Monster of Justice

The last night had been an eventful one. A night full of giant monsters, wrecked cities, and overly-aggressive librarian gangsters. Applejack wished she could have made that up. She knew that not every pony in the world was entirely friendly, but those stallions were completely over the top. She reached beneath her hat and pulled out the book she'd taken that had made them so mad. Starlight:  Fixing Dusk. She personally couldn't stand the kind of stuff those books contained. Too much brooding, not enough conflict. She picked it up for Granny Smith. She couldn't get enough of the stuff. That was what Applejack would have told anypony who asked. That is, if she was willing to lie.

"Whatcha reading?" AJ quickly stowed the book back into her hat and turned to meet Pinkie Pie, who was dressed in a ship captain's uniform.

"Just some romance junk," AJ answered. "How's the boat lookin'?" she changed the subject, referring to the boat that Princess Celestia had commissioned for their adventure south from Manehattan. It wasn't the largest vessel in Equestria's fleet. Not by a long shot. Still, it only needed to hold less than ten ponies. They all assumed that baby Mothra either wouldn't take up much space at all or would be big enough that she wouldn't need to ride with them. Heck, some of them could probably ride on her if that was the case.

"She's almost ready!" Pinkie grinned and hopped into the air.

"What about that detective from last night?" Applejack asked. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had told her about his outburst from yesterday involving the pictures of one of the monsters' footprints. That and his convenient appearance last night cemented her suspicion of him. Something was up with him.

Pinkie nodded. "Uh-huh! He came by a few minutes ago and asked if he could come with us to look for Mothra! I agreed to let him on board, but only if he took off his hat." She tipped her captain's hat. "I can't be upstaged on my own vessel. Your's is okay, though."

Applejack turned her head to the docks where their boat waited patiently for everypony to board. Five ponies were ready and waiting for her and Pinkie Pie to join them. Among Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy was the helmspony who would be steering the boat and Grayscale the detective, still completely colorless, still wearing his trench coat and trilby. "He's still wearin' his hat."

"What?!" Pinkie shouted and turned to face the boat. "Hey!" she stomped right up to the boat. Applejack sighed. She wouldn't be reading any trash today.

Before any hats could be grabbed and any boats could be fully boarded, the water in the harbor swelled and rose. The few vessels that had survived the previous days rocked as the water shook and the ground quaked. The main swell reached the height of a medium-sized building before breaking, revealing the lustrous black scales of the largest creature Applejack and surely anyone else in Equestria had ever seen. Most ponies fled the harbor in a panic. Some stopped and stared.

Godzilla rose to his full height and stopped, looking over the wrecked city. He leaned left and right, peering through the roadways between ruined skyscrapers, and squinted his eyes as they adjusted to the light. He was looking for something. Something he apparently decided that he wouldn't find just sitting around in the water all day. He quickly exhaled and lifted his right leg. Once again, the water shifted and shook in response to his movement. Stomp! His foot touched down, still in the harbor, but scarily close to where Applejack's friends and companions were waiting. He lifted his left leg and briefly dangled his clawed foot over the ground. Stomp! The space where Pinkie Pie had been standing had been replaced by a monstrous foot. Quickly, Applejack backed away and watched as the leviathan walked slowly in front of her. After staring for a few moments in awe, she rushed to the boat to check on her friends.

"Everypony okay in here?!" AJ shouted as she kicked open the door to the cabin.

"Applejack!" Fluttershy blurted and peered her head out from behind Rainbow Dash.

"It's okay!" Rainbow declared. "We're all okay!"

"Good," AJ sighed. "We should-"

Again, the king of all monsters was roaming Manehattan, and again, nopony was prepared for him. Grayscale's lengthy aside interrupted her. He stood in the middle of the room, narrating. It was clear that nopony knew what he wanted.

"If y'all could stop narrating for a few seconds, I'll tell ya what he's looking for." Applejack leaped in front of him and hurried out of the cabin. "Follow me!" One by one, with the exception of the helmspony, each pony did so, with only one hesitating.

"Oh, dear..." Rarity sighed and ran a hoof through her miraculously saved mane before following. "Coming, darlings!"

Applejack didn't entirely know where she was going. She knew what she was looking for, but she wasn't sure where it was. Godzilla seemed to be better at tracking it than her, however. As the monstrous dragon weaved his way through the ruins of Manehattan, being careful not to do any more damage, he kept to a single direction. Many ponies noticed his avoidance of collateral damage with several stopping to watch. A few ponies even dropped what they were doing and followed Applejack and her friends behind Godzilla. Still, most ponies hid away from him.

It didn't take Applejack long to realize where Godzilla was going. He stopped just in front of the last library she and Rarity had searched the previous night for Neighponese dictionaries and the only one where they succeeded, but not without some peril. There they had met some colorful but easily enraged arms manufacturers, a profession that was outlawed throughout Equestria. They probably wouldn't have made it out alive if it weren't for the combination of Rarity's unstoppable rage and a six foot tall bipedal lizard creature that could breath fire.

Applejack bolted to the entrance, only to find the doors locked. She looked up to Godzilla, who was clearly hesitating to smash a hole into the building. She couldn't blame him. Too much damage, and Godzilla's left without an heir. AJ looked to the windows. They were all boarded up. Of course, she did remember a way to make a more dramatic entrance.

"Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy!" she turned to her friends.

"Yeah?" Rainbow stepped forward with Fluttershy in tow and asked.

"I remember there bein' a hole in the roof a' this library. I need ya'll to fly me up there."

"Why don't we just ask him to make the hole a bit bigger?" Rainbow asked, referring to the sixty-thousand ton pile of flaming lizard muscle that was standing over them.

"Not while his kid's in there." That was all they needed to know. Rainbow Dash quickly took flight and grabbed Applejack's left front leg. Hesitantly, Fluttershy took her right. Moments later, they were through the roof and in the library. "Okay. Fluttershy, you take care of the door and let everypony else in. Rainbow, could ya help me search for the little guy?"

"Okay," Fluttershy hurried to the door.

"Yeah," Rainbow nodded. The library was in an even worse condition than the night before. Even more books and debris had been scattered about the floor. The air in the building smelled of smoke. "Hey, so what does he look like?" Rainbow asked as she flew up to the second story.

"Kinda like his dad. But smaller." Applejack started searching the Teen Drama aisle.

"Yeah, obviously. What are you doing down there?"

"The switch that opens up the basement is somewhere in this here aisle." After a brief period of searching, Applejack pulled out the last book in the last bookcase. A click sounded throughout the library and was quickly followed by the shifting sounds of the floor in front of Applejack as it collapsed into a staircase leading downward into the basement.

"Cool," Rainbow said in admiration of the floor. The sound of four sets of quickly moving hooves emanated from behind the two. Turning around, they discovered that Fluttershy had retrieved the others and  were ready for what came next.

"Wait," Applejack raised a hoof. "Ya hear that?" Conversation could be heard from the bottom of the staircase between two ponies.

"I can't believe that thing!" a pony with a deep baritone shouted from below. Barbell.

"I know," a lesser voice started. "What a waste of rope."

"C'mon, Flint, how was I supposed to know he could breathe fire?"

"What kinda giant lizard doesn't breathe fire?" Flintlock asked. "We're lucky we had those chains."

"Right?" Barbell laughed. "If we didn't, the whole library would... Huh. Who opened the stairs?"

"That's probably Jitterbug with the scrap metal," Flintlock said. A set of hooves could be heard climbing the stairs. An orange unicorn reached the top of the stairs, his head turned towards the bottom. "Come on up here, we'll need all the help we can gAAAAH!" he turned his head towards the protagonistic ponies and screamed in terror after catching sight of the porcelain white unicorn just behind Applejack. Immediately after doing so, he reared back and tumbled down the stairs. The girls and detective all shared glances and raised eyebrows before Applejack led the way down.

The basement of the library was made up entirely of a small, dimly-lit room with a few benches and machines set up against the walls. In the center of the room stood Flintlock, with Barbell trying to hide behind him. Both of them were clearly terrified.

"Stay back!" Flintlock growled. "I have an unnecessarily complicated weapon and I kind of know how to use it!" Floating in front of him was the most improbably weapon Applejack had ever seen. Firearms were stacked upon firearms, knives, and debris to create the least useful looking weapon in the history of assault.

In the corner of the room, a grey mass of scales wriggled on the floor, unable to break the chains that bound it. Rarity stepped forward.

"I said stay back!" Flintlock shouted and pointed the alleged weapon at Rarity. She took another step forward. Rainbow Dash and Applejack followed behind her. "I'm not giving you another warning!" One more step forward.

A rocket shot out of one of one of the barrels and flew between Rainbow and Rarity and exploded on the staircase, far enough that it didn't hurt anypony, but close enough to still be really loud and scary. "That's where I put the rocket laucher!" Barbell declared and slapped himself on the head. The baby monster started crying and thrashed harder than it had been doing before in its corner. The crying was loud. Almost as loud as the explosion and easily loud enough to distract the criminals. In the confusion, Rainbow Dash leaped forward and tackled Flintlock, pinning him to the wall in a single move before introducing his face to her hooves repeatedly. Seeing that her friend was about to get interrupted by Barbell's massive hooves heading directly for her head, Applejack closed the gap between them, turned around, and bucked him straight in the chest.

"It's okay," Fluttershy said to the crying baby Godzilla. "Everything is going to be okay." She stroked the baby's smooth hide as Pinkie Pie showed it some faces and Rarity pulled on the chains with her teeth. The crying only got louder.

Flintlock shoved Rainbow out of his way and went back for his "gun", only to be intercepted by Grayscale, who kicked him in the face before standing him up straight, spinning him around, and pushing him into Rainbow Dash's uppercut. The crying somehow got even louder.

"That's it!" Barbell shoved Applejack out of the way and onto one of the benches and turned to the baby and the three less action-oriented girls. "I'll shut that thing up!" He stomped towards the crowd in the corner of the room. Grayscale left the semi-conscious Flintlock to Rainbow Dash and leaped at Barbell, grabbing him by the neck and pulling him back. With a flick of his muscular neck, Barbell tossed the detective away from him and onto the hard floor.

"No, please!" Fluttershy begged. "Just let me-" Barbell shoved her out of the way and raised his front hooves over the baby's head. The crying reached its peak.

The room began to shake. The quake was not gradual or predictable. It just happened, and Applejack and her friends and companions knew what was causing it. She expected the ceiling to collapse and fall down on them. However, the ceiling, along with the rest of the building, went in the opposite direction that she expected. Godzilla stood over all of them with the entire library in his claws. He turned around and chucked the building into the distance before setting his sights on the hole in the ground that used to be part of that building. The baby stopped crying. Everyone was dead silent until the library finally fell into the water with a massive splash.

Barbell stared up at the leviathan, which must have met his gaze. The mountain of an earth pony gently set his hooves back on the ground. He trotted to the baby's midsection, silently shooed Rarity away, and struggled with the chains with his teeth for a few seconds before they broke. The baby found its way out of the chains and ran up the stairs and back to its father. Applejack got up and off of the bench. Godzilla began to rear his head back.

"So- Ow!" Flintlock winced in pain and rubbed his chin. "Sor-"

"SKREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEONNNNNNGK!"

The two screamed in horror. Barbell quickly lifted Flintlock onto his back and sprinted towards the stairs, where Rarity had moved to. They screamed again. "Don't let me stop you." Rarity stepped to the side and let them run up the stairs and out of their lives.

The girls, much less hurriedly, followed the criminals and the baby up the stairs and out of the hole. Godzilla growled at his son. The baby cried out and hugged his father's foot as best he could. Godzilla let out another growl, this one sounding quite similar to a sigh, and started back to the ocean, motioning for his son to join him. The baby let out a squeal and followed his father through the city and into the sea. Most everypony cheered.

"Yes!" Rainbow shouted, as well as an obligatory "awesome".

"Looks like Mothra ain't our only ally here after all," Applejack laughed.

"Fluttershy, darling, are you sure you're okay?" Rarity asked Fluttershy, who hanged back from the rest of the group.

"I-I'm fine," she said. "I just need to lie down."

"Darlings!" Rarity shouted. Everyone turned to her and Fluttershy. "Fluttershy is hurt. We should probably return to the boat." Everypony nodded in agreement, with the exception of one.

"No way, we can't go yet!" Pinkie Pie spoke out. "Not after seeing that! You can all go back without me. There has to be an open party store somewhere in this city! We're leaving on the Party Boat!"

"Alright, Pinkie," Applejack said. "You take care of that." Pinkie bounced away, letting her senses guide her to the nearest party shop. "Alright, let's go, 'Shy." Applejack let Fluttershy lean on her and started walking her back to the boat, followed by everypony else, with Grayscale being the last to see Pinkie off.

"Boy, she's a piece of work," he chuckled. "Kinda reminds me of my daughter."

"You have a daughter?" Rarity asked. He nodded.

"How old is she? Ow." Fluttershy winced in pain.

"She's about your age," he said.

"That's still pretty vague," Rainbow joked.

"Really?" Princess Celestia asked the Shobijin that sat at the other end of the coffee table just outside of Princess Twilight Sparkle's temporary bedroom. "He flew?"

"Yes," the fairies nodded.

"With his super breath?" Celestia chuckled and took a sip from her cup of tea.

"With his super breath." Celestia laughed. She and Spike had spent the day talking with the Shobijin and trading stories about their heroes. For some reason, a lot of their stories about Godzilla were exceptionally silly. They had told her that a lot of them were Godzillas of different universes and that the Godzilla that had appeared in Manehattan was not nearly as absurd, but the stories still changed the way she looked at the monster. "And that's how Godzilla saved the world from pollution."

"Amazing," the sun princess took another sip of tea. She made a mental note to visit Godzilla's many worlds after everything was settled. She could always use a good laugh. "How about I tell you about the time Princess Twilight met her future self and then you can teach me the lyrics to that Jet Jaguar song?"

"Princess Celestia!" Spike shouted from the open doorway. "Twilight's awake!"

Celestia rose to her hooves and followed Spike into the bedroom. "Let me see her. Come on," she said to the Shobijin. Twilight Sparkle lay in the largest, most comfortable bed Celestia could get her in on short notice. It wasn't as impressive as she would have liked, but it would have to do. Princess Twilight's eyes met her teacher's. Celestia suspected they were the only things she could move, but was quickly proven wrong.

"Princess Celestia..." Twilight weakly uttered. "How long have I..?"

"Don't worry," Celestia said. "You've only been asleep for the day."

"What happened back there, Twilight?" Spike asked. "That wasn't like you."

"I... I don't know, Spike..." Twilight's eyes turned to her assistant. "But I intend on finding out..." She struggled to move anything else beneath three layers of blankets and sheets.

"Twilight, please," Celestia said. "Don't strain yourself. I promise, I'll help you find out what happened, but you need to recover from the spell."

"Princess Celestia told us about the spell you used against Godzilla." The Shobijin spoke up and flew to face Twilight. "You're already recovering much faster than she expected."

"Who..?"

"These are the Shobijin," Celestia answered. "The voice of Mothra." Twilight still looked confused. "She's a giant moth monster and our only certain ally."

"Everyone else is out looking for her egg right now," Spike added.

Celestia ran a hoof through Twilight's mane. "Get some rest. If you feel like you're up to it, there's some reading material on the nightstand. If you need anything, call for me. Nothing in the world will stop me from returning here for you."

"Thanks..."

"Princess Celestia!" a member of the Royal Guard burst into the room. "A giant walrus is attacking Stalliongrad!"