Invasion of the Astro Monster: Destroy All Ponies

Chapter 6

The Pretender

As the Princesses' horns glowed, the spell began to be cast. A small sphere of energy appeared, and began to gravitate towards King Ghidorah. As it was absorbed by the three-headed dragon, he could feel his powers slowly return to him. With a sadistic grin, he took to the skies.

As the princesses watched Ghidorah fly towards his opponent, they began to notice something strange. He was getting bigger. And bigger. And bigger. And bigger still! Until he reached his full size, one that positively dwarfed everything around it, including Ponyville. Many ponies underneath wet themselves in sheer fright as the massive, three-headed demon flew overhead.

Ghidorah landed with an earth-shaking thud just outside the city limits of Ponyville, and sized up his opponent. He still couldn't believe it. How did they even get here? It didn't matter, though. Ghidorah would kill them here and now, and that would be the end of it.

His opponent was a vaguely familiar lizard. They had spines going down their back, powerful muscular legs, a long, whip-like tail, and a large head. Ghidorah decided to toy with his prey before attacking.

"Hello, Zilla!" he roared. "Whatever are you doing here?"

Zilla looked up, noticing Ghidorah's entrance. "King Ghidorah? I was told you had died!"

"Tales of my death have clearly been greatly exaggerated," The dragon said simply. "Now answer the question,"

"I'm not sure. One day everything was fine, when suddenly, this giant light appeared, and I got sucked in! Do you know why?"

"That is of no concern to you. All I need to know is that you are going to attack the city behind me, correct?"

"Well, yeah. It's in my way, and that's sorta what I do,"

Ghidorah smirked. "I was hoping you would answer that,"

Without warning, King Ghidorah suddenly lunged towards the mutated iguana. However, Zilla's reflexes were quick, and the creature was able to jump to the side like a matador with a bull. He shrieked in distress and confusion, before shouting, "What was that for?"

"I'm afraid that that city is under my protection, and frankly I just don't like you,"

"Protection? Since when did the Destroyer of Worlds ever want to protect something?"

"Don't think of it as protection. Think of it as saving the best for last," With a maniacal cackle, Ghidorah lunged again, this time succeeding in plunging the jaws of his right head into Zilla's arm.

Zilla shrieked in pain, before grabbing onto the head with his free arm. He tried to pry it off, but Ghidorah was not an inexperienced fool, and held on. Zilla then tried kicking against the dragon's chest, which actually succeeded in prying him off. He followed this up with a blast of green fire, causing King Ghidorah to step back. "Ha! I almost felt that one!"

Ghidorah replied in kind, firing his gravity beams from each of his three heads. The lightning bolts struck the ground around Zilla, causing dirt and rock to explode upwards. The central beam hit him squarely between the eyes, causing him to be disoriented. Zilla grabbed his head, roaring in agony. From the still stinging pain in his arm to the banging in his head, Zilla was in a lot of pain. And it made him angry.

As the iguana came to his senses, he looked Ghidorah straight in the eye(s). With a roar, the saurian iguana charged forward, before leaping into the air. He sailed forward, foot claws extended and ready to deliver a powerful kick against Ghidorah. The dragon smirked. Just as planned. Moments before Zilla reached him, King Ghidorah leaped up into the air. Cackling and held aloft by his wings, he swung his twin tails underneath him. The tips acted like clubs, and with a powerful uppercut, they hit Zilla in the jaw. Zilla's own momentum was now used against him, causing him to be launched back to his starting position. Ghidorah landed moments after Zilla had crashed into the forest.

The three alicorns watched the titanic battle from the balcony. Was this what Ghidorah was like at full power? For the first time in a very, very long time, Celestia felt afraid. Suddenly, the sound of hooves on tile alerted her. Somepony was running towards her. All three turned to find the rest of the mane 6. "Girls!" Twilight said, relieved to see here friends safe.

"Once we saw that thing on its way to Ponyville, we got here as fast as we could!" Rarity explained. "It wasn't easy, but we were able to get a cart pulled by some pegasus ponies straight to the castle,"

"Is that King Ghidorah?" Fluttershy asked, watching him do battle with Zilla.

Celestia and Luna nodded, as everypony turned their attention back to the battle at hoof.

Zilla was losing, and he knew it. He would need a method to turn the tide, and he thought he had an idea. He quickly whipped around, hitting all three of Ghidorah's heads in the face with his tail. Ghidorah looked offended. Zilla took advantage of the time to quickly begin burrowing beneath him, forming a tunnel. Within seconds, Zilla was underground. Ghidorah cackled. "A clever trick, but you forget," Ghidorah sidestepped just at the right moment as the iguana burst from underneath him, teeth lunging straight for his three necks. "I've fought Baragon before, and he was much better at this than you,"

As Zilla crawled out of his hole, he tried to come up with a new strategy. Zilla had faced difficult adversaries before, but none of Ghidorah's calibur. He was outclassed, outgunned, and outsmarted. He would have to rely on his speed and agility if he had any hope of survival. As Ghidorah charged forward again, Zilla sidestepped, and lunged forward. Success! He caught Ghidorah's right neck in his jaw, and chomped down with all his might.

Ghidorah's right head roared in pain, and the others could feel it too. As the windpipe was crushed, red blood began to ooze from the wound. Ghidorah's middle head tried zapping Zilla with a gravity beam, but the lizard would not let go. The left head took action, shooting forward and biting at the base of Zilla's neck.

As the two titans held onto each other, Ghidorah finally began to regain the upper hand. With a push of his wings, winds the speed of a hurricane pushed against Zilla, causing him to lose his grip. Ghidorah let go as well, stepping back to regain his footing. Now it was Zilla's turn to smirk. The fight was beginning to go in his favor.

Ghidorah was now very, very angry. With a cackling roar, Ghidorah thrust forward with his left leg, kicking Zilla in the side. The sheer weight behind the attack was enough to knock Zilla over. Ghidorah wasn't finished. Launching himself straight up with his wings, Ghidorah brought both of his taloned feet down on Zilla's torso. The weight of the massive beast crushed Zilla's ribcage, and he roared in pain. Ghidorah repeated the process, dealing even more damage and causing Zilla to cough up blood.

Zilla turned on his back as Ghidorah jumped up a third time, but this time he fired his green breath. The flame caught Ghidorah off-guard, knocking him from the sky. Ponies watching gasped as their savior was hurled to the ground. Ghidorah stood back up, standing firm between Zilla and Ponyville. Zilla decided to go for broke. If his next idea didn't work, he would lose. Slowly, Zilla charged his beam to its maximum output, dorsal spines glowing with radioactive power. Seeing what his opponent was doing, Ghidorah did the same. Charging his gravity beams his eyes glowed with an alien yellow energy.

Both kaiju fired their beams at the same time. As radioactive fire hit electric gravity, a massive ball of pure enrgy formed in the middle. Both sides struggled, each trying to force the explosive energy upon their opponent. Zilla's breath seemed to have the upper hand, as pushing seemed easier for him. As the ball slowly came closer to Ghidorah, the dragon began to feel a little nervous. As it neared mere meters from his faces, Ghidorah pumped all of the energy he could into the beam. It was enough. The ball bounced back towards Zilla like a game of ping pong, hurtling at a speed he hadn't predicted. Zilla's eyes widened in fear as the mass of energy grew near.

There was a titanic explosion, one that would have made Michael Bay proud. Ghidorah himself was knocked back, but skidded to a halt before he could collide with any buildings. A massive crater was all that remained of where his opponent had once stood. Zilla was dead. Fueled by victory, Ghidorah roared his cackling roar to the heavens, challenging all who would dare attack him. The roar carried on all the way to Canterlot, where the princesses were watching.

"Sister," Luna said. "I think its time we asked our 'guest,' some questions,"

Celestia nodded, and their horns began to glow.