The One True King

by JDPrime22

Chapter 34 – A Light in the Dark

Daring Do flinched to the screaming lightning overhead, the winds tearing at her tent and threatening to bring about more rain onto her encampment, herself, and more importantly, her equipment.

An unnatural darkness enveloped all of Equestria, infecting the natural embrace of the night with a venomous storm of otherworldly proportions. Daring Do knew no mere Pegasus—let alone a thousand or ten thousand—could concoct a hurricane like the one they were experiencing. From what her drenched radio had managed to tell her, the storm covered half of all of Equestria, formed in the heart of the nation and only growing bigger.

And bigger.

Daring Do didn’t want to believe that. She wanted to believe the storm was messing with the airwaves, and she received static over the dreaded news sent her way. She had hoped she misheard it, but Daring knew better than to believe in falsehoods. It was Celestia on the other end of her radio, giving her every update and every tragic, terrible revelation to emerge following the alpha call.

Following the crowning of the new King of the Monsters.

She heard it just as all of her T.I.T.A.N. team had heard it. Just as Dr. Caballeron and his numbskull goons heard it. Worst of all, they heard of the terrible fates that had engulfed their fellow T.I.T.A.N. colleagues across the globe. It was a mass awakening in the greatest possible scale, where every last beast and creature and Titan broke free from their outposts and began to wage war against ponykind. Against every last creature that tried to keep them entangled in chains.

Thankfully, she and her team were safe. For the time being, that is. It would not be long before a Titan found its way into the Forbidden Jungle, and by then would Daring and her team have packed up, retreated to the nearest bunker, and hid while the world burned?

No, not on her watch. No according to what her will and her heart yearned for. She knew of Godzilla’s fate, of the rising of the Three-Headed Tyrant and now the monsters that followed him, but it was not enough for Daring Do to turn tail and run away. To hide while others fought and bled and died for her. That wasn’t who she was. Daring knew in her heart she was so much more.

Just as she knew in her heart there was more that Mothra could offer them.

But hope seemed to become fainter as the hours went on, and with nothing but silence from every scientific instrument they had. The temple was quiet, dead even. As if the pulsating cocoon in the nesting chamber wasn’t even alive anymore. Just the thought ignited a spark of fear in her fighting spirit, enough to electrify it. Though things seemed bleak, that was one hope Daring Do did not want to lose, so she remained.

She was vigilant. Patient. Cautious. Listened for every tremor and every sound deep below in the Temple of the Moth.

Ripping open the tent’s flap, Dr. Caballeron stormed inside to avoid the storm outside. He growled, wiping the rainwater from his face and practically shouting, “It’s a lost cause, Daring Do! There is nothing left for us here… nothing you won’t let me take, that is.”

Scoffing at that, resting her forehead onto her hooves wearily, Daring responded, “You wanna be compensated by T.I.T.A.N. for all the work you’ve done for us… or no?”

“No meager payment is worth extinction,” Caballeron retorted, earning the adventuress’ gaze. “We heard the radios just as you have. More of these beasts are looming over Equestria as we speak! And they’re not here to settle peacefully! They’re here to colonize us! To eradicate us! My ponies and I will be leaving immediately!”

It was never easy with Caballeron. He always made things difficult before, and even now he was just as stubborn and foolish as she always knew him to be. Daring, however, was not in the mood for a witty remark on her end. She was tired, she was scared, and she was sick of Caballeron’s constant arguing. She slammed her hooves harshly onto the table, kicking up droplets of rainwater and knocking over her last working radio.

“Good! Then leave!” she shouted, surprising Caballeron for a moment. Daring Do hopped out of her chair and strode forth to face him, heated glare meeting his own. “We’ve just made one of the greatest discoveries in all of Equestria’s history, we are protecting that discovery as we speak, and all you care about is your payment and your own worthless flank! I was wrong… you haven’t changed at all.”

“And you have?!” Caballeron snarled back, pressing his snout fiercely onto hers. Daring didn’t back down, holding her stance and baring her teeth.

“More than you…” she whispered through gritted teeth.

He snorted right in her face, turning away back to the tent’s exit.

“Keep your filthy money,” he called back, and it was Daring’s turn to be surprised. Just for a moment, though. He ripped open the flap, thunder raging overhead and lightning brightening the dark to illuminate his path. “I will ensure myself and my ponies survive what is to come… and not rely on a forgotten legend.”

She followed him outside into the pouring rain, her hat barely even protecting her. “So, that’s it?! You think there’s no hope?! You saw that ‘forgotten legend’ for yourself, and you’re still doubting?!” she shouted over the winds tearing at the trees surrounding them.

Whirling around to face her, Dr. Caballeron held a furious glare, enough to shudder Daring Do to a halt. Though she still held her ground and her strength, facing his glare with one of her own.

“I have heard something more!” he practically screamed. She knew what he meant. The alpha call. The dread and the terror laced within every octave of the roar heard around the world. Shaking his head, he continued. “Something greater that is coming for all of us! And the longer we stay here and argue, the more we ensure our doom!”

Knowing he wasn’t wrong stung Daring in more ways than one. It stung her voice, the mare unable to properly respond to what was undoubtedly true. It stung her heart, not wanting to believe in the inevitable but having to face it one way or another. Caballeron had already come to terms with it. He knew what was best for their survival, their only card left to play, and he played it.

Daring Do was slowly believing they had run out of cards. The wind, the cold rain that pierced her bones, the dark storm all acted to surround her in shadows. In dread. In terror. In hopelessness. All around her, she saw shivering tents with groups of T.I.T.A.N. agents bundled together for warmth, all surrounding radios just to hopefully hear anything from the Radiance. From their leaders. Their supplies were low. Their patience even more so. And hope, above everything, was all but gone.

Daring’s glare slowly fell apart from every rain drop that struck her face.

Her fury had all but vented free. And there was nothing left for her to shout, to argue.

There was nothing left.

Sensing the same loss grip her as it did him, Dr. Caballeron nonetheless offered one last sigh. One last shared glance of his eyes with hers. One last nod. “This is goodbye, Daring Do.”

He turned away, took one step to his own tent in order to gather his remaining supplies.

“Caballeron!”

But he stopped. He turned around only slightly, twisting his neck back to meet her stare. She stood drenched in the rain, the lightning cackling in victory behind her and sending a golden bolt across the darkness. The thunder roared, but it did not stop him from hearing her voice. Even if it was for the last time, he was still slightly glad to hear her fully.

“Good luck out there…”

For once, a smirk grew lightly on his lips. Caballeron told her, “You know me… we’ll need more than you—”

Thunder cut him off, but it was closer. Heavier. So powerful that it actually shook the earth and cut his voice free from his throat. To his shock, Dr. Caballeron actually felt the jungle tremble to the thunder, and himself as well. He was steady, and held himself together throughout the growling thunder. But as he tilted his head skyward, almost blinding himself to the rain, he realized the sound did not come from above. What he had heard, what he had felt, was a tremor.

His eyes quickly darted below to the earth where it came from, and he practically yelped to see the jagged cracks sprout forth throughout the solid rock and slick earth beneath him.

The cracks shattered the jungle floor, forcing Caballeron to backpedal and leap out of the way, but they were everywhere. Jutting forth across nearly every inch of mud and stone and severing the valley. Daring Do didn’t move an inch, her eyes only growing wider with each passing second. Watching as the cracks eventually reached her and yielded by her hooves. What she had felt was a tremor, certainly, and the pulse that came from it erupted so profoundly that the world above was affected.

But not only that.

She gazed down, eyes wide and breath halting when she saw it. Saw as a fluorescent, turquoise glow shimmered between every last crack. Shimmered brightly beneath the ground. Her awe did not stop there.

Lifting her eyes, her jaw only continued to fall when she saw them. Caballeron eventually followed her, twisting fully back to see it all the same. Something he couldn’t understand. Something he could barely even fathom as to why it was happening. But it was. As the sky poured and the earth glowed, they paid witness—she, him, and the awakening T.I.T.A.N. camp emerging into the storm—to a newfound light descending upon them.

Fireflies, lightning bugs, or something more began to flutter from the dark clouds, breaking the storm and bringing forth the light of Twilight’s moon. In a twirling cluster, a gentle tornado of lights and warmth and power, they fell to the jungle, to the proximity of the temple, and disappeared in the hold of the trees.

All it took was a shared glance, a simple look of astonishment and mutual understanding. Daring Do and Dr. Caballeron then raced to the underground entrance.

Passing into the deep trenches, slipping by the flickering torches that illuminated the temple walls, avoiding any lingering T.I.T.A.N. agent and joining the stampede of scientists, the two ponies once more came across the darkness of the nesting chamber. Only, it was no longer dark. The cocoon was no longer dormant. Life was no longer abandoned in the chamber.

Breathing rapidly, pushing through the line of equine scientists blocking their path, both Daring Do and Caballeron stood at the end of the nest. They gazed up in awe to see the cocoon was not dark any longer, but bright and alive. They had arrived just in time to see the fireflies somehow magically phase through the temple ceiling, through solid earth and stone, and fuse with the cocoon.

It was then where the magic truly began, and light erupted from the cocoon.

Every torch was blown out, but darkness did not envelop the chamber. Ponies were thrust backwards from the emergence of such blinding light, but they were not harmed. Not a hair upon their manes was harmed. The only ponies left unfazed and unshaken were Daring and Caballeron, the two gazing in awestruck wonder to the stirring shadow within the molding rainbow of lights.

The towering cocoon trembled, and before long, the gentle moans from within started to emerge. The creature within started to awaken. With the power of a heavenly force coming down to fuse with it, the Titan was finally ready to rise. To break free. To live. Daring Do slowly smiled to hear the stirring chitters, the curious groans and whispers. The awakening cries.

After what felt like so very long, Daring Do relished in her glow once more. Relished in the fact that she was back. She had returned. And she had come for them in their darkest hour.

As for the Titan stirring within the cocoon, her thoughts and her heart and her will were placed with the equines, yes, but elsewhere, as well. To grander matters in conjunction with ponykind. She would not be alone for what was to come, and she had come to understand and believe that. It was fate. It was destiny. She was its herald, and she would bring forth the light of the true, new age upon Equestria. To all of Equus.

And she as well heard the call. But it was not the call she knew. It was not the call of her king.

And so, Mothra awakened to face it.

The metamorphosis was complete. Her rest was attained. Her time had come. She burst forth from her cocoon, cracking the shell and extending her limbs freely into the chamber. Her furry antennae proceeded forth, flicking and sensing her surroundings before her eyes eventually sparkled to life. Her first steps were cautious, curious, but direct. Intentional. She pressed her limbs into the solid stone of the chamber’s nest, her head quivering lightly as she shook the loose hair from her body.

Though she was slow in her movements, nopony was in any rush at the moment. They were caught under the spectacle, enraptured under the healer of the corruption their world had endured. In her light, they felt a power unlike any other fuse with their souls and call to them in an assuring cry. A power that gave them the chance at life again. The chance of hope to grow once more.

Daring Do was in awe. She couldn’t breathe. Neither could Caballeron, the pony having abandoned all falsehoods and all doubts when his eyes locked with the shimmering orbs of the Titan’s own. Daring smirked when she turned and witnessed his expression, but didn’t stare long. She turned back to see the cocoon crumble. Her smirk transformed into a brilliant smile, the mare blinking away tears that built at the ends of her eyes.

She gasped out a cry, but it was not of fear. Not of pain. Not of any darkness. She gasped with a beaming smile when the great moth’s wings began to rise. They seemed to float upon the air, bringing with them the dust of a million ages shimmering in every hue. But under the glow of green and blue, under her turquoise that pulsed through her veins. And then, with her wings fully extended, she lifted her limbs and cried. She shrieked.

She roared.

Daring Do gasped out a second cry, a tear fleeing down her cheek and striking her smile.

Hope was not gone. It was reborn.

Though that hope could not remain with them forever. It needed to be released. It needed to be set free to heal the world. And so, she did. While the ponies were still breathless and shaken by her appearing, Mothra gave them all one last elongated, assuring glance. One last promise just by her gaze. With a tremendous flap of her wings, Mothra kicked up from the nest and burst straight through the ceiling. Straight through the earth and stone. Breaking free from the temple’s hold with a crowd of ponies gazing in glory to her ascension.

She erupted from the temple, from the trees that shot forth from her body, and she exploded into an array of lights with her wings spreading fully.

Another tremendous roar joined her in her dance, Mothra twirling and severing the storm to bring forth the sparkling stars of the night. The glow of the moon made her appear like an arising angel, the burst of her wings cascading an array of heavenly hues across the Forbidden Jungle. Greens, blues, and now violets. Bright oranges and yellows. So bright she resembled the sun.

The masses gazed up at her, emerging from the tents and basking under her light. They saw as not even the storm could conceal her. Not even the darkness could keep her light at bay. With every flap of her wings, more and more light emerged onto a darkening world. Mothra turned to face the darkness fully, and could sense every vile, evil, damnable force growing in the heart of Equestria. The evil called to her, threatened her, offered her a freedom so many more had been deceived to believe.

A freedom she knew to be false. All falsehoods crying from the usurper.

And so, ignoring the false ruler, the arisen tyrant, Mothra took to the heavens and instead chose life over death. She chose instead to follow her true king.