Monster of Justice

"Well, it doesn't sound all that far-fetched," Applejack said as she leaned on one of the medical tent's supports.  "We've seen stranger." Her friends were inclined to agree with her. After facing the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Changelings, and King Sombra, they were pretty much jaded to most villains they encountered. Still, none of those villains had actually succeeded in doing anything quite like destroying Manehattan. And none of them were so large and disproportionately stealthy.

"Still, I don't know..." Twilight Sparkle turned from the sickly pegasus pony she had been trying to heal, to no avail.

"Darlings, where exactly did you say this theory came from?" Rarity asked.

"From a guy in a trench coat," Rainbow Dash said, not missing a beat.

"And a fedora," Fluttershy added to the statement. "He also had a fedora."

"Oh, well at least you got it from a reliable source," Rarity said. A frown made its way onto Rainbow's face.

"Right!" Fluttershy said, not picking up on her friend's sarcasm.

"Ah don't think she was being serious there, sugarcube," AJ placed a hoof on Fluttershy's back. Spike had been trying to teach the little pegasus pony sarcasm, but it was still mostly lost to her.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, guys, but we can't just listen to every pony out there with a nice hat and an idea. This is serious." Twilight turned back to the sick pegasus pony. "Can any of you help me with this? The doctor said that this one, a Mr. Rising Sun, said he saw something, but he's gone into shock and won't tell me anything." The ill pony stared at the ceiling of the tent with a glazed look in his eye. His jaw shook and his wings twitched. From the back of the tent, Pinkie Pie, who had been working to keep the younger patients' spirits up, had heard her friends' plight and rushed over to help.

"Stand back, girls," she gently pushed Twilight away from Rising Sun. Pinkie pulled a lighter from out of nowhere and flicked it on. The tent was already hot, and the small flame made little difference. "I saw this in a movie once." She slowly waved the lighter in front of the pegasus pony's face. His eyes were captured by the comforting glow of the flame, and they followed it smoothly. His jaw calmed down and his wings came to a rest. "What did you see, old man?" Pinkie asked the patient.

"Gojira... Gojira... Gojira..." Rising Sun managed to get out before going back into shock.

"'Gojira...'" Twilight repeated. "I've never heard of that... Pinkie, can you ask him what that means?"

"Sorry, Twilight," Pinkie shrugged. "That's all they did in the movie. I don't know the right wording."

"Of course..." Twilight placed her front hooves on the bed and leaned on it. Manehattan was gone. Tens of thousands of ponies were  reported missing. Even more were left homeless. And she had to find out why. Everypony needed her, their new Princess, to  magically fix this problem. Maybe she needed it more than anypony. Of course, being a Princess and the most well-read pony she knew, she probably could fix the problem with a little help. She just had to know what caused the problem.

Applejack wrapped her leg around the base of Twilight's neck and was immediately followed by the others. "Don't y'all worry, Twi. We're gonna figure this out, just like we always do." Twilight put all four hooves back on the ground and her friends receded. That moment of friendship had done its duty.

"Thanks," Twilight nodded and turned to her friends. "I need some Neighponese language dictionaries. I need to translate what Rising Sun said, but I also need to write to Princess Celestia. Can one of you get some dictionaries from one of the libraries that hasn't been looted yet?"

"Who would loot a library?" Rainbow asked nopony in particular.

"I'll go!" Rarity volunteered. "Anything to get out of this stuffy old tent."

"Alright, here," Twilight magically lifted her bit purse from her discarded saddlebag and handed it to Rarity. "Just in case."

"Oh, lovely!" Rarity exclaimed with fake enthusiasm. "I've always wanted to send a mugger running in terror."

"Hey, cut me a slice of that action!" Applejack laughed. "Ah'll go with you."

--

Princess Celestia took a sip from her tiny little cup of tea and gazed upon the two white parasprites that had appeared in her throne room not an hour ago. One minute she's planning the reconstruction efforts for Manehattan, listening to complaints, and assuring small children and fully-grown ponies alike that their loved ones were fine. At least she hoped that last one was true. And now she was having a conversation with two tiny beings who claim to come from another world. They do that by speaking.

Still, it wasn't the strangest thing the sun Princess had ever encountered. Discord kind of blows everything out of the water. They claimed they had asked around for the greatest authority in Equestria, and they found her. She couldn't help but let out a little laugh when she learned most of the ponies they asked mentioned having to go see a healer or something to that effect following their meeting them. Like any visitor to Equestria, Celestia sat the two down and requested that some tea be brought for her guests, as that is all there is to drink in the castle.

"You have a lovely home," the two said in unison. They had a habit of doing that, as far as the Princess could tell.

"Thank you, the staff and I work very hard to keep it nice," Celestia responded.

"It's certainly much nicer than our home," the two said. There was that segue Celestia had been hoping would arise.

"Yes," she started, "may I ask where you come from?"

"We come from Infant Island," the two answered. "We are the Shobijin, the Voice of Mothra." "Mothra." Now there's something Celestia hadn't heard before. Perhaps it had something to do with the destruction of Manehattan. It sounded powerful enough to level a city. Powerful things almost never speak for themselves. There are exceptions, of course, but they're few and far between.

"I'm afraid I've never heard of either of those things," Celestia said as she took another sip of the liquid boredom most ponies refer to as "tea". She forced it down and made a mental note to request that something new be made for her to drink. "I assume you're not from around here?"

"No," the two said flatly. Good. Finally, some answers Celestia could get behind.

"Alright, can you tell me how you got here?"

"No." Best day ever. Seriously.

"Ah," the Princess sighed. "Well, I guess that doesn't matter. I think I can dig up a few old spell tomes that could help you return home. If I can convince my student to part ways with them for a few moments."

"We can't leave," the two protested. "We were sent here for a reason, and we can't leave until the time is right."

"So you two believe you've been placed here by fate," Celestia said. The fairies nodded. "Along with your master. Mothra, was it?"

"Yes." The two nodded.

"Do you think Mothra could have had anything to do with the destruction of the city of Manehattan? Can you take me to Infant Island so I can question her?"

"Yes, of course." The stars were aligning. Everything was coming together. Hopefully, Mothra had just appeared in the city last night and got frightened and blew up most of the buildings. Forgivable, given the circumstances, but not something to go without punishment. "As soon as Mothra hatches, you can ask her whatever you like."

"What?" Celestia placed her cup on the table and stood up. "Mothra is only an egg?"

"At the moment, yes," the twins nodded. There went the Princess' best lead, right out the window. "Besides, Mothra is peaceful. She would never purposefully harm any human. Or pony, as the case may be. Unless we were threatened."

Princess Celestia sighed. Not only did she lose her only lead, but she was also told that her lead would have led to a dead end. "Do either of you have any idea what could have destroyed my city?" The Shobijin looked at each other for a moment. Nothing was said, but a look of agreement came upon their faces before they turned back to the Princess. Perhaps they had conversed through telepathy?

"We have a pretty good idea." And on that note, a message appeared in a puff of smoke in front of the Princess. A message from Twilight Sparkle. She opened the scroll and read through it. Her eyebrows raised. Apparently, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had reason to believe that Manehattan was destroyed by three monsters. Celestia's brow furrowed and she began to grind her teeth. One giant beast, she could probably handle with her sister and Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Two would have been a problem. But three monsters?

"Three... Do you know three monsters?"

"We can name a few..."

--

Twilight examined the one dictionary that Applejack and Rarity had retrieved for her. The site where she and her friends had set up camp was the polar opposite of the medical tent they had inhabited before. The sun was down and it was cold and open. She looked up at her friends. They were covered in burns and scorch marks. She pointed out a small bit of Applejack's hat that was still on fire, which AJ put out with some agency. They were tired. Everypony was tired.

"Thanks, this look great!" Twilight declared.

"I certainly hope they are," Rarity said. "I'm not going back out there." She spoke as if she had seen something nopony should ever see.

"Why? What happened?" Twilight asked.

"I'd rather not talk about it," Rarity answered and started for her tent.

"Are you sure? I won't tell anypony if-"

"I don't. Want. To talk about it." Rarity disappeared into her expertly-crafted hoof-stitched tent.

"Well I thought it was rather excitin'," AJ admitted. "But it wouldn't be wise to tell the story in earshot of Rarity. What do ya'll think of that there dictionary?"

"Let's see... I think Rising Sun was speaking in some Neighponese dialect." Twilight started flipping through the book and stopped on G. "Gojira... Gojira... Gojira..." She tapped her hoof on the page. "Gojira! Let's see... It's either a cross between the words 'gorilla' and 'whale' or 'nice lighter'." She closed the book and sighed. What were the chances that it was the gorilla whale?

"Boy, Risin' Sun has a weird way a' lookin' at things," Applejack remarked and sat next to Twilight.

"Or he was dazed and confused."

"You never know," AJ said. A wide grin grew upon her face. "You think Rarity's asleep?"

"Probably, yeah," Twilight answered. She raised an eyebrow and smiled. "What happened while you were out?"

"Ya'll gonna believe what I tell you?" Applejack asked needlessly. Twilight nodded. "Alright, so we had checked just 'bout every library in town. Sure enough, most of 'em were looted. Fresh outta books. There was one left we hadn't checked. Naturally, we found trouble there, as well as some... deformed... dragon thing."

"'Deformed dragon thing'?"

"Alright, how 'bout I start from the beginning?"