Godzilla: King of Equestria

*ping*

The screen illuminated his face with an eerie green glow. The distinctive ping of the sonar echoed through his headset as he stared at the fading blip on the screen. He swallowed. Sweat began to drip down his forehead and neck as he waited.

*ping*

“Target bearing twelve point five degrees. Distance, ten kilometres. Depth, 400 meters. Speed, forty knots. Course unchanged.”

The radar operator’s voice shook as he spoke. The crew of the control room echoed his fear in their expressions. All eyes not locked onto their instruments were striving to observe the sonar screen, to confirm what they dared not believe. Two ponies stood in the control room, the rest sitting at their controls. One of them, a brown stallion with a bushy grey moustache, approached the sonar station tentatively. His hazel eyes glossed over the screen, reflecting the green blob which grew closer to the center with every passing second. He looked down at the radar operator, whose name escaped him. He looked young, younger than anyone else on the boat. Hazel eyes locked with the blue eyes of the operator. Both were tense. The standing male turned from the sonar towards the center of the room where the other pony stood. She was young as well, but her face held the grim determination of one who has experience.

“Captain.”

The captain turned to face her second. Her blonde mane shifted under her cap as she did, and she unconsciously brought a hoof up to nudge it back into place.

“The target is closing rapidly. It must have detected us,” the second continued. “Submarines don't just cruise at 40 knots.”

The captain nodded. Her hat slipped forward over her eyes. With a smirk, she pushed it back into place.

“Looks like being the first mare under thirty to captain a nuclear sub hasn't given me a big head after all, 'ay number 2?”

“Very funny, captain," the second's tone implied the opposite. "But if that blip means what I think it means, then this is no laughing matter."

"You wouldn't know a laughing matter if it walked up and planted a wet one right on your big round arse," she said, rolling her eyes. She trotted over to the sonar as she continued. "Now shut your trap before you cause a panic. Whatever this thing is, I know it isn't from the Republic."

"Well what else could it be?" the second said just as the captain stopped along side him.

"How about another Imperial sub? Did you think of that?" the captain replied as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I checked the schedules. We are the only ship for miles."

"So they got turned around." She sounded less sure of herself but continued her thought. "Yeah, it happens to the best of us. Sensors get miscalibrated, a tech throws the wrong switch, and suddenly you're 20 miles off course." She looked down at the sonar screen and watched it cautiously.

"Then why haven't they established contact? And why are they heading on a collision course at 40 knots?" The second was nearly shouting now. "Everything points to one simple answer: This is a vessel from the Lunar Republic attempting to engage us. And if you don't do something everyone on this ship will spend the rest of this war on the bottom of the ocean!"

"Oh give it up!" The captain let out an exasperated sigh as she turned back to the second. "I am sick and tired of your constant ranting about NLR conspiracies! If I listened to half your bullshit, the entire crew would be under arrest for sabotage!"

The second snorted before saying, "Well maybe they should be!"

"Oh, empress, not again!" The captain brought her hoof to her forehead.

"I'm telling you, that was no accident!"

"It was a leaky pipe!"

"It would have killed me!"

"It would have mildly inconvenienced you!"

The sonar operator hesitantly interrupted their shouting match. "Target distance now five kilometres. Speed and course unchanged."

Both captain and second turned back to the sonar screen. The blob was only half as far from the center as when they last looked. The captain noted that it suddenly looked far more threatening than a blip on a sonar had any right to be. She turned to face her fellow officer, a sigh escaping her lips.

"Alright," the captain pinched the bridge of her nose with her hoof. "Supposing I believe you... What would you have me do?"

The second in command smirked. "A wise choice, captain. Now your inactivity thus far has likely lured the enemy into a false sense of security. They likely believe we can't detect them, or that we assume they are friendly. Now, because-" The captain placed her hoof forcefully over his mouth, silencing him.

"I just want to know what you suggest doing," the captain growled.

The second pushed her hoof out of his face with an annoyed grunt. "I thought it would be obvious! Attack! A couple of well placed torpedoes and we've got ourselves a commendation!"

"What we've got," the captain said, prodding his chest. "Is a full blown nuclear war! We sink this sub and that psycho Nightmare Moon has the perfect excuse to start throwing atomic bombs!"

"And if we are sunk, the Empress would do the same!" The second said leaning in so close that their muzzles practically touched.

The captain narrowed her eyes. "Bullshit."

"We have a payload of over fifty kilotons in nuclear weapons on this ship. Why would the Empress order their construction if she hadn't intended to use them?"

The control room was silent as the captain digested her seconds words. After several moments of consideration, the silence was broken by the sonar officer clearing his throat. He was looking over his shoulder at his superiors, his fear almost palpable.

"Whatever you're going to do," he said hesitantly. "You had better do it quick. Target is less than two kilometres out and still closing."

The captain looked between the sonar officer and her second before she let out a groan. "All hands to battle stations." she said, defeated.

At the flip of a switch the control room's soft florescent light was replaced with a harsh red glow. An alarm screeched and ponies began the frantic task of preparing the ship for battle. Torpedoes were loaded. Bulkheads were sealed. The crew rushed between stations, completing their tasks as quickly as possible. The captain glared at the flashing red alarm as the other occupants of the control room hurriedly attended their stations. She turned to look at another sailor across the room.

"Ensign, are we locked on?"

The pony turned from her screen to face the captain. "Aye, Aye, captain. We are locked on." She replied with a nod.

"Tubes one and two stand by. Fire."

"Aye, aye." the torpedo manager replied as she turned back to her controls. She lifted a hatch and pressed a pair of buttons underneath. "Torpedoes one and two pierced and left the tube." the ensign announced. The sound of the escaping explosives echoed through the ship.

The captain turned back to the sonar screen and watch as two dots darted away from the central point and sped towards the approaching mass. "Impact in eight seconds." The torpedo manager's announcement echoed across the room. All eyes watched the sonar.

"Target heading unchanged," the sonar operator next to her announced. The captain and second narrowed their eyes at the screen. The dots were an inch away now.

"Impact in three seconds."

The sonar pony shifted in his seat, his sweat matting his coat.

"Two seconds."

The dots raced across the screen.

"One."

The captain held her breath.

All three sonar blips connected.

The room vibrated as the torpedoes detonated, the sound reverberating off the metal walls.

"Direct hit!" the torpedo manner across the room shouted. The crew breathed a collective sigh of relief. The second turned and trotted toward the periscope near the center of the room. The torpedo manager turned and bumped her hoof on the hoof of the adjacent crew member. The sonar operator leaned back in his chair, a happy smile on his muzzle. He turned to see the captain hadn't moved at all. Her expression remained unchanged when she spoke.

"Target course unchanged. Speed increasing."

The second whipped back around and stared disbelievingly. The sonar operator jumped forward to look at the screen. The unidentified mass was still there, exactly the same. Only closer now. An alert began flashing on the screen.

COLLISION ALERT

"All back full!" the captain shouted to the ponies at the front of the room. The navigators began frantically adjusting their steering instruments. The captain looked back at the sonar and grimaced. It was nearly on top of them. Only one option left.

"Brace for impact!" She shouted.

All hooves clutched at the nearest stable object. The sonar operator gripped his chair's armrests tightly as his eyes darted between the captain and the screen. Her eyes never left the sonar. The object was millimetres away from the screen's center.

The impact shook the sub like a paper boat. Ponies who hadn't properly braced themselves went flying. A torrent of water rushed down the halls from the point of impact. Sailors screamed as they failed to escape the wall of water. The second lie on the floor of the control room unmoving as his head bled. The captain pulled herself off of the floor, only to be knock back down as the room shook violently once again.

"Captain!" Some pony shouted, but she couldn't tell who. "The target appears to have latched onto us!"

The captain rubbed her head as she finally managed to get her hooves below her, just in time for another tremor. This time she kept her balance, leaning on the sonar operator's chair. She glanced at the sonar to see that the green blob of light hovered over the center of the screen.

"What the hell is going on?! Status Report!" She yelled as the room shook once again.

"A series of hull breaches in a vertical line along the port side!" Responded another pony, struggling to stay at her controls. "Pressure readings on the outer hull indicate we're in some kind of grip, but the magic is experiencing a lot of interference."

"Bulk head shielding spells failing! Something is interfering with the magic!" Came another shout.

The groan of tearing metal ripped through the air of the control room as another quake rocked the sub.

"Oh shit!" The captain's eyes went wide at the exclamation. She quickly turned to the nuclear weapons manager and source of the latest expletive. The ensign turned to the captain, his face pale. "The Nuclear Weapons Bay has been breached."

The captain's pupils shrunk to pin pricks.

A payload of over fifty kilotons in nuclear weapons...

"For the empress's sake, disarm them!" The captain screamed.

"I can't!" He said, equally panicked. "The magical safeguards have all failed! The radiation shielding must have been breached!"

The captain's hind legs went limp and she sunk into a sitting position. "Oh gods..." she whispered as the next and final tremor struck the sub. Ponies screamed and metal tore while the alert on the ensign's screen flashed.

The next moment there was a boom from deep in the bowels of the ship. Then the control room was bathed in white light.

Books.

Books everywhere.

The rows of shelves which lined the walls were noticeably bare, with their contents spread across the floor in stacks of varying heights. The books slowly became more and more dense as they approached the center of the room, before culminating in a wall of book stacks. Behind this wall there was only one book, the only one in the room open. The muzzle buried in the text was a light purple. The eyes which whipped across the pages were violet. The pony smiled as her eyes consumed the tome in front of them. She lie on the floor with her tail to the book wall and her bangs dangling over her reading material. Her indigo hair was straight and cut in straight lines. The horn jutting from her forehead briefly glowed pink before the same glow encompassed the page of her book, gently turning it. The peaceful quiet of the library was barely interrupted by the light hum of the magic before silence returned. The mare let out a gentle sigh.

"This is unacceptable!"

The mare's ears twitched as the harsh whisper registered. With a frown, she pointedly ignored it.

"Well what do you expect me to do about it?" came another voice. The unicorn turned another page as she distinctly avoided hearing it.

"Just because she's the Empress's little pet doesn't mean she can barge in here whenever she wants!" the first voice replied in the most unwhisper-like whisper the reading mare had ever heard. Not heard, that is. She definitely had not heard any whispers.

"Do you want to tell her highness that? Because I sure as hell won't!" the second voice replied in what at that point would be absurd to call a whisper. Not that the reading pony would have called it anything as she had not heard any such voice or let out a small groan in response.

"No!" the first voice replied, accented by the sound of a hoof stomp. Said hoof stomp might have been more dramatic had the floors not been carpeted. "I am done with this! I'm going to give that little foal a piece of my mind!" All pretense of whisper had now been dropped. Nervous exclamations of warning accompanied the sound of approaching hoofsteps. The purple mare shifted her position, tucking her legs closer to her torso. A white mare rounded the book wall and entered the edge of the purple mare's sight. Her green hair was haphazardly tucked into a bun on the top of her head, with various strands and loose ends sticking out. Her wings, though folded against her sides, were visibly unkempt. Her half moon glasses rested slightly crookedly on her muzzle, just below her baggy and bloodshot eyes. The white mare walk quickly around to the other side of the open text, stopping to stare down at the reading unicorn. She waited.

She continued to wait.

The pegasus's frown deepened as the purple pony continued to not do anything. She loudly cleared her throat.

The unicorn's ears flicked.

"Ms. Sparkle." the librarian growled in the least patient tone possible.

"Ms. Catalogue." Ms. Sparkle responded, her eyes never leaving the page.

"Do you know what time it is?" Ms. Catalogue hissed.

"Five forty three am." Ms. Sparkle replied casually.

"And how long have you been here? If you recall." Ms. Catalogue said through gritted teeth.

"One hour and thirty nine minutes." Ms. Sparkle stated simply.

Ms. Catalogue's eye twitched. "And do you happen to know what time this library opens, Ms. Sparkle?"

"Six thirty am." was the reply. Another page was gently gripped in the magical pink aura and turned.

"So," Ms. Catalogue said with barely contained rage. "What exactly makes you think you can arrive at a library two hours before it opens," She raised her voice. "Break in," Her volume continued to rise. "Begin pillaging its shelves," She skipped shouting and when straight on to yelling. "And then casually continue your studies as though you hadn't set off the alarms" Her voice broke the metaphorical ceiling of loudness. "And forced me and my staff to rush to work before we usually even wake up!?"

There was a pause as Ms. Catalogue regained her breath. The library was quiet once again.

"Two hours and twenty six minutes."

Ms. Catalogue's wings flinched. She stared at Ms. Sparkle dumbfounded. The unicorn's eyes never once drifted from the book.

"Excuse me?" Ms. Catalogue responded once she her jaw overcame its limpness.

"I arrived here two hours and twenty six minutes before the library opens. Not just two hours." Ms. Sparkle's voice was calm and unaffected. She continued reading as she spoke. "I understand that the exact time may be a bit clunky to say in conversation, but in that case it would have been more accurate for you to say 'two and a half hours' rather than just the two you mentioned."

There was an audible cracking noise as Ms. Catalogue absorbed the correction. Ms. Catalogue opened her mouth wide, her face the epitome of rage, but before she could roar the unicorn's horn illuminated again. Ms. Catalogue's lips were enveloped by the aura and her mouth was forced to close. Then, with a pop, her lips became a zipper, which proceeded to zip itself shut. Muffled shouts of panic escaped the zipped lips as Ms. Catalogue fell to her haunches, her front hooves scrambling to get a grip on the pull tab.

"Also, you need to revise your security patrol." Ms. Sparkle continued, her attention solely on the words on the page. "The gaps between guard routes are massive. I was able to pick your rear lock during one, which, considering it was my first time picking a lock so I was constantly pausing to refer back to How to Pick a Lock for Foals, is fairly discouraging." The glare that Ms. Catalogue directed at her would have killed lesser ponies.

"Not that it would have stopped my own entry. This is just to ensure no actual deviants can enter after hours." She paused in her speech to look more closely at her current page. She made a soft 'hmph' noise before resuming. "I could have easily cast teleportation or invisibility, but I wanted to test out my lock picking skills. They're lacking, but I'm confident that with practice I'll soon be opening locks like they aren't even there."

Ms. Catalogue's hooves finally managed to grasp the zipper, which she immediately ripped open. As the pull tab hit the edge of her mouth there was a pop and a flash of pink light. Her lips returned to normal.

"You little-"

"Twilight!" a third voice was shouted from across the room. Out from behind one of the sparsely occupied shelves came running a bipedal lizard. His body was covered in purple scales, except for on his stomach where they became a pale green. In his outstretched claw he held a rolled up piece of parchment. "Letter from the Em-" His emerald eyes widened as he saw Ms. Catalogue. He skidded to a halt when she turned her glare on him. "Um..." the reptile stuttered, doing an admirable impression of a deer in the headlights. He looked down at the letter in his claw before shoving it behind his back and giving Ms. Catalogue the most innocent grin he could muster. "Uh... Hi." He gave her a slight wave.

"What," Ms. Catalogue spat out. "Is that thing doing here?" The unicorn froze instantly. The lizard turned his gaze to the floor, his posture radiating shame. "Twilight Sparkle, I know I told you that that reptile is not allowed inside this library!" Ms. Catalogue snarled down at the smaller reptile across the room. "It is a major fire hazard and I will not allow it to damage our precious-" She turned to face Twilight Sparkle and found herself muzzle to muzzle with the unicorn.

"He." she said in a voice that was perfectly calm but at the same time bone chilling.

"E- excuse me?" Ms. Catalogue stuttered. All her rage had melted away under Twilight's glare. Her eyes seemed to be staring into Ms. Catalogue's soul, burning it from within.

"Not 'it'. He." Twilight answered coldly. "And he has a name. Spike."

"Um, well, uh..." Ms. Catalogue stuttered and backed away from Twilight. "Y- yes! Of course! But we still can't allow a dragon to run around our library! I- I mean, he breathes fire! In a library!"

Twilight began to slowly stalk closer as she spoke. "Spike is a very responsible young dragon. He is not going to do any harm to your collection. He is no threat. He is not a fire hazard. And he is most certainly. Not. An. It." Twilight and Ms. Catalogue's foreheads met, the sweat on the latter's sticking to the former's bangs. "Do I make myself clear?" Twilight whispered.

"Crystal." Ms. Catalogue said after swallowing.

Twilight pulled away and smiled innocently. "Good. Now, if you don't mind, I have some studying to do."

Ms. Catalogue began frantically backpedalling. "O- of course! Sorry for the interruption! I just- I-" She backed into a stack of books, knocking it over. "Oh dear! Um, I- I'm so sorry about- um, I'll just be, um..." Her eyes darted from left to right for a moment. She spread her wings in an instant and bolted away from the smiling Twilight. Spike watched her as she fled.

"Woah." He muttered before turning back to address Twilight. "I ever tell ya that you can be really scary sometimes?"

Twilight sighed and let her disturbing smile slip back into one less likely to frighten children. "Sorry, but did you hear what she was saying about you?" She snarled in the direction the librarian had fled. "She's lucky I didn't do something really awful." Spike closed the distance between them and patted her on the shoulder.

"Eh, it's alright." Spike said waving a claw dismissively. "It doesn't bother me. Besides, she is kinda right." Spike giggled but Twilight gasped. She scooped him up in her front hooves and brought him to her chest in a full body hug.

"She is not! Don't you ever think of yourself as an it! Just because you're not a pony doesn't mean you're any less important! You are a brilliant, funny, and fantastic assistant, no matter what race you are!" Twilight nuzzled him as she finished her pep talk. "Can't... Breathe..." Spike choked out as he fought to escape. His claws pushed back against her chest until he could force himself out of the hug.

Once Spike's lungs were reunited with the wonders of air, he looked up at Twilight to explain himself. The top of his head only reached up to Twilight's chin, with his head crest of green spines extending up to about the middle of her eyes. "I, uh, I meant about the whole 'being a fire hazard' thing." He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "Remember what happened to your advanced pyrotechnics textbook last week?"

"Oh," Twilight sighed, relieved, before resuming with an indignant tone. "Well, okay, maybe she wasn't completely wrong. But she could have been a little nicer about it."

"Yeah, well what do you expect from your latest 'library invasion' victim?" He said, sarcasm mounting with each word. They both fell victim to a round of giggles. When the laughter died down Twilight's face lit with realization.

"Wait, didn't you have a letter for me?" She asked the still chuckling dragon.

"Oh, yeah!" Spike turned around and retrieved the roll of parchment from behind him. It was sealed with red wax in the shape of a stylized sun. Twilight gasped when she saw it and quickly snatched it from Spike's claw with her magic. She unsealed and unrolled the letter as she brought it up to hover level with her face. Spike watched her face while her eyes scanned across the page. Her eyes bulged as they read the final lines of the letter.

"Oh no!" Twilight shouted, tossing the letter away as she turned back to her mess. "Huh? Wha?" Spike eloquently questioned her. She grabbed a pair of saddlebags from the floor near the book piles, throwing it over her back before magically collecting an assortment of seemingly random books from throughout the room. The lucky few hovered around her body in a spinning circle which would pause as each book floated into Twilight's focus. Most of them were tossed away along with an expletive or two, but a few were met with an excited 'Yes!' and slipped into the saddle bags. Spike walked up next to Twilight and gently pulled on her mane.

"Uh, Twi?" He said, confused. "What's going on?"

Twilight tossed the last remaining book and turned to Spike. Before he could get a word out, he was enveloped by magic, lifted into the air, and deposited onto Twilight's back. Spike only had a moment to get his bearings before Twilight bolted.

Spike's claws held fast to Twilight's mane as she raced through the library's wide halls. "Sweet Celestia, Twilight! What's the matter?!" He valiantly tried to be heard over the wind whipping past them.

Twilight's expression was one of overwhelming fear. "Empress Celestia called us to an emergency meeting."

She swallowed empty air before she finished in a tone one usually reserved for the delivery of life ending news.

"And we're late."