//------------------------------// // Chapter 39: Transformation // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// ======= Zenith ======= Zenith’s inner chamber was shut behind multiple gates, keeping the conversation within private to only those inside and hiding it from even the most prying ears. Contrasting gold glowed against pulsing runes of dark purple as Grand King Ghidorah stood before Bagan’s sphere and the enormous god partially stepped out of it. “And of this, you are certain?”, Bagan's voice boomed. Ghidorah didn’t flinch from Bagan’s word as others would, even if he knew better than most anyone just what it felt like to earn this being’s ire. He stood resolute. “I have had eons of destruction to find your original offer, underwhelming…. This is my wish, take it and I will do as you have asked as long as what I have asked for is given.” The demand was cast and all was quiet. Bagan leaned in closer, towering over even Ghidorah’s one hundred and fifty meter tall form. The deity raised its paw with its sword-like index claw creating a rune before the hand. A trail of light filtered through the floor like electricity down a circuit board, crisscrossing to one of the blocked entrances. The doorway opened silently, with the glow of energy traveling even further down the long halls until it was out of sight; it’s destination a far ways away. “It will be arranged, go.”, Bagan noted and earned a nod from Grand King Ghidorah, the three-headed dragon casually lifting off the ground and flying out to his exit as Bagan climbed back into the sphere. They’d conversed for hours to enact this plan, but neither brought up their respective agents in Equestria; the Enjin-possessed Sunset Shimmer and the mentally altered Starlight Glimmer. Only a fool shows their full hand on the first bet, and the King of Terror and God of Extinction were anything but. -Let the games begin..- =================== Monster X helped to hold Gigan up, gripping his friend by the shoulders to assist in securing him into the cyborg’s new hanger. “Little to the left- too much. Back up some.”, Gigan muttered. X grumbled, “Couldn’t have waited a moment before locking up for these updates?” “Give me a break, I usually have a crew of bugs to help me on this.” “You never did seem fond of the Nebulans.” “When I say I have a bug in my systems, I like not being literal.” There was a click as X moved Gigan into a spot on the hanger door, the machinery around him firing up with the hanger arms gently clamping down onto Gigan’s body. Wires and cables, controlled remotely, affixed themselves to Gigan’s body and directly fed him through to the machine. “Ah, there we go.”, Gigan quipped, glancing over as the displays on the side of the hanger lit up and he rapidly began filing through dozens of systems and lines of code per second. “Are you sure this will work, Gigan? No chance of backfire?” X could tell his best friend was rolling his eye behind his visor, even if he didn’t see it directly; a sentiment reinforced by Gigan’s sarcastic drawl shortly after, “That time with those Ultras I lost an arm. Then Megalon set me on fire twice. Less than a decade ago on Terra, that moth took my head off. Last time on Terra I nearly got a replay. And since we met whacko-pony-world, I’ve nearly broken my everything hitting Ghidorah too hard and had unspeakable things done to me by that insane hairy female, twice! ...I’ve been in the same gear for two hundred solar cycles, time for another upgrade.” X snorted, shaking his head. The Xilian kaiju briefly looked to behind Gigan and if one looked close, they could see the edges of his maw curl upwards. “Thanks.” If Gigan had one, he’d be raising his brow, “For? What are you looking at, I can’t turn my head.” X sighed, watching the two resting forms propped up against the back of the hanger. A giant beetle half emerged out of the ground with a blanket of white shrouded over him. Irys, rather than sleeping on the ceiling like she usually did, was instead napping on the ground with a wing stretched across a chirping Megalon protectively. The gyaos looked entirely content despite the odd sleeping arrangement. Gigan and Monster X quietly listened to the sound of their teammates resting. “Protecting them. When I was gone, when I almost turned into… him… I wasn’t there when the fight with King Ghidorah broke out, I should have been; I shoul-Ahp!”, X was cut off by something broad whapping him on the back of the helmet with a metallic clang. Gigan was smirking as his detached forearm, held up by a mechanical assembly arm and cables, waved around after thumping X behind the head with the broad side of his scythe to kick him off the dour topic. “Someone has to keep this idiot team alive, whether you’re here or not. As for that other side of you... Don’t fear him. Fear him and he’ll win. You just keep a lid on him, got it? You’re the only one of us who could beat him like you did.”, Gigan muttered, clicking his mandibles. X rubbed at his helmet with briefly narrowed eyes, mind trailing back to the conflict in the human realm. When he fought Enjin on the outside, he was also fighting Kaizer Ghidorah on the inside. But without the power and aid of someone he loved, without that stubborn sea witch Aria Blaze, he’d have lost both. He whispered quietly with a shrug, “I didn’t win that battle alone Gigan, I had help… Lots of help.” X’s eyes shifted over to most of the assembly and disassembling process. Over a century of knowing each other and Monster X still wasn’t used to seeing Gigan’s internal mechanics, metal bones, and artificial pumps for veins. For someone who seemed so indistinguishable from a fully flesh and blood being in manner, he was so much machine. And X remembered a time he wasn’t, a time heralded when Monster X phased out of consciousness and Kaizer Ghidorah phased in. “...I was the one who originally mauled you, aren’t I? You were more organic when we first met, then there was that one mission I blacked out on. Then you were like this...” X lowered his head; expected a time of quiet, maybe some repressed anger, or the bite of harsh words. Instead he got Gigan’s remaining mechanical arm whacking him on the back of the head. “Hey! Before you jump off a self-pity cliff, do what I do best and ‘cut it’. I’ve had two hundred cycles to consider blaming you over it. It wasn’t worth considering for even one cycle,” Gigan growled, more frustrated than angry. “Don’t make me shove one of these impact charges I’m working on upside your head to make myself clear. You’re going to listen, and listen good.” Gigan used the assembly arms to lean his body forward and stare down Monster X. His visor was lifted away, exposing a single, camera lens-like, robotic eye to look into X’s fleshy ones. Gigan’s voice dropped considerably in tone, but despite the slightly static filled distortion in it as it was coming from his speakers rather than his mouth; it carried a lot of mixing emotions for being so robotic. His tone was remarkably quiet. “I don’t... blame you… And loyalty sure as Daiei ain’t something I give away cheap. Only three have won it.” He poked the shocked Monster X in the chest with one of the assembly arms, “And you were the first, so don’t you fragging dare pity me… After all, old me could lose a limb and die. New me can lose my head and just get annoyed.” Gigan’s tone shifted from quiet and dead serious to casual snark, “I’d call that an upgrade!” Gigan quipped while making the assembly arms perform a collective shrugging motion. The words died in Monster X’s throat as he remained motionless, only shifting ten seconds later to take his eyes off of Gigan and towards one of the cyborg’s detached forearms. He just now noticed the forearm, after bonking him on the head, was held upwards and diagonally; like a salute or greeting motion. He recognized the gesture, moving to complete he and the Nebulan cyborg’s stand-in for a handshake by crossing his forearm over Gigan’s. He smiled with a sigh as Gigan chuckled. “Just, promise me one thing…” Gigan made a tilting motion with the hanger arms, “Ye’?” Monster X opened his eyes again and looked past Gigan to the pile of resting kaiju that made up the rest of their team. His best friend might have forgiven him for what his other half did, but he didn’t want to ponder a reality anyone else he was bonded to needing to ever give a similar speech. Not Megalon, not Irys, not Adagio and Sonata, and especially not Aria. “If I lose control again… And, if I can’t end it, and he wins next time it happens... You’ll keep him from them. End it.” Silence ensued from the cyborg, doubly so when X looked to him again with an expression dour and filled with restrained terror. X made a slicing motion across his chest, just above where the heart would be. “... Promise me, Gigan.”, X whispered. Gigan’s mechanical eye pivoted to the side, as far as it could go to try and glimpse the source of the content chirping he knew was coming from his sleeping brother, and the calm breathing that seeped out of his newest ally, Irys. The robotic lens pivoted back to look to X, nodding with no small amount of hidden reluctance. “I only promise to try, but only if you don’t give up.”, he muttered. Monster X shrugged, slowly nodding as he stepped away from his comrade, “Hopefully it won’t ever happen. But you’re my best friend, so I trust you the most to do it if it comes to it.” “Oooye, don’t get sentimental on me now. Organics, yeesh!”, Gigan groaned, rolling his eye as the upgrade process began. Monster X walked around to the back of the hanger and sat down, crossing his legs to meditate while floating himself over close to Megalon and Irys. X let his mind drift off to the sound of his two teammates sleeping and his oldest friend’s automations. ================= Monster X’s awareness of the world around him came back screaming. His eyes snapped open and he dropped from his meditating levitation, landing instinctively upon the balls of his feet and looking around himself. Zenith, his team’s chamber, it was virtually unrecognizable. Torn apart with chunks of the walls littering the floor, scorch marks, and reeking of ruin. Irys’ cave had been collapsed upon itself, Gigan’s hanger was ripped to shreds with exposed wiring and sparking metal, and Megalon’s quarry was a sea of glassed rock. -How?! How could this-?! Where are they?!- Monster X’s fright only magnified when he saw the manner of three scorch marks that fanned out from the entryway, a trio of lines that seared the ground while crushing it under intense force. Graviton beams. His blood ran cold. -Ghidorah! He attacked, but-!! How?!- A loud, bat-like shriek called out in the distance, followed by a pained insectoid rattle, and metallic screech. X didn’t think, he didn’t ponder, he didn’t speculate; he just rushed forward out of the chamber and sprinted after the noises full of rage and terror at what the King of Terror was doing to his team. Ripping down the halls and kicking off Zenith’s walls, Monster X prayed he was closing in, prayed they’d still be alive when he got there. -Hang on guys, just hang on!- Another echo sounded off, emitting a pitch Monster X reluctantly recognized as Megalon crying out in agony. He hadn’t heard him make a sound like that since Terra. Panic and worry caused a dampness upon X’s red eyes. -If you three get hurt, it’s my fault!- Not even waiting to find a doorway once he heard that hated, horrid cackle of Grand King Ghidorah, the Xilian kaiju bellowed a war cry and rushed towards the wall. His leg ignited with graviton energy, crackling with yellow light while he closed in. -I don’t know what I did to deserve your loyalty, I’m a threat to you all.- Upon it, he pounced, rocketing forward and thrusting his leg out in a dive kick that caused the contacting wall to explode outwards from the energy smashed into it. -But you won’t fight alone this time!- Monster X flew through the entryway, sliding across the ground expecting the worst and dreaming of ripping Ghidorah apart with his bare hands if he found so much as one scorch mark on his team. He was braced for the worst. Instead, he found nothing. The room was entirely devoid of kaiju, ally or enemy. The enormous, blank space’s only feature was a glowing dome of energy on the far end of the chamber. Monster X kept his guard and surveyed. The noises had stopped. Everything he’d been seeing or hearing had stopped. His brow furrowed under his helmet. -Was… was I dreaming? Or, am I dreaming now?- Still panting from rushing here and kicking down the wall, Monster X put his attention to the only thing in the chamber. The dome. He approached cautiously, hands still raised in a guard stance should he need to fight. Step over step, he closed in, pausing momentarily when the fifty meter tall and hundred meter wide dome flickered and changed from a swirling mass of darkness into transparency. There were figures, dozens of them. Leaning in closer, Monster X recognized them as ponies. All passed out and scattered around the flat, snowy space inside. All except one. She, an earth pony mare, bore a red-furred body and yellow mane. Monster X leaned in closer as she came into awareness. He looked down, she looked up, and they recognized each other. For a split second neither was in Zenith, aware of what that place was or not, and they were back in a Manehattan alleyway during a storm. Marigold stood back, stunned at the being whom once stood as tall as a large minotaur, now seemingly as big as a mountain, surveyed the dome. Monster X slowed his breath. -Ghidorah can absorb souls for energy and the master told us to only go after artifacts to minimize exposure. This, this couldn’t have gone unnoticed!- His eyes widened in realization only to narrow in spite soon after. The large, fanged sneer forming across his face sent Marigold stumbling back in fear. -He’s doing it without the Master knowing, charging up to attack while we’re all unaware. A coup!- What followed next left Marigold screaming in fright. The black and white titan, after feeling at the dome above her, struck it with a fist. The monster she showed kindness to seemed to snarl in rage as he attacked at the barrier between them like a rabid predator trying to get at a rabbit in a cage. The momentous crash accompanying every blow was deafening. Marigold dropped into the snow surrounding her and covered her ears with whimpers of pain and fear being the only action she could muster. The crashing continued, intensified. Through her eyelids she could see a gradual build up of yellow light that swelled into what surely would have been a brilliantly blinding display of light. Then there was a shattering. As the rumbles of the explosion petered out slowly. Marigold stood there, whimpering and shaking all over. A gentle rumble settled over the ground below her and she finally looked up. A black, armored hand the size of a train car was laying itself out before her. Marigold let her eyes trail up to its owner as a low huff sounded off. Monster X held his maw closed, leaning down with one hand braced against the edge to the hole he’d blasted and smashed into the barrier and the other before Marigold. He was completely quiet aside from a slight rasp of breathing, eyes devoid of the glares from before. He didn’t know what he was doing or what he could plan. He could only hope to do what he felt was right. Marigold slowly got the message, glancing between X and his hand. “Y-You’re trying to help me?”, she yelled, trying to be loud enough to be heard. Monster X slowly nodded, still thankful he could understand what the Equestrians or humans of these worlds were saying. He truly didn't know what he was going to do with her or the others, aside from taking her as proof of Ghidorah's treachery. Perhaps the master could wipe their memory of the experience to maintain their cover, which would go threatened should they remain missing. It was a deity after all. Marigold panted for breath, but slowly a smile worn over her face. She could be suspicious, she could be wary; but right now all she could do was hope. Hope this creature she showed kindness to was sincere, that he meant no more harm than when they first met. That he honestly was trying to help. She looked to the other, still sleeping ponies and puzzled. -If that racket didn’t wake them up, what’s keeping them asleep?... And why was I the only one to wake up?- Marigold felt at her head, trying to force back a migraine of a headache as she tried to recall the last thing she could remember before being returned to awareness. There was the boat, then the storm, that figure in the sky… No, that wasn’t it, that was too long ago. There was something else. Dim, faint, like a glimpse in a blinking eye. A whisper heard amongst a racket. A hint of something she consciously recalled that tried to spill from her mind like a freshly woken dream. Her face went pale with horror, both at the memory of three sets of red eyes bearing down on her mentalscape as well as seeing those same six glowing spheres slithering through the doorway behind Monster X. -It’s a trap… That presence, that three-headed titan. It got into my mind... It knew I met the black and white one…!- “LOOK OUT!”, she shrieked, earning a confused grunt by Monster X. Marigold’s voice went shrill as she pointed above and beyond him at three glimmers of gold, “IT’S A TRAP FOR YOU! IT’S A TRAP!” The hiss of splitting air was the only other warning X got before three graviton bolts slammed into him from the side and knocked him away from the dome. Pulling himself free of the dent he’d caved into the obsidian and smoking on one side, Monster X whirled around to see a tower of gold striding slowly closer. “The dome is my way of storing food, for amusement and later use,” one head cackled. The middle head sneered in an identical voice, “Ghidorahs feed off souls, collecting and imprisoning them inside.” Monster X narrowed his eyes and assumed a combat stance, attentive mind forcing him to listen. Just like Ghidorah wanted him to as the right head hissed. “You’ve done it before… Have you ever wondered why your mind is so fractured? You ate something…disagreeable.” “Care to, try again?” “Might find it more to your liking with some variety…” All three heads sneered and snickered vilely, opening their maws and exposing the glow within. Rather than gushing out gravitons, the light from within wasn’t an attack but an expression of what lay within. Millions of voices, thousands of species’ calls seeped out, repeating their death cries. It all blurred together into forming King Ghidorah's trademark cackle. The chamber was filled with a cornucopia of death wails. It was Ghidorah’s masterpiece symphony. ============== Back in the team’s quarters, in minds unaffected by Ghidorah’s mental alteration used to draw X out, Gigan’s visor beeped with a dim red light. Inside the screen, numerous lines of code, numbers, and protocols booted up. -Grapple detonation charges, armed! Transported armaments, armed! Dual beam fire mode, enabled! Napalm, restocked!... Alert, detecting high level graviton fluctuations eight point two clicks away!- Gigan’s booted up and awakened at that. Jolting to consciousness, he didn’t even try to force himself out of the hanger and instead disappeared in a flash of red light to teleport out of it and reappear a few hundred meters away. Instantly he whirled around and observed the chamber was one teammate short. The aftershock vibrations of a distant explosion filtered through the floor, the ensuing groans showing Irys and Megalon were beginning to wake up. -X is missing, graviton flux, and explosions…- Gigan grit his beak, quickly putting two and two together. He threw up his head in an exasperated roar, which caused both Irys and Megalon to levitate off the ground and scramble up to their feet. Gigan stormed past them, clanging his scythes together to get their attention. “Wake up! Come on, get up you two!”, he roared while rushing towards the entryway. Irys, whom literally levitated off the ground and was already airborne and flapping her wings, shook off her daze. “Wh-What’s happening?! What are we doing?! Where’s X?!”, she screeched. “We’re saving our idiot again, follow me!”, Gigan barked, kicking off his feet while activating his thrusters to fly forward. The halls in Zenith were soon filled with the sounds of roaring afterburners, flapping wings, and whirling drills. ==================== The roars of war echoed throughout the rumbling chamber along with deluges of shattered floor, wall, and ceiling. pried free of the crater he'd been slammed into, Monster X was gripped around the leg by constricting tails. Torn off his bearings by a strong yank, the Xilian daikaijin was dragged across one of the walls, his upper body cutting a thick groove into it as he shielded his face from the debris with his crossed forearms; before being flung off towards another wall. Spiraling in the air, X managed to lock his aim to the oncoming wall and outstretched a hand. Gravity warped and flowed, at first repelling him away from the wall to slow himself down; and then intensifying so he could grab on and gain a purchase. Monster X sneered as he looked back at his hovering foe. Grand King Ghidorah almost looked amused, “You’ve been practicing your gravity alteration. Took you long enough.” The dragon surged forward, fangs bared. Monster X let him draw close, before releasing his hold on the wall and dropping down, momentarily increasing his gravity’s attachment to the floor to increase the fall speed. The effect was falling out of the way faster than Ghidorah anticipated, ducking under his lunge. Spinning around, Monster X cocked back a leg and lashed out; landing a roundhouse kick into King Ghidorah’s back and smashing him into the wall. Monster X nimbly dropped to the floor as he retorted, “Had some motivation.” Grand King Ghidorah intensified the gravity around his body, pulverizing the wall to free himself. Unmoved with neither glares, sneers, nor cackles; he resumed his flight and encircled the room. One of his maws became alight with power and a current of energized plasma and gravitons ripped across the floor in front of X and pitched up towards him. Unfettered, Monster X whirled his head back as an identical glow took hold of his eyes and he returned fire with his own beam. The two contrasting waves of gravitons, born of jaw and eyes, clashed back and forth with no clear advantage until Grand King Ghidorah’s other maws opened fire as well. The three rays together rapidly shoved X’s own assault backwards, the amassed ball of energy rocketing towards him. Mentally cursing, Monster X cut his ray off and dove to the side as the result of the beam lock smashed into the wall with a monstrous explosion. Ghidorah didn’t cease fire after he landed a ways away, only pouring more of it on after the wall combusted. His three maws and the accompanying lightning from his wings tore across the battlefield chaotically, their master relishing in the mayhem. Monster X sprinted off to the side, putting one armored forearm in front of himself to block any stray beams the best he could while dodging the rest. His agility was quite commendable, but it could only do so much against so much firepower. He was taking hits as the terrain around him was exploding in all directions, and even his armor couldn’t withstand even the small portion of the assault landing hits forever when the total onslaught was on such a magnitude. Still, Monster X was far from hopeless or helpless. And he knew what to do. -He knows my old moves and I can’t defend forever.- Energy collected up in his leg with every rushing stomp, X jumping aside behind a small mountain of upheaved terrain for a moment of cover. -So I’ll give him something new to ram down his throat.- Grand King Ghidorah demolished the cover in seconds, eviscerating the battlefield with an ungodly amount of beams. Through all the exploding ground and smoke however, he briefly lost sight of Monster X. Didn’t stop him from firing, as he knew he had to be hitting the smaller kaiju at least occasionally, but those ten seconds of obscurity were ended by two surprises. Firstly, the foe he expected to be trying to dodge or hide instead came rushing right at him, jumping out of the smoke cloud straight towards the Ghidorah. Secondly, the time bought was all Monster X needed to get a full charge. Monster X was smoking, burnt, had chipped his armor in more than one place; but defiant in the face of injury. The dragon knight let loose a loud, roaring call as he closed the distance and extended his right leg; which was fully engulfed in a wreath of graviton energy with a sphere of condensed power under his heel. The diving graviton kick was met with all of Grand King Ghidorah’s beams aimed at one point. But unlike against X’s eye based graviton flares, this attack was something he was more accustomed to despite the new invention. More natural to muscle memory from a life gone by, more powerful. Strong enough and charged enough it stopped Grand King Ghidorah’s assault cold and the growing sphere of energy canceled out and blew the both of them back rather than detonate against either of the combatants; ending the deadlock in a draw. Monster X skid across the ground, rolling back up to his feet and digging trenches into the ground with his stabbing fingers and grinding toes to slow himself down. Grand King Ghidorah, thrown back into the wall behind him so hard he left an enormous crack going up its entire height, pried himself out of the structure. Monster X growled but momentarily raised an eye in mild confusion when he noticed Ghidorah almost looked like he was smirking. It disturbed him even as he brushed it away and prepared to resume the fight. Only as Grand King Ghidorah spread his wings and took flight again, something not from X gave him a greeting. A greeting in the form of double burst shotgun blast of exploding red plasma to the back, a shrieking beam of purple energy across his left wing, and a bolt of broad lightning to his right wing. The assault did naught to harm him in any meaningful way, largely just generating a large shower of sparks and crackling energy across Ghidorah’s golden scales; not even disrupting his flight. What did manage to do just that was two high speed forms, one propelled by thrusters and the other by wings, slamming into his shoulders. A third, rapidly rotating form burst from the ground like a giant dolphin and collided with Ghidorah’s back. They shoved down and bounded off him, vaulting or flying themselves over to Monster X’s side of the battlefield. The sheer mass and kinetic force sent the dragon hurtling to the ground, Ghidorah altering gravity and stopping himself just inches from hitting the floor. The golden hydra sneered. Gigan dug his scythe into the ground while clicking off his thrusters, spinning himself around mid-flight and kicking his feet into the floor to grind to a halt to Monster X’s right. The Nebulan Enforcer threateningly revved up his buzzsaw, not taking his eye off Ghidorah. Megalon dove into the ground again, before erupting from the terrain to Monster X’s left. Unwinding himself from his drilling configuration, the Nebulan Wrecker landed on his feet beside his comrade and clanged his drills together. Irys nimbly dove through the air in a wide arc, flying up to the ceiling. After briefly grabbing on and then kicking off, the enormous Shadow of Atlantis landed upon the ground in front of Monster X with her hand claws digging into it; hissing with her wings spread. Monster X could only afford a brief moment of elation that whatever he witnessed or heard earlier, it wasn’t reality. There were many visions he’d have not of the present, and for now he was content to think of the last as such. The Xilian Vanguard took up a guard stance amongst his team. Grand King Ghidorah rose up from the group’s assault, narrowed six eyes upon the four forms briefly before grunting. Ghidorah intensified his golden glow, stomping upon the ground and letting loose a deafening, cackling roar from all three maws that rattled the entirety of the chamber from top to bottom. One Dark Hunter could give him some issues. Three of them could wound him. But against the four, the answer to why he wasn’t afraid was simple. He was the King of Terror. Monster X tightened a fist, Megalon clicked his mandibles, Irys tensed her wings, and Gigan drew up his blades. They slowly moved together, side stepping and keeping eyes trained upon Ghidorah at all times. They did what friends did even when in a stressful situation, they bantered while keeping at the ready. “One day, you couldn’t wait one more day?!” Gigan muttered in a hushed growl. “Are you three injured?” “Us? How injured are you?”, Irys barked, “You’re the one who went gallivanting off to fight this guy!” Gigan couldn’t resist the temptation to brush up on his frustration regarding the last time a teammate had a death wish, “Ironic, isn’t it Irys?” Megalon chimed in as he leaned over towards X slightly and covered his maw with a drill, “Why did you think we were hurt Mr. X?” Monster X winced, recalling the nightmare, vision, illusion...he still wasn’t sure which, but pushed it aside after a moment’s thought, “Nevermind, I’ll explain later. He’s betraying the Master.” Gigan deadpanned, “... Nooooo, really?” “Took him long enough!”, Megalon quipped. Irys narrowed her eyes and threw her voice back to the alien trio, “So this capture or kill?” X only needed grunt two words, “It’s Ghidorah.” “Kill it is then,” Gigan shrugged, managing to hide just how scared out of his mind he was. Megalon tapped his elbow against X’s and glanced to his brother and Irys, “Uuum, he’s got three sets of ears. We know he can probably hear us right?” Irys gulped after glancing at Grand King Ghidorah’s scowling maws, “Something tells me he already knew it before we said it.” The golden titan started to approach, crushing the ground with every footfall and the four braced. “Any plans?” “He’s got three heads, give him one too many things to keep them occupied with.” Link! In unison the four burst out of formation in different directions, Irys taking to the air and circling around in a swooping arc, Monster X sprinting forward to close the gap, Gigan jumping up and teleporting to a high vantage point; while Megalon dove into the ground shouting the one thing the four had agreed not to have. A team battle cry, let alone one Megalon insisted seemed familiar to him after meeting a certain blue siren. “YOOOO JOE!” (Click Video for Audio) Monster X dodged to the side, weaving and diving to avoid the oncoming graviton beams that threatened to keep him at bay. A blur of white swooped in and Irys passed in front of her teammate, projecting a shield of sound waves from the underside of her glowing wings. The barrier diverted and reflected the golden torrents, sending them chaotically raking across the walls or floor directly in front of Grand King Ghidorah. Ghidorah intensified the beams, shoving the gyaos off to the side as he overpowered her shield; but the flash of red light and swing of blades behind him kept him from frying the gyaos. Gigan raked his scythe across Ghidorah’s back, searching for an old wound and getting a shower of sparks in the process. He got a few hits in, managing to knock off a few scales as he scanned for blemishes to indicate where the scar he and Irys might have given Ghidorah might be; but was grabbed around the neck and leg by King Ghidorah’s tails. He was hurled back and slammed into the floor so hard his skidding cut grooves into it, Gigan screeching in pain. Ghidorah quickly found himself grunting in pain from an armored knee smashing into his left head. Monster X, having closed the distance thanks to his allies’ aid, followed the jumping knee with a double hammer fist to the same head. He grabbed the flailing head by the horn and smashed his other fist into its cheek repeatedly, not letting up even as Ghidorah’s other necks constricted around him. Grand King Ghidorah lifted off into the air and tightened his hold upon Monster X, fracturing bone armor and bruising muscle in retaliation for the chipped horn and several lost teeth. Hissing, his rightmost head bit down on X’s elbow, between the armor plates, while the central head charged a graviton ray. At this range, even with a helmet, a beam by Grand King Ghidorah to the face would have done quite a hefty amount of damage. Two cables shot to the two, one going slack across Monster X’s shoulder and the other hooking its barbed tip behind King Ghidorah’s central antler. Monster X, wincing from the pain, still managed a smirk as he let go of Ghidorah’s left head and grabbed a hold of the cable. The other cable retracted just as a large mass burst from the ground under and behind King Ghidorah. Halting his spinning, Megalon emitted several hacking noises and peppered the dragon’s back with multiple napalm grenades. The fire failed to do any damage even as it drenched King Ghidorah’s scales in liquid flame, but the concussive bursts that could shatter buildings did cause him to flinch briefly; just enough to loosen his hold on Monster X. The moment King Ghidorah fired his golden wrath from his maw, X disappeared in a flash of red light, teleported away along with Gigan’s grappling cable due to holding onto it. It was a risky move, as teleporting one entity alongside of himself was taxing on the cyborg’s warp drive and he couldn’t get X back to the ground due to him holding onto the end of the cable; but Irys was able to dive in and grab X by the shoulders and slow the fall. Grand King Ghidorah snarled, glaring down at the four with dim eyes. Alone or even just two of them, he’d have crushed them with ease. Three could occupy him. Four all together? That was giving him more trouble than he sought to be worth it, even if they’d only managed scratch damage thus far. Every time he managed to get one where he wanted it, two or three others piled in. The golden hydra breathed in as he soared high above, letting out a massive bellow from each individual jaw with the question of who to eviscerate how only being interrupted by two observations. Why was the older cyborg smirking at him and why was his crest beeping? The internal display in Gigan’s visor showed King Ghidorah’s outline and readouts, such as energy readings going off the charts. It also showed a red patch highlighted on the dragon’s antler where his cable had been flashing. One of the upgrades worked, as indicated by his head-up display showing some very welcome text. -Detonation charge, primed!- The explosive pack atop Ghidorah’s cranium went off, earning a shriek of surprise and dull pain. While he wasn’t harmed greatly by the pack of powerful explosives, proximity and Gigan’s mix being far more potent than any missile or bomb got a reaction of deafened hearing and rattled vision. Ghidorah’s middle head was billowing smoke that crowned his form. It bought the team a moment’s respite and when Ghidorah’s vision cleared, only Gigan stood before him. King Ghidorah hadn’t seen a single, silent signal that had been cast between the team while he was momentarily blinded. The cyborg held his arms upwards, cocking his forearms back and loading another detonation charge onto the tip of his scythes and grapple hooks with a sound akin to a racking shotgun. The two took a step forward, then another, before thrusters and wings powered to further close the distance. They fought, laying into each other with a myriad of swings, swats, the swipe of tails and slashes of blades. Gigan used his thrusters to augment his agility, managing to dodge the heavier blows even if the lighter ones still hit like a nuclear pulse to the face. Gigan by comparison was failing to do anything more than bat aside one of Ghidorah’s head or knock a few scales off, but he was doing exactly as he intended. Teleporting behind Grand King Ghidorah, Gigan lashed down with his scythes upon Ghidorah’s back and slashed them down to stab them in as far as they’d go. It only pushed aside the top layer of scales, but it was enough. He leapt backwards, firing out his grappling hooks to stick two more charges in atop Ghidorah’s dorsal where he’d stabbed in before landing a good distance away. Half of King Ghidorah’s form inside the cyborg’s display was covered in beeping red signals. Gigan re-cocked his arms and smirked, wishing he’d come up with this that time he and X had to fight Zone Fighter. Grand King Ghidorah roared in surprise and confusion as explosions went off all over him, planted by Gigan’s scythe swings or hooks. The four implanted into, rather than onto, his scales upon his back exploded with noted force and blew off a large number of scales to expose the fleshy scar beneath it. While the other body shots didn’t manage to actually damage him to any real degree, the sheer number of them was leaving him concussed if only for a moment. A moment Irys and Megalon seized upon. Bursting out of the ground, sprinting from the side or swooping down from above, the three came at Ghidorah from opposite sides; Irys pounced upon his back as the more durable insect cyborg and dragon kaiju fought him from upfront. Coordinated, Megalon dropped into the kaiju foot-first almost looking like he was sliding across the ground on his tail and drop kicked Ghidorah in the face just as Monster X lunged from the side and landed a roundhouse kick from the back. Both kicks collided at the same time and it was a testament to his durability that Ghidorah’s skull wasn’t instantly crushed on impact. In a normal state, Ghidorah could have smacked Megalon and Monster X aside easily. But in the daze and deafening of Gigan’s explosives and the double kick-sandwich his world was spinning too much to land any meaningful hits on Megalon or X. The younger cyborg was the physically stronger of the two cyborgs and made good use of it, smacking, swatting, and whacking the dragon with his drills and horn while the respectably powerful Monster X stood shoulder to shoulder with him and loosed a barrage of backhands, jabs, and knee strikes. Just as Ghidorah managed to bite down on the cyborg’s shoulder, splintering chitin and warping metal in his fangs, a god awful shriek that rang all six of his ears came from the form perched on his back. Deafened, Grand King Ghidorah didn't hear what Megalon's chirping called for as the partially restrained cyborg called out to Monster X and pushed him away. Monster X bolted off out of sight as Megalon did what he could to hold Grand King Ghidorah and keep him from turning around. Despite the cyborg's meddling, the dragon did glimpse what the cause of the Tanaka awful noise was. Irys’ sonic cutter had been revved up into overdrive and the gyaos was scratching at Ghidorah’s armored hide with the purple ray as she clung to it. Sweeping it back and forth, she looked for any spot that resisted the beam slightly differently and found it where she expected it; about three quarters up the back and slightly to the left of the spine. The gyaos and her team had remembered how Grand King Ghidorah still bore a scar from Kaizer Ghidorah tearing on of his heads off centuries ago, so they knew he scarred even if he healed; meaning Irys knew where to look for an easy chink in the armor. She’d found the scar Gigan and her had given their foe in their last encounter and had every intent to re-open it. Struggling about to dislodge the stubborn insect and bat, Ghidorah caught a glimpse of the team’s fourth member. Monster X was standing a few hundred meters behind Irys, arms spread and one of his legs sweeping across the ground as a golden aura and sparks of light built up on it. The plan the group had coalesced earlier was simple, one Ghidorah quickly wised up to. Expose the weakness, hit it with the strongest attack possible. Grand King Ghidorah sneered, wincing lightly as he felt Irys' beam hack at his back and draw some light bleeding. Fat chance at that. Grand King Ghidorah roared, forcing his vision to clear and bathing his own form with the lightning he usually shot forth from his wings to electrocute Irys and Megalon. He lashed out, seizing Megalon by the shoulders with his jaws and Irys around her ankles with his tail just as Gigan rushed forward. Megalon was torn off his feet and slammed into the ground behind him before being thrown back with tremendous force into Gigan hard enough that the two went flying and skidding across the ground, while Irys was yanked back and slammed into the floor repeatedly by the dragon's tails. But as Monster X nimbly dodged a graviton beam Grand King Ghidorah fired in his direction and came charging back in, both to attack his enemy and aid his ally, Ghidorah didn’t let go of Irys. Instead he lifted the dazed gyaos up by her feet and held her in front of him as a shield. His three maws smirked, dangling the gyaos in front of his back wound as a tantalizing choice for X to attack through her and take the shot or blow his chance at landing a meaningful hit. X threw on the brakes just as he jumped, trying to cancel out the energy and avoid hitting his teammate He launched a wave of altered gravity to his right to change his direction and avert his collision course with Irys, just like Ghidorah knew he would. As Monster X went flying off to the side, stabilizing his fall with more gravity alteration, King Ghidorah smacked him with Irys and blasted the both of them with a pair of graviton beams from his central and right maws. Monster X, the more armored of the two much less dazed, and knowing she couldn’t activate her shield in her condition, grabbed Irys and put her behind him to shield both of them from the onslaught with his back armor. But even he could only take so much as the both of them got blasted into a wall. The Xilian kaijin cried out in pain from the beams burning lines across his back, trying to keep Irys out of the blasts. Megalon and Gigan shook off their daze, Gigan whacking himself on the side of his head to clear his visor. Despite the both of them sparking and leaking artificial blood in a few spots, Megalon needed one look at his friends getting blasted to jump up and start buzzing his giant, beetle-like wings; fully ready to launch back into the fray. “They need help, come’on!”, he barked. Conscious that they had only one spot to try and hit Ghidorah at that count and worried for his brother launching himself at the stuff of nightmares again, Gigan grimaced. “Wait, we need a plan!”, Gigan squawked as his thrusters kicked on. Steeling a quick glance between his sibling and their teammates, Megalon's eye lenses seemed to dilate as he tapped his drill against his brother's scythe with a metallic clang, “No time! Free style!” Megalon rushed Ghidorah at full speed with Gigan following alongside him. Grand King Ghidorah’s left head swiveled its eyes around to lock onto them, snarling and loosing a barrage of wing lightning upon them. As the waves of electricity and cyborgs were about to collide, Megalon brought his rotating drills up and activated the magnets within it. The wing lightning was absorbed by the whirling drills, igniting a glow across Megalon’s eyes and horn as he cracked a satisfied giggle. King Ghidorah snarled and cut the feed, instead opening fire with a graviton ray from his left head upon the two. Gigan reached over and grabbed his sparking brother, revving up his thrusters to full speed and accelerating the two of them far faster than Megalon could typically fly. The two cyborgs disappeared in a red flash of light, teleporting out of the way to dodge the beam and reappear directly in front of King Ghidorah. Over one hundred twenty thousand combined tons of Nebulan cyborg crashed into Ghidorah with a metallic crashed, Megalon venting his absorbed wing lighting to electrify Ghidorah with his touch and grabbing him around the hips as Gigan snagged a hold of his collar, securing a hold with a grappling cable cast around Ghidorah's wing. Sparks burst, insectoid wings beat, thrusters roared with enormous plumes of light; and the force of the two along with their momentum knocked Grand King Ghidorah off his feet to free their teammates of his beam assault. They flew Ghidorah backwards across the chamber, arcing up before crashing down into the ground with all their momentum intact. They used him as a battering ram to cut out an enormous trench into the floor as deep as they were tall, earning a sharp grunt and shriek from Ghidorah. Tens of thousands of tons of earth was thrown all around, Ghidorah cackling in rage as he tried to dislodge the two. The brothers dredged him across the floor for the length of the chamber, reaching its end and colliding into the wall. There was a fantastic crash with a crater bursting into the edge of the chamber and large cracked spreading out even further. Megalon's wings beat harder and Gigan's thrusters roared louder and brighter, continuing the backwards momentum and grinding the dragon deeper into the wall slowly; intending to crush him between their force and the depths of Zenith. After being effectively a snowplow for several hundred meters and slammed into the wall, Grand King Ghidorah got his chance at freedom when he ejected a large burst of gravitons from his maws, coiling the beams around them like nooses cast around their bodies and prying them off. Yanked away, their momentum upon him died and his backwards advance had ground to a halt. Grand King Ghidorah whirled the two cyborg’s around before lobbing them into a mountain of debris dislodged from their trench building run. Grunting, Ghidorah altered his own gravity to pick himself up and take wing into to the air. Megalon hit the mountain back-first, cracking part of his wing covers in the process; with Gigan landing next to him. The impact was enough to cause both of them to spark and sport cracked eye lenses and visors respectively; but Ghidorah underestimated just how tough Nebulans built their technology. When he came flying at them with the intent to stomp the both of them to pulp, both cyborgs instantly came back online and had their respective beam platforms primed. Both Gigan’s visor for his beam and the emitter above it to fire the shotgun burst fired up to life with a mechanical hum, one of his other upgrades getting it’s trial by fire. -Dual fire mode, online!- The stolen electricity Megalon had diverted from the wing-lightning surged up the cyborg's spinning, electromagnetic drills and collected up on the grinning beetle’s horn. -Thunder cannon at: 356%!- “Dejavu for yooou!”, Megalon joyfully chimed before throwing his head forward and letting loose alongside his sibling. Both cyborgs opened fire, Gigan unloading both his incendiary eye beam as well as the explosive shotgun bursts from his forehead emitter while Megalon unleashed a torrent of plasma and electricity a dozen meters thick from his horn’s star shaped point. Grand King Ghidorah’s forward momentum was averted with the onslaught, especially when the brothers lurched out of the dents their impacts had carved and slowly approached. Ghidorah landed and pulled his wings in front of himself to shield his faces as his heels began to slide back against the ground. The brothers couldn’t keep this up, they were both unloading a lot of energy doing this for a few seconds. And Ghidorah was charging up something of his own. But as few seconds were all they needed. The brother's back-up had arrived. Gigan and Megalon cut off the feeds, smirking as a black hand gripped Gigan by the shoulder and a pair of white and purple wings soared over Megalon. Monster X vaulted himself over Gigan and grabbed onto Irys’ outstretched foot as her talons gripped him around the forearm. She soared up, skillfully gaining speed in a wide loop before diving down at high speed. At the last second they let go of each other. Just as Ghidorah, having been blinded by his own shield, was opening his wings to rejoin the fray; Monster X came down upon him. The Xilian Vanguard cocked a leg back and sprang around, landing a falling roundhouse kick to the back of Ghidorah’s head so hard it nearly sent the kaiju doubling over off balance. Following up the kick, Irys swooped down around Monster X. The most agile in the air of the four, she had little issue arching up in her flight and using her thick, flattened skullplate to effectively uppercut Grand King Ghidorah from below his own ducking. The Ghidorah’s body began to glow dimly and everything from pebbles to boulders across the room started to vibrate, but in the thrill of the duel none of the team noticed. They were too busy following up on each other. Every blow, every attack, every block, one of the others followed up on. A lunging swipe by Gigan was paired with a jumping backhand by Monster X. A deflected beam by Irys’ sonic shield was joined by Megalon absorbing the wing lightning she couldn’t deflect, then a retaliatory dual eye beam assault by Gigan and Monster X. Megalon swinging up with his energized horn was capitalized by a dive-bombing Irys stomping on Ghidorah’s back to push him into the blow more. Grand King Ghidorah was fighting back, scoring hits, even forcing one of them sprawling or back with a smack of a head of quick burst of gravitons; but only for a moment. Every time he forced one back, the others piled in to protect their comrade, who'd come charging back in either not harmed enough to stay down or simply being too stubborn to quit. Grand King Ghidorah wasn’t fighting four kaiju at the same time, he was fighting a single unit, a team. The full gambits were cast as both sides rushed each other. A full barrage of graviton beams and wing lightning was intercepted by streams of red plasma, graviton flares, solid sound waves, and a stout thunder bolt. The energy clashed and pushed back and forth at near point blank range. Two cyborgs and two failed experiments launched their beams in a contest against the King of Terror’s full brunt, and they won. Grand King Ghidorah, smoking, missing scales, and huffing snarls, skidded back on his heels and dropped to a knee. He tried to rise but the ground beneath him fractured and shook, Megalon erupting from below. His tunneling chewed up the earth and caused Ghidorah to sink into it from the waist down. Napalm from his grenades burst out, melting and re-solidifying the ground to hold him in place as the cyborg grabbed hold of his feet and refused to let go. As he flailed and struggled to kick the stubborn beetle off and free himself, Grand King Ghidorah spied Monster X several hundred meters behind him. The Xilian kaijin lowered his arms and focused, sweeping his leg across the ground in front of him as energy was collected within it; charging up for his strongest strike which was no doubt aimed at Ghidorah’s exposed scar. Stuck, Ghidorah tried to fire his graviton beams downward to blast through the terrain and get Megalon off so he could free himself; but he couldn’t when the sound of roaring thrusters and flapping wings heralded a pair of cables hitting him in the necks. Irys, holding something in her talons, slammed into Ghidorah's heads full force, knocking her off her flight balance but succeeding in dazing the dragon when her headplate smashed directly into his faces. Gigan, with his grappling cables extended, and Irys, still holding onto the other end of the cables, flew around in circles going opposing directions with Ghidorah at the center. The cables coiled around and bound his three necks together. Irys let go as her end tied down and Gigan landed a few dozen meters in front of Ghidorah. The dragon’s heads were wrenched forward and he roared, beginning to pull against the cyborg’s cable winches and pull them back, managing to tug the cyborg closer and raise his heads up slightly until Irys landed on top of the cables and pinned them under her feet and wings. “X go! He’s wide open!”, she screeched; her and the cyborgs still struggling to hold the gargantuan dragon in place. Fortunately, her teammate was finished. A bellowing voice he couldn’t see called out from behind Grand King Ghidorah. “Alright guys, let’s finish this!” Monster X stomped his energized leg down with an eruption of shattering earth, before sprinting forward. Irys, Gigan, and Megalon all called out as they pulled as hard they could muster; intending to keep Ghidorah locked down until X could hit him with the team’s strongest attack on his weakest spot. The blow could kill him. X knew it, they knew it, and King Ghidorah knew it. This could be how the King of Terror died. Ganged up on by a well-coordinated team of beings whom were quite powerful in their own right, a vindicated strategy given his success against groups was lacking. It could have been this day, this hour, this minute, this second. It wasn’t. Grand King Ghidorah felt the three pulling against him and he didn’t fight back. He could hear the vibrations of the fourth’s footfalls and he didn’t try to counterattack. He instead felt the gravity all around him build in a growing charge he’d been cooking up for several minutes. And he crushed it in his jaws, condensing it before letting it loose. With his roar, a golden shockwave of energy shot out of Grand King Ghidorah just as Monster X had just jumped forward to enact the diving graviton kick. Instantly the gravity of the room was intensified by magnitudes. The ground was utterly pulverized, almost turned to dust that was forced deeper down. Gigan and Irys both lost their footing and were shoved to the ground, half buried and unable to stand. Megalon yelped and was forced even deeper down, freeing Grand King Ghidorah’s legs. Monster X, having been airborne, got yanked downwards and his attack was slammed into the ground less than a dozen meters away from Ghidorah’s back. The ensuing explosion helped the dragon, unaffected by the mass graviton wave, to free himself from the ground and cables, throwing his heads outwards in a massive roar. Grand King Ghidorah tore free from the ground and cackled as he slowly turned around to face the wincing, half buried Monster X. “I thank you, whelp. Haven’t had a fight like that in sixty five eons. Had that last hit landed you could have ended it,” his coy tone cackled as he surveyed the battlefield. Gigan and Irys were fighting the gravity, managing to look up defiantly at the golden dragon as they started to push themselves up despite clearly struggling. Shifting in the ground below indicated Megalon was doing much the same, and Monster X sneered while trying to slowly reach over and pry his sunken body free of the terrain. “I can’t maintain this for more than a short time longer, not enough to kill any of you. You’re not the battle I’ve made my arrangements for. But this isn’t the battle I prepared for you either today, 094.” Monster X grunted as Grand King Ghidorah landed and kicked him over, pinning him underfoot while hovering over his helmeted face with his own trio of jaws. The hydra’s expression was something new to the Xilian kaijin. Not rage, not smug superiority, not even stoic. If anything it looked, disappointed. “This form is not your prime, not as I see it. But, I can arrange a little test to see if succession picks the right heir,” he quipped out of his alternating maws. Monster X winced from the weight and the fact he was still fighting the extremely multiplied gravity, “W-What.. are you… talk-ing about?!” “Have you ever wondered why Kaizer Ghidorah isn’t your normal state despite him being more powerful and more… passionate, about his notation? There's been, interference. It’s all because someone’s been holding him back….” Grand King Ghidorah ground his heel into Monster X’s chest armor, fracturing it as he loomed closer and forced the smaller giant to lock eyes with him and experience the psychic force he was projecting. “But, he can still arise… If properly motivated. For awhile I thought it to be myself that was the sole causation, but I’ve found something far… far more effective once I reviewed a certain memory…” Ghidorah’s eyes flashed red and X’s did likewise. -”Let me show you something, Kaizer.”- The world in both their minds changed, from Zenith… to Planet Xilian, just over three hundred years ago. ======= Earlier ======= Bagan and Ghidorah had been talking for hours, a detailing of a testament and a will. “Yet, you wish for Kaizer Ghidorah to emerge?” Grand King Ghidorah only shrugged at the question, “Why else do you think I tried to antagonize him before you.. removed him from the situation. No luck in that venture I presume?” “So, you want a chance to draw him out again?” Grand King Ghidorah nodded slightly, “Ah, that’s the first part of our deal. I want him out, and lastingly so. I didn’t know what force compelled that other side, this “Monster X”, to persist so much. At least, not at first when every time I’ve managed to get that other half out; it stubbornly emerged again and resigned Kaizer back to his prison.” “And how is it you believe X manages to overpower Kaizer each time?” “Simple, my dear deity,” Ghidorah muttered while his eyes flashed red and he projected a memory to Bagan of centuries past, “It’s not X who’s holding him back.” Bagan was silent, observing what was shown and knowing Ghidorah wouldn’t dare try to manipulate the memory to trick it. Deceit was not nothing the dragon needed. Its own eyes pulsed with light when the memory halted. “Your desire is to unleash that which is dead set upon killing you?” “Me and anything around it. And if any lingering threads happen to be in the chamber with him when the Kaizer emerges, I’ll offer to you a moment’s ponderance as to what it will do if it can’t get its vengeance upon me...” ================ Monster X writhed in agony, his mind torn into as King Ghidorah forced him to see sights only glimpsed before. His consciousness was in a white, empty space that hung over him like a massive dome. His form represented by a gray outline of himself, he tried to behold his surroundings. Upon the ceiling formed a screen of memories. A female Xilian, a Controller with purple markings and violet eyes, standing in a laboratory with her forehead to his. He was frozen upon her face. Grand King Ghidorah’s presence slithered through his mind, filling all the space around him with various memories of Controller 011. The laboratory, a union ceremony, a quiet meeting, courting, a first meeting involving a punch to the face between two young teenagers. In hindsight or a calmer time he might speculate that he did indeed recall some of these details instinctually or subconsciously given her eye color and build were almost identical to Aria Blaze, perhaps unconsciously seeking someone similar to what his old life had right down to demeanor and an associated color, purple, that stood out across the otherwise monochrome Xilian race. In the present though, he couldn’t do anything but scream as the vicious force deep in his mind clawing at its cage to get free. Grand King Ghidorah chuckled. -”Your… wife. Controller 011 by your race's number. Your attached, before she was… replaced.”- Some of the memories were shifted to much more recent events, one with a sea witch turned human in another realm, another life. His current love, Aria Blaze, played in memory most recent to distant. A kiss in the forest, a promise made before a final battle, mutual respect and hidden affection, ventings and understandings, training sessions, a punch to the jaw on a riverbank. They were superimposed with 011's last day. It brought out a hate-filled, grieving roar from the depths of Monster X’s mind. Grand King Ghidorah, represented by a glowing, golden outline of himself, dredged up a cage Aria and X had shoved away. Monster X could already feel who was inside before they became visible through the fog of memory and consciousness. Pure hatred and unadulterated wrath. Kaizer Ghidorah’s form launched itself at the bars like a rabid bull intending to maul the two beings he sought to destroy most, both standing before him. Grand King Ghidorah smirked, changing the visions above to all show a single one from that fateful day on Planet Xilian. One of a white cloaked figure, Controller 011, standing atop a building to try and psychically aid her husband. A projectile from a deflected Xilian artillery piece sailed towards the building in slow motion as she beheld her fate in horror. The building came crumbling down in full view of 011's husband. =================== Grand King Ghidorah momentarily paused his monologue to Bagan, cracking a small grin with all three of his maws as he toyed at the plan he was concocting, “Kaizer hates two things most of all, Reijuu. Myself and his other half for forgetting. Fill him with enough resolve to end both and anything tied to either-” ===================== Grand King Ghidorah began to try and approach Kaizer’s cage, unfazed by the raging manifestation of Kaizer Ghidorah's personality with lay within. He only momentarily paused when he felt some force trying to keep him away, repelling his initial will upon the cage like it was the cage itself fighting back. Kaizer Ghidorah roared and Grand King Ghidorah sneered. Another voice called out to say something, one King Ghidorah roared over. -"I’ve had enough of you!"- It was indeed the cage itself was trying to resist being opened, but it couldn't resist a foe like Grand King Ghidorah for long. He psychically threw his consciousness at it and overpowered the defenses. The memory above changed, showing Controller 011’s limp body laying across from an enormous form, a fallen Kaizer Ghidorah whom huffed in ached breaths. In the sky above, Grand King Ghidorah, missing one of his heads, escaped out of the atmosphere. Controller 011 wasn't moving. Her dress was blemished and torn. Her broken, grief-filled, still eyes wept tears as her chest wept blood from a piece of debris stabbed through it. Just looking at it caused the corresponding area on Monster X and Kaizer’s torsos to ache, for that was where they had their largest scar and the former was realizing just now where he got it. The latter only bellowed in rage and tried to smash into the cage again. ================= Standing before Bagan’s sphere, Grand King Ghidorah had never looked so excited before, sporting a demonic grin as he finished his pitch. “-and he’ll overcome the barrier, overcome the X personality. He’ll become what I’ve chosen for him. A true Ghidorah! A world killing machine! Crowned not a king but an emperor!” ================== Grand King Ghidorah seized the cage, Kaizer Ghidorah on the other side. The cage resisted, but it could only hold for so long against such force. The cage shattered like glass and Kaizer Ghidorah broke free of the mental barriers. And with Grand King Ghidorah’s avatar fading away as he left their mind, Kaizer did the only thing that came to his mind and attack what he despised. The personality who’d let them forget about their only purpose and goal, forget their past and tried to replace it. Forget her while locking him away. They collided, they struggled… and Kaizer Ghidorah took control as Monster X was thrown into the remains of the cage. As his strength drained, X almost thought he could hear someone crying. There was weak whisper of someone else just barely audible below Kaizer’s horrific roars. -”Forgive me…”- =================== In the real world, the gravity surge subsided and the Dark Hunters were all free of its crushing grasp. But as soon as they were, Grand King Ghidorah vanished into a gold-hued portal of swirling energy different from their master’s; taking the Equestrian dome along with him. Soon, all eyes were on the source of the screaming. Monster X tore himself free of his partial entombment, clawing at his own head. He struggled, gasping in agony and shrieking in incoherent rage. Beams of gold erupted from his eyes and burrowed into the ceiling, wreathing him in falling debris and blinding light. A ray of gravitons spewed out of his mouth and shoulder pads as his roar deepened. Wings burst out of his back. What the three remaining kaiju saw made them want to retch, seeing their friend’s body twisted, broken, hulked up, and deformed into a true monster. Gravity intensified again around its emperor, pulverizing huge swaths of terrain. Irys, Gigan, and Megalon huddled together, loss and horror clad across their faces as a towering form shadowed them from the golden light. A massive paw crushed the earth beneath it and dug in its talons. A hulking behemoth, somehow even more monstrous in appearance than Grand King Ghidorah, huffed and growled through tripled sets of sharp fangs. The ebony and gold monstrosity looked about for its target and found him departed. With no King Ghidorah around to crave the destruction of, blood red eyes sought the second-most hated. But, obviously with no Monster X around to behold, they instead looked upon his bonded with pure malice and craven rage. “No,” Gigan whispered breathlessly even as his red visor looked up stoically. The cyborg put himself between his teammates and the new foe, revving up his buzzsaw and igniting his visor with more regret than he ever thought possible in his life. Kaizer Ghidorah, fully formed for the first time in over a century, lifted his maws and let out an unholy wail of a roar that shook Zenith to its core. ============================== “8..7...6…-” The beam of bright pink cut through the night sky, bisecting several specially arranged clouds into fourths, then eighths, then narrower without losing any force. “-5...4...3…-” An aura of bright blue magic collected up into a wave of energy, forcing back a heinous looking dark mist, shoving the Tantabus back. “2...1… Stop.”, Godzilla Junior and Princess Luna noted in unison from opposite sides of the field. The ponies with them, the Element of Generosity, Rarity, and a magical prodigy, Mariner “Chibi” Moon, stopped their respective magic bursts. Rarity successfully having shoved the Tantabus back into its containment with Princess Luna’s banishment spell as Chibi Moon cut off her energy beam she emulated from Godzilla’s breath ray. Mare and filly both sighed and fell back, Chibi flopping onto her sensei’s hoof as Rarity sat back and dabbed at her forehead with a cloth. They were all situated in a quiet field just outside of Canterlot’s city limits, Princess of the Night and King of the Monsters having opted to train their requested at the same time. By sheer coincidence they claimed, but Rarity had noticed Chibi was thoroughly unconvinced and had a grin a mile wide despite Luna and Junior not talking to each other much. Chibi had come for further practice on control of the powers she copied from her sensei, Rarity for another lesson on dark banishment to calm her own nerves. But even a mare who was used to dealing with the perpetual motion machine that was Pinkie Pie and a hyperactive filly whom drank what Rarity and Luna at first thought was a ludicrous amount of coffee, provided by Junior naturally; both of them were at their stamina’s end after a few hours. “We believe that will be all for tonight, thou hast’ done well Fair Lady Rarity!”, Princess Luna piped proudly as she nudged Rarity’s shoulder and earned a smile from the mare. Rarity giggled sheepishly, “Only with your instruction, Princess Luna. Thank you for bothering with this, it really helps a lady sleep at night!.. Besides all the dream walking, of course.” Junior bemusedly lifted up his forelimb, a chipper filly hanging off it and looking him in the face. “Are you proud of me Sensei? Are yah, are yah?”, Chibi Moon begged chipperly with a wagging tail. Godzilla Junior cracked a tiny smile even as he grunted an obvious lie, “Nope.” "“EEEeeee!...-” Chibi Moon squealed, scurrying up his limb and faceplanting into Junior’s neck, “-... I’m tired.” “She’s not alone, ehehe.” Rarity chuckled as she trotted up to the kaiju with Luna in tow. Princess Luna nodded proudly, “Indeed, not all a’pony are suited for a nocturnal excursion. The instructed need rest.” Godzilla Junior gently used his hooves to nudge Chibi Moon around his throat and onto his back, the filly happily climbing up onto his shoulders and curling up in her mentor’s mane as Rarity reached up and tenderly rubbed at her head. As Luna and Junior faced one another, the cutiemark upon the former began to pulse with a glow. “It appears somepony is having a nightmare,-” Luna pitched her head up, lenses of magic forming over her eyes and creating a vision of aura only she could see. Sure enough, there was a blinking light back in the castle behind them. “Back in the castle in fact, likely a staff pony from the day shift.” Junior looked to Luna, “Don’t let me slow you down. I’ll walk the little one back to the school.” “Would it be a bother for you to also escort Lady Rarity towards the train station?”, Luna poised as she hovered a touch close to the stallion. “I never was one to turn down one of your requests, Luna.” Junior grunted, keeping mind not to drop her nickname in public. The slight temperature increase in Junior’s face and Luna’s wings shaking slightly was not lost on Rarity or Chibi Moon, whom glanced to each other, to Junior, and then to Luna, before looking back to each other. Rarity’s cocked eyebrow and slight smile showed amusement, Chibi’s enormous grin and barely restrained squeal made her look about ready to bounce off her sensei’s back. Godzilla Junior and Princess Luna exchanged a courteous nod and both turned to the city, the alicorn lifting off to fly back to the castle ahead of them and do her duty as Junior, Rarity, and Chibi hoofed it back at a slower pace. After dropping Rarity off near the train station, as the mare insisted she was capable of securing her seat again on her round trip ticket, Junior slowly made his way towards the School for Gifted Unicorns. Chibi Moon had been quiet for a time and he could feel her nestled up against the back of his neck, no doubt feeling both very safe and very warm in her sensei’s mane. Before he could tempt the thought she’d fallen asleep however, he felt her crawl through his mane and take her common perch by flopping down atop his head, enjoying the high view as she looked ahead. “Heh, thought you were asleep,” He muttered. Chibi Moon shook her head, rubbing her cheek against the giant unicorn’s horn. Her tiny voice piped up in a surprisingly calm tone. “You know she’s not actually mad at you, right?” “Hm?” “Whatever happened at Mako- whenever you feel like telling me what those sea dames did.”, Chibi Moon whispered as she lifted an ear towards her sensei eagerly. Junior grumbled, “Leaving that to your parents.” Chibi Moon groaned loudly, rolling over onto Godzilla's head, “Ooooooye… Whatever. Anyways, the cordialness? She’s just teasing at you. She hasn’t been mad at you since you got back.” Junior raised an eyebrow, “And how would you know that?” “Silly Sensei-,” she pawed at his brow, “Remember I spent half my school awards night with her before you! I tell you, she smiled every time I mentioned you and that was right after your mission. Not a scary smile either, a really happy one!” “And… how often was it you mentioned me exactly?” “I’m eleven and I already am president of your fan club. You do the math,” her persnickety tone didn’t fail to earn a slight smirk from her sensei. "She likes you, a lot… No tattling on me though, okay Sensei?” Junior let his smirk grow into a smile as he reached up and rubbed the back of his student’s head, earning a pleased cooing sound as she kneaded her head into the rubs along with a fluffy tapping on his ears that told him Chibi was wagging her tail. Godzilla chuckled, content. -And here I was thinking she stuck me with you as punishment. Don’t regret it either way.- They resumed walking along, exchanging the sort of words one might think an eager student would bombard her teacher with. “So, tomorrow can we try using the beam to fly?” “Not how it works, Chibi.” “Aaaaaw, come on! Getting tired of flying with the pulse!” “You’re not flying, you're throwing yourself around with the blowback. Big difference.” “What if I aim it down then?” “Then you better hope no one is beneath where you’re shooting.” “How about a victory dance?” Junior's eyebrow twitched noticeably from memory, “We’ve done enough dancing.” As they reached the gates of the school dorms, Chibi pursed her lips and smirked while leaning over towards one of Junior’s ears. Cupping her mouth with a hoof while pulling the ear closer, she whispered, “Soooo, still not gonna tell me what happened at Mako?” “Mada jūichi?” (“Still eleven?”) “Aaaaarg, Senseeeeeeeei!” He reached the dorm gate and lowered his head down so Chibi Moon could hop off. Yawning, she turned herself around and beamed at her mentor. “... Tochū de arigatō,” (Thanks by the way), she muttered tiredly. Junior tilted his head, “For?” Chibi Moon looked at and tapped her horn, “My talent for copying… less than pleasant powers scared my teachers and friends sometimes. Sometimes, it scared me too a little.” “Are you scared now? Won’t lie, you’re going to be quite the powerhouse when you’re older. There’s a lot of energy in that horn of yours.” Junior watched as Chibi Moon slowly struck up the warmest, most exuberant smile he’d ever seen her wear, “Well, that’s why you’re my sensei right? Teach me control for it. And around you I’m always safe right?” The kaiju sighed, leaning down and hovering over the filly to shadow her in his size protectively, much like his father or Kong once did for him, “You’ll always be safe with me.” He felt a tap on his wrist and saw Chibi Moon sitting on her haunches, looking up at him with her little hoof outstretched. “Hoofie promise?” He looked at the gesture, not knowing what it was or the exact manner; though he could guess as to the context. Opting to try and just copy her while hoping for the best, he gently put his own hoof to Chibi’s and beyond dwarfing it. “Hoofie promise.” Unbeknownst to either of them, a distant figure in a black cloak was watching. Waiting. ==================== -Aaah, tiring but works wonders on curbing the night terrors! Princess Luna you just got yourself a free dress… I wonder if she likes star sapphires or moonstones?- Rarity pondered amusingly to herself as she headed towards the Canterlot to Ponyville train. But even as the train began rolling into the station, a physical and verbal altercation caught her attention. She looked to another station and saw a pony struggling, largely in vain, against one of the train staff. “Please, let me go! I need to speak to the Princesses or King Godzilla!”, the mare, a dull blue pegasus with a white mane, shouted desperately. The train stallion held her still while sporting visible worry despite the annoyance, “You seem to have snuck aboard and are acting irrationally, I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay-” “It’s urgent!”, she yelped while trying to flap her wings. Yet despite doing so rapidly, she didn’t even budge the lanky unicorn physically holding her in place. “Where is your ticket, where did you come from?” “She’s gone and I need to!-” The two were interrupted by a slip of paper, held aloft in a blue aura, shooting up between them. “Oh, here is her ticket!”, Rarity quipped pleasantly as she trotted up to the confused pair and read off what was on her own ticket, “It says so right here, round trip from Ponyville!” Rarity hooked a hoof around the mare’s back, rubbing at the back of her own head with her free hoof while waving at the train stallion. “Oh I do so apologize sir, she’s such a butter hoof with these things it slipped right out of her feathers when she stepped off!”, she quipped with a wide smile. The train stallion glanced between the unicorn batting her eyes at him and the worried, still confused pegasus looking at said unicorn. Likely in an attempt to play up the chumminess, Rarity pulled her in closer to the point their cheeks were touching. “She with you?”, he muttered to the both of them, not quite knowing who to ask. Needless to say, it was obviously Rarity who spoke up first even if the mare seemed to try and say something, “Why, this is my dear friend from Ponyville good sir! I was considering opening up a new clothes shop here in Canterlot and wanted her to come along and help me scout locations!” Her exuberance was met with mild skepticism from the train worker, “And.. her name?” “She iiiiiiiiiis-”, Rarity stole a glance at the mare’s cutiemark hoping it would be one of those marks that offer some clear-cut hint as to bearer’s name rather than a more symbolic one like Cheerilee’s or her own. She found a mild puzzlement at the mare’s cutiemark looking like a equals sign. Curiously it almost looked like the two black marks making the equals sign were smooth like glass or crystal embedded in the skin rather than part of the fur. Rarity gulped back that unpleasant thought and put her good wit to use. “Equaaal… Value! Yes, my accountant friend, Equal Value. I thought it would be good to have somepony who knows her manner around finance for this endeavor. Come along now Valy, I found a lovely spot in the west district! SorryI’llTakeHerBackThankYoooou!”, she shouted while turning around and marching off with the mare before the flabbergasted train stallion could stop her. They kept marching, awkwardly cheek to cheek, until they rounded a corner and were well out of sight, finally breaking apart. Rarity shrugged out a deep sigh of relief, “Ooooh, I do say that got my heart going! You know you shouldn’t sneak aboard trains, Darling. Makes the good guard think you’re some sort of ruffian!” “I-I’m so sorry to burden you! I’ll pay back for the ticket, I swear!”, she yelped, practically throwing herself at Rarity’s hooves and causing the unicorn to awkwardly glance around and chuckle before picking her back up. “Ehehe, it’s… quite alright, darling. Generosity is my inclination after all. Now, what’s the rush to see the Princesses or Junior? And your actual name so I don’t have to repeat a lie?” “N-Night Glider. S-Something happened to my town… Something that includes giant footprints on a mountain. One of those big alien monsters Godzilla fights, I think. Everypony I knew there is missing, jus- gone! Starlight never wanted us to leave but when I found out she survived too and that she’s not acting like herself, I had to get help!”, Night Glider belted, looking up to Canterlot Castle with a pleading look. Rarity took a deep breath and banished any of her tiredness, at least for the time being. “Well then, you are in luck!”, she noted while taking Night Glider by the hoof and trotting up the street with her, right towards Canterlot Castle. “Element of Generosity, chronic do-gooder if I do so say so myself, and somepony who knows both parties personally, at your service! You may call me Rarity.” ================== Across town, Godzilla Junior took a pause. He was going to double back to the train station, just to be sure Rarity didn’t have any problems getting her ride back to Ponyville before he returned to the castle, but something had gotten his attention. A slight, muffled clicking about a dozen meters behind him. He recognized it quickly from his time in this world, just the sound of hooves on cobblestones. Nothing too unusual in it of itself, plenty of ponies came out later in the evening or worked night shifts. What did perk his attention slightly was the fact nopony was there when he stole a glance back. Shrugging, he continued on, but heard it again. Then when he set off again, it started up again. His eyes dilated slightly and he withheld his breath to tune in even more to the noises around him, mentally filtering out anything he could plainly see the cause of like the trickling of a fountain or flapping of a bat. Every time he started walking, somepony was moving in the same direction or just off to the side. Godzilla was naive about a great many things, but he wasn’t stupid by any stretch and paranoid didn’t even begin to scratch the surface with him. Usually a slight buzzing in the air was the only warning he’d get before Megaguirus tried to tackle him again. He was being stalked. Godzilla Junior intentionally ambled around, pretending to admire fountains, look up at the stars, or just meander around the city’s main district. Every turn he made, he made it intentionally at just the right speed and angle he could look behind him without it being obvious. Other times he’d double back to where they’d been and sneak a whiff of their scent. By the time the figure followed him into a back way, he’d already deducted from sight, sound, and smell. A single, normal pony in a white cloak, likely not an earth pony based off the light weight in the step; based off the scent it was female. From a fleeting glance in a mirror, she looked purple. And she smelled vaguely familiar even before she unknowingly walked past Godzilla hidden behind a dumpster. Junior observed her as she advanced past him, taking note of her posture and stride. -She’s walking unsteady, shaking. Either she’s extremely nervous or weak.- His eyes narrowed as he stepped on the trail of her cloak. -Not a threat.- The mare stumbled as her forward momentum stopped, nearly tripping up over her own hooves as Godzilla’s low growl bore down on her, “For someone who doesn’t want me noticing you, you seem keen to follow my trail a lot.” The mare flinched and her voice was shaking as she didn’t look back, instead letting her head and neck droop, “I-I’m sorry. I was trying to meet y-you somewhere private so I knew we’d be alone.” Her voice was so tired and scared he almost didn’t recognize it, but when he did his eyes slightly widened even before the pony turned around and pulled her white hood off to reveal a grayed, weak, clearly tired Moonbeam Glimmer. Bags were under her eyes and judging from the redness and slickness going down her cheeks, she’d been crying very recently as she winced from obvious strain or pain. She shook her cloak off, unable to spread her wings as she just let them droop. Junior’s eyes narrowed studiously at her quivering, reaching out and putting a hoof to her chest in a way that made the mare freeze up. He let his eyes study where the pain was coming from. A shaking hoof wrapped around his forelimb when he saw her cutiemark was missing, replaced by two black crystals, aerenths, embedded on the skin forming an equals sign. “P-Please, I know I don’t deserve it bu-but-t-t-t-!”, she weakened, losing her footing and would have tumbled to the cobblestones had Godzilla not caught her. Link! Moonbeam Glimmer clutched as close as she could to him, burying her face into his collar as she wet it with tears and whispered in a sobbing voice, “I need y-your help…” Moonbeam’s mind lapsed into unconsciousness. The last thing she felt before passing out was Junior holding her and her being placed on his back. “You’ve got it.” ================= Chibi Moon thumped on her pivoting mirror stand, spinning it around and nimbly catching the nightcap it flung up into the air upon her head. She couldn’t help but have a minor prance in her step as she got towards her tiny dorm room’s bed. Life had certainly taken an upswing from a few weeks back. When she first arrived in Equestria she didn’t have any friends, her first visit to the school was interrupted by the gyaos attack, and her power freaked out many of the teachers in Canterlot just like they had back home in Neighpon. In the past week however, she’d gotten a new sensei, met the alicorn she idolized, the teachers were more cordial now that she was learning power control; and now that she wasn’t just the “Little Miss Maser Head” she was suddenly one of the coolest kids in school with lots more friends! Humming the dance music she’d gotten her sensei to dance with her to, Mariner Chibi Moon bounced into her room and onto her bed. After a bit of turning in place and pulling of covers, she curled up with her head atop the pillow, a content smile upon her little face. However, her brow soon furrowed in puzzlement when she felt a slight chill. Scrunching her nose, Chibi Moon looked over and quickly saw that her window was open, a nippy draft seeping through. -Huh, thought I’d closed it.- Blinking a few times to clear her vision, Chibi sat herself up and rubbed at her eyes. When she got a better look at the window however, she quickly realized the situation was more wrong than it merely being open. The lower half of the glass pane had been entirely torn off, snapping the lock at its pin, and the stack of books she’d had set up on the short cupboard below the window had been knocked over outwards into the room. There was a creaking along the back wall behind her. “Huh?-”, Chibi Moon turned around to see the source of the noise just in time to see a large shape come out of hiding from behind the door. The filly’s eyes dilated and her horn quickly ignited when she saw an aura of neon teal magic lash out towards her. ==================== Happy fortune caused Night Glider and Rarity to end up on the same main street heading for the castle as another traveler who also happened to be shepherding a pony with an equals sign cutiemark. Recognizing Godzilla’s large form up ahead, Rarity pitched up her voice and waved. “Oh! Oh! Junior! Back here!”, Rarity shouted loud enough for Junior to stop and look behind himself to spot her. “Miss Rarity?” “Yes yes, hold up a moment, Deary!”, Rarity yelped as she kept a hold of Night Glider and trotted up to Godzilla as he turned around to walk towards her. Needless to say as they approached, Junior was just as curious about the weak looking pegasus Rarity was towing by the hoof as Rarity was about the passed-out pegasus on Godzilla’s back. “Well! Looks like we found ourselves in a predicament! Who’s this?”, Rarity quipped with a tilted head as she looked at Junior’s cargo. Junior meanwhile was studying the nervous looking Night Glider, raising an eyebrow at her cutiemark. -Same mark? Not seen that on a pony before. Frost said they were personalized. Can’t smell as much magic coming off her, energy seems… wrong. Just like Moonbeam.- Briefly snapping back to his senses, he glanced back at the still blacked out pegasus, frowning slightly from the tear rolling down her muzzle. It appeared even in sleep, Moonbeam wasn’t any less distraught. “Her name is Moonbeam Glimmer. Met her before but she came to me this time, said she needed me. Not someone I have the best experience with but I’m not one to turn down a plea for help, seemed desperate.” “Well she’s not the only one asking for you tonight,” Rarity quipped while nodding to Night Glider, who was now looking at Moonbeam with a wide eyed, gaping expression. Junior raised his brow at Night Glider, “I take it she means you, what’s your name?” “Oh she’s named Night Glider, she asked for yo-” Rarity was cut off by Night Glider surging forward and trying to take hold of Moonbeam’s form, shock and elation on her face; along with hints of what Junior oddly recognized as fear. “A-A Glimmer?! Please! I need your help-!”, Night Glider yelped as she tried to get closer. Godzilla put a hoof up and caught her a forelimb’s length away, shifting to put Moonbeam behind him protectively. “Be careful! She’s unconscious and weak!”, he snapped and instantly cowed Night Glider. The pegasus quivered, not taking her eyes off the limp Glimmer and still trying to reach for her. Rarity grimaced and stepped in, gently grasping Night Glider’s reaching hooves and lowering them down. “Now now!... Let’s just, caaalm down here like civilized Equestrians.. and Kaiju...um Terrans?” she muttered, glancing between Night Glider and Godzilla. “S-Sorry, King Godzilla. It’s just, a Glimmer, Starlight Glimmer, was the leader of our town and.. she-... mentioned having a sister named Moonbeam once or twice,” Night Glider whispered with flopped ears, ”I-I thought maybe, she might know where Starlight went.” Rarity puzzled before asking, “I thought you said everypony in your town went missing?” “Th-They were! All gone, just, poof! I was out on patrol when it must have happened. When I got back, I found a trail of hoofprints leading from Starlight’s cave and going south. I figured it must have been her and followed them.” “All the way to Canterlot?”, Junior muttered even as he withheld the gears turning in his head at the words ‘town went missing’. “I found she headed south, stopping near Hollow Shades and Foal Mountain. Then boarded a train. Seemed most likely she came here. I thought maybe she was coming here to find help so-so I can here too!” Everypony’s ears perked up at the sound of groggy, tired moans. The weight on Junior’s back began to shift back and forth. Junior turned his head to see Moonbeam begin to fidget and wince. -She's having bad dream or waking up, either way I doubt she's too pleased with it.- Godzilla gently reached around and gripped her as he sat down, pulling her into his lap and holding her up straight against him. Might have been a tad awkward as a pony, but as a former biped it helped him keep her steady as the movement jostled her out of her nightmare. “Uh-... Huh?... Wh-Where?”, her tiny, coarse voice peeped. On instinct she tried to struggle, only for Godzilla to tighten his hold slightly and Rarity to extend a hoof to her chest. “Shh, it’s okay. You’re okay. You lost consciousness,” Rarity calmly noted. Moonbeam took in her surroundings, both the two watching mares as well as who was holding her. The pegasus’ ears flopped down a bit and her face heated up. “Thanks… You c-an put me down now,” she mumbled, completely red in the face while shaking. At this point she didn't know if she should note how warm he was or the fact he wasn't the only one heating up. Junior just snorted, noticing plainly how wobbly she was, “No. Get your bearings first, you’re exhausted.” “W-Wouldn’t be lying,” she squeaked, balling herself up more, “Ran all the way here from my house.” Rarity frowned and nodded to her, “Whatever happened to you, darling?” Moonbeam’s eyes rewet themselves and she made herself look even smaller, curling into Junior’s chest some more to hide; “My sister happened…” Sniffling, Moonbeam looked up at Godzilla, face damp and red with flush and stressed crying, “Y-You had to be warned.” “About?”, Godzilla muttered with a raised brow as he quickly was putting together what was making Moonbeam so stressed. “M-My sister. I don’t know what’s gotten into her but sh-....she…!”, Moonbeam’s words were choked out as her eyes widened. She gripped at Godzilla’s arm, trying to tug it as hard as she feebly could in her weakened state. “LOOK OUT!”, she shrieked. Godzilla Junior followed her vision to above and in front of him and just barely had enough time to see the magic blast coming. Lacking time to dodge, he followed the same instinct he had when having to grab a boat out of the way from Orka all those years back. Picking up Moonbeam he spun around and put his back to the blast, momentarily grunting from the impact bursting against his back. Thankful to have kept some of his old durability even when out of his armor, Junior partially whirled around to see where it was coming from. This time he saw the second bolt coming with enough moments to react and dodge out of the way. The teal-colored aura scored the ground he had stood upon. Junior clutched Moonbeam close and rolled across the ground. Managing to roll himself up slightly, he covered Moonbeam with a forelimb and returned fire with a beam of blue plasma from his maw; aimed at the roof across the main street the perched attacker was firing from. The pony, dressed in a black cloak, swore and teleported out of the way, reappearing on the ground a block away and sprinting off. Junior snarled, gently setting Moonbeam down before bolting off in pursuit. The trio following along where Godzilla had gone wasn’t hard at all. Magic blast marks and rays of blue shooting off into the sky were common even when they couldn’t see him directly. Looking above a low building, Rarity glimpsed teal magic lift and throw a loaded wagon cart in the direction of the loud stomping of hooves. Rounding the corner she could see a Junior-sized hole smashed through the hardwood, effectively bulldozing through it as another magic blast sounded off. A very unequine bellow called out as they went down the main street and back to the train station. Spotting Junior wasn’t hard, both due to his large form standing out in the open but also due to the fact he was shrugging off multiple magic bolts striking him from the top of the train station’s roof. Godzilla’s mane and tail flickered to life and he took aim. The cloaked attacker, obviously a unicorn from the magic blasts, stopped firing and put much of her force into a continuous, burning ray of energy that sailed towards the stallion. Unfettered, Godzilla loosed his own ray and the beams smashed into each other. However unlike his accidental clash with or subsequent benign spars with Princess Luna, where the alicorn’s magic and Junior’s plasma were on roughly equal footing; the difference in raw power became evident after a couple of seconds. Godzilla’s beam started eating away at the magic stream, drawing closer and closer even as the unicorn put more force into her blast, which only resulted in slightly slowing the inevitable. But as the beam lock grew closer to the attacker, illuminating her and blowing her hood back slightly from the billowing energy, Moonbeam’s mind was filled with horror. “STOP!”, her blood-curdling shriek called out. Reflexively and just trying to wound, not kill in the first place, Godzilla Junior pivoted his beam up and away just before the lock could hit the pony. When he did, the shockwave was mostly thrown off into the sky and away from everypony; but it did blowback the attacker’s hood to reveal a purple unicorn mare with an identical mane style to Night Glider, one Moonbeam breathlessly named aloud as she walked forward with a broken expression. “... Starlight.” For all the notice her sister had to her, Starlight Glimmer didn’t return it. She glared only at Godzilla Junior, staring with a deadly intent at somepony she had never met before in her life. She sneered, eyes briefly flashing red and perking Godzilla’s interest, before turning around and jumping off the roof. Train whistles blew and before anypony could stop her, Starlight was atop an outbound train heading north. All eyes soon cast to another train rolling into station and in a glance amongst each other, little conversation was needed to confirm the next course of action. Four ponies rode on an emergency secured train following the last train on the north track. Unbeknownst to any of them, they weren’t the only boarding party. Ghidorah’s agent hadn’t gone unnoticed by most others, especially after her brief fight with Godzilla Junior across downtown Canterlot. Clinging to the back of the second train and pulling herself onto the back balcony was a seemingly unremarkable green unicorn mare. But at a blink of her eye, her irises shifted from blue to red and her fur metamorphosed from leafy green to pastel orange. Within the span of a moment, Enjin was completely unrecognizable as itself or Sunset Shimmer. She opened the back door and entered the back cabin, being sure to stay far away from anypony just to avoid extra attention or possibly tip Godzilla’s energy sense off to her presence. Ghidorah and Bagan had an agreement for this scheme, but the latter knew full well Grand King Ghidorah would do something behind its back. Ghidorah himself admitted to it. And given current events and the fact Starlight seemed to ignore or not notice Enjin operating inside Canterlot, Ghidorah either didn’t know or didn’t care that Bagan’s field agent had wised up to his control over Starlight Glimmer, having confirmed it by sensing the same psychic command indicated by the flash of red in her eyes that Junior had witnessed. That and Enjin could literally see Ghidorah’s taint on the pony enough to know they’d been in proximity before. The possessed Sunset Shimmer had done her duty as a pawn to open a hole in the anti-changeling wards, but the best tools have multiple uses. Perhaps one could be found seeing what Ghidorah didn’t tell the lord of Zenith in their little agreement. If Ghidorah saw fit to play a hidden ace, Bagan would respond in kind. Such was the matter of dealing with monsters. However, there was yet another entity hitching a ride on the train. This one made more of an effort to hide entirely rather than hide in plain sight like Enjin was. Holding onto the side of one of the cars was what could best be described as a smoking, shadowy mass that vaguely resembled a pony. Yellow eyes stole a peek inside as the echo of Nightmare Moon, Nightmare the Pony of Shadows, watched Rarity and Junior help lay Moonbeam Glimmer out on a bench seat. Nightmare might not have known about Enjin also being on the train, or else she’d be panicking and acting far more than she was now, but she too had witnessed the confrontation with Starlight Glimmer. And with the visions she’d been having, inflicted upon Rarity as nightmares as a warning, along with what she’d seen in the past few nights convinced her one thing. For Equestria to survive, she had to become whole again. But in her weakened state, she couldn’t seek just anypony to try and bond to them. It required a specific type of dark emotion, a certain loneliness, past or present. And the destination of this train bore more than one possible candidate. ====================== Moonbeam Glimmer hadn’t taken her eyes off the floor since waking up on the train, having passed out soon after boarding. After a brief moment of surprise and reddened faces upon finding her pillow had been Godzilla’s flank, she’d been frozen in place ever since Night Glider asked the inevitable question. One she meekly repeated, “S-So, you’re Starlight’s big sister?” Moonbeam sighed, not picking her head up more than an inch to slowly nod. “I was…”, she croaked. “Moonbeam,” Junior’s low voice muttered from beside her. The pegasus flinched momentarily. Slowly, she tilted her head over and looked up at the giant unicorn with mixing emotions. On one hoof, the grief and regret of her past actions was all too familiar to her, heightened by the kaiju’s gentle demeanor and quick insistence to come and help her the moment she asked. She’d never been so grossly, outlandishly wrong about something in her life. But on the other hoof she couldn’t help but wince remembering the beam lock between Godzilla and her sister, dreading the idea of what might have happened if Junior hadn’t diverted his assault when she called out and what all that power could do to her little sibling on a direct hit. That gentle heat radiating out of him belied an enormity of might within. Junior kept himself focused and slow, taking a nod from Rarity and lowering himself down to get closer to eye level with Moonbeam. “What happened?.. Between you and her,” he finished. Moonbeam chewed her lip, knowing what he meant. Not just about what happened to her cutiemark, but also in context to her sibling. Moonbeam’s breath hitched when she felt a hoof upon her own. She looked over and saw the beaming face of the Element of Generosity. Rarity scooted over as she climbed onto the bench seat to put Moonbeam between herself and Junior, then looking over to Night Glider and patting the seat next to her. Soon, they were all sitting together on the same bench as the train rolled along, flank to flank in a comforting manner as many a herd do. Moonbeam wiped off her face and sniffled, emoting a solemn expression as she picked herself up and leaned on Godzilla slightly while letting her wing rest against Rarity. “I hadn’t seen my sister for a decade…” ======================== Years ago, Glimmer Residence ======================== “It’s okay Starly, it’s okay,” a much younger Moonbeam whispered as she rubbed her sister’s back while they hugged. Starlight nestled into her sister’s embrace, recognizing her scent, softness, and warmth. In the cornucopia of negative emotions she’s been drowning in for the last twelve hours, it was the only real comfort she’d gotten. For a moment, she felt happy, believing her sister’s words entirely. Things were bad and she was a terrified little girl, but this nightmare seemed over. That all changed with a crack of a twig. Starlight’s eyes snapped open and she looked past Moonbeam, seeing the glint of armor in the tree line. She saw more of them, some with what looked like weapons. Soldiers, police, she didn’t know who they were exactly but she recognized one form clear as day even when she tried to duck out of view. One of the teachers from the School for Gifted Unicorns, the very same one whom Starlight mistakenly thought had tried to degrade or hold her back. The teachings of Archmage Saros, King Sombra, turned on and deep inside her there was a flicker of wrath. The filly’s maw curled briefly, twitching into a momentary snarl as she tore her way out of Moonbeam’s grasp and quickly turned around. She saw them coming for her, whether they were there or not. She saw the menace even when Captain Sentry silently called for the approaching guards to hold position. And Moonbeam Glimmer saw the gritting of teeth and widening of eyes upon her sibling accompanied by sparks of magic. “N-No no no! Starly, Starly you need to calm down!”, she pleaded and tried to scoop her baby sister up again. Starlight hissed, her fear turning into hatred rapidly that broiled up in the glowing magic settling over her horn. “Th-They’re here! They’re going to!-” “They’re here to- help you. We n-need you to calm..down. Please, Starly!” “They followed you! The school teacher-” “She’s just here to-!” Moonbeam’s hushed begging was cut off by the look Starlight gave her. It was wide, with a blank facial expression. It was the flicker in her sister’s eyes that stopped her cold. Those weren’t the eyes any child, any pony, should have. They begat disbelief, shock, and anguish. “They made you distract me…”, her whisper slithered out. Moonbeam’s lip quivered. Starlight’s expression slowly shifted to one of pure wrath, her lips curling, eyes dilating, and ears flattening backwards. Starlight’s bright purple eyes became cloudy with dark magic that seeped from the edges like smoke. “No… You led them to me,” she hissed quietly. “S-Starlight, you need help! They won’t hurt you, I promise! Please… Please don’t,” Moonbeam begged, shakingly reaching out. Both Glimmer sisters shed tears, one of grief and fear and one of rage and betrayal. “YooOU LED THEM TO ME!”, Starlight roared and unleashed her wrath. Aerenths burst out of the ground in a radiating shockwave. Starlight’s magic flew forth and seized Moonbeam Glimmer. A fantastic pain took hold upon her flank, accompanied by Starlight screaming from the out of control magic. Moonbeam’s cutiemark began to peel slightly before the feed of magic was cut off. Black smoke billowing from eyes that glowed of green, Starlight shrieked and held her horn. She dropped her sister and stumbled back. But, as Moonbeam reached out and Captain Sentry charged in, Starlight’s berserk magic flared out yet again. In the span of a second and in a burst of light, both the filly and her spell book were gone; teleported far, far away from all that wrathful dark magic being used up at once. ================== “That was the last time I saw my sister,” Moonbeam muttered, looking down at her flank and wincing at the sight of where her cutiemark had once been. Now she only saw an equals sign embedded into her skin. “Until a few days ago…” Night Glider whimpered lightly and winced, but kept the emoting to herself. ============================= Moonbeam’s home, several days ago ============================= “R-Remember this?”, Moonbeam muttered softly as she held out something she’d been keeping in safe storage for years. Starlight Glimmer, sitting on one of the chairs, hardly looked bemused as she magically lifted the kite out of her sibling’s hooves and inspected it. “My old kite,” Starlight grunted, taking a sip of tea prepared for her. Moonbeam hid her sadness that the gift didn’t get more of a reaction out of her sister, hiding it along with the same fear that had gripped her since her sister inexplicably returned. It was an odd experience being so elated, frightened, and confused at the same time; but she drew up hope the first of the three could be increased. She smiled pleasantly and put a hoof to the old green kite, gently stroking at its ribboned tail. “Remember? Your third birthday present. We used to fly this every day we got. I used to help keep it aloft with my wings on days without much wind,” she chuckled at the nostalgic memory while a warmth glowed across her face when she touched a spot with dried wood glue seeping out of a crack in the frame, “You crashed it more than once despite our best efforts, but it’s held together nicely. Would you maybe like to, for old time’s sak-!!!” Moonbeam quickly ducked as the kite was suddenly lobbed across the room and right past where her head had been. The toy spiraled, crashing into the Glimmer family portrait Moonbeam had finally dusted off and displayed some time ago. The photograph fell to the floor, the frame cracking open and spilling glass out along with the picture. Moonbeam looked to the broken picture and thrown toy, then back to her sister with a paled, agape expression. Starlight Glimmer growled, eyes briefly flashing red as she stood up. “You are wasting my time. I didn’t come back for you, I came because you met Godzilla. Take me to him, now!”, Starlight snapped. Moonbeam Glimmer took a deep breath and kept her wings from flaring out in surprise or fear, lifting up a hoof and gently waving it downwards in a defusing motion. “Starlight, it’s o-okay… I was just.. trying... to make you comfortable…” -Okay, NO. No way in Tartarus could she act like this! Something’s very wrong with her.- “Now, why do you want to meet King Godzilla?”, the older Glimmer whispered, keeping her voice contained in a ploy to try and bait down Starlight’s sharpness. It didn’t work for the large part and was met with a narrowing of eyes and snapping of words, “That is for myself to judge. But you met him before, you can do it again.” Moonbeam perfectly masked her befuddlement. -I’m hardly the only pony to have met him, and it’s not like he’s making an effort to hide himself. Why couldn’t she just go and meet him herself?- “Starlight, how about we go to Canterlot together? Just you and me. I’m sure we could get a meeting with him together-” “NO!”, Starlight barked, kicking over the coffee table and spilling the tea as she grit her teeth, “A meeting would take too long to arrange. I need him drawn out!” Moonbeam’s breathing grew a touch heavier and she took a slight step away from her sibling, having more than enough experience with the mentally unwell to value a bit of space. The key was trying not to get so close it was a danger, but not so far away they caught onto you trying to keep a safe distance. Trying not to look at how damaged her living room was by now due to this family visit, Moonbeam’s brow furrowed. “Drawn… out? Starlight I fail to see why you’d want to do that. And how would I help in doing that?”, she noted. Starlight’s lips curled slightly as her eyes cast a narrowed leer, “You met with him once, insulted him, agitated him. And then,-”, she drew up a newspaper from her saddlebag and threw it over towards Moonbeam, whom only needed a cursory glance to know the headline was made after her walking-out of the Welles debate. “-You apologize.”, Starlight’s eyes narrowed slightly more as venom spat from her maw, “You never apologize. Something changed your mind, something I’m sure that creature will be fond of hearing.” Moonbeam grimaced from the emotional and guilt bullets shot her way. Starlight approached, stalking forward in a predatory manner and looming over the larger mare whom seemed to try and make herself smaller. “I’m not going to ask again. Take. Me. To. Him.” Moonbeam Glimmer froze, her back literally and metaphorically to the wall. A thousand ways out of this scenario. Nine hundred of which were an easy fix, done with a single word for agreeance. Another ninety nine included trying to take a third option and escape, fight her sibling, divert the subject, anything to avoid a confrontation or confirmation. One used another single word phrase. That one, was the only right choice. Moonbeam Glimmer rose up and stared her sibling down, “No.” Moonbeam took a step forward now with a measure of courage and assertion, causing Starlight to briefly step back as her sister used her larger size and wingspan to gain a height advantage in the contest of hardened gazes. “Starlight, I love you. But I’m not going to let anypony get hurt and I’m not going to stand for how you’ve acted so far! I’ve made mistakes, I’ve made ones to him and I’ve made ones to you. And I do want to work to correct them. Before you came, I was figuring out how I could help him.” Moonbeam’s face softened, her brow raised as she extended a hoof and wing to her sibling. She tenderly touched her baby sister's face, “Let me figure out how to help you too. Then we can see Godzilla, together. As sisters... Moony... and Starly.” Starlight Glimmer was quiet. Slowly, millimeter by millimeter, her flattened jaw began to turn downwards and her eyes opened from their narrowing. Moonbeam Glimmer sighed, letting a smile creep over her face. Starlight was a grown mare now, but for that moment she looked just like the memory of her beloved baby sister. Moonbeam let herself forget about the dark magic, the rude home entry, and the threats. She saw her baby sister the same way she did the first day Starlight crashed her kite, needed help on her homework, or skid her knee while playing. Her little Starly. Moonbeam sighed and moved forward to put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder, maybe even embrace her if it seemed do-able. Then Starlight’s eyes glinted red and before Moonbeam could react, she was strangled by a magical aura and slammed into the back wall. Link! “If you will not help me, you’ll just have to make due for when you betrayed me!”, Starlight Glimmer snarled. Moonbeam cried out and struggled, feeling a cold, biting pain in her flank that was horrifically familiar to her. Those years ago it had been done by an overly emotional, out of control, scared filly who barely knew what she was doing. And now, the times and intent had changed. Starlight Glimmer snarled as two aerenths formed on Moonbeam’s flank, forcing her cutiemark off her body like shaving off a piece of the soul. “Let me show you how much I’ve grown, Moonbeam Glimmer…” ==================== Moonbeam quieted down and sniffled, feeling Rarity lean in closer to comfort her as Junior’s radiating heat turned up. The Godzilla cast his eyes towards Night Glider, whom was looking uncomfortable even before she found the kaiju staring at her flank. “Why is it you have the same mark? I’ve been around Equestria long enough to know that doesn’t happen. You said Starlight was in your town, did she do this to you all too?”, he muttered with a suspicious leer. Night Glider couldn’t look him in the eye, only rub at her forearm. “N-Not like she did to Moonbeam. We all volunteered for it-... Wait… Wait wait wait!”, Night Glider yipped as her head snapped up. “She… she still used her spell on you? How?... How could she?!”, Night Glider yelped in a pleading manner, desperation showing in her voice. Moonbeam wiped her eyes, managing to pick herself up, “She’s… known that spell for over a decade. She first used it as a filly.” Night Glider’s expression turned to sheer horror, much to the confusion of all looking on, as she dug into her saddlebags. The confusion only grew when Night Glider pulled out two broken pieces of wood, which looked like they went together to form the snapped ends of some kind of staff shaped like a tuning fork. “Th-this! She can’t use her spell without this!” “And that is?”, Junior grunted with a raised brow, putting a hoof in front of Rarity and Moonbeam when Night Glider’s fidgeting resulted in the odd object being accidentally pointed at them. Knowledge of Equestrian magic he was lacking in, but he was savvy enough to know that when someone treats something so nervously it often paid to expect the worst. “The Staff of Sameness! I-I found it in the ruins of the cave when I went looking for Starlight! She always used it to remove our cutiemarks. She had it done to herself!”, Night Glider yelped. Rarity, recalling something Princess Luna told her about the kaiju in regards to the meeting her sister and the Element Bearers had had with them, whispered to Godzilla. “Junior, can you sense anything about that staff? Any magic or energy?” Godzilla narrowed his eyes and leaned closer, both sniffing at and trying to sense the staff for any sign of some latent power. “... You're right, I can sense energy fields-”, he muttered, glancing over to Rarity, “-Miss Rarity here has a strong signature because she’s an Element Bearer. You two have weak ones. I’d gander it’s from the mark removal spell.” “A-And the Staff?”, Night Glider begged, holding what had been a prize object of her town for months. Junior checked it again, only shrugging. “... Only physical scent, nothing magical. It’s dead wood that’s been in the sun a long time. Is this town of yours in an open area? Desert? Mountain steppe?” Night Glider quivered, her hooves beginning to shake as the implications settled in. Our Town was in the northern plateau steppe, a fact Godzilla couldn’t have possibly known about. And yet he could keen in on that so accurately it gave credence to his assertion she was just holding onto some dried oak. Perhaps sensing it was timely to chime in, Rarity put a hoof onto Night Glider’s shoulder. “Miss Glider… I think Starlight may have been lying. I’m good friends with a very learned librarian and magic study, and another alicorn princess. I’ve heard stories of magical artifacts from stormy islands to amulets. I’ve not once heard of any staff that… removes cutiemarks,” she gulped and hid a cringe, “That is just a piece of dead wood. I think it’s becoming clear that the spell you and Moonbeam were struck with was from Starlight’s own horn. Not that stick.” Night Glider’s frown quivered and she shook, the staff-no, the stick, fumbling out of her hooves and dropping to the floor. Her tone had dropped, barely above a whisper it seemed so shocked, “Sh-She said she was the first to give up her magic…” Junior shrugged and had to be blunt, “You saw Starlight use magic when she attacked me. Why is this a shock to you?” “I-I thought… m-maybe… she put her cutiemark back on. It was stored with all the others. Give herself her magic to go after whoever attacked the town or get help…”, Night Glider’s eyes cast themselves to Moonbeam’s flank. “But, she left the staff at the cave. That’s where I found it. If she could still remove cutiemarks without it, then she really was never using it to work the spells. It was always her magic, magic she never gave up... She really never was our equal.” “Why would you remove your cutiemarks voluntarily? It wasn’t pleasant when it happened to me. I still feel…”, Moonbeam paused, chewing at her lip and trying to put to words the horrible weakness she felt all across her body. Every pulse of blood in her veins that went past her flank tingled and chilled like ice to skin. “Weak? Emptied?... We thought that would make us all friends. Cooperate more. That it’d be better if we were all equal. We were all vagrants when she found us over time, it seemed so tempting! But all this time it was a farce…”, Night Glider choked with increasing dourness. As her face turned down however, a white hoof helped to prop it back up. Rarity slowly cast the mare a smile and nodded to her. “I know some wonderful ponies who can help you to know friendship very well, very well indeed. After this Starlight and missing town debacle, we’ll be glad to help out! And, without taking the cutiemarks off I might add!”, Rarity quipped with a smirk and a wink. Night Glider could let a small smile crack. There was a maelstrom of problems in the future, not the least bit including finding her townsfolk and former leader; but the thought of a happy life without the stinging numbness in her flank or dullness in activity was extremely tempting. At least, she could hope. “I’d like that," she whispered with a tiny smile. “That still leaves Starlight Glimmer though,” Godzilla muttered as the gears of the mind worked behind his eyes. Night Glider chewed at her lip, “If she’s taking this train, she’s going along the route to head back to the town.” “Which is?”, Rarity whispered with a tilted head. Night Glider shrugged, “Literally in the middle of nowhere. She’s probably heading for Hollow Shades’ station before heading on the path to get back to it.” “I’ve been the way to get to Foal Mountain before, it doesn’t take long to travel there from Canterlot. Starlight went after Moonbeam a few days ago though, so why take so long to show up in Canterlot?”, Junior grunted as his eyes briefly met with Moonbeam's in memory of their last encounter at the old Glimmer residence. Moonbeam grimaced, “Best guess? She’s been there longer than tonight. And given you’re her target…” “She’s been stalking me,” Junior grunted with narrowed eyes. Rarity chewed at her lip, “Could make some sense. She is still a normal pony. Threat or not, to someone of your stature if you weren’t looking for her in particular...” Junior finished the train of thought for her, “I would have sensed her magic as just another pony’s in a city full of them…. It’s a trap, she’s definitely leading us into a trap set for me.” “Should we.. call this off then?” Godzilla shook his head, “If we lose her now we’ll have a hard time finding her again. Even if she can’t harm me very much, she’s a threat to those she can harm.” He glanced over to Moonbeam's equals sign clad flank, “She already has… No amount of magic training can prepare somepony for something like me though. Your world doesn’t have a context.” Night Glider was unsure about the kaiju’s confidence, “A-Are you sure? Starlight’s magic has to be very strong if she removed all our cutiemarks by herself. All this time we thought it was the staff.” Junior only grunted and snorted his nostrils at the memory of his first introduction to Equestrian society being a 1,000 year old alicorn tackling him through a brick wall, “... I’ve had worse. And you all will be coming along.” “So what’s our plan?” “I’ll do what I do best. Draw attention. When we get to the town,-” Rarity raised her hoof and interjected, “-which no doubt will be where Starlight is going to await us.” Junior lifted an eyebrow at that remark, “-You sure?” Rarity shrugged, “Happened to me and the girls more than a few times. Nightmare Moon with the castle, Chrysalis with another castle, King Sombra trying to get into a castle, gyaos trying to get into a castle. If it’s a big structure in Equestria, it’s got a villain either already in it or trying to get in it. The town is Starlight’s castle.” Night Glider hummed in a pondered thought, “... She does have a point.” “... Huh, not too different on Terra. Most kaiju go for cities even if there are huge spaces of open land around it,” Junior grunted and shrugged before going back to business, “Anyways, I’ll confront Starlight in the town. Either I take her down myself or hold her attention while Rarity circles around. I take it you’ve already been in a confrontation Miss Rarity?” The unicorn emitted a humored chuckle, lifting what could best be described as a studded club out of her saddlebag despite it being far too long to have seemingly fit inside it. “Not much for magic use, though I’m getting better. As for other matters, I have this gift from Radiance, got a back up stick in the other bag. Trust me darling, a true lady is never helpless in a conflict!” Godzilla gave the weapon and the seemingly dainty unicorn an impressed nod, amused at some broken expectations. “Well then, this should be more than enough for one pony.” Godzilla Junior was just about to nod when a pair of hooves took him by the cheeks. He got the sense it would have been a rougher grab had the owner not been so weakened. Moonbeam Glimmer, in spite of her condition, still managed to give the kaiju a steely, stoic look. “Promise me one thing… No killing.” Junior returned the look, in hindsight noting Moonbeam was a fairly exceptional mare for being able to repeatedly stand up to him regardless of if they were working together or opposing. “If you’re worried with that again, don’t. I wasn’t planning on it.” “... Thanks, but you came close already.” “I was going to hold back. You do know she’s dangerous, right?” “She’s not herself, I out of anypony can vouch for that. Something is altering her, and not just the dark magic.” “Not my first time dealing with something like that. I’ll be careful.” “Promise me,” Moonbeam whispered as she leaned in closer to him. “She’s my baby sister. I don’t want any red eyes aimed at her.” Junior grunted, remembering how he and Moonbeam first met. How the talk between the two managed to hit every inner turmoil he had and heightened his fears, how it caused his eyes to flash red for the first time since San Francisco and his mother with Trespasser’s attack. Moonbeam didn’t understand what red in the eye meant for him, something he’d correct. “I promise, not my first for the tonight and I'll keep both. And little secret, my eyes only flash red when I’m scared. Terrified actually,” he whispered. Moonbeam’s expression softened as the realization hit her. The pegasus’ ears flopped against her head, her lips flattening and brow raising apologetically. “And… are you now?” The train creaked as it slowed down to pull into the station ahead. Out the window, Junior could glimpse a black-cloaked pony running away from the station a few meters ahead of them. Starlight Glimmer, as determined by her teal colored magical aura, was carrying something in a box with her. His mind could wander as to what kind of trap was he walking into. “I’ve been afraid since I was two years old. Monsters.” “Which one?”, Moonbeam whispered with a frown, deflating. Godzilla picked his head up out of her grasp and got to his hooves, heading for the doorway, “Myself.” ===================== “So, this is it? Looks a bit drab, no offense. Could use some flair,” Rarity whispered as the four looked out from beyond some rocks at the town below, which consisted of nothing but two orderly rows of houses with a large house at the end to give it a rough horseshoe shape. “That’s Starlight’s house there at the end,” Night Glider noted as she pointed to the largest, only asymmetrical home. “Then that is where I’m going. Rarity you circle down from the right side once I get down there and got her attention, try to stay out of sight,” Godzilla muttered as he stood up. “Duly noted, Darling!” Moonbeam, still in hiding, looked up to Godzilla Junior and Rarity as she whispered, “And us?” Rarity shook her head and noted, “I think it’s best you two keep back for now, just in case. With you weakened it’ll be harder for Junior and I to protect you if we’re already trying to restrain Starlight. Come in when it looks like we’ve got it under control.” With reluctant nods, mostly from Night Glider, Element Bearer and Kaiju set off. A few minutes later and the only sound echoing through the ghost town was Godzilla’s stomping hooves. He intentionally was stomping his hooves a bit harder with each step, intentionally trying to draw as much attention to himself as he could and mask Rarity’s approach. He drew up to the center of town, right before Starlight’s house and took in a deep breath through his nose as the breeze hissed by. “I know you’re there, Starlight Glimmer. Smelled your trail coming here and it’s all over this place. Going to make me start knocking down doors to find which one you’re hiding behind?” His calling-out was answered by a black cloak floating in the breeze, floating past him before tumbling across the ground. “Who’s hiding?”, the coy, female tone called out. Godzilla knew who it was even before he looked up to above Glimmer’s house. Starlight Glimmer was perched on the roof like a gargoyle, a smug expression clad across her smirking lips and bemused eyes. Junior wasn’t intimidated when she suddenly teleported to the ground in front of him. “Well, you wanted me. And here I am. How long you been following me?” “Long enough for it to count,” she quipped. Even with her calm demeanor, the inner rage was evident in every twitching vein or bead of sweat. Junior could literally smell it coming off her. “Surprised you’re not attacking me outright again,” Junior grunted as he kept his eyes upon her at all times when she approached a building off to the side, just in case she was trying to flank him. “Oh I know your type. My magic might work on you, might not. But I know not to try it upfront.” “Then don’t try it at all.” “Getting anxious now? Am I managing to scare a kaiju?”, her voice slithered. Junior snorted out his nose, “I’m afraid of a lot of things, you’re not one.” Starlight stopped before the smaller building, her back turned. She raised herself up slightly before seeming to give a tired shrug. The unicorn mare glanced back at the kaiju. “My sister put you up to this? Is that why she’s here?” For a moment, Starlight almost seemed to frown; earning a sigh from Godzilla. “You know she just wants to help you.” “She’s got a poor way of showing it. Dragging me to our parents’ graves every week, butting heads with the Bursts when they tried to stop her after she was old enough to go out on her own, selling me out to that school-”, Starlight's growling was cut off by Junior's sharp grunt. “We both know she didn’t do any of that to hurt you.” “That doesn’t make it right.” “Folks make mistakes, have regrets. I know what it's like to have powers that scare people, you don't need to do anything stupid. Now this can go two ways. She’s apologized to me, she can to you… Listen, despite my reputation I don’t like a brawl,” he grunted. Godzilla Junior shrugged, taking a step closer while being careful to keep his tone down just as he would when approaching a new kaiju. Sometimes his luck paid off in cases like these, and the newcomer was just scared, confused, or had some unselfish goal in mind instead of a reckless destroyer. He hoped this was the case here, that the mare before him was that same scared, confused little girl who tampered with things she shouldn’t have. Rarity watched on from cover as Junior and Starlight had their standoff. But just as she was about to try and sneak to a new, closer hiding place, the wind shifted and she sensed something. It was a chill within the air, one that sent Rarity’s eyes wide and her lip quivering in recognition. She was feeling the pinpricks of fear even before she glimpsed a dark mass moving across the shadows of one of the other buildings. She’d seen something similar to it in Luna’s lesson with the Tantabus, and she’d felt this exact presence before. Several years ago in the Everfree Castle, a little over a year ago on the Moon, and very recently in her nightmares. A pony made of shadows that created a dark echo of its host. As she stalked Nightmare, Nightmare stalked a presence. She could sense it. The fear, the frustration, the anger. It was intoxicating to her so much she had completely overlooked Rarity. This presence, this would be her new host. A perfect host. Unaware of all of this, Godzilla Junior and Starlight continued their conversation and unorthodox stand-off. Junior shrugged and continued, “And we both know what’s going to happen if you turn around and launch a magic bolt at me. So you can give yourself up, or you’re going to have to force me to risk this town to get a hold of you without breaking you.” “And why does my safety matter to you?”, Starlight whispered. “I made a promise to care, one I intend to keep. And, I want to know what happened here to your town," Godzilla muttered as he motioned to the ghost town around him, devoid of souls, "I’ve seen things before Starlight Glimmer, something a lot like this. That is some being I don’t want to ever see released in this world, and you can help me find out if I will.” There was silence and Starlight pitched her head back up. It looked like she was about to say something, something dour given her sudden frown and a spark of fear in her eye. But that time was momentary. Redness flashed across her sclera and the frown instantly turned into a sneer. Starlight Glimmer looked back ahead and magically gripped the lock on the door in front of her, busting the jail house’s padlock open. “You’re right, I couldn’t get you in an upfront fight,” she muttered as she teleported away. Before he could wonder as to what Starlight was on about, something else caught his attention. Muffled, high pitched, sobbing. A child was crying. Godzilla Junior’s gaze locked upon the inside of the jailhouse. The room was dark but after a moment, his eyes adjusted easily to see what lay within. Junior’s pulse stopped cold even before a large burst of teal magic hit him from behind. Starlight said something about a diversion and her magic started to tug at Junior’s cutiemark. But he paid it no attention, despite the pain. Crying red eyes looked up to his shocked, golden orbs. Mariner Chibi Moon sat in the middle of the floor, a collar around her neck bolted to the ground. Her hair ties had fallen out and her usually bouncy, happy pigtails draped free and messily drooped across her face. The poor child looked absolutely terrified, having been through a harrowing experience since her kidnapping at Canterlot. And Junior saw her flank. Absent was the typical red heart and upwards crescent moon shape, replaced by an aerenth black equals sign surrounded by sore, red skin. Chibi Moon, her face caked in tears and mucus, cried out in a whimper as she reached forward weakly. “S-Sensei…”, she croaked with a hoarse throat sore from crying. Junior recognized the motion she was making. The hoofie promise. His own words of such rang in his ears at such a promise he’d made not a day before. -“You’ll always be safe with me.”- Starlight had made him break his promise with harrowing consequences. And all the guilt and hatred over it was directed at one source. Godzilla Junior whirled around with a titanic roar just as Starlight was beginning to peel his cutiemark off. The deafening loudness caused her to reel back even before a torrent of blue plasma shot in her direction. Starlight's eyes widened as the burning curtain of air blew into her before the ray that was ripping through her magic reached her. Cutting off her magic beam, Starlight Glimmer was forced to teleport to safety but Godzilla was already storming towards her new location. He heard nothing even as Moonbeam Glimmer and Night Glider rushed in. He didn’t hear Night Glider’s shock at the scene inside the jailhouse or Moonbeam’s frantic pleading when she clung to his forelimb and insisted her sister could never do this. It was all like voices underwater, muffled and drowned out by the roars of the sea. All attention was solely on Starlight Glimmer as she teleported to the ground across the street from him. Her body became covered in a teal magic that ruptured the ground around her, erupting with aerenths that channeled power into her. Dark smoke burst from Starlight Glimmer’s eyes and a torrent of magic half a meter thick flew out of her. The ensuing shockwave and heat of Godzilla Junior’s retaliatory plasma beam forced everything back. Everything except the dark mass Rarity was chasing into the square. The Element of Generosity tried to act fast, tried to cast the dark magic containment and banishment spell she’d been going over with Princess Luna just a few hours ago. But try as she may, she wasn’t fast enough and Nightmare swarmed onto her host. The darkness within was vast and she could feel every insecurity, every negative emotion. She saw the same wrath for an older sibling she was born from, a mountain of guilt, and such a low self view it was subterranean. She grabbed hold of it, fueled by it and tethering herself to her host by it. The flow of negativity was revitalizing to her as a cup of water to a parched throat. Her psyche cracked a cruel smile as she delved into their mind. They'd lost family once and are separated from the rest. Loneliness. She could make it so all demanded their attention. Fear of their own powers. With her they'd only see the glory that put them above others, power begot greatness to the deserving. Rage at and yet a similarly strong loss at what to do about a sibling. An oddity, but with her instruction she could relieve that confusion. And insecurities about themselves which abounded. One night with her in charge, and they'd be thanking her for showing them what was due to both of them. So much potential darkness for her to work with, so much that made this pony such an ideal host. They were perfect, the best she'd seen since Luna. Together, they would be perfect. She beheld the mind around her with glee as she took it all in. Adoring it, lusting after it, loving it. With this joined to her, nothing could possibly every stand before her. Her roar of laughter was cut short by a deluge of anguish deep within the mind that smacked into her like a tidal wave. This mind was like a churning sea and each wave was another piece to a darker subconscious. One wave knocked her beneath the storming ocean surface and dragged her down to depths darker than any night. Nightmare was forced to see it all, choking on it. So much frustration and confusion. Creatures called mankind, there so was much love for them, so much pain undergone at their expense. And they'd tried to kill him. He forgave, but forgetting was another matter. Anger towards them and then anger at himself for feeling enraged at man. Even stronger was the feelings towards a sibling, a brother as much as the host loathed thinking of them as such until recently. He had forgiven, or at least drastically wanted to. But he was unable to muster the force to do so. The pain, the pain of decades of war was stabbing and dragging down like an anchor tied to a harpoon. All around Nightmare was war, both the presence of it and fear of it. Ever increasing in volume, drowning her mind like the dark ocean was her form. It swallowed her up in a mutated reptilian maw filled to the seams with mishmashed fangs and a split jaw. Nightmare experienced the pain of a hard life filled with conflict, confusion, paranoia, and lusts for peace unfulfilled. She brought forth a possibility of a life unaltered by good. Where the warmth and kindness of Azusa Gojo for a mother, the stern but protected childhood under Godzilla Senior as a father, the guidance and example that King Kong set, and the comradery of many allies old and new thrived; never existed. Where any semblance of loyalty, morality, and selfless worry that created one of Terra's champions never took root. In such a barren possibility, only the pains and what came with them persisted. Instead of a pained, scarred, but functioning do-gooder; the trauma, unchecked power, and malice begot a horror. Some within humanity feared what he might have been like should he become like his father or grandfather before him. And now the answer was laid bare, for it was a fear he himself had had for decades and now it was being unleashed. Should things have played out differently, had he lost himself to what had happened, he'd have been worse. This was Godzilla Junior's greatest fear, how he saw himself. And this is how his form reflected such as his mind went berserk at the notion. In her bid to siphon power from the negativity of this mind to seize a hold of it, to make it want her to be in control like she had Luna or Rarity, Nightmare had shut out the positives. And now, drowning in the maelstrom of this mind she'd created by attacking Godzilla during his moment of hatred, she couldn't get free. It was too much, she'd unleashed too much and amplified it beyond her own control of freedom. The anchor sunk further down into the sea of the mind, dragging her down with it as if the chain was a noose caught around her neck. He wasn't her prisoner to make use of his body with her power, her power was now his prisoner. An out of control Godzilla Junior was in command, pointing everything at his sources of pain or rage. With memories of pain, temptations of wrath, and monstrous desires engulfing the realms all around her, the Nightmare could only scream for it all to get away from her. In the real world, dark magic swirled around Godzilla’s form. It was molded, twisted, and deformed by the conflicting mixture of magic and out of control radiation. Instead of a partial meltdown born of rage, red hot stripes almost resembling fiery wounds lined the body. The mane ignited like burning embers with a bright purple flushing across them. The eyes, briefly flashing a brilliant red, became flooded in a blackness that swallowed both the Iris and sclera. Disorderly fangs erupted from the jaws that now drew back in a constant snarl. Godzilla Junior’s equine form was rough around the edges, but could be seen as admirable in some veins, even handsome. His true form was bestial and gruff, but in the right light could carry a regal power befitting his title or heroic nature. Nightmare typically made her hosts into stunners, born of the insecurities within demanding beauty none could ignore. Luna desired what her sister had, envying her in every way from a warped, impressionable teenage mind. She wanted Celestia's stature, age, beauty, power to impress a father figure she mistook for playing favorites, and status to force all of Equestria to bow to her and her alone. Thus she was granted the form of Nightmare Moon, an older, idealized but dark echo of Luna's desires. Rarity suffered from similar insecurities. Not too far into her adventures with the other Element Bearers, she'd questioned her worth in the face of Twilight Sparkle's magic, Rainbow Dash's speed, Applejack's stability, Fluttershy's gifts, and Pinkie Pie's inexplicability. Whether she could fall behind, be forgotten, or be replaced. Nightmare preyed upon it and offered her a corrupted fruition of the solution, a beautiful, stunning form none could forget and the promises of status none could replace. And so, Equestria met the most powerful unicorn of all time and the queen of the nightmarish beings invading from the moon; Nightmare Rarity. Nightmare took what was deep inside, those often selfish but unfulfilled desires, and gave them to her host while letting their darker aspects run wild so much the host's typical personality wasn't even in control anymore. But what she brought out now, dredged up from the depths of the King of the Monster's mind, was what Junior saw himself as in his worst fears. For as tall as he was, Junior did not carry a high view of himself. As scared as he'd be at the possibility of someone like Grand King Ghidorah running loose or the legends Lea had told him of millennia past coming to fruition, nothing terrified him more than what he knew he could be like unrestrained. Unrestrained, hideous in appearance and manner, and above all else, destructive. A true monster. Smog erupted from his maw, then a jet of flame, and then a screeching beam of purple that divided the sky. Multiple rays erupted from his back, hacking the clouds above to pieces. Nightmare Godzilla let out an unworldly wail as all looked on in horror. There is a word in Japanese that has many meanings depending on the context. One such meaning describes something new, especially if it’s drastically different in form as it once was. Shin. ================== Grand King Ghidorah watched on, momentarily distracted from his actions elsewhere as he watched the events unfold from the aether gateway between Zenith and Equestria, unseeable by either. The appearance of Nightmare had been unexpected to say the least, his glimpsing of the fragmented future had only told him to get Godzilla to Glimmer’s town and have her antagonize him by the worst means possible to her. He’d hoped to awaken that inferno of a meltdown form in the beast. But, it seemed things chose to play out not precisely as planned. Still, he wasn’t angered, even if it seemed the statement of “the future is always changing” was proving sound. The King of Terror gave the scene a bemused glance before the annoyance acted up again. Starlight Glimmer was not the only one he was exerting a mental hold over, but his assault on the other priority target had proved... irksome. Even more so with another intruding upon the mental assault. Ghidorah grumbled, turning his attention back towards Canterlot. The machinations of his master plan, not for Bagan but for himself, demanded fine tuning. He’d be back to deal with Godzilla shortly.