Monster of Justice

"What do you think kept him alive?" Twilight asked Spike as he walked her through what was left of Megalon's head and into his motionless body. Spike didn't know what to think. The little purple dragon liked to think that he was pretty smart for his age, but the most he knew about machines were the simple machines. Pulleys, inclined planes, wheels, stuff like that. He didn't know squat about robots, let alone cyborgs. He took one more look at the night sky before it was completely obscured by Megalon's exoskeleton. It was probably almost three in the morning. Twilight fired up a spell and summoned a little floating ball of light.

"I don't know," Spike half said, half yawned. "Why don't we go back to sleep?"

"Are you kidding?" Twilight probably would have raised her voice if she had the energy to. Spike was really surprised that she was awake at all. "We're inside a giant cyborg beetle right now! I'm not going to let the opportunity to learn how this guy works slip between my hooves!" At the moment, Twilight could barely move her hooves. If she could, Spike would probably still be asleep.

"Whatever," Spike said and shrugged. The two of them stopped at a fork in Megalon's head. One path led to his stomach, the other to his lungs. At least, Spike assumed that was where they led. Beetles are pretty weird, and robots are weirder. Twilight struggled to raise a hoof and pointed to the left path, not saying where it would lead them. This was just as unfamiliar territory for her as it was for Spike. "He's not even that cool."

"Who?" Twilight asked, turning her head to face him. "Megalon?"

"Yeah. He only went down in, like, two hits."

"He tore Canterlot off of the mountain and dropped it on Godzilla."

"And then he went down in two hits." Twilight gave a weak chuckle. Spike smiled upon hearing the sound. He was worried that Twilight would get all broody and melodramatic in the face of all these disasters and was glad that she was still willing to have fun and joke around. Equestria needed its idealistic young princess, not a gritty anti-hero straight out of an aggressively edgy comic book. So did he. "Hey, so what are we looking for here?"

"I'd really like to see his most vital organs." Twilight scanned around the tube they were walking through. "It would have been nice to see his brain, but I guess Godzilla wanted to see it more."

"What are you trying to find in here?"

"Anything that would give me a clue as to which tube we're in. Corrosion damage would suggest we're in the esophagus, but I don't see any."

"So we're in..." Spike paused, trying to remember which body part was which. "His trachea?"

"Either that or he ate really healthy."

A few minutes passed and Twilight turned out to be right. What a surprise. The tube forked again into two gigantic chambers filled with air sacs. Spike reached into one of the chambers, intent on getting a once-in-a-lifetime feel. Twilight stopped him just before he could touch one of the vulnerable, fragile sacs with his pointy claws and told him to take out the drawing supplies. He reached into the bag he had brought into the monster with him and took out what he could salvage from Canterlot; a couple pieces of paper and a writing quill. It would have to do.

Twilight cast a telekinesis spell on the supplies and began sketching the inside of the lungs, just as she had already done for Megalon's outer body. Spike took this moment to relax, leaning against the lining of the trachea. He was in dire need of sleep. Any amount of sleep would do. Spike eased his eyelids shut and loosed his muscles. He deserved a moment's rest. Unfortunately, his sleep wasn't very restful. His dreams were littered with various things that he didn't usually think about. Ghastly wails and horrible plagues filled his head, along with Rarity. Of course, Rarity showed up in his dreams pretty often, but she usually didn't have gold teeth and six horns like she did in that particular dream.

"Aah!" Spike jolted up at the sound of his screaming friend and immediately turned to her.

"What?! What is it?!"

"Look!" Twilight quickly pointed a hoof in the direction they came from. Spike turned around and found himself face-to-face with a freaky, ugly, yet strangely adorable creature. He immediately reeled backwards from the surprise, and the creature did the same, its large, round eyes shining in the faint violet light of Twilight's magic. Its gray, leathery skin was covered in mucus and various forms of gunk. It appeared that it had already gotten lost inside the monster. The creature blinked and rose as high as it could without hitting the roof of the trachea. Still hunched over slightly, it carefully stepped towards Spike and Twilight.

"Get out of here! Go away!" Spike tried to shoo the creature, which made it hesitate.

"Weird deformed dragon thing..." Twilight mumbled to herself as she studied the creature. She rubbed he leg she had used to point at the thing, which was now sore. Her eyes lit up as she realized what she was looking at. "You're that thing that saved Applejack and Rarity from those firearm guys!" The little monster's eyes also lit up and it opened its mouth, as if to smile. It took a deep breath and let out an adorable baby roar.

"Skreeeengk!"

"Is he a..." Spike paused, letting his pulse slow down. He had heard a fair few roars in the past day alone, but that roar, no matter how cute and tiny, was unmistakable. "Is he a baby Godzilla?"

"I think he is!" Twilight said as the baby roared again. She immediately disregarded Megalon's lungs and started sketching the miniature Godzilla. "Hold still."

"Where did he come from?" Spike asked, examining the monster from all sides.

"We had this talk," Twilight started, not looking away from the paper. "When a mommy Godzilla and a daddy Godzilla love each other very..." She paused as the obvious occurred to her. "What if there's a whole breeding population?" Her excitement at the possibility overcame her weakened state. She was too excited to be quiet.

"Probably," Spike said and shrugged as he returned to Twilight's side. The baby monster was doing a good job of keeping still for Twilight.

"This is so amazing! What if he- Oh, shoot."

"What is it?" Spike asked. The creature broke its stillness and approached the two.

"I messed up," Twilight said and sighed. "I made his left eye way too big. I wish Rarity was here." She handed the paper and quill back to Spike and looked up at the baby monster. "Do you remember my friend Rarity? She's a really good artist." Spike packed the art stuff up and slung the bag onto his shoulder before hoisting Twilight up with the other.

"How about we tell Minilla about Rarity outside, where it's not gross?" Spike asked as they began to walk.

"'Minilla?'" Twilight asked back, raising an eyebrow and grinning? "Where did that come from?"

"Miniature Godzilla," Spike explained, shifting his weight to better support his friend. "Why? You don't like it?"

"It's not bad," Twilight said as they passed "Minilla." She rolled her eyes. "But it's a bit too... punny."

"Come on, Minilla!" Spike said to the little monster. He followed without hesitation. "Do you have something better?" he asked Twilight.

"How about Godzilla Jr.?" Twilight asked and looked back at the little Godzilla. "You can't go wrong with Junior."

"Yeah, that's alright," Spike shrugged. "But I still like-"

"Dhlbrry!" the mailmare declared after spontaneously appearing in front of them. Both of them took a step back in surprise. The blonde-maned mailmare held an envelope in her lips and looked at both the dragon and Alicorn princess at the same time with a pair of wonky yellow eyes. "Dhlbrry fuh Prncss Twilut," she said through the envelope. Twilight lifted the envelope from the mailmare's mouth and opened it as the delivery pony cheerfully clip-clopped away.

"It's from Pinkie!" Twilight happily declared. She quickly read through the letter, which apparently consisted of only three words. "'How about Trevor?'" Her smile faded and she nodded in perplexed agreement. She handed the letter to Spike, who put it in his bag. At that moment, something screeched from the direction of Megalon's lungs. Something big, at least when compared to them. The two shared a worried look before turning to the baby. Despite probably being twice as tall as Princess Celestia when standing straight, he was scared too. "We should go."

Whatever was in the lungs screeched again, louder and clearer than before. It sounded metallic, similar to Gigan, but not as menacing. The source of the screeching made itself known quickly. A gigantic, robotic bug monster emerged from the darkness. Its silvery skin gleamed in the light of Twilight's spell. Its claws and mandibles snapped in anticipation. Its serene blue eyes shifted to a piercing red. Then it lunged at them.

The creature lashed its claws out at the baby, carving a pair of gashes into his chest. Young as he was, he was still Godzilla's son. The larger of the two combatants, he was quick to counter the creature's attack with his own, grabbing its left claw and ripping it off with ease. The insect, not deterred after that, lashed out with its right claw, only to meet its own left claw, which, while not doing any major damage, left an impressive dent in its head. Before it could react, the little monster dealt it another shot to the head, this time nearly decapitating the creature.

The robotic insect backed away from its opponent and began emitting an extraordinarily loud screech. Spike covered his ears with his claws, accidentally letting Twilight fall in the process. Fortunately, she was just strong enough to pick herself back up. The baby evidently wasn't fond of the noise either, as he brought the creature's claw down on its head two more times, silencing it once and for all.

"What was that?!" Spike asked as he returned to Twilight's side.

"That must have been its equivalent of a white blood cell," Twilight quickly explained. "That noise it made must have been it alerting the rest of Megalon's immune system to us. He must still be alive! We should go!"

"Yeah, no kidding!" Spike said as he stood Twilight up on his shoulder and started walking her out of Megalon's trachea. "Come on, Minilla!" Godzilla's son turned and followed them.

"Are you still going with Minilla?" Twilight asked.

"Are we really going to dispute this right now?" Spike asked incredulously.

"Names are important," Twilight said. "What if I gave you a really dumb name when you were hatched?" Their argument was interrupted by the screeches of dozens of insect creatures from behind them, near the lungs.

"Yeah, that'd be lame," Spike said as he waved for the baby to come closer. "You know what's also important? Living! Let's pick up the pace!"

"Yeah!" Twilight said in agreement as the trio hurried for Megalon's mouth. It wasn't long before Spike felt like Twilight was dragging him behind her. She was getting better way faster than Princess Celestia had said she would be. That was good. Spike didn't like carrying Twilight around. She was heavy. If they weren't in mortal danger, Spike would have breathed a sigh of relief.

Unfortunately, they were in mortal danger. Spike and Twilight stumbled backwards into the baby monster as six more creatures crawled into the light of Twilight's magic, each of them gnashing their mandibles and sharpening their claws. They tried turning around. Hopefully they would find a way out through the lungs. The baby didn't budge, as it was busy facing off with another half-dozen creatures. After a brief moment of silence, the little monster roared its little baby roar and charged at the creatures on its side, which all screeched in return and attacked him.

The creatures on Twilight and Spike's side screeched and rushed them. Twilight quickly fired up some more magic and cast a barrier spell which, predictably, held the monsters at bay. "Not good, not good, not good..." Twilight muttered to herself.

"What are we gonna do?" Spike asked, now clinging to Twilight's leg.

"Maybe we could blast our way..." Twilight looked up to the squishy blue roof of the trachea. "The trachea probably wouldn't take much to break through, but then we'd have to deal with the exoskeleton, which will take ages to destroy. And what if it has an endoskeleton too? How are we going to get through-" She stopped as a bright blue light erupted from behind them. While Twilight was talking, the baby had been fighting and was eventually overwhelmed by the opposing creatures, which were now piled on top of him. However, it appeared that being overwhelmed wouldn't stop him. What could be seen of him was glowing bright blue, much like the color of his father's breath attack. It wasn't clear to either of them what he was about to do, but it was clear that it was going to be destructive. Spike watched Twilight quickly throw up another barrier and throw herself in front of him before the blue light engulfed them.

"Luna!" Princess Celestia shouted to her sister. She poked her head in Luna's tent, which she had constructed herself using what could be salvaged from Canterlot's wreckage. "Luna, wake up!"

Princess Luna woke with a start and a gasp. She sat up and met her sister's eyes. "Tia! What? What is it?"

"It's Princess Twilight," Celestia explained. "She and Spike aren't in their tent. I can't find them anywhere."

Luna got to her hooves and left her tent. "You keep searching, I'll inform the other ponies of their disappearance. What were you going to see her for?"

"I wanted to check up on her recovery process while things were quiet, even for a moment," Celestia said. She had been planning on checking on her after returning with Maguma, who rested in his frigid prison near the far side of Canterlot's ruins, near Megalon's body andfar from where her little ponies had set up camp. Unfortunately, a pair of cyborgs felt that it would be a good idea to attack Canterlot while she was gone, resulting in the city's destruction.

Before the conversation could continue and plans could be made, a bright blue explosion erupted from the supposedly deceased Megalon's chest. "So much for things being quiet," Luna said as her sister took off into the night sky and towards Megalon's corpse. She followed soon after.

When Twilight came to, everything was covered in everything else. Bits of Megalon and his immune system littered the trachea. She picked herself up and scanned the mess. The explosion had destroyed the barrier that was protecting her and Spike. Unfortunately, the explosion had kicked up so much debris and smoke that that was all Twilight could tell from it. Twilight looked behind her to see her assistant out cold in front of the barrier that separated the two of them from the creatures coming from Megalon's head. That barrier stood strong as the robot bugs continued to strike it in the vain hope that they could destroy it.

She turned back in the direction of the explosion. The dust had settled enough that she could see that one combatant had survived the battle. The baby Godzilla stood taller than it had before in the epicenter of the blast and let out an victorious adorable baby roar. Twilight smiled at the sight of him and was surprised that he was standing so tall. Before, he stood hunched over because he was taller than the trachea was wide. Twilight slowly hobbled over to his side, dragging Spike with her, and looked up to see the night sky above them. The explosion the baby had created was strong enough to punch a hole all the way out and through Megalon's exoskeleton.

Before any celebration could commence, Megalon began shaking. The creatures stopped pounding on Twilight's barrier and turned back towards his head. The view of the night sky was slowly being replaced with one of Canterlot's ruins. Megalon was indeed alive, and he was waking up! Twilight wasn't able to react before a warm, bright glow surrounded her and carried her out of the hole in Megalon's chest. She looked back to see that she was followed by the still unconscious Spike and the baby Godzilla, who was visibly very confused. She turned her head back around to find herself face-to-face with her teacher and friend, Princess Celestia, who was backed up by Princess Luna.

"We need to leave."