just that before Flash suddenly slammed on the brakes. The whole car roughly rocked forward, but thankfully everyone’s seatbelts saved them from the worst of whiplash. Lea was jostled forward and then thrown back, her eyes snapping open and she was forced into the fully conscious realm.

She panted hoarsely, breathing heavily, “... Why is the car stopped?”

Flash glanced back at her through the mirror, “You were losing it. Are you oka-”

Lea huffed and shot up towards him, her eyes and tattoos glowing and sparkling, “We have to go, NOW!”

“Lea’s what’s-”

“He’s coming! King Ghidorah’s coming!” she shrieked with a flashing glow forming across her eyes.

Flash Sentry didn’t know who or what that was, but her fright, the fact her powers were acting up, and her previous freakout gave him all the convincing he needed. He revved the gas back up and soon they were trucking along at a brisk pace through the emptier part of the town. Gradually, Lea’s panting became quieter and more contained. Twilight placed a hand upon her shoulder and frowned, hoping the terror had passed.

“It’s- it’s okay Lea, that monster is dead…” she whispered, remembering all too well what was said about the happenings at that fateful plateau.

Lea’s wide eyes didn’t close any and she was breathless, “No, he’s here…”

In the span of a second, a blur was glimpsed and something landed on the hood of Flash Sentry’s car with enough force to dent the body covering and crack the windshield. Fluttershy yelped and Flash swore, leaning back due to being in the front seats, the latter fishtailing the car in an effort to keep it going straight. Gold and black blew across the visible windshield as piercing red eyes glared through the glass. A form unfamiliar to any Terran looked over the passengers before his eyes sharply darted to Twilight Sparkle.

She expected a demand to get out, some beastial snarl, or a raging growl. She got nothing, and that silence was even worse. The monster leaped off the hood and climbed over the convertible roof, his feet bending the metal supports out of shape. The car was filled with pure pandemonium of surprised squawks, shouts, and screaming, especially when the monster’s fist burst through the roof, tearing a massive hole in it that he soon widened. Eyes locked upon the purple young woman, he reached out to seize her and Twilight threw herself to her left where Applejack was yanking her towards. Lea stared at the attacker, seeing familiarity and difference all at the same time. The distorting gravity that twisted the air and caused loose objects to begin to freely flow and burning red eyes were all the same, but the composure was completely different. The first two words in Grand King Ghidorah’s name were at least deserving in how he carried himself, a regal poise that exudes power and confidence. This was rage, as pure as it was focused with its epicenter directly locked on Twilight Sparkle.

Bending the metal frame of the car roof between its fingers, the attacker lurched forward to grab Twilight when Lea reacted. Throwing herself upwards with so much force it burst her seatbelt and bent a dent into the car’s floor with her heels, Lea launched herself at the monster and tackled him away. The dark-clad figure and Lea tumbled off the roof of the car and into the air, crashing through a wooden fence leading to a demolition yard. Wood fragments and dust flew across the ground as the two rolled several yards, but quickly shook off the effects without any lingering daze. Teal and red eyes quickly looked to one another and both transformed kaiju slowly started to rise.

About seven meters away, Lea studied the entity. The raw power was undeniable, but the manner and appearance were all wrong. This wasn’t Grand King Ghidorah, but it seemed just as dangerous. And honestly, that unnerved Lea just as much.

She drew up her breath and got to her stance, her tattoos and palms beginning to trickle with light that collected in her eyes and forehead as well.

“You’re a kaiju, aren’t you?”

It paused, but she couldn’t tell if it was listening to her or not. She could only hope for the best while bracing for the worst.

“I don’t know which one you are, and I feel crazy for saying this, but we don’t have to fight. A lot has changed as of late and I’ve seen some kaiju change in ways I never expected. You’re after magic for energy-,” Lea paused at her own thought.

Her own analysis of the surroundings confirmed magic was about in this world, and the reveal from the video showed beings beyond Twilight Sparkle were capable of emitting it. They had speculated this kaiju was after Twilight because she was the sole source of it and it was gunning for the energy. A theory that had just been disproven by the video of Rainbow Dash as well as all the trace magic suggesting another powerful source was nearby that exceeded Twilight’s current output.

Lea looked to the kaiju, seeing it was looking past her and instead focusing on something else. She followed its line of sight, looking and seeing Flash Sentry’s car working its way to turning around after the impact of the kaiju landing on it apparently damaged the axel or engine. Its eyes began to flash and glow with a golden light Lea was all too familiar with. Suddenly, the actions and its rage made sense of what a faulty theory had not.

-It doesn’t want Twilight for energy so it can return to its true form. It attacked her friend, sent a message, to draw her out while it could get what it needed elsewhere. It wants her for something else!-

And it was charging a graviton beam in the same direction of the car containing Twilight and the others. Lea’s face hardened and her teeth grit with fury.

-Oh no you don’t!-

She threw herself forward with an explosion of light.

============================

Kaizer X wasn’t quite sure if the rage he felt was purely on account of the threat to his beloved and her family, the fact Sonata nearly died in a horrid fashion because of what this witch did, or if it was the side effects of being in this form and giving some of Kaizer Ghidorah’s personality more influence. Frankly, it didn’t matter.

What was beginning to grip his attention was the interference, the source of it being the woman who’d tackled him off the car. She was saying something to him, but he paid her almost no attention. Her raw force proved a threat, but there was something more dire at the moment he needed to tend to. He couldn’t let that witch get away after managing to track her down.

He was trying to be thorough and quick about this. The less time he took to capture the offender, the quicker the sirens’ situation improved with three magic users to help assure their safety and the quicker he might be able to track down what he had been deployed here to find. His master had detected a source of unique magic that wasn’t the sirens and sent X after it, even if it was weaker than the sirens.

-Was confused then. The master seems more set on acquiring powerful magic, but I’ll take the good fortune that I wasn’t aimed upon Aria and her pod again. The master has its reasons and might even have known of Sonata’s attack given I was sent in right after the fact…-

X could briefly entertain the hope that his wise, benign employer was aware of his ties to Aria and knew such a bond would motivate him to attack the transgressor. He had already speculated the siren’s attackers and the magical source he’d been tracking were one in the same.

-Those with power either cultivate it or crave more. This is the latter.-

He took aim at the back of Flash Sentry’s car. He was sure he could outpace Twilight Sparkle on foot and he knew he had already damaged the car as intended when he landed on it judging from the smoke and mechanical grinding he heard from the undercarriage, but he was unsure of the extent of the damage. He might have a good grasp on how strong he was in this human form as normal Monster X, but in his enraged state using Kaizer Ghidorah’s power, he was trying to be careful not to overshoot. There were three souls he knew he had it out for, Twilight Sparkle and her two cohorts; and there were seven in the vehicle. That meant there was a bare minimum of four innocents in the crossfire and he wanted to minimize the chaos in Aria and company’s home range. Still, he had to disable the vehicle and was thus taking very precise aim at the backend of the automobile, focusing on the closest rear tire.

The intent was to loose a small burst of a graviton flare and destroy said tire, crippling the human’s car. But his aim was thrown off when a surge of mana and plasma struck him in the chest. Kaizer X barked, his eye beams raking across the ground and hit the side of a parked wrecking ball crane right on the joints that attached the crane to the base. The metal warped and buckled from the impact, a few locks snapping and the crane head with the sphere attached came crashing down on the fence. Amidst the dust and debris kicked up by the tumble, Kaizer X stumbled back to his feet and glared at the neon rainbow glow leering back at him. He shrugged off the smoke coming off his torso and arm.

Red eyes narrowed and became shrouded in gold.

==============================

Back in the car, Flash Sentry scrambled to gun the engine and turn the car about to dodge the falling crane.

“Hang onto something!” He bellowed whilst frantically turning the wheel about so they were clear of the debris and hunks of flying fencing.

The human five complied, but in the heat of the moment Twilight Sparkle glimpsed and heard something. A flash of golden light and a feminine yell coming from the construction site with a blur of green hair visible in the smoke and dust being sent flying back. It was a stupid reaction, but she impulsively jolted up and screamed.

“LE-!”, she was cut off sharply.

The car whipped around, dinged on the side by a large hunk of fence crashing into the side. Everyone who braced shuddered from the impact, but Twilight’s rise meant her seatbelt wasn’t taut. The former alicorn whipped back and got whacked in the head by a piece of wood debris with an audible thud before going limp. Applejack noticed immediately as soon as the car stopped.

She screamed in horror, seeing a trickle of red seep from the purple woman’s head under her hairline, “Twilight?! Twilight!”

As Applejack held her, all attention soon turned to the injured. Fluttershy, the one with the most medical knowledge due to training to be a veterinarian, quickly surveyed the limp teen’s wrist, throat, and put her ear to her chest. A slow, groaning, delirious moan seeped from the former alicorn’s head.

“Scalp cut is only skin deep, I-I don’t think her skull or brain is hurt. She’s concussed bu-but I think she’ll be okay,” she muttered whilst trying to stop the bleeding with her shirt.

Another boom rang out and all eyes turned to the demolition yard in time to see two beams of gold and neon green streak off into the sky in different directions.

Pinkie Pie spoke for everyone, “That... That can’t be good.”

Rarity turned to their driver, “Flash, can we still move?”

Applejack’s head whirled around to her friend with wide eyes, “We can’t leave Ms. Mothra- Lea- Whatever her name is with that thing!”

Rarity rapidly shook her head as she helped take Twilight into her arms to keep her supported, “I don’t plan to! But we all, and more importantly Twilight, have to get away from it. That’s the thing that attacked Rainbow Dash and now who it was after is right here! Flash?”

Flash Sentry tried the engine as it had flicked off, but the car only groaned and trembled. He caught a distinct smell and popped his door open to hop out and check. Except he only needed to step one foot out of the vehicle to realize the petrol smell was coming from his car and there was a metal pipe sticking out from the undercarriage in front of the tire.

“Crap, I think the gas tank is punctured! We’re leaking fuel!” he barked while jumping out and popping the hood open to confirm it, “I-I’ve got a back up tank but I need to reconnect it all!”

Applejack worryingly looked to the demolition yard as another shout rang out, “How long?”

“Four, five minutes if I rush!”

Applejack went still before motioning slightly to Rarity, “Flash. Rush. Here Rares, hold ‘er.”

“What on earth are you-?! Not the time for bravado Applejack!”

Jackalyn Susan Apple kicked her door open and got out of the car, adjusting her hat and pulling up the sleeves on her muscular arms. There was a slight surge of energy about her even as she was terrified.

“Pfft, nah I’m terrified but I’m still givin’ that bumpus a piece o’ my mind!”

Being honest with one’s own fear tends to do that. As Applejack stormed off for a way into the demolition zone, Rarity looked to Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy before very carefully starting to pass Twilight to them.

“Hold her, I’ll be right back with both of them!”

Pinkie Pie swore she saw Rarity glimmer for a moment like she was about to “pony-up” despite the lack of music, only blankly nodding a full second before the unicorn counterpart ripped herself out of the car. Fighting was unlady-like, but one couldn’t be generous without being selfless enough to not want to see others hurt.

Fluttershy skittishly held Twilight close to her, having stopped the bleeding and continuing to check her over. She felt a surge in her veins, one she hadn’t felt since picking up her tamborine at the pet shop. She-

“Hold her! I got an idea!”, Pinkie Pie yelped as she shifted more of Twilight onto Fluttershy, flashed a thumbs up, and literally bounced out of the car.

“O-Oh, okay then,” she muttered whilst crossing her fingers and looking to a very confused looking Flash Sentry who was holding a wrench and visibly wondering why have the girls just evacuated the car, “You um.. might wanna hurry.”

======================

The dust abounded and the air was thick around Mothra Lea as she dodged to the right to avoid a wide plank that had been lobbed at her. Coughing in a fit after rolling off her side and scrambling up, she homed in on the dark form rushing her and unleashed a barrage of prism beams from her forehead and eyes. Kaizer X grunted as he caught the beams across his shoulder and left arm, but largely avoided them after a brief impact, tanking through the pain to rapidly gain on Mothra Lea.

Less used to moving on two feet swiftly, the Guardian of Mortals was completely blitzed by the Xilian Vanguard. X’s powerful arm caught her around the middle in a clothesline to scoop her off the ground and send her reeling back while he kept a hold of her. After a short time of flight, he let go and spun around on his toes in the opposite direction. Lea could barely brace and cried out as a spinning roundhouse kick smashed into the back of her hips and launched her into the ground.

She gagged and spit after rolling across the ground, a metallic taste trickling into her mouth. The world was still spinning as X came charging back in again. A quick burst first of her prism beam caught him in the leg and caused the attacker to grunt and stumble in pain. But he didn’t fall. One look back at the former moth kaiju and he was on his feet and advancing in a weaving pattern that dodged any projectile fire Lea launched at him. Lea cursed and clasped her hands, thinking an incantation as her tattoos glowed.

Kaizer X snarled when he saw the kaiju doing something new, ignoring the burning pain in his leg that was slowing him down. The back of his mind was prickling with observation and recollection. Based off her coloration and energy blasts he thought this was probably the current Terran guardian moth, one of the six who went missing after the battle at Solgell he was dropped into.

-When I first reunited with Gigan, he said he detected Godzilla and others with him in the equine world. How is she here?!-

He saw her rise, wounded but still capable.

-She’s allied with Twilight Sparkle and was one of the strongest on Terra. I can’t take this lightly, even if she doesn’t fit the description of that wretch’s collaborators. Terrans don’t die quick, I’ll have to be pragmatic. Hit her hard enough to disable or cripple and then get Twilight Sparkle.-

He jumped up in his charge to cock back a foot, intending on stomping down on Mothra’s gut or chest to stun her. But that plan was averted when his foot was intercepted by a transparent shroud of teal energy as a cross-like shape formed under Mothra’s body. He cocked his recoiled leg back and stomped again, sending a rippling wave through the barrier. But after several stomps with no give, he leered and opted for a different approach. Jumping away to dodge a pair of golden beams Mothra fired after him, Monster X braced and sprung into the air and spun about. As he did so, his leg became wrapped in golden light and in turn the familial crest of Mothra's dynasty illuminated the ground below her. Reeling back, a jolt of crackling golden energy collected in his leg.

A barrier was thrown up and the graviton kick crashed into it with a resounding crash akin to a gong going off; air splitting and light flashing. The barrier held but X wasn't sent back, an unmovable object struck by an unstoppable force. Not letting the blow back take him away, Kaizer X didn’t fight a minor smirk when he saw the surprised look on Mothra’s face when a second graviton kick charged up in his other leg and he stomped it down. Had she time to reinforce the barrier, double it up as he had his attack, it would have held but the force exceeded her hasty shield. The blast hit her strained barrier and smashed through it like shattering glass, sending her flying back.

She was losing. Not without making some wounds on her opponent, but not enough to be definite. This was definitely a kaiju, who exactly she didn’t know other than it had some relation to DesGhidorah or Grand King Ghidorah, and it almost certainly was the one who attacked Rainbow Dash to draw Twilight Sparkle out. He was bigger, very durable to tank multiple energy blasts from her, and clearly more adept at moving around and using his powers in human form. And she couldn’t use her usual strategy of high speed bombardment with her mobility options limited due to loss of flight and awkwardness running, along with the fact his powerful blows meant she was becoming increasingly disoriented. Even if she outclassed him at range, he was all but blitzing her in close combat completely unlike any Ghidorah she’d ever encountered.

Monster X hadn’t ever changed into his alternate persona during the Final War years back or the subsequent battles because the Xilian controller kept him on a mentally tight leash, at the cost of degrading the sanity of one of the most powerful psychic mortals in their universe. And no one but his own team and master were even aware of the merged state of both personas that balanced Kaizer Ghidorah’s bulk and raw power with Monster X’s precision and agility at only minor loss to either compared to their pure forms.

This battle was slanted against the magical moth before it even started in their current states. But that hardly counted her out. Kaizer X, as he approached to see where she had been thrown to, paused upon seeing a glimmer of light coming from the dust cloud. As the dust settled, he could distinguish it was coming from a crack of light that burned like a charm where Mothra's sternum was.

She clasped her hands again but this time, the cross shape appeared on the ground below Kaizer X and erected the barrier around him like a bubble. Kaizer X paused, throwing out a punch and striking the barrier to create a resulting ripple effect across its surface. Soon after, the barrier started to shrink, contract. Mothra Lea held out hand out whilst gripping her wrist with her other, slowly closing her open hand’s fingers.

Mothra Lea gasped as she desperately tried to multitask. She was trying to keep the kaiju restrained and pinned down to buy Twilight more time to get away or get help, while trying not to get overwhelmed, while keeping an eye on her surroundings to not get cornered, while trying to charge up her best chance in this fight. The crack of glowing mana forming across her solar plexus and sternum would hum to light momentarily before fading, then repeating with incremental growths in intensity.

And her opponent was not making it easy for her in any regard. After several more strikes she saw it whip back and collect energy across its leg. Huffing and knowing the blowback might weaken her or her focus if it shattered her barrier like last time, she swung her arm aside and canceled out the sealing magic and caused the graviton kick to whiff empty air. The enemy looked confused for a moment but didn’t hesitate, immediately turning around to rush the fence.

-No you don’t!-

Lea grunted and set the seal back up to encircle the kaiju. However, it was moving so fast that she was forced to make this seal especially wide. It gave her opponent enough room to whip around and fire the graviton flashes from its eyes and mouth. Unprepared for it, Lea yelped as the force of her barrier shattering caused her to stumble back and huff in breath like she just had the wind knocked out of her.

Perhaps knowing it had to disable or kill her fully before going after Twilight, this time it charged her and closed the distance. Lea strained, erecting another hasty barrier that was smashed open with a quickly charged roundhouse, graviton kick. She backpedaled and put up another one that was destroyed in short order by a variant of the same move in the form of a lunging punch. An implacable advance ensued and while the strain of it having to bash down each seal with brute force and energy burst was visibly beginning to slow it down, Lea was tiring out quicker due to divided focus.

Kaizer X felt his muscles burn from exertion at having to use what amounted to his coup de grace over and over again, needing to mix it up from the type right leg roundhouse and dive kicks he usually used just to divide up the pain and recoil across his limbs. Flashes of vision came to him each time he crashed through one of the seals this infernal witch tried to bind him in. While he interacted with Aria the most, he had long since gotten an understanding of what her two cousins were like. After the first week, Sonata Dusk’s fear of him had allayed, either out of familiarity or perhaps catching on to what was developing between him and her cousin. She was the friendly one, the life of the group much like Megalon. The image of a beaming, blue siren offering a ‘tack-co’ contrasted so heavily from his first time seeing her upon his second return he could scarcely believe the broken, scared, reclusive, sobbing individual was Aria’s cousin and Adagio’s little sister.

He could still feel the swelling gravity and taut muscle from when he saw that. It helped him bite back the exhaustion. True, he himself had tried to take the necklaces once; but that might as well have been a long time ago.

-That fate for her and the other two? Not on my watch!-

He perked his first vocalization, a scowling snarl at the mothra who impeded him. He was still about ten meters away and closing, but this was far too tedious a task for his desire. He wasn’t going to tire himself out here and risk Twilight Sparkle getting away, not without a fight. Good thing this was an empty area.

Changing up his pattern, X tensed his legs and released all the force in them to run up a pile of barrels and launch himself into the air instead of charging forward. Judging from the wide-eyed look he saw slowly forming across Mothra’s face as the milliseconds ticked by, he could tell he’d surprised her. He could see every piece of sweaty hair move across her face as she looked up to him in slow motion, having put the seal too low and to the side. She started to panic and move her arm up to realign the barrier, but X gave her no chance. Curling himself up momentarily his aura flared. For a moment one might have seen what looked like a pair of wings and twin tails form across his back that delayed his fall. A brilliance of gold flared up across his face and this time the beam came from both his bellowing throat and glaring eyes. It stabbed into the ground, that torrent of energy which soon swung up and raked across a diving Mothra’s side.

Amongst the dust and debris the beam kicked up, X lunged down with a fist and aimed for the now smoking Mothra’s stomach to smash her between the blow and the ground. However as soon as contact was made he found himself continually moving forward through her stomach. But instead of a gory instant with a lethal outcome, no ichors spilt and no lives were taken as instead X’s fist struck and impacted the dirt behind Mothra amongst a shower of glowing butterflies swarming around him.

The insects scattered about, moving around and re-condensing a yard behind X moments before a toned leg kicked him in the back of the head.

Mothra Lea, recombined from her fairy swarm after kicking X in the head and trying to see if the swarm ability worked out of sheer panic, choked on her own breath. She in fact was having trouble breathing, like the wind had been knocked out of her. She’d been fighting now whilst effectively holding her breath the whole time. And that was all she needed to do. The Ghidorah shrugged off a prism beam to the back and spun around to land a kick of his own, only for him to strike dead air as Lea quickly broke into her fairy forms and avoided the blow. The monster unleashed a briefly charged eye beam again, swinging wide to rake them through the air and across the demolition site. It managed to scorch a few fairy moths, eliciting a mental cry of pain from Lea as she endured and reformed behind him to strike at him again or blast him from point blank.

It worked. Once. On a follow up attempt to try physically bashing a barrier on top of him, the kaiju caught on to her tricks and spun around. Grabbed by the leg, Lea could only yelp as she was swung down and back-first into the dirt before being dragged back and hurled towards a wall. It took all the concentration she had to not lose a grip on her still charging energy pool and be aware enough to shift into the fairy swarm one last time to slow and lessen her inertia so the impact didn’t hurt as much.

Mothra Lea cried out as she hit the wall, at last able to breathe. She tried to rise, but strength left her legs and she collapsed face first into the dirt. Her beautiful form was marred in blue bruises and ugly cuts, dirt and some dried blood messing her hair, with several noticeable burns across her arms and left leg. She heard the footsteps and the Guardian of Mortals could only do two things. Focus and pray she did her duty, that Twilight and her friends were safe.

Kaizer X wheezed in breath several times before managing to rein it back in. He was riddled with burns, bruises, and cuts. Rawness in his knuckles from punching through so many barriers indicated he might have broken a few wrist bones and he certainly had a few fractured ribs from the surprising force in the Mothra’s blows or energy blasts.

-Race is stronger than they look. Gigan said this one managed to lift and throw him around.-

He pulled down his damaged scarf and spat out a wad of blood that pooled in his mouth, glaring at the fallen Mothra through his darkened and damaged mask.

-This battle is over.-

But he advanced just to be sure, releasing his hold of Kaizer Ghidorah’s power to avoid exhaustion in a large, bulkier form. Kaizer X began to visibly shrink several inches and lose some muscle mass under his coat. The yellow rings around his eyes and black sclera lifted and Monster X paced over towards Mothra. He stoically grabbed her by the back of the head and pulled her up by that and the collar, letting her dangle in his grasp. She was alive, but dealt with. Too much trouble to kill and if her allies were about he’d never get them off his or his loved one’s back if he tried to ensure she was finished off.

“Don’t. Interfere,” his low and tired tone, the first time he’d spoke in hours, growled.

He noticed a slight illumination visible on the wall across from the limp kaiju. Perked curiosity caused him to slowly turn Mothra around to see if it was coming from her, only to be interrupted by a loud voice behind him.

“HEY!”

There was a brief flash of orange light and X could sense a spike in energy from what in this realm he could only assume was Equestrian magic. Something very hard and sturdy smacking him across the back of the head. Monster X dropped the moth-turned-woman and stumbled forward, the surprisingly heavy force was far above what one would expect from a normal pitch. He paused for a moment.

Ten meters away, Applejack looked at her arm as Rarity looked between it, her, and the heavy whiskey bottle she had somehow just hurled at a speed similar to a pitched fastball. She was a strong young woman, but not that strong.

The Xilian-Ghidorah cracked his neck, holding back fatigue and whipping his head around to give them a burning glare. Rarity grimaced and hid before a still frozen Applejack as Pinkie Pie looked up and away at something.

“I’mma... I’mma be back, yep. Whatever you did, keep doing it!” she chirped before cartwheeling away.

An inhuman growl one would expect from an angered panther came hissing out of the kaijin-human and he started to turn their way to advance, his patience long since worn out with his injuries.

Jacklyn "Applejack" Susan Apple never was so honest, "Ah shit."

X charged, wincing from the effort to push himself fast enough to close the distance as a blur. Even if he was able to reach the pair in a matter of seconds, he was slowing down. He still came at them quick enough Applejack only had time to shove Rarity out of the way and brace instead of even try to dodge herself. Her crossed arms got hit by X’s extended backhand as it sent all 75 kilograms of her skidding back several meters and through several tarps.

“Applejack!” Rarity yelped as she saw the cowgirl’s trademark hat settle on the ground, eliciting X’s attention.

Adrenaline allowed her to hoist up half of what had been a door frame for what good it did her when X’s fist burst through it. She yelped as it was torn out of her grip, his hand grasping her head and hoisting her off the ground.

-Purple hair, pale skin. This is one of the other members of that group Twilight and that rainbow colored one associate with.-

Monster X hid the strain well beyond his arm shaking while holding the young woman up and hoisting her off the ground by her arm. He could practically feel the energy coming off her. It was there, but it was like comparing a candle to a bonfire when put up against the likes of the Mothra or Aria when she used her magic. It was markedly far more than he could sense coming off the other humans and in a time less wasted he might speculate the reason, but for now he just had to deal with the present. He lifted her up more and tossed her up slightly, cocking back a hammerfist.

-Half strength, enough to daze her and knock the wind from her lungs. Keep her down and Twilight Sparkle won’t run.-

After whirling around for some momentum to compensate for endurance spent sapping some strength, the back of X’s fist poised for Rarity’s midsection just below the ribs. She reflexively hollered out and put her arms up for some meager defense, but he could already tell she was the weakest physically of the trio sighted earlier. Judging by his hefting of her by her head, he’d gauge her to be a fair twenty kilograms lighter than the orange one and her thin build compared to the larger’s muscular frame implied that difference was mostly muscle. So he was quite surprised when his knuckles were stopped by something extremely dense and hard after the air seemed to be flooded with magic for a moment. X looked over as time slowed. Rarity had her eyes closed and hands out in front of her, and set before them was a wide, thin sheet of crystalline substance similar to diamond.

The momentum still caused her to sail back a meter or so and hit her back on the dirt, leaving Monster X even more momentarily flummoxed as the miraculous construct deconstructed before his eyes. As she flailed her arms, more crystals formed, firing in his direction as a barrage of projectiles that he shot out of the air with several quick graviton flares from his eyes while he dodged the rest. Even still, X had to block and shrug off multiple gem stones cutting and bashing him across his limbs and chest.

-How did...?-

A shout cried out and he felt it again, another burst of magic coming from the tarp. X turned and reactively threw up a guard.

-Now what?!-

Applejack’s legs kicked out with far more force than was typical of her already strong form, sending her out at alarming speed in such a way even her own expression showed surprise. She came at X less like a high speed sprinter, as the moment of enhanced strength wouldn’t permit such due to the physics of friction necessary for running. Instead the first few steps her legs took launched her off the ground with such velocity she practically slingshot herself. X’s forearm hit hers head on. He was heavier and very stable after locking himself down, but her momentum was so great it overcame the loose earth he stood on. Applejack knocked them both back with such force that the kaijin’s heels dug trenches half a meter long into the dirt whilst slowing down.

The irises and sclera in the young woman’s eyes were replaced by an orange and green light and she swung a right hook in tandem with her opponent. Between X already having damaged his hand and Applejack’s sudden burst of power being erratic at best, they both ended up recoiling with broken knuckles. Fueled by drive for the mission and will to protect friends, both lurched out with their good arm and grabbed the other by the collar. It was a deadlock for a moment to two, Applejack lurching up and kicking him several times in the leg to make it buckle. X grunted and felt a metallic taste of blood in his mouth, holding out and locking his shin against hers as he pressed back. Applejack did admirably, but the tide shifted. The power surge was fading and the Apple struggled valiantly, but was forced to her knees and then onto her back. She kicked and fought in vain to free herself.

X’s lips curled behind his scarf, which soon fell off his face as he lurched up and looked at a hole in the fence, spying the crippled car and roaring out to blanket this empty edge of town with his bellow, “TWILIGHT SPARKLE!”

A pair of violet eyes slowly started to flutter open and a slow groan leaked out as Twilight Sparkle held her head. Even through the spiral of dizziness and headache, she could hear the challenge.

Fluttershy whimpered as she tried to hide the still groggy Twilight under her as the monster bellowed out again, “I CALL YOU OUT!”

Applejack tried to force his chin and neck back, but he reacted by grabbing her wrist with his hurt hand and pinning it down under one of his feet.

“GIVE. IT. BACK!”

Mothra Lea limply started to rise to her feet, blood trickling over one of her eyes as the charge she built reached its peak. The voice seemed vaguely familiar now, but the speaker’s human form and condition made it impossible to distinguish.

“I know where your lackeys are, you can’t hide behind them!”

“... Who are you?” Twilight whispered whilst trying to stand.

“I’m holding back! No one has to die today or any other day,” he roared. It was partially true, while he couldn't afford to against the Mothra and the two humans had surprised him, he was currently trying to apply just enough strength in his pin not to harm Applejack needlessly. If he did the other one and the Mothra might attack together and he wasn't sure if he could handle that in his state. Tiredness was sapping his ability to restrain himself as well.

Rarity winced as she rose, eyes wide in shock at seeing Applejack’s legs flailing behind the one pinning her down but she made no movement for risk of harming her friend, be it with a power she didn’t understand or her captor escalating it. Instead she froze, until her eyes picked up on movement high above.

“I won’t hold back soon enough,” he growled as he felt tiredness taking hold and knew there was a chance this might not end in capture.

Best he could do was what he did last time: send a message.

“She almost died today because of what you stole, and for that you will never be rid of me until you give it back!”

X’s eyes caught movement to his right and he spotted Rarity trying to circle behind him. She gasped and winced, line of sight betraying another. That’s when his eyes shot around and he glared at Mothra Lea with glowing gold in his eyes. He snarled, tightening his grip on Applejack and eliciting a painful grunt from her even as she fought back. His lips curled and revealed almost fanged canine teeth with bits of his hair threatening to turn golden and black. He forced both women to back up and was deciding if he should fire or not when a new voice cried out.

“STOP!”

Monster X looked in its direction to see a wincing Twilight Sparkle, a dead ringer for the photograph Adagio showed him and Sonata identified, standing up from the car even as Fluttershy and Flash Sentry tried to pull her back down or hide her. She grabbed the two by the shoulders and held her breath, giving them a dead serious look in strong stares. They were powerless as she pushed them aside and stepped out, limping a bit towards the demolition yard with a hand on her forehead.

“L-Let her go…”

Monster X’s eyes narrowed.

Twilight Sparkle, thoroughly terrified, let herself show it. She frowned as her eyes glistened at seeing Lea, Rarity, and Applejack hurt. Hurt because something had it out for her. There were no spells, no magical items, and no training she knew of that might help her in this situation. She could only use actions that made her the Princess of Friendship in the first place. She lowered her brow and head as a glistening came down her cheek.

“Please, don’t hurt them. They only wanted to protect me… I-... surrender,” she spoke brokenly.

“Twilig’ don’t yo-”, Applejack pleaded as she struggled, only to be cut off by her friend and not her enemy.

“I CAN CHOOSE FOR MYSELF APPLEJACK!” she shouted with a stomp, looking up with a face leaking liquid from her eyes and nose. Fear and helplessness had gotten to her. Applejack froze.

She panted, looking directly at the masked monster looking back at her with burning fury. His words and rage spoke of anger born of righteous indignation, not aimless wrath. Just like she was at the situation. Feeling anger over an injustice done to a friend was indicative of the ties that bind, and if Cadance could detect different types of love, perhaps she was beginning to gain something of an equivalent as she grew. Her body seemed to momentarily glow in much the same way Applejack’s and Rarity’s had.

Her leer at Monster X softened to remorse, almost sympathy, “Let her go…”

The tight grip on the Element of Honesty loosened and a foot was removed from her arm. As commanded, Applejack stayed still. Monster X scowled and stood up, half stomping and half limping towards Twilight Sparkle, who made no attempt to run. As he approached, the glow about his eyes lessened and she was almost taken aback by their appearance. Cinnabar, bordering on blood, red as they were; they were far from threatening even as his demeanor shifted to neutrality. His sclera was half bloodshot, either from the battle or from stress, and there was a dampness at the corners. There was anger, there was strain, there was exhaustion, and there was fear in those eyes.

The same type of eyes stared back at him from Twilight Sparkle’s.

“You are coming with me,” he growled quietly.

Twilight inhaled and slightly nodded, “... I’m sorry.”

X loomed closer with an outstretched hand that bore a grip she’d never escape. Twilight looked to the oncoming hand, and then into his eyes with an honest frown.

“Whatever happened, I’m so sorry. I promise, I’ll fix it,” she whispered.

Monster X paused, his shaking nerves relaxing. His hand curled to a fist as hie eyes darted about in clear contemplation, feeling at her sincerity with a mix of apprehension and confusion. He exhaled and spoke without threat, while extending his hand towards her with the palm up this time, “... You’d better.”

Twilight nodded, reaching for him, “...”

“... NOW!” Rarity screamed out.

“HEADS UP, CHICKEN BUTT!” Pinkie Pie yelled as she kicked over a mass precariously stacked on the edge of a rafter a story up.

It all happened at once.

There was a flash of magic from two sources. The first was from the left, in Rarity’s direction. A wall of several diamonds phased into existence and kept the kaijin from grabbing Twilight. It flickered, straining to hold up and threatening to fall at any moment. The second magic burst came from someone wanting some payback. A boot crashed into the back of Monster X’s hip, Applejack huffing from effort as the magic faded from her as Monster X went flying forward and slammed into the diamond barrier, cracking it and falling over in a heap. Applejack yelled out and she fell to the side, grabbing at her leg that had been hurt by the recoil.

“Wait! Stop, what are you-!?”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she saw what Pinkie Pie kicked over come sloshing down from the wheelbarrow she’d carted up during the fight. A whole load full of wet cement. The blocky, heavy liquid clung to and coated the kaijin, who thankfully kept his mouth and eyes closed while thrashing to free himself from what was weighing him down and tripping him up. By the time he rose he glimpsed Rarity running past, supporting a hobbling Applejack and the both of them grabbing Twilight Sparkle on their rush for the car. Flash Sentry shut the hood and hopped into the driver’s seat as Fluttershy help the girls into the back.

A glare of pure rage came over X as he tried to rise. A swarm of blue butterflies blocked his path and Mothra Lea materialized before him. The glow from the battered and bruised woman’s sternum was like the sun.

“GET BACK!”

She commanded and he was sent flying back from the fully charged buster cannon firing directly into him. There was a foreign flash of red before the tsunami of neon teal, green, and blue hues sent the dark form flying back and through several fences across the demolition yard. Lea kept firing until he was blown and burned back so far he hit some scaffolding support pipes. With the attack cut off, the entire structure groaned and collapsed atop him.

Huffing, panting, and near her end, Lea stumbled to the side but was caught by a returning Pinkie Pie.

“Is the meanie?!-” she cried whilst looking at the dust cloud and pile of crushed pipes and wood.

But as the dust cleared, Monster X was nowhere to be seen. Just his tattered cloak and wet cement. There was a distant flash of red as Lea fell to her knee in exhaustion. Someone had seen the energy bursts from a distance and entered the fray. Lea looked up to see a red pair of sunglasses looking down at her from a familiar adornment of spiny, silvery grey. Only this time it was a set of grey hairs and bangs rather than metallic horns.

“No...”, she struggled in doomed disbelief.

Gigan stood on the edge of the rooftop, a battered Monster X in his arms. Having arrived detecting his teammate in battle, he had rapidly teleported into the scene and grabbed X just as the buster cannon was about to hit, pulling him to safety. The injured kaiju said something inaudible from the distance and seemed to point Gigan to something. Lea followed the indication and saw he was pointing at the car. At Twilight.

“GET OUT OF HERE! GET HER OUT OF HERE!” she screamed and waved her bruised arm as she shoved Pinkie Pie towards the car.

Flash Sentry reluctantly floored the gas just as Pinkie Pie vaulted herself inside, but it was too late. A red flash and set of sparks appeared above the car and even though he was clearly straining, Gigan lunged down. Mothra Lea made horrified eye contact with her friend. Twilight Sparkle didn’t turn around as she was grabbed. As the milliseconds ticked by, she just smiled and nodded.

Gigan vanished, appearing back on the rooftop to grab Monster X and enact one last jump. And then he, they, Twilight-

Were gone.

====================

“Sorry Ms. Daisy, Sonata has come under a severe health problem,” Adagio Dazzle sighed as she held the phone between her cheek and shoulder whilst cooking.

“Oh dear, must be serious if she can’t come in this weekend. What happened?” the voice chimed after a gasp.

“It’s a touchy subject, runs in the family.”

“Well, Timber and I can manage. Business has been sporadic since the bridge went out-”

Adagio shuddered at the memory of why exactly the bridge was out for awhile.

-Yeah because my cousin and her fifteen story boyfriend had to fight a giant demon gorilla.-

“-we can just put her down for a vacation until she recovers. Keep us posted!”

“My thanks, should cheer her up,” Adagio muttered curtly and clicked the phone off, tossing it to the couch behind her.

She shrugged and tried in vain to focus entirely on the cooking.

-Sonata was so chipper to be a lifeguard at that camp this season, then she goes and nearly….-

Adagio Dazzle pursed her lips as she stirred up the kelp in the boil pot and mixed in some chopped fish, careful to modify the recipe in the cookbook to remove any disgusting milk curds or peppers Sonata hated. She focused as hard as she could on just the recipe to try and keep the bad thoughts at bay. It was a pretty simple recipe back home, but she was trying to elaborate it, show some effort. It certainly was taking some, given Sonata was usually the one who liked cooking and this was her comfort food upon returning from the doctors.

The eldest siren tried her best not to focus too much on the events of the morning, but it was an impossible endeavor. She couldn’t pry her thoughts away from what almost happened to her beloved baby sister.

“She almost drowned…”, Adagio whispered to herself as she stared at the boiling water, “A siren, almost drowned…”

It seemed like a complete impossibility, something so ungodly wrong it couldn’t and shouldn’t exist. Such a thing harming her sister was unnerving enough, the fact she could have lost her, one of the only two remaining family she ever knew, was even more so.

-W-what was she thinking?!-

She winced. Remembering the circumstance.

-She’s hurting, grieving, and broken. Of course she couldn’t think straight…-

Adagio rubbed her palm against her forehead and eyes, feeling a dampness and tiredness there.

-Take our eyes off her for an hour and that happens… we need to monitor her. Or be in a place with more people. It’s... good X returned, but he can’t be everywhere if he’s out hunting Twilight. And she managed to slip past me and Aria even with him here… Can’t be public though, might risk exposure and Twilight Sparkle finding us again.-

She shuddered, both in disturbance and rage. They’d been laying low since the attack, no concerts, no performances. They needed somewhere with more people to look out for Sonata if she had another episode. But it couldn’t be more people than they could keep tabs on, lest some of them blurred into the crowd, or worse, Twilight Sparkle and her cohorts found them again. A temporary move wasn’t a bad idea even if few knew where they lived. A change of scenery and some things to do might even do Sonata some good to keep her occupied and mentally recover. Trauma didn’t go easy.

-Huh, wonder if I could ask X to get that Megalon to return, they seemed to hit it off well. In weirdness.-

As she turned off the stove for the pot, a stray memory struck her from the very phone call she’d been having just a few minutes earlier.

-Of course! How did I not think of that before?!-

Her brow perked and the eldest siren jogged into the small living room to the stack of coupons and mail they’d picked up at the office. She scanned the titles as she sorted through, remembering a brochure that was obnoxiously abundant, like they were desperate to advertise. Sonata had seen it and was set up with the job almost instantly, further vindicating her sister’s idea that the group was desperate. Usually she would scoff at such things, but it actually seemed to be exactly what she was looking for. And she found it, scanning it over for several minutes and finding herself nodding in approval.

“Perfec-”, she was cut off by a knock at the door.

The sun was low in the sky and extremely few knew where their residence was. It never hurt to be a little cautious. She quietly clicked a button on her phone to send a notification to her cousin, who had been in the bedrooms keeping Sonata company. Adagio Dazzle slowly got up and very slowly paced towards the door, waiting until she saw the dim glow of Aria Blaze’s gem in the hallway across the door from her. A stain of red crossed Aria’s eyes and her coloration darkened marginally by use of the remnant powers Kaizer Ghidorah had granted her. Specks of red also emerged in Adagio’s eyes as she looked through the peephole and prepared for the worst.

Her head recoiled back, causing Aria to tense up, but the look Adagio cast to her was more confusion than fright. The door locks were undone and she opened it to reveal a sparking and smoking Gigan carrying a limping, burnt-smelling X over his shoulder.

“Help me with him will yah?” He barked whilst stumbling in.

Aria sprinted past Adagio before her cousin could so much as get a word out, rushing over to Gigan’s other side to hold up her significant other. Adagio quickly followed suit, yanking the first aid kit from the shelf and fetching a wet towel before pulling the front door closed, ignoring how it didn't properly latch shut.

"Get him to the couch!”

Aria Blaze was shaking in a festering anger even as she all but picked him up herself and laid him out, “What happened?!”

“Big fight downtown, was already happening when I got there. There was a bunch of dames dogpiling him to keep away from some purple girl.”

“One of them was a kaiju, a mothra,” X grunted as he ignored the stinging antibiotic applied to his forehead, “Aria I heal quick, I don't think you need to-”

“Put a conch in it!” She snapped, more out of fretting concern than genuine anger. Though she was more than a bit of the latter as this made him two for two on running into fights without her.

Gigan winced from his own sparking, “Wondered why she looked familiar. I know what it's like to take her assault so when I saw her about to loose another blast I teleported him out.”

He was smoking from a few joints and sparked again, causing Adagio to wince as she tried to focus on bandaging a cut across X’s forearm, “When did you get here and why are you doing that?”

Gigan scoffed, “Nice see you too- Adagio was it? Overtaxed my warp drive with teleport jumps. Haven’t had time or chance to stop the feedback to it...

He noticed the blank stare from the lead siren and rolled his robotic eyes, "I broke myself. Anyways, I'm here because let's just say X and I’s employer detected a magic spike entering this realm. Must have been that mothra. Knowing X had been here several days, I thought he might need backup and suggested I go so it wasn't like last time.”

X grunted and nodded, “You had good timing, old friend. Are the others?”

Gigan nodded, “After the last time you ended up here, I made a case to not take chances and the master noted the power source you were sent to seize is elusive. Four hunters are better than two or one so we all came but spread out to try and find you with Irys and Megalon going the other way. I'll send a signal out for Megalon to rendezvous here…”

Gigan looked at Adagio behind his glasses and raised an eyebrow while deadpanning in expression like he was expecting an objection. Adagio rolled her eyes, “I stopped caring about aliens when one showed up. As long as X's agreement extends to you lot and my van doesn't get totaled for the third time, I'm fine. We're going somewhere with more space anyways.”

Aria briefly shot her a curious look and Adagio motioned towards a brochure she'd set on the table her cousin looked over before turning back to tend to X.

Gigan shrugged, “Well given that damn moth is no doubt going to call for help, it's a good thing we dropped in. You'll need the extra space for one more as well. There's someone you'll really want to talk to I've been questioning since I started heading here.”

Adagio cocked an eyebrow at the cyborg as he held up his wrist, her just now noticing he had a cable coming out of it that had been dragging behind him since they walked in. It had been extended to something outside the door and had been the reason said door didn't shut when Adagio tried to close it. A metallic grinding seeped out of Gigan’s wrist and the cables started to retract in tandem with the sound of footsteps. A young woman stepped through the door with the other end of the cables tied around her midsection, pinning her arms to her sides above the elbows. Evidently not in much discomfort nor being yanked forward, she reached out with her lower arm and closed the door behind her.

When Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle got one look at Twilight Sparkle they both experienced a flashback at the image of her Sonata Dusk identified as her attacker. It overlayed the teen and matched perfectly.

“Um,” she muttered cautiously as she saw the staring the two young women were giving her, “Hello? I spoke to these two and I think-”

Adagio Dazzle squeezed the edge of the first aid kit so hard she broke the plastic as she roared, "YOU!"

=============

Reader Works!

It's that time! Time to brag about you awesome folks I have the honor of entertaining! Here's to you everyone!

First up is a spectacular animatic by the one and only Mystery Shadow with the pairing the readerbase strongarmed (jk) kindly suggested I make canon! :rainbowlaugh:

Scarlet Spectrum and WarScarDragon give us this lovely piece of Xenilla and Blade Dancer's daughter and God-Daughter together!

Good ol' Pyrus Leonidas, illustrator of Bridge's timeline continues to prove his master craft in all things kaiju and beyond with his extensive pieces of original and inspired art! Check him out, he does some of the best monster vectors I've ever seen!

FallenAngel has made enough pictures of inspired and original work to fill an art gallery! Wall to wall feels, comedy, and adorableness in all series to be found! Try to avoid the diabetes and prep the insulin when checking in. To avoid posting 20 something pieces, I'll just post this one and direct you to her gallery!

SPECIAL NOTE: I originally had a very different ending for chapter 44 planned but after the heartbreak of one of FallenAngel's pictures and suggestion by Faith-Wolff, I changed it to how you see now. If you worry about the drama and emotion set for this arc, blame dem dames!

Ever wondered what it be like to have a Three Stooges Act with the Bridge's kaiju cast? HolyCross9 wondered and dared to answer it! Have a laugh!

What's better than one Godzilla? Two Godzillas! Least that's what Wandzioch thought!

Zeroviks needs no introduction at this point. What with his awesome videogame inspired series of pieces with dames and dudes from both of Bridge's franchises and plenty of original characters to boot! Ever wanted to see Godzilla Junior looking like he just stepped out of a Tekken game? It's there. Ever wanted to see him make the Shinomura kaiju his own? Got that. Want an idea of what a grown up Chibi Moon look like in cosplay? Have a ball! As for here, we got Princess Pouty herself, a Chibi'd Destroyah!

Bridge isn't the only transformed roster on the block! Check out LionPatriot's Pokken'verse which includes this lovely piece in the Bridge's style for his personal Godzilla!

Bagan might be the lead villain of The Bridge, but I hardly have a monopoly on usage. Kahnac, the man with one of the coolest sounding names on the internet, has run the gauntlet of usage of Tanaka's most infamous unused creation!

You guys like the Mirror world from Sound of Thunder? You like Ki Seong and company? Want to see more of it? Well that guy named ThatGuyVex has you covered in this official Canon spin-off that I am extremely proud to give my stamp of approval!
Tales of the Amalgam'verse: Mirror Image

And because I forgot and feel like an idiot for doing it, closing out our jaunt is Invader Franky with our main hero threatening the viewer (me) with bodily harm for forgetting!

Did I miss your piece? Let me know immediately and I shall joyfully add it in!

Author's Note

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance-Omikron
Artwork by Faith-Wolff!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!: Some things familiar, some things drastically different. Momma Tia is comin' to town!

Chapter 45: Turn Down the Heat

Mothra Lea, EG world form

===================

Water trickled in and out of the seawall flanked canals that fed into the dark river, held and pushed by its flow. A mosaic of natural and artificial surroundings abounded, with houses and boat docks lining the seawalls and mangrove thickets with palm trees nestled between them. Man and nature made use of the waters, often completely peacefully. A father and his children kayaking out of the canals into the river, a heron perched on a boathouse it was nesting inside to guzzle down a fish it caught, a homeowner picking mangrove seeds from a tree and then tossing them to a manatee snoozing under her dock which roused awake to guzzle down the morsels.

A tiny form observed it all from the top of a light post with judging eyes. Almost twenty years and she still wasn’t sure of it all.

She very closely resembled a human woman, whose features would suggest Polynesian though with a noticeably paler skin tone, almost eerily so. But given she was about fifty times older than when the humans all started to have different skin tones, one could suppose it was more a case that Polynesians looked like a darker version of her. And a taller version given a dollhouse door would be a normal door for her. Runic tattoos covered her arms, chest, legs, and cheeks; one across her back resembling a pair of jagged butterfly wings with several orange, fiery horns crowing ahead with purple and red eyes. Having long since abandoned her more elaborate black wardress she’d adorned in mourning of her master, she stood short with her simpler, purple tunic dress on with her sword at her side. Sometimes her hand unconsciously reached down to touch the three gems, purple, blue, and red, embedded in the handle.

It was fortunate for those around her that she could sense her little sisters, Moll and Lora, were still alive after the humans shot at them and Mothra Lea with their weapon. The sword was far more powerful than its slight size would suggest and she could get into many places one wouldn’t expect to find her. As the sun began to set, its last beams of warm light crossing Belvera’s face, she sighed and remembered it all in what had become a nightly ritual for her. For she was a herald with no liege.

She was Belvera, eldest of the Elias Shobijin. Chosen by the hundredth Battra as his herald and aid at the same time her sisters were chosen by the same numbered Mothra. She learned under Reijuu for ten modern lifetimes. She served her master’s line well, dutifully and faithfully to ensure the burgeoning civilizations never overstepped their boundaries and respected the biosphere of the planet. She could almost chuckle at the first time an overambitious warlord took too much from their continent home and they and their soldiers found out why a visit from an Elias was not to be taken lightly, especially when she was armed and had her steed, Fairy Battra, for aid. Then there was the fire and the extinctions, billions of lives being extinguished by the hour. All but one of her master’s flight reduced to corpses across a harrowing flight across the Pacific to a north island to seal away a god turned extinction incarnate.

And then what she saw as treachery when the world was already so damaged and magic was going extinct. First Shambhala, then the others using King Manjusandra’s schematics for their beasts. This only hastened the demise and diminishing of so many fae folk and creature, each beast swallowing up the mana in the area like a bottomless chasm. The one hundred and fiftieth Battra was enraged, and so was she. So much so she ended up opposite her own sisters as the Guardian Moths, the last two on the planet ended up fighting each other to the death. Her master and herself lost, sealed away in the north. It would be seven thousand decades before she would see the sun again when a gasp of mana revived herself and reincarnated her master. Seeing humanity only managed to exacerbate what they had already done, the same tale played out again. Sister against sisters, Mothra against Battra. Only this time, a living mountain of reptilian flesh, hatred, and fury joined the fray.

But history truly diverged from the ancient times when Mothra and Battra saved one another when they could have just finished their counterpart off. Lora claimed there were indications that the leviathan called Godzilla was having his wrath for humanity aimed at the moths by an outside force and pleaded for her help. For the first time in over seventy thousand years, all three sisters joined in their mystic song in a plan to release the possession upon the dinosaur. A plan Belvera didn’t realize until too late that it entailed her master bravely holding the mutation still with its face and fang and maw poised at his own. Logic told her in hindsight Battra sacrificed himself to protect Mothra and the world around them, but her heart felt like it had just had a spear of ice impaled through it. It was Mothra’s plan, so naturally, her broken heart told her the Guardian of Mortals and her traitorous sisters arranged the plan for the demise of the last Battra there might ever be. The world’s mana and magic had been so depleted there was no way a new Battra could be born from the earth.

Belvera’s hand clenched and she squeezed her thumb, both from the broken scream of loss she uttered when Battra’s corpse fell into the sea with Godzilla as Fairy Battra faded away after giving one last chirp to her and from the enraged tirade she loosed upon her baby sisters when they tried to so much as approach her. They’d all be crying for reasons the same and different. The oldest Shobijin frowned with regret, hating herself for what madness grief inflicted upon her. The next years were spent scheming and stewing in hatred, waiting for Mothra to return from her voyage to the stars and find a way to her undoing.

In some ways she hoped, ironically, Godzilla would be the one to do it but that hope was dashed when it became obvious that creature’s hatred was with man alone and he otherwise couldn’t care less about the moth. The beasts after were all false hopes in their own way. Xenilla was a good chance as she sensed some of Mothra’s essence upon him and she sensed a fondness for the planet within him that mirrored her late master in some ways. But while he both antagonized his father and certainly didn’t care at all about humanity, he left for the stars before she could reach him. Destroyah was powerful enough and certainly destructive, but more like a confused animal or newcomer lashing out at what she perceived as a threat. And the moment she witnessed Godzilla Junior throw himself between Destroyah and those walking monkeys, Belvera knew a lost cause when she saw one. She’d become one. She managed to rebuild an old Mu Garu-Garu flier and traveled about with no clear aim or focus for years.

But even in those years between her sisters’ and Mothra’s leave and their return, she’d forgotten how far loss had dragged her down until she saw that enormous moth fly over to return to Infant Island, nor when she sensed the egg of its daughter being laid.

Being Battra’s herald and aid had been everything, and without any conceivable replacement, it seemed any hope of finding purpose was gone. The planet just kept getting worse and worse in her eyes, the dourness taking a new high when DesGhidorah’s tomb was unearthed. Belvera had given up so much she felt only apathy and did nothing when it was opened, resulting in her just watching coldly as the dragon sealed away since the Cretaceous period tore parts of man’s realm asunder. After years of wanting revenge, she became only more downtrodden when the elder Mothra’s death and the young Mothra Lea’s orphaning gave her no satisfaction. She observed DesGhidorah’s defeat by the grown Lea and departed without much word to her sisters.

She felt a spot of hope when the rest of the Mu Island chain pulled itself free of the ocean and she discovered its slumbering custodian, Dagahra. She thought he might have still been intact and had awakened during her stasis when she noticed an uncanny resemblance the sea dragon in the legend of King Caesar bore to him. Evidently, he’d been wounded and driven back into the sea and she was hopeful. Finally, it seemed a new liege. Dagahra was an entity forged specifically to cleanse the oceans of pollutants with its symbiotic barem. The oceans had suffered some of the worst of men and Dagahra if the Okinawan tale of Caesar were to be believed, evidently bore them no love either. Finally, she felt she might have a purpose as the aid to a reasonable substitute for Battra! She plunged her spell into Dagahra’s chamber to revive the sea dragon... How was she supposed to know he’d ‘glitched’?!

The once noble sea beast was chaotic, driven near manic in obsessive compulsions. Even when she tried to calm him and coach the mentally young creature, she quickly discovered how insane it had gotten from an error in its directives. Now a blithering, muttering, deranged idiot who got so confused it turned downright sadistic at the slightest hint of toxins in the air, Dagahra would have been a nightmare to fix and uncorrupt 70,000 years ago, let alone now. The barem, once peaceful creatures who’d dissolve away toxins and litter to then return to their symbiote had become the marine equivalent of a ravenous horde of acid-spewing locusts. One misadventure later with Dagahra trying to destroy them all until a powered up Lea seemed to destroy him, and she was back at square one.

Until she felt the energy coming off Mothra Lea when she fought Dagahra and witnessed the moth spew out a familiar set of optic blasts instead of the more familiar antenna beams. That was, in the hundreds of centuries of existence, when she truly found how strong Battra’s spirit was. Her master hadn’t reincarnated a son, because he already had a daughter; his essence combined with Mothra’s in Lea’s egg. She fell to her knees in shock before her sisters, and then quickly slipped away when they had to tend to several lost children who stumbled upon the temple and two idiots she’d coerced along who got dragged into the mayhem.

She wandered about for a year, still in a confused daze and trying to think things over with her sisters consistently following her trail. Almost seeking it to give her some sort of purpose and clarity, she returned to an ancient crypt that had long since been locked away to try and break the seal and retrieve whatever was inside. But all that lack of focus shifted when the nightmare her masters’ earliest ancestor contended with returned. Belvera was the first to detect something was amiss and was following it when the distraction of the third Godzilla reawakening distracted her sisters and Lea. By the time she managed to open the crypt and discovered that one of the three enchanted swords, the jeweled sword of courage, reacted to her and allowed her to retrieve it from its casing; Grand King Ghidorah made himself known to her by assaulting a nearby city.

Belvera knew the magic in the crypt was powerful but found she could not retrieve the swords and gems of wisdom and love. Logically ascertaining that three swords with three Elias meant there was one for each of them and that their power worked best in a group, Belvera hurried to find her sisters to both gather them and warn them. She showed up just in time to find what had kept everyone. Godzilla Junior and Mothra Lea had both sensed something dangerous approaching and investigated, coming across each other in the process. A fight ensued, no doubt not helped by Lea’s reaction to Junior’s resemblance to his father, but thankfully the battle was quickly halted when Belvera got to her surprised little sisters. Lea and Junior both stopped their assaults on each other when a bus of humans was caught in the crossfire. It was a silent moment Belvera would vividly remember when Junior and Lea looked over at each other and saw the saurian blocking a landslide while Lea held the bus in her feet to lower it to safety. Evidently, the apple fell further from the tree than even Belvera thought with this Godzilla.

The end of that chaotic day was only taken in victory when the three fairy swords, forged by Reijuu itself and always meant for the three sisters were released and combined to the rapier at Belvera’s hip this very moment. The stored energy of a hundred millennia was released upon Grand King Ghidorah along with the strongest of the Mothra and Godzilla lines giving their all. Belvera counted her blessings that it was enough to prompt the King of Terror to decide the planet wasn’t worth the trouble and depart.

Belvera drew the sword from its scabbard and looked at herself in the blade’s reflection whilst also gazing upon the blade. It might be one of the strongest magical relics left on the planet, certainly more than what Langoud was testing thus far, even if it had lost a lot of its energy in the battle with Ghidorah. She could still recall gazing up upon a battered but still very much alive Mothra Lea as she flew with her sisters on the back of fairy Mothra for the first time in thousands of years. She could see the pointedness of her wings, more angular jaw and head, and almost stinger-like abdomen. Battra traits bleeding through a Mothra’s body. At the eve of that night, she stood upon the Mu archipelago’s core island, Solgell, watching on with Moll and Lora as Lea seeded the island with beautiful flora.

“She’s a strong one,” Belvera muttered whilst observing Lea the whole time.

“Yes, and named after a lioness for her courage,-” Moll started.

“And not the only courageous one!” Lora finished with a grin.

Belvera groaned as her sisters embraced her, “Really, going to keep doing your twin maneuver on me?”

“Not our fault,-” “-You were born too early.”

Her little sisters snickered and Belvera patted them on the backs to return the hug briefly. They separated and looked on at the sound of thundering footsteps. Godzilla Junior rose peacefully out of the sea, torrents of water layering off him that glistened in the reflective moonlight. He seemed to stare in awe of the immense foliage which he didn’t remember seeing even a few days earlier passing by this place. A very tired Lea perched herself on a mountain and chirped to her new friend, who came up to the basin of the mount and addressed her with a pleasant rumble. Chirps, bellows, yips, and grunts were exchanged, bestial calls to a human; language to the fairies.

“He is far different than the one from before,-” “not in a way we disapprove of.”

Belvera crossed her arms and shook her head, “He hatched a year after you two left for the asteroid. Humans got to this one in a far better way than they did his father.”

“And how are you,-” “with humans now, sister?”

Belvera paused with a frown stretching across her face and a gaze cast into the void beyond Mothra Lea as the moth continued conversing, “... I don’t know.”

Moll placed a hand upon her left shoulder, and Lora her right.

“We may protect humans, but they were never perfect.” “And without magic, their lives are much harder now. Stability is hard.”

Belvera couldn’t help but look upon the Eden that Lea had created, seeing the seabirds flocking to it eagerly and finding a paradise. She’d seen so many islands strip-mined, toxins dumped upon, plastic islands of garbage and smog clouds leading to brutal deaths to any life that came across it. It was little wonder why Dagahra was so destructive after he went bonkers over all the filth.

She shrugged, “I still don’t like them…”

Moll and Lora didn’t let go.

“They struggle and many know they can do better,-” “we are just pained to see you holding onto such anger.”

Belvera deflated a bit at those words, knowing full well what madness and idiocy her hatred and grief pushed her to. She nearly destroyed her family and the last legacy of her master’s line because of it. She gazed to her sisters, offering a tiny smile.

“Such lovely wisdom, I’d be a fool not to take it. And I’ve played that role too long,” she whispered.

Moll and Lora lit up at her words, looking at each other with a grin before gazing up at their sibling-like they were toddlers idolizing their awesome elder sister again.

“Wondrous! We have been waiting for this day so long!” “You can return to Infant Island with us and-”

Belvera put an index finger to Lora’s lips, and her other one to Moll’s for good measure on account of knowing they were so in sync Moll would probably end up finishing that line. She sighed.

“Sisters, I will need… more time.”

Before the twins could deflate, their elder sister yanked them to her in a tight embrace with her arms wrapped around their middles.

“You’ll see more of me. Battra’s legacy is alive, in Lea. If or when it really begins to awaken, I’ll return fully. It might be a lot for her at first, given her father and grandfather, so I’ll help her with my song when that day comes.”

Belvera separated from them a bit, sighing and smiling at her siblings before casting the same onto Mothra Lea.

“She’ll be the greatest of either line if she balances them, and no one has more experience with the Battra line than myself. Until then, I’ll need to survey some of this world.”

She lowered her arms from her sisters, turned, and began to walk up to where Garu-Garu was parked.

She pitched her voice over her shoulder, “If she is going to guard the biosphere one day alongside all these mortals, she’ll need all the information she can get on it!”

Belvera rolled her slightly watered eyes and nonchalantly waved her head with the other on her hip, “I promise I won’t hurt any of the talking monkeys, even the annoying little ones!”

“BELVERA!”, Moll and Lora yelled in unison.

Their sister reluctantly turned around to briefly whirl back in surprise at an object flying towards her but managed to catch it. The combined Elias triangle sword, all three of the gem charms still within it. She looked back at her sisters with a mildly bewildered look.

Moll and Lora held each other’s hand and beamed at their childhood hero, returned after all these years. They waved even as glistening formed upon their eyes.

“To keep some of us with you wherever you go,” “and to keep you safe should anything happen.”
Belvera stared at them for a time, slowly infected by their smiles. She turned and hooked the scabbard around herself and drew the sword from its holster, nimbly flicking it through the air.

“Heh,” she scoffed, “I was too much to handle even without this. You two have no faith in my abilities.”

Moll and Lora sniggered and Belvera just rolled her eyes before kicking Garu-Garu’s activation button like she was spurring a horse. The tiny wonder of technology and magic made to resemble a small dragon squawked back to life and stood up with its rider on its back.

“Remember,” Belvera called out as she began to ascend up, “If she has trouble, she’ll need my song to guide her. You two know the words?”

“By heart!”

“Good, one of you can hold her over until she snaps out of it, or if she has issues until I can get there. She might have trouble with the power alone at first!”

Garu-Garu’s engines and wings roared and flapped, bringing Belvera skyward. She stole one last look at Lea, who seemed to be coming to an agreement or alliance with Godzilla Junior. Belvera gazed upon her patron’s daughter and heiress and smirked.

=====================================

That was over fourteen years ago, and she’d made good on her surveying. Belvera glanced down at several young humans eagerly throwing some yard clippings to a grazing manatee.

Humans, she still didn’t like them much. A great many of them did horrible things to other lifeforms and their own kind for selfish, wasteful, or petty reasons. And if they didn’t directly, the out of place invasive species they brought with them could. Still, her anger had cooled with some time. Most were good, many even tried to help make things better and wished no harm on the life around them. She still thought there were too many who were ignorant of what was going on at times, but rash judgments on the few couldn’t be cast upon the whole. The world was complex, as were the ecosystems upon it, many of which now had humankind in the equation for better or for worse. Protecting the biosphere was going to be a great deal more complicated an issue with so many sapient individuals running around.

There still was much to do on her agenda list, even more so recently. Working on a spell to possibly fix Dagahra, possibly pop over to the GDF and leave a strongly spirited retort to whichever fools she found thought it a wise idea to shoot their own Guardian of Mortals with a black hole gun, maybe burn down another Red Bamboo or Dawn, she cared not for what they called themselves now, smuggling ring. It was a wonder what one could get away with as one of the strongest magic users left on the planet also being small enough to sneak right past people. Was a shame her sisters believed so much in the ‘not hurting any humans’ gig that they were nearly captured for it. Belvera had no such holding on those that deserved it.

So much to do, so much to do. She couldn’t ask for it any other way until the day her patron returned.

-Hm, first female master. I wonder if Lea would prefer her old name or ‘Lady Battra’ when she becomes fully realized. Her predecessors all preferred ‘Lord Battra’ or their given names.-

Belvera was just about to mount Garu-Garu again to depart when she felt it. Like a lance of ice through her chest as a burning sword struck her mind. It was a flicker, present one moment in sensation and then gone the next until it returned. One alien and yet extremely familiar.

A battra. She sensed a battra!

Belvera quivered as she put a hand to the side of her face and tried to look about both with her eyes and with her aura.

-Ho-How?! Has Lea returned?! Did Terra’s manastream create another one? Wh-Where are they?!-

She could feel the emotion behind it all. Anger, hatred, the craving for vengeance, and pain; so, so much pain! Belvera quivered and felt it all empathically, her eyes watering in ways they hadn’t since she believed her sisters had perished. It didn’t feel like the former battra of old, whose memory she impressed onto her psyche so much so she’d never forget them or let them blur together. This felt like the worst of her last two masters, Lea’s father and grandfather. The two most wrathful battra of all. And through it all, she could sense what it was coming from, who was coming from.

“Lea,” Belvera gasped breathlessly, wincing under the empathic load, “H-Help her…”

The eldest Shobijin felt so powerless, helpless as a tear trickled from her eye as she looked up into the starry void in pleading prayer, “Please, someone. She needs my song… help her.”

=============================

When Sunset Shimmer heard the familiar sound of Flash’s car pulling up, she felt a flurry of mixed emotions. On one hand, it meant that undoubtedly, as he often did so for band practice, Flash had picked up Rainbow Dash’s bandmates and had brought them to see her along with checking in on her himself. With both of Rainbow’s parents out of town, it only made sense such a crowd might help Dash recover best before they went to the police. So far Sunset had gotten the athlete to rest in her bedroom, granted she kept the window tightly locked and covered to keep her from being on the border of having a mental breakdown like last night again but she hadn’t quite gotten over her fright yet, understandably so.

On the other hand, it meant Flash Sentry was going to be around. Them in the same room was something she knew, hoped, they both wanted to happen for one reason or another, but she was all too aware some of those reasons were not exactly benign. The fact he was barely around when she was at band practice and yet Rarity told her he asked about her more than once when she wasn’t about only made it more complicated.

And right now she just hoped those complications, whatever they might be, wouldn’t bubble up and make them even more stressed out than they already were with poor Rainbow Dash in her current condition and somebody threatening Twilight.

-Princess Celestia mentioned kaiju are attracted to high magic and energy sources to try and return to their true forms. Probably why whatever it was Irys and her friends were trying to save that X fellow from was going after him or those girls. No way in Tartarus those three young ladies were normal people… Still, they did resolve that problem. Maybe I should try and find them or Irys and X again to try and stop whoever it is gunning for Sparkle?-

Sunset Shimmer sighed and opened the door. But when she got one good look at what was going on outside, she was absolutely flummoxed. Smoke was pouring out from the underside of Flash Sentry’s banged-up car. Rarity, usually the extremely meticulous one, was half-covered in dirt and dust whilst Pinkie Pie and Applejack looked moderately and extremely roughed up with scrapes and bruises. Flash Sentry and Fluttershy looked like they were in shock. And a very tall woman with green hair, an islander dress marred with burns and ash, half covered in a lot of tattoos, was already out of the car and charging towards her. Sunset Shimmer yipped when she grabbed her arms with so much force it hurt from her squeezing fingers.

“The book! Where is it?!” she barked in a way that sounded like she was both crying and roaring.

“Wh-What?! Who are?” Sunset Shimmer stammered as she tried to hold onto the woman’s forearms to both slow her down from her shuddering and to keep her from squeezing the life out of her own limbs.

Lea lurched forward, eyes flashing orange and red across the span of a half second. For the faintest moment, Sunset Shimmer was sure she could see her pale green skin darken just a hint before going back to normal.

“CELESTIA’S BOOK! WHERE?!”

Seeing the others of the Rainbooms and Flash Sentry starting off towards her and knowing that anyone this strong who was with them had to be a kaiju from Equestria, Sunset Shimmer yipped and pointed with her head to the desk sitting outside the tiny kitchen.

“Th-There!” She muttered as she finally noticed the numerous bruises, cuts, scuffs, and a few burns on the woman’s body, “M-Miss are you oka-!”

She didn’t get time to finish her question when the kaiju suddenly let go of her and raced towards the book, snatching out a pen from a holster with more than a little fumbling, ripping the book open to a blank page, and started writing.

Sunset just looked on in confused shock as everyone else walked in, Flash bringing up the rear. He and Sunset didn’t even notice that this was the closest they’d been to each other in years when he quietly shut the door, watching as Fluttershy got Rarity and Applejack onto kitchen chairs and pulled out the first aid kit she knew Sunset kept in a certain cupboard, immediately going to wet several towels and tend to her friends alongside a deflated-haired Pinkie Pie.

“Flash…” Sunset whispered to her ex with a growing frown when she felt him weaken from shock and lean on the wall.

Sentry only flinched momentarily when she touched him again and heard her voice, “What happened?”

He huffed in a way that hid a stuffy nose and sore throat, speaking extremely quietly, “... They took Twilight.”

Sunset Shimmer’s horrified expression stuck for several long minutes even after her phone started ringing. She quickly fumbled it out after snapping from her stupor. She didn’t recognize the number at all but in her frenzied state, she didn’t think about that before opening the first of what would be several texts over the hours, day through night.

~I have your friend, she is alive and unharmed. Do not test me.~

The image of Twilight Sparkle, no doubt still tied and bound on the parts of her offscreen, trying to put on a brave smile as she stood in the middle of some indeterminate wood was burned into everyone’s mind.

==========================

Godzilla Junior and Anguirus expected an odd welcoming committee when they arrived in the Crystal Empire. Formalities unknown, the two had speculated at least someone would pick them and their small entourage of Chibi Moon, Captain Frost, Ki Seong, and Gentle Leaf up at the train station to at least show them where they were supposed to go.

They weren’t expecting said group to be a clearly exhausted and strained Flash Sentry and the Shobijin twins.

Captain Frost cocked an eyebrow at the pegasus’ demeanor. The poor stallion looked like he’d been up half the night fighting a storm by himself.

“At ease soldier, what’s the situation?” she barked.

Flash Sentry gave a tired salute whilst still shuddering all over, “Captain, there’s been a situation alright! I need to escort these two to the portal immediately!”

Junior and Anguirus looked about, instantly tensing up on instinct that something was wrong. This was only heightened by Moll and Lora flying up in their faces.

“King of the Monsters,” “Guardian Beast Alpha!”

“Something has happened to Lea!”

That got their attention alright.

“Offo… Seong, take Gentle Leaf,” Anguirus grunted to his partner with a frown.

The arrangement as far as he understood was that they’d be spending some time in the Crystal Empire and be on call if something went wrong with the expedition Lea and Twilight telepathically informed them about. He’d still been prepared to move out at a moment’s notice, but the fact Seong said she and Gentle Leaf had never been to the empire led to him asking them to come along as his gift. He’d been hoping on some level they’d not need to be called in at all and he could have a day or two with them.

Ki Seong thankfully was a very understanding doe and knew how to read the expression on “Quill Coat’s” face. She took Gentle Leaf off Anguirus’ back after her niece snuck a quick hug around his neck.

“Be careful, help your friend!” Ki Seong quipped after planting a peck on his flushed cheek.

Junior looked up to the filly nested on his head and under his helmet, “Chibi, watch after Ms. Seong and her niece.”

A burst of pink magic heralded Chibi Moon teleporting off her mentor’s head and onto the ground, letting the helmet drop back onto Godzilla’s head. She crossed her forelimb and bowed her head, “Hai, Sensei!”

Flash Sentry popped into the air upon beating wings, “Follow us!”

What followed was a quasi-surreal sight to behold. Flash Sentry rapidly flying forward frantically blowing an alarm whistle to get everypony out of the street and clear a path, Godzilla and Captain Frost sprinting after him at top speed and full armor, and Anguirus rolled up into a wheel-like ball to barrel about alongside.

“What’s happened to Lea?!” Junior roared to make sure the red and blue glowing sprites accompanying him could hear him.

“She is alive but her aura and mana are erratic,” Moll pipped as she clung to Godzilla’s horn.

Lora, holding onto their friend’s chest plate, finished, “We sense grave distress, and it’s causing her powers to act like we’ve never seen before!“

Junior snarled on instinct, a sentiment Anguirus would no doubt share. If some fool thought they could cause so much havoc to his best friend that even her faeries felt it, they were about to find out why the Anteverse creators and Alien Coalition races were terrified of him…

They soon arrived at the warehouse and got an idea of why Flash Sentry was so stressed. It was complete and utter mayhem in the room with crystal ponies, guards, and mages running to and fro. Sunburst sprinted past covered in so many readings several of them were impaled upon his horn, Key Ring was busy talking to a very frantic looking Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, and Xenilla looked like he was having to physically hold back an extremely teary-eyed and livid-

“Princess Celestia?!” Captain Frost yipped at her monarch, who was staring at the magic mirror that was currently attached to a massive crystal array Junior recognized as his brother’s handiwork.

The alicorn looked over with a blank stare that was outright piercing. The room seemed to freeze over as Celestia levitated the book she’d been grasping with her magic back into the doorframe and reactivated the portal. All one could hear were breaths, namely the solar alicorn’s.

“Twilight Sparkle... Has been kidnapped, taken by a pair of kaiju. One of whom was called Gigan,” her words caused an alert glance to be cast between the corners of Anguirus’ and Godzilla’s eyes.

“I am going to get her back. You two, with me.”

Junior swallowed and stepped forward, “Celestia, are you sure that is wise? It could be a trap for you as well.”

Captain Blueberry Frost, much to his relief, flanked him and approached, “Your majesty, it is mah’ understandin’ in the briefing you dispatched that Princess Twilight Sparkle was called out before she was nabbed.”

Princess Celestia smelled an argument and she didn’t like it, visibly showing her disapproval with narrowed eyes, “...”

Captain Frost caught her own breath trying to flee her, “I’m sayin’, Princess Celestia, they might be attemptin’ the same trick twice knowing y’er ties to Princess Sparkle.”

Xenilla came up beside Princess Celestia, relieved to not be having to keep her back now that his sibling and his brother’s ally had arrived. Celestia had been waiting for them alone, least she barrel right through him the moment they got the grim news.

“The kidnapping made no mention of wanting to draw Princess Celestia out. Nor has the follow-up message from them.”

“Follow-up message?” Anguirus quipped with a tilted head, “Not Gigan’s style… Then again, never seen him kidnap someone either. Who was the other kaiju involved?”

“Unidentified, but Lea’s message indicates they had similar, though distinct powers to Grand King Ghidorah,” Xenilla shrugged, muttering something about how even in death that monstrosity’s impact didn’t die with him, “The message only stated Princess Sparkle was unharmed for now and will continue to be so.”

“This is the first time we’ve seen multiple kaiju of different types working together outside of our own forces, another abnormality in this already abnormal situation.”

“And you still want to go,” Godzilla grunted, “Celestia I might mostly be your sister’s guard but when Captain Frost recruited me I was given the task of protecting the both of you. Anguirus, Lea, and I will do all we can to find and rescue Princess Twilight Sparkle, but that situation might prove harder if we need to protect you as well.”

“Gigan teaming up with a Ghidorah, kidnapping, them drawing someone out? All this smells wrong. No way they're not up to something,” Anguirus added.

Princess Celestia raised herself up, letting the redness on her eyes and glistening from her tears fade with a show of strength and determination, “I. Am. No. Burden… They took my Twilight, threatened my Sunset. I pay mind to what they might be planning, but I cannot be idle in this. Could either of you be if your young charges were taken?”

Her head dipped slightly and she seemed to almost wince in pain momentarily before stepping forward. Just that alone cracked the crystalline floor below.

“I know that world will reduce me, but I was a far weaker filly when I journeyed there with Starswirl long ago. Magic or not, I won’t be helpless. How would you two be any better off without me? ”

The look she bore on her face, a clenched jaw, powerful stare, and wings perked just enough to show their size got the image across. This was not a mare to argue with. Regardless of objections, she was coming.

Godzilla Junior, Captain Frost, and Anguirus shrugged and nodded, the mare of that trio backing up to flank the Crystal Imperial family. Xenilla stepped down from the gateway’s platform and nodded to his sibling as he passed.

“Trust me, none of us could stop her if we tried,” he spoke with experience.

The two kaiju and the eldest alicorn approached the mirror, the former flanking Princess Celestia as they turned back to face the warehouse’s populace of guards, workers, and royalty.

“‘Ambassador’ Xenilla, continue to safeguard the portal and the Imperial Royal Family…. Cadance, Armor,” Celestia’s strong voice softened noticeably especially when she looked at the slight bump forming on her honorary niece’s pregnant belly, “Do not permit anyone else to follow us.”

Xenilla gave a strong look towards both the Empress and Prince Consort, one both demanding and, on some level, apologetic for the heartbreak they no doubt felt from their sister-in-law and little sister being in danger. He shrugged and nodded, “It will be done. I will see to the safety of the empire and the portal so you all can return.”

Junior looked to Princess Celestia, knowing full well how much of Equestria she carried on her shoulders as well as how much this must be stressing her. This wasn’t the same mare who playfully took part in matchmaking himself and her sister and invited him to join them for pancakes more than once.

“Celestia, last chance to back out now… A lot rely on you and I promise Anguirus and I would do everything possible to bring back your student,” he noted in a quiet tone.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Princess Celestia sunk as she turned around and beheld the portal. Her shoulders and wings drooped by a margin and a frown of uncertainty crossed her face.

“I know I am being foolish… and my insistence is not from lack of faith in your intent or ability. But ever since she was my student as a filly, I became responsible for her. And I still am,” Celestia sighed, “How would you react if your charges of young Ms. Moon or Leaf were taken and somepony told you to remain behind?”

Anguirus pursed his lips, briefly imagining the horror of such a scenario. Godzilla sensed it too, having experienced that firsthand. True, Gentle Leaf and Mariner Chibi Moon were still fillies and Twilight Sparkle was a grown mare, but perhaps that made little difference to a childless, millennium old, motherly figure. There were no more arguments. They couldn’t deny her this.

The mirror portal fully roared to life.

======

Zenith

Bagan had wisely kept a close eye on the human realm ever since he detected that other intrusion that seemed to threaten his access to the realm via its link to Zenith. Even if it took a lot of energy and the connection couldn’t remain active constantly, it could still look in and check on matters. It was what had clued it into a Mothra being present along with an alicorn. At the time, it was concerned for Monster X’s success should they cross paths and thus took up the offer to send out the other three members of its most loyal expeditionary force. Either they’d capture the Mothra or kill her, then find the magical source it had sensed before.

Unfortunately, that original quarry had remained elusive ever since it perked Bagan’s interest. The magical signature coming off the brief hints it sensed were near identical to the dark magic aura given off by Grogar’s books, though distinct from Chrysalis and Sombra. It couldn’t be Tirek, he was unaccounted for but by all logic was either in Tartarus or in Equestria proper somewhere. Nor Discord, whom was also tricky to find but likely in the same realm. It was something else of Grogar’s making and that fact interested Bagan greatly, causing it to send forth Monster X to hunt it down in the first place.

Its vision and contact to the realm was extremely tenuous at best, for the proper lunar phase was a long ways coming and it had no way to form a tether to that realm like the Crystal Empire development team had, unbeknownst to Bagan. Thus far it had to brute force the connection, which had its problems. Especially when someone else took over the input and broke Zenith’s connection.

Bagan leered and sensed just that, studying the interlopers. Upon detecting King Manjusandra’s creation and that mutant dinosaur so much like the one from before, it sneered. But the third signal caught its attention in the worst way possible. For them.

It sensed the one thing it needed in order to open Grogar’s tomb: Alicorn magic. And this one had immense stores of it.

========================

One by one, the Alpha Guardian Beast, Princess of the Sun, and King of the Monsters stepped through it.

The world around them seemed to swirl and distort, stretching, pulling, smushing, and compacting all at once. Little did they know, however, they were soon joined. A deathly cold settled through the bridge between the realms. One that sunk its frozen fangs directly to the bone. A force they did not know sensed alicorn magic and a lot of it. It lunged out to grab it. Princess Celestia, already virtually devoid of sensory around her, cried out in sharp pain as she could swear she felt something grab hold of her in the way she dreaded it had Twilight. It was only for an instant, that moment a God of Extinction tried to force its way into a bridge between dimensions before being repulsed into the rainbow-colored void that catapulted it towards from whence it came. But even as Bagan was sent back into Zenith, the effect of its incursion was palpable. Princess Celestia yelped through the distorted dimensions as she fell into Godzilla and Anguirus, sending them tumbling into the human realm on an erratic course.

====================

“-ste yah.”

The echoing voice that was simultaneously whispering and blaring in her ears was virtually uninterpretable. Princess Celestia moaned and tried to grab at her head, feeling a pair of hands lifting her body to prop her up.

“Sell-.. Ste… yah?”

Her mind was still spinning and the stars in her vision were so heavy they were virtually blinding outside of a few blank spots in her vision that were very slowly widening to clear it. She felt worse than that time she and Luna snuck into Winnie Land in glamor disguises and rode Spinning Tea Cups four times in a row under different appearances. Finally, the world started rushing back to her.

“Ce-estia?!”

The alicorn groaned and nodded, recognizing Godzilla Junior’s voice. Slowly her vision started to become clearer and the stars died away enough she could see, soon taking in the features of a youthful but grown man looking down at her. His coloration furthered the conclusion this was, in fact, the King of the Monsters. She had to admit, for a talking primate, he wasn’t too shabby and Luna would probably approve. His basic coloration was the same, charcoal gray skin with the same golden eyes and red sclera under a top of ivory colored hair that was spiky and short, coming down in front of his ears in a quasi-mutton chop-like look along with some scruff visible on his cheeks and chin. The nasal ridge was gone, but she could just barely see the hints of fangs in his mouth when he held it open to talk. As she sat up and squinted whilst trying to ease the pounding in her head, she could see he was dressed in a Neighponese-like garb akin to a dark gi with a pale undershirt visible poking out at his neck, such as one might wear under armor. Evidently, his Royal guard armor hadn’t transferred over with him, though he still sported a pair of bracers on his forearms and shins.

“She okay- what in the name of Manjushri… Is that her?!”

Celestia turned to the source of the voice, seeing a dark bronze colored man with deep brown, quill-like hair standing over her. He was still tall, though a bit shorter than Junior and stout in his strength. His spike-studded belt and spiny bracers with gloves were a dead give-away for Anguirus. But whereas Godzilla’s look recalled his Japanese hatching place, Anguirus’ reflected his subcontinent origin. A pale, long sleeve shirt covered most of his torso except for a slightly decorated, button-down vest of a military caste over his chest; with thick boots and work pants below. Obscured by his hair by lack of a turban was the telltale indication of a tilak mark on his forehead.

She was less shocked at seeing Anguirus as a human and more at why he was staring down at her.

That’s when the panting Celestia finally noticed her exhausted feeling, and the fact her hair was different. Its lack of wave was to be expected, even if she had gotten used to it for so long outside of brief intervals, but the color wasn’t right. It was entirely bright pink aside from a gradual tinge of gold on the fringes. Princess Celestia’s eyes widened and she stumbled up.

“Wh-What’s wrong?! What happened to me?!” she yelped, both shocked at how high-pitched her voice was, to the point anyone but herself might not recognize it.

She froze when she got a good look at perspective against the two transformed kaiju. Assuming sizes scaled in this new world, she should have been towering over any ally not named Destroyah or possibly Discord. And yet for the first time, she was looking up at Godzilla Junior and Anguirus without them being multistory giant monsters.

She was short, had mostly pink hair, a high-pitched voice, and was wearing something that couldn’t possibly fit her human form unless she grew up at least a foot and filled out in many areas.

A much younger looking Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor stammered and had to brace her hands on her knees to avoid falling over. Though something fell down with her rising up.

True to form with her gorgeous appearance in Equestria, the now more pint-sized Princess Celestia would have been a stunner in her outfit. Should she be nearby, one could note a similarity to Principal Celestia’s typical garb, though in a less modern, more regal look. Part suit and part dress with a sunny golden top that hung down over her legs and regal purple ball pants underneath. The only distinct pieces were the pair of metallic bracers around her arms, armor-like choker, and plated boots on her legs. It looked the part for the oldest and most powerful alicorn of all. It looked regal, it looked majestic, it looked imposing… It looked four sizes too big, in some areas especially more than others.

“How, how could this-?!” Celestia gasped breathlessly as she beheld herself, feeling at her youthful face and holding up the garb which would otherwise be tumbling down.

Junior had to hold her up to keep her from falling over, “The ride here felt bizarre, could something have happened to us because of it?”

“I-I-I don’t know! B-But, you don’t sound any different!”

Junior grimaced. In his racing mind, he almost hoped this bizarre circumstance was just something that came with moving through the mirror. But he sensed she was right, a sentiment back up by Anguirus shrugging and nodding. It seemed with at least himself and Anguirus, physical maturity was scaled.

“Eyeballing it, I’d peg you at around 25 at a minimum for a human,” Anguirus grunted with a nod towards Junior and then a grimace at the frantic Celestia, “Her? No more than 18, probably closer to 16. Rodan even sounds older than she does!”

Junior turned his head to Celestia, who was still not very used to looking up towards him sans one night at Canterlot involving a lot of giant bats, “Maybe something went wrong with Xenilla’s setup or the fact that several of us went through at once? I vaguely recall you crashing into me in that… weird space.”

Celestia grimaced from her splitting headache and shook her head, “N-No, the mirror has handled multiple travelers before. Myself with Starswirl, Twilight, and Spike, and there was nothing to suggest it went awry with Twilight and Spike taking Mothra Lea with them on their second trip. I-I have no idea how this could have happened!”

Junior let his mind drift for a moment before perking up slightly, “You once told me about how you came here before with Starswirl. How old were you then?”

Celestia bit her lips for a moment while doing the mental math through a migraine she felt coming on, “Uum.. 6. So about 14 to 15 in normal pony years. Luna and I grew up fast.”

“And when you came here, did you have the rainbow hair?”

Celestia glanced at her own peachy pink locks that ended in golden tinges, taking some of it in her hand and shaking her head slightly, “No it was like this… The manes you see on Luna and I now are from our powers growing with time. When I was a filly and teenager it was this color and it didn’t wave. And I didn’t get the rainbow mane until after I had to banish Nightmare Moon, Starswirl speculated it was a side effect of using the Elements on somepony who was technically another bearer. Why?”

Junior turned his head to look at the building behind him. It took him a moment to make out the writing, but the overall shape, as well as the wording, told him it was a human school.

“Twilight told us a bit about this place in our summons. Both of your students managed to fit into that school despite being old enough to have graduated from your magic school. Always thought it was a tad weird given she said many ponies had counterparts that were enrolled despite their ages,” Junior noted as he looked to Anguirus.

“You’re at the apple farm more, how old is the Element of Honesty?”

Anguirus shrugged, “Applejack? Never asked but 19, 20, maybe 22? Big Mac is about the same age as the local school teacher. Princess, are those the right ages for schools like this?”

Princess Celestia shook her head, “N-No I think that’s a few years too old… And Spike is roughly the same age as the Crusaders, yet he became a small puppy… And if Twilight and Sunset also shrank back a few years to match the students…”

Junior nodded as she caught onto his train of thought, “Maybe the mirror reacts that way to Equestrians? Makes them younger?”

“What about that Starswirl guy though?” Anguirus grunted as he wobbled unsteadily like he was missing something to balance while being a biped, “Or us for that matter. I never felt 70,000 like a mortal would but I certainly don’t feel any different now other than missing my tail.”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips and tapped at them, thinking back to literally hundreds of years ago. Starswirl was an extremely long-lived pony, helped by an accidental de-aging spell that proved irreversible and effectively doubled his lifespan. When he made the jump to this world with her back in the old days just a few years after the founding but before the assaults by Discord, Tirek, Sombra, and Chrysalis, he didn’t look much more than a day over his late 20s.

“He was… difficult to tell,” Celestia grimace from the memory being foggy on top of her, “But why didn’t it affect either of you?”

Anguirus shrugged, “Maybe it’s an Equestrian thing? Godzilla’s growth was altered by radiation and I’m the way I am because of all the mana and engineering put into me back on Terra. I don’t recall Lea’s message to you including anything about power loss or age alteration on her, and given how meticulous she is even in a rush I doubt that would slip her mind.”

Princess Celestia mumbled to herself as she thought through the scenarios. In the blurry haze and pandemonium of the transfer, no one had been able to sense Bagan’s intrusion. Nor how the deity’s interference and the barriers that Harmony put in long ago repulsing it had affected her.

All Celestia could feel as she studied herself was a feeling that something was… missing. That in the chaos of the transfer, something has been torn off and left behind in the ethereal passage between realms. She didn’t like it one bit, even as she came to a wrong, but a sensible conclusion.

“I suppose this is the cost of hubris,” she sighed as she staggered up to her feet, wobbling more than a bit.

“No use kicking yourself,” Anguirus grunted whilst hooking an arm around her shoulder to help prop the both of them up some.

Junior, the one most used to walking upright bipedally, managed better than the others even if his lack of tail made it awkward, “We can get used to the current situation on the way, first thing we need to do is find Lea and the others so we can find where Gigan and his partner are hiding.”

“Um, excuse me?”

All eyes turned away from the surrealness of a teenage solar diarch and looked to the source, just now noticing two humans with the exact same coloration and hairstyles of Fluttershy and Rarity, complete with matching emblems on their skirts corresponding to the two’s pony counterparts’ cutie marks, had been standing there the whole time.

“I um.. t-take it you’re friends of Lea?” Fluttershy muttered with a lowered head.

Celestia, Junior, and Anguirus exchanged a glance that clearly told each other the fact she just said Mothra’s given name meant she was on the up and up.

“We are, can you take us to her?” Junior noted with a nod.

Fluttershy and Rarity returned the gesture, the latter speaking up, “We were wondering when Mothra Lea’s message would get through to anyone! What with the time since the reply that two kaiju and a third Equestrian were coming!”

The trio of kaiju and alicorn glanced to each other in a moment of confusion before looking back.

Celestia tilted her head and scrunched up her nose, “What do you mean? I wrote in a reply that I and two of Mothra Lea’s comrades were on our way right before we entered the portal!”

Rarity gave them a blank stare and Fluttershy tilted her head, “... Does the portal have a delay?”

Celestia shook her head and earned a baffled look from Rarity.

“Miss, we got your reply five days ago!”

One could hear a pin drop as a cold feeling settled over the trio. Celestia’s eyes expanded and dilated with a stressed twitch in her eyelid.

“I thought that trip felt weird even before Celestia here crashed Junior into me,” Anguirus grunted.

Now Rarity and Fluttershy looked even more confused. The purple haired unicorn counterpart rapidly waved her hands before herself.

“Wait wait wait! You’re our principal’s counterpart!?” she yelped whilst pointing at the wobbly-legged, lean teenager wearing an outfit that only covered some parts due to her holding it up, “Twilight and Sunset’s teacher?!”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips in an emote that would have included flattening her ears, if she could still do that, frowning, and nodding.

Rarity and Fluttershy’s jaws dropped a few inches as they compared memory, expectation, and reality. Fluttershy unconsciously lifted her arm up and slanted her hand to indicate a height a good head and a half taller than she was, how tall she remembered her principal being and how much she expected of her counterpart, whilst looking at the teenage Celestia that was virtually her height. Rarity just looked more and more stupefied.

Celestia shook her head, banishing any bashfulness she stepped forward and took Rarity’s hand in her own, “Enough! Clearly, something was amiss with our voyage but we’re here now, where is Sunset Shimmer and Mothra Lea?”

The girls both flushed badly from embarrassment due to what fell when Celestia took a hand off her outfit to grip Rarity, the pale skinned fashionista-in-the-making quickly yanking the garb back up to cover her more.

“Sun-Sunset’s in the school! Lea is with Pinkie’s big sister at the police station!”

Junior tilted his head and grunted, “Why there?”

His company was less than thrilled.

Celestia’s brow lowered with a minor sneer, “A kidnapping just happened and you lot are seriously still going to school?! Why aren’t you looking for her!?”

Fluttershy rushed up to Rarity’s defense and took the yelping Celestia by the shoulders, locking stares with her. Starswirl might have declared this world devoid of magic when she journeyed there with him briefly, but the alicorn froze. Maybe it was her lacking magic of her own, maybe it was just the stress on her mind, or maybe it was any Fluttershy still being a Fluttershy. But that stare seemed to quiet everything in her mind and demanded her attention.

Fluttershy finally blinked and took in a deep breath, Celestia mimicking her.

“We looked… We looked as much as we could. We know she’s okay, but try as we may we just couldn’t find her…” Fluttershy sighed mournfully and shook her head slowly, “The texts kept coming, so we knew whoever it was that took her could find us. For safety, we’ve been spending as much time in the school and searching when not there.”

“Given we were attacked on the fringes of town with no one else around and Rainbow Dash was cornered at an empty school at night, we figured these two kaiju were intentionally trying to avoid attention,” Rarity added whilst motioning with her thumb to the school, “Big place with lots of people around in the middle of town during the daytime? Safest place we could think of. Trust us, we’re still looking. That’s why Maud Pie took Mothra Lea to the police station to file a missing persons report.”

Celestia took in a deep breath and let it out, putting her hands on Fluttershy’s.

“I am… sorry, please forgive my outburst,” she muttered, “This is an awkward situation for us all. But, fret less. I am here with good company.”

She turned to motion towards Godzilla Junior and Anguirus with an outstretched hand, “Aside from myself, even in this state, I have brought two bonafide champions. King Godzilla Gojo the Second and Alpha Guardian Anguirus, both have more than proven their heroics in Equestria.”

Anguirus waved his hand briefly, “Hey, in a nutshell, we’re friends of Lea. We’ve also tussled with Gigan and Ghidorahs before. Junior here took out the grand king of them not long back.”

Junior glanced over towards his friend with a bemused expression, “Not alone mind you… And first things first, we need to group together and figure out all that is going on.”

“Especially with that inexplicable time dilation,” Celestia muttered.

“Then we can worry with taking down those kaiju who took Twilight,” Anguirus grunted.

Princess Celestia balled a fist at the remembrance of why she was here and who dared threaten her students, “Quite… You two mentioned messages. I’d like to see them. Might offer a clue to where they are keeping her.”

Rarity nodded, “For that, you’d have to get into the school… Thooough…”

She paused to eye up Celestia and slowly nodded, “You might fit the bill for a student. We’d have to get you some new clothes but with me that is hardly an issue. You two gentlemen sadly I think would be too old to pass.”

Anguirus shrugged, “Not a problem. You said you lot felt safe in the school during hours and we can still linger around close enough if we sense something to come running. For now, point us in the direction of this police station so we can rendezvous with Lea, then we can return after hours to pick you up and play guard duty during any searches.”

Fluttershy nodded as she rummaged around in her backpack that much to Junior and Anguirus’ bemusement sounded like it was mewling, before pulling out a town map, “You’d have time, we’ve been coming early and staying late to work out plans under guise of band practice between actual practices to decompress. I can show you on the map.”

“And why do I need new clothes?” Celestia muttered with a raised eyebrow.

“The school has an open admittance policy for homeless students without paperwork, but that won’t stop Principal Celestia from perhaps noticing you look and sound just like she would in the year book. She attended here at our age and someone might recognize you besides her and Vice Principal Luna,” Rarity noted before grimacing when she noticed Celestia’s dress slipping again.

She quickly snatched it back up, “That and this would break the dress code five times over. Doesn’t fit you at all, darling!”

Fluttershy checked her watch after handing off an annotated map to Godzilla and Anguirus, “We have about two hours before the bell rings. Good thing we came so early.”

Godzilla Junior grunted as he took another step, more or less getting the full hang of it without a tail, “Sounds like a plan. Just keep the chatter about Anguirus and I arriving to a minimum. We might need to ambush or track Gigan and that Ghidorah and it’ll be easier if they don’t know we’re in this realm.”

Anguirus saluted as the groups separated, Celestia going with Rarity and Fluttershy, “We’ll get your friend back and deal with these thuggees, Guardian Beast’s honor.”

=======================

A door was unlocked from the outside, opening up to the crisp morning air.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head!”

A sunny voice chimed into the cabin, spurring a mound burritoed up in the blankets to groan and shift like an inchworm.

“Hmmmamph ten more minutes,” the bundle muttered quietly as it curled itself up into more of a bundle.

The original speaker, a young woman with a pale pink skin and long, two toned raspberry hair set with a flower chain of her namesake in it, rolled her eyes. Having a little brother to grow up with, she was well used to this game again. Thankfully, the times had provided a more direct means to wake the occupant up. Eying a small object that she knew was a sensor in the corner, Gloriosa Daisy leaned over and waved her geode studded necklace in front of it so it detected the magic.

She picked up her wrist to check her watch, muttering a warning to the occupant again, “Three… two… one.”

One timed cue, she nodded her head to the sound of a door getting thrown open across the camp and someone sprinting up to the cabin and breakneck speed. Gloriosa turned and stepped aside, nonchalantly looking up in bemusement as Gigan hit the brakes right in time to stop at the doorway. The cyborg’s remaining mechanical eye clicked, running dozens of scans in conjunction with the sensor to check for energy outputs, undetectables that could equate to magic use, radio signals meant to call out to someone, anything that could equate to the subject trying to get a message out without them knowing or pull a fast one on them.

He found none and leered at Gloriosa with his single eye, picking up the sensor and putting it back up to his face. The little machinery inside it whirled and shifted slightly as he did and removed his glasses. The vaguely web-cam like object was now back to being Gigan’s right eye and he fit it back into the slot, causing no small amount of grimacing from Gloriosa. Especially when she found two camera-like eyes leering back at her.

She chuckled awkwardly and nodded her head towards the sleeping bundle. Gigan’s eyes contracted to narrow with an audible shink, "Again?"

“She responds to you best,” the camp director defended as she shrugged her shoulders and cast a playful glance.

Gigan deadpanned back at her and turned to the mound. He leaned down and just when Gloriosa thought he was going to say something to snap her awake like he usually did, the cyborg surprised her by holding his arm above her body and shifting the hand outstretched. He promptly whipped out a small chainsaw and revved it to full throttle directly above Twilight Sparkle’s head, the mechanical whirl causing her to levitate out of bed away from the noise.

“BBBBBBBBBBBUUUHCK-” she shouted as she sprang upwards and backwards, launching herself away and off the bed, falling down beside it to literally hit the deck.

“BUCK! EVERYPONY GET DOWN! SOMEONE WITH A SA-...a saw…..A…”

Princess Twilight Sparkle poked her head up from the edge of the bed to see Gigan blankly staring at her with his arms crossed behind his back.

“Good to see you awake, Princess,” the true comedian grunted, his eyes contracting and snapping like they were a camera lenses. He fit his glasses back on before taking his leave.

Gloriosa Daisy came around and offered her a hand up, looking like she was choosing between grimacing and snickering, “I am... so sorry about that. I knew he was bound to get annoyed with being used to wake you up.”

Twilight Sparkle took her hand and was guided up, using her free hand, such useful appendages, to rub her head, “My fault for being a heavy sleeper. I’ll learn eventually…”

“You’d think they’d let you at least have an alarm clock,” Gloriosa muttered.

“Analog ones are broken at the moment, remember? Can’t have digital because no advanced technology, that was something I agreed to so they’d at least let me sleep in privacy,” Twilight noted whilst glancing at the stand Gigan would put his eye on her every night, “Had to keep showing them I meant no harm and wasn’t going to betray them.”

Gloriosa sighed, putting a sympathetic hand on the younger girl’s shoulder.

“So, how are you with the whole...?“ Twilight looked for the right word for a human’s context to describe things abnormal to their world like magic, kaiju, and cyborgs, “...Oddness?”

The camp director took in a deep breath through her nose while pursing her lips. She looked upon the occupied cabins that housed giant monsters, two of which were cyborgs, and a trio of mermaids as a magical equine princess stood beside her. She just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

“I mean, I suspected something when Sonata applied for a camp job and how much people perked up when she and her group sang. Kinda have some familiarity with magic in the family I suppose. But it’s kinda like thinking Bigfoot is real for years and then suddenly seeing it just stroll by. Even after over half a week it’s still surreal,” Gloriosa muttered whilst Megalon strolled on by and cheerfully waved to Twilight and herself.

“Timber and I even saw the flashes of light and rumbles from whatever that thing X and Aria were fighting a while back,” she continued and glanced down to her multi-colored gemstone necklace.

Twilight had her eye on it as well and perked it, “You said you had found those around here right?”

=============================

Gloriosa snapped awake, finding herself both staring at the ceiling and wondering why she was doing that. Just as she was about to try and go back to sleep, she was quickly acquainted with what had woken her up in the first place. The entire building shook, with loud groaning outside coming from rattling trees.

Gloriosa hitched her breath and sat up. She started turning to look out the window as thoughts of everything from earthquakes to a landslide filled her head, when a magnificent flash of golden light blinded her and forced her to cover her eyes. She thought she glimpsed a torrent of electricity or something similar shoot over the camp and hit the grounds somewhere behind it. An even stronger rumble groaned through the building and out of worry of having any of the support beams fall down on her as well as the desire to check on the campers and her brother, Gloriosa Daisy quickly scrambled out of bed to head out; pausing only to snatch up a coat and flashlight.

Thankfully wise minds thought alike and she soon spotted another flashlight beam emerging from another cabin with her brother’s face visible in the radiating glow even with the spots in her vision from the weird lightning.

“Timber!” Gloriosa cried out as she scrambled over to him, grabbing his shoulder to check over her baby brother’s face and arms for bruises or cuts in case anything fell on him, “Are you okay?! Do you need anything?!”

Timber Spruce, still clearly groggy from having been jolted awake in a very similar manner to his sister, rapidly shook his head, “Uh yeah, just shaken up. Was that an earthquake?”

The low, hacking, echoing bellow didn’t sound like one even if the ground was rattling like it was. In the far far distance on the dim snowy night, Gloriosa thought she saw something move behind the trees near the bridge that led into the national park. That bellow didn’t sound like a earth shake or groan of moving trees and rocks. It sounded almost like an animal, causing Gloriosa to vaguely recall a gorilla’s roar she heard in a zoo years back.

Out of the corner of her eye, vaguely where she recalled seeing the flash of light heading when she awoke, Gloriosa Daisy backpedaled slightly when she saw the smoke and falling trees. Through the obscurity of foliage though, she thought she might have seen a flicker, almost a flashlight or lantern. A breeze blew by and seemed to hit her in the back of the head, almost like it was pushing her towards the glowing light. It was so strong it almost knocked her off her feet!

-Is someone out there?! At this hour?!-

She looked over and expected to shield her eyes from the wind, but it was gone as soon as she did. Looking to her brother, he seemed completely unflustered by the disappearing gales and was looking at her with a tilted head. Gloriosa cringed and mentally recalculated.

She tapped Timber Spruce’s chest, “Get the campers out of the cabins! I’m going to go check and make sure nobody is missing!”

Timber rapidly nodded and hopped up on his toes to warm himself up in the crisp night air, “R-Right! Be careful, Sis!”

They separated, Gloriosa Daisy stealing a glance backwards to double check for her brother’s safety as he started knocking on the cabins that had lights on in them, no doubt the occupants roused by the noise and tremors. She nodded assuringly when he glanced back as well before taking off in the direction she saw the flicker. The snowy night was extremely cold for her given she only had time to slip on her boots and haphazardly throw on a coat. But that quickly did not become an issue when she stepped into a path that was devoid of snow. In fact the opposite became true, it was actually getting quite hot! Gloriosa panted and waved her free hand out in front of her to try and clear away the thick fog that had formed from all the snow that had been present on the path and the trees having rapidly evaporated somehow.

-What... What happened, a lightning strike?-

She flicked on her flashlight and shone it about, but she was unable to clear up more than a few feet in front of her; cloaking the rest of her surroundings in the white veil of mists. What she could see was leaving her even more head-scratchingly bewildered. The trees were completely obliterated by some fantastic force, either thrown aside or completely gone aside from a few roots. All the grounds were scorched black, forming a coal-colored path she found herself moving along. And the path just kept going and going!

-Lightning usually travels straight down, and I know what it looks like when a tree gets hit! Usually it’s blackened, split, or fallen over, but these are just up and vanished from the ground up! Lightning would affect the roots too because it travels up towards the sky.-

She kicked what appeared to be a charred root to confirm that was indeed what it had been. A near impossibility for a lightning strike, let alone for all the ones she kept finding down the path. It looked more and more like some force crashed through the forest rather than rained down on it from above, burning things as it broke. Gloriosa strained for explanations. A meteor coming in at an angle perhaps? Could explain some of the rumbles and burns. But what of the impact crater? What about anyone out here casting that light? Didn’t look like fire when she glimpsed it as it was steady.

Gloriosa breathed a bit harder, the air becoming extremely thick and humid as the water vapor started to rapidly fluctuate between condensing from the nearby cold and evaporating again from the heated stones and scorched soil under her feet; creating a dense mist. Another tremor rang out and she heard the simian bellow again, but this time it was met by another call she couldn’t quite place, sounding almost like a snarling cackle mixed with a growl. She couldn’t see a thing through all the fog, so seeing the source was effectively hopeless.

“Ahk kahph! Is anyone out here?!” Gloriosa hollered the best she could through the coughing caused by all the water vapor pushing into her throat and condensing in her windpipe.

She narrowed her eyes when she thought she saw a glimpse of light again not coming from her flashlight, but it was hard to tell due to all the surrounding illumination bouncing off the mists. Reluctantly, she flicked the light off and squinted to try and gain a better visual.

The breeze flared up again, but seemed to not even move the mists and just pushed her along, like it was hurrying her. The glow was brighter again and she took a step towards it. The wind flared and another step was quickly cast, then another, and another. Finally, something seemed to click inside the camp director's head and her body started to seem to move on its own as her mind drifted. Like a moth to the flame she moved towards it, the intensifying glow and strengthening wind pushing her on. Consciously she thought she was crying out for the owner of the light to say something, especially if they were hurt. Unconsciously, she didn’t realize she hadn’t said a single word the whole time and was now rapidly walking for the light in a virtual trance with an outstretched hand. Her eyes glazed over in a low glow.

It called to her. Frantically, pleadingly. There was a begging for safety, for aid.

-Yes, I'll help...-

Gloriosa thought wordlessly, thinking she was answering some poor, lost camper.The forest thinned and had she been more conscious, she’d have noticed she’d walked right into what had been a rock wall with a newly opened cave entrance. Solid rock had covered it until a stray graviton flare by Monster X flew by and blasted it open, meaning the earthquake that would have opened it months later was beat to the punch. There had been something set down there, in eons past by the nexus of light magic. Not as significant as the others, but still potent in this world. Every few decades to centuries, the powers within might call out to someone suitable.
Gaea Everfree was a lovely campfire tale Timber Spruce enjoyed using to spook the urban campers who might be jumpy at the noises of the forest and shifting shadows in the night. He didn’t know the forest’s nymph actually existed when Spice and Dove settled the locale. Nor that her successor decades after was Spice and Dove’s own granddaughter, Wysteria. And now, either by Harmony’s battle with Bagan or from the magic sensing the danger from Enjin nearby after being exposed, it tried to do so again; only to find her not in the living. So, it sought one of her children.

The wind shifted again, this time strongly, beckoningly. Then, it all instantly stopped. Gloriosa Daisy released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, finding herself before a crystalline pedestal with seven glowing geodes.

“Where… What is this place?” she muttered to herself, hearing her own echo.

She had been around Everfree since she was a toddler, and yet she had no memory of this place despite the fact it couldn’t have been all that far from the campgrounds given she got there on foot. She turned about, looking over all of her surroundings in a mix of confusion and awe. It was so pristine, magical, like one of the bedtime stories her mother would tell her. She always got the sense Wysteria was trying to hint at something when she told her or Timber those tales of crystals and forest nymphs and frost demons. Another rumble.

Gloriosa gasped and turned around, then mist outside having cleared just enough for her to glimpse an impossibility. There was some formation by the cliffs far away, but the formation wasn’t static. It was moving. She couldn’t see any features other than the flashes of light, like explosions, were vibrant and energetic. This wasn’t a thunderstorm, it wasn’t an earthquake, and it wasn’t a bombing or meteor. This was the unexplainable. Just like everything around her.

A quiet whispering seemed to come to her, almost like wind chimes. Her eyes slowly trailed back to the geodes, seven in total in a rainbow of colors. Violet, orange, yellow, white, blue, red, and purple. Almost without any thought, she slowly placed her hands upon them and each began to light up. At first only the first five seemed to respond, giving a vibe of ready acceptance. The latter two stayed dim, but as another rumble rocked the chamber, they too lit up. There was a magnificent flash of light and Gloriosa Daisy was violently thrown back. Skidding across the ground, she coughed and shook her dazed head as more violent tremors shook through. Crystals and stalactites from the ceiling began to shift and fall down, dislodging coats of moisture and dust to tumble with them.

The wind chime like whisper cried out again and this time they almost seemed to come from the crystals nestled in the camp director’s hands. It beckoned her to take them and flee, to ferry them to safety.

She didn’t need to be told twice, once another magnificent flash briefly lit up the night outside from above the cave. A blocked mana grenade by Enjin had impacted the hills atop the hollow and now it seemed like everything on the ceiling was falling down! Gloriosa scrambled to her feet, rushing past the gale force winds and falling debris she tried to dodge. With rocks crumbling near the entrance, she closed her eyes and lunged forward as fast as she could. Gloriosa went airborne, fumbling through the air. The last thing she saw before she mentally blacked out was the rapidly approaching ground and the greenish glow covering her vision.

None would see nor know of the dark mask that settled over her eyes or the mythic metamorphosis that followed. A new form stopped her fall just before she could hit the ground, arms spread as the geodes floated free from her hand. A vine was brought up, nestling the crystals within its grasp before forming a necklace around their keeper. She slowly touched down and looked out across the forest. There was one last fantastic explosion and an impact of a heavy mass hitting the ground several kilometers away. Glowing green eyes surrounded by darkness blinked, studying, judging.

The threat seemed to have passed before there was any need, thus it was time to fall back to the primary focus. Tending to the geode’s hiding place. She began to walk the destroyed path, obscured by the mists, each pace causing vines and moss to foster over the scorched earth as she anointed the mists with a greenish glow.

Timber Spruce wouldn’t find his sister until the eve of morning, wandering about in a daze like she was sleepwalking. The spirit of the forest had been hard at work on repair all night.

=======================

Gloriosa nodded, “Figured a stray rockfall or… energy burst opened it. Was out checking to make sure none of the property got damaged or anyone was hurt. Kinda, drew me in… Got any idea about them yet?”

She flashed a brief, trusting, small smile and leaned up some to let her height get Twilight on level with her collar.

Twilight twitched her nose and leaned down, seeing the geode looked like seven of its kind together, “Hm… Six pieces isn’t an unknown thing in Equestria, seven is new though. We got these things called the Elements of Harmony also set in a rainbow.”

“Who’s Harmony?”

“Eh?”

Gloriosa tilted her head, “The way you worded it it made it sound like these elements belong to someone named Harmony. That symbolic, or...?”

Twilight nodded her head, giving what was honestly her best guess, “Their first users were Celestia and Luna, I never dug into the name much but I always figured it was because their first use was against someone literally named Discord. Discord, Harmony, kinda sounds opposite.”

“Ah, so what have you got about my gems?” Gloriosa muttered, “You know, other than making me feel like I got ten green thumbs with my garden doing great and odd first greetings.”

============================

“Hello Ms. Dazzle, got your call right before leaving the office,” Gloriosa piped as she stood at the entrance to the camp late at night with a van pulled up in front of her.

The driver door of the van opened and the spoken-of Ms. Adagio Dazzle climbed out.

Maybe it was because of the dimness of the night thanks to the new moon causing what little light was present to reflect off it, but Gloriosa could swear she saw the singer’s necklace glowing. What really perked Gloriosa’s attention was that the passenger side door opened in tandem and an unfamiliar but very eye-catching face emerged. He had an interesting build, very tall but probably wiry under the long sleeves, though in a more lean rather than scrawny manner. Striking, even without the oddity of wearing sunglasses at night. Ones she swore she saw little glowing dots of red behind looking right at her.

Gloriosa’s pulse quickened a bit and soon Adagio and Gigan weren’t the only ones approaching with a glow to them.

“A-Ah Um- eheh, you said you were bringing some family friends. More the merrier!” she squeaked, knowing especially that more guests helped with costs to offset her loan from Rich, “Welcome to C-Camp Ever-”

Gigan’s eyes definitely started glowing and he whipped out a hand in front of Adagio. Gloriosa flinched even before he called out, as he seemed to be looking at something beneath and behind her. His expression was somewhere between shocked, disturbed, and annoyed.

“Magic!” Gigan roared

“Wh-What?!” Gloriosa yelped out before she tried to track his line of sight to see what he was looking at behind her.

She only turned halfway around before an ear splitting shriek that sounded like a whale or dolphin call amplified through ten loudspeakers physically smacked into her and knocked her off her feet. Gloriosa was thrown onto her back and skid across the ground with the wind knocked out of her and ears ringing.

“Ag?! What?!” Gloriosa groggily barked.

She dizzily looked up to behold an odd sight. A set of wooden vines where she had been standing.

“What?!”

-When did those get there?!-

Before she could question it more a muted, mechanical whirl hummed and the distinct man Adagio was with came through the root-like tendrils holding a chainsaw. No, no. Gloriosa’s eyes twitched and widened even as she covered herself to block the flying woodchips Gigan sent as he carved a path through.

-His hands ARE chainsaws?!-

“WHAT?!”

The chainsaw on one arm vanished and his hand returned. A burst of pressurized air called out and heralded a set of metallic cables flying out with weighted ends that soon wrapped around her. He was rambling about something, but her ears were ringing too much to understand it. She thought she saw him mouthing the words “Tentacles” and something that looked like angry expletives based off his agitated verbose.

The cables retracted, reeling her in as Gigan started to advance. Gloriosa Daisy tried to shake her head to clear her hearing and think.

-What to do what to do?! Okay, okay Glori, think! Get help?! Arg, Timber’s in school for the week. Crap, I’m here alone since Rich’s workmen left! Did I do those vines? Could I do it again?!-

Gloriosa cringed as she was drawn up like a bug in a spider-web.

-M-Maybe talk to them? But how did they just do those things?! Are they even human? Are they-!...-

She froze when she noticed her position. She got whipped around and had her back pinned up against his chest with one arm around her neck and shoulders and the other around her hips to pin her weakened legs. Her pink face turned bright red and her necklace glowed even brighter.

“Whaayhmmm?” she stammered and looked forward.

Now there were more people. Another three individuals, two men, brown and tan with the other black and white and a pale and purple hued woman she didn’t recognize, alongside a curiously darker toned Aria Blaze. On the ground were a similarly darker hued Adagio Dazzle and a Sonata Dusk who seemed to have tackled her.

“Arg, Sonata what are you-?!” Adagio snarled as she sat up with her little sister in her lap.

Sonata gulped and seemed to try to talk, a thing that seemed painful given how she grabbed at her throat. Even in the very low light, Gloriosa saw something that caused her eyes to widen. A jagged, ugly, very painful looking scar on the poor girl’s neck seemingly going around her throat.

“... N-o…” Sonata croaked in a craggy, very quiet voice. She looked up at Gloriosa with teary, saddened eyes and a frown that made the camp director want to rush forward and cradle her like she was a whimpering hurt puppy dog.

Sonata looked back to Adagio and frantically shook her head. Adagio looked between Gloriosa and Sonata, visibly calculating behind her eyes especially when she looked at something behind and around Gigan and his captive.

She took in a deep breath and let it all out, cursing under her exhale as she nudged Sonata off her and got up, dusting herself off.

“Well, seems you have a surprise of your own, as you now have ours… So, in exchange for a boosted fee and assurance of non-mutual exposure, hows about we write this off as a misunderstanding and explain in the camp. Sensible Ms. Daisy?” Adagio muttered with a raised eyebrow and hand on her hip.

Gloriosa just blinked, thoroughly stupefied and rubbing her shoes together nervously. She was pretty tightly bound and despite feeling cold metal hands on her arm and upper leg, her face was getting very, very hot. There was also something moving near them she couldn’t see due to Gigan holding her against him so closely she couldn’t see over his shoulder.

“Iseemhpm mmmph?”

Adagio grumbled and frowned in a way she couldn’t tell was annoyed or miffed, probably both, and looked to her captor.

“Let her go, bolts for brains. She’s not one of them,” the alpha siren grumbled.

Gigan shrugged and did so, straightening his arms and retracting the cables to let her go. Gloriosa’s legs felt shaky and she wobbled, causing Adagio to grab her by the shoulder and snap her fingers in front of her face.

“Hey! You listening?!”

Due to her wobble however, Gloriosa finally noticed something else as she caught sense of herself. Gigan was grumbling incoherently about something and hacking it down. She turned her head and saw a set of more root-like tendrils grown out of the ground all around them, frozen but bending inwards like they were trying to come to where she and Gigan had been standing. Gloriosa’s necklace glowed a bit once more, in tandem with a similar small swell of light on Adagio’s.

The camp director was slack jawed as she looked about, “Did… Did I do that?”

“Umm… Gals and guys?”

A new voice called out and a fourth young woman, this time with long, straight purple and magenta hair, poked her head out of the window of the van but didn’t come out as, unseen by Gloriosa, she was still tied to the seat.

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head, “... Is everypon- everybody okay?”

=======================

“Freaking out Adagio and Gigan so much they busted out the magic and cables soon as I greeted her at the gate? Not typical plans,” Gloriosa noted.

Twilight curled her lips to hold in a snicker. True, she had been tied up at the time but it had been a rather hilarious sight to see someone she had come to know as typically composed like Adagio and Gigan flip out the moment they detected the magic on Gloriosa. Lots of shouting, lots of confusion, revealing of things they had planned on keeping a secret? Whole jist. But after Gloriosa saw Adagio’s eyes turn red and literally shout her off her feet as Gigan bound her up with several meters of cable that shot out of his wrists, they couldn’t exactly explain away their sudden arrival as a normal vacation with completely normal humans. Of which between an alicorn princess, three sirens, and four kaiju, there were absolutely none.

Such was the cost of being jumpy.

Thankfully cooler heads of the thought of ‘Sonata frantically tackling her big sister to stop bodily harm to her planned employer’ variety prevailed and the modus operandi of ‘anyone who’s not us with so much as a hint of magic is an enemy’ was quickly abandoned. It helped that the camp was empty at the time and the siblings of Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce proved their trustworthiness. They both rather liked Sonata Dusk and were more than willing to help her situation, thought Twilight sensed some additional help came from Adagio throwing their latest singing competition earnings at the camp’s debt fund and neglecting to ever bring forth the fact that Twilight had been kidnapped.

As far as the good camp staff were aware, Twilight was an old friend from Equestria who ended up here just like them, there was some imposter running around under her name that had attacked poor Sonata, and Princess Sparkle had arrived to help.

Negating the ‘old friend’ part, it wasn’t entirely untrue if for the wrong reasons.

Back in the present, Twilight looked at the almost viney growth binding the geodes together that formed the necklace around Gloriosa’s neck.

“Was that vine always there or did you make it?”

Gloriosa cringed her lips and lifted her shoulder, “Eeeeh, kinda both. Maybe. When I first kinda came too after finding them, they were wrapped up like this. Not normal vines I'd say though. I can take the necklace off sure but it feels… weird to.”

Twilight tilted her head, “Weird?”

Gloriosa closed her eyes and grit her teeth, holding her arms out to her sides with the palms down like she was grasping towards the ground. The earth trembled like something was moving under it and Twilight thought she saw the grass and clover outside her door twitch. She half expected Megalon to burst out of the ground like a giant groundhog, except she glimpsed him heading to Sonata’s cabin nestled in the heart of the camp. Gloriosa released her pose while gasping and holding at her necklace.

“That. It’s like I’m about to reach out past my own arms with this and feel things around me. Still getting the hang of it, though with Adagio's help,” she muttered as she lifted up on the necklace, causing the geodes to glow a tad bit brighter and one could swear they shook slightly, “I lift it off, I lose it and get this chiming sound in my head. I dunno, just seems like I'm not supposed to take it off.”

She dropped the necklace down upon her neck again and held in a sigh of relief.

Twilight tapped at her own lips, “Well, if you feel anything that means it has definitely bonded to you to some degree. Shot in the dark theory? Either it’s one component with seven pieces or its seven pieces from seven different components bound together. In Equestria, magic items like this are choosey, only bonding to certain individuals.”

“So, what you’re saying is,” Gloriosa muttered whilst turning her side to Twilight and gripping the necklace a bit tighter as she looked upon it, “I was meant to have this?”

Twilight ignored the slight tone shift in her voice and chewed her lip for a moment, “Umm eeh, maybe? Assuming items here work the same or it’s originally from Equestria. That or if it could go to someone else eventually, it still works for you and wants to stay. Kinda like how this thing called the Crystal Heart works for my sister-in-law but was used before by others. Can’t force a bond.”

Twilight waited in silence for a moment, thinking she heard Gloriosa mutter something to herself, before awkwardly reaching out and tapping her shoulder.

“Hey, um, so... my talent is magic, so do you want me to have a look at that some more? Might figure out some things”

Gloriosa blankly looked at her and after a few moments Twilight tilted her head and smiled back honestly. At first the former clutched the necklace more, but slowly started to relax her hand. A shout caught both of their attentions. It cried out again and they looked over to see Adagio Dazzle leaning on the frame of an opened cabin door.

“Group talk, now!”

===========================

Needless to say, Sunset Shimmer was more than a bit shocked when she found out just who came through the portal. True, she did expect others to arrive and was even hoping for that; but she had been expecting it to be one or two of Lea’s kaiju allies and maybe some well trained and experienced guards. Celestia had swore to get involved if anything happened to her again, but she hadn’t expected her mentor to have meant that literally and was expecting Celestia to keep managing Equestria rather than cross over herself.

Shocked didn’t even begin to cover it. Flabbergasted and jolted out of her shoes a better descriptor, especially when she got the text from Rarity saying what else that happened when her old mentor decided to come for a visit. And now she was standing outside of one of the seamstry club’s rooms Rarity had a key to with most of the other Rainbooms, sans Rainbow Dash who was up at the front with Flash Sentry grabbing the necessary paperwork and Pinkie Pie who had seemed to vanish out of nowhere as soon as her hair started shaking. After hearing the voices of Rarity and someone who sounded like Princess Celestia on helium for about a half an hour going back and forth, the door finally opened.

Rarity paced out with an armful of clothing that looks like a woman’s dress meant for an extremely tall person and a proud, beaming smile. She swept back a few frayed bangs and pushed up her work glasses with a smirk.

“Ladies and, on account of absences, ladies, I present to you the newest admittance to Canterlot Highschool,” she chirped before stepping aside and sweeping her arm out.

A young woman, possibly a year or so younger than Sunset Shimmer, almost sheepishly stepped out of the doorway with a slight wobble in her legs. If she hadn’t been told it was indeed her before, Sunset Shimmer, the one probably most familiar with Princess Celestia out of any present, wouldn’t have even believed it was her. Princess Celestia was many things at a glance. She was extremely tall, regal, elegant, warm, and stunningly beautiful. Something one couldn’t take their eyes off for long as soon as she entered the room even if she didn’t literally stand head and shoulders above everypony else. If put into human form, she’d still be a stunner as the curvy-legged and very womanly principal displayed.

This teenager was a wallflower by every measure. Gone was the huge, vibrant, wavy, rainbow colored mane; replaced with a hot pink set of hair that was combed straight in the front and braided into a ponytail in the back where the tips turned yellowish gold. Much of it was obscured by a beanie hat and any nobility in her face was distracted by the very large set of glasses she sported. Her top was a simple, long-sleeved sweater with said sleeves being slightly too big and covering parts of her hands. Further down was a simple pair of thin pants that hid any eye-catching features, especially with the large set of boots she wore. Really the only thing that vaguely recalled her position was the small choker she wore around her neck that sported a studded gem in the front, but even that was hard to see. And with her brightly pink mane and plain sweater, Celestia’s pale skin looked a bit flushed and obscured in coloration.

All in all, she didn’t look anything like her old mentor.

Celestia put her hand on her hip and pursed her lips into an awkward frown, glancing about at faces that looked very familiar, and yet were so different.

“Well, how do I look? Effective?” She muttered in a way that caused Sunset Shimmer to realize she was asking more for judgment than opinions.

Sunset Shimmer sucked in a deep breath, swallowing down a lot of anxiety and caution. She had 1000 things brewing in her head. After a day or so to think things through and listen to all the witnesses, she was able to piece together at least one of the two kidnappers was the same individual who crashed into her bathroom while she was in the shower and freaked her out with his robot eyes. Why he was back and why he and some other individual who sounded like X with the wrong color took Twilight were still beyond her. She put those and the 999 other matters aside and put a hand on her mentor’s shoulder.

“You look, absolutely different,” Sunset sighed with a smirk and caused Celestia’s lips to perk slightly, “Well if you’re going to look the part of someone new, only thing you’ll need is a new name.”

Applejack nodded with crossed arms, one of her hands still in a splint from punching Kaiser X’s fist with her own, “I hear that. Can’ exactly dodge odd questions from the Principal if ye’ two have the same name.”

“Best to make it something simple as well Darling, don’t want us slipping up and still saying ‘Celestia’,” Rarity noted.

“Especially if my identity is best hidden in this time,” Princess Celestia sighed with a nod, still hating how diminished and weak she felt when she’d come to help. If anything though, it would fuel determination to find another way to do so and be an asset. 1,000 years of experience could give her options, “... I haven’t checked and memory slips my mind, do humans have cutiemarks on their-”

Celestia pinched up a piece of Rarity’s skirt and started to lift it to check her hip, only to have the now red-faced young woman jump away with a yip. Sunset Shimmer felt a bead of sweat roll down her face and she quickly pulled her now shorter mentor closer to her, “Trust me, I checked on my first shower. Nada.”

Celestia shrugged, “Oh, my apologies then. I was supposing I could try to create an alternative solar related name if my mark persisted to be consistent. Sorry Lady Rarity.”

Rarity jittered and flushed, waving her hand offhandedly but keeping a slight distance, “No-None taken darling! We’re peachy!”

Celestia’s eyes perked and she tapped at her chin. Pulling over a lock of hair from her bangs, she looked at the color of the hair itself as well as the coloration it cast on her skin when light passed through it. She could suppose the slight pinkish color it was giving her hand’s skin was very evident on her face on account of her bangs.

“... Peachy Keen.”

Sunset Shimmer and company raised an eyebrow. Princess Celestia nodded affirmatively and put her hand to her chest.

“I am, Peachy Keen.”

Applejack tilted her head, “Any particular reason fer’ the name Your Majest-er, Sugarcube?”

“Because that’s what those who harmed my students,” 'Peachy Keen' narrowed her eyes and punched a sweater-covered fist into a sweater-covered palm, “-won’t be.”

Her eyes burned with determination, which looked less intimidating and more adorable in her shortened stature and big glasses that made her eyes look huge.

“Ehehe, right,” Applejack muttered.

Sunset Shimmer slowly nodded as she thought it through. Certainly wasn’t a very outstanding name, but then again that was a good thing as it would make her less noticeable. Plus it did fit her coloration and she did remember her mentor knew quite a thing or two about gardening given Canterlot Castle’s flora. Could make for a suitable part.

“Well, I’d say the shoe fits!” Sunset Shimmer noted as Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash entered the room. Her eyes met her ex’s for a moment before they both quickly broke the contact, something ‘Peachy Keen’ picked up on and perked her brow at.

==========================

Sunset Shimmer paced in place at the front of the school as ‘Peachy Keen’ followed suit to further get the hang of bipedalism.

“We should count our blessings the Principal got held up with something and Vice Principal Luna is quick with paperwork,” Sunset muttered as she turned around in a loop and consciously stepped over to give ‘Peachy’ space to avoid running into her, “Her memory might be a tad fuzzier than her sister’s as to what Principal Celestia looked like as a youth and we wouldn’t want to chance Rarity’s disguise too much.”

Peachy Keen nodded, “Plus with some other new blood coming in, it might assist me in blending in more for cover… Sunset, to afford a moment before talking about matters at hand, how are you with that young man?”

Sunset Shimmer froze up and tried to quickly make it look like she hadn’t, “... Flash Sentry?”

Peachy nodded, “Ah, I thought his coloration and mane-er, hairstyle looked familiar. His counterpart in Equestria was mentored by Twilight’s older brother and he’s on Cadance’s personal entourage.”

“W-Well here he’s um, no one really important. Dad’s a retired officer and all, hangs around with the Rainbooms and got them into music, he hates pears, good with kids,”

Peachy Keen was going to stop her, but she stayed silent and perked up at seeing her student start to flush slightly and mutter autonomously. It was too amusing to cease.

“Helped me walk, horror movies spook him easily so the time at the theater backfired when he tried to scare me into him, he always beeps his car horn twice when setting off, his alarm clock is set to Iron Stallio-” Sunset took a pause when she realized she was muttering about not so public details.

Peachy Keen was smirking at her. Sunset Shimmer grunted, “We broke it off, wasn’t anything serious, and he likes Twilight.”

“Funny, I don’t recall Twilight talking about him in nearly so much detail. Flustered sure, but by the sound of it this Sentry is just as much of a kindly soul as his Equestrian counterpart and his father,” she noted.

“His father, you mean Captain Sentry? That Captain Sentry?” Sunset grunted as her memory faded back to times past. She didn’t see much of the guard, more just by proxy due to being in and near the castle. But the Captain Stalwart Sentry she knew was always mature, stoic, and on-task. The one or two times she met the human counterpart, even retired, he was pretty straight laced and to the point.

That and memories of Flash did not compute.

“Oh yes, you should have seen him as a recruit or when he first started courting his future wife, he even asked me for advice,” Peachy chuckled.

Sunset Shimmer stammered briefly, trying to get her words articulated, especially when she realized what was being insinuated. But when she did, her jaw clenched up and she shrank back slightly.

“I... appreciate the thoughts Princ-Peachy but, it’s…” she rubbed at the palm of her right hand from phantom sensations from years back, “... pretty thoroughly over.”

Peachy frowned and tilted her head, reaching out and putting a hand to her student’s shoulder after feeling the pain on her face, “Apologies if I struck a nerve. I was trying to distract from the situation, if only for a moment… If I may ask though, who broke the ordeal off?”

Sunset was silent and chewed at her lip, clearly wanting to say something but restraining herself. Peachy shrugged and calmly, reassuringly spoke.

“Sunset, I can tell something about this is painful. No matter what’s going on, I have 1,000 years of experience observing these things to know a thing or two.”

Sunset Shimmer shrank slightly, now a bit shorter than her now petite mentor.

She shrugged, “Let’s just say, I crossed something and I’m glad he dumped me….”

Peachy sighed and whispered, already speculating what might have happened, “Have you two spoken about it?”

Sunset shook her head, “We haven’t spoken much at all really. Half the time I wonder if the reason he lurks about the Rainbooms and asks about me when I’m not there is he worries I’ll revert and do a repeat incident.”

“So, he avoids you?”

Sunset nodded with a frown.

“And yet he asks after you?”

Her student paused for a moment before slightly nodding again. Peachy patted Sunset’s back in a parental manner.

“No matter what happens or who’s pining for who, I think you two have some unfinished business. Doesn’t matter if you never see each other again after or get separated by time or mirrors,” Peachy sighed in pain from experience, “It’ll only keep festering until someone does something about it. You’re a smart mare Sunset and if he’s anything like what his family is in Equestria, I’m sure he’s reasonable enough… How could it get worse?”

Sunset shrugged, not wanting to tempt fate. But, her mentor had a point, much as parts of her wanted it to not be true. Guess she couldn’t be too surprised these days even if she took an extended leave of being her student. She remembered even as a filly how quickly the oldest equine in existence could pick apart a situation even as an observer. And in the end, Celestia was just doing to her what she was trying to do for Twilight. Help her student.

Sunset Shimmer took in a deep breath, holding back the flinches of memory, and nodded.

“Alright, I’ll say something, when opportune...” Sunset muttered quietly before looking around. There was something else burning she felt gnawing within her for days. Something that, especially with Celestia here, was demanding to be let out. Demanding her mentor be made aware of something she withheld telling her about in Equestria. True, perhaps she could afford to throw Celestia off by playing off whatever it was she had gone unspoken about being relating to Flash.

But the image of the charred, blackened gyaos skeleton returned to her gaze. Only now, it had pink eyes and the voice of a sad, broken young woman who’d come so far. And with the two kaiju who’d been responsible for exterminating Irys’ species present…

She bit her tongue, torn between saying something and staying quiet.

She was cut off by her phone dinging in a very unusual way she’d caught on to remember. Her ringtone was a simple chirp, nothing fancy. This was a staticy hiss, like someone put a microphone too close to the receiver. It cut off abruptly. Sunset quickly scrambled to pull it out.

“What was that?” Peachy chimed as she looked at the odd device and tried to understand it.

“Cellphone, not important. What is important is I know that alert,” Sunset quipped as she drew it out and flipped it open to show a single new message.

Just like before, the sender information was a random piece of jumbled numbers and letters, untraceable. But inside was a clearly legible message with a picture attachment. Sunset Shimmer tilted the screen over to show it to Peachy Keen.

-”As promised, she is still unharmed and will be returned as such. Don’t escalate.”-

“Who sent this?” Peachy muttered, clearly able to understand what exactly this message was from the context.

“One of the abductor’s messages, Gigan probably. It’s sent me these everyday since Twilight was taken,” Sunset Shimmer muttered grimly.

Unspokenly, she knew what Gigan meant by ‘Don’t escalate’. They had met before, Gigan knew that and that he and anyone he was working with wanted as much anonymity as possible and knew she could expose some details about him and others. And it kept Twilight safe to be quiet about it, something else that helped stuff away the gnawing in her chest to fess up.

That and the partial fear born from the fact Gigan never saw her with the Rainbooms and yet somehow knew she was associated with them and Twilight. She highly doubted he had noticed any picture of them together at her residence with how short of a time they were there. And if the first monster knew to go after Rainbow Dash to draw Twilight out, it meant they’d studied Twilight at least enough to know who was tied to her… Or he’d been watching.

-He is a cyborg and must have hacked something to get a hold of my phone number.-

Sunset Shimmer warily eyed the school security cameras as well as her own phone’s camera.

-Who’s to say what he’s watching and from where?….-

Sunset Shimmer swallowed a hard lump in her throat as Peachy took the phone from her slowly. The former alicorn was shaking, broiling with rage. This monster saw fit to threaten and then abduct her student, and then had the gall to speak of how they held her hostage?!

“What if she’s hurt,” Peachy whispered and caused Sunset Shimmer to perk up.

“What if she’s scared… Alone?… Trapped?… Threatened?… Drained?! Tortu-,” her snarl was cut off by Sunset Shimmer quickly clicking on the photograph attachment.

The screen shifted and instantly the image of Twilight Sparkle was plastered across it. She certainly didn’t look trapped, alone, scared, or threatened. Princess Twilight Sparkle in the body and form of a young woman was sitting calmly by a wall of some sort with a peaceful smile on her face and book in hand with the words, “Stunned Disarming” written on it. Behind her were a set of benches and tables, clearly signs of habitation given the building seemed well managed and clean. And she notably wasn’t wearing the normal outfit Sunset remembered seeing her in, clad instead in a large hoodie and pants.

The image had a tiny triangle on the center, which Sunset Shimmer realized was a play button and pressed a button to turn it on.

The image remained as it was for the large part, but shifted slightly to indicate whoever it was holding the camera, or camera-like eye as Sunset suspected, was trying to stand still as they captured the video. There were voices, indicating others having conversation a ways away but they were unintelligible and out of frame. Twilight Sparkle chewed her lip before sighing and in a mildly distorted voice simply spoke.

“It’s okay girls, I’m going to be okay.”

She tilted the book up a bit and seemed to resume reading as the recording ended, starting to loop. Peachy Keen stared at it for a long, long while in silence. Her mortified expression only mildly relaxed into a frown.

“At the very least, she is unharmed,” she muttered.

Sunset gulped and pointed to the still image of Twilight’s attire, “And she must be taken care of. That’s not what she was wearing when she came to the High School, and the fact that Rarity of all people never brought it up means she must have not been wearing something else when she arrived this time.”

“So this ‘Gigan’ or others it associates with provided new clothes,” Peachy noted as she tried to think of the good implications at the very least without getting paranoid, an uphill battle, “It could mean she’s being taken cared for.”

Despite the bemusement at seeing her mentor basically repeat what she just said, Sunset sighed and gave a hopeful nod as she took her phone back, placing a hand on Celestia’s shoulder, “We can hope. This Gigan doesn’t seem... outright evil like that King Ghidorah you told me about. He did arrive to save his friend, and not too many villains act like that.”

“Your point isn’t faulty Sunset, friendship does have a way of lightening others,” Peachy muttered, “Still doesn’t change what it did.”

Sunset wasn’t going to argue. But thoughts plagued the back of her mind. Those voices in the background, could one of them have been Irys? She felt herself absentmindedly touching the small, jeweled choker around her neck the albino woman had given her. Gigan and her were friends and even on a team of sorts together, the details of which still eluded her. But if Gigan was with others while keeping Twilight captive, that at least meant there was a good chance the goofy Megalon fellow or Irys was with them as well. If anything, it gave Sunset a bit of comfort. She could never imagine her friend or that oddball harming Twilight, a sentiment the video seemed to corroborate.

Except, she was the only one privy to this theory. That gnawing came again, fighting with the logic of before. Part of her wanted to fess up and tell Celestia everything from before, part of her wanted to keep it all secret until she absolutely had to speak, and part of her wanted to try and seek out Gigan or his associates and try to figure things out despite warnings to stay away. Sunset Shimmer flinched and grimaced, her mind fighting with itself.

The stormy turmoil was abated by the sound of front doors swinging open and glimpsing Peachy Keen turning to face the entrance out of the corner of her eye. When Sunset shifted to look over, her eyes widened in both recognition and bewilderment.

“O-Oh, are you the girls that are supposed to be shown around as well?” Peachy Keen muttered after clearing her throat and intentionally throwing off her speech pattern as best she could manage.

Three young women, all a bit taller than Sunset Shimmer or the reduced Princess Celestia stepped forward from the shade. Instantly Sunset Shimmer recognized two of the three. From the puffy, curly orange ponytail and teal and purple twintails to the red colored gemstones around their necks that seemed to glimmer in the light, Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze stepped into the light. For a brief moment they also looked a bit surprised to see Sunset Shimmer, but quickly relapsed back into their normal postures with a calm grin and smirk respectively.

The third woman however was a bit of an outlier. She was quite tall, a good few inches more than Adagio which made her nearly half a head more than Sunset Shimmer. She sported a set of long, dark pants with wide cuffs at the ends that nearly covered her shoes entirely, and what looked like a torn tank-top that exposed her midriff. The rest of her look consisted of fingerless gloves, wrist cuffs, and necklace partially hidden behind her top. Her figure was womanly and curved for sure, though not quite to the same extent as Adagio. The newcomer’s hair was very pale and slightly wavy, with most of her bangs brushed aside in a way that obscured part of her face with the rest of its length tied back in a long, curled ponytail that vaguely recalled the absent member of the trio Sunset Shimmer remembered for her Pinkie Pie-like attitude. In terms of coloration her hair was a very pale white with a pink or magenta tinge present with a deep rosey-purple stripe, and her skin was an extremely light, bordering on ghostly pink. Her dark red eyes locked onto Sunset Shimmer in a very unreadable manner. She kept her expression neutral, looking about to study the building and Peachy Keen.

“We are,” the orange leader noted as she stepped forward.

“A-And, you are?” Peachy muttered, looking over the three warily as the hairs on the back of her neck began to free stand without her knowing why.

“Adagio,” Adagio chirped as she pointed her thumb to herself before motioning to her left towards her cousin, “my cousin Aria,” and then she motioned to her right in the same way, “my other cousin Hymn.”

Author's Note

Proofed by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Illustrated (more to come, just be patient please! :twilightsmile: ) by Faith-Wolff

Chapter 46: Winds of Shadows

“YOU!-”

Adagio roared as she instantly saw red while looking at the tied-up Twilight Sparkle. She remembered it all in flashes of pain and rage. Finding her sobbing baby sister backstage with a hideous new scar, a once proud siren so helpless and broken, trying fruitlessly for days to get Sonata to so much as say anything or stop crying even after she ran out of tears. She cooked a dozen dinners, put on those dumb campy films Sonata loved, offered to fly her out to a marine park or take her to the ocean, let herself be used as a pillow for hours on end to the point her shirt got covered in tears and mucus, barely slept, and even swallowed her pride to practically beg a returned X to stay around so he could guard her even before he made it clear he was after another quarry.

When Sonata finally spoke in gasped whispers or wrote things down, Adagio Dazzle’s wrath towards Twilight Sparkle was palpable. She tore through any record of her she could find, discovering the Fall Formal’s events from a school newspaper and a few students who’d break the general silence about what transpired. She got pictures, names of associates, and last known location. Thankfully X was keen to assist due to thinking whoever attacked Sonata was also what he was hunting, but it was obvious he was also motivated out of a desire to protect Aria and by proxy, the pod. Adagio Dazzle was never more thankful nor gleeful when he agreed to her little plan on how to draw the apparently hiding Twilight Sparkle out, practically pointing him to her friends and saying “Sicc ‘em”.

Between that and X agreeing to allow her to sing to him and emulate some of his power like Aria had for safety, her approval of Aria’s choice in suitor increased greatly, even if she didn’t show it much. She even let him sleep on the couch!

And now he and his compatriot had delivered that wretched witch to her! Oh she was going to rip her apart, demand the necklace back, and then rip her to shreds! Semantics be damned, she was ticked off and about to take it out on someone.

“-BITCH!”

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened and her face paled when Adagio got airborne to tackle her. It was only by a last minute motion of Gigan whirling his cables back into their holsters and yanking the girl off her feet did she not get tackled. Adagio evidently crashed into someone else based off the yelp and sound of a thump outside as Twilight was reeled into Gigan.

“Megalon, grab her,” Gigan grumbled as he held Twilight up against him with an arm extended in front of her more for her protection than to keep her from running, “She needs to hear everything.”

“On it!”

Over the chorus of swearing, archaic and modern, Megalon paced inside from outdoors. Having caught up to Gigan and X while they were transporting Twilight alongside Irys, he came inside holding a kicking, snarling, and thrashing Adagio Dazzle in a full nelson. And judging from the audible, metallic ‘klunk’ sounds coming from them, the siren was ramming her heel into his shins to try and force him to let go. An action Megalon only started to notice when Adagio started to turn very slightly darker, her eyes got a bit of red in them, and her necklace roared to life with visible light. Irys quickly closed the door behind them and grabbed Adagio’s feet, holding her out with Megalon to keep her from hitting anyone in her rabid quest to get to Twilight.

Aria Blaze was just as livid at the sight of their hated target. She’d have joined Adagio immediately if she hadn’t been helping prop up the injured X and had her hands full. But at the drop of a hat that almost changed. She nearly snarled and started to rise, only for a hand to grip her wrist and force her to look down. X shook his head rapidly, red eyes looking into half red-half violet.

“It’s not her, Aria,” the purple siren paused when she heard her significant say that, “it’s-”

“I’m not her!” Twilight Sparkle cried as she rapidly waved her hands before her.

Adagio finally stopped her thrashing, having been trying to pick between a kick to the crotch or a knee to the face when she heard that, if only out of sheer befuddlement. Thankfully, Gigan backed up the statement.

“We got the wrong damn Twilight.”

“... WHAT?!” Adagio snapped, breathing heavily as she stopped moving while still held aloft by Irys and Megalon.

Twilight slowly nodded, “I-I um, was told of what happened. At least, parts of it. I just got here though, I didn’t hurt anyone!”

Adagio Dazzle was still seeing red in her vision to match parts of her eyes, “Liar! You took Sonata’s heart!”

Aria Blaze nearly broke out of X’s grip, only staying so less out of his sapped strength and more knowing if she launched herself at Twilight she’d probably hurt him in the process, “Sonata knows who she saw. It was Twilight Sparkle that- that… ripped her heart off.”

Her hand closed over her own necklace unconsciously as she glared at the other purple haired woman in the room.

Twilight was honestly just flummoxed, “H-Her what?”

Gigan grumbled and deadpanned, praying for this drama to die already, “The necklace. You didn’t have it on you and never did.”

Adagio Dazzle’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at the cyborg, “And how would you know, metal-head?”

“Hey!” Megalon piped but was ignored.

Gigan tapped at his glasses, “Because not only did she not have it with her, but because neither I nor any of my team could sense even residual siren magic on her, meaning she was never even near any of it. Trust me, I can’t track it well but I can tell your crazy signatures up close. X reeks of the stuff almost as much as you do. It’s all over him like a claim!”

The purple siren and black kaijin both redded slightly and gave aside glances, which was also ignored.

“M-Meaning she stashed it away!” Adagio snapped but thankfully didn’t struggle to try and break free to see how far she could ram her foot up the newcomer’s a-

“Meaning she never had it to begin with,” Gigan barked before shrugging, “According to her and any traces I could pick up of where she’d been, she’d literally just got here.”

Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze’s faces contorted slightly in confusion before they looked to Twilight, who cringed as she glanced to them both and cleared her throat.

“I um- ahem.. What Gigan says is right. I’ve never been back in this world since I left last Fall, I promise! I only could return so soon because of an invention and I only did so when I got news that a friend of mine here had been attacked. I was only out and roaming about for maybe an hour or so until he,” she nodded towards X, “abducted me with Gigan.”

X took in a deep breath and sat up, something he did with no small amount of cringing from restrained pain. The only reason he didn’t collapse back from exhaustion was due to Aria coming up behind him to further prop him up, putting an arm around his waist while still sporting an expression of, ‘Explain. NOW!’

He thankfully did so, “I picked up her trail near the school and got into a confrontation. Another kaiju had come with her and I had to hold one of her friends hostage to get her to come with me, though I’d have failed if Gigan hadn’t arrived.”

He swallowed back the soreness in his body and shook his head, “She could have tried to run at any point, but when I so much as threatened to harm a friend of hers, she offered herself up willingly… Call it experience, but someone so driven for power as to cut ties to others wouldn’t do that. Takes someone who cares to offer themselves up-”

Adagio was about to retort when he finished, “-both you two did just that. Remember?”

The two remaining powered sirens went quiet as recollections from the conflict with the shadowy creature, unknowingly called Enjin, flooded back. Aria of when she willingly took her necklace off and put it on X’s neck to try and ensure his survival, and Adagio along with Sonata when they offered all the birthright they had left to the same daikaijin to save their cousin. If it had been a year or so ago, when the sirens were at each other’s throats and falling to pieces, none of that would have happened. But it did.

And perhaps empathy spoke better than logic could for Twilight's innocence.

Adagio panted lightly to regain her breath before stabilizing and closing her eyes to let her mind stew on this. She eventually took in a deep breath and exhaled out her nose like she was venting off the maddening hatred. Her normal colors returned by the time she opened her eyes and looked to Irys and Megalon.

“You dolts can put me down now. I won’t go tiger shark on her, alright?”

Knowing it was the best they’d get, they complied. Didn’t stop Adagio from glaring daggers through Twilight to such a degree Gigan didn’t dare put his arm blocking the former alicorn down. Said former alicorn swallowed a lump in her throat and tried to keep her voice as calm and stable as possible.

“I-I... I don’t know what’s going on, but I know something horrible happened and,” she whispered to the enraged siren, “I know somepony who looks just like me did it. This might be a big mix up, but I don’t want to make it worse…”

Aria and Adagio exchanged an aside look as they both still simmered, but not at each other. Being mutually ticked off at something helped unite a family. A silent agreement was cast after Adagio glanced to the Dark Hunters with Aria following suit, before the eldest siren turned and walked down the hall and into a bedroom.

Muffled voices were heard, with an audible gasp that was cut off into a spurt of coughing. After a short time, Adagio called out from the shade.

“Megalon, get back here.”

The youngest cyborg tilted his head, “Um… why?”

“Just do it!”

Megalon glanced at his compatriots for a moment, getting a nod towards the back of the house by his brother before he followed suit and walked back. As soon as he disappeared behind the door, there was a muffled gasp and hushed talking between the oldest siren and youngest cyborg of centuries in age each. Irys listened in closer, turning head to point her more sensitive ears in the direction to pick up parts of the conversation.

“Don’t worry, I’ll protect you!”

“I’m right here sis.”

“... Th-thanks…”

Megalon called out as he poked his head out from the bedroom, “Gigan, keep a hold on her!”

The coils and cables tightened around Twilight’s arms and waist slightly, knowing something had to be up to make his brother frown so heavily. Gigan almost swore he saw Megalon glaring, “Roger.”

Megalon stepped out of the room, one arm before him to prepare for conflict as the other very gently held a quivering blue one as Adagio held the owner’s other hand and rubbed her back. The sight was extremely pathetic in the worst ways possible. Sonata Dusk’s color was diluted, clad in only a set of pajamas that were slickened and stunk of cold sweats, with her face covered in liquid from her eyes and nose. Even after Adagio pulled up a tissue to dab her baby sister’s face, the pain from the ugly scar and lost magic refreshed the sobbing near instantly.

The moment Sonata saw a shocked Twilight Sparkle looking back at her, she recoiled in sheer terror and tried to scream; only for her throat to emit a gasping, choking voice that was more a whimpering squeak than a shriek. She’d have fallen over entirely as she tried to backpedal, had Megalon not quickly held her tight up to him to physically shield her from the defenseless young woman. Adagio swore and held onto her sister, who tried her best to burrow into her friend’s chest and neck and hide under her sibling. A look of discomfort flashed across Irys’ face as Aria’s grip on X tightened on impulse. X and Gigan kept the nerve to be stoic, the former holding his wrath in.

Twilight Sparkle, seeing someone react to her like they had just seen sheer terror incarnate, felt like the lance of cold was rammed through her chest. Her jaw dropped and she pressed against the bonds, wanting to run and try and comfort the poor girl. As if sensing what she desired to do, the cables tightened. Even behind his glasses, Twilight could tell Gigan was glancing at her in a way that spoke ‘don’t even think about it’.

“Nata,” Adagio whispered, stroking her sibling’s back, “It’s safe, no one can hurt you…”

Megalon shifted to put himself a bit more between Sonata and Twilight for assurance, an action Adagio nodded slightly at. At least one gear-head was agreeable to her!

She cupped her sister’s cheeks and forced Sonata to gaze upon her, “I need you to look at her. Look at her and tell us… Is. This. Her?”

Sonata’s eyes winced and strained from the tears, but she sniffled and nodded slightly. Sinking back further into Megalon, her eyes finally met Twilight’s. If Twilight Sparkle felt horrible before, she felt absolutely atrocious now. The pain and fear in the blue woman’s eyes and manner was plainly visible, from her shuddering back to how she gripped Megalon’s arm a bit tighter and leaned towards her sister. Twilight Sparkle’s agape mouth closed, expressing the best sorrowful, empathetic look she could muster. It was the only thing she could offer to the poor soul she knew was hurting.

Sonata Dusk swallowed and slowly closed her eyes. After a long moment of tensed time with all eyes upon her, she shook her head. This young woman wasn't her attacker.

Aria and Adagio’s expressions flattened before they sighed.

“C-Can’t I be let go?” Twilight muttered sadly, still not taking her eyes off of Sonata.

Monster X’s eyes just widened as he started to stare off into the ceiling, the implications as to what this all meant fully striking home now that he had confirmation for sure that this wasn’t Sonata’s attacker, nor the suspected target his master dispatched him to seek. He was worried before, but now it was all striking home. Gigan took in a deep breath before letting out a long, exasperated groan. A metallic palm hit his metal-skeletoned face with an audible clang.

“No can do, we have to go. Now,” Gigan grumbled.

Adagio Dazzle’s brow perked, “I was considering that earlier actually, why now?”

Gigan tilted and turned his head towards his best friend in a way that made it abundantly clear he was leering at him behind his glasses, before craning his head back around towards Adagio.

“Because we just snatched someone under the protection of a Mothra for nothing, and it’s about to go full Daiei if we stay close enough for her to sense us…”

===============
Two Days Later
===============

“So, you say your mother and aunt were actually the original Mako princesses?”

Sonata Dusk swallowed her drink and nodded. Had it been Aria or Adagio asked that question, they’d probably given Twilight Sparkle silence or an angered look to hide the pain. Sonata was the baby of the three, so while she did have a few fond memories of her aunt Hymnia’s voice or warmth, she was very young when the three were orphaned. Rather than learn from her aunt or mother directly, as Adagio and to an extent Aria had, she mostly learned her nature and abilities from her older sister and cousin. Parts of her wished Hymnia stayed with them more, both so she could remember her and know her more directly, but she’d been spared some of the pain of loss by her aunt’s life coming to an end just as Sonata’s life was getting old enough to remember things in detail. She could only guess at what her mother sounded like from very vague feelings and guesses as to what an older Adagio might sound like, Princess Melpomene leaving the world to bring Sonata into it. Old wounds her mother fought off for her sake had finally caught up with her.

Pretty much everything she knew about her family’s history came from Adagio, who’d been told it by aunt Hymnia and their mother. For a moment Sonata pondered why Twilight didn’t just go to Adagio and ask her about this, but then she remembered the circumstances and pushed that aside. Tentative allies or not, Adagio trusted Gigan ten times more than she did Twilight; and Sonata was pretty sure the oldest siren and cyborg didn't like each other much… Probably.

Placing down her orange juice, Sonata sat on the other end of the couch from the eagerly listening former alicorn. Twilight’s eyes widened with excitement and wonder of knowledge.

“Oh, oh this is amazing! I always wondered about where you three sirens came from given there was never any record of anything like your trio before or after you, Wow!” Twilight gasped as she beheld Sonata in an awe.

True, she was hardly the first centuries-old being she’d ever talked to, her own mentor was over one thousand as well. But aside from the time-locked crystal ponies, the diarchs, and extreme individuals like Sombra, Discord, or Chrysalis, there was a scant few historical witnesses of any century still alive. And other than from some crystal ponies and possibly a few old dragons out there, she was sitting on the same couch as potentially one of the oldest mortals in existence! Plus, despite being outcasts, the sirens had been from what had been a, until very recently, highly secretive mermare culture no less!

“Wow- so... Wait, if there’s still a queendom there, are you three ever... You know, going to try and use the heir card?” Twilight muttered with a tilted head, “I mean, I’d have been opposed to it before, but it seems a lot has changed since Starswirl’s time.”

Sonata shrugged, about to say something but the stinging in her throat caused her to wince and instead opt to take a drink and write as the cool liquid numbed her innards. Scribbling with a colored pencil, she passed the paper to Twilight.

-’Eh, that was the plan actually. Adagio wanted us to get some more power and breach the Shroud that kept us out, but it caught the wrong tide there. They probably have a new queen and don’t want us back. We already caused a mess with them and the seaponies.’-

Twilight cocked her head back and blinked in mild confusion, mind traveling back to an adventure with friends in the sparkling seas and a feud between the aquatic races.

“The seaponies under King Leo and mermares were at odds until recently, my friends and I helped finally break the ice that had been thawing, so to speak. I always assumed given they had a feud that there had to have been a time without one.”

Sonata nodded in answer and Twilight’s expression grew equal parts fascinated and puzzled, “What happened?”

At that, Sonata cringed and glanced about nervously, even though there was no one to be anxious about overhearing her. Nor was there a reason to think the only other two souls who knew the story, unless Aria told X, would object. It was a cringe from stressful memories more than anything, but seeing the eager look on Twilight’s face dissolved into worry spurred Sonata to quickly pull up another piece of paper.

-’It’s a long story. Kinda bad one. Adagio can say more but who I think mighta been King Leo’s ancestor took pity on us and took us in for a bit while calling out Mako for not helping us. Bit of us not being the best school at the time, Adagio really being upset at being pushed out when mom and Auntie Hymnia died, bad song magic use, and some in Mako thinking King Driger + Mermare Heir = Puppet ruler; it didn’t end well…’-

Twilight frowned and said nothing as she reread it.

-I knew Equestria was a mess back then, but wow… When they say Celestia’s full rule ushered an era of peace that spread, they weren’t kidding!-

Her expression grew more morbid by the second, especially when she saw the glum expression on Sonata’s face that made her want to hug the poor girl. The blue siren looked like a kicked puppy dog whimpering for attention. Twilight grimaced and unconsciously lunged forward to embrace her, but the moment Sonata saw her coming the siren’s eyes widened with shock and fear. The warm inside of the cabin became replaced with the chilly darkness of a backstage outdoor consort hosting, Twilight Sparkle’s empathetic expression and gentle outstretched arms turning into her counterpart’s gleaming glasses and hands clutching her beloved necklace, her heart.

Sonata gasped a mute shriek and backed off after reflexively shoving Twilight’s shoulders and stomach with her hands and arms. Her strength was pathetic and barely nudged Twilight back, but what really stopped the poor alicorn beyond the terrified look on the traumatized woman’s expression was the door suddenly getting kicked open.

One could swear they saw crackling sparks on Megalon’s forehead and behind his goggles when he stood in the entrance way he almost knocked off the hinges. Twilight yelped and froze up, the cyborg quickly looking between her and Sonata. Thankfully for everyone’s nerves, Sonata managed to catch her breath and waved her left arm to indicate she was okay while remembering to stop clutching at a necklace that wasn’t there with her right.

Instantly, with a slight mechanical ‘shink’, Megalon straightened backup and was practically beaming in a way that left Twilight hyperventilating and flabbergasted. Bulkier build, decent height, eerie glow, and high strength meant Megalon could easily match his brother in imposing manner if he put some effort into it. But nope, few seconds later and he was turning aside and cheerfully stepping inside with a smile on his face and tray of snacks in his hands he evidently had set down beside the door before sensitive hearing caused him to react to Sonata’s squeak.

“Howdy!” the Nebulan demolitionist piped with a tilted head, closed eyes, and upturned, chirping grin.

Megalon paced inside, the wrapped foodstuffs who’s smell perked Sonata’s interest. Twilight perked her head up and also sported a small, polite smile. Of the four kaiju, Megalon was the one who took best to her and seemed to readily accept her as part of the group the moment the misunderstanding was cleared up. Still, seeing him go from 0 to 100 and then back to 0 so quick meant it took some time for her nerves to tone back down.

-Like a male kaiju version of Pinkie Pie as the Termarenater…-

Megalon stopped in front of Sonata with a click of his booted heels and undid one wrapping, eagerly holding up a bite sized mini-taco, “Whipped up fresh, big brother downloaded the recipe for me and Ms. Daisy didn’t mind me using the kitchen.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Did you remember to use a door like just now?”

=================

A loud shriek came out of the showers, quickly followed by a sprinting Aria Blaze and Monster X piling in to follow the source. They found Gloriosa Daisy and Twilight Sparkle backed up into the stalls with the curtains drawn and towels clutched, eyes wide at the intruder. Megalon had the top half of his torso poking out of a large hole he’d burrowed out from in the packed dirt and mats outside of the stalls, twisting and looking around in alert confusion like he was some kind of giant gopher.

"Howdy, just checking in! Thought I sensed a magic spike."

Aria Blaze groaned and smacked a palm to her face as X just shook his head.

“There was a doooor!” the purple siren groaned.

=================

“I did on the way out!” Megalon quipped, proud of himself.

Doors were a concept he was still grasping. Not his fault most every experience with them thus far included knocking said doors down. He thought he was being courteous by going around it without damage! Fact he didn’t ram down the door to check on Sonata was a miracle in itself.

“Open up Sonny!”

Sonata flushed when he held out one of the samples but after eyeing the food for a moment, she lurched forward and snapped it up.

“Phew! Good thing I got metal fingers in case you bit further!”

Sonata squeaked a bit at his words and narrowed her eyes slightly in a jesting manner. The fact she was brought out of any pains was a refreshing change of pace to Twilight, who took solace from her fright in that. Was helped by-

“Want one Ms. Twilight ma’am?”

The called-for alicorn-turned-human glanced over to see Megalon beaming at her and offering a snack. The smile was infectious, though she took it by hand as opposed to being fed. After a brief sniffing, her plopping it in and instantly her eyes widened. Twilight Sparkle packed it into a cheek to try and avoid tasting it without spitting it out, despite her reflex to cough demanding to act out.

“Ahp… Ag… M-Megalon,” her tone grew into a choking gasp, “What’s in this?”

Megalon passed another to Sonata, who was gobbling it up and holding her cheeks, picking through one slightly to inspect the contents and ensure it was fully cooked. He was completely oblivious to how Twilight was turning green.

“Oh well I made these for Sonny, so I thought of mostly water foods. Bit of mosses, bit of water stalks, some ground up beans,”

Twilight wondered if maybe she was overreacting and tempted another taste by moving the taco out of her cheek and testing it onto her tongue.

-Huh, w-well that doesn’t sound too bad.-

Megalon piped and finished, “and about four whole fish I yanked out of the lake this morning and diced up!”

“HRMPH!” Twilight gagged as she lurched forward. After some struggle not to spit it out over the carpet, she managed to strain and look over to the left to see a confused visage on the cyborg’s and siren’s face. It was, in the interest of not being rude, the hardest swallow in Twilight’s life and she’d be fighting not to spit it back up for an hour. Forcing it down, she gasped and grabbed at the soda she’d had and drowned out the taste to only partial effect, chugging the whole can down in a few moments.

It was only when she coughed and put the can back down did she hear it. A tiny, muted, snicker. Twilight Sparkle looked over at her audience and glimpsed the most adorable thing she’d seen since she got here. Sonata Dusk giving weak, quiet giggles for a few moments before her sore throat caused her to lurch forward and cough, holding at her throat. Megalon quickly held her shoulder to keep her from doubling over. A second hand joined his on her other shoulder with a hand very gently rubbing up and down the shaking siren’s back.

Sonata caught her breath to look up at Megalon’s tiny, reassuring smile before turning her head. She winced only slightly at Twilight Sparkle as the latter patted her back soothingly, and after a sigh, she managed a weak smile the princess returned in kind.

Twilight eyed the fish tacos-taken-very-literally warily, cringing as she picked one up again gingerly.

“So, would it make it better or worse for me to try another?”

Sonata Dusk’s smile grew slightly and she reached over to take the treat, casting her eyes to the cyborg who sniggered. With a flick of her wrist she tossed it to him and Megalon wolfed it down whole. An idle thought crossed into Twilight’s head even as Sonata emitted a tiny chuckle, not risking another giggle or chancing a coughing fit.

“So um, you’re a cyborg,” Twilight muttered as she motioned to Megalon.

He nodded, a very tiny mechanical churning sound audible. He was far less robotic than his brother, but one could still pick up on it if he made no effort to hide it.

“So, do you even still have a stomach?”

Megalon let out a voluminous, hearty laughter as Twilight’s eyes widened when she began to see and smell wisps of smoke coming out of his mouth; “Ahahaaaaa!.... Nope, just an incinerator. Like the taste, though.”

At that point she couldn’t fight the snicker herself as she waved the smoke away from her face. She gazed at Megalon and Sonata, still feeling great empathy and pain for the condition of the latter.

-Even if history remembered her and her group as monsters,-

Sonata looked back at Twilight and managed a smile as she pushed away the bad visions. When she set up however, Twilight could plainly see the ugly, jagged burn scar that marred her neck. Twilight’s lip quivered and her breath ran cold when she noticed it again, especially when Sonata followed her line of sight and pulled up her shirt collar slightly to try and hide it even as Twilight looked away. That just made it sting worse.

-She doesn’t deserve this. Especially if they’re turning over a new leaf by their own choice. She’s changed like Sunset or Starlight.-

One last look at Sonata’s face, quivering lips, and raspy breath even as the siren hummed lightly when Megalon passed her another fish taco, it made her heart sink. Pain. That sealed it.

-And it’s the right thing to do…-

She took in a deep breath and steeled herself. Thoughts collected in the former alicorn’s mind. Thoughts on this conflict, the perpetrators, the effects, and the victims. She nodded before standing herself up.

“Thaaaat does it, I will not sit around eating fish tacos anymore!”

Not the oddest statement of her life but it did get her some perplexed looks.

“As fascinating as it is to learn about Equestrian history,” she cast a nod to Sonata, “and do trust me, it is really interesting…! I’m not letting this stand!”

“Um, that’s nice but what are you planning on doing?” Megalon chirped with a tilted head.

Twilight Sparkle turned around, fire and conviction sparkling in her eyes in a way Sonata couldn’t help but feel warm just looking at. She looked a lot like Adagio when she was motivated like this, much as her sister might deny any comparison.

“Taking action! I’ve been doing friendship and magic lessons for years now, I know a problem when I see one. I came here to fix a problem, so that’s what I’m going to do!” she piped.

“You sure, you don’t really have magic anymore and, well,” Megalon noted as he poked her arm, “You’re squishy, not sure if action suits you.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “I’ve dealt with things without using or having magic before.”

Her eyes cast down from the ceiling to Sonata, not caring how dramatic she was being, “A Twilight Sparkle caused this, and by Faust a Twilight Sparkle is going to help fix this! I’m getting involved!”

Sonata blinked at her in sheer confusion before the realization started to hit her. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped slightly, lurching out and grasping Twilight’s arm before she could march out the door. She held on for a moment to tug her back before fought fears forced her to let go. The youngest siren quivered, trying to find the right words she could easily say. So, she quickly wrote them.

-’Dagi and Aria are tough and have the others helping them. You didn’t cause any of this, why are you helping me?!’-

Megalon peeked over the two women’s shoulders and read it himself, “Yeah she has a point. Besides I don’t think the others like you very much Miss Twilight. You’re not a part of this and if you got hurt, it only make the situation worse with your friends.”

He shrugged, “Just because someone with the same face and name did something doesn’t make you responsible.”

Twilight shook her head, “You’re not wrong… But you are wrong about me. I am part of this, I couldn’t stand by if I tried-”

Sonata’s brow perked. Twilight beamed at her benevolently in a way she had very rarely seen cast to her.

“-Because that’s not what I do. Any magic help can’t hurt, and I’ve got some ideas how to dodge some conflicts. Besides, who would I be if I didn’t help my friends?”

A ways away, Gloriosa Daisy carefully overturned the small packet and spilled the seeds into her palm, picking through them carefully to find one that, for lack of better terms, felt right. Pocketing the rest, she clasped her hands together with the seed inside and blew into them before rubbing her palms against one another. It was for luck more than anything else. She pushed aside all stray thoughts of her odd camp guests, budget and payment issues, the revelations she’d gotten as of late, and of her own situation; and instead focused on the seed alone. Dropping it in the pot, the herbalist pushed it into the loose soil and backed up a half step.

“Okay… Ooookay,” Gloriosa muttered to herself as she rolled her shoulders and crackled her joints before placing her palms onto the soil.

“Now, slowly at first. Don’t try a crescendo on the first cord.”

It was a good thing she’d been in band during high school and understood what some of her audience was saying. Closing her eyes, Gloriosa took in a deep breath and keyed in on the pot, searching for a single lifeform, the seed, and pushing all else aside. It was harder than it looked, given the wealth of small animals, fungi, or plant spores already in the topsoil. She could influence and use many of those if she so wished, but this was the difference between influencing and controlling. If she demanded it, with some effort, she could swell up vines of growth from near everything around her; a wildfire of flora. This was lighting a single candle and keeping it, like fire, from spreading against its own base desires.

That was why she was having some difficulty.

“Focus, focus,” Adagio Dazzle noted as she stood behind Gloriosa and watched the flicker of light settling upon the camp director’s hands with interest, “Find a task that zones you in and keep doing that. Find the right octave.”

Gloriosa, whom still had her eyes closed, winced and tried to keep the flow of energy she felt coming through her body and into her hands directed. She placed her fingers upon the topsoil and half turned her head backwards to better direct her voice, “I-It’s not song based like yours. It might still help to be quiet, though. I gotta-”

Adagio scoffed, “Focus yes, but regardless of anything you need to get properly tuned or you won’t be attuned. Trust me on this one.”

Gloriosa heard her but didn't listen, instead trying to focus directly on the seed. Unfortunately it was like trying to pick out a single pixel from a background of static. The topsoil began to shift from something moving inside it, the only warning before a menagerie of vines and tendrils burst out from the surface. Gloriosa yelped and jumped back from it as the potted vines as well as the plants in the other nearby pots within the garden all started to rise, writhe, and overgrow.

The tendrils swelled up and rose up from their bases, beginning to lurch forward. Gloriosa heard a word she didn't understand and yet got the sneaking suspicion it was an expletive of some sort as a flash of metal swung past her. In a few quick blurs, Gigan soon stood amongst a patch of dismembered vines and tendrils with a blade shaped like a scythe emerging from where his wrist was. The cyborg slowly turned back and looked at the surprised Adagio and Gloriosa, whom had both backpedaled with their hands on their necklaces in reaction to the plant life. An awkward stare was cast with Gigan slightly tilting his head up and down along with the metallic whirl of his eyes moving in a likewise manner to indicate he was glancing between them, Gloriosa in particular, and the hacked down tendrils. Just a moment ago he had felt something touch against his back. It, what had been a pumpkin vine, was now hacked up into even more pieces than the other vines.

Gigan retracted his scythe and grunted, “.... Don't ever do that again.”

Adagio let out a relieved sigh, both from the little garden of horrors being gone as well as Gigan putting the blade away, “Oh? Got a phobia, bolts-for-brains?”

Gloriosa shot her a stiff look at the same time Gigan had. Adagio noticed them both and audibly shrugged, “What, I'm the one volunteering my time here so I can speak as I please. Don’t give me a look.”

Gloriosa cringed and rubbed at the back of her head, “Sorry, yeesh. Look I appreciate you offering to help me with the magic parts more-”

“Makes you less of a target and better defense,” Adagio corrected at the word ‘help’ with a raised finger, “Since we’re stuck together and you’ve got a magical source, the last thing we need is whoever it is hunting us to see you as an easy target and add you to the list.”

“Makes sense too,” Gigan shrugged, having hung around to further survey and study what he could, “Only reason Sonata logically would have been targeted was because she had magic and no human did. Ms. Daisy is just as much a potential victim as you and Aria are.”

Gloriosa’s face paled from the thoughts of being hunted and she cringed, “You sure they’d do that?”

Gigan nodded his head to the side, “I would... All the more reason you shouldn’t let yourself be easy prey, my team can't be everywhere at once to protect and keep more magic from falling into our target's hands.”

“I-I don’t! But I just don’t think my magic works like yours does,” she shrugged to Adagio, “So why should singing help?”

Adagio rolled her eyes like she’d just been asked why water was wet, a question so utterly redundant it didn't make sense to even question at all, “Because all magic is about focus, doesn’t matter what kind of magic it is. No conscious drive, no magic. Lesson one my aunt taught me.”

Gloriosa raised her shoulders, still not buying it, “Well sorry, but whatever lessons your aunt gave me don’t seem to work for me.”

Adagio raised an eyebrow, “Did you even try a single note?”

“.....”

“Even hum?”

“I um,” Gloriosa muttered with a brief glance to their audience which caused her to quickly look away.

Adagio nonetheless caught onto it and groaned, twirling her hand in a clockwise motion, “Gigan, turn around, you’re scaring the human.”

“I’m trying to figure out this magic so I can try to scan better for it. If something happens, I need to observe,” he grunted in retort with crossed arms.

“A-Are you sure singing even would help? You mentioned off handedly unicorns,” she paused momentarily in the brief recollection of finding out unicorns of the not-a-one-horned-rhino kind actually exist, “can do magic, and I don’t remember you saying they sung.”

“That’s because usually it’s enough to just concentrate, but you lack an organ to channel the magic through, like a unicorn horn or how my necklace used to be attached to my chest. In these bodies, you need a pattern to ‘tune’ it to. So for conscious magic not totally born from just an item, like something generated from you yourself or by something acting in tandem with you, you need something to give your body the means to tune everything out and focus. It’ll come.”

“....”

“What, can’t sing?”

Gloriosa glumped, glancing between the cyborg and siren, not denying it, “Are you sure about this?”

“Well by not doing it you managed to create one of Sonata’s weird foreign comic monsters,” Adagio noted with a raised eyebrow.

Gloriosa looked to what had been several promising vegetables and vines, “I’d say it’s more along the lines of diced salad.”

Adagio massaged her temple, groaning in her tone, “Gigan’s correction, not yours. Don’t confuse the subject. You wanted some magic expertise and I gave it… Here.”

Gloriosa heard her approach and turned to see the siren’s necklace starting to glow with a slight green hue as a simple melody came from her throat. She instantly did not like the feeling, getting negative vibes of anger and frustration trickling into her. The feeling was mutual from Adagio as she enacted the strife melody, sucking up small pieces of the green smog coming from the frustrated director. But as the cooing siren closed in and placed her hand upon Gloriosa’s multicolored necklace, sparks seemed to spurt out and her hand was shocked as if by static.

“Yeatch!” She hissed, retracting her hand and shooting Gloriosa a glare, “Why you!”

Gloriosa rapidly waved her hands back and forth in front of herself to try and hold off the snarling siren, “Wasn’t me! Wasn’t me! It-It did it on its own!”

Adagio stomped closer and raised a hand. A separate, metallic hand wrapped around each of their waists and pulled the two apart, a deadpanned Gigan putting them away from each other. He put Adagio down and held a flushed Gloriosa up, who was too confused and surprised to wriggle free if she could.

“Blurry and almost unreadable as it was, I did see it. Gloriosa didn’t have much magic on her at all and yet there was a localized spike of energy when Adagio tried to touch it,” Gigan noted as he pulled Gloriosa around and got her closer to Adagio.

Visibly, Gloriosa’s geodes started to glow a bit brighter when they were brought nearer to the siren necklace. Adagio, whom could see the green smoke her magic gave off, perked her brow both at this and at how said smoke seem to avoid Gloriosa and give her a wide breadth. It was enough to convince her the red faced woman was telling the truth.

She rolled her eyes and stepped back with arms folded before her, “Fine fine. But this never happened before.”

“Did you ever sing that song around her? Sounded different than other times.”

Adagio pursed her lips and tapped at them, letting her mind travel back, “Now that you mention it, though I haven’t done much singing here, first time I’ve used that particular number in weeks. Other one is stronger.”

Gigan was about to put Gloriosa back down when he noticed a few small tendrils sprouting from the ground near his feet. His eyes whirled wider and he shot the woman an angry glare. Gloriosa’s eyes spread and she squeaked, roughly put back down on the ground on wobbling legs.

Adagio looked between them and her mouth soon flashed a not very friendly, toothy grin, “Oh? Looks like she has another way of focusing. Should I excuse myself and allow you two to study privately?”

The vines grew larger, Gloriosa’s face got redder, and Gigan muttered something that was almost assuredly Nebulan expletives as he angrily started to stomp on the tendrils. Adagio cackled and strutted forward, waving away the green smog and clearing her throat.

“Reason I tried to grab on was to push some of my magic into you,” she said plainly to a confused Gloriosa.

“What good will that do? Would I keep it?”

Adagio deadpanned, “No. Can’t do that. But I can give you a sensation of it so you can match it. Kinda like giving you a jumpstart.”

“But it’ll just shock you back.”

“I have something in mind that’ll work,” Adagio quipped as she began a new melody.

This one was much calmer than the other, soothing almost like a lullaby. Quite the opposite of the other melody, this one involved positive sensations. Even devoid of context, Gloriosa couldn’t fight a smile starting to tease at her lips as she felt happier, less stressed, and not alone or isolated. This time when Adagio, surrounded by trails of red smog, placed her hand upon Gloriosa’s necklace, it was welcomed for the benign magic it was.

She cooed a chorus, one devoid of lyric but still understandable in tone. And this time, Gloriosa followed suit. And follow she did to surprisingly good degrees. Closing her eyes, she focused upon it and felt at her necklace. The background static from before seemed to ebb away as the picture became clearer. Her hand glided to her side, feeling a sensation and soon gracing her fingers cross a piece of topsoil from a half overturned pot.

It was quite beautiful in fact, their singing. By the minutes end, it stopped. Gloriosa looked over to her side and a happy squeal erupted from her mouth. All around them, especially where her hand had been, small plants were blossoming and growing over the shattered pottery and chopped tendrils. The half ruined garden had become a parade of small flowers and tender green leaves.

Adagio grunted to herself and smirked, “Not bad pitch. No siren, but you’re certainly not horrid.”

Knowing it was about as good a compliment she’d get from Adagio, Gloriosa beamed a bit brighter as she admired her craft, “Used to be in a band in school, vocalist actually.”

“Seems your necklace can be touched in some conditions, but in others it has defenses like ours do.”

“Really?” Gloriosa looked to Adagio’s glowing siren heart and raised a hand.

Seeing the orange haired woman rolled her eyes and not budge, Gloriosa reached in and felt a wave push it back as soon as it got too close, like what one would feel when pushing the north ends of two magnets together. She in turn saw Adagio’s hand still on her necklace, flickers of mild jealousy and some fear trickling in before the siren pulled away.

“Means you have to protect yours more.”

They both perked up at the sound of a choked gasp. When the two looked to the side and saw a glowing-red-eyed, sneering Gigan staring back, they both flinched up. His arms shot out but as each started to react, they found themselves pushed aside when a flash of red light sprung forth from Gigan’s glasses. Pushing the women aside, the cyborg angrily fried a flower-covered, large tentacle Gloriosa had created from the ground both of them had missed until it was nothing more by ashes. He even swung his aim down and shot into the ground to ensure he’d burned away the roots. Retracting his arms, Gigan’s neck creaked with grinding gears and he looked at Gloriosa with wisps of red coming from behind his glasses.

He reached over, pulled her shirt out and dropped the necklace behind it before letting go. Gloriosa barely got a yip out before he muttered, "Amethysts are common, makeyourselflessobvious."

As it sat now, one could only see the purple geode poking out from behind the counselor's shirt, making it look like it was the only one there. Gigan snarled lowly, muttering something incoherent whilst storming off, “Dmn mckng tntcles tnaka dmn evrywre thse dys, rther ghdorya tn thsnd tnaka dmn tmes…”

============
Present Time
==============

Sunset managed to truck through the whole tour of the school dutifully despite feeling dumbstruck and an eerie chill settling across her back. Given how close Peachy Keen was settling towards her to the point their shoulders touched and she caught Celestia observing the three behind their backs more than once, she wasn’t the only one noticing that something was amiss.

“That’s the science lab,-”

She immediately recognized Adagio and Aria even before they gave their introduction, but the third member was all wrong.

-Don’t remember her name but wasn’t the third member of this group blue and short? Y-Yeah she couldn’t have been any taller than me!-

Sunset Shimmer cast a brief glance at the towering ‘Hymn’, who easily stood at least half a head taller than herself and was noticeably taller than the already statuesque Adagio. Not to mention whereas she remembered the blue woman being of about average build and young, this dame had a noticeably mature figure in some areas that made her at least as old as, if not slightly older than Adagio.

-No, no it couldn’t just be the one from before with a hair dye! Hairdo’s the same, sure, but no way could I miss a detail like that!-

A creeping feeling returned to the back of her neck, clueing Sunset in that she was being watched closely. A fact partially confirmed when she managed to sneak another peak back and caught Aria Blaze looking directly at her and not where she’d been pointing for the lab. Sunset Shimmer shivered slightly, but kept her composure the best she could by attempting to deflect attention to what was on her left.

“-Co-computer lab is in there.”

It didn’t work and she didn’t need to turn around to confirm it. Peachy Keen might have lacked personal experience, but she had a good sense of vibes and observation after 1000 years. The observations were that these three young women would look to the school amenities as they passed, but only brief as they often kept glancing at Sunset Shimmer herself instead of looking directly ahead. Or at least the orange and purple one were. The pale pink individual was looking over at Celestia herself with a face that was almost entirely neutral, but still carried what Celestia could tell were pinpricks of curiosity or observations of her own. One way or another, between how the newcomers were acting and how Sunset was reacting to them, a cold vibe of suspicion and concern was settling over her. Something was going unsaid and yet was very, very wrong.

She didn’t know what, but she was already almost dead certain these were not ordinary young women. Her eyes worriedly looked to her student, almost sad they couldn’t shake some of that same suspicion also casting itself onto Sunset. Thoughts briefly trailed back to the walk-through Canterlot Museum.

-I know there is something you weren’t telling me, Sunset… Was this part of it? Is it tied to Twilight?-

Part of her demanded an answer, but it was forcefully shoved back by other parts conscientious of their situation as well as wanting to hope the best with her student. It didn’t help Celestia’s conscience that her own memory was beginning to flare up when she looked at the coloration of Adagio and Aria. Something in the back of her mind was recalling something, but what exactly was vague because she couldn’t piece Hymn into it. The pink one was throwing her memory off enough for it not to get a fixture, but not enough to completely dissuade it.

Peachy Keen’s eyed Eventide Hymn for a time and they both took a pause, clearly studying each other with some curiosity before breaking contact. But just before she averted her eyes as not to be obvious and, more as a shy teenager looking about, Peachy noticed something else.

Adagio and Aria both had simple, red gemstones as necklaces around their necks of seemingly identical making. Hymn however, had a different type of necklace entirely. Still one bearing a hint of a gemstone poking out from behind her shirt, but it looked almost like it was wrapped in a vine for the chain and she glimpsed a purple, amethyst-like color coming from it. Almost like a geode of sorts.

Their action didn’t go unnoticed and all parties took a momentary pause with awkward glances cast between Adagio, Aria, and Sunset. Thankfully the mood was unsettled by Sunset noticing both that they were at the end of their tour and at something she knew would make a completely normal talking point to the completely normal new students who were entirely normal girls with nothing out of the ordinary. She jogged ahead, grabbing Peachy Keen by the wrist to tow her along.

“O-Oh! We’re uh- having a big musical showcase this weekend!” she piped with an only marginally forced grin as she motioned to the poster, “the whole school is basically rallying around it!”

The new trio’s eyes all perked and the smiles they cast seemed very satisfied.

“Ah!” Adagio gasped in what almost look like a feigned expression. She glanced back to her compatriots and saw that Aria was casting a wide smirk and Eventide was raising her hand to hide a grin that widened.

It was so wide in fact it made her look downright adorable for a brief moment, like she was very proud of herself about something, at least until Aria elbowed her lightly and she reined it back in.

Adagio rolled her eyes lightly, “A musical showcase? I hope they allow new entries…”

Chuckling a bit to herself, more out of awkwardness than anything, Sunset nodded, “Oh I’m sure Principal Celestia would still let you sign-up if you’re interested.”

Peachy Keen leaned out from behind Sunset, having been privy to the fact her student was trying to hide her with her body and put herself between Peachy and the newcomers. The pink was still throwing her off, but the orange and purple were beginning to look very familiar from something Starswirl once told her.

“If you are capable o- um...” Peachy winched as she tried to rein in her tone and speech pattern to both hide the suspicion as well as her typically regal manner of talking. It took some effort, as she hadn’t been an awkward teenager in over a millennia, “Well, if you can perform, that is.”

Aria Blaze’s eyes got a hint of red in them for a brief second before she rolled them and pretended to inspect her nails, “We have been known to sing from time to time.”

But what happened next threw seemingly everyone for a loop for the briefest moment. Eventide Hymn apparently slipped out of her typically quiet persona and spoke up with a wide smile in her voice that was surprisingly higher pitched than one would expect for someone of her height.

“Pfft, we’ve sung like, all the time!”

Sunset and Peachy were more shocked at how slightly off her voice sounded, having clearly expected it to be a lot deeper.

-Wow um, she sounds a lot chirpier than I thought she would!-

Eventide Hymn chuckled, and when she spoke again it sounded a bit deeper “Not the first band I’ve been in either I’ve-”

Aria and Adagio’s eyes both widened and they soon were both giving strong looks to their third member, who promptly shushed. Peachy thought she saw Adagio make a cutting motion across her throat as Aria grabbed Eventide in a way Sunset couldn’t be sure if it it was tugging the larger girl down by her arm to whisper to her, or if it was Aria putting her in a headlock. Adagio spun around on her heels, blocking Sunset and Peachy’s view of the two behind her stature and gigantic hair. Adagio facepalmed as she groaned loudly, blotting out the sound of whatever Aria and Eventide were discussing.

“You’ll have to excuse them, they’re idiots…”

Peachy Keen narrowed her eyes and gazed upon Adagio Dazzle’s gleaming gemstone necklace, privy to how it seemed to almost shine and pulse with light all on its own, “Your- um, necklace is prett-”

Adagio Dazzle seemed to sneer briefly and flinched before she reacted to a tapping on her back and suddenly beamed, “In fact excuse us all, thanks for the tour!”

And before anyone could stop her, Adagio spun around and promptly power walked away with Aria and Eventide, leaving a very confused Peachy Keen and Sunset Shimmer to look at each other.

Several minutes later and the both of them were seating themselves at the lunch table with the rest of the Rainbooms.

“Soooo, anyone seen Pinkie?” Rainbow Dash muttered worriedly as she glanced around to no avail.

“O-Oh, um,” Fluttershy quipped as she drew her phone out and drew up a photograph of her pink, poofy haired friend grinning while standing beside a section of road near the edge of town amidst a large amount of traffic. The caption read,

-'Got Maud to call me in sick. Sense going bonkers! Don’t worry, extra super duper safe, lots of folks around and could be back there in a jiffy if I see tall, dark, and spooky!'-

Rainbow Dash cringed at both the notice and mention of he who wouldn’t be named, or preferably described given she already had goosebumps, “Are we sure that’s smart thing to do?”

Flash Sentry shrugged his shoulders, “Optimistically, if anyone could weasel herself out of an attempt at getting kidnapped, it’s Pinks.”

Peachy Keen nodded, “And besides, she’d probably blend in with the mundane humans in a crowd. With the other four of you clustered here any magical signature would be far enhanced and kaiju are drawn to energy, any attempt would go for here first.”

The said formerly mundane humans and Flash cringed and looked over at the youthful Celestia uncomfortably, soon shifting to the windows and walls like they were being watched.

“Ehe, um… thanks,” Rarity muttered as she rubbed at the back of her head.

Finally after seeing Sunset sit in silence for a good few minutes, Applejack finally thought to nudge them with her arm that wasn’t in a splint from crashing her enhanced punch into X’s own swing.

“Sooo, how was the tour?”

Sunset Shimmer flinched and jolted back to awareness, “I-I don’t know! I mean, nice and all but these girls there were-”

-The fact you saw them next to giant monsters before?-

She mentally flinched as she waved her hands, “-something… off about them.”

Peachy Keen cringed and nodded astutely, “I have to concur with Sunset Shimmer’s assessment. I got an impression from them not unlike what I feel around you lot sometimes.”

She got a few blank stares from the Rainbooms, more for how she said it rather than what she said. Sunset Shimmer coughed into her hand and cleared her throat, “Um, ‘Peachy’... speech pattern.”

The pink haired former alicorn winced, “R-Right, I guess acting’s not my strong suit. Um… I got a bad vibe. A magic vibe… I think they’re from Equestria.”

That perked everyone’s brow and they leaned in, Rarity tilting her head closer “Are you serious?”

Peachy Keen nodded, “I’m sure of it. They have some sort of magic on them, and logically it’s more likely that would be the cause. You mentioned Twilight and Lea said they sensed someone else with magic nearby right?”

Sunset Shimmer nodded as she jumped onto the tracks laid down for her train of thought, “And if you girls got magic from exposure at the Fall Formal, how else could anyone else have magic?”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes fell upon Peachy Keen, “Waaait wait wait wait! But I thought whenever someone from the ponyland came here, they lost their magic. Like you and Twilight did for the most part… The only reason Sunset turned into that she-demon was…”

Sunset Shimmer didn’t even feel like clarifying her own self put down of ‘raging she-demon’ when her memory flung back to when Celestia took notice of the newcomer’s necklaces. Her eyes widened and she slapped her forehead, “Not unless they brought something with them that had magic itself…”

“The necklaces!” Peachy quipped as she snapped her fingers, “Gemstones no less! It all makes sense now! WhyDidn’tISeeitbeforewiththemirrorand-”

All eyes fell upon her and Peachy went quiet when she noticed her own self-muttering caught everyone’s attention.

Rainbow Dash rolled her hand about in a circle, “So, again in English please?”

Peachy Keen collected herself, took in a deep breath and slowly let out. Some of her old self was still there when she opened her eyes and addressed the group, captivating and demanding them with a gleam in her eye and strength in her posture even at being far smaller than she should be. Was amazing how much the repeated drills to slouch and keep her gaze downward as Rarity hammered into her would do to diminish that authority.

“Over 1000 years ago I was in a very bad state. I had lost my sister, I had been cut off from the Elements of Harmony in a dramatic event, my body was permanently changed with my powers out of control, and honestly I spent most of my time in self-exile to waiting rooms I’d end up destroying by presence alone…” Peachy Keen shrugged out of her nose, rubbing at the bridge of it under her fake glasses, “That’s when the sirens came. Three witches from the sea… To this day nopo- no one is really sure where exactly they came from or what exactly they were, but it was clear they were power-hungry and exploitative. They used song magic to hex ponies into spreading disharmony, over competition and differences. They eventually came to Canterlot.”

Fluttershy leaned in closer, clearly enthralled in the tale being told and mentally illustrated before her with Peachy’s swaying hands that swung wide slowly, “W-What happened? Did you beat them?”

“An’ how did they end up here?” Applejack chimed.

Peachy Keen closed her eyes and shook her head, “I was incapacitated the whole time with my own out of control magic. Had it been a calmer day and I knew what I was up against, I probably could have stopped them but it fell to my mentor, an archmage called Starswirl, to halt them… The details were always a bit vague, on account of a lot of the city being hexed at the time and Starswirl not wanting to talk about it. Something about a banishing spell or music competition, I’m not really sure which one. But, he couldn’t beat them outright so he got creative.”

“The mirror,” Sunset Shimmer muttered as she rubbed at her chin and got a nod from Peachy.

“It was in Canterlot at the time so Starswirl still had it outside of his vault from when he and I used it to journey around. Knowing this place didn’t seem to have magic, he must have sent them through it when he couldn’t overcome them directly!”

“Oh, so he used our home as a dumpin’ ground for something an archymage couldn’t best?” Applejack deadpanned in a monotone, “Whadda joy.”

She shifted back a bit when Peachy Keen shot her a defensive glare on account of her father figure’s honor for a moment before clarifying, “Again, when he and I came here briefly we didn’t seem to have any magic at all; if only a very little. So he probably thought they’d just be either turned into any normal human or be barely distinguishable and not a threat. Most humane way of doing it if he was going to put them somewhere they couldn’t hurt anyone.”

Rainbow Dash groaned, running her fingers through her hair and placing her elbows upon the table, “Oh that is great. That is juuuust great! First we got freaky red eyes, then Twilight gets kidnapped by the teleporting Terminator, Lea starts losing it, and now we have ancient ponyland monsters running about.”

“Silver lining? I think only two of them are sirens. Starswirl and the old paintings always showed the third one was smaller and blue, so there’s something off with that big pink one,” Peachy muttered with a shrug.

“And hey, least they don’t have much if any of their magic left?” Sunset assured with a pointed finger towards the sky in a hopeful gesture, “I mean, they’re joining the school so maybe they just want to be normal people like Starswirl maybe intended?”

Her answer got a very firm retort when slow, seductive melodies from a trio of singing voices started to filter into the cafeteria, hushing it. The glass doors were illuminated with three filtered lights coming through it, two red on either side with a multicolored one in the middle. Eventide Hymn pushed the doors open and she along with Adagio and Aria began to saunter in, their melody starting to pick up. To any whom might see it, there was a mixture of green and red smoke emanating from the students and beginning to collect in Adagio and Aria’s necklaces.

One student hanging back in the corner saw it clear as day and ran out of the room, drawing up her phone. She mashed at the buttons, pulling up her contact list. It was fairly large, but most of the names were greyed out from no one returning the action and linking the contact on both ends of the phones. There was only one non-family contact on the list that had returned her number and kept a correspondence with her.

-’They’re here and up to something! Come quick! Get Zephyrus’!-

Adagio laid it on thick as Aria’s melody helped to balance the discord-inducing vibes her song gave off with Hymnia’s happiness- and love-inducing number. She kept an eye on Eventide as she kept up, making sure to stay between Adagio and her cousin.

-Good. Got some power of your own but keeping between us helps mask how yours is different.-

With Sonata absent, the alpha siren was pouring out as much magic as possible and it was obviously having an effect. Various students were giving competitive leers to others, but were kept enthralled and joyfully eager by Aria’s tunes. Green and red smoke billowed out into them for a minor power boost that immediately went into amping up the song. Honestly, the two melodies together was helping work them up even more than just one or the other.

“You're a star and you should know it, you can rise above the rest~”

She almost smirked at how enthralled her audience was as she slipped past a student. For an impromptu song number, this wasn’t doing bad at all. Aria picked up the tune and slid past where Adagio just had been after Eventide helped by taking her hand and spinning her into that direction.

“It’s not like someone’s getting hurt, if you're just showing off your best!~”

Adagio was just about to pick up the next line when she caught a glimpse from the corner of her left eye. For a moment she felt a spike in confusion when she saw the purple-violet hair and hoodie looking in from the window, mind trailing elsewhere and wondering why she was seeing Twilight Sparkle outside of the lunchroom. And then it hit her full force when she glimpsed something around the girl’s neck giving on a red glow identical to the one coming from her own neck.

She froze up for a moment, dropping her line. There was the briefest moment of pause in her as eyes locked with the other Twilight Sparkle’s, loathing, confusion, and hints of fear looking into gleaming glasses. She was snapped out of it by Eventide slipping in front of her, using her larger height to physically shield the siren. The audience hardly noticed as she took up Adagio’s words, given her appearance and surprisingly enchanting voice.

“Battle! You wanna win it? Let's have a battle, battle of the bands!~”

Granted, the lack of siren-born discord song meant there was nothing to intensify the negative connotations of competitiveness, and due to being a bit confused as to what was up with her cousin, Aria didn’t stop using the harmony song use when the two kicked up the melody. Instead of leers and grudges as planned, the students were forming up into groups and accompanying playful glares with grins. Less open war so to speak and more sports competition in manner. Adagio snapped out of her stupor fully and joined back in, singing alongside a bit louder to keep this from being a sales pitch for a pillow fight. They’d worry with semantics later.

She snuck a hand behind her back and clicked a small button attached to the back of her boot while showing off some of her leg. A tiny beep was inaudible over the song and resulting cornucopia of cheers and discussion that followed by the students.

Only the cyborg across the street hiding behind a rooftop ‘heard’ the transceiver beep.

Gigan had been letting his mind drift with speculation, running through coded notes about everything that had been happening and what he knew. Adagio had been the most chatty siren, on account of Sonata being largely mute and Aria spending most of her time around X, though that wasn’t saying much. He didn’t press the issue much either. Their mission was to group up with X and capture the unknown magic signature here; a feat all the harder given it wasn’t that powerful and thus didn’t stick out much like the last objectives did. Finding the Electro Orbs were like looking for the one lit bulb in a room full of outages. This was like looking for one bulb slightly brighter than most others in a city full of lights. Their mission was not to help the sirens, but they ended up doing so on account of circumstance.There wasn’t anything personal in the sirens not being the priority, much as Adagio ground his gears, he was just doing his job. But it had ended up happening for some valid reasons, granted.

X was part of the team and Aria was basically his significant other at this point, meaning she was to be afforded protection like the rest of them. Her and X’s tie, though abundantly clear as it was, Gigan didn’t feel privy to telling their master about it. He half-assumed they already knew anyways and wanted to respect his friend’s privacy. The theory that whatever they were hunting was also the one that had attacked Sonata was sound. Those with power often sought to gain more power for one reason or another. In a way the Dark Hunters certainly did, or at least their master did.

Their target, at least one of which heavily resembled Twilight Sparkle, was very likely the one who stole a siren’s magical heart. Gigan grumbled to himself again at that word. He hadn't been idle in the last five rotation cycles and had studied it the best he could. Irys’ odd power source still eluded him, but he had at least been able to figure out that this power called ‘mana’ was something emitted by her existence of living, like radiation from a source, and she got more of it if she absorbed fire. Baffling yes, but at least he could write it off as just some feature of her biology. This world and the other three places he’d been to? Still made no sense. True, there was much less magic here than in the other two realms, but it still made his sensors go ballistic if he tried to study it too closely with a scan. He’d had to rely on physical testing, of which Aria and Adagio rarely obliged him. Gloriosa was much more forthcoming as she explored her own powers she’d apparently recently acquired; especially with that purple geode she’d let him handle. But there is only so much she could demonstrate that was applicable to the very different siren magic.

Shame Adagio didn’t behave more like her, and shame Gloriosa kept making those damn root tendrils. He could maybe actually like either of them if one of those facts weren’t true. Damn magical dames…

But by extrapolation from Gloriosa and the few tests he could run, he did confirm one simple truth he'd been briefed on already from X’s experience. One could not remove a siren’s necklace without their permission. Didn’t matter how hard one tried to yank, didn’t matter how much force someone had, and it didn’t matter if they were mechanical or biological or trying to use a tool like a set of grill tongs. One couldn’t get those necklaces off unless they were the siren it belonged to, another siren as Aria could touch and move Adagio’s and vice versa, or the siren herself gave permission to do so.

He thought through the scenarios again. Could the necklace have belonged to ‘Not-Twilight’ and she reclaimed it? Obviously not, given the physical effect its removal had on Sonata. Could Sonata have granted permission for her to do so? Also obviously not the case, given how traumatized she was and the apparent violent nature of the removal in Sonata’s case, as when Aria gently lifted the necklace off Adagio’s neck there were no harsh effects. Gigan had sat with her and recorded her recollection of the events several times and each time she gave it with perfect clarity, so any potential drug or mind alteration magic was out of the picture. Could it have been removed by another siren then?

Gigan hummed and tapped his metallic middle finger to his thumb. It was the only option that couldn’t be untrue from the onset, but that didn’t make it highly improbable. Adagio, Aria, and Sonata insisted they were the only ones of their kind and almost certainly even if they weren’t, chances were extremely remote to begin with and any other sirens that might’ve ever existed likely wouldn't also be banished here. Sonata also never mentioned her attackers having necklaces and one of them was male. Gigan grumbled, not liking finding dead ends.

The beep caught his attention and he shoved any stray thoughts away to the side, instantly snapping up to a standing position and looking out from the rooftop. His head quickly snapped to and fro in the direction of Adagio’s signal, scanning best he could and using just raw visuals in the other cases. They had a crude system at work. Two beeps if the attacker was close, one beep if they were away but visible. And given Adagio was in the lunchroom building based off the tracker in her attire with the knowledge she had given off just a single beep, Gigan knew to look to the outside. And he spotted a single individual looming outside the cafeteria window with a hood on, obviously trying not to be noticed.

He noticed alright and jumped down, not skipping a beat after landing on the sidewalk sprinting across the street to close in on them. Unable to teleport safely, he relegated to tightening the distance before confirming it was the target. That last part wasn’t needed promptly as he picked up a blinding flare of magic coming from the individual, one near identical to the signatures he got off of Aria and Adagio. A siren heart. Gigan picked up his pace, metallic boots mashing into the ground now that he knew for sure what it was.

The lure, the siren’s song number, had been set and the trap had been sprung.

Gigan almost smirked when he saw a face near identical to Twilight Sparkle turned to face the noise coming towards her and she gasped, visibly recoiling in surprise and fear.

-You're mine.-

Gigan fired out his grappling cables, locked onto her midsection and legs so he can quickly pin her down and restrain her both for transport back to Zenith and removal of the necklace by Aria or Adagio. She tried to run, throwing her hands out in front of her as if to shield or block away the oncoming restraints and at that he almost laughed. Oh this was too easy!

It wasn’t so easy when he suddenly felt a blizzard seemingly out of nowhere, blowing the cables away and slamming into Gigan. The chilling gale forces of wind hit him head on with enough force he almost lost his footing. Gigan winced and crouched slightly while not stopping his slowed advance. He had endured the vacuum of space for hours, if not days on end and endured multiple missions to polar biomes of planets and planets whose entire biomes might as well be polar. The only thing that ever felt truly cold to him was Zenith until his master shifted their quarters. And this.

Frost formed across parts of his sleeves and attire, misting his glasses. Through it all he looked at the source and saw it due to the bright red illumination coming from her necklace. She really did look just like Twilight Sparkle, just with a different hairstyle and glasses. And the fact, flickering as it was, Gigan could see the faintest image of an eerie teal horn on her forehead and veil around her eyes. In the howling gales blowing past her, he almost thought he could see the outline of fins or wings.

But it didn’t last long.

Twilight honestly wasn’t sure what had come over her. A moment ago she was spying on the sirens after getting a signal, trying to collect as much data and information she could as they hexed the entire cafeteria.

-Three again?! I-I thought it was only three of them! This is bad! This is really bad! If there’s four and they might be tied to that other magic Spike and I detected a while back…-

Then she felt a familiar cold chill come roaring into her and a similarly familiar, masculine voice cry out to her.

-”LOOK OUT! To your right!”-

-”W-What, Zephyrus?!”-

She felt him fly into her and bond to her, an invasive act she still loathed to happen despite the benefits, especially with how wary, easily angered, and paranoid it seemed to make her. But that quickly went away when she turned to her right and saw a large man barreling towards her. At first she might’ve hoped he was actually running past her for some reason, but when she felt and saw a pair of red eyes glare at her through those glasses she knew exactly who he was looking at and bearing down on.

Then he, it, fired a pair of cables from his arm. Typically she’d be fascinated by such a feat, wondering what manner of technology it was hiding in its sleeves to be capable of that; but then she saw that the cables were actually coming from its wrists and glimpsed hints of metal forming its fingers.

-”It isn’t human! Don’t let it get the necklace!”-

Zephyrus roared as she felt a cold so powerful her whole body went numb. No, no she would never let it have it! She wouldn’t let what happened before keep happening! She’d have to stop it. By understanding the magic, containing it, and controlling it, she’d stop it. Stop them.

Twilight Sparkle threw her arms out and shouted, knowing she was about to do something but not even really being sure of what. She hardly even noticed the howling gales that blew past her and slammed into the monster. She almost emitted a panicked, stressed laugh with a frozen tear when she saw Gigan stumble and slow with icicles forming over him. She hadn’t had the faintest idea what she was doing other than vaguely sensing Zephyrus channeling something through the necklace’s power, but it was working! It was working!

Then Gigan took another step towards her and Twilight’s heart stopped. It took another step. Then another. Then another. The gales intensified and yet she still felt those red eyes looming at her. A new cold, the chill of fear, slithered through her as Gigan advanced through the wind and ice.

-N-No! Stay back! Stay back!-

Red eyes, she felt them burned into her memory. She gasped and buckled, the power starting to falter even as she felt it surge to new heights for brief moments. It. Kept. Coming.

The power shorted out and she stumbled back.

Back in the present, Gigan remained eerily silent as he broke the icicles that had formed over his limbs off by flexing a fist and snapping his arms; moving his legs in jerky, robotic motions to break the frost formed across them too. The other Twilight huffed and panted, trying to backpedal and falling to a knee from the effort as she tried to catch her breath.

-Nice parlor trick.-

Gigan ran through the data. Magic was such a fickle thing but he could put two and two together based off observation alone. Other-Twilight was clearly wearing Sonata’s necklace, even if the gem was housed inside some sort of small device. He idly wondered about inquiring how she contained magic within technology, but brushed it aside to focus. Facts were facts, the necklace was glowing when she did that sudden blizzard and he could detect some other energy signature encircling her that was distinct from the necklace’s radiating energy. He knew it couldn’t have been coming from her directly as it didn’t resemble the type of reading he’d get coming from Irys or Gloriosa when they output any power. Rather it was like something occupying her space was doing it, using her as a conduit to channel magic through the necklace. Given none of the sirens demonstrated freezing powers, nor ever brought such up, he could best conclude the necklace itself wasn’t as much the source of the ‘spell’ as it was the amplifier.

Something else cohabitating the girl’s space was the cause of the energy output, and he had a very good idea of what it was. Exactly what he’d been dispatched here to get.

Eyes visibly glowing behind his glasses, Gigan stomped forward as he reached over, gripped, and tore a hunk of ice that had formed over half his chest off. He cast a glance up to a nearby school camera, having considered frying it to avoid being documented and make this as discreet as possible. Evidently however, judging from the frost formed over it that jammed it away from him, that had already been taken care of. How very convenient.

He closed the distance and before Other-Twilight could scramble away, he lurched out and grabbed a wad of her hair. She whimpered and yelped, snatching at his arm and kicking her legs as the cyborg hoisted her off the ground. Gigan’s eyes locked upon her necklace as a stray idea came forth. The original plan was to restrain her and have Aria or Adagio take the necklace off, but considering this wasn’t a siren herself he wasn’t sure such a restriction on who could or couldn’t remove it would even be required. And if he could save himself the trouble of any other magic outbursts while having a chance to look over the device…

“N-No! Don’t!” Twilight gasped through the pain in her hair when the mechanical hand of the monster reached for her necklace.

She gasped and suddenly fell back when a large mass threw himself full force into Gigan.

-”I’m here! Run!”-

-”Zephyrus?”-

Zephyrus screamed into her head, -”GO GO GO! LEAVE!”-

The native Twilight Sparkle obeyed, limping up to her feet and scampering off as she heard a large crash. She glanced over to see a large young man, presumably someone Zephyrus had jumped into, pulling himself out of some shrubs he’d been thrown into. The thought of that still made her skin crawl and breath chill.

-Greater good, for the greater good. Must understand it to counter it… Be careful of him.-

She tried to run but still felt the wind snatched from her lungs and she almost fell. Thankfully, another pair of hands grabbed her shoulders. For the briefest moment, Twilight felt a slight ease when she saw the grayed brown eyes and leafy green hues. In a life that had been thrown into chaos with ancient spirits, alien monsters, and cyborgs, seeing her only normal acquaintance beyond her dog was a minor relief.

Wallflower Blush pulled Twilight to her feet and backpedalled with her, “Come on!”

Gigan was both confused and annoyed. Confused as to who this sluggard was who tackled him and kept throwing himself into him, annoyed at how he was having to respond. Typically he’d just extend a blade, lop an arm or limb off if not jam it into the skull and let it be over with. Unfortunately he was privy to where he was. The idea was to ambush and snatch up a girl while everyone was distracted by the big singing lures in the cafeteria. Quick, clean, discreet. What was the first of those three but the opposite of the second two? Dismemberment and, contrary to film, stab wounds.

The possessed man knocked Gigan over and pinned him, repeatedly punching him in the face with metallic clangs ringing out. Judging from the bruised knuckles, it was hurting him more than the other way around. The cyborg thought through his options in a millisecond.

Intelligence was key. The enemy didn’t know the Dark Hunters’ ranks nor the fact they and the Sirens were working together. The sirens doing their magic was the most reliable way of drawing them in as Aria and Adagio seemingly had the only thing they wanted. If he spoiled their best chance at being a lure for them, their job and the siren’s survival was put in jeopardy. And given how X was bonded to Aria and Megalon took so well to Sonata, if that second part went sour he would never hear the end of it.

The attacker cackled maniacally, clapping his hands down on Gigan’s throat to try and strangle him. The same energy spiked again, though less so than it had with Other-Twilight; probably on account of lacking a gem. Cold bit in, ice crystals forming across Gigan’s throat. The cyborg sparked, actually wincing from how some crystals dug inside him and started to grow.

The attacker stopped laughing when a pair of metallic hands grabbed him on either side of his head. He looked down just long enough to see a robotic eye looking at him behind busted glasses. It constricted like it was a narrowing camera lense before he was promptly yanked down as Gigan sprang up. Metal plated forehead crashed into organic face multiple times, busting a nose and fracturing skin. Throwing his attacker off, Gigan ignored the sparking in his neck and grabbed him by the arm. With a firm yank backwards, he was pulled into a tight throat lock. The man kicked, thrashed, and grabbed, but was powerless to throw the stronger cyborg off. Not even freezing the sleeves and skin on Gigan’s arms managed to force himself free, the desperate struggle getting weaker and weaker as the hold on the throat became tighter and tighter.

Just before Gigan could snap his neck, the body went limp. He was about to drop it when a surge of emotion came over him. A cold, a frigid cold started to pierce through his body. There was anger, distrust, contempt, and rage brewing. The worst thoughts imaginable became a whirlwind of conscience, with a strong temptation to make them a reality. Something whispered at him to do it. It demanded he do it. He wanted to after all…

Through the haze of mind and body, a tiny piece of Gigan’s vision displayed a reading. Whatever had been encircling Other-Twilight and the man who randomly attacked him, was now trying to climb onto him. Something he couldn’t quite see nor touch was attempting to claw its way inside him. Gigan’s wrath was incurred, but this time it was at a proper source.

All the negative thoughts and frustrations he felt aimed at his own teammates and their allies, nominal or not, were shoved aside. Megalon was annoying, petulant, bordered on stupid, and got him hurt way too many times to count; but Gigan would fight the world to keep his baby brother safe. Irys was new, emotional, green, rushed into situations, and carried a lot of baggage on her own; but she was a valued teammate and had more than proven her worth. X came with a record setting number of problems, had almost killed him thrice, endangered their team, and dragged them into more complex a situation than he hoped; but his best friend saved his life, had exceeded expectations, and was a better soul than he certainly was.

A slight glow settled upon Gigan, flickers of a power he’d once used standing up to Kaizer Ghidorah. For a devastating giant mercenary for hire, he still had bonds. And in worlds like this bonds could turn out to be the one thing he was flummoxed by. Unknowingly so on the cyborg’s part, Harmony’s gift of magic from friendship wasn’t exclusive to Equestrians.

He was also glad he didn’t have to try and think up stuff for Adagio and Gloriosa, you’d probably have to end up ramming his head into a wall to get those thoughts cleared. As far as he was concerned they were barely better than Mane-iac…

The presence was expelled, forced away and thrown up into the air. Gigan panted and huffed, falling to a knee with relief falling over him. He glared up at the vaguely anomalous cloud. He couldn’t quite see it itself, just the outline because of how it cooled the air around it and permitted him to use thermal vision. The front, or at least what he had to presume was the front, was very vaguely equine with a particularly long snout into forelimbs that resembled hooved legs. The back into the body tapered away until virtually nothing, leaving just wisps like misting air. Even if he hadn’t the faintest idea on how to read any expressions on such a life form, he got the impression it seemed both shocked and enraged. Like it had been hit with something it remembered and really didn’t take kindly to.

It didn’t seem to take kindly to Gigan firing an optic beam into its midsection right as it started talking, even if it didn’t seem to meaningfully hurt it. It let out a shriek like a howling gale of wind and rapidly flew off into the unknown too fast for Gigan to follow.

The Nebulan Cyborg huffed, gathering himself to his feet and pulling out an ice crystal lodged in his collar with a free hand.

-Oh that is just great… Ghosts now!?… That is just Showa Daiei levels of great…-

A door opened in the back of the cafeteria and Gigan nearly opened fire on instinct, thankfully calling off when Adagio Dazzle quickly threw her palms up and waved them in front of her.

“It’s me lunk head!” she gasped at the sight of his glowing red eyes.

Gigan grumbled and rolled his orbs as the glowing went away.

Adagio huffed and shook her head, pacing up to him as she surveyed the local terrain. Ice was still visible across parts of the wall and roof, with slurry and sleet covering half the lawn between the buildings they had been standing in. That along with the busted foliage and blood on Gigan’s forehead made it abundantly clear something happened.

Adagio narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, “What happened?”

“I’ll give you visuals when we get back and I can hook my eye up to a computer,” that visual gave the alpha siren a cringe, remembering how disturbed she was when he first did that.

“-But I can confirm two things. Firstly, trap worked. Whoever it was that attacked Sonata really does look just like Twilight Sparkle. Change up the hair, take a bit off her height, shift her demeanor; it’s a mirror image. Secondly, I’m thoroughly convinced what we were sent to hunt down what is collaborating with her. Seems like some kind of ‘spirit’ that can possess or coat bodies,” Gigan noted.

“Hmph, I never thought I’d hear you use a magical term,” Adagio frowned.

“There’s a difference between not understanding magic fully and denying it, only a fool would do the latter. Besides, if I said 'amorphous, charged plasmatic field' I’d be wasting both our time.”

Adagio, smarter than she looked or sensed he gave her credit for, leered and opted to ignore that implication for brevity, “Quite. So, I take it considering you’re holding someone who looks completely different, she got away?”

Gigan shrugged, “Not for lack of trying. Point is, the trap worked. If you sing, she will come. Her and those working with her.”

Adagio’s eye twitched and she held back a swear. She still loosed an insult or two under her breath, more out of frustration than anything else. She stepped forward and pulled a napkin from her pocket, dabbing it on Gigan’s bloodied forehead to wipe the sanguine off.

“That’s not mine,” Gigan grunted with an aside glance, still sparking from his neck.

Adagio just rolled her eyes and flicked him across his nose, “Yes and it’s not like you wouldn’t cause a stir and get too much attention if you just go waltzing around with half a cup of blood on your face, you moron.”

His eyes narrowed back and got likewise in return. A muffled groan from the man still in his grasp perked both of their attention.

“Well, let’s just hope he didn’t lose that much,” Gigan grunted as he started walking towards the tool shed.

“What are you doing?” Adagio deadpanned.

Taking mind to the now thoroughly unconscious man still held in his grasp, Gigan thought through his options. Parts of his internals had some minor frost damage, messing with some sensors. That as well as the fact he didn’t know if she was still around the school or not meant there was no way he’d catch up to Other-Twilight in the time he had before the students started wandering about. He wasn’t probably going to get anything meaningful out of the annoyance he’d knocked out for awhile, at least, as long as he was unconscious. But since he was coming to...

“Checking for answers,” was all Gigan said before stepping in and closing the door behind him.

Adagio glanced about, both to check around for safety and keep an eye on the perimeter, as well as confirm they were alone for another reason. She tiptoed up and put her ear to the old wooden wall. Details were extremely fuzzy, all the speech was unintelligible due to how quiet it was and how much stuff on the inside must’ve been muffling the noise. But she could hear a young man’s voice as well as Gigan’s. There was an exchange, she thought she heard Gigan saying “Only reason-” “-is because I don’t-” “-her trouble-”.

Then she heard what sounded like a ‘shink’ noise akin to what happened when Gigan popped out his blades. Adagio’s brow perked and she leaned in closer, her ear to the door. A chainsaw revved up and roared. Now the young man’s voice was louder but when the saw started revving up, he was calling out so loudly and whimpering so much she still couldn’t make out what he was saying. There was a scream and the saw went quiet. Adagio’s eyes widened as liquid spilled out from under the edge of the wall, it was dark and vaguely red. Her lips scrunched together and she backed up warily, hand on her necklace as the door started to open.

A deadpanning Gigan, spattered with fluid, stepped out of the door. His entire front half was stained red and the source became clear from what was dangling on his arm with a saw impaled through it.

“Thought a scare tactic would work, over did it,” he grunted as he held aloft his arm, who’s hand and wrist were transformed into a chainsaw that had a large canister of motor oil stuck on it.

Adagio blinked at him, not realizing how much she had been hyperventilating, “I-I thought you…”

“Eh, would cause too much attention and I’d never be able to clean it up. Useless anyways. Worked though, but I think he-”

Adagio’s nose crinkled as she smelled the sticky, pungent smell one usually got in a bathroom that hadn’t been cleaned. Closing her fingers on her nose she wafted her other hand in front of her face, “I get it! Say no more.”

“Well, saying anything he won’t be. Fainted. Plus when he wakes up, who'd believe him? And given the demeanor showed I can confirm one theory.”

“Which is?”

Gigan flicked the oil can off his arm and kicked it back into the garage shed, “When I disabled him I felt something that was previously on top of him try to push itself into me. The ‘spirit’ tried to influence me. My best guess is this guy was just a puppet given he claimed to have amnesia while voiding himself.”

“Influence how?”

Gigan’s face darkened and he glanced away. For the briefest moment, he even looked uncomfortable. It wanted him to do things beyond just kill. He shook it off, disgusted.

“Take everything you don’t like about people you associate with, and amplify it off the chart. Nasty stuff. It was trying to drive me to the point that anger or strife would block out all else and make me take it out on others.”

Adagio went quiet for a short moment, thinking through what was being implied. Eventually she huffed and poked him in the chest, something she regretted as she was promptly wiping her finger off on the part of his sleeve not covered in oil to get the viscous liquid off.

“Wouldn’t affect me much, already like that given I work with you don’t I?”

The annoyed leer was mutual, especially when Adagio scrunched up her nose at his scent.

“Yeah yeah, I get it. Need a clean out when we return to camp,” Gigan huffed.

“You’re lucky we’ve got a tarp in the trunk I needed to throw out anyway, Eventide could help you with that. We’ll probably have to toss you into the lake,” Adagio Dazzle rolled her eyes, “Not like Gloriosa wouldn’t mind watching that.”

One could literally hear the whirling in Gigan’s neck as it snapped around to look at the departing siren, “Reeeepeeeat that?”

Adagio waved him off as she started inside to rejoin Aria and Eventide, “Just deal with the passed out idiot, bolts-for-brains. If someone finds an unconscious guy in the middle of the school it will cause almost as much attention as if he were dead.”

Gigan incoherently him grumbled to himself, “Sana ranan rigga franan”

==============

Camp Everfree

Megalon perked up at its arrival. Seismic vibrations of an unusual variety. With his feet burrowed under the ground, he twitched to turn around and face where it was coming from. The fact he could sense something coming free of energy signatures that might be unreliable and could do so without the dense foliage or twisting roads obscuring his vision was one of the reasons he was left on guard duty for the camp; aside from the fact stealth wasn’t his forte and he wanted to keep an eye on his friend Sonata. If prepared, he was effectively impossible to sneak up on unless the target was flying, in which the situation was extremely rare in this realm.

Turning about and focusing on the sounds all around, Megalon was able to distinguish between the known sources and the new signal to figure out which direction the latter was coming from. He could perceive the few signals he expected to find at camp, such as Sonata inside her room pacing; so the new source was easy to pinpoint despite how weird it sounded on the ground. It wasn’t heavy enough to be a car and yet didn’t sound like footsteps. And it was closing in. Fast.

Closing directly in on Sonata’s cabin from the other side! Megalon jumped up and pointed his hands in front of himself, arching forward in midair like he was diving into a pool though in this case his ‘splashdown’ was in dirt. Able to move just as fast as he could normally run, but now free of obstructions once he diverted under the foundations a safe distance, Megalon rapidly tunneled through the camp and made a beeline for the signal. A very confused onlooker stepped out from a cabin, carrying a load of turkey chops, and felt the shaking earth underfoot while pausing in confusion.

Able to confirm the target was indeed heading directly for Sonata’s cabin at breakneck speed, Megalon accelerated as fast as he could.

-Aaaah no you don’t!-

It suddenly diverted course in a wide loop, forcing him to chase after it instead of the attempted collision he first sought. He neared the surface, going through the looser soil to keep up with it and making it look like he was a certain rabbit taking a wrong turn at Albuquerque. Able to close the distance, the cyborg burst from the ground in the manner of a land shark and tackled the intruder just as they started to make their way towards the cabin. Only when he managed to regain the visuals after shooting out of the ground, he found his hands whiffing empty air and absolutely nobody being in front of them, just an oddly shaped puffy cloud that resembled the outline of a young woman with poofy hair. Instead he landed on top of a vacant, extremely bright pastel bicycle with the helmet soon flopping on his head.

“Whooaah! What the Dai-Daaaieee-” reflexively grabbing the handle bars, Megalon yanked them back and forth to try and keep the bike from falling over.

His efforts were for naught however, soon hitting a fallen tree branch on the dirt path he’d been on that jammed the wheel and caused the back end of the bike the buck upwards. Yelping, Megalon fumbled through the air and landed on the ground with a hard thud. Or at least he would have if he hadn’t crashed hips first into a comically huge whoopee cushion. Fall broken but still skidding across the ground atop the fart-sounding airbag, Megalon hollered out while flying forward and into the opened backdoor of Sonata’s cabin. He could hear voices inside not belonging to anyone that should be in camp. Revving up his drills while flying through the air and shifting his legs to land foot first, Megalon prepared for battle to protect his friend!

If Irys was confused at seeing Megalon burrowing through the camp again after Gloriosa asked him to stop, it wasn’t on account of her personally liking Gloriosa much or heeding heavily into what she said and more at the fact Megalon had taken a shine to “Miss Daisy Ma’am”. But now she was flummoxed when she heard the vulgar flatulence-like noise call out from behind the cabin. She dropped the turkey, on a table as not to waste the delicacy, and rushed to the cabin. She might not be able to fully access her true state in this form, both from needing more practice and lacking fire to jumpstart it, but she could still feel the flickers of that energy even in this state. A vague ‘Eta’ symbol resembling a capital ‘H’ formed on the backs of her hands as she charged in with surprising speed that helped make up for her lack of flight in this body.

She tore the door open and paused both out of confusion due to not finding the battle she expected and confusion in itself.

Sonata was sitting at a table, sniffling with a slight smile on her face and pointed hair on her head; gazing at the small batch of ocean blue frosted cupcakes in front of her with a little music symbol layered onto them. Megalon was standing close by beaming at her through his goggles with a dopey grin on his still half dirt-covered body with the other half of his body covered in confetti. And standing on his shoulder and upturned hand was a perky, slightly chubby young woman with bright pink skin and extremely poofy, hot pink hair that contrasted with baby blue eyes. Those same eyes along with a wide, toothy grin spoke of energy and vigor. Her actions were all the more confusing when Irys saw her hurl something towards her and she dodged aside.

-What the?! What is that?! Has she hexed Megalon?!-

Irys eyed the streamers suspiciously and prepared to lunge when the pink woman seemed to vanish from Megalon’s shoulder. Eyes wide, Irys turned aside and soon found herself recoiling when the intruder apparently reappeared right beside her without her sharp vision or hearing noticing.

“Hiya! Sensed there was a pouty face about and came a’ runnin! Or Bikin’! Welcome to the Get-Well-Soon-Loco-Amigo-Partyyy!”

Pinkamena Diane Pie yelped before yanking the string of a party popper pointed at Irys, showering the albino gyaos in streamers and confetti.

Irys’ eyes dilated from latent memory, smelling the faintest amount of combustion powder that smelled like gunpowder and hearing loud popping noises. She was back on Terra, back when she was small. She shook, eyes starting to glow with a light that also emitted from her mouth behind her fangs.

“Oooh cool party trick!”

Pinkie Pie leaned in, Megalon hopped up and bolted over, and Sonata frantically waved her arms while rising up. The three goofs were reunited for a minute and already something was going awry, like the universe couldn’t handle this meeting.

=============

Police Station

The young woman gripped the edge of her chair’s armrest, her fingers curling and clutching it like a set of raptorian talons. The old wood started to give from the pressure and splinter. She huffed and took in several deep breaths to try and control herself. She still didn’t let go of the hardwood and an audible crack could be heard when she snapped her orange tinted eyes open. The police clerk gulped when he felt those eyes upon him from under the cloak, feeling like she was looking through him rather than at him.

Lea felt Maud’s presence nudge against her foot, reminding her of one crucial detail. This was the second time in the Police Department, they didn’t want to botch this.

-Leave the fantastic aside, just focus on crucial elements. Let their pathetic tiny primate brains be able to grasp the story and they might actually be of use this time…-

The first time she told the story she was on such an emotional high the clerk offered to call a psychiatrist to see her when she spoke of teleporting cyborgs and her lithe frame being strong enough to “hold a projectile launcher” strong enough to level part of the demolition yard; their feeble attempts to understand her powers she was barred from showing outright, for fear they would get all the attention rather than the kidnapping story. So, with extremely heavy reluctance and even more reluctance not to reach across the desk and grab the human’s collar and demand they heed her, she let Maud do the talking this time with a different clerk.

Lea sat back as Maud stood at the desk and explained everything in a more feasible manner, still glaring daggers at the obstructive human.

“And that’s how it happened. Some sort of gang fight near the demolition yard, we don’t know the details. However my sister was present alongside several other witnesses that I have signatures of who are willing to talk to you for the case. I understand this sounds extreme in some measures, but I can assure you the situation is dire,” Maud noted in a monotone utterance.

“Well, I see your point m-ma’am,” the clerk grunted, still in a cold sweat from the glare he was getting past Maud’s side.

As if privy to what was going on, Maud sidestepped and blocked Lea’s view of the poor man.

He seemed to relax somewhat and started to work at his computer, “Certainly much more believable than the previous fantastical tale we got. What did you say the kidnapping victim’s name was again?”

Maud paused for a moment, pondering if she should include the ‘Princess’ title and opting against it knowing that if the profile said royalty had been taken it could cause even further questions that were pointless, “... Twilight Starla Sparkle.”

The clerk nodded and tapped at his keyboard, “Alright, just adding this into the database to make sure there are no pre-existing reports given you said others witnessed this or might have noticed her gone; could just combine the case as if that were true… Oh, got a match.”

Maud tilted her head silently, expecting an answer and eventually getting it.

“Does she have dark purple hair with a rosey streak and light violet skin? Roughly 60 kilograms and deep violet eyes?”

Maud didn’t shift expression even as her mind wondered for a moment to think about it, “I never met her in person myself, only seen pictures. But I know she was just about the same size and age as my sister so that sounds about right. Color is a perfect match, though I’d describe her hair as more a moderate sapphire. Why do you ask?”

The clerk cringed and shrugged, “Well I suppose you all might be getting worked up over nothing. Something stressful might have happened for sure, but I got a Twilight Starla Sparkle precisely matching that description safe and sound in the next city over.”

He turned his monitor aside so Maud could see with Lea leaning over far behind her to glimpse the screen.

Maud looked at it for a moment but shook her head, “That can’t be her. None of the pictures of her I’ve seen have her with glasses, and my sister would not have left out that detail. She’s very attentive. It also says here she’s attending Crystal Prep High School, but I know she was at Canterlot Public High School last Fall.”

“Well this is the only Twilight Sparkle in the database ma’am,” the clerk cringed and rubbed at the back of his head, “We can still put out an alert but with her living so close and precisely matching the description, it might cause some problems.”

“Such as?”

“Well any person who sees the alert and might pass by young Miss Sparkle on the streets could grab her and try to take her to ‘safety’ thinking she’s been kidnapped. Says here she has an older brother, so what happens if some would-be Good Samaritan with a taser sees him next to her and pulls it on him thinking he nabbed her? And this is on top of there being lots of other purple skinned, purple with striped haired young ladies out there. Someone might see this Glimmer gal who matches up to part of the description and assume she was Twilight forced to dye her hair.”

“What about the description of the kidnappers?”

The clerk shrugged, “Well we can certainly put something out, but given how, well, fantastic the descriptions sound we might not get too far. Lots of folks with grays, yellows, or blues around here.”

“The second one had metallic looking hair and metal gauntlets,” Maud noted dryly, unable to withhold that little piece of information at Lea’s insistence. With both Gigan and this ‘Ghidorah’ wearing masks or face obscuring sunglasses, not to mention mostly being seen at a distance, she supposed they had to get specific about a few details even if they could leave out things like optic blasts or teleportation.

“That’ll certainly go out, but I don’t think too many folks would take it too seriously. This town doesn’t tend to talk much about the weird stuff like the school’s Fall dance so word of mouth might die off quicker if you throw that in.”

“And if we don’t get specific, the details are so vague and reliant on clothing, meaning they could be faulty and not very useful.”

The clerk nodded, “Afraid s-”

He cut himself off when a tall figure cast a shadow over his desk. He looked aside from Maud and saw those same, orangey, fiery eyes glaring at him with so much intensity they literally did look like they were burning. A hand slapped onto the oaken table, lightly cracking it with claw-like fingernails digging into the wood.

“First you dismiss our story because it sounds too fantastic, then your kind continues to obstruct us because you relegate yourself to non-description of detail because you can’t comprehend it…”

The voice carried a venom that chilled the air.

“I’m trying… to find… my friend.”

The officer’s hand started to shift towards the silent alarm but he didn’t know why, a primal fear starting to seep in more and more as he got the distinct feeling something with great power was very angry with him.

“I-I’m trying to help miss, I’m serious! If someone is missing the last thing I’d ever want to do is neglect them!” he piped in a quiet voice forcefully hushed, “I’m just trying to figure out the best way to do it without disturbing someone else’s life and so that the public can help the our biggest set of eyes and ear-”

He was cut off by the eyes widening, glimpsing a hint of fangs in the place of normal canine teeth. The eyes’ glow was turning purple in small flickers.

Lea’s hand slid towards him, dragging her nails through the wood, “You seem more intent on obstruction than doing your job-”

Maud’s hand snatched at Lea’s wrist. It took all the strength of a college champion arm wrestler and geode smasher to hold her still.

“Excuse us.”

Several moments later in the two were outside the Police Department, Lea lifting her arm up and with some effort, hoisting Maud up into the air when the eldest Pie sister refused to let go. Lea’s eyes narrowed in frustrated annoyance.

“You are impeding me.”

Maud’s sky blue eyes looked back unflinchingly, “And you are acting irrational. You show off what you can do in there and you’re going to cause a lot of confusion. It’ll only make matters worse.”

“They’re dragging their feet with formalities.”

“They’re doing their job. The only thing we can do is to make sure they’re doing it the best way possible. Extraordinary circumstances are not the norm and most who have even heard of them are dealing with them however they can,” Maud paused and Lea saw her mutely shrug as she put a hand on the former kaiju’s shoulder, “I understand you are upset. We all are. Allow me to handle this.”

Lea stood still for a moment, eyes still flickering slightly with purple sparks. She closed her eyes and let out a deep shrug. When she opened them they were back to their normal color, though still puffy with frustration. Lea lowered her arm and reacquainted Maud Pie’s feet with the ground. She said absolutely nothing, only staring at the Pie for a moment or two before looking away with an unreadable expression. Maud blinked stoically before slightly nodding, letting go of Lea’s wrist and walking back inside to finish filing the report.

Lea just listened to the door opening and closing, not looking back. The headache was returning in force, the delirium returning with it. It wasn’t just one emotion coming over her, but an unbalanced cornucopia of sadness at the loss of her friend, worry and distress at not knowing where she was or what state she was in, anger and frustration at her circumstances and what had been making her upset, and confusion at the fact for the first time in her foreseeable memory, human beings were not looked upon so fondly. Their world seemed dead with so little magic or mana moving through it, they reacted with confusion and negligence to what their feeble minds couldn’t understand, and they had the gall to insist she withhold exerting herself in correcting the mistake that happened here?! When there was so much at risk?! She was trying to play it by their rules and find her friend who was in the clutches of a monster, and they had her guarding five stand-ins for magic bearers while restricting herself in her attempts to search for Twilight on the chance of it possibly being ‘disruptive’?

-If this world’s Twilight had even a shred of decency that her counterpart did, she wouldn’t mind a ‘disruption’ if it solved a hostile kidnapping! And I could’ve covered so much more ground in my search if those whelps had stopped worrying about Gigan coming back for them and insisted I stay with them!-

She swung a foot out, kicking a trash can that thankfully was anchored to the pavement, meaning she only dented-in the metal mesh surrounding it rather than punting it across the street.

-Fools, the lot of them! They had magic, but Twilight is magic. If they were truly targets too, the Apple would have been snatched instead of being used as a hostage!-

In actuality one reason she hadn’t been able to travel much out of town to search and try to sense anything was because of a promise to Celestia they were going to help Sunset Shimmer, and that she was to be protected as well. Truthfully, Lea could tell there was a magic about Sunset as well even if she hadn’t ‘pony’d up’ like the others and that she thusly was another prime target for Gigan and Ghidorah. If she wanted to get to them, sticking around Sunset Shimmer was a good bet as well as a good option to protect her and her friends, something the Guardian of Mortals naturally wanted to do.

But in a confused mind, rational want was rare. Lea only saw humans, and she only saw the worst of them and their kind, especially when her eyes turned orange. For reasons beyond her logic nor her desire to answer, the new surges of power she’d been tapping into to be stronger for the next confrontation were making her look at these talking, furless, bipedal monkeys with less and less fondness.

That lessening fondness was evident when two of them started to approach her. Two males, well past teenagers but still well below the loss of their prime. That, as the week revealed, often resulted in them like many teenagers from the school eying up her human husk in ways that only increased her annoyance. But when she returned what she expected would be a coy gaze with a glare, she found herself pausing unfamiliarly. The shorter male put the map he had in front of him down and blinked curiously, tilting his head at her.

“... Lea?”

Anguirus felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up when the woman he presumed was his ally respond to his voice but otherwise did nothing. She just looked between him and Godzilla in total silence, an unnerving look in her eyes that was complemented by an unnerving look about her body. To be honest, he couldn’t tell if that really was her or not. In hindsight he should’ve asked about her attire but he had presumed he could still pick her apart from the crowd by both sensing any energy coming off her as well as her distinctive color scheme.

He certainly could sense the energy coming off this woman alright, it made her light up like a Roman candle in a field full of actual candles. And for the most part, what he was sensing did match up to Lea as he knew her. But it was… off. As were her colors. She was still pale-hued with green overall like he expected, her skin and hair matching up to where they were on her Equestrian body’s chitin and mane. If she was the same as everyone else he’d seen thus far, she’d have been identical in tint. She wasn’t. And she was leering at him.

Lea didn’t see the downtown street in the modern day. She was in north India over seven hundred centuries ago. Rage, hateful, potent rage broiled into her mind. The fact King Manjusandra and his creation resembled one another made it all the worse. She remembered killing the former before… She winced, memories fighting with themselves from recalling the same event from two perspectives. The event that drove a Mothra and Battra, her ancestors, to battle it out across a dying world of magic.

Her mood shifted when she forced herself to look away from Anguirus and instead looked to Junior, but it wasn’t for the better. Junior studied his friend, having begun to approach when Anguirus stuck an arm out before him. He shot Anguirus a confused look, clearly seeing the distress on his best friend’s face and wanting to come to her side.

Anguirus just kept his eyes trained upon Lea, seeing her muscles tensing up and body swell with an invisible magic he could smell.

“Something’s wrong,” he whispered to his comrade,“look at her eyes.”

Junior did and when he did, he flinched as she was. If she was leering at Anguirus before, she was positively glaring at him. Lea’s lips started to curl back and her body shook. Visions of gnashing, blood covered teeth and a face coated in gore coming before her. Her “father’s” death at the fangs of Godzilla Senior. Hatred and vengeance of the father tempted to pass to the son. Junior hated how his body reacted on instinct, tightening up as instincts screamed at him regarding oncoming danger from his closest friend. With her tense body like a tiger set to pounce, orange-with-purple-flickers eyes, and darkening color scheme; she didn’t look like his best friend anymore.

Both Anguirus and Godzilla braced for an assault and loathed having to do so, feeling that they were betraying the trust of a friend by doing so. Lea flinched, forcing her eyes shut with clearly a lot of effort and shaking her head. The memories started to push themselves aside, the throbbing migraine in her mind beginning to allay. She sucked in her breath and upon its exhale, her body began to relax. Her head drooped and finally, they heard her voice.

“You’re late!....”

Its quietness betrayed the pain and stress. Her old colors began to brighten back up to prominence. All the toil, strain, and agony she’d been feeling over the past five days started to show; having spent far too long angry to keep it up with how tired she was. A droplet of a tear fell from her eye and hit the ground. Almost as soon as it did, two forms rushed her and Lea soon found herself surrounded by strength and warmth. Lea’s head slowly rose to take in the sight. Two of her closest comrades were holding her in an embrace, one on either side, surrounding her protectively as if to stave off whatever was distressing her; physically or mentally. Lea sniffled, still feeling the flickers of the headache and power surges coming over her but managed to force it all away as she wrapped her arms around two of her boys’ shoulders and necks.

“Forgive me,” she croaked quietly, risking a break down.

Thankfully, she had her friends to hold her up.

Unbeknownst to the Defenders however, they did have an observer beyond a random passerby. Moving in a cold wind on the fringes of a building across the street and keeping his magical aura low due to possessing a stray cat, Notus observed the events transpiring with gleeful thrill. He could smell it and he relished it. The enormous potential for wrath and anger within this ‘Lea’ was enough to drive one to genocide! Oh what he had merely attempted with his compatriots with the ponies driven to a collision course could come to fruition with this one! That outing had just been them increasing the hostilities already present from bad to worse and reveling in the result. This was already off the charts!

And with his previous host being shown to be feeble by someone he could tell was holding back, this was looking better and better. The fact he could tell some of her wrath by its scent was aimed at the half metallic creature with red glasses made it all the better, all the better… Oh, this was like an ideal situation practically gift wrapped to him!

Two sides of magic users and monsters, set to antagonize each other. One side ignorant of them and the other knowing of them but not what they were. So many strings to pull, so much conflict to enhance, so much strife to embody and enact. For that was the exact reason the almighty Grogar had forged the Windigo Three.

And Notus hadn’t seen this much potential for fun ever since Mako!

Author's Note

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron!
Art by Faith-Wolff!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
It ain't just a band competition...

Halloween Special: Shōwa, Junior, Zilla, Legendary Godzilla vs. Godzilla-Earth

DISCLAIMER: This story is much, much darker than my usual affair. It's the season for spooks so the typical Showa-Era fun will return shortly. For now, let the other aspects of the franchise have then fun...

A massive creature’s fiery orange eyes greeted the evening sky when they snapped open. A boxy head sporting a prominent chin was shortly raised by a long neck to swing to and fro to try and make sense of its surroundings. Though the only traits readily identifying it as a squamate (more specifically an iguana) were the curved, triangular dorsal spines, broad cheek scales, dewlap, and five clawed fingers and toes; the rest of the creature was far different. Eighty meters tall in a horizontal stance, ninety if he reared up, his mother would forever live on in infamy for a case of mistaken identity. During the initial journey through Manhattan seven years ago the headlines read, “Godzilla takes a Bite out of the Big Apple!”. After she was brought down by anti-ship missiles she’d been rechristened “The Iguana that Ate New York”. While his brothers and sisters- born premature and less developed -were all slain, his egg survived. Further mutated and finalized, history repeated itself from what happened at Kyoto Research Institute five years earlier when Dr. Tatopoulos was present when he hatched.

Docile and growing protective towards humans, ‘Zilla Jr.’ or just ‘Zilla’ as he’d been christened served much the same function as his Japanese counterpart, especially after the two met. And Zilla had long since become accustomed to defaulting to “if it’s weirder than invisible giant hummingbirds or tornado shrews, find Boss-Dino”. Like that time with the psychic, teleporting, electrical monster.

This seemed like one of those times given absolutely everything around him looked, smelled, and felt wrong. It was a forest by appearance, but the colors and textures were all off. The trees were massive, some so big he’d gander they’d make a redwood look tiny. But the most bizarre feature of the plants was the color. Everything was a dark gray and blue tint with only a moderately green sheen on what should have been leaves. While his hide was up to snuff as a kaiju, the fact that he could actually feel prickles when walking through some of the trees told him these leaves could cut a human to ribbons if they walked through it. Like a forest made of hacksaws. Even the air was wrong, reeking of radiation and extremely thick. He could breathe it fine, but it was in a manner a human might compare to breathing through a snorkel.

Zilla grunted, sniffing at the air and pacing off after a familiar scent of seawater, scales, and a lot of radiation. Yep, this definitely was a “find the resident weirdness magnet” kind of day. And that was without his magnetic pole-based navigation indicating he was somehow in east Asia after dozing off outside of Manhattan.

His only pause came when his thundering steps spurred a form to fly up before him. It wasn’t massive by his standards but easily had a wingspan over fifteen meters across. At first, he thought it might be one of those new bat monsters Gamera often dealt with, gyaos he thought the turtle called them. He hadn’t seen them himself, but based on what the massive Chelonii told him, this couldn’t be one of those. The neck was long and serpentine, ending in an elongated venus-flytrap like head that looked like it had sharpened jaws as opposed to teeth. It also lacked the distinct flathead crest Gamera drilled him into remembering should any gyaos make it to the States, instead sporting a spiny, whiplike tail that thrashed about as it flew. More specifically, flew directly at him.

Zilla was so confused by it he didn’t avoid its lunge and got bit on the nose. Shrieking sharply, he responded by swatting the Servum and smacking it to the ground. If he was surprised at the brazen attack, he was more surprised when the comparatively smaller creature managed to get back up after getting slapped into a tree. He didn’t give it much of another chance to attack, however. A glow trailed up his dorsal scutes, flashing across his eyes before a surge of green, napalm-like inferno spewed out of his mouth to flash fry the transgressor and some of the forest.

Inspecting the charred ash left behind, Zilla snorted flickers of green sparks out of his nose before continuing on his way. He hadn’t the faintest idea how he got here but he already really didn’t like it. Was Japan usually like this?

Godzilla had a distinct scent, both from where he’d been and what he was. If Zilla could place a claw on it, his cohort smelled like a bird dunked in seawater near a nuclear plant; which was what he was picking up now around a mountain. Rounding the bend, Zilla almost crooned in thanks when he recognized the distinct upright posture, maple-leaf shaped dorsal spines, and charcoal gray hide. The massive lizard barked briefly, happily running up to his ally but soon hit the brakes and skid across the ground when Godzilla turned around.

It was still Godzilla for sure, but it wasn’t Godzilla Junior a.k.a Godzilla III a.k.a BossDino. It was like Zilla got to see his leader’s appearance through a funhouse mirror. The face was flatter and wider, the teeth a bit smaller but more uniform in shape or size without Junior’s distinct double-canines. Its body color was more uniform all around, lacking the slightly lighter patch Junior had on his chest and stomach. Still a dinosaur, not a lizard given the finger count, though like Junior the mutation had given it a fourth claw on the fourth finger instead of just the usual three typical of archosaurs. Most distinctly, the dorsal spines lacked the jagged, keened edges and were much rounder and blunter with only the central row being large and the two flanking rows of spines being far smaller.

It was a Godzilla, but it wasn’t Junior. It looked directly at Zilla and grumbled lowly. Not necessarily as a threat, though it carried a tone of wariness, asking for identity. Zilla tilted his head and barked, casting out a familiar nickname while keeping his body language relaxed as not to threaten. This Godzilla kind of sounded like Junior, but deeper, older.

The nickname implying leadership just made the Godzilla confused. But before the Old Buck could ask the strange lizard more, his species sensory ability went off, indicating another of his kind nearby. A young male by the feel of it, approximately ten years old. They appeared out from behind another mountain and his arrival was noticed by more than just the other Godzilla. Zilla’s relief was palpable when those trademark jagged spines, golden iris on red sclera eyes, and powerful build came into view and he rushed over to his friend.

Thankfully Godzilla Junior returned the grunt Zilla cast, nodding to his compatriot in a friendly manner. Zilla barked and looked about at the surroundings in an inquiry. Junior just shook his head, no more familiar with this region than Zilla was, though he did nod towards a distant, tall mountain he could recognize. To his surprise, the older Godzilla also was looking towards it knowingly, leading to Junior addressing him.

The two Godzillas stood apart from each other, Zilla at the ready beside Junior in case a slugfest happened and his ally needed back up. Thankfully there wasn’t aggression in either dinosaurs’ eyes, just a wariness that ebbed into curiosity. The distance closed and sniffs were exchanged. The Old One rose back and started muttering a series of grunts, chirps, and low shrieks that might almost sound like a broken radio.

He first asked why he was suddenly near Mount Fuji and not Monster Island. The two younger kaiju shook their heads, unknowing. His introduction as ‘Godzilla’ caused his audience even more confusion, Zilla motioning towards Junior with a visibly perplexed motion. Perhaps seeing his reign need more introduction, tales of the past were cast. He awakened as he was now on the eve of his father’s demise in the year the humans called 1954, and the change of decades had been incurred. He cast his tale like an orator of old. First, he was a destroyer, then a neutral force against a dragon from space, gaining allies as well as a son. In time, he came to call mankind a friend in his most recent ventures against both a magnificent mechanical doppelganger and a final duel with King Ghidorah. The last time he’d been to Mount Fuji it was to destroy the base of those hated controllers called the Kilaak who’d forced him to act as he once did.

Zilla was both fascinated at the tales and wondering if the old dinosaur was off his rocker given he probably would have not failed to have noticed that many alien invasions in a row. Junior, however, was keying in on something else. He was recognizing a few features in this Godzilla, both physical and contextual. He had pieced together a sort of family history from both his father had told him as well as information told to him by the psychic Mysterian-Human hybrids Miki Saegusa and Io Shinoda. And the more he looked upon the old Godzilla, the more he noticed the senior male looking upon him.

The latter grunted a word and tilted his head. Junior shook his snout, not knowing who this ‘Minya’ was, but he was sure of one thing as he approached and tentatively tapped the other Godzilla like he was seeing a ghost. Unbeknownst how or why Junior was sensing familiarity. Of circumstances elusive to the kaiju, his audience looked different because, in that world, meddlers from the future didn’t transport the then-unmutated dinosaur away from Lagos Island, instead of leaving it in the South Pacific to become irradiated by the Bikini Atoll test in the 1950s alongside his father. Whereas in Junior and Zilla’s world, those interlopers had come and moved the injured dinosaur to the far north sea, where he’d be irradiated by a nuclear submarine crash over two decades after 1954. One way or another, just as Dr. Yamane predicted, a second Godzilla was inevitable; it was just a matter of which decade he was created in.

The older kaiju curiously gazed upon Godzilla Junior, seeing resemblances to how he imagined his son would appear in years to come as his successor. The younger Godzilla, heart pounding within his chest, bellowed quietly.

He expressed that he didn’t know what was taking place or how this was possible, but the son recognized his father, albeit a different version of him, when he saw him. This one smelled like Gojirin’s progeny much like Minya. A child not by blood, but a father recognized his son nonetheless. Pride bloomed, the old king seeing his successor in the peak of health and standing tall and mighty as the new King of the Monsters; the new king content in ways he knew not he wished for at hearing his father had, in some form, learned to forgive and align with humanity.

Named for the reign of the Japanese emperors of their first active decades, The Godzilla Senior of the Showa Universe and the Godzilla Junior of the Heisei Universe bumped foreheads. Zilla barked and got their attention, apparently baring his fangs at the two dinosaurs. Junior grunted, tilting his head at his ally’s antics with an inquiry as to what he was doing. Zilla however, showing no rage, just bobbed up and down and grunted to indicate he was doing what humans called smiling the best he could manage without any lips.

Gathered up and deciding it was best to stick together to figure out where they were, the three needed not journey far to reach the next introduction. With Mount Fuji only a few miles away and day ebbing away, the ground started to shake. Zilla, who’d been zipping up and down the shoreline while the two Godzilla walked the land, came rocketing out of the surf with a terrified look on his face.

The Old One was already disturbed by what he’d been seeing. This was Japan, he was dead certain of that based off both where his magnetic field navigation, a trait common to many animals, as well as memory on orientation relative to Mount Fuji after his many battles starting with the one involving that big ape he’d had on the slopes. This place should have been bustling with humans and yet he’d failed to see a single primate. In his younger years, that would have been a welcome discovery he’d be keen to celebrate. But it had been over forty-four years since he razed Osaka in a battle with Anguirus, and time had a way with remodeling views. Just as Anguirus became his closest ally, the Ankylosaur’s wounding by his mechanical imitation driving Godzilla to hunt Mechagodzilla down with a vengeance; in time humanity had helped him in victory after victory and he’d valued them. Be it against Hedorah, Gigan and Ghidorah, or Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus, he owed them for their aid and was keen to return it in kind. It helped that Minya was so fond of them, and if his son could end up as powerful as he sensed the other Godzilla was, who was he to argue?

So given the only trace of humanity, they’d found thus far were a few shattered machines of some sort and a petrified building in a forest full of monsters, honest worry was budding within the Monster of Justice, as Zone Fighter once called him. Something was very, very wrong.

The feeling was justified when Zilla came charging out of the surf frantically with a clearly frightful expression. The Showa Godzilla barked and glanced at the oncoming iguana, having been the one walking closest to shore, asking what in the blazes had gotten into the young kaiju. Zilla squawked and jumped an admittedly very impressive distance, turning about as he landed and looking to the shore.

The iguana snapped his jaws, indicating a name the Showa Godzilla didn’t recognize but Junior evidently did. The younger Godzilla was quick to form up beside his friend and brace, calling out to his father from another timeline to do the same. The older dinosaur was glad he did when a tsunami chased Zilla’s path to shore and slammed into him. Weathering the blow, the Showa Godzilla smashed his tail into the surf to bat part of it away and called out to the transgressor. The reply came in thundering footfalls that exceeded his own.

Each of the respective heroic kaiju was massive in their own right, Zilla being the lightest at 45,000 tons, Showa Godzilla at 55,000 tons, and Godzilla Junior at 60,000 tons. Which made the 90,000-ton footfall all the more noticeable. Dorsal plates broke the massive wave’s surface as the tsunami flooded much of the forest. While multipronged like the two Godzillas’, they were more akin to Zilla’s in coloration as they weren’t dissimilar in hue from the rest of the body. Medium in length and extending down the length of an extremely long tail, they were soon shown to crown a broad face and head which almost recalled the features of a bear with scales instead of fur. The body itself was burly, bulky, and simply massive, with noticeable scutes like those of a turtle or alligator studding the chest and belly. Armored gills flexed and closed down with Sauropod-like feet stomping ashore.

Zilla rapidly sprinted forward into the side in a wide arch, using the decaying remains of the city for cover. Just as Godzilla Earth was beginning to track him the lineup an atomic breath, waves of blue plasma crashed into its chest and diverted its attention. Godzilla Junior advanced forward undaunted, firing salvo after salvo of his own plasma beam in quick bursts that were soon deflected by the shield but gave his ally plenty of cover fire. Raking his beam across the ground after seeing he couldn’t punch through the shield, Godzilla Junior launched a massive amount of debris and smoke into the air.

Showa Godzilla was certain of several things regarding this ‘Gojira’ as Zilla called him. He was ancient and angry.

The now second-oldest Godzilla cast an eye to his companions while standing up to the titan who towered over him by about 8 meters, grunting to inquire about anything else they wanted to tell him about this one.

Godzilla Junior and Zilla were both tense and almost on a hair trigger, clearly recognizing this Gojira of legendary status, but it seemed the recognition was not mutual as confusion was visible behind the rage present on Gojira’s face. An observation not lost on Junior when he muttered something to Zilla, Showa Godzilla thought he said something about Gojira evidently not trying to eat the iguana as a change of pace.

The Showa Godzilla smacked his tail against the ground, demanding the larger kaiju’s attention and making something clear to Gojira. Any quarrel he had with the young ones, he had with him, even the lizard. Zilla grunted nondescriptly.

Gojira grumbled, sniffing the air and nudging a tree with his foot to get it to release more of its almost metallic pollen. The disgust upon his visage was readily identifiable even before his growling demand to ask what they had done.

The Showa Godzilla grumbled back, motioning with his arms and pointing to the isolated remains of a petrified building, then sweeping that arm about to indicate what he’d been pointing too should be everywhere. Something was very wrong indeed, but they didn’t cause it.

Gojira snarled, dragging his tail across a swath of forest to level it with a sneer on his face. The world was very imbalanced, ecosystem turned on its head. His speech was hard to make out to the Godzillas and Zilla, almost like how someone from 2010s Mexico might have a hard time intelligibly understanding archaic proto-Spanish from over 1,500 years ago, but one word did stick out. Taint. This world seemed tainted from the sky to the forest.

Gojira grumbled something to Showa, starting again as if he noticed he wasn’t being fully understood, but paused when he saw Godzilla Junior stiffen up and look off into the distance with an expression almost like someone was calling him. After a grunt from his father and nudge from Zilla, he suddenly bolted and started sprinting directly towards the mountain. Baffled for a moment, Showa Godzilla looked to Zilla as the iguana sprang up and down to bark at the older kaiju before taking off after Godzilla Junior. His cohort always had a knack, a sense for when something was wrong and it could point him to it like a compass. And evidently, Zilla was gandering now was one of those times.

The Showa Godzilla turned to glance at Gojira, bellowing lowly with a simple proposition. If he wanted to know what had gone wrong with this place and who was responsible, following him and his son was a good idea. With that, the Monster of Justice ran along Zilla and Junior’s path towards the mountain.

An idea that was soon vindicated when, as the day turned to night, light and fire ignited the sky.

What was going on? That was a question given clear as day by Zilla as he ran alongside the larger kaiju, Godzilla Junior loosing a bellow as he kept his eyes transfixed dead ahead; running with such large strides he was covering hundreds of meters in a few seconds. His retort was a single word that made Zilla’s eyes widen. Human. A human had just called out to him, pleading for help, and he was closing in on her like a laser guided missile. If having a whole city of them behind him helped him fight harder or travel farther to protect them, sensing just one in such desolation was even worse. He didn’t know how she’d called for help in such a way, it felt similar but different to when Miki or Io would try to talk to him, so she wasn’t part Mysterian; but all of that mattered for naught.

Thankfully one thing Junior did know was his allies and the trust was mutual. He indicated towards the ridge up ahead and growled to Zilla, knowing the lizard was faster than he was and this was urgent. Zilla nodded and kicked to a higher gear, sprinting ahead. Coming around a mountainside and springboarding off a cliff, the athletic lizard soon beheld a hideous surprise. Finally, they’d found a city… of sorts. Most of it was on fire and something about it really, really didn’t smell right. Toxic even. No humans in sight there so he instead focused upon the ridge his leader directed him to.

Servum hissed and snapped at the air, one of them landing on and crushing the fallen ‘Vulture’ mech suit as the pack cornered their prey on the plateau’s edge. Four figures continually backpedaled from the advance, but only three were standing with the fourth being half carried and half dragged by the only unarmed member of the group. Two mild tanned girls with light, tattoo-like markings strung, fired, and reloaded arrow after arrow that shot into the forest. Bearing white hair that formed bangs resembling moth antennae and tribal attire, the two were effectively identical in appearance; The only way one could discern them was their typical expression. Miana was the one who carried herself more calmly and with a smile upon her visage, while her harsher sister Maina was typically stern in expression and less emotive. Right now, however, they were identical in shock and fright as every free and patch of forest threatened to burst forth with more servum.

Thousands of years ago, a Mountain that Walked lit the world of humanity on fire, leaving both the death of the old world and the tainted siring of a new world forged in its own image in its wake. The few of that creature called man that survived only did so under the protection and affliction of a slain goddess and her egg. Slightly mutated from their original state, the telepathic Houtua where all that remained of the old world in this Planet of Monsters… Until a ship from a bygone era returned. Bearing both humans of old and their alien comrades, having left before the final cataclysms, their return had been driven by an ambition of revenge and pride.

Pride in restoring humanity to its dominion of this world, revenge for a family slain by a walking mountain. The spearhead of which was tearfully carrying the body of his adoptive sister behind the twin’s protective fire. Haruo Sakaki, he didn’t feel he was worthy of his title of ‘Captain’ anymore. Haruo wasn’t a particularly religious man, but he was certain he was in literally Hell on Earth. The Bilusaludo had betrayed them, betrayed them to such a degree he was forced to choose between letting the monster who’s slaughtered his world destroy the one thing that could stop it and becoming like that monster himself with toxic nanometal to reign free over the world. Either way, his path to ruin cost the lives of most of his men and women, and not seemingly his last tether to that old, dead world. He could hardly talk anymore, having almost torn his vocal cords in his cries of anguish when he pulled Yuko’s half nanometal covered body out of her Vulture, unsure if she was dead or alive and in too frantic a state to be sure.

Cradling her, so that he might die first if she was still in the living and buy her another second or two to live, Haruo looked up at the forest of his demons as Miana and Maina continued to fire arrows that killed several smaller servum or kept the larger one at bay. He wished they’d leave. Take Yuko’s body with them if they could. Miana kept putting her hand to her head and letting out telepathic shouts. Hauro wasn’t sure what exactly she was saying but he thought he heard her project ‘Help!” ‘Danger!’ and almost a mental projection of their location. He wasn’t sure who she was calling out too. Maybe Dr. Martin and some of his team were still alive? Maybe to some of their tribe who might be nearby?

He didn’t know and in some ways, wasn’t sure if he could care. After having the world be killed in his life and having to go through not only experiencing that again but having to choose between what he’d always wanted and averting that with both choices resulting in Yuko’s demise… He was at the end of his rope.

Miana loosed her last arrow, backing up with his sister as one last, massive servum slowly walked out of the forest into the clearing with the cliff at the human’s backs. The malefic beast, spawned from that walking Mountain’s own cells, snapped its jaws and took its time approaching. It didn’t need to kill humans, it didn’t eat them. They weren’t part of this new ecosystem that had taken over this planet of monsters. That didn’t matter for a second.

Haruo sobbed dried tears and tried to push Yuko into Miana’s arms as he stood up.

“Get out of here! GO!” he barked as he strode in front of them.

The three women mattered more than he. Miana and Maina lived in this world he’d turned up on its head, threw into chaos in his quest for revenge. The Godzilla, Filius, that he slew was innocent of his quest aside from an ambition for dominion, and in doing so he awakened the creature that destroyed the original Earth out of revenge for its fallen progeny. And when faced with the reality he’d started to become what he loathed, he turned it a blind eye, trusted those he shouldn’t have too much and for too long. Now the rest of his forces might be dead, the Houtua put in dire risk, and he was still alive.

Even if his closest friend was dead, he’d die before letting a creature like this desecrate her body as well as claim two more innocent lives.

He shouted, waving his hands and running to the side to hopefully draw the Servum away from the twins. It did seem to get the monster’s attention, tilting its head and leering at him. It lunged and through the emotional and physical agony he was in, Haruo smiled. At least he could do one thing right.

The massive claws descending out of nowhere and impaling the servum on the spot with such force it died instantly, that was unexpected. Haruo stumbled, almost falling over as he let his gaze travel up the arm. They widened when he saw it.

It was!... No, no it wasn’t him…

“A-A Zilla?!”

The Zilla retracted its arm, seemingly to sneer at the servum impaled on his first two fingers and flicking it off with visible disgust. Haruo’s mind raced.

-Doctor Martin said it was probable Godzilla wiped out the other monsters! Scans showed nothing but him. Di-Did one survive somehow? Why did it only attack the servum?! Why even be here when Godzilla was so close?!-

Hyperventilating in his breath mask, Haruo looked the creature over. He was very young when he evacuated Earth, but he had looked through the old war profiles to familiarize himself with past kaiju. The Zilla might not have been as durable as some monsters, but spread rapidly through a sort of cloning-based egg laying. This one, however, looked slightly different. Thicker in build, with larger spines and teeth. The coloration was also a bit different and darker overall, with a much larger dewlap and dorsal spines. A new mutation? A different subspecies? The mind raced…

And proceeded to race itself into risking insanity when he saw what walked up behind the Zilla and vaporized several servum it had grabbed in its hands.

Zilla Junior tilted his head at the odd humans, looking them over to check and see if they were okay. Familiar footsteps and blue light spurred him to take a sidestep and make way for the king, Godzilla Junior coming around into view with several other servum in his hands reduced to ash. Godzilla’s titanic shadow loomed over the humans even as he kept his distance on account of his own radiation, oblivious to the fact Haruo and Yuko’s suits and the Houtua’s biology protected them. Inspecting the woods for more monsters, he was about to try and see if any of these four were the ones who called out and reached him when the ground seemed to explode out in the city behind him.

Godzilla Junior and Zilla Junior whirled around to face it, instantly feeling a massive surge of energy in the air that could only mean one thing. A kaiju, and a gargantuanly powerful one at that.

Bursting free of the rubble the explosion had encased it within, a living mountain slowly rose up and began to haul itself out of the crater it had created and let out an uproar of radiant energy into the sky.

The poison, the nanometal, was finally dying and the pesky human constructs had gone dormant. Dominion of this world was beginning to be reestablished, and this time it would make absolutely certain humanity and anything born from it or was like it would be extinct. Why it was driven to do this was a question many, human and monster, had posed to it over the centuries every time it slew a kaiju or slaughtered tens of millions of the primates. Millions upon millions of species, born of the same planet it hailed from, were extinct because of it. It wasn’t evil. That implied it thought on some level that what it was doing was wrong.

In the end the question as to “why?” was as simple as it was nondescript. Because it could. It was the mightiest life form to ever exist on this planet. What greater authority could there be to decide dominion?

This Godzilla had effectively tainted the entire world with its trace and spawn, coding the earth with its own image. And so, it could be called Godzilla Earth, lord of devastation and the mountain that walked.

And when its wise, blue eyes were trained upon the nearest humans it could sense within range, of which they were in the same direction as those meddling flying machines had flown off to, the killing intent was obvious.

A crackling set of lights danced up its body, collecting near the end of its snout. A small barrier became visible in front of its face before the energy condensed and sprang out in a ray. Even in such a small charge, it would’ve easily leveled a plateau and killed any humans upon it. Only it didn’t hit because twin streams of emerald napalm and sapphire plasma slammed into the side of its head. Godzilla Earth canceled out its beam and threw up its barrier.

The Mountain that Walked looked beyond the rays, seeing two forms that, while titanic compared to the humans, were minuscule compared to itself. Having circled around it to be wary, Godzilla Junior and Zilla had burst from their cover behind some of the ruined Mechagodzilla City structures and opened fire when the new kaiju made its intentions clear. Their audacity and keenness to put themselves between the 300-meter tall titan and the humans made their intentions clear, much to Haruo’s utter shock and the Houtua twins’ joy.

“They’re… standing up to Godzilla?!” Haruo muttered under his breath, seeing the smaller ‘Godzilla’ which seemed to be animal-like rather than plant-like, almost appearing to glance back at him.

Maina panted for breath as a smile started to grow across her face, resting a hand on her collar as she exchanged a mirrored glance with her twin sister. For the first time in a very long time, Maina smiled back. It had been over two hundred centuries since a giant of creation had stood up to the one the humans of the past called Godzilla, the last of which was their goddess before her demise to protect her sacred egg. Perhaps these two beasts who were obviously trying to protect them were her emissaries? Maybe their arrival heralded the predestined hatching?

One way or another, they had to be made aware of what they faced. Maybe it would motivate them to fight more in earnest? Maybe these possible heralds of their goddess already knew about the Monster King? One way or another, wouldn’t hurt they supposed. The elders always stated to fight the Mountain that Walked was a foolhardy gesture, but times have changed quite a lot recently…

Miana and Maina joined hands and cast both a prayer and plea to the young kaiju.

Zilla was a bit more startled by the images he suddenly saw in his head than Junior was, on account of the dinosaur already experiencing similar from the shobijin or psychics; but the end result was pretty much the same for both of them even if it didn’t tell much; just what the Houtua elders had passed down about the death of the old world. And who did it.

Godzilla Earth shattered the sky with its roar, physically blowing the air back around Godzilla Junior and Zilla even at a one-kilometer distance. It had been a very long time since it saw another kaiju, the first ones killed in the last century of the old world lost hope of fighting back at the mere sight of it; submitting to misery and death. Only the moth had the audacity to actually fight back on her own accord. It expected them to bow down and let themselves experience a quick cleansing.

It didn’t expect the roar of Odo Island’s sea god and the bellow that shook Manhattan to fire back. Facing a massive opponent almost twice their combined height and many times more massive, Godzilla Junior and Zilla Junior stood firm and in form as a unified front before charging. By method or means they didn’t know how they came here, but in some way, they knew for what reason.

Forth from this haze, Zilla pounced after running full speed directly towards Godzilla Earth. The mutant lizard slammed his full weight into the plant-like monster’s back, actually managing to stagger it slightly thanks to momentum. Like a mountain climber, Zilla tried to dig his claws into the metallic, barkish hide of the Mountain’s back to gain a firm hold. Even swinging his talons in as hard as he could barely offer any purchase. The fact Godzilla Earth was beginning to turn about and slowly thrash to dislodge him wasn’t helping and in the end, he had to resort to clinging to the dorsal spines.

It was only by Godzilla Junior managing to strike the distracted titan dead in the face with a slightly more charged up plasma beam while the shield was down that his companion wasn’t thrown off. Godzilla Earth growled in response, its body crackling with energy that soon sprang forth from its face and raked across the terrain. Though Godzilla Junior dodged the best he could, he still felt the edge of the extremely powerful beam knife into his chest. It only cut down to the ribs, but the fact it managed to do that after only maybe a quarter second of exposure told a lot.

Zilla, doing his best to ignore the shocks it was getting while holding onto Godzilla Earth, was quick to notice and barked in worry. One thing was very clear now, they couldn’t risk taking any direct hits. And if this big bastard’s skin was too thick to dig through, he’d just have to go after something softer!

Zilla clambered up Godzilla Earth’s back, half climbing and half jumping from spine to spine until he reached its head. Almost wise-looking blue eyes gazed indescribably back at him. Zilla flexed his hand and brought back his all arm, which rapidly came for it in a swing. It was only by a last-minute jerk of motion by Godzilla Earth that his talons didn’t dig into the monster’s eyes, instead missing and managing to cleave into the skin around the cheek. Swinging its entire body about to bring up momentum, Godzilla Earth managed to throw itself sideways even in its comparatively slow motion and transfer its entire body’s inertia into Zilla. With so much momentum put into a much smaller body that couldn’t get a good grip on its foe, Zilla was sent flying off and past Godzilla Junior.

Crashing through a factory tower of decaying nanometal, the mutant iguana would have ended up sailing clean out of the valley had two pairs of arms not caught him. One of which he was relieved to see, the other would’ve reawakened a phobia had the situation not been a lot worse and Gojira not had his glare firmly affixed on Godzilla Earth.

It appeared the imbalance and taint the alpha predator had been detecting was now standing before him, drawing all of his ire. Usually, he’d frown upon less than an honorable combat between solo parties; but given the scale of this catastrophe against nature both figuratively and literally given the three hundred meter height, he was not opposed to these younger forms taking up arms alongside him.

And with his over four decades of experience battling kaiju ranging from giant crustaceans used by terrorist cells to repeated incidents with a three-headed space dragon to animate sludge to the myriad of bizarre opponents he faced alongside Zone Fighter, the Showa Godzilla hardly needed much introduction to know an enemy. Besides, he always did want to have the chance to fight alongside his son given such opportunities were so rare.

Godzilla Earth saw the three forms approaching it and the fourth rising back up, healing back the damage from its wounds, and its unemotive face inwardly sneered. A chorus of calls belonging to those who’d dethrone it called out into the night, roars that in their own respective worlds began to or already did bring hope to those under the threat of hateful giants these heroes would battle against. Intentional in their designation or not, four champions converged on the greatest dragon.

Father and son lit up the night in twins sapphire glows, vaporous and condensed beams of plasma spewing out that were absorbed by Godzilla Earth’s shield. While they failed to wound, they did provide covering fire for the two more melee oriented in their number. The kaiju associated with the Americas in their respective worlds managed to close the distance. Gojira didn’t even mind the iguana springboarding off his back and shoulder to gain some more height as they approached. With his boosted ascent, Zilla pounced for Godzilla Earth’s throat, digging his claws into the massive kaiju’s shoulders and stomach to try and keep a purchase while clamping his jaws down on where the windpipe should be. Godzilla Earth snarled, easily absorbing the impact of the smaller kaiju this time and slowly shifting to pry it off when Gojira slammed his full body weight into the titanic plantimal’s knee from the side.

Actually lighter than its size would indicate, even if it still outweighed the ancient alpha predator by a wide margin, Godzilla Earth stumbled backward several steps and stumbled a half-step more when Gojira spun around and slammed his mammoth tail into his foe’s other knee. Godzilla Earth groaned from reactive pain, dull as it was, shortening in height and slumping over slightly as it had to catch itself with one of its arms to avoid falling. It’s massive bulk but relatively long and thin legs made it top-heavy and having Zilla clinging to it while having its foundation struck only made it worse.

Zilla, failing to have his bite do any meaningful damage, decided to bite back the pain and try something possibly very very stupid. The dorsal scutes from his tail up to his head lit up in sequence before similar indication came across his eyes and dewlap. With his jaws still firmly affixed to Godzilla Earth’s hide, he fired his atomic breath point-blank into the shallow bite wound. Godzilla Earth actually reacted to this, letting out a bellow of pain from being unable to shield itself due to Zilla still clinging directly to his body, well within the shield’s minimum radius.

While the green atomic napalm didn’t do much in itself other than burn through some layers of hide- of which the level of damage was more related to Godzilla Earth’s massive durability than any lack of firepower from the iguana kaiju -it did lead to one promising observation that Godzilla Junior keyed in on.

He roared to his father and predecessor, regarding the abomination’s defenses. Or lack thereof, no shield to be seen! This times three series of azure glow filled the night, the Showa Godzilla’s quicker-to-fire vapor breath soon being followed up by a fully charged beam from his son and napalm-like torrent from his elder. Careful that aim so they didn’t hit Zilla, the three kings poured the burning sapphire upon Godzilla Earth while the Walking Mountain couldn’t put its shield up because of Zilla’s interference. It only lasted for a short while, as Zilla was soon grabbed by his shoulder scute and lobbed away by the angry titan, whom quickly corrected its shield as soon as the meddling lizard was away. Thankfully some damage had been done, large parts of Godzilla Earth’s left shoulder and back had been burned away. The tissue was regenerating, but the simple fact that it had been hurt in a straight-up fight brought shock to the Houtua.

Miana watched on, eyes full of hope between the battle and one of the elders saying the one Haruo called "Yu-Ko" might just live despite her nanometal poisoning! None had managed to wound the Mountain that Walked since the fall of their goddess, Mothra. Truly, these four heroic giants were blessed by her grace! Her goddess hadn't abandoned them!

Zilla skid across the ground, yelping in dull pain before coming to a stop. A pair of thundering footsteps approached him but thankfully it was neither Gojira, whom based on Zilla’s experience with his counterpart in his and Junior’s world the iguana wasn’t sure didn’t intend to eat him or not, nor the freaky-looking Godzilla-Shaped-Plant-Mountain they were fighting. The Showa Godzilla growled in thanks, helping the younger kaiju up while Gojira and Junior kept Godzilla Earth’s attention. The old warrior even helped dust some of the irksome tree shards off the lizard and asking if he was all right. The way he complemented Zilla’s courage that helped secure their first meaningful hit reminded Zilla a lot of an aged military commander, kinda like that Colonel Hicks his adoptive father Tatopoulos associated with. This world was freaky-deeky as Randy would put it, but he was actually beginning to really like this company.

When the Showa Godzilla saw Godzilla Earth firing off its own beam with such power that Gojira was sent sprawling backward and Godzilla Junior had to dodge out of a beam-lock he was being overpowered in, a play he had once used with Anguirus and Jet Jaguar came to mind. Pointing a way to the young iguana kaiju and growling an order, Zilla found himself wondering if he should imitate his father around Colonel Hicks and salute. One could practically swear they saw him smirking at the idea.

A loud roar caught Godzilla Earth’s attention, causing the titan to look up while charging its beam at the downed Gojira and refocus on an approaching Showa Godzilla. It fired true, but in utter defilement of physics, the old Godzilla launched his feet into the air and somehow managed to keep himself aloft using just his own momentum and tail, throwing off Godzilla Earth’s aim for a few moments enough to close the distance. Smashing his double dropkick into Godzilla Earth’s knee, the Mountain that Walked barely stumbled.

Loosing a low, rumbling growl that rattled the air, its body began to charge up now that it had one of the intruders directly in front of it and with no hope of dodging this. Showa Godzilla smirked, keeping his own beam charged and waiting for just the right moment. Zilla called out, having used his great speed to run up to a cliffside near Godzilla Earth at such velocity that between his acceleration and claws digging into the bedrock, he was able to run up a cliffside’s length sideways. Worked up in height, the lizard springboarded off the edge and came flying at Godzilla Earth’s face with his jaws alight with green flames aimed squarely at the monster’s eyes.

Showa Godzilla’s distraction worked beautifully, Godzilla Earth having no time to swing his head around and finish charging the beam to fire it in the right direction. The metallic plant monster might have been extremely distinct, but it was still a Godzilla, and that meant the beam came out the front end. Having a ranged attack come out of the maw was excellent for good aim, but it restricted your line of fire. Keep out of the straight line coming out out the mouth between the eyes, and it can’t hit you with the beam.

The charge on Godzilla Earth suddenly redirected to its tail, the tip of which was directly beside Zilla when the energy flew out of it’s swinging end. There was a bright flash that accompanied the shockwave and Zilla was sent flying into the cliffside with a sharp shriek. The Showa Godzilla bellowed in rage, unleashing his beam into Godzilla Earth’s chest for all it would do. Godzilla Junior was about to join in on the assault when a low growl came beside him. Gojira rushed forward to engage in close quarters, shifting his gaze briefly towards the cliffside and then back to Junior to tell him to get Zilla. He’d seen the strategy at play and while this latest one backfired because of a surprising ability they didn’t foresee, it was their best chance at beating this thing.

Godzilla Junior grunted back, still firing his own beam back Godzilla Earth as he ran past it to force it to put the shield up and focus on that so Gojira and his father could get in close. All four of them were a lot more agile than this living mountain up close, so as dangerous as it was to be there it probably still their best chance at dealing any meaningful damage. And to pull that off they needed their fastest member.

He ran to the rubble and started digging, soon seeing Zilla’s telltale shoulder scutes poking out from the rocks. He grumbled. Great, he’d been knocked senseless. He pulled more rocks aside to get him free, only to notice something else buried about eighty meters away. Something dark and scaly. It was mostly covered up by the rocks, which he nudged aside with his tail, only to feel something on his extremity tip. Something hot and wet. Had something else been buried in the cliff face and Zilla crashing into it accidentally uncovered it? He’d heard and seen weirder reveals. But one some rocks fell away, he found familiarity. Zilla’s tail and some of a hip exposed to the air. Far removed and pointing the other direction from his shoulder. Godzilla Junior felt more warped around his feet and looked up to see the fluid leaking from between the boulders. A hand on the scute, he pulled up.

If it hadn’t been for the scute, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize it as once being Zilla.

Gojira and Showa Godzilla, having been knocked back by a slow but powerful backhand by Godzilla Earth, heard and felt the air get divided in a soul-rending roar that threaten to tear the vocal cords of who screamed it. A large mass charged Godzilla Earth and tackled him, rapidly clawing and slashing into the monstrosity with furious abandon and crackling blue energy that conducted with every touch. The living mountain stumbled backward as Godzilla Junior latched onto his flank, charging up its ray and firing from the best angle it could get. It managed to completely vaporize a chunk of Junior’s shoulder, back, and left row of dorsal spines; but the young King of the Monsters was undeterred. Hatred and revenge for a fallen friend drove it upwards, jamming both his own claws into the metallic bark of a hide as well as stabbing at the titan’s neck with the scute he clutched in his other hand.

Godzilla Earth swung his body around, throwing Godzilla Junior off after the young kaiju managed to shiv Zilla’s shoulder scute into the side of its throat. Unable the fire its beam with the obstruction, Godzilla Earth crackled with energy and swung his tail around. Now wise to the tsunami of power coming at them, Showa Godzilla and Gojira ducked down. But Godzilla Junior surged forward, withstanding the blow despite his father’s urging to back off. It cut deep into his stomach, his regeneration working overtime to avoid being disemboweled. With the tail cutter bisecting two hills beside and behind him, Junior just kept coming, firing his beam with roaring hatred all the way.

Spiraling arcs of energy started to appear across the rays, dim white patches beginning to take hold over the young monster’s body. Craved vengeance for a fallen friend was driving his reactor of a heart into overdrive and the power was starting to show. Godzilla Earth’s shield cracked, some of Junior’s beams leaking through and lightly burning the titanic destroyer. Soon the distance was closed and he emulated his ally in a pounce. The nuclear pulse shockwaves that came off him on impact caused Godzilla Earth to backpedal and cry out in pain, getting shocked from every contact point as Godzilla Junior claw his way up the larger kaiju’s chest. Grabbing Zilla’s scute again, he wrenched it out of the throat and clawed higher with pure hatred in his visage. He’d never lost a friend before, not like this. And he was going to make damn certain with all the power he had that this demon would take no more from anyone tonight.

Godzilla Earth fired its beam, now free to do so with the obstruction removed. Even with part of the power venting off through the hole in its neck, it still struck home and dug into Godzilla Junior’s chest just above the heart. But with valiance that would stun anyone, Junior powered through it and swung the scute down as his entire body glowed with energy. Godzilla Earth experienced half of its vision going away from having the scute rammed into its eye socket and having almost the entire force of Godzilla Junior’s nuclear shockwave ability go off while being conducted through the scute and elsewhere arcing into its neck and throat.

Godzilla Earth roared in agony.

Godzilla Junior was sent flying back, smoking and bleeding from his chest to skid across the ground with his claws dig trenches to slow himself down. The same smoke obscured Godzilla Earth, who still stood... Before beginning to tip over. He wasn’t dying fast enough for Godzilla Junior. Exhausted as he was, damaged as he was, he wasn’t quitting. The glow about his spines had never dissipated and it and the similar brilliance appearing across his skin started to turn red. Searing malice formed and crackled between his fangs which reflected in the smoke around them.

A bright glowing circle appeared in the smog and rapidly condensed, a supercharged atomic breath spewing out and striking Godzilla Junior in the chest. The young kaiju was blown back, his head shooting up as a massive red torrent of spiral fire parted the sky but hit nothing. Godzilla Earth’s beam intensified with the pulse that traveled up its length and smashed into Godzilla Junior’s torso. Another, then another pulse. The beam shot out Junior’s back directly through his heart and proceeded to impale a mountain behind him with little effort, a show of how powerful it was. Godzilla Junior’s spiral fire slowly lost its red glow, turning white, then blue, and then simmering out. Light died away from his body as Godzilla Earth’s piercing ray cut off.

Azusa Gojo’s son slumped over, limpy falling to earth in a heap with a gaping hole in his chest that leaked radioactive ichors that also spilled from his mouth. Godzilla Junior closed his eyes for the last time upon the earth.

The smog dissipated around Godzilla Earth, who slowly rose back up to its original height. Most of the front of its body was covered in burns that carved into its flesh. Most of its left brow was completely gone from the top of the head to the cheek, a heavily burned but resilient scute still impaled into the eye socket.

It paid little heed to its injuries, silently glaring with its remaining eye at the Showa Godzilla and Gojira. The Youngblood was dead, time for their elders to join. Two down, two to go.

Gojira huffed for breath, still smelling his chest armor smoking from getting half burned through. He looked to the Showa Godzilla out of the corner of his eye. The wet glint coming from the other old soldier was read well, even if it was hidden behind ferocious resolve. He’d experienced the same when the parasites took his nephew. His time with the youngblood was brief, but he could respect them for what he’d seen, the young lizard’s bravado and willingness to aid them all and the young dinosaur’s sheer power for a noble cause as well as wounding their foe. A look of understanding came to the grieving father, one the Showa Godzilla nodded at with approval. They would not run, they would not submit to doom. They wouldn’t let this monstrosity chase them down and perish from being shot in the back.

The duo of legends would never show their backs to this opponent, even if it was their last battle. They charged.

Godzilla Earth was being pushed back. Gojira knew how they did it though. By getting killed in the process. Every scratch and wound they managed to inflict was met with biting agony from the return strikes. They fought with tooth and claw, tail and spike; often side-by-side or back to back. It didn’t matter how many dorsal spines were blown off, scales burned clean through, limbs knocked out of socket it forced back into place; if they were going to meet their demise, they were not going to be slaughtered, they refused it.

Gojira was thrown back in a smoking heap, cutting canyons into the ground below with his heels as he tried to endure the agony burning into his chest from Godzilla Earth’s beam. The stink of his own body armor melting and vaporizing filled his nose and blotted the senses. It was only by the Showa Godzilla continuously firing his own ray into Godzilla Earth’s face that Gojira was given a reprieve.

The ancient alpha predator stumbled, catching himself with a bruised and bloodied hand that had been burned to the muscle. If the pain hadn’t been blocked out earlier his incurred wounds probably would’ve caused him to go into shock. He already looked dead, to be honest. But rather than gaze at himself, he instead turned his focus to his opponent. Godzilla Earth grumbled and threw up its shield to silence the Show Godzilla's efforts rather than continue to use the beam.

Gojira’s eyes focused upon two details that caught his attention. The first was how the glowing brilliance encircling Godzilla Earth could only seem to focus and condense before its snout to form the beam when it wasn’t using its shield. Maybe it didn’t have enough power to do both at the same time and thus relied on its natural durability to defend itself when attacking, maybe the beam was actually the shield projected out in a specific direction rather than encircling the body as a barrier. He couldn’t be sure of which one but that in itself didn’t matter that much. What did matter even more was the crackling energy he glimpsed coming out of the dorsal spines. His eyes briefly acquainted himself with his own spikes, the plates that remained at least. Those were used to vent off excess internal heat especially when using the plasma flamethrower, hence why they glowed whenever he used the attack.

Without them, he wasn’t sure how effective is ranged attack might be. He could probably still manage it now with a lot of agonies, but for something with even more power and a larger size….

Gojira launched himself from the ground with force and speed surprising for his age and size. Putting all his power into his momentum, the ancient one stampeded towards Godzilla Earth before quickly turning about. 90,000 tons of mass going over 180 kilometers per hour in terms of forward acceleration before being compounded by the momentum of Gojira’s putting all that weight and speed into a swinging tail hit with the force of a not-insignificantly sized bomb.

Effectively taking the force of a large bunker buster to its knee, Godzilla Earth sprawled over with a large kink in its leg from the joint being warped. Gojira kept swinging, bellowing a loud phrase to his sole remaining ally. The spines.

The Showa Godzilla battered and burned across most of his body and bleeding badly from his mouth, didn’t even register the pain. For the first time in many many years, he absolutely hated something. At one time this is how he felt about humanity, after the demise of his father. In time he realized that was foolhardy and misplaced, not proud of the soul he once was. But he could never imagine in a million lifetimes the hatred he felt for this living mountain could be anything but justified. It killed his world. It killed anything around it. It killed the humans. It killed his newest ally. It killed his son. It did all this and refused to ever even say why. Did it think itself higher than everything else, and thus never accountable? Was it just another psychopath like Ghidorah but less chatty? At this point, he didn’t care what the answer was. All he wanted to know was how to hurt it.

And Gojira seemed to tell him the means. Seizing the chance as the massive ancient tackled the lowered Godzilla Earth’s head to continue to throw the larger kaiju off-balance, the Showa Godzilla clawed his way onto Godzilla Earth’s back. From there he went on a rampage. Firing his beam consistently, kicking and smacking the spines with his feet and tail to knock them off their bases, anything to damage the dorsal plates. Ignoring the shocks he was experiencing from Godzilla Earth charging up a beam the fire and frustration at Gojira, the old Godzilla grabbed onto the largest dorsal plate and wrenched back and forth. The sharp spine’s edges cut into his hands like serrated knives would to a man’s, but he never let go and only clutched harder with bone to grip. With a burst of his plasma ray raking across the base, he achieved his mission and toward the plate out of its foundations. Spying the open hole in Godzilla Earth’s back he wasted no time in taking aim and firing directly into it just as Gojira, holding Godzilla Earth’s jaws at bay with his hands, spewed his own assault down the monster’s gullet.

Godzilla Earth felted insides catch on fire. It felt agony, rage, and shock. It held dominion of this world, extinguishing life unfit for its reign as it saw fit. It was ordained by the processes that supplied it with power above any other. It was only natural for the mighty to purge the weaker, as its bloodlines had most life on this world. A wisdom sparked in its blue, philosopher eyes, or rather eye as it still had an overgrown lizard scute lodged in a socket; keeping its tissue from regenerating. Another note to add to the list of measures to undertake, after...

Oh yes, the burning.

Crackling its entire form with converted energy, building it up to the point its body glowed reds and whites, Godzilla Earth released it all in one burst; much of it flying out its maw but also venting out the hole in its back. Pressure waves, electrical pulses, and plasma spewed out in an oscillating roar that overtook both its attacker’s beams. They had wounded it, more than any other ever had, and it returned the favor in excess. Like loosing a torrent of cleansing, burning light upon a tank that was a mere annoyance at best; there was no sense of overkill when undergoing extermination.

The largest of the four attackers called out in defiance and pain, launched back under the continuous pressure wave to be sent hurtling through several hills until the assault pinned him down. Deeper and deeper the onslaught pushed him, keeping him pinned down as scales were flayed and flesh seared through. It kept going for a good thirty seconds or so, the Mountain that Walked didn’t care to note it. In the end, Gojira was entombed a thousand meters or more underground, a progressively deepening trench carved into the ground caked in crystalized blood, indicating its fate.

Godzilla Earth grumbled lowly, pleased. A fleeting moment of pleasure when a vaporous, weak spatter of plasma struck him in the face. Unfazed, it slowly turned to face the cause and bore witness to the last one opposing it. The Showa Godzilla huffed and swayed as he tried to remain standing, a massive burn across his chest from the energy burst Godzilla Earth had released from the hole in its back. Ichors oozed from almost every inch of hide and exposed flesh, one arm limply hanging at his side from the joint clearly knocked out of the socket by whiplash. Only a single eye glared back at Godzilla Earth, the other, as well as a portion of the brow, completely missing. The old warrior balled a fist with his good hand, refusing to fall despite the risk of losing his balance at any moment.

Godzilla Earth instead looked past the insignificance, at a monolith of charred scales and sharp dorsal spines behind him. Sending a small dispatch to the servum around that dinner was served, he focused on regrowing his dorsal spines and gathering energy.

The Showa Godzilla would have felt dead already had it not been for sheer force of will and burning hatred. The eager youth he’d taken a shining to was slaughtered, his son who he finally got to see in the prime of his life had been impaled, and the seasoned ancient who fought beside him until the end had been entombed. All while trapped in this decayed world that could only be compared to a corpse of his own. While the fact he’d traveled through time and dimension eluded him, one thing was clear. If he were a human and aware of such belief, he’d devoutly believe he was in Hell before his own personal devil; a twisted icon of everything he’d ever hated about his former self.

The flapping monstrosities swarmed out of the forests in droves, covering him in a cornucopia of gnashing teeth and stabbing claws that dug into exposed muscle. But the pain, the agony the old hero felt was all too brief. Through the swarm of wings and eyes, he saw his tormentor stride past him and take aim upon a very specific corpse. The old king felt his body become alight with rage, not at his enemy turning his back on him, but at what it was about to do. Pure rage overpowered everything else and he bit, clawed, smacked, and swatted to live one more minute, one more second to stop this evil. His dorsal spines flashed red and a power he’d witnessed his son employ but never used himself ran across his body. Servum shrieked their death wails as a massive nuclear pulse flash-fried them.

The Showa Godzilla, burning across his form with eyes glowing like the dawn, charged forward before suddenly turning around and firing a spiral fire into the ground. The earth exploded from the torrent of energy, sending its jumping user rocketing backward directly into Godzilla Earth just as the titanic monstrosity was about to fire upon Godzilla Junior’s corpse. Even as his last act, the Monster of Justice would never let the demon defile his son’s corpse.

His spines, glowing red hot, cleaved into Godzilla Earth’s chest to carve a massive gash into the torso easily two dozen meters deep. Godzilla Earth screamed, recoiling back from the grieving father’s wrath as its beam shot up uselessly into the sky to divide the clouds. Backpedaling and stumbling away, it collapsed into the forest with an explosive landing audible for miles.

The Showa Godzilla crash-landed not far away from where he’d made impact, skidding across the ground on his side. By the time he warily made it to his feet, toe claws struggling to keep a purchase over waves of weakness, the glow across his body had faded. All hearing went away, he lost feeling across his body, vision began to tilt and swish back and forth in vertigo, and the once proud monster king and defender of mankind could only stumble, then crawl forward. The only thing he could detect around him through failing sight was the pulsing of his heart pounding between his ears. It was getting slower, dimmer. For the first time in his life, even having experienced being entombed in ice, Godzilla felt cold. Hand after hand, knee after knee, foot after foot, he limped forward. A teary wetness he couldn’t feel, yet knew of its presence, came across his eyes as he clambered onto the corpse of his son. In some ways, it had been a dream to fight alongside his grown progeny someday, never a prouder moment in his life than when Minya assisted he and the others in finally bringing down Ghidorah or first battling Komunga.

But it had become a nightmare. His vision faded, his only sensory input being what little feeling he could detect beyond surface tactile sense. With his last remaining strength, the Showa Godzilla embraced his son’s body, hoping that in whatever place the young king had come from, that version of Junior’s father got the chance to hold him just once. His heart stopped.

Godzilla Earth slowly rose. Genuine hatred was a rare thing for it, but it felt that now. Even more so than when it felt the Filius meet its demise. The last annoying pest managed to catch it while it had its shield down, too busy firing its beam to ensure the other one was dead. Its hand inspected the glowing wound, molten flesh rubbing off on it. The extreme heat had cauterized tissue that could treat magma like a warm bath, an impressive feat; but clearly, a fluke given it could plainly see the corpse sprawled on top of the other one’s body with the servum eagerly closing around both.

Oh well, it need not harp upon details. Togetherness just made fixing this blemish upon its perfect world easier. A beam was charged up, but the arcs of energy that made up the rays that had slew hundreds of millions of sapient souls instead arched inside the chest wound and conducted off the charred flesh. Godzilla Earth grumbled in pain, canceling the charge to avoid harming itself as it hunched over from the short circuit with a groan.

Damn pest, daring to wound it like the moth goddess once had. In the end, they both paid for it with their lives; unfit for its world. Willing the regeneration to accelerate and close the wound over time, Godzilla Earth instead opted to slowly trudge forward and dismember the bodies by tooth and claw. It had been so, so long since it needed to do such. About 18,000 years in fact. The last was against the sole remaining creature resembling the lizard it smote with its tail earlier, that annoying race bred so quickly their youths could equal the servum’s numbers in some cases. The campaign lasted centuries and eventually devolved into a death march across the planet, Godzilla Earth steadily chasing every last Zilla down to bring their end. The last one, in a fit of maternal rage, pounced at it to protect or avenge her destroyed eggs. The Mountain that Walked crushed her head in its jaws, slowly.

Not out of annoyance at how long the extermination of the last kaiju took, but merely because it could. Supremacy had dominion in its very nature. Sapience mattered not to interfere with the natural order. It was not an aberration, it was progression. It was this world now, for the world was it. And in doing so, it was not just a king; but a god.

That was why anything not of itself must perish, their very existence was an act of unholy defiance.

Such was the nature of the lights before it. Godzilla Earth looked on, still mending its chest and unable to fire its beam, as the inexplicable occurred. The body of the last defier was slowly vanishing, turning into will-o-wisps of azure lights and sparks that began to churn around the form of its progeny. And it wasn’t alone. From the rubble of the shattered cliffside where the lizard’s bisected remains had come crashing down, green flickers raced across the ground. And brought forth by some slow wind, light sapphire sparks trickled up from the chasm that had been the ancient archosaur’s grave. They joined the azure orbs, creating sparks and embers visible for miles across the night sky. Something was happening to the body that remained. The snap of bones and writhing of sinew became a symphony of heinous across the killing field.

The ruler of this world wouldn’t permit such. Neglecting its own health, it stunted its pain from energy crackling across its chest wound and fired a massive, blue stream of smiting judgment upon the mass; enveloping it in repeated blasts whose energy reacted with the glowing embers of past heroes in a fantastic eruption that formed a mushroom cloud.

In a way, if fate were real it would be poetic as the blast repeatedly rained down upon the land. For in almost every world except this one so far, the billowous curtain of radiation by the act of man or depths of ancient nature, of which was such an affront to the normal order of the world, was the cradle for a Godzilla. This world had merely lagged behind by 20,000 years…

Godzilla Earth paused its fire for a moment, the searing feeling in its chest demanding it. Energy sparked between the open wound, sizzling metallic, root-like flesh inside the gash and threatening to burst it open. But it soon paid little heed to that and instead to the blinding image before it. Reaching up to tear out Zilla’s scute at last to free its eye socket, Godzilla Earth regrew the orb to better behold, or more aptly leer, at the transgression of life that refused to die.

A far distance away, a new set of non-human eyes regarded the emerging form with a mixture of awe and masked bewilderment hidden behind a stoic facade. Standing apart from the Houtua, the bleach blonde and skinned alien might have looked human, but the soul was anything but. This world never seemed to stop creating surprises, both before and after his people arrived there and encouraged an arrogant human to come back. He’d thought their divine judgment had been established, destined, and to make way for the planet eater. The future predicted by the Gematron said such, and their path of devotion had fulfilled it. The machines were perfect, they themselves were perfect. Impossibilities and chaos were myths and what fools who couldn't comprehend what lords of creation decreed called complexity.

But these four creatures wrought true chaotic madness to the ordained scheme, an affront to the order of the universe. Even the law of nature seemed broken so that chaos might reign. If the divine beasts predicted by the future were acts of the heavens to smite the wicked along perfect, numeric paths, any outlier of the system must be the oppose. Not devils, not demons, for those, were agents of the divine who ordained opposite; but an antithesis. Antimatter to the matter, Anti-gods to the gods. The figure he witnessed, barely more than a skeleton with ash and charred ligaments as its flesh and the fires of its cradle as its body, managed to stand. It took a step forward, a sack of organs and muscle regrowing and compounding atop each other.

Metphies witnessed the swaying tail, shielding armor joined fast to one another, how the mighty servum retreated in terror at its thrashing rise. Even at its shorter stature, it seemed to look down upon Godzilla Earth, a king over the proud.

A cold sensation crossed his back and encircled his eyes. Spreading his arms, his lips moved on their own as a poem, created by an ancient lance-bearing human philosopher, perhaps a prophet of chaos and the antithesis to himself, escaped his lips as he looked upon the blazing skeleton standing tall.

None are its equal, none can stand against its might
For it is a creature that knows no fear
And brings death and devastation to all within sight.

It advanced out of the destruction of its birth, a hateful mass of sinew and muscle spreading over bone. Rows of jagged plates bled glowing ichors and pauldrons resembling the lizard’s scutes sprouting from the shoulders.

Four voices each loose a noble roar
But unite into one howl of flame
As the Leviathan seeks to win its war.

Brilliant redness pooled in the eye sockets, inky sclera encircling blazing irises so bright their color was indistinguishable. Fangs lengthened in a disorderly manner, too many being crammed into the mouth to the point the lips never returned to make room. From the cheeks sprouted tusks and from the tail a span of spines.

Wounds do not harm it, its blood does not dry
Its hatred and anger do not permit death
It cannot be subdued, such hopes are a lie

Pillars for legs and dense armor plating of the ancient became apparent across broad arms from the old king. The burnt gray skin was perforated by raw power, bloody fires from within blazing between the scales. It was no King of the Monsters. Methpies felt cold, so cold and so frigid his mind seemed to suffer frostbite despite the forest all around him being ablaze. He dropped to his knees, unable to comprehend the chaotic force before him.

Its fury seems senseless, but the rage does have cause
Its bloody screams are filled with anguish and pain
For the chaos in its heart gives even nightmares pause.

And so it was called, this chaotic God of Destruction, Leviathan.

Godzilla Earth silently glared at the opposition, regenerating its missing tissue and absorbing the thermal energy and background radiation coming off the magma and combatants that remained contained within the chamber. It would have laughed had it ever truly emoted, as its photocells went into overdrive and absorbed the latent heat and light. The swell of energy had a palpable effect, causing The Burning Mountain as the Houtua called it, to darken in hues with molten light erupting between its fibers. If Godzilla Filius could be compared to a tree and its progenitor to a forested mountain when it first emerged, it could now only be thought of as a volcano molded into a saurian shape. It had tapped into a portion of this state in full against the humans and their constructed city, but not to nearly the same degree. There were no stops to be pulled out, just like when it slaughtered the insect goddess. In some ways, this opponent had earned that honor. And the living mountain’s disdain.

Jaws spread farther than they should have been able too in a roar that sounded like four of its kind twisted together atop the bellow of Tokyo’s destroyer, wreathed in a tide of flames that washed over it like a storming ocean, the Leviathan gave its intent. One hundred and fifty meters in height, it stomped towards Godzilla Earth undeterred. Almost healed enough to use its atomic breath, the titan of this world instead turned about and swung its tail as the extremity crackled with energy. A scythe of energy came forth with the swing, cleaving the air and several hills in two.

Flames were shouted out, the forest was obliterated, and an advance was paused. Godzilla Earth slowly looked back to observe, but much to its displeasure it did not witness the bisected torso of the new monstrosity joining the cleaved mountains and hills. The Leviathan still stood, its tail slowly swaying behind it with no heed paid to the gash across its chest that bled glowing, liquid light. It wasn’t a deep wound and it promptly shrank before the moment even passed, the blood that oozed out being recalled back into the body in a most uncanny display as the scales and sinew replenished and sewed themselves back together. The dense scutes from the Ancient sprouted across the chest to spread and thicken into a plastron shielding its chest.

Unblinking, stoic eyes dared the ruler of this world to try it again and such was done. The charge wasn’t as significant, owing to a quicker time, but the moment that followed could practically be heard across the span and time of this Terra. Godzilla Earth’s assaults had been resisted before, first by the heroic cyborg that battled against it in the long march, then by the moth goddess who managed to deflect one of its rays in ages past, and in the modern time of the future with the nanometal city just barely being able to dampen its beam of judgement. But the impossibility of an attack bouncing off a foe with barely a scratch had never once occurred. Yet that’s what seemed to happen, when the crescent wave of energy rocketed forward, made impact, and then careened off into the sky to explode somewhere in the high atmosphere.

After a passing gale blew past it, the Leviathan lowered its torso. Servum took to the air in droves to protect their master, flanking around to come up behind the Leviathan in a snapping horde numbering in the dozens as the call to arms was put out across the whole of Japan with more and more coming. A blinding light overtook the spaces between the Leviathan’s back plates. With eyes glowing like the rays of dawn to cast beams across the land, the hues of light went from fiery orange to mixtures of reds and purples. Thick geysers of plasma spewed forth from vents across the back situated between the plates, first rapidly spreading out into jets of fire and smog before condensing.

The servum were largely fried to shriveled masses of vaporizing eyes and charred flesh even before the intense beams of purple with encircling spirals of red and bolts of gold carved through the flock. Uproars of death shrieks and the sound of hundreds of tons of falling ashes filled the night. The emissions shifted again, reducing in number but increasing in size to incorporate traits of the Old King’s breath. The Leviathan extended its legs and launched itself from the ground. Pushed ahead with a force that far exceeded gravity, the composite saurian deity used the beams spewing out of it's back to rocket itself towards Godzilla Earth with a bloodthirsty roar of anguish.

The resulting crash sent forth a shockwave that leveled trees and shuddered hills, blowing back tons of debris and ash across the burning forest. Godzilla Earth’s jaws flew open in a mute roar, unable to call out when every fiber of its gargantuan mass was sent hurtling back. It struggled, grabbing and clawing at the Leviathan that held it around its chest to continue and drag it along for the flight. Hundreds of meters flew by in seconds and an impact into Mount Fuji did little to impede them. Ramming into the iconic volcano with the force of a nuclear warhead, the top of that ancient monolith stood no chance. Thousands of meters of rock were crushed, burned, and shoved aside until the two finally hit an open space, a hollow cavity within Mount Fuji.

Or at least it had been hollow until their entry all but tore the top off the mountain. Evidently, an eruption had occurred sometime between man largely leaving this world in the 2030s and the present year, dried, smooth, black magma rock encrusting the walls as well as once forming the roof. But light soon not of the stars or living occupants soon came upon Mount Fuji.

The Leviathan twisted around after Godzilla Earth bashed the smaller kaiju with its tail, batting the transgressor aside and loosening its grip. Knowing it was about to lose grip upon this titan anyways, the Leviathan almost seemed to smirk. Letting go of Godzilla Earth’s torso, it let it drop for a moment before snatching the living mountain’s throat with its arm. Elongated talons dug into the bark-ish hide. Feeling Godzilla Earth grip its forelimb with titanic strength and revving its afterburners to full capacity, the Leviathan cocked back its arm and dove forward towards the dried magma chamber wall. With an arm thrust, it shoved Godzilla Earth’s face into the wall and flew across it and the floors, carving a thick groove into the stone amidst a shower of sparks with its enemy’s face as the plow. Jostled by the impact explosion and with its casing fractured by the trench dug, the bubbling, burning mass beneath the surface stone sloshed up.

Godzilla Earth twisted its head around to avoid having its eyes gouged out by the passing stone, blue lights sparking across its body to condense around its head and face. Because the Leviathan was still holding onto it, however, the energy conducted between them both, building upon itself in a feedback loop to a brightness that outshone the waves of lava. Just as Godzilla Earth wanted when it opened its maw and roared an oscillating bellow.

The eruption and explosion were visible even back in the ruins of Mechagodzilla City and Houtua settlement. As baffled as the onlookers might be as to the nature of the four warriors from parts unknown and the nature of the ascension, they knew what was transpiring was the matters beyond mortals; into the realms of legend. The clash of a force of nature and something that exceeded nature, the question at hand was a matter of whom was who.

The Leviathan stalked about, slowly circling around the rim of the magma chamber shrouded in thick gouts of ash and smog, only the occasional breaches in the floor that spewed out more magma illuminated its form. With a sweep of its tail, it smothered the glow and vanished, thick smog blotting out even its own burning glow.

Suddenly, with barely any charge time, a magnificent burst of red plasma spewed forth and swept across the magma chamber. It impaled through the back wall and shot off into the night sky, easily cleaving a hole into Mount Fuji’s side in its wake. The beam seemed to spiral as it drilled through all matter, even reaching the upper atmosphere with no issue before it was cut off. The smog, having another means to be vented off and towed by the intense force, was partially pulled free of the chamber; and act that between itself and the intensity of the magma’s glow, more brightly illuminated the chamber.

Godzilla Earth fully canceled its assault, looking about for where its foe had gone. The chamber looked like something from the writings of Dante, but with nary a demon in sight. Privy to the Leviathan’s ability to fly or at least propel itself, knowing eyes gazed upwards as it kept at the ready.

The ground exploded in oncoming ferocity as if a tidal wave of lava had suddenly been summoned. The Leviathan, having almost dove into the chamber floor through a combination of its components’ ability to swim and Zilla’s burrowing skills, had dug under the chamber and swam through the magma to launch its ambush. Erupting from the ground in a sea of lithic hellfire, it smashed a crackling tail full of energy into Godzilla Earth’s midsection. The hyper-intensified nuclear pulse, gold in color, all but destroyed a large chunk of Godzilla Earth’s midsection. If it had organs, they’d have been disemboweled with ease. Undeterred, Godzilla Earth threw open its jaws and let free a massive roar. The oscillatory pressure wave needed no charge time in this state, and easily hit with the force of several kilotons to knock the smaller kaiju back and blast it back into the lava pools. For miles, the god of this world’s roar was heard continuously.

Unrelenting, Godzilla Earth continued the roar as it advanced forward, intending to entomb its foe within the fiery depths. With the Leviathan pinned down from the force, there’d be nothing to stop its red sparking dorsal spines from charging a loosed red charged particle beam again; this time the asteroid buster of a judgment was guaranteed to have a direct hit.

The tide shifted. A geyser of nuclear flames started to push the oscillatory waves back. It shifted, first turning green, and then blue, white. Intensifying in both blinding brightness and force, when the beam finally overtook Godzilla Earth’s attack it could most favorably be compared to a thin purple line of energy encircled in spiraling flames that had fiery lightning twisting around it. Overpowered entirely, Godzilla Earth felt the ray fly into its mouth and combust on impact. The purple ray shot out the back of its neck in a manner that, had it a skeleton, would have easily crippled the destroyer. But biology regardless, the fact the spiraling reds and sparking golds utterly destroyed the sides of Godzilla Earth’s face to the point its jaw was left dangling limply certainly hurt.

But as the beams of spewed ray died away, they returned in full as the entirety of Mount Fuji shook, as if Heaven and Earth both quaked. Exploding forth from its attempted tomb, fiery lights erupting from numerous places upon its loathsome form and wreathed in the tsunami of hurled magma. Godzilla Earth whipped around as its shattered jaw sparked and started to mend itself, the Leviathan doing the same. Energy waves roared across their bodies and into the two’s tails, two unstoppable forces colliding. All sound was shouted out, condensing before rapidly expanding into an enormous shockwave that tore the innards of the volcano apart.

Mount Fuji, that 120,000-year megalith of nature didn’t erupt. It met its end by exploding. Lava, burned rock, ash, and dust was thrown out every-which-way for kilometers in a fiery end that could be seen across the corpse of Japan and felt across the planet. The world never seemed to stop shaking, like it would be torn asunder from its core. The only souls who didn’t throw themselves to the ground in prayers or pleas for life were the two at the epicenter of the explosion.

Burning earth and ash constantly falling down as a hail of fireballs and exploding rocks all around it, Godzilla Earth took a blow to the stomach that reverberated through its whole body in a shockwave in such a manner that surely would have shattered bones if it had any. Its foe had morphed again, growing in size. Now it was closer to 200 meters tall and closing the gap between itself and its foe. Godzilla growled and withstood the tremors, returning form by swinging down with a taloned, burning paw that ended up only swiping at blazing magma when the Leviathan leaped up. The pulses of energy constantly radiating off the titan. Fiery ballistic projectiles still raining down from above, hundred-ton hunks of rock molten and solid, exploded on contact with invisible energy pulses radiating off the monstrosity. Activating its dorsal vents, it took to the air with purple rays and spiral fire beams constantly raining down on the ground. It twisted around while flying upwards, rending the landscape and setting swaths of forest on fire by radiating temperature alone.

Godzilla Earth erected its shield, a bubble of brilliance deflecting the rays with visible difficulty. The heat was so intense that just the convecting temperatures coming through the air were melting parts of Godzilla Earth’s hide and causing it to smoke. Eyes that had long held a stoic gaze for thousands of years widened in shock. It was at its absolute peak and yet one thing just became abundantly clear from both each successive beam becoming more and more intense and the radiating power it could sense coming from the Leviathan even as it hovered hundreds of meters above it.

The Leviathan, every minute, every second, every fraction of a moment that incalculable wrath existed, was getting stronger. It wasn’t as if it was the four intruders compiled together, but multiplied to one another in a gradually increasing factor.

Crimson and burning eyes loosed untold wrath at the world around it. An intense magnetic field was generated, a power gained from the slain Old King. As it ascended, intense heat and pulses of energy conducted off the God of Destruction, igniting the metallic spore and ash clouds that made up the upper atmosphere. A curtain of blazing light spread across the sky like a wave a fire, burning countless tons of altered tree pollen and particulates. The intense energy emission flash fried all but the metallic parts of the particles, creating a cloud of conductive matter the energy and magnetic waves worked off of. In a fantastic roar, a shockwave of red energy burst forth from the Leviathan.

Far above in the Aratrum, the last stronghold of the endangered species called humanity, the occupants gawked at their screens in a mix of awe and horror. The sensors had detected it before any eyes did, but the advanced monitors and gauges had suffered almost immediate overload and shutdown if the technicians could get to them in time. Many weren’t so lucky, fire extinguishers sounding off across the ship along with the warning sirens.

The captain, a prematurely aged man with gray hair, short beard, and a diagonal scar going across his left eye, manned an extinguisher to hose down what had been his helm computer. Former deputy captain of the Gotengo before it was brought down, Unberto Mori, had been put in charge of the colony ship when it frantically left Earth behind with the express purpose of protecting the last vestiges of humanity and their allies. And so far, the colony ship's mission had gone to Hell in a handbasket in two decades of voyage and especially in the last forty-eight hours. He knew it was a bad idea to come back to this forsaken planet, human pride be damned. He knew it was a horrible idea to send anyone down there when the sensors picked up a familiar roar he knew from experience. Right now he was deciding between who he wanted to throttle more, Haruo for being the catalyst of this return to the homeworld or Metphies for supplying Haruo the means to do so, assuming either of them was still alive.

“Sensors are all down!”, some helmswoman yelled out from a smoking room adjacent to the command deck.

Captain Mori looked to a technician fruitlessly trying to get a system computer back online across the room from him, “It’s no use! You, get the front windows open so we can see what in God’s name is going on down there!”

The young man stiffened but nodded, hitting the release button as Mori went to put out a bonfire that had once been their navigation computer. Finally getting annoying, beeping fire alarm off, he couldn’t help but notice that aside from the sounds of the fires dying away, he could’ve heard a pin drop in the room behind him when the metallic world of the window shutters pulling back stopped. Huffing and coughing from exertion and a bit of smoke inhalation, Captain Mori couldn’t shake the overwhelming sense of dread that had befallen him. He really didn’t want to turn around and look out the window to see what everyone was gawking at. But so far this job entailed a lot of things he really didn’t like.

“... What is it?!”

Only silence and muted swears floated across his back into his ears. The captain closed his eyes, opening into a broken stare and an even more broken, almost whispered command.

“What is it?....”

“S-Sir…” A tiny whimper came to him, “...the sky is on fire.”

When Captain Mori turned around, he didn’t know what surprised him more after this visit to a planet of nightmares. The fact some of the Exif were mysteriously sprinting off to God knew where, the typically battle hungry Bilusaludo looked as pale as sheets, or the fact that exactly what the helmsman had said was true. Evidently, more than just the mission had gone to Hell.

To any looking up into the sky or down at the planet from space, they’d see a curtain of fire spreading across Japan, being pursued by a shell of constant lightning, engulfing the sky. Like a spark in a tinderbox, the fire and electrical storm rapidly spread out in all directions. The inferno showed no signs of stopping its advance even as the lightning within it arced back to the epicenter. The Leviathan continued to rain down beams of plasma and shockwaves in every direction like living Apocalypse for this planet of monsters. And it wasn’t aimless. Everything Godzilla Earth had spawned or corrupted was burning. Even with the beams flying around seemingly at random, everywhere that the Leviathan sensed traces of Godzilla Earth was bombarded with unrelenting force, even down to the very genome of the plant and animal life. Those that tried to rise to the defense of their master were struck down immediately; Those that tried to hide did so underground and had the earth torn asunder around them, or in swaths of ocean that were vaporized, or in the heights of the sky where they met their end by fire and lightning.

What Godzilla Earth had taken centuries to do to the old world was happening in a matter of minutes and might be finished in a matter of hours to the new world it had forged in its own image. It might well be over by the day’s end if Godzilla Earth didn’t act.

The blinding light coming across its body was the stuff of magnificence, blotting out even the burning glow of the magma and firestorm it stood in. The metallic bonds that created its body started to warp and melt from the blaze, the crackling energy coming forth from them shifting from blue to red to white. It gazed upon the swirling mass of plasma, lightning, and fire that created a second Sun several kilometers above it. The Leviathan started to turn and rotate, the eye of its own monstrous hurricane. It began to descend with murderous resolve.

A roar heard around the world from its master rang out and the beam that would make all that came before it look paltry knifed into the air. Radiating splinters of energy shot out in a fan around the Leviathan when it was struck. They eviscerated the upper atmosphere, some raking across the Moon in such a way one could claim they saw the rays go right through the celestial.

And yet the descending funnel cloud from the hurricane of fire and lightning kept coming, its blinding eye spinning and charged with energy. When it struck, the Mount Fuji Plateau became the Mount Fuji crater when the Leviathan surged into it.

Godzilla Earth wasn’t fighting anymore. It was getting slaughtered. The impact force had destroyed much of its exterior body, physically shrinking it somewhat even as its regeneration worked on overdrive to mend it. Most of its dorsal spines had been completely blown off, half its face was missing as was all of its left arm with the accompanying half of the shoulder and torso, and it could barely stand on half crushed-in right leg and the chart mass that used to be its left leg. And it could feel the agony to a level it never imagined along with something else. A reverberating footstep, the booming echo that many worlds heard on Odo island in 1954.

Power radiated onto it, still increasing every moment. It was over 250 meters tall now, and scaling with mass to such a point the world shook with every step. Still every bit the wrath of an angry god. The Exif had prophecies about beasts of the great power that came upon the haughty and the arrogant, those who fancied themselves masters of their domain and abused that power. For the species who pronounce themselves as lords of creation, a divine avenger will pay them a visit.

Godzilla Earth felt itself being grabbed by the head and dragged out of the crater. It went airborne, thrown hundreds of meters and crashing back down upon the same mountain it had initially burst from. Its nest it reforged the world from to become the tomb in which its creation died.

Another roar was heard over the horizon. A being of blue energy stretched across the landscape and struck the Leviathan on the back. It was like shooting a tank with a water pistol, but it got its attention. Burning crimson eyes trained on a Godzilla Filius. The sole survivor of its brood, it had sensed the plight of its sibling and then parent and courageously stomped forward.

The Leviathan gazed upon the young monster prince. Its thoughts were impossible to discern, assuming it was thinking at all. If one were privy to the details of its components, one might wonder what might be going through its mind when it witnessed a child rushing to save their parent. Zilla might perhaps remember a chance meeting between a repentant scientist and a young lizard in the depths of the destroyed nest when the former took pity on the latter. Gojira might recall a calm time in the Permian period where he oversaw the hatching of both his nest and those of his sister, greeting the site of both his own progeny and the faces of his nieces and nephews. The Showa Godzilla could reminisce back to a chance journey to a distant island after receiving a call in the depths of his mind that led him to a son, perhaps the fond memory of embracing his child as the snow fell around them. And Godzilla Junior might get an eerie sense of déjà vu at the sight of a monster prince being near his dying father before a monstrous mutation snatched the young kaiju up and sent him to his doom.

Miana and Maina, safe back in the Houtua Caverns and hobbled up against their goddess’ egg, were stoic in shock and fright, almost catatonic after trying to connect with the sacred egg and look into the mind of the destroying god. Four souls screaming in agony. Out of control.

The Leviathan had none of it. It had no conscience. No reasoning. Just a need to destroy. To destroy anything and everything that bore Godzilla Earth’s taint. Upon the graves of four heroes was spawned a reincarnation of the vengeance that turned Tokyo into a fireball in 1954.

The monster prince was snatched off his feet when the monstrous mutation rocketed into him. It tried to fire its beam, tried to summon now virtually extinct servum to its aid. It didn’t get the chance as two arms shot towards it. Bladed spines burst from the tops of the Leviathan’s wrists and similarly burst out of Filius’ back. The Leviathan snapped its arms to the side and the prince fell down in three pieces that were probably vaporized under a roar and geyser of burning lights.

Godzilla Earth could only watch on as Leviathan, wreathed in flames and the ashes of Earth’s direct progeny, slowly turned around. It began to start forward, a dark mass with broad spines crowning its shoulders and eyes like the radiance of dawn.

Usually, in most worlds, nature has a way sometimes of reminding man of just how small he is. She occasionally throws up terrible offsprings of our pride and carelessness to remind us of how puny we really are in the face of a tornado, an earthquake, or a Godzilla. The reckless ambitions of man are often dwarfed by their dangerous consequences.

It still fought back, for every extra minute, extra second of life it might buy. Like the humans, it vanquished who threw themselves at it in their nuclear weapons and war machines. Like a kaiju as they tried to defend their nests and homes. Godzilla Earth never accepted any life form not like itself having any right to exist, and yet so many had resisted it. Now it was resisting its own grim reaper.

This world was an outlier. In this world, it was the reckless ambitions of a kaiju who were called to task and judgment. In some remote way, Godzilla Earth could understand why this had happened. All of the needless destruction, needless slaughter, and devastation it had wrought come back to haunt it. The Leviathan was its own personal Godzilla.

Godzilla Earth swung its tail with all of its might and energy. The Leviathan caught it and wrenched the titan around, shoving it into the ground. Stomping on Godzilla Earth’s back to shattered dorsal spines and dent its tissue, it started pulling. It only lasted a moment or two but Godzilla Earth was kicked away and rolled across the ground feeling much lighter. When a tried to rise it was struck down by a heavy force. Glimpses of sight were only begotten as parts of the body were bashed in. The Leviathan, whom could end it all in one gigantic burst of energy, was beating it to death with its own dismembered body parts. Taking the end of the tail with its sharp tip to bear, the Leviathan stomped onto Godzilla Earth’s chest to hold it still before driving the tail through its stomach. Jamming the tail into a gaping wound upon the stomach, it burst out Godzilla Earth’s back and pinned the living mountain to the valley wall.

Tossing the broken and charred upper half of the tail aside, the Leviathan pounced. It’s intense heat melted what it touched on contact and titanic strength tore hunks of flesh out. A chunk of the shoulder, a leg, one slash from a wrist blade emptied out Godzilla Earth’s stomach. The Burning Mountain that Walked pathetically grabbed at its assailants face, only to have its hand and arm bit into. With a yank of its neck, the Leviathan tore the arm off and jammed its own hand into the hole within the shoulder.

With a clench of the fist, the wrist spike returned while the hand was still inside Godzilla Earth, stabbing into more inner tissue. With jerks and twists of its arm, the Leviathan carved pieces out of their holdings. The Leviathan sensed the radiation and energy within and began to seize it. Blue sparks traveled up its arm and into its body, siphoned from Godzilla Earth. The Leviathan’s maw and eyes burned with blazing lights to end this. It only paused for a moment to glance to the forest around it at the notice of a particular detail.

The trees, hearty structures that incorporated Godzilla Earth’s genes so much they could bend steel and snap a knife, were largely ablaze and crumbling. But the ones only touched by the spreading flames rather than a direct impact were holding on, and there still existed patches of foliage saved from the inferno. If given time, the forest of Earth’s making could regrow. Even with the death of its master, Godzilla Earth’s legacy might live on.

Except when the energy consumption started, there was a shift. Desperate to keep itself alive at the cost of all else, Godzilla Earth drew power from its surroundings. A set of ferns began to shrivel up, trees started to sag, and one such large, mighty stalk snapped under its own weight when its trunk weakened. The Leviathan saw this and canceled out its beam attack.

It could kill, or reap extinction. Wipe out one horrid excuse for a life, or cleanse this world of its infection. One could swear they saw the mad god grinning.

Noticing Godzilla Earth’s body heating up as it attempted one last desperate charge of its mighty ray, the Leviathan jammed its free hand into Godzilla Earth’s chin and forced its head up.

Godzilla Earth went still and convulsed as the Leviathan forcefully withdrew with arm and brought a handful of tissue it had torn free to bear. With a piercing stare, the flesh was plopping into a fanged maw. The energy was drained, life sucked out between jagged fangs before being incinerated. Crimson and fiery eyes leered at the master of this world. The Leviathan would have its feast. A final, desperate beam from Godzilla Earth shot into the sky when the Leviathan, holding its face away, bit into and tore out a large chunk of its collar and throat.

The beam divided the sky, before sputtering and flickering out. After its third mouthful, the God of Destruction took its prey. Grabbed Godzilla Earth’s face with both hands and brought it to its own. The latter’s stare was blank but conscious. A light passed from the Leviathan’s gaze to Godzilla Earth’s. Flashes of memory and vision. A hero king leading an army of monsters against a golden dragon, an ancient titan tired from battle gazing upon Ford Brody with a calm curiosity, the energetic protector playfully splashing his adoptive family, the H.E.A.T. Team with sea water; and a young prince smiling at his tiny mother, Azusa Gojo, inside an institute.

Godzilla Earth could hear the four screaming, but wasn’t sure if it was their death cries it was recalling or the echoes of their consciousness within the Leviathan. For the first time in its over 20,000 year existence, Godzilla Earth was finally feeling what it had subjected billions of victims to as it slaughtered them for no reason. Mortality, hopelessness, terror.

The Leviathan opened its jaws, slowing bringing the side of Godzilla Earth’s head to its mouth. With a crunch and gnash, Godzilla Earth limply fell to the ground with half its head missing. It was still alive, it felt everything that followed.

The Leviathan chewed, observing its surroundings and prey. Due to lacking any organs, Godzilla Earth wouldn’t die until its body ran out of energy or was entirely destroyed. That meant the process of eating in life, draining every chunk of energy from it, ensuring that no scrap remained that could possibly regenerate, could take hours. A brief glance was cast to the jewel-like bead upon its stomach. It still had not used its most powerful ability and it could drain Godzilla Earth far quicker with its hakai touch. That could both finish it and ensure there would be no need for cleanup for Godzilla Earth as well as probably a large chunk of whatever parts of Japan were in front of the Leviathan when it fired....

Jagged, uneven rows of teeth knifed into Godzilla Earth’s neck, pulling out another chunk to be devoured slowly as the living mountain’s single remaining, unblinking blue eye stare off into space from its paralyzed body. The firestorm had cleared and having previously destroyed the pollen cloud, there was nothing to obstruct the starry sky above. It beheld the Milky Way, features obscured for so long while being eaten alive.

The Houtua guard dropped to the ground with a smoking hole burned into his chest, the pale robed figure unceremoniously stepping over him and throwing the religious wares and butterfly-patterned symbols adorning the altar he’d been guarding aside to clear it off. The murderer perked to the sound of approaching footsteps, no doubt roused by the noise of the killing.

One of the few surviving humans to have the sense to scramble out of Mechagodzilla City before it was destroyed, a thirty-something blonde haired man named Dr. Martin, felt his face chill when he recognized the killer.

“Metphies?! What the hell are you doi-?!”

The pistol the stoic Exif was carrying rang out again. Several accompanying Houtua lurched back in surprise as the doctor dropped with part of his head missing. Metphies trained the weapon upon the doorway and emptied the clip, driving back the Houtua and collapsing the roof onto the entryway to seal it. Metphies paused, standing alone in the dark chamber with a cave entrance that went off the side of a cliff being the only one way in or out of the altar room. Usually the image of poise and reason, one could forget Metphies was still young as far as his kind persisted at a mere 50, even with his high status as archbishop.

Except for now. Cracks in the visage were forming. Dilation of the eyes, twitches of muscle, sweat creasing his body, and body hairs standing up on end. He’d previously clenched his jaw so much golden blood trickled out from the corners due to cracked teeth.

Everything thus far had been going smoothly, if unorthodox. Humanity would face its judgment at the hands of its divinely ordained executioner as all arrogant races would. Such judgment could never be escaped, never be forgiven or abolished. His race had suffered it once but they knew their end would come sooner or later by the planet eater. Humanity almost met their end, but the misplaced kindness of the Houtua’s goddess and stubborn resolve of others had permitted a reprieve. His guiding of Haruo back to this world was a means of testing the degree of their time allotted.

It had been so close to coming to fruition, only for four trespassers to suddenly intervene. It made no sense to him, none of it. The mighty punish and destroy the weak and the haughty, such was vindicated when Godzilla slew them; but the fact that they came to humanity’s aid, opposed such a force, and simply refused to stay dead was folly! Absurd! An affront to every sense of order his kind has witnessed in 100,000 years since their god ordained them.

Metphies shook, eyes wide as he placed a small green, glowing box on the altar before drawing up a sacred medallion shaped like a coin. He’d gazed upon Leviathan and contemplated raw chaos, and a mind devout to a single truth and rigid order without the ability to comprehend more than its god allowed; had gone utterly insane.

He pressed the medallion to the shrine, closed his eyes, and did what most of faith did when left in a situation spiraling out of control. Submit to a higher power. His was just what most would call a devil.

High above in the Arratrum, Endurph and several other Exif got the signal from Metphies’ shrine activating. Exiting away so that no human, Bilosaludo, or uncooperative Exif could stop them, they all followed suit with their archbishop’s command.

Miana heard the roars and explosions die down outside several minutes ago. It still took an hour before she left to investigate, nimbly sprinting along paths from memory with dashes across boulders and sprints over charred trees. She had to do it from memory because her surroundings barely resembled the forests she’d known since childhood. All the trees were either burned to cinders and blackened husks or were wilting, wasting away as if being denied something. A movement up ahead caused her to pause and frantically bring forth her bow. But no sooner had she notched the arrow, the servum flopped to the ground with barely more than a pathetic whimper coming out of its jaws.

Miana hyperventilated in every breath, very slowly sidestepping towards it. Noticing a pebble near her foot, she punted it towards the servum. The worm-like creature groaned, clearly wanting to move but unable to do so. Miana closed her eyes and wiped her face, having been crying from the intense psychic presence she heard screaming for hours. Slowly stepping forward into close range, she very carefully put the tip of her bow to the servum’s head. Multiple eyes winced, several closing, but no other action was taken. Miana finally saw it for what it was. Once a mighty predator, now wasting away like a dying man upon his final bed. Minding its jaws, she reached out and very slowly got to the back of its head to help close its eyes. The servum flinched at the contact, but either due to weakness or something the priestess might’ve been empathically telling it, it slackened. One way or another, after a few moments more, it would never move again.

The last servum in Japan, possibly the world, didn’t die without company. Miana’s goddess was a compassionate one and asked her followers to be the same. Withdrawing her hand, Miana found herself finally looking up now that she was standing alone. What she beheld left her gawking and confused.

Tiny blue and white fires in the sky, some of them twinkling amidst a vaguely pale curtain. They were only barely visible through the residual smoke and haze coming from the dying forests, but they left the Houtua priestess stunned. Where was the curtain of fog that separated the heavens?! Where did this dark ocean of fiery sparks come from?! Was the world drowning? Would the fires rain down? This wasn't how the sky was supposed to look, it had never looked like this in all her years or the years of her parents.

The forest was dying, the creatures were dying, and now it seemed even something as constant as the fog and mists up above were going away. Her world was becoming a corpse and she couldn’t move.

It was a telepathic scream that finally roused her. She couldn’t be sure if it was multiple voices or just one, but she got a fix on the location and ran off to see to it just like how she was able to find Haruo trapped under the wreckage of his ship when the Mountain of Fire destroyed it. She could only idly wonder about the fates of the four heroic titans who stood against the Mountain Haruo called ‘Godzilla’. The Mountain itself ruled over this world and any chance of fighting it was folly, especially with it enraged at the death of its progeny. Nothing had been the same since that day. The progeny, Filius that nice “Mar-Tin” man called it, her people knew well, and if they’d stay out of the way of it, it would leave them be either due to never noticing or not caring about anything that didn’t attack it. But the Mountain, it had been rampaging and hunting ever since it awoke. And with such monstrous force and resolve, everything on this planet might be of finite day with it about.

She could pray for the four souls her goddess surely sent to protect them, hoping at a minimum they could have held off the Mountain that Walked’s assault and retreat. She still had no idea what had given off that intense wave of rage and hatred she’d felt earlier that nearly made her catatonic with terror, but she found herself mentally pleading to Mothra for the heroes’ safety. If one day this world returned to peace, she’d love to share it with such valiant souls.

Maina, Miana’s much more aggressive twin sister really did not like the newcomers at all. Especially that young male her sister saved and seemed to like to keep an eye on named Ha-Roo-oh. But when the sounds of falling debris rumbled through the caverns, she could be appreciative of the fact the black haired moron who roused the Mountain of Fire was sprinting alongside her towards the source and one of the first to help her start digging out several Houtua buried in rubble after his companion had been stabilized, in a coma rather than dead despite the toxic nanometal due to their goddess’ gift. Maina knew the chamber, one of the altar rooms that overlooked the valley through a cliffside cave, and that it was fairly spacious. There still could be someone inside behind the collapsed sections. Or, given her suspicions, behind the collapsed sections in a different way. There was a reason she didn’t discard her bow even while helping excavate. It helped that despite a shorter stature, their goddess had blessed the Houtua with a sturdier constitution than one would expect.

Maina and Haruo were some of the first through the opening and what they saw left the latter shocked. Dr. Martin was laying on the ground, stinking up the room with the smell of burned blood and flesh as he lay with most of his head missing. If it weren’t for his suit and shocked expression still etched across the face that remained, they wouldn't have been able to tell it was him. Maina looked to two things.

The dead man, the burn marks across the ceiling from the invader’s weapons, one discarded weapon of such construct off to the side, and the pale not-human who was chanting, almost raving, before an altar that had been turned devoid of its proper articles and instead bore a glowing green shrine.

Putting the pieces together, Maina stomped forward and pulled out her bow. An arrow soon erupted from Metphies’ torso. The Exif stumbled, coughing up some fluid onto the altar. Dull golden ichors spilled over the shrine-like spilled wine of offering. But just when it seemed like he was about to fall, Metphies slowly rose. His head half turned and illuminated in the dim torchlight, the manic and yet calm look he gave the Servum-Slayer caused Maina the freeze up. Gold blood dribbled from his mouth, nose, and eyes as he slowly continued chanting some prayer in a language she didn’t understand even with telepathy. Almost like it was an invocation of something opposite her goddess.

Metphies surged forward before she could react, grabbing Maina by the neck and slamming her against the back wall with an unnatural force that bruised bone and broke skin. All the while constantly still chanting a prayer in a bloody voice despite the arrow sticking through his chest. Maina yelped, fighting against a raging headache and vertigo from her head hitting the back wall, grabbing at the Exif’s arms and kicking his stomach to try and force him off. Judging from the loud crack her powerful knee ensued when it struck him, she’d shattered half of Metphies’ ribs.

But the cold, astronomically cold, fingers clamped down on her windpipe. Metphies closed the distance, so close to her his manic chanting spattered his blood across her face and chest. The look in his eyes was a void, almost like something else with keeping his body going.

There was the sound of shifting machinery, clicking against the ground but she couldn’t see the source.

Metphies pressed closer, filling the Houtua’s nose with the stench of cold death. Maina’s eyes widened when she felt a sharp pain in her stomach. A scream of agony was wrought from the burning, stabbing sensations. That toxic arrow that had been jutting out Metphies’ chest was now lodged in her stomach and twisting through her flesh with her struggles.

A loud flash accompanied a wet, chilling splatter of fluid across her face. A dozen more bangs sounded off. Metphies’ grip shifted but didn’t waiver until bright streaks tore through his arms and all but severed them at the elbows. Haruo, eyes wide in a broken expression, dropped the magazine he’d been carrying out of Metphies’ pistol; the clicking sound moments ago having been him loading it. In a trained motion with no other thought able to cross his broken mind, he shoved another clip in and opened fire. The Exif archbishop’s body was perforated by dozens of projectiles, micro-bullets that traded size for velocity and thus allowed for a larger clip. He dropped another magazine and reloaded, repeating the process.

Finally, Metphies fell, his body from all angles shredded into a gory mess of golden blood and shattered bone shards. Curiously he had no organs to speak of, just a pulsating, jewel-like core were his heart would have been. Maina’s arrow had nicked it and Haruo’s free-fire had impacted the core multiple times, the bright glow within it dimming considerably as tiny blue wisps trickled out. Just as Godzilla had reforged the surviving plants and animals to his image and Mothra had shielded the Houtua by altering them under her patronage by the same gene swapping methods, so to had the surviving Exif carried the traces of their god.

Haruo finally took a breath, looking at what he had just done and throwing the gun away in a horrified shout. He felt chilled to the bone and yet burning at the same time, all organs pushed up into his throat so that he tasted bile. It took every spark of willpower he had to stumble towards Maina and help her up, holding a hand to her stomach to stem the bleeding while supporting her as the Houtua gasped for air.

But they were too late.

The shrines both on the planet and its cohorts in space all lit up with brilliance in activation at the uttering of a phrase escaping Metphies’ last breath, even as he lay dying in a pool of his own ichors with most of his face and chest blown off. One echoed by his followers aboard the Aratrum.

“Ghidorah.”

Long, serpentine shadows crawled out of the altar and from Metphies’ bloody pool.

Miana tried not to think too hard about the eldritch sky above, to the fact, the woodlands she trekked through were marred, burned, and decaying away before her very eyes. It was like watching a drought’s entire season play out in front of her in a matter of minutes. Aged trees that were several meters thick and healthy hours ago were shriveled and decayed to little more than husks, numerous dead animals carpeting the ground, and even the soil seemed cracked and broken under her feet. When she reached the edge of the valley, however, where the shimmering city of nanometal once was, she found herself dropping her bow in dumbstruck shock.

The invincible Mountain, the lord of this world and killer of her goddess’ ancestor, was impaled against the valley wall by its own tail with barely half its body remaining. Such an impossibility left a shock traveling through her body, so much so it took her time to notice the other titan.

An end for the Burning Mountain was a distant possibility. Her people had managed to live under its reign since time seemed to begin anew after the death of the old world. Its wrath was a terror and in some ways, Miana prayed her goddess to be reborn and rid the world of its taint. Even with the four heroes surely ordained by Mothra’s grace though, she was skeptical it could be done tonight. Force it back and away, keep it from stirring up the servum to seek and destroy her kind against their typical behavior, that’s what she’d hoped for. Prayed for.

But now, seeing the titan that walked in mountains laid low, her breath was dead. Especially when she saw what the other monster was doing to it. The Leviathan gripped Godzilla’s remaining arm, which was barely still attached, and tore it free before bringing it up to its jaws. Godzilla Earth, whom she had previously almost hoped had departed the coil of life, convulsed. Miana gasped as she saw its blue, almost philosopher-like eye twitch and glow weakly. She’d seen predators eat prey alive before, but that did little to hamper her illness. But there was something else she noticed, much to her horror.

When the Leviathan, a revolting monstrosity, brought the arm up to its mouth and started to drain away the energy, the trees and plant life around Miana seemed to react. In a matter of seconds, whole swaths of forest were dropping dead and the priestess soon realized why. Godzilla got its energy from its surroundings and was tied to anything that bore its bloodline since its sired a new world while entombed within the mountain. If it had been suddenly struck down in battle or driven off, the world it had molded could continue on independently. That she could infer from the fact the ecosystem didn’t collapse whenever it was wounded.

The beast of a god, it wasn’t just killing Godzilla. It was killing a planet. Her entire world.

Instantly her mind was a flurry of questions. Where were Mothra’s champions?! Surely she couldn’t have sent this thing too! She would never! Miana nevertheless though saw the resemblances. The large shoulder spikes resembling the scutes upon the one that saved Ha-roo-oh from the servum, the thick scales and plates borne by the one she could tell at a glance was as ancient as the hills, the powerful arms and mighty stance of the wise leader who instructed the youngbloods, and the robust body and jagged spines belonging to the youth that carried himself with such determination. It was like seeing all four of them mashed together and then turned into a nightmare.

Whatever it was, she had to plead with it.

The Leviathan dropped the shriveled, burnt remains of the arm after draining it dry of stored energy. It looked back upon the half-eaten remains of Godzilla Earth with the edges of its lips curling upwards to bear fangs in a malign grin. It lowered down with its jaws spreading apart to take another bite. The shadow of fangs came over Godzilla Earth’s remaining eye, and it was powerless to get free. The Leviathan seemed to laugh as it prepared the crunch down before a voice barely above a whisper echoed over its ears.

-Stop!-

Miana, eyes streaming tears, didn’t even realize she had physically shouted at the same time she had telepathically done so. So moved she was with emotion, her kind’s typically stoic attitude had shattered.

A terror she had never before known in her life came over the Houtua and she froze up for so long that by the time she could form a conscious thought, a god was towering over her. Miana winced as she gazed upon the enormity that stood above her like a mountain, dim burning lights crackling between the holes in its hide and through its eyes that burned like the rays of a radiant dawn as the dark body was wreathed in the light of stars she had never before seen. It was a crucible for madness to try and grasp it all.

-Please..-

She whimpered as steam and smoke exited the Leviathan’s fanged maw. Miana was just barely able to motion towards the dying forest.

-Th-The world… You’re killing it.-

The Leviathan lowered down to look at her closer, eyes larger than semi trucks forcing her to cover her own orbs, lest they be blinded. It surveyed her. She had a trace upon her that wasn’t human. But it wasn’t of Godzilla Earth either. Thus it didn’t care. Turning back around, the Leviathan’s tail brushed into the cliffside and collapsed part of it. Miana rapidly backpedaled, scrambling over jagged, snapping stone and twisting, dead roots to avoid plummeting. All the while projecting her begging, her pleas to the deity for the sake of her planet. That if it were to slay Godzilla and take its place of dominion, to make it quick so the world might survive; that it might not die like the one of old had.

She was wise to not beg for Godzilla Earth’s life, else there would be more than just a stiff glare thrown back at the Houtua.

But in that very look, it came surging back. Miana attempted to reach into the mind and heart of a God of Destruction, and she felt it all. The crushing wave of hatred, bloodthirst, ravenous want for devastation, that sent her crumbling to her knees. But it was what followed that left her shrieking. A chorus of four screams, two of which were extremely familiar. Tortured, tormented in a prison they couldn’t escape, helpless against the onslaught unfolding in their very body. Miana wept tears of blood as she clutched at her head, the sheer force of the agony of four heroes and the malice of a god threatening to tear her mind apart. Screaming out into the forest dying and burning around her, she joined her would-be saviors in a mental Hell.

High above in the Aratrum, humanity’s last stronghold had just gotten some of its systems back online.

“Status on the planet,” Captain Mori, back in his officer’s seat, muttered with worry and stress clearly staining his features.

A helmsman tapped at his screen and brought up long distance scans of the surface taken from the ship’s deck cameras, “Major fire and electrical storms over 40% of the Asian surface and growing, significantly thinning out the electromagnetic pollen cloud that had been blocking our scanners. We’re picking up mass tectonic activity in Japan indicative of an eruption, UTM coordinates indicate Mount Fuji as the epicenter.”

“Another catastrophe,” Captain Mori solemnly grumbled, “And of course it was Japan, where else could something go wrong after two disasters in a row for Metphies’ expedition?”

With thoughts trained upon the alien, Capt. Mori glanced around the helm and surrounding halls and again noticed the distinct lack of Exif on board.

“Where is Cardinal Endurph? Half the ship was on fire just a minute ago and a quarter of our crew is missing!”

It was just then when a powerful, quill-browed Bilusaludo woman, Lieutenant Kulo Numa, rushed onto the bridge, “Captain! The Exif!”

Several minutes later and with multiple security teams on hand, Captain Mori poked his head around the corner to one of the commons halls only to quickly duck back when pistol fire grazed the side of the wall next to his scalp.

Casting a glance to Kulo Numa and General Dulo-Do’s team on the opposite side of the hall, Mori called out as the squad circled around.

“What’s going on, Cardinal?”

The response was a language he, even with extensive training in Exif linguistics, could not understand. How could he when they hid their most sacred prayers, the prayers of truth, from all but themselves? More pistol fire rang out and Mori ducked again.

“If you keep shooting out this way you might set the cables on fire!”

The bullets kept flying but other than idle worry about a ricochet hitting him or someone else, he actually didn’t mind them too much. The outsides of the windows could take micro-meteors and the insides were just as thick. It was all to keep them and presumably the Exif’s focus on him until he heard the tell-tale bang of a rifle instead. The squad had circled around while Endurph was distracted.

“He’s down!” Dulo-Do called out, “No signs of movement.”

Captain Mori took in an old, tired breath and sighed. “Good work General.”

Steeling himself just in case, Captain Mori tapped at his PDA and spoke into it, “Authorization, Mori. Activate lights in Hall 3.”

The occupants of the room had shut the lights off and override the commands to turn them back on. Now with no more interference, however, he could finally literally shed some light on the situation as to why over five dozen crew members had suddenly raided the armory, shot anyone who got in their way, and then all piled into this one room. But as soon as the lights came on, he soon found himself wishing they hadn’t.

Every single Exif was dead, strewn across the room in a large combined pool of golden blood. Gore spattered green shrines glowed in the four corners of the chamber, emitting an eerie light that Mori felt disgusted just looking at. Swallowing a large lump of bile threatening to spill out, an action evidently some of the squad members couldn’t stop themselves from doing due to a chorus of loud vomiting and retching, Mori stepped over the bodies and met Dulo-Do in the middle above Endurph’s body.

“Any return fire by the squad before my arrival?”

Dulo-Do shook his head, “Only a few shots. Not nearly enough for… This.”

Even the hardened General found himself taken aback at seeing so much bloodshed. Aside from a small handful of Exif on his squad who always acted more like humans or Bilusaludo, it seemed every Exif on board was now laying in pools of their own ichors.

“Sir,” Kulo Numa barked as she jogged up and saluted, “Sweep of the dead. All pistol shots to the back of the chest.”

“Then it couldn’t have been any of the security teams, otherwise some would be from the front.”

Kulo Numa nodded, “All teams report only firing with shotguns or rifles. And all spent magazines in the room are registered to just one gun.”

“So only one shooter once they sealed themselves within the chamber,” Captain Mori lamented as he reached for the pistol in Endurph’s hand’s death grip, “And I have a feeling which one.”

“Ritual suicide pact?”

Mori glanced at the shrines surrounding the room, feeling a horrible dread come over him just looking at them, “I have a theory…”

Suddenly the world was thrown into pandemonium. The Aratrum rocked and swerved, the roar of twisting metal blasting through the hull. Captain Mori was ripped off his feet and went airborne in a flurry of vertigo. Weightlessness came and went from artificial gravity fluctuating off and on. Bodies, ichors, persons, and items were hurled about in every direction. Captain Mori found himself hurled into the upper edge of the side wall, frantically grabbing a ceiling fixture and hanging on for dear life as the body of Endurph was thrown up against him. The aged captain would be seeing the Exif’s elated, relished death-grin until the day he died by how badly it burned itself into his memory. Pushing the body aside, Mori brought up his PDA and activated the emergency controls.

“Override code: Burr-Yagochi-Ford! Emergency power to stabilizers and artificial gravity generators!”

The PDA clicked and a few moments later, gravity returned to normal and the room gradually stopped spinning. Mori dropped to the ground and got a single breath to collect himself before warning sirens blared across the entirety of the Aratrum. The ship AI’s voice called out over the speakers.

“EMERGENCY! EMERGENCY! HULL BREACH IN SECTORS 4-5-19! SEALING! ENGINES 1-15 NON-FUNCTIONAL. ENGINE 16 INCREASING OUTPUT TO SLOW MOVEMENT-”

And then the worst thing the caretaker for humanity’s last chance could ever hear.

“-LOSING ALTITUDE! IMPACT IN T-MINUS 8 MINUTES!”

On aching legs, Captain Mori hobbled to view the portside windows and beheld doom. The curve of Planet Earth, gradually growing in size and distance. They were crashing. And the cause of it came with living rivers of golden scales and jagged maws.

Ignoring the burning ship slowly plummeting to the world, the god of the Exif slithered through space to greet its feast. Ever since it attacked the Exif homeworld 100,000 years ago, it had left its mark upon the survivors. Their minds broken from the experience, they grasped the enormity the only way they could. Devotion. Guiding it to do to others as it had done to them, feeling vindication of their worship in how they managed to survive when others didn’t. Surely, they believed, their god had ordained them for this mission. Their deaths had hastened its advance, Metphies’ signal whetting its appetite. There were two things of particular interest on the planet below.

The heavens shuddered as King Ghidorah, the Planet Eater, enveloped itself in a dark sphere of energy and opened three portals linked to it in the planet’s upper atmosphere.

Haruo punched it, forcing the hoverbike to move as quick as its damaged engine would permit. The Houtua had salvaged it from the first attack by the servum and fortunately hadn’t completely dismantled it when the injured Maina’s next action after screaming her head off was to grab Haruo and make her demand. With a healing salve slapped onto the nano-metal wound, one he doubted was enough given her convulsions and the discoloration of the injury site, Maina was hanging to Haruo for dear life so hard that she risked bruising his ribs.

-Take me to my sister, NOW!-

Haruo swerved around a set of trees. With the bike damaged, it couldn’t ascend and the only thing keeping it even just a meter in the air was vertical thrust pushing off the ground. His eyes briefly caught a glimpse of something he hadn’t seen yet since arriving here.

-Stars? The night’s clear.-

Maina evidently had noticed them too and clung to him a little tighter. Glancing at her reflection, Haruo could see the bewildered, shocked look on her face. Turning his head slightly as to keep his eyes on the ‘road’ and still be able to throw his voice back, Haruo shouted as loud as he could manage.

“We closer?! Which way?!”

He’d stop questioning how Maina knew where Miana was when Dr. Martin, rest his soul, noted the two’s telepathy was especially well-pronounced. The pit in his stomach over having to gun down Metphies but also losing the kindly scientist was a sour cavity in his gut. He wasn’t a Captain for nothing however and he managed to stow it, lest he throw up in his helmet.

Thankfully Maina, wincing visibly across his face, took a hand off of Haruo’s bruised chest and pointed ahead to the left.

Haruo pitched the bike over and went as indicated, passing by a dark form he briefly recognized as a dead servum. He was glad he gave it only a fleeting glimpse or else he’d have crashed into the cavity just ahead, a large, burnt trench carving dozens of meters into solid bedrock. Eyes wide, Haruo yanked back on the controls and stomped on the accelerator. The damaged engine groaned and misfired several times, the energy feedback going off-kilter as the milliseconds passed. Acting fast as they went airborne over the trench, Haruo hit the cutoff brakes and let the emissions build up.

“Hang on!”

Yep, Maina had definitely bruised or cracked a rib or two when she did, stabbing pains shooting up Haruo’s chest. He only focused on the building pressure visible on the gauges before him. Just as they went critical, he let go of the cutoff and jammed the accelerator with the safety clicked off. The bike shot forward from the built-up release, a sizable burst of purple blowing out of the exhaust. Countering its downward tumble, the bike careened over the edge of the trench. Haruo saw the world bend upwards and go horizontal again, the hoverbike lurched forward and would have buried itself into the dirt had a last minute yank on the handlebars not pulled its nose back up.

The stunt was too much for the dying engine to take, the hum of its systems sputtering with the display screens flickering off. Gritting his molars together, Haruo kept his head down and steered them down the game trail, lest they fly into a tree or bush and crash or get cut to ribbons by the foliage. The plant life seemed to be dying away, an observation he was keen on quite some time ago as well as the thankful note that the only servum they had seen were dead, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

The front of the bike gradually skid across the ground before catching on a root and digging in. It took every bit of drilled simulation practice and actual experience for Haruo to keep the bike upright and not roll over with them getting caught under it. They came grinding to a halt just inches from colliding with the dying husk of a tree. Haruo panted through damaged ribs, picking his head up and finding his helmet’s screen inches from impalement upon a snapped branch.

Coughing up a lung when he tried to take in a deep breath, clutching at his side while doing so, Haruo looked over to ask Maina where to go next but found himself glimpsing her half-limping and half-running off into the shrubs. Swallowing back his pain, he did his best to advance after her.

Maina found her sister laying on the edge of a cliff, a quivering mess. Miana was barely responsive when she was pulled up into Maina’s lap, her skin unnaturally pale and chilled. In her frantic terror, she’d scratched up parts of her face and arms and had torn chunks of her hair out. Maina’s eyes watered and she held her twin closer, forcing her telepathy into her sister’s mind as best she could to quell the storm. An act complicated by Miana screaming and thrashing, kicking out with her legs and digging her nails into Maina’s arm.

Maina gasped in pain, trying to keep Miana from hitting her in the gut and risk accidentally reopening her wound. She honestly found herself liking a certain moron more and more when Haruo managed to catch up and, quickly realizing the situation, held down Miana’s kicking legs.

It took a grand minute to pull off and Maina felt like she’d just ran a marathon and bled from her nose while doing so, but it was achieved. It was what Miana finally ‘said’ to her sister when she regained consciousness that risked repeating it all over again. Maina, still pale as a sheet, helped guide the struggling Miana to her feet while supporting her.

“Wh-what going on?” Haruo muttered as the two brushed past him, heading towards the cliff edge to see over it.

When the young Captain followed, he was left with a sight he had craved for decades and yet was loath to see. Haruo had projected a lot onto Godzilla since the demise of his parents on the airstrip. The years of nightmares as an orphaned boy stripped of his homeworld. The Aratrum left Earth with 5,000 passengers. By this year, they were down by a 1,000 due to disease and despair. Every day, every hour was a reminder of where they were, exiled from their home by a monster. The losses of life aboard, once a week usually, was a constant reminder. When he was young, he’d sometimes pray to any god listening for an answer to what humanity had done to deserve this. Why Godzilla had appeared and smite them. But as years wore on, confusion and pleading for answers led to obsession and obsession into revenge. This miraculous titan had slaughtered hundreds of millions in the fires of its maw and crushing stomps of its feet and then condemned the survivors to slow torture ended only by suicide or infection. Humanity as a species had been rent asunder.

It consumed every thought of his being to counteract the slow demise. Godzilla turned from the nightmares of a scared little boy into a vengeful man echoing a famous fictional sea captain. And just like Ahab, he’d made his white whale his entire focus. His god in a way, and himself an antitheist with a worship of demise.

And now, seeing it fulfilled… He felt nothing. Haruo Sakaki’s hand fell to his sides and he stood, dead in mind and breath. All the years obsessing, all the toil, death, and strife to end it all and where did he find himself? All that and for what? Down many friends and comrades, disruption of the Houtua’s lives, several dozens of lives lost, himself a murderer, and a futile plan that only resulted in him doing to Godzilla Earth what the giant had done to him by killing Filius.

And now something else completely unrelated to him was doing Godzilla in. If he had waited a few days, a week, it could have all been avoided. Only to deal with a titan he knew nothing of, other than its very appearance was equally terrifying to behold.

“What… What is that?....”

He whispered breathlessly as the Leviathan loomed over Godzilla, stomping on the disembodied tail to impale it further into Godzilla Earth and keep it pinned down.

Miana and Maina lowered their heads, the former bearing blood tear stains across her cheeks.

-Them.-

Haruo flinched as memories returned to him, the bizarre looking Zilla and Reptilian-Godzilla looming over himself and the twins harmlessly after saving them from the servum, two other giants visible in the background. Brief flashes of worlds or places he didn’t recognize were also present. A young Japanese woman standing before an egg, a boat with a shark-mouth painted onto the bow, a father holding his infant son as snow fell all around them, and eyes beholding a crowd of archaically dressed people bowing to it within an underground temple.

-They’re in agony…-

The wave of emotions the twins projected onto him hit Haruo like a tidal wave. He loathed the feeling. All the hatred, all the rage that blinded everything but the torment; obsessive malice. He despised it so because it was exactly what he had been feeling for almost two decades; even if the degree of which seemed paltry by comparison.

-They suffered a cruel fate, and for that I am responsible.-

Haruo flinched and looked over to Miana. Maina tried to hold her sister back but the ravaged looking twin managed to pry herself free and stand on the edge.

-I was selfish to demand more time in this world than I had been allotted, it was my cry for help that made them come. Because it is devouring him, the world is dying. Because I created it, it is devouring Godzilla. Because I called them, it was created… If I had distracted the servant I could-

Haruo was upon her in a second.

“NO! Don’t you DARE!” he roared as he grabbed her shoulders, “Don’t you ever be ashamed of living! Why else fight but to live?! Battle, struggle, and fight; do anything you have to do to live!”

-Choice words.-

Maina projected as she stood in the ashes of a dying tree. Either by the intensity she was feeling coming off the Leviathan or by seeing her world die around her, the typically strong-willed, stone-faced Houtua had finally shown a chink in the visage in full. Red, bloody tears ran out of her eye and her lips quivered. Haruo almost recoiled when he saw how different she looked. Maina stepped forward and pointed to the interloper who’d turned this world on its head.

-How many have died because you battled or struggled?-

Her accusing finger might have as well been a fired gun. The proverbial tomato hit the mirror so hard in Haruo’s mind it broke it. It hadn’t just been his quest for revenge that cost so many so much. He had. Monsters killed people, that had been a fact to him since he was a little boy at that airport Godzilla attacked. He knew their names. Orga, Anguirus, Rodan, Dagahra, Mechagodzilla, Godzilla… Today added two more to the list. Archbishop Metphies and Captain Haruo Sakaki.

After a passing minute of dead silence, Haruo lowered his head.

“... Then it’s time to do something else.”

The twins gaze upon him could be felt. Haruo Sakaki turned to face the cliff’s edge and held up his palms.

The young man’s usually sharp tone was extremely quiet, solemn and almost pitiful, “Can you talk to their mind, as you did mine?....”

He fell to his knees with his head bowed and back lowered, prostrating himself to kill any last pride. Miana and Maina, he’d forgive them for running after seeing how they were before. The twins looked to one another, then to the dying forests and lands around them. They were terrified, apprehensive, and could bolt. They put their outside hands on the palms of Haruo’s and their inside hands to each other.

The Leviathan surveyed the carnage with a wide grin. Godzilla Earth had proven quite the feast. And like any good buffet, it wasn’t ending easily. Pieces of flesh from the almost hollowed-out body were slowly mending, sparking with blue speckles of energy to try and rebuild themselves as they drained the nearby flora for energy in a desperate attempt to stay alive; sapping power from the plant and animal life for hundreds of miles.

Another mouthful of flesh was taken from the writhing mass beneath it when a voice came to it again. Had it been the same insignificance from before, it had ignored it entirely. But this one felt, different. The force behind the telepathy was still minuscule, but stronger, more focused; and voice it propelled of a different flavor. Its head turned slightly.

Haruo didn’t even know who or what he was praying to, just that he was. Just that they might listen to the condemned like him. There was a magnificent flash of light before his closed eyelids, then gales of wind and heat as something flew over and landed with a titanic crash and rolling earthquake. Footsteps approached, louder in strength and greater in magnitude. He didn’t dare rise up to see the titan before him, for he knew to behold it in such a state and so close would do no good. He kept himself prostrate before the creature whose head touched the stars. And the man who’d devoted his life to fighting, to screaming at the monstrosities of life as he lay helpless and pinned under burning debris, begged.

“I do not know your name… or where you come from. Or why you helped us… But I know you coming to our aid hurt you… turned you into what you are now because we prayed for your help.”

The Leviathan’s shadow grew over the Houtua and Haruo. Burning, solid red eyes themselves in a judging glare. It remembered the agony of death four times over and the pain of mourning thrice. If they caused it, they’d face the same punishment as their killer as its accomplice. A hand was raised to crush, Haruo’s and the twins’ image superimposed with the likes of demons in human hides like Katagiri.

“Don’t do this to be a monster.”

The hand began to descend. Haruo stayed where he was and so did the Houtua priestesses, bowing to the deity till the end. A projection of a burning airport came to the God of Destruction’s mind, taken from the point of view of a terrified child being hurried along so he didn’t suffer the fate of his parents, Godzilla’s grim image superimposed over the dusk sky with his eyes glowing amidst the inferno.

“Don’t be like him… Just a destroyer for no reason. You’re better than this. I-I couldn’t comprehend it at first, but you all were. You can be better than all this, burning this world out of revenge. But then what about those who didn’t deserve it?”

Haruo’s hands gripped Maina and Miana’s a bit tighter, not for his sake however as the shadows grew larger.

“Godzilla and I, we’re the monsters-”

He briefly sensed a protest in the twins, no doubt Miana, but he shouted over it to ensure the message got through. All the sights that were relevant were broadcast. The cities Godzilla Earth turned into an inferno with the ashes of millions, the soldiers under Haruo who met their end on this expedition by the monsters who dwelled upon the Earth or Haruo’s misplaced trust.

“By intent or blindness, we killed… Not just those who were wrongly under fire by our wrath-”

Haruo’s mind briefly thought back to the look Godzilla Filius gave him in its last moments. What looked like a scowl of rage in a moment of malice on his part started to look more like a sorrow, fearful grimace. The same expression a small boy made at an airstrip two decades ago. That act led to the deaths of many of his men, and the rage of an awakened father. One in a series of malcontent acts that brought ruin to this world. Evil perpetuated evil.

“-but those innocent of all pride or malice. I’ve been known as reckless, wrathful, consumed. A monster. I ignored it all because if others think you sick, what does it matter? They’re just wrong… But when you think yourself a monster…”

So many faces crossed his eyes, each brought forth to the Leviathan with utter remorse. So many he’d grown up with on the Aratrum. So many who’d followed his ambition to restore human pride, only to find a deathly end in which they’d never gaze upon such ill-prized glory. Godzilla Earth had broken many families aboard the Aratrum, Captain Sakaki had contributed in increasing that count. One out of not caring for any life but itself in its existence, one for not caring enough for any life but the target of his revenge. In the end, not that different. Haruo’s infamous pride was vanquished, and he found himself questioning which monster he hated most.

“I know how you think because you’ve become me….”

He fed his memories, all of them to Miana and Maina, knowing they’d know what to do with them. They were brought forth as an offering before the deity.

“If you want to kill it, kill it to be what you were and to help others… Not what you’ve become out of revenge, burning down this world as it did… Not burning down others, becoming like me...”

Haruo felt a full minute come to pass, feeling an intense heat wash over him and then pull away. He looked up to glimpse a hand with fingers the size of a large bus pulls away from crushing them last minute. The Leviathan stood tall, but back, its eyes no longer burning and instead sporting a calmer red sclera and golden iris; the eyes of the reptilian-Godzilla Haruo had seen next to the Zilla. Its demeanor shifted slightly, seeming to relax from either genuine release or confusion overriding its seemingly limitless wrath. Like someone inside it had finally woken from a horrid nightmare and was baffled as to what had happened to them.

It lasted for all of five seconds before golden necks and shrieking heads descended from the sky. The Leviathan whirled around to confront the oncoming force with a titanic roar, the moment of reprieve dying with the waves of malice roaring back to life. Haruo and the Houtua twins backpedaled in confusion and awe at the thrashing necks and fanged maws which seem to be thousands of meters long and made of some sort of burning energy rather than mass.

Haruo clenched his jaw, remembering the word Metphies had told him. It was one he was to draw strength from, the Exif god he’d gander though the alien he’d gunned down less than an hour ago expressed a terrified reverence of it. He said its name would bring strength because Haruo was not facing it but “merely” Godzilla.

He invoked the name thoughtlessly, “Ghidorah…”

King Ghidorah, the planet eater, cackled and descended. One of the heads hovered before the Leviathan, sensing the great power and energy with it like one would an endless feast. It threw its jaws open, rushing the God of Destruction. The Leviathan sneered, extending one of his wrist blades and taking a swing with such timing it would’ve decapitated the space dragon. Had there been anything there to hit, that is, for the blade passed through it harmlessly and Ghidorah’s jaws snapped down on its bicep.

The Leviathan growled, swatting and gripping at the head to no avail as Ghidorah pulled it along. A brilliant glow emerged from his back, two powerful streams of purple and red energy shooting into the ground and sending the Leviathan airborne. With the first head still chomping down upon it arm, the other two joined it and chased their prey across the sky with seemingly endless length as they continued to spool out of the dark portals from which they emerged.

Just as the first head seemed poised to try and yank the Leviathan back and crashing to the ground, the deity spun around and pointed its back to the oncoming necks. The exhaust emitting from its dorsum built up and exploded out in a flurry of beams. Purple encircled by spiraling, fiery red crisscrossed the sky. Whenever they hit one of Ghidorah’s necks, however, they passed through harmlessly.

Ghidorah cackled and lunged forward… only to scream in shrieking agony that hurt the humans’ ears when several beams condensed and shot into the middle portal. The head biting the Leviathan’s jaws flew open and it screamed, rapidly falling apart into glowing ashes like embers above a fire as its two compatriots writhed in pain. The Leviathan put its feet below it and landed a short distance away in a titanic crash that threw mountains of dust and ash into the air, turning about to observe.

Two new sights came to the world. The three portals combined together, forming a massive dark singularity that seem to swallow up most of the starry night sky. A near blinding glow descended from it, a fiery star in the form of a three-headed, two winged, twin-tailed dragon. The maws of the void, ever-ravenous, demanded their feast in retribution after being hurt. And they would act on it through more than just their astral projections this time.

But beyond the sheer shock and terror he was feeling at seeing the Exif god, King Ghidorah, hovering above; Haruo experienced horror like he never had before when he witnessed the falling star coming down from another section of the sky. It was barely recognizable, if so only because of the glow of its one remaining engine and distinct shape. The Aratrum, wreathed in fire with smaller chunks breaking off, was crashing to earth. Over 3,500 lives aboard, quite possibly the last large concentration of humanity left. The colony ship was most of what Haruo had left of the world of old, and virtually every life aboard surely deserved to see a tomorrow.

Haruo gripped the twin’s hands as he wept, “Please! Please tell him to save it!”

Miana and Maina winced, witnessed bits of Haruo’s memory of nearly his entire life aboard. The sight of every single additional human face served to hasten their plea. The Leviathan pitched its head up to look at the falling Aratrum, feeling thousands of eyes upon it from those on board. The fear, dread, and terror of those onboard were palpable to it. So many lives depended on its action.

But the God of Destruction’s eyes again turned, facing a descending King Ghidorah who seemed to be positioning itself near the still immobile Godzilla Earth. Every instinct and sensation screamed at the Leviathan to end the dragon, and every conscious thought and memory demanded it terminate Godzilla Earth. Such was in the nature of a God of Destruction.

A response was given to the Houtua, one that left the nearly crumbling to the ground from the intensity. Grimacing from the burning rage broiling through their minds like a choking steam, Miana and Maina directed their telepathy to Haruo.

Haruo blinked in confusion at the name, “A-Azusa.. Gojo? N-No there’s no one with that name on board. I memorized them all.”

Miana and Maina’s stare continued to bore into him and Haruo felt another join them. He looked past the cliff to see a burning, gold and red eyes leering right through him from the Leviathan’s eye. Under such pressure, no lie could ever survive.

“S-She must have perished in the cataclysm…”

The Leviathan’s eye instantly diverted to Godzilla Earth, who was gazing up at the hovering King Ghidorah with its one regenerated eye but was helpless to retreat or attack. Within a moment the deity’s eye went from mixed gold iris and red sclera to a glaze of crimson before flames burst from it. He, it threw its jaws open in a bellowing, earthshaking roar that reverberated across the sky for hundreds of miles; broadcasting malign intent.

Miana and Maina clutched at their heads with their free arms, receiving an intense feedback from the enormity. Haruo scrambled up to them, hands upon their shoulders as he tried to rouse them to attention. But between their seizures and convulsions, it was to no avail. Haruo Sakaki turned around after seeing his futility, witnessing the God of Destruction facing off against King Ghidorah. The forest’s death was accelerating, life force drained by Godzilla Earth, whom slowly started to pick itself up. All as the final bastion of humanity plummeted towards the ground as a blazing fireball.

For a man who’d lived thinking himself to be the lord of his destiny, Haruo grasped how out of his hands it was. There was nothing he could do but beg a god that probably didn’t understand, hear, or regard him. He screamed so loud he risked tearing his throat. A plea, a prayer.

The Leviathan’s eyes fluctuated between pure crimson and red and gold.

The eyes of humanity, its compatriots, and its descendants fell upon the Leviathan. The dour, seemingly doomed crew of the Aratrum who saw their return to Earth as their death sentence. The bands of Houtua and accompanying expedition survivors who’d been following their priestesses’ path, the former bearing witness to their world dying. And, should they exist, those who’d passed into the beyond. From a scheming archbishop to the countless slaughtered by the giants of this history. All looked to a God of Destruction with a single question.

Burning light roared into existence upon the Earth.

=========================

Orange eyes burst open amidst a cloud of marine silt. Zilla gasped and wheezed, feeling phantom, agonizing pains across his back and side. He launched himself off the seafloor and back to the surface, horror washing over him at the sight of burning lights…. inside pumpkins. The streets of the still-existent city were layered in orange and yellow lights, carved Jack-O-Lanterns lining the pathways dozens of people passed through in a parade of costumes ranging from superheroes to monsters. Many of them noticed the large, box-headed living landmark and waved cheerfully at their city’s protector; bidding him a happy Halloween in the year 2003.

Zilla didn’t register it was a human holiday or the fact the H.E.A.T. team was similarly dressed up and on the docks. The fright within his gaze was fitting for the season, but far too real for his father and companions. He didn’t stay. His heart was racing ten thousand miles a minute and he was soon keen to try and match that speed. Kicking off the seafloor, the mutant iguana’s tail thrashed and he was soon on his way.

Hours passed and yet he didn’t regard anything for a second, following a calling with the only conscious thought in his mind being to keep swimming in a specific direction. Bursting out of the waters near Panama, Zilla stampeded through the forests near the infamous canal and dove into the Pacific. The day was almost spent by the time he arrived in the Mu archipelago, finding a set of tracks leading to the ocean and following them further still. The Protector of New York found himself, after following the radiated heat trail in the water, buzzing by a mythic isle with a very concerned guardian moth pointing him in the right direction, followed by an island surrounded in storms, and then to the edge of Japan.

Zilla broke the surface in an exact spot he’d been summoned to, finding himself looking upon a living mountain standing on a submerged plateau with his gaze cast to the seemingly infinite ocean, the city of Kyoto at his back illuminating the night. Zilla lowered his head and stance. Godzilla Junior, ten years upon this world, was seen as many things. The wicked were terrified of him, some were wary of him, and other still were hopeful of his arrival. All could agree on one thing, however: the might of the King of the Monsters was incredible to behold. Young and still gaining skills or mastery, he’d already begun to exceed his father.

There was a reason Zilla looked up to the one he often called “Boss”.

Which was why it was a sobering reality to see the lord of the Mu islands looking so… broken. Blank, barely expressive outside of a thousand kilometer stare of a traumatized mind.

Godzilla let out a slow rumble, barely a whisper. He’d checked over the islands and surrounding waters, reviewing tabs on everyone. Orka, Gorgo, Gorosaurus, all of them on Solgell; then Mothra and Infant Island, and he even made a brief foray to Skull Island to confirm Kong was still alive before coming here to the last place he knew his mother was.

Zilla perched himself next to his fellow hero, nudging his shoulder against the dinosaur with a low warble coming from his throat. The lizard kaiju pointed to his head and closed his eyes. An inquiry of dreams, asking if Godzilla had had likewise.

Godzilla slowly pitched his head down to the Pacific waters around his feet, witnessing his reflection. In the distortion of the rippling waves, his visage almost resembling a plant-like juggernaut and a spined, monstrous transformation. His broken gaze was crushed even more and he spoke of what he remembered.

Zilla’s eyes widened and he jerked up. At first terrified, the jesting iguana soon let out a half-hearted chuckle and lightly smacked Godzilla across the shoulders and snapped his jaws. If someone translated the rabble he vocalized, he’d find mannerisms typical of the energetic lizard. Suggestions of a psychic link given he knew they both had experience with that, jokes about doing him a favor and just asking Zilla to slap him awake next time he decides to have a nightmare rather than pull him into it; and a jest about having a horrible crick in his back since he’d awakened with an over-the-top patting of his dorsum and silly stomping motion.

The jokes were drowned in the sea. Godzilla Junior slowly gazed at Zilla with such intensity and morbid pain that there could be no jesting. He outstretched a hand and ran the back of a knuckle along Zilla’s back. He couldn’t see the spot immediately, but memory told him the exact place to check. Zilla froze when he felt the knuckle trace over a bare part of hide between his scutes covered in scar tissue where his scales hadn’t grown back up. A long, deep scar running the length of his back from his mid-back to his left shoulder and encircling that large scute. In time, it would vanish, but for now, it was fresh.

As was the gaping, deep scar on Godzilla Junior’s chest with large keloids that ringed where his heart would be.

Zilla said absolutely nothing for a long while, cold tendrils constricting his mind. Godzilla Junior looked out to the ocean with the foggy clouds obscuring the night sky in an eerily familiar way. He told his friend about everything after the lizard was struck down. About the living mountain who embodied everything, Junior feared he might become, and the rampaging monster they'd been transfigured into which represented the very concept that defined all of those who bore their name, for good or for ill. Could anyone good be a facet of destruction? Unlike his forefathers, he actively tried to defend humanity and his American compatriot was no different. But, what was he deep inside to be a part of such calamity? When Junior looked at his reflection for years after this, the Leviathan he so feared would look back at him.

He’d have to double, triple his efforts to prove himself good. Maybe someday he’d get the chance to sacrifice himself and die in an act of complete altruism before any fate turned him into what he feared most, or at least help make enough good in the world that there’d be something to stop him when the time came. He couldn’t stand to see the innocent harmed, especially when he dreaded that one day he’d be the one doing that harm.

When the tale reached the recollection of the climax, with an ark falling from the sky, a repentant man begging a wrathful god for help, and the incarnation of everything that deity loathed standing before it to be smote; Zilla could only ask one question.

What did he do?...

The answer was silence.

Author's Note

.......... And now you know The Bridge not being dark was not a matter of inability but choice :trollestia:

Proofed and additional ideas by Lance-Omikron

Characters by Toho Company LTD, Tristar Pictures, and Legendary Pictures

Legacy of Everfree: A Hearth's Warming Tale, Part 1

It seemed like a good idea at the time. The night was clear, safe time of year, and she stuck to the trail. Or at least she'd done that last part for the first 20 minutes before getting distracted by trying to get a clear view of the stars. Not her fault all the trees in the way obscured them, causing her to walk off the beaten path for an indeterminate amount of time. That had been almost half an hour ago and a 10 year old mind can only be so occupied by the pretty constellations and milky way for so long. It was now that the little girl, bundled up in her jacket and knit beanie hat was beginning to grasp how lost she was. It was cold, and despite the full moonlight the thick canopy made it very dark, so dark she couldn't read her little compass even if she knew exactly which way it was back to camp. Even for a rather mature-for-her-age 10 year old, it was completely forgivable that despair started to settle in after another half hour of trying to find a trail. Her legs were tiring out and her jacket wasn't staving off the cold quite as much, allowing it to begin to trickle in like chilly tendrils reaching through the fabric.

“Heeelllooooo?!”

The night gave no reply.

“Heeelllooooo?! Momma? Papa? I'm over-”

She squeaked and covered her mouth when the yapping cry of a coyote or wolf echoed across her ears. The little girl whimpered, removing her beanie and stuffing it into her mouth to keep from making any loud noises out of distress on any impulse. Her bicolored purple and pink hair cascaded down her face to wreath it, though she shivered more from the cold air nipping at her scalp now.

Flickers of light shone in the darkness, but just as she tasted a rush of elation that it might be someone with a pair of flashlights come to find her, the lights blinked. Glowing eyes. Not just eyeshine, but actual eyes emitting light themselves. The green-hued embers blinked again, shifting in motion to waver slightly back and forth as they grew; indicative of their owner slowly walking forward closer and closer.

Wysteria shivered, cold snaps beyond just temperature alone racing up and down her spine. She tried to look away or close her eyes to break the paralysis, as if not seeing it would somehow mean whatever it was approaching wouldn't see her either. But she was too frozen and rigid in fear to do so, helplessly observing the outline of a thick mane of hair and a tall body move between the shrubs and tree branches without any obstruction. Almost like whoever it was phased through the foliage in the manner of a phantom.

Just as they were about to step free from the shroud on the last set of trees, a third flicker of light appeared below in between their orbs. This one was multicolored, though the individual hues blurred together into more of a white glimmer than a rainbow.

Everything paused. Wysteria stopped shivering and the entity stalled in place. There was a slow wind, barely more than a breeze that passed from behind and past the shrouded phantom to the little girl. Despite the winter season, which was chilly even with the light snow, this breeze was strangely warm and comforting.

Comfort, that was a really good word to surmise the feeling passing over the 10 year old. For some reason, she felt... calmed, as the jingle of what sounded like wind chimes played around her. The entity seemed to notice it as well, shifting in a way that it became obvious the third glow was a necklace of some sort, given a hand cast itself before the illumination and held it up. It looked at the necklace and then to the young girl.

It, though for some reason Wysteria had the odd sensation they were female, stared at her for a good minute or two as wind chimes 'spoke’. Wysteria saw her nod before very slowly stepping forward.

The darkness and a little girl’s weariness made it hard for her to distinguish many of the woman's features beyond outlines and silhouettes. But what she could see what's a unique mixture of beautiful and eerie. A lean human form broken up by pieces of foliage.

Eyes with blackened sclera encircling glowing green irises and yellow pupils looked down at her. They opened a bit wider, relaxing after studying the child. A hand was extended and Wysteria looked it over. It clearly was a human, a woman’s hand, and at first she thought they were wearing some kind of opera gloves. But closer inspection in the pale silver slivers of moonlight revealed the odd coloration to be wood. What seemed like oak bark and wood grains perfectly contouring to the shape and subtle movements of a human arm and hand. It went up to her elbow before revealing a bit of bare, human skin that was shrouded in the rest of her attire.

Slowly but surely, as Wysteria noticed tiny subtleties from campfire stories about her forebearers Spice and Dove, she recognized who it was. A mane of leaves encircling her neck, a gown constructed of interwoven ferns and smooth wood fibers, several branches forming a crown of sorts that erupted from her now subtly glowing, long dark hair that flickered with the dim illuminations of aqua and crystalline amethyst. The Legend of the Everfree, Gaea.

Gaea Everfree recognized several things about the child, even before recalling the details of her predecessor’ tale of striking a bargain with the founders of this camp. If her observations about the camp and vague personal memory were right, this was Spice and Dove’s granddaughter. But there was something else, something far more important. The geodes she wore around her neck, of which she retained, were responding to Wysteria’s presence.

-Could it be time?-

She checked again, looming over the child who’d not taken her hand yet and pulled up her necklace. The geodes, usually stashed away out of view under her leafy mane, all glimmered slightly in their protective housing of vines and leaves. But they all glimmered, none of them especially activated.

-Hm, receptive, but not acceptive. Not a bearer.-

She pulled the necklace away and looked at the child.

-The next retainer then.-

Wysteria tilted her head slightly when Gaea Everfree pulled out the necklace and confirmed its existence. Grandma Dove never mentioned she had one in the stories, and a few details were a bit different. Dove always said Gaea seemed to sprout from the ground like a mobile plant on roots, but Gaea seemed to have defined legs under a dress no one could miss. She also didn’t have the pale face, instead, she had pale green skin and a dark mask of dull red around her eyes. She looked more… human, for lack of better terms, than Wysteria had imagined.

-Maybe Granny just got a few details off?-

“Are you lost?”

Wysteria paused and was hit with a minor stupor, realizing Gaea Everfree was talking to her. Talking in a very warm, soft voice she wouldn’t expect of a forest nymph. Wysteria nodded without thinking about it. Gaea responded by crouching down more and extending her opened hand further.

“Let’s get you back to your family, child.”

With some hesitation to weigh her options, Wysteria cautiously took the hand and let its fingers curl around her’s. Despite the woody texture, they flexed and shifted with the subtleties of flesh. Gaea Everfree stood up and started off in a direction at a slowed pace, so the child’s shorter paces could keep up.

They walked on for some time, Wysteria sometimes stealing glances to her company whenever they passed into some more illuminated spots of the forest where the moonbeams pierced the canopy. She was far less terrifying in appearance than the stories made out, even if still uncanny in more than a few ways. It was odd to consider and she wasn’t quite sure why she thought so, but she got the sense that Gaea was of advanced age. The slight crinkle in the leaves on her mane, a few wrinkles in her face, and a bit of roughness in the wooden vine coiling around her waist. But she soon found it hard to observe much of anything as the cold bit into her arms and legs again to numb her toes.

“Brrr…” she shuddered and rubbed at her held arm to try and ebb the numbness away.

“Are you cold?”

Trying to keep her teeth from clacking, Wysteria nodded, “A-A-Aren’t you?”

“I’m resistant,” Gaea clarified as her necklace flickered a bit brighter under her mane.

Wysteria tried to watch but she stumbled and would have fallen due to her numb leg had a set of arms not caught her. She was slowly lifted up, brought up against a chest and shoulder with a warmth flowing over her. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see it was coming from the necklace pressed up against her shoulder as Gaea held her. It banished the cold, but the weakness didn’t fade.

Looking ahead warily, Wysteria glimpsed something that made her heart soar. The illuminated cabins of Camp Everfree, home. And true to her word, Gaea Everfree was carrying her towards it. She tried to gaze at it longer, but her eyelids felt so extremely heavy. A hand brushed her head gently.

“Rest. The cold won’t be a problem.”

There was a magic in those words, figurative and literal. Wysteria felt her eyelids lowering as another whisper came to her.

“Your time will come, eventually.”

Her parents found her, safe and sound at their doorsteps after a series of knocks.

===============

1 Year Later

===============

Wysteria stopped her bike on the side of the rural road and checked her map for the fourth time to ensure she hadn’t overshot it, thumbing through the notes her mother left her. A quick glance was given to her surroundings, seeing the bridge about a kilometer ahead along with a bend in the road which would indicate she’d gone too far. A look behind her confirmed the existence of a particular white-barked oak tree looming over the side of the pavement. Two landmarks she was supposed to be in between, but closer to the oak tree. Which meant…

“Ah!” she squeaked to herself as she changed course towards a section of the road, kicking off the ground and biking towards a barely noticeable dirt path.

The path had obviously not been used much over the years, much less recently. It seemed like it might have once been used by a car but not for a long time given the shrubs on either side had grown out over it. She could barely fit her bike into it. The dirt path, half grown over with uneven grass and bits of clover, was very long and winding, Wysteria coasting through most of it given it was all down hill.

After a good minute or so, the foliage finally broke and she was greeted with the sight of an aged, worn, small house built into the clearing. The old styled mailbox once had three letters but the middle had fallen out, being legible still due to the way the paintless wood had aged. It read ‘Shy’ and in some ways that fit the occupant of the dwelling. An old recluse her parents knew well by the name of Mrs. Posey. Wysteria wasn’t very sure about the situation, though her father had vouched for her character when she’d come to Camp Everfree to ask about posting a job offer. Apparently she and his family went far back even before her husband had passed and daughter moved to town for work. There was a car behind the house, but given the tarp covering it was layered with multiple strata of leaves and dirt that had some greenery sprouting from it; Wysteria got the sense it hadn’t been fired up in months.

-Mom said Mrs. Posey liked to be left alone, she’s the last private landowner in Everfree beyond the camp. Guess that rumor from school about her living in the woods was right.-

She stifled a shiver as she biked around to the front of the house.

-Let’s just hope the part about her being a witch isn’t. Remember though, don’t go inside until Mom and Dad catch up.-

Her parents were about 10 minutes behind her and evidently her father used to visit often in his youth so he knew exactly where Mrs. Posey lived. Was a big reason he proposed to her she take up the job offer, along with encouraging her to get out some more. As she rounded the bend however, she couldn’t completely smother the worry she’d find an old crone with a hooked nose and pointed hat looming over a book or cauldron awaiting her.

Instead however, she was hit in the face with the scent of fresh tea. The porch was worn, but well kept despite the vines growing over the support beams made of old earthy wood planks broken up by occasional slabs of masonry stone. And sitting on a rocking chair with a small table and second chair across from her was an kindly looking matron. Mrs. Posey, for who else could it be, smiled warmly at her new company, a book in her lap and cup in hand. She easily looked only twenty or so years older than her parents, but her father had vouched she was well into her 70s. Long pink hair set in a simple braid had begun to gray noticeably, but still had some bright hues to it. She wore a simple working dress and apron, which between that, some wrinkles, and her circular reading glasses gave her a definite ‘Grandma Classic’ look even if she didn’t look advanced into her elderly phase just yet.

“My my you’ve grown,” she chuckled with a strangely familiar warmth coming through her voice, “Hello there deary.”

Wysteria blinked in a bit of a stupor, not just at how Mrs. Posey definitely didn’t sound like a witch, but also at a warm sensation in her voice. It wasn’t like it was an affectioned voice she recognized, as evidently she’d only met this woman when she was extremely young, but there was something uncanny to it. She wouldn’t quite lay a finger down on it as she puzzled briefly.

“Would you like some tea? I believe your parents are still a few minutes out.”

Mrs. Posey’s question pushed Wysteria out of her mental funk and she found herself nodding before really wondering why. Something about the old matron’s presence was bringing her comfort but she wasn’t sure why still.

There was a slight shift in the wind, a breeze passing between the two of them as Wysteria approached. Both froze up for the briefest moment. Wysteria found herself looking away from the house’s attic without knowing why her eyes had been drawn to there, looking about for the source of the noise she just heard.

-Was that a wind chime? Does she have it out back?-

In her confusion to try and spy the chimes as she sat herself down, Wysteria never saw Mrs. Posey smiling behind the cup she sipped from.

===============

10 Years later

===============

An older Wysteria retraced her mental steps and paused her bicycle ride down the old parkway road, flanked on either side by towering pines, checking the map taped between her handlebars to recheck her route before spying a dirt path diverting off the pavement. Following along the surprisingly long trail, which seemed to have tire marks worn into the dirt, the overgrowth on either side was so thick one still wouldn’t have seen the house from the road had they not known it was there, the lodging laying a full 200 meters off the road and at the end of a winding path. Even with her experience and Mrs. Posey or her using her old car a few times over the years, the nostalgic path was still hard to spot.

The house was as it always was even while it stood empty, barely more than a cottage. It was still just as homely but also homey all at once without the company. Not a paint chip to be seen with earthy wood composing parts of it along with masonwork on the other portions. One story with an attic, vines had overgrown part of the walls and the lawn was dotted with wild flowers and fallen leaves.

It had been a month since Mrs. Posey had passed away. Wysteria could briefly felt a twinge of sadness at not seeing the nice old widow waiting for her at the porch, often with tea or a conversation on hand while being ready to receive the errand she’d sent the teenager on.

Wysteria sighed a bit heavily, imagining the phantom with grayed pink hair and wide glasses sitting at the porch to keep her company. It had been nine years since she met the elder recluse, Mrs. Posey having come to the camp to ask if she could post a notice about wanting a hired helper to drop in every few days to do some odd jobs. Wysteria’s parents knew her well, evidently she’d been a close friend of her father’s mother, Dove; almost like a little sister. Which, in a roundabout way, somewhat made her like a grandaunt to Wysteria. Given familiarity, lack of potential danger, close proximity to home, and her own willingness to help, she got the job and had kept at it through the old woman’s failing health.

When she saw Posey laid to rest to join her husband, she hadn’t expected a letter from the old matron a month later. It had been a week since any might have taken an interest in her house, little interest as there was. Some things left to friends and family, most of the valuables taken away. The will stated Posey wanted her house to stand as it was and let it be reclaimed by the forest unless her children wanted it. Knowing how much of an herbalist and recluse Posey was, her daughter had opted to let their mother’s dwelling lay abandoned.

Which made it all the more confusing to Wysteria when the posthumous letter she got included two keys and the deed to the house with legal bindings in her name should her family not claim it. Twenty years old and she owned a house…

She cringed at hearing the timbers creek from the breezes as she opened the front door.

“Home ownership… yippie,” Wysteria muttered to herself lowly as she stepped in. The interior without Mrs. Posey to warm it by presence alone or a lit fireplace created an eerie look about it.

The windows half overgrown with leaves and vines, no interior electricity to light anything, most of the furniture gone, and the carpet removed to expose the old wood planked floor which creaked at every step. With a dwelling like this and her reclusive nature, there was a reason the other students at Canterlot High had a running rumor Mrs. Posey was some kind of witch. Wysteria checked the letter again for instructions.

‘The second key is to a chest, it’s in the attic under some boards. You’ll know it when you feel it.’

She eyed the darkened staircase as she drew up and clicked on a flashlight, holding it before her to light up the dusty, aged steps she ascended with the hope they wouldn’t break still in the back of her mind on every stride. All her time here, she’d never been up in the attic before. Despite knowing how kind and calm Mrs. Posey could be, knowing her chiefly as a sweet old lady who liked to plant wildflowers and read books on sleepy afternoons, little embers entailing rumors of sorcery and potion-brewing couldn’t be fully stifled. What if she opened the door to find runes painted into the floorboards or a massive cauldron tucked away in a corner?

Her hand fell upon the attic latch and she hesitated to draw a breath.

-Well, only one way to find out…-

It was surprisingly anticlimactic upon entry. The attic looked basically as she’d expect any abandoned one to look like. Dusty in more than a few places, some cobwebs, a stained window with a crack in it, and most of the boxes or cupboards removed with slide marks on the floors. Wysteria bit her lip as she cast the flashlight beam around the room before her, looking back at the letter to confirm the wording.

-I’ll know it?-

Her brow furrowed as she looked at the dozens of floorboards, all which looked completely indistinguishable from each other in a sea of dusty, cracked, old wood. She scoured about for several minutes but had no such luck. She couldn’t see anything. Wysteria huffed and checked the letter again, hoping to find some clue as to not have to spend an entire day or more checking every single floorboard to find what it was Mrs. Posey was on about. There was a temptation to give up if she had no such luck, but she smothered it. Mrs. Posey had filled her childhood and teenage years with lovely advice and good conversation about topics ranging from helping her in biology class to helping her find her boyfriend. The least she could do was honor this last request, especially if she’d gone to the trouble of leaving something for her.

-Evidently something she didn’t want others to have though, not even her kids.-

A troubling thought to a degree, but she did her best to ignore it for now, mostly just hoping someone didn’t stumble upon whatever it was that was up here by chance. Her eyes retrained upon a word Posey left.

-’Feel it’...-

She puzzled, closing her eyes to mull over the thought as to question how she was supposed to do that exactly. The answer came with a sound. A breeze blew through the attic despite the lack of open window, pushing onto her back in a specific direction. There was a sensation there, almost overpowering. A nudge on her back more than just the breeze should have been. The chimes, they got louder, audible between her ears. Wysteria found herself compelled towards moving. She considering resisting the growing feeling at first, but there was something to it. Something familiar to an experience lodged in the back of her mind’s eye. After some hesitation she again closed her eyes and let it come to her, stronger this time.

Steps were taken without conscious thought, almost like she was sleepwalking. Active thought wasn’t a factor as she slowly followed the push and pull, guiding her towards something like a magnet pulled to another.

The sensation paused and seemed to leave her for a moment, causing Wysteria to crease her brow in confusion. The chimes, they called to her again briefly, plainly.

A single question. A call for help.

Wysteria found the sensation again and this time, she recognized it from a dim memory a decade old. One from a frightful, yet fateful night in the woods. In the vagueness of memory, she’d forgotten it. The logic her parents suggested, was that some good samaritan hiker or drifter had came across her sleeping, and she dreamed of an entity of folktales and campfire stories taking their place to cope with the fear of getting lost. Perhaps they were wearing a funny-looking coat and had branches stuck to them, which she mistook for a floral attire in the darkness?

But this feeling was warm. The same warmth she felt when her rescuer had pulled out a necklace before her. A similar warmth, now that she remembered it, she got from being around Mrs. Posey.

She gave her answer.

“I accept. I’ll help...”

Her hands acted on impulse, pulling aside an otherwise nondescript floorboard to reveal a lockbox underneath. Eyes glazed over in visions of the past, dreams having turned out to be realities as the chiming showed her the truth. Wysteria fished out the key and put it into the lock. It clicked open and she felt the same warmth again as the trance faded away. Snapped back to awareness, Wysteria found herself back in the past, back in the forest a decade ago. Staring back at her was Gaea Everfree’s necklace. Only this time the set of geodes wasn’t on a vine-built chain as they glimmered back at her from within the case, resting atop a small handwritten book.

Awe and bewilderment took hold of her visage as she slowly picked up the crystals and small diary, gawking at the former especially. A thousand questions flashed through her. She really hadn’t dreamed her rescue up? There really was a Gaea Everfree? Where was she? How did Mrs. Posey get her necklace? Why give this to her? What was that voice in the chimes? What was-

She closed her eyes and sucked in a breath, steeling her fraying nerves to control her spiralling mind.

-Books are meant to be read. If Mrs. Posey wanted me to have this, she obviously wanted me to read this.-

The warm, inviting geodes were very hard to take her eyes off of, demanding attention with the promises of something wondrous. If minerals could emote, they almost seemed… jubilant, that she had found them. The echoes of the chiming came back, ushering a pleased sensation she couldn’t help but emulate. The magical crystals, for what else could someone like Gaea Everfree own, were at least benign and not like a certain dark lord’s ring from a book series she liked.

She paused briefly to ponder how quickly she’d come to accept magical jewelry as a real thing, but shrugged.

-Side effect of swearing up and down to mom and dad I saw a wood nymph as a kid for years until the ‘drifter’ excuse kicked in I guess-

Elated as she was, Wysteria managed to slowly put them back down in the box and shut the lid to be free of distractions. Nodding to herself alone, she opened the diary to a page dated roughly a decade ago.

‘Dear Wysteria,’

She couldn’t help but perk a brow at why it was addressed to her so long ago, and the writing didn’t look like it was added after the fact. She knew of Mrs. Posey a decade ago, but they’d hardly interacted. It was a year after they became better acquainted. Intrigue bubbling up, she read on.

‘As I write this I hope you have recovered well from your experience. I expected to just lend some help after you’d fallen asleep but something was different. There’s something special about you, Wysteria, something I have had too since I was your age. I was only fifteen when I realized what it was, but I hope I can shoulder this burden longer for your sake so you don’t need to take it until you’re older than I was. I’m getting up there in years, but I can manage. I’ve known of you since you were a baby, but I never expected this link to be the case.’

Wysteria tilted her head as she was drawn in more and more. A possibility was trickling in. One that seemed so impossible she shoved it away, hoping the next lines would clear things up. Instead, they bluntly stated something so jarring she couldn’t hope to reject it.

‘I am Gaea Everfree, or ‘was’ eventually. I’ve already suggested to your parents that a reclusive hiker came by my home the same night to ask about you. They’ll tell you he saved you. But if any doubts linger in your mind by the time you read this, hold the crystals and feel. The chimes will tell you the truth. It was me. Gaea is me and I know you got a good look at how I appeared, even if it felt like a dream.’

Wysteria’s head slowly shook in a stupor. Mrs. Posey… was Gaea Everfree. The nice old lady who pretended she was nearsighted to get her to come close enough to share some tea and gave her dating advice to get her shy crush to open up to her, was the spirit of Everfree. The Witch of the Woods, the forest nymph, the nature avatar. It was almost impossible and yet, as she remembered the warmth and magic radiating off Gaea that fated night she was held in the legend’s arms and recalled the embers of that warmth every time Mrs. Posey spoke to her… Somehow, part of her always knew.

‘I’m writing this diary because I came to know something new the chimes told me. There must be someone to retain these geodes to keep them safe and do some good, for why I’ll get into later. But for now, that job is mine. But one day, it’ll be yours until you find a successor. I am Gaea Everfree, retainer of the Elements of Harmony. I was fifteen when I met the last one, whom your grandparents met. She was actually a florist named Blossom but she was well before your time. But, just as it fell to me to be Gaea, one day, maybe when you’re reading this, it will fall to you. If you accepted, that is.’

Wysteria’s eyes drifted to the geodes briefly before going back to the aged pages of the book.

'I won't plant any seeds to see if you’re the one until you're settled. An old woman like me could use a hand around the cabin, I don't risk taking on the form of a woods spirit except at night. Too much attention. And you don't want that. It'll help me keep an eye on you and ensure the chimes chose right. If not, hide the crystals and never speak of them again. Trust the right person will find them. If you accept, you cannot tell anyone. This power is a blessing to grant abilities above humanity and a duty to guard them until it is time to find the bearers, because if abused it could strike back, warp the mind and do terrible harm. If you accept again, turn the page and hold the crystals over the paper, don’t let them go.’

Wysteria turned her attention to the geodes and slowly curled her fingers around them. A warmth brushed up against her digits and she bit her lip in a moment of final contemplation.

“I confirm, I accept.”

The warmth rushed through her and she could sense things she thought she couldn’t have ever experienced before. The darkened attic became illuminated briefly by eyes that could pierce the shade, she could feel the vines outside like they were extensions of her body; and surges of emotions and experiences flashed through her mind. Each of the crystals lit up in sequence. Kindness to others, generosity to give, loyalty to hold, honesty to cleanse, laughter to bring joy; all feeding into and forming magic.

Before she could be fully aware of it, the crystals were around her neck in a necklace chain made of vines and flowers. Wysteria let the new addition be cradled in her hands, eyeing it and then the seemingly blank next page. Seeing no other option, she brought the crystal to the paper and let her eyes widen at the crackles of energy and illuminating sparks that jumped from it onto the pages. Glowing text wrote itself across the parchment, like previously invisible ink letting itself be known.

‘Use my home to practice until you get the hang of this. Some things just can’t be explained but I’ll do my best to leave you notes on how to do this right, successor.’

===============

‘Magic in this world requires a lot of focus. It’s like flexing a muscle or keeping an aim. It’ll get easier, even unconscious with time. These powers are for the bearers but we can at least tap into each as long as we understand the elements the way they’d come naturally to a bearer.’

Wysteria stood in the meadow outside the house, the diary at her feet resting atop a rock as she loosened her body up.

“Okay, key in on what the elements represent and it’ll help,” Wysteria muttered to herself, parroting the words Posey had left behind.

She held up her necklace and muttered to herself, thumbing over the various elements and stopped at the pink colored one, “Laughter seems straight forward enough.”

She thoughts about everything from Chaplin movies to funny home video shows, but nothing seemed to bite. A quick consultation of the diary confirmed what she was doing wrong.

‘Laughter isn’t just the act of laughing, but the intent. One can laugh at someone for malign intent. The Element of Laughter is about what benign laughter does, not what it is. It breaks down barriers, stops tension, and opens up common ground by the act of sharing or giving laughs.’

Wysteria thumbed at her chin as she poured through her memories for something that fit the criteria.

-Break down barriers….!-

It came in a flash. A school lunchroom about five years ago where a taciturn teenager she’d written off as borderline creepy tripped into her and ended up spilling his and her lunches all over one another. She distinctly recalled looking at him as he scrambled to get off of her, gravy covering half his face as hers was caked in a pizza. Frantic apologies got exchanged, followed by reassurance the other had nothing to be sorry over, before delving right back into apologies. It was the first words ever spoken to one another in years. They’d both ended up busting a gut laughing at how ridiculous they were in action and appearance. He’d been a stranger a year ago, he was her boyfriend now.

The element glimmered; the memory was warm, the memory was strong... Almost as strong as the roots and vines that burst out of the ground under her feet and caused Wysteria to yelp as she was thrown into the air and fell flat on her face.

Wysteria groaned and propped herself back up on an elbow, blowing some grass and clover out of her bangs. She looked back and gawked at the root tendril spiraled out of the ground for a moment, shaking her head before acquainting her face with her palm. On one hand, she’d just done freaking magic!... On the other hand she knew what clover tasted like now. Not a very glorious start to be sure. The book flopped over in front of her, coincidentally landing on a side note to the page she’d been on. Wysteria parted the fingers covering her eyes to peak at it.

‘Might need some help tuning yourself to the magic at first. Maybe try dancing, singing, or at least humming.’

Wysteria, who’d just taken about several second of air time getting launched up several meters, grumbled, “Oh, now you tell me?”

===============

‘Laughter’

Wysteria yipped as she, now sporting a football helmet, was sent airborne again by a set of roosts erupting from the ground.

‘Honesty’

Recollection of how an admission of feelings went on a date set to some calm humming resulted in Wysteria having to frantically duck due to the nearby trees doubling in size.

‘Loyalty’

Memories at how an opportunity to try ‘someone’ new being flatly rejected during her boyfriend’s overseas training were cut off, as was her song, when the clover around her turned into a mass of vines that spurred her to squawk and jump away.

‘Generosity’

Babysitting Celestia and little ‘Woona’ despite the chance to go out with friends was a pleasant time to remember, but she had a feeling the observation the ground she’d stood on was now a 4 meter tall tower of wood wouldn’t be.

‘Kindness’

At the barest minimum she could mark this one down as a draw given the experience of giving the campers a fun field day and the lovely song she sung remembered it was just as good as the shock of finding it was now raining was strong.

‘Magic’

This song was slow, gradual, and calm. She kept the pace consistent and held her hands in orbit around the necklace. It was winter now, but she was beginning to no longer feel the cold even as her closed eyes left her oblivious to what was going on. She just focused on what she was doing and the heat the necklace was giving off. Months upon months of practice, and it all came to this. The soloist choir was beautiful even if she wasn’t an especially talented singer, accompanied by a breeze one could hear chimes within.

Wysteria’s hair rose up on its own, pinks and purples trickling away into spans of luminescent greens. A cape of interlocked ferns and leaves appeared across her neck and back, flowing in the low wind as gloves made of wood fibers phased into existence on her forearms. A flower dotted vine encircled a green dress, a gem studded band wrapping around the crown of her head. Eyes slowly opened, a mask of deep, rosey red encircling seas of black sclera and emerald green eyes.

Wysteria gawked and touched at her face as she gazed into the icicles hanging off the cottage roof. Despite having previously been knee deep in snow and wearing fifteen layers of clothing, she barely felt any chill despite the fact she was in a simple dress with plenty of skin showing. Gaea Everfree, similar but different from the one of her childhood, gazed back at her.

===============

‘Remember, this power can be a great boon to the world if it’s used right, both during our time as retainers and when the bearers are found. But, there are dangers. Some real rotten humans in this world might lie, cheat, steal, and worse to get those crystals. You must keep them and the forest meant to house them safe. Because there might be more than just humans out there to worry about. If magical crystals and forest nymphs are real, what else is out there?’

In the frozen wastes of the polar sea, ice started to chip. Then it cracked. And then it shattered. Something sensed a familiarity. Two more figures ripped their way out of the icy tomb they’d been imprisoned in. They stood tall on gaunt, unnaturally long legs as the arctic winds roared all around them, joined by an unnatural gale. A nearby, curious polar bear made the mistake of looking at them. The great beast which could casually bathe in the polar sea waters and stride through blizzards felt a cold, a biting cold that tore through it. It barreled away in a frantic retreat to get away from them.

They looked to one another, frostbitten arms pointing southward towards the source. It might take years for the journey, but they leapt into the frigid waters without pause. They sunk hundreds of feet to the bottom, not paying the pitch blackness under the ice any heed as they started the long march. They’d sensed what happened, their master managing to interfere with their banishment so they'd end up here. They’d sensed its first awakening hundreds of years ago, but finally the spell holding them had broken. And without their master’s rival noticing no less. Perfect.

Harmony’s magic had banished them. And Harmony’s magic would die for it, however many years it took for them to hunt down the source without her noticing them.

Boreas, Zephyrus, and Notus idly wondered if they could have as much fun in this world of dormant magic, a world largely lacking the tools to fight back against them, as they had at Mako.

Author's Note

Proofed by Lance Omikron and Faith Wolf
Title by Lance Omikron

Wysteria (G3) owned by Hasbro
Blossom and Posey (G1) owned by Hasbro
Gaea Everfree, Windigos, and location (G4) owned by Hasbro

Legacy of Everfree: A Hearth's Warming Tale, Part 2

Author's Note

Proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron

Conclusion: Coming very... Very Soon...

I hope you all enjoy, I've got two possible endings for this so feed back will help me decide how it ends.

Legacy of Everfree: A Hearth's Warming Tale, Part 2

“Coming at yah!”

The projectile sailed above her head and was skillfully caught by her partner, a robust, turquoise skinned man with light indigo hair cropped short, as the smell of searing flesh filled their noses, the popping crackle of broiling liquids accompanying it upon him reloading.

“Return to sender,” Salty Sentry’s calm tone betrayed the sweat building across his brow from the intense heat.

Wysteria grinned and already had the skillet at the ready, nimbly catching the oncoming mass of batter and returning it to the stove. They were both a mess, half spattered in flour and bits of grease as they prepared breakfast. The duo couldn’t care less about how messy it had gotten, it was his first day back from advanced training and they were in too good of a mood after the events of last night. Flipping the sizzling bacon after his wife had lobbed the liquid butter at him, Salty Sentry glanced about and cracked a cheeky grin before swiping low and giving her a slight slap.

Wysteria yipped and jumped up a bit, almost dropping the flapjacks before shooting him and over-the-top deadpanned glance, “You seem eager.”

Salty Sentry was looking away and bobbing his head slightly to the music being played in the kitchen from the radio, acting like nothing happened, “I could say the same for you ‘Missus Spear Tackle Your Husband at the drop off’.”

A set of fingers walked across his shoulders before gripping him and forcing him to turn around and face her. Wysteria closed the distance very quickly and was hovering in front of him, “Oh don’t start with me now you dork, you never minded me being close to you before in public.”

“Nor private,” he grunted and before she thought he’d pull away, he dove in and planted a deep smooch across her lips.

Limerence of a high school relationship had blossomed into something far more powerful over the years, them managing to keep together despite a deployment and her managing to camp alone most of those times. Well out of the honeymoon phase and they still had it going strong, and it had bore fruit.

The front door creaked open before either of the couple could stop their makeout session.

The aforementioned fruit, completely covered in dirt and twigs, loudly bleeped out an ‘Eeeew!’ before dropping about four pounds worth of raw mud and dirt on the welcome mat to cover her eyes.

“EEEEeeeeeeeeew!”

Salty Sentry made to pull away but his wife didn’t let go easy, tightening to deepen the smooch a bit more and humming contently as one of her legs popped up off the ground and curled backwards; obviously playing it up to mess with their daughter.

“Ick ick ick!” Gloriosa, age seven, yelped before waving her hands and jumping up and down, slinging more dirt everywhere. Thankfully the front door area never had much of anything around it but she was painting the old wood and walls with a deep shade of wet brown from the mud. Wysteria finally let them separate and snickered, turning off the stove for safety and pacing over to their daughter with her apron held up as a projectile shield.

“Gloriosaaa,” she groaned with a chuckle as she peeked behind her apron, only to get a dirt clod to the face, “Afph! Hey now that one was on purpose!”

Gloriosa Daisy, now sporting a set of ‘raccoon eyes’ warpaint due to covering her face with her dirty hands, stomped and pouted, “And you grossed me out on purpose Momma!”

Salty Sentry shrugged and got between the two most important ladies in his life, rolling his eyes as he crouched down between them, “Come on now, peace accord.”

He promptly shoved a bacon strip into Wysteria’s mouth before she could protest and turned back to his daughter. There was a moment of awkwardness in Gloriosa’s eyes as she glanced away from him and towards her mother, her body straightening up as if she was trying to be respectful to her returned father. It honestly put a crack in his heart and it took a lot of strength to keep from frowning. That just might make it worse. Instead he cracked a humored smile and nodded to the dirt at their feet.

“So, heard Ma and I were cooking and wanted to make us a ‘mud pie’?” he quipped with a pat on Gloriosa’s head to ruffle her hair.

Gloriosa flinched for a moment but thankfully relaxed into the pat, even as she stuck her tongue out a bit at being touched and tried to playfully bat his hand away, “Uh uh! I was bringing breakfast for Pete!”

Salty raised an eyebrow, “Pete?”

Gloriosa nodded rapidly and collected up some dirt in her skirt, stepping around him and her mother as she made her way to the house’s back window; tracking dirt the entire way. She reached the window by climbing up on a chair and emptying some of the dirt into a small ceramic pot situated on the side; a few green sprouts and a bit of leaves poking out over the edge.

Salty watched on with a sigh, not having been privy to this among other things he missed out on. He felt Wysteria nudge his shoulder.

“Wanted to teach her responsibility without it being an animal pet so I took some seeds from Mrs. Posey’s wildflowers,” Wysteria noted with a nod, “She started a month after you left.”

Salty’s breath felt a bit heavier and he couldn’t keep the frown away anymore, “Right around her birthday... And then the holidays soon after I was absent for.”

A hand gently patted at his cheek and gripped it so he’d look at her, “No one can blame you for missing some things. She doesn’t.”

“Yeah but she’ll remember. This is the age memories really begin to solidify. She’s going to look back remembering her uncle at more early birthdays or celebrations with her than me.”

Wysteria let the frown spread to her for a moment and form a cavity in her core that was no doubt nothing compared to the one her husband had. An eye cast itself to the calendar on the refrigerator, seeing the checkmark on the current date that perked her brow.

“The stuff you got for everyone should be arriving in a few hours with the shipment,” Wysteria whispered as she wiped her face off with her apron, “Hows about you get her to clean herself up and then have some Daddy-Daughter bonding while finishing breakfast. I’ll go and pick everything up to give you two plenty of time.”

Salty Sentry glanced to her with a bit of awkwardness and worry visible in his eyes, “You sure? You said she picked up some quirks in the letters but never elaborated. What if they pop up?”

Wysteria smirked and winked, "Then it will certainly be memorable for the both of you. Now go on and remind her you don’t live in a uniform all the time. Just be yourself and she’ll recognize she gets it from you.”

Salty Sentry’s deadpan leer was canceled out only by his wife kicking him in the bum behind their backs.

The morning air was chilly even with the heater on, early winter having settled in. She’d have been lying to herself if she ever said the drive away from home wasn’t without some apprehension. Yes, Salty Sentry and Gloriosa seemed to be doing fine. Their daughter seemed to be bringing out some of her old self around her father when he joined in on putting some more fresh dirt around the plants, but things took a little time. Gloriosa was young and while she understood it was something important that kept her daddy away from her for over a year, she was still young and had gotten a few unspoken ideas as to why things happened the way they did.

Some time together though would do excellent for them, especially in a nice calm setting like the house.

Wysteria wished her own surroundings were just as placid when she saw what was coming around the bend in the hill. A thick, dark pillar of smoke. Turning the corner of the road soon revealed the source in the form of a long path of skid marks leading from a large patch of very hard-to-see ice on the road towards a large dent in the guard rail. And a few dozen meters further ahead, the back end of a smoking car sticking onto the road through the hole it had punched in the railing from hitting it at high speed. She slowed her car and peered forward, hoping against hope she would see someone standing beside the wreckage safe and sound.

Instead she heard a loud, high-pitched yell from over the edge.

It was broad daylight, anybody might drive by at any moment. The only ones that knew who and what she was could be counted on two fingers. Mrs. Posey was deceased, and her husband, Salty, swore never to tell a soul after she revealed it to him on the eve of their wedding night. She didn’t hesitate for a moment to park her car and come sprinting out of it while holding onto her necklace. There was a flash of green light and Wysteria leapt off the ground, nimbly landing to hit the snow in a rush as Gaea Everfree half-sprinted, half-levitated towards the wrecked car.

There was only one occupant, a grown man in his late 30s or so in age. His yellow-orange skin and green hair were pocked by bruises and a trickle of blood from his forehead, evidently one of the airbags had failed to fire off which resulted in him hitting his head on the wheel. Wysteria thought he looked familiar, but couldn’t quite place his face in the midst of the panic-addled situation. The smoke streaming out of parts of the car begat gouts of flame that were beginning to burn through parts of the floor and dashboard with the glove box billowing smoke. Evidently, the impact had ruptured something under the hood that was leaking flammable substances. She had to get him out, now. Her fingers gripped at the door but the latch refused to give. The window had been rolled down and she quickly spied the lock to undo it and yanked it up; but that changed nothing.

Her eyes soon came upon the cause in the form of a massive dent along the side, which had crushed-in part of the door and warped the metal to wedge it into the frame. Another attempt at the handle just resulted in her yanking it off.

“Damn it!” she grumbled as she stumbled back, briefly glancing at the handle before tossing it aside. It was fortunate she’d transformed for this and even better the occupant had lost consciousness. The crystals upon her obscured necklace glowed with life, tendrils of roots sprouting from the ground at her command. Humming a melody, Gaea Everfree waved her arms in a vaguely dance-like motion to focus the magic. The vine work obeyed her command, coiling around the door while others braced against the car. They constructed in, pushing and pulling in opposite directions. More vines wrapped around the whole of the car to keep it from jostling as metal screeched and finally snapped. The door, torn free from its holdings, was tossed aside at the wave of Gaea’s hand. Privy to the fire, she summoned away the other vines to free the car and rushed back in.

Now able to access the occupant, Gaea was quick to undo his seat belt and very carefully, fearing he might have neck trauma, pulled him free of the wreck to carry him away in her arms with her boosted strength. Gaea placed the unconscious man a dozen meters away, coiling some vines around him to keep him stable and immobile for his own safety, and went back towards the car. By now the smoke was beginning to choke a lot of the nearby area.

“Is there anybody else in there?!” Gaea shouted aloud while waving her arm in front of her face as she surveyed the car.

Thankfully the passenger front seat was empty and the trunk, unlikely as anyone was to be there, had been jostled open by the impact and revealed itself to be vacant as well. Gaea’s eyes shifted to the back seats and her heart dropped. There was a booster seat strapped to the back passenger side, half hanging off the seat it was attached to with a snapped restrain dangling in the air. And the passenger door had been opened, either by the impact or someone trying to free themselves. Someone who called out again.

Gaea Everfree quickly rushed to the side of the slope and looked over the edge to see a small boy sobbing and clinging to the wall; having managing to catch himself on an outcrop he stood upon. But if he moved so much as half a meter backwards the incline only got steeper and the sheer drop into the foothill below…

She shook her head, not once wanting to think of what might happen. But with the child distressed to such a degree, the last thing she could chance was starting him.

If she used her vines, she might be able to snag him and bring him up to her. She could alternatively use her strength and skills to climb down, digging her fingers into the earthen side and using some vine work to ladder-climb her way to him. But either way could result in the toddler, who was already scared out of his mind, to startle and recoil back. All it might take is one backwards step. She might be quicker… or she might not be.

Gaea Everfree felt a massive pit in her chest form, having a very bad feeling about this. The boy seemed to notice movement and looked up, but she ducked back before he saw glowing green and black eyes staring back at him. There was a brief burst of light before Wysteria looked back over the edge.

The boy noticed her immediately and clawed at the wall with his gloved hands, dirt and tears caking his face, “L-Lady help! My daddy’s hoit an needs a big help!”

Calling out for help for his father and not him, good kid. If a precarious one.

“I helped your daddy, he’s laying down,” Wysteria briefly scanned for hand and foot holes, finding a scant few but knowing she’d have to make due. About as spooked as the kid was now, she started over the railing, “I need you to hang on, I’m coming down to get you! Don’t. Move!”

It was as nerve wracking as it was painful and arduous. The climb down was only about four meters but it was on loose packed earth and at a 80’ angle. And going downwards at such an incline made it very hard to see what was below her. Each hand and foot had to be measured. The earth always crumbled beneath her, but it was a matter of finding what was hard packed enough to hold her for long enough to move on. One foot hole would hold fast and seem firm, but the moment she put more of her weight on it the agonizing pull of gravity would try to pry her body downwards with crumbling earth. The first three steps made her heart jump up into her throat twice. Finally she found a rock but almost regretted holding onto it, only having no choice when a cracking handhold nearly resulted in her dropping.

Wysteria nearly shrieked in pain, feeling like she just grabbed onto a saw blade. The sharp, jagged spurs of the rock knifed into her skin and punched multiple gouges into her fingers that weren’t deep; but soon begat more than a few streams of red. Wysteria bit down on her tongue to keep from screaming, fearing it might startle the kid. Blinking away tears, she swung her weight to the side and managed to secure her foot on the rocky outcropping the toddler was on. After a few more handholds which entained jamming her bloodied hands into the packed dirt in a way that no doubt meant they’d need a thorough cleaning afterwards, Wysteria reached him.

She couldn’t be happy enough that endorphines were kicking in and her hands were numbed to the point it didn’t feel like she’d just tried to grab on to a electric knife and then doused them in lemon juice. It gave her a chance to see just how small the kid was, not even to her knee. Eyeballing it, he had to be quite young as even Gloriosa would tower over him.

“How’d you get down here?”

“I tried to yell but daddy no wake up. Seat no hug me so I tried to find help,” he motioned to a slide mark on the hillside’s edge near the passenger side where the top layer of dirt and the strata under it had been brushed down, “fell.”

So his straps had come undone enough to get free and he’d tried to go for help, but slipped and ended up down here? Well she wouldn’t fault his intent, just fret over his circumstance.

“Okay, I’m going to get you up,” Wysteria said slowly as she crouched down, “Can you hold onto me?”

The boy, no doubt the man up-top’s son given they had identical skin tones even if he had blue hair instead of green, held his arms up, “Like piggy back?”

Wysteria nodded, “Yes yes, but you HAVE to hold very tight okay?”

Somehow the boy seemed to understand why, looking at the sheer drop and shivering, “I scared….”

A comforting arm was put around him, Wysteria slowly nodding to him as she pointed to herself, “It’s okay, I can empathize.”

“Em-paul-thighs?”

She quickly corrected herself, “I mean that I’m scared too.”

“But you a lady, not kid,” he muttered with a perplexed expression crossing his worried face as his arms wrapped around her knee in a way she couldn’t tell if he was trying to comfort her or express his disbelief.

“Adults can get very scared too,” she turned around to offer him her back so he could climb on, “But we’ll both be not very scared when we get back to your daddy. Here-”

She opened up her coat’s bottom, “Climb up in there. Keep you warmer and help you hold on.”

The boy nodded and did so, inchworming his way into the back of the coat and making it much tighter, but given that and her feeling his arms and legs hook around her neck and part of her torso respectively; that was a good thing.

“No can see!” he squeaked.

Wysteria gulped and glanced at the sheer drop, “Might be a good thing. Now just hang on now!”

The climb back up meant she could see what was above. It helped to find hand and foot holes better, but the worry of constantly adjusting to ensure the boy didn’t lose his grip on her made it even slower. Too fast, and she worried, dreaded, she might jostle him out. Pausing to try and figure out a way around the rock she’d figured out was a big hunk of obsidian sticking out of the edge, she was caught off guard when a noise graced the space between her ears.

It was the wind chimes again, only far, far louder than she’d ever heard before. Wysteria could practically double take. It, the noise, almost sounded like a voice made of musical keys. It was vague, almost unintelligible. Part of her mind paused to try and decipher it, only for the chimes to grow even louder and almost frantic.

And they weren’t the only other noise, for what came next was the unmistakable groan of creaking metal accompanied by the pitter-patter of shifting pebbled and dirt that fell upon Wysteria’s head.

The chimes roared, louder still than before as Wysteria looked up. Milliseconds ticked by and the voice within them screamed out as the Retainer of the Element’s eyes widened in horror.

-“MOVE! IT’S FALLING!”-

The car creaked and rumbled, the earth in front of it crumbling away and causing the wheels above it to jostle forward. It was enough to coax the entire motorized coach ahead, the nose dipping down as it began to tip over the cliffside.

Wysteria didn’t question who the voice was or why she, given the feminine tone, was in her head. There was no holding to dive to the side to, no means of a normal human to dodge away from the falling car. She only focused in on the crystals and resisted the urge to grasp them. Laughter, Kindness, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty, and Magic. Each she tried to think of in the fragments of a second she had to act. She might not have been quick enough, but a surge coursed through her body; seemingly from the Elements themselves. The chimes cried out and the power hit her like a tidal wave.

The transformation that usually took a few seconds was instantaneous and without her command. Gaea Everfree acted on two fronts. Her clothes having changed into her wood nymph attire, one arm hooked around to snatch the startled boy around his middle and clutch him to her. The other reached out as she kicked off. On command a root extended from the cliff face and was grabbed onto while also coiling around her wrist. Gaea gripped it so tight her bark covered finger tips dug into it.

The surge was enough for it to move, swinging her rapidly to the side and pulling them out of the falling car’s path by a hair’s breadth. Gaea witnessed the painted metal pass by her face as the smoking wreck tumbled past her head. Having swung around, she braced her feet into the hard packed dirt and clutched the root. The chiming stopped, leaving her mind alone. Gaea Everfree panted a few breaths, regaining her senses through the rushes of adrenaline threatening to give her tremors at this point with how they were flooding her system.

The car sailed past her, hitting an outcropping with a loud crash of crushed metal, before pinwheeling down the hillside front over rear. What finally smashed down at the foothill was little more than a smoking pile of slagged scrap metal. If she hadn't checked to ensure there was nothing else alive in the car after pulling the father out, the sight could have given her a heart attack on top of the one she already had.

Two people in danger and two survivors, it certainly could have been a lot worse but she doubted it got much better.

Other than the fact one of the said survivors was frozen still and looking between the bark covered arm and her. Gaea Everfree peeked at the little tyke while looking about awkwardly, hoping he didn't start screaming given he'd been gazing into black, glowing eyes.

“Let's.. get you back to your father, okay?” she whispered with a slight grimace.

The lad just nodded slightly, lips flattened and eyes wide in what could have been everything from awe to shear befuddlement. Thankfully with the help of a few vines she could retract back like a winch, the ride back up was exceptionally easy.

What wasn't entirely easy was deciding what course of action exactly she needed to take regarding her little witness. The secret had to remain so. Even if she hadn't personally met any gunning for her powers, the multitude of warnings Posey's diary left made what was already indicated by logic probable. If magic existed, by all accounts it should be well known. If it wasn't that meant either someone or some groups were hunting down magic users for a variety of purposes, or that had happened in the past enough that magic users went into hiding and wanted to stay hidden. If Gaea Everfree was real, who could say what else was out there?

She didn't regret revealing her powers in front of the boy, it was a life-or-death situation after all. But it wasn't just her safety at risk now. She had a husband, a brother and sister-in-law who visited often, and a daughter. She wanted a family life and given she and Salty were stable in more ways than one, maybe one which would get bigger over time.

Sometimes she wondered if the reason Mrs. Posey lived alone outside of occasional visits and barely left her home was related to the ‘blessing’ she passed to her successor. Wysteria felt that pit in her gut again, a brief glimpse of her as an old matron living alone coming to her mind.

No, she wasn’t going to have that.

Which meant this secret’s security wasn’t just her safety at risk now. She set the child down and power walked along their sprinting form towards the laid out form of his father.

“Hey, easy,” Gaea whispered as she kept the lad from latching onto his father’s chest and neck, “He might be hurt, doctors need to make sure he doesn’t have-”

“Booboos?”

She was going to say internal injuries or whiplash, but she found her audience’s choice to be sufficient, given his age, “Yes.”

She paused when the boy looked at her, not powering down on account of not wanting to give him any more of a clear view of her true self. He’d seen Wysteria obscured by a scale down a hillside and while he was scared out of his mind and spent most of the climb up inside her jacket. He’d seen Gaea Everfree in broad daylight with his eyes locked upon nothing else, so her transformed state would be what he remembered.

Gaea surveyed the unconscious man, gently pressing on his throat to check his pulse and held a hand over his face to feel for breath. Thankfully a good ten seconds of checking confirmed the presence of both. He’d been bleeding from his forehead but the bruise didn’t look too bad, a concussion almost certain that might need some recovery, but hopefully no cranial fractures. While it was usually a poor idea to pull someone out of a car, the smoke she’d been removing him from hadn’t caused much apparent damage and the cradle had kept his neck or back stable. Gaea summoned away the vines and looked to the boy.

Before she could consider going back to her vehicle to use the car phone, a saving grace came from her noticing a bulge in the jacket pocket the man had with a telltale antenna attached.

-Oh thank yooou lady luck, he has a cellphone!-

She pulled the brick-sized device free, adjusting the antenna to make sure they had a good signal. A plan was being formulated as she dialed up the emergency responder line.

“Yes, yes emergency. We’re going to need an ambulance… Car accident swerved off the road.. Only two, man and a young boy. The boy seems unhurt, but the man is injured and unconscious, and I can’t check for internal wounds… Highway entrance 4, Everfree National Park south entrance. Careful, icy roads.”

Now for part two.

“I’m sorry I can’t stay on the line. The phone battery is dying,”

She felt a pair of eyes look up at her in confusion as she started to dig into the back hatch of the phone. Her eyes spied an old oak tree, covered in snow, some distance behind her as more ideas brewed. This will be very jury-rigged, but just might work.

“-yes, yes just hurry! South entrance. Everfree. Highway 4. We’re on the side of the road just beyond the 3rd sign… 8 minutes, excellent!-”

Gaea yanked the battery out, poked a hole in said battery with a sharp piece of simulated ironwood, and put it back in before quickly wiping down the phone along a bank of snow to remove any stray hairs she might have left on what was sure to be a highly suspicious scene. She’d been using her bark-like gloves to hold it so prints wouldn’t be an issue, but she’d do all she could to ensure it was a ‘Jane Doe’ on site just being a good samaritan.

“Good, doctors will be here in a few minutes,” she muttered, partially to herself.

Now for the confused pair of eyes upon her.

Gaea crouched down to his level, like she would with Gloriosa when she was younger and clasped her hands, “Your mommy and daddy tell you about a secret?”

He nodded slowly and she returned it with a slight smile.

“Well, I am one.”

“You am named Secret?” he muttered with a tilted head, “I thoughts you am a lady or angel.”

Her lips pursed and she briefly cupped her chin to tap at her cheek in contemplation of a possibility. She kept herself in human form initially around the kid because she’d thought he’d scream or recoil back upon seeing her. To be honest, when she saw Mrs. Posey at night even she, someone who’d grown up on stories of the Spirit of the Everfree, was more than a little spooked. Yet this lad didn’t seem to frightened.

Maybe it was because her Gaea form looked more ‘human’ than Mrs. Posey, be that individual differences or her not having been a wood nymph for as long? Maybe it was that he saw her in broad daylight and not as a pair of glowing eyes at night? Maybe it was because it was after she helped him?

“Yeeeeeah, I’m an angel.”

The kid gave her a look over, rubbing at his chin inquisitively, “You no look like one.”

“Then why did you think I was one?”

He beamed a little bit, smothering any thoughts he was afraid of her, “You act like one! You must be tree angel!”

He motioned to the bark-like covering on her arms and the leafy attire she wore. Gaea grunted to herself, figuring the kid was obviously too young to read up on what a nymph was. But hey, if ‘Tree Angel’ made him think better of her, that worked.

“Y-Yep, that’s me. I can come out from any tree. You were in a forest so I was around.”

His eyes widened, “Any tree? Even backyard.”

“Any tree, so I’ll know if you didn’t keep this a secret. You can’t tell anyone you saw,” a small smile formed, the beaming hiding a little playful deviousness, ”… my disguise.”

“Disguise?”

“That lady from earlier. I can make myself look like someone else, ‘play pretend’ to be a lady,” she swirled her extended index fingers in a circle, changing the thin bark covering them to a softer, more importantly green, stem-like material. To all but the closest eye, it looked like she was turning her skin green as part of some disguise. She quickly changed back to avoid him noticing, “Like a costume for Nightmare Night.”

He gasped and before she could wonder or worry as to why, he pointed at her with a wide-eyed expression, “Power Pony!”

She deadpanned briefly.

-What…… Oh! That comic Gloriosa found once!-

A ‘tree angel’ that was also a superheroine. An outcome that served its purpose even more. She shrugged her shoulders and nodded, giving the kid a thumbs up.

“Yep, thaaat’s me.”

The distant wail of the ambulance sirens started to blare over the highway noises echoing from the hills. They’d only be a minute or so more out. Time to wrap this up.

“What’s your name kiddo?”

“I Flash, Flash Sentry!”

Gaea smiled and ruffled his hair as she got up, “I need you to remember Flash, I’m also a secret. Nooo telling anyone about me. No one.”

She made an over-the-top shushing motion with a finger to her lip as she backed away, levitating to avoid leaving anymore footprints.

“Gotta go now little Flash, doctors will be here any minute now and they can help your dad.”

As she expected, the little boy looked towards the sound of the oncoming sirens and took his eyes off her. It gave her just enough time to rush to the old oak tree and, after a quick apology for doing what rot would do in a few months more, forced its trunk to snap. The timber came roaring down and flopped onto the road some meters ahead of where her car was to both drench the road in snow and block off any attempts at following her. She stole a quick glance back to confirm the ambulance pulling up before changing back. Wysteria dove into her car and put it into neutral, letting it slide back down the hill some distance before starting up the engine. By the time any of the responders might have heard the engine start up or thought to check behind the fallen tree, she’d be far out of sight.

The errands would wait just a little bit more. She might look like a normal woman at the moment, but there was something Gaea-related now that she had to focus on. The sensations that came since the chimes seemed to call out to her hadn’t completely gone away, just faded. It had been years since she first heard the chimes and while both Mrs. Posey’s writing and her own experience told her there was some sort of consciousness behind them; she had never heard them actually seem to talk.

Wysteria homed in on the sensation, almost transforming inside her car, but kept it from finalizing. She felt her consciousness tap into the crystals, but not fully delve within them. Like she was opening a door to peer within a chamber instead of stepping through. The sensations seemed to get weaker or stronger depending on which direction she was going, so she followed the latter knowing it would lead to some sort of answer even if she didn’t fully know the question.

Taking a detour away from the alternate highway entrance before she even fully knew what was happening, Wysteria drove off to and parked at the end of a dead-end trail. The sensations got stronger and stronger the closer she got, almost overpowering her mind. Wysteria briefly shook her head and paused at grasping the door handle.

This, she didn’t know what this was. It felt like something tied to her crystals was calling to her, much like it had in Mrs. Posey’s attic years ago. It was something relating to her powers for sure and might give some answers… A brief flash came to her of her family, the memory of singing a lullaby to her daughter last night and waking up in her husband’s arms with his hand upon her belly this morning. The memories were less than a day old and they were just as powerful as any magic. And far more powerful than any soul finding out about her or concerns about where her powers might lead her.

Bits of fear regarding what she might become in her later years were stifled away by sheer determination. She had a family in her life, for her family was her life. If secrecy and responsibility demanded Gaea Everfree be an obscure myth, the love and responsibility for Wysteria would feel her determination not to share that fate.

She’d follow the pull, but she would not blackout and submit to it. It guided her to a cave, but to her mild relief the sensation did not seem to want to control. Quite the opposite in fact. Despite the mildly chilly exterior, the cavern was warm. Not quite in terms of temperature, but in a more emotional sense. Like the warmth one felt upon looking at something they liked fondly. Like someone was looking at her fondly.

It only got stronger when she reached the back of the cavern, a myriad of crystalline growths having appeared from the walls, floor, and ceiling to mildly resemble foliage. Streams of white quartz and six colorized gemstones studded them with water pooled all around. Even if the cavern was spotless, she got the sensation no one had ever been here in decades, perhaps a century.

The warmth spread all over her like she was being embraced and the chimes started to jingle in the back of her mind. Wysteria closed her eyes and meditated on it, holding her hands over the necklace and focusing.

Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, and Magic.

Each one invoked, each one cherished. The transformation was seamless, as if a curtain was drawn off her. It wasn’t like she had an alter ego or personality, even if she worried that was so at times. It was the same as when she revealed herself to her husband in the private of their room. Gaea was her, and she was Gaea; for Gaea was Wysteria.

Gaea Everfree’s black and green eyes calmly opened, being greeted to the sight of a second shadow coming from her own. One with a branched horn and loving presence.

The chimes, spoke.

-”HELLO… I AM HARMONY.”-

Wysteria was Gaea, and Gaea was not expecting the voice to be between her ears.

She jumped up and squawked in a very unrefined manner, whirling around to try and find the source.

-”IT HAS BEEN-”-

She looked upwards, half expecting somebody hanging off the ceiling.

-”CENTURIES SINCE I-”-

A visual survey of the way she came confirmed nobody behind her.

-”-HAVE SPOKEN DIRECTLY-”-

Gaea Everfree was just about to check the water, not questioning how she could hear somebody under the surface, when the chiming clicked one loud time and went silent. The voice came back after a few moments, now realizing she had been effectively shouting at her audience on accident. Two royals Wysteria didn’t know got it from her.

-”to a mortal… Sorry, forgive my tone.”-

Gaea Everfree blinked, putting a hand to her forehead as the other clutched the necklace.

“A-Are you in my head?”

-”Not quite. Look down.”-

She glanced down towards the flickering light, opening her left hand’s fingers to reveal it to be coming from her necklace.

-”I am speaking through this.”-

Harmony, apparently her name, whispered as the crystals flickered in tandem with her voice.

“You’re... In the crystals after all?” Gaea muttered as she marveled at them again, turning the necklace over in her fingers, “I mean I’d guessed some sort of consciousness was behind them giving the chiming but I wasn’t sure.”

-”To an extent. Presume myself as a kind of spirit apart from your realm. These are my physical outreaches.”-

“So they’re part of you.”

-”In a manner, yes.”-

Gaea pursed her lips, “Did, you ever talk to Mrs. Posey? You said you hadn’t spoken to mortals so why me and not her?”

The shadow, presumably Harmony’s, shook her head, -”No, but not out of malice or lack of capability. Posey was a splendid retainer and just soul, but the Elements were weaker during her tenure.”-

“Weaker? So since I have them now, am I stronger than her?”

She wasn’t quite so certain of her own statement. Sure her vine work was good but some of Mrs. Posey’s diary entries mentioned growing redwoods in a day or two or knitting together a whole hill face after a landslide. Compared to that some boosted athletics or root tendrils didn’t seem like much.

-”This cave is where I gave the first Gaea Everfree the Elements so my bond to your world is strongest here. That is why I can speak so directly but that might change and expand as the elements grow. I mean no offense, but the Elements aren’t for you. They’re tied to others and thus their strength grows as they do. You are proficient and can become even more so, but the Elements’ true potential is meant for others.”-

Gaea Everfree’s mind clicked at the wording, “The bearers. Mrs. Posey mentioned them a few times, that them?”

-”The same. At least five of them are currently alive and the Elements grow in strength in tandem with them eventually coming of age. You’ll be the first Retainer contemporary to them.”-

Gaea’s hand gripped the necklace a smidge tighter as thoughts of others coming upon her and her family filtered in, especially with some uncertainties as to who exactly this Harmony was, “They’ll find me?”

Thankfully, her host seemed to key in on the nervousness in her tone and the warmth intensified. Gaea almost felt like she was being hugged.

-”Fate will bring you together. Rest assured Retainer, I created the Elements as a means of giving those with righteous souls power over evil or tragedy. Just as the call to retain them would only fall upon those of kind hearts, the bearers of their true power will only be good.”-

Gaea sighed in some mild relief. It would maybe take some time to be fully convinced on all fronts, even if it felt like she’d somehow been acquainted with this ‘Harmony’ for longer than two minutes ago, but her nerves were being calmed. Six future heroes to further help the world? Didn’t sound like a bad prospect at all.

She chanced a small smile and sigh, “So, are you speaking to me because you want me to find them?”

Harmony… almost seemed to giggle. That helped Gaea out in the convincing front more than most anything could. It sounded like a humored slip-of-poise rather than anything calculated. It seemed, for lack of better terms, human; despite the odd speech pattern.

-”My dear, they’d be but very young children right now. Give it time. Good is drawn to good, and the Elements are the strongest article of good in your realm. They’ll find their way to them, and you to them.”-

“So what should I be doing in the meantime if I’m in a situation no other retainer has been in?”

-”Safeguard the Elements and, should you happen upon them, watch over the Bearers. You’ll know when you meet them. Otherwise, keep doing good with the time you are allotted.”-

Those last words made Gaea cringe in a none-too-small way, “Um.. ‘Time’... ‘Allotted’? Is there something morbid I should be aware of?”

Harmony was silent, which made the cavity in Gaea’s chest form even quicker. At least until Harmony whispered in again with a slight stumble in her voice.

-”Why would there be more to know, you've already been the Retainer for years… Oh... Oooh, I-I meant nothing to imply anything malicious! You will live you your sadly extremely short mortal life of just under a century- I mean you will have a lifespawn normal for your species and thus will not outlive your family and wallow in grief- I only meant you'd be able to go back to normality once the Bearers received their Elements and… urg!”-

Hearing that voice once so refined and assured so rapidly double take almost made Gaea burst into snickers when the realization dawned on her. The ensuing series of assurances and apologies served to confirm it. Harmony was ancient, wise, kind, and caring. She also had poor social skills due to not exactly speaking to much of anyone often. A socially awkward magical spirit guide or goddess, not something Wysteria had been expecting.

-”When the Bearers are of age to accept their roles, you will be able to retire your role, not your life. You can be free to live a happy, mortal lifespan with your duties fulfilled… Is that better?”-

Gaea Everfree gave the shadow a small thumbs up even as she resisted the urge to chuckle, “Better. You’re out of practice, don’t beat yourself up magic… spirit guide… lady… Um, speaking of my role? What about the boy earlier?”

-”You did speak a lot to him. Why did you say you were akin to a literary illustrated heroine?”-

Gaea just shrugged, “I figured at that age, the kid was bound to blab to his parents anyways. Best to make the story as impossible as I could and take refuge there. If they do eventually come looking for me, they’ll probably then think the kid just imagined the magical powers part.”

-”I was more confused about the methods, my feelings towards your actions are not in question.”-

The astuteness of her tone put Gaea on a minor edge, “... Wanna clarify that? I know I’m supposed to keep it secret and all but-”

-”But you did exactly what I’d have wanted a Retainer to do. The Elements aren’t for you, but you live up to them splendidly.”-

That warmth returned and Gaea could practically feel a presence snuggle up beside her. It made her smile before she even realized she was. A glance to the cave entrance confirmed it had been well into midday. Between the morning drive, car incident, and drive here, she’d probably spent at least six hours away from home. The extra daddy-daughter time would be good for Salty and Gloriosa, but she didn’t want to keep them waiting much longer. Standing herself up and relaxing, Gaea looked into the cavern as if she could see Harmony in some corner of it.

“Will I be hearing much from you?”

-”The growing magic in the crystals could allow us to converse mentally outside this cave but.... I do not impose on mortal affairs. I have my reasons.”-

The hesitation spoke a lot that Wysteria knew well. She shook her head and held the necklace closer.

A small smile formed across her lips, “Who’d say you’re imposing? Sounds like you do a lot of watching but not a lot of interacting.”

The pause was done in such a way Gaea could practically feel Harmony glancing aside awkwardly.

-”You would not be inaccurate.”-

Gaea changed back into Wysteria and tested to be sure this still worked in that state.

“If you can still hear me, feel free to chime in. Sometimes the woods are too quiet and I could use the company. You're not imposing if you’re talking to a friend,” she quipped with a smile before pacing towards the exit, “Just give me some privacy and I’ll be happy to talk to you.”

She walked slow, giving ample time for a response. But a half step before the exit she wondered if she'd have to do it all over again and bungled the departure in her effort to look classy.

-”Thank you, friend Retainer.”-

The words kept coming even as she exited the cave, confirming Harmony was still with her. And Wysteria couldn't have smiled wider.

“Call me Wysteria.”

========================

Years Later

========================

It was a good night for a run. Salty was due back in the morning from his flight, Timber had been tended to and was sound asleep, Gloriosa wouldn’t leave his side, and Celestia had volunteered to babysit for the night. As she danced across the canopy and crisscrossed the forest though, the Spirit of Everfree always had company.

“So I’m the fourth Retainer, has anything ever gone bad with these things before?” Gaea quipped as she pranced and bounded across generated root platforms, practicing her skills with company.

-”Once, during the time of an early Retainer. The one called Blossom. Someone got one of the Elements free and abused its power. Honesty.”-

Listening to Harmony’s words, Gaea paused to grab onto a branch and flung herself into the air above the canopy. In the darkness of the new moon night, the trickles of starlight reflected off her hair and skin as she levitated in midair to glide.

“Abused?” She muttered with a raised eyebrow, “What happened exactly, Harmony?”

-“All virtues are so when put in the proper use. But like all things, it can be used as a force of evil if used improperly. That is why the Bearers must exemplify the best of their respective Elements and the Retainers must be of moral standing to hold them. For such a insignificantly miniscule lifespan of less than a century, they need to learn it early.”-

A slight warmth came with that chiming voice and Gaea smiled. Harmony was good company, even if she was awkward at first. But for a multi-millennia old deity that told her looked like anything from a horned woman to a weird unicorn to a tree, she was always amiable. And learned even if she was rusty in some dialogue.

“Like how love can become lust if taken too far?”

-”Quite so, Retainer-”-

Gaea rolled her eyes at the label, still years later unable to tell if it was Harmony being stubborn or forgetful whenever she corrected her.

-”Honesty is needed for trust, but mortals and immortals alike are emotional. Emotions are wonderful, but they can lend to one being vulnerable to some truths.”-

Gaea nodded along as she went down the mental path being put before her, unknowingly heading to the fringes of the forest and towards orchards, “Like saying someone looks terrible and pathetic when they’re crying? It’s not about lying, but using honesty poorly to say what shouldn’t be said at the moment.”

-”Indeed. And given the power behind the Elements, even just one can give a person a substantial boost over the layman mortal.Thankfully that case was stopped before it got out of hoof.”-

“You mean out of hand?”

Harmony took a moment of pause before verbally deadpanning at her audience.

-”That’s what I said.”-

Gaea returned the deadpan as she glowered at the blank canopy as if it was Harmony, “No it wasn’t.”

Harmony, the Nexus of light magic, certainly the most powerful being across the Equestrian realms, somehow did something in her realm that gave Gaea Everfree the indication she’d stuck her tongue out at the human. Gaea Everfree, almost certainly the most powerful being in the human realm, crossed her arms and grumbled.

“You said hoof!”

-”Hand, I am speaking to a talking primate. I am aware primates have hands. I said hands to give context!”-

“You’re fighting me, you never admit when you slip up,” Gaea snipped as she landed amongst the fruit trees.

-”And you always harp over the miniscule details.”-

“Oh hush up!”

The ensuing jingle of wind chimes told her Harmony was doing something she professed to not having done in centuries. The Nexus was laughing. In some ways the two were akin to an employer and employee, Harmony having made the items for champions of good to use and Wysteria being both one of those champions and the safeguard until the correct welders were found. But after a year of conversation, swapping bits of stories ranging from how magic worked to what goofy thing baby Timber did, helping Wysteria practice her skills so she could help others without being seen, the human had coaxed the goddess out of her corner. For the first time in awhile far longer than Wysteria could comprehend, Harmony had a friend.

That of course had brought along the worry of what would happen when the Elements were given to the Bearers, but Harmony had previously told her she was working on something. Wysteria was fairly sure the excuse of her being too good to let go as a champion was just the cover so Harmony wouldn’t be so lonely anymore and still be able to talk.

Back in the present however, Gaea was just about to say something when a pull came across her. It felt like it had at the cave. Suddenly she was made aware of her surroundings, realizing she’d actually trekked a good kilometer or three away from Everfree in the dead of this night; but had always been going in a straight line. A glance back to her path confirmed it based off the hole in the trees she’d glided through and a landmark trunk or two she recalled passing by all lining up.

-”Harmony?”- she thought, focusing it while holding her necklace to ensure her friend could hear her.

The pull came back, even stronger now. And very directed. She got the sense Harmony was smiling.

-”Shhhush… quiet… You’ll know when you can show yourself.”

Gaea Everfree shrugged and hid in the canopy of a tree, blending in with it and dimming her eyes while still wondering why she was standing on the last thicket of an orchard before a house. Her answer came when the back door of the house opened and a little form came waddling out into the dark night and lightly falling snow.

She was swaddled in thick bundles, looking almost like a marshmallow in a cap, booties, and earmuffs her grandmother made her wear. Thankfully she had some mobility, enough to hold the twin jars of liquid under her arms as she hurried along the dirt path with a panting breath beside her to indicate Winona. Good, she always was nervous about coming out at night without company.

However her bulky attire didn’t keep her from tripping over in the snow and eating some of it. The little girl spat and shook out her tongue to free it of frost before she’d give herself a brain freeze. Her little heart jumped into her throat when she spotted the jars laying beside her, scrambling up and checking to make sure they were okay and uncracked. The panic didn’t ebb, though a shiver from the cold did briefly distract her from it as she gathered them up. But in her hurry towards a cleared space of earth several dozen meters away, she lost her footing yet again.

But this time as she and the jars sailed through the air, the ground stopped coming. Having covered her face and yelped when she started to tumble, the tyke opened her peepers and beheld the ground hovering before her but not approaching. The jars levitated as well, held in small roots that sprang from the ground just like the one that held her. Awe overcame her face, especially when the vines gently set her down and a pair of hands picked up the jars to offer them to her.

No words were said for half a minute as the subject of campfire stories and her friend’s recollections stood before her. Jacklyn “Jackie” Susan Apple gasped as Winona sniffled the newcomer and was rewarded with a pat, the dog acting so placid just confirming what Applejack suspected.

“The tree angel…”

Gaea Everfree resisted the urge to sigh and give a humored chuckle. After the crash she’d went back to find where she’d seen the thankfully-not-seriously-hurt man’s face before. She’d found it in her wedding photographs of all places. Stalwart Sentry, Salty Sentry’s cousin. Which made his son Flash Sentry the second-cousin to Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce. And this girl looked around Flash’s age, maybe a year or two younger. Given the lad’s age, she’d expected him to talk to any friends he might have had as well. At this rate she wouldn’t be surprised if the ‘Tree Angel’ was the subject of much ‘intensive’ discussion at some daycare or preschool even years later.

Well, was harmless fun she supposed. Nothing to trace it back to the camp and her family, and Harmony had told her she’d know when she could reveal herself this time. Given this was the only awakened human soul for kilometers, logic said it was her. And the pull, the pull to the girl was still as strong as ever even if it didn’t tell her why. She resigned to the fact the only way to find out was to stick around.

Plus, she wouldn’t in her right mind leave a little kid unattended out in the snow at night!

“You seemed to be in a hurry,” Gaea Everfree whispered, keeping her face in the shadows and voice pitch low just to be sure the girl wouldn’t recognize her when she was Wysteria some time later in life.

Applejack nodded, giving Gaea one of the jars and taking her by the hand before the ‘angel’ could ask why; the older party letting herself be led by the tyke. They didn’t trek far, reaching a patch of slightly raised earth on the edge of the clearing. Applejack held out her hand for the other jar and was given it back, not at all concerned about turning her back to her company as she faced the mound with Winona at her side.

She knelt down and got on her knees, lowering her head and whispering. It was so quiet that had there been any other noise in the forest, Gaa Everfree wouldn’t have been able to hear her.

“These holidays, I jus’ wanteded to say how t’ankful fer everythin’ I ams. I have a big bruther, a wittle sister, a grandmama Smith, a nice Auntie an’ Uncle, my other nice Auntie an’ Uncle, my cousin, my other cousin, and Winona the pupper!”

The aforementioned canine squeaked contently, causing the little girl to pause and rub her behind the ears. She went back to what she’d been doing and Gaea’s curiosity had been perked as to what exactly she was doing. When she stepped around to stand beside the girl, her heart sank a little bit.

Two simple graves, marked by old-fashioned capstones with the jars of rainbow colored apple jam set next to them; the names too vague with the snow cover to read. The little one had been praying atop them. Gaea felt a tiny, yet powerful frown sneak across her face and a hand come over her chest. The observation that the praying girl had not named her parents was not lost upon her, and now she had a fairly good idea why. She silently sighed and closed her eyes.

Applejack’s voice got a little quieter, “So I know Ma an’ Pa can’t come to the holidays this year. I know why too…”

Gaea Everfree’s heart sank more and more.

-Poor thing. She doesn’t look much younger than Gloriosa.-

The thought of a child not having parents. That struck home to her far stronger than to most. Parts of her never wanted to leave this child’s side, but other parts of her couldn’t help but gripe at why she had to be shown this. Experience this. It almost felt like the emotions, the cold sadness and grief, coming off the child were flowing into her because of the connection and something else. One way or another her empathy was a very potent thing.

Which is why it was a surprise, but a pleasant one, when the emotions shifted. They warmed. Still pained, still wounded. But standing tall. Just as the child was against all odds.

Applejack sniffled, a cold droplet falling out of her eye as she smiled, “So don’t worry nothin’ abouts me! I’ll be jus’ fine!”

Gaea Everfree’s eyes opened and came upon the little girl, observing how one could practically swear she was glowing. The forest nymph couldn’t stop the question.

“Child, are you alright?”

Applejack looked over at her, still crying and yet somehow still beaming. A rush of wind blew past the house but seemed to slow as it came across them. Gaea could swear she heard a chime within the gales. Something that had been behind the opened door Applejack had exited through came rolling across the backyard towards them, settling upon the ground a short distance away. Winona trotted over and gently picked it up, bringing it to her master and sitting down. It was a beat up, old cowboy hat. Applejack sniffled again, glancing at the headstones before gently taking the hat from her puppy and kissing Winona’s head in thanks.

She looked back at ‘the angel’ with a tear stained face, “Ma an’ Pa wouldn’t want me frettin’ over them, lots more folks who need help more. So I ain’t phibbin’ when I say I’m sad, but I ain’t phibbin’ either when I say I’m fine.”

Gaea’s brow perked at what she was implying, crouching down to gently wipe a tear off Applejack’s freckled face before it froze, “You’re a very honest little girl, aren’t you?”

Applejack nodded rapidly with a proud smile as she clutched the hat, “Pa said, truth that hurts is still better than a lie. Honesty is best policy.”

Gaea Everfree watched as the girl looked upon the cowboy hat and felt the warmth of her necklace against her collar. As she reached for it, she couldn’t help but feel a rush of memory. As if roughly two decades ago, the roles had been reversed and she was the little girl out in the wilds gazing at a legend. Was history repeating itself?

She brought up her necklace slightly to glance at it. Sure enough it was glowing noticeably brighter than before, but it was only one gem doing so this time. The Element of Honesty. Gaea gazed upon the girl again and nodded as she hid a small smile.

-Not the next Retainer, looks like I will be the last one after all. She must be a future Bearer.-

Gaea put her necklace away and crouched down, “What is your name, little one?”

“Jackal-lin… But friends call me Applejack,” she whispered while shifting her feet.

Gaea let her smile grow to a visible size, patting the little girl on the head as she motioned for the hat, “May I see?”

After some hesitation, reasons to which Gaea could guess at, Applejack apprehensively placed the rim of the hat on her bark covered hand. To her relief the ‘angel’ didn’t snatch away but instead raised up slightly.

“Your daddy’s?”

Applejack nodded and Gaea swallowed back a bit of pity. This girl was far too strong for that. Instead she focused on dusting the hat off.

“Well it’s the holidays… And I think you’re a very good little girl to be doing this and being so smart,” she whispered as she very carefully, respectful to the graves before her, placed the hat on Applejack’s head and adjusted the tie to accompany her smaller head, “Something tells me he’d be happy for you to have this.”

Applejack jaw dropped slightly, taking off one of her gloves to feel at the old leather currently perched atop her head with awe. Some conflicting emotions crisscrossed her little face, but the strongest of them soon won out. Joy. Gaea sighed and smiled, opening her arms slightly as the tyke surged forward to jump up and hug her legs. Perhaps drawn in my her cold resistant warmth, Applejack snuggled in as close as she could.

Children could be so trusting, but she was in good company. Gaea did what she’d do with Gloriosa, gently squeezing the girl around her back and patting it. The Element of Honesty, perched across Applejack’s head, twinkled joyfully at the prospect of being near its future Bearer.

After a short while and drying her tears, Applejack shifted a bit, “B-but if honesty’s good, I am honest ‘bout worryin’ for someone.”

Gaea perked her brow as Applejack pulled back and looked up at her, the ‘angel’ gently setting her down, “Who?”

“Bloomberg. ‘Nother reason I came out, I came to check on him.”

Before Gaea could ask why someone would be out in the cold at this hour, hoping it wasn’t some poor soul without a home or a pet left out, Applejack hurried over to just past the graves and wiped away some snow. Protruding from the ground, covered in a small scarf around its trunk, was an apple tree sapling barely half a meter tall.

Gaea Everfree gave a humored chuckle and patted Applejack’s head as she stood beside her, placing her hand on the tree’s trunk.

“Don’t worry, I’m the ‘Tree Angel’ aren’t I?” she smirked and winked to the future Element of Honesty, “I’ll see to this.”

At the break of dawn the next day, Applejack awoke from her dream with excited breath. She ran past her sibling’s rooms, past her awakening grandmother, past the arriving car of her Aunt and Uncle Orange to zoom out the back of the house with a yapping Winona following suit. The air was taken from her lungs as she beheld the sight. A massive, fully grown apple tree stood in the corner of the massive yard. Snow lightly dappled its canopy and dangling fruit, giving it the appearance of a decorated tree as the rising sun reflected off the light ice and frost in a glimmering display. With two undamaged headstones at its base, Bloomberg’s scarf held fast around his overhanging limb.

Applejack stood up on her tippy-toes, reaching and plucking one of the lowest hanging fruit. Her free hand gripped her father’s hat, having fallen to her back and dangling off her head, and placed it atop her head and ponytail braid. It was one of the best apples she’d ever tasted.

Deep in the forest, a pair of glowing green eyes winked before rushing back home. She had her own family gathering to head to.

But upon her return to the camp some minutes later, Wysteria didn’t ‘return from her morning jog’ to find her brother and sister-in-law waiting to pick her and the kids up to take them to the airport to greet the returning Salty. Two uniformed men, of the same attire as her husband, turned and looked upon her with a solemn frown.

========================

Their pace increased, ravenous. For so long it had been a crawl against currents and obstacles. So much joy made them move as a snail’s pace. But the scream, the agonized wail. They felt it even kilometers away. For the first time in decades, a Retainer, the most powerful magic user on this planet, was in utter agony.

The Windigos drank the echoes of the pain even from so far away, absorbing it greedily. It emboldened, empowered, envigored.

What was once a crawl was a sprint, and unnaturally fast one. The trio of long-limbed, gaunt forms surged out of the ocean and into the woodline at a breakneck pace. The air screamed as it was torn into and whipped into a frenzy by gales of bitter cold. The clouds above swirled and contorted from the pressure waves brought about by an astronomic temperature drop. A hailstorm, and then a blizzard was brought forth in their charge. Trees, lakes, animals, and man were flash frozen on the spot if they were too close.

They cleared over a highway, running on all fours with frostbitten fingers, twisted to clawed points, digging into the concrete as they continued south towards Canterlot at inhuman speeds. Heaven and earth quaked from the cold thermal mass brewing. A freezing hurricane barreling south. They’d reach her by nightfall, mere hours. Harmony’s Magic would be torn asunder from this world before it was allowed to take root.

The Retainer would be in their grasp by the call of night. To break or kill, they’d figure out which first later. They’d have plenty of chances to do both to many when this world was frozen over.

Legacy of Everfree: A Hearth's Warming Tale, Finale

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Omake: Gojira tai Chibi-Tsuki - Furīkī Furaidē Part 2

PART 1

A thousand years ago, a rampage born out of jealousy and unfounded pain didn’t end when Princess Celestia was forced to banish her sister to the moon itself. Very much conscious during her exile, Nightmare Moon found herself in the company of the celestial body’s inhabitants. The Nyx, once stewards of benign magic bound to dreams they helped foster, were corrupted and tainted. Now the nightmare forces, they aided their queen in sowing the seeds of doubt, strife, and malice across Equestria. While Princess Celestia and later on her schools of magic were able to fend them off once again, both in the dream realm and in the physical when they’d invaded, not all the attacks were on the Equestrian continent. One of the former Nyx leadership, Metallia, retained some independence after being corrupted. Breaking off from the collective, she turned her gaze to the other side of the planet away from direct opposition.

A wedding of type unknown beforehand was underway, a loving union between the kirin royal heir and a unicorn mare. Prince Endymion, eldest son of the local emperor, and Lady Serenity, a descendant of Duke Silver. Decades earlier, before the founding of Equestria, some unicorn sought refuge from the Windigo’s wrath and Princess Platinum’s younger brother, Duke Silver, lead an expedition across the ocean. After a harrowing journey, they came upon the archipelago empire of Neighpon. They were accepted as new subjects, but kept at an arm’s breadth. This wedding was to change that, both to secure loyalty of the ponies as well as the fact the prince and lady had hit it off splendidly.

Unfortunately, Serenity wasn’t the only one with an eye on the prince. And a spiteful, hurt, heartbroken sage named Beryl was the perfect target for Metallia to whisper dark secrets and temptations into. Soon enough, Metallia and Beryl effectively fused to become one. Luna and Rarity weren’t the only “Nightmares” to ever exist, and it took a mass pooling of energy by the empire to try and counter ‘Queen Beryl’. It took the unity between the ponies and kirin to unknowingly invoke a Goddess to lend a hoof where she could.

The Silver Crystal, a repository of collected magic for the love- and friendship-born unity in the new empire. Empowering the new couple and four of Serenity’s maiden guardians, they drew power from the four closest planets, the good magic left in the moon, and the plant life that sealed the union of unicorn and kirin. They became the first five celestial senshi guardians and rose knight. Harmony always did like greatness fitting with sixes.

Beryl was beaten back, but not purified or destroyed. Imprisoned in the dark Negaverse as she was so long as the Silver Crystal was kept on Neighpon's side of the seal, she was not inactive. Time and time again the would-be wedding crasher would enact all manner of heinous schemes to seize the Silver Crystal or the Neighponese empire. Corrupting yokai and kirin into malefic youma, creating golems of four generals from the Emperor’s old court to serve her, and trying to just kill the senshi outright. Due to her indirect methods of attacking, for Metalia was privy to warn Beryl of what had happened to the dark magic abusers in Equestria, Beryl was never directly stopped for good despite strong efforts. And devoid of aging, the witch seemed poised to just outlast her foes. But in a timely display, the Silver Crystal got creative.

Just as the setting of one celestial meant it would rise again, the waning lifespan of one senshi or guardian meant the rise of another. And so, the cycle would continue. Kirin and unicorn, but later new immigrants of gryphon, pegasus, earth pony, mermare, and more might be chosen as a successor to an aging senshi and guardian to continue to fend off the aggressing youma or other terrors loosed by Beryl.

In the modern day, over thirty generations of guardians had protected Neighpon. Eleven years before the kaiju came to the realm, a rarity was born. A prodigy child, born of a valiant, if klutzy, Lunar Guardian, and her Rose Knight teammate. Chosen as the heir to her mother’s mantle, the future Senshi showed great promise both from her family lineage and from her tutelage under a powerful hero king.

And she was internally screaming while sneaking through her own school library.

=======================

A large, dark-hued kirin swayed her hooves back and forth across a mineralized ball consisting of a smooth, glassy exterior along with a swirling dark mist within responding to her movements. Frozen in age from centuries ago, she still looked like she was in her prime but bore an unnaturally dark coat that bordered on inky black with a purple tint. Her mane was large and wavy, deep crimson in color while constantly moving as if it were underwater. Bearing a V-shaped crown before her large antler, her other attire consisted of three large teardrop-shaped pieces; two earrings and one atop her crown. The mutations and alterations brought about by dark magic abuse showed themselves in her pointed, elongated hooves; which bordered on claw-like. Seated alone on a throne, Queen Beryl’s eyes narrowed at the visions and information she was getting through the crystal ball’s mists.

Clicking of hooves on cold floor tiles heralded a second kirin, a far more normal-looking individual, entering the dark chamber. With his mane hung long in a ponytail and tassels hanging before his heads whilst lacking some more robust features one would expect of bucks from his species, one could easily mistake him for a doe. The real Zoisite was an honorable buck, promising commander and general in his later years who’d likely have married the first Mars Guardian had Beryl not cut him down in her initial onslaught. This was a golem forged from his namesake gemstone, a corrupted echo bearing all of his experience and appearance without a shred of his honor or kindness.

It knelt before the throne, “You called, my Queen?”

“Tell me Zoisite, what glorious display of failure did you plan to enact this month? Perhaps another youma in a populated area to drain that one doe again?”

Zoisite flinched but kept his head low, “I was actually considering amassing a large group of Gashadokuro and teleporting the giant skeleton monsters within view of a town to draw attention and then-”

“Send in another youma into the populated area whilst the senshi are distracted, no doubt to end up draining that doe who is around the lunar guardian often?”

Zoisite’s silence gave her all the answer she needed, causing Queen Beryl to groan and roll her eyes. Hoping to salvage some pride, her general raised a hoof, “To be fair my queen, if the youma ended up finding that Naru doe again, she has an uncannily high magical energy potential without the training to use it. She’s made a promising target before for collecting energy from, as well as her uncanny ability to end up wherever the attack was and brings the benefit of drawing out the lunar senshi each time. This time we might finally-”

Beryl didn’t argue necessarily, just cut him off by firing a large beam of dark magic from her crown and sliced the ground before him apart. Wreathed in the smoke from the burnt floor, Beryl’s expression was more annoyed than anything else, “And what happens each time that occurs? The monsters rampage for awhile, collect fear and distress for energy and then the senshi beat them down. They then just purify the youma back into a yokai or destroy it outright. Is this all you are capable of General? The last five months with your plans have become formulaic at best. The energy we collect back from the attacks is only ever enough to cover the effort of starting the process to begin with, making the whole endeavor a meaningless loop.”

Zoisite’s heart rate, if he still had one, thankfully was spared spiking when she continued, “Fortunately, a curious observation has spared the need for such incompetence. Are you familiar with the method of transference between guardian and successor?”

The golem nodded, having been filled in on the details by his creator. A set of crystals emerged from the floor, each a simple rhombus shape roughly the size of an eyeball, and levitated in the air between them, colored blue, red, yellow, green, and navy; each with a clear colored gem accompanying them. Several of the clear colored gems had the barest hint of color within them.

“These gems are a representation of what I have sensed,” Beryl noted as she ran a hoof through the air behind the gems and caused them to slowly rotate, “-the colored gems indicate the current guardian and the clear is their successor. The future rose knight hasn’t apparently been born yet and thus I didn’t bother. But as one can see, the guardians have barely lost any of their magical gifts as of yet.”

Zoisite’s eyes trained upon the navy crystal however and his brow furrowed, “But what of that one? It looks different, my queen.”

“The lunar guardian’s power,” Beryl hissed. Out of any of the senshi, she always loathed that wretch Serenity’s legacy the most, “-is fading, rapidly.”

“Is she...dying?” Zoisite muttered almost hopefully.

“Regrettably, not so. I know not where she is but her lifeforce is still fit… For now, but I can fix that.”

“Well then,” Zoisite quipped as he eyed the gem representing the lunar guardian’s successor, which was far more filled with color than the others of its kind, “Still a curious development indeed though.”

Eyeballing it, he’d wager the transfer of power to the upcoming successors to the roles of Mercurian, Martian, Jupiterian, and Venusian Guardians only acquired a measly fraction of their future power; one or two percent at most. The current set were approaching their middle thirties with their successors, a random like-minded individual across Neighpon, being two decades younger. Just old enough the current group could detect and find their would-be heirs and confirm if they wish to inherit the mantle or not, canceling the transfer if necessary. The gradual nature of the power transfer ensured the acting protectors were always in their prime and had a worthy successor they could spend some years training. All the while the identity of the successor was unknown to all but their predecessor.

It meant even if a senshi fell in battle, the power never went away and the silver crystal was never without protectors. A cunning method of keeping Neighpon well-protected. Or rather an annoying, colossal pain in the flank for Beryl over the centuries.

But again, the process was supposed to be gradual. Looking extremely closely, Zoisite could see the trickle of power on the lunar senshi was fast enough to be noticed. Within some hours or so, it might be slanted in favor of the successor, she’d already be at around thirty percent power.

“The process has certainly accelerated for this one.”

“I sensed this disturbance an hour ago and it has presented me with quite the opportunity. With the power in such a flux, there are suddenly less…” Beryl’s lips curled back to flash a fanged maw, “-restrictions than usual. I’ve attempted to snuff out these brats before they have the chance to be trained, but typically I can’t pinpoint their location until they reach fifteen percent of their potential. At that point their magical bond to the Silver Crystal has had enough time to prohibit my ability to enact a hex directly upon them.”

Zoisite tilted his head, “And you plan to do so in this case? If I may ask, what is on the itinerary? With the Lunar Guardian weakened, it might be a prime time to act as the Senshi’s leader is out of prime condition.”

“Correct you are General, this suddenness of power gain means not enough time has elapsed for them to be protected from my grasp. I plan to teleport them to a secure location, your citidel.”

Zoisite’s eyes almost burst out of his skull, “My what?! How would that solve anything other than expose one of our secret holds outside of this chamber? Even if she’s not fully powered she could wreak havoc upon the facility! And the exposure! A portal back to Neighpon could open up and we'd risk invasio-”

A massiv beam of purple and red magic slashed through the floor in front of Zoisite, digging into the solid rock and blinding sight. It carried on for several seconds before abruptly cutting out. Queen Beryl retained an almost bored expression as her antler glowed.

“Hold your tongue general, unless you believe I am so incompetent as to have not considered that!” Beryl snapped with the very ground and air around her shaking with power radiating from her glowing horn and waving mane. The floor in multiple places cracked as the air seemed to freeze in place for a moment in a bedlam of dark magic power.

"Remember the last time a team of Guardians invaded here they retreated soon after. I've killed Guardians before myself."

The rumbling continued for a time before settling back out. Beryl looking upon her cowed general, who had shrank back a full meter as well as bowed his head. The queen’s wrath cooled. She wasn’t so petty as to destroy a minion for an infraction as minor as speaking out of turn or out of confusion. She didn’t persist for centuries by being a fool. Besides, Zoisite was her golem, she could control him entirely if she wished. Nephrite, her first restoration, spent half an hour kicking his own flank at her bidding when he rebelled against an order. Too much of the old personality with that one, but it was beaten out.

“The problem has thus been the powers of the Silver Crystal and my own have equaled one another in a ceaseless stalemate. Any gains one side experienced would only be temporary. I’ve killed more than a few senshi over the centuries but only when I could get them to come here as I cannot leave this realm, my prison. By slaying them was no solution,” Beryl noted in a dispassionate tone one would expect of someone who just disposed of a weed, an apt comparison from her perspective, “My folly was trying to either dispatch them directly or work around them and target the populace to spread fear and terror to gather energy for amassing more power. Both have their flaws. Kill one senshi and the other four will will hold together, train the successor, and I find myself back at square one…”

Zoisite held his tongue at urge to bring up the fact there were six senshi in total. In his studies regarding the dark Queen’s past actions, he found Beryl almost never let their forces target the Earth Guardians in the past, instead attempting to just mind control or kidnap them. He speculated it was on account of them being successors to her oldest desire, with similar personalities or appearances, but wasn’t sure. On some level, Beryl’s black heart was motivated by it being broken and twisted by the action.

“Instead, to seize what is mine and tilt the balance, I will move a piece on the board to my favor,” Beryl noted with a click of her hooves upon the steps she descended, her crystal ball hovering beside her, “and gain a senshi guardian loyal to myself.”

Zoisite perked up, feeling it safe to rise as he watched his dark queen open up a portal gateway before herself. The Negavese as expansive, equal in size to Neighpon due to its original prupose as their magical prison, which meant certain areas within the dark and nightmarish realm correlated to areas across Neighpon. Looking through the portal an glimpsing one of his laboratries and workrooms beyond it in his citidel within the Negaverse, the only light within came from the various glowing potions and crystals lining some shelves. One such shelf Zoisite found them approaching contained another project of his. The specific aerenth, dark magic crystal, he’d been given by Beryl already had a variety of uses from collecting fear and some forms of magic as energy as well as creating youma monsters from yokai or susceptible mortals. But whereas one crystal had been extremely useful for such purposes, the whole rack of twenty duplicates he’d been working on would surely cause more havoc.

Passing by the vats of potions and crystalized dark magic stores he’d been using to smelt the specific brand of replicate aerenths, Zoisite held back some measure of fear when Beryl magically gripped the entire first batch and picked them up.

“M-My queen, these aerenths are experimental and highly unstable!”

Beryl held up the objects arguably more explosive than nitroglycerin with a smirk, “Paltry as they might be to the original I granted you, your work has proven some measure of success. Have pride in that, my General. Tell me, what did you plan to use these for?”

Zoisite swallowed and nodded, “Possibly a mass spawning. Using one batch to infect a horde of hosts to create a small army of youma after planting the other batch beneath the streets of a city to absorb the fear and magic released by the response.”

“Hmmm, not an ill conceived notion General, take some pride in that,” Beryl hummed to a slightly calmed Zoisite, “However, while the energy gain would no doubt be substantial, the sheer number of aerenths means they’d undoubtably be detected and traced after the fact, surely leading the Senshi here and spoiling the operation. I however, have another plan for the fruit of your efforts.”

The aerenths glowed as more of Queen Beryl’s dark magic was poured into them, some starting to crack and chip from an overload that spilled over into the next. Now Zoisite felt himself going pale even as Beryl smirked.

“M-May I ask, what has this to do with your plans to gain your own senshi, Queen Beryl?” Zoisite muttered, “Do you plan to use the crystals to control or corrupt one of them? Perhaps one of the young successors if we can pinpoint them?... Should I gather foal care supplies for the brat, assuming my creations work properly?”

“Come now General, widen your horizons and calm your mind,” said the dark kirin with high explosives centimeters from her face, “Mind control is temporary, those who are bold enough to turn on their comrades could turn on us as well, and even a child soldier raised to be loyal still has autonomy enough to rebel. I’ve tried all three in the past, the latter being the singular time I managed to stumble across one of those brats before her predecessor did.”

Beryl paused, frowning in a way that seemed to imply both rage and bitter disappointment, the latter in such a way that caused Zoisite to perk up slightly as Queen Beryl’s lips downturned slightly despite her twitching brow. She almost looked saddened, maybe even hurt, but quickly spite overtook it and the spell was cast.

The cracking, glowing aerenths shifted in the air, being forced together into occupying the same spaces. They shattered and the explosion of magic would have roared out had Beryl not contained it in a heavily reinforced bubble spell.

“I require a tool, a living weapon, taken from the best materials,” Beryl hissed as she swayed her hooves across her crystal ball and manipulated the contained bubble of magic and aerenths remotely through a pair of invisible magic arms at began to sculpt something out of the raw magic and matter.

A large crystal erupted from the floor, Zoisite glimping the body of a dead unicorn clad in the armor of the Lunar Guardian housed within it. In tandem with Beryl's will, it was deconstructed into wisps of energy and mixed in with the aerenths.

Like a modeler with clay, Beryl began to slowly make a shape.

=================

Three Centuries Ago

Queen Beryl, keeping the unicorn senshi pinned underhoof and twisting her head to the side and snapping the mare's neck. The Lunar Guardian, the 37th as she was keeping count, flopped back onto the floors of the Negaverse's dark kingdom, dead. Queen Beryl stood over her body stoically, contemplating all that led to this.

Her name was Golden Glow, a valiant leader of her group whom had the wisdom and skill to trouble the dark Queen. Beryl, still unable to leave the Negaverse so long as the Silver Crystal was outside of it and beyond her grasp at her jailer, had managed to find a workaround. It took a century to gather the proper materials to create a focusing crystal. As soon as she was bathed in the red magic, she could concoct a dark magic echo of herself to send through the portal. She had launched her attack right after a group of mostly rookie Guardians had already worn themselves down fighting her youma monsters.

She very nearly killed them all by fighting through the puppet, able to expand most of her vast physical prowess and some magic ball being able to effortlessly phase through all of their attacks. It would have worked and she very nearly got the crystal, until Golden Glow wised up to her plans. She flung herself through the portal and had caught Beryl off guard long enough that her compatriot, using the crystal, was able to coordinate with her and destroyed the focusing crystal.

But Golden Glow never got out in time before the portal closed. Queen Beryl stood over her body, the unicorn's blue fur in beautiful golden mane marred with bruises and cuts. But even in death she seemed to be smiling.

The realization made Beryl simultaneously sick and furious. The only veteran Guardian had sacrificed herself, knowing she would leave the moment she rushed through the portal past the puppet to attack her directly. Beryl wanted to stomp and smash her body to pieces, transmute it into glass and shatter it. Not only would it take an exorbitant amount of time to make another crystal like that, but by the time she did the other guardians would be seasoned veterans instead of teenagers, and they would know the limitations of the echo puppet.

Victory in both their extinction and the acquisition of the crystal snatched away by what was now a dead body...

Queen Beryl stared at it for what felt like hours before scoffing, raising her hoof to manipulate the ground and rock into encasing her in a massive crystal that would perfectly preserve the body and its latent fragments of magic. Whether it was some sign of respect to a bold opponent or some dark need to see that body whenever she wished, even the dark Queen did not know for sure.

Centuries later, she found a use...

=================

“She is done,” Beryl chuckled as she admired her handiwork after an hour of crafting.

Inside a swirling dark mist was a distinguishable outline that became more and more clear as the dark magic was absorbed into the body. Floating limply in midair as if underwater or weighless was a kirin doe. She was a large one for her species, though not as massive as Beryl or the current Jupiter Senshi; sporting a lean but tall frame. Her mane, tail tuft, and collar all sported a golden color that contrasted with the sky blue that composed the chiefest parts of her body color; with her scales, horn, and hooves all being a noticeably darker blue. Uniquely, she bore a set of three additional dark blue stripes on her flanks and a dark mask around her eyes of a matching color. Molded from the mists her attire was only composed of golden bands around her upper forelimbs and a white, boomerang-shaped tiara or crown upon her head that had feathered tufts on the side to make it almost resemble moth antennae.

The kirin was unresponsive, likely still comatose as Zoisite surveyed her with an impressed nod.

“Been awhile since you made another facsimile golem, quite the craft my Queen. Still looks just as life like.”

Beryl smirked and nodded slightly, “I had suspicions that the old changeling manuscript would come into play when I found it decades ago. It detailed the makings of such from tree trunks. It’s the same method I used to recreate you, though without any relic or ties to the original for the emulation.”

Zoisite cringed slightly at the wording there, the golem not fond of being reminded of his reality. Still, it didn’t phase him all that much. After all, the actual General Zoisite died ten centuries ago so there was no existential crisis to be had. Just a minor degree of pride at stake knowing he was made out of an oak tree and the original general’s armor and bones. Still, as he got his mind back on track, there was one detail he couldn’t miss.

“She's a new one though, the body you used was a unicorn,” he noted while tapping at his chin while studying the newcomer’s face, glancing back to where the dead body of Golden Glow had been, “Hmm, and forgive partially faulty study or memory, but I don’t recall seeing her name in the history books.”

“That’s because she is something new, though based off an older model,” Beryl plainly said as she ran a hoof across the floating doe’s mane, touching the golden locks, “I took some basis and the remnant magic from a fallen Lunar Senshi.”

“The 37th?”

"Golden Glow," Queen Beryl quickly corrected, flickering of past respect spurring a knee-jerk snap.

Zoisite raised an eyebrow, thinking he knew the answer, “Why that one in particular?”

Queen Beryl showed little emotion outside a slight smile forming on dark lips, “I killed her right where you stand three centuries ago. Golden Glow was...”

Beryl's features became indiscribable for a moment before nodding contently, "Bold. Skilled. Powerful. Easily one of the greatest, though she foolishly sacrificed herself for a pack of rookies."

Not letting herself be distracted by nostalgia, Beryl drew up the crystals she’d been using to monitor the transfer of the Lunar Senshi’s powers and brought them together. Amidst sparks of power and crackling energy, they were forced together and levitated towards the kirin doe’s tiara. Placed upon a slot that opened up to accept it, Beryl stepped back and watched the fireworks. Dark magic crackled and coursed across the kirin doe’s body. High above the clouds parted and a single line of moonbeams pierced into the chamber, sweeping across the floor to highlight the kirin golem and bathe her in silvery light.

“The fallen senshi was how I was able to track the transfer of power all these years, and by now I’ve dispatched one of each since you and the others managed to kill the 49th Venus Guardian,” Beryl’s smirk grew as she reveled in the growing power within her creation, “The power of the Silver Crystal seeks those like its former host of the proper age to inherit. Usually this isn’t any more complex than the retiring guardian finding out some brat is poised to succeed them. But now that something tied to tracing the powers of the Lunar Guardian is fused to the body of a young doe in her prime modeled off a previous bearer…”

Zoisite’s eyes widened as he finally realized what was going on, “You’re really making your own Senshi.”

“Of sorts. With the power in chaotic flux, it’ll seek the closest match it can; granting this opportunity. It'll go back to familarity, to these youma constructed from the echo of fallen Guardians past.”

Queen Beryl purred and stomped a hoof to the ground, producing a sharp clack. On instant the artificial doe sprang into motion, whipping her head up as she floated in place while twisting around to get her feet beneath her. She landed gracefully and rose up in a very uncanny way, almost seeming to fidget and twitch like an insect. Zoisite raised an eyebrow and peered a bit closer, something he soon regretted when Beryl’s latest creation’s eyes shot over in his direction. The eyes were pure black, devoid of detail entirely except for the gleam of light on several spots, revealing them to be compound in the manner of a moth or dragonfly. She spoke no words, only hissing and bearing a mouthful of fangs. If she might have been taken for a stunner before, she was downright horrifying now with curled-back lips that went too far back, overly pointed ears, gleaming eyes, and a very thin, long tongue wet with drool.

She lunged at him, and though he blocked her tackle the force behind her impact was far more than one would expect for her lean frame. Sent skidding back, Zoisite quickly reacted and crossed his forelimbs and threw them back out; creating a wave of ice shards that flew forward. The monstrous doe cackled and sprang off the ground, a pair of insectoid wings that had previously been out of view flipping out to the sides and allowing her to take to the air. Hissing with a wide grin, she punched at the ground despite her elevation. Zoisite quickly found out why she was letting her blows whiff in the air when green tendrils shot out of her limbs and impacted the ground with their sharpened tips like a barrage of spears.

Zoisite kicked off the ground, the Black Moon Clan General nimbly dodging the onslaught. His mind was in a state of sheer confusion, half wondering what Beryl had been thinking. He didn’t notice the voracious attacks his opponent was lashing out with were not randomized and berserk. She’d been walking him back, backing him up into the corner of a room while dodging the hurled ice barrages he was launching at her. Zoisite finally realized what she had been doing when his back bumped into a window. Briefly glancing backwards to confirm it, time seemed to slow as he looked forward. Both of the doe’s limbs were outstretched, about a dozen tendrils whipping out in arcs that would swing into him coming from his left and right to close off his escape. He took the only escape route available to him, kicking back with a hindlimb’s hoof whilst throwing his entire body weight into the window that it shattered. Zoisite threw himself out the window and disappeared from sight just as the tendrils impaled where he had been standing.

The doe monster silently retracted her tendrils and landed in the busted window, looking out to see where he had fallen. She found only tiny snowflakes that looked like flower petals waving in the wind. She took one and examined it. Her hardened, predatory face relaxed. She tilted her head in a universally inquisitive motion, holding the cold flake in her hoof and marveling at how it melted. Her mouth fell agape and she actually smiled. She was so entranced by the simple appearance of a water droplet that she didn’t notice a burst of snowflakes appearing in the air behind her at first. When she did her eyes were still wide with excitement that lasted just long enough for Zoisite, who’d teleported into place from falling and had reappeared above his foe in a puff of snow, to get in close. He let out a sharp kiai, twisting around and landing a solid roundhouse kick into her midsection that sent her flying across the room.

Zoisite landed in a drift of falling snow and emerging ice, snapping to readiness with a distant hope she would stay down after being sent hurtling into a pillar. But after a moment of debris and dust falling on her head, the doe dashed his hopes by immediately getting back up with a vicious, rabid expression that completely contrasted with her calm demeanor in the snow not five seconds earlier. Zoisite tensed, his original counterpart’s military training and readiness keeping his nerves steeled at his opponent while the beastial doe looked like she was about to pounce and go for his eyes.

She just might have done just that had Queen Beryl not snapped in her tone.

“Enough!”

If Zoisite and the new creation were akin in one way, it was that they would instantly yield to their superior and creator. Queen Beryl smiled contently as she strode forward.

“A marvelous test, even without a fraction of the Lunar Guardian’s powers she’s quite formidable.”

“I’ll say,” Zoisite grumbled, only letting himself become relaxed when he looked at the doe and saw she was calm, collected, and alert whilst looking to Beryl like an obedient attack dog. Which, now that he thought about it, she basically was. He didn’t let his mind dwell upon the fact that this meant Beryl had silently sicced her upon him as a field test, “Little warning would be appreciated my Queen… I could’ve damaged your new project.”

“Quite,” Beryl noted nonchalantly, “Just as the other way around could’ve occurred. I have no intention of allowing a brawl in this chamber, let alone between two such unique creations. It would be a loss if either of you were mortally injured. However, for this project we could only test with the best. Take pride in that General. If anything this proves her potency. If the power of the Crystal can turn a normal mortal into a super being, supplying it to something already extremely powerful can prove devastating.”

Zoisite shrugged and nodded, saluting and bowing his head slightly, “Thank you my Queen. So what’s Little Miss Rabies’ name?”

Beryl walked over to her new golem, drawing a hoof across her cheek and jaw to further inspect her. Contrary to how she instantly attacked Zoisite, the doe was remarkably calm and almost had a pleased look on her face as she gazed upon her queen.

“If your comment is regarding her behavior, it’s because I didn’t bother to give her higher cognitive functions just yet. Those will come shortly by the time she starts absorbing any of the Lunar Senshi’s powers. A few hours at most. I merely allowed her to awaken early to see what her instincts were to the test.”

“And the results?”

Beryl smirked, “Splendid. At her core she is a weapon of doom to her enemies. A Destruction and Death Mistress…”

“Destruction and Doom Mistress,” Zoisite noted coyly as he got a better look at her and gave her a once over.

He flinched momentarily when she gazed upon him, but tightened nerves soon gave way to surreal bizarreness when he noticed how neutral her expression was now. Slight tilt of the head and blinking her blank, black eyes with flicks of her antennae. Seeing her not lunging to try and rip his body apart was the weird thing.

“Bit of a mouthful, if I may say so.”

“Hmm, you may correct,” Beryl lamented dryly with a roll of her eyes, “I intend to make more with time, at which point names will be required to tell them apart, for now though classification is all we need for our future Lunar maiden.”

Zoisite paused for a moment and thought of wording previously used, “... In the interest of brevity, may I suggest DD Girl?”

The doe’s tail wagged slightly with perked ears. She eagerly awaited her orders and Beryl couldn’t be more pleased.

==============

Godzilla Junior had confronted many challenges over the years. Growing up to both fill his father’s metaphorical throne and the title that came with it while carving his own path, struggling on what to do when vast power was thrust upon him with little guidance outside of his sensei, fighting a near nonstop conflict for two decades, and then the trials and tribulations involving his inner fears and rage towards his brother he had to let go of while in the middle of a Nightmare possession. But this was something else entirely that was leaving him thoroughly flummoxed and the one thing he knew for sure was he could blame Chibi for it.

“Is that a tattoo?!”

One of his ‘classmates’, a glasses wearing colt with a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead, quipped as he leaned in closer and tilted his head, eyes transfixed on Junior’s face just below his horn and between his eyes.

“Wouldn’t be a tattoo, it’s clearly on top of his skin,” another, a brown maned filly grunted as she pushed her friend aside to get a better look, “Obviously cosmetic, what is it?”

“And where can I get one?” a third cohort, a red haired colt with a wide grin, belted as he pushed ahead, “Looks just like King Godzilla’s but green instead of grey!”

“Say, it does doesn’t it?”

“Not surprised, lot of merch with him as of late.”

“Yeah aren’t they making a movie of that fight with the big gold dragon?”

“Heard Sapphire Shores has a new single for it, not sure what a love pop has to do with monster fights.”

“Eh, they probably played it fast and loose and shoe horned in a romance plot.”

“Hey I can handle that, I missed the gyaos incident so I wanna see him in some action!”

“Well we can all go the opening weekend!... Hey, is he okay? Hey, hello? You okay?”

Junior however was less concerned with the attention he was getting, be it the stares and the filly waving a hoof in front of his face and more the slight scent he was picking up from the hall now that a draft had blown in. He smelled fish and his eyes widened, knowing what that meant.

-Kuso yarō! Them again?! Ah Daiei, act natural Junior act natural. If you stick out they’ll find you and you’re practically travel size in this state!-

Snapping to, Godzilla Junior a.k.a Minya forced a grin and bowed far too quickly before rising up, “Nakama no kodomo-tachi, Ogenkidesuka?” (How are you, fellow children?)

The blank and then promptly confused stares he got said it all. It took a good ten seconds before ‘Minya’ realized he just defaulted to the wrong language in his haze to grasp at speech. His last experience with a lot of school children while being a child himself was the psychic kids at the institute, and back there everyone was speaking Japanese. Well, technically he couldn’t speak it but he did understand it.

“Blimey,” the red maned colt mumbled, “What did he just say?”

“I-I think that was Neighponese, I remember one of the students speaking it,” the filly’s eyes widened, “Oh, that’s King Godzilla’s native tongue!”

“Whoa seriously?! Awesome!” the scarred colt yipped, “What did you say, new guy? You can understand us right?”

Minya was still in ‘deer-in-a-headlights’ mode from sheer confusion. Just desperate to stick to the group and make himself less obvious to the sea witches roaming about, he blurted out an answer without thinking too hard about it.

“Hai!”

Thinking he said “Hi!”, the redhead nodded with an impressed look, “Huh, pretty long winded for a greeting; but hey, if it’s the lingo of a thirty story fire-spewing-”

“Plasma spewing,” the filly interjected.

“-dinosaur, I ain’t arguing!”

“Hairy, Weasel, Manger, stop hounding Minya,” The staffer named Spell Check, a gray unicorn stallion with a simple black mane in, surprisingly, a dark magenta hoddie chuckled as he drew closer, “You’re clearly upsetting him.”

Minya didn’t pay attention to the apologies or slightly remorseful faces on the youngsters nor the worry on the instructor. Instead he was focused on the vague outline of two mares moving past a window pausing and doubly back. The mermares, Nixie and Odina had heard the commotion and were no doubt honestly curious about the cause. And despite the fact he was in the body of someone less than a fifth his normal height and dozens of times less massive with a completely different color scheme, there was one thing with him that was true as always. Chasing down an Anteverse kaiju heading for a city or seeing two mermares closing in while he was vulnerable, Godzilla Junior was always paranoid.

So he dove in amongst the trio, wrapped his hooves around their shoulders and shook his head at the teacher.

“No no no no!” his speech pattern was, in the unconscious desire to emulate the young pony he knew best, started to sound like Chibi Moon’s rapid-fire lingo, “NoProblemAtAll! TheyWereJustVeryCuriousAndEager, JustLikeIAmCuriousAndEager! ToBeHere! InThisSchool! RightNow! AsAStudent!”

The instructor rolled his eyes and chuckled, “Well then, I see someone is eager and that’s good. Though remember, you’re not officially a student yet. That’s what the written and practical exams are for. So should problems occur, don’t lose that eagerness, you can always retake it… Hm, you were the entry from Neighpon, yes?”

“Yes.”

“Well I can tell from the rapidfire speech you’re nervous. I’ve been at this for decades so I can notice things.”

Minya paused but the smile on the teacher, and more importantly how they stepped forward and unknowingly blocked the window from any outside viewers, helped keep the nerves from firing off.

“Have you been in an institution before or were you homeschooled?”

“NoNo, BeenInAnInstituteBefore.”

“Oh? And what was your old school like?”

In truth Kyoto Institute of Biotechnics wasn’t exactly a school for him, more for the psychic and mutant children in the hybrid research wing, but it wasn’t technically lying.

“Big! IWas-”

“Touch slower please.”

The red haired colt shrugged and rubbed the back of his head, “Can’t bloody well make out what you’re saying regardless of what language you’re speaking at it. You talk fast.”

Minya continued talking regardless, though he was starting to replay his own voice in his head and realizing he was sounding an awful lot like-

“Are you related to Mariner Chibi Moon by any hoof?” Spell Check noted with a tilted head.

“AndThenTheCeilingGotBlastedOffWhenMyDad-”

His recollection of when Senior first tried to claim him didn’t summon memories of a 30 story dinosaur tearing open a building in the now paling teacher, but instead remembrance of a certain entrance exam involving a little pink filly blasting the roof open.

“-butIWasUsuallyKeptBehindAFence ALot! and I onceScaredTheGeneral, WhenISnuckIntoHisOfficeAnd-,” this time he was physical shushed by the teacher magically pushing his mouth closed.

“I-I see... Definitely a relative,” the instructor grunted while adjusting her glasses.

Unaware of the dread, Minya raised his head up and collected energy. His mane briefly sparked blue light and flighters of embers came from his gullet. Or at least he tried to. It all suddenly hit him like a blow to the head. The energy build up for atomic breath, even as just bubbles, faded away entirely and became something else. His horn crackled with an unusual power he felt coursing into him, completely unrelated to anything he had ever done before. It even felt different than the small sputtering of when he managed tiny bit of magic, though it was closer in relation to that than anything else. The magic was white colored with a small bit of pink, building up into a spherical ball of energy at his horn tip that seemed to form a crescent of sorts. Minya was just as flabbergasted as his classmates were when all seem to build up more more until he forced his consciousness and focused elsewhere.

The energy build up died away and all that came from is horn was a large column of smoke. His classmates were far more impressed than he was shocked.

The red head and scarred colts, Weasel and Hairy, were on Minya in an instant, “Oh oh! I heard of her! Hey, think you can teach me that spell your cousin knows?!”

“Yeah! Come on! If we all pull it off for the entrance exam, we’re shoo-ins!”

“You two tossers would never be able to pull it off!” the filly, Manger, groaned as she pulled her friends back and away from Minya, before promptly taking their place next to him, “I on the other hoof am a fast study…”

Her smirk was unsettling enough to distract him from the unusual power surge. Something told Minya this group and Chibi would get along very, very well if they became classmates. It seems the Equestrian perchent for destruction directly scaled inversely with age. He was also aware young unicorns often had magic surges far above what one would expect from one their age that tended to make them and their magic act erratic. Was that what was going on with him? Was that why all these young unicorns seemed a little bit crazy?

The instructor look like she seemed to agree, having been prepared to launch a containment spell the moment Minya started using a lot of magic.

After managing to get the class back in order and the paleness off her face, the instructor passed around the written exams for the seated filly and colts. Firmly placed in the back of the room, partially because he could stay out of the line of sight to the windows and partially because he was starting to suspect he freaked out the instructor.

-Right... right. I can do this. Awkward start, but this could actually help me. After all, Equestria sees ‘King Godzilla’ as a powerful, reserved, reclusive warrior king and the Mermares according to Princess Luna see me as that and… good stock.-

He shuddered both from the subject matter and from how he knew Luna would react to that. Some things were better left unspoken to a temperamental alicorn.

-Neither would ever suspect him of being like me… Come to think of it, neither would I.-

Ever since the age switch he’d been feeling slightly off. More hyperactive, eager, awkward, and… “Chibi-like” for lack of better terms. He didn’t know for sure if that’s because he was emulating the only young equestrian he knew very well to try to get a grasp on how they acted for cover; or if it was some side-effect of the spell. One thing that was fairly well for certain was that he was going to make Chibi run laps. For hours. For a week. Without coffee. Part of him idly wondered what her parents were like to keep her under control when she was even younger than when he knew her.

Still, the situation could be worse. Hadn’t entirely gone to Daiei just yet and he was somewhat courting an individual who had literally seen most of this ancient history and was one of the most powerful magic users on the planet. He just had to pass this portion and then intentionally botch the practical magic entrance exam for this to work out.

Maybe blending in wouldn’t be so hard after all?

He promptly retracted his answer when he saw the test before him, praying he remembered everything Luna, Blade Dancer, Captain Frost, and Celestia had told him over the past weeks. With a lot of guesswork.

Running laps for a month. She’d be running laps for a month and no one would know.

====================

Mariner Chibi Moon a.k.a Black Moon was running down the halls as sneakily as she could so no one would know. Internally she had stopped screaming for the last hour, privy to how many ways this could go wrong. And it wasn’t just getting busted by the teachers or having someone recognize her through the ruse that had her worried, but also the tingling sensation she kept getting from her flank and horn. When she first felt the tiniest spark of her mother’s power transfer into her on her ninth birthday, she paid attention to recognize the feeling. The very gradual shift of the Lunar Senshi’s power trickling into her, growing slightly more every year but still a very insignificant amount as she had absorbed but a fraction of her mother’s gift. It wouldn’t be until she was closer to being of age that the transfer rate would really kick up. And she could feel where she was now.

She felt great! She felt like she could take on five yokai at once and then put up with Sensei Godzilla’s running laps for the rest of the night! And that was the problem.

She snuck up to the library back door and looked at the knob. Glancing about to ensure no one was looking, she cringed and tried to grip it with her magic, muttering to herself to try and keep everything under control and remember her Sensei’s lessons. Unfortunately learning how to control things when you are a tiny little filly with a little extra power didn’t transfer on a one-to-one basis when you suddenly found herself a fully grown mare with a lot of extra power. Just gripping the knob dented the metal in, warped the lock, and she practically tore the locking mechanism out just to open the door.

Or at least she thought she avoided that until she found out otherwise and accidentally conked herself in the nose with the ripped-off knob.

And, evidently, controlling one’s anger was a touch more difficult when they had to go through a decade and a half of puberty in the span of a few hours. She shook and swore under her breath, a crackling sensation humming in the back of her ear. For a moment, a flicker of eerie, purple flames appeared along the edges of her mane. They didn’t burn her, for they were part of her body themselves, but it did singe the wallpaper precariously close to the fire alarm.

“Hm?” Black Moon glanced at the singes, noticing both the fire and the fact the embers were starting to wisp upwards towards a smoke detector. Black Moon’s eyes widened and became bursting with burning light.

“KUSO!”

She tried to put it out the only way she knew how. By ramming her hoof into the embers to smother them. The only problem was that her hoof was on fire when she did it. Swearing, she turned and tried to rub out the now spreading flames with her free forehoof, only noticing its own embers when it was far too late. She’d just wiped a whole limb that was virtually nothing but fire onto the paper wall.

Black Moon’s mane was half-on fire with purple flames and her body was flickering in and out from turning dark. There were side-effects to having a lot of kirin ancestry. Being a nirik was genetic too.

And now half the library wall was on fire.

“Chikuuuuuushōōōōōōōōō!”

Minya was accustomed to pain. Megaguirus stabbing him in the gut, Destroyah’s idea of a hickey as a teenager, getting sliced into by hundreds of gyaos, maser tank fire and the actual tank to the face, and his first introduction to Princess Luna that entailed fifteen broken walls, just as many broken ribs, and a good up close view of what her mule kick looked like. He however was not used to having it inside his head like it was after that last test. The colt groaned, leaning back in his seat and rubbing at his temple to try and coax the pain out. The other students had stepped out as the instructor went to grade the tests, but he’d remained behind to let the pain pass.

He had been writing for a good half hour about the merits of Princess Celestia’s constitutional monarchy into diarchy rule with his teeth holding the pencil, which earned some odd looks from the other, magic using students and the teacher; though he was able to write it off as something from Nippon, or rather Neighpon. Just like the loud swearing he just heard for the first time in twenty years, where last time it was when he surprised Mr. Aoki by walking up behind him when Junior had let himself out of his enclosure and walked into the cafeteria to eat with his mother. Azusa made a point to eat her lunch at his nest from then on out.

Now he was picking it up outside his window. He gazed down to see a sight that left his dumbstruck. His pupil, in her grown up body, half on fire and not seeming to notice as she frantically kicked dirt onto the visibly smoking and crackling outside wall to the library.

Black Moon had just hefted a chunk of dirt about the size of herself over her head and was about to launch it when she felt a pair of eyes upon her. She gazed up to see her sensei, in his adorably shrunk little body, utterly dumbstruck and pressed up against the window with his mouth hanging open. His eyes rapidly switched between her, the fire on the wall, and the fire on her. Black Moon’s ears flopped down and she lowered her head sheepishly.

“Is something the matter Minya?”

The instructor, Spell Check, asked, stepping into the room after delivering the tests to the score center. A concerned look crossed her face as she started to pace closer. Minya’s face went from green to pale white, something she noticed.

“Oh? You don’t need to be skittish about the test, young one,” she smiled a bit awkwardly, “You passed with flying colors! Best in the class actually-”

She was still approaching and would surely see the smoke unless something distracted her. So Minya acted.

“Watashi wa kibarashidesu!” (“Now I am become distraction!”)

He roared and bolted across the room to launch himself through the partially opened window on the other side, breaking it as he did and rushing off into the halls loudly shouting in Japanese.

Bewildered and concerned as to what just happened, the teacher pursued frantically. Black Moon felt a swell of gratitude and pride in her breast, as she heard the sounds of rumbles, possibly breaking articles, shouting in Neighponese, and noises she’d swear a donkey would make alongside the shouts of the teacher. Best. Sensei. Ever. She was half tempted to rush over and help him, but as she once wrote to her parents:

‘Godzilla-sensei says I need to learn to fight my own battles, you know’

So she had to trust that he could fight his. She snapped to attention at the not-so-subtle crackling of the flames around her, noticing the grass was aflame now and got about frantically putting that out too.

About fifteen minutes later that included, but was not limited to lobbing another two hundred kilograms of dirt onto the flames to thoroughly smother them, disabling every fire alarm she could see just in case, teleporting herself across several rooms to dodge library staff, once having to teleport herself into a book aisle to continue to avoid detection, passing a colt with a book who spotted her and helping him with a homework question as payment for keeping quiet about her, and combat crawling her way past the final librarian’s desk, Black Moon finally found what she was looking for.

==========

Neighpon

==========

To many outside observers they would have seen a thick column of mist forming a fog bank on the outskirts of the Neighponese town, and wisely moved away because of myths about monsters or illusions appearing in the fog. To the few in on a certain secret however, especially the dim green and even dimmer white lights shooting out of the middle of the fog, they saw the invitation and summons a magical distress call had previously prepared them for.

Inside a hollow pocket within the fog, a tall but thinly-built gray earth pony stallion wearing a tuxedo ensemble, top hat, and domino mask was holding his compatriot close and letting his wife lean on him. His partner was an extremely pale unicorn mare sporting a colorful set of pink and blue armor and an iconic pair of giant blonde twintails in her mane. However the color in her hair and her magical armor seemed to be a bit duller than it usually was.

Ensemble Shroud, the Earthly Guardian, looked upon his Lunar Guardian comrade and spouse with a worried expression, “How’re you feeling? You seemed really woozy after beaning yourself in the head like that with your tiara.”

Mariner Serena Moon, the senior, groaned in a very unladylike manner while propping her head up against her husband’s collar, “Felt worse even before… Oooooooye, Ensembleeee you’re the earthly guardian, can you please tell the ground to stop spinning?”

“Unfortunately I don’t think that would make any difference,” he frowned in response to his beloved’s pained migraine whines, “You seem weak.”

“Haven’t been this tired since I had Chibi,” she whimpered with flopped ears.

Ensemble took one look at her shaking legs to realize how much strain she was under just trying to keep up appearances by standing up, and acted. Turning about and dipping his head down he flipped her up and slung her across his back. In their youth he’d probably say that ‘Meatball Head’ needed to stop whining when he carried her after she made some snippy remark that she could, truthfully to be fair, handle herself.

Just for old times’ sake she was tempted, but resigned to ignoring how silly she looked and just nuzzling her husband’s cheek weakly.

Thankfully they didn’t have to wait long for company to show up while standing in the back streets. A distinctive ‘splish splash’ sounded off from the river under the bridge they were standing on. Ensemble turned about to face it just as a dim aqua blue glow joined his and his wife’s green and white hues given off by their chests. Another bearer of the Silver Crystal’s power shot out of the river on beating flippers in a manner not unlike a dolphin, her glow spreading over her entire body mid-jump as she spun head over tail. By the time she nimbly landed a meter away from couple, the mermare Mercurian Guardian had shifted into her terrestrial form as a blue, short-maned kirin doe.

“Came as soon as I felt the summon!” Raine Ami Mercury spouted rapidly as she power walked up to them, fishing out a medical kit she’d been holding under her flipper along with her visor.

Serena Moon resisted any urge to yip from the cold, wet hooves taking her forelimb to check her pulse or the bright light being shined in her eyes to look at her pupils; only meekly able to kick her back legs back and forth slightly in protest.

“When did this happen?” she piped with a frown, ignoring Serena’s squirms from her cold hooves pulling back the Lunar Guardian’s armored skirt to check her cutiemark, “Part of her lunar symbol looks like it’s waning!”

“About half an hour ago, I started feeling something weird when we were both out on patrol. I was closer so that is why I detected it first and put out the summon,” Ensemble noted while cringing as his wife’s inarticulate, weak mumbles in protest over her check up.

“The Silver Crystal gave each of us a lot of power, more than most would have.”

“For about a decade and a half now,” he muttered, “so much so we’ve gotten used to it. Is the power loss why she’s like this?”

“Likely,” Raine nooded, “I mean we’re getting to the age that our successors would be alive and the transfer process would start happening in increments for at least some of, if not all of us in the next few years. But that’s just it, it’s supposed to be in increments!”

“And Serena looks like she’s going through all at once… Which means Chibi…”

Ensemble stiffened at the thought. The fact Chibi was set to inherit her mother’s powers was both a blessing and a curse. Blessing in the fact she would have two parents who knew what she was going through and to weigh in on her safety, and even stop the process if they had to so someone else could take the role. It also helped they became aware of the situation very early and could prepare more than most generations of guardians could. The downside was that if something was wrong with his wife, something was wrong with her successor who happened to also be his daughter. A daughter who was off in a distant country where they couldn’t see her or see what was going on with her.

As grounded as she was going to be if she had something to do with this like Serena speculated, it was a sort of fear he never got used to.

-Count our blessings Pyre didn’t-

“What’s what about Chibi?” a strong tone pierced through the fog.

Both Ensemble and Serena paled, -Uh oh.-

A red glow jogged forward through the misty shroud and into the clear airspace, revealing itself to be coming from a dark maned, deep red kirin mare with a wary expression on her face.

Raine, ever the professional and yet somehow so oblivious, didn’t notice the oncoming potential firestorm as she continued her check up on Serena, who was facing away from the newcomer.

“Something’s going on with Serena’s powers, they’re rapidly going haywire and we think it’s also messy on Chibi’s end.”

One could practically swear they heard glass breaking inside the red kirin’s head. She was Pyre Raye Mars, current Martian Guardian, and Mariner Chibi Moon’s extremely… dependable godmother. And she was seeing as much red as she had on her.

Before Ensemble could jolt away, Pyre sprinted at him so fast that she nearly left flames in her wake. Whirling around him, she accidentally hip checked Raine out of the way as she launched herself at Serena. Vitriolic best friends they were in highschool and nothing had changed at all. If anything Pyre used their lifelong friendship as an excuse to wail on her dolt of a best friend even more.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY GODDAUGHTER?!” She roared, shaking the Lunar Guardian back and forth.

“AAYEYEYEYEYAYEYAYYEEE!”

Serena’s eyes were spinning and, slung over her husband’s back, she was powerless to escape and could only flail her back legs into the air while waving her forelimbs. Thankfully relief came when the ground shook a little from approaching footsteps and a bonafide giantess picked the scrappy kirin into the air. The newcomer, another Senshi, was clad in a green armored skirt that was accented in pinks, emulating her fur and scale patterns respectively. The kirin towered over her compatriots, easily a full head and a half taller then even Ensemble Shroud, Yet her features were soft and calm; or in this case a little bit embarrassed given she had to separate Pyre and Serena like they wear a pair of squabbling children and not a grown doe and mare respectively. Holding a pouting Pyre under her arm, the lightning based Jupiterian Guardian, Stormy Jupiter deadpanned.

“That’s enough of that,” she muttered before covering Pyre’s mouth with her tail, “Can’t you see she’s in a bad enough state without you trying to burn her to a crisp?”

The still-nirik’d Pyre snapped her head around and snarled at her giantess of a teammate. “Stormy, she. Hurt. My. Baby!”

Stormy’s facial expression was unchanged… As a rather large thunderbolt struck the ground behind her. Serena and Pyre both froze and canceled out most of the water and fireworks respectively given that in the flash of the lightning it was impossible to tell which one of them Stormy, who was equally as protective of Chibi as Pyre, was livid at. All they knew was there was a giant doe who now was currently sparking looking at the both of them.

“Let’s sort out the details of that now shall we?” Stormy monotoned.

It was fortunate that the click-clack-clop of hooves rushing up to them caught everyone else’s attention, and orange-white light rushing through the mist up to greet them.

“Sorry I’m late!”

Ensemble shrugged nonchalantly, “We’re kind of used to it with you.”

“Oh bite me, rose-boy,” the tone came in a giggle to show there was no ill intent as an orange unicorn mare with a Neighponese styled curved horn trotted up to the rather surreal sight of Stormy sparking, Pyre still partially on fire, Serena looking like she was about to become a ghost, Ensemble cordially nodding to her, and Raine face-deep in her medical equipment surveying Serena. Seemed like it was Tuesday already.

Dawn Mina Venus, life of the party and first of the current generation of guardians to be chosen, flipped her long blonde mane backwards; a dim reflective sheen evident on her fur and hair that belied her status as the Venusian Guardian of metal. She might have looked a little bit dainty as an average mare with a slim build, but the telltale way her hooves sunk fairly deep into the dirt ground and the way her footfalls audibly clicked against the stone indicated Dawn was a lot heavier than she looked.

The extra durability might have come in handy given the precious cargo she was carrying in her mane that visibly showed through the metallic hairs.

"I got delayed picking it up from the safe zone," she noted whilst pulling it free.

To any other observers they would have been in awe of what shone against the cloaking fog. It was a beautiful crystalline structure about the size of a large softball. Somehow it looked both like it was composed of metal and glass at the same time, being reflective and transparent with an inner white light all at once. What had been once ferried to Neighpon by the unicorn expedition during the times before the founding of Equestria, held as a family heirloom by a wayward Prince Silver whom offered it up to the Neighponese Emperor as a sign of fealty, eventually became the wedding gift to be granted to their descendents when a crown kirin prince loved a unicorn fiancé. But through the machinations of Beryl, the union was almost not to be until Harmony secretly stepped in. The prince, the fiancé noblemare, and their closest entourage of friends intended to sacrifice themselves to protect their country, but were instead blessed by the goddess into becoming the first guardians. And every generation since, the Silver Crystal had granted its blessings upon every iteration of the guardians, both granting their abilities as well as choosing their successors.

It was an extremely rare occasion, on account of how much Beryl demanded the power, that they would risk taking it out into the open. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

Pyre, finally canceling out all her flames, frowned and looked at the crystal with an uneasy wariness that soon cast itself to their surroundings, "You sure we can't try to do this somewhere more protected?"

Dawn shook her head, "Serena is in no condition to travel and all of us need to be present. We already purified any yokai that Beryl turned into yoma monsters in this area weeks ago and we are all together. Short of a fortress this is just about as good as it's going to get."

Pyre reactivated a small jet of flame on her tail just to be sure as Stormy put her down, instantly going on the defensive of both her vitriolic best friend and the crystal, "Yes but I still don't like it. Serena is in a bad way and if Beryl knows we brought the crystal out, she will definitely be up to something."

Serena cracked a weak smile at how the kirin that had both been the maid of honor and the officiator of her wedding stepped up to her protection despite her actions not a minute prior, "Aw, you do care!"

"Of course I do, meatball head!" Pyre snipped while snorting, "If Beryl takes you out while you’re down, how can I do it myself if we find out you hurt Chibi?!"

As much as she snarked, there was a modicum of honest concern that belied more care than what was evident.

"Speaking of," Raine noted as she tapped at her earpiece to flip out her visor and look over their group with the crystal in proximity now, "I can definitely see something is up. All of us have some of the Silver Crystal's energy, an equal share-"

She grimaced at what she saw. Sure enough the lot of them were more or less burning with the same aura of energy, mostly only different in color which matched up to their elemental affinity. Blue for her, red for Pyre, green for Stormy, gold for Dawn, bronze for Ensemble; and white for Serena. The first five of that group had small, almost a miniscule trickles and wisps of energy coming off them heading out to parts unknown without following them, indicating that their successor had been chosen, but the power transfer really hadn't started yet outside of tiny snippets. Serena on the other hand was increasingly getting dim and the stream coming out of her was more like a torrent or a river that trickle or drip. Perplexingly the stream also seemed to split at one point, but Raine was much more focused on the rate. It was departing so fast that Raine didn't want to think about what might happen when it reached zero.

Typically that only happened when the retired Guardian reached extremely old age, sometimes carrying small traces or fragments of their blessing right up until their-....

She paled.

"We need to get Chibi here, stat," the mermare shook, "There's a very significant energy flow coming out of Serena heading eastward towards Equestria. If we use the gathering spell through the Silver Crystal, we can summon her here and maybe find a way to stop or cut off the flow with the crystal until we figure out what's going on."

It was about at this time Serena, whom often had some sort of humorous complaint or snark at the ready, paled even more. She looked to her husband with clear distress in her eyes, quivering and with more than just the painful weakness coming from her rapid power loss.

"G-Get to it," she whimpered while trying to pull herself off of Ensemble's back on shaking limbs, "Hurry!"

Every Guardian present instantly snapped to action when Serena almost fell over, Ensemble holding onto one of her legs and stiffening up as Raine, Dawn, and Pyre grabbed onto her whilst Stormy quickly moved behind them with speed contrary to her size to help support Serena between herself and Ensemble. Large frowns crossed all of their faces when they realized just how cold Serena felt, the clamminess in her fur, and how much her muscles were uncontrollably spasming. She looked and felt ill and it was only getting worse.

Pyre paled and gulped, "Stormy, Ensemble, Raine, Dawn, quickly. Form up with me and we'll get the spell. Serena, lay down-"

Serena reached up and grabbed onto Pyre's collar, sucking in her breath to hold back some pain, "It takes all of us for a summon this far away."

"But you're-"

"A mother," Serena whimpered. All eyes looked to her, then to her husband, and that was all that was needed to be said.

The Silver Crystal flared to life when a shaking set of hooves held it aloft, five sets of hooves placed around the Lunar Guardian’s to help hold her up.

======================

Minya started wincing and holding his arm after sprinting across the school to get away from the flabbergasted teacher. After the endorphins and adrenaline spiraled down he soon realized why when a warm wetness started trickling down his arm. There was a shard of glass stuck near his shoulder. Biting back the pain he leaned over and gently bit it to pull it out. Luckily it wasn’t in deep but the fact it was in all shot up a big red flag.

He might be less durable as a pony than he was as a full-blown kaiju, but he was still far away a lot tougher than he might seem to be. Between extremely dense muscles and a tough hide, he was all but invulnerable to average pony-level weapons used by any but the elite. Unless you were the strongest of earth ponies, fastest of pegasi, most potent of unicorn magic casters, or an experienced alicorn, one would have a lot of difficulty meaningfully damaging him; at least one on one. Some tests conducted with Captain Frost showed his hide capable of bending bronze daggers and splintering hardwoods without much of a scratch.

And yet, propelled only by the force and momentum that a charging colt could generate, this glass shard managed to cut into him without shattering. He grimaced but not from pain. The sensation was back again, like what he had experienced before when trying to use atomic breath. The magic build up hit him again like he was being electrocuted. But instead of convulsing, his body stiffened and drew it in like a draft through an opened door. The cut sealed over and healed but not by normal regeneration, instead trickles of white light seeped over the wound and closed it.

The brief weakness he felt was gone again, but this strength didn’t feel normal.

It was fortunate he found Black Moon then and there.

“We have a problem!” he yelped while sprinting up to the mare as she sprinted out of the library. But something caught his eye.

Thankfully the elation on her face spoke of success especially given she was holding a book, “And I got a solution-”

“Your horn!” he croaked while pointing.

Now standing closer to him however, Black Moon noticed something else amiss as well. She tilted her head and pointed with her hoof at him.

"No, your horn!"

They both paused and looked over at a nearby window to check their reflection. It was like looking in a funhouse mirror and both of them bobbed their heads slightly to ensure it wasn't just the effect of a distortion. But it was obvious. Atop Minya's head was a horn which, while mostly straight, was starting to curve at the tip; but this time backwards like a scimitar rather than bending forwards like it normally did. And on top of Black Moon's crown was a horn completely unlike any from Neighpon or Equestria. It was still curved but a distinctive kink had formed midway up its length.

Minya rapidly shook his head, hoping against hope they had a solution for this craziness, "E-Enough of that, please tell me you got counterspell!?"

"YES!" Black Moon yelped as she drew out the book, which was written in kanji, "Foreign section! I recognize the name of one of the authors, Golden Glow, she was the 37th Lunar Guardian. I flipped through it and realized she left a few of the messages in the box and what do you know-"

She flipped to a certain page showing two kirin with arrows pointing between them to form a circle. Instantly Minya understood the meaning.

"The spell! Chibi That's the spell that you used on us!"

"Written here metaphorically to give two creatures a better understanding of each other, but the concepts will work literally for the other spell left behind since it was based off her work! Especially since I'm the Lunar Guardian heiress!" Black Moon grinned with a bounce in her tail.

Only Minya found himself tilting his head slightly when he saw her grin. Something was different with her mouth but he couldn't quite put his finger... hoof on it. He shook his head to throw the pestering thought away and clapped his hooves.

"Then get to work, I miss the other 90% of my body. And I say this as the fellow who’s fought everything from aliens cyborgs to angry unicorns, this is getting too weird even for me!"

"Let's hope it doesn't get any weirder!" Black Moon decreed as she put the book down. They could worry about the semantics of their plans afterwards, this was getting way too far out of hoof to be allowed to continue. She practically felt like she was burning up even after getting the fire out!

She had just started trying to muster up her magic, following all the exercises and steps her mother taught her since her christening as the Lunar Guardian heiress. She closed her eyes and tried to focus. Focus on the brilliant lights all around her that came from both the moon and the source of the moons rays, the Sun. Light gave definition, light gave observation, light gave visual to the material. Light was her element and she... could barely feel it at all when she heard a colt yelling.

==========

Queen Beryl purred, feeling the summoning spell cast by the Guardians reaching across the continent and ocean. Waving her hooves across her crystal ball, the dark kirin witch let out a roar of laughter at how easy this was. There was good reason the summoning spell was never used on targets so far away. The longer the distance, the more power put into it and more obvious it became over its lengthened span.

Her magic reached out of her dark realm like the talons of some malefic eagle and grabbed, choked the summoning stream and redirected it. Still tied to a localized place in Neighpon far from her palace, still closer to the guardians than she would've liked, but in a secluded enough spot that it wouldn't matter. The summoning, the casters of oblivious to her sabotage, took hold of the powers of the Lunar Guardian and directed them directly to where Zoisite and his coined, "DD Girl" was located and waiting.

She would be preparing something else just in case, toying with the spare aerenths Zoisite had prepared to create youma.

=============

Black Moon's eyes snapped back open to see a swirling matrix form up beside the both of them, Minya already getting pulled inside due to his smaller stature and weight. He flailed to keep a hold of the ground but had come loose. Without thinking, Black Moon leapt forward to grab him, using her momentum from her flying tackle to try and pull them aside while twisting in the air to put herself between her shrunken sensei and the portal. But as soon as she grabbed on to Minya, she felt yanked backwards just from holding him. There was a pull on her too, but the tug on Minya was so much stronger she felt like a fish getting reeled in on a line. Reeled into the portal.

Space warped and like she was rushing through a river head first, thousands of kilometers were crossed in seconds. She glimpsed the shore, the ocean's expanse, and then another familiar shore set on a chain of islands along the eastern coast of the far continent. Her homelands, but they were most certainly not going to her home...

She could feel them for the faintest moment, her parents and her godmothers, and then she was violently ripped away due to still clutching her shrunken teacher close to her. Something pulled them aside elsewhere. The Lunar Heiress glimpsed a city before being pulled into another portal the summoning stream had been forcefully connected to; and then it all went dark for several long moments.

Black Moon skid across the ground up a cobblestone floor. The world was spinning and she felt like she had just rammed her head through several walls. It took a lot of time for her vision to clarify enough to be distinctive. While she briefly glimpsed an open portal to a city, the dark realm before her clearly being something that otherwise would not fit inside of a building. She knew it not from experience, but by stories. A desolate landscape that seemed simultaneously dreamlike and nightmarish at the same time, ranging from frozen expanses to a dark forest that led to a castle, a bloody red moon hovering above with all else cast in shadow; this was Beryl's sanctum, tied to the city through a portal. A portal to such a place, the biggest thing her parents ever warned her about, being the exact thing she and her companion were dragged through.

Some guardians in the past had attempted to storm Beryl's sanctum, either in a bold gambit to destroy this evil once and for all, in a misplaced attempt to appeal to the better nature of a righteous sage whom effectively died a millennia ago; or in a desperate measure of defense. She remembered full well the story her mother told her of the 37th Luna Guardian. A legendary mare with fur blue as the ocean and hair that gleamed like gold. She was often considered one of the greatest.

Beryl had managed to find a way to personally exit her sanctum and launch an attack. The guardian had valiantly tackled her back into the portal and destroyed the means of allowing the dark queen exit. The other guardians’ last glimpse of their leader was seeing Beryl snap her neck.

Her parents were always very clear that if she ever saw a portal to this dark, this negaverse, she was to flee as fast as she could. It wasn't abnormal for Beryl, should she find an heir who wasn't trained or powerful yet, to try and send a youma through and cut their career short... Every little story she heard as a young girl screamed at her to run back through the portal.

But when she saw a very confused, clearly in pain and crying out colt, Minya, getting wrenched out of her grasp by some unseen force that pulled him towards the castle, she ran after him.

Author's Note

Proofed by Lance-Omikron and Faith-Wolff!
Art by Faith-Wolff!

Surprise! I actually meant to post this last summer but one thing led to another and it just kept getting delayed. It along with the next actual story chapter were both almost done anyways so I figured I would polish this one off real quick and then get back to the main story, then do the finale to this next month or so.

So no, you're not waiting another year for part three. Really sorry about.

My Little Pony by Hasbro
Sailor Moon by Toei
Godzilla by Toho
Spell Check by Lance-Omikron

Chapter 47: Changing Tides

It was mid afternoon when the van rolled back into Camp Everfree. In a practiced maneuver, Aria Blaze was the first to exit from the left side to quickly scan the surroundings for any energy anomaly that might indicate an ambush. Typically the procedure was for her to go out of the passenger side as Adagio Dazzle came out the driver’s side, while the Hunters remained within to survey the surrounding area while hidden. Whoever it was that was hunting the sirens, they didn’t seem to know about the Hunters, at least not until recently. And even in light of the brief confrontation at the school, any direct link between the two groups was still unknown. And Adagio Dazzle wanted to keep it that way as long as she could. Any means of confusing or keeping knowledge away from the enemy was desirable. And by keeping most of their posse hidden until they knew for absolute certainty they were alone, they could potentially spring a surprise on anyone who might rush her or Aria alone.

She’d groaned at X’s insistence on keeping to the plan when going back to Everfree of all places as surely Megalon or Irys could have handled any arriving for an ambush, much less leave signs of a confrontation if one occurred, but safety was safety. She really didn’t feel like having her heart ripped off, especially after seeing what it did to her little sister.

Adagio cringed, eyes instantly locking themselves upon Sonata’s cabin. Being away for even just eight hours was wracking at her nerves in ways she’d never vocalize. The alpha siren took in a deep breath and steeled her pulse.

-Camps still up and Megalon wouldn’t let anything near her without a fight. She’s fine, she’s just fine. Has a big, grenade spitting cyborg watching her, she’s fine… then again, she was around said cyborg…-

The lack of damage to suggest any sort of energetic action, be it a confrontation or the calamity that might ensue from her sister and Megalon being together was doing the brunt of the work keeping her poise.

She waited for a good minute, pretending to check her phone for something and praying in the back of her mind that all was well as she awaited someone. Thankfully that someone came rapidly power walking out from Sonata’s cabin, but it wasn’t the one she expected.

“All clear!” Irys yelped as she jogged up to the van.

On cue the side doors of the van opened and the rest of the occupants filed out, first one by one, and then with Eventide and X turning to help carry a still sparking, grumbling Gigan out.

“What happened?” Irys muttered while closing the door behind Gigan’s exit.

“Complications, unorthodox engagement. I’ll give you the full details when I can hook myself into the projector at the cafeteria,” Gigan groaned with a slight distortion in his voice, “Twilight Sparkle- the other Twilight Sparkle, was lurking around the school. I nearly got a hold of her, but she pulled out some unexpected power and got away. You’ll see it from my point of view when I can plug myself in.”

“How soon?” Adagio noted with crossed arms, speaking in a terse tone.

Gigan’s head went a bit slack on his neck as he shot her an incredulous look, the motion causing a few sparks to come out of his neck. Eventide Hymn bit her lip and looked worryingly at the shard of what look like ice sticking out of his throat.

“Soon as I can do some diagnostics. They pulled out some kind of freezing power I wasn’t expecting that caught me off guard. Got hit with a blizzard out of nowhere.”

Adagio nodded, even as she and Aria seemed to perk up slightly at the word ‘blizzard’, “Fair enough.”

The purple siren turned to Irys, “Where’s Megalon? He’s usually the one running perimeter.”

Irys tensed up at that moment and seemed to cast her gaze back to the cabin and then quickly realigned it to the van, “He’s with Sonata.”

Adagio and Aria both breathed a sigh of relief and immediately started towards the cabin. They only managed to get about two steps when Irys threw herself in front of them.

“Wait a moment,” she barked out before even thinking of a reason why.

Adagio and Aria just looked at each other for a moment before stepping to the side and beginning to move forward so Irys would just passed between them. Their advance was halted by a pair of strong hands grabbing them by the shoulders to roughly yank them back.

Adagio, not one to particularly like being touched, snarled and shot the gyaos a leer. Aria went one step further and grabbed Irys by the wrist and tensed her body up in a way that got X’s attention and his worry.

“Irys... What are you doing?”

They tried to continue on in the hope that she’d let go, only to get pulled back again. It was fortunate that her face was pointing away from them, otherwise they’d see that the albino somehow managed to get even paler.

“You can’t,” Irys muttered a little bit more rapidly.

“...Why?” Aria growled as little specks of her eyes started to turn red. As far as she was concerned there was only one kaiju allowed to hold on to her and his name was not ‘Irys’.

Irys was a gyaos, a species whose social interaction was balanced on a knife’s edge between familial affection and wanton cannibalism. The nuances of matters such as lying were not exactly privy to her. Thankfully it wasn’t a total lie, “Sonata’s… changed.”

At the very least this caused the sirens to pause and leaned in a little bit more, but now with confusion and concern crossing their faces a bit more than anger.

“Changed... how?” Adagio whispered with a slightly perked head.

Irys pondered how exactly to word this.

-She’s a lot less morose with a new friend and is covered in confetti?-

Irys brushed that explanation aside as part of it entailed a very in-depth explanation as to why one of the six entities from the nearby human school they’d all been briefed on was currently in the same room as her teammate and charge. This wasn’t exactly bad news, granted. Irys hadn’t taken to Sonata as strongly as Megalon had, but she could profess to liking the young siren the some degree; even wondering what it might’ve been like to have younger sisters when around her. Still, amiable enough. Sonata certainly had a lot less of a penchant towards attitude than her older sister Adagio or X’s mate, Aria. And Pinkie Pie was someone Irys knew was harmless and could only be a benefit for Sonata, and the newcomer also got along great with Megalon. Irys cared enough to not want to potentially spoil this chance at a friend for Sonata, much more so Megalon.

“She’s… changed her behavior, she’s in private.”

“In,” Adagio lifted an eyebrow, “private?”

Irys nodded.

“And she’s in… with Megalon in there with her, in private!?”

Irys nodded… before very rapidly shaking her head, somehow managing to look even more pale.

Several moments later and after a very loud scuffle that entailed everyone having to pry Adagio and Irys apart, the former managed to power walk to her little sister’s cabin and yank the door open. Oh she was fuming alright, dark gold patches appearing around her eyes as her body colors darkened slightly; distorted gravity making her hair stand up on end a bit. Her mind was going to very dark places and was getting all the more livid because of it. Sonata was vulnerable, just as much emotionally as physically. The first week after she had her necklace torn off, Adagio had to hold her for hours on end while Aria did perimeter checks just so her baby sister could finally sleep at night with marginally less sobbing. Even after X came back and managed to earn a mountain of gratitude from Adagio by swearing protection on Sonata, it could still take the youngest siren quite some time to relax and rest even with the superhuman alien space dragon-thing on guard. And the memory of her baby sister almost drowning was still very raw.

Megalon had, so far, proven a boon to Adagio. Enough she could admit some slight measure of fondness. X was very quiet, Irys had her quirks, Gigan was simultaneously infuriating with his attitude and amusing with his wit, but it was Megalon she thought the least about because she figured him out so quickly. The bug-bot was pretty much a male Sonata, and loyal as a trained dog. Adagio was fine with him playing bodyguard and companion for Sonata since he seemed way too honest, possibly stupidly so, to try anything nefarious with her being vulnerable.

Like she was thinking he might have right about now, making her clench the doorknob and rip the cabin door open almost off its hinges. Her eyes flashed red and she took in the sight of-....

Megalon and Sonata sipping tea while reading those eastern comic books ‘Nata liked so much. The cyborg had even gone so far as to offer the siren a sugar cube that she politely accepted. Sonata innocently looked up and beamed at her big sister, waving happily while offering a cup of tea.

Adagio’s face drooped into a deadpan and she slowly stepped out of the cabin, quietly closing the door behind her. Pushing away the summoned the energy, she shrugged, wiser.

Honestly she was kicking herself hard for letting her mind wander to such places, likely on account of having power walked past Aria and X’s cabin last night while billows of love magic were spewing out. So much so that she didn’t even stop to consider where Megalon and Sonata had even gotten the tea set from in the first place.

Sonata Dusk let out a huge, granted mostly muted, sigh of relief and leaned back into her seat. Megalon, who had been peeking out the windows to be sure no one else was coming, hopped off his chair and nudged the carpet aside to reveal a set of wooden boards that didn’t quite match the floor. Gripping the edges he pulled it up, revealing they weren’t nailed down and led to a large burrow that had been tunneled underneath the cabin.

“All clear, sorry it’s still pretty dirty down there,” Megalon muttered while pulling one of his gloves off to reveal a metallic hand, previously configured into a drill, still caked in dirt from a hasty digging job he was now dumping into the trash can.

“Oh not a problem at all, Meggy!” a pink blur quipped as she hopped up out of the burrow that she’d previously cannonballed into for safety when a car pulled up, “Surrounded by rocks down there, so it’s just like home!”

Sonata scrawled something onto a small tablet before holding it out to her companion, -’Only if someone comes in, which isn’t going to be too common since big sis and big cousin are going to be at school a lot with the others. Ms. Irys already knows, but just in case we need to be careful.’-

“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie Pie sniggered whilst plopping a sugar cube into her mouth, “We can make a better trapdoor later so we can have a proper sleepover!"

"Aren't you going back home later?" Megalon questioned with a tilt of his head.

Pinkie Pie simultaneously nodded and yet shook her head, "Oh sure sure, but I can come and bunk out here a lot. Clearly we all need some more laughter, and I'm your gal for it!~"

She winked and carried an energy that seemed to help flood the room, mixing with the other two. It made her smile all the more infectious.

Sonata giggled mutely, typing more, -'Sleepover sounds great, but I only have one bed.'-

"I can keep crashing on the chairs, no need to worry about me. I'm sure Ms. Daisy wouldn't mind me getting some sleeping bag or fold-out bed and saying I'm using it when over here," Megalon shrugged.

Pinkie Pie blew a raspberry and waggled her hand nonchalantly, "Oh pleeease, I grew up with three sisters. I don't mind sharing if you don't."

Sonata paused, puzzled. Physical contact with someone she trusted was the biggest key to helping her go to sleep since her incident. Even if she had only met Pinkie Pie almost exactly 20 minutes ago, somehow it felt like they had already been acquainted, like an old friend you had already adventured with. There didn't seem to be a mean bone in the pink-haired young woman's body.

-'...Would we even fit?'-

She showed her writing to her comrades while pointing at her average sized bed. Pinkie Pie grinned.

"Ever heard of a game called Tetris? Me, Limestone, and Marble mastered it!~"

==============
Hours Later
==============

Adagio Dazzle might have heavily preferred a world of magic to one of technologies for many, many reasons beyond the fact that she was born in the former and it was where she belonged. However, she could admit that human technology had its uses, and wasn't so foolish as to not learn how to use it. After getting some finances in order thanks to a run of good luck and manipulation of a lottery, task number one after securing shelter and food was figuring out everything from televisions to cars. In the years after, she'd even discovered she was pretty decent at it even if it was all just a means to an end. Securing the pod was priority number one and living like a human helped with that; getting back home was priority number two even if she accidentally... no, mistakenly reversed those for a while. Nearly burned the bridges with her cousin and little sister so badly she nearly lost both of them.

And using technology as a human would could hopefully provide another boon. A few hours ago a sparking, clearly frustrated Gigan stomped over to her when she was in the middle of reviewing a school itinerary.

Adagio tilted up her glasses and observed how Gigan typically wasn't like how he normally appeared, "You have a hole in your neck... And you seem to have something in your eye."

"I re-re-re-re-" he whacked himself on the side of the head to fix his speech pattern and grumbled, "removed the panel myself. Repair work."

Adagio, still more than a little weirded out at the fact he could just so casually dismember himself, instead pointed to her left eye and tapped at her cheek so he would address the other question.

Gigan rolled his eyes, which had a cable sticking out of it and subsequently caused it to roll too, and brought up the other end of the evidently adapted-to-USB cable to reveal a flash drive with a bombastically colored woman with a guitar in her hands. Adagio's mouth parted slightly in mild confusion at her recognizing the titular character of Jem and the Holograms.

"Sonata practically threw it at me when I asked to borrow something that would more easily connected computers around here-ere-ere," another thwack to reorient himself before Gigan unplugged the flash drive, "Connect it to a computer and remove the file dated to today. I already cropped it to the proper time."

"Nice going, bolts-for-brains," Adagio grunted if only to hide a small amount of approval, though she did cock an eyebrow, "Why are you leaving this to me and not handling it yourself? I thought you said my computer skills were only marginally better than the average human’s."

"They are, but Irys is even worse off and is busy running perimeter checks, X is speaking with Twilight Sparkle and Aria regarding tomorrow, Gloriosa is emitting magical pulses I don't want to get anywhere remotely near," Gigan went down the list by punctuating each with a metallic finger being extended, the court connected to his left eye dangling about.

Adagio rose up to her feet and, showing no hint of fear and plenty of boldness leaned out while holding onto the cord still connected to Gigan's eye to keep it from flopping around distractingly, and put a finger on his lips to hush him, "Wait, zip it a sec RoboCop, what's going on with Gloriosa?"

Gigan leaned back and groaned exasperatingly, "I detected chaotic energy pulses that made my scanners want to kill themselves trying to divide by zero in a futile effort to quantify it. In other words, magic. I could see her heart rate though, she's fine."

Adagio narrowed her eyes slightly unbelieving, "Are you sure? You're not exactly working with 20/20 vision here or at 100%."

To make a point she tugged very likely on the cable and looked at his opened neck again which seem to have something poking out of it. Gigan was unfazed, "I approached but as soon as I got to her front door her heart rate went back down to relaxed and the readings weren't that different from when she tried practicing her magic with you earlier. Figured she was just doing that on her own accord like you told her to."

"Didn't want to risk more tentacles?" Adagio posed, her words simultaneously taunting and yet somehow belied a degree of concern, but for whom it was not known. Almost like she was trying to see if he would say the right thing next.

"I didn't want to disturb her," Gigan grunted, "You'll see it when you view the video but I can definitely confirm we have a magical enemy at work here. Not something I'm prepared to deal with but I use any means necessary to get the job done. If that means assisting allies in their ability to control what stands a chance at finishing the mission in dealing with the enemy, so be it."

Adagio mulled over the thought for a moment before nodding slightly and releasing the cable, even taking care to very gently put it in his jacket pocket so it didn't catch on anything, "Good answer, I'll be sure to thank her for practicing after I get this video done... But you never mentioned why you didn't get Megalon to do this. Figured as another cyborg he would be even better."

"Then you would be right, my sibling is far superior than a vast majority of beings on this planet in interfacing with technology," Gigan noted astutely in a way that almost seemed to show a degree of pride, even if the comment caused a bit of lowbrow expression from Adagio. Until she tracked in line of sight, mostly because the first half of the cable was also pointing in the direction, to a very particular cabin.

Sonata's lodging, but the youngest siren most assuredly was not alone and well guarded.

Gigan sighed but in some way, the pride was still there, "He has his duty though."

Adagio contemplated for a moment. On a functional level guarding the magic users in their group just played back to Gigan's previously stated justification. After all that was the whole reason he and X shadowed the sirens to the high school and one of their rank was always on guard. But on a pragmatic level, sacrificing one of their number to guard over a magic-less, physically inept, practically mute siren made little sense. If Megalon or Irys was present at the high school instead of the former body guarding Sonata and the latter patrolling the camp, the confrontation might have ended differently. Adagio knew the sequence of events even if she hadn't seen them, yet at least, so having an extra pair of superpowered hands might have allowed them to nab the other Twilight Sparkle.

But that would have left Sonata effectively alone. Something she and, much to her surprise but hidden thankfulness, Gigan agreed on. Then again it really shouldn't have been much of a surprise, they were both older siblings after all. So if something was going good for their baby sibling, why spoil it?

Adagio smirked, "That he does, one he performs well and I approve of."

Gigan crossed his arms and nodded, "See to the video, if you can't identify it perhaps the princess can. I'm trusting you with it."

"And I'm trusting you to get back in top form," Adagio plainly said as they faced each other again, "Ask for help if you need it, I want you... In one piece for the next engagement. Given what we did in the lunch room that's probably going to come soon."

"I accept help and seek it from those who are capable."

A metallic hand passed by a cybernetic body and was extended. The hand that had been absentmindedly touching at a magical gemstone with such power it radiated magic accepted it in a shake.

Calling them friends would be a gigantic stretch. But they had a lot in common despite all the difference. And that commonality came with a certain respect.

The memory ended with the door opening and Adagio briefly looking up to confirm who was entering, Gloriosa seeing Adagio dazzle sitting at the front desk mulling over a decade old laptop that was permanently plugged in and doubling is everything from a manifest, inventory, and register.

"What are you doing?" Gloriosa griped for a moment before catching her tone and calling it, more than a little bit defensive about something crucial to running an increasingly rundown camp.

The oldest siren glanced up at her but showed no signs of moving, "This is the newest computer you've got. Gigan put his point of view onto a flash drive after a lot of finagling, was just going over it."

Gloriosa looked down at the 'flash drive' and the term portable disk drive could only be used relatively speaking. What was plugged into the dusty USB port was an clashingly bright Jem and the Holograms drive that contrasted heavily with the aged machine. Adagio followed her glance and rolled her eyes.

"Gigan insisted on salvaging rather than getting anything new, doesn't want to be tracked. He pilfered all this from behind the computer store a few days ago," Adagio muttered before looking back at the screen whilst motioning to the removable drive roughly the size of the laptop with her thumb.

"Wait... That's Gigan's?" Gloriosa piped as she motioned to the drive.

Adagio merely deadpanned, "Sonata's, he borrowed it."

"Oh... Where is he now?" Gloriosa said, stepping around the desk and ignoring a desire to ask Adagio to get out of her chair, so she could see the video and let her face be illuminated by the old screen.

"Garage," Adagio quipped while holding up a dirty fabric bag that made a metallic rustle as she lifted it before putting it back down, "He's been in there for over an hour for some kind of repair job. Was going to bring him this. Tool bag."

"What happened to him out there?"

Adagio just pointed at the screen, gripping the top of the laptop and craning the monitor backwards to offer a better view to the both of them; Gloriosa resisting an urge to grimace at the loud creaking that moving the archaic computer produced.

It didn't take long for her to figure out this was indeed the point of view Adagio had mentioned, but honestly it didn't look like anything she would have expected. Sure, she had seen long ago that Gigan had prosthetic eyes that looked more like camera lenses than any organ. But aside from maybe a red filter from those glasses he almost never took off, she had been expecting his vision to still approximate what was normal.

Instead she got a very sterile, very analytical way to look at the world. Every couple of seconds he seemed to be cycling through some new way of studying what was around him, and none of it was what a human would call normal. Gloriosa could recognize a few. One mode of vision was far more colorful than what one normally saw, as though all the colors' contrast had been magnified. It reminded her of a documentary showing insect vision that could perceive ultraviolet. An extremely darkened vision mode followed, one that was seemingly populated by vibrating waves that all had different origin points; it taking Gloriosa a moment or two to surmise she was looking at some kind of visualization of sound perception that detected everything from footsteps to the heartbeat of someone standing in front of Gigan. That assessment was vindicated when the next visual setting seemed to be x-rays, displaying an animate skeleton backpedaling away from Gigan's approach.

The next one was very hard to describe. Like a mostly blacked out image that only displayed outlines save for one key feature. Some of the outlines were lighting up like small stars. In the distance she could see one of them moving across a rooftop, the display attaching some kind of writing in an alien language neither woman understood but it was given a green highlight as a small image of a rather vicious looking creature with black skin and white bone armor appeared over it for several seconds.

"Why in the name of..." Gloriosa whispered whilst lowering her brow.

Adagio only briefly furrowed her brow. Aria’s choice in a partner definitely had taken some time to warm up to. And she, wisely by his own admission, kept her guard up just in case. He was intelligent, subdued, was clearly smitten and mutually so with her cousin, and went to work immediately. Adagio above all else sought to protect her pod and herself. In years bygone the only directive she followed to do that was by personal empowerment and empowerment of her fellow sirens. The shadow creature was a wake-up call. Seeing a beast that gigantic, that powerful up close was sobering. Even if by some miracle she managed to get strong enough to oppose something like that, who was to say there might not just be something else out there even worse? Allies would be needed and while prospects weren't perfect, they were substantially better than they had been. That, along with knowing how happy Aria had become and the fact she saw firsthand how angry the otherwise reserved masked monster got when he saw Sonata's current state, helped encourage Adagio to double down on this whole cooperation business. Besides, certainly gave this light magic they had been using recently a boost.

"X's true form," Adagio calmly noted from recollection, holding back a smirk when she saw Gloriosa’s stiffen in visible confusion, "I’ve seen him up close. That means that blob is X, who was watching from just outside the school grounds on a rooftop at the time."

Gloriosa couldn't help but glance outside towards the cabins. She could admit to liking X well enough, even if they didn't associate much. Didn't cause any trouble and apparently she had him to thank for the new landmark she had been trying to market. Who knew his handprint would end up on the camp's postcards? Though, it was a bit surreal seeing the image of whose hands that was exactly. Not enough to judge, she was raised better, but it was surreal nonetheless.

Looking back at the computer the field of the vision detected two other signatures off to the side. Recognizing some of the layout as her old high school, Gloriosa was able to figure out where exactly Gigan was standing, leaning over to point at the left side of the screen.

"He was out in the back area, that the cafeteria right there," she explained.

"Then those three lights are..." Gloriosa muttered as she pointed at the blips on the screen inside a blueprint.

Adagio rubbed at her chin and watched on as more alien language scrawled over the signatures before flashing a green highlight, along with her and Aria's pictures.

"The rest of us... So, this must be how he perceives energy. That's why Aria, X, and I stick out, given we're not normal humans since we have power. Gigan told me he has trouble searching for magic in places where there's a lot of it. But says that since there isn't much here, we stick out," the siren noted while crossing her arms astutely.

Gloriosa however cringed slightly when, standing between the sirens' signatures was a flicker of another. Another flicker of magic from ‘Eventide Hymn’. Having power in this world meant you were not a normal human anymore. And she had power... Power that ever since she had taken it in had changed her in some ways. Normal people, even just people, probably don't have night terrors from seeing ghastly monsters from someone else's point of view. In a frozen wasteland that was her hometown... She stole a glance at the siren, who caused Gloriosa to flinch briefly when the camp director realized Adagio had noticed her gaze immediately and was looking back at her. The siren perked one of her eyebrows while keeping her arms crossed, like she was asserting her statement and not taking it back, whatever it might have meant.

Gloriosa looked away and back to the screen, trying to forget her own night terrors of seeing through someone’s eyes so that she could look through someone else’s point of view in the waking world. But a stubborn question remained.

When Adagio said "we're not normal humans since we have power", did that "we" include her now? Has she changed into something new, and what did that mean? Gloriosa glanced downwards and realized she had been unconsciously running her geodes through her fingers, literally able to feel the tingle of energy coming off of them.

When she looked back at the screen fully Gloriosa briefly glimpsed gnashing, ice-covered teeth surrounded by blackened, frostbitten lips. There was a biting cold.

Gloriosa had not realized she had frozen up even when she felt someone that grip her shoulder, and the camp director sucked in her breath. The geodes seemed to call out to her, like they were recognizing something. Something they had been around before.

Gloriosa was stuck in the crossroads of deciding to consciously throw off whoever it was who had grabbed her or remain petrified in fear; perhaps do something she didn't even know how to describe with the geodes. The sensations were so extremely strong and so familiar amidst a sea of amnesia. Fading back and forth, out and back in and out and back into the waking world, she realized it was Adagio's hand curled around her shoulder and the siren definitely seem to notice how badly Gloriosa had gone into shock.

“Hey, HEY!” Adagio snapped and shook at the human in an attempt at wrestling Gloriosa out of her seeming daydream.

She was about the snap at the director more when she got a look at the human's face. It was pure terror and distress, aimed directly at her. Gloriosa's sclera began to darken and a green-hued light started to settle over her pupils. Adagio saw Gloriosa having hints of someone who was not Gloriosa appear across her face, but Gloriosa did not seen Adagio. She saw something else. In the brief moment of negative emotion expressed by an annoyed and stressed siren, the red gemstone on her necklace had flared and the crystals around Gloriosa's neck had acted up in response.

No golden orange, poofy hair, no sharp voice calling her name, no faded scent of seawater and salty air. In the red gleam of the gemstone there was a tall figure, unnatural and tall with gaunt limbs and a crown of icy antlers. Somehow despite them being far away, she could still see their eyes. Nothing but dark voids with black ichors trickling out.

It all ripped through her in a cornucopia of building pressure. Gloriosa wanted to scream and almost seemed to not have a mouth with which to do so anymore. Several vines underneath the floor started to thrash about and risked bursting out of the ground. Her eyes went black with a faded red mask appearing and-

Adagio quickly grabbed Gloriosa's hand and her necklace. She had no idea what was going on, other than that it would've been a calamity if she didn't do something to stop it. The moment she and Gloriosa saw the outline of what Gigan had seen, the alpha siren was overcome with anger. Not necessarily because she recognized whatever ethereal monstrosity was helping Twilight Sparkle, the other twilight Sparkle, she hadn't progressed through the video long enough to be sure. No, she was enraged at seeing the face of the human bitch who had so dared to direly hurt her baby sister. She was so focused on glaring daggers, a fact that surprised Adagio herself given how she had gotten used to Twilight, the princess, being around her without looking like the siren was about the throttle her; that Adagio hadn't even noticed how Gloriosa was.

Whereas Adagio had been focused on the human, Gloriosa had keyed in on the vaguely amorphous shape behind them in tandem with the hateful magic radiating off the oblivious siren. After calling out the human by name proved fruitless, and shaking her by the shoulder did no good, Adagio let her eyes focus in on what her body could feel. Magic, a lot of raw magic. Crackling energy that seemed to be surging out of the necklace and into Gloriosa.

Glancing down she could see small traces of green mist she had generated herself in her moment of fury. Malefic magic that could create spite and malcontent, perpetuating what had created. And it was almost like Gloriosa's necklace was reacting to that particular dark magic that came so naturally to the sirens like it was in their blood.

-What in the name of?!-

Gloriosa seemed totally disconnected from what was going on in the room, not noticing her hair starting to wave slightly in wind that wasn't there and green flickers becoming visible in her eyes. Without thinking Adagio lurched forward and tried to grab the necklace, her only thought being if she could take the necklace off it might stop whatever it was it was doing to her.

"Hey what's your proble-AH!" She quickly recoiled the moment she touched the necklace, shaking and holding her hand which was twitching uncontrollably like it had been shocked.

All the while it seemed like contact with the dark magic coming off the siren only exacerbated the reaction the necklace was giving Gloriosa. A dark red mask was starting to encircle around her eyes with the entire building starting to creak and groan from shifting vines and roots moving under it. Several potted plants began to grow and risked cracking the ceramics they were housed in. Adagio quickly survey her surroundings whilst rubbing at her hand and for a moment she felt a flash of anger. Her own necklace, her siren heart began to give off a dim glow and more green mist started to trickle out.

"Gloriosa!? Damn it human, snap out of it!"

No response, and more green light started to overpower Gloriosa's eyes as she kept her vision trained upon playback video; as she saw far more in for more intimate detail than even the advanced Nebulan readouts could offer. Adagio cringed but look down when something caught her attention. The glow on the necklace around the sea sorceress' throat was matched by the one on Gloriosa's neck, causing the siren to pause and observe.

Looking between herself and Gloriosa, Adagio sucked in her breath and latched onto a memory of a bygone era in a bygone world.

When she was a little filly, sitting in a reef.

The oceans above were restless and storming, large curtains of churning waves visible from below like how a surface dweller might see rolling thunderclouds. Sonata, a little baby at the time, was frightened and squirming inside her grasp. Her cousin Aria, barely a toddler, was shivering constantly and frightfully looking out from the coral cave they were hiding in. Adagio might have been crying at the time when another cold blast of icy current hit her in the face, but she could never really have been sure given they were underwater and any tears got swallowed up by the sea. It was terrifying, especially to a little girl. It was almost like the ocean was roaring and howling in frigid gales that brought out the worst of negative emotions, it only getting more and more horrible the more negative the three felt. But then-

Warmth.

The little siren looked up to the larger form that shifted so she would be taking the brunt of the raging currents from hurricane outside, shielding her daughter and nieces from the storm. Adagio looked up and instantly it felt like the storm had been muted. Warm eyes gazed down at the eldest siren. She wasn't exactly like them, although one could definitely see where Aria got her colors from, albeit with the teal and purple flipped. And then, Hymnia’s most grand of traits and icons. Her voice, which seemed to mute out the storm.

Adagio was in awe. She loved her mother, Melpomene, for bringing her into this world as well as bringing Sonata out afterwards even at the cost of her own departure. But maybe because the sickly oldest sister of the exiled mermare princesses couldn't fully care for her first daughter because of her other pregnancy and maybe because she had suffered so heavily under their captors, but raising Adagio largely have fallen to Melpomene's little sister, Hymnia, even before she gave her life to give Sonata hers. Adagio loved her late mother, but whenever she thought of maturity, adult power, and perhaps even the word "mother" itself, aunt Hymnia's face came to her.

It was time for her to finally give Hymnia's lullaby a chance again, after a climactic event that nearly shattered her fractured heart and could have cost her the pod. No matter how much time had passed, Adagio dazzle never forgot the lyrics or tune that was the verbal epitome of love and understanding as they came from her aunt's own mouth. If those traitors at Mako had taken them back, Hymnia could have been the greatest queen in history. If her plans after Equestria worked out and she, the eldest living of her grandmother Mako's founder Queen Amatheia, worked and she took the throne with best song magic of the age after Hymnia's death; Adagio was still convinced she'd only be half as good as her aunt.

Adagio held onto the memory and acted. She lurched forward, grabbed onto Gloriosa's necklace and despite feeling an initial massive jolt like she was being electrocuted again, held on and started singing a very different tune. Aunt Hymnia's song.

-Control your anger, control your spite, think positive, sing positive. Control your anger, control your spite, think positive, sing positive...-

Warmth.

In stark contrast to the biting cold of the previous vision, Gloriosa now felt warmth. A soft symphony, almost like a lullaby. All the pressure seemed to dissipate slowly, leaking away like someone was draining a tub of ice water that had been surrounding her and replacing it with heat. She could actually feel her body again, no longer had the sense that she was under attack. And she could hear now, hear the singing.

The lyrics were indescribable in a way beyond simple ignorance of the language, but still beautiful. Unconsciously, as if moved and feeling compelled by the warmth coming off from her necklace, she started to sing along. The vocals didn't match up in exact wording, one a story about growing up in a city of trees and keeping as strong as she could after the loss of her mother but feeling so motivated to take on the task of keeping this place alive to give to others with the forest had given her; the other a soloist piece about the loss of innocence with both a mother and motherly aunt, the responsibilities of leading a group, and about the rebuilding after it was nearly shattered with learning from hubris and forging on.

Finally back in the waking world, Gloriosa looked down unconsciously. The crystals around her neck and Adagio's gem were touching one another, the human having moved forward towards the compelling voice and closed most of the distance between them. Traces of light came down from both of their necks into their respective necklaces, the two flashing calmly in unison. For the first time she could actually perceive what the siren did, almost like their magic was intermingling. Some of the green smoke, which Adagio had previously described to her as what was created when their magical songs induced and perpetuated negative emotions, was still there but it was being pushed to the wayside by columns of red smoke.

Red smoke her crystals were wrapping themselves in almost like they were jubilant in experiencing that particular kind of magic. It was causing the surges coursing through her to subside, at least for now. The frozen desolation was gone. She was home, safe, in good company, and for some reason had the oddest scent out sea salt in her nose.

It took Gloriosa moment to realize it was because she was breathing in Adagio's breath. The siren slowly stopped singing after Gloriosa stopped, her eyes closed with a very content expression. If it was because she was looking back at a memory nostalgically or if it was because her gemstone, her heart, was absorbing a large amount of magic was unknown; but she let out a brief moan of contentment before slowly opening her eyes.

The warmth was back, but for a very different reason, given they both realized they were mere inches from each other's face and closely hugging one another. Adagio's lips flattened as Gloriosa just stared wide-eyed, both of them more the little red. Gloriosa inwardly cringed a bit and whimpered awkwardly while peeling her fingers off Adagio's shoulder and hip. Adagio just grunted, flipping her hands up to let go of the human and clearing her throat as she stepped back.

Adagio panted lightly, "Well, now that you seem to be not losing it-”

The door was suddenly kicked open and both women nearly jumped back a full meter and towards the back wall when the dark mass came barreling in. Even when their eyes adjusted there was scarcely any detail, though it soon became apparent that was for a good reason. The person who would just come barging in with a large blade drawn from their wrist was wearing a trash bag over their body. Adagio slowly looked over at the hand and upon recognizing metal coated fingers her expression changed from shocked and surprised at the intrusion, to annoyance even as a still startled Gloriosa was hyperventilating.

The bag wearing intruder visibly looked between them, as indicated by a covered head tilting the top of the bag back and forth, before relaxing and drawing the hand back over the tarp.

“I thought there was an attack.”

A dim red light was visible beneath the crinkled plastic, Adagio being sure to give it a deadpanned look.

“What are you trying to do, give me a heart attack Bolts-for-Brains!?” the siren snipped while rubbing at her temple.

“I sensed a large magic spike similar to what happened at the school,” the intruder grunted while starting to turn around and retreat out the door as Adagio called after him.

"Heh, sensing a damsel in distress and rushing to the rescue, didn’t know you cared. Just a magical mishap though. Nothing to be concerned with, but I’m glad you didn’t decide to come gallivanting through the window instead.”

The bag-wearing Gigan paused and before it seemed like he was going to fire back, an audible grinding of creaking metal was heard from under the tarp, along with a few sparks falling down near his boots. Like a speaker fizzling out, he was inaudible and unintelligible for a few moments before a portion of the bag near where his arms should be rose and swung to whack himself in the chest with a noticeable ‘thunk’!

“I have a score to settle. I thought the goon squad from the school was back and wanted first dibs,” he grunted whilst exiting, “Though obviously I interrupted something else. Next time you feel like private training for Ms. Daisy, don’t do it next to where I am.”

Adagio puzzled, wondering just what he was on about when she felt a soft warmth on her side and chest. And a weight in her arms. She finally looked down to see a flushed, startled, shaking Gloriosa was clinging to her and Adagio, unconsciously, had put the human behind her with an arm around her middle. Adagio deadpanned and grunted, just glad the jolted human hadn’t decided to spring into her arms like some dog out of those cartoons Sonata watched. With a bit of firmness in her voice, she shook her arm a bit.

“Off.”

Gloriosa somewhat awkwardly let go and backpedaled a few steps. Adagio looked between her and the opened door, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath to collect herself as she paced over and shut it. Closing her eyes, she kept her hands up in a pacifying motion both for her audience and for herself.

"Oookay, you’re having crazy magic surges, and Gigan is walking around with a bag over his head. Any other surprises ready for me?" Adagio groaned audibly.

She peeked out an eye to see Gloriosa taking small glances at the computer screen before looking away. Even if it was too dark to see that the director of the camp was getting goosebumps, it was pretty blatantly clear she was unnerved by what she saw. Sighing to herself, Adagio reached over and shut the top of the laptop down upon the keyboard until it clicked shut.

"Hey, eyes up here," she quipped with a snap of her fingers, "I think I'll be reviewing that, given what just happened to you."

"S-Sorry," Gloriosa withered and shrank back a bit, "I really don't know what happened."

"So I could tell," the siren grunted while motioning to a chair a good distance from the computer which Gloriosa sat herself in, "Talk."

it seems like a hot minute before Gloriosa could summon up the strength to, fiddling with her necklace the whole time, both out of fascination and relief the odd sensations it been giving her had ceased.

“I’ve been seeing things,” her words caused Adagio the perk up slightly as she continued after a momentary pause, “I will see things and feel them like I’m in some kind of very visceral dream except I was awake the whole time, just unawares.”

Adagio crossed her arms before her, sitting back on the desk.

“Talk... When did this start and what all do you see?”

Gloriosa sniffled, gulping back her breath as she looked to her necklace.

"I had an episode just before I came here..."

=====================

Snow, snow everywhere. It was practically all she could see. Strangling the buildings, smothering the streets, and blotting out all signs of life. Not the gentle kiss of winter, nor even the awesome force of the roaring blizzard. Even then there was life and there was vibrance, a songbird fluttering between snow-covered tree branches or people going about their business carefully on sleet covered streets. This, this was sterilization to the point of desolation. Emptiness across a corpse of an expanse. To someone so used to experiencing life, and recently literally feeling it all around her, it left Gloriosa horrified.

The entire downtown, not a single soul in sight nor a single spark of life. Nothing but a dead world that was all-encompassing in every direction, and yet so extremely claustrophobic. It was nothingness so profound that she felt simultaneously numbed to the bone and a gnawing of pain ripping through her skin with icy fangs.

The desolation took a physical shape, a manifestation of famine so wretched that the moment Gloriosa saw it, she almost felt compelled to vomit and rid herself of such a disgusting feeling. A towering figure with gaunt limbs stretched out to a grotesque parody of a man’s body, crowned with a set of distorted antlers.

It all came in flashes.

Frostbitten talons digging into her arm. Cavities leaking black fluid for eye sockets. A distorted man. A distorted equine. A spirit that could take physical form, and then a physical form shredded back into a spirit. Three phantoms, three monsters. They attacked her all at once!

A forest she didn’t recognize.

A burst of six lights, joined by a seventh, she felt compelled to recognize.

A blinding flash, the echoes of a voice like a wind chime.

The icy nothingness was finally fading. The sky had been reborn.

And she was lying still in the snow, slowly feeling colder.

She’d died.

And yet, with the dying vision, the three nightmares returned.

Gloriosa Daisy wasn’t even sure when exactly she woke up from her night terror. But after minutes struggling to control her breathing, flinching up at the slightest chill the cold sweat she had been covered in gave her, she had finally come to two realizations. When she had stepped out of the showers to wash herself off and gotten dressed, it had been about 7:45. The clock was currently reading 7:46, and before she could ponder if it was working properly it quickly changed to 7:47 as the seconds ticked by.

And yet, even wide-awake, sights and sounds kept trying to embed themselves within her consciousness. The several hundred-year-old settlement house, the big family cabin she had been born in. Gloriosa Daisy saw the darkened, empty space filled with light that was near blinding and the sound was like it was being heard as the distant echoes within a tunnel. Two people, somehow she got the inclination one was a young man and the other a young woman, stepping into a deep forest. Everything flew past her at a breakneck speed, showing hills, a lake, mountains. Between the flashes there were six lights arranged in a hexagon, but in the distortions she couldn't see the colors if there were any.

Then shapes, shapes of more people starting with one of the original two. They had the lights hovering around them, everything in sight overgrown with vines that seemed to choke out her eyesight.

Another figure in the same posture, floating in the air with six lights. The lights felt so familiar, like they were supposed to have color she would recognize. But most everything was desaturated in these sights and memories, leaving only white and gray.

Then another. The moment of peace and calm made her want to latch onto the sensations like a rock in a storming sea.

Then another. Pain, sorrow had an… enemy? She had an enemy that she regretted fighting? She was fighting an old friend? Gloriosa was simultaneously mortified and confused. She, she didn’t have any old friends she was close to anymore. And yet this battle felt so intimate… But, when had she been in a battle?

Another flash, another figure still. She could hear windchimes encircling all around her, presence she could detect and yet somehow yearned to. What was going-

Gloriosa wheezed and trying to focus her vision again but she couldn't see her birthplace anymore. She couldn't even see her own hand. Attached to her arm was someone else's. One covered in wood. Instantly she went claw at her own arm, as if she could wrench the and obstruction off of her like peeling off a costume.

Another figure with the lights, surrounded by posies. She felt... she felt overwhelming regret. Her child, she hadn’t spent enough time with them or her husband. Gloriosa gasped and choked, shaking her head rapidly to clear away the nonsense. She hadn’t gotten hitched yet and she certainly didn’t have a child! This was in her memory, this never happened! But why was she hurting so much?!

A flash.

The cold wind was back, blowing past her not just because it was a ravenous gale... But because against her own will she, or someone else, was running towards it. The six lights became seven and-

She violently forced it all away despite the sensations so desperately trying to control her and didn't even know how she managed to do that. Gloriosa wiped away one more tear, finally mustering up the courage to let go of the necklace as she was on one level both frightened of and entrapped in. She couldn't figure out which one was by her own will.

She was changing. She had been Gloriosa Daisy-Sentry, daughter of Wysteria Daisy and Salty Sentry, current director of Camp Everfree. Her mother died when she was less than eight years old, her father was an excellent parent but he just couldn't keep coming back to the camp anymore after losing her. She had a little brother, Timber, and... Very few friends, if any. The closest thing she had to a best friend she had only really met several weeks ago and they were both magical refugees from a world full of talking equines, one used to be some mash up of a pegasus and a unicorn and the other was some kind of hippocampus witch. There were other associates of course. Irys and X, apparently a giant vampire bat and humanoid dragon both tolerated her amicably enough; same thing with another sea witch named Aria. Sonata and Megalon liked her and, perhaps out of some sort instinct due to being an older sibling she could even admit to feeling protective over them... And yet she was the only human in the camp.

But- but she could make human friends, if she tried! Maybe... She hadn't even talked to her old babysitter Principal Celestia in years. But she could still associate with other humans, like her brother... And Mr. Rich... She shuddered, not wanting to think about that anymore.

And then there was Gigan who seemed to respect her well enough and she definitely enjoyed being in his presence as well and-... She wanted to groan to herself. Gloriosa barely knew any great details about the guy, it was just a physical attraction even if she did genuinely want to know more! About a giant alien cyborg... Who may or may not have even really liked her all that much…

She was Gloriosa Daisy-Sentry, friend of exactly 0 humans not related to her, who had been in and out of crushing debt the moment she took charge of the camp, and was relying on room and board costs for four giant monsters, a pony Princess, and a trio of marine song sorceresses to fix said debt. By many accounts she was pathetic. But she was her, and Gloriosa was she. She knew who she was.

These experiences, that threatened that fact. That took the only stable thing in her life, her identity and homeostasis as herself, away.

She had first experienced this weeks ago, when she first became aware she had put on the necklace. It would come in flickers, sometimes a complete random and other times when Adagio was teaching her some magic. A shift in consciousness, and change in body it seemed to fester in her nerves. In those brief moments it felt like something else was trying to stuff itself into her head, and her whole body felt as the world would feel if one touched it through glove. The shape of experience was the same, but it was almost like something else was trying to wrap itself over her... Or push her out of her own body.

Gloriosa Daisy shivered, leaning up against a wall and trying not to cry again out of a mix of lingering fear from the apparently, though it felt so much longer, minute long night terror from a micro sleep and the unknown that frustrated her to no end. Her free hand clutched at the necklace, clutched at the six gemstones upon it. She could see a bit of a flickering light show between her fingers. The geodes were reacting to something, almost like they could sense and act on their own. In fear of something else? Or of desire for her? What were they trying to do!?

She gasped and coughed, pawing for a tissue to wipe off the tears and mucus streaming down her face before getting another, shakingly trying to wipe off some of the sweat that was chilling her to the bone. Part of her screamed out to let go, stop holding onto the crystals and give them all away. She already had given one to Twilight to inspect and investigate given she apparently was a princess very well-acquainted with this thing that was elusive to Gloriosa; magic.

But it was that same elusiveness of fact that made her squeeze the necklace even harder. That voice telling her to give up the crystals... How was she to know that was even her voice telling her to do that? When she felt a compulsion to embrace some kind of change, to give into the visions and let them take over, just what exactly was going on and who was talking? If it felt like something else was trying to change her, take control of her maybe, what would that mean if she gave away all of the magic?

Would she be free? Or would she just be following a directive to an end goal that she didn’t know? Giving away one crystal only seemed to make it worse, what if giving away all seven was damning? Her previous visions didn't include nightmarish ice monsters, how did they factor into this?!

And then there was the other facet of this power. This power was increasingly becoming her own, and part of her was so relieved at that. For all of her screwups and struggling something finally seem to be going right. Here she had been at her lowest. Managing a family heirloom her father, for all his great deeds, wanted nothing to do with, foreclosure and debt increasingly bearing down on her, the campground dying a slow pitiful death despite her attempts to spruce it up, increasing isolation from old friends she just stopped talking to because they stopped talking to her; and the increasing feeling the more years, blood sweat and tears she put into this the more it was all a waste.

And then, all the confusion that happened that one fateful night where she saw fires in the sky, the rumblings of what she now knew was a distant titanic battle, and coming back to awareness with a set of magic she did not understand around her neck. For days she struggled on trying to take it off, but one way or another she was always compelled to put it back on. The joyous echoes of laughter, calm of honesty to confront her problems, and pride in the loyalty to her family’s Everfree legacy helped keep things going.

The only bright spot that had come to her months prior was Sonata applying for a job as a lifeguard. Glorioso rather liked Sonata, she was playful and wore her thoughts on her sleeve. Brief instances of paranoia someone had set her up to take in Sonata as some sort of spying or sabotage on the camp were quickly put to rest. And here was some companionship she had been so desperately yearning for. Didn’t matter if it would be a blow to her personal budget to try and take on just one employee, it was going to be well worth it. The very act of being generous and showing kindness to someone who definitely deserved it helped further lift her mood. Besides, she could tell Sonata had a few problems of her own, perhaps they could empathize…

Then it became a roller coaster. Sonata got ‘hurt’, how exactly and how badly Gloriosa wouldn’t know for weeks. But once she did find out, after finding out so many other stark revelations, she homed in on it.

Monsters existed. If they could hurt someone as kind and innocent as Sonata, someone Gloriosa was already feeling protective over, they could do a lot worse. It scared her, it scared her almost as much as the uncertainty.

This power that had come to her that she was both craving and confused by, in many ways it terrified her. For a brief moment she whimpered, clawing at her scalp and hair in frustration of the understanding that was elusive to her. And, in the moments that came and went, there was an overwhelming urge. An urge for the indescribable to let itself be known.

It almost tried to strangle her, overwhelming amounts of magic she didn’t understand. She was changing, that much was clear. But changing into what was the question...

Seeking comfort, she staggered over to the place she knew the most comfort in since she was a little girl: Her home, which wasn’t a house or cabin. It was much bigger. It was the entire camp and those she trusted inside it. For the first time in a very long time, that number had increased. Maybe she would bump into one of them tonight.

Gloriosa Daisy’s eyes were caught by a light being on in the register building at the front of the camp....

=====================

“It first happened after I first got these,” she muttered while motioning to the crystals in her grasp, “but they’ve only become much, much more visceral and frequent as of late… About maybe, three weeks ago.”

That got Adagio's attention, "Wait... Was it right after Sonata put in her application to work here?"

Gloriosa nodded slightly, "Give or take a few days."

"Then it was right around the same time she was attacked," Adagio noted while tapping at her chin, "and you just had an episode right now looking at the footage from Gigan's encounter."

Gloriosa nodded sadly and gulped, "And less than a half-hour ago when I was in my cabin. Same day as the encounter... The one just now though, I could tell it was induced. The green smoke."

Adagio grumbled and glanced at her necklace, "Spite inducing magic, came out involuntarily. Usually I have to be singing to work any spells, but I guess something happened when I saw the other Twilight on video. Projected my own feelings."

"You hate her that much huh?"

The siren looked at her like she just asked if the ocean was wet, "After what she did to my baby sister, it took the kaiju holding me back when the tolerable Twilight was brought over and I thought she was her... Yeah, a lot of bad feelings. Ones that seem to cause your necklace to react."

"I-I still don't quite know what came over me. One moment I was watching the video, the next moment I just felt floored by all the power and it's like I'm in a completely different space," Gloriosa took a breath to steel her nerves and tried to recall all of it despite the slippery memory, "Sometimes it's like waking up from a dream, I remember something happened and it affected me but the details will slip away. I'll see ice... a-and snow. Just nothing but barren white and cold in some places they recognize and others so transformed I can't. I just, I feel like there's something missing."

"And seeing the video while experiencing negative magic jogged your memory?"

Gloriosa shook her head and looked at the necklace, "No I... I think it jogged its memory. Like it was reacting to it all and trying to feed me something."

"No two magics work exactly the same," Adagio noted as she leaned down and step forward to look at the necklace of the closer, "Twilight said she thinks they might be related to the Elements of Harmony from Equestria, but she's not sure. There were seven when you found it, but Twilight says there were only six elements."

"Did you ever see the elements?"

Adagio shook her head, "No. By the time the pod and I came to Canterlot, Nightmare Moon had already been banished. The castle in the Everfree that the alicorns who bore the elements originally lived in was abandoned for weeks. Never saw them in Canterlot, and hearsay implied either they were abandoned back to the old castle because Celestia was forced to use them against Nightmare Moon, who used to be a fellow bearer, or that they were even destroyed...."

She shrugged casually, "Them lacking those weapons and Celestia being out of commission was one of the reasons I thought we would have an easy time there to gather strength... Didn't really work out for us. A week later, we wake up in the town nearby as talking naked monkeys with the clothes on our backs and some gold."

Gloriosa perked up slightly and tilted her head to ensure she heard her right, "Where did the gold come from?"

Adagio waved her hand dismissively, "Gave up trying to figure that out a long time ago. We probably just landed on something lucky- not important. Point is, whether these are some variation of the elements or not, I couldn't tell you."

Gloriosa deflated, "So you would have no idea what's happening to me?"

Adagio rolled her eyes, "Other than that it's an improvement."

"... What?"

The siren gently, but firmly gripped the back of Gloriosa's head and tilted it aside to look over towards several potted plants that had been sitting in the window seal. A steady trickle of topsoil dirt was seeping down the walls because the plants had burst out of their jars and had grown over the entire window.

"Because I know power when I see it, and you have a lot," she started while pointing a finger upwards, "I think one of the reasons you have these episodes is because you're fighting it."

"I-"

Adagio hushed her with a finger on the lips, "Zip it and listen. You said you started getting these episodes after Sonata was attacked right? Right after a surge in dark magic caused by other-Twilight. And you just had one now. Right after I accidentally used some, Bolts-For-Brains outright said it was similar to the goon he encountered helping the other Twilight."

She removed her hand from Gloriosa's head and used it to point at the necklace, "I think your pretty trinket is trying to warn you, prepare you."

"What about the visions?" Gloriosa frowned, half mumbling behind a finger still on her lips.

Adagio shrugged, "Could be a lot of things. Maybe these crystals know what dark magic is from some previous use. You said you found them in a cave that had previously been covered up by boulders, so maybe someone at them before you did. Or maybe, because Gigan was covered in ice by the end of lunch, maybe the frozen freak out visuals are just trying to be some kind of warning for you. Point is though, I think the reason they come on so strongly is because you're fighting it. The more you fight it, the harder it has to push."

Gloriosa puzzled and pursed her lips, looking aside in a silent gesture communication that indicated to Adagio just how right she was.

A hand was placed upon her shoulder, pulling for a moment before sliding away from the crystals just in case it got shocked again. Gloriosa looked into confidence she wished she could emulate with Adagio's strong gaze.

"Listen up limp fish, you can either walk or be walked on. The whole reason I agreed to teach you magic was because it could prove useful to us in the future and removed you being a liability. So far, you've been extremely pathetic in life-"

“Hey-” Gloriosa began to mumble in retort only to be zipped again by Adagio’s finger on her lips, as the siren closed in with an annoyed look.

“You had four things against you. You were in a mountain of debt, lived mostly alone, had no friends.”

Gloriosa lowered down briefly but did perk up an eyebrow, “What’s the fourth?”

Adagio rolled her eyes, “Being a naked bipedal tailless monkey. Not. My. Point! Point is…”

She removed her finger from Gloriosa’s lips and pointed to the necklace, “This and all that’s been going on since you found it has been a huge upswing for you. And you’ve made yourself useful to others. Your debt is nearly gone, you said you could visit family more, and whatever this magic is doing to you is not something normal to humans. In my opinion, you should stop fighting it and instead see what it's up too.”

Gloriosa listened but deflated slightly, “But what if I’m not normal any more?”

Adagio just shrugged, “Were you content as a normal human? Or feeling like you were as successful or useful?”

Her cocked eyebrow had no response for a time, Gloriosa just letting her eyes drift to the side in contemplation. She’d been capable of being happy before, for sure in fact. But, call it bad luck or call it fate, her life had been on a downward turn as of late. She couldn’t lose the camp, she couldn’t be away from Everfree. That much she knew for sure. She was meant to be here, more than anyone else perhaps. Yes, more than any other. And… now she was in possession of a power that was directly tied to plant life, in an area surrounded by it.

Maybe, that meant it was true. Maybe she was supposed to have this power after all and it was merely trying to make her the best host possible. She wasn’t someone to brag about earlier, and this was a trial. Fire forged iron into steel, and every tree that is kissed by the sun must endure a time buried in darkness as a seed.

A new her, bonded to this magic. Maybe that was a better outcome… ?

Her smile tensed and tempted to turn into a frown when she felt the power radiating from the necklace again, looking back to Adagio.

“But... if I let loose and don’t resist, what if I end up changing too much?” Gloriosa whispered with obvious fear showing through her visage, cold sweat and stress having messed her hair and body.

Adagio Dazzle took in a deep breath and drew up, fixing up Gloriosa’s bangs, straightening out her shirt, and after a bit of apprehension, aligning the necklace’s vine work to pretty up her host’s visage. She tapped on Gloriosa’s chin to make her perk her head up, noticing a bit of red on Gloriosa’s cheeks after looking over Adagio for a moment but the siren didn’t care to know or ask why. Turns out, sirens didn’t quite have the human concept of personal space and they were standing close enough for their breath to mix and their necklaces nearly touched.

“Listen, you’re overthinking all of this. Change happens. If you told me a year ago that I’d see a giant monster fight in front of me, be singing love songs, and have numerous conversations with a metal-plated space cyborg; I’d probably tell you to kindly place your head in a shark’s mouth for me,” she rolled her eyes but nonetheless carried a serious look as she placed her hands on Gloriosa’s shoulders, “But those who can seize their fate don’t cower. You were a pathetic monkey from a race of pathetic monkeys, but for one reason or another you got a shot to prove yourself. Frankly, you’re probably one of the best humans I think exists, and your magical potential is extreme. One of the reasons I vouched personally to see you trained was so you could live up to it and stop being so pathetic.”

Gloriosa puzzled as Adagio rambled on, using the word ‘pathetic' at least five times every eight sentences. Mostly in reference to her. But, call her crazy, she started to think the siren didn’t mean it all that much. Adagio kept looking right at her and yet, somehow, she almost seemed to be looking aways and without focus. Deflective, putting up a mask.

-Is… Is she trying to say ‘I believe in you’ without saying a compliment?-

True or not, it made her shrink just a bit less after being made presentable by the eldest siren.

“Now,” Adagio quipped after clapping Gloriosa’s shoulders again before stepping back and leaning down to retrieve the bag of tools that had been sitting by her seat.

“We can speak more on this later. Get the princess involved if you’re this panicked over magic, but for now I’m going to review this footage. And, I have a job for you.”

Gloriosa tilted her head up in question, a monumental weight slowly slipping off her shoulders, at least to an extent, as she picked up the weight of the tool bag.

Adagio nodded and pointed out the front door the cyborg had come barging through just a minute ago, “Take these to Gigan, realized the garage was missing some tools earlier. And see what the kelp is up with him to come barreling in with a bag on his head.”

Gloriosa stepped back, letting her mind take a moment to clear and acclimate. She took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, turning and stepping to the door. Just as she placed her hand on it however, she cast her voice backwards to Adagio.

“You said old me was pathetic because I was in a lot of debt, lived mostly alone, had no friends, and was a human. But now I’ve paid most of it off, live with you all here, but I’m pretty sure I’m still human.”

Adagio raised her brow, a bit bemused she detected no venom in that tone, as she sat herself back down behind the computer, “Not my exact words. Well you’re improved already, might as well keep it up. And for what it’s worth, Ms. Daisy, you annoy me far less than other humans. I’ll consider you an exception.”

“So to address the last of the four, does this mean we’re friends?”

A bated pause came to the siren. As though she, for the first time tonight, needed a moment to articulate.

Gloriosa heard the words trail past her ears as she kept her back turned, “I find you far less annoying than I do Gigan as well, Gloriosa.”

Gloriosa, dimmly illuminated by the Elements, chanced a smile as she departed.

==============
Canterlot City
==============

With an escort of two other kaiju, the humans felt secure enough to venture away from the school before the later part of the day. Being in public thus far had been their greatest defense as it seemed Gigan, Monster X, and who knew what else, would not stage any attacks in broad daylight with crowds in the way. Rainbow Dash had been attacked at night while she was alone at the school, Princess Twilight Sparkle had been taken when they were in the far side of town with nobody around and judging from X’s surprise he wasn’t expecting Mothra to be there. That surprise, of course, led to the question of if the attackers knew about Anguirus and Godzilla’s arrival, much less Celestia’s. That could be especially prudent considering the alicorn was in a much more vulnerable position than she usually would be.

Celestia was used to being flanked by guards, but back in Equestria that was more for other reasons. True, she wasn’t invincible, but it usually took someone on an alicorn level like a supercharged Chrysalis to stand an adequate chance unless there were overwhelming numbers. There had actually been a suggestion to retire the guard around her, but she had it put aside. After all, not only could she not be everywhere, but more than once she’d found having an ensemble of guards was useful for other reasons. She could bench press a house and emit magic blasts that could level a hillside, but most of the average folk didn’t know that. A queen that they knew was one of the most powerful beings on the planet was a lot less approachable than a princess they thought needed protection as much as anyone would. Plus if a situation did require her to go all out, having guards around meant she could trust them to protect anypony caught in the crossfire and let her focus on stopping what only she could. Long story short, she was used to having guards. But that was as the thousand-year-old, strongest equine that had ever existed; she was not used to needing guards, like a normal 13 to 15-year-old early teenage girl.

Much less sharing them with an ensemble of slightly older girls. But deciding that it was probably safest to both conceal the returning kaiju trio’s presence as well as potentially unwind a bit better, that they would all collect back at Sunset’s residence. Upon returning to the de facto base of operations, as Rarity called it, and settling in; Junior couldn’t help but notice something was amiss.

Namely the moment he helped lay an exhausted and clearly in dire-need-of-sleep Lea across a couch, he had an uncanny sense that he was being watched. Arching his back to spread out dorsal spines he didn’t have anymore and slowly tilting his head to the side in a very inhuman manner, he very slowly scanned the room through his draping bangs. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy, who had previously kicked their shoes off and were set to sit down in a few chairs on the other side of the couch, exchanged a few glances between themselves and the resting Lea before exiting the room. And it wasn’t in a way that indicated consideration for trying not to make any noise near somebody sleeping. They huddled together, Applejack even putting her arm around Fluttershy while shooting Junior what looked almost like an apologetic glance. He could smell them sweating a little bit more despite the chilly Spring air and if he looked closer he got the distinct impression that hair was on the back of their neck would be standing up; though he did not need to. He knew what scared humans looked like quite well. It’s just the target of their fear made no sense.

They couldn’t be afraid of him, they’d acted nothing short of relieved when they first met and had been jovial all throughout. And that meant they were afraid of…

Junior felt a shiver, and for a moment he thought it was himself before realizing a dull, pale green hand was clutching his. Lea was shuddering in her sleep, and whether she knew of his presence or was just unconsciously grasping for anything to hold fast to, she gripped his hand. Junior slowly let his calloused, scar-riddled fingers curl around Lea’s; resting his other hand across the small of her back and leaning down. The embrace, especially when he laid his head and neck on top of her scalp and emitting a low rumble from the back of his throat she would feel through the contact, might’ve almost seemed intimate if someone wasn’t privy to their lack of romance.

It had the desired effect of soothing the Guardian of Mortals, causing her shivering to still thanks to the familiarity she could sense even through her dreamscape. It did little to take Junior’s mind off a much more troubling observation that still made little sense at first thought.

The girls were scared of Lea. Even now out of the corner of his eyes or indications of their presence by hearing their footsteps, he did tell one or two of them had been watching him. Not in the way one would if they were fearful of him but fearful for him. It took a further moment to study Lea’s appearance.

Even without him seeing her in her human form right after she stepped through the portal mirror, he could get the distinct impression something about her had since changed. And not in the same way it had Celestia. She had bags under her eyes, her skin had simultaneously lost a lot of color and darkened, and there were perpetual goosebumps all over her arms and neck. The stench of cold sweat clung to her clothes and skin. The woman looked stressed, extremely stressed, but that didn’t account for all of the changes. Running a few of his fingers through her hair there was just something about it, though he couldn’t exactly place it, that looked amiss. The hairstyles and hair color of an equestrian and their human counterpart in this world seemed pretty identical, he could tell that from observing the similarities between the Elements of Harmony Bearers and the five humans here and he remembered the Sentry line for the guard and had seen a picture of Flash Sentry of the Crystal Empire. His hair and Anguirus’ hadn’t changed much at all from their pony forms, so he could assume kaiju weren’t excluded and that meant Lea’s hair should be identical to her changeling form’s. Except for something about how the light caught it wasn’t right, and he was checking closer up to see if he could find out why.

He did when he found a couple of strands of reddish-orange hiding in the sea of clover green. He very carefully picked through her hair, finding a few more strands scattered about. Running his fingers to the base he could confirm they were indeed coming out of her scalp just like any of the other hairs, and they seemed to be intermixed in such a way that dyes wouldn’t be very sensible. Godzilla puzzled.

Humans sometimes had their hair whiten due to stress, was this something that happened to mothra?

Something was making his best friend extremely stressed and something had happened over the past few days that made the cuddliest kaiju he knew scary to a bunch of humans. He’d get to the bottom of this alright…

His concern for Lea was not isolated, but the split division of tasks meant that the other two would only just now be approaching. Anguirus walked in from the front door and the Princess paced in from the bedroom that many of the girls and Flash were now crashing in. Both of them looked at the sleeping Lea, and between themselves, before Celesti-... Peachy… nodded and then stepped into the hallway and small kitchen for a hint of privacy and so they could speak a bit more freely without waking the exhausted Lea.

Anguirus leaned up against the refrigerator while crossing his arms, “Ran a perimeter check like we suggested. My magic sense isn’t as good as Lea’s but I can’t detect any nearby energy spikes to suggest Gigan or the Ghidorah, Monster X, whatever exactly that thing was, is nearby or has been recently like they had been at the school. The humans will be safe.”

“Thanks,” Junior grunted with a nod, “Lea’s exhausted and I would bet a big reason why is she’s been running herself ragged both guarding and trying to find Princess Twilight.”

He noticed the growing frown on Peachy’s face and held back a cringe, “Which means it’s all the better we know she’s safe! As out of character as it is for them to take a hostage.”

“Well, it’s not exactly like we knew those aliens very well. Not much time for chatter when them showing up typically meant they were trying to kill us,” Anguirus griped, “Silver lining though? If the one that attacked Sentry’s car really was Monster X, I don’t see him coming after us in a residential area.”

“If I recall, he seemed to have hangups about attacking civilians,” Peachy muttered as she chimed in and adjusted her thick, fake glasses.

Both of the kaiju nodded and Anguirus continued, “He’d only really attack those who stood a chance of fighting back,” He paused to groan in old phantom pains of getting a backfist into a tail smash that nearly knocked his lights out, “Usually that ended up being us when we were too much for his masters... Still, Xilians didn’t seem to be able to call him down as much as they’d like to. I remember one time Yonggary told me that Monster X once waited for a transport boat to get out of the way first before resuming a fight, gave Rodan time to fly in.”

“Still, he’s not a threat to be taken at all lightly, even if I suspect he was holding back against the humans and got caught off-guard by their powers. He’s about on par with me, Lea, Destroyah, and my siblings in terms of power,” Junior shrugged, “I didn’t manage to actually beat him in Final Wars. I’m one of our strongest and I could just force him into a draw.”

Peachy rubbed at her chin, “But that doesn’t include whatever new powers he’s got now, the group that got involved in the fight told me he’d gotten noticeably stronger when he brought forth those powers.”

Junior nodded but managed to keep his nerve, “I’ve gotten stronger since Final Wars too. And Grand King Ghidorah was stronger than both of us, but I still killed him.”

Anguirus lowered his brow and lightly kicked his comrade in the shin, “With help.”

Some levity was sorely needed in the dire circumstances and Godzilla humored a chuckle, “Well that’s what I’ve got you two for-”

Somebody very short cleared her throat.

“-Got you three for, technically Princess here beat King Ghidorah too,” though he did shoot Peachy Keen a lowbrowed look, “With help.”

He was fairly certain that if any of them talked about this incident once they were all back in Equestria, Celestia would excuse her sticking her tongue out at him on account of her physical age.

“Which does remind me, the five humans that are counterparts to the Element bearers. I heavily suspect the source of their powers is magical in nature,” Peachy noted while tapping her finger on her arm, “When Starswirl and I first came to this world, it seemed totally magically inert. My mentor was one of the most powerful sorcerers of all time and he couldn’t get anything beyond very simple spells to work here, which took bringing some magically charged items with us to function.”

She looked at her hands and tried focusing. She could feel something, but nothing was showing itself, “If I hadn’t been reduced in age I might have been able to do something, but we thought the natives were completely without magic. The whole reduced magic clause was why Starswirl banished the Sirens here, where he thought they couldn’t hurt anyone… Though evidently either they weren’t weakened enough or something re-energized them.”

“Could it be the magic was dormant?” Anguirus muttered with a raised eyebrow, “That’s how it is in some areas on Terra. Sometimes all it takes is a burst of magic to start reenergizing everything. That’s what happened on Infant Island when Lea’s mother was dormant for thousands of years before waking up. If it was dormant, and they found some way to tap into it...”

“If that’s true, there’s also the fact they were at the school… The same school where several months ago there was a magical confrontation between my most recent and-” a tiny smile very briefly graced her features. Whatever the cause that brought Sunset back to Equestria for the time she was, Celestia was very grateful for it even if some things were still not said, “-other student. Twilight told me the five girls currently in the bedroom above us all experienced an empowered magical form.”

“Could be the same event re-energized the sirens. I don’t use magic but I know enough from Lea that it often leaves traces, something Chibi confirmed is true with Equestrian magic as well. If that’s true, three ancient monsters from your history are another threat to look out for,” Peachy and Anguirus nodded at Junior’s words, “But there is one thing this plays into our favor. Gigan and Monster X know the girls are at the school, they have probably been around there too if Rainbow Dash was attacked there. But they don’t know about me or Anguirus, but given what you told me happened at the cafeteria they are bound to know about these sirens soon enough.”

“And if energy is involved, kaiju will come running,” Anguirus affirmed, “This world might be different, but it still works on the same rules as Equestria we laid out and as on Terra. The enemy is also in a native form and the only thing that can possibly restore them that has enough power to do so is magic.”

“And the limited amount of magic users in this world limits who is a potential target,” Peachy noted with a frown, “I only wish I was more useful for the defense. Even with a limited number of magic-users to keep an eye on, it’s not fair for you three to have to shoulder all of it. And there still is the question of, if they were after magic, why not simply seize Rainbow Dash when Monster X had her in his grasp?”

Anguirus just shrugged, “Some things we just don’t know. Maybe it’s because she didn’t show any magic at the time? Might explain why he specifically went after Princess Twilight. She probably gave off a bigger signal than anyone else fresh out of the portal.”

With a blink of his eye, he conjured up the perception of energy and magic flow. This world wasn’t brimming with it like Equestria was, but like a very wispy cloud of steam, he could just barely perceive something. And what he could perceive off Peachy Keen was definitely abnormal compared to every other human. Like a thin aura of sparking energetic light, similar to how it was in Equestria but reduced a hundredfold. He could also perceive some others around them. Godzilla, of course, even if he wasn’t magical, was a huge outlier. Even with him having reduced power as well as making a special concession to keep reabsorbing any energy he was radiating out, something his old friend had been doing for so long to avoid contaminating an area it was subconscious, Anguirus would still clearly be able to recognize that power. The same could also be said for Lea, even if her power was a bit irregular due to her sleeping and clearly suffering extreme stress.

Upstairs were four flickers, like smoldering kindling. It wasn’t consistent, but the sparks were there. Certainly much more so than with young Sentry, though even amongst the normal people Anguirus could still faintly detect something. Be it in a musician practicing their craft, this world’s Granny Smith assembling lunches, or little embers whenever Sunset Shimmer discussed magic with her mentor. It seemed like the talent someone bore had the faintest spark of magic upon its usage, but the fact the four or five, Sunset was hard to gauge, above him was so continuous despite them not even doing anything was an outlier… But would it be forever? This world was not without magic, and who could tell what might end up happening If more of it was awakened?

He perked up when he sensed something else. Something very distant. The glazed look in his eye went unnoticed by Peachy and Godzilla.

“The sirens, while not spreading as much discord and strife as they used to, are clearly up to something. They came to the school because they want something. The enemy kaiju also want something, something important enough that they’re taking hostages,” Peachy continued while tapping her chin.

“This is the first time Gigan and Monster X have ever acted on their own without being deployed as weapons of war by their creators. There’s no telling what’s on their minds. Gigan’s known for hacking, so maybe they found the magic traces, found out about Princess Twilight, and figured attacking this world’s Bearer equivalents would be the quickest way to draw her out? And then there’s the sirens, monsters from your past… so, potential enemies on both sides and we don’t even really know what they want…” Junior slowly shook his head, “We’d best use every asset we can. One way or another, all of them are corralling around the school and is only two things I can think of that would be attracting them. The portal entrance and…”

Peachy followed his line of sight upwards to the muffled voices of now five girls in the room above them.

“The Rainbooms,” Peachy half-whispered under her breath.

Junior frowned, “Maybe their erratic energy alongside the sporadic nature of the portal throws off both of our adversaries’ aim. They can sense the magic near the school but they can’t pinpoint it. One way or another though the girls are in danger.”

“And if you both give off signatures, since you informed me kaiju can sense one another, we might lose the element of surprise with you two soon if we’re not careful,” Peachy frowned, crossing her arms and pondering as thoughts raced through her head, “We have advantages, but we need to know how to use them.”

“What about a magical advantage?”

The two, three when Anguirus snapped out of his daze that Junior noticed, looked over to see a worried but tall standing Rainbow Dash standing at the entrance to the stairwell. She clearly had been suffering from some after effects of her attack. Slight bags were visible under her eyes, her bangs were more frayed, and Flash Sentry and Sunset Shimmer were clearly helping her stand firm by either hand on shoulder to by presence to give piece of mind.

“You all are worrying about the big monsters and the bad guys with magic. We’ve got big monsters to help us out, so why not let some magic do the same?” Rainbow started with a frown.

“What are you suggesting?” Godzilla Junior questioned with a slight head tilt, “Unfortunately I can’t use magic and neither can my friend here. Princess Cele-.. Er- Peachy Keen is also inhibited. Only Lea has any real magic use.”

As he motioned to the sleeping Lea, the fact Rainbow Dash seemed to cringe in fear oh so slightly was not lost on him. But his attention was soon deflected.

“Heelllooo! I’m talking about us!” She yelped while motioning to the other young ladies higher up on the stairs, “You can’t exactly make plans on protecting us and our home without getting us involved. And yes we were eavesdropping.”

Junior, Anguirus, and Peachy’s brows lowered in unison, but the guitarist continued.

“Not important! My point is, we have magic and probably more than most anyone here but Twilight. Shouldn’t that mean we’d be helpful?”

Peachy Keen’s face drooped and she stepped forward, “Please understand, what is protecting you right now might be that the kaiju don’t see you as worth attacking. If they’re gunning for magic, having you give off more might just make things very dangerous for you.”

“We’re just trying to protect you,” Anguirus grunted, “Guardian Beast’s honor, it’s in my name and if I know anything about fate it’s telling me you lot are going to be very important to this world, so it’ll need you.”

“We already have been important to this world!” Rarity piped back, gripping the railing of the stairs.

“An’ given what’s happened, we know this train ain’t stoppin’,” Applejack huffed in backup, a few wraps still on her hand which she soon help up, “Rares’ here managed to whip out ah’ big gem outta nowhere an’ I managed to block a car bustin’ punch with mah’ own punch… Now y’all tell me straight that sounds at all normal to ye’!”

“I nearly broke a land speed record, Pinkie Pie turned confetti into a grenade once, and Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash, who had been counting on her fingers paused and looked to her oldest friend, “Fluttershy what happened to you last besides the whole growing wings thing?”

A bob of pink hair popped out from around the corner looking surprisingly peachy and giddy, “I found out Rainbow Dash’s pet turtle likes Daring Do as much as she does, he was even there for one early venture a decade back!”

“Yeah and Fluttershy’s been talking to-,” Dash paused with a momentarily dumbfounded look, “Wait, seriously?..... Woah-Woah-Woah Daring Do’s real? I can’t-... Agh, later! Point is, does any of this sound at all normal to you three? I know we’re just a bunch of humans and one unicorn in presence of an equine solar princess and two dinosaurs, but face it; we’re in neck-deep in this already.”

“And with those-rabble rousing sirens doing some crazy song magic in our school and the kaiju coming there too, it’s our friends and spaces at risk,” Rarity continued with a smack on the railing, “You can’t expect us to do nothing!”

Said Equestrian Princess and two dinosaurs looked at each other, exchanging glances between themselves and occasionally at the Rainbooms. Doubts, questioning, and a lot of apprehension. But, slowly, resolve.

“One way or another, you would be in danger, but getting involved will be even more so,” Peachy Keen started with a frown at the situation more than anything else. There was an edge in her tone, one very few ever heard but it still was just as keen as if she were speaking as a powerful, fully-abled adult.

She looked for flinches, signs of worry in a twitch of the eye or tensing of muscle, maybe even indications of doubt in posture. She saw them in all the girls present, even Sunset Shimmer. It actually relaxed Peachy Keen slightly. It meant they weren’t just acting out of bravado. Just enough concern to temper out the irrationality that would make them do something stupid, like go gallavanting off alone.

“You’re worried. That's actually a good thing. It shows you are aware of the consequences of what will happen if you become full targets.”

“With respect, Princess,” Applejack sighed as she took off her hat with visible sadness taxing upon her features, which was also causing her bandmates to stiffen and sag, “We got a taste of that when Twilight was taken….”

Peachy Keen lowered her gaze, a festering pain starting to well up in her stomach she knew all too well. Sunset Shimmer got the sense, looking at her mentor in a body that looked so small and vulnerable, that she was seeing worry the Princess of the Sun often hid. Princess Celestia always put up a brave face back in Equestria so seeing any crack was telling. The former unicorn was thankful then, than a gray hand settled on her mentor’s shoulder.

“Then we will work to make sure that doesn’t repeat. Everyone comes home this time.”

“Not to doubt ye’ or ye’ buddies, yer majesty,” Applejack started with a sigh and slightly wary glance off to the side, where a sleeping form was on a couch, “But how are ye’ so sure?”

She got a nod in return from Godzilla, towards Peachy and Anguirus.

“Because these two know me when I make a promise. I didn’t come here to attack the enemy, I never have. I’ve traveled around a world for twenty years doing what I did coming here. I didn’t come to fight, I came here to protect ones like you,” Godzilla spoke with a sense of radiating power and confidence that seemed to sink into Peachy thankfully, but also tasted by his audience. Even if he didn’t carry himself like a king, at least not an Equestrian one, the ability to be a focus of attention and respect by body language alone was evident.

"Even with how things are I can't promise all of your safety. Especially if you try to get involved."

Applejack stood up a bit taller, not intimidated, “Then how’s about letting us pitch in? Let us handle the magic problem with them sirens whilst y'all tango with the monsters and not just sitting around scared? We got plenty of magic to.”

“Yes but in a body like a human’s, using magic is untrodden ground,” Peachy Keen breathed with caution, “Even my knowledge would not be absolute.”

“But could it work?” Rainbow Dashed, “We know plenty of beats too, and usually the magic acts up when we play. Couldn’t we, you know, kinda buzz out the Sea Witches?”

Junior looked to Peachy, who seemed to be mulling over a thought.

“A thousand years ago, my mentor Starswirl managed to, for awhile at least, counteract and contain the siren’s emotion influencing song magic when they came to Canterlot,” She noted, “He used song-based magic to do so.”

“See? And there’s that music competition already!’

“Festival,” Fluttershy corrected, “Not super competitive.”

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry, “Pfffbt, not after today it ain’t.”

Rarity puzzled, “Besides you simply can’t tell me that one with the orange hair isn’t a control freak when it comes to attention.”

“Personally I have it out for the pink one,” Rainbow Dash grumped while motioning backwards with her thumb, “Eventide something. Dressed waaay too little in a grab for attention. Even caught Flashy Boy’s eye for a moment.”

Flash Sentry was completely stiff as he glanced away, “Sheeee was... provocative. Kinda surprised dress code okay’d it.”

Rainbow Dash snickered and piped back up, “Point is if Starswirl can do it, so can we!”

“There was more to it than that,” Peachy Keen piped up with a bit of frustration obvious in her tone. Perhaps from stress after losing and still not having Twilight and perhaps from her younger body and younger mind, some of her typical poise was slipping, “Even Starswirl couldn’t beat them, and he was the greatest magic teacher in history even if he was past his prime… I wasn’t able to help him then.”

A presence near her grew and she felt herself looking aside into amber eyes surrounded by red. Junior frowned slightly, giving a slight shake of his head in a brief, silent conversation carried by twitches of the eye and shifts in posture.

-Don’t blame yourself for that.-

A deepened frown from the alicorn turned woman turned girl.

-On some level I want to, he was alone.-

The towering man slipped a bit closer with a gentleness betraying what one would think of his calloused hands and large frame.

-You’re not.-

Godzilla looked back to the Rainbooms, stepping directly beside Peachy.

“Learning something new in a different body is something I’m well acquainted with. I’ve also taken to having a pupil who was also discovering new abilities, and I can tell she has quite the role to play in the future, just as you all have,” Junior noted with a conviction, more in his student than his own self, “You all have great potential. I know each of your counterparts, and they are multi-time heroines in Equestria worthy of their power but also of respect. You could stand to do such good for your world. If you want to become stronger than before, I can train you. I will train you if you insist on it… But even if I’m no magician, I am not alone.”

The large man behind Godzilla folded his arms in observation of how the humans were getting stirred up. Even this world’s Fluttershy was perked up. It was something Anguirus knew and was proud of. In some ways in awe of.

In the early 2000s, some of the Guardian Beasts questioned following an unrelated beast and not solely he or Mothra. Godzilla never asked to lead. He never asked for the title of King of the Monsters. But king he was, and king he still was; and that was all that Anguirus needed to be convinced. For a thirty-story tall, plasma-spewing dinosaur, he had a natural aura about him that drew in the future Defenders in and got them to follow without real effort or command. Maybe it was sheer conviction by presence or unwavering action, or maybe it was the fact he was such a horrid liar you knew exactly what he said was true, and he’d fight to make it so. But trust came easy to any who bothered to listen. When he was at his best, by action more than words, you knew he was a good king.

“Seems the moment you needed one for Equestrian magic,” Junior’s face grew a proud smile and he nodded to Peachy and pointed to her. She had doubts, he didn’t, “You got the greatest magical teacher, by experience and number of pupils, that ever lived. Bar. None.”

Peachy was puzzled for a moment, glancing up at him with minor confusion evident behind her masked features. Looking at Princess Celestia was often like gazing at a portrait. He knew she was happy and content most of the time and showed it, but that was virtually all the public saw. It took someone who’d been around the castle a lot to know how to glimpse behind it to see anything less than a paragon. And seeing a smile from the orange girl with sunny red and yellow locks out of the corner of his eye told him he wasn’t alone in this.

Someone with a lot of confidence had just given a title she’d just given her mentor to her. And he didn’t take back the statement nor the motion towards her as the hype grew.

Peachy Keen sighed before looking to the girls. She was uncertain, both of herself in general and this body she was in. The Rainbooms however? They looked between each other with wide-eyed expressions, but by the end of the minute they had totally morphed. Rarity brows perked, her mouth widening into a grin. Fluttershy was bouncing up on her tippy toes. Applejack smirked, balling her bandaged hand into a fist and snorting. And Rainbow Dash’s eyes were dilated as she stammered forward.

“Seriously?! Not just use magic, but you’ll really train us?”

It was Sunset Shimmer that gave her the most pause. The girl she thought she failed for the longest time, the one she worried she made mistake after mistake with and completely lost contact for years and would have completely turned her off teaching again had a literal miracle not happened with Twilight; was not cheering. She merely, smiled; and copied Godzilla’s declaration of whom was the greatest magic teacher ever, pointing at her.

Peachy Keen, Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor, resigned herself to the fate and shook her head while finally letting the growing doubt fall off her back.

Peachy Keen quickly looked between her and a winking Junior and smacked his shoulder with a slight chuckle, “Fine fine, you all win. It'll be mostly for defense to protect yourselves or others. Don't go looking for a fight... But if I’m going to agree to you all using magic, we’d best do it responsibly. I'll train you. I’ve had... more than a few pupils and taught plenty of classes in my day. I can, now. If you’ll have me.”

The resounding ‘YES!’ and ‘For Twilight!’ weren’t just loud, they carried an energy. Pure resolve, fueled by a magic found in bonds. It had been stronger as of late, the sensations and flashes of energy coming over them like something was calling out to them. The wave of energy was so strong the two conscious kaiju smelled it. Rainbow Dash grabbed a guitar that had been propped onto the wall and when she struck a rift, not only did her frayed, exhausted look from earlier seem to lift for a moment; but she herself changed. For a split second, an aura wrapped over her and the outline of wings could be visible on her back. She hardly seemed to notice, instead grinning and joining a tackling hug Fluttershy gave her.

“Twilight, we’re coming for yah!” the cyan girl cheered.

Anguirus, Peachy, and Godzilla all looked briefly dumbstruck from the half-second long ‘Pony-Up’ as it had been called, before shrugging it off. Peachy Turned to the man standing beside her and perked a brow.

“Not a big speech, but a good one. No offense, but I didn’t think you the type.”

“You always were more for action than words,” Anguirus added on.

Junior just rolled his shoulders, “Oh I’m horrible at speeches. Captain Frost and Luna thought I’d sound more what some expect of a King if I practiced. Just took the honesty I usually use and said it instead of showed it.”

Peachy Keen chuckled, “Oh no no, not complaining at all! Sounds like something ‘Lulu’ would suggest.”

The nickname and slight wiggle in her brow caused Anguirus some minor confusion but made Godzilla mutter something to himself. The former alicorn laughed it off and winked.

“Thanks though, think I needed a pep talk too. I’ll walk the girls upstairs to start some plans, I think getting a grasp on the magic would be good before your kind of drills. Besides, it’ll give Lady Lea peace to sleep.”

Junior nodded back, “Thanks Peachy, I’ll run perimeter guard. Let them know I won’t allow anything to get close.”

Peachy Keen was about to inquire about Anguirus’ role, in fact his opened mouth seemed to imply he was going to ask as well, but a quick look from her to Anguirus and nod by Godzilla kept her from asking. She nodded back and approached the stairwell to herd the Rainbooms and Flash upstairs as Godzilla looked to one of his oldest friends.

The silent stare for a few moments, years of knowing one another, kept useless questions like ‘I can run guard too, you know’ and ‘What are you doing Junior?’ from being asked.

Junior furrowed his brow at his comrade, “You zoned out earlier. What happened?”

Knowing it wasn’t some accusation of negligent attention but concern of some unknown variable allowed Anguirus to relax, though he still sighed in unease and cast his vision into the world beyond the window.

“I sensed something familiar, but faint,” he whispered while focusing his gaze, as if that brought something unseen and distant to sight, “A guardian beast. Another one.”

Junior stiffened but didn’t need to ask anything like ‘are you sure’, and for that avoidance of the pedantic Anguirus was grateful. His leader trusted the Guardian Beast Alpha’s judgement, just as the Monster King was asked to be trusted in his.

“Can you tell which one?” Godzilla grunted as he took gazed outside, pondering just what a detection ability his friend had that eluded him was like. Best he could guess it was akin to his species sensing ability that let him know where his siblings and Raiga were.

Anguirus shook his head, “Gamera told Lea in their contact that none of us got swept up but me and Rodan.”

‘And he wouldn’t make a mistake’ was what was left unsaid. It made Godzilla purse his lips more and tense up.

“And yet, you still sense it,” It wasn’t a question because he knew it’s truth.

Anguirus nodded nonetheless, “Flickers, but it’s there. I’d gander they are human like us and that might be causing it to act weird. I’m the Alpha, I’m supposed to be the leader so I was meant to keep tabs on them. They might not be able to detect me and even know I’m here yet. Unless I got closer.”

Anguirus needed only a moment after he said ‘unless I got closer’, for Godzilla to not react in the slightest and convey what the plan was. No questions of if he’d be okay out there. No questions if Anguirus knew what he was doing. No questions if Anguirus knew this would leave only him and a tired Lea on guard. Trust once again shone through in ways they didn’t need to talk much.

T’was the Defender way.

“Peachy, Celestia can keep them occupied for most of the night. If Lea doesn’t wake up in about eight hours, I’ll let her sleep unless I smell trouble,” Junior whispered with a nod as he put his hand on Anguirus’ shoulder.

Anguirus returned the motion, crossing his arm around and over the one he was proud to call king, “Then I’ll be back in seven, hopefully with backup.”

They nodded and split, Anguirus heading out the side door and, as soon as he was clear, sprinting down the road at a pace most wouldn’t expect for a man his size. Godzilla watched him go, taking in a breath as he surveyed his surroundings and situation.

He was on guard. Vulnerable, exhausted, resting best friend on the couch beside him. Several very important protectorates in the floor above him; but no windows big enough for anyone to fit through and attack from on high. They’d have to come through the wall or roof, something he’d hear, so they’d have to come from the first floor if they did. Fencing outside made it hard to see past into other yards. He soon moved about, looking over the windows and figuring out how the latches worked after a bit of experience and guesswork. Opening them all just so slightly to let some outside air and scent in. He did it to every room, cracking a window just enough for it to work. So much information and while he wasn’t especially well read, he was no fool.

The grass to the yard to the left had been recently cut, it smelled of such and it crinkled more from the cut ends being crushed underfoot. He didn’t tense however, the footsteps in them were growing more distant beyond the fence and moving randomly; likely just someone ambling around. A fire had been lit in the yard to the back, but the smell of already burnt charcoal and sounds of dinging metal indicated it was just some cooking. He could hear machinery whirling several houses down and across the street, faintly; likely inside a garage or room… It wasn’t Nebulan, they were safe.

Finding a silent spot in the hallway adjacent to the living room, he stood still and waited, tuning out his own scent and sound of his own heart beating. He was on guard and if someone dared try to sneak up upon his charges, they’d regret it. The only sound he made was the bones cracking in his knuckles and neck.

==============
Camp Everfree
==============

The inside of the campground garage was near pitch black, save for a slight illumination cast from the full moon’s silvery rays which shone through the small window. None of the work lights had been turned on despite the garage being occupied. Gloriosa Daisy paused and chewed on her lip slightly with her hand hovering above the doorknob with her mind fighting itself. Both from her prior experience still leaving her shaken, the odd sensation in the back of her mind refusing to leave her, and the fact he’d been in there for several hours alone and insisted on being such. Doubly so to her.

-Maybe I should get X to hand him these?-

She contemplated for a moment while glancing at the heavy bag in her other hand. With how loaded it was, she would have been put a little bit off-balance by holding it with one hand before she put on the gemstones, but the orange-colored geode on her necklace seemed to glow slightly more than usual whenever she exerted herself and she would find it easier to lift. Another oddity to look into with Twilight Sparkle and Adagio Dazzle that she stowed away for later. Another change to add to her list that just kept growing.

She thought she heard something inside the garage, a whirring of machinery and sparking noises. She gulped and figured it couldn’t get any worse, because if she didn’t at least try to help then her conscience would never leave her alone. Wysteria raised her too well. Gloriosa gripped the door knob and slowly turned it, letting the aged wood creak open.

The familiar musky smell of the garage’s various chemicals and oils was even stronger than normal, indicating some of them had been opened though the darkness prevented her from seeing which ones. What she could see as clear as day after looking up towards the sound of a mechanical shift was a single bright red orb locking onto her. A moment later, like it was turning around, a second one joined it a short distance away. They narrowed, but only one of them in a way typical for eyeball with closing eyelids. The other just seemed to shrink like a contracting camera lens. Not taking her eyes off them, especially the contracting orb given it seemed to levitate half a meter away from the other one and bob up and down slightly, Gloriosa reached over and flipped on the light switch.

The sight would’ve made her squeak in surprise had she not seen a similar act about a week ago. Gigan was sitting at a workbench with his head and neck poking out through a large trash bag with his boots and pants-clad legs sticking out of the bottom, almost like he was wearing some sort of poncho. One of his mechanical arms exposed, most of his neck had been cut open in a C shape to pull it back in a flap and reveal the robotics underneath. One of his hands was holding an ice pick towards his throat and his other one was holding one of his eyeballs, which was still connected to his face through a small cable that connected back to his eye socket. Gigan evidently had been pointing it at his neck to better see his work, almost like how someone would use a hand-held mirror to look at an inconvenient spot. Scattered about in front of him were myriad of tools ranging from a few screwdrivers, a wedge, a few small hammers, an X-Acto knife, and a file.

And as soon as the lights came up, it was clear that he was also making use of a temper.

“WHAT?!” the cyborg barked, gripping the pick tightly.

Sparks flew out of his neck and he seemed to wince, immediately pointing his partially removed eye back at it and resuming his probing all while not taking his still-socketed eye off her.

His tone simmered, “This is delicate work, and the last thing I need is your damn-”

Gloriosa hefted the tool bag up so quickly she was surprised at how easily it was done, rapidly spouting out, “These weren’t in the garage.”

Gigan paused to glance at the bag, spurring Gloriosa to cautiously approach and open it to reveal an array of other tools ranging from a solder kit to various tweezers and other delicate tools. A low grumble slithered out of his throat and Gloriosa shrank back slightly, only for his choice of words to give pause.

“Bring them over.”

She was expecting him to bark so much that his calmer words caused her to momentarily backpedal. The follow-up sentence over got her moving forward.

“Well then, I said bring them over. I can’t use my cables at the moment.”

The way he put it made it abundantly clear that was one of the only reasons he was letting her get closer. Every other moment he kept glancing at the ground expecting more of those hideous tendrils to sprout, and he was not in the mood nor had the ability to chop them down. She brought the bag over and almost instantly he snatched up a very thin set of tweezers and resumed probing at something in his neck. Gloriosa half expected him to start glaring or say something about her backing off now but his activity clearly had his attention and his left eye, the one he was holding in his hand, was firmly focused on his throat and his right eye was cast downwards uselessly towards his neck.

Evidently there were some difficulty as he kept trying to fidget with something with fingers that were holding the tweezers while operating the tools. A salvo of sparks flew out and caused Gloriosa to yip momentarily. Gigan paid little attention to that, instead grumbling and probing with increasing fervor despite almost glitch-like contortions in his cheek that were accompanied by more sparks. Still not fully knowing what was going on but not caring, Gloriosa finally broke the verbal silence.

“Here.”

She outstretched a hand towards Gigan’s left eyeball.

“Let me hold that so you have both hands. I'm a navy brat, who do you think does most repair work around here?” she muttered with a slight frown.

Gigan paused and gave a wary look with his right eye, almost looking like he was tensing up to word some snarl at the camp director. Instead the tensing was from more glitching and winces that he let pass, thankful he could shut off most of his pain receptors. After stewing for a moment or two, he handed her his eyeball and Gloriosa was soon very thankful it was entirely mechanical and he didn’t just put a wet, slimy organ in her hand.

“Keep it pointed at my throat, don’t you dare do anything else.”

His right eye glanced at the ground just to be sure.

Gloriosa exhaled breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding and did so, almost feeling like she was in some sort of odd parody where somebody was asked to hold a flashlight during someone’s work. She kept the low red light coming from the eyeball firmly affixed to where Gigan resumed his work, now steadier and with double the amount of hands. She couldn’t help but cringe slightly when she saw he had used the X-Acto knife to cut open a section of the skin on his throat, thankfully with no blood, and had pulled back to expose the section under a wound. Underneath the epidermis was a series of small cables, meshwork, and metallic pipes that vaguely resemble pistons, cybernetic stand-ins for veins, muscles, and tendons that had long since been replaced. Gloriosa couldn’t help but think back to old medical diagrams she’d see back in her school years of human internals, now just seen before her as a mechanical doppelganger. But, even with all the machinery, she could see still evidence of organics with oddly colored veins visible through some of the piping and living skin fed by the tubing.

One thing that obviously didn’t belong was a large shard of what looked like ice jabbed into a set of muscle and wedged behind a piston. Gigan had it around the middle with the tweezers, having previously been trying to chip it down or wedge it free with the ice pick. It clacked against the metal and stubbornly refused to yield free, partially frozen around the piston that bled sparks.

“Ice? Why isn’t it melting?”

“Reason is the only other thing that makes no sense, magic,” Gigan glowered, “I walked into a literal blizzard of it and got grabbed around the neck by some variety of ice based magic earlier.”

There was a momentary flash across Gloriosa’s vision and she saw not Gigan’s opened throat but half a forest covered in ice shards, a flechette storm of them flying towards her. She shook her head briefly to dispel it.

Gigan mumbled, “What in the..”

Gigan’s snip caused Gloriosa to cringe and pull back, his eyeball with her. She stammered, “S-Sorry, sorry I thought I saw something-”

Gigan’s left eyeball rotated around to look at her and rapidly shook back and forth, before homing in on her chest, “Wasn’t a question to you. Look at your necklace.”

His readings had flared up just a moment ago and while it was fading, there was still a marked change in the air. And in this world that could mean only one thing. Gloriosa followed the line of sight and was soon raising her eyebrows at a slight flicker of light coming from her necklace, the various geodes all lighting up in a sequence.

“What are you doing? I didn’t see you cast anything,” Gigan muttered with a wary eye cast to the surroundings.

“I-I didn’t, Adagio’s got me used to singing when I try and I didn’t even hum!” Gloriosa stammered as her necklace, sure enough devoid of song focus, kept glowing.

“Then it’s reacting to something.”

Gloriosa tried to think of just what though, as the logic made some sense. She was keeping certain thoughts way into the back of her mind so that wasn’t it. She was stressed over certain, changes, sure but she had been for hours and nothing like this was happening. The only thing that was markedly new she’d been around was… Her brow perked and she leaned in to look at Gigan’s neck, practically perching her face into his shoulder to look closer.

Gigan shifted slightly and narrowed his eyes, not fond of both presence and more damn magic around him, “What are you doing?”

Gloriosa responded by pointing his left eye at the cavity to show him what she saw. Holding her necklace close to the ice, the reason she’d narrowed the distance, one could see the ice very slowly starting to melt. Gigan paused but, eager to finally get it out of him, shifted to try and bring the tweezers up but found the camp director’s shoulder in the way.

He shrugged and prodded her shoulder with them to get her attention, flipping them around and bringing them up to offer them over, “Get it out before it melts fully, I don’t want excess water or any more of that stuff in me.”

Gloriosa slightly nodded and took them, very carefully passing Gigan back his other eyeball and holding her necklace in one hand and the tweezers in another. She tried to tell herself it was just like pulling splinters out of Timber when they were kids but more than one part of her mind called it out. She tried to just focus, go slow and steady, and not screw this up. A bit of sympathy swelled up when she saw how the piston and artificial muscle almost quivered and retracted back when she began moving the ice shard. But finally, it was out and placed into Gigan’s robotic hand.

Clicking the pencil sized fragment against his palm, Gigan curled his fingers and attempted to crush it, only for it to refuse to yield. He hummed, bringing it up and inspecting it. Placing his eyeball back in its socket in a manner that still spurred more than a little curiosity from his audience, not a second went by before a short spurt of red shot free of Gigan’s eyes. Burning plasma engulfed the ice shard before breaking up into smaller streams almost like a shotgun-pattern that crackled and popped in a manner that reminded Gloriosa of fireworks.

But, despite the lightshow, the ice shard was still there and fully intact. A fact Gigan was none too pleased with, grumbling something incoherent about hexes. Gloriosa blinked for a moment and, while moving cautiously to avoid any residual heat, moved her own hand closer to the shard while holding her necklace. The cold greeted her almost immediately, overpowering any convecting heat coming off the airspace or Gigan’s fingertips. Sure enough the sight before her eyes momentarily flashed away from the inside of the garage and to a forest with leaves of frost and grass of sleet. Three figures stood a ways away, howling gales rushing towards her in such a way she practically felt her hair fly back and freeze in place.

In the next moment after the vision came, it was gone. She was back in the garage, witnessing the ice shard melting away into insignificant droplets of water that spilled onto the floor through Gigan’s fingers.

Gigan grunted, “Seems you have a reaction to it.”

“You could say that again,” Gloriosa whispered to herself mostly but Gigan did catch it.

Holding up his left-hand with the intention of taking back the tweezers, noticing that twitch in his fingers and feeling something lodged in his wrist from the struggle with the possessed man. The cyborg was caught in a moment of contemplation before he put the hand back down.

“See a yellow wire next to a piston with three dashes on it?”

Gloriosa looked without thinking too much, only realizing what he was starting to imply after getting her answer.

“Y-Yes, it’s hanging out near a clear case.”

“Push it back into the case and secure the bolt to seal it, my hands are twitchy.”

She bit her lip, feeling like she was performing surgery on someone. In truth, she wasn’t that far off the mark.

“You t-trust me with this?” she muttered, closing the tweezers very gently around the wire.

“Only slightly more than I trust a twitch, and I’ve already wasted enough time trying to get that damn piece of ice out. Megalon is busy on guard duty, Irys is running perimeter and has never worked with machinery before, X is in close proximity to Aria, and Adagio is busy, especially now that you aren't distracting her,” his voice was simultaneously monotone and bristling at the same time.

Gloriosa gulped and nodded, trying to focus the best she could on the task. Thankfully the wire, while pushed out of place but the ice, was undamaged and easily fit back into the slot.

Gloriosa tilted her head at the small peace, “What is this, anyway?”

“Tsubury-AFM 3332 Uplink A-,” he could practically feel her awkward, dumbstruck expression and just cut to the chase, “Basically my jugular.”

Gloriosa paled a bit. Medical professional she was not, but she had taken first aid and she knew full well what would happen if someone’s jugular got sliced open or even badly damaged. And she’d just been casually handling his as though he’d asked her to shelve a book.

Gigan just shrugged, “I cut off circulation through already, I can manage without it for a while if I do... I trust you didn’t break it?”

“N-No ehehehe,” her chuckle did little to shake off the unease as she tried to home back in on the task to do so, “Uuum, bolt’s in a weird spot.”

Gigan’s brow lowered as he groaned, “Define weird.”

Gloriosa’s eyes narrowed as she peered in, “Very narrow fit, I can’t get the tweezers around the bolt to secure it down with the piston in the way.”

“What about going through torque appetruct 8-” He paused briefly to change his explanation, “The dark blue weave that looks like artificial muscle on the left coming out of my collar. Can you get to it that way?”

Gloriosa shook her head slightly, “No, it’s blocked.”

The cyborg grumbled to himself about human biological design. This sort of thing was a lot easier when he was over 100 m tall and had either fully dedicated engineering teams to maintain upkeep, or the hangar unit his master had provided him with its thousands of tiny mechanical arms that he could control with the skill of any surgeon. Mentally he ran through his options.

Couldn’t go back to Zenith and get into the hanger, the master had warned them the portal would be closed for at least another week or two when they came to help X, and it would be difficult to open a new one. Not impossible, but a colossal waste of energy that he could tell the master would not be keen to use for such a small task. Especially after they had already burned through a lot to bring the three of them there without success in acquiring their mission objective yet. Good graces were not something he wanted to risk using up. And it wasn’t like he could very well go to a human hospital or repair shop to try to get this sorted out. Honestly he wasn’t even sure which one would be more useful.

Just as he was beginning to try and formulate a way to get around the issue without ripping his own internals apart, the magic started to swell up again. A very quiet, soft voice humming a lullaby-like melody and he finally of diverted his attention to Gloriosa again. She was holding a tiny seed in one hand, her glowing necklace in the other, and coaxing several tiny tendrils made of the beanstalk to slither towards Gigan’s throat.

His eyes whirled wide open and the fact it was his internals being worked on was the only reason he didn’t try to teleport or throw himself away.

“Doooon’t… you… dare,” he snarled.

Gloriosa sucked in a breath and looked back at him with conviction in a slight frown, “You want your neck fixed or not?”

“I can manage with it,” his bark came off more as a protest like someone who didn’t want to get their shot.

Gloriosa scrunched her nose and pouted, “Yes, and I can make it better. So hold still!”

It took a lot of restraint not to pop a blade out, and one was definitely coming if those vines got too far in or there were too many of them. Chainsaws and the scythes, nothing less. It took even more restraint when he felt those horrendous tendrils get into his neck. Gloriosa cooed softly, gently controlling the vines like how Adagio had taught her. One octave at a time, don’t try to break the crescendo out in the first line. It was very slow, almost agonizingly so and it certainly was for Gigan, but steady this time.

The green tendrils, thinner than the tweezers and able to bend, very gently curled around the piston and tightened down the bolts to get the loose panels and casing secured. With much relief to both of them, they were coaxed back and Gloriosa got away from his neck.

“There,” she huffed, patting herself on the chest, “Better?”

Gigan reached up and closed the skin he’d cut out in a flap with the X-Acto knife back onto the rest of his neck to close the wound. In a few minutes or so his biologics would prepare themselves and there wouldn’t be much more than a mark visible by the next morning. Secure that nothing was going to fall out he rolled his shoulders and craned his neck around. Stiff but-

“..... Better,” he grunted.

Now assured he wasn’t going to risk dropping or spilling anything, he gripped the trash bag he’d cut a hole in to stick his neck and head through and removed it. Gloriosa’s eyes turned into dinner plates and her face became much redder. Suddenly the ceiling was very interesting. Not like the cyborg noticed, too busy working at his wrist. Not having any skin there to begin with, it was armored plates this time that were pulled back to reveal the entirely robotic muscle and skeletal frame hidden underneath with spooled cables and retracted blades.

After a minute of working in silence, he finally grunted at her.

“Something on your mind? Or do you intend to continue occupying space on my workbench?”

Gloriosa flinched but looked down and very quickly averted her attention to his hands, “W-Well, technically it’s my workbench but um… uuuh…”

Thankfully she did have an honest question when the tinkering Gigan leered at her, “So, I-I know of the cyborg part of things.”

Gigan deadpanned, not even looking at her as he nonchalantly popped his own metal hand off and almost pointed the stump of his arm at her, “Clearly.”

“W-Well I mean, like your brother. But he seems more…” she shrugged, “...'fleshy' than you, to put it bluntly."

Gigan shrugged but continued his work, gripping a set of tweezers to tinker with his internals, “He is. I’m an older model so I’ve had more changes. Megalon is roughly 70-30 organic to cybernetic, didn't get the updates I did. I'm between 15-85 and 25-75, this human form throws the numbers off and it’s not like I have a scanner."

“Updates?” finally something more distracting than… her face reddened again as she focused on the topic of the distraction, “So what did you look like before?”

“To borrow your term, I was more ‘fleshy’,” in tandem with his word his removed hand made a gesture with its first two fingers like he was making a quotation, “Primarily green and golden color and… rounder.”

Gloriosa pursed her lips and snickered a little bit but tried to stay respectful, “So, you’ve always been a cyborg?”

Gigan nodded his head slightly to the side as he started working with the soldering kit, “Far as I can remember.”

“So you’ve never been normal, always so messed…. uuuup,” she slapped her hand across her mouth. Gigan seemed to glance his eye over at her.

She cringed and braced for him to do anything from flinch up to burst into an outrage, maybe some solemn denial. Sure enough Gigan shifted and… Put down the soldering kit to pick up a pair of pliers and continue working like nothing had happened. No bombshell dropped, no sensitive topic touched upon, like water off a duck’s back.

That wasn’t to say he was silent however, “Normality is as subjective as it is overrated. What I have are upgrades, plain and simple. You can lose a hand and risk anything from lethal infection to bleeding out within minutes. I currently have my hand in my lap and my biggest concern is finding where the icy fragments are stuck in this one. An annoyance, but nothing more. I’ve never been normal, at least probably by your definition, but I always have been by mine. My earliest memory is waking up in a laboratory and seeing something hovering above my chest.”

Gloriosa tilted her head, “What was it?”

“One of my organs, biological ones, I didn’t devote to memory as to which one. Stomach I think. Maybe my heart. My chest was opened up, and my creators were beginning the refitting with my first batch of cybernetics,” Gigan shrugged.

“Oh… oh my,” now her face was paling and greening but she never stopped listening, not responding, “H-How could you not care? That was part of you though. Part of you getting ripped away.”

“Was part of me,” Gigan corrected and tapped at his torso with his non-removed hand, “I have the replacement, just like you replace a hair and don’t pay much mind. One that if it breaks, I can easily fix it or get a new one. Sturdier and able to hold up under better G forces, extreme temperatures, and give me precise feedback if something’s wrong with it. If you get a stomach ache, it could be anything from an ulcer to indigestion to a parasite. If my power cell has a leak, I’d know exactly what it was and how to fix it instantly. I know it, therefore it is part of me. That original organ was just a sack of water, carbon, heavy elements, and proteins so what’s the difference between that and a silica or metallic one?”

Gloriosa finally let go of her breath, content he was not about to lash out or she had said the wrong thing. In fact the topic was actually taking a very interesting turn, one she hadn’t expected. Was certainly helping keep her eyes affixed to his hand.

“W-Well I guess that makes sense, like if some kid got a kidney transplant or artificial heart since they were young,” she noted, “I guess after a while that would be theirs.”

“And not the defective or damaged organ they originally had, you're catching on,” Gigan noted while keeping his eyes on his work, holding his hand out towards her with the palm up, “Flatheaded screwdriver, 2nd smallest.”

Gloriosa nodded and passed it, taking the previously held tool in hand. After a minute or so of just seeing Gigan use the screwdriver is a tiny wedge to pry up some panels, the conversation resumed.

“So um, if they’re entirely upgrades it’s always better than before, right?” her tone got a little quieter, “Adagio told me change can be a full improvement, but I wasn't sure.”

Gigan noticed the shift and the fact her necklace was sparkling a little bit was something he was also privy to. He was beginning to heavily suspect that question’s last part wasn’t entirely for him and his experience alone. Study on the camp director’s magical shifts was ongoing and he was beginning to heavily suspect he might just have some more information to add shortly.

With a shrug but very receptive ear keen to record anything worthwhile, he continued the conversation after a momentary pause in contemplative recollection, “Change can involve some loss. I can’t dream anymore. Those were sometimes nice.”

Gloriosa perked up with almost mild concern on her face, “You can’t dream?”

Gigan’s shoulders raised and sagged, tapping at his chest again briefly before correcting to tap his head, “Memory unit was implanted over the neurons in my cortex. Gives me almost perfect recollection if I set to record something down and while I can make normal memories, the amount of precise control in my brain effectively canceled out the randomized chaos that causes dreams when sleeping. I can shut myself down and rest, even project memories for myself, but anything that I do had to be something I experienced.”

He took in a breath and shrugged, “I had them in my old build before a… major reconstruction, but it’s been so long that I can’t remember them. Not all bad though, reviewing memories is useful and it means I never had a nightmare like X often had.”

Gloriosa rubbed at the back of her head, “Huh, I guess that’s a perk to it. Don’t need to worry with weird visions and all I suppose.”

Her wording wasn’t lost on him but Gigan couldn’t care much more to harp on it other than note it down, “Human, my little brother is a goofball who'd set his own foot on fire, my latest teammate has isolation issues and requires roosting with one of us nightly, and my best friend until a month ago was constantly at risk of turning into a rampaging, super powered, berserk rage dragon. I have gotten enough to worry about without dreaming it up, especially given half my matters seem to keep changing constantly."

Despite the severity of the topic, the oddly deadpan way he had at putting it caused her to giggle slightly under her breath.

“It’s a difference, as all change is. I know firsthand. And before you turn into some damn fool pitying me because of how I am now versus before, don’t give me that shit from fiction about the self-loathing cyborg and listen up,” his tone was very sharp and to the point, but the aggression had toned down significantly, “I am myself. I will always be myself. I can never be anything but myself. One can replace my arms, my legs, my stomach, most of my organs and skeleton, and as long as I am a cyborg, I’ve always been nothing more or less than myself.”

Finally he found what he was looking for, another icicle frosting over some of his pistons on the back of his wrist. Exposing it, he handed his hand over to Gloriosa.

“Here, dispose of it if you will.”

“R-Right,” she muttered, bringing her necklace up and holding the hand in her own like she was taking it, the metallic skin already cold as is even without the ice.

Not like she personally minded that part, but it was downright frigid with it. Something she was quick to try and amend and soon enough, she turned the hand over and water started to drip out of the defrosting wrist joints.

He tilted his eye slightly to look over at her, “Something tells me this topic of change is not selective to myself alone. Anything I should take note of other than your miraculous ability to react to ice that stubbornly refuses to melt and staring?”

Gloriosa’s body shifted on instinct, feeling some of the icy water drip through her fingers. The sense of familiarity and alienness as she felt something inexplicably ‘wrong’ about the water and ice was unshakable. Flicking the frigid sleet away, she again brought up her necklace and gazed upon its half dozen crystals.
“A year ago I was a young camp director trying to balance camp budget, putting my younger brother through schooling, and largest scale thing I'd deal with would be Rich hiking the rates.”

Her frown was reflected on a half dozen gemstone faces as she shrugged, “Now there's.. magical sirens and enchanted geodes and alien giant monsters... and now, something else. All while I still don't know why these things called out to me or had me bear them."

Gloriosa continued on as she passed back both the hand as well as the soldering kit to Gigan, “Kinda miss the normality... Or wondering if I'm still losing hold of it."

Gigan nodded slightly as he got back to work, “I’d take them off you if I could. Trust me, I would have no gripes about such; but that would serve no purpose. It's not what we're here for, and I know not to mess with magic I don't understand.”

At hearing his nonchalance about it, Gloriosa couldn’t help but steal herself away slightly though she didn’t entirely shrink back for fear lack of attention wouldn’t allow her to hear what he said next.

“Nothing personal, just my job. And for all I know, given how much power I can sense coming off of those, and since they seem to have a mind of their own, I might end up blowing myself to pieces if I tried,” he shrugged.

Gloriosa winced, not knowing if this was a fortunate circumstance or not, “So you won’t take the necklace?”

Gigan’s eyes rolled, “Not so long as they have a mind of their own or are attached to something alive. I don’t take risks often, human.”

“Oh,” Gloriosa hummed, not sure if she was relieved he wouldn’t try to steal it and in some way, almost wondering if she’d want that.

On one hand she’d never felt so alive like this before, since these gems came to her. Chose her according to Twilight, and bonded to her given Adagio noted how naturally the magic came once focused. Nobody really knew exactly what these crystals were, how long they had been there or what might’ve created them in the first place. Twilight speculated they might originally have been from her and her siren friends’ world, but couldn’t explain how it got here. Evidently the only ones from her world who had been to this realm of humans before them and the sirens were her teacher when she was younger and her teacher’s mentor, neither of whom would seem likely to leave something behind.

These gifts and this magic could change everything. For the better, if Adagio was to be believed.

If she could get a good grip on the plant control alone she could seriously boost her financial situation and assure her and her brother’s futures, get them out of any debt Adagio’s generous deposit didn’t cover. She was rather fond of Sonata, who almost ended up being her employee, so maybe she could help her restore her magic or capture the thief more than she already was trying to? Help maintain the forest and keep a beautiful setting to attract new guests to the camp, help with food supply, give a helping hand to a tree farmer or three in secret. The possibilities to both help herself and others kept growing!

That part of her wanted to make absolutely certain she kept the magic under her charge, both for her own sake and others. She had it and she wanted to never let go.

And then there was the fact some of these sensations and visions were seriously starting to terrify her. At this point Gloriosa couldn’t tell if it was the gemstones trying to influence her or something influencing the gemstones and it was just blowing off onto her because she was bonded to them. It was like the gemstones were reacting either due to their bond to her or to something else, and she would have no idea how to predict what would happen. Would she change? Would it be inevitable? Could anything be done? What this was like one of those stories where the magical MacGuffin takes control and corrupts someone?! It was becoming increasingly clear the magic seem to have a mind of its own so who knows what could happen!

The idea she might look in the mirror one day and see someone else looking back, be the change sudden or so gradual she didn’t notice up until then. A change that would’ve made her not herself because she didn’t understand what she got into? That part of her made her want to rip the necklace off and hand it over to the cyborg at the first sign of trouble.

In the end, Gloriosa Daisy was left wondering if she should be more worried that Gigan had made it abundantly clear that he would take the necklace if he could with no remorse, or if she should be more concerned about the fact that he was being so adamant that he wouldn’t. And if that was true for him, she could guess that it was the same for any of his compatriots.

She frowned, something not unnoticed. And so, the cyborg continued.

“But my wariness to not touch anything magical that’s alive is beside the point. You weren’t listening to what I said earlier,” he pointed to her with both is unattached hand’s index finger as well as the solder line he was holding, “Normality is as subjective as it esoteric. No one can truly decide what it is for you but you.”

For the first time he paused his work and looked at her directly, “I’ll be entirely to the point to make sure you get this, so I don’t have to waste time repeating myself: Your powers are often disgusting, and I am loath to see them in many of their operations.”

Gloriosa’s eyes reflexively narrowed and she grunted, having chanced to get her hopes up before they were dashed. Evidently giving bad compliments was a shared quirk between the oldest siren and oldest cyborg. But, that did little to impede his speech.

“But, I will concede that’s a subjective viewpoint... Mine just happens to be better than the majority given my experience and study. But even still, I cannot argue all of its uses being ill.”

"Adagio said, whenever the magic acts up with these things, I should just embrace it," Gloriosa puzzled as she fiddled with her necklace, "They want to act on their own so I should just let them... I just, get the sense I won't be the same if I do so..."

She winced as her lips curled into a frown, "I'm scared, okay…? Scared that I'd hurt someone. Scared I'd change into something I shouldn't. Scared of just not knowing anything about these powers!"

"Humans act irrationally when scared," Gigan grunted.

Gloriosa threw her hands aloft, "Exactly!"

He just shrugged his shoulders, "Most sapient life does. I'll concede I've done it... once or twice."

"And what, pray tell, managed to scare you?"

Gigan's tone was so uncannily blunt it couldn't possibly be hyperbole or a lie, "A 300 meter tall nanite-created titan that tried to eat a city, me included."

The mental image. It was so outlandishly over the top, Gloriosa gagged briefly holding in a stressed laugh.

But Gigan only tilted his head downwards, mind venturing to distant places, "... And right before my creators were going to dismantle me. That was just after I got put back together the most mechanically."

A slow silence crept over the garage as Gloriosa tried to study his face; which was about as emotive as a ATM machine outside of the occasional twinge and flinch. In some ways, the lack of reaction and monotone in his voice was as telling as any obvious emotion was.

“I can admit, I nearly lost that fight and nearly lost it when I woke up close to this,” he motioned for one of many of his metallic components.

He stared off into space, brow lowering slightly to shade his face, “In some ways, I wanted to just die. Take out those who did it to me and end it. My opponent was mostly just guilty of getting in my way… Thing nearly made me like it was. I’d have been killed, joined some collective of machinery. I was tempted to give up, let it happen.”

“Then.. what happened?”

Gigan raised back up, “I decided I made my decisions. If a change happened, I owned it, not the other way around.”

A fist was clenched and a blade threatened to pop out, “So... I killed it. Because I decide if a change makes me different from before or not. If I let go of who I am, it’s because I choose to and nothing, nothing short of death is going to make me change my mind.”

He inspected his hand again, slowly opening the fist by pulling apart every finger and checking the joints, "Change can be terrifying. I won't bother spouting hopeful platitudes that it can't hurt. Question is... if you bend and adapt, accepting everything that's happened and not getting dragged down... Or snap."

He absentmindedly tilted his loosened, repaired neck which was finally free of sparks and kinks, “You have a new circumstance, some things will change. It’s pointless trying to reverse them all. Change is inevitable. You can either waste everyone’s time by fighting it, or you can embrace it and all that comes with it.”

Gloriosa pursed her lips remembering what she had been seeing recently and her mind became stormy once again, “But what if you can’t predict the changes coming? What about becoming something you didn’t see coming, or didn’t know?”

Gigan rolled his eyes, reattaching his hand and manipulating it to pop the chainsaw out, “You really think I predicted this? A weapon, a tool, an upgrade, call it what you will but it’s still me. Just as much as my robotic legs or the metal plating on my spinal cord or the left bicep made of organic tissue I once had.”

He went back to fiddling with the adjustments, making last-minute additions and checks with tweezers, screwdrivers, and other tools as probes and manipulators.

“Change doesn't mean identity replacement. You’ll still be you, if you're willing to fight for that. End of the day, still your hairless talking primate self, bizarre-looking and fragile... Which probably means my brother would have taken as much a shine to you even before he inevitably finds out you pulled those ice shards out.”

Gloriosa couldn’t fight a giggle at how much Gigan was grumbling at that last part, clearly wanting to keep this secret but knowing that was hopeless. Even she had found out Megalon inevitably snooped in on everything.

“You really know how to compliment a gal, don't you?" she deadpanned while getting off the bench, "But your brother is a sweetheart."

“Your words imply I give a damn about pleasantries. Besides, I’m to the point. Quite literally in most cases,” Gigan sniped back in a way that Gloriosa slowly realized was his own way of being humorous, as he, content with his work, picked himself up off his seat and stretched out to test his limbs, “Systems and movements all look good. I’ll have to enlist your service again should more frost damage be incurred.”

“How likely is that?”

“Given the subject of my team’s objective as well as the capture of the youngest sirens’ necklace both show such abilities and our undoubtedly working together, likely,” he grunted, “Why?”

Gloriosa’s eyes traveled down from his face briefly before finding the roof very fascinating, reddened across her face, “C-concern of course.”

Gigan paused and tilted his head, “Your heart rate just shot up significantly. Like when I found your private moment with Adagio.”

“W-Well can you blame me?! A-And h-how do you know about my heart?” she stammered briefly, not denying it outright.

Gigan tapped at his eyes, “Vision settings, I can see right through-”

Gloriosa rapidly covered herself and spurred the cyborg to deadpan, “Internal organs and skeleton only.”

The camp director fumedly lightly as she kept her nerve.Gloriosa had to have a very strong will not to look down from his face, just clutching the bundle of the longsleeve shirt and vest that have been piled up on the bench in handing it to him, “Speaking of, next time keep this on.”

Her hormones wanted to shove her foot into her mouth for saying that, but she didn’t look back until the ruffling of fabric was done.

“I used some of the auto supplies on my neck and arms to try and get the ice out, didn’t want to dirty myself needlessly. This is the only attire I have to avoid sticking out amongst you humans.”

“You do know we have extra campground shirts that fit you,” Gloriosa piped with a raised brow.

“Yes, and I’d sooner fight King Ghidorah again solo,” Gigan mumbled half heartedly to himself before speaking up, “Aside from my desire not to get cleaning chemicals on my attire and mild concern of what might happen if I somehow turned into my true form without what used to be my skin on, is there anything else on this topic you intend to rabble about?”

The wording still carried that same condescending tone even if the delivery seemed to imply it wasn’t anything personal, something she had wised up to upon listening how he spoke to some others. Gloriosa took in a deep breath, remembering all the little flashes she’d gotten recently as well as the intensifying feeling that had been incurring ever since she put the necklace on and refused to take it off.

She slowly exhaled and sighed through it, “Adagio and Twilight both said having a magical item bind to you like these did to me means inevitably they become part of you to some extent. Any truth to that?”

Gigan shrugged his shoulders and flattened his lips, “... I’m a two century old genetically and structurally engineered cyborg whose origin of which you would consider deep space. Do I look like a magic expert to you?”

His deadpan was met with a sheepish grin and awkward chuckle, but there was a response to her reaction eventually.

Gigan rolled his eyes, “... Best I can tell is yes, okay? Probably already happened with you even if you took that thing off.”

Gloriosa’s chuckle paused. That wasn’t exactly what she wanted to hear, and yet it didn’t hurt to hear it.

“When I look at Sonata’s readings, I can tell something is different about her as opposed to other humans. Even with her necklace torn off, I can distinguish her,” Gigan dryly noted, "I get the same with you."

Gloriosa frowned and glanced at the cause of all this commotion, “S-so what you’re saying is, what’s done is done? But what if I need to fight it?”

He nodded to the side, “Seems so. But the worst thing you can do about change is worry about it for too long. If you gotta fight it, you’ll know. Besides, most times change is good.”

“Even if it's irreversible?” Gloriosa gulped, "Adagio said it be an improvement for me an-and I really want to believe her. I'm... just not sure."

“No one ever is. But, given what your species is usually capable of and what I've seen you do, you're certainly becoming an outlier. And remember, change has its benefits,” He said while putting back on his sunglasses and tapped at his eyes, “See enough night skies with these things in infrared and night vision and you begin to pity the others who can’t witness something like that on command.”

Gloriosa sighed, looking up at the night sky and briefly wondering in her mind's eye just what exactly Gigan was seeing. To be honest, she was increasingly curious but thought not to push it for tonight.

“Gloriosa,” the fact he said her first name alone was cause for her attention, "She knows much more than me about this mystical nonsense so I trust her word. Remember the core of what Adagio said?

“That, even if I can’t fully control this power, that it might act somewhat on its own, I should just go along with it?...” Her eyes were cast to his with a frown, “Even if I change and no matter what the change is?”

“So add what I said, you’ll still be you. Just gotta accept some changes and trust you’ll know if you gotta fight it or not,” he shrugged, “More often than not, you might like the new you.”

Gloriosa deadpanned slightly, “She called the old me pathetic... But I am apparently her favorite human.”

“Don’t worry, you’re my favorite human as well,” he grunted before waving it off and giving her the most stoic, blunt face imaginable, “Don’t get your hopes up too high, that’s an extremely low bar. But no matter what change happens, I doubt you could lower it.”

He didn’t react to her momentary lapse by snickering, but Gloriosa Daisy could tell part of it was just not wanting to laugh at his own snark. The fact he was joking around, something never before done, spoke of a lot, and it wasn’t lost on her even as her face became sullen again, though not as much as before. Catching her breath, Gloriosa poised.

“So, if some change happens and I’m not human anymore,” Gloriosa muttered, “Then what?”

“You’d join the club around here, but you'd still be you. Plenty of normal humans in this world, you think they define themselves by others or themselves? If I’m right, it’ll be the latter most of the time.”

"Well, guess that makes sense."

"You're also forgetting something else to that part. You're not surrounded by the mundane," Gigan tilted back and held up his fingers, "You're currently surrounded by three sea witches, one magical princess, one three centuries old dragon knight, two high end cyborgs, and one enchanted sound magic user. Anything that happens will get us involved. Worst case scenario, you can be restrained if anything goes wrong. Best case scenario, given over half our number know of magic..."

Gloriosa's lips curled upwards, marginally but still just so. She held up a hand and slowly nodded in acknowledgement, "I won't be alone for any change that happens. Thanks... Just, hope I can be of use with it all."

He pointed to her necklace but didn’t avert his eyes, “You're improving. I just saw you magic up a solution I was stuck for hours on. I hate magic, I really, really hate magic… And even I can see this potential. Embrace it, and if you want to call it fate, answer it. Don’t let fear hold you back on this because otherwise you’ll end up wallowing. Some bad will happen, but given record and help on hand; I gander it’ll turn out fine as it develops. And, no matter what upgrade you get-"

He turned to face her and, if she squinted, Gloriosa Daisy practically could swear he smiled slightly while thankfully moving his loosened neck, "I’m still calling you Gloriosa and barking at you for your insistent tendrils no matter what shape you’re in.”

========================
Canterlot City, Downtown
========================

Anguirus hauled himself up from a ledge, swinging his body up onto the roof of the old gas station. He took a moment to survey the surroundings.

He was far away from any major town or center of commerce. In fact, he hadn’t seen another human at all for several stretches of time during his journey. He’d been following sidewalks and roads for the better part of the afternoon, sometimes randomly and sometimes following a trail he could just barely detect. He wasn’t quite sure what exactly he was detecting, it was so faint and given it was always on a road going down said road and not across it he could gander whoever or whatever he’d been tracking was in a vehicle.

At least, what he was tracking was.

Anguirus took his gaze off from the forest and roads leading out of town and looked back. He saw nothing, absolutely nothing. And yet, it was a “nothing” he could feel. A conspicuous lack of passing birds or animals. A few times he even heard dogs barking loudly and the first instance he half expected the hound to be baying at him. He’d stopped in his tracks and stood perfectly still on the sidewalk, pretending to admire a tree while looking at the mutt and its confused owner. The canine was clearly agitated, but Anguirus wasn’t at its attention. In fact, by chance another dog walker happened to be coming by and the Guardian Beast observed the second pooch’s reaction. The terrier looked at him and its eyes widened, but its tail wagged happily and it started for him. Either it could tell what he truly was and King Manju’s design was still successful at causing animals to perceive a Guardian Beast as benign, or the dog was just friendly and thought him another human to play with.

Point was the dog clearly noticed him, and then noticed something else. Something that made it bark while looking away, curl its tail and whimper.

And that had been a recurring vibe during this jaunt. Animals either vacating an area or reacting in fear towards something. At first Anguirus wondered if Gigan or Monster X was hunting him, but enough double backing, scent checking, and energy detections confirmed that if they’d been through an area, it hadn’t been for quite some time. Though disturbingly he could confirm that they had indeed been near the school recently, so protection detail would need to be increased.

Something he didn’t know had been either following him or moving through an area he’d been through recently. And despite his best efforts, the Alpha Guardian Beast couldn’t find them. He’d have to get Lea on this or consult Peachy Keen if it was Equestrian in nature, given he didn’t know that kind of magic very well. If the aliens could end up here along with some centuries old monsters from Equestria, who knew what else was in this expanse? Plus he didn’t buy it for a single second this place could have so much emulation of all the Equestrians and not having plenty of oddities in itself.

This city could give Ponyville a run for its money as the biggest Weirdness Magnet he’d ever seen.

Anguirus straightened up, trying to ignore the pricking feeling something was watching him. Nothing he could do about it right now and it hadn’t tried anything so for all he knew it was just some neutral force.

Much as he’d hate to do it, he’d ignore it.

There was something more important to worry about. Namely the one thing he could sense. They were far away, across an expanse of trees. But they were there, he just couldn’t tell who. Another Guardian Beast, another member of a family. His family.

Anguirus always felt a bit parental over the others of the line. After all, he was the Alpha build so not only was he supposed to lead and help them, but he was the first one created with the rest using him as a blueprint. Swap out the species’ assets, change the element, alter plenty of features sure; but a lot of it bled over. In a weird way, he could suppose it made him the others’ father, but he preferred to think of himself more as an elder brother. His fires were supposed to be the fuel to empower his family, empowering them in body as he did in mind with his leadership, as he was destined to lead them into battle against Bagan one day. At least, that was the directive that his creators had designed him with. He certainly didn’t disagree with it, even if a lot more had happened.

He’d regain his strength, hopefully… maybe. He’d told plenty of others that and hoped for it himself, but he wasn’t able to glimpse the future. He might not get much stronger over the centuries at all, assuming he lived that long. He might have been designed to fight a god, albeit with an army beside him, but weakened or not plenty of kaiju could give him a good run for his money. He had his victories… and plenty of defeats.

A pit formed in his stomach briefly, twinges of shame and disgust he quickly buried.

He couldn’t show any of that, none of it. He was supposed to be the Alpha and weakness or not, he’d still be. And full capacity or not, he still had a few things those ancient martyrs hadn’t put into the others.

Anguirus smirked. Hadn’t used this one in full in years, only briefly using it at that Campground against those dragons to summon in Rodan soon as he detected the Omega.

Sucking in a massive amount of air and confident any humans who’d be close enough to hear it would chalk it up to everyday strangeness, Anguirus threw open his maw and bellowed out into the air as loud as he could. The sonic roar, angled into a cone unlike how sound often worked, would have been accompanied by a pillar of fire had he been at full capacity. But it and the much, much louder infrasound no person could hear would do the trick. Infrasound specific to one type of being in particular that could carry on for kilometers upon kilometers upon kilometers. The Alpha’s call to arms, originally meant to rouse the others from their slumber after 100,000 years to avert a doomsday.

Seeing how potentially overwhelmed Mothra and Godzilla could have gotten in the mid-2000s, he’d used it to wake the others early and get reinforcements. This definitely turned out to be a good prediction on his part, as they were crucial allies when Final Wars came around.

He got a chorus of replies then when used on Terra. And after several minutes of waiting, he got an infrasound call in response.

Anguirus stole a glance at the setting sun, knowing he was supposed to be heading back soon. It was too risky to stay out so late, and something about Lea seemed off. Worry gnawed at him.

-She’d want me back when she awakens. She worked herself up so much that if I’m not back when Godzilla said I’d be, it might set her off…-

The infrasound called out again. Mute to humans, and likely most anyone else. But the energy it carried it sounded hyperactive. Eager. Happy even. Anguirus steeled himself and sighed before hopping off the roof of the gas station, sprinting off into the woods.

-Let’s hope she’s a heavy sleeper. She’d be even more relieved if I came back with help.-

He let out another infrasound pulse, giving away his trajectory and position. The response showed the other Guardian Beast quickly making their way towards a head on meeting.

===============================

That call, it was both familiar and alien at the same time. All the more reason it got her full attention. Before she reacted to the call upon on this edge of night, she had taken heed to do a quick check over to everyone’s whereabouts; having just done a patrol.

X and Aria were meeting with Twilight about some plans regarding what was coming up. Irys didn’t know exactly what, but she did hear the song magic kicking up and knew they’d be just fine. Twilight was the second most vulnerable of the group given her lack of powers, beaten out only by a crippled Sonata, and she was with both arguably the strongest of the Hunters, X, and arguably the strongest siren at least in a straight fight, Aria. Plus it would be a painful death to anyone who attacked X around Aria or Aria around X. Twilight had come a long way in Irys’ eyes from being “That small purple equine I tried to eat before that Mothra witch fried me”. She was eager to help, slow to anger, open to discussion if one popped up, and hadn’t even tried to do anything to betray them like escape or send out any messages.

She just… seemed like someone who honestly wanted to help. Irys wouldn’t exactly call her a friend, but if given the chance to try and devour her again like she had long ago, she probably wouldn’t. Besides, Megalon seemed rather fond of her and Sunset was evidently a friend of hers as well. No harm came from the alicorn princess so Irys sought no harm to come to her.

Adagio was in the middle of the camp, surrounded on all sides by everyone and in the next building over from Gloriosa and Gigan. Gigan might have been needing some repair work, something he insisted on doing himself, which made Irys a bit curious what Gloriosa was doing in there; but the company was noted nonetheless. Adagio was no slouch when it came to magic, Gloriosa was getting stronger, and she’d seen Gigan fight more than once. Stubborn cyborg could have half his body stop working and she still gandered the number of beings who could take him on aside from the Master could be counted on one wing.

Besides, given the story he told her and Megalon regarding that Berserek, him fighting his best when half broken seemed to be a trend with Gigan’s track record; worrying as that was.

-Well, humans fix things in garages. Maybe he can still put himself back together if I find him mostly broken down surrounded by the bodies of his enemies by the time I get back?-

It didn’t phase her in the slightest that the thought was only half of something she’d been learning from Megalon called humor. Speaking of, the cyborg was still hunkered down with Sonata Dusk and... Pinkie Pie. That was typically a liability, outsiders could be a huge threat to them; but Irys had enough time to inspect the newcomer. What she concluded was the pink haired dame was not a menace, in fact she was even sillier than Megalon and Sonata in some regards. Still, kept Sonata and Megalon content and she'd instructed Megalon to not let her in anywhere else around the camp. To her surprise, Pinkie Pie had agreed and she was willing to leave it at that... For now.

Point being, her flock was safe. All of them. Hunter, siren, and yes to an extent Twilight, had each other’s back.

And if she was the only one hearing this call, something the gyaos observed when no one else seemed to react to the infrasound; she knew what she had to do.

-Can’t let others know just yet. They’d no doubt want to go with me, and that’d just make everything chaotic and might force the caller away.-

Her purple eyes scanned the forest, able to see through it with her dilated pupils as if it was the brightest of days and not the blackest of twilight.

-No way something or someone could get the drop on me when I’m in my element. If it’s a threat, I can scope it out from a distance. If not, I can try to figure something out after falling back. If they can’t sense it....-

Steeling herself, a white blur broke off from the camp in a high speed sprint, faster than a human could manage and one could swore she flew more than once. At least, she was kicking off the ground so hard that she was bounding in a few spots. Bounding up a partially fallen tree, Irys ran up its edge to get above the canopy. In the clear space, the setting sun and a sea of trees engulfing the landscape in all directions aside from a distant plateau; she stood.

Puffing her chest for breath, the gyaos drew in a large breath and cried out. Not wanting to rouse the camp, for she could make an alarm call Gigan and Megalon at least could hear tens of kilometers away, she canceled out her own noise and let out only that strange frequency mute to all but a select few. Infrasound, a reply to the call she’d heard.

Waiting a minute or two, she stayed crouched on the tree as the breeze blew by.

Then, the response.

Irys felt a shiver of anticipation. It was familiar, so familiar to her. But the cause was so elusive. It felt.. Familiar.

Family-ar.

Family.

Irys’ pace was breakneck speed and her heart was pounding. Was it a another gyaos? Another sapient individual? Was she really not the only one? Was she not really the last there was or ever would be?

She could be a new flockmate, a new addition to the team! Oh her flock would be thrilled! The logistics of taking a hypercarnivore near her companions were lost upon her, as was the threat. She was too… giddy.

The infrasound called out again, a clearly conscious, thinking being yelling out a few kilometers dead ahead.

‘Where are you?’

Irys grinned and jumped up several branches, breaking the canopy line in her spring and letting the wind blow past her hair and body as she beamed; briefly glimpsing the stars and galaxies high above on a perfect night. The light caused a twinkle in her eye as she replied.

‘I’m here!’

Guardian Beast Alpha and Eta, fire and sound, the first born and last born, closed in on each other; blissfully ignorant to the other’s true identity.

Notus, while unable to understand the infrasound in itself, was privy to it. He’d be stalking the male kaiju for hours, silent and invisible with light bent around his ghostly form. His brothers were away from he, Zephyrus guarding their cohorts and Boreas on duty. This was his venture, and he would see it through.

==================================

She gasped and choked in abject, physical horror. Not at what she saw before her, but what was before her eyes. Explosions were a common fixture in movies and other visual media, but very few know just what they are like. It's not the fires that do most of the damage or leave the deepest impacts, it’s the shockwaves and reverberations one often can’t see. And she felt them, dozens of them, such unnatural sensations not supposed to be common in nature vibrating every piece of her body as they warped, smacked, and crushed the terrain around her. Some of these wouldn’t have merely knocked her off her feet or sent her careening back. These were the size of buildings and they crushed entire structures as if they were struck by invisible blows. All at once, they played all at once.

The explosions, the pain, the suffering; deaths as a red beam sliced an aircraft she didn’t recognize in half.

Never stopping, never slowing. And yet she could perceive every fine detail. Each time in such battles, her body was dying. Piece by piece torn out after it got mangled, replaced with sterile, unfeeling metal. Mutilated and ripped apart while more and more of her body became replaced. Hatred was potent and poisonous, forcing into her mind with more images of horror.

What scared her the most wasn’t the carnage and battles and loss of body. It was how the point of view barely seemed to react to it. An explosion as big as a skyscraper enveloped the screaming teenager’s mind, all of its features calculated and forced within her mind to the smallest detail. And yet, despite her bones shaking, her blood simmering, and feeling as if the skin were to be scorched from her form; the mind remained focused. Not ignorant of the devastation, but not bothered by it either.

He would do anything necessary to get the job done.

Other horrors, other terrors. A demonic titan with skeletal white armor atop black hide, a malefic dragon hiding within. It raised its arms and bellowed in a distortion of sound, the outline of its body becoming affixed with the memory of a man in dark clothes with a white mask. So many more followed, the beast that walked like a man and the man who was a beast far from alone. Even a horrific visage resembling a moth of all things, raining down death with thunderbolts and sending them ripping into her body, a horrifying gaze intermixed with a devilish-looking woman tearing the air asunder with her spells. So many, so many of them!

Weapons of war were trained upon a strange, ultra large humanoid covered in red and silvery armor or skin, killing intent obvious as a saw was revved up. The last image of the same arrangement, was of her; a scared teenager scrambling away from the point of view that saw the world in red and was locking multiple tools of destruction upon her.

Twilight Sparkle lurched up from the visions, nearly screaming and was only stopped by a pair of green arms catching her on the way up. Wallflower Blush barely recognized Twilight when the girl snapped out of her trance. Twilight, having experienced all of such visions’ emotions in the span of a few seconds, had turned pale as a sheet, was trembling to the point of convulsing, and was covered in a cold sweat while being hardly responsive.

Sitting up with her, Wallflower squawked as she tried to hold Twilight still, “H-Hey! Sparkle! Look at me! What’s wrong?! What happened?”

Instantly her attention was drawn up to a being that would have terrified and bewildered her a few months ago, but had become a fact of life. Like animate snowy wind, a form resembling a combination of a horse and a cloud hovered near the ceiling of the room quietly, slowly levitating closer. Part of Wallflower’s mind screamed at her to get back and get Twilight back with her, but she resisted and let Zephyrus closer.

The winter spirit reached out and gently touched Twilight’s forehead with a mostly ethereal hoof. Twilight, who had been shaking with her eyes risking to roll back into her head, instantly stilled and slumped into Wallflower Blush’s arms; panting badly for breath.

“W-What did you do to her, Zephrys?” Wallflower cried as she grimaced at what a bad state the now exhausted Twilight was in.

“I showed what she asked,” His voice, not from his mouth but more from his presence, very calmly replied, “She wished to know of the creature who attacked her, and I managed to procure its memories when I tried to force it away. I transferred them to young Miss Sparkle for a moment before taking most of them back.”

He seemed to regard the recovering Twilight, who was clinging unconsciously to Wallflower and very slowly securing the ability to look back at him, gazing back up into the frosty, glowing eyes of the cloudy spirit, “I am sorry, I meant no harm.”

While emotionless as usual, it seemed very genuine. After a minute to catch her breath, Twilight Sparkle sadly nodded back to him and gently waved at the air.

“I-It’s okay Zephyrus,” she stammered while climbing back onto the bed to sit down and get off of Wallflower, “You didn’t mean it, and I needed to know… I-I saw so much.”

“Saw what?” Wallflower whispered, both wanting and somehow not wanting to know.

“She has seen what has, unfortunately, come to your world,” Zephyrus whispered as he hovered lower, slowly wrapping parts of his trailing mist around them before settling down before and above them, his presence almost assuring.

“Th-the monster that attacked me at a school. A person who wasn’t a person,” Twilight stammered, wiping at her forehead with a hand and sniffling with a quick dab at her eyes, “Zephyrus saved me from him-... It, and-” she paused and looked back up with reddened eyes and a cold sweat, “You jumped into a man to help attack it. D-did it…”

Zephyrus shook his head, leaving mist in his movements’ wake, “I was forced to take action for your safety. A desperate measure to save you, but one free of lasting cost. The man is alive, relatively unharmed. I fought and managed to damage the beast, the monster fled shortly after young Miss Sparkle managed her escape.”

“What made it run, did you really hurt it?” Wallflower pondered aloud as she pouted.

Zephyrus one again shook his head, “I fear I did not damage it direly, even if it showed only some resistance to my magic. It’s more I suspect it did not want to be made known in public. What’s concerning is the fact that it is not alone.”

His voice, despite carrying a dire subject that made Twilight shudder, was remarkably calming as it helped to cool down the room from what had felt like a stifling heat thanks to her adrenaline surge.

“R-Right,” Twilight coughed briefly from bile in her throat, still so pale in the face, “There’s so many monsters, so many… monsters… B-But at least two others here. O-One was a woman, wearing some kind of robes and the other... the other…”

She paused and stood up, thankful that Wallflower was steadying her as she went to the collage of photographs and tabloid newspaper clippings. Everything from alien sightings, to weird occurrences at Wallflower’s highschool last Fall, sudden angry mobs sporadically appearing around towns for no clear reason, reports of people being affected by music concerts, the sudden changes at Everfree national park she wanted to look in on; and more. And amongst them was a single photograph. She’d gotten it from a photography enthusiast at Wallflower’s school, on account of her not noticing Wallflower. After a botched investigation of an incident at a nearby hospital, it was all she had.

A tall man in black and white. He was barely in focus, standing in the back as people were scrambling past him. She had always thought it odd what some scattered reports said happened, along with the fact he was clearly walking towards the hospital rather than running away from it. And something, something not readily describable, was wrong with him. He didn’t quite look right but she couldn’t ever place what was wrong.

Now she knew, and she knew from flashes of recurved teeth and glowing red eyes looming over a city.

“The man man in black and white, this one,” She winced, showing the photograph to Wallflower and Zephyrus, “He’s one of them, one of the monsters who can pretend to be human.”

Wallflower frowned, “I’ve overheard a few discussions at a certain table Sunset Shimmer frequented, not hard when you’re me. They said some guy in black and white had been around the school a few times or been glimpsed around town. Doing really weird stuff like standing on telephone poles and walking around rooftops.”

“An ally to this ‘Gigan’ I fear,” Zephyrus hummed as he hovered closer, “One who seems to be searching, hunting for something.”

His gaze upon, through, Twilight made her shiver and she sunk down, “Me, they’re both hunting me…”

Wallflower sunk in closer, putting an arm on Twilight’s shoulder after some apprehension and shyness as she looked to Zephyrus, “What do they want with Twilight?”

“Likely it is the very same reason why young lady Sparkle is different from others of your people.”

Twilight’s eyes slowly gazed down at the circular pendant around her neck, the red crystal entrapped within glowing dimly. She gripped the cord and lifted it up to her eye level.

“The necklace,” she whispered as she clutched it closer protectively.

Zephyrus nodded, “This Gigan is a weapon of war, a barely living tool of destruction sent by its masters to seize bounties.”

“But how would it know I had it…?” Twilight bit at her finger and mulled through her thoughts, thinking back to everything that happened that day. As her company did the same.

Wallflower perked up, “It came after Twilight the same time the sirens were singing, hexing part of the school… Could it maybe be working with them? Twilight’s device is powered by a siren necklace, so maybe it was trying to get it back after we stole it.”

“We took it from a monster to keep her from harming others,” Zephyrus corrected, “Now she is nothing more… or less, than an ordinary girl.”

Wallflower quieted down, leaning over and biting at her finger slightly to try and force away the memories with a twinge of pain. It was mostly for naught. She could still remember how utterly terrified the siren looked when they took her necklace off to remove her magic. She looked like she was pleading, begging to not be harmed. Logic, tales from Zephyrus, and examples shown of the damage the Sirens caused had convinced her they were a very real threat. Even in this magical world they were likely dangerous beings and quite powerful, so why else would they be exiled here? But now, in a world largely lacking in magic, there was so little that could actually oppose them. Wallflower Blush was at Canterlot High when just one raging, magic-charged being nearly upended the school and could have done who-knows-how-much damage to the town or that place beyond the portal.

Thankfully a heroine from another world and some local help managed to put an end to it, nip it in the bud early. But now, the five who were with her lacked the key to transform that the other Twilight Sparkle, the first one she knew of and not the one beside her now, had taken back home with her. Someone else needed to step up.

When she found the stone a few days after the Sunset She-Demon attack and recognized it as magic, Wallflower Blush could admit she felt proud and eager for the first time in her life. She, she of all people managed to find magic when others seemed to have a hard time finding her or wishing to.

Maybe, just maybe it meant she was to become the next heroine? When she found the second Twilight, her Twilight- Gods this was getting confusing!- and Zephyrus it almost seemed like fate. She, a nobody without any notice and Twilight, a shut-in that came from out of town; partnered up with a wise, centuries-old magical being from a world of magic that helped guide them. And they were going to stop some centuries-old monsters to protect their world.

It sounded like one of her favorite old TV shows or comics, especially when the potential to do magic was involved. Wallflower could still vividly remember the build up to the fateful night. She had hoped Twilight could have a magical device too, like her stone.

It would have made them more alike, more to relate. Maybe more than whatever unspoken designation of ‘associate’ they were thus far. She could hope.

Then, the face of a clearly terrified, scared siren came screaming back at her and her pulse went cold.

Wallflower Blush had given herself every excuse she could muster. From the siren just being reckless and needing to be stopped, to the siren was just playing it cute to get her to drop her guard, to her just remembering it wrong. She could even justify Zephyrus’ excuse of why they didn’t wipe her memory despite her clearly looking like she was in pain. They had to draw out the other sirens. Had to enrage them so they’d try to reclaim their lost cohort’s magic. If the attacked-... defeated siren had no memory of what happened, they might freak out, bolt, and cause trouble elsewhere; that would just complicate everything.

And from a more selfish angle, she really wanted Twilight, who had been so extremely eager to study and understand magic, to have some of her own. That fact, as shameful as it might have been, brought a small smile to her face.

But even then, the memory of the siren crying and coughing from having her necklace torn off made Wallflower want to use the memory stone on herself. Heck, sometimes she wanted to use it to just wipe everything from herself, go back to how she was before, and just be a normal girl. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this like the heroines of fiction. It was… tempting…

But then she was reminded of the dozing puppy dog curled up beside her and the other young woman in her company.

Wiping away all the stranger things would just wipe away the only valuable thing she had. She wanted to be useful. She needed to be useful, if only to keep it.

“I saw no memory of the sirens in its mind, young lady Blush,” Zephyrus continued with a shake of his head, “Other than being aware of what they were and that they were at the school. In all chance, it was hunting them.”

Twilight shuddered, "S-So it went after me because I was…"

"Vulnerable," Zephyrus noted calmly, causing the girl to flinch as the word she was looking for was merely 'alone', though that one was an apt description.

She had been vulnerable. And, at the memory of being confronted with a real monster, one of whom she just witnessed through Zephyrus was capable of mass devastation, she was realizing just how much. To any deities out there, she could beg, beg, for protection. Every inch of skin, ever small hair sticking out of her hide, every pore weeping cold sweat. Red eyes, no, not eyes. Not-eyes on something that was not a human, right down to a slight difference in his gait as he stalked towards her. Because she had been isolated, alone, ‘vulnerable as Zephyrus said.

She’d been prey and no matter what she did to halt it, the predator kept coming.

She shrank back, unconsciously shifting towards Wallflower whom, without thinking much, had wrapped her arms around Twilight’s shoulders.

“And this is my fault,” Wallflower Blush whimpered, “I called you up in a panic when the sirens showed up and started using magic. I summoned you and you were out there alone.”

Twilight Sparkle let herself be held slightly, the shivers easing with some time. Fidgeting with her glasses to recompose herself enough to speak presentably, she sat back up.

“It-It’s not your fault, Blush. There was no way we could have predicted this,” Her frown however, grew, “Just like we couldn’t have predicted a fourth siren on top of everything.”

Zephyrus nodded calmly. Often him being so reserved was, frankly, a bit disconcerting. But here, it actually elicited a slight ease as he floated closer to Twilight and Wallflower.

“It seems the intrusions upon your world are getting more diverse. In the interest of safety for you two, I would think it best that you plan to make any moves together or at least with me near you.”

Wallflower Blush sighed, feeling some sliver of tension roll of her back, “Can’t argue with that. If only there were more of you, Zephyrus.”

Zephyrus briefly glanced past her, out the window, to the impossibly north and yet also south blowing wind. Zephyrus, the westerly windigo, hummed after also glancing at the fourth compatriot in the room, “Yes, if only. In light of this madness however, we should also hasten young Lady Twilight’s training and prioritize acquiring another siren heart for Lady Blush so she can begin using true magic."

He slithered closer and now something was causing distant, archaic alarm bells to go in the back of Twilight’s mind. Maybe it was the way he approached. Maybe it was something about Zephyrus himself. Or perhaps, it was because the brief flash of the snow spirit levitating closer and reaching for her was momentarily replaced by a lunging, burning not-eyed Gigan in her mind’s eye.

Twilight Sparkle cringed and shrank away from her patron, “I-I can’t. Not tonight.”

Zephyrus paused, unemotive and unmoving. A cold silence filled the room as he just stayed still, exactly where he was moments prior. It wasn’t even like when someone stood still, the small muscle twitches, shifting of hairs or breath, or unconscious compensating for balance. It was more like someone had paused a video in a most uncanny way.

Twilight Sparkle, feeling Wallflower Blush seem to slowly put herself in front between the snow spirit and Twilight, put an arm across her associate’s middle and pushed her back enough to let her through. Her eyes briefly caught Wallflower’s and, behind her glasses, Twilight’s visage briefly lightened.

“Zephyrus, I need the night off. I have… every intention of mastering this magic as fast as I can. But you yourself said magic takes focus and, frankly, after what just happened to me I just…” she shrugged and frowned as she forced herself to relive the memory from both her own and Zephyrus’ additions. It made her visibly cringe in pain, “I just can’t. I need a moment to recover.”

Zephyrus slowly tilted his head back and forth, studying the young woman.

“... Agreed,” Finally, thankfully, he slithered backwards in the air and rose upwards, “You make a fair point. I only caution that we mustn't delay for too long, as the situation has only grown more dire.”

He started to melt through the floor, as if it were naught but empty air. All the while keeping his eyes trained upon the pair.

“I will scout about and see if I can find anything important… and ensure none come upon this place as you rest. You have my protection.”

Both girls, ignorant of how much they needed it, sighed and bowed their heads in a nod of very due gratitude to their patron.

“Thank you, Zephyrus.”

“You really are the great West Wind.”

Zephyrus shifted as he floated through the ceiling and headed outside. It was quiet, almost not perceptible. But, it sounded like something different from his typically composed manner. One humored, very human-sounding chuckle as he shook his head slowly. It caused both of their lips to upturn oh so slightly.

They’d be safe, they knew this.

A pregnant, lasting silence came upon the room as Zephyrus left.

A night off.

Honestly after all that had been happening over the last few weeks, both of them almost forgot what to do with such a situation. Wallflower Blush looked to Twilight Sparkle, seeing the other young woman turn her back to her and keep her face concealed as she just stared at the wall. A few minutes ticked by before Twilight finally budged, but what she did gave Wallflower no comfort.

The purple haired tech genius, now bearer of magic, sniffled and momentarily removed her glasses to wipe at her eyes.

When Wallflower was compelled to place a hand on her, she could feel poor Twilight shivering.

Wallflower Blush frowned and whispered, “Twilight?....“

The lack of response would have made her repeat the address to ensure she was heard, had she not gotten the acknowledgement non-verbally. Twilight was still shaking oh so slightly, and her head tilted just enough to point her ear towards Wallflower without turning her face to her. Wallflower Blush frowned, but reached up to her own neck and drew up the cordage for her necklace. The engraved, dimly glowing Memory Stone was help aloft.

“I could use this, on you-”

Twilight seized up and tensed, causing Wallflower to rapidly sputter out the rest.

“-Only a bit! Only a bit! J-Just to help you calm down after all that happened.”

Twilight Sparkle sniffled again, reaching up to dab at her face, “W-We’d need to know.. We have to know about all this, what we are up against.”

“Yes, but I don’t,” Wallflower persisted, still holding her necklace, “I could take at least some of them out after you think them up. Then I’d take them and stick them in my head. Split the load in a way.”

Twilight glanced over towards the rock a bit apprehensively, “...Can you even do that?”

Wallflower bit her lip and glanced aside before clearing her throat, “You um… ahem… mind keeping a secret?”

Amidst her silence, Twilight just barely nodded enough to be noticed.

“I kinda.. Have practice with this thing,” Wallflower frowned with awkwardness engendering a stutter in her voice, “I-I mea-an I didn’t hurt anyone with it! B-But I kinda… sorta… tested it.”

She fidgeted with the necklace, drawing her fingers to trace the grooves in the stone, “No one notices me. To be honest, when I found out for sure it was magic, I think I-I kinda wondered if I was cursed and I-I-I wanted-”

She cut herself off, drew in a deep breath from her nose and shook off the stutters. This was important damn it, couldn’t be talking like some blubbering idiot!

"I tried approaching a guy I liked and talked to him in public, mostly just as a friend. Mostly. I know it's really petty to use magic like how I did, but when it didn't go well I just erased all of the event from his mind and anyone who saw," Wallflower shrugged, "I kind of overcompensated to make sure he could notice me. Made a big mess that just embarrassed us both so it was better to just erase the whole thing… But instead of putting all of the memories in the Stone, I held onto a few to maybe learn for next time. So I have practice."

Twilight was still for a time, seemingly mulling over the thought. After a few moments however she shook her head.

"Do you not trust me?" Wallflower frowned.

Twilight slowly shook her head again, sniffling but to a much lesser degree has she reached out and patted Wallflower's shoulder.

"I... I do," she muttered, "And I trust you know what you are doing. If you need to know what we were up against I'll tell you everything, but… I don't want to put you through it, seeing what I did. With a bit of luck you won't get the chance to."

She took in a deep breath and steeled herself, "I can't cheat, Wallflower, I'll get better. I just need a night to relax."

"Well," Wallflower Blush hummed as she eyed her room, "I did say you could stay here. Might as well be comfortable. Could put on a movie, probably something happy because I don't think either of us are in much of a mood to focus on the monsters. No offense, but you really look stressed out."

Twilight Sparkle hugged her knees to her chest as she glanced up at a small wall mirror hanging behind the door. Dried tears were still streaming down her face, her hair was a disheveled mess of unorganized bangs and sweat-caked strands, and her skin was unnaturally pale, illuminated by her necklace that pulsed with a dim light.

Reaching up, Twilight undid her messy, slapdash hairbun and let her messy hair cascade down. Wallflower, handing Twilight a remote for her small TV, seemed to pick up upon the action and picked up a barely used hairbrush.

"Want.. me to brush your hair?" Wallflower muttered with a tilted head.

Twilight gulped, but nodded slowly. Taking the remote control and turning something innocuous on, she let go of her knees and sat up straight. Rolling her shoulders, she let herself relax as Wallflower got behind her and started combing through her hair.

"I'll do yours after," Twilight whispered in a very quiet, but thankfully calmed down tone.

"Thanks, never really did it myself," Wallflower shrugged as she very carefully undid a knot, "Probably why I look like such a mess."

Wallflower paused as she held the brush in her compatriot's hair. The excuse she gave Mr. Night Light for Twilight to stay here tonight, why Sparkle didn't want to go to the lab after the day's events, was something he sounded extremely excited about. Especially after she handed the phone to her parents to let them talk. The excuse was this was a sleepover... at a friend's house. Something neither of them, at least not her, had ever done.

Wallflower Blush paused, "Twilight, are we friends?"

Twilight Sparkle stopped looking at her notes for a moment, settling back and letting Spike hobble into her lap. Her puppy had taken to Wallflower good enough, even seemed to be fine around Zephyrus.

"I… I guess we are," she shrugged, not knowing how much more to think it over. It made sense to her at least.

Friends were people you felt comfortable around, share the secrets with, and previously that had only really been her family. And yet, she had a few secrets with Wallflower she didn't share with her family and she felt perfectly comfortable around the girl. Previously she had just kind of considered Wallflower Blush something of a teammate or ally, but the term "friend" wasn't necessarily mutually exclusive with those.

"Would you like to be friends?"

Wallflower Blush needed a moment to let it sink in, before starting to brush Twilight's hair and finding no opposition.

"I'd like that."

==========================================

'There are enemies around!'

'I know, be careful!'

'Friends close, we'll get them!'

'More? That's wonderful!'

'Be aware, I might be followed!'

'I'll be on guard!'

Anguirus and Irys, totally oblivious to who the other was, continued to exchange infrasound as they closed in on each other. Only now they were on guard, protective instincts flaring up after thinking they had potential family in danger. Irys especially was hurrying her pace. The gyaos had been a horrid family. Cannibalistic and gluttonous. Her own mother had been torn apart in front of her and consumed by her own flock, the perpetrators of which she herself devoured upon reaching her adulthood and claiming the position of leader. In hindsight and being able to understand what having a true flock, a real family was like, she chalked most of it up to the fact that she was an aberration.

A single sapient form amidst a swarm of dimmer intellect, lesser power, and lesser life span. The albino always thought herself an aberration, a one-time occurrence.

But, if she could be an aberration born to a relatively mundane mother, maybe she wasn't the only one. The gyaos, whom she thought extinct, might have had other flocks elsewhere. Maybe when they were pulled from the hellhole of a world Terra, some aberration she wasn't aware of got pulled in with them and slipped past the Master?

All the more reason she had to protect them now.

Anguirus was in a panic. The other Guardian Beast knew that there were enemies around and didn't seem awfully surprised he was being followed. That nothingness was still behind him and it was still bothering him despite his attempts to ignore it. It all likely meant his family member had already encountered the likes of Gigan, Monster X, or whatever else was out here.

It cost him to practically bulldoze through a sapling, shattering it on impact so he didn't have to slow down or divert from his path. He had to get to them, he had to get them and protect them before anyone or anything else did. If he was being followed already who knows if they were or not.

Then they saw, them.

They both went dead silent and still the moment a clear line of sight was obtained, and what was heading in the opposite direction right for them. The night air blew between the two, criss-crossing through the glade and swapping scents. Even in the human forms they had taken, they both knew who and what the other was.

Irys, crouching down on a tree branch with her hands hanging down between her legs, muscle memory from perching when they were they still her wings. Her back arched and her jaw dropped down to bare several sharp teeth too big and too pointed to be normal for a human. Her high pitched hissing stung at the air, misting her face.

Anguirus was also tensed. His muscles tightened, a thick frame under his attire bulging. He lowered it down and pointed one shoulder forward while cocking the other back. One could practically hear the grind of leather on leather as his calloused hands balled a fist. There was a low rumble echoing from his gut and growling from his throat, wreathing his face in a mist from the chilly night air.

This had not been what they were expecting. Both of them were anticipating finding family. Instead they had run into an enemy minutes after hearing the infrasound.

Irys saw one of the clan that hunted and chased her across Terra, tormenting her dreams and forcing her to constantly move.

Anguirus saw a blight that had plagued the world for years.

And they both thought a family member in danger was nearby.

The two drew a logical if incorrect conclusion as Notus observed from a distance.

One of them tensed and the other attacked, neither was really sure who did what first.

Anguirus dove and rolled to the side, dodging out of the way of a purple beam of condensed energy that cleanly cleaved through a tree behind him. The trunk dropped down onto the cut section, starting to slide and splinter as its towering height was now only held up by the friction of cut wood on cleanly cut wood. Running along as the tree trunk started to fall beside where he was sprinting, Anguirus hopped up and grabbed the trunk of the pine. Landing and digging his feet in, he wrenched to the side and cause the tree to suddenly snap in that direction amidst its fall.

Irys jumped from the tree to avoid having the column of wood crash down on top of her, snapping the oak she had been standing upon in a shower of splinters as the two trunks all but exploded against each other.

She hit the ground rolling and by the time she spun up and around to get to her feet, the thundering footsteps of her attacker were bearing down on her. The albino reacted quickly, throwing up her hands and putting her forearms together before spreading them out. With a flash of her eyes and crackle of energy going down her arms, an octagonal barrier shield burst forth. And not a moment too late when a broad fist came crashing into the shield with such force it produced visible ripples across the surface. The impact was so powerful that if the shield had ended up ringing like a gong, it would have been appropriate. She grit her teeth and dropped to a knee, especially when another blow came down on her.

Anguirus hadn't fought the albino gyaos before, just the others of her mongrel mistake of a species. But he had been told enough by Gamera and Mothra to know a few things. Namely how the barrier shield the albino uniquely possessed was projected from her wings, and so long as it was being projected it acted like it was physically attached to her. Cocking back both of his arms to bluff another blow, ensuring she would keep the barrier up, Anguirus instead lunged down and grabbed onto the barrier. He saw her eyes visibly widen when he yanked her off the ground and swung around.

Irys felt her world start spinning, which didn't bother her as badly as it might a terrestrial. Her brain was used to her making high-speed maneuvers including but not limited to corkscrews and rolls mid-flight while moving at anywhere between subsonic to supersonic. She didn't get dizzy easily… Which meant Anguirus whipping her around so violently to the point it was starting to make her see stars was quite the achievement.

Feeling herself getting yanked upwards and then her movement slowing, the line of sight she glimpsed from her attacker showing he was looking down at the ground before pulling that way allowed her to surmise Anguirus intended to bash her into the ground. Irys clenched her teeth to avoid biting her tongue, mentally plotting her trajectory has she cancelled out her barrier.

Anguirus' hands, now not grabbing onto anything started to fall inwards, and he attempted to grab onto her arms and continue the thrashing. His failure caused him to curse as the momentum he had transferred into her before the shield was canceled out sent the gyaos careening away at a wide angle, like she just been launched out of a trebuchet. He grunted and watched as she sailed away in slow motion, trying to run after her with every passing millisecond.

The gyaos could be an enormous threat if left unchecked. Raiga tried her best long ago and Gamera was persistent, but there would always be one, one egg left. If it ever was anything at all it would start all over again. This seemed to be the same albino that fought Lea, too clever and too strong to be anything else. There were a myriad of possible questions for him to consider, like how she got here of all places, or possibly even if it really was the same individual. Aberrations aren't always isolated incidents. But he couldn't. Right now he could only focus on what he had to do, and what he had to do was kill it.

He knew full well what kind of carnage this species could leave in its wake, and in some ways Anguirus couldn't help but feel a bit responsible. These were failed Guardian Beasts, mistakes based on his own design. Cursed with a hunger that wouldn’t end and being driven insane. A pang of pity stabbed into him, followed by sour taste stung his gullet.

In some ways that made them both failures, they being ones he was to blame for. He’d put her out of her misery.

The albino was supposed to be sterile, but no one could be sure, not with these world-jumping shenanigans. Besides, she’d be more than capable of ripping a human limb from limb even in this form. If he could just keep a hold of her-

Irys spun around midair, expertly reorienting herself to twist around and land both of her feet on a tree trunk she’d have slammed into. Eyes glaring, the gyaos springboarded off the pine tree and launched herself full speed into the oncoming Anguirus at a high angle. The Alpha braced and tried to ready himself for the impact, but she was coming at him too fast.

-Ah Daiei…!!!-

Irys shrugged off the hit as her noggin smashed into Anguirus’ neck and collar, even if it did bring some stars to her vision. She did manage to crash into her foe hard enough to nearly knock him over and definitely staggered him, but much to the gyaos’ frustration she didn’t manage to fulfill the former. Anguirus kept his footing and started to swing forward again, forcing Irys to act. Though her grasping feet were gone, she did the next best thing. Emulating a bit of what X showed her for fighting while in human form, she snapped one leg around his back and drove the other right into his gut as she grabbed onto his head and arm with her hands. Her enemy gasped out a choking gag as the air got knocked out of him, but it took several more hits before a yowling Irys managed to fell him amidst a tangle of their limbs.

Anguirus’ back smashed into the forest floor and despite his instinct to roll over, he found he couldn’t as the rabid creature had him pinned under her. It was partially his doing based off the pained expression on her wincing face, as when he fell over she couldn’t get her leg free in time and he’d landed on it. He tried to bring an arm up but found it stuck, pinned by the wrist by her hand and at the angle they were at he couldn’t work against her leverage and the fact she was putting her full weight into it.

A bestial hiss slithered out, Irys curling back her lips to reveal several large fangs one could swear got bigger from her rage. Seeing the bulging veins on Anguirus’ throat and knowing he lacked the osteoderm armor there like he normally did, she lunged down.

He might have been tougher than a human, but so was she, and if she could bite him in the right spot it could at least slow him down. Irys was scared, fighting for her life and the life of anyone else she cared for. She had to at least wound him badly and flee, lest he follow her and hurt the others. She wouldn’t let his kind or his group hurt her flock again!

“GAAAUH GRK!” Anguirus yelled out in pain, having yanked his body to the side last minute and resulting in Irys sinking her canines into his shoulder.

He strained and reached over for something he could just barely see. It hurt. But. He’d. Had. Worse…

Irys yelped out in pain, unlatching from the bite as a tree branch was cracked over her head. The splintered wood and muck dirtied her white and purple hair, which was more strained when her long locks were grabbed and yanked up briefly. Forcing her neck back, it opened up enough room for Anguirus to smash his forehead into hers and his greater mass and oncoming force put the gyaos in a brief spin. Grabbed and yanked aside, Irys tumbled downhill with her foe amidst a shower of leaves and pine needles, smacking and punching all the way down.

The world around them was in full tailspin, the two only able to focus in on each other. Grunting each time it was their turn for their back to be the collision cushion, they got into a full brawler’s lock; Irys’ agility helping make up for her lesser strength. Every time Anguirus landed a good elbow or punch on her, she hit him with two. Even still, she wasn’t one built to take as many hits. But, she did have other advantages. Lights flashed across her eyes as she took in a deep breath, withstanding a jab to the cheek. Anguirus’ eyes widened as he knew what was coming and dropped everything to grab onto her cheek and neck so he could point her head somewhere else.

A violet beam of concentrated sound and plasma wheeled across the forest, slicing down multiple trees or cutting grooves into the ground as they rolled along down the slope. Irys thrashed and pounded on Anguirus’ noggin to try and force him to just let go and let her shoot him, chaotically waving the beam around everywhere to the point it raked across the night sky as a thin purple ray visible for quite a distance.

Finally scoring a lucky hit, Irys jabbed the gap between her thumb and index fingers across Anguirus’ throat as hard as she could. A blow that bust a door down crashed into his windpipe and on reflex caused the former ankylosaurid to gag and cough. His grip on her chin loosened and Irys succeed in swinging her head downwards, eyes engulfed in light and leering as her cutter ray lowered down across Anguirus’ arm. He cried out in pain, the beam cutting through one of his spiked gauntlets and sleeve of his tunic before scoring into the skin.

Anguirus grit his teeth, something he did on reflex when his back cracked against a tree trunk he ended up bouncing off of before resuming their plummet. Irys was kept from doing more damage by his restored grip, but she was still slowly lowering down and had both her hands free to harm or maim.

No more taking any chances. The forge of mana within him should have been a raging firestorm, not flickers and flares. But, a broken down system would have to do. He was the beast of fire and damn well show why. For the sake of the Guardian Beast, his younger sibling, still out there; and to end the cursed existence of these Gyaos mistake. He’d try and make it quick.

-If only you weren’t defective.-

Irys’ eyes widened as she felt his body come alight with a heat. At first only uncomfortable, then a scorching mass like she’d just grabbed one of Gamera’s plasma balls. Anguirus’ eyes flickered green in a way, now that she thought of it, not dissimilar to her own when using her abilities. That was her only warming when his hands became red hot and started searing her skin.

“RAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!”

Her scream cried out as they rolled further, Anguirus’ body heat igniting large swaths of dried foliage and starting a bonfire. Even as he tried to adjust his hold to instead break her neck instead of trying to slowly burn the gyaos to death. Amidst the struggle, he frowned.

He really hated that scream.

All thoughts were cut off when the two struggling kaiju-turned-humans collided with a tree trunk at the base of the hill, smashing into it at the point of their contact and sending both of them flying off in opposite directions.

Briefly blacking out from overusing his powers, Anguirus groaned and slowly picked himself out of the smoking bush he’d tumbled into. Staggering to his feet, he winced and reflexively grabbed at his hurt arm. A warm wetness on his hand confirmed him to be bleeding, acknowledging it before moving on. Getting his bearings, he confirmed he was still near the foot of the hill and the last fourth of said hill was now on fire across the undergrowth, which was crawling up several trees. Amidst the typical red and orange in the flames were his hallmark green, indicating an enchantment being present.

-Good, can absorb it to try and patch up. Now where is that gyaos?...-

A gasping cough got his attention as a figure limped out from around a tree she’d been flung into. Irys was not in the best of ways. Her attire and skin was ripped and torn in multiple places almost as badly as Anguirus, but the most nasty was what was causing smoke to billow into her nose. Contrasting with the large gash and bite wound across Anguirus’ shoulder and arm, a large portion of her face and most of her neck was seared and blackened with visible handprints darkening its still smoking flesh.

The two foes locked eyes, panting for breath as Anguirus held his arm and Irys held her side. Slowly, Anguirus eyed the inviting fire and now seeing how worn down and hurt the gyaos was; decided it was his best shot to end this quickly. A passive part of his mind noted the oddity that the gyaos was glancing at the flames at the same time he was and hadn’t fled from them. He started for the fire… only to be taken over by a brief stupor when the gyaos charged into the flames and belly flopped into it with her arms and legs spread out.

One could visibly see the record scratch in Anguirus’ head at the act. Before he could contemplate if this was some sort of bizarre suicide, the flames contracted. Like they were being pulled by a vacuum, half the bonfire condensed downwards onto the form of a human that slowly braced a hand on the ground to pick themselves up.

Anguirus’ head slowly began to tilt, “No…”

Irys breathed heavily in heaves. Her plan, her half-second-conceived, desperate plan. It worked! She gazed upon her hand, seeing it cloaked in flames her body started to absorb. She shuddered all over, but in the best way possible. The rush these flames were giving her, it was exhilarating! It was far different from absorbing Megalon’s napalm despite there being far less. This, this felt far stronger! Far more potent! Especially the green embers within it. The gyaos gasped and felt at her side. The busted rib she’d gotten from the tussle, the pain was completely gone and she could breathe without it returning. She was healed!

The fires were fully absorbed, revealing her refreshed skin. The grime that was resistant to the heat remained, but the numerous cuts and bruises were vanished almost entirely. She briefly took a moment to feel at her face and neck. Only to touch smoothed, unmarked skin free of burns or keloid.

And she felt something else rarely felt outside of training and never felt before a fateful encounter with Kaizer Ghidorah. Glowing purple runs appeared across her skin and clothes, a symbol resembling an “H” showing up on the back of her hand. Irys grinned a toothy grin.

The albino gyaos, Guardian Beast Eta, whirled around and stood ready.

Anguirus gazed upon a state he knew on instinct. Had fate allowed it, this would have been the true form of his family. The powers of their respective elements taken to the maximum after being allowed to grow for 100,000 years. He’d have had it too, and the others could still pull it off if they absorbed enough of their respective element or raw mana. In practice they were also able to gain strength from his element, fire. The more enchanted, the better. But the gyaos never showed such a trait before.

And yet, here he saw it. A gyaos in Guardian Mode.

Stomping over towards him, the only Guardian Beast who couldn’t do it.

Anguirus gasped for breath, whispering to himself as he bled, “Oh that is just not fair… !!”

His head shot up at a thought. A realization perhaps. He mulled through the thought and, figuring it was his best chance at living instead of a confrontation he wasn’t sure he could win, gambled.

Notus observed the events from his hideaway, itching in anticipation. The spite, the wrath felt in this battlefield was something totally new to him due to the combatants and yet just as nourishing and potent as when he and his brothers caused armies to duel. Zephyrus was right. These monsters from some foreign realm. They were a huge threat. And an even larger opportunity.

He would bide his time, wait for one to beat down the other. Then act. If he was quick, he might be able to leave both alive so Boreas could get a better host.

It would be a challenge, it would be a hunt. It would be his trophy.

Irys winched and sneered when Anguirus took in a deep breath, expecting an attack. She was overflowing with power now. More than enough to wound him badly and fall back or, given her renewed vigor, try and end this confrontation and threat. Not wanting to do this with her ray, the empowered gyaos kicked off the ground to close the distance with the mother of all haymakers wound up. She was going to try and take X’s advice of ‘punch like you are punching through them’ seriously.

Then Anguirus threw his jaws out for a thundering roar and she braced, chancing to try and sock him in the throat.

Only for him to intentionally point his head up and call out into the sky. Her mind was in a flurry for a moment or two. Was he calling for help? Trying to intimidate her? Confuse her? What? Why throw away a chance to attack an opponent?

That’s when more than just the volume of the call hit her. It was low frequency, something no human could hear. Most kaiju couldn’t hear it. But a Guardian Beast could. The fingerprint of a bygone civilization Irys never saw, but still knew from it being imprinted on her lineage’s artificial DNA as much as Anguirus’ blueprint was.

The infrasound from before. It was stronger now, carrying far more information.

Irys stopped her charge and listened as the call played out and looped.

-I am Anguirus. Guardian Beast of Fire. Created in Shambhala to protect descendants of my creators. I am the first of the Guardian Beasts. I am the alpha of the Guardian Beasts. I am your family.-

Irys paused and Notus perked up from his perch in the trees. Anguirus put everything he had into the roar, keeping it going.

-I am Anguirus. Guardian Beast of Fire. Created in Shambhala to stop the monster Bagan from destroying the descendants of my creators-

Irys’ fist slowly dropped to her side and opened into a loose hand. There was a compulsion, one never before felt. Instincts were firing off she didn’t know existed, flooding her mind. Emotions and thoughts pertaining to Anguirus were shifting rapidly, joined by unlocking information.

-I am the first of the Guardian Beasts. I am the alpha of the Guardian Beasts.-

She acted.
-I am your family.-

A piercing shriek emulating the infrasound of the roar, with an accompanying beam of purple, raced up into the sky.

-I am a gyaos, renamed Irys. I am... I don’t know what I am, but ...-

She almost shed a tear. There was no gyaos out here to find. And yet, somehow, this seemed better despite her fear.

-I am your family...-

The calls stopped and the two slowly looked down at each other. Irys let herself drop out of her empowered state, returning to normal. Her face showed apprehension, maybe fear regarding her company or her confused state of mind. But, letting her biggest advantage go showed something. And Anguirus knew this.

Gulping back worry in his dry through, he slowly extended his hand to her, palm up. Opened with no signs of threat.

Irys looked at the bruised, bloodied hand, slowly trailing her sight up to its owned. Anguirus’ face was covered in cuts from her nails and black-and-blue skin from her blows. He was sure to have a noticeable black eye soon. His split, bloodied lips showed a small, innocent smile with obvious sympathy in his eyes. He was damn well convinced miracles happened after all now. For what he saw in front of him was no longer a ravenous, dangerous beast he felt he had to stop despite his sympathies; like a rabid dog to be put down. He saw a confused, scared young girl.

Anguirus kept his hand out, letting a low coo in the back of his throat.

“... Sister.”

Irys perked up slightly and looked him over. The more she looked, the more she quivered. Her head lowered down and she cowered back. Her mind was alight like a storm. She didn’t want to fight, but she couldn’t stay… N-no, she wanted to stay! She wanted to know why- NO! She had to run! They killed her flock! But she hated her flock!

He was her enemy!

He was family!

Anguirus was her predator!

Anguirus was her brother!

Sh-she!

Irys was hyperventilating, taking a step back and shaking from her hair to her heels.

Anguirus felt a pit grow within his stomach and he unknowingly, pleadingly stepped after her, “I-Irys!”

Irys grabbed at her head and whimpered, confusion terrifying her more than anything else could, “... B-brother…”

The pale kaiju bolted as fast as she could, faster than she ever thought she could. Faster than a wounded Anguirus could hope to match no matter how much he wanted. The forest was still after her pounding footsteps with the crunching undergrowth faded away. It was minutes later Anguirus finally let his outstretched arm slowly fall, his head slumping down with it.

A short march uphill to reabsorb the fire, patch his wounds and stop the forest from going up in flames.

A much longer march out of the forest to return to the city’s edge. With the distant lights crossing his face, Anguirus sighed and wilted more. The presence, the nothingness was back. It was still following him… like he cared at this point.

The Alpha Guardian Beast slowly turned around and let out one last, weaker, saddened roar of infrasound. This time, the rallying call had no response; even if he knew she heard him. The frown across his face made him wish he didn’t have such expressive human features anymore. It was easier to keep his thoughts to himself when he had a mouth of large teeth and short scaly lips.

Sulking in his steps, Anguirus plodded along for a long, long walk home. He’d gotten his question answered in one night… and felt no victory.

========================

Gloriosa Daisy had felt the human urge to go back to her lodging and bed down for the night after a particularly long day that had been more eventful than she wished for. But, when the time came to part ways with Gigan and leave Adagio to review the video, she'd felt it.

The pull.

Coming from her necklace again.

There was a very strong temptation to try and yank her necklace off when two voices, like observers perched on her shoulder, echoed through her mind.

"I think one of the reasons you have these episodes is because you're fighting it."

“Change doesn't mean identity replacement. You’ll still be you, if you're willing to fight for that.”

She finally noticed where she had been walking too. The same path she took all those nights ago. The same path cleared by a burning inferno, born of clashing titans. Back to a cave where this all started. Gloriosa pursed her lips and continued on, letting the pull take her by the hand and guide her instead of wrenching away.

"Listen up limp fish, you can either walk or be walked on."

Her eyes closed, letting herself get towed along. The feel of the ground under her feet told Gloriosa she'd returned to the cave itself. The pull ceased, surrounding her now. Pushing in from all angles. She heistated, feeling against it and stiffening as she held the necklace.

“So add what I said, you’ll still be you. Just gotta accept some changes and trust you’ll know if you gotta fight it or not...”

She felt the pressure encircle her… but... instead of a crushing force, it was but an embrace. One she hadn't felt for twenty years. Not since she was a little girl...

Gloriosa fell into it, letting it hold her up and slipping into semi-consciousness. Eyes closed, she couldn't see the glow of the Elements casting a light resembling a tall woman before her as a luminous shadow. Just as Gloriosa felt an embrace, with the impossibility of magic, so too did the woman hug her shadow. Amidst an echoing, distorted haze of her mind, Gloriosa heard whispers of apologies. Like the kind a parent would give a child after frightening them with a fairy tale.

Remembering Adagio's instructions subconsciously, Gloriosa let the energy and power flush over her to the melody of her voice, "Nooow the maaagic is ouuur saaalvaaatiooon..."

Her feet left the ground, though she couldn't fully experience it as new sensations overpowered her senses from sight to touch. The connection she felt to the forest, it was but a trickle before. This was a tidal wave. The faces of those at her camp, Princess Twilight, Aria, X, Irys, Sonata, Megalon; then Adagio and Gigan- they flashed before her along with several glimpses of blue, red, pink, purple, orange, and other shades that formed a rainbow; seven or so in total. All of them, all surrounded by snow and ice, three blackened eyes glaring out across the landscape. In the vision, the forest surrounded the groups, offering them a buffer from the frozen storms and gnashing teeth.

"Gaaaather close-.. in myyy proootectiooon...!"

The process was incomplete, for now. She'd need more practice, more training to pull off what she was now in this sacred ground. But the effects, the power... It was a gift. A gift she had to share, to use, to retain; for the sake of others. Gloriosa shed a tear of joy and laughed as her hair waved through the air, her terrors and worries subsiding as the sound of windchimes heralded the focused gazes of multiple men and women who retained before her. One of which felt extremely familiar, extremely proud.

The change, it appeared before her. Not forcefully, not demandingly. But to ask for her permission.

“Frankly, you’re probably one of the best humans I think exists, and your magical potential is extreme. No matter what happens-”

"I’m still calling you Gloriosa and barking at you for your insistent tendrils no matter what shape you’re in...”

Gloriosa Daisy opened the gate and glimpsed what she could become. Her hair turned a glowing shade of blue as her song increased in octave. Even kilometers away, Zephyrus, Notus, and Boreas took a pause, looking to the vast forest with... apprehension, despite their rage. In their mind's eye, a green light shone in the distance.

"Weeeee will staaaand... Foooreeeveeeer"

A dark red mask appeared around her eyes. The entire forest seemed to sing even as the untrained power died away. The Windigo only sneered, the child and successor of their enemy had returned.

"Freeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

========================

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.........
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...................

Kilometers away, back at Sunset's residence, all seemed well.

Peachy Keen had gotten the girls all gathered round, experimenting with a guitar Flash lent to her and trying to recall music lessons Smart Cookie taught her a millennia ago. A gaggle of other instruments taken and gathered around, the session was beginning to bear fruit when crackles of energy crossed Applejack's form and the laughing teenager easily lifted a snickering Rarity up by her chair one-armed.

Godzilla Junior had barely budged from his selected locale to remain on guard, ever sensing and ever ready. Occasionally his eye would flicker over to the clock, a small, worried frown crossing his features as the seconds ticked by with no sign of Anguirus returning.

Lea remained still, resting and laid out across the bed... until her burning ember eye briefly snapped open. Another few strands of green hair fell out, replaced by dim red and orange. The Guardian slowly let sleep take her again, dreaming of vengeance.

A magic older than even the windigos and Elements stirred.

=============

Reader Works!

It's that time! Time to brag about you awesome folks I have the honor of entertaining! Here's to you everyone!

First up is a JoJo reference by none other than Zeroviks, who has been churning out dozens of quality humanizations and combat forms for the kaiju 'kast', both bridge inspired and beyond! Check his stuff out!

LionPatriot is out to increase diabetes testing supplies with these three cuties!

ToonHolt, shows us why comedy comes naturally to this crossover by bringing in the family to meet the newbie!

Pyrus-Leonidas is without equal in his excellent kaiju vector art. Recently he's been tackling the Legendary Universe Titans but seriously check out this man's gallery for a barrage of all things kaiju with plenty of other series present as well. Even got a Mortal Kombat crossover running!

Saurian96 supplying some very fluid animation of Pre-Toba Reijuu ready for action!

What happens when you add lighting, Legendary, and suped up designs to Bridge? Well Dragonnova52 seems to want to strut their stuff by showing what! Here's my favorite of the bunch but as with many artists, lots more to see!

TJB-Jerga is, in my mind, one of the greatest color pencil artists on DA and she never disappoints. Especially when comissioned to do the OG Bridge pairing!

Of any unexpected turns, one was how well Blade Dancer took off in the readerbase. And not just I think this. Check out this comission by Pridark transforming everyone's favorite sultry pegasus mare into a kirin!

Unknownbrony52 here give their take on the Windigo Trio before the Winter Special came out. While not quite the look Faith and I ended up using, elements of this did inspire fasets of the final look! :rainbowlaugh:

FallenAngel needs little introduction. Queen of the Kaiju Gijinka, has made strides in both her own series and others. Check out this collage of adorable, bit raunchy, and epic super-form Ki Seong! :trollestia:

The artist of this piece feels a bit bad that it's a horrid job but I beg to differ. Boy, you ain't see my chicken scratch! Art like all skills, takes practice so keep your chin up and your GMK Godzilla ready champ!

Dinoaaron channels Pyrus and FNAF Goji for this lovely vector piece for Bridge's unique Godzilla design!

Tremolo brings Godzilla Junior to PonyTown with this lovely sprite work!

Crocodile-Wolf is an example of something I love to do. Inspire others. In this case, bits of my Xenilla worked their way into this version of SpaceGodzilla!

Scarlet-Spectrum Scarlet-Spectrum shows us a good reason to hope Mirror!Cadenza and Mirror!Godzilla don't get close to each other, their homidical daughter goes after her father's benign echo.

Kendell a.k.a Godzilla-Wolf is a talented writer who's work helped inspire me and alongside lovely Multiverse jaunts, he's cooked this treat up![. Seriously, threw everything in there but abrupt giant fleas from Bride of Godzilla and the random "HindenKong" from Continuiation: King Kong vs. Godzilla!

Forrest McGilvray and company have also put together several projects pretaining to their own works and those of the Amalgam'verse that deserve notice. Check out this voice over done for the big Timeline project!](https://www.deviantart.com/kendell2/journal/The-Bridge-Amalgam-Lost-Project-Timeline-793139651)

Unicorn Knight is a reviewer who worked his tail off for this project and I couldn't be flattered enough! Input is always very valuble and treasured and I really can't thank this guy enough for all the effort he put into recording and vectoring this!

Did I miss your piece? Let me know immediately and I shall joyfully add it in!

Author's Note

proofread by Lance Omikron
artwork by Faith-Wolff

Halloween Special part 2: What A Fright

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 48, Part 1: Side of the Sirens

Author's Note

Part 1 of a 3 parter, with Part 2 being the same time-frame from the side of the Defenders and Rainbooms whereas this covers the Sirens and Hunters. Part 3 is the concert itself where it all escalates, of which the last scene in this piece serves as a flash-forward preview to. Part 2 will be released later this very weekend as it's already done!

proofed by Lance-Omikron
illustrated by Faith-Wolff

Chapter 48, Part 1: Side of the Sirens

"And the scepter Storm King stole and that Tempest was carrying will be returned. While it has its origins here in Equestria, your king is an old friend and has used it wisely for millennia," the blue alicorn seated on the throne decreed with a nod to her audience.

Said audience was a young centaur with eerily familiar crimson skin and pale hair. However any resemblance to a horrific force from a bygone age was thankfully dispelled by their demeanor, size, and gender. Respectfully kneeling with a small crown, more akin to a tiara upon her head was a rather lanky youth flanked by two gargoyle guards clad in plate armor. Her attire otherwise was simple but regal in other ways, a short dress covering her haunches, a dress suit on her torso, and a small necklace with a roughly triangular pendant visible through the mane on her neck.

"Grandfather will be happy to hear that he's getting his walking stick back," the centaur princess, Zerani “Zera” Uriel Haydon snickered, "He is again sorry he couldn't make it for the festivities, but you can understand he's getting up there in years."

"Indeed Princess, your grandfather is one of the few beings left who is older than I am. Tempest will be arriving back in the Blasted Lands with you to return the scepter. Perhaps being reacquainted will put a little more spring in his step. Yes?"

The younger princess beamed before moving about slightly and looking at a stained glass window. Even with her perky attitude, there was no mistaking the sight of the bovine-like ears behind her short horns flopping down a little bit at the sight of the youngest alicorn's mural.

"And... um... if it's not a bother to any policy, my request?" Princess Zera whispered a little bit sheepishly.

Princess Luna smiled and nodded her head at the heiress, "We will ensure you an invitation to the gala personally. Of which Princess Sparkle will also be in attendance"

Princess Luna tried to remain unreactive to the slight bounce in the centauress' step or widened smile. She knew hero-worship when she saw it, and was fairly sure when young Twilight returned she would be all too happy about hearing her name had been added to the "Best Princess" tally the youth were calling it these days. With a nod to the foreigner’s bow, she took a moment to steel herself upon their exit.

Before probably letting out an exasperated gasp and tiredly sitting back on the comfortable chair for a few moments before collecting herself again and getting back to work.

An hour later, Princess Luna wiped her eyes as soon as nobody was looking, trying not to lose any poise in public despite how tired she was getting. Her sister gallivanting off on the latest mission, understandable as it was, was more than a little bit unplanned. She'd been running up the wall lately dealing with the dream realm given the recent holiday as well as all the buzz going about in the past year regarding their new guests not dying down. And now she was having to hold down the fort during the day shift as well. Awareness spells could allow one to mentally function and keep up appearances for the most part, but they were no replacement for the dire necessity sleep was.

Luna, making sure none could hear her, or else she’d lose some royal poise, let out a long yawn as if she was venting off pressure before hitting herself with another awareness spell. She'd really have to ask how her sister was able to keep up for a thousand years with her hair turning into a rainbow rather than graying.

Thankfully most of the news was just relatively night-by-night, or rather day-by-day affairs. Setup meetings here, approved building plans there, some messages from other foreign leaders did give her some mental uplift on the reminder that the old gargoyle Scorpan was still alive… the following message made her frown however. Though she could suppose she was walking right into opening that letter from Mako island. It's not like her old rival could have known she'd be the one going through the mail addressed to her sister.

"And a request to ask for magical consultation by several mages for the continued endeavor of opening up sea-bound barrier also referred to as the shroud iiiiss heeereby approved…" she muttered to herself while jotting down the inscription, making very certain the big lunar insignia was all too obvious on the caveat, "... In respect to the island’s native culture and demographics, all mages volunteering to be sent are to be married mares."

She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out as she handed off the letter to Raven Inkwell, who probably spirited it away to the magical academy. Luna turned her attention to the other affairs of the day, in particular a fairly familiar face entering the chamber.

"Ah, the Mayor of Ponyville, our apologies if the long list has kept you waiting," Princess Luna calmly stated with a nod as the middle-aged mayor trotted in.

"Not any longer than I’m used to dealing with, was able to take a few micro naps on the way here while aboard the train," the mayor replied in a jovial tone.

Princess Luna blinked only a few times to make sure there wasn't any sleep in her eyes while putting on a smile slightly too wide, "We will have to ask you for your secret at some point. Now we understand you had business with our sister?"

The earth pony nodded, unable to resist the urge to glance about slightly at the throne room which was decidedly lacking in stock of giant white alicorns, "Yes, Princess Celestia and I had been arranging for one of the old harvest festivals coming up in a few days in ponyville. I had meant to meet her yesterday but I was informed she suddenly took a departure to the Crystal Empire."

Luna managed to hide her grimace, "Indeed, affairs involving herself and some old associates sprung up that needed direct tending to. We hope you do understand our sister is not immune to personal matters."

Mayor Mare rapidly shook her head, eyes a bit wider, "Oh no-no-no-no! I fully understand! She works so hard for all of us it's only natural she should also have her own affairs. And with the recent attack on the castle by that Storm King's lot with a personal assault on Princess Cadence, it's only entirely natural she should be checking in on her niece or her family."

Princess Luna managed to not drop her jaw in absence of thought, rapidly thinking the excuse over. Celestia had left in quite the hurry and only left behind several plausible excuses for doing so. That one was fairly close to an option on the list.

"Yes. You will be happy to be made aware, as I was, that neither Princess Cadence nor her unborn child were lastingly harmed by the incident. However petrification, especially by a magically enchanted item rather than an active spell, can yield wildly divergent results. Most sources can do so harmlessly, but follow-up examination is often necessary," Princess Luna spoke with poise, "As the oldest magical expert to ever exist, naturally my sister was keen to do so."

"Yes, fully understandable and I mean to assure I make no complaint about what else I have to say, but her Majest- er, your sister and I made a point to try and be more casual this time. She said it would be so in honor of the farming families that founded the town… which means we hadn't made formal scheduling agreements just yet and given her arrival would be a big deal for the event I would kind of need information… today... on... organizing at all," she said with an increasing grimace has her head lower down, "And some of the old-fashioned organizers are very insistent they get her word on this as they don't want to mess it up."

"And would they not trust the judgement of myself in my sister's place?" Princess Luna quipped with slightly narrowed eyes.

The mayor shrank a bit more initially but relaxed upon Luna realizing she had come off more intimidating than intended and lightened up, "Oh they mean no offense towards you, it's just that Princess Celestia herself often helped organize and manage the event planning and both out of respect for her imports as well as not knowing how she would want to arrange everything this year, you can understand why they would be a little hesitant."

"Hmm, understandable," was what Princess Luna said but not what she thought.

True she had never asked Celestia about all these small rural events with each specific instance, but she understood very well why her sister organized and attended so many. Today was a big reminder. It got her out of Canterlot for at least a day and compared to the monotonous grind of even a constitutional monarchy, helping operate and manage an event like this was practically a vacation. And that was even with ponies fretting over her every last judgement.

As she sat back brainstorming for a time, considering possibilities like taking over the event and giving her sister one of the lunar events as a trade when she got back, or seeing if she could contact Mothra Lea to see if she could do an impersonation for a longer period than a glamour spell would allow; a new and very familiar voice entered the room.

"I can tend to that."

"Princess Celestia!" Mayor Mare piped as her deliverance literally came walking in.

"So sorry to keep you fretting old friend, it was a bit of a burden making the long trip back from the empire. You'll be happy to know Princess Cadence and her unborn have no lasting side effects from the petrification. And thankfully because the misfortune malachite was a singular entity and the manufacturing method is long gone, we won't be seeing any more of that business," Princess Celestia, in all of her towering, white-pink furred, rainbow-maned glory announced with every ounce of poise and regality any pony would expect of her.

Anypony except the alicorn watching her start talking to the mayor.

The inflection, the annunciation of certain syllables, the way she held herself with her chest puffed out slightly and neck held very straight to make herself look tall even though she was literally heads and shoulders above everypony. It was a peak of feminine beauty and maturity, what one would expect of a queen even though Celestia had turned down the title.

It was what anypony would expect of Princess Celestia. But what Luna expected of her big sister, on the other hoof…

===============
Human Realm
===============

“The other form or nothing,” that was what she had demanded of him some time ago, snapping in her tone more than he’d most ever heard her say.

It was a simple enough request, or perhaps demand, but one wrought with questions. And thirty or so minutes of traded practice blows and dodges later, he had his own statement to make.

"You're thinking about something."

It was a frankly very casual statement to be making while one was blocking an uppercut poised to impact their sternum. It wasn't however incorrect. Kaizer X knew her quite well after spending months in near constant company when one tallied up the time.

He cocked an arm back to shift his momentum while bringing a leg up to swing. His sparring partner nimbly dodged over the leg sweep of a kick, actually managing to land a hit with a knee strike to the gut. His grounded leg and mass helped absorb the impact, allowing him to take the hit and throw her across the ground. Aria Blaze snarled as she sucked in a breath, rolling some distance and yanking herself up to her feet. She came at him again for a flurry of hits that he was careful to temper his above-human strength against. She however, was going at it with everything she had short of any real intent to harm.

The way her breath didn't fully exhale and seemed to hitch at a certain point, a barely noticeable crease around her brow that was marginally larger on the left. He intercepted an attempt to redirect a punch into an elbow strike, catching the arm and feeling it.

-Yep, tremors.-

Aria blaze kicked off the ground and skidded back, keeping her guard up. Her sparring partner narrowed his red eyes, his scarred face fully exposed in this isolated patch of wood as professionalism was not necessary in private. Kaizer X tilted his head in mild contemplation as he perhaps wondered if she would verbally confirm what her body was saying.

"... I can tell, what is it?" He noted after waiting a few moments, observing how his significant other seemed to be less looking at him and more looking in his direction.

It meant either she saw something behind him that was worth noticing, which he trusted Aria to not remain silent about, or she was imagining something in this scenario the sparring had brought out. The latter option seemed pretty evident given they had both worked up quite a sweat, she was certainly giving it her all and he wasn't going easy. The gold colors encircling his eyes and his darkened hair spoke of that. The siren had gotten a lot stronger since their first encounter at the mall, but this was different then a friendly spat they might have.

Something was getting her adrenaline pumping far more than normal. And only a few emotions got someone that worked up...

She flinched and for a moment he thought she was about to say something, only to quickly react when he noticed faint gold patches around her eyes and her hair darkening. Reflexively she seemed to be taking in a breath and he knew what was coming next based on what he had been told had gone down at the hospital while he was en route.

Kaizer X's eyes widened, he shifted back to his black and white state, and Monster X snapped, "Aria it's me!"

The siren, who had been charging up the same scream attack she once used to launch Enjin across a hospital floor, flinched and shook her head as if shaking off some blindfold. The discoloration vanished from her body and she stood in place, partially hunched over and taking shallow breaths. After several long moments, Aria slowly stood up.

Cool air was misting on her breath, but despite the cold temperature she was still sweating bullets across her entire body, so much so that she had soaked her tank top and gi pants in whatever places they weren't scuffed or marred with dirt. The exertion was very obvious.

Their eyes locked before she looked away, continuing to do so until a hand was on her shoulder.

"Was it fear because of using Kaizer like you asked? I know you two didn't have the best introduction."

After a moment she shook her head, leaving her significant other to shrug. In truth he’d suspected it wasn’t that, even if his love’s thoughts about his current state-of-being were a bit complicated at first. It had largely smoothed out, but Aria was usually quite insistent he keep in the state she knew best most of the time. The midway state and full form of Kaizer Ghidorah were restricted to spars when she wanted gravity training… at least until today.

She’d never asked for a full contact spar with his other states, previously even seeming averse to the idea. He was stronger than her physically in the state of being Monster X, going halfway or entirely to Kaizer Ghidorah was overkill in a purely strength based comparison. More than once he’d nearly called off the entire ordeal after tossing her a good few meters before she came launching back at him with rabid abandon. X forced her to look at him again and now he could at once pick up upon the observation she wasn’t as much looking at him as she was looking in his direction again.

-No, it wasn’t Kaizer she was focused upon or fearful of…-

A thought confirmed when she visibly winced and covered her eyes, huffing in breath for a few moments.

“I think this will be enough for now,” X shrugged as he started to step back and turn around to advance towards their backpacks. It was going to be a very long walk to-

Aria reacted by rapidly stepping around to cut him off, pushing a hand against his chest. She remained in her haggard state, hair frayed and draping down to cover up her face. X waited for a response. He kept waiting for several minutes as her huffing breath gradually slowed and collected itself. X bent his knees to equalize their height, hovering before his stressed significant with a fairly neutral; if mildly perturbed expression. Aria was usually not a fairly reclusive siren, if something was bothering her she’d make the perpetrator aware. X pondered at what her latest strain could mean and was fairly certain he was on point even before opening his mouth about it.

“You’re thinking about the other Twilight, aren’t you?”

Made sense. She was throwing everything she had at a fight she was making as hard as she could, to temper herself for a source of stress that she didn’t have locally. If she was getting upset and driven by a bother and wasn’t venting upon the transgression, it meant the offender wasn’t there to vent upon. And considering she was having him physically fight her like this…

X closed the gap between them a bit more, “We both know the first concert for the exhibition is soon and that she will be there. You’re expecting her to attack you?”

Finally, at long last a response was gained in a simple nod.

“She came for Sonata, why not me and Adagio?” Aria whispered behind the cloak of her bangs.

“And I as well as Irys and Gigan will be there to intercept her,” X retorted with a frown. He spied something in the distance and pointed to it.

Aria followed his indication and from here, in this isolated patch of wood, one could glimpse the reshaped cliffs of Everfree wilderness. Amongst the spans of rock crags and vines hanging down from the clifftop, were several large gashes that were born of the battle against their still-unknown assailant. X’s giant, small clawed handprint was obvious from here.

“Or is my dutifulness a concern for you?” X grunted with a mildly annoyed shrug in his tone as he looked away from the cliffs and flinched.

Aria had looked back before he did and very close to him, her very wide eyes visible behind the bangs of frayed hair. They seemed to quiver, not sure if wide with fear or trying to contract into a glare aimed at something he sensed was not himself. Her lids shut and she shrugged, tiredly leaning forward and resting her forehead on his collar.

“It’s not just fear…” Aria muttered.

She swallowed what felt like a rock in her throat, too strained and frayed of mind to think clearly for now. All she could do was loosely wrap an arm around his middle and pull him in closer. X sighed, returning the gesture with the arm she hadn’t pinned to his side.

“Aria, I can tell something’s going through your head, enough you're planning something,” he started, pausing only when he felt her tighten her hold on him, “... And-”

He bit his lip to try and articulate, worried less about setting her off and more about not coming across like a klutz. Times like these, he could appreciate having some memories to fall back on that didn’t consist of mostly being locked in an asteroid for months on end and sicced on a planet once in a while for several centuries. What had been forgotten about Praetorian Guard 094 had been recalled by Kaizer Ghidorah and refocused by Monster X. Having those memories of his previous life did give him some experience from some old life lessons, such as knowing when to demand answers, and when to wait.

“If it’s so important as to drive you up a wall like this, it’s serious…” He felt Aria’s hold ease slightly, if possibly side effect of her focus being on his words now, “I’ll trust you to tell me when it’s time, if you can trust me with it when that time comes.”

Aria paused and took in a deep breath, before pushing off him; though with no signs of any aggression or strain she’d sported previously. Her mind was obviously still abuzz with something, but her demeanor had changed somewhat. She took a moment to flash him a small, appreciative smile before walking to their packs and offering him a retrieved water bottle.

X sighed. He really wanted to demand to know what was spinning through her head, for it had to be much more than mere rage at the transgressor they shared a loathing for. X supposed he’d just have to be patient.

===================
Crystal City Outskirts
===================

-”Normality is safety.”-

She focused on the voice and on the sensations around her, trying to normalize it. After some energy spent, the cold’s gnawing was lessened.

-”You are a unique one, full of potential, and yet so alone. That means you aren’t able to get hurt by others. You stand without others clouding your vision, you stand able to see what is in front of you.”-

She wasn’t sure if that was a compliment or not, as the wind howled through the abandoned warehouse that had all of its doors shut. She took it as such, feeling the cold shifting location as the faded image of a form composed of chilled mist circled about.

-”You know what is at risk.”-

The mist, Zephyrus, flew through her and on contact with her head; his protege instantly reacted. Twilight Sparkle gagged briefly, feeling like the air got sucked out of her lungs with a vacuum; causing her lungs to contract in on each other. It sent her into an instinctive panic, especially given she was unsure if the internal constriction of her respiratory system was physically happening or all in her mind. Frankly there was no way to tell how, only that she was being strangled from the inside, throttled by scattered fragments of bygone sights filled in with her own consciousness. She knew not of the distant armies or attackers from a dozen worlds beyond her own, nor of an ancient kingdom called Tambelon that was lost to the world. She knew nothing of those the cyborg cyclops slew, or if they were defender or aggressor upon his masters; just as she was unaware of the magical hexes and runaway magic ripping a whole kingdom into the aether. She only saw the few things precious to her being destroyed.

Crushed under impossibly large feet as meaningless rubble.

Torn apart and hurled into a time-lost void by eldritch, unknowable spells.

With but a glance, a street and all matter, all persons, all creations could be vaporized under a torrent of plasma.

With an infection of magic, normality could be torn asunder; mutilating the physics keeping life from becoming an abomination.

All crushing in from so many angles.

-”Fear is not paralysis. It harms you, but it need not affect you alone. Fear of your failure, spite for your enemy, malice for those that would disrupt. You can control them, but you can also inflict them upon others. Control it and then use it to harm those that would see harm upon you...”-

Her hands were outstretched and yet she felt inwards, towards her chest, towards what was around her neck. Despite the trembling, despite the terror, she didn’t buckle over and scream out. She instead directed it, as one directs sunlight through a magnifying glass. She grabbed all those fears, all that dread and confusion, and shoved it through the vent point around her neck.

All she heard for a moment was white noise, the emotional search having overpowered all of her senses but the haze upon her mind was fading. Especially as the icy cold being visible in the mist exited her body's occupied space as breath leaves an open lung.

-"... Magnificent."-

Hearing Zephyrus with such amazement in his tone was new to Twilight. Had she been in any other state, she might have actually been jubilant with some honest pride. After all, it was a rare feat to create astonishment within a being older than any creature in the world. But the surge of emotions had left her slow to recover, trying to hold on to the otherwise taxing sensations and thoughts lest she lose control.

Seeing the fruit of her effort did help bring a smile upon her face even as her own jaw dropped.

"Did... I do that?" She whispered while stepping forward.

The spirit of winter hovered close by with affirmation dripping in his tone.

-"Indeed young Miss Sparkle, you truly are a prodigy. Magic may not be meant for your world, but it appears fate has made magic meant for you."-

Covering the entirety of the wall, from the floor to the ceiling two stories in the air, was a frozen tidal wave of ice. Twilight's mind raced at breakneck speed. The sheer volume of the ice, easily enough to fit a car into it, far exceeded any possibility this was the aftermath of freezing the suspended water in the air. There simply was too much. And the direction it had flown, leaving a pointed arrow that was emitting from her direction, could only mean that this came from her.

By all the laws of physics this made no sense, matter out of nowhere and propelled with no physical force acting upon it. And this wasn't a panic fire at the school yard where she had been terrified and reacting on instinct with the necklace doing the work.

She had cast a spell, she had just managed to do all that.

Zephyrus appeared to be about to say something when his protege acted on her own accord. She threw out her hand and concentrated as hard as she could. The young woman blinked away a momentary pinprick of tears at the mental image she's subjected herself to as a motivation; her brother would forgive her. after all, if this all worked out he would never be subjected to such a fate.

Another wall of ice suddenly appeared, this time jutting out of the ground in a disorganized mass of icicles in tandem with Twilight raising her hand up. She did it again, the painful thoughts still nagging to drive her fear further but the sting was slightly less so.

But this time the wall of icicles was smaller, less chaotic in nature yes but far less significant. She tried again, to much the same result. And again, and again, and again. The group of people and pets she could cycle through was fairly small, so the testing didn't need to be extensive. Her brother, her sister-in-law, her parents, her puppy dog, and in a moment of honest curiosity but instinctive relief, her only friend Wallflower.

Each time she mentally apologized for using the fear of what might happen to them and the world at large if she faltered. Each time the sting of the negative emotions got dulled, more controlled. Idly pondering it she might consider it similar to picking at a scab. It might be painful but the fact she saw it coming and was consciously controlling it made it less so because it wasn't as jarring.

And each time the ice works got smaller. And Zephyrus watched on plainly.

-"... No, no this is not the same…"-

Twilight tried again, flinching up when the winter spirit flew up in front of her.

-"Stop…"-

She flinched but obeyed, letting her head tilt down slightly at the lecture she impulsively knew was coming. Had gotten it plenty of times at school.

-"What are you thinking about to fuel your magic? You were excelling just a moment ago."-

Twilight Sparkle bit her lip and swallowed, "Fear… I imagined… using some of the memories you gave me from that cyborg monster, what might happen if we fail. I imagined it happening to people I care about."

The incorporeal being audibly hummed, with the matter making up where Twilight suspected his head was seeming to tilt. And then shake.

-"This kind of magic feeds off emotions and surges many would consider undesirable. And are fueled to their greatest when left at their fullest."-

He flew closer and circled around his protege.

-"You can experience them in a selfless manner but you can never excel at them. If you spread these sensations, you will never be lacking in fuel."-

Twilight puzzled, unsure, holding her necklace charm and looking at it, "Sirens grow stronger when they use large amounts of powerful emotions to influence many listening to them."

-"And the magic I have taught you and which would come most naturally thanks to your source works similarly. Selfless, righteous indignation is pittance compared to the potential further within."-

He flew up and faced Twilight directly, glowing pinpricks looking directly into her eyes.

-"If you exude strife and then clot the area around you with it, you will automatically absorb it and become its master."-

"C-can’t I channel that anger positively? Or maybe use something more benevolent? The sirens can control people with a love song, can I do that without manipulating them? The fuel for this charm is a siren crystal after all," Twilight grimaced.

-"Your mission cannot risk itself on weaker measures. You saw yourself the decline of your power when you tried tempering strife into indignation. The sirens can absorb both spectrums of magic because they were born to both."-

Twilight saw where this was going and frowned, "Hence why the one we took care of turned into just a normal girl."

At least that's what everything told her had happened. She had magic and Twilight took it away, what else would there be left? Even so, the young scientist couldn't deny that she would have checked with gusto if the former blue siren hadn't fallen off the map and the purple one hadn’t started hunting her. Twilight instinctively shivered, remembering the sheer hatred she could feel exuded from both sirens remaining when they realized what had happened. The orange one, Adagio, was apparently the leader; but it was the purple one, Aria, that was doggedly chasing her to the point of exhaustion.

The original plan had been to let Aria wear herself out and then target her next, but that was scrubbed when she also disappeared abruptly right before even more crazy invaders came to town.

-”Correct, she is no longer any threat to others or herself.”-

“Still though, if I'm going to be creating large amounts of magic around me wouldn't it be better to think a little more positively?” she grimaced with a slight urgency in her tone, perhaps as a plea.

Zephyrus was unmoved however, swimming through the air closer.

-”Then you would only succeed in drowning the sirens in what they feed off of to the greater degree. Wash pleasant sentiments from your mind, young pupil. Magic that feeds off love can force drastic changes within others, propagate quicker than any other rival, and change is exactly what we aim to stop; before your world is warped. Do you want to cause magic to continue spreading?”-

He loomed in closer and Twilight shrank back slightly.

-”Do you want your world to be ravaged by invaders? As its inhabitants run rampant with magic they so foolishly mishandled because it felt good? The more magic that is allowed to propagate here, the more it will begin spreading to the rightful natives.”-

She tucked her head back, feeling the fear begin to infect her mind. Magical energies, unknowable and unchecked, acting like an invasive blight. One simpletons might not grasp and start using.

-”What happens when that sort of chaos is unleashed? Others lack wisdom and insight you were granted. It’s already happened, for the monsters are already here and the doorways to the magic might begin opening.”-

Accidents over surges of magic unforeseen. Ill intentioned weaponizing it. Others seeking it, through those that have it. Disparities often bred discourse, she knew this well enough on a microcosm growing through Crystal Prep. And now it was something incalculable, unknowable, and infeasible to be tamed on a wider scale. Not everyone was an outlier like her, and she was only so thanks to Zephyrus. Emotions were a wild, uncontrollable, chaotic mess and the thoughts of real world consequences to that… In such a scenario, even a magically tied force of love was a risk!

She didn’t know what would happen, and…

The cool, glowing mist that made up her mentor embraced her and Twilight tried to hug back, if only to make the mile-a-minute panic her mind was working at stop.

The young girl couldn’t see her reflection in the ice as the visions fed into her mind. All horrific possibilities. In the reflection, a decayed, frostbitten monstrocity with icy antlers held her captive, cradling her head against an exposed ribcage. Twilight shook uncontrollably, terrified as the pressure built up once again.

-”Floodgates are being threatened, the magical are here to control, the monsters are here to chase them. And if not stopped, they will never stop coming…”-

“N-no...” she gagged, stepping through Zephyrus’ ghostly form and throwing her arms out and to the side.

Torrents of ice ripped out from the ground as telekinetic waves threw them all about, shattering some icicles and sending their shards flying like a storm of flechettes. Twilight didn’t see that, all she saw was the sources of her fears, the invaders, imposed over the sources of her frustrations, her pitiful attempts at ice formations formed from controlled indignation.

-”Yess, and controool...”-

Twilight crammed her eyes shut. She felt like a blizzard was brewing around her, a flash of glowing brilliance briefly forming around her glasses.

-”You... Are… it’s... Master!”-

Her eyes snapped open, glazed over with icy hues as her mouth formed into a snarl. She didn’t feel righteous indignation anymore. Not from what she’d been forced to think of, forced to see. She’d been pushed, anger into hatred and hatred into wrath.

Zephyrus admired it all with a smirk, in awe and intrigued. Such potential would rival Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis, Discord, even himself in his prime. Yes, Grogar would be pleased at his instrument’s discovery. This one has promise indeed…

==============
Camp Everfree
==============

“~Weeee will be adored,~” the sweat ran down the side of her head as she focused on her pitch.

After going through warm ups, octave shifts, and choreography for hours, she felt like her voice was about to give out. Even after over a week of this ‘Siren Bootcamp’, or the ‘Hymnia School of Stonefins’ as her tutor called it.

“Higher! Louder, and remember to strut more in your pace, keep up with me!” Adagio barked, marching ahead of Eventide Hymn with a very attention grabbing motion in her swaying hips, rolling shoulders, and kicking knees.

She could fully admit, the siren almost seeming to swim through her movements was oddly fitting considering Adagio’s marine origin. Or frankly impressive given she apparently didn’t have any legs in Equestria.

Eventide did her best to keep up as Adagio took her by the hand and spun them around in a choreographed move, trying to mirror her mentor’s movements exactly while not constricting her lungs and messing with her singing voice.

“~We won’t be ignored!~” she was straining to make the pitch just perfect, and initially she thought she’d pulled it off, until Adagio sang back.

“~It’s time for our reewaard!~” her tone was sharper, stronger, and more so than being a lead vocal. She was, in essence, speaking over Eventide and perfecting her voice.

The echo to it, the way she threw her voice, the manner Adagio’s pitch rose and fell, it was as if it was dancing in her ears and made Eventide’s efforts look feeble by comparison. Like how one might compare a hit on the perimeter to a bullseye. Eventide wasn’t failing, but she wasn’t excelling. And that, in the stirring within, seemed to sting even worse.

Didn’t help she was still getting spun about in the dance, now back to back with Adagio with their hands clasped together. She started shaking, both from effort, being shown up so thoroughly, and exhaustion.

“N-now you need us-s-swah!!!” Her tone wobbled but just as it hit the perfect pitch, a slightly too high-of-pressure placed on her heel made her foot kick out.

Eventide Hymn squawked and stumbled as her leg shot out from under her. Her vision briefly went full vertigo and spiraled, the ground becoming sky and then a horizontal wall. Part of her leg and haunch smacked onto the ground, whacking her tailbone just hard enough it sent a jolt up and down the spine. Eventide’s jaw dropped and she gagged out all the air in her chest, the wind knocked out of her system. The faux-siren coughed and groaned, as she reflectively tried to scarf down some breaths to freshen her lungs while grabbing at her throat.

Adagio said something but the act of voiding her lungs made her ears ring due to the shock to her nervous system and all she got was white noise. It did mean, lukewarm as it was, she didn’t try to flail or kick reflexively when she was grabbed and coaxed to the ground fully.

By the time her diaphragm stopped spasming so much she was finally able to get more than a sliver of a breath from her groans, Eventide became aware of her position. She was propped up on her legs as if she was sitting up, carefully with her tailbone kept from contact with the hardwood floor of the mess hall. Her back was propped up against a length of stomach and a generous uphilling that squished down considerably in softness. One orange-yellow arm was around her middle up, with the hand reaching over to hold her hip to keep her sitting up. The other was patting and kneading at her back in a way that helped with the diaphragm contracting on its own.

“Figured this part out the first couple of days after we got here,” Adagio said as she eased them to a sitting position, “Only figured out humans really did have a tail under all that ape flesh when I took some medical study.”

Eventide Hymn heaved dryly, trying to slowly pump her lunged back up but it was like attempting to blow up a balloon with an eyedropper’s worth of air. All she could croak out was, “Y-you?”

“Who else do you think patched X up the most after we drove like hell from the hospital? No way was I risking anything, much less safety of the pod, on some doctor getting nosey if someone got hurt. That confidence came later,” Adagio mused while compressing down on Eventide’s diaphragm and then releasing, almost stretching it back out to afford the faux-siren some more air.

“Y-you don’- talk much about-,” Eventide gasped, finally getting a half decent breath without an obstruction, “Early days.”

Adagio hummed contemplatively, “I suppose we need to iron that in as well. All good performers have a backstory… To make it simple and deniable, you are my cousin who’d recently moved in with myself and my sister Aria.”

“B-but Aria’s your cou-” Eventide panted after trying to gather another breath, her chest compressing on its own.

“Cousin yes, but only a few know that. Besides, she’s more in sync with me after twenty years than you ever could be after even twenty days. You being a cousin whom moved in recently gives a reason for you being so sloppy,” Adagio hummed nonchalantly despite the mild insult, “You were also born roughly 1,000 years ago, plus a few decades, born to Princess Hymnia Sairíne of Mako Island, her second born after Aria. Which makes your relatives…”

Adagio perked a brow and Eventide, having it drilled into her head, repeated it like clockwork, “My cousins are Crown Princess Adagio and Sonata, my aunt was Crown Princess Melpomene Sairíne. I am the fourth-born granddaughter of Queen Amatheia Sairíne…. U-Um!”

Eventide swallowed and poked her fingers together, “Not that your genealogy isn’t cool but… why again do I have to know it by heart? And why admit Aria is my sister there but say she’s my cousin as a human?”

Adagio rolled her eyes in response and shrugged, “Because while I don’t want you going about boasting about it, you are not just pretending to be our human cousin. You are somepony pretending to be a siren pretending to be our human cousin. The last part is just like us.”

“And I have to be just like you to make it believable,” Eventide nodded along as she puzzled, “And given circumstances, several folks out there clearly know you three aren’t normal humans. So for me to be a believable siren…”

Adagio smirked with a visage that showed mild bemusement, “You have to be a believable siren as much as you are a believable part of a normal human music troupe, backstory and all.”

“And because only someone who knows we’re not human would know Aria is your cousin and not your sister but mine,” Eventide continued

Adagio glanced over to her companion, ”Thus, Aria is your sister. The cousin excuse is for the majority who think you are just human to excuse why you might be a bit off cord. They're expecting you to lie to pretend to be human anyways, so if someone catches you slipping up…”

“They’ll expect this to be the lie and not something more, like me not actually being a siren,” Eventide hummed, her brow perking at the ruse, “Cover a lie in a lie and if they assume you’re hiding something, the lie itself will be the cover. Say you’re a human but are actually also saying you’re a siren pretending to be a human; they’ll think the latter is true.”

Adagio smirked, “You catch on well. Good.”

“So um,” Eventide bit her lip briefly before steeling herself, “Bit of a question given your title and all….”

“Aaaaarg, no you do not need to call me ‘Princess’,” Adagio grumbled as she made a quotation motion with her fingers, “Got enough of that from the bug for half a week straight. Besides, I’ll only be a princess as long as I am not queen.”

“Sooo, one of your long term goals is to-” Eventide paused before rewording her phrasing, her entire demeanor changing. She sounded deeper, more mature, and confident while cunning, speaking like it was the most casual affair ever, “One of our long term goals, us sirens and all, is to get back to Equestria and… get back Grandmother’s throne?”

Adagio’s eyes widened for a moment at the shift in Eventide’s acting, mildly impressed. When they first pitched potential personalities and it was clear she couldn’t stand in as the comedian like Sonata, the alpha siren was somewhat surprised at how the seemingly repressed geeky gal opted for the alluring but dark type role.

Adagio Dazzle chuckled briefly before she shrugged her shoulders like it was common knowledge, “But of course little cousin. Our grandmother pulled our kind out of the dark ages of migration and plunder; for materials, goods, and mates. The Eastern Sea Mermares used to have to be on the move constantly to avoid raider or monster attacks. Amatheia and others found Mako island, drawn to its magic. She didn’t want to turn that magic to flooding land to make new shallows and instead settled them on the island as a capital. There they made their culture, their creations, civilization under a throne they put her on….”

Adagio’s gaze shifted to the lake, a facsimile of a calm sea, like others might beam to the beautiful sky. Eventide puzzled briefly. Something about Adagio’s wording was off but she wasn’t entirely sure. She refocused and tilted her head slightly as she followed her line of sight, “Did you know her? I was… young when she died but I never asked.”

The orange siren’s visage hardened and sharpened, like a perilous reef that could shatter a ship hull, “... No. But mother and auntie told me plenty. She died from the monsters that committed an atrocity to our kind and an even worse deed to our mothers. Grandmother Amatheia, the greatest mermare ever, died of a broken heart. Our mothers were betrayed several months later when they turned her own gifts upon her daughters, afraid who they carried…”

Her tone dropped considerably for a few moments and Eventide, based on what she had been told prior, could guess why. She could speculate what worked behind Adagio’s wide eyes in those moments, like this, where she saw the confidence and pride waver for a moment; with the shudder of a muscle group. She’d seen more moments like it as of late with Sonata’s condition and the conflict brewing. The princesses died in the wilds, Melpomene from childbirth bringing Sonata into the world and Hymnia from a tragic storm a decade later.

But even as she dared not speak it to be distasteful, Eventide got the idea beneath the exterior image; Adagio Dazzle blamed more than a storm and tragedy for what killed her mother and dear aunt.

The half second ended and Adagio Dazzle drowned the feeling under her typical pride and collectedness, “It’s my birthright through my mother and it’ll mean security for our family forevermore. The greatest sorceress in the Eastern Sea first wore the crown of Mako, it’s only natural that the second greatest should wear it next.”

That was when the oddity detected earlier clicked. Eventide Hymn nudged Adagio with her elbow, “Um... ‘Cousin’, I think there is something you should be aware of if you intend to rule over a sea. There has been a name change. Twilight Sparkle had told me a few things about history.”

Adagio paused and cocked an eyebrow at her protégé, especially at that last word. Awful strange pick for events within memory, “Yes, yes, I’m aware some changes have happened to Equestria aside from that going from just a country name to that of the continent. Princess Celestia is out of her funk and apparently created two new alicorns, probably to replace her sister. I intend to catch up on how the ponies are faring, I don’t want any further quarrel with them anyway.”

She did however catch how Eventide Hymn was frowning, grimacing at something being thought but not spoken. That wouldn’t stand.

“Eventide, speak up,” Adagio said as she puzzled, trying to ignore how Eventide’s expression grew grimmer. The oldest siren chuckled in an effort to remove some of the weight pressing down on her shoulders, “Come on, cod got your gills?”

Eventide mulled through her thoughts for a bit more even after Adagio lightly jabbed her with her elbow, before breaking her silence, “Um.. Cousin. Twilight- er, Princess Sparkle told me a few things about back home. The eastern sea is now called the Celestial Sea.”

Adagio raised her eyebrow, picking through the thought before shrugging, “So they renamed it did they? Figures, Princess Celestia probably rebuilt her reputation since we left. Must have been one damn good PR campaign to rebound so quick-”

She tapped at her chin, passively noticing how Eventide was squirming more, shaking. Adagio kept going, lighting her tone to try and give some levity, “Huh, should maybe ask for notes given her image was in shambles when we went for Canterlot while you ‘stayed back’. I mean-”

“She didn’t!” Eventide blurted out.

Now it was Adagio who flinched. A hot minute passed as Eventide continued to tremble, Adagio frozen in place.

“Princess Sp-Sp-... Twilight told me about history,” Eventide Hymn swallowed, “Celestia, Princess Celestia, had to rebuild her reputation over decades through the Changeling Crisis after a big fight.”

One could have practically heard the mic drop as Adagio’s body locked up at the word ‘decades’. Eventide Hymn bit her tongue, hunkering down at seeing the paling on the alpha siren’s skin and smelling the cold sweat that began to break out over her body. Guilt stabbed in deep, and she didn’t want to say more. It took Adagio putting a hand on her shoulder, trembling at first and then gripping it tightly as if in both anger but also hidden fright that one as prideful as herself would never show on the outside, to finally get Eventide Hymn to spill it.

“You... still have more to say. Talk.”

Eventide Hymn took in a heavy, icy cold breath and prayed it would offer relief, “The Celestial Sea hasn’t been called the Eastern or East Sea in... 700 years. It’s been just under 1,000 years since we- since the sirens were banished by Starswirl the Bearded......... Most Equestrians don’t even know we exist unless they read ancient history.”

Adagio Dazzle’s eyes widened so much that her eyebrows seemed to try and hide under her bangs. She said nothing, she did nothing. All that happened were a few raspy, half choked noises that seeped from the back of her throat as her muscles all locked up. It seemed to try and articulate something, express something. All the while, she was so obviously holding a tidal wave of thoughts and emotion back. And the cracks in the dam were growing obvious.

“What?” the whisper from Adagio was so small it was virtually silent to Eventide, “St-Starswirl… he…”

Eventide shuddered and grit her teeth as she chewed on her fingernail, eyes darting back and forth to try and think through what little she knew on this, “Uum, uuh, well obviously not much time passed between now and when you three- us four- Arg! It’s only been, what, few years for you?! I mean I know magic is weird and all but I guess Starswirl probably didn’t even know what-”

“He-! Hrgk! He!” Adagio shook all over uncontrollably, “Twilight didn’t tell us….”

Eventide was sweating bullets, “C-Can you blame her? So-So much has happened and all and maybe she’s had a ton on her mind- We’ll kinda be going up against her-”

Adagio Dazzle suddenly sat herself up, reaching up with a shaking hand to remove the band holding her hair back to let her orange locks cascade down her shoulders. With a shudder, she snapped her wrist and violently threw the band aside as she rapidly stood up. Eventide lost track of her face amidst the hair, seeing only the locks of mane and hearing the increasingly huffing breath behind them.

Concerned, she cautiously outstretched a hand towards the heaving mass; but paused upon seeing two things. Strands of Adagio’s hair, particularly the dark orange locks, darkening slightly and beginning to shift against the typical pull of gravity. They lifted up a bit along their lengths as if something was distorting the gravity like X could. Eventide’s pale face got paler when she saw a glint of a reddened eye through the hair and saw Adagio taking in a deep breath.

The oldest siren jolted up and felt the surge, emanating from the brief spark of yellow coming from her necklace. This was stupid, this was wasteful, this was unbecoming of a future queen.

-Queen of what?! A place you’d be a relic in?!-

She shook, feeling the enormous pressure crushing in from all sides and chilling her face. Wetness ran down her cheek as more was also sweated out. She felt like she was bursting at the seams, wanting to let it all out. What she’d been granted by X wasn’t anything compared to what Aria told her of wielding once, on account of her lack of exposure and lack of affection beyond an acquaintance and ally; more fond of him as someone who made her cousin happy than personal affection. It was a single surge instead of a flood, meant to be used in emergencies for a one-and-done instance.

She’d had imagined so much using it on the bitch who’d scarred her baby sister. On what caused her pain, both in image and sight. She nearly faced towards Eventide Hymn before a wave of cold covered her back. Adagio suddenly stopped in her path and grimaced. Eventide hadn’t dove aside to dodge the potential threat of a siren’s graviton boosted shriek. She’d, as Adagio glimpsed, tried to close the distance and offer an outstretched hand. With a quivering hand raising to her necklace, the cold festered within the oldest siren. The negativity remained, steeping the ground in billows of green and white magical mist born of such dark emotions, though it shifted form.

Sheer hatred and confused rage, remolded to shame and loss.

The surging gravity, darkening hues, and surging pressure within her throat all died on a whimper. Holding her necklace, Adagio Dazzle lowered her face to hide behind her hair.

Eventide Hymn swallowed, feeling like she’d just come off a rollercoaster. Staring down a magical cannon with a lit fuse would do that. She was however, unmoving as she reached out even before Adagio simmered down. But her fingers’ purchase on Adagio’s shoulder or hair was elusive, as the eldest siren stepped back and hunkered down in her stance.

“Training is off for the day, work on your octave range,” Adagio plainly stated in a manner so matter-a-factly it was amazing, “... I…………….”

She couldn’t force out the blockage on her throat, instead only power-walking away.

=================

Crystal City Outskirts

=================

When the human Twilight Sparkle came to, she felt both exhilarated and exhausted; as if both were waking up from a dream while also still asleep. It was in such a haze that she became aware her body was moving without conscious thought to do so. Slowly, she turned around to see where she had been while stopping her advance towards where she was going.

Behind her was a sight that looked as if winter had incarnated a blizzard inside and where she had been. She quivered and fell to her knees, arms weak and going slack. With an exhale, a glowing mass of mist left her mouth.

-"I was walking you home, or at least somewhere more public. You put on quite the formidable display."-

Twilight was at a complete loss for words, her face quivering as a hand absently reached up to touch her necklace. Not a single shard of ice had formed on it, despite how unbearably cold it felt.

-"The monsters that seek magic might have noticed this, they might be coming…."-

She didn't get back up, hitching in her breath as liquid dribbled from her eye. A hand of some sort was placed upon her shoulder.

-"You are afraid…"-

A tiny whimper of a voice was the answer he received as she raised up a sleeve to wipe her face and shield it from what she saw, "Yes."

-"Of their power, or your own?"-

"I… I felt so much," she gagged on bile.

-"Then there is only one thing left you'll need to do. You have all of your frustration and all of your fear. All that remains is the means to control it. There are very few foci strong enough for that…"-

He waited. Twilight felt simply horrible. Disgusted on the inside and tormented on the outside. But in time, perhaps she looked for relief… Zephyrus didn't continue until she tilted her head slightly, offering her ear.

The cold spirit encircled her as if embracing her, whispering in the ear with an apologetic tone.

-"My dearest student, you've come such a long long way. The path ahead is not much further in length. If I could tread it myself I would do so gladly. You would thusly endure nothing. But this final lesson you will have to learn alone… seek your enemy, do not let them prey upon you but prey instead upon them!"-

The wind began to howl as it picked up around them. Twilight raised a quivering hand and looked at it.

-"Seize your power, command your darker thoughts and emotions as you let them surge. They wish to be the arbiters of this world's fate but that will be you!"-

A sane and rational Twilight Starla Sparkle would never have let any such thoughts run rampant in her head or even flirt with a possibility. She didn't seize them, but she didn't shut the door either. The power that could be felt…

Her hand stopped quivering.

Power, what else mattered in a contest for the fate of a world? Sometimes one had to do everything necessary to get the job done. She listened as Zephyrus started to lift off her and fade.

-”I’ll be watching over you, but you’ll need to take this step yourself. Give them your wrath, use hatred to focus your fears of the future and pains from the past; and then the final lesson can begin. And when it does… nothing can stop that final stroke towards their Midnight.”-

It was a horrid possibility, a loathed potential and seemed… drenched in evil. But, then again, evil was subjective. Who didn’t see their enemies as evil? If she saw them as such, at least for what they were doing and could cause; how was her doing likewise to stop them any different? Did it matter whom a monster saw as evil?

Twilight Sparkle slowly rose to her feet, seeing how her glasses had fallen from her face. A hand slowly outstretched towards it, but didn’t touch it. Instead, she focused as she could. Previously she’d been convicted to stop the magical pollution of her world. Now, it was about hating what could come if she failed.

The glasses, gripped in a field of telekinesis, levitated past her hand and were placed upon her face. When she looked up, she was alone. Which for her, was perhaps a return to the norm.

A distant walk later, and she, one who was resolved to become a monster to stop monsters... for now, seamlessly blended in with the crowds.

She hadn’t seen how Zephyrus had been grinning the whole time.

Cold winds, both north and south at the same time, blew past the sky high above as Zephyrus waited. Incorporeal, none could see the three windigo spirits as they watched the native Twilight Sparkle board a train home. The three winds pushed together at an intersect, occupying the same space, time, and mind to rapidly swap information gained from scouting.

Two factions of foreign monsters, both of which hated each other. One of which was beginning to become unhinged from stress and outside factors.

The sirens were still unknown in location, but the one accompanying them earlier reeked of the Elements. The Retainer had returned, child of their enemy, and was no doubt working with the sirens.

A group of humans, no doubt potential Bearers, had increasingly begun exhibiting innate magical talent and were preparing spells, to counter the sirens no doubt. This also meant someone with them knew of this magic, suspicious

Worrying on fronts, but so much potential for conflict; so much fuel to enact their ploy.

The North Wind, Boreas, cackled in glee at seeing the destruction an unconscious Twilight had wrought; but couldn’t avoid shooting questions at his cohort.

The South Wind, Notus, was far more reserved; no doubt from the thrill hunter’s boredom dragging down his mood to be unkind to his company whooping like some chimp. But he asked as well.

Why Twilight Sparkle, why someone with such potential for good? After all, her own counterpart was the protege of Harmony. If she discovered what magic came most naturally to her, it might align with an Element and backfire.

Of which to answer, Zephyrus need only do two things.

The first was a replay of all memories he’d pulled from this Twilight Sparkle’s mind. Social isolation, hazing, loneliness, ostracizing both for her intelligence and by her very intelligence. The ingredients. And then her heart. Twilight Sparkle was a being of love and Zephyrus had pushed that, cultivated it.

Boreas stopped cackling like a lunatic and Notus paused at the word, the hated word. The south and north winds roared louder, crashing with the east wedged between them. Love, Harmony’s domain… had been cultivated?!

Zephyrus waited and needed only a few seconds for it to come. In their current states, they could still feel and move the other; and his fellow windigo used it. Notus instantly tried to slash his claws across Zephyrus’ back as Boreas charged forward to savage and gore the alpha windigo’s chest and face with his antlers.

The West Wind, Zephyrus, easily grabbed onto both and shoved them headfirst into one another; locking their antlers together. Wrenching his arms back, Zephyrus smashed either fist into the back of his fellow’s heads. Interlocked antlers snapped and snagged, gouging into the other’s head in the process. Not done, Zephyrus let his misty form morph. From the echo of the body he’d used to try and kill Wysteria to the form taken to terrify the ponies, the hippocampus-like windigo reared back and smashed his hooves into either back to send them rocketing dozens of meters into the ground together.

Notus and Boreas were pinned, and at the howling gales from the west, yielded.

Zephyrus’ demeanor, ever calm, changed back to the state more native to this human realm and picked the two up. Where they were now, on the roof of a building where frozen trails could be seen from the spot Zephyrus had driven Notus and Boreas into the roofing, Twilight Sparkle was visible in her travel home.

She looked determined, but clearly distressed; wiping her face again to dry a tear after worriedly looking out at the landscape and people of her world. Zephyrus admired it as one might an occupied, growing cocoon.

A heart capable of love is great, a heart swelled by love was greater, large enough to store so much. But love and hatred aren’t mutually exclusive. They may be incapable of the former, unable to persist with it just as hot can’t persist with cold; and that had been their weakness before. Be it the love of a grieving mother queen, the compassion and courage of a heroic Retainer or the impossibility of friendship between enemies, Harmony’s taint had forced them back all three times.

So then, what better instrument for both ambition and to insult the traitorous goddess, than by corrupting one whom in a different setting could have been great enough to embody an Element of Harmony herself?

Just a few more steps, a few more terrors, and a one big catalyst, and he’d have spited Harmony more than they ever had before.

Boreas paused, twitching idly, before bursting into hackles of jubilation. Notus merely nodded in agreement, bowing slightly to his superior. Zephyrus chanced a smile again, not immune to pride.

They split off yet again. Notus to resume his interference with the humans and their allies, to induct more negative influences where he could. Boreas was to remain hidden as well, but keep a close eye on their two charges. They’d need both soon enough.

Zephyrus slipped out into town and walked invisibly along the train tracks, admiring and noting the sights Twilight had looked upon so protectively, lovingly as they stood now. For now…

========================

Irys was a long ways away from her team. Not without precautions, she’d only left to go on a scouting run when she was certain nobody would find Pinkie Pie as the brightly colored human didn’t exude the greatest degree of confidence when it came to stealth. But X was away with Aria, Gigan had his hands full with the likes of Eventide and Adagio, and Megalon was present to keep vigil.

-“With even more problems falling onto our plate day by day, including an unknown number of reinforcements the Mothra might summon, we can’t take chances. We need information, but we can’t risk falling into any traps. Keep on the move when you’re outside the park….”-

That had been Monster X’s instruction and Irys had been the volunteer. Outspokenly she pleaded she was faster than her compatriots on foot, making it only logical she perform the scouting runs for these next few days when a run was needed. And with her ability to pick up on even minuscule sounds, she might get lucky and find out just where their quarry had crawled away to in which to hide. Her powers over and perceiving sound had grown by leaps and bounds since before she joined the team. If anyone could potentially pick the other Twilight Sparkle out of a crowd, it be her.

And of course there was the unspoken reason, much as that pained her to maintain. She knew the Mothra had summoned reinforcements. She met one, fought one, and ran away from one. And she hadn’t told anyone.

Was it a risky gambit? Ha! The cold sweat going down her back was evident enough. Memories of the nights prior’s exchange rang in her mind.

-I am Anguirus…. The first of the Guardian Beasts…. I am your family.-

She shook from the phantom image of Anguirus before her, almost speaking into her mind. Just so much the words or thoughts that seemed to flood out of her without conscious effort. It wasn’t just like her happening to understand what the completely alien Monster X, Gigan, Ghidorah, or Megalon were saying, or her being able to perceive what a human was saying the few times she was close enough to listen. That was a sort of subconscious transcription, this was different. Something deeper, of kin. The closest she’d had any prior was how she could understand what the other gyaos were saying the once in a blue moon one had an intelligent utterance or thought. But that was like hearing a solitary word amidst a chaotic uproar of rabble. This was articulate, impactful, compelling. Perhaps, her knee-jerk response wasn’t too irrational?

I am gyaos, renamed Irys. I am... I don’t know what I am, but ... I am your family.-

She’d called him her brother and he’d called her, by name, his sister; before the whirlwind of confusion caused her to run.

The fact he didn’t pursue was both perplexing and thankful.

None of it made sense, not a hint. Irys didn’t know much, but she did know one thing. For now, she didn’t want Anguirus to come to harm. Was it probable Anguirus was the only help the Mothra had summoned? Extremely unlikely. Was it probable Anguirus could be kept away from the conflict entirely? Also, extremely unlikely. Was this entire gambit she was taking probable to backfire horribly? Assuredly…

She swallowed as the air blew past her face as she hopped off the slow-moving train she’d hitched a ride off the back of, landing on the outskirts of Crystal City.

Keep the conflict from exploding, try to protect her flock, try to guard her charges, and try to keep Anguirus from falling into conflict with her group. That was all she could do for now, as dread flooded her mind. Sometimes she envied her slain, rabid kin. Consciousness came with burdens…

Trying to hyper focus on the task at hand, she set about trying to see if their quarry was hiding in the next closest settlement to Canterlot where the school was… while keeping an ear out for Anguirus should he be here as well.

========================

The door to the mess hall slowly creaked open, the dark interior within slightly illuminated by the sunlight. Within the building however, a gloomy darkness persisted amidst dim glows. On reflex, Gloriosa Daisy and Twilight Sparkle both lifted one of their legs out of the way from what came pouring out like someone had opened the door on a submerged submarine, visible to them due to the magic that was inherent or had touched upon either. Spilling out of the door was a slow flow of illuminated green mist that had been festering across the entire floor. The two women, or at least as far as a former alicorn and potentially something else counted as them, cringed as they looked to one another. It was a pair of metal hands setting themselves on each of their shoulders and pushing forwards that prompted them to both swallow any apprehension and pace through the green fog.

If one thought a siren could generate a lot of emotion magic from their song or acts upon others, one didn’t want to dwell too far on the implications about this much of it coming from just one siren. The mist was near total black out, obscuring everything in sight while wrapping through within it in a cold. Spats of anger, fear, and other negative thoughts jabbed into the newcomers like needles through the skin. The interior was absolutely rife with the mist, blocking out most of the three’s sight as it even played havoc with Gigan’s visual settings.

“I’m just going to guess it’s bad,” the cyborg grunted while walking blind, holding Gloriosa and Twilight’s shoulders to both steer as well as keep them going, “Can’t see anything.”

Twilight cringed and waved a hand in front of her face fruitlessly, “It’s enchanted mist, it carries around emotion-based magic. This means Adagio is… not well.”

“Noo, you think?” Gigan spat, “Hey Sea Hag, cut it out! Twilight grabbed me and I’m not wasting my time with more magical shenanigans!”

Twilight pursed her lips. That was only partially true. She had gone to him to ask for help as he was close by, and she figured someone more familiar with Adagio could talk to her out of a bad spell better than she could. And, honestly, she was worried about checking in on Adagio alone given the subject of the siren’s typical rage was her counterpart. But even before she could reach him she and Gloriosa had already caught the cyborg power walking towards them demanding to know what was wrong.

Gigan’s voice echoed and was promptly thrown back at him, echoing across them from all angles.

“Mist, must be affecting her too in some kind of negativity feedback loop,” Twilight grimaced, “She’s spiraling so much she can’t hear us.”

Gloriosa narrowed her eyes, trying to peer through the veil. She was about to say something, perhaps call out, but an idea jogged to her mind. One born of a night prior. Her hands felt at her necklace, hesitating for only a moment and grabbing on at the lack of vision forced into her head. And with the warm embrace passing over her at her seizing of it, she was assured in her choice. Bowing her head, Gloriosa took in a misted breath.

“Nnnooow the maaagic will beee…” her hand reached down and to the side, “Ooour salvaaation…~”

Her eyes darted to the side and met Twilight's. A quick glance at each other’s necklace lead to Twilight also taking her in hand as she gently held Gloriosa’s hand. Checking with Gloriosa’s lip movements and voice lead to her following along.

“Gaaather clooose… iin ooour proooteecction…~”

Old magic lessons, practice here, and knowledge relating to her talent lead to Twilight reaching out through whom and what she had contact with. Holding onto Gloriosa, her voice carrying a dozen benign memories of Celestia’s private instruction, and sheer determination born of earnest want to help were enough. The amethyst hued crystal for the Element of Magic joined the others in lighting up dimly. The two’s smiles widened mutually, beaming at their success as the green mists started to get pushed back by the light.

With a subtle nod and eagerness to speak first, Twilight took the reins of the song with Gloriosa’s blessing as the latter followed along.

“Thhooough youu’ve been huurt.... by your hiiiistory….. Yooou stiiill have yooour deeestiny…~”

A squeeze to Twilight’s hand led to the duet seamlessly swapping. The glow of the crystals was flickering brighter. If one looked close, they could glimpse a dull purple aura dimly wrapped around Twilight.

“Leeeet hope staaand… for-eveerrfreeeeeeee….~”

The glow swelled up to a luminescence and silenced in a flash. The green mist was being forced out entirely, no longer replenishing as it either seeped into nothingness to be dispelled from the room or leaked away without replacement, leaving a mass outside. Twilight Sparkle panted and gasped in a glee, panting for breath briefly before letting out a loud squeal of glee.

“Oooo-oooh my Celestia! Th-That was my first counterspell delivered through an auditory medium! Oh, oh and these, these crystals HAVE to be this world’s version of the Elements of Harmony! Th-This is huge! This means magic has really been native here all along, just dormant! I mean sure, they maaaybe could have somehow come after the sirens arrived, buuut given the cave Gloriosa took me to they have to be much older and-”

“Twilight,” Gigan grumbled as he manually muted her by pushing her lips together with his hand, “Another time.”

Twilight Sparkle’s ears would have flopped down if she were still a pony, pulling the cyborg’s hand off her grill with a sheepish grin, “Ehehe, right. W-well point is, theory confirmed. That felt just like how it was when my friends and I activated the Elements against Nightmare Moon for the first time. Not quite to the same level though, probably because Gloriosa can only use them partially and I’m not from around here.”

She puzzled as the mist continued to clear, “But who knows, maybe the criteria for a potential Bearer is based more on personality than some predetermined choice.”

“Partial success sounds about right,” Gigan grunted as he looked outside where his sensors couldn’t read through a large mass moving out, “Still can’t see outside so I’m guessing there’s still a lot out there.”

“We can try it again outside to get rid of the rest. Gloriosa though you were amazing! I didn’t know you could sing or channel them like that-... Gloriosa?” Twilight mused, aware her hand had been let go of.

Her eyes met Gloriosa’s briefly before the latter looked away, having approached the back corner of the room next to the kitchen. An emptied bottle clicked on the bench counter, joining several of such labeled drinks situated haphazardly away from a slouched form, orange hair spilled out over the countertop in a mess. Twilight Sparkle grimaced and paced over alongside Gigan, the two alongside Glorisa seating themselves on the bench.

An awkward silence passed for some time before Gloriosa leaned in closer to Adagio, putting the edge of her finger on the siren’s back and hesitating to check for signs of opposition. Getting none, she let her hand spread out over Adagio’s dorsum, gently rubbing at it.

“Need, some more time?” She muttered with a frown.

“If we leave her alone again, she’s likely to wallow again somewhere more secretive,” Gigan grunted while picking up an emptied bottle and sniffing at it, puzzling at it and pointedly ignoring a defensive look he got from Gloriosa, “Seen plenty of angsting spells from X and he doesn’t produce magical fog when he got upset.”

“Bolt for Brains has a point,” Adagio mumbling into the countertop as her shoulders slowly rolled back and started to lift her up, but still kept her face pointed down with her hair draped on either side to obscure it, “Not bad song Eventide, not bad at all.”

She took another swig of her drink, smacking her lips before putting it back down but never taking her grip off it. Gloriosa’s brow lowered and she frowned.

“Where did you get that? There’s no alcohol on camp,” the director quipped, offhandedly remembering how that rule got rigidly enforced when she had her first breakdown over the Rich loan. She was hoping Adagio hadn’t somehow found a case she missed.

“It’s not anything fermented,” Gigan chimed in, tapping a bottle with a metal finger tip, “Smelling with a nose is new to me but I know what alcohol smells like.”

The mound of hair that was obscuring Adagio seemed like she had been about to say something but stiffened, turning the bottle she was holding to look at the label. Twilight puzzled but reached over to an empty one and inspected it, finding the label on it had been rubbed off with a new one applied in marker.

“Smilax ornata… Wait,” she piped before sniffing it to be sure, looking again at the rest of the recipe list under the scientific name, “Wait, this is sarsaparilla.”

“... What?” Adagio’s voice grumbled under the hair.

“Root beer,” Gloriosa hummed, “Huh, this is some of my mom’s homebrew brand. Mom was quite the herbalist, she used to make a bunch of it. I thought I’d found them all, Timber and I used to guzzle these.”

Adagio, opting not to say how she’d found it behind a board that had come loose and sprung out, whispered bluntly, “But.. it’s… still beer.”

“Sarsaparilla, it was… uuuh…” Twilight cringed, rubbing at the back of her head, “Invented… um, er... after your time in Equestria. I thought you acquainted yourself with stuff here.”

Adagio’s back arched and her knuckles went white gripping the bottle, catching Gigan’s attention, “F-F…. Food wasn’t too important. W-When we woke up as naked monkeys, my priorities were finding us a safe spot to sleep, where we were, what to do if one of us got sick, and then matters like how to drive and how to keep what little magic we had functioning. I took classes on how to keep us going, not on the history of flavored drinks!”

Her grip on the bottle got tighter and there was a crack. In a blur a hand swung over and grabbed the bottle just before Adagio’s hand could squeeze the fracture more in a moment of blind frustration. There was a red flash for a split second and Gigan held the bottle away in his hand, having teleported it out of her grip.

For a moment, everyone stood still as Adagio kept panting in wet, heaving breaths under the mass of hair. The frustration, her shaking, and the balled fist she whacked the table with spoke enough to what she was doing behind the cover of her hair.

“Don't… Just don’t make me waste a warp, and don’t make us waste effort patching you up,” Gigan groaned as he looked away.

Gloriosa’s face pulled a brief sneer and she was about to snap out something about the cyborg, who ironically had no actual heart, being heartless; when she felt saw and felt something. Perched on Adagio’s shoulder was a metal hand, and curled around it were a set of orange fingers. The opposite set of which were curled around her own hand, which was on Adagio’s other shoulder. Even behind the red sunglasses, she felt her and Gigan’s eyes meet before they diverted to the siren.

Twilight Sparkle watched on as well, wanting to do something but at the same time, feeling this was maybe something she shouldn’t pry into.

Adagio Dazzle took in a deep breath, swallowing the air, before exhaling harshly. She shook her head slowly, “Guess I shouldn’t be too torn up… The pearl in the muck is there. 1,000 years past has its benefits. I was already over 20 before, now I’m definitely legal to drink.”

“P-please… not for now though,” Gloriosa grimaced.

Adagio shrugged, “Fine. But, this does mean the backstabbing traitors who banished my mother and aunt are long dead…”

“It’ll help the hate pass,” Gigan muttered as he briefly glanced at his free arm, turning it over and moving his fingers. Memory recalled the scythe that used to be on it, even further member recalled the sickle attached to a gold and green body, “Even after I made peace with the metal parts still being ‘me’, sometimes a comfort I had was the creators who did it all to me died a long time ago. Along with those who hurt my best friend… means they can’t hurt me anymore.”

Twilight Sparkle felt like she had a vice on her tongue, feeling like she was betraying an idol. But, even a great pony, or human, or kaiju, could have to do things that don’t have a happy ending for everyone.

“And, eh.. Starswirl died about 900 years ago,” She muttered quietly with a bit of awkwardness, “You three sirens are in the history books, but since you came after Nightmare Moon, not everypony knew the strife you spread was caused by you, and the changeling conflict coming right after meant you’re not extremely well-known. Hay, mermares in general were extremely reclusive until about 10 years ago.”

Adagio let out a low, long groan, “Twiliiight, I can practically smell the worry coming off you. Chill. I know my pod caused problems, and while I’m no bleeding heart for ponies, I know we were running off hate at the time. Hate for what happened to our mothers, hate for what we had, hate for those who took what we thought was ours. Hate-Hate-Hate-Hate-HATE…!”

She deflated somewhat, “And now that hate is even more pointless given anyone who would have had it coming went belly up in the water long ago. Just... rotted out some plans.”

“Would you,” Gloriosa shrugged as she scooted a bit closer, “Maybe mind elaborating?”

Adagio groaned again, cracking her neck, “The decision to banish my mother and aunt was divisive. Mom and Auntie Hymnia knew it. Once it was clear I’d have to be the heir, we figured that if we got enough raw power to force our way into Mako, we could gain support to take over.”

Twilight Sparkle puzzled, “I didn’t know mermare queendom was decided on contests of might.”

Adagio hummed, “I don’t know what kind of contest they’ve got now, if there even is one, but we did learn Mako had some conflict with a northern pod whose matriarch founder was one of grandmother’s rivals before she became queen. She... ooh... Keto I think she called herself, shacked up with some bizarre mate and produced a pod of crossbreeds called kelpies. They wanted Mako too, and to avoid a full on war, a contest between the kelpie matriarch and the queen was decided. Least that’s what the seaponies told us… So, I found out the next contest was drawing close in a few years and I…”

“You went to Equestria to try and bolster your powers to give you a better chance at beating both leaders,” Gigan noted matter-a-factly.

Adagio groaned in exasperation, lifting her hand up and silently pointing at him over her shoulder with her thumb, “Yep, that’s about it. I got so hyped up on training and growing powerful over some years, hate was about all I could focus on. Forgot all about Hymnia’s love song and just doubled down more and more.”

“But,” Twilight paused as she glanced about in obvious thought, mulling over something, “Obviously things have changed. I mean, I voiced support for the whole ‘join the competition’ idea to draw out the other me because I was going to make the case you three didn’t even need to use the strife song. But you didn’t even seem to consider using it.”

Adagio shrugged her shoulders, “Call it sappy, but love magic? Way stronger. If we’d been using it all those years in our Equestrian tour, I don’t think Starswirl would have given a ray’s tail about us as a problem... I’d have been even stronger and probably kicked the tail flukes off both... the queen and matriarch- ARG!”

She lurched forward and banged her head on the counter top twice-

“SO! FUCKING-”

Gloriosa threw her arm out under Adagio’s head and held it-

“STUPID...Aarrrgg!” the siren whined as she kicked her legs back and forth, feeling as if she was stuck in a hole she’d dug herself into.

She didn’t cry again, she never did in front of anyone but her family. As the oldest, she’d always had to have been the wavebreaker for her sister and cousin; holding firm. Just... maybe given past experience and especially this big pile of hubris she was stuck with, a little less firm might be in order.

She kept her head down, planted on Gloriosa’s hand and arm as she sighed, “Thank you.”

“I um…” Twilight stammered as she squirmed at a thought, “I’d like to… Eh- Oh Celestia this new ooooh…I…”

Gigan nudged her with his arm, glancing down at the former alicorn with his glasses removed to expose his eyes. The cyborg casually put them on the table and took up a bottle, looking at and inspecting it oddly as if he’d never used one before but had seen it so, “Speak up. Your heart rate is increasing so I know something on your mind.”

Oddly enough the lack of pointedness in his tone made it easier than normal for her to respond to the kaiju who’d kidnapped her. Twilight put a hand on her chest and took in a deep breath, mentally hyping herself up.

“I am a princess of Equestria. Yes I may not rule, rather unqualified at the moment for that anyways, but... I am a princess, and I got the favor of both diarchs who rule. They trust my judgement. Aaaand if I made a judgement towards somepony, they’d trust my word for it. Especially if they were both away or out of commission when that somepo-someone caused any problems,” Twilight Sparkle sighed as she turned to face Adagio.

Perhaps feeling her gaze on her, the former siren slowly lifted her head to look at the former alicorn. Slowly, she drew up a hand and pulled aside some of her bangs to tuck them behind her ear or pull them over the top of her head; exposing her face. Twilight held back a cringe. While Adagio hid it magnificently, the obvious signs of strain and prior distress were clear as day with patches of redness, paled skin in other patches, and lines to indicate a prior fall of tears. Now, she was calm and focused solely on her.

“....”

Twilight Sparkle put her hand to her sternum in a universal gesture of openness, “A working, stable portal back to Equestria has been established. As you know, I used it to get back here so quickly when… well, X caused a ruckus. Arh, point is!-”

She recalibrated, trying again to be professional, regal perhaps. Unconsciously, the confidence she was trying to exude wasn’t just an emulation of her mentor, her mentor’s sister, or her sister-in-law. She’d been spending time with another royal for quite a while now: her very audience.

Twilight flicked her bangs back in a very familiar manner, tucking some behind her ear, “I, Princess Twilight Starla Sparkle of Equestria, hereby issue a visa of travel and a pardon for past actions… In other words, if you hold to your promise to not cause a problem here or there, I in turn promise to see what sort of situation with Mako can be ironed out. By taking you there myself.”

Adagio Dazzle’s eyes widened as she stilled. Slowly, color started to return to her face as she began to pick herself up from the table with Gloriosa and Gigan’s presence.

“You’d… just… take us back to Equestria?” she whispered, a lot quieter than before.

Twilight Sparkle breathed in deep through her nose before nodding, “On the condition that you don’t hurt anyone here or anypony there, self-defense excluded of course.”

“I….” Adagio paused, looking down and aside in a universal motion of pondering, “....”

“You could go home,” Twilight smiled calmly, earnestly.

Gigan however, as he was looking to the realm outside at two signatures drawing closer to calm from a training and sparring run in the woods. He frowned with a pointed expression, “That means separating X and Aria. As well as Megalon from his companionship with Sonata.”

Twilight Sparkle was about to say something but stopped short, wilting slightly like a balloon had just started deflating slightly. She glanced at Gloriosa for some assurance but she found the director’s focus wasn’t on her either. In fact Gloriosa seemed to be making a pointed effort not to look at her or Adagio while being far more entranced, or more lightly feinting it, upon the root beer bottle. Her visage spoke of something she didn’t want to say, despite wanting to.

Twilight quickly recalibrated, “Um, though nothing says you have to go fully one way or another! You could come back and forth.”

“Not if I became queen I couldn’t,” Adagio stiffened, her face contorting between two extremes. One looked jubilant, joyous, like she was about to burst forth a wide grin. The other side of her mind, the one perhaps not so far set in a past she now knew was so distant, was… confused.

“It’s... it’s your birthright, though,” Gloriosa mumbled while taking a swing of the bottle, “And-... It’s a one-of-a-kind gift, Twilight’s offering!”

The smile she wore was very genuine as she turned her head to beam at the former alicorn, Twilight however could only partially return it due to the sneaking sense the closed-eyed smile Gloriosa gave was to hide her eyes.

Adagio Dazzle, never one to express herself in such a way, swallowed the surging confusion she was feeling churning like a storm in her gut. She sat back in her chair.

“Certainly something to think about,” she reached over for a bottle and glanced up at Gigan, who seemed to be fidgeting his lips, “You cup them and let it pour in, idiot.”

His eyes, mechanical eyes swiveled down towards her and contracted as his eyelids narrowed, “I haven’t had lips until recently and I don’t eat. Frankly I’m surprised I can talk fine. Besides I’m just… inspecting it.”

He went back to looking inside the bottle perplexingly. There was a faint flash of a smirk on her lips before Adagio scowled, rolling her eyes and taking a swig, “Hm... It’s not at all bad. Even if it’s a damn liar with the name.”

There was something in her tone Gloriosa could detect. Perhaps it was intuition, perhaps it was tied to the small orangey-red hued crystal around her neck; the only one Twilight couldn’t identify as a known element, but she could tell something was off. Adagio wasn’t calmed, though their actions had helped. It was like seeing someone slam a floodgate shut instead of draining the water beyond it. The problem was abated for now, but it wasn’t gone.

There was a temptation to open that gate, make her understand it could only bring harm whatever it was she was keeping back…

But then their eyes met and for the briefest moment, the Retainer to the Elements glimpsed what was inside and trying to be kept contained. A momentary waver in the eye, heaviness in the way her breath came and went, subtle shivers and raising of the hair on her arms. Something, even if it wasn’t just finding she was a millennia out of date, was causing a mix of confusion and fear. Adagio was just very much not wanting to broadcast it, especially when she shot Gloriosa a frown and slight shake of her head.

She didn’t want to talk just yet, at least not about the subject at hand as she took another shot of the root beer, “Kept well despite how old they gotta be.”

Twilight Sparkle chimed in, puzzling as she rubbed at her chin and held up a bottle, “Wait a second, you said these were made by your mother, Gloriosa?”

Gloriosa sat up and shook slightly, forcing herself onto the new subject, “Oh uh- Yeah. She used to make me and Timber it all the time. She had a real green thumb. I tried it myself a few years back but didn’t quite land it as good. Judging from the old labels these are certainly hers.”

“Thought I saw some Smilax growing in the gardens. Vine with the small red berries right?”

Gigan paused in his drink and looked closely at the bottle with contracted eyed, “Were. They tried to wrap around me, remember?”

Gloriosa chuckled a bit awkwardly, “Well I can give it another go at making some of these, they’re regrowing after their latest ‘pruning’… No bindings involved next time.”

“They regrow that fast?” Twilight hummed with a raised eyebrow.

Gloriosa just tapped at her necklace and wiggled her fingers in the air, a subtle green glow about them visible.

“Oooh right, botanokinesis-” Twilight piped briefly.

Gigan cut Twilight off, “You sure you didn’t touch this stash, Vine Head?”

Adagio rolled her eyes, seizing her chance to distract herself, “Aw cute, Bolts-For-Brains gave you a nickname.”

“What does that say about you?” Gigan grumbled, ignoring her smirk as he glanced inside the bottle again, holding the opening right in front of his swiveling eye, “I noticed it earlier. This bottle has Gloriosa’s magic in it.”

Gloriosa’s face flattened in bewilderment, “... What?”

“Allow me to demonstrate,” Gigan quipped nonchalantly before he paced over towards the window, where some wildflowers had grown up around the windowsill on a vine.

Opening the window up, he picked the flower off the stem and turned around. Eying the floor and tapping his foot on it, the cyborg instead opted to walk into the kitchen where his metal-toed boot tapped on tile. As the other two women got up to follow, Twilight passively noted the floor Gigan had at first inspected was wooden and new from repairs.

The cyborg stood over a kitchen sink, “There isn’t much, I was looking for solid compounds in the drink to kill time when I noticed it more for pieces of matter I couldn’t identify. Rampant, unusual, nonsensical energy that had no right to be as it is-”

“We get it, magic,” Adagio griped with crossed arms and lowered brow.

“But that’s impossible I didn’t touch that drink-”

Gigan responded by raising his eyebrow as he poured the root beer onto the flowers, causing them to spring up slightly and shift under the moving liquid. After letting the drink run out and through his hands, the cyborg tossed the flowers and stem to Gloriosa.

Gloriosa caught the flying plant and visibly tilted her head at the oddity, showing indeed the flowers she knew had to have been torn off their vine were now healed from the severed point, with tiny roots visible on the very end where the break in the stem had been.

“At… all,” Gloriosa petered out.

Gigan bemusingly pulled the foliage free and tossed it to her, “New roots, right?”

“Botanokinesis,” Gloriosa muttered as Twilight looked closer and nodded along.

Adagio looked at the drink with a very befuddled or disgusted look for all of five seconds before looking up and shrugging, “I only had fish this morning. I’ll be fine.”

“Stomach acid likely means it wouldn’t cause roots to grow inside your entrails. Only thing I can see it affecting is maybe natural gut flora, and in a good way,” Gigan shrugged as did Adagio before she resumed drinking.

The cyborg looked to Gloriosa again, “You sure you didn’t touch this set?”

Gloriosa shook her head rapidly, confusion growing on her face that only bloomed more when Twilight took the flower and tore a leaf from the flower in half before pouring some of the root beer on. Sure enough, it patched up the wound again.

Gloriosa blinked as her eyes grew wider and wider, before finally it came out in a quiet whisper no one heard, “... How in the fuck?”

“Well it explains the preservation if magic got involved,” Twilight hummed, “Root beer usually has a shelf life of a year at best. No alcohol.”

Gigan growled lowly, “It’s magic, of course it tells the laws of physics to go jump off a cliff and die.”

“How in the fuck?...”

Twilight hummed as she looked off into the distance, “Maybe something with the land? The cave the Elements were in is close by, maybe the magic leaked?”

“How in the fuck?...”

Adagio perked her brow while glancing at Gloriosa, more surprised than anything she actually heard the latter swear even before a flicker of green appeared across the camp director’s form.

Gigan shook his head, “No couldn’t be. Only plants affected by magic make my sensors go ballistic. Faint as it is, only the drinks got tainted. Trees outside are fine.”

“Hey don’t call magic taint! If anything we’ve discovered it’s natural here!”

Looking between the bickering space cyborg and magical pony princess, the hybrid mermaid monster backed up to see how the sparks flew.

“How in the FUCK?!”

Both Gigan and Twilight flinched at the shout and loud thump, both looking over at the source and soon tilting their heads at the sight.

“... Is this remotely normal for magic? Or does magic take that concept and rip it apart too?” Gigan deadpanned.

“Um… Changes due to moments of intense emotion have happened before, like when I confronted Sunset Shimmer. She used spite, I and the others used our respective Elements and benign traits,” Twilight noted plainly while tilting her head more.

“So intense emotion can lead to transformation here. I guess sheer befuddlement fits the bill…. Oh look, more botanokinesis. Now you know why I didn’t risk letting the drink hit fresh wooden flooring.”

Gloriosa was heaving in breath, a reddish-maroon mask of coloration had formed around her eyes, while strands of her hair had switched from their typical raspberry colored to green-blue with magic playing an obvious role given some patches were glowing dimly. She’d stomped on the floor right on the spot Gigan had avoided, causing patches of green and brown to jut out around her foot in a pattern one might expect a splash into a body of water. The ‘ripples’ were formed by new growths of wood fibers and bark, with even a few leaves forming out of the edges.

Adagio glanced up and down the altered human, circling her with a bemused expression, “This is new… Hey!”

She held her fingers up in front of Gloriosa and snapped them to get the altered human’s attention. Gloriosa flinched and shook herself back to awareness, quickly following their line of sight and looking at a stray strand of her hair perplexingly.

“My hair changed,” She muttered quietly, yipping when Gigan suddenly flicked out a wrist blade and held it in front of her.

Quickly realizing no harm was intended despite the sharp metal object being waved around in her face, Gloriosa’s focus was quickly taken in by the green glowing spots she saw in the reflection.

“That’s not all,” the cyborg pointed his free hand towards his optics and motioned a circle around them, “Humans here are more colorful than I knew them to be, but I haven’t seen that before.”

For a split second, she was decades back; back in the holidays at her aunt and uncle’s out of town. Her mother had been exiting the room, but the face with glowing green eyes that looked back at her both was and wasn’t Wysteria. Faded memory of the ages bygone kept detail vague aside from the recollection being jogged by the familiarity. Gloriosa was about to ask what was going on, when she noticed the green glow flicked out and back on when she blinked. She closed one eye and one of the green dots went out. She opened it, and the second dot returned, Gloriosa realizing it was her own eyes creating the dim light. Blinking a few times to confirm it, she leaned in closer and saw a reddish-maroon mask of coloration encircling darkened eyes that had glowing green irises staring back at her.

“Gah!” she recoiled, almost stumbling over before Twilight caught her from behind.

“You feel okay?” Twilight grimaced, “I’m kinda the only one here to transform, twice, so I know it can be jarring.”

Gloriosa wriggled slightly, feeling at her head testingly as she got back on her feet with stability, “Feel.. fine. Just, not normal.”

“Any weird thoughts? A drive to do things you wouldn’t normally? Just checking, as Sunset Shimmer’s transformation was anything but pleasant,” Twilight frowned hoping any worry was unfounded.

Her now green eyes looked at the siren and then cyborg, remembering a lesson they’d imparted, “No. I-I’m still me. Just feel… wow, I can feel through the ground. I-I felt like this the other night.”

“What were you doing then?” Adagio hummed, taking the welcomed distraction.

“Well, I-….” She took a breath and held her necklace, looking at it as the Elements flickered dimly, “I stopped running from how these were reaching out. I remember singing and... poof! I felt then what I feel now.”

“Singing or some controlled motion helps focus the mind for emotion-tied magic,” Twilight hummed with a slight smile, “You used the song we did earlier, didn’t you?”

“Seemed to fit. I thought good things then, and I did now,” Gloriosa shrugged, “I um- know this sounds crazy but I think my mother was tied to this power somehow.”

“Explains the magic in the drink,” Gigan quipped as he picked up another and inspected it, “You and Twilight are the one afflicted and a magic expert respectively, you should check in on it.”

The two called upon worriedly glanced to Adagio, who was leaned back against a wall and emptying her bottle. The siren finished her gulp and shrugged, waving at them.

“I’m nooooot going to drown the camp in dark mist again, in fact I came in here to avoid that. Eventide has had enough training for today, so I’m just going to relax,” she grunted, making a shooing motion with her hand.

“Well, maybe we won’t go to the cave today,” Gloriosa muttered as the red patches round her eyes lifted and her hair returned to the warm hues, her body reverting to its normal coloration. Her worried eye didn’t leave the siren even as Adagio frowned.

Gloriosa finally averted her gaze, “But we can… maybe look at the grounds of my mother’s old garden. See if anything is astray there. If not, I can always practice this as I don’t quite feel like I’ve got it down. It feels like I’m gripping a doorknob with only one or two fingers.”

The silent awkwardness returned to the room, Twilight biting her lip as she felt a tension slipping through the air again. Just before she was about to try and cut it however, the bladed literal edge lord did.

“Do so, I’ll go with you,” Gigan quipped before pushing both Gloriosa and Twilight out of the kitchen by the shoulders, “Go on ahead and set up, I’ll follow behind to arrange for some observation. Magic makes no damn sense, but looking at it will tell me something.”

“I thought you said you can’t perceive magic, that it’s just scrambled to you,” Twilight piped as she was harried to the door.

“And what is scrambled is there, just not studied and sorted yet. Now go and find where this infernal drink came from,” he shrugged and pushed them out.

Gloriosa was about to say something but a quick message was granted when the cyborg’s red eyes were upon her, then to Adagio, and then back to her. She closed her mouth and nodded, pacing off dutifully with a confused Twilight in tow.

Gigan shut the doors and paused, huffing a breath before an audible sip sounded off behind him.

“You look ridiculous when you worry, you know that?” Adagio huffed insultingly but looked aside as not to gaze up.

“Bite me, Herring Hair, you try partnering up with someone who might spontaneously turn into a raging gravity dragon for a century or two and tell me you don’t get paranoid. I’m not fretting because I’m sentimental, I worry because of risks,” Gigan growled, but without anger in his inflection as he turned around, “You absolutely flooded this hall with dark magic, and not even on purpose. It wasn’t just the realization of temporal dissonance.”

Adagio’s lips shifted and were bitten briefly as she frowned, “It was a shock to be sure. Guess it just… broke a floodgate open.”

“…” Gigan walked past her and back to the spot Gloriosa had caused a growth out of the floor, begging to saw through it to shave the board back down, “You talked about your mother, aunt, and grandmother. Then there is obviously your cousin and sister. What about your father?”

“I don’t have a father. Most mermares only mate to reproduce.”

The answer came out too quickly, “And yet he seems to be a nerve despite being a one-off your mother had.”

“… It didn’t happen that way.”

His auditory receptors pitched up in sensitivity at how quiet she’d gotten. There was a heaviness in his torso at something nagging to be asked, but it seemed like the best chance to throw it off was such. He’d never probed before despite curiosity. Questions in the siren’s story kept cropping up. If most mermares reproduced in what amounted to harmless one-night-stands with compatible males, why the stigma that afflicted the siren’s foremothers? If the society had an outside enemy in the kelpies forcing the leaders to be very capable, and if Adagio at all lived up to her hype for her kind, she’d have made a natural heir to the throne.

“Look, I can’t quantify magic. Want to know the chemical make-up of your left hand’s 3rd fingernail, I can find it. Want to know my maximum flight velocity, I can clock it. Want to know what your heart looks like, I can find a way to see it without gutting you. Magic? Best I can do is,” he paused, straining and perhaps feeling ridiculous at the wording he was about to use, “Say I know the… ‘feeling’, urgh... Point is, that cloud of dark magic you put out in your wallowing? I kept it to myself but I felt it before. And you can guess where.”

Adagio visibly shrunk back, not saying what was obvious. She’d been the first to review the footage Gigan had from his confrontation with the other Twilight and the being that came to her aid. The floor had her full gaze now.

“… It wouldn’t, couldn’t be. That… creature died long ago, even further back now that Twilight unknowingly let out the temporal details,” Adagio whispered.

Gigan hacked through the wooden uplift in another swing, standing up and tossing it into the garbage as he faced the siren, “And yet, somehow I speculate the power you sought those years back in the equine lands wasn’t just to overcome some usurper to your grandmother and her challenger….”

Adagio flinched from a hand placed on her head. The guard went up again, the walls slamming shut. But after several long moments and the sting of stale breath in her lungs, Adagio Dazzle let herself exhale and lower some of the defenses.

“It was just in case…” she said plainly.

“… Hmp, seems we both have been anxious about monsters returning again,” Gigan quipped as he waited for Adagio to finally look up. His mechanical eyes rolled, “I could tell you needed to be alone after getting resettled, don’t let me drive you up a wall for a repeat wallowing episode. I don’t want more dark magic, and it’s unbecoming of you anyways. And our front can’t afford to weaken. Worst case scenario or not, what’s out there is like the creatures that… harmed your mother.”

“Not the same,” Adagio mumbled with a frown, “but similar.”

“Similar enough the right kind of magic can dispel it where my team’s force can’t,” Gigan noted as he motioned to the room voided of the dark magic fog, “I even managed to force it back with the right sentiments. The power Gloriosa, Eventide, you and Aria pack? Might be more than enough… so long as the front doesn’t falter. Got it?”

Adagio took a moment to collect herself, taking in a breath and steadying her shaking. Her hand reached up to take his off her scalp, flicking it away without much spite.

“Then you best catch up to the ‘Vine Head’ and ensure all is going to plan,” the alpha siren hummed, returning to her old smug, confident self.

“You’ve instructed her on magic, the same as Princess Sparkle has. Want to join us?”

Adagio shook her head slightly, playing it off with a shrug as the defenses went back up safely, “For once, I’m the one who’s had my fill of magic for the day out of the two of us.”

The cyborg shook his head and chanced a chuckle, “What is the world coming to now…”

He drew up the last bottle and handed it off to Adagio, “If you start feeling anxious again, go get Aria or Sonata.”

“Aria’s off training, and Sonata is...” Adagio sighed, “Not in a state where she should have to shoulder my burden. Not how being a big sister works.”

“Then get me or Gloriosa. We’ll talk about our enemy when you’re able-minded,” he shrugged as he paced out the door, only pausing when her words chased him down.

“Not like you could do much against dark magic if I had another bout anyways, but you annoy me so much I just might if I got you.”

The slight, oh so slight inflection caused him to smirk as he glanced back and gave a distinctly human gesture with a single finger, “We both know one of those isn’t true… Rest up. I’ll make sure Gloriosa doesn’t vine up the whole camp.”

A nod was exchanged before Gigan departed, leaving Adagio alone in the mess hall with only one bottle of drink. She took in a breath and sat back down near a window, staring out over the lake. A sip of drink, a recollection of the past; recent and distant. Some, now far more distant than she thought previously.

A half finished drink as her only company, Adagio finally dropped her guard as the tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Unbeknownst to her however, her sorrow from earlier didn’t just vacate into the aether. It had been trickling away before being banished, to another building, to another the magic saw familiarity in it. Within the camper cabin, of which the windows were covered over to hide one of its occupants from prying eyes that Irys couldn’t steer away, two forms milled about at a table. Within the tunnels under the cabin a make-shift cooking fire, fueled by both wood spat up napalm pellets with a skillet put over it, was tended to by Pinkie Pie. Another flapjack was churned and skillfully caught, the party planner nimbly flicking the readied pancake onto the outstretched plate of an awaiting Megalon.

Winks, nods, and perhaps some sort of silent sign language were substitute for speech on account of the sleeping form curled up on the bed behind the younger cyborg. Neither noticed the green mist trickling in from under the door…

Sonata Dusk, having been sleeping in her bed under watch of two friends, twitched in her rest. Perhaps from a bad dream, perhaps from the stimuli of the mist itself; but her discomfort was increasingly visible as her sister’s grief and pain was pulled closer. It silently traveled up her arm and under the blankets, before settling upon the ugly scar upon the youngest siren’s neck. It was there it melded into her, absorbed with each breath.

“Brrr, someone open a window?” Pinkie Pie yipped as she rubbed her arms, feeling the chilled skin getting goosebumps.

===================
Crystal City Outskirts
===================

Irys’ eyes were wide as she gawked at what had pulled her here. She shook as she was beholden to the traces of an elusive foe. This.. this was far worse than she, or the gyaos suspected, anyone on her team had anticipated. Twilight Sparkle had been here, she had to have, Irys could still smell her!

-Which means.. she managed to do this…-

Irys swallowed as the chilly, wretched feeling air stung at her lungs. The ice, all that ice out of nowhere. And somehow that didn't seem to be the only thing just wrong about it... She testingly gripped a spire of ice and seeing if her hand came back with any dampness from where her high body temperature would have, should have melted it. Irys promptly wrenched her hand back soon after, hissing at the cold burn the ice gave off; tiny bits of frost clinging to her skin that refused to melt.

Irys grimaced, trying to wipe the shards off and resigned to shed a few bits of skin to dislodge them. That was when she heard the second thing that could stop her heart for the moment. It was a distant, faint, but growing echo. One imperceptible to any but her for it was as much in the mind as it was in the shifting air. Coming from the direction of the train yard, her brother was calling out.

Irys stilled, many a thought brewing in her mind on what to do next....

====================
Day of the Concert....
===================

Sometimes size did matter. Even if he wasn't an exceptionally speedy individual like a certain mutant iguana or alchemically engineered pterosaur, in his true state Godzilla junior could cover quite a bit of ground when he needed to move. And while he couldn't exactly make as long of a stride at just under about two meters tall then when he could at fifty times that span, truly remarkable endurance and urgency was allowing him to book it down the street at much faster than he initially thought he could. The-kaiju-turned-unicorn-turned-human was also having an easier time than normal given the streets were largely empty. Too many people attending the town festival that the music exhibition was a part of. Most of the storefronts were closed, many of the windows darkened, nothing for a distraction that stopped him from hyperfocusing on the massive amount of radiation he was picking up.

Or at the very least it felt a lot like it. Even if this particular human world seemed a bit more like what he was familiar with as opposed to what Equestria had, some questioning with the locals and a bit of sensing hadn't picked up anything atomic. No nuclear power plants, no weapon silos, not even a mine that might occasionally get something on the level of uranium ore. While he never went sacking power plants like some mutations or his predecessor did, he still could pick them up at a distance even with the shielding. And given how close the signal he was chasing was, it wouldn't even appear to be a case of his human body dulling that sense any.

And if it wasn't radiation, it had to be the next closest thing which he knew from Equestria thanks to Princess Sparkle and Lele's tests. There was something magical blowing up all of his sensory tracking dead ahead, directly where the purple siren had run off to. The last time he sensed a spike of this particular brand of chaotic, unfocused magic was after first contact with the sirens at the school. Now she had run off and he was detecting it again, magnitudes moreso. Cause for concern to be sure.

They might not have come here for equestrian monsters from some bygone era, but if weird things were happening he was bound to get to the bottom of this mess by pursuing any lead he could. The mission was to get Princess Sparkle back, and protect Princess Celestia, her former student, and their human companions. In a big open event like a festival nobody was going to try anything, and ever-loyal Anguirus was on standby.

He swallowed a brief worry while putting more distance between him and the concert.

-You've helped them get a grasp on their abilities in case something really wrong happens. They're not going to try and fight off a kaiju, but they can defend themselves until Anguirus can get to them. They'll be just fine… just fine.-

If anything, the worry hurried him. However unfortunately for the individual sprinting at him from the left, concern had also hyper-focused him. With no one else in the streets there was nothing else to filter out the noise of her advance. He had tried to remain focused only towards where the siren had gone.

He didn't know at all who it was, attempts to chance a glance behind him hadn't been fruitful. But she had seemed to make a very concerted effort to stay on his tail and close the distance. The former was concerning, the latter told him the situation he was in.

It was another reason to put more distance between what was coming and the humans. Very reluctantly he steered his sprint towards the smell of water, a rather large lake being not too far away.

With a water in viewing distance, nobody around, and his pursuer closing in, the king of the monsters took a calculated risk and slowed down.

There was a sound of feet kicking off a roof, and Junior whipped around just in time for a very pale-colored woman to collide with him in a pounce. Time slowed down to a crawl as their bodies inched towards each other.

For the faintest moment he thought her a normal human, or perhaps maybe another exiled creature from Equestria. His left hand which was coming up under her stomach was opened to try and catch, grip, and hold her away. Maybe ask and demand to know who she was and why was she chasing him?

Then she bit him on the left forearm.

Irys was unsure what kind of reaction she would get. On one level she was absolutely terrified with so many unknowns. Where had the Mothra, who so often was a blight to her nightmares, gone off to after X beat her but was forced to escape? What had compelled Aria to demand a plan in which she and X face the enemy alone? Any kind of isolation seemed unthinkable to her. What sort of bravado would compel one to face their terrors alone or with only limited backup? She might have hated her old flock for what they did to her and her mother, but they and her could certainly agree that numbers always mattered.

If there came a day she had to face down the mothra, her resurrected flock, or Gamera; the hyper gyaos intended to do so with a Ghidorah hybrid and two cyborgs at her side with their Master at her back.

Then again she didn't exactly have a stellar relationship with her cannibalistic cousins and any siblings she might have had died in their eggs so perhaps her experience was a bit different than X's mate. Small comfort was granted at the knowledge X and the trained Aria would be more than enough to handle this foe…

-Until said foe started spewing out magic and causing a light show…-

The gyaos shoved that thought aside, hoping on faith, and considering her present as she sailed down at her target. Which left her here. Pouncing at a being she didn’t know to try and help Aria and X’s scheme avoid outside interference while reluctantly leaving them to fight the latest enemy.

He didn’t smell like a normal human, but didn’t give off any magic she could pick up on either. At least not directly, there was something similar. And given her encounter with Anguirus, a name that brought forth many stray thoughts, who knew who the mothra had gotten for help.

Irys launched herself at the target, hoping to get a keen surprise attack so she’d have an advantage. She could only hope it wasn’t-

The dark gray skin, up close, was more noticeable even if it wasn’t heavily armored scales.

-No...-

Milliseconds ticked by when her teeth sunk into his left arm. A horrid taste from some bristling power was so distinct. She was more familiar with how the mothra and Gamera tasted, but this wasn’t an unknown from one time she clashed with a very particular foe. One very, very big mistake.

-No no no not him!-

Amethyst eyes looked into burning gold surrounded by red, the recognition proving mutual.

She grimaced behind her fangs still sunk into the arm, whimpering briefly as she braced. Underneath her, the hand meant to catch her instead balled into a fist. Irys felt her gut get punched so hard that it voided her lungs, her foe twisting around and letting forth a nuclear pulse. The gyaos shrieked and let go of her bite due to energy conducting into both her gut and mouth from the contact, shocking her so much parts of her clothing and hair smoked. She was wrenched around and thrown several yards into a snowbank.

Everything in her mind was a daze from the impact and shocks, so much so her vision was fuzzy and refused to clear for several seconds even as stomping footfalls closed in on her.

On reflex the gyaos vibrated her vocal cords and distended her jaw to spew out a hyper sonic ray of energetic sound. At first yellow, panic made her condense it further into a familiar purple. An outstretched palm caught the beam and grabbed her by the face. Even so, Irys kept firing and she registered the flinching flash of pain in her attacker’s face. The sonic ray was very thin, meant more as a sweeping blow to allow it to slash as the thin puncture would be far less deadly, but with him holding onto her face with an iron grip she couldn’t change its aim.

Irys was dragged off the ground and hoisted into the air, gripping the arm holding her whilst kicking her legs as they dangled over a foot off the ground. The helplessness starting to settle in, even as she was whipped around and smacked against a storefront window several times hard enough to crack it, was thankfully brief. As while her foe had so stubbornly held her by her head, she had stubbornly held onto his arm and continued firing. And even the enhanced durability he enjoyed on loan from his true self had limits. Her attacker shook and grimaced more so than before and the reason soon became obvious when a screaming, thin ray of purple shot out of his elbow after having burrowed through his hand and arm. She must have hit a tendon in there somewhere, as her foe’s arm went slack from the elbow down and his fingers lost their grip.

Irys snarled and grabbed his arm, rather fearlessly yanking herself forward to launch at his throat with her fanged jaws open. Only a flash of blue light stopped her advance. While unable to fly, the enhanced sense of balance and orientation was still there and she acted on it, grabbing him by his face and kicking off his gut to launch herself away and send her sprawling across the ground. Not missing any beat, she sprung away from the frozen and snowy earth to avoid a salvo of atomic plasma as the neon blue burning wrath instantly instantly evaporated a large amount of snow they’d been standing in. Steam born of the conflicting hot vapors and cold air soon whited out much of the nearby terrain.

When she arose her expression was not one of confidence given apparent success, but abject terror. Especially when a dark shadow in the fog started rushing towards her. Godzilla Junior, still bleeding from his hurt hand, came at her swinging with the right. Light and crackling energy engulfed both his eye and hand, and his acceleration was unfit for his size. Without any room to dodge, Irys curled up and crossed her arms before herself while letting a ringing shriek sound off from her throat. A shield of projected power formed in front of her and took the nuclear pulse charged hit, but nothing stopped the momentum as she went rocketing back. A yelp sounded off after a loud, metallic crash.

Godzilla Junior huffed, narrowing his eyes while raising up his bloodied, hurt hand. Before his eyes, the clean stab wound sealed shut and he tested at each finger and knuckle to ensure the ligaments, tendon, and muscle had knit back together properly; with only a scar to show for it on his palm and elbow.

-Lea and this gyaos are unable to fly in this world, with Anguirus having lost his natural spikes. Guess besides the lack of tail for balance, I’m the least-affected.-

The hand balled into a crackling fist as his focus and eyes all narrowed at the streaks of torn cloth, bits of blood, and disturbed sleet that indicated where his enemy had gotten blasted through the fog to. Even with the haze he could easily pick up on the gasping gyaos, who’d apparently gotten back up onto her feet. Then everything went silent, leaving him alone in the white out.

Godzilla Junior kept his guard up, pacing forward slightly while sniffing silently at the air. He soon found the source of the crash from earlier in the form of a bent and twisted newspaper stand the gyaos had apparently been thrown into hard enough she shattered the front and ripped several of its legs out of the bolts anchoring it to the ground.

“I came here looking for trouble, seems I found you,” he growled while beginning to advance through the fog. He was following the gyaos’ trail via scent as best he could, but it was complicated by how much she evidently was leaping about.

He glanced aside, thinking he saw something off to his left and turning that way, while remembering the terms set up by the Element Bearers and Princess. Her fear had been obvious, he could literally smell it, so it was worth a shot to avoid a pointless act.

“I’ll give you a chance to stand down, and I won’t have to do what I did to your flock.”

Or at least, that’s what he tried to say. The thought was there, the articulations of his body parts from his lips, tongue, lungs, and vocal cords all acted as needed and he could even feel it so. But the sound was gone. Totally gone. In fact it sounded like… nothing. He couldn’t even hear the distant concert anymore! A test whack against a nearby phone pole with his knuckles confirmed it. He could feel the pole shake to register to hit, as well as the tactile sensation of hitting it on his hand; but no hollow echo to indicate it.

He didn’t know what it was, who was doing it, or how it came about; only two things were known. It was eerie and messing with his head, and he didn’t like it.

Especially when absolutely nothing audible heralded a purple slicing ray glancing off his shoulder and leaving a shallow, but painful cut. Godzilla gasped mutely, quickly gripping it and snarling as the wound mended. A dim flicker of a shape moving in the mist soon heralded a dark fog mixing in with the haze, evidently generated by the gyaos.

Irys huffed as she dove back and lashed out with another cutter ray, this one gashing the monster across the leg and causing him to stumble briefly… Only for him to immediately get back up and charge her location. She grimaced and rushed away under the cover of her shade. Against some kind of brute, she might have been able to wear him down fairly easily even without the advantage of her flight.

And after several more slashes or stabs with her beam, she was reaching success. Some. It wouldn’t last.

Her canceling out all the noise kept him from hearing her footsteps and a mix of the natural fog as well as the dark mists she was emitting kept her from sight, but the moment she tried to fire he would come instantly barreling at her by following the beam's path.

Irys shook as sweat ran down her face despite the cold air.

Fighting at range was all she had, and it was no small blessing he wasn't firing back that much… in fact he hadn't even unleashed one atomic breath in several minutes. Her brow furrowed on instinct.

-H-He's up to something. Come on, come on I need backup guys! I can't keep this up much longer, I-!!!!?!?!-

The albino cringed and dove to the side to avoid an oncoming projectile that was slinging some smelly liquid everywhere. The gyaos chanced a glance at it as it sailed away and skid across the street, and at what had fallen out of it. The ladder was immediately recognizable as it had turned into one of her favorite snacks in this world, a bunch of corndogs. And a lot of oil in the fryer bin that had apparently been torn off one of the food stalls parked in the street. Irys reactively cringed at some of the oil getting on her, but the fryer must have been off as it wasn't very warm.

Several more fryer bins were launched out of the mist to either side of her, soon accompanied by a dark figure starting to advance through it. Flashing lights were the only warning she got as a ray of short ranged plasma was swept across in a wide arc, raking across the beach and evaporating geysers of water wall scorching the pavement.

Forgetting the peculiarities of thrown projectile choice, Irys opted not to try and block this with her shield and instead ducked under it. Diving on her belly and rolling across the ground as the neon blue heat passed overhead before stopping.

Mentally swearing, Irys scrambled up and away, darling off to the right near the entrance to the lake's pier. She had prepared to circle back around and try to slash Godzilla across the back, only to find herself turning even paler when he also turned to the right and came barreling after her. Irys bolted tiredly up the ramp and down the wooden walkways of the pier, frantically checking all signs as Godzilla remained right on her trail.

-The mist is just as heavy, still keeping up the sound dampening field, and the wind hadn't shifted so he's certainly not smelling me!-

She could feel the pounding vibrations of his footfalls behind her.

-No no no! Stay away from me! Stay-?!-

She slipped, not because of any clumsy footing or tripping but because something on her foot had made her do so. Chancing to glance behind her at the ground Irys' heart sank. Staring back at her were a set of half-a-foot, single step footprints coming from her right leg. Frying oil was almost entirely covering her pant leg, evidently from when she had dove down to avoid the beam.

Milliseconds ticked by as the powerful figure of Godzilla came stomping after her, having been following the footprints his jury-rigged plan created. Even with how accustomed she was to gore, Irys felt repulsed. His clothing was covered in blood from getting slashed so many times, even if the wounds had mended. One particularly large gash across his cheek and jaw was stitching itself back together. All while burning eyes glared down at her…

Irys was not cowed, she was not terrified. She had willingly gone up against two Ghidorah, one of them twice, for the sake of herself and her flock. But after years of running away from confrontations that didn't bode well, she also knew when it was time to fold them.

They were far enough down up here that the blue of the lake was visible below.

Irys' eyes and throat flashed with violet light as she took in a deep breath, energy collecting in her throat as the air started to vibrate. Knowing what was coming, Godzilla held up an arm in front of himself as a shield for his face but did not stop his advance. He suffered the pain of another laceration to close the distance.

it was far less than he expected, but not because his opponent was weakening from tiredness. It was because she had only briefly slashed him across the arm before firing the beam straight up for several seconds. Even with how narrow it was it would be visible for kilometers.

Cutting off the ray, Irys threw herself to the side and launched over the railing. With her opponent briefly stunned, she could make her escape and-...

Air rushed past her pale hair without any heed to an airfoil or pressure differential. Tiny human fingers were spread out without any bat-like membrane between them…

Irys cursed her muscle memory, in her fright and haze forgetting she couldn't fly. At best the fabric foil between her long sleeves and hips did slow her down however. Which meant she had several fractions of a second to realize a shadow coming over her and a faster falling Godzilla had launched over the rail after her.

Surprise looked into stoicism as they both hit the water, the former amphibious dinosaur grabbing the smaller woman who used to be a giant bat. Snarling, Godzilla dragged the gyaos who had been tormenting him so badly under the waves despite her thrashing.

A beam of violet, energized sound shot out of the surging watery surface. It swung about, disappearing briefly as the cutting ray hit something, before slashing across several of the pier’s pylons. A few minutes after piercing the sky, it cut out. Blood bubbled up to the surface.

Far and away, two forces who witnessed the last pillar of light bore down upon the pier. One leaving flashes of red light, the other a trail of a rainbow. All while South Wind howled over the song of the frozen storm clouds above.

Chapter 48, Part 2: Rising with Rainbows

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 48, Part 3: Surging Tides

“Alright, we’re talking this over once more just to be clear,” Godzilla Junior noted as he paced across the living room with his arms folded behind his back.

Peachy Keen stood beside him on a box to make their presence marginally more comparable, as he stood ready before the Rainbooms, now including Sunset Shimmer, and Flash Sentry all gathered on the furniture.

“Your safety is our foremost concern,” she started to frown but sighed in acceptance, “We can’t and won’t stop you from helping protect your world. Righteous souls always do. That said, certain heroes are more up to certain tasks than others.”

“Two of you have been given some review on how to use your new powers in close combat, should the need arise,” Junior continued, giving a glance to Rainbow Dash and Applejack, “Feel like you can control it?”

Rainbow Dash, sporting a minor band-aid on her cheek with pride, shot a cocky grin and a thumb’s up, “I kept up a sprint for a full twelve seconds without crashing into anything and busted the board with a kick. Oh, and Jackie here busted the bricks.”

The crossed-armed, formerly proud-looking Applejack pouted and gave Rainbow a bit of a side-eye at feeling like her achievement just got thrown under the rug.

"And your bodies could take the beating?"

Applejack nodded while inspecting her only mildly bruised knuckles, "Whatever magic is boosting us physically is also helping protect from the blowback. Don't think I would have my hand in a splint for a few days like it was last time if I had to slug someone."

"Good, but remember that the preparation and drills Godzilla ran you through were mostly so you didn't hurt anyone or yourself with your own abilities," Peachy Keen started and Godzilla finished, "Anguirus and I will be running defense for you lot the entire time we're out there. If all goes according to plan, you won't even have to use your abilities even in a defensive way."

He stopped in his pacing and gave his compatriot a sideways nod that was exchanged and returned by Anguirus, before turning his attention back to Rainbooms.

"These two never asked anybody to stick their neck out, but I just want to be clear we will make certain nothing happens to your group ever again while we are around," Anguirus paced to the front of the group and stood beside his leader and friends.

"We handle the magic hate plague," Sunset Shimmer astutely said as she rolled her shoulders and mentally prepared herself for being on stage-

Kilometers away another meeting was being held with an arguably even weirder assorted cast than the living room that was housing two transformed dinosaurs, a pair of transformed equines that included a demigoddess, and a gaggle of humans. In this case a cyborg, another transformed equine, a pair of transformed sea sorceresses, an alien dragon hybrid, a magically altered human, and a transformed giant bat mutant. Only the youngest cyborg, the youngest sea sorceress, and the unbeknownst human amongst their homebase were not in attendance.

Adagio stood before the group with her arms crossed in front of her, dressed in her typical show attire she would use for bigger concerts that well complemented her form.

"I still admit I don't fully like this plan. It has too many variables, and too many ways it could go wrong," she grumbled before sighing, glancing aside to examine the determined face on her cousin.

Aria was known to be bullheaded, and this was making her very worried. She still had her promise to keep to her dearly departed aunt to watch over the pod. She failed once in full, a fate for Sonata they were still trying to reverse, and the chance that it could happen again was near unbearable.

The hand placed upon her cousin's shoulder however was a reminder of how circumstances had changed. X had supported her cousin enough times to more than earn Adagio's trust. He had done so the moment he returned after Sonata's desecration, and had done so when Aria presented her ploy. Adagio looked between the couple and gave X a brief, somewhat knowing nod of acknowledgement when he noticed her. Mermares rarely took foreign lovers, but there were exceptions and the sirens were nothing if not exceptional. She approved of him around her cousin, not like they needed her blessing to produce all the love magic she found last night.

And he was just the beginning of them seeking new allies, as much as she might be aloof to admit it upfront. After all, even if her goals of regaining her grandmother's throne as Queen needed more consideration after the bombshell Princess Twilight dropped via Eventide, her aunt and mother had instilled the alpha siren with a near unbreakable air of authority. And being a good leader meant knowing when to accept outside help even if she had spent years thinking such notions were preposterous, after so many had turned them away. Gloriosa had no real incentive to put up with the level of abnormality which had been thrust upon her, and Princess Sparkle and even less incentive to be half as helpful as she was. And yet, they had a secure holding because of the aid of her favorite human of whom Adagio could admit to growing attached to. And the pony princess, with her eyes intently focused upon the siren leader as if she was mentally taking notes with enthusiasm, had more than endeared herself to them. Should she still become Queen of Mako after all, Adagio would be quite content having Twilight as a future foreign ally.

Once upon a time she had nothing but scorn for the bearded sorcerer who banished them here and took away what life they had in Equestria so suddenly. Now, despite all the hardships, she could finally realize how things had changed for the better. They had… friends… and quite a bit more in the case of Aria and X. If they ever had a chance to take a stand where their own power might not be enough, this was it.

"X and Aria have their objective, so we have to do everything we can to keep attention away from them," Adagio announced as she paced with her arms folded behind her, "That means causing a big shout and keeping the tempo. Aria, you might tag out after but I need you with me on the first chorus before you do."

Her cousin nodded to her as Adagio continued and looked to the third 'siren' present, "Eventide, you’d best be prepared to sing your heart out. My magic will be lessened without Aria around and that means we'll have to control the crowds the old fashion way outside of some influence."

Eventide Hymn, ready in her showy disguise, smirked and winked, "We can keep the eyes around on the prize. As long as you don't mind me getting into it. I can't dance, but I do have quite a voice."

"It’ll be your first time on a big stage, so you'd better," Adagio grinned and gave her a thumbs up before looking to Gigan, "And I won't take offense to you having your eyes elsewhere, but do you have it operational?"

Gigan nodded while tapping his glasses, "All set to bug the phone tower and cellular systems earlier. I'll be able to get a bead on most anything in town. All the more important given there is an excessively high chance the magic enhanced humans, the Mothra, and her allies will be about."

"Which is why we need the opposite of a showstopper, we gotta keep the tides rolling long as we can," Adagio hummed, "Might entail a bit of hexing on the crowd-"

She glanced at Princess Twilight and rolled her eyes in minor annoyance, "Nothing serious, I promise."

The former alicorn sighed and nodded, “As long as no one gets hurt, I’ll help. If a ruckus is caused, Lea and my friends here will keep focused on it… the sooner we can apprehend Sonata’s attacker, sooner we can get this mess resolved.”

“I know about the Mothra, and that there is an excessively high chance she has summoned others to help her,” Gigan tapped his metallic fingers against his arm as he glanced to Twilight, “Sure you want me looking out for that random pink-haired one as well, that ‘Peachy Keen’, Princess?”

Twilight Sparkle pursed her lips but nodded, “Only if you promise to not harm her. I don’t know who she is, not a kaiju I’m aware of, but something was… off about her. Familiar but not from immediate memory. Might be another Equestrian they brought in that I didn’t meet face-to-face.”

Gigan shrugged as he committed her description to memory of faces to watch for, “One angry Mothra, high probability of her teammates, and one random pony; any other takers?”

The only member of the Hunters who hadn’t acted up so far felt a mountain press down on her shoulders. Guilt stung like sour bile in her throat, but she wasn’t quite sure whom it was coming from. Her flock by choice or her family by creation. Her actions the days prior were still fresh in her mind and Anguirus’ frowning face was directly before her. If she said nothing, he might come running if he sensed her and make Gigan and company panic, spoil Aria and X’s plans, and lead to conflict. If she said something, it might backfire in any number of ways. He could be killed, or he could kill. It was a matter of picking between what could go wrong and what would go wrong, a harder choice than many would factor. Swallowing as Adagio ran through the song list with the stage team again, Irys felt a surge of drive pushing her to the forefront.

“We’ve got one shot to make this work,” Adagio poised with a frown before raising an eyebrow at Irys, “You have something?”

“... I know of another kaiju who is here.”

All eyes were upon her.

Irys shrunk but sighed, "I was going to say so anyways.. but, no good keeping it in."

Back at Sunset Shimmer’s residence, the party was setting out on a plan far less dire. The Rainbooms were packing their instruments and gear as Peachy Keen, Godzilla Junior, Mothra Lea, and Anguirus watched on.

“Think this could lead to us getting Twilight back?” Peachy muttered with a frown.

Junior placed a hand upon her mid-back and gently nudged her with his shoulder in a calm, if unhuman gesture, “Twilight is safe where she is. We contain the sirens and counter the growing dark magic, and then move to that issue.”

“Doing so might draw out her kidnappers,” a morose, but quiet Lea whispered, the mothra having stayed back out of the planning sessions, “There could be a problem. A large amount of magic might be dangerous here.”

“Which is why we’re not putting all of our eggs in one basket,” Peachy Keen replied as she helped brush a bang of hair out of Lea’s tired face before cupping a cheek, “You’re as much a magic expert as I. By staying back, you’ll be able to observe any surges of it from a distance and figure out what’s going on. Still got the phone Fluttershy loaned you?”

Lea nodded as she looked to the small, gaudy device, “I’ll alert you all if something is amiss or I sense any kaiju.”

“Sure you can? Going to be a lot of magic flying around.”

“If I meditate, I can sense most powers across a continent,” Lea plainly noted.

Junior chuckled, “She was the alert system back home if one of our sensories failed. Be out of a job without her.”

Lea only frowned but diverted her attention away.

"... You’d have a lot less scars if it weren’t for me too… Too many powers at play, too many causing problems," she muttered, "Don't thank me for throwing you at problems."

A warmth and presence was pressed up against her and Lea sighed, before sinking into her best friend’s slight embrace. Junior let out a low coo from the back of his throat.

“I'd have rushed in anyways, and I'd be in a much darker place if stuff happened and I couldn't stop it. Few scars for a few tens of thousands of lives, good trade to me... Listen, Lele. We’re not keeping you out of action, we’re playing to our strengths,” Junior whispered, “Trust me, Lele. I always have for you.”

After a moment or two a second presence joined his, and Lea soon found herself comfortably sandwiched between Godzilla and Anguirus. With some measure of fidgeting, the stressed guardian moth sighed and wrapped an arm around them both and pulled them in as Peachy Keen patted her head.

“Be careful out there you three. I’ll be quite a ways away,” she muttered with apprehension in her voice, “If something big happens…-”

“The point of this operation is for something big not to happen,” Junior corrected her, “If all goes well, none of us kaiju will have had to be there in the first place.”

Lea took in a deep breath, steeling herself and committing this sense of camaraderie and comfort to memory, before pulling back. Looking to her friends, old and new, she bowed her head and started for the house. With some bracing in her strong legs, she leaped up several meters and landed on the low roof of the porch to make her way to the top. Out of earshot, she waved her friends away and sat down cross legged to focus.

Anguirus and Junior looked to her with a smile and a small sense of awe as they felt the slight tingle of her sensory magic picking them up, before turning away. Walking to the van however, the largest present was quick to pull Anguirus and Peachy Keen around the side to have some fleeting privacy; keeping his voice quiet.

“Anguirus, now's the time,” he whispered.

Anguirus felt his world run cold for a fleeting moment, glancing to the top of the house before gulping. He frowned and muttered back.

“Sure she can’t hear me?”

Junior shook his head as Peachy Keen waved a hand slightly.

“Terran magic is different, but I can tell she’s using a combination of a scrying spell and something similar,” Peachy Keen explained, “I taught it to Twilight who taught it to her. She can sense us, but not hear us.”

“And I know how her spying works,” Junior finished, “You’d been quiet since you got back from that patrol and I know there was more than just some strange magic-ice afoot.”

“I…” Anguirus swallowed, “Didn’t want to say anything immediately with something wrong with Lea.”

“You mean besides her looking like she’s not slept in weeks despite being asleep most of the time?” Peachy Keen deadpanned, “Looks like me when I first lost Luna…”

Anguirus perked up slightly and glanced to her, “Really?”

Peachy Keen frowned at both the memory and circumstance but did nod, “It’s not exactly, but it’s there. Luna and I are part of a duality, we came from the same source, have many similar abilities, and compliment each other. Figuratively and literally, we’re stronger together. But when I first lost Luna, I suffered… How does this factor with Lady Lea?”

Junior looked to Anguirus and then away puzzling with a hand on his chin, “She’s also part of a duality, but all in one… It’s not exactly the same, but the sooner we get this ordeal done and get to the Elias sisters, Moll and Lora, the sooner we can help her. She’s unhinged.”

Anguirus paused before crossing his arms and leaning on the van, “Which is why you’re keeping her as far away from the action as possible.”

Godzilla paused as a frown grew over his face, but nodded, “Look, it’s not like I enjoyed it or lied when I said she had talents elsewhere. If I kept her out of things entirely she’d only spiral more or do something reckless.”

His attention turned back to his other comrade, “So what about her has got you so scared you don't say anything even after the first night?”

Anguirus flinched again before slowly relaxing, “.. Thought you’d figure something was up. I was trying not to be overt on account of you-know-who.”

Peachy Keen scrunched up her nose, “You smelled burnt. Even I could smell it.”

“Fire monster, I often smell that way,” Anguirus tried to defend himself but sighed as he shook his head and made peace with his situation, “Oye… Yes, and I’m sorry I didn’t say anything earlier, I really am. If I thought it was someone dangerous I would’ve opened up immediately.”

“Someone dangerous?” Junior quipped as he raised his eyebrow.

Anguirus nodded, “… The albino Gyaos. She's here.”

Junior and Peachy Keen both straightened up, flashbacks of a very stressful night in Canterlot replaying in their minds. The monster King quickly looked back out of the memory into his compatriot.

“I would hardly call someone like that not dangerous,” he grunted with a lowered brow, his tone getting very heavy as he thought of the implications of a monster like that on the loose in a world like this, “You know what her kind can do!”

Anguirus lowered back for a moment in both intimidation and guilt, before coming up against a hard wall that wouldn’t allow him anymore backpedaling. That wall being when the supposedly enemy called themselves the only family he had. He stepped back forward and stood up to his friend and leader.

“I’m not ignorant. Before I realized everything, I tried to kill her myself. But she’s not a threat, not her. She’s the guardian beast I sensed,” he snorted with so much conviction it couldn’t possibly be a lie.

Junior’s head craned up slightly in surprise, “A what? I thought you said their kind were faulty, driven insane by that.”

“And they had to be put down as one puts down a rabid animal, yes,” Anguirus nodded along to the very same lines he had told Junior once, “But we always knew she was a bit different. Not so rabid, not insane, Gamera always called her cunning. Somehow after Lea defeated her she wound up here, activated her kind’s guardian beast powers, and she seems… Seems.”

He shook his head while motioning with his hands as if groping for the right word before shrugging his shoulders the best option, “Normal. Just like me, Raiga, Rodan, Yonggary, any of us from my family line. She’s not rabid. She was the one who pointed me to that dark magic ice to warn me…. She called herself Irys, she called herself by a name.”

Junior paused, eyes darting about as he analyzed the situation. Perhaps to weigh in on it, Peachy Keen placed a hand on his shoulder and shook it lightly as she pointed a finger upwards. She had probably intended to use her index finger for the gesture, but muscle memory of having a single-digit hoof changed which finger it was.

“It was agreed upon that should other kaiju be found but not be hostile, they could be given a second chance,” the princess hummed knowingly.

Junior acknowledged her while chewing his lip before looking back to Anguirus, “Was she alone?”

The Fire Guardian Beast nodded, “No others. Not gyaos, not any other kaiju.”

The monster King collected himself before sighing while shaking his head. It seemed life just couldn’t be simple right now, couldn’t it?

“Thanks, for telling us. I know you kept it to yourself for good reason.”

Anguirus’s lips curled downwards in sadness, clearly not proud of what he had to do, “I still feel like I betrayed your trust. Very sorry, I didn’t want to tell the Rainbooms for fear of worrying them unnecessarily and you two were never away from Lea and given her and the albino’s last interaction…”

Peachy Keen and Junior nodded in unison.

“Make sense.”

“She would probably fly off the handle more.”

“So what do you want us to do about this?” Junior huffed as he tested his shoulder.

“… I know she can be dangerous, but she’s just lost. She clearly didn’t want to fight me when she realized we were family. I just want to find her, make sure she’s okay, take her back if we can,” Anguirus whispered as the burden crushed down on him slightly. He knew he was asking a lot.

“That’s going to be difficult,” Junior said with a frown.

Peachy Keen collected herself before rolling her eyes and shrugging, “When is life not difficult for any of us? This might as well be a Tuesday. She might know something useful and it’s our duty to help those with righteous souls.”

“As we are with your student and her friends,” Anguirus quipped while chancing a glance, feeling a chance that a bit of the pressure pulled off his shoulders.

“Are you sure about this old friend?” Junior muttered.

Anguirus met his eyes before nodded, “She’s family, my long-lost sibling… I think both of you can relate.”

Junior and Peachy, Celestia, soon found each other’s gaze as a tugging was felt in their chests. One that brought a lot of pain, but also a lot of joy. From memories of a ruined castle and battle-torn island, to others of embracing in the aftermath of the elements and laughing in a hospital room after falling through the air. Anguirus couldn’t have found a more understanding audience.

“For second chances, for Equestria and Terra,” Peachy Keen hummed as she put a hand on both of her companion’s shoulders.

Junior and Anguirus returned the gesture to each other and her, “for Equestria and Terra.”

============

The musical showcase was quite a sight even for an opening day. In another time, another possibility where the intrusion of outside forces from another realm might have altered events and people, the sirens would have turned this town festival into a full-on battle of the bands. Their music would have whipped people up into a frenzy, taking control and being worshiped as they had in centuries past in Equestria. Unbeknownst to the van pulling up behind the stage, it only took one fateful encounter at a mall to set off a series of events that climaxed in a clash of titans deep within the Everfree. But exceedingly few knew about it, nor the implications and alterations that followed. If one asked around town a few might remember an accident happening in the hospital some time ago that was taken to be a gas explosion or maybe inquired about the peculiar crater resembling a handprint shoved into a cliff wall at a rural park some miles away.

Had history remained unaltered, the five chosen humans might be six and they would have developed their magic and distinct powers much later. But Gloriosa had discovered the elements early, and was called out to rather than seizing them by force; because something much more dangerous had appeared. And because that happened, a lonely girl who might have become one of this world’s heroes unknowingly had committed a travesty. The sirens, who had been put upon a completely different path than what might be destined, were out for vengeance rather than power. Because of them, their ally had gotten involved along with all he brought with him. Twilight had been kidnapped, magic was surging and awakening far more rapidly than it would have otherwise, nightmares from thousands of years ago had returned; and yet the crowd was cheering for the three singers on stage; completely ignorant to how so much was on a collision course with others.

The sirens, the element bearers, the hunters, the defenders, the windigos, humanity, the realms of magic and the realms of monsters. All irreversibly changed because of a few small choices and a few paths crossed.

Peachy Keen, Princess Celestia, stepped out of the van and looked upon both the festival. With all of its attendees, stands, events, the booming song of the sirens coursing through everyone, and the uncanny sensation of magic at work in the air from all manner of sources. On stage, Eventide Hymn masked any apprehension with the flow of her body and echo of her voice providing the backup chorus. She too could feel it all as her eyes darted around. For the briefest moment they might have caught each other’s focus of vision but weren’t actively conscious of it. They only both the new one truth-

The butterfly had flapped its wings, and now it seemed the hurricane might be due. The only question was when.

Peachy Keen perked up as Sunset Shimmer, stepping out of the van, shivered.

”You feel it too don’t you?” Peachy Keen muttered as she felt at her student’s trembling shoulder.

“Sometimes I used to worry I might forget from being here too long,” Sunset Shimmer rubbed at her arms, “Magic, a lot of it’s like at the cafeteria but way stronger.”

”They’ve already begun using it on the people, just like they did 1000 years ago in Equestria,” Peachy Keen frowned, the back of her mind feeling prickly with all the raw dark magic seeping into her pores. It obviously was having an effect on the people as the crowd were both extremely invested in the song but also getting very antsy.

“Well then, it’s a good thing we’re on next!” Rainbow Dash quipped as she swung her guitar over her shoulder, “We’re here to foil a plot, get some answers, and find ourselves Twilight. I’ll call it a good day if we get all three done before dinner time.”

“Try your best- hr…,” Rainbow Dash perked up at the masculine tone as Junior walked up behind her caring half the band’s instruments out of the van. She whipped around and quickly saw him grimacing slightly.

“Woooah there big guy, you doing okay?”

Godzilla Junior shook his head but more to clear a momentary spell of dizziness than he did to deconfirm, straightening up and handing instruments over to Applejack; whose strength was showing given how she barely flinched upon accepting the load.

“Lot of... magic. Body’s trying to absorb it,” he grunted, held steady by Anguirus as the latter backpedaled slightly.

The Rainbooms were confused, but Peachy Keen went pale both from the implication and the very subtle changes in body language Anguirus and especially Godzilla were giving off. Pupils oscillating between dilated and contracted, slight body tremors, muscle tension. She knew what it looked like when someone was scared but trying not to show it to keep up appearances. It was a look she wore all the time.

“Can you handle it?” She whispered while reaching up to touch at Junior’s forehead, having to stand up on her tippy toes to do so almost like she was checking him for a fever. In effect, investigating his temperature was exactly what she was doing when her hand was pulled away from the heat.

“I think... Yes. It’s just,” he grumbled with a very slight stammer, “Nothing like back at the house.”

“What’s wrong with him?” Rainbow Dash muttered with a lowered brow as she reached out, noticing her instructor’s unease alone as Anguirus was masking it better thanks to being more magically affiliated.

“Nothing… serious,” Peachy Keen started and almost impulsively Junior nearly gave her a glare as another tremor flowed through him in a manner not dissimilar to a prolonged adrenaline rush, “The sirens have been singing for a while, and it’s been permeating the entire audience. This place is magically saturated. While their bodies have adjusted to look human like what happened with Sunset Shimmer and I, the same thing happened back in Equestria with them. I guess this means transportation here didn’t cancel it out.”

“Cancel what out?” Rainbow Dash piped with her arm starting to get goosebumps at the uncanny feeling something was very wrong.

Godzilla felt a wave of irrational anger born out of fear permeate his body. Phantom sensations and smells of burning glass, shattered metal, and smoldering, crumbling rubble were filling his nose. He looked at the town center and at the music festival, at all the people present, and years in the grind caused him to automatically register how much of his body would cover up the area, crush how many buildings, and every face that would get caught up in the span.

-I’m going to squish someone… If I change, I'm going to crush so many. Like ants, they would be like ants; I can’t possibly keep track of how many there would be! It would happen in an instant, one moment they’d be listening to music, in the next – so many of them ground into the concrete before they could even scream! If I change, I’m going to kill someone. If I change I’m going to kill so many!-

It was a feeling he wasn’t foreign to and yet hated so much. In a gigantic irony considering his fore-bearers, the only thing that scared the third Godzilla more than something else killing innocent people was he himself doing it. If he lost his nerve, he’d be a trembling mess sprinting away as fast as he could. It didn’t matter that there wasn’t much chance he would transform with how things were now, the prospect still terrified him.

But the colorful eyes of the concerned humans surrounding him were the only things keeping his nerves steeled.

“It’s nothing to worry about, I’ll handle it,” Junior snipped to cut her off, using the same commanding sharpness in his voice he did while instructing when being stern, “I’ll just-, just need to… filter out...”

“Ye’ leaving?” Applejack piped while straightening up, unease starting to move through her mind as a distant thoughts of the Ghidorah, Gigan, and who knew what else was out there watching them. Every rooftop seemed to have a pair of eyes leering at them and her hand got phantom aches.

The uneasiness was obviously spreading through the rest of the group even if nobody was outright saying it. The Rainbooms were a gaggle of brave young women, but having plans with an ally change so suddenly right at the precipice was throwing all of them off-kilter. Thankfully help was already present.

“He’s not leaving,” Anguirus spoke calmly as he got up in front of his kaiju accomplice, speaking quietly despite the loud concert, “If we absorb too much magic we can temporarily revert to our true forms. Usually though it has to be direct. There's a lot flying around here and his body absorbs some with less filter than mine does. More used to drawing energy in, I'm self sustaining.”

“Will he change?” Rainbow Dash quickly spouted out just as Peachy Keen was about to say so herself, though with more fear in her voice given she knew experience. After seeing just how big her companion really was she was quite glad he apparently had asked Luna to hurl him out the window before defending Canterlot.

She asked Anguirus again even though her eyes were on the taller gray man, “Will he change?”

Anguirus put a hand on Junior’s shoulder, both feeling at the muscle to gauge his stress level but also probing with whatever magical sense he had to figure out just how much danger they were in. The sensation he got was definitely noticeable, but very unlike what he experienced once upon a time at a campground facing down dragons alongside a very different Rainbow Dash.

“Hm… No,” he started, looking intently into Godzilla’s eyes to demand his attention too and as to help focus his ally through the stress afflicting him, “Dark magic doesn’t seem to trigger the change and this place has a lot more of it. It’s a bit like an ice I found the other day, makes sense given the sirens. He is going to be fine.”

The extra emphasis on that last line wasn’t unnoticed. It was much a half white-lie to keep the girls on the right foot-forward as much as it was to push off the worries affecting Godzilla. Thankfully it did a decent enough job for at least one of those.

"I," Junior's voice paused as a brief image of crushed bodies under his toes flashed over his sight, "Might want to step back just to be sure."

"Can you hold together, Big Guy?" Rainbow Dash muttered with a hint of apprehension as she looked at her bandmates, concerned for both their safety as well as a bit of otherwise restrained fear involving black jackets, white masks and red eyes. After getting attacked out of the blue and then her closest friends suffering the same fate from the same source, having the superhuman monster bodyguard had helped her nerves even with training.

But the focus of her chief worry was not upon herself, and she evidently wasn’t alone when she spotted Applejack putting her hand on Godzilla’s other shoulder.

“Hey, you gonna be okay, Hauss?” AJ muttered with a tilt of her head, her freckled cheeks swelling as she cast a caring, but subtle smile while pressing down on his shoulder.

Rainbow Dash glimpsed the twinge and wince in Godzilla’s body language and knew the subject matter all too well. She made the same sort of recoil every time she thought of the white mask and red eyes. Just because somebody was confident didn’t mean they couldn’t get spooked.

“Sure he’ll be!” Dash chirped as she playfully elbowed him in the side and smirked a toothy smirk, “We’ll just have to play extra loud so he can hear it.”

Applejack raised her brow somewhat, “Ye’ implying we play so bad he couldn’t hear us right off the stage?”

Rainbow Dash’s eye twitches. Somewhere in the back of her mind she did register this was her friend intentionally throwing them off topic as to force their instructor back to his senses fully, comedy was a great way at that. But humility wasn’t exactly her strong suit and that’s what got her to spur into action.

Rainbow Dash whipped around and stood up on her toes to look Applejack in the eye, “Heeeey! It’s not a brag if we can back it up. ‘Sides, we’re here to knock the sirens’ socks off!”

“Oh yes, because a band named the ‘Rainbooms’ is the mark of humbleness ain’t it Rainbow?” AJ jeered as she kept it up.

Shaking off the brief fearful glimpse he got of the girls’ faces paled, gazing up blankly at an uncaring sky as she and so many around her were crushed, Junior shook his head as a side of horror was replaced by playfully bickering teenagers doing just that right in front of them. He glanced at them a few times, only partially registering the back and forth between the two, but it did indeed help him settle back in the focus. Feeling at the energy flowing through the air and forcibly trying to cut himself off from it despite his cells’ tendency to soak it up like a sponge. It was like trying to seal off a submarine with screen doors, but he managed. Everyone had their roles to play, he had done many. Friend, fighter, leader, and more. And seeing two bickering students brought up one that was new but managed to fail him.

Putting his hands between his two bickering students, Junior patted them on the scalp whereas a human would probably pick the shoulder, hold them still and point them at himself before removing his hands.

Parroting a motion he used on another of his students, Junior adjusted his body language in a way Peachy Keen recognized and perked her brow at. Chest out, back straight with just enough slouch to appear casual but firm enough to appear astute, and after realizing it would look rather silly for him to hold his arms out straight like he might his hooves when walking on all fours, hands behind his back. It was directly modeled after the oldest alicorn, a subtle way of appearing confident and a bit authoritative but not apathetic or overly dramatic. Relaxed but respectable.

“I have every intention of hearing your music, and rest assured I have very good hearing. but I just have to adjust to some of this is all,” He noted calmly while silently shooting them a smile and a slight thankful nod, “You two and your friends will do great. If anything this will help me scout around and make sure nobody interferes.”

“Oh so we make a big show and you act as the bouncer?” Rainbow Dash grinned while rubbing at her chin, “I can dig it!”

“Just be sure to get help if ye’ end up roughein’ anyone up,” Applejack quipped as she nodded to him, smirking a toothy grin.

“Brought him for that,” Junior chuckled as he motioned to Anguirus.

“Wasn’t just him, I gotta show ye’ my practice sometime,” Applejack grinned as she caught a fist into her hand in a rapid way that produced a not unnoticeable waver in the air. Chuckling, she shifted it into a thumbs up while wrapping a muscular arm around her shorter cyan friend.

“Come’on Dash, we gotta set up to best some sea witches.”

Rainbow Dash, completely unfazed at getting hoisted over Applejack’s shoulder, continued to look back while holding her guitar in one hand and making a ‘rock on’ symbol with her other.

“We’ll knock 'em silly, Sensen!”

“That’s Sensei!” Applejack corrected, causing Rainbow to launch into a tirade that sounded like one part grumbling and one part laughter.

Junior watched them go with a slight smile and shake his head. Anguirus nudged his side.

“Hey, I can tell you got spooked back there. If you need to back off to get your bearings, they’ll be safe and sound with me,” the Alpha Guardian Beast muttered with the utmost conviction.

“I wouldn’t have ever lacked trust in you, old friend,” Godzilla sighed and nodded, “I won’t be far, and if anything this gives us a quicker response if I pick up anything further out that needs to be looked into… Or anyone.”

The notice and the subject, the wayward ‘sister’ to Anguirus, wasn’t unregistered. The spine-back bowed respectfully before moving towards the back of the stage. With that settled, Junior turned aside and saw something that gave him minor pause. Peachy Keen was a jubilant, but she was far from saddened. The concern was evident in the slight creasing at her lips that could indicate the echo of a frown, but instead there was a knowing smile.

“One teacher to another,” she quipped playfully, “For all the times you say you’re not good at talking , you got the body language firmly in captivity.”

Godzilla shrugged and smirked, “Hoped so, I’m pretty much just copying you and hoping for the best.”

“You always had a talent for it, just not the opportunity before,” Peachy patted his shoulder and handed him a cellular phone.

“You know how to work one of these?”

Junior studied it for a time and grunted slightly but did shake his head, “Seen them worked, never really used one myself. Know what they’re for though.”

“Fancy contraption, wasn’t here the last time I was about,” Peachy noted as she opened it with a very telegraphed button press to make sure he saw it, “This is Sunset’s.”

When the screen activated the sight of Princess Celestia’s formerly wayward and now reunited student in her human form greeted him, slightly off-center in a group photo that had both the band and Flash Sentry present. It seemed to have been taken at some sort of school event recently. Peachy indicated to a button at the bottom and tapped it.

“She lent it to me, if you press this button it will call any of the group; already set up. If something happens or is going to happen just let us know.”

Junior looked it over after accepting it into his large hand, very delicately turning the phone back on and copying the motion. Sure, enough a short list of names popped up.

“If something happens, I’ll call to tell you I’m on my way to help,” Junior nodded affirmatively.

Peachy Keen reached out before realizing she couldn’t reach high enough and retracted her arm, making a near universal ‘come here’ motion, Godzilla obliged and crouched in front of the shrunken royalty. Now in the range she was at her will to gently pat and rub his scalp.

“And if something happens and you need help, remember,” she giggled, “Lulu will want me to bring you back in one piece.~”

Her giggling intensified when he deadpanned and his gray skin had turned a very moderate shade of red.

“... Get up there, young one,” he snipped with all the delicacy of a sledgehammer, pointing to the stage.

“Firstly, I’m not in the band. Secondly, I’ll have you know young king, that I am over-”

“Slightly over half my age, currently,” Junior grunted while pointing at her in the same authoritative manner he’d seen her use on a rowdy official, “Now get moving young lady. King outranks princess to some.”

“Not in Equestria it doesn’t! We removed Queen from titles!” Peachy Keen stuck her tongue out, hands on her hips, ”And I could have been a queen if I wanted!”

Godzilla Junior beheld one of the most regal, wise, powerful beings he knew acting her age in the body of a 12 or so year old; and laughed. The worst of the visions were finally pushed out. Even in immaturity, she still had wisdom.

-These Equestrians… Can’t live without them.-

“And if you don’t want to get up to where I know Anguirus can play bodyguard, I’m about to haul you up there like young Miss Apple did Dash,” he faux pouted.

Peachy Keen snickered and paced after the Rainbooms, “Spoilsport. Gonna reprimand you when we get back. Remember, I am technically your boss as a guard.”

“Truly, I dread cleaning the barracks already,” Junior deadpanned.

Two figures in the crowd very silently watched the proceedings as the sirens whipped said crowd into a frenzy, observing with grim apprehension.

“You feel it too?” Wallflower Blush muttered as she covered her right ear and tilted her face towards her friend, “I should’ve packed wax.”

“You get used to it, it’s the same kind of magic emission I’ve been training to master,” Twilight replied before raising her brow, “And why wax?”

“You know? Wax in ears? In case of sirens? From the Odyssey,” Wallflower quipped with a grimace, feeling the sensations permeating the air coursing into her very skin. If Twilight had not told her to be on the lookout for such vibes and changes in emotional expression she wouldn’t have even noticed. Evidently the crowd didn’t notice as the alternating waves made her feel both extremely competitive, angry, energized, and in some very weird way jubilant; with that last feeling especially directed at the singers on stage.

“Oh… Oh, you read the classics too?” Twilight noted with a raised brow, perhaps trying to fish for some sort of topic to distract them as the song hit its fevered pitch; though she was genuinely surprised.

“Took a literature elective to get out of gym,” Wallflower shrugged, “Not like anyone noticed…. Well, at least the song is ending.”

The two witnessed the three sirens taking their bow to the adoration of the crowd, who were quite fired up after being unknowingly doused in an emotion manipulating light and dark magic. The two natives of this world who thought they were stopping an invasion were, ironically, half as ignorant. They didn’t know about the weavings of Hymnia’s melody in that last number, the very thing a kaiju they didn’t even know existed was reacting to a ways away.

What they did know and notice however was the group of five girls abruptly appearing on the opposite side of the stage as the entire melody of the music shifted. The sirens seemed surprised as well, but the manipulated duo were quick to observe they were not fearful. There was a smug sense of superiority at a perceived challenge and both knew where this was going.

“The girls who got magic grafted onto them,” Twilight whispered with concern, recognizing them from a few scattered pictures she got of Canterlot’s Fall Formal. What she was surprised about however was the presence of one Sunset Shimmer in their number, and the absence of the pink one.

Her mind raced at 10,000 mph, drawing up several observations and unfortunately putting two and two together to get a five.

“This… good? I mean they’re against the sirens,” Wallflower Blush whispered as she absentmindedly clutched her only weapon in the form of a very specific memory stone.

Twilight Sparkle grimaced a frown on her paled face, “No, I think it just got worse. That’s Sunset Shimmer up there with them.”

“Yeah,” Wallflower gulped as she remembered the only attention she ever got in her first and second year was the exact opposite any would want in high school. Hazing, insults, body checking in the hallways, spiting her at the one dance she ever dared attend until very recently. Yes, she knew Sunset Shimmer by sight alright.

“I noticed…”

“And if Sunset Shimmer’s with them, but the other Twilight Sparkle isn’t, that could only mean a few things,” Twilight Sparkle muttered before clearing her throat, “It could mean the sirens are an even worse threat than we imagined so much so that they would team up with a former enemy to stand a better chance, especially with one of them missing. Or, it could be Sunset making a power play. You said the pink one was their morale-boosting social tether?”

“Pinkie Pie is... Energetic.. So... that, yes.”

“Well, see her anywhere and see Sunset up front next to Rainbow Dash?” Twilight pointed out as the Rainbooms took position, Sunset Shimmer holding a guitar with a microphone in front of her, the exact same role Rainbow Dash usually boasted.

“Maybe she’s trying to stop the sirens to help…?” Wallflower wasn’t one to like to think about bad scenarios as she looked aside and gulped, “I heard from some of the others in school she’s turning over a new leaf.”

“Did they tell you that?” Twilight whispered with a little flicker of hopefulness for her friend’s isolation.

Wallflower hung down slightly in a pitiful slouch, “No, just overheard it. Usual with me, no one even really notices I’m in the room…”

Unconsciously and in direct opposition to the magical teachings Zephyrus had instilled in her for her enemies, as this was no such person, Twilight put an arm around Wallflower’s shoulders and gave her a slight hug… Though, her dutifulness made her somewhat mask it as her just making Wallflower pay attention to the stage.

“Well, I for one don’t believe those rumors. They may not be as bad as the sirens but if they are going to team up with her and not try and get the other me back to help, I don’t trust them,” Twilight snorted with a pout, only to perk up slightly, “Hey, look! Aria’s on the move.”

She pointed and as indicated while the other two sirens were eyeing over their apparent challenge for the audience’s attention, Aria Blaze was making an exit towards the back of the stage.

“I’ll go see if she’s departing,” Twilight whispered as she started to pull away, “Keep me posted if anything changes.”

“Wait!” Wallflower shouted at a volume that surprised even herself, finding that she had lashed out and grabbed her only friend by the wrist gently but very firmly. It took a few moments of them exchanging looks for her to mentally recalculate and remember what was on her mind.

Wallflower swallowed and frowned, “I-er… just… be careful. Don’t do anything risky without me.”

“Wallflower, I’m the one who is magically trained. If anyone should be going into any danger spots, it’s me,” Twilight spoke in a calm dissonance, trying to logically put the fears aside. An irony given it was the very fear she bore that was driving her magic.

Wallflower didn’t like the sound of that and threatened to tighten her grip, not liking this confidence both because of the circumstance and because it didn’t seem like the Twilight she knew. Like found like and if there was one thing they certainly had in common it was not being self-assured, “Pleeease... don’t do anything risky.”

Twilight frowned but took in a deep breath while closing her eyes, collecting herself and thinking back to everything at the warehouse. She also thought of what might happen if her attacker returned…

-No, no I can’t have doubt right now. The sirens are getting more brazen and if there’s a fourth one we didn’t know about, who knows how many more there might be. There is a magic battle about to go out in a populated area. I can’t afford to lose my nerve.-

“You believe in fate right?”

Wallflower paused but nodded slightly, “Well... Not devoutly, but... yeah, enough to believe some things have to happen.”

“Apparently my counterpart in a world where magic is safe is an element of that. If she can use magic to better her world, so can I. Maybe it’s the reason Zephyrus found me just like you found the stone,” Twilight nodded assuringly.

Wallflower Blush wanted to object, but there was both some logic there as well as not wanting to go against her only friend. Even if she was scared of her only friend getting hurt. The little she knew of the other Twilight Sparkle personally seem to show someone she could get along with. Someone who is smart, capable, ready to take on what was needed. After all she took on a demonic Sunset Shimmer, and won! And if they were counterparts, that had to matter for something…. Right?

“… Just, promise me you’ll be careful.”

Twilight Sparkle smiled and gave her friend a firm nod and smile, “Won’t have a scratch on me. Now, duty calls!”

And with that she disappeared into the crowd to circle around.

Whether they knew it or not, very likely the latter, they were dabbling in a mermare tradition of issuing a confrontation. While the average of their kind was no more dangerous than your typical equestrian, there were some amongst their number who were quite gifted magically. Causing a dispute with one of such or between two of them could be disastrous, and was the whole reason why queenship challenges, which commonly involved such above-average heavy hitters, were magically restricted. In olden times, before the pods were unified by her grandmother and ceased their nomadic foraging and raiding lifestyle, music magic contests were frequent as a means of keeping conflict from escalating too far if two rival groups met. Fight with your magic through your music.

"See anything?" Adagio muttered out of the side of her cheek upon seeing the humans beginning to play in a very clear sign of a challenge.

“A lot of mess,” a grumbling voice on the other side of the earpiece hidden in her hair responded.

A half mile away and on top of a ladder connected to a cell tower, Gigan sat crosslegged with a cable extending from his arm that linked him to said tower via its cell site. His glasses flickered back on with a red light and once again he was assailed by the inconvenient sight of an amorphous mass of null signals. Patches of space flooded with an energy his sensors couldn’t quantify.

“You three overdid it, I can’t see a thing through all that magic,” the cyborg grumbled, “Impressive display as it was, the magic permeating the audience and surrounding area is so thick I can’t pinpoint anything around here now... Nice work.”

“And now I’m impressive to you? My my, we’re making progress,” Adagio snickered as she backed out of sight on the stage but kept her eyes on the Rainbooms, “Well then, phase 1 complete. If this group brought any kaiju-“

“Which they undoubtedly did,” Gigan corrected.

“-Certainly brought kaiju, we’ve escalated the magic level so high that even if these humans are but a flicker they won’t be able to pick anything out from the area,” Adagio purred.

The logic was sound. Kaiju couldn’t pinpoint spikes of energy if there already was a lot of it filling the air. Or at the very least they would have a harder time doing that. Enough time for them to keep from interfering with Phase 2 unopposed at the least.

“I still have a reading on the target,” Gigan quipped as his cable continued to remain attached to the cell tower, “Phone registered to a Twilight Starla Sparkle from Crystal City is in this tower’s range.”

“Any idea where she is?” Adagio murmured with an edge in her tone.

“Other than in the crowd, no. But if I can’t see her, rest assured she most certainly can see you.”

Adagio grimaced slightly but hid it expertly. Those were most certainly not assuring words. Thankfully her train of thought was diverted away by a nudging from a siren who wasn’t a siren. The Rainbooms were beginning to play and they could already feel the music permeating the air with more than just sound waves. A subtle glow, one many the audience might just attribute to clever stage lighting, was beginning to form around some of the band members. Glancing aside, Adagio Dazzle could see Eventine Hymn had a particularly inquisitive look about her face.

“Is something about our competition making you worry?” Adagio posed between the music beats.

Eventide’s eyes narrowed studiously, “Other than surprise that Pinkie Pie isn’t here and Sunset Shimmer is, it’s those with their party who have my attention.”

Following her line of sight, Adagio soon noticed a few figures standing behind the curtains of the stage, clearly having arrived with the Rainbooms without actually being band members. Or, at least she assumed they weren’t given only one of them had an instrument on them. The first was a fairly normal-looking young man, blue hair, yellow-orange skin, wearing a jacket with a guitar case beside him. He seemed fairly invested in the song, lightly bobbing his head and tapping a foot in a clearly musically inclined tempo. He was noticed, but hardly worth it. The other two however, there was something else that seemed to grip Eventide’s and by proxy, Adagio’s attention.

The first was a stout but extremely strongly built man. He might not have had much muscle toning visible, but he was built with clear strength with just enough padding to hide it. His fairly exotic-looking garb, like what one might expect from North India, also stuck out. He wasn’t necessarily the tallest man Adagio had met, Gigan and X both had some inches on him easily, but he still had that uncanny projection of raw physicality that was decidedly abnormal. A passerby may not notice, but she’d been around five kaiju before and could almost pick up on the sensations they gave off. True, it wasn’t like he was holding up a sign or clear indication it was so, but Adagio could only nod at what Eventide whispered to her.

“Kaiju,” Eventide, “He must be guarding the Rainbooms.”

“All the more reason to keep them here then.”

“That works for now, but what about when their song finishes?” Eventide remarked while glancing aside at where Aria had gone.

Adagio stole a look in that direction as well and frowned. The observation that one of the enemy’s heavy hitters was right there was off-putting. The truth that Twilight, other Twilight, was nearby compounded it. Working through it in her mind, she nudged Eventide.

“We might have to pull out Phase 3 ahead of time, and Aria’s definitely gone-“ Adagio gulped, “-gone off for her part.”

She was about to say more when she picked up traces of magical radiation coming off from Eventide in the form of mist. It was… mixed to say the least. Not a pure green of strife nor a deep red of love or adoration. It was… blue? And purple? And red? And- Adagio shook her head. Whatever it was, Eventide was clearly feeling very, very mixed.

“Phase 3 is go!” Eventide yelped out as she pedaled forward and took up a microphone, sporting a very determined expression.

“Wait what are you-arrg!” Adagio hid her groan as she walked out after her, back on stage. While snatching up a microphone from a stand, she stole a glance at the other who had arrived with the Rainbooms and their pet kaiju guard-dog.

For a split second she wondered if the eerie sense she got of something being amiss with this little teenage girl was misplaced. The alpha siren was beset with a distinct sense of eerie familiarity. But the moment passed and she was forced to look away and towards the crowd as well as the band they were outright challenging.

Peachy Keen frowned at the band’s interruption. The one approaching them was the new one. Eventide Hymn was her name, that much Peachy Keen a.k.a Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor knew. What else she knew was she could tell the woman-girl-lady- oh it was so hard at times to figure out with that kind of provocative dress! -Whatever she was, she wasn’t a true siren. Contrary to a bit of a joke, her mentor Starswirl didn’t use this place as a magical disposal ground and so they knew exactly who had been banished here. It was just bad luck that her wayward student Sunset happened to find the mirror and went to the same realm the sirens had been banished to so long ago.

Starswirl hadn’t spoken much about the sirens, only shortly for the historic record or in a quiet evening night when she found him sadly gazing upon the portal mirror. From that, she knew the foe her teacher, father-figure, fought. They weren’t necessarily evil, more ambitious and aloof to the well-being of others, exceedingly troubled in their early history, craved recognition and attention, could possibly be reformed but were too dangerous to both themselves and others to risk being left to their own devices in Equestria with the resources available at the time. Starswirl had hoped they’d be happy here where no one could hurt them, but where they also couldn’t hurt anyone. She also very clearly knew there were only three of them. Only three, never any more than that and never any less either.

So who was this new character? She thought for a brief time that Eventide might be Sonata, the blue siren, perhaps using a new outfit and the name for whatever reason, but that was quickly shot down when Sunset showed her older footage from a month ago showing a siren concert. In terms of build all the sirens varied and while Sonata shedding or gaining some pounds might explain some changes, Peachy was doubtful she could suddenly grow in height. The archived footage of Sonata put her at a full head shorter than the fairly tall Adagio, and yet looking at them now, Eventide was only marginally shorter.

An extended family member maybe? Hearsay did list her as a cousin. Did the siren’s mother have another child before or after engendering the sorceresses, a more ‘normal’ mermare? Not impossible, but nothing proved it and Starswirl never said anything about them having a traveling companion such as a half-sister. Even with a mermare’s disguise ability, she highly doubted her mentor would throw even a disguised mare into the portal and yet somehow fail to notice them as an accomplice to the sirens.

That left the only possibility being she was a local masquerading as a siren. Peachy Keen’s brow furrowed as she felt a glimpse of Eventide’s line of sight on her, followed by Adagio’s.

-She definitely has magic, did the sirens somehow give it to her? If so, why is it different?-

Peachy Keen frowned as she forced herself to look away and look nondescript as possible. Even so she could get a bearing on the magic in the air, if only due to sheer experience. That experience told her Godzilla Junior was right on the bits when he said this place was starting to flood with it. But to her surprise it wasn’t necessarily dark magic she was sensing. It was certainly there, inflaming the crowd, but it wasn’t the tidal waves of strife and mental suggestion that bordered on mind control Starswirl spoke of.

~"Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh I've got the music in me Oh-oh, oh-whoa-oh!"~

Her attention diverted to the team she supported. The crowd roared at Rainbow’s singing voice, which Peachy could gleefully complement. Certainly not melodious, but talented in its own way. She had to make a mental note to maybe see if she could encourage her equestrian counterpart some day, rock music was an old favorite of hers. With such a wonderful invention in the past two decades, what was now under the umbrella of ‘classical’ was getting dull after a few centuries. Refocusing, Peachy Keen breathed in and basked in the waves of magic and vibes coming off the Rainbooms. It had its own charm, but it was very decidedly similar to the Elements she both bore and felt coming off the Bearers. It carried with it sensations of camaraderie, jovialness, confidence, victory, and most of all unity. Friendship, if one such as herself wanted to put it, distilled.

It was certainly having an effect on the crowd, calming some of the more rambunctious lot.

She also saw her formally wayward student happily strumming a guitar while getting in some choice words in between melodies. She too, was part of the effort and despite the sweat from effort or stage jitters, was standing strong. Her eyes shifted to the side briefly and out of the very corner of her eye, Sunset glimpsed something she’d always wanted. Peachy Keen, her mentor, flashing her a proud, beaming smile and small bow. A small bit of acknowledgment, that had a mountain of relief. Rolling her shoulders, Sunset Shimmer was reinvigorated and started playing with more gusto; stepping forward and getting in a few more lines in chorus with an all-too-happy-to-increase-the-“Awesome”-levels-Rainbow Dash. The former unicorn’s smile was wide and her eyes bright. She, very clearly, was having the time of her life; and Peachy couldn’t be prouder.

That pride however, turned to minor shock and surprise when someone else picked up the line.

“~Don't need to hear a crowd Cheering out my name!~” Rainbow Dash started before seemlessly handing the lyrics over to the one she was back-to-back with, Sunset Shimmer, “~I didn't come here seeking Infamy or fame~”

They were just about to start the next cord and hammer in the song based magic when-

“~The one and only thing That we are here to bring Is muuuusiiic,~"

For the briefest moment, Rainbow Dash and Sunset Shimmer did a mental double take at the new voice joining in. Looking aside, Peachy Keen’s head shot up at seeing how Eventide Hymn had stepped back onto the stage with an almost sultry step; using the sway of her hips as momentum to bring a microphone to her lips. Behind her, Adagio Dazzle seemed just as surprised and also had retrieved a mic.

"~is the music Is the music in our soul!~”

Eventide Hymn sang, pointing at both the Rainbooms but then sweeping her arm to the crowd with an opened hand; a perfect emulation of Adagio’s style, which Adagio herself was now forced to emulate.

There was a noticeable shift in the air and it was the exact opposite that Peachy Keen had planned for, nor expected. The counter spell was meant to be an antithesis to any influence the sirens had over the crowd, cancel out their power base. But despite having no way to know the lyrics, Eventide had intruded upon the song. Stealing away moments that were supposed to go to the chorus, she managed to perfectly align new lyrics with the melody. Now it was as though she and Rainbow Dash were having to fight over their own song.

And instead of canceling out siren magic, the Rainboom’s spell song was only bolstering- and in turn bolstered by -Eventide’s inclusion. The magicks weren’t fighting each other, but complementing each other. They were only making Eventide stronger!

Eyes wide, Peachy Keen almost spilled forward when she glimpsed a very brief flicker of a glow around Eventide Hymn, a clear indication of a magic charge. She only caught herself mid-step from rushing out when the former alicorn happened to notice Adagio muttering something into what seemed to be a hidden earpiece… before acting.

======================

She’d felt a pair of eyes on her and that made her uneasy, both in its very nature as well as the fact she couldn’t tell who it was.

Twilight Sparkle lurked closer, looking or at least trying to look excessively inconspicuous amongst the passersby and student body outside a few odd glances she got from the occasional Canterlot High student which lingered for a moment or two. Still, it wasn’t anything to elicit conscious action so she more or less just wrote it off as subconscious recognition that was present but faint. It gave her a shiver regardless and she pulled down her large hat a bit more just in case, taking a moment to inspect her reflection to ensure none of her rather long hair was poking out of her netting and hat. Just a passerby, face in the crowd, that was all she wanted to be to both those observing the music exhibition and the student body especially. If anyone saw and fully registered the face of the heroine from the last Fall Formal this could get excessively complicated.

She made her way through the crowd, cutting through the fringe to get to the isolated portion near the ramp leading up to the stage. The crowds were entranced too much in the obvious body language between the bands to notice her much here, all eyes on the stage. Save one.

Twilight looked at the similar purple, albeit a different shade, face of Aria Blaze. The look was locked for longer than a fleeting glance, even if it was over in a few moments and caused both to freeze in firm recognition. Aria was on the edge of the stage, having sat out a potential song after the Dazzlings’ number and not joining Adagio or Eventide at the microphones; though Twilight wasn’t quite sure as to why. Likely given the haste the third siren had, Eventide wanted to avoid them getting shown up by the Rainbooms who were still on the other side of the stage. Already crowds were beginning to cheer and clap, hoping for a song duel.

Aria briefly tilted her head, obviously surprised to see Twilight where she was. Her eyes glanced to the stage before looking back. Much to Twilight’s surprise, the siren then started mouthing a phrase. Whether she was actually talking or not the magic user couldn’t tell at a distance, given the ten yard gap between them. But it appeared the purple siren was mouthing the words, ‘What are you doing-’ before she stopped short.

Adagio and Eventide began singing back at the Rainbooms, eliciting a roar of applause from the crowd that bit into the bit for some competition. Aria listened for half a second before her eyes widened at Twilight. She clutched her necklace and bolted away from the stage, Twilight cursing and taking off after her.

She chased the invading sea demoness, keeping a very wary eye out for any flashes of red to signal the return of that most monstrous of cyborgs. Unrelated to the sirens her attacker may be, aside from maybe being some sort of metallic golem from the other realm Zephyrus hailed from, the threat was always very real. In that way crowds were a blessing and a curse. Blessing in that if she disguised well enough she might be able to hide amongst them and avoid detection, curse in that she felt very fearful of using Zephryus’ instruction in an area where some poor bystander might get hit in the crossfire. She’d had trouble with the cyborg before as is, she didn’t and wouldn’t risk more strain trying to defend, attack, and let her negative emotions do the driving lest she lapse control around some outside factor.

Which meant it was a great relief to her that the siren was running away from any crowd and to an isolated alley system near downtown. Twilight touched at her ear as she ran after the fleeing siren.

“Wallflower, I’ve got a siren on the run!”

A brief fizz of static heralded her old friend to speak back, background music indicating she was back at the concert, “I-I hear you! Where are you?”

Twilight eyed her surroundings, “Headiiing near downtown, alleys behind the movie theater. For a sea witch she runs fast! I’m going to try and stop her with my powers but come quick just in case we need to avoid witness memory.”

“A-Are you sure I’m precise enough for that? We’ve only practiced a few times,” Wallflower stammered, and through the shift in how she was holding the phone Twilight knew she was clutching the Memory Stone.

Twilight huffed, seeing Aria bolt down a path and having to recall a route she recalled from memorizing the roadmaps as a shortcut which she took, “I trust you. We’ll also use it on her if we can.”

“But Zephyrus didn’t have us use it on the first siren we cleansed.”

There was a flash of a cold, biting feeling with a memory. Of Sonata’s teary face and begging whimper when she removed her necklace. Twilight grimaced and pushed it aside, “That-That was for a reason, so is this. We use it on her, and she’ll think she’s just a normal, harmless, human woman. No threat to others or herself. We’ll do the same when we find the first one and purge the magic of the third.”

“And fourth,” Wallflower corrected with a slight huff in her town to indicate the gardener was jogging out of the crowd and trying to catch up, “Remember Eventide.”

As little sense as that made given everything prior in her research even before Zephyrus arrived indicated only three sirens. Then again, she was trying to gauge the length of essentially a magical alien infestation or invasion, he professed to being of a bygone time, and the other monsters had blindsided all of them. First the hospital incident that was almost certainly not just a gas explosion, then the readings and lights in the wildnerness she didn’t believe for a moment were some lightning or auroras given they had made her sensors commit suicide, and then her own attacker at the school. Things were happening that no one seemed to be paying attention to, be it some long standing idea to not talk about weird things that happened in this town for decades ranging from events of the Fall Formal to legends of some ‘Tree Angel’ years back, or fear about where those questions might lead.

Which meant she was either very daring for refusing ignorance and chasing after a magical monster, or too scared about what not knowing and turning a blind eye might lead to. She didn’t know where these threats came from, be it new sirens, new monsters without description, or the frightful observation that humans were showing magic infection too with the Rainbooms. But if everyone else was going to ignore it, that was all the more reason why she had to stop it.

Resolute, Twilight huffed as she sprinted after Aria, “I remember, but she’s back on stage with their leader. Adagio seems to be the strongest but we’ll have to hope whatever the Rainbooms are doing keeps her and Eventide occupied. Aria’s alone and we might not get a chance like this!”

She channeled that fear, that- dare she say- spite at this invader, which flowed through her. It caused the air around her to grow colder and small bits of her hair started to rise up even under her hat. For a split second she glimpsed a glow about her eyes similar in shape to her glasses. Just like she was taught, channeling negativity and.. spite as she put it, she still didn’t like Zephyrus’ liberal use of the word ‘hatred’, to fuel the device containing the claimed siren gem. The dark power from the gem, the evil magic that might corrupt or control her world, was bent to her will. As long as she carefully managed it. She had to after all, she was just about the only one who could control magic reliably in this world of chancy users.

Twilight grit her teeth and saw Aria’s fleeing form dart into an alley, gaining space between them thanks to greater stride and or athleticism. At least until Twilight pointed her hands at the ground and wall behind her and concentrated, shoving a wall of glowing, purple telekinesis magic into it without grounding herself. Quite the opposite in fact given her feet and the space below them were covered in ice. Sliding across the rapidly freezing pavement to leave twin trails, Twilight kept shoving backwards to propel herself along and catch back up to an obviously shocked Aria.

Knowing no witnesses were about, Twilight cut a bit more loose than normal to try and end this quickly while also minimizing the chance of harm to anyone. It took a lot of strain, a lot of focus, as cold sweat ran down her face. The intention of homing in on every bad experience at school and every worry for her world in the face of this invasion by magic, it gave her enough spite to create a wall of ice by generating the frost and then yanking it out of the ground with telekinesis. It took even more focus not to let that wrath slip and try to ram a shard of sharpened ice through her foe. Still, it meant she had to concentrate on Aria entirely; confident they were in a good spot.

Still, sharpened icicles formed and nearly were shot out if not for her mentally struggling on the emotions pouring out of the siren charm. It was like shoving a lid down on a bursting kettle and holding the steam in with your finger, so much strain it caused her to gasp briefly. Notice of Aria turning around and facing her was thankfully motivation for Twilight to throw up another ice wall and pin the siren between them.

The walls were several meters high and not exceptionally thick, but in some way Twilight hoped the sharp spires sticking out towards the middle would motivate the siren to not try and bash through them. Huffing as her hat fell off, Twilight adjusted her glaces and grimaced. Using her telekinesis to grip the second wall, she held her hands out and walked forward. Amidst the grounding and cracking of the frost sheets, the icy wall started to advance towards the first of its kind. Aria, visible as a silhouette through the ice, backed away as Twilight advanced.

Step by step, she closed the gap; mentally trying her best to break some of the icicles and move them so that she might catch and pin her quarry between them without harm. Aria thankfully didn’t try to climb out or run to the side, already caught between two spires of ice that started to impale the wall behind her. Instead she was soon caught standing straight up and down, arms spread, and still. Twilight couldn’t tell how close the walls were exactly, but she guessed it was close. The siren didn’t seem to budge or try and free herself.

The relief nearly broke all of her focus on the emotions driving her magic and Twilight panicked, not wanting to weaken even for a fleeting moment. One wrong move and the siren got away. One other wrong move and she might kill her!

Twilight put her hands to the icy wall and felt at it, trying to keep her control as precise as possible. The gap closed closer and closer, now itching itself. Aria seemed to shift slightly and that almost gave Twilight pause, but her stillness kept up an assurance.

She had the monster trapped, with not one drop of blood spilt; be it hers or the siren’s.

Twilight Sparkle swallowed and adjusted herself, trying not to pay attention to the glow coming off from around her eyes she could see in the reflection of her glasses. Placing a hand where the red glow about the siren’s necklace lay, the crusader stole herself before pressing on. At her will the ice slowly started to pull away, little strands of telekinesis causing microfractures that lead into bigger ones; pulling and prying pieces of ice away to let her through. The cold soon gave way to empty air again. Through the fringes of the hole, she could see her hand pierce the gap between the walls and approach Aria’s panting chest and ruby-red necklace.

Twilight gulped and paused only for a moment, not sure whether to be proud in her achievement or anxious about it being so successful. The hitched breath from the siren gave her other cause.

“Sh-Shush it’s going to be okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” Twilight whispered.

Seeing Aria seem to shift again, she best hoped she was heard and understood as she continued, “But I can’t risk you or other magic hurting others. I’m going to fix it…”

Her hand approached the necklace and her fingers curled around it. Or they should have. Instead, she felt as if she hit a glass wall. Twilight paused but reached out again, feeling at the air and again feeling a solid mass some distance away from the necklace. It was round, perfectly spherical; like a radius of a shell. Finally opting for some force, Twilight attempted to reach in further; only for a force greater than what she tried to push in with repulsing her effort. The mage yelped, and she would have stumbled back had a hand not caught her by the wrist.

A hand between the walls, that held her wrist in a crushing grip that caused her to gasp.

“... Just like you fixed Sonata?” the venom in the voice wasn’t a subtle drip; it was a surging wave.

A flash of red came from behind the thin ice wall, coming from Aria’s eyes. Between the ice walls, she had braced herself between them to give the illusion she had been pinned. Kicking off the back wall’s base and twisting her hip around, Aria did the last thing Twilight expected a sea witch to do. Yank her forward while letting out a loud kiai and throwing a haymaker so strong it burst through the ice and rammed into her gut so hard it knocked the mage off her feet.

Literally and figuratively gutpunched, Twilight Sparkle gagged and the Crystal Prep star student was sent into a flurry of convulsions even after she landed on her feet and stumbled back.

Aria Blaze was told to control her bursting emotions in this state, even if it was a far weaker version than her previous glory. But as she gripped the fringes of the hole Twilight’s hand and her own now bloody fist made in the ice, she couldn’t resist a little rage at this target in particular. This human, this bitch had mutilated her cousin and sent their life into a spiral just as they were picking it up. Oh to the abyss’ taint with this Twilight not wanting to hurt her, Aria was all too keen to not return the favor!

Ignoring the pain in her sore knuckles, a slightly darker colored Aria Blaze managed to pry and tear a larger gap in the ice wall; big enough for her to step through. Violet eyes with flakes of red glared at her transgressor. A pang of disgust, but no sympathy, washed over her as she witnessed the counterpart of someone she knew. True, she and Princess Sparkle weren’t exactly buddy-buddy, but the alicorn-turned-human’s willingness to help where she could despite owing them nothing was a plus in Aria’s book. She didn’t cause a fuss, helped with Sonata, had no eyes on Aria’s mutual claim, and didn’t oppose Adagio outside of meaningful council. Definition of a decent podmate.

This wretch… Aria sneered and snarled. Where did she get off trying to ride the high and mighty, ‘I mean you no harm’ horse while doing such evil to them?! Granted her own beloved once did the same, but given the rage she felt coming off her mate when he saw Sonata’s condition; Aria couldn’t imagine X being remotely secure with that old choice if he knew the fallout. When he told her to give the heart up without a fight that first time they met, it felt genuine. She hated his guts for it at the time, but she could tell he wasn’t going to be spilling hers for complying.

This, this just came off as this dumb witch knowing she was in the wrong and trying to excuse it to herself. Patronizing her intelligence all the while, like Aria couldn’t tell she wasn’t genuine. Aria Blaze was disgusted even before her attacker violently vomited from getting gut punched so hard.

Aria lunged and grabbed the offender by her hair. The siren glimpsed something in Twilight’s ear, but couldn’t tell if it was some headphone or earplug. If the latter and she was expecting some kind of song magic, she best think again. Aria painfully yanked on Twilight’s ponytail and caused her to stammer forward, directly into her raised knee. A wet gag signaled the air voiding Twilight’s lungs, especially after Aria hit her again over the back with an elbow.

It was abundantly clear that, hand to hand, the siren was utterly dominating her pursuer. And with no one around to bail her out, for Aria had run in this direction for that very purpose; she was hers. And so after catching her good fist in the hand that had punched through the ice, its knuckles still bloody, Aria Blaze intentionally let the pain shoot up her arm to give her a jolt of pain killing endorphins. No slowing her down to making her pull any punches.

Wallflower was sprinting along the paths indicated at an already brisk pace, trying not to draw any attention whilst keeping a wary eye out for Twilight’s mysterious metallic attacker at the school or who knew what else was about lately! Everything had shifted for her in the past months and changed so drastically. A Fall Formal involving a years-long bully becoming a raging she-demon was just the start. Even with it, she could have written magic as a one off oddity until finding the stone.

The first few uses were so mild that she hadn't even noticed. It took some deja vu and a lucky botched attempt at recording a Vlog gardening video to realize what had even happened as she'd been hitting herself with it. Then some trials on figuring out how to use it without affecting herself too, followed by some controlled testing in a secure setting with no risk to herself or others to gradually work her skill up with- Oh who was she kidding, she prepared to use it the first chance she got to try and talk to a boy she liked since third grade without risks!

A cold snap went down her spine as she shoved that memory aside, not wanting to think about how she was an hour after the attempt despite passing by that very same area just a few paces ago.

-No no no! Do not! Forget forget forg-.....-

She had a moment to realize she’d almost pointed the stone at herself, having felt her emotions tank in some many ways; as flashes of her own hands ripping off her unused dance dress and constantly running sobbing and mucus messying her face. It had been a rare attempt to pretty herself up that the breakdown resulted in her looking no doubt hideous. All because of that bob of red and yellow hair…

There was a cold sensation about her, coming from the North curiously enough despite the previous breeze being southerly. Coincidentally it shoved into her from behind, almost as if egging her on to get close. Wallflower’s mind was in another mental tailspin, one of many from years of gnawing isolation and desperation for company. After relishing each and every view on her gardening videos, the largest of which got a grand tally of 4, it seemed exactly what she needed to hear was heard.

The earpiece connected over to Twilight crackled and let out a sharp, snapping sound akin to shattered glass or ice, followed by Twilight audibly gasping from getting struck. And suddenly, all the frost Wallflower Blush was following to pick up Twilight’s trail, all the frost in the world, wasn’t chilly enough for how cold she was. Wallflower’s legs kept moving automatically, but her mind was white noise.

Through the earphone there were clear signs of an altercation. Some female voice that Wallflower Blush didn’t recognize shouting and Twilight emitting a wretched noise, Blush knew from years of stress vomiting that it was the sound of a stomach being voided.

Twilight’s voice was a whimper and croak, “N-No! Stop! GAk! Ah!”

And wet, deep thumps indicating impacts, followed by pained groans and cries.

The north wind roared again as a tear ran down Wallflower’s face. The wind seemed to dig in, almost slithering inside her from breathing it in. It brought up images, horrific images. Flashes of red across purple skin, shattered glasses, and dead gray glossing over violet eyes. Wallflower’s eyes widened in abject horror as she bore witness to the sound of her friend, her only friend, getting beaten to death. Unseen to her was the outline of a windigo cackling as Boreas reveled in her despair and agony. The lonely ones who’d tasted companionship always granted him the second sweetest nourishment, for there was only one better.

The North wind pointed her at the distant street and Wallflower bolted towards it in abject terror, screaming into her earpiece as frosted tears streamed down her face.

“T-WILIGHT! H-HANG ON TWILIGHT I'M COMING!" the tears flowed as she heard another wet crack, "Please..."

Aria Blaze had a few scrapes from getting shoved against a brick wall, flailing arms with fingernails cutting into her, and a bruise here or there from a lucky hit considering she wasn't bothering to block much. But there was a very clear disparity. When Twilight threw the punch she overextended her shoulder and lost power, didn't snap her hip enough, and didn't tighten up her gut when a returned blow was thrown her way. Aria wasn't exactly a black belt, though she had taken some classes even before getting attacked the first time, and a large portion of her 'date' nights with X as Adagio called them were sparring sessions. Magic could only get them so far if things went south, that was something she learned from Starswirl.

She'd trained and practiced to hurt those who hurt her. At one time Adagio, then X, and then the shadow monster. And now this other Twilight Sparkle, who Aria easily had 20-30lbs of muscle on despite being of similar height, was upping her track record to 2 out of 4.

Grabbing a desperate smacking hand her pursuer threw to divert away the frigid magic that engendered icicles behind her and yanking Twilight forward, Aria snarled and buried a knee into her chest and gut. Twilight gasped and doubled over, the siren putting her in a headlock as she shoved them against a partially frozen wall. Bracing Twilight against it, Aria grunted as she gave no room for Twilight to hit her with her increasingly panicked magic. She ignored Twilight's flailing arms and hands and kneed her over and over again. Until-

Ccrauwck!

Twilight screamed mutely, choking on air over her broken rib. Aria loosened her grip and shifted aside, letting the battered human crumble the ground limply clutching her side.

For a split second the siren paused and frowned, looking at the being who arguably came closest sans maybe one to permanently harming the sirens, her family.

-The Mako traitors banished us, Starswirl did that again on a larger but less personal scale, Adagio's arrogance drove a wedge that we've removed, and X proved more a boon than bane. That creature...-

A shiver raced up her back as she forced back painful memories, remembering instead the warmth she had last night. She glared down at a gasping Twilight.

-It came close. But no lasting harm. But you…-

The image of a mute, horribly scarred, traumatized Sonata was all she needed to see.

-You made it personal.-

Aria grabbed and shoved back on Twilight's face and pushed her to the ground, climbing onto, sitting, and pinning her enemy down. Aria glared at the necklace she knew had Sonata’s heart inside it and Twilight reacted reflectively, trying to shield it as she focused on her magic. Aria gave her no chance, smacking the human across the face hard enough to send her glasses flying off. She snatched at Twilight’s hand, prying it back and pinning it to the ground by the wrist. Just to make more of a point, she put weight on the lower portion of Twilight’s chest, right on the busted rib.

“This. Isn’t. Yours!” Aria snarled as Twilight whimpered and gagged on air from the pain, reaching for the exposed necklace; only to feel her hand repulsed.

Aria Blaze’s mind was a span of whitenoise in dumbstruck shock. She tried again and was yet once more repulsed. Again and again, with the blowback pulse causing Twilight to get shoved back down into the frosted ground the more the siren tried to reach through what was like an invisible pane of glass. The same barrier that once protected them was now being used against them.

Aria’s eyes saw and flashed red as her skin darkened to a degree, glaring daggers at the battered form below her. Twilight was on her back, bruises over her face and arms, red trickling from a busted nose and cut across her cheek; whimpering and crying in pain. She was uttering a word over and over again, looking beyond Aria with her good eye.

“You… YOU BITCH!” Aria snarled as she grabbed Twilight’s forehead beyond the necklace’s barrier, gripping a wad of hair and forcing the human to look at her.

“What did you do to it?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!” Aria bellowed, shaking her victim.

“W-W-What are?” Twilight shuddered, red and tears flowing down her cheek.

Aria looked to the necklace containing the siren heart, “Sonata is my family and that is her necklace! I should be able to touch it. Barrier can be breached by another siren. Did you do something to it? Something that helped you tear it out of her?!”

Aria wasn’t evil per se, at least not anymore. She didn’t go attacking or mind altering people without a purpose anymore, love magic gave a much better boon. But true kindness was only allotted so far to her pod and its closest allies. And this was her enemy as much as any mortal being had ever been. Aria threw her head back down to the ground and, worming her way around the necklace’s barrier, grabbed Twilight Sparkle by the neck and started squeezing.

“Tell me. TELL ME NOW!” She squeezed, giving the countdown.

Conscious and giving it back or unconscious and dragged back to Everfree, this ended now.

Twilight Starla Sparkle was so terrified. Her vision was fuzzy not just from losing her glasses, but from the constant tears flowing. Everything hurt, everywhere and more than she’d ever had before. She could hear her attacker’s words but was unable to articulate a response back or signal she was about to even before Aria started choking her.

As her vision started to darken, she swore she could glimpse the spectre of winter on the rooftop above her. Watching her get beaten to death. Just watching.

-Help… me….-

She whimpered as a tear ran down her face.

-Zephyrus, please help…-

She wasn’t sure if her mentor was really there or just her mind hallucinating. But with her mind upon him however, the last words given from their last lesson returned.

To truly love what existed now, you must hate the alternatives. No moderation, no compromise. One cannot channel malice truly while containing it, just as a blizzard needs an open sky to rage.

She hated her world overrun by monsters. She hated her kind, family, and life potentially destroyed or subjugated by invaders. She hated dying. And she hated the one killing her.

The storm she was keeping contained in a box exploded outwards.

Forcing against Aria Blaze’s hand, Twilight Sparkle wrenched herself up and let out a shriek that barely qualified as human. Aria Blaze shut her eyes from the flash of light, shielding her face with the arm that had been choking her opponent. Blinded, she soon felt a hard smack across her face so strong it sent her spiraling off. Wind roared, causing her to slide back across the ice until she thumped against the opposite wall. There was a streak of red on the ice and soon after reached for a stinging heat on her cheek.

Three gashes had been carved into her cheek up to her brow, deeply. Try as she may her vision was hopelessly blurry and Aria was forced to keep the eye shut. A thick cloud of cold mist had formed where she’d been, despite the swirling wind. And within it stood Twilight, or at least someone.. something with her face.

Her hair had come completely undone and was slowly floating in the air in spite of the howling gales. While the glasses were gone, glowing bands of magic had approximated their shape while a pair of icy antlers and a single horn had appeared upon her brow. One large mass of solidified mist and ice had appeared across her back, seemingly quite painfully given the red streaks dotted across it. It looked like a wing to an extent, if an incomplete one that lacked a counterpart. The ice around the based looked like an explosion frozen in time. Her broken arm was audibly snapped back into place and secured by bands of frost. Twilight herself had grown in height, as evident by her stretched and torn clothes, with a span of icicles having encrusted over her fingertips into a menacing set of talons. The same that had sliced into Aria’s face. The red staining on parts of the transformed Twilight's body showed most of the blood wasn't Aria's however.

The black aura around Twilight was dark as midnight, and roaring with a howling blizzard. She distended her jaw father than a human should be able to, shrieking a haunting scream at Aria Blaze.

High above, Zephyrus watched on from his hideaway with bemused intrigue.

This girl, she was introverted to an extreme degree, wary of others, tried to shoulder too much on her own, and didn’t put enough faith in others. Had Zephyrus not found Wallflower and got her involved to the point Twilight dropped her guard, the windigo doubted she’d have a friend in the world. But, she had potential. So, so much raw potential. The same he saw over two decades ago in the children at the animal hospital and the last Gaea Everfree. The potential for so much good was there even if it wasn’t fated. It was a possibility as to what she could have been instead of what she would be. The potential to be a Bearer to one of Harmony’s elements. Now she was corrupted, not as far as he planned but on the path. So much potential for destruction. He'd torn her away from any fate an Element would grace her as far as he knew, defiling that destiny. So much potential as the ultimate insult to his master’s ancient enemy, for it wasn’t just Twilight’s isolation, ignorance, and power that drew Zephyrus to use her; but the chance to spite a goddess with a living blasphemy.

In Equestria, Twilight Starla Sparkle was Harmony's champion; even if she didn't know it. In this world, she'd be an engine for the great Grogar's ambition; driving them to the path of restoration!

Zephyrus grinned and clapped slowly as Twilight Sparkle screamed out in a mix of spite and terror at her attacker. Tears of fear and pain rolling down her face, Twilight meant to shout ‘Get! Back!’, ‘I hate you!’, or something to either effect.... Instead all that came out was a howling shriek before a wave of frosted air and telekinesis slammed into Aria Blaze and shoved her into the ice wall from before. Coughing and gagging from getting the wind knocked out of her, Aria stumbled back up but quickly dodged out of the way when Twilight raised a hand and thrust it towards her.

It was a wise move as five streaks of telekinesis, like gripping talons, crushed down onto the ice and carved five gouges into its surface with such force the wall shattered soon after. Rolling across the ground and staggering up, Aria forced air into her lungs and assessed the situation. She could open and look out her eye, but the cuts and leaking blood made it sting and hard to see from, all but forcing her to shut it. She had limited depth perception, and was winded from beating down Twilight, who was now a raging she-demon. Twilight came at her again and Aria Blaze braced as she was crashed into with manic strength.

Twilight got atop her, stabbing ice-tipped talons into the ground beside her head while aiming for the eyes. Aria avoided it but gagged when the crazed monstrosity grabbed her by the neck and started squeezing. Twilight wept frozen tears as she screamed again and unworldly wail. Aria gasped and collected herself even as her vision turned blacker. Noticing the arm clutching her was the one she'd broken early, she swung her fists down as hard as she could while throwing her knees into Twilight's back. The fractured limb broke with an audible crack once again and Twilight stumbled off her. Aria Blaze coughed as she rolled back up to her feet. She took in what she had and let out another powerful shriek of graviton boosted power. The shockwave blasted Twilight backwards, but the wind still raged and the dark form was soon recovering as her arm snapped back into place.

Aria huffed, almost annoyed.

-Yep, can’t finish this on my own.-

Bracing, she eyed her backpack; which had come loose in the struggle, and sprinted for it. Twilight sneered and swung again, a shove of telekinesis almost catching the siren. It forced her to stumble over and roll, having one of her legs caught and knocked back by the wave of moving air. Unfortunately as luck would have it, the backpack happened to get whipped up by the churning gales and thrown near where Twilight was. And at the siren’s continued approach, a mix of hatred, spite, and terror gripped the transformed human.

Twilight, or what had been, shrieked and caused numerous shards of ice to come spearing out of the ground. Time seemed to slow as the transformed human’s eyes widened in horror at the siren still coming, Aria’s skin briefly flashing to a darker hue as she dove over the icicles sticking out of the ground. Twilight twisted about, raising her wing back and lashing out with its thick, blunt top as a club, ripping through her own icy formations to do so amidst a shower of shards. Tucking her legs in, the siren barely managed to avoid getting smacked by the wing and sailed over it.

Careening towards the ground, Aria Blaze ignored a few icy points that dug into her skin and grabbed the backpack.

By the time Twilight Sparkle whipped back around, ripping her wing from the ice formations, a bright flash engulfed her vision. Shielding her eyes for a moment, her vision adjusted as the light dimmed. Through the blinding veil came the illuminated form of a winded, panting Aria. Her clothes were ragged and red dripped down her cut and huffing face, but even as she stood tired and worn; she was smirking. And high above, cast from the toy pistol-like object Aria was holding that she’d fetched from the bag, a bright white firework streamed upwards before bursting.

Twilight Sparkle screamed in alarm at her brutalizer, a much wider wave of frigid air, flying lances of ice, and telekinesis rushing down the alley like a tsunami. It stretched wall to wall, yanking trash cans, drain pipes, and debris off the ground and walls to hurl it forward. Twilight and Aria’s eyes met, whited out violet looking to reddened violet.

In truth, they were similar in some regards. Both were channeling some dark magic, both were in pain, and both were scared out of their mind. Twilight seeing someone who nearly beat and suffocated her into unconsciousness as Aria was witness to someone who’d traumatized her family and became something that could do worse. Twilight’s mind’s eye was back on the ground, pinned and getting choked by a snarling siren. Aria’s was transported back to a hospital bed with a shadowy Aspect of Land lurching for her.

They only differed in who was instinctively defending out of hate and fear and who was attacking out of bravery as only one had been taught how to extend her abilities beneficially.

Sucking in a deep breath, Aria let out a massive uproar so low in frequency that the modified sonar blast was virtually inaudible. But the impact, propelled by visible streams of gravitons, was arguably even stronger than the shout she’d used at the hospital.

The two attacks collided with so much force it shot the falling firework back up into the air and cracked the walls of the alley, ice rapidly forming and shattering from the clashing shockwaves. The clash continued for several seconds, back and forth, before the gravity burst overpowered the polar storm. As the gales and rumbles blew towards her, Twilight dropped her attack and crossed her arms and wing over herself.

Aria’s legs weakened as her vision began to leave her. She buckled at the knees as the dark hues lifted from her skin and red left her good eye. She’d been singing to her lover for some time and drawing some power slowly from him, but it was less potent than when she was intentionally siphoning power off from Kaizer Ghidorah. Her enhanced form hadn’t returned and there was only so much the emergency stores could do.

Still, she could be proud of how far she went with her efforts. Succeed or fail, the nightmares would probably stop from the satisfaction of going the distance.

The daughter of Princess Hymnia fell and was grabbed onto, not fighting back as her necklace was gripped and heart held in another’s hand. She didn’t resist because she knew the touch and smell of the one clutching her.

Her siren heart was gripped closely and kissed like the night before. Golden jolts flowed out of the hand and into the gem, coursing back into Aria’s limp body and shocking into her like a defibrillator. Aria’s eye didn’t need to open to gaze at a face so covered up on top and so average and scarred underneath, memory of how red his eyes were was enough to make her shiver. Still, she couldn’t resist opening an eye to check, looking back at X with a tired but relieved smile. The flush came on it’s own when the calm in her sea held her.

Yes indeed, she was smitten.

“I just don’t think this was necessary, you could... did get hurt,” X whispered with a slight stutter in his voice.

Aria chuckled in a weakened tone even while being revitalized by the loaned energy, “Didn’t seem to mind me getting scraped up before.”

“Can you stand or walk?” X grunted with a slight frown on his face regardless of her bravado.

A slow hiss seeped through the air, huffing almost like the source of the noise was weeping. X frankly couldn’t find himself to care, after all what sounded like laughter from a predator might mean it was about to attack. And with how much out of control power he sensed and how Aria was torn up, he wasn’t taking chances with pity. A salvo of graviton bursts from his eyes, those golden streams of plasma wrapped in tight nets of gravitons particles, were all the response that the dark form uncurling a wing from around herself got.

The smoke from the impacts blotted out visibility for the latter half of the alleyway, obscuring it from sight. But aside from the echoes of the bursts’ onslaught and the distant concerte, all was quiet.

Aria Blaze frowned as she stabilized her footing, the loaned energy from X and a moment to collect herself helping to regain balance, “Looks like plan B panned out…”

X didn’t nod, nor shake his head, “You said you’d summon me over if you couldn’t get the necklace off her, yes?”

Aria shrugged but nodded along with a huff in her tone, “Our hearts’ barrier activates automatically unless it’s someone related. I figured since her necklace no doubt had Sonata’s heart inside it and I’m her cousin, I should have been able to get at it. Sh-she had to have done something to it, I couldn’t get through.”

“Well, the barrier should have blocked the beams too; given they are partially physical. We can collect it and use this other Twilight to find my master’s quarry,” X noted, “After all, we still don’t know how she breached Nata’s barrier to begin with.”

Aria took a welcome distraction from that… very disconcerting observation, “Huh, first time I’ve heard you use her nickname.”

Her lover, despite the situation, shrugged in a hint of playfulness only a tiny handful of anyone had ever seen, raising his hand up, “She’s grown on me.”

Before any other ribbing for some much needed levity could ensue, the weather shifted. Unseen to all, a gust of wind from the west had slipped through the alley when X arrived. Through the smoke and haze, a hunched form staggered up in a creaking, jerking, uncanny way. The ice constantly formed around her, cracking and chipping with each moment.

Then the wind and freezing gales roared, shards of ice suspended in mid-air with the wall of winter howling. What had been Twilight Sparkle stood in an unsteady stance, the shifting wind and flowing frost forming a shape behind her. One that Aria froze upon viewing, much to X's notice. The shape was looking right at her and seemed to smirk.

-Boreas’ spawn, not a weakling. Excellent!-

Zephyrus cackled in laughter that sounded like a raging wind.

"Aria, what is it?!" X snapped, even if he didn't mean to, in a ploy to jostle her from her stupor.

“... N-No…. No no no,” She muttered to herself, eyes wide in abject horror. All the worst fears, spoken and unspoken, were coming true.

Gigan’s sighting and report. The sensation of the magic. The pain. The suffering. The hate that was radiated. A nightmare that should have died over a thousand years ago still lived.

“Aria stay focu-” X cut himself off when a lashing of wind, an arctic blast, came roaring down the alleyway towards them while carrying all manner of telekinetically thrown debris.

The kaijin had to act fast, grabbing the siren and kicking off the ground while also canceling his own gravity that had tied him there. Once airborne after a 15 foot spring, he yanked himself forward with a stream of gravity linking him to the air above to greatly boost his jump. In one spring, he managed to get both himself and Aria to the rooftop.

Which gave him all of half a second to put Aria back down before what had been Twilight telekinetically levitated herself up to their altitude, cold wind whipping around her as parts of the roof began to freeze. Aria thankfully had regained her wit and stood her ground beside X.

Twilight, or what had been, with Zephyrus slowly circling around her, let out a low hiss before building up to a shriek that could burst glass. Cold air carried the cry screaming past the two lovers, with dark visions of malice, strife, loneliness, and despair creeping into their minds. A cold first night in the human world and the empty prison within Gorath came to mind.

Aria’s hand clutched X’s and she grit her teeth, focusing all she could on her necklace as the chilling tendrils of dark magic threatened to grip her with the ice forming across her shoes. The grip of his hand gave her a moment of calm and she was keen to return the favor. No memories of the exile from Mako, none of the storm that took her mother away, none of Enjin or Starswirl, just her cousins; and him.

The sirenous song of love by Hymnia, pure in tune and devoid of lyrics set to it, pushed back the dark magic like an expanding bubble and caused Twilight and Zephyrus to stumble back. Pulled back to awareness with warmth embracing him to force the cold grimness away, X wasted no time in using the respite he’d been given. After all, this was an emergency if one ever counted as such.

Maybe it was the direness flooding him with endorphins or maybe it was the song magic cast over him, but he hardly felt the change this time despite it usually being utter agony to put on several inches in height and a good dozen or two pounds of tissue, muscle, and bone. His eyes briefly shut, a golden shadow forming around them, before snapping back open with the red iris recast from cinnabar to bloody in tint and the sclera around them turning dark gray.

Kaizer X lurched forward while throwing his arm forward as if he was punching with it. Golden light crackled along its surface and fired out in a torrent upon traveling down his arm and reaching his fist. Both Kaizer X and Aria Blaze grinned as the salvo of raw power smashed into Twilight and the entity surrounding her like a veil, and the impact had plenty of force behind it given how she went flying back and slammed into the side of a different roof.

However, while the blast certainly threw the monster back, the moment of which Kaizer X stepped forward to press the attack and let go of Aria’s hand to throw another beam-shooting punch; the golden graviton torrents that hit their target started to split. Like a rock splitting a river’s flow, the beams hit but arched around Twilight as though a bubble was encircling her.

Aria Blaze narrowed her eyes and glared through the bright flashes of light to see what was going on. What she saw gave her no joy as a westerly wind roared with gnawing, frozen teeth. The windigo, Zephyrus, the barely visible specter only made so by the bright lights and magic use casting a light upon it as a torch might illuminate faint mist, had positioned itself directly in front of Twilight and into the beams. It wasn’t as much blocking them as it was bending the space it occupied, causing the rays to warp around their intended target.

Recalculating herself, the siren clutched her necklace and focused home on Hymnia’s song once again. Love magic, a holy source and the antithesis to the evils that destroyed her mother’s life. If it worked then, it might work now. Aria stood beside her lover and let the melody flow from both of her hearts, free of lyric but full of conviction. She didn’t orbit him, nor did he orbit her. But they were two supports to the whole, standing together to keep the other propped up. Her magic surged and fired free after being fueled by the red smoke emanating from Kaizer X.

A wave of teal magic burst from Aria when she placed her hand on Kaizer X’s outstretched one, flickers of gold reappearing around her eyes as his power fueled hers and her power invigorated his. And while it seemed there was some sort of magical immunity that afforded the windigo resistance to the kaijin’s sheer force, the siren ripped that away as the teal magic wrapped around the golden torrent. The West Wind shrieked in an eerie cry, obviously in pain as he was shoved backwards.

Zephyrus writhed, knowing this agony only a few times before. He was loath to it then, for it drove he and his fellows away from their greatest prize and insulted their taint upon it with Harmony’s dreck. Appealing as salt would be to a slug. It drove the typically calm windigo into a frenzy as he shoved back against it, slowing its advance but not halting it.

It was only by Zephyrus getting aid from his own ally that he wasn’t ripped away from Twilight’s presence.

Within the assault, though her mind was fractured and in a panic, Twilight could only feel hatred for her tormentors for scaring and wounding her so and agonizing dread at what they might unleash upon her world. She was frantic, stressed, spiteful, terrified, and hateful over her harm. The perfect combination for several types of truly dark magic. Green and black smog filtered out of her and into the necklace she bore around her neck. A siren she was not, but she had accessed magic, she had practiced magic, and she was using magic. Call it fooling the necklace, call it tormenting the power into submission, call it whatever one wanted. But she did something desperate in a bid to save her own life and that of the screaming, agonized spirit trying to protect her.

Twilight, in a rare moment of clarity, gripped the necklace casing she bore and ripped it in two. Tightly gripping the siren necklace, which was becoming dark as midnight from absorbing the black and green smog she glimpsed coming out of her and zephyrus, she sobbed and cringed. There was an idea in her head, but it was dreaded. After this, she might not ever be fully human again. Never human in a world she wished to remain so to save everyone else. She tried to make the sirens human to remove their threat and make them fit in. She tried to remain human even while learning magic. To be what she protected and worried for, so she could experience it. A half-frozen tear leaked from her face, an apology to her family and world.

Dark magic from two distant battles, one on the concert with the alpha siren taking her stand and one between shrunken titan’s hatred, fueled into her. She drew in all that malice like a sponge. Whimpering, Twilight jammed the necklace into her upper sternum, the small spurs of ice that had formed on the gem digging into her flesh to anchor it in. The ice dug into her flesh and secured the magic directly to her body.

Where there was once a white out from gales of blizzard-like winds, there was a spark of violet light before a total black out in the sphere of space around Twilight. The onslaught from Aria Blaze and Kaizer X had never let up and further worked to obscure what was going on. But what was happening in terms of magic was becoming obvious.

Zephyrus could divert X’s powerful attacks because as a windigo without a solid form to knock around, he only truly had one weakness which X, as someone not using magic, couldn’t or wasn’t currently exploiting. And even then, it might take far more than what an expression of friendship or love might entail given the cyborg from earlier in the week and the forest nymph from decades ago was only able to wound him without using some great expression of Harmony’s power like that in the Elements.

Aria Blaze’s song could harm him, potentially even banish him with enough strength. It was a reason why Zephyrus was so keen on getting one siren disabled early on, to keep them from forming up. But a mutual declaration of expressed love with her beloved did make for an acceptable substitute. He was nearly forced out of Twilight and into who knew where…. Until Twilight stepped up and made use of the strife coming from the concert at Adagio’s song and the battle at the pier between old enemies.

Oh, Zephyrus was beyond intrigued now. Well beyond what potential he thought Twilight had. What raw power this youth command! She was forcing a siren heart to obey her, far more than just enforcing the barrier around it upon her behalf. Her strife and fears, fed into her by he and his compatriots all this time, had paid off more than he hoped. Twilight hadn’t just forced Sonata Dusk’s heart to obey her, she’d destroyed its will to oppose her in any form and the strife had raped the magic into becoming hers. The dark magic spewing forth from the corrupted heart was as intoxicating as it was invigorating to Zephyrus.

The siren heart wasn’t meant to absorb and amplify this level of dark magic, but then again neither was a mermare unless it was forced upon them. Zephyrus reveled in it, the success of his group’s progeny. The princesses of Mako had given them the tickets to revenge, and their name was one of Harmony’s own champions.

A black wing burst from the veil to release a shockwave. Twilight Sparkle’s magic shoved back against Aria’s, holding it at bay as if this duel were siren to siren; as Zephyrus worked against X’s wrath.

It was now a deadlock….

=============

Far away, the outburst of dark magic had not gone unnoticed despite the free-flowing song magic on the stage otherwise making it elusive to many. While those allied with the Sirens and Hunters knew exactly what was going on, that there was a plan to keep everybody near the stage while Aria Blaze’s plan was put into motion; someone outside of the loop took notice. After all, magic was very similar to radiation.

Godzilla Junior perked up and after some sensing about to determine direction, his uncanny ability to pick up energy sources at a distance was definitely not failing him. Dark magic spike, exactly like what Anguirus described. It was in some ways similar to what the siren was putting off, only much more noticeable and much more… pure, if that was a word to use it as. Light magic and dark magic, to him, was a bit like comparing hot and cold water. The stage was blotted with both, but the fact there was so much of both made the signatures less distinct. This was very, very clearly almost entirely dark magic with only some of the other present.

He brought up the phone he’d been loaned, the one belonging to Sunset Shimmer. Remembering the sequence showed him, he pressed a few buttons carefully and called the first number on speed dial.

“Hello? This is Mr. Gojo right?” A youthful masculine voice responded, the sounds of music obvious in the background even as Flash Sentry tried to muffle it.

Godzilla Junior briefly perked his brow at his number being first on the list, but disregarded it, “This is. Is Anguirus or Peachy Keen near you?”

“One sec-“

A muffled shifting was audible through the mic before similarly muffled voices seem to say, ‘Put it up here’.

“This is Anguirus,” the Guardian Beast replied, somewhat awkward using a device he had seen used but never handled before, “What’s going on?”

“Dark magic spike, exactly like how you described. It’s a ways away from the concert. Same direction one of the sirens ran off to. Gonna go check it out,” Junior responded as he started after it, moving further and further away from the radiating magic he didn’t know was shielding him from someone else’s sight.

“Be careful, Chief,” Anguirus noted before mumbling slightly, “… Remember your promise.”

“If she’s there like the last time there was one of these spikes, I promise I’m not going with the intention of killing her. I don’t think she’ll be happy to see me if I come upon her though.”

Anguirus swallowed but nodded, pausing briefly at as if to realize his affirmation wasn’t exactly translated through the silence on the other end of the phone, “I know that. I wouldn’t ask you not to defend yourself. Just… Try and restrain her if it comes to blows.”

“Anguirus, nobody realizes more than me right now the value of lost family. I’ll do everything I can, old friend,” Junior noted as he made a sprint for the dark magic, covering a full block in a few moments.

“Thanks, just be careful-“ Anguirus cringed as the phone let out a low shriek. He tested at it again, putting it back to his ear despite the buzzing.

“Godzilla? Chief? Junior? Can you hear me? Hello?”

Flash Sentry, brow furrowed, stepped up and held a hand out, “Here, let me see if I can help.”

Anguirus handed him back his device, but only frowned when he saw Flash tilt his head.

“No service?” Flash Sentry muttered with clear confusion, “We’re right next to the tower though how could there be no service?”

He started to look towards the cell phone tower, Anguirus following his line of sight, and was clearly perplexed by the sparks he saw shooting out of the top of the tower. There almost seemed to be somebody up there but they couldn’t make out who.

Their attention was dragged away by someone stepping up to the front of the stage. Adagio Dazzle was stepping forward with purpose in her eyes and her necklace burning bright.

Author's Note

Proof reading by Lance-Omikron
Artwork by the lovely Faith-Wolff

Part 4 due in a day or two.

Oh, and here's a vector of "Frostbite Sparkle"

Chapter 48, Part 4: Howls of Winter

====================
A Few Moments Earlier
===================

Gigan’s eyes widened and if he had them, one could have gazed upon the full whites of his orbs. The gout of magic was making the stage a near-incomprehensible mess of error codes when he started scanning for energy types. It was like trying to pull aside smoke to see what was behind it, every filter he tried just came back with more errors and trying to decipher what was at least mostly metaphysical. But through all the mayhem he didn’t pick up on something else. Two things in fact.

The first was that Twilight Sparkle’s cellular phone signal had just taken a noticeable dive in strength, which meant she was moving away from the crowd and had likely gotten in between some buildings that were giving interference. She was on the move and given Aria’s obvious leave, he knew exactly where she was going.

That was not the worry. He first picked that up a few minutes ago and reported it, and was picking up a distant magic search some blocks away. Given the current plan and the fact he could sense Monster X nearby, he presumed contact had been made. That would not have worried him at all, that was exactly what they were wanting to happen.

No, it was the second that was giving him something resembling a panic attack. A single, massive, surging energy spike moving in one direction. Directly towards the direction Aria had gone. Subdued, but noticeable radiation, high central body temperature, very apparent energy output with naught but a hint of magic. Kaiju.

Irys was in the perimeter, he was on the other side and so hooked into the tower he’d take some minutes to disengage, X was in position, and Megalon was back at the camp guarding it and Sonata Dusk. This wasn’t one of them, and it wasn’t Mothra.

In some ways he really should’ve expected it, but in so many others he was completely dreading it. Dreading... him….

Gigan pressed into his glasses while feeling phantom sensations of sweat down his brow, “Okay this is a Code Red. Highest priority! X, Irys, Adagio, Aria, respond!”

Nothing but static from Aria and X, along with a distant surge of dark magic. Gigan swore at his luck. Something over there was giving him interference.

Another voice chimed in, represented by a white circle on his display, “Irys here, what is it Gigan?”

Another voice, one muffled by the loud concert, chimed in represented by an orange circle, “What is it, Bolts for Brains?!”

Gigan was sputtering in both rage and fear as he saw the signal rushing away from the concert and making a B-line for Aria and X’s position, “It’s Godzilla! That moth bitch brought Godzilla! I couldn’t pick up his energy with all the concert song magic flying around”

Even without eyes on her, he could tell Irys paled, “W-Where?!”

“North going east, he’s heading right for where X and Aria are engaged! Damn it, he probably is picking up on all the magic and energy!”

“Who is- What is Godzilla?!” Adagio griped over the music.

“A problem, a big plasma spewing, face-blasting, limb-tearing problem!” Gigan croaked with experience.

“Can X take him?”

“He and X are about on par, but X already has his hands busy and we had a plan!”

“Where is he now?!” Irys huffed, obviously starting to run.

“Near the pier, he’s getting close to the lovebirds.”

“I’ll head him off, just you’d better get your tail down here!”

Gigan was getting a horrific case of déjà vu, namely at the last time Irys went barreling into a kaiju he was afraid of. All two of them. Some things really needed to start changing.

“Try not to die! That fight is going to be messy,” Gigan griped, knowing he couldn’t talk her out of it, “We gotta keep it away from everything. If it spills over, the plan’s as good as gutted.”

“You need people kept here at the concert right?” Adagio hummed with… More than a little edge in her tone, probably from being a passive backup singer at best for the last few courses when Eventide went off-script.

Gigan started to disconnect himself from the cell tower and realign his body parts, having previously looked half-disassembled. It would take a few moments and he knocked out the cell signal in his haste, “That would be ideal.”

“Consider it done, I’m not much for singing second fiddle anyways,” Adagio growled as she cast a glare, “Eventide’s singing more with those Rainbrats than me.”

Gigan grimaced as Irys bolted off in the given direction and he felt Adagio’s eyes upon him, “Gigan, you owe me. Time for a show-stopper.”

Sunset Shimmer felt an inner fire kicking up, but not at all in a negative way. Competitive but not antagonistic. That was to her joyous surprise when Eventide Hymn started singing with them. It certainly was a shock and it took the Rainbooms a moment or two to adjust to it, the crowd was roaring and there was figurative and literal magic in the air. Helped Eventide wasn’t at all a bad singer and was adapting to their melody very quickly, having apparently listened very closely to the early chorus. Signaling with a shift in body language, she got up besides Rainbow Dash to further share the microphone as they yelled out the song magic.

"~Find the music in your heart!~"
"~Let the music make you start!~"

Eventide, a smile visible on the corners of her mouth, winked and picked up on it expertly as she leaned in closer.

"~To set yourself apart!~"

They were singing, all together. And in a way that was causing all of their magic to soar. Flickers of a glow became visible on the lot of them and the crowd, perhaps thinking it was some sort of lighting effect, roared to cheers.

Through the glee she felt, the happiness detected upon an empathetic bond, something stirred in the back of her mind. Something that made Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widen as she caught the same on Eventide. For the briefest of moments, everything else was shut out as something else was registered. A pulsating beam of light appeared on Eventide’s collar, something around her neck was glowing. The exact same kind of magic she and the others had, just in a different format. What that amounted to was difficult to say, but the results spoke for themselves.

Eventide Hymn was in touch with the Elements of Harmony.

Siren, accomplice, or any other sort of outside agent; the truth was evident. She was like them.

-We have to talk to her, we have to find out who she is, we have to-…!-

The tidal wave of magic struck her face first and the Rainbooms were shouted out.

A set of footsteps walked up behind Eventide Hymn as dark orange fingers gently pulled her back. With a queenly strut, Adagio Dazzle sucked in a breath and flashed a fanged grin as radiating power swirled around her. A siren charging themselves up from their song magic was dependent on several factors. How invested their audience was in the song, how many of them were singing, and who they were singing to all play a role in how powerful they would get.

Adagio Dazzle, when charming everyday ponies, was strong enough that she alone was a serious threat to one of the most powerful unicorn sorcerers of all time; with her cousin and sister she was too much for him. She might have been severely de-powered when first coming here, only able to siphon off scraps from magic-less or nearly magic-less humans.

But she’d been practicing with a very different audience as of late. A batch of powerful titans from another realm she was at least on good terms with, an alicorn princess, and one who retained the counterparts to the same relics she knew defeated Discord, King Sombra, and Nightmare Moon. And whereas before she was only feeding off forced adoration and inflicted strife, in the past months she’d discovered a far more potent resource.

This wasn’t her peak, she knew she could get stronger. And while she was too venerating to title herself superior to her grandmother, her pride was backed up by a simple declaration. In terms of song magic, Adagio Dazzle was the second-strongest mermare of all time.

And it was time to teach these apes that when she didn’t hold back.

Eyes flashing red as a magical aura took her form, shaping into a surging tide of power that bore the image of her true self. The crowd were enchanted even with her just cooing a sirenous melody, eyes glazing over in green. Only Anguirus and Peachy Keen, mostly by mental strength and especially innate magic, weren’t affected.

“~Welcome to the show~” Adagio sang as she slightly lifted off her feet with her hands spread out, “~I’m here to let you know...~”

She put a little extra effort into accentuating the ‘I’m’, while giving Eventide a moment of side eye that cowed her back a step.

-Remember whose side you’re helping.-

Eventide grimaced slightly and backed up as Adagio commanded all of the stage to herself.

“~My time is now, your time is running out!~”

She gave the Rainbooms a glowing glare while sporting a confident, victorious glance. All eyes on the crowd were upon her, giving the alpha siren such a rush as she siphoned off radiating power from the Rainbooms’ and Eventide’s song. Without her being restricted to dark magic anymore, it was a venerable flood of energy surging into her. She briefly closed her eyes while singing the sighing chorus, tucking her arms and legs in more to collect it. The aura’s image of a siren swam around her, leaving a trail of glowing magic that looked like a whirlpool.

“Adagio…” the lack of insulting name and the slightest sense of awe in that robotic tone coming through her earpiece made her smirk, “Thanks. Good luck.”

Through it all, Adagio’s glowing eye spotted the flash of Gigan teleporting away. Her heart flashed even brighter in tandem, giving her the final ignition. Somewhere she was happy he heard her at her best and wasn’t intimidated, well, not in a bad way.

-Cute.-

The magic exploded out in a shockwave that blinded all on the stage.

“~Feel the wave of sound, as it crashes down!~”

Sunset Shimmer lost her breath as she felt physically forced back, almost exactly as the lyrics spoke of. The epicenter of the magic burst unfolded solid constructs of magic, resembling fins but set on the body almost like they were wings. The bolstered state resembled the ‘Pony’d-Up’ form, a side effect of gorging herself on the Rainboom’s magic. The rest of Adagio was also slightly different, a darkened coloration covering her body in a similar form to, but not nearly to the same extent of the transformation Aria Blaze experienced fighting Enjin; but the patterning was unique. Where it was not darkened, it was gold; but the facial mask surrounding her eyes somewhat recalled Gloriosa’s brief transformation.

Bits of magic and accumulated power taken from extremely potent sources, made her own.

Adagio, fully on her power-high, grinned as she took control over the crowd by force, commanding that they stay where they were despite the conflicts in other regions. The entire town was at her whim, at her audience.

“~You can't turn away! I'll force you all to staaaay!~”

============
Near the Pier
============

Or at the very least it felt a lot like it, even if this particular human world seemed a bit more like what he was familiar with as opposed to what Equestria had, some questioning with the locals and a bit of sensing hadn't picked up anything atomic. No nuclear power plants, no weapon silos, not even a mine that might occasionally get something on the level of uranium ore. While he never went sacking power plants like some mutations or his predecessor did, he still could pick them up at a distance even with the shielding. And given how close the signal he was chasing was, it wouldn't even appear to be a case of his human body dulling that sense any.

He swallowed a brief worry while putting more distance between him and the concert.

-You've helped them get a grasp on their abilities if something really wrong happened. They're not going to try and fight off a kaiju, but they can't defend themselves until Anguirus can get to them. They'll be just fine… just fine.-

It was another reason to put more distance between what was coming and the humans. Very reluctantly he steered his sprint towards the smell of water, a rather large lake being not too far away.

With a water in viewing distance, nobody around, and his pursuer closing in, the king of the monsters took a calculated risk and slowed down.

Then she bit him on the left forearm...

If there came a day she had to face down the mothra, her resurrected flock, or Gamera; the hyper gyaos intended to do so with a Ghidorah cross and two cyborgs at her side with their Master at her back.

-Until said foe started spewing out magic and causing a light show…-

He was a kaiju alright, he didn’t smell like a normal human, but didn’t give off any magic she could pick up on either. At least not directly, there was something similar. And given her encounter with Anguirus, a name that brought forth many stray thoughts, who knew who the mothra had gotten for help.

Irys launched herself at the target, hoping to get a keen surprise attack so she’d have an advantage. She could only hope Gigan was wrong and it wasn’t-

The dark gray skin, up close, was more noticeable even if it wasn’t heavily armored scales.

-No...Please let it be someone else...-

-G-Gigan was right, Godzilla...-

Amethyst eyes looked into burning gold surrounded by red, the recognition proving mutual.

She grimaced behind her fangs still sunk into the arm, whimpering briefly as she braced, almost comically dangling off his arm by her teeth. Underneath her, the hand meant to catch her instead balled into a fist. Irys felt her gut get punched so strongly it voided her lungs, her foe twisting around and letting forth a nuclear pulse. The gyaos shrieked and let go of her bite due to energy conducting into both her gut and mouth from the contact, shocking her so much parts of her clothing and hair smoked. She was wrenched around and thrown several yards into a snowbank.

Everything in her mind was a daze from the impact and shocks, so much so her vision was fuzzy and refused to clear for several seconds even as stomping footfalls closed in on her. Godzilla whirled his arm around to ready the joints, his skin already closing up.

Irys was dragged off the ground and hoisted into the air, gripping the arm holding her whilst kicking her legs as they dangled over a foot off the ground. The helplessness starting to settle in, even as she was whipped around and smacked against a storefront window several times hard enough to crack it, was thankfully brief. As while her foe had so stubbornly held her by her head, she had stubbornly held onto his arm and continued firing. And even the enhanced durability he enjoyed on loan from his true self had limits. Her attacker shook and grimaced more so than before and the reason soon became obvious when a screaming, thin ray of purple shot out of his elbow after having burrowed through his hand and arm. She must have hit a tendon in their somewhere as her foe’s arm went slack from the elbow down and his fingers lost their grip.

Irys snarled and grabbed his arm, rather fearlessly yanking herself forward to launch at his throat with her fanged jaws open. Only a flash of blue light stopped her advance. While unable to fly, the enhanced sense of balance and orientation was still there and she acted on it, grabbing him by his face and kicking off his gut to launch herself away and send her sprawling across the ground. Not missing any beat, she sprung away from the frozen and snowy earth to avoid a salvo of atomic plasma as the neon blue burning wrath instantly evaporated a large amount of snow they’d been standing in. Steam born of the conflicting hot vapors and cold air soon whited out much of the nearby terrain.

-Lea and this gyaos are unable to fly anymore, with Anguirus having lost his natural spikes. Guess besides the lack of tail for balance, I’m the least affected here.-

“I came here looking for trouble, seems I found you,” he growled while beginning to advance through the fog, following the gyaos’ trail via scent as best he could but it was complicated by how much she evidently was leaping about.

“I’ll give you a chance to stand down, and I won’t have to do what I did to your flock.”

He didn’t know what it was, who was doing it, or how it came about; only two things were known. It was eerie and messing with his head, and he didn’t like it.

And after several more slashes or stabs with her beam, she was reaching success. Some. It wouldn’t last.

Irys shook as sweat ran down her face despite the cold air.

Fighting at range was all she had, and it was no small blessing he wasn't firing back that much… in fact, he hadn't even unleashed one atomic breath in several minutes. Her brow furrowed on instinct.

-H-He's up to something. Come on, come on I need backup guys! I can't keep this up much longer, I-!!!!?!?!-

The albino cringed and dove to the side to avoid an oncoming projectile that was slinging some smelly liquid everywhere. The gyaos chanced a glance at it as it sailed away and skid across the street, and what had fallen out of it. The latter was immediately recognizable as it had turned into one of her favorite snacks in this world, a bunch of corndogs. And a lot of oil in the fryer bin that had apparently been torn off one of the food stalls parked in the street. Irys reflexively cringed at some of the oil getting on her, but the fryer must have been off as it wasn't very warm.

Mentally swearing, Irys scrambled up and away, darting off to the right near the entrance to the lake's pier. She had prepared to circle back around and try to hit Godzilla across the back, only to find herself turning even paler when he also turned to the right and came barreling after her. Irys bolted tiredly up the ramp and down the wooden walkways of the pier, frantically checking all signs as Godzilla remained right on her trail.

-The mist is just as heavy, still keeping up the sound dampening field, and the wind hadn't shifted so he's certainly not smelling me!-

She could feel the pounding vibrations of his footfalls behind her.

-No no no! Stay away from me! Stay-?!-

Milliseconds ticked by as the powerful figure of Godzilla came stomping after her, having been following the footprints his jerry-rig plan created. Even with how accustomed she was to gore, Irys felt repulsed. His clothing was covered in blood from getting slashed so many times, even if the wounds had mended. One particularly large gash across his cheek and jaw was stitching itself back together. All while burning eyes glared down at her…

Irys was not cowed, she was not terrified. She had willingly gone up against two Ghidorah, one of them twice, for the sake of herself and her flock. But she also knew after years of running away from confrontations that didn't bode well, when it was time to fold them.

They were far enough down up here that the blue of the lake was visible below.

Cutting off the ray, Irys threw herself to the side and launched over the railing. With her opponent briefly stunned, she could make her escape and-...

Air rushed past her pale hair without any heed to an airfoil or pressure differential. Tiny human fingers were spread out without any bat-like membrane between them…

Irys was loathe to muscle memory, in her fright and haze forgetting she couldn't fly. At best the fabric foil between her long sleeves and hips did slow her down however.

Which meant she had several fractions of a second to realize a shadow coming over her and a faster falling Godzilla had launched over the rail after her.

A minute later, Irys burst out of the surface of the shallow waters near the pier, slumped over and moving slowly. Blood trickled from the water behind her as she moved towards the shoreline. As she did, the gyaos’ body flopped over and had to be grabbed by the man carrying her, the albino kaiju clearly unconscious. Godzilla Junior trudged back ashore, shifting his grip on her to balance the gyaos over his shoulder as he picked his soaking wet form out of the water.

The wounds on his arms, caused by her beam slicing through part of his bicep and shoulder, stung as it stitched itself back together and refilled flesh to leave only a small faint scar along his epidermis. Junior grumbled.

-Another for the collection. Hope Luna doesn’t notice and fret.-

The fact it was for a good reason helped him brush away any annoyance. It had been a gamble diving into the water like that, he had only a vague idea of how to swim as a human without a tail. In truth he did more walking along the shallow bottom than actually swimming, content to take his time because he was guessing he still did not need to breathe air. He could be choked out by cutting off blood flow to his head, which is actually exactly what he tried to do with the gyaos, this ‘Irys’, but there was a reason he could stay underwater for hours at a time. And it wasn’t because he could breathe it either, both experience and tales from his father told him he could endure magma as well. The same mutations that ran his body off of radiation also meant he didn’t need energy from gaseous oxygen anymore, for the same reason that eating was optional. And as he could still fire nuclear breath, it had been fair odds that he wouldn’t have to worry about holding his breath underwater either. Same could not be said for his dance partner.

Junior paced onto shore, very carefully putting Irys down on the short stretch of sandy beach the pier went by. She was still, but not lethally so. Placing a hand on her throat, he could still feel a pulse. Repeating some steps he had learned from Royal Guard first-aid, he turned Irys to her side to let some water drain out from her nose and mouth. Very gently putting a finger on her back on the opposite side of her heart, he separated off the very tiniest possible sliver of his power in a minuscule nuclear pulse. The shockwave, barely more than a jostle, spurred Irys to recoil from the shock. As planned her lungs contracted and she spat out some water that was still lodged in her throat before gasping for air.

Godzilla let her get her breath, but still kept one hand very firmly planted on her shoulder as to keep her pinned down.

“Good, you didn’t drown,” Godzilla stated very calmly and trying to keep any growl from emanating out, “I was trying to squeeze down enough to cut off your blood flow before too much water got into you; but you weren’t making it easy for me with that slicing beam.”

Irys shuddered, both from the cold and from terror at who was with her, so many survival instincts firing off. She tried to rise but the stronger kaiju kept her pinned down and face away from him, so as not to risk getting hit with the beam again.

“Stay down, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m not going to just let you hurt me,” he snapped and Irys went still.

“I’m going to give you an offer”, was what he was going to say. He was also probably about to say something about how her ‘brother’ told him about her, and how he had no intention of killing or maiming her. About how he understood that they certainly had not gone off on the right foot as of late but some new friends of his had taught him plenty about forgiveness. If needed he might even bring up the new pace between him and his brother, as any resident of Terra might know of their war.

She was lost, alone, probably very confused. It’s not like she had anyone else who could help her…

He was going to say that and maybe get the ear of a still scared, confused, but listening Irys. He certainly would have, if a beam of red hadn’t crashed into his back before erupting into a shotgun blast of exploding flashes.

“Saurian bastard, hands off the bat!” Gigan roared in a digitized voice as he teleported across several rooftops and landed a short distance away.

Growling as he hit the ground in a roll before sprinting at Godzilla, the cyborg drew a blade and swung at the stunned and smoking dinosaur-turned-man. Junior’s eyes contracted to points as the blade buried itself several inches into his sturdy flesh at the midsection near the belly button. Gigan snarled, pulling back and shanking him a few more times before Godzilla managed to grab his arm and wrench it and his other one back, keeping himself from getting stabbed again. Gigan looked down and saw the wounds close up, painfully so, leaving bloodstains behind. He felt the crushing grip on his wrists tighten, metal starting to warp and bend. He looked up at Godzilla’s face.

Gold and red eyes that glared at him turned blue and flashed with light.

“Ah Daiei,” Gigan grimaced as he charged up his own beam attack, his optics glowing brighter hues of red.

In some ways it was a close-range game of chicken, as a plasma lock at this close range was surely going to end in an explosion. Just as Gigan started to try and calculate ways to try and teleport away despite needing to recharge his warp drive as well as the fact Godzilla would get warped with him due to being in close contact, an earsplitting shriek split the air. Godzilla cried out in pain, stumbling forward as a purple ray slashed across his back, cutting his robe open and decorating it in more red.

Irys huffed and panted, wincing in pain from her bruised neck as she tried to stagger up. Gigan briefly caught her glimpse and shot his teammate the look of his fearful scowl turning into a very thankful smirk.

-Okay, X recruiting you was easily in the top 3 choices he’s ever done. I forgive you for attacking King Ghidorah now.-

Grinning, Gigan kicked the stunned and bleeding Godzilla away before unloading a full plasma burst into his chest; firing salvo after salvo of the shotgun blasts that forced the big brute further and further back. Godzilla Junior cried out in a shriek of pain as his skin caught fire and charred under the onslaught, especially when Irys joined back in with a brief blast of her own ray.

Backed up further and further back as he tried to shield himself with his arms, Godzilla was shoved against a wall as his attackers advanced.

Gigan helped Irys to her feet, not taking his eyes off the third most dangerous opponent he’d ever faced. So far they were on a roll ever since Irys joined the team, part of him was even starting to fancy her a good luck charm. Maybe it would continue.

“Don’t give him a breather, lay it on him!” he barked even as his optics were starting to smoke from overusing his beams. They were closing the distance and hitting him with more direct blasts with each step.

His hand had been on Irys’ shoulder to help steady her, which meant he was taken slightly aback when she grabbed his own shoulder and shook him.

“W-Wait stop!” she cried out.

Confused, he obeyed. Before them was a half-charred crater in the side of the brick wall across the street from the pier. A large man, blackened, burned, bruised, and cut in many places, lay slumped against it. Irys saw the sight and cringed.

“He could have killed me if he wanted to, remember Anguirus?” she panted as both sweat and sea water ran down her face, “I think he was trying to collect me.”

Gigan paused and scowled, “Well, we can’t have that happening. But it’s not like we can take him back with us to do the same, this monster is way too dangerous!”

“We got plenty of powers, we maybe could do something!” Irys winced.

“Oh really? Well that’s not going to fly with me. I mighta gotten this from Kaizer Ghidorah,” Gigan snapped as he held up his metallic arm, “But who do you think cost Megalon the fleshy parts of his forearms? There’s a reason X calls that bastard a brute.”

Irys winced, conflicting thoughts flying to her head before another choice was made for her. Eyes, bloodshot, enraged, and soon burning with light burst open. The numerous cuts, burns, and bruises, along with large arrays of scars all lit up in a neon blue light. The temperature in the air skyrocketed as a ferocious roar was let out. In a burst of motion unbecoming for his condition and his size, Godzilla Junior sprang up and charged at them in a burning state. The two Dark Hunters reflexively fired their beam attacks only to get grabbed by the neck and shoulder, bashed into the ground, and dragged along the pavement. Crimson plasma and violet sound waves carved into the sky high above.

Far away at the concert, Anguirus saw them and paled. Especially when a neon blue ray of burning heat soon swept across the sky as well. He recognized all three and knew exactly where they were. Everything was going to Daiei in a Handbasket at the same time.

He was too far away. He might not get there in time before either one of his closest friends or one of his only remaining family risked death, especially with the wildcard like Gigan about. And with all the craziness on stage, who knew what might be needed for him to step in on.

He needed to be in two places at once and move at superspeed. The pier was far from the concert, but it was… It was…

He recognized some of the streets leading to it, they had taken the exact same path to get here. To get here from Sunset’s house. The brown skin on the Guardian Beast paled as he considered what he must do. He reached out and put his hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.

Rainbow Dash, having previously been paying attention to watching the siren singing with restrained anger at the very obvious villainess working her evil ways across the crowd, was utterly shocked when she turned around and saw the expression on the typically resolute Mr. Anguirus’ face. Upturned brow, pale skin, shrunken pupils, clammy visage, cold sweats, and a shake in his voice audible even over the music.

“Mr. Anguirus?” Her question spurred the rest of the Rainbooms and company to turn around and gawk at him.

Instantly they corralled around him in a supportive circle, his terror very very obvious.

Anguirus shook and swallowed as he put his other hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulders, “I... beg you. I need your help. I need your help or someone might die.”

Rainbow Dash straightened up.

“S-Say-“ she stuttered before straightening up and putting her hands on his own shoulders, “Say the word big-guy! Need me to introduce Miss Welcome to the Show showstopper over there to Sensei Godzilla’s dropkick, RD style?”

Anguirus shook his head, breathing in and closing his eyes at the sight before him of a very determined young woman briefly turned into a mare of an identical name, and such a similar heroic spirit in such a small package. He was at the campground all over again.

“No, I need you to get someone to a fight. You can’t carry me, but you can carry them.”

“What about the siren? She’s got to be stopped!” Rarity muttered worryingly as she glanced at the dark magic influence over the increasingly rowdy crowd that Adagio Dazzle was basking in.

Sunset Shimmer looked aside, then at the stage, at Anguirus, and then at herself. The last was both on the outside and very much so deep on the inside. At all she had done over the past years, but also all she had done so far this year. All the charities helped, all the friends assisted, all the atonement sought, and all of the magic that coursed into her when she first transformed; when she first found an element had called out to her.

And even without her touching him, she could feel the earnest fear, dread, and platonic love coming off Anguirus. They thought they’d needed his kind, it was why she sent out a cry for help. Now, her empathy told her he needed them.

She took her jacket off and picked up Rainbow Dash’s lead microphone.

“Go, we got this!” she proclaimed, raw determination burning off of her like a fire which had been lit deep within, “Be a hero while we are too.”

The Rainbooms, previously disheartened by the raw power of the lead siren, both from the sight of her overpowering presence as well as the dark magic waves starting to affect them, started to straighten back up. It was almost like Sunset’s determination was flickering on to them, like how embers cast from one flame might ignite another. They picked up their instruments and started towards the stage.

Rainbow Dash, alone with Anguirus and Peachy Keen, took in a breath and smirked. She reached up and wiped a drop of sweat or tears running down his face and shot the Ankylosaur kaiju a thumbs up.

“Hero? Pfft, like you even had to ask Big Guy! Name the spot!” she winked and put her game face on, “I’ll have it done before the second melody!”

Gigan skidded across the pavement in a rolling heap, smoking in several places with one lens of his glasses shattered. His mechanical eye refocused and contracted on surprise when a swung fist buried into the road cement, fracturing it in multiple places due to the cyborg teleporting away. The glowing, burning white fist of Godzilla was retracted as he snarled and glared at where the red flash to indicate Gigan’s reappearance was; which in this case was on top of a car near a corn dog stand. His jaw lowered as burning lights built up inside.

Suddenly a white blur shot up between him and Gigan, Irys sucking in a breath while holding her arms out as if they were wings. With a very specific resonance, a colorized brilliance appeared in front of her, a plate of glowing violet energy as a sonic shield was thrown up. The Kaiju King ejected a burning stream of plasma, an energized spiral appearing around the typical blue and white torrent of heat and blazing wrath. Irys’ shield released an ear-splitting shriek as the ray crashed into it, Irys’ shoes starting to skid backwards on the pavement. She grit her teeth in defiance, holding up the barrier for both herself and her teammate.

Gigan quickly took stock of the situation, glancing at both their positioning as well as what was behind them. He noticed all the oil in the greasy fryer as well as the car’s tank. Thinking fast, he unsheathed a blade from his wrist and jammed it into the car, metal twisting and screeching as he turned his wrist to cut a big hole into the gas tank. An exploding cluster shot was similarly fired into the corndog stand’s base, rupturing the contents and spraying oil, grease, and other fluids everywhere.

He ran up behind the still blocking Irys and grabbed her by the shoulders, “Irys, Megalon maneuver, fifteen paces behind us!”

She barely had time to process what he said and look behind them when Gigan teleported them away from their position. Without Irys to refresh it, the shield was instantly shattered by the spiral ray, allowing the burning wrath to strike the destroyed food stand and car. Burning Godzilla quickly cut the ray off, surveying his surroundings with his glowing blue eyes. Notice of a shadow about him barely gave him time to avoid a dropping swipe from Gigan’s blade. The Defender Leader snarled and acted, very tired of getting sliced up by those menacing metallic talons.

Gigan swore as his arm was grabbed by the wrist as Junior backstepped his swipe. He was yanked down until his blade struck the pavement in one swift motion, Godzilla stomping on his hand while firing a nuclear pulsed through the base of his foot. The act snapped the blade off. Sparks flew out from the destroyed machinery and Gigan’s attempt at a counter by firing a point-blank cluster shot was similarly abated by Godzilla grabbing him by the throat with his free arm and pointing his face away into the sky. Gigan felt the temperature spike and closed his eyes in a cringe to brace.

He remembered Final Wars, he knew what was coming next…

A small explosion ensued after he was wracked from head to toe with radioactive shockwaves. Just as the cyborg started to be sent flying back, he was grabbed by the foot and yanked back towards Godzilla just in time for a superpowered punch to the gut that shocked him all over yet again. Burning hot fingers dug in almost like claws and he was blasted yet again. This time, his momentum forward was halted by his face being grabbed onto and slammed into the ground.

“Had your chance,” Godzilla snarled, pounding the mostly metallic cyborg into the pavement hard enough to start denting it in, punctuating each of his words with another slam while holding Gigan by the head in lieu of having a tail to grab, “You’re. Not. Getting. Away. Again!”

Winding up, Godzilla Junior chokeslammed his foe into the ground with a mighty crash. He huffed after the effort, scowling as snow evaporated around him from his radiating heat. Much of him was covered in dried blood and bruising, but he had certainly done a number on the smoking cyborg. And unlike Gigan, he could heal back the difference; there was a reason the copious amounts of blood on him was dried. He raised a boot, aiming for Gigan’s shoulder with the intent of disabling the monster.

“You took Princess Twilight, you will tell me where she is.”

Gigan sparked as he looked up, bleeding in some spots and leaking hydraulic fluid in others, “Ehehe, in sight of someone I trust and not out of mind.”

“Who?” Godzilla braced his boot against Gigan’s head now.

“Well, two things you should know, you big bastard. Firstly, I’ve had upgrades since Final Wars. Secondly, I’m not the heavy hitter of my team right here…”

A piercing shriek cried out. Godzilla reflexively crossed his arms in front of him in perfect anticipation to block the sonic cutter ray from the Gyaos. Even with his lower durability as a human he still could tank the hit for several seconds before it cut too deep. Only this time, it cut right through his first arm in a moment and the supercharged ray started to bore into his other arm. Bleeding again, he backstepped and ducked aside as the sonic cutter slashed through concrete and bisected a telephone pole before sweeping up into the sky. He looked back at the source.

Standing in the flames of what had once been the food stand and car, as well as some of the storefront, stood a feminine figure. Arm spread to her sides with her palms up, they raised their arms as the flames roared around them before bringing their hands in. In tandem the fires condensed, swirling around in spirals as they were absorbed. Violet energy glowing through the blaze, especially when the figure, like a conductor before a band, thrust her arms out in tandem with a shockwave blowing the air aside. The fires were instantly absorbed and nullified, Irys standing where they once were. Her eyes were whited out by a burst of light as runic patterns shone across her skin, a prominent ‘Eta’ symbol resembling a stylized “H” appearing on her chest. While her clothes were still torn and burned in a few places, her body looked completely healed and revitalized. The bruising around her neck from where she had been choked out was completely gone.

Godzilla Junior recognized the state from the times he’d seen Rodan, Raiga, or Gamera take it. The true self of a Guardian Beast. It stunned him briefly, not because he didn’t trust Anguirus’ word but because seeing was a new kind of believing.

“She is,” Gigan teased with a cocky smirk as he accessed a localized variant of his warp drive to teleport something to him. His forearm detached at the elbow, with a brand-new one slotted in.

Irys scowled before unhinging her fanged jaw and loosing another cutting beam, splitting the air with its violet color and piercing shriek. Godzilla grunted as he reactively fired his own ray back at it, despite having only a moment or two to charge aside from the one he maintained. The two rays crashed into each other in a deadlock.

A chainsaw whirled and Godzilla junior grunted in pain as his chest was slashed across its length from hip to shoulder, then similar cuts being pressed onto his elbow and arms as Gigan, now bearing a double chainsaw on one of his arms; shoved it into him. He avoided most of it across his chest, however his face wasn’t as lucky and the Monster King yelled out as he stumbled away with an eye forced closed. The brow and lid around it was torn and bleeding. He was half blinded for now and panting from the blow. His pants turned into snarls even as his brow stitched back together.

Godzilla Junior’s temperature instantly skyrocketed, a full powered and refreshed Irys was charging up to meet him, and a cackling Gigan was trying to keep the pressure on with his new weapon that was starting to melt on contact with the monster king. Gigan strained, trying to keep the momentum going and do more damage before his upgrade was ruined. A contest of strength the cyborg wasn't winning, but he wasn't alone. The battle wasn’t decided but it certainly was going to get bloody.

But just as the contest grew dire, something else intervened.

A cyan and rainbow blur zoomed into the fray and a pair of semi-stylish tennis shoes crashed into Irys’ cheek in a double kick, their owner having jumped and put both feet forward at the last millisecond in the midst of superspeed. The technique was raw, the attacker was lighter even than Irys, but even a 125-odd-pounds of athletic highschooler is going to do some damage when she comes flying at you at triple-digit miles per hour speed.

Irys flinched as she was sent hurtling aside, skidding down the street, not really hurt as much as she was stunned. The blur also had a rough landing, but thankfully superspeed also came with super reflexes and perception in the moment; even if she was extremely new to this.

Rainbow Dash could hear and feel burning rubber as her shoes skid across the ground, her madly flailing her arms in a bid to stop herself. She only seized her momentum when she kicked her feet across the ground in similar superspeed as if she was running backwards.

“Rainbow?!” Godzilla Junior coughed as he looked at the sight dumbfounded as to why she was here, before having to tighten his grip on Gigan’s arm to keep the chainsaws away.

“HA! Knew I could keep it up! Not just me Senseeei-AH!” she screamed upon seeing him covered in red with an eye closed and similarly covered in burning white patches from his burning state, let alone the apparent half-metal maniac trying to carve him up with a pair chainsaw.

Godzilla Junior grunted as Gigan headbutted him to try and regain the advantage in their brawler’s struggle. It worked to a degree and the saws were pressed in closer. Godzilla Junior cried out in pain as the whirling blades dug into his shoulder just as he grabbed Gigan by the knee with the intent of unleashing a nuclear pulse point blank. His hands crushed down on the metal and superheated it, warping synthetic flesh and fraying wires. Gigan hissed as he crumbled back and was being overtaken.

He didn’t have to as a swarm of energy moths almost composed of light burst out from Rainbow Dash’s pockets and outfit, having clung to her during the superspeed rush from Sunset’s House to the pier. Dash, on Anguirus’ request, had gotten reinforcements. And however much she was unnerved by them, Lea had instantly snapped to when she learned who was at stake.

The moths reformed into Mothra Lea’s human form, the enraged Mothra’s eyes burning with a bright purple light. Usually her prism beams were neon green, this time they were dark violet. The magical blasts struck Gigan dead-on and blasted him away. Godzilla Junior staggered to stand up straight, but a gash in his leg from the saws, harming a tendon, sent him crumpling.

Lea caught him and held him close, despite the burning heat.

“You’re hurt,” she gasped with a slight waver in her voice, looking at his face which had suffered so much damage to the left side his eye was forced shut, "Wh-Why... why are you?!"

Her eyes watered with concern as she felt a dampness and crust on her hand wrapped around his back. She quivered as she brought it up and witnessed the crimson of still running but also dried crusts of blood staining her hand and dress.

“Lele, not- as bad as it looks, I can heal.- What are you two doing he-re?” Godzilla grunted with a pant, some exhaustion clearly starting to set in given all the energy he was burning keeping the state up while also trying to mend all his wounds.

Rainbow Dash tried to rush up and help him stand, only to be kept back by both the intense heat as well as Junior holding up a hand to stop her. Her face was pale seeing him so hurt, seeing anyone so hurt like this.

“I-I was sent, but Angy-Angur- Spiky guy! He-he saw there was a fight and you needed back-up! Well, I brought it!” Rainbow Dash grimaced as she tried to hold her nerve.

She was doing an admirable job all things considered, for a high school senior. This was not the Rainbow Dash who faced down a manticore, helped stop Nightmare Moon, Discord, and a myriad of other villains and magical monsters. If she had lived in a world of such beings, she probably would be at the same level; but that experience was lacking. This was her first time seeing someone so bloodied, seeing how drastic a fight could really get. It was fully understandable she was shaken at such a sudden entry.

Godzilla Junior looked at her and wanted to ponder about the safety of really bringing her into this dangerous of a situation, he certainly wouldn’t have done that with his other students and he still felt guilty about Chibi’s foalnapping. He could also consider chewing her out for getting Lea involved when she was in a precarious situation, even if in hindsight he would see the logic of the small athlete not being capable of carrying Anguirus into the fray whereas she could haul a load of energy moths from Lea using her division ability. He could, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“… Thanks,” he panted, nodding to her as he dropped the burning form as to focus more energy on healing, perhaps hopefully giving her a less gruesome sight as numerous wounds started to close back up again. It take a bit of time, but he could recover.

Lea shook as she gazed upon her hand covered in her best friend’s blood. She smelled it, felt it, and before he could react to her, acted upon it. She rapidly pulled Junior into her, bodies flush together as she started pumping some of her magic into her saurian companion to try and speed up his mending process. All the while looking on at his recovering attackers with a cold glare.

=========
Downtown
=========

“We can’t keep this up forever,” Kaizer X grunted as he grabbed Aria as she, in sync with his movements, grabbed on to him and allowed him to spring backwards and get some distance. Darting out of the alley way moments before a tidal wave of frost and dark magic telekinesis ripped off pavement and twisted signs around like a pretzel.

With not a moment lost upon landing, the couple quickly turned around to face their attacker and in perfect unison unleashed another barrage of song magic and graviton bursts. The monster Twilight had become in union with Zephyrus shrieked and backpedaled, pushed back but not meaningfully hurt as she collided with a storefront window and cracked it. Staggering back up, icy formations growing across her skin shattering with movement only to instantly regrow as a sort of armor, she screamed out again in another burst of gale force blizzard winds and telekinesis. The force slammed into a car the couple had been standing in front of but dived away from, shoving across the street before freezing it in midair.

“Something tells me she can’t either,” Aria huffed as she staggered back up and looked at the heaving wretch that had once been a young woman, cringing slightly at the site of frozen tears coming from her face.

As much as she loathed this bitch who traumatized her cousin, the sight of seeing someone so manically enraged and yet clearly terrified was uncanny.

“She must have a weakness, everyone else does,” the siren whispered as she kept up her guard.

“Yes, I believe ours is organfailure, brain or heart mostly” X deadpanned, ignoring the side-eye he got for chancing a bad wisecrack at such a time, “But unless there is another convenient cliff nearby Idon’t know about, I don’t think she’ll be the same as the last one.”

“I doubt getting airborne would make much sense as a weakness for someone with a wing,” Aria rolled her eyes.

“I can try stepping on her.”

Aria shook her head as she and X kept backpedaling at the advance of the clearly insane attacker, “Your blasts can certainly knock her around, but she’s not even acknowledging how much I banged her up earlier. I know I broke her arm.”

The manic gestalt monster swung her arm out and talons of dark magic extended from the icy claws that had grown over the tips of her fingers. The battle couple wisely dodged just as a mailbox they had been standing in front of was slashed to ribbons by the dark purple magic, loose mail flying everywhere.

“Clearly she is still in agony from the break,” X sarcastically griped, “Guess growing giant is out, wouldn’t want tosmash up the town you’re getting settled in anyways.”

“Not while we’re near the only good seafood place we’re not! I still need to take you there-“ Aria’s eyes widened as another shriek of winds called out and she was grabbed.

Kaizer X bashed down the door with his shoulder and threw himself and his partner inside, skidding across the floor in a rolling heap. The smell of fish was strong in the diner and a frozen selection was visible through glass displays showing fresh fish and crustaceans.

“Uuuh,” Aria groaned as she staggered up and realized where they were, “Well, it’s not the way I wanted to introduce you to it, but- OH SHIT GET DOWN!”

She grabbed her kaijin and tackled him behind the counter. The entire storefront felt the blizzard blast, the reinforced windows in the front wall just barely holding against the onslaught that cracked most of the surface, likely only spared because the door being open caused some of the gales to fly in. Kaizer X grumbled and gripped his head, assailed by malefic imagery and thoughts that got his blood broiling despite him trying to force them away. Thankfully a quick melody and a hand gripping his shoved the outside influences beyond his mind, Hymnia’s lullaby ensuing waves of love magic across him to keep him sane. Aria Blaze helped her partner up as they braved some of the winds and made for the back door. The blizzard cut out as the monster screamed out again, a garbled mass of syllables that vaguely sounded like ‘Go Away’. Even with her back turned, Aria knew most of it was directed at her.

Knowing she.. it was bearing down on them again, Aria and X made a break for the backdoor, wrenching it open and running through.

X jogged alongside Aria as they bolted away from the seafood restaurant, “If physical attacks aren’t working, the best solution is magic.”

Not quite a magic user himself, he was savvy enough on the uptake for this logical conclusion. Hearing a muffled shriek and seeing the door start to get wrenched open again, he turned and fired a quick graviton torrent towards the restaurant while thinking of a small apology to the siren. The door was yanked open by icy talons just as spiraling beams of gravity and golden plasma slammed into Twilight and Zephyrus, caving in part of the wall and crashing into Zephyrus. The windigo absorbed and diverted most of the blast to the walls around them, but the kinetic shockwave did end up sending Twilight flying back.

“Hey!” Aria yelped, not really upset but just needing to say something to avoid going crazy from stress, “The being with her seems to be blocking most of your hits.”

Kaizer X glanced at her knowingly whilst still running, “The secret you entrusted me with last night."

“Windigo, yes!” Aria cringed, deflating slightly before swallowing it back, “It’s pure evil, dark magic gone twisted.”

“So what kind of weaknesses does it have?”

“Light magic counteracts it, remember how my song helps you?” Aria yelped knowingly, “My mother’s love song can banish evil influence.”

“So why doesn’t it affect her?” X motioned backwards as the monster shrieked out again, having recovered from her spill, “You blasted her more times than me.”

“My hatred for her and love for you notwithstanding…” Aria muttered as she grimaced at glancing back to see if she was still chasing them, “I-I don’t know, it's like it’s wearing her body as a suit that shields it from the light magic. And it can weather what I throw at it long enough to pop out and deflect physical attacks.”

Aria Blaze pondered briefly as Kaizer X turned around again and fired off several graviton flares to either strike their pursuer or at least block out her vision by firing into the ground.

-Well my plan has gone to Tartarus and back… Can’t hurt her with X’s powers because of the windigo. Can’t hurt the windigo because of Twilight’s body or magic.-

She looked back ahead, towards where the concert was.

“Maybe we just need to brute force it? Get more magic,” Aria Blaze huffed as another shriek cried out, “Gotta take her back towards the concert, back towards Adagio and Eventide.”

============

“~What I have in store! Ambition, pride, and more!~” Adagio sang aloud as she hovered above the stage, flooding the area in her magical aura that commanded the crowd’s attention. Conscious of not getting any reply back from Gigan, she improvised and looped her song back upon itself to further control the audience and keep them from interfering, “~The tide is flowing through, now my song begins anew!~”

She started the new crescendo, raising her arms and using the latent magic in her voice to create the music only for something else to invade her airspace. A blur that quickly revealed itself to be a thrown jacket and a wave of magic that pushed into her like an expanding bubble.

“~You're never gonna bring me down~” Sunset Shimmer sang into Rainbow Dash’s mic as she strummed her guitar, reinforced by a melody Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were playing while she took the stage in a challenging manner, “~You're never gonna break this part of me, my friends were here to bring me around.~”

She pointed to Adagio Dazzle’s glowing red eyes, ignoring the glare she got as the musical tempo built up upon itself. Sunset Shimmer could focus on a thousand things right now. How some of the magically saturated air full of dark emotions were starting to bring back very unpleasant memories, how numerous elements in the crowd were booing her appearing on stage so prominently whether it be by the siren’s influence or justified anger at past experiences, and how she had never actually lead this song before and was unconsciously improving the lyrics here and there.

But, none of that mattered.

The cold she felt trying to creep in, like the air had tendrils trying to stab into her? She knew what could burn it away.

Whether she felt worthy or not, this world’s Elements had called out to her as they had her new friends. And if they believed in her, in a way she could feel; she could give that a whirl as well. Because the first thing she learned about friendship was who could support you when you thought you couldn’t support yourself.

Red sparks encircled here as similar but differently hued auras took hold around her bandmates, “~So I’m gonna stand my ground!~”

There was a shift in the air accompanied by the rhythm of their music. The dark magic that was clogging up the surroundings from both Adagio and the now-not-so-distant battle with Zephyrus and Twilight was starting to be canceled out. More of the crowd were starting to come back to their senses, however control was constantly fluctuating back and forth.

“~I will never be ignored! If you challenge me, it’s open war!~” Adagio spat back as another torrent of her magic crashed into the energy building up around the Rainbooms like a wave crashing onto a shore, risking to drown it.

The Rainbooms strained, but Sunset Shimmer was the first one on the front foot and stepped forward again.

“~You can’t drown us out, the crowd will hear us shout! We'll stop your magic, we'll purge your blight, we’ll withstand it all to fight!~” She was entirely improvising now, but matching her music to both the melody of her bandmates but also Adagio’s music. It seemed to keep the oppressive influence of her magic from crashing down on her. She didn’t really think, only letting flow what felt natural to her. So long as it matched up with the counter spell they had encoded into the melody it would work.

“~I’ve made so many mistakes, I stumbled and I fell... But I’m here to fiiiight, because I've got my friends here at my siiide!~”

The Rainbooms were engulfed in a magical brilliance, all four present ‘Ponying Up’ in tandem. The crash of their melody, already growing in strength before, was booming now.

Adagio actually flinched at the lyrics and for a moment, the reddish glow about her eyes melted away. Something was keeping her dark magic from flowing. She tried to hold onto memories and thoughts that always engendered such a strong negative response. A cold and restless night hiding in a grotto, fleeing from a town as a child with an injured Sonata, and the pangs of fear she bore for a being she'd never even met. The typical anger she put into it no matter how many causes she thought of just didn’t have the same bite when the music coming off the other band hit her. It was like trying to stay still during an ebb of the tide, getting dragged along with it. Instead what was washing up to her was flashes of someone else's memories, starting with Twilight Sparkle offering her a hand up.

Sunset Shimmer could feel it too, a tether. She wasn’t even touching Adagio Dazzle and yet, perhaps because of her own bolstering magic, she could feel it. A cold cave, fleeing villagers in a dash for the sea, and dread of the cold storms. Wounded pride, homesickness, spite and aloofness at others because she didn’t want to come off as vulnerable. It was all registering in mixing emotions of hot and cold, gripping tightness and smothering grief. For a moment she thought she was looking at herself not too long ago. Not the exact same, but similar.

She stepped forward and did as Twilight Sparkle had done. She extended her hand.

“~I was wronged and did wrong before, I know you have too. I can feel your rage, but I’m telling you it’s never too late!~”

Adagio was forced back onto the stage due to her magic being interrupted by the blasting waves of the band. There was a gout of Light magic flowing through the air, engendering so many thoughts and sensations. Adagio felt a phantom sensation of someone long dead holding her close on a coral reef.

She shook her head and whimpered, trying to clear it and force the heat in her chest out.

The sheer joy of seeing her cousin alive and well after nearly losing her and her sister to a monster.

The Alpha siren stumbled backwards and tried to articulate a word. But whatever it was had clogged up in her throat as she stubbornly tried to hold on to strife, hang on to the anger she felt at these upstarts disrupting her show.

“~We’re here to blow this thing apart, because with my friends I’ll never be afraid of the daaark!~”

Sunset Shimmer’s projected song was meant to be an offer of a gentle hug. It hit Adagio like a sledgehammer and nearly toppled her, banishing any dark magic that was keeping her empowered form aloft. It was crackling, the energy projections making up her fins, and her power was wavering. She slipped as Sunset Shimmer rushed to grab her arm.

Only for a glowing Eventide Hymn to catch Adagio from behind. For a moment the siren and false-siren locked gazes. So many questions were flashing through Adagio Dazzle’s mind. The upstart had seemingly sang along with and helped these humans before, upstaged her. What was she going to do now that she had a golden opportunity? Whose side was she really on? Was she going to drag them both off stage and spoil the entire plan? Was she… glowing?

Eventide Hymn, sparking with a light not that different from the Rainbooms, smirks as she helped Adagio back to her feet and gripped the microphone.

“~Your friends’ song is great and loud, your band should be proud. But you forget who abounds,~” She pointed at Sunset Shimmer in challenge, but not at all in a negative way. It was more a competitive invitation and she cracked a toothy smirk, “~'Cuz no one beats a sirens’ sound!~”

Adagio Dazzle looked and saw Eventide’s eyes upon her. She smiled as the melody roared through the air, an increasingly gestalt combination of her number and the Rainbooms'. Eventide nodded her head to the stage and held the microphone out to Adagio.

After a brief moment, the yellow hand of Adagio gripped the microphone in tandem with Eventide’s, content to share it. The magic crackling around Eventide’s Element-bearing necklace, emboldened by the Rainboom’s magic, conducted through their touching hands and flowed into Adagio Dazzle. They may not have actually been a family, but one way or another they were friends. And that factor was giving Eventide quite the boost. One Adagio was keen to copy and draw strength from.

Dark emotions and memories could go screw off as far as Adagio was concerned. The music made her want to feel happy and remember what was well, and she was compelled to do so. Helped this was giving her quite the boost where she had been previously faltering.

They shared an aura, a mix of different hues. For a moment the Rainbooms worried at what was going on now, but one look from the reinvigorated pair gave them quite an unexpected reaction. Eventide and Adagio, in perfect tandem, stood beside Sunset Shimmer and pitched their voice to the band’s melody.

“~As one we sing our song out-loud, get you dancing with the crowd!~”

Sunset Shimmer grinned and winked to her bandmates as she strummed the guitar she was holding and joined in, “~As the music of our friendship surviiiives!~”

“~Surviiiives!~” Eventide yelled out as her body flashed with magical lights and dazzling display.

“~Surviiiiives!~” Adagio Dazzle’s magical projections seemed to heal as she grinned widely. For naked monkeys, they didn’t make a half-bad melody.

The Rainbooms were more than a little confused internally at seeing someone they were supposed to be against joining in. Be it because the lyrics were just very nice or the fact the magic just seemed to feel right with Eventide especially joining in. The lead siren who seemingly was about to cause a lot of problems wasn’t being affected anymore… But she also wasn’t seemingly causing any problems anymore. The crowd was roaring no more in strife or experiencing dazed subjugation, but rather was cheering aloud with every bit of mirth and joy possible.

The sirens weren’t hurting anyone now, so why not finish the number?

They all grinned and kicked the music instrumentals into high gear.

“~Got the music in our hearts! We're here to blow this thing apart!~”

Sunset Shimmer was beaming, feeling such joy and bliss by all those around her. Some from strangers, and some that felt familiar. The guitar roared as did her voice.

“~Our pasts may be dark, but the future’s bright!~”

“~Friends old and new, joining us in the light!~” Eventide chimed.

“~And a siren knows, streeength comes from the heart!~” Adagio sang aloud to a grin by the other two.

“~And togetheeether!~” the trio yelled out.

In the closing distance, Aria Blaze and X rushed headlong towards the building mass of light magic; the windigo-infused Twilight Sparkle in hot pursuit.

“~And togeeether!~” The Rainbooms joined in.

The crowd cheered and surged, kept in place not by forceful command of dark magic but by the sheer spectacle.

“~We will never- Be afraid of the dark!~”

The building spell of Harmony’s magic exploded like a tsunami and crashed into everyone around it. The humans were blissfully unaffected in anything remotely resembling a malefic manner. Crime rates and social anxieties would starkly decline for the next week, while marital proposals and club memberships would rise. The dazzling gleam of the combined song magic of siren hymns and the incomplete Elements of Harmony cast the entire stage in a beautiful gleam, all standing proud as they soaked in the adoration and shared joy together.

Zephyrus screamed in pain as he was violently torn out of the human Twilight’s body and the alley was engulfed in white.

=======
Pier
=======

Irys and Gigan both reflexively dodged back as several rays of plasma, shot from Lea’s eyes and torso, ripped apart the ground they stood upon; forcing them to teleport and spring to safety. Lea looked upon the Guardian Mode Irys had activated with intermittent intrigue and disgust, seeing a bastardized variation of her friends’ birthright. Purple plasma engendered by magic crackled amongst her eyes, something that Godzilla took notice of despite being as winded as he was.

Irys and Gigan backstepped together, clearly moving together as pure indication of their camaraderie to any who might not be enlightened about that fact.

“Fall back,” Gigan muttered as he tried to keep his guard up and optic masers hot, “Picking up anything from X?”

Only Irys reached out with what sensory ability she had, far less refined than others but enough to manage at least an inclination. She knew where to look and where she looked she didn’t find anything she might expect to. The back alleys did not have siren magic nor kaizer energy nor dark magic; only traces of the three.

“They’ve moved,” she whispered, keeping up a sonic barrier just in case the Mothra started firing again. It was good foresight too because the moment she turned her head to say that, on reflex, Lea blasted at her again with enough force to crack the shield.

Lea grit her teeth as she stomped forward and fired again, battering the shield with blow after blow of energy blasts that snapped in the air. Even as Irys turned to run with Gigan, who was trying to set up a teleport, she had to whip back around as Lea fired another blast at her. The gyaos was stuck in place trying to maintain the shield against the onslaught.

Mothra Lea’s eyes darted aside to the cyborg, who had stopped to turn about, no doubt trying to grab his teammate. But Lea didn’t see that camaraderie, she didn’t care to hear whatever he was yelling or his extended hand towards the gyaos. All she saw was the blood staining Gigan’s arm and the knowledge of who it came from.

Mothra shot a prism beam from her eyes into Gigan’s leg, catching the weakened point Godzilla had smashed and burned. The piercing purple ray stabbed through the cyborg’s knee and blasted through it, forcing him to buckle over. Irys yelled out something but Lea cared not for that wretch’s tongue as she fired at the cyborg again and forced Irys to block for him.

“Lea stop!” Junior snapped as he stumbled forward.

He only raised his voice on account of pain, almost doubling over had Rainbow Dash not caught his arm. Yes, he himself had been fighting vigorously against both of their opponents just minutes ago but there was a different situation afoot. He was fighting hard because they were trying to seriously harm if not kill him, but even the back of his mind was able to piece together a situation together fairly quickly. Irys had attacked him, he’d fought back and seemingly done her grievous harm, Gigan launched into the fray clearly to protect her, and now they had more than enough force to drive them back.

But the wish to capture Irys was null now, and they were risking escalating this battle into something that would fly out of control. Gigan was talking about someone else who Junior didn’t know, but who knew how many more allies they had around?

His mind's eye bore witness to a brief vision of days past. Of the cool night on the island crowned in a spire of a mountain. Solgell. It had been a peaceful night, one of the few he might actually have slept through with his best friend at his side. Only for family who’d been his worst enemy and his right-hand to attack. The island’s Defenders rallied behind himself and Lea, just as the Mutations did behind Xenilla and Destroyah. Then the humans got involved. Then the aliens struck again. Outside agents flew into the chaotic melee. And it all ended in a black hole.

Part of the reason he worked himself to the bone back on Terra alone, despite being more than happy to fight alongside an ally, was the worry that if they traveled around in groups so would the enemy. A confrontation might turn into a melee. A melee into a devastation. Escalation of force.

This wasn’t the time for that, this wasn’t the time for a fight. He’d gone out to investigate with a side mission of possibly bringing family of a teammate home. He wasn’t about to start another Solgell right in the middle of a populated area. He couldn’t let her risk starting another Solgell in a populated area.

A sane Lea would never do that, and he knew she’d trust him to stop her if she tried.

“Lea STOP!” He lunged while stumbling forward.

A prism beam flew over his shoulder, missing his face by mere inches when he whipped her around to face him. Lea froze.

For a brief moment it was complete stillness between them all. Rainbow Dash trying to pull Godzilla off Mothra, Gigan and Irys gawking at who was seemingly coming to their defense, and the two founders of the Terra Defenders, the heirs of their dynasties, staring at one another. Suddenly, as he leaned forward slightly she embraced her friend. Lea seemed to be completely devoid of the depression and manic attitude that had seemingly taken her, the rage gone. Godzilla gazed at his oldest friend with a resolute but sad expression, not even commenting on how she nearly shot him point-blank; even if it was partially by his own actions.

“This fight's over, let them go.”

He frowned with a settled brow. Lea’s breath hitched when she felt a warmth upon her chest, tears stinging at her eyes as she looked at her friend’s mutilated face. A deep feeling was engendered as she raised a trembling hand and touched his face after sliding it up his side; from the smell of iron. Staining her collar and hand, Lea withdrew the palm from her friend’s cheek around his eye orbit as she gawked at it. The skin was very slowly patching itself, but still fresh. And her hand was half-covered in a red, crusted scab dotting her limb along with drying blood. His blood. The same ichor on Gigan’s arm…

They could have killed her best friend.

The music from the concert flowed through the air. It wasn’t at all like the echoes from before. There wasn’t a hint of dark magic amongst the number. It was pure, kind, and as open as an embrace. Pure light magic, as if from some of the Elements of Harmony themselves. The air was riddled with it, brimming with it. Rainbow Dash briefly glanced at her neckline to see the outline vaguely resembling a crystal pulsing on her collar. Deep within she could almost feel a pull, something compelling her to go back to the stage and contribute.

Far away, even out of earshot of the music, Pinkie Pie was experiencing the same feeling.

Junior felt slightly calmed even as he tried to keep his attention on Lea. His attention was only briefly taken away by the feeling of a gaze upon him, glancing up to see Irys looking back as she sprinted away with Gigan.

Lea’s eyes followed his line of sight, but she did not share his neutrality. Her best friend was hurt far more than he let on.

She tensed and Junior tightened his grip on her to keep her still… Only for his grip to be broken by a swarm of moths.

“Wa- Lea! No!” he barked as he gazed at the swarm.

The swarm flew upwards and reformed into Lea’s human form midair. She was glaring at Irys and Gigan. Her tattoos all glowed as dust settled down from her and encircled Godzilla Junior and Rainbow Dash. The image of her family emblem started to appear on the ground below him. On reflex, Junior whipped around and gripped Rainbow Dash by the shoulders and legs, scooping her up and tossing her aside onto the sand on the pier at an angle that would ensure she would roll instead of taking the brunt of the impact. Not a moment too soon considering he reflexively jolted away from the barrier’s edge.

“Lea what are you doing?!” he roared to demand an answer. When he got one he whipped around and smashed a fist into the edge of the barrier, but to no luck.

Rainbow Dash, recovering from her tumble, sprang up in a burst of superspeed and almost collided with the barrier face first when she ran up to it, turning aside in shoving her shoulder into it only to bounce off.

“It’s one of her strong barriers, we’ll need alot to burst it! Try magic!” Godzilla growled.

“Consider it done!”

Rainbow Dash panted as she backed up and, her element still flashing bright, rushed at the barrier with a diving kick. Once again, even with her mind hyper focusing on helping an ally and teacher regardless of her own well-being, something as loyal as she could possibly be, it refused to yield. Her stubbornness kicked in and after cracking her knuckles she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She was mostly used to just moving her arms back and forth to pump her legs when running, but she knew how to throw a punch. And in the span of five seconds she managed to throw 20 as her body glowed more and more.

The use of her Element was reacting with the song magic in the air, emboldening it and seemingly bolstering it. Everything became thicker with magic as the chorus echoed through the town from the stage.

Rainbow Dash huffed but refused to give up, not even having much finesse as she just kept punching, kicking, kneeing, and bashing herself into the barrier until bruises started to form. She darted away and looped back around. Mid-step, her body became engulfed in a bright light and her speed seemed to double. Magical wings burst from the streak of rainbows and cyan and a powerful kick crashed into the barrier; a fully Pony’d Up Rainbow Dash only passively displaying shock at her own reflection.

“What-how the-huh?!”

“Thank you…”

The calmness of the voice snapped her attention away as she gazed upwards at a stoic Mothra Lea standing over the barrier with her feet before one another. It was not her talking. Her hands were glowing with obvious enchantment as the rune below flashed. The purple glow on her eyes never left, and she spoke almost as if in a trance.

Within her mind, the doors to another ancestor’s memories had been torn open. And Lea wasn’t fully in the driver’s seat alone anymore.

“Terran magic and Equestrian magic don’t mix, but I needed more of the latter to funnel it easier,” "Lea" stated as she lifted her hands, her skin visibly becoming darker and her hair gaining streaks of reddish orange.

Like two giant hands, the barrier holding Godzilla in place was expanded but opened. Lea used what Twilight had taught her about Equestrian magic to call forth the Light Magic that was so heavy in the air. Almost like a giant rain catcher or a funnel, she redirected it into the opened top of the barrier to distill it; pushing it down. Pushing it into Godzilla.

Junior’s eyes widened as his body absorbed it like a sponge, his jaw dropping as he tried to push it back. But in the barrier, it had nowhere else to go. It was like a pressure cooker with him inside it.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” Rainbow Dash barked as she pointed at the kaiju, muscle memory kicking in as she got up off the ground and started hovering. Loyalty gave her bravado and bravado gave her a lot of courage.

“Healing him, and winning this.”

“Winning this?! Anguirus said not to kill the pale lady! Hello, he said this fight's over!” she shouted, her attention taken away by a yell crying out from inside the barrier.

It wasn’t pained. It wasn’t raging. It was… terrified.

Junior’s body wouldn’t stop absorbing magic even as he thrashed about holding his head.

“Hey! Knock it oooff!” Rainbow Dash barked as she backed up in midair and then rushed forward, intent on tackling the seemingly maddened kaiju out of the sky.

Within the barrier another yell cried out as flashes of old fears ripped into a mind.

-I’m going to crush someone. I’m going to crush someone. I’m going to crush someone!-

There was a blinding flash of light that went off in tandem with the combined finales of the incomplete Rainbooms and Dazzlings.

Irys and Gigan ran down a street to get away from what they knew was trouble when a blur passed overhead and stopped their retreat. At first it was so impossibly big from their perspective it could only be beholden as existing without really knowing what it was. It was only when it moved did they notice the individual scales that went around the curve of the trailer sized object before it was tipped in ivory colored scutes. It lifted and was pulled away, revealing the gargantuan mass to be but the very tip of a tail.

A shadow cast over them, about 50 meters high at its peak. Neither of them really knew what it was like to see a living mountain from the human perspective, very few kaiju did. And one of them who did was now towering over them, despite being half the height he normally would be due to the slapdash nature of the magic insertion.

Godzilla, the ancient sea dragon of Odo Island legend and the legacy of humanity’s actions, loomed over them while not making a single step from where he stood on the beach. His jaws parted slightly, revealing teeth taller than they were as mist spilled out from his fangs. Even with nothing said, years of seeing him in this state told them a very clear message.

One swipe of his tail, one blast of his breath, one step; and in the disparity between them right now he could end them both in an instant. They who had made him bleed, they who had blinded him to such a degree his eye was still repairing itself, they who tried to kill him could be so easily smote like an ant to a boot.

Gigan and Irys hadn’t felt such a feeling since they met their master.

Godzilla slowly closed his mouth and stared at them, long and hard, until his left eye was healed enough to open.

He then slowly grunted at them, motioning away with his head. Irys, still holding up Gigan, was frozen in place as she felt her mouth turn downwards. A most unexpected sensation was creeping through her chest, a very cold sensation that trickled through every vein.

Godzilla curled back his lips and opened his mouth. He didn’t roar, both for lack of rage but also as maybe not to draw any more attention to himself than was needed. He opened distended his lower jaw and hissed slowly in a not necessarily threatening but certainly most unwelcoming manner. Mist spilled out between every tooth as his claws flexed on his visible hand.

A metallic hand gripped her shoulder. She looked back to see Gigan casting his eyes down in a complicated look of hidden confusion, recognition, and perhaps a glint of shame. Gigan’s voice being extremely quiet, “… He’s letting us go. Come on.”

The disbelief amongst the two was palpable even after Gigan summoned up enough strength in his work drive to teleport them away to parts unknown, leaving the rest to Irys.

The gigantic saurian’s closed hand was slowly brought up, revealing two women in his palm; scooped up at the last moment as to avoid potentially landing on top of them when he emerged in his half sized full form. Rainbow Dash’s shock took a moment or two to wear off fully, even with having been briefed on who and what exactly her self-defense instructor was. Seeing and in her case feeling, given she was standing up on top of his first knuckle, was a whole different feeling.

Had she not been through a lot and still had the fearful yelling by this exact same individual not replaying through her head, the movie lover and thrillseeker might even be whooping and hollering at the spectacle. She wasn’t the type to be overly fearful of who she already trusted, no matter what they looked like. And one look at those eyes had so much familiarity in them she didn’t care what his skin was covered in.

Lea also gazed into those eyes for a time, the purple glow in hers all gone. She shuddered, wincing as she took in her surroundings in obvious confusion. Like she wasn't remembering how she got here. The orange streaks in her hair were replaced with the usual green. She looked around and then down, her gaze still turned downward as her knees started to buckle. She dropped to them, head bowed.

A low, reverberating utterance came from the very back of Godzilla’s throat; his jaw barely moving as he made his voice.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she shook her head, “Looks like we both got a surprise transformation today, didn't we big guy? Well, if you ever want to whip this out during a concert I can find you a gig in the show; we should only perform outdoors, though! Ehehe…”

Her attempt at humor was met with a shrug. Yes, even on the face of the biggest dinosaur ever, she could tell was a shrug.

“Heeey, what do you expect ya big palooka? I’m the one with top billing, usually!”

“He’s asking… If anyone else was out here,” Lea whispered, head still down.

Rainbow Dash paused, lifting off Godzilla’s palm and fluttering her magic wings to look about and double check as Godzilla crouched down.

“No, I was the only one to leave the stage and the entire town was out for the concert. No residential stuff near here in case of a sea surge during storms,” Rainbow quipped while rubbing at the back of her head.

Godzilla uttered out again, lowering himself more and backing towards the ocean.

“… He wanted to be sure that he…” Lea’s breath hitched, “Didn’t crush anyone, appearing in the middle of the city.”

Rainbow Dash cringed before swallowing a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat as she shook her head. A morose part of her mind did give the street a quick glance over to make sure the giant potholes his feet left in the road and beach didn’t have any red in them.

“N-No, just us… And those two that left.”

Godzilla closed his eyes, seeming to contemplate before nodding. He backed up into the ocean and put Lea down on the end of the pier. A low grumble came from his maw. Rainbow Dash was about to fly down near her to listen for the next translation, when her voice appeared in between her ears. At first the transformed human was both flabbergasted and shocked, but her answer came when she noticed Mothra Lea’s tattoos glowing dimly again. She would have to ask more about this in detail later but for now was resigned to write it off as more crazy magic.

-“He is going to wait in the ocean until the transformation wears off. He was just scared he hurt someone.”-

Rainbow Dash was going to fly closer, maybe to a bid him a quick goodbye and give a bit of levity or perhaps just try and offer her presence, only to be forced back by Lea’s gaze. For once it wasn’t the hardened glare or distant stoicism that made her stop. It was the reddened eyes and tearful face. Looking between the two kaiju, she backed away in midair and landed on the ruined road, sensing this was something private.

The look exchanged between the two old friends spoke of so much. The very low rumble that came out of the back of the King of the Monster’s throat spoke of more. Mothra Lea knew full well what some of his fears were, he confided them to her alone on a few occasions. She didn’t know what came over her, she didn’t know why her bloodlust skyrocketed to inexcusable levels. All she knew was she hurt her friend, she hurt the first friend she ever had.

Lea put her forehead to the end of his muzzle and wept for a short time before he nudged gently. He nuzzled and she hugged his snout. He stayed still for a time until her shuddering stopped, knowing some of why this happened. He'd rushed off, he'd gotten his blood on her hands while she was already unhinged. Wasn't anyone's fault, but didn't quite make it right. It did make it forgiveable. A lesson he'd learned well. Godzilla eased her back onto the pier and sank into the ocean to wait out what she’d forced onto him.

They would have more to talk about when he got back.

==========================

The blinding light, released when the monster that used to be Twilight Sparkle had the combined magic of the incomplete Rainbooms and Dazzlings crash into her, slowly dissipated. Aria Blaze and Monster X, having grabbed one another and dived for cover when the magical flare went off, slowly emerged from behind a parked car. The former was positively radiating with magic, empowered by her cousin's additions to the chorus making it all far more palatable than it typically be. Her siren heart was glowing bright and she was brimming.

And her target wasn't mobile. Laying a shattered heap of broken icicles, a seemingly only half-conscious Twilight Sparkle groaned as the dark magic making up her aura and wing seemed to smoke off her. Her eyes remained half closed and unfocused, a wary gaze was cast for her benefactor, who seemed to be conspicuously absent, as if blown away by the magic burst. Aria eyed the necklace embedded on Twilight’s neck and reached for it hopefully. Either they fixed it here or she’d drag them back to the camp.

It was just her and them. Just her and them…

Aria stormed over even before Kaizer X could, though she quickly felt his presence behind her. Twilight Sparkle let out a low murmur as the sirens stood over her, sharply hitching in breath when Aria grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her against a trash bin with a metallic clang.

“Gahk!” Twilight spat as she wobbled, clearly in a daze but able to register the pain in her arm.

Her noises were cut off when the siren shifted her grip to her neck and squeezed lightly. X was unmoving, standing beside her while sporting a somewhat worried expression. The fight over, he reverted back into Monster X.

“Remember, the Princess is only helping us on the condition that we not kill anyone,” X grunted as he put a hand on Aria’s arm.

Had this been the heat of battle and she was struck down or proved she was too dangerous to take back with them, he'd have favored pragmatism and wouldn’t have objected. But he didn’t like the grin Aria seemed to have while starting to tighten her grip on Twilight Sparkle’s throat.

Aria Blaze stifled a breath, glaring at the quivering and still delirious woman with untold amounts of hatred, both at what she had done and what she had allied with; before relenting slightly. She stopped her attempt at choking out Twilight and, just as the human’s eyes flickered open, she slugged her across the face. Once, twice more.

Twilight Sparkle’s glasses went flying off her head and she went limp, lightly dusted with frost and sporting a nasty bruise across her face as unconsciousness took her. Aria Blaze snorted, sighing as X patted at her shoulder. She reached once again for the space that bore Sonata’s heart, cringing slightly as she saw the gem was still partially embedded in Twilight’s sternum and skin.

Once again however, the gem resisted her attempts to pry it free; as if it was with its proper owner. But with enough coaxing, the barrier around it started to falter. She grinned and reached inwards.

The girl was petrified even before she turned the corner and heard the crunch, unknowingly caused by her accidentally stepping on a pair of glasses. The magical burst of light, magical as in what else could it be, had blinded and dazzled her for a hot minute, but she was soon back to her senses. She hadn’t seen the fight, only heard it. She hadn’t seen what her best friend, her only friend, had turned into. She hadn’t seen the winter spirit they thought was a magical mentor show his true self or colors. All Wallflower Blush saw was her friend, bloodied, beaten, and unconscious, in the grip of two with her blood on their hands.

There was no wind at her back pushing her along, there was no windigo named Boreas she didn’t even know existed coaxing her along. There didn’t need to be for red to overtake all of her vision. A drop of Twilight’s blood spilled onto the ground and Wallflower heard it ping off the concrete.

“MONSTEEEEEER!” Wallflower shrieked as she ripped the Memory Stone off her necklace and pointed it directly at the pair with as much ill intent as was possible.

The stone’s runes instantly flared up in a brilliant display, the motivation of its bearer causing it to overheat as the spell was pushed to its fullest. Spiraling magic shot forth from it and towards the pair. On instinct and because he was closer to Wallflower, X shoved Aria aside and whipped around with his eyes glowing bright gold. The spirals struck him and tore through any physical resistance, right into his mind.

Graviton beams flew out and at Wallflower, only for a gale force of wind blown in from the north to rush out in front of her. In the back of her mind she might have processed how this icy spirit looked a bit different from Zephyrus. Gaunter, less regal, far more manic; almost like a rabid beast. And it seemed to be laughing when it flew into the beams and twisted space. Boreas was indeed cackling like a maniac, both from the sheer unadulterated hatred coming off Wallflower but also his own pain at warping matter to redirect the beams away.

Wallflower however, hyper focusing, pushed everything she had into willing the stone. A typical use, such as trying and botching talking to a boy she liked, was but a small snippet. A tiny subtracting of the day's tiniest sliver of memory, a few moments at most. This was like driving a bulldozer into it and flooring the accelerator. She ripped into Kaizer X’s memories, ripping out everything she could in a disorganized manner.

The Kaijin stumbled back and roared, his combined form dropping and flickering back and forth between Monster X and Kaizer Ghidorah with all the painful details of transformation that entailed as he oscillated from those forms and back. She could see them, he could see them too; his memories. A night at the cabin, a training spar, a confrontation at a mall, a talk in a snowy forest, the first time Aria kissed him; the theft of the Alicorn Amulet; all was being torn out and sucked into the stone. Not just memories from the last year, but from the last three centuries. The stone was starting to crack and the built-up heat was burning Wallflower’s fingers even as she kept at it.

X, Kaizer Ghidorah, who were one but were now two, fell to a knee. Through the deafening shriek of the magic they registered someone calling out to them. Someone who was very important to them… Who was-

They saw violet eyes up close as Aria tried to pull them to her, eyes wet with fear and confusion. During a split second of disjointed memory, X didn’t even register why this purple human was so important to them; other than Kaizer knowing they were. For a moment, a passing phase of déjà vu, X was recalling a sight. Of those eyes cast in red, Aria in a powerful form, and a monster pulling her into them. Kaizer remembered the similarity to himself.

Aria had… the memory was faint, like smoke between the fingers; but X forced any context they could to remember it or anything related to it… The glint of her necklace reminded them of when X bore it, Kaizer remembered this… Yes, yes they’d bore it after Aria had given it to them. After she’d said two words to them, putting her full faith into them.

If she was so important to them, if she loved and was loved by X; X would do the same. He put his hand to her necklace and said those two words as a jolt of energy flew out of him.

“Don’t lose.”

A surge of magic, a surge of every scrap of emotion he had left in him; rocketed into Aria as Monster X shoved her out of harm’s way. He threw his head up and screamed as the final memories were torn out of him.

Wallflower Blush dropped the memory stone, which was smoking and glowing red hot from an overload. It had been meant to be used on just a few minutes or hours of memory. It had only been by sheer willpower and the unknowing channeling of dark magic, wrath fueled by fear, that it had taken in years worth. Wallflower crumbled to her knees, shocked by residual magic as her blurry vision hyper focused on the downed image of her only friend in the world. She dragged herself forward, limp in the leg as she sobbed and got to Twilight’s side. The poor girl was sobbing fitfully when she got to her unconscious comrade.

“T-Twi-light? O-Ooopen your eyes!” Wallflower sobbed as she pulled Twilight’s head into her leg and tried to support her neck. The magic user’s gemstone, embedded in her sternum, pulsed weakly as her bruised and swollen eyes remained shut. She was leaking redness and it was obvious from a bend that her arm was still broken.

Wallflower’s heart rate spiked again at touching Twilight’s brow to pull some bangs out of her face, shocked and feeling how cold she was “Y-You gotta open your eyes! Y-ou can’t sleep! You can’t sleep now!”

Twilight was unresponsive, limp and only visibly alive given the unconscious movements in her breath and twitch of the limbs. A pair of unearthly roaring screams snapped her attention away as she clutched Twilight to her protectively.

The first was from the tall dark man, who had the image of a swirling mass of snow and frost spiraling around him. The mass shot up and seemed to morph in the midst of motion, first into what vaguely looked like the front half of a horse with claw-like hooves and fangs and then into the image of an extremely gaunt human with a skull-like face and antlers. Looming over the man who had been Twilight’s attacker, it dove inside him whilst cackling like a madman as the north winds howled.

Boreas tore into the mostly emptied mind and consumed the form, causing the limbs to contort and spasm wildly in a most uncanny manner; like a spider moving upside-down while also turning itself inside out. He tore the mask from his head, revealing X’s scarred face for all to see as he sported a most uncanny of expressions. Manic, bloodthirsty, and predatory; to an insane degree. He looked to be sporting a toothy façade that was both snarling and smiling at the same time; clenching his jaw in a way that seemed like it cracked a tooth and found the action hilarious.

The other scream came from Aria Blaze, who was writhing about and clutching her head. Through the stumbling and spinning she did while trying to lash out at some unknown force flying into her mind, she swung her arms wildly to lash out at visions of a burning city, flashes of seeing a green and gold cyborg beast she didn’t recognize as Gigan’s old form, or a dark realm that seemed to be made of obsidian. She did however recognize a dark snowy wood, and the view of herself hiding in a tree trunk from the human-shaped monster she’d recently sang to. The same monster which… which…

Her eyes flickered from violet to red and back again, golden sparks crisscrossing her body. She tried to force the visions away, almost getting the sensation that someone else was pulling them aside as well, when the image of what was and wasn’t her lover came barreling into her.

Aria Blaze was grabbed by the shoulder and shoved into the brick and mortar wall of the shop, the possessed body that had been Monster X pinning her down. The siren reflexively grabbed at the limb gripping her and nearly cried out from the unnatural cold upon his form, so frigid it burned.

“Ooooh hehe, I like this one! Yesss, you made an excellent choice bringing him to me! Oh what a gift, what a wondrous gift!” The voice that very distinctly wasn’t X sang, with pale and seemingly frozen over eyes staring at her all the while.

Aria Blaze felt her eyes wet with tears as she kicked out and struck her boyfriend’s body in the gut. Despite, against some of her wishes, kicking hard enough to bruise someone who could shrug off a car crash easily, the reaction she got was less than satisfying. Boreas, the North Wind, gasped and seemed to gag on bile, but the action only functioned to incite him more. The haggard gasp soon turned to demented laughter.

“Ooooh yes, yes this is what I am! Look at what you did to her! Pain, mutilation! You are like me! You got it from me! AAUH HAHRAR!” Boreas cackled with his mouth so widened it looked like it split as he returned the favor, gripping and shoving Aria painfully into the wall once again, laughing even as she reflexively kneed him in the chest several times. After several blows, a horrific parody of the face Aria loved the most invaded her space as the worst feeling imaginable came to her awareness.

Wide, milky, frozen eyes stared at her as an owl would a mouse as Boreas had his hand on her necklace like the protective shield wasn’t even there. Boreas, never blinking, split his face with a grin.

“Seee, you are mine! HA! Such fury, such power! I knew you were mine from the moment you came to this world!” Boreas cackled as he started to pull on the necklace to tear it off, much in the same way Notus had shared form with an unwitting Twilight to allow her to breach Sonata’s protective ward. Ready to tear his daughter’s heart out, another stray thought crossed a wicked mind that literally lived off misery and strife while incapable of anything good, “Oooh after this I feel like putting this body to use! Say you like it don’t you? Any chance you've got to making me a grandfather?!”

Aria was nearly overpowered by dread, misery, and fear that clogged her throat like concrete. The edges of the necklace tie frayed and were about to snap, the gemstone blinking frantically as it knew the danger faced. Within her mind, usually represented by a calm ocean, everything was beginning to freeze over. Through the whirlwind of it all however, in the void of her own mindscape, something came through.

Two simple words.

The same two that another being who turned away from evil despite a horrific origin remembered when she said it to them upon facing doom against Enjin.

A masculine tone echoed through her mind, one strong but also comforting.

-“Don’t lose.”-

Deep within the mental plane of her mind, where the ocean of thought threatened to be frozen over, a dragon of black and gold burst through the ice.

The siren heart flashed gold and a magnificent surge of power rocketed through Aria Blaze’s form. Boreas’ body was shocked back from the conductive energy and Aria barely had the mental faculties to grab his arm and wrench her necklace away from his grip lest he tear it away with his tumble back. Gravity distorted all about her body, lifting Aria Blaze off the ground while intermittently levitating or crushing nearby objects.

Within the mind of the siren, a purple hippocampus gazed up at the enormity of the dragon.

-“What is- What’s happening!?”- she pleaded.

-“There is no time to explain.”- the dragon responded as power coursed through Aria’s body.

Boreas recovered from his shock, ice beginning to grow over his form as he cackled maniacally and observed with pride his spawn. Golden light washed over Aria Blaze to form a cocoon that hid her from view. Within her mind someone was talking to her.

-“Defend yourself! Use my power!”-

-“Wh-Who are you?!”-

-“You’ve known me….”-

The shell of magic flashed before bursting open, revealing itself to be large wings of magical light. Her skin had completely blackened with armored, golden scales formed across her form in some places. Horns started to magic their way into existence to crown her head. Red eyes snapped open even as they were wet with tears upon facing the form of whom she loved possessed by the monster that mutilated her mother.

Beholden to her beloved possessed by a nightmare of the past, Kaizer Aria had returned as power exploded out of her.

=============
Camp Everfree
=============

Pinkie Pie jolted up from her (technically Megalon’s, though it went unused) bed with her body twitching and fidgeting. The poor girl looked drained with slight bags under her eyes, her hair laying flat in a manner more akin to her sisters’, and some color having been drained from her skin. However, her body twitches were not nearly as random as one might think; something she was quite privy to. She carefully took them in measure.

Three sideways twitches on her left wrist, two fidgets and not twitches on her right shoulder, and her left pinkie toe felt tingly. Her eyes widened in recognition at what was going on, and to the degree. Jumping up from the bed and into a tunnel burrowed through a mix of packed earth and bedrock, Pinkie Pie started rapidly climbing up the ladder to the cabin still in her pajamas.

She casually surprised the alien war cyborg who was cooking a fish fillet on his metallic hand while holding it over a napalm grenade he’d spat up. Megalon spun around, still brandishing the lit grenade in one hand.

“Trying some in-room cooking? Why not the mess hall for that though?” Pinkie chimed as she pulled herself up from the trapdoor.

“Brother’s not the only one who likes to experiment, and what’s with the light show?” Megalon quipped with a tilted head, partially closing his hand on the flaming sphere and pointing at Pinkie Pie’s neck.

Pinkie Pie looked down and checked herself in a mirror. Sure enough the good vibes she was getting in her Pinkie Sense weren’t just that. In an instant it seemed like color was returning to her form, her hair got its spring back; all to the pulse of the glowing image appearing on her collar. It looked like an empty slot of sorts.

“Haaaha! Looks like my friends are hitting a new number!”

"This happens when you play music?” Megalon quipped as he leaned in and almost felt at the magic coming off her, “I feel a lot of energy, you’re practically glowing!”

“Yeepperoni! Tends to happen when we play music. First time doing this though.”

Megalon motioned outside to where Pinkie couldn’t go without cover of night or a tunnel, “Maybe it’s getting stronger? Miss Gloriosa has magic too, and she’s gotten a lot more powerful over time.”

“Well then I need to put it to use, ‘Nata needs her recommended dose of therapy, Pinkie Pie style! ...Where is she?”

Megalon chirped, “Showering… But I was about to check on her.”

“Why’s that?”

Megalon pouted as she looked outwards into the sky, “Lot of magic flying around just a bit ago while you were asleep. Didn’t want to wake you as you had barely gotten any trying to help ‘Nata.”

“Well how’s Sonata been doing? I’d know if you hadn’t carried me into that bed down there,” Pinkie grumbled as she crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks.

Megalon almost tapped her nose but quickly avoided doing so with the still red-hot hand he’d been using as a skillet, “You were exhausted and drained helping her through the night, you needed rest. Anyways, Sonata seemed… no different. Not better but-...”

“Well... I mean it means she’s not worse right?”

In the showers at the bathroom building, a frantic hand lashed out to turn the warm water as cold as it could go to avoid feeling the burning sensations crossing over her skin. The occupant contorted as her body reacted to the magic radiating in. Even miles away, the aftermath of Twilight’s transformation, the battles, the strife, and the band sing-off had echoed as far as Everfree. And unlike her sister and cousin, with a gem to siphon off light and dark of their choosing, the ugly scar on her chest only drew in the latter. Stumbling out of the shower and gripping her throat, Sonata was making more noise than she had in days. It just wasn't the returning voice she’d been hoping for.

“RRRrrrreeek! Aarrkg! Caaugh Aarrgh!” She gagged and heaved dryly into the sink, holding back her loose hair in case it ended up being more than dry heaves.

She panted and gasped, stomping her foot from the convulsions as she eyed the toilet. The wounded siren made a step for it but was instantly hit with another spat of heaving and retching. After the first minute she was almost hoping she could vomit out whatever had been offending her throat or stomach, horrific as the feeling would be.

She whimpered and sniffled back a clog in her nose. There was something there, something tickling or pricking her throat just behind her tongue. Like a piece of food stuck back around her tonsils she just couldn’t manage to swallow. Sonata tried her best to breath through her clogged nose and blink away tears, attempting to steady her throat best she could manage given every raspy gasp that went down her mouth pricked the offending object again.

The heaves slowed and she could finally get a sense of composure. Faced with a painful choice, she was forced to make it. Now or never. Grimacing and closing her eyes, Sonata Dusk reached into her mouth with her free hand and very, very carefully started to probe around behind her tongue; all too aware the slightest wrong move might set off her gag reflex and either make her bite herself or send her into a spiral of heaving yet again.

It took two attempts and she ended up leaving tooth shaped bruises around her knuckles, but finally she felt something stuck. It was hard, smooth, and, the likely cause of the heaving, pointy with the tip sticking towards her throat. Sharp at the tip even.

Sonata braced and tried to pull it out, instantly feeling it adhered to the skin and instantly ripping the air out of her lungs. The crippled siren grimaced, trying desperately to not bite her hand and pull the offending body free as her body convulsed and lurched forward to heave and choke. The hand previously holding her hair back was forced to slam into the bathroom mirror and brace to keep her from smashing head-first into it.

She gripped the object between her fingers and tugged, wiggled, and tugged again. Pitiful, quivering whimpers slithered from her throat and she could feel her own teeth risking to break the skin on her palm.

She gripped it and yanked it out, wrenching her hand free and wrenching forward. Her forehead braced into the bathroom mirror and it felt like hours for the overpowering reactions to finally ceased, by them she’d felt like she was trying to cough up her own tongue.

But the relief… Oh the relief made the edges of her eyes water. It was out, it was finally out! Sonata whimpered and let out a small chuckle in relaxation and freedom, feeling as if a mountain was off her back. The disheveled siren gasped and panted, hoping to slow down her heart rate as she picked her face off the mirror. Tears streaming down her uglied face, Sonata weakly looked to whatever offending object had brought on such misery.

She expected it to be some odd ingredient in her food as of late, perhaps, given the hardness it seemed to have, a loose fishbone from one of Megalon’s napalm cooked, homemade seafood tacos he’d made or perhaps some hardened breading chip from one of Pinkie’s cupcakes she’d brought over.

Instead, clenched in her finger tips with a small piece of bloodied skin still stuck to it, was a tiny shard of ice. A piece of ice that refused to melt even with the heat of her body and the room around her. Said room suddenly felt colder as frost formed on the edge of the mirror.

Author's Note

OoooooOOOooooh a cliffhanger! Well don't worry folks, this is the beginning of the arc's end but the action is gonna keep on rolling through. The Windigos got a kaiju body with X's memories inside the stone and Kaizer inside Aria's head, so no X isn't beyond restoration. The Rainboom-Dazzling rivalry seems to have shifted drastically but with a potential Battra afoot any sort of monkey wrench might be thrown into the plans.

Proofed by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Artwork by the lovely Faith-Wolff

Chapter 49 Part 2: Thaw

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 49 Part 3: Spring

There was a flash of golden light with a scream that sounded more like a roar echoing far and wide across Everfree Forest, sending all manner of animals scrambling away as a roll like thunder reverberated through the woods. A massive, sturdy pine tree was felled; most of its trunk completely blown out in a way comparable to a bomb having gone off next to it. Splinters and bark were shrapnel that bounced about in all directions, the creaking groan of the timbers punctuated with impacts upon impacts; bashing fists and slashing claws bursting more of the ancient conifer.

Aria Blaze tore her way through the two meter thick trunk even before it hit the ground, whipping around and smashing a roundhouse kick into the side of the tree while still mid-air. The sheer mass of the falling tree and lack of grounding to anchor the kick meant it failed to move the pine tree aside, but it did succeed in bursting out the opposing side while crushing-in the impact site. At this point, she was just mauling it; and it showed on the siren’s strained face when she landed. Lurching downwards as if heaving, before swinging back up with trails of gold seeping from her eyes and maw; the shriek that came forth from her voice was anything but normal.

And neither was the graviton torrent that amplified the roar, which tore through the pine tree and all but shattered it like a bullet through fine china.

Canceling out the attack; Aria Blaze, or rather the altered state she was still locked into hours later, heaved while shattered wood fragments fell every which way. Bangs shadowed glowing red eyes surrounded by black sclera, with golden scales and banded horns reflecting in the pale moonlight. Several long minutes passed with her raging, snarling heaves the only sound in the woods due to all local fauna very wisely moving away from the altered siren as fast as possible; survival instincts from birds to bats to bears telling them the best means of adapting to the newcomer was to be somewhere else.

In and out, the ragged breaths came, huffing and snarling until Aria sucked on her lip and angrily spat to the side to remove any drool her fangs had begun dripping. She held her hand before herself, having been about to wipe her face when she stopped to see it. The swollen muscle, armored scales, short claws formed from thickened and anchored nails; and the same inky, tar-ish black skin she’d seen before on her lover. It felt like such an insult by fate upon her to bear it now.

Tremors from constant adrenaline surges crisscrossed Aria’s spine, exacerbating the panting heaves. The shivers were almost to the level of convulsions after having such prolonged experience with adrenaline practically flooding her system.

-”This isn’t working.”-

Aria snarled and put a palm to her eye to push down on the closed lids in a bid to alleviate the headache she got as mentally from her company as it was physically caused with her condition,“Stop. TALKING!”

-”Siren, this isn’t like the last time you took on my power. It’s not magic copying me to a degree that would burn out.”-

“Then get out of my head!”

-”I. Can’t… And you can either flail about recklessly leveling more forest while being useless, or you could listen to me.”-

Aria hissed as she panted with a gasp of breath, trying to hold back a leaking from her eyes. She had to brace herself on the snapped-off-stump of the pine tree, claws digging in for a purchase lest she fall over from the tremors.

“You vanish for several hours and only speak up now?”

-”When I didn’t give you the answer you wanted, you were-...”-

Aria Blaze, annoyed at the mere fact the voice in her head was still talking, ignited her eyes and maw with golden fluorescence again. There was silence for the hot moment before the voice in her head disturbed the peace yet again.

-”Disturbed and not listening.”-

“Disturbed?...” Aria gasped and fidgeted, standing up stiff as a board, “Disturbed?! HA! THAT’S FUNNY! I-see why you and X aren’t the same, he couldn’t crack a good joke if it landed into his hands! You… YOU don’t know about anything, so stop trying to act like you can just point me around like you do!”

-”I miss him too.”-

The tone was in total dissonance to memories of before. Aria let out the tiniest of raspy gasps. It was a repugnant dismissal summarized in a half second exhale, for nothing else came from her mouth. She only stood there, frozen with no inhale or exhale as the glow around her eyes slowly petered out. Knees wobbled and she was forced to reach beside herself and brace a clawed hand on a still-standing tree for support. This time however, the claws did not dig in.

“... You’re actually serious,” the siren whispered, her volume at last lowered even as her pounding heartbeat made her want to speak up, lest she feel unheard.

“Who are you?”

The question wasn’t as simple as the three words made it out to be. Aria knew the story behind Kaizer Ghidorah, what had happened hundreds of years ago and a mere few weeks past. X had made a point to tell her immediately before any display of recent changes could crop up. But knowing and experiencing, feeling, were two completely different things. And she could feel almost like someone else was looking out her eyes, persisting just beyond any sight or sound and yet so perceptible.

-”I am... incomplete. Just like I was before, but in a new way now…”-

The mental tugging was felt once again and this time, Aria didn’t lash out to blow off steam and strain. Instead she grabbed onto it and was given a sight behind her eyes, a literal look into the past as if it were her own recollection. The visible world was flung back to a bygone era in a distant realm.

An xilian man holding a vial containing a glowing solution, bravely entering a sealed chamber that bore what looked like a miniature, crackling star. He gasped, he cried, he pressed forward to bathe in and absorb the energies radiated off that which powered the entire homeworld; even as his veins had visibly ignited with a phosphorus glow that threatened to tear him apart. He steeled himself, before the golden solution he held was injected right into his heart. His body was consumed with flashing gold and white lights, a shriek ripping through the air while the crackling starry form was pulled into the young man’s body; which rapidly swelled in size.

-”Praetorian Guard 094 was a life I had, and still have all the memories of. Scared, terrified even, because of what could have happened if I didn’t act. When I absorbed the Plasma Spark fragment’s power, I left that life behind for my people.”-

The next vision, darker and more surreal, was projected mostly in silhouette as it blew past Aria Blaze’s vision. A dragon falling from the sky as another retreated to the stars, a gash formed on the black and gold drake’s form after a purple-hued xilian empress stabbed herself in the heart. The siren could feel the shocks and ripples from the wound, unconsciously touching at her chest as if to feel at a phantom sensation puncturing in at that point. When it was all said and done, a comatose Kaizer Ghidorah lay in the crater they’d landed within.

-”After I lost myself, I became we. One side remembering it all, remembering all the wrath and horrors but with no manner or morality to temper that grief. The other side was cut off from their memories, and in that ignorance they became an unknown despite holding on to the same manner and morality. One became the restrained and rampaging dragon of wrath, Kaizer Ghidorah.”-

The towering dragon, bigger than anything Aria had ever seen or thought living before, strode out of the surrounding shadows as if to engulf the world. She could passively wonder if the unflattering, hateful visage about the titan’s three heads was intentional on the part of her narrator or not.

-“The other became the enslaved knight...”-

She lightly gasped at the sight. She’d gotten the description before, both from Adagio and Sonata; as well as from his own recollections when her curiosity had been piqued enough to ask him what he ‘really’ looked like.

-”Monster X.”-

If he was going to get serious with a hippocampus, she deserved to know everything. But seeing him as he truly looked was different to say the least. Eerie in some ways, unusual in most others; but her heart still beat coarsely as if it had been still since this conversation with Kaizer started. He looked positively alien, X; but he was still her X, if more in manner, color, and posture than in physicality. The resemblance left her feeling warmed and her hand reached out towards the projected memory uselessly, fingers hoping to hold and curl over his own.

The projected recollection of Monster X advanced and just as Aria’s eyes closed, he passed through her. The world turned blackened, it turned cold. She could almost dread hearing a distinct howl of icy wind with Boreas’ taunts echoing through the frigid gales.

But to some joyous if restrained relief, that iciness was pushed back by the tactile sensation of a hand upon her shoulder. Eyes still closed, the siren reached for it and tried to pat what wasn’t really there. What could be seen, what could be felt, wasn’t really there after all.

And yet, she could feel a familiar grip. It was, in manner, the same power and yet gentleness that had held her so close in their most private moments.

-”I am not the Kaizer Ghidorah you once helped defeat. When the knight and dragon reconciled, the latter agreed the former was the true self and merged into them. The X you knew upon his return was the same as the one you at first fought and then fell in love with.”-

As proof, more recent memories were put on full display. An ill Sonata laying in bed as a quiet, but resolved X held her hand and inspected her ugly scar; with Aria and Adagio in attendance. He had come on an expedition, and yet he’d just swore to divert his strength to tracking down the youngest siren’s attacker. Sonata practically clung to him as Aria’s stressed heart risked swelling. On another day, they were sparring together by the lakeside and despite the flurry of blows, couldn’t help but laugh when an accident made the typically nimble knight stumble into the siren and make them fall over in a heap. Aria had all but yanked his mask off to smooch him after rolling them over to pin her partner down. And on the night before the concert, to steel resolve, they’d shared a cabin bed as the red mist of heartfelt love practically flooded the nearby area.

Interspersed with the recollections of times recent were those of time immemorial. Of a desert-like world that nonetheless seemed beautiful despite the lack of oceans. A different era, and of different people. The image of Aria's happily tearful face being cupped by the cheek was transposed with that of a similar moment of passion with whom the siren could presume was Controller 011.

Had this been the sense there’d been an outside presence, consciousness, watching this whole time there would have been a sense of invasiveness. But the memories, and the phantom sensations they induced within her seemed like they only could’ve come from a place of love. Even if the emotions and sensations her siren magic could detect seemed scattered and incomplete. The imagery was there, but the emotional experience was not present. Kaizer Ghidorah could feed her their memories, but not the whole sensations tied into them.

-“When X and I merged, it was like two metal wires being bound and welded together. Everything that happened afterwards was him, and I became him as his conscious took control. There was no outsider viewing what you two enjoyed together, just the one you loved.”-

Aria frowned with a lowered brow, remembering the wrathful beast tied to the memory of that old flame. Advice about guys who never stop talking about their exes didn’t begin to describe the heart attacks Kaizer had subjected her to last trip, “And.. showing me your first partner? Your old self didn’t seem to think I measured up.”

-“Showing you that I don’t just see you as a substitute… There are similarities between you two, but plenty of differences. Frankly if she had been reincarnated and put in your situation, she might not have been able to start the events that led to two becoming one like you did. You’re not a replacement, you’re more than that… That’s why when that magical stone assaulted my memory, X, my personality, made a hard choice to protect you….”-

“It wasn’t the stone that disconnected you and X. That’s why you have all these memories…” Aria Blaze contemplated those memories as they continued to play past her, it all dawning upon the siren. The fact Kaizer had all of the recent memories meant whatever got pulled into that stone wasn’t any of them. Someone had cut the feed, like lopping off a fin caught in a vice, “X was the one who split you two apart, not the damn rock....”

Kaizer Ghidorah’s presence nodded silently.

-“The hardest choice to protect you… It kept information about where you and the others were out of windigo clutches so they couldn’t find the camp, and it kept the memories he, I, held most sacred and private. All the memories of before we became a kaijin, and since we met you, are still in me.”-

“Why?”

-“I think we both know the answer to that, ‘Sea Witch’.”-

It was an old insult said without any spite. Aria knew the answer easily even without it being said. One Kaizer had never said before, but X had plenty of times. Aria almost chuckled. She could imagine it now. None of the memories Kaizer could show her were combat related, aside from their scuffle after he pulled her out of the river that first encounter. When X had felt his mind start to warp, from windigo possession and the stone’s power, and the fusion of he and Kaizer Ghidorah started to fray; he’d put everything important into the latter and sent him away. Compartmentalized his psyche. The important memories pushed into Kaizer who jumped into Aria, the rest split between what remained in their body and what the stone sucked up. Given Boreas’ increasing performance, it seemed the memories of combat were still there to some degree… Because to X, those weren’t as important as anything that might jeopardize her safety.

The windigos and stone had stolen Monster X’s body and experience, but they hadn’t fully stolen his identity.

The realization, the feeling of warmth that almost emulated the phantom sensations of arms around her. It allowed her to finally take a breath she’d not known she’d been holding all this time. She was loved. Aria Blaze was an exiled, temperamental, quick to anger, uncouth, bastard child of a royal line who died off 1,000 years ago and had spent much of her time living out of a van and eating cheap take-out. By all metrics, she was a failure and ‘The Worst’ by most favorable metrics and at the worst of such measures she was the spawn of a literal demon of lust and misery. And yet, someone loved her so much that even while his brain was getting shredded, he still fought tooth and nail to protect her by any measure he could.

The least she could do, was the exact same as she grabbed onto Kaizer’s hand.

In the waking world, Aria Blaze let out a slow exhale and looked to the moon with red eyes. Her gold-encircled orbs closed and waited. When she turned around to spy the dim flickers of eyeshine in the distance that had been observing her, the normal indigo looked back. Aria Blaze, now some inches shorter and having lost plenty of mass, waited. She showed no signs of fear as they approached, bowing her head as Irys stepped into the moonlight. The former gyaos studied the siren for a time, perhaps silently contemplating how it was she changed back from her altered state; before electing to not speak of it. Aria was stoic and calm, and Irys gave her the same professionalism as she led them back to the campgrounds.

There was no more outrage, no more destruction, no more adrenaline tremors fuzzying her vision with desires for bloody vengeance. She followed Irys to the grounds and, knowing others would help her cousins better than her right now, went to wash up and then return to the cabin she and her consort once shared. Sitting cross legged on the bedding, intentionally wearing some baggy clothing that would loosely fit her normal frame, Aria closed her eyes and almost meditated.

-“What do you want to see?”-

She wouldn’t let Boreas destroy her mind as he did her mother’s. She wouldn’t let the windigo win this one. The sirens’ world had been totally unprepared for something like them to return, after all the years of running or denial the past could catch back up to them. She’d been playing his game when she brutalized and pushed the other Twilight over the edge. One could not fight hatred with more strife, opposition uncontrolled. That’s why the old Kaizer Ghidorah lost to her and X. And it would be what won that fight which would see her through this one.

Kaizer Aria, calm even as a tear ran down her cheek due to the loneliness of the quiet isolation, only whispered back to the voice in her head. A parting gift of memories shared and power he’d hoped she’d use to help protect herself. And she intended to use it to help save him as well.

“Show me from the beginning. I saw a bit of that dustbowl of a world you came from, but not much…”

========================

A grass hedging all but exploded from an uproar of dirt and old broken brick bursting out from the ground. The shrubbery was shredded as a large form excavated itself. A quivering breath was audible alone in the night air, haggard and wet with tears before feet pounded against the sidewalk in a sprint. Dirtied hands latched onto the statue outside of Canterlot High School, tightly gripping it and smearing mud, dirt, and other assorted debris against the polished marble. They felt around frantically, mutterings inarticulate as desperation got stronger and stronger. Finally a fist beat against the flat stone, as if trying to desperately knock at the door.

Had Pinkie not assured him multiple times she’d be with the weakened siren he’d swore to guard, or had brother not locked himself in the garage, or had Irys not been standing by in stoic resolve; he’d never have left. It was a new kind of emotional experience however, that made the last of their crew abandon his post and rush off to the town. He’d done it under the cover of his tunnels naturally, and only after being sure his brother turned off the trackers during his maintenance check. Not even Pinkie knew where he’d gone, just that he needed a moment alone.

But Megalon wouldn’t treat the short time he had asked for without diligence. He wasn’t a very smart kaiju, he knew that and he was fine with it. His brother usually came up with the plans, always the one trying to act so mature and in control. He acted it so well that it took Megalon all but a few seconds to realize how little of that his sibling had when Gigan locked himself in the machine shop. But he was dedicated, and perhaps a little bit too stubborn for his own good. Just like how he was stubbornly holding onto something called faith right now. Faith that his loyalty wasn’t unfounded, faith that any trust he put wasn’t misplaced.

Faith that someone could make this all better.

He’d tunneled, and then he’d sprinted, and then he’d tunneled again all the way back to the center of town.

“MASTER! MASTER!” Megalon sobbed as he pounded at the statue, trying desperately to rouse the magical portal the very same party had sent him through some time ago to give X reinforcements alongside Irys and Gigan.

Now, he was desperately begging for the same from the very same. The Master was wise, the Master was kind, giving, and powerful beyond anything he’d known. If there is anyone at all who could help them, it would be them. It could only be them! His teary eyes looked to the moon, remembering the warning the deity had given them when the portal was opened.

The moon was anything but full, and it wasn’t at all the right position. Nothing to allow the portal back to Zenith. They were cut off, and for how long his frantic mind couldn’t even understand.

All he could understand was that they desperately needed help, and there was only one being he could have faith in to help them. The very same one which practically brought his dear brother back from the dead, surely they could handle some evil magic spirit!

“MASTER HELP US! CAN’T YOU HEAR ME?!” Megalon sobbed as he punched against the statue that seemed to be getting in his way, tears constantly rolling down his face.

He heaved, he begged, he pleaded. He kept hitting until his already ruined gloves had practically disintegrated, metallic banging and chipping of stone ensuing when his metal prosthetics beat against it while on full display. The tunneling cyborg panted, unable to use his full strength with all of his distress. That same distress was warping any decision-making he could’ve been having. All he could tell was that he desperately needed the help from one this statue was keeping him from!

“Pl-please… please, you gotta do something….” He stuttered, “I d-don’t know i-if I need to give something or! Just beg but- Please! Master!”

He pounded on the statue more and more, “Master! Please hear me! Please.....”

He slipped, falling to a knee while bracing one arm against the statue’s base to keep himself from falling over. The cold gripped more and more, hungry and demanding. The winds started to shift, carrying with them whispers. Suggestions. Condemnations.

"Help..."

He was stupid, he was childish, he wasn’t anything his creators wanted, he was a load on the team, his own brother just saw him as a burden… that they weren’t really brothers. He was just some weak and half-baked attempt at a replacement. One that was so bad they kept the original around. He was a fighter who never won a straight fight, a protector who couldn’t safeguard his charge, and hardly noteworthy amongst the team. The wind and its cold, its whispers from the North and especially West, echoed his own worst, most buried thoughts.

-Meglon you idiot, you can’t get a straight thought in your head!-

The cold gale curved around from the East and smacked into his face, like it was gnawing at his skin.

-You lack the strength to win and the conviction to think.-

The frigid Westerly wind clawed the cyborg’s scalp. The two continuing, seemingly blending into his own thoughts, his own voice. As if he were the only one thinking it. The North and West winds whipped, drawn in by the traces of the South wind’s progeny upon the cyborg. Megalon hadn’t a clue that being in prolonged proximity to Sonata had affected him, even with Pinkie trying her best to moderate the effect. He had none of his attention to that.

-I go crying to my brother dearest or someone else the moment I get stuck!-

-I only rely on others, I’m just a pathetic leech. I’ve just been too immature to notice.-

He wasn’t as brave as Irys. He wasn’t as smart as Gigan. He wasn’t as strong as X. He was basically just the punching bag in their fight with Ghidorah, both of them. Even his own creators thought he was a failure with how they barely ever upgraded him and always gave him a ‘babysitter’ like his brother or X. Why couldn’t he have just been made smarter? Why was he the dunderhead who went wasting time skipping around for fun? Why wasn’t he stronger so he could stand beside those three he looked up to so much? Why was he so defective? Why couldn’t he have just been, normal?!...

Every time his team had something hard happen, he’d never been the one to fix it. He had never gotten anything done.

He couldn’t even pray right…

-You never really amounted to much, you’re just a big oaf…-

The statue was frigid against him, the cold of a North and West wind whipping at his body. Megalon grit his teeth and grimaced, almost swearing while biting back more tears as he cocked an arm back. The metal hand reconfigured back into a drill’s tip and roared to life. But just as it started to approach the statue, a hand gripped his elbow.

Before he could turn around, another hand gripped his scalp and stopped all motion. Megalon froze, unable to move as if by some force. The hand gripped his head tightly before relaxing. Instantly all the cold that had been building up was shunted away, kicking out the foundations of the downward spiral the desperate cyborg’s mind had been caught in.

Instead his mind was whited out, only the distant sensation of even more distant memory being present. Back to when his recollections were fuzzy, but a presence seemed to clear the air of the fog from ages past. All the way back the beginning...

His first conscious thought was not the hanger he was housed in so frequently in the years to come. Not the tingling sensation of thousands of cables and wires hooked up to his form. Not the darkness of the metal shrouds or the beeping of so many monitors hooked up to his shell fragments. Instead everything was focused on the messy glass above his face. There had been some tremendous impact tremor that had roused him. There was smoke outside, debris that was smudging the glass. The dirtied viewport was blocked out by a tall shadow.

The towering visage had clearly seen better days. It was a gestalt of pitiful wounds as it was sheer rage holding what remained together. Sparks were spitting out from multiple cracked pieces of exoskeleton, the jagged teeth of the saw blade were almost completely torn out with the belt limply hanging from a chest that looked like it was half-exploded open; the remnants of some organs wrapped in synthetic sacks on almost full display. Gigan was missing two of his dorsal fins, one arm was gone below the elbow with bits of bone and metal jutting out, both mandibles had been melted with most of his face covered in blast char, and his visor was completely shattered. A single, glowing red eye looked down upon the younger cyborg with a burning leer. There was tension… before a calm.

Gigan saw something that made him stay his remaining blade, stay what he had the conviction to do prior. And, as the thoughts projected into Megalon’s mind informed, when his blade dropped away, so too did that hatred for his life. It was almost like speaking directly to his brother’s past thoughts.

How enraged Gigan had been, loathing both his own creation and creators to no end. An interloper trying to do the same had only complicated plans without changing the final desired outcome. The cold of pain and yet the searing of hatred was so strong it overpowered any artificiality that might have been induced upon the cyborg kaiju. Gigan had planned on burning down the whole of the Nebulan capital, replacement and all, along with himself in an elaborate murder-suicide of his own creators. He’d had it with living. He’d given up. It was the look the next prototype gave him that changed it all.

He’d come expecting another cyborg, but found something else entirely instead when the sight within was not of a mostly-completed cyborg, but a large egg that had hatched in the duration of his fight with the invader.

The reflection in the smudged window was of agape and quivering infantile mandibles, a dropped jaw, sparkling and entirely organic compound eyes surrounded by polished and clean chitin. The first time Megalon had seen Gigan, the grouchy prototype cyborg was already more than half dead, sheer hatred and self-loathing being the only things keeping him standing, and apathetic to any continued existence. And yet, the freshly-hatched and entirely fleshy Megalon had been nothing short of awestruck at the sight of a being who completely hated himself at that point and had come to this hanger with every intent of killing the successor the Nebulans had tried to make to replace him. To the infant Megalon, the one he’d come to call brother was nothing short of awesome in how he carried himself despite his wounds and condition. In the gleam of the suns, he looked downright heroic; a tired knight right off a fierce battle to slay a dragon.

Gigan had been ready to end it all that day, including himself. He’d stopped him with that look. In the present, megalon quivered in the grip of the hand, his lips lowering and jaw dropping slightly. As Gigan looked to the machinery set alongside the hanger which turned out to be a hatchery, seeing the same sort of enslaving cybernetics he’d been fitted with since he was first born, the older cyborg stilled. He looked between this singular innocence and what the Nebulans would have planned for him if the youngster was entirely alone. The cold from before squashed the wrathful heat, but it wasn’t out of self-grief anymore. Gigan stared at the replacement limbs, organs, plating, and even skeletal parts that had already been lined up for the infant Megalon. The amount of robotics put his current form to shame, and that was telling. If he left this being to their fate, it would be exactly what he’d gone through but worse.

The singular eye of Gigan shone through the hanger window, beholden to the compound orbs that gazed up at him with such awe. A heart in metaphor, finally beat once again as Gigan’s eye ignited with burning light. A voice unknown to Megalon, did the talking.

-“Your first act, and you saved your brother’s life. You admired what he’d given up on. Himself. His creators thought they’d removed his heart, but those same creators couldn’t pull out his soul…”-

The distant memory of Gigan whipped aside and unleashed one overcharged blast of his optic ray upon the cargo carriers and storage housing the cybernetics lined up for Megalon. He was dangerously low on power, but he didn’t stop until every last piece was slagged under that brilliant red beam that swept back and forth across the landscape. He knew full well the Nebulans were watching, knowing his judgement. So he sent a clear enough message when, after his burning wrath, the cyborg angrily punted the heap of slagged metal through several warehouses. Megalon witnessed the one who’d become his brother, having recently sworn himself his protector, look upon him through the hanger window. After some contemplation, the older cyborg patted the side of the hanger before he willingly turned and walked back to the place he had hated most. With the entry to his own hanger; Gigan had cast his first plan to the wind. They could repair him, put more metal into him and he’d make it his own. But unless under dire circumstance they wouldn’t lay a hand on his new charge, his new sibling. He’d make himself the ‘child’ their abusive creator focused upon, to pull the attention away while keeping Megalon out of trouble.

-“You were born, and thus Gigan yet lived. Your impact then and since, is greater than you know.”-

He’d never known that. The mind was free to travel more to the present. Back to the ugly, messy present. Free of turmoil, he could concentrate.

He and his team, their allies too; they were in a bad way. A very bad way… But they’d beaten those before. And if his brother could have wanted to give up so much once and yet beat it, then so could he. So could all of them.

He was Megalon! He was too stubborn to give up, he woul-

He almost seemed to feel a tap on his scalp before blacking out. The cyborg crumbled and fell into the void. His eyes snapped back open to greet him to the sight of his tunnel. Dimly glowing eyes adjusted to take in the darkness and low-light. Torn bedrock and dirt were on all sides except the path going back to the Everfree campground. He wasn’t very far from it. Puzzling, he looked behind himself towards Canterlot. The tunnel leading back to town he remembered digging was... completely filled in. Even the roots were still there. Like there never had been a tunnel excavated that way in the first place. His hand subconsciously shifted to his head, feeling at his scalp before looking at his still intact gloves. Megalon sat still, panting for breath as tiredness seeped out of his limbs.

He knew his brother couldn’t dream anymore. Too many cybernetics messing with his head, Gigan would say. Megalon almost regretted not having the same….

-… No… No you pests won't get to him too!-

The flickers of what he remembered, what he’d been convinced of. What his first act had been and the ramifications in it. He’d saved his brother’s life by being awestruck at someone who loathed themselves, that had gotten Gigan to make peace with his status and come to accept it, that gave X companionship which led to their team of three, three which became four when Irys joined. Four that endured King Ghidorah and then Kaizer Ghidorah. The four Hunters. The four he’d, by proxy, brought together and helped hold together.

They were three now, but he’d be damned if he was gonna settle for that!

Jolting up to his feet, Megalon sprinted back down the tunnel to get back to camp. He had a siren to protect, friends to comfort, and an X to rescue; again! Might’ve took a dream to remind him of that, but he’d make it a reality if it was the last thing he’d do!

-Because giving up isn’t something I’ll ever do!-

=======================

The garage was almost pitch black aside from occasional sparks, light not needed for someone who could see in infrared; but that was unnecessary in itself. Gloriosa had gotten an idea as to why he turned all the lights out however, and it wasn’t to keep dark around him so the cyborg could work but to keep him in the dark so others couldn’t see.

Gigan was not well in the slightest. His arm was still quivering, what he had left that was flesh and bone. She hadn't noticed without the weight of the mechanical slag that had been the forearm holding it still. He was shaking, eyes swiveled wide while transfixed on absolutely nothing before himself. On the table next to them, removed due to the massive damage suffered making it useless, was his newest upgrade. Cutting edge, figuratively and literally. And yet the metal was bent and warped by heat, partially melted with five indents crushing into it. The indentation formed a hand and he could remember it all. Not a recollection warped by the heat of the moment or adrenaline, but with perfect replay. He picked up the newest weapon with a surviving hand.

The cyborg was shaking outwardly. And he was shaken inwardly. Everything had gone awry in the last day and this was just the latest of them. Gigan felt weakness like he hadn't since the days he was mostly organic. In the quiet of the machine shop, in the dark and dankness of fumes and oil; Gigan had been totally alone until Gloriosa opened the backdoor. She flinched as the newest addition to his arsenal was hurled away with a roaring cry and smashed against the wall beside her. Before she could say anything, he’d brought up a surviving robotic hand and covered his face.

Irys had been right. All his new tricks, all his gear, all the upgrades. All slagged by someone who'd been holding back in a pointless fight! While X was in need, they'd been away picking a fight that everyone lost in. The mental re-play of those burning orbs, both in human form and in a towering mountain of scales and fangs looked upon him in judgement.

When he'd broken away from the Nebulans, he thought he'd be wiser than those slaving, miscreant bugs! No more picking anymore pointless wars that just serve to get him and his team, the only things he'd ever care about, hurt. No more risking anyone else coming back scarred and mangled like he had been so many times! He’d promised himself that the first time he saw his little brother, and he’d kept that promise each and every time he got dragged into a dire situation from having to go rescue X to backing up Irys after prodding a Ghidorah for the second time that year.

And yet the cold of that wind seemed to chill him even now. Clawing at his mind.

He’d wanted to see an enemy bleed, not just out of want to protect Irys and X; but because of his precious plans and dangerous desire for revenge for the wounds Godzilla had inflicted to him and others.

Twilight had begged them to not harm any of her friends, in exchange for her help and other hopes. Hope that this all wouldn’t turn into a massive brawl the moment the Hunters and Sirens didn’t have a hostage, hope they wouldn’t get exposed and risk losing the good graces of the Master, hope this whole ordeal kicked off by him rushing in with bad intelligence and grabbing the wrong Twilight Starla Sparkle was still salvageable…

All eviscerated because of his arrogance and wrath….

Sparks shot out of the chilled cyborg’s neck as, behind the cover of his surviving hand, Gigan whispered a whimper, “It was all for nothing... This.. con-con-con-conflict-"

Sparks burst from his ruined arm, "… It’s all my fault!”

Gloriosa was about to say something when the stiff-as-a-corpse figure she’d guided into the garage with her suddenly jolted to life. Adagio Dazzle was almost a blur when she charged at Gigan, grabbing and wrenching his arm aside to look him right in the eyes. The siren didn’t even flinch when another few gushes of sparks bled out and pinged off her shoulder, holding onto the cyborg as mechanical dim red, sometimes static covered screens locked gazes with similarly opaque magenta eyes ringed with crusty tears.

“DON’T YOU SAY ANY OF THAT! Y-YOU HEAR ME BOLTS?!” Adagio shrieked as she jostled the cyborg that grabbed onto her , “ALL OF THIS IS ON ME!”

Her arm was tightly gripped by warped metal as Gigan let out a mechanical, distorted snarl.

“I. Started. A. War you idiot sea witch!”

“And I’m the reason for all of this happening in the first place!”

“How?! How could you cause any of the mess I’ve made?!”

“Because I’m the one he wants! Don’t you get it?!”

“He? He who?! How does any of that have to do with what I’ve done?!”

"Because my existence is the whole reason he's is hunting us!"

"WHO?! WHO ARE YOU SO AFRAID OF?!

In a moment that was visible in the dim light only because of the fingers that wrapped around the glowing red gem that was one of the few sources of illumination, Adagio did something no one would have expected. She pulled off her necklace and tried to shove it towards Gigan.

“T-Take it! J-JUST TAKE IT! Come on! Your type wanted it to begin with! If it’s gone he’d-“ Adagio roared with a hitch in her voice.

Gigan pushed back with his good hand, fingers curling around Adagio’s in her attempts to pass off the siren heart to him.

“You don’t get to take blame here! I’m the one who got us buried deeper and deeper into this mess!”

The room became clouded with a dim, blue and green mist. Strife was present in the angry shouting, but something else far more potent was starting to drown the both of them. It was a peculiar loop, when despair was both causing an argument when both parties were trying to end it by taking blame; but it was such a tactic that Notus had used many a time. Sometimes strife towards one’s self was just as potent as one aimed at a foe; and just as good at isolating.

“JUST TAKE IT AND LEAVE!” the siren shrieked with an audible sob in her raging tone.

“WHEN I WAS THE ONE WHO SCREWED IT ALL UP BECAUSE I WENT OFF HALFCOCKED WITHOUT A PLAN?!” Gigan barked with a glitch in his voice while pushing back.

“BETTER THAN GETTING EVERYTHING I CARE ABOUT KILLED BECAUSE I CAN NEVER MAKE A PLAN TO GET AWAY FROM ZEPHYRUS!”

"WHO. IS. ZEPHYRUS!?"

Sparks flew between the enraged voices, shooting out of Gigan’s neck. In tandem with the brightening glow from the siren’s gemstone heart, they both got their first good look at each other. All sense of calm and calculating on Gigan was completely destroyed, his glasses missing as to expose the leaking oils coming from his eyelids, the fleshy parts of his face being sickly, pale, or pealed. Sparks jut out from exposed wiring on his neck, and his hair was split and matted. Adagio’s typically beautiful face was completely unkempt and messy with sweat, tears, and ichors that also stained her clothes. Large bags had formed underneath her eyes from constant crying, her hair was sticky and slick against her head with one bang stubbornly clung to her cheek. Veins were visible and throbbing at her neck and forehead, almost like they were being constricted from the sheer stress.

And both of them were icy cold to the touch, bits of frost that refused to melt stuck to their bodies. Notus might not have been present, but his influence yet lingered even as the shouting died.

They looked at each other, mouths slightly agape and looking like they’d crumble at any moment. Minds were clearly working at a mile a minute, but no words can ever get strong enough to come to the surface. Thankfully, fate provided a saving grace.

“You dolts care more than you let on,” Gloriosa said with a slight hitch in her voice as she grasped both of their hands, the red Element of Empathy flaring up to life, shortly followed by Honesty and Kindness.

Gigan and Adagio looked aside before light overtook their vision, briefly glimpsing a red mask encircling glowing green eyes that gazed upon them with such fondness.

-“Let’s get to the bottom of this…”-

The voice was like Gloriosa’s but also slightly different. Still clearly recognizable but a bit deeper, and echoing on its own. Everything was black with distant sparks of light flying past. None of them could see each other. There was a blizzard choking up the airspace, clogging it with smoggish strife magic and gnawing cold. In such a realm no one could ever feel anything but isolated. No one could have any voice run contrary to the demeaning echoes moving through their minds.

“Unworthy wretch!” an echo in Adagio’s voice lambasted.

“Ungrateful warmonger!” a similar damnation in Gigan’s tone.

“Your own mother wished you were dead.”

“You’re going to make your team suffer for your hatred.”

“You failed Hymnia, you’ll never get away from him!”

“You’re no better than the Nebulans, should have been dismantled!”

“They’d be better off without you, Adagio.”

“You’re only getting in the way, Gigan.”

Both agreed on only one thing. By the heinous evil that resulted in Adagio’s siring or the continued existence of the Nebulans using a prototype.

“You. Are. A. Mistake.”

That line cut through the cold, like a small ray of light piercing a cloud. It caused both of them to pause and hear the other, for the first time sensing another presence in full within the distorted cold and isolation within their minds.

The blizzard was suddenly blasted away, pushed back by a greenish light that showed with numerous other flickering hues. The dark void was now filled with stars, glassy walkways Gigan and Adagio could feel beneath them once separated by vast distances were now closed together. None might have recognized it, aside from a fleeting glimpse in the back of Gigan’s mind when he came closest to death in the fallout of Kaizer Ghidorah’s rampage after nearly giving his life for his friends, and they certainly weren’t here on account of cyborg or siren; but this mental space resembling Harmony’s realm was no accident. Gloriosa hadn’t commanded they go here, she just followed the advice they gave to her when she had problems and fears holding her back.

The perspectives on glassy panels bordering the walkways shifted to a point of view looking at Adagio after sadly inspecting the necklace. The siren, conviction on her face, pointed at the perspective. Several things she’d said then echoed all about.

"I think one of the reasons you have these episodes is because you're fighting it."

“But those who can seize their fate don’t cower.”

Where Adagio had been, now was Gigan alongside; sitting in the machine shop doing his first round of repairs with Gloriosa’s help. He contemplated while testing at a limb he was not born with but had made his own.

“Normality is as subjective as it is esoteric. No one can truly decide what it is for you but you.”

“Change is inevitable. You can either waste everyone’s time by fighting it, or you can embrace it and all that comes with it.”

-“You both told me in your own way to step up. Seize the abnormal and own it. I’m seizing it, embracing it now.”-

As the walkways got closer together; they could see each other now. Glimmering outlines were poised upon the two peripheral walkways, orange and navy, one creature of magic and the other a creature of technology. Adagio and Gigan’s presences felt one another, the cold of isolation moving away as they each felt a hand embraced hoof and scythe. A woman made of greenish light pulled them both closer, the walkways starting to connect.

-“You’re scared.”-

It was aimed at them both, and both could see why as the memories crisscrossed between them, Gloriosa acting like a bridge so one could see exactly what the other had been thinking and experiencing.

On one side was a dim, dark interior that resembled an operating room. Gigan waking up in a hangar after suffering drastic injuries, restrained and held down as his own heart dangled over and opened chest. Gigan made a big show about coming to terms with change, and his sentiments about seeing the mechanical and biological as equally him were both very true. That didn’t mean that old fear of violation and lack of agency wasn’t true; as the still conscious cyborg was dismantled without any say in the matter.

Even far away from the Nebulan’s grasp, their ilk represented everything Gigan was afraid of. Everything he didn’t want his team to go through, which meant avoiding threat when all possible… Contradictory as that was for someone who deep down worried they were just a weapon.

The perspective darted away to a battlefield on Terra, one that had gone very poorly. One that involved rushing through smoking rubble and fire to find his brother’s hands. One crushed on the ground, the other shattered as Megalon clutched it to his chest. Gigan knew all too well what was going to happen once the Nebulans took them back. And how they replaced more than his brother’s hands when they sought to give an ‘upgrade’. Even in the Final War, surrounded by foes including a King of the Monsters; it was his own creator’s hanger ship Gigan was most afraid of despite the need for repairs; salvation and damnation in one.

On the other side near Gigan was a frightened foal hiding away in a reef, terrified of the polar storm brewing high above. Her mother was still crying out, still audible even after Aunt Hymnia sent the toddler Adagio and infant Aria away. Adagio shivered, trying to clutch her baby cousin to her and block out the noise that would lead to the death of her mother and the birth of her sister. High above the storm raged, ice flows crossing over the surface of the rolling, wavy surface.

Lightning flashed and thunder rolled, and the terrified mind thought she saw three figures standing amongst the ice and frost. One of which sent the young Adagio huddling into a crevice, begging a world that didn’t seem to hear her to save her. She’d never seen a windigo. She’d never seen him. Only the phantoms conjured by her aunt’s warnings as to why her and her near catatonic mother were the way they were. Covered in scars, exiled, and alone. And when the outcries from Melpomene stopped and Adagio frantically swam to return to her mother’s side, she saw something no child ever should.

She’d never seen a windigo. She’d never seen… her father. But to a scared little girl who had to promote herself to parent a few mere years later when another storm took away her aunt, his name was everything wrong with the world. The reason they had to reclaim Mako, their grandmother’s throne. The reason she had to get stronger. The reason she stopped caring about who got hurt, only how she gained. The reason no matter where she was, how she was, or how strong she’d gotten… Adagio Dazzle was always afraid.

That one word summarized everything the proud siren was afraid of, that had caused everything from her mother’s demise to Sonata’s mutilation. A name she’d only ever heard but once, but had been in denial about ever since she first saw the image Gigan had captured on video; or the topic of how only blood relation could breach a siren’s barrier around their heart.

-“Zephyrus... My sire.”-

Gloriosa said it this time, and Adagio flinched. The name, and all it represented, were not unknown to the other parties now.

There was a blizzard, but not in Equestria. It was in the very town they’d been in earlier that exact day, over a decade ago. And the perspective was running into it, not stopping as they became surrounded in a green brilliance that melted away parts of the snow and ice. The memories all played in sequence, showing not the recollections of Adagio, Gigan, nor Gloriosa; but someone who’d impressed them onto the gemstones that went to her successor. Wysteria’s battle with the windigos was laid out for all to see, showing Gloriosa firsthand what she’d suspected in the back of her mind for some time now.

That the faded memory of seeing a magical being whispered about around town, holding and rocking her to sleep hadn’t been just a dream-like recollection warped by a youthful mind. Her mother had been Gaea Everfree, the ‘Tree Angel’. And yet, even while facing impossible odds; the memory Wysteria had even as she battled Notus, Boreas, and yes, even Zephyrus, was of watching her children fall asleep.

-“Zephyrus killed my mother… He represents strife, cycles of revenge, and the constant repetition of destruction. Conflict with no purpose, only cost… That’s what you’re afraid of Adagio, that you’d never get out of that shadow even if you could ever get free of your sire.”-

Gloriosa addressed Gigan, who watched three lifetimes’ worth of memories and more intermix with his own.

-“And he represents loss, isolation, sacrifice, and suffering. All consuming, never satisfied or caring… That’s what you’re afraid of, that you’d wind up becoming just like the monster that destroyed your family and left you as a reminder.”-

Gloriosa addressed Adagio, who stilled as she did the same. To call the experiences similar wasn’t honest, they weren’t. But empathy wasn’t about being identical or even close to it. Empathy was about understanding through a common thread and knowing.

-“You’re both afraid for your families… and for each other it seems.”-

Gloriosa smirked as Gigan and Adagio’s mental avatars became aware of themselves. They were back to how they were just before Gloriosa pulled them into this headspace. Back as humans, back on even ground. Both clutching Adagio’s necklace as she tried to give it away and he tried to reject it. What exactly was flowing into either of them wasn’t easily described. It wasn’t love per se, too early for that if it were the case. But it was something along the same route. It was perhaps best summarized as understanding feeding off cultivated respect.

In a manner, empathy.

Gloriosa’s hand overlaid either of their own, helping to guide their hands up as they looked at one another with that same agape expression. Sorrowful, but not stricken like before. Adagio let them put the necklace back on her; feeling a connection that for a long time, pride had been getting in the way of. Even without words, the siren could sense the same coming from her company.

-“You both taught me how change isn’t to be feared…”-

Gloriosa, or what she had become, pulled them closer to embrace the both of them. Gigan and Adagio yielded, foreheads pushing together as the nymph brought them in. Every emotion or thought either could have had, the others were experiencing.

-“So, hows about we all change for the better?...”-

She took in a deep breath and the world began to sing in her melody, one she’d heard long ago from her idol, her mother, her predecessor. Maybe fate had conspired to put Gloriosa in this role after all, but if so, she was going to own it like she had the changes in her life.

-"Nooow the maaagic is ouuur saaalvaaatiooon... Gaaaather close-.. in myyy proootectiooon...!"

Zephyrus, and his lackeys, could be defeated. Wysteria proved that, as did other events of the day. But only if they listened to the right advice.

-"Weeeee will staaaand... Foooreeeveeeer"-

In the waking world, Gigan and Adagio passed out of awareness; falling asleep in Gloriosa’s arms as she continued the lullaby.

Daisy smiled sweetly, an exhausted but joyous tear running down her cheek as she gently laid the two down, "Freeeeeeeeeeeeee…"

She drew up a clean towel as a blanket and put it around the two of them, they needed the rest. She’d keep guard tonight and keep the dangers at bay. And in the morning… Well… It seemed Eventide Hymn was taking lead in this musical number after all!

====================

It had been a long time since he moved as quickly as he was now. Mind racing with hundreds of calculations per second while his feet were trying to move just as quickly. After checking in with Irys, seeing his brother was in good hands with Gloriosa and Adagio, seeing Twilight conversing with Irys in the latter’s abode and not wanting to intrude, and correctly deducing Aria wished to be left alone, he heeded the advice of that dream well and set about doing what he did best. Digging and boosting morale. There had been such an unappealing chill about the camp as of late and he was going to do something about it… Though his first instinct to use some napalm was wisely decided against.

He flew into the kitchen almost literally, bursting out of the ground and rapidly charging into the door to the mess hall. After several seconds rapid footfalls doubled back to the door and a ‘Occupied’ sign was strung around the front window. The young cyborg looked at the floorboards and then his hand.

-Well, for a good cause! I’ll replace ‘em later!-

Megalon quickly looked around just to be sure no one had followed him before taking the plunge, not thinking to just use a hammer and remove the nails keeping the floor down while revving up his drills once again and taking a swing at the floor. It was no small miracle he didn’t manage to wake the entire forest up digging that tunnel back to Sonata’s cabin. Pinkie Pie looked just as sullen and exhausted as when he left her, visible bags under her eyes with her hair mostly deflated against her head after many hours watching over the near constantly sleeping Sonata Dusk who lay against her. It took several long seconds for her to actually look up at the cyborg who appeared out of the trap door that led to the tunnels.

“...Megs?” The aforementioned cyborg almost whimpered at hearing how sulking and tired she sounded.

She tried to rise up, but being around Sonata for so long had almost seemingly drained her. She might have attributed it to just being awake so long, as neither she nor the cyborg could have had any idea about how her latent Element bond was keeping something else at bay when in close proximity to a windigo hybrid. But without a lot of laughter there wasn’t so much she could do. Neither she nor Megalon knew this. But, one or both of them could figure out a few things regarding morale.

“Pinks,” Megalon quipped while helping hold her up by her shoulder, giving the fittingly named human a subtle but sweet smile of understanding across his chubby face, “I think we can both agree a change of pace is needed. I’m a dummy and I’d say we all need a bit of a pick me up tonight. Staying here in the quiet isn't helping 'Nata and it's not helping you. Especially when I ran off and left you to handle this alone.”

The weakened Pinkie Pie frowned but tilted her head, “What do you…”

“Think you could help me if we got you on your feet?”

“But… Sonata,” Pinkie Pie held her a little tighter, frowning as the unawares siren clung to her a little tighter. Having grown up with plenty of sisters tended to clue someone in towards certain body languages. Even asleep, the poor siren definitely needed company.

“I can’t... Leave her alone.”

“And you’re not! But staying here resting ain’t doing any good for nobody at this point,” Megalon presented her with something fresh brewed from the mess hall. Half drowned in sugar and creamer, but loaded up with a strong aroma, “I remembered the recipe you gave me in case of emergency. Desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Pinkie Pie eyed the appetizing looking cup of ‘Turbo Expresso’ with a slight look on her lips but a glance up at her friend, “What are you planning, Megs?”

“Well, the way I see it, we’ve been having this prolonged slumber party with too much slumber and not enough party. Think you could help me bake something if we got both of you to the mess hall?”

“…You’re… Wanting to throw a party?”

Megalon nodded with an affirmed look and fire in his eyes, but stayed partially bowed towards her, “Only if you think you can throw one together for three on the fly that involves baking a cake. If needs be, I'll shoulder it myself… I just think all three of us getting off the beds and out of the cabin would do us all some good. Whole mess hall is ours tonight, everyone else is tied up, and we can sleep in for the morning-“

“Okay!” a hand snatched up the espresso which probably vanished down a gullet. Megalon’s brow perked as hair puffed back out to the appearance of cotton candy and bags seem to shrink under tightening skin. She didn’t looked 100%, not at all, but there was definitely a marked improvement for the Element of Laughter.

"You sure? I can do the grunt work on my own."

Pinkie shushed him with a finger on his lips, pinching them together as she snickered, "You just harped on leaving me alone wasn't the best, you really think I'd leave you alone either?"

Pinkie Pie panted as she put a hand on her collar. Feeling the flickers of some kind of sensation which almost gave her a very dim glow that might’ve been just a trick of the light. After all, it wasn't like she was playing any instruments. She heaved slightly while gaining her breath back before looking up at her rotund friend. A wide smile started to split her face, which looked more and more like her old self, before she sprung up and gave him something of a glomp with her arms around his shoulders. Megalon blinked before sighing, patting the girls back.

“Second tunnel to the right, goes directly into the kitchen,” Megalon quipped as Pinkie Pie pulled away.

“Let’s grab the laptop and games,” Pinkie chirped with a nod while moving for the trapdoor, “Can you handle ‘Nata gently? I wanna surprise her and she’s a really iffy sleeper.”

“If I can fight a Ghidorah, I can carry a lady,” Megalon hummed as he squatted down and put his arms underneath the rousing siren. He did his absolute best to ignore the biting cold coming off of her. Poor Pinkie had to feel numb at this point even under five covers! He carried her as gently as he could, keeping her bundled in blankets and with her head braced against his pudgy arm.

“Yeah buuuuut didn’t you lose that fight?”

“Hey was a team effort. He was tougher than Destro!”

“Oh oh, you had that dream too? I keep having this one where I was a Pokemon with you!”

A phone buzzed some time later before being picked back up, a green skinned, innocuous young man rubbing at the bridge of his nose and the seam of his eyes all sitting up in bed.

“…Who is this? Do you have any idea what hour it is?”

“Krovgor 441?” the masculine but jovial tone replied.

Warhawk by actual name raised his brow and rubbed at his arm, feeling yet another cold draft blow in from across the town. He really needed to stop leaving the windows uncovered, given Spring seemed to be taking its sweet time coming in with all this chill.

“Who is-“

“I’m a friend of Blue Dazzle 334 and Pink Pain 45. Listen, I know it’s late but you’re on Bluie’s friends list online. Think you and some others could get online? She really needs a pick-me-up.”

Warhawk wasn’t anyone of particular notoriety around CHS. Though online there were quite a few he was well-acquainted with even if he hadn’t knowingly interacted with them much offline. According to profiles, several of his associates did live nearby and a few of them he supposed were probably his own classmates. It was just that out of mutual fear of awkwardness or just living a busy life, they hadn’t actually reached out much to each other. But that didn’t mean they didn’t talk.

And Blue Dazzle’s suspicious lack of talking over the last week or so had certainly gotten plenty of attention around the circle. Just because they didn’t meet face-to-face much didn’t mean they weren’t friends after all.

“… Huh, well I think there’s an event going on. Probably some others enjoying it too. Think that would work?” Warhawk noted with a bit of hope in the back of his voice.

“Perfect! Can you start a lobby? We’re baking a cake.”

Warhawk held it in for a moment before laughing, “Heh!… Okay now I know you have to be friends with Pink Pain, she hosted a round in the middle of a cupcake event.”

Inside the mess hall there was a busy amount of life. Megalon set aside several slices into the refrigerator to keep them nice and cool for the others tomorrow. Pinkie Pie, still looking quite tired but now half-covered in flour and cake mix, couldn’t have been happier as she set down a piece in front of slowly opening red eyes. Sonata Dusk’s pale form, still covered in a cold sweat, looked around her surroundings before gazing up at her compatriots. Bundled in fresh blankets, offered confectioneries, and with a night of fun presented before her, she took it all in. Megalon stroked the weak siren’s back as Pinkie Pie took a forkful of cake and offered it to her. Sonata had just woken up and she already felt exhausted, the cold sleep demanded her retirement back to unconsciousness; almost like it was dragging her down into some depths unseen.

The southward wind blew over the camp, almost like the extended arm of her sire reaching out to grip Sonata’s heart once again just as he had while riding in the body of an unaware Twilight Sparkle… Her scare ached, throbbing with a chilly pulse as Notus tried to drag her down.

A subtle, unseen light masked by the glow of the television and laptop set up for a night of games, flickered on Pinkie Pie’s collar in the same placement as Sonata’s scar. Megalon didn’t see it either, but he almost got the sense he could feel it. The pulse going from one to the other. He was without magic, without great power, without the guile or skill of his comrades. But, he could do what he did best. Just being himself and all that entailed.

His hand rubbed at Sonata’s dorsum while placing its opposite number on Pinkie’s shoulder. The subtle cues of the Element of Laughter shown upon the human and were cast upon the siren almost like her heart crystal was still there. Far away, the good and warmth that heated Sonata was felt and despised by the current bearer of Sonata’s heart necklace, Zephyrus sneering while clutching at it. Unwittingly, one of his ploys was being complicated by something few would expect between a spawn of a demon, a normal human, and a beast of war.

Sonata finally, for the first time in days, smiled as a tear ran down her cheek, unfreezing. The quiet and rest had been appreciated, but perhaps this break in the mundane was what she’d needed. No more hiding away inside the cabin all day and night. She took in the cake and took in more as it was offered. Too weak to actively participate for much, she was treated to a night of conversation and cheer as more and more of her online compatriots piled into the lobbies Krovgor set up.

They fought, but fought together to beat down the monsters. Because at least in that world, hopefully in foreshadowing of what was to come, truly evil monsters were always easy to unite against. And because of that, they always lose.

====================

The knock at the door got everyone’s attention after spending half an hour arduously waiting after receiving a message from the same number they got the Twilight updates on. Aside from assurances of non-hostility, nobody was quite sure what or who was coming. They now knew of the entire groups involved with taking Twilight, that the sirens had been working together with a group of kaiju, but when the messages talked about a peace envoy, nobody knew whom to expect.

Applejack and Anguirus approached the door, eyeing each other before taking point on either side of it. With a bit of caution applejack slowly gripped the handle as Anguirus tensed to make ready for anything that came through. The door snapped open and the kaiju was not expecting… a fruitcake.

A literal fruitcake held by a very confused looking Gloriosa Daisy.

“Oh! Uummm,” she glanced about the living room with a clearly confused expression after seeing the muscular stranger that seemed poised to pounce upon her.

“Heeelllo?” she grimaced with an awkward chuckle.

The entire room’s head seemed to tilt several degrees from both the attempt at her chipper tone as well as those that did recognize her literally considering the camp director one of the last people they had expected.

“Miss Daisy?” Fluttershy chirped with a clearly perplexed expression.

Gloriosa recognized her ‘god-cousin’ through their mother’s friendship and smiled at the familiarity, “Oh, hiya! Don’t call me Miss though, I’m only five years older than you.”

“Sorry,” Fluttershy stammered before managing to get back on the mental track, “Dooo you have the wrong address?”

She motioned with a finger to both Gloriosa as well as the fruitcake. Gloriosa looked around again before backstepping out the door and turning her head.

“Gigan, did you give me the right address?” she called out nonchalantly and instantly the entire room shot up on their feet.

Anguirus turned his focus from her to across the street and soon found himself glaring at a form both familiar and unfamiliar. The former on account of the description Junior and Rainbooms supplied, as well as shared coloration; the latter on account of only now seeing the cyborg monster as a human. Gigan was across the street, leaning on a parked van as he looked up from a map he was holding in his metal hands.

“224 Zarcherle Road, Apartment building 4,” he called out plainly despite very visibly leering back at Anguirus, “One Sunset Shimmer’s residence... I remember from the last time I crashed into it.”

Gloriosa took to talking to the intergalactic attack cyborg like it was the most normal thing ever, stepping back inside and looking about.

“Which one of you is Sunset Shimmer? Irys said she still had her necklace. Is this 224, Apartment 4? He’s confident but I never trust him with maps. He’s always complaining about the paper ones,” Gloriosa grimaced while still offering the fruit cake.

Sunset Shimmer’s face lowered as she remembered driving a car with said cyborg reading a map to feet from her. But more tellingly, her fingers lightly traced over the necklace she’d been keeping in a small box beside her bed all these weeks. She stood up and Gloriosa’s eyes shot to her and then to the color patterns on the necklace knowingly. The apprehensive Daisy seemed to relax noticeably as Sunset Shimmer approached her.

Shimmer nodded, “Yeah that’s me. And I know the feeling, trust me I know. He was riding shotgun in the third-weirdest car ride of my life. When he visited, I had to claim it was a freak wind-blown branch to the landlord when he crashed into my bathroom.”

“Right, so you were the one to help him the first time,” Gloriosa replied as she waltzed in and set down the fresh fruitcake she’d made, “Well as you know, I’m Gloriosa Daisy; director of Camp Everfree. And I’m.. guess I’m kind of your peace envoy from the Sirens and company.”

Applejack’s head ratcheted around to look at the camp director, “Wait wait, you’re with the sea witches?”

“Have been for some time now. Sonata Dusk applied to be a lifeguard at the camp and they came to stay there after figuring out that bolts-for-brains had accidentally taken the wrong Twilight Sparkle,” Gloriosa deadpanned as she pointed back with a thumb.

“I heard that!” Gigan snapped back, only to have Gloriosa wave him off.

She turned back to the very flummoxed looking audience and sheepishly shrugged, “I sort of just got wrapped up into it… they’re actually pretty nice when you get to know them though.”

“Yooou’re.. saying that you’re friends with them?” Godzilla Junior grumbled skeptically while giving her a closer look, “You’re really human right?”

“Y-yeeeeah, last I checked I was,” Gloriosa nodded while rubbing at the back of her head, and motioned behind her at Gigan again, “I insisted on coming myself, but he and Adagio insisted I not travel unguarded. I think they got protective.”

His grunt in response somehow sounded both affirming but even more skeptical.

“Look, I know a lot of bad blood is flying through the air, but I think we all know something that feeds on that sort of thing is also in the air. And mistakes were made that made this whole situation way worse.”

“Worse? Pah, define worse!” Rainbow Dash piped with crossed arms.

Gloriosa Daisy frowned meaningfully, casting her eyes to the ground as she tried to focus herself upon splitting the cake, “… There was another confrontation during the concert. One with the true culprit of Sonata Dusk’s mutilation and her allies. Another friend of ours named X was possessed and is under the true enemy’s control and the other Twilight Sparkle is bonded to another one. Aria Blaze would have barely made it, if not for her love’s sacrifice.”

“Her love?” Peachy Keen muttered.

Gloriosa nodded, “X. He took a big hit for her that left him open to possession while passing on some power. He was hit with some kind of memory-sucking magic.”

Peachy Keen frowned, trying to keep her mind busy on remembering where she heard of such things before, but bowing her head respectfully for the thoughts in the now, “My condolences… true enemy though? So, it seems my suspicions that they were after someone else were true?”

Gloriosa nodded with her frown growing, “Windigos… Apparently some kind of ancient monster from Equestria. They wound up here and have been behind all the trouble about recently.”

Peachy Keen was going to voice skepticism but held her tongue, deep in thought.

-There have never been any sightings of those creatures since the original Hearth’s Warming, but Queen Maui tells me that records show they were very powerful… Maybe the Hearth’s Warming burst of magic was strong enough to repulse them, but not destroy them? How could they have ended up here, though…? Regardless of the how, it would certainly explain a few things.-

“You said there’s another Twilight Sparkle?” Rarity started before furrowing her brow, having recalled something from days ago pricking at the back of her mind.

A tall figure stepped out of the background with a neutral express. Upon seeing the clearly exhausted and strained looking Mothra Lea, Gigan did tilt his head back upon noticing the differences from how she’d been before. The paled skin, the frayed hairs, bits of orange in her eyes and hair; and something… not calculable or able to be articulated. Something very different. But, she wasn't shaking, she wasn't erratic, and she was able to stand herself up after some help.

Lea caught the look and registered it, but prioritized thinking back to parts of her mind that were still being a blur, “There was another Twilight Starla Sparkle in the next city over. A local here.”

“Well that does make some sense, if we all have counterparts in Equestria, only fits that Twilight would have one here,” Rarity noted while biting the back of her knuckle.

Gloriosa nodded, “A few weeks ago, Twilight Sparkle, the one from here, ambushed Sonata Dusk with the help of the Windigos and someone else Aria didn’t recognize. I don’t know how or why they’re working with them, but they have been for some time. They ripped her necklace off, and the backlash left her sickly and scarred. X found out, and given he was close with Aria and had a soft spot for Sonata…”

Peachy Keen’s brow perked up in realization, “That’s what set him off to try and draw out the only Twilight they might have heard of. Which brought over the Equestrian Twilight Sparkle.”

Gloriosa nodded with a frown, shrugging, “And in the confusion, X and Gigan got the wrong Twilight. It was a mix of the other one being a total unknown in the area, and the sirens... not having the best opinion of Equestrians or anyone associated with them.”

“So what you’re saying is that this whole thing, from Rainbow Dash getting cornered at the school to the concert; all got sprung up because of a big misunderstanding?!” Applejack snorted and threw her arms up in the air.

Gloriosa stuttered, “I… Kinda-“

“Kinda?! KIIINDA?! Our friend got done’nabbed right in front of us-“ Applejack shouted as she nearly tore her hat off and stepped forward. Anguirus, from the corner of his eye, saw Gigan reflexively stand up and snap to alertness on Gloriosa’s behalf.

“An’ ye tellin' us that everybody was near fightin’ everybody because that X fella yanked the wrong Twilight?!”

“Yes, th-that appears to be true-“ Gloriosa stuttered as she sawed into the cake with a blunt knife.

Unbeknownst to the group, Notus slithered his influence amongst them. Hidden as it was, the sheer frustration and anger coming off of parts of the group was nearly as sweet as the fear coming from the new human. The windigo paused as it tried to inspect Gloriosa closer. There was something familiar here…

“Lea’s been breakin' down from bein’ worried sick! Rainbow got terrorized!-”

Some of those around were shooting glares, both at Gloriosa as well as the increasingly irate Applejack and company. Rainbow Dash tried to grab her friend and hold her still, only to feel an extremely strong yank pushing against her arm. Applejack wasn’t much taller than the other girls, but she felt like a truck starting to roll forward. Gloriosa’s eyes widened, Godzilla started to raise his voice and move to block her, and the room felt increasingly cold.

“If you want peace all of a sudden, why not just bring Twilight back?” the typically calm Rarity snorted.

“Ah’ broke my hand punching that masked sonuva-”

“Look I know we screwed up a bunch but-”

Rainbow Dash piped up as she moved to her compatriot, trying to ignore her own tempers flaring to life, “Woah woah AJ chill! What’s gotten into you?”

Godzilla had sprung up to command his pupil to do the opposite, unable to feel how the room was shifting on account of Notus carefully weaving the magic around him, “Jacklyn, sit down!”

Applejack flinched and did pause, but still trembled like her body was in fight or flight, “Teach, the guy who tried’ta carve you up like a turkey is ‘cross the street, how do we know we ain’t surrounded?”

“Can we all just. Calm. Down?!” Peachy Keen pleaded.

“Well did we check? What if those windigo things are about right now while we’re all distracted?”

“How can we trust at’all if they ain’t gonna commit!?”

Paranoia, fear, mistrust, strife, anger, it was all being strummed and coaxed by Notus covertly from the sidelines; exaggerating what was already there for anyone not named Godzilla. Notus knew the value of cover and didn’t want to risk the saurian recognizing the magic and getting suspicious. Still, even he bore qualms that Notus employed for his own ends to influence the rest of the room. Aplejack’s fear and self anger about not being able to protect her friends, Godzilla’s wariness of Gigan being the one to have arrived given recent events, Gloriosa starting to lose her composure, and more were broiling together in the cold. Cooler heads might prevail, but the situation was flagging under the chill.

Until Notus noticed a spark of heat. Sunset Shimmer had taken notice of the old Rainboom in the room to not speak up and had put a hand to her shoulder.

What was passing between them was entirely unseen, but their eyes were moving in unison; body language identical as if the mind and subconscious had drifted into one another. The windigo within and piloting Flash Sentry tried to surge forward and do something to impede what he saw forming, only for Rainbow Dash and Applejack to unwittingly get in the way. Notus inwardly sneered while trying to placatingly get the girls out of his path, able to physically perceive the emotions flying between Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer.

Unease, but want. Assurance, and also understanding. The former being scared to act and desiring to, and the latter coming to know and feel this. And, in the end, the cold of the isolation required to fester strife from one’s self to another, was pushed back by the heat of comradery. If Fluttershy wished to act, she wouldn’t do it alone; Sunset knew she was scared of all the shouting and Gigan’s presence, but Kindness wasn’t alone.

If her friends weren’t ditching her over the secret keeping, she’d never leave them alone. The joyous, recent memory of the group hug following the confession regarding Irys was impressed to Fluttershy’s mind and both experienced that happiness from either’s perspective.

The sparks of Harmony’s taint started to strike kindling, and Notus was ready to retch. He started cycling through Flash Sentry’s memories regarding Sunset Shimmer, looking for fuel to use later and deal with this threat.

All the shouting in the room was cut off by a surprisingly loud stomp, but Fluttershy of all people actually yelled out, “This whole thing happened because the other Twilight really hurt her friends! Don’t act like we all haven’t gotten fired up because Twilight got taken. WE JUST DID!”

Whether it was to the members of the Rainbooms who had taken up combat training with the express intent of using it if they had to, the fieriness of the bandmates who’d gotten competitive at the concert, the kaiju who’d come storming in when the alarm was sounded, or the alicorn who’d nearly stampeded her way across the continent and empire when she heard her faithful student was in danger; words struck home. It was certainly okay to get angry on behalf of a friend getting hurt, but such anger could leave even the best subject to error.

But that wasn’t the only reason they were a bit gobsmacked.

Fluttershy motioned to the stunned looking Gloriosa, “And she and her friends not only had to see their Sonata horribly hurt, but recently suffered losses of their own. And based on what Sunset said, they already began their turn to good awhile ago, so they didn’t deserve this. They were trying to act the best they could and they made a mistake, but this whole mess has been a big misunderstanding because they’re not that different from us!”

“Um- Fl-Fluttershy?” Sunset Shimmer piped, wide eyed.

“I knew it,” Gloriosa whispered with the pinpricks of a smile edging at her lips.

“And another thing, this sort of strife is exactly what the windigos would want if they’re really the ones behind this!”

“They do feed off that and live to cause more of it,” Peachy Keen absentmindedly muttered, still amazed at what she saw before her which Fluttershy still hadn’t even if everyone else was looking at her.

“EEeeexactly!” Fluttershy huffed as she continued to glow brightly, clapping her hands together to clasp them before herself, “Which means we all gotta just sit down, stop getting so angry, and sort this out! If monsters from space and sea sorceresses can be friendly, so can we-“

“Fluttershy…! You’re…” Applejack yelped as she pointed.

Fluttershy blinked confusingly, looking at herself and noticing the illumination covering her form. She had ‘Pony’d-Up’ as the band called it, but without playing a single piece of music to attune to. And her glowing figure complete with small wings wasn’t alone, for a similar shine was coming from around Gloriosa’s neck.

Gloriosa straightened up, a slight darkening of pigment visible around her eyes. She pulled down her collar slightly to reveal the gemstone-rich necklace of vine growth she was wearing. One such gem was glowing brightly when pointed at Fluttershy. Gloriosa looked to it, as all in the room did. There was some apprehension as she reached for it, feeling the radiating magic.

“I… Heh, at first thought this was meant for me,” Gloriosa huffed with a scared frown etching onto the corner of her lips, “Kinda.. Always wanted to be special. I found these a few months ago, apparently on the same night Sunset here met the sirens and kaiju. I really did think they were for me but-….”

She looked at her reflection in the gemstone, seeing how it glowed brighter when pointed at Fluttershy more so than it ever had before for her. It was a bittersweet affirmation.

“I suspected it really wasn’t. I came here mostly expecting for that to be confirmed,” Gloriosa Daisy sighed but smiled as she stopped the trembling in her hands and very gently removed the Element of Kindness.

“You know, Twilight and I spent a lot of time with these. She suspected they were this world’s version of the Elements of Harmony. Way she spelled it out for me, they were meant for those worthy. I didn’t know if it was because you lot are just like her friends who were worthy because you’re their counterparts, or because you’re both independently good,” Gloriosa said to both herself and her audience in a kind voice befitting the element, “But given this world’s Twilight royally messed things up, I think it’s the latter… and I think this truly belongs to you. Here-“

She extended her hand with the Element, the crystal looking like it would perfectly fit into the glowing empty slot that was appearing above Fluttershy’s collar. Fluttershy slowly reached for it, giving the retainer to her Element a very kind smile.

“My peace offering,” Gloriosa hummed as Fluttershy nodded a bow and gently took it.

The Element was brought closer to her and the magical luminance surrounding her swelled up to an even greater degree. Generated on its own, a vine gently curled around Fluttershy’s neck to form the necklace chain as the Element fit into the hole in her magic. The sensations washing over Fluttershy could be felt by all.

Sunset Shimmer felt the hand offering to help her up when she first stumbled out of the portal.

Rarity experienced a vision of the sloppy birthday gift card Sweetie Belle had crayon stenciled for her.

Applejack was remembering the sight of a tree grown over her parents’ graves, a gift from the ‘Tree Angel’.

Peachy Keen was thrust a thousand years back, to a warm embrace by Starswirl when he first truly saw her and Luna as the children they were then.

Anguirus was cast back to Ponyville during a rainy afternoon, when the door to a tea shop was made open to him with shelter and company. Sensing how the mood of the room had shifted, he sought his own course of action. Side stepping to the edge of the room, he took his exit and went outside before heading to the front.

Gigan, far away as he was, was remembering something not so far back when the very human he’d grown attached to used that same Element to help repair him.

Lea felt the storm in her mind quell to a degree, cast back to her first night in Equestria where she met the very friend she’d gone on such a quest to rescue and help.

Godzilla Junior felt the warmth return him to Canterlot’s Lunar Tower in the dim silvery moonlight, a hoof lightly touching a scar on his cheek as his hoof edged a mark on Luna’s stomach.

Kindness. In so many forms.

Notus only scowled internally and resisted crying out from the shocks of pain, feeling malice to the blizzard he and his compatriots had inflicted decades ago. He smelled this Kindness, as well as the Generosity and Loyalty which were with it, hiding away inside the Animal Shelter. He’d almost found them then, almost hunted down and killed them, before the Retainer interfered.

The Retainer had interfered just as her successor was doing now.

Fluttershy’s magical wings, now far larger than before, spread wide before retracting. The glow about her was magnitudes stronger than it had before even as it dimmed. The two halves of her Element, herself and the gemstone to channel it, had finally been united and activated. And in addition to the usual shifts, her attire had also changed. The casual wear was replaced by a more regal garb, accented by a short tunic and skirt with bracers on her arms. She marveled at the wear before realizing everyone was staring at her, more than slightly stunned. And Fluttershy being Fluttershy, she promptly got scared of her own before and jumped behind the nearest person to her, which just so happened to be Gloriosa.

However, she soon flinched upon feeling leaves and soft tree bark. She wasn’t the only reason those in attendance were more than a little confused, aside from a smirking Gigan who quickly realized what he was doing and tried his best to hide it. Fluttershy felt a hand pat her shoulder, and there was a distinctive woodsy smell in the room now. When she looked up, she found herself gazing at subtly glowing green eyes.

While more extreme than the previous partial transformation, Gloriosa somehow got the sense that this changed state wasn’t complete. Maybe it was because she was only carrying five of the original seven elements now, so the transformation was diluted; or maybe some other catalyst needed to be there for full activation. In another time where she craved validation and agency, she might have never given the Elements as a peace offering. She’d have kept them to herself despite a calling the camp director didn’t understand, in the hopes she could use them for her own power. At that time she might have tried to rationalize the calling as justification to hoard that power to herself. But seeing the beauty and grandeur behind Fluttershy’s transformation, and the radiating kindness therein which could only be benevolent, Gloriosa now fully understood.

These were never her powers to take for herself, and if she had done so against the elements’ will, they very well might have driven her mad. Fate had a funny way of working to put the right people in the right circumstances, it’s what led lovers together and saved some of her friend’s lives. And, fate had decided this role for her to try and help do the same. She wasn’t King Arthur, but she would be the Lady of the Lake.

And it seemed fate had decided she needed to look the way she had now to fully convince her audience, as Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash had all virtually levitated out of their chairs looking right at her. Right at the greenish glow about her eyes, the slight wave in her hair, and the reddish mask of coloration covering parts of her face. Applejack also glanced to Flash Sentry, the source of the kindergarden playground’s first rumor about who’d saved him and his father from a car accident, looking for more confirmation. Especially when she herself witnessed the same savior acting as good council to her weeks later. She saw the recognition, but puzzled briefly over Flash’s glazed expression. Not knowing Notus lurked within, scowling in rage at the face of his greatest enemy, she registered but brushed it off to go back to the entity at hand.

“The Tree Angel,” Fluttershy whispered, having a faded memory with one sharp detail. Those eyes.

“.. Heh, I ah told yah so,” a fully calmed down Applejack chuckled as she lightly elbowed Rarity.

“This is her?” Peachy Keen noted as she glanced aside at the Rainbooms.

Gloriosa’s confused expression even as her eyes were partially surrounded in a reddish mask and strands of her hair had changed color, was almost comical. Her eyes were dimly glowing green as they looked to Rainbow Dash, who had stepped forward as if to visually judge.

“Yeah I was there too and Iiii think I caught a glimpse of her. Flutters, Rares, and I were warmed up, but blacked out. When we woke up, the storm was over… I mean, I remember the reports about a good Samaritan coming to help people who got stuck in town during the storm; but I clearly remember those eyes… That was…” Rainbow scratched at her head and pointed to the partially transformed camp director, “You?.. How old are you again?”

Gloriosa also remembered glowing green eyes from years past, and a big snowstorm. And a good Samaritan who ran out to help people. One who never came back after tucking her children in. Implications were sinking through regarding her mother, Wysteria, but she wouldn’t harp on them just yet. There was something very important as a matter at hand.

“No, but I think I might know who was. I think there was someone who... held onto these Elements for safekeeping before me,” Gloriosa swallowed back the uncertainty and collected herself, breathing in and smiling, the partial transformation subsiding fully, “These.. Elements have been around for a while, but they’ve only really acted up recently, and… I think you girls are why.”

Why the Elements were getting more and more active. Why she had falsely once thought herself some destined power to wield them. And possibly, why her mother who very well might have been much more than a normal woman, ran off all those years ago to sacrifice herself in a blizzard. It was many a hard pill to swallow for Ms. Daisy, but she bore it well. She felt how warm the room was now, how welcoming the group seemed now without half its members bickering.

Now, she felt they could have a proper conversation…

==========

Gigan had been watching on point since the moment they got there. He wasn't at all concerned about Gloriosa's safety once the shouting simmered down , he knew exactly the kind of company she was in right now, at least in respect to several currently shrunken giant monsters. The Defenders were better than he was, they’d never hurt her. If he had the inclination that any would, he would have either insisted on going in himself or to accompany her. The power she retained within those magic crystals was too precious to risk losing. His self-assurance of safety was reliant on the apparent truth that those they were visiting were ignorant as to those crystals’ worth.

Yes, the crystals were the source of his concern. Entirely the crystals, he’d tell himself that over and over again.

First sign of trouble, he would grab Gloriosa and get out of there. They were too valuable to risk losing.

That had to be the reason he was so nervous, and why he had his only moderately working warp drive on a hair trigger, constantly making calculations to figure out exactly how he needed to approach to get a hold of her and bail safely. Or the anxiety of being completely without any of his recent upgrades given how badly Godzilla had slagged them. He was down to basic tools, half his weapons weren’t fixed yet, and he was trying his best not to spark all over the place. But he had to remain focused. The mission was too important and losing any asset could catastrophically risk it. He had set about repeating that mantra as many times as needed to make sure he remembered, even while admiring the increasingly amicable dialogue opening up between Gloriosa and the Rainbooms. Checking them against the list of friends Twilight had been seen with and the alicorn later verified, he did start to wonder just who that girl with the pink hair was. Didn’t fit the description of Pinkie Pie.

He stopped those thoughts and recalibrated for his focus.

He couldn't risk losing the gems. He couldn't risk losing the gems, she would be completely safe in the company of those human loving terrans. He couldn't risk losing the gems…

Strange how he kept feeling a chill somewhere along his abdomen, he’d thought he'd repaired that area last night.

"You look grouchier than usual," a distinct voice muttered callously.

Gigan's head snapped up and he instantly scowled at the form casually approaching him from the side of the house and crossing the street. Even in the shape of a subcontinent man with a stout frame and robe-like attire, the voice and coloration were a dead giveaway as to who this was. After all, Irys had warned him.

Didn't stop Gigan from mentally swearing at himself for getting distracted so badly that this broad clod had managed to sneak up on him. His arms uncrossed and his body visibly tensed. Anguirus' did as well even if he masked it in his approach as of trying to appear non-threatening. No doubt so he could spring forth at an instant.

Anguirus continued to approach, stopping short several meters away and standing still for a moment or two before crossing his arms and leaning back against the parked van just as Gigan was. A full minute of silence passed between them before Gigan turned back around and crossed his arms again to lean against the van as well. Anguirus nodded slightly, looking up at the sky as if contemplating the weather and not having his body prepped like he would be under attack in a split second.

"You playing bodyguard to a human, I never thought I'd see the day," Anguirus grunted.

"She's an ally, it was her idea to come here."

Anguirus rolled his eyes, "So, does that explain why I smell her on you so much? Don't tell me she's the one helping you with the mechanicals now that you're away from the bugs."

Gigan rolled his shoulder, ignoring some phantom sensations near where his guts would be if he had them, "Your boss knows how to rack up a hefty repair bill. If you're angry about me being in one piece, take it up with her."

Anguirus saw the bait for what it was and promptly ignored it, "Don't think I wouldn't love to twist your head off right now over the stunt you pulled yesterday."

"Oh, is that why you're here? Trying to gauge your grabbing range before I shorten it?" Gigan huffed while audibly flicking out a blade from his wrist that was pointed right at Anguirus.

Anguirus narrowed his eyes but only pouted slightly, knowing this kind of gumption way too well. It was fairly similar to what he often pulled whenever he got frustrated barreling into a fight for the sake of a cocky teammate. Seniority had its burdens, and he was over 70,000 years old.

"Let's cut to the chase, something tells me you prefer that."

"Oh ha ha," Gigan chided, "Make a cutting joke to the guy covered in blades, real original, Old Reptile."

Anguirus's brow twitched slightly as he did his best not to test and see how close that grapple range was. He cooled the fires within and shrugged.

"I'm not here to make small talk, we both know we'll probably never like each other."

"Why the 'probably' in there? Hoping to invite me to a meditation circle later?"

"Hey don't knock it till you tried it."

"It's not mediation, it's napping. I know the difference and I can't do either," Gigan deadpanned, ignoring last nights events.

"Edgy as always... I said probably because if there's anything I've learned since the both of us got here in these realms, it's that outcomes are unpredictable. I never expected to see you so twitchy over a human, let alone one that seems to have a good head on her shoulders. I also never expected it to be a good idea to leave Destroyah alone with children," Anguirus deadpanned.

Gigan convulsed briefly and held in a tiny chuckle that came out more as a huff, waiting to hear the next effort at bad humor by the ancient saurian. He was left with still air for a hot minute, raising his brow as he let his sunglasses slide down his nose slightly. Mechanical eyes looked directly at the completely monotone face of Anguirus.

"... Is this some kind of Terran humor I don't know about?"

Anguirus shrugged and shook his head, "No matter how surprised you are, I was at least three times that. Places like these change folks."

Gigan let himself briefly reflect on everything that had happened since they got there. Everything from their current employment, big events like X finding a mate, interacting with humans, and even just small things like being allowed to walk around outside for days on end without being locked up in a hanger. It was one thing to download pictures of exotic plants or sights from distant planets off the net, but it was another thing to be able to see the same boring oak tree just three days in a row. Knowledge versus experience, he supposed.

He did grant Anguirus a grunt of affirmation with a tiny nod. Didn't really matter much to concede someone wasn't wrong.

"I could ask you the hows or the whys of why you carved up one of my friends earlier, but we both know the answers would be redundant. True as how much I want to rip your arms off for doing that... So I'm going to ignore what I would be most concerned about and ask you something only you could tell me."

"And why should I at all care about what you have to ask me?" Gigan lamented as he pretended to be enthralled at looking at some of the local trees, observing how gentle breezes cause the limbs to fidget up and down slightly.

"Because I also know you well enough to know you're not stupid. Best thing you could do against Godzilla is hold him off for a while, especially if he went all out. And I'm going to guess you can't fly anymore either," Anguirus absentmindedly took a glance at Gigan's back as if to confirm there were no wings hiding under that jacket.

Seeing none, he leaned back against the van and shrugged, "Which means… you'd have to have had one Daiei of a motivator to keep fighting him. Let alone engage in the first place."

Gigan stilled briefly, thrust right back into the day at the concerts. Frantically chasing after a teammate who had gone rushing off after an opponent only X could fight on even footing for any length of time. She was rushing, she was outgunned, she wasn't in her normal body, and they were fighting near water. He frankly didn't know which time was worse, this or when Irys tried to solo King Ghidorah.

To be frank, he didn't even remember much when he started to close the distance, the energy signature showing Irys wasn't moving and Godzilla was right next to her. The moment he saw her nearly drowned, everything just went red.

Gigan scowled but had turned his face slightly to obscure that.

"I had backup…"

"Oh that's a farce and we know it," Anguirus snapped with a huff, "You rushed in because you were feeling protective. Because you got scared."

"And you talk about this like you would have done the same in my shoes?" Gigan lamented as he gazed forward at the meeting.

Anguirus sighed and did as well, observing Gloriosa conversing with his own compatriots. Technically speaking if she was an ally to Gigan and his company, that made her an enemy. Yet there they were, peacefully conversing. Peace, it seemed to come as naturally to these strange humans as it did the ponies. It was equal parts enviable and admirable.

He let a bit more of his guard down, letting his voice become much calmer than Gigan had probably ever heard it before, "To be honest. If it was Lea or Rodan downed with even King Ghidorah looming over them, I'd have charged in too… probably a little faster than you."

Gigan growled dismissively as he stole a glance at Anguirus, "Oh that's untrue and you know it! I'm way faster than you!"

Anguirus was still looking at the procession inside the house, but he wore a tiny smirk. Gigan could see that he had been duped to some degree or another, but couldn't find himself getting too upset about it. It actually caused both of them to chuckle slightly.

Anguirus took in a deep breath and nodded, "Still despite what you did to Junior, but you have my gratitude for something else…"

He collected himself, putting aside a decade old rivalry for just a bit to get the weight off his chest. Anguirus took in a deep breath once again and shrugged, before nodding with a tiny smile of earnest gratitude, "Thank you, for helping take care of her."

Gigan paused, knowing full well who and what he meant but not quite sure how to articulate it. He wanted to be guarded, but a creeping sense of apathy about combat readiness was making all of that too annoying to maintain.

"She's been with us since X saved her life… Aaand, despite her pulling some stunts I wouldn't approve of involving Ghidorah, she's returned the favor…"

"Well, you won't have to worry about any repeat incidents. Godzilla and Xenilla along with some of the equestrians killed Ghidorah," Anguirus shrugged.

Gigan perked slightly. He'd been fully aware that the king of terror had finally met his demise somewhere in the equestrian realm, but honest happiness that the cosmic nightmare that cretin had inflicted on so many was finally over meant he really didn't care who did it. The fact the master told them seemed to have the implication they had some hand in it.

"...... Wait you're serious? Those two? Why weren't they too busy killing each other?"

Anguirus gave a knowing smirk, falling in command of the conversation now that he had Gigan hooked. He only laughed shortly.

"Same reason Destroyah is safe around children these days. Things change. We both have already. I actually had a dinner date planned before I came here."

Gigan raised an eyebrow at his old enemy, his expression somewhere between neutral and a disapproving scowl.

"... Are they blind by any chance? I could offer ocular implants just to see if they reject you."

Anguirus's chest heaved with a laugh as he shook his head, "Offering your services to the needy and disabled, bodyguarding a human, adopting feral kaiju into your ranks; Gigan you are becoming a Saint!.."

His sarcasm was equally thick as he shook his head, "... The stunt you pulled yesterday is just about the only thing I disapprove of right now, I could get used to the other changes.... Well that and your attitude could use some adjustments, but some things just can't be fixed."

Anguirus enjoyed a laugh, one that Gigan almost joined in on or felt the need to snark back, only to resign himself to inaction. Pouting and rolling his eyes until the big lug shut up already.

"Is there another point to this get-together or should I just turn off my auditory sensors and spare myself your rambling?" Gigan quipped with pursed lips.

Anguirus took in a deep breath as his laughter stilled, collecting himself as he turned to face his old enemy.

"As I said, we don't have to like each other one bit. But as much as I want to turn you into a scrap heap, it doesn't change the fact we're not that different in some ways," he conceded with a resigned nod.

Gigan furrowed his brow. He knew complete nonsense when he heard it, and this wasn't exactly it. He wouldn't hit the literal mute button just yet.

"We're still way different in other ways. You’ve got a laundry list of issues," Anguirus conceded with a sagely nod.

Gigan pouted and almost managed to hit the mute button on himself before the ignoramus continued.

"We're both the first of our teams. Our... families. We're both prototypes. Neither of us had any say in why we were created or where and when. That's why we are protective of those who came after us, directly or indirectly. We're not their parents, but we're just as responsible for them being around as our respective creators are,” Anguirus noted affirmatively with a resolved expression as he gestured to his enemy, “You’ve got your little brother, and I have multiple…"

Gigan scoffed, but not dismissively, "For once, you have my pity. If the bugs were more direct in making or getting more after me, I'd have had my hands so full I couldn't babysit the bat."

Anguirus closed his eyes, contemplating hard in the short time he knew he had for this. He knew full well the risks involved. But, he’d never not been a brave soul. After all while he never asked for his destiny to help stop a rampaging god, he’d never rejected it. If he could have the courage for that, extending his hand towards Gigan was child’s play.

“Thank you, for doing that. I might be responsible for my... little sister existing. Everything she’s gone through is on me. I couldn’t and didn’t help her when she needed it, but it seems I have you and your companions to thank for keeping her existing,” Anguirus sighed as he motioned to Gigan, “Take care of her, will you?”

Gigan looked at the hand, and his own. It would be so easy to cheap-shot his enemy right now. No doubt Anguirus fully knew that as well and the cyborg himself was also vulnerable; especially if he followed through with the motion. Their eyes did meet however, and while there wasn’t any warmth present, there was at least an understanding of a lot of things. They both knew and understood what it meant to try and look out for something else.

“I can only try my best. I take care of my team,” Gigan humored a chuckle and patted at his chest with a metallic tink of his still only recently repaired hand, “I’m heartless in the literal sense, not the metaphoric.”

“To that, I appreciate it. You're on the right track Gigan,” Anguirus snorted tersely, “Stay out of trouble and keep Irys safe, and you and I won’t have a problem.”

Gigan, in a moment of levity, felt the weight come off his tensed shoulders as he shrugged, “Well last time I got into trouble it was going up against two Ghidorahs in a row, then a Godzilla. It’s not a habit I hope to keep.”

“Now that is something I’d really appreciate. Try and carve up a friend of mine again, and we’ll both make Irys upset for what I’d have to do to you.”

Gigan chuckled and shook his head, the gesture spreading onto Anguirus as well.

Knowledge that their battle wasn’t with each other, awareness of the other’s truth and fiber; and acknowledgement of their responsibilities as elder siblings. To that, they were in agreement. Anguirus extended a hand to the cyborg and Gigan looked at it for a few moments before shifting, holding his forearm up instead of going for the handshake for a peace offering in his own manner. The saurian kaiju looked at the gesture before he passively remembered this cyborg counterpart didn’t usually have hands. Humoring him, Anguirus bumped his forearm against Gigan’s.

LordShrekZilla20 and his partner in writing, Gojipower12

========

Back in the abode, the discussions serving as a catch-up for both sides as to what had gone on were proceeding remarkably peacefully. Gloriosa Daisy continued on as she took one last long stare at the Elements before knowing what needed to be done.

“The sirens and their allies don’t want any more conflict with you all, there’s been enough fighting and that’s the sort of thing the Windigos would want,” Gloriosa spoke with such calmness in her tone as she outstretched her partially gloved hand. Obeying, the Elements of Generosity, Loyalty, and Honesty levitated out and floated above her palm.

“It’s been proposed we have a meeting, and I agree. Consider this a sign of goodwill… I believe..” she steeled herself and nodded to the Elements, finally letting them go, “That these belong to you.”

Slowly, with glances exchanged between themselves, assurance spread between the three young women. They reached out and took hold of what they had come to embody. It wasn’t true that they were the only ones who could possibly represent the Elements, but that didn’t detract from the observation they had clearly grown up to do so.

Even without the exhibition of their nature prompting a transformation, the contact with their Element had an immediate effect. It made Notus retreat to the back of the room, behind Anguirus whose mana-based nature the windigo could sense served as some kind of shield. One magic blocking the other with a lack of cohabitation. Inhabiting such a body would be far more ideal than the current measures, but he wasn’t like Boreas to bum rush in and hope his resistances would be enough. There was of course, that option, but even with the distance he could tell it wasn’t quite the opportune time yet.

-Soon, daughter… soon you will have your chance to surpass me...-

Notus hid it as him covering his eyes from the bright light show caused by the Element acquisition, using Flash Sentry’s body as a shield to avoid being torn into by their light.

Gloriosa sighed, feeling her power shift and the partial transformation she had undertaken fade; able to feel the increased radiating power coming off the girls. She’d thought her worth came from acquiring and keeping those powers once, and yet she couldn’t reject the kind feeling of being wrong here.

“Interesting, most interesting,” Peachy Keen hummed as she inspected the Elements approvingly, the crystals having automatically generated necklaces to be worn by their Bearers from vines, “These truly are almost identical to the Equestrian Elements of Harmony.”

Junior looked to his pupil, “Rainbow, you transformed before far away from any of these things. How does it feel?”

Rainbow was the first of the gawking girls to speak up, “In a word Teach, turbo-charged!”

“I would bet! I’d estimate your powers will be much stronger now, the new Elements very well could be a multiplier. I’d suppose the reason you showed magic prior is that part of the Element was already within you, so uniting it with the physical talisman amplifies it all,” Peachy Keen nodded as she looked to Gloriosa, bowing her head, “You’ve given a great gift, Ms. Daisy. I take it you intend to give young Pinkie Pie the Element of Laughter when she has returned from a family visit, and grant Sunset Shimmer the Element of Magic?”

“When I can find whoever that first one is, sure,” Gloriosa noted, having not seen the pink haired Bearer Twilight gave her heads up about. So far the only party material she'd seen had been at the mess hall this morning, but aside from a cleaning-up Megalon she found nobody about. Gloriosa instead refocused and glanced to the bob of orange and red hair she recognized from before, “Sunset Shimmer, wanna give yours a go?”

The called upon nodded and stepped up, after visibly gulping.

“If you asked me before the concert I still wouldn’t really think I was worthy of this,” Sunset muttered with a nibble on her lip, before taking in a deep breath and exhaling, “But... hey! What are you gonna do about fate? If it’s for a good cause and all, guess it might be my shot to set things right.”

Gloriosa shrugged, “Crazy thing for us normal people huh?”

Sunset Shimmer paused and lowered her neck into her shoulders slightly, “Aaaaactually, I’m a unicorn. I’m from Equestria like Twilight. Our Twilight.”

“… Oh,” Gloriosa blinked, eyes wide, before chuckling, “Ooooh!... Well I’ve spent the last weeks in a camp with three sea sorceresses, a space alien, a big albino bat, and two space alien cyborgs alongside a magical pony princess. Sooo… sure, what’s one extra unicorn?”

Gloriosa glanced at the crystals she had left and puzzled, “Memory’s fuzzy from when Twilight went over it with me too. Magic is purple right?”

“Bit of a violet,” Peachy Keen quipped calmly from experience as it had once been her element as well.

Gloriosa furrowed her brow while checking over the necklace's remaining crystals, “Huh…I’ll have to get it back from Twilight then, I let her borrow it to study. It seemed to react to her and she got curious.”

“Understandable, she is the Bearer for it back in Equestria,” Godzilla noted from his past review, “Might be being a Bearer in one world counts for another.”

Sunset Shimmer was about to speak up about the very subtle glow she saw on a red crystal around Gloriosa’s neck when a more pressing topic shot into her mind, “Twilight! You said we’d have a meeting… when do we get Twilight back?”

Rarity perked up as well, “Yes, we do need to see our dear Darling is alright, up close.”

Applejack nodded with crossed arms, “Peace offerin’s great an’ got our attention, but ye’ can understand why everyone’s a bit jumpy….”

She gave a sideways glance to half the unusual characters in the room, “Half of us are literally here cus this big conundrum resulted in her getting’ snatched.”

Gloriosa paused and gulped, not at all to shoot the answer down but trying to find the best way to articulate matters. A red burst of light behind her, silencing other thoughts as a metal hand was put on her shoulder. Multiple persons took a backstep from Gigan suddenly teleporting inside the room, some more than others reacting off muscle memory and bad experience.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle has been our captive... but also our guest. I told no lies when I sent updates showing she was in good health. We kept her because we knew the real enemy was out there and couldn’t affor-” he shrugged, swallowing away his excuse, “We were paranoid about you lot meddling with our chances. Best of a bad situation.”

Gigan squeezed Gloriosa’s shoulder slightly but not in a painful way, more a means of getting a good grip for something she recognized as coming. To more than a little confusion of Godzilla and Anguirus, she put her hand on the cyborg’s right where the blade would pop out without any fear. Gigan almost seemed to squeeze her hand, “We struck an accord. She assisted us with magical advice and help, in exchange we agreed not to harm anyone. I did my best to honor that… until I lapsed.”

Gigan lowered his head slightly, as if in a bow, “I really don’t like some of you, and I know it’s mutual. But your Princess isn’t in that category. We made our mistakes targeting her, and I made my own launching the attack yesterday… I am.. sorry. If it puts your minds at ease until the meeting, her majesty Princess Twilight remains unharmed and in good health, mentally and physically. Who else do you think helped us to formulate some plans as of late?”

Rainbow Dash jerked her head up, “Wait, you mean we were kinda up against Twilight this whole time?”

Gigan glanced at her, “In a manner, no. Loyalty isn’t something I’m foreign to. She only helped on the agreement we never harmed anyone, most of all her friends. Her plans were to help us get at the true enemy. She is no traitor.”

“An’ when was that something you cared about?” Applejack grunted, earning a side-eyed glare from the cyborg that she returned.

“More than you’d know. Point is, this whole quarrel was pointless and risks damaging us all. So, what we’ve got here is a matter of trust. We trust you by giving us some of the Elements of Harmony and strengthening your roster. You trust us that Princess Twilight will be returning shortly and without harm,” Gigan shrugged, “I believe we can all trust that everyone here wants this conflict over with, yes?”

Lea, having been quiet for a majority of the events unfolding before her, finally spoke up to directly address both of the visitors.

“… Thank you, Gloriosa… And Gigan.”

The cyborg’s head cocked up so much it made a mechanical chirp.

Lea took in a deep breath and collected herself. Lots of old wounds were stinging, both on her and her companions caused by this very cyborg. But, opening those old wounds back up wouldn’t get Twilight back. She would not muddy this chance. The Mothra opened her eyes and gave a very subtle if gentle smile and now, “Thank you. Had I known of the siren being harmed, I’d have helped myself.”

“I made plenty of mistakes to complicate this,” Gigan nodded back as amicably as he could manage, “I just want to see to it they’re fixed.”

Godzilla had watched the proceedings with no small measure of pride in both his Terran companions, picking up the ball the locals had gotten rolling splendidly. In some ways, rivalries or hatreds from Terra had exacerbated this whole conflict. Best now to put them to bed. He looked to Peachy Keen and Sunset Shimmer, who seemed to be thinking the same frequency and nodded to him.

He addressed both Gigan and Gloriosa, “Then where shall our parties meet?”

Gigan and Gloriosa glanced at one another, before looking back at the company. The latter could feel a tremor come over the former, but not necessarily out of fear. She patted the metallic fingers curled over her shoulders and upon feeling his eyes firmly upon her she tilted her head in a silent display of body language. He copied the motion and earned a nod. After some contemplation he did the same, much to the surreal sight of Anguirus, Mothra, and Godzilla who never expected the Nebulan cyborg to be casually ‘conversing’ with a human until recently.

Then again for most of his life they never would’ve expected Destroyah to take up a quiet existence as a farmer or be remotely safe around children.

Gigan looked about the room, “I was going to send the coordinates after we left... After Gloriosa gave up the Elements and you realized we didn’t bring her, I was half expecting an ambush to try and apprehend us as hostages.”

“To be fair, that’s pretty much the exact thing you did with Twilight,” Godzilla grunted, “Honestly, you didn’t even need to come here, only she did.”

Gigan shrugged but nodded in concession, “Fair… I-“

“You came here to ensure she could get out,” Sunset Shimmer finished his sentence for him, earning a look from the cyborg as she nodded to Gloriosa.

He raised an eyebrow but didn’t reject it as he said nothing. Even so she got the sneaking tingling sensation about her that gave the former unicorn the answer she was looking for. Even without touching him and using what magic she had started to cultivate, Sunset Shimmer knew genuine concern when she saw it.

And perhaps to help preserve some pride, she didn’t press forward with it and nodded.

“… I only agreed to let her come at all because Godzilla spared me and Irys,” Gigan quietly stated as he looked at his old enemies without the same hatreds as before.

“New worlds tend to change things, it certainly did for my friends old and new here,” Peachy Keen was privy to the Gigan had on Gloriosa, “And it certainly has for you.”

Gigan tilted his head slightly at the youth, glancing to Gloriosa briefly to check for any recognition but getting none. Still, he could tell something was… different, with this one. The way she stepped seemed poised, unusually graceful for one so small. She stepped forth and bowed.

“I know a lot from Godzilla and Mothra’s word. But now you’re associating with humans, taking in a wayward Irys, and keeping Princess Twilight safe and even taking her advice. Peace isn’t easy, but it’s worth it… I don’t approve of the events that made this peace accord possible, but you have my thanks for what you’ve done.”

“….. As I said, I’m heartless in literal terms, not the metaphoric,” Gigan quipped while glancing back to Anguirus before he sighed.

The cyborg stepped back and Gloriosa followed suit on a backstep of her own, “Fine then. Trust me with any presence, I’ll trust you not to bumrush us and tell you so you can trust me. Meeting is downtown, top of the parking garage near the mall after sundown. You’ll be reunited with Twilight Sparkle there.”

His eyes slid around to lock upon Mothra Lea, “Totally unharmed.”

Gigan stated so plainly that it was totally without emotion. Robotic didn’t even begin to describe it, and that was intentional. Thoughts were trying to be hidden behind those mechanical eyes. A more wary type might grow suspicious. But to Sunset Shimmer, the sensations she empathetically picked up only spoke with hidden warmth. She stole a glance back at Mothra Lea and winked assuringly.

Gloriosa noticed the red crystal around her neck flare to life at the same time Sunset Shimmer acted, right before Gigan teleported them as far away as he could.

========

Sunset Shimmer needed a minute. After the emotional rollercoaster she’d been on as of late, she really needed a minute. Dropping the reveal of how she’d known of Irys and company, the confusion with her element, the meeting with Gloriosa and Gigan, and the fast-approaching meeting that would reunite all of them with Twilight; she just needed a moment to catch her breath.

Crossing her arms behind her head and laying back under a warm sun from her bedroom window, the former unicorn took in a deep breath while letting the gentle heat conduct onto her skin. She tuned out everything she could, having previously requested her friends leave her be for a moment and ignoring the footsteps outside the hall. It was, perhaps an unfortunately, as it left her ignorant to the pair creeping in through the door.

They waited until her breath got slow enough to indicate some fleeting rest, taking only a step every minute or so once the door was closed behind themself silently. With the other Bearers getting or tasting their Elements, that left only this one still incomplete enough to be vulnerable. This one who was a genuine Equestrian and had the same Element as that wretched Wysteria. There was already one successor to the last Retainer to worry with, it was rapidly getting out of control with two.

The other Elements could serve as the antithesis to strife well enough, and Empathy could easily engender the right feelings or consideration to let the other six function. The kaiju had proven to be such promising vessels to spur conflict from, and Empathy more than most other Elements could prove a stop-block to keeping those fires going.

Notus needed to stop this, but an attempted assasination wouldn’t work. With those mongrel kaiju about, he’d never get away with it and such might only further galvanize both sides to action. He’d been careful to slip a message across the wind to the other two, telling them everything about the incoming meet up as well as who had what Element. Kindness, Loyalty, Honesty, and Generosity with the Bearers, the Retainer still had Empathy and Laughter with her, and the counterpart to Zephyrus’ pet had Magic at a place called Everfree. The reply took great interest in Everfree, but Zephyrus had made it clear he needed more time…

Notus glanced in the mirror and loathed the face looking back. This whole ordeal would have been astronomically better if he’d succeeded in assuming control over Godzilla like Boreas had Monster X. Then he could have even tried picking off the stray Bearer or meddler with such power. Instead, he was in this pathetic body. Notus almost hissed, but held his tongue while stalking closer to the still and dozing Sunset Shimmer; hands caressing the carpet while creeping closer.

He was a hunter, and a hunter was not worth their salt if they couldn’t make-do with what they had on hand. Perhaps it was serendipitous that it was Flash Sentry of all people he wound up possessing. It seemed he had quite a history with this unicorn mongrel.

Flash’s chilled hand extended forth like a claw, closing and coming just short of touching Sunset Shimmer’s forehead with the middle and ring finger. Notus pulled forward, placing both hands beside her face while hovering over it with eyes far too wide to be normal. Dredging up from his depths, Notus curled his back and lifted his head high. Flash’s body contorted, jaw dropping to the point it looked dislocated. He bent back over and exhaled chilly mist that the sleeping Sunset Shimmer breathed in.

To Sunset Shimmer, it seemed like a night terror her imagination might conjure up after breathing in the chilly mist coming off Notus’ magic. She knew this memory, though not the perspective. Unable to gander a multi-thousand year frost demon was forcing the sad recollection of her ex-boyfriend into her mind, she’d come to the logical deduction it was what her mind imagined it had looked like from what she’d seen and heard.

And she was currently hearing her own raucous laughter while a sobbing Fluttershy clung to several friends, namely Applejack and Flash. It was in physics class and everyone just saw the slideshow that Mr. Key Ring was frantically trying to take off the projector. It was supposed to be a simple kinetic energy project, showing the making and working of a pulley set Fluttershy had created.

-”I thought Sunset was on the same team as her? Wha-the- why would?”-

Sunset Shimmer flinched mentally and in the real world, hearing what sounded like Flash Sentry’s thoughts. On the screen, taken from Fluttershy’s private laptop only her ‘partner’ had access to, were several of the horribly shy girl’s photos from the animal shelter. Namely those that weren’t so glamorous, such as cleaning up after ‘accidents’ and holding injection syringes while the animals got their shots. To someone with half a sense of maturity, they’d maybe appreciate the hard work Fluttershy put in, not only dealing with the grosser parts of animals but helping seeing to their medical care. That was the very reason Applejack and Flash had taken those photographs to boost her confidence…

To a class full of Freshman following along with what the popular girl, Sunset Shimmer, was doing; it was Fluttershy being disgusting and looking like she was needle-prone.

“Gro-ho-hoooss!”

“QUIET! Quiet down class!” Mr. Key Ring bellowed, trying to remove the powerpoint but somehow it had managed to open multiple windows and made removing it hard.

“Think she washed after each one?”

“Watch out or she’ll stick you too!”

“HEY KNOCK IT OFF!” Applejack roared while stomping forward, having handed Fluttershy off to Rarity, looking poised to smash the projector herself if Mr. Key Ring didn’t shut it off like he was trying to.

Fluttershy audibly sobbed while trying to hide inside Rarity, a shaking Flash patting her back while still gobsmacked at the screen.

-”How could they have gotten those? Why did-....”-

Sunset Shimmer’s eyes shrunk when she heard the loudest laughter in the room, the same one switching the flashdrive with the project out for a different one. Speaking quietly to Mr. Key Ring, though inaudible from the perspective, she smirked while putting up a different file. The screen clicked off Fluttershy about to give a Mrs. Frost’s pet bear his rabies shot and flicked over to a title screen. The words ‘Pulley-ing along: Kinetic and Potential Force in Practice by Sunset Shimmer and Fluttershy’ were splashed across an innocuous red background.

-”You… did this. Wh-why?!”-

Sunset felt stabbed, like an icicle to the back. It spread through the veins and chilled the body to the bone on every port. Notus was completely quiet as he dug his claws into Sunset’s mind through Flash’s memories. She was no monster, but she was once such a petty soul. Notus couldn’t use the memories from Equestria the windigo sensed, Flash Sentry wasn’t a witness there, but he was witness to the immediate incident or aftermath of Shimmer’s rampage through the student body. The seemingly sweet, lost girl he’d helped get established turning her ire on his schoolmates and friends for the pettiest of reasons. Fluttershy’s public embarrassment was born out of some perceived slight in the girl having Sunset handle the presentation.

Notus drank up the misery coming out of Sunset, drawing in her breath just as she was forced to inhale his mists. It let him use her voice where it counted.

-”She was only scared of presenting in public, yet I treated it like she’d dumped work onto me even after managing much of the project. I crushed her, played to that anxiety for what? Laziness? Spite?”-

Sunset Shimmer quivered and shrugged, unaware the voice wasn’t her own actual thoughts. She might not have done as drastic an ill deed as some others, far from it, but that hardly changed intent. Fluttershy here, Applejack on Family Day, Rainbow Dash on the track, Pinkie at her own workspace. She worked her way through the student body from the perspective of her then-boyfriend, who was in the background the whole time.

“Dang’it Flash, she’s out. Of. Con.Trol!” Applejack snarled while clutching her whimpering little sister, “Do somethin’ about her ‘fore I do!”

-”Why didn’t I stop her?”-

Flash’s morose thought echoed through Sunset’s mind while he went over to try and help council Applebloom after Family Day’s Sunset-born mishap. The mix of chills he was experiencing were made manifest to both Notus’ victims.

Sunset wanted to reach out, wanted to do exactly what Applejack wanted to do. Throw her past self against a wall and shriek at her or worse. She felt a twist in her heart at every slight, even the petty ones. This world was her second chance, after thinking she blew it with a prestigious, promising position back in Equestria she strode away from out of jealousy of Cadance. And she was doing this petty spite?!

-”I wanted to be an alicorn like that backcountry pegasus had, I craved her and Celestia’s power and status despite how high I’d gotten on the food chain! It was never enough!”-

-”No! No I don’t want that anymore! I don’t even think I deserve my Element, whatever it is!”-

Notus grinned and hissed contentedly, frigid gales striking into Sunset’s mind.

-”I don’t think I’m worthy deep down. I’m just going with it because of how proud it made Celestia and I want to help my friends!”-

Notus paused and tried to dig deeper. Celestia, alicorns, who and what were those? Flash hadn’t heard the name ‘Celestia’ spoken aloud while Notus had assumed control and the lack of bad memories Sentry had with that entity meant he couldn’t dredge up the memories from Sunset’s mind easily. But the words were important, enough that they demanded more information.

Forcing deeper within both victim’s memories, Notus looked for the real clincher. The most raw, painful memory they had between them. They were once an item, perhaps it was something involving a separation? Something neither of them were actively confronting, given the lingering threads between them even the windigo was privy to. Something, perhaps not grandiose nor world-shattering, but still emotional, had occurred. Perhaps, the final knife to twist and crack Sunset Shimmer open enough to find out more about who or what an alicorn and Celestia was.

Privy to how Rarity didn’t have a particular memory just yet, Notus started looking there. It didn’t take long to change the recollection to something more recent. To Sunset Shimmer and Flash Sentry’s mutual horror, the Fall Formal before Twilight’s arrival was brought forth to mind. And the aftermath therein was giving off quite a bit of distress… Sunset quivered in remorse.

=========================

“No!-” the echoes of Flash Sentry’s voice seemed to sound off into the void after glimpsing a force not his own piloting his body around Sunset Shimmer, “Leave her alone!”

The void inside Sentry’s mind surrounding him was vast and near-featureless. A frozen wasteland of scarcity of detail. The only thing of note was the perspective he could see in the horizon above, like a point of view. His own point of view. Of a tearful orange face veiled by burnt yellow and red hair. Flash ran towards it like he could try to force his body to reach out and touch Sunset, or throw itself to their knees and beg forgiveness for the words spewing out of his mouth he wasn’t in control over. Then a southward wind smashed into his back!

Sentry tripped in his own mindscape and his foot refused to be brought back up to regain his footing. It was frozen into the ground, icy tendrils snaking up his shoes as others gripped at his hands; as if to chain him to the ground. He fought back, but couldn’t gain an inch. All as the skies shifted to other sights, other memories.

Flashes of faces and names breezed past, many of them taken years apart despite being individuals Sentry interacted with regularly. Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Rarity, and… Sunset. All from instances of anger, frustration, sadness, or struggle that happened with any friendship regarding the first five. Every time Sentry tried to push against the chilling tide that was crushing down on him, it felt like he was just striking at himself.

"Y-you!.. You touch any of them and I swear I'll-"

The south wind smashed into his face before curling around, constricting as the voice echoed forth once again. It sounded just like his own.

-"Stop it, kill it? The monster King is a threat, those with some very powerful magic might be a threat, but everyone knows that… I am not a threat. I have no magic, I have no experience, I wasn’t chosen for anything special. I didn’t even remotely try to follow my family’s example and make something great of myself! I’m not worthy of my name or my company. I only leech off those near me! I have nothing and I am nothing!"-

The cold, it gripped his head and dug in, the sound of the enemy that had hijacked his body, it sounded exactly like himself. It spoke with his own worst condemnations amplified, like it was he himself doing the self reflection. The ice grew more over his limbs, reaching his elbows and knees. Self doubt was increasing as his heart felt heavier. He couldn’t see the best of times or the neutral moments with his friends. Flash was made only to see the worst. The times friends fought, the times he wasn’t around to help, the times he was a stupid youth and had failed to make much of a difference when he could have. Many of the more recent ones were of his freshman year, for the months he was blind to what the strange girl he’d helped out was doing to others.

He was confronted with the angry face of Applejack barking at him as she held a near inconsolable Fluttershy, the former shouting out the same name over and over as the cause of the poor wreck’s misery. His girlfriend, of whom he didn’t do anything to stop. It was hardly the only memory in such a predicament either.

-“I knew them since lower grade school, why didn’t I step up earlier? My family no doubt would! They’re all so much better than I, so why didn’t I try and stop Shimmer? When my childhood friends hurt, I’d been utterly worthless- I’d been worse than worthless!”-

It took a complete stranger to finally knock Sunset down a peg, a bad situation that had spiralled for years and the best he could do to help Twilight was just a save with the edited photos. And why?! None of his friends had magic initially and they all took action. Did it really take finding a gal not too dissimilar for how his ex-girlfriend once was to get off his ass and act?I

"No, I didn't… I didn't think.." Sentry gagged as the ice stabbed into his gut, a manifestation of condemnation.

-"Face it Flash, I’m a lackey at best! I'm just a guy a band hung out with a lot through grade school. I'm beyond out of my league in all this chaos! I'm not remotely a help to anyone! There's nothing special about me at all."-

The ice wrapped around his arms and legs started to claw up his body, crossing the shoulders and chilling the spine without numbing.

He quivered, trying to resist the forces acting upon his body. This- this couldn’t be him! This wasn’t him. He hadn’t screwed up this badly…! This... wasn’t him. He pushed against the ice formed up against him with as much gumption as he could. Fighting against the negative memories.

"Stop-.. stop using my voice! Get out of my head!”

The South winds roared, threatening to rip into flesh and flay the skin. The insolence of this human! Old memories were being dredged up. Old perceptions brought to light. Notus passively noted how he was incapable of accessing the more positive flashes of recollection, which far outnumbered the negative. That was troublesome to garner information. He didn’t know much about these new kaiju or who this Peachy Keen character was beyond the latter being someone from Equestria. Flash hadn’t had a bad memory with them so that knowledge was beyond the windigo of the south’s grasp.

In fact, for all this trouble, the human was frustratingly difficult. There was a good reason Boreas required the host to be mentally purged before taking over long term. For the most part, Flash Sentry had lived a good life and been good to others. He wasn’t some hero in the making like the Element Bearers, but he hadn’t the horrific past or exploitable ambition to play towards. Just some familial- and friend-born doubt of not measuring up and self-worth problems. Notus would just have to hit harder with what the windigo could claw free.

-"I’ll always be a disappointment. I’ll never measure up to anything or anyone, friend or family. They just keep me around out of obligation-”-

The tearful, hurt look on Shimmer’s face was forced to surround him as the winds roared once more and seemed to shove Flash further into the ice. He could practically feel a cold hand rammed into his form to try and freeze him from the inside out.

-“I put up a good show, but I’m not worth squat! First two girls I felt anything for turned out to not even be human-”-

Notus’ arm was grabbed. Feebly, but grabbed. Flash’s arm was craned back and gripping the manifestation of the windigo’s limb by the wrist. There was a warmth pressing back against the cold, one deep down that he was clinging to.

“I don’t care.”

Sentry looked exhausted and beaten down, the ice almost up to his cheeks now. But it’s progress was slowed, if not stopped. He had a smile that, while forced, had enough honesty behind it that it refused to fade.

“I don’t c-care… what I think of myself,” Sentry whimpered with a slight chuckle.

The memories he could cling to weren’t the torment this cretin was trying to break him with. It was the opposite. He’d spent a weekend at a dude ranch with a 6-year-old Applejack chasing chickens and then getting chased by a rooster. Tried and failed to keep up with a 13-year-old Dash at track more than once, leaving both a laughing mess at the finish line. Had a 7-year-old Fluttershy help him adopt an old tomcat in need of a home as his first pet. Stood in place for a good hour when an 11-year-old Rarity was hemming her first male suit. And it was his 8th birthday party that Pinkie taught him how to crack the same smile he had on right now.

In the waking world, Flash Sentry’s body, piloted by Notus, started to seize up. He only now realized something. In his motive to drown Shimmer in the cold, he’d accidentally made the gap between them zero in length. His hand was touching Sunset’s cheek even while it was poised to go around her neck. Sparks of red started to flicker from her throat, and that magic was conducting into the subject of her memories and thoughts.

It gave Flash just the tiniest bolstering he needed to keep an ember hot in the blizzard. The memories turned even sweeter. It was several years ago, a younger, more naive, and skittish Sunset Shimmer and he sat together out by the school statue. It was an unremarkable day, just another goings-on with a partially cloudy sky and mild temperature. He’d noticed the new girl seemed to have some trouble with dexterity and thought up a way to help. At the time, he’d thought it maybe some old nerve damage or just youthful clumsiness; the idea she was a magical equine made human never came to mind and how could it have ever?

His way of helping was to teach her how to use a guitar, just the basics.

The first notes were beyond clunky and franky were quite grating on the ears. Her hold on the strings was too clenched.

“Here, you need to relax your wrist a bit more. Loosey-Goosey so they say,” he quipped while reaching over, only realizing too late he’d put his arm around her to do so given how they were seated.

Trying not to stutter, Sentry gently worked his thumb under her wrist and pried up slightly; holding it until Sunset Shimmer’s shaking joint stilled.

“Y-er-you need some room so your skin doesn’t stick to the-eh uh…” Flash cleared his thought, feeling very warm and his mind was utterly blanking, “Stick to… to….”

“Theeeee.. Neck was it?” Sunset Shimmer shrugged, pursing her lips as her face was getting as red as her hair.

“Y-Yeah… I think…”

“Well you’re supposed to be the expert!” the former unicorn quipped playfully before making a show by grumbling.

“Oh just try the note already!” Flash yipped before holding onto the back of her hand, tapping at her index, middle, and pinkie knuckle to indicate the fingers to use; before the awkward position was too much and he let go to get his arm back.

Sunset Shimmer took in a deep breath, held it, and bit her tongue. She prepared and readied like she thought the thing would explode, or at least explode with another horrid noise; if she did this wrong.

Sentry heard the most average F-Sharp in history, followed by an honest laugh that made him feel his heart thump between his ears. Especially when a victorious Sunset leaned on him happily and repeated it, like she was showing off some great achievement. The thumping got even louder when her arm hooked around him in a post-victory rush after getting several other notes right. Even though he couldn’t see it, he knew he had the most stupid, goofy looking grin on his face when she squeezed him against her.

It was a happy memory from a happier time, before she acted out more and he failed to stop or moderate her. And, after finally being brought down a peg by Twilight, it was who she’d returned to being. He’d just been too worried about a relapse to act on it as the Rainbooms had. He should have realized the truth long ago, the first moment she showed honest change after the Fall Formal.

That candle that got lit during that guitar lesson had still been burning all these years, even as the mere embers within his hand.

The demon wanted him to condemn someone who’d given him worth for her transgressions, and to submit to dread about how he measured up to his friends. He’d realized long ago how his friends valued him, and as for Sunset’s transgressions… he’d forgiven all of them long ago.

This demon had nothing to threaten him with.

Notus shrieked at the wretched sensations it was literally arm-deep in, his arm still lodged in Flash’s chest as if to try and crush or tear out his spirit’s heart; to freeze it in the cold and revel in the strife. To a being of such pure evil, love of any sort was toxic. Good, was toxic.

Sentry was an unremarkable young man, but he was a good man.

Flash coughed but never stopped smiling, able to perceive the dark influence in his mind; that which was taking his self doubt and trying to smother him with it.

“I- don’t care-... what I think about myself. I’m not important,” Flash panted while still bearing that smile, determined to not let go of the warmth he had left in him.

He hadn’t been deprived of what gave him his worth like X had. Nor had he the baggage to exploit Adagio or Gigan risked choking on. He was unremarkable in manner, achievement, and status. But he was honest and he was good. And no two-bit, slanderous demon was going to cheat that truth out of him.

His smile widened, even as the ice kept him pinned down. Notus sneered and fell back into the southerly winds, resigning to try again later. He couldn’t waste more time with this lackey while surrelance of the actual threats was more important. Notus had thought it a sign of weakness that Zephyrus required that brute Boreas to occupy a mostly memory-less host. Now he understood the trouble of not doing that. The memories, the happy ones the windigo couldn’t stand, were what was keeping Sentry from freezing over entirely. A spark in the dark to keep him warm until he was free. Until they freed him.

“They care, and they’re the important ones…” Flash Sentry chuckled weakly, the flickering, glowing heat of those embers he held in his hand the only thing not covered with frost that he paid no heed to. He looked back in defiance at Notus, his friends new and old as well as Sunset the only thing in his mind, “And you’re gonna lose to them.”

In the conscious world outside of Flash Sentry’s possessed mind, Sunset Shimmer was still crying as the second expired. But even as the moment in which all of the conflict within Flash’s mind took place was up, she could register something. She couldn’t see them, couldn’t hear them, but she could feel them. Feel him. Her tears dried as concern was pushed forward. She scrambled up from her bed with a gasp and just barely glimpsed a flash of blue hair moving away. She reached out and tried to speak up, but the words refused to leave her throat past Irys’ choker. She felt, in a manner, horrible… but contrary to Notus’ intent, not entirely or even majorly at or for herself.

But, she still felt. The cold was slipping away more and more by the mind, especially after she got out an old guitar. Shaking hands lightly strummed a F sharp. After several more strummings, her hands shook less and less.

===========

Reader Works

Because I haven't done this in a long time, and it's my honor to show off what those who read my crazy stories are up too in their own pursuits, this one's for all ya'll!

FallenAngel5414 and her own comic series I highly reccomend!

LionPatriot and his own original kaiju and human designs!

MonsterMasher137 adapting two of my all time favorite kaiju suits to pony form!

Barrel2s1cool taking a tangent from nice Devilman designs to show off the tri-crossover aspect of Bridge!

Toonholt making Behemoth even more cuddly as a big ol' doggo!

Pyrus-Leonidas further refining his craft of kaiju vectors with the squad and his own beasts!

Holycross9 bringing another event and film to mind with this piece among others!

Author's Note

Proofed by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Fantastic art by Faith-Wolff!

Chapter 50: Stormfront

Author's Note

Special thanks to Lance Omikron and Faith Wolff for proofing, EvoWizard, Diverse Interests, and Crystal Master for ideas;

Chapter 50: Stormfront

They weren’t winning, but they weren’t losing either.

They struggled and yet the gateway remained open after spewing forth another monstrosity, as westerly winds howled.

Here in this most remote backwater, beyond the fringes of the map to the southern frontier, he’d bore witness to a conflict that defied all expectations. In the deepest forest he’d ever seen, beholden to the greatest powers he’d ever known; the greatest sorcerer of the day felt as if but a mere gnat in the face of a hurricane. The deadlock was shockingly potent despite being an even match between participants, was so overwhelmingly powerful it was beyond any ability to both ignore or fully comprehend. Shockwaves constantly tore the ground to pieces, only to instantly reform the destroyed terrain with freshly created spans of bedrock, dirt, flora, or even metal. At one point a stray bolt speared off from the deadlock and slashed through a mountain range far into the distance, while another burst of blinding luminescence caused a brand new mountain to burst from the ground in the distance. The terrain, the landscape, even the very air was constantly being created and destroyed in equal measure; deafening bursts of vacuums forming and filling creating a constant stream of thundering.

A blue furred form limply rose, still dazed from an impact he'd taken. Grunting, he rose; Starswirl the Bearded forcing himself to look away from the awesome struggle before him, taking all of his mental fortitude to do so while bearing witness to a force so magnitudes greater it was impossible to grasp. He cried out something as a streaming blur rocketed past him and crashed through several newly formed vines, the latter specifically engendered to slow their fall. Starswirl rushed over and with a grip of telekinesis, helped to pull Flash Magnus up. Half of his helmet looked frozen over and most of his right wing was severely frostbitten down to missing feathers. Starswirl cringed as a familiar blue earthen mare rushed over. Meadowbrook had lost her mask somewhere in the struggle, but nopony thought to consider finding it in a time like this.

Starswirl, a unicorn, helped to steady Flash Magnus, a pegasus, while Mage Meadowbrook, an earthen, applied a salve to his frostbite. Meadowbrook put her hooves to his wounds as Starswirl put his horn to her forehead. Assisting in a charge of magic, the pulse of earthen magic often used to speed up crop growth helped stabilize and mend the pegasus’ wounds. Had this been a year or so ago, Starswirl wouldn’t have believed such a group capable of forming; instead being reclused away in his studies and only giving the talents or abilities of others some passing acknowledgement before moving on.

Magnus tested his restored wing and gave a grateful nod to his compatriots, Meadowbrook patting him on the head while shooting the unicorn and pegasus an exasperated, but relieved smile. Starswirl gently lifted Magnus back onto his hooves and accepted the soldier giving him his hat back, having not even noticed it had fallen off in the chaos.

Starswirl nodded back respectfully to the stallion and mare, Meadowbrook’s smile infectious. He’d have never imagined he might one day call such strangers his friends.

“Heads on alert!” a booming cry bellowed out as a crackling light overtook the trio.

Snapped from his stupor, Starswirl’s eyes bulged as he beheld with horror a bolt of malefic magic tearing through the air with an eerie shriek as it barreled closer. Just as he’d gotten a barrier up around himself and his compatriots, a towering mass blocked out the blinding light from the clashing gods and a shovel of all things flew forward; wrapped in an aura of teal colored magic recognizable as Mistmane’s. Like he was batting away at some sort of ballgame, the massive form of Rockhoof smacked the magical blast and tried to push it back. Starswirl knew of his comrade’s power and that Mistmane was no slouch as a spellcaster herself. Which made it all the more telling the two combined just barely managed to deflect away one bolt of magic that had come flying at the group.

And instantly, the entire locale felt noticeably colder; Starswirl soon saw why.

The sheer disgust upon their presence was palpable. Every sense, every inclination of dread was spiked in the worst manner possible. The kind of revulsion one might experience smelling the most rancid, sickening odor possible applied to touch, smell, sound, and sight itself. And in tandem with the horrors inflicted upon the senses, all manner of horrid thoughts risked clawing at the mind; cracking it as ice forming from freezing water cracks the stone it invaded.

That was when the grace of a voice that came with windchimes blocked all of that out and he was at last able to return to conscious thought, gasping for air as the frost that had grown over his fur and beard melted.

-”You six represent the best of virtue. Remember it, live for it. Live for life and its purpose.”-

Starswirl had long been agnostic. Magic was such a mysterious and wide-reaching force that the exact definition of what one said a god was could easily fall within plenty of potential gray areas. The blue unicorn himself had recently begun looking into a spell that might combine the magics of all three pony races with some help from Meadowbrook and Somnambula, and while this was still working with three of the same species; the final result might be something stupendous if given a fully realized potential. It was another fruit of effort impossible to work on without his friends.

And one such being who fit in that possibility he always entertained had called out. She articulated in an impossible manner beyond his means of explaining. She had guided him and the other five heroes over thousands of kilometers of distance, guided them to find and bond together so they could stand a chance at what was put up against them. An alternate, lonelier Starswirl with an extra decade of sorcery study wouldn’t have lasted a minute out here. He and his talent were but one pillar, and a strong house needed multiple. And for the sake of all mortal kind, he could only pray, a first in his life, that six were enough.

He didn’t know if she was his creator in some fashion or another, this goddess, but he heeded her presence well and took hold of the fortitude she and his company gave him. They were heroes, and yet even in the presence of gods, they had a job to do.

Tilt the odds in the most impossible of deadlocks, and keep the greatest evil that the unicorn could possibly imagine from doing the same.

Rockhoof at last batted away the malefic magic, the sphere of energy striking a tree and instantly freezing it and the orchard around it solid.

Above the deadlock, three figures hovered in the air with menacing intent. The winds whipped around from the North, South, and West; bringing a chilling bite as they roared.

“Another one?! Starswirl, what are these things?!” Mistmane panted, the worn mare staggering back to the group to reform a line for mutual protection, her aged features clearly tired even with the goddess’ blessing helping blunt the onslaught of the icy demons.

“Windigos,” Starswirl grimly huffed as he tried to make himself ready,“Old histories spoke of them, but they were thought to be but a myth from a bygone era.”

“A wind of the North, South, and now West,” Sonambula frowned as the hated trio started to form up again.

“And the weather keeps getting worse with each other. I don’t think the first one was this strong individually before the others arrived,” Flash Magnus continued while stomping on his shield to flip it back into his awaiting hooves, batting off a few strands of ice.

“Boreas, Notus, and now west, Zephyrus,” Meadowbrook frowned as she dubbed each of the monsters that had seemed to come crawling out of existence whenever a gateway to a realm beyond near the evil god pulsed. She looked at the portal warily, as it remained open near the deadlock of gods despite the magic flying about destroying and creating in equal measure all around it. That implied one of the gods was actively working to keep it maintained, even if they were devoting all but a tiny fraction of their power to battling their counterpart.

And if the goddess had used her magic to summon, guide, and now protect them with a fraction of her power; that implied this god was confident these freezing monstrosities could achieve more with half the number.

Meadowbrook warily glanced at the towering stallion who was still shivering while trying to shield his comrades with his body, “Rockhoof, how are you feeling about this?”

Rockhoof only frowned while looking at his nearly ruined shovel, cringing as the icy blast had managed to dent in the metal and crack the handle whereas previously the tool and weapon had held up against blow after blow when the first windigo appeared. Now it looked like a stiff breeze might damage it beyond repair.

“Yep, we’re doomed.”

As one, almost all of the pillars sans Starswirl barked back, “WELL DON’T JINX US!”

The winds shifted abruptly. They changed to roar in the opposite direction, like a vacuum had been opened up. Starswirl grit his teeth as he held his hat to his head, squinting to see what was going on. The windigos were up to something. When the first one, the North Wind that meadowbrook had dubbed Boreas had been summoned, Starswirl found he could match it directly. A barrier spell or two was tested and pushed by its manic attacks, but he could push it back. But upon finding itself outmatched the portal to whatever cursed realm it had been brought from reopened. Upon flying through it, Boreas pulled forth his opposite.

Starswirl’s shoulder still itched from the mended wound he’d gotten when the formerly held-at-bay Boreas cackled like a madpony whilst rushing him, smashing through his formerly strong-enough barrier magic like a blizzard busting a window. It was only through the goddess and Meadowbrook he didn’t have severe frostbite that could turn septic.

Now there were three of them, North, South, and West. And now the winds were being pulled towards the East. Boreas came barreling at the ground as Notus disappeared into the surroundings, no doubt sneaking around for another ambush. A dire threat to be sure, but Starswirl could see the greater danger. Looking through the almost blinding, mind-bending brilliance of the clashing gods, he saw Zephyrus going for the portal as a fourth figure flickered across the surface.

“They’re bringing forth another one, we have to shut that portal!” he shouted over the blizzard the North and South spewed forth on the heroes.

“Easier said than done!” Flash Magnus cringed as his trusty metal shield shrieked like a gong, pushing back a lunge by Boreas aimed at himself and Mistmane; but the windigo took a chunk of the shield with it.

“They are stronger near the great evil, just as we are bolstered by the great good and each other,” Somnambula yelled out over the storm, beating her wings as hard as she could to try and push back the howling gales and all they brought forth, “But just three of them to six of us is a deadlock.”

Just like how the gods were in a deadlock before both tried to summon grains of rice to tip the scales. It was telling how their magnitudes must be if assembling six of ponykind’s best, including enchanted soldiers, maguses, sorcerers, and adventurers, was but a rice grain on a scale measuring tonnes. But, everyone loathed a tie and the scales were to be tipped.

Somnambula was right however. Their unity was the only force that was keeping the windigo contained for now; and it was the only effective measure. A harmony between their three kinds of magic. Starswirl had envisioned perhaps condensing that harmony into a singular being with that incomplete spell he had worked on with his compatriots. They were some of the best of the three races assembled, but those stronger still could have been born or were yet to be born. But this was not a conflict or foe one entity could triumph over, not the strongest of the earth, swiftest of the skies, or most able of spellcasting. Against such foes, only unity with harmony could hope to triumph.

Starswirl roared over the storm as he charged forth with a shield spell drawn up around himself and his compatriots, “To me! We must unite our magics with the experimental spell and seal that portal!”

“But I thought you never finished writing that spell!” Rockhoof yelled as he rushed alongside the bearded unicorn, the knight physically shielding him with his mostly ruined shovel.

“Yes, because you all weren’t done teaching this reclusive magus what real magic was. But it’s the best shot we got!”

“And what’s the chance of backfire?” Meadowbrook yelped as she raced up beside them, putting her hoof to Starswirl’s shoulder to channel some of her magic into him.

The Pillars all looked to Starswirl whose wide-eyed exasperation masked his fear, as they charged headlong into the storm regardless of the threats beyond and the clashing deities nearby.

The middle-aged unicorn just shook his head and scoffed, but kept moving forward, “Weaken their magic, banish them, destroy them, destroy us- I haven’t the faintest idea!”

A look passed between each of them, silently speaking volumes as to what was and could happen. There was a much higher than good chance this would end very poorly for all or most of them. Horizons away from home, family, community, and all they knew; descending into an ancient clash they knew nothing of and solely because it seemed to be the right thing to do. Six strangers, remarkable in a way a goddess saw fit to reach out to them for an element they represented; against a dark abomination beyond understanding and its minions.

And their best bet was an untested spell their best sorcerer couldn’t do alone that would hopefully swap and tether their abilities and elements into a harmonious force…

Zephyrus’ powerful roars, Notus’ stalking hiss, and Boreas’ manic cackles plagued the group, trying to drain away their resolve as ice formed up around them. The sound of the windchimes briefly shouted out the storm, carrying with it an urgent plea as the ground and sky seemed to tear apart under the clashing gods.

-”This is getting beyond you, I cannot risk your lives for my fight! I will move you to safety! Go now, save yourselves!”-

A field of magic started to form around them, poised to remove them from the area. All of the pillars of virtue from this ancient time knew what the goddess was doing, and what would happen if they left. Something beyond their understanding was risking defeat and possibly more just for their sakes. They needed her protection and shelter, and all the effort bringing them here was to be cast aside for mere mortals. A primal fear and subconscious mind wanted to take up her offer.

A heroic conscience begged to show they weren’t so helpless. Wings beat and escaped the teleportation field, a bright smile shining in the storm as its owner flew right into it.

“Do not lose Hope my friends, mortal or otherwise! It got us this far because you had faith in us, and we’re not going to let you or ourselves down!” Somnambula, ever the optimist, declared with a strong smile in the face of strife.

Her radiance and boldness to fly against the storm infected them all once again; reminding each of why the goddess had called out to them. Like a tether had bonded between them as Starswirl started the spell, each of the six refused to yield to the blizzard of misery and cold that wished to devour them.

“Be Brave against fear!” Flash magnus roared while putting his shield in front of Starswirl to block shards of ice and hail, helping break the gales that threatened to flatten their advance as they pushed against the storm. Both were still taking some damage from the frost, but Flash was boldly putting himself before the sorcerer.

“Heal al’ old divides!” Meadowbrook shouted, as she enhanced the last of her herb bag with a burst of her magic and smashed it on the ground before the group, the cloud of medicines melting most of the ice and frostbite starting to accumulate on the group; races be damned.

“See the Beauty in differences!” Mistmane cheered while pushing both Flash Magnus and Meadowbrook’s herb cloud forward with her magic, making use of the pegasus’ flight and earthen’s life enchantments to keep the caravan moving towards the portal.

“Find Strength with one another!” Rockhoof bellowed, smashing his shovel into the ground and flipping up a chunk of bedrock that deflected another gale and formed a ramp the party rushed upwards.

The distance closed and closed, Zephyrus almost upon the portal he and his brothers had been summoned from. He’s just about reached it, Easterly winds roaring through while a pair of eyes looked out through the other side of the gateway. That was when six forms launched off a stony ramp despite Boreas tackling the group from one side and Notus launched upon them from behind like two blizzards smashing into each other. Rockhoof and Somnambula, having nothing else left in the tank, threw themselves at Boreas while Mistmane, Flash Magnus, and Meadowbrook hurled their forms upon the attacking Notus. All in a desperate bid to keep either from reaching the now airborne Starswirl, who was barreling at Zephyrus with his entire horn ignited. All six of the ancient heroes were flickering with familiar colors of light, channeling their summoning goddess’ magic.

Massive talons curled around the visions as they played out through a portal glimpsing into the past. Extinction watched on through the strands of memory within Harmony’s realm, studying and learning. Bagan absorbed the memories, Harmony took no opposition to them inspecting whilst moving its magic through the visions of history just as it had glimpsed a few possible futures.

The spell Starswirl had been working on would be abandoned by all but a few in the years after. Without his companions, he’d never be able to finish it. But, it was finished eventually. The second time was by Twilight Sparkle, earning her ascension as an alicorn by her mentor. But, the presence of alicorns before her implied someone else figured it out first. Or already knew it and had reached out to those six who could be components to allow mortals to create the process on their own to those that would be worthy.

After all, it was a tether to another of Harmony’s fields of magic that permitted Princess Cadance to ascend; and she was hardly the first alicorn either.

Bagan paused to look at the magic from Celestia they had sheared off, wordless and emotionless.

Alicorns, a concept of unity and understanding creating authority beyond means of raw power. Controlling the worst of that blight the sapience-inflicted called civilization. Had something like them been on Terra, reigning in or guiding the ancient humans instead of self proclaimed god-kings or queens, perhaps Bagan would have not felt spurred into action for a while longer.

A stilling thought crossed the deity’s mind upon that reflection.

It had given the sapients plenty of chances, plenty of guidance with the Mothra, Battra, and even blessing their chosen heralds the Elias sisters. But did they do enough? They’d provided what the cities asked for, powering their mana guzzling crystals and constructs, for dozens of millennia. But Starswirl could never have known the full implications of his spell. He could never have known that embodying the magics of three races in one body could result in an alicorn, let alone even know what an alicorn was until he bore witness to them in the flesh.

He, a wise soul of his kind and one of the best, couldn’t have known what they needed; living in a time the three races still largely lived apart. And by comparison such segregation was something even a half mortal fool in the modern days of Equestria would consider ridiculous. What if neither the ancients, nor their deity, knew what was needed at the time of that bygone era before extinction…?

…...

A deep pit formed in the dragon-like deity’s core, and they let go of the memory. After a few moments more, they instead turned their focus back to the magic of Celestia that had become separated.

This was not the first time they’d looked into this ancient memory, they’d looked at it plenty of times before and after taking away a chunk of Celestia’s magic. Honestly they didn’t know why they’d bothered looking at it again. In fact it bored them now.

Bagan’s horns crackled and a shock of power traveled through their body into a balled fist. The crackling limb was backhanded into the vision portal, shattering it weightlessly as the shards lazily flew off in different directions. It wasn’t an attempt at destroying the vision- if one could even destroy the memories of a goddess -just an attempt to banish it as Bagan had no wish to look upon it again. They knew all they needed for it, and the reason for reviewing it was minor anyway.

-I viewed it solely for vindication, given what is yet to come. There is nothing that can be learned from watching long dead mortals...-

Bagan shook their head even as they agreed with themselves, but that stubborn pit in their core refused to go away. They instead paced back to another span of the infinity that made up Harmony’s realm, clawed feet tapping on glassy walkway in a sea of stars as they made their way back to where the goddess last was. It was telling they were so distracted as to not just fly back and save time on the journey.

It was more telling they were distracted enough they didn’t notice an invisible and intangible Harmony had been watching them the whole time. She glided down to where Extinction once stood and observed the broken memory screen, the torn off power of Celestia, and the departing Bagan who still hadn’t noticed her.

She frowned, sighing and putting the memory display back together while wondering what was going on in that billions-year-old mind of her company.

=====================
Sunset Shimmer's Home
=====================

Seeing Flash Sentry bolt down the stairs had her attention long enough to pull it away from prior focuses. Hearing the slow strumming of a guitar was what kept it.

Step by step, silently creeping up the stairs, Peachy Keen let her body practically move automatically as she followed the music. A quick glance to the carpet indicated indentations from rapid footfalls, and her eyes briefly glanced back down the stairwell where Flash had gone.

She looked at the indentations trailing in the same direction as the music, back to Sunsets bedroom, down in the direction Flash had fled, and to the deduction of who she knew could play a guitar. A few questions were springing up that she kept aside until reaching for the door.

A sharp bite of cold instantly made her hand recoil from the door knob. Reflexively shaking it out as if to jostle away the chill, Celestia tested her grip a few times while looking back at the door with heightened nerves. The music was still continuing, absent-minded to her approach. One could call it a vibe, a predilection towards such evil, or just her maternal side flaring up; but she could feel her thousand year heart jump up into her throat.

She didn't even care if the doorknob wasn't really that cold when she tried it again, any chill at all sent her in a fright considering the icy demons that had been about.

Yanking open the door, she barged in fearing for the worst.. Only to see just about the second most dreaded sight she could have expected to see. Sunset shimmer, sitting with her back to the door absent-minded to her mentor's entry, quietly strumming a guitar. Peachy Keen didn't even need to see her face to know her once and again current protege was crying.

The princess still looked about, at the windows and ceiling in foreboding dread, just making sure she didn't see some nightmare from the past lurking about.

Nothing. The room was a bit colder, but not the same sort of icy chill that would eat to the bone as her mentors once described to her when the windigos froze half of them. She didn't write off any detail, one didn't rule for as long or as wisely as herself without being perceptive and considering the possibilities, but the immortal alicorn turned teenager could at least let out a slow exhale of stale air she just now realized she had been holding.

Celestia was just about to speak up when notice of who had just been in the room prior got her to hold her tongue. Flash Sentry wasn't especially noteworthy in status, but there was a history there. His counterpart back in Equestria seemed similar enough to the native one here, so Celestia wasn't exactly disapproving when she found out Twilight had developed a bit of a crush. A good man or a good stallion was liable to have some affection thrown their way and he seemed to be on very good terms with the element bearers here as a childhood friend.

The crush would probably fade, and evidently it likely had. Especially when it took Celestia all of 5 seconds to figure out some of that flame between him and her other protege hadn't burned out. But that didn't change the fact they had broken up and apparently not on good terms…

A crying girl alone in her room with someone significant storming away, a still lit flame, but also an open wound between them. Didn't take someone a thousand years old to put two and two together.

"Power was all I desired… But all that grew inside me was the darkness I acquired…”

Celestia perked up, passively nodding her head to both the guitar melody and quiet singing. Sunset Shimmer was extremely talented in magic back in Equestria, but she had never shown musical aptitude back home. And with such a wonderful voice and skill with an instrument no less..

"When I began to fall and I lost the path ahead,"

The princess passively smiled. She could see the pain Sunset Shimmer was going through and as both her teacher and something of a mother figure, she wanted to rush forward and comfort her despite how awkward it would probably look trying to cradle someone she barely came up to the shoulder of.

And yet it was those exact sides of her that held her feet in place.

"That's when your friendship found me and it lifted me instead,”

The lyrics, the way she powered through any hitching or stuttering the crying might have otherwise caused. She was subjected to sadness but not subjugated by it. Celestia was watching her protege in a battle, one she was struggling with but slowly winning. Pride of the selfless variety held her tongue, as not to disturb Sunset's triumph.

The bratty wayward student who'd let jealousy of not being made a princess rip her away from her home was contrasted with the strong young woman beating back her dread and past pains in a new body, a new home, and new skills.

“Like a phoenix burning briiight in the sky… You showed another side of me, I can't deny.."

She’s come such a long long way, and Celestia's only regret in the moment was that she hadn't been able to watch it all happen.

Her eyes cast to the corners of the room to a familiar old piano. With the next strumming of fingers across guitar strings, one of the faux ivory keys was pushed down.

Sunset Shimmer let her body move on its own, playing the chords and strings from muscle memory from all those hours practicing with Flash. She could vividly remember, perhaps even a little sharper now that the piano was playing alongside to add to the mood. Human hands were far more dexterous than any hoof, and for her first weeks she struggled.

She was trying to sign her name for what felt like the 50th time when the music drew her in like a moth to a flame. The same useful dolt who’d been helping her get settled was practicing some chords on the steps and Sunset Shimmer didn't even remember approaching. What she did remember was a passive marveling at how he was manipulating so many digits in such a succinct manner that was such a jarring contrast to her awkward fumbling. And producing such sound no less…

It was the first time a human had actually impressed her. It was the first time he had…

Not 5 minutes later, Flash was cheerfully teaching her how to hit a few notes. Her awkward clenching all but forced him to practically hold her hands to get them in the right configuration.

A phantom sensation of warmth across her hands helped to push away the cold. Some more recent memories risked the chill returning, but the heat persisted. Stoked by loving memories and the sound of a piano and guitar playing in unison. Unseen by both former equestrians on account of having their eyes closed as they concentrated on the melody, sparks of red started to flicker around Sunset Shimmer. And a mixture of hues started to flicker across Peachy Keen. A link was established, empathy streaming thoughts and emotions from one party to the other. Even without physical contact, Sunset felt embraced; coaxed along through the happier memories of her times gone by and recent. Both her own, and ones of her teacher; painted across a tapestry of time from a bygone era and the present.

Ambition to do the best to prove to others, doubt in their own worth and capabilities, friendships, rivalries, crushes, follies and victories. The younger solar diarch was no different than any pony in such regards, nor did she entirely lose them with age and experience. Much as she was surprised to think it in her subconscious, Sunset Shimmer’s consciousness was privy to the deduction. She’d wondered why Celestia of all folk might have ever taken her up as a student, doubly so when she took her back on as a student after their falling out; and why her scorned teacher would forgive her for hiding secrets like Irys. She could heed the forgiveness before, but she only could truly understand it now.

They were a lot alike besides just the solar themed names.

“I may not know what the future holds,” Sunset whispered, a tear falling onto her guitar strings.

Pale fingers glided over the piano keys in perfect harmony with the guitar cord, “But hear me when I say.”

The cold of a painful break-up and the dread she’d caused others before and after it was pushed out, like the chill of a night’s evening pushed back by the rising sun.

Sunset Shimmer made her affirmation, much as her self-doubt denied it and her worth as an Element Bearer, “That my past does not define me…”

Scorning a loved one and having to be forgiven and forgive yourself for it was something important they both had in common.

“Because your past is not todaaay…”

The music petered out and Sunset Shimmer didn’t sit up as Peachy Keen, Celestia Alexandria Alicor, paced forward and embraced her softly. She turned around and returned the gesture, calmed and able to let it all out. Several long minutes later, Sunset reclined back into Celestia as the two watched the sun cross the window; casting its warmth down across them both.

Sunset Shimmer frowned as she touched at her collar area again, privy to the missing placement for an Element, “… I… I still wonder why I’m worthy of any Element...”

Sunset shrugged, pouting and looking aside at nothing in particular before her eyes drifted down due to a dour mood, “I wasn’t exactly the picture of good not long ago. I acted without any thought to others, most of all the ones I should have been the most concerned about.”

Celestia ran her fingers across Sunset’s scalp, sighing as she shook her head at old memories, “To that, I can actually relate.”

Sunset stilled before looking upwards, not necessarily at but tilting her head as to indicate direction of her attention towards her mentor, “… You serious?... You seriously-“

Celestia rolled her eyes and tapped a thumb to each of her fingers to count up, “Was a brat sometimes. Everyone is growing up. Just because my body sprouted up like a weed didn’t mean I wasn’t young once…. Heeeeeeeeeheheee…”

She let out a long shrug, rubbing at the back of her head, “And… I hurt those who were kind to me once too… Luna was feeling neglected, both by the public and myself. On some level, I might have-… On some level I probably did know she was like that. And I didn’t act on it as I should have.”

“That’s…” Sunset swallowed, “Not the same as my folly though.”

“No, it isn’t. But failing to do the right thing is just as bad at times as doing a wrong deed.”

Sunset furrowed her brow and sat up a bit, even moving up slightly caused her to surpass her mentor in height as she looked back at the former alicorn incredulously, “But- that whole bit where she got jealous wasn’t your fault! Equestria had just suffered a bunch of attacks though. Discord, Tirek, Sombra, loss of the Crystal Empire, and Tartarus unleashed- Chrysalis was still on the loose! Folks needed leadership and security, and you gave them that.”

“And I was a teenager even younger than you back then,” Celestia frowned as she rubbed at her arm, vulnerability upon her mentor’s face a total unknown to Sunset, “I was full size by the time I was 10, but none of that mattered… Some ponies looked at my appearance and wanted to throw themselves down before I even said anything. Nopony publicly wanted or cared to know I got acne, I had mood swings, I got crushes, or that I had no idea what I was doing. And those that cared, the founders, didn’t want anypony to know…”

Celestia gazed longingly at the sun in the distance, remembering a bygone era in which she’d sometimes long to stretch her oversized wings and fly there. Fly away from any problems, any responsibilities she’d suddenly gotten burdened with. She pushed those old, foolish, youthful fantasies aside, closed her eyes to banish away the vision of the sun, and shook her head.

“We’d just lost Amore, her child, and the Crystal Empire. Chrysalis was still on the loose. Ponies saw how monsters could just trample over their best and longed for someone who was equal in power to take charge. Luna was always more reclusive, younger, less public, and more had seen my actions. It didn’t matter she was my equal back then, that I was only slightly older, or what I wanted,” Celestia whispered at the ancient recollections Sunset couldn’t see.

But after a few moments, she did when she reached out and took her shrunken mentor’s hands and used the magic she gained.

She’d never known the canyon out by Foal Mountain used to be another mountain before getting blasted apart during the ancient war. It left her wondering if she’d been apathetic and had just apparently brushed over that detail in history classes, or if such a detail was scrubbed from history on purpose to avoid any panic. What she did see now was a clear refugee crisis. Many a pony and other residents, sapient or just animal alike, in dire straits. Forests burned down and smoldering with plumes of smog still reaching skyward, ashfall blotting everything with gray like a sticky, sickly variety of snow, the only breaks from the gray being the char that blackened dead vegetation and exposed earth.

-”There had been two towns of 400 inhabitants each just a year ago here.”-

Celestia’s voice, still in that youthful high pitch but now from a bygone time rather than a transformed body, whispered into Sunset’s mind. That number was honestly harder to grasp than most would think. Typically one couldn’t actively imagine 800 perso-..ponies, only try and imagine a mass crowd and roughly gander at how big it would be. Still, that wasn’t the fixture of her focus. It was at the pitiful forms that surrounded a rather pathetic looking pond half-clogged with ash that made half the surface have the consistency of tar. Sunset Shimmer couldn’t comprehend 800 individuals so suddenly, but she could count two dozen just fine.

-”Tirek set the acreage ablaze, I didn’t even need to be told that it was Chrysalis who followed in his wake shortly after…”-

The parched, starving, shells of ponies and their animal neighbors looked dead save not for their slow motions. Some paced weakly across the makeshift camp that had sprung up around the only source of water, unable to escape due to the still burning distant forest fires that the pegasi flight teams were still trying to reign in, bringing wet rags or small cups to the still members of their company. An ash-covered, bone-thin stallion delivered a wet rag to his spouse; who had put his attention to trying to bandage a wounded deer, for worry the burn across the poor doe’s back would get infected. A unicorn mare slowly rocked an earth pony foal in her arms, despite the lack of familial resemblance and her young age making it abundantly clear to any onlookers she wasn’t its relative or mother. A mound of piled stones to form a simple grave stood with plenty of company on the edge of the canyon, parched wind pushing ash across the carn.

Lost hair, patches of bare and raw skin, coats clumped with ash, cracked and dry lips, and sullen eyes that belied sullen souls. Unicorns with cracked horns, earth ponies with broken and split hooves, and not a pegasi feather among the burned wings. A slow death beholden in a moment.

Until Celestia rushed forth with the rescue teams. In truth, it was an effort led by Smart Cookie, but there was only so much the dedicated emergency responders could do. While they were distributing clean water, trying to set up a medical tent and food stand, and trying to figure out who among the mute, almost dead crowds needed attention first; it was an emotional teenager who’d just lost her friend Amore that acted in the largest way.

The rescue workers briefly stopped to gawk at how the entire valley lit up in a magical veil. Every speck of ash, every shard of igneous glass, all of it was gripped in a golden shroud of telekinesis that stretched from edge to edge of the valley.

A hoof stomped and a cry was heard. In an instant everything was blinding, and upon the death of that moment everything was changed. All of the ash and shards of what had been stony earth were gone, balled together in a tight cluster that was thrown skyward and transmogrified. Dead earth and char was restructured from one element into another. Carbon, iron, sulfur, and innumerable others all turned into hydrogen and oxygen. The still brilliant sky was slightly darkened as an artificial downpour fell upon the dying and parched earth. Wherever the now exposed, broken rock and topsoil was touched by the enchanted rains, an accelerated, unnatural plant growth began to take hold from those few seeds that survived being buried amongst the ash.

Exaggerated unicorn sorcery for transmutation, exaggerated pegasi meteomancy for the rains, and exaggerated earth ecomancy to speed up plant growth. Such would have required at least half a dozen specialists for each, let alone working in perfect tandem; perfect harmony.

And yet, it was imperfect harmony. It was a surge of magic from a youth not dissimilar from one anypony experienced at a young age. Because that's exactly what it was. Sunset Shimmer gawked at the memory, the flagrant display of power from what happened when an unnatural being had a natural surge of emotion. Crying tears that rolled across her hooves which joined the rain drops in drenching the valley; in one swift motion an emotional youth had rendered what had once been gray and dying into a living viridian.

A form rushed forth, and then another, and then another. Celestia, the past youth who was exhausted and emotionally spent, heaved as she finally opened her eyes. The alicorn hitched her breath and reactively leaned back. Every living soul that had been in the valley's survivor camp, every one of them that had been huddling around a dying spring trying to stall off rapidly encroaching death, was surrounding her. So many sets of eyes, both broken and yet in awe, looked up longingly. Infants, children, and adults clear into the elderly, all huddled around the alicorn while all of them were caught in the downpour. Hair drenched in sticking to their faces, one by one they crumbled lower.

To those that had seen and knew death far more than any should, they were beholden to the opposite. Standing above them, even if only by consequence of the stature of her greater height and most certainly not the stature of her confidence, Celestia was like life itself. They all as one reached to her, bowing and kneeling. It didn't matter there were many other able-bodied and heroic rescue workers that had come, even if those numbers were understandably still taken aback and in shock at the display of power they had seen. It didn't matter if there was another like her that existed in this world.

What mattered was someone who brought safety and life was there to protect them, and the survivors clung to that fact as if the only thing that could keep them going in life depended on it. So many eyes looked to Celestia for saving, for stability, for peace in the world that seemed poised to loose monster after monster upon them. And many more would in the coming months, even when reverence of a rescuer turned to adoration that demanded she be given the crown.

The future Princess Celestia somehow, even then, felt her head weighed down by such a crown as she stood up and sheltered the survivors under her wings.

The present came as the recollections ended. Peachy Keen sniffled and she shook her head slowly.

"They needed me, some practically worshiped me and that alone took a century for me to get them to stop doing that. I didn't want to embrace being their paragon, but I felt I had to, to give them that stability. My sun became a symbol for calm, safety, and happiness... It was my own hubris then, that my wish to see others happy left me blind to the happiness of the one I should have cared the most for. When the history books say they praised my day and ignored the night, that was an understatement..."

"Princess Luna," Sunset finished as her teacher nodded, “She got associated with what you weren’t, and if you were everything good....”

“I let my own sister be neglected, or worse. The greatest mistake of my long life.”

Peachy Keen put a hand to Sunset's cheek and patted it, then up to her scalp; brushing some hair out of the student's face.

"I needed almost 1,000 years to forgive myself for that, and even then... I really didn't until she returned to me," she sighed away the grief, nodding affirmatively, "I had my chance at having been an Element Bearer when I was younger, at the same time I was more foolish... But mistakes don't preclude one from being worthy. It's not about what we've done wrong, it's about what we do to make things right."

Sunset Shimmer felt like she was back at her first lessons, back when she was a wide-eyed and idealist little filly who'd been given the greatest opportunity for a teacher she could have dreamed of. More and more, she kept getting reminded of how much her younger self had been right about her mentor. She stilled her tears and accepted the motherly embrace of the shorter girl who could have been her parent.

===============

"So, roughly five or so years before the founding of Equestria, the windigos attacked Mako Island. They were probably attracted there after ravaging some of the Pre-Unification Pony settlements and cities due to the relative harmony Queen Amathea was establishing. After a long siege they were forced away by The Shroud that protects the island to this day," Twilight Sparkle chose her words very carefully as she glanced at the two sirens present at the table and took a fleeting glance to the cabin Sonata was still occupying after a night of festivities with Megalon, "... But after inflicting other grievances they traveled north to what is now Canterlot Mountain. The events still celebrated by ponykind as Hearth's Warming Eve happened and the three races were unified shortly after."

Twilight had spent the last half hour fully running down and reviewing everything there was to know about the enemy, a studious mind ensuring she mentally catalogued and memorized every detail of importance. Having some direct eyewitness in some form or another was a unique experience, though she was cautiously skating over certain details out of consideration for her current audience. It was a very sensitive topic, but they had to get through this in talk if they wanted to get through it in reality.

"The harmonious magic invoked by the bond between three of the founders is not that dissimilar from the Elements of Harmony, if obviously less extreme," she rubbed at her chin with the back of her wrist, still not quite picking up the mannerism to do with her fingers like a human, "The coalescence of bonds and especially magic between the three different races has a lot of application. I know Starswirl the Bearded-"

She caught Adagio flinching at the name ‘Starswirl’ and hurried her speech to get some distance from that touchy subject too.

"-Worked on but never finished a similar spell as the one that allowed me to ascend from a unicorn to an alicorn once I actually understood how magical and emotional bonds worked. When that spell activated in full, I was transmitted to some strange realm that I still know very little about. Princess Celestia was there as well, and she later told me she met Cadance in the same enchanted realm when she ascended from a pegasus."

Adagio sucked in a deep breath before letting it out slowly, getting past a certain sore subject involving a unicorn mage to get back to the point, "So... the magic that made you an alicorn is also able to jump between realms...Star-..swirl... had something similar, if incomplete. Which could explain how that sorcerer got us all here."

"To be fair we were causing quite a ruckus," the typically very quiet Aria grumbled in a deeper-than-normal pitch to her voice, "It's not like we were going to stop if he asked nicely. He tried to."

"You're... not angry at what he did?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at the surprisingly monotone Kaizer Aria.

"Oh I’m still more than a bit furious. In fact the only one I'd wail on worse would probably be that 'other' Twilight Sparkle..." Aria paused, perhaps noticing the slight shivering going through her company.

She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "You're not her so don't take that as a threat... I don't care for your idol, it's just I have a better grasp of what conflict is now after some experience. We weren’t in a negotiating mood, he was trying to protect his pod too; he acted. Simple as that."

"R-right... And it did work out in some way or another, I’d say you all improved some by your stay here, eheh," Twilight gulped but reoriented herself after rubbing the back of her head, "Point is, I highly doubt he knew they were here even if the magic that brought you three here is reasonably similar to what might have brought them. The fact they were here so long but only now started coming back in the last few decades probably means they got pretty hurt by the benevolent magic. The fact you all were conscious the moment you got transferred over tells me Starswirl didn't think you three were necessarily all evil either."

"Yes... Lovely trip down memory lane that last concert in Canterlot was..." Adagio shrugged before nodding in some concession to the logic.

She didn't have to like the stallion to understand what probably was going through his head at the time, and while she would never verbally own up to it she knew as well as anyone how much of a screw up her old self could be. The alpha siren just regretted that it took nearly losing all of her family and a face-to-face encounter with a mountain sized dark magic ape that looked like a volcano to realize it.

"I do have one other question, relating to me still trying to figure out what exactly the windigos actually want as this does look like a scheme is ahoof. It’s not just mindless misery, in-character as that might be for them. Knowing as much as I can might help us figure everything out and work better with the others," Twilight frowned as her brow furrowed in clear indication of deep thought, taking a fleeting glance at the clock to see what time they’d passed through to know when to get ready for a long belated reunion. A steely look crossed her vision as she leaned in closer, dead seriousness evident in how unmoving most of her face was.

Twilight’s lips flattened as her brow perked sympathetically, "I only say this because the Hearth's Warming tale had never been specific and I want us to be prepared for anything.... But as with anything else regarding those monsters that impacted your family probably more than any other, only say what you're comfortable with."

"... Go on," both sirens muttered in unison.

".... Are you sure there were only ever three windigos when they attacked Mako Island before going after the Equestrian founders?" Twilight whispered, some hesitation making her swallow before continuing, "If Notus is the South Wind, Boreas is the North Wind, and Zephyrus is the West Wind; shouldn’t that imply there is an easterly wind? Are you sure there’s no possibility of some nasty fourth surprise waiting for us?”

A pregnant pause filtered across the room. Adagio could feel her cousin looking at her even without seeing it, closing her eyes and feeling the focus. She had been the first born, the one that her mother and aunt had spoken the most to. Whether it was because she was born first and thus closest to the events, because her mother perhaps sensed she'd be sacrificing her waning life to give Sonata hers, or because Auntie Hymnia long expected her first born niece would have to take care of the pod eventually; Adagio was privy to details only hinted or vaguely given to her little cousin and sister.

Words formed in mind, but were frozen still in her lungs from old fears and terrors, waking and dreamed. Shudders and tremors shot up and down the oldest siren's arms, moving to the hands that were at her lap. Skin calloused from gardening held one and smoothed metal held the other. She squeezed both, and they squeezed back to choke out some of the tremors. Gloriosa's fingers gently caressed Adagio's palm under the table, while cybernetic digits tapped at her knuckles on the other to show focus and notice of her fears.

It helped her bounce back from the dread, take in a deep breath to melt that ice forming within her core, and breathe out the chilled vapors of what had been drowning her.

Adagio nodded her head, "... There were only ever three. When they besieged Mako and tormented my mother, aunt, and grandmother, there were only ever three. The directional winds might imply something and maybe more existed once, but with how much they love to torment it would make no sense for there to have been a fourth that sat everything out and was in hiding. I personally don't like the idea of them making more either."

"Just like us, and who knows we might have even gotten it from them, windigos are stronger together. More of them just means more strife for all of them to gain power by and make even more..." Aria Blaze frowned as she crossed her arms, closing her eyes and perhaps feeling at the memories in presence of someone who gave her comfort much like her cousin had found in her new compatriots, "We should just count our blessings that there are not more of them now."

"And you three took far more after your mothers in mind and body. You don't need me to tell you this, but I will anyways. You three have a right to life, bloodline regardless. They do not, you are nothing like them," the former alicorn nodded astutely with a smile.

Twilight Sparkle stood up, a determined look upon her face that was not necessarily joyous nor was it enraged. It was controlled, confident; and Adagio could even admit, somewhat admirable. The stiff jaw and furrowed brow combined with her eyes both looking upon them as well in the distance beyond them gave a sense of vision. This young princess had the promise for leadership. To that, Adagio could concede a form of respect even if she hadn’t previously seen this in the alicorn during her captivity. She could perhaps, actually rather like this side of this whelp of a royal.

"Then, let's get to work with the others to make less of them, permanently. These barely sapient abominations have caused and cost plenty of folks enough. Let's get this plan rolling, because I for one do not intend to go back home until I know this can never happen again. Not until they are destroyed," she growled slightly, not enough to come off as controlled by emotions but enough to certainly show disdain.

Adagio and Aria's brow perked and they found themselves nodding along slightly. Now this was an alicorn princess they could respect. Twilight extended and offered her hand. Aria looked to Adagio and the cousin that once considered rebelling nudged her head into the former alicorn's direction as she backed up slightly to give Adagio center stage. It was a subtle queue of agreement that she would trust her cousin and pod lead's judgement. Adagio's choice was her choice.

The once arrogantly prideful siren who had previously attempted to conquer Canterlot looked to her compatriots, looked to the hand of the newest leader amongst the very people she had once scorned; that same leader which had once been her hostage and was now demanding to take the center in the chorus. Her spot.

Adagio stood up as well, letting go of Gloriosa and Gigan's hands while still feeling their support behind her. She made a point not to tower over the shorter Twilight, bending her back slightly as if to bow as she took the offered hand. Only to notice a resurgence of old habits had come to them both.

Twilight's fingers curled into some sort of approximation of a hoof, and Adagio's attempt to clasp it had resulted in a long thought conquered lapse in which she did the exact same. Maybe it was all subconscious in just a side effect of having the past on the brain, but somehow it was quite fitting.

"These bastards have had a lot coming. Let's see them gone for good properly is time," Twilight's gumption and choice of words spurred a perked brow from Gigan.

Adagio regained a bit of her bravado and smirked after a brief chuckle, "To that, Your Majesty, this siren couldn't be happier to agree."

The title caused a jolt in the air as everyone recognized the intent and respect behind it. After all, it was one Adagio once strove to claim for herself; and to give it away to someone she’d once considered a hostage had Twilight’s eyes widening slightly.

She shook off the stupor, and the young alicorn snickered a bit bashfully, losing some of that same grit and composure to lapse right back into the dork everyone knew, "Call me Twilight, all my friends do!"

===================
Later on, edge of town
===================

The meeting place was about as innocuous as one could have asked for with expectations of privacy, the top of an unused parking garage. As the present Rainboom Element Bearers and their associates from Equestria and Terra approached, there were understandably a few thoughts and trepidations as to if this was a trap. From left to right, Anguirus, Applejack, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Peachy Keen, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Godzilla all stepped onto the roof in a tight group; Lea present but hanging back in the van with Flash Sentry on account of both not trusting her full judgement in the lead group and to serve as back-up. If something went astray, Rarity was close to the middle as to provide cover with a diamond shield while the less combative Rainbooms retreated to her, with Applejack and Rainbow Dash to cover the flanks while the kaiju would be the gatekeepers to any assaults from behind or the sides.

Lea in truth, didn’t think she deserved to come, but conviction by her oldest friend and an idea of her own had carried her here; even if it was in the background. Immediately noticing the entire ensemble of the Siren’s company was not present caused some visible tension in both groups; but Eventide Hymn took the lead in being the first to talk.

“Heeelloo! Thank you all for coming! I know we all have had quite a rough time as of late, not for lack of me trying to avoid that-BUT hopefully this meeting will-” A very forcefully cheery Eventide Hymn stopped short when she noticed the Rainbooms and their company immediately looking about as if both very confused and bracing for the worst.

“I still say we should have opened with Gloriosa returning,” Aria Blaze grunted with a lowered brow, not liking the wary glance Godzilla was giving her coloration.

“Or they noticed Twilight Sparkle isn’t here,” Gigan grunted quietly out of the side of his mouth.

“No, I think they also noticed we brought Chainsaw-hands and ‘Bino-bat with us,” Adagio snipped back at the cyborg, trying to hide how much her arms shook with anticipation for the worst.

“Ah geeze, you groups and your conflicts…” Eventide deadpanned, before sucking in a breath and striding forward to break the ice. She raised a hand to grab attention and plastered on a grin.

“Gloriosa is back at Camp to help Sonata, she’s been resting all morning after a bit of a pick-me-up party last night and we wanted someone with magic to stay behind,” the false siren noted with a rub at the back of her head and awkward giggle that caused the back of several persons, ponies, and kaiju’s minds to tingle at some detail in her delivery. There was something uncanny beyond it appearing intentionally placating, tense, awkward, and the curious observation that the much more controlled and confident Adagio wasn’t the one doing the talking or in the center of the group.

From left to right stood a surprisingly transformed and calm Aria Blaze, sporting enough gold on her to give the Defender kaiju unease, a passive but alert Irys, Adagio Dazzle who sagged in stance with decidedly less bluster than usual, the aforementioned awkward Eventide Hymn, and head-bowed Gigan stood. No sign of the speculated Megalon, Gloriosa, or apparently bodysnatched Monster X.

“My brother is back at camp with her,” Gigan grunted, head bent down and to the side as indication that he was tense and not wanting to show off how much he was by looking head-on at his former enemies, “He’d thrown Sonata that small party anyways, so fat chance he’d leave her or Miss Daisy unguarded.”

The tension was palpable as it remained thick in the air. The Rainbooms and Defenders had come to this peace talk and despite the kind words, red flags were springing up. It wasn’t enough to cause a hostility, but having one kaiju unaccounted for, another only out of action by the word of another with no proof, a strange transformation upon one of the sirens that smelled like all kinds of bad to anyone who’d met a Ghidorah before, and the lack of both a friend in Twilight and friendly familiarity in Gloriosa ‘Tree Angel’ Daisy was off-putting and everyone knew it.

Eventide cringed, groping for words to help set the tone for what she’d been hoping would be a calm, fruitful event.

-Gotta ease things first, if I just rip the band-aid off with no set-up or explanation it could risk messing things up with so many old enemies around.-

Eventide was clearly about to say something, reaching for her hair; when two forms broke the stillness. Two had noticed how tense their company was, but also how much the other had become. And with how their last meeting went, at this point they were just both happy to see the other in good health. Irys and Anguirus, the long-separated youngest and oldest of their family, strode forth to meet each other halfway.

In a perfect piece of well acted cinema, it would be an emotional reunion between a little sister and her elder brother. Perhaps with an embrace, spin, and waterworks of joy at their reunited family; especially after the dramatic events that had recently followed Irys and the nature of their last encounter. In practice it was more a case of them closing the distance, stopping in front of each other, and then awkwardly trying to figure out what exactly came next.

They’d closed the gap between themselves, could clearly see the other was in good physical and mental wellbeing, and had the sense there wouldn’t be a fight to mess everything up again. They were happy to see each other, but just didn’t quite know how to express it succinctly. Irys especially was an awkward mess, biting her lip and glancing aside as she stood before the taller, stouter Guardian Beast. Her fingers fiddled with each other, as if trying to pick out a statement to make from a list.

-”Hello brother! Sorry I bit your friend, but he tasted horrible!”-

-”Salutations sibling, if you worried about me you shoulda seen the other guy!”-

-”Greetings my brother, mind not killing my flock and friends if I don’t try to kill your’s?”-

-”Oh great to see you came, I promise I won’t try to eat your flock-”-

Irys’ eyes widened and she let a pregnant pause pass as a sensation came upon the top of her scalp. It returned, briefly at first before coming again. She slowly tilted her eyes and head upwards and noticed the hand breaching the boundary of choking air that had built up between herself and Anguirus.

Anguirus frankly wasn’t sure what he was doing. Talking points weren’t his thing and he wasn’t about to whip out the Alpha Beast call right here unprompted. So, he defaulted to the first thing he’d learned to do to show affection to someone shorter. Worked on Gentle Leaf when he’d picked up the habit around her. So, he just kept patting Irys’ head gently; letting his fingers nestle between her hairs and lightly massage at her scalp.

Irys looked up at the hand patting her head, registering the sensation, before slowly letting out a cooing sigh and uttering a similar, clicking purr some like Sunset head heard her emit when happy. Anguirus grunted a chuckle, patting his little long-lost little sister’s scalp.

“I’m glad to see you’re safe,” Anguirus noted happily, holding back some joy at seeing her acting on their familial bond now but knowing this all had to be still quite new to her.

Irys responded by reaching up and patting his own head after some trepidation, but happily getting into the motion as she stole a glance at his gray companion, “... Some mistakes were made, but I don’t plan on making a habit of it.”

She let her eye drift to Sunset Shimmer and felt a relief upon getting a wink.

The two Guardian Beasts separated, the tension in the air being noticeably ratcheted down. Anguirus, sensing the timing was well, looked back to Peachy Keen and gave her a nudging nod with his head. Bringing everyone was both for safety and, in a way, a show of force. Time to present a bit of a carrot instead of a stick.

Eventide was about to speak again, but someone else was taking the stage.

Peachy Keen strode forward, a motion that caught the eye of both siren and kaiju alike on the other side. Siren on account of not recognizing her from Twilight’s recollections and information yet was clearly in some leadership or advising role despite her age, whereas Irys and Gigan were both pretty quick to pick up on how she’d been so heavily guarded being in the center of the group. It spoke enough to tell this was someone important and to be protected. Gigan, wisely, made a point to put his hands behind his back after catching Godzilla giving him a strong look.

“We in our company have an offering to make, as an act of good faith and establishment of our character,” Peachy Keen poised astutely, holding herself to some height despite being a full foot shorter at minimum than the next shortest person present. Adagio was cocking an eyebrow at the show and prose by this random twerp she’d only seen in passing once or twice.

“The youngest siren, Sonata Dusk, was the one wounded by the enemy, was she not?”

Eventide took a glance towards Adagio and Aria, who were keenly tensed at the subject. The former looked like she was about to say something when, remembering the plan and deal, she swallowed and looked to Eventide Hymn. The fake siren nodded and looked back at the source of some of the weirdest vibes she’d ever gotten in her life. Something about this kid wasn’t normal and it was throwing off some of her planning.

“Yes, she was attacked by… Twilight Sparkle’s counterpart and her group which were in league with the Windigos,” Eventide lowered her brow and even without a direct line of sight, Gigan could tell she was shooting him a withering look. The cyborg grumbled inarticulately as Eventide continued, “That was the cause of this big mix-up and the kidnapping…”

“And regarding Sonata Dusk, can you vouch that this attack was unprovoked?”

“We can. Th-We sirens caused some problems early on, but have changed,” Eventide corrected, the sense of uncanniness starting to build was making her stage persona slip, “Sonata had just sung a love song before being assaulted, the adoration she got was earnest and benign.”

Peachy Keen, hands steepled together nodded approvingly with a smile, “That is good, very good. The past can have mistakes, few know that like I do… Well, seeing as none of us here have any quarrel with the injured party, one of our number has proposed something of her own to make amends for her own actions.”

The combined Sirens and Hunter group perked up at the words and manner of the young teen, her delivery carrying an astuteness in her syllables that seemed to coat her words with an authority; a promise it would work even before a pitch was finished. Practiced speeches by an experienced leader was a skill not-undone by a mere age shifting accident.

“Mothra Lea would like to try her hand at healing Sonata Dusk, or at least helping stabilize her condition. She has a type of magic not known to any affliction Equestria or this world might have, so an outside assistance could never hurt.”

It was a pitch Lea herself had made, one the group had debated on quite a bit as to if it was worth trying. Not for lack of wish to help some injured innocent out, but a question regarding Lea’s own condition and if the opposition might react poorly. It wasn’t a temptation to return Twilight, it was the Mothra’s wish to live up to her title as the Guardian of Mortals by acting on it.

Adagio and Aria suddenly found themselves checking a wide-eyed Gigan and Irys for advice. Eventide’s brow perked and she seemed bemused, but not at all that shocked as more mildly surprised.

“Oh!.. Oh, that sounds wonderful actually!” she chirped, detracting away from her previous topic and hopping on this one before Adagio or Gigan could get any words in that might speak against the plan.

Eventide kept her wide smile as she turned herself around halfway, giving them a look that spoke volumes as to who was leading this meeting, “She’s a very, very talented healer and they say her magic might be the ticket we need. We want Sonata happy and healthy don’t we?...”

Adagio and Gigan looked about as surprised to see Eventide back talking and overriding them as they were about the offer to begin with, blinking and glancing at one another and then back to the fake siren.

“After all, we’ve got to trust them, lack of that got us in this situation. The opposite of which I’ve been pushing for since the beginning… Riiiight?”

Still wondering where all this came from, Gigan deflated with a shrug.

“I’ll contact Megalon to tell him to expect company, should she beat us back there after the other big surprise of the day,” Gigan grumbled while putting a hand to the side of his head like he was holding a phone, mentally bringing up Gloriosa’s number and dialing it so she could deliver this one for him.

“Goood, now Adagio; we do gotta trust these folks. They are being very generous by offering Sonata this help, free of charge by an expert. Someone who’s very experienced…-”

“She’s patched me up plenty of times,” Godzilla hollered out while trying to not burst into a laugh, able to hear most of the conversation and finding no small amount of joy in seeing the spectacle. He was liking this Eventide more and more, and a little extra word might help sway this Adagio, “And trust me, your metal-headed friend there can tell you how many times I got messed up.”

Adagio looked in a mixed-up mess of confused, hopeful, and exacerbated as she tried to glare at Eventide for putting her on the spot like this. But that stiff-overly wide, toothy grin the fake siren had on was surprisingly potent. Not even Aria looked like she was about to step in to back her family up. Adagio hadn’t seen a grin this weathering outside of a shark, and the masked, good-hearted vindication dripped from Eventide’s words.

Eventide’s grin widened while she laid the pitch on thick, “She only wants to help Sonata, Megalon can protect her if you need to think of that. We don’t want the windigos to win do we?... So let’s stop this isolationism and trust our new friends here.”

Adagio sucked in a deep breath, bristling like she was about to bark back; if only for the insubordination against the lead siren of this pod. But, between the chances it would indeed work out for the better and the overpowering, surprisingly overpowering, presence of Eventide Hymn; the words just couldn’t come out.

She only shrugged and did her best to just not look at her former subordinate, “... Fine, tell Lea we thank her. Do all she can to help Sonata.”

Eventide closed her eyes and beamed, “Gooood! Very good! Let’s hope this all works!”

She snickered and turned back around, feeling taller than she ever had been even before the platform shoes.

-Told you, I’m leading this pod for now… And don’t worry Adagio, this can only help.-

The Rainboom company were still not quite sure what they were witnessing exactly. Some like Sunset, Rarity, and Fluttershy might have been passively hopeful as this Eventide seemed like someone they could work with. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were both confused in a manner, as their Elements started to flicker slightly on and off indicating, unbeknownst to them, the concepts of loyalty and honesty were being both used and tested in equal measure. Godzilla and Anguirus found the idea of some random girl being able to talk a bit of smack to Gigan and not get lip back for it equal parts eyebrow raising and hilarious. But Peachy Keen.. was totally silent as she narrowed her eyes knowingly.

“Shall we give you the directions to Camp Everfree?” Eventide hummed.

“No need, I've gone there as a kid a few times and she has them,” Fluttershy beamed as she spoke into a phone, “Alrighty Miss Lea, you’re clear for take off!”

“Wait just a moment though!” Eventide Hymn keened as she strode a few steps closer, “You no doubt noticed someone missing earlier, didn’t you?”

“Twilight,” Peachy Keen grunted.

“Yes yes, well since you’ve been so kind as to grant us this gift, it’s only right we gift you one as well,” Eventide giggled as she put her hands on her hips, “Aah, after trying so hard to keep things from blowing up all this time, it just feels so good to put a stop to all this conflict.”

The rest of the audience on the Rainboom side was confused as to what exactly was going on, but Peachy Keen just deadpanned.

The former alicorn grunted, “Twilight-”

“I mean it’s great you all came to rescue your friend! But with the windigos being the problem; the less fighting, the better!”

“Twilight-”

“I mean, who the hay would have seen them coming? They got banished before Starswirl built the second portal mirror he used on the sirens so how did they even get here is a question-”

Sunset Shimmer instantly furrowed her brow.

-Second portal mirror? Hardly anypony would have known there were two. The first was that prototype he explored with Celestia that wound up broken because going to a counterpart world where good and evil were flipped proved unstable. The second was more limited, only linked to this world as a safety feature. Not even I knew about the first for the longest time. The only ones who would have known about it would be...-

For someone else, that was the final vindication needed for an already pretty strong hypothesis.

“But your friend you’ve been looking for has been doing her best to keep you quite safe, and she worried that blowing the whistle could cause more of a mess. But now-” Eventide reached for her face.. And an explosion of noise shouted her out so loudly it blew her hair back.

“PRINCESS TWILIGHT STARLA SPARKLE!”

A loud gasp sounded out across the Rainboom side as Eventide’s hand fell away from her face, powder make-up smearing off to reveal pale purple skin. Peachy Keen strode forward, apparently not focusing on the fact she’d just somehow used the Royal Canterlot Voice while thinking she lacked any magic. The disguised Twilight Sparkle was still in a wide-eyed daze, nothing but white noise between her ears like her brain had to reboot. Both from all that noise and from the familiarity.

She didn’t get her faculties back until Peachy Keen had gotten right up in front of her, pulled her down by her ear and grabbed onto her face by the cheekbones. Twilight blinked her red-contact covered eyes, still trying to get her faculties back as the pouting, studious 12-year old looking face looked her over.

It took a few moments for the uncanny familiarity she’d sensed before to come racing back, aided by noticing a bit of a very specific necklace wrapped around the young girl’s neck.

“...P...P….Princess-.. Celestia?!” she stammered.

“WHAT?!” Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze yelped in a sudden break of poise, dumbfounded at how on any world the runt in front of them was the most powerful being in existence at the time they left Equestria.

Gigan just looked between Twilight and the pipsqueak in front of her, the imagery not matching up to what he knew of Princess Celestia or had been told by Twilight, “... HOW?!”

The sudden uproar spurred the Rainboom affiliated group to finally unfreeze and realize how close they’d gotten to Twilight this whole time. Nearly all of the girls called out at once while their kaiju associates just looked bewildered, “WHYYY?!”

The two disguised alicorns, face to face, looked at one another for a time before the shorter and yet far more mature one all but tackled the other in a tight hug. Fear of anger were put to rest by the bursts of laughter coming out of the solar diarch.

“Y-YOU CAME HERE?! WAIT WH-WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BODY?!” Twilight stammered, still shocked and dumbstruck as to barely capable of talking.

“What happened to YOUR body?! I don’t remember you saying anything about being as tall and developed as Cadance in this form yet!” Celestia sounded less like an enraged mentor and more like a confused or fretting mother.

Twilight Sparkle cringed nonetheless and rubbed the back of her head, “Ehe, platform shoes and a stuffed bra. Adagio’s clothes didn’t fit me…. Y-You’re not mad?”

Celestia tilted her head down, took in a deep breath; and looked back up at her, revealing a very youthful, comically tear-stained face that was red with both anger and exasperation, “Oh I’m livid but I’m far too happy to see my faithful student to care!”

==============
Camp Everfree
==============

Gloriosa Daisy had her mind in two places at once. The first was atop that parking garage out of town the others had gone to, and all the ways things could go sideways there. An unease, a bile, churned in her gut as several unsavory thoughts cropped up.

-What if the other group decides not to trust us? What if they react poorly to me not being there? What if the windigos attack the meeting while everyone is unawares?-

She briefly caught hold of the thought on why that last facet scared her as much as it did to chill her veins. The camp director looked down, past her mostly empty necklace and to nothing in particular in the direction of the floor. Worry boiled and chilled at the same time.

-Adagio is still a target and Gigan isn’t fully repaired…-

They’d needed her to stabilize physically and mentally, the guilt and dread of seeing them brought so low being a raw pain she’d done well to hide. Neither of those two were necessarily good people, potential to be present as it was. It wasn’t a matter of fixing them, improvement was a self induced state even if others could help, it was a matter of not wanting to see ill come to those she thought for. She didn’t want to see ill come to anyone really, but those two were such an experience that the worry of a relapse or degradation was a wound on her mind. She was scared for them, and more so than she might be scared one of the windigo might arrive at the camp with so few to defend it.

Gloriosa could feel a tremor go up and down her arm before gently grasping it, holding it still until it subsided. Pursing her lips, Gloriosa thought up a quick prayer to any higher power that might listen and instead did her best to divert focus to other matters.

-Just gotta have faith they’ll all protect each other.-

She couldn’t fight a frown at remembering the oldest siren and cyborg clasping hands, obvious fear and pain for the other in their eyes during their mutual breakdowns. They’d held onto each other so tightly…

Gloriosa sighed and nodded her head, “Who am I kidding, they’ll all protect each other; those two especially…”

She took a glance at the few remaining gems around her neck, seeing how her collection had shrunk. What she once thought was her destiny of an inheritance, especially upon the niggling suspicion these were somehow tied to her mother, had shrank away considerably. Only one crystal left, ‘Laughter’ according to Twilight. With Twilight taking the Element that Sunset Shimmer apparently fit, some unknown facet of the spectrum even to her, Laughter was all that remained.

Gloriosa shrugged as she felt some of its positivity infect even her, just shaking her head slowly.

“And here I once thought something like you belonged to me. Well, good thing I can take a joke,” she shook her head dismissively while gathering up the plates and drink meant for another, “If only there was an Element of ‘Gardening’, ‘Bad Financials’, or ‘Hopeless Romantics’; I’d be a sure-win for that…”

The dinner was meant for the reason she’d remained behind. Someone had to stay and watch Sonata and everyone agreed it wasn’t fair to Megalon to be here alone. Plus, with all the insanity that was the enemy, having some magic around of any breed was a must. Adagio insisted she had to go in order to own up to her folly with the Eventide debacle, and provide expert knowledge on the windigos if that was needed. Twilight, obviously, had to go as well because of her friends expecting her return. Aria was dutiful but noted she’d be best used for force thanks to fusing with Kaizer Ghidorah and they didn’t want to put up a weak front, plus she was a witness to the windigos up close as well. Irys’ powers were magic-based but not quite the kind they might need with Sonata… and the gyaos didn’t know how to cook.

It was an amusing thought that part of the decision making for her to stay behind was based on getting an A+ in First Aid and Home-Ec class.

The sight of Gigan and Adagio's hands clasped itched on her mind but she shooed it away with a twinge on her face. She instead reoriented her mind on two different topics. The first was seeing the both of them calm and content around each other after the breakdown, especially in contrast to finding the siren near catatonic on the dock and the cyborg dismantling himself in the garage.

The other thought was the small cabin her body was now absent-mindedly moving towards with a nice warm dinner ready. Memory of all the time she did this for Timber growing up was a welcome lifting to the heart.

-They'll be good for each other, I can be happy about that. For now, Nata needs some help keeping that chin up!-

She was task-oriented enough to perhaps forget who exactly was the catalyst for her two crushes finding some stability. But such was the nature of not thinking highly of oneself.

Within Sonata’s cabin, Gloriosa could see a light was on and it flickered against the always-shaded window, indicating someone was moving around inside and had stepped in front of the light. Sonata had been given one of the larger cabins for her stay, one of the few with a bathroom and shower all to itself among the multiple rooms. So seeing someone up and about wasn’t unusual even if the poor siren slept most of the day, especially given Megalon was near constantly at her side both guarding her and helping keep her spirits up. Gloriosa continued her advance, curiously watching the figure move about.

The camp director did however, upon getting close enough, take a momentary pause to reflect on the odd fact that she wasn't getting stopped and greeted by Megalon right now. Usually he was playing such keen perimeter duty, anyone who'd gotten near the cabin would rouse his attention. He was always very on task, even if it would slow down anyone trying to come over there. Once or twice she'd even heard rummaging inside the cabin while the jovial cyborg was talking to her and might have even chanced upon the thought they were hiding something, him and Nata. Did they think she hadn't noticed plenty of the board games and snacks going missing from the mess hall? Strange thing to get embarrassed about and hide, but she was as understanding as she was perceptive and didn’t want to embarrass them by bringing it up.

Still it was rather odd one way or another for Megalon to not be popping out of the ground like so kind of oversized gopher to say hello or double check if she was an intruder trying to break into a cabin to deliver some soup.

She waited a few seconds to let the moment come, passively glancing at the ground for any sign of shifting earth. Nothing happened. Not even after a few moments of her tapping her foot impatiently.

The passing wait did allow her to take notice of something she probably otherwise wouldn't have. The subtle flicker across her throat and shirt. It was a bluish hue bleeding through her shirt, dim and getting briefly brighter before dying down again. Puzzled, Gloriosa fidgeted with the soup to hold it one-handed and brought out the necklace that once bore a great deal of power; but no longer felt as such. The sole remaining gem, the blue crystal, dimly flickered again. Taking it in hand, she shook it perplexingly like it was a lightbulb with a bad filament. The gemstone again flickered on and off, and after some curious survey she figured out it was getting brighter and dimmer depending on which way it was pointing. Turning back to the mess hall, it went out entirely. Turning to the cabin it glowed again weakly. But pointing it a ways away yielded more consistent and brighter pulses.

Pursing her lips and glancing about to ensure nothing else freaky was going on, relatively speaking, Gloriosa stepped down a path while sweeping the gemstone back and forth almost like a metal detector. It did get marginally brighter with some trial and error, overshooting the direction needed a few times, but a result was yielded as she approached a building on the other side of the campgrounds. The sound of falling water diverted her attention to the shower and bathroom house. Gloriosa perked an eyebrow and stepped up to the front door, gemstone and soup still in hand.

-Okay, did DigDug finally decide to take a bath for once? And what’s with the gem acting up in here?-

Her attention was further grabbed when upon an absent-mindedly walking closer she noticed it was the female side of the showers running. Looking back at the cabin and seeing a shape flicker across a light there, Gloriosa grunted to herself in thought.

-Odd, I couldn't have taken that long to make the soup and I thought Sonata was asleep when I started. And why run across camp to shower, she had the cabin with a full bathroom for a reason…-

She wasn't about to go barging in, only knock on the door and double check. While repairs had been going well for the camp, she was under no illusion that some stuff was held together by a lot of hope and prayer. It was perfectly possible one of the showers had spontaneously kicked on, and she didn't want to leave the pipes running too long. Still didn’t answer what was causing the Element to activate in any minor degree, but some part of her mind wrote that off as perhaps a side effect of the reunion happening miles away and it just happening to be in the same direction by chance.

Her fingers had just brushed up against the wood when the ground started to rumble under foot. Gloriosa jumped back as Megalon came bursting out of the ground looking, drill hands whirling. For a split second, he didn’t look like the defining form Gloriosa had for him. Eyes glowing, edged metal gleaming, hair crackling with arching charges of energy; clearly ready to attack if needs be. It was like walking in on someone leveling a weapon at your face.

Which, considering how quickly Megalon shifted away from that manner and how relatively unphased Gloriosa was by it to begin with, spoke of how abnormal ‘normality’ had become recently. Relatively unphased however, she still launched back a good half meter and a pair of rapidly-rearticulating hands reached out and grabbed her shoulder to steady her.

“Woah! Sorry Miss Daisy Ma’am,” Megalon chirped like he hadn’t just given her nervous system a shock, canceling out all of the glowing charge around his eyes and forehead, “I didn’t know dinner was on yet.”

Gloriosa had to quell the pounding of her pulse between her ears to hear just about anything, doing her best to shrug off the shudders, “O-Oh perfectly fine dear, not the first time you’ve-”

She paused and let the air hang, gears working within her head as her eyes drifted to Sonata’s cabin, which still had a light on, then to Megalon, then to the still-running showers, the Element in her hand still flickering, and back. Especially when a shape moved against a light within the cabin to indicate someone was indeed present, reconfirming to her that presumably Sonata was still within and it hadn’t been Megalon she’d glimpsed earlier milling about within.

“Megs, you didn’t burrow through the bathroom floors again did you?” Gloriosa muttered, eyeing the shower building warily, remembering the gigantic hole he punched in the Mess Hall floors he’d promised to fix.

“...” Megalon tilted his head before shaking it, “Um, no… those are the women’s showers anyways. What do you take me for?”

His lack of wetness and fully clothed garb further vindicated he hadn’t been in the building before her. The shower was still running, and the light against the window was still flickering inside Sonata’s cabin. Gloriosa looked at Megalon, the flickering Element of Harmony, and then the very dinner she’d been working on.

“Megs, this is very important. Do not… and listen close!” she played up her tone, taking it as landing hook-line-and-sinker when he leaned in to listen intently, “Do. Not. Let. This. Drop. It’s for Sonata and we don’t wanna spoil her dinner right?”

“Right!” Megalon nodded earnestly, if with some obvious confusion stretching across his face. A glance at the rather delicious looking mixed greens and meat broth, which still steamed within the bowl resting on the tray Gloriosa had been holding, didn’t serve to tell him why Ms. Daisy was being so intense about soup.

“Good!” Gloriosa beamed as she chimed happily, and not one moment later she pushed the tray forward and all but forced Megalon himself to hold it.

Now with his hands and confused mind briefly occupied, Gloriosa took hold of the lapse in awareness to yank open the door to the shower hall and look inside before he could stop her. Almost instantly the water stopped running and the lights flickered. Gloriosa’s eyes widened and bugged out momentarily upon seeing a hunched figure emerging from a stall. Movement came with a flicker of each light, the figue rapidly stalking closer. Slickened hair and straight locks veiled a face with an almost glinting pair of eyes, a visible glowing appearing across the neck region in the darkness. Before a second’s breath, the unnatural thing in the shape of a girl was upon her and it promptly blew into its thumb like it was puffing into a balloon; causing a poofy mass of hair to rival Adagio’s to burst upwards and expand outwards. She also casually flipped back on the half-moved light switch, fixing the flickering issue.

“Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie and I guess I don’t need to play hide and seek anymore because we’re all gonna be friends now!” the random trespasser yelped aloud to a stupified woman who’d been hanging around giant monsters of various breeds, pony princesses, and magical merfok.

“Wha-who are-” Gloriosa was cut off by Pinkie Pie suddenly appearing directly in front of her in the time it took to blink.

“I’m the one who’s been in your basement and creeping around your home at night, silly!”

===========

“So we were up against you the whole time?!” Rainbow Dash yelped in exasperation as she and her friends surrounded their returned compatriot.

“Heh, not really. I only agreed to help on the condition that nobody got hurt,” Twilight huffed as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, “Doing so gave me the chance to figure out what the sirens and their company were like and who the true cause of all this mess was.”

Rainbow Dash groaned in exasperation before throwing her arm around Twilight’s shoulders, grinding her hand into the changed alicorn’s scalp to give her friend a noogie, “First you pull this stunt and then you try to upstage us at a show! Why didn’t you tell me you could sing so well?!”

“Why didn’t you just tell us sooner?” Fluttershy frowned, tilting her head as she leaned in a bit closer.

Twilight flailed to try and get out of Rainbow Dash’s headlock, shrugging and shaking her head when she couldn’t. Rainbow Dash only comedically turned about slightly so the bent-over Twilight could face Fluttershy directly, “I wanted to the moment Gigan over there realized I was telling the truth and he grabbed the wrong ‘me’. But by then, everyone was paranoid. The sirens didn’t trust Equestrians because of how they got exiled and Gigan’s team didn’t trust Lea because of their past fights. They put a lot of trust in me to go out into the field with them, and I had to honor it. If I tried escaping when we went to the school to make a ruckus and attract the other me, they’d have not trusted anyone to come to them peacefully and poor Sonata would feel betrayed after I promised to help her.”

Twilight swallowed back regrets and rubbed at her forehead, “It was never a perfect plan, just the best I could do to play damage control to keep my old friends safe and out of harm’s way, and help my new friends.”

She turned her attention to the crossed-armed form of Godzilla, having been well filled in on the details of what happened at the pier by Irys and Gigan. In hindsight, she really should have paid more attention to and recognized that brief flash of blue light from the battle at Canterlot against the gyaos flock.

“I guess there were some unintended consequences… Happy as I am that we finally got this meeting to happen, I’m really sorry for the cost.”

Godzilla regarded her for a short time in mild bemusement that she’d take the blame for that. His expression didn’t sour, much to Celestia’s relief when she saw him clearly contemplating it.

"You couldn't have predicted everything that would happen," Godzilla's eye glided over to Gigan and Adagio, the former especially. A silent conversation seemed to pass between the two, of both recent recent events and many more conflicts from Terra. A fleeting look at the cybernetics on Gigan's arm was all that was needed to communicate that. His gaze shifted between Anguirus and Irys for a time; before tilting back to Twilight to comprehend all that happened and what the links were involved, "These windigos feed on strife, we kaiju brought plenty of that on our own, with or without you."

The Rainbooms as well seemed to take a moment of comprehension as to all that had gone on, weighing any sense of shock or negativity about being duped like this and terrorized by some of the siren’s cohorts; against the weight of their trust in their friend to always do her best to do the right thing, even if it was highly unorthodox. Thankfully, especially for the kaiju who got dragged into a physical confrontation and the cyan Rainboom who got pulled into a nerve-wracking situation as consequence; someone else spoke up.

“Even-....Eventide was following my orders,” Adagio Dazzle called out after needing to clear her whisper of a voice, “I let my paranoia get the better of me. My sister was on the line, but it was my choices and pride that got us here. You can blame everything on me-”

“Like Daiei you are taking the blame for any of that. Twilight needs to stop claiming she’s worse than she is and you can’t stop me,” Gigan growled defensively as he suddenly teleported beside Adagio, barking at the siren with a pensive glare, “Remember that you caused a ruckus on stage while I was trying to carve up someone like a turkey!”

“Oh look who grew a conscience protocol Bolts-For-Brains! I basically adopted her into the pod, so it’s my duty as pod leader to defend her so her group doesn’t feel betrayed!” Adagio’s eyes flashed red as she barked back with a toothy scowl, “Remember, I made this mess worse when I was the one who tried to claw my way to her jugular through her disgusting monkey-face back when you brought her to us, and refused to let you put her back!”

Gigan leaned in closer, raising his voice ever more, “And who’s the idiot who grabbed her in the first place and then picked a fight with Godzilla?! Twilight was the least offensive hostage ever, even babysitting Megalon, while I was paranoid enough to use my eyeball as her desk piece.”

“While I said she couldn’t go back because of some grudge I had against a dead guy 1,000 years out of date for just defending himself!” Adagio kept shouting at Gigan while thrusting a hand at a very confused Celestia, “Princess Celestia’s right there and is practically that Starswirl’s daughter, I was the roaming dolt with a bullfish plan to take over a place that’d never done anything to my family at all! You are not gonna stop me from defending my podmate!”

“The girl who I kept under watch solely because she was tied to the victims of an invasion I took part in and is the sole reason we got bad blood between us?! Oh good grief, how dare they defend themselves while I come in swinging?! Is it last decade or last week at the pier with me?”

“Oh you know you were being so gung-ho about it because I was and you wanted to make me happy! All while I bossed around and kept captive somepony who gave me a royal pardon despite the mess I caused and kept holding onto?-” Celestia cocked an eyebrow at Adagio’s words and glanced at Twilight, who made a brief waving motion to indicate she’d explain later.

“Uum… Should we… stop… this?” Applejack muttered behind a shushing hand at the side of her lips, glancing to the only adults she saw present in the 12 year old millennium-aged alicorn and giant dinosaur in human skin like she was watching her friends argue at a dinner table she was guest to.

Rarity just watched it all, a bit slack jawed, “What even is this? Are they trying to defend Twilight or take the blame?”

Twilight’s body couldn’t do it in this form, but she could practically feel her ears flopping down in embarrassment at the surrealness of the sight before her. Rainbow Dash finally released her headlock and could only stare on, befuddled.

Fluttershy popped up between her taller friend and squeaked, a little snicker in her tiny smile as she felt the emotions coming off the two, “I think it’s very kind of them.”

“Ye’ sure got a funny way of definin’ “boneheaded”, Flutters,” Applejack grumbled.

“And then the very same moth I was so spooked about suddenly wants to fix up your sister, something we coulda' gotten done who knows how long ago if I wasn’t clinging to a bias!” Gigan yelped as he whacked himself over the brow of his head with a metallic palm.

“Hey she blew your head off once!” Adagio yelled, angrily defending... the person she was angrily yelling at, “I’d be scared too if it wasn’t so disgusting that you lived through that! But more proof I was acting poorly when we could have had this method to at least attempt a solution! I promised my aunt I’d protect my pod and I screwed it up from being my own worst enemy yet again!”

The extremely surreal sight of Adagio and Gigan bickering brought a tinge of amusement to the Rainbooms, their kaiju allies, and even the attending Irys and Aria, making it worth the expensive cost of admission. Godzilla was passively wondering just what happened to Gigan, while Celestia was left similarly befuddled regarding the sirens. Aria Blaze had just put her palm to her face whilst almost feeling Kaizer Ghidorah do the same. Twilight, compelled by awkwardness, had begun taking a good long look at the stage shoes she’d been wearing as Eventide; as Rarity tried and failed to stop glancing at her outfit as if judging it. Applejack and Rainbow Dash kept looking off to the sides of the building, just trying to block out the weirdness going on.

Fluttershy just kept beaming pleasantly at the bickering couple, “They don’t want Twilight or the other to feel bad, it’s kinda sweet.”

“Great then, now that we can diagnose them with Lima Syndrome,” Rarity deadpanned.

A loud clearing of a throat caught both cyborg and siren’s attention, briefly diverting their focus off their extremely aggressive defense-offense exposition about their former hostage to yell out in unison.

“WHAT?!”

Mothra Lea was standing on the edge of the stairwell that led to the parking garage, a few of the energy formed fairy moths she could divide and recombine into still buzzing about to indicate how she got up there so fast from Flash’s van. She only blinked at the two briefly before looking back to Twilight for a time. Even with the make-up and disguised gear on, she still felt she should have been able to sense or recognize something. But, there was no point harping over the past in that regard. She wasn’t going to resume wallowing in self pity, just commend her protege’s ability to disguise if anything else when they got back to Equestria.

-And here I thought I was the changeling…-

“With your permission, as I don’t think I’d be of much use here and it’s clear there won’t be any problems at this meeting between our sides, I would like to tend to the victim. I have a much greater grasp of my powers than I did when I first arrived and while I faltered once,” she took a pregnant pause at both acknowledgement of her own folly and how it had exacerbated this chaos not unlike Gigan and Adagio’s isolationism, “Thanks to some friends, I am stable. And as we said earlier, this poor Sonata character did nothing wrong to anyone here. It’s my duty to guard such innocent beings and I want to try my hand at helping her.”

Adagio met her gaze and took in a deep breath. Now without Twilight raking her fins over the coals, much as she might have deserved that in some regard, the choice was far less pressuring.

-Megalon can protect her if things go wrong, and Eventid- Twilight vouches for her. I already agreed to it and she’s being considerate enough to make sure I do with no pressure.-

A lot of learned behaviors were trying to flare back up. From the times they had to dodge pirates to raiding coastal towns to finding themselves here in exile in new bodies suddenly, attacking and under attack from so many angles. Trust came very hard then and it still did now. Main difference was now she had some experience to show her what worked and what didn’t. And if she were to try and reclaim her grandmother’s throne one day, if that be her destiny, she couldn’t be a queen of paranoia.

Adagio let out a heavy sigh and nodded, motioning to the direction of the campground miles away.

“Gigan, send that message to Megalon,” Adagio Dazzle shrugged while wrinkling her brow slightly to show a hint of the hopeful plea buried under that facade of strength, “Please, do all you can.”

Mothra Lea bowed as her body, starting at the feet and going up, broke apart into energy in the shape of moths, “I can promise only that. I shall see you all at the camp later.”

Lea gave Twilight Sparkle a pleasant smile before departing, knowing the catalyst for her mental strain and physical rampage was in good hands. A pat on the back took her attention and she looked back into the face of one she’d known for years. Godzilla to many, Junior to beings like her, gave her a flattened stare for a time that spoke without words. Lea had gone unhinged, made mistakes, and even if she was forgiven; forgiving and forgetting were not the same thing. What she’d gotten wasn’t atonement from her friend or from herself. This was the first big step towards that.

Junior tilted his head slightly, studying. He memorized how she looked at the pier and even in the body of a human, he knew Mothra Lea well. That aura, sight, manner, and subtlety about her then was not Lea. Be it influence by the windigo or some dissonant power trying to consume her in the moment, acting on the lingering fears for her friends’ safety she’d cultivated for years, the first time he actually laid eyes on Lea in that confrontation at the shoreline was after he’d been transformed and she snapped out of what had come over her.

Given his encounter with a windigo shortly after, it was fortunate he noticed the dissonance between who’d escalated that battle and who was looking up horrified at what had happened. Only one of them was his best friend, in her right mind or not. And before turning her free to try and pursue some redemption as well as a good deed, he wanted to be absolutely certain the mind behind those eyes was both in a right state and was one he recognized.

“Are you still sure that you are up for this?” The emphasis he quietly put on the word ‘you’ wasn't unnoticed, “It can wait till the meeting’s over and we all go.”

Lea took in a deep breath, collecting herself and only herself, as she bowed her head to her friend, “I am… I am…. Besides-”

She chanced a weak, if true smile at the one who’d forgiven her and arguably kept her from falling further over an edge. She’d really have to thank the Canterlot ponies and his wise mother for helping push him along the course for this kind of development.

“-if I wait, the poor girl suffers… Wouldn’t be living up to my title if I let that happen now would I?”

Godzilla Junior paused for a few moments to be absolutely certain, before letting the smile reflect on his warming features as well. Not lashing out in rage, like gut instinct or the influence of the windigo demanded, was a cherished choice in his mind. Friends can cause grief, even fight, but that friendship was always worth it. He nodded along and patted her shoulder.

“Get moving then, Guardian of Mortals,” he chuckled, using a title that could only describe her and her alone; his smile widening as the cloud of moths soon dispersed from the rooftop and headed towards Camp Everfree as Gigan directed.

=============

Run, that was the world right now as it had been for whoever knew as long.

Had it just been minutes, hours, days, or an eternity? Had she ever gotten a chance to rest or had she been running constantly this whole time to the point it should've been every step causing a leg to implode in on itself from a shattered joint or split bone? The adrenaline had been flooding her body for so long that most tactile sense and pain response were completely gone, but even a cursory glance gave her tremors so bad that the vertigo alone was giving her nausea. Her throat still burned with bile, and she'd no doubt vacated anything she had to eat long ago.

Tracked in her own personal torment, Wallflower Blush looked like death. Eyes bloodshot with frozen tears clinging to her face, hair messed with bits of ice and sweat in equal measure clinging to her head in unflattering manners, skin taut against her body as to show off veins and twitching muscle even through her unathletic pudge, sweat pouring out of every pore and made her world constantly stink to a gagging level, mediated only by the frost built up across parts of her body.

She was practically a dead woman running, still weeping and heaving in every breath while desperately avoiding-

The sound of human voices made her entire world fill with panic. It shunted out every other thought for the briefest of moments and a very out of shape gardener pulled a 180° turn to try and about-face and run the other direction. Her ankle, swollen and red, couldn't take the twist and she was no ballerina. Her attempt to avoid the crowd only resulted in a snap of pain even through the adrenaline and Wallflower was sent crumbling to the ground head over end.

Through the vertigo and the pain, she could hear a familiar cackle while clutching at her leg.

Thick boots jumped down from the rooftop neighboring the alleyway and landed next to her face, causing the terrified young woman to flinch and hyperventilate from the oncoming panic attack. He, it, still bore the face of the man she'd assaulted with the only means she had available to her at the time. At one time the Memory Stone seemed like a godsend. Something miraculous meant for her, forgettable, pathetic, never-amount-to-anything Blush.

That little bit of power meant some sort of fate had a plan for her, just like it did the strange girl from Crystal Prep she ended up meeting soon after; brought together by some ancient spirit of winter. For once fate actually had something for her, something took notice and he gave her the only friend she'd ever had or would have...

Now that stone was damnation.

Boreas, though Wallflower knew not his name, seemed to be trying to hold his eyes so wide as to split the lids in a manic expression. He twirled the memory stone, the strands that had been making up the necklace still snapped from when Zephyrus wrenched it off Wallflower's neck, and nodded his head towards the people in the streets passing by. Just some nondescript residents moving through a less populated area of town at a late hour, and yet Wallflower was as terrified for them as she was for herself. They had no idea how much danger they were in!

"Ooh, gotta give you plenty of thanks for this body you ignorant wretch! You and my daughter both chose so well! Hey, you seem tired," Boreas snickered as he lightly stepped on Wallflower's ankle, squishing her fingers in between X's boot and her aching joint. Wallflower almost screamed but quickly covered her mouth as her eyes darted to a family across the street unawares.

Boreas's grin widened as he ground his heel against her finger, following her line of sight, "Say, how's about I give you quite a show? Maybe see if I'm strong enough to pop all of their heads off before the others can call out. Oooh that'll be a new trick, I might need some practice. Good thing I can use this little wonder and wipe any notice so I can give it another go!"

Boreas keened like he'd just won a magnificent prize, wittingly or unwittingly putting more of his weight on Wallflower's ankle, as he punched in the air and happily spun around the Memory Stone.

He threw his head back and closed his eyes, the picture of bliss while catching the stone in his palm, "Eeeeeeheheeeee! The initial shock is just as good as the torment! And now I get to choose which one I get! Every. Single. Time!"

"N-L-Leave... them-" Wallflower pathetically whimpered through her hand trying to hold back a scream.

Boreas instantly whirled down at her, stopping inches from her face as his fist smashed into the concrete of the ground. The hand stabbed through the solid surface and punched a small dent that he beheld with giddy glee at yet another reminder of how powerful a body he now had, piloting the form of one of the mightiest kaiju to ever exist. Boreas cooed while dangling the Memory Stone before Wallflower's face, waving it back and forth mockingly like some parody of a hypnotist.

"Awww, feeling bad again? Not such a great power anymore for a little skin bag like you. Oh if you feel bad about it I can just use this on you again! What are we up to, a dozen?!" Boreas snickered, "Plenty of your pain to fit in here, I'm sure whatever you and Zephyrus pulled out of your little friend has plenty of company now in here!"

Wallflower sniffled and tried to inch back, horrified at the one thing she once took any measure of pride in. The very idea she once considered using it to get back at a bully or have unlimited tries at telling a boy she liked them seem so outlandishly juvenile compared to how dangerous it was, and left her sickened.

Just how many times had this maniac wiped her recent memory, leaving just enough so she could stay on the run ever since what happened with Twilight and Zephyrus? Leave just enough so she would know to stay away from anyone that might help her or she might get near. Stay away from everyone so Boreas got to continue the tormenting chase.

A southerly wind blew through the alleyway, followed by one from the west. One of the very few things Wallflower was allowed to remember was to fear the latter for whom it heralded.

"Enough," the voice was one Wallflower once found meaning with, "Do not risk overloading that."

A purple hand clasped around the memory stone. Boreas sneered and giggled at the same time, cocking a fist and launching a powerful haymaker to his right at the source of the interloper despite knowing full well who it was. His fist impacted a body that flew back on impact as the fist rammed through it. Boreas grinned before flinching in surprise, feeling no slosh of ichors or snap of bone. Instead he was elbow deep in a formation of ice cast in the visage of a young woman, and the Memory Stone was completely missing from his hand. Scowling, Boreas whirled around with a skillful side kick at the figure now to his left.

The kick launched the body against the back wall and it all but exploded on impact, leaving shards like falling glass raining down everywhere. A piece glided past Wallflower's cheek, lightly scraping her skin and leaving a trail of cold in its path. It rolled across the ground before her face, coming to a stop as the image of another eye looked back at her. It was like a broken statue cast in the visage of familiarity. It was made of ice.

The west wind roared briefly and once again, Boreas struck nothing. Then he recoiled from an invisible strike at his gut, followed by yet another icy statue smashing into him and shattering against the irate windigo. Then he suddenly recoiled as if another blow had struck at his side. Then another to the face. The wind kept howling, a flurry of hits suddenly smashing into him from multiple angles before the gales ceased entirely.

Boreas was covered in broken ice and pinned to the ground, and would have burst free had a foot not stomped down on his head. The Memory Stone, jostled free in the short confrontation, clicked across the ground before Wallflower Blush's face.

Piles of ice suddenly disintegrated into a cold mist, crumbling away to nothingness that shrouded around the downed Boreas. A large figure with icy wings briefly became visible momentarily, quickly vanishing before a fraction of a second could pass. Twilight Starla Sparkle, ace student of Crystal Prep Highschool, stepped off of Boreas' head. She retrieved the Memory Stone from before a dumbstruck Wallflower's eyes, scoffing as she put the stone around her neck.

"You'll risk overloading it and that would complicate matters," Twilight's lips moved and her voice was heard, but Wallflower only felt the presence and mind of Zephyrus as the one speaking.

The Westerly Winds only now seemed to actually notice Wallflower's prone form and perked his brow lightly, "Living forms like yourself crave life, crave existence. I know what it's like to pursue a need. It is one of the only matters you might be similar to me."

Zephyrus crouched down on the balls of Twilight's feet, perfectly perching in an uncanny manner of pristine balance that Twilight never had. He reached out, and with deceptive gentleness, perked up Wallflower's face to look up at her best friend's visage. Wallflower whimpered, too exhausted to say anything and too terrified to conceive of coherent thought.

"You had so much strife in you, you latched onto the first notion you could be important or wanted. Well, fret not... Those that tormented you and their compatriots are going to be some of the first to suffer our revenge."

"Ah why not just kill her now if she was so useful?" Boreas sneered as he ripped himself back to his feet, rolling his shoulder and beginning to raise an arm like a deadly weapon, "Living things don't like to die either."

"Point made, but who are we not to indulge that strife and show its fruits? She proved so useful, why not permit her the reward due to her by allowing her witness?" Zephyrus hummed, putting a hand on Boreas' to nonchalantly push it away, "Besides... Notus' Progeny is forthcoming. Where do you think she's going to go?"

Boreas' eyes lit up and he grinned wide enough that it seemed poised to split his cheeks or crack his teeth, "Heeeeeaahahehe, I see why the master always entrusted you with these planning ordeals, brother! Just promise me my fair share or I'll see to it about ripping apart that host of yours."

"If we fail, I shall do so myself," Zephyrus corrected with a shrug.

"Tw-Tw...Tw-" Wallflower whimpered as cold tears started to stream down her face.

Zephyrus' eyes narrowed slightly and his body twitched, the Memory Stone dimly glowing for the briefest of moments before a powerful gale of frigid wind blew in from the south. Zephyrus and Boreas as well both took note of it, and the silent messages carried across it only they could understand. Notus had made something of a discovery.

The South Wind hit Boreas' face and he cooed at the new information, "Everfree... So, that's where they've been hiding? And the Retainer is not yet with them."

The winds again came and Zephyrus nodded casually, "Hm... Seems our timetable has moved up with the Retainer’s absence. The Elements are still incomplete. Notus has his part, as I do mine."

Boreas shot the West Wind a wide-eyed, gleeful expression, "Is it time then?"

Zephyrus only deadpanned like this is the most normal thing to do, "The path to Everfree isn't far, refrain from slaughter until you get there."

"Aaaaannd once I am?" Boreas keened.

Zephyrus just nodded his head sideways, "Kill everything there, especially the young Retainer. Spare only Notus' spawn. I will obtain my prize, and with Notus, we'll reconvene at the leyline."

"Any special requests, oh most cerebral brother of mine?" Boreas grinned so wide it seemed to split his face, teeth looking glaringly huge with how he was curling back his lips.

Zephyrus was completely silent for a few moments before at last cracking their flattened visage. Twilight Sparkle's lips contorted and her eyes contracted to the tiniest pinpricks of inky blackness for pupils. Near fanged teeth briefly became visible behind frostbitten skin, like a mask of normality having been lifted away for the most fleeting of moments. Pupils dilated in a clear sign of utter excitement. The sight burned itself into Wallflower's memory as the apex of horror, dread, and utter disgust at how uncannily wrong it looked.

"Her mother stalled our Master's will for years. Carry out our vengeance."

Boreas chuckled faintly, then gradually he contorted his whole body in heaves and shakes before throwing up his jaws to the sky to let out a raucous chorus of cackling and laughter that seemed to be thousands of voices calling out at the same time across eons. Strife and hatred from a bygone era manifest as a voice. The Northerly winds picked up and swirled about him as his manic cackling continued and he seemed to disappear in form, but not in sound as those same winds carried him off.

Zephyrus turned away from Wallflower Blush and began to take a step away, only to pause at a hand clasping his heel. Wallflower Blush wasn't just gripping the fiend wearing her best and only friend's skin, she was clenching it between her fingers. The last gasps of adrenaline were the only thing keeping her body going as she shakingly rose. Her face was still veiled by frayed, messy, frostbitten hair that disguised her features.

"Tw-i...light... G-Give her back," Wallflower Blush stammered as she stood up despite her legs feeling like liquid, "Can't... let you do-"

It was a very rare force compelling her that Zephyrus knew very well. This one that society had completely rewritten away, that she herself had put down, had some potential yet. Whether it was realization of horror at what she had helped unleash, the willpower to try and stop it by any means she could, to get back the one person who ever gave her the time of day for thought; or most likely some combination of the three, she tried to act while being compelled to do so.

She weakly lunged for the Memory Stone, only stop a a very soft, serene voice in the identical pitch and manner of Zephyrus', but totally devoid of it in volume.

Wallflower flinched and looked up to see a very confused visage gazing back at her. Any influence from Zephyrus was completely gone, from the posture and stance to the very human way she held herself.

Twilight Sparkle, student of Crystal Prep Highschool, perked her brow, "Um... Who are you again?"

Wallflower Blush gagged as the worst thing she'd been put through for years upon years came slamming back into her. The ignorance and confusion on her face was so extremely genuine. Her friend, the one friend she'd ever had, didn't know her anymore. Whether it was memories locked away in the stone meaning a brief, intentional lapse in control to give the host body of Twilight her awareness back was done; or just Zephyrus being an extremely good actor and knowing what button to push for Wallflower; one couldn't tell. What was true was the wrenching she felt on her heart, just before the South Winds roar once again and slam into her back. Zephyrus completely ignored the weakest threat that ever had been put up against him to register what he was being told by Notus.

It appeared quite the discovery had been made indeed. Wallflower Blush briefly glimpsed Zephyrus' eyes widening and a shake rattle their body. Then the West Winds stormed through the alleyway, and she found herself clung to nothing but a statue of ice cast in her best friend's visage; her fingers frozen around the cast mold of the Memory Stone.

Zephyrus had departed with haste, and with good reason.

Notus, still clad in the body of Flash Sentry, had indeed made quite the discovery. Now with both the kaiju who'd become acquainted with him and the only kaiju familiar with magic, Godzilla and Mothra, both gone from his presence, he could investigate with impunity. He'd left the van and stalked up to the top floor of the parking garage, intent originally on just giving his cohorts an update on who all was present at this meeting.

That had gone as expected, the anticipated absence of his progeny was fortunate with the observation that the current Retainer was missing being noteworthy enough to send a message to Boreas and Zephyrus. The composition of the group before him was almost entirely of known parties.

The current generation of Element Bearers, sans one or two of their number, including several of those they had tried to kill over a decade ago.

Two of the three Allied kaiju which had been acting as the Bearers' bodyguards, with the absence of Mothra being noted in his report.

Two other beings, one of which he recognized as that cyborg which had given Zephyrus trouble at the schoolyard. His pale companion was no doubt another kaiju as well given the uncanny aura about her.

Both Zephyrus and Boreas' spawn, the latter garbed in the colors of her mate as Boreas had reported.

Evidently the fake siren had indeed been the abducted Equestrian Bearer to the Element of Magic, an interesting development but an expected one given she was bound to pop up somewhere.

But that left... a strange curiosity.

That youth, the one apparently also from Equestria. Notus knew her not from his days in the original realm nor from any of Flash Sentry's ill memories. With the young man's mind being particularly stubborn even if he couldn't banish or overpower the presence of the windigo, Sentry's more neutral or positive memories were elusive. All he knew of 'Peachy Keen' was that she was someone of authority and had changed in the transition to this world. He had a feeling that was not really her name, but with Godzilla constantly around her he never could figure out the full truth as to this unknown element without rousing suspicion; at least not in the time allotted. Normally he would be all too content to bide his time and stretch out the hunt, but Zephyrus had accelerated matters the moment they figured out the conflict between the two groups was about to be resolved.

Notus crept as close as he could while still remaining out of sight, sampling the magical aura coming off of the girls. It was very difficult to sift through with them all crowding around one another, especially given all of them were giving off flickers of that wretched Goddess' magic. But there was something about this young one, something that wasn't right at all.

Getting as close as he could, creeping about the floor directly beneath the roof, Notus narrowed his eyes and focused. Hated as they were, he was no stranger to the various Elements since becoming accustomed to them in the battle against the prior Retainer.

One girl emit sensations of bonded fondness and defensiveness of others, no doubt embodying Loyalty.

Another, sensations of warmth granted upon giving such to others and delighting in their success and joy, Generosity for sure.

Likewise for Honesty, Kindness, Empathy, even Magic with the inclusion of Twilight Sparkle's return... But, then there was...

Notus tilted his head and chilled the air around him, frost forming across the ceiling. He detected Magic, again. And not just that.....

Gigan's brow perked up as he flinched. Godzilla did the same, as Anguirus and Irys both tensed. The latter three could feel it with their innate ability to detect energy spikes. The former was stirred on by familiarity. His cybernetic vision and scans, still damaged as they were from the thrashing Godzilla gave him, was picking up a lot of unknown variables. Something that just couldn't be quantified. Something he'd seen at the school before as well as his various jaunts as sent by the master.

The four kaiju silently looked at one another, as if to confirm what was going on as pulses raced.

Magic, Laughter, and Kindness. Three Elements in one body?!

That was impossible, utterly impossible. No mortal form could handle such in full, not even the Retainer they fought prior could truly embody more than one. It was impossible, for all but one. The one being Notus truly despised, truly hated ever since she interrupted their purge of the Third Era so long ago. The same being whose first champions he nearly killed, only to have met defeat and the destruction of the fourth wind.

This was no normal girl, but an abomination directly of Harmony's forging; just like the Elements. And while Notus couldn't kill the Elements themselves...

Zephyrus' westerly winds billowed past him, giving Notus all the incentive he might yet need. He was utterly heedless to his own existence, so what greater wound could he inflict by depriving another of their craving for their own persistence?

“So what was that thing you wanted to tell me about ‘Eventide’?” Sunset Shimmer mused as she perked her brow.

Twilight grinned cheekily and went for her pockets, spurring both the Rainbooms and Celestia’s curiosity, “Well I did some testing and I think I found something quite surprising about your Element, Sunset! It’s not Magic! Lemme show you, Gloriosa let me bring this-”

Instantly the air chilled and frost raced across the concrete of the parking garage roof. Southern gales whipped about suddenly and all of the kaiju reacted.

"INCOMING! EVERYONE DOWN!" Gigan roared while lunging at Adagio Dazzle.

Sprinting forward, Godzilla and Anguirus rushed at the Bearers to protect them. Irys tackled Aria over as Adagio found herself scooped up by Gigan and held protectively against him as they were enveloped in a red flash.

With the death of a second, a miniature nor'easter, the spawn of a hurricane and blizzard, roared to life and enveloped the parking garage. Massive eruptions of frost and the most horrid of magics burst from the ground, passing through several of the kaiju and sirens before snapping shut on the gathered Element Bearers like a pair of enormous jaws. This was all or nothing for Notus, and the former was certainly not inconsiderable when heed to cover or well being of his host body was a non-concern. The South Winds howled, soon joined by the Westerly gales that had just arrived in full. What looked like massive jaws made of ice and frost burst from the floor and snapped down across the entire Parking Garage rooftop.

=======
???????
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The horrid thoughts were back again. The treacherous stab made in his own tongue as those thoughts and sensations coursed through his mind both before his eyes and behind them.

-”Lea isn’t up to the task before her, she’s going to ruin it just like she ruined the last plan...”-

-”I’m an idiot for being so trusting in others that can’t do what they need to...”-

-”I should have finished off some threats long ago, kill and let it be finished…”-

A campground in flames and yet the cold shame of guilt. A body in his hands, just as he’d been in another’s. And he couldn’t be sure who’d shed Lea’s blood in such a vision. Broken and melted metal scrap indicated the prone form of Gigan unmoving, and he cared not to wonder who the other ones were. He wanted none of this suffering. He wanted none of this life.

-”I should never have put her or anyone in this kind of situation. This is why I should have shouldered it all alone...”-

-”If I’d died years ago defending Terra, I wouldn’t have to deal with all of this chaos and nightmares…”-

He wanted… to throttle the wretched demon who thought he’d fall for this same trick twice!

Godzilla Junior willed himself, as odd a thought as that was, to banish away the whispers and thoughts that weren’t his own. It was a bizarre feeling, reaching through his own mind and frankly he didn’t wish to know how Luna, Rarity, Aria, Monster X, or Lea had done it to one degree or another. It was out of his wheelhouse and he preferred it to remain that way. Still, novice as he was, he was privy to that uncanny presence that masqueraded as his own mind but was nothing but a deceitful parasite trying to take hold. It was most easily described as taking inventory of any thought or idea that shouldn’t have been a driving force in his mind, let alone be agreed with, and push it out of the forefront. It was like wafting away mist, but it could be done and not even with great difficulty. This time wasn’t the same as the last.

The last time he’d been caught unawares and in a bad mental state, with the windigo going all-out trying to break him. This time he knew his own effort was far more alert, far stronger; and the enemy had only given a half effort; if hardly even being present at all. It couldn’t have been trying to possess him, which meant it wasn’t trying to disable or defeat the Monster King.

He sucked in his breath and within this mindscape, the utterance cried forth wasn’t a human uproar for he was no human within his mind. The thundering roar of Odo Island’s Sea Dragon of Destruction blasted away the mists left behind by Notus’ gambit.

The mists within the mind parted and, upon spanning back to reality and simultaneously snapping any mental sinew that tied the demon’s powers to his mind, so too did the cold mists choking the rooftop part ways. Godzilla Junior grunted as he rose back to his feet, feeling the familiar pull of the windigo get thrown back and off him fully, now able to behold the world for how it really was. Gigan and Adagio were missing, the black and gold Aria, Irys, and Anguirus were seemingly coming lucid and rising. As Irys and Aria assisted one another, Anguirus mutually helped Godzilla back up.

“There… was the cold, I didn’t feel much of it, like I was resisting it, but then some big noise pushed all of it away,” Anguirus groaned while pawing at his head, “Did you just roar in my ear to snap me out of it?”

“In a manner maybe,” Godzilla huffed while glancing over to the other two, “How are you two faring?”

"I do not… want to feel that again,” Kaizer Aria hissed before shaking her head to clear it, “I had some help in my head. I take it you’re the one who turned into the loudest mute button ever?”

“Irys?” Anguirus grunted to his long lost sibling, who looked more confused than anything else.

“You all heard voices?” Irys quipped with a tilt of her head.

“Just like what happened to me beforehand when one of them tried to attack me. It used my voice and my worst thoughts. Tried that stunt again, didn’t keep.”

A silent frown and nodding by Aria confirmed the same had happened to her as well, “Notus, he whittles your mind down like a predator exhausts prey on a hunt. He spoke to me as well.”

“I still heard nothing,” Irys shrugged, “Just lost in this cold void for a time until Godzilla screamed me back to reality.”

“I only heard murmurs and disjointed bits,” Anguirus frowned, trying to think of any reason he and his fellow Guardian Beast might be affected differently whereas the completely different radioactive dinosaur and Equestrian siren might be afflicted the same way, “Where’s Gigan and Adagio Dazzle?”

“Red flash before I went under,” Aria groaned while still clearing her head, “I think he grabbed her and teleported out of range while the frost first came up and we got caught.”

"That answers that question, but how did you snap us out of that trance it tried to put us under?" Anguirus grunted, still trying to waft away the thick mists still obscuring the entire garage roof.

Even a mere meter or two apart they could barely even see each other. The mist was unnaturally thick and still biting cold all around.

“A windigo tried that trick on me before, must have been this ‘Notus’ you spoke of, siren. I defeated him before and knew how to recognize when thoughts weren’t my own. Besides,” Junior turned his focus to the thickest reaches of the fog, privy to how several of their group hadn’t called out yet, “I don’t think his focus was on us.”

Aria followed his line of sight and realized the distinct lack of a certain group in their midst, “The girls…”

“Wait here,” Godzilla growled while keeping his eyes glaring upon the cold mist.

Junior narrowed his eyes and steeled himself, marching forwards away from Aria, Anguirus, and Irys; into the fog at the exact direction he remembered the Element Bearers and Princess Celestia being. It was biting cold, increasingly so as a definite indicator of windigo magic at work the further he went. He walked away from the trio, only to find himself nearly bumping into Aria Blaze.

“I thought I told you lot to wait here.”

“I did,” Aria snarled while looking back at the way he’d come, “Why did you turn around?”

“I didn’t,” Godzilla grunted while glancing back at the way he’d come.

Aria glanced at the way he’d come, then Junior, and back to the fog. Raising her arm, her red eyes and the gold encircling them seemed to flush with a new color and glow in tandem with the necklace upon her throat glimmering. Phantom sensations he hadn’t experienced since the Plateau and the final showdown with Grand King Ghidorah came to mind as Godzilla felt the air around and behind him shift. Aria’s hand swept up in a waving motion, almost like she was paddling through the water or whisking it away. The air did move as commanded by the waves of gravitons, but the mists didn’t move likewise. If it were really fog, it should have budged with air flow; and it didn’t.

It wasn’t really there.

“Another illusion?” Anguirus barked with a disgusted sneer crossing his lips.

“I’m really getting tired of this crazy magic,” Irys deadpanned.

Aria Blaze furrowed her brow as she stopped trying to push away the mist with Kaizer Ghidorah’s abilities, but fell back upon another. Her fingers graced her necklace and calm graced the air. Godzilla and Anguirus, unfamiliar with the soothing and admittedly beautiful melody, perked their brows as Irys registered what it was from the times she’d heard it at camp.

The albino gyaos elbowed her brother lightly and whispered to him as Aria kept singing, “Siren love ballad. She based it on a lullaby her mother made. Windigos hate love magic about as much as they seem to hate those Elements.”

Anguirus nodded approvingly, more than mildly pleased she felt at ease speaking to him in such a way as he watched. Sure enough, the mist did seem to warp. It looked almost like someone was bending a reflection more than banishing it away; but it was indeed having some effect. The air was moving with Aria’s song and the chilling mists were yielding to it. The altered siren, more used to focusing this kind of power in a group, held fast to some of the memories the other personality occupying space in her head was feeding her. Replayed before Blaze’s eyes, Kaizer Ghidorah and keen to bring forth any quiet moment Aria had had with her beloved prior to his abduction. The effect was enough to get the proverbial ball rolling. The mists continued to part and a figure was rendered visible.

Out of the mist came a form and initially the dark hair and straight cut reminded those four present of Twilight Sparkle. It was fortunate that they were quick to remember how their Twilight Sparkle was still mostly in her Eventide Hymn disguise, lest a moment or two more might have been needed to get the indication that something wasn’t right.

A geyser of ice ripped out of the ground just as a westerly wind started to roar across the airspace. A piercing shriek split the air, a purple ray Godzilla was all too familiar with instantly firing from Irys’ fanged jaws to slash at the icy formation. While it couldn’t melt through, it could rupture and that’s precisely what happened when the ice was slashed in two. Red eyes and amulet ignited, Kaizer Aria’s vocality instantly changed from love ballad to wrath as crackling energy flew out of her maw. The resulting graviton torrent laced with her magic bursting the ice that still came flying at her. Westerly wind and shards of shattered frost flew past Aria Blaze’s face as the milliseconds ticked by, the figure becoming more visible as the distance closed.

The motion of their running seemed out of sync, it was a peculiar way to describe it but there were spans in which they would seemingly stop moving only to reappear several meters ahead of where they had been going and leaving behind icy sculptures in their wake.

And from several meters away, they suddenly reappeared right in front of and lunging at Aria Blaze. There wasn't even time to react initially, one moment they were away and the next moment they weren't. The smaller form latched onto Aria's shoulders whilst bracing her feet against the taller woman's hips.

Aria glimpsed the very same face she’d beaten to a bloody pulp, not only fully healed but also very much not the person she’d fought. There was another presence, another personality in control that was immediately obvious even at a mere glance. It wasn’t Twilight Sparkle at all, just her body looking back at her with wide-eyed surprise; as no sooner than they'd latched on to her did they wind up getting repelled backwards. She could feel the backdraft recoil that happened when someone tried to grab her necklace pressing back and trying to dislodge the attacker who made another move for her necklace.

"The other Twilight?!" Irys barked as she tried to turn around at this newcomer, then rushing to Aria’s placement to assist her ally.

Icy eyes locked with Aria Blaze’s and a voice in the same sound of, but totally alien to Twilight Sparkle’s coldly noted upon her hand getting repelled, “We still share some blood. You were born of Melpomene’s sister.”

The transgressor tried once more to go for the necklace, able to press back and through the defensive shield somewhat, only to have her eyes bulge and teeth totally unlike that of a normal human were bared and grit. Her momentum reversed fully, a fist lodged in her gut with a haymaker punch by Aria sending her hurtling back. Proof that despite her prior avoidance that she, it, could be hit.

“WINDIGO!” Aria Blaze yelled out in shock, “It’s another windigo piloting her body like with X!”

The windigo-possessed Twilight’s eyes darted to the side as an azure glow overtook her and raked across the ground before her, Godzilla more aiming to force her back given how close she still was to Aria as to not offer a clear shot. The monster’s body moved sharply, seemingly freezing in place for a moment before appearing again elsewhere to make yet another rush at Aria Blaze.

Anguirus managed to intercept the charge and grabbed onto the windigo’s leg as she continued to fly towards Aria Blaze. What happened next was almost indescribable. The westerly winds flared up for a brief moment, a dim flash of light ensued, and the Defender kaiju found himself holding onto an ice sculpture in the exact likeness of Twilight Starla Sparkle. Anguirus quickly dropped the formation as it started to chill his hand so much it felt like it was burning briefly.

The confusion was only able to sit for a brief moment, as their attacker appeared again several meters away and stomped her foot upon the ground. Another frozen wave of jagged icicles was intercepted by azure fury, Godzilla’s atomic breath shattering the formation with concussive impact alone before sweeping up to aim at the attacker. Usually he’d never use such extreme force on a human, but it was abundantly clear that this adversary was anything but. The quick-charged beam swooped up and hit a solid mass, but not one that reacted in any way to the blow. In fact ‘Twilight’ seemed to freeze in place a half second before the blow actually struck her and once again, a likeness cast in the dark magic ice that refused to melt from anything but Elemental magic took her place.

And the moment after the ice copy was struck, another duplicate appeared bursting out of the mists several meters away. That one was kicked back by Kaizer Aria, launched away and shattering; only for Zephyrus to disappear into the cover of the mists once more. All the while, the westerly winds raged on.

“Where’d they go?” Irys barked while trying to keep her guard up, seeing glimpses of movement in the mists.

“Does it have some teleportation ability?” Anguirus called out as he kicked down a spire of ice that had been thrown up in the chaos, grunting as he felt the grim thought seep in even just touching the stuff for too long.

“I don’t think so, it’s not like Gigan’s,” Kaizer Aria yelled out behind her as she kept trying to turn and face where she thought they were coming from next.

She observed how the windigo seemed to enact desynchronized movements the moment it would move aside from where it was. As ridiculous as it was to think about it in such terms, it reminded her most of a laggy online game Sonata might complain about; where someone appeared in one place but was really a ways away.

“We keep on the offensive, they can’t land a hit even if we can’t with all this mist to hide in,” Godzilla called to his friend and two would-be-allies.

It was difficult seeing movement and having to make a split second judgement on if the figure that should appear was one of the Element Bearers or not before he let loose the plasma beam. Movement to his right momentarily drew his focus, only for experience to cause his aim to snap back to the left. Junior whirled around and burning azure force exploded another ice duplicate cast in the image of a running Twilight Sparkle that was trying to flank them from behind, the real thing appearing several meters away and leaping into the cover of the mist.

“Everyone, get back to back!”

Irys wasn’t really sure why she snapped to focus and complied as quickly as she did, let alone put her back to the subject of her terror just a few days ago. Maybe it was the unfamiliar situation, knowledge of the armistice, or perhaps just natural experience her once-foe had at command that helped her give confidence to the cue. But sure enough, she found herself shoulder to shoulder with Anguirus and Aria, and back to back with Godzilla himself.

Faded images of their tormentor flickered in the mists, a few times appearing less like a girl and more like a towering, antlered form. She could admit to a few shudders, if partially due to the adrenaline surges going through her body.

“We can’t do anything with all this mist, we need to destroy their cover,” Godzilla grunted, “Aria, your magic is our best bet here. Can you get the song going again?”

Cold mists threatened to seep in some darker thoughts and fears, which were only held at bay by the other presence in the siren’s mind.

-”Aria, I too will defend you. We need you and your mother’s gift for this. I can’t think of a better way to slight these mongrels than with her doing.”-

The warmth was unusual in some ways, but very familiar in others from her times with X. It was, after all, some of those times playing through her mind. Even if some caused a bit of a flush on her face and a mental note to maybe not replay quite everything so vividly.

Kaizer Aria took a deep breath to steady her nerves but nodded as her necklace flickered, “I-I can do that. Keep me covered though, they’re very keen on removing my necklace and are probably one of the few who could do it with some effort.”

The malefic shape was forced to keep on the perimeter by a sweeping slicing beam by Irys that bisected an ice formation. Canceling the ray but maintaining her glowing charge, the albino gyaos yelped backwards, “Get to it flockmate, I-.. we will protect you.”

Godzilla took notice of her statement and stiffened, before rising up. Irys’ peripheral vision moved from him and to her sibling. She caught Anguirus giving her a proud smirk and nearly felt her ears flop down, had a loud roar undoable by a human cried out against the fog. It served no purpose other than declaration of might, lacking any magic or force to actually wound the foe. That same roar had defeated one windigo however once before, and it terrified her once. Now, Godzilla’s battlecry actually invigorated her.

=======
???????
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Sunset Shimmer blinked in dumbfound shock and surprise. One moment she was atop the parking garage with her friends, then Gigan had started yelling out, Godzilla had rushed towards her with obvious concern across his features while reaching out as if to pull her away from something; then… nothing. All around her, nothing. Just a sheer, massive, misted and icy plain with dark clouds rolling above. This was a mind, she could know that because of her past experience using the magic she’d recently developed, but this was totally unlike any of those trials. There was no consciousness, no memories, no sense of self in any means she could comprehend. Cold, strife, misery, and emptiness; that was all that could be seen, thought, and felt. The sheer nothingness kept biting at the edges of her thoughts, her power refusing to turn off and disconnect her from it. It was all she could do to just hold it at bay, shivering while holding her sides and walking through the void; constantly feeling something and yet nothing around her on the edge of vision.

The only break in the seeming infinity was several other equally confused-looking figures. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and the still Eventide-disguised Twilight. Dozens of meters separated what had previously been a mere few feet at most. No sign of the kaiju, let alone anything remotely resembling the town.

“Everybody a’right?!” Applejack called out as she started to jog towards the closest companion to her, the group as a whole starting to cluster back together under an unconscious desire for safety in numbers.

“Either this is a sudden eclipse or we’re in trouble,” Twilight muttered while looking about at the dark expanse warily.

Rarity's brow furrowed, seeing only darkness in a barren landscape that seemed to stretch into infinity, “What happened to all of the others?”

“This is why I stopped going out after dark, crazy stuff always happens at sundown,” Rainbow Dash gulped while clearly trying to keep her nerve, goosebumps appearing all over her skin.

Fluttershy coward down, clutching her head as a whimper seeped from her lips even as he friends tried to hold her to them, “I-It’s so cold…”

A roar of a south-blowing blizzard ripped across the landscape and smashed into the entire group, threatening to bowl them over. Whispers began to trickle into each of the Bearer’s minds, speaking in their own voice nothing new, but nothing desired to hear again in their own voices.

-”My ego hurts my friends and I keep it for fear of losing spotlight.”-

-”Ah' don’t talk much 'cus the honest truth can hurt like it once hurt my brother.”-

-”Sometimes I hate people for the horrid things that happened to animals I’ve helped.”-

-”I’m vain and all my friends know it, they just put up with me because I make them things.”-

-”I lied to all my friends and teacher because I didn’t trust anypony enough to forgive.”-

-”I hurt so many because I didn’t get something I never deserved..”-

As her own voice damned herself, Sunset Shimmer fought through the gnawing cold to look forward. Through quivering eyes, she could glimpse something. In the vast expanse of the dark, cold void that actually made up the mind of the windigo itself; having swallowed them all up, two figures were visible.

The first came into focus with a grim notation in the voice of the same individual, one she knew well.

-”I let her hurt my friends, I let it happen again and again because I was so blinded; until she hurt me…”-

One caused her heart to sink. Flash Sentry looked dead, skeletal. Beyond emaciated and weak, as he lay on his knees slumped on the ground while half buried in snow and ice that seemed to be growing out of him as much as it was around him. Clutched between his crossed arms was but a tiny ember of flame; the faintest flicker of light in the dark and cold. In reflex Sunset Shimmer sprinted to him and away from her friends. Somehow she felt she’d run for hours by the time she became aware of it, only to faintly hear the voice of her friends all call out to her at once. What they said was distorted beyond recognition, and when she looked back… only the abyss answered.

“Girls?! Twilight! Fluttershy! Rainbow! Applejack! Rarity!” Sunset Shimmer cried out but feeling like she was having to speak over a blizzard, cold wind smashing into her face as she futilely tried to shield herself, “Ah! Where are yooooou?!”

Another voice, another known entity. This was someone close in a different way from another life.

-”I put everyone before myself except the one I should have most. I was the last one who should have neglected Luna…”-

In the other direction of Flash, standing in a growing field of ice and snow, was none other than Peachy Keen.

“Sunset?...” a quivering Peachy Keen cried out again, clutching her arms to her sides in the search for warmth, oblivious to what was behind her.

In the magnitudes of mist behind her, that hazy void seemed to contort and take a shape; one a dozen meters tall. A vaguely equine form was manifest, before rapidly molding like a true self was bursting free. Antlers and ice moved through the haze and rapidly made their way to Peachy Keen, raising an arm that flickered between a knife wielding hand and a frost bitten talon. South winds roared in a chorus that took on the sound of a monstrous, inhuman scream as one of Grogar’s most powerful creations rushed at her both within the mental illusion he’d cast upon them all as well as the flesh and blood world.

=============
Camp Everfree
=============

Several minutes of explaining later and Gloriosa was still confused.

“She came here a few days ago and only wanted to help ‘Nata, I knew brother and Miss Dazzle would flip so I’ve been hiding her-” Megalon stammered quickly while Pinkie Pie rapidly shook Gloriosa’s hand.

“Yep yep yep! And let me tell you’ something, wooof she took a lot out of me! That girl needs help and good thingy my friends are coming to make it all well. I mean I mighta and woulda blown the whistle if you turned out to be the bad guys or caused a mess-”

Gloriosa could only passively mind to not bring up the Pier fight she’d wrung Gigan’s ear off over and listen, too flabbergasted to protest.

“I came here to help Nata out though, she didn’t cause no mess and-”

“-She really has been a big help, so I tunneled under most of the campground to help her move around. Please don’t get angry!” Megalon yelped aloud while jittering.

Pinkie Pie responded by letting go of Gloriosa and all but tackling her cyborg compatriot and squeezing him around the shoulders and head, “Ah Meggy, no need to fret! You got my spring back in my step when I was about to permanently look like my sisters! Speaking of what’s that sparkly piece of wonderment? It gave me a huge squink-blink for my Pinkie Sense when you came closer!”

“Well I was about to ask you the same-” Gloriosa stopped when a sudden, violent burst slammed into her.

It was so frigid it numbed out all sense so much that for a moment, she couldn’t tell what it was. But as she forced her eyes open, Gloriosa found herself momentarily back inside the family car. She was much smaller, her little brother just a small crying baby beside her in a booster seat. He was helpless, terrified, and yelling out as she had her hands poised at him. For some reason unknown to her at the time, she’d hyper focused on the sound of Timber Spruce’s cries over the howling blizzard outside and a truly horrible sense of negativity had overtaken her. To her dread at the time, she’d found she’d caught herself about to strike him, some strife having overpowered all sense. She of course never did harm her little brother, instead lurching over to hug the sobbing tyke and try and protect him from the overwhelming dread something evil was nearby.

In the corner of her eye, perhaps only subconsciously, she had seen it back then. The gaunt, half frozen monster that had lunged at the car door and tore the handle off. Youth had scrubbed it from her mind, but the frigid North Wind crashing into her dredged it all back up.

A cold northerly wind strangled the air in Camp Everfree, carrying a manic laughter across its gales.

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Reader Works!
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Because I never tire of admiring all of ya'll, here's some choice pieces I've seen you all create!

FallenAngel5414 welcoming us to the show!

And giving us the chosen of 'The Green'

LionPatriot bringing us a happy Mother's Day!

And a redesign for a nightmare made to film

LordShrekZilla20 bringing some of Fallen's handiwork to life importing more magic to the world!

And recreating a topical meme

Additionally I'd like to plug a lovely story by JDPrime22 and illustrated by the above ShrekZilla. The One True King is easily one of the best MLP-Godzilla crossovers which comes off as very inspired but not derivative. Very well done pacing and artwork!

Chapter 51: Eye of the Storm

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 52: Australis

The celebration of that ancient horror's destruction was not at all unearned, let alone the exhaustion so many of them felt on that rooftop after surviving their ordeal. But celebration, outside of morale fostering internal jubilation, would have to wait. There was still another windigo not far away, Adagio and Gigan were still missing in action, and they had wounded. Sunset Shimmer especially had the latter on her mind as she tightly held a limping Flash Sentry to her.

The young man was shivering constantly, still damp from the dark magic ice that had been festering across his body only very recently melting. Thankfully none of the horrid thoughts such grim magicks might engender were brought forth, likely a welcome side effect of the windigo that made them being destroyed and his proximity to so many benign sources of magic to counteract it. That still didn't change a nagging sense of horror the young unicorn-turned-woman had at the realization Flash had been possessed by a horrid frost demon for Celestia-knew how long.

"Can't believe we didn't notice, how could we have been so-o stupid we-"

His shivering, clammy hand connected to the arm Sunset had put around her shoulder for stability had tightened its grip on her own. She was only now noticing their fingers had interlocked.

"S-Sunset, I was conscious-... the whole time," Flash whispered with plenty of understandable fatigue in his tone, still looking very worse for the wear with sunken eyes and pale skin. He often needed a breath or two between words, and the fact he was talking at all was taking an appreciable toll that he was willfully braving, "It took.. over... a bit after the concert. You all had... plenty to worry wi-ith. Meeting and meet-up to get Twi-light back, and it didn't want to get close."

He weakly chuckled as Sunset Shimmer set him down in an open seat within the van, picking up a spare shirt to dab away the cold sweat on his brow, "T-Told you-.. I'm not important-"

“You better no flippin’ finish that!” Sunset Shimmer shushed his lips with a finger, "You don't need a pretty magic rock to tell you you're important Flashy."

Flash Sentry just laughed a bit, not disagreeing but not fighting her either. He knew when she got like this, how stubborn she could be.

"Listen, we're gonna get you to... I-I don't know, a hospital and then-"

Flash just made inarticulate grumbling noises approximating that of dismissive grunts as he shook his head a bit limply, "Su-Sunset... you're fretting again. I-.. will be o-kay..."

He nodded along to his own words, chin flopping against his collar, "O-Kay... Just going to rest. You need to be with the others and put a stop to those things!"

He was going to say more but stopped and shivered despite himself at the lingering cold. Sunset Shimmer didn't even need to think before removing her jacket and putting it across his shoulders. The added heat and her getting close as to put it on him helped banish away lingering chills.

"Giving me your jacket? A-Aren't I supposed to be the one to do this, Sunnybeam?"

"Oh cut the chivalry!" Sunset quipped, lightly tapping him on the forehead, "You're the one who... Did you just call me-"

A tiny smile peaked across his tired, chapped lips, "... I've been waiting to call you that for a long time."

'Sunnybeam', a dopey nickname coined years ago; about a year or so after her first arrival. That made it about a few months into them starting to court-er-.. date.

-That meant it was already over a year that he'd already known I wasn't human... And didn't care.-

Sunset Shimmer looked him in the eyes as a worried but calm smile curled her lips. She got on his level, one hand moving to check his cheek temperature as the other kept hold of his own. Unconsciously their fingers started to rub at the other, just as it was for her to cup the cheek after confirming he was getting a hint of heat back in them.

The admiration, honest pride, and almost reverence was so obvious across the glowing glimmer in Sentry's eyes she didn't even need her powers and an empathy bond to feel it. But the massive surge of empathic power she'd gotten to feel from him upon using it to expel Notus was not forgotten. Sunset Shimmer couldn't help but divert her gaze for the briefest of moments and bite her lip, privy to how certain thoughts on certain topics flew about.

She looked back at something Flash had seemed to notice given the shift in his eye. Looking back she saw the now familiar face of Eventide Hymn conversing with Aria, Celestia, and Godzilla. The false siren, true Element Bearer, looked at him, then to Sunset, and nudged Celestia to whisper something to her. The transformed alicorn needed only a fleeting glance that showed the barest hint of a wide grin on her face for it to spread to Twilight's. Flash Sentry relaxed and closed his eyes just as Twilight gave Sunset a thumbs-up she knew the context to.

Noticing Flash had closed off his vision, Sunset did give him a tiny nudge to ensure he was aware.

"Soooo .. about Twilight..." Sunset muttered whilst rubbing the back of her head.

Sentry smiled pleasantly as he could but only nodded slightly, "I helped her as I could and danced with her, l-liked her well enough.... Buuut..."

"But what?"

"Sunnybeam, you got more to w-worry about," Flash whined ineffectively with a humored chuckle.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence! One down, two to go," Sunset shrugged while trying to downplay the threat faced to them to more than just her company.

Her hand squeezed his a bit tighter and Flash seemed like he was about to say something, something important. It was on the tip of his tongue and his lips parted just enough to start a first syllable that never came. Silence passed between them instead, just sitting together, holding hands, sharing company. It was a jarring contrast to the last months of Sunset trying to make good with the Rainbooms and Flash not being able to choose between relief, pride, and anxiety that she'd relapse and he'd have to protect his friends as he once failed to. Fear against reality was a plague before even the windigos showed up.

"You can beat 'em," Flash whispered with no hesitance or weakness in his tone like there had been. Confidence was omnipresent.

Sunset Shimmer sighed and nodded as good as she could, pointing her thumb back at the unlikely group, "Well with the company I keep these days! Ehehe..."

Sentry just beamed at her, stronger than he had in a good long while. In over a year in fact. A thought came to him and he picked himself up as best as he could.

"L-listen... we'll have a lot to sort out and talk through but... These things hate good vibes right?"

"Yyyeeeah, seems to be the jist of it. Aria Blaze said some of our..." she felt her cheeks heat up and almost could detect her absent pony-ears flop in embarrassment, "... Feelings, gave her a boost."

"Then... there is one thing I can do to help you."

He moved forward, slow enough she clearly got his offered intent well ahead of time to react on her own wishes. She could accept the hug he was offering, or go for more. She took the second option and their lips touched. He was still a bit cold, had chapped lips, and they both stunk of cold sweat; but she could feel the sparks flying. Fingers knit together as her arm pulled him in closer and he weakly, but happily held on.

It only needed to last a few moments, but lasted instead a bit longer. Both pulled away feeling a familiar red string once broken, finally starting to possibly knit itself back together.

Sunset Shimmer sighed, stroking his cheek before playfully ruffling Flash's hair, "We'll work things out after, promise?"

Flash Sentry chuckled, leaning in and brushing a lock of hair out of her eyes, "Deal..... Now... go help save the world."

Sunset giggled, giving him a quick peck on the forehead before Flash leaned back to get some much needed rest. When she turned to return to the group… she made it three steps before having to resist the urge to let out a loud, happy whinny upon jumping up and clicking her heels together.

==============

Awareness was a surreal comprehension to make. If one described it as being awake with all of one’s senses giving them input as to where they are and what is going on, then he was not aware nor awake. This space had length, width, height, and seemingly plenty of other things. Like a void so bright it hurt one’s eyes, yet there was no true light as there was no shading or shadow. He’d been walking, yet his feet didn’t seem to actually touch any ground and there was no air moving past; it actually felt as if there wasn’t anything around him at all. Perception was almost based more on feeling than actual location and stimuli.

And he could perceive something else or rather someone else was there with him.

He felt the sadness, through chiefly agony, regrets, and terror. It was before him but wasn’t given off by him. It was by another whom he approached, as best as one could in a space like this. What he saw before him wasn’t truly sight, just the concept of something given shape in a way a mind could interpret it. Interpret the sadness as tears, the fright as a small and vulnerable body.

A scared, crying little girl huddled with her knees to her chest and holding her legs as tight as she could; laying on her side with her back to him. She whimpered, sniffed, and sobbed; weak, pathetic, and trying to be as small as she possibly could be.

He crouched down beside her, unsure of himself for a time before just stopping short of reaching out to her. His hand was left dangling in the air, still as a statue upon some representation of her words being made audible.

“All my fault-“ she whined with a heart wrenching sob causing her to convulse, “It’s all my fault…”

He knew exactly who she was. Twilight Starla Sparkle, the native one to this world. The tool the windigos used to catalyze this scheme of theirs. There was even more of her here than he was. Glancing at his midsection, he could perceive another reminder this wasn’t the physical world and how over half of his stomach and chunks of his arms and legs were missing, their endpoints marked by wisps of ethereal magic. And yet despite being incomplete he was still held together. Perhaps it was some sort of representation of how much had been pulled out of his mind, a way of comprehending the intangible existence of memory. Most of his consciousness wasn’t here, only about half.

Yes there were only a few pieces and bits of Twilight absent and smoking. Almost her entire existence had been wrenched out of her body. She was almost entirely here, somehow fully conscious and aware. And evidently very much aware of what she had helped unleash.

His hand balled to a fist. He wasn’t even fully able to remember why, not with his mind split, but Monster X remembered his loathing for this one. For all she’d done, for all she’d no doubt judged in arrogance or ignorance and acted upon. He wanted to strike, and his fist cocked back slowly.

Her sobbing, incomprehensible and unintelligible mutterings of sorrow and grief bring through the air. X closed his eyes and sighed, contemplating while listening to it all.

He couldn’t remember much, exactly what all had happened, who he was with, or how things were the way they were. But he could remember at least some of himself. Which meant wherever the rest of his mind was, in his body or elsewhere, it would hopefully remember too.

His fist opened back up and gently touched Twilight’s shoulder. She quivered at the contact but turned around. Her face was marred in sorrow and grief, ugly tears and sweat streaming down a face that was almost entirely complete save for a missing eye socket that billowed smoke.

He knew exactly who he was looking at, but also exactly what he was looking at. This world’s Twilight was a good deal younger than the one he vaguely recalled knowing.

X put his other hand atop her head, and she gawked for only a moment before collapsing forward. She burrowed into his space, sobbing, and desperately clinging to any company she could have to keep some of the horrible visions away. Through the muffled sobbing, he managed to pick out three words in her sputtering.

“I’m sorry- I’m so sorry-y-y!” she gagged on her cries and shook all over.

Monster X blinked before looking down at one he thought once of as an enemy, only seeing a scared, harmless, agonized little girl full of regret. He sighed, embracing, and patting her back for what very well might have been hours. Perception of time was all kinds of nonsensical in this void, but he could at least check some gauging of passage in progress. She started out totally inconsolable, but it seemed like grief could only burn so strongly for so long before the mind burned out just like the body would.

And when she finally ran out of steam, ran out of tears, she whispered.

“I-remember…”

“What do you remember?” X muttered back, still putting aside retribution to do what was right, just as he did back in another life on another planet.

“I- I…” she cringed from pains within and held her face.

Zephyrus had appeared to her many times, ever since last fall. Every time he physically manifested in some tangible form, he might look a bit different but there was still a sense of ethereal nobility or calm. A small animal, an elven spirit with a crown of antlers, or sometimes as animated, visible air currents carrying his trademark western winds and a gentle voice. Now she couldn’t banish the memory of his true self, or the closest thing something like him might have to one. Eyes drooling black ichor from empty sockets, gaunt limbs with frostbitten skin, that cavity of a chest ringed with icy shards like a gaping maw; and all the amorphous mass that otherwise comprised a form that mutilated the mind to comprehend.

She clung to X tighter and tried to focus entirely on his presence to at least give her mind something else to focus upon.

“I know their plans…”

==============

In a forested locale just outside of town, the sixth flash of red glimmered just within the tree line. A brilliant flare before unceremoniously depositing two forms tangled up in a heap of each other’s limbs. Adagio grumbled as she was the first to rise, trying to shake away the nausea distorting her consciousness while frantically looking about to try and get her bearings and confirm if the horrific monster she had felt a split second before getting grabbed was still with them. Thankfully no frost demons were in sight.

“Where are we?! What have you done!”

“Emergency fallba-a-a-a-“ Gigan thwacked himself on the chest and sparked, “Fallback. We were attacked and there was no time to enact countermeasures, so the fall back was to clear space. I set it to Camp Everfree so we’re somewhere between here and there.”

“Somewhere?! somewhere?! You idiot!” Adagio grabbed him by his collar and shook the cyborg a few times, “We just got attacked by a windigo, my cousin and podmates are still around a windigo! And you go running off with your tail between your legs?!”

Gigan’s mechanical eyes contracted behind his sunglasses and he pursed his lips with a grumble, “I was only trying to back up to get out of the way of whatever attack they were launching! I didn’t mean to keep warping!”

“Oh I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of you ditching everyone!”

“It was an accident!” Gigan snapped, looking aside and pulling up some diagnostics that had plenty of error codes coming from his warp drive, “I’m still damaged from the fight with Godzilla. My safeties thought I was more hurt than I was and kept going!”

Adagio hadn’t let go of him, yanking him closer to her furious visage so much their foreheads banged together. To her credit, she took getting conked on the head with a metallic skull without flinching, “While I didn’t ask to be included in you glitching out! Bring us back there, Aria and Eventide need me; let alone your teammate will need us!”

“I know!” Gigan huffed as he gripped her shoulders and tried to push the siren back despite some impulse to hold on to her. He tried to rev up his warp drive again but it sputtered out, sparks ejecting from his mid-back.

“Grahk! Piece of scrap!” Gigan snarled as he tried again, only for his limbs momentarily his limbs lock up and spark again, “I wouldn’t be running on a jury-rig if you and Tentacle Lover weren’t needing guarding every five minutes! I need my hangar, something I keep getting denied because of all the crazy stuff happening here constantly!”

“I wasn’t asking you to guard me every five minutes! You didn’t need to drag me into this mess if you’re going to wimp out at the sight of a windigo!” Adagio yelped back, throwing her hands up into the air as her pulse raced and her teeth grit.

“I didn’t cut and run! I already told you!”

“Yet you grabbed onto me!”

“And you held on so tight I had to pry you off!”

“Do you even know where we are!?”

“No! I can’t get my maps to work, can you tell me where we are!?”

“I don’t know where you dumped us!”

“You live here! How can you not know?!” Gigan roared with a huff of strain in his voice.

“I lived in the next city over, until you kaiju came crashing into our life and upended it!”

Gigan couldn’t see it but she could, the absolute geysers of negative emotions billowing out of him in the form of greenish smoke. It was taking conscious effort to avoid absorbing it, much as she often liked getting under his skin. She was also painfully aware of how much was also coming out of her.

Every mark, every snap, and the increasing yelling in their back and forth was only engendering more and more negativity. Finally got to the point she just couldn’t keep it up longer. Adagio stomped and turned around, crossing her arms, and just putting her back to the cyborg.

Gigan unconsciously reached for words before looking at his hand, noticing tremors going up and down it. The metallic fingers curled back in and kneaded amongst themselves as his eyes shut. He turned around and now they were back-to-back in silence; one trying to look about their surroundings and figure out a way back to where they’d come from, the other fidgeting with internal systems to try and get something back in working order.

This wasn’t a new position they found themselves in. They’d butted heads plenty of times before. Butted heads on planning, when the reveal of getting the wrong Twilight came to light, the topic of what to do with her, how to handle Gloriosa’s growing magic, and more. Their reactions to Eventide trying to shoulder any blame for what had happened was only the most recent incident.

And then there was the subject of the night after the concert, when both had been attacked and tormented by Notus using their own voice. Pushed far enough into despair that Adagio tried to give away her most precious gift, her literal heart, to keep away from a monster whose name she’d dreaded for years to ever say aloud.

-Zephyrus…-

The title rang in his mind and Gigan had remembered it well. It had been on his mind when the windigo showed up and he’d reacted, intending to only fallback a safe distance and then rejoin the fray. A plan that hinged on grabbing the siren he’d butted heads with so much. The reason being was slowly dawning, cusping on the horizon of thought but still mostly blocked away. Gigan just tried to focus on his mechanics and get everything working again.

It was a moment or two more when Adagio, trembling and rubbing her arm while contemplating a lot, finally sucked up her nerves and turned back around. Gigan perked his head up to meet her and she was just about to say something, either an observation of where they were or maybe even some kind of apology to swallow her pride, but it did not escape or notice just as soon as he was looking at her; that he was looking past her

“… Oh no,” Gigan whispered breathlessly.

Adagio was about to ask what it was when all perception of time slowed down to the microscopic fraction of a millisecond. He started charging forward, eyes beginning to flicker and ignite with red light behind his sunglasses while trying to mouth out something. A cold, western gale started to billow past her hair and creep along her neck. A cable shot out of Gigan’s wrist, poised to grab the siren as it swung closer, and on impulse she leaned forward to grab it with an outstretched hand. That was when a solid mass smashed into her back.

Adagio Dazzle gasped as she was slammed forward by a mass of ice, which continued to sail forward and collide with Gigan, exploding into a sea of frost to encase him despite his efforts to knock it out of the way. Everything was a dizzy vertigo; air starting to distort and move in erratic ways almost like the effect of time itself was being twisted. She caught a glimpse of Gigan stuck against a tree trunk with a car sized hunk of ice growing out of a human shape anchoring him into place despite attempts to free himself. The cold swallowed the cyborg up entirely.

And then in an instant, Twilight Sparkle was on top of her, eyes and face giving only a bemused façade as her fingers curled around Adagio’s necklace like there was no force barrier. Twilight braced her foot on Adagio’s stomach and kicked off while wrenching her arm backwards.

The cord making up Adagio’s necklace snapped, and she felt almost as if a chunk of very being, her breath and pulse, was torn off. It was a massing thought in her mind as a tear stung on the corner of her eye as she fumbled backwards, that this was exactly what Sonata had experienced.

Zephyrus took inventory of the deceptively important red jewel, looking at it in mild amusement for all the trouble it had caused despite its tiny size.

“This new body has made things far more convenient if the situation allows,” the windigo noted calmly, comparing success here to the resistance he had encountered trying to wrench away Aria’s necklace and the complicated body surfing that was required to remove Notus’ spawn’s necklace.

The Western Wind took a glance at Adagio, who was sprawled onto her knees and hands, heaving while frost started to form across her limbs and cheeks. Etched across her neck and collar was an ugly, ragged scar, exactly like the one her little sister had initially. On Sonata it had started out small, if still blatantly noticeable, before growing over the ensuing weeks. This jagged, tense mass was etching across her skin in a matter of moments, western gales carrying those dark emotions within the green mists directly into it without filter. It was like she was going through what Sonata had over about a month in the span of moments.

Adagio gasped and shivered, trying and failing to rise, eyes glued to her necklace.

Zephyrus let it dangle from their fingers before snatching it back up and holding it in their palm as they looked upon her. Crouching down, the windigo wearing Twilight Sparkle’s skin gripped the eldest siren by the chin and inspected her, “So, you really are my daughter. I almost thought for a while initially that your mother would have killed my remainder before you could be born, or right after.”

Their eyes met Adagio’s as ice crawled up her neck and sunk into her cheeks. Zephyrus noticed something that spurred a glare as his gaze bored into Adagio’s even as she practically had a seizure, “… You have his eyes.”

Zephyrus’ hand lifted up and towards the convulsing siren’s eyes… when a sudden crash shattered all noise and wind within the air. An eye could blink and not perceive what had happened. One moment, stillness, the next came a red flash, shards of ice were flying freely in the air, and Zephyrus was several meters away; the spot where their wrist had been now occupied by Gigan’s only surviving scythe in a failed attempt to slice the limb off.

“Ah, the automaton from the schoolyard,” Zephyrus shrugged with no concern in his voice at all, “Surprised you managed to free you-“

“DON’T! YOU! DARE!” Gigan huffed and snarled, holding Adagio to him with one arm and trying to keep her away from Zephyrus whilst pointing his blade bearing hand towards the monster, “D-DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH HER!”

Zephyrus just perked their brow, looking as bored as possible. A split second later they were several paces away from the pair with an icy copy of Twilight’s body painfully smashing into Gigan’s shoulder. The cyborg huffed and growled, shrugging off the hit and trying to keep himself constantly facing the windigo. An attempt at flanking them by Zephyrus was met by a sweep of an optic blast along the ground, red plasma slashing through a tree and exploding the trunk. The aged conifer cracked and groaned as it fell upon the lightly snow coated forest floor, ice beginning to seep and crawl its way across the ground.

Gigan winced and gagged from a pain in his side, one with a particular localization to its origin. He could feel individual fingers, blisteringly cold digging numbness across his chest and side. Adagio Dazzle was wheezing, her sobs louder as frost began to take hold on any place she was holding on to him at. Sparks shot out from a joint due to a shard of ice getting lodged within it.

Adagio quickly noticed the change, her head snapping up to look at Gigan with the truest expression of horror and terror etched across every feature. Her tears had stopped flowing, they were frozen. Before he could even say anything she’d looked at her hand in aghast dread, looked at his body where she was beginning to affect him; and shoved herself away. The siren could not stand on her own, crumbling to her knees with her arms wrapped around her midsection lest her tainted touch affect anybody else. Affect him.

“Ada-ARG!” Gigan cried out as another massive hunk of ice slammed into him at full speed, staggering the cyborg before an aura of purple magic so dark it was practically black grabbed him by the legs and wrenched him off his feet.

Gigan kicked and tried to free himself from the telekinetic grip that smashed him against another tree trunk, metal straining and groaning against such a force, before shrieking when he was crushed into another. Finally, Zephyrus’ hand whipped around and swung Gigan about in a wide arc. Movement with their hand matched the telekinesis to scale, Zephyrus raising the fist upwards before swinging it down. The cyborg was violently thrown in a mirrored arc that would end by wrenching him into the sharpened, blacked stump of the tree trunk he’d previously blasted through. His jacket was gouged into, but he vanished in a burst of red light just before he could be impaled.

Zephyrus perked their brow in mild surprise, quickly looking back as another red flash appeared behind them. Gigan threw every bit of caution he had to the winds, not bothering to go for restraints but going straight for the lethal option. The scythe swung wide but hit nothing but an icy copy cast in Twilight Sparkle’s visage, exploding it into fragments from the sheer force. Zephyrus appeared a ways away, extending the hand now holding Adagio’s necklace.

“GIVE THAT BACK!” The Nebulan weapon roared just as the telekinesis wave Zephyrus launched forth latched onto his torso and crushed inwards.

Again, he vanished in a burst of red light, again his counterattack missed when his half-broken chainsaw burst through the ice copy; and again, he was forced to teleport away again.

Zephyrus reappeared a short distance away, exactly 10 meters as Gigan calculated despite them clearly trying to get as much distance as possible. Every time he’d seen them seemingly disappear and reappear, they never traveled further than that. Deciding to likewise throw caution aside and having previously acquired an asset, Zephyrus reached for their neck and brought out a stone that Gigan instantly recognized from the description Aria and Sonata had given.

“A useful asset you happened to be the one to confront me, machine,” Zephyrus hummed as the stone was activated on touch and memories were siphoned away, “You scared Twilight more than anyone had.”

Both from the schoolyard itself and from the memories Zephyrus himself could sample in their brief time possessing the cyborg before being repulsed due to their weakened state, the Western Winds had plenty of horrors to dredge up starring the cyborg now rushing at them. Plenty of strife, fear, hatred, and all the ills of the mind. Dark mists representing such came gushing out of Twilight’s body as it briefly convulsed and whimpered, like some piece of her mind was being subjected to it while Zephyrus was still in the driver’s seat.

Both Adagio and the windigo absorbed them before the second was up.

Gigan, not one to leave something magical to chance, immediately opened fire. Red plasma slashed through the air, quickly followed by extended cables armed with explosive tips. Black smoke cloaked the area around Zephyrus for a time, the cyborg immediately keeping the momentum going by blitzing forward to get into melee range.

A broad, black wing beat back the smoke and knocked the cyborg aside and through several spires of ice. An unworldly wailing ripped through the air as a grotesque form launched itself off the ground and hovered briefly before settling some distance away. Ethereal magic cloaked around eyes that had contracted to manic points, the orbs themselves glazing over and paling as the windigo assumed full control. Noticeably taller, Frostbite Sparkle, still very much Zephyrus, shrieked aloud and telekinetic waves split the ice around them in a chaotic crush.

A red flash of light promptly appeared right in front of them; Gigan bursting into existence post warp and swinging for their head, undeterred.

Adagio Dazzle trembled, barely able to perceive or understand anything. The pain and horror were so great she had to scream, and yet nothing could exit her throat almost as if it had been frozen over. It was like her life was flashing before her eyes, as if that very life was ending. Anything except pain, hatred, jealousy, and all the other heinous emotions that could motivate the worst of actions was being ripped away. The dark mists spawning around herself, Gigan, and Zephyrus constantly were getting siphoned into her at such a billowing pace and volume they blocked out almost everything in her sight.

And yet somehow she was still able to perceive the rapid-fire red glimmers and focus on them even as icing tears threatened to freeze over her eyes.

Smashing aside another ice copy, Gigan was beginning to understand what this monstrosity was doing when it pulled the disappearing act.

-Every time I nearly hit them, they slow for a fraction of a second, move in a certain direction, and leave a copy in their place.-

He pressured an already almost busted warp drive to keep up just a bit more, dodging another attack that collapsed a tree on where he’d been a moment ago and coming within a hair’s breadth of his target. A hair was cut free from Frostbite Sparkle’s bangs as his bladed fist flew past. He cycled through every visual setting he could, many scans just showing an obscuring mass of unreadable error symbols at trying to quantify magic. But he wasn’t looking for what he could see, rather what he couldn’t. Like some kind of reversal of scanning for anything, the focus was on where the errors appeared and in what shape.

Every time Zephyrus vanished and reappeared, a string of broken code, be it heat signature or electromagnetic radiation, was left in their wake in a diminishing degree. The line of broken signal coding would stretch almost imperceptibly thin, but when it expanded out he could just barely discern limbs or hair; like seeing an image blurred by motion and stretched out in a funhouse mirror. A line of Zephyrus’ presence extended in a specific direction, warping and distorting the air as they went so it was like they were in the entire length of distance between Point A and Point B simultaneously; instead of just disappearing and reappearing instantly.

-It’s not just super speed but it’s still instantaneous without bypassing space like me! They’re warping time and space to freeze everything and run somewhere else!-

Zephyrus reappeared elsewhere to the left, and Gigan focused on that. He threw out a cluster blast from his eyes, the red beam spanning forward before breaking up in an exploding shotgun pattern. Predictably, Zephyrus’ ice copy took the hit and they showed back up further along a hillside. Further up a slope. Further to the left.

Gigan chased after them towards the left; banished all caution and charged, building speed with every teleport whilst firing not just at Zephyrus but at everything along the bottom of the hillside in a cone before himself. Each time Zephyrus countered, each time he dodged by warping ahead just enough to keep them on course but not change direction. And keeping their focus on him as they battled and dodged up the hillside.

Gigan’s back where his teleportation device was located started sparking so much it glowed through his metal plated spine.

Zephyrus narrowed his eyes and ducked aside to avoid a pair of saws fired upon them, distorting time again to get some space from the enraged cyborg. This pest had impeded them at the schoolyard and while they saw them as just an annoyance more than anything else, they hadn’t expected them to be so determined to get at them. He’d seen this Gigan’s worst memories, and a machine of war was not one that could ever have a heart. One of his earliest memories was it being removed.

Suddenly their weight jerked downward with no grounding to stop and brace their feet against. It only cost them half a second to focus, having previously been too preoccupied with dodging to notice they had run out of slope. They had peaked on the top of the hill overlooking the forested locale Gigan and Adagio had first arrived in, and had stepped off where the side had eroded out at a sharp angle. They were a powerful force again; they were ancient and had faced many foes. But lack of awareness was a mistake even the skilled could make in the face of such brazen opposition.

The West Wind stumbled, and it was in that precious half second that Gigan launched himself at them at full speed; using the full momentum they’d gathered up from the constant warping just like they had fighting Ghidorah with Irys and Megalon.

A sudden eruption of smoke and sparks from his mid back garnered no attention by the battered cyborg. He didn’t care about his warp engine blowing up inside him from overuse and abuse, it had gotten him within striking distance, and he swung true when they went over the end of the hillside.

Gigan’s scythe shot at Zephyrus’ face and the windigo had enough space and momentum to knock the attack aside with a swift smack to the arm empowered by telekinesis. The limb twisted aside, swatted away as others had been… and the scythe cut cordage. The siren heart that had been dangling from Zephyrus’ hand was cut free precisely as the smirking Gigan intended.

As he and Zephyrus tumbled over the edge of the hillside, doubling end over end; they continued to quarrel. Gigan hissed from cold pains as Zephyrus grabbed onto the left side of his face and right arm, ice quickly forming along the grasped locations and jammed into the mechanics therein. It wasn’t an attack in battle, but an attempt at mutilation that didn’t go unanswered.

“Animate trash!” Zephyrus, finally emotive, snarled as his eyes contracted to crazed points. Icy sharps stabbed into Gigan’s left robotic eye and shattered it instantly.

In retaliation, tightly grabbed onto Zephyrus’ face, metallic fingers lashed out and clenched onto their skull as burning red engulfed Gigan’s surviving right eye. His glasses had shattered and the snarl had nothing mechanical beyond it.

“BURN.”

Zephyrus shrieked in an unworldly cry as their front was set ablaze from the thin red light that lanced across it, sparking against hair and skin. The rocky ground was rapidly approached. As they plummeted, Gigan’s eye glimpsed something around the windigo’s neck, where the magic was deflecting off most of his plasma torrent. A seemingly innocuous, runic stone was rapidly flickering as the milliseconds ticked by. He lunged for it and metal fingers curled around stone he’d seen Zephyrus go for earlier.

==============

X, he saw X. Or at least part of him. It wasn’t an actual sight, more an image in the mind’s eye. Just like the woman he was standing with, putting her forth to speak or whatever odd approximation of such this was. It was all Zephyrus forced her to watch as the tidal wave of sights bombarded Gigan’s mind.

There actually were no words, more flashes and imagery that were coupled with emotion to give them context rather than descriptives in spoken word. A location he didn’t know. A winged form hovering above it. Gales of cold from the North, South, West, and now East as well. Doorways in space wrenched open for the storm to billow through at multiple angles.

==============

Forced back into reality, Gigan’s crimson beam was suddenly intercepted by more ice forming across his face, causing the red plasma to deflect and divert away from its target. There was a scream that forced the cyborg’s attention away for just a moment. Zephyrus took the chance of loosened grip and kicked away from his enemy, an icy duplicate left grappling with the cyborg as the earth hit their back.

The possessed body of Twilight landed on their feet some distance away, ignoring the very ugly burn that marred their chest around the collar and shoulder. They picked themselves up, dusted off the stray bits of dirt on their sleeve, before looking back at the source of whimpering.

“Ah, there you are,” they looked upon their progeny with almost a sense of pride as if they could express such in another. More admiring their own handiwork.

A legacy that could survive even them should they have met their end. And she was taking after them so well. Adagio Dazzle winced, ice starting to grow out of her skin and black ichors started to weep from her eyes along with the frozen tears. The heaving rasps she croaked out were beginning to no longer resemble speech; but the craggy, haunting cries of an entity that represented all that living shouldn’t. Without the magical component of the mermare side of her in the form of the gem, so violently wrenched away; her body was absorbing negativity and magic like a drain forced open with nothing to filter it. She was rapidly morphing into a windigo.

The siren heart flickered dimly several meters away, Adagio too hurt and near catatonic to go for it.

And yet she still had a shard of faculties to her to clutch her arm. A burn mark skittered across it in a grazing hit.

The cold winds howled and carried with them the wisps of a blizzard. Still in the form of Frostbite; Zephyrus took a step closer, only for their foot to get snagged on something.

A low growl uttered underneath a jolt of sparks. Gigan ripped the chunk of ice stuck to his brow off, his one good eye focusing intently on Zephyrus’ body with burning wrath. The other socket, fully visible thanks to his glasses long having been destroyed, was a sparking, smoking cavity. His wrist cable mechanism had failed, so he’d grabbed onto Zephyrus’ foot with his remaining hand. The other was fully encased in magical ice.

Zephyrus almost seemed to shrug, “You were useful once you know. I used your memories to fully win over Twilight.”

They motioned to their own body and the Memory Stone that Gigan had failed to release from their grip.

“Won her over, scaring her with all the things you’ve done. Oh sure, call yourself a slave soldier; but you’re still a monster after my own being. You proved useful twice more, once at the docks,” Zephyrus motioned with a thumb towards Adagio, “And once… with her.”

Gigan’s eye clicked over and it instantly widened in shock. Adagio was looking right at him, eyes expanded with fear of what was happening to her… and in terror at him. The burn mark on her arm could only have one source. The deflection of Gigan’s optic blast against the ice had stent ricochets everywhere and avoiding collateral damage was not a habit he had. Having taken a glancing hit and mind in a full panic from her still in-progress transformation, she looked on at the cyborg unrecognized in horror.

“I’m hardly even feeding her dark magic now, she’s got plenty. Your spite and now shame is gushing forth, heedless of what it’s feeding into,” The West Wind mocked with a shrug as dark mists billowed out of Gigan and flooded into Adagio, tinged with embers of red, “Oh is that grief I detect? You actually care about what happens to her, is that it?”

Zephyrus grabbed a wad of Gigan’s hair and pulled him up, actually studying the cyborg who hadn’t looked away from the siren he’d accidentally struck in the crossfire. Something leaked out of his mechanical eye and for once, it wasn’t something synthetic. For the first time in his life, a tear seeped from a mechanical eye before freezing.

“Quaint,” Zephyrus shrugged as the western winds kicked up.

Ice started to build up around the grieving and horrified Gigan more and more by the second. The last thing in clear view was Adagio’s face as ice formed over his eye.

Gigan had spent decades, centuries perhaps, coming to terms with being mostly machine.

A metal limb is still a limb he’d say.

A replacement organ is still him, he’d say.

He believed every word of it, it was true.

He would never just be a machine. That is what he vowed. He would never just be a machine, and he’d keep fighting against that fear till he was no more.

But as the ice grew in closer, working itself tighter and tighter through the eminence of his misery; he knew what had to be done. As the cold and dark settled in. All his being, born of the emotions he still held onto stronger than even he knew; it had to go.

He finally gave up one fight so he could continue another.

Something within the form before Zephyrus changed. The ice stopped growing, no negativity to fester off from. Slumped forward, no more limb than if he’d died on the spot. Frostbite Sparkle pursed their lips in mild confusion and paused for a moment to look closer.

A red flicker where a mechanical eye had shut off suddenly came roaring back to life; and yet there was no life. No roar, no utterance; no emoting. Gigan burst out of the chains he’d been bound with, snapping the frost and rising up. The windigo stumbled backwards as mechanics with the cyborg audibly ground and shifted. When he staggered out of the ice, something was very different about Gigan.

No expression, no body language; in fact some of his fleshier parts looked limp. There was an audible back and forth, like pistons or swivels moving, with each step. They snapped a right fist forward with a surviving scythe extended, something Zephyrus easily dodged around. It was followed up by a swing with the left hand, which was slowed down from the ice buildup around it. A fester of dark magic was spewed forth and yet it had no impact on the cyborg at all; no ice allowed to form across their body.

Gigan unsuccessfully tried to make contact with several more swings before, without a word, detaching the frozen over limb at the elbow and letting it drop to the ground so the useless thing didn’t weigh them down.

A Western gale smashed into the cyborg, but aside from the concussive force of the wind; they didn’t seem to register the dark magic laden with strife and misery-inducing hexes lacing the winds. Zephyrus could confirm it with a glance. There was no strife or any negativity coming off the cyborg, which braced his- its feet and started to stagger forward to get in close like an implacable force.

Telekinesis grabbed onto Gigan’s chest like a crushing grip before flinging the cyborg into a tree trunk. They struck with a loud thud, only to not register any pain and get right back up despite obvious damage in the form of increase in smoke and sparks. Not even a word or groan to show life. Because in a way, there was none.

“... No,” Adagio whispered through frosted lips as she looked on in horror, just as much aghast at what someone she once loathed to be around was becoming as at what she was morphing into.

This wasn’t Gigan, this was a heartless machine wearing his body. His essence, his heart was no longer beating, metaphorically more than literally.

Gigan had, in essence, shut himself off entirely. Anything conscious or emotive was completely tuned out or turned off. All that was left, from the robotic means of walking forward to the very direct and precise use of another optic blast Zephyrus had to dodge, was entirely mechanical. Just an animated force bound and determined to attack Zephyrus, at any cost.

Except, that wasn’t all of it. For when Zephyrus tried to redirect the blast back at Gigan, the machine made no attempts to avoid a direct hit and instead just blocked it with their good arm. But upon the windigo trying to divert the blast at his own progeny, it was cut off entirely to avoid hitting her.

Adagio was able to feel her pulse for a split second, and actually blink even though it felt like her eyelids had to snap through ice to do so.

Gigan had done the one thing he was most afraid of, and had left himself only two directives. Kill Zephyrus and protect her.

Adagio watched as the machine, for there was no life within it, waded forward despite getting icy spears lobbed at it through telekinetic waves. It tried to use its warp drive, only for the failed system to fully give out once more and spew out smoke. The pause gave Zephyrus time to lodge several lances of ice into the cyborg’s joints; causing it to stagger to the ground on its knees. And yet despite what should have been crippling, it refused to stop advancing or show any pain.

Its single surviving red optic only briefly diverted as if to update itself on her well being; before a shard of ice went flying into it.

Gigan stumbled forward, seemingly mostly blinded, trying to wrench the ice out for a moment or two before opting to just leave it in the socket; dragging itself forward while sparking and jolting from all but destroyed limbs. It wouldn't stop, it would never stop possibly regardless of if it managed to take out Zephyrus.

“No…”

She saw them now, Zephyrus. In the body of a young girl morphed into a monstrosity and yet all the more terrifying. The very thing she’d been scared of for decades. The very same being who embodied every fear and was everything in her mind that had ever gone wrong for her family. He’d taken her mother away from her, took her mother from her grandmother in a different manner, took their home away by getting her mother and aunt exiled, and took her place in Equestria away by driving her onto the path she’d wound up spiralling down in an attempt to conquer fear with gained might. And when she’d realized she’d been the villain in Equestria, realized she almost drove her own family apart after swearing to protect them, and realized how her isolation born of mistrust and strife destroyed their own plans at great cost; she’d been horrified to think she’d wound up like him after all.

The temptation to just give up, let the cold come through; gnawed at every fiber of her body.

Zephyrus lifted a massive growth of jagged ice up from the ground, poised to be hurled down to crush the transgressing cyborg. It might have turned its own living half off, but it still had it and needed it. It could still die and Zephyrus knew this.

Gigan reached out with a blade, trying to crawl forward and close the distance as Zephyrus smirked.

She felt a familiar despair, one she had before. After the concert. After finding a cyborg she’d grown to care about battered down and her on the verge of shattering. She’d removed and tried to throw away her necklace once then. Someone helped put her back together.

They’d fallen apart, and Gloriosa had put them back together as she brought them together.

And she’d be damned on any memory of her mother and aunt, if she’d let this abomination take more things from her.

A siren heart glimmered despite being away from its owner.

And Adagio let it all out.

It wasn’t any particular word or utterance. It was instead, a massive exhale, containing decades of hatred and dread for her own sire; and a declaration aimed at the only two beings’ whose faces flickered to her mind when she thought of love as a source of strength against him.

“WHAT?!” Zephyrus blurted out on impulse, unable to hide a brief stupor at seeing the surges of a power very much like their own aimed back at them. The weather no longer obeyed their will alone.

An enormous blast of western winds slammed into Zephyrus and knocked them from their feet, ragdolling Frostbite Sparke’s body with the sheer impact. They were forced to drop their attempted execution blow against Gigan and save themselves with a time distortion. Even then, both they and their icy copy were sent hurtling back, spinning head over end, and with the duplicate shattering itself on a tree trunk so hard the old pine snapped in two by the time Zephyrus hit it. The same winds cast by Adagio ripped away at Gigan’s bonds, benign magic carried across them instead of the malign. The ice formations that had begun to erupt out of the cyborg’s form melted slightly enough to dislodge some stuck in the joints, and he was freed from the shards adhering him to the ground. Still, the shadow of the falling ice came across Gigan’s awareness, but as the enormity of frost bore down upon him and cracked tree branches on its descent downwards; Adagio bolted forward and grabbed the cyborg with adrenaline fueled strength.

She didn’t pull him up and away, she wasn’t strong enough for that. Fractions of seconds instead ticked by as the ice formation continued to drop, shattering anything in its path. Another gale of wind formed to herald a returning presence, not from Adagio this time. Zephyrus wasn’t forced back for long, especially not when he just had full confirmation this siren was indeed his spawn without any doubt

He and his stubborn misery went ignored.

A partial mechanical eye, all that remained of the destroyed optic from the icy dagger that had been lodged into the socket with the other eye blasted and charred; uselessly focused upwards. Even without true sight, systems somehow beheld Adagio Dazzle, still half covered in frost and leaking black ichors from her mouth and eyes.

She smiled even as she wept, putting her necklace onto his neck and pushing it down onto his chest. A burned and yet frosted, half broken mechanical hand touched at her fingers as a massive light enveloped them both.

Frostbite Sparkle stormed forward, wincing in pain with their magic flickering off and on at certain intervals like the transformation was convulsing. Their spawn’s seizing of their own winds had damaged them more than a point blank plasma beam had, infesting their mind briefly with benevolence in thought and memory. Firsts clenched and teeth grit so tightly they seemed poised to shatter them, they braced as enormous wafts of mist blocked out everything in sight. Even in the dying sunlight, the tall pines cast eerie shadows within the cold mists, ones that came with the echoes of shattering trees. Something was moving through the fog and the instant they glimpsed it moving towards them. Time was ripped apart and slowed to a crawl, Zephyrus dodging to the left. But even after ten meters, they couldn’t totally avoid it. 10 meters wasn’t enough. It was too big.

===============

Finding a magical someone who seemed to crave spotlight and a six and a half plus foot tall cyborg sounded easy on paper. And yet there was next to nothing. After several minutes of waiting and lack of calls back from both Everfree and any sign of Gigan and Adagio returning, the group split. Anguirus and Irys took to escorting the Rainbooms to Camp Everfree; whilst Celestia, Aria, and Godzilla remained behind to search for Adagio and Gigan as well as get Sentry somewhere it would be safe to leave him against risk of moving him too much.

The latter group had just fanned out with kaiju and siren remaining in eachshot of each other for safety. They didn’t know where Zephyrus had gone off to; if that hit had incapacitated them and that’s why they didn’t come charging back in, or if it had only forced them back. Much as he was aware brute force wouldn’t be the ticket to destroying these abominations, Junior could admit to having fancied scoring some degree of a direct hit with the Ultima Flare instead of just overpowering the oncoming tsunami; crucial as that last part was. He’d been aiming at the wave both because of how it had to be dealt with, and because of some caution using lethal force on Zephyrus’ host.

Was this Twilight truly vile and completely different from the benevolent magus he knew?

Would killing her possibly benefit the scheming frost demon in some sort of way?

Was she coerced into this, compliant in all of it, or possessed unwillingly?

He didn’t know the answers, and that was a reason he’d taken pains to make sure he didn’t land that shot directly.

Still, there was unease. And he knew well he wasn’t the only one. Aria Blaze was understandably quite stressed and showed it in every tense muscle of her body and manner. Celestia, even in her diminished state, hadn’t left the exhausted and now unconscious Sentry’s side, the force of will he had keeping himself active, awake, and fighting the windigo’s presence for days now leaving him drained.

Godzilla grunted, whilst trying to feel for any indicator of where their company had gone. Gigan’s teleportation made finding a trail tricky. Especially with all the stray traces of magic still flowing about.

Which was why it seemed like some uncanny flashback to his scuffle with Lulu when he felt it. It had no tactile sense, no movement in the air, no sensory input in itself. Not the flash of light, but the sense of power that seemed to move even faster than it with the light as an aftermath.

Still, there was no mistaking that massive pillar of luminescence firing off into the sky; he’d been in that situation plenty of times before. It’s appearance didn’t give him cause for alarm in itself as others stopped to gawk, and a glance at a similarly observant Aria Blaze. The ghidorah-bolstered siren’s red eyes locked to his, and then looked back to the pillar in a knowing glance.

By now any civilians and passerby had to have taken notice. There was no concert to hide this one and no deep water to dive into. They saw the enormity come into existence on the edge of town, towering far taller than any living thing otherwise could even if this form still looked smaller than it should have. Already outcries and running masses spilled away from the edge of town and made their escape.

“Go!” Celestia yelled out to both of her compatriots as she very carefully tied an unconscious Sentry into a set with the safety belts so his neck would be supported, “Aria was it? How well can you fly?”

The siren, brushing aside taking a request from an alicorn who might have been her foe in another setting, flipped her wings outwards and lifted off the ground.

“Enough!”

“How well can you lift?” Junior barked over the outcries of the crowds as he made his way towards the two.

His extended arm gave away his intent and Aria Blaze smirked, grabbing onto it and with a bit of effort, lifting the kaiju turned man from the ground. It was the first time Godzilla had felt waves of gravitons wrap around his body and not be all the worse for it.

“Enough!” Kaizer Aria cracked a smirk.

“Get over there as fast as you can! I’ll catch up!”

“How?” Godzilla hollered as Celestia made her way to the front of the van.

The former alicorn yelled back as she pulled open the van door, “I’ll catch up! Just go! Go! Go!”

“You heard her, no throwing up!” Aria Blaze yelled out as she put all of her gravity manipulation into forward motion, hauling herself and her cargo through the air at a decent pace.

As Godzilla held on to her arm, he looked at the forming mass and was less concerned that Gigan had transformed in itself; the cyborg’s body clearly came into view as the light itself seemed to solidify into his body. No, he was more concerned with both why he looked so badly damaged and why he’d transformed in the first place.

Eyes squinted to look through the blindness at Gigan, who seemed to be sporting a bright red light on his collar like he was wearing a necklace. The cyborg thrashed and twisted around, sparking and gushing smog all while…

-Wait… Is something in his mouth?!-

===========

Seconds earlier, Zephyrus tore into time itself as four ruptures burst through the cold mists and bright light. Like the bows of four great ships, they barreled forward even while time crawled along at a snail’s pace. Frostbite Sparkle ran, beating a half-formed wingspan to clear as much distance as possible. And yet the greatness of their span was too much. There was no dodging this. Ten meters, eight meters, five-

Dark mists were rapidly drawn upon, energy sucked out of every cubic meter of air and ground that could be affected and frozen.

Four meters, three-

A black wing folded over a body, freezing in place as time snapped back to normality from the bastardization it had been subjected to. It almost seemed like that fundamental force had become vindictive of its violation.

Two, one…

Two jaws and two mandibles. With both arms busted and most weapons offline, blinded by his eye being destroyed, it was the last two weapons he had left. They snapped down on the frozen form of Zephyrus with an echoing crash of Giga Nizer alloy against eldritch magic ice.

The monumental cyborg thrashed like a maddened dog that had caught a rat, briefly letting go only to crunch down again. The sheer force created deafening snaps like a thousand gongs striking each other. It wasn’t just the sheer kinetic force at play, the red necklace that had grown to scale with the fifty some meter titan rapidly flickered between different colors; one for each source Adagio had drawn from the past few weeks. When it landed upon a pair of hues intermixed, green on one side and gray on the other, red mists enveloped and encircled the kaiju.

Gigan glimpsed someone in his mind’s eye. Two figures. One looked human, but clad in foliage with green eyes dimly illuminated behind a red mask. The other, encircling her form like it was swimming through the air, was anything but humanoid and yet the brilliant blues about her flippers and hippocampus like form gave the same sense of parental tenderness. Gloriosa and Adagio’s mothers they be, the love and legacy they left being made palpable through the siren’s magic and shared memories. He’d never known such a love or legacy in his life, he had no parents or substitute figures. The closest he could ever come was the warmth felt thinking about the two beings these matrons reminded him of.

He’d shut off his own heart to keep fighting, a siren’s heart restarted it when its magic reminded him of why he wasn’t stopping.

The memories of Wysteria, the Legend of the Everfree, and Melpomene, Crown Princess of Mako, smiled at the damaged weapon of war.

A promise was cast and he seized his second chance.

Another bite and the ice chrysalis shattered, the red mists weakening the dark magic that had so few weaknesses. He wasn’t sure if he could kill them, and if he could he wasn’t certain it would come at the cost of condemning Sonata to a cruel fate and destroying the memories within the stone. But he could keep his promise. This monster had brought ruin to Wysteria and Melpomene both, something their daughters were well on the defense again. He wouldn’t let history repeat itself.

Time was running out, rapidly. He couldn’t kill Zephyrus and he had to tell the others what he’d seen when grabbing onto the stone. He’d do as he always did and manage as he could.

Western winds whirled all around him and they were not of Zephyrus’ doing. A small form, relative to Gigan’s gigantic frame, held onto the damaged stump of what had been one of the cyborg’s scythes. Despite the ice forming across her body, she didn’t let it fester. The winds obeyed her now, in this moment of such a high emotional rush. The red mists, carried in the gales of rushing air, encircled Gigan like a tornado of benevolence. It proved toxic to the abomination that sired her, Harmony’s example tainting the very powers he’d passed down as a further insult added to injury. Adagio Dazzle wasn’t scared anymore.

Aunt Hymnia, Mother, Twilight, the Hunters, Aria, Sonata; anyone she cared about or had ever cared for. Two faces in particular, the memories therein, contained the most potent boost.

No more running away, no more having others fight the battle for her alone.

Speakers blared out a booming roar that at first sounded like a shriek, before morphing into speech; both amplified far beyond what would be typically possible for the mechanical systems alone. A declaration aimed both at the monster inside Gigan’s jaws and to the citizens of the town that could no doubt see the fifty plus meter tall behemoth on their border as it spoke in unison with a siren.

“RROAAAUAURAARGHGGOOOO AAAWAAAAY!”

Gigan threw his head upwards and to the side, flinging the windigo-possessed Frostbite Sparkle like a fastball pitch. They went rocketing into the air in a flurry of broken ice and wisps of dark magic, sailing hundreds of meters uncontrollably. As they careened through the air and out of sight of any observing party, at times they’d seem to slow in midair only to reappear elsewhere in a desperate gambit to help their mortal form survive the fall.

Gigan and Adagio both stood tall, proud as Zephyrus was sent into retreat. They couldn’t kill them, but this battle wasn’t about that. It was about keeping someone else from harm and making sure it couldn’t happen again. And to that they’d both succeeded.

Adagio felt the presence of her sire leave, banished for a time. She smiled even as bits of frost started to fester and grow across her cheeks and lips. The transformation hadn’t stopped, only slowed. But fear didn’t clutch at her heart as the sun started to set in the distance; crossing her face with ebbing strands of warm beams. A part of her mind couldn’t help but wonder the what-ifs.

What if those monsters never came to Mako Island? What if her mother ascended to the throne as queen and some other sired her? What if these abominations never wound up here to menace Gloriosa’s family and take her mother away?

Horrible things happened, no doubt. Years ago she’d wish them away without caution, it was an easier choice when her ‘world’ was only herself and her pod. Not so easy when her world had grown so much.

It had been a long journey to get here, one not over yet, and she could still mourn the tragedies that had unfolded. But perhaps for the first time in a long, long time… She felt safe enough that she’d never trade it away.

The pestilence overtook her stamina and she collapsed, still smiling and content she’d remain safe even in light of that horror.

He felt her after all.

Gigan pitched his head down, twisted metal creaking as he bled hydraulic fluid and blood in equal numbers from the numerous breaches in his chassis and carapace. His red visor shattered, the broken mechanical eye still somehow knew where his focus was. The siren heart, the same thing that gave him sight of the windigo and the departed through their memory, pulsed dimly and he could still see. The red, glowing outline stretched out across one of his forearms; lit up like a beacon in the haze.

-So, this is what magic is like…-

Gigan admired it, appreciating it for the first time, before willing it away. This wasn’t his to keep, only a momentary gift.

Light overtook him and he was back to the span and shape of a man, a heavily damaged man with wires, gears, and limbs of broken metal; but not a machine. Holding her in his arms, he took the necklace off himself as best he could and felt cold hands graciously accept it.

Blind again, fully with his ruined eyes, he normally would be on edge. Frightened perhaps at being without feedback to his surroundings. But hearing a sniffle after shifting of hair and fabric indicated the gem returned to its proper place, he quickly felt the world warmed with an embrace. Adagio rested her chin on Gigan’s shoulder, trying to shield him against the cold as he had her.

She spoke so quietly it was barely audible, shivering from lingering cold, “We beat him…”

“Not-t over… Retreated, they’re still alive,” Gigan whispered in caution, “And they have… a p-plan.”

Adagio only tightened her grip on him, tears of relief streaming down her face. For years she’d been terrified every time it snowed or the wind blew towards the west. For years everything wrong with the world and everything to be feared was ascribed to the name of the being that brought ruin to her mother and grandmother. For years the motivation that set her on the path to her wrongs, past and recent.

The unstoppable, horrifying, and wretched nightmare had been sent into retreat; they’d made Zephyrus bleed.

The tightness in her chest finally eased, seeping out in quiet weeping that had been held in for decades. It must have been infectious, as she felt a similar huff and hitch in his own breath. The ice on her body was finally almost fully melted, her windigo half pushed back and contained.

“We beat him.”

Gigan returned the embrace, even with his hands all but ruined, “We beat him.”

Adagio giggled and pulled away, brushing a hand over his scalp and cheek while shaking her head, “What did I say about scaring me li-like that, Bolts? L-Look like shit…”

Gigan sparked as he tightened his grip, almost falling back only to feel a pair of arms support him now. A tired smile creaked across busted lips.

“You and me both-both-both-both,” Gigan stopped repeating when a knowing siren thumped him on the side of the head.

“Arg,” Gigan huffed, “Thank yo-mph!”

She was wet with sweat, smelled horrible, was still freezing cold even in the thaw; and wreaked of magic he no longer found abhorrent.

He was leaking oil everywhere, had virtually no eyes, was burnt and frozen at the same time; and tasted metallic as he smelled.

They had a lot of other things to worry about, but they could take comfort in one thing.

They were in love.

=============

Pinkie Pie kept pacing with anxiety, chewing off much of her fingernails before Gloriosa stopped her. Miss Lea seemed surprised to find her here, but that wasn’t her focus at the moment. Neither was Pinkie’s, instead both were homed in on the downed cyborg. The mess hall was still burning as day ebbed into night, casting embers into the darkening sky that flickered within everyone’s eyes.

Pinkie once had a very fluctuating view of Miss Lea. When she’d first arrived and even so bravely fought to save Twilight, the middle Pie sister had looked at her with a twinkle in her eye. But in the days that followed, the stress, anxieties, confusion, and anger building in a feedback loop had left things to fester. There was even a time that lasted until very recently she could admit, she was scared of the Mothra. Had Sonata not so desperately needed her, Young Miss Pie would have been keen to hover about the poor kaiju and not have to entrust that others could get her the help she needed.

Still, with the cards having fallen where they did; it seemed her Pinkie Sense intuition had paid off.

“Alright, how is your hand now? Squeeze,” Lea instructed as she continued to heal one who had been her foe once, lips pursed as her spores worked to reconstruct not only the living tissue that had been damaged in the fight; but also keep the mechanical portions in good order where they could be. Gloriosa had been an omnipresent aid at her side, using her sole remaining Element to help melt away the ice stuck inside parts of the body.

Megalon’s remaining mechanical hand contracted, with some difficulty and fidgeting, before relaxing.

The cyborg, despite looking like he’d gotten dragged through a burning trash compactor, keened happily and nodded eagerly. Compared to how he’d been, he was seeming right as rain and certainly was so in spirit.

“Miss Lea Ma’am, I’d first like to apologize profusely for that time back on Terra.”

“Which time?” the Mothra perked her brow, keeping the healing magic going.

Megalon just blinked like it was obvious, “That time I came charging in calling you a Palooka.”

She just pursed her lips, looking more confused than anything else, “Are you sorry about the fight or are you apologizing for calling me that…?”

“Yes!” Megalon nodded affirmatively.

Lea blinked in mild surprise before she giggled, actually smiling. It caused Pinkie’s grin to widen even as she hugged her friend; whom used his good arm to return it. Her spirits were at last, higher than they’d ever been in awhile. Bad things were happening, but good people were working to stop them.

Pinkie Pie and Mothra Lea’s blue eyes locked.

“So, this is where you were hiding from me?” Lea sighed, taking a small pout in her obvious self depreciation.

Pinkie Pie whimpered in the back of her throat, reaching out and putting a hand upon the Mothra’s shoulder.

“No, and I’m so sorry for poofing! I was just trying to-”

“She was trying to help and worried about what would happen if everybody crashed into each other,” Gloriosa chimed in to relay what she’d been told, “She was pretty good at hiding. I only found out she was basically in my basement a few hours ago.”

“And don’t think you’ve lost your spot on my Party list! I just…” Pinkie nodded her head to the furthest cabin, “Was needed here.”

Lea took in a deep breath and sighed, nodding slightly, “Honestly.. Until I got a friend to set me straight, you made the right call… is Sonata over there?”

“Mhm,” Pinkie nodded back to her while her grip on Lea tightened slightly, “Can you?”

Lea smiled and glanced at Megalon, checking him over. He wasn’t at 100%, but the bleeding, internal and external, had stopped. He was far from complete, still missing an arm below the elbow, and his recovered glasses were missing a lens that gave him a ridiculous visage. But his chipper mood and some assurance was keen to give everyone cause to think he’d been stabilized.

Lea sat up after patting a smiling Megalon on the head, dusting herself off and stretching her shoulder.

“Tis what I came here for. I can’t promise anything, but it certainly couldn’t hurt. I’d imagine the others aren’t too far behind me anyways, it was quite calm when I left,” Lea hummed as she paced over towards the cabin with Pinkie Pie leading her on, “What symptoms has she had?”

“We-Well there’d be spats she’d get really, really cold. Lots of fitful sleep about things she wouldn’t say about. Can’t talk even though the scar is on her skin, not through it,” Pinkie Pie frowned as she counted off on her fingers.

Lea pursed her lips, speaking from more than a little experience, “Some scars go deeper than they seem… You all have no doubt done everything you could, and have done plenty of good for her.”

Gloriosa was helping steady a wobbling Megalon, who was stubbornly trying to rise to her feet despite unsure footing.

“Miss Gloriosa Ma’am, your phone wasn’t in the mess hall was it?” Megalon chirped while almost falling over, leaving the camp director to have to steady him.

“Ahgh! Careful there!... Um, maaaaybe?” Gloriosa cringed and glanced at the burning wreckage of a building she’d practically grown up in with a restrained frown, “Why?”

Megalon tapped at his head with his only surviving hand, “I can’t get through to my brother and the others. I turned on my transponder for distress but I’ve heard nothing back so I’m not sure they got it. I might just be too banged up to get a signal back.”

“Well that’s a problem. I think I got a landline in the offic-” Gloriosa caught her breath and froze.

The temperature just plummeted. Not chilled, not lowered. Plummeted to a biting cold that somehow didn’t numb the skin. It was a powerful gale flying in from the South, practically hurricane force as it wrenched at the trees.

Wood shattered and roared from being ripped apart as a torn, burnt glove burst out of the wreckage in a fist; snapping open to put itself into the breeze. A rattling waver echoed through the air as a Northern wind joined the remnants of its counterpart; the two twisting and churning through one another.

Notus was dead, shattered; but in his last act he’d cast what power remained into the aether. It was what rejuvenated Zephyrus enough to re-engage so quickly, but the brunt of it had been passed off to Boreas. And the Northern Wind knew exactly what to do with it.

Megalon’s eyes widened as Boreas ripped his way free of the confinements, restored enough to shrug off the confinement he’d been put through. Instantly Mothra Lea whipped around and put Pinkie behind her, the cyborg trying to do the same only to find a very livid Gloriosa instead shielding him. The cold gales, the remnants of Notus, encircled Boreas and offered brief glimpses of the shapeless, shifting horrors they truly were; not the bodies they possessed or the forms the mind could comprehend upon them. Manic laughter was carried over the tempests, disjointed and coming from seemingly multiple angles.

Unseen as it could be, Boreas wasn’t just in one body. That was just a vessel being piloted. This was a force that stretched over the entire campground like a darkening storm.

“Did you think we wouldn’t have an insurance policy?!”

The differential North and South winds got so strong they tore limbs from trees and shattered windows. Gloriosa and Megalon were forced to hunker down and hang on to each up as Lea threw up a containment field to block out some of the storm from hitting herself and Pinkie.

“We failed to triumph for Lord Grogar because of our lack of numbers, but Zephyrus’ revenge at Mako Island saw to fix that! Over one thousand years of spite, vengeance, and retribution!”

The winds instantly snapped into a single direction, barreling into a singular cabin and billowing every ounce of spare dark magic there was left. Sired by a millennium-old grudge, now passed one generation onto the next.

“Cast free of any tether and name her mother diluted her with, unchained from any restraint following that wretch of a traitorous goddess’ example! Let one half become the whole, as all is consumed!”

The winds died off, absorbed. Ice started to crackle and chip as it festered across the cabin.

Boreas grinned and threw their hands into the air.

“Arise and surpass your father, one born of the South!"

The frigid hurricane reached its zenith at the word, the name chosen one thousand years prior but never once uttered.

"Australis!”

A second passed, a countdown clock many had tried to stall had been forced to its final tick. The cabin exploded outwards in a gale of Southern Winds, shattering ice, and shrieking roars.

Author's Note

proofed by Lance-Omikron

Chapter 54 Part 1: The Anemoi

==================
Downtown Canterlot
==================

Wallflower Blush groaned weakly, all of her senses feeling as though she was experiencing them for the first time all over again. Her eyes flittered, trying to open. The realm beyond her lids was constantly spinning and it made her nauseous, spurring little more than a weak gurgle from her throat. A sense of hot and cold together covered her face, and it took a moment to realize it was from sweating profusely whilst also shivering from head to toe.

Something, or someone, was dabbing her head with a cloth while saying something, but Blush’s hearing was still a droning ring. Out of her throat came a faint warble, a name matching a face that was the only concrete image in her mind. That of her only friend.

“T-Twiligh-”

Mrs. Cake started to say something, but what exactly she said Wallflower couldn’t make out. Instead she lurched up suddenly, the image of gnashing, jagged teeth and blackened eyes contrasting to frostbitten skin overtaking her vision. She glimpsed a face she’d never seen, that which was hunting her. Far behind the Cakes’ van, down the long road of evacuating vehicles, people started to call out. Many abandoned their slow moving vehicles to sprint down the road between the crawling traffic.

Even through the thick mist and snowy haze that obscured vision past a hundred meters or so, she could see movement. One of those cars at the back of the pack was thrown upwards, careening through the air before turning end over end and smashing through the side of a building. Another was grabbed and knocked over, sent spinning on its side. The rotation of the car offered glimpses of claw marks slashing through the sheet metal, and their source; the unnaturally tall and ungainly figure generating the mist. Every passerby that seemed to get near the cold fog emanating from the windigo fell into a near blind panic, screaming and running away as fast as they could, if they had the ability to even do that. Most others, including the Cake Family in the van with Wallflower, just dropped to the ground in raw terror.

With everyone who got close seeming to fly into a chaotic turmoil, the horrific beast paid them no heed. Eyes firmly affixed upon Wallflower Blush through the frosted back window of the Cake’s van, Australis stabbed her oversized right arm into the ground to vault forward into a sudden charge. Her run cycle, as with everything else, was unpleasant to look upon. Shattering and reforming ice gave her charge the constant grating chorus of snapping frost as she sprinted forward, the windigo half-running and half-hauling herself forward with her right arm.

The monstrosity launched itself airborne amongst a gout of southerly wind, only for an equal and opposite force to intercept her. A pair of hands clapped and a loud shockwave was condensed and redirected entirely in the frost demoness' direction, blasting the air right in front of her. Bursts of magic flickered and popped, briefly looking almost like confetti in the tassels of multicolored hues, before the strands popped and crackled with secondary explosions.

Australis recoiled and screamed after being ragdolled in the air briefly enough to go careening into the side of a building. The screaming and shrieking only intensified when the windigo ripped out of her confinement, exploding forth from the building’s front. Amidst a shower of rubble, her attention very briefly diverted to what had just attacked her. But only for a moment, her blackened eye quickly snapping back to Wallflower Blush.

Seizing hold of a chunk of rubble, causing it to flash-freeze upon contact as spires of ice forcefully ripped through the concrete, the demon let it loose in a volley like a fastball. Another clap of what sounded like giant hands smashed into Australis. The attack’s raw power was well represented in how the blast caused the combination of dark magic ice and building material to literally explode on contact. All while still having enough leftover energy to blow back the debris, else the shattered remnants of the fastball pitch would have hit the cars like a shotgun blast.

Australis sneered, her eye swiveling downwards to lock onto Pinkie Pie.

The Element of Laughter wasn't especially cheerful, even if she was maintaining a brave and warm smile in spite of what was before her as slow tears trickled from her eyes. Still, she held her ground, attire metamorphosed still into a short dress that was so flamboyant it ran the gamut of being gaudy only to circle around and become pleasantly silly once again. Like the attire of a clown, something meant to evoke cheer in others and be as non-threatening as possible. Whether that was the default of the transformation or if something in her own consciousness was altering it, no one could say.

What one could speak for was the type of bravery she was exuding. Not the righteous courage of smiting evil, but the desecration of that mental desolation that fear induced. The aura she gave off was notable. From the actual magic which was causing some of the frost around her to melt on every point of contact between her and the ground, such as the magical aura constructed hooves surrounding her feet.

“Sonata!” Her shout seemed abnormally loud, as if small bursts of magic were helping to propel the call out over the raging ice storm, “You ran away earlier instead of fighting, I know you’re still in there!”

Inside of the van, Wallflower Blush stared out through the now defrosted van window in shock.

Australis had run away before, back when taking a burst of magic had partially melted the mask of ice that covered part of her face. Some of the benign spellwork coming off the Element of Laughter had managed to reach inside and spur a frozen heart to beat just a few times. But it had been enough for that wrathful side of the siren, the windigo half, to redirect her attention away from the campground and towards the one who had slighted her most. The one inside that van behind Pinkie right now.

Wallflower Blush felt a chill shoot right through her as the monster glared down the road. The flickering image of a sobbing young woman they had ambushed behind a concert hall superimposed itself upon the unworldly monstrosity in front of them. Zephyrus’ taunt echoed through her mind.

-”Where do you think she’ll go?”-

Wallflower’s eyes widened as she was presented with the monument of her folly.

-I did this...She's here for me…-

And she could not move. Neither was the van with how the snowstorm had increased ten fold and seemed to infest everyone with primal dread. So strong most of the fleeing citizens fell to the ground were they were, clutching their heads and frozen in interwoven sadness and terror. All to the sound of Australis’ screams. Wallflower was stuck too, but she was forced to watch down the street.

Australis's right eye, which at the campground once showed tears and the quivering gaze of Sonata within the monster, was frozen over again. Cold mist billowed from between cracked and frigid fangs, and Australis threw her body forward and shrieked through distended jaws at the one who now was just getting in her way. She would not be denied her victim.

“Please, ‘Nata!” Pinkie Pie wept as she felt the roiling sting of having turned her powers onto the windigo offensively, “Don’t make me have to do it!”

Without any warning or heed to the plea whatsoever, Australis dropped and charged. Pinkie shed tears as fear forced her to act. She smacked her hands together to the sound of one hundred claps, the resulting shockwave smashing into the oncoming monstrosity whose advance could be reliably compared to a freight train. This time, the shockwave hit Australis directly.

Australis's icy protrusions cracked, the shockwave reverberating through gaunt and frostbitten tissue enough that it briefly caused her entire upper body to recoil. Her spine snapped backwards almost 180°, arching around so much her head was practically scraping against the ground. Pinkie Pie gasped and covered her mouth, shaking and trembling from seeing the impact of her forced attack. Tears still ran freely from her eyes as an ugly, hideous knot formed and twisted within her gut. The Element Bearer looked at her hands with fear and horror. And yet, despite the blow, Australis still bore an insurmountable conviction which drove the berserk hybrid to keep going.

Had the Element of Laughter blasted her father, with no body to serve as a barrier, Pinkie very well might have caused some serious damage. If not enough to destroy or dissipate it, certainly enough to cause lasting wounds or drive them away just as one would retract their hand from an open flame. The windigos' uncanny ability to survive was mostly reliant on them only having one weakness, that only a select few could harness in sufficient quantities to seriously wound them.

But, when Sonata’s predecessor and sire had done a horrifying thing that led to her birth under Zephyrus's plan to create more of their kind, there had been some unintended side effects. From the day she was born, her name had been decided for herself. Australis, daughter of the South Storm. Raw, uncultivated, and an enigma; there was something else about Notus’ spawn. By accident of her being a crossbreed with a powerful sea sorceress, or by design of her wrath-fueled dark magic having a target after being personally hurt by them; she had far surpassed her father. Notus had been driven to create spite and malice, but without the positive emotions in their life he could never have known anything else. Sonata had, and she felt a spite unlike any windigo before her due to losing that happiness.

All because of the one in the van.

Australis snapped back around and distended her jaw. The scream she unleashed carried the full force of the Southern winds, a combination of frigid air, mermare magic, and dark hexes all working together into creating a powerful cone of sound that ripped the frost and snow from the roadway. It blew with so much force that a car caught by the edge of the cone was knocked onto its side, its alarm blaring and beeping loudly as a death wail. Pinkie Pie crossed her arms and braced, trying to will and draw up every scrap of power her Element could provide.

Even with surprisingly above average strength helping ground her, even with the radiating energy of her Element dampening the dark magic significantly, even with her intentionally trying to push against the tide and call out to her out-of-control friend; she was still wrenched off her feet. Pinkie Pie cried out as she was ragdolled by the sudden wave of sound and wind force smashing into her like a barely visible fist; pinwheeling through the air and crashing into the back of the Cakes’ van hard enough to crack the glass. It was only thanks to some bolstering to her physical constitution, likely a side benefit of the magic giving her traits like her Equestrian counterpart; she was spared a concussion.

Still hurt like the dickens though!

Pinkie Pie grimaced as she slid down the side of the van, crumbling to her knees and trying to brace herself with her hand. Australis continued to scream, deafeningly so. The windigo grabbed at her own head and thrashed about, her constant uproar being pointed down and into the street. The dazed Element Bearer tried to stagger up to her feet, half braced against the van she’d been sent flying into.

Australis’ utterance was still going, impossibly so. Cold gales rushed past as the windigo continued firing straight down, sending wind and shockwaves in all directions even as she seemed to blow a hole in the street from the sheer magnitude.

-Is… Is she trying to avoid hitting me? Or is she just that much out of control?!-

Australis’ shockwave scream shrank, but less losing energy and more condensing into a singular ray of focused sound. The awful outburst of the ray of sound punching through dozens of feet of concrete and road was grating to the ears. Pinkie had to shield her eyes from the wind shear, just barely able to keep them open as she held her arms before them. Australis’ body was cracking, warping. More and more icy spires erupted from her skin and the growths across her gaunt form seemed to only increase in size and rate.

Somehow the Element of Laughter could tell it for what it was, through the changes in the body and the sheer cold growing in the winds. That brief glimpse of Sonata’s eye underneath the ice that grew over part of Australis’ face was evident enough. Whatever parts of her were still Sonata Dusk, still the victim of her uncle and father’s schemes and turned into this horrific abomination, were dying. The pieces of her friend that might have stayed the demon’s hand, or at least averted her focus onto someone else in a desperate bid to save her compatriots, were rapidly losing any control. Just as her body warped more and more away from Sonata, so too did their mind.

Soon, all that would be left was Austalis; and there was no telling how much time she had left before then. A disheartening prospect.

Instantly her chilled body felt warmed and Pinkie Pie shoved off the dread that tried to strangle her, breaking out of the shackle trying to freeze her in place both metaphorically, and quite literally in the icy bonds that had attempted to grow over her legs. She rushed up and held her arms up and out.

“Sonata! ‘Nata you gotta hear me!” She held her arms apart to show she wasn’t about to attack again.

Frozen drool slobbered from Australis’ maw as her head turned aside at an unnatural angle, the creaking and breaking ice scraping against itself sounding just like breaking bones. She pounced, heedless to who this interloper was beyond that she was getting in the way. Australis would kill her all the same.

Pinkie Pie braced as a set of lights showed upon the windigo and something managed to cry out over the storm. Screeching tires. In an instant, driving in from the side road leading onto the main street, what Pinkie recognized as Ms. Daisy’s car rammed into Australis at full force. The one-armed cyborg behind the wheel had only done it out of desperation, knowing Sonata herself would never want harm to befall her friends and she’d wish for him to stop her by any means. Megalon knew Australis was tough enough to endure the blow, much as he hated doing it.

He was not quite expecting her to be fast enough nor strong enough to instantly counter it. The icy mass that had grown over Australis’ right arm smashed down into the hood of the car, instantly slamming it into the pavement so hard the suspension snapped as tires blew out to the side like they’d had a wrecking ball dropped onto the hood. Though the car still had ample forward momentum, sending geysers of sparks into the air as its chassis was ground into and it skid across the roadway whilst chunks were ripped from it. Australis slid and leapt backward to maintain pace with the moving car, gliding along in front of it in an uncanny manner that seemed to break physics.

Megalon went through the windshield, hurled through the shattering glass like a bullet with his remaining drill-hand used as a bow to divide the glassy pane. As he sailed past and over Australis, the windigo seemed, at first, to have her full attention on the car. But in the millisecond-by-millisecond perception that such an adrenaline-fueled state provided, the cyborg caught the frost demon’s eye swiveling around to lock onto him.

She gripped the car by the hood and spun around, ripping the vehicle from the ground and slashing the air with the half-crushed car like a club. It was only by the glow in the cyborg’s eye, and a timely lightning burst from his forehead detonating much of the car, that Megalon avoided getting clobbered. The electric flare hit the gas tank and kept going, blowing the back half of the car off in a gout of smoke and flames as it fell backwards. He still bit back a jolt of pain at the now smoking and on-fire first half of the car Australis held clipping him in the legs.

Megalon tumbled end over end down the street, before burying his drill into the concrete to stop his backward fumble.

“She’s gone berserk Pinkie! We gotta restrain her first!”

“But we can’t hurt her!-”

Megalon punctuated his point by letting loose a torrent of crackling lightning into the charging Australis' chest, which did very little but slow down the advance moderately. Electricity sparked and jolted as it arced against and conducted across the gaunt chest and frostbitten skin.

He grimaced while continuing the beam, hoping that she might have some nerves or functional systems he could shock enough to impede her. He was up against a magical entity that had only one weakness and he didn't have any magic, much less of the one he needed. All while still missing an arm. Slowing her down was the best thing he could hope for. Pinkie was the real crucial element if they were to do anything at all, based on the limited knowledge he had, and knowing what worked.

"And if we don't fight back as best as we can– AArrrh!" Megalon staggered, trying to maintain and amplify the torrent, but even after firing several napalm bursts from his mouth, the explosions that lit the roadway on fire didn't affect the ice demon at all, "We get hurt! You think Sonata would ever forgive herself for that?!"

Australis fought through the energy beam and grabbed for the kaiju, who intercepted her enlarged limb by uncurling his drill into a hand and grabbing onto Australis’ in a brawler’s lock. Just touching the sheer cold burned, frigid sensations gnawing at his body even where he didn't have fleshy tissue. Subzero temperatures without numbness, as impossible as that sounded. He felt his knees buckle and drop into the pavement, even as his feet dug into solid concrete as a normal human's would through firm dirt. It was a minor exhibition of just how physically powerful Megalon was even with just one arm, his stout frame potentially being the strongest in terms of raw strength of his team, aside from Kaizer Ghidorah. But it was also just as much a showing of how horrifically powerful Australis was.

Sonata was not a particularly large young woman in human form, in her true state she was the smallest of the sirens, and there was a distinctive gauntness to her windigo form that made it look all the part of a frostbitten corpse. And yet she wasn’t just able to match force with a kaiju. She was able to overpower him.

Her free arm grabbed Megalon by the face and tried to wrench him closer, uncannily huge jaws parting to expose razor-sharp icicle-tipped teeth that seemed jam-packed into the ravenous maw. Megalon cringed while trying to lock-on, still hating the idea of actually hurting his friend even if he had well accepted she wasn't in her right mind. This thing wasn’t Sonata, just a monster piloting her body.

“Sorry ‘Nata…”

The fangs drew close, poised to tear off his face, when the loudest clap anyone had ever heard sounded off.

Australis was struck with a shockwave that sent her flying down the road with her limbs limp and flailing to make her look like a thrown ragdoll. Oddly enough, aside from being blown down and floored by the shockwave, Megalon was completely unharmed. In fact, the dark magic frost that had been growing over him seemed to melt.

Footsteps rapidly approached, and a gloved hand was offered to him. The tearful frown on Pinkie Pie’s face was reflected in her compatriot, but so was her determination in how she squeezed his mechanical hand and didn’t show signs of backing down. The two heroes stood together, readying themselves as Australis ripped herself back to her footing and shrieked.

Between them and in the windigo’s direct focus, Wallflower Blush pushed her will to move further and further. And yet, she couldn’t budge.

=============
Camp Everfree
=============

Spiraling gravitons and crackling torrents of magic smashed into one another, both discharging from the eyes of either combatant who stood a dozen meters apart. Boreas and Battra Lea’s beam clash was creating shockwaves that blew back billows of dust, ash, snow, and dirt in a small storm. Even with Boreas as previously damaged as he was from fighting the likes of Megalon, Mothra, Australis, and now Battra; he was still literally, and metaphorically, kicking with wild abandon. No sense of true pain, no regard for the natural limiters to the body, and no heed to whether X’s body got hurt or not, meant any sense of caution was cast into the wind.

Even so, the stiff resistance the heroine was giving him, combined with the attempted mental attack backfiring–thanks to that annoying pink puffball meddler–meant he now had a very fighting-fit guardian demanding his full attention. Boreas put his back into the attack, lurching forward and amplifying the graviton flow. Lea still managed to hold her ground, the crackling torrents of purple streaming from her eyes struggling yet still managing to hold the golden devastation at bay.

And why was this witch from another realm smirking like that?!

Boreas’s current body had the physical force to easily pop a person’s head off, shrug off building-sized explosions, and hit hard enough to fire out energy attacks with that exact amount of force. But for all of its added durability, strengths, and abilities, it didn’t change the fact Monster X’s body was still human. Even with a much tougher constitution, he did not weigh all that much more than was expected, and only had two feet to ground himself with.

Which meant he only had marginal stability that instantly crumbled the moment something much heavier hit him. The speeding van Battra had seen coming up behind him did the trick. Forced to maintain the beam lock, with his attack coming from his eyes, Boreas hadn’t been able to turn his head to see it coming as she had.

A few thousand kilograms of automobile smashed into Boreas from an angle behind him, instantly wrenching him from his footing and throwing him almost a dozen meters from the transferred force. The energy beam clash was interrupted, and Battra let out a shout as she threw herself full force into the attack the moment Boreas’ onslaught was cut off. The windigo let out an eerie shriek like howling wind, an uncanny cry that should not have been possible with X’s vocal cords, as he was blasted across the grounds of the camp and into the partially frozen lake.

The van, now sporting a roughly Monster X-shaped dent in the front, skidded to a stop.

Figuring she had to be driving in the right direction when she spotted golden spiraling rays and crackling bursts of purple shooting into the sky, Sunset Shimmer had floored it as much as was safe down the mountain pass from the highway. Partially because of her rush to get there in time, and partially on account of having driven the whole way there... very awkwardly.

To compare the inside of the sirens’ van to a clown car would have been a gross understatement. Even with them having dumped out a lot of equipment on the spot just to be sure, it had been a tight squeeze fitting two above-average-human-sized transformed kaiju and six Rainbooms, almost all of whom were now sporting extra bits like magical hooves, horns, and wings, into a model of minivan only meant for four people.

Poor Irys had been clinging to the back of her seat as she had on the first trip; wide-eyed and hanging on to it and Sunset for dear life the entire drive, like a scared cat. Sunset grit her teeth, trying to work through Irys’ grip whilst also having half of Applejack’s foot shoved into her side, with part of who she thought was Fluttershy’s wing sticking out between the seats.

“ALRIGHT! EVERYONE OUT!” Sunset Shimmer squawked through her grimace.

The frigid water and jagged ice of the lake exploded outwards, erupting into a geyser as Boreas came exploding out of it. Launched into the air, the windigo landed with enough force to dent the ground with a small crater. The northern winds howled as they were whipped into a frenzy, exploding forth in multiple waves of frozen air and misery-laden mist to try and get some breathing room from the multiple threats he now detected. It did seem to force the new group to scatter, but he hadn't the time or focus to directly ascertain who they were. He huffed and snarled, chest still smoking from Battra’s attack. Boreas’s eyes started to crackle with golden energy while still trying to get his bearings as to what was upon him now.

Something quickly hit him again when a high-speed blur of blue rushed past him. He briefly caught the glimpse of cyan wings before a thick-heeled shoe came crashing into his cheek. Combat instincts stolen from Praetorian Guard 094 snapped into focus as he tried to turn with the blow and counterattack, only to have his fist strike a solidified force that barely offered any give.

Rainbow Dash might have lacked complete super strength, but for her legs to be able to withstand the pounding force of sprinting at the speed she was going, there was ample power to be had. And where durability fell short, Rarity was able to compensate by blocking Boreas’ blow. The shimmering energy construct in the shape of a diamond cracked under the force,, but did stop the hit as the gemstone flew into the irate windigo in a kamikaze run before shattering.

Boreas fumed. He’d always been a creature of personability. Always wanting to isolate and torment. Be it from his own sick pursuit of fulfillment through that isolation, or just flat-out lack of experience, he wasn’t used to getting hit from multiple angles. Not alone, and especially not with Harmony’s magic–to him a wretched taint that went beyond bordering on toxic–surrounding him with all of these powers.

The presence was suffocating, so it was time to fight fire with ice. There was still some lingering negativity left over from Notus’ demise, and he’d created plenty himself. Jumping backwards in a series of great bounds to clear some distance, whilst peppering the general area with quick-fire graviton bursts to get some cover, he drew in the cold and desolation of that which was near him. Northerly gales roared to power, cold mist beginning to encircle the cackling windigo as a means of both shrouding him and collecting his power. He spied a cyan blur zooming across the campground in a wide arc meant to build up speed before swooping around to come at him for another pass. Boreas flashed bloody teeth as the temperature around the campground rapidly plummeted with the roaring storm building up.

He unleashed the galeforce in a continuous burst. The sheer winds, that were strong enough to bend trees, struck Rainbow Dash, who’d been quick to pursue Boreas and was about to make contact, full force. She was sent skidding across the ground, grasping her head as the cold bit at her skin and the darkest of thoughts bit into her mind. The frost grew over her coat and body, adhering her to the ground and trying to choke her with dark magic. The magical wings granted to her started to flicker, like they were phasing in and out of existence.

“DASH!” Rarity cried out over the storm, the transformed girl sprinting to her downed friend’s side.

Her horn ignited and a glimmering crystal appeared in front of the downed Dash, blocking some of the wind whilst leaving Rarity exposed to most of the wind shear. It cracked against the force, but another was thrown up only to suffer the same fate. Another still came, Rarity braving the storm to get to her friend’s side. Straining with all the power she had, the Bearer of Generosity used herself as a windshield to take the brunt of the gales that now swooped around her barriers; all in an effort to buy Dash time to get free.

Even through the pain, she still looked at her friend with a smile and frigid tears.

Boreas grinned, focusing on the pair. They might bear the goddess’s blessing, but they were still frightened, scared children opposing him. And he’d crushed many of their age, younger and older, in his millennia of life. So what of their life and power? Alone they’d drown in despair and horror, just like he once almost managed over a decade ago.

Two Elements were in trouble, but two more were right on the heels of the conflict to stop it. A pair of yellow wings beat even against the storm to reach Rainbow Dash and Rarity, carrying another in tandem. Fluttershy helped to push Sunset Shimmer at the two pinned-down Bearers, a grateful Rainbow grabbing onto Sunset’s hand to form a chain linking them with Rarity and Fluttershy.

Rarity strained, trying to pull her friends closer whilst keeping one arm up and constituting the crystal barrier, “I-! Can’t!-... Keep it!”

The Element of Kindness’s eyes widened and her voice was audible even over the storm as she tried to push Rarity behind herself in an attempt to cover her, “Rarity?! You’re hurt!-”

A brief look at Fluttershy’s sympathetically fearful face, even as frost started to build up across it and sting the girl’s teary eyes, was enough motivation to push the Bearer of Generosity further. She grit her teeth and tried to focus. Her gemstone sparked, and a second gemstone was created to shield Fluttershy and Sunset Shimmer, the effort clearly taxing her in how she crumbled over. Three sets of hands caught her. Rainbow’s, Fluttershy’s, and overlapping either of theirs, Sunset’s.

The first two, the Bearers of Loyalty and Kindness, were the most affected by the storm. Both from their current condition, but also from the echoes of years past when they were in a similar situation. Cold without numbness, fear from all around, and pain that bit into the bone.

The North Wind cackled maniacally, amplifying the storm to try and keep any other rescuers at bay for even just a few moments longer. If he could just kill or disable one or two of the brats, he’d be that much more assured.

Through perhaps poetic chance or hubris, Boreas was laser-focused on three souls he tried so hard to freeze to death once when they were still little girls who stayed behind in an animal shelter. So focused in fact, that he forgot the fourth. All those years ago there was a “Tree Angel” to save them, the first Bearer of the Element of Empathy. Now, the second Bearer was doing the same.

A red gemstone flaring to life, Sunset Shimmer grabbed onto her friends as her empathic powers worked to project the three’s thoughts to one another even over the howling storm. It transmitted memories and thoughts between her three friends who also once braved a storm like this, speaking without words and showing with feeling why they were even in that kind of situation. The loyalty in a young Rainbow refusing to evacuate if it meant helping a friend. The generosity from a child-aged Rarity giving up her coat to swaddle a shivering friend. The kindness given by a small Fluttershy in doing all she could to save every critter and friend she could. Every one of them felt it and experienced it through empathy.

The five Bearers from Canterlot High had all been afraid of their fitness for the task before them. Wondered if they could be up to par with heroines of another world who were older, wiser, and had been gifted such amazing abilities since birth. They were just five young women in a band. But it was moments of steeled resolve and memory like this, where they might best realize they, too, had been heroes since they were young.

The swell of Harmony’s magic from so many Elements working in tandem re-energized all of them, even without a song to focus it with. Fluttershy’s magical wings erupted outwards and surrounded her compatriots, yellow brilliance physically shielding them from the storm while causing all the ice built up across them to instantly melt.

And no matter how Boreas howled, the power didn’t falter. Instead, Fluttershy’s wings grew even more before snapping outwards. They broke apart, forming into a glittering swarm of light. Boreas retched from the magic he sensed across the lights as they all took form. Hundreds of butterflies that raced through the gales of wind. The legions of magical creations condensed together as they flew forward unabated, coalescing and amassing as a single force.

Boreas’ eyes widened as the yellow, glowing outline of a bear the size of a truck came erupting forward and smashed into him. The magical construct exploded on contact and almost ragdolled the windigo, shouting out his storm before it could fully get going.

Staggered and sent sprawling into the mists he’d created, the only remnant of his storms a mere cold air devoid of magic, the irate windigo was offered no reprieve. The girls’ exhibition of power had given the others more than enough time to catch up. Boreas quickly spotted a dark mass rapidly approaching from a different direction than the Elements. Opting to not try magic again, but rely on his stolen body, the mass was met with golden torrents of power, the air distorting and particulates floating off the ground from the sheer pressure waves of distorted gravity. The graviton torrents streamed at the four figures rapidly closing in, spurring two sets of hands to grab onto a pair of arms in the middle of the formation as the fourth held onto them.

Thrown forward by two sets of enhanced strength, and the surges of thrust given by the one holding onto her, Irys had tears in her eyes, yet determination in her snarling, fanged, visage. Her eyes glimmered and the shriek she unleashed cast a field across her spread arms. The sonic shield resonated and flashed, deflecting off sparks and stray bolts. The graviton torrent split and fractured against the bow of the barrier, Irys’ forward momentum from being thrown at Boreas helping to keep her from getting thrown back. With the gyaos careening closer and closer, Boreas was forced to cut the beams off lest he end up blasting himself. Not for fear of X being harmed, but for concern of being knocked down and ganged up on.

The moment Irys was about to collide with Boreas, and the graviton beams were cut off, the albino silenced her shield and curled herself in a ball. Changed as her body was, Irys was one used to maneuvering whilst airborne, and some abilities carried over. She planted her feet onto Boreas’ chest at the same time the windigo brought his arms up in a memorized guard. The look of pain-yet-fury on her face was palpable. Though the smirk on her face was of equal strength when runes flashed across her skin. Very briefly taking on her true power, the gyaos let loose a shockwave of stored-up sound that was beyond deafening in the close-quarters range.

Boreas thrashed, throwing all caution into the wind and causing his powers to fly out of control. Golden energy flew from his eyes as the ground was split and torn under the graviton pressure waves. Deafened and dazed, he had no sense of how to aim and fired off erratically. It left him unable to strike Irys when she kicked away and bounded off him to get some breathing room.

Under the cover of their retreat, however, the follow-up came charging in with no room for respite. One of them was pouncing and whirling through the air, as if spinning, and the one more was bounding across the ground with supercharged leaps. Sparking and red hot, Anguirus shrugged off a stray graviton blast that hit him square in the chest, lunging downwards and yanking himself forward with two fistfuls in the ground. Still rotating from an adaptation of the thunderball, he slammed into Boreas’ legs with enough force to dent the ground and send the superpowered fighter sprawling forward. Anguirus grabbed onto Boreas’ leg with one arm, after frimly planting his other, and yanked forward, slamming the windigo flat into the earth and several inches into the ground.

Deaf, partially blinded, and knocked limp by the hit, Boreas was still blindly firing optic blasts when he was wrenched off the ground. Sailing upwards in an arc, with Anguirus still holding his foot, Boreas couldn’t get out of the way from the follow-up. The bounding force had closed the distance and Applejack had gotten some good pointers on how to put that extra strength of hers to good use. The last time she and X had clashed, a fist-to-fist lock had left her with a bruised hand. Even with her powers amplified, with practice and the crystalline Element around her neck, her sensei had gotten an idea based on her counterpart.

She planted a foot firmly into the hard-packed earth of the campground, threw her entire weight to the side to pivot and spin herself around whilst maintaining her momentum, and nailed Boreas right in the chest with a mule-kick. The magical aura, approximating a hoof, that wrapped around her foot struck home with a shockwave, blasting the air from Boreas’ lungs and sending the windigo careening through the air before crashing into the ground a dozen meters away.

No sooner than he hit the ground did the earth itself seem to attack Boreas. The ground, gripped in a purple aura of telekinesis, was separated to swallow the windigo’s body up to the waist. Twilight’s hands shimmered with an identical hue of colors as she struggled to try and hold down even more of the thrashing windigo. Considering Boreas was acting in a full adrenaline drive, with next to no regard to if he overexerted and harmed Monster X’s body, it was commendable she was managing to hold even part of him still with half-frozen dirt.

Boreas’ eyes flashed yellow as he snarled, taking aim at the wretch holding him down. He knew he couldn’t let himself get pinned down going up against so many opponents at once, especially given he lacked his previous storm’s cover. The young princess’s own eyes widened as the flare of golden energy, larger than most prior blasts, came exploding from Boreas’ glare.

A hand was placed on Twilight’s left shoulder, before another did the same on her right. Crackling rays of purple intercepted Boreas’ optic blasts, Lea’s prism blasts holding them back in a beam lock. Optic blasts overpowered and held away the manic throes of the windigo, long enough for the rest of the group to close the distance and mass together upon him. The powerhouses of the ground were the ones to get into melee range.

"Hold his head away!" Anguirus grunted whilst blocking a haymaker thrown in a blind rage, absorbing much of the hit and grabbing the limb to keep it restrained in a deadlock of his grip.

"Keep him from hurting X's body more!" a white blur spoke for Irys' as she pounced onto the other writhing arm, latching onto it with both of her arms and legs. The combination of her jerking all her limbs down, along with her weight, pulled the limb to the ground fully.

“Just-like last time! Get ready to purge him!” Applejack darted around the pair and grabbed onto Boreas’ head by the chin and neck, getting behind him and forcing the manic windigo’s face upwards as to deflect away any chance at optic blasts.

“Purge him?!” Lea shouted back as she perked up, “You fought another of these things already?!”

“Fought and destroyed. Ambushed us right after you left,” Twilight yelped as she tried to keep her focus and assist in keeping Boreas pinned down via telekinesis, “B-But we’d need a siren’s magic to get them out of X’s body!”

“We’ll have to try, Princess! He’s not staying down!” Anguirus roared in retort.

“But- We don’t have Adagio or Aria here! Where’s Sonata?!” Twilight Sparkle shouted as the other Bearers formed up beside her, the alicorn taking special notice of just how devastated the campground was with a wary eye cast specifically to Sonata’s cabin. There had been some hope Lea had been successful, until whatever happened here happened to change her, as Sonata was most certainly in no condition to sing when she left. But the full realization of something horrible having happened was biting at her.

The cabin represented that reality; completely destroyed, with claw marks obvious on some of the demolished timbers. A panicked grimace was shot to Lea, who seemed to be experimenting to see if any of her former sealing, barrier, or useful spellwork might still be functional.

Picking up on the grimness of the alicorn’s frown and her own failing to get her seals to work again, Lea looked aside painfully whilst still stubbornly trying to get anything besides optic blasts to work, “She has transformed into a windigo and ran off! Megalon and Pinkie went after her-”

“PINKIE WAS HERE?!” Fluttershy, of all people, belted out as her magical wings shut up and out in surprise that was similarly etched across every other one of the Rainbooms.

That momentary bout of dread, shock, and confusion was enough for the winds to kick up once more. Northern, frigid, gales started to intensify, and Boreas let out an otherworldly shriek from a bygone time. He managed to wrench the arm Anguirus was holding down upwards, causing the Guardian Beast to stagger and bash into Applejack. Boreas’ head jerked up and forwards, trying to get free of the grip enough to take aim as horrific, golden torrents spewed from his eyes, and bisected several distant trees.

Lea didn’t have time to explain everything and wasted no heed, rushing forward to put her only other asset to use; enhanced strength. Shoving one hand under Boreas’ chin to further force it back, and the other onto his arm to wrench it down, she put everything she had into keeping him physically locked down and restrained alongside Irys, Anguirus, and Applejack.

“We can’t hold him down forever, and Aria isn’t back yet!” Irys cried out, wincing from the bits of frost starting to creep up her arms from points of contact with X’s body. Her pink eyes directly locked upon Twilight, the closest thing they had to a siren on hand,“Eventide, you’re our best shot!”

Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sunset Shimmer all formed up in Twilight’s midst, the alicorn’s mind working at a mile a second. There were so many moving parts flying around right now. Her heart was seizing up in dreadful worry for both Pinkie and Megalon being in such a situation as they were in, and writhing just as much for Sonata. The poor girl hadn’t asked, or deserved, any of this. And the phantom sensations of the promise Sparkle had given to help her was painfully brought to the forefront. And how was she supposed to substitute for a siren?! She’d been with them for a time, yes, but she’d only really gotten a grasp on her magic again in this world recently! They-They needed Aria! Or Adagio!- Sonata was- and she couldn’t step up to do-

Her pulse was racing, but slowed on contact. One of her hands was taken by radiating golden light, the other by a warming blaze of red. Fluttershy and Sunset didn’t convey some grandiose speech as they took her into their steadying presence, that wasn’t needed. Not with their power being conveyed as it was.

They were missing Aria, on account of her going to reclaim Adagio and Gigan with Godzilla, with the rest of the group having rushed to Everfree the moment they saw the explosions and lightshow. Enough to hear Gigan's brief ascension to his true form and declaration that spurred the evacuation. There were a lot of moving parts right now and they did not have all of the pieces. So, they'd just have to make the best of what they could do.

Aria's song had purged Notus out of Flash Sentry, so maybe something similar would work for her? Twilight had practiced alongside the sirens vigorously, and her talent was being a quick study of magic after all! The gemstone, this world's version of the Element of Magic, flooded her with power and presence that was bolstered by her friends. She felt just as emboldened and empowered as when she had first activated the Elements back in Equestria.

Was the power the exact same? Could she actually replicate siren or mermare song magic, despite not being one?...

-No time to question; it’s nothing ventured, nothing gained!-

Twilight Sparkle braced, feeling like two halves to a whole with the Element. The inherent talent and calling of the bearer being one part, that was complemented and accentuated by the physical talisman. If her counterpart in this world was also potentially worthy of the Element of Magic, that inherent magical tether might have been the exact reason Zephyrus had preyed on it.

“Applejack! Get him right between you and me!” Twilight called out as she started to hone her focus, joining hands with the rest of her fellow present Elements, “This world’s power likes to link up between Elements, get him into the crossfire!”

Lea nodded to her alongside her friends, as did Anguirus, Irys, and Applejack as the latter positioned herself directly behind Boreas to act as the path of least resistance for the magic spell. Boreas thrashed and snarled, trying to free himself as the northern winds howled in fury but not in victory. As powerful as his new body was, it had been worn down and overwhelmed. Restrained and unable to fight those pinning him down, he nevertheless continued thrashing to try and get free as the winds howled.

Twilight honed her focus, tethered to the others via Sunset Shimmer. She could feel all of them and they her, transmitting the message on how she might need their help to try and replicate the proper magic. Imperfect as he was, X was a good soul. Which meant he’d be acting as a sort of unwilling buffer against the Elements, if they just went to turning their power loose on Boreas wholesale like they had on Notus once Aria had purged him from Flash’s body. This hinged on her tapping into the full power of the Element of Magic, and using her skill and self to the best extent she could muster.

A slow hum seeped from her heart, beginning to take shape into song in her breath in emulation of the melody Adagio and Aria had so taught her; passed down from another princess of a bygone era. The Element of Magic upon her neck started to flicker with life, its fellow Elements embodied in her own group beginning to synchronize with it in similar fashion. She was the epicenter of it, the linchpin. Funneling every scrap of magic donated to her by her friends, funneled through her own voice, and then cast to the last remaining Bearer in close proximity in Applejack.

Boreas screamed in rage, feeling the magic begin to activate. Red mist started to channel out of almost everyone present and into Twilight, collecting and taking aim right at him. He recognized the melody, and felt nothing but disgust and spite. Despite everything he had done to her, horrors unspeakable, that sea witch Hymnia seemed poised to have the last laugh.

Twilight's song, an echo of Hymnia's own evil purging spell, was a ballad aimed upon the victimized X. Love could take many different forms, and while she most certainly was not romantically attached to X, the Princess of Friendship did have a bond with him nonetheless; as an honorable soldier. Even at the beginning, when she offered herself up to spare her friends, she knew he never meant lasting harm against them and would keep his word. Even as an enemy at the time, it was respectable. And upon finding his motivation was out of love and protectiveness, they did quickly become amicable.

Had he been one of the initial six kaiju who arrived in Equestria, she very easily could've seen him becoming a fast friend. And she would not be a benevolent heroine if she left such a soul, wayward as it was, to be bastardized like this. She would not let Boreas have her friend.

The salvo of magic was let loose. One part laden with benevolence and the blessings of the goddess unknown to both alicorn princess now, and the other part mermare princess from a millennia ago. But even as part of it flew towards the possessed X with the intention of linking up with Applejack, two things went unnoticed.

The first was that a very significant portion of the magic instead flew backwards, away from Twilight and away from camp. There was another Bearer it sought, one who needed the help.

The oncoming mass of cleansing magic very likely could have purged Boreas from X's body, reaching into his heart and playing upon the platonic bond of respect and friendship that had formed between the wayward dragon knight and magical royal. It would poison the well, forcing Boreas out just as Notus had from Sentry's body... if the mind within the body of Monster X had such a heart.

Instead, held captive by Boreas, the mind of someone who knew and had bonded with Twilight Sparkle, Eventide Hymn, was not present. The lack of bond, lack of tether afforded some protection. It was a shortcoming nobody could have predicted, no one present having seen what Gigan saw within the Memory Stone to have relayed the information. They knew of the memory loss and the fractured mind, but not in the way it was divided now.

Still, the magic was commendable and certainly could have done something severe even if the initial impact of benevolence's poisonous presence upon the frost demon was slightly diluted. Had a western gale not joined the northern howls of wind.

Cold fingers grabbed onto Twilight’s necklace and she only briefly glimpsed the source when she turned her head. In one instant she was forced to look upon the very visage of horror cast in her own likeness. Eyes with burst blood vessels sustaining them red, glaring at her through manically contracted pupils. Bits of frost and ice gouging out through the skin. And the disheveled hair that was swaying in the air and half frozen in a wild frenzy.

Then in an instant, it was replaced by ice cast in the exact same shape as a monstrous version of herself.

The Bearers fell backwards from a shockwave. Irys and Anguirus' mouths dropped in surprise and horror. Applejack cried out as the jolts of magic from her friends being blasted back, and their spell being cut off, conducted into herself. Lea tried to loose a blast of energy at the intruder, but only struck the now exploding ice sculpture.

Boreas grinned through bloodied lips, even as the explosion of magic from the equal and opposite ends of that sorcery born of clashing deities shook the entire campground. His captors managed to maintain their hold on him, but he didn't need to get free. He'd stalled for time long enough for the backup plan.

A voice of Twilight Sparkle gasped as she staggered, blood oozing onto the ground with a cough. But someone decidedly not Twilight, of any world, looked back up at the assembled heroes with manic and deranged eyes. Zephrus grinned wildly despite being heavily damaged through Twilight Sparkle's body, still smoking from the magical eruption of getting too close to the Elements. Had they not the meat-shield of a body to inhabit of a good person even if she wasn't Bearer worthy, had the Elements not been diverted into going off in two different directs with Pinkie Pie being away, had they not been the second most powerful creation Grogar ever made, that act alone would have killed them very easily. There had actually been an extremely high chance of it doing just that, but they'd come too far in their plan to have heed.

The real Twilight Sparkle, knocked off her feet and trying to get up, looked on in horror as she realized something was missing.

“.. NO! NO NO!” She flailed, clawing at her neck and bringing up only a broken necklace tie that Gloriosa had fashioned for her out of a vine. She looked up to see it in the taunting grip of her vile doppelganger.

Zephyrus tisked mockingly, shaking their head whilst wiggling the Element of Magic in his grip. The Element sparked and flickered with magic between dimming due to the sheer dark magical force gripping it. Without unity, it's power had been thrown off balance. Zephyrus' eye was drawn to the weakened Element knowingly and Twilight tried to kick her feet under herself as a means to rise.

“NO! DON’T!” Twilight screamed, reaching out for the Element as she began to run forward. An attempt to use telekinesis again was lukewarm at best, as having the crystal so violently ripped away so suddenly had her power on the fritz.

Others had already joined in the effort after realizing what had happened. A cyan blur was beginning to speed forward as amethyst energy was summoning crystals. A purple pair of prism beams lanced forward, and just about anyone who wasn't preoccupied holding down a windigo-possessed kaiju, was charging forward.

And yet Zephyrus was not moved, nor intimidated. There was a supposition to make that all of the ice demons other than himself were insane, crazy, or otherwise psychotic in some means or another. But the truth was, as good as he was at planning, there was no amount of misery he’d want to miss out on long-term. This plan of his hinged on several pieces falling into place where they needed to, with a lot of wiggle room in between.

Three windigos wouldn't be enough as it was, more were needed. And be it by converting their daughters he'd arranged the siring of for such a purpose, or by bringing back his greater and opposite number denied to them so long ago; there were multiple paths to reach that conclusion. But, all good plans were just as much about denying your enemy victory as they were enriching yourself.

The Elements and their Bearers were probably the greatest threat to them out of anything. That's why he had sought their demise several times now when it was doable. And with the Retainer having done her duty to give them these nasty talismans, denial was the name of the game now.

Twilight Sparkle, this world's foolish girl, would not last long doing this. Her body would be torn apart from the strain if it didn't take out Zephyrus himself first. But Zephyrus had never planned on using her long-term anyways. They just needed her power for a little bit longer, and there was a perfect way to also keep these pesky Elements from being as big of a problem as they could've been. Two birds with one stone, if this worked and didn’t rip them apart instantly.

The screaming was other worldly. It was a rare moment Zephyrus actually felt pain, let alone meaningful damage. The Element was fighting him with everything it had, even with the overpowering he'd given it earlier. Trying to stab through the comatose, dormant mind of the young girl he'd bastardized into using as a scapegoat and shield. It was a surreal experience as the agony clouded out any other physical sensation.

Zephyrus had lived long. Extremely long. Even he didn't know quite how much, other than it had been long enough to see mountain ranges change in size and shape. And all of it was flashing before his eyes.

The the downfall of one era, whether it was his purpose for being created or if he'd been reformatted from a prior entity he could not be sure. Times abyss was too long.

The shocks and convulsions caused black tar to erupt from the fissures across the arm holding onto the Element of Magic. It was killing him.

A call to arms. His weakest brother Notus had been summoned forth, and in turn brought out the second weakest of their number. But when Boreas hadn't been enough, the second strongest had entered the fray. Zephyrus could remember the amethyst eyes from the bearded unicorn the goddess had rallied alongside his fellows to face the windigos.

Otherworldly wailing, Sci-Twi's damaged body smashed into a hunk of debris and very briefly, the outline of an antlered figure seemed to burst out of her skin and shriek. Sonata's stolen gem, having siphoned magic for weeks and having been cultivated by the oldest dark magic user in existence; was rapidly being depleted trying to wear down the Element. Both were flickering on and off, warring as the Element tried to purge the corruption in the latter.

Zephyrus was dying. There was no doubt of it. The only question was, which would yield first. If he had a life and will to live for even a second more, or the will of the Element?

In some ways, the Western Wind never thought of themselves as a living thing. He'd never felt true compassion, joy, kinship, or the other mannerisms that emulated these Elements. Satisfaction only ever came from affirmation, be it of self or conquest. What irony it was, that only when it was flashing before his eyes and possibly because his essence was being infected by Harmony's magic; that he'd ever really thought himself as something alive and not an animate purpose.

If he was going to die, he'd fight for his life that remained. He'd killed an Element Bearer before.

Zephyrus stabbed themselves at the base of the neck with the Element of Magic and absorbed every ounce of magic that could be wrenched from it. Twilight Sparkle's body, inhabited by a monster of Grogar and infused with the magic of Harmony, would rip itself apart in about an hour from the contrasting energy and would take him with it. But what was left of her soul and ambient magic, would be fuel for this effort. And unlike prior attempts, this Frostbite was complete as the western wind shot up into the air. The explosion of magic radically reshaped the form. Initially similar to what Aria and Gigan had fought, an additional dark magic wing exploded out of the malformed, icy one to complete a pair with the other.

Twilight’s body grew in height and size, icy constructs twisting around her limbs into more orderly shapes in the manner of bracers and cloven-hooved boots. A crown of frozen antlers erupted from her head as dark aether encircled the malfested’s eyes. Pure black was all that appeared in their gaze initially, broken in span only by the flickering-on of dim, dead, blue light for pupils. Dark attire of dim violets and frigid icicles made up her garb, which alongside the antlered crown gave her the appearance of a dark echo of a sovereign.

Frostbite Sparkle’s eyes turned about to face the still restrained Boreas, and they extended a hand to them. The Element of Magic, flashing rapidly as if horrified by what was subjugating its power, dimmed as a darkness covered over it. Several spell rings of spinning energy formed over Frostbite Sparkle’s extended hand and arms, rotating in opposite and increasingly quick directions.

“Such a dear daughter of mine gave me a wonderful idea!" Frostbite smirked as they copied what Adagio had done to Gigan, sharing magic and power.

Lea's eyes widened in horror at realizing what Zephyrus was about to do, and she dove in front of Boreas just as the lance of magic shot free from the Windigo of the East's hand and towards the Windigo of the North. A flash and burst of golden graviton beams into her back caught her and everyone else off guard, and managed to blast her out of the way.

Boreas puffed out his chest as he accepted the magical infusion. The spell flux Zephyrus fired into them wasn’t dark magic, and frankly, that made it agonizing to endure. But, endure it he did, before cracking a bloodthirsty grin beneath blinding lights from his eyes. A pillar of light overtook Camp Everfree as Anguirus, Irys, Lea, and Applejack were thrown off.

Boreas could feel the sudden flood of power, morphing his body into a mass and strength of a god only eclipsed by his and his three brothers' creator. Subtle visions and flashes of a bygone time, some chapter in the life of his daughter's choice in mate, greeted him. Of a similar infusion, an ascension that combined the remnant power of something called a Plasma Spark and the ichor of a horrific dragon, with the body of a mortal man, an otherwise insignificant soldier. All for the purpose of trying to save a whole world, an empire of multiple worlds, but with a spouse first and foremost in their thoughts.

It was just about the extent of memory that remained in this body, and knowing it was a noble soul he had bastardized the form of by hijacking it made the victory only sweeter. His twin tails slashed through the air, cracking like whips.

Zephyrus finally let himself revel in success and loosed a victorious laugh, launching off the shoulder of the now kaiju-sized Boreas and taking to the air on dark wings. The powers of Twilight were still the key to enacting this plan of his, but having your remaining compatriot be as tall as a mountain, with more than enough force to level one, was certainly a huge plus.

The rising enormity blocked out the setting sun, casting a tall shadow with twin tails upon the assembled, until practically all that remained of the campground was swallowed up.

The force of the laughter, gusting free from jaws the size of a bus, was deafening, and the magnitude of the stomp that followed rattled bone and threw everyone back with the shock wave. Western and Northern winds billowed and coiled around the pillar of darkness the titan emerged from, leaving the ebony-skinned monster clad in bone armor to tower over the campgrounds. The winged demon perched atop Boreas' head shot into the air and into the growing blizzard swirling above, giving the execution order to the meddlers that had proven so troublesome thus far. Laughter cast in Monster X's gargantuan voice rattled the airspace for miles, brilliance overtaking his eyes. Within a second's notice, a torrent of gravitons, cast in an eerie deathly white instead of their typical gold, flew straight down at the small crowd.

Irys, Anguirus, and Lea all called out, both for the defense of their fellows for what they knew was coming, and to try and counter it. Magic was brought to bear and aimed, a strong testament considering the death staring the heroes right in the face. Cabins and foundations were instantly vaporized or shattered when the graviton flares made contact with the center of the campground, the resulting pressure waves and burning heat rocketing forward. Camp Everfree was entirely destroyed to the bedrock, with the resulting crater rapidly growing.

Anguirus felt his body surge with magic even as he struggled to keep standing from the pressure wave beginning to impact his skin. Battra Lea squinted and had to cover her face whilst light flooded her body. Irys shrieked when the shock wave and heat hit her, losing her footing and being blown back until Anguirus and Lea caught her by the arms. Elemental magic flooded their bodies, but the impact was dealt. A second further, and the larger wave would strike. They could survive it due to the transformation kicking in to even the playing field, but they'd be blasted backwards and leave nothing to protect those behind them. The very keys to the Windigos' defeat would be vulnerable to massacre by a monster of a bygone era possessing the body of a monster from another world.

But as he lost his footing and was thrown backwards, Anguirus glimpsed something. Or rather, someone he'd seen only once prior.

Burning light and pressure waves pushed forth harder and harder as the microscopic fractions of a second ticked by. Gloriosa Daisy ran in front of the group. It was a foolish gambit. No powers, no skills, no defense, and she was still bleeding out from her injury. There was nothing she could do against a human sized kaiju, much less a true to form one, as a mere human without any magic. And yet, she still looked back at the group whilst her arms were spread to try and absorb as much of the explosion as possible. Hair blown back by the shock wave that slammed into her, revealing simple tears running down cheeks that bore a brave smile. She looked at the shocked kaiju, the Bearers of the Elements, and beyond to two not present on the battlefield that had destroyed her home. Adagio and Gigan, who she prayed were safe.

She’d given up the Elements to the rightful Bearers. She’d helped organize a peace between factions against a foe which fed on strife. She wasn’t some destined heroine, but the safeguard to enable them to save the world. And she got to meet a lot of great people, a wayward sorceress and cyborg most of all.

If this was how the story ended, she could take pride in that.

Gloriosa Daisy never stopped smiling bravely as she took the hit and the light overtook her.

Pillars of purple, green, and orange light ripped through the blizzard; with a streak of green joining them to part the blizzard.

When a light overtook everything in her vision, Gloriosa Daisy was fairly certain she was dead. If it was death, it wasn't necessarily a bad feeling. Initially, there was nothing, which also meant nothing bad. But that which there was, no word to describe that said ‘nothing’ soon became ‘something’. There was a sense of standing on terra firma, a grassy span that seemed to stretch on into infinity under a pure white sky. A hilltop overlooking a beautiful verdant forest, and at its precipice was the most beautiful tree Gloriosa had ever laid her eyes upon. A brilliant, shimmering span that seemed to approximate the shape of an oak tree, but was instead cast out of crystal instead of wood and leaf. And upon the branches, seven jewels of various shapes and colors glowed like heavenly stars brought to the world. She recognized the sequence of colors, starting with magenta and ending in red. The hues of a rainbow, the seven Elements of Harmony.

Others joined her presence, flanking either side like they were forming a procession. Some tall, some short, forming every descriptor and description; all united in how she couldn’t clearly make out if they were flora or fauna. Many of them had the appearance of plant life in all of its forms chiefly, only approximating a human shape but not perfectly embodying it.

So many hands had borne a title and power, and yet almost all of them had departed themselves from humanity eventually while doing so. Living entirely in nature and for their calling. It wasn’t the wish of the Elements, themselves, that they do this, but the mantle of the Retainer tended to seek out the isolated or lost in hopes of giving them a calling. To let them be ever free, and find their happiness on their own, whilst keeping the secret. That was, until several decades ago.

A mass of flowers stood up from the hilltop, in the midst of the collected assembly. Like a small hill rising, it ascended before sharply turning aside. The mattress of flowers and seeds composing the floral cloak broke apart and floated across the breeze in a cascading glow, the dew droplets across each petal creating a shimmering display as they reflected the light of the brilliant tree. The dazzling display obscured her vision briefly, and yet she could feel a familiar presence even before she had a clear line of sight. Glowing green eyes, a gaze she very briefly witnessed as a child on a fateful night, stared back at her warmly with fondness of a parental love that touched at the heart. The last time she had seen those eyes like that was the night she lost her mother. And it was perhaps now, to the strange twists and turns of fate her life had taken to get to this point, in the company of sirens, the chosen of the angelic, and the titans of the stars; Gloriosa finally realized something.

In some ways, her mother had never left her.

Wysteria's spirit stood before her, her form was eerily beautiful as it was recognizable to her daughter. Wysteria had been the first Gaea Everfree called upon that didn't find peace in solitude. She had kept her bonds and proceeded to only make new ones. She kept no secrets from her spouse and that led to her successor being closer to her than any had before. Had she not marched into an unwinnable battle she still triumphed over, the passage of the mantle would have been done in a way never before seen.

Gloriosa sobbed and laughed as she smiled, fully aware of what had probably happened to her body, throwing herself in front of a kaiju attack even whilst already bleeding out. If this was the last thing she got to see before going out into whatever might be next or not, then her crazy life was worth living.

Wysteria mutually embraced her daughter as the other Gaea drew in to close ranks. She kissed her daughter's forehead and ruffled her hair as she would do if her child had acted silly tracking dirt into the cabin again. Because there were two things Gloriosa soon realized.

Rushing into unwinnable situations for a shot at triumph regardless? Managing to pull out a miracle when fate rewarded such heroism?

Like mother, like daughter.

The intensity of the white light increased and Gloriosa heard the sound of wind chimes from the tree. The light changed from white to green.

“No… I killed you,” Zephyrus whispered with widened eyes as he hovered far above.

The swirling masses of golden gravitons, crackling like thousands of thunderbolts, was stopped mid flight. The forest itself seemingly had sprung up for defense. Every tree in the nearby square mile had abruptly bent inwards and sacrificed their structure and root work to create a barrier. A mesh weave of timbers with green magic amassed across it as a shield. Zephyrus was forced backwards in a haste as Boreas, in his stolen titanic body, screamed an enraged roar of hatred, disgust, and fear at who he saw through the woodwork.

Zephyrus and Boreas saw a dead woman, an echo from one of the worst defeats they had ever suffered. With not a single Element on her neck, Gaea Everfree smirked as she held up the shield.

The assembled Element Bearers' crystals had flared to life with a brilliance unseen before, creating a rainbow of glowing masses that instantly melted all of the assembled ice and burned away at parts of Frostbite Sparkle's dark magic form. Anyone present could instantly feel the amount of magic and benevolence therein magnified from what it was before.

What had been originally intended as a retainer to help safeguard and distribute the artifacts to the chosen had evolved. The process started when Wysteria befriended the lonely goddess and proved herself worthy of a heroic trait thereunto unknown. And by being fully willing to give up the first taste of power she ever had and act well outside of the originally intended parameters to help bring peace between conflicting factions, Gloriosa Daisy had continued and added to that legacy of the Everfree. If the forces of evil were going to break the original intended rules of engagement by unleashing horrors from a bygone time on this world, Harmony saw no reason why originally intended rules couldn't be bent.

“NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!” Zephyrus screamed, feeling an agonizing burning on their chest from the stolen Element of Magic that was actually causing their body to steam and smoke, and yet their bloodshot dark eyes were more hyper focused on the repowered Element Bearers and Gaea Everfree.

Finally taking notice of the scalding they were getting from their own power source, Zephyrus grabbed at their throat and concentrated everything they had in their malefic power to stifle the uprising from the stolen magic. It took flying quite a distance away from the Bearers and Gaea to do it, but they did manage to very painfully refreeze the top of their chest as a form of shielding.

He caught Gaea and the Elements glancing aside at Irys, Lea, and Anguirus after taking notice of Boreas' titanic form.

"WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS! BOREAS!” Zephyrus called out as he drew up the same portal spell he’d once used to try and bring the last of his kind into the world before Starswirl and his company put an end to that effort. Skilled as they were in such magic, this would be a monumental effort to do on the fly.

The possessed kaiju reignited their eyes with flashes of gold and forced the heroes to rapidly act. Another barrier was put up, this time reinforced with Rarity's crystal projections with the other Elements concentrating their magic into both her and Gaea. Even just doing this on the fly, their powers seem to work perfectly together in tandem.

The graviton torrent was blocked with a blinding flash, but preparations at a counter attack were abruptly canceled. When the flash of light cleared, both windigos were gone. In their place was what looked like a tear in the air itself. A brief glimpse of the city of Canterlot was visible before an enormous foot matching Monster X's abruptly stopped down in front of the perspective. The portal slammed shut and there was nothing left, as the winds died down and relocated to another place.

The Bearers and company watched the space the portal was once a part of for a time before looking to their fellows.

“We all saw that right?” Rarity called out as she glanced about.

Fluttershy’s magical ears lowered slightly as her wings beat steadily to keep her airborne, “Our town, they’ll destroy it…”

“Not if we can get there to stop them!” Rainbow Dash wound up to start sprinting, only to get grabbed by her jacket collar and kept from sprinting off.

“Wooooah there sugarcube! Not all of us got superspeed!” Applejack griped as she hoisted her friend back around to ground level.

Gloriosa, quite casual about having joined the ‘currently glowing with magic’ club let her poise and confidence from earlier slip slightly and lower her neck into her shoulders at the sight of the blackened crater. Boreas had blasted clear into bedrock and anything of those cabins or nearby have been vaporized beyond the point of even leaving debris.

“Pretty sure that black smear on the ground used to be Adagio’s van,” Gaea Everfree muttered, not wanting to think about insurance at a time like this.

“And we got another problem,” Rainbow Dash worryingly griped, her grimace widening as her eyes darted to a knocked-over form Fluttershy and Rarity were helping up.

Twilight Sparkle was suboptimal, but not critical. Sparks of energy arced across parts of her body as five gashes, the remnants of icy talons, cut across her shoulder and collar. Shallow as they were, it was enough Gaea Everfree wasted little time putting her hand to the wounds, an emerald-hued glow conducting between Bearer and Retainer, or whatever her new title may be. The wounds started to close up quickly, helped by not being too deep to begin with; and the magical shocks abated slightly though were still present.

“I-I’m alright,” the Princess and Element of Magic assured even as she winced and twitched slightly, “Just some kind of feedback shock from having the amplying nature of the Element geode get ripped off when my focus was elsewhere. I-I’ll be okay just…”

She shook her head to clear the stars in her vision, her magic-born wings, ears, hooves, and horn dissipating. Such dismissal of power likewise tied into the rest of the group caused their transformations to flicker slightly, before reinvigorating themselves. Joining hands, the Bearers closed ranks around their friend and held her. Fast friends or not, the camaraderie was real as it could have been. This errant princess had first helped them realize some of their potential, and catalyzed Sunset Shimmer turning her life away from the spiral she'd been on.

Early on, especially when Dash was ambushed and threatened due to a misunderstanding, fear and anxiety had plagued the group. These new abilities were seemingly just as much of a curse rather than a boon with how it had painted targets on them. Then right as Twilight returns to help out things straight, it led to the first time about half of them try to do anything with them to stop her kidnapping. Only to be left with quite a few bruises on the outside and a lot of grief leaving bruises on the inside at their failure.

Celestia, Godzilla, and to an extent Lea had trained them, but the end goal had always been to get Princess Twilight back. For these anxious, out-of-their-depth young women, some half a decade the junior of their Equestrian counterparts, it was a grounding goal to chase.

And they were not giving up.

Power conducted into Sunset Shimmer and from her to Twilight via their clasped hands. The shocks from the energy surges subsided, and while Twilight’s transformed state with ethereal wings and her horn didn’t return; a residual glow to indicate some of that power remained yet. The former alicorn breathed in deeply and exhaled in relief, patting at her collar where the missing element once was as Gaea melded some small vines to reconnect and repair her necklace.

Twilight gave her friends an appreciative nod and let them help her up to her feet.

“So what kind of crazy stunt did they just pull there?” Rainbow Dash grumbled as she frowned at Twilight’s missing Element.

“A desperation move if there ever was one. They’re using the Element like a blunt instrument. The windigo nor my counterpart here are a Bearer for the Element of Magic, but they are able to use it as a raw power source to some extent or another,” Twilight frowned as her attention was diverted to Sunset Shimmer clearing her throat.

“Right, saw a bit of a resemblance to a certain raging she-demon, like when I forced the Element of Magic into use for me.”

“Only you didn’t have the lightshow an’ wind up screamin’ in pain,” Applejack interjected.

Gaea Everfree nodded as she looked at her transformed state with no small amount of surprise and awe still in her eyes, “When I and the Bearers got close to them, it almost seemed like the Element was fighting back. I could sense something like that was going on.”

Twilight rubbed her wrist across her chin in a subtle bit of body language only Sunset Shimmer, a fellow Equestrian, noticed, “And given the nature of these things, whatever of the other me’s consciousness or spirit there is to act as a buffer is only barely functioning as that. That windigo just gave himself a huge weakness and a limited time to work before the Element probably gets to them.”

“Which means whatever they are trying to pull off is worth the risk,” Sunset noted grimly as she looked to where the portal had been, “Twilight, can you still use your Element for another go at hitting him or the one possessing Monster X?”

Twilight Sparkle felt within, odd as that statement was, and could detect a sort of palpitating pulse within her that wasn’t just her heart pumping. Some type of tether that, even with her eyes closed, let her feel the other Bearers near to her even without her Element. It was akin to what she’d experienced when bearing and activating the Elements, if muted and dulled. Like trying to feel textures through a gloved limb rather than normally.

“I-I think, maybe. Two parts to every Element use, Bearer and the trinket, and I’m still me. Tearing that necklace off didn’t scar anything or disrupt my ability to sync with you all,” Twilight affirmed as she gathered her wits, “We have to get to town, pronto.”

“Only problem. I’m quick enough to get us there, buuuut I can’t exactly carry everyone, remember?” Rainbow Dash grimaced as she crossed her arms, ethereal wings beating to hover her a meter off the ground, “Plus we’re still missing Pinkie.”

“Pinkie has always had a knack for knowing where she’ll need to be,” Fluttershy interjected, “Her sense and all that, I mean.”

“Right,” Gaea Everfree deadpanned, “Like finding out I had a random 18-year-old in my basement for the past week.”

“Point being!” Rainbow Dash griped, “How are we supposed to get to town A-S-A-P?”

The ground trembled and a large, horned shadow cast itself across the gathered heroines. Two more soon flanked it, each bearing wings which spanned the campground crater. The mass emergence of magic Zephyrus had tried to avert in some form or another had come all the same, and bore fantastic results. Even at half their normal size, an odd trend this world seemed to have, the trio of kaiju were like living mountains. Anguirus snorted, mindful of his placement as he lowered down and put his snout close to the ground with his rugged scales and scutes ready to act as hand and footholds.

Rainbow Dash grinned ear to ear, “Oh… Oh this! Is gonna! Be! AWESOME!”

Not a minute late and they passed onto the freeway, which was thankfully empty on account of the evacuation going the other direction. Anguirus galloped along in a direct path to the city, keeping himself level to give the heroines some extra stability even as Gaea wrapped some greenery around his snout to effectively give everyone seatbelt at her insistence. Irys swooped down to flank her brother, briefly exchanging a knowing look with the elder Guardian Beast as he third member of their cohort hovered alongside.

The blizzard originating at the township had begun to blow upon the ground with force, but it was beaten back with a pair of dark wings.

Burning amber spanned across voluminous wings, creating vibrant patterns in the swirls of red, orange, and gold. The wings’ shape closely echoed her Mothra form with the three jewels still studding her forehead, though more angular and pointed with two trailing tassels to the posterior section of the wing resembling a swallowtail butterfly’s namesake. What had been a fuzzy, inviting body was replaced by the smooth, almost polished armor plating that made up the carapace. Her forelimbs had grown out and recurved into a pair of scythes, with a stronger set of hindlimbs and recurved spike arching over her back. The chitin covering her head was almost like a helmet, terminating in a crown of horns just above her jewel-like compound eyes.

Some cues echoed her father, such as the large tusks blanking her maw, but Lea’s appearance was still something all to her own with a body almost resembling something of a wasp and mantis as much as it did a butterfly. Generally she was more organized and armored in appearance, as opposed to the wrinkled and scaly look of her predecessor. Evidently the last Battra’s death to melee combat had come with a few generational improvements.

Battra Lea trilled over the oncoming blizzard, the patterns on her wings beginning to glow and flicker. It wasn’t the same as her own barrier spell, and would take more getting used to even now if she was back in her natural form, but the Battra were just as magical as their counterparts. And that magic of Terra still had a stubborn relationship with that of Equestria of any variety.

The blizzard that had overtaken the town was beaten back, unable to mix or occupy the same space as some of this foreign magic like oil and water and having less force behind it. Rainbow Dash whooped a combination of a warcry and burst of laughter like she was in the most epic roller coaster ever when Anguirus jumped over a housing development and was caught midair by the other two allied kaiju who airlifted him the rest of the way.

=============
A Ways Away
=============

Aria continued to flap her wings and recirculate currents of controlled gravity to continue flying along. It was faster than driving a car, much less through the windy streets and growing icy formations across town and they hadn't had much other choice than her airlifting everybody who could go. Gigan was out of commission and couldn't be moved safely and Flash Sentry still out cold from what happened to him earlier. She was the only one who knew how to drive safely but would have to go slow through the roadways. That left her in this rather ridiculous looking situation of the tiny Celestia hanging off one of her arms and legs, Godzilla doing the same to her other side, and Adagio piggybacking on top of her cousin whilst leaning to the side in an attempt to equalize the weight.

It was a blessing that taking on Kaizer's powers bolstered her durability and strength so much, and some constant gravity manipulation canceled out most of the weight as she towed them along.

“Gotta give you props on one thing," Aria shouted over the winds as she was conscious of the very light weight on one of her arms, "I'd have never guessed a half-grown runt like you would be Princess Celestia! You certainly fooled us, not even Twilight recognized you."

"Pink hair," Celestia, formerly Peachy Keen, sheepishly and awkwardly shrugged, "Everypony's used to my later look from using the Elements solo."

The echoes of what had to be a truly titanic struggle were audible even over the intense storm that otherwise made it near impossible to see more than a few hundred meters ahead at any given stretch. One particularly loud crash was definitely indicative of something very large hitting the seaside and throwing up millions of gallons of water.

"That confirms it," Junior noted morosely what was already a certainty across most of their minds but the possibility of them being wrong was too appealing to not verbalize what they were dreading, "Zephyrus or the both of them have granted Boreas X's true form. They must have found out the method from what happened to me at the docks."

"Is there any possibility you’re wrong and there isn’t a giant monster fight dead ahead we’re flying towards?" Aria grimaced.

"He'd know more than anybody what a kaiju fight sounds like," Celestia interjected as she looked to the siren, "Either Irys, Lea, Anguirus, or all of them are probably fighting him up ahead."

Aria frowned and tried to keep her brave face, empty eyes looking ahead. Part of her wanted to verbalize the dread and fear starting to rip through her veins at the thought of X getting hurt when her bastard of a sire had control of his body, alongside the very real danger and threat of somebody with her significant other's level of power running amok. She quivered and bit her lip painfully, thankful for the reassuring presence in the back of her head giving hurriedly some company and what was unsaid and thought. Kaizer Ghidorah really had come full circle with this siren, the power in her body intensifying slightly as if to give reassurance of their bond and commitment to saving X.

“Aria, Adagio, your song magic is our best shot at purging Boreas out of X’s body so the Elements can finish him off. We just have to reach his mind first, like what Sunset and the Elements did with Flash Sentry,” Junior shouted over the storm as it grew more intense with their approach.

“And currently it's in three pieces, remember?” Adagio called back, trying to squint and shield her eyes from the frosty winds, “Almost all of the recent stuff is jammed into Aria’s head, most of his time as a kaiju is inside that damn rock on Zephyrus’ neck, and what’s left was from well before he met any of us!”

That one of his most powerful foes was once something not that different than a human had been more than a bit surprising to the King of the Monsters, having been brought up to speed about X’s history via Aria where it might be relevant to saving him. But, that information did come with a possible key for strategy.

Junior perked up and looked the kaizer siren right in the eye, addressing both her and who else was there mentally, “You said Boreas was essentially piloting Praetorian 094 mentally right after he became a kaiju; everything else was purged so he’d have no ties to anyone but all of the combat skills and some of his life prior. Do you have anything from his life before ascending in your head?”

"Ye-Yes, about half of it," Kaizer Aria quickly nodded, “But I need my magic to purge his mind and I can’t get too close to a kaiju even with this upgrade!”

His resolve was not wavering, “And you won’t. We just need Sunset Shimmer with her powers of empathy and Aria. I have a plan on how to handle the rest.”

“Tell us the plan after we settle the big problem, because we can't risk taking off our necklaces. Not when we’re about to get into the thick of it and after what happened to Sonata! Remember, more windigos near each other multiply their power and we're liable to make the whole thing worse!" Adagio piped up, cocking an eyebrow at Godzilla, "If you're thinking of turning into a big gray goliath, we'll have to get you to a Bearer."

"I'd boost you if I could if it saves X, but Adagio is right," Kaizer Aria focused on her own power to continue wrapping a sort of subtle aura of magic around them as she carried them along to stave off the worst of the storm, "We'll have to get you to an Element Bearer."

"We already got one!"

The two sirens followed the kaiju's line of sight and it took a few moments for Celestia to realize Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, or Twilight hadn't been flying alongside them. Everybody was looking at her.

"B-But," her heart rate started to rapidly increase, palpitations pulsing inside her chest from long dormant memories that only cropped up on the worst nights. She could remember using the Elements. All six of them at once. The overwhelming flood of power could only be rivaled by the overwhelming misery and shame that gnawed through her body like ice water injected straight into the veins.

The flash of rainbow light that stained her mane and tail.

The mare in the moon staring down at her like some sick conquest she never desired.

The heaving screaming at the now useless crystals, begging them to take anything of her to bring her sister back.

1000 years was a lot of time to heal, but a wound that deep always left scar tissue. Celestia caught herself hyperventilating just as Junior reached out to help steady her with a hand on her shoulder.

“I-I… I can’t!...” Celestia panted and shook her head as she shivered, “I’m- not worthy. I can’t use the Elements anymore, so I have no magic here!”

“If she can’t use the Elements, she doesn’t have the mojo,” Adagio piped up with a frown, a bit of sympathy underlying her tone for someone she never expected to express it towards, “We heard she couldn't use the Elements anymore after Nightmare Moon. Didn't know how or why, but it gave us confidence that we could get our power boost working in Canterlot unimpeded…”

She glowered to herself whilst shrugging to Celestia, “No offense, not like we plan on conquering anymore."

Celestia grimaced and yet Godzilla was unmoved, looking at her very intently as he motioned to her, “Worthiness is based on the person, not the magic. Maybe there was some magical blowback from using them all by yourself, but you never stopped being you. You kept Equestria and all of its groups afloat for 1,000 years. You turned down being made Queen just to make others more comfortable around you. You and other heroes stared down and beat back threat after threat, and when the final one came from your own sister; you still mustered yourself to stop her as you were the only one who could. And you did all that, then 1,000 years later you know the qualities that make a Bearer worthy so well you can set the stage for the new blood to show what they got.”

He motioned from her half hidden necklace, the last piece of her regalia that survived the portal jumping, and instead tapped at her forehead, “And you did that, twice, with the second time working when fate seemingly left you no magic of your own to work with. Did picking up a magic glowing crystal make Applejack or Rarity the heroines they are?”

“No,” Celestia frowned slightly with pursed lips as her pulse started to quicken with uncertainty, “They’d… They were worthy well before that and that’s true in both worlds.”

“Magic from Equestria didn’t infest this world, it was already here and what arrived only helped to wake it up. That's what we've discovered. The Bearers from here had magic, even if they didn’t know it yet. And if they can be worthy,” Junior tilted his head slightly, knowing he was no magical expert but he was on a train of logic that made sense to him, “Why not you?”

“If you’re half as good as your proteges, you’re good enough as anyone who could hope to be to pull this off,” Aria called out as she focused on flying through the storm, “Sunset is no enemy of our’s and Twilight went above and beyond good to a degree we should have listened to her to begin with.”

“I’ll risk it if we absolutely gotta if Godzilla needs the boost, but I think he’s right. Plus, if there’s something physical or mental that messed with your Element tie,” Adagio interjected to weigh in herself, “It happened when you were a grown adult right? You’re not one now.”

Celestia was silent, eyes cast downwards and yet at nothing in particular as she virtually looked inwards. She opened her mouth to speak before her mind began to race up to the point he was making. Eyeballing her body now, she couldn’t be physically older than thirteen. It took heeled boots and attire to make her look old enough to pass for a typical Highschool Freshman. She was young again. Younger than the biggest breakpoint in her life. Back to an age where she embodied Magic, Laughter, and Kindness. She had no way of knowing just what impact this all might have on her. If somehow her connection was reliant on that age as much as it was her being. If it had any effect at all.

But, if it did…

Her broken bond to the Elements was something she’d long thought of as entirely physical, but there possibly being a mental aspect had been something she might have long suspected in her subconscious but never voiced. The reason she’d never gone looking for the Elements again back in Equestria, even if she knew exactly where they were, had been because returning to the old castle was too painful to her.

Part of the motive to do as much good as she was being praised for, directly and by proxy of influence to others, had been to atone for her tragic error that happened at that castle and the last time she used the Elements. Selfless pride and will to help her subjects, forever flavored with a sense of self admonishment and atonement to make up for her mistake.

Those circumstances, as with her physical age, had changed. She’d done a lot of good and her age had been rewound. What she’d lost in physical power, she might have gained in losing old wounds on her soul whilst moving on might have helped heal her mind.

Flickers of something, perhaps memory, were in her consciousness. Memory of bearing three great gifts. The thought of just wielding one of them seemed overwhelming, but the idea there was a chance to do so and do good by it…

“Two parts to every Bearer. The physical Element talisman to amplify that magic and,” the near magicless kaiju gently tapped on her brow between her eyes, “What’s in here. And those girls did a great job exuding plenty of magic even before they got their crystals. If they can do it-”

Within her realm, someone rarely taken by surprise had her eyes widen as she watched. Harmony’s focus pulled away from the viewing portal as Godzilla’s words echoed out.

“-why not one of the greatest heroes and magical teachers in history?”

The Goddess of Creation’s attention turned to the bundle of magic caught in the realms between worlds. When Celestia was transferring over, Bagan had ambushed her party. It happened so quickly that she hadn’t time to defend the alicorn and a portion of her magic had been sheared off. That bundle of magic, permanently linked to Celestia as part of her very essence, sought to rejoin with her but was stuck between realms. Unless Celestia traveled back to Equestria or a large enough portal was opened between dimensions, it remained stuck but under her protective care.

At first she’d thought it an attempt by Bagan to steal the alicorn’s magic, but the Extinction Deity had been extremely quiet about motives. One minute they were using the strands of time to glimpse a possible future, the next they were pulling that stunt before instantly backing off. Their actions certainly had had strange consequences. Lack of magic and age had changed Celestia’s intended efforts in helping the local heroes, going from a potential powerhouse to a support mentor.

But the lessened magic had provided some of its own benefits. Had Celestia kept her power in any form, the events of the concert might have happened differently and the wayward hunters and sirens would be forced to make amends and reconcile with the team rallied around the Element Bearers. The Bearers themselves might not have gotten the same magical instruction they’d gotten and be capable of wielding such magic, and who’d know if they’d have gotten their Elements quicker or later from the Retainer, Gloriosa.

There was also one other notable side effect. Celestia being diminished so much had left her magical energy and aura similar to the mortal Bearers at their age. Had she walked out of the gateway to that world with her magic fully intact, even if it might take awhile to get used to her new body enough to use it, she’d have been lit up like a beacon to the kaiju but also to the windigos. The slain windigo, Notus, didn’t even recognize her for what she was until the eleventh hour; even after being around her for some time in the host body of that poor boy.

And the moment Notus realized what he was in the presence of, he instantly tried to kill her.

-Had Celestia come into the world at full capacity, even if disoriented and weakened, she very well could have been targeted. It would have endangered her at most, thrown a wrench into everyone’s plans at the least…-

Bagan’s absence from her domain was noticed, as was her detection of their extension’s presence in the mortal realm. And how she could sense her fellow deity’s attention on her. Harmony could feel the compulsion to break her self-imposed rule and march through that viewing portal. Put a stop to this calamity and head off whatever it was Bagan was up to. The question is what stopped her.

-Why are you doing any of this?...-

Harmony stared off into the mortal coil with a stern, unsure expression plastered upon the frown on her lips.

-Are you doing this for someone else, or is this another attempt to prove something to me? Trying to goad me into crossing over or is something else your ploy?-

She could do it. As destructive as it could be, with her amount of magic forcing itself into that mortal coil, she could enter that world full force. She could smite the windigo in an instant, reveal Bagan and whatever it was they were up to; or try to force it out of them. The temptation was very strong. Just as potent as the bitter, sad memories of how that world took the only friend she’d had in centuries away. Being undying would usually make mortals think such spans of time would be seen as fleeting, a thousand years but a day or a century a mere hour. But she felt time just as much as any other did. It was, perhaps, one of the few things that made her like mortals, like more beings than just the two other gods she knew existed. And she clung to it.

Her motion towards the portal was stayed and stopped, Harmony perhaps realizing how close she’d unconsciously come to stepping through and crossing over. And she did not know if it was fear of being discovered again, and all the calamity that caused in the past, or if it was assurance and confidence in the heroes that kept her from stepping forward.

Bagan and Grogar, the only other two of her kind she had ever known, were extremely different in some ways. But there was one unity of commonality between them. Both of them had lost most or all of their faith in mortals to do the right thing, that they could conquer their demons and not be ruled by them be those demons literal or metaphorical.

She frowned at the lamentation that Grogar was very much not like that once. Once in a bygone era, many of the mortal races called him father and he was a kindly example of such if there ever was one. Bagan, especially in a time where they were called something else, was very much the same. Harmony knew she had effectively lost one of them beyond the event horizon for things to go back to how they were. One major difference between the two gods that had turned their back on civilization as it was, was that the door wasn't slammed shut with one of them.

Bagan's words about how their mortal hunters had faith in their master with a duty to continue their loyalty, and their godly master likewise had a duty to have faith in them as they repaid that loyalty; they echoed across her mind.

If someone like that, even if they denied it, could still have some faith in mortals and possibly civilization through them, she could take at least some comfort in that and have faith herself. Loyalty was one of her elements after all.

The Goddess affirmed herself, stepping back from the portal to watch on and perhaps further tilt the hand of fate as she had empowered Wysteria's daughter. One could call that last effort nepotism, though she would argue the power did not make the hero. It only enabled them to do more good. She would have faith the most heinous and monstrous of Grogar's forces could at last be destroyed. Both by an effort of young heroes rising to the occasion, turncoat villains of many varieties, wayward travelers who had no stake in the matter but chose to do what was right, and a sense of karmic justice that the very product of the horrible deed the windigos committed and plan to use in their ambitions might yet help strike the death knell for them.

They could do this, and she would be watching. Both in pride at the heroes proving themselves, and in confidence that her not turning out like her fellow deities meant she was not foolish to put her faith in those who once put faith in her.

And if something out of their means to handle emerged, especially by the machinations of another god, she would ensure they didn't fight alone.

==================
Downtown Canterlot
==================

Back at the roadway, the heroes were holding their ground but not gaining any. Megalon went flying into a storefront, causing a brief moment of distraction when Pinkie was forced to dive aside lest he be thrown directly into her. In the moment between her touching the ground and trying to roll to her feet, uneven footsteps were already rapidly approaching.

The Element of Laughter cringed and rolled onto her back, bringing her hands up and rapidly clapping whilst still holding back tears from the painful shrieks she caused when the shockwaves hit Australis. The gaudy display of benevolent magic surrounded and repeatedly struck the demon, fracturing ice and causing black ichors, like dead blood, to spill out from the cracks. One particular clap shattered the icy growth that covered up Australis' right arm, causing the windigo to recoil around with her spine bending at an unnatural angle that surely would've killed anyone else.

And yet either because of her true nature, her status as a hybrid, or just sheer hatred and determination motivating her towards who was in the back of the van at the end of the road, Australis persevered. She closed the distance and wrenched herself around. Her right arm, now free of the ice, looked like it was bent and broken in several places and her left arm had a piece of ice running right through it as if impaled. But if either of those detracted from her brute strength, it didn't show.

Even if getting close to the Element hurt her, Australis powered through it in a greater capacity than her sire ever could. Grabbing Pinkie by the shoulders, Australis pulled her from the ground and split her own jaws so wide she could have attempted to engulf the young woman's head entirely into her maw even with the oversized teeth.

Pinkie Pie stared at the abyss before her, the seemingly infinite cavern behind Australis’ jaws. She wasn’t really one to study mythology, but she did once recall something about frost demons with similar or the same names as windigos. There wasn't much, but there was a sort of concept that stuck with her as someone with culinary pursuits. That these were entities who were constantly starving, constantly consuming or creating such misery because they could never be full. Just an infinite cavern that only existed to cause more and more suffering. Whether it was just some sort of personification of what winter could do at its worst or if the ancient folk were on to something, she didn't know. What she did know was that even with her own magic and hope, it hurt like a knife to the heart seeing her friend become such a thing.

And yet, what had been kindled in her when she was a little girl refused to die out. Whether it was the song her grandmother had taught her, or the moral it imparted that she always lived to lift up others with her antics, the cold couldn't snuff out that one heat within her.

She didn't give up, she couldn't. Not on herself nor on Sonata. If this was how the crazy train rolled on, it was good to keep on rolling and not stop frozen in its tracks!

Rather than shy away and try to flee the abomination now inches away from her, Pinkie Pie rose to the occasion to face it. She grabbed onto Australis' sunken cheeks, ignoring the jagged fangs and building scream attack, trying to force the demon to look directly at her. The dark void of the windigo's single visible eye was met with the Element of Laughter's gentle smile as she held onto her friend’s face, unafraid. Even as Australis’ jaws parted and she began to take in a breath to let loose her strongest shriek yet, point blank.

A tear rolled down Pinkie Pie’s face as she stood still, trusting.

That was when fate turned.

A rainbow of light arched through the winter storm, originating far away in Camp Everfree from the other gathered Elements. That power had been amassed to put a stop to a windigo, and by accident and unknowing design they helped to do just that. The burst of power linking Twilight and her friends together had gone off to join the one Element who wasn’t physically present but needed the help.

The blue crystal around Pinkie’s neck sparkled and surged with life, and her entire body seemed to take on the same sort of glow. It seemed to build up before releasing, blowing across the nearby area in a blue energy bubble. The snow and ice formed across the ground melted away to a degree, the frost that had started to encase Megalon’s arm to adhere it to the ground dissipated and allowed the cyborg to rise. And it also caused all of the people behind the brave heroine to stop screaming in terror.

It also spurred someone who’d wanted to be a hero to finally be one, now that the frost on her body was too broken like severed shackles.

The door to the Cakes’ van flew open and a pair of legs beat the ground to run directly towards the horrific abomination of a demon. Everything happened in the fractions of a second, perceptible in slow motion as they went.

Megalon closed in from the left to try and save Pinkie from a point-blank scream attack by the windigo.

Pinkie Pie was stationary, instead holding Australis’ face assuring as her fingers started to melt through the ice at points of contact.

Australis looked upon the Element of Laughter with two eyes. One, a dark void of a demon’s gaze filled with wrath and spite at the very power she had. The other, visible through the melting ice, was of a scared siren who recognized her friend.

And Wallflower Blush was rushing up as fast as she could behind Pinkie Pie and with her arms outstretched.

An alien cyborg, a magical heroine, a horrific monster, and said monster’s creator. And every single one of them was crying when it all happened.

Wallflower grabbed and threw Pinkie Pie aside into Megalon, stopping the cyborg from intercepting them both and keeping both of them out of the way. Australis’ maw curled into a vicious snarl at finally catching sight of her quarry, as Wallflower closed the distance more. And the sky was divided by an ear splitting wail of pain, hatred, and spite at the fate dealt to her. It went on for almost a minute, deafeningly so.

Wallflower Blush was dead. She honestly thought she had to be dead and that’s why everything was just a void. No sound, no sight, no touch. What finally came to her eyes, through the void that was not pitch darkness nor bright white, was a face. Not of a horrific demon, nor initially anyone recognizable. But a face from a bygone time and another world. Blued skin, not human and yet with the same glint of awareness as seen in human eyes. The face of a mother who left the world so a daughter could be born into it. An act of love, in spite of what horrors befell her.

The echo of the bygone princess, who perhaps had never stopped watching over her progeny, changed to reflect that legacy. First in her natural state and then as Wallflower recognized her as. Somehow, Sonata Dusk stood before her, an ugly scar stretching across her neck with an outline of where her necklace had been clearly visible in the marking.

Tears were flowing from the siren’s eyes, and yet her expression was flattened and neutral. Staring right at, or perhaps right through Wallflower.

Blush could feel the chills. Inside and out. The bitter cold that gnawed at the skin and bone and yet never let the body go numb. A cold void that was just as much mental as it was physical. The presence of a windigo, bearing closer.

She could practically feel those ragged teeth and yet she could only see Sonata Dusk's face. The face of the young woman, slowly turning to sorrow and pain.

Blush was an extremely reclusive person. Both by how others treated her and eventually her own habits. It took chance fortune and the machinations of someone she now knew was the worst of the evil to get her to finally reach out and make a friend. And truthfully speaking, Twilight had done the majority of the work with genuine intrigue at someone else who found a magical source. And the Memory Stone hadn't even come to Blush by some miraculous feat or discovery, just a random incident digging in the dirt.

She was nothing special, the epitome of a nobody. Even her name seemed to reflect it and Wallflower knew this well.

And yet, she was compelled to act. Despite all of the fear, despite all of the bitter cold and misery. She had once thought herself inspired into action by Twilight, to do something meaningful into something good. Not just watch from the sidelines... She'd been wrong. This was her first truly good deed, inspired by the two heroes who seemed so poised to save her as much as they were anyone else.

She lunged forward and hugged Australis, not caring about the frostbite whose onset was caused by just contact alone. The pain was intense and yet she still hung on, tears falling and freezing around her eyes as she lit forth a spree of words that were mangled in the attempt to speak even if their meeting came through. About how truly sorry she was, about owning up to her sins, and how the demon wronged was free to take her revenge if it helped the others.

At last, she finally got to be the hero.

Australis' maw lowered and her ragged, clawed hands swept inwards.

The storm started to subside, and as Megalon started to pick himself up from the shockwave that had blown him and Pinkie over; he heard something. Pinkie did too, as she started to unfurl after being tucked into her friend's arms so the more durable cyborg could endure the hit of Australis' scream attack. The Element Bearer, dazed, blinked and tried to refocus herself. She saw her compatriot and instantly felt at his face with her hands to brush away some of the frost and make sure he was all right. He was doing likewise for a hot moment, before their eyes met as she also heard what he did.

Quiet crying. No longer baleful shrieking or reaching outcries of misery and wrath, but simple hitched breath of muffled sobbing.

Australis was crying, her long arms wrapped around Wallflower Blush as some of the ice across her face increasingly melted away. The painful sounds of scraping bones accompanied the demon increasingly decreasing in span and height. Shards of ice that were gouged through her body crumbled and the wounds left behind loosely stitched themselves shut. The transformation did not completely reverse, she was still gaunt and frostbitten, still agonizingly cold to the touch, and had shredded through any of her clothing between the transformation and battles. Only now her form was less uncanny and disturbing, more a sight of vulnerability and sympathy.

As she held one of those who had wronged her so much, it had been Sonata who’d beaten Australis back; now even more so than a fleeting moment at the campground where Pinkie could get through to her. The frozen mask in emulation of a deer skull and antlers melted, heated by a heart still warm with life that had resumed beating. Capitalizing on this, Pinkie looked her friend in the eye affectionately as an idea hit her after looking at both the scar on Sonata’s neck and her own, now brightly glowing necklace.

Pinkie Pie slipped off her Element crystal and, with some caution just in case of any signs implying a negative reaction, put it on Sonata’s neck. Instantly any changes from Australis to Sonata seem to be increased one hundred fold, the transformation reversing even more and the pain subsiding as the Element of pure good worked off the inner goodness the siren had. It wasn't quite a replacement for what had been there prior, but the substitution certainly seemed to help as long as she was right there next to it for the magic to work. Worries that somehow the opposite magic of the windigos would cause harm to the siren were quickly proven untrue. Nobody could have known it was because a certain goddess would never condemn one due to the circumstances of their birth or who had sired them.

Harmony loved those who loved, simple as that. And that, along with the capacity to truly feel, forgive, bond, and learn was what separated Notus from his intended successor. The very thing Zephyrus had been gambling on to make Australis more spiteful and dangerous than her father had wound up being her one weakness as a windigo; strength as a siren.

Sonata was still not entirely herself, but if there was any sympathy for her before it was only magnified now. And as she cried, her two friends moved forward to embrace her, Pinkie working to get some of the mess of frost and filth ridden hair out of her face and wounds as Megalon practically held her up and gave her something to lean on.

People started to exit their cars had they still been inside, or otherwise pick themselves up from the hiding places they had wisely ducked into. Many looked on sympathetically or even made moves for some things they thought might help. Mrs. Cake was out of the van as soon as she was assured her babies were safe, First Aid kit in hand.

Wallflower Blush only let go of Sonata to give Megalon an opening to take his vest and long sleeves off to put them on the shivering and wounded siren.

Pinkie Pie busily started applying bandages alongside Mrs. Cake to Sonata's arm, making sure the wounds from the impaling ice that had melted away stayed shut. The fact that she couldn't have been fully cured of her affliction was both painfully obvious and regrettably fortunate because she wasn't bleeding profusely from the exit wounds. In fact she was hardly bleeding at all, her skin having a dry and sickly visage and texture like old parchment.

"We need to get Nata her necklace back," Megalon noted with a frown, "Removing it put her in this situation, best guess is putting it back might be the only way to fix it for good."

"Sonata's necklace is…" Wallflower swallowed a hard breath, selflessly removing the overcoat given to her and helping put in around the still shivering Sonata to both try and offer some modicum of comfort and protect her modesty, "It’s inside Twilight's amulet. She was told to use it by Zephyrus as her power source to focus her magic."

"Then we need to get to where your Twilight is," Pinkie Pie piped up with a frown, constantly glancing at the still mute Sonata to reassess her condition, "You-"

Wallflower stiffened, still not quite used to anyone ever noticing her in any large capacity.

"What was that big meanie pushing you two along planning?" Pinkie Pie frowned as she leaned in to listen.

"I-.. I-" Wallflower swallowed, eyes darting back and forth as she tried to get a hold of her own mental bearings and memory.

The last couple of days had more than shaken her up and being terrorized by Boreas had left her losing track of both time and space. Just how long had she been running away for? Not even she knew.

"Ze-Zephyrus never really told me much beyond just depowering anyone with 'bad magic' and the focus on the sirens," Wallflower swallowed, gripping her head as she frantically tried to think of any good clue or sign to point her into the right direction.

"How was it you got wrapped up into all this anyways?" Megalon huffed, "Maybe it ties into how you're not exactly-"

"Because I'm an asocial vulnerable wreck who was easy to manipulate!"

Megalon blinked, "... I was going to say clearly stressed out and not thinking straight. Where'd that self loathing come from?"

Wallflower Blush fidgeted with a lock of her hair as a nervous tick, "I am that too.. And always have been. Seeing a bully like Sunset get her notice and second chance was what pushed me into this but it's no excuse."

She glanced at her neck where there was now nothing, but she could still see a small wear mark from having bore the Memory Stone so constantly for months, "I-I got lucky, or really unlucky finding that stone and became an accessory to what he had planned for Twilight. She was always the smart one, the one the plan hinged on and-and- I was the useless one! And-"

Wallflower sobbed, pulling at her hairs tightly as she trembled, "And Twilight was-"

She stopped when a pair of hands gripped her face. They were so extremely frigid that they jarred her senses, tearing her away from a mental spiral she was starting to go down. Her eyes locked with Sonata's in what almost seemed like a silent conversation conveyed in trembles and vibrations of the pupil. The siren, still clearly in a lot of pain and looking absolutely horrible, nonetheless gave her a look that was both sympathetic and pleading.

The jarring however, had another side effect beyond causing Wallflower’s heart to stop. A brief memory, one of the very few she could recall clearly, came to her sight in the blackness of Sonata’s pupils. The first time she met the only friend that she had ever had and where it had been.

================

Wallflower Blush had been having another crying spell in the last hour. Another day of eating her homepacked lunch on the sidewalk, rotating spot from the girl's bathroom yesterday and the garden the day prior. She'd thought herself having mustered some courage, but seeing the same face which ruined countless days of hers sitting, smiling, and laughing with friends she'd only dreamed of having was a cold nail in the chest. Chills and yet sweating on her goosebumped skin, she knew she looked as ugly as she felt having even a small panic attack.

It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. She wasn't a stellar student but she wasn't a drag. She could like some of the things others did. She could try to talk, engage maybe. Her heart had pulsed with the hope to, only to be quickly strangled by an irrational fear. She'd practically run away from the lunchroom. Another painful stab of self-disgust at her lack of spine.

Which left Wallflower where she was now. She was shocked in some ways, disbelieving in others as he apple fell from her hand at the sound of a voice pointed at her. This, this felt like a dream. This couldn’t be real. Someone was actually talking to her. Someone actually wanted to hear what she said. And she couldn't force a single word out of her throat, having blinked multiple times to try and snap out of the cruely pleasant dream.

Yet, her company, a new concept in itself, didn’t seem to mind much and was happily rattling off her own verbosity whilst letting Wallflower tag along.

“So the device I invented was tuned in to pick up a very specific type of energy signature that, and this is for lack of better terms," Twilight Sparkle muttered a bit sheepishly, "Magic gives off. Like the stuff that led me to finding you because you’d been around it! Don't worry, it's not like those bogus EMS readers Ghost Chasers use. I swear, if I had a nickel for all of the times those bozos went running after a noise that was probably just wood creaking from a temperature change, I could.."

She paused and tapped at her chin before shrugging, "Probably not put myself through college with the rates these days, more like buy a good DVD player... But the fact I could says something!"

It didn’t matter to her that Twilight had done all of the talking. Nor that, in hindsight, she should have caught notice of the chilly breezes in the air to imply Zephyrus had been the one to nudge and encourage Twilight into introducing herself like this. The only thing that mattered to Wallflower Blush in this memory was that this was how she met her old friend. Her best friend, if that title carried more weight to spur on stronger feelings.

Somehow, she could know this wasn’t another false-positive. Not like the bullying Sunset Shimmer subjected her to when she’d been the first to take notice of Wallflower for even just a brief time. Somehow, Blush could trust.

Twilight was standing in front of the school statue, fiddling with her device as if she was scanning it, “Magic tends to move in pathways, I’m calling them ley lines. I hypothesize that different worlds, maybe some with more active magic in them than our own, move into ours through ley lines. It’s like a crossroads in a street intersecting! If I’m right, and I think the spikes in my reader tell me, then magical beings or objects like what you were exposed to are more likely to crop up around here.”

Twilight turned on her heel and tilted her head as she motioned with a thumb back to the statue, hiding a lot of awkwardness at talking to someone so openly like this, “Soooo you said found something not far from this statue, right?”

Wallflower Blush felt an enormous pit in her gut, one she’d experienced time and time again, countlessly, for years. It felt like jumping a crevice that was impossible to tell how wide it was, blindfolded, and not knowing how far away the ledge to leap from was. Rush it, you could just as likely go running off the edge. To try and make an effort was to court failure, and there were many times she’d just walked away. Actually connecting with someone was a dream, but a nightmare to try to take with a thousand ways it could go wrong.

And yet, maybe from all the crushing isolation and depression she’d been suffering from for years, she finally took that jump. Wallflower Blush pulled the Memory Stone from her inner necklace and held it out to the gawking eyes of Twilight Sparkle. For the very first time, she actually shared a smile when the investigator’s widened eyes and smirk proved infectious.

She felt herself take the jump, and felt Twilight’s hand grab her to pull her back up to safety. All in the shadow of the school statue.

================

“The-... The school. Twilight and I first met at my High School. Zephyrus had coaxed her into finding me, but she’d been tracking where the stone I had was. She told me the school was like a ley line, a crossroads! Magic from other places tended to come out around there because of how things flowed into our world! Zephyrus was there with us,” Wallflower yelped with a cringe on her face.

Megalon’s eyes widened as flickers of his own memory, one he wasn't sure if it was a dream or not, returned. He had also been around the high school recently and if any of what he remembered was true, Zephyrus came running the moment he almost damaged the statue in front of it in a desperate bid to call out to his master.

"The statue! If there's something making the school special where things from other places get drawn in, it's the statue!" he noted, looking at Pinkie Pie, "It's the same way my team and I got here. Zephyrus will be there!"

"Twilight, Princess Twilight, came from the pony place through there too! If these ghoulies came from that place as well, maybe they want to head back to get even?!"

"Or get something else. It's a dimensional weak spot. Maybe the magic does something weird there that makes world jumping easier?" the cyborg frowned, "But how exactly are we to get to it? I could try turning giant with your magic Pinkie and carrying everyone, but it's holding back Sonata from reverting."

Pinkie Pie cringed as she glanced at the burning wreckage on the other side of the roadway, “And I think Ms. Daisy’s insurance won’t replace that fast enough. Megs, how fast can you run?”

“Take mine!” a shout cut through the conversation before half a dozen more just like it joined in.

"Take my car!"

"I got a motorbike!"

"Mine has snow tires!"

"Take my truck!"

Dozens of completely random people, previously a chaotic mob of terrorized individuals risking insanity, all shouted out. Some were offering blankets or spare clothing, many of them had car keys in hand, all of them wanted to help even after just overhearing part of the conversation. What was going on was well above any of them, but even just a basic passerby could understand when someone needed help. And be it human nature or the magic of one heroine banishing terror to help them remember said nature, so many wanted to do what they could.

Mrs. Cake obviously was amongst them, but Pinkie Pie was quick to grab her hands and yank her mentor into a bear hug before separating.

"No! This could get really dicey and this would not be a place for any babies!" Pinkie Pie piped up.

"I-I wasn't going to take the kids along to get you kids where you need to go!"

"Kids? I'm 150," Megalon whimpered.

"We can move vehicles and you take the van," She was cut off by Pinkie Pie.

"And take the babies out? You know they love that van! They will be crying all the way out of town!" The Element of Laughter both frowned and chuckled at the same time awkwardly.

The relatively thin road and column of evacuation made other attempts at good Samaritans difficult. Most of the cars were too far ahead of the pack to turn around easily, and as well intended as the motorcyclists were, driving into a blizzard while carrying someone was not viable even with a sidecar. Which was why the truck behind and beside the group clicking on and beeping spurred everyone's attention to look back to it, then to who had turned it on.

A green skinned young man in camouflage pants jogged forward, having abandoned his vehicle to run ahead and join the crowds when the fight spilled too close and the temporary mania affected everyone. When the magic wave hit Pinkie and then spread out from her, he felt that icy grip on his consciousness. And like so many, he sought to help. Only difference was he was in a position he could easily do so.

“I can at least get you guys pretty close! Got snow tires!” he shouted, jogging up to his truck, a compassionate smile on his face.

Pinkie Pie squinted at him and tilted her head, recognizing his voice as he opened his truck door, “... Warhawk877?”

“Just Warhawk-.. Wait, PinkFrenzy999?!” his face contorted in brief confusion before his eyes widened.

Megalon recognized the name, as did a less expressive Sonata. Wallflower glanced at the trio as they made their way towards the truck.

“Those… sound like screennames, do you know this guy?”

Pinkie Pie, still sporting her hero outfit and a set of magical ears that perked up with her shrug, “On Rainbow Six!”

“Small world ain’t it?!” Warhawk chimed as he started the vehicle up.

Megalon casually picked up Wallflower with his surviving arm and carried her into the vehicle, “No time to explain, get in the truck!”

================
Back at the edge of town
================

Gigan didn’t know what it was exactly that caused him to wake up. It was such a surreal feeling in fact. Despite him lacking the part of mind to do it, he almost could feel that wispy sensation of recollections in fiction, spilling through his fingers. Enough to remember he’d been thinking, experiencing something, but unable to perfectly recall what it was. Sensations and sights, passing just out of grasp.

Was... this what a dream felt like? It had been so long he’d forgotten.

At least it felt pleasant.

He was seated inside of a van, even if he didn’t fully remember getting there. He must have gone unconscious shortly after speaking to Godzilla and Adagio agreed to go with the others. The sensations brought about memories of that often frustrating siren, and the camp director, frustrating in her own ways, particularly when the former swore to go and kick her father’s ass in his place. It caused his chest to tighten up. There was a trust that Adagio would get the job done, especially after she’d saved his life at least twice over in the last few hours.

That didn’t change him feeling useless for being here. Broken down and barely able to move. At least he wasn’t sparking anymore.

The cyborg, effectively blind due to the damage to his eyes and not wanting to risk a malfunction, nevertheless raised his head and tiredly looked about. There was something subconsciously pulling at his focus, like his senses could detect something but couldn’t quantify it. A tugging at the mind like how one could sense someone looking upon them, a faint scent in the air, or the tactile sense of a shifting temperature.

“Who.. Wh-h-h-h-o is…?” he slurred, his vocal box still damaged from the battle with Zephyrus.

There was breathing nearby, but that was coming from a different direction than the subtle sensing he was picking up. A very dim recollection of a young man with the group the Defenders and Element Bearers was with came to mind, both that time he came to bail out X from getting ganged-up on whilst he was pulling his punches and from word at the conference they arranged. Flash- Something. By the sound of his breath he was out-cold, something having happened to him.

-Looks like this expedition is wearing out everyone.-

No, the detection he was just barely picking up was coming from… Outside. He could feel the edge of the closed van door beside him, having been put upon and strapped into a seat.

Cold.. That was the only way to describe it at first. And that word alone nearly sent him into a panic attack. The frost on the window was almost palpable, spreading onto his skin.

-Windigo?! Was one of them coming here? Had they lost?! What of my team!? My promise!-

The flickers of his compatriots and his oathsworn, to Wysteria and Melpomene; they spurred him into action. He’d almost wrenched the stubborn seatbelt free, resigned to fight even with a broken body and no means of directly harming the damn things that refused to die. What stopped him was something that came when the door to the van was pulled open audibly.

It wasn’t what he felt, but what he didn’t detect.

Still blind, all he could do was feel and hear. Unlike every other time he’d gotten near the damned triad of demons, there were no howling gales. No gnawing frost biting to the bone, nor dread and misery that bit into the mind. It was cold, but a natural chill. One familiar. One he’d almost come to enjoy.

The windigo’s cold was due to absence of all. Just a void that sucked in everything positive, literally or figuratively in temperature as well as mind. This cold, it was virtually calming now; not drawing in but radiating outwards. In truth a normal human might still find it frigid all the same, but it wasn’t born of how the windigo’s magic was emotion based like most Equestrian magic. Because it wasn’t Equestrian magic.

Gigan was as stunned as he was relieved, slack jawed and weakly looking up at where they guessed the source was, “... M-My lor-d?”

The presence which had been observing the events that had hence unfolded, recently having paid witness to the incident at the roadside with Wallflower and Australis, or rather, Sonata. They’d had a bet with Harmony about how that one would turn out, and though it was technically still ongoing, that judgment had already spurred them to act.

Bagan’s human eyes idly glanced to the sky, at no one place in particular but perhaps knowing a pair of eyes were upon them from the beyond. They both had been watching, only difference being Bagan was not afraid to get a closer look under cover. The goddess still refused to leave her realm directly for her own reasons.

Pity.

Their bet had been about how things would turn out between the girl cursed into being a monstrosity, and the other girl who’d turned her into that. With as out of control as Australis seemingly was to who’d wronged her Bagan had bet on vengeance, while Harmony had chanced fate upon forgiveness.

The sky was silent, and yet Bagan could detect Harmony’s eyes upon this form. Great in power as it was, Bagan had put much into concealment so as not to let the Mothra know of their presence. Which of course, left the question of why it even came here. They could remain in the realm beyond with the goddess, watching without witness to them in any chance. And that was without mentioning them dampening much of their powers hiding so much of it like this. In a state like this, Harmony could potentially sucker-punch them and cause a dire wound while their defenses were still down; break the tie of a deadlock they had…

-No… She wouldn’t do such a thing. I know her too well.-

Bagan looked back to Gigan, seeing the cyborg was trying to lower downwards whilst putting their heavily damaged and mangled arm to their chest. The poor, half-dead fool was trying to bow or kneel as they always did.

All while Gigan's wounds were fatal.

-His fate was to die here, in quiet company after doing all he could. After centuries as a slave weapon and killer of many, to save just a few from the very demon that sired one of them… such change in such time… -

Gigan's fading mind was flooded with questions. Why was his master even here, in tangible form? Why come to watch up close at all the inconveniences? Had his failed in his efforts and mission as to spur this? Why… did they quickly reach out and hold the cyborg by the shoulders and ease them back into their seat?

“My- lord… I cannot act for you any longer- I am-” a million more questions, concerns, and thoughts were flying through the cyborg’s mind. What to say and maybe what not to say in equal measure.

Oil leaked from his broken eye like tears, "I have fa-fa-failed, your mission…"

When he had first found himself summoned by a being he unironically identified as a god, Gigan had partially only given his loyalty out of fear for the sheer, overwhelming power he could physically feel coming off of them. The majority had only been out of concern for his brother and teammate, later teammates when Irys joined the squad. But after his life had been saved by the patronage of his master once after Kaizer Ghidorah’s final rampage; after he’d experienced thoughts and emotions he didn’t even know his heartless body could after all the things he done and went through, there had been change.

Gigan loathed his own creators. How they disassembled and reassembled him time and time again. How he’d spend weeks, years forced to be inactive as they invaded his body and tried to tamper with his mind. They’d mangled him, threw him as a slave soldier at their foes so he’d come back damaged and get mangled some more. Making peace with his body constantly changing under someone else’s whim, whilst fighting for every scrap of his mind he could preserve from what could have been insanity or alteration destroying it; it had been his life.

All of which changed when he’d been taken in. He once saw his abduction and service to a new command as trading one loss of agency for another. Gigan never expected to have faith in his leader, and loyalty in their faith in him.

And to his surprise the voice that responded to him, the first time they heard it without the overpowering presence and force behind it, was quiet, soothing even.

“Rest… I know of your dedication, and your loyalty,” Bagan nodded slightly, in a way that the cyborg could detect even without sight. Which loyalty exactly they meant was vague without having specified. Maybe they meant somehow the cyborg’s sacrifice was still within their mission parameters in loyalty to their master? Maybe they meant loyalty to their team and compatriots was approved of? Or maybe it was some mix of both.

Gigan felt a hand touch their forehead, “You are damaged heavily. Do not speak more than you can.”

Flash Sentry’s eyes fluttered open slightly. Through their delirium, he happened to turn his head just enough to happen to look over towards the source of the cold and subtle noise that roused him from exhaustion born rest. He saw someone he recognized, and someone he didn’t; though it was vague and blurry in vision that lacked fine detail. The towering, imposing form never turned to look upon him; their sole focus on their loyal soldier.

“You will say the magic mended the wounds, when you arrive,” Bagan, in the form of a human and yet radiating such a presence all the same, said quietly as a rune was scratched into the air by their finger.

“Arrive?” Gigan whispered.

“I know where you will go, to save whom,” His master noted before pausing with… perhaps a bit of uncertainty in their voice, “I-”

They closed their eyes, feeling Harmony’s focus on them once again and judging them. They’d been observing emotions, bonds, and change up close during this brief jaunt alone. They’d seen the absolute worst in sapience in the windigos, and seen the purported best standing counter to them. When they’d recruited their forces, they’d looked through both history and minds to find many of the worst; or at least the most destructive.

The intention was, at one point, for them to be disposable pawns. The worlds and biosphere would not miss the likes of the King Ghidorahs or Hedorahs. Big powerful distractions to turn loose when the time came to cause as much damage as possible before they were either destroyed by the defending groups or Bagan would wipe them out themself. But pulling in a group that had such honest loyalty, platonic love, and camaraderie had been unexpected. Let alone one that adapted and changed to recruit more blood into the ranks as with Irys then and perhaps even the sirens and associates now.

They’d been their most loyal, most dutiful, and most successful. When this very same cyborg, Gigan, was on death’s door through they and Ghidorah’s own ploy; Megalon had practically prayed to their master to save his dear brother. That devotion to each other, it was infectious and not in the same way those civilizations on Terra wound up like down the line. This team, their soldiers, they’d infected their master with their loyalty.

Civilization still needed to be destroyed, it was inevitable. Sapience was still a mistake in that form with such widespread numbers, in the misery and damage it caused. A pestilence to be cured before it ran rampant on the worlds like a cancer would through a body. But Bagan was nothing but patient. The machinations of closing this brief chapter in the history of life, the dominion of the sapient, could be forestalled if absolutely necessary. Actions were still to be taken, the end set in stage to come. But Bagan would not let the lives of those under its liege to end abruptly or be risked.

Their master would let their hunters enjoy this kind of life for a while longer, perhaps to their natural lifespans, much as this realm was a mistake that Harmony hadn’t yet realized yet. These humans Bagan could see them wiping themselves out, and who knew what else given enough time. A few decades, centuries, millennia; all short spans of time to a life measured in the billions.

But for perhaps the first time in what would be a long, long while for a mortal; Bagan felt compelled for a mortal, not against them. These hunters, they were theirs. And their master was theirs as well. If their master could have such faith in their capability, they needed to have faith in their master as well. That is what loyalty was, and Bagan would reward it. Not because of feeling that they had to, but because they wanted to.

That Bagan caught themselves finding Harmony right once more was not as annoying as it should be was another matter.

“I-,” Bagan resumed, finally realizing their word had gotten stuck in their throat. It had been over 100,000 years since they'd last said it. That should seem minuscule, that they should live for over four million thousands as to make that span of time insignificant. And yet, it mattered to them in their own strange set of values as might the life of the first, tiny, insignificant mammal once had to their living mountain of a form.

Bagan placed a hand on their loyal soldier's shoulder, speaking in a voice so plain and quiet, “... I am proud of you.”

Gigan tilted up slightly, mouth agape in the all too familiar visage of both awe and surprise.

-You will not die today, warrior.-

Bagan could hear Harmony giggling, and they remembered well a remark she noted when they first debated at length about the nature of gods and mortals. Them thinking faith went both ways was one of the very first things they agreed upon. It was also something Grogar had apparently totally lost in some ways, something Bagan intended to investigate more.

For now, extinction chose to ignore the giggling and focus. Runic markings covered Gigan’s form, and what was his form itself began to shift.

===========
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There was no color, no light. Blackness as it could be seen implied some sort of hue. This was entirely the absence of all, a near limitless void. And yet, there was motion. For the first time in over a millennia, distant winds carried the promise of release. The sorcerer and his fellow heroic pillars had forestalled his return last time when they managed to close the portal just as the Western Wind opened it. But now, with Zephyrus' machinations felt even across the rifts of space and time that divided them; like distant ripples in a pool the size of a world itself, there was at last an end time.

A horrific, roaring scream that seemed like it could shout out all in existence called out through the void as a form that seemed like it could engulf the sky itself and cast its shadow upon the lands stirred. Eastern gales from the God of Destruction's most powerful creation, stronger than the West, North, and South put together; ripped into the void in anticipation.

Eurus waited no more.

Author's Note

Proofread by LanceOmikron and SkyLark
Illustrations by Faith-Wolff

Chapter 54 Part 2: Bonds

Zephyrus was still hyperventilating when the portal closed and shunted them away from the campground. Even with all their experience with portal magic, having used a modified version of the spell he had been in the process of using when Starswirl interrupted him all those centuries ago, it took much from him. Upon landing next to Canterlot Highschool and laying eyes upon the statue in its courtyard, something caused them to briefly go still in recognition. The windigo himself had seen that statue before with no special tie or importance in mind, leaving the reason why it was creating an uncanny sensation within their mindscape unknown.

Something about this statue created sensations that an abomination like them had no context nor word for. They blinked, Frostbite Sparkle’s eye very briefly becoming normalized as if caught in a camera flash. And something jumped at the brief stirring of the soul within.

The Element of Magic sparked as a power surge came out of it and electrocuted their body, reaching within on a level beyond the physical to try and combat the dark force possessing its power in even an extremely rudimentary form. The body the element was tied to was not a proper bearer, but that didn’t stop a fragment of a benevolent goddess from trying to save them. Slithering through the air essence and spirit, the talisman of magic was not powerful enough to expel one of the most powerful creations of Harmony’s equal and opposite on its own, especially given it was meant to work with a bearer to magnify what was already there. But if the element could perhaps reach out and connect with the good soul this monstrosity had taken over and used as a shell…

Through the spiritual presence, the magenta magic started to reach for and touch the comatose flickers of the dormant girl’s psyche. That psyche started to stir again.

A shrieking, horrid gale pushed the Element’s efforts back.

“GRAAAUGH!” Zephyrus roared, smoke emanating from between their fingers as they clutched the crystal and froze it back over again after it had already started to melt its way back through. The Element of Magic pushed up against and was entombed beside the stolen siren heart and Memory Stone. The former isolated a rapidly dim flickers that grew increasingly dark once again. Its uprising was overpowered, if only temporarily.

And it took several minutes in itself to stop that uprising.

Frostbite Sparkle gasped and hissed, drooling black bile before spitting it aside. An enormous, armored fist touched down on the ground a dozen meters away, Boreas tilting his enormous head in a rare moment of contemplation. Frostbite heaved several breaths before regaining their composure. The glowing aura forming rings around her eyes resembling glasses reformed and they rolled their shoulders whilst snapping their wings back out to their fullest extent.

“We have a limited time, now even more so,” Zephyrus spoke through the roaring winds as the blizzard formed by their mere arrival began to intensify.

They levitated up back into the sky and spread their arms out, focusing on feeling how the magic itself flowed through this area. This was not just the typical exit point of something coming from Equestria at random. What he could magically sense and the once useful Twilight Sparkle had figured out was that this was a ley line, a place where the boundary lines between space and time that created dimension and sectioned off different dimensions was at its thinnest. So many places were now at their fingertips, if only they had the proper time and awareness to find the right doorway…

Closing their eyes, Frostbite Sparkle drew up their arms straight and focused everything they had for a minute. Boreas could not do the same, but he could contribute his presence as a fellow directional wind. Having more of their kind together always made them individually stronger. Frigid gales billowed out of his gigantic maw, Monster X’s jaw distending further than it should have as the screaming winds engulfed and encircled Frostbite Sparkle. Winds whipped about and a cold cyclone started to form high above.

Gathering all of their combined force, Frostbite Sparkle’s eyes shot open, and they cried out whilst swinging their arms down.

The sound of rending barriers in space was like hearing a living thing get eviscerated. Jagged holes were ripped into the open air and showed other locations inside their span. About a dozen openings, some spanning several meters across and others magnitudes larger, started opening up in the airspace around Frostbite, about the school, and across town. Some led to other locations in the very town, others showed gateways into the gawking and stupefied onlookers in Equestria. A pair of stallions and their filly pointing up at the sky in Manehattan’s central park before having to scramble for cover due to the storm billowing out of the portal.

Thundering earth and the echoes of roaring storms opposite his own drew both his attention and ire. The manner of beasts coming to confront them were outside of Zephyrus and Boreas’ known pool of references, though they were not in some ways astronomically different from various beasts of bygone eras or types familiar to them. In some sense of irony, few even somewhat resembled the unthinking, destructive monsters their master had loosed to end the Third Era right before his war with the traitorous goddess. Only this was no back-up, but a nuisance.

The warring kaiju had proven to be both an unforeseen boon for the conflict they carried themselves being twisted to serve the windigos’ ends, and an unexpected foreign thorn in their sides with how that same unforeseen element made them unpredictable. Zephyrus learned that the hard way with that mechanical meddler interfering with his father-daughter reunion. Notus had learned even more so, and the plan would already be going sideways if Zephyrus hadn’t helped Boreas get creative and the South Wind’s spawn wasn’t active.

The Element Bearers and their company were the real threat, no mistake there. But these living titans were their literal biggest enablers.

Boreas snapped to attention and engaged, loosing a quick salvo of ghostly white-hued graviton flares at the center of the incoming formation. As the spiraling pale death rays careened closer to their targets, the two airborne giants reacted to cover their grounded company by flying forward. A creature resembling a bat-like dragon flew forward and her pale body intercepted the blast. Boreas’ thirst for wounds wasn’t sated so soon from the collision however, as Irys did have the time and intent to throw up a sonic barrier and weather the hit. Graviton crashed against projected sound with the smashing of a gong as the second flier swooped in rapidly through the smoke parting around her.

Battra Lea smashed into Boreas’ middle, knocking the possessed kaiju off his feet, and lifting him into the air. Boreas thrashed and kicked, trying to get free of the hold that was secured with Lea wrapping her scythed arms around his back. Weathering return blow after blow against her armored chitin, Lea showed just how much physical force she’d gained from losing most of her spells. Ascending despite the sheer weight of Monster X’s form without losing any speed, she started to pivot upwards into a circular arc, circling in the air whilst still holding onto Boreas.

Looping end over end in a ring, the diameter of the rotation increasing with each loop in tandem with the speed. Boreas tried to counterattack and perhaps Monster X could have with mastery of gravity control defined some means of stabilizing himself. But while the windigo was essentially a spirit and was immune to inhibitions of the body like pain, he was still controlling a physical body that had its limits. Try as he might to fire the graviton flares, the body’s systems were completely out of control due to sheer vertigo.

Lea sharply descended, cold air billowing past her as she suddenly dive bombed towards the ground with her cargo in tow. The Battra’s flight arc snapped upwards just before hitting terra firma, throwing Boreas into the sports field behind the school hard enough that the seismic shockwave was felt across the city and shattered glass for multiple blocks. Boreas was smashed into the ground down to bedrock, throwing up hundreds of tons of debris ranging from sod, concrete piping, blacktop, and building foundation.

Unhurt as he was, Boreas still let loose screams of frustration and spite partially aimed at his attacker and equally so at the stubborn body not instantly obeying him to get back up. He had his playtime with the cyborg earlier and his niece, and even he was privy to how there was no time to dawdle in this. He did his best to ignore the mass of white blocking out part of his vision as Irys dove in to engage and try to knock him back down to the ground in order to keep him pinned. By the time Boreas was able to get his body to yield to his will once again, the gyaos had already managed to slam down onto him from behind and above. The albino’s powerful feet secured a hold on the back of his shoulders, and she quickly doubled on the effort by retracting her wings to use her hands in a further effort to pin him down.

By now Lea had circled around from her swoop and landed on to the now thrashing Boreas’ legs. She stomped her own limbs down upon one of the kicking legs and tried her best to both resist his thrashing tail and keep the kaiju from rolling over. Boreas let out a roar of frustration into the storm, ghostly white energy beams flying out from his face uselessly off into the air. He couldn’t turn his head enough to land a shot with Irys grabbed onto the back of his skull with her hands. Thrash as he may, he could not dislodge his attackers even without the third member of the counterattack party having even caught up yet.

Lea called out to Irys and the rest of her group with a sharp trill, affirming her own hold, making sure the gyaos who was once her enemy was all right after another useless salvo of graviton flares ripping the sky apart. Irys was just about to respond when something caught her eye.

Lea’s face right in front of her, despite Irys facing away from her as to keep a hold on X’s upper half. It took her a moment to realize the Battra was not actually before her, but a view of her was. Like a suspended reflection or a…

Boreas grinned and shot the portal Zephyrus had opened up in front of him, the energy beams launching through the tear in space to come flying out above and behind him. Irys and Lea cried out as their backs were blasted and concussed by the white beams of energy that left painful growths of ice on the impact sites. Thrown off of the possessed Monster X, both kaiju were momentarily stunned and sent rolling across the field; Lea crashing through several of the outdoor pavilions whilst Irys was blown backwards with enough force to completely flattened the bleachers.

Boreas punched the ground with both fists and pushed off to help launch himself to his feet, whilst ripping a huge multi-hundred-ton chunk of bedrock out of the ground to heft over his head. He began to take aim at the downed and stunned gyaos when another force demanded his attention with a roar that sounded like a pack of oncoming freight trains. Anguirus had dropped off his cargo, having been the chauffeur for the elements on the correct assumption his two compatriots would better be able to defend themselves and draw fire on their approach. Now with his other duty taken care of, the ankylosaur charged forward on all fours before pouncing.

Landing in the destroyed field on only his hind legs, the ankylosaur chimera reared up fully to close as much of the gap in height between him and Monster X as possible. Furious, burning hot roars pushed past his fangs as he brought his forepaws up into what almost looked like a readied stance to challenge the other combatant.

Boreas tried to fire upon him instantly, something stirred deep inside the head of Monster X that didn’t come from the windigo. Tiny flickers of some kind of distant recollection compelled the body into muscle memory and it also entered a readied stance against its sparring partner. Boreas snarled and resumed control, but by the time he kept his stolen body from resisting him Anguirus had already closed the distance. The earth shook as the brawlers locked onto each other, feet digging into the ground in the shoving contest of who could topple who first. Boreas angrily fired stray blasts into the air, Anguirus having rammed his crown forehead into Monster X’s jaw to crane his head back; as Lea and Irys regained their wits to re-engage.

Zephyrus was about to try his old trick again when suddenly sparks of energy started to conduct underneath the ice covering up Frostbite Sparkle’s collar. Manic eyes snapped open and looked aside just in time for a cyan blur to zoom past. Had they not dodged backwards at the last possible moment, the knee strike Rainbow Dash launched would have connected with their gut instead of glancing off of it. Hovering backwards they were soon assailed by more painful nuisances that threatened to allow their power source to rebel against them.

Not even given a moment to recalculate what was going on, Zephyrus found himself under attack again. Sections of the ground were eviscerated with tendrils of flora shooting up and lashing the air in an attempt to swat them from the sky or grab on to them. One woody limb snapped around one of their wings and suddenly yanked them into the side of the school building, banging Zephyrus against the concrete and glass before trying to drag them down to ground level. Gaea Everfree, the orchestrator of the attack, waved her hands back and forth like a conductor organizing a symphony orchestra; bringing more of the subterranean plant life to bear.

Frostbite Sparkle slashed at the air, telekinesis extended from their claws to shred the open space. A portal opened up briefly across the width of the tendril that had grabbed onto their wing, before abruptly snapping shut. A long length of what used to be oak tree fibers abruptly dropped across town out the other end of the portal and the windigo attempted to fly upwards to get some space.

Heaving in a breath, the rebelling Element sparking and pulsating with light underneath the ice, Zephyrus was starting to panic. More and more attackers were piling in and they were at the 11th hour with no sign of success as to what they were aiming for. In a blind panic and rage, the possessed Twilight’s body let out an ungodly shriek as they started slashing and swiping at the air.

Dozens more tears in space time, dozens more portals, started to open up. They weren’t big enough for the oncoming storm to be pushed through with any effectiveness, but the sheer number of them was rapidly beginning to pile up around the school. Most led to other areas in the human world, a few others to tangent worlds associated with that dimension. A majority of the remainder showed more and more of Equestria, both empty landscapes and gobsmacked equine onlookers. A few of them even seem to have opened up under the ocean or in the middle of a desert, spurring torrents of seawater or tumbling sand to start spewing out in abject chaos.

One of them, either from the latest batch or the first one, was oddly dormant in the void it seemed to lead to.

Distracted in their frenzy, Zephyrus was blindsided once again.

Numerous crystals burst into existence to surround them and pushed inwards, trying to block off their escape paths. Through their number, yellow energy in the shape of dozens and dozens of city pigeons and gulls, the types of animals one would find around a coastal school, started to mob Frostbite Sparkle. One would think they could barely do anything, but the magic that composed them made touching either the crystals or animal constructs agony. Sparks of magic conducted from each point of contact and attempted to reach out to the captive Element of Magic. The mobbing birds and surrounding crystals covered for each other. Rainbow Dash had grabbed onto someone and spun her about at high speed to build up momentum, flying through the air and hurling the orange blur into the cover Rarity and Fluttershy had made.

Just after back handing a seagull construct out of their face, Frostbite Sparkle was soon subjected to the sight of a very livid Applejack bodily tackling them out of the air. The Element of Honesty, wrapped in a glowing aura that gave her an innate hardiness to resist the freezing cold of making contact with a windigo for at least a bit, blocked an attempted swipe at her face. Jack responded by grabbing the windigo by their antlered crown and headbutting Zephyrus square in the forehead with enough superstrength to cause a small shockwave. The horticulturalist hit them so hard that Zephyrus was briefly seeing apple-shaped stars as the body locked up against their will.

“This ain’t yer’s!” Applejack hollered as she wasted no time trying to go for the necklaces adorning Frostbite Sparkle’s neck, her own element calling out to its counterpart with her fingers beginning to melt through parts of the ice.

A shock traveled into both the Windigo of the West Wind, and into one of the numerous portals ripped into the airspace around the school. A small, seemingly insignificant one overlooked until now, hovering above the back courtyard. The viewpoint of where it lay was a dark void more unseasonable than the richest blackness.

And unlike the others, something was starting to blow out of it rather than into it. An eastern breeze, both contrary and companion to Zephyrus’ westerly one.

The shock sent into Zephyrus spurred their eyes to snap open and they screamed. Instantly their body became alight with power. Dark wings snapped outwards despite their dissent and a massive shockwave of telekinesis smashed into Applejack before she could fully rupture the ice. The ungodly shriek Zephyrus unleashed howled over the storm and carried with it chaotic strands of more telekinesis that twisted power poles and shattered concrete.

In tandem with the uproar, there was a sound of walking thunder as Anguirus called out. The armored dinosaur was thrown aside beside the school just as Boreas took the split-second opening he had to kick forward. That one second of clearance was enough for his foot to come crashing through the PE hall Rarity and Fluttershy had been in front of. Debris and shrapnel exploded forth in all directions, their flight path hopelessly chaotic and randomized thanks to being grabbed and tossed about further by Zephyrus’ outburst. It was only thanks to the quick actions of a cyan blur being fast enough to rush in, grab them, and get the pair out of the way, did Rainbow Dash get them to safety as the onslaught continued.

Boreas tried to track their movements but a dive-bombing Irys slammed into him from the side and forced the kaiju-possessing windigo to re-engage. Under the roar of the clashing giants, the team of heroines had to scramble through the flying debris to get across the courtyard and towards the main building.

The Element Bearers in the active fray had to take cover behind Rarity’s shields, with Rainbow Dash grounded and Fluttershy’s projections turned to sparkling dust by Zephyrus’ attack. The still-fumbling Applejack was caught when several woody tendrils erupted from the nearby trees and shot up to her airborne descent, matching speed before catching and slowing her down to join her fellows. Gaea Everfree, conductor of the saving catch, paused and looked warily in the direction of the unseen portal to the blackness.

Something was very, very wrong….

The screaming Zephyrus hit the pool like a meteor, kicking up large geysers of water both from the impact as well as their magic flying out of control.

“Everybody okay?!” Gaea Everfree called out as she reeled Applejack in and rejoined the group, a wary eye still on the dark portal.

"Did you all feel that?" Sunset shimmer whispered a bit breathlessly, feeling like the wind had gotten sucked out of her lungs. And she was like that even before jogging up to her compatriots alongside Twilight, after having hung back for lack of combative magic.

"That chill just when I thought these frozen jerks couldn't get any colder?! Yeah, I felt that in my bones!" Rainbow Dash griped as she melted off some ice that had started to fester on her wing.

“It’s coming from there,” Gaea huffed as she nodded towards the portal, “Zephyrus is trying something new.”

“Ah that’s great, that is just great!” Dash whined before they all abruptly jerked down and ducked.

They gazed upwards just as the skyline was swallowed up by a span of broad, leathery wings as Irys was thrown backwards after a powerful blow. The gyaos careened through the air, catching herself with her feet to avoid plowing into the ground and bounding down the city main street in a series of great leaps before kicking off to get airborne again. The albino reacted to a telltale glowing mass appearing above the school and summoned her shield to deflect an oncoming energy blast. Only her attention quickly diverted away from looking head on and instead shifted to her periphery off to the side. Sunset Shimmer detected a shift in the air off to her left, and it was the only warning they got.

“DIVE! DIVE INTO THE PORTAL! GO! GO!” Sunset screamed as she rapidly shoved her friends forward and towards one of the dimensional doorways nearest to them and next to the dark void.

“SUNSET?! What- Why are?!”

Shimmer cut Twilight off by grabbing and throwing her into the gateway, “NO TIME JUST RUN! RUN! RUN!”

Sunset Shimmer tried to ignore the presence she detected, the one Rainbow Dash had been talking about, as she passed by that dark void. Not entirely effectively given she had the very distinct inclination somebody, or rather something, was watching her.

Boreas fired into two portals adjacent to one another. While the majority went into one entry way and erupted out beside Irys, a portion of the torrent was diverted off into another that opened up across the courtyard facing the assembled heroines. Not three seconds after the lot of them was shoved into the portal, that entire section of the school courtyard was utterly destroyed.

The sense of vertigo going through the portal was uncanny and nearly debilitating. Like falling through the air several feet. She hadn’t even known if the emergency exit led to the human world or Equestria and didn’t get that answer until she crashed into an earth pony mare with the same general look and color scheme as Gaea Everfree upon falling to terra firma. The heap of assembled mares, two pegasi, two earthies, two unicorns, and an alicorn quickly tried to get untangled from each other.

“Alright, who’s not dead?” Applejack, ignoring her bemusement that somehow her hat of all things carried through the transition, grumbled out as she hefted her entire group onto her back, “Sound off!”

A small chorus of dazed groans were the response. One of which however shouted over the choir as a head of a young alicorn shot up.

“Quick! We gotta get back to the school before-” She looked up to the portal they had been spat out of, the rest of the group following her line of sight.

Visible through the tear in space several dozen meters away, the view through the gateway showed the schoolyard near the swimming area. The pool violently erupted upwards in a geyser accompanied by a powerful scream. Zephyrus shot back into the air, beating their wings and sporting a strained, manic visage. An eye snapped over to where the Bearers had been, spotting the enormous scorch match left by Boreas’ blast. Zephyrus fought the shocks their own power source was giving them as they quickly put two and two together as to what happened. Boreas having used his brain for once was a welcome assist, got the meddlers out of Zephyrus’s way for at least a moment. The western wind was not so foolish as to think the biggest threat to the dead without cause however, but the sight greeting him did spur a smirk. He soon saw the group looking at him through the portal upon approaching it.

Several of them had already recovered and were closing in, commendably adjusting to their Equestrian bodies well for all of them who weren’t native. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy were airborne; with Gaea Everfree lifting herself up with several vines to carry herself and the non-flighted party members aloft. They closed in rapidly and were about to make contact.

Summoning every ounce of power they had in the moment, Frostbite Sparkle cried out and slashed the air. Their magical talons shredded the portal, breaking it apart and shattering it like glass. The view of the Equestrian forest was gone, as was the immediate way back for the heroes.

Zephyrus gagged and rasped, collapsing as the shocks the Element gave them began to slowly subside without a Bearer immediately close by to reach out to.

-That will not keep them away for long…-

At the very least, his gigantic partner in crime and their own quick thinking had bought them a moment of breathing room. And now that Zephyrus wasn’t under attack constantly, it was time to return the favor. This was going to take a lot out of them, but it might be worth it to push to their limit and take risks. Convulsing as they gripped at their collar, Frostbite Sparkle gathered up all the power they could and took hold of a few dozen of the portals already opened to be repurposed.

======

Boreas was being overwhelmed despite fighting back as hard as he could. While he had managed to topple a charging Anguirus, having torn the gymnasium and its foundations out of the ground and clipping the ankylosaur across the face with it in a bash, both of the flyers were on top of them. Irys had one of his forelimbs in her mouth, biting down to both disable and restrain the limb whilst holding the other arm at bay with her prehensile feet. It did leave her wide open for an energy blast, but Battra had sought to defend her teammate. Swooping in and tackling Boreas from the side whilst whipping her thorax and abdomen backwards. She was still figuring out her new abilities, but she was willing to take a gamble on one of them now obtained in her true form outside of a human body.

A recurved dagger of a stinger erupted from the end of her body and was swung downwards, the sharp tip oozing venom as it buried itself into a gap between Monster X’s armor near the abdomen. And like an angry wasp, Battra was not resigned to just one sting, follow-up stabs and injections stitching across Boreas’ side. The venom might not be meant to be lethal, and Monster X had a tough enough constitution even if it was, but the effect of multiple thousands of gallons of poison was beginning to have an effect. Boreas himself couldn’t feel it, but his body could. He could feel some of his nerves locking up and vision starting to blur.

Anguirus’ tail swung out and swept Boreas’ legs, toppling the possessed kaiju and forcing him to the ground. Through his blurry vision however, he could detect two observations. The first was a large shadow indicating Anguirus had gotten back onto his feet and was pouncing forward to body slam the temporarily downed Boreas, with Irys and Battra no doubt right alongside. The second was the westerly winds roaring, indicating Zephyrus was putting everything they had into a desperation move and telling Boreas where it was going to be.

Through his blurry vision, gradually correcting itself as the body fought off the venom, Boreas tucked his legs in and kicked outwards with everything he had. Anguirus grunted as he felt the impact reverse his momentum. Boreas kicked him into the air with respectable, but not overwhelming force, launching the armored kaiju careening off to the side. But just as Anguirus felt gravity should bring him back to earth, the rushing air kept coming. His shell hit the side of a rocky mountain and he was hit with a wave of vertigo that scrambled his sight briefly. The kaiju banged into the stony slope on an incline as Anguirus started rolling down the earthen rise. A vague sense of familiarity came to him as he realized he was rolling down the side of the mountains back at Everfree national forest, catching a glimpse of a giant handprint left in the stone.

Irys and Lea both called out in surprise after seeing the sky swallow up Anguirus, concern slightly abated at seeing their spiny companion quickly recover and charging back towards the portal. The momentary distraction was enough for Boreas to shrug off some of the effects of envenomation to rise. Grabbing onto Irys’ wing, the windigo of the North threw his full weight aside and whipped the bat kaiju at the portal. Irys flapped chaotically to stabilize herself and avoided being hurled into her elder sibling after being heaved through the rip in space and time. The two Guardian Beasts reoriented back towards the portal they’d both been forced through and made to close the distance when the portal shrank away and snapped shut.

Stupefied in the moment as they stood in the national park dozens of kilometers away, Irys and Anguirus didn’t remain idle for long. Anguirus grunted to his sibling and motioned to the skyline. Irys hovered over and grabbed her sibling by his shell, avoiding most of his spines as she lifted him into the air. Carrying him out of the valley, the gyaos set the ankylosaur down before Anguirus curled into a ball. Within a few moments, he was rapidly spinning his way out of the park as she flew alongside to make their way back to the city as fast as they could. They were out, but not out for long. Zephyrus' stunt had bought their compatriot maybe a few minutes.

Zephyrus collapsed after assisting Boreas, hitting the ground from exhaustion as energy sparked and arched across the body. Indigo magic conducted into their wings and caused the construct to briefly flicker out of existence. Frostbite Sparkle staggered and grabbed at the Element to focus. Working through pain they didn’t feel but could register, the windigo felt themselves battling not just the Element; but the dormant consciousness of Twilight Sparkle’s remnants not absorbed into the Memory Stone as well. Looking to the source, they spied the school statue as latent memories began to flood in. A brief visage of Wallflower Blush assailed their mind, some positive memory the Element was trying to weaponize.

In a moment of desperation, Frostbite Sparkle threw themselves into a portal leading to another side of the school, crashing into the courtyard as far from eyeshot of the statue as possible. Zephyrus heaved and struggled to stand. That last effort assisting Boreas had taken a lot out of them, making this form more and more unstable by the moment. The power of the Element of Magic was the antithesis to their own, trying to burn away at them. It was like trying to smother a flame by dumping a mountain of kindling on it.

A harsh effort, one even harder because they could detect a pull of the Element to another source nearby. Zephyrus snarled, absorbing the influence of what dark magic he could as he snuffed out the Element’s weakening; but not ceasing, rebellion.

-The Bearer was tossed away and banished, who could this blasted Element possibly be calling out to?!-

They were already on borrowed time, and the countdown clock to when they would be forced out of this body was accelerating quicker than whatever time Twilight Sparkle’s body would have left holding itself together. And if Zephyrus was expelled, he’d come out weakened and vulnerable whilst right next to one of the few things that could actually destroy him.

The super storm above only had two of the four directions in full. Noteworthy but not enough: not nearly enough. Notus’ spawn that would serve as his replacement was en route, Zephyrus could feel her presence as distant as it was. If all had gone according to plan, his bastardization of her rightful desire for revenge would have made Australis spiral and surpass her father. That just left the East to be fully unleashed, which was their responsibility to unchain.

The same winds were carrying with them a warning about another pest to deal with at the moment. If they were to succeed, now was the time for action.

Spreading their wings and flying across the school grounds as Boreas faced off against Battra. For a brief instant the windigo could remember being back in Equestria the last time their master had called them to arms and out of that dark realm they had been waiting in. First Notus and Boreas, then him; summoned to counteract and confront the six heroic mortals representing some kinds of virtues the goddess embodied. Zephyrus had been attempting to further tilt the odds and bring forth the last and mightiest of them when that damn bearded unicorn interfered.

He remembered, burned into his consciousness for what amount of it he constituted, the look in Starswirl’s eyes when he and his compatriots charged forward, a jury-rigged spell at the ready just as Zephyrus was about to bring his counterpart and the most powerful of their kind into existence beyond the void. The amethyst hue in the sorcerer’s eyes at the time…

Frostbite Sparkle balled a fist, knuckles whitening. Beneath them the ground shattered and cracked from restored waves of telekinesis, sheer spite helping motivate and focus Frostbite. The glint and color of Starswirl’s eyes was something Zephyrus was never going to forget, and in some ways the ancient demon was still avenging that setback and defeat.

It helped to steel their grit even as the Element of Magic continually tried to rebel.

The Western Wind closed in on the portal that led to the void, standing in the presence of the Eastern gales coming out of it. He just had to hold it together a little longer. Clasping their hands together, Frostbite concentrated their magic. Glowing indigo overtook their eyes and surged across their clawed hands just before the demon plunged them into the dark void. Like rending open flesh or tearing open the door, Zephyrus wrenched their arms apart and cut the empty space surrounding the portal to widen the gash. With the swing of their arms outwards, the view into the void widened considerably to a dozen meters across. Far off the edges of the tear in space, several other portals started to realign themselves with the new location, showing the darkness into a beyond that stretched across their span.

Zephyrus sucked in their breath and let out a scream that no living creature should ever be able to make, calling out into the void in a way that was audible from all of the portals.

Frostbite Sparkle collapsed; but deep in the void, something called back as it closed in.

============

Kaizer Aria swooped down onto a rooftop across from the school and deposited her cargo, Adagio slipping off her cousin’s back and landing on her feet as Celestia let Godzilla catch and place her down. Godzilla glanced at the bizarre skyline and airspace around the school, to the myriad of portals torn into space and showing glimpses into lands near and far, some he recognized as part of Equestria and some that looked completely different. All of which had bits of frost starting to spread across the ground from the gnawing cold whipping about in the winds that flowed into them.

“Zephyrus’ plan has begun. We need to act fast before they can summon what dark magic they need,” Godzilla noted as he cringed at the dark energies flying about so thickly in the air; all of which he could detect.

“Damn, I’d have liked it if Gigan and I were wrong for once-DUCK!” Adagio yelped as she pulled her cousin and Celestia down to anchor them as massive gale force winds blew over the building that were not of windigo origin.

All eyes quickly cast themselves skyward as Battra Lea rapidly flew several hundred feet ahead, kicking up wind gusts that forced the group to take cover even before rapid salvos of white, cursed graviton blasts followed her in the air. Lea dove and weaved to avoid the blasts, swooping in a wide arc as Boreas failed to shoot her down but did manage to keep the moth at bay.

Adagio cringed as she rose back up, dusting some frost that had built up on her hair as she looked to the clashing giants, especially the possessed body of Monster X, “Don’t think I’m ever going to get used to that. We’re going to need some big back-up to get close enough to that school to find Sunset Shimmer and finish the plan. If we get Boreas’ attention, we’re dead.”

Aria’s eyes were locked onto the sight of her significant's true form, having previously only seen it in memories, her expression unreadable. A hand on her shoulder and a gentle nudge spurred her focus and to her mild surprise, she found herself looking at the shrunken Princess Celestia.

“Hey, we’ll get him back to you. I promise. And I for one intend to keep to that!”

Aria chuckled slightly and forced a bit of a smirk, “I see where Eventi-Twilight gets it from. So, think you got enough juice in the magic tank to help him help us beat some sense into my boyfriend?”

She jerked a thumb at Godzilla, who was looking at the former alicorn. As Celestia looked to him in turn, she noticed something on his face just as she was beginning to muster her courage and drive to try and use magic. His eyes were widened and he was rushing forward, yelling something.

Something else had taken notice of their arrival, and was fixated on the shrunken alicorn too.

A strong gale force of wind, one coming from an Eastern direction, suddenly exploded from several of the darkest portals. Shooting across the schoolyard, it blasted the group. Godzilla called out, as did Adagio and Aria, but the fourth member of their party couldn’t hear them. Not as the cold chill coming from the blast of dark magic laden wind sunk into her bones and mind.

The former alicorn froze in place, detecting an overpowering, massive presence bearing down on her. In the dark void of the portals, a howling force echoed out and swam through the darkness. It tried to pull Celestia’s mind apart. Tried to confront her with failure after failure. The failures to save her precious ponies, the failures to stop the villains and require others to risk themselves. The failures to save her sister…

Something else however, instantly pushed back.

The flash of memories which had been trying to display a cavalcade of failures flickered something else too. The recollections ranging from losing Luna to Nightmare Moon or not stopping Chrysalis before she culled a whole city, were pushed aside to show a fateful day near the School for Gifted Unicorns during entrance exam day. A recently restored-to-his-proper-size baby dragon sucking on his tail as a bouncing filly hadn’t even noticed her marked destiny had arrived.

The empty slots for Celestia’s Elements, especially that of Magic, glowed brighter to counter the influence of Eurus. The positive recollections forced the horrid ones back.

Her smiling, beaming even, as the first Wonderbolt flight team took to the sky. Attending the first grand opening of the pegasi’s new capital of Cloudsdale. Holding the newborn great-great-granddaughter of Platinum, a dear friend departed by time. The quiet joy she felt watching a pleasant day go by in a marketplace while disguised. Presiding over the 984th Summer Sun celebration nor for her benefit, but for the giddy cheering of a random colt in the audience.

Godzilla’s roaring, be it he was actually calling out in indignation to what was trying to mentally attack her, or just some psychic recollection of the day they helped save Canterlot together from the gyaos; helped to further pull her back to her full wits. These abominations of strife and misery, they could be fought. He and others had done it before, and if they were to hype her up so much.. Well… who was she to let them down?

She took a step forward into the eastern gales to rebuke them.

The cold influencing and trying to tunnel into her mind was fought back with fiery abandon and given no quarter. She was Celestia Alexandria Alicor, admired by many and friend to numerous uncountable across centuries. Both the faces in places bygone, and those still with her. The sun always rose for 1,000 years because she rose to the occasion, in spite of her errors, and forged on for others. Her mistake was not her damnation, no matter how the opposing winds howled. That much was proven when Luna, mind clear of her darker thoughts, ran to the only family she’d known and her sister hesitated not to embrace her.

Inside Harmony’s realm, the watching goddess who'd been weighing options, froze. Something she’d been keeping safe shifted. The glimmering star of magic, the torn-free magic that Bagan had separated from Celestia while she was in transition between Equestria and the human realm, had budged from its holdings. Even as she witnessed it, it nudged forward again under its own power; some of the magical bindings leftover by Bagan’s attack dissipating by the moment. There were dozens of holes torn between realms and space, many of them leading to Equestria. And like two opposite poles of magnets drawn to each other, the huge well of alicorn magic began to slowly work its way towards the human realm.

The magical bindings, what was left of Bagan’s influence and Harmony’s own actions to keep the other god from taking the magic when she thought they were going to steal it, were fraying. The glittering mass composing a rainbow of hues in a sphere resembling a sun yearned to be free. One of the bindings snapped and dissipated, giving the distinct impression that the magic would free itself and reunite with its bearer all on its own.

========

Just as Celestia felt a presence from a bygone time focusing upon her, Harmony was united with the demigoddess in that feeling. Somewhere, unseen, Bagan was aware of her as well. Either directly watching her or knowing this moment would come, the God of Extinction knew she’d be in this situation. She was made aware of the strands of vision, those pieces of her realm that could show at least one potential future. Harmony had never gazed into them for many reasons, but her fellow deity had no such hesitations. They’d grabbed onto it to glimpse what may be ahead once, and then they seemingly attacked Celestia sometime later to result in this situation.

And now, she too felt compelled. Harmony contemplated, a rare moment of uncertainty putting knots in her gut. Not for hesitation to help the heroes, no; but for how she’d gotten in this situation. She’d intervened more in the last twenty years than she had in the past thousands, despite having once sworn off doing it once. She’d done it once when Wysteria met her fate. She did it again when the kaiju appeared. And since Bagan’s forces had appeared, she’d found herself doing it time after time.

Was this a set-up? Some long term plan? A glimpsed future or a guess at prediction? She.. felt a hollowness, a void within.

The goddess didn’t know…

The eastern gales howled once more, and Celestia stood against them; now pushing forward to block Godzilla from the blasting winds in an act of selfless heroism that once made her more than worthy of several Elements. She paid no heed to the ice forming across her, Celestia refused to yield again or wallow in despair. Sparks of light started to appear across her eyes and bits of the ice started melting even as more formed.

Harmony watched, swallowed her apprehension, and quickly acted. The last binding to hold the magic safely was blasted free; and her lot was cast into the winds of fate.

========

A burst of light flew free from one of the portals, flying across the schoolyard. Even in the midst of his battle with Battra, Boreas noticed the nature of the power and was enraged when he recognized it for its nature. The power of their greatest enemy, multiple types of magic and multiple Elements at once. Seeing the small sun flying free and tracking its trajectory to the rooftop, he shook the sky with a terrifying wail of a roar whilst instantly firing upon Celestia and company’s location. Wind and falling snow was blown backwards as an eastern wind spilling out from the opened portals wrapped around him, causing the onslaught to suddenly burst outwards with bolstered power that doubled the diameter of the beams.

Godzilla saw the incoming blast and set to brace, desperately looking for Celestia as a means to shield her with her sturdier frame as Aria likewise grabbed Adagio and shot into the air. Only he was promptly surprised when a mass like a blinding, miniature sun, instead grabbed onto him and tackled him off the edge of the building.

He felt his right hand become clasped with a left one in a handshake of trust; as a flood of power shot into his body. For a brief instant, coaxed on by the windigo's ambient magic, a jolt of uncertainty and fear gripped at his heart in light of where he was. Just like his fear at the pier, and all that time ago when he had Luna literally throw him out of a city's limits to be sure. That dread which had long lingered in his mind ever since the day it was finalized he would be a walking mountain in comparison to the tiny specks of humans he knew as sapient and was raised with. In spite of his fear, dread was pushed away by the presence of another. Somehow through the blinding light, he could see a confident, simple smile with tears running down its sides; and bore witness to the white light split into three different colors for a trifecta of Elements.

With a torrent of death-dealing energy flying at them and his greatest fear of crushing someone omnipresent, the soft voice, giggling was welcome reassurance. Carrying the kindness of compassion, the courage that laughter brought against danger, and the magic representing the bonds of understanding. A brief flash of being back at Canterlot Castle, back when Celestia first spoke to him as a peer when it came to the duties of royalty, responsibility, and guardianship, came to them both.

“Don’t be afraid, I trust you.”

And just like that, he was not afraid. Not of crushing a friend nor of failure.

A fantastic explosion sounded off on impact, and a thick gout of smoke covered several city blocks. As the large mass of blackness started to clear out due to the churning winds. When it cleared, the point of impact that should have hit the building was revealed instead to be a mass of brilliant light that extended into the stormy skies. A brilliantly glimmering fist that caught and deflected the graviton flares away, letting them careen off into the sky.

As the light faded somewhat to solidify into overlapping, armored plates for scales, the Monster King made himself known. Godzilla's towering form erupted from the smoke, trails clinging to and leaving contrails following the movement of his head and dorsal spines. Drawing in breath, Godzilla promptly blew away the smokescreen with a heavens and earth quaking roar. The reptilian titan brought up his other hand he hadn’t blocked the blast with and uncurled his clawed digits, revealing a glimmering form shining between his fingers. Radiation power came from the light and into Godzilla, who absorbed it as he had the nourishing sun of his world. The seemingly contradictory char and icy growths that were across the arm that caught the graviton blast healed and melted respectively, white sparks of magic crisscrossing the regenerating tissue.

This wasn’t normal radiation, but it was certainly empowering.

The light in his palm dimmed, but didn’t go out. Wings composed of magic uncurled and flexed outwards, similar to but even larger than the sets Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy sported. The Princess Celestia who revealed herself was no longer a short twelve year old, but had grown back to her proper scale and age; with her attire similarly shifting to match. The baggy hoodie and pants were removed, replaced by the same sort of regal white robes she had entered this world with; with the extra bonus of her regalia having extended into a set of sunbeam-hued, practical bronze armor. Her hair had similarly changed as well. Away from the nostalgic, gold and pink of yester-millennia. The rainbow hues, once admired by so many but privately seen as a mark of a mistake by her for so long, was proudly waving in the winds. Celestia reached up and removed her fake glasses, throwing them aside as she smirked at the clearly irate Boreas.

Her eyes briefly looked aside to the numerous portals and flickered with a trifecta of colors. From her perspective, the numerous gateways to other spaces or worlds were filtered until a telling few started to become illuminated with multiple hues of Element magic.

“I found the girls, can you start your plan without us for a moment?” She said calmly as she hovered next to the reptilian kaiju.

Unable to speak now, a dipped head and snort of blue mists from his nostrils was affirmation enough from Godzilla. He strode forward into the storm, calling out to both Battra and Boreas as affirmation to the former that help had arrived and confrontation to the latter that he had a new opponent.

Godzilla withstood a salvo of dark magic laden graviton flares bursting and exploding against his chest that tore free scales and froze parts of his hide. The Monster King returned fire with a quick-charged lashing of blue plasma aimed directly at Boreas’ face, timed between the emissions of the graviton flares so as not to crash into them.

He couldn’t risk a beam-lock, those tended to end explosively for himself and Monster X due to the specifics of their attacks. If they had a detonation in the middle of this town, let alone the schoolyard, it would be disastrous. Thankfully his aim was true, charring Boreas’ face just enough to force him to stop firing and try to clear the damage. Whilst Monster X’s body was briefly blinded as it was regenerating, Godzilla pitched his head skyward as a large shape smashed into Boreas from behind to knock him over, before the attacker of his foe chirped and flew over to him.

At first his muscles and body tensed, not recognizing the sight before him swooping down. But the sight of her eyes and sound of her voice soon spurred recollections. She’d changed drastically in some ways, but by her manner and the subtle nuances of her body like the curve of the wings; whom could he recognize of anyone but his best friend. Still, seeing her as what she had become was more than a little head-tilting.

Boreas’ shriek drew both of their attention back to the battle, the most powerful creature and mightiest sorceress of Terra forming up to fight their common foe together. Knowing the dangers of speaking plans aloud from fighting Zephyrus, and not wanting to take any chances whilst exploiting the fact someone who knew him so well was fighting with him; Godzilla remained silent. She caught a brief glance in his eye, something Junior knew but Boreas couldn’t detect because of her compound eyes.

Godzilla made a seemingly savage, wild display. Stomping his feet and roaring whilst swiping at the air like an angered beast. To Boreas, it looked like a maddened, feral creature had come to do battle and he grinned wildly through lipless jaws rimmed with black teeth. Through the out of character display however, Lea knowingly caught something. Junior had taken one of his claws and tapped at his shoulder whilst blinking an eye. The Battra looked at their foe and understood. Lea responded by silently drawing out her scythes, before both made ready to engage their mutual foe.

They had a plan.

Spying the airborne Kaizer Aria, who was still holding her cousin, Celestia extended her wings and flew up to them. Adagio whistled in a moment of casual nonchalance to keep her nerves from fraying.

“Gotta say, this is more of what I expected when finding out you were here,” The siren said as she looked the now grown woman over to visually confirm Celestia was just about double the height she had been not even two minutes ago.

“I can’t detect much magic coming from here that seems like you lot,” Aria said as she glanced at the school and strained her ability to detect just to be sure. She could pick up traces of magic starkly different from the windigos’, but not an active source to pinpoint it, “They were here though.”

“I think that is our answer,” Celestia replied as she pointed to one of the many portals scattered across the school and nearby landscape.

The tear in space she indicated and flew towards with Aria in quick pursuit was one of the darkest of voids any had either seen. Both sirens, privy through detection to the types of magics emanating from certain sources, sensed something terrible within. Cold blight gouging through the veins, brought about by a sudden geyser of frigid eastern gales. A powerful, and yet somehow unharming heat blocked the wind blasts. Both sirens’ eyes wide in momentary shock, looked down to see Celestia’s hands before both of their gemstones. A trio of magical laden lights showed from her outstretched arms and flowed into the siren hearts, with both Aria and Adagio feeling a tremendous rush of warmth and power that shunted out what effects the windigo magic might have on them.

“They better not have fallen into there!” Adagio yelled over the storm as she squinted due to the blast still hurting her eyes even with Celestia dampening most of the blast, “Not if what I think is in there is!”

“Whatever you or I can think of, there’s just one guarantee,” Kaizer Aria griped as she grit her teeth, shielding her face with a forearm. Could feel, practically taste the sheer force within the void. It was like a tether similar to, but distinct from the one she could feel connecting her to her fellow sirens and hated sire. And if it was a tie of relation, that meant only one possibility, "It’s worse.”

“The fourth windigo, sealed away in a bygone era,” Celestia grimly noted as she continued her advance to the portal in spite of the wind blasts trying to knock her over, even with her latent magic dampening the blows significantly as unprotected cars were sent flying and walls crumbled, “Gigan was right, Zephyrus is trying to summon them.”

“Great, another one!” Kaizer Aria snapped before firing a graviton burst at the portal with a shout. The golden beams flew into the portal and seemed to just keep constantly going, spiraling into an infinite beyond. She knew that likely wouldn’t do anything, but being denied even a venting of her frustration was grating to the nerves.

Adagio swore in a tongue not even Celestia understood, “I was right next to Zephyrus before. This? This is worse. So why are we standing right in front of it?!”

“Because I’m going to change the destination of this portal,” Celestia said before leaping into action to close the distance.

Celestia quickly advanced on the portal and shoved her hands forward into it, her palms grasping the edge of the tear like she was holding open a window or doorway. She poured more of what magic she could muster into it. Without her true body, trying to get used to this new human form having magic again on the fly, and lacking the physical talisman to enhance her spellwork like the Rainbooms did; she was not at the same strength she normally was. But in the end she was still Princess Celestia, and she had a great amount of experience to draw from that equaled any sheer force.

“What can we do to help?” Adagio piped up as she ran up beside the princess, heedless to the danger and sheer force still lingering in the dark void beyond this tear in space.

Energy from the portal conducted into Celestia’s body, shocking her and causing the projections of magic forming her horn, hooves, and wings to flicker on and off. She redoubled her efforts, pushing back into the portal when a force from within tried to throw her off.

“Twilight told me your magic is adept at copying other types of magic and other types of energy! Is this t-true?!” Celestia shouted as she pushed back against the shocks and tried to keep a hold of the edges of the portal.

“Y-Yes! Yes, that’s how I first got like this!” Kaizer Aria shouted as she ran up to take point on Celestia’s other side across from Adagio.

“Then do it to me!” Celestia yelled out as she was nearly thrown back from the portal, necessitating the two sirens to catch and help hold her by the shoulders, “I lack my full power without any Elements with me! I can sense the bearers and Twilight through these portals, they really had to have fallen through them at some point!”

An eastern gale force came billowing out of the portal, freezing the ground solid everywhere except directly where the group was standing on account of Celestia; her presence shielding her compatriots.

“They’re elsewhere, and I can feel the connection through the Elements of Harmony!” Celestia called out as she tried to force the tear further open, against the shifting which seemed to be threatening to close it. Her hands glowed with a golden aura sparking with other hues as she took hold of the portal’s seam more tightly.

Another wind blast nearly floored all of them had they not braced.

“I have a lot of experience with portal magic, I swore off ever using it for centuries, but Starswirl and I did a lot of exploring once; even here!” Celestia hollered over the storm as they gathered their wits.

The last time she had been in this world, her age really was that of a very young teenager. A world seemingly without magic was what she and Starswirl knew this one as. A sound hypothesis at the time, a place you could put something magical, and it would no longer be a threat to others or themselves. At the time it seemed to be so true, and a passing thought in her mind affirmed that was probably why her mentor and father figure sent the sirens here. When she came through the portal during the attempted rescue mission and came out as a magic-less teenager, it seemed to confirm what she had suspected. Equestria had dumped its magic here and it was causing threats to a world not meant to have any magic.

Only to have that hypothesis soundly disproven soon after. The sirens still had their magic, normal humans were developing magical abilities, a ‘Tree Angel’ with Gloriosa’s mother decades ago, and the presence of another set of Elements of Harmony only confirmed that this world really did have native magic after all. It wasn’t just something brought over by Equestria, rather the influx of magic users or latent enchantments had just awakened was already there but largely dormant.

She considered and shelved the curiosity of what had happened to her power to begin with. They could fret over that sort of detail when they survived this.

Celestia pushed against the seemingly overwhelming force trying to push her away and either loosen her grip on the portal or slam it shut. She was forced to adjust her hold, shoving one hand each in opposite directions against the edges of the portal that was trying to collapse. It was like holding apart two elevator doors trying their best to smash shut regardless of who was in the way.

“I can try to change the portal destination with the spell I know. Redirect it to where the Bearers are and try to avert whatever is coming here, but I don’t have enough strength on my own!”

Adagio and Aria looked at one another and nodded. The cousins clasped hands whilst holding onto Celestia’s shoulders with the other.

“You’re about to get a bunch of thoughts pushed into your head-“ Aria started as her necklace warmed up with light.

“Let them come and focus on the joyful ones! Sing if you can!” Adagio finished as the red magic also shone in her eyes.

Celestia nodded and closed her eyes, trying to tune out the blasting winds and frigid cold as she continued to struggle and hold the portal open with her bare hands. The glowing mass around her neck, where the slots for three different elements lay empty but connected, flickered in a specific pattern. Two siren hearts, one golden from the influx of energy from Kaizer Ghidorah, one red from the outpouring of love-based magic she’d been exposed to lately; synchronized with the flickering. They weren’t Elements of Harmony; they weren’t even really all that familiar with each other and lacked a strong bond. But the benevolence and potential therein was palpable to the Solar Diarch.

She’d remembered the sirens only as a sour footnote in history. They weren’t active for all that long and having come directly between the calamities that were Nightmare Moon’s rise and Chrysalis’ final rampage before her fall, during a time when Celestia was not mentally well and grieving; she scarcely remembered the occasion they were contemporary to her. History mostly just recalled them as obscure problems, lost in the notation between tragedies. Most of what Celestia had known of them personally came from Starswirl, and for some reason he never liked talking about them; like the subject made him very uncomfortable.

If there was a secret there, he took it to his grave.

But feeling their magic now as the melody of a song taught to them by a banished Princess of Mako, and knowing why they were doing it, Princess Celestia couldn’t have felt more appreciative. The blighted winds of the void had forced her to see all of her failings. She’d stood up to them with her own successes, and in the warped perception of time the sirens’ magic was reacquainting her with all of that and more. She had achieved a lot in over 1,000 years.

-And to think, it was a once reclusive bookworm who helped get you to this point. Your mothers would be proud of you two…-

The vision of a gawking, smiling purple filly filled her heart with the song; alongside many others cherished such as friends, departed and living; and her beloved sister. She could even feel recollections not her own, many were quite recent and yet also involved Twilight. Ones of training to be a siren stand-in, affirmations of her intent to aid them in restoring their harmed family, promises to see through the end of the demons that had plagued their family for centuries, and a brokered offer to return to Equestria under her endorsement. So many things three troublesome but wronged souls had actively wanted, delivered by someone they once saw kidnapped.

Princess Celestia let benevolent pride flow from her.

-Well done my faithful student, well done.-

She let the melody flow from her chest as she joined in on the song.

The winds spewing from the portal started to die down as the magic coming from Celestia started to conduct into the two sirens. They were not Element Bearers and couldn’t replicate the same effect, but they were helping to copy and bolster what spellwork the princess could manage. The dark void started to flicker away, returning to the light of Celestia’s own sun in a way she immediately recognized it. Celestia beamed with her expression, her shouting exhale of magic laden song forcing the portal to fully snap away from the grim void it was once a gateway to.

Now the visage showed what looked like a mountainside in the rurals of Equestria, a passing, very confused yak merchant confirming it.

======================

Boreas pivoted on his foot to throw all of his weight behind a haymaker aimed squarely at his newest foe’s jaw. The blow did connect, but instead of directly taking the full force, Godzilla turned aside and moved with the punch whilst shrugging off the impact force that did land. Snapping his jaws open, the nuclear dragon countered by snapping them down onto what typically was Monster X’s hand. Teeth and fangs punctured skin and managed to crack the bony exterior to the armor atop the back of the palms.

Boreas felt no pain, but did register the impediment when he jerked his arm back and forth to try and dislodge the saurian. He did manage to jerk Godzilla about, forcing his foe to lock a clawed hand into the ground to avoid being shoved into a building; but the saurian stubbornly remained clamped on. A backhand was thrown with his free arm, only for Godzilla to grab it mid-swing with his own arm and keep the limb locked against the other one. Godzilla for his part let loose a loud roar into the gap between his jaws and Boreas’ hand, before chomping down harder and managing to splinter both several of his fangs and X’s bony armor. A dark shadow swooped over the struggling titans as the only warning before Battra Lea pounced onto the windigo kaiju’s back.

Physically Monster X and Godzilla were roughly even in terms of strength, with any difference present on account of Boreas fueling his possessed body with manic strength free of the typical restraints the mind imposed. After her form change however, Lea had physical might to spare on her own accord and more than covered any gap.

Boreas’ eyes and shoulder spots began to flicker with cold, dead, white light; but his foes’ plans were put into motion. Though they had promised Irys to not cripple or kill her teammate unless absolutely necessary, both leaders of the Defender faction had fought the Xilian’s trump card before. They knew about how well he could heal, and Godzilla’s prior roar had been the signal to do a plan spoken of in body language earlier.

With Godzilla holding Boreas still, Battra dive bombed and pounced into the possessed kaiju’s back. Beating her wings to stir up lift that threw Boreas completely off his footing, making his attempts to kick Godzilla off of him ineffective with no anchoring get leverage from. Her mantis-like arms arced over Boreas’ shoulders and Lea made a promise to try and heal him if Monster X still sported any lasting damage once they cured him. Her sharpened claws gouged into the jewel-like eyespots on Monster X’s shoulders that would become his actual eyes in Kaizer Ghidorah form. The jewel-like pieces were remarkably resistant, but a combination of her swinging down as hard as she could and Godzilla yanking Boreas forward into the blow was enough to burst them.

Boreas shrieked and thrashed, his face still smoking from the short burst of atomic breath Godzilla had loosed into him. Lea’s lower body swung back and she extended her stinger, managing to gouge it into Boreas’ thigh and inject a load of venom. Godzilla had his plan on how to expel the windigo from X’s body, and he could adapt it regardless of if they managed to overpower him or not. That the trio hadn’t knocked him over and pinned Boreas earlier was more a matter of Zephyrus interfering, and these pesky energy blasts.

This took care of at least one of those as Boreas thrashed and tried to free himself from Godzilla’s grapple and dislodge the stinger jabbed into him, his eyes igniting with white, frigid energy. The graviton bursts that typically came from his eyes did launch at first, but the bursts meant to be vented from the eyespots suffered a backfire. Sparks flew and chaotic, uncontrolled energy shot free at random angles. Some did score glancing hits on Godzilla and Lea, but both were tough enough to shrug them off. Lea grabbed hold of Boreas’ head to force it skyward, keeping the optic blasts which did launch free uselessly eviscerating lingering blizzard clouds above.

The two Defenders still struggled to keep him restrained, manic strength being a potent force even as Boreas continued to risk the backfire seriously damaging his body. Finally wise to the likelihood he’d cripple or otherwise impede himself for all the harm that would do, Boreas stopped trying to fire his strongest attack and thrashed like a wild animal. He kicked, smacked with his tails, and even tried to bite Godzilla only for his legs to get pinned down by the saurian and the moth to crane his head away from her compatriot. The two dragged the windigo to the ground and managed to hold him down under their combined weight and force.

A desperate swinging fist by the possessed kaiju was noticed and swatted down, Godzilla having noticed the clawed hand that got free of his grip and smashing his tail down on top of it.

Boreas was down, shrieking and thrashing, but not out.

The numerous tears in the fabric of space and time bore many locations, and the one to the darkest of abysses had taken notice. Lea was the first to sense it, her compound eyes locking onto the portals that led into a dark void of a bygone era. Through the seeming hole in space, a blackness that was not a color as much as it was an emptiness; something stirred. Celestia had changed the destination of one portal successfully, but as long as a few lingered out of her physical and magical reach, this battle had a most dangerous of spectators.

An unliving enormity swam through the void, an irritating, nerve spiking buzz starting to build up as it moved across the few peepholes it had into reality. An enormous, empty eye snapped open across seemingly every single portal at the same time and then multiplied, taking up the entire space across the portals to a magnitude that rivaled or exceeded the kaiju in span. It was the only warning before a gargantuan gale of frigid wind, which whipped into the east, came blasting through; accompanied by the sound of the more horrific scream imaginable. The wail of a bygone time came blasting out of multiple portals at once, a desperation move after failing to fend off Celestia and the sirens.

When it washed over the kaiju pile, Battra and Godzilla both barked in pain as the winds howled. They bore through it, not being damaged necessarily but feeling the raw energy within that force. It flew right by them and into Boreas. A northeastern gale force suddenly came exploding into being, joining the storm above. In an instant Boreas’ constant shrieking was magnified in volume a dozen fold and his eyes and ruined eyespots reignited. A white light erupted from under Junior and Lea, right before they were violently thrown off.

What had been the track field was now one part a massive crater and another part an enormous pillar of ice, stretching hundreds of meters into the air like a frozen geyser. The ice fractured and groaned, briefly illuminating Monster X’s outline trapped within, mere moments before he came bursting out of the frost amidst a shower of shards. His shoulder pads that bore the eyespots were utterly destroyed, blasted off near the base. Boreas reached up to the ruined pieces of armor and wrenched them off, tossing them to the ground. Ice built up across his body, growing at the spots that had been badly damaged or lost to replace them. The reinvigorated Boreas loosed a roar several magnitude louder than his prior efforts.

By desperation of adrenaline and the aid of one they intended to see the full return of, he’d just been put into overdrive on a super charge. One X’s body likely couldn’t handle any better than Twilight’s could Zephyrus’ possession. It didn’t matter if it gave out soon, just that his enemies did sooner.

Still roaring through black fangs, Boreas punched and shattered what was left of the frozen geyser; more frost constantly forming across his body and where he stood as the northeastern winds billowed.

And what the eastern gales could do in tandem with Boreas, they had an equally potent if not stronger effect on their natural counterpart with the north also present in Boreas. North, East, and Western gales all started to spiral together; not reaching their maximum potential but all increasing each other’s potency in the circulation of movement. Power flowed out of the portals and into Boreas, then combined in the outflow of Boreas and into the prone form staggered on the ground in near catatonia.

Zephyrus’ eyes snapped open and the scream they let out was audible across the school.

The two sirens and an alicorn heard it well and knew what was coming. Kaizer Aria looked to her compatriots knowingly as Celestia focused on trying to use a scrying spell to find the Element Bearers.

“Aria are you sure? I know that look on your face,” Adagio said as she nodded her head backwards to the source of the racket.

As if to punctuate her words, sections of shattered concrete across the schoolyard started to levitate up into the air under the power of Frostbite. The dark empowered form of Twilight spread their wings and soon locked their gaze upon them with wrathful intent.

Kaizer Aria kept her glare affixed to their foe, “You told me what they can do, and I’m not their daughter so they’ll have a harder time trying to get my necklace off.”

Her red eyes shifted briefly to her cousin’s before a smirk came over her lips, “Help Celestia. I may not be able to beat them, but nobody will unless we get those girls back.”

She released her hold on Celestia's shoulder, cutting off the feed of magic that had been tethering between them. Before she could completely turn away however, her own hand was snatched at by the solar diarch.

"I don't know if this will do anything, but it couldn't hurt," Celestia beamed warmly at the siren, as some of her magic flowed into and copied itself into Aria's, "If there was any doubt before this day, there isn't anymore. You will be more than welcome back in Equestria, if you so choose to go."

Aria Blaze paused briefly, her necklace glowing as it absorbed the magic offered and took it to bolster herself. A thin aura built itself across her body and she balled a fist with her free hand. She bowed slightly to one she had once seen as a potential enemy.

"At your leave, Your Majesty."

Celestia let go of her and rejoined her efforts with Adagio, helping the other siren steel her courage as her cousin went off to battle.

Another scream of something unliving came from the remaining dark portals leading to that cursed void, Eastern gales ripped across the schoolyard to carry the shriek. It was both cast from outrage at the still-living existence of the alicorn they could detect as a meddler, and to further bolster the two windigo present. Boreas, who was still on the backfoot despite his prior boost, managed to resummon the strength to throw Battra off him after being felled. Unable to reliably use his ranged attack thanks to Godzilla’s ploy, the possessed form of Monster X rabidly tried to scramble across the ground on all fours, hand over foot like a charging beast.

A tail bash across his face by Godzilla sent the empowered windigo sprawling backwards. Boreas thrashed and scrambled, turning about to right himself and pouncing on his foe to rejoin their battle. But for every blow he landed on or defended against Godzilla and the recovered Battra, was another he was kept at bay from Adagio and Celestia.

Zephyrus had paused behind a cover of levitated concrete to absorb the gift being supplied. The West Wind had just begun to feel the bolstering of power when another kind of scream, one full of emotion but also life, cried out at Zephyrus. It was the only forewarning the windigo got before the waves of gravitons burst through their defenses and sent them careening into the school clock with enough force to bash down the wall.

Frostbite Sparkle’s partially frozen wings snapped outwards and dug into the concrete like a pair of enormous, taloned hands, pulling the windigo free of the shattered clock. The momentum of being thrown back so violently still left them skating backwards across the breaking floors, before reorienting themselves. Another flood of golden energy got their attention and forced taloned hands outwards with a white and purple aura about them that spread to their eyes. Telekinetic energy wrapping around their body to form a shield that deflected the onslaught which further shattered the clock tower.

The screaming blast cut off as the top fourth of the tower crumbled away from the shockwaves, the pointed roof collapsing backwards to spread into the top of the school building. Aria would worry about the bill later as she tried to make ready for another assault. The dust cleared away suddenly and thoughts of what structural damage she’d inflicted were soon put aside. The entire tower exploded outwards in a barrage of shrapnel and shattered fragments, pushed out by a massive wave of telekinesis.

Frostbite Sparkle’s wings had snapped outwards as the magical barrier shield they’d thrown up dissipated, the debris that had been caught inside the bubble of telekinesis dropping to the ground now that they were no longer suspended.

Their eyes narrowed as the cause of their annoyance and pain flew closer, opposite them in also hovering above the school. Zephyrus’ eyes narrowed at Aria’s glowing necklace, “Boreas’ daughter returns. I’ll have a harder time getting that piece of your mother off you.”

“He’s not my father, and we are not family,” Aria said bluntly.

Frostbite Sparkle groaned and rolled her eyes, giving Aria the visage of a warped version of Twilight Sparkle doing so. Had this been some time ago, she’d gladly had taken that as a point of outrage as this world’s Twilight had much to answer for. But after having realized what had to have happened to her, by Zephyrus’ treachery; and spending much of that time with the first alicorn princess she felt she could get along with, it instead spurred a different kind of anger. Indignation at the marring of image. This world’s Twilight was not forgiven, but for now she was consciously able to direct her anger at the mastermind behind it all.

“So dramatic,” Zephyrus mocked, “Getting deja vu of how beating Twilight to a bloody pulp is what got you into this situation?”

Aria flinched for the briefest moment, enough for Frostbite Sparkle to sucker-punch her with a swing of their arm, unleashing a surge of telekinesis that sent the siren spiraling across and digging into the roofing tiles of the auditorium. The moment she recovered from her tumble, Frostbite had already sprung and pounced on top of her. Pinning the empowered siren down with their magic, Zephyrus lunged for her necklace; only to feel their hand being repulsed. Glimmers of Kaizer Ghidorah’s energy and Celestia’s magic were beginning to grow even as they tried to inch their fingers closer.

“I’m aware mermares seek powerful mates for their progeny, and here you are; potentially the most powerful in history. All without me even thinking your mother was worth it over her sister. I made you into this,” Zephyrus said as they struggled against the repulsion force of their niece.

Zephyrus was confused by the trouble they were having. Even without her being his progeny, their relation should have been enough for him to at least get closer with all the force he was putting into it. Sparks of magic not dissimilar from an Element of Harmony conducted and shocked Zephyrus, like they were burning away the ice that had grown over his host’s hand. The entrapped Element of Magic began to light up, detecting traces of magic from a Bearer for it. Frostbite Sparkle was almost thrown back, only for Kaizer Aria to catch them by the arm in a crushing grip.

“You raped my aunt and left my mother to your lackey because you wanted to use us for this scheme of yours,” Aria Blaze snarled before yanking the possessed off their feet, bashing Frostbite repeatedly into the roofing before tossing them skyward. She threw her jaws open and loosed another quick-fire graviton scream that closed the distance too fast for Zephyrus to dodge at such close range.

They were forced to grab the debris around them with telekinesis and form it into a barrier shield. It tanked the blast but Frostbite Sparkle was unable to get out of the way before a very irate Kaizer Aria came flying through the debris field to tackle her into the side of the school building. The fact she even made an impact was noticeable to her given what powers Zephyrus had Adagio had warned her of.

-They’re not doing that time stop anymore to dodge…? Perhaps…-

-”They are trying to goad you because something has changed about their powers,”- Kaizer Ghidorah warned her, -”They have relied on treachery and us being unfamiliar or lacking their weaknesses. He is not certain he can defeat you.”-

-”That confident in me?”-

-”X and I are one in the same. We could not have given you this power if the love wasn’t strong and you weren’t exceptional.”-

Aria smirked lightly, well privy to her flaws but nonetheless welcoming of praise.

-”I see all your flirting skills went to you, X had two left feet courting me. And I if we’re that focused on their powers, then…”-

She needed to test it. Aria lunged forward and shoved into the possessed, grabbing her throat with a clawed hand. Frostbite Sparkle grabbed at Aria’s arm and forced it off her neck with a lot of effort, their two arms to Aria’s one. The siren meanwhile looked upon the windigo possessed with more than enraged eyes, taking notice of a few things. Emotional states and experiences were as perceptible to her kind as smoke or mist laden air. And while there was plenty whipping about and a feed of it coming from the portals to the dark beyond into Zephyrus and Boreas; there was nothing coming from her hateful heart into either.

Despite Zephyrus’ best attempts to inspire her spite as a partially bloodied, fanged grin came over Twilight’s face, “Did you think your mothers were the first attempt? Or do you think I targeted them for a specific reason? The bolder sister had spirit and so I broke it. There’s a reason I left your meek mother to Borea-”

Zephyrus didn’t breathe, he didn’t draw air, he didn’t even live by many definitions of the term. But having a body did mean he had to do so, if only to leave such functions to the subconscious and instinctive controls Twilight’s remnants still had given how different the body was from his. And all the air in their lungs was voided when Aria smashed her knee into their gut with enough force that even with Frostbite’s durability, the wall behind her cracked from the powerful blow.

“-GRK!”

-My mother raised us till her last day, and my aunt gave her life to let Sonata have hers. You never broke them; you boastful, rapacious bastard.-

Aria had seen the ploys for what they were, and did not feel the need to waste breath arguing with an unrepentant monster like this. She preferred to spend the time expediting their demise.

“Do me a favor. Shut the fuck up and fight,” Kaizer Aria scoffed plainly, before letting go of Frostbite’s neck, grabbing her by the hair and swinging her about to toss her down at the pavement blow.

The windigo possessed turned about quickly, as unfazed by the damage as they could be. Spotting Kaizer Aria diving down after them in a dropkick, they loosed a massive wave of telekinesis and wind blasts into their foe. Aria’s descent was slowed, but not stopped. Through the blasts of wind and magic, laden with dark magic, Zephyrus could detect two consciousness bearing down on him.

And yet despite the dark magic born of certain emotions and thoughts, there was a reason beyond Aria not being fueled by blind rage and spite that made a difference.

-”This is different than before, they are not drawing power from our emotions any longer like the other windigo could.”-

Aria smirked at Kaizer Ghidorah’s observation even as she missed her dropkick and impacted the sidewalk foot-first. Frostbite Sparkle flew back up into the air, noticeably keeping a distance as they too seemed to notice the literal change in the air with their wings.

“You have two minds within you,” Frostbite said spitefully, seeing the cold gales blow past the fuming Aria without offering any yield of absorbed strife to bolster themselves with, no wrath to feed off of. And true as they may, they couldn’t sink the claws of strife into either mind in a way to throw them off balance or desynchronize them.

“Truth is, we’ve both got a score to settle with you old bastards,” Aria said with Kaizer Ghidorah speaking the same within her mind.

“Makes no difference,” Zephyrus huffed as they flew upwards and began to levitate up hunks of debris under their growing telekinesis, “You lack the magic to actually harm me. Even if you kill Twilight’s body, I can control it as I do her magic. This cursed body won’t stop.”

“And you’ve lost most of your powers,” Aria said over the storm mockingly, “Howling wind, all bluster.”

Aside from using his windigo-based abilities to synchronize with the others, Zephyrus had lost almost all of their unique mastery of magic or skills. An exaggerated version of what magic Twilight knew was all he had left. Zephyrus, on some level, had to know this after their stunt with the Element. He’d broken himself throwing just one Element into its cage.

And as long as Aria could keep him distracted, he’d have a lot more Elements to deal with shortly.

Frostbite Sparkle leered as the debris were crushed, metal twisting to points and concrete shattered into a flechette storm of sharp fragments.

“I was unsure if it would work, so I never attempted it. But with Boreas here, you are not needed if this fails.”

“And what might that be?” Kaizer Aria’s eyes flashed red as she veiled the action of drawing in a big breath to counter what she knew was coming.

Frostbite Sparkle’s hand clenched into a fist and the sharp projectiles snapped about to face the siren, “Seeing if killing you will let me claw the windigo spirit from your mermare-made shell without taking that necklace off first.”

“Good luck with that,” Aria snipped before she was fired upon, dodging to fly into the air and avoid the first salvo before turning about with her jaws parted.

Adagio Dazzle briefly turned away after repeating her song ballad to Celestia for the second time, spurred on by the sharp, shrill shriek of what she recognized as Aria’s Kaizer Ghidorah-boosted scream attack.

Concern and worry nearly pulled her away, but the sound of rumbling earth from the clashing giants and howling wings turned her focus back to her prior effort. Especially when Celestia joyfully cried out.

“I-I think we’re close!” She beamed, gripping the portal and gathering magic as the aura composing her horn, hooves, and wings flared up, “We just need a bit more!”

Adagio refocused and held onto her and the portal, putting her passion into the song as even while she lacked a strong bond with Celestia herself; she was trying to push every bit of gratitude into her thoughts to copy what magic the former alicorn had and then project something similar back at her. It had created an effect on her, with a dim flicker of her magic creating fin-like wings much in the same way she had once used during the large concert against the Rainbooms.

A power, a connection, was there; but it wasn’t strong enough on its own. Adagio was trying her best to copy and push out as much magic as possible to make up for Celestia’s deficit, but the connections weren’t there. She thought the Bearers seemed nice enough, having no hard feelings over the stage battle of the bands, but of the group she only had really gotten to know Twilight as a friend. A good friend, one she looked forward to working with if she ever came to rule in Equestria; but it wasn’t enough to fully bridge the gap.

They felt just slightly too short, Celestia needing just one last assisted push to lock down the portal location. Adagio’s eyes looked through the portal, back to some far-flung region of Equestria she didn’t even recognize; but felt all the same. A being used to scanning for and sampling ambient traces of magic, she could detect everyone nearby. She tried to concentrate, focusing more on the traces of the Element Bearers and who they were.

The trail did go towards and into the portal, which had confirmed to her beyond any doubt Celestia was right in where they’d wound up. But checking again there was…

The siren puzzled at the trace magic she felt.

-Who.. Who is this?-

In a moment of apprehension lost, she let one hand go of Celestia as she kept what magic flow she could muster. Fingers uncurling with her courage, she put her hand through the portal. The tips of her extremity that reached through were engulfed in the magical aura of an incomplete transformation. For the first time in what she felt like had been years, but was in fact over a millennia, Adagio was looking at her flipper again.

And she could feel the magic of those who had passed through the portal. All six of them-

Adagio froze as she detected the magic and sampled it. There were Seven Elements in this human world, but she was feeling less congruity in the group. Five strong, similar magical traces that gave her brief glimpses of the various Bearers when she felt them; Sunset Shimmer being the one she recognized best. Twilight, Eventide, was also present but.. something was wrong. It was like she had her magic altered much like Celestia’s was.

And the last, while bearing magic like the Elements as if it was cut from the same kelp, was... familiar. And potent enough that Adagio was frankly shocked and didn’t recognize it at first. But the pound in her chest helped bring back the familiarity all the same.

-Gloriosa…!!!-

The siren grabbed onto Celestia and, throwing caution to the wind and hoping the princess’ radiating magic would act as a buffer to keep her from turning too fast. It worked last time she needed to give something a jump start for the benefit of someone close to her. Before Celestia could ask questions, Adagio took her necklace off and put it on her neck as she called out.

“Sing with me!”

Celestia was never particularly good at singing, much as rumors of her angelic voice had circulated over the centuries as some looked up to her more and more. That was always more Luna’s forte. But she could keep a melody and follow a lead, and the sudden surge of power she got from a siren heart substituting what it could for an Element was a potent thing. The surreal part was the visions she got whilst singing, Adagio’s magic leaking into her own aura as the siren heart pulsed in tune with the song of both the venerated Equestrian princess and exiled Mako princess.

=============

Godzilla blocked a half-blind haymaker aimed at him, having to brace his tail against the ground and roll with the blow lest he be potentially toppled. That could prove disastrous when fighting inside an urban area, evacuation or not. Acting fast, he snapped back and grabbed onto the offending fist and wrist.

That Monster X’s body had taken so much punishment and was still going was testament to how manic and unfeeling the windigo piloting it was. Crisis strength was often reserved for life or death situations, and even in a battle it wasn’t unheard of for it to never be tapped into for the whole of the confrontation. Using it too much broke your body as fast as it might an opponent’s, muscle strength exceeding what the bones could take if repeated too much. But with Boreas at the controls and all of Monster X, or rather Praetorian Guard 094, being relegated to subconscious motor function, the windigo could swing away with impunity and not care if they tore apart the body doing so.

-When we fought on Terra, X and I were roughly on par with each other physically. This feels like fighting two of him!-

Thankfully, there were now almost two of him physically as well. Wings beat the air and Boreas’ face, still burnt from the blowback of misfiring his energy blasts from his shoulders earlier, was wrenched away from Godzilla by a pair of mantis-like scythes. Battra Lea braced her largest legs onto Boreas’ back and kicked hard whilst she jerked back and Godzilla shoved forward. Between the two, Boreas lost his grounding with his feet kicking out in front of him. Lea quickly shot backwards through the air as Boreas began to careen backwards, yanking the windigo along for the ride and picking him up into the air.

She could have picked him up to try dropping him from a great height, having the strength to do so and Boreas lacking some of the fine-tuned gravity control Monster X might employ to break his fall. But instead, the guardian moth hauled him up only a few dozen meters whilst moving backwards. Dragging him away from the schoolyard and tossing him away, Lea sent Boreas flying through to the pier. What remained of the wooden structure exploded into a million fragments when Monster X’s body was sent crashing through it. Water and woody shards flew skywards in a geyser of an eruption, some of the latter freezing in place due to the sheer cold of contacting the possessed kaiju.

Boreas, in mild vertigo and having to reorient himself whilst half-submerged in water, was wide open for retaliation. Lea could have easily lanced his body with prism beams from multiple angles and, without the immediate risk of the frost demon firing back to cause a potentially disastrous beam-lock explosion, Godzilla had ample time to charge up his own ranged option for some hefty damage. In plenty of spots, Monster X’s bony armor had been broken off and a well placed shot or two from one of both Defender Leaders could be crippling at worst and disabling at the least.

Which was why neither took the shot. Even if that meant by the time Godzilla had caught up to Boreas, he had to block a kick to the chest that still managed to crack a rib and hold his ground to deadlock the both of them. Tanking a headbutt to his brow and returning back in kind, Godzilla snarled as he focused on blocking and stalling over actually dealing damage; with Lea opting for divebombs to knock Boreas over instead of going for critical stabs or a second round of venom.

There was a plan at play to beat what couldn’t typically be defeated in their current circumstances. Junior could shatter a mountain with ease, but he couldn’t burn or flatten what was effectively a ghost. Lea could bind beings potentially stronger than even this windigo with her spellwork, but such abilities were on the fritz with her transformation. And Boreas meanwhile, for all of his winds howling and the dark magic laden therein that tried to seep into their core, couldn’t mentally attack them and control Monster X’s body at the same time.

This was a deadlock, both by circumstance and design. And Godzilla had a plan on how to get X, or perhaps 094, to help them break the lock.

========

"We have them! We have them, it's working!" Celestia cried out joyfully as her and Adagio's magic combined was able to drag the focus of Zephyrus' portal to their will and redirect it to the Element Bearers and company.

An assortment of forms jumped through the portal, first Rainbow Dash getting aloft, then Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity on tow. All back in human form and sporting their empowered auras forming wings, hooves, and horns.

"Are you girls alright?!" The now much larger Peachy Keen said to her magic pupils with a wide smile. Being closer to them was having a benign effect on her own magic. The aura forming her own combination of hind hooves, wings, and horn seemed to increase in strength, growing more opaque as a result.

"Ye', just ticked off an' ready for round tw-woah!” Applejack, the tallest of the lot, now had to look upwards by a head and a half, “Someone's hit a growth spurt!"

“Marvelous design! You’re looking splendid, Principal- I mean Princess,” Rarity piped upon returning from the portal and two feet, letting her eyes perk at Celestia’s gilded armor and dress before returning focus to the important issue at hand.

Celestia still humored her a smirk before eying the portal, “Where is Twilight Sparkle? Was she not with you?”

“She’s staying on the other side. The Bearers tried to purge the windigo out of X's body back at the camp and she had been mulling over why it was so difficult," Gaea Everfree stated as she also emerged from the portal, her footsteps causing plants to sprout from the ground on entry.

Celestia perked her brow slightly at the sight before her, not quite understanding this power nor expecting it to be able to work without the Elements anymore, having only seen the partial transformation previously. But she was wise enough to just accept it for the boon it was and look back through the portal. Her alicorn protege was waving back as she used magic to scrawl an enchantment spell on the ground surrounding her, several more portals to other locations around the school being relatively close by.

Sunset Shimmer landed beside Gaea and also chimed in, "I could detect X's spirit with my powers, or at least the fractured piece of it. Either way, the windigo was hiding inside of the soul like some kind of spiritual shield to resist the Elements. Not completely, but enough to weather it. The spirit Boreas was using was still a good person, but apparently whatever happened with that Memory Stone changed him so that he couldn't recognize Twilight. The connection was weaker because of it."

"And her remaining in Equestria helps this how…? Does she intend to grab the Equestrian Element of Magic from the Tree?" Celestia questioned.

Every one of the Bearers and Retainer shook their heads before Sunset continued, "These demons are so hard to put down because there's only a few things that can actually hurt them, and they are tough enough to require a lot of it to work. Zephyrus stole her Element Crystal and there’s not much magic in this world without it, but back in Equestria on the other hand- hoof…"

Gaea nodded along, "Part of the whole reason Zephyrus has been so wiley is he keeps a bunch of wild cards and alternate assets to exploit he can fall back on. Not to mention improvising. Twilight's plan is to adapt and give him a taste of his own medicine."

Visible through the portal, the purple alicorn was clearly gathering strength as the marking she’d made into the ground began to light up in tandem with her horn.

"Twilight came up with this in the span of a few minutes of falling through that portal after losing her Element?" Celestia said plainly without surprise before beaming proudly, "She really has improved on coming up with ideas while under stress. We have a plan of our own to do the same thing, so let's combine them-”

She was cut off by the thundering outcry from the battling giants. Godzilla barked in muted pain as he tumbled backwards from a powerful blow that managed to finally break his grounding. Collapsing over, it was only by a last-second bracing of his palm into the courtyard that he avoided completely crushing the school building he’d otherwise have landed on top of. Even so, the crash of his palm and subsequent burying it at least two stories into the pavement caused everyone’s heads to rattle.

A ways away, Battra had tackled Boreas before he could capitalize on the brief opening, trying to stay clung to his back as to avoid getting grabbed or pummeled by the larger kaiju’s manic strength. Beating her wings rapidly, she succeeded in yanking him backwards towards the ruined pier, lest they risk crushing their compatriots in the scuffle.

Another uproar of noise, distant as it was and muffled by the growing blizzard, called down from the highlands back towards the campgrounds. A booming, gong-like roar followed by a shrill shriek. Boreas’ reprieve was soon expiring because, slowed as they were by the storm, Anguirus and Irys were closing back in and not far away from rejoining the fray.

Godzilla’s eye caught the ground and he visibly nodded to Celestia and Adagio, before lifting himself back up and returning to battle. Elsewhere, the stray bolts of graviton fire soared over the school, a rapidly moving Frostbite Sparkle dodging the blasts Aria was shooting at her as they continued their aerial dogfight.

Celestia put her foot down as the group subconsciously rallied to her.

“Right, divide and conquer,” Celestia said as she eyed the various portals to Equestria, mostly random locations, floating about the clashing kaiju, “I’ll see what I can do about rearranging those, I’ll need the Element Bearers chiefly here to help me for when the time comes, along with the sirens for their spell work.”

Her eyes fell to Gaea Everfree, “Can you keep Zephyrus busy so they don’t interrupt?”

“Can do,” The Camp Director huffed as she cracked her wood-covered knuckles, only to stop mid stride when someone gripped her hand.

“Not alone you’re not,” Adagio Dazzle interjected, glancing up and down to survey Gloriosa’s new form and nodding, “Like the new look, gonna take a sec to get used to you being the taller one.”

Gaea Everfree, currently in the form of a mythic forest nymph, blushed sheepishly and lowered her neck as if to reduce the height difference incurred by growing almost a foot taller. She chewed her lip slightly and swallowed, trying to articulate but finding her chest tightened.

Adagio glanced towards Celestia with a firm, though not cold visage, “We’ll free up Aria, you’ll need her most for this and she’ll be more than enough alone… I’m not letting anyone fight that monster alone again…”

Celestia, privy to why more than most given she’d been there when they hauled in the heavily injured Gigan into the van for safe keeping alongside the unconscious Flash Sentry.

“And what are we? Chopped celery?” Rainbow Dash piped up as she hovered backwards alongside the departing Gaea and Adagio, flapping her aura wings.

“Feel free to tag in when you can,” Gaea replied, “But we’ll need all hands on deck for that spell to free X.”

“Princess Celestia and I might have something shortly!” The voice of Twilight Sparkle called out, apparently from a distance despite the volume. A brief pause to look at where it was coming from spurred the group to notice a grinning Celestia.

“Aaaaaw, she’s got her own Royal Canterlot voice now!” The Solar Diarch squealed despite them being in a near-doomsday scenario, as she continued working on the portal, trying to use it to remotely control some of the other portals and keep the connection strong lest they risk losing Twilight.

“Whatever you do, just be careful!” The younger princess pleaded.

“We’ll protect each other! Just don’t keep us waiting, Eventide!” Adagio Dazzle yelled back with a similarly magically enhanced booming voice, proud in another way of her cohort. All the while, she’d never let go of Gaea Everfree’s hand as the two walked towards the courtyard; the Rainbooms charging ahead.

As they advanced, quickly as they did, Gaea couldn’t help but notice the squeezing on her hand more. The corner of her eye caught tears on Adagio’s face. As much of a nervous and awkward wreck as she often was, the siren’s typical confidence was admired and times when it lapsed were always of great concern.

She knew how to read things then, and did now.

“Where’s Gigan?” Gaea whispered with flattened lips, privy to how the cyborg wasn’t with Adagio despite knowing well how unlikely he’d be to leave her side willingly. She’d read the room between them and knew how they’d felt for one another.

The brief chill of sadness at knowing how she’d stepped back to let them be happy was stifled by her honest concern, especially when Adagio squeezed her hands a bit tighter.

“... I let someone I care about go against my father alone once, I’m never doing it again.”

Adagio looked up towards the coming battle, again facing the demon of her nightmares for decades and scourge of her family. The tears still fell and yet she let her mind travel elsewhere for just a moment. She pulled Gloriosa’s hand up and put it to her necklace, letting the altered human touch and cradle it in her fingers, as the memories of the siren flew across Adagio’s mind and perhaps the emotions involved conducting into her company. Gloriosa could feel everything earnestly, from memories months prior right up until Adagio’s last interaction with the absent cyborg into the now.

The first time she’d seen the human before her, Gloriosa Daisy was a seemingly random nobody she met in passing. It was when Sonata applied for that part time job as a lifeguard at camp. Adagio had never been the trusting type, especially around outsiders and with good reason. But she’d never sensed any threat, sitting back and watching Sonata eagerly sign the paperwork. The place seemed safe enough.

She’d thought so well enough that it was the first, and possibly only, place to go after Sonata was attacked and they had to suddenly relocate. Now with a quartet of kaiju and one alicorn in tow.

A spark of intrigue when the seemingly normal human had some very abnormal items on her and the type of magical power on her own. Intrigue became appreciation when her initial positive vibe about Gloriosa was supported when the latter stepped up to help care for Sonata. Helping nurture what family remained after the loss of a parent was something they both had been put through.

When Gloriosa had come to her with obvious apprehension about embracing what magic or circumstances fate had given to her, the eldest siren had freely given, surprisingly to her herself, heartfelt advice. Embrace your circumstances and don’t lose sight of your goals, and you won’t lose who you are. At the time Adagio hadn't even been fully aware she was giving the same advice to herself too. Keep moving forward and don't be afraid of your circumstances…

A brief cold of pain came from her chest up on getting the shock of her life not long after. Finding out every single person you might have known, every place you had seen, and every old wound inflicted by those that had wronged her family was dead or changed immeasurably so. Being 1,000 years out of date was not something many had to go through and even fewer could do that without breaking under that realization.

Had she not the company she did, she wouldn’t have been some of the few. Gigan was amongst them for many of those moments, but he wasn’t alone. Call it a combination of her strange upbringing leaving her with different ideas, call it throwing caution into the wind because the heart wanted what the heart wanted. The cyborg and her were like two highly reactive elements, put them together and the sparks flew. Had she been experiencing that bolt-head alone, they might not have wound up where they’d wound up, because this journey had not been one trodden by just two. Gloriosa had been pulled from her quiet shell by them, embracing what life gave her. The siren heeded the same advice.

One thousand years ago, she’d wanted to be seated upon the glorious throne of her grandmother; a sight she’d never even seen with her own eyes. Who could say what her future exactly entailed, but right now, she just looked forward to the view of the lake from the edge of camp again. Optimally with a company of two.

With what had happened to Gigan, there was no way she was letting anyone go up against her father alone again.

“We protected each other,” Adagio whispered between the tears, “And I promised him to do the same for you-“

The kiss was initiated by Gaea taking the lunge to close the distance in a spur of the moment rush of emotions, but the lack of rejection was quickly noticeable in how it was returned. It only lasted a few moments, both subconsciously aware of the time crunch they were on, but it felt much longer. Gaea Everfree slipped back slightly, blushing up a storm and her eyes wide with shock at what she’d just done.

“I-um-eheh,” Gloriosa sheepishly muttered as she shivered in the midst of her fluster, “I think we have a lot to talk about and sort out once this is all over!”

The cold winds howled and Adagio, tears dried, smirked as she turned her head to face them. The warmth coming from within her, magic mingling and reacting to the one whose hand she was squeezing, helped to steel both of their resolves, “Then let’s go take that bastard down. Afterwards, we’ll have all the time in the world to hash out what this is, all three of us.”

This wouldn’t be about avenging what was lost in their mothers, but protecting what had been found in each other. She could only hope against dread that Gigan was as stubborn for live as she hoped he was, whilst facing down who hurt him so much. She wasn't keen to let something like that have to happen again before acting on what she felt.

Author's Note

Proofed by LanceOmikron and Faith-Wolff

Next Chapter: 6/12/2023

Chapter 54 Part 3: Eurus

Frostbite Sparkle recoiled backwards and smashed through a half-broken roof, spreading her wings and grasping the walls of the broken school building to stop their fall and lift themselves back up. Glaring at the troublesome enemy, Frostbite Sparkle floated up into the air with Kaizer Aria floating down to meet them with her own wings spread and arms crossed.

“New look for you changed things,” Aria growled as she felt the flow of magic through the air, confirming something she’d suspected when her gleaming gem detected none of the dark magic mist laden with strife flowing into the windigo, despite ample amounts of negativity being in the air.

Any of that potential dark magic fuel however that did get near Zephyrus was quickly being pushed back by the gleaming gemstone embedded in their collar. Subjugated as it was, the Element of Magic had played another penalty upon their thief that Aria was soon to notice.

“You can’t draw power from someone’s wrath anymore,” Aria called out, oddly loudly to Zephyrus’ notice. The windigo didn’t see who was coming up behind them.

Frostbite Sparkle raised a hand before them, telekinesis lifting various chunks of concrete and pavement upwards in levitation. They clenched a fist and instantly shattered the debris into sharpened projectiles.

“Do you think that increases your odds compared to last time?” Frostbite noted whilst taking aim.

“Yes actually,” Aria growled before smirking, “But it confirms someone else who wants a piece of you can tag in without risking boosting you.”

She’d seen them coming and had done a good job keeping Zephyrus distracted whilst getting her own hits in. But for now, Aria presumed this was time for phase two. She grinned and called out over the storm.

“LET ‘EM HAVE IT!”

A spike of noise off to the side earned Frostbite’s notice. It was that split second before a second powerful outcry, with waves of accompanying magic instead of gravitons, surged into Frostbite’s body. Instead of just knocking them down, this righteous indignation-fueled attack started affecting their transformed state. From Aria’s perspective, she could see the red and green mists, positive and negative emotions in tandem, surging into the schoolyard in equal measure. Zephyrus braced and tried to withstand the cone of projected magical sound, which was equal parts an outcry, song, and even perhaps a bit of a wind-like blast similar to a windigo’s magic, but was forced to fly backwards and get out of the line of fire. Several of the icy formations decorating Frostbite Sparkle’s stomach and chest, making the visage of a hungry, fanged maw, had melted or been warped; and her antlers had been cracked.

Zephyrus could taste his own type of magic pushed into the onslaught, the malefic strife and spite changed to justified indignation as it was blended with love.

It was a blasphemy to the irate windigo. Even if it wasn’t as potent as coming out of a Bearer of an Element, it was still Harmony’s magic in the end. And it was coming out of his own creation. Across the courtyard, Adagio Dazzle stood in a similarly powered up state to the Element Bearers; ethereal mermare fins and flippers decorating her winged form even more brilliantly than the one-and-done power surge she had during the stage show. Holding hands with the Gaea Everfree in a manner that did more than imply a few things, the siren drew power from her fellows and used it to project that magic over a long range; practically utilizing herself as a cannon to launch the magic Gaea pushed into her.

Each blast sent Frostbite Sparkle reeling, and each impact of the projected magic reacted with the Element embedded in their chest. The reaction wasn’t as strong as it would have been from the Element Bearers themselves, but it still hurt. And seeing the wretch that had so often tormented her nightmares and life in agony was more than enough.

-You created me.-

Adagio thought and projected with her outcries, sending Zephyrus reeling back end over end after trying to fly free. The windigo glimpsed their daughter’s gaze through the recoiling, spotting those eyes. Those damn rosy eyes he so vividly remembered from his greatest defeat. The roaring scream of outrage by the Western Wind was cut short by another surge of magic projected by Gaea, pushed into Adagio, and launched at them.

Adagio looked back at the subject of her nightmares for decades past, her hand squeezing the subject of some hopes for the future a bit more tightly.

-Created me to torture my mother and enact your plans.-

Zephyrus tried to block the blast by levitating up a slab of broken concrete. Whilst the force of impact from the projection was blunted, cracking the pavement’s surface, the magic it was laden with just kept going right through. This was, unknown as it was to some parties, the blessing of an actual goddess. What was some processed rock going to do against it? The concrete barrier shattered from the impact of the magic, which smashed into the demon. The windigo hadn’t been thinking, too enraged and pained to plan as clearly as he often did.

-You're prideful, arrogant, and you always think your plans are going to work out.-

The pain of knowing and accepting her own failed ploys was palpable, from venturing to Canterlot to trying to go up against the windigos without Twilight's friends. She channeled the adrenaline coursing through her veins into another powerful outcry.

-I did too once, I suppose I really do take after you in a few ways… -

But the pain in her chest was brief, assurance given from the squeezing in her hand. The outburst was again laden with Gloriosa's magic and blasted into Zephyrus. As the windigo tried to brace and withstand the rushing shockwaves shooting into them from Adagio's scream, more magic joined the fray.

-But I’ll never be you, I had some others to help pull me away.-

Vines burst from the ground and snagged onto Frostbite’s legs, holding the windigo affixed to the concrete and unable to rise up. Crystalline projections pelted and shattered against them from one angle, hard light butterflies crashing in from the other side. And as Zephyrus tried to shield themselves with their wings, a cyan blur smashed into them at near full speed. Rainbow Dash was fit but most of her boosted physicality came from her lower body. When Frostbite made to reflexively grab her, it would have been life-threatening had she not brought help.

Carried by Rainbow Dash’s momentum, Applejack grabbed the wretch by one arm after tossing Rainbow into the other. The combined speed and force balanced out the impact, allowing each to grab a limb and dive to the side before shoving Frostbite forward. The dark transformed demoness was launched off their footing violently enough to snap Gaea’s rootwork, sending them hurtling forward.

Directly into the path of their own progeny. Gaea Everfree clasped one hand with Adagio Dazzle’s, whilst holding onto the siren’s necklace between the palms of their other. Fluttershy and Rarity flanked them, Gaea’s presence bolstering their respective Elements and tying the two Bearers to Rainbow Dash and Applejack to do likewise. Zephyrus was directly sandwiched between the trust of Honesty, the binding of Loyalty, the compassion in Generosity, and the love of Kindness. Four young heroes who embodied those aspects and two souls who found a lot of that in each other.

Needless to say, the resulting magic blast channeled out of the duet by Adagio and Gloriosa was the largest the former had ever managed and actually managed to hurt Zephyrus. A lot. It wasn’t direct Element magic per se so she couldn’t directly match a Bearer, but the same essence was present and the effect was self-evident. The combination attack’s shockwaves ripped across Frostbite’s body, shattering icy formations and antlers they’d grown. It was powerful enough that Frostbite’s entire momentum was redirected backwards and they were sent flying backwards into what remained of the gymnasium. Smashing through the wall, the windigo collapsed much of the structure on top of themselves as they screamed in agony.

If the combined Elements and Gaea were seriously putting Frostbite on the back foot before, the added boost of one royally ticked off but mentally stable siren was further tilting the odds. Rainbow Dash and Applejack, amidst a wave of animate roots, crystals, and hard light butterflies, were already closing the distance as several follow up blasts by Adagio kept Zephyrus pinned down.

============

Meanwhile, Aria Blaze didn’t resist the proud grin for her cousin as she let her guard down and put her trust in another. Sunset Shimmer nervously kept a hand on the siren’s necklace as the siren in turn kept a hold of her, keeping one arm around Sunset’s legs and the other around her back for a firm grip. Even having walked through the plan, she couldn’t keep her pulse from pounding between her ears.

“Do we have to use that?” The Element of Empathy didn’t fight the grimace as she glanced at one of many portals Frostbite Sparkle had opened, which was showing a bird’s eye view of the battle at the shoreside between clashing titans.

“Thinking on the fly and it’ll ensure we get the drop on him. It’s safer than flying like in the original plan,” Celestia chimed in as she kept her hands on the portal, having affixed the location, “Now send the signal.”

“He’ll know we’re doing this instead of flying up the old fashioned way?” Sunset Shimmer puzzled, “I’m not afraid, but we’ve only got one shot at this.”

Kaizer Aria tightened her grip on the Element Bearer in a bid to be reassuring, “I’m not the fastest flier, but even if I can’t get us in quick you can bet I’ll get us out quicker if things go south. Let’s just hope your big friend notices.”

“Junior is quite more perceptive than many give him credit for, and for his lack of magical know-how I can assure one thing,” Celestia smiled and nodded to her student, “He knows we know what we’re doing and will act to make sure it works.”

Sunset Shimmer took in a deep breath, held onto Aria more, and let out a slightly exasperated chuckle, “Well then, no arguments from me!”

“I’d cover your ears,” Aria forewarned Sunset Shimmer and put her own hands atop the former unicorn’s for extra measure.

Holding her away from herself to keep her clear, the altered siren let loose a powerful scream laced with graviton torrents and fired it through the portal whose exit was high in the sky. The blast went through, golden beams and the loud shriek rocketing downwards into the ground. Sunset barely felt the moment pass before Aria charged and jumped through the portal whilst carrying her around her middle. Sunset yelped and clung to the siren, feeling the air suddenly go rushing past her face. Aria spread her wings to take to the air again and slow, but not stop their sudden plummet. They had to come in fast for this to work.

==========

In the matters of giants, Battra and Godzilla together had been mostly maintaining the deadlock. Had it been a standard battle, they probably could have individually defeated Boreas even with the windigo’s manic strength and total disregard for harm to X’s body besides keeping him battle ready. Together, it would have been not much of a direct contest. The tricky part was keeping Boreas from taking cheapshots at the schoolyard whilst trying to restrain, but not badly wound him.

That all changed once the portal spat out in airborne Aria Blaze and Sunset Shimmer, the latter having tried to keep her nerve but couldn't resist a reflexive screaming caused by falling dozens of meters through the air. Godzilla's eye caught onto them and he knew the signal for what it was.

This was a little bit improvised, but they accounted for that beforehand. What could never be fully accounted for however, was how the windigo would react.

Boreas' mind tugged him into a specific direction and his red eyes turned to track both what Godzilla had glanced at, as well as something the soul of his host body reacted to. He had perceived it much before, but almost like the south and north end of the magnetic pole, he could detect a presence that the remnants of Monster X's soul was pulled towards. That it was his own flesh and blood as well was another reason to cast his gaze towards it.

Kazier Aria cringed and tightened her grip on Sunset, “Hang on!”

Sunset Shimmer didn’t need to be told twice, clinging to the altered siren as Aria dove forward and weaved around a giant fist reaching out to grab them. Flying directly between enormous fingers covered in frost, she zoomed down Boreas’ arm and flew past his face. Sunset, eyes wide and yelling inarticulately as she kept her arms looped around Aria’s bicep and shoulder; saw her entire vision become clouded in white. The vastness of Boreas’ enormous eyes seemed to swallow up everything and she felt the bitter cold even with her own magic offering a buffer.

Aria Blaze only glared at the gaze stolen from her lover’s.

-I told you. Stealing his body was the second biggest mistake you ever made.-

It was a thought that Boreas could actually hear. The shattered soul of Monster X residing in his and his daughter’s bodies acting as the tether and allowing him to feel it. And he did not respond well to the threat.

Boreas had his full attention on them, forgetting about the kaiju as he snarled and lunged for them once again. Both out of spite and want to destroy for the goddess’s magic he detected in Sunset Shimmer, and for the knowledge that he alone was the best option to tear free that stubborn crystal around his progeny’s neck to bring out her true self as he saw it.

It cost him when the blows came raining down. Aria Blaze and Sunset Shimmer, maintaining their momentum from falling, zoomed aside just as a scaly fist connected with Boreas’ face. Just how much Godzilla had been managing his strength was made abundantly clear when all multi-thousand tons of Monster X’s body was sent flying backwards towards the destroyed pier.

Godzilla’s sucker punch was not alone either. A spinning mass of spines rolled into a ball bounced off the ground behind the dinosaur and spring into the air after the windigo. Anguirus had rejoined the battle and his trademark thunder ball collided with Boreas full force, sending the possessed even further skyward as the ankylosaur chimera landed below.

Violet prism beams and a similarly-hued sonic ray burst free of Battra Lea’s eyes and sang from Irys’ maw as they dove in. The beams crisscrossed Boreas’ body despite his attempts to fire back, hastily fired graviton flares smashing into Lea’s rays. But now, far off the ground and out of danger for the giants’ smaller compatriots; the resulting beam lock and explosion only served the heroes' purposes. Boreas was further blasted skyward by the resulting explosion, flailing and blackened by the burst of energy.

Especially when an irate Irys and Lea zoomed through the explosive cloud of smoke that engulfed Boreas. Former enemies in the first conflict of clashing titans in Equestria flew together, grabbing onto Boreas’ arms and spinning in a rapid descent. The possessed form of Monster X spiraled rapidly, both flyers breaking off and letting the smoking brute go crashing into the half-frozen sea with a tremendous explosion of ice and water.

Anguirus grunted and started towards the ocean, only for a bellow by Godzilla to stop his advance. Four on one, there was no possible way Boreas was getting to the Element Bearers nor stopping any of them. If his chances were bad before they were outright abysmal now. But the plan wasn’t to kill Monster X’s body, and now they had their moment to enact their ploy.

Boreas recovered slower than he wanted to, sinking into the water. Even if the windigo himself was not greatly harmed, he was well aware this body was starting to give out. He could feel it however, some kind of latent power that was missing. As he hid within the mostly broken soul of Praetorian 094, he could detect that this body should have a potential to be much more powerful. Like there was a state it could achieve but he couldn’t. A component was missing.

His mind briefly traveled back to the exact moment he possessed his daughter’s chosen. Just as Zephyrus’ little minion, Wallflower, whom he got to torment later ripped into X’s mind, it was like the soul itself split. Hitting him with the memory stone was supposed to erase a majority of his memories to make him an easier host, a diminished sense of self that couldn’t fight back against possession. This was like the soul itself sectioned off a large portion of itself and ejected it. Part of it had to be in Zephyrus’ necklace for the memories, he knew that, but there was something else missing.

If they had all of the memories and soul between themselves, he or Zephyrus should have been able to find where the sirens and Retainer of the Elements were hiding; but those memories weren’t there.

The brief recollection of his daughter’s altered state and her words returned to his mind. Her black and gold body and that nagging sense of a tether behind her being his progeny… Boreas did not see himself as particularly intelligent, certainly manic and psychotic by a mortal’s standards. But he also wasn’t stupid.

-So, she plans to give that power to the lizard perhaps? A king or kaiser dragon?-

Boreas righted himself in the water despite his battered body. He felt no pain and could ignore this long enough to try and make one last charge. Even the giants would be hesitant to strike their friend down. And if he could get to his daughter for just a moment….

The North Wind sneered and cackled.

-You can’t hide behind others to fight for you any longer. No one can keep you from me!-

The sea churned and began to freeze in place.

A geyser of rapidly frosting water burst out from the ocean. Millions of gallons of seawater turned to ice as Boreas launched himself out of the surf. His body nearly collapsed on impact with the beach, beyond spent and only having a limited amount of vitality holding it together. The North Wind turned to glare at his foes and made ready for his final gambit.

Only to be mildly surprised when Anguirus stepped aside to clear a path, with Irys and Lea following suit. Boreas’ senses of sight and detection were in conflict with each other by what came next, for he saw Godzilla approaching and yet he detected his daughter. The energy wrapped around the kaiju was very much of Equestrian origin despite his alien form, a mixture of both the Goddess’ cursed essence and his progeny’s. And unlike before, Godzilla wasn’t moving, walking, or vocalizing like he normally did for all the limited experience Boreas had against the King of the Monsters. In fact he seemed to be making a point to keep his mouth closed.

This was something new.

-In any other context, this would be beyond gross!-

Sunset Shimmer grimaced as she stood on the surface that was both somewhat spongy and somewhat hardened. Otherwise in near total darkness, with cracks of light visible through a jagged veil she could glimpse the incoming ocean and city below. And yet, through sight beyond eyes, she could see that same landscape clearly as she would if she walked through it. If she was multiple stories tall perhaps.

Her Element of Empathy continued to glow, linking her mind to all she was in contact with. Principally this was Kaizer Aria, whose mind was something unlike any she had seen before now that she was looking deeply. There was a mind of the siren herself, but then there was another presence felt; like a chain of memories and personality she could hold onto in equal measure. Deciding that had to be that other factor of X’s mind, Kaizer Ghidorah; he too was not alone.

Whilst Sunset stood behind Aria, hands clasping either side of the siren’s head, her feet were in contact with the floor below her. The very living floor that twitched and jiggled slightly with thundering footfalls dozens of meters below, in tandem with the twitches and movements of Aria’s legs as if she was walking in a dream.

Godzilla could not defeat Boreas, not in the way they wanted. He could kill Monster X’s body, especially with the ample back-up around, and Boreas might not be able to take on a new host; but that chaotic spirit could be a rogue element in taking down the other windigo.

This was the Element Bearer’s time, he was just giving them an assist to help them help Aria save her love. Just like all of them were helping right now.

Memories of a bygone time and recent past, when Praetorian 094 took up a readied stance back when he was a normal Xilian and when X gave instruction to Aria Blaze, were called forth by Kaizer Ghidorah. Aria Blaze remembered the stance and took it in her mind’s eye, bringing her hands up to bear with fists curled and her left foot forward. The feedback went into Sunset Shimmer, linking up with her thanks to her unique gift, and relayed into the other body she was in contact with. The two heroines safe inside his mouth, Godzilla let Aria and Sunset pilot his body and assume the same stance.

In theory, this could have worked with any of the kaiju; but given Junior most closely matched Monster X’s body form, it was the best bet. The monster king, allowing Aria Blaze to guide and control his movements, assumed her readied stance in full and prepared.

Boreas, needless to say, was more than a little confused as to why he was sensing his daughter standing over 50 meters tall and walking towards him. On top of that, his attempts to use his dark magic-laden wind against Godzilla were suddenly far less effective than before. However much his Northern gales howled, they failed to freeze even part of the saurian's hide.

He was briefly so taken for a loop that he didn't react fully when Godzilla by sight, Sunset by magic, and Aria by consciousness sprinted up to him before leaping up. The rotation of their body resulted in the back of a large fist smashing into the side of the windigo host's face in a backhand. Boreas' kaiju body nearly doubled over as they staggered further from a follow-up tail smash. The exact same move X once used on Godzilla, drawn from the Saurian’s own memories.

And at each point of contact, a tiny flicker of magic conducted out of the gestalt and into the possessed. The full-body aura of magic wrapped around Godzilla’s body, Empathy, working as a link to the dormant consciousness Boreas had been hiding within. Inside Monster X’s mind, as what was left of 094’s consciousness remained chained by ice much like Flash Sentry had by Notus, Boreas was no longer the only voice in the void.

-“Praetorian Guard 094, your mother was a soldier and your father was an engineer. You took your mother’s career path, but you loved to look at the stars with both.”-

It was his daughter’s voice speaking alongside the unknown-to-Boreas Kaizer Ghidorah. Summoning images of a child happily holding his parent’s hands, a uniformed mother with old scars and a coated father both beaming at their son in a glimpse of a time before the Xilians suppressed most of their emotions under an intense taboo. A time before he walked as a giant to try and save his people.

Boreas’ inner projection snarled and tried to mute the voice to continue fighting, puppeteering the body as he had before. He’d sunk his claws into what old self remained of his daughter’s mate, stealing his knowledge and memories, any sense of self; to fight with all of his skills. But he’d also been keen to try and keep that consciousness from fully awakening, allowing him free reign of his body. He remembered what happened to Notus’ two hosts and how an alert consciousness or connections through memory spelled disaster.

If Zephyrus hadn’t arranged for most of X’s more modern memories to be taken away, by one means or another, even just a glancing hit by the song and Elements at the camp by a jury-rigged Bearer pretending to be a siren would have worked. Praetorian 094 didn’t know Twilight Sparkle, and yet she nearly reached him.

Which made it all the more alarming and infuriating when Boreas detected a stirring within the body.

Godzilla’s body landed on his feet and threw out a right cross, connecting with a distracted Boreas’ cheek and making the possessed kaiju stagger. The kaiju king's voice joined the chorus.

-”Your body is not in your control, we need you to fight too!”-

Another memory, literally punched into Boreas’ body and 094’s mind of what should have been a final war. Terra was half on fire and the dragon of the azure flames had come to put a stop to that whilst one of the invading groups deployed their own champion to contest. The recollections perspective of a monster king standing off with an invasion’s vanguard, who regardless of his great power. But, just as it seemed their fight was about to commence with Terra's defender trying to figure out the fastest way to get them out of a still populated area, Godzilla had taken notice of how the invader's ace trembled and flinched before going still. Following the line of sight, he was surprised to see Monster X was looking directly at a tiny form, barely an ant to their enormities by comparison. An older couple, likely too infirm to have been evacuated easily, taking their chances hobbling away from the disaster area.

A few moments of tensity confirmed it that X had seen them and refused to engage yet on account of them. The stand off lasted several long minutes until the civilians were out of harm's way. It was the very first time Junior had ever encountered a foe with such concerns, from Terra or beyond, and he was keen to return the favor with a low bellow. The intent was to convey an offer that should have hopefully been clear even if X couldn't understand him precisely in the way kaiju often immaculately did regardless of origin.

They didn't have to fight and he didn't have to fight for the Xilian ships hovering impatiently above. X looked at the ships he served for a short time before responding.

The slow shake of X's head was disheartening to what the Monster King hoped was a kindred spirit, but he had to accept it. Just as X accepted his offer to stand aside and let the Xilian kaijin walk out of the city center and into the already destroyed downtown. Pacing away from any concerns about what would follow, reluctance was shooed away by the time the first actual blow was thrown.

Knowing what he did now, Terra's champion felt he perhaps glimpsed more of Xilian's champion true self then than most had in centuries.

-”You’re not someone’s weapon; you’re a soldier, an honorable soldier!”-

Another fist was thrown in a follow-up jab; but this time Monster X’s body reflexively ducked aside to block it despite his heavy wounds. At the points of contact, Sunset Shimmer fed all connected minds a brief glimpse at the fragments that lay within the possessed kaijin’s body. A simple sparring lesson, not unlike a Terran martial arts dojo, of a teenage Xilian boy blocking a hit thrown by his sparring partner in the form of a similarly aged girl who’d landed a prior hit.

She smirked at the young, future 094; and Aria Blaze could feel another distant similarity to the future Controller 011.

Another punch, thrown by Aria’s mind but acted upon with Godzilla’s body as directed by Sunset Shimmer, was thrown. The uppercut could have knocked Monster X’s head upwards, but instead the body reflexively ducked sideways to let the blow whiff past their head. Boreas’ will wasn’t in the action nor had control of it, it had instead been instinctive. A reflex buried from what lay within that the windigo had done their best to keep dormant. In the distant memories, a young 094 had not managed to duck when his sparring partner and future wife decked him in the face.

Monster X’s body braced a foot against Godzilla’s chest and kicked him back, clearing some room as the latter giant’s feet went smashing through a beachside warehouse. But even that brief window of contact brought upon sights, sounds, and sensations along a chain of memories. The body was panting and heaving, but not because of how battered and worn down it was. In one of the few times since assuming this form, Boreas was beginning to strain.

Inside the mental realm, the icy chains holding down the consciousness he’d hijacked started to crack.

Boreas scrambled to regain full control, having to divide his attention between keeping 094’s soul dormant and retaliating against the rapidly re-approaching gestalt siren-bearer-kaiju front. A right cross by the attacking team was countered with a reflexive block by Boreas trying to still use stolen skills, only to be assailed by both a hand grabbing onto Monster X’s horns as well as another memory. A relatively calm and placid one free of conflict. The first time he and Sunset had met after she’d brought his teammates to him in the cold of a half-destroyed forest.

Both of them had to have sensed and known the other wasn’t a normal human, even if they didn’t know the full truth. Didn’t matter. The wayward unicorn saw an imposing, scar-faced man elated at the sight of his friends, and the dragon knight was only grateful to the kindly soul who’d helped him be reunited. A casual acquaintanceship and understanding by two beings who had once been so very alone but had come to welcomed company. A fate neither would have come to embrace if they were still upon their old paths subject to their own or another’s ambitions.

Monster X’s eyes briefly turned red, before flashing back to eerie white. The loud exclamation that flew free from their maw was an inarticulate shriek of outrage that only vaguely resembled Boreas screaming “NO” and various profanities. The windigo became physically visible across the body he was possessing, hovering over and upon it like a veil; sharp antlers and dead sockets for eyes upon a pure white body.

The windigo’s maw snapped open as his outrage reached a new peak, his mouth widening so violently it would have wrenched itself off its socket had it been of flesh. A Northern Gale that made all before seem like a breeze in comparison blew through the city, smashing into the gestalt force. Godzilla’s titanic mass staggered backwards slightly, his feet digging trenches into the ground. Dark magic was interfering with his typical regenerative abilities, allowing icicles to form over his hide which Sunset’s magic was working to deflect and melt off.

Still, damaging as it was, it was blunted significantly thanks to the Element of Empathy wrapping around the kaiju’s body. Against the intensifying hurricane gale force, which was increasingly splitting the air in an ungodly shriek as it tried to attack both mind and body, Godzilla’s body and Aria Blaze’s will fought through the northern storm. One step was made against the blast, then another, and another.

And Boreas started to frighten backwards, trying to will himself and his host away from the horrific, wretched thing confronting him. Weathering the storm, the dragon of Odo continued forward as the triad struggled to maintain themselves. All while the portals to a seemingly infinite void that Eurus was risking emerging from got larger and larger.

-”I think maybe the ‘punch at him till muscle memory kicks in’ part of this plan isn’t quite working fast enough!”- Sunset Shimmer griped as she struggled to hang on physically and mentally to both of her compatriots.

-”Hold on Sunset!”- Godzilla growled, not out of anger but at biting back the flood of dark magic trying to infect his body and mind, as he hoped the Element continued to do exactly that, -”What is captive within is waking up. Boreas keeping combat skills will prove his weakness yet. We just need something to jar that mind in there more.”-

-”Right, like with Flash and you,”- Sunset grimaced as another wave of dark magic laden wind and cold shoved into them. Weathering the mental hit, she chanced a smile and shrug after seeing Boreas twitch and shake all over, -”You know, I think we’re actually starting to scare him!”-

-”I’m taking us in close, brace yourselves,”- Aria Blaze said plainly as she glared out of Godzilla’s point of view with determination, willing herself forward and moving with him in stride as Sunset reinforced their link, -”I’m bringing us in for something either really potent or really stupid. Sunset, are you still scared of heights?”-

She asked even whilst their minds were linked and the answer was already known. Didn’t stop Sunset Shimmer from deadpanning.

-”Do I really need you to say why you’re asking that?”-

Aria Blaze’s expression was a myriad visage, one of hardened determination, hatred, and yet also confidence as she chanced a tiny smirk. Her eyes glowed golden dimly under their red.

-”To kill my sire of course.”- The siren’s smirk widened slightly, -”Ready, your majesty?”-

-”I’m technically not a king you know,”- Godzilla reminded as he charged headlong at Boreas again.

Aria Blaze, current danger regardless, still managed to snark, -”Yeah well, I’m not technically a princess.”-

Sunset Shimmer braced and almost felt like closing her eyes, if she didn’t get a quick reminder her actual body already was and she was actually looking out the kaiju’s point of view. The distance to Boreas closed but the distance to the ground didn’t.

-”In hindsight, maybe it’s best that I didn’t become an alicorn…”-

Boreas saw them coming, attempting to intensify his storm with loaned energy from Eurus backing him up. But even as his winds howled, the oncoming mountain refused to crumble. The gestalt offensive barreled into him and launched a fury of attacks. Or at least that's what it looked like at first.

A fist went flying at Monster X's face, but it was done just oh so slightly slower than one would expect for an attack. By all accounts it and the follow-up blows really did look like the gestalt was trying to clobber the windigo, but very careful observation might have allowed one to notice the differences. The body wasn't tightening up quite as much as it normally would, aim was just barely offset to the side, and careful observation of the feet would show they weren't throwing their full weight into the blows with a pivoted foot.

Boreas didn't notice, lacking combative experience or training himself in hand to hand martial arts. But as the blows were all summarily dodged, ducked, or blocked; those contact points engendered sparks to illuminate the sight of one within.

Godzilla's body rotated aside and a swung arm aimed low was caught in a mirrored motion by Monster X's body on reflex. Their forearms banged into one another, before rotating on their elbow and swinging upwards as if to try and strike it backhand at the other's face; only to crash together again.

In synchronization, both kaiju pivoted around and copied the exact same motion on their other side; punctuating the end with a mutual elbow strike that neatly blocked each other across the flat of the forearm.

The motion repeated again and again, increasing in speed. Anguirus furrowed his brow, not quite knowing what exactly he was looking at, but able to recognize some of it from the myriad of information his creators endowed him with. Godzilla's typical fighting style was a strange, unique mixture of animalistic assault and some measure of self-taught, formalized attacking as taught to him by Kong. Aside from maybe a move here or there he picked up from King Caesar, he wasn't known for doing martial arts, let alone a rigid training kata.

And that Monster X's body was perfectly mirroring him, like they were two sparring partners training together, was surreal to see in itself. Just not to the one directing Godzilla through the movements her beloved had taught her, nor feeling her mind breach into a void thanks to Sunset's magic.

Aria Blaze rapidly worked through the block kata X had taught her time and time again. Each point of contact creating flashes of memories pushed into the opposing kaiju. Each go around, the possessed kaiju’s response time got quicker; and the reaction sharper and less conscious. A spar by the lake side, training in the forest, fighting together against Frostbite Sparkle and Enjin; all mixed with glimpses into Praetorian Guard 094’s life before. Boreas felt the incursions breaching his defenses and fought viciously against them; only to leave his focus off the captive mind and soul he’d been hiding behind.

A soul that was beginning to wake up.

==========

To say that Zephyrus was on the back foot would be an understatement. To say that the conflict was still a true battle was an overstatement. He'd had a lot of trouble fighting just several of the Element Bearers by themselves, let alone with Gaea Everfree backing them up. All of them were much less experienced than the Retainer he had battled previously over a decade ago, but quantity had a quality all to itself on top of the Bearers being his single greatest weakness manifest. And there was another issue.

Frostbite Sparkle broke their backwards tumble after being sent flying through a thin wall of ice, dark wings flailing about briefly to recapture their bearings. The cause of their backwards hurdle adjusted her grip on the telephone pole before planting a tip into the ground, pointed up at Zephyrus. She had just used an oversized baseball bat to bash through a shield of telekinetically lifted debris. Zephyrus had been using the rubble as a shield but the haphazard barrier was no match for Applejack’s massively bolstered strength. Zephyrus managed to catch themselves and shoot up into the air with a beat of wings and surge of telekinesis, only to immediately get set upon once again.

This world’s Rainbow Dash was not nearly as used a flight as her counterpart, but speed was speed and she had been quick on the uptake. More sprinting across the ground rather than true flight, she launched herself up the telephone pole Applejack provided as a ramp to send herself rocketing at Zephyrus. If the windigo hadn’t seen the cyan blur coming, they’d have been dumbstruck and dead-on when Dash turned about midair and came hurtling at them with a diving kick. The wide-eyed windigo jerked themselves aside with a wave of magenta telekinesis, having to physically yank themselves out of the way as fast as possible. And even then, the edge of Dash’s tennis shoes painfully ground past their stomach and arm.

A gemstone appeared in the air some dozen meters behind Zephyrus, Rarity clasping her hands before expanding them outwards. The diamond construct glimmered before rapidly multiplying in either direction to form a ring mid-air in a white circumference across the schoolyard. Rainbow Dash’s lack of experience with flying was well compensated for. She’d been taking gymnastics and track for years, and thankfully with some practice superspeed also came with reflexes to match. Twisting about she landed feet-first onto the diamond in front of her, before springing off at equal speed to try and land another hit on the frost demon.

Zephyrus withstood several shocks the element was giving him from being in closer proximity to another Bearer, trying to fly upwards and get away after being sent reeling from Dash colliding with one of their wings. Dash was zipping around the circle of crystals Rarity had projected, spring boarding off one to cross the diameter of the circle in a collision course that either landed blow after blow directly or at least clipped the windigo. And with the speed she was going at, retaliation was almost impossible as was blocking. Ascending upwards however was a path soon barred, a sudden flurry of yellow light flapping about in all directions. The Element of Kindness’s tether to animals had modulated into a more extreme form, and whilst there weren’t many animals around due to the storm, the portals had unwittingly provided a bit of an avenue.

Hordes and hordes of cockatrice, vampire fruit bats, and small bug bears, glowing constructs of light and copied from the Equestrian forest the Bearers had briefly landed in swarmed, clawed, and pecked furiously at the windigo. Though they lacked the distinct abilities of their actual counterparts, they more than did their job at blocking their exit as a furious swarm. More than ample distraction to provide Rainbow Dash to brace herself and come smashing into Zephyrus from behind, elbow first, like an angry pinball. It was only due to an unnatural constitution that Frostbite Sparkle’s ribcage didn’t break on impact from Dash ramming into and tackling her; the Element of Loyalty wrapping her arms around the windigo to try and drag them from the sky.

Zephyrus shrieked whilst igniting their hands with magic, throwing one hand up at the oncoming swarm of hard light animals in a slashing motion. Tendrils of energy, like extended claws, ripped into them and scythed through the horde. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened when the deranged and enraged glare of Zephyrus was fully directed upon her. She let go and dropped away from the windigo, beating her wings and kicking her legs furiously mid-fall in a bid to dodge.

But just like before, the team was nothing but coordinated. Roots and woody tendrils burst out of the concrete in several areas and rapidly snaked into the air, wrapping around Zephyrus’ arm and wrenching it aside to throw off their aim. Gaea Everfree shifted her stance and threw out her other arm, erupting the ground elsewhere with further work to elevate Applejack’s footing.

Though the Element of Honesty lacked the raw speed of her compatriot, her physicality boost did also leave her legs equally enhanced and her leap was quite respectable in its own right especially with Gaea giving her a directional momentum. Applejack caught the tumbling Rainbow Dash in a dive, turning about and sliding her shoulder off a crystal projection courtesy of Rarity that formed a line of gems almost like a slide. The two safely slid to a stop on the ground whilst Gaea’s tendril thrashed with Zephyrus snagged on its vine.

The woody whip swung wide before abruptly snapping towards the ground. Zephyrus saw the broken debris and rubble rapidly approaching, moving to direct a wave of telekinesis at the pavement to stop their fall. Gaea Everfree smirked and changed the direction of the swing at the last second, tossing the windigo sideways and directly into a tight cluster of Rarity’s crystals. Frostbite Sparkle managed to slash at the tendril in a bid to free themself, but the momentum they’d been set upon was too much to conquer even after they’d shredded the plant matter. The demon’s back collided with the crystalline structures hard enough to fracture most of them, dark wings spread wide in a brief moment of being stunned.

With none of the Bearers in the crossfire and Zephyrus caught in place briefly, it was the opening needed. A concussive burst of song magic, like a hugely amplified voice, surged over the windigo like a tsunami. It seemed to echo into their mind and carried a most hated chorus to the demon. Sights and sounds of a loving mother known only in youth, a devoted aunt who raised her, of coming to this world initially thinking it was a curse instead of a blessing, and those that had been met along the way. Acquaintances in her compatriots, friends in the form of a young alicorn, and something closer with two souls in mind that Zephyrus knew well. One of them was holding her hand now. It was a love ballad, and it was toxic to the windigo as it seeped inside their body and threatened to reach out to the dormant mind within.

Adagio felt a small bit of satisfaction at hearing her sire scream out in a way that had tiny slivers of a normal human voice in it. She had no connection to that other Twilight Sparkle, and it would be a gross understatement for anyone to say she didn’t much prefer her counterpart from Equestria. But if there was any difference between herself and ‘Eventide Hymn’, it was that Adagio had been playing to crowds unknown to her for a lot longer. And for magic that was meant to tug at the emotions, that was a valuable skill to have against a windigo.

Hopefully somewhere if there was a hereafter, Auntie Hymnia was smiling at how well her eldest niece remembered her song and approved of who was helping her fuel it.

Music to the ears and hearts of any listening. Utter disgusting agony second only to the Goddess’ magic directly itself to her sire. Zephyrus shrieked, their incorporeal form briefly flickering in an overlay atop Frostbite Sparkle’s body; lashing hooves and claws with gnashing teeth below jagged antlers. His wind howled, but Adagio Dazzle’s song would not be silenced as she poured it on. It kept Zephyrus busy just long enough for the rest of the group to capitalize after collecting themselves.

A hard light menagerie flew by the demon to keep them off balance, more and more crystals snapped into existence above them to block off any escape and herd them downwards. Entangling roots burst from the rubble to grab at Frostbite’s legs and yank her to the ground, just as a cyan blur zoomed up an incline towards them. This time, it was Rainbow Dash doing the lifting as she put everything she had into hefting, sprinting with, and aiming her compatriot. It was less pitching Applejack at the enemy as much as it was holding her up, going as fast as possible, and then stopping with the momentum transferred into the larger young woman.

Applejack went airborne like a spear, tackling into the briefly stunned Frostbite Sparkle. The windigo possessed was quick to try and ignore their other attackers to reorient focus at the superstrong young woman who had latched on to them, but the keyword was try. A glimmering hand loaded with magic was grabbed and pointed aside, Frostbite having been moving just slightly too slow due to all of the distractions and the lingering effects of Adagio’s ongoing song. Given only pleasant vibes and memories by the same music that was frustrating Zephyrus’ control, Jacqueline Suzanne Apple seized her chance, hooking her legs around the frost demon in a hold and grabbing at their neck with her free hand.

Just like before, there was resistance. Through the ice composing a collar of sorts around Frostbite’s neck, she could see the three necklaces frozen within. The Element of Magic, the Memory Stone, and what had to be Sonata’s gemstone ‘Heart’. Applejack could remember some of the details they had been briefed on, that a siren necklace could only be removed by someone with similar magic, like a family member, or if the siren herself willed it to be removed from her neck. She didn’t know the exact nuances of that magic or if Zephyrus was capable of permitting a lessened degree of it; but the resistance wasn’t quite what had been described to her prior.

An easterly gale force spewed out again from the many portals surrounding the school, several of which were directly behind Zephyrus and billowing over them. Eurus knew what was going on and was calling out to their company again. And just the echoes of his screams seemed to shadow everything about Zephyrus, even as it empowered the latter.

The Element of Honesty strained and continued to reach for the necklaces. It was like shoving her hand through very thick clay that didn’t want to give easily. A clawed hand grabbed at Applejack’s cheek, icy talons scraping scalp and jaw as Frostbite Sparkle’s dark eyes seemed to become the same dark void that Eurus was calling out from. The ungodly wailing Zephyrus was loosing at their assailant risked blowing out her ears. Applejack grit her teeth and hung on, fighting the tide as ice started to grow across her face and hair.

Adagio saw Frostbite Sparkle’s wings beat erratically, flapping in a clearly panicked motion as Applejack hung on for dear life. The rest of the Element Bearers filed in to try and help, pelting the demon with crystals and hard light creatures whilst Rainbow Dash worked her speed up to get airborne again and grab onto one of the flapping wings in a bid to help Applejack.

Hands clasped her own and she briefly found herself looking into the eyes of Gaea Everfree. There were some moments that a lot of things that needed to be said got across without a single word. Lingering concerns and fears about what happened to Gigan and not letting that happen again went away, like melted ice. The forest fae did what the cyborg of the stars had done earlier that day to the sea witch. Her fingers curled around Adagio’s Heart and she held it, letting her magic indicated by red mists flow into it.

Gloriosa had remembered something Adagio had taught her during their magic training and Twilight’s instruction. Siren songs always worked best in a chorus. And singing from the heart always worked best.

The love ballad’s melody multiplied several fold and surged over the aerial struggle. Eurus’ influence wasn’t pushed back fully, but it was equalized and negated to even the playing field. And whether by the same benevolence in magic working so well together or by Gaea’s influence on the siren magic, it visibly intensified the effect the Bearer’s magic had.

The ice on her face melted just as the frozen talons cast onto Twilight’s fingers shattered. Applejack squinting against the hurricane force of cold wind in her eyes, pushed forwards just as Rainbow Dash managed to disable the wing with her own momentum. They fell and the barrier around the necklaces pushed against AJ’s hand. But it didn’t stop her. Whether by Zephyrus not having the best mastery of that magic, that boost Adagio just gave, her own physical force just being that powerful, her own Element flickering in tandem with the stolen one situated next to the siren heart; or some combination of all four, she got through.

Her fingers caught hold and wrenched back. A necklace chain snapped just as Frostbite, in a bid of desperation, slashed at the air below them as they fell to open a portal. Applejack kicked off the demon and trustfully held out a hand which was caught by an oncoming Rainbow Dash. The Element of Loyalty broke her friend's fall as their rapid descent was slowed via a series of crystal platforms, extended vines, and many a flying hard light critter grabbing onto them and flying backwards to direct them away from the portal Frostbite fell into.

“AH GOT IT!” Applejack yelled as she held the Memory Stone aloft.

===========

Tumbling through the void, Zephyrus felt weightless and nothingness. He was back, back in the nothingness he had spent millennia within. Was this where he and his kind were created by Grogar? Could a God of Destruction actually create anything? Were they four once the same being and that is why they were so connected? Did Grogar take something from another existence, another life, and split it or re-forge it into what he needed to be his generals?

For however many thousands of years he was old, Zephyrus didn’t know. His first memories were freezing a world cold in a bygone age when Grogar decreed mortals had far exceeded their station. Arrogance demanded retribution. And the spirit of the West Winds did not question why in that ancient time Grogar was working alongside the goddess, why Zephyrus’ scourging of the lands was directed at the foolish mortals who sought to make themselves the world and its gods’ masters; only to be pitted against her and her creations in another age.

He was the most cognizant of the four, but he did not question. Whether that was by his own willpower or something done in the past, he did not care. All of the horrific tragedies and monstrous things ever done to mortals never mattered to him. That was all life was for however much it constituted as life for the windigo.

And yet, the pain, actual pain for one of the few times to such a degree he could recall, starting at his very soul. The Element of Magic burned him. It was killing him; his desperation move had killed him. There was such a temptation to just go slack and let it happen.

The void gradually became less and less vacant and nothing. An overwhelming presence second only to the gods themselves began to surround Zephyrus from all angles. The easterly wind roared and power flowed back through the possessed body.

Distant memories and sights flooded the controlled mind. Of gods and heroes. A blue unicorn with amethyst-colored eyes. The departure of their fellows into a world beyond. Only for a brand-new group to replace who had been lost in the Bearers. A siren with the very same damned eyes. Her cursed mother’s legacy in his hands. And the spite he felt at the nymphs and cyborg who got in his way.

Frostbite’s slackened arm clenched a fist as the flickering Element of Magic dimmed, suppressed by an overwhelming force now that it was separated from its fellow Elements. Ice regrew over it and the stolen siren heart.

A western wind came shrieking out of the portals leading to the void as more and more opened up around the school and across the sky.

Dark wings ripped the air apart as Frostbite Sparkle came rocketing back into the fray. The reassembled heroes were nearly blind sided when Zephyrus came hurtling at them. A quick-aim and firing by Adagio with her Element laden song magic did force her sire to divert path, dodging around the projection of magic in a tight roll, wrapping wings around their body and spinning about. The rapid projectile of dark magic and ice nearly collided with the group had they not ducked aside to dodge or been yanked aside by Gaea Everfree’s vines.

Zephyrus went flying directly into one portal, exiting another in a completely different direction across the school a moment later. Magic surged over their hand as they slashed at the air, creating yet another crash in the broken dimensional barrier. The heroes barely had time to register what was going on before a set of telekinetic talons cut another hole into space directly above them. Applejack gritted her teeth and kicked off the ground as hard as she could with her super strong legs, launching herself several meters backwards just before Zephyrus could collide with them. The windigo cut another hole into space before they nosedived into the pavement, reappearing above the school again and soaring over like an ominous vulture.

“Bust the Stone!” Rainbow Dash called out as she zipped upwards as fast as she could fly, trying to tackle the windigo, only for Zephyrus to pull another disappearing act and the Element of Loyalty had to put the air brakes on as much as possible lest she end up flying directly into wherever that dimensional tear led.

“AH’M TRYING!” Applejack growled as she held the stone in her palm and wound up again, smashing a fist into it as hard as possible like she was catching a punch in her hand. Despite the air audibly splitting from the strength of the impact and her own magic laden therein, the stone only showed cracks along the runic surface instead of fully splitting.

Another dark void opened up behind Applejack and Frostbite came flying out, eyes glowing and talons spread to seize and maul. A slash at the air carried a wave of telekinesis that was intercepted by a crystalline projection. But even though Rarity doubled and then tripled her defense, the windigo’s force was intense enough to shatter the diamonds into a powder. So, the fashion designer just kept piling the gems on, throwing her hands back and forth like she was hurling them herself and screaming like a madwoman. It was a desperation gambit to protect her friend as she got between the dark magic demon and Applejack.

Zephyrus, carving through diamond after diamond, glimpsed a frustrated Applejack throw down the gemstone and start stomping on it. Cracks split the concrete around her in all directions, showing just how hard she was hitting the stubborn rock. Covered in diamond fragments, the windigo shrieked and instead grabbed onto the latest diamond thrown at them; letting the momentum carry them backwards into the portal.

Both they and the diamond fell tumbling out across the schoolyard, the latter hurled at Applejack like a cannonball. Vines and roots split out of the ground to twist and knit together, wrapping around a hunk of rubble and using it like a flail to lift and swing wide. Gaea Everfree controlled the movements of the weaponized tendril with her arms, batting away the diamond with enough force to send it burrowing into what remained of the school clocktower. She attempted to bring the weapon to bear against Zephyrus, but the windigo cut another portal into the air and diverted away in the span of a moment.

“Any luck?!” Gaea called out.

Applejack had resorted to jumping up and down, kicking as hard as she could with both legs to double-stomp on the Memory Stone. The stony façade had chipped and cracked. The sheer force as well as her own magic was clearly having an effect and if given enough time, she probably could’ve shattered it on her own even if some other magical force might’ve had an easier go at it.

“Ah need to hit it harder to split it!” Applejack cried out, growling as she picked up the blasted thing from the small crater she had broken into the ground.

“And we need to keep them off you!” Fluttershy piped whilst trying to redirect some of the hard light creatures to swarm around the schoolyard and catch up to the rapidly dodging Zephyrus, who was either shooting down those that tried to rush them or diving into a portal to come up somewhere else.

Applejack huffed after trying again to crack the Memory Stone open by attempting to work a finger into a fissure she’d broken open, “Ah need something really hard to beat it against an’ maybe a hand or two! This things’ tougher than it looks and keeps busting through the concrete when I hit it against it! Need something heavy an’ something sharp!-”

Fluttershy managed to scream loud enough to shout her out, “LOOK OUT!”

Zephyrus dodged into another portal to escape Fluttershy’s horde of manifest bugbears and came rocketing out of another one. They’d have managed to collide with Applejack had Adagio Dazzle not gotten in the way. The scream that came out of the siren didn’t at all sound human, even if the overtures there in could be considered a type of song.

A wave of magic smashed into Frostbite Sparkle and forced them to halt their advance, staggering backwards and trying to shield with their wings. Fluttershy’s horde pursued downwards to mob at the windigo who’d begun dropping out of the air. Pecking and clawing at the darkened wings, they were able to force the incoming attacker back; but not stop them from exiting through another portal to flank them again. Not a moment later did they reappear, forcing Fluttershy, Adagio, and half the group to split focus on defense against an enemy they could certainly beat in a direct confrontation; but were having a very hard time pinning down.

“Would this work?” Rarity said in haste as she bit her tongue and worked her magic. This was most certainly working on the fly, but she was a designer.

Working her hands like she was snipping off excess with a pair of scissors, she manifested a new diamond. Smaller than the typical, but still initially on par with herself in scale before being cut down. Piece by piece, until what remained was roughly the size of a football. Honed to a sharp point. Applejack caught the piece and affixed the point to the crack in the stone she’d opened up, before wasting no time smashing the stone against the nearest diamond projection Rarity had already summoned. The point bit in, the impact split the air with a snap; and yet the stubborn stone refused to break.

Several more hits followed up shortly after, whilst the rest of the group focused on keeping Zephyrus at bay despite constant flanking maneuvers and portal jumps. Applejack wailed on the crystal with the wedge until the cracks split across the face of the diamond; and one strong blow shattered it into dust.

“Ah’ crabapples…” Applejack muttered with a deadpan expression stenciled across her face, “Rares! I need another one to anvil off of!”

“Won’t work!” Rarity huffed whilst trying to block off a portal Zephyrus was trying to claw out of with another gemstone, “Crystals have a cleave point! You hit it against more and it’ll just break it or break that wedge!”

“Well what’s harder and tougher than a diamond?!”

As if to answer the question, a tremor shot through the ground after a tremendous impact across town. Anguirus was making his way towards the bay where the battle of giants had traveled, trying to be mindful not to step on what hadn’t already been so badly damaged.

“Iiiiii think I got an idea!” Applejack heard Rainbow Dash call out, before tracking her friend’s line of sight backwards, straight to the edge of Anguirus’ spiky shell.

“Aaand just how am I supposed-ta get to that?!” Applejack groaned.

“I can handle that! Lemme just build up some speed!”

Rainbow Dash grinned and bolted over, planting a hand on AJ’s shoulders and vaulting herself up and over her taller friend to grab her around the hips. Her wings started beating harder and harder, her entire frame, and consequently AJ’s too due to RD holding onto her, started to vibrate.

“Aa-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-rr-r-r-r-r-r-e-ee-e-e-a-a-a-a-a-all-ll-l-l-l-y h-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-t-t-t-t-e-e-e-e-”

“C-o-o-o-o-v-e-r u-u-u-u-s-s-s-s!” RD yelped out before kicking off the ground like she was in a track sprint. A few bounds were mixed with wing flaps to propel her and Applejack forward at ever increasing speed. They bent around in an arch, spinning and running in a circle as Rainbow Dash approached her top speed.

Applejack was not amused, “-HAAA-A-A-A-A-T-T-T-E-E-E-E T-H-H-H-H-I-I-I-I-S-S-S- I-I-I-I-D-E-E-E-E-A-A-A-A-A-!!!!!”

The group of heroines saw Rainbow Dash speed away, holding onto a yelling Applejack the whole way. Rarity was the first to notice Zephyrus’ eye tracking the Elements of Loyalty and Honesty as they started to gain momentum zooming in a circle around the school, RD having to evidently build up some momentum due to hauling AJ along with herself. Sure enough, the demon opened up one portal to dive in and then lunged out from another, trying to compensate for Rainbow Dash’s speed advantage by warping ahead of her. RD had to tightly grip Applejack to jump and spin aside, dodging a telekinetic slash that cut through the street she’d been standing on. Not focusing on counter attacking, Rainbow hit the ground running again to try and build up momentum. Seeing this, Rarity caught Applejack’s left-behind hat as it swayed through the air heading back to terra firma, and plopped it onto her own head.

“You heard her, come on ladies!” Rarity yelled out as she ran forward with the rest jogging to keep up, save one.

Fluttershy, managing to hover in the air, flew by Rarity, “How are we supposed to catch up to them?”

“We don’t have to! We just need to slow them down!” Generosity said to Kindness whilst pointing at Frostbite Sparkle and the portal they dove into, “They put all these nasty things here, so it’s about time we used them!”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Fluttershy winced, “I thought our magic worked best together, wouldn’t that risk splitting us up?”

Adagio Dazzle sprinted along next to them whilst pointing across the school to their other ace in the hole, “Yeah, and Zephyrus isn’t the only one with a finger on the pulse for the portals anymore! We just gotta keep them off your friends so they can bust that stone. We break that, and their control over both X and the other Twilight will be damaged.”

The group barreled towards Celestia with intent and a plan.

========

Zephyrus sneered, emerging out of a portal to again try and strike at the speedster. Their aim had been improving and while they lacked the ability to stop time briefly anymore, the reinvigoration by Eurus had managed to help steel their powers by suppressing the Element of Magic’s rebellion. The windigo had just begun to take aim when movement to their right caught their focus.

The wave of telekinesis they had loosed out was intercepted by a crystalline formation seemingly materializing directly in front of them. The diamond did not survive the blast, but it did cause the detonation to literally go off in Zephyrus’ face. Reverberating shockwaves blew them backwards and they tumbled into the portal they had just emerged from. Briefly changing into an equine form before falling through another portal being spat back out in the human world, they quickly reoriented away from trying to find out what just happened and focus on the rainbow-colored blur still building up momentum and speed.

Only for a successive series of hardlight forms, plant growth, and a blasting torrent of sound to bombard them from every angle. Panic, for whatever they could feel it, surged through Zephyrus’ mind as they cut and gashed into the dimensional barrier more and more. Every time they rushed through one portal to try and flank, a counterattack soon followed. The brats were on the demon within moments and Frostbite Sparkle’s advance was completely halted.

One cut portal into the air for use as a hasty escape route soon gave a reason as to why.

When Zephyrus had cut that portal, the spacial split had previously connected two adjacent patches of Equestrian airspace at a random point in high-altitude, to two opposite ends of the schoolyard. It had been a bid to cover more ground, to try and get at Rainbow and Applejack when the former ran another lap at her ever-increasing pace.

Only when Zephyrus dived back through it, he wasn’t spat back into empty skies, but briefly was sent rushing through a tract of forest. A dumbstruck Moonbeam Glimmer understandably bid a hasty backpedal when what looked like a demonic version of Princess Twilight Sparkle briefly appeared in front of her out from one hole in space before diving into another not far ahead.

Another attempted attack was thwarted when Zephyrus found themselves flying headlong into a waiting Gaea Everfree’s onslaught. A tight roll with their wings and sharpened waves of telekinesis just barely saved them from follow-up attacks after a tendril grabbed them by the leg and smashed them against the side of the gymnasium.

-How was she there?! She wasn’t at the other end of the portal before?!-

It was baffling once when Zephyrus had it happen once. It was doubly so when another excursion resulted in a face full of siren magic upon diving through one portal, only to pop up directly in front of Adagio. Thrice when another attack was thwarted by Fluttershy releasing a horde upon the windigo’s arrival. Then the damned diamonds again.

-What is this?!-

Zephyrus braced after getting knocked back once again. This time when they went fumbling out into Equestria, the portal seemingly slammed shut behind them. The forest, some random place in the old continent, was immaculately quiet. That silence was shattered when the typically collected windigo shrieked in inarticulate rage. Telekinetic waves crushed the ground and tore trees apart into splinters. Their horn cut the air and re-opened a portal back to the schoolyard.

It was just as Zephyrus was emerging from their jaunt that the portal started to close again. It shrank, considerably by the millisecond, and had Zephyrus been just a hair slower it would have either closed on top of them or snapped shut in front of them. At this rate, this was far from coincidence, and he knew it.

-Someone is doing this!-

Spite surged and they manually assumed control of the portal, redirecting its location to the faint traces of magic they could perceive affecting the gateway. Princess Celestia, smirking in her human expression, greeted them in sight before her eyes glimmered with magic. Even lacking the Element of Magic’s crystal, her connection to it all the same was enough for one of the most powerful sorcerers that ever lived. The very same crystal started to glimmer and spark, fighting against Eurus’ curse to try and keep it suppressed, whilst Zephyrus flew towards one of two potential bearers.

In that brief instant, perhaps more than near any time before, fear overpowered the windigo’s spite. The scream they let out almost resembled words as Celestia reached forward towards the oncoming dark bastardization of her faithful student, poised for their neck and the power they held captive. Still barreling at her, it was Zephyrus’ frantic use of magic that changed the portal location this time.

They were spat out in a random point outside of the school grounds, tumbling end over end across the street. Skidding to a stop over the pavement, Zephyrus shook all over with widened eyes. Panting breaths he typically didn’t need were puffed between gritted teeth. The icy talons upon their hands clenched downwards into the asphalt, digging into the road and crushing it into their palms in some bid to anchor themselves. A clenched fist was beaten into the road in a show of frustration.

Telekinesis fractured the pavement all around them up and down the street, snapping a power pole in two and blowing down a wall to an outlet store. Staggering back to their feet with spread wings, Frostbite Sparkle glared at the schoolyard. Several portals they had created, leading to random points in Equestria for which to later spread the storm, reoriented to face them. Brief glimpses of a prancing brilliance in the shape of a unicorn sprang out from another; and a trotting earth pony stepped through another accompanied by viridian forest growth. Seawater billowed out of a forth, and the illuminated silhouette of a marine siren quickly morphed into a young woman as Adagio joined up with Rarity and Gaea in standing between Zephyrus and their prey.

The absence of Fluttershy was noticed and Zephyrus glared in the direction of a bellowing thunder.

Hands still on a portal a long distance away, Princess Celestia smirked after having orchestrated this. Pulling that off with so many portals so quickly was beyond taxing, it was hard to keep standing. But Twilight wasn’t the only quick study. And if they were to have limited magic working here, she’d just have to turn Zephyrus’ own asset against them.

And just in time too. Atop Anguirus' head, having been deposited there by a repurposed portal, Fluttershy had just gotten done explaining the situation to the ankylosaur kaiju. Being an omniglot able to talk to all types of creatures had its applications. The original plan had been to ram the stone against the back of his heel, but extra assurance always helped. And Rainbow Dash was quick on the uptake as soon as she saw Anguirus turn around towards the school.

The Kaiju lowered down and tilted sideways, pointing the hard span of his reinforced shell forwards at ground level. The rainbow hued surge that was RD and AJ sped up higher and higher still, until it finally reached a key point, a climax of speed and magic only one other in modern magic had achieved: Rainbow's other self.

The explosion of multicolored magic burst from the track as the human world's first ever sonic rainboom shocked the land and skies. Rainbow Dash sprinted and flew forward, barreling at Anguirus who had noticed and quickly dug himself further into the ground to brace. It was a good choice too. In another world, another possibility, it took a concentrated blast from all seven Elements to destroy the Memory Stone. Here? The contact of about half the Elements with Applejack holding onto it, Rainbow holding onto Applejack, Rarity’s gem wedged into the stone, and Fluttershy holding onto Anguirus, added magical contribution from Anguirus’ mana charged body, prior damage to the stone with more Elements around; and sheer kinetic force did the job.

Applejack, throwing her full strength into it and going at supersonic speed, smashed the stone upon the flat of Anguirus’ shell. It was a good thing she’d gotten that training on enhancing her physicality and durability, as the Memory Stone all but exploded in her hands when Rarity’s crystal broke through it.

Rainbow Dash abruptly changed direction to avoid crashing into Anguirus, diverting their path into a spare portal in a bid to stretch out their descent and slow themselves down. They wound up popping out as a screaming pegasus and earth pony mare in the very same patch of woods Zephyrus initially tried to ditch them in. A familiar purple alicorn was still present, standing in a rune of glowing indigo magic modified from a spell Lea had taught her.

“HI-TWILIGHT!” Rainbow Dash yelped as she went zooming by the glade, flying into another portal, only to get spat out into the glade again at another angle via another portal.

“STONE’S BROKE!” she yelped out before repeating the process, slowing herself down marginally each pass, “WHAT’S THE- PLAN- NOW?!”

Upon the next pass through, Princess Twilight managed to spare some magic to grab the two with some telekinesis, swinging them around to gradually match and then slow down their momentum, before depositing them on the ground.

“Phew! Thanks Twi’!” Applejack huffed, still standing on her hindlegs despite being a pony as she reached up for her hat out of muscle memory, only to realize she’d left it behind in their haste and shot a brief glance at a sheepish Rainbow Dash, “So what’s with the magic chalk painting?”

Applejack tapped her hoof on the ground near the rune, careful and perhaps a bit apprehensive about directly stepping on it.

“Zephyrus tried to deny me my magic’s contribution by putting me somewhere else. And while I may not have the Element of Magic’s talisman on me at this very moment, I’m still a bearer and have some of that magic in me already,” Twilight explained with a smirk, “I’m magnifying it and going to put it to use. If that frost demon thinks I’m out and the team is down because I lost a special rock, he’s got another thing coming!”

“OOohoho! I like the way you think! That jerk never had you licked to begin with!” Rainbow Dash sniggered, “So, Egghead, what’s step 2 looking like now?”

Twilight deadpanned briefly and snorted before looking up at the portal which the human form of her mentor stood holding open, “We need to all form up and target a windigo. Soon as a siren has them vulnerable, we blast them by rerouting that portal to one right in front of them. That still do-able… Peachy Keen?”

She looked up to see Princess Celestia roll her eyes but nod nonetheless.

“Great!” Twilight beamed, “So! How’s the fight going?”

“Well, that one inside that big skeleton guy might be the easiest to target if we all gotta be facing or near them,” Applejack said with a gulp and flattening of her ears on instinct.

Twilight perked her brow, “Why’s that?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged with her raised forearms, “Because last we saw her, Sunset was hanging onto his face so the magical-pew-pew would go right at him.”

Both Princess Celestia and Princess Twilight went wide-eyed.

“SHE’S WHAT?!”

=======

Zephyrus saw the magenta-hued surge coming at them and knew what it was. The memories and in many ways sense of self of Twilight Sparkle, the native one whose body he was piloting at the moment. A large chunk of her soul itself in a way, flying at him.

If that joined to his body, Twilight's consciousness he'd been keeping all but brain dead and comatose in the perfect conditions to pilot her frame, would risk waking up. If she awakened and fought back, it could risk a repeat of what happened to Notus. Zephyrus was far stronger at base than the slain Southern Wind, but the Element of Magic had and still was burning him from the inside out. And he'd also seen what siren magic could do to the equation when he absorbed the remnants of his stained brethren.

Boreas' daughter had managed to wrench Notus out of that human he'd been occupying once the latter woke up and fought back. Zephyrus practically experienced it himself when what was left of Notus echoed out to him and Boreas. Whatever it was in that blasted song the sirens knew, when applied to light magic, made them much more vulnerable to the Elements' exposure.

All the protective measures Zephyrus had taken to avoid the one thing that could actually meaningfully hurt him risked being completely upended if Twilight woke up and a siren used the right melody. A direct blast by the Goddess’ magic in the form of the Elements would destroy them no matter what, but outside of a body and soul to hide behind it would be near instant demise instead of damaging.

Zephyrus fled. Frostbite Sparkle slashed a portal into the air behind them and dove into it, closing it upon their exit just as Twilight Sparkle’s memories and self nearly caught up to them. The violet magic sparked and hovered in midair, before re-locking onto their body. Like a homing missile, it continued to chase down the windigo in a bid to rejoin with their rightful body and mind.

Held in place by several kaiju, Boreas couldn’t dodge when what remained of Monster X’s mind surged into them. Aspects of 094’s mind already woken up by Aria, Junior, and Sunset’s efforts, the memories became a force of consciousness instead of the unconscious. Their body sparked and glimmered. Memories, sights, sounds, and feelings fully rejoined themselves together. Praetorian Guard 094’s spirit was revived and Boreas’ control faltered. The windigo-possessed kaiju thrashed and jerked uncontrollably, halting all attempts to effectively fight back.

==============

Watching the battle inside and out from a distance, Rarity spied the forms of Applejack and Rainbow Dash hop out of the portal to Equestria that Princess Celestia was still holding open; with Fluttershy flying over from being previously atop Anguirus. Sensing where they’d be needed and having spotted Zephyrus disappear into a portal, chased by the human Twilight’s memories, they quickly had made their way over towards the former alicorn.

“Gather around, my little humans,” Celestia said with a nod as she double checked the portal to ensure the gateway was still open for Princess Twilight to fire through, “I don’t like the thought of Sunset having to hang on to a kaiju any longer than necessary, even if he has rejoined the battle in our ranks.”

“Alright! Time to light him up ladies!” Applejack chimed with a smirk as she grabbed onto her igniting Element and started to focus.

Several likewise brilliant radiances grew from her compatriots. Each Bearer two halves to a whole, the embodied Element and the physical crystal to help focus and magnify that power. Honesty, Loyalty, Generosity, Kindness, Empathy in the case of the distant Sunset; and even if she lacked a talisman, Twilight being back in Equestria and focusing everything she had into the spellwork kept Magic in the equation. Even with Laughter still missing, the power was palpable in the air so long as it stayed together.

Lined up perfectly like arranging a billiards shot, with Twilight biting her tongue slightly as she focused her magic towards her friends and at Monster X far in the distance with Sunset directly behind him.

The magic was almost let loose right before she glimpsed a second violet glimmer indicative of her element, and the view of the portal she intended to fire through abruptly changed to a deep void. Eastern galeforce winds with biting cold started billowing into the forest, flash-freezing foliage and forcing Princess Twilight to throw up a magical shield to keep her grounding.

Something had ruptured the connection between her and the human world’s portal. Someone had changed the destination to Eurus’ realm.

Back in the human world, Frostbite Sparkle smirked as she finished her flyby, having extended their magic to redirect the portal’s location. Zephyrus didn’t know their full plan, but he recognized they had one. One that relied on that portal being where it was supposed to be with the group having gathered there.

They winced as the Element of Magic, so close to its rightful owner, sparked and shocked them; briefly locking up their body. Just in time for a geyser of song magic to smash into them and send the windigo reeling. Vine work soon burst from the ground and seized one of their wings, trying to pin the demon to the pavement. Had Gaea a moment longer before the Eastern Winds came crashing out of the portal behind her, she might have been able to seize and restrain Frostbite long enough for Rainbow Dash or Applejack to finish the job after Adagio shot them out of the sky.

That moment of freedom however was enough for the injured Frostbite to hastily cut another portal into the air and dive through it to safety.

Princess Celestia grabbed back onto the portal, withstanding the horrific gales spilling out of it and trying to reach into her mind once more. The force behind it, the fourth windigo, knew what she was; perhaps even more than Celestia herself knew. They were closing in, rapidly. It was a battle between her magic and their very presence to try and force the portal back to Equestria and away from the damned realm the demon was trying to emerge from. The tear in space oscillated back and forth between a bewildered Twilight Sparkle and the distant lights in the void that amounted to Eurus’ eyes.

“He-He is trying to- emerge!” Celestia cried out as she fought back against the dark magic conducting into her body whilst grasping the portal.

“What can we do?!” Fluttershy yelped, recovering from a fall the wind had knocked her into and coming up beside the former alicorn as Rarity came along on the other side.

Celestia quickly ran through her massive backlog of experience for an answer. Godzilla had once trumpeted her as the greatest magic teacher in all of history, a title she still personally thought belonged to Starswirl.

She winced as ice started to form rapidly across one of her arms. Celestia winced and grit her teeth, concentrating as hard as she could to bear through the pain.

-Damn it, you are not affecting me! This is no time for self doubt!-

Flickers of magic sparked across her form, coalescing in three vacant slots for Elements around her neck. She had resummoned some of her strength and the aspects of heroism that made her worthy of those powers yet remained, but in this human body without time to adapt or the means to bring forth that full potential; she was working with a fraction of her full capacity. And this blast of dark magic was easily magnitudes more powerful than the first she'd fended off before transforming Godzilla.

The Eastern winds howled, warbling almost like laughter. Failure, biting, bitter failure was all that those who bore the impact of those gales could feel; not just Celestia. Eurus was reminding his foe of that, privy to the vacant three spots on her neck for the Elements of Magic, Laughter, and Kindness. An enforced narrative she was no longer worthy of any of them, much less using the other ones again.

The windigo soon got a glare of a gaze cast back at it. Princess Celestia’s grip on the portal was renewed, tightly clutching its edges to not only keep it open but withstand its onslaught. The former solar alicorn gathered herself onto her feet and tightened herself down, sneering as she managed to keep her footing even against the intensifying winds. Flickers of that climactic battle with Nightmare Moon were omnipresent in her mind, Eurus’ glare shifting back and forth in place of her vision with a lunging dark alicorn. The six objects of her dread had been swirling around her then when she had to use the Elements solo, and now the bearers were having to bear the brunt of the worst calamity of evil she'd yet met.

But whilst six elements weren’t here now, she’d had 1,000 years to learn how to improvise.

“BEARERS!” A Royal Canterlot Voice cried out, so loud even Sunset Shimmer heard it, “I NEED THEE!”

And, they, resummoning already returning courage, came. Applejack held onto Celestia’s left arm, helping keep the princess from crumbling to the ground. Rainbow Dash was soon on the other side. Rarity got behind her, pushing against her shoulder whilst bracing against Applejack. Beating her wings against the gale forces, Fluttershy helped keep the winds from yanking Celestia’s head backwards with a hand on it and arm around her middle.

Celestia could feel their magic. Bearing any of them had been a time fargone, but sharing them was slightly older. But if the magic conducted into her was a reminder of anything, especially with the hands of those Bearers offering their support, it was how things had changed. Six normal ponies for two alicorns. It was something she herself had once hoped for when it became clear Nightmare Moon would return. It was why she’d sent Twilight to Ponyville in the first place. Why she’d been relieved that this power was to be shared. And why’d she’d been so happy to see her other student, once former and now again current, take up a mantle of her own and to help train these same heroines.

Bearing all of that alone was scary, even for her. But, there was something magic about bonds like friendship to split a load.

Eurus’ ploy would have no power over her nor them, he would not disrupt the plans.

Princess Celestia’s eyes ignited with white magic as multiple Elements conducted through her body for the first time in over 1,000 years. Eurus was mighty, near impossibly so. But now, he was having a fight. The portal started to shift back and forth, caught in a tug-of-war to go back to Equestria or remain in the void.

=========

Frostbite Sparkle, emerging from another portal across the school grounds, stilled as they sensed what was happening. The portal shift they’d started was already beginning to change back! Whirling around with a shriek that resembled the word ‘NO!’ in as much fear as it sounded of rage, Zephyrus didn’t even have time to attack before another blast of song magic smashed into them and sent windigo’s host body flying through a surviving storefront.

“They got their fight, keep the bastard off them!” Adagio Dazzle, eyes still a radiant hue of borrowed magic, called out over the storm. She and Zephyrus locked eyes in a glare, until the former suddenly changed.

Her eyes went wide, as if in shock briefly, before shifting into a smirk. Gaea likewise seemed lightened at something seen.

Zephyrus paused briefly, not knowing why the change happened. He didn't see what the two seemed to have noticed, because by the time they looked back to follow the siren's and nymph's line of sight, nothing was there. Instead his focus was quickly pulled back by the violet hued glow flying forward from behind the two heroines. The human Twilight Sparkle's memories, much of her sense of self, was rushing forward. Frostbite Sparkle as a whole existed thanks to their absence. If rejoined together, as the memories automatically sought to do now that they'd been freed, Zephyrus’ control would be starkly upset.

So focused was he on the oncoming violet hue that the windigo failed to notice the red flash glimpsed across the corner of their vision until it was almost too late. A blade extended fourth from a flexed wrist, spearing forwards and cutting across Frostbite Sparkle’s cheek. It was telling of the extreme nature of the dark magic corruption that blood did not seep free in large quantities from the slashed cheek, instead freezing over almost instantly to seal the wound shut. Zephyrus had reflexively ducked to the side and avoided some of the initial contact, but not the full impact of someone having carried momentum built up across his fast travel to rejoin the battle, tackling into their back.

The windigo-infested and their assailant tumbled out of the air and crashed into the ground in a tangle. In the heap and tussle, Zephyrus managed to grab the two hands poised for their face by the wrist, just barely keeping the edge of a scythe from their throat. Lacking their original sunglasses, mechanical eyes they last saw effectively dead and entirely robotic, free of emotion, glared back at them.

“YOU AGAIN!? YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD!” Zephyrus shrieked.

"Didn't stick," a fully-repaired Gigan only smirked as those camera-like optics glowed red.

A telekinetic blast blew Gigan off of the windigo with a wave of force, but couldn’t stop his optic blasts from launching free. Zephyrus attempted to dodge by opening up a portal directly underneath himself and falling through it, but the particle beam of energy pursued through the dimensional tear and scattered like a shotgun blast. Zephyrus came flying out from a portal not far away, recoiling back and smoking from the scatter shots exploding against their body.

They glared at their now three-pronged opposition as Gigan was caught and held up by Adagio and Gaea catching him by either arm, but had no time to fight back. A combination of stabbing tendrils, concussive song magic, and a follow-up optic blast chased them through another portal; with Twilight’s displaced memories doggedly in pursuit as well.

The echoes of the kaiju brawl, the confrontation at the portal, and Zephyrus having to frantically dodge alternating salvos of their attacks were all that Adagio, Gigan, and Gaea could hear or focus on for a time. It seemed like a solid minute later that they finally managed to exchange a bit of banter between taking pot shots at the rapidly dodging Zephyrus.

“How are you in one piece again?!” Adagio barked after blasting her sire through the building of what used to be the Arcade with a magic blast.

“So you do care? Long story, let’s kill your sire first-” Gigan snarked, casual in the face of the mayhem around them before perking up, “One moment-“

He vanished in a burst of red light, reappearing behind Zephyrus who promptly screamed inarticulately upon seeing the metallic menace back in front of him. Whatever kind of swearing or cursing he was spouting in an archaic tongue; it and his dodging of Gigan’s lunging slash took his focus off his surroundings for a brief moment and allowed a threat of the vines to grasp onto their leg. Gaea Everfree grinned and clenched a fist, squeezing down on the foot and swinging Frostbite Sparkle off her bearings and into the oncoming ethereal mass composing Twilight’s memories.

They would have made contact had Zephyrus not slashed the air and opened up a portal right in front of them, causing the memories to fly into the portal and exit out another. Still, there was some satisfaction in Gaea getting the chance to smash the windigo into the pavement twice before they got free. Gigan teleported back to his company and smashed a palm to his face.

“Damn it! Thought we had them there! What is that stuff anyways? I saw them running from it whilst closing in and knew it had to be something important.”

“The human Twilight’s memories. The Bearers managed to smash the stone holding hers and X’s stolen parts,” Gaea Everfree chimed in, still commanding ever growing amounts of flora to attack the dodging Zephyrus like she was operating a claw machine.

"Zephyrus could barely handle Aria going all out, let alone us now or the Bearers," Adagio yelled out as she tried to focus on the rapidly warping Zephyrus who seemed to intentionally opening up as many portals as possible to fast-travel around the town, "We have more than enough power to take them out now, but they'd stopped fighting and started just dodging. We're keeping them off the Bearers to do their thing just fine but..."

Adagio paused to release a burst of sound magic at the windigo, only to hit a portal instead and see her attack go flying out down the street instead.

"But?" Gigan raised his eyebrow.

"I really want to see him gone. Optimally without damage to Sonata's necklace or the idiot wearing it," Adagio huffed.

"I can see that, no complaints from me. I can also see there's been some changes with you two," Gigan chuckled after glancing at both of them.

Adagio and Gaea became away they'd been still holding hands this whole time. The siren stayed focused on trying to tag her sire with a magic salvo as the nymph turned red and stammered, “Oh er-yeah we got a lot to talk about later when we get through this! Ehehe... I kinda kissed Adagio earlier.”

Gigan sparked slightly but didn’t frown, casually shooting at the frantic windigo as well, “Oh, it’s okay! I did too- or would it count as her doing it to me given I was half collapsed at the time?”

“Look, I’m a romantic at heart and I’m gonna do it to both of you lovefish after we get through this!” Adagio Dazzle yelled as she lightly bopped both of them on the heads, “But my emotions are really running high at the moment! So, let’s kill this bastard ourselves first, and then I can sort through them all to decide whatever this is between us!”

Gaea and Gigan glanced at each other before the wood nymph and alien cyborg both gave Adagio a thumbs up and grin, “OKAY!”

The sea witch in human form, born of a mermare princess and a frost demon, was really beginning to wonder when it was that her life got so damn weird.

==========

Back at the clash of giants as the kaiju grappled to hold Boreas’ possessed body of X still, another siren finally saw her opening. She had started this revival, and the Bearers had done their part in getting the stone broken if that explosion was anything to go by. But her lover was a fractured soul and there was one last piece to the puzzle. One that glimmered in her golden hues.

-”Ready?!”- Aria Blaze called out mentally to her compatriots, receiving affirmation in turn.

She stopped the now rapid-fire-blocking-sparring exercise and jumped up. Sunset Shimmer tightly grabbed onto the siren in a piggyback, shutting her eyes and holding fast to her cohort just as Aria jumped upwards. Contact broken, Godzilla resumed full control of his body and lunged forward. With no room to dodge, Boreas was grabbed onto even as he now bore the full brunt of an ensuing gale force and scream by Boreas.

Godzilla powered through the dark magic festering over his body as he lurched at his foe. Thankfully the distance was not too far and he was tall enough to clear the deafening, air blast of a scream coming from Boreas’ maw. Junior’s jaws opened and he himself exhaled, more as a gust of air than an outcry. The rush of wind from his lungs was more than sufficient to propel Aria and Sunset through the air and right into Monster X’s face. Boreas’ pale, dead eyes which clouded X’s usual reds, swiveled around and widened at the shape latching onto his brow.

Kaizer Aria and her sire were again face to face, only he was now the one who screamed for their family member to get away. He didn’t get the chance when Godzilla grabbed onto his front, Irys and Battra an arm each, and Anguirus latched onto his legs to bind them. Boreas thrashed and screamed, cursing in dead tongues as Sunset Shimmer’s hand inched closer to his body by the fractions of a millisecond.

Inside the mental realm that was within the possessed kaiju, an otherwise barren expanse of frost and darkness stretching into the horizon with a chained and frozen 094 captive at its core, Boreas’ malefic form felt himself no longer alone. His captive was screaming and yanking at his bonds, breaking several and forcing Boreas to split focus between the fight and rebinding the Xilian soul. They weren’t the only present however, as a voice confirmed that as a burning heat started to melt away the frost in the seemingly blizzard-like hellscape visible all around.

“I told you, Boreas, there were two things you needed to remember. The second biggest mistake you ever made was taking the body of someone I care about….”

Aria Blaze’s voice echoed, a presence but not a sight. Even if he sired her, in this final hour she’d still never call him ‘father’ as to not so much as hint at any tie between them. Boreas’ ghostly form swiveled around to face the invading force.

“The greatest mistake you ever made was making me.”

Boreas sneered but didn’t disagree. While Zephyrus had been the one to suggest the idea of increasing their numbers, Boreas frankly always agreed with the notion the mermare princesses would likely have killed their first ‘attempts’. He should have seen to it himself, with how she was disturbing him. Ignore his new body, the glee he’d gotten tormenting others with her mate’s form, his ego and pride had been wounded, being disturbed like this had canceled out all of that.

He detected her presence within the mindscape, rapidly approaching the chained consciousness of 094, and acted quickly and reflexively. His ghostly visage lunged at the glowing mass of violet appearing in the dark storm. The spectral image resembling a horse tackled the illuminated silhouette resembling a mermare.

"You wretch! You can act bold all you like, but I know you can break just as your mother did!" Boreas hissed, pinning Aria's conscious avatar into the frost to affix her to the frozen wasteland below and make for her crystalline heart, “There is no song to save you here. You will become just like I am.”

A grin split his face despite the outrage, “I’ve been itching to see how much you’ll take after me once you become Borealis!”

Aria was unmoved, only staring back.

"My mother beats you today. You forgot something," the siren smirked whilst gold and black lit up across her avatar and rapidly split off from her consciousness, as a red light started to melt away the frost as it rapidly approached, "I made some friends."

Boreas detected a familiar magic from decades prior. When he fought the first Bearer of the 7th Element, Wisteria, who’d handed him one of his worst defeats alone. Difference was, when Sunset Shimmer's consciousness represented by a fiery unicorn tackled the windigo, she wasn't alone either. Contact with her divine magic burned his malefic form, damaging his very soul or whatever he had that amounted to one.

Boreas was knocked backwards by Sunset's mental avatar smashing into them just in time for the gold and black energy to surge across Aria's form. She spotted the still chained representation of 094's mind, pausing for only the briefest second as she glimpsed an Xilian soldier's face. Until now she'd only seen X's old self only in brief memories of glimpsing a reflection in the periphery of Kaizer Ghidorah's incomplete recollections.

She surged for them just as they jerked their arms against the icy bonds holding them in place. Boreas struggled against Sunset Shimmer's mental avatar, snarling in painful rage as just contact with her consciousness seemed to burn him whilst her Element was active. He saw what his progeny was doing and who she was heading for.

A surge of pure spite and outrage erupted from his maw, perhaps flavored by a degree of shock or fear. Likely it was all facets present. He tried to pry the unicorn off himself, but Sunset was just as tenacious as her forerunner Wysteria. The moment Boreas got free, she was on top of him again, kicking and ramming into him. Aria's avatar changed entirely from violet and teal to a brilliant gold and deep black, only to lose that color as she flew straight into 094 like she left the colors behind.

“NO!” Boreas shrieked, realizing what was about to happen and lunging to stop his daughter’s avatar, only to get bashed into again by the fiery unicorn that represented Sunset Shimmer.

094 called out sharply as the gold and black sparks transferred out of Aria and crisscrossed over to his body. The icy chains and growths holding him down fully began to break and snap, his arms free as his body trembled and crackled. The frozen wastes began to steam and crack, like the very influence Boreas had upon them was rupturing at the seams.

Boreas shrieked in an utterance one couldn’t be sure of being a dead language of demons, or in sheer inarticulate rage. Ironically, if the latter, one could call it a meltdown for the frost demon.

The first attempt at using the Elements on Boreas at Camp Everfree nearly worked, only not succeeding instantly due to how fractured Praetorian 094's spirit was. It couldn't be connected to easily with its mind split into three parts, that within the body, within the necklace, and within Aria. To defeat evil was easy for the Elements, to purge it and work with a good soul required a different touch. But, if another consciousness was put inside the body and rejoined to his splintered portion, and that mind had a close connection to Aria Blaze who was holding onto and linking minds with Sunset Shimmer in the real world…

Attacking Boreas from the outside didn’t work easily. The inside was a different story.

Praetorian 094’s avatar, revitalized in a way not seen before, shattered his bonds. Many a memory flashed across the realm, pushing away the icy storm Boreas had induced to keep the mind in a constant state of misery and defeat to better suppress it. A war cry sounding like three thunderstorms cackled with vengeance and capitalized on the element bearer's success. The three long necks and horned crowns of Kaizer Ghidorah, manifested and towered over the windigo in this mental realm.

Kaizer Ghidorah could absorb souls to a degree, like the late King Ghidorah could. He could attempt that on this demon as he had accidentally absorbed the essence of Controller 011 all those decades ago, but decided against it. That could backfire and could imply some remnant of this horrific thing persisted.

Kaizer Ghidorah didn’t want to devour, only destroy.

Boreas shrieked like a spiteful hurricane, only to be met with an equal outcry of three thunderstorms that fought back to push the demon from his body.

In the outside world, Monster X’s body convulsed and sparked. A brief flicker of Boreas’ true form appeared across it, thrown upwards almost like it was being pushed out from within and fighting to reassert himself.

Glimpsing some of it from the outside, Godzilla couldn’t help but feel no small amount of satisfaction as he held onto Monster X’s body alongside his fellows. He remembered well what he’d done to counteract and fend off an attempt on his life and body by the felled windigo, Notus. These demons sought to use the spite and strife that existed between groups against them, the kaiju as much as if not more so than the Equestrians. Their war had spilled onto this world, in one way or another, and he and his companions were going to fight tooth and claw to rectify that.

Not like they’d be fighting alone either. His eye spotted the glimmering lights building up in the portals behind Monster X’s body as Celestia had finished rerouting several of them.

More and more of the portals that lead to the darker void spewed out torrents of cold-laden wind billowing in an eastern gale. The dark magic of Eurus surged into the region to plunge the temperatures, gnawing at the heroes and trying to invigorate the other windigos. But even as ice formed across all of the kaiju and beat against the magical auras of those blessed by Harmony, it was impossible to stop what had been set in motion.

He was still rusty with magic, but he knew the essence of solar power when he detected it. And those dark portals to Eurus’ realm weren’t staying that way.

Godzilla smirked toothily, weathering the storm for all its blowhard attempts to fell him and the others.

==========

Song magic blasted across Zephyrus and forced them backwards, reversing their momentum entirely and blowing them backwards right into a wall of woody fibers that burst from the ground. With their escape cut off in several directions in one wing snagged in by a vine that would hold them for just a moment, Gaea Everfree flashed the rapid series of red flashes behind her a thumbs up.

Gigan appeared in a burst of red light dozens of meters above the ground, plummeting down to the ground only to warp himself up again. Having built up a high velocity by essentially falling constantly, the cyborg nonetheless caught a glimpse of the signal and acted on it. Whilst it wasn’t perfect compared to him trying the same move against King Ghidorah, requiring Gaea and Adagio to pin the windigo down briefly to compensate for lack of controlled flight, the jerry-rigging was their best bet. Hurling himself out of another warp, just as much falling horizontally as it was a pitch, Gigan burst into existence right in front of the surprised and shrieking Zephyrus. The windigo let loose a telekinetic wave to counter the oncoming cyborg, but it wasn’t enough to stop them with how fast Gigan was going.

The impact carried a physical reverberation that recoiled into both of them when Gigan slammed into Frostbite Sparkle. Had Twilight not a magically boosted constitution, it likely would have shattered bones given even Gigan felt his joints strain. It sent both cyborg and windigo hurtling backwards, blasting through the woody barrier Gaea tried to maintain. As they hurtled through the air in a chaotic spiral, Gigan retracted his blade and attempted to grab at either of the two necklaces still situated around their neck or embedded in the collar.

He glimpsed the Element of Magic flickering as Sonata’s stolen siren heart pulsed with an unnatural, eerie blue light.

The snapping recoil of his hand getting blasted backwards by a siren barrier blew him off Frostbite Sparkle like a batted pinball. Thrown backwards violently, Gigan would have slammed into the concrete side of the school’s surviving tower had a wall of moving air propelled by song magic going the opposite direction not slowed him down. It was enough for several vines to snap upwards. They matched his speed, grabbed on, and carried his momentum in a swooping path that slowed him back down enough to redirect towards the ground; both Adagio and Gaea catching the sparking cyborg by an arm each.

“You okay?!” Gaea Everfree yelped as she helped Gigan back up to his footing.

“Heh,” Gigan, sparking in several spots as he put a palm to his forehead, “Only messed up enough that I’m not grossed out by these anymore.”

He picked at one of the floral tendrils as Adagio lightly bopped him upside the head.

“It wasn’t a bad plan, but that should have worked,” Adagio frowned as she looked up at Frostbite Sparkle, who’d gotten back up after being blown down the street and being forced to retreat into another portal to avoid the dogged pursuit of Twilight’s memories, “You got my necklace back and Applejack got at them earlier too.”

“Best guess? Siren hearts can only be removed by the owner, someone related, or with permission. I got a shot because Zephyrus was holding onto your necklace and you obviously wanted me to get it back,” Gigan groaned, working a kink out of his back from the last stunt, “Something weird going on there, it was like the Element and the Heart were reacting off each other. Maybe it’s got to be a Bearer or Siren to remove it?..."

He paused, privy to how deeply he was verbally brainstorming, "What?! It's my best guess. Damn magic never makes sense to me.”

Gaea and Adagio frowned and glanced at each other as well as took light of where the Bearers were.

“The girls are tied up at the moment,” Adagio muttered, “The Siren Heart might let me through, I am Sonata’s sister.”

“And I got magic similar to a Bearer,” Gaea added on as she tightened a grip on the siren, “If I’m with you…”

“Problem? Kinetic energy hates us all,” Gigan groaned, cracking his wrist and mechanically flexing at his robotic fingers, “I just got fixed up, and I still feel like I almost blew my own arm off trying that stunt going near terminal velocity.”

“Then we’ll have to go slower,” Adagio countered, “Throw us at them with a sudden warp and get us on them!”

“They managed to still tag me despite how fast I was going! It would be like throwing you out of a speeding car, right into another one!” Gigan gasped as his head snapped around towards the siren, “I’m not about to do that if we can figure out something else!”

“Let me do this damnit!” Adagio yelled as she grabbed him by the collar, “I’m not going to let you bust yourself into pieces twice for me!”

“And I’m not letting you get pancaked because of my bad plan!” Gigan called back, a hand clasping hers.

“Hey-ey-ey-ey!” Gaea got between them both, simultaneously pushing them apart slightly whilst getting an arm and several tendrils around each, “I know love makes us all crazy, but I don’t think any of us are crazy about one of us getting hospitalized or worse for the others! So, let’s simmer down and think of another plan.”

“Oh yes,” Zephyrus interjected as they half emerged from another portal not too far away, “Please do.”

Adagio glared at her sire wearing the skin similar to someone who had become her unexpected friend. She knew nothing of this world’s Twilight, but frankly she didn’t mind adding ‘defaming the first alicorn Adagio had come to like’ to the list on the spirit of it to Eventide’s credit alone.

“Running scared of a little girl’s memories now?” The siren snorted as Twilight’s memories re-oriented and started rapidly closing in on Zephyrus, who was keeping an eye on them even whilst maintaining that glare on the group.

“... You know, you’re not the only one to think on the fly, spawn of mine,” Frostbite Sparkle growled as they started back into the portal, “Your reaction to those two runs from hyperbolic to calming… but I think I can show them the real you.”

They disappeared into the portal, closing it behind themselves again.

“That’s ominous,” Gigan grunted, flicking a blade out of one wrist and readying his cables, “I really hate it when these types start getting ideas.”

“He is focused on me,” Adagio frowned, “He thinks he can turn me into what he is, I know it.. Maybe if I separate and draw him in.”

“Uh uh, bad plan!” Gigan snapped, “Not when we don’t know what he’s about to pull!”

Adagio held his other hand and snapped her head around to him, “Well I don’t see us having any other options! We can beat them down easily now after the pummeling the Bearers gave him, but we can’t tag him with him jumping around everywhere!”

“Wait!” Gaea Everfree called out over both of them as she got between her cohorts, “... Where did he go?”

The three stopped to look around themselves, taking light of how Zephyrus hadn’t reappeared. Unconsciously, they shifted to put their backs together and cover all angles and make ready.

“They’re not rushing the Bearers again,” Adagio muttered as she glanced over at their own battle.

“Not interfering with the kaiju,” Gigan said in the same quiet tone as he looked towards the harbor and prayed for that battle’s result.

Gaea Everfree was about to report in her own sight before her companions felt her freeze up suddenly.

“GET BACK!”

She cried out, to the siren and cyborg’s mutual surprise, just as she yanked them both aside in opposite directions just as her footing left terra firma. A portal had opened up directly beneath Gaea Everfree, one leading the Eurus’ dark void she quickly found herself falling into.

================

The mental battle between an incomplete Praetorian 094 or Monster X against the windigo was previously ongoing in a back and forth that favored the former thanks to outside influences. Now? It wasn’t even much of a fight at all. Boreas was powerful, but getting weakened by Sunset’s presence and attacked from all angles by Aria and X’s combined mental assault; he was getting thrashed even whilst trying to hang on.

Memories fully rejoined, a mind reconstituted in full, Boreas felt the surge of consciousness and power blasting into his already damaged form. He was mighty, he was powerful, more so than Notus; but he had his limits. Between the repeated run-ins with Element Bearers hitting him with the only magic he was actually vulnerable to, the mental clash with a daughter who just might surpass him in some ways; and now having to fight the near indomitable will of a kaiju who had every reason to oppose him in every which way; it was simply too much.

The windigo shrieked, violently being shoved out of the roaring body of Monster X. His horrific true form was briefly visible above X’s body, larger in size despite his gaunt appearance. The North Wind clung to the Xilian dragon knight’s body by a single thread, his spectral form overlaying the giant’s hand. In a bid of pure desperation, Boreas half clawed his way back inside Monster X’s body to assume a last gasp of control over a single part.

Monster X’s gigantic hand reached up outside of his own will and closed down on the two heroines hanging onto his face. Only in a brief window of action did Aria Blaze have the time to shove Sunset Shimmer into a small crevice of X’s helmet, the Element of Empathy falling against the kaijin’s eyelid as she was pulled away on a clawed finger. Clinging to the digit, the siren was greeted to the dichotomous sight of her beloved’s face bearing two expressions. On one side of the face, the alarmed and fearful gaze of X; and the other being the twisted grin of her sire. Boreas briefly manifested his visage across half of X’s face, even as he was being pushed further and further against and losing control.

Aria Blaze called out in alarm as she, no longer Kaizer Aria, dangled from the claw with the ground so far below. And closing in fast, the hand around the clawed thumb started to contract inwards as Boreas cried out in glee.

“I JUST THOUGHT TO TRY SOMETHING! IF YOU ARE ANYTHING LIKE ME, YOUR WINDIGO SELF WOULD SURVIVE ME TEARING YOU FREE OF THAT DAMNED NECKLACE!” Boreas grinned manically, “ZEPHYRUS CAN’T HAVE ALL THE IDEAS! THIS BODY WAS THE PROBLEM THE WHOLE TIME! I SHOULD HAVE JUST KILLED YOU LIKE YOUR MOTHER SHOULD HAVE WHEN YOU WERE BORN!”

The cold wind emanating from him carried the sting of Aria’s most painful nightmares. Not of threats met like Enjin or horrors like her sire, but of the misery she caused her own mother by merit of existence. The pessimism would speak of how she was a constant reminder of what this monstrosity put her mother, Hymnia, through. That she as an individual or the type of being she was, should never have existed.

Boreas forced the fist around his daughter to begin to close and Sunset Shimmer screamed out Aria’s name, only to be shouted out by X’s roar. But in the brief moment the alien kaijin’s eyes locked with that of an enemy, an understanding was made. There was a gnash of bloody flesh.

Boreas sneered when the hand refused to close fully, and looked at the source. Godzilla, who’d been trying to restrain X’s body, had lunged forward and chomped down on Monster X’s forearm. He cracked a tooth or two in the process of biting down on the bony armor covering the limb, but his biting pressure was more than sufficient to sink the fangs into the muscle and squeeze with everything he had. The jolt of pain and constriction helped to jar X’s arm, keeping the muscles controlling the hand from fully constricting. In tandem with the yellow glow of gravitons controlled by Monster X willfully shoving against his arm, the fist could not close.

Even if Boreas just barely had enough strength to control but a single limb, nothing said that limb couldn’t be acted upon by the outside to keep them from moving. And soon enough, Boreas didn’t even have control over that single arm. Aria Blaze pulled herself up, having been still dangling from the claw before climbing onto X’s thumb. She at last could face her sire, for the last time.

================

“GLORIOSA!” “GLORIOSA!”

The mutual shouts snapped her eyes back open.

Everything happened so fast and without thought. The void was near beyond description when she’d fallen into it, seemingly infinite and without detail. All save for what wasn’t supposed to be there. Dozens upon dozens, if not thousands of portals. Some showed places familiar in the human realm, others completely foreign.

-”Mako Island…”-

The voice of Adagio Dazzle, dumbstruck as it was terrified, was inside Gaea Everfree’s head, as she focused upon a set of portals showing what looked like an atoll island and coral reefs. Sights that, as impossible as it seemed, looked like they were freezing underwater.

-”I’m sorry!”- Gigan seemed to shout, but not with words, rather in thought.

-”Don’t- I-I have her!”- Adagio Dazzle pleaded back in echoes across Gloriosa’s mind.

Something warm dropped onto her face and Gaea Everfree became aware of how she was dangling in the air, suspended by one of her arms being held upwards. Looking upwards just as a blot of red touched her cheek, she gazed up at the visage above her.

Adagio Dazzle, having jumped into the portal the moment Gloriosa fell into it, was tightly clutching her arm as a tear ran down her face. Her other arm, stuck upwards, was tightly wrapped in cables that had been fired out on impulse without enough time to aim. One hook was dangling off into the void near the siren, the other was partially buried in the forearm it was tightly bound around. Gigan, on the other side with his feet braced against the edges of the portal; was shaking as bursts of magic struck him from behind.

The cyborg almost staggered, the telekinesis hitting with the force of a truck several times more, spurring a gag and gasp. The cyborg crumbled over, having to brace a hand on the edge of the ground to keep from falling over or dropping his line.

-”Hang- on!... Have to.. Pull!”-

They all fought to do so, Zephyrus laying on more strikes. Gigan ran the calculations as best he could. He could try teleporting, but the dark magic laden realm was scrambling almost all of his sensors. He could possibly warp whilst carrying both of them, extremely straining as transporting others could be at the best of times; but there was a good half dozen meters of cable between him and Adagio. Not close enough and with the hook so regretfully lodged in her arm, on top of the dark magic making calculating warps all but impossible… He couldn't save them alone.

-"Try to climb! I'll pull you- ARGH!"-

A mass of rubble was violently thrown into Gigan and crashed into him from behind, half crushing him into the ground under a mound of rubble. Zephyrus was focusing on the one of them that was separated before Twilight’s memories zoomed closer. The windigo leered before slinking back into another portal, one he was careful to close behind himself to buy some extra time before the stubborn magic chased him down again.

They re-emerged in the void from one of the portals, glaring out of Frostbite Sparkle’s eyes as the winds picked up, going West to East.

-”I’m glad you decided to join us here, niece. Your father couldn’t show you your heritage fully in that world…”-

The voice came from all angles at once. Omnipresent and overpowering.

-”Let me show you your father’s history…”-

Eurus’ eyes were upon them, gargantuan beyond measure behind Zephyrus, magnifying the latter's thoughts and voice.

-”I killed two of your mothers…. And you can’t stop us from killing everyone else.”-

Frostbite Sparkle’s wings snapped open as eastern gales roared past them. Horrors from a bygone time assailed everywhere in the void. Zephyrus projecting every foul deed, horrid act, and terrible campaign whilst being bolstered by his counterpart. The horrors and dread of each act especially done upon the life of one of the three, Adagio most of all. The misery fed on the pain felt and turned into an icy cold for all present and beyond.

The freezing gales billowing over them similarly started freezing more and more of the outlets to the portals. Ice began to form across Gaea Everfree’s form and eat away at the cables holding up Adagio. Gigan strained, starting to reel in the cables to try and pull them up, only for his frozen cords to get jammed on the wind-in. And it went without saying the gagging gasps of pain Adagio let out were from the barb stuck in her arm digging in further.

She was mute, but her cry could be felt. Pain that only made the ice grow over them faster.

The pain however, Adagio pushed back against upon feeling Gaea and Gigan both hang on. Her necklace flared with red light as she focused everything she had on it. Her grip on Gaea's hand tightened, as did the other holding and suspended by Gigan's cables. Her arms flexed, either arm trying to reach for her necklace futility for several moments.

-”Gloriosa, take my necklace!”-

It was still surreal for there to be speech without words, and yet they were conveyed all the same. Weathering the storm, Adagio winced through the pains inside and out as Gaea Everfree climbed up to her, grabbing onto Gigan’s cables above the ties around Adagio’s arm. She motioned for them, painful tears flowing from Zephyrus’ storm.

-”No! Ignore that! Get the necklace!”- Adagio cringed, locking eyes with Gloriosa -”I trust you, do it!”-

Removing a siren heart was risky business at the best of times. Removing it in the middle of a dark realm surrounded by the two most powerful windigo in existence would have been suicide in any other situation. But when the necklace tie was yanked back, with no time to work it over Adagio’s hair, it was their only gambit. Gigan the living soul became a machine he’d swore he’d never be today, Gloriosa seized upon a power that used to scare her and made it her own as the next of a legend. And now, Adagio Dazzle, the leader of the sirens, couldn't win this confrontation. So, she’d become someone else too.

Love makes you do crazy things.

Adagio’s eyes snapped shut briefly as ice rapidly formed over her face, as Zephyrus swooped closer. They barreled at their prey as Gaea Everfree tried to shield Adagio with her body and Gigan fought against the rubble collapsed on top of him to try and pull them up now that his cables couldn’t retract.

Zephyrus’ empty eyes were met with an indignation he’d only glimpsed before. Dark eyes surrounded by frost with fangs made of jagged ice shrieked back at them. A hand covered in frostbite and icicles for claws that had burst through Adagio’s clothing tightly gripped Gaea Everfree to her and clutched Gigan’s cables. A second windigo of the western winds, only briefly manifesting earlier, screamed back in defiance at her progenitor.

It was strife, it was spite, it was hatred. It was everything the windigos had. It wasn’t even as powerful as Eurus, not by a wide margin. But it did differ from Zephyrus’ might when the two western gales smashed into one another, one swirling around the trio in a protective barrier. Zephyrus, by history never had or lost, never had anything but strife, spite, and hatred. His daughter knew them because there were the opposites she couldn’t afford to lose.

It was in a way, the biggest declaration she’d never be like him as one could ask for. She wasn’t one of Grogar’s, and his opposite instead lay claim even if it took a long time for her to reach them. Beneficence knew likewise when her power called out to similar. Twilight had reached them.

-”You three, jump!”-

Despite all three of them hearing it, it was somehow perceptible; it was mostly aimed at Gigan. Ice crystals stung at his body however, as he struggled with it. His eyes locked upon his two compatriots and he felt fear in a gut he didn’t have. But, egged on by Adagio’s own courage, he braved it. He tucked himself in and dove through the portal. Free falling, he managed to pull himself closer without yanking on the grapple stuck on Adagio. His arms caught around Adagio, for the windigo grabbed was nothing else but whether it be by sheer will power, time left, or their presence; as Gaea embraced her from the other side.

A great curtain, like enormous jaws of Eurus himself, opened below them, parting into every horizon as if the world itself was splitting into a cavernous maw. Zephyrus was diving after them from above.

A purple ray of magic reached out through an opened portal and grabbed the trio, helping pull them into one of the many opened portals.

-”I GOT YA!”-

Twilight’s voice, one free of Zephyrus’ distortion, beamed as the three were yanked into a portal to Equestria. The very same forgiven kidnapping victim, magical mentor, and honorary siren; smiled knowingly at the three.

“You can take ‘em! Remember what we promised!” Princess Twilight Sparkle, the alicorn, winked at them even as she focused on her own element magic, before tossing them into another dimensional tear back to the schoolyard, the group softly landing on their feet.

The promise that they weren't calling it quits until the windigos had been destroyed, all of them. Twilight wasn't calling it finished or giving up yet, and neither would they.

Gaea Everfree wasted no time getting Adagio’s necklace back on her as she and Gigan helped keep the siren upright. The icy growths around Adagio’s body melted away and she reverted back to her normal state, the subtle limb shifting helping to loosen the hook embedded in her arm free. Gigan cut his jacket sleeve off to staunch any bleeding, with vines coiling around the cloth to apply pressure.

Adagio Dazzle glanced between her compatriots before hugging both tightly in a brief huddle. A ray of rainbows burst into light behind them and the trio saw the product of their works stretch across the sky. With Zephyrus’ focus taken away by trying to change his daughter one last time, the more important plan had succeeded.

“Okay!.. I’m okay… We did our job,” Adagio huffed with a sniffle as she hugged both of her compatriots, nodding along, “They did it….”

Despite all Zephyrus had tried to pull, they, the Bearers, did what they needed to. The siren, privately of course, could actually profess some admiration. Those Elements had a way of finding the right people in the right circumstances. Who could say, maybe had things been different for her and she’d not taken her pod down the path they did after Aunt Hymnia’s death; maybe one of them could have embodied such heroic traits?

Well, they just had to deal with the shells they got… Or rather, cards. She’d spent a lot of time as a talking monkey to pick up on the manners of speech.

Adagio Dazzle saw Twilight Sparkle’s memories still zooming about, still trying to find their host body.

-Well… Enemy of my enemy is a manner of speech I still don’t agree with, but I’ll use it.-

Gaea Everfree and Gigan followed her line of sight and the three silently nodded to each other. Their fight wasn’t over just yet.

But it was soon.

===========

Aria Blaze, hair billowing in the wind, stared down the form of her sire at last writhing in frantic want to escape, at last the one vulnerable and scared. If he could ever feel such. The nightmares she used to have were still palpable, especially the ones telling her she was something that should never have existed. But for the first time in her life, the siren could at last accept something about that life she’d had. She lived because her mother loved her, not because this monstrosity she would never call a father created her. Fears could say otherwise, but that bygone mermare princess’ choice was visible all the same. And frankly, she almost felt silly having not seen it before, as tears ran down her face.

-My mother made her choice. And she chose to have me.-

Aria Blaze watched as the entire momentum of the moment changed. Boreas completely lost control of X’s body due to the internal attack, but even as he was expelled from control he was not permitted to flee. Inside the mind of the Xilian warrior, a fully reconstituted X held onto the windigo by the throat and kept him restrained. No running away this time, not for Aria to flee from her sire then; nor her sire to flee from her now.

-And my mother defeats you today.-

There was no escape for Boreas, not this time. He was anchored onto a mind that was not letting him get away, which was attached to a body that was being held in place at all angles; and surrounded by an increasing array of portals once meant to help it. Said portals all changed their output, displaying the same image over and over again. A smirking woman in golden armor with her hands on the portal, manually changing the output to be where she wanted it. In her midst, the very same heroines Boreas had tried to kill as children, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity, had assembled. And behind them was a portal tied to another world, in which a determined alicorn stood in a magical glyph she’d etched into the forest floor.

For the briefest moment, Boreas considered his odds. Crazy as he was, he knew one needed multiple Elements of Harmony together to achieve the best emulation of the goddess’ magic. With the four young women and one alicorn, abomination of creation of the goddess the gestalt no doubt was, that wasn’t a full set. He could still try and survive that, unlikely as it was, if they couldn’t fire off a complete ray like they had at the campground.

Until he was reminded of who was still hanging onto Monster X’s eyelid. Sunset Shimmer gave Aria a thumbs up shortly before Boreas’ entire world was filled with agony at the sound of his daughter’s singing voice.

To anyone else, the ballad was filled with the exact sort of things any reasonable soul would find beautiful. A story through syllables of restored faith in good, that an unfair world can still have fair people in enemies turned friends, the adoration of loving family and on how others can join that family. A thanks to all those around her, and the ultimate triumph of Princess Hymnia’s legacy.

Boreas was wrenched out of Monster X’s body and infected with benevolence, a paradox good existing in pure evil that was like oil mixed with water. It left him totally exposed when the combined Elements of Harmony, potent even with Laughter missing, shot through the portals from all angles and struck every fragment of Boreas’ being. The rainbow of light caused the malefic spirit to burst and after a dramatic outburst of light, Boreas was no more.

Godzilla let go of Monster X’s forearm, grunting apologetically as he and the other kaiju changed from holding him down to offering the Xilian kaijin a hand up. Back on Terra, X had rejected an offer from Junior to be allies. This time, he took his literal hand along with the metaphorical one to help him up. With no Boreas at the controls, there was no ungodly determination and ignorance of pain to keep his body going. And yet, even with his many wounds and injuries, Monster X still managed to stand; bringing his palm up to his face.

Aria Blaze let the tears flow from sheer relief.

She embraced her gigantic partner, only able to wrap an arm around the tip of his cracked, bony helmet as the tears continued to flow.

At long last, part of her nightmare was over. Aria Blaze wiped her eyes and sniffled, regaining some of her determined stance as she looked back into the dark storm.

One down…

“Let’s kill the other ones properly now.”

The last gasps of Boreas’ northern winds billowed across the city, many of them flowing into the portals to Eurus’ realm. The rim of some dimensional tears glimmered with an eerie, dead light, before starting to rise upwards into the sky.

===========

Megalon wasn’t knowing quite what to expect when Warhawk got them closer to the battlefield. Frankly, he’d have fully understood if the human turned the car around the moment he felt the ground shaking and saw the enormous shadow of a kaiju pass overhead, let alone the downright bizarre mess of portals scattered across town. It wouldn’t have been cowardice at all, just self-preservation and protection of everyone he was driving into the fray.

He wasn’t quite knowing what to expect either when his mechanical parts picked up a signal patching over to him from his sibling. Mentally clicking his focus over, his point of view became split between the car interior and his brother’s point of view, almost like a video call.

“Big bro?” Megalon chirped, perking Pinkie and company’s attention.

“Megalon! What happened? Where are you?” Gigan shouted as he started firing at… was that Princess Twilight with wings? Megalon furrowed his brow slightly at that and the…plant lady on the corner of his vision? Why was Ms. Adagio glowing red and sprouting magic fins?

“Sending coords! Can you rapid-transfer data to catch me up?” Megalon muttered as his eyes glimmered.

“Sending now, do likewise!”

Both cyborg’s eye optics blinked in unison, Megalon’s left eye turning red as Gigan’s right eye turned yellow. It looked from the outside like they were talking at a ridiculously fast speed for several long spans. In their perspective, a layout map of town flashed over their vision with blips showing either one’s location; Gigan just outside the school as Megalon was rolling down mainstreet. From everyone else’s perspective, it was like they were talking a mile a minute over a phone that had the speaker on.

Wallflower Blush’s eyes widened slightly when she did manage to catch a few stray words in the mix. “Stone” “Destroyed” “Memories” “Moving” “Twilight” “Memories” “Zephyrus” “Too Fast”

Her eyes cast down and she went quiet.

“Uh, not to interrupt but-” Warhawk called backwards from the driver’s seat, everyone else having crammed into the back.

“-Oh I’m done with the transfer, what’s up?” Megalon chirped.

The green skinned man pointed out the front window, “... is it supposed to be this dark right now?”

No. No it wasn’t. And everyone had started to notice it. Sunset Shimmer, still perched on the now conscious Monster X’s helmet, tightened her lips as she looked upwards. The cold, it somehow got even more so. Unbelievably so. So frigid the only point of comparison she had was actually somewhere that wasn’t even physically there.

Back on the roof of the parking garage, when Notus came bursting out of Flash Sentry in an all-or-nothing gambit to kill Celestia and had pulled everyone inside that realm. This was eerily similar and she could not be sure her eyes were telling her truth or not anymore. She desperately hoped they weren’t when hundreds of the stray portals all started to fly rapidly upwards above the cloud layer.

Back in Equestria, Princess Twilight Sparkle’s eyes snapped wide in a panic as the portals around her also pulled rank abruptly. Several flew inside each other, dimensional tears compounding onto each other and going back into the human world. The very portal she’d fired through, the one Princess Celestia so carefully re-organized to give her a clear line of sight, started rapidly hurtling into the sky from its perspective. All whilst a curtain of a dark void slowly ebbed over it again.

Knowing the risks but knowing a running clock when she saw one, she ran forward and the young alicorn dived into the portal which spat her into the open air as a young adult woman. The rush of gravity soon blew past her flailing hair and without wings to break her descent. Panic had just begun to set in as she plummeted towards the schoolyard just as several sets of arms grabbed her. Three forms, airborne, carefully matched her speed before slowing their collective fall, Celestia having caught her student by the middle as Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash respectively caught her head and legs.

They touched down on terra-firma just in time for the last of the portals to zoom away.

“Princess, what’s happening?!” Twilight shouted, still reeling from the sudden jog of her magic seemingly vanishing and unsteady on her feet.

Princess Celestia raised her wings protectively as if to shield her student and her friends, “It was sudden! The moment Boreas was destroyed, the portals reacted! I could barely keep the one for you open to get you back.”

“The rest just suddenly wigged-out and all started moving away!” Rainbow Dash griped as she saw the sky continue to darken. Above the cloud line, through the gaps in the storm, she could glimpse a gargantuan void that seemed to almost stretch from horizon to horizon.

“This- This makes no sense though!” Twilight exclaimed, eyes darting back and forth as her brain ran at a mile a minute, “Zephyrus was the planner and we figured his plan was to create an even bigger version of the storm he and the others made here years ago and even further back at Hearthswarming. Fire it through the portals and hit multiple places here and Equestria all at once.”

Twilight glimpsed the portal she’d emerged from soaring upwards rapidly to join more of the others, a steady stream cropping up being engendered by Frostbite Sparkle constantly portalling themselves around whilst fighting the others.

“If he pulled it off, even if he was stopped, it could have caused a lot of damage and suffering well by the time we could react and put an end to them,” Twilight pondered worriedly. They had the power to destroy the windigos, both with the Elements here and abroad. If Zephyrus’ plan went off without a hitch, it should still be possible to stop him and the other demons, such as retrieving the Equestrian Elements of Harmony from the Tree if they had to or getting other magical sources like the Crystal Heart or Princess Luna and Cadance; maybe getting outside help like Queen Maui.

Still, even if recoverable, it would be devastating if it went on for some hours; let alone days. It was a beatable plan, but still a plan.

-So why is Zephyrus abandoning it so suddenly?!-

The thought went through her head like she was being electrocuted. The brief glimpse of the void’s sole denizen she saw. The fact that Zephyrus was clearly not doing this, as indicated by the echoes of song magic and Gigan’s energy beam sweeping briefly into the sky showing they were preoccupied.

This wasn’t Zephyrus’ plan, but someone else making do with what they had.

A jerry-rigged plan, but a plan nonetheless. One which had been made up on the fly when Boreas was destroyed. After all, the windigo could always try their initial ploy again if all of the immediate opposition was dead or gone.

And that meant what started to emerge out of the portals was confident they could do just that, as the sky went near pitch black.

All of the kaiju pivoted their heads upwards. Even if the magic of these forces was beyond their worlds, and with as many diverse origins as they all head, each of them could sense what was coming. A primordial warning, like how animals big and small might perceive an incoming hurricane or tsunami. A force of nature that made others often called forces of nature shake.

Godzilla led them in a chorus of outcries as the clouds intensified and thickened under a sudden cold. The winds swirled and churned, forming a brand new storm all to its own with boggling amounts of power. The gestalt portal above the skyline emit its horrid denizen, and they returned to a mortal coil for the first time in hundreds of thousands of years. The portal tore open with a vibrant indigo hue as they came exploding out of it.

Enormous points, like mountain tops in the scale of each, slipped through the storm clouds. Almost like viewing the peaks of a towering range surrounded by mists, but reversed and upside down. Each point jagged, icy, and frostbitten into a sharpened tip. The bedrock beneath, what amounted to skin, was not like the others. Inky black like raw obsidian, or the most heavily chilled of the decayed. And atop their brow was a crown of jagged antlers, like a whole battalion of spears arranged in such a manner that a bygone witness might only recognize the formation as resembling a giant of an elk from a bygone time.

The adventures on Terra continue!
Several new chapters of Humanity's Stand by its crew have been posted!

Eurus was not just in the sky, he was the skyline. Empty voids for eyes wept dark fluid which dropped to the ground in enormous droplets the size of whole buildings. The dark splashes instantly froze, leaving behind dark ice pillars that approached the height of some kaiju. The wind shear that accompanied his arrival was similarly extreme. Not curtains and walls of galeforce like the others, but cutting, invisible blades that left trenches in the ground. One east-bound gash rapidly gouged into the earth in the direction of Anguirus, requiring Godzilla to tackle his compatriot out of the way.

A canyon, carved into the ground where the spike-back once stood, slashed through multiple buildings like an enormous blade. What was left of the school’s main hall let out a horrid screech as it was cleaved in two. More and more joined it, some larger and some smaller as land and sea was carved into just by Eurus’ mere presence. The span of the near mind-boggling enormity was made all too clear when the most powerful windigo of all smashed their taloned hand into the ground in a bid to swipe at Battra, forcing her and Irys to get airborne. Monster X, barely able to stand, got Sunset Shimmer and Aria Blaze in his hand and felt like he almost shattered his legs jumping aside to dodge.

The hand alone was twice the guardian moth’s size, the portal Eurus was erupting out of was at least half a kilometer in the sky; and he hadn’t even fully pulled himself out of it yet.

The Bearers were understandably more than a little petrified when the literal mountain of a demon started hauling itself out of the portal. Purple lances of energy from both Irys and Battra Lea streaked through the air and raked over Eurus’ face and brow. The mana laced plasma and sound did register to a degree insofar as carving lines across his icy antlers and crust, but the enormity of a windigo didn’t register the hit beyond budging slightly. Instead, those hollow cavities for eyes remained fully trained upon them. Knowingly, intently glaring without true sight.

He knew exactly where they were and what they were. The wind shear split the ground several dozen meters to the right of them, blasting through the whole town to the edge of city limits in geysers of debris. Princess Celestia was nearly knocked off her feet by just the aftershocks, covering part of her face to shield it from the wind. She could glimpse an identical, parallel trench cut into the ground to the left at an equal distance. It seemed too calculated to be random misses, as the gales of razor wind continued to stream and make it all but impossible to cross.

She noticed the fanged, frostbitten and lipless maw grin in a most demented manner. The gargantuan hand that reached towards them seemed to move in slow motion, even if it was truthfully covered hundreds of meters in a second. Quick enough for the realization that Eurus was quite capable of killing them at a distance, but wished to do so personally.

"MOVE MOVE!” She screamed over the gales as the gigantic hand came down to crush the chosen of the Elements like they were but gnats.

They ran as the shadow bore down, all taking measures to hold onto and keep one another from falling behind. But it was like mice fleeing in an open field from a hawk. No cover, no safety, no outpacing what was following. The sheer terror was causing Element crystals to flicker on and off; and with them, the enchantments that maintained their wings, hooves, and horns.

Thankfully, even mice had friends. A shadow passed over the ground and grabbed onto the enormous hand. Monster X was by no means a small kaiju, even in his reduced size, but all he could manage with his span was to grab onto Eurus’ ring finger and dig his feet into the ground. The Xilian kaiju shrieked on reflex, his body already well beyond taxed to its limits. In truth, he really didn’t have any strength left in him even with parts of his body starting to change to golden hues. Instead, it was something else holding back Eurus’ otherwise heedless advance.

A dim, reddish aura that was the actual cause of the windigo’s flinching was wrapped around the kaiju, making contact anywhere X had grabbed on. Celestia recognized the cause instantly from seeing the Element manifest before her. She’d once thought it some variant on the Element of Magic, but this was an achievement of her other student that was a totally different breed than Twilight taking up one of the solar alicorn’s former Elements.

Sunset Shimmer grit her teeth as she held onto one of Monster X’s horns, having been put there alongside Aria Blaze; whom was similarly holding onto her. It was the Element of Empathy doing the lion’s share of the effort, with the siren copying what she could and helping distribute it across the kaiju’s body. X’s effort was to increase the points of contact to conduct the magic into the windigo.

Sunset Shimmer winced and grimaced, unable to keep her eyes open. The presence she could detect touching Eurus’ mind. Even with Aria and a fully restored X backing her up to avoid being overwhelmed, it was hardly a point of comparison to Boreas. Not more than a hailstone compared to an avalanche.

No manipulation, no twisting of the knife, no inciting of strife. Eurus had never been diminished and didn’t bother with the schemes his compatriots did anymore. There were hardly even words present as one could comprehend them in the mindscape. Just the awareness that something horrific and without present was aware of her and wanted her and all else dead.

She started screaming from the mental strain, blood trickling out of her nose and eye. And yet, she refused to let go.

“Sunset…” The Rainbooms, Twilight, and Celestia weren’t even sure who’d said it. They all had it in their mind at the same time seemingly enough.

Eurus groaned from the contact, before hissing in a rage that slurred into a deafening shriek that could be heard for dozens of kilometers away. Even with the ice covering his hand melting, he pressed forward and crushed downwards. The further contact did incur more damage, something the Bearers on the ground noticed like a spark traveled through them. Monster X’s body buckled and he fell to a knee, digging further into the ground under the increasing pressure.

-”I am sorry, Shimmer. My body has its limits. Transforming would be like my body tearing itself apart to be put back together different…”- Monster X grimly apologized as blood seeped from multiple wounds opening up across his body, -”And I do not think I could survive that last blow…”-

More golden scales started to erupt across his body nonetheless, a single wing bursting out of his back armor. A desperation move that would be his last if finished. Aria recognized the power and her magic surged because of it.

-”Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare die on me now after all of this!”- The siren shrieked as tears ran down her face.

Sunset Shimmer put a hand on her shoulder and nodded to X thankfully.

-”You're not done yet. Just rest. We can’t beat him”- Sunset Shimmer said through their linked minds.

Eurus seemed to chortle a laugh through their fanged maw. Something told the three he ‘heard’ that.

Sunset Shimmer hardened her gaze as she looked off not to the gigantic monstrosity in the sky, but to the landscape with those still standing against it, -”But I know something that can.. If you can trust me.”-

Aria Blaze stifled her frown even as her tears kept flowing. Her eyes locked gazes with the Element of Empathy’s bearer and more thoughts than was articulated were conveyed. Her grip tightened on Monster X’s horn.

The kaiju stopped his own transformation into Kaizer Ghidorah, pausing mid-way through it, and gripped Eurus’ hand tighter. This was a foe beyond him right now, and probably even if he was in top condition. Everything he cared about was in the crossfire and in the line of sight for a monster of monsters. And yet, perhaps because he could emphatically feel the ‘heart’ of the red heroine who’d helped save him, perhaps because he knew the kind of woman his significant other was and how she’d never quit, or probably both, his terror didn’t overpower his mind. He was coherent, conscious, and ready to pitch in his last act.

The fact his gaze caught a multi-hued glimmer in the corner of one eye, and rays of azure from the other was a vindication of hope.

-”Aria, Shimmer.”-

Monster X almost seemed to smirk as he braced his feet on the ground and tensed the last of his muscle strength left.

-”Don’t lose.”-

Eurus howled as they pushed down to crush the kaiju and his cohorts entirely, only for his howl to turn into a shriek of pain as a geyser of rainbow light crashed into its face. The most powerful windigo, potentially the most powerful entity in the service of Grogar, screamed and recoiled from the blast. It caused his push upon X’s body to weaken briefly and the radiating energy from the rainbow seemed to enhance the effect of Sunset Shimmer’s magic. The conducted energy channeled through Monster X’s body shocked the hand just enough to release the talon trying to wrap around X’s back.

Far behind the kaiju, the reassembled Rainbooms and company were letting everything they had fly. They were down the Element of Magic and Laughter, with Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack doing the lion’s share of the contribution; but Sunset and company’s stand had helped to regain a temporarily wavered nerve caused by Eurus’ arrival.

The windigo shrieked and thrashed, withstanding the weakened Element Magic salvo; but clearly registering it alongside the conducted energy from Sunset Shimmer adding onto it. There was enough conviction and willpower behind the onslaught that had they not been any other windigo; weaker and diminished, it just might have done them in.

Still, the equivalent to a haymaker slug to the face was bound to get a reaction. It worked more than enough just as an azure torrent X had been also waiting for smashed into Eurus’ elbow. Unlike the rainbow, this wave didn’t seem to especially damage the demon, but it did cause a reaction. To manifest the way he had and enact physical force in the manner he’d chosen, Eurus had taken on a solid form. And having enough raw, burning plasma to punch through a mountain range smashing into your arm was bound to inflict plenty of concussive force.

It was a testament to just how monstrously tough Eurus was that the Ultima Burst blasted their hand aside whilst they were pelted in the face by the rainbow wave from the Elements. Godzilla, channeling what he could into the concentrated blast, redoubled his efforts with a thrash of his head and lunged; the torrent doubling in span on command. It pushed Eurus’ hand fully off X and allowed the Xilian kaijin to spring away with a tremendous leap.

Two forms flew up after him, braving the storm and winds to catch the kaijin upon his fall. Irys grabbed her teammate’s shoulders as Lea caught his legs, the two diverting and slowing his fall to gently put him down on the beachline. Reaching up to take Sunset and Aria off his head, Monster X held them to his chest as he was put down.

A flash of light lit up across Monster X’s form and dissipated, leaving three figures in the depression caused by placing several thousands of tons of kaijin into the beach. In the Monster X-shaped impression on the ground, the now human X lay on his back. Sunset Shimmer rose to her feet next to him as Aria Blaze still held his hand. She squeezed his palm, both of them scuffed and bloodied and it seemed like it took a monumental effort for him to smile but he did it anyway.

Aria put the back of his palm to her cheek, nodded, and kissed his hand with understanding.

It took her own monumental effort as she joined Sunset in running back to rejoin the others, leaving him behind with a lot of hopeful prayers by all parties involved.

Parallel to them; a massive, spiky antler crashed to the seas and spit up huge pillars of rapidly freezing water. The rainbow onslaught ceased and Eurus emerged from a cloud of smoke. About half his crown had been blown off, his face marred and sparking with crackling energy. And yet, the windigo was not done yet.

A deafening roar shook the city as they proceeded to climb more out of the portal; seemingly endless in how enormous they truly were as their hands scoured the ground and brow scraped the sky. More razor edged wind sliced through the heavens and earth as it started hailing.

Author's Note

proofed by Faith-Wolff and Lance Omikron

The Winter War Ends 6/15

Chapter 54 Part 4: War's End

Gigan saw the blast of magic that struck Eurus in the face and managed to cause meaningful damage. The fact that he and his two compatriots also had to frantically dodge blasts of wind that shredded through the pavement and left him not wishing to see what would happen if one of them hit Adagio or Gloriosa, left the cyborg with a conclusion.

This fiasco had gone on long enough and it was about to get a lot worse the longer that big monstrosity was still alive. There was only one thing that would be able to put that colossus down, and it was currently around the neck of their other problem.

Though the portals had been taken away initially, there was nothing stopping Zephyrus from just generating new ones. And they had been doing so with wild abandon, still relying on mostly dodging instead of actually attacking anymore given that the few times they had, Adagio and Gaea alone had been more than enough to fend them off at this point.

Gigan teleported in a blink of red light to grab onto the siren in question and pull her to safety after a portal had been opened up underneath her, the cyborg warping the two back to stable ground as Gaea forced Frostbite Sparkle away.

“Thanks for the save,” Adagio panted as she flinched at another gigantic barrage of beams flew over her head. Irys and Battra were flying alongside each other and swooping towards the gargantuan windigo, peppering it with their own rays as Anguirus tackled a hand away from where the Bearers had to be.

Another blast of wind carved a dozen meter deep trench through the town and sheared the schoolyard from the surrounding buildings, requiring siren and cyborg to shield their eyes from the debris. The rapidly increasing damage was scaling with a growing chance Eurus would get past the kaiju eventually or score a lucky hit with the wind bursts. The odds of them all getting out of this were dropping by the minute and Zephyrus no doubt knew that.

“If that thing stays here or gets through another portal, it’ll be an absolute catastrophe. Your uncle gives Grand King Ghidorah a serious run for his acclaim,” Gigan frowned before attempting a bit of levity to avoid his spirits getting dampened, which could be lethal around a windigo if one lost their conviction, “Should I be afraid of what’ll happen if I ever make you angry?”

“Don’t look at me, I’m not claiming them as family,” Adagio shrugged as she brushed a piece of rubble off her torn sleeves, “You’ll just have to hope Gloriosa keeps me from dismantling you if that event happens… How far are Sonata, Megalon, and that Bearer?”

“Close enough to make a jump.”

“Get to it then,” Adagio huffed as she poked him in the forehead with a finger, “Or none of us are to live long enough for you to see me angry one day!”

“But-“

It was the third party who cut them off, Gaea Everfree shouting at the top of her lungs after she managed to grab onto Zephyrus but was forced back by another wave of rending gales cutting the ground off from between them. Sent flying backwards, she caught herself on some uprooted vines and landed next to her compatriots to look back at Gigan.

“We got more than enough to take this one out, but we don’t have the time while chasing after them like this! Getting more folks might find a way to slow them down,” The Nymph panted as she nodded to Gigan again, “We'll be fine! Just hurry!”

Stealing a glance at the both of them and feeling a tightening in his chest despite lacking the muscle or organs for that, a curious mental sensation, Gigan nodded and jumped up to teleport. First high up into the air to get a line of sight and then onto an incoming human vehicle, not even needing to double check if Megalon’s locational ping was in it given it would be just about the only car brave enough or stupid enough to be heading this direction.

His pulse quickened again upon spotting a geyser of thrown debris moving rapidly from the beach line and directly en route from where the car was going, carving through buildings in its path.

The cyborg disappeared in a blink of red light and reappeared on the hood of Warhawk’s car. The startled man understandably called out as he swerved from the sudden jar and to then keep the car from crashing into anything whilst his vision was obscured with the half metal man on the windshield.

“Bro!” Megalon chirped happily as he perked up from his seat.

They could see Gigan yelling something frantically, but with the storm outside and the car’s revving engine, it was inarticulate.

“What did he say?!” Warhawk yelled out, throwing his voice back at the other cyborg after remembering them talking to each other remotely.

Gigan was looking off to the right, towards the shore and even with his mechanical eyes it was still very visible on his face that he saw something noteworthy in a very unwelcome manner. Warhawk tried to see it, but he couldn’t look over the passing line of strip mall stores.

“He said-“ Megalon started but he was cut off when Gigan, blade sticking out of his fist, rammed his hand through the windshield and screamed through the resulting hole in the glass.

“I SAID REVERSE! NOW!”

Warhawk didn’t question nor argue, just complied. Wasn’t the first time this happened today, especially when that big metal monster with a beak screamed at them all earlier to go away. Come to think of it, something about this new passenger’s voice sounded familiar.

He yanked on the shifter and stomped on the brake and gas in an alternating motion. Pinkie, Sonata, Megalon, and Wallflower all went lurching forward and one of them evidently hadn’t been wearing a seatbelt. The car suddenly reversed momentum and sped backwards, just in time for the sudden shock wave of razor wind to come scouring through a music store, blasting through the concrete and brick whilst shearing right through metal. Had the car maintained its course a few seconds longer, they’d have been right in the path.

The car sped backwards before screeching to a stop, Gigan letting out a breath he didn’t necessarily need and hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

“HowYoudwoinBro?”

His deadpan expression glanced at the car, seeing the smooshed face of his little brother looking back at him. Gigan shrugged, climbing off the hood and helping the kaiju, siren, and bearer get out.

“You’re missing an arm,” Gigan pouted as Megalon helped to hold up a shaking Sonata.

“Miss Lea got him patched up!” Pinkie chirped as she in turn helped Megalon on his feet.

“That’s three for three Defenders I owe an apology to. Good work Megs, now my pride is going to be as shattered as these icy bastards are going to be by the end of the day,” Gigan shrugged, “We got a situation and we need a hand to make one of those two things happen.”

“Hey!” Megalon whined.

“As you can see, these frost demon bastards managed to summon their last number. Those girls' crazy magic is our only shot but I can see from the lack of glowing bits that something happened here,” He noted, motioning to the mundane and normal-looking Pinkie Pie.

“Yeeaaah reason for that,” Pinkie wilted slightly as she nodded towards Sonata.

Sonata Dusk looked the worst Gigan had ever seen her and honestly it looked like a miracle she was even standing on two feet with obviously loaned clothes on. She reached for her neck and pulled aside a blanket, revealing both her very ugly and ragged scar but also glimmering Element of Laughter. One that stayed lit up as Pinkie remained close to her.

“She kinda turned into one of those frost demons we were talking about until we got her to calm down,” Pinkie winced, “I took a chance, and the Element crystal seems to be keeping her from a repeat incident.”

So they couldn’t take the Element off Sonata without risking her stability, not without her necklace back. And they couldn’t take out either Windigo without more Element magic. And they weren’t going to get more Element magic unless Pinkie here got herself back to full strength and returned Twilight’s Element.

“Alright,” Gigan huffed, “We can still do this. We just have to get Sonata’s necklace and Twilight’s crystal back from Zephyrus. I’ll fill you in on those details and others. We get those back, and the Bearers of that crazy magic can take care of Mr. Winter up there.”

Gigan motioned up and elicited plenty of shock from his party, most of whom had not gotten a good look at Eurus yet due to being in a car with a roof, the storm, and having to weave between the buildings. Much less the multi-hundred-meter-tall Eurus shaking his head because he almost got in at the Bearers again before they could get another shot off, and had instead gotten a salvo of red spiral fire from an irate Godzilla. The windigo was more phased than damaged, still stocking forward in equal parts intimidating and ghastly sight of withstanding the inferno.

-I take it back, not even Grand King could tank that, and nothing else should if it didn’t have those weird conditions behind what could hurt it… I really, really hate these things.-

“We’ll find a way to get the necklaces off and get you three into the fray,” Gigan noted, trying to mentally re-calibrate, “Good news is the Memory Stone was destroyed and X and the human Twilight’s memories were freed.”

“Are they free now?” Pinkie Pie said as she perked up, “I kinda only caught every-other-fifth-word when you gave the download to Megalon.”

“They’d figured out a way to purge the windigo prior. One of the Bearer’s boyfriends had been hijacked and she jogged his mind. Once the memories were back, Aria did the same to X. She purged the windigo with her magic alongside a mutual boost with Sunset Shimmer and then the Bearers destroyed it,” Gigan explained, “The human Twilight Sparkle’s body and memories haven’t yet rejoined, Zephyrus has been stubbornly good at dodging so we need all the help we can get stopping them.”

The still-seated occupant of the car perked up as Gigan motioned upwards. The purple hued mass of magic indicative of Twilight’s memories zoomed overhead to try and rejoin their body.

“We’ll just have to take this one step at a time.”

“What about me?” Warhawk yelled out, the green-skinned man getting up from his driver’s seat, “Road’s busted up ahead.”

“My warp drive is almost on the fritz, I can’t haul more people than necessary. You’ve done more than most and just might be one of the most impressive humans I’ve seen,” Gigan pointed backwards with his thumb, “Get yourself clear and try not to die.”

“Yeah! Besides you gotta live this one! Who else will be on our tournament team next month for the season!?” Pinkie Pie chirped as she waved at her compatriot and flashed him a thumbs up, “Don’t worry about us, so don’t let us have to worry about you!”

"Online friend, got Nata into digital simulation sports when she was infirm,” Megalon whispered to Gigan, who just shrugged and nodded along with it.

“And w-what about me?!” Wallflower Blush stammered as she undid her seatbelt, having been seated on the other side of the car as she got out to start around, “I-If Zephyrus is here then Twilight is-“

A red flash of plasma and a thin line of death scorched the brick wall next to her. It would have burned her foot clean off had she stepped another stride closer. She stopped instantly and Gigan glared coldly. He was not a machine, he had already experienced being one through extraordinary circumstances and while he never would’ve regretted what he did, he would hopefully never entertain that potentiality again. So he had to try and be as free of strife as he could whilst working on cold logic to address the source of a lot of problems. A source of problems named Wallflower Blush he really wanted to put through a wall.

“You’re getting back in the car or walking back for all I care,” Gigan growled mechanically, “You didn’t directly cause this, but you enabled this. Besides, it’s not like you could help if you wanted to; and I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt to think you do.”

He grabbed onto Pinkie and Sonata before teleporting away to a rooftop, blinking back to get Megalon. His mechanical eye diverted briefly to glimpse a figure with dark wings flying over the rooftops as Adagio and Gaea chased after it to keep them away from the Bearers. The incoming memories similarly forced Zephyrus back and into a portal they closed behind themselves. All saw the spectacle and listened.

“We need to slow them down for Twilight’s memories to get back to them and there is nothing you can do. You must have helped my brother and his friends, so for that I’m giving you a small mercy. Get out.”

He warped away with Megalon and, after some time observing the battle joined anew, Warhawk got back in his car and re-revved the engine as the back door closed behind him. Still very much taken away by all that had happened and just trying to go with the flow, he shrugged to attempt at maintaining a casual demeanor as he turned his head backwards.

“Gonna be a bit till I can turn us around, Miss,” Warhawk started, “Roads too banged up ahead, so we’ll be going reverse. Think you can-“

The empty backseat was all that was in sight. He didn’t see the glimpse of green hair running into an alleyway she knew very well to lead back to the schoolyard.

Wallflower Blush in many ways wanted time to think, time to collect her thoughts as memories of loneliness, crushing self-deprecation, and misery mixed. But the mental gymnastics to avoid blame couldn’t happen again. She wouldn’t let them happen again to escape blame.

She had been a horrible person.

She could try to deflect blame, arguing the circumstances she’d been thrust into lead to all of this and there was some truth in it. Claim that without Zephyrus, she’d never have wound up doing what she did.

-Except, that’s not true.-

Her fingers curled, digging into the broken ground as distant flickers of memory from her time discovering the Memory Stone flashed before her eyes.

-I found out how it worked and still used it on others.-

First it had been her conscience telling her who to use it on. Bullies, a rude customer at her parent’s business, “people who deserved it” as she’d rationalize it. She had power over memory and that took time to sink in, but once it did… There hadn’t been as many restrictions. She’d only used it once more after that before meeting Twilight, but the rationale behind it couldn’t be so easily justified. She had done it on reflex after a moment of awkwardness asking a nice guy she liked to the dance. He’d never noticed her before, but there was nothing to assume him bad or that he’d reject a request. In most situations and to most people, it would be no harm no foul if he said yes or not, but in that moment, when he hesitated after she asked him, it struck. That sudden, spurious surge of fear about rejection had seized her heart to act on all the years of neglect.

He didn’t even get a good look at her before she pulled up the stone, whimpering an apology.

“It was only a minute at most,” She told herself whilst power walking away from the oblivious young man, who’d lost not even thirty seconds of his memory.

“He won’t feel bad and wouldn’t want to know.” She’d think aloud whilst feeling a pit grow in her stomach hours later, especially when she passed him in the halls and looked for any sign of hesitation or pause from him.

“He would feel better not knowing I put him on the spot.” She’d mutter between tears, lying in bed and turning the stone over in her fingers whilst her stomach did knots; trying to get his face out of her head. Looking up at her mirror, she found herself not able to meet her own gaze, repeating her excuse over and over. In hindsight, she should have thought more about the icy chill that entered the room; but she could never know if it was just a winter draft or Zephyrus having discovered her entirely through her strife for herself and spite at others.

One way or another, he’d likely been watching her for some time, she’d been more than appealing to his notice.

Maybe she would have totally cut herself off from the stone after that. Maybe if she had someone giving her a second opinion to tell her about the spiral she was starting down, she would have stopped… Or maybe she would have just kept doing it. Fate or rather, Zephyrus’ decision, left those questions unanswered.

For every part of her mind that wanted to shift the blame, and had been doing so for who knew how long, something finally clicked into place and locked that voice out.

-Zephyrus could have found someone else. He could’ve arranged to take the stone himself or with some lackey. Someone else could have found the stone before I did… That doesn’t change anything about this.-

Wallflower Blush sniffled as she sprinted through the alleyways Boreas had chased her through for hours or days, wiping her face off to get some of the ice crystals out of her eyes and picking herself up off of the ground. Swallowing what felt like a brick in her throat, she gasped slightly on her breath before looking back at the distant flashes of battle. How so many were all fighting for their lives out there. And against foes that included an irate windigo wearing her best and only friend’s face.

They could beat him, that wasn’t in doubt, but it was a drawn-out affair with how much Zephyrus kept diving into portals. Even without Gigan saying it, she could still get a notion there was something unsaid.

Something she intended to act on if she could just get there in time-

A geyser of wind blasted through the alley behind her and Wallflower had to dive out of it, covering her face to shield her vitals from the flying debris as it battered her body. The razor’s edge of wind had gone perpendicular to her path and tore through several buildings. While the shockwave had blown away most of the dust and smoke, the buildings beginning to sag into the cavity gouged into the ground only engendered more.

Shaking off cuts from glass and rubble, Wallflower coughed and staggered back to her feet, the way she came gone now.

-No turning back now.-

=============

Eurus retaliated against another blast by the Elements present with a thundering roar that shouted out everything for miles. Godzilla could feel his eardrums begin to rupture, but resisted the instinctive urge to shake or grab at his head from the reflex of pain hitting his internal canals. At this point he well figured out what came next, and intentionally threw himself between the gargantuan demon and the Bearers.

He wasn’t alone in his actions, as Anguirus was right alongside his compatriot. They couldn’t do much to physically harm the monstrosity that dwarfed even them, the windigo only had one weakness that dealt any kind of meaningful damage and neither of them had it. Short of inviting them into their minds for a mental battle, which Junior did not especially think Eurus would be obliging nor a remotely safe option for that, the biggest thing they could do was protect those that could end this.

It was an unfortunate testament to Eurus’ sheer power and magnitude that several repeated blasts of incomplete Element magic had failed to deliver crippling damage. The windigo was indeed hurt, but not disabled. Another blast along his elbow and shoulder recoiled the demon, but he regained his momentum soon after. He was still very much active, irate, and vicious as ever even whilst wounded. The winds kicking up even further seemed proof of that much. The invisible razors, only trackable from direction and how they gouged into the ground, zoomed forwards. First kicking up geysers of torn waters, then split sand, concrete, storefronts; and then slamming into them.

Godzilla grunted in sharp pain, suppressing an urge to call out. In one of his earliest excursions, misguided humans had fired missiles that were essentially solid javelins of pure, heavily reinforced metal. They had to be extremely costly to make, likely with rare components or else he would have expected them to use the construction materials in their cities more often; but they had actually managed to draw blood. It was the equivalent to him of getting stabbed with a pencil for a human and he could heal back the damage pretty quick, the wounds being more painful than debilitating.

There were only a few things that would ever suppress his ability to restore back from damage, and one of them was present right as the cold wind hit him like a slashing blade and he felt any number of horrible thoughts crisscross his mind.

Godzilla staggered, his chest, shoulder, and thigh bloodied without the wounds immediately sealing shut as his body absorbed some of the magical energy on reflex. He growled and shook his head, forcing the foreign influence out of his mind and willing his body to stop taking in what was around them. His form liked to absorb certain types of energy like a sponge, which complicated matters back at the concert when even his human form almost wound up changing just standing too close to the music magic. Right now, when the storm was absolutely laden with dark magic, it created an unsightly effect when his body absorbed it.

Princess Luna had managed to wear him down once in their battle because that absorption hindered his ability to heal, adding to his then-massive disorientation. Lea and Princess Twilight had later told him the way his body metabolized radiation and certain energy wasn’t entirely different from highly chaotic, wild magic. Having a body constantly taking in power from outside sources like the sun, heat, or radiation definitely had its uses; but it was like trying to metabolize something toxic when it came to dark magic.

Fortunately there was a bit of a workaround he’d been figuring out, magic lessons with Chibi and Luna weren’t just about making a bigger beam.

Stomping and focusing, he flooded his body with energy and directed the resulting nuclear pulse shockwave forwards. It blew away piles of rubble set in front of him and knocked back the waters for many meters. The gashes and wounds in his body started healing, the residual dark magic he involuntarily absorbed having been purged and vented off.

-Thank you, Luna.-

He huffed in mental gratitude before reacting to a bark and looking towards Anguirus beside him and checking his compatriot over. Whilst the ankylosaur had reacted to the blowback and kinetic force of the gales, the gestalt chimera was hardly marked and carried no air of being mentally afflicted.

A response bellow by Anguirus confirmed it, his mind was unafflicted and he’d only felt the wind hit him. And yet, despite the Guardian Beast only being a bit tougher than Godzilla in terms of durability; the wind had cut him significantly less.

A glance at the ground conferred more prudent details. At the feet of both kaiju, gashes had torn into the ground from the razor wind trenching into the ground. But right during contact, where the assault on Godzilla had splintered and broken after cutting into him until it ran out of momentum; the trench heading for Anguirus split in two some meters in front of the kaiju. A smaller portion had continued forward, most split like water on the bow of a ship.

A lot of speculation on Terra existed as to how exactly Godzilla took on a leadership role amongst the Defender faction. Many a human and non-Defender alike had thought it because he was simply the most powerful, an alpha by the ideals of might. Seeing him fight, one might get that impression given very few were on par with the monster king one on one. But the reason the king dragon of the new millennium had wound up in an authority position of lineages and lives sometimes many multitudes his senior was what was going on inside of his head, not just what came firing out in the plasma rays.

They’d both gotten hit by the shearing wind, and yet it was Anguirus who wasn’t requiring himself to heal. Healing Godzilla managed best when he purged the dark magic from his body. And there was one big difference between how Godzilla fueled his body and how Anguirus fueled his mana based one.

Terran magic and Equestrian magic did not coexist well. Where one was, the other could be contained or blocked away. It worked when Lea used her magic to funnel the Rainbooms and Siren’s burst into him at the shore, and in how Anguirus withstood being unwillingly transformed much better than he could. In passing, he’d also come to wonder if the especially powerful alicorn magic was so successful in blocking the gyaos not just out of raw power, but this factor given they too were at least partially mana based.

A thought for later when they won this.

Godzilla roared and barked, conferring a new plan to the others. Anguirus followed through and back stepped to where the majority of the Rainbooms were, standing over the humans and transformed-alicorns like a sentry. When another wind blast came swooping around, he banked his side over to meet it and let the once unstoppable cutting blade shattered across his shell. It still registered, as he groaned in mild pain and lost a few spikes; but he was weathering the hits better than others could hope.

Irys shrieked and swooped down to help her brother, beginning to project her sonic barrier; only to be called up by Godzilla. Eurus screamed out over the lot of them, privy to the comparatively small pests impeding his mission and lunging for the lot of them. A flash of brightly-hued wings swooped in front of his face and Eurus briefly thought he was looking at the visage of an equally huge giant before the wings flapped and propelled Battra Lea forwards. Usually magic would be her forte, but her entire spellbook had been thrown out of whack as of late.

But, when you still had the spell for high energy optic blasts and bolstered strength; you made due. Latching onto the demon’s face, she repeatedly let loose with the prism beams and clawed around his surviving antler.

As Lea distracted the windigo as best she could, Godzilla called out to Irys again before taking in a deep breath and taking aim at the pier and waterfront property. The loosed breath attack was drastically lower power than it typically was on intention. If it was even the average he’d probably wind up blowing up the block and then some. Instead the initial beam he shot into the air before sweeping down widened, shifted in color from blue to orange, and changes from a plasma ray to a kind of phosphorus vapor, and then from a vapor into an open flame as the temperature remained hot enough to ignite the buildings more than the kinetic force would obliterate them.

The fires swirled and grew despite the wind trying to snuff them out and Irys understood Godzilla’s intent. He’d been told by Anguirus what happened last time she was around a lot of open flames. She dove for the flames and felt her mana reach out to begin drawing it all in.

Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she glimpsed something familiar. Two forms of red and purple sprinting down a street towards the center of town and the school. Irys’ mind briefly registered the image of what looked like Sunset Shimmer and Aria Blaze, but not before someone else had seen them too and took their chance at them.

Sunset felt a chill shoot up her spine as a long shadow loomed over them as they ran back towards town. Her eyes widened and she looked up at a similarly shadowed Irys as a crown of antlers emerged behind the Guardian Beast of Sound.

The gyaos squawked in surprise when the then-cut-off low powered atomic breath suddenly was forced to re-energize back to full capacity and then some. Going rapidly from white to blue, to red with crackling spirals, the beam swung around her as Irys rolled aside to dodge. In her confusion at wondering about the friendly fire, Irys glimpsed Battra careening through the air as well and Godzilla roaring aloud. She tucked into a tight spiral, swirling around the spiral fire ray that was quickly swept through the air. In the milliseconds that ticked by, she could see Godzilla turning aside and intentionally trying to avoid her and force the windigo behind her away from those others.

In her fright to dodge, muscle memory had actually caused her to accidentally dodge into his line of fire and the saurian was compensating as best he could. Miraculously, as the blazing plasma’s convecting heat managed to pierce through even the windigo fueled storm, he avoided striking her. Instead the actual target was struck, the one the gyaos hadn’t seen out of her line of sight, the lack of forewarning noise they made on approach due to their partially ethereal body, and her focus on the fires below.

The spiral fire ray could have obliterated whole armies or leveled large islands in one sweep. When it smashed into Eurus' right arm that had almost smashed into Irys, the sheer kinetic force and heat would have ended most kaiju in history in a single shot. But Junior wasn’t focused on measuring Ghidorah against demon, just doing all he could against the latter. Eurus was still pushing back, impossible as it seemed.

Tremors shot through the ground for miles as Godzilla’s feet started to dig trenches from the recoil, eyes still locked upon the gigantic form fully emerging out of the portal to meet his greatest venture yet. Eurus’ feet perched upon the sea floor and constantly froze the water where he stood, creating an oscillating tidal flux of the waters instantly evaporating from the spiral fire’s heat only to solidify mid-air from the windigo’s cold. And yet, Eurus’ hand along with the rest of the charging windigo just kept coming through the torrent even as the air around it was riddled with shockwaves from just the impact of the beam striking the windigo.

The Eastern Wind shrieked and broke into a full on charge, intent on flattening everything in front of him.

The King of the Monsters could feel the cold setting in, impossibly so as it seemed. This was like experiencing that wretch Notus a thousand times over. But amongst the painful memories the full focus of the demon brought to the forefront, from nearly killing his brother as a berserk Nightmare in recent memory to the numerous times he’d been tempted to fire back at the humans in the past; one particular jogged recollection had an unintended effect.

Standing in an alien forest alongside three other champions against a burning mountain cast in the same image. His perspective grew in height after the others fell. It was a potentiality he’d averted in more ways than one, some more direct than others. That didn’t change the aching stinging the scar that went through his chest and out his back gave off when it became visible.

A flash of rainbow light, still brilliant even with it being incomplete as it was, flew past his face and helped him to refocus. The Bearers had not taken his stand as a sign to stand alone. But they were not in the best shape.

============

“BLAST 'EM AGAIN!” Rainbow Dash screamed out as she clutched her crystal so tightly one could wonder if she’d be the first to crush it instead of Applejack with the boosted strength.

She braced as best she could, but she still got knocked over when another tsunami of often razor-like wind smashed into their position again. Anguirus banked to block it as best he could with his body, but some still got through even if it wasn’t rending the Bearers to pieces. Blown backwards and skidding painfully across the broken concrete, the Bearers all staggered to their feet.

“We- Need!” Rarity gasped and panted as she almost collapsed, requiring Fluttershy and Twilight to help hold her up, “The- others!”

The repeated overuse of the Elements had been taxing on all of them. Maybe it was because the Elemental Magic was just as much a part of them as it was the physical crystals, maybe it was sheer usage whilst incomplete, or a combination of the two along with general inexperience. That and Eurus’ storm had been wearing them down worse than anything else had prior. Abrading them every second in mind and body.

When they managed to obliterate Boreas and Notus, that was uplifting. Sunset’s stand against Eurus had helped to keep their nerves even when they found themselves hitting a wall. And despite the uneasiness, the bits of ice forming on some of the group’s skin, and the unsteadiness some had gotten on their footing; they remained transfixed on the battle of titans without one thought of retreat in their minds. Godzilla was still firing against Eurus as Battra and Irys flanked and tried to draw the focus of the massive windigo, Anguirus hanging back to block another salvo of hits that did manage to chink even his armor and nearly knocked the group of heroines over again.

The question was less about helping and the want to do so, and more how to do it.

“We’re- not hittin’ them hard enough,” Applejack huffed after looking at Princess Twilight, “We’re still down three Elements now. Even with the spell not needin’ music magic for the light show, we need more!”

“And abandon Sensei to fight alone?! Uh uh! No dice!” Rainbow Dash barked as she stood up to her taller friend.

“Ah’ didn’t say that! Ah’ was thinking we don’t have time to be useless an’ ah’ HATE being useless!” Applejack barked back with a glimmer in her eye, “He can’t stop ‘em, so we gotta save him! An’ some of us are about ready to collapse!”

Applejack frowned as she motioned to Rarity, “We can’t waste time pulling a four-lady chorus for a seven woman band! We need more power, ‘fore we keel over!”

Rainbow Dash grit her teeth in a frown as a near freezing tear ran down her face. She clenched her fists whilst looking up at what seemed to be a resigned fate. The other kaiju couldn’t win this for them, regardless of how awesome and enormous they were. The power radiating off Godzilla’s act seemed to eclipse anything she could see herself capable of, and yet it wasn’t doing much but impede and get the living mountain of a demon’s attention.

The feeling of a countdown clock was ongoing and the anxiety of not knowing how to stop it was present on all of their minds. A clock that included others possibly dying for them, because they were the only ones who could stop all of this; yet lacked the power to do so.

“Wh-What if we could do something?!” Dash stammered through another tear.

“Like what?” Applejack frowned as her own cheek was creased with a frosting line, “We gave it our best shot an’ we didn’t do enough!”

“And there’s no time to high-tail it for Sunset, Pinkie, or get Twilight her Element back!” Dash yelled back, the countdown clock feeling like it was rapidly approaching zero.

There was a reason the Elements were meant to be a complete set, interacting and balancing one another. When left incomplete, some situations could crop up. Such as bitter honesty and strict loyalty in an impasse and with no empathy to link them together. Applejack wasn’t wrong about their situation and Rainbow Dash’s heart was in the right place.

So it was perhaps a bit of a chance fate that it was something this set of Bearers would notice their Equestrian counterparts that otherwise shared a name, a face, and so much more with them wouldn’t. The fact that two ponies the Equestrians venerated but they saw as just their friend and principal was standing in their midst, the former even sporting a faded pair of glowing hooves, wings, and a horn.

“We can’t do enough, going at the pace we are now using the Elements alone,” Dash said as she focused on her necklace and held it inside a clenched hand.

“What are you doing?” Fluttershy perked as she puzzled at the sight of her compatriot’s manifest wings starting to flicker out. Only this time, contrary to initial confusion and fear, it wasn’t because the overwhelming presence of Eurus and dark magic was interfering with the transformation.

Rainbow Dash strained as she tried to feel the power which had been inside her in a palpable form ever since the first confrontation at the school. Seemed like such a long time ago they were working against the she-demon that seemed like a luxury vacation compared to what they were up against now. Those initial bursts of confusion, fear, and trepidation when that energy would spike up and cause her to suddenly move at extraordinary speed. Especially the bewildering result of whenever she played music.

“You- said we always had magic, this world had magic just like where you’re from, but it’s been dormant,” Rainbow Dash strained, looking through a cracked eyelid at Celestia and Twilight, “That we especially as Bearers had a lot of it in us already before we got these things. So if the crystals need a complete set to be effective, what if we fueled it with something else?”

She lightly shook her hand to indicate the crystal, “So far we’ve been using these things for the light show, but what if we put more of ourselves in it?”

Celestia and Twilight paused and glanced at each other, realizing neither of them had an answer. But the light around the Element of Loyalty clutched in Rainbow Dash’s hand was starting to intensify in tandem with her transformation dimming.

“Y-You could overtax your magic though,” Twilight cautioned, “The Elements were always meant to be used together and we’ve already used them a lot without a complete set. If you try to use your own magic to fuel the spell, you might even lose it entirely or worse!”

Rainbow Dash only smirked.

“I managed without it, managed my whole life so far mostly mundane,” She quipped, “Well, mundane as someone as awesome as I can be.”

“She’s right, the others are giving it their all so we might as well too. It is remiss of generosity not to give when able!” Rarity piped as she followed suit, taking away her own transformation with a bit of effort and putting everything she had into her Element and giving it her own magic.

“Girls, I’m only cautioning this in regard to if the Elements will still work once we get all of the others… I know there isn’t a worry or selfishness about wanting to keep your powers amongst you if this proves permanent,” Celestia frowned at the group even if some part of her was feeling no small amount of pride. She was the first Bearer of the Elements alongside Luna, and it had been her hope like-minded heroes would one day find them eventually.

If anything, this was affirmation it was the right decision in her mind because she couldn’t imagine not potentially giving up her powers, temporary or otherwise, for the sake of others. If this stunt of overclocking the Elements to make up for their lesser number worked, any setback would be worth it.

“I always felt like this magic was like me once we got a handle on it,” Fluttershy beamed as she lost her wings and hard light animals, “So I’m not afraid of not being me. If the Elements work for us because of who we are, I don’t think that we’ll have trouble using them again later. Magic could come back and even if it didn’t, we used it for a good reason.”

“Logic makes sense to me,” Applejack paused before looking at Twilight, “Does it to you?”

Twilight sighed as she shrugged her shoulders, “I admit, we are on untrodden ground here. But the other Elements didn’t lose their magic when mine got taken and you all didn’t even have your crystals when we confronted Sunset… I can’t see it not doing something. I just don’t know what that something will be!”

“Heh, suits me,” Applejack smirked before taking hold of her own necklace and following suit, apprehension being quicker to go away now.

The four humans gathered round and held hands, looking back to Godzilla’s stand against Eurus.

Applejack sniggered, “You know, a tune comes to mind right ‘bout now.”

“Thinking of music at a time like this?” Rarity deadpanned as she cocked an eyebrow at Applejack.

“Well, ‘member that one from Elementary school we whipped up around winter? About a certain someone from our little kid years?”

“I mean, it figures you would remember,” Fluttershy playfully shrugged, “You were the only one who ever got a good look at her besides Flash, so we had to, but the lyrics were based on what you two said.”

“Yeah, and it was the first melody I ever came up with and carried,” Dash grinned, “Besides… We did find out earlier this week she really was real and AJ wasn’t just hallucinating about a homeless woman talking to her in the woods.”

Applejack, relieved in the casual danger dialogue, just snorted and lightly bopped RD upside the head.

The cyan young woman sniggered and tapped her foot to make up for the lack of instruments, “And a 1.. and a 2.. and a 1-2-3-!”

The melody was cheerful and bouncy, with highly simplified lyrics. It spoke of overly exaggerated feats of heroism and funny, benign attributes for the sake of comedy. About fighting evil in the rays of the moon and then making breakfast for all the forest animals by the rays of the sun. Brushing her hair with bird beaks, and then saving cars on a hillside. A symbol of heroism, life of cheer, and comedically over the top feats. Exactly the kind of song one would think a bunch of little kids would make up about a tall tale. A legend of the Everfree, the story of the Tree Angle Wysteria, in a ballad by the children she’d saved.

The rainbow of light formed around them as a song chorus built up against the howling winds. And this time, the radiance started to form a shape.

==========

The spiral fire continued to crash into the oncoming living avalanche that was Eurus.

More and more scars showed up across the reptilian as he put everything they had and then some into holding Eurus back. Irys and Battra were all doing their best to try to get its attention as Anguirus threw himself into one of the other lunging arms in a bid to slow it down.

The monster king was far more powerful than his predecessors, who themselves were thought of as incarnations of destruction or even kami by some; and not without good reason. But he had his limits, and maintaining a spiral fire for upwards of a minute or more was certainly taxing.

His best hope was that other heroes would know what to do with the time he could buy them.

It was a hope that found itself vindicated. Another light shot past his towering form and rocketed into the even more gargantuan mass of Eurus. Except unlike a rainbow of light like before, this one was forming a mass with a defined shape.

It was jerry-rigged with the full extents of Loyalty, Honesty, Kindness, and Generosity working whilst still missing most of Laughter and a cobbled together composite Magic. But, focused through a combined song it offered a glimpse of what potential there was. And said potential came in the form of a pale, almost blinding mass in the shape of an alicorn crashing into Eurus after briefly growing to a size exceeding even the kaiju. It struck Eurus in the arm currently clashing with the Spiral Fire and caused the windigo to recoil backwards, letting out a shriek of genuine pain as cracks formed along his arm.

Godzilla felt his focus briefly divert again to those behind him, his body absorbing a few of the radiating energies of the burst as benign pride welled up to push some of those painful memories and nightmares of Leviathans and Burning Earths aside.

He could not stop Eurus. That much was very clear. But the Bearers, some of which had become his pupils, could. The thought of the girls and Celestia came to his mind fondly, along with all else Equestria had shown and given him to know.

These humans and ponies, always so surprising. Such magnificent powers and yet living in such relative peace. He might have found fulfillment since his unexpected exile here as a teacher, but being that had arguably taught him more. Be it with the rulers, his compatriots, his mother, new family, or students; it had shown someone who used to still think themselves just a monster deep down that they still had more to give.

The Bearers were young, inexperienced, and could have no context for some of the things they would be going up against and already were faced with. He’d been there too, once.

This was going to be their triumph, especially if they could hurt Eurus like that without a full set. They just needed time, and if there was anything he could do he could at least get them that. After all, for however little he bore, he did have some magic of his own after coming here. It was all or nothing now.

The aftermath of the elemental alicorn’s explosion left numerous cracks in Eurus’ body even as he weathered the assault.

Godzilla smirked and, seizing instead of averting the memories of before, he focused with a strength he didn’t even know he had left in him, exceeding his limits.

Concentric rings formed to encircle the beam as glowing patches ignited over Godzilla’s form. Like light through magnification, the beam nearly doubled in intensity and continued as a torrent of raw power to match might with the greatest monstrosity any of them had ever seen. Eurus flinched from the impact as the spiral fire was mixed with the ultima burst. The magic laden therein was not from the Goddess directly, but there was something else in there. Not as directly deadly to it, but noteworthy all the same.

Eurus, the monster of a bygone age, though they knew it not in specifics, actually felt the impact. This wasn’t just a radioactive heat and plasma ray like before, there was something barely perceptible but ancient in the onslaught. Something similar to the kind of magic Grogar himself had. The faint essence of a destroyer deity not too different from Grogar, or something that had once been one.

Eurus lunged and made contact with the comparatively tiny Godzilla just as the torrent became a tidal wave of energy and exploded, capitalizing on the opening left by the Elemental attack. The energy tore through Eurus’ arm, blowing the Eastern Wind backwards. The resulting explosion actually managed to floor the multi-hundred-meter monstrosity, sending them crashing backwards in a tsunami that rapidly froze over with their presence. The Monster King meanwhile was sent flying backwards. He hit the ground back-first and flickered.

Godzilla’s blazing form went out and his scarred body dimmed before flickering out. Magical energy flew out of him and back towards Celestia as what was once a multi-story dinosaur became a barely conscious man. His fall of several stories was broken by several pairs of arms, Celestia with the help of many others, caught and slowed his plummet safely.

He knew he had to look absolutely horrible with how old wounds were on full display with a few new ones. But, despite how the aura of the windigo typically engendered such dread; he could admit he felt the opposite. His eyes closed and he held a hand up, too weak to get a word out.

After a few moments, someone took it and he could feel his compatriots. Friends, allies, students, all around as the two he’d exerted himself to save; Aria Blaze and Sunset Shimmer, came running after seeing his collapse. Sunset Shimmer’s power linked him to them for just a moment before he passed out.

The former unicorn stood up, one hand having held Godzilla’s and the other the whole group of Bearers.

“Is… Sensei?” Dash croaked slightly as she reached forwards.

Sunset nodded slightly, “He’ll be okay, so long as we can finish this.”

Eurus burst out of the storming seas, tall as a mountain still despite conspicuously missing an arm from the shoulder down and visibly shaking with his movements. His roars carried over the cityscape.

She managed a brave smile despite the dread risking coming back, “Told me he had faith in us.”

And his last contribution was a reminder they were not in this alone. That, even with Laughter largely absent to grant courage, kept the fires going. Anguirus grunted loudly to get their attention, walking over and looking down at the group before keeping his eyes trained on the lack of flames at the pier now. The sudden shift to more explosive power and Eurus’ advance had snuffed the fires out.

Celestia put two and two together and nodded, “His plan must have been to charge up Irys, she can absorb fire to enter an enhanced state brimming with Terran magic. Terran and Equestrian magic can’t coexist easily, so she’d be a huge boon to keep them covered until we got everyone together to bring Eurus down for good. Speaking of, how are you four?”

Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy did admittedly look quite drained; but they were still up and standing despite all the exertion and running around. Each, whilst lacking in their transformations, did fish out their necklaces to confirm the glimmer of their Elements was strong as it ever was before. In fact, in some ways it seemed even brighter.

“Not gonna be flying again anytime soon,” Dash quipped but she summoned up a smile and thumbs up, “But we ain’t out yet. Feels like a sore muscle all over but I don’t feel not like me.”

“Which means your magic will likely return later,” Twilight smiled before a part of her mind bitterly noted, ‘if we live through this’. She was keen not to verbalize that and considered their options.

Godzilla setting up the fire was a great idea but it was out, so they’d just have to get someone else. Someone that one member of the group knew well. Someone who would likely be near another they needed in Pinkie Pie. Eurus’ intrusion had caught everyone flat footed when the initial split up had been to handle Boreas as another group kept Zephyrus off their backs.

Time to change the windigo’s momentum.

“Sunset, can you give a message to Anguirus? With all this storm and wind, I don’t want to risk just saying it aloud,” Twilight huffed as she looked out into the horizon, and the enormous monstrosity which occupied a good chunk of it. With all the crazy powers these windigo had, overhearing things in their gale forces wouldn’t be too surprising and she wasn’t taking more risks.

The combined Elements were their best bet to offing Eurus and stopping all of this. But they weren’t the only ones in this fight. When Sunset transmitted her message, Anguirus snorted and nodded affirmatively before moving forward to tank another salvo of razor wind aimed at the bearers. Shrieking in a manner the windigo couldn’t possibly understand, the spiky guardian beast called up his airborne allies for the new plan.

Any attempts at caution around the windigo was thrown aside in reckless abandon to throw everything they had at it. Not even bothering to dodge or block outside of when was absolutely necessary. Their opponent lacking an arm and being knee deep in the surf helped to slow them, even if it was a perilous venture getting close and risking getting mangled by enormous claws or shot out of the air with a wind blast.

They couldn't keep this up for long but they were determined and tough enough to keep it up for just a few minutes. With luck they would only have to keep it up for one.

============

To call the circumstance Zephyrus found himself in "outmatched" would be a gross understatement. To call it much of a conflict at all would be bad comedy when suddenly they got rushed by every single Element Bearer and ally at once. Without any big distractions or an ample number of portals left, they had nothing to keep them covered.

At every single turn when they tried to counter, Frostbite Sparkle just got overwhelmed. Attempting to collapse a building on top of Adagio just resulted in Gaea blocking the rubble and Megalon busting through it to kick away the debris. Trying to loose a blast of telekinesis into Megalon meant taking focus away from Gigan and getting blindsided by him teleporting behind them. Trying to dump multiple attackers into portals leading back to Eurus' realm had initially some success but Adagio kept hitting them from range and breaking focus as Gaea kept blocking the entrances with her vines to keep anybody from falling in or physically grabbing and pulling them to safety. Even with Sonata and Pinkie less active than the others, there were more moving parts to keep track of and now there were so many attackers that trying to split them apart for isolation didn't work.

He was already well beyond overwhelmed and going to lose soon as is, but something else just made it worse.

An attempt at slashing open a portal both to intercept a loosed song magic burst by Adagio and Gaea combined just resulted in the empty air sparking. Zephyrus felt a change in the air just before looking over in horror to see as multiple Bearers closed in on them. Even without obvious powers, the likes of Rainbow Dash was sprinting towards them right alongside a still transformed Sunset Shimmer.

And two particular members of the pack, ironically the two without a crystal, is what caused the biggest jar to the windigo. Celestia and Twilight closing in caused the Western Wind to shriek in pain as the Element of Magic, reacting to its fellow Elements getting closer and two potential Bearers for it amongst their number, resumed its rebellion. Zephyrus could physically feel himself wasting away, like parts of him were rendered void due to close proximity. Whatever countdown he had estimated for himself for the time he had left was rapidly plummeting. Measured in dozens of seconds rather than minutes.

No more new portals could be opened, no escape routes made or counters to attack from. And all the while, the human Twilight's memories doggedly hounded them.

Zephyrus had only a moment to react when a massive pulling of telekinesis was launched outwards in an omnidirectional shockwave just to blowback the first wave of attackers for a brief second before the approaching Element Bearers could close in. The first pack would already be right on top of them the moment the second was up with Gaea, Megalon, Gigan, and Adagio all within ten meters of them. With only pre-existing and now scarce portals to work with now, his eyes quickly fell upon the last remaining gateway to the void. The pestering agony from the element around their neck burned, now seemingly reacting alongside the siren heart also held captive. In seconds it would tear him apart.

In a few other seconds his opponents with no concerns to pragmatism would absolutely dogpile them. He had lost and was going to die.

He could only get to the portal in time. It wasn't a matter of winning this confrontation, there was no hope of that. It was a matter of denying them their victory. Zephyrus created multiple shock waves as he barreled forward for the portal. Gigan was blown backwards into Adagio. Megalon got thrown through Gaea’s floral constructs.

Zephyrus crashed into the ground but hit it running, propelling them with successive shock waves in a mad dash for the portal as their magic started to fly out of control with the Bearers getting close. In some ways he was surprised he hadn't thought of this. If the element and to a degree the siren heart were necessary for victory, he could have dumped them both in that void and they would have been borderline irretrievable.

In the end he could suppose it was some of his own pride and hubris, for whatever emotions he was capable of expressing. He wanted to cause physical torment and agony while doing the conflict himself whilst wearing the face of someone else. To have a second chance at causing mass destruction in a physical body. He might have been much more erudite and contemplative than his compatriots, but at the end of any day he was still a demon. And a demon only existed to cause misery.

Much as some of his plans hinged on unleashing the strongest of them, he didn't want to let Eurus have all the fun. And all the plotting, all the planning, all of the wretched agony he had inflicted time and time again; to lead up to this.

All for the irony of someone who posed no threat whatsoever to meddle in last minute affairs.

"TWILIIIIGHT!"

The scream managed to cut through the storm and caused the body of Frostbite Sparkle, not Zephyrus, to briefly pause halfway from the portal. The cause made herself known standing next to said portal, next to a very particular statue that had thus far survived the destruction.

-No…-

Zephyrus felt the body, woken up more by the element and heart conflicting with his magic, act on its own and look over to lock gazes with a sobbing Wallflower Blush. In the exact same spot they had first met and what was supposed to be the former's last act in this mortal coil. In the milliseconds that were passing by, Wallflower reached for their face and neck.

-NO!-

Wallflower Blush's eyes briefly shrunk before relaxing. She hiccuped, blood spilling out of her lips. Zephyrus commanded the body to follow through, and yet it resisted. His eyes, for what they amounted to, snapped open as Frostbite Sparkle’s eyes trembled. A tear ran down her cheek as a droplet of blood hit the ground. Rammed through her gut and erupting out of Wallflower Blush’s back, several icy talons made of dark magic began to melt and not because they were covered in hot blood.

The bonds suppressing the soul within Frostbite Sparkle, forged by Zephyrus to assume full control of the body, started to crack, and break.

-“No…”- Zephyrus hissed as recollections filtered through the mind in broken pieces.

Brief flashes of this very statue they were standing next to, the very same young woman standing in front of Twilight.

Outside of the body, with Frostbite Sparkle stuck in place as Wallflower staggered forward, the demon ascended remained motionless as her only friend in the world tightly grabbed the hand rammed through her and gently wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a hug. The cloud of disembodied memories at last caught up and flew into their rightful owner. Flashes of light scanned across Frostbite Sparkle’s whited-out eyes as the demonic magic induced gaze lifted from her expression.

The broken memories were fully restored, the human Twilight Sparkle at last re-experiencing the first time she met her best friend. The bonds holding her soul captive, now that it’s sense of self had been restored, shattered.

-“NO NO NO NO!”- Zephyrus shrieked as Wallflower managed to just barely look her compatriot in the eyes. Tearful gaze met tearful gaze as Frostbite Sparkle wept whilst still frozen in place.

Wallflower, shakingly, moved the hand across the shoulders to touch at the necklace which didn’t repulse her away on account of Twilight’s subconscious will.

Frostbite Sparkle’s body twitched and contorted, Zephyrus’ true face briefly overlaying Twilight’s transformed state as a scream brimming with pure spite and hatred, reserved for a select few, called out.

“USELESS WRETCH!” Zephyrus roared as he forced control of the body in that moment, wrenching Wallflower’s hand away in a way that popped a joint out of alignment before he kicked the mortally wounded in the gut.

Twilight Sparkle felt Wallflower’s hand slide off her own, fingers trailing over the skin as the ice had melted away. In slow-motion she could see each individual digit pull off a few droplets of blood as her best friend’s body hit the floor. Zephyrus willed their body into the hell that lay beyond the portal, but Frostbite again did not move forward.

One half of their face was overlaid by the demon, screaming inarticulately with a manner that sounded like constantly shattering glass; the sharpness of pure spite at the last-minute interference. The other half was turned down into a growing glower of horror and shock, tears streaming from their eyes. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t even sure what she was doing, too overtaken by the contrast of what she saw and what she remembered. The memory of seeing Wallflower at that very spot months ago, smiling like it was the first time she ever had in public as she stood in the presence of who would become her best friend. Against the sight of her own best friend laying on her side, an increasing pool of blood growing from underneath her as she helplessly twitched and spasmed like a dying insect.

Twilight didn’t think, she just acted.

She tore at herself, fighting Zephyrus in every manner possible for a scrap of interference and control over her own body. The windigo cursed her, cursed everything in tongues and words none understood but registered the intent of.

A hand clutched around one of the necklaces on her neck and Twilight managed to wrench it off. With so many parties closing in on her, her sobbing eye turned to lock gazes with who would mean most to. Through her grit teeth and sobbing eyes, the girl attempted whatever apology she could possibly summon; for nothing would’ve been nearly enough in her mind, and she threw it before Zephyrus, still controlling the other half of her body, could stop her. The siren heart went airborne, and Sonata Dusk’s own quivering eyes stayed trained upon it.

She might have fallen over instantly upon reaching to catch it had Megalon not stayed to hold and support her from falling. And when her aim seemed to come up short, a pink hand held onto her own as the other reached further out and caught the airborne treasure. Pinkie Pie turned and reunited heart with body. Sonata reached for the Element of Laughter and pulled it off herself. In perfect synchronization, she and Pinkie faced one another, gleefully smiled in sheer relief and victory, and put the other’s necklace back on its rightful owner.

They embraced as a light grew between them and both turned to tackle-hug their compatriot.

There was a burst of magic and light, with a sound of music. The wind from the storm blown back as the goliath form of Megalon came erupting upwards from the ground with a single drill raised towards the skies. Magic was swirling around him, that of a song carrying the tones of pure beneficence as taught by a beloved aunt. It shielded the kaiju from the storm and kept him stable with his compatriots. Standing on the stump of his other arm, held flat in front of his chest, a fully restored Sonata Dusk and energized Pinkie Pie stood together.

The latter had her elemental enhancements fully remastered and brighter than ever. Holding onto her hand, the magic was copied into Sonata as she continued to sing her heart out. Not just for the first time since her mutilation, but possibly the greatest in her life. She too ascended and soon was surrounded by a cloak of magical constructs, resembling a pair of fins for wings but otherwise in clear emulation of a Bearer’s state.

Several wind blasts from Eurus’ battle with the kaiju still managed to trench through that part of town. Megalon let out a trilling chirp, roaring backwards defiantly at the monstrosity as he worked to shield his friends. His compound eyes were locked upon the battle as Battra latched onto Eurus’ face to fire her beams point-blank into his eyes, Irys dive-bombed his remaining arm that had Anguirus pinned; and the free-ankylosaur wasted no time rolling into a ball to literally launch himself up at the giant's face using their arm as a ramp to collide with Eurus' cheek.

“Tell them the plan!” Aria Blaze shouted to Sunset Shimmer, who turned to run but was grabbed by Gigan. Perhaps in a brief moment of consideration towards the last time he grabbed a member of the party, the cyborg remembered to hold a hand up and wave it in a non-threatening gesture before teleporting them away to close the distance quicker.

Princess Twilight Sparkle really tried not to think about how that looked from the outside as she maintained a forward charge with the others to all close in on Frostbite Sparkle at the same time. Telekinetic blasts, the last of the windigo’s power, smashed into several compatriots and blew them backwards several paces. Adagio, Aria, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, all forced back just a fraction of a moment to put her at the front of the pack. The next blast was aimed at her, and Twilight braced, only to feel a contrary wave blow past her and intercept the hit. A pair of footsteps rapidly beat the ground beside her.

Out of the corner of her eye and through the shield of her arms, Princess Twilight saw her mentor running alongside her; radiating magic flaring up more than it had before to protect them both. A relieved smile briefly crossed her lips as they charged forward together through the last line of defense, the rest of them only a few paces behind them as Zephyrus’ magical strength had left him.

The Princess of Magic looked forward as her other self was holding Zephyrus still as best she could to avert any other magical assault on the party, but in their death throes the demon was not making it easy or simple. Her tearful eye looked upon her other self, the heroine princess from another world, and perhaps a thousand errant thoughts crossed the native human’s mind.

All of this started and was manipulated in some way or another because she had wanted to be like her. This very demon coaxed her along and deceived her into thinking just because they had the same name, the same face, and some of the same personality traits; that they were the same. That she could be a suitable alternative to her hero when this world was under danger from a threat from beyond. That surely the other Twilight from Equestria had risen to the challenge when she was confronted with the same situation and that’s what made her great.

‘Sci-Twi’ as some used to jeeringly call her could tell herself a thousand times how manipulative and cunning Zephyrus was. That he could have arranged for anyone else to wind up in the same situation, and that might not be entirely incorrect. Didn’t change the fact this was her doing at the end of the day. She just wanted to do everything she could to make it right.

The human Twilight tore the Element of Magic off from her body and held the crystal free, looking right at her counterpart as the milliseconds ticked by. Five meters away, four meters away; each step closing it.

The human Twilight’s eye widened in pain as her hand, still wet with Wallflower’s blood, twitched. The other arm, still claw in a single talon of ice on one finger, was tightly clenched around her throat with Zephyrus’ aura visibly surrounding it. The awful scraping of shattering glass in a continuous, raucous chorus, saying outwards as the demon damned and cursed his former host; driving the talon into her throat. His other arm briefly manifested around her hand to yank it backwards. Her fingers unclenched on reflex and the Element crystal went flying backwards towards the portal.

Twilight and Celestia saw it all.

The Element airborne, the jarred and sobbing face of the other Twilight, Zephyrus’ ghostly image disintegrating away as he grinned with a head-splitting smile; and the icy talon digging in further towards an artery and windpipe with intent to tear it open. The skin was already broken and the windpipe punctured.

There was only a second to act and they did what their hearts had told them, the facet which made them worthy of being Bearers in the first place. Both grabbed onto the windigo's arm about to slit the other Twilight’s throat and pulled it away safely. The airborne element, with such a showing of beneficence by two Bearers, glowed like the sun and washed over them all. The surge of magic briefly manifested empowered forms upon both former alicorns, radiating the light back into the possessed body and demon.

Zephyrus' smile vanished as he was torn apart in every way imaginable, rending asunder the manifest form of Frostbite Sparkle with him.

Princess Twilight Sparkle and Princess Celestia, back in the states of completely normal women, knelt to the ground with their hands putting pressure on the bleeding throat of a second Twilight Sparkle. The natural born human was mute but her eyes said her ‘Sorrys’ all the same. The distant glimmer of the Element of Magic’s crystal flickered in the dark void as the portal closed up behind it. Not a tear was shed over it as the others arrived on scene.

Nor when they fearlessly looked at the battle of giants and ran towards it.

=======

Irys was sent rocketing into the ground after getting swatted out of the air, bombarded by several follow-up blasts of razor-edged wind. The gyaos whimpered as she attempted to rise, unable to get out of the way from further onslaught. A shadow passed overhead and the very first foe the apex gyaos had ever battled in this new world threw herself in the way to defend her. Battra also bore mana and also was highly resistant to the dark magic laden in the wind blasts, but Eurus had more than enough power to still cause some damage even with the dampening effect.

And while he was not empowered by the loss of Zephyrus, Eurus did sense it. Sensing he was the last windigo in existence, and that his time was almost certainly limited. But, for the time he had left, he could do plenty. What didn’t do the job at range, could be managed up close.

Especially after he sensed, through his tether to the void, what had been lost within the abyss before the portal closed. His scheming brother finally proved useful for more than just bringing forth the eastern wind.

Trudging through the surf, Eurus finally made landfall, enormous feet creating massive sinkholes in the beach and freezing the surf in place as the over half kilometer tall monstrosity towered over his comparatively tiny opposition. He made to stomp on the two downed flyers when Battra grabbed Irys and rolled them out of the way, flopping across the streets on torn wings to get clear of the gargantuan foot that came crushing down as a dropped mountain. The explosion of debris rocked over the both of them as Anguirus came whirling around in a thunder ball, smashing into Eurus’ knee and pushing the foot backwards.

When Irys and Battra got to their feet, the moth having helped the bat up, both were clearly well worn. The latter was missing several horns and a leg, and the former’s wing membranes could be favorably compared to tattered, frayed curtains hanging off her fingers.

Then, like a pin drop moment in time, all of that changed when several spheres went flying over their heads. The projectiles, each about the size of a small car, struck the shoreline and combusted, napalm growing across the pier and shore with increasing rapidity with follow-up salvos. Irys perked up as Battra chirped in mild confusion. The Guardian Moth could swear she heard what sounded like someone rapid-fire hacking up loogies or spitballs whilst firing the napalm grenades.

Megalon’s familiar, trilling call echoed over the storm in a prolonged utterance declaring war. Having put his compatriots down, the cyborg eagerly whirled his remaining hand-drill in a taunt as he charged forward with it extended in a ridiculous manner; still spitting napalm the whole way. He rushed past Irys and Battra, waving his stump of an arm briefly and chirping a hello before resuming his shrieking war cry. Getting airborne, the cyborg flew up to and peppered Eurus’ body with thunderbolts and latched onto his face; ramming his drill into the empty eye socket of the demon. It failed to do any real damage, but it did get the giant’s focus and ire.

He was grabbed, squeezed, and sent rocketing back to the ground like a comet after Eurus blasted him away. He was back up and doggedly charging the windigo within a few moments, heedless to his bodily damage and sprinting like a homicidal angry lemming.

Anguirus barked as he ran over to Battra and Irys, the two Guardian Beasts looking at the fire. Lea roared at the two siblings before getting airborne herself, flying up to fire her prism beams directly into Eurus’ other eye. Her own body had mana, much like the Guardian Beasts, and whilst her normal spells and thus protections weren’t working, she had plenty to offer. Plus, observation had clued them into one thing.

Eurus might have been a demon, but to manifest in the physical world he needed a physical body. And a physical body could be blinded. And man nor giant alike had a hard time focusing when two giant angry bugs were crawling over and stinging their faces.

But through the mayhem the two insectoid kaiju caused, Eurus could still detect things without true sight. One of the very few things that truly gave him pause. Harmony’s magic, a lot of it somehow, moving right for him.

Some in their powered up forms, most looking like mundane humans, but their presence somehow generating a power all unto itself as they fearlessly charged despite their weakness. The fact they pressed on despite the loss of magic was proof enough of their worthiness as Bearers and of their new fate in the sirens and Retainer.

Courage led by the fear-disrupting Element of Laughter as the ground beneath them gave way. A mesh of vines and root work surging up from underfoot to literally allow the group to surf downtown to get closer. A blast of shredding air was sent directly at the party, but Battra Lea flew into the path and took the hit. Her mana based magic dampened the blow enough for the kaiju to avoid being thrown back, lowering her head to catch the airborne mass of vines. It landed atop her horned brow and wrapped around it, allowing the kaiju to swoop about and fly forth as the steed to the party. Each of the Bearers holding hands, with three sirens joined in hands around them and a Retainer behind them.

All singing, all uniting their powers together. The Elements creating the surging tide, with the Retainer bolstering it and the sirens complimenting it. Hymnia’s lullaby to banish evil was not born directly of Harmony’s making, but as a force of benevolence and bonds it couldn’t be anything but traces of her. And with the three born of windigo sin all emulating the copying the magic they were exposed to the most, that of the Elements, it couldn’t do anything but help it.

Eurus wasted no time splitting the skyline with a shriek, like an avalanche of shattering glass as wind and frost barreled at the ground. Only for two forms to get in the way and block it. The fires at the portside had been completely absorbed, fully restoring and bolstering the guardians meant to be fueled by the one with flames. That firstborn Guardian Beast, Anguirus, stood shoulder to shoulder with the last found, Irys. The symbol for ‘Eta’ stenciled across Irys’ restored wings was shining brightly, complimenting a dim, but present flickering illumination across her brother’s form.The echo of the emblem of the ‘Alpha’ beast shown back at Eurus from Anguirus’ crown of horns.

And the wind blasts and snow just ceased to be between them. Not even a residual amount of dark magic laden wind made it through to menace the group of Element Bearers with two bodyguards surrounding them in their aura.

The glimmering brilliance atop the floral mass across Battra's brow shone like a sun and combined. A brilliant, rainbow alicorn made of pure magic and song grew in size to exceed that of the kaiju themselves. Swirling around and in support of it, the finned and fluked body of a similarly hued mermare engendered by the siren melody. And yet, grand as it was, it seemed like something was still missing.

Eurus bellowed at the opposition and raised a hand to the sky, darkening with intensifying clouds as the waters around them all turned to ice. Streaks of lightning assailed his face to no effect, but it did work to briefly obscure the windigo's line of sight. A sneer and a swat by the demon sent the origin of the lightning, a metallic horn atop a cyborg kaiju, flying. Their part done, Megalon hurtled through the air but managed to break his fall by rapidly beating his wings and slowing himself down. By the time he hit the ground in human form, the bruised cyborg was cracking a grin and shooting the party atop Battra a thumbs up.

Atop the floral mass, only two left were not singing. In fact, they felt briefly frozen in time in the midst of it all, focused on each other.

“Such an alliance, never before seen,” Celestia looked to her faithful student and beamed proudly, “And it was ultimately your doing.”

“I just.. Did the best I could,” Twilight sighed, looking forward into the enormity that lay before them. Eurus was reacting to their threat, but, if he was capable of it, he didn’t seem afraid despite suffering such damage already.

“It was the best I could do,” Her head tilted downwards, remembering all the pain and the strife that had led up to this moment.

The kidnapping, the battles, the frayed nerves, revelations, and so much conflict. Junior, Lea, her human friends, Gigan, X, the sirens. And even if she knew of their blame and was not supportive of them, the fates of Wallflower and the other Twilight. Not to say the least of all the devastation to the town. All this, because three and then four demons got their claws into two exploitable lackeys; and unleashed it all on everyone.

And for what? What did they ever do the Windigos? This wasn’t revenge, it was just pure spite and malice. If such forces of destruction existed….

She looked to her friends giving it their all, and to her very empty, broken necklace.

It seemed like such twisted irony. In the 11th hour, after she helped get everyone together; that she’d be the one unable to help.

But a hand perking up her chin said otherwise, “You got once dire enemies to fight side by side, helped bring more and more to stand together. And you, you made friends with who’d be your foes, Twilight.”

Celestia beamed warmly, “And that is more about the bonds and magic in them, than any crystal could help you with.”

Twilight let the smile spread to her, even if her brow remained lowered. Half of the Bearers still lacked their transformed states, and their Elements had dimmed. Not the mention her totally powerless form, “Wouldn’t hurt to have it now though.”

“No, it wouldn’t… but, you also showed this old teacher of yours a new lesson,” Celestia beamed as the empty space for the Element of Magic on her neck glimmered a bit brighter when she offered her hand, “The Element doesn’t make the Bearer, just brings out what was already; always, there… Maybe two halves can make a whole?”

The same empty spot for the Element flickered on Twilight’s collar.

Twilight felt eyes upon her and looked at each. The Bearers, Gaea, the sirens, each was glancing back at her mid-focus. Each made a chain to offer a hand.

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Magic, Eventide Hymn of the Sirens, and friends to all present, took the chance at a simple math problem. What would happen when two Elementless Bearers of the same type joined a chorus with a bunch of empowered Bearers, a millennia old gestalt pony-turned-human of an alicorn, a Wood Nymph, and three sea sorceresses also turned human who were also a millennia old in a different way?

If such forces of destruction and or evil existed, surely an opposite had to as well in creation. It was time to see what they could drum up.

Instantly the magic doubled, then tripled. The siren magic copied and spread what it was exposed to, and now a reconstituted Element of Magic was in play between the two alicorns. It was like a boost to those seemingly lacking anymore magic, restarting what had been lost. The magic flowed from the sirens to Gaea and then to the Bearers who'd overtaxed themselves earlier, each lacking the state returned to their empowered forms instantly. The combined Elemental magic, Creation magic, merged and multiplied upon itself every moment. The ethereal form of an alicorn encircled with a mermare coming into full existed before merging. Eurus gawked as the glowing mass exceeded himself in size and instantly banished away the storm clouds. The brilliant mass was near impossible to look at directly, but all could hear it. A united chorus that rang with wind chimes, upon a brilliant form carrying a pronged horn.

Not Harmony, but something new. A glimpse of something else different and yet the same in power.

Grand King Ghidorah's final moments were a glimpse of Destruction, and he took comfort in it in whatever strange way was possible for him.

Eurus' final moments were a glimpse of Creation, and he screamed.

Across the city, a recovered Monster X and Godzilla watched from either side in a mix of awe and pride. Flash Sentry woke up and gazed upon it from the window of the parked van. Gigan stood in the midst of two unconscious forms, letting a smile creep over his face.

And Creation and Extinction gazed upon the event with pride and quiet in either.

Eurus was lifted off his feet and shrieked. For the very first time, he spoke in an articulate way as he was blasted towards the sky. He looked at himself, as if horrified. And for the briefest of instants, the monstrosity of form he bore changed into something majestic. An echo of bygone beneficence called out a name in hatred before he joined the hereafter.

“GROOOOOGAAAAAAAARR!”

The light fades, the snow was gone, and so were the monsters. Anguirus’ ringing cry was shot into the heavens as Battra, Irys, and Megalon joined in. Glimmering radiance fell from the sky and upon all involved as the kaiju ran out of energy and de-morphed to human form. Battra gasped at her torn ribs and broken arm, side effects of missing or busted legs in her true form, were knit back together. Monster X breathed in deeply as the various cuts and bruises across his body were healed away. Godzilla sighed contently as his scars vanished from sight again and his body felt itself restored. Megalon, for his part, was cheerfully running up the beach line, waving his now restored arm with the metal components even back.

Gigan looked at the plating on his own forearm patch itself back up, passively wondering how magic knew what ‘counted’ as him or not before remembering his motto. Magic just made no sense, stop questioning it.

The sound of two breaths did however catch his attention and he groaned before reaching down to pick two bodies up.

=======

The sight would have been comical had it not happened after such a calamitous confrontation. Five kaiju turned human, two alicorns and a unicorn also turned human, three sirens also turned human, and six actual humans but transformed into altered states; all slumped around several tables and pulled-together-chairs. Immaculately, one single restaurant had managed to survive the devastation that had leveled a huge section of the town. It was again a thankful reminder that most people had wisely cleared out due to Gigan screaming at them whilst transformed that initial time, let alone the fiasco they no doubt saw at the parking garage roof when they destroyed Notus. Or the half kilometer tall Eurus stomping around. They'd stopped to search and found not a soul, injured or worse, in the rubble. Even the animals had wisely wigged out when the storms blew in.

Which left them all here, half collapsed inside a miraculously intact Waffle House. Rainbow Dash was slumped backwards onto a chair on account of her wings getting in the way, nursing a glass of milk. Irys was scarfing down thawed hotdogs and bacon to a degree one would wonder where a lean woman like her put it all. Sunset Shimmer looked like she was fighting to stay awake with another cup of coffee. Anguirus and Rarity had flat out passed out, foreheads slumped onto the table. Sonata, back to her typical self, was humming a tune whilst having fun with the leftover crayons and crosswords. Megalon was half-asleep whilst sampling various sodas, as Lea proceeded to dump sugar pack after sugar pack into some juice. Aria and X hadn't let go of one another since they got reunited, occupying a bench to themselves as Fluttershy came over with a waffle plate. The source was from the busied kitchen, where part of the posse had managed to summon the strength and experience to get the wares working again.

Or, technically speaking, Pinkie had the strength and vigor to keep going like a giant energizer bunny. The rest like Gaea, Applejack, Adagio, and Celestia were just kinda following her lead due to being way more worn out. In a sight that was bound to be surreal to anyone from Terra, Godzilla was the one acting as the waiter. Evidently it had become a running gag to send him out to pick up orders from the guard once everypony figured out how much he could haul.

It was no small miracle given how worn out everyone, well, everyone except Pinkie Pie, was that they noticed someone missing.

"Are you sure he's okay?" Gaea Everfree muttered as she gave Megalon another soda. Gloriosa hadn't powered down yet, like the rest of them. Giving a surreal sight to the Bearers as the 'Tree Angel' walking around with an apron on as the image of Godzilla waiting tables might be to a Terran.

"The magic wave worked on machinery, somehow," Adagio added as she stepped around her..(girlfriend? They still had some things to work out), to avoid hitting her with the hardlight magic fins still attached to her, "Bolts-For-Brains reported in, he's fine. Just didn't want to teleport considering..."

Gloriosa, Gaea Everfree still, understood, but remained silent for the moment, double checking on Sonata and how the blue siren was up on her feet and in high spirits to make sure this wasn’t somehow a dream. Last time she saw Sonata talking and walking unassisted was before this whole fiasco with frost demons happened, and it was almost as surreal as the fact she and everyone else who had one were still in enchanted forms.

"So uh…" Applejack muttered as she came out with another flapjack plate, privy to how she still had large equine ears to flick as she did just that, "Is the off switch for these powers stuck or something? Cus everybody is still lit up like fireworks."

Several groans of acknowledgement followed, confirming that nobody could power down. This was something Twilight was still puzzling hard at, as she looked at her own reflection in a cup of tea.

"Considering variables, faithful student?"

“You didn’t happen to get any glimpses of future sight when you slept recently to tell us what to do, have you?” Twilight groaned slightly as her now longer, equine-like ears flopped down slightly.

Celestia sighed and patted at her shoulder, “When I get those glimpses, they rarely give strong details. And up until today I thought myself void of magic.”

Celestia considered her own magical enchantments, “I had thought myself void of worthiness for my Elements as well. Seems this trip was mentally illuminating for a lot of us.”

“Any chance of nodding off to see if there’s something we’re supposed to do?”

“Considering you’re asking me this after I downed a cup of coffee Young Miss Pie made me?” Celestia deadpanned as she wiggled her mug in her fingers, having gotten dexterity down over the past days, “Not likely. Besides, hopefully not jinxing it when I say this, the danger has passed. How did you ‘power down’ prior?”

“Usually it just seemed to level out and dissipate after a while when it happened after playing music,” Rarity tiredly groaned as she rubbed at her temple before glancing down at her glimmering necklace and the Element of Generosity, “Though we didn’t have these back then.”

“Or after settling things with a certain She-Demon, you all at least had an Element of Magic with you at the time,” Sunset Shimmer muttered whilst rubbing at the back of her head, puzzling at her own necklace.

The lack of Element and yet still brilliant glow off Twilight and Celestia became all the more noticeable to the group paying close attention.

“Maybe but…” Twilight puzzled some more, able to still palpably ‘feel’ the Element crystal’s tether even as she remembered vividly it being lost to the void, “The fact I could use that crystal at all confirms the Elements here are indeed exactly like those in Equestria. Which, given by all accounts they’ve been here for years, means any doubts magic was native to this world or not can be put to rest… But, maybe the missing Element means turning it off is more difficult now without a complete set?”

“Well, I guess I could get used to being taller eventually,” Gaea Everfree sighed as she touched passively at the coloration around her eyes, “Don’t think I can pass this off as a tattoo however… But why would the sirens and I remain like this anyways, we’re not Element Bearers.”

“Any theories for that, ‘Eventide’?” Aria deadpanned as she leaned into X nonetheless but perked a brow at her honorary podmate.

“Bearer or not, you do seem tethered now,” Celestia chimed in, “And Gloriosa’s position clearly was related to the Elements. It took the Elements to destroy the windigos, but the benign song magic of the sirens and that of Gaea Everfree are clearly related to it. Perhaps some great act beyond defeating a great evil known is in order?”

Everyone in the diner paused before looking right at the former alicorn, and then outside at any last indication of some fifth windigo they somehow missed and unanimously prayed didn’t exist.

Birds were chirping and the snow that remained just continued melting across the broken town.

Twilight spoke for all of them when she audibly sighed in relief, “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about that… I’m working on a hypothesis but-”

She looked at each of the siren’s necklaces with a knowing consideration, “I need a moment to know for sure.”

“Well, if you need them for a test, I trust you with it, Eventide Hymn,” Adagio Dazzle shrugged, “You got us into this situation to begin with and got us this far, I trust you to get us past it.”

“Are you ever going to stop calling me that?” Twilight managed to channel the same lowbrow deadpanning Aria had when she spoke.

“Awww naaw! As far as we’re concerned, you’re always part of the pod now!” Sonata Dusk chirped happily as she hugged the purple semi-alicorn from behind and perched her head atop Twilight’s, rubbing her cheek to the back of Twilight’s hardlight horn, “Oooh now that I can sing again, we gotta try some numbers! Your friends can pile in too and we’ll try not to outdo-each other! We’re not topping the top that we all blasted my uncle into smithereens but we can try!”

Adagio paused after getting a ding on her phone and held up a hand, “Hold your fins for a moment you lot, there’s something else we have-”

She paused upon hearing the door open and cursed under her breath about speaking of the devil to spur them to appear. Princess Twilight Sparkle felt the arms of Sonata, once cheerfully hugging her around the neck, flinching and freezing. The siren slipped back, almost like she was hiding.

For the second time in the month, Adagio had to be restrained from lunging at the face of Twilight Sparkle; only this time it was herself holding the siren back as Gigan held the human. Wallflower Blush was also present, reaching towards her friend as if to comfort; only for the human Twilight to reflexively flinch away. Whilst she didn’t broadcast that she’d gotten a flash of turmoil and terror looking at the face of her friend after having first become conscious with her hand rammed into their gut, almost everyone could perceive it with how her face contorted and shivered. Three individuals especially could perceive how much it had affected her.

Those three with red gems on their necks, which could see the green haze emanating off Twilight and Wallflower both. Two of them, Aria and Adagio, on pure instinct and familial tether, flanked and got between the two newcomers and Sonata. The fact that Sonata was nonetheless still approaching them was honestly the most telling part.

Gigan glanced between the two troublemakers who started this whole mess before looking at the incoming sirens, his expression and Adagio's unreadable as the distance closed. Nobody in the diner said anything when at last, the victim and perpetrators were less than a meter apart. Gigan slowly rewound his cables and stepped back in a way from the two humans with the same caution someone might a live bomb. Each of the Bearers and plenty of the kaiju were exchanging looks, some cautiously holding their elements. Possibly in case something necessitated their use, but more likely just to have them at the ready on impulse.

Sonata Dusk's face quivered and her frown was small, but all the more striking. Wallflower and the human Twilight looked away, unable to meet her gaze for a time with shame clearly stenciled on their faces. It seemed like a full minute passed before they finally had the courage to look up, prompted by the audible inhale the siren took.

Sonata Dusk closed her eyes and seemed to almost whisper a slow melody. Nobody but her cousin and half-sister could discern the lyrics when it grabbed everyone's attention. It was a simple tune, one a child might come up with. In this case a child sitting on a reef on a completely inconsequential day, just passing the time and trying to emulate the same kind of musical skill an aunt she barely had the time to remember, and a mother she never remembered apparently had. Pinkie and Megalon remembered it from one of her murmurings whilst incapacitated and half-asleep. Something she did for comfort.

Unseen to any but Adagio and Aria, and grabbing their attention whilst it happened, the green haze of negativity and dread that had been permeating from the two humans was pulled away and into the subtle glow within Sonata's gem. Locked away and neutralized.

Sonata opened her eyes again, her face neutral. Not the bubbly grin when she was gleefully adopting Twilight earlier, nor the broken and pained visage so many had seen her with until recently,, "... I was once a monster. I hurt people. Some of them had it coming, but a lot of them didn't... Now I have to remember that even when I smile."

Battra caught an aside glance by Megalon and X, as Junior did Gigan, and Anguirus did Irys. All three defenders silently looked to one another as if signaling this observation.

"I know I seem like the bubbly one, but I'm not stupid..." Sonata considered her necklace and all the power it represented, "I got another chance even if some people don't think I deserve it. And I got it while still having this... When you took it away, sometimes I wondered if it was karma catching up to me. Now that I have it back..."

Her fingers curled around her gemstone, her heart, and she took in a deep breath, mustering up a lot of courage to face her fears. The two faces of her fears.

"I'm keeping it so I can do what I can to, maybe make up for what I did once. Apparently the ones I wronged have been gone for 1000 years," Sonata chuckled hollowly, shaking her head, "Who'da thought? Me, aging that well?.... I'm older than my mom, grandma, and aunt ever were. I don't know how much longer I'm going to live, and I can't ask those I hurt what I can do to make up for it... But..."

Her smile was tiny just like her frown was earlier, and yet the power of it shot right through all in her audience.

"Best I can do is be better than I was. For all of us, to be better than we were," siren, kaiju, pony, human; she might as well be talking for all of them.

"I can't ask them to forgive me, and that's gonna motivate me for the rest of my life," Sonata shook her head, "So I'm not going to say I forgive you, so you'll remember for the rest of yours.... Because I never want to see you again."

Wallflower Blush and Twilight Sparkle said nothing, no objections, no remarks on how they had been deceived, no statements on how literal demons had been truly the ones most responsible. Zephyrus having been the principal cause of it all didn't mean they weren't responsible either, and everyone knew that. They themselves included.

The fact they just shut up and listened was one of the main reasons Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze's fists relaxed as they reached up to put their hands on the youngest siren's shoulders in support.

"Just go away," Aria Blaze grunted, pointed but not growling, "Don't try to make it up to us or to her, don't try and apologize with gestures. You can apologize by just going and staying away."

"Leave us, leave magic, alone. We don't want revenge," Adagio took in a deep breath and sighed like she was letting go of a heavy weight, "We don't want anything from you. Take my sister's advice, and do better. But do it away from us."

Wallflower Blush and Twilight Sparkle looked at one another, the latter finally able to meet the former's gaze and knowing the siren as the reason why. A subtle nod moved between them. Even without the sirens making them swear to it, neither one of them wanted anything to do with magic ever again.

"I thought... I was like her, and that would make me a hero," Twilight said as her eyes turned to her counterpart, whose gaze widened at the focus, "... But I really can realize now how different we were despite having the same face. Now though..."

She looked to the very siren whose heart she had been literally wearing above her own for weeks. Sonata Dusk almost reflexively stiffened but light of the current situation and the support of her podmates helped her keep her nerve.

Twilight bowed herself slightly to the very siren she’d stood before in a completely different context in what felt like it was so long ago, "I hope I can be like you, one day. I just can’t have magic to help me do it. Just a friend to."

Wallflower Blush's hand placed itself into Twilight's, "She's not the only one with a lot of mistakes... I just have to keep learning from all of them."

Neither said thank you, because both didn't want to impose that upon their victim to accept it. But the point was made nonetheless and everyone agreed to it. Gigan stepped aside to let the doorway be open and the two humans who had been monsters in the thrall of another, stepped out for the long walk home so they could live again.

The moments they left however, it wasn't discussion within the diner that spurred attention. In the instant that the sirens decided where they would stand from here on out, glimmering light connected Siren, Retainer, and Bearer. It started at the last and, as if compelled into action by seeing the change in the seaborne witches; it flowed with an increasing tether.

========

Unseen by the mortals, a goddess smiled upon the changes the times had brought. The same strength in numbers the sirens enjoyed being altogether and the Bearers experienced being in closer proximity to each other were now tied together with the Retainer to the Elements and Element of Magic being the connective bridge. The sirens were sired by Grogar's lieutenants, but they were hers now more than ever. Years ago, the first Bearer of Empathy and last Retainer had made her friend promise that her daughter and successor would never be alone. At long last, Harmony could feel she had succeeded in both that and other matters.

Now... if the sharp mind at work for one of them could figure out one little-

She saw Princess Twilight's eyes light up with knowing and the goddess didn't fight her smile growing into a grin. Leaving them to their devices, she set about to her own task. Namely, what someone else had been up to...

=========

Seeing how much the sirens had changed and the effect it had on the Elements gave Twilight the eureka moment she’d been looking for.

"I-I think I got it!" All eyes looked to Twilight as she piped up and continued to address the question on a lot of their tongues, "Why the power won’t go away! Princess Celestia, remember what you once told me about light and dark magic in the forces involved?"

"Thaaaat dark magic isn't evil in itself and both can be abused?" Rainbow Dash of all people was the one to chime in before sheepishly shrugging her shoulders, "What? We got the rundown on that between Sensei having me and AJ going through drills."

Twilight perked up with her eyes and ears, "Oh, she taught you that too? Good good! I was hoping she'd correct that common misconception when you all started learning!"

"Well, she is the best magic teacher in history!" Fluttershy smiled happily as she petted a hard light created bunny sitting on her lap.

Celestia giggled and rubbed the back of her head, "You were saying Twilight?"

"Well! The windigos all festered and propagated the exact kind of emotions that dark magic can use, just exaggerated and abused into causing evil. And they used this to pull people and places apart, both in the past and now with this gigantic conflict we all got pulled into. Like reigniting old strife into hatred-"

Gigan frowned after feeling phantom sensations of rushing into a battle at the pier and targeting Godzilla with fury.

"propagating fear into hate filled vengeance."

Aria Blaze forced her hand to relax after remembering how she'd grabbed the other Twilight by the neck with it.

"Making pain so great it turned into blind spite."

Both Lea and X found themselves shifting in their places with regret pooling inside their minds.

"But-" Twilight managed to cut through some of the dour thoughts, "They might have unleashed all of that and caused some mistakes on our parts, but we were the ones who self corrected to fix the damage they did to all of us. Maybe we can also fix the damage they left behind?"

Anguirus noticed her line of sight pointing out the front door into the destroyed scenery that stretched on in every direction as far as they could see. If he was reading what she was putting down right, he could admit being impressed at least with the will.

"You mean.. use the light show on the town?"

"Dark and light magic are not propelled by good or evil, just using your emotions and considerations towards others to fuel the magic. How we used it was opposite of the windigos and that's how all of us, not just the Bearers, resisted and fought back against the demons. If they were nothing but unbridled destruction, and we’re the opposite; what does that make us?" She shrugged but smiled nonetheless, "What I'm saying is... I think I get the magic a little more after seeing how much it affected everybody. Light and dark is in good and evil, its creation and destruction. We’ve seen that kind of magic create something better by healing both the heart and the body of living beings. What if we used that magic on a physical wound on the world? If increasing use of the Elements and other magic had already begun reawakening some of the latent but dormant magic of this world, what if we gave it a huge kick-start of specifically creation based magic? If we gave it everything we got, it might work.”

“Everythin’ we got ‘ey?” Applejack hummed as she rubbed at her chin, “So putting all our magic out there to get it working.”

Twilight nodded, “It might overtax our magic, for how long I don’t know. It might burn out your magical transformations or powers like it had for awhile in the fight…”

Her ears flopped down at a small realization, “And with no Element of Magic here and Celestia and I having to go back to Equestria eventually…”

“We might lose our abilities. For a while or,” Rarity left the thread hanging to hope Twilight would answer.

The alicorn sheepishly but somewhat regretfully frowned and shook her head, “Working in theory for now, no way of telling for sure.”

Rarity and the other Bearers considered it for a moment, and literally only a moment, before Generosity spoke for all of them, “Well then, what are we waiting for?”

“Talking to animals and making some is nice, but I’ve always been able to do the first, in a way,” Fluttershy smiled sweetly.

“Ah’ can just hit the gym more times a week if I feel like I wanna lift more if things go away for good,” Applejack shrugged.

“Trying to be the top sprinter as is would kiiinda be cheating anyways with no Off-Button,” Rainbow Dash chuckled and scratched at her head.

“I got used to losing some magic once, I can chance losing it again,” Sunset Shimmer said as she put an arm around Applejack and Fluttershy, “Besides, I think I’ve learned a lot about empathy as is.”

“I suppose designing anything with gems as big as the ones I tend to whip up would require me trying to make someone the size of Mr. Anguirus a 3 piece suit anyways,” Rarity giggled.

“Besides, if I wanted explosives, I could just visit an armory!” Pinkie Pie giggled in a way that caused Gigan to shoot her a glance and move back a pace.

“You lot really would bet your magic on fixing up this town?” Aria Blaze noted with a perked brow.

“Of course! It’s our home!” Pinkie Pie keened.

“Even if some of us aren’t exactly from around here,” Sunset Shimmer sniggered before sighing contently, “About fifteen years in Canterlot versus four here. Time doesn’t always equal familiarity. Sometimes I feel if I went back to Equestria I’d be walking on my hind hooves.”

“You were when we found you, remember?” Princess Celestia teased with a smirk and caused the Element of Empathy’s face to redden.

“Well then, if we’re all in agreement. Let’s set out front so we don’t shoot the roof or something,” Twilight Sparkle sighed as she got up from the table and started to lead the Elements, Celestia included, outside.

“And where do you think you’re going, Eventide?”

Twilight’s pace stopped and she turned her head when Adagio’s voice chased after her. The other two sirens and Gaea had similarly formed up behind the lead siren, though they all bore intrigued expressions making it clear all were wondering what Adagio was doing.

“If I recall right, you and Princess Celestia don’t have your crystal anymore. You intend to fuel this spell with your own magic,” Adagio huffed before narrowing her brow slightly, trying to look hardened but clearly more concerned than she hoped to let on, “What’ll that do to you?”

“Frankly? No clue,” Twilight Sparkle shrugged, “But I gotta try and help now don’t I? I promise, one way or another we’ll still hash out a way to get you and your pod back to Equestria and to Mako Island-”

“I’m not leaving,”All three sirens said in unison before pausing, eyes widened as they realized their sibling and cousins had all spoken the same thing.

“What?!...”was spoken-

“They need all the help they can get!...” in-

“No you’re not doing it!...” threeway stereo.

“No-no! I’ll help them out! Song magic can help propagate their magic, like how we helped them destroy that big bastard,” Adagio volunteered.

“Yeah, and I’m the one who wouldn’t be in line for the throne anyways!” Aria countered with a finger pointed at each of her cousins, “I wouldn’t even want to be a queen, so I’m not leaving anyways!”

“Hey! Summer’s coming up and Ms. Daisy already agreed to hire me as a lifeguard! I’m unemployed if I don’t fix that camp and town up!” Sonata whined as she shook in place.

The sirens argued back and forth before all three were coiled up in vines and gently pulled off their feet, Gaea Everfree having a bead of sweet roll down her face as she giggled awkwardly and carried them out to join the Element Bearers.

“My magic seems to help boost all of yours anyways, mind if I pitched in? I can make due if we burn this all out,” Gaea Everfree said as she put the sirens down right next to Twilight.

“Look!” Adagio Dazzle yelped as she spun around to face the purple former-alicorn, “... I… we… Yes, we do wanna see Mako one day. Maybe soon as a visit, and we really appreciate the royal pardon, Twiligh- Eventide-.. Princess.”

“What my cousin is saying,” Aria interjected as she shrugged her shoulders, “It was pretty impressive you lot were willing to risk all your magic for this… The Mako we tried to get back to has been gone for 1,000 years. Anybody we wanted to know or had a grudge against is also gone.”

“Auntie Hymnia raised us better anyways, about time we lived up to that,” Sonata chirped, “We like it here anyways!”

“And.. you’d know best of any of these Element Bearers, Eventide,” Adagio said as she offered a hand, “Sirens sing best in a chorus. If these two and I wanna join in for the best odds, will you have us?”

Pinkie Pie said it best as she zipped up in front of them and rapidly shook Adagio’s hand, loaned Earth Pony strength similar to, though not quite to the level of Applejack, partially lifting the siren off the ground and shaking her.

Soon; Bearer, Siren, Retainer, Equestrian and Human; all gathered together outside the simple diner and felt their tethers. The song began and the magic pooled, building up more and more as a beautiful tapestry of rainbow hued brilliance. As more and more was pooled into it, the winds changed and one could perceive a melody like the wind chimes brought forth across the breeze.

Putting everything into it was not as strenuous as one might think, perhaps being so because they weren’t fighting back against a nearly mile tall monstrosity whilst doing so. It was almost willful on command once they’d all joined together. Each element working off each other, the presence of the retainer helping to bolster the magic, and the siren chorus working to spread it forth like a wave.

And, as planned, as prepared for, the brilliance and enhancements about each of them faded. Magical fins, hooves, wings, and flora dissipated into light as the magic gathered together like a second sun above them.

It flew into the sky before spreading in all directions and all places, tiny embers of radiance filtering down from above. The chorus singers' faces split with wide smiles and dazzled eyes as the magic saturated the world around them. Broken concrete started to knit itself back together, torn off chunks of buildings moving off the ground and situating themselves back into place, the town starting to come alive and restore itself.

Even with their powers seemingly gone, the relief all of the heroines felt was palpable. Some running down the streets or chasing each other whilst seeing places they knew being put back together and greenery returning to the frostbitten land.

Having seen more than their fair share of destruction by their and others’ abilities, seeing the opposite was truly impressive for the giants in attendance.

Godzilla watched on proudly as he took his foot off a small mass that had been wiggling under it, letting a loose chunk of rock free from under his boot to go off and rejoin its fellows. Crossing his arms, the monster king found himself flanked by his own fellows and standing off against four others that had gathered together. All seven assembled kaiju, three on one side and four on the other, stood face to face.

It was the Hunters who moved first, silently communicating amongst themselves before X stood forward for them as a whole.

"Beneficent and understandable as some of our actions were, a lot of this is on us and I don't think any of us are ever going to excuse our part in this," X stated plainly and truthfully.

"Kaiju are rarely subtle, from Terra or otherwise," Battra Lea frowned deeply, even as she held herself up firmly, "Any of us could react poorly under the right circumstances. I doubt any of us could protest otherwise."

"If there's retribution you need, you can ask for it...." X bowed his head and shoulders slightly, the other hunters following suit, "I wouldn't have my life again with Aria in it without your help. And, I think we've also gotten attached to this world. I for one enjoy seeing it back together."

The three Defenders exchanged a few glances of their own, before the silent vote was cast unanimously.

"I think... All of us can agree a lot of things have changed since we all found ourselves here. Equestria has done a lot of good for me and my friends," Godzilla said calmly as he released tensions he'd still been holding on as the magic from the heroines continued to saturate the world around and help him feel so much more uplifted, "And I think we should follow those two bands' example and put the past behind us.”

Anguirus grunted in approval before interjecting, “If you want to make a vow, you can start by promising not to ever cause trouble on this world like you did on Terra."

"Nor for you lot," Gigan stated as he rose up and crossed an arm with a clenched fist over his chest, "I fought you all on Terra because of someone controlling me and my team. I used to excuse what I'd done because of that, but frost demon influence or no influence; this little war showed me I can make some bad decisions all on own, intentions be damned... For my sake and for the sake of some others I care about, I don't want to be like that anymore."

Monster X nodded and repeated the gesture, "By orders or wishes or heat of the moment choices, I promise I will never fight any of you again."

Anguirus' eye caught the gaze of someone who had once been an enemy and now was instead his little sister, "... Irys?"

"I lost my first flock.. and I found a better one. By proxy or because I like them too, that new flock includes some folks that live here. Folks I know you would never hurt," Irys nodded affirmatively and tapped her fist on her chest in emulation of her teammates, "I solemnly swear I will never try and bite a chunk out any other of your group ever again."

Battra Lea and Godzilla Junior both couldn't resist slightly lowering their brow, feeling some phantom sensations in a twitch of her shoulder and his elbow. Still, they could appreciate the sentiment.

Megalon stepped forward and raised his hand to begin the gesture, only to get promptly grabbed by both his brother and Lea to keep his hand down.

"Hey, but I got to make a vow too!" The youngest cyborg complained.

"You literally didn't do anything but play babysitter most of this venture!" Gigan griped as he put his brother's saluting arm down.

Lea patted his head pleasantly, "Trust me, I messed this whole mess up more than you ever did."

Megalon whined, spurring Godzilla to repeat a motion he had seen both humans and some equestrians do by slapping his hand over his face. Anguirus lightly elbowed Irys and whispered to her ear.

"If you're all staying here and promising not to cause trouble, just follow his example if you have any questions. I promise I'll visit sometime later."

"Please do, if we're moving on ahead we may not see each other as much; but separation bites worse than I used to."

============

In the void that once housed one of the worst living calamities that Equestria had ever seen, a being magnitudes more powerful even in their diminished state roamed the near infinite space. Even without much matter to exist in a way comprehensible to most mortals, Bagan had little issue navigating the space. This realm was clearly the handiwork of a deity, but it was perhaps mildly perplexing that it took them as long as it did to find what they were looking for. Like a single bead of glass amongst grains of sand across an infinite beach, the appearance and properties for the Element of Magic work differently than the void that surrounded it but the inherent composition was the same.

Which meant...

"I thought I would find you here," a voice like wind chimes hummed.

Bagan turned, their impossibly huge form looking even more so as the positively minuscule Element sat on their upturned palm. Harmony was before them, equal in size and grandeur as she bore an expression unreadable to even another deity beyond clearly being deep in thought.

"I would like to ask what you intend to do with that," Creation said as she tilted her head slightly, letting the beads dangling from her hair ring quietly as they shifted against each other.

"You created this realm, and the windigos," Bagan stated without question, feeling the presence of Harmony's handiwork all around them despite the glaring difference.

A portal to images, past or present, similar to the screen in Harmony's realm opened up between them. Bagan's claws glimmered with the spell, copying the magic they'd seen Harmony using all this time. They'd picked up on a few things it seemed.

The vision showed Eurus' last moments. That brief instant before they cried out and the Elements at last allowed them peace and an end. In those fleeting moments the emaciated, corpse-like visage changed to fullness, like a body rotting in reverse to become whole. This was not a monster, but something for a far different purpose. Possibly even a benign one at one point.

Creation frowned visibly, not from scorn but regret, but she made no move to deny it, "Grogar was pure destruction, once for benevolent purposes and then later he lost his way... But he never created anything. Even at his most monstrous, all he could do was corrupt. Eurus, Zephyrus, Boreas, and Notus were once very different. They truly died a long time ago... That heinous magic Grogar deceived and corrupted them with..."

"Every last one of the monstrosities he pitted against you and your champions, in the end they were all your creations or their descendants."

"I create, I do not control. The four beings I made perished a long time ago, and this was their grave. Grogar bastardized their echo to spite me, as he has every other one he twisted," Harmony frowned as she looked around the void surrounding them.

The complexity of emotions she no doubt was feeling were understandable to her audience.

"They were important to you once... And then you had to bear witness to them trying to kill everything."

Harmony tilted her head slightly the other way, looking a bit closer to the dark form of the divine dragon, "... You feel the same way about humans, don't you? When you started to feel they were beyond the event horizon. That is why you see civilization and sapience as a cursed mistake, don't you?"

Her words dug deep. Bagan paused for a spell, before walking past her, treading on empty space as they dutifully approached the portal back to her realm and Zenith.

"Perhaps at one point, your windigos also didn't think they were so far gone," Bagan grunted before looking to the Element of Magic, "The events of this war have confirmed much to me. I have a plan for this to never happen again."

"And does that plan entail what you glimpsed in the future just like your ploy with my daughter?" Harmony's words chased them down and they stopped in place, Bagan's foot hovering over the empty space they'd been walking on.

"Awful convenient that temporarily losing most of her magic both helped her realize she was still very much worthy of the Elements in the end and hid her from notice of the windigos until the final hour. Isn't it?" Harmony's voice continued to seemingly echo off the infinite nothingness, "You glimpsed some possibilities to come, and then acted. You attacked her to save her on purpose."

"... Her power was needed to secure victory. If she was unable to act, there would be a necessity for me to step in and finish the demons myself," Bagan grunted, "Among other reasons."

Harmony perked her brow and tilted her head, letting her chime studded hair hang past her face, "Such as?"

The fact she was one of four alicorns in existence, four beings with a special portion of Harmony's power beyond emulation. One of only four beings besides Harmony herself which could open Tambelon and release Grogar if the need came. All of that went unstated. Because all of that wasn't the priority in Bagan's mind, and they knew better than to lie and not admit to it before the one being who could understand them so well.

"You'd be upset if your daughter died," Bagan stated plainly.

They knew, unambiguously now more than ever after glimpsing what happened when Celestia combined her magic with the others. They had both seen that power. Neither deity said anything more until they were standing right in front of the portal to the human realm. The sights of the now de-powered sirens, bearers, and retainer; along with their kaiju companions, in clear view as magic continued to saturate the area.

"The ancient humans I taught magic to continued to surpass every limit put in front of them eventually. Every predator, every disaster, every plague. Regardless of if that was a good thing for them and the other life on the planet. Eventually, I was the only limit and goal to surpass left," Bagan stated without growl or scorn, "They sought more than they should, and took everything they could."

"They'd have destroyed their own planet or themselves first. You weren't afraid of being surpassed, you were afraid of what they'd do in the attempts to do so. You had to warn them about-...." Harmony shook her head slowly, bitterly, "You did warn them, no doubt. And some would be foolish enough to try anyways. Being insatiable can be a path to gluttony for more, greed for hoarding what you have, lust for acquiring more; and wrath for those that have it.... Yes, I am very well aware of what mortals abusing their power looks like."

"And yet those humans just now. The human Bearers. They gave it up, not knowing if it would be permanent or not...."

"Did that ever happen on your world?"

"..... No, not once in the older times. Individuals were good. The first was the best. All after her, were not. The collective was gluttonous and suicidally reckless. By their peak, they sought to make themselves gods. Treating their homeworld as but a disposable crib instead of a precious home to be shared with countless. If they achieved their dreams of godhood, no planet, system, or universe would have been enough," Bagan wasn't lying or hiding anything when they said that.

And yet, Harmony so far had not stopped them from taking back what, in a way, was technically hers. The Element of Magic still flickered in Extinction's hand. Bagan was still standing in front of the portal.

"Well, one way or another the heroes have certainly set some great things in motion for the human realm. That world is never going to be the same," Harmony hummed.

"The people have seen giants and feared demons," Bagan grunted morosely.

Harmony instead watched as the magic, her own magic, worked into every piece of land in the immediate area and repaired all of the damage whilst also saturating the world with magic. It would start off small, likely only in this immediate region and likely only after some months or longer, but nevertheless, bit by bit it would spread. She could see it now looking close enough on the microscopic scale.

"They will also have paragons to help them, whether they see them as fellow humans or perhaps something more," Harmony smiled as some of her glittering magic fell upon the ones in the fleeing caravan. Some people were piling out of their cars to look backwards at what happened.

Mr. and Mrs. Cake held their infants as they stepped out, no longer needing their jackets. Pound Cake's little eyes widened and uplifted as the baby giggled when one of the sparks of magic touched their nose. Far away, Flash Sentry was making his way back towards the school and the diner, on the phone with Sunset Shimmer as he walked through the shower of magic along a repairing sidewalk. He was laughing and saying something that got the redhead red-faced and flustered.

"The enchanting may not stay away forever. Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Kindness, Loyalty, and Empathy have all played their part and all remain.. The question is," She glanced at her companion in this elaborate game they were playing against each other, "If Magic can be the spark to set it all in motion..."

The Element of Magic levitated up in front of glowing red eyes. Fiery orbs that at first looked very fearsome and monstrous. But when imaged through the reflecting faces of the crystal as it slowly rotated, there was a spark of curiosity in Bagan's very tired gaze.

Feeling Harmony’s eyes on them and glimpsing her gaze through the reflecting surface of the crystal, Bagan steeled themself to do something risky. Riskier, in their mind, than seizing the power and attacking the single biggest threat to their plans and burdens in the form of the goddess standing next to and behind them.

-Just this once…-

Bagan tapped a claw to the Element with a small 'dink', sending it through the portal to tumble down into the lands beyond. Eventually, though Bagan had not looked into the future enough to know which possibilities there were, someone worthy would find that. For now though, it would have the desired effect.

With Magic's Element returned to the realm, the Goddess' blessing fully returned to those who proved worthy of it.

Pinkie Pie cheered as she propelled herself up into the air with a bursting clap. Applejack hefted a newly grown crystal and Rarity, who was perched atop it, onto her shoulders. Rainbow Dash whooped after managing to run a lap around the whole school in a few seconds. Fluttershy quietly sat upon a small swarm of light produced butterflies, lifting her into the air. Both former alicorns in Twilight and Celestia took a chance to telekinetically lift themselves above the buildings to stand on a roof and admire the newly liberated sun as it appeared the dissipating clouds. Sunset Shimmer, still on the phone, sprinted down the sidewalk and all but tackled her ex-boyfriend.

When she saw the thoughts in his head, she had the very strong suspicion he wouldn't remain her ex too much longer; especially when it was her turn to smooch him this time.

Her eyes did perk up when, upon pulling away, small green sparks of light like tiny bits of harmless flame, crackled across parts of Flash's rapidly flushing cheeks. Where it happened, his skin turned dark blackened and unnaturally smooth for a moment before rapidly changing to other colors. It went away almost as fast as it came, leaving him only red in the face on account of blushing.

"W-Woah what was?!" Flash yelped, wide eyed.

"Well, looks like minor magic! Not as much as me and the girls but Celestia did say if you stood around long enough it might start rubbing off!... You don't mind, do you?" She lowered her head and her shoulders a bit sheepishly.

".... Well, if I can get used to dating a unicorn, I think I can handle this!" He silenced her by playfully picking up and spinning her around in front of the very school statue they first met at, Sunset laughing in relief.

Harmony did her best to hold back from showing her surprise, happy as she was to see the outcome. Bagan was already making their leave.

“So, what are you to do with your loyal troops now that they have forsworn to not lift a claw at those who have vowed to protect Equestria?” Harmony called out, only feeling the need to as a means of probing on if she needed to extend her protections to the Hunters and keep them from returning to Zenith if they were in danger for making such vows.

For the very first time, the shadowy veil around Extinction lifted. The distortions and eerie manner set aside. Now, if one looked upon them, one could see why ancient Terrans might have once looked up to the tri-horned crown with a mix of adoration, reverence, and admiration. They were looking more like Reijuu by the day.

“... They are where they need to be. I will make that clear once the other kaiju have left as not to risk revealing my return to the Guardian Moth,” Bagan said with their eyes upon their hunters, “I will reclaim them if I have need of them…. Someday.”

“Your subordinates really have changed a lot. Seems my realms have that effect on those from yours,” Harmony turned back to watch, appreciating the view as Gloriosa was chattering away with the still mixed group, “You can take a closer look too someday, if you’d like.”

“You’d really trust me to walk amongst your creations?”

“... Perhaps supervised.”

She heard it for the briefest instant. A short, quiet, rasp of a chuff. They’d actually laughed.

“Centuries watching without action and now you wish to break a self-imposed rule… It seems, you are not immune to change as well…. Until later.”

The distance between gods separated further, but both perhaps knew the distance between ideals was shrinking.

Popping up in front of a now-operating news camera, meant to broadcast to any who might be confused about what was going on in Canterlot, Pinkie Pie giggled as she held Megalon and Sonata under each of her arms in a playful headlock.

“Snow’s over! Heroes win!”

========== Reader Works! ==========
Been awhile since I did this!

By FallenAngel5414 with a fun variety of New Era and EG Pieces with some of her own canon!

By LordShrekZilla20 showcasing design concepts and story art

By Ectttan showcasing some fun recreations of Faith-Wolff style in their own takes!

By ToonHolt adding some more kaiju to the mix along with a G5 style!

By Lionel23 and Marbola with this wonderful rendition of Ki Seong!

By Lilgrimmapple with this very, very tired looking gijinka for Bagan

A conflict in the past meant to decide against a dark future,
in this sequel to the Halloween Special in A Tale of Three Kings by DiverseInterest47

==================
And as a preview of what is come, and why I made 54 so long besides just it being continuous....
Chapter 55: Hooves to Heart

“And have you changed the lavender flowers to ensure all can rest peacefully- and-and!” Princess Luna promptly walked back over her own words with the tact of literally stomping on them, “Remember not to have too much or the night shift guards will get drowsy and-”

“I know I know,” A teal green hued magic gently lifted and put the line of lavender flowers upon their hangers, lightly tugging on the line to ensure they were strung up good and well. A single petal fell loose from the assortment and fell upon the blue alicorn’s nose.

The teal colored telekinetic magic casually reached it up and nestled it back into the mass, Luna taking her focus off the flowers to look upon her company.

Starlight Glimmer lowered her ears a bit sheepishly as she put another assortment up, “Only keep these flowers up for about four hours before changing them out for the mint to help keep the night staff awake. You drilled me on this three times tonight already, remember Princess?”

Three times tonight and who knew how many occasions prior. There had been plenty of growing pains along their venture so far and no doubt plenty more down the road, but Starlight and Luna had found their new roles as pupil and mentor reasonably naturally. Well, as natural as one could call deferring to Twilight Sparkle and Celestia almost every other day, but to call them both new at this would be a hilarious understatement…

=========

“And remember, the mind is often its own most cunning opposition. Even a dream as peaceful as this might seem to be at first might actually,” Princess Luna, standing in a dreamscape that looked like a completely innocuous field full of flowers surrounded by fluttering butterflies, paused as she glanced over at her pupil.

Starlight Glimmer, having only recently gotten used to being nocturnal, still had bags under her eyes even in the dream world on account of being just that level of bone-tired. She looked half her size, contently curled up under the mattress of butterflies that had flown underneath her and lifted her off the ground. The unicorn didn’t even question it and was out like a light, managing to somehow sleep inside of a dream.

“-be a danger-WAKE UP!” Princess Luna accidentally let out the Royal Canterlot Voice a bit too close and proceeded to blast Starlight and the butterflies several meters away. Asleep in their bed, a very insectophobic stallion groaned and twitched in his rest, pawing at his ear like someone just shouted in it.

“Arwk what-the-huah?!” Starlight jarred awake with an intense ringing in her ears and spiraling end over end. She flailed and tried to figure out what was going on, but her glimpses of Princess Luna offered no sense of calm. Especially when said alicorn seemed to charge up her magic and rush in her direction, eyes white and horn blazing.

Just when Starlight was about to speculate if her teacher was about to kick her flank into next week, she came aware of two things. The first was she was still deafened by the sudden shout and couldn’t tell what Luna was frantically yelling at her about. The second was the mass of butterflies she’d been so pleasantly sleeping on had started collecting together into a single mass. The horde of once such cute looking, innocuous insects turned into a gaping maw that lunged for her as if to swallow the apprentice mage up.

And, naturally because they were in a dream by an insectophobe, the mass of butterflies suddenly was lit on fire and blazed like a hellish demon surging right at her. Starlight screamed out a stream of expletives that got her reprimanded for later as she and Luna battled the ever growing menace of many-legged-nectar-sipping-terrors.

Somewhere far, far away, the bug-fearing stallion whose dream they were in reacted to what followed by launching himself out of bed so quickly he hit his own ceiling face-first, and promptly passed out before he fell back onto his bed sheets.

Luna implemented a new rule following this fiasco. Future dream walking sessions were postponed unless a minimum of 4 hours rest interval was made prior.

============

That was about three weeks ago. Currently, Starlight was managing the dream walking with a power nap prior and it had only gone sideways twice!

“Besiiides, I got the flowers arranged very effectively before!” Starlight beamed with a wide grin.

Princess Luna lowered her brow slightly and tapped the unicorn’s horn with an outstretched wing, “And, dear student, if you meant your effectiveness breached into an overreach then you would be quite accurate. Do remember that the only spells you should be using on the lavender are basic levitation to get them in place for proper circulation. They do not need assistance doing their job.”

The alicorn leaned in closer with perked eyes, “Moderation was an important lesson we took pains to remember in our instruction, did we not?”

Starlight awkwardly chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head and remembered a bigger blunder.

============

Princess Luna used to rely on one of two ways to get herself up in the evening at the proper time, after nodding off for her afternoon rest following talks and breakfast with Celestia. Either her sister herself would come to greet her, or she would make use of one of her most favored modern inventions in the form of an alarm clock. Such a favorable upgrade from the classic sundials and unreliable spells! She’d half considered at one point asking if she and her sister could retroactively sanctify the inventor.

But that was before her current bodyguard employee came about. Entry into her chambers was reserved for only a few castle staff but she had come to enjoy one in particular summoning her from rest. The fact Junior was quite the insomniac and always sharply awake at this hour certainly helped.

Which made her all the more confused when the clock clearly showed it was 8:30, her favorite pillow was missing after her head dropped onto an empty mattress, and her personal guard was as present as her pillow. She’d later find out Celestia had been bone tired after a particularly arduous day and had gone to sleep early in confidence that Luna would take over shortly. The night alicorn instead found the halls quiet despite the brightness, save for one frantic voice.

“UP UP UP! Oh no- nooo nonono- you gotta wake up!” If those words hadn’t been spoken with as much awkwardness in the frantic tone as there was, somepony might mistake it for a completely different context.

Instead, the context Princess Luna walked in on was piles and piles of bodies in the main hall with Starlight Glimmer as the only one left standing. Many bodies. Sleeping bodies. Often snoring bodies. Guards, waitstaff, scribes, a few visiting politicians or petitioners who didn’t mind the nocturnal hours; and one particularly large abnormal unicorn whom Starlight, wearing a filtering medical mask, was holding the face of as she tried to shake him awake.

The hanging rows of lavender directly above the apprentice mage were glimmering with an odd type of magic, one that carried even when their petals fell to the ground and were scattered about the whole floor. Even just catching a faint whiff of it was starting to make Luna drowsy again.

“What happened here? Is everypony okay?” A voice echoed from down the halls. Luna turned her head to spot one of her and Celestia’s aids, a dark maned, pale bodied unicorn named Raven Inkwell; trotting into the hall. She passed underneath one of the hanging masses of oddly glowing lavender and instantly started slowing down when a falling petal passed over her nose.

That was all it took and Starlight knew it. Starlight Glimmer’s ears shot up and she tried to call out fast enough to no avail, “NO NO NO! Don’t come in here!”

“I thought I heard something drop and every-..is...on… the…. groooouun-oooooof,” Her eyes rolled back and her lids closed, the mare losing all awareness and flopping towards the floor. She would have hit it had Starlight’s magic not caught her.

A pillow that looked like it came from one of the various staff room couches poofed into existence underneath her and soon the sleeping Raven was contently snuggling into it in a slumber. Starlight awkwardly laughed to herself, like she was suppressing a full on panic whilst refocusing on the sleeping face of Godzilla in her hooves.

“Ooooh wow I didn’t expect it to be that strong! Maybe you all need to catch back up on your sleep hours because I sure know that issue from experience! Hahaaaaa.... eheh-eheh-eeeeeh….” Starlight got no response, only the sleeping visage of Godzilla who sported a slight smile on his lips like he was recollecting something pleasant. Starlight Glimmer’s flattened expression was visible even through her mask, “… WakeUpWakeUpWakeUpWakeUp!-“

She started shaking his head up and down before a shouting roar called out over the halls.

“STARLIGHT AURORA GLIMMEEEEEER!”

Starlight’s eyes went wide as saucers and she dropped Godzilla’s face before a wave of magic pushed across the room, casting back and containing the potent enchantment placed upon the lavender flowers of all things to bottle it up in a containment field. A vase was overturned, dumping its contents on the floor before the enchantment and most of the flowers were literally bottled up inside of it. Instantly almost everypony in the room started to groggily rise to awareness. The giant unicorn stallion next to Starlight mouthed at the air slightly like he was chewing on something before spitting out a large, chewed up wad of enchanted lavender petals.

“Bleck, sorry Starlight... Flavor isn’t bad but something is,” Junior paused from resuming the last conversation he remembered having, as he looked around the room to see way more ponies than he remembered being around when he was last awares, “… Did I black out? Why does it look like everyone decided to nest in here at once?”

“You did fall asleep actually, you took a really big bite out of-“ Starlight Glimmer was levitating up one of the strands of lavender petals, which had an almost comically large gap in them matching an oversized bite mark, when she paused and stilled when her tail and hair were gripped. The unicorn was raised up by telekinesis before she was entirely encircled in a dim blue aura.

Magically lifted off her hooves and levitated over to her mentor, Starlight blinked as her vision inverted upside down. Luna was still groggy from the off-sleep hours and lavender, leaving her to flip her protégé over on accident but just rolled with it. Starlight scrunched her nose and chewed on her lips when she continued to dangle upside down and held belly up.

“You enchanted the lavender to dramatically increase its relaxing effect, didn’t you?” Luna grumbled.

“In my defense,” Starlight held up a hoof whilst still looking like she was trying to retract her neck into her shoulders like a turtle into its shell, “… I wasn’t expecting it to be that strong nor was I expecting him to eat it.”

“What.. happened? Ooooouh,” Mayor Mare of Ponyville moaned as she got up groggily, “I-I heard somepony collapse and came running but then I…oh? Where’d this come from?”

She pulled out a pillow which had been set underneath her chin. Starlight Glimmer waved sheepishly, only to catch a look from Luna.

“… What?! After Godzilla was down his armor made a big racket on the floor with how big he is, folks came running and started dropping as soon as the lavender fumes or petals hit them!” Starlight glanced aside at the random menagerie of pillows that had been scattered around to cushion everyone who had passed out.

The pillows seemed to be from every kind of room imaginable, from the ornate, to those one would expect on the couch, one Luna recognized as her own and solving that mystery, to frilly pink laced cushions that look like they came out of a child’s room. The latter was picked up by Junior after Mayor Mare had offered it.

“I think this is Chibi’s…” He gave Starlight a side-eye, “What is it doing here?”

Starlight held her forelimbs up, or rather down given she was upside down whilst being suspended in the air, “I had to get pillows quick as everypony just kept running in here like a pack of lemmings and I didn’t have any time to stop it! Soooo, I just ran a teleportation spell through a search-for-items scrying enchantment to grab as many pillows as fast as I could!...”

Luna’s forehead was acquainted with the bottom of her own hoof, “You… Ran two top level spells together, to pilfer pillows… Because you accidentally turned the main hall into a slumber party?”

“Hey they kept running in, I kept telling them to stop!”

“…………..”

“………..” Starlight’s ears flopped down, or rather hung straight up in comparison to her head, “… I uh.. I can use a different spell to-“

She was going to offer a way to mass transport all the pillows back to where they belonged, or at least try, given there was a decent chance of things getting mixed up, in an honest bid to fix her mistakes. Virtually every single occupant in the room shouted out “NO!” too fast for her to get the full sentence out.

The lesson that night was spent learning the streets and layout of the capital city as she went about returning every single pillow by hoof before burning all of the hexed lavender in a safe area. Hearsay still persisted that seemingly everypony that night slept very soundly for some reason they didn’t know.

========

Needless to say, remarking that there had been some teething problems involved in Luna taking to teaching for the first time and Starlight having an actually-present-and-upstanding mentor for a change. The protégé of the night diarch certainly always meant well and did learn from past mistakes, requiring little to no prompting from Luna to fix her errors and that was good of her merit. It was just the stubborn knee-jerk reaction, to jump to spells that often-entailed way more than she should remotely consider in the situations, called for that needed some ironing out.

Which was why Starlight was, by her own volition, wearing a suppressor ring that restricted her to just telekinesis for the moment. Luna frankly didn’t like it, but with how her mentor was in the lead up to this particular night Starlight had wanted to take the action as a sign of good faith and hopefully peace of mind. She already promised the ring's disposal the moment she stepped out of the castle grounds to attend to other duties later in the night.

And speaking of her mentor however, Starlight was well privy to the subtle tremors going up and down her wings.

“Still nervous?” The unicorn said with a perked brow.

“No,” Luna grunted before a brief moment of silence passed and her eyes briefly darted aside before looking out the window and addressing the pupil which had become one of her closer friends these past months, “… Yes… I am.. uncertain this will be as entertaining as I hope it shall be.”

“Well I know it’s been a long time since you were young,” Starlight didn’t notice the mildly pointed look on Luna’s reflection and the accompanying quiet grunt that came from the alicorn being all but directly called ‘old’, “But these sort of events are meant to be kind of like what you grew up with. So do you think you’re not going to have a good time?”

The unspoken ‘event’ in question was on the brain and Luna recollected back to simply, fondly remembered times. Running amongst games and contests with Celestia, playfully hiding from Hurricane and Starswirl whilst Smart Cookie pretended not to notice them whilst slipping confectioneries under the booth they were hiding in, and partaking in all manner of childish pursuits amongst the premises. Even centuries later it made her chest warm and wings wiggle from nostalgia.

“That is-“ Luna was interrupted.

“-Definitely notta question,” A third voice joined the discussion as Captain Blueberry Frost paced upwards, her voice mildly muffled by the filtered medical mask before eying the lavender, “Not that I wouldn’t mind any shut-eye, but ye' sure ye' got those things handled?”

“Yep! Just plain old flowers,” Starlight chirped, tapping at her horn ring, “As promised.”

“Good thing, now…” The comparatively short Captain of the Guard stood up before Princess Luna with her lance at her side, “Ah' believe ah' was to see ye' off with these?”

At her will and opening of a satchel attached to her armor, Captain Frost allowed Luna to retrieve two small bands of metal. Starlight Glimmer perked up and leaned in closer to have a look, noticing how the metalworking looked similar to some of the pieces of the captain’s lance, which actually seemed to be missing the exact parts.

“What are those for?” Starlight Glimmer said, ears tilting up and about.

Captain Frost glanced at Luna before sniggering, “Consider it a final exam question.”

“Exam?” Starlight’s eyes widened, “There’s an exam? I knew there were tests involved, but I thought we were talking in the metaphorical sense when I became Princess Luna’s pupil! If there’s an exam involved, I gotta study up right? I-I gotta focus! I gotta prepare and-“

Captain Frost partially shoved her hoof against Starlight’s muzzle to shoosh her, brow lowered and a deadpan in her tone, “Stop razzling ye’self kid, Ah’ was pulling your tail.”

“Starlight, you have done commendably so far tonight and I have full faith that you will continue to do so. Relax,” Princess Luna rolled her eyes and smiled, “I’ll show you what these are for by morning.”

Starlight Glimmer felt her pulse slow back down and she managed a deep breath to control it further. With how many errors she had made in the past and was trying to hold herself accountable to, there was very much a lingering fear of being cut off from what she saw as a path to redemption. And, if her past blunders during her tutelage as Luna’s protégé had shown, she was still prone to some overreactions.

“Well then, I shall leave you to it as you leave other duties to me!" Starlight chirped as she bowed to her mentor, “You can count on me Princess!”

With a brief pause as she remained in place, eyes closed, Luna caught a glance by Captain Frost nodding towards the unicorn. The earth pony mouthed a word and reemphasized her nodding to help Luna catch on. A little reminder, one instructor to another, to give some encouragement.

“Oh.. It was never in doubt faithful student,” Luna parroted Celestia’s example meaningfully and patted Starlight’s shoulder with a wing, signaling the unicorn to rise and depart after giving the captain of the guard a respectful bow as well.

After she left the room, Luna allowed her posture to slump slightly as she sighed in relief and continued to shiver.

“What if this doesn’t work?” Luna whined quietly, losing a lot of her typical poise, chewing her lip.

Captain Frost snorted and nudged her shoulder with a hoof, “Lulu, I can most definitely assure you that the enchantments work just fine.”

Starlight Glimmer blinked as she exited the room, half wondering if she heard that echoed whisper right.

-Lulu? Who is… Never mind, must have misheard it...-

Author's Note

You know what this means? No more ice!
Proofed by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff!

Chapter 55: Hooves to Hearts (Special)

"And that's the sum of it. The second pack of Kaiju opted to remain where they were and Princess Twilight vouched for them. The new Bearers of the second batch of Elements will manage well with Sunset maintaining a line to Celestia should the need arise. The sirens chose to remain in the human realm, though they might visit eventually," Princess Luna said with her face increasingly becoming deadpanned, her brow lowered and ears drooping, "Looks like I might have to see Maui soon to set that up."

"You left out a few details, like what happened to me and a certain big help," The familiar voice of Celestia teased lightly as the second celestial alicorn paced up to her sister. In the twilight of the coming night, they were otherwise alone in the peaceful glade by the pond, "Or is that because you're just upset you didn't get to see me as a teenager again?"

"Oh I saw you as a teenager alright, I remember the mood swings! Though-" Luna jeered before grabbing her sibling's cheeks and smushing them lightly, "I do admit to wishing I could have seen you as the short one. You would’ve wooked so pwecious!"

Celestia, face smushed in with her cheeks pushing against her eyes, just went with it and continued on like nothing happened, “The tickets you were waiting for.”

She levitated up two relatively mundane looking, tear-off tickets that were floated over to be offered, “I ensured I got them through several trusted couriers so there is nothing for snooping paparazzi to trace back and find out you will be in attendance.”

Celestia winked through her rounded cheeks, “Neither of you two will have to focus on anypony else but each other.”

Princess Luna’s face started to feel a little bit warm and her ears flopped. She rolled her eyes up into the side and chuckled a few times, “Hahaeeh, sister you jest, and I haven’t the slightest idea wh-”

Celestia hadn’t noticed it. Frankly Luna wouldn’t have either had she not been paying attention and just happened to have it in line of sight when she raised her hooves up. Across her blue fur, a black splotch of hair was visible on the inside of her left forelimb. The alicorn’s pulse spiked as her fur bristled slightly. Luna quickly snatched the tickets away and whirled around, putting her back to her sibling.

“-at you are talking about!” She blurted out, needing a moment to remember what she was saying, “I-I gotta go see to Starlight for thenightplansbye!”

“Luna?! Are you o-“ Celestia’s concerned words were interrupted by a flash of blue magic, making the night alicorn vanish in a blip of teleportation. Off in the distance Celestia could see the same blip a few dozen meters over the castle, “-kay?”

Luna, now visible only as a speck of blue in the dimming sunlight, seemed to spaz and fly erratically for a moment. She looped down and seemed to swoop and catch something, likely having dropped the tickets in her panic and having to recapture them before flying into the castle. The fact she couldn’t manage to teleport inside the castle itself and was acting so erratic left a twinge of concern plucking at her sister’s heart strings.

“You don’t think I’m forcing this, do you?” Celestia muttered to the only other presence in the glade, “She’s not saying anything but something is clearly making her nervous. I’m not sure if that is the only thing.”

She sighed, taking a seat by the pond before gently patting the aged stone she herself placed down. Looking out onto the pond as the moon finally rose to take the Sun’s place, Princess Celestia shrugged her shoulders and cast her best wishes for luck. There was no counsel offered directly, but she at least could put her hopes in the feeling the twinkling of certain stars gave her from a constellation resembling a hatted unicorn. In the mind’s eye, it was a good reassurance.

She smiled at Starswirl's grave, “Yes, I suppose he would be the best company for her if she needed it for any particular reason.”

==========

“And if you come upon any doors?” Chibi Moon chirped as she trotted alongside her mentor.

A truly ancient looking book titled ‘Etiquette, 1st edition, 10 After Founding” which was even bigger than she was, hovered before her with levitating magic.

“It’s an outdoor establishment Chibi, I doubt they have many doors. And you’re going overboard,” Godzilla Junior, not in his guard attire for a rare occasion, said as he walked with a somewhat slowed pace. After all it took all of one step for him for every six from her and she had insisted on not hitching a ride on his back or head so as to not muss up his hair.

“I fished out this musty old book, you gotta fish out an answer!” Chibi whined as they approached one of the side entrances for the castle grounds proper.

Junior gave his answer by opening the door for the filly.

“Oh thank yo-“ Chibi, who’d happily trotted in without realizing he just silently answered her question, stuck her ears up and narrowed her eyes slightly, “Very funny, Sensei.”

“That means he was paying attention,” A new voice joined in on the discussion with a swoosh of air accompanying it.

A dark furred, orange-maned alicorn unlike any in Equestria had ever seen before, landed next to her cohort. The latest jaunt into the human alternate realm had resulted in more than a few surprises. And, thankfully fewer in number, complications upon returning. Lea still came back out a changeling, still came back out in perfect health. But she still came back out a Battra instead of a Mothra, with all the adjustments to certain powers and abilities that came with that. Changeling magic, rudimentary as it was, still worked right especially after a meeting with Captain Frost regarding something that Lea still wasn’t quite sure about.

It was something she intended to find out more of tonight after obliging another request once she caught wind of what was planned.

“You sure about this? With what happened and all-“ Junior was shooshed by Lea putting her hoof to his muzzle.

“Ahpapap! This is your special night, you don’t get to worry about anybody except you and her,” Battra Lea huffed whilst tilting her muzzle up, “My magic being a bit fritzy just means I’m rediscovering it alongside Twilight and the Shobijin. What better time for this bright young star-“

“Moon!” Chibi chirped affirmatively, wagging her tail.

“-Moon, to further develop her craft than to learn some Terran magic alongside a fellow teacher-pupil?” Lea keened, “Besides, we were already going to be here as I wanted to inquire to the good Captain about some of these ‘wards’ she has. I wasn’t expecting a changeling expert when you described her to me.”

“Captain Frost took the changeling incident at her friends’, Prince Consort and Empress Cadenza’s wedding seriously,” Junior shrugged before pausing at Chibi and Lea both stifling a laugh.

“… What did I say?”

“Those-srk titles,” Lea snickered, “Twilight told me about Cadance’s reactions to them.”

Junior only shrugged, “And I last got word from my brother on the subject of a Princess ruling an Empire and that’s what he told me they were called now!.... Just promise me you’re not going to teach Chibi how to summon dead spirits or explode more things than she already does.”

“Hey!” A little voice whined.

Lea ruffled Chibi’s pigtails, “I promise no such thing, even if Battra magic is a bit more on the destructive side.”

Godzilla deadpanned as he started to walk into the castle alone, “Great…”

“Remember Sensei, if she bats her eyes at you twice in a row that’s a cue to kiss her hoof! Or if you’re bold, the cheek!” Chibi chirped after him, waving eagerly, “Worked for my folks!”

A twist of emotions writhed inside the monster king as his nerves tightened up. He turned to say something as the doors closed behind him, but whatever it was stopped in his throat. He wasn’t frowning when he was left alone in a hall, and there was plenty he was happy about. But he just wasn’t sure on how to think of some things.

=================

“And have you changed the lavender flowers to ensure all can rest peacefully-” Princess Luna promptly walked back over her own words with the tact of literally stomping on them, “Remember not to have too much or the night shift guards will get drowsy and-”

“I know I know,” A teal green-hued magic gently lifted and put the line of lavender flowers upon their hangers, lightly tugging on the line to ensure they were strung up good and well. A single petal fell loose from the assortment and fell upon the blue alicorn’s nose.

The teal colored telekinetic magic casually picked it up and nestled it back into the mass, Luna taking her focus off the flowers to look upon her company.

Starlight Glimmer lowered her ears a bit sheepishly as she put another assortment up, “Only keep these things up for about four hours before changing them for the mint to help keep the night staff awake. You drilled me on this three times tonight already, remember Princess?”

======

“And remember, the mind is often its own most cunning opposition. Even a dream as peaceful as this might,” Princess Luna, standing in a dreamscape that looked like a completely innocuous field full of flowers surrounded by fluttering butterflies, paused as she glanced over at her pupil.

“-be a danger-WAKE UP!” Princess Luna accidentally let out the Royal Canterlot Voice a bit too close and proceeded to blast Starlight and the butterflies several meters away. Asleep in their bed, a very entomophobic stallion groaned and twitched in his rest, pawing at his ear like someone just shouted in it.

Somewhere far, far away, the bug-fearing stallion reacted to what followed by launching himself out of bed so quickly he hit his own ceiling face-first, and promptly passed out before he fell back onto his bedsheets.

Future dream walking sessions were postponed unless a minimum of 4 hours rest interval was made prior.

====

That was about three weeks ago. Currently, Starlight was managing the dream walking with a power nap prior and it had only gone sideways twice!

“Besiiides, I got the flowers arranged very effectively before!” Starlight beamed with a wide grin.

The alicorn leaned in closer with perked eyes, “Moderation was an important lesson we took pains to remember in our instruction, did we not?”

Starlight awkwardly chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head.

=======

Princess Luna used to rely on one of two ways to get herself up in the evening at the proper time, after nodding off for her afternoon rest following talks and breakfast with Celesta. Either her sister herself would come to greet her, or she would make use of one of her most favored modern inventions in the form of an alarm clock. Such a favorable upgrade from the classic sundials and unreliable spells! She’d half considered at one point asking if she and her sister could retroactively sanctify the inventor.

Which made her all the more confused when the clock clearly showed it was 8:30, her favorite pillow was missing after her head dropped onto an empty mattress, and her personal guard was nowhere to be found. She’d later find out Celestia had been bone tired after a particularly arduous day and had gone to sleep early in confidence that Luna would take over shortly. The night alicorn instead found the halls quiet despite the brightness, save for one frantic voice.

Instead, the context Princess Luna walked in on was piles and piles of bodies in the main hall with Starlight Glimmer as the only one left standing. Sleeping bodies. Often snoring bodies. Guards, waitstaff, scribes, a few visiting politicians or petitioners who didn’t mind the nocturnal hours; and one particularly large abnormal unicorn whom Starlight, wearing a filtering medical mask, was holding the face of as she tried to shake him awake.

The hanging rows of lavender directly above the apprentice mage were glimmering with an odd type of magic, one that carried even when they fell to the ground and were scattered about the whole floor. Even just catching a faint whiff of it was starting to make Luna drowsy again.

“What happened here? Is everypony okay?” A voice echoed from down the halls. Luna turned her head to spot one of her and Celestia’s aides, a dark-maned, pale-bodied unicorn named Raven Inkwell; trotting into the hall. She passed underneath one of the hanging masses of oddly glowing lavender and instantly started slowing down when a falling petal passed over her nose.

Starlight Glimmer’s ears shot up and she tried to call out fast enough to no avail, “NO NO NO! Don’t come in here!”

“Ooooh wow I didn’t expect it to be that strong! Maybe you all need to catch back up on your sleep hours eheh-eheh-eeeeeh….” Starlight got no response, only the sleeping visage of Godzilla who sported a slight smile on his lips like he was recalling something pleasant. Starlight Glimmer’s flattened expression was visible even through her mask, “… WakeUpWakeUpWakeUpWakeUp!-“

She started shaking his head up and down before a shouting roar called out over the halls.

“STARLIGHT AURORA GLIMMER!”

Starlight’s eyes went wide as saucers and she dropped Godzilla’s face before a wave of magic pushed across the room, casting back and containing the potent enchantment placed upon lavender flowers of all things to bottle it up in a containment field. A vase was overturned, dumping its contents on the floor before the enchantment and the flowers were literally bottled up inside of it. Instantly almost everypony in the room started to groggily rise to awareness. The giant unicorn stallion next to Starlight mouthing at the air slightly like he was chewing on something before spitting out a large, chewed up wad of enchanted lavender.

“Bleck, sorry Starlight... flavor isn’t bad, but something is,” Junior paused from resuming the last conversation he remembered having, as he looked around the room to see way more ponies than he remembered being around when he remembered last, “… Did I black out? Why does it look like everyone decided to nest in here at once?”

“You did fall asleep actually, you took a really big bite out of-“ Starlight Glimmer was levitating up one of the strands of lavender petals, which had an almost comically large gap in them matching an oversized bite mark, when she paused and stilled when her tail and hair hung downwards. The unicorn was raised up by telekinesis before she was entirely encircled in a dim blue aura.

Magically lifted off her hooves and levitated over to her mentor, Starlight blinked. Luna was still groggy from the off-sleep hours and lavender, leaving her to flip her protégé over on accident but just rolled with it. Starlight scrunched her nose and chewed on her lips when she was turned upside down and held belly up.

“You enchanted the lavender to dramatically increase its relaxing effect, didn’t you?” Luna grumbled.

“In my defense,” Starlight held up a hoof whilst still looking like she was trying to retract her neck into her shoulders, “… I wasn’t expecting it to be that strong nor was I expecting him to eat it.”

“What.. happened? Ooooouh,” Mayor Mare of Ponyville moaned as she got up groggily, “I-I heard someone collapse and came running but then I…oh? Where’d this come from?”

She pulled out a pillow which had been sent underneath her chin. Starlight Glimmer waved sheepishly, only to catch a look from Luna.

“… What?! After Godzilla was down, folks came running and started dropping as soon as the lavender fumes or petals hit them!” Starlight glanced aside at the random menagerie of pillows that had been scattered around to cushion everyone who had passed out.

The pillows seemed to be from every kind of room imaginable, from the ornate, to those one would expect on the couch, one Luna recognized as her own and solving that mystery, to frilly pink-laced cushions that look like they came out of a child’s room. The latter was picked up by Junior after Mayor Mare had offered it.

“I think this is Chibi’s…” He gave Starlight a side-eye, “What is it doing here?”

Starlight held her forelimbs up, or rather down given she was upside down whilst being suspended in the air, “I had to get pillows quick as everypony just kept running in here like a pack of lemmings and I didn’t have any time to stop it! Soooo I just ran a teleportation spell through a search-for-items scrying enchantment to grab as many pillows as fast as I could!...”

“Hey they kept running in, I kept telling them to stop!”

“…………..”

“………..” Starlight’s ears flopped down, or rather hung straight up in comparison to her head, “… I uh.. I can use a different spell to-“

Needless to say, remarking that there had been some teething problems involved in Luna taking a teaching for the first time and Starlight having an actually-present-and-upstanding mentor for a change. The protégé of the night-diarch certainly always meant well and did learn from past mistakes, requiring little to no prompting from Luna to fix her errors and that is both good of her merit. It was just the stubborn knee-jerk reaction to jump to spells that often-entailed way more than she should remotely consider in the situations called for that needed some ironing out.

Which was why Starlight was, by her own volition, wearing a suppressor ring that restricted her to just telekinesis for the moment. Luna frankly didn’t like it, but with how her mentor was in the lead up to this night Starlight had wanted to take the action as a sign of good faith and hopefully peace of mind. She already promised its disposal the moment she stepped out of the castle grounds to attend to other duties later in the night.

And speaking of her mentor however, Starlight was well privy to the subtle tremors going up and down her wings.

“Still nervous?” The unicorn said with a perked brow.

“No,” Luna grunted before a brief moment of silence passed and her eyes briefly darted aside before looking out the window and addressing the pupil who had become one of her closer friends these past months, “… Yes… I am.. uncertain this will be enjoyable.”

The unspoken ‘event’ in question was on the brain and Luna recalled those simple, fondly remembered times. Running amongst stands with Celestia, playfully hiding from Hurricane and Starswirl whilst Smart Cookie pretended not to notice them whilst slipping confectioneries under the booth they were hiding in, and partaking in all manner of childish pursuits amongst the premises. Even centuries later it made her chest warm and wings wiggle from nostalgia.

“That is-“

“-Definitely not in question,” A third voice joined the discussion as Captain Blueberry Frost paced upwards, her voice mildly muffled by the filtered medical mask before eying the lavender, “Not that ah' wouldn’t mind to shut-eye, but ye' sure ye' got those things handled?”

“Yep! Just plain old flowers,” Starlight chirped, tapping at her horn ring, “As promised.”

“Good thing, now…” The comparatively short Captain of the Guard stood up before Princess Luna with her lance at her side, "Ah' believe ah' was to see ye' off with these?”

Opening a satchel attached to her armor, Captain Frost allowed Luna to retrieve two small bands of metal. Starlight Glimmer perked up and leaned in closer to have a look, noticing how the metalworking looked similar to some of the pieces of the captain’s lance, which actually seemed to be missing the exact parts.

“What are those for?” She said, ears tilting up and about.

Captain Frost glanced at Luna before sniggering, “Consider it a ’final exam question.”

Captain Frost partially shoved her hoof against Starlight’s muzzle to shoosh her, brow lowered and a deadpan in her tone, “Stop razzling ye’self kid, Ah’ was pulling your tail.”

“Well then, I shall leave you to it as you leave other duties to me!" Starlight chirped as she bowed to her mentor, “You can count on me Princess!”

“Oh… It was never in doubt, faithful student,” Luna parroted Celestia’s example and patted Starlight’s shoulder with a wing, signaling the unicorn to rise and depart after giving the captain of the guard respectful nod as well.

After she left the room, Luna allowed her posture to slump slightly as she sighed in relief and continued to shiver.

“What if this doesn’t work?” She whined quietly, chewing her lip.

Captain Frost snorted and nudged her shoulder with a hoof, “Lulu, I can most definitely assure you that the enchantments work just fine.”

Starlight Glimmer blinked as she exited the room, half wondering if she heard that right.

-Lulu? Who is… Nevermind, must have misheard-

Princess Luna took in a deep breath and slipped the band across her horn. In an instant, the blue alicorn’s form flickered with specks of green magic like tiny embers. She changed in color, in figure, and in size. What appeared in her place was a normal pegasus pony mare, average in height, build, and with a completely usual color scheme of purple fur and yellow hair done up in a bun. Just an average madam who could have easily fit into any business employee listing or school teacher yearbook. Not a floaty magical strand of hair, atypical body patterning, or stature to suggest otherwise.

“Sure nobody will recognize this look?” ‘Luna’ said, briefly pausing upon hearing her own voice and realizing that had also changed, “... It has been a long while since we did this last.”

“Golden Quill, your disguised visage, was a dutiful teacher, but nondescript. I can’t make you a new disguise wholesale,” Frost gave it another once over lookabout to confirm it was holding out as expected, “But this won’t be somepony anypony will notice. Anypony who knew her is gone, I made sure of that.”

‘Luna’ lowered her brow and deadpanned in her tone, “Did you have to say it like that?”

“Yes,” Captain Frost remained stoic and firm-jawed, before snorting and laughing as she was unable to keep up the facade, “Pffftahahaaaaaaaa that sounded much worse than I meant it to be.”

“I just felt like asking because he asked me about a name I didn’t recognize earlier and it sounded familiar.”

“Oh? Which one.”

“Apparently he bumped into the descendant of the human world’s Blueberry Frost, an aged woman named Sugar. He might be catching on,” Luna noted as she continued to check herself over, pausing upon spotting a blemish in her fur near the back. Without wings to cover it anymore, it was all the more obvious.

“My scar?” Luna puzzled, looking at the old wound she’d gotten from Tirek’s horn all those centuries ago still visible along her upper mid-back as a crease between the hairs and raised line of tissue on her skin, “Are the anti-disguising spell wards you set up for changelings dampening the effect of the band?”

“Your band and horn are still invisible, so no. I did that by design,” Frost smiled and put a hoof to the disguised alicorn’s shoulder as she offered her the other band, “A tweak if it were, to keep some of you both shining through. This is your effort tonight for him. Wouldn’t land quite right if you both didn’t have some reminders to help memories tell you who it is before you.”

Luna frowned, less out of regret or sadness of having her blemish so visible and more out of the unassuredness she felt brewing in her gut about so many matters she didn’t know where to start. She patted the scar assuringly and perked up Luna’s dipped chin.

Luna bit her lip and glanced about slightly awkwardly, something she’d never show to all but maybe two souls alive. Three maybe, hopefully, by the end of the night; but being assured on that or not was what was causing her anxiety in the first place.

“You think I should even consider some things? I mean can I even have a normal life, let alone a normal night-” she started, only to be shushed by a hoof to the lip.

“I know you’ll both be happier by the end of this, no matter what the decision is. Trust me, dancing around it only makes it worse,” Captain Frost rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner, “I had to lose a home before realizing what I had. Courting all over again was worth it, but I’d rather you skip that.”

“... Us, both?” Luna perked up an ear.

Captain Blueberry Frost smirked and lowered her eyelids in a cheeky manner, “I keep a very close watch on all of my Guard in more ways than one. This isn’t going to be a revelation, just an icebreaker… now get! Those bands don’t run out of magic at midnight or anything, but that’s no reason to waste time!”

Sensing not a soul nearby, the earth pony mare was scooped up off her hooves by the disguised alicorn in a tight hug; Luna still having her enhanced strength regardless of the disguise. Blueberry Frost blinked twice as a whisper crossed her ears.

“I’ve always had the best fairy godmother.”

The comparatively very short earth mare sighed contentedly and patted her companion’s back, “Have fun at your ball tonight, Lulu.”

==================

A few hours later, Starlight Glimmer was still busily managing the affairs left to her duty with commendable efficiency. Retrieving Luna’s list from her saddlebag, the apprentice mage didn’t fight the small smile of satisfaction she got upon seeing how far she had gotten through the list in only a few hours.

“Lavender scent, mint readied, seal on Starswirl’s lab rechecked, dream walked through the first batch all steadied and did not result in giant butterfly monsters again,” Starlight half muttered to herself before also checking off the small note her mentor had left underneath that part.

“And I did not fall asleep in the dream or use any unnecessary enchantments… check… Up next,” She perked her brow up slightly and chuckled, “Royal mandated tea and snack break to ensure mental efficiency…”

When she first started studying under Luna, it was grueling. Starlight had never had actual formal instruction before and didn’t even realize it at first, thinking it was some kind of atonement or punishment for past misdeeds or that this was simply what teaching would actually be like. The night princess however had gotten some tips from her sister and had been nothing short of doting when time allowed for it. That and making sure mental and physical fitness was maintained helped avoid falling asleep inside a dream and having to fight nightmarish insects again. Twice was bad enough!

Knowing exactly where it would be, the unicorn started trotting out to the gardens and heading for the usual spot. She could already see the tea and snacks, magically sealed to ensure optimal temperature, set out on the table under a night blooming flowery tree. Starlight sighed contently as she approached, admiring the sight.

She was new to instruction and Luna was new to instructing, but she was already appreciating some latent talent for scenery the night diarch had.

It was, however, some of that instruction that caused hairs on the back of her neck to so reflexively rise just as she got to the table.

She could perceive the magic in the air, a method of sensing that the alicorn had been keen to catch her up to speed on for use in dream walking, also had applications in the waking world. It was a kind of nuanced magic she hadn’t gotten out of the brute force dark magic book she’d initially used, but an extremely useful ability, nonetheless. It was almost like a tactile sense now, like how one could pick up changes in temperature or air pressure.

The concerning part however was not at what she was detecting exactly, but rather the lack of detail. It was just… something. Granted she didn’t know everything’s signature even if Luna had run her through quite a lot of scenarios thanks to dream magic, but even then it wasn’t even like she didn’t recognize what she was perceiving. It was like she was sensing something was not right, but couldn’t tell what the outlier element was.

It was just her, some of the latent magic around the castle, one of Captain Frost’s wards she admittedly did not know much about a few dozen meters away, and Luna’s enchantment on the break table behind her. Logically that meant there was nothing wrong and she was just being paranoid.

Starlight wasn’t always everypony’s definition of logical however.

Quickly turning around to look about, the unicorn threw up a force field bubble of magic just as a precaution. She expanded it outwards and grew the barrier by several meters, the force of the magic bending back blades of grass and even pushing humidity in the air away to condense as water droplets across the shield. Privy to her surroundings, she opened up a small gap in the shield to engulf the table and not risk spoiling her mentor’s gift on the chance it was just her being a bit jumpy.

The dome of magic stopped stretching after a few more meters in all directions, Starlight even having the foresight to put the barrier underneath herself as a flat plane to ensure no surprises from underground. At least three experiences with dream walking entailed attacks from that very direction and she had been suitably Pavlov trained into readiness.

Now with an ample defense up, she multitasked and focused more heavily on the detection spell. The spirals of her horn were trailed with a second hue of color, indigo. A thin ray of magic emitted from the top of her horn and trailing down the spiral, creating a revolving curtain of magic that spun around a full 360° several times. Closing her eyes and focusing on the magic, Starlight Glimmer worked to filter out everything perceptible that was expected.

Her own magic. The castle’s various enchantments. The magic of a few night blooming lilies off to the left. Luna’s magic on the tea set. Some traces of a guard or three that had passed within range recently. Captain Frost’s…

-Huh, on closer look what kind of magic is that?-

Starlight Glimmer looked to the small ward she’d been told was a perimeter defense measure, something Frost had designed and crafted. They were disguised differently and the few she had seen looked completely innocuous, just random stones, a lantern or two, a brick set into a wall. Half the time they were completely out of sight and buried, which made sense given making something innocuous often meant making it indistinct and thus nopony would think twice about it being there. One tended not to think too much about what was seemingly supposed to be there.

Still this magic was… odd, now that she was inspecting it closer.

Peeking out a raised eyelid, Starlight began to approach Frost’s creation. In almost any situation, that is what would’ve been causing the straying magic she had been detecting earlier. Against almost any possible threat it would’ve been something that stuck out which was the problem.

This was one of the exceptions.

The tea kettle was full of exactly what one would expect when Princess Luna had left it, it wasn’t after the coast was clear. Something which had been watching and waiting was using it for cover. Something which came spewing out of the fine ceramic and surged forwards towards Starlight Glimmer whilst she was distracted. Starlight tried to reflexively teleport away, but she was just a fraction of a moment too slow because the detection sense she’d so faithfully employed had one weakness. A trait ironically briefly lamented about when she was thinking of Frost’s curiosities.

One tended not to think much about what seemed like it was supposed to be there.

Like the magic of Princess Luna, in the form of a dark and shadowy mass which had used the snack table for cover, swallowing her up.

=================

"Glynn Crownwatch” couldn’t fight her laughter no matter how much she tried to stuff her wrist into her mouth in a desperate attempt to muffle herself. The fairgrounds were exactly as they advertised. Plenty of booths and activities, several aisles worth of stands, some petting zoos and play areas for the children, and a wide variety of shows scheduled. It was all set within a mockup castle courtyard surrounded by quickly assembled walls of stone façade on wooden structure that did a decent job looking the part. Essentially a medieval or Renaissance fair meant to emulate at least some semblance of a picture of life centuries, if not a full millennia, back.

For most of the tourists and townsfolk, it fit the role splendidly and a good time was had by all in earnest. For one however, a seemingly innocuous purple-furred unicorn mare, a good time was still had with the festivities though also for an additional reason. She thought it looked absolutely ridiculous in the most hilarious way possible.

Two shadow puppets that gave the impression of a pegasus colt in armor and an earth pony filly with a wide hat bounced up and down across a stage made to look like a river cutting through the Everfree Forest.

“Foreth thoueth raneth toeth theeth stream my lord my lady! Foreth thouth foundeth Cookie and Hurricane!” The storyteller might have taken some issue with the random mare in the background laughing at their tale and pronunciation, had they not had more than a few bits pushed into their offered hat by the mare and her company.

Taking the good-natured fun as it was, they continued enthralling a completely captivated audience of fillies and colts. Completely butchering the old tongue as they did. Glynn almost wheezed and had to hold in her breath to avoid doubling over in laughter. Her company, a large-bodied but not gigantic earth stallion, patted at her back with a bemused roll of his eyes as if he was trying to coax her to actually remember to breathe.

It took several minutes for her to finally stop busting a gut laughing, and by then they were seated at the edge of the faux courtyard enjoying a split drink.

“Really never gone to one of these before, haven’t you?” Coal Marks, the stallion, hummed whilst letting his compatriot finish refreshing herself and stopping her diaphragm from spasming after all the laughter.

“Not-snrk-Not in a long, long while. Quite literally ages,” Glynn beamed as she adjusted glasses she really didn’t need, “Cel-em, Sunshine and I used to be quite the mischief makers back at the first fairground I can vividly remember.”

She leaned back, nostalgia glazing over her eyes as she took in the sights and sounds. So much of what she was seeing was off in one way or another. The food stands were using wooden planks and barrels to cover up modern appliances they were using instead of having to cook the old-fashioned way, the walls were clearly not actual cobblestone and mortar; and some of the patrons and vendors really getting into the role-play were using absolutely hilariously exaggerated accents and speech patterns to try and get into the role. But, if she squinted, she could just as easily make out Smart Cookie operating the confectionery booth, Commander Hurricane hosting the feats competitions; and a younger version of herself and Celestia getting into all kinds of jests and mischief running around in between and underneath the stalls just like many children were now.

“I suppose the storyteller abridging the history slightly so that Cookie and Hurricane were foalhood friends who got lost in the woods made for a better showing,” The disguised Princess Luna shrugged before perking her ears upwards like she was remembering something, quickly darting her head over to look at her compatriot.

“Y-You’re enjoying the night as well right? This isn’t too intrusive or public? Is your disguise comfortable? We worked on it as hard as we could, but I know that being around the public like this isn’t exactly normal for you and-“ Her increasingly frantic aside was cut off by a candy apple retrieved from a pouch being put into her mouth.

Luna, "Glynn", blinked a few times before looking past the confectionery fruit to see the source of quiet chuckling. Even with the disguise on, a few subtle details still bled through. Body language, tone of voice, the way someone carries themselves. It made Coal recognizable to her as Junior all the same. That nopony so far tonight had recognized them at all despite that they could see each other was subconsciously recognized by both of them.

In public, the citizens saw their night diarch stand tall, punctuate her voice, keep her chest out and wings tight, horn held high, and her eyes always partially closed like she was focusing intently upon something. Only very few had ever seen her slouch, giggle to the point of snorting; or drop the royal decreeing voice. One of the few who had, seated next to her right now, liked that.

“Lulu-… Gly-…” He just dropped the somewhat confusing grasp of disguise names and knee-jerk reactions on what to call someone, and just got to the point, a bit awkwardly shrugging his shoulders whilst tilting his head with a smile on his lips, “… I am very much enjoying myself.”

The stealth alicorn bit into the candy apple a bit more and sheepishly looked him in the eye, feeling her face getting a bit hot and her wings shiver slightly.

"... Thanks, I just... wanted to get us a slice of normality. You know?... Be like them all for a bit without anything to worry about," She muttered before perking up and shivering slightly, "Not that I'm fretting!"

Junior smiled sweetly before leaning back into the seat and enjoying the view of the fairgrounds, lightly patting at the not so small assortment of souvenirs and snacks they had acquired during the first go around. Everything from flags to confectioneries of every sort imaginable which Luna had convinced them to pick up under the logic that what they didn’t eat would be delightful for Celestia, Starlight, and Chibi.

Junior didn’t verbalize the joking dread he had wondering what kind of sugar high his protégé was getting into after just a few of these.

“I only ever got to go to one festival and I don’t remember it very vividly.”

“Oh?” Luna hummed as she leaned in a bit closer and, masked as it was by the disguise spell, Junior could feel her invisible horn glimmering with a bit of excitement-born magic, “And how, pray tell, did that manage to happen? Even when you were small I’d imagine you turned a few heads.”

His altered face smiled with his lips curled in a slightly abnormal manner to make room for fangs that were not visible anymore. His company had long gotten used to it and didn’t mind.

“I had help. It was a childhood friend of mine and one of the security bodyguards assigned to us’ idea,” He looked upwards slightly as he combed through early memories, “Back at the institute, some fall holiday came around with a few similarities to Nightmare Night. You’d have liked it.”

Luna deadpanned and smirked as she lifted her face up to get level with his and shot him a cheeky side-eye, “… They put you in a costume didn’t they?”

Junior returned the sideways glance, “Was the guard, Mr. Gabriel’s idea. Something from a series I don’t know of. Io was dressed in blue overalls with a red cap, and they went through several casings of face paint to make me bright green. I think any humans we passed by assumed I was some elaborate costume and they kept calling me ‘Yoshi’.”

Princess Luna, disguised and unrecognizable to most as she was but Princess Luna all the same, snorted from laughing as hard as she did. The reference was lost on her as well, but the surreal image painted for her mind’s eye was hilarious enough in and of itself. Her laughter proved infectious and soon they were part of the pleasant scenery itself, voices joining the jovial festivities. Any sense of awkwardness or apprehension that Junior knew Luna had taking him somewhere like this was consciously put to rest when they hopped off the respite to go driving back into the fairgrounds.

Junior picked the next event to try out, amidst a stack of large barrels set atop a suitably huge cart a team of pullers was typically needed for.

“Sssstepeth forward to chanceth thy-“ The announcer, whom Junior thought looked a bit familiar with even with his pale coat and red mane not ringing a particular bell, paused briefly to stretch out his tongue after having kept this up for hours at this point.

Luna leaned closer to Junior and whispered into his ear after tracking his line of sight to the announcer, “Does he look familiar to you?”

“I think- is that Fancy Pants?” Junior muttered with a cocked eyebrow, “I think his mane is dyed but I can’t be sure unless I- It’s bad manners to sniff each other amongst your kind, right?”

“Yes it normally is,” Luna whispered back, ignoring a mildly confused glance from a passerby who overheard part of the conversation. She herself wasn’t even phased by the inquiry, “He does look around the right height, but I only met him once at a gala. I would be a bit surprised to see him out here though. I know he had ventures beyond, but he was very much part of the posh Canterlot crowd nowadays.”

“I met him only twice and one of those I was distracted pretty early on by Moonbeam Glimmer showing up,” He paused briefly upon seeing his companion stiffen at the name of that incident causer, “She says hello again and a few dozen thank yous for taking in Starlight.”

Luna snorted, “Fiiine fiine… Your brow is twitching, so you got more to say. It always does that when you think.”

“What, after the subject got brought up I’m invested,” Junior whispered as he squinted and tried to look closer, “He did tend to favor his right legs a bit more when I saw him at a train station, old wound I think.”

She puzzled briefly as the crowd watched the event continue before them, “Hair looks around the same length but he doesn’t have it done up, if that is him.”

'Coal' just shrugged, “I’d be able to tell if I could smell him clearer, I remember what he smelled like.”

“You can’t be sure if he is somepony you know by sight but you remember what he smells like?,” Luna deadpanned with a lowered brow, “I’m both bemused and impressed. But you can’t go up and start sniffing him.”

“Well, that confirmation is out the window then… He looks so different without his monocle and hair done differently if that is him or not,” Junior hummed quietly before perking an eye at Luna, “Do you want me to get a closer look to check?”

The announcer who may or may not have been Fancy Pants, changed his speech pattern to take an acceptable break of character whilst still trying to keep the same tone, “Test your strength lifting these fully loaded, andfullyalcoholfree, ale barrels! Lift a barrel, win a prize! Lift three and win four! Come, earn a favor from your lady love-”

A hoof with bits was slapped down on the table before the stand, a purple furred pegasus mare of an unremarkable build grinning widely.

“I’m in!” A disguised Luna keened as Junior blinked in mild surprise behind her.

"Well now! Step forth to this barrel and let some of my associates be on the ready just in case-" Possibly Pants had been indicating towards one of the smaller barrels where three brawny associates, likely safety personnel, had been on standby.

Had it been a normal pegasus mare, a fit one probably could lift the barrel with only some effort but the disguise she was wearing made Luna look more like a librarian or school teacher than anything else. So when she not only lifted it but proceeded to throw it a good three meters into the air before catching it with one hoof, the announcer was momentarily verbally flummoxed.

The stealth alicorn beamed at the applause before eying a larger barrel. In all sensibilities she probably should be making more of an effort to hide, especially with all of the eyes on her. But it was just one pair of eyes fixed on her with a humored chuckle she cared for. And that gave her a surge through the nerves which brought a grin to her face.

"May I try my luck twice with something more substantial?" "Glynn" said with a smirk at Debatable Pants.

The crowd were in agreement and, after a glance or two at some of the safety personnel just to be certain they would be ready in case luck didn't hold, Ambiguous Pants agreed. Luna put the first barrel down and instantly trotted past the next sized one to go for the second to largest. The audience loved it, steadily growing.

Junior was humored the whole time. He listened in on conversations that ranged from wondering when the spree would stop; to debate on if the barrels were nearly as heavy as they looked and if they have been swapped out for light props ones. Betting pools for both were growing by the second and he couldn’t help but let out a humored sigh.

-Even in disguise, you love bringing others up; even just by amusing them.-

The way she and her sister managed themselves to the public was always something he frankly admired and had spurred long talks with both. Power and uniqueness were often synonyms for fear and isolation back on Terra when they accompanied certain groups. Outside of a close circle in the Defender faction, he intimidated even other kaiju often at the best of times. And that went without saying to the humans.

Plenty were good, in fact he often liked to think most were. But the very fact they were even here was testament to either those who let fear get the best of them or were not as beneficent and trusting as the current Godzilla had given them credit for.

He had power, more than enough to wipe out a city in a few minutes if he really wished it. And the fact he never would didn’t dawn on some, no matter how many old aching scars he got proving otherwise. And the fully realized alicorns weren’t all that much different.

Sure, a team of elites might be able to stop one with proper set up. Starlight even had a spell which might get the drop on a young one like Twilight. But in a real attack and against those like the sisters? He’d felt Luna going all out and highly doubted most had any idea what that was like. Nightmare Moon would have been unstoppable had Celestia not stepped forward, and very few had to remind Junior of how it often took one to stop one. Luna even had such potential for a rampage in her history and now look at her.

Adored by the public the continent over, holidays and festivities in her honor. But those honors weren’t what stuck out to him most. It was the sense of safety in the public. That they could just walk through a crowd, right into a city center they could easily demolish in a few spells; and folks were content and felt so secure knowing they were there. He couldn’t even hope to count all those who dreamed peacefully knowing their protector guarded them even from the night terrors within the mind as much as it did beyond.

Contrast that with every time he put his back to a city with a kaiju in front of him, never knowing for sure if all of the arms of humanity were ever fully trained off his back and not at their actual foe… It was bittersweet, but more so the latter the more he watched.

It was nice to know what he truly wanted was possible. Achievable. And that is why he admired her so much.

Even through their disguise, Luna keyed in on ‘Coal’s’ gaze and felt her nerves heat up. Her plan, her set-up, her choice of location. It was all working! No baggage of leadership. No attention to set him apart from the atmosphere. No standing apart because he stood so tall! Yes this was risky, using some of her enhanced physicality like this without a likeness to match it; but she couldn’t get enough of this thrill. Oh sure she’d been in festivities before, even without Frost’s disguise kits; but this was all set out for the express purpose of making this night as perfect as possible.

Leave all those druthers about being distinct, being larger than life figuratively or literally; and just being themselves at the end of the night with no a soul to care otherwise. And, she was being herself.

Luna, as so few knew her, was not always prim. She was not always resolute. She wasn’t always dignified. That was something she put on to help others feel safer.

She loved to make others laugh. Give them amusement. Show off her skills to bring wonder or fun.

It was like how she first beseeched that first Nightmare Night she had returned for. Delight is what she yearned for from the ponies and beings around her. Because when they were happy in her midst, they were happy she was in their midst.

She was happy he was in her midst.

Luna eagerly took up the largest barrel the group could offer and, after a moment of thought, intentionally cried out and careened backwards like she was losing her footing and had taken on too much. Instantly some of the crowd gasped and the staff ponies plus Ambiguously Pants surged forward to help her.

Only for the stealth alicorn to giggle and heft the barrel above her head without issue, one forelimb hoof on her hip to show lack of effort. Tapping her feet in a rhythmic pattern to an olden beat, she winked at the crowd that all but said ‘Tadaaaa!’ to the assembled. Her eye however, after briefly cherishing every smile, caught onto the disguised visage of her companion.

The crowd had indeed eaten up the performance, gathering closer and clapping at the show. But in doing so, it had grown as well; and somepony was at a loss because of it. It was so very innocuous. Just an accidental surge of ponies, a few horses, and gryphons coming forward to watch and blocking the view of a small band who’d been watching the event prior. Tiny voices over the crowd, something typically imperceptible to all but some like Luna herself.

Two older ponies, likely parents, were trying to push forward and find the kids; but couldn’t see through the tide of watchers with so many eyes on her instead of noticing them. All, save one.

A head dipped down and raised up. Managing to use himself to push through the crowd gently, the disguised Junior rose back up with a filly and colt atop his back. His attention wasn’t on Luna anymore, instead focusing on keying in on the parents to shoot them a wave. The children, unpulsed by the kind stranger, were eager to climb up his neck and watch the show continue, oohing and awing at the miraculously mighty mare. So much so that aside from a brief moment of confusion, the filly ignored what was in all likelihood an invisible horn she’d bumped into briefly before brushing it off.

Junior’s line of sight was on the parents, communicating what was going on through the shouting. He judged about approaching, until the children continued to clap at the show. Their parents' assuring smiles and nods spoke enough and Junior remained where he was; mostly focused on ensuring the children didn’t fall over watching the stage.

He wasn’t watching her as intently. His focus, even on a special night and with who he was, was on two random kids neither of them ever met. It was perhaps the very same reason Luna felt her pulse quicken after that fateful battle with the Gyaos and each time he recollected a battle on Terra with a threat before him and the protected behind him.

One of the first major qualities she truly learned about him, and one she admired so much.

That and being good with kids.

She couldn’t help it. Her wings popped out. They weren’t Alicorn wings visually, not under the disguise. But that didn’t matter when they bashed into the barrel from going stiff. The multi-hundred kilogram barrel got launched into the air as her face went red even through the disguise spell. All she heard was white noise and her pounding heart rate for a time even as she subconsciously caught the barrel.

The crowd. From the staffers in assortments of time accurate and less than accurate garbs, from the fairgoers ranging single patrons, to a batpony and green unicorn on a date, to a whole crop of extended Apple family went wild with claps and cheers. And even at the sight of many things she liked or wanted, Luna was still frozen stiff.

“Ma’am! Ma’am that was spectacular!” Possibly Pants gasped as he ran up to her and all four brawny assistants very carefully hauled the barrel off the still-still stealth alicorn, “You won the grand prize- what’s wrong with your eyes?”

“My... eyes?” "Glynn" muttered as she turned her head.

Ambiguous Pants looked her up and down and nodded, jaw slightly dropped in befuddlement.

Luna’s heart was still pounding all the while as she realized her horn, disguised and invisible as it was, was sparking from an emotional magic surge. And with it invisible, the residual glow was coming out of her eyes. She glanced over at the crowd, at her.. saying as it was, date.

The glow intensified and she felt a surge of anxiousness.

Grabbing the giant teddy bear, clearly the most fitting kind of gift for a medieval festival, she rapidly yelped out a- “THANKETH THOUETH FORETH THETH COMPETITION!” in butchered Old Equestrian. The flustered alicorn flew off stage in her pegasus disguise and soared past Junior.

“I-UH-HAVETH-ER- INDISPOSED!” She yelped before passing the squealing children the giant bear and bolting for the very modern mares’ room amidst the booths.

‘Coal’ just no-selled the children now literally dancing on his head as the bear blocked his vision.

“... Huh, guess that candy apple went through fast.”

==========

Luna shook and shivered inside the privacy of an empty tent that the owner had apparently vacated after taking an hourly break. Hidden behind the fabric walls and shelves, she was seated with her back to the wall and holding herself. Her entire body was twitching, fur bristled and feathers ruffled. She’d removed her disguise once she got inside the stall, feeling like she had trouble breathing and having anything on her was suffocating. The alicorn felt her mind going in five places at once and every time she tried to pick one to follow, another five distracting thoughts cropped up to steer her away.

Her chest was still huffing. Her pulse was still racing. Her nerves were sparking. And it was causing visible effects with her magic, with her horn flickering and crackling briefly as her
wings shook and just the act of bracing her shaking hooves on the wood had split the timbers from out of control strength. Her emotions were on the fritz and any semblance of control, be it physical or magical, was beginning to go out the proverbial window.

It took a monumental effort for her to work through the anxiety, more than she thought she had, and consider the source of all of this. All of her interactions with and observations of Junior tonight only seemed to throw gas on the fire for how heavy her breath was becoming and how rapid her pulse was getting. With so many stimuli flying around, there was only really one conclusion to have. One that was more than a little bit surreal considering what she had been steering this night towards.

It was all to give him the best event he could get, especially with all that happened in the past and recently. And he was having a great time! He effectively said so himself and there was nothing to suggest otherwise. Even with that disguise on she could read his expressions like a book and they all told her that-

She shivered, eyes widened in mild realization.

She could read his expressions like a book. Had gone out of her way to try and ensure things to his benefit. Was nervous about him having a good time to the point of giving herself a mild anxiety attack. And was now blushing and shivering like a schoolfilly around a crush.

She could perceive a bridge needing to be crossed between them, and yet for all of her power there was an intense nervousness about crossing it.

And nervousness, as her eyes spied whilst the alicorn held her face with her forelimbs, for more than one reason. Marring the blue fur spanning her left leg, just above her elbow, was a darkened patch. Instantly the alicorn’s heart, pounding as it was, sunk and cold went through the veins. She grit her teeth and made sure nopony was looking her way.

It almost looked like the hair had been stained, and she absentmindedly wiped at it to ensure it wasn’t something she picked up. When the inky black spots, identical in color to the patches around her hips and thighs, refused to be wiped off, Luna grimaced and did all she could. She bit the fur and resisted the twinge of pain as she yanked the fur out in a small bit. Spitting the marred hairs out, she did her best to wipe the fur around it down and cover up the bare patch.

If more of those came, she’d really need to find ways to change what was happening. Stop it fully.

Her pulse still quivering, Princess Luna held herself and tried to draw in a steadying breath.

-Just calm down. Just finish the night for him and keep calm. Keep calm and maybe… possibly.. say something. Maybe before things progress too much?... But then what about the future? What about this? What about Terra? What of?! I-I might have to slow this down.. S-Stop it maybe I-!!!-

The alicorn grit her teeth and let out an exasperated groan that startled some fair-goers outside, causing them to eye the tent warily before pacing away quickly while whistling inconspicuously. Luna just deadpanned, eyes narrowed, and lips pursed into a frown from her predicament. Magic spurred on by conflicting emotions within spurred a slight glimmer to trail up her still invisible horn and spark across the length.

Luna looked up and between her eyes at the offending horn, “Oh don’t you start now…”

A ways away and a few minutes later, the still-disguised Junior passively waited where he’d been left. The kids had happily accepted their prize and were off with their family to enjoy the festivities. Truthfully he knew Luna would have no issue with him killing time by enjoying himself as well, but he didn’t want to leave. If he went somewhere else; she would have a harder time finding him and that would mean a few moments separated whereas they could otherwise be together.

He just let himself drink in the sight of the fun fairgrounds whilst waiting for the inevitable. It wasn’t that he hadn’t been enjoying himself here, this kind of festivity had been very entertaining and there are still many more he wanted to do that had been spotted earlier! It was just that… with company, it was like a force multiplier on the entertainment factor.

Knowing the one responsible for this fun was cheering and delighting alongside him.

Seeing her goofy smile he knew so well shine through even her pegasus disguise.

Watching her eagerly throw herself into competitions and add to their prize pool, one neither of them needed but were fun moments because they were given to each other all the same.

Seeing the crowds unwittingly cheer and thrill at her exploits even if they knew not it was one of the very revered protectors they had in their midst, the eyes and adoration of so many earnestly given.

He-

Junior’s eyes widened briefly and he wobbled.

He felt he really needed to sit still when his pulse started to quicken and hit him in the head so hard it dizzied him. Soon leaning against a post with his mind racing at so many swirling topics, his eyes drifted to take in the festival.

-She was right. Never could see something like this on Terra again.-

Godzilla paused his breath and let his gaze move upwards to the stars. Her stars, part of his mind passively registered.

-I spent almost two decades telling myself I was a monster, and if I didn’t ‘shackle myself’ to using what I had to devote almost everything to protecting the weaker, I’d wind up just like my father and grandfather…-

Memories and sights came back to mind as he thought of them. A showdown against Destroyah at the port. His advance on the Millennian in Kyoto. Leading the charge during the humans’ Final War. How many times had entire countries, humanity as a whole, or even the planet as it was recognizable exist because he kept throwing himself into the fray?

Terra needed him. And they could wind up going home tomorrow for all he knew. If he let himself get tied down, it would only be harder to leave. Taking on an apprentice was the first major step but this felt like crossing a gulf that dwarfed that span. The temptations were strong, so strong it took a lot of resilience to resist them.

He liked it here, loved it here and really liked the people here. But, Terra needed him. Part of his mind, a conflicting storm, protested that he shouldn’t even try what he was being drawn to do. That he liked who he liked but he couldn’t remain with her forever.

That self-defeating duty-mindedness of his roared that he needed to call this off. Distance himself if needed. He had his duties and he couldn’t push against them by-... by…

The memory of him sitting by a pond with a very nondescript earth pony mare returned to his mind, pushing the stubborn self-hatred he grappled with for years aside. Azusa hadn’t come alone that night.

“... What am I even thinking?” He breathlessly whispered to himself between the tightened nerves.

The engulfing nightmare. The town he destroyed. All that self-loathing, toxic endeavors towards duty, and wrath at his cruel fate brought to the surface. When he saw himself as a horrible mistake of a monster deep down, that’s what the Nightmare brought to the surface even if it was too much for it to control. And he himself flew out of control. Xenilla enacting his father’s burning state for the first time, a powerful magus like Starlight, and several more volunteer heroes couldn’t do a thing to stop him.

Only a little filly had when she got him to stop what he’d done to himself.

It was the first big change he took for himself living here, trying to impart something good on an apprentice; that saved his life and the lives of others.

-Maybe, another big change would be for the better too?-

The words of someone he trusted most of all, more than himself, echoed again in his mind.

-“Since you're in a whole new world, maybe take the opportunity to make some friends here? You’ve been carrying Terra on your shoulders for a long time, maybe your first time off Terra is a sign you need a break? These Equestrians seem nice enough.”-

He slowly let go of his head, just now realizing he’d grabbed it in his moments of mental spiraling. He could wind up in Terra tomorrow. He could die tomorrow here too. After that confrontation with Eurus and the rest of his ilk, it was a strong reminder Equestria wasn’t a land without danger. And if tomorrow took him, either from the mortal coil with the life he led or from Equestria, how would he feel about not seizing the night and chance he had now? The memory of Azusa continued her wisdom as he thought of exactly whom came to mind when she talked, most of all.

-”Relax, let them hear you out and you may be surprised at the responses you get. You’ve already gotten some of them to care.”-

“Luna…”

He gazed at her moon and sighed, a tiny relieved smile crossing his lips.

He could wind up in Terra tomorrow. Next week. Next month. Next year. He would defend it at a moment’s notice, but he stifled that part of his mind, that deep seated self hatred that demanded he not seek what others had.

He wanted happiness. He wanted companionship. He wanted a life. And millions of folks on Terra, kaiju and humans alike; would want it for him.

There was no going back right now, so they’d cross that bridge when he got there; as the manner of speech he learned told. For now.. He’d live. If this didn’t work out, he could at least live on knowing they gave it a try!

Gathering himself up and finally slowing his rapid pulse, he couldn’t keep himself from grinning giddily. Now if only he could find Luna, this disguise’s constant magic flow made detection difficult.

His eye tracked to a bit of an uproar in the crowd and his head stood up slightly.

Gawking children and momentarily confused families parted ways down one of the aisles after a most unexpected arrival paced through the back entrance to the fairgrounds and made their way through them. Their tall frame made them stand literally heads and shoulders above the crowd, ethereal hair waving in the slow breeze as a carpet of stars. A gleaming blue helmet reflected torch lights and lanterns. Had they not been present in large quantities so as not to break the ambience of a time before such inventions, there would no doubt be a barrage of camera flashes as Nightmare Moon; exactly like out of the history or storybooks, walked amongst the crowds.

Several event organizers, including Theoretical Pants, busily flipped through schedules to see if this was something on the event list that they had somehow overlooked. Nightmare Moon paid them no attention, almost robotically pacing down the aisles with her head slowly turning side to side as if she was scanning for something. Her eyes, almost jewel-like, seemed to glimmer with an iridescent glow as she surveyed the gawking onlookers. From her perspective, the aura that appeared around each of the assembled fairgoers looked exactly like they did. Random assortments of completely average looking passersby just lit up with glowing outlines of various colors. Many of them were waving or calling out, thinking this was some kind of show as part of the festivities or perhaps even a visit from one of their beloved princesses’ dressing up for such a spectacle like a certain autumn holiday.

Nightmare Moon tuned out the mundane, blackening out any traces of magic born from a unicorn, pegasus, or earth pony. Additional fine tuning filtered out the various gryphons, zebra, and diamond dogs in the audience as well. All that remained were faint whispers of unusual magic. But the unusual, to her confusion, were two in number.

One was traces of magic like her own, the very type she was spun-off from with Luna’s specific traces. Nightmare Moon abruptly turned in the crowd, ignoring a call out from Presumptively Pants trying to find some clarity for the situation. She instead made a beeline for a seemingly random tent across the courtyard, one with a “Back after Dinner!” sign hanging from the front, one that the traces of alicorn magic led to. One that, with her approach, made the demonic alicorn’s skin seem to writhe like billowing tapestry of animate shadow and her horn flicker with growing illumination in a charging sequence.

Inside the tent, Luna froze from the midst of her anxiety attack; her heaving breaths not slowing down prior to her abruptly stopping. Completely quiet and silent, she slowly turned her head to look directly at the wall separating her from the outside. Even with no permeability, she knew exactly what was beyond. The spirals of her horn were lighting up in a very particular sequence.

-H-HOW?! WHY?!-

Why here? Why didn’t she sense it coming? Why was she unable to move? Why was she still having a panic attack over this? She tried to summon up strength, wit, a spell; but her emotions were in a quagmire, and nothing was focusing! Why-

“Excuse me!” A voice called out.

Luna flinched, her eyelid twitching as Nightmare Moon’s did the same.

Still with their aura vision active, the image of Nightmare Moon found herself directly confronted with the second unusual magic signature. It was almost amorphous, like raw clay that had been molded into a shape but only haphazardly. Green hues almost like flickering bits of sparking fire, covering up something equally atypical.

Letting the glow dissipate from their eyes, the night terror looked down at the gray hued earth pony stallion standing between her and the tent their quarry was in.

Junior was just about to try and whisper something to the extent of ‘What are you doing?’ to whom he initially took to be Luna pulling some unplanned stunt for the festival, which would be very confusing considering all the set-up they’d been through with Frost’s disguises. That was for a grand total of three seconds. Three seconds of cultivated skill for quick analysis he’d had to develop on Terra. It was necessary when whatever was coming at him at a moment’s notice could be identified as an ancient demonic oni, a shapeshifting alien, a supersonic mutant dragonfly; or all three.

Three seconds he needed to figure out from the stiff posture, tightness of her wings, and the spiteful look in the eyes that not even Luna bore in their initial battle; that this wasn’t Luna.

And there was little reason to think this was part of some show when their magic burst to life with a kinetic blast quickly charged to fire.

Anchoring his hooves into the ground, Junior managed to call out louder and with more roar in his tone than most equines were capable of when he screamed, “EVERYONE GET BACK!”

There were too many of them close by. If he fired back and knocked the imposter back or over he might hit someone in the crossfire. If he dodged, they might well blast someone who’d been behind him as well. His best and first response was to put stock in being tougher than most and tank the hit, bracing and being still as to all but ensuring there wouldn’t be a miss or deflected hit that followed.

He’d been braced for impact, and someone in the tent knew it. Even if she couldn't see it, she knew it. And Nightmare Moon never saw her coming. Her magic was focused now thanks to him.

The tent behind the still disguised Junior burst with light as a high speed, blue blur smashed through the "Back after Dinner!" sign and rocketed at the larger alicorn. He caught a glimpse of Luna, disguise bursting off due to her overloading magic, flying over his head before she grabbed onto her dark echo, the two disappearing in a flash of blue magic.

-Luna?! Okay focus Junior. When she impulse teleports she tends to veer to the left and-

Having rapidly combed through memories of their own battle and their training sessions, he looked upwards and to the left at around the 8:00 position. His hope was well founded as sure enough, off in the distance, he did perceive a brief dot of blue hued magic light appearing up on the crest of a ridge leading into Whitetail Woods proper.

Shooting a brief glance towards Potentially Pants, who seemed to be at a loss for words, Junior's grimace and body language spoke up even through his disguise. Suspected Pants flailed about and grabbed a hollow horn that actually contained a definitely true-to-the-time-period megaphone.

"Fasteneth thou- ah urg, quiteth the show our princess hath decided to partake in surprising us with tonight, was it noteth?" Indeterminate Pants clearly strained on a few syllables as his stupefied tongue wasn't quite catching up with his butchered dictionary.

But, it did have the intended effect two fold. It kept a confused panic from breaking out amongst the crowd, part of whom started conversing amongst themselves and wild speculation about what show was going on. And it kept the other part of the crowd distracted looking at the source of the loud noise via megaphone for "Coal Marks" to sprint out of the fairgrounds, jump over the fence and turn around.

Nobody was looking off towards the high ridge when a body propelled by a backwards-fired stream of atomic breath sent its user rocketing into the air in a controlled recoil.

===================

A ways away above the ridge, Princess Luna literally grappled with her own image as the two came tumbling down from the sky and crashed through several tree branches on the way down. Landing hard across the forest floor with enough force to carve a small trench into the ground as they slid down the slope, Luna did her best to hold her tongue and grit her teeth. She had a good hold of her own personal demon, hooves braced against either side of Nightmare Moon’s throat and pushing in. The first problem was the nightmare was doing the exact same maneuver to her, and at all points of contact the dark fur covering their bodies seemed to become animate. Like a living tar, it started trying to cling to anything it could, and in several spots it was beginning to grow across Luna’s body. Much to her distress, more patches of dark hues began appearing across her fur.

“No,” Luna gasped as she braced her hind hooves against Nightmare Moon’s belly as she did the exact same, kicking off with tremendous force to get free but being kicked backwards in the same motion that was perfectly copied.

Both night alicorns abruptly went shooting off in separate directions, with Nightmare Moon flying back further and faster despite her larger size. Sailing backwards, Luna aimed and quickly fired a sphere of magic that expanded into a seconds-long torrent of dark magic. Nightmare Moon, despite having been sent back harder, perfectly copied the maneuver, and unleashed a black hued salvo of equal strength. Both blasts struck home and sent either alicorn smashing through a tree trunk.

The two towering aspen trunks exploded into shrapnel as both went flying through them and causing the aged timbers to groan and slump over, looking like they were traveling in slow-motion due to their extreme height of several dozen meters apiece. The ancient aspens began to fall to terra firma in the background of two bursts of magic heralding Princess Luna and Nightmare Moon’s arrival in each other’s midst with magic at the ready.

Spirals of light worked up their horns before rapid fire salvos of concussive bursts erupted forth like a minigun. Most of the shots intercepted each other, dissipating or knocking the other’s aim off course; with others careening off into the forest and mulching the fallen aspens behind them.

“WHY ARE YOU HERE?! WHY YOU OF ALL THINGS?!” Luna roared, eyes going white with enchantment-fueled fury as she grabbed Nightmare Moon with a wave of telekinesis to smash her into the rocky ground; only to get the exact same treatment.

The true night alicorn’s mind was in a spiral as she tried to both figure out the situation and fight through the mental fog that stress and sheer outrage were causing. Anything she said was just as much a question as it was her thinking through the options.

“CHRYSALIS?!” Luna bellowed, as she threw up a shield to smash into Nightmare, with like magic meeting like. Though when the two shields made contact, the dark magic laden across Nightmare’s cracked.

Luna quickly took the opportunity to quick-fire a simplified version of the aura scanning spell she and her sister knew. Not enough to get a complete reading but enough to take advantage of the close quarters for the few seconds before that writhing from Nightmare’s body happened again. She did not want to make any more contact with that.

The aura she detected was definitely not a changeling’s, she comparatively had more on it from the remnants of her disguise that she had accidentally burned off. The magic was.. very familiar.

-No…-

Luna’s internal voice was but a whisper compared to her screaming outrage externally.

“WHO ARE YOU?! WHY DID YOU BOND WITH THE NIGHTMARE?!”

Every single time this literal waking nightmare happened again, the end result was always a little different. A few times Luna, in moments of dread but also worry, considered what others might look like if the same affliction that happened to her and Rarity came upon them. It caused no small amount of cold pain in her gut remembering that very thing happened to one she’d been very close to confessing to tonight before getting cold hooves.

Bitter, chilling pain came back once again; regret for what happened at Our Town and enduring the Nightmare she had let loose on the world. It would’ve been so comparatively easy had this curse actually been some outside force that had come to influence her, but this was one of her own making. And that guilt caused fissures on the heart that it tried to fill.

Luna’s eyes widened in horror as the deep thought was disrupted with a snap. The dark mass of the Nightmare had gone right through the shield, climbing up her legs.

She didn’t verbalize with articulation. She didn’t curse. She didn’t damn. She didn’t speak necessarily at all. All she did was scream.

Nightmare Moon was violently kicked backwards into the forest as Luna went shooting up into the sky as fast as her wings could carry her in just three beats. She hovered before her moon, a full thirty meters in the air. All the while her mind still raced.

There was one reason why the Nightmare would look like Nightmare Moon and not whoever else it had bonded to. If it had. The very same reason it was fixated on her to begin with.

1000 years after a mistake, and it was still coming back to haunt her. She didn’t deserve anything until something was removed from the equation. Several more darkened spots started to show up on her coat at the base of her hooves…

Nightmare Moon actually seemed frozen in place for a moment, before taking several steps back at an increasing pace towards Luna like she was chasing her. She sprinted and jumped, and for a moment Luna thought she was about to take to the air. And she did. But not on enlarged pegasi wings. Instead, she wrapped herself in an aura of magic to speed up her approach.

Wet teardrops fell upon her blue hued helmet, falling from above as Luna’s own eyes whited out with charged magic. Enraged and pained tears continued streaming down from her eyes as her wingspan grew to its fullest extent, moonbeams radiating through the seams of her feathers.

The same evil banishment and containment spell she taught Rarity was charged in her own namesake, and Luna wasn’t entirely sure; with the pits forming in her stomach, what to think of Nightmare Moon clearly about to copy her again and hit her with the exact same spell. This would at least spare whatever poor soul it had bonded with…

An azure heat ray scythed the air in front of the villainess and cut off Nightmare’s advance, before slicing upwards into the air.

Glowing blue eyes stomped through the forest as the disguise Captain Frost had made, unable to take the extremes any longer, broke apart and billowed away like burned embers.

“Remember me?” Godzilla Junior growled, azure mist smoking from the corners of his mouth to wreathe his face.

At last a reaction from Nightmare Moon. Eyes widened and lips curled in both threat as well as surprise. Yes, it was safe to say the dark magic mass did remember that time their assimilation attempt backfired spectacularly. Her entire mass writhed and spasmed.

It wasn’t the only one that had their attention broken by the new arrival. Luna’s eyes dimmed as she gazed down at her companion for a moment, before directing back to Nightmare Moon. They were about to fire the spell, but Luna thought she’d noticed something about their magic she hadn’t quite before. A subtle detail missed in the fog of stress and emotional overload.

There were sparks of turquoise in Nightmare Moon’s magic aura.

She grimaced and quickly redirected her magical charge to something simpler. A concussive burst to blast the distracted Nightmare Moon back and dodge out of the way of their misfired spell. Luna promptly teleported down to terra firma beside and in front of Godzilla, her eyes bloodshot and still surrounded by red.

“It has a victim,” Luna blurted out as she extended a wing to ensure he didn’t go ahead of her, “… Part of me wants to say this is my fight.”

“And plenty of me knows you can handle yourself,” Junior grunted before turning an eye towards her as Nightmare Moon landed in the forest ahead of them, still curiously not using her wings, “What does most of you want to say though?”

“That there is nothing I could do to stop you from trying to help.”

He snorted, “Correct… Now why does it look exactly like Nightmare Moon if it’s possessing somepony or someone? If inner desires are a factor, nothing nobody could hope for specifically would result in this.”

“To gander a hypothesis?...” She glanced at him and sighed, relaxing her expression slightly and attempting a modicum of a smile, “After the fiasco with you and Rarity seizing control, it’s put everything it’s got into having total control with no subconscious input. It’s using somepony as the battery.”

Junior passively canceled out the charge on his heat ray he’d been keeping at the ready, just in case it was overkill and hit the victim.

“Say the word and I’ll do it,” Junior whispered as Nightmare Moon leered at them, trying to circle to the left to get closer towards Luna and gauge their next move.

“It?” Luna muttered with a quirked eyebrow.

“Your right-wing quivers slightly when you get an idea,” Junior grunted before smirking, glancing at the wing before him briefly, “And it just happened again, something new on your mind?”

“If you’re trying to get my mind off of the copious amounts of rage and spite I have facing down my own literal personal demon,” She sighed and glanced at him again, blinking in what looked like a slight wink, “It worked some… Try and hold her still, don’t use anything too explosive.”

He huffed with what sounded almost like a chuckle before charging in, Luna hovering into the air and flying close to ground to rush in beside him.

Nightmare Moon, despite being physically larger than the two, actually shrank backwards. Instead of meeting them head on, she actually disappeared in a burst of teleportation magic. Reappearing behind both and tagging them with a concussive burst, they whirled around only for her to vanish again and reappear from the right front at Junior’s 2 o’clock a few moments later.

Godzilla growled at the blast which lightly burned and bruised his shoulder, but the villainess vanished again before Luna could shoot back. Blocking his side to help speed up the healing, the momentary scan for their energy spurred some memories to unlock in the milliseconds that followed. Misdirect from the front, then a blast from 6 o’clock, then from 2 o’clock; and then..

“Waxing Crescent into Third Quarter!” Luna cried out as she grabbed onto Junior’s forehooves.

His eyes lit up in recognition of a maneuver she herself had performed countless times in practice and sparring. Both with him, and instruction to their pupils. Misdirect from the front, hit from behind, then the right front; and then from the left rear. Celestia cheerfully pointed out, when Luna came up with this as a filly, that the misdirection and diagonals were based on a moon phases graph set in a circle.

She had admittedly been staring at that graph for a while.

Junior however understood her entirely. Letting her swing him around by kicking off the ground, he was lifted and thrown just as Nightmare Moon reappeared behind into the right of where Luna had been. She had entered her writhing state again, limbs spread wide like a spider about to seize prey. She’d been intending to grab onto Luna and never cease. Instead, she got an angry alien thrown into her.

Godzilla grabbed onto Nightmare Moon, partially splashing himself with the dark mass she was composed of, as he cracked a toothy grin. In an instant, parts of his skin lit up with a whitened glow and his temperature spiked.

“Hi,” The now partially-burning Godzilla chortled, getting Nightmare’s full panicked attention on him as a blue blur shot upwards into the sky above.

Nightmare’s tarry mass latched onto Godzilla but refused to fully bind. It had worked with Starlight only by sheer force of will and had just barely worked, to do so twice was an impassable limit. Had this been months back there would’ve been a lot of bottled-up strain and spite to work off of. And to say there was none left would be untrue. But to say that there hadn’t been some big changes and a healthier mindset as of late would also be decidedly untrue. And that was toxic to a nightmare as much as the heat might be to just about anything else.

Nightmare Moon shrieked and teleported away from him to reappear a dozen meters away, writhing and patting at themselves as if trying to get a taint off of them. She glared at Godzilla only to notice he wasn’t even bothering to look at her. His gaze was upwards, in awe.

Taking the opening he had granted her, Luna had made use of her wings like she hadn’t in years. She arced upwards, breaking through the clouds barriers high above as she continued accelerating; before arcing upside down and around to come rocketing down even faster. She spun around in a tight spiral, blue magic swirling around her as she cloaked herself in a field of her own aura. A cone of energy not dissimilar from a Sonic Rainboom started to build up across her quickening frame, flickering as it was due to not quite reaching the same acceleration in such a short time as one with a talent for it. Still, she came down like a blue comet draped in a tapestry of stars.

Luna narrowly averted her dive for a head-on collision and let the magic burst. Nightmare Moon threw up a shield, then a shield on top of the shield, and then even more. She would have attempted copying the magic, using the augmented version of her host’s abilities to at least approach the same level as a distressed and emotionally unstudied alicorn like she had earlier. But this was not a type she could use, not with this body. And Godzilla’s distraction gave her no time to try and figure out a way around it.

A transparent wave of magic went across the sky in a dazzling display after exploding out from the epicenter of the half formed ‘Nightboom’. If there is any doubt in the confused festivalgoers’ minds that this was some kind of elaborate show they just had been made privy to, it was put aside pretty quickly when a full tapestry of brilliant stars and constellations briefly rolled across the sky in the immediate area. If one looked very close they could actually see flickers of a story in the alignments of those stars. One of sisters, protectors, friends in and of ponies, changelings, gargoyles, kaiju. And a story about monsters, and those who became them.

It carried a potent payload of cleansing magic and completely shattered Nightmare Moon’s barriers to strike home.

The wave of magic washed over the wriggling nightmarish mass approximating Nightmare Moon’s form. Like a near invisible pane of glass pushing back water sharply, the magic opened up a vacuum along her body. Much of Nightmare Moon’s volume was seemingly empty, composed of dark magic in and of itself. But there was something solid deep underneath.

Starlight Glimmer’s unconscious body groaned, black tendrils stubbornly hanging onto her horn and igniting it fully. The unicorn’s magic, overclocked to a sufficient degree, was enough to push back the investigative spell by Luna.

-That explains the lack of flight and why she doesn’t seem physically stronger than I would expect…-

Junior mentally noted as he canceled out his burning form, running up beside Luna as she hovered nearby with her eyes affixed on what was now her captive student. Her fur was bristling as she glared absolute daggers at Nightmare Moon.

“Hey, we can get her out,” Godzilla grunted to his companion, “Maybe without a willing bond she’s not as strong as she could be. But even so there’s two of us and one of her. So-.. Luna?”

His head tilted somewhat at the sight of her legs, noticing something amiss. The darkened marks around her flanks had grown down to encompass much of her thighs almost to the knees in uneven blotches with only some blue between them. The coloration was nearly identical to Nightmare Moon’s own hues.

“Did some of her get on you?..”

Well-intended worry twisted a knot in her gut.

Luna heard the concern in his voice and her lip quivered into a frown bitterly. Another tear ran down her face, teeth starting to grit together. She cast a quick spell to check something before Nightmare could fully pull itself back together and envelop Starlight. A read of her student’s aura and health.

Diminished in one regard, perfect in another.

Luna looked at her own hoof, feeling at the magic conducting in her body. In unicorns magic tended to pool around the horn, in pegasus around the wings. But in the earthbound, it could be just about anywhere or all over. And if she could conduct a spell that hurt Nightmare through pegasus magic, she could through her earth pony portion.

Her hoof quivered before she set it down, splitting a large tree limb she stepped on without issue for effort; as she just walked right up to Nightmare Moon.

“What are you doing, Luna?” Junior huffed as he approached to keep beside her, only for a line of magic to briefly spew from her horn to rake across the ground in front of it. It absolutely wouldn’t have done anything if he had accidentally walked into it, save for maybe a mild tingle, but the gesture made it clear for him to stay back.

He only did so with great reluctance, one that would break if his concern for her or Starlight overrode trust in a plan she had.

Nightmare Moon, fully reconstituted, looked at Luna with wide eyes and an uncanny gaze. Like an owl spying a mouse walking right up to it. It was easy to see why so many were scared of that kind of figure.

-Your entire look is uncanny… Barely even a pony.-

Princess Luna paced right up to the taller alicorn and gazed up at her, tears dried and face darkened. She looked right into those jewel-like eyes and glared as Nightmare stared back. Like clockwork, its body mass began to wriggle like a colony of worms, and they leaned forward as if to envelop and seize.

A deep crack echoed across the glade and Nightmare Moon doubled over. Their helmet, split and dented, rolled across the ground before disintegrating into nothing but stray magic. After a few moments, Nightmare staggered to her hooves and looked at Luna with surprise, gazing at the alicorn’s hoof where the punch had been thrown with a mildly stupefied reaction. But confusion could last only so long. Their eyes remained wide and her back started to arch like a cat about to pounce.

Without the helmet on, the resemblance to Luna as she was now was markedly stronger.

Princess Luna's horn glimmered briefly as she kept her eyes closed. From her perspective, using a variation of her dream walking magic to touch upon an unconscious mind, she could 'see' the out-cold Starlight Glimmer within the dark alicorn.

-She was unaffected by that blow, it only harmed Nightmare. I had thrown it where her head wouldn’t be just to be sure, but not even the radiating magic or kinetic force hurt her. Good... A dark magic containment spell like what I taught Rarity could unbind them now promptly...-

Her horn continued to glow as she opened her eyes and Nightmare Moon braced for the spell blast to strike at her. The dark alicorn, drawing from Starlight's magical knowledge, readied for what she thought was the oncoming concussive blast or containment spell and fired.

Only, the spell never came. Princess Luna didn't fire anything. Instead she ducked down and sprang forward, avoiding the spell bolt that flew over her shoulder to rip some feathers out of her wing. She paid the pain no heed and instead lurched forward. Nightmare Moon didn't truthfully have a real body, but her existence as a magical construct did approximate one around Starlight faithfully. Including a voiding of her lungs in a gasp when Luna rammed her hoof into the chest hard enough to dent-in the dark blue armor and launch the alicorn back several paces.

Nightmare Moon crumpled down and retched, actually giving a full bodily reaction resembling pain. She felt herself scanned by Luna once again, and once again a spell confirmed Starlight Glimmer was unharmed.

Hoof steps approached and soon a shadow loomed over her, Luna growling the words, "Get up."

Nightmare Moon heard the words and knew the voice. On reactive instinct she lunged at the shadow she saw. Part of her body became almost liquid-like, reaching out to latch onto the alicorn before her. To assume her body, fully rebind to her origin, become whole-

Luna swatted the dark alicorn back down like she was backhanding them. In a split second, Nightmare Moon, back in a solid form, was sent sprawling.

"Get up."

The thousand-year-old nightmare glimpsed the hoofsteps closing in on her and sneered. A magical salvo rushed up her horn and flew free. A sharp uppercut to the jaw would have shattered a weaker body and made the magical beam fly wide into the night sky, missing its target entirely and scraping the horizon. A follow-up stomp with her forehooves and swat later and Luna sent the dark echo of herself flopping across the forest floor.

The Night Diarch’s mind was full of bitter thoughts as she closed in.

-Nearly killed my own sister.-

"Get up."

Nightmare Moon was grabbed off her attempt to rise and lunge, bashed into the ground and thrown back down so hard she bounced off the gravel.

-Enslaved Rarity to my grudge.-

"Get up!"

The larger alicorn attempted to retaliate, but her magical shockwave was dodged. Wings beat as Luna bit down on her horn and flew forward, dragging Nightmare across the gravel and tossing her into a tree trunk. The dark form crumpled to the ground despite trying to break her fall.

-Consumed my student and came after me again!-

A blue blur tackled Nightmare Moon and landed multiple blows across her midsection, cracking the tree each time.

-And right when I'm happy, right when I'm moving forward again, I come back to drag myself back!-

The tree trunk split across its middle and Nightmare Moon flopped backwards, eyes wide and voided as her jaw hung limply; bent over backwards across the fallen trunk. Bits of dark magic wisped off her constituted form, wriggling weakly and smoking off.

-You’re just magic from a bad memory, I AM NIGHTMARE MOON!-

Princess Luna kept her eyes shadowed by her brow and bangs in the low light, face obscured in shadow as teardrops fell down onto a drawn-back hoof, cocked back to punch or stomp once again.

"Get. UP!" A sobbing Luna snarled, parts of her body which had darkened on full display in the moonlight.

-And I don’t get a night of being normal…-

Nightmare, contrary to her namesake, looked upon what was before her and shrank away in fear.

A few moments passed before a figure, who'd seen a very similar sight from the exact point of view Luna had, approached. Nightmare Moon's quivering eye looked upon a dimly glowing yellow orb surrounded by red.

"If you have anything resembling a conscience or a life, I recommend you release Miss Glimmer unharmed... and just leave," Junior said quietly.

"Get... Up," Luna hissed between her tears, still clenching her teeth shut as she remained poised to strike at something she practically begged to rise and face her again.

The gold-and-red eyes of Godzilla Junior glanced over at Luna even as he addressed her dark fragment, "Get out of our sight. And don't ever do this again..."

A shadow of fear fled into the forest, terrified. Princess Luna's eyes glimmered with hateful tears as she remained poised to strike, before she finally glimpsed an unconscious and thankfully unharmed Starlight Glimmer was left behind on the broken tree trunk before her. She at last lowered her hoof and tilted her head downwards, before her knees gave out with no more of her semi-divine strength she'd summoned before. A scarred hide caught her and helped to ease the darkened alicorn down.

==========

“Are you sure you are alright?” Junior noted as he continued inspecting Starlight Glimmer up and down, “Your sister would kill me if something happened to you.”

“Haheeh, wouldn’t that be an effort?” Starlight Glimmer tried to chuckle as she stood, still more than a little wobbly on her hooves and with some bags under her eyes; but otherwise seemingly in perfect health and spirits.

“I.. Can’t remember much of anything actually…” She muttered, pursing her lips and looking aside.

Junior wasn’t fully convinced and evidently neither was her mentor as Starlight was gently gripped with a telekinetic aura and drawn closer. Luna looked like she was about to tightly embrace her student like a worried mother bear would her cub. Only to stop short.

Starlight wasn’t actually about to complain at all really. She even had her forelimbs out ready to embrace the alicorn back for something she saw they both needed and was left hanging. Figuratively and literally, suspended in midair. Luna had her eyes closed still and wasn’t expressing much, but one could perceive the twitches of tense muscle and even tenser nerves across her body. She tightly wrapped her forelimbs back around herself and turned around, hiding what had been cruel bludgeons just a few minutes ago and the dark stains across them from sight.

Starlight Glimmer was gently let back down onto the ground and on her first instinct she instantly started moving forward with words on her tongue and a hoof outstretched. Only for a larger one to gently catch her.

“… I know we all have a lot to talk about,” Junior whispered to the unicorn in the same kind of voice he used on Chibi and the Rainbooms, “..Later… There’s a really good festival just a few minutes up that road.. Want me to walk you to it?”

“Hehe,” Starlight Glimmer felt exhausted, spent, worn down, and running on fumes.

And looking at her saddened mentor’s back and reading the room, she mustered up strength she typically didn’t think she had. Magic was fueled by emotions after all, and the positive ones tended to be very strong about those you cared about. Even if you can’t help them at the moment, you can at least help others to help them.

She winked and saluted before vanishing in a burst of magic, reappearing far down the road not far from the festival grounds in a poof of light.

Junior watched on and nodded both approvingly and very impressively. She was going to be something great, with the right teacher… Now he just had to remind someone of the quality of that instruction…

===========

Luna still hadn't opened her eyes, sitting in the glade of the battered forest. It was a full minute since Starlight Glimmer, with many assurances she was unharmed and in the right mind, had left to go back to town and make sure all was right.

She knew he was sitting right there in front of her. None of her senses said so, but she knew all the same. She still had not opened her eyes the whole time despite so many niggling thoughts at first asking, then pleading, and finally begging her to look at him. It was a very surreal sort of sensation she was finally realizing the source of was none other than the being in front of her.

Happiness, embarrassment, bliss, comfort, shame, panic; he was a force-multiplier to all of them and more. That was why she had to excuse herself earlier when her magic was acting up.

That was why even with her having long confronted and overcome remorse for her past mistakes for herself, this entire fiasco was still affecting her so strongly: because he had been involved.

He who was once subject to her greatest mistake. He who’d been on the receiving end when that mistake doggedly returned and endangered her student, her citizens, and he himself. And he who’d seen possibly what she thought was the most damning of all.

“Luna… what is-” He started before she hitched in her crying.

“My face! It’s always been and always will be my face!” Luna cried out, still keeping her eyes jammed shut as she motioned to her flank. At the large patch of near-black fur which encircled her cutie mark.

“I.. I didn’t have this originally. I used to be pure blue. But after Twilight and her friends brought me back the stains just never went away!” She stammered, fighting her own pulse that was trying to make her clench up again just to get the words out, “Nightmare Moon… was what a stupid.. ignorant.. jealous little mind wanted to be! I dreamed of it so much I made it real!... Some of these dark patches are newer, don’t you-”

The tears ran freely, and she shivered, clenching her jaw and desperately hoping he would pick up the train of logic, so she didn’t have to say it.

“… You’re mature but you’re still catching up to your sister. Nightmare Moon is a corrupted, fully grown version of you,” His voice was barely a whisper, whether it be by realization or him intentionally trying to keep the mood as calm as possible, she couldn’t tell, “You’ll resemble her one day… Is, that it?”

“I-…”

“Are you still afraid of being like that?”

“I was-…”

Junior paused, still trying to just fish for answers rather than press, “You.. weren’t so afraid of this before. Was it because she came after us looking like a corrupted you, not even bothering to try and bond to Starlight-”

“I’M AFRAID BECAUSE I’M BECOMING HER!” Her hooves smashed into the ground and split it. Luna was trembling all over, writhing in her own skin whilst trying to remain still like she was having a full-on panic attack. The constriction around her heart made every breath feel like it was loaded full of lead.

“… Once I realized… I wouldn’t hurt Starlight I.. I could have just removed it. I could have just expunged it from her with a simple spell! You saw she wasn’t on our level, I could have-!… But I wanted to,” Luna gagged as she held up her shaking hooves, “I wanted to beat what hurt me so much to a pulp! Just like I did 1,000 years ago…! And you saw me do it…”

Her heart felt like it was about to explode. She wilted and almost fell over, had something not immediately snatched her up and tightly held her in an embrace. After a time, she was gently rocked, letting her forehead rest against the crook of a shoulder.

-Why don’t you let me go.. just find something better…-

The quiet humming wasn’t a tune she particularly recognized, beyond dim recollections of one Azusa using the same melody once. He just held her for a time, occasionally tightening his hold whenever she trembled thinking he was about to let go and just let her drop like part of Luna’s mind wanted to be.

-I caused this…-

Junior passively considered, as he patted her back.

-I hope I know how to fix this..-

After a few minutes more, he pulled away just enough to whisper in her ear when she stopped the trembling.

“… What I say right now, I want you to know. If you don’t want to do it, you never have to talk to me again,” His voice wavered slightly, an often hidden weakness coming back up when she detected him trembling now.

“… I want you to turn into her.”

The ‘her’ in question was not a question in itself as to who it was. Even if she did not have the Nightmare on hoof, taking on at least just the physical form was a simple spell based on magic not of pony origin she had learned a long time ago. The only question in the back of her mind was whether this second look she sported of the night was really the second disguise or not.

Letting herself back up some, the still sightless Luna wrapped herself in her own spell work just like she had on Nightmare Nights before. She grew in size, the dark patch across her back growing over her whole body to swallow up the blue, with her starry mane brightening with intensity. The only difference was that whether by magical burnout exhausting her to a degree or something changing in her mind, the visage of Nightmare Moon presented was missing her armor.

Luna waited for his response, his reason for requesting this.

“… Nightmare Moon, is not a look. It was an identity… I wasn’t there, 1,000 years ago. But I know that if I, as I am now, can change so much in my time here, then I know you’ve changed magnitudes more. And now you have your sister, Twilight and her friends, Starlight, Frost, Cadance, Chibi-”

“And you?” Luna whimpered slightly, not realizing it came out in a mild gasp that sounded like a plea and trying to shush herself. She looked away, almost ashamed on the edge of something worse.

He didn’t approach further, he did not inspect, nor did he run away.

She only felt the touch several moments after it was made. There was one other big difference between how she was now and how the Nightmare Moon of history, legend, and dark magic presented herself. One that barely a soul might notice because barely a soul had ever seen it on Luna herself.

Junior’s hoof gently caressed and traced the edge of an old scar on her side, just below the wing.

Memories of the first time he’d ever done so, the first night they ever saw each other as anything but a threat and got the earliest hint of a kindred spirit; all came flooding back. Her eyes snapped open and saw the tears running from his eyes. Rolling over cheeks to his calmly smiling face.

“Was that ever in doubt?” Junior whispered just loud enough for her to hear clearly, “I still see you, Lulu.”

Luna felt the surge go through her body again, and now that she had her eyes open she could clearly see he was trembling as well. This was new for both of them, an urge to react in a way neither were very familiar with.

Unable to focus on her magic, Luna dropped the visage and let the question of if it was her future or past be left to the ages. As the recognizable Princess of the Night, she pushed forward towards the Monster King and almost tackled him. Passions put their lips together and they embraced, rolling across the hill under the starry night together. It was messy, they got covered in leaf litter, dirt, wood fibers, and burnt grass. And they were in pure bliss.