The Machine Dragon

The Frozen North, several days later

Kiryu still remained sticking out of the icy earth as if he were a gargantuan statue. The snow never piled up on him, however, as occasionally a small group of the equines would come to clean him. The winged ones would brush the snow off of his mechanical eyes, his face, the nooks and crannies of his shoulders, and make sure none of his wiring was damaged. They even brought out large, magically powered polishers typically made for floors, ensuring his armor shined as they cleaned him.

It wasn’t much different from the time being stuck in the bunkers of Japan. One could see this as vanity, or as a form of thanks for his service, yet he still made sure to keep his sensors at the ready. Should any of them try to place a spell over him, he had just enough power to move, enough to turn his slouched state into a fallen one.

That would send them running, assuming they got out of the way. The thought was horrible, but then again so was forcing him to fight.

Though, the possession attempts never came. They did their job, cleaned up, one or two of them even patted his thick, metal exterior, and then they left without further fanfare. Thus, Kiryu was clean, shinier than ever, and still slumping, never to move.

He remained that way. Occasionally, he would replay a voice recording to himself. It was out of boredom, not actual ponderment of their words…

That’s what he’d tell himself at least.

Many more ponies would come before him. They would say their thanks and then leave. Eventually though, more professional looking equines came back a few days later. They were escorted by guards, who helped wheel large, disk-like objects.

He was considering seeing if he could flash the Twin Maser Cannon at them. However, he didn’t have enough juice to start it. It’d be no different from a diminutive dog barking at this point. He ultimately remained still though. As they placed the objects around him, he took note that at the least, he couldn’t feel anything controlling coming from them. It wasn’t like when he had to wrestle his mind back from the A.I. programming.

Perhaps the disks weren’t weapons. Sensors maybe? They were quite different from human made ones, though again, he wasn’t on Earth, so it would make sense…

He felt the hatch open.

A mare, older, (likely mid-fifties) soon stepped inside of the cockpit. Up close he could see she was wearing a bright orange hardhat, yellow visibility vest. Ah. She was a construction worker. Quite similar to the humans, actually.

“Hey big guy,” she said softly as she placed a much smaller sensor on the flooring. She soon adjusted her hat a bit. She was a horned one. He’d still not gotten an explanation of the species sexual dimorphism… not like it mattered, of course.

He didn’t respond to her. Only remained silent, the monitor black and dead.

Upon realizing there wouldn’t be a response, she shrugged, continuing, as she placed a small ring on her horn, with it being connected to the sensor, “Ya know… you saved my son by killing the giant walrus thing. He was stationed here, working under Captain Armor. Got a real bad leg break but he’ll be able to recover… He said he was really close to death; would’ve been crushed by that beast if you didn’t show up.”

No text.

“I don’t know if you’re able to understand me or not… Princess Twilight says ya are. Said it in the papers,” the worker said as the sensor seemed to activate from the mare’s horn flashing. “Dunno if it’s true, but if ya hear me, all we’re doing is getting an interior scan of your body. We aren’t gonna deconstruct ya, but… well we still wanna sorta know how you work. It could help us with researching those big cannons of yours… Is that alright?”

Not a shock. Using him as a means to create another weapon. Of course.

She frowned when he didn’t reply, “Well uh… when my boy gets better, he said he’d like to come here and thank ya personally; give ya a pat on the… foot I guess, heh.”

Nothing but silence filled the room as the mare continued her work.

Canterlot Castle, Twilight’s Study, the following day

The dark room around her was illuminated only by a single, hanging lantern. She was deep in the castle’s chamber’s now, thus natural light wasn’t an option for her. Her eyes squinted in the darkness, though she was no stranger to late night reading sessions. She flipped through the reasonably thick book in mere minutes, before immediately sitting it aside.

“Nope,” Twilight huffed to herself, magically grabbing another bulky tome off of her nearby shelf.

‘A History of Equestrian Cryptids.’

The pages whirled and she read as quickly as she could. Dozens passed her by, and tons of information filled her mind. However, once more, it did little to help, with her sitting the half-completed publication down onto her wooden desk, “Doesn’t seem to be anything here either.”

She grabbed another one, ‘Seabeasts and More!’ and got to reading it as well, multitasking the two books at the same time. She’d been at it the entire day now. Her mind was filled with all kinds of beasts, ranging from tentacled titans to potentially underground savages. Yet none of them seemed exactly like kaiju-tier threats. Regardless, she read on.

While Kiryu’s equipment was being studied, it didn’t mean the princess could go and slack off! What if another monster appeared, this time being closer to Canterlot, or Manehatten, or Las Pegasus? She’d need to know everything she could on the subject in case such a horrific event occurred!

Before she could continue mulling over the possibilities, the door behind her opened up, making Twilight immediately jerk her head over her shoulder.

“Princess Sparkle—”

“Yeah!?!” squawked the alicorn, interrupting her subject.

The guard stood there, staring at the princess with an uncertain look on his face. Soon, he levitated up a bright yellow file. He discreetly passed it over to Twilight, who blushed as she grabbed it in her own magical glow.

“—those X-Ray pictures of Kiryu are finally complete, courtesy of Princess Cadance,” he said, finally finishing his sentence.

Twilight gave a small, “Thank you.”

In response, he nodded, before quickly leaving her alone, the door giving a loud, creaking noise before it shut. Once more she was alone with her thoughts. The file rested on the desk in front of her, a big, bright red ‘CLASSIFIED’ was stamped on it.

The princess didn’t immediately open it. For some reason, holding it here in her hooves felt… partly wrong. A very strange sensation overtook her, like butterflies (or moths) in her stomach. After a few deep breaths, she shook it off and went back into princess mode. Can’t let herself falter in the event her subjects needed anything, after all!

She opened it!...

…

Immediately, Twilight’s face was one of deep grimace as she looked over the pictures which greeted her, “Oh Kiryu….”

She wasn’t exactly sure what she was expecting for his internals. She knew at one point he was a living being; he had to be! He was too thoughtful, had too much of a soul to be nothing but a machine!

Well, the image confirmed this at least.

Amid the crossbeams and steel support structures inside of him, and the wires and under the armor and under the spikes and the weapons and all of it was him. Rather, what remained of him anyways…

It was his skeleton.

The restless bones of the First Godzilla.

The empty sockets which had once contained eyes looked back at Twilight. He had a row of sharp teeth, powerful looking bones. His right arm was missing, being fully replaced by metal and unfeeling wires. She could see the spikes running down his back, and his long, durable tail.

It made her blink a few times, almost finding the image sickening. She was reminded of Spike when he’d endured his greed-induced growth. The thought of her brother being turned into something like this made her ill.

Kiryu was plucked up from his resting place and turned into a weapon. Yet despite all of this, he’d saved the Crystal Empire from horrific destruction. He put his afterlife on the line to fight off Maguma. Now countless lives and homes had been saved—

He deserved better than to be some emotionless, unmoving statue in the Frozen North, left to sit there and decay and cease to be. He deserved something. However, his words were clear, still ringing in her mind. He didn’t want to live, but to deny him his right to exist…

She began to feel ill once more.

Twilight sat down the file onto her desk and leaned back into her old, rickety chair. She brought up a forehoof and began to rub over her forehead. Thoughts swirled through her mind, of skeletons, of monsters, and so much more…

Suddenly though, she felt the wind pick up around her. Her eyes shot open as she heard the ruffling of paper billowing in a new breeze. She looked upwards, and all around herself.

A faint chirp rang out, however she could see nothing, leaving her confused.

“Wha—”

Chirp.

“Hello?” she asked, standing up on her forehooves. She began levitating everything she could. Her table, the massive bookshelf, her chair, all of it. She looked under it in confusion, her head bolting this way and that and back again as she tried to uncover what could possibly have made the—

Chirp.

“Alright if this is a prank, show yourself right now!” Twilight growled, her Royal Canterlot Voice picking up as her temper flared.

There was a flash of light. Something appeared before her. It was fluffy, with big, round eyes. Two antennae. Two large, multicolored, beautiful wings…

It was a massive moth, easily bigger than Twilight’s head!

The insect flapped her wings, remaining airborne and causing more pages around Twilight to billow as she released her magic, barely managing to sit everything down neatly due to her state of surprise.

“H-hello?” she managed.

As if in response, the arthropod flew over, landing and perching itself in the corner of the room. Her antenna chittered for a moment, before it let loose a small, squeaky chirp. Moments later, two small balls of light, no bigger than Twilight’s hooves appeared in front of the strange animal. Despite how small they were, they lit up the room immediately, casting it in a light so bright it seemed as if they were a pair of miniature suns.

Two voices emerged from them, though it was hard to notice as had Twilight’s ears not been keen, it would’ve sounded like just one. They were both feminine, both spoke at the same tone, same cadence, same frequency. They practically were one.

“Be not afraid, Twilight Sparkle,” they called.

“Who are you?” the alicorn asked in shock, her eyes wide.

The balls of light seemed to grow brighter as the reply came, “We are the Cosmos.”

“You’re just… pure light?” she said, examining the luminescent beings in wonderment. Her head craned left and right as she tried looking them over, seeing if there were any notable deviations on the energy-like creatures.

“You know magic better than any other pony we’ve seen; we assume you understand our physical form is only relative to how we desire you to perceive it,” the light replied, the moth behind it giving another squeaky chirp!

“Right, of course…” Twilight nodded. She leaned upwards, as if trying to get as close to the floating balls of light as she could. “I know you said you’re the Cosmos but what exactly is that?”

“We are the Priestesses of Mothra,” was the simple answer.

Twilight’s brain immediately raced, trying in vain to attempt to remember if the name was familiar or not. After a few seconds, her face fell slightly. “Please don’t tell me this ‘Mothra’ is a kaiju…”

“Many things can be classified as kaiju, Twilight Sparkle,” the twin orbs responded, a soft, wise tone in their voices. “Even something as simple as a dragon, a griffon… or an alicorn.”

“Fair enough I suppose,” Twilight replied.

“Do not worry, Princess Sparkle. Mothra is a peaceful creature; a guardian of the planet Earth,” the Cosmos assured.

“'Earth?'” Twilight pondered to herself, before her eyes widened in realization. “Tell me, does ‘Earth’ contain the country of Japan?”

After a pause, the Cosmos spoke, keeping the same soft, lullaby-like tone. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle. Japan was the site of many tragic kaiju battles throughout the decade human calendar referred to as the nineteen-nineties.”

“Then you know about Kiryu, right?” the princess asked, her ear flicking as she blinked a few times from the light illuminating off the twin beings.

There wasn’t a reply at first, as if the two were thinking. All while the large moth merely remained on the wall, her antenna twitching about as she almost seemed to… slump? It was as if her physical body was showing the emotion the beings of light couldn’t express.

“We have no recollection of the cyborg known as Kiryu,” they answered. Now Twilight herself was slumping, though she listened on intently. “Despite this, we have not been on the planet Earth itself in many years. It is possible that in this timeframe, the humans could have constructed such a creature in secret, and we hadn’t yet sensed its presence.”

Twilight nodded at their words, her mind racing with all kinds of questions, so many it was hard to lock it down to one. Soon though, she did, “So tell me… how did you get here?”

“We and Mothra flew into space in the Earth year nineteen-ninety-three to destroy a meteor which threatened the planet,” the Cosmos’ words made Twilight’s eyes light up. “Several years after we began our journey, we successfully stopped the threat, and began to return to Earth—”

“You were sucked into a giant black portal?” Twilight finished, the sparkle fading from her eyes, being replaced with uncertainty now.

The moth nodded, her antennae twitching about as the Cosmos continued glowing.

“That was roughly two months ago, going by your measurement of time,” the twin balls explained. “Shortly after our arrival, we followed the strongest positive energy output we could find. It was you and your friends, Twilight Sparkle.”

The alicorn nodded, looking down at her desk in thought as her forehoof tapped against it. Suddenly, a question popped into her head, “Wait… if you’ve been following me for two months, then why didn’t you warn me about Maguma?”

“The creature’s appearance was too sudden. We cannot read this planet’s energy as we could Earth’s, so we were blind to the kaiju’s arrival,” Twilight nodded at their explanation, letting the two continue. “We would have stopped Maguma, however the destruction of the meteorite has left Mothra weakened; she will need at least another two weeks to gain enough energy to be back at full strength.”

“So—” the mare began, however she paused herself, really not wanting to finish the sentence. Regardless, she pressed on. “—If you’re here, then that confirms there could be other kaiju attacks, right?”

“Yes, which is why we are here to warn you, Twilight Sparkle,” came the Cosmos’ soul-crushing answer. “Somehow, the balance of not only the universe, but the multiverse has become unstable.”

“That’s just great,” the princess said with a groaning sigh. Given the appearance of Kiryu and Maguma, she’d already figured something was wrong with the realms, but hearing it be confirmed obviously didn’t make her feel better.

“We are not familiar with how such a thing could happen; we merely presided over Earth. Should more rips in space-time occur, new threats could be revealed at every turn. Threats which Mothra might not be able to handle by herself, even when she is rested,” the fairies chimed.

Twilight’s stomach turned into an icy-hot pit again; it felt like the twin priestesses’ voices were a pair of warning bells for her kingdom. She swallowed as a whirl of emotions filled her. She almost felt like she was going to melt into a puddle from the nervous-induced heat now coming from her.

Eventually though, she swallowed a glob of saliva in her mouth and spoke, “So you came to tell me we should resurrect Kiryu, right?”

The moth-fairy slumped once more, seeming sad.

“To disrespect and forcefully revive the dead is a great taboo, Princess Sparkle,” the two luminous balls answered, their voices having a twinge of sadness.

Twilight herself slumped now, her ears folding against the sides of her head.

“However, Kiryu’s new life is one of his own!” the two added, making Twilight look back up with a trace of hope in her eyes. “You have at the least given him permanent free will; free will he did not have while under human control.”

The mare briefly turned back to her desk, staring at to the photos which were still strewn about. She looked over his skeleton once more; the hope in eyes was now a gaze of solemness as well. Soon she refocused her attention to the glimmering duo.

“If he desires to help you, of his own volition, then neither we nor Mothra would see this as a violation of the natural order,” the twin voices explained. “If he does not desire to participate in any more conflict, then you must heed his words. Only great tragedy comes from meddling with the deceased.”

“Ca-can you at least tell me anything about the kaiju you’re familiar with?” Twilight questioned.

“The kaiju we are familiar with are all thankfully deceased, Twilight Sparkle. Even the mighty Godzilla fell in battle after slaying an ancient demon in the Earth year of nineteen-ninety-nine,” the fairies answered.

Twilight’s face scrunched up in thought at their words, “Is… is Kiryu the same Godzilla?”

“No, Twilight Sparkle,” now the mare was really confused. “Kiryu’s energy is far different from the Godzilla we encountered. To our knowledge, that Godzilla’s skeleton was melted from the power outputted by his atomic heart when it gave out. His readings do not match those of Godzilla's son, either.”

“Then there’s way more of them. Maybe even a whole species' worth I take it…” Twilight frowned. Next thing she’d know, she’d have a dozen giant reptiles bigger than the biggest dragons running around. The absurd thought almost made her chuckle.

“We wish we could provide you more, however we do not have all of the answers, Twilight Sparkle,” the priestesses said, their ethereal glow beginning to dim.

“What’s happening?” Twilight asked in worry, her face adorned with concern.

“Our telepathic powers are weakening. We will try to communicate with you whenever possible, however all we can do now is merely observe,” the fairies’ twin-voices rang. “When Mothra’s power is back to maximum, we will do our best to defend this planet, and right any multiversal wrongs whenever possible.”

With that, the two glowing balls of light vanished, and when Twilight looked up into the corner of the room to focus her eyes on the moth, she found it was gone.

Now alone, the princess was left with nothing but a small library’s worth of books, and the picture of Kiryu’s bones. She stared them down in thought. Even if he didn’t desire to fight further, she could at least give him friendship. Every creature deserves at least one friend.

She would be his, if he so desired…