//------------------------------// // Chapter 40: Hero // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// Rarity toiled at the bolted chain, gritting her teeth as she tried to pry the link binding Chibi Moon to the floor free. A blasting roar deafened the air and cracked the windows, nearly making Rarity recoil in pain. Part of the roof groaned and started to give. Quickly noticing it, Rarity threw her magic upwards and grabbed the cracking ceiling beams, holding them in place with telekinesis. Rarity did get some instruction from Twilight and Princess Luna, but she was no Gifted Unicorns entry. Like most unicorns she knew very few spells not relating to her talent aside from telekinesis and in her frazzled, frantic state even that was barely enough to hold out. She winced and grunted, falling on a shaking knee as she put her attention on holding the ceiling up. Moonbeam and Night Glider weren’t far behind her thankfully, soon launching upon Chibi’s binding as they tried to wrench the bolted chain out of the floor mount. Hooves clutched the chain and wrenched with all their strength, both mares kicking their slipping legs against the floor for a purchase that was hard to come by. Another roar sounded off, followed by a flash of neon aqua light. Starlight Glimmer, eyes choked with dark magic smoke and the red gleam from Ghidorah’s influence, hissed as she fell out of the teleport and slid across the patio for the jailhouse. From inside the doorway, Moonbeam managed to peek out an eye and catch a glimpse of her sister firing a burst of magical concussive blasts at the source of a loud, audible stomping approaching. Whatever spell Starlight was using though wasn’t working, the stomping only grew louder without its pace being slowed in the slightest. Starlight’s eyes widened and however small, the red gleam over them cracked like fracturing glass. She teleported away just as Nightmare Godzilla’s titanic form advanced after her and passed the doorway. The implacable monster was cracking the floorboards and ground with every step. “S-Starlight!”, Moonbeam yelped as she began to make for the door. “M-OONBEAM NO!”, Rarity cried as she forced the ceiling back up, “We need you!” “He’s gonna kill her! If I don’t save her or stop him, she dies!” Night Glider wheezed as she tried to break the chain, a feat harder done than said given the lack of cutiemark left her and Moonbeam’s whole body weakened, “And if we don’t leave, we all die!” Chibi Moon stood motionless and stoic, eyes still flooding with tears as she held her hoof out to the distant, nightmarish echo of her sensei. Rarity growled against the force of the caving roof. With a great heave she forced it back and knocked part of the room away to let it fall, “Nopony’s dying today!” The debris falling on the far side of the room tumbled, a metallic clanging signalling something made of metal. Rarity chanced a glance and spotted a sturdy looking metal rod akin to rebar. “G-rab that rod!”, she shouted and hastily pointed to the object in question. Following the trail indicated, Night Glider spied the rod and rushed towards it. Grasping it hastily, she dove back towards the other mares and skid to a halt. Rarity stumbled as something very heavy, likely debris from the fight outside, slammed into the wall of the small jailhouse and fractured the wall; forcing her to hold it up too or risk it getting crushed down by the roofing. She barked, “Use it- urg! Wedge the chainlink! Quick!” Night Glider jammed the rod inside the chainlink next to the one closest to the floor, she looked to Moonbeam as the latter pegasus gripped the chain and pulled it taut. “Ready? One… two… three! PULL!” The burning wreckage of half a shed, several wheelbarrows, and a kart crashed into the street, erupting in a shower of wind blown smoke and sparks. Starlight Glimmer was an exceptionally gifted unicorn, one of the few with the topic of spell magic itself as her special talent. She was young, healthy, driven if with a warped perception, and unintentionally had an exceptionally powerful teacher giving her access to a source of magic almost nopony knew how to use; let alone extensively. In another time, in another world where it was Tirek who stormed Canterlot instead of an army of Gyaos, she would have been a notable adversary against a less combat inclined Twilight Sparkle. But this wasn’t a battle with time on her side or against a young alicorn without much active combat experience. This wasn’t even a battle in the truthful definition of the term. This was her frantically trying one trick after another against an unstoppable force who had her death on the mind. As such, there were all sorts of deadly hazards she had to dodge or teleport out of. Vaporization from a purple ray of plasma that bisected one house. Crushing by falling debris being thrown at her after Godzilla walked through another house. The latest one was her panic-teleporting to a random spot across town as Nightmare Godzilla lunged out and bit down and through a support beam she’d been in front of; tearing the structure in two with his jaws before turning around and setting off after her again. Starlight was tired. Every beam she tried, every concussive burst she launched, every wagon or barrage of wooden planks she launched at him; Nightmare Godzilla just walked through it like it was rainfall. Another torrent of dark magic beams shot through a window and raked across his chest and flank. Nightmare Godzilla slowly turned towards the source and began to charge, not even slowed down by the magic splintering off his enlarged sternum; which cut through the raw power like the bow of a ship across a wave. Starlight yelped and teleported away just as Godzilla rammed down the wall she’d been behind. The unicorn stumbled across the front porch of her quarters, wood splinters caught in her hair indicated how close the call had been. Falling upon her side, she struggled to get back up. A loud stomp silenced her attention and she froze. The stomp was followed by likewise, getting louder, closer. The monster was stalking up to downed prey, and Starlight felt like a rabbit in a coyote’s gaze. The red sheen across her eyes cracked again and the dark magic smoke flickered as fear began to overpower any wrath fueling it. And when her eyes fell upon what was advancing towards her, it was hard to blame her. Ground was cracking underhoof, almost napalm-like purple light leaked from a myriad of misshapen fangs that seemed too densely packed in the jaws that bore them. Nightmare Godzilla’s body was covered in red markings that seemed less like colorations and more like the skin had been stretched so much the blood and glowing power beneath it was visible through it. Such a body should have been in horrific agony, which logically would have made her attacks more potent. But she had no success and here death was, advancing towards her. A lion taking its time to close in for the kill. With a mane of burning wrath and eyes that tore through her, Godzilla remained voiceless but far from silent. Starlight reflexively put up a shield to protect herself, a half bubble of magic forming in front of her hoof. Too winded to dodge, she could only hope to block. It was a false hope as Nightmare Godzilla closed in further, unfettered. If Godzilla shot forth his beam, he’d surely have burned through the shield and killed her right there. But a quick end was not what his warped perception craved. He bore upon her, sucking in air before throwing his jaws open. He didn’t strike at the shield physically, be it to smash through or pry it away; he didn’t need to. Instead Godzilla threw his jaws open at an angle far too wide for almost any living thing and let out a booming, deafening, unholy wail that was unbecoming for any living thing. Deep within Junior’s subconscious, Nightmare struggled. Junior’s mentalscape had taken the form of a raging sea and she was now its prisoner. She tried to glean freedom from what held her captive, but the force was far too strong. The loneliness, the hatred, the confusion, frustration, and self-loathing were all too powerful after they caught her off guard. The bindings pulling her down into the depths turned into a giant hand that gripped her, crushing her. The form, the manifestation of Godzilla Junior’s subconscious, took shape in a dark outline of his true self. The massive eyes glared and it roared through the depths of the mental ocean, letting loose a booming wail that matched its pony counterpart. Real and mental world, it was a type of sound no worlds had heard since 1954. The sound of a saurian with a hate-filled heart eclipsed any hatred that even a possessed Starlight Glimmer could muster. Her shield magic cracked and splintered before shattering. Starlight Glimmer yelped as she was thrown back and through her front door. The unicorn winced and gasped for breath while struggling to her hooves. She rapidly backpedalled, partially fumbling across the floor as her eyes stayed locked upon the death closing in upon her. Nightmare Godzilla’s shoulders hit the doorframe, his great mass too wide to pass through; though slow down he did not. Instead in an instant the wood splintered and shattered into a shower of debris. His mane raked across the ceiling, scorching it to blackened crisp at just a glancing flicker of a touch. Starlight fled through her home with Godzilla stomping after her, almost seeming to take his time. A tiger need not surge over and rush to seize a fawn. Furniture was thrown, windows were shattered and thrown as a makeshift flechette storm of razor sharp glass, and magic bursts scourged the roof to bring it down on top of him. Nightmare Godzilla just walked through it all without ever being phased. Starlight’s demeanor had changed drastically, almost like the overpowering malice of Godzilla was draining her of her source of dark magic, and it was showing. Her magic blasts were getting weaker, her strength to stand fading, and the red gleam above her eyes from Ghidorah’s control was continuing to crack and flicker. She was hitting a tsunami with a slingshot and the wave was still coming, Godzilla breaking through her house just by walking after her. Already stress cracks were overtaking the walls and ceiling, as admittedly Our Town was not particularly sturdy when it came to engineering. But it gave the desperate unicorn an idea. She fled, fled down the stairs to the storm cellar and basement. She practically fell down the last half of the flight, but managed to make it without tumbling over. Eyes darted to the top of the stairs as the crashing booms of Godzilla’s hoofsteps grew louder and louder. An eerie, purple glow began to overtake the cracking doorway. Starlight gasped and wheezed for breath, managing to summon enough control out of the whirlwind of fear and mind control to muster up just enough magic bursts to hit the cellar’s four support beams, three more so than the fourth. The basement floor groaned and whined, loud, woody cracks bursting out of the walls and floor even before Godzilla got into the doorway. The Nightmare-infused kaiju wasted no more time, he knew her to be cornered. Rather than step down the stairs, which he likely would have destroyed with his steps anyways, he bounded forward and pounced down to clear them all in one jump. Nightmare Godzilla hit the ground with a terrific crash just as Starlight used the last of her focus to hit the last support beam and teleport through a line of sight out a side window. Having broken the chain holding the filly down, Rarity, Night Glider, Moonbeam Glimmer, and Chibi Moon rushed out of the jailhouse and had gotten only a few houses away from the fighting when Starlight appeared in front of them. Night Glider nearly jumped out of her skin, Moonbeam Glimmer tried to rush forward, Chibi Moon frantically backpedalled, and Rarity pulled the filly and mares behind herself while holding her own glowing horn full of magic at the ready. Starlight Glimmer looked like a mess as she panted harshly, covered in scuff marks and sweat. Her hair had fallen out of her orderly mane and was both frayed and burned in a few places. Her strength waned, collapsing onto a knee just as her home let out a shrieking roar of demolition. Wood snapped, shutters crackled, and stone brick snapped all at once as the house seemed to fall down upon its center a full story; halfway burying itself in its crater. Starlight Glimmer didn’t smile, but she could finally take a real breath, sitting back and weeping stressed tears from her eyes in relief that the horrible thing chasing her was now buried under several tons of house. If not killed, at least pinned down. She was going to live, she wasn’t going to die! A pitiful, sobbing laugh crept from her mouth; the red lenses over her eyes the mares took notice of flashing and cracking more and more as elation finished what fear started. Her eye smoke fizzled out with its dark magic, wetness drenching her nose and cheeks. For as much a victim of bad fate she unknowingly was, first of King Sombra and then King Ghidorah; she lived. She wasn’t going to die! She wasn’t going to die! That same, bellowing, unnatural call rumbled across the plateau’s grounds. An unnatural wail by an unnatural beast fueled by what no animal was supposed to know. The sky seemed to darken with clouds above, the moon’s light replaced by a beam of purple light erupting from the center of the house. It cut through the debris effortlessly, setting radiating fires to the rest. The beam, accompanied by a roar, swept down close to the ground and swung around in a circle, effectively slicing the house off its foundations while taking off the tops of the surrounding homes as well. The ray cut off and after a moment of silence, the entire house shook. Nothing emerged from it, no beast bursting forth to continue the hunt. Instead the house started to rise up and move. Meter by meter, torn free of its surroundings and moved out of its own crater; held aloft by its central support by Nightmare Godzilla. Not by magic, but by sheer brute force. A unicorn had picked up something big enough to be a home for two families and hoisted it up over himself in the manner a circus strongstallion would a weight, with the outer portions snapping off due to the stress. The show of strength elicited awe from some and screams of terror from Starlight. It was too much. This unstoppable force was far too potent for any amount of warping by dark magic or control by Grand King Ghidorah’s control to power through unheaded. The red light blinking across her eyes seems to increase in fervor before the cracks spread more and finally shattered; falling off like broken glass. For the first time in the week and potentially in years, Starlight Glimmer was not in the thrall of another, not Ghidorah, not out of control dark magic. She had finally woken up, and when she saw the house getting thrown at her, she woke up screaming. She’d have been crushed had the mares who’d accompanied Godzilla to this fated town not acted. Moonbeam surged forward with sisterly instinct compensating for her weakened, cutie markless frame, with Rarity following close behind her. In the opposite direction, Night Glider grabbed Chibi Moon and dove into the space between two other houses for cover. When the pair of mares got next to Starlight Glimmer however, Nightmare Godzilla's body seemed to fidget and flinch; sparks shooting out from his mane like his mind was tearing away at itself. Moonbeam Glimmer and Rarity just barely managed to get to Starlight in time and begin to tackle her out of the way, when a purple ray shot out from down the street. Rarity winced as it shot over her head, narrowly missing Starlight’s scalp and instead hitting the very same building Nightmare Godzilla had lobbed at them. With part of the house burned away, they managed to finish the diving save and tackled Starlight Glimmer into the opposite alleyway just as the unicorn’s old house hit the ground and exploded into a rain of smoke, char, and splinters. Nightmare Godzilla sneered, purple fires licking out from between uneven fangs, before stomping forward and going through the wall of another house as he closed in unfettered. The mares’ minds were in a complete whirlwind. Starlight Glimmer had no idea what was going on and was still shaking all over from fright she didn’t fully understand as she had only consciously seen Godzilla for a brief moment. Moonbeam’s attention was on the sister she held, trying to help rouse Starlight to her hooves so they could flee with the ever present knowledge Godzilla was closing in. Rarity’s focus was on getting both Glimmer sisters out of harm’s way as well as the question of why Nightmare Godzilla’s beam would suddenly miss a stationary target, the last blast shooting directly over Starlight’s head to hit the house he’d pitched at them. Night Glider was frantically trying to protect Chibi Moon from the shower of fallen, often burning shards of wood raining down from the destroyed house. And Mariner Chi Bi Moon could still only sport the same silent, teary expression she’d had for the last several minutes as she glimpsed her mentor smashing his way through another house. “He’s heading right for you! Come on!”, Night Glider shouted out to her compatriots as another enormous crash of wood signalled Nightmare Godzilla was only two homes away. Hoisting Chibi Moon into her forelimbs, Night Glider turned and bolted for more cover as the two unicorns and other pegasus followed suit. Starlight Glimmer, still in a blurry confusion, looked behind her just as Nightmare Godzilla walked through the last wall that had been separating them. When his eyes fell upon her, the unicorn flinched. In an instant her mind was completely blocked out and she outright froze. Be it the intense fear she was experiencing normally or some sort of hypnotic ability the seized Nightmare had given Godzilla Junior; she was still as a statue. Intense thoughts ripped into her mind, devoid of solid cohesion and more like an amorphous mass of raw emotions slamming into her. This was what broke Grand King Ghidorah’s hex and shouted out the fires of her dark magic. Flashes of an untainted Godzilla Junior and a young filly Starlight didn’t recognize drowned out all thought. They were of over several days and locations, talking, eating, training like a master and pupil. They could have been chance memories dredged up from Starlight Glimmer’s subconscious, formed from her stalking them while under mind control; or perhaps Nightmare really had unwillingly done more than warp and augment Junior’s actual power set and they were projections of his own memories explaining wrath for Starlight. Logistics didn’t matter when Nightmare Godzilla’s maw opened with a glowing purple light and his lower jaw split apart. Starlight Glimmer saw flashes of a failed magic school entry, flying a kite with her sister, snuggling and studying alongside Sunburst, and a largely forgotten acquaintance she met in infancy. A tear rolled down her cheek, the muted world around her not perceiving Moonbeam’s frantic screams as the older Glimmer sister turned around. She didn’t hear a gradually growing hum of moving air approaching from the west either. She fainted from the pressure, collapsing to the ground. Moonbeam would have been an only child had a blue blur not slammed into Nightmare Godzilla and tackled him back into the house, Godzilla’s violet ray swinging up into the sky and slicing the house in two. The house wasn’t silent for a moment, soon erupting into the sounds of a great struggle. Dents were smashed into the wall that appeared on the exterior, flashes of light burst out of the windows and door frame as they blew the latter off, wood exploded and stone shattered; and finally the entire house was torn down as one combatant was thrown through a wall. Xenilla slowed himself down with telekinesis, but even his best effort couldn’t stop his momentum from causing him to collide with a house across the street. ================================== Sometime Earlier in the Crystal Empire ================================== Princess Cadance laid back in her bed as Flash Sentry and the doctor he was escorting departed. Another check up on the foal, another clean bill so far. With the knowledge she was actually with child, the alicorn had found herself looking her form over more and more. While greater body size than normal meant she wasn’t especially showing like a normal mare, as Princess Celestia indicated, she and the doctor did notice a slight roundness on her belly. Said roundness was what she couldn’t take her fond eyes off of while she laid back. Glow didn’t even begin to describe the look upon Cadance as she very tenderly rubbed at where the doctor indicated and bit her lip in any anticipation of a movement or kick. She was anxious, terrified even on some level; but it was a lesser fear than what she once had when she worried her ascension from pegasus to alicorn rendered her sterile or incompatible with a normal pony. And any fears now were drowned out by the joy she and her husband shared. Now she got two kisses every morning when Shining Armor woke up, one for the both of them. A soft hum filtered out of her throat, tiny tears wetting the corners of each eye as Cadance sighed contently. With a slow day in the empire, Shining Armor insisting he tended to what needed doing, kindly young Flash Sentry on duty, nothing could foil her mood; not even morning sickness. Though the very large unicorn knocking her closet door open and marching into her room certainly could give it an honest effort. “Ah good, you're already seated.” Xenilla’s calm tone contrasting horribly with the great fright he gave the alicorn, who nearly jumped out of her skin at his sudden entry. “WHAA!?! What the!? How did you?! The closet!-” Xenilla paid no attention to her fright, walking over to her bedside with several small bags levitating in front of him, “Quite cramped, you’d think a royal would have larger.” “But-But! It was open just a moment ago?! How could you have possibly hid in there?!” Link “I didn’t.” “So how did you?!” He waved nonchalantly, “Not important…. Though out of curiosity, are the pink garments for you or your husband?” Cadance suddenly went from the pinkest alicorn ever to the reddest one and she was silenced. A one-way awkward silence passed between them as they stared at each other, before Xenilla apparently figured out he wasn’t getting his answer and shrugged it off. Drawing up a tray, pestle, and grinder, he started to toil at them; emptying multiple bags of odd materials into them along with several glowing crystals. “Regardless, I have come to help ensure the future of the empire,” he noted as he worked with his back turned. Cadance, still breathing a bit heavily, put a hoof over her heart to slow it back down while trying not to look angered or flustered. “And, pray tell-”, she grumbled, “-how do you plan to do that?” “I have studied equine infancy, extensively. Early childhood to gestation to conception. Yes, Dame Dancer helped. Besides the point. I endangered you and the life of you and Prince Consort Armor’s child with my ploy against Sombra, a situation made more into question at your lack of knowledge regarding the imperial heir until after more stressful situations. I made a vow to protect you, your family, and the empire. The heir is paramount and I intend no harm to ever come to them during my stay. Their health is priority one, surprises withstanding.” Cadance blinked a few times, processing what was being fed to her. In some ways she was actually touched and felt a smile growing across her face even if her brow stayed raised in confusion as to what this oath of protection had to do with what Xenilla was doing right now. “Well, thank you... I'm-.. actually kind of touched! I’m happy to see you’re taking promises to heart. You really have started to turn things around, Xenilla. But you need not worry about Shining Armor and my’s baby, the doctor just confirmed they’re in a clean bill of health!”, she beamed though with a slight, anxious giggle in the back at worry over what exactly the kaiju had in mind. This was the individual who's plan to kill a despot included purposefully getting thrown in jail and then smashing up half a castle; her worry was sound. Xenilla grumbled and waved a hoof, “And pray tell, have said doctors been able to determine the sex or type of this offspring yet?” He kept working; mixing and grinding up something in the pestle that included, but was not limited to crushed energy crystal, surge crystals, orange peels, something that looked like moss, and about four other items Cadance couldn’t even see. It was starting to make her more nervous than curious. “Hehe…eeeh… No, that-that is still in question.... Um, Xenilla? What are you doing?”, she mumbled with a bit lip. Xenilla casually shrugged his shoulders even as he fired a brief spurt of a corona flare into the pestle, short enough it flash fried whatever was inside and made Cadance yelp in surprise from the flash of light and smoke. Xenilla glanced back at her and cleared his throat, “Ahem, sorry about that smoke, Empress-” Cadance’s eyes narrowed, seeing they were back to that again, “-Princess.” He didn't even break stride, “-My my you seem delusional as to your title, must be the hormones. You really do need this after all.” Cadance’s visage widened in confusion, not knowing if she should be confused or afraid that she just thought Xenilla cracked a joke; or angry at him still being stubborn about her choosing to follow in her aunt’s hoofsteps. Instead she could only stutter as Xenilla turned around with what looked like some sort of powder filling the pestle like a bowl. “...Wh-Wh-Whaaat isss thaaaat?”, she cringed and apprehensively pointed a hoof at the bowl. “Ah, my solution and insurance policy. Ingrained here is all the essentials for the healthiest result possible for the young imperial heir. A vast majority of expectant mothers only meet the minimum of what is needed for their developing offspring and gestation is the most important time of development for a new life. This mixture is all the essentials magnified to greater extents and enhanced in proportion to ensure your’s and Consort Armor’s progeny is better than safe. I have experience in biochemistry with my crystals,” Xenilla noted almost proudly. Cadance was still far from sure, glancing between the concoction and the kaiju trying to serve it, “And um… what kind of experience do you have exactly?” “Surge crystal making. Energizing and revitalizing myself or other kaiju to keep fighting harder and better after injury. The Mutations regularly tried to kill myself and my comrade, Destroyah.” Princess Cadance took a few seconds to ponder what exactly he was implying before her eyes seemed to almost explode out of her angered expression. “... Steroids?!”, she barked incredulously. Xenilla snorted almost like he took offense, “None of the sort! Besides most steroid use is in the medical fields anyways even if they were. My crystals merely work by energizing the cells to rapidly regrow to promote healing and ionized cell waste to restore stamina… Though some did include increases in certain abilities. And this formula is properly made so it bypasses your system and goes straight to the umbilical cord, you’d feel nothing but some tingling.” Cadance sat there, mouth agape at how in the realms of McCarthy somepony could somehow be so genius and yet so dense at the same time. Then she remembered she was talking to a giant alien space dinosaur. She shook her head and crossed her arms, “.... X-Xenilla I appreciate the sentiment… But I’m not eating that.” “... Why?”, he grunted. Princess Cadance rolled her eyes and let out a loud shrug, “Aaagh! Because I don’t want to end up with a baby who could blast holes in the ceiling or have wings the size of mine!” Xenilla was unmoved, “Sounds like a strong heir, I fail to see how that’d be faulty Empress Cadenza. I could mix it into a tea if you like.” This time she didn’t even bother to correct him, narrowing her eyes and barking at the kaiju, “Because you’re not the one delivering the baby!” Xenilla was a good deal more knowledgeable in many things than Godzilla Junior, but he was still his brother and they had more than a few similarities even if neither ever noticed. One of which was just how thick their skulls could be at times, “... Are you saying you’d prefer I be in the operating room to assist? Could try and make a surge crystal to hel-” Cadance finally looked over at him after his pause. Xenilla’s entirely demeanor was different than it had been a moment before. The kaiju turned unicorn had frozen stiff like he’d been shocked, eyes contracting to points. The tray he’d been holding dropped onto Cadance’s bed with a clack, but Xenilla paid no attention. Instead he just seemed to stare off into space sporting a look like he’d just been shocked. Princess Cadance’s anger turned to bewilderment and then to concern, she tentatively reached up and put a hoof to Xenilla’s shoulder, nearly recoiling from how ice cold his paling skin felt. She could feel him, feel that he was shaking all over in a manner Cadance was familiar with. Xenilla was terrified of something overpowering. For a moment the room seemed to roast. The alicorn felt a burning heat pass over her and into Xenilla before it vanished. Hear it she could not, but there was a voice. One that seemed to fade in and out like a scent in the wind. Not of word, but of mind. Xenilla’s mind. -”Save your brother…”- It was familiar, though not of recent memory. If he had time to ponder about and recognize it, Xenilla might have considered himself insane for thinking so. But that didn’t matter. His sudden departure from Empress Cadenza’s chamber didn’t matter. Only the sight of a misshapen demon in his brother’s skin mattered. Xenilla suddenly bolted from Cadance’s bedside and into her closet, slamming the door behind him. Key Ring was, simply put, flabbergasted at what Xenilla demanded when he emerged out of their test doorway a few moments later. In the catacombs of the castle what was once a realm of malefic experimentation was now replaced by such of a benign nature. Aerenth replaced by quartz, dark tomes by both modern Equestrian and arcane Imperial spellbooks and magic diagrams, and enough used powdered chalk upon a nearby chalkboard to pale an elephant. At the center of the laboratory was a plain looking doorway connected to numerous crystals and emblazoned with a single rune, a combination of a Canterlot symbol and a Crystal Imperial one, on the frame. It was from there Xenilla burst out of just after he exited via Cadance’s closet. That was a minute ago and Xenilla was currently running through adjusting the crystals powering the contraption as he spouted out the coordinates he needed to ‘jump’ towards. “50 kilometers south-southeast?! Xenilla we just got this thing working and the biggest jump we’ve done so far is quarter of a kilometer!”, Key Ring roared as he scrambled after the kaiju and tried to keep his shaking from causing his glasses to fall off. Xenilla just kept milling through the power grid and threw his voice behind himself towards his collaborator, “Your special talent includes connecting and unlocking doorways isn't it? And we’ve been making use of the portal magic we read up on with Mr. Burst. Last jump worked fine.” Key Ring cringed before pointing towards a very heavily drawn-over chalkboard showing records of their previous ‘jumps’, “Yes but we've only done so to places physically linked. Same building, down the street, across the path. The places need to be touching so far!” “We’re on the same continent as the plateau, it counts for being connected. Besides you’ve used similar spells for years and our last test just worked.” “I used it to get to my office quicker from the library front door! You’re talking about jumping four Manehattans!” Xenilla roared back as he whirled around, “And I’m not taking no for an answer!” He huffed in labored breaths, the stress causing a dampness to emerge from the creases of his eyelids. Xenilla growled as he manually created several more large energy charged yellow quartz crystals and forced them into the network powering the doorway. He grunted but didn’t pause, instead looking for his other collaborator. Ever since he vowed to protect the Crystal Empire, he’d seen fit to do so by any moral means he could. And to quickly catch himself up on Equestrian magic for knowledge in use of defensive spells as well as utility purposes like the doorway, he’d sought help from one of Key Ring’s colleagues also brought over from Canterlot. Not the best magician but he was hard-pressed to find a better archivist. Now if only he could find him. Lacking time, Xenilla elected to go for the simple route and let loose a roar that was unbefitting of an equine and instead sounded more like his true form was calling it out, “SUNBUUUURST?!” The entire building seemed to shake, but it got the result. A mobile pile of books started to scramble down the stairs, losing half his load of tomes as he did. Sunburst tripped, the last stack of books thankfully being caught by Key Ring as he lurched over the stairwell railing. He winced, rubbing at his ringing ears and adjusting his glasses, “Um.. You rang? Ehehe.” Key Ring deadpanned and groaned, “Xenilla’s trying to kill himself.” "Wait! What?! How?!" "He's wanting to port himself here." Key Ring’s words were accompanied by him setting the books down and pointing towards a map set upon one of the walls with a levitated pen. Sunburst puzzled, getting down the rest of the stairs and trotting over to the map. He froze in front of the map and for a moment shook, before quickly whirling around with an expression that made his eyes seem bigger than his glasses. “50 kilometers south-southeast?! Xenilla we just got this thing working and the biggest jump we’ve done so far is quarter of a kilometer!”, he pleaded. Xenilla snarled, steaming at his eyes and unmoved. “Yeah, that’s what I told him,” Key Ring grumbled as he rubbed at his still ringing ear. The kaiju snorted, “Don’t act like it’s not possible. Starswirl managed to link whole worlds together. Space, time, and dimension.” “Yes but-,” Key Ring belted as he looked between himself and Sunburst with a lost visage, “We’re no Starswirl though! I’m a historian and magic teacher!” Sunburst came alongside his colleague and put his hoof across his chest as he pleaded against insanity, “And I’m a scholar!” Xenilla shook like a broiling kettle. For a moment his lips curled back and his eyes dilated with rage. He swung down, spurring a wince from his cohorts. But instead of a tackle or smash like they were expecting, they felt his trembling hooves upon their shoulders. They looked to him, Xenilla hanging his head low and disguising his face behind his bangs. For a moment there seemed to be a breeze that passed through the chamber, despite no windows or doors being opened. And despite it being a cool day outside, the air briefly flashed with a great heat. The voice spoke to Xenilla’s mind again. While quiet and distant, it’s power was evident. -”This is your chance…”- -My chance to atone…- “I’m not asking you to be…”, Xenilla whispered quietly with a slight quiver in his voice. Slowly the three stallion’s gazes met, or at least the closest they could given the lost sight the kaiju had. He looked out into a distance south-southeast, to where his species’ sensing ability told him the source of his terror was. His expression was the same one he bore when his brother attacked him in a meltdown state at Canterlot, lost, horrified, stressed, and nearly breaking. Sunburst and Key Ring remained quiet, their own visages slowly drooping from concern and worry. Key Ring gulped and finally spoke in a quiet sigh, “... Then what are you asking us to be? Asking us to do?” Xenilla slowly took his hooves off them and picked himself up, solemnly bowing his head, “To get me as close as we can… Please.” The two Canterlot unicorns looked to one another, sending flashes of questioning, confusion, and concern to one another. But, by twitch of muscle and narrowing of brow, they hardened their expression with visible resolve. The silent conversation was concluded with a determined nod. Instantly Sunburst went to the tomes and dug through the piles of books, pulling up multiple spells of both recent and arcane making. He busily scanned the pages and adjusted his glasses, “For long distance casting we’ll need a stabilization spell matrix cast through the far sight foci. The quartz crystals can magnify the energy so cast through them in an upward-downward pattern twice, then two left-right patterns, followed by Clover the Clever’s far sight spell on top of the focusing rune.” Key Ring took to the controls for the doorway as his horn glowed. Standing before a sort of console of buttons made of crystals, his magic took hold of them as he repeated the gestures as instructed. The maroon red unicorn’s cutie mark glowed in unison with his horn, a power magnified by Xenilla’s glowing crystals. Key Ring struggled and grit his teeth, but the rune upon the doorway flickered to a glow. “I-I can sense a door!” “Where?!” Key Ring’s struggle gave way to elation at his own success, “Not the exact spot, but it’s over 24 kilometers out! New record! Must be on the back of a train!” Sunburst’s eyes popped open, “Holy Celestia! We managed a moving target?! Must be the Clever spell addition! Xenilla, it's your best shot!” The orange unicorn looked to the kaiju, finding him standing before the doorway as it opened. Wind gushed out, blowing papers free of their resting places upon the desks and deafening the room. Sunburst and Key Ring covered their faces with a hoof to shield their eyes from the gales as Xenilla looked on. In the distance of the doorway’s view, he could see a beam of purple light rip across the sky from somewhere on a distant plateau. Xenilla steeled himself. “It’ll do. Do NOT follow me! Close the gate as soon as I’m through!”, he shouted out to them before charging through the doorway. The door slammed shut to the sound of his echoing farewell. “Thank you-ou-ou-ou…” Over twenty four kilometers out, the back door on the last car of a Manehattan bound train snapped open. Xenilla launched himself through the metal railing and off the back of the train. Using the momentum, he caught himself on a cushion of telekinesis. Golden light wrapped around his form, born from his shoulders and horn, before rapidly changing his direction; from falling to rocketing forward across the arid basin’s ground several feet in the air. A massive dust cloud billowed behind the flying unicorn, Xenilla accelerating towards the plateau far ahead. A hot wind blew across the basin, watching. ========================== =================== Present, Plateau =================== Grunting as he pried himself out of the pony-shaped dent he’d made, Xenilla hovered back to his feet and staggered to a ready stance. He panted several times before feeling eyes upon him, looking over to see he’d landed right next to Rarity and company who’d stopped to turn around and grab the fallen Starlight Glimmer. The glare he gave them, mostly born of worry and battle attunement than actual malice, made Night Glider yip. Turned out there was a family resemblance beyond blood. “What. Happened?!”, he barked in an absolutely livid, panicked tone. Rarity, still keeping her horn alight as her eyes darted between the collapsed house Godzilla had been inside and Xenilla, gulped. “Nightmare possession. The same force that created Nightmare Moon and-,” she cut herself off from going on a tangent, “Junior felt intense rage at his student being foalnapped and cutiemark removed, it must have drawn Nightmare to bond to him resulting in-” An earth shaking roar ripped out of the house and a fireplace was kicked out of place to get it off whom was under it. Xenilla’s eyes widened, knowing that kind of roar. He’d heard Junior make something similar that fated night at Solgell, right when he was about to kill something or die trying. That time it had been himself. Shaking off a stab of guilt, Xenilla frantically summoned up several quartz crystals and barked to the ponies, “It's too dangerous! Get out of here!” He threw himself and the quartz orbiting him at the mountain of rubble just as Nightmare Godzilla burst out of it, still throwing his voice backwards. “I’ll hold him off, run! As far as you can!” Xenilla and Nightmare Godzilla crashed into each other with the former being the one to lose the strength contest outright. Losing ground, Xenilla loosed his word. “St-Studied dark magic with Key Ring,” Xenilla strained and grunted as his hooves cut trenches into the ground with his forehead smashed into Nightmare Godzilla’s. “Know what- you’re going through! It corrupts, takes what’s there-,” he was headbutted back but quickly shook off the daze when Godzilla advanced again and threw himself at his sibling, “Makes it- worse! You’re angry. Angry at me, angry at her, but it’s a nightmare, not you…!!” Xenilla’s legs crumbled under the sheer force and his back hit the ground a half second before Nightmare Godzilla’s powerful hoof slammed into his chest. The Protector of the Empire gagged, matching Nightmare Godzilla’s one limb's strength with his two to shakingly push the hoof off from crushing in his sternum. “It’s j-just a nightmare! So wake up!”, he defiantly barked into Nightmare Godzilla’s fire-drooling maw. Pinned down, Xenilla predicted the beam he saw his brother charging was meant for him; crossing his forelimbs with two levitating crystals embossing themselves above him as his shoulder pads glowed to relay the energy into the guard. With his barrier shield up, Xenilla braced with gritted teeth but soon found his eyes dilating in surprise when Nightmare Godzilla instead tilted his head up and prepared to fire past the two of them. Shocked but not clueless, Xenilla quickly dropped the shield, grabbed a crystal and shoved it against his brother’s cheek to throw his aim off. Managing to only bisect several houses with his beam, Nightmare Godzilla cut the feed off and snarled at the kaiju beneath him. The roar he made was ferocious and only vaguely discernible as having some sort of speech to it. What exactly he said was utterly lost, but the context was made clear as day when his next course of action was to chomp down on Xenilla’s shoulder hard enough to draw a none too insignificant amount of blood and jerk his head about to throw Xenilla aside like a ragdoll. ===================== Not five seconds after Xenilla yelled to the fleeing mares, Rarity skid to a halt and looked back in time at the ensuing brawl. Night Glider noticed and stopped running to look back, “M-Miss Rarity?!” The unicorn quivered for a moment, clearly terrified. But memory overtook sight, and memories of times training one particular spell with Princess Luna proved the Element of Generosity hadn’t been idle. And if she couldn’t give her comrades time or chance, what kind of generosity did she even have? Rarity steeled herself with a slow inhale, before fully turning back around and unironically parroting Xenilla. Her face hardened as she shouted, “Everypony get out of here and run!” “Wh-What?! You’re going back?!”, Night Glider squawked in a dumbstruck tone. Rarity narrowed her eyes in controlled nerve, “It’s what heroes like he and I do. Keep going, as far as you can!” With a mind full of resolve and a heart of terror only eclipsed by the kind of courage that helped save Equestria time and time again, Rarity did the opposite of run away. The other mares were stunned, seeing the white unicorn run back into the now over half destroyed Our Town just as a bleeding Xenilla was thrown back by an obscured Nightmare Godzilla. Night Glider saw Rarity’s horn ignite and she saw Xenilla pull himself back up after ironically being thrown through her very house. Every instinct screamed to run, but all of her conscience told her to help her fellow pony. A national heroine, the king she’d gone to for help, and a valiant good samaritan were all in harm’s way; something unacceptable. This wasn’t like when she was cowed into submission by Starlight Glimmer under a false belief, this was something worse and yet grander. She’d been cowed for the past year, but not now. In another life she’d have been inspired among others by six heroines in need. In this one she was by half that number. Night Glider gently hoofed Chibi Moon over to Moonbeam Glimmer, whom was still propping up the passed-out Starlight Glimmer, and put her hooves on the older pegasus’ shoulders. “Aaaaah McCarthy!.... You heard Miss Rarity, get the three of you out of here!”, she yelped before throwing everything her weakened body had at surging back towards Our Town. Moonbeam Glimmer was stunned in such a manner the term flabbergasted didn’t even begin to adequately explain it. She stood by in a stiff stance, watching as Night Glider ran to join Rarity and the entity she recognized from the newsprint as Ambassador Xenilla of the Crystal Empire. It was what Rarity said that replayed within her mind. -”It’s what heroes like he and I do.”- -”he and I”- Rarity’s earning of the title was easy knowledge as it had been won over multiple times during the Nightmare Moon return and since. Her rushing in to help somepony else made perfect sense. It was the “he” that gave her minor pause. Rarity could have been speaking of Ambassador Xenilla, which might fit given his last minute rescue as well as some vague details about him thwarting an attempt on Princess Cadance’s life some weeks back; but Moonbeam knew whom Rarity spoke of. Shame flashed across her face even as a flash of light burst from behind a house, magic or energy beam she couldn’t be sure of from this distance. There was a time she’d have scoffed at anything involving the words “heroic” and “Godzilla”, times she was gripped by fear that made her irrational. She’d slandered him, distrusted him, practically gave him contempt even as she begged him to prove her paranoia wrong. It took a surprise meeting at a gravestone to leave her so shocked it dispelled all that paranoia in one swoop. She’d even gone to him for help when she thought she didn’t deserve it. But watching now, having seen Godzilla taken by the same things they both feared he’d be, it affixed her hooves to the ground. Could something so terrifying, so out of control and dangerous, be a hero? A gentle pressure against her throat caught the mare’s attention and her breath hitched in her throat. Moonbeam Glimmer looked down and saw a pair of small red eyes peering up at her. Chibi Moon was finally reactive to the world around her and locked gazes with Moonbeam. The poor filly was in a sorry state with puffy red eyes that were dried with salt crust, having long since ran out of tears from her experience. They gazed at each other, attention only torn away by a flash of light. Looking up to it they could see one of the houses had caught on fire now, a battery of purple beams raking the night sky behind it. Moonbeam Glimmer felt a pit grow in her stomach as she heard and then looked to the filly, who still had her eyes transfixed on the burning town. -He flew into that rage seeing this filly hurt, then Nightmare took him… That.. That thing is not him. The sensei this little one knew was real…- In the town, a deep voice, Xenilla likely, was shouting something but neither could make it out from the distance. Through the smoke they could glimpse a spurt of blue light, indicating Rarity’s magic, and a blur of dulled blue to indicate Night Glider flying as fast as she could markless. It was evident the conflict wasn’t an all out fight. -The one they’re trying to get back was the real Godzilla…- A whirlwind of thoughts streamed through her mind as she observed Chibi Moon, the town, and the limp form of her own unconscious sister. She took in a deep breath and closed her eyes, shaking. The memory of Godzilla Junior meeting with her, talking to her… forgiving her. They started to contrast and overwrite the more recent visages of the Nightmare-infused abomination. But even then she could recall the peculiarities. When Godzilla had thrown that house at Starlight Glimmer, he was no doubt trying to kill her. But then he shot at the house himself and burned it to such a degree that it missed. An odd miss was understandable for anyone, but to do so in such an upfront way seemed unbecoming of someone who’d previously shot down scores of high speed gyaos. She started to think it through, but there was only one logical conclusion to it all. One that left her eyes widened and shudders stilled. -He only shot it down when she ran into harm’s way. He did it on purpose…- Moonbeam Glimmer watched on as the echoes of another roar rattled the air. -He’s still in there…- She started to get ideas, compulsions. Every single action she could think of was a bad idea in some form, insane in many other forms. But there was only one right course of action, only one that aligned with a promise she’d made before encountering Starlight again. -He’s still in there… If they’re going to help the real Godzilla, I’m going to help the real one too!- Moonbeam Glimmer gently laid her sister out, propping her against a small boulder to hide her behind it before setting Chibi Moon down. She gently put a hoof to the filly’s face to embrace her, remembering this wasn’t the first time she’d had to hold a crying filly during a traumatic attack. Moonbeam stroked Chibi Moon’s mane softly as she pulled back, keeping her voice as calm and contained as possible as not to rouse or frighten the poor child anymore than she already was. “Alright.. I need you to staaay… baaack. You can hide here or you can run, I promise I and the others will come back for you okay?”, she whispered before pausing as she got little response from Chibi. The echoes of Nightmare Godzilla’s bellowing rang out again, Moonbeam closing her eyes and wincing as it rattled her ears even from this distance. She sighed and leaned closer, “And we’re going to come back with your... Sensei, okay?” She kept her eyes closed but could slowly feel a sullen Chibi Moon nod her head, rubbing her cheek against Moonbeam’s wrist. Moonbeam leaned her head and gently put it to the little one’s, staying so until Chibi Moon’s shuddering stopped and she calmed. “Stay safe, I’m going to go get him for you.” Chibi Moon watched on as Moonbeam Glimmer rushed off to help in any way she could muster. Only the groaning to her left roused her attention away. When Starlight Glimmer managed to struggle to a sitting position and rub at her head to clear away a blinding migraine, the first thing she saw when her vision cleared was a pair of stoic, red eyes peering back up at her. Starlight froze, letting her mind reawaken and slowly let the realizations return. While she couldn’t recall everything she’d done under the mental influence of a, to her, still unknown party; and dark magic tended to warp memory of past events anyways, she didn’t need recollection to tell her what was going on. Before the words could even leave her throat to ask what was going on, Starlight Glimmer saw the equals sign made of aerenths on Chibi Moon’s flank, and was thusly silenced. Quiet settled between the two unicorns as they sat across from each other, the filly resolute even if her features betrayed great grief and sadness; and the mare looking like she’d just been run through. Starlight, mouth agape, reached towards Chibi Moon’s flank with a shaking hoof; almost like she was praying in some corner of her mind the equals sign was just forged like hers was or natural fur patterns from perhaps a mathematical themed talent. For a moment, Chibi Moon shied away, partially springing up to shrink back like a frightened kitten. However when red eyes looked upon Starlight’s quivering maw and glistening eyes, she slowly moved back into place. Starlight’s hoof gently touched the seem of the mark, feeling the smooth aerenth to confirm what kind of mark it was; and instantly Starlight Glimmer’s heart was clutched in a cold vice; a heart filled with silent shame. While she’d eagerly gobble up any passersby or wayward souls for her town project in equality, Starlight Glimmer had maintained one rule in recruitment. Only those of proper age, no children. Aside from the obvious point of many children already lacking cutiemarks and the pragmatic reason of her using her spell on a blanked flank might indicate her magic didn’t work exactly as she preached, she’d had a very personal reason. One tied to sadly not isolated or short memories of a young filly running out into the world on her own, taken to a cause devoid of family. “I… I… I’m so… sorry,” Starlight whimpered in a tiny voice. Chibi Moon very slowly wrapped her little hoof around Starlight’s wrist as she looked upon her. The mare seemed so much different now without the smoke in her eyes or red gleam clogging her irises. In truth she was still frightened, but the apprentice of Godzilla wouldn’t be weak in the knees. And she’d heard all of what Starlight Glimmer had been ranting and railing about as her kidnapper dragged her out here. About her talent, her past, and her strife that fueled such wrath in her dark magic. An eager young filly with a talent for magic. An entry to a school for gifted unicorns and the excitement thereof. An unorthodox entry exam that went awry. A knack for more destructive spells that left the teachers terrified and the filly socially isolated. Said filly then seeking a greater source for instruction. The only difference was Starlight was driven down a foul path, whereas Chibi lucked out and attracted the attention of both Princess Luna and Godzilla Junior. Without Princess Luna to vouch for her getting an A+, Chibi would have failed the entrance exam. Without Godzilla Junior to start helping her to control her force, she’d have been a social outcast that terrified others. Starlight Glimmer’s tragedy almost could have happened again, with her. Without those two lucky strokes of fate, Chibi was looking at the mare she could have grown up to be like. And perhaps by conjecture from any scattered bits of memory she had from her time under Ghidorah’s thrall, or perhaps some compulsion she deduced herself as she looked upon Chibi Moon as a distinctly hot wind blew by; the similarities were not lost upon Starlight Glimmer. Chibi Moon shook her former foalnapper’s hoof while pointing to the town with her other one. Starlight Glimmer nearly recoiled when she saw the destruction, but clearly heard the tiny voice of Chibi Moon croak out a single word. “Please.” =============== Princess Luna’s night certainly had taken a turn for the dour. When she recalled herself to the castle to tend to the pony she was sensing to be undergoing a nightmare, she hadn’t expected to end up in the Solar Wing’s tower at the side of her sister’s bed. And an experienced alicorn having bad dreams was not a welcoming proposition, with Princess Celestia’s vigorous tossing and turning in unwakeable sleep not being the main problem. That problem lay in the fact what Luna first suspected was merely a scary dream when she left Godzilla Junior and Lady Rarity turned out to be a full blown night terror. Her sister was covered in a cold sweat, whimpering and grunting unknowable words as she fought back against something within her mind. And naturally due to it being Celestia, there were more than a few scorch marks on the ground from spurts of sleep-spell casts. Already Luna had called for all staff to evacuate the tower, just to be safe should a stray blast go in the wrong direction. Princess Luna ignored the great heat coming from her distressed sibling and collected her own magic upon the spirals of her horn. Reciting the same mental commands and lullaby-like whispers she used recently on Junior more than once to calm his rest, she found herself perplexed when the tap of her horn against Celestia’s resulted in nothing. Princess Celestia whimpered and began to flail, forcing Luna to try and hold her sibling down and try again. Again she tried to banish the night terror, and again, nothing happened. There was an odd sensation about this that left her puzzling. She tried again and this time held her horn to Celestia’s and focused. Try as she may she couldn’t will the negativity away, but she could almost sense something else. Like sifting through muddy water, she could almost feel something but not visualize it. Luna furrowed her brow. There was definitely something there and it was totally unfamiliar to her. If she could gander and grope for a comprehension she’d almost note it felt like there was a line of thought attached to her sister’s mind, like an invisible limb grasping at Celestia’s consciousness. Luna had never seen anything like it, but one thing was clear. This was not a normal night terror and trying to banish it externally would do nothing. She needed to get inside and see what the problem was, hopefully gleaning something from her sister’s conscious or finding her in the mentalscape to get some answers. Luna put up a magic shield around them, just in case Celestia thrashed about more and shot out magic that might harm anypony, and dream walked into the other alicorn’s psyche. She didn’t expect there to be so much fire. Princess Luna had to squint because of the ungodly brightness and intense heat of it all. Adjusting, she took a lay of the mental lands. Large piles of rubble betrayed the former presence of massive city walls that had since crumbled. Houses were burning, the water was flash fried, even the masonwork on the pillars and roads looked warped by heat with melted hoofprints moving down the latter. Several large buildings had noticeable holes in them, all lined by scorch marks. The only thing Luna could ever compare it to in terms of appearance was that of a meteor impact striking the area and igniting a firestorm. Luna put a bubble of magic around herself, both as a means of precaution and to block out the blinding heat and smoke; then looked about for signs of her sibling. The presence she felt before returned, moving across the mentalscape like a pulse. With the pulse came new visions, some Luna remembered and recognized while some she didn’t. A slow motioned moment in time at the apex of their Mirror World voyage. The landscape outside of the mirrored Canterlot partially destroyed from the fight between an enraged Princess Celestia and her counterpart. Said counterpart and Luna’s own duplicate now cleansed of the evil within them, which was condensed into an enormous mass of dark emotions and thoughts the valiant King Sombra had forced himself to bear alone. The once noble king, the first to find her sister’s heart, had his blue-streaked hair and kind eyes marred by familiar dark smoke and a fanged maw. It was the moment right before the prime Princess Celestia could last see her lover, before he forced himself away for everypony’s safety. The last fleeting span they locked eyes. The world around Luna seemed to dim, almost like it was grieving. The pulse came again, altering the vision like it was peeling further into the mind. And when Princess Luna saw where they were now, she flinched like a cold lance had been driven through her chest. It was the Everfree Castle’s element room, the glass of one of the windows already shattered, for the point of view’s owner had already been hurled through it. Silvery moonlight streamed through it, slightly altered by the very visible image of an alicorn mare embossed onto the nocturnal celestial body. This was right after Nightmare Moon had been banished, and that cold, darkening feeling in the world around Luna seemed to do so more and more; mourning. Luna watched on as an all too familiar voice pleaded, sobbing, begging the Element of Magic for another miracle. Like a ghost, Celestia’s voice haunted the halls of the castle as much as it would now do so for her sister’s memory. “Bring her back… She’s my baby sister so bring her back-ck-ck-ck!....” In all her dream walks, Celestia was adamant about not worrying with her if she was having a bad dream. Luna could guess now why that was so, feeling a growing pit within her stomach for honoring that wish. Princess Luna sighed, forcing herself to move about in the dream and out of the forced perspective. But the moment she did, she was taken off guard by two things. Firstly was the fact when she moved ahead and looked back, she was so shocked at the lack of Celestia present that she wasn’t temporarily struck still by the memory of Starswirl the Bearded walking into the room. The old unicorn instead walked into and seemed to react to, even comfort absolutely nothing. The world, the memory seemed to fit Celestia in it; but her consciousness was absent in it. This wasn’t where her sister’s consciousness was in her dream. -Then… Where could she?- Luna looked about busily. Failing to see her, she cast a spell across her horn specifically to home in her sister, memorizing Celestia’s magic signature and trying to scan the mentalscape around her for a match. The split second she sensed something far, far away in another instance; the presence returned. This time it was anything but subtle. Princess Luna was thrown back, out of the memory, out into a dark void like a swatted fly. Luna briefly snapped into the waking world, mind and eyes spiralling. She was still in Celestia’s room, still at her bedside, and judging from the flinching upon Celestia’s face; still needing to help her sister. Half dumbstruck but now all too determined that something afoul was at work in her dear sister’s mind, Luna recovered from her mental spiral and dove back into the dreamwalk. Recasting the spell to find her sister’s magic, Luna willed herself towards it. Again she was pushed back and again she dove back in. The presence refused to give her much time, now only glimpsing what was going on and seeing the perspective of dream indicated her hypothesis that Celestia was reliving all of her worst memories. -Reliving them … Or rather, somepony is forcing her to. Foul cretin! Thou shalt not do harm to thine Celly!- Each time she was kicked out quicker than the last, like the presence fighting her became aware of the intrusion when she cast the magic and was now actively trying to keep her away from her sister. Princess Luna’s brow furrowed as she was punted out of the mindscape again. This time she less dreamwalked and more dream-battering rammed her way into Celestia’s mind. But when she found herself willed to where Celestia’s consciousness was, she found herself back in the burning city. Detail was even grimmer than it was before, as now it seemed like it wasn’t just the masonry or carpentry on fire. Luna opted not to focus on the appropriately sized and seemingly limb-bearing forms smoldering in ash and smoke, pressing on. It wasn’t hard to find her sister but she could wish she didn’t do so the way she did, it wasn’t comforting to close in on your sibling by tracking them through the enormous bursts of light and her sobbing. Charging forward and putting up a magic barrier before her, Luna smashed through a barricade of burning rubble and braced for the worse. Princess Celestia sat before her. Younger in appearance, but only in a way so slightly in variance from how she appeared in the modern day that only Luna could recognize it, the white alicorn was in a sorry state. Devoid of regalia, half covered in ash, and sobbing in total heartbreak. Luna instantly dropped all pretenses and stood with her mouth agape. In some ways, seeing her sister like this was even worse than seeing the reaction following her banishment. -She’s not much different from that memory, so this must be right afterwards… When she was alone.- Celestia, having her back turned to her sister, sobbed pitifully as she clutched something close to her chest. The debris around Celestia started to rattle and float off the ground weightlessly. Luna quickly ran to her, feeling a dampness sting at her eyes. Her mistake of dropping her magical barrier cost her when Celestia exploded out with another shockwave of light-colored, burning magic. The debris that had been levitated by Celestia shot outwards like burning meteors and Luna was thrown backwards into a wall so hard she caved a crater into it. Luna grunted and gasped, barely having time to recover before another shockwave slammed into her and blew much of the surrounding scenery away. Smashed through the wall, Princess Luna managed to throw up a shield of magic and anchor herself down to the floor. The shockwaves came in greater number and strength, ever growing in burning might. Finally, like an exploding volcano, Princess Celestia’s entire form was engulfed in an enormous pillar of fiery brilliance; the inferno’s roar only eclipsed by the sound of Celestia’s screaming. Princess Luna steeled herself and shielded her eyes with a hoof, gritting her teeth as she got closer, step by strained step. The massive surge of light made it almost impossible to even see anything, let alone her sibling; but the glimpses she gained were not comforting. Celestia’s mane was not its natural pink and gold nor the afflicted radiance of rainbows, but the very dangerous looking flames that shot out from around her. The burning magic changed in essence in such a way Luna could practically taste it, shifting from chaotic, uncontrolled bursts to the negativity that screamed of dark magic. It was like witnessing the change that occurred in her that led to Nightmare Moon, the good alicorn burning off to give way to a destructive echo. A breaker of day’s eyes snapped open, a slitted, very unequine eye briefly visible through the fires before it was engulfed in the searing light. In a scene lost upon the history books, words utterly failed Princess Luna. There was a low hiss, one Luna was surprised she could detect over the screaming alicorn and fires before she realized it was coming from the mind rather than the dreamscape. It was back, that indescribable presence. The night sky of the dream distorted, and three pairs of red gleams emerged above her. -”Your family is most unusual, as far as your supposed species pertains.”- The world seemed to freeze in place aside from the speaker and the vile voice’s audience. Luna whirled about to look directly at the red gleams as they circled around. The red light blinked, indicating them to be three sets of eyes. “Vile scourge, what business have thee assaulting Celestia such as this?!” A low, mocking cackle that seemed to come from all directions rattled the dreamscape. Through the dark void, an enormity closed in. And as it did, the distant pinpricks of light that indicated the eyeshine grew larger, and larger, and larger still until the word magnitude was appropriate. Like a moving mountain, radiant golden scales came to reflect Celestia’s light and Princess Luna’s eyes widened in recognition. She recognized this titan from her own talks and dreamwalking forays into Godzilla Junior’s mind, the shock being enough for her to break speech pattern. “YOU!” Link Grand King Ghidorah, hovering alongside the evidently floating pegasi city for which this memory took place in, towered over the alicorn despite only being visible from the chest up. In the frozen landscape, his form’s sheer size and mobility made him as glorious as he was terrifying. Grand King Ghidorah’s maws curled into what Luna couldn’t tell were either scowls or grins. -”You have proven quite irksome.”- Princess Luna was, in truth, as terrified as she was shocked. Junior had warned her of this demonic drake multiple times when they’d sit and swap old stories. This was the one being he could never truly defeat, or fend off on his own. And while she lacked personal experience to give it context, hence why she wasn’t petrified with fear and no doubt most beings justifiably would be, she was extremely uneased by his mere presence. Still, the nerve of whom was behind her gave the alicorn gumption and she stood her ground, flying up to get on eye level with the golden monstrosity. “What business have you with my sister? Why have you assaulted her in such a way?! The kaiju told me of you and you typically never moved in such a subtle way.” Ghidorah remained silent, eyes locked upon the Princess of the Night. Princess Luna, mustering up the same legendary courage that ran strong in her family, narrowed her gaze at the three glares shot her way. “Answer me coward! Are you too afraid to lash out at Equestria and its allies upfront?” Her shouts were met with stoic non-reaction by Ghidorah, whom began to extend his mental capabilities. Eyes beginning to glow red, Princess Luna felt a wall forced up against her. That presence that shoved her out of the dream realm returned, and as she fought against it she lost ground. Princess Luna beat her wings and extended her magic, pushing back as much as she could to dodge or shove away the wall of psychic energy beginning to exorcise her from her sister’s mind. The alicorn grunted and strained, slowing but not averting the force. Forced sideways and still fighting back, she caught a glimpse of her frozen, transformed sister. Luna’s heart chilled seeing the paragon of a pony her dear sibling often was reduced to such a state. “Why?! Why have you put my sister through this?!”, she shouted while fighting back, still just as confused as to why Grand King Ghidorah was doing this as she was at his lack of outright attack like Junior said he favored. -”I was bored. I found the experience and memories of one so aged... amusing.”- Princess Luna blasted the wall with magic, temporarily halting it while keeping her eyes trained upon the frozen Princess Celestia. Amidst the horrific changes and frightening appearance she witnessed one crucial detail. Lenses of red had formed over Celestia’s eyes, identical in color to Ghidorah’s. It all but confirmed her previous hypothesis that an outside force was making her sister experience this mental torment, and that gave the dream walker all the motivation she needed. “Yoooou DAAARE?!”, Luna roared with an outburst of magic that shattered Ghidorah’s mental wall. The golden dragon visibly snarled after a moment of surprise, his eyes igniting and a second, larger wall being summoned. But just before he could dare the petulant alicorn to break through this one, Luna’s voice called out again in a tone that could only be described as mocking. “Have you experienced defeat so long that you have become weakened? Is that why you refrain from showing yourself?”, Princess Luna barked as the wall of power sped towards her. Unmoved, she called out again, “Are you afraid that Godzilla would do you in, or does a world of ponies finally give the King of Terror fright?” Princess Luna hovered in place with magic at the ready, calmly flapping her wings as Grand King Ghidorah’s mental wall shattered right before it hit her. Grand King Ghidorah’s expression had completely shifted, from stoic to all three of his faces appearing nothing but absolutely livid. -“That mongrel is a mistake I intend to correct soon enough, and when I return to Canterlot to finish this ordeal I will enjoy seeing your subjects weep for your catatonic body to revive after I burn your mind down,”- Ghidorah’s maws all began to snap open, revealing a cornucopia of screaming voices that meshed together into a hellish cackle. Golden light began to build up and crackle along his fangs. But right before he opened fire on the magically readying alicorn, the King of Terror roared one last phrase that left her so baffled she nearly didn’t dodge the oncoming graviton torrents. -”Survive!”- ======================= “Hold him still!”, Rarity shouted as she readied a particular spell and gathered up her magic. Nightmare Godzilla sneered and snapped his head around at the unicorn’s voice, only to be distracted by multiple quartz crystals shooting up from out of the ground to form a cage of sorts. Xenilla, spattered in bruises and burns, ground his teeth and concentrated on rerouting his power into the cage. Arcs of power lept off it and linked between the crystals, forming the same sort of structure Xenilla trapped a much younger Junior inside two decades ago. The problem was Xenilla wasn’t the only son of Senior whom remembered this fact, enraged roars shattering the air. Nightmare Godzilla opened his jaws and loosed a thin and deceptively destructive torrent of purple plasma into the structure. The barrier projected across the crystals flared up, cells of energy forming a massive mirror that absorbed and diverted the beam into the empty ground around Nightmare Godzilla’s hooves. Danger to himself was completely unnoticed however, for he just kept firing at the same spot to no avail. Both in a panic to get this nightmare over and fret that a friend might end up hurting himself, Rarity shot out her magic through the barrier and hit Godzilla with the dark magic containment and banishment spell she’d rehearsed over and over again with Princess Luna. Rarity was no magical prodigy. Twilight Sparkle or Sunset Shimmer she was not, even if she was certainly no novice with having to so skillfully levitate the contents of her boutique all at once to work. But magic was magic, and training under an alicorn princess wasn’t anything to sneeze at either. Her magic enveloped the distracted Nightmare Godzilla and as she winced and struggled, she could feel a tug drawing Nightmare off of Junior. Deep within Godzilla Junior’s mind, Nightmare struggled and cried as a tether of light slipped down from the ocean’s surface and wrapped around her hoof. She grasped it, begged it for deliverance, did everything she could to hold fast to it and leave this mistake she’d made. But the leviathan whom clutched her in its hand; clutching the negativity and lowly self view that caused Junior to dub himself a monster, clutched at the power it had gained to enact its revenge. It refused to let go and Nightmare found herself in a tug-of-war that salvation didn’t have a surefire victory over. In the real world, Rarity gasped and strained, trying to pry her head backwards as if to pull the Nightmare off as Applejack would yank something to her with a lasso. She was being dragged forward despite her best efforts. Moonbeam Glimmer and Night Glider grabbed hold of the unicorn and helped the only way they could, trying to force themselves backwards. But in their weakened state, devoid of cutie marks, they could only do so much as all three mares dug trenches into the ground. Nightmare Godzilla’s breath attack increased in intensity, causing some of the crystals in the prison to crack and spurring Xenilla to exert himself creating waves of replacements to reinforce the cage that was now rapidly being broken down. A streak of purple rushed past Rarity and made for the wreckage of Starlight Glimmer’s house. Nightmare Godzilla briefly cut off his breath attack when he saw and recognized the younger of the Glimmer sister’s just before the cage enveloped him. Starlight Glimmer gasped and panted, rushing up to her house and not hesitating for a moment when she blasted one of the surviving walls with magic to tear it down. The repentant soul dove inside, digging through destroyed walls and burned debris to find the one thing present that might help. “S-STOP FIGHTING IT, JUNIOR!” “CAN’T- HOLD HIM!” Rarity and Xenilla’s voices shouted over her head as she threw aside an overturned cabinet, scrambling through the fallen drawers. -Come on, come ooon!- There was another of those hellish roars. Starlight Glimmer glanced up and saw through a hole in the wall that a barrage of beams had shot out of the crystal prison, burning through it after overpowering the shield. She tore back into the casings, spilling out a myriad of special glass containers before elation chanced a visit across her face. Starlight Glimmer held up and beheld two jars whose contents glowed with a friendly light. Inside were the floating symbols of a moon with blue and teal rays streaming down from it and another, more crescent moon accented by a cute red heart. Moonbeam Glimmer and Mariner Moon’s cutiemarks. She didn’t wait for a moment before shattering the both of the enchanted jars on the ground and letting the cutiemarks fly out through the wall and back to their owners. For a moment, Starlight Glimmer sighed and smiled at her deed, praying it gave the heroes a better chance. She started to claw her way out of the wreckage, almost free when an explosion rocked the fallen house and rattled the air. Dazed and ears ringing, Starlight Glimmer just managed to find her exit and regain her hearing when Night Glider’s screaming tone caught her attention. “STARLIGHT! GET OUT OF THERE! GET OUT OF THERE!” The piles of fallen, splintered wood to her side creaked under a weight and Starlight Glimmer’s eyes widened. She tried to teleport away, tried to levitate out, tried to do anything. Her magic wasn’t quick enough when Nightmare Godzilla erupted through the side of the house in an explosion of roars, splitting timbers, and flying debris. His broad hoof smashed through the house and tore a massive chunk out of it, Starlight included. The fourth of the building that was torn free flew over and shattered against another of the townhouses, collapsing the both of them down in a torrent of broken homes. When the dust cleared, Starlight Glimmer lay half buried in the debris, unmoving as a trickle of blood streamed down from her forehead and lips. Xenilla pulled himself out of the shattered debris of crystals he’d landed in and saw the sight, stunned. Xenilla knew and didn’t know many things. He knew he was needed here. He didn’t know whom this mare his brother had taken such an issue with was or what exactly she’d done. He knew the Nightmare entity had possessed his brother. He didn’t know to what extent the resulting monstrosity’s actions were of its doing or Junior’s. But he did know his brother’s traits, and he knew one thing that differed Godzilla Junior from Godzilla Senior was consideration of force. Their father would go full force in any situation, no questions asked. Junior always held back unless absolutely necessary. He’d sooner take another hit than let a human get hurt, how the apes paid him back for it be damned. And he treated the ponies just the same. Nightmare Godzilla charged his ray with his face trained upon Starlight Glimmer. Xenilla growled. -Whatever Nightmare did to him, it warped my brother. Warped him... to be how like I was!- An inexcusable offense. The air around him started to heat up, caution burning up with it. Xenilla shook, patches of his skin beginning to glow with a light all too familiar in their family. -No... He's supposed to be better, I strove to be like him!- The nuclear reactor within his heart surged, overclocking itself. He didn’t have the same control his brother did, this was beyond risky; but Xenilla had spent the better part of his life afraid. Afraid for his world, afraid for his family, afraid for what came tomorrow. No more. Equestria was at risk, his brother was out of control, and there might not be a tomorrow if he didn’t take this plunge. -Twenty years he's been a hero, I will not let him become like me!- The gates to the power within were torn open. Whiteness burned through his fur’s typical navy blue and his eyes became engulfed in light. Xenilla slammed a hoof into the ground, releasing a miniature nuclear pulse with a step and breaking the bedrock. He wasn’t done, not by a long shot, not when he had so much to still atone for and too much at risk. Time for some tough love. “Iiiiick’abrooooooOOOD!” The bellowing roar sounded off and the partial meltdown sporting Xenilla threw himself into Nightmare Godzilla, corona beams and purple plasma rays cutting through the air. A hot wind that blew through the town seemed to chill in grief. =================== Princess Luna teleported out of the way, dodging a barrage of graviton blasts that eviscerated a mountain. Her return fire, a blue ray of concussive magic that raked across her foe, glanced off Grand King Ghidorah’s brow and barely got him to wince an eyelid. Their battle thus far had been an utter stalemate, Luna too small, agile, and adept in the dream realm to take any hits and Ghidorah was far too massive and durable for Luna’s return strokes to do so much as annoy him. -”This is meaningless.”- Surprisingly unfettered from the prolonged conflict, Princess Luna smirked. She smacked her wings before herself in a thundering clap, emitting a shockwave of magic that rang out across the dream realm. “We concur!” The wave of magic wrapped around all present, Celestia and Ghidorah. In an instant it constricted down upon the latter while being absorbed by the alicorn. Grand King Ghidorah’s manifestation started to shrink, condensing in size. “Thou might have the ability to intrude upon another’s mind, but this is the dreamscape in which we tread. I walk the grounds here!” Grand King Ghidorah, about the size of a large dragon and shrinking more by the second, snarled and thrashed against the curse afflicting him. After failing to blast the magic off with his beams, Grand King Ghidorah folded in his wings and focused. Collecting up the power channeling from the core within him, the dragon’s entire body lit up with raw energy. He threw out a roar and swung his extremities out, shattering the magic like a circus strongman breaking his bonds. Ghidorah hissed and examined himself, feeling not much loss in power but a great diminishment of his one illustrious scale. Comparing himself to the Trot building he hovered beside, Ghidorah’s projection was roughly 3 to 4 meters tall. Still quite large, but enough for it to count when Princess Luna smashed a beam of magic into his torso and blasted him through a building. The debris from the exploding structure didn’t erupt out, but rather were fractured and pushed to the side in the weightless, time frozen environment around where Ghidorah plowed through the building. Princess Luna gained some altitude and surveyed her options. -He’s not taking me seriously as a threat, Junior spoke of his arrogance and assured superiority. No magic either, even if the gravity powers are very potent. Which means I can try to catch him off guard with versatile use of my spells, drag this out until-!! - She quickly had to dive off to the side to avoid the barrage of beams ripping out of the house that heralded a speeding dragon flying after her. Luna acrobatically looped above the three sets of lunging jaws and shot downwards at full speed. Had time been moving for the world around them, she’d have loosed a thundering sonic boom, Ghidorah unleashing an even louder one as he took off after her. Two beads of light streaked across the sky at dazzling speed, sky blue being chased by burning gold. The streaks darted to and fro, sometimes colliding with bursts of light as unicorn based magic barriers and earth pony based physical magic fought against massive, sheer brute force. Sent careening off by a heavy impact by Ghidorah, Luna tumbled through the air and towards the ground with the dragon bearing down upon her. Looking back while gritting her teeth, Luna’s eyes lit up and she vanished in a burst of light just as Ghidorah would have snapped his jaws upon her. Reappearing behind him, Luna was quick to acquaint her foe with the bedrock of a mountainside by loosing a machine gun-like salvo of concussive bursts. Lacking the mass he once had, Ghidorah got smashed into the side of the stone face and kept getting driven further and further in as Luna poured on the barrage until he was out of sight and likely halfway smashed through the mountain. The alicorn panted from the effort, but kept her hooves and magic at the ready; making a further mental countdown that was both drawing in close but not doing so fast enough. Briefly winded, she could only try and mitigate what came next. Grand King Ghidorah, letting out a blood curdling roar, erupted out of the mountain opening fire from all ports. Princess Luna spammed the teleport spell, sacrificing distance for speed as she darted up, down, left, right, forward, and back in a small sector of air to try and dodge the onslaught of graviton beams and wingborne lightning. But as valiant as her effort was, the sheer volume of attack overpowered the greatest of agility and she got clipped across the chest by a burst of wing lightning, burning her fur and shattering some of her regalia right through her magic. Luna yelped out, flying backwards with a smoking chest. Her descent was countered by Ghidorah’s rapid ascent. The dragon slammed into the stunned alicorn from below and arced upwards. With a tail coiled around her legs, one head chomped down on her foreleg, and both feet braced against her stomach; Luna was helpless to free herself as Ghidorah collided with the bottom of Trot’s grounds and used her to break the pavement. Spearing out from the roof of a ruined house, Grand King Ghidorah let go of his bite and swung the Princess of the Night around with his tails. Luna was smashed through the roof again, before a strong fling made her careen off through a stony pillar. Princess Luna fumbled and skid across the old Pegasi capital, coming to a halt before where she’d started. Slowly, body still crackling with sparks from getting electrocuted, she rose. She was dazed, covered in bruises, scuff marks, and cuts that marred her fur, and had lost most of her regalia. And yet, to Ghidorah’s growing annoyance, she managed to stand despite some momentary, dizzied stumble. Perturbed, he advanced; cracking the grounds with every step as erratic bands of increased gravity fractured the frozen world around him. Princess Luna gained her breath, shooting him a defiant glare that could bend steel. Her horn ignited with a flurry of brilliance as her wings spread, eyes glowed, and cutie mark sparkled. In a moment after swinging her head down, the alicorn let loose a two-meter thick torrent of magic. Grand King Ghidorah folded his wings before himself and energized his body to form a shield. He withstood the attack, even as his claws dug trenches into the terrain underfoot. Golden light burst from his maws as his wings snapped open, three graviton beams clashing with Princess Luna’s ray and halting it. Wing lightning joined in, combining with the previous assault in a blinding display that quickly began to devour Luna’s assault. As the epicenter of the beam lock swung towards the alicorn, Ghidorah’s mocking tone cackled between her ears. -”You may call this domain your own, but many have called their worlds theirs before I saw fit to snuff them out.”- Luna gasped, it now being her turn to get forced backwards even as she dug her hooves in. -”So many others declare themselves ruler of their lands, yet I am the arbiter of dominion. I can destroy when I wish, toy with lives on a whim. I can command such control over any rule. I am king!”- Grand King Ghidorah stood taller, stretching his full height as he loomed over the alicorn. -”And if it am such an arbiter of life, then I must be a destroyer. This is my nature, and you have failed to survive or overcome it….”- Luna struggled against the onslaught, trying desperately to hold it back. But as she peeked out a quivering eye, she saw a bit of rubble moving on its own from the shockwaves of the struggle. First slow, then speeding up; returning to normal time. She chanced a strained smirk. Her spell had done its work, the countdown had ended. -Hehe, I wasn’t supposed to, not alone…- Behind Luna, magical energies swirled around the frozen Daybreaker Celestia. Soon enough, the flames of her burning mane flickered and slit-pupil eyes snapped open. To his side, Grand King Ghidorah heard a fantastic, screaming roar he glanced towards only to be blinded by a searing light akin to a miniature sun. Daybreaker had broken free with a vile sneer across her face. She was about to engulf Trot in her fires, but upon seeing what was before her; she had different ideas. Luna’s mind was filled with a panic upon seeing the fire maned, dark echo still standing instead of reverting back to her sister like she’d intended. -B-But I tried the dark magic banishment spell! She should be normal! Ah Tartarus it must not work the same way in the mind!- A horn was pointed towards Luna, engulfed in a swirling flame that caught the younger alicorn in a flurry of momentary fear as it was loosed. She could feel the flames stream towards her as she closed her eyes. Grand King Ghidorah’s shriek washed over her ears. Opening her eyes, Luna beheld a sight she could never have expected. Daybreaker wasn’t her normal self, but she was still Celestia. And she recognized her baby sister. Standing beside Luna, Daybreaker poured a burning pillar of fire magic over the dragon while spreading her wings with one wing over her shorter sister protectively. Now fighting on two fronts, Grand King Ghidorah was forced to take some pressure off of Luna and divert half his beam assault to locking up Daybreaker’s attack. Luna beheld the alicorn beside her in awe, momentarily wincing when she felt and saw one of Daybreaker’s eyes upon her. But in a moment’s span, fear was replaced by elation. Her form might look monstrous, the memory of this state might be traumatic, but they were still in Celestia’s mind during this battle. And it was still Celestia looking back at her sister with a now fanged smirk. It was a distant, fond memory Luna bore that she didn’t get to relive very often. Fighting against evil side by side with the pony she admired and confided with the most, her sister; her “Celly”. Both Luna and Celestia stood strong, re-energized by each other’s presence just as in real life. Light magic surged out, fueled by decades worth of happy memories. Eating snacks with Smart Cookie, getting flight lessons from Commander Hurricane, closing her eyes to the sound of Starswirl’s grandfatherly voice as he read an old fable aloud, embracing after Luna was freed of the Nightmare, spending the Gala night at a donut shop with a beloved student and her friends, spending Nightmare Night with young Lady Twilight and the other Elements, a quiet midnight at a familiar pond beside one so much like either of them. Ghidorah fought against the tidal wave of magic, managing to hold it back with all of his effort. But as he did, he witnessed something that left him, a millions year old traveller of space, stupefied. A presence, a shift in the wind that sounded almost like a chime. Watching the alicorn sisters fight back against him tooth and hoof, he saw a shape take form behind them. A glowing outline, radiant in light and power. Visible only to him, the soul was of an equine with a tall, forked horn. The visage of Harmony hovered behind the alicorns, seeming to push back against him in symbolic union with the sister’s struggle. It might have been symbolic, “in spirit”, or whatever terminology one wished to ascribe to it. But the answer was clear. -Seems there are far more to these ponies than I thought…- Grand King Ghidorah let a millisecond tick by as he took it all in. He looked upon the siblings, a goddess and those whom embodied her, in a way reserved for only two beings he’d ever encountered. Reijuu, a god of Terra, and Kaizer Ghidorah, the Grand King of Terror’s chosen successor. He looked upon them with surprise, some confusion, and then, stoic respect. Ghidorah dropped his assault and let himself get blasted out of the dream realm by the combined force. -Maybe this world has a chance after all?... Regardless, my work here is done. They won’t interfere...- =================== “Oh McCarthy, Starlight!” Night Glider was the first to get to Starlight Glimmer, as Moonbeam and Rarity had been thrown back into a building when Nightmare Godzilla exploded out of Xenilla’s cage by firing a barrage of beams from his back to overload the shields. Tears in her eyes, she dug into the debris pinning the unicorn down despite her weakness, straining to move the timbers out of the way to pull her free. The debris crushed down into the void the unicorn left, but Starlight still did not rise. Night Glider’s blood ran cold as she leaned Starlight back on a destroyed piece of wall, the sounds of Xenilla and Godzilla’s battle echoing into the night behind her. “S-Starlight?! Starlight stay with me!”, she fret as she patted at the unicorn’s cheek. Much to her elation, Starlight’s breathing continued, shallow as it was, and her eyes fluttered open. But instead of the face of her citizen, Starlight’s vision perched upon what was behind her. And whether she saw it clearly or not mattered for naught, for she knew enough to be filled with remorse. “M-My… fault….”, she croaked. “N-No, you were- were under the influence of something, you didn’t-” Starlight couldn’t focus on her words, only on the tragedy behind her. The glowing, burning Xenilla and Godzilla throwing each other around like a pair of rabid bears in stomps, bites, bashes, and smacks. Rarity with a restored Moonbeam Glimmer holding her as the latter flew them around to dodge beams and try and get the unicorn at a good angle to try the spell again. What the spell was she didn’t know, she just knew it had to be a hope to fix this mess. Fix her mess. “I used dark magic.” Her whispers seeped out as Xenilla flew into Nightmare Godzilla to try and halt his forward charge, the ground being torn up in their titanic strength and radiating shock waves. “I hurt my family.. And f-” She caught herself at that word, one she hadn’t truly known for years. Years since she lost contact with Sunburst and Flash Sentry due to her own obsessions and isolation to craft her magic. Friends. She didn’t deserve that word for them or for any of the town denizens. “I hurt others…!!” She lurched and coughed, dripping blood out of her lips and down her face as they mixed with her tears. Night Glider was saying something, something she couldn’t hear anymore as she was losing her senses. No doubt it was words of encouragement, assurance. Night Glider was always such a nice soul, even after she tore her cutiemark off. Starlight saw Night Glider’s still altered flank, the equals sign upon it having once been a source of pride for the Glimmer. Now it was nothing but shame. She’d hurt others as a filly when she dabbled in magic she couldn’t control and lost herself to, she’d hurt even more as an adult when she continued to let it do so. And there was only one thing she could do now to try and help. Xenilla wasn’t the only sibling looking to atone tonight. Starlight’s horn sparked and dimly lit up, taking aim and casting the cutie mark removal spell. She couldn’t miss at this angle, all she had to do was let the magic fall like everypony could. Fall right down upon herself. “No…”, Night Glider whispered breathlessly in amazement as Starlight Glimmer removed her own cutie mark. The unicorn held the beautiful symbol, a star with a ribbon attached. As with Starswirl and numerous unicorns since, it was the celestials whom often indicated great magic. Starlight Glimmer cradled it in her hooves, slowly reaching out and putting it to Night Glider’s chest despite the latter’s protests. “Take… it…” Starlight Glimmer mouthed in faltering breaths, her eyes fluttering shut at the sight of her sister and Rarity. Night Glider’s body became alight with power, such the pegasus had never experienced before. Sensing it was in a new body, Starlight’s talent for magic reorganized itself like a transplanted organ. While it didn’t cause Night Glider to suddenly grow a horn, as unicorn magic was unusable outside of a unicorn or alicorn body, it did fill her natural pegasus magic potential to the brim with extra to spare. The pegasus’ body glowed with a brilliance, Starlight Glimmer’s cutie mark appearing on her flank. Night Glider beheld herself, amazed as she was shocked. Starlight Glimmer cracked a weak smile as she laid back down on the broken wall, grayed and now sporting an equals sign made of aerenths upon her flank. “You can… help them now….. Forgive me.” Actions spoke louder than words for those trying to atone. ======================= “THIS IS NOT YOU!” Xenilla roar called out as his forehead crashed into Nightmare Godzilla’s. Even with the momentum of flight and the boosted power from his partial meltdown, Xenilla was losing out in the strength contest. If anything, him overclocking his reactor was the only reason he could stand any ground at all. Xenilla pushed his flight propulsion forward as much as he could, summoning a quartz crystal from the ground and grabbing hold of it to try and use as an anchor to keep his brother from bulldozing past or through him. “It’s all the Nightmare, you have to fight it! Damn it, shake it off!” Nightmare Godzilla’s eyes gleamed and he stomped into the ground, forcing Xenilla back an inch before pulling away. Just as Xenilla started to rocket forward due to nothing being present to oppose him, Nightmare Godzilla ducked down and swung his head up. Like a bull tossing a foe over its head, Godzilla smashed his head into Xenilla’s chest and flung him off to the side. Xenilla skid across the ground in a hail of sparks, plowing into the debris of one fallen house and instantly setting it ablaze. Snarling, Nightmare Godzilla turned away from it and tried to advance again on Starlight Glimmer’s residence; predatory eyes trained upon the now muted-purple form laying in front of it. He paused mid step when a surge of magic tried to seize him. He kept moving forward however, slightly slowed while towing the unicorn along with him. Rarity, mane frayed and fur scuffed, was proving to be just as stubborn as Xenilla. Her magic gripped Godzilla as best she could. “We are not your enemies Junior! I’ve been where you- are, listen! Nightmare works by causing your darker emotions to run wild, makes you feel worthless, pitiful, incomplete to the point you want to lash out,” she strained, trying not to get yanked forward. Nightmare Godzilla paused and leered back at the source of the magic, making Rarity’s blood run cold. But to her credit, she didn’t let go. “My sister and my friends reached out to me, and you’re stronger than I ever was then! All those dark thoughts make you think you’re a monster don’t they?! You’re not!” Nightmare Godzilla’s eyes narrowed and he took a step towards Rarity as a snarl seeped from his jaws. The snarl was followed by a beam of purple light that tore the ground apart as it swung towards Rarity. Unable to teleport, the unicorn could only scream as she feebly tried to shield herself with her arms. But while she found herself facing a wall of radiating heat, no death by flash frying ensued. Rarity peeked out and saw to her amazement, the ray had stopped a meter or so away from her body, swinging around her and off into the empty plateau straits. She looked to Nightmare Godzilla, whom had his eyes trained upon her; the sight witnessed by Moonbeam Glimmer and Xenilla. -Wh-Why did he?!- Moonbeam Glimmer remembered the house getting blasted before it could hit them, seeing a similar incident now. -His aim wasn’t thrown off for sure this time, he intentionally missed! Part of him is trying NOT to kill us!- “Look out!” A blue blur screamed as it dove down and into the battlefield. A raincloud was shoved into Nightmare Godzilla’s face and bucked several times, eliciting an annoyed bellow from the now electrocuted kaiju as the blue blur shot over and grabbed Rarity. Speeding along at far more velocity than she’d ever known before, Night Glider shot up into the air with her hooves around Rarity’s middle. “W-What?! You’re cutie mark looks like-”, Rarity stammered as she noticed Starlight Glimmer’s mark upon Night Glider’s flank. “No time to talk! Plan now!”, Night Glider stammered. “I-I can try the removal spell again, but I don’t think I have enough magic to pull it off and we need him standing still." Night Glider breathed in as Starlight’s cutie mark glowed, feeling invigorated. “Not a problem, I can help with that!” Nightmare Godzilla made his way back towards the Glimmer house, stalking towards it step by step. A corona-like ray of plasma shot out in front of him and forced him to stop. Looking towards the source as it cut out, Xenilla clawed his way out of the burning ruins he’d gotten buried in; red plasma smoke wreathing his face. Xenilla’s meltdown patches were flashing erratically, occasionally showing spurts of red. -If I don’t turn the meltdown off soon, I’m going to kill myself… or worse. Got a minute, tops.- He took in a deep breath, watching on at his altered brother. -I’ll have to make it count.- A second went by and Xenilla lunged at his sibling. A nuclear pulse fueled punch smashed into Nightmare Godzilla’s chest, forcing him to stagger back briefly. Xenilla followed it up with one strike after another, releasing shockwaves with each punch, smack, headbutt, and shoulder bash. Nightmare Godzilla roared and retaliated, hitting back every time he was struck. “I failed you, I tried so hard to succeed at protecting you and I failed miserably! You have every right to hate me...” Xenilla staggered back from the force of Godzilla’s downwards smash against his shoulders, caving a crater into the ground around his hooves. Struggling, he gripped his sibling’s arms and shakingly rose while matching against his strength. “I... know you're... in there! Didn't kill that pony earlier!... C-an feel you… holding-!! B-back!… Would have crushed me by now otherwise. Always were better close quarters.” Xenilla locked grapples with Nightmare Godzilla like a pair of wrestlers, arcs of energy flying off the both of them. “You’re the best of the family. Best of a lot of our kind. Father hated humans, and yet you slaved yourself protecting them to no gain. Millions, hundreds of millions better off because of you! What do you do right after some tried to kill you, you do the same thing for these ponies!” Xenilla’s knee was forced to the ground and he began to slide backwards. He growled in his prayer, “Old term for hero meant ‘beyond normal people’, that’s you. You’re the strongest hero I’ve ever known, is this how you want to be remembered?!-” Xenilla was forced to jump away as burning lights collected in his maw, “Mutated and breaking what you lived for because of some self-loathing disease?!” Nightmare Godzilla saw the glow and prepared to return fire. Xenilla, quicker on the draw, threw his jaws open and fired. Except it wasn’t a corona ray that spewed out of his jaws. It was more singular in shape, blue-white in color, and less erratic in appearance. The trademark of their family and Junior’s main weapon. The thermonuclear beam. And what was blue quickly turned to red, orange spirals streaming along it. Xenilla had used the breath of the Old King, his father. But instead of firing it into his brother, the spiral fire sailed past him and shot off into the night sky. Nightmare Godzilla and Xenilla looked on to each other as the latter kept firing the beam for several long seconds, in a dialogue devoid of words. Xenilla could have continued fighting, probably even drastically wounded his foe with such an onslaught; only to intentionally waste his shot. And evidently it was his only shot, as the meltdown marks on his body faded and the beam reverted back to a normal thermonuclear breath before completely fizzling out. Xenilla, covered in sweat and bruises, huffed in breaths as his sibling stoically watched on. Nightmare Godzilla slowly closed his mouth and the glow upon his back began to dwindle away. For a moment he didn’t move and Xenilla could only slowly nod to his brother as a dampness of a bloody tear streamed down his cheek. But then a stray groan from the unconscious form behind Xenilla broke the silence. Nightmare Godzilla’s gaze locked upon the downed and unconscious but despicably very much alive Starlight Glimmer and he sought to correct the last of those adjectives. He started to stomp forward, forcing the exhausted Xenilla to swear and surge forward. Tackling his brother, Xenilla tried to lock his hooves into the ground to halt him but devoid of meltdown’s surge and weakened from exertion; he could only slow him down. Nightmare Godzilla’s scowling maw opened to show a growing brightness within it, when another form dashed towards the scene. But instead of tackling Godzilla as Xenilla had, this one did such to Starlight Glimmer. “NO!”, the sobbing cry called out. Moonbeam Glimmer, clearly run through the ringer herself, threw her body atop her baby sister and held her close, cradling Starlight’s head. She beheld the monstrosity bearing down upon her and her sister and for a moment her memory traveled back. In that moment she wasn’t a grown mare in a destroyed town being threatened by an out of control kaiju, she was a young filly hiding in a well with a baby in her hooves and a murderous dragon looming down from above. Stinging tears streamed from her eyes as she whimpered and looked back up at Nightmare Godzilla. “...Junior… I know you can hear me… I-I,” she choked, “I was wrong… I was so wrong…” The glow in his maw seemed to pause, not dying away but not growing enough to fire. She bowed her head and sobbed. Moonbeam could only pray it was because she was in the way, a fact confirmed when a low, gravely, outright demonic sounding voice caused her ears to perk up. “Mooooove-ve-ve-ve.” It was echoed, distorted, but recognizable. Moonbeam Glimmer shook her head slowly as the tears fell upon her sister. “No… I can’t… And you won’t make me…. This,-” she looked up to the dark titan as the memory of a quiet evening at her parent’s gravestones when Junior confronted her overlayed what she saw, “-this isn’t you. I met the truth that day…” “You’re not a monster, never were, never will be. I did a horrible thing to you, and I’m not the f-irst to do so. You deserve better, you can get better. But only if you can forgive and give us the chance…”, she croaked. Nightmare Godzilla paused at the word ‘forgiveness’, his own memory streaming back to a particular visit he’d gotten recently about that very topic. Unbeknownst to Moonbeam, another wise mare had told him about forgiveness before. Seizing any break she got and putting her psychology to work even as her mind was crumbling with fear for her sister, Moonbeam continued her plea. “You saved… millions. Saved Canterlot. Saved me.. from grief… You took that little girl under your wing, helped save her from the fate my sister had. That’s not what monsters do, no matter what the Nightmare made you think…” Nightmare Godzilla’s lips curled back and he spoke again, striding forward a step and hissing in a tone that now sounded more agitated than anything else. “Mooooove-ve-ve!” Every fiber of Moonbeam Glimmer’s self-preservation instincts screamed at her to do so, but every feeling of the heartbeat beneath her compelled her not to. Through tears she shouted back, “NEVER! She’s my sister!...” She sniffled out of her now damp nose and spoke now only in whisper, “...I was scared once, just like you are now… We make mistakes when we’re scared. You told me to forgive myself, now it’s your turn, and I’ll help anyway I can to atone for what I did....” She saw how his eyes were trained upon her sister and clutched Starlight’s head a bit closer to her chest, “You’re not scaring me away from her… She’s my baby sister. She made a mistake and got scared too. Just like you…” “She ran away and cut her ties to me because she thought I sold her out… She can hate me, attack me, never forgive me for what I did; but I’ll never leave her. And I’ll forgive her.... “ Nightmare Godzilla’s mouth slowly closed, shifting his scowl to a stoic blankness. Something shifted below him and he looked down at Xenilla. Still holding fast to Godzilla, Xenilla had stopped trying to push him back. Instead he had his hooves and forelimbs wrapped around Godzilla’s torso as his head weakly slumped across his collarbone. Xenilla’s strength left him, causing the kaiju to lose his grip and fall to the ground before his brother. Godzilla could feel a dampness trickle down across his shoulder from where Xenilla’s face had been, Xenilla’s tears, as Moonbeam’s voice soothed his ears. “Because that’s what being a good older sibling is about, protecting your brothers and sisters, even when we make mistakes doing so or are hated for it…. All that matters is if we can forgive...”, Moonbeam Glimmer whispered before resting her head atop her sister’s. Nightmare Godzilla flinched and strained. Deep within he felt a surge of discord from the emotions and frustrations that propelled his nightmare transformation; only now contested by their inverse. Pain of having to endure another battle to save others contrasted with the joy of instructing a pupil. Wrathful frustration at being betrayed by some of humanity clashed with the faces of every smiling human or pony he’d ever met who was alive thanks to him. Strife and malice during the fight with Xenilla at Solgell standing opposed to Xenilla now, defeated and holding Junior to comfort him in the first genuinely brotherly act he’d ever done. Restlessness at his duties he’d forced himself into fought by restful peace he’d enjoyed with “Lulu”. His mind was tearing itself apart, not knowing if he could let go or hang on to Nightmare. Shaking and snarling, Godzilla threw his head up and split the air with a frustrated, agonized roar; needing direction in the lost turmoil. He got it when a high pitched, young voice screamed out four spell words and a beam of bright pink magic resembling the thermonuclear breath shot out in front of him and sailed off into the sky. Just as it came, parting clouds upon its exit into the heavens above, it extinguished. “Stop.” Nightmare Godzilla slowly turned his head to the source. A tiny, pink filly slowly staggered out of the shadows emanating from a half collapsed building. Mariner Chibi Moon’s face was stoic, collected and even a bit commanding even as a glistening tear fell across her cheeks. “N-No more fighting….”, she muttered before doing something remarkable for any pony her age. Link She ran up to the monster, threw her hooves around his forelimb, and buried her sobbing face into the fur she clutched against her. “Please Sensei…”, she croaked, “No more…” Chibi Moon was a magical prodigy, the sole student of arguably the most powerful stallion on the planet, and she was incredibly brave. Not only to run towards the rampaging kaiju while not being another kaiju, in a mecha, or an alicorn; but to react the way she did when she felt Godzilla shift slowly. She opened her eyes to see he’d lifted up his other forelimb and held his hoof up to her. The same gesture they’d made when he swore to protect her, an oath Starlight Glimmer had made him break. A hoofie promise. Chibi Moon put her tiny hoof to his gigantic one, still hugging the other limb and pulling herself up into him to muffle her tiny crying. Starlight Glimmer, in an altered state of mind, might have forced him to break his promise and catalyzed this whole catastrophe, but Chibi forgave him. And now it was Junior’s turn to forgive. In the end, it wasn't any measure of magic of Equestria or raw power of a kaiju that defeated Nightmare Godzilla; just the soul of a hero making the right choice. He bowed his head, gently putting his hoof around his student while throwing his voice to the mares he knew were behind him. “Take… it….” Rarity solemnly nodded and enacted the spell. Night Glider put her hoof to Rarity’s and focused on the intense magic she could feel coming out of Starlight Glimmer’s cutiemark. It fed into her, down her hoof, and into Rarity, lighting up the pegasus’ whole body with a magical aura that spread to Rarity. The spell was cast and wrapped around Nightmare Godzilla, beginning to peel back the darkness of a self-titled monster to reveal whom was within. Deep inside his mind, the storming seas calmed as their waves ebbed and waned away. He remembered so much. He remembered walking his student back home with her rested atop his head. He remembered standing by not one, but two grieving mares before their parents’ headstones and stubbornly refusing to leave. He remembered the platoons of guards smiling, clapping, and saluting him as he was welcomed into their ranks as a valued colleague. He remembered putting an entire city he barely knew behind himself while confronting the ravenous horde seeking to consume it. He remembered blocking a beam meant for a building, pulling a boat out of harm’s way, holding up a falling bridge, and earning a menagerie of scars just so no one else did. He remembered using the very powers he saw himself as monstrous for used again and again to save countless lives he’d both see and never see. He remembered the faces of every ally, every comrade, every friend he’d made over the years by fighting alongside and then leading them. He remembered every quiet evening with his mother at the institute, spent learning a moral and determining what future he’d have. He remembered walking back to shore with a boat and Luna in his palm, how his chest felt looking upon her. He remembered it all, and what he remembered was nothing a monster would have. He was the King of the Monsters, but he’d never been monstrous. He’d been something else entirely. And that something else thought of only three words as he envisioned Xenilla, Starlight Glimmer, and the numerous humans who chose to shoot at him with Dimension Tide. -I forgive you…- The rage, frustration, doubt, and loathing at both himself and others lifted. The manifestation of his consciousness eased its grip, letting go of Nightmare and watching on as Rarity and Night Glider’s magic dredged downwards and pulled her out. The dark muck that made up the nightmare form was pulled away, revealing a normal, calm Godzilla Junior underneath. The nightmare, both the one who’d seized him an hour ago and the one that had been seizing him for twenty years, was finally over; and he couldn’t have possibly been happier. Rarity saw the sight and let out a large, content sigh as Night Glider nearly fainted from the emotional rollercoaster they’d been on. Spying one of the cutiemark containment jars that had rolled out of the house debris, she wasted no time in stuffing the dark mass that constituted the weakened Nightmare into it. “Gastly spook has caused enough trouble I’d say, no doubt Princess Luna will want to be dealing with you!” The warm wind blew through the basin, an inclination of calm and pride. ============================ From his vantage point in the dimensional ether between the portal from Zenith he’d taken to avoid Kaizer Ghidorah and to Equestria proper, Grand King Ghidorah opened his eyes again. The swirling tunnel around him, a walkway between worlds, still stood. -Reijuu is holding up it’s half of the bargain.- He shrugged at the happenstance that lead to him being banished from Princess Celestia’s mind. He might not have been able to mentally crush the alicorn in his allotted time, but failure to follow-up on his distraction would be the failure of Reijuu’s agent, not Ghidorah himself. After all the rest of his plan was going so accordingly. Kaizer had been released and lacking his primary target, the King of Terror’s successor would be consumed by his own power and wrath and live up to his legacy. And while Grand King Ghidorah hadn’t managed to disable the alicorns, that was only an optional objective. The primary goal, distracting them so they wouldn’t interfere; was more than achieved. In fact, the dragon could even find himself somewhat pleasantly surprised at what he’d witnessed in that mind. This world might have a few surprises for Reijuu yet, and Ghidorah would cackle madly from whatever afterlife that might exist if he witnessed it blow up in his old foe’s face. He could only wish he’d get to see it all, knowing he wouldn’t. If only he could get that stubborn future vision he tried earlier to work. After briefly considering enacting it one last time before he started the real trial, Grand King Ghidorah shelved the thought and beheld what lay before him past the moving mirror into the Equestrian realm. He stood before the final gateway, the final steps towards his one and only wish. Everything of worth was beyond this swirling doorway to Equestria. Taking flight and floating through the portal leading to the plateau with the dome of captives and cutiemark rock in tow, Grand King Ghidorah readied himself. Readied himself to either correct a mistake, or see it realized as success. =============================== Reader Works =============================== Because I love you guys and gals, I'm showing you off! Do check out the links I drop here and many, many of these fine artists and writers have written and drawn far more than just the one picture I show (otherwise this be HUGE and make scrolling a flippin' nightmare). So I get scoutin' folks, here's to you audience! And if I missed one of you, give me a shout and I'll happily add your content in! "Let the World Burn" having very ironic timing by ShinGodzilla111 and GypsyCharm "Day at the Amusement Park" by Branded-Rose giving us her precious X-Aria babies! "Kiyari, Ayako and Notta" by Lsniaca showcasing the children of the readerbase's first couple! "The Bridge Voice Actor Meme" by Randoman92 showing the story cast in this hallmark DA meme! [PICTURE TOO BIG - SEE LINK!] "There's a Demon Inside" by FallenAngel5414 hallmarks last chapter's infamous scene! "Dancing Lessons" by Zeroviks makes a recursive appearance for Maui given Zero was the first to illustrate her! "Blade Dancer Human Form" - By Pyrus-Leonidas showcasing everyone's favorite OC looks good in any form! "MLP Goji" by Invader Franky showing sketch art is still classy art! Equestria: Across the Multiverse by GodzillaWolf stars the appearance of Amalgam'verse's own favorite terrapin! Gamera joins the party! The Bridge: Humanity's Stand's 24th chapter has been published! Written by the HS crew, I guest-authored one of the seconds for this one. Can you guess which?~