And it came to pass that the Age of Monsters dawned upon Equestria. Monarch was currently undergoing a reshuffling of sorts if you will, following the sacrifices of their two biggest authoritative figures. Pharynx found himself as the head of the organization now. Not that he really minded given the fact that he was now a job that fulfilled both of his wishes. To be in a position of power and to actually have a job that involved dealing with or containing dangerous threats to his hive.
“You know all of that just became pretty funny when you think about it,” Fizzlepop remarked as she looked upon the news footage covering the battle between Mothra and the MUTOs. One headline proposed her as the Queen of the Monsters: Savior of Our City. “I mean, Mothra was just some old lady attempting cockblocking a couple!”
“...Where… where does your mind even go to when you think that?” Daring asked as Fluttershy blushed a bright red. The group had met up over drinks to celebrate Pharynx’s new job. Thorax and Twilight would have been there, but they were currently heading up the trial on Captain Hardsteel. Fizzlepop sighed to herself sadly, the stallion could have had it all and yet like Captain Ahab he chose to throw it all away in search of his ‘white whale’.
“Well, she’s got a point,” Pharynx smirked sharing a hoofbump with the now smirking mare. He then noticed her expression. “...You alright, Fizz?”
“Maybe… I don’t know,” she sighed as she began taking a sip of her whiskey. “I mean, you have to ask… what now? Serizawa and Stellar are dead, Monarch's masquerade’s blown and we lost far too many good ponies in all of this. Hardsteel amongst them.”
“Hardsteel was crazy,” Celeano disagreed. “If you ask me, a court-martial is too good for him. Should have just had the MUTO eat him alive… Ordering his own men to get themselves killed! That bastard! They’re lucky to be alive thanks to that spell of Twilight’s and Mothra!” she snarled. Pharynx wasn’t aware that a parrot could look quite so furious but then again Celeano was doing a very good job of proving her wrong. If looks could kill, the Changeling Prince would have imagined Hardsteel would have burst into flames at the sight of her.
“I think he got it off worse in some regards,” Fizzlepop disagreed. “A soldier’s way to die, and I speak from experience here alas, is with the enemy at the gates and adrenaline pumping and coursing through their veins. Denying Hardsteel a soldier’s death is about the worst thing you could possibly do to him. Here he is, stripped of his pride and put on public display for all to see.”
“To each their own,” Celeano muttered to herself. “But… but your masquerade’s been blown now am I correct? Pharynx, how do you plan to even handle something like this?”
“Eh, I’ll deal. Monarch always has. The public will panic, of course they will. But it’ll be Monarch’s job from now on to contain any Titans and if it comes to it work with them to stop the more dangerous ones.”
“W-What could be possibly more dangerous than those MUTOs?” Fluttershy whispered not sure she really wanted to know.
“Godzilla, or Gojira or whatever you want to call him. He’s on our side for now, yes, but what if ponykind were to turn on him?” Pharynx asked as an unsettling silence came over the group. “We’d be almost powerless to stop him. And for all we know… and for all we know there could be something much more dangerous lurking in the shadows, just waiting for his -or her- time to arise…”
Fluttershy had to excuse herself, though not for the reason you might have thought. No, she didn’t need to go ahead and find herself a nice couch to hide under. She had seen a pony with an eerily familiar gaze lurking just out of sight.
“...You knew what was going to happen all along didn’t you?” Fluttershy asked the pony, who shapeshifted into a serpent-like being. “Didn’t you Discord?”
“...Well, I may or may not have. I certainly didn’t expect the King of Monsters to show when he did, that was for sure!” Discord laughed. “Battra Leo showing up and holding off the MUTOs for as long as he did before mommy dearest arrived? Now… I certainly didn’t have a thing to do with that. All that happened there was a small change in the air that in turn was caused by a microscopic variation in the evaporation of water from a tree in the jungles of Honolulu, due to a tiny little fly flapping its wings a few seconds too early. That’s all!”
Fluttershy had to stifle a laugh. “Discord…” she thought to herself.
“But in any case, you ponies somehow manage to keep on going to impress me,” Discord continued. “I thought you all would have turned and ran when the first MUTO hatched and made landfall. But guess I was wrong, you rose to the challenge and helped Mothra win against her rivals. I honestly thought for a bit the dominant species of the planet would be the MUTOs sending you back to the Stone Age!”
Fluttershy just shook her head. “It’s what we ponies do, we face a challenge and we meet it. We haven’t survived this long without having some sort of… something to keep us going.”
“Yes, quite. Not sure what that something is yet if it’s your friendship or something else but you certainly do seem to keep on meeting every challenge the world has to throw at you. And that’s why I like you all. You, no matter what, you never give up. So dear Fluttershy… Tea at our usual time?”
Fluttershy couldn't help but smile. “...I… I think I’ll take you up on that offer.”
Sire’s Hollow:
“Mata au made, kyūyū,” Twilight said as she placed some flowers atop a grave marked with Serizawa’s name. There was no body to be placed inside the tomb, the Destroyer had seen to that. But he would be remembered for his part in the dawn of this new age, for good or for ill. “Arigatō… Serizawa sensei.”
She turned to Sunburst, who was quietly mourning the death of his mother. “You going to be alright?” she asked wrapping a wing around her friend.
Sunburst blew into a handkerchief and dabbed at his eyes as he looked upon her tombstone. “Y-Yeah, I think I’ll be fine. Just… Just give me a bit of time, okay?”
“There’s a place for you, you know. In Monarch, I mean. Pharynx’s offer, not mine,” Twilight said. “I can understand perfectly if you don’t want to come and join them.”
“Maybe someday, but for now… I… I think I’ll need some time away from giant monsters and all of that. I have to play uncle for Flurry, and the Crystal Empire needs their mage. You understand right?” the orange unicorn asked and Twilight nodded softly.
“Yes… Yeah, take all the time you need. And if you ever need anything… just give me a call okay?” Twilight asked and Sunburst smiled at her.
“Y-Yeah, I think I’ll do that. So, how did it go? The trial I mean?”
“Well,” Twilight began. “It was certainly something. I mean, you can definitely call it that really…”
Even as she explained what had gone on in Canterlot, Twilight had begun to flashback towards that fateful trial.
“So, you honestly believe what you did was for the best?” Twilight asked as the trial came to order, Raven Inkwell banging a gavel as the charges were read off. Attempted murder of a Princess, assault, endangering one’s own men… The list went on. Shining who was in the audience looked on with a mix of disgust and disappointment.
“Of course I did,” Hardsteel refuted. “We do the dirty work! So our families and our countrymen don't have to be afraid! They should not even know that a thing like those even existed! Now your group, Monarch, that was your job right? Well look at how badly you botched it up!”
“Sometimes, the enemy does not exist… until you decide to go out looking for one. Yes, I acknowledge Monarch screwed up, but not because of how we failed to keep the MUTOs under wraps. They would have awakened eventually,” Twilight said absentmindedly rubbing her burned and charred shoulder with a hoof. It was where Hardsteel had struck her with his whip. “And that is neither here nor there Hardsteel.”
“So what, are we going to pretend those men of mine died for nothing? That they died fighting an enemy who did not exist? Do you have to go home to their families, look them in the eyes and tell them that their wife, daughter, husband, or son will not be coming home and yet you can’t explain why? Answer me that one Princess!” Hardsteel shouted back. If he wasn’t restrained by his cuffs and there weren’t two Royal Guards with spears pointed directly at him he probably would have launched himself straight at Twilight.
“They’ll know the truth, each and every one of them. Now I’m sorry for your losses Captain,” Twilight said. “We all are. But what you did remains unchanged. You are nearly responsible for the deaths of your own men and you would have been had I not saved them from the MUTO. Think on that Captain.”
“I have. And I’ve justified it to myself over and over that their deaths would have been a necessary evil just to stop that MUTO from making its way to another city.”
“Look at yourself! Your men wouldn’t have stopped that creature, slowed it down maybe but not killed it! There’s no excuse you can ever use to justify your men dying senselessly!” Twilight nearly screamed before Shining put a hoof on his sister’s shoulder.
“That’s enough Twiley,” Shining said. “That’s enough. Hardsteel, I assume you know your fate?”
“Yes, and… and I deserve it. Twilight’s right,” Hardsteel said sadly refusing to meet Twilight’s eyes. “I killed my men with my decisions and I deserve everything that’s coming to me. It’s not prison I fear, but who will greet me when I die.”
“Well, let us hope she will be merciful,” Shining said. “40 years, 20 if you’re good enough. Take him away!” he roared to his men who nodded and led the thoroughly defrocked Hardsteel away.
“He got off lucky, if you ask me…” Sunburst whispered.
“Did he?” Twilight asked remembering looking at Hardsteel’s face and the pain and the grief it showed. “Did he really?” she had to ask.
Sunburst couldn’t provide an answer.
“So… what now?” Sunburst asked as they walked away from the cemetery and into Sire’s Hollow proper. “Do we… do we just go on with our lives as if nothing’s happened or…?”
“No, we don’t pretend that nothing’s happened,” Twilight answered. “We acknowledge it and we learn and we grow from our experiences. That is simply what we must do. How does it go? History shows us again and again…”
“...How nature is willing to point out the follies of-” Sunburst began to whisper in reply before a loud explosion shook the town and knocked the two to the ground. “...What the…?”
A massive purple cobra creature, with spikes jutting out of his body had erupted from a nearby mountainside. As it reared up baring its fangs, the creature hissed as Twilight smiled.
“And so it seems the adventure continues… Titanus Hamadryad. Well, he’s in for a shock,” Twilight said as she took flight. “Because there are two things he doesn’t know about the new modern day Equestria. One of them’s me, yes. But the other is…”
A familiar roar cut through the air as cheers rose up from all over town as a very distinctive form appeared from over the horizon flapping her wings. She body-slammed the cobra creature and Twilight smiled again as she charged up her horn ready for battle. “Mothra.”
The battle ended, and Mothra returned to her home on Beginning Isle, now slowly starting to be known as Monster Island for the unusually large amount of Kaiju gathering there. A Monarch outpost had been set up, as per the norm although for some reason very ponies weren't particularly interested in taking up this particular position.
Daring honestly didn’t know why. Here, she got to experience some of the most wondrous creatures nature had on offer. Ever since Godzilla had moved in it seemed some of the nastier wildlife had decided to clear off. No worries about being eaten by giant prehistoric spiders for her!
Mind you, Daring mused as water shook a little in a glass of water she had near her there were other worries really. Such as being stomped flat by certain giant kaiju. But that was a risk she was willing to take Daring thought to herself. Currently, she and Snap Shudder were hiding amongst some bushes ready to fire off a few photographs at the creature that was just coming into view now.
Massive in size, it put all other dragons to shame. The white beast curled and coiled up around a nest of eggs. Now Daring wasn’t quite sure how most kaiju reproduced, although there was a working theory that some did it asexually. They certainly had no visible genitalia to speak of. And at least that spared Daring the thought of how Godzilla and Mothra -who were currently on the other end of the island- did that particular deed.
Daring had to wonder though, just what was their connection? Was it simply symbiotic as the Shobijin said it was or was it something more that couldn’t quite yet be understood by ponies? That scene at the Manehatten waterfront certainly pointed towards the latter really.
Then came the roar. A roar of nature, a roar of rage just as Twilight had described it.
SKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEOOOOOOOONNNNGGKK!
She and Serizawa were right. None ever forgot their first meeting with the King of the Monsters. Even now he stomped into view turning to eye Manda and his clutch briefly before sinking down into the grasslands for a nice long rest. He would come when he was needed but for now, he needed to sleep. Daring chuckled. She couldn’t really blame him. Fighting other titans, some much younger than he for an entire week would tire anyone out. She then decided it was best to take her leave and walked back towards her tent where a painting by the Shobijin rested in a very prominent position.
Daring barked out a laugh making Snap look at her.
“What’s so funny?” he asked curiously as he turned to look at her and then he saw the painting as well. Godzilla, and Mothra spending time together under the setting sun.
Daring shook her head. Twilight had been right all those weeks ago. Nature was a curious and most wonderful thing really.