//------------------------------// // Omake: Gojira tai Chibi-Tsuki - Furīkī Furaidē // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// Various assorted plush toys, articles of clothing, and scrolls bounced off the walls after being flung across the room. Mariner Chibi Moon looked at the clock and her pigtails stuck up on end in fright when she saw the time. Not even chugging half a liter of coffee could calm her down now! “Kuso!” (Oh s***!) She practically had a panic attack, now knowing she only had a full hour and a half for prep. Her eyes quickly darted amongst her belongings, which were in much disarray given her room looked like a hurricane had blown through it. But they were quick to train upon an old, slightly ornate box partially tucked into her shelf. She closed her eyes and tried to take in a deep breath to stifle her shuddering. Only quivering slightly now, she drew the box in her magic and took it into her hooves. It wasn’t particularly large, only about 20 cm tall by 40 cm long by another 20 cm wide, all in all only slightly larger than a human would consider a shoebox to be. Upon the visibly aged wood and pattern-coated metal bands crisscrossing it was a familiar lunar symbol, one not that different from her cutie mark despite the box clearly being much older than the filly. Chibi bit her lip and glanced about, both to the side then upwards like she was worried somepony might be spying on her from both the mortal coil and beyond. She had hoofie-promised her mother and father not to open this until her sixteenth birthday, but desperate times called for desperate measures! She put her hoof in the lock and bit her lip, hoping the little bit of inheritance she’d already gained would be enough for the seal to recognize it. Biting her tongue and concentrating, a few drops of sweat rolled down her face as her cutie mark almost seemed to blink with a dim light for a brief moment. -Come ooon, why isn’t it working?- She shook and tried to rear up on her hind legs briefly, impulsively shaking the box up and down as if thinking that would somehow jostle it loose. She squinted her eyes and threw her weight up and down so much she didn’t notice one of her hind hooves had caught on a bed sheet when she stumbled back, causing her to slip over. “Eeeeeep!”, the little filly yelped when she fell over and tossed the box up. Not much sooner after she fell over face first into the floor, the lockbox came falling back down and pinged off her head. “Ooouooooooww!…”, she groaned in pain while rolling over and rubbing at the spot on her head that was sure to welt up into a goose-egg. However, she paused when she saw a flash of light in her peripheral vision. She picked her head back up and her blinking eyes were quick to snap open when she regained vision and saw the box before her. The metallic seal on the front forming a lunar crescent moon symbol seemed to break apart and wind up like clockwork, rearranging itself and changing in display almost like the moon going through its phases. The symbolism was not lost on the little filly. The waning of a full moon just meant the coming waxing of another. The symbol rearranged into a full moon and there was a click, the seal of the box blinking with a light before it popped open. Chibi Moon gasped and squealed, “I did it!” Her tail now wagging, she sat herself up and pulled the box over. Her eyes were agape at the contents inside, even if they seemed rather mundane by most standards. Mostly it was a bunch of old scrolls or letters written in neighponese. Most of them had their seals broken, having been read beforehoof; however, the most modern envelope remained unopened. Pulling through them slowly, Chibi Moon cooed at seeing the aged writing and old photographs. Some of the records grew so old in dating that the photographs went from colored, to colorized, to just black and white before they were replaced by charcoal etchings or paintings. Each time it was the same subject, even if the individuals changed. Six individuals in total standing in a group shot, five female and one male. The former were mostly kirin does and occasionally pony mares, though every so often a gryphon or mermare was included as well, dressed in blue, green, red, yellow, and pink in the pictures or paintings with color. Flanking them each time was a dark-clad, masked male, most often a kirin buck though Chibi already knew the most recent envelope would show an earth pony stallion standing next to a blue-clad unicorn mare. That most recent envelope contained the initials for her parents on the back and though Chibi already knew it would contain a memoir from her mother and picture of her parents’ team, she respectfully put it aside and left it unopened for reasons beyond not wanting to get caught in five years. Some things are best left to wait for, it was the other letters and memoirs that had her drooling. A thousand years of records by those who faced dark magic on a daily basis and left behind advice for their successors. This would be perfect! A half hour later and she was groaning, throwing her head back and whining while childishly kicking her hooves. Chibi Moon grunted as she put the next memoir away, crossing her forelimbs and pouting. She expected super secret special magic arts of the utmost secrecy, so she’d scanned almost every last one for clues that might give her an edge. But much to the fuming filly’s chagrin, it seemed all her predecessors were a bunch of saps! Crystals and caring and caring and crystals, stuff she expected out of an early-morning cartoon or one of her comic books alongside stuff far out of reach. -Knew I shoulda asked mom if I could borrow the wand for just a little while! Even dad’s silly flowers might work with a good flair!- In truth, she’d been scanning the letters so much she’d skimmed over almost their entire contents and barely even read them, much less understood them. At this point, she was just wondering if her parents intended to troll her by making her wait this long just to open an envelope with her baby pictures, or if there was something surprising inside. “Whyyyyyyyy are Senshi sooo boooring now?!”, she groaned after pulling out the last memoir. However, before she could read it one item caught her attention. Mariner Chibi Moon paused and perked her eyes, setting aside the scroll that contained, unbeknownst to her, the original ‘Moon Senshi’s Super Secret Special Magic Arts of the Utmost Secrecy’; and she picked up a small sack. Judging by the sifting inside it, it seemed to contain a powder or sand with a small label attached to the outside. She read the tag aloud, "Convergence formula, based off of Mistmane’s design. To provide understanding between parties. Mei Hino, 28th Lunar Senshi.” Her ears perked at seeing the same surname as her godmother. -A Hino? Must be an ancestor to Mrs. Mars.- She turned over the tag, expecting more, but was quickly met with befuddlement when all that was present amounted to a date. More specifically, tomorrow. Chibi Moon stopped to ponder for a moment on why something that had to be at least 200 years old would have a date so close to the modern time, so she searched for an answer. The tag was worn, evidently damaged before it had been stored away, like part of it had been burned or torn off. But when she looked very closely she could just barely make out the top part of some word in the corner. -Sho.. Shou...Shoumikigen?!- (best used by) “An expiration date?!” Chibi squealed. Thoughts raced through her mind. She didn’t quite know what this would do, and it appeared she only had one dose. But it didn’t seem to be destructive magic and that’s what she needed pronto! And she’d lucked out and gotten to it a day before it apparently expired. If mom taught her anything involving magical items, it’s that they tended to get wonky past a certain date. Chibi Moon couldn’t fight a huge sigh of relief. Seems disobeying her parents and casually disrespecting her predecessors slightly might have just gotten her out of a jam! Securing Mei Hino’s magic powder into her saddlebag she hopped, skipped, teleported, and jumped to the front door of her room. But when she rushed out, she found herself charging face first into a solid wall of fur and muscle. She pinged off a wide forelimb like a bouncy ball would a brick and landed on her rump. “Someone’s in a rush.” The voice calmly noted, Chibi instantly recognizing it and when she looked up she had a grin on her face and stars in her eyes. “Sensei!” In an instant she sprang up to him, briefly teleporting into the air to reach his face. Landing on Godzilla Junior’s muzzle, Chibi Moon hugged it as she wagged her tail happily. Junior chuckled in a humored manner. “You seem happy,” he muttered while rearing his head back and swinging his neck around to slide her off his face and deposit her onto his back. Chibi Moon, too gleeful to show her other emotions still lingering, just voiced them, “Terrified actually! But less so with Best-Sensei here!” Junior paused and cocked an eyebrow, as much at the context as he was the seemingly cheerful way she said it, “....Nani?” “Sensei,” Chibi Moon chirped as she looked up at him, “After drills, can I borrow you for a few hours after you drop me off at school?” “Uuum, sure? Princess Luna doesn’t wake for another ten hours and Captain Frost insisted I have a day off,” he muttered with a mildly perplexed look upon his face, “What is it you need?” “Moral support,” Chibi piped. “.... Eh?” After an hour of training, in which Chibi focused so much on her magical work she never clarified exactly what she meant to her teacher, he ended up asking her the same question and got the exact same answer. And then made the exact same noise and confusion as they quickly found themselves standing in the halls outside the large auditorium, the very same one that they first met months back during the entry exams. Fortunately, most of the students were not awake, those enrolled in the school largely having this as a holiday based off what Godzilla could infer from a couple of posters and their lack of presence. Which just made the situation all the more confusing to him. “Chibi, what’s this about?” Junior’s questioning tone drew over the ears of a filly who was digging into her saddlebags. She drew up a tiny tag and scrunched her face, running some scrying spell over it to try and divine out some message she might have missed. She didn’t reply and spurred her sensei to repeat the question. “Chibi, what is going on?” “Moral support!” Her barking chirp barely answered anything. Junior grumbled as he looked at her but she kept toiling away at her work, “For what?” “I just!-”, she squirmed and frowned both from the conversation as well as her lack of success at finding some hidden message, “-I need it okay!” “....For?” She snapped her head up and flailed her hooves, “Reasons!” Godzilla Junior’s face deadpanned in annoyance. He opted not to press further, getting up and starting to pace down the hall while giving an exasperated shrug. “Where are you going?!”, she yelped with a plea when he started to walk off. “Just pacing, calm down,” Junior grunted as he turned around and went back over his steps to prove his point, “Just finish whatever it is you’re doing.” Chibi Moon breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief, bowing to him multiple times before plopping back down on her rump in fiddling with something that looked like a satchel the tag was attached to. Godzilla Junior glanced over at her as he passed by and shook his head slowly. -She's still a child, children act like this. Her mane is drooping and she’s fidgeting every time she talks. She’s clearly stressed out about something.- He groaned and snorted, turning around and walking the other direction again while eying his surroundings for clues. -Don’t have anything better to do anyway. She’ll speak up or I’ll find out soon enough.- He had just gotten to the other end of the hall when he paused. There was a very slight shift in the air, no more than one would expect from someone opening the door around the corner at the end of the hall. And within that air, Godzilla recognized a smell. His eyes briefly widened and then narrowed. He rapidly power walked back the way he came and went by Chibi Moon at a rapid pace. “Eh?” The filly piped as she looked over before her face contorted into a grimace, “Hey!” She and her project disappeared in a flash of pink light, reappearing in front of Junior. “Where are you going?!” “Away for a moment,” Godzilla grunted as he tried to make for the broom closet behind his student, only for her to figuratively and literally levitate in front of him. She'd been practicing that ever since she learned how her teacher copied her recoil propulsion trick, currently managing to just barely hold herself up to his height enough to grab onto his face. Junior just kept walking forward with her attached to his head, not even noticing the added weight. Chibi Moon, thinking he was dragging her away from the auditorium, yelped and flailed about. “No no no! You need to stay!” “If I don't move we’re both going to get into a mess,” Junior grunted as he tried to make for the door. Voices were beginning to trickle in from the other side of the hall, indicating multiple individuals starting to approach the round of the corner. Chibi still refused to let go of Junior’s face and in fact turned around to brace her back legs against the doorframe to try and push them away from it. “Please! The testing begins soon, I’ll fail!”, she yelped between tears stinging at her angry eyes. In truth her attempts to push them away didn’t do anything to avert his course with force, the strength and sheer mass difference between the two was far too great. Instead, Junior only paused to try and maneuver his head so she would be pulled away from the door and his attempts to enter would not result in her twisting or pulling a leg. Patience drawing thin he ended up grumbling and shaking his head to try and dislodge her, “Chibi, Princess Luna herself called you a magical prodigy. If it’s some sort of test I’m sure you’ll do great and I’ll only be gone for a-” “You can’t leave now! No! No! No! No! No! No!” The 11-year-old was showing her age as she desperately clung to his face. Junior growled, not knowing what had gotten into her as he angrily griped back while trying to pull her off in increasing desperation. Unable to safely dislodge her without hurting her, he resorted to just turning to the opposite end of the hall and started to run down it, dragging her along for the ride. Chibi angrily shouted back incoherently, creating a wall of magic in front of them behind her hooves that forced Junior to tilt his head up so that when he smashed into it he didn’t pin her between his face and the wall. Grunting from the effort as he bulldozed through the magic barrier, the giant unicorn was knocked off kilter and now effectively blind. Any passersby would’ve seen a rather bizarre sight indeed. An angered King Godzilla Gojo Junior running down the halls with an equally livid Mariner Chibi Moon on his face, the big unicorn’s path bending and twisting unevenly enough to result in him dinging off multiple walls or obstructions; all while the two angrily rambled in Japanese/Neighponese. Both due to the obscured line of sight and not looking in the proper direction, neither of them noticed how Chibi Moon’s saddlebag was glowing. At first, it was only a little trickle of light, then a sporadic series of small bursts. And then, a torrent. A flash engulfed them both and subsided in the span of a minute. Two young mares rounded the corner, a pair of unicorns seemingly between Twilight Sparkle and Princess Cadance’s age if one were to guess. While contrasting in colors, one coated in lime green fur with a teal mane and the other sporting a white mane and orange body coat, they’d both be quite fetching by Equestrian standards even if they curiously sported manes that had a reflective dampness to them that indicated they were wet, despite it being a clear day outside and the rest of their bodies were largely dry. The one up front, the lean built green mare paused as she looked down the hall with a raised eyebrow. “Huh,” she muttered while leading the other down the long hall, each glancing about like they were looking for something, “Could have sworn I- oh sorry miss! Don’t mind us!” Though she spoke with a chuckle as she and her friend walked off, her audience was just more confused than anything else. -... Miss? Nopony’s ever called me that. Weird thing to s-!!!- Mariner Moon flinched up when she realized something. The door to the auditorium, the same one she’d been fretting over all day for the test, looked a lot lower than before. In fact, the whole hall looked smaller, like someone cast a shrinking spell. She rapidly snapped her head around to look about, so stupefied she didn’t notice the suspicious lack of giant stallion sensei with her. That’s when she first got a glimpse of her hair. When she rapidly swung her head around, the momentum tugged up a massive twin-tail far longer and puffier than her typical girlish puffy pigtails. Chibi Moon’s eyes widened. “Nani?” She pulled up a hoof, clearly able to see her limbs had grown considerably longer and accounted for her boosted height. “Nani?!” Pulling forth her hair resulted in her dinging her forelimb on her now much longer horn before she managed to pry forward some of her mane, confirming there was a mane much larger and near the length of her mother’s attached to her head, a yank on it confirming it wasn’t a wig. Mariner Chibi Moon’s eyes widened and she whirled around to look at a window. Looking back at her wasn’t a cute, bouncy little filly. Instead a young, but still fully grown mare similar to Princess Cadance in age was peering back at her. “NANI?!”, she lurched up to her hooves, almost falling over due to being unfamiliar with such long limbs. She froze when she heard a high-pitched grunt behind her and swung around, eyes quickly training upon a little green-hued colt. He wasn’t particularly large for his age, barely coming up past Mariner Moon’s hips. As he groaned and rubbed at his head, having fallen out of Chibi Moon’s considerably larger tail, she could see he actually was a bit on the chubbier side with light green fur and a tanned yellow-green mane arranged in a curly set of clusters that resembled a rounder version of Godzilla Junior’s spiky mane. The resemblance was even closer when she noticed the trademark pale patch across his shoulders and nasal ridge below his tiny no longer bent horn. Even before she saw his cutiemark, Mariner Moon recognized him instantly when the colt’s burnt gold eyes opened. And when a now eleven-year-old Godzilla Junior looked up to the now twenty-five-year-old Chibi Moon, he recognized her as well. Several golden seconds of slack-jawed, stunned silence ensued before they both cried out so loud one would swear it caused the whole school to jump up into the air from being startled. However the shrieking wasn’t what got everyone’s attention, but what followed. Both Mariner Moon and Junior flailed about in recoiling shock and in the pandemonium, the former misgauged the reach of her hooves and ended up accidentally stomping down on her now shrunken Sensei’s tail. Junior’s eyes bulged and he clenched his puffing cheeks like he was about to belch, only holding it in for a moment before an uncontrollable burst of blue plasma spewed out. Thankfully the beam only shot out a thankfully open window, but the convection heat was enough for the ceiling mounted fire sprinklers to detect and respond accordingly. A half hour later and the fire wagon was pulling away from the now reorganizing school. As the crowds of students and teachers dispersed back into the building, the now grown Chibi Moon found herself looking at the same duo of mares from before. Her eyes narrowed and brow lifted perplexingly, noting how the pair seemed to be looking around for something or somepony before shrugging and going inside. She pouted and pondered for a few seconds before a tiny voice squeaked behind her. “Are they gone?” Mariner Moon glanced over at the shrubs next to her and saw a pair of little eyes peering at her from it. “Who?” “Those two mares from before,” Junior grumbled. Mariner Moon looked up to visually confirm they had indeed gone inside before nodding, “Yep, they’re gone. What’s gotten into you?” Junior, still the size of a young colt, paced out of the bushes and leered, “Other than the fact I feel like what I haven’t been for two decades!” Mariner Moon’s ears drooped from his high-pitched, squeaky snap while also trying to keep herself from laughing. “I recognize what they are….” Her drooped ears perked and she tilted her head, “You mean who they are?” Junior sniffed the air again, looking into the direction the duo had gone; a curious detail to his student given she knew he hadn’t seen which way they had gone. “Yes, but that's not what's the problem. They're Nixie and Ondina, I'm sure of it, that’s the less important part. They’re mermares,” he grunted with visible annoyance. “R-Really?! How can you tell?” Junior just shrugged, “They smell-” “-Sensei how rude!” “-like fish,” the kaiju corrected before he awaited a response that didn't come verbally. Instead, he got bopped on the head by Chibi Moon’s hoof, quickly snapping around, “What was that for?!” Mariner Moon’s face had gone from pinkish to reddish and one could practically swear they saw her fur standing upon on end, “Sensei how rude! You don’t go around saying ladies smell like fish!” “What, they were dripping wet and reeked of it! Just like on Mako Island. Surprised you didn’t smell it yourself,” he deadpanned. At this point, Chibi really was red in the face and now her twin tails were sticking up on their ends like an enormous pair of rabbit ears. “Agpaop,” she sputtered incoherently whilst waving her hooves in front of her back and forth, “N-None of that! Too much information, too much information! B-Back to business!” “Yes, business…” Junior snarled as he jumped up in the air with steam gushing out of his ears, one could practically swear they heard the roar of the monster king gushing out with his shout, “LIKE HOW YOU TURNED ME INTO THIS?!” Mariner Moon mewled and cried out as she ducked down and covered her ears. Multiple passersby outside the school gates were greeted to the extremely perplexing sight of a seemingly grown mare getting barked at and hiding like a child from an actual child scolding her like a parent would for misbehaving. At least they couldn’t understand what was coming out of their mouths on account of both student and teacher reverting to their native languages, especially when Mariner Moon started yelling back. By the time the shouting match wound down, both of them were huffing and out of breath. “A-Alright!...” Junior panted as he pointed to his student, “You got us into this, you gotta fix it or I find someone who will!” “I-I said I don’t know how I...I…!!!!” Mariner Moon jolted up and dug into her saddlebags, which had slipped off her back after the change. Drawing out a familiar sack that once housed a special powder, she turned it over to find it had been emptied. Mariner Moon’s eyes dilated and her ears flopped. “... Kusoooo… It was the powder,” she mumbled. “What powder?” Mariner Moon took in a deep breath and sighed, “Spell powder I was gonna use for my retake test.” Her now shrunken sensei tilted his head in visible confusion, “... Your what? You mentioned it before, what test?” The hot pink mare sighed morbidly in some measure of defeat, “Yesterday I found out I was on a list by the administration sent to the Dean. Schools here are different than back home but I know if you get sent to the dean, you’re in trouble. With how much I scared the teachers on the entrance exam, I know I’m gonna get kicked out.” Junior blinked momentarily before his traits softened some and his voice lowered in volume, “Are you really sure of this?” A frowning Mariner Moon nodded, “Fifteen on the list, fifteen slots on today’s entry exam. They’re gonna replace us… I-I thought maybe if I retook the exam with softer, prettier magic they would take me off the chopping block. Your training in control helps a-a lot but, I wanted to be sure....” Her ears drooped noticeably more and her expression all but broke her sensei’s heart when the bottoms of her eyes started to gain a wet glisten, “So I broke into my deposit box early and kinda stole an ancient Moon Senshi spell powder that was supposed to give others understanding. I-I thought maybe if I used it in the tests the teachers would understand, just in case things went wrong.” “... Staying here really means that much to you, huh?” Mariner Moon nodded with her neck hanging so low it practically made her face touch the ground, “I finally have some friends. I have my sensei. I want to stay in Canterlot, learn magic, make my parents proud of when the time comes for me to take the role. And now that I’m like this, I’ve doomed my academics…” A gentle nudge touched her forehead. Mariner Moon peaked out an eye to see a little, but a familiar set of eyes looking back at her with a tiny smile. “Hey, one way or another you’re going to be a great successor to your mother’s role if that is what you choose. You’re young… despite some,” he motioned to her body which now dwarfed him, “-recent events. Maybe you get back on track, maybe you find a new track. I got where I was because I had to, as far as I understand with this Senshi succession gig you have a choice.” “B-But the trickle of power from my mother to me has already started since I was ten and I did nothing so far to stop it!” Mariner yelped as she pointed to her cutiemark, “The world will need a Moon Senshi when she retires! I-I don’t even know what might be happening to her now that I’m practically fully grown! There can't be two at the same time at the same age!” Junior’s face hardened somewhat, but not in an angry manner. In truth he probably couldn’t even pull that off reliably looking the way he did now, “And my mother, wisest soul I know, told me about putting too much weight on your shoulders when growing up. I heard it too late, you haven’t. Look, before you worry too much think of this: I don’t do magic much, but I knew something as far back as Terra from Lea. If you can do it, you can undo it.” Mariner Moon frowned slightly while she did perk her ears up to listen, “But I don’t know how… I don’t even know how this powder was made.” Junior, “Well, where might you get information on it or magic?” “... The lockbox, or failing that the library. Either way, we need to stick around for awhile.” The colt motioned to the school behind them, “Sounds like we need to head in there.” He got up and started forward, but a pink hoof shot out in front of him and slid him back, “W-Whoa hold up problem.” “Which is?” Mariner Moon looked like she was about to say something when her hair sprung up slightly and her cutiemark glowed. The moon making up its image seemed to wax slightly, growing fuller. Instantly her face lightened up and she cast a level of assertiveness that made her sensei more confused than anything. “... There is no way we can go in as Legendary Warrior Monster King Godzilla Gojo the Junior and Lunar Senshi Successor and Kaiju-Trainee Chibi Moon!” Junior’s brow lowered at both the sudden, almost campy change in tone, as well as the flowery titles that seemed both too long and redundant in labeling in an attempt to look imposing or important. “... What’s with the massive titles?” Mariner Moon clutched him closer to herself, “All the manga I read does it! Even the weird one's mom and dad won’t let me read from their shelves!... Point is, we have a mission and we will let the world know we’ll succeed with such grandeur!” “I’m lost.” “Fret not noble Sensei,” Mariner Moon yelped as she sprang up with him placed upon her back by her magic, “For while I face expulsion if I am caught and you threaten hampered ability and notoriety if discovery is made of your condition, I have come upon our solution!” She swung a hoof out and pointed to a poster upon the school’s walls. Following her line of sight and reading the poster, Junior wasn’t sure if he should be more worried about her sudden change in behavior or the content of the poster. Eventually, he just gave up and shrugged, cuing Mariner Moon to march them to the attendance office. “... Just keep me away from the mermares… This is about to go full Showa Daiei.” Full Daiei it was indeed, Showa edition, all the way to the attendance office. “And you say you want to enter your… nephew into the school, Miiiiss?”, the attendance clerk, a swarthy old unicorn mare muttered with a raised eyebrow and perked glasses as she looked at the seated forms of Mariner Moon and Godzilla Junior. “Black Moon is the title of which evildoers know me as!”, Mariner ‘Black’ Moon decreed in her still overly theatrical voice that at this point was really beginning to worry Junior. At the very least the now stronger Neighponese accent and deeper tone along with a slightly different cutiemark kept the clerk from recognizing Chibi Moon. The clerk looked between ‘Black Moon’ and the seated colt for any sign of familial resemblance, finding none to be spoken of. She was also fairly keen on how uncomfortable the colt looked, mistaking Junior’s confusion and awkwardness around his now grown up student for shyness. “And, who would you be young gentlecolt?”, she whispered as she leaned down with as pleasant a smile as she could manage. “Uuum, uuuuuh-” Junior grunted as he looked to Mariner, having been caught off guard since they got there and not knowing he needed a pseudonym. ‘Black’ Moon looked at him and paused with a hum in the back of her throat. -Christen him with a name, yes! All good children require such so that parents can call out such a title to warn them of danger, such as crossing the street without looking! He is little, now Sensei is chibi. Hmmm no, ‘Chibizilla’ would be too close to my name and we are trying to dissuade attention! Hmm, a synonym for chibi iiiiis mini! Yes, Mini-zilla!... No no, that’s not right. Minilla? Mini… Oh oh! I have it!- Her face brightened up and she pulled her ‘nephew’ into a hug, “He’s just shy! This is my beloved nephew, Minya!” Godzilla Junior’s eyes shot open and twitched. He heard the sound of glass snapping and cracking between his ears, and yet he didn’t know why. He just barely managed to summon the mental grit enough to nod his head. “Uuuh huh,” The clerk grunted as she pulled up the papers and started to scrawl some notes down, “Iiii don’t believe we have you down for the reserved entry slots to our school, usually parents or legal guardians write ahead of time to reserve one…” “Oooh hahaha, the jests you make fill me with laughter! You see, as you might tell by my curved horn, we are from Neighpon!”, ‘Black’ Moon yelped as she motioned to her gleaming horn. The fact there was a pony population across the ocean was common knowledge, chiefly descendants of a large expedition from the years before the founding ended up getting misdirected by currents. Landing in Neighpon, the ponies assimilated to the local kirin culture and intermarried between them. In the centuries past, there was limited flow back and forth between the lost expedition and Equestria, allowing a couple physical differences to emerge. While Chibi Moon’s horn might have only looked marginally arched as a filly, it was now much more obvious and almost antler-like, the side effect of a kirin ancestor. “And while I come as the humble envoy of my elder sister to shepherd my dear nephew, I assure you a written induction was put forth!” Finally, Junior spoke up, “W-we might have… beaten the letter here? You did rush dragging me into the office.” The content wasn’t a lie, even if the context was. “... Huh, well,” the clerk hummed while organizing her papers, “Thankfully all the slots are not filled for today, so it shouldn’t be much of an issue. He clearly speaks Equestrian just fine… And not as rapidly as that filly-” ‘Black’ Moon zoomed up to her and leaned over the desk, “What is it you say?!” “Nothing nothing!”, the clerk flailed while holding up the paper atop the stack, “Calm. Doooown. You need to just fill out this form and wait to be called up when the entry exam occurs this afternoon. I’ll write you up two guest passes to the campus.” ‘Black’ Moon and ‘Minya’ let out a huge sigh of relief, the latter tugging the former back to her seat. “However,” the clerk muttered, "Since your nephew is a last minute sign up from a foreign country, he’ll need to complete the pre-exam to use his entrance exam slot this afternoon. He’ll be the only one taking it today and if he gets in he can have the 15th slot we have open. We probably won’t fill it anyways.” ‘Black’ Moon and ‘Minya’s’ faces both flattened in tandem and they both thought the same word. -KU!- -SO!- Exiting the office, Junior whirled around and grabbed Chibi Moon by the face to pull her down to his level. “What were you thinking?! You put me in a magic exam?! ‘Black Moon’ I barely understand small-scale levitation!”, he roared in a high-pitched squeaky voice complete with a youthful voice crack. “Hassle not Legendary Warrior Monster King Godz-” “And what is with that voice?! Seriously you’re talking like a cartoon character from Japan badly translated!” "And given a weird Dub by DiC?" "Whatever that is, yes!" ‘Black Moon’ fidgeted and flinched, arcs of pink colored magic zipping across her body in such a volume Junior was forced to let go. She spasmed and jumped up into the air with stiff legs, leaning back down with a dazed look on her face and glow upon her cutiemark. Now the moon was about one-third full, having grown from last time. Chibi Moon’s head wobbled on her shoulders and her voice was slurred so much it was unintelligible. Gripping her head, Chibi Moon groaned and shook it to clear the stars in her vision while her horn continued to spark. She froze up before sinking down under her haunches and sniffling. “Iii can’t stop iiiiiiit!”, she whined in a manner unbecoming of a grown mare, showing her true age. Chibi Moon sniffled and sobbed, causing Godzilla Junior to frown and pace over to her. He was frustrated, afraid in some ways, and more than a little annoyed; but he had to stay mindful on how old his student was. Looking like a late twenty-something or not, she was still an eleven-year-old little girl. He pawed at her side and held up his tail in a hoof, “Heeeeeere.” Chibi Moon took hold of it and thankfully didn’t blow her nose in it, rather just dried out her eyes. “Ar-ar-arigato Sensei,” she sniffled. Godzilla Junior, the sensei one fourth his student’s size, shrugged. “You’re the magic expert of the two of us, so I’m gonna count on you to fix this unless you want me to go to Princess Celestia and Luna or Princess Twilight,” he muttered with a frown. “I-Iie iie iie!” (No), Chibi moaned pleadingly, wrapping her arms around and grabbing her shrunken teacher’s hoof like she might when their sizes were normalized, “I might get expelled! I think can fix it, I promise!” “Well you’re gonna have to make it quick before my absence gets noticed too much. Last time it wasn’t me waking up Lulu-", he paused when he saw Chibi Moon's eyes dialate with stars and grunted, "Princess Luna, she flew across a whole continent and bashed her way into another royal’s castle to find me.” “I-If I can get to my room or the library still, I’m sure I can make a counterspell.” “And then I gotta flunk out of the pre-exam-” Chibi Moon’s eyes widened with a dawned thought, “You need to pass it!” “... What?” “If you pass it, then flunk the entrance exam, that guarantees one last new student to replace those on the list I’m on!” “Chibi, how do you expect me to pass any sort of magic test? Let alone flunk one.” “I remember the pre-exam, it’s mostly to make sure foreigner students are able to speak and write Equestrian fluently and know the history! You can pass it easily,” she yelped, but her sensei wasn’t convinced. He shrugged whilst waving a hoof, “Okay okay, say I managed to make it that far. What about the actual exam? If I don’t do any magic in front of them they might get even more curious and start prodding more. Or, they might think I’m just having some off day and ask me to come back.” Chibi’s eyes brightened, “Your beam!” “Eh? But it’s not magic. Lea tells me it’s plasma and photon-” “No no no,” Chibi muttered as she waved her hooves back and forth, “You know that. I know that. But the teachers don’t know that! They only know King Godzilla can do that, and they don’t think you are King Godzilla! Heck, we’re even more lucky that you went through a color change and your horn isn’t bent anymore, looking less like yourself. Lots cuter!” Junior kept a wary eye out for any marine mares about as he crossed his forelimbs, “Thanks for reminding me… But if they think it’s magic would they possibly let me in? If I get accepted and then ‘Minya’ falls off the face of the map, it’s gonna get even more confusing.” “Trust me, if the judges are anything they’re judgmental.” “Is that right? Who’d have thought?”, Junior deadpanned. “Remember my entrance exam? They really seemed like they were considering booting me out until Princess Luna started cheering,” Chibi Moon said with a neutral expression that hid the pain behind a slight smile, “They seem to worry with any entry that isn’t the cute, peaceful magic they like, thinking it’s bad unless changed like they try to do with me. They don’t always accept the gifted, just the ones they like. Standardized I think it’s called.” Junior paused and frowned, putting a hoof on the filly-mare’s leg, “You know they were just trying to help you afterward. And you don’t know for sure if they would’ve let you in or not.” “Yeah,” she sighed while shifting uncomfortably and casting her eyes down, “But I still feel like you were the only one actually teaching me.” “We both got our legacies to live up to, I know that more now since you told me about your folks. I wanted to help, besides my sensei would whap me over the head if I passed up the chance he took with me,” Junior chuckled as he lightly punched her shoulder. “We’ll get this situation sorted out, I’ve been in far worse,” Junior sighed as he held up his hoof, “I scare the judges, you get a counterspell.” Seeing the signal and knowing what to do, Chibi sniffled once before smiling and putting her hoof to his in a hoofie-promise. Felt very weird not having to see him hunched down to do this with her. He waited to speak until her smile came, glancing at her cutiemark, “Sooo, what’s the deal with the random speech pattern changes? It came out of nowhere and you said you couldn’t stop. Something you recognize?” Chibi Moon winced, “I-... I think I’m sounding like my mom during her work routine.” ===================== Meanwhile in Neighpon ===================== A golden-maned, pale-furred unicorn mare stood tall against the tapir-like monster lurking about behind an old neighponese styled house. She was pretty tall for a mare, possibly due to kirin genes, and had a body type remarkably similar to ‘Black Moon’ except she was wearing a tiara and her hairstyle consisted of two longer but narrower twintails that were straighter and less curly than the comparison’s. Thankfully to any viewers, her dialogue had translated subtitles for convenience. “Halt you fiend!” The yellow and brown creature, a baku, flinched and looked back to the mare facing it. The mare struck a pose with her forearm pointing up to the moon above, “Dreams are the substance of aspiration to the children of this world! My kind has been fighting against the nightmares of reality whilst your kind is supposed to dutifully devour the nightmares of the mental realm! But you have crossed a line in gorging on the ambitions of the helpless as they slumber!” The moonbeam shined down from above and revealed her to the baku, crystal blue eyes leering, “In the name of the Moon’s light, I shall punish you!” She intended to hurl her tiara at the creature. Just conk it on the head and drive it off so it would get the point. After all, baku weren’t evil like the more malefic yokai about, so it was more akin to a problem bear who kept breaking into people’s trash. Unfortunately, a spark of energy shot through her and she convulsed for a second while she was in the process of hurling her tiara. As a result, her aim was off and the metallic, far heavier than it looked, weapon masquerading as jewelry arced over the tapir-yokai’s head as it was energized with magic. The Lunar Senshi’s jaw dropped as it boomeranged back towards her and the magic convulsions acted up again, making her unable to move out the way. -Uh oh….!- The mare was unceremoniously clobbered in the face by her own weapon and stumbled over, the baku being just as confused and curious as she was. The Senshi warrior was paralyzed, twitching on the ground as stars clouded her vision even as the baku loomed over her. Its trunk sniffled at her and she could feel it poking her with its hoof-like index finger while it tilted its head. Suddenly a streak of red shot through the air and lodged itself in the ground next to the downed mare. She wisely closed her eyes just as the baku grunted in curiosity. Just before it could wonder who threw a rose at it, a burst of magic flew out of the flower like a bolt of lightning. The flare of light, acting almost like a flashbang, caused the baku to yip and scamper off back towards the woods in a daze. A set of hooves beat the ground and a grey stallion in a cape, white domino mask, and top hat brought the dizzied mare into his lap. “Hey! Hey! Bunhead, you okay? Naoko above, your mark!” Mariner Serena Moon groaned and gripped her head as she flinched and sat up in her husband’s grasp, looking to her cutie mark and seeing the former full moon emblem had begun to wane. At first, she was just as shocked as Ensemble Darien Shroud, as after all her mark’s diminishing should be gradual as it was with all Senshi. After so much time as one, the mark would begin to wane whilst growing on their successor so the power transfer wasn’t abrupt. This both helped to train the successor, ease the predecessor into retirement, and also allow them to have time to cancel the shift should the successor not want it. That’s how it was with her and her predecessor, and both she and her team were quite surprised when the lunar mark started to show up on her daughter. But at this point in time, she still should have been at a good 95-98% power with her little Chibi having only but a trickle. -And there can only be two at once maximum, and the age scales with the waxing and waning. So that means….!- Her face scrunched up into a frown and she looked at her husband, “... Sweetie, Chibi just did something.” “How do you know it was her?” She looked at him plainly, “.....” Ensemble shrugged, “...Right, forget I asked. She does take a lot after you.” Mariner Serena Moon ignored the comment and gritted her teeth. “Our daughter. Is so. Grounded,” Serena snarled with crossed arms. End of Part 1