//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Of Monsters and Mortals 
// Story: Tales of the Amalgam'verse: Mirror Image 
// by thatguyvex 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4: Of Monsters and Mortals 


Ki Seong knew she was being followed. Even if she hadn’t heard the soft and scraping hoof steps of the pony trailing in her wake after her... confrontation with the sailors at the tavern Ki Seong’s sense of smell could pick up the pony’s unusual scent. She was experienced in recognizing numerous scents now, having had the enhanced sense for over a year. The dog demon, an inugami, she’s gained the power from had given her quite the chase, but it had been cornered in due time, and now its strength was her strength. Another weapon in her arsenal in her hunt for the one demon she wanted destroyed above all others.

Her hearing and sight had also been sharpened by consuming the dog demon’s essence, which made the darkening alleyways of Horseshoe Harbor seem like well lit noon, and allowed her to hear the distant shouting of the town constables heading towards the tavern. She imagined she be long gone before they organized a search for her, not that she was concerned about it if she was caught. It’d just mean a few more injured people left in her wake. She’d stopped counting those a long time ago. There was hardly even a twinge of regret anymore for the pain she often needed to cause. The goal was what mattered, and those who got hurt by being in her way had only themselves to blame.

So who was this pony following her, then? A friend of those sailors, looking to take revenge? They would either need to be incredibly idiotic or drunk to think taking her alone was a good idea after that display at McReedy’s, and this pony was being too skillful in her stealthy pursuit to be either drunk or a fool. Ki Seong knew the pony was female by scent alone, but it was hard to tell anything else. This pony’s smell was all off, and it set Ki Seong’s danger sense on edge.

After the fourth turn down a random alley with the pony still trailing behind her, Ki Seong delved into another ability she'd gained from a previous hunt. Her skin felt a grave chill as she touched upon the dark power flowing through her blood, and her body shimmered like a mirage until she was nearly invisible, blending into the dark alley with only the mildest of ripples to indicate her position. This power had been gained from consuming the ground bones of a gashadokuro, a rare skeletal demon that harried travelers on rare forest paths. It's natural ability to render itself invisible had made the hunt difficult, but she'd triumphed, and taken the demon's power for her own, as she had with many others.  

Now largely invisible she thought she'd have an easy time shaking the pony following her, but with a low grunt of frustration Ki Seong realized after another few twists and turns down several more streets and alleys she could still sense her pursuer. 

Perhaps it was better to just get this over with. Picking a swift route to take her towards the edge of the town she found an alley that lacked an easy view from any of the main streets and halted, slowly turning to face her pursuer as she allowed her form to become visible once again, the angry burn of the demon's power fading from her blood as she did so. 

“I do not know why you follow me," she called in a hard voice, "But I shall grant you a chance to explain yourself before I get... cross with you. So speak, while my patience lasts.”

“Given what I’ve already seen I’m surprised you have any patience left. But that’s alright, what I have to say won’t take long.”

At first glance the pony that had been following Ki Seong seemed like an unremarkable unicorn, with a coat colored black as fresh tar. Her eyes gleamed orange with amusement and an utter lack of fear, which somewhat surprised Ki Seong and only further confirmed what she already suspected; that this was no pony. Unconsciously she tensed, ready to unleash violence upon this ‘pony’ in an instant that would make her scuffle with the sailors seem like a light bout of sparring by comparison.

The unicorn only creased her lips in a wide smile, “Mmm, you practically sing with violent intent. It was a beautiful thing, that bit of work back at the tavern. I was impressed.”

Ki Seong snorted, “If that is all you have to say then we are done here. Go, demon, before I decide to add you to the long list of monsters I’ve extinguished from this world.”

A laugh chimed from the unicorn mare, “Demon? Such a limiting term, and one I assure you does not apply to me. Why, I’m as natural as the crushing waves of the ocean or the howling winds of a tornado. I share little with the creatures you no doubt have hunted down. A hunt I sense is far more intense than one of a mere unfocused travelers, yes? You seek something specific. You hunger for particular prey. I heard you in the tavern. You hunt this fox beast?”

As always the mere cursory thought of that thing brought a boiling rage to the forefront of Ki Seong’s mind and heart, the blood pulsing with red hot fire through her veins as she struggled to control herself. Her voice grew dire as she said, “What do you know if it? If you know anything I will rip the answer from you, I promise you that.”

“Ah, as interesting as that confrontation would be, it isn’t necessary. I may not know of the creature you seek, but I am interested in helping you find it nonetheless.”

That caused Ki Seong to give the unicorn mare another, searching look, her eyes narrowing to searching gold slivers. “Why? What do you have to gain by helping me?”

“Let us say that in you I sense a, hmm, how to put it? Kindred spirit?” The unicorn laughed again, as if at some private joke. “I’ve recently come to appreciate how much fun it can be to have those of similar mind around to indulge my hobbies with.”

“Hobbies?” Ki Seong sneered, removing her crossbow from its holster across her back and pointing it at the unicorn’s throat in one smooth motion, her magical aura holding the weapon steady as glass. “My quest is not to be made light of. I hunt monsters, and yes, one in particular whose destruction I desire above all others. Yet why should I let another monster join me in that task, especially when I highly doubt we have anything in common, let alone a ‘kindred spirit’?”

If the crossbow aimed at her neck bothered the strange dark unicorn at all she didn’t show it, instead meeting Ki Seong’s eyes with her own open and level stare. “Because while I may not know this beast you seek, I can help you track it.” The unicorn took a smooth step forward, and Ki Seong almost fired, only to hold back at the last second. There was something... arresting about the way this unicorn looked at her. “You want it dead, this fox beast. Not just dead, either. You want to make it suffer, the way its made you suffer. Oh, I can feel it, your righteous fury and the need to make this creature pay. It isn’t enough to just kill it. No, not this one. Others you have killed, but this one is special. This one, when you finally have it cornered where you want it... this one’s death you intend to savor.”

Ki Seong felt a need to take a step back as this unicorn approached her, but she held firm, her crossbow steady despite the growing aura of overwhelmingly powerful presence that was washing off the unicorn now like the weight of a deep, black ocean. Ki Seong found herself unable to look away from those eyes, like two pits carved from a dark sun.

“What of it?” Ki Seong asked, glad at least that her voice remained steady. “Yes I want this beast dead. Yes I want it to suffer. I still do not see what you stand to gain by helping me accomplish this, nor why I should suffer your own continued existence when I can tell quite clearly you are no friend to mortal kind.”

“And you are? I saw what you did to those poor sailors.”

“They shall live. They stood in my way. I only hurt those who are in my way,” Ki Seong said, and even her own voice sounded more defensive to her own ears than she would have preferred.

“As is proper,” the unicorn said, now so close that the tip of the crossbow’s bolt nearly touched her neck, yet there was no fear in those orange eyes. “The strong should never fear the weak standing in their way. Even in a so-called ‘righteous’ world that is how it should be. You know this, but so few others do. How often have weaklings like that stood in your path, forcing you to hurt them, or even costing you your quarry?”

More times than Ki Seong cared to admit aloud. Since the start of this long, nightmarish quest so many years ago she’d nearly had that damnable fox cornered so many times! And every time the monster had managed to escape justice by using mortals as shields. Time and again Ki Seong had been forced to harm others to try to get at the creature, only to be foiled by some last second effort of fools trying to protect a beast not worth saving. It was... frustrating. Even just thinking about it tore a deep growl from the depths of her throat.

“My prey has been fortunate, but fortune runs out eventually and I will end this hunt. Yet I will confess the beast’s luck is irritating. I want this hunt to be over with. Cho Yon’s soul deserves to rest knowing the monster is dead,” Ki Seong cut herself off. “These are things you don’t need to know. You cannot help me.”

“Oh, but I can,” the mare insisted, not once faltering in her confident stance or bearing. “You have but a simple direction to hunt in, west. The trail itself is long cold, and this country is vast. My power can narrow your search. Tell me of this beast, and with magic of my own I can find its path, and discover where it now hides. A search of months or years could become one of days or weeks.”

Everything Ki Seong had ever been taught by her family told her not to trust this creature. Even as an outcast she still carried the blood of demon hunters in her veins, and had been raised in all the traditions and knowledge needed to slay the foulest monsters of her homeland. This “unicorn” already confessed to not being what she seemed, so why should Ki Seong indulge it’s offer of aid?

...Because she was tired. She wouldn't want to admit it aloud, to this mare or anyone else, but she was exhausted by the long years of the hunt. Not in any pedestrian, physical sense. Her body was fitter than the most healthy earth pony, and was fueled by even further might by the hearts and blood of demons she’d slain and consumed. The unnatural power of ogres and far worse coursed through her, power she sorely believed she needed as her quarry continued to elude her. The techniques of that consumption, the secrets of absorbing the powers of the Yogoe, was long forbidden by her family... but she knew they’d understand, as long as she brought back the proof of the beast’s destruction. Proof that Cho Yon’s killer was dead, and the treasure of its beads brought home.

Some part of her mind whispered to her in a cold echo that Cho Yon’s killer would only ever been seen in a mirror, but she shut the mental door on that voice hard and locked it behind thick mental chains.

Tired. So tired. The chase had to end. Her pain would only end with the gumhio’s death, Cho Yon being avenged, and the beast’s fox beads in her grasp with all their supernatural secrets as a gift to earn her family’s forgiveness.

“Fox beads, is it?” the unicorn said, “Or 'yeowu guseul', in your tongue.”

Ki Seong’s eyes widened and without a thought she fired her crossbow, the bolt passing through the carved notches at the end of the crossbow, where enchanted script activated in soft orange gleams of light to in turn inflame the chemical concoction within the bolt itself.

The bolt streaked towards the unicorn, but she merely caught it with a glow of orange and red magic. The bolt still felt the impact upon the magical force and its magically enchanted chemicals exploded in a small but impactful blast of flames. When the smoke cleared, however, the unicorn was utterly unharmed, and was still smiling.

“My apologies. I wasn’t intentionally reading your mind, but your thoughts were projected so loudly I couldn’t help but pick them up,” the unicorn said, not quite apologetically, but rather matter of factly. “A side effect of having such a keen grasp of mental energies as I have, I’m afraid. Rest assured I won’t enter your mind without permission, but I suggest perhaps calming your thoughts so you don’t project quite so loudly, if we are to act as partners.”

“Foul monster. Why should I trust you?”

“Because I’m the only one who can, and wants, to help you,” the unicorn replied flatly. “I make no claim of altruism. Far from it. I do this because I have something to gain from you, even if that something is mere satisfaction of my own curiosity and amusement. However I am intrigued by these fox beads. What are they and how do they relate to this... gumiho, was it?”

“Jeog.” Ki Seong said with pure venom. “That is what I call it. The monster’s power over foxfire stems from the fox beads that are the core of its being. Each of its nine tails holds one such bead. The legends are that if one takes these beads and consumes one, they gain knowledge of the spirit realms and secrets of power from beyond. If I bring these beads home...” she shook her head, sneering. “Let me guess, you will try to take these beads or yourself?”

“I merely want one. A small price for helping bring your long hunt to an end, is it not?” the unicorn said with an oh so reasonable tone. “How much longer do you wish to wander these lands, with no guarantee that even if you find this ‘Jeog’ that you will be able to slay it. What will prevent the fox from escaping the hunter yet again?”

The words struck deep and true. Ki Seong didn’t trust the creature before her even in the remotest sense... yet her desperation was almost as great as her deep and long held rage and yearning for vengeance. She’d already sacrificed the purity and sanctity of her body in her quest, and bend her sense of morality beyond recognition. As long as she got what she desired, as long as the hunt finally, at long last came to an end... then what did she need trust for?

“...So be it, creature. We have an agreement. Your assistance in finding and slaying the gumiho, in exchange for one of the beast’s fox beads.”

In the distance pony voices could be heard shouting, getting closer. The unicorn’s ears twitched and her grin turned almost unnaturally wide. “Ah, and just in time for us to make our departure before the local color finds us. So, my most deliciously rabid new companion, may I know your name?”

“Ki Seong, creature.”

“Hm, lovely. And for the record, while I am far more patient than most of my comrades, that will be the last time I tolerate being called ‘creature’. My name is Battra Lea. Now, I suppose I no longer have a use for this form.”

The unicorn’s body shimmered with a roiling red mist of magic. Like water rippling over a canvas, bleeding away colors into one collective pool, the unicorn's shape smeared and grew like a multi-colored stain until it reshaped itself in a flash of light into a much larger and altogether more intimidating form.

Ki Seong looked on with a controlled expression, but on the inside even her cold and caged heart was slightly shaken. She’d faced the mighty spiked clubs and unbridled wrath of ogres in the mountains of Carrea. She’d wrestled against the talons and beaks of viscous kappa beneath the raging rivers in Neighpon. She’d stalked a vile hair demon into the depths of a lightless cavern lair to face it’s endless tendrils of death.

Yet the creature standing before her now shook even her.

Battra was as tall as any alicorn, with a body of midnight black chitin in the shape of a vaguely insectoid equine, with unusual holes in her hooves and legs that could be seen clearly through. Lithe and powerful in frame, yet infinitely elegant and deadly in stature, Battra’s body sported twin wings of scintillating orange, yellows, and reds crossed with patches of inky blackness. A mane of long hair went from dark orange until it bled to lighter, fiery yellow towards the tips, and her tail flower behind her with identical colors. Upon Battra’s brow a crown of golden spikes worked their way up to one thick, central spike, all of it seemingly grown from the organic bone of her own body. A face that might be considered beautiful by pony standards still smiled with white, flashing fanged teeth, and her eyes shone with colors of red and gold, giving that beauty an altogether more sinister shade.

Ki Seong knew this creature, at least by reputation. While her hunt had been almost her entire focus while in Equestria, she couldn’t avoid the gossip and local news entirely. She knew that not long ago giant beasts known as kaiju had arrived from another world. Some the Equestrians called allies, while others showed themselves to be enemies. This one’s true form had appeared in a blurry picture from an attack on Canterlot, barely fended off some time ago. The monolithic moth of darkness and destruction bore similar characteristics to the vaguely insect-like equine in front of Ki Seong.

But she didn’t care.

Ki Seong might have feared the being she’d just made a bargain with if not for the fact that she’d already, on some level, known Battra’s nature before she’d made her agreement. Come the end, if this monster helped her destroy another far more long hated monster, then it mattered little to Ki Seong what Battra’s future goals or plans were.

As long as Jeog died screaming, that was all Ki Seong cared about.

Battra Lea laughed, a sound like a bell falling down a dark cavern shaft. “Still projecting, my dear. Don’t fret, you’ll hear those screams soon enough. Now, let us go.”

Before Ki Seong could answer the gold horn upon Battra’s brow flashed with orange and red magic, and in a burst of light a teleport spell was cast, and both the kirin and the kaiju were whisked away without a trace.

----------

The training grounds for Canterlot’s Royal Guard consisted of several spacious clearings nestled up against the vast mountain slopes the city and its glorious castle was built upon. The guard barracks sat in several squat buildings of white stone on the west side of the training area, and more than a few of the Royal Guard stood near the barracks in excited packs, eyes glued on an unusual pair trading blows upon the field. Practically all of Equestria resident races were represented among the Royal Guard, including the chitinous forms of more than a few changelings from Duchess Chrysalis’ hive. Whispers of bets and speculation of who the victor would be spun around the guards, most laying fair wages upon the towering dark red form of Lady Destroyah, but there were more than a few willing to lay fair odds towards the sleek blue aquatic newcomer that faced the crimson behemoth of a mare.

“You keep dodging all day I’m likely to start getting a bit bored here. Come on, I’m not delicate. You can throw a punch my way, you know,” said Destroyah with a inviting grin that showed rows of sharp white fangs. The once colossal entity that many upon Earth knew as a mutated precambrian organism and one of the world’s most powerful Kaiju was now contained in the body of a statuesque and massive equine. Her coat was a rusty red, while her wild and long mane and tail were of a darker crimson cast. Taller than even the not so long ago reformed and restored alicorn Princesses, and certainly a good head and shoulders above the height of Duchess Chrysalis, Destroyah dwarfed almost anyone she stood beside. Huge, flaring red wings like those of a giant bat’s only added to her imposing size, along with a large and curved horn of burnished orange.

On one powerful hoof she threw a crushing downward blow that was far faster than what one might expect of someone Destroyah’s size, and once again the target of her attack weaved out of the way, seeming to swim through the air on sapphire fins as she flashed back from the strike. Destroyah’s hoof may have missed its target, but the ground still shook from the blow and left a table sized crater in its wake.

“Yeah, because broken ribs are such a laugh riot. Sorry D, but you can’t blame me for trying to suss out your range before shoving my cranium into easy to smash distance. That said, you want a counterattack, you got one coming right up!”

Like a breaking wave Destroyah’s opponent flowed up and then down in a swift, bobbing motion that was both agile and difficult to follow, spinning around to unleash a blindingly quick tail slap with a wide, blue fin. Destroyah stepped back from the tail, a good thing given the fin was actually sharper than it looked and the near miss clipped a bit of her mane. Not that Destroyah seemed to mind this as her smile deepened.

“Nice move. You might have a future as a barber, Raiga.”

Raiga kept on the offensive, moving in with the speed and grace of a striking cobra as she cut loose with several pummeling punches with her red tipped hooves. A fair bit smaller in stature than Destroyah, Raiga was relying upon her agility to make up the difference in reach she faced in this sparring match. Her body was far different from what she was used to having, but she was adapting to it at an ever exponential rate.

Back on Earth Ragia was the Guardian Beast of Water, a Kaiju of a similar saurian family branch to the one that spawned the famed Godzilla line. Her natural body had been a towering cross between a bipedal dinosaur and a finned beast of the sea, armed with wicked red claws. Her present form, however, while bearing some similarities was a different beast altogether. She still retained an oceanic appearance, with fine blue scales covering most of her body, with darker blue fins cresting her head and back all the way down to her long, powerful and lithe tail that ended in pale, pearly blueish white fins. Her face was less reptilian and more equine in form, though she still sported some sharp fangs in her mouth and her trademark ruby red eyes. The color of those eyes were matched by a number of gleaming red gems that spotted her flanks in rows of three, nestled on the sides of her head next to the frills that served as her ears, and finally a final gem that sat in the center of her more pale scaled chest.

She’d been told the body she inhabited now was like those of a creature called ‘sirens’, which were apparently rare but natural inhabitants of Equestria. She wasn’t sure why she took this form when she was yanked into this world, other than it was an aquatic form to match her Guardian Beast nature, but she was learning to make do. She missed her clawed hands most of all. The hooves she now had were just not up to snuff for close combat, hence why she’d been more hesitant than normal to get in close with Destroyah.

But Destroyah had hit the right buttons to get Raiga just angry enough to go on the attack, and Raiga realized just what a bad idea that was as her hoof blows struck home against Destroyah’s chest with all the effectiveness of a rain of spitwads.

Destroyah just kept grinning and Ragia sighed, “In my defense you’re stupidly huge. Why do you get the super pony form while I’m stuck as the flying guppy?”

“Genetics?” Destroyah offered coyly as she barreled forward in a chest slam that caught Raiga hard across the side even as she tried to dodge away. The blow hurled the Kaiju turned siren a good twenty yards before she slammed, back first, into the ground and skidded about half a dozen more yards before coming to a stop.

“Ugh, okay, note to self; boxing Destroyah equals bad idea. As if I didn’t already know that form my own world,” Raiga, ever durable herself, recovered quickly and with a swish of her tail flew up into the air. Her chest ached, mostly from the dull reminder of the wounds she’d only recently recovered from. Ignoring it, she rapidly circled Destroyah and keenly looked for an opening. Seeing one as the other Kaiju slowly turned to keep Raiga in her sights, the siren dove down like a streaking jet on an attack run. She pulled up level with the ground, flying bare inches above it as she body slammed herself into Destroyah’s tall, tree-trunk like legs.

The top heavy mare was unbalanced, despite her great bulk, and Ragia let out a whoop as she managed to topple Destroyah over with a thunderous crash. Of course Destroyah was an experienced combat veteran herself and rolled with her fall, shockingly nimble in her ability to spring back to her hooves, dirt and dust trailing off her body. Her wings flared wide, Destroyah’s face showing quite a bit of merriment as coils of energy built up in her maw.

Knowing what was coming Raiga immediately went into evasive maneuvers. Destroyah’s micro-oxygen beam spat out across the sky in short, devastating bursts that trailed after Raiga in bright pulses. It was clear she was being careful to avoid aiming towards anywhere that might even come close to an actual building, however, and with a spark of cleverness Raiga slowly arced her path around so that the palace of Canterlot would be behind her, which made Destroyah immediately cut off her beam.

“Clever girl, but that’s playing dirty pool isn’t it?”

Raiga shrugged, “Hey, all’s fair in love and buttkicking. Besides I thought we agreed no beams before we did this?”

Destroyah paused with a considering look, then nodded, “Right, right. Forgot about that in the heat of the moment. My beams are my go-to for dealing with swift little scrappers like you. I got to admit you’re a league above our world’s version of you in a fight. How’re your wounds holding up?”

The entire point of this sparring match had been to test how well Raiga had healed after her less than pleasant first few days in Equestria. It was all still way too complicated and strange for Raiga to get her head around it fully, but some force she didn’t understand had literally plucked her from Earth and dropped her in this other reality populated by colorful, sickeningly adorable equines and other interesting species. Earth had long been stuck in a seemingly never ended series of conflicts involving Kaiju and aliens, and Raiga had been at the forefront of a lot of those fights alongside the other Terran Defenders, a faction of Kaiju under the leadership of Godzilla. Well, Godzilla Junior technically. Senior had perished years ago, facing off against the very Kaiju standing before Raiga.

Or rather her Earth’s version of Destroyah. Apparently interdimensional travel was more complex than just hopping different worlds, but each individual world had its own set of mirror dimensions where things were similar but still different. In some ways bigger than others.

The Destroyah in front of Raiga was from an alternate Earth, one where apparently similar events went down, but the nature of who was on which side had switched around. Destoryah and Xenilla, aka “Space Godzilla” to some humans, were the ones in charge of the Defender’s faction, while Godzilla himself, Junior... he’d become something altogether different than the solemn and determined leader and protector Raiga was familiar with.

The other Godzilla, the one from the “mirror” universe had apparently been dragged into this Equestria along with a number of other Kaiju, all familiar to Raiga but so different now that recognizing their personalities was all but impossible. She’d had to face off with “Mirror Junior” twice in a short span of time after arriving in this world, and both instances had nearly lead to her death. Raiga was a strong and skilled fighter and she knew she was more than a match for most opponents... but the Godzilla in this world was on a whole different level. All of the power, but none of her world’s Godzilla’s restraint or compassion. The Junior she knew would only fight when necessary and only kill when there was no other choice.

The Godzilla she faced had broken enough of her internal organs and bones that she’d needed a week of recovering time even with the aid of this world’s healing magic and her own natural regenerative stamina. It had been a necessary fight, as Godzilla had threatened an entire city of innocent ponies, but damn had it hurt. Raiga had needed the help of a pony named Starlight Glimmer, an apprentice to the local ruler Duchess Chrysalis, to power up to her full Kaiju form, and even then all she’d really been able to do was distract Godzilla and keep him from smashing into the city for a few minutes. Long enough for help to arrive.

She was still getting used to the idea that that help came in the form of Destroyah and Xenilla, two Kaiju who had been deadly enemies of the Mutants faction back home. Raiga had more or less resolved not to think about it too hard and just go with the flow. Besides, so far this “nicer” Destroyah seemed a decent enough sort of gal. Not like the stoic, murder-faced mountain of death Raiga knew from her own Earth.

“So, calling it quits or are you good to keep going?” asked Destroyah, cracking her neck. “I want to get a solid idea of how well you’ve healed up but don’t want to push you too hard either. You feeling any sharp pains or aches anywhere? Headache? Nausea? Your body might still have some of its Kaiju related traits but you need to understand that you’re not anywhere near as durable as you’re used to, so if anything feels out of sorts, say it. I don’t like having to fix internal bleeding, trust me.”

“I’m fine.” Raiga said, and at Destroyah’s flat look she hastily added, “I mean I don’t feel anything more than a little sore, but no internal bleeding stuff going on, nope! I can keep going. I feel like I need to, I don’t know, defend the honor of all Raigas across reality to make up for the one in your world. Is she really that cowardly?”

Destroyah chuckled dryly, “Let me put it to you like this. The last time me and her squared off, I coughed loudly in her general direction and she hid behind the nearest building she could find, then bolted for the harbor before I could get a shot off. Honestly I’d say she’s harmless if that crazy bastard she follows didn’t strike enough fear to browbeat her into attacking cities in the first place.”

Raiga let out a groan, smacking a hoof to her forehead. The Mirror version of herself sounded like a rank coward, and that really got under her scales more than she cared to admit. Raiga lived for a good fight, and even though she wasn’t crazy enough to be without a healthy dose of fear when up against a stronger foe she still was always willing to throw down for the right reasons. Or sometimes any reason, depending on how bored she was. At least her evil counterpart could’ve been some kind of badass dark knight type, but noooooo, she had to be the yellow bellied variety. Raiga felt like she needed to find her alternate reality self and teach her how to have a spine. It was a matter of principle!

“Ugh, I think I want to keep fighting just to get that mental image out of my brain. You ready?”

Destroyah nodded and lowered herself into a fresh fighting stance. “Of course.”

“Heeeeeey!” came a loud feminine call from behind Raiga, and both she and Destroyah turned to see a unicorn mare making her way past the line of spectating guards, trotting quickly towards the pair of Kaiju. With light fur of a dull pink shade and showing a well groomed mane and tail of lavender colors streaked with teal, Starlight Glimmer didn’t really look like the student of a nation’s ruler. She had a humble, and somewhat mousy demeanor, which as far as Raiga could tell actually hid quite the wellspring of courage. Anyone willing to stand atop of a building directly in the path of an attacking Godzilla had a spine and a half in Raiga’s book, and she gave Starlight a warm and welcoming grin as the unicorn approached.

Much as she was eager to get back to sparring, it was nice to see a friend.

“Yo, Starlight! What’s up?”

Pulling up short of the pair of Kaiju, Starlight managed a quick but shaky smile, looking more than a little jittery. Was something wrong? Raiga wasn’t sure whether to see that as a good thing or not. On one hand she hated being inactive and any problems that cropped up were a chance to stretch her fins and alleviate some boredom. On the other hand anything wrong that required coming to Equestria’s resident friendly Kaiju probably meant something majorly serious.

“Hello Raiga, Lady Destroyah,” Starlight said, a bit breathless and dipping her head in a short bow. “The Duchess sent me to bring you two to the throne room. There’s been a, uh, development in Ponyville.”

Destroyah came up, her wings folding against her side as her own expression turned utterly serious. “What kind of development?”

“It’s better the Duchess explain it. She knows all the details.” Starlight said, her tail giving a nervous flick. “I don’t really know much, other than whatever happened it involves a filly that Lady Destroyah knows. Diamond Tiara, I think the name was?”

There was a palpable shift in Destroyah’s stance, making the already huge mare seem to loom taller than the mountain behind the training grounds. “Is she okay?”

Gulping, Starlight hastily said, “Y-yes, far as I know. Like I said, best to let the Duchess explain. Please, follow me.”

The members of the Royal Guard cleared the path for the two Kaiju as they followed Starlight past the barracks and down the narrow stone path towards the interior of Canterlot’s palace. Though she’d been here for a little while, Raiga hadn’t had much opportunity to explore the palace or the city that was built along the mountainside below it. Everything had a delicate and shining splendor to it that had a way of making Raiga feel self conscious. Most the time the only interactions she had with cities were in keeping some Mutation Kaiju from stomping through one while trying to keep from toppling onto buildings herself. Canterlot looked entirely too fragile to be housing beings that could on any normal day send it toppling down like a house of cards. It was the kind of city that could only really be built in a world where war, least of all battles between Kaiju, weren’t the norm.

Being led down wide and brightly lit hallways, Starlight set a quick pace, with Raiga and Destroyah keeping easy pace behind her. Raiga leaned her head towards Destroyah and asked in a curious tone. “Okay, so who’s Diamond Tiara?”

Destroyah’s eyes flicked down towards her without her breaking her stride. “She’s an earth pony filly living in Ponyville. She and her friend Silver Spoon found me when I got teleported to this world. Without them it’d have taken me a lot longer to adjust to things here, not to mention find Xen. Given the way I look, even after getting all ponified, it was having those two trust me that helped the rest of Ponyville get used to me, and smooth out meeting the Duchess. Quite frankly that saved lives when it came time to repel Battra and Godzilla’s first go at Canterlot.”

Raiga knew that Xenilla and Destroyah had arrived in Equestria before she had, and through seemingly different circumstances. The whole reason the pair were called ‘Lady Destroyah’ and ‘Sir Xenilla’ was due to literal knighthoods that Duchess Chrysalis had bestowed upon the pair for the defense of Canterlot when it had been attacked by the ‘evil’ counterparts to Junior and Mothra Lea. Raiga suppressed a shudder. Junior’s murderous mirror world self was horrifying enough, but Lea’s evil twin, Battra, had even the big guy beat out in the creepsville department in spades. Ragia had felt the mirror world’s Godzilla was like a rabid predator with no inhibitions, but Battra had been... something else. Recalling how unsettling encountering that nut case had been Raiga could understand Destroyah’s intense attitude. She wouldn’t want Battra or Godzilla anywhere near a peaceful pony village. Still it couldn’t be that bad, right? Starlight would be acting way more freaked out if that was the case.

“Whatever’s going on it’s probably nothing too big.” she said in what passed for an attempt at reassurance.

Destroyah’s tense stance didn’t really slacken, but she did manage a small rueful smile. “I appreciate it, and you might be right, but I know Diamond Tiara. She’s a sweet kid, but she’s got this habit of getting big ideas without thinking it all through. If something’s gone down that’s got the Duchess’ attention, chances are this won’t be a simple house call.”

Upon reaching the doors to the throne room Starlight briefly nodded to the guards flanking the massive ornate doors, who returned the nod with stoic salutes as they opened the doors for the arrivals. The throne room itself was spacious, with a tall and vaulted ceiling hanging with brilliant crystal chandeliers. Light poured in through stained glass windows, bathing the room in the painted radiance of dozens of colors. Raiga noticed each window showed a stylized picture, probably denoting some kind of important historical event of the world. Most of it was stuff she didn’t really understand, something about a big tree, some giant red centaur looking dude forging fancy looking crystals, a big white and blue alicorn with questionable fashion sense battling a black stallion. Only the recent windows showed anything familiar. One depicted Destroyah and Xenilla in their full Kaiju forms standing together against the fully transformed forms of Godzilla and Battra Lea, with Canterlot in the background surrounded by six points of light, like stars. Then there was the window that made Raiga blush a bit, showing her own stand against Godzilla in front of Manehattan, with Starlight Glimmer empowering Raiga with her magic from the roof of one of the buildings.

It didn’t happen entirely like that, but meh, artistic licence I guess. Can’t complain, at least they made me look pretty badass.

At the end of a long, red carpet the throne room ended in a set of stairs leading to a raised dais where three thrones sat. Two of them were empty, one built with sun motifs and made of bright golds and deep purples, the other covered in stylized moons and carved from ebony and deep blue colors. The third throne sat in the middle, and was taller backed and made from white marble and emerald gems shaped like hearts. It was this middle throne where Duchess Chrysalis, present Regent of Equestria, sat awaiting them with a welcoming if somewhat strained smile.

At the foot of the steps leading to the thrones stood another, a tall and well muscled unicorn stallion. Heads and shoulders taller than most, his dark blue coat was marked by patches of white along his snout and hooves, a color that matched the stark white of a long and spiky mane and tail. Although one might call him a ‘unicorn’ it wasn’t in the traditional sense, as his ‘horn’ was instead a crest of pale crystal that split into three along the ridge of his brow. Yellow and red eyes regarded Destroyah and Raiga’s approach with an appraising and cordial look that gave next to nothing away about what the Kaiju turned pony was thinking.

Which didn’t surprise Raiga. Out of all the mirror world Kaiju that Raiga had encountered, Xenilla seemed to be the one least different from the version she knew from her world. Regardless of whether this Xenilla was ‘good’ or not, he was still a cagey fellow who was exceedingly difficult to read.

“Hey chief, so what has the little scamp gotten into, exactly?” Destroyah asked, not wasting any time. Xenilla, equally of a ‘down to business’ mindset, didn’t waste time either. His tone was cool and clipped.

“Found herself a new friend who wasn’t what she appeared to be. Now there’s been an injured foal, a worried town population on the brink of panic, and our resident Element of Wisdom is calling for backup.”

Destroyah’s face darkened like an onrushing thunderhead. “A foal was injured? Who, and how badly?”

“A pegasus by the name of Scootaloo. The injury was minor and far from life threatening,” Xenilla’s cold but calm demeanor didn’t change, nor sound any less grave for the fact that he was talking about an apparently ‘minor’ injury. “However Ditzy Doo’s letter indicated the distinct worry that the injury could have been far worse.”

He turned his head to regard the Duchess, “My apologies Your Grace, would you like to explain the rest?”

“Yes, Sir Xenilla, but no need to apologize. You’ve been forced to run a war on your homeworld for many years. I completely understand that you’re used to briefing your people yourself. However I’d like to perhaps tone this down somewhat before Lady Destroyah or Miss Raiga get the wrong idea.”

Equestria’s Regent was taller than Xenilla, although still a fair bit smaller than Destroyah. Her body was at once both equine and insectile, covered in a fine, pliant chitin of a light gray coloring. Voluminous and curly teal hair framed a face that held both the motherly qualities of a caring parent and the bright, openness of a best friend, shining green eyes looking warmly from a elegantly feminine face. Small rounded glasses perched upon her snout, and behind the Regent she had a set of luminous emerald wings shaped almost like those of a butterfly, with darker green heart marks near the tips. She wore lavender lacquered regalia in the form of a torque, metal shod hoof guards, and a ornate tiara.

All in all Raiga felt like the Duchess was probably the least intimidating ruler of a nation she’d ever met. Not that she’d met many, but Chrysalis looked like she was everybody’s mom, ready to bake cookies at the drop of a hat. Raiga figured Chrysalis and Lea would get along like bugs of a... feather? Antenna? Raiga sucked at similes.

Waiting a moment to make sure she had everyone’s attention, Chrysalis maintained her smile but managed to still take on a serious look before speaking.

“What Sir Xenilla has told you is true, but Ditzy Doo wrote to me with quite a bit more detail concerning what’s occurred over the past few days. Most of this is information she’s gained from speaking with Diamond Tiara and her friend Silver Spoon both, while also interviewing the injured filly in question and her friends. Allow me to start from the beginning...”

What followed was a fairly straightforward description of events in Ponyville, from the moment Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon first made contact with the ‘gray phantom’ in the Everfree all the way to the exposure of this ‘Jeog’ as a creature that was certainly not the foal she disguised herself to be.

“As of the time Ditzy Doo wrote the letter yesterday, the creature in question has agreed to remain in her cabin in the Whitetail Woods and not enter the town limits, largely due in thanks to Diamond Tiara’s connection to her. Scootaloo’s wound is so minor it won’t even leave any permanent mark, but her parents, and many of Ponyville’s other residents, are understandably worried. That is why I’ve called you here. We must not only assure the good folk of Ponyville that they will be protected, but we must determine who or what this Jeog actually is and whether she truly poses a threat or not. Not to mention given her unique appearance and powers it seemed possible she might be another of your kin, displaced from her homeworld.”

“I personally find that possibility to be a remote one,” Xenillas said plainly, “Prior to our stranding on this world I made it a point to keep myself exceedingly informed on all kaiju activity on Terra, for obvious reasons. Whether as possible allies I could take the chance to recruit, or as potential threats to Terra’s safety that would need to be dealt with swiftly. That being the case I can say with only a small margin of doubt that there was no kaiju on Terra who fits this Jeog’s description.”

“Wouldn’t being yanked here have changed her form into something more ponyish anyway?” Raiga asked.

Xenilla glanced her way. “Not necessarily. My research alongside the Duchess and Miss Glimmer on the nature of the interdimensional travel we’ve endured and the reasons for our altered forms also suggests that repeated travels to this world would weaken the barrier around it to such a degree that other kaiju might arrive with forms more in line with their true shape. Still, I stand by my assessment that Jeog is not a kaiju, at least not one from my Terra. Granted, her apparent skill with illusion and concealment might explain it if she was a kaiju and had kept herself hidden, but the description of that power sounds like something more akin to Equestrian magic than any mana-based art from Terra I’m familiar with.”

“Okay chief, we get it. She’s probably not from our side of the train tracks,” Destroyah said with a light chuckle, “No need to go into detail on it. So what are we thinking? She’s a local?”

“Unless she’s from Raiga’s version of Terra,” Xenilla said, looking at Raiga questioningly. She just held up her hooves and shook her head.

“Never heard of a fox kaiju in my world either. So with all this chit chat on the subject I’m guessing you don’t know what she is either, Duchess?”

“Saldy, no,” Chrysalis said with a soft sigh. “My knowledge is mostly politically focused first, and magically inclined second. If she is a denizen of this world, she is unlike anything native to Equestria itself. I’ve already tasked Starlight with searching our archives here in Canterlot, but more important was sending somepony to Ponyville whose presence could assure the populace and assist Ditzy Doo in her investigation and evaluation of Jeog.”

“And we’re certain that there have been no breakouts from Tartarus?” asked Xenilla, and Chrysalis smiled with an embarrassed look as she shook her head.

“Sir Xenilla, as we have been over many times already, the prison of Tartarus has remained secure. You worry entirely too much.”

“Begging your pardon, Your Grace, but in my experience there is no such thing as too much caution, and I still think that relying upon the efforts of a single entity to act as that prison’s sole guardian, no matter how impressive Cerberus might be, is a security risk-”

“Please, Sir Xenilla, let’s remained focused,” Chrysalis said with a raised hoof, and Xenilla went silent, but there was a look of stubbornness in his eyes that suggested he didn’t consider the topic closed. Chrysalis turned her attention back to Destroyah and Raiga.

“Now that you understand the situation, what I ask is that one of you volunteer to travel to Ponyville. Ditzy Doo will by doing her best to determine if Jeog is a threat or not, and I’ll want whoever goes to render her all needed assistance.”

A pointed and grim look crossed Destroyah’s face, her voice steely as she asked, “And what if we discover that this Jeog is a threat? You Equestrians have some different ways of dealing with things than what we might do back on Terra, so I want to be crystal clear on how you want us to play this if things go sideways.”

There was a sour, yet resolved shadow that passed over Chrysalis’ otherwise naturally friendly features. Her voice was quiet but somehow strong and commanding all at once. “In Equestria we value life in all its forms, and even when threatened we endeavor to end matters peacefully without the loss of that which is most precious. However I am all too aware, especially in light of recent threats to this nation, indeed this world, that some threats cannot be easily pacified without risking great harm to innocents. In the event that the entity calling itself Jeog proves herself to be a threat to the safety of others, I hope you can subdue her without undue harm, but I also will trust and back your own judgement on whether or not more extreme measures are necessary to protect the lives of yourself and others.”

“All I needed to hear,” Destroyah said with a grave nod, “I’ll get going immediately.”

“Whoa, waitasec, I thought this was a volunteer job for both of us!” said Raiga, “Am I going or what?”

“Well,” Duchess Chrysalis said, “I did intend to see which one of you wanted to go. If Lady Destroyah is volunteering first I certainly don’t wish to gainsay her, but if you’re suggesting you’d be better suited for the task...?”

Raiga grumbled and fidgeted with her hooves, hovering about erratically. “Hmm, this job sounds like its not supposed to lead to a brawl, right?”

“Ideally not.” Xenilla said dryly.

“Meh, well, okay I guess I oughta sit this one out then. I’m not really the friendly, diplomatic type,” Raiga said with a sagging head. “But I am soooo bored around here. Now that I’m mostly healed up I need something to do!”

“Now that you’ve recovered from your injuries I’m sure I can find something suitable for you to do.” said Xenilla with confidence. “I’m not inclined to allow anyone who might do some good to just sit idle.”

“Good, I’m not inclined to be idle,” Raiga said.

“Well sounds to me like we’ve got this meeting wrapped up in a nice clean package,” Destroyah said while making a swift turn to start heading out of the room, “So I’ll get myself down to Ponyville and see about giving a mystical fox a psych evaluation.”

“I have absolutely faith that you will be able to resolve the situation, Lady Destroyah.” Chrysalis said with an encouraging smile as bright as a polished gem. “Before you go, please go with Starlight to the archives. I’d like her to select a number of books to assist Ditzy Doo and you on your research.”

Starlight perked up, “I already have a few ideas in mind! I’ll make sure Lady Destroyah leaves with an appropriately thorough selection.”

Destroyah hung her head with a sardonic half grin, “Try to take it easy. Your idea of thorough could strain even my broad shoulders. Just don’t pack half the library, okay?”

A nervous cough escaped Starlight as she batted innocent eyes, “I’ll, um, try to restrain myself.”

----------

She had agreed to not enter the ponies town, but Jeog had said nothing about not keeping watch. Like a jittery shadow she kept to the forest edge, flitting from place to place as she carefully observed Ponyville. Often she looked for any sign of a certain pink foal. Worry gnawed at her, like a rat burrowing through a fresh corpse. What was going to happen now that her nature had been exposed? Even if Diamond Tiara seemed to be unafraid of her, what of the other mortals of the town? Would they seek come after her with fire and iron? It had happened before. Would Diamond Tiara be punished for her connection to Jeog? That somehow seemed the more worrisome concern. Jeog knew she could flee danger, but Diamond Tiara’s legs were quite small for running.

Not seeing Diamond Tiara anywhere left Jeog in an ever increasing state of agitation. The strange gray pegasus with the glass around her eyes who lived in the tree lair seemed to be the one the other ponies looked to for leadership, and had been the one to question Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon after the incident with the other foals. It had been this Ditzy Doo who had asked Jeog to wait at her cabin for the time being, but Jeog could hardly stay still. Even circling the town, constantly moving, her nine tails dancing in tune to her increasingly frantic heartbeat, Jeog’s mind raced in scattered directions.

Amid those thoughts were memories, perhaps climbing to the surface because she’d tried so hard to forget them, but in her confused and fearful state of mind the memories now came unbidden and vividly to her vision.

A waking dream...

----------

Boredom drove her from place to place. Whims came and went. Chase that creature, hunt and feed. Bored again and climbing over hills and mountains, chasing the moon and stars. Blood on her claws from a recent kill, fresh and red, and could be used to paint pictures on trees and stone. In night or day she rushed through valley fields, in the heat of summer dusted with flowers, or the depths of winter  covered in snow that danced like ash.

Mortals she’d see on their winding roads through the wilderness, travelers and wanderers. They were more fun to play with than the beasts of the forests and mountains. She could take any shape she wanted to play her games with them and make them laugh or scream, whichever she felt like, and chase them all day without tiring. They didn’t taste as good as other animals, so she didn’t do that often. Besides, those kind of games weren’t very fun, she found. Mortals were more interesting when they were alive. She liked it when they chased her too, even if she didn’t like the fire of their torches.

But even those games got boring after a long time, and she wanted more. Something more. She didn’t even know what it was. But she was sure the mortals had it. They always seem to find ways to be happy, even when they didn’t have any games to play.

So she wandered through the land until she found a group of mortals she liked better than the rest. A family tending to a building they called a ‘shrine’. They were the funniest of mortals, with strange dances and chants that she found quite amusing, and they shined brightly with that elusive thing she sought... the happiness of mortals.

She had revealed herself to this group of shrine-tending mortals one day when they went to chant their funny chants at the shrine, and she demanded they teach her to know of mortal happiness, and if they refused she’d chase them. They laughed and invited her into their home, and treated her like no other mortals ever had. It was there she learned so many things, including that mortals had names, even family’s of mortals like this one; the Yon family.

She learned even she had a name. A name they gave to her.

And for the very first time in centuries of endless wandering and play, she felt something she never had before; a connection. And so even when the Yon family she knew grew old and died, replaced by younger generations as was the mortal way, she felt hurt and wandered away... but the connection remained and she would always wander back after a time. Years or decades didn’t matter to her. Her travels always brought her back to the same place, the Yon family shrine and the mortals to whom she felt a connection to.

Her name sometimes was forgotten by the family if she spent long enough away from them, but in time she'd be named anew, and each time the name felt right, as if it had always been a part of her. In time they called her things like ‘guardian spirit’ or ‘the shrine fox’ but to her these titles were small compared to her name. She would help the Yon family over the centuries, protect them from creatures that roamed the land, or warn them when other mortals like ‘bandits’ might threaten them. Mostly, she played with the family and continued to try to understand and learn of mortal ways.

For the longest time she thought she could learn no more... until...

----------

Jeog’s senses broke her from the gray fog of distant memory as she saw something approaching Ponyville from the air. For a brief instant she thought it might be one of the many winged ponies that flitted about the sky so commonly in this land, but it didn’t take long for Jeog’s sharp eyes to notice that while this being was shaped more or less like a pony it was far too large to be normal. She spied a deep red coat upon a tall, muscular body supported through the air on two huge, bat-like wings.

For the moment Jeog’s other worries were shoved aside by a fresh, new one. This being, whatever it was, triggered a predatory sense in Jeog, the kind that recognized another alpha predator. In her already mentally confused state she didn’t draw the lines of logic to Diamond Tiara’s previous mention of there being other non-ponies like Jeog who might come to Ponyville. Instead all Jeog saw was a possibly dangerous predator landing in the middle of the town that had Diamond Tiara in it.

So rather than think things through, Jeog acted. Not on instinct, for her instincts would tell her to flee from obvious danger. Rather she acted on the vague yet potent feeling she couldn’t identify, but drew her towards Ponyville with only the thought of ensuring Diamond Tiara’s safety on her mind.

----------

Destroyah landed amid the familiar streets of Ponyville with a languid stretching of her limbs and casual glance around to see if anything had changed. The peaceful yet lively little town was just as she remembered it from when she’d first been catapulted into this weird world and had her first encounters with it’s shockingly friendly inhabitants. For someone who’d been stuck on the front line of an increasingly intense war back home the bright colors and unrelentingly openness of the ponies had been a refreshing change of pace for the mutated, precambrian life form turned pony. Many might’ve had trouble dealing with such a sudden and ludicrously insane change in circumstances, but Destroyah was adaptable by nature. She already felt as comfortable in her new equine body as she had in her fully sized kaiju form. If anything this tinier body was easier to feed and maintain, and it was nice to be able to walk inside buildings instead of being worried about flattening them. Reminded her of her early years, actually, before she’d gotten fully grown.

Her arrival had drawn some rapt attention from the locals, many of whom were quick go gather up around her with happy smiles and waves, although Destroyah detected an underlying tension that she knew was likely due to the incident with this mysterious Jeog.

“Lady Destroyah, you’re back! We heard from Miss Doo you might be coming!” chimed in one pony, Roseluck if Destroyah remembered right. Beside Roseluck her sister Lily smiled nervously.

“Will you be staying long?” Lily asked, though from the mare’s uneasy look Destroyah could tell she wanted to ask more. Well, better get it all out in the open. Destoryah wasn’t one to mince words.

“I’ll be here as long as it takes to make sure everything is safe around here,” she said, unshouldering the rather large pack of books that Starlight had given her to hoof over to Ditzy Doo. Research materials for figuring out what Jeog was, although Destroyah wasn’t sure if they’d need this many books. Not that the giant pack of books had been hard for her carry, but it had made flying a bit awkward.

Patting the pack, she looked back at the gathered ponies, offering a confident smile. People usually felt better when someone showed them a strong smile. Usually made even the roughest news go down smoother. “Just to be clear, I’m here to help Ditzy Doo check out our new visitor. One way or another I’ll see to it nopony else is harmed, so the thing I need most from all of you is to keep calm and just go about your days like normal.”

“And just what are you going to do about this beast, Lady Destroyah?” asked a pink coated unicorn mare sporting a bright red blouse and white pants, with her two toned purple mane done up in a tall beehive atop her head. Her tone wasn’t particularly challenging, just high-strung and exceedingly worried. Destroyah didn’t quite recall who the mare was until the unicorn went on to say, “I’m sorry to ask, but I have to know that you’ll do something about that creature! My poor Sweetie Belle was scared half to death and she wasn’t even the one hurt. Why, I saw the claw marks on little Scootaloo’s face and they were just dreadful.”

Now Destroyah remembered. The CMC were a rambunctious trio, and while she knew Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon seemed to mix with those three like gasoline and fire, Destroyah’s own estimation was that once all of them grew up some more they’d probably get along just fine. It was understandable that Sweetie Belle’s mother was one of the more concerned ponies in town, given it could have easily been her own filly that got injured instead of Scootaloo. Still, she had to head off any notion that she was here to do anything other than investigate the situation at this point.

“Ma’am, I understand you’re worried. Makes perfect sense. I’ll do whatever I deem necessary when I’m certain I know what needs doing to protect you and every other pony in town. However I need to be certain before taking action. Try to remember that not too long ago I was the stranger here, and had the luck to run into ponies willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.”

“Well, yes... but,” Sweetie Belle’s mother chewed her lip, “You didn’t hurt any foals, by accident or not. Scary as you might’ve looked at first, you never lifted a hoof to harm a single pony.”

There were a few uneasy murmurs from the other gathered ponies, most of them in agreement. Destroyah couldn’t entirely blame them either. She was more than a little peeved herself that any foal got hurt, and it was a starting blow against Jeog’s case, but she had the presence of mind to at least entertain the notion that it might have been an honest accident. She’d had a few accidents herself, growing up with a ever changing and enlarging body. The first few times she’d tried to get a handle on her micro-oxygen beams had resulted in some close calls, back in the day. She’d save judgment until she had a chance to figure out what this Jeog’s deal was, which she really needed to get to doing now.

“Look, I get it, but I need all of you to trust me and Ditzy Doo to deal with this. That’s all I can tell you for now.”

“She speaks the truth,” came another voice, one quite familiar to Destroyah as the sleek, gray form of Ditzy Doo soared in and made a smooth landing beside the kaiju. Adjusting her glasses with one hoof and looking at the crowd evenly with her bright yellow eyes, Ditzy spoke in a calm, measured voice. “I trust that each and every citizen of Ponyville understands the delicate nature of this situation and will cooperate fully with our investigation, which at the moment requires everyone keep a level head and go about your daily business without delay.”

Her words appeared to mollify the crowd to a degree and the ponies slowly dispersed to start going about their day to day activities once again. Destroyah huffed out a sigh and offered a thankful half-grin to the Element of Wisdom. “Good timing. Never did like talking to crowds.”

“You seemed to be handling things well enough, but I thought to expedite the process. After all, we have work to do.” Ditzy Doo said with her usual focused and business-like demeanor. Destroyah liked Ditzy Doo well enough, but she definitely needed to figure out how to loosen the mare up one of these days. She already had one workaholic, entirely too-serious friend who didn’t know how to relax.

“Guess we do,” Destroyah said, poking at the bag of books. “Starlight sends her regards, and the gift of a whole crapton of reading.”

Ditzy’s eyes lit up with a deep burning hunger as she gazed upon the bulging pack of fresh knowledge. “Most excellent. I wonder if Miss Glimmer will mind if I keep several as permanent additions to the library here? It could stand to have some sections expanded.”

“That’s between you and Starlight. The two of you can fight it out over books,” Destroyah said, shouldering the large pack once more and turning towards the Golden Oak, which was just a few short blocks away. “First thing I want to do after dropping these off is see those two fillies.”

Her tone held a note of hardness to it, and as Ditzy followed Destroyah’s long, yard eating trot by taking to the air to hover at eye level alongside the kaiju, she said, “Ah, of course. I sense a scolding on the horizon. I do believe both fillies have gotten earfuls from both myself and their parents on the matter.”

“Yeah, well, they’ve got another one coming.” Destroyah said evenly. “I like the little tykes to pieces, but what they did was stupid on a level that requires some sense getting knocked into them. The first thing they should have done when they suspected their new pal wasn’t normal was come see you about it, or tell some authority figure.”

Actually, part of Destroyah’s anger was rooted in a bit of personal hurt that the fillies wouldn’t think to trust her or any other adult enough to come to them about Jeog right off the bat. It wasn’t as if sending a letter to her in Canterlot would’ve been that hard for Diamond Tiara. That little filly was entirely too clever to not know how to mail a letter to the right address!

“If you’re going to yell at them, please moderate your volume. We’ll be in a library, after all.”

Destroyah chuckled dryly. “Do I got that look on my face?”

“I at times imagine your name pertains to that look you get when you’re peeved about something. You do wear your heart on your proverbial sleeve, I’ve noticed.” Was that a smile on Ditzy Doo’s face? If so, the pegasus hid it well. Destroyah took a calming breath and nodded.

“Wasn’t going to go too hard on them, but they’ve still earned a talking to. Are they already at the library?”

It was Ditzy Doo’s turn to nod. “Yes. I knew you’d be arriving shortly and requested their parents release them from their grounding long enough to participate in our investigative efforts. I believe we’ll need them to ease ourselves into speaking with Jeog. From what I understand this fox-like entity’s power of illusion is impressive and if we scare her off it will be difficult to track her down if she doesn’t want to be found.”

“Right. We’ll play this with kid gloves until we need to do otherwise. Hoping this will go smooth. I mean, you evaluated me when I first got here, so I got an idea of what to expect. You might ease up on the questions this time around.” Destoryah shivered slightly. Ditzy Doo had taken charge of investigating Destroyah during her first week in Ponyville. The precambrian kaiju couldn’t recall a time she’d ever been asked so many questions in such a short span of time, nor quite so thoroughly examined. Ditzy Doo had a way of making one feel like they were being pinned down and put under a microscope with just a look and a pointed set of queries. Destroyah wondered what the mare was doing as a librarian and not a lawyer.

Reaching Golden Oaks Library, Destroyah let Ditzy head in first, having to duck down to the point of nearly crawling on her knees in order to fit herself through the doorway. Setting the pack of books down beside the door, she looked across the library’s first floor to see a pair of tense fillies dejectedly waiting at one of the reading tables. Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara clearly had that unpleasant look of children who were in trouble and knew it. Even so, both their eyes lit up a bit upon seeing Destroyah and it was hard not to feel fondness welling up inside her. These two had been kind enough and fearless enough to see someone like her unconscious on the road and decide to cart her all the way to Ponyville. Despite Destroyah’s fearsome appearance, these little ponies had only seen another in need, and shown a lost foreigner to their land unconditional compassion the likes of which Destroyah hadn’t known since her earliest days.

So it was hard to maintain a stern visage when she kind of just wanted to go hug the two, but she was an adult and these kids needed a proper scolding, no matter how much she wanted to simply scoop them up and put them on her back like a protective mother bear.

“L-Lady Destroyah. Uh, hi?” Diamond Tiara said uneasily, her ears flopped downward. Silver Spoon, ever the more practical of the pair, remained silent with her eyes resigned to the telling off she could see coming.

Destroyah took a deep breath and crossed the room to stand over the pair. Best to get this part over with.

“You know the both of you messed up, right?” she asked firmly, frowning down at them both.

Diamond Tiara’s mouth worked soundlessly for a second, eyes casting a look to Silver Spoon, who merely shook her head and said, “No point denying it, Diamond.”

“W-well, yes, I guess we did...”

“You guess?” Destroyah said with one of her eyebrow’s shooting up as she leaned over Diamond Tiara, “Do you have any idea how dangerous it was to hide that fox’s existence from everyone else? How irresponsible it was? No matter what you were afraid might have happened you should have went to an adult immediately. You’re a smart filly Diamond Tiara, and you should have known better.”

“I... I’m sorry, I just...” Diamond seemed to be fumbling for words, and Silver Spoon stepped in.

“Diamond was worried about scarring away Jeog, Lady Destroyah. That’s all. She wanted to learn more about her first, before doing anything else. I’m sure the plan was to come to the adults about her as soon as we had a better idea of what Jeog was. And don’t just yell at her, I’m just as responsible.”

“The idea isn't to yell at you fillies, but I want you to understand how dangerous what you did was,” Destroyah said, turning her gaze towards the little gray filly. “Even if Diamond might’ve had some scheme in mind you ought to have headed her off on that front, Silver Spoon. Sometimes friends have to stop friends from doing dangerous things, and you dropped the ball on that one.”

“It wasn’t her fault.” Diamond Tiara said, head hanging, “It was all me. I insisted we keep Jeog a secret and tell lies about who she was to everypony. I... wanted to figure out the mystery on my own. I thought that, well, she was kind of my mystery to solve. It was... another dumb idea of mine.”

Diamond Tiara’s eyes suddenly filled with desperate resolve. “But it wasn’t Jeog’s fault that Scootaloo got hurt! You have to believe me that it was an accident, I swear! Please, you have to help me help her. She’s really scared right now and I promised her I’d help!”

“We’ll talk about that in a second,” Destroyah said, keeping her voice and face stern, despite wanting nothing more than to reassure Diamond Tiara. Still, she had to make sure the filly fully understood. “What you did was wrong, even if you heart was in the right place. It's good that you wanted to help, the same as you did with me, but hiding things put other ponies in danger. I want you to honestly think about what might have happened to Scootaloo had that claw injury been even half an inch deeper than it was. Do you have any idea what a nicked artery looks like, because I do. She could have died, Diamond Tiara, do you understand that?”

She felt a nudge at her elbow, and didn’t have to look to know it was Ditzy Doo, signaling for her to bring it down a notch. Destroyah didn’t have a problem with that, already feeling like maybe she was stepping too far. It was clear Diamond Tiara felt every word like a heavy blow, the way her face crumbled into tears. Dammit all, Destroyah hadn’t meant to make the filly cry, but she had wanted to make sure Diamond understood just how serious the situation could have been, too. Scootaloo was fine, yes, and ultimately this wasn’t about punishing anyone, but what Diamond Tiara had done had been reckless. And if Destroyah was being honest with herself, a lot of her flaring anger just stemmed from her own fear that it could have easily been Diamond Tiara hurt, or worse, had things gone differently.

Taking control of herself, she was about to apologize and try to put the fillies at ease, but just then her sense of danger, sharpened through years of battle, kicked into high gear even before she heard a feral growl from behind her followed by a snarling feminine voice.

“Leave her alone!”

The air shimmered like a heat haze as a large form of blue tinted gray furred fury materialized at the threshold of the now open library door, and Jeog came barreling into Destroyah at full speed with claws outstretched. Only reflexes and instincts honed from surviving countless life and death struggles allowed Destroyah to pivot away from the sudden danger with the speed and ease that she did, and even then Jeog’s claws came within a scant inch of her face.

Jeog acrobatically twisted in mid-air, landing on all fours, her claws digging into the wooden floor to halt her momentum, only for her body to shimmer with bending light until she blurred and dashed into motion once again, this time zipping left and right as she came at Destroyah in a dizzying pattern.

Barely more than two seconds had passed, leaving Ditzy Doo still blinking wide eyed and the two fillies only just now realizing something was even happening. Destroyah was thinking faster, used to ambushes, and set her hooves in a bracing stance as she readied herself. She already knew this had to be Jeog, and had processed what the vulpine creature had said, realizing that Jeog must have perceived Destroyah as a threat to Diamond Tiara.

As such she withheld the brimming power of a micro-oxygen burst that her battle instincts told her to unleash upon the threat daring to challenge her and instead when Jeog’s blurred form came at her from the left side, Destroyah snapped around and caught Jeog’s outstretched talon with a hoof and tucked herself into Jeog’s chest, heaving the fox-like creature into a powerful shoulder throw that slammed Jeog into the floor...

Or would have if the Jeog that Destroyah had grasped didn’t vanish into a puff of blue flame and smoke, a semi-solid illusion that hid the real Jeog, who leaped upon Destroyah’s back. But before either Jeog’s claws could dig in, or Destroyah could turn her head, an angry spark of micro-oxygen now leaking around her mouth, a voice shouted in sharp despair.

“STOP!”

Both Destroyah and Jeog froze at the same time. Diamond Tiara, shaking on her hooves, eyes wide with shocked tears, repeated her desperate cry “Please stop...”

Jeog, poised on Destroyah’s back, tilted her head quizzically and said, “But this one is hurting you.”

“No, she’s just scolding me. Which I deserved.” Diamond Tiara stammered out, “You don’t have to protect me.”

Jeog’s face scrunched up in confusion, “But you were crying.”

Diamond Tiara wiped at her face with a hoof, “I know, Jeog, I know. Sometimes that happens for the right reasons. Destroyah was just forcing me to understand some stuff I did was bad, that’s all. Its okay, please, uh, could you get off her?”

Destroyah cleared her throat, the glowing motes of micro-oxygen around her mouth slowly fading. “Preferably before I remove you myself.”

Ice blue eyes regarded Destroyah with careful measuring, and Destroyah returned in kind with her own blazing gold gaze. Now that she could look Jeog over up close she could tell this was no lost kaiju. Even when transformed into beings native to the world of Equestria, the kaiju still retained physical elements of their kaiju forms, including a certain level of scent that Destroyah could pick up on. Not only was Jeog clearly a creature that looked entirely like a giant, gray fox with nine tails swishing behind her, but she smelled entirely different from any kaiju Destroyah had ever encountered.

The tension lasted only a second more before Jeog sniffed at Destroyah and with a soft whine hopped off. The way the fox glided across the floor a few quick steps to sit with her tails protectively curling around where Diamond Tiara stood was as clear a message as could be, even if Destroyah wasn’t used to using body language to communicate even more than verbal speech. She made her own statement with an unfurling of her wings and a pointed tilting of her head towards the filly in question, making it clear in no uncertain terms that Jeog wasn’t the only one being protective.

Off to the side Ditzy Doo adjusted her glasses, issuing a deep sigh. “Well, we seem to be off to a auspicious start. Jeog, might I ask why you entered the town’s limits while strictly told not to do so until given permission?”

The fox didn’t turn her head, only flicked her eyes towards Ditzy, “I saw another predator. I thought it might eat someone I like. That was more important than silly words like ‘permission’.”

“Did we not inform you that a kaiju would be arriving soon, one who might have an usual appearance? You just jumped to the conclusion Lady Destroyah was going to eat ponies?” Ditzy asked incredulously, but Silver Spoon was quick to speak up.

“To be fair, if you didn’t actually tell her what Destroyah looks like, anypony might mistake her for trouble.” Silver Spoon smiled apologetically at Destroyah. “No offense.”

Destroyah just puffed her chest out, sporting a fang filled grin. “None imagined. I know how I look, even as a transmogrified pony. If I didn’t know me, I’d think I was bad news too. Can’t exactly blame fox-lady here for assuming the worst. Maybe for not taking ten seconds to listen to the conversation and put two and two together, but somehow I get the feeling we’re not dealing with a math genius here.”

Jeog’s head tilted to the side, her fox ears twitching. “Math?”

Diamond Tiara cleared her throat, “I’ll try to explain it later, Jeog. I, uh, I’m glad you’re here. Even if I wish you’d maybe found a better way of introducing yourself to Destroyah. One that involved a little less attempted mauling.”

Jeog’s paw scratched at her muzzle and she yawned, “Is this the time for what mortals call apologizing? I don’t like it, but if the big red one is actually a friend of yours I will do so.” Jeog stared at Destroyah and then said in the most awkward tone possible. “Sorry for trying to claw your face off.”

Destroyah actually felt a laugh bubble up inside her, despite the situation. This creature had already proven that she could be unpredictable and dangerous, there was no doubting that. Even this short conversation was showing that Jeog barely grasped conventional social norms and had little respect for any kind of authority. She certainly didn’t think twice about taking violent action when she felt provoked... or had something to protect.

Ditzy’s concerns were quite legitimized in Destroyah’s eyes, and it became very clear that they needed to learn more about Jeog before any more “misunderstandings” occur.

Yet for all the rockiness of this first meeting, it was obvious that Jeog had been motivated, however erratically, by the need to protect a friend. As far as Destroyah was concerned that was the biggest first step, right there. Whether or not Jeog could take the rest, that was yet to be seen.

----------

Shimmering fields of green crossed with gentle rolling hills were painted with life bursting pastels of vibrant forest or glittering, sun kissed rivers and streams. The beauty of Equestria’s countryside was on full display for all travelers through its verdant roadways to soak in, but all of that splendor fell upon eyes burning with such heated focus that all around her may as well have been ashen wasteland for all that it penetrated the iron walls around her soul.

Ki Seong glared into Battra’s back with laser focus, impatience wafting off her like the heat waves rolling off sun baked stone. The menacing, dark kaiju had resumed her seemingly humble disguise as a unicorn, spectral bands of deep orange and red magic coiling off her horn and seeming to spread in the air like the strands of a growing spider’s web.

“Well?” Ki Seong asked after another minute of impatient glaring, her eyes like gold daggers from within the depths of her raised hood.

“Your eagerness for blood is a credit, but control yourself for the moment. This is a trail many years left to cool, but rest assured any being of power, be it magic or... other sources, leaves traces that never truly fade. The beach where this gumiho washed ashore was a good start, and it did pass this way. I merely need to find the traces, buried under many other auras, but still there... yes...”

“You have it!?” Ki Seong jumped forward like a hunting hound pulling at the leash, scenting its quarry. This was almost literal, for her nose was quite stronger than normal in picking up scents, and while the gumiho’s trail was far too long gone for her to pick up its foul odor, a part of her growled internally with a need to find this trail herself so she could finally run the beast to ground.

Battra’s look was one deeply marinated with wry amusement at Ki Seong’s behavior, her voice smooth as oiled tar. “I have enough to say she went further west from here. Come, we’ll continue on another few miles, then I’ll search again.”

A gutteral noise of snarling frustration was barely contained by Ki Seong’s will. To be making progress after all this time, yet for it to be so laboriously slow was beyond torture! This had been the way of it since Battra teleported her from that port city. They’d gone to the beach of the sailor’s tail first, and Battra had used her aura tracking spell to pick up the strange, foreign taste of the gumiho’s foxfire, a magic that would not be duplicated by any other being in all Equestria. Fortunately Ki Seong had carried on her a sample of Jeog’s blood taken and preserved from a clash in one of the villages the beast had tried to hide in back in Carrea, so the auras could be compared.

So it was that they followed the trail west, stopping every few miles to ensure they were on the right track. It was agonizingly slow going, but Ki Seong couldn’t argue with Battra for faster progress. This was the only way, and slow as it was, it was better than the fruitless wanderings she’d been engaged in previously. So she tolerated her companion and followed Battra along, a surly cloaked shadow in the wake of the confidently striding kaiju masquerading as a humble unicorn traveler.

“So tell me, what did this Jeog take from you that fires the passion for vengeance in you so?” Battra asked in a perfectly conversational tone, as if she was asking about what food Ki Seong liked to eat, as opposed to the core of her lifelong vengeance quest.

“No business of yours.” Ki Seong replied tersely, glowering beneath her hood.

“Not business, but pleasure. Such focused desire to destroy is a rare gift. Can I be blamed if I’m curious as to what sparked such a gloriously burning flame?”

Ki Seong remained silent, mouth clamped tight in a dark scowl. Battra chuckled dryly. “Perhaps we shall pass the time in a guessing game? Just tell me if I’m hot or cold, hmm? Now let’s see, the depths of your rage could only really be created by the most intense of pains. Loss of a loved one, perhaps?”

Ki Seong’s teeth started to grind together, and as if she could hear it Battra’s smirked. “Ah, warm. Now to narrow it down. A slain family member? A parent?”

Ki Seong rolled her eyes and looked away, and Battra made a clicking noise with her tongue. “A bit colder, but still on the right track. Not a family member then, but still closer than a mere friend I would guess. Oh, I see, a lover then.”

Death glared from behind Ki Seong’s eyes, but upon seeing it Battra merely pranced with triumph. “Red hot! I must have hit the mark. Love really is the most deceptively dangerous of emotions. One can drown in its light, never seeing the yawning void of despair that waits just out of sight if that light is snuffed out in an untimely manner.”

“What does a thing like you know of love?” Ki Seong spat, and Battra merely laughed.

“That it hurts. Beyond any other pain known to mortal kind.” Battra’s smile displayed not normal pony teeth, but her impressive array of fangs. “That’s why I admire it so. Now why not tell me of this lover of yours? Did this Jeog slay them in front of you?”

“If we are to continue this journey without me tearing your black heart from your chest, then I suggest we travel in silence.” Ki Seong said with cold iron in her tone. “Keep your questions to yourself.”

“Your threats are as unnecessary as they are ineffectual. I’m not what you’re truly angry at, Ki Seong, but the creature that caused you the pain that has driven you across countries, oceans, and to even alter your own flesh to achieve your goals.”

Her hooves stopped moving and Ki Seong halted in the roadway, and as if in response to her extreme agitation her mane quivered, tendrils of it reaching from her robes like the angry coils of a snake nest. Battra looked at her without concern.

“What I’ve done is only what is necessary to ensure the beast pays for her crimes.” Ki Seong said.

“Of course. It was not criticism, but admiration. You’ve sacrificed the purity of your body to become stronger, and that takes a unfathomable dedication to your goal. I’m curious, how many ‘demons’ from your land have you slain and consumed by this point? I know not what manner of ritual you must have used to absorb their powers, but I can sense their auras upon you like a deliciously bubbling stew.”

Ki Seong was not pleased by the kaiju’s almost friendly tone, or the way she looked at Ki Seong like some kind of fresh appetizer, or a bug under a microscope. Worse, she wasn’t fond of being reminded of the things she’d done to herself in growing desperation in her endless hunt. In truth while she’d hunted many demons, she’d only performed the ritual of binding on the ones she thought would best serve her needs. Every time the foul ritual had left her feeling sick inside, even as her body burned with ever greater powers.

“It doesn’t matter. Your admiration means nothing to me. Once my hunt is finished, I shall return home to... my family, and to their judgment. Perhaps they will forgive my own transgressions in light of both slaying the beast and returning with her fox beads. Or perhaps they will execute me as an abomination. I don’t care, as long as I end Jeog.”

“Hm, that would be such a waste. And again I must wonder who this Jeog slew to turn you on this path?”

“Drop. It.”

“Oh, very well, have it your way then.” Battra said with a snort, and finally left Ki Seong in peace. Or as little peace as she could find, for the kaiju’s questions, though left unanswered, swirled through Ki Seong’s mind and made her remember things she wished she could forget.

----------

Sweat dripped off Ki Seong as she ran the course, her body a jade streak as she flipped under spiked logs that flew down from the trees upon tight ropes, or leaped over pits of bamboo spears, all the while her twin kirin horns blazing with gold magic. The bolts from her crossbow flew like buzzing bees, expertly striking bullseyes upon targets of straw set up along the course, while the flashing blade of her curved spear sliced through wooden training dummies similarly placed in her path.

At the end of the course she made a prodigious leap over the stream the ran by the back of her family’s compound, her crossbow firing upon and striking a set of targets set up on a floating barge that she literally flipped over before landing gracefully on the stream’s opposite bank.

Breathing hard, she holstered her crossbow and sheathed her spear across her back, and stood with head held high, awaiting praise.

Her father, stern faced but not without a look of approval in his deep gold eyes, offered her a deep nod. “Well done. Superior even to my own record when I was your age. You continue to demonstrate the prowess of the Seong family bloodline.”

“Yes, father.” Ki Seong said, trying to keep from beaming and maintain a controlled posture.

“In fact,” her father said with a somewhat sly look, “It has been talked of among the family heads that you are of age to contribute to the family bloodline.”

That got her to blink. “Father? Do you mean...?”

He coughed, gesturing for her to follow him away from the stream and training course and towards the walled off Seong family compound. A thick gate at the back opened up into a wide garden, where her father fell in beside her and spoke in a quiet but firm tone.

“You’ve known since you first began training in the family arts that we keep our bloodline strong through marriage to families possessing traits we Yogoe Hunters seek in our offspring. To produce strong heirs to inherit our traditions is a duty we all face. I married your mother having only seen her face a week before the event, and yet my love for her is no less for it.”

Ki Seong suppressed a gulp and kept her voice respectful and even. “Yes, father. I do not intend to argue this. I know my duty and will perform it as a Seong should. But may I know who I am to call my husband? Hopefully before I must take him to my bed?”

He likely didn’t miss the hint of cheek in her voice, and he smiled at it, however thinly. “I dare say you shall have longer than I did to get used to your mother before I went to her bed. Times are changing, and there are some families that don’t even arrange marriages any longer. Of course those families do not have the dire tasks we do, nor the same legacy.”

Ki Seong nodded in complete understanding. Ever since she was old enough to understand speech she’d been taught of her family and her role in it. The Seong family were Yogoe Hunters, demon and monster slayers, protectors of Carrea against the scourge of unnatural entities and ferocious monsters that had plagued the people of the land for uncounted centuries. There had been other families of demon hunters before, but many had waned over the years into mere shadows. Only the Seong family remained strong, because they held fast to their traditions of extreme martial and magical training and never allowing their bloodline to become weak by allowing members to marry outside of carefully selected candidates who would make the family stronger. The family took this practice so seriously that the one time a member of the family had defied the arranged marriage set up for them had resulted in that individual being disowned and expunged from the family records. Ki Seong wasn't even sure who it had been that had defied family tradition, only that it had happened relatively recently, within her own generation. It might even have been a sibling or cousin, perhaps, but she'd never have known, for that individual's name wasn't even spoken of by her parents or any other member of the family. And that was well enough, far as Ki Seong was concerned. She had no intention of disgracing the family in the same manner.

It was her duty to contribute to the strengthening of the family's bloodline, and she would not resist this fate. She had expected this soon, perhaps not quite this soon, however. She was still young, relatively speaking, a few years past proper adulthood. The prospect of a husband didn’t cause her panic, per so. She’d be trained to battle monsters and demons, after all! There was no way she could be frightened of a mere marriage bed. Still, it would’ve been unreasonable to expect her not to be a little nervous, right? This was an important change that would be coming into her life, and duty or not it might disrupt her training! Of course it wouldn’t hurt if her husband to be would be strong enough to keep up with her, and if not handsome at least not horrid looking.

“So who is he, father? One of the military family’s from the Imperial City?” That had been where her mother had come from, the daughter of one of the Empire’s most respected generals and warriors. Ki Seong liked to think every time she wielded her spear she was channeling the blood of her mother through her motions.

“No, his family actually lives here in our own town. You should be fairly familiar with them. You are to marry Cho Yon.”

Graceful or not, Ki Seong nearly tripped at those words. “The Yon family? The ones who tend the temple in the forest?”

Her father’s look turned coy. “Do you know of another Yon family?”

Face reddening with embarrassment, Ki Seong bowed her head. “No, father, I merely meant... well are they not a family of pacifistic monks?”

“Shamans, to be more precise.” her father said, leading her to one of the garden pools where he casually picked up a stick and touched it to the water in two places, creating intersecting ripples. “Our techniques for hunting the hated Yogoe stem from two sources; martial prowess and magical knowledge. Every marriage adding to our bloodline seeks to increase one or the other. Your mother’s Iron Flower spear fighting technique was one such addition to the Seong family arsenal, and you wield it even more fiercely than she does. So, too, does the Yon family possesses techniques we desire, both martial and magical. As shamans who have tended this land for generations they know natural magics and have powerful talents that will be passed on to your children. Furthermore I hear he is skilled in his family's Way of the Open Heart, a martial art unique to the Yons.”

“Way of the Open Heart?” Ki Seong frowned, “I cannot imagine a family of pacifists would develop a martial art useful to we who hunt demons.”

A strange look passed over her father’s face as he turned to her, “Then consider it a challenge to learn from Cho Yon, and to learn in what manner the teachings of his family can be used to make our own stronger. You are the Seong family’s most promising heir, and he in turn is the bright scion of his own family. The Yon’s have agreed to this marriage after no small amount of negotiation on our part, Ki Seong. It is important you work hard to ensure a strong tie to them through your marriage to Cho Yon. To that end, today you shall go to the Yon Temple and meet with him.”

“Today? Um...” she sniffed at herself, still soaked in sweat from training. “Perhaps he would appreciate it if his wife to be took a bath first?”

One of her father’s rare chuckles escaped him. “Ah, yes, perhaps he would at that. Clean yourself up, Ki Seong, then go and meet your future husband.”

Some hours later, when Ki Seong walked up the winding trail through the hilly forests outside of town that led to the Yon family temple, she did her best to set aside her nervousness. She was not used to wearing anything other than the simple, loose training vestments she always used during practice and exercise. The rather ornate dress her mother had insisted she wear for her first meeting with her fiance didn’t feel right at all and she feared she was walking like an awkward fawn instead of the well trained hunter she knew herself to be. Then again none of her training prepared her for simply meeting a prospective mate, either. What was she to say to him!? Ki Seong knew twenty seven different ways to track an ogre across a moonless night, or the secret weaknesses of nearly a hundred different species of demon beast, and how to properly set a trap of magical seals to capture all manner of foul monsters... but she had no idea how to talk to the stallion she was to marry.

Her nerves were nearly raw by the time she reached the great steps to the temple. It was a grand building to be so completely hidden and tucked away within the depths of the forest hills. Its massive wooden gates were flanked by stone statues of the Four Fortunes, great coiled dragons whose grandeur was captured in the expert stone work of the statues. Ki Seong had heard that much of the Yon family had shrunk over the years and the temple fallen into some level of disrepair, until Cho Yon’s own recent efforts to restore it. Workers had been hired from town and instructed in new construction and fixing the temple’s ancient walls, and Ki Seong could see the fruits of that labor in fresh tiling and recently smoothed over and repainted wooden pillars, now shining red.

Up the steps she went through a short gatehouse and into the vast garden and courtyard of the temple proper. Shining ponds were surrounded by greenery, and well swept stone paths winded through arrangements of natural beauty. At the far end further steps led into the main temple, where she could smell the burning of incense wafting through the air.

Several kirin and ponies in simple white and black robes, each bearing the silver mark of the temple sewn into the backs, were meditating by one of the ponds. Upon her entrance one opened her eyes and smoothly rose to her hooves, approaching and bowing to Ki Seong.

“Fortunes’ blessings upon you, honored one. What do you seek on this fine day?”

Clearing her throat she said, “I am hoping to meet with Cho Yon. I am Ki Seong, and I was told I was to be expected.”

The other kirin mare opened her eyes a bit wider, then smiled. “Ah, yes of course! I am Kwan Yon, Cho’s  younger sister. Really he should already be here, as he was told you’d be coming, but he does get a little immersed when talking his walks.”

“Walks?” Ki Seong asked, raising a slim black eyebrow.

Kwan gave an embarrassed nod, “Oh yes, he goes for many walks, when not working on the temple. More and more, as of late. He should be back any minute-”

Ki Seong raised a hoof. “That won’t be a problem. I shall seek him out. Merely tell me where he usually goes. I can take it from there.”

The skills to track demons also translated well into tracking mortal kind. If her husband to be was to take his walks so seriously as to think to miss their arranged meeting, well, she’d merely track him down and demonstrate how seriously a Seong takes marriage! Some of her nervousness burned away with her ire and a little twinge of pleasure at the challenge of tracking, a task she was at least familiar with.

Kwan gave her an odd look, but bowed her head. “Very well. If you go out the main gate and turn to the west you will find a trail that leads behind the temple and further up the hill. There are many paths criss crossing the forest that way, but Cho likes to go to a particular spot at the top of the hill where there is a clearing and a good view of the entire valley, including the town. You will probably find him there.”

Ki Seong wasted no time. Giving  a polite, parting bow to Kwan and the other monks, she quickly departed the temple, found the path, and began to track Cho Yon. It wasn’t remarkably difficult. The path was well used, but picking out the freshest tracks was a breeze, and soon she was following the hoof prints of what she estimated to be a young kirin male; no doubt Cho Yon.

Strange, but every now and then her eyes picked up hints of other tracks, but they were oddly muffled and hard to make out. At times she wasn’t even sure she saw them, and they were always just off the pathways rather than on them. Something larger than a pony or kirin, and certainly not hooved. Pawed? Perhaps a bear or mountain lion? They were to indistinct to tell, but their presence set her on edge, her hunter’s instincts kicking in. Even in her ornate dress of jades and deeper greens she did have hidden several weapons of her trade, so she feared no confrontation, but still...

After fifteen minutes of tracking she reached the clearing Kwan Yon had mentioned, at the very top of the central hill the temple was built halfway down. She heard a male voice speaking, but in indistinct, quiet and conversational tones. Curious, she strode forward, not making any attempt to hide her presence, and the voice stopped talking as she entered the clearing.

It was indeed a fine view of the valley from the top of this hill, strewn with tall grass that waved like an emerald ocean around her as she left the treeline.

Cho Yon was as she’d expected. He was clearly young, around her same age, with plain but not unpleasant features and a strong yet oddly humble bearing about him. His own black mane was tied back in a plain knot, and he wore a simple vest of black and white, much like the other monks of his family. He was standing in the middle of the clearing, his body in an odd stance, standing on his hind legs while his forelegs were stretched out in a position that reminded Ki Seong of the way a crane might spread its wings.

He smoothly slipped out of the stance, returning to standing on all fours, and with a flush in his face he bowed his head to her.

“My apologies, Miss. I must have lost track of the time. I can only surmise that you are Ki Seong, yes?”

She nodded, not quite bowing her head, and giving him a look that was meant to appear sharp but she couldn’t quite manage it and instead likely looked equally as apologetic. “I am, and do not think too much upon apologizing. It’s a pleasant day and tracking you here was not difficult.” Her eyes glanced around the clearing, curious. “I heard you speaking as I approached. Was someone else here?”

Cho Yon’s face reddened, and he cleared his throat. “Oh, um, I talk to myself sometimes. I enjoy a good philosophical debate so much that at times I argue even with myself. Ehehe...”

Again her instincts were set on edge. There was nothing wrong with what he was telling her, and she was not so good at sniffing out lies, but even so she felt something was very off about this situation. Still, she didn’t want to sour her first meeting with him by badgering him about whatever he wished to keep private. Her keen eyes saw nothing amiss, even as she scanned the clearing and forest edge, so whatever the case was, it probably wasn’t anything she needed to worry about. Besides, there were far worse qualities for a husband to have than occasionally talking to himself.

“Well now that I am here you need not talk to yourself.” she said, shifting awkwardly on her hooves. “Although I don’t really know what to start talking about.”

Cho Yon smiled, and it was a decidedly lopsided, yet exceedingly warm expression as he laughed. “I suppose we’ll have much of our lives to figure out what to say to each other, but perhaps to start I’ll just say that I’m happy to meet you, Ki Seong.”

She let out a half hearted laugh, “A greeted more suited to friends, than those about to be married.”

“It would say that first and foremost friendship should come first, before love does.” Cho Yon said, and he offered Ki Seong a hoof, “So let us learn to be friends.”

She stared at his hoof for a second, before slowly taking it in hers. His hoof was as warm as his smile. She found her feelings of awkwardness were quickly flitting away as she returned his smile.

“I believe I’d like that.” 

----------

Ki Seong shuddered. Those memories, at the beginning, were pleasant ones, which in turn made recalling them all the more bitter for her. Cho Yon had been a light she’d never expected to come into her life. Losing it had torn out something deep inside her, but worse for the fact that she’d never seen the danger coming. All the signs had been there, even in the earliest moments of first meeting him.

Why had she not seen it? Why had she been blind to the monster lurking so close to the Yon family’s legacy?

That was what hurt most of all. The sure knowledge that she should have been able to see and prevent the danger before it had taken Cho Yon from her.

But there was no point relieving that past now. Mistakes had been made, but the largest of those mistakes had not been made by her. No, not by her.

And soon, oh so soon, Cho Yon’s killer would face her wrath. Then Fortunes’ woe to anyone who stood in her path!

----------

Destroyah yawned and nearly hit her head on the table as she tried not to pass out. Instead she turned to Ditzy, who was shuffling through her papers, quill pen in hoof. “Ditzy, seriously, can we call it a day before what’s left of my cerebellum dribbles out of my ear holes?”

Across from the table they all sat at in the library, Jeog rolled over with a whine and scratched at the bottom of the table, her nine tails lashing about behind her. “Yes! Over! No more questions! You are the cruelest mortal I have ever met. Is this punishment?”

Ditzy Doo pressed her lips into a thin frown at both of them while adjusting her glasses with a wing tip. “You two are equally impossible. I’ve only gone through eighty out of my list of one hundred and forty four questions and you act as if I’ve kept you here all day.”

“It’s been two hours.” Destroyah groaned, “You didn’t even take this long when you did this to me the first time.”

Jeog looked at Destroyah while still laying on her back. “She tortured you like this too?”

“It is not torture, you bellyaching foals. I have to form a thorough baseline of information to be able to perform my duties of further evaluation. Now, please, question eighty one; have you ever at this time or any past time been allergic to fish or fish products?”

“I don’t like fish! They're in the water! What kind of stupid creature chooses to live in water!?” Jeog cried, eyeing one of the windows on the library’s second floor as if contemplating making a break for it. Destroyah could sympathize. Ditzy’s questionnaire was a bit... unnecessarily thorough and obtuse.

Ditzy made a mark on her papers, making an intrigued ‘hmm’, thoroughly engaged. “I see. I see. Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon, be a pair of dears and fetch me volume six of the Imperial Encyclopedia of Cataloged Creatures, the Misty Horizon’s edited edition.”

Nearby Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon leaped up from where they’d been  flipping through the library’s few available magazines to go delving into the pile of research materials Destroyah had brought from the Canterlot archives. Ditzy had conscripted the pair of fillies to be “research assistants” while working on questioning and evaluating Jeog.

“What, do you think you got an idea of what she is now?” Destroyah asked. Thus far directly trying to ask Jeog was she was had been... less than fruitful. It seemed like even the enigmatic fox wasn’t really clear on what species she was. Which in some ways made sense. When Destroyah had first been developing her own consciousness while under the care of humans she hadn’t the foggiest notion of how to think of herself. She just... was. She was Destroyah. That was it.

So it was with Jeog that any direct question of “What are you?” had mostly boiled down to her replying “I am me.” Clearly hers was not a species concerned with cataloging or retaining information about itself. If anything Jeog seemed like a very intelligent but equally flighty talking fox, for all Destroyah could tell. She didn’t even seem to think much of others of her kind, only referring to them as “The others.” Apparently she’d rarely ever had contact with “The others” of her species, and hadn’t even seen another for a “Long, long, long time.”

The hint of a growl at that line of questioning, along with the raised hackles, also told Destoryah that Jeog hadn’t gotten along with her own kind the few times she’d had seen them. Destroyah could relate. She hadn’t exactly gelled with other kaiju until she ran into Xenilla, and it had taken time even then for her and him to get used to each other.

Scampering through the various books that had been strewn out of the duffel bag, Silver Spoon was first to find the volume Ditzy had asked for and both she and Diamond Tiara hurried over to present it. Silver Spoon looked fairly curious, but Diamond Tiara was practically shaking from excitement. “Do you really know what Jeog is, Miss Doo?”

“There’s a possibility.” Ditzy Doo said, grabbing the text, an old tome bound in faded red covers with both golden scrawled lettering in what Destroyah assumed was the Carrean language, with Equestrian words beneath to translate. The boot itself was written in Equestrian, apparently a translated work from the original Carrean, which if Destroyah caught the date right was nearly nine hundred years old.

Flipping through the pages with neat, careful gestures of her wings while peering intently through her glasses, Ditzy remarked, “My questions, while they may seem boring and pedestrian to you folk, have had a purpose. I’ve been slowly collecting information on Jeog’s relevant traits to narrow down the potential Yogoe types she could be.”

“Yogurtwhat?” Diamond Tiara asked, blinking.

“Yogoe. In Neighpon the term would be Yokai. Our Equestrian equivalent would just be ‘monster’, but that’s not entirely accurate.” Ditzy explained. “In Equestria many native creatures exist that possess varying degrees of intelligence and unusual powers or traits, and either coexist with or in some cases threaten ponykind. Cockatrices, hydras, timberwolves, giant arachnids, the famous Wendigos. All would be creatures we might dub ‘monsters’, but in the far eastern land of Carrea the term for such beings would be ‘Yogoe’. Of course such creatures are as many and varied as there are stars in the sky, and not all of them are hostile by nature, as the term ‘monster’ might suggest. Jeog possesses several traits that suggest what type of Yogoe she is, and since we know she came from Carrea it's only a matter of referencing these traits with what’s written in the most complete of the Carrean Empire’s writings on the subject. I must thank Starlight Glimmer for being so thorough in the volumes she sent us...”

The fillies leaned forward to peer with interest at Ditzy’s search, and Destroyah leaned her tall form over the petite pegasus to observe as well. Jeog just looked at them with a combination of bewilderment and boredom, yawning her vulpine jaw as she sat watching them silently.

Destroyah was amazed at the sheer number of Yogoe she was seeing in the pages of the book, and how varied they were. Everything from three-eyed dog spirits to spindly, scaled humanoid goblins, to massive serpentine dragons graced the pages, all of them drawn with exquisite attention to detail with each entry. Finally Ditzy came to a page that showed a picture of a slim, fox-like creature with nine tails swirling like a fan behind it. Flickering flames coiled around the picture, showing the fox half transforming into the shape of a beautiful kirin mare. Destroyah couldn’t help but notice that in either form, the fox was depicted as wearing a wicked smile, showing many sinister fangs.

Ditzy, running a wingtip over the writing by the picture, read aloud. “The gumiho has been regarded as among the oldest and most dangerous of the animal spirits inhabiting the land. These Yogoe, legend has it, originally hail from the underworld and only rarely enter the mortal realm using the bones of foxes killed in the depths of winter as mediums to take physical form. Alternate myths suggest they instead are a magical mutation of living foxes exposed to intense dark magics, while yet others claim they are an offshoot species related to the Kitsune fox spirits of Neighpon folklore. Regardless of the truth, most tales of the gumiho mark them as deadly tricksters, that target the naive and weak minded for all manner of viscous games that often result in the death of the victim. Even what few stories exist of non-violent encounters with gumiho still place them as unpredictable entities that are capricious at best, with little or no caring for the well being of mortals.”

“Now just hold on a second!” Diamond Tiara nearly shouted, “That doesn’t sound like Jeog at all.”

“It's just a description based on old legends and tales, Diamond Tiara.” said Ditzy Doo in a cool, professional tone. “In all likelihood there is a mixture of truth and fiction ingrained in these writings. I am only reading what is here, not making judgments based upon it. However I am curious, Jeog, what do you think of this?” She slid the book towards Jeog, “Is this you?”

The fox tilted her head quizzically and sniffed at the page, then looked at Ditzy Doo like she was simple. “No, this is a book. You mortals scratch things in them.”

Destroyah let out a belly laugh, slapping Ditzy Doo on the back with one of her wings. “Hah! You did walk right into that one, Ditzy. Alright, alright, Jeog, look at the picture. The scratchings that look like a fox. Look familiar?”

Jeog looked down, her eyes narrowing at the picture. “It looks like someone didn’t know what we look like when changing. It's not like that. We don’t flow like a river. It looks like this. Faster, like flame consuming a leaf.”

In demonstration Jeog’s vulpine form crackled with blue fire, and in mere seconds the fox was seemingly engulfed in a burst of azure flames until in her place stood a small gray filly with a wild mane and tail and fox-like features. “See. Very quick and easy.”

Ditzy and Destroyah exchanged a glance, Ditzy looking back at Jeog after a second. “What kind of magic is that?”

Jeog shrugged. “Mine.”

“Right...” Ditzy sighed, then pointed back at the book, “That aside, does the term ‘gumiho’ mean anything to you?”

There was a visible bristling in Jeog’s mane as the fox turned filly shifted uneasily in place. “It is what the Hunter calls me, when not calling me Jeog. It is a name mortals used sometimes. It never meant anything to me before the Hunter came.”

Destroyah leaned forward intently. “You told Diamond Tiara this Hunter has been after you for a long time, but you never explained why.”

If Jeog had looked uncomfortable before, she looked ready to go bolting for that open window now. Diamond Tiara went around the table to sit beside the agitated magical fox creature, placing a comforting hoof on Jeog’s back. “It’s okay. We won’t force you to tell us, but knowing might really help us understand. Lady Destroyah and Miss Doo just want to understand you. I do too.”

Destroyah wasn’t so sure if Ditzy Doo or her could afford not to eventually force the information out of Jeog, but she was willing to let Diamond set Jeog at ease if it would help. She could tell just from Jeog’s body language that a lot of pent up fear, anger, and confusion was all coiled up inside the question of why this Hunter was after her. Destroyah had already guessed the Jeog was a creature not used to thinking in ‘mortal’ terms or even with normal emotions. Chances were Jeog didn’t understand this any better than the ‘mortals’ around her did.

With Diamond Tiara’s encouragement Jeog calmed down somewhat and gave Destroyah and Ditzy a guarded look. “The Hunter hates me. Blames me for the loss of someone.”

“Are you responsible for this someone’s loss?” pressed Ditzy, and Jeog growled.

“I was there. For the Hunter, that is enough.”

Destoryah blew out a sigh and set one of her massive hooves on the table, “Look, Jeog, can you tell us exactly what happened? Without context this is going to be hard to explain away when we have to make a decision on whether or not you’re safe enough to be allowed to stay near Ponyville, or any other settlement in Equestria for that matter.”

“L-Lady Destroyah, she’s not danger-”

“Diamond, I understand how you feel.” Destroyah said, not unkindly but with a firm and parental tone. “The fact is that we wouldn’t be here if she’d approached openly and safely like I or Xen had, and nopony had ever been hurt.” She saw Jeog wince at that mention of Scootaloo being injured, which whether the gumiho knew it or not that did shift a few points in her favor by Destroyah’s reckoning. Still, she pressed on. “It's my and Ditzy Doo’s responsibility to make sure we understand who and what Jeog is and if she’s safe enough to live among ponies. We can’t ignore this Hunter, or whatever story revolves around why they’re after Jeog. Now, I know you don’t think quite like we do, Jeog, but do you understand why we need to know what happened between you and the Hunter?”

Jeog’s eyes met hers, ice still blue orbs reflecting off of intense gold ones. Destroyah felt that Jeog had ceased hearing just Destroyah’s words and instead was reading her intent through her body. Even if she wasn’t a kaiju, Jeog was enough of a creature of body language to read the sincere intent and desire Destroyah had to want to understand her. More than that, Jeog may have read the iron hard will and resolve Destroyah had to do whatever was necessary to guard the citizens of Ponyville, and particularly the two fillies Jeog had attached herself to.

In that, at least, Destroyah and Jeog understood each other perfectly.

“Yes, I do understand.” Jeog said at last, her nine tails slowly swishing behind her as her form shifted in a puff of blue, flickering fire back to her natural state. Behind her the air started to shimmer with more motes of deep azure flame and in moments it looked as if the library wasn’t a library, but an entirely new landscape. They were sitting atop the peace of a large forest hill overlooking an old, eastern temple.

“These are.... impressive illusions.” Ditzy said.

Silver Spoon gulped, “I don’t remember Jeog being able to do this.”

“I have not been good with crafting false sights, sounds, and smells.” Jeog said, “Not for a long time. But I will craft them now, and show you... the me before the Hunter, and the me before I was called 'Jeog'.”