//------------------------------//
// Chapter 48, Part 4: Howls of Winter 
// Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover 
// by Tarbtano 
//------------------------------//


====================
A Few Moments Earlier
===================


Gigan’s eyes widened and if he had them, one could have gazed upon the full whites of his orbs. The gout of magic was making the stage a near-incomprehensible mess of error codes when he started scanning for energy types. It was like trying to pull aside smoke to see what was behind it, every filter he tried just came back with more errors and trying to decipher what was at least mostly metaphysical. But through all the mayhem he didn’t pick up on something else. Two things in fact.

The first was that Twilight Sparkle’s cellular phone signal had just taken a noticeable dive in strength, which meant she was moving away from the crowd and had likely gotten in between some buildings that were giving interference. She was on the move and given Aria’s obvious leave, he knew exactly where she was going.

That was not the worry. He first picked that up a few minutes ago and reported it, and was picking up a distant magic search some blocks away. Given the current plan and the fact he could sense Monster X nearby, he presumed contact had been made. That would not have worried him at all, that was exactly what they were wanting to happen.

No, it was the second that was giving him something resembling a panic attack. A single, massive, surging energy spike moving in one direction. Directly towards the direction Aria had gone. Subdued, but noticeable radiation, high central body temperature, very apparent energy output with naught but a hint of magic. Kaiju.

Irys was in the perimeter, he was on the other side and so hooked into the tower he’d take some minutes to disengage, X was in position, and Megalon was back at the camp guarding it and Sonata Dusk. This wasn’t one of them, and it wasn’t Mothra.

In some ways he really should’ve expected it, but in so many others he was completely dreading it. Dreading... him….

Gigan pressed into his glasses while feeling phantom sensations of sweat down his brow, “Okay this is a Code Red. Highest priority! X, Irys, Adagio, Aria, respond!”

Nothing but static from Aria and X, along with a distant surge of dark magic. Gigan swore at his luck. Something over there was giving him interference.

Another voice chimed in, represented by a white circle on his display, “Irys here, what is it Gigan?”

Another voice, one muffled by the loud concert, chimed in represented by an orange circle, “What is it, Bolts for Brains?!”

Gigan was sputtering in both rage and fear as he saw the signal rushing away from the concert and making a B-line for Aria and X’s position, “It’s Godzilla! That moth bitch brought Godzilla! I couldn’t pick up his energy with all the concert song magic flying around”

Even without eyes on her, he could tell Irys paled, “W-Where?!”

“North going east, he’s heading right for where X and Aria are engaged! Damn it, he probably is picking up on all the magic and energy!”

“Who is- What is Godzilla?!” Adagio griped over the music.

“A problem, a big plasma spewing, face-blasting, limb-tearing problem!” Gigan croaked with experience.

“Can X take him?”

“He and X are about on par, but X already has his hands busy and we had a plan!”

“Where is he now?!” Irys huffed, obviously starting to run.

“Near the pier, he’s getting close to the lovebirds.”

“I’ll head him off, just you’d better get your tail down here!”

Gigan was getting a horrific case of déjà vu, namely at the last time Irys went barreling into a kaiju he was afraid of. All two of them. Some things really needed to start changing.

“Try not to die! That fight is going to be messy,” Gigan griped, knowing he couldn’t talk her out of it, “We gotta keep it away from everything. If it spills over, the plan’s as good as gutted.”

“You need people kept here at the concert right?” Adagio hummed with… More than a little edge in her tone, probably from being a passive backup singer at best for the last few courses when Eventide went off-script.

Gigan started to disconnect himself from the cell tower and realign his body parts, having previously looked half-disassembled. It would take a few moments and he knocked out the cell signal in his haste, “That would be ideal.”

“Consider it done, I’m not much for singing second fiddle anyways,” Adagio growled as she cast a glare, “Eventide’s singing more with those Rainbrats than me.”

Gigan grimaced as Irys bolted off in the given direction and he felt Adagio’s eyes upon him, “Gigan, you owe me. Time for a show-stopper.”

Sunset Shimmer felt an inner fire kicking up, but not at all in a negative way. Competitive but not antagonistic. That was to her joyous surprise when Eventide Hymn started singing with them. It certainly was a shock and it took the Rainbooms a moment or two to adjust to it, the crowd was roaring and there was figurative and literal magic in the air. Helped Eventide wasn’t at all a bad singer and was adapting to their melody very quickly, having apparently listened very closely to the early chorus. Signaling with a shift in body language, she got up besides Rainbow Dash to further share the microphone as they yelled out the song magic.

"~Find the music in your heart!~"
"~Let the music make you start!~"

Eventide, a smile visible on the corners of her mouth, winked and picked up on it expertly as she leaned in closer.

"~To set yourself apart!~"

They were singing, all together. And in a way that was causing all of their magic to soar. Flickers of a glow became visible on the lot of them and the crowd, perhaps thinking it was some sort of lighting effect, roared to cheers.

Through the glee she felt, the happiness detected upon an empathetic bond, something stirred in the back of her mind. Something that made Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widen as she caught the same on Eventide. For the briefest of moments, everything else was shut out as something else was registered. A pulsating beam of light appeared on Eventide’s collar, something around her neck was glowing. The exact same kind of magic she and the others had, just in a different format. What that amounted to was difficult to say, but the results spoke for themselves.

Eventide Hymn was in touch with the Elements of Harmony.

Siren, accomplice, or any other sort of outside agent; the truth was evident. She was like them.

-We have to talk to her, we have to find out who she is, we have to-…!-

The tidal wave of magic struck her face first and the Rainbooms were shouted out.

A set of footsteps walked up behind Eventide Hymn as dark orange fingers gently pulled her back. With a queenly strut, Adagio Dazzle sucked in a breath and flashed a fanged grin as radiating power swirled around her. A siren charging themselves up from their song magic was dependent on several factors. How invested their audience was in the song, how many of them were singing, and who they were singing to all play a role in how powerful they would get.

Adagio Dazzle, when charming everyday ponies, was strong enough that she alone was a serious threat to one of the most powerful unicorn sorcerers of all time; with her cousin and sister she was too much for him. She might have been severely de-powered when first coming here, only able to siphon off scraps from magic-less or nearly magic-less humans.

But she’d been practicing with a very different audience as of late. A batch of powerful titans from another realm she was at least on good terms with, an alicorn princess, and one who retained the counterparts to the same relics she knew defeated Discord, King Sombra, and Nightmare Moon. And whereas before she was only feeding off forced adoration and inflicted strife, in the past months she’d discovered a far more potent resource.

This wasn’t her peak, she knew she could get stronger. And while she was too venerating to title herself superior to her grandmother, her pride was backed up by a simple declaration. In terms of song magic, Adagio Dazzle was the second-strongest mermare of all time.

And it was time to teach these apes that when she didn’t hold back.

Eyes flashing red as a magical aura took her form, shaping into a surging tide of power that bore the image of her true self. The crowd were enchanted even with her just cooing a sirenous melody, eyes glazing over in green. Only Anguirus and Peachy Keen, mostly by mental strength and especially innate magic, weren’t affected.

“~Welcome to the show~” Adagio sang as she slightly lifted off her feet with her hands spread out, “~I’m here to let you know...~”

She put a little extra effort into accentuating the ‘I’m’, while giving Eventide a moment of side eye that cowed her back a step.

-Remember whose side you’re helping.-

Eventide grimaced slightly and backed up as Adagio commanded all of the stage to herself.

“~My time is now, your time is running out!~”

She gave the Rainbooms a glowing glare while sporting a confident, victorious glance. All eyes on the crowd were upon her, giving the alpha siren such a rush as she siphoned off radiating power from the Rainbooms’ and Eventide’s song. Without her being restricted to dark magic anymore, it was a venerable flood of energy surging into her. She briefly closed her eyes while singing the sighing chorus, tucking her arms and legs in more to collect it. The aura’s image of a siren swam around her, leaving a trail of glowing magic that looked like a whirlpool.

“Adagio…” the lack of insulting name and the slightest sense of awe in that robotic tone coming through her earpiece made her smirk, “Thanks. Good luck.”

Through it all, Adagio’s glowing eye spotted the flash of Gigan teleporting away. Her heart flashed even brighter in tandem, giving her the final ignition. Somewhere she was happy he heard her at her best and wasn’t intimidated, well, not in a bad way.

-Cute.-

The magic exploded out in a shockwave that blinded all on the stage.

“~Feel the wave of sound, as it crashes down!~”

Sunset Shimmer lost her breath as she felt physically forced back, almost exactly as the lyrics spoke of. The epicenter of the magic burst unfolded solid constructs of magic, resembling fins but set on the body almost like they were wings. The bolstered state resembled the ‘Pony’d-Up’ form, a side effect of gorging herself on the Rainboom’s magic. The rest of Adagio was also slightly different, a darkened coloration covering her body in a similar form to, but not nearly to the same extent of the transformation Aria Blaze experienced fighting Enjin; but the patterning was unique. Where it was not darkened, it was gold; but the facial mask surrounding her eyes somewhat recalled Gloriosa’s brief transformation.

Bits of magic and accumulated power taken from extremely potent sources, made her own.

Adagio, fully on her power-high, grinned as she took control over the crowd by force, commanding that they stay where they were despite the conflicts in other regions. The entire town was at her whim, at her audience.

“~You can't turn away! I'll force you all to staaaay!~”



Link!



============
Near the Pier
============


Sometimes size did matter. Even if he wasn't an exceptionally speedy individual like a certain mutant iguana or alchemically engineered pterosaur, in his true state Godzilla junior could cover quite a bit of ground when he needed to move. And while he couldn't exactly make as long of a stride at just under about two meters tall then when he could at fifty times that span, truly remarkable endurance and urgency was allowing him to book it down the street at much faster than he initially thought he could. The-kaiju-turned-unicorn-turned-human was also having an easier time than normal given the streets were largely empty. Too many people attending the town festival that the music exhibition was a part of. Most of the storefronts were closed, many of the windows darkened, nothing for a distraction that stopped him from hyperfocusing on the massive amount of radiation he was picking up.

Or at the very least it felt a lot like it, even if this particular human world seemed a bit more like what he was familiar with as opposed to what Equestria had, some questioning with the locals and a bit of sensing hadn't picked up anything atomic. No nuclear power plants, no weapon silos, not even a mine that might occasionally get something on the level of uranium ore. While he never went sacking power plants like some mutations or his predecessor did, he still could pick them up at a distance even with the shielding. And given how close the signal he was chasing was, it wouldn't even appear to be a case of his human body dulling that sense any.

And if it wasn't radiation, it had to be the next closest thing which he knew from Equestria thanks to Princess Sparkle and Lele's tests. There was something magical blowing up all of his sensory tracking dead ahead, directly where the purple siren had run off to. The last time he sensed a spike of this particular brand of chaotic, unfocused magic was after first contact with the sirens at the school. Now she had run off and he was detecting it again, magnitudes moreso. Cause for concern to be sure.

They might not have come here for equestrian monsters from some bygone era, but if weird things were happening he was bound to get to the bottom of this mess by pursuing any lead he could. The mission was to get Princess Sparkle back, and protect Princess Celestia, her former student, and their human companions. In a big open event like a festival nobody was going to try anything, and ever-loyal Anguirus was on standby.

He swallowed a brief worry while putting more distance between him and the concert.

-You've helped them get a grasp on their abilities if something really wrong happened. They're not going to try and fight off a kaiju, but they can't defend themselves until Anguirus can get to them. They'll be just fine… just fine.-

If anything, the worry hurried him. However unfortunately for the individual sprinting at him from the left, concern had also hyper-focused him. With no one else in the streets there was nothing else to filter out the noise of her advance. He had tried to remain focused only towards where the siren had gone.

He didn't know at all who it was, attempts to chance a glance behind him hadn't been fruitful. But she had seemed to make a very concerted effort to stay on his tail and close the distance. The former was concerning, the latter told him the situation he was in.

It was another reason to put more distance between what was coming and the humans. Very reluctantly he steered his sprint towards the smell of water, a rather large lake being not too far away.

With a water in viewing distance, nobody around, and his pursuer closing in, the king of the monsters took a calculated risk and slowed down.

There was a sound of feet kicking off a roof, and Junior whipped around just in time for a very pale-colored woman to collide with him in a pounce. Time slowed down to a crawl as their bodies inched towards each other.

For the faintest moment he thought her a normal human, or perhaps maybe another exiled creature from Equestria. His left hand which was coming up under her stomach was opened to try and catch, grip, and hold her away. Maybe ask and demand to know who she was and why was she chasing him?

Then she bit him on the left forearm...

Irys was unsure what kind of reaction she would get. On one level she was absolutely terrified with so many unknowns. Where had the Mothra, who so often was a blight to her nightmares, gone off to after X beat her but was forced to escape? What had compelled Aria to demand a plan in which she and X face the enemy alone? Any kind of isolation seemed unthinkable to her. What sort of bravado would compel one to face their terrors alone or with only limited backup? She might have hated her old flock for what they did to her and her mother, but they and her could certainly agree that numbers always mattered.

If there came a day she had to face down the mothra, her resurrected flock, or Gamera; the hyper gyaos intended to do so with a Ghidorah cross and two cyborgs at her side with their Master at her back.

Then again she didn't exactly have a stellar relationship with her cannibalistic cousins and any siblings she might have had died in their eggs so perhaps her experience was a bit different than X's mate. Small comfort was granted at the knowledge X and the trained Aria would be more than enough to handle this foe…

-Until said foe started spewing out magic and causing a light show…-

The gyaos shoved that thought aside, hoping on faith, and considering her present as she sailed down at her target. Which left her here. Pouncing at a being she didn’t know to try and help Aria and X’s scheme avoid outside interference while reluctantly leaving them to fight the latest enemy.

He was a kaiju alright, he didn’t smell like a normal human, but didn’t give off any magic she could pick up on either. At least not directly, there was something similar. And given her encounter with Anguirus, a name that brought forth many stray thoughts, who knew who the mothra had gotten for help.

Irys launched herself at the target, hoping to get a keen surprise attack so she’d have an advantage. She could only hope Gigan was wrong and it wasn’t-

The dark gray skin, up close, was more noticeable even if it wasn’t heavily armored scales.

-No...Please let it be someone else...-

Milliseconds ticked by when her teeth sunk into his left arm. A horrid taste from some bristling power was so distinct. She was more familiar with how the mothra and Gamera tasted, but this wasn’t an unknown from one time she clashed with a very particular foe. One very, very big mistake.

-G-Gigan was right, Godzilla...-

Amethyst eyes looked into burning gold surrounded by red, the recognition proving mutual.

She grimaced behind her fangs still sunk into the arm, whimpering briefly as she braced, almost comically dangling off his arm by her teeth. Underneath her, the hand meant to catch her instead balled into a fist. Irys felt her gut get punched so strongly it voided her lungs, her foe twisting around and letting forth a nuclear pulse. The gyaos shrieked and let go of her bite due to energy conducting into both her gut and mouth from the contact, shocking her so much parts of her clothing and hair smoked. She was wrenched around and thrown several yards into a snowbank.

Everything in her mind was a daze from the impact and shocks, so much so her vision was fuzzy and refused to clear for several seconds even as stomping footfalls closed in on her. Godzilla whirled his arm around to ready the joints, his skin already closing up.





On reflex the gyaos vibrated her vocal cords and distended her jaw to spew out a hyper sonic ray of energetic sound. At first yellow, panic made her condense it further into a familiar purple. An outstretched palm caught the beam and grabbed her by the face. Even so, Irys kept firing and she registered the flinching flash of pain in her attacker’s face. The sonic ray was very thin, meant more as a sweeping blow to allow it to slash as the thin puncture would be far less deadly, but with him holding onto her face with an iron grip she couldn’t change it’s aim.

Irys was dragged off the ground and hoisted into the air, gripping the arm holding her whilst kicking her legs as they dangled over a foot off the ground. The helplessness starting to settle in, even as she was whipped around and smacked against a storefront window several times hard enough to crack it, was thankfully brief. As while her foe had so stubbornly held her by her head, she had stubbornly held onto his arm and continued firing. And even the enhanced durability he enjoyed on loan from his true self had limits. Her attacker shook and grimaced more so than before and the reason soon became obvious when a screaming, thin ray of purple shot out of his elbow after having burrowed through his hand and arm. She must have hit a tendon in their somewhere as her foe’s arm went slack from the elbow down and his fingers lost their grip.

Irys snarled and grabbed his arm, rather fearlessly yanking herself forward to launch at his throat with her fanged jaws open. Only a flash of blue light stopped her advance. While unable to fly, the enhanced sense of balance and orientation was still there and she acted on it, grabbing him by his face and kicking off his gut to launch herself away and send her sprawling across the ground. Not missing any beat, she sprung away from the frozen and snowy earth to avoid a salvo of atomic plasma as the neon blue burning wrath instantly evaporated a large amount of snow they’d been standing in. Steam born of the conflicting hot vapors and cold air soon whited out much of the nearby terrain.

When she arose her expression was not one of confidence given apparent success, but abject terror. Especially when a dark shadow in the fog started rushing towards her. Godzilla Junior, still bleeding from his hurt hand, came at her swinging with the right. Light and crackling energy engulfed both his eye and hand, and his acceleration was unfit for his size. Without any room to dodge, Irys curled up and crossed her arms before herself while letting a ringing shriek sound off from her throat. A shield of projected power formed in front of her and took the nuclear pulse charged hit, but nothing stopped the momentum as she went rocketing back. A yelp sounded off after a loud, metallic crash.

Godzilla Junior huffed, narrowing his eyes while raising up his bloodied, hurt hand. Before his eyes, the clean stab wound sealed shut and he tested at each finger and knuckle to ensure the ligaments, tendon, and muscle had knit back together properly; with only a scar to show for it on his palm and elbow.

-Lea and this gyaos are unable to fly anymore, with Anguirus having lost his natural spikes. Guess besides the lack of tail for balance, I’m the least affected here.-

The hand balled into a crackling fist as his focus and eyes all narrowed at the streaks of torn cloth, bits of blood, and disturbed sleet that indicated where his enemy had gotten blasted through the fog to. Even with the haze he could easily pick up on the gasping gyaos, who’d apparently gotten back up onto her feet. Then everything went silent, leaving him alone in the white out.

Godzilla Junior kept his guard up, pacing forward slightly while sniffing silently at the air. He soon found the source of the crash from earlier in the form of a bent and twisted newspaper stand the gyaos had apparently been thrown into hard enough she shattered the front and ripped several of its legs out of the bolts anchoring it to the ground.

“I came here looking for trouble, seems I found you,” he growled while beginning to advance through the fog, following the gyaos’ trail via scent as best he could but it was complicated by how much she evidently was leaping about.

He glanced aside, thinking he saw something off to his left and turning that way, while remembering the terms set up by the Element Bearers and Princess. Her fear had been obvious, he could literally smell it, so it was worth a shot to avoid a pointless act.

“I’ll give you a chance to stand down, and I won’t have to do what I did to your flock.”

Or at least, that’s what he tried to say. The thought was there, the articulations of his body parts from his lips, tongue, lungs, and vocal cords all acted as needed and he could even feel it so. But the sound was gone. Totally gone. In fact it sounded like… nothing. He couldn’t even hear the distant concert anymore! A test whack against a nearby phone pole with his knuckles confirmed it. He could feel the pole shake to register to hit, as well as the tactile sensation of hitting it on his hand; but no hollow echo to indicate it.

He didn’t know what it was, who was doing it, or how it came about; only two things were known. It was eerie and messing with his head, and he didn’t like it.

Especially when absolutely nothing audible heralded a purple slicing ray glancing off his shoulder and leaving a shallow, but painful cut. Godzilla gasped mutely, quickly gripping it and snarling as the wound mended. A dim flicker of a shape moving in the mist soon heralded a dark fog mixing in with the haze, evidently generated by the gyaos.

Irys huffed as she dove back and lashed out with another cutter ray, this one gashing the monster across the leg and causing him to stumble briefly… Only for him to immediately get back up and charge her location. She grimaced and rushed away under the cover of her shade. Against some kind of brute, she might have been able to wear him down fairly easily even without the advantage of her flight.

And after several more slashes or stabs with her beam, she was reaching success. Some. It wouldn’t last.

Her canceling out all the noise kept him from hearing her footsteps and a mix of the natural fog as well as the dark mists she was emitting kept her from sight, but the moment she tried to fire he would come instantly barreling at her by following the beam's path.

Irys shook as sweat ran down her face despite the cold air.

Fighting at range was all she had, and it was no small blessing he wasn't firing back that much… in fact, he hadn't even unleashed one atomic breath in several minutes. Her brow furrowed on instinct.

-H-He's up to something. Come on, come on I need backup guys! I can't keep this up much longer, I-!!!!?!?!-

The albino cringed and dove to the side to avoid an oncoming projectile that was slinging some smelly liquid everywhere. The gyaos chanced a glance at it as it sailed away and skid across the street, and what had fallen out of it. The latter was immediately recognizable as it had turned into one of her favorite snacks in this world, a bunch of corndogs. And a lot of oil in the fryer bin that had apparently been torn off one of the food stalls parked in the street. Irys reflexively cringed at some of the oil getting on her, but the fryer must have been off as it wasn't very warm.

Several more fryer bins were launched out of the mist to either side of her, soon accompanied by a dark figure starting to advance through it. Flashing lights were the only warning she got as a ray of short ranged plasma was swept across in a wide arc, raking across the beach and evaporating geysers of water while scorching the pavement.

Forgetting the peculiarities of thrown projectile choice, Irys opted not to try and block this with her shield and instead ducked under it. Diving on her belly and rolling across the ground as the neon blue heat passed overhead before stopping.

Mentally swearing, Irys scrambled up and away, darting off to the right near the entrance to the lake's pier. She had prepared to circle back around and try to hit Godzilla across the back, only to find herself turning even paler when he also turned to the right and came barreling after her. Irys bolted tiredly up the ramp and down the wooden walkways of the pier, frantically checking all signs as Godzilla remained right on her trail.

-The mist is just as heavy, still keeping up the sound dampening field, and the wind hadn't shifted so he's certainly not smelling me!-

She could feel the pounding vibrations of his footfalls behind her.

-No no no! Stay away from me! Stay-?!-

She slipped, not because of any clumsy footing or tripping but because something on her foot had made her do so. Chancing to glance behind her at the ground Irys' heart sank. Staring back at her were a set of half-a-foot, single step footprints coming from her right leg. Frying oil was almost entirely covering her pant leg, evidently from when she had dove down to avoid the beam.

Milliseconds ticked by as the powerful figure of Godzilla came stomping after her, having been following the footprints his jerry-rig plan created. Even with how accustomed she was to gore, Irys felt repulsed. His clothing was covered in blood from getting slashed so many times, even if the wounds had mended. One particularly large gash across his cheek and jaw was stitching itself back together. All while burning eyes glared down at her…

Irys was not cowed, she was not terrified. She had willingly gone up against two Ghidorah, one of them twice, for the sake of herself and her flock. But she also knew after years of running away from confrontations that didn't bode well, when it was time to fold them.

They were far enough down up here that the blue of the lake was visible below.

Irys' eyes and throat flashed with violet light as she took in a deep breath, energy collecting in her throat as the air started to vibrate. Knowing what was coming, Godzilla held up an arm in front of himself as a shield for his face but did not stop his advance. He suffered the pain of another laceration to close the distance.

it was far less than he expected, but not because his opponent was weakening from tiredness. It was because she had only briefly slashed him across the arm before firing the beam straight up for several seconds. Even with how narrow it was it would be visible for kilometers.

Cutting off the ray, Irys threw herself to the side and launched over the railing. With her opponent briefly stunned, she could make her escape and-...

Air rushed past her pale hair without any heed to an airfoil or pressure differential. Tiny human fingers were spread out without any bat-like membrane between them…

Irys was loathe to muscle memory, in her fright and haze forgetting she couldn't fly. At best the fabric foil between her long sleeves and hips did slow her down however.

Which meant she had several fractions of a second to realize a shadow coming over her and a faster falling Godzilla had launched over the rail after her.

Surprise looked into stoicism as they both hit the water, the former amphibious dinosaur grabbing the smaller woman who used to be a giant bat. Snarling, Godzilla dragged the gyaos who had been tormenting him so badly under the waves despite her thrashing.

A beam of violet, energized sound shot out of the surging watery surface. It swung about, disappearing briefly as the cutting ray hit something, before slashing across several of the pier’s pylons. A few minutes after piercing the sky, it cut out. Blood bubbled up to the surface.

A minute later, Irys burst out of the surface of the shallow waters near the pier, slumped over and moving slowly. Blood trickled from the water behind her as she moved towards the shoreline. As she did, the gyaos’ body flopped over and had to be grabbed by the man carrying her, the albino kaiju clearly unconscious. Godzilla Junior trudged back ashore, shifting his grip on her to balance the gyaos over his shoulder as he picked his soaking wet form out of the water.

The wounds on his arms, caused by her beam slicing through part of his bicep and shoulder, stung as it stitched itself back together and refilled flesh to leave only a small faint scar along his epidermis. Junior grumbled.

-Another for the collection. Hope Luna doesn’t notice and fret.-

The fact it was for a good reason helped him brush away any annoyance. It had been a gamble diving into the water like that, he had only a vague idea of how to swim as a human without a tail. In truth he did more walking along the shallow bottom than actually swimming, content to take his time because he was guessing he still did not need to breathe air. He could be choked out by cutting off blood flow to his head, which is actually exactly what he tried to do with the gyaos, this ‘Irys’, but there was a reason he could stay underwater for hours at a time. And it wasn’t because he could breathe it either, both experience and tales from his father told him he could endure magma as well. The same mutations that ran his body off of radiation also meant he didn’t need energy from gaseous oxygen anymore, for the same reason that eating was optional. And as he could still fire nuclear breath, it had been fair odds that he wouldn’t have to worry about holding his breath underwater either. Same could not be said for his dance partner.

Junior paced onto shore, very carefully putting Irys down on the short stretch of sandy beach the pier went by. She was still, but not lethally so. Placing a hand on her throat, he could still feel a pulse. Repeating some steps he had learned from Royal Guard first-aid, he turned Irys to her side to let some water drain out from her nose and mouth. Very gently putting a finger on her back on the opposite side of her heart, he separated off the very tiniest possible sliver of his power in a minuscule nuclear pulse. The shockwave, barely more than a jostle, spurred Irys to recoil from the shock. As planned her lungs contracted and she spat out some water that was still lodged in her throat before gasping for air.

Godzilla let her get her breath, but still kept one hand very firmly planted on her shoulder as to keep her pinned down.

“Good, you didn’t drown,” Godzilla stated very calmly and trying to keep any growl from emanating out, “I was trying to squeeze down enough to cut off your blood flow before too much water got into you; but you weren’t making it easy for me with that slicing beam.”

Irys shuddered, both from the cold and from terror at who was with her, so many survival instincts firing off. She tried to rise but the stronger kaiju kept her pinned down and face away from him, so as not to risk getting hit with the beam again.

“Stay down, I don’t want to hurt you but I’m not going to just let you hurt me,” he snapped and Irys went still.

“I’m going to give you an offer”, was what he was going to say. He was also probably about to say something about how her ‘brother’ told him about her, and how he had no intention of killing or maiming her. About how he understood that they certainly had not gone off on the right foot as of late but some new friends of his had taught him plenty about forgiveness. If needed he might even bring up the new pace between him and his brother, as any resident of Terra might know of their war.

She was lost, alone, probably very confused. It’s not like she had anyone else who could help her…

He was going to say that and maybe get the ear of a still scared, confused, but listening Irys. He certainly would have, if a beam of red hadn’t crashed into his back before erupting into a shotgun blast of exploding flashes.

“Saurian bastard, hands off the bat!” Gigan roared in a digitized voice as he teleported across several rooftops and landed a short distance away.

Growling as he hit the ground in a roll before sprinting at Godzilla, the cyborg drew a blade and swung at the stunned and smoking dinosaur-turned-man. Junior’s eyes contracted to points as the blade buried itself several inches into his sturdy flesh at the midsection near the belly button. Gigan snarled, pulling back and shanking him a few more times before Godzilla managed to grab his arm and wrench it and his other one back, keeping himself from getting stabbed again. Gigan looked down and saw the wounds close up, painfully so, leaving bloodstains behind. He felt the crushing grip on his wrists tighten, metal starting to warp and bend. He looked up at Godzilla’s face.

Gold and red eyes that glared at him turned blue and flashed with light.

“Ah Daiei,” Gigan grimaced as he charged up his own beam attack, his optics glowing brighter hues of red.

In some ways it was a close-range game of chicken, as a plasma lock at this close range was surely going to end in an explosion. Just as Gigan started to try and calculate ways to try and teleport away despite needing to recharge his warp drive as well as the fact Godzilla would get warped with him due to being in close contact, an earsplitting shriek split the air. Godzilla cried out in pain, stumbling forward as a purple ray slashed across his back, cutting his robe open and decorating it in more red.

Irys huffed and panted, wincing in pain from her bruised neck as she tried to stagger up. Gigan briefly caught her glimpse and shot his teammate the look of his fearful scowl turning into a very thankful smirk.

-Okay, X recruiting you was easily in the top 3 choices he’s ever done. I forgive you for attacking King Ghidorah now.-

Grinning, Gigan kicked the stunned and bleeding Godzilla away before unloading a full plasma burst into his chest; firing salvo after salvo of the shotgun blasts that forced the big brute further and further back. Godzilla Junior cried out in a shriek of pain as his skin caught fire and charred under the onslaught, especially when Irys joined back in with a brief blast of her own ray.

Backed up further and further back as he tried to shield himself with his arms, Godzilla was shoved against a wall as his attackers advanced.

Gigan helped Irys to her feet, not taking his eyes off the third most dangerous opponent he’d ever faced. So far they were on a roll ever since Irys joined the team, part of him was even starting to fancy her a good luck charm. Maybe it would continue.

“Don’t give him a breather, lay it on him!” he barked even as his optics were starting to smoke from overusing his beams. They were closing the distance and hitting him with more direct blasts with each step.

His hand had been on Irys’ shoulder to help steady her, which meant he was taken slightly aback when she grabbed his own shoulder and shook him.

“W-Wait stop!” she cried out.

Confused, he obeyed. Before them was a half-charred crater in the side of the brick wall across the street from the pier. A large man, blackened, burned, bruised, and cut in many places, lay slumped against it. Irys saw the sight and cringed.

“He could have killed me if he wanted to, remember Anguirus?” she panted as both sweat and sea water ran down her face, “I think he was trying to collect me.”

Gigan paused and scowled, “Well, we can’t have that happening. But it’s not like we can take him back with us to do the same, this monster is way too dangerous!”

“We got plenty of powers, we maybe could do something!” Irys winced.

“Oh really? Well that’s not going to fly with me. I mighta gotten this from Kaizer Ghidorah,” Gigan snapped as he held up his metallic arm, “But who do you think cost Megalon the fleshy parts of his forearms? There’s a reason X calls that bastard a brute.”

Irys winced, conflicting thoughts flying to her head before another choice was made for her. Eyes, bloodshot, enraged, and soon burning with light burst open. The numerous cuts, burns, and bruises, along with large arrays of scars all lit up in a neon blue light. The temperature in the air skyrocketed as a ferocious roar was let out. In a burst of motion unbecoming for his condition and his size, Godzilla Junior sprang up and charged at them in a burning state. The two Dark Hunters reflexively fired their beam attacks only to get grabbed by the neck and shoulder, bashed into the ground, and dragged along the pavement. Crimson plasma and violet sound waves carved into the sky high above.

Far away at the concert, Anguirus saw them and paled. Especially when a neon blue ray of burning heat soon swept across the sky as well. He recognized all three and knew exactly where they were. Everything was going to Daiei in a Handbasket at the same time.

He was too far away. He might not get there in time before either one of his closest friends or one of his only remaining family risked death, especially with the wildcard like Gigan about. And with all the craziness on stage, who knew what might be needed for him to step in on.

He needed to be in two places at once and move at superspeed. The pier was far from the concert, but it was… It was…

He recognized some of the streets leading to it, they had taken the exact same path to get here. To get here from Sunset’s house. The brown skin on the Guardian Beast paled as he considered what he must do. He reached out and put his hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder.

Rainbow Dash, having previously been paying attention to watching the siren singing with restrained anger at the very obvious villainess working her evil ways across the crowd, was utterly shocked when she turned around and saw the expression on the typically resolute Mr. Anguirus’ face. Upturned brow, pale skin, shrunken pupils, clammy visage, cold sweats, and a shake in his voice audible even over the music.

“Mr. Anguirus?” Her question spurred the rest of the Rainbooms and company to turn around and gawk at him.

Instantly they corralled around him in a supportive circle, his terror very very obvious.

Anguirus shook and swallowed as he put his other hand on Rainbow Dash’s shoulders, “I... beg you. I need your help. I need your help or someone might die.”

Rainbow Dash straightened up.

“S-Say-“ she stuttered before straightening up and putting her hands on his own shoulders, “Say the word big-guy! Need me to introduce Miss Welcome to the Show showstopper over there to Sensei Godzilla’s dropkick, RD style?”

Anguirus shook his head, breathing in and closing his eyes at the sight before him of a very determined young woman briefly turned into a mare of an identical name, and such a similar heroic spirit in such a small package. He was at the campground all over again.

“No, I need you to get someone to a fight. You can’t carry me, but you can carry them.”

“What about the siren? She’s got to be stopped!” Rarity muttered worryingly as she glanced at the dark magic influence over the increasingly rowdy crowd that Adagio Dazzle was basking in.

Sunset Shimmer looked aside, then at the stage, at Anguirus, and then at herself. The last was both on the outside and very much so deep on the inside. At all she had done over the past years, but also all she had done so far this year. All the charities helped, all the friends assisted, all the atonement sought, and all of the magic that coursed into her when she first transformed; when she first found an element had called out to her.

And even without her touching him, she could feel the earnest fear, dread, and platonic love coming off Anguirus. They thought they’d needed his kind, it was why she sent out a cry for help. Now, her empathy told her he needed them.

She took her jacket off and picked up Rainbow Dash’s lead microphone.

“Go, we got this!” she proclaimed, raw determination burning off of her like a fire which had been lit deep within, “Be a hero while we are too.”

The Rainbooms, previously disheartened by the raw power of the lead siren, both from the sight of her overpowering presence as well as the dark magic waves starting to affect them, started to straighten back up. It was almost like Sunset’s determination was flickering on to them, like how embers cast from one flame might ignite another. They picked up their instruments and started towards the stage.

Rainbow Dash, alone with Anguirus and Peachy Keen, took in a breath and smirked. She reached up and wiped a drop of sweat or tears running down his face and shot the Ankylosaur kaiju a thumbs up.

“Hero? Pfft, like you even had to ask Big Guy! Name the spot!” she winked and put her game face on, “I’ll have it done before the second melody!”







Gigan skidded across the pavement in a rolling heap, smoking in several places with one lens of his glasses shattered. His mechanical eye refocused and contracted on surprise when a swung fist buried into the road cement, fracturing it in multiple places due to the cyborg teleporting away. The glowing, burning white fist of Godzilla was retracted as he snarled and glared at where the red flash to indicate Gigan’s reappearance was; which in this case was on top of a car near a corn dog stand. His jaw lowered as burning lights built up inside.

Suddenly a white blur shot up between him and Gigan, Irys sucking in a breath while holding her arms out as if they were wings. With a very specific resonance, a colorized brilliance appeared in front of her, a plate of glowing violet energy as a sonic shield was thrown up. The Kaiju King ejected a burning stream of plasma, an energized spiral appearing around the typical blue and white torrent of heat and blazing wrath. Irys’ shield released an ear-splitting shriek as the ray crashed into it, Irys’ shoes starting to skid backwards on the pavement. She grit her teeth in defiance, holding up the barrier for both herself and her teammate.

Gigan quickly took stock of the situation, glancing at both their positioning as well as what was behind them. He noticed all the oil in the greasy fryer as well as the car’s tank. Thinking fast, he unsheathed a blade from his wrist and jammed it into the car, metal twisting and screeching as he turned his wrist to cut a big hole into the gas tank. An exploding cluster shot was similarly fired into the corndog stand’s base, rupturing the contents and spraying oil, grease, and other fluids everywhere.

He ran up behind the still blocking Irys and grabbed her by the shoulders, “Irys, Megalon maneuver, fifteen paces behind us!”

She barely had time to process what he said and look behind them when Gigan teleported them away from their position. Without Irys to refresh it, the shield was instantly shattered by the spiral ray, allowing the burning wrath to strike the destroyed food stand and car. Burning Godzilla quickly cut the ray off, surveying his surroundings with his glowing blue eyes. Notice of a shadow about him barely gave him time to avoid a dropping swipe from Gigan’s blade. The Defender Leader snarled and acted, very tired of getting sliced up by those menacing metallic talons.

Gigan swore as his arm was grabbed by the wrist as Junior backstepped his swipe. He was yanked down until his blade struck the pavement in one swift motion, Godzilla stomping on his hand while firing a nuclear pulsed through the base of his foot. The act snapped the blade off. Sparks flew out from the destroyed machinery and Gigan’s attempt at a counter by firing a point-blank cluster shot was similarly abated by Godzilla grabbing him by the throat with his free arm and pointing his face away into the sky. Gigan felt the temperature spike and closed his eyes in a cringe to brace.

He remembered Final Wars, he knew what was coming next…

A small explosion ensued after he was wracked from head to toe with radioactive shockwaves. Just as the cyborg started to be sent flying back, he was grabbed by the foot and yanked back towards Godzilla just in time for a superpowered punch to the gut that shocked him all over yet again. Burning hot fingers dug in almost like claws and he was blasted yet again. This time, his momentum forward was halted by his face being grabbed onto and slammed into the ground.

“Had your chance,” Godzilla snarled, pounding the mostly metallic cyborg into the pavement hard enough to start denting it in, punctuating each of his words with another slam while holding Gigan by the head in lieu of having a tail to grab, “You’re. Not. Getting. Away. Again!”

Winding up, Godzilla Junior chokeslammed his foe into the ground with a mighty crash. He huffed after the effort, scowling as snow evaporated around him from his radiating heat. Much of him was covered in dried blood and bruising, but he had certainly done a number on the smoking cyborg. And unlike Gigan, he could heal back the difference; there was a reason the copious amounts of blood on him was dried. He raised a boot, aiming for Gigan’s shoulder with the intent of disabling the monster.

“You took Princess Twilight, you will tell me where she is.”

Gigan sparked as he looked up, bleeding in some spots and leaking hydraulic fluid in others, “Ehehe, in sight of someone I trust and not out of mind.”

“Who?” Godzilla braced his boot against Gigan’s head now.

“Well, two things you should know, you big bastard. Firstly, I’ve had upgrades since Final Wars. Secondly, I’m not the heavy hitter of my team right here…”

A piercing shriek cried out. Godzilla reflexively crossed his arms in front of him in perfect anticipation to block the sonic cutter ray from the Gyaos. Even with his lower durability as a human he still could tank the hit for several seconds before it cut too deep. Only this time, it cut right through his first arm in a moment and the supercharged ray started to bore into his other arm. Bleeding again, he backstepped and ducked aside as the sonic cutter slashed through concrete and bisected a telephone pole before sweeping up into the sky. He looked back at the source.

Standing in the flames of what had once been the food stand and car, as well as some of the storefront, stood a feminine figure. Arm spread to her sides with her palms up, they raised their arms as the flames roared around them before bringing their hands in. In tandem the fires condensed, swirling around in spirals as they were absorbed. Violet energy glowing through the blaze, especially when the figure, like a conductor before a band, thrust her arms out in tandem with a shockwave blowing the air aside. The fires were instantly absorbed and nullified, Irys standing where they once were. Her eyes were whited out by a burst of light as runic patterns shone across her skin, a prominent ‘Eta’ symbol resembling a stylized “H” appearing on her chest. While her clothes were still torn and burned in a few places, her body looked completely healed and revitalized. The bruising around her neck from where she had been choked out was completely gone.

Godzilla Junior recognized the state from the times he’d seen Rodan, Raiga, or Gamera take it. The true self of a Guardian Beast. It stunned him briefly, not because he didn’t trust Anguirus’ word but because seeing was a new kind of believing.

“She is,” Gigan teased with a cocky smirk as he accessed a localized variant of his warp drive to teleport something to him. His forearm detached at the elbow, with a brand-new one slotted in.

Irys scowled before unhinging her fanged jaw and loosing another cutting beam, splitting the air with its violet color and piercing shriek. Godzilla grunted as he reactively fired his own ray back at it, despite having only a moment or two to charge aside from the one he maintained. The two rays crashed into each other in a deadlock.

A chainsaw whirled and Godzilla junior grunted in pain as his chest was slashed across its length from hip to shoulder, then similar cuts being pressed onto his elbow and arms as Gigan, now bearing a double chainsaw on one of his arms; shoved it into him. He avoided most of it across his chest, however his face wasn’t as lucky and the Monster King yelled out as he stumbled away with an eye forced closed. The brow and lid around it was torn and bleeding. He was half blinded for now and panting from the blow. His pants turned into snarls even as his brow stitched back together.

Godzilla Junior’s temperature instantly skyrocketed, a full powered and refreshed Irys was charging up to meet him, and a cackling Gigan was trying to keep the pressure on with his new weapon that was starting to melt on contact with the monster king. Gigan strained, trying to keep the momentum going and do more damage before his upgrade was ruined. A contest of strength the cyborg wasn't winning, but he wasn't alone. The battle wasn’t decided but it certainly was going to get bloody.

But just as the contest grew dire, something else intervened.

A cyan and rainbow blur zoomed into the fray and a pair of semi-stylish tennis shoes crashed into Irys’ cheek in a double kick, their owner having jumped and put both feet forward at the last millisecond in the midst of superspeed. The technique was raw, the attacker was lighter even than Irys, but even a 125-odd-pounds of athletic highschooler is going to do some damage when she comes flying at you at triple-digit miles per hour speed.

Irys flinched as she was sent hurtling aside, skidding down the street, not really hurt as much as she was stunned. The blur also had a rough landing, but thankfully superspeed also came with super reflexes and perception in the moment; even if she was extremely new to this.

Rainbow Dash could hear and feel burning rubber as her shoes skid across the ground, her madly flailing her arms in a bid to stop herself. She only seized her momentum when she kicked her feet across the ground in similar superspeed as if she was running backwards.

“Rainbow?!” Godzilla Junior coughed as he looked at the sight dumbfounded as to why she was here, before having to tighten his grip on Gigan’s arm to keep the chainsaws away.

“HA! Knew I could keep it up! Not just me Senseeei-AH!” she screamed upon seeing him covered in red with an eye closed and similarly covered in burning white patches from his burning state, let alone the apparent half-metal maniac trying to carve him up with a pair chainsaw.

Godzilla Junior grunted as Gigan headbutted him to try and regain the advantage in their brawler’s struggle. It worked to a degree and the saws were pressed in closer. Godzilla Junior cried out in pain as the whirling blades dug into his shoulder just as he grabbed Gigan by the knee with the intent of unleashing a nuclear pulse point blank. His hands crushed down on the metal and superheated it, warping synthetic flesh and fraying wires. Gigan hissed as he crumbled back and was being overtaken.

He didn’t have to as a swarm of energy moths almost composed of light burst out from Rainbow Dash’s pockets and outfit, having clung to her during the superspeed rush from Sunset’s House to the pier. Dash, on Anguirus’ request, had gotten reinforcements. And however much she was unnerved by them, Lea had instantly snapped to when she learned who was at stake.

The moths reformed into Mothra Lea’s human form, the enraged Mothra’s eyes burning with a bright purple light. Usually her prism beams were neon green, this time they were dark violet. The magical blasts struck Gigan dead-on and blasted him away. Godzilla Junior staggered to stand up straight, but a gash in his leg from the saws, harming a tendon, sent him crumpling.

Lea caught him and held him close, despite the burning heat.

“You’re hurt,” she gasped with a slight waver in her voice, looking at his face which had suffered so much damage to the left side his eye was forced shut, "Wh-Why... why are you?!"

Her eyes watered with concern as she felt a dampness and crust on her hand wrapped around his back. She quivered as she brought it up and witnessed the crimson of still running but also dried crusts of blood staining her hand and dress.

“Lele, not- as bad as it looks, I can heal.- What are you two doing he-re?” Godzilla grunted with a pant, some exhaustion clearly starting to set in given all the energy he was burning keeping the state up while also trying to mend all his wounds.

Rainbow Dash tried to rush up and help him stand, only to be kept back by both the intense heat as well as Junior holding up a hand to stop her. Her face was pale seeing him so hurt, seeing anyone so hurt like this.

“I-I was sent, but Angy-Angur- Spiky guy! He-he saw there was a fight and you needed back-up! Well, I brought it!” Rainbow Dash grimaced as she tried to hold her nerve.

She was doing an admirable job all things considered, for a high school senior. This was not the Rainbow Dash who faced down a manticore, helped stop Nightmare Moon, Discord, and a myriad of other villains and magical monsters. If she had lived in a world of such beings, she probably would be at the same level; but that experience was lacking. This was her first time seeing someone so bloodied, seeing how drastic a fight could really get. It was fully understandable she was shaken at such a sudden entry.

Godzilla Junior looked at her and wanted to ponder about the safety of really bringing her into this dangerous of a situation, he certainly wouldn’t have done that with his other students and he still felt guilty about Chibi’s foalnapping. He could also consider chewing her out for getting Lea involved when she was in a precarious situation, even if in hindsight he would see the logic of the small athlete not being capable of carrying Anguirus into the fray whereas she could haul a load of energy moths from Lea using her division ability. He could, but now wasn’t the time for that.

“… Thanks,” he panted, nodding to her as he dropped the burning form as to focus more energy on healing, perhaps hopefully giving her a less gruesome sight as numerous wounds started to close back up again. It take a bit of time, but he could recover.

Lea shook as she gazed upon her hand covered in her best friend’s blood. She smelled it, felt it, and before he could react to her, acted upon it. She rapidly pulled Junior into her, bodies flush together as she started pumping some of her magic into her saurian companion to try and speed up his mending process. All the while looking on at his recovering attackers with a cold glare.


=========
Downtown
=========






“We can’t keep this up forever,” Kaizer X grunted as he grabbed Aria as she, in sync with his movements, grabbed on to him and allowed him to spring backwards and get some distance. Darting out of the alley way moments before a tidal wave of frost and dark magic telekinesis ripped off pavement and twisted signs around like a pretzel.

With not a moment lost upon landing, the couple quickly turned around to face their attacker and in perfect unison unleashed another barrage of song magic and graviton bursts. The monster Twilight had become in union with Zephyrus shrieked and backpedaled, pushed back but not meaningfully hurt as she collided with a storefront window and cracked it. Staggering back up, icy formations growing across her skin shattering with movement only to instantly regrow as a sort of armor, she screamed out again in another burst of gale force blizzard winds and telekinesis. The force slammed into a car the couple had been standing in front of but dived away from, shoving across the street before freezing it in midair.

“Something tells me she can’t either,” Aria huffed as she staggered back up and looked at the heaving wretch that had once been a young woman, cringing slightly at the site of frozen tears coming from her face.

As much as she loathed this bitch who traumatized her cousin, the sight of seeing someone so manically enraged and yet clearly terrified was uncanny.

“She must have a weakness, everyone else does,” the siren whispered as she kept up her guard.

“Yes, I believe ours is organ failure, brain or heart mostly” X deadpanned, ignoring the side-eye he got for chancing a bad wisecrack at such a time, “But unless there is another convenient cliff nearby I don’t know about, I don’t think she’ll be the same as the last one.”

“I doubt getting airborne would make much sense as a weakness for someone with a wing,” Aria rolled her eyes.

“I can try stepping on her.”

Aria shook her head as she and X kept backpedaling at the advance of the clearly insane attacker, “Your blasts can certainly knock her around, but she’s not even acknowledging how much I banged her up earlier. I know I broke her arm.”

The manic gestalt monster swung her arm out and talons of dark magic extended from the icy claws that had grown over the tips of her fingers. The battle couple wisely dodged just as a mailbox they had been standing in front of was slashed to ribbons by the dark purple magic, loose mail flying everywhere.

“Clearly she is still in agony from the break,” X sarcastically griped, “Guess growing giant is out, wouldn’t want to smash up the town you’re getting settled in anyways.”

“Not while we’re near the only good seafood place we’re not! I still need to take you there-“ Aria’s eyes widened as another shriek of winds called out and she was grabbed.

Kaizer X bashed down the door with his shoulder and threw himself and his partner inside, skidding across the floor in a rolling heap. The smell of fish was strong in the diner and a frozen selection was visible through glass displays showing fresh fish and crustaceans.

“Uuuh,” Aria groaned as she staggered up and realized where they were, “Well, it’s not the way I wanted to introduce you to it, but- OH SHIT GET DOWN!”

She grabbed her kaijin and tackled him behind the counter. The entire storefront felt the blizzard blast, the reinforced windows in the front wall just barely holding against the onslaught that cracked most of the surface, likely only spared because the door being open caused some of the gales to fly in. Kaizer X grumbled and gripped his head, assailed by malefic imagery and thoughts that got his blood broiling despite him trying to force them away. Thankfully a quick melody and a hand gripping his shoved the outside influences beyond his mind, Hymnia’s lullaby ensuing waves of love magic across him to keep him sane. Aria Blaze helped her partner up as they braved some of the winds and made for the back door. The blizzard cut out as the monster screamed out again, a garbled mass of syllables that vaguely sounded like ‘Go Away’. Even with her back turned, Aria knew most of it was directed at her.

Knowing she.. it was bearing down on them again, Aria and X made a break for the backdoor, wrenching it open and running through.

X jogged alongside Aria as they bolted away from the seafood restaurant, “If physical attacks aren’t working, the best solution is magic.”

Not quite a magic user himself, he was savvy enough on the uptake for this logical conclusion. Hearing a muffled shriek and seeing the door start to get wrenched open again, he turned and fired a quick graviton torrent towards the restaurant while thinking of a small apology to the siren. The door was yanked open by icy talons just as spiraling beams of gravity and golden plasma slammed into Twilight and Zephyrus, caving in part of the wall and crashing into Zephyrus. The windigo absorbed and diverted most of the blast to the walls around them, but the kinetic shockwave did end up sending Twilight flying back.

“Hey!” Aria yelped, not really upset but just needing to say something to avoid going crazy from stress, “The being with her seems to be blocking most of your hits.”

Kaizer X glanced at her knowingly whilst still running, “The secret you entrusted me with last night."

“Windigo, yes!” Aria cringed, deflating slightly before swallowing it back, “It’s pure evil, dark magic gone twisted.”

“So what kind of weaknesses does it have?”

“Light magic counteracts it, remember how my song helps you?” Aria yelped knowingly, “My mother’s love song can banish evil influence.”

“So why doesn’t it affect her?” X motioned backwards as the monster shrieked out again, having recovered from her spill, “You blasted her more times than me.”

“My hatred for her and love for you notwithstanding…” Aria muttered as she grimaced at glancing back to see if she was still chasing them, “I-I don’t know, it's like it’s wearing her body as a suit that shields it from the light magic. And it can weather what I throw at it long enough to pop out and deflect physical attacks.”

Aria Blaze pondered briefly as Kaizer X turned around again and fired off several graviton flares to either strike their pursuer or at least block out her vision by firing into the ground.

-Well my plan has gone to Tartarus and back… Can’t hurt her with X’s powers because of the windigo. Can’t hurt the windigo because of Twilight’s body or magic.-

She looked back ahead, towards where the concert was.

“Maybe we just need to brute force it? Get more magic,” Aria Blaze huffed as another shriek cried out, “Gotta take her back towards the concert, back towards Adagio and Eventide.”




============


“~What I have in store! Ambition, pride, and more!~” Adagio sang aloud as she hovered above the stage, flooding the area in her magical aura that commanded the crowd’s attention. Conscious of not getting any reply back from Gigan, she improvised and looped her song back upon itself to further control the audience and keep them from interfering, “~The tide is flowing through, now my song begins anew!~”

She started the new crescendo, raising her arms and using the latent magic in her voice to create the music only for something else to invade her airspace. A blur that quickly revealed itself to be a thrown jacket and a wave of magic that pushed into her like an expanding bubble.

“~You're never gonna bring me down~” Sunset Shimmer sang into Rainbow Dash’s mic as she strummed her guitar, reinforced by a melody Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy were playing while she took the stage in a challenging manner, “~You're never gonna break this part of me, my friends were here to bring me around.~”

She pointed to Adagio Dazzle’s glowing red eyes, ignoring the glare she got as the musical tempo built up upon itself. Sunset Shimmer could focus on a thousand things right now. How some of the magically saturated air full of dark emotions were starting to bring back very unpleasant memories, how numerous elements in the crowd were booing her appearing on stage so prominently whether it be by the siren’s influence or justified anger at past experiences, and how she had never actually lead this song before and was unconsciously improving the lyrics here and there.

But, none of that mattered.

The cold she felt trying to creep in, like the air had tendrils trying to stab into her? She knew what could burn it away.

Whether she felt worthy or not, this world’s Elements had called out to her as they had her new friends. And if they believed in her, in a way she could feel; she could give that a whirl as well. Because the first thing she learned about friendship was who could support you when you thought you couldn’t support yourself.

Red sparks encircled here as similar but differently hued auras took hold around her bandmates, “~So I’m gonna stand my ground!~”

There was a shift in the air accompanied by the rhythm of their music. The dark magic that was clogging up the surroundings from both Adagio and the now-not-so-distant battle with Zephyrus and Twilight was starting to be canceled out. More of the crowd were starting to come back to their senses, however control was constantly fluctuating back and forth.

“~I will never be ignored! If you challenge me, it’s open war!~” Adagio spat back as another torrent of her magic crashed into the energy building up around the Rainbooms like a wave crashing onto a shore, risking to drown it.

The Rainbooms strained, but Sunset Shimmer was the first one on the front foot and stepped forward again.

“~You can’t drown us out, the crowd will hear us shout! We'll stop your magic, we'll purge your blight, we’ll withstand it all to fight!~” She was entirely improvising now, but matching her music to both the melody of her bandmates but also Adagio’s music. It seemed to keep the oppressive influence of her magic from crashing down on her. She didn’t really think, only letting flow what felt natural to her. So long as it matched up with the counter spell they had encoded into the melody it would work.

“~I’ve made so many mistakes, I stumbled and I fell... But I’m here to fiiiight, because I've got my friends here at my siiide!~”

The Rainbooms were engulfed in a magical brilliance, all four present ‘Ponying Up’ in tandem. The crash of their melody, already growing in strength before, was booming now.

Adagio actually flinched at the lyrics and for a moment, the reddish glow about her eyes melted away. Something was keeping her dark magic from flowing. She tried to hold onto memories and thoughts that always engendered such a strong negative response. A cold and restless night hiding in a grotto, fleeing from a town as a child with an injured Sonata, and the pangs of fear she bore for a being she'd never even met. The typical anger she put into it no matter how many causes she thought of just didn’t have the same bite when the music coming off the other band hit her. It was like trying to stay still during an ebb of the tide, getting dragged along with it. Instead what was washing up to her was flashes of someone else's memories, starting with Twilight Sparkle offering her a hand up.

Sunset Shimmer could feel it too, a tether. She wasn’t even touching Adagio Dazzle and yet, perhaps because of her own bolstering magic, she could feel it. A cold cave, fleeing villagers in a dash for the sea, and dread of the cold storms. Wounded pride, homesickness, spite and aloofness at others because she didn’t want to come off as vulnerable. It was all registering in mixing emotions of hot and cold, gripping tightness and smothering grief. For a moment she thought she was looking at herself not too long ago. Not the exact same, but similar.

She stepped forward and did as Twilight Sparkle had done. She extended her hand.

“~I was wronged and did wrong before, I know you have too. I can feel your rage, but I’m telling you it’s never too late!~”

Adagio was forced back onto the stage due to her magic being interrupted by the blasting waves of the band. There was a gout of Light magic flowing through the air, engendering so many thoughts and sensations. Adagio felt a phantom sensation of someone long dead holding her close on a coral reef.

She shook her head and whimpered, trying to clear it and force the heat in her chest out.

The sheer joy of seeing her cousin alive and well after nearly losing her and her sister to a monster.

The Alpha siren stumbled backwards and tried to articulate a word. But whatever it was had clogged up in her throat as she stubbornly tried to hold on to strife, hang on to the anger she felt at these upstarts disrupting her show.

“~We’re here to blow this thing apart, because with my friends I’ll never be afraid of the daaark!~”

Sunset Shimmer’s projected song was meant to be an offer of a gentle hug. It hit Adagio like a sledgehammer and nearly toppled her, banishing any dark magic that was keeping her empowered form aloft. It was crackling, the energy projections making up her fins, and her power was wavering. She slipped as Sunset Shimmer rushed to grab her arm.

Only for a glowing Eventide Hymn to catch Adagio from behind. For a moment the siren and false-siren locked gazes. So many questions were flashing through Adagio Dazzle’s mind. The upstart had seemingly sang along with and helped these humans before, upstaged her. What was she going to do now that she had a golden opportunity? Whose side was she really on? Was she going to drag them both off stage and spoil the entire plan? Was she… glowing?

Eventide Hymn, sparking with a light not that different from the Rainbooms, smirks as she helped Adagio back to her feet and gripped the microphone.

“~Your friends’ song is great and loud, your band should be proud. But you forget who abounds,~” She pointed at Sunset Shimmer in challenge, but not at all in a negative way. It was more a competitive invitation and she cracked a toothy smirk, “~'Cuz no one beats a sirens’ sound!~”

Adagio Dazzle looked and saw Eventide’s eyes upon her. She smiled as the melody roared through the air, an increasingly gestalt combination of her number and the Rainbooms'. Eventide nodded her head to the stage and held the microphone out to Adagio.

After a brief moment, the yellow hand of Adagio gripped the microphone in tandem with Eventide’s, content to share it. The magic crackling around Eventide’s Element-bearing necklace, emboldened by the Rainboom’s magic, conducted through their touching hands and flowed into Adagio Dazzle. They may not have actually been a family, but one way or another they were friends. And that factor was giving Eventide quite the boost. One Adagio was keen to copy and draw strength from.

Dark emotions and memories could go screw off as far as Adagio was concerned. The music made her want to feel happy and remember what was well, and she was compelled to do so. Helped this was giving her quite the boost where she had been previously faltering.

They shared an aura, a mix of different hues. For a moment the Rainbooms worried at what was going on now, but one look from the reinvigorated pair gave them quite an unexpected reaction. Eventide and Adagio, in perfect tandem, stood beside Sunset Shimmer and pitched their voice to the band’s melody.

“~As one we sing our song out-loud, get you dancing with the crowd!~”

Sunset Shimmer grinned and winked to her bandmates as she strummed the guitar she was holding and joined in, “~As the music of our friendship surviiiives!~”

“~Surviiiives!~” Eventide yelled out as her body flashed with magical lights and dazzling display.

“~Surviiiiives!~” Adagio Dazzle’s magical projections seemed to heal as she grinned widely. For naked monkeys, they didn’t make a half-bad melody.

The Rainbooms were more than a little confused internally at seeing someone they were supposed to be against joining in. Be it because the lyrics were just very nice or the fact the magic just seemed to feel right with Eventide especially joining in. The lead siren who seemingly was about to cause a lot of problems wasn’t being affected anymore… But she also wasn’t seemingly causing any problems anymore. The crowd was roaring no more in strife or experiencing dazed subjugation, but rather was cheering aloud with every bit of mirth and joy possible.

The sirens weren’t hurting anyone now, so why not finish the number?

They all grinned and kicked the music instrumentals into high gear.

“~Got the music in our hearts! We're here to blow this thing apart!~”

Sunset Shimmer was beaming, feeling such joy and bliss by all those around her. Some from strangers, and some that felt familiar. The guitar roared as did her voice.

“~Our pasts may be dark, but the future’s bright!~”

“~Friends old and new, joining us in the light!~” Eventide chimed.

“~And a siren knows, streeength comes from the heart!~” Adagio sang aloud to a grin by the other two.

“~And togetheeether!~” the trio yelled out.

In the closing distance, Aria Blaze and X rushed headlong towards the building mass of light magic; the windigo-infused Twilight Sparkle in hot pursuit.

“~And togeeether!~” The Rainbooms joined in.

The crowd cheered and surged, kept in place not by forceful command of dark magic but by the sheer spectacle.

“~We will never- Be afraid of the dark!~”

The building spell of Harmony’s magic exploded like a tsunami and crashed into everyone around it. The humans were blissfully unaffected in anything remotely resembling a malefic manner. Crime rates and social anxieties would starkly decline for the next week, while marital proposals and club memberships would rise. The dazzling gleam of the combined song magic of siren hymns and the incomplete Elements of Harmony cast the entire stage in a beautiful gleam, all standing proud as they soaked in the adoration and shared joy together.

Zephyrus screamed in pain as he was violently torn out of the human Twilight’s body and the alley was engulfed in white.


=======
Pier
=======


Irys and Gigan both reflexively dodged back as several rays of plasma, shot from Lea’s eyes and torso, ripped apart the ground they stood upon; forcing them to teleport and spring to safety. Lea looked upon the Guardian Mode Irys had activated with intermittent intrigue and disgust, seeing a bastardized variation of her friends’ birthright. Purple plasma engendered by magic crackled amongst her eyes, something that Godzilla took notice of despite being as winded as he was.

Irys and Gigan backstepped together, clearly moving together as pure indication of their camaraderie to any who might not be enlightened about that fact.

“Fall back,” Gigan muttered as he tried to keep his guard up and optic masers hot, “Picking up anything from X?”

Only Irys reached out with what sensory ability she had, far less refined than others but enough to manage at least an inclination. She knew where to look and where she looked she didn’t find anything she might expect to. The back alleys did not have siren magic nor kaizer energy nor dark magic; only traces of the three.

“They’ve moved,” she whispered, keeping up a sonic barrier just in case the Mothra started firing again. It was good foresight too because the moment she turned her head to say that, on reflex, Lea blasted at her again with enough force to crack the shield.

Lea grit her teeth as she stomped forward and fired again, battering the shield with blow after blow of energy blasts that snapped in the air. Even as Irys turned to run with Gigan, who was trying to set up a teleport, she had to whip back around as Lea fired another blast at her. The gyaos was stuck in place trying to maintain the shield against the onslaught.

Mothra Lea’s eyes darted aside to the cyborg, who had stopped to turn about, no doubt trying to grab his teammate. But Lea didn’t see that camaraderie, she didn’t care to hear whatever he was yelling or his extended hand towards the gyaos. All she saw was the blood staining Gigan’s arm and the knowledge of who it came from.

Mothra shot a prism beam from her eyes into Gigan’s leg, catching the weakened point Godzilla had smashed and burned. The piercing purple ray stabbed through the cyborg’s knee and blasted through it, forcing him to buckle over. Irys yelled out something but Lea cared not for that wretch’s tongue as she fired at the cyborg again and forced Irys to block for him.

“Lea stop!” Junior snapped as he stumbled forward.

He only raised his voice on account of pain, almost doubling over had Rainbow Dash not caught his arm. Yes, he himself had been fighting vigorously against both of their opponents just minutes ago but there was a different situation afoot. He was fighting hard because they were trying to seriously harm if not kill him, but even the back of his mind was able to piece together a situation together fairly quickly. Irys had attacked him, he’d fought back and seemingly done her grievous harm, Gigan launched into the fray clearly to protect her, and now they had more than enough force to drive them back.

But the wish to capture Irys was null now, and they were risking escalating this battle into something that would fly out of control. Gigan was talking about someone else who Junior didn’t know, but who knew how many more allies they had around?

His mind's eye bore witness to a brief vision of days past. Of the cool night on the island crowned in a spire of a mountain. Solgell. It had been a peaceful night, one of the few he might actually have slept through with his best friend at his side. Only for family who’d been his worst enemy and his right-hand to attack. The island’s Defenders rallied behind himself and Lea, just as the Mutations did behind Xenilla and Destroyah. Then the humans got involved. Then the aliens struck again. Outside agents flew into the chaotic melee. And it all ended in a black hole.

Part of the reason he worked himself to the bone back on Terra alone, despite being more than happy to fight alongside an ally, was the worry that if they traveled around in groups so would the enemy. A confrontation might turn into a melee. A melee into a devastation. Escalation of force.

This wasn’t the time for that, this wasn’t the time for a fight. He’d gone out to investigate with a side mission of possibly bringing family of a teammate home. He wasn’t about to start another Solgell right in the middle of a populated area. He couldn’t let her risk starting another Solgell in a populated area.

A sane Lea would never do that, and he knew she’d trust him to stop her if she tried.

“Lea STOP!” He lunged while stumbling forward.

A prism beam flew over his shoulder, missing his face by mere inches when he whipped her around to face him. Lea froze.

For a brief moment it was complete stillness between them all. Rainbow Dash trying to pull Godzilla off Mothra, Gigan and Irys gawking at who was seemingly coming to their defense, and the two founders of the Terra Defenders, the heirs of their dynasties, staring at one another. Suddenly, as he leaned forward slightly she embraced her friend. Lea seemed to be completely devoid of the depression and manic attitude that had seemingly taken her, the rage gone. Godzilla gazed at his oldest friend with a resolute but sad expression, not even commenting on how she nearly shot him point-blank; even if it was partially by his own actions.

“This fight's over, let them go.”

He frowned with a settled brow. Lea’s breath hitched when she felt a warmth upon her chest, tears stinging at her eyes as she looked at her friend’s mutilated face. A deep feeling was engendered as she raised a trembling hand and touched his face after sliding it up his side; from the smell of iron. Staining her collar and hand, Lea withdrew the palm from her friend’s cheek around his eye orbit as she gawked at it. The skin was very slowly patching itself, but still fresh. And her hand was half-covered in a red, crusted scab dotting her limb along with drying blood. His blood. The same ichor on Gigan’s arm…

They could have killed her best friend.

The music from the concert flowed through the air. It wasn’t at all like the echoes from before. There wasn’t a hint of dark magic amongst the number. It was pure, kind, and as open as an embrace. Pure light magic, as if from some of the Elements of Harmony themselves. The air was riddled with it, brimming with it. Rainbow Dash briefly glanced at her neckline to see the outline vaguely resembling a crystal pulsing on her collar. Deep within she could almost feel a pull, something compelling her to go back to the stage and contribute.

Far away, even out of earshot of the music, Pinkie Pie was experiencing the same feeling.

Junior felt slightly calmed even as he tried to keep his attention on Lea. His attention was only briefly taken away by the feeling of a gaze upon him, glancing up to see Irys looking back as she sprinted away with Gigan.

Lea’s eyes followed his line of sight, but she did not share his neutrality. Her best friend was hurt far more than he let on.

She tensed and Junior tightened his grip on her to keep her still… Only for his grip to be broken by a swarm of moths.

“Wa- Lea! No!” he barked as he gazed at the swarm.

The swarm flew upwards and reformed into Lea’s human form midair. She was glaring at Irys and Gigan. Her tattoos all glowed as dust settled down from her and encircled Godzilla Junior and Rainbow Dash. The image of her family emblem started to appear on the ground below him. On reflex, Junior whipped around and gripped Rainbow Dash by the shoulders and legs, scooping her up and tossing her aside onto the sand on the pier at an angle that would ensure she would roll instead of taking the brunt of the impact. Not a moment too soon considering he reflexively jolted away from the barrier’s edge.

“Lea what are you doing?!” he roared to demand an answer. When he got one he whipped around and smashed a fist into the edge of the barrier, but to no luck.

Rainbow Dash, recovering from her tumble, sprang up in a burst of superspeed and almost collided with the barrier face first when she ran up to it, turning aside in shoving her shoulder into it only to bounce off.

“It’s one of her strong barriers, we’ll need alot to burst it! Try magic!” Godzilla growled.

“Consider it done!”

Rainbow Dash panted as she backed up and, her element still flashing bright, rushed at the barrier with a diving kick. Once again, even with her mind hyper focusing on helping an ally and teacher regardless of her own well-being, something as loyal as she could possibly be, it refused to yield. Her stubbornness kicked in and after cracking her knuckles she gritted her teeth and closed her eyes. She was mostly used to just moving her arms back and forth to pump her legs when running, but she knew how to throw a punch. And in the span of five seconds she managed to throw 20 as her body glowed more and more.

The use of her Element was reacting with the song magic in the air, emboldening it and seemingly bolstering it. Everything became thicker with magic as the chorus echoed through the town from the stage.

Rainbow Dash huffed but refused to give up, not even having much finesse as she just kept punching, kicking, kneeing, and bashing herself into the barrier until bruises started to form. She darted away and looped back around. Mid-step, her body became engulfed in a bright light and her speed seemed to double. Magical wings burst from the streak of rainbows and cyan and a powerful kick crashed into the barrier; a fully Pony’d Up Rainbow Dash only passively displaying shock at her own reflection.

“What-how the-huh?!”

“Thank you…”

The calmness of the voice snapped her attention away as she gazed upwards at a stoic Mothra Lea standing over the barrier with her feet before one another. It was not her talking. Her hands were glowing with obvious enchantment as the rune below flashed. The purple glow on her eyes never left, and she spoke almost as if in a trance.

Within her mind, the doors to another ancestor’s memories had been torn open. And Lea wasn’t fully in the driver’s seat alone anymore.

“Terran magic and Equestrian magic don’t mix, but I needed more of the latter to funnel it easier,” "Lea" stated as she lifted her hands, her skin visibly becoming darker and her hair gaining streaks of reddish orange.

Like two giant hands, the barrier holding Godzilla in place was expanded but opened. Lea used what Twilight had taught her about Equestrian magic to call forth the Light Magic that was so heavy in the air. Almost like a giant rain catcher or a funnel, she redirected it into the opened top of the barrier to distill it; pushing it down. Pushing it into Godzilla.

Junior’s eyes widened as his body absorbed it like a sponge, his jaw dropping as he tried to push it back. But in the barrier, it had nowhere else to go. It was like a pressure cooker with him inside it.

“Hey! What are you doing?!” Rainbow Dash barked as she pointed at the kaiju, muscle memory kicking in as she got up off the ground and started hovering. Loyalty gave her bravado and bravado gave her a lot of courage.

“Healing him, and winning this.”

“Winning this?! Anguirus said not to kill the pale lady! Hello, he said this fight's over!” she shouted, her attention taken away by a yell crying out from inside the barrier.

It wasn’t pained. It wasn’t raging. It was… terrified.

Junior’s body wouldn’t stop absorbing magic even as he thrashed about holding his head.

“Hey! Knock it oooff!” Rainbow Dash barked as she backed up in midair and then rushed forward, intent on tackling the seemingly maddened kaiju out of the sky.

Within the barrier another yell cried out as flashes of old fears ripped into a mind.

-I’m going to crush someone. I’m going to crush someone. I’m going to crush someone!-

There was a blinding flash of light that went off in tandem with the combined finales of the incomplete Rainbooms and Dazzlings.

Irys and Gigan ran down a street to get away from what they knew was trouble when a blur passed overhead and stopped their retreat. At first it was so impossibly big from their perspective it could only be beholden as existing without really knowing what it was. It was only when it moved did they notice the individual scales that went around the curve of the trailer sized object before it was tipped in ivory colored scutes. It lifted and was pulled away, revealing the gargantuan mass to be but the very tip of a tail.

A shadow cast over them, about 50 meters high at its peak. Neither of them really knew what it was like to see a living mountain from the human perspective, very few kaiju did. And one of them who did was now towering over them, despite being half the height he normally would be due to the slapdash nature of the magic insertion.

Godzilla, the ancient sea dragon of Odo Island legend and the legacy of humanity’s actions, loomed over them while not making a single step from where he stood on the beach. His jaws parted slightly, revealing teeth taller than they were as mist spilled out from his fangs. Even with nothing said, years of seeing him in this state told them a very clear message.

One swipe of his tail, one blast of his breath, one step; and in the disparity between them right now he could end them both in an instant. They who had made him bleed, they who had blinded him to such a degree his eye was still repairing itself, they who tried to kill him could be so easily smote like an ant to a boot.

Gigan and Irys hadn’t felt such a feeling since they met their master.

Godzilla slowly closed his mouth and stared at them, long and hard, until his left eye was healed enough to open.

He then slowly grunted at them, motioning away with his head. Irys, still holding up Gigan, was frozen in place as she felt her mouth turn downwards. A most unexpected sensation was creeping through her chest, a very cold sensation that trickled through every vein.

Godzilla curled back his lips and opened his mouth. He didn’t roar, both for lack of rage but also as maybe not to draw any more attention to himself than was needed. He opened distended his lower jaw and hissed slowly in a not necessarily threatening but certainly most unwelcoming manner. Mist spilled out between every tooth as his claws flexed on his visible hand.

A metallic hand gripped her shoulder. She looked back to see Gigan casting his eyes down in a complicated look of hidden confusion, recognition, and perhaps a glint of shame. Gigan’s voice being extremely quiet, “… He’s letting us go. Come on.”

The disbelief amongst the two was palpable even after Gigan summoned up enough strength in his work drive to teleport them away to parts unknown, leaving the rest to Irys.

The gigantic saurian’s closed hand was slowly brought up, revealing two women in his palm; scooped up at the last moment as to avoid potentially landing on top of them when he emerged in his half sized full form. Rainbow Dash’s shock took a moment or two to wear off fully, even with having been briefed on who and what exactly her self-defense instructor was. Seeing and in her case feeling, given she was standing up on top of his first knuckle, was a whole different feeling.

Had she not been through a lot and still had the fearful yelling by this exact same individual not replaying through her head, the movie lover and thrillseeker might even be whooping and hollering at the spectacle. She wasn’t the type to be overly fearful of who she already trusted, no matter what they looked like. And one look at those eyes had so much familiarity in them she didn’t care what his skin was covered in.

Lea also gazed into those eyes for a time, the purple glow in hers all gone. She shuddered, wincing as she took in her surroundings in obvious confusion. Like she wasn't remembering how she got here. The orange streaks in her hair were replaced with the usual green. She looked around and then down, her gaze still turned downward as her knees started to buckle. She dropped to them, head bowed.

A low, reverberating utterance came from the very back of Godzilla’s throat; his jaw barely moving as he made his voice.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she shook her head, “Looks like we both got a surprise transformation today, didn't we big guy? Well, if you ever want to whip this out during a concert I can find you a gig in the show; we should only perform outdoors, though! Ehehe…”

Her attempt at humor was met with a shrug. Yes, even on the face of the biggest dinosaur ever, she could tell was a shrug.

“Heeey, what do you expect ya big palooka? I’m the one with top billing, usually!”

“He’s asking… If anyone else was out here,” Lea whispered, head still down.

Rainbow Dash paused, lifting off Godzilla’s palm and fluttering her magic wings to look about and double check as Godzilla crouched down.

“No, I was the only one to leave the stage and the entire town was out for the concert. No residential stuff near here in case of a sea surge during storms,” Rainbow quipped while rubbing at the back of her head.

Godzilla uttered out again, lowering himself more and backing towards the ocean.

“… He wanted to be sure that he…” Lea’s breath hitched, “Didn’t crush anyone, appearing in the middle of the city.”

Rainbow Dash cringed before swallowing a lump that had suddenly formed in her throat as she shook her head. A morose part of her mind did give the street a quick glance over to make sure the giant potholes his feet left in the road and beach didn’t have any red in them.

“N-No, just us… And those two that left.”

Godzilla closed his eyes, seeming to contemplate before nodding. He backed up into the ocean and put Lea down on the end of the pier. A low grumble came from his maw. Rainbow Dash was about to fly down near her to listen for the next translation, when her voice appeared in between her ears. At first the transformed human was both flabbergasted and shocked, but her answer came when she noticed Mothra Lea’s tattoos glowing dimly again. She would have to ask more about this in detail later but for now was resigned to write it off as more crazy magic.

-“He is going to wait in the ocean until the transformation wears off. He was just scared he hurt someone.”-

Rainbow Dash was going to fly closer, maybe to a bid him a quick goodbye and give a bit of levity or perhaps just try and offer her presence, only to be forced back by Lea’s gaze. For once it wasn’t the hardened glare or distant stoicism that made her stop. It was the reddened eyes and tearful face. Looking between the two kaiju, she backed away in midair and landed on the ruined road, sensing this was something private.

The look exchanged between the two old friends spoke of so much. The very low rumble that came out of the back of the King of the Monster’s throat spoke of more. Mothra Lea knew full well what some of his fears were, he confided them to her alone on a few occasions. She didn’t know what came over her, she didn’t know why her bloodlust skyrocketed to inexcusable levels. All she knew was she hurt her friend, she hurt the first friend she ever had.

Lea put her forehead to the end of his muzzle and wept for a short time before he nudged gently. He nuzzled and she hugged his snout. He stayed still for a time until her shuddering stopped, knowing some of why this happened. He'd rushed off, he'd gotten his blood on her hands while she was already unhinged. Wasn't anyone's fault, but didn't quite make it right. It did make it forgiveable. A lesson he'd learned well. Godzilla eased her back onto the pier and sank into the ocean to wait out what she’d forced onto him.

They would have more to talk about when he got back.


==========================


The blinding light, released when the monster that used to be Twilight Sparkle had the combined magic of the incomplete Rainbooms and Dazzlings crash into her, slowly dissipated. Aria Blaze and Monster X, having grabbed one another and dived for cover when the magical flare went off, slowly emerged from behind a parked car. The former was positively radiating with magic, empowered by her cousin's additions to the chorus making it all far more palatable than it typically be. Her siren heart was glowing bright and she was brimming.

And her target wasn't mobile. Laying a shattered heap of broken icicles, a seemingly only half-conscious Twilight Sparkle groaned as the dark magic making up her aura and wing seemed to smoke off her. Her eyes remained half closed and unfocused, a wary gaze was cast for her benefactor, who seemed to be conspicuously absent, as if blown away by the magic burst. Aria eyed the necklace embedded on Twilight’s neck and reached for it hopefully. Either they fixed it here or she’d drag them back to the camp.

It was just her and them. Just her and them…

Aria stormed over even before Kaizer X could, though she quickly felt his presence behind her. Twilight Sparkle let out a low murmur as the sirens stood over her, sharply hitching in breath when Aria grabbed her by the shoulder and pushed her against a trash bin with a metallic clang.

“Gahk!” Twilight spat as she wobbled, clearly in a daze but able to register the pain in her arm.

Her noises were cut off when the siren shifted her grip to her neck and squeezed lightly. X was unmoving, standing beside her while sporting a somewhat worried expression. The fight over, he reverted back into Monster X.

“Remember, the Princess is only helping us on the condition that we not kill anyone,” X grunted as he put a hand on Aria’s arm.

Had this been the heat of battle and she was struck down or proved she was too dangerous to take back with them, he'd have favored pragmatism and wouldn’t have objected. But he didn’t like the grin Aria seemed to have while starting to tighten her grip on Twilight Sparkle’s throat.

Aria Blaze stifled a breath, glaring at the quivering and still delirious woman with untold amounts of hatred, both at what she had done and what she had allied with; before relenting slightly. She stopped her attempt at choking out Twilight and, just as the human’s eyes flickered open, she slugged her across the face. Once, twice more.

Twilight Sparkle’s glasses went flying off her head and she went limp, lightly dusted with frost and sporting a nasty bruise across her face as unconsciousness took her. Aria Blaze snorted, sighing as X patted at her shoulder. She reached once again for the space that bore Sonata’s heart, cringing slightly as she saw the gem was still partially embedded in Twilight’s sternum and skin.

Once again however, the gem resisted her attempts to pry it free; as if it was with its proper owner. But with enough coaxing, the barrier around it started to falter. She grinned and reached inwards.

The girl was petrified even before she turned the corner and heard the crunch, unknowingly caused by her accidentally stepping on a pair of glasses. The magical burst of light, magical as in what else could it be, had blinded and dazzled her for a hot minute, but she was soon back to her senses. She hadn’t seen the fight, only heard it. She hadn’t seen what her best friend, her only friend, had turned into. She hadn’t seen the winter spirit they thought was a magical mentor show his true self or colors. All Wallflower Blush saw was her friend, bloodied, beaten, and unconscious, in the grip of two with her blood on their hands.

There was no wind at her back pushing her along, there was no windigo named Boreas she didn’t even know existed coaxing her along. There didn’t need to be for red to overtake all of her vision. A drop of Twilight’s blood spilled onto the ground and Wallflower heard it ping off the concrete.

“MONSTEEEEEER!” Wallflower shrieked as she ripped the Memory Stone off her necklace and pointed it directly at the pair with as much ill intent as was possible.

The stone’s runes instantly flared up in a brilliant display, the motivation of its bearer causing it to overheat as the spell was pushed to its fullest. Spiraling magic shot forth from it and towards the pair. On instinct and because he was closer to Wallflower, X shoved Aria aside and whipped around with his eyes glowing bright gold. The spirals struck him and tore through any physical resistance, right into his mind.

Graviton beams flew out and at Wallflower, only for a gale force of wind blown in from the north to rush out in front of her. In the back of her mind she might have processed how this icy spirit looked a bit different from Zephyrus. Gaunter, less regal, far more manic; almost like a rabid beast. And it seemed to be laughing when it flew into the beams and twisted space. Boreas was indeed cackling like a maniac, both from the sheer unadulterated hatred coming off Wallflower but also his own pain at warping matter to redirect the beams away.

Wallflower however, hyper focusing, pushed everything she had into willing the stone. A typical use, such as trying and botching talking to a boy she liked, was but a small snippet. A tiny subtracting of the day's tiniest sliver of memory, a few moments at most. This was like driving a bulldozer into it and flooring the accelerator. She ripped into Kaizer X’s memories, ripping out everything she could in a disorganized manner.

The Kaijin stumbled back and roared, his combined form dropping and flickering back and forth between Monster X and Kaizer Ghidorah with all the painful details of transformation that entailed as he oscillated from those forms and back. She could see them, he could see them too; his memories. A night at the cabin, a training spar, a confrontation at a mall, a talk in a snowy forest, the first time Aria kissed him; the theft of the Alicorn Amulet; all was being torn out and sucked into the stone. Not just memories from the last year, but from the last three centuries. The stone was starting to crack and the built-up heat was burning Wallflower’s fingers even as she kept at it.

X, Kaizer Ghidorah, who were one but were now two, fell to a knee. Through the deafening shriek of the magic they registered someone calling out to them. Someone who was very important to them… Who was-

They saw violet eyes up close as Aria tried to pull them to her, eyes wet with fear and confusion. During a split second of disjointed memory, X didn’t even register why this purple human was so important to them; other than Kaizer knowing they were. For a moment, a passing phase of déjà vu, X was recalling a sight. Of those eyes cast in red, Aria in a powerful form, and a monster pulling her into them. Kaizer remembered the similarity to himself.

Aria had… the memory was faint, like smoke between the fingers; but X forced any context they could to remember it or anything related to it… The glint of her necklace reminded them of when X bore it, Kaizer remembered this… Yes, yes they’d bore it after Aria had given it to them. After she’d said two words to them, putting her full faith into them.

If she was so important to them, if she loved and was loved by X; X would do the same. He put his hand to her necklace and said those two words as a jolt of energy flew out of him.

“Don’t lose.”

A surge of magic, a surge of every scrap of emotion he had left in him; rocketed into Aria as Monster X shoved her out of harm’s way. He threw his head up and screamed as the final memories were torn out of him.

Wallflower Blush dropped the memory stone, which was smoking and glowing red hot from an overload. It had been meant to be used on just a few minutes or hours of memory. It had only been by sheer willpower and the unknowing channeling of dark magic, wrath fueled by fear, that it had taken in years worth. Wallflower crumbled to her knees, shocked by residual magic as her blurry vision hyper focused on the downed image of her only friend in the world. She dragged herself forward, limp in the leg as she sobbed and got to Twilight’s side. The poor girl was sobbing fitfully when she got to her unconscious comrade.

“T-Twi-light? O-Ooopen your eyes!” Wallflower sobbed as she pulled Twilight’s head into her leg and tried to support her neck. The magic user’s gemstone, embedded in her sternum, pulsed weakly as her bruised and swollen eyes remained shut. She was leaking redness and it was obvious from a bend that her arm was still broken.

Wallflower’s heart rate spiked again at touching Twilight’s brow to pull some bangs out of her face, shocked and feeling how cold she was “Y-You gotta open your eyes! Y-ou can’t sleep! You can’t sleep now!”

Twilight was unresponsive, limp and only visibly alive given the unconscious movements in her breath and twitch of the limbs. A pair of unearthly roaring screams snapped her attention away as she clutched Twilight to her protectively.

The first was from the tall dark man, who had the image of a swirling mass of snow and frost spiraling around him. The mass shot up and seemed to morph in the midst of motion, first into what vaguely looked like the front half of a horse with claw-like hooves and fangs and then into the image of an extremely gaunt human with a skull-like face and antlers. Looming over the man who had been Twilight’s attacker, it dove inside him whilst cackling like a madman as the north winds howled.

Boreas tore into the mostly emptied mind and consumed the form, causing the limbs to contort and spasm wildly in a most uncanny manner; like a spider moving upside-down while also turning itself inside out. He tore the mask from his head, revealing X’s scarred face for all to see as he sported a most uncanny of expressions. Manic, bloodthirsty, and predatory; to an insane degree. He looked to be sporting a toothy façade that was both snarling and smiling at the same time; clenching his jaw in a way that seemed like it cracked a tooth and found the action hilarious.

The other scream came from Aria Blaze, who was writhing about and clutching her head. Through the stumbling and spinning she did while trying to lash out at some unknown force flying into her mind, she swung her arms wildly to lash out at visions of a burning city, flashes of seeing a green and gold cyborg beast she didn’t recognize as Gigan’s old form, or a dark realm that seemed to be made of obsidian. She did however recognize a dark snowy wood, and the view of herself hiding in a tree trunk from the human-shaped monster she’d recently sang to. The same monster which… which…

Her eyes flickered from violet to red and back again, golden sparks crisscrossing her body. She tried to force the visions away, almost getting the sensation that someone else was pulling them aside as well, when the image of what was and wasn’t her lover came barreling into her.

Aria Blaze was grabbed by the shoulder and shoved into the brick and mortar wall of the shop, the possessed body that had been Monster X pinning her down. The siren reflexively grabbed at the limb gripping her and nearly cried out from the unnatural cold upon his form, so frigid it burned.

“Ooooh hehe, I like this one! Yesss, you made an excellent choice bringing him to me! Oh what a gift, what a wondrous gift!” The voice that very distinctly wasn’t X sang, with pale and seemingly frozen over eyes staring at her all the while.

Aria Blaze felt her eyes wet with tears as she kicked out and struck her boyfriend’s body in the gut. Despite, against some of her wishes, kicking hard enough to bruise someone who could shrug off a car crash easily, the reaction she got was less than satisfying. Boreas, the North Wind, gasped and seemed to gag on bile, but the action only functioned to incite him more. The haggard gasp soon turned to demented laughter.

“Ooooh yes, yes this is what I am! Look at what you did to her! Pain, mutilation! You are like me! You got it from me! AAUH HAHRAR!” Boreas cackled with his mouth so widened it looked like it split as he returned the favor, gripping and shoving Aria painfully into the wall once again, laughing even as she reflexively kneed him in the chest several times. After several blows, a horrific parody of the face Aria loved the most invaded her space as the worst feeling imaginable came to her awareness.

Wide, milky, frozen eyes stared at her as an owl would a mouse as Boreas had his hand on her necklace like the protective shield wasn’t even there. Boreas, never blinking, split his face with a grin.

“Seee, you are mine! HA! Such fury, such power! I knew you were mine from the moment you came to this world!” Boreas cackled as he started to pull on the necklace to tear it off, much in the same way Notus had shared form with an unwitting Twilight to allow her to breach Sonata’s protective ward. Ready to tear his daughter’s heart out, another stray thought crossed a wicked mind that literally lived off misery and strife while incapable of anything good, “Oooh after this I feel like putting this body to use! Say you like it don’t you? Any chance you've got to making me a grandfather?!”

Aria was nearly overpowered by dread, misery, and fear that clogged her throat like concrete. The edges of the necklace tie frayed and were about to snap, the gemstone blinking frantically as it knew the danger faced. Within her mind, usually represented by a calm ocean, everything was beginning to freeze over. Through the whirlwind of it all however, in the void of her own mindscape, something came through.

Two simple words.

The same two that another being who turned away from evil despite a horrific origin remembered when she said it to them upon facing doom against Enjin.

A masculine tone echoed through her mind, one strong but also comforting.

-“Don’t lose.”-

Deep within the mental plane of her mind, where the ocean of thought threatened to be frozen over, a dragon of black and gold burst through the ice.

The siren heart flashed gold and a magnificent surge of power rocketed through Aria Blaze’s form. Boreas’ body was shocked back from the conductive energy and Aria barely had the mental faculties to grab his arm and wrench her necklace away from his grip lest he tear it away with his tumble back. Gravity distorted all about her body, lifting Aria Blaze off the ground while intermittently levitating or crushing nearby objects.

Within the mind of the siren, a purple hippocampus gazed up at the enormity of the dragon.

-“What is- What’s happening!?”- she pleaded.

-“There is no time to explain.”- the dragon responded as power coursed through Aria’s body.

Boreas recovered from his shock, ice beginning to grow over his form as he cackled maniacally and observed with pride his spawn. Golden light washed over Aria Blaze to form a cocoon that hid her from view. Within her mind someone was talking to her.

-“Defend yourself! Use my power!”-

-“Wh-Who are you?!”-

-“You’ve known me….”-

The shell of magic flashed before bursting open, revealing itself to be large wings of magical light. Her skin had completely blackened with armored, golden scales formed across her form in some places. Horns started to magic their way into existence to crown her head. Red eyes snapped open even as they were wet with tears upon facing the form of whom she loved possessed by the monster that mutilated her mother.

Beholden to her beloved possessed by a nightmare of the past, Kaizer Aria had returned as power exploded out of her.



Link!







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Camp Everfree
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Pinkie Pie jolted up from her (technically Megalon’s, though it went unused) bed with her body twitching and fidgeting. The poor girl looked drained with slight bags under her eyes, her hair laying flat in a manner more akin to her sisters’, and some color having been drained from her skin. However, her body twitches were not nearly as random as one might think; something she was quite privy to. She carefully took them in measure.

Three sideways twitches on her left wrist, two fidgets and not twitches on her right shoulder, and her left pinkie toe felt tingly. Her eyes widened in recognition at what was going on, and to the degree. Jumping up from the bed and into a tunnel burrowed through a mix of packed earth and bedrock, Pinkie Pie started rapidly climbing up the ladder to the cabin still in her pajamas.

She casually surprised the alien war cyborg who was cooking a fish fillet on his metallic hand while holding it over a napalm grenade he’d spat up. Megalon spun around, still brandishing the lit grenade in one hand.

“Trying some in-room cooking? Why not the mess hall for that though?” Pinkie chimed as she pulled herself up from the trapdoor.

“Brother’s not the only one who likes to experiment, and what’s with the light show?” Megalon quipped with a tilted head, partially closing his hand on the flaming sphere and pointing at Pinkie Pie’s neck.

Pinkie Pie looked down and checked herself in a mirror. Sure enough the good vibes she was getting in her Pinkie Sense weren’t just that. In an instant it seemed like color was returning to her form, her hair got its spring back; all to the pulse of the glowing image appearing on her collar. It looked like an empty slot of sorts.

“Haaaha! Looks like my friends are hitting a new number!”

"This happens when you play music?” Megalon quipped as he leaned in and almost felt at the magic coming off her, “I feel a lot of energy, you’re practically glowing!”

“Yeepperoni! Tends to happen when we play music. First time doing this though.”

Megalon motioned outside to where Pinkie couldn’t go without cover of night or a tunnel, “Maybe it’s getting stronger? Miss Gloriosa has magic too, and she’s gotten a lot more powerful over time.”

“Well then I need to put it to use, ‘Nata needs her recommended dose of therapy, Pinkie Pie style! ...Where is she?”

Megalon chirped, “Showering… But I was about to check on her.”

“Why’s that?”

Megalon pouted as she looked outwards into the sky, “Lot of magic flying around just a bit ago while you were asleep. Didn’t want to wake you as you had barely gotten any trying to help ‘Nata.”

“Well how’s Sonata been doing? I’d know if you hadn’t carried me into that bed down there,” Pinkie grumbled as she crossed her arms and puffed her cheeks.

Megalon almost tapped her nose but quickly avoided doing so with the still red-hot hand he’d been using as a skillet, “You were exhausted and drained helping her through the night, you needed rest. Anyways, Sonata seemed… no different. Not better but-...”

“Well... I mean it means she’s not worse right?”







In the showers at the bathroom building, a frantic hand lashed out to turn the warm water as cold as it could go to avoid feeling the burning sensations crossing over her skin. The occupant contorted as her body reacted to the magic radiating in. Even miles away, the aftermath of Twilight’s transformation, the battles, the strife, and the band sing-off had echoed as far as Everfree. And unlike her sister and cousin, with a gem to siphon off light and dark of their choosing, the ugly scar on her chest only drew in the latter. Stumbling out of the shower and gripping her throat, Sonata was making more noise than she had in days. It just wasn't the returning voice she’d been hoping for.

“RRRrrrreeek! Aarrkg! Caaugh Aarrgh!” She gagged and heaved dryly into the sink, holding back her loose hair in case it ended up being more than dry heaves.

She panted and gasped, stomping her foot from the convulsions as she eyed the toilet. The wounded siren made a step for it but was instantly hit with another spat of heaving and retching. After the first minute she was almost hoping she could vomit out whatever had been offending her throat or stomach, horrific as the feeling would be.

She whimpered and sniffled back a clog in her nose. There was something there, something tickling or pricking her throat just behind her tongue. Like a piece of food stuck back around her tonsils she just couldn’t manage to swallow. Sonata tried her best to breath through her clogged nose and blink away tears, attempting to steady her throat best she could manage given every raspy gasp that went down her mouth pricked the offending object again.

The heaves slowed and she could finally get a sense of composure. Faced with a painful choice, she was forced to make it. Now or never. Grimacing and closing her eyes, Sonata Dusk reached into her mouth with her free hand and very, very carefully started to probe around behind her tongue; all too aware the slightest wrong move might set off her gag reflex and either make her bite herself or send her into a spiral of heaving yet again.

It took two attempts and she ended up leaving tooth shaped bruises around her knuckles, but finally she felt something stuck. It was hard, smooth, and, the likely cause of the heaving, pointy with the tip sticking towards her throat. Sharp at the tip even.

Sonata braced and tried to pull it out, instantly feeling it adhered to the skin and instantly ripping the air out of her lungs. The crippled siren grimaced, trying desperately to not bite her hand and pull the offending body free as her body convulsed and lurched forward to heave and choke. The hand previously holding her hair back was forced to slam into the bathroom mirror and brace to keep her from smashing head-first into it.

She gripped the object between her fingers and tugged, wiggled, and tugged again. Pitiful, quivering whimpers slithered from her throat and she could feel her own teeth risking to break the skin on her palm.

She gripped it and yanked it out, wrenching her hand free and wrenching forward. Her forehead braced into the bathroom mirror and it felt like hours for the overpowering reactions to finally ceased, by them she’d felt like she was trying to cough up her own tongue.

But the relief… Oh the relief made the edges of her eyes water. It was out, it was finally out! Sonata whimpered and let out a small chuckle in relaxation and freedom, feeling as if a mountain was off her back. The disheveled siren gasped and panted, hoping to slow down her heart rate as she picked her face off the mirror. Tears streaming down her uglied face, Sonata weakly looked to whatever offending object had brought on such misery.

She expected it to be some odd ingredient in her food as of late, perhaps, given the hardness it seemed to have, a loose fishbone from one of Megalon’s napalm cooked, homemade seafood tacos he’d made or perhaps some hardened breading chip from one of Pinkie’s cupcakes she’d brought over.

Instead, clenched in her finger tips with a small piece of bloodied skin still stuck to it, was a tiny shard of ice. A piece of ice that refused to melt even with the heat of her body and the room around her. Said room suddenly felt colder as frost formed on the edge of the mirror.



Link!