Ki Seong paused her story and looked up from her work of pouring some more ingredients for the spell tag ink into a chain-hung cauldron, her gaze traveling over towards a small case she’d brought with her from the shop. Raising a curious eyebrow, Applejack glanced between the kirin and Anguirus, who was still guarding the door, before moving over to the bag. Gently nudging the flap open, she found a large article of folded clothing. Unfolded it looked like a leaf green vest on top of an almost white-green long sleeve shirt with ringed sleeves, all together resembling a sort of dress jacket. Applejack looked between the silk garb and Ki Seong, noticing the fact the vest portion perfectly matched the coloration of her fur coat.
“Was this for...?”, she muttered, earning a shaking head from Seong. The kirin sighed and put a hoof on the decently made jeogori.
“It was for Yon. Family tradition, bride makes the groom’s attire with her colors.”
Seong’s breath left her and she turned back to her work, speaking with her back turned; “It was in the only case that washed up with me. He never got the chance to try it on....”
===============
The weird circumstances seemed to cumulatively stack with the days and nights as they passed. Cho Yon would swear up and down she’d been near him despite her never having memory of being present, something she couldn’t write off when others would see her in places she wasn’t at. Yon would speak of nights he awoke to find his window cracked open and articles in his room shifted, like someone had been there despite the window being latched shut. Dogs would start frantically barking at random hours in the night and day, and kept going for hours despite the best attempts to hush them. But what unsettled Seong the most was one particular night.
It felt like a dream. She moved into a state of half-awakeness by a quiet noise coming from across the room. It felt like a dream as she turned to look at it and her delirious mind didn’t fully register what she saw at first; but there was something in the room. A pair of dim, blue light reflections were on the far side of the room, hovering a meter in the air. Seong groaned tiredly, her barely conscious mind trying to focus her eyes and figure out what was reflecting the light.
And then the lights went out for a moment before coming back into existence, revealing themselves to be a set of eyeshine that just blinked before getting closer. Crouched against the far wall, the new moon made the room almost pitch black, but one could just barely make out the outline of two pointed ears and body squatting in the corner with paws sporting long, finger-like digits splayed out on the floor in front of it. With as little as an inch of movement per minute, it started to get closer to her bed. A sweet scent filled the room and the already groggy Ki Seong was completely devoid of the will to move. The intruder took its time to stalk closer and closer, tilting its head and sniffing at the kirin like it was studying something about her. Its only visible features, a pair of unnaturally blue eyes reflecting in the dim light, stared down at her.
When her mind finally focused, Seong’s eyes widened and practically launched herself out of bed. The kirin threw up her hooves as she revved up her magic, frantically looking around to see where the intruder had gone to. It took her time to figure out she’d dozed back off to sleep and multiple minutes, potentially hours had passed. Seong put a hoof to her racing heart.
-Y-You’re going off the rails Seong… All these weird happenings are making you lose your mind! That does it, no more sake before rest!-
But before she could further write off the fright as a product of the mind, a stray glance towards her window stopped Ki Seong’s pulse cold. Eyes wide and mouth agape, she slowly turned to the open window. Not only was it open despite her never doing so. Not only was the frame pressed down and bent like something heavy had stood or climbed on it. But very clearly impressed and scoring the surface of the wood were a large set of scratches that tore the paint off. Claw marks.
The sound of enraged dog barking coming from a neighbor's yard drew her attention and Seong followed the line of sight to the angry hound leashed outside. It pointed to the forest bordering the town and Seong got the worst type of confirmation possible that what just happened had been no dream. When she saw a pair of blue eye shine looming at the forest’s edge stare back at her before diving off into the foliage, she knew she wasn’t going back to sleep.
Seong didn’t wait until dawn, she was banging on the library door to be let in before the place was officially open but fortunately she cashed in a favor the librarian owed her. A dozen old scrolls and books were dug through before the hour was up. Zoology books, local legends, folk tales, home invasion records; anything that remotely could relate to what was out there. The sun had come up by the time she finally found something relating to what seemed to be going on. An old record from a frantic, extremely old kirin eighteen years ago whom many wrote off as insane ramblings.
The account claimed that in his youth, the kirin was the oldest of three brothers who lived on a farm with their parents. The family wished for a daughter, the parents openly praying outside for one but an injury left his mother barren. Still, their wish seemed to be granted when a young kirin doe was found at their doorstep. Lacking a family, she was welcomed in as a little sister. Life was well for a year. The new sister was pleasant, hard working, and diligent; but naive in so many odd ways and sometimes a chicken or truffle hog would go missing despite her being on watch those nights. The brothers left for town to find the magistrate to get their sibling officially added to their clan, and when they returned with the documents the farmhouse was alive with festivity. Lights were strung up, their parents were dancing, and their sister had prepared a wonderful meal. As they all sat down to eat a meal they found delicious, the sister was extremely curious about a great many questions.
“Why do families live together?”
“Because they love each other, little sister.”
“What’s love?”
“Oh, it comes from the heart. Father and mother love each other, and they love us, so we have love.”
“So if father and mother were together and you were all together in hearts, it’d be love collected?”
“Well, I suppose so. Weird way to put it.”
The oldest brother dropped his fork and knelt over to pick it up. But as he had done so he noticed something when the iron instrument rolled next to a lit candle. It rolled right through it and for a brief moment he saw a dark black and red stain on the floor. That was when the world itself seemed to change, like a forgery revealed. There was no celebration going on, the house was decrepit, dark, and covered in scratch marks as well as things the survivor never wished to speak of again when the smiling visages of his parents and siblings as well as the dinner turned into something else. He claimed his adoptive sister became something else entirely, shedding her original appearance as a snake did an old skin.
Sitting before him with a dark, rusty red color caking its maw and paws was a large, multiple tailed, pale fox that stared at him with icy blue eyes. A gumiho. It was only by a stroke of luck with an iron skillet and a lit grease fire that he escaped. The already fantastical tale had an even more fanciful ending, with a claim that a monk who found him on the road gave him aid in the form of three jars, white, blue, and red. When the fox came after him again, he broke open the white jar at it and it ensnared the creature in a mess of thorns and vines; seemingly sealing it away. But years later when he returned as an old buck, he found a hole in the vine tomb with paw prints leading out. Hysterical, he’d stumbled into town screaming about something so few considered even a legend. When he’d been restrained by his family he gave his account and the two remaining jars, which despite the archaic writing inscribed on them contained nothing but normal water in the blue and oil and a wick in the red.
Ki Seong studied the picture, the only image showing the old buck actually existed. He lay in a bed, worn out, tired, and weak with his family around him. The caption read he died of heart failure later the day. But it wasn’t just that bit of morbid information that caught her eye, it was the clan name of the old buck and the family he’d given rise to. The Cho family. Ki Seong’s eyes glided over to the infant fawn being swaddled by his mother and father, whom was the old buck’s son. She recognized that white-red coloration and blue eyes.
-Yon! Th-that’s a little Cho Yon! The old buck was his grandfather…-
Instantly Seong was filled with more panic than she thought possible. She had to get to Cho, warn him and his family. There was no possible way Cho Yon could have known, he couldn’t have tried to keep this terror secret from her if he tried! If this gumiho, this jeog, this enemy was after them to do to them what it did to the farmer’s family in some twisted means to try and understand what was alien to it; they were all in grave danger and didn’t realize it! She practically flew out of the library, frantically sprinting off with a book of old seal magic and mythology on her person. Having previously made arrangements to meet with her fiance at their usual spot the day before, the joy she felt upon seeing him waiting for her under that tree was palpable.
It took almost five minutes for her hysterics to die down enough to even hear what he was trying to tell her, causing her to realize she’d been crying so much she wasn’t audible. They settled down and he waited for her eyes to dry.
“I don’t know what’s got you riled up, but probably best we give you something happy to balance it so you don’t break yourself down trying to tell me.Whatever is going on, I promise you’re safe here. So… our wedding is at the end of the week and I wanted to ask you a question.”
Yon muttered in his typically shy but oh so sweet tone, as he rubbed at the back of his head. Chewing his lip, he reached over and drew out some truffle and kelp soup from his bag; setting a warm cup before Seong and gently nudged it towards her. The gesture was obvious. Comfort food. Seong could feel her cheek flush and warm slightly as she sniffled; touched at how considerate her fiance was.
“And, I know you had reservations about the arrangement. I know I’m not someone from a fairy tale. Well, I was spooked too if you don’t take offense to it. But, as my folks told me; love can come after the marriage. Still, doesn’t hurt to have some hopes beforehoof. Soo… Miss Ki, Seong.”
Yon cast a wide, sweet smile and lifted his soup bowl up to Seong like he was toasting her. Seong giggled on instinct, for only her fiance could be so goofy he’d try to act gentlebuckly and toast with a soup bowl. Then again neither of them could hold their sake. Yon chuckled as he nodded to Seong and she raised her own bowl up.
“Does your heart have room for the Cho clan’s love?”
Seong felt her eyes wet again for a different reason and the blushing came back with gusto. She pursed her lips and eagerly nodded a few times. She tilted her head down to drink the soup, but the mix of emotions caused her hooves to shake. In her unsteadiness to avoid spilling the contents, one of her hair pins fell out and dropped in.
In hindsight, Seong really should have remembered one important detail she overlooked in her earlier panic. Firstly, that all the food brought to their get togethers was from the local store. No harm in that, as he was a terrible cook. Secondly, said store didn’t stock truffle and kelp soup.
Because when the iron in the pin touched the bowl, it showed something that more definitely wasn’t soup.
Even in recollection, the trauma of what she saw left Seong’s memory foggy. She remembered screaming and falling back to throw the contents of the bowl away, only for them to be snapped up by a lunging set of vulpine jaws. Her fiance had been there, three meters away and slumped against the tree with a red streak going across the trunk. She ran, ran faster than she ever thought possible with that nightmare in pursuit as they rushed through the woods. Cruel laughter chased her down as much as ravenous jaws, claws, and sailing spheres of foxfire did.
Ki Seong was blown off her hooves by an icy blue fireball of foxfire that detonated the tree beside her. Hitting her head on a stone she landed on, the kirin doe was knocked delirious and unable to get up despite her struggles to do so; the world was spinning too much. A blurry, pale mass jumped down from a tree and sauntered over to her, using a single claw to roll Seong over onto her back. The gumiho placed her paw on Seong’s chest just above where the heart would be, grinning in anticipation. The toothy smile was cut short by distant barking that was rapidly becoming less and less distant. The movement of shrubs and the loud growling heralded the arrival of several large hound dogs that emerged from the shrubs a dozen yards away. Instinctively sensing the fox-like monster’s threat, they began to close in with even louder barks and bare-tooth snarls.
The gumiho winced and sneered, leering down at Seong just as the kirin’s vision began to focus again. The gumiho cracked a smile, patting Seong’s chest with a look that made it clear she intended to collect what she sought. The gumiho backed away into the shrubs, not taking her eyes off Seong even as the dogs formed a protective line around the kirin. The last thing she heard before the search party who owned said dogs caught up was like a whisper in the breeze that carried on after the gumiho disappeared.
”You’re gonna die running…”
Seong didn’t remain in the village for long. More angry dogs sounding off at something that tried to creep closer to her, more sightings of eyeshine watching her from the forest, or a glimpse of someone unnaturally staring at her in a crowd made it clear. With Yon and the rest of the Cho family gone, the reason there was a search party out looking for the former in the first place, the fox demon had only one target in mind. What had haunted the family Seong was going to marry into for three generations was now solely focused on her. And as long as it was, anyone around her wasn’t safe. Attempts to recruit help didn’t work, not helped by the gumiho using her as a disguise when fleeing the scene at the Cho household and causing a panic. So there was only one solution.
A solution that lead to a young Ki Seong taking several bags of luggage and savings with her up a dock ramp and onto a ship heading for Equestria. The ponies had dealt with their own nightmarish creatures before and in higher frequency than any other nation she knew of. If there was any place she could find help, it was there.
Hours later and seas had not been kind. The ship was a small merchant vessel, as Seong lacked both the money and time to try and obtain a ferry pass. Still, beggars couldn’t be choosers and the crew was nice enough. Sitting in her “room”, which was little more than an emptied cargo closet with a cot and lamp, Seong flipped through the old mythology book she’d gotten ahold of.
A gumiho was a type of female nine-tailed fox-like entity, similar to the kitsune in Neighpon. However whereas the kitsune were known to have a range of personalities ranging from benevolent, even marriage partners, to neutral tricksters, to the malign; all but one account of the gumiho described a malevolent entity. Whether it was out of actual evil or having a morality system totally incompatible with civilizations’ however was variable, but that just meant one was stuck dealing with either a sociopath or a psychopath. Some of the tales told of traits Seong had witnessed upfront. Illusions of both scenery and disguises, being extremely agile, firing blasts of “fox fire” or will-o-wisps that weren't fire despite resembling it, caused agony or grievous wounds on impact, and extreme aversion to dogs. Evidently the tales seemed to indicate the gumiho were much more common in times past and plagued ancient Carrea, much like the Windigo did to what became Equestria and the oceanic regions to the east. In addition to the dogs part, which made Seong wonder if that was the reason canine companions took off to fast in times past, several stories repeated three possible weaknesses she was sure to underline. Iron, fire, and the fact they couldn’t swim.
Taking note to stick an iron needle in the doorframe to her room, Seong let her sigh and pray for her luck.
-Yon’s grandfather had a jar filled with water and something that could make a firebomb. Maybe that monk he talked to was trying to tell him what to do?... Can only hope crossing an ocean helps embellish the “can’t swim” part.-
There was a knock on the door and Seong looked up from the book.
“Miss Tea? May I?”
Seong sighed, opting to not bother correcting the Equestrian first mate’s tendency to mispronounce her name. Why’d she think her name was tied to her cutiemark?
“I’m okay, what is it?”
The firstmate opened the door, adjusted her hat and nodded to her.
“Crew’s gonna eat up top, good night out an’ the ships shakin’ a lot so stayin’ down here will make ye’ seasick. So ye’r welcome to join us!”
Ki Seong shrugged, putting on a smile as she waved the offer off. After remembering what she did, she wasn’t much for an appetite.
“I’m alright, thank you for the offer, First Mate. Stomach is a bit queasy so I’ll just keep to some reading and come up in a bit.”
Seong turned around to return to her book, but after twenty seconds of hearing nothing but the sea waves slap against the side of the boat; she didn’t hear anything from the first mate or the door closing back. Just as she lifted her head up to say something, the kirin noticed a matter quite amiss out of the opened loading hatch on the hull wall she’d left open for some ventilation. While the ship was on decently calm seas, it wasn’t going to be that way. They were heading directly towards a large storm bank that had curtains of rain visibly pouring down from it. Seong pursed her lips.
-Wait, the helmspony or captain should have turned them around to avoid that if they were going to eat on deck. What is going on?-
Seong’s thought was cut short and her eyes widened when she remembered that First Mate hadn’t budged yet. There was a sickeningly sweet odor seeping into the room and the tell tale sound of scratching on wood. Her eyes widened.
“Oh no…”
Her head snapped around and Seong beheld the last thing she wanted to see. The chipper smile of the pink pegasus pony that was First Mate, who stood outside the doorframe with one hoof reaching in to grasp said frame. As the limb passed under the point the needle was stabbed into the old wood, the pink fur and smooth hoof gave way to pale fur and a clawed hand. The First Mate doppelganger grinned, baring cruel fangs and giggled before lunging. Seong screamed, kicking out with her hooves and slamming the door shut on the gumiho’s limb. The fox beast shrieked, rabidly snapping and slashing about to shred the door to splinters as she repeatedly mauled and rammed into it. Lacking any other escape route, Seong was forced to claw her way out of the hatch frame and grab onto the network hanging off the side of the ship. She barely made it out and started to climb upwards to the top deck, just in time to be out of range of the swiping paw that lashed out of the hatch after a small explosion of splinters indicated the gumiho smashed through the door. Sneering at her prey, the gumiho ducked back into the hatch to no doubt scamper along the ship’s halls and meet her prey on-deck.
Seong’s mind was in a barely coherent panic as she scrambled to the deck. With the illusions dropping all around her, it was increasingly obvious the ship had been ransacked. Claw marks, overturned broken barrels, snapped ropes, and scorch marks that still bled blue foxfire littered the deck. She could only hope that the absence of a lifeboat was a sign somepony had managed to get off the boat before they suffered the same fate as some of their comrades because the ship stunk of death. Hearing a wooden crash from below leading up to the torn-open hatch on the opposite site of the ship, Ki Seong quickly looked around for something, anything to defend herself with. By the time she found and lifted up a long pole ending in a metal boat hook, a loud, vulpine shriek tore her attention away. It was followed by a sickeningly sweet giggle as the glowing eyes pierced out of the veil of darkness.
“I told you… You’re gonna die running…”
Seong backed up against the edge of the deck near a lantern, able to feel her heart pounding between her ears as those horrifying beautiful blue eyes crept out of the hatch. The boat had begun to swing into the storm by now, a drizzle of rain and hissing wind beginning to come down on the deck in a deluge. The jeog, the enemy, the gumiho sauntered onto the deck with a cruel, pleasant look on her muzzle. She wasn’t bothering with any illusions for a reason as she approached. She wanted Seong to see her coming. Seong winced and lurched forward while she swung the hook pole, but her sluggish attack was easily dodged by the snickering fox monster. The gumiho only laughed, managing to avoid the attack by mere centimeters.
“W-What do you want?! Go away!”
The kirin screamed, drenched, cold, and terrified. The gumiho ducked under another swing, creeping her way closer and closer with each dodge.
“Hehehe! What the family gave the son, the son’s family to their son, and the son’s family to their son-”
She lunged forward and tackled Seong, pinning her against the bow. She sported a smile with too many teeth and eyes that bore too much joy while pressing herself far too much against the kirin for it to seem pleasant.
“-and now in you. I only want what’s mine little dear, how else am I supposed to get it?”
Seong tried to bring the hook upwards to swing it back down but the gumiho acted before she could bring it down, pinning her forearms to the railing beside her and forcing a cold kiss on the yelping kirin. Seong tried to fight, she tried to struggle, she tried to do so much as twitch one of her limb muscles or cast some magic, but nothing was responding. Her entire mind was going numb as her lungs locked up and her eyes started to roll back. Smiling pleasantly at the paralyzed kirin, the gumiho kept the lip-lock up as she traced a paw to Seong’s lower torso just above the heart. But just as the fox demon’s paw became alight with a ghostly flame to phase into Seong’s chest, a stray stroke of luck happened upon the would-be victim. With her magic cut out the hooked pole dropped out of Seong’s magical grasp and nudged over by a stray breeze, snagged on the hanging deck lantern. The added weight snapped the lantern’s rope and brought it down right on top of the gumiho’s back, shattering it.
On an instant the fox monster’s dorsal was covered in flaming oil and she recoiled back in a shriek. Instinctively falling on her back to roll and try and smother the flames, the gumiho only succeeded in spreading it across the deck as the rainwater carried it further. One of the previously broken barrels from either contained more flammable liquid and by now it had soaked into the entirety of the deck. Soon the whole of the ship was starting to go up in flames not even the storm could smother. Gasping for breath after the paralysis hex wore off, Ki Seong struggled off her knees and looked forward.
There was so much fire now she could barely see through the flames and smoke. But what she did see gave her both hope and dread. The gumiho was still alive, burned in a few places and backing away towards the back of the ship to try and avoid the spreading flames she sneered and snapped at. Looking forward she could see the boat was heading further into the storm, streaks of lightning giving a clear forbiddance to what was coming. Weak, hot and cold at the same time by fire and rain, and with every instinct screaming at her to get out of there; Ki Seong did the only thing she could. Lean back and slump over the rails to fall off the dying ship.
Her timing was impeccable, for no sooner than the ship passed her by it was struck by a lightning bolt. Already weak from the fires and the gumiho’s ransacking, it didn’t survive and was split asunder. The last thing Ki Seong would remember from that day was clinging to a piece of debris and closing her eyes to the sound of that nightmare shrieking in its apparent death throes.
If only she could wish that last part was entirely true…
==============================
Ki Seong stirred up more alchemic ink and wrote down another symbol on a spell tag as she finished her story.
“I washed up on shore and the Leaf Family found me amongst some of the wreckage that washed up with me like my case. I was too broken down to speak for weeks. By the time I was finally back on my hooves I stuck around more to help care for their new filly.”
Applejack, who’d been keeping quiet through the story to both listen and keep herself on watch out a window, finally muttered.
“Lil’ Gentle Leaf right?”
“The same…”
Ki Seong placed another one of the spell tags into the puzzle box, having finally made some good progress on the replacement ward she’d been working on for the better part of two hours. Standing up and tracing the earth pony’s line of sight, she looked out the glass portal and locked gazes with the blinking pair of blue eyeshine watching her from up in a tree just outside the edge of the clearing.
“I always assumed either the lightning and flames got her or she drowned at sea. Almost no kirins remotely believed me much anyways back home so nopony would buy the story here. It would be like saying I saw a windigo. The ship was ruled as an accident and lost at sea from a storm, I can only hope some of the crew survived and got back to Carrea or washed up elsewhere. But... because I’m paranoid I went ahead and made these. I knew if she was still alive she’d come for me and me alone.”
Anguirus hadn’t moved from his post guarding the door and keeping himself braced against it. As the physically strongest present and most durable thing in the cabin, he figured he’d make the best shield just in case the gumiho attempted to ram the door down. He didn’t need to move to know what AJ and Seong were looking at with narrowed eyes.
“And why’s that?”, he grunted.
Seong stoically watched the gumiho’s eyeshine blink a few times before disappearing, a slight rustle in the foliage showing the fox monster had jumped down from the trees and was moving to elsewhere. She knew what the creature was doing.
“Once a gumiho focuses on something it won’t turn away or replace it. The gumiho wanted Yon’s love which he got from his family and he gave it to me. With all of the Cho clan dead, I’m the only one who’s got what she wants. So logic dictates I’m her only target. In her mind she’s now my jeog, my enemy, so she’s all focused on me and those around me. That’s why I had these surrounding the town.”
Ki Seong said as she raised and shook the puzzle box slightly. It still wasn’t finished, but it was coming along.
“Wards. They both disrupt her ability to find me and come to me. I thought that...if by some cruel miracle she survived and ended up in Equestria, if I settled as far away from any coast as possible and surrounded the place with these; she’d never be able to find me. No target, no focus so she’d just wander off aimlessly.”
“What’s love got to do with de-organin’ ye’?”
“This kind of creature...it doesn’t think or feel emotions like we would. It’s not evil per say but-”
Anguirus grumbled as he finished the sentence for her.
“-but it’s morality is so different it doesn’t understand ours. It’s like trying to explain color to someone blind since birth, perception is totally different. To her, love is something literally in a heart. Get a heart with the Cho family’s love, she’ll have it herself. That’s why she ignored Applejack at the restaurant or the Apples at the orchards, or thankfully didn’t go on a spree here or anywhere else in Equestria. If she’s been watching you since that ward got destroyed, she went after the two individuals you spent the most time with.”
Seong sighed, almost reluctantly nodding.
“What Yon passed to me I passed to my niece and…”
The kirin paused and lowered her head. As she pursed her lips and hid behind her bangs, a noticeable flush began to creep across her muzzle and lowered ears. Applejack took one look at it and then at the similarly blushing Anguirus as the kaiju looked away and upwards as his face itched, and let out an exasperated shrug. Growling as she put a hoof to her forehead, she grumbled.
“Oh will ye’ two lovebirds just fess up already?! Gaaaarh! Seriously ah’m about to join in on the bettin’ pool if this keeps up!”
That last sentence got both kirin and stallion’s attention, head snapping around to shoot the mare a wide-eyed expression of pure confusion or exasperation.
“Betting pool?!”
Applejack rolled her eyes and waved her hoof, speaking in a mutter before clearing her throat.
“Questions for later… Ahem! Now, we got a fox monster outside an’ two of the three things it wants inside. Winona’s back at the farm and givin’ she’s already caught wind of this witch she ain’t lettin’ it anywheres near lil’ Leafy.”
A moment of visible, palpable dread flushed across both Ki Seong and Anguirus’ faces at the thought of that fiend getting a hold of the little mute filly; Applejack’s confidence in her canine companion’s abilities the only thing steeling her resolve to not share in the foreboding fret.
“I pray you’re right Applejack…”
The stand-off turned into a siege as another hour ticked by, Applejack and Anguirus taking rotating shifts of watch from the points of entry as Seong toiled away at the alchemic formulas and enchanted writing to try and finish the menagerie of seals, trinkets, and ward built to combat the monster that lurked outside. But not long into the siege following Seong’s recollection, the jeog was being stubbornly elusive after previously making little effort to hide herself. After glimpsing her circling the perimeter once to try and maybe find a place to attack from, they hadn’t seen hide nor hair of her or heard a single sound that might betray her presence. It was Seong’s paranoid worry and the pragmatic readiness of Applejack that kept either stallion or mare from checking outside to investigate where it had gone. Anguirus didn’t believe for a minute she’d left, narrowing his eyes at the forest beyond the clearing to try and catch any hint of anything being out there.
“Why hasn’t it tried to rush the cabin? If she’s as powerful as she seemed I doubt some old wood would do much more than slow her down.”
“The clearing around the cabin is covered in some wards I put under the dirt in a circle, she can probably sense them and knows not to cross.”
“An’ if she did try?”
Ki Seong glanced over at Applejack as the mare passed her a canister of thin oil, the kirin very carefully pouring it into a jar already half full with pungent sulfur and black powder.
“The wards are meant to keep gumihos out and anything inside cloaked from her magical tracking ability, just showing sight or sound. If she tried to cross it would repel her.”
“An’ it’s why you surrounded Ponyville with ‘em, keep her out and not knowing where to look for you.”
Ki Seong nodded, hoofing over the jar to let Applejack very carefully feed a fuse into it. Of all the weapons to be used against the monster, this might have been part of a batch of last resorts but Applejack was adamant the danger of using them was outweighed by the danger of only using iron and not fire.
“Ponyville and any other places I’d been to a lot.”
“What if she found her way inside the field? Every barrier can be broken into one way or another. Lea once tried to contain me inside the pony’s library tree.”
“Oh that’s riiiight, Rares’ told me ‘bout that.”
“To be honest, I don’t know. But I can’t imagine being inside a place meant to not contain you would be fortunate.”
The kirin doe muttered with a shrug before suddenly going stiff as a piece of ice. Applejack’s eyebrow raised and her nostrils flared, taking in a new scent that was so powerful it even managed to blot out all the sweaty stink the three of them had accumulated along with the vast collection of alchemy parts Ki Seong stored. She and Anguirus recognized it from the restaurant and instantly furrowed her brow. Ki Seong on the other hand felt her eyes dilate as she remembered the pungently sweet smell from many more places of terror. Slowly the three looked out the same window, the one the supernatural smell was strongest in the direction of. A pair of grinning, crystalline blue eyes and teary brown eyes looked back at them.
The gumiho sat on the edge of the clearing, not even making any effort to hide or test the wards around the cabin anymore. She wanted to be seen, and she wanted to be seen with who she was holding. Ki Seong instinctively sucked in a gasp as Applejack narrowed her eyes after a brief moment of widening them in shock, Anguirus’ fur was bristling to the point he looked agitated enough to ram the wall down and rush the fox; all understandable reactions upon seeing the gumiho holding up a sobbing Gentle Leaf by her head. The fox gripped the filly across her scalp, tiny dark drops at the tips of her claws eliciting more flailing and mute crying from Gentle Leaf. Not taking her eyes off the trio in the window, the gumiho let her lips part as her smile grew into a grin filled with far too many fangs. Gentle Leaf, hoisted off the ground, flailed and kicked to try and free herself, but it was to no avail as she simply couldn’t reach or swing hard enough to break the hold. She froze and Ki Seong lurched forward when the gumiho put her other hand-like paw to Gentle Leaf’s chest, the fox demon tracing the claw on her index finger across the filly’s belly and up to the point just above the heart.
Ki Seong knew what she was about to do even before the pointing hand was cloaked in an eerie, fire-like light that preceded a go for the heart. What she was both relieved beyond reason and baffled out of her mind to see was the gumiho stop short. The gumiho kept her paw out of Gentle Leaf’s chest, pushing in just the very tips of her claws and holding them there as Gentle Leaf visibly flinched and struggled to try and move free.
Applejack evidently was thinking the same thing, “M-Much as Ah’m glad it’s not happenin’ how Ah’ think it would, why’d she stop?”
Anguirus curled his lips back into a snarl but stayed still after letting Applejack’s words sink in. Ki Seong remained frozen in place from terror, able to feel her heart about to burst. The gumiho kept her eyes locked firmly on the kirin with an eager smile, shifting and rubbing her snout up against the mute filly’s cheek with Gentle Leaf’s motion showing that she’d clearly be screaming if she had the capability.
That did it. Ki Seong sprung up and went for the door, tearing the latches off while brandishing an iron fire poker. In her fret to get outside to rescue her niece she even shoved Anguirus hard enough to force him back. She would have gotten out the door within a moment’s further notice had a pair of orange limbs not wrapped around her middle and earth pony strength yanked her back.
“Hey-ey-ey-ey! Don’t go out there!”, Applejack shouted as she tried to hold back the flailing kirin.
“She’s got!-”, Ki Seong tried to retort but was cut off by Applejack’s head shaking, the earth pony being forced to cover Seong’s mouth so she could get a chance to talk.
“Song it’s one’of her illusions! That ain’t Lil’ Leafy!”
Anguirus struggled both physically and mentally to act, clearly torn. He didn’t put the latches back on but he did press against the door to make sure Seong wouldn’t bolt out if she got out of Applejack’s bearhug. He put a hoof between the females to give Seong some breathing room while not taking his eyes off the gumiho and what he hoped to Tanaka wasn’t really his old charge. He kept quiet, thinking things through as Applejack tried to calm down Seong.
“Songy, it’s gotta be an illusion!”
Ki Seong tore Applejack’s hoof away from her mouth and glared at the mare through tears.
“And if it’s not?! What if she actually has her? She disappeared for awhile and moves fast, she could have doubled back and taken her if she got past Winona!”
"Song, ye' know this Gumi-ho thing will do ANYTHIN' to trick ya! 'Ah know this is scary but 'Ah have trust in Winona. She protected Gentle Leaf from this thing once an' she'll do it again!"
"I-I know....I know she would. But I also know that this creature will do anything to win.....we don't know if she found a way to get past Winona! I can't put Gentle Leaf in any more danger!"
Applejack’s brow furrowed and she returned the look, anger born both out of worry and insulted pride in her canine, “Winona would never let it! Not’a chance! After the stunt earlier she’s gonna be glued to that filly’s side for days.”
“There’s always a chance Applejack, always with this thing! Are you telling me you think your dog could go toe to toe with what thing?!”
“Look’at her Song! She’s standin’ outside of the cabin’s magic ward doohickeys. She wants you to rush out an’ knows this can get a rise outta ye’ since she can't get to ye' herself!”
Ki Seong looked to Anguirus pleadingly for aid. The stallion tensed up, shaking all over from his thoughts struggling with each other. He looked away in shame, unable to lock gazes with her, “This does sound like something she’d do to get you out there…”
Perhaps sensing the stress was about to cause Seong to lash out, especially after her crush seemed to not back her up; Applejack relaxed her hold on Seong. “Tea Song listen, you know this beastie better than any of us. Ye’ know how much she uses those illusions.”
Seong couldn’t take her eyes off the image of what she dreaded was her niece in the clutches of that nightmare. A tear fell as Applejack’s logic nailed her hooves to the ground and she hated it for that. She stepped towards the window, angrily punching a hoof into the wall after pressing her forehead to the glass. Her defeated voice was barely more than a whisper.
“I can’t take that risk Applejack… not with her… not with anypony… This is my burden and it’ll keep spilling onto others unless I stop it…. Let me out.”
“You know I won’t do that, Seong…”, Anguirus muttered; his deep voice was the only thing hiding the pain in it, wrath at both himself for contributing to the kirin’s grief being only eclipsed by that which he bore for the fox monster.
Seong sniffled wetly, “Why do you think I came alone? Either I got the ward to protect everypony or she caught me far away from everypony and-..... It ended. If she gets me, it'll give you time to escape...”
Applejack’s and Anguirus’ expression widened in shock before quickly sagging.
“S-Song, be serious here-”
“I AM!”, the kirin cried out, breathing harshly as more tears fell and she slammed her head against the window again. For however much energy her breaths and words had, it was clear what the kirin was calling for when at her wit’s end after all these years.
“If I go out there!.... I-If I go out there… you two can run. If i-it has Gentle Leaf, it’ll let her go to go for me… and if n-not it’ll buy the real one time…. I can’t lose anyone else, not even risk it…….. Let me go,” she muttered, clearly addressing one of the ponies in the room more than the other with that last part.
A hoof was placed on her shoulder and she quickly turned to throw it off, but stopped short when she saw Anguirus had silently moved closer to her and gently pulled the kirin into a comfort hold. She tried to pull away, even push him off, but kaiju density on top of earth pony strength meant she wasn’t going anywhere. After ten seconds, her struggle slowed and she let herself lean into him; mumbling a slur of Carrean words that were descriptors with half of them being swear words and the other half being the opposite. He held the top of her head under his chin until she stopped shaking before backing off, keeping a collected look that bordered on stoic.
“If you’re trying to be selfless, you’re not. I know you think doing this might help save Gentle Leaf, save anypony from having that creature come after them to get to you; but you’re forgetting something. I’m stubborn,-” he said before nodding his head towards Applejack. “And so is she. Like it or not, folks give a damn about you and we're going to try and help if you like it or not…. No more secrets, no more running off without telling us why, no more acting alone. Because you’re not.”
Seong closed her eyes and tilted her head down, letting her ears droop. Another tear began to run down her snout but she felt a gentle hoof rub it away. She peeked out an eye to see Applejack standing beside Anguirus, giving the kirin a small but incredibly sweet smile as she took her hat off.
“Think my honesty’s rubbin’ off on the farm aids! Might not like ye’ as much as this bumpus,-” she snickered, elbowing Anguirus. “-but think y’er forgettin’ this is Equestria. We help our herd. An’ if some dino-bird can add me to his flock after a day, ye’ joined this herd long ago… So, hows about we help ye’ out?”
Ki Seong sniffled to try and clear her nose, eyes reddened and tender from her stress and crying. She croaked out a tiny word after quietly nodding to Applejack. "Gentle Leaf…”
Applejack put her signature article back on and slid her hoof across the rim of her father’s cowboy hat. “Who said anythin’ about not seein’ to that filly? She won’t hurt her if that is her, it’s called a gamble hoof. Just need a plan for this round of poker instead of rushin’ in blind is’all ah’m sayin’!”
Ki Seong felt her heart swell as much as her confidence did once the reality set in. She saw Anguirus, her crush, Applejack, her friend, a cabin full of supplies, and a mind full of knowledge about the creature outside. And she was getting a plan.
Several minutes after the curtain was drawn over the window, the front door slowly creaked open. While the gumiho looked to the entrance to see if her turtle finally wanted to come out of the shell, she didn’t notice several small jars get bucked into the air on the other side of the house. The clay spheres hit the ground and smashed open, releasing a clogging gout of smoke that obscured the whole of the area around the cabin. It wasn’t a full blackout, but it did muddy the field of view enough for one figure to walk up to the edge of the cabin ward’s range with him counting his steps as he went to ensure he stopped just short of stepping out of it.
They waited, each heart beat punctuating the second until they got what they were waiting nerve-wracking seconds for; getting it in the form of a faint shift in the air of smell and warmth of breath in front of them. Anguirus wasn’t the best of the kaiju for detection, but he could smell better than an average pony or else it’d be Applejack covered in powder with branches on their head as fake antlers while wearing Cho Yon’s outfit. The gumiho had used so many illusions on them, now they were returning the favor. In the haze of the smoke as well as the overcoat he was wearing on top of his garb, they’d gambled he could be mistaken for the late kirin, especially by an unhinged mind like the one he knew was directly in front of him now even if he couldn’t see or hear anything.
Pulling back his lips and being sure to block his throat on the inhale, Anguirus pointed the hidden tube in his mouth with his tongue before sharply blowing out. The spray of fine iron shavings and dust shot out of him in a dust-like, glimmering mist. Like a projection that was shorting out, the visage of the gumiho holding Gentle Leaf flickered off; revealing the both of them to thankfully be an illusion. The real gumiho was right in front of him, looking at what she thought was someone she killed years ago with a head tilted, baffled expression. The tiny iron powder was clinging to her fur even if she hadn’t noticed the fine dust spray or the fact she was visible to them now, effectively canceling out her ability to cast more illusions. Making sure not to look directly at her, least he give away the fact he could see the fox beast less than two feet in front of him, Anguirus stepped back further into the smoke to ensure the ruse wasn’t discovered yet.
Entranced by the curiosity, the gumiho started to step forward. She’d have hit the ward’s boundary and been shocked back had Seong, off to the side and behind Anguirus while obscured by the smoke, not removed one of the spell tags on the ward. With a hole now present where Anguirus was, the kaiju calmly walked backwards as a focused gumiho slowly tried to creep up to him; noticing the ward seemed to have a hole in it but not aware yet they could see her and her ambush was busted.
Then again the fact the trio could see her became plainly clear to her once a country accented voice called out from the side of the cabin the smoke bombs had been bucked out from; “Now!”
The gumiho paused and puzzled, but was unable to react in time when Anguirus suddenly lurched forward and grabbed her. Enhanced strength was enough to yank the startled fox monster off her paws. Lifting her over his head and rearing up while doing so before falling back, Anguirus tossed her behind him and quickly got out of range of her lethal claws and fox fire as a hidden rope moved to tighten its noose and ensnare the gumiho’s back legs at the ankles. Before the gumiho could struggle enough and even realize what was happening, Applejack proved herself not to be outdone by Anguirus’ show of strength. Having gripped and tied the other end of the rope around herself on the other side of the cabin where the line fed out a window she crawled out of, the Element of Honesty lined up a buck to the back of the cabin and kicked out as hard as she could, pressing off while doing so. The resulting force was more than enough to both launch herself off to a kickstart and the following charge kept the momentum going.
The gumiho was pulled off her paws and slammed into the side of the cabin. She yipped sharply, flailing out with her paws to try and find a purchase while Applejack continued to pull back. But any trenches she cut into the wood of the cabin door frame or dirt of the ground didn’t give her enough leverage and the strong mare managed to win the tug-o-war. A louder crash sounded off as the gumiho was yanked inside the cabin, no doubt from a shelf of table falling on top of the fox monster. Beside Anguirus, golden magic aura put the ward back into place and in proper alignment, Seong reactivating the seal with the gumiho inside of the protection zone. Still gritting her teeth as she held the gumiho inside the cabin on the other side of the window, relief came to Applejack when Anguirus ran around to her side and bit down on the taut rope. Sharp fangs cut through it easily with an audible snap, Applejack and Anguirus both getting clear for safety as soon as the cut rope hit the ground.
The trio reunited at the front side of the cabin as the gumiho let out another shriek. She had tried to leap out through the window, no doubt to try and get at where she thought Applejack was, but a glowing panel of light briefly flickered a meter away from the cabin and she slammed into it. For a split second the adjusted wards’ field of effect, the entirety of the cabin plus a few meters, lit up as it reacted to the movement of what it was supposed to guard against inside of it. The panel of light shocked and sent the gumiho recoiling back as soon as she hit it, shoving the fox monster back through the window and taking a chunk of the surrounding wood with her. The gumiho did not stay quiet, ravenously lunging at or throwing things at the barrier walls in an insatiable bid to find a way out and let her claw her way towards the ponies and kirin. Applejack, Anguirus, and Seong just watched on stoically, the kaiju shrugging in relief.
“Ye’ said fire can put her down. Any way we could light the cabin up?”, Applejack muttered, glancing over to Seong.
“Not practical yet. That wood takes a lot to burn so we’d have to be close. Besides it could damage the wards and release her, we’d need to hold her down in it for it to work.”
“How long will that there ward field hold ‘er for?”
The kirin watched her nemesis’ struggle coldly, the relief of the Gentle Leaf abduction truly being an illusion and the plan going off without a hitch quietly overcoming the freefall of other emotions she was feeling being next to her ex-fiance and neighbors’ killer. “Long enough. The spell’s specifics are that it’s supposed to keep gumihos from moving even one step into the zone and she’s zero steps away from the zone. Every time she moves, it’ll knock her back.”
“It’ll be long enough for us to get prepared. We’ll get some help and be sure to finish it.” Ki Seong shrugged, before looking to Anguirus. She had to keep her breath from leaving her again seeing him standing there dressed like a dead kirin. Closing her eyes to breathe in and sigh to the sounds of the gumiho’s struggle she gently tapped his shoulder before walking past him and nodding to Applejack, “Let’s go, we’ll be back.”
“Darn tootin’ we’ll be back. Come’on ya’ll, we’ll take a short cut. Either the princesses can lock 'er up or might call up RD to send for Rodan. They figured out how’ta shift him with her flight magic an’ ah can’t imagine a full blast of that heat ray of his ‘be too pleasant if she don’t fancy fire!”, the mare grunted with a snort and tip of her hat.
Seong turned and started off with Applejack, leaving Anguirus behind momentarily. Noticing his absence she glanced back to see the kaiju-stallion stoically looking upon the cabin. The gumiho made another lunge, this time smashing through a wall and letting her crazed eyes lock onto both Anguirus and Seong. After looking between them, the white-blue gumiho let out a blood curdling shriek and made another lunge. This time she managed to keep close to the wards’ limit, if only by sheer force of will, before being sling-shot backwards so hard the beast made another hole in the wall she was thrown through. Be it by both mention of another, more complete Guardian Beast, as well as visibly seeing the hated thing that had so damaged the lives of so many, include those he cared for; the Alpha Guardian Beast furrowed his brow and imagined accessing his element. He fantasized about spewing out jets of fires, barrages of fireballs, and waves of solid flame to wash over the cabin and let the murderer burn if she came at Seong or her company again.
In some ways he felt sorry about lacking those powers he was supposed to be grown with at the diner, or else a lot of stress and potential danger might have been avoided if he could have ended or restrained the gumiho earlier. But, life had a cruel joke where the one thing he should have but lacked was exactly what could kill the jeog of his crush that had become his jeog as well.
The stallion let his lips curl for a moment in a scowl before dropping the expression, turning away, and walking up to the females to join them; letting his frustrations rest aside. No point in getting angry at himself again for what he couldn’t fix. It was trapped and could remain that way for all he cared. One way or another, this monster wasn’t going to be a threat again. The gumiho’s struggles turned to frantic screams that sounded almost pathetic, still futilely throwing herself against the barrier time and time again. The trio just kept walking away, heading back on the long road to Ponyville to recruit some more help and tools. After a few minutes of repeatedly trying to smash or claw her way out however, the gumiho finally stopped.
She huffed enraged breaths through bared fangs, dilated eyes locked onto the trail leading back to the pony town. She was beyond the threshold for desperate; desperate to get what she’d been craving to finally get after near one hundred years. And now here she was, trapped like a kit in a hunter’s snare with the one thing she wanted in this world walking away. Why oh why did these ponies interfere and why couldn’t the kirin just give what was hers?! The gumiho’s eyes began to glow with a ghostly blue light that traveled and spread to the tips of her waving tails.
-No. It is my love...-
The tails bobbed up and town like a octopus’ tentacles, oscillating in an almost hypnotic manner.
-I will know it…-
They suddenly flared out, eerie blue, burning spheres of foxfire forming on the ends. The spheres doubled, then tripled in size before launching at the ward meant to only keep out. Even before they struck it, another barrage was prepared with another to follow.
-I will have it!-
A quarter of a kilometer away, Applejack, Anguirus, and Ki Seong froze mid-step when they heard the distant rumble behind them. Stealing only a moment to look between each other, they ran back towards the cabin and skid to a halt at the start of the clearing that lead to the cabin. Remnants of blue and purple fox fire and will-o-wisps still littered the ground or blew by in the breeze. The line of wards surrounding the cabin were all sparking from glitching magic, the puzzle box Ki Seong had made to act as the new foci of the ward’s protection zone lay kinked over with jolts of magical charge arcing across it. The cabin itself was only halfway standing, the magical disruption igniting some of the substances within as well as the dry wood to set some of it ablaze. Debris from inside the cabin lay thrown around, from various chunks of wood, her caldron and its chain were rolling across the ground. Through the fires and smoke, a pair of piercing blue eyes looked upon Ki Seong. Like a demon from hell, the gumiho pounced outwards with her paws outstretched. She was half-covered in soot and burnt in a few places, marring some of her beauty and making her look more like the disgusting danger she really was. But neither injury nor hitting the ward’s barrier stopped her. After being shocked for a few moments, the gumiho shrieked and pressed on.
The barrier began to bend outward, the tips of the fox monster’s claws piercing through it. Finally the breaking point was reached as indicated by the puzzle box popping open and falling to pieces, the barrier was torn through. The gumiho didn’t get through scott-free, two of her nine tails were hit by the shocking ward magic so badly they were destroyed, bursting into fox fire and evaporating off as she screeched in pain. Rolling across the ground, panting and smoking, the gumiho however needed only one look at Seong to flash a fang filled grin. Struggling up to her feet, the gumiho loosed a roar of giggling laughter while curling her lips to expose the entirety of her maw.
Jeog didn’t try to run off into the foliage to ambush the now backpedalling trio, she didn’t try to taunt, she didn’t move slowly; she did none of her typical toying. Seong’s mind bore only a moment to go cold with dread when she realized the look in the gumiho’s eyes spoke one simple fact. Jeog was done playing.
The gumiho let out a cackle of un-laughter, quickly filling the space around her with an illusionary fog that resulted in a near total white out as she rushed them. Anguirus tried to charge and meet her head on, but the gumiho demonstrated the nimbleness of foot fitting for a fox and dove around him; dodging out of the way by a factor of a few centimeters to get around him. The kaiju only had time to call out as he dug his hoof into the ground to turn himself around, “Incoming!”
Ki Seong’s increased perception saw that horrifying shape with multiple tails begin to bound towards her in the fog in slow motion. Before she could fire a concussive magic blast however, it became clear the gumiho was moving too fast. Jeog jumped towards her and cocked a forelimb back, wreathing it in blue fox fire with the intent to phase the burning limb into Seong’s chest and claim what she’d been craving for decades. She’d have been upon Seong had Applejack not jumped in the way. The mare was fast, able to quickly break into a hoofstand with her forelimbs to pivot around and buck at the attacker with her hindlegs. The gumiho yipped from the impact hitting her in the ribs, launching her back and into the obscurity of the fog.
The mists only seemed to grow in intensity, so much so Anguirus, Applejack, and Seong completely lost sight of each other despite only being a few meters apart. Ki Seong kept her magic at the ready, tensing at every sound as the racket of crashing foliage and then beating earth told her the gumiho had already gotten back up from Applejack’s kick. Blunt force was something that only seemed to slow them down, inhibiting but not truly harming. She was circling them.
And then it all happened so fast. Ki Seong glimpsed a large form before her she first assumed was the gumiho and almost blasted it with a concussive magic burst before she recognized the trademark hat the outline was wearing to identify them as Applejack. A second figure appeared near the other, being noticeably stocky and wearing a garb that indicated Cho Yon’s wedding garb Anguirus was wearing. But before she could crack any semblance of a relieved smile, join her comrades, or call out however, a third shape rushed the first. The gumiho blitzed Applejack and Anguirus like living lightning, darting in and out of the fog back and forth. Both of them were thrown free of view, Applejack grabbed around her middle by a battery of tails and flung to the side with monstrous strength and Anguirus’ form was engulfed in multiple blasts of fox fire when he tried to come to the earth pony’s aid and grab the gumiho. Ki Seong heard them call out, she heard the sound of a cracking tree in the direction Applejack had been thrown, she heard the splash of water following an earthy smash where Anguirus had been blasted; and she heard giggling. Applejack’s hat, now sporting claw marks on the brim, and some scraps of clothing that had once been Anguirus’ attire before they were burned by the blue fox fire still stuck to them, fluttered in the breeze and landed at Ki Seong’s hooves.
She fired at every glimpse of noise or sight she saw, turning the fog into a swiss cheese of mist from her magic blasts going off in every direction. The gumiho was circling her at high speed, sometimes high, sometimes low, and always moving ever closer.
The scratch of paws on ground behind her spurred the kirin to whirl around and her eyes widened in terror upon seeing the shape bounding towards her, only a meter away as she fired. The beam of magic shot upwards, out of the mist and into the sky like a pillar. The mists pulled apart and Ki Seong was on the ground. Her entire body had locked up and she could only move her eyes. To her left lay a shattered young tree, traces of red and the hint of an orange form lying slumped against the fallen trunk revealing a fallen and hurt Applejack. To her right towards the river were multiple packs of earth still burning with the eerie fox fire that wasn’t flame, a large chunk of the river bank having been torn out by Anguirus being blasted into it with the kaiju’s limp hoof laying around the bank being the only thing to show he was still there. And the gumiho was on top of her, pinning her limbs at her sides with her lips locked on Seong’s. The fox monster pulled out of the paralyzing kiss, letting her unnaturally long claws run across Seong’s cheek as she cracked a fang filled grin.
She’d won.
The gumiho drew her paw and claws over Seong’s neck and chest, taking aim. Seong tried to close her eyes, but couldn’t either by the spell or her own vain attempts to resist. The haunting taunt the creature straddling her gave the kirin years ago replayed in her mind as it was coming to fruition.
She remembered a pair of reflective eyes backing off into the foliage as several hounds came to her rescue, giving a vow that would last for years.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
She remembered the ship that went up in flames before being swallowed up by the sea, the same creature as before repeating the prophecy even as the ocean consumed her. Even with no solid land in sight, Seong was still running then when she jumped overboard.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
And she remembered all she’d done in the last twenty four hours. Not told anyone or asked for help. Left her niece behind to try and martyr herself if things went wrong. Left Ponyville without word and tried to deny help from others. Years later she was still running scared, and now she was going to die.
But then the gumiho paused, flicking her ears. She glanced over at the river bank after a soaked hoof gripped the shore and Anguirus tried to pull himself up. Jeog smirked, cradling Seong’s head and picking her up to slump the frozen kirin on her hooves so she’d have a good view. She had something special in mind.
Any sentient being with the power of reason will inevitably commit both good and evil deeds. However at their core, all decisions are based on two conflicting forces, love and hatred. The gumiho lacked reason and barely qualified as sentient, having a morality system totally unlike any other creature. But in her quest to learn of love however, perhaps she’d begun to learn the opposite. Be it from wanting to “condense” the love of the heart in one body like she did for the whole of the Yon family or out of acquired spite for Seong; she approached Anguirus.
The kaiju groaned, still singed with blue magical flames that seared even his extremely durable flesh, as he tried to pull himself back onto land. The gumiho calmly walked closer to him. Anguirus snarled in defiance, struggling to get up to his hooves against the magnificent pain and surge of the river interfering.
Seong felt herself choking on her own breath while fighting tears. She tried to move or cast magic, but her muscles remained locked up and any golden glow across her antlers fizzled out. The gumiho’s taunt replayed through her conscious like an echo.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
The gumiho giggled, extending all of her remaining tails out in a fan with balls of blue fox fire forming on every tip while a similar burning glow engulfed her forelimb and claws. Ki Seong looked to the side where Applejack had fallen, trying to will herself to call out to her friend, to anypony, to help Anguirus.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
The tree was still broken and still had some drips of red stretched across it, but Applejack wasn’t in sight. Seong tried to heave her frozen chest to breathe, managing to cause her torso to budge slightly. It was like trying to push cement out of her lungs, but the cement was cracking.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
The gumiho took aim and the same fear Seong felt when it came for Gentle Leaf crushed down upon her. The fear was added to as flashes of sights including Anguirus’ claw wounds and Applejack being slammed through a tree played before her. Ki Seong’s head began to budge.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
The memory of Cho Yon’s body, the hated speculation if he died painlessly or not, clung to her. She’d ran then and she’d been running since. There was a hunk of twisted iron that used to be the fire poker embedded in the ground two meters ahead of her and four meters behind the gumiho. Ki Seong tried to will herself to move to no avail. The kirin shallowly panted for breath, closing her eyes in collection.
The taunt was remembered one last time, echoing out like a drop of water in a cave.
-”You’re gonna die running…”-
The pressure inside her built up-
-No… No more running...-
-and burst.
“NO!”, Ki Seong screamed as she used every fiber of her will to move and what was fueling that will was stronger than the gumiho’s magic. The kirin sprinted forward, breaking out of the hex that broke off her like shattering glass. Seong charged forward in a full gallop, grabbing the end of the fire poker with her hoof and throwing herself at the gumiho. The fox monster shrieked as the sharp, twisted end of the poker smacked into her shoulder and opened a cut that bled fox fire.
The gumiho turned around to face her attacker, her eyes dilating in a mix of shock and hints of fear. The confident, beautiful predator was gone, replaced by a frantic, marred wretch that was forced to constantly keep dodging as Seong advanced with more swings of her weapon. Ducking under a swing that cut her across the ears, the gumiho snarled and lunged forward with her jaws bared. Seong winced and grimaced as the fox’s claws went past her and grazed her across the flanks, shoving the shaft of the poker in front of herself to catch the gumiho’s jaws and keep them from snapping shut on her face.
They fell to the ground, rolling across it until the stronger gumiho halted the rolls with her on top. She drew up her paw and after wreathing it in fox fire, attempted to swing it at Seong’s chest. Seong rolled out from under her attacker enough to avoid the swing that burned into the rock behind her. Not to leave an attack unanswered now, Seong flipped the poker up with her magic and drove it down through the gumiho’s other paw to earn a shriek of pain and flicker of bleeding fox fire.
Getting out from under the fox monster, Seong cried out to someone she hadn’t seen but knew was there; “NOW!”
Before the gumiho could react after yanking the poker out of her paw, an attempted pounce towards Seong was cut short by a whirling cauldron chain swinging out behind her and wrapped around her middle. The fox demon screamed, frantically trying to blindly claw or wrench away the iron chain links now coiled around her middle and throat; but Applejack wasn’t giving her the chance. Having gotten the chain after it was blown free of the cabin with the gumiho’s exit and tore it off the cauldron, the earth pony was giving it her all to both keep her distance and keep a firm grip. Not an easy feat given the chain was much shorter than her lasso and she had only a few feet of breath between her and the fox. Grasping the other end of the chain around her tail and hooves, the Element of Honesty dug her hindhooves in and pulled back with great strength to yank the gumiho off her paws and knock her back towards the burning cabin.
Upon crashing against the flaming timbers, the gumiho shrieked in terror and got back up. Applejack attempted to rope-slap the chain and force her further back, Seong running over to help grasp it with her, but the panicking gumiho’s first instinct was to get away from the fire and lunge at the two. She only managed to do the first for about half a second before a whirling, spinning ball or wheel slammed into her after he pulled himself free of the river. Anguirus curled out of the thunderball and grabbed the gumiho around the back, putting his fangs to use and chomping down on the fox monster’s shoulder as he ignored the pain of the fox fire seeping out of the wounds. He was far too stubborn to care enough and let go.
With Applejack’s chain binding her claws so she was safe to hold onto and the brute strength of Anguirus pulling her back, the gumiho couldn’t do anything but shriek for mercy as the Guardian Beast of Fire pulled her into and then held her down within the burning, collapsing cabin like he was dragging her down into tartarus. The fires engulfed the two of them and only hurt one of them; Seong and Applejack watching on silently.
The kirin collapsed to her knees as the gumiho’s shrieking was stifled out, seeing only Anguirus’ outline standing in the flames. Applejack, still bleeding from a cut ear and wincing from broken ribs, put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder as Seong sobbed from the freefall of emotions and relief.
.............
....................
.........................
It was an hour later when Anguirus walked free of the flames, having stayed until he was absolutely certain. He, Applejack, and Ki Seong looked at each other silently as the kaiju kicked something over to the latter. A burned fox skull, all that remained of her tormentor and the murderer of dozens. Seong steeled herself as she earned a nod from Applejack and Anguirus, before stepping on Jeog’s skull and crushing it underhoof with tiny wisps of blue fox fire sparking out.
The nightmare was finally over.
Ki Seong and Anguirus looked to each other as a smirking Applejack watched on. Neither of them were a basket of fruit by any means. Ki Seong had twigs and grass stuck in her frizzled mane, all of her hair ties had fallen out, she was covered in cuts and bruises as well as large scabs across her flanks from the claw wounds; and had tired bags under her eyes. Anguirus was naked again, as Cho Yon’s attire was long since burnt off and the kaiju was covered in soot. Some of his quills had fallen out and parts of his lips looked burnt from biting into the gumiho with his fangs, as well as one eye being partially closed from smashing through the river’s rocky bank headfirst.
But they couldn’t take their eyes off each other and found themselves especially close after a snickering Applejack hip checked Seong into the kaiju. Needless to say when they found themselves bumping into each other, were of roughly equal height, and had already been put through the stress wringer over the past hours; they didn’t fight it despite flushing bright red in the face. Ki Seong let her eyes drift into his and placed her hooves atop Anguirus while the Guardian Beast followed Rarity’s instruction, though thankfully not demonstration, and put his nose and snout tip to her hoof and then her face to share a kiss to show affection. The kirin went in for more, giving someone who was both her second and first love her approval.
Applejack chuckled as she flipped her hat back onto her head, having won the betting pool and began heading back to Ponyville to collect; “Come on now ye’ lovebirds, let’s get cleaned up before y’er courtin’!”
==============================
Our Town, North Eastern Frontier
==============================
Starlight Glimmer stood before the enormous stone slab, fitting a cutie mark resembling a set of three snowflakes taken from a stallion named “Double Diamond” into the hunk of enchanted mineral. Was a stroke of luck the prospector passing by happened to know the kind of stone that could hold all this power. To be honest, she half expected it to blow up when she put the first few marks in, such magic wasn’t something to trifle with. Even just standing next to it she could feel all the power radiating out of it from the dozen or so cutie marks imprisoned with it already. Even just spending time near it for so long was making her feel... stronger. Originally the first few marks took her hours to pry off and she had to quickly shove them into the rock’s slots before they tore out of her magic’s control. But the last few ones? She could do multiple ponies at once and hold the marks out for all to see for a minute or two before simply pushing them into place like books on a shelf.
Either she was just getting better at the spell or the stone was affecting her. One way or another, it was a good thing. Perhaps if Sunburst or Moonbea-
-NO!-
She mentally shouted to herself, gritting her teeth for a moment so tensely a vein was popping in her neck.
-I can handle this. I do NOT need them! I do not need anypony until our equality is final… Then, then we’ll all be together.-
The mare apprehensively stole a sneaky glance at a reminder to inequality on her own flank to make sure the dye and powder was holding to cover up her own magic-themed mark. Thankfully it was holding well, though she’d probably steal away to re-apply just to sate the paranoia tingling in the back of her mind. She looked back up to behold the cutiemark stone. It was almost filled, but there was still plenty of room. Six slots on one of the frontal faces were still wide open.
Starlight Glimmer’s eyes widened as the cave noticeably darkened and looked to the source, seeing the entrance to the cavern eclipsed in a darkness like it was night. There was a rush of wind, bitingly cold air smashing into her face and forcing Starlight to cover it with her hooves. The so called “Staff of Sameness” was sent flying back and smashed itself into splinters upon colliding with a stalagmite. Before she could think about having to quickly fashion a replacement to maintain the facade, a horrific uproar deafened the cave. A deep cackling that rattled the ceiling and floor so much it knocked dust and a few stalactites loose. Pushing herself through the hurricane gales of wind, Starlight Glimmer managed to cling to the side of a stalagmite at the mouth of the cave and force an eye open.
It was devoid, her town. At this hour it was time for the communal song piece so ponies should be bustling in the streets to welcome the new recruit. But there wasn’t a soul in sight even as the winds suddenly died down. Starlight Glimmer panted for breath and frantically looked for any sign of her citizens. She was just about to run down from the cave to check the houses. Logic said they might have hid from the sudden gales, but her paranoia whispered something else.
-They left you again.-
A hurt sneer crossed Starlight’s face, anguish quickly turning into out of control rage as she started to sprint down from the cave. But just as she did however, something changed. The blocked sunlight was revealed again, then blocked once more; like something was standing over her. There was a deep rumble that sounded like breath and Starlight Glimmer looked up.
There was another mountain standing above the cave’s, one made of shining, golden scales and serpentine necks. Wings that seemed to swallow the sky spread and clawed feet gripped the slopes. The creature, the thing, it’s size could only be described as impossible. Had the town gotten the newspaper instead of remaining hidden, she’d have known another name to describe it. Kaiju.
Grand King Ghidorah’s eyes flashed, finishing the job of teleporting the town’s populace to locations unknown instantly. This settlement was as remote as the boat from earlier, a perfect target even if the life energy of its ponies was... peculiar. It was a curious detail that he could smell the energy, the life force coming off the town just like everywhere else, but it wasn’t in the ponies. That was the reason he’d not done a simple fly-by, instead landing on the far side of the mountain to home in on it. And he’d found it. King Ghidorah’s body glowed a little brighter, expertly applying gravitational pressure to the mountain in just the right way to create a stress line going from the cavern upwards. A little more force and the entire mountain cracked open like an egg.
Telekinesis sifted through the rubble and the cutiemark stone was dragged up out of the debris. Grand King Ghidorah leaned down to inspect it, able to literally see the energy coming off it. Wasn’t quite like the life force of those he’d devoured back in his home realm, but it was noteworthy. Bagan would probably want such an item.
A tiny voice called out from a distance below, so small from so far away Ghidorah could barely even hear it; “Give that back!”
A charge of magic shot out in a bolt and pinged off Ghidrah’s cheek like a stone thrown at a tank. The eldritch dragon peered down with one of his heads as the others further inspected the cutiemark slab. He lowered his right head to near ground level and opened all three sets of his eyelids to look around, soon spying the transgressor in the form of a single pony.
-Appears I missed one, must have been in the mountain.-
He let his neck drift and move his head closer to the pony, Starlight Glimmer being forced to backpedal when she saw how gargantuan the creature was up close. Just one of its fangs was taller than she was and the head was bigger than a house. The pony started saying something, probably some show of bravery or bravado, Ghidorah didn’t know nor care which and ignored her while he set his focus to the slab of rock.
-Feels almost like the energy of a whole populace in there. Reijuu would most certainly desire it, it’s at least as strong as those trinkets the Xilian splice and his crew have fetched.-
King Ghidorah chuckled quietly, teleporting the slab to where he was keeping the ponies.
-And Reijuu won’t be getting it.-
His causing the slab to disappear however elicited a strong reaction from the pony. She screamed, both from shock as well as some sort of demand. When Ghidorah merely stared at her to try and figure out why her energy smelled a bit different than the other ponies in the town, Starlight Glimmer proved she was a special brand of crazy. She attacked the King of Terror.
A green beam of energy flew out of her horn as she shrieked, using every bit of magic she could with the same spell she’d used to tear away a cutiemark. True, this dragon lacked such but the concept of the spell, shaving off a chunk of someone’s potential, should work in principle. And to her credit, she did get a response out of Ghidorah. For a split second, he flinched as the aura wrapped around his head and tore off a piece of golden energy. The problem was the blowback. While Starlight Glimmer had managed to shave a piece of King Ghidorah’s power away for a brief moment, it was like trying to suck up an ocean with an eye dropper.
The energy instantly shot back into King Ghidorah and Starlight Glimmer was thrown backwards into the rock wall. By the time the unicorn struggled up, her horn glowing and smoking and her mind clearly in a daze given her struggle to stand up straight. A hurricane force of wind from King Ghidorah’s spread winds shoved her back to the ground, the kaiju beginning to lift off with humored cackles of laughter. She cried out, trying not to be blown away.
Starlight Glimmer’s scrunched eyes were forced open as they briefly flashed red. Minds were an easy gateway for alteration if they were vulnerable already, so Ghidorah simply tore his way in. He could see it all. The frustration, the anger, the ambition; but most of all he saw what many would call loneliness. He called it pathetic, but there was some potential there for proper use. Bagan’s orders were to remain unseen, but there were two problems with that. Firstly, it had neglected to mention specifics. Secondly, that wasn’t in Ghidorah’s plans. And such plans now included this mare. Intriguing prey she was, and the Grand King could collect later, he had a job for her. With enough forced mental suggestion, such as the commands he was shoving into her subconscious’ depths, she wouldn’t even realize it wasn’t her desires once he wiped her memory of seeing him…
The Grand King gave his command as Starlight Glimmer’s face went blank and she was teleported away.
-Seek him.-
==========
Hours later
==========
Starlight Glimmer gasped as she got up from her rest. She was laying on a cobblestone and dirt road, one she recognized as being due south of Our Town’s range. Instantly her blurry mind was filled with shock.
-The town! There was so-something at the town that!.... That!-
She grimaced, feeling at her head and feeling a migraine working its way in. There was a nagging tug on her mind, like there was something she was aware she was forgetting. But at the same time, there was something else pulling her to somewhere else. Unbeknownst to her, Starlight’s eyes flashed red and a vision filled her mind. One of a tall figure with jagged spines and a long tail. Someone unknown to her but part of the plans of whom was manipulating her. And Starlight knew what she was ordered to do, even if by all accounts it seemed to be her own thought regardless of if she knew why or not.
“Godzilla.”
Starlight hit the road and went about it the same way she always did when confronting a new goal, be it town construction, mental persuasion, or self-taught magic from an old tome of an Imperial archmage; she researched. And what she found in the next town over was certainly eyebrow-raising once she saw whose picture it was in frame with her target. A certain familiar pegasus. Starlight Glimmer’s face flattened to a blank look of conflicting frustration and anger, scowling on the inside as her straining dark magic burned the edges of the newspaper’s headline.
“Psychologist, Moonbeam Glimmer, Revokes All Accusations Towards King Godzilla Gojo Junior. Walks out of Radio Debate!”
-Sister…-