She felt a wave of a slightly reluctant acceptance as Xenilla did the closest thing to pouting she could pull off, she won't argue with Twilight but it didn't mean that she wouldn't complain about the decision being made. It was one of the things that were established almost from the get go, Twilight's word was the law and none of the girls would disobey or oppose her in any way or form and will always support her no matter what. It couldn't be said about the other Ponies, as the girls had no desire to listen to anyone else and trying to enforce someone else's will upon them always resulted in a very hostile response and it was almost always accomplished by physical violence.

Twilight felt as a sponge was pressed against her back, Gojira tenderly and extremely carefully rubbing her back while paying all the attention to making sure not to hurt her. It was a rather twisted norm for the young Unicorn, girls treated her as if she was made out of glass and became insanely overprotective whenever they had even the slightest reason to be. Gojira took it to the extreme, she tended to try and help Twilight with everything she could and even if she failed most of the times she never stopped shielding the filly from everything and anything that could cause her harm. It also served as one of the ways she showed her affection, doing so verbally never was Gojira's thing and she preferred actions over words when it came to expressing her feelings. Due to her rather unortodox situation she was allowed to attend classes with her hatchlings, the actual feat of making the gaggle of girls to properly sit through one was an another matter altogether. School for Gifted Unicorns wasn't a joke, it had the best teachers in Equestria when it came to the Arcane Arts and the only better education you could've gained through an apprenticeship which was an incredibly rare thing to happen nowadays. The only Professor who didn't fold under the collective glare of the seven small girls that had the reputation for tearing steel like tissue paper with their teeth was Inkwell, and the old Unicorn managed to even stare down Destroyah who was the most violent of them all.

Came said girl's voice.

Twilight could feel her most troublesome daughter's tone, the walking talking Natural Disaster was in the mood to attack and she would need to keep an eye on her. Right after hatching and while Twilight was unconscious Destroyah managed to fight Princess Celestia and almost leave her without her right arm, almost all of the skin up to the Alicorn's shoulder was literally burned off by the attack of small newborn. Sure, Princess wasn't taking the hatchling seriously and didn't just crush her as she could, but it didn't mean she wasn't keeping one of her more potent shields up and the blast sent by Destroyah managed to literally tear through it and almost cripple the Sun Monarch! She was a bit taller than Gojira and Xenilla, with very dark red eyes and black hair with a huge pair of leathery wings and a segmented tail with a pincer on its end. She had a spiky bony growth on the back of her head that protected the skull and served some other mysterious purpose that they were yet to discover. She also had a long golden horn coming out of her forehead with a bladed tip, this one had a very specific function that Twilight saw firsthand and had to stop the girl from using again. One more thing that stood out was the flower-patterned like growth on her stomach, it also served a purpose and it was the reason for Princess' Celestia's wound and one of the walls missing completely.

Twilight answered as she felt Gojira carefully starting to wash her hair.

Destroyah was also the one who was prone to violence the most, she literally liked to destroy things around her and lay waste on everyone who would try to oppose her. After her third rampage Twilight made sure to always find something more productive to do with her time than tearing down everything around her and also teaching her that violence is not the answer for each and every problem. The last part was a work in progress and it was going better than expected with Twilight being able to prevent Destroyah from going berserk when Inkwell was staring them down for disturbing the class.

Came the reply and a flood of love and affection through the Bond, it would've been even sweet if she couldn't also feel the staggering amount of bloodlust that the girl was also feeling.

'Yeah, and I'm afraid of your idea of playing.' Twilight didn't let this thought leak into the Bond, she didn't need another cuddle-pile today that the girls used to make her feel better and to reassure her that everything will be alright. One of the most important things that Twilight learned was that physical contact with the girls was the best method to calm them down and to reassure them if they were confused or unsure. They initiated it whenever they wanted attention or were showing their affection and that lead to many different moments of awkwardness when they would randomly start nuzzling or hugging her due to something she said or showed to them through the Bond. Other Ponies couldn't hear their conversations and therefore it looked rather out of the blue for them, but Twilight could never refuse them with the sheer amount of pure happiness they always felt whenever they did it and just bore with the consequences.

Twilight took the sponge and absently started to wash Gojira too, the rumbling purring that came from the girl and the warmth of joy flooding the Bond was the response she got. She knew that it will take her an long time to properly finish washing them as the other girls will join them soon, it was an incredibly tiresome process to wash them all and make sure that she got all the more hard-to-get spots. For example, it took almost an hour to wash them all and that was when they all came at once with how the bath was also upgraded to fit at least ten grown Ponies without much of a problem. Doctor Spiral spared no expenses when it came to studying the girls and making their lives comfortable, as the head of his particular research facility and with a backing of Princess Celestia he was making wide strides in his particular field of science since day one. Each girl was an 'unique speciment' that he made sure to study separately and write down all of his findings, with one copy going to Celestia and one to Twilight, over the year they managed to figure out enough of their structure to start producing some of the fruits of their research. Sure, they were still having problems figuring out most of the parts of their biology as it was incredibly alien for Equestria as a whole, but the technlogical knowledge they gained upon studying Kiryū already brought two revolutions in the fields of electronics and computers. The technological level of Equestria wasn't very high, Twilight could agree that the country was eons behind the technological titans that could work with whatever her youngest daughter had inside of her.

Twilight's train of thought stopped in its tracks as the door into the bathroom was flung open and the other six girls barged in, naked and ready for being washed by their Mother. The young Unicorn could only sigh with a small smile, these were the usual morning for her now.

"Eat up, I and your father are going for that wonderful convention of professional photographers." Twilight Velvet said as she levitated plates onto the table, making sure to stay out of reach of the girls. "Don't forget to visit Doctor Spiral and let him know about the progress that you have made with the girls..." She skilfully sidestepped a swinging tail of Xenilla that would've probably broken her ribs if it would've connected. "... if there is any at all."

"Mom!" Twilight whined as she took a bite out of her sandwich. "They aren't causing any trouble and I even explained to them why they can't fight others that they meet on the street!"

"And it took you an year to get them to stop attacking other Ponies." Her mother noted drily. "And that's without counting the time it took you to explain to them that our house was not a nest in need of a constant protection, it's a miracle that we still get mail at all after Kiryū ambushed Mr.Track."

"And she apologized for it." She countered.

"All she did was repeat what you told her to say, I saw more sincerity from muppets in the children's theatric shows than she had while saying it." Night Light said as he took a sip of his morning coffee and walked towards the main room. "It didn't help that she was glaring at him the whole time like she was about to start blasting away any moment."

Kiryū, the black-haired girl that was slightly smaller than Gojira and had her tail and spines on her back made out of metal, she was the only girl of the bunch that didn't need to have her clothes tailor-made. The expression on Doctor Spiral's face when she first materialized her armor and weaponry and fought with them, it was like several of his birthdays came early and at the same day all at once. Her red eyes weren't natural, the mechanical look and the constant glow they had about them was a very easy way to tell that she wasn't fully organic even if you ignore her tail and the coral-like spikes on her back that imitated Gojira's. Another part of her that made her stand out was the line going between her breasts and then split right under them, these were the outlines of armor plates that opened to reveal one of the most devastating weapons in her arsenal.

Came another call and Twilight reflexively reached out with her left hand and patted the head of the golden-haired girl with two scaly tails with pinecone-like growths on their ends and two big leathery wings. She also had several horns growing on both sides of her head, giving her a very similar appearance to a Dragons but different at the same time, a pair of eyes the color of molten gold gazed at her with adoration as she happily accepted the reward.

Ghidorah was the tallest of the bunch and the most troublesome one when it came to reining her in, she was either trying to cuddle with her Mother or looking for fights all around the place. Twilight had to stop her more than once from getting into problems by hurting other kids with her overwhelming strength that would've left them broken and beaten from one punch. It created a lot of problem with interactions with other Ponies for the girls when their playful punches could punch holes through concrete and the only one they treated with care and any restraint was Twilight. Only Mothra, the blond-haired blue-eyed girl with white furry antennas on her head and multicolored moth wings and Battra, her red-haired red-eyed twin with slightly differently colored wings, were mostly unaggressive and that was because the first was just calm by nature and the second was always more concerned with protecting her twin than picking fights.

"Twili!" Came her father's call from the entrance. "You have a guest here!"

Twilight could only sigh as she finished her food and stood up, being instantly followed by all seven girls with Gojira hovering protectively right behind her. While it was hard and incredibly tricky She still managed to make friends in school... somehow. Most of the other students feared her, they didn't show it openly but Twilight could see all the side glances and whispers that followed her around and how everyone backed away from wherever she and girls went.

'I still can't tell if it's a good thing or not.' She thought with a snort as she looked down at her light purple blouse, beige skirt and brown sandals over white socks. Well, she was already ready to go out and she had no desire to stick around for her parents and her friends to start interacting. As she walked towards the opened door she felt a shift in the air as Gojira suddenly appeared in front of her and there was a sound of collision and someone grunting and then falling onto the floor.

"Whao!" Came the voice of a girl with brilliant gamboge eyes, pale, light grayish opal and light gray waist long hair and tail and a very light aquamarine horn on her upper forehead. She was wearing a green turtleneck and blue jeans with gray shoes. "Damn, Goji! You're as vigilant as ever!"

"Hi, Lyra." Twilight said from behind her daughter as said girl stood up from her position on the carpet. "Why are you still trying to do it each time we meet?"

"Because one day I will be able to get to you!" Exclaimed the girl. "Goji won't be able to always guard you, I will give you a meeting hug or die trying!"

"You're starting to sound like Minuette." Twilight deadpanned. "Remember how it ended?"

"With Goji almost crushing her neck." Answered the Unicorn. "So what? She didn't make such a big deal out of it and was all too happy to join us in our Quest!"

"Lyra..." She could only groan. "You understand that there is no way your information in any form or way is actually credible? We checked every part of Canterlot already and none of these 'Urban Legends' were even remotely close to truth."

"Ah, but this time I have a solid lead!" The young Unicorn was all but bouncing on her feet. "The warehouse that housed the fish that is usually is sent to the local restaurants with the carnivorous menu was emptied! The ones who did it managed to tear their way through the wall and the floor and leave without anyone noticing during the night! I can feel that I had them now!"

"And the fact that it can be a group of Diamond Dogs looking for an easy meal?" Twilight asked as she walked outside with the girls and Lyra following close behind. "They were noticed in stealing things from the usual trade routes as of lately, Doctor Spiral read it in the newspaper and made sure to loudly announce his opinion of them."

"No, these weren't as refined as Dogs usually do, and breaking walls is something they had no reason to do!" The mint-haired filly grin widened. "I tell you, these were the Night Crawlers!"

"Ignoring the fact that they don't exist, what actual proof do you have?" She knew that arguing was pointless and the constructive route was a lot less migraine inducing. "Was there any sightings? Footprints? Whitnesses?"

"There were whitenesses!" Lyra said with a huff. "They saw red glowing eyes in the dark alleys not far away from the warehouse in question!"

"Then why are Royal Guards aren't handling it?" Twilight asked, she already gave up on the prospect of a calm day with Lyra this pumped up. "If there is something dangerous in the the city then they should be the ones catching it, right?"

"Mou, they are useless." The mint-haired girl huffed. "Goji can beat them up no problem, only the best of them could slow her down!"

"True." She couldn't argue with that, seeing that the Royal Guards took it with a sore note that their best members were crushed like bugs by a newborn hatchling. Shining even mentioned that his Instructor in the Academy was secretly participating in a betting pool who would get roughed up by Gojira next, one Cadet overdone it with his drinks and openly challenged the diminutive juggernaut on the street. He had to run for his life when he threw and empty bottle at Twilight when she tried to peacefully dissolve the situation. "Princess Celestia, on the other hand, won't take it kindly that walked into a dangerous situation without supervision or even worse, started a fight with an unknown. As her student, I must uphold myself at the same standard as a responsible adult."

"... I already told Minuette and Trixie about it." Lyra said with a smirk after several moments of pause.

"..." Twilight stopped and looked at her friend with a deadpan glare, even Goji gave out a threatening growl as she sensed her Mother's irritation. "As an responsible adult I would need to oversee the foolish endeavor of far less mature peers and make sure that they will emerge unharmed from their childish crusade."

With that, she change directions and started walking towards the working area of the city where the warehouses were built for the trading and construction goods, she heard no protests from the girls as they simply followed along right behind her. Lyra snickered as she fell into step with the still blank-faced Unicorn and looked more amused than ever, in moments like this Twilight wondered if her life would've been better without making friends in school and just concentrating her full attention on studying full time.

"... You just don't want to let Trixie lord this over you for months to come, aren't you?" Lyra was still snickering and then burst out laughing at her friend's twitching eyebrow.

'On the other hand I always can stuff them into bags and ask Goji to throw them as far as she can into the ocean. Decisions, decisions...' Twilight wondered as she walked towards her destination while mentally painting a picture of quiet life where there will be only she and girls and her studies under Princess Celestia. Sure she would miss all the fun they had together, her headache would be lessened too and it was a very interesting way of challenging herself when she studied all those obscure subjects that Lyra brought up... Trixie, even if she had a rather annoying habit of turning any project into a competition with Twilight was still a very intellectual and rather insightful girl that had an insane knack for Magical Artifacts and Enchantments along with the creation of the former. Sure, some of her inventions very potentially hazardous and unstable but with Twilight's help, she discovered her true calling as she made a tremendous leap in her performance when they put their heads together and studied what her Special Talent actually meant. To this day to find an actual true-blue Artifier was a very hard task, most were rather specialized and could work only with some types of Artifacts, but Trixie had a literally untapped potential in her noggin to be the best there is with everything. She and Twilight shared the Top Spot on the board in the theoretical class with Twilight being better in practice because of her far superior raw Power out of all students in the school, with Trixie constantly trying to better herself and them both working in tandem it was really challenging to keep up with her.

Lyra was... well, Lyra. She made sure that there always was something interesting to discuss, brought out incredibly obscure subjects onto the table and held true to her surname Heartstrings as she always knew how to make everyone feel better. She wasn't manipulative, she was empatic and also never let anyone of their group stray away from whatever they had their goal set upon. She was also the source of their many 'adventures' that Twilight still wasn't sure actually happened as most of them looked like fevered dreams for the most part, that one where they found an underground fighting club and Goji won all her fights and they left with three full bags of Bits right before the Royal Guards broke down the doors and arrested the owners. Or that one where Lyra was investigating the rumor of the 'swamp monster' that managed to make its way to the outskirts of Canterlot, it was the first time in her life that Twilight could honestly say that she saw so many things being blasted to pieces as Gojira and Xenilla tore through the old mansion while ignoring doors for the sake of just crashing through walls. It was good that Destroyah, Ghidorah, Battra, and Mothra were left outside to patrol around the perimeters from the sky and Kiryū prioritized guarding Twilight instead of chasing whatever that thing was.

'I'm still not sure how did we manage to hightail out of there before the Royal Guards showed up to find out why the whole mansion literally came crashing down.' She grumbled as she felt another piece of her normal life broke off and turned to dust from just remembering the whole incident.

Twilight was so engrossed in her thoughts of self-pity and wondering how it all could have gone that she didn't notice that they were already nearing their meeting place, it was only when she felt a spike of irritation through the Bond from Gojira and felt her eldest daughter move in front of her that she finally stopped and noticed her surroundings. This area of Canterlot didn't have such a dense population as others, it was mostly small houses that were trying to squeeze themselves between the looming forms of the warehouses and less populace-friendly production lines like metalworking and large carpentering ones that simply could not be position in the generally populated area. While small shops were alright, the Noble Families of Canterlot raised a rather fierce protest about building factory-esque building near the center of the city and Princess Celestia actually agreed as nobody wanted to smell burned wood, ozone and the metallic scent of whatever the metallurgists were currently working on.

"Need... air..." Groaned out the voice that came from the front where Gojira stood, the threatening growl that followed all but confirmed Twilights thoughts about the identity of her 'attacker'. "Please..."

"Let her go, Goji." Twilight said as she stepped from behind the taller girl and looked at the girl that was now sitting on her rump on the pavement and rubbing her throat. "By this point, I'm inclined to believe that you actually enjoying it."

"I'm..." The girl with moderate blue with light persian bluish gray stripes and rarely a very light blue highlight hair and tail croaked out and then coughed several times as she tried to ease her vocal cord into working properly again. Her moderate sapphire blue eyes were slightly teary from the pain but she wasn't actually crying, her light cornflower blue horn made let out several sparks but failed to lit-up due to the stress and lack of concentration. "I'm not like that!"

"I think you had it coming." Came a voice from another Unicorn that strode near them but stopped just out of reach of Gojira's hands as she looked at her gasping friend with a bored expression on her face. Her dark grayish violet eyes locked with Twilight's and she smirked. "Oh, so you decided to actually join our grandeur endeavor? I imagined it would be just too primitive for your tastes!"

"More like I decided that it would be a lot less troublesome to accompany you so I would be there to bail you out when the time will come." Oh, Twilight sure changed from the excitable filly she was a year ago and became a lot more levelheaded. "Saving you would be far easier than explaining to your parents why are you missing."

"Hoh? Well, someone is grumpy today!" Trixie fixed her pale cornflower blue with very pale cerulean stripes hair and then helped Minuette to finally stand up from the pavement. "When will you learn?"

"Never!" Choked out the girl. "Goji will have to accept me as I will never stop trying to hug either her or Twili!"

Came Gojira's voice through the Bond, the girl bared her sharp teeth slightly and narrowed her eyes.

Twilight answered.

Came the reply, it was a statement of the fact that meant that she didn't consider anyone outside of the Bond a part of the Family.

The last part was met with the feeling of agreement from the other girls, they never let their guard down when there were others around besides the ones joined in the Bond. There were no persuading them otherwise, Twilight tried to explain it several times but the sheer concept of someone being not a threat while not being Kin was pretty much incomprehensible for them. She didn't try to do so because she understood, the could feel the Bond and their connection only grew over time and made the young Unicorn pick up some of the traits of her daughters. Twilight was a lot calmer now, had a lot cooler head on her shoulders as she was constantly reminded of the sheer Power that pulsed through the Bond and that she would never be alone anymore and no danger will ever be able to overcome it.

Trixie lit up her brilliant azure horn with her pale, light grayish magenta Magic Aura and lifted a rolled up piece of paper from her backpack. She unrolled it and made it float right in front of Twilight, it was some kind of a map of many different paths that were marked by different colors.

"You should be happy that I was so generous to provide us with the map of the Canterlot's sewers." She puffed her chest up with pride. "It took my unparallel skill and a lot of planning to perform such a heist!"

"... She bribed the Archivarius with his favorite sweets to get it and said it was for her History Project." Minuette said with a deadpan voice.

"Traitor!" The indignation in the exclamation just made the girl burst up laughing.

"And why would we need it?" Twilight asked. "Don't tell me we will be trying to actually go there? I read about it in the book about the construction of Canterlot, the sewers were built right when the indoor plumbing was in its infancy and then slowly upgraded over the years. It's a maze that has literal natural deathtraps there."

"Because we already eliminated the possibility of any other route of escape." Minuette answered as she walked near Twilight and finally got her throat to work properly. "Royal Guard searched the nearby tunnels and didn't find any footprints or any actual signs that Ponies visited that place for a long time."

"And that's not counting for all the vermin infestations that the sewers are suffering from up to this moment." Added Lyra. "Rats and other pests managed to chew through some of the older support constructs and made the whole thing rather unstable so they didn't dare venture any further. I heard that they even encountered a colony of bats there, but I can't confirm it as nobody in the Royal Guards blabbed about the currently ongoing investigation."

"And why are we going to venture there and poke around?" Twilight asked. "Isn't it dangerous for us to do so? If Royal Guards aren't going to go there due to it being too dangerous for them then I have no desire to risk it without a good enough reason."

"Because they are looking in the wrong direction!" Trixie said with a triumphal expression on her face. "They aren't trying to get lower, where the older and a lot less known parts of the sewer systems are still open and were left unchecked for decades. They think that if they themselves can't get in there then nobody else can, and I'm actually speaking from the confirmed facts here as I overheard some of them talking with each other about it."

"Where are you getting this information?" Twilight can't help but wonder.

"She's using her Magic for that Illusion Spell that you helped her learn to make herself invisible and sneak into a bar that is frequently visited by the members of the Royal Guards on the leave." Lyra answered with a shrug. "It's one of the things she's so proud of doing all by herself."

"... Why am I friends with you again?" Trixie asked with a twitching eyebrow. "Sidebar, I managed to overhear that their superiors don't want them going any further than now because it will make most of the communications with them impossible. I'm not sure what exactly is the problem, but their hesitation makes no sense as a standard deployment cuts off any proper communications too and they are literally would be five minutes away from a reinforcement or recovery crews!"

"And why am I going with you, again?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"Because you're the one who pulls us out of the dangerous situations and knows when to fold?" Asked Trixie.

"Because with you around girls will come too and with them with us, there won't be anyone short of a Princess able to stop us?" Asked Lyra with a smile.

"Oh, I know!" Minuette grinned. "It's because you will feel guilty if something will happen to us and we're the only ones who even talk to you because everyone else got scared away by Goji when she blasted holes through several walls with her awesome Death Ray!"

"..." Twilight stared at the trio and hang her head in resignation. "I really need to rethink my life..."

Twilight looked at the heavy padlock that was hanging from the chains that were keeping the entrance into the sewers, the bars were rusted and mostly there for the purpose of keeping the Ponies out if they didn't have any way to deal with the padlock. The small stream of water that was leaking from the dark tunnel brought the smell of rotten water and decay that wasn't all out of place here, she could tell that even girls weren't pleased with the rather foul odor. Their sense of smell was far beyond what anyone would consider normal and the stench was probably like acid on their sinuses right now, but they didn't complain even for a moment as Twilight was the one to lead them here.

"First obstacle." Commented Lyra.

"I'm more worried about the reasons for this particular entrance being unguarded." Commented Twilight as she looked around for any sign of it being false. "Should Royal Guards be making rounds around here?"

"This is one of the less known and more clogged tunnels." Trixie said as she pulled a couple of crystals from her hidden pockets and made them come lit with direct beams of light into the tunnel's dark depth. "As you can see, it was partially sealed and therefore nobody would think that someone would be determined enough to breach it."

The wall that was made from red bricks that were almost fully encompassing the tunnel also had a small opening from which the water was coming from, it didn't look as old as everything else and had a sign of recent renovation with fresh patches of cement being used to cover some parts of it. Twilight didn't know much about building codes, but this was obviously a shoddy work at best and wouldn't stand a chance against any of her girls.

"After you." Minuette said as she stepped to the side from looking through bars while giving Twilight a smirk.

'Once again, I'm breaking any and all rules that I know for the sake of friends... Is it how other children are? Is this how friendship suppose to work?' Twilight managed to not show her rather depressing train of thoughts before giving a mental nudge to Destroyah. There wasn't any reason not to be at least somewhat discreet here and the rather violent girl was more than suited for this, as her dark-haired daughter stepped forward she felt a spike of Power through the link.

Destroyah stopped in front of the group and yellow energy started crackling over the growth on the back of her head and over her hair, the build-up was minimal as she opened her mouth as a purple and pink energy tore through the rusty steel and literally evaporised it. The wall behind it didn't fare any better as it now was spotting a watermelon size hole in it with the bricks being simply gone along with part of the bars and the padlock. Twilight stepped forward and patted the now a rather smug girl on her head and received an almost bone-crushing hug from the rather diminutive terror.

"No matter how many times I see it, there is no way for me to fully grasp just how destructive these girls are." Sighed Trixie as she walked towards the now opened door and pushed making it open with a groan. "And I'm not even going to joke about it."

Nobody had anything to say to that and they all followed the Unicorn inside, the ark made out of stones loomed over them as the group of eleven moved into the sewers. Trixie's crystals provided enough light for all of them to see the path ahead of them, the hole in the wall was big enough for them to squeeze through even with Gojira breaking out several more bricks for Twilight to step through without crouching. Kiryū was walking the last in their group as she always did, her rather obscure additional senses provided a good cover for anyone who will try to sneak up on them. Xenilla was smart enough to come-up with this formation with Kiryū, it wasn't much but it was mostly them standing in a circle around Twilight to keep her safe at all costs.

Came the voice of Gojira.

Twilight asked as she grasped her hand with her right one and Xen's with her left.

Xen answered as she sniffed the air.

The tunnel was stretching forward with any end to see, the crystals weren't strong enough to show them anything more than a dozen meters ahead. It wasn't that much but Kiryū could see in the dark and all girls' senses were sharp enough to substitute for vision, and that meant that they had no blind spots.

Twilight felt a chill going down her spine, but any hints of fear were washed away by the tidal way of reassurance and warmth coming from the girls that tightened the circle around her.

Xenilla answered.

"We may want to turn back." Twilight said, making the others look at her. "Girl can smell a lot of blood, fresh blood, all around us and I don't like where this is going."

"Can this be the place where the blood from the hospital goes?" Lyra asked. "It wouldn't be much of surprise if it also smelled..."

"No, it's too far away from anything meaningful to float here." Trixie asked. "And they are using special tanks that are then disposed of via Magic."

"I'm not even going to ask you how you know it." Twilight said as they moved kept walking. "But can we at least stop?"

"Why are you afraid of a little blood?" Asked Minuette. "Your girls eat fish raw and I'm pretty sure that it's a lot more graphic than a simple knowledge that some of the blood was spilled here."

"Because..." She wasn't able to finish as suddenly they heard a rumble, as if something heavy rolled right under them. "... What was that?"

"If the old maps are right then we don't have anything underneath us." Trixie answered. "It should be solid rock, nothing more."

"Well, something caused this noise and I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with the idea that there is anything even remotely mobile and operational here." Twilight said. "What if we're walking over some kind of a pipe system? Like the ones they have in Manehatten?"

"... How do you know about those things?" Trixie asked with a blink.

"They were mentioned in the book about the fishing industry that I read." The Unicorn deadpanned. "But it's not the important part, we can very well be above a crossroad and that would mean that..."

Twilight was interrupted as Goji suddenly moved with a sense of alarm and the ground under their feet collapsed, her girls weren't fast enough to fly her up or even remain in the air and all they could do was to wrap around her so their much tougher bodies would take the brunt of the fall. They didn't even have the time to scream as suddenly the world spun with a crack of the stone and everything went black, the feeling of Gojira's body pressing against her was the last thing she felt before she felt as the gravity pulled her down.

"Get off me..." Twilight heard Lyra's groan as she finally regained her bearings. "Please..."

It was a miracle everyone ended up mostly unharmed, with girls not being in any actual danger and her friends landing rather nicely onto something soft. She was looking around as she watched the rather comical pile of limbs that were Trixie, Lyra, and Minuette as they struggled to pull themselves apart on the ground. The rather big cave they ended up in was mostly covered in a thick layer of moss that saved their lives by preventing them from breaking their necks, it was incredably thick and actually acted as a soft buffer between them and the hard rocks below.

"What could've caused its growth?" Twilight wondered aloud as she touched the green coverage. "It's probably a meter thick at least!"

Came the answer from Xenilla as she stood nearby and was looking around, the light coming from the crystals on her shoulder providing enough illumination to show them the whole cave.

Came Kiryū's voice as she stared at the far side of the cavern where one could notice several holes in the walls.

Goji growled as she looked around, her spines giving a slight glow as she scanned the place for any more possible threats.

There wasn't much that Twilight could say as she watched Kiryū's arsenal and armor fully materialized on her being, silvery metal gleaming in the light as the blue one marked her flight engines and weapons. Even if she always had the best control over her emotions it was obvious how nervous she was as her tail was swinging from side to side in an erratic pattern.

Goji's spines came lit with bluish glow and small arcs of lightning-like energy started to jump from one spike to another, same bluish glow could be seen coming from behind her bared clenched teeth and she stood protectively in front of Twilight.

Xenilla's crystals glowed brighter as yellowish energy started to gather in her mouth, her excitement was causing literal vibrations through the Bond as she prepared for her first real combat.

Destroyah was nonchalant about it, but only on the surface as she once again started charging her attack and lightning-like energy started to dance over the growths on the back of her head, this time the build-up was far more powerful than the one she did to blast through the metal bars and a brick wall.

Ghidorah's tails were waving around in excitement, sparks of golden energy dancing in her half-opened mouth as she too prepared to face whoever was coming with deadly intent, she ever lifted herself up in the air with a couple of flaps of her wings and hovered over the group.

Battra's eyes came aglow as she lifted herself up to hover near Ghidorah, a hiss coming from her mouth as she bared her teeth in a twisted grin. While not as violent as others, Battra was always the first one to vote for killing or destroying anyone and anything that was considered a threat.

Mothra also flew up, hovering above the two with her antennas glowing red as she was looking around curiously but keeping herself position in a perfect position to fire upon whatever was going to emerge from the entrances into the cave. Even if she was the most passive and peaceful of the girl, Mothra never gave up and kept her position as a protector of the family whenever she could and even in their spars she was able to go toe-to-toe with Goji for some time.

"Is this part of the tunnel system?" Asked Minuette that was finally able to untangle herself from the pile and climb onto her feet. "It doesn't look habitable at all."

"I'm not sure." Trixie said as she shuffled through the stack of maps. "I can't find anything, but it also can be a natural formation and therefore it won't be marked here and I didn't take any geological maps with me."

"What is this smell?" Lyra asked as she sniffed the air. "This is awfull!"

"It's the smell of decomposition." Twilight said as she was using the Bond to stay calm. "The smell the girls felt before? It was coming from here, the moss grew so much because of the nourishment it received from the dead bodies here."

"... What?" All three girls asked as they slowly looked down with disgust and horror written all over their faces.

"... Are you talking about the rodents and other small vermin?" Lyra asked with a bleak tone. "Because I can't figure out any other way it can..."

"If only the whole population of them from Canterlot came here to die." Answered Twilight. "No, the smell of blood is too fresh and strong and won't be caused by dying rats."

Beside the agitated growls of the girl the four Unicorns now could hear screeches coming from the tunnels on the other side of the cave, scraping sounds that reminded them as if someone was scratching at the rocky surfaces. Twilight moved a little bit backward as she saw small red lights moving inside the darkness, it was as if the whole thing was pulled out of some rather clique horror movie and they were about to be attacked by some monsters. Her mind whirled as she tried to figure out what could these things be, her knowledge about the creatures of Equestria was rather broad due to her studies under Doctor Spiral and getting a tad bit hyped on his enthusiasm about them.

Kiryū said as energy started to slowly envelop her metal spines.

Twilight couldn't risk her girls attacking for no actual reason, it was one of the things she learned earlier this year.

Suddenly four shadows the size of the adult Ponies burst from the tunnels and into the lit cavern, their appearance made the four friends freeze on the spots as they looked over the newly arrived... things. While their general shape retained what they supposed to look like it was almost impossible to tell the same about everything else, starting with the giant size and the huge disproportional fangs and claws on their feet. Brown coats covering their bodies looked torn and downright falling out with some twisted and unhealthily deformed skin being visible in some places where the patches of fur were gone fully. Their twisted and grotesque muzzles twitched as they sniffed the air and their glowing solid red eyes were looking at the newly arrived company, their ragged ears twitching and bony tails swishing from side to side as putrid slime dripped from their slightly open maws.

Gojira released a rumbling growl as she took a step forward, the glow around her spikes growing in intensity as she challenged the creatures to try something. The only problem with her taunt was that she was far too small for it to have the desired effect, the four unnatural animals stood there for a moment and then released their own screechy growls in response.

"Are those...?" Lyra asked.

"I can't see any other explanation, but what happened to them?" Trixie muttered with her face growing paler. "It's like in one of those comic books that are on sale right now, about mutated monsters attacking the city to eat its inhabitants!"

"Thank you for that mental image..." Minuette even lost her usual cheer. "... So, can we just escape through the same way we fall through?"

"It closed behind us, probably some of the rocks collapsed and blocks the hole." Trixie said. "And we have nowhere to go..."

Suddenly the leading creature released a screeching call and jumped towards the group, in response to the incoming danger the energy around Gojira's spines blazed to life brighter than even Xen's crystals and with a growl she opened her mouth. A blast of bluish energy roared to life from her maw as it enveloped the still airborne assailant as Twilight had to shield her eyes from the intense light and step away due to the heat. The twisted mutated and downright unnatura abomination of a rat that just tried to eat them had no chance against the intense beam of destruction as its smoldering remains crashed into the mossy ground. There wasn't much left as the skin and flesh were almost instantly incinerated by the five hundred thousands degrees Celsius, and it was an miracle that the bones managed to somewhat remain intact enough to be recognizable.

The remaining three mutated rats stood silently as they gazed upon the smoking remains of their comrade, it was impossible to tell what they were thinking as they suddenly looked directly at Gojira and hissed. Her eldest daughter answered with a rumbling growl as the glow of her spines didn't dim in the slightest, there was no way for this situation to end in anything but fight with the girls now drowning the cave in their collective bloodlust. She had to wonder for a moment if these mutated rats were somewhat defective when it came to their mental facilities, their instincts should be all but screaming for them to run and hide by now.

'Maybe they are blinded by their desire to protect their territory?' She read once that some of the animals never backed away when encountered on their own turf, like Manticores when they were fighting near their home to protect their young. Were these monsters the same? It was a moot point by now, Gojira just witnessed them treating her and Twilight didn't feel like calming her down after almost getting munched on by the creatures. These There was no time for Twilight to even properly register what was happening as the creatures charged too, this time going on the ground and directly towards her eldest daughter. Gojira released an titanic roar that made the two monsters stop cold, the monstrous below made the whole cave shake and also made Twilight, Trixie, Lyra, and Minuette cover their ears while trying to keep their hearing intact.

<Kill.> This wasn't a question that Twilight heard through the Bond, Gojira wasn't playing around and for the first time since her hatching, she was going to fight seriously. She wasn't sure what her eldest daughter was going to do, but the sheer presence that was now coming in waves from her spoke volumes just how enraged she was right now. Twilight could even guess why as it was the first time that she was put in any real danger and anyone actually attacked her with the intent to kill. These rats didn't know what was coming, they weren't capable of comprehending how big of a mistake they made by not fleeing.

Author's Note

I'm really sorry for the long wait, but I had trouble coming up with the proper continuation of the previous Chapter. Yes, this is a massive Time-Skip, but it's not done with an ill intent! Parts of the Year will be slowly uncovered in flashbacks to show the Character-building and how Twilight changed from a Teacher's Pet into what you saw here. Is she OOC? Yes, because she went through a year of being Bonded to the most Powerful beings in Equestria and had to literally babysit them and prevent them from going onto rampages, saving the lives of the population in the process as even Celestia will need a lot of effort to stop them if they will really get going.

Was the change of scenery to quick? Maybe, but it's the way this Story will go for now and no more massive Jumps with this being the only one as I'm trying to show and compare to what was and how it's now without doing the crappy 'Date This' routine.

Also, here is the Mutated Rats they ran into: