The Bridge: 6 Years Later - Chapter 47 Promo! · 3:42am Aug 3rd, 2019
Guys and Gals. Ya'll awesome.
It's been six years since I hit 'Submit and waited for FimFic to give my story the okay. I had a lot of plans back then, hopes I could amuse one or two people with my little tale. Only, it turned out to not be so little. And I managed to have the honor of amusing far more people. It gave me something to work on with the girl of my dreams, brought me to many good stories, and helped me find a lot of friends and in turn help them find friends. And, well, you know what the tagline of Generation 4 is!
In this time we've seen a lot that didn't exist prior to Bridge coming out.
Godzilla has come back with not one, but six new movies with more on the way.
My Little Pony has branched back out into feature length films with concepts no one saw coming.
Dozens of fan projects and conversions are bigger than they ever had been before.
And it has been my undying honor to help keep some of that fire going to see such wondrous fan creators and folks. Pyrus, Fallen, Jerga, Lion, Toon, Zeroviks, Kahnac, Evo, Heatseeker, Vex, Tem, Crystal, Scourge, Lance, Diverse, Metroid, Storm, Shadow, Saurian, Jacen, Warhawk, Bricklayer, Key Ring, Dino, Zero, AtomicCroc, Forest, Corona, Blaze, Dr1ft, Danny, Zera, and so, so many more I will happily add to this list... Here's to all of you. You encouraged me. Inspired me. And I'm proud to call you my friends. Faith, the love of my life whom I intend to pamper to the moon and back on our Winter Trip, you are called "The Queen" by this group and deserve nothing less.
You have only yourselves to blame....
This is your fault....
YOU DID THIS TO ME RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Back to business. Chapter is friggin' huge.
Now I wanted to post it today but unfortunately I got struck with a sudden writing urge when at work and ended up writing... a few extra thousand words. Which along with the prior lot is a lot to sift through for my proof reader. So to spare you all some truly epic typos (Thank you Lance), I am delaying for a day or so. Don't worry, it's all done and coming.
Buuuut for this anniversary, I did have this for you all to chew on.
With an escort of two other kaiju, the humans felt enough assurance to go away from the school before it was later in the day. Being in public thus far had been their greatest defense as it seemed Gigan, Monster X, and who knew what else, would not stage any attacks in broad daylight with crowds in the way. Rainbow Dash had been attacked at night while she was alone at the school, Princess Twilight Sparkle had been taken when they were in the far side of town with nobody around and judging from X’s surprise he wasn’t expecting Mothra to be there. That surprise, of course, led to the question of if the attackers knew about Anguirus and Godzilla’s arrival, much less Celestia’s. That could be especially prudent considering the alicorn was in a much more vulnerable position than she usually would be.
Celestia was used to being flanked by guards, but back in Equestria that was more for other reasons. True, she wasn’t invincible, but it usually took someone on an alicorn level like a supercharged Chrysalis to stand an adequate chance unless there was overwhelming numbers. There actually have been a suggestion to retire the guard around her but she had it put aside. After all not only could she not be everywhere, but more than once she’d found having an ensemble of guards was useful for other reasons. She could bench press a house and emit magic blasts that could level a hillside, but most of the average folk didn’t know that. A queen that they knew was one of the most powerful beings on the planet was a lot less approachable than a princess they thought needed protection as much as anyone would. Plus if a situation did occur she needed to go all out, having guards around meant she could trust them to protect anypony caught in the crossfire and let her focus on stopping what only she could. Long story short, she was used to having guards. But as the thousand-year-old, strongest equine that had ever existed; but she wasn’t used to needing guards, like a normal 13 to 15-year-old early teenage girl.
Much less sharing them with an ensemble of slightly older girls. But deciding that it was probably safest to both conceal the returning kaiju trio’s presence as well as potentially unwind a bit better, that they would all collect back at Sunset’s residence. Upon returning to the de facto base of operations, as Rarity called it, and settling in; Junior couldn’t help but notice something was quite amiss.
Namely the moment he helped lay an exhausted and clearly in dire-need-of-sleep Lea across a couch, there was the uncanny sense he was being watched. Arching his back to spread out dorsal spines he didn’t have anymore and slowly tilting his head to the side in a very inhuman manner, he very slowly scanned the room through his draping bangs. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy, who had previously kicked their shoes off and were set to sit down in a few chairs and the other side of the couch, exchanged a few glances between themselves and the resting Lea before exiting the room. And it wasn’t in a way that indicated consideration for trying not to make any noise near somebody sleeping. They huddled together, Applejack even putting her arm around Fluttershy while shooting Junior what looked almost like an apologetic glance. He could smell them sweating a little bit more despite the chilly Spring air and if he looked closer he got the distinct impression that hair was on the back of their neck would be standing up; though he did not need to. He knew what scared humans looked like quite well. It’s just the target of their fear made no sense.
They could be afraid of him, they’d acted nothing short of relieved when they first met and had been jovial all throughout. And that meant they were afraid of…
Junior felt a shiver and for a moment he thought it was himself before realizing a dull, pale green hand was clutching his. Lea was shuttering in her rest and whether she knew of his presence or was just unconsciously grasping for anything to hold fast to, she gripped his hand. Junior slowly let his calloused, scar riddled fingers curl around Lea’s; resting his other hand across the small of her back and leaning down. The embrace, especially when he laid his head and neck on top of her scalp and emitting a low rumble from the back of his throat she would feel through the contact, might’ve almost seemed intimate if someone wasn’t privy to their lack of romance.
It had a desirable effect of soothing the Guardian of Mortals, causing her shivering to still thanks for the familiarity she could feel even through her dreamscape. It did little to take Junior’s mind off a much more troubling observation that still made little sense at first thought.
The girls were scared of Lea. Even now out of the corner of his eyes or indications of their presence by hearing their footsteps, he did tell one or two of them had been watching him. Not in the way one would if they were fearful of him but fearful for him. It took a further moment to study Lea’s appearance.
Even without him seeing her in her human form right after she stepped through the portal mirror, he could get the distinct impression something about her had since changed. And not in the same way it had Celestia. She had bags under her eyes, her skin had simultaneously lost a lot of color and darkened, and there were perpetual goosebumps all over her arms and neck. The stench of cold sweats clung to her clothes and skin. The woman looked stressed, extremely stressed, but that didn’t account for all of the changes. Running a few of his fingers through her hair there was just something about it, though he couldn’t exactly place it, that looked amiss. The hairstyles and hair color of an equestrian and their human counterpart this world seemed pretty identical, he could tell that from observing the similarities between the Elements of Harmony Bearers and the five humans here and he remembered the Sentry line for the guard and had seen a picture of Flash Sentry of the Crystal Empire. His hair and Anguirus’ have changed much at all from their pony forms, so he could assume kaiju weren’t excluded and that should mean Lea’s hair would be identical to her changeling form’s. Except for something about how the light caught it wasn’t right, and he was checking closer up to see if he could find out why.
He did when he found a couple of strands of reddish-orange hiding in the sea of clover green. He very carefully picked through her hair, finding a few more strands scattered about. Running his fingers to the base he could confirm they were indeed coming out of her scalp just like any other hairs and they seemed to be intermixed in such a way dyes wouldn’t be very sensible. Godzilla puzzled.
Humans sometimes have their hair whiten due to stress, was this something that happened to mothra?
Something was making his best friend extremely stressed and something had happened over the past few days that made the cuddliest kaiju he knew scary to a bunch of humans. He’d get to the bottom of this alright…
His concern for Lea was not isolated, but the split division of tasks necessitated the other two just now be approaching. Anguirus walked in from the front door and the Princess paced in from the bedroom many of the girls and Flash were now crashing in. The both of them looked at the sleeping Lea, and between themselves, before Celesti-.. Peachy… Nodded with her head then the stepped into the hallway and small kitchen for a hint of privacy and so they could speak a bit more freely without waking the exhausted Lea.
Anguirus leaned up against the refrigerator while crossing his arms, “Ran a perimeter check like we suggested, my magic sense isn’t as good as Lea’s but I can’t detect any nearby energy spikes to suggest Gigan or the Ghidorah, Monster X, whatever exactly that thing was, is nearby or has been recently like they had been at the school. The humans will be safe.”
“Thanks,” Junior grunted with a nod, “Lea’s exhausted and I would bet a big reason why is she’s been running herself ragged both guarding and trying to find Princess Twilight.”
He noticed the growing frown on Peachy’s face and held back a cringe, “Which means it’s all the better we know she’s safe!... As out of character as that is for them to take a hostage.”
“Well, it’s not like we exactly knew those aliens very well. Not much time for chatter with typically them showing up meant they were trying to kill us,” Anguirus griped, “Silver lining though? If the one that attacked Sentry’s car really was Monster X, I don’t see him coming after us in a residential area.”
“If I recall, he seemed to have hangups about attacking civilians,” Peachy muttered as she chimed in and adjusted her thick, fake glasses.
Both of the kaiju nodded and Anguirus continued, “He’d only really attack those who stood a chance of fighting back,” He paused to groan in old phantom pains of getting a backfist into a tail smash that nearly knocked his lights out, “Usually that ended up being us when we were too much for his masters.... Still, Xilians didn’t seem to be able to call him down as much as they’d like to. I remember one-time Yonggary told me Monster X once waited for a transport boat to get out of the way first before resuming a fight, gave Rodan time to fly in.”
“Still, he’s not a threat at all to be taken lightly, even if I suspect he was holding back against the humans and got caught off guard from their powers. He’s about on par with me, Lea, Destroyah, and my siblings in terms of power,” Junior shrugged, “I didn’t manage to actually beat him in Final Wars. I’m one of our strongest and I could just force him into a draw.”
Peachy rubbed at her chin, “But that doesn’t include whatever new powers he’s got now, the group that got involved in the fight tell me he’d gotten noticeably stronger when he brought forth those powers.”
Junior nodded but managed to keep his nerve, “I’ve gotten stronger since Final Wars too. And Grand King Ghidorah was stronger than both of us, but I still killed him.”
Anguirus lowered his brow and lightly kicked his comrade in the shin, “With help.”
Some levity was sorely needed in the dire circumstances and Godzilla humored a chuckle, “Well that’s what I got you two for-”
Somebody very short cleared her throat.
“-Got you three for, technically Princess here beat King Ghidorah too,” though he did shoot Peachy Keen a lowbrowed look, “With help.”
He was fairly certain if any of them talked about this incident once they were all back in Equestria, Celestia would excuse her sticking her tongue out at him on account of her physical age.
“Which does remind me, the five humans that are counterparts to the Element bearers. I heavily suspect the source of their powers is magical in nature,” Peachy noted while tapping her finger on her arm, “When Starswirl and I first came to this world it seemed totally magically inert. My mentor was one of the most powerful sorcerers of all time and he couldn’t get anything beyond very simple spells to work here, which took bringing some magically charged items with us to function.”
She contemplated her hands and try focusing. She could feel something, but nothing was showing itself, “If I hadn’t been reduced in age I might be able to do something but we thought the natives were completely without magic. The whole reduced magic clause was why Starswirl banished the Sirens here where he thought they couldn’t hurt anyone… Though evidently either they weren’t weakened enough or something re-energized them.”
“Could it be the magic was dormant?” Anguirus muttered with a raised eyebrow, “That’s how it is in some areas on Terra. Sometimes all it takes is a burst of magic to start reenergizing everything. That’s what happened on Infant Island when Lea’s mother was dormant for thousands of years before waking up. If it was dormant and they found some way to tap into it.”
“If that’s true, there’s also the fact they were at the school… The same school several months ago there was a magic confrontation between my most recent and-” a tiny smile very briefly graced her features. Whatever the cause that brought Sunset back to Equestria for the time she was, Celestia was very grateful for it even if some things were still not said, “-other student. Twilight told me the five girls currently in the bedroom above us all experienced an empowered magical form.”
“Could be the same event reenergized the sirens. I don’t use magic but I know enough from Lea that it often leaves traces, something Chibi confirmed is true with Equestrian magic as well. If that’s true, three ancient monsters from your history are another threat to look out for,” Peachy and Anguirus nodded at Junior’s words, “But there is one thing this plays into our favor. Gigan and Monster X know the girls are at the school, they have probably been around there too if Rainbow Dash was attacked there. But they don’t know about me or Anguirus, but given what you told me happened at the cafeteria they are bound to know about these sirens soon enough.”
“And if it’s energy involved, kaiju will come running,” Anguirus affirmed, “This world might be different but it still works on the same rules as Equestria we laid out and as on Terra. The enemy is also in a native form and the only thing that can possibly restore them that has enough power to do so is magic.”
“And the limited amount of magic users in this world limits who is a potential target,” Peachy noted with a frown, “I only wish I was more useful for the defense. Even with a limited number of magic users to keep an eye on, not fair of you three to shoulder all of it. There still is the question of if they were after magic, why not seize Rainbow Dash when Monster X had her in his grasp?”
Anguirus just shrugged, “Some things we just don’t know. Maybe it’s because she didn’t show any magic at the time? Might explain why he specifically went after Princess Twilight. She probably gave off a bigger signal than anyone else fresh out of the portal.”
With a blink of his eye, he conjured up the perception of energy and magic flow. This world wasn’t brimming with it like Equestria was, but like a very wispy cloud of steam, he could just barely perceive something. And what he could perceive off Peachy Keen was definitely abnormal compared to every other human. Like a thin aura of sparking energetic light, similar to how it was in Equestria but reduced a hundredfold. He could also perceive some others around them. Godzilla, of course, even if he wasn’t magical, was a huge outlier. Even with him having reduced power as well as making a special concession to keep reabsorbing any energy he was radiating out, something his old friend had been doing for so long to avoid contaminating an area it was subconscious, Anguirus would still be able to not recognize that power. The same could also be said for Lea, even if her power was a bit irregular due to her sleeping and clearly suffering extreme stress.
Upstairs were four flickers, like smoldering kindling. It wasn’t consistent, but the sparks were there. Certainly much more so than with young Sentry, though even amongst the normal people Anguirus could still faintly detect something. Be it in a musician practicing their craft, this world’s Grannie Smith assembling lunches, or little embers whenever Sunset Shimmer discussed magic with her mentor. It seemed like the talent someone bore had the faintest spark of magic upon its usage, but the fact the four or five, Sunset was hard to gauge, above him was so continuous despite them not even doing anything was an outlier… But would it be forever? This world was not without magic, and who could tell what might end up happening If more of it was awakened?
He perked up when he sensed something else. Something very distant. The glazed look in his eye went unnoticed by Peachy and Godzilla.
“The sirens, while not spreading as much discourse and strife as they used to, are clearly up to something. They came to the school because they want something. The enemy kaiju also want something, something important enough they’re taking hostages,” Peachy continued while tapping her chin.
“This is the first time Gigan and Monster X ever acted on their own without being weapons of war by their creators. No telling what’s on their minds. Gigan’s known for hacking, maybe they found the magic traces, found out about Princess Twilight, and figured attacking this world’s Bearer equivalents be the quickest way to draw her out? And then there’s the sirens, monsters from your past… So, potential enemies on both sides and we don’t even really know what they want…” Junior slowly shook his head, “We best use every asset we can. One way or another, all of them are corralling around the school and is only two things I can think of that would be attracting them. The portal entrance and…”
Peachy followed his line of sight upwards to the muffled voices of now five girls in the room above them.
“The Rainbooms,” Peachy half-whispered under her breath.
WOOOOOOOOOO
And we're proud to follow a story that had dropped us for a loop more than a few times.
While I'm not as big an MLP fan, (mostly sticking to the fanfics), I was a massive Godzilla nerd, having watched a good majority of the Showa, a small bit of the Heisei, and several of the Millennium era movies. But there was something about the Bridge that called to me. Maybe it was the amazing artwork by Faith-Wolff, or Tarb's spectacular world-building, I don't really know. I will say that I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Goji and the gang.
Here's to six years of Kaiju mayhem and hilarious antics!
Hype.
IT RETURNS!!!!
Six years, damn I’m getting old. This story brought me to this site and cemented me to become a brony so trust me when I say this. No matter how long it takes, how impossible long you make this story, or even if I’m no longer a brony, I’ll be here till the end of the line. And that’s a promise I intend to keep.
I didn’t know about Godzilla until I watched Shin when I flew home from a vacation a couple of years back. I’m glad that I found your fic, Tarb. Either way, I’m going to see your fic through to the end.
5098643
Welcome to the fold.
The Bridge is a fic so good that when I think of good MLP fics, it’s the absolute first to come to mind. These six years have given me inestimable appreciation for the consistent quality you put out, some of which is practically canon in my mind now.
And now I see more of it, and realize there’s even more to come. That’s a wonderful thing.
Six years... That's one hell of a milestone. I can honestly say that this is one of the best crossover fics I have read in a very long time. I look forward to the next chapters. It sounds like it is gonna be good.
Thank you! But I want to thank you for making such an awesome story to drive all of these creative people into making awesome things!
You did the same to us as we did to you, and we can't thank you enough for being such a great inspiration to so many people!
I'd lost count of the years that passed since this story started. When I came upon this fic back in 2013, it was mostly out of curiosity to see if I could find a Godzilla/Fim crossover that would keep me reading it. I'm very glad that I came upon this one.
Man i remember the first time iv'e read "The Bridge" in 2014. man time fly's when your having fun reading
Six years... what a milestone. Congrats, Tarb, to you, and to Faith, and to all the people who've played a part in this wonderful story!
5098664 Actually, I’ve started reading the Bridge since 2015-16. But thanks all the same. I also remember making a similar post a while back, so there’s that.
I think whatever Anguirus sensed was Irys. I think he "smelled" Guardian Beast energy.
also, WELCOME BACK TARB!
I'd be blowing pure magma flows up your ass if I said that I wasn't suprised that it's already been s i x . y e a r s. I've been scouring the internet for most of that time along with reading this. I've found nothing like this. I don't care if I end up being in my mid-thirties by the time this is done, you can sure as hell expect to be here with you Tarb through and through.
On a different note, I feel like I could run a marathon on the adrenaline I'm feeling right now. I a m s o P U M P E D!
Holy Shit it’s been 6 years? Damn time flows fast
🎉 the wait is finally over *air horn*
5098644
Hey i know you the you're the one that draws all the artwork
Wow six years...where does the time go?
I’m gonna be honest Godzilla ,and MLP for that matter ,are some what of a new thing for me
The first Godzilla movie I watched was the Tristar Godzilla movie and MLP wasn’t even considered in my mind then 2014 happed that Godzilla movie got me hooked started watching youtubers review Godzilla movies then came this fic. A Godzilla MLP crossover fic ,had found this on fanfiction.com, I was a little hesitant at first due to me thinking that MLP was for girls,Boy was I wrong to think that, the first chapter got me in right out of the gates boom Godzilla movie and I was hooked I remember reading the entire thing in one go. At that point Godzilla was in the sea ponies kingdom and could not wait for more.
Tl:Dr this got me into MLP