//------------------------------// // Chapter 49 Part 1: Breaking the Ice // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// Amongst the crowds watching the performance by the Rainbooms and Dazzlings pair, two figures watched on from a realm beyond. One applauded and cheered in the spirit of the crowds, especially when the front singers of Sunset Shimmer, Adagio Dazzle, and Eventide Hymn took a bow together. “Beautiful performance!” Harmony cheered happily, putting her hooves to her lips to whistle aloud in recognition of the all she had seen on display. Yet over the cheering crowds, the voice of her company was the only thing audible the moment they spoke up. “That was a lot of magic flying around.” The world seemed to freeze in place, as the whistling source of applause looked to her company. Was such a pleasant thing to have that nowadays, even with the omnipresent portal to Zenith. Then again, being able to have company that also wasn't trying to attack you on sight was something equally new when it involved Bagan. Instead of exchanging blows, they'd exchanged word and thought. But, their last debate had had some positive outcomes, even if they still disagreed on many things. They still thought sapience and civilization was a mistake that just left the door open for evil, she was still adamant that gods weren't all that different from mortals and their wisdom meant guidance had to be their protocol; not intervention or judgement. Digging into both of their respective pasts had proven to only mutually support their original stances, but also get under each's skin. They were, in a manner, afraid that the other represented some manifestation of the other's doubts. Both so convinced they were right, but only able to feel fully content in such if the other was truly wrong. They'd debated, they'd struggled; but for now, they could agree to disagree... for now. She had a few things planned for the so called, God of Extinction, as they no doubt did for her. But, both were patient enough not to rush things. Harmony turned her focus back to the subject at hoof. Swirls of amorphous, green, purple, and red mist curled around their clawed fingers like a serpent exploring their hand by slithering across it. The colors mixed and divided in equal measure according to their hue. The rainbow of hues pooled and ran over their palm, dribbling but not dropping as the hand was turned over and over to keep the magic flowing. Harmony keened as she leaned over to inspect it. “Oh hoho...! Got some mermare, Element bearer, and other bits in that cocktail. No wonder it was plenty strong!” she smirked jovially while glancing back approvingly to the stage, “They really have achieved a lot, and could do even more together.” An index finger tipped in a talon dipped into the mixture, glimmers of light across its edge working like a welder in reverse to isolate the various magics and draw an emerald brilliance to the claw. “There’s dark magic akin to Grogar’s doing there as well,” Bagan calmly posited as some of the greenish colored magic was isolated onto their now raised index finger, “The sirens no doubt inherited it. Wouldn’t it be dangerous to turn loose on the crowd?” The equine goddess shook her head with a shrug, “Could. But dark magic in itself isn’t evil. Evil might know it, evil might use it in some truly despicable means, but its nature isn’t evil.” She cast a knowing gaze upon Adagio Dazzle, who seemed to bask in the praise while exchanging a few looks with Sunset Shimmer. “They were created with evil, and could have been on that path once and they still need some correction; but the sirens are far from Grogar or his creations’ doing,” she affirmed with sigh and a tired, if still pleasant smirk, “And it’s not like this world is incapable of creating its own heroes, as one can see with the Rainbooms and their company.” “And it can seem equally fit at making its own problems,” her company poised while flicking away the remnants of magic and becoming quiet once again. A silence passed between the two of them for a time, a common occurrence since the portal to Zenith she’d left open was utilized for a visitation. Harmony feigned ignorance while following Bagan’s focus. It didn’t take magic to know where their line of sight had been even as she pointed out numerous sights and sounds in the crowd. Up past the stage and off to the side, at a radio tower that had been partially disassembled at the top to give someone else access to it. She’d known their eyes had been looking at it occasionally even before the cybernetic man atop it teleported away without anyone else noticing. “Well if your mind is going to be elsewhere, shall I move the perspective down to the pier to be where it is? All that energy over there has to mean something,” she humored with a shrug, “Not like we don’t really know what’s going on.” “Sarcasm is unbecoming of you,” her company grunted coyly, raising a hand and touching the tip of a claw to the viewing portal, as if testing to see if Extinction could pass through it to enter that realm as they had entered this one from Zenith. “You can’t go through that way,” Harmony interjected a bit curtly, raising a hoof as if to curl around and pull down their arm but stopping short of actual contact. Several of Bagan’s multiple eyes shifted in their sockets to look upon her, a motion of acknowledgment without the dignification of turning their head to address Creation directly. “You could open one,” Bagan interjected, untaking a claw off the portal, “Are you not concerned with your precious mortals suffering to watch from afar?” “Aren’t you the one concerned?” she pressed, jabbing a hoof in the dragon’s direction, “You show more worry than you let on… as for me, lack of direct witness is not out of lack of desire.” “Because these apex windigos are creations, spawn of your enemy Grogar? Loosed upon a world they shouldn’t be in. You’d think if not caged in this realm you’d destroy them in an instant,” Bagan questioned, already sensing they knew the answer. Harmony stilled before shaking her head slowly, “If I were to remove every trace of him existing, every disciple or creation, plenty would be well. And plenty more might not… No windigos means Aria, Adagio, and Sonata would be born as normal mermares to different sires, if at all. Melpomene would have succeeded her mother as queen, then Adagio. 1,000 years of hereditary rather than merit-based rule on an entire nation might change things drastically for good, or for ill… And no sirens means no exile by Starswirl, no chance encounter with your warrior, X, and all the good that has come of that. And that-” “You need to stop being so ruled by fear, Harmony,” Bagan interrupted her tirade with a surprising amount of calm in their voice that almost chanced to sound, with the quiet resonance, saddened, “You need to trust your judgement more.” Harmony straightened up and looked at the other deity, very closely as if to study for any deviations from the stoic norm "... What are you talking about?” Bagan stared at Harmony for a short time before seeming to sigh, putting a claw to the airspace above the enchanted walkway and twisting its wrist almost like it was unlocking a door with its claw as the key. The perspective on the viewing screen shifted, like a clock being wound backwards. A few days, a few weeks, months, and years. All until the landscape of Canterlot City was covered in a white out from a blizzard. All except for the grounds in which it seemed like Spring was treading forth on the feet of a single woman. One with the Elements of six, standing up to three living desolation events. Wysteria, Gaea Everfree, looked so courageous as she stood against the gnashing winds and biting hail; pink-red encircling her glowing green eyes and her floral tiara and enchanted hair withstanding the gales. Harmony shuddered as some memories returned, even as Bagan seemed to make a point not to allow the past to be replayed. “You could have forced your way into that world, even with but a fraction of your power you’d have crushed all three of them,” Extinction observed, stating it very matter-a-factly while holding on the visage of Wysteria’s face. A tiny tear leaked from either eye as the heroine knew she marched towards her demise, but marched on without pause. Harmony steeled herself, sighing after letting the pain subside, but never be forgotten. “If you seek to torment me with my loss, your efforts would be folly,” Creation sighed, accepting the recollections as they came. The memory of a deity was, after all, perfect; she needed no visual reminder of Wysteria’s struggle, her fears, or costly triumph, “I have grieved, but Wysteria made her choice despite my wishes. I helped as best I could… even tore off more of my power to make a seventh Element specifically after what she embodied.” “Empathy,” Bagan stated knowingly, having seen this past before when they were shown it. Harmony nodded as she let a small tear drop roll off her cheek. She gazed back at Wysteria’s march to her last stand, right off the back of spending time with her children before rushing off to save more, “She was not meant to be a Bearer of my Elements, nor especially do much with them while keeping them safe. Previous Retainers mostly took the powers, lived in isolation, and kept quiet. She’s the one who made herself into a hero, not the powers… made them her own that someone so loving as a spouse to share such secrets, so patient and caring as a mother to trade her present for her children’s future, and so courageous as to fight a losing battle on the chance to save a stranger-“ The Goddess turned to look at Bagan, saddened but totally unshaken and unmoved. She, in fact, in many ways never looked so radiant despite her loss when she smiled, “… Someone like that would be the type to be able to reach out to a washed-up old recluse like me. How could I turn away her desire to be herself?” Bagan was still unreadable as it looked at Harmony before looking back at Wysteria; as if trying to study something between the two. “Your self deprecations are undue,” the dragon deity noted, stealing a quick glance to Harmony, “My intent was not out of malice towards yourself or the late mortal… I was lamenting your fear in getting involved. Had you gotten involved personally, Wysteria might have yet lived.” “Yes, maybe... and maybe my act there would just make things worse later on, or deny greatness to another. Wysteria’s act led to the Element of Empathy, something not even I saw coming,” Harmony sighed with a shrug. “You’d be able to tell if you looked into the future more often,” Bagan replied with a glance to the ‘threads’ of memories it had once grabbed onto and glimpsed certain things yet to come in the moment. Within this realm, looking into time current, prior, and future was not impossible with the right magic. “And I told you, that the future is always plural. Even if I were to look into it, events could have already changed to alter it,” a bit more of her playfulness returned to her tone as she raised an eyebrow at Extinction, “Who knows, there’s probably more than one timeline where I convince you to follow my lead and give up some or most of that power.” “Unlikely.” Harmony chuckled mildly at the deadpan retort, exhaling contentedly as she looked back upon Wysteria. “If you must know, I am afraid of myself… yes. In fact I’d say I scare myself more than anything else does,” she noted while looking at her own reflection in the shimmering surface of the viewing screen, “Without peer, who’s to say I wouldn’t lose my way like my old partner did? In the first generation of mortals he and I aided, Grogar was known as ‘Kind Father’.” She closed her eyes and hung her head slightly at the mix of nostalgia and bitterness from a bygone era, “We walked amongst them then, the very first wedding ceremony was a tribal affair that involved him escorting all of the brides… he seemed so proud back then.” Harmony sighed, shaking her head at both the past and herself while keeping her head down and eyes closed, “And that was only 400,000 years ago, barely a blink for beings like you or I… look, I intervene, I just… Don’t do it directly. Better to trust mortals with the right choices and offer them the right tools if the situation calls for it.” “You ask yourself to have faith in them, but you have none in yourself,” Bagan muttered while reaching out. It seemed to hesitate for a moment, curling its fingers for a moment of unease. But after some thought, they reached out again. Harmony’s eyes short open at the quiet ‘tick’ of two surfaces touching, slowly letting her head get lifted up. For the first time since they’d fought one another or had their stand-off in their initial debate, they were touching. Bagan had the tip of a claw, the blunt side, pushed under the fork in her horn, and was using it to lift and tilt her head back up towards them. Some of the darkened distortions around their visage were ebbed away, bronze hide visible with clarity even if it was still not entirely clean in view. She could, however, see a frown stretched across their closed maw. “I watched my hunters because I am their master. When I recruited them and the other lot, and promised them their desires, I meant it. Every choice I’ve made, even when I tried to terminate a wildfire like Kaizer Ghidorah, I did with the intent of seeing that through. They are mine, so I will not be negligent. If they pray or ask for help, I will do what needs to be done.” “And yet sometimes, your choices were wrong. I don’t see you still trying to kill X.” “And I don’t see you trying to imprison me yet again,” Bagan notedly poignantly, “Minds change. It is my opinion now that fate decided I was wrong then. Just as 400,000 years of destruction convinced me I was wrong to let mortals learn magic. I never claimed to be infallible… Which means you aren’t either with this fear in yourself so heavily. Had I been Wysteria’s master, I wouldn’t have chanced it.” “And had you been in my place, Wysteria wouldn’t have been your servant as she never was mine,” Harmony sighed, letting a smile cross her muzzle at the life of her Elements’ previous Retainer. Not just her last stand, but the life before and all the moments within. Compared to those years of company and compassion, the last day was paltry, “She was my friend… Just like your hunters are beginning to be to you.” “Imprisoning yourself and never experiencing the world isn’t living. If Wysteria represented empathy so much, I doubt she’d wish your status upon you,” Bagan huffed while looking back at the present world, letting the echoes of the past fade away with Gaea Everfree’s visage pass into the ether, “As for my hunters, they all have faith in their master; it is only proper I have faith in their capabilities and survival. X and Gigan are down for different reasons, Irys is distraught, and Megalon soon will be as well. But they’re not out…” “You think they could get into a plan to turn this around then, and you’re not intervening because of that?” Harmony chimed, returning to her spot beside the other deity to watch the events of the singular present unfold. “The windigos won this day, but I’ve existed for many billions of them. I can afford the patience.” “Sure you’re just not afraid I’d stop you if you went barging in for whatever reason? Kept you from taking Celestia’s power for yourself after all,” Harmony quipped with a raised eyebrow, still privy to the distant shimmering of a sun-like star in her realm caught in the route between worlds. The alicorn magic was still stuck in limbo between the human and equine worlds, waiting for its host to return to merge back with her. The first time Harmony met Bagan, they fought. The second time, they debated on their dilemma. The third was a sudden invasion. Sunset Shimmer had called for help and Harmony watched on from her realm, like an overseer at a transport terminal as three more shapes and powers made their journey from Equestria through the Mirror Portal. She had been so impressed at how the group had gotten the portal working even without proper celestial alignment, and so proud at how quick Celestia, Godzilla, and Anguirus were to get personally involved that she had neglected to pay close attention to the Zenith portal. She’d been watching as the streak of light representing Celestia transferred through, a beam of pride on her face while she stayed hidden… Before a taloned hand covered in spinning, magical runes dove into the transference from the other side, through a portal leading back to Zenith, and grabbed the alicorn’s mana and magic. Her blue eyes dilated, becoming washed over with white light. The Goddess snapped to focus, ready to smite no matter who it was that got involved. Deadlock and planning be damned, this sort of matter was not something she would stand for. But as quick as it happened, it stopped. Harmony’s smiting ceased as the threat vanished away. Bagan let go of the magic and backed off, retreating back away from the Goddess and standing back in Zenith. Celestia made it through the transition without harm, aside from losing a sizable chunk of her magic and by proxy, physical age. Harmony watched as the Zenith portal closed, Extinction leaving empty-handed. Harmony braced for battle nonetheless, and stayed braced. She’d surrounded the alicorn magic with her own protective spheres of energy, letting it float as a glimmering star awaiting return to its rightful owner. At the time, she might have considered the possibility her presence forced a retreat. But something, many things didn’t seem right. And the sudden ambush was in jarring contrast to the very placid nature of the current visit and session of watching the mortals. Were they trying to take it for themselves? Were they trying to get her to take back the power she’d split away? Were they just trying to rile her? Was the attack really cut off prematurely or did they succeed in all they’d tried to do? How did they know Celestia would be coming? A billion questions, no answers until they spoke up or showed their hand. “….” Bagan was silent as they continued to watch the viewing screens, seemingly aloof to the point the narrowed-eyed goddess was making. They made and continued to make no motion towards the free-floating alicorn energy. True, it would be very foolish to go after that magic with Harmony directly in their presence; what with her desire to protect it until Celestia could rejoin with it and the protective wards she’d already placed around it. But the near-ambivalence to it was puzzling. “Huh, well either you’re brooding over me stopping you or have something else in mind,” Harmony huffed before taking the gall to lightly jab them in the side with her horn, “You get quiet and pensive when you’re thinking.” “And you are the opposite when you do the same,” the Terran deity grumbled, seemingly annoyed but hardly coming off as angered, “… I will intervene if I see the need. But, I trust in my hunters’ abilities as they must trust my own. If I can rely on them as my forces, they must be able to rely upon me as their master when they are without a chance at their victory.” Bagan paced, looking equal parts uneasy at old memories as they were espousing conviction about those yet to come, stiff in back but also tight in jaw, “I once gave civilization too much leeway, and the planet as well as beyond nearly paid the price. I will not be lax, not rash. I trust in the capability of who is mine to follow my instruction as my servants and hunters, just they trust I, as their master, will not abandon them. A master who cannot be feared to be respected, but also cannot be trusted in holds no power for long.” “Trust, huh? Is that what you're going to call it when it’s really like what I had with Wysteria, huh? Sure you’re not getting soft on them?” Harmony hummed as she shot Bagan a glance, “The word I would use, and the one you should use, is faith. You sound like you’re the one putting faith in them now.”  “You lamented that a lack of trust... or faith… is why the Kaizer Ghidorah incident played out as it did. That incident worked for myself one way or another, and I am too ancient to worry about setbacks. I am giving them acknowledgement. Mortals are not the problem, I do not blame my hunters nor other poor enlightened fools individually for their affliction; therefore I do not hate any of them. My own most so. Sapience that can devolve into civilization is the blight, an unfortunate side effect but one I can remedy. So, I see no reason I can’t trust those under my management,” Bagan’s response was not a retort, and their lack of argument risked making Harmony glow a tiny amount. “Really now? So when can I expect you to open up a school? If the biosphere is your concern, teaching others to live without destruction would be quite a sight-” Bagan actually turned and glanced at her before speaking in a mild deadpan, “-Civilization and stability mix like matter and anti-matter. I am a master of those I see worth and mutual benefit in. I will not try and fail at being a moderator to chaos once again. As for who is mine, they and the company your champions fight for do still have a means of victory. What’s your point in regard to myself being confident in their abilities?” Harmony released her tensions and closed her eyes in the company of an enemy, remembering a time far in the past when she consorted with someone who also became an enemy. Someone who created the very three catalysts for conflict now, the engineer of the windigos had once been even greater than a friend. And the latest reminder of their fall was the three creations of Grogar who’d killed the human who became her friend and became a plague on so many others. Snuffing the windigos out would be child’s play for her, even with a reduced capacity. But then what about a threat that might require more than her reduced state? What if she had to take away the agency of more heroes who used her magic, her relics, to get the power needed to overcome the enemy? And then what if the slope just got steeper and she needed more, and more? How slippery would it have to be before she was roaming around unopposed and at full power? It was tempting at many a time. As it was also tempting to go out and experience the living world, not just observe it from afar in lonely isolation to such a degree that even Bagan was welcome company. And at the worst of times, tempting to think the mortals were out of their league and required her to oversee them. Be their master. A worshipped goddess and queen once again… But, with an attitude like that, how could Wysteria have ever been her friend? And what kind of remembrance would she be keeping by slipping like that? Harmony smiled fondly at the struggling, but still resolute heroes. She could, at the least, afford the one thing her opposite deity once scoffed at. “You know, Grogar once argued the only purpose of faith was for mortals to have faith in a god, not the other way around. He never really could articulate the difference.” Bagan turned their head to her, the distortions and shadowing revealing a tired but almost curious visage, “And?” Harmony giggled and tilted her head, still looking at the world around her in the same wonder she had billions of years ago in her mind’s eye. It seemed a few of her unspoken ploys were beginning to pay off. “Hehe,” she sighed, even while feeling the negativity and strife coming from the battlegrounds at the pier as well as where X and Aria had been located. It would be extremely easy for almost anybody to lose hope, with the windigos achieving some of their best successes yet and wanting exactly that. It was her being conscious of the stage, the campground, and even the depths of the ocean; with their occupants, that gave her such hope. Such faith that the dominion of evil would only be a temporary venture. “Heeh… I guess it’s just nice to see someone else agree with me that he was wrong....” ============ The Western wind, Zephyrus, was the schemer. The source of their ploys and the engineer of success. The Northern wind, Boreas, was the driver, the force put at the forefront to make such will reality. It was the Southerly gales, inundated with frigid ice crystals, that was the enabler, that allowed the West’s plans to be put in motion and the North’s actions to execute those plans. He was a stalker, a hunter. Only revealing himself when absolutely necessary. But that didn’t change the fact he was as windigo. And a windigo did not live to seek purpose as much as they lived for a purpose. And the strife from the confrontation at the pier was a great yield. So much old negativity to push, so much wrath to feed off of. The dinosaur and bat were less appealing targets, he’d make a point to return to them soon enough; but the cyborg that had meddled with Zephyrus at the school… That was a different story.   So much fear in this one, so much doubt. And even as Irys helped him limp away, Notus followed and hounded them. Had circumstances been a little different the South winds might have tried their luck with a gigantic dinosaur or moth in human form in the departing battlefield, especially the latter. But there was a magic about her Notus didn’t recognize. And unless it was an emergency, self-preservation was in order. An encumbered hunter never prospered, and a dead one achieved nothing. Boreas would have charged into the pair instantly, with stabbing claws and gnashing of teeth upon their psyche. Even Zephyrus wasn’t entirely subtle, always preferring to let the prey know he was the one tearing into their heart. Notus, though his pace might vary depending on how much time they had and how much energy he could muster, preferred to keep it quieter. To strangle, not stab. To make prey think they were the one ending themselves and a source of their own misery. The cyborg’s already distressed mind was like an opened door, and Notus whispered into it with Gigan’s own voice for further effect. It seemed the conflict they had helped engineer had taken quite the interesting turn to create so much self-doubt. Ah yes, the responsible one. Thinking they were always the one keeping their family safe… yet the number of times this ‘Gigan’ had rushed into battle that put said family at risk… Notus dug into the mind, forcing the mind of a cyborg who was once and still feared being enslaved to do the work for him as the windigo checked through painful memories to find out more of its past. Now, where had these beings, these ‘Hunters’, hid his progeny?… Peachy Keen was trying to work through the crowds that had filtered in after the performance was done, in pursuit of Eventide Hymn. There were certainly risks, with all three Defender Kaiju absent and her in such a state, but one doesn’t rule for 1,000 years without knowing how to court risk assessment. And she wanted answers. She didn’t know who this girl was, other than she was not a siren and did not appear to be a normal human. She had good relations with the mermares for centuries, knowing more of the storied history behind the lost founder family of Mako than most did; entrusted with certain secrets by queens-past that had become her friends. She knew as far as they knew; that something truly evil had been responsible for the destruction of Queen Amatheia and her heirs. Some horrid event whose consequences have brought shame to the island so strong that not even some of the more recent queens were fully aware of what happened. Somewhere along the line it had been decided to scrub the nastier details from history, so some information was unknown even to her. Adding to the fact was Starswirl never liked to talk much about his confrontation with the sirens, and having happened in the time right after Celestia had lost her sister to Nightmare Moon and was borderline catatonic. So little information, though there was enough to speculate… Eventide Hymn was most certainly not a siren, though she did have inherent magic. Not even necessarily awakened, acquired, and cultivated magic like the Rainbooms, but something that was already there. Given the vagueness of history, she supposed it wasn’t impossible this Eventide was someone who slipped through the cracks. Maybe a normal mermare born of either Queen Amatheia’s daughters or an extended family member born from a cousin. Not a siren but loyal to family, loyal enough to wind up here and join forces with them in a bond. A bond that reacted to the enchanted music the Rainbooms put out. She knew exactly what she had seen when Eventide sang along with the group. It was precisely the same thing that had happened to Sunset when she experimented with the musical union and activated an Element of Harmony that Celestia presumed, but wasn’t quite sure, was Magic. It didn’t make total sense, as previously her theory was that Sunset Shimmer had taken up the same role Twilight Sparkle had, becoming this world’s Element of Magic to make them six for six. If this Eventide Hymn was also a bearer, that made seven; a possibility she didn’t know. Just like she didn’t really know who this girl was. But she desperately wanted to find out. Pushing through the crowds as best she could to make her way towards Adagio Dazzle and Eventide Hymn, who seem to be listening into a phone they had pulled up after stealing away to an isolated corner of the back area. By their expressions alone, she almost paused. Peachy Keen’s lips flattened and her jaw dropped slightly in concerned assessment. Eventide Hymn’s eyes widened in confusion, looking towards the ocean a long way off as Adagio seemed to visibly pale. A fleeting second passed before they jumped into action. Adagio seemed to drop everything she had to sprint for a van. Eventide flinched and looked back briefly after taking a few steps in pursuit, reacting to a voice over the crowd. “Wait!” It was only then that Peachy Keen realized she had called out, much louder than she thought herself possible to. It was no Royal Canterlot Voice, but it had pierced over the distance and crowds enough for Eventide to still and acknowledge it. Their eyes met for a brief moment, both pink haired young women locked in a long exchange with their eyes. There was something resembling recognition, personal or more acknowledgment of each other’s standing they couldn’t quite tell. But both could ascertain they wanted to close the distance and start talking. This conflict wasn’t helping anybody and needed to stop. One of them needed help and the other was willing to give it. “G-ak-EVENTIDE COME ON!” Adagio gagged before she stammered a roar as the van’s engine fired up. Peachy Keen looked to the other siren who was frantically calling out to her bandmate, showing much more distress than Celestia had ever seen her exhibit before. The orange siren was practically as pale as Eventide as she gripped the wheel. Eventide Hymn grimaced, looking to Peachy Keen briefly with her mouth agape like she was grappling the words. There were clearly a thousand thoughts racing through her head in the span of a few seconds and she had to choose just one to act upon. She chose two. “Tree angel, ‘The Big Freeze’! Look them up!” she shouted out while cupping her hands to direct it to Peachy Keen. The former Princess Celestia’s raised her brow as Eventide Hymn raised her hand and gave a somewhat awkward thumbs up and nod, seemingly forcing some kind of smile upon her face that still managed to be earnest. She acknowledged Peachy Keen and the Rainbooms closing in behind the smaller girl, almost promising to return and finish what they both knew needed to be started; before turning and jumping into the van to join Adagio. Eventide jumped into the back and, with some regret, shut the door as the van started to roll down the road towards the harbor. As they separated away from the crowds, there wasn’t a human in sight for a time. That was until they got close to the pier and saw the smoke. The band’s tires bumped and groaned after rolling over a few potholes, Adagio struggling to keep full control despite her shot nerves. Aria always was the better driver and her lack of presence was only making it worse. The signs of conflict were all too obvious, from torn pavement, sand flash fried into glass on the beach that looked like impact explosions frozen mid moment, several cars on fire, and a food stand only left recognizable by a surviving sign that was still smoking. The pier itself was missing a noticeable section, a large portion of the wood ripped outwards. Signs of strife, signs of conflict, and frost everywhere. There was a southerly wind moving through the location, blowing against the van’s windshield and edging it with frost. That was when a pale figure ran into the street from the North. Frantically waving her arms, Irys was yelling something inaudible as she pointed to an alleyway. Eventide leaned up in the middle of the van from the back seat as the van itself got within 10 meters of the alley. The sparks were the first thing seen, but the rest was soon revealed by the headlights. Eventide gasped, covering her mouth in shock. Adagio’s face went deathly pale and her fingers clutched the steering wheel so hard the knuckles seemed poised to burst out of her skin. Her jaw dropped open in muted, choked horror as the Southward cold blew against the windshield and swirled around her face. Gigan fidgeted and shook, his glasses dropped from his face and a mechanical eye made direct contact with Adagio’s shrunken orbs. Irys sprinted to the side of the van, grimacing all the way and ignoring some burns and bruises she sported visibly through the ruined portions of her outfit. She wrenched the door open so fast she almost tore the handle off like she had the last vehicle, “I need your help with him! I can lift him, but he’s so damaged he needs more support than I can give with two hands!” She panted, looking back to the twitching, sparking form of the cyborg, “And he just locked up suddenly, he won’t budge!” Eventide Hymn gulped and nodded as she made her way out of the seat belt and for the door, “R-Right! We can use a blanket in the back as a stretcher maybe!” The van rocked forward. For a split-second it almost seems like the van was being pressed forward, with the engine revving for speed. Adagio gagged and whimpered, face-to-face with reality that she had been running away from for years. Gigan’s camera lens-like eye sparked as his jaw quivered, the South winds howling again and forcing Irys to shield her face with her burned arm. The eldest siren could almost see the figure beside the cyborg, clutching his throat. Everything told her to run. All the warnings by her mother, even more of them by her aunt. Promises to keep the pod safe started and practically ended with them. If there was anything at all that could utterly shatter all of the bravado she’d ever cultivated over the years, it was what was right in front of her. “Adagio! What are you-“ Eventide was cut off when the van rocked, from Adagio stomping on the brakes and jamming the shifter into ‘parked’. Within the span of a second she had torn herself free of the seatbelt despite ripping her dress, practically vaulted out of the door and sprinted towards the downed Gigan, skidding on her feet and knees to stop beside him. To say he looked damaged was a stark understatement, one arm was virtually slagged like it had melted entirely, much of his jacket was burned off with the skin underneath taking damage, exposed wiring was sparking, his hair was discolored and missing in a few places, and there were more than a few bruises that look like scald marks. And yet despite looking like he had recently taken a dip in a volcano, he was icy cold to the touch. Frost was building up around his throat and mechanical arms, so cold that when Adagio put her hands on the sides of his jaw to try and lift his head up straight it almost burned. “Look at me! D-damn it Bolts-for-Brains look at me!” she winced as sparks shot out of his shoulder joint and struck her in the cheek. Gigan was trying to articulate something but was failing. Nobody was quite sure what it would look like for someone without eyeballs to have them roll back in their head, but he was giving a very good parallel. There were murmurings seeping through as Adagio’s gem glimmered with reddish light. “-y fa-lt… m- -ual-…” “Bastard!” Dazzle snarled at who was in front of her, but not to the cyborg, “Get out of him! Leave him alone!” “-fault… my-“ Gigan sparked and shook, but Adagio made no effort to let go. Adagio cried out as the cold numbed more of her body, “Bolts-GIGAN! Listen! You gotta do what you did at the school! You gotta-“ Gigan glanced at her necklace and Adagio caught the message. -The song! Auntie Hymnia’s song! I-It doesn’t feed strife, it quells it! I gotta use it, just like Aria d-!...- She tried to focus on the melody and warm her throat up. She managed to get a single note out when the southerly wind seemed to rush out of Gigan and flew directly into her. Adagio gasped and froze in place, milliseconds seeming like two minutes even as Eventide and Irys bounded after her. Every negative thought or action she’d had seemed to flood back in an instant. Many of them were in her own voice as her eyes glazed over. So many memories, distant and recent. Of ponies, of mermares, of kaiju, and of humanity. -“I turned away help out of isolation.”- -“I prized the crown even when I’d never seen Mako.”- -“I ravaged Equestria when they’d done nothing to me.”- -“I let my pride nearly push Aria into conflict.”- -“I let my paranoia keep Sonata reclused and controlled.”- -“I failed Aunt Hymnia to keep the pod safe, they would have died without Aria and X.”- -“I was too afraid to admit-…”- The cold enclosed in on everything. Freezing everything, even the depths of the sea. Notus, pulling at the strings of memory and speaking in her voice, delivered the message his compatriot had compiled for just such an occasion. Adagio Dazzle had schemed, stole, hid, lied, and attacked. How could she at all be a good siren, a good person? How could she be like her mother and not like... The frost took shape inside Adagio’s mindscape, of the nightmarish form her mother had refused to speak in depth of and thus it took the visage of everything the siren found horrible and evil. It was not an inaccurate depiction that loomed over her. The southerly winds in reality had become the westerly gales in mind, as Notus put forth Adagio's visage of Zephyrus to deliver a statement. -“… Thank you for all your assistance, Daughter.”- Tears ran down Adagio’s cheeks, of fear and sorrow mixed to essence Notus siphoned from in agreement. She’d make an excellent windigo yet. Back in the conscious world, the eldest siren and cyborg, forehead to forehead, fell back in unison; limp as the south winds ebbed away and departed, taking the cold with them. They were alike in one mind and one statement. -It’s all my fault…- If spirits were low with Irys and Eventide then, they got even lower when another form approached several minutes later after they’d carefully got Gigan and Adagio into the van. On a reflex, Irys pushed Eventide behind her as she got in front of the loaded van; but upon seeing the gold and black coloration on a singular form she was still. Magical wings flapped and allowed Kaizer Aria Blaze to stick a landing a short distance away. She didn’t say anything immediately, her face contorted in painful rage as a berserker tear ran down her cheek. Eventide Hymn gawked and curled her brow upwards, the good vibes from the stage show all but extinguished even if she didn’t know what was going on. Kaizer Aria approached, silent as she strode up to and then past Irys and Eventide, getting to the driver’s side door. Her face shadowed by short horns, she said only two words as she entered the van. “We lost…” ============== Half an Hour Prior ============== Boreas was thrown violently backwards after he attempted to pounce, practically laughing his jaw off upon hitting the brick wall hard enough to knock dust loose across the total surface. He cackled maniacally while trying to draw upon what this body had, the gravity around him starting to distort chaotically. -“He doesn’t know how my- his- X’s powers work!”- Kaizer Ghidorah cried out mentally. Aria Blaze cringed slightly upon hearing a voice very much like her X’s between her ears, especially when said voice was similarly as different as it was alike. The inflection, tone, and even a bit of accent were different for Kaizer Ghidorah. It was like hearing somebody else speak through X’s mouth. -“ That means he’s helpless…”- Kaizer Aria snarled as she lunged forth with a burst of motion from her energy wings, reaching forward and gripping Boreas in a wave of distorted gravity and wrenching him forward. The possessed was yanked off the wall by invisible forces just as the energized siren flew into him at full speed to bury a fist in his gut. Boreas flailed and snarled even as he gagged, trying to lash out with a manic strength and total disregard for his injuries. Aria wasn’t as skilled a close quarters combatant as X, but she was certainly not a novice and had more than enough energy to back her up despite prior wounds. Boreas snapped around from an elbow strike to the chest, trying to work the body he was now inhabiting as a shell. Gravity was distorting in a constant fluctuation, yellow sparks starting to appear from the eyes but only briefly. He snarled when the sparks faded away, trying to back step and avoid a series of strikes from the enraged siren; only meeting partial success given she was far faster and equally aggressive. -“ Siren, remember we can’t kill them, it would stop the demon and would forever bind us.”- Aria winced back pain she felt upon striking again, even before a frantic return blow struck her gut. -“I. KNOW. But it wanted his body to do harm, maybe if we can damage it enough he’ll leave it.”- -“If you have the courage to strike what looks like your beloved. And that relies on him not knowing the healing prowess of a Ghidorah.”- -“Then we’ll take him down and back with us to be cured!”- -“And that relies on him not knowing how our powers work!-“- -“What are you saying?!”- -“Aria! X, I, gave you the boost not just to keep them from having my strengths but also to-!”- Boreas staggered backwards after getting pummeled by a roundhouse kick to the back of the head, only to catch himself on the brick wall with such force that the icy talons tipping his fingers dug into the stonework and mortar. The windigo straightened itself up and seemed to take in a deep breath, having a moment of contemplation as it drew upon something. Kaizer Aria wasn’t wanting to give him any more than the briefest of respites she’d offered to see what he was doing. She lunged forward with gravitons crackling across both of her hands. Boreas responded by whirling around, bellowing his manic laughter as graviton flares fired from his eyes and struck his daughter across the chest hard enough to blast her into the wall. The windigo canceled the rays, more due to lack of full control than will. “Haha, oh what a gift, what a wondrous gift indeed, dear daughter!” Boreas cackled as he stepped over rubble and loose bricks, reaching up towards his face and neck, “I might come to like this body more than my original! Such a penchant for destruction, this alien!” Kaizer Aria was not downed for long by the blast. In truth it had barely hurt her as much as it had shoved her through the wall. But feeling altered gravity, a power she was trained in. A power she controlled because it was commanded by one close to her. Feeling it strike her was yet another bastardization of whom she held dear. Green mists billowed out of the building so much it flooded the streets, flooded them in tandem with a roaring scream of pure hatred that was as much a proper roar as it was a shriek. Kaizer Aria exploded out of the rubble and had a massive swell of energy swirling around her in a vibrant display of gold that was just beginning to take the shape of something. It collected in her opened maw, fangs bared as her equivalent of the massive graviton torrents Kaizer Ghidorah could bear was brought forth. Boreas made no attempt to dodge. A mask and scarf were discarded into the wind and Kaizer Aria was run through by cold. Not physically, but mentally. A face very few had ever seen looked at her plainly, totally devoid of ice and the manic visage of the windigo. He, X, looked startled and even horrified, eyes wide with confusion that managed to poke through an omnipresent sadness. Loneliness was evident in the cinnabar red, as if this was the first thing he was seeing in a long time. The very face Aria had seen in some of their most private moments, cast to sadness as deep as the sea. She couldn’t avoid canceling out the graviton scream, unable to fire as she sailed closer. As the milliseconds ticked by and she saw no trace of her despised sire within those eyes of red, flickers of hope chanced to spark that the horrific beast had vacated the body of her lover. Those were soon canceled when Boreas took over the gaze once again and skillfully brought up his arm to block her lunge in a clearly trained maneuver. “Paah! Got you!” Boreas cackled as he split X’s face with a grin. Kaizer Aria snapped out of her stupor in time to see the punch aimed for her face, redirecting one of her forearms to block it. She tried to follow it up with a knee strike, but the possessed kaijin rotated on a heel and diverted himself to her side. Jumping up, he spun around to crash a backhand across her head. It didn’t do much to stagger her, the power just wasn’t there. But it was noticeably stronger than before, and not at all like the previous manic flailing he had done before. That maneuver was… familiar. Kaizer Aria’s eyes widened in recognition, even as she blocked another attempted follow up blow and violently threw Boreas to the ground. The windigo kept laughing like this was a playful spar with his long-lost kin, as the alley was flooded with strife, anger, and hatred. Zephyrus’ awareness returned to himself, the alpha windigo groaning after the burst of magic from the concert did the equivalent of briefly blacking him out and giving him a migraine. But even with the splitting headache and he was all too aware of his surroundings soon enough. And the massive amounts of misery that was everywhere. Both from Boreas’s spawn, who was curiously in a new state, and his human charges. Wallflower Blush was sobbing, absolutely beside herself as she tore off a chunk of her sleeve to try and bandage up a gash on Twilight’s scalp. She was yammering something but it was completely inarticulate with how distraught she was, and Twilight could best be described as only a few paces above catatonic. Zephyrus resisted the urge to try and rush forward, communing with the latter girl’s body and magic, and resumed the great power they had once wielded. Boreas probably would have in such a situation and he could feel Notus’ eyes upon them. Whether that last part meant his cohort had achieved his objectives to deliver the message to Zephyrus’ spawn and cause further damage as he could before only now returning or if Notus had been observing the proceedings with hope of opportunity meant little. If Zephyrus was so foolish as to let his plans be so easily undone by treachery he didn’t deserve to lead. Gales of wind from the West blew into the winds of the South, Zephyrus’ communication to Notus regardless of his cohort’s standings. Zephyrus paused at the visions he was subjected to, ones of Notus’ perspective and memory. In particular, thought showing how the finale of the concert had gone when viewed from a safe distance. How the strife between siren and enchanted human had fizzled out. And Harmony’s taint was beginning to spread once again. He had succeeded with his other venture, strife and torment had been delivered successfully to the lead siren to further dampen her abilities and remove her piece from the board, and Notus had perfectly positioned likewise for one of her kaiju allies. After that however, there was something quite promising hiding in the ocean as of now. Something he could sense had once gone through quite a bit of strife, rage, and torment. He saw prey and wanted to hunt the challenging quarry. No memory stone to assist as Boreas had gotten. Zephyrus gnashed his ethereal teeth as his westerly winds roared, giving a command Notus wasn’t keen to oppose. If he wanted his hunt and challenge, he could have it after he succeeded with phase one, delivering strife to Zephyrus’ spawn and that petulant cyborg that had troubled him at the schoolyard. After all, Zephyrus knew how his cohort worked and success in the venture the South Wind was demanding after his latest achievements was appealing. Stealth wasn’t Boreas’ forte and Zephyrus himself was needed elsewhere. Besides, they still had the contingency plan for Notus’ spawn. Divide and divide them, their best chance at success for their ambitions. Zephyrus let some of the malefic strife, and negativity that had come from Twilight flow into Notus to further empower the other windigo, before bidding him to return as soon as he had afflicted Adagio Dazzle and Gigan. Notus’ southerly winds blew back briefly before departing. Zephyrus turned his attention to his charges. Wallflower felt a cold come near her, a near unbearable frost that blotted out all feeling. It was one, however, she had felt before. Back then it scared her, but now she was desperate. “Z-Zeph-Zephyrus!” Wallflower sobbed as she looked to the near amorphous mass of dimly glowing ethereal magic of whom’s presence she could feel close, “Tw-Twilight she-“ -“Will live,”- Westerly winds blew across Wallflower’s face as the calm, wise-sounding voice echoed towards her, -“But we cannot tend to her here. You must flee.”- Wallflower shuddered as the buildings rattled from the sounds of battle, seeing the towering man she had attacked with the Memory Stone was currently throwing multiple roundhouse kicks in sequence to the transformed monster of a woman. “W-Who?! I hit him with the stone and now he’s- He’s crazy!” Wallflower gasped, “What is going on?!” -“He is being controlled by an ally.”- “There’s more Winter Spirits?! I thought you were the only-“ A westerly gale slammed into the florist and threatened to impale her with frigid sheer cold. -“ You must focus Wallflower, or do you want Twilight to die here?”- Wallflower quivered and shuddered, the cold starting to creep over her and through her skin. -“ Every moment you waste here, Twilight suffers agony. And that which will stop at nothing to see to it she’s given more so. So, you can either continue to be useless as you have for years or you could be of service to your friend and get her where I can save her life. Understand? Her blood’s already on your hands, do you intend to get more because you can’t act?”- Wallflower looked down and by means of both carrying her and trying to bandage her up, she saw the telltale red stains with horror. So many emotions, all negative were quickly flooding through the already poor minded girl’s head. One would think that after years of loneliness, isolation, humiliation, and sadness such things would be dulled. But pepper in a little responsibility, and the knife not only cuts deep but twists on the way in. Zephyrus knew how to play any type of misery like an expert composer. It was just a matter of plucking the right strings. He stoically lowered himself to her ear, sampling some of the strife and hatred coming off Kaizer Aria that was being seasoned by Wallflower’s misery and distress. He collected it up as one would a roll handcrafted incense into a pipe to smoke, savoring the flavor. He inhaled it, sampled it, before blowing the awful concoction washed over the hurting Wallflower, icy talons starting to dig into her mind so he could pluck the strings. -“Now... run.”- Wallflower Blush obeyed, now without any thought. Zephyrus saw her go and set to follow, before glancing back at the battle. Kaizer Aria threw Boreas against the wall, firmly pinning him against it with graviton streams fighting through her weaker force. She was clearly the superior combatant, but the gap was closing somewhat. Whereas before Boreas had blustered through blows and lashed out with wild abandon, he’d taken to dodging, blocking, and using stolen powers with greater effectiveness. Even so, Aria would have trumped him had she been going all out. But against the face grinning through bloodied lips at her, the empowered siren felt a tremor. Boreas cocked X’s brow and chuckled as he shook his head, arms pinned down beside himself as his eyes flickered on and off with golden sparks. “Oooh, don’t stop now. I was just beginning to enjoy our first bonding moment!” Boreas gurgled with a laugh as blood spat from his throat and caused Aria to wince as X’s ichors hit her gemstone. She snarled and cocked a hand back with a balled fist, tears streaming from her eyes. -“ARIA!”- Kaizer Ghidorah roared with her mind, -“The rage, it’s only feeding him as mine once did you.”- “Oh?” Boreas’ brow lifted with recognition at the voice, “Got a passenger aboard in that head of yours, do you daughter dearest? Is he why I feel the scraps of memory within this form are incomplete? So shredded and messy, ancient as they may be.” -“…”- Boreas barely stifled another uproar as he looked at Aria’s face but into Kaizer Ghidorah’s visage beyond it, “Ah yes, I can rip into minds; gotta be able to see what I’m looking into. So many fun games of which to play this way. Ah! Like this one!” He strained but not from pain and rather from sheer effort. He pushed against the bonds of altered gravity that held him at bay with a manic strength, his joints horribly starting to pop and grind from overexertion at bad angles. Kaizer Aria’s eyes widened before she lunged forward to pin his elbows down with her hands, having to get so close that her forehead was pushed up against his own. She could smell X’s blood on his breath and was sickened. “Ha!” Boreas cackled, “You break his bones or I break his bones, we can rip his body apart together!” Kaizer Aria shook as her eyes darkened. -“Aria…”- Kaizer Ghidorah all but whispered. She lowered her head, hiding her face from the grinning monster that had all but destroyed her mother. -“Aria… Even if we win this, we lose.”- She committed Boreas’ laughter to memory, if only to have ambitions of making sure none might hear it one day. -“…. We have to go.”- Boreas was thrown out of the alleyway, still laughing hard enough to tear his throat. Kaizer Aria hovered above the snowy landscape, the battlefield that had been created by her own plan. The seeming fate of her lover, possessed by a nightmare from centuries past, an unforeseen consequence from her strive to restore family pride. She hoped this day would bring back one loved one, but she’d lost-…. Her fist tightened as she forced the cold away, shaking all over in a way that threatened to burst for several long seconds. Kaizer Ghidorah was saying something but she couldn’t register or heed it. She didn’t for a time, only with herself in mind. She let her hands drop her sides, still balling fists in assurance. The shadow of her horns covering her eyes was lifted away when she raised her head back up. The impaling look she gave her sire, not a glare nor leer he might draw sustenance from, silenced Boreas. Kaizer Aria looked at the bastardized notion of her lover and thought of only one simple declaration, devoid of altering emotion or passion that might muddy intent. It was stated with the plainness one might expect from saying the sky above was blue, but with all the impactful blackness of an ocean’s depths. She showed no fear nor hesitation in the declaration. “…. You’ll wish you killed yourself when you met my mother.” With that, she flew off into the outskirts of town, heading for the distant forests. Boreas stood alone in that icy alleyway, his northerly winds audibly whipping in the air. As the snow started to fall he lowered his brow into shadow, crackles of golden energy sometimes illuminating a still, silent maw. =================== When Twilight awakened, she would have woken up screaming had her body not been wracked with so much aches and pains. She heaved in a breath but instantly was caught in a self-repeating cycle of coughing and gasping because of several shattered ribs and a severely bruised diaphragm. Wallflower was the only thing she could see as tears started to clog up her vision. Wallflower Blush had seemingly spirited her away to some room or car, but her cornucopia of senses could not definitively tell her where they were and what her only friend in the world was saying. She herself couldn’t say anything, only feel and sense what little she could. And she could feel a familiar cold circle around her like a wisp of wind. There was some sense of relief, as no doubt her mentor Zephyrus was partially responsible for helping her survive her encounter. He must’ve appeared at the right time and place to- No… No... She remembered from what little she could. She remembered the purple siren, Aria, giving her the beating of her life. She thought the siren was going to kill her! She remembered all that fear and anger coming into her mind like a surging tide, a drowning tide. And Zephyrus was just watching, letting it happen even as she reached out to him and whimpered for help. Like he was wanting it to happen… She felt cold inside and out, wanting nothing more than to get away from the winter spirit as she detected his presence drawing closer. Through the sensory fog and her ears ringing she could just barely perceive Wallflower mentioned something about a hospital. Yes! Anywhere but here anywhere but with this, this creature! The cold stabbed into her head like an icicle had just been gouged into it. The room around her was forcefully torn back to the alleyway, all her memories of what happened put on grisly display and exaggerated from her own emotions. Aria Blaze looked like nothing short of a demon, tearing at her defenses; tearing at her body! All of her wounds acted up in sequence as she was forced to revisit each and every blow. There was a blue and green mist billowing off her and heading into Zephyrus. And it didn’t stop there! She saw so much else! A woman clad in what looked like living foliage, almost like some kind of forest nymph or angel. Twilight Sparkle recognized a bit of the look from descriptions she’d gathered from the town that happened over a decade ago when she first started investigating the magic. Somehow a name or perhaps a title was put forth to mind. Retainer. Of what she didn’t know, she only saw what looked like frostbitten arms with gnarled claws ripping their way through foliage to get at her as she tried to fend them off. There were three counting the point of view. Twilight wanted to vomit! The disgust these beings gave off at mere vision alone, not even accounting for the obvious malevolence about them, ripped at her stomach as they fought the nymph. Twilight could almost feel the terror within her every step of the way. The nymph was fighting back hard, but that terror seemed to create green and blue mists that the monsters seem to almost feed on. Then she saw an island in the middle of the sea, one surrounded by perpetual snowstorms. There was a single form emerging from the waters below. It was equine and yet clearly marine, a hippocampus perhaps. Twilight was less enraptured at the sight and more the sensations that ripped through her. In measurable coldness and sadness, one that clutched at her heart and threatened to crush it. The hippocampus, Queen Amalthea by name though Twilight didn’t know how she knew such, spoke up and though the words were garbled by the cloud of memory and emotion; the deep mist of green and blue coming off her was evident enough. She asked where her daughters were, asked for them back while offering herself. Zephyrus, for Twilight knew this had to be his memories, just callously tossed two broken crowns at the queen as he tilted his head. The blue mist of sadness and green mist of strife were so overwhelming that it seemed to drown the very sea. Zephyrus, completely unmoved, callously watched as regality broke and departed as the tidal waves started to be thrown at him. The battle was short, he had elsewhere to be. There were so many more, so many hundreds more. It was impossible to keep count and yet each one was given with such clarity she would never forget what she saw. Never forget what Zephyrus had witnessed or inflicted. She tried to scream but her throat wouldn’t open, like more of the horror and sorrow was being forced in for consumption. Looking in the reflection of a window across the room, Twilight’s eyes bore witness to her predicament. Bloodied and bruised on the floor with one of the same horrific monstrosities she saw in the battle against the nymph cradling her in its arms, almost like some grotesque parody of tenderness. Gaunt limbs were wrapped around her, a frostbitten finger gently caressing her lips. The visage that the icicles growing on the bottom of the exposed rib cage and upper portions of the hips created to resemble a gaping maw seemed poised to swallow her up. Wallflower Blush, unable to see any of this, raced back to her side as Twilight started to convulse. “Twilight?! Twilight! You-you gotta stop moving! You might break something worse!” Wallflower cried out as she tried to hold her thrashing friend down, fearing the convulsions might further damage any wounds to her neck or back; or exasperate broken bones. She tried to hold Twilight down by the shoulders, but her friend seemed poised to launch her off at any moment. A cold feeling settled over Wallflower almost like something was putting their hand upon hers. She recognized the sensation and cried out with a sob. “Zephyrus! Zephyrus, you gotta help her! She’s going into shock!” The lonely girl cried. It would be harrowing enough to see this happen to even a stranger, but to have it happen to the only friend she’d ever known was ripping at her heart, “The ambulance is gonna take a while!” Cold wind seemed to slither across the room and the winter spirit manifested visibly. His noble brow and calm visage were furrowed at his pupil in a way Wallflower took as worry, “It is beyond my power, for now…” “W-What?! What do you mean for now!? Can you do it or not?!” “She would have to be stabilized,” Zephyrus retorted. Wallflower told herself the calm in his tone was just because he was trying to keep her from panicking as well, but part of her mind didn’t buy it. “HOW?! I-I don’t know any medicine! She-She’s!” Wallflower wheezed before gagging. In her thrashing Twilight had kneed her in the stomach and it took a lot for Wallflower to keep the air in her lungs despite the gagging. Her convulsing friend was just as incomprehensible as ever. “She is blighted by what she has seen, what she has experienced,” Zephyrus declared sagely. Wallflower felt a horror wash over her, looking down with teary eyes at her convulsing friend who looked like she was having a seizure out of sheer terror and pain. Wallflower could guess what Zephyrus meant, the beating she had endured at the hands of the siren. A cold slithered over her head. “You didn’t get there fast enough, you caused this, Wallflower. You seem to have gotten your best friend, your only friend, desolated,” Zephyrus stated plainly, causing Wallflower to whimper and sputter as the self-doubt started to crush her. The blue and green mist of magic she gave off so unbeknownst to herself was some of the strongest Zephyrus had seen in a long time. He would’ve taken it for himself as his gain, but this was another’s trophy. He wasn’t the one who stalled her after all. He let the mist slither away to the awaiting form of the hidden and returned Notus. Zephyrus hissed approvingly, knowing Notus’ return meant both Gigan and Adagio were afflicted with the plagues the windigo could so readily inflict. That boost had worked wonders, so a second boost would further help seal the deal in granting Notus victory over that leviathan in the ocean. Zephyrus had smelled the strife coming off Godzilla from their current position and the proposition of Notus claiming that trophy was appealing for their goals. Zephyrus siphoned the suffering and negativity off of Twilight, weaving a bit of his own magic into it to further give his comrade a boost before bidding him off. Notus stoically examined the power, quite possibly the most mighty he’d ever been since losing his body, before rushing out across the winds and heading for the ocean. Zephyrus shifted and enclosed some of his presence upon Wallflower more, almost like he was putting his hand on her shoulder. Twilight Sparkle tried her best to yell at her friend, scream at her to get away from the monster as the skull-like face loomed over them both. Zephyrus moved the finger tracing across her cheek and half frozen tears to invisibly hold her mouth shut. “But you can fix this….” Wallflower flinched, whimpering as she looked down at the memory stone on her necklace. The glazed over, sobbing eyes of Twilight failed to signal her friend about the danger. Wallflower gripped the stone in shuddering fingers as Zephyrus gripped her hand and pointed it at Twilight. Wallflower whimpered as she tried to nod to her friend assuringly. She would make those bad memories go away, all of them go away…   ============== After all the chaos that had followed him around for so long, being back in the depths was comforting. The pull and tug of currents, so gentle in manner and yet so powerful as to move him around if he permitted it, was all welcome paradox. For all but the earliest instances of his life, he knew he would always be gigantic; physically dwarfing both the beasts and flora of nature as well as the dominions of mankind. Sure he might find a building taller than himself, but what was that but an extra tall or extra heavy piece of chaff to a being that could treat glass, concrete, and steel like a human might cardboard? It was a false enormity, skyscrapers. But the sea, that was something truly gigantic to him. What else could you use to describe something that seemed to go on forever, could swallow up the tallest mountains without raising an inch, and could so casually move his enormity about without an active force? Godzilla tasted the salt, felt the currents, and closed his eyes to think as he waited out whatever was left of the transformation timer. Had he been in a rush he might have experimentally tried constantly blasting his beam off into the distance to see if burning through energy would speed up the hypothetical countdown, but there was no need. That fight was over, even if others tried to make it so. Junior hadn't been expecting Irys to suddenly attack him. He hadn't been expecting Gigan to appear out of nowhere and fight on her behalf after he had disabled her. They being allies was not something he or anguirus could have possibly expected, and yet it was so blatantly obvious in how they acted. Even holding back on account of not trying to kill Irys, Godzilla knew full well they were terrified of him. That was, after all, a reaction he knew well. -And yet they fought tooth and nail trying to protect each other, from you…- That wasn't a simple alliance of convenience, that was camaraderie. They both knew each other's abilities well and had relied on each other multiple times before. Still, he could have bested them both. Had they been fighting in their true forms maybe it would have been different, if they had the power and advantage of flight; but even with the new powers Irys demonstrated and the new upgrades Gigan sported, Junior was still confident he could have defeated them if given enough time or opening. His powers were more intact, and he was probably more used to fighting on the ground. The main reason it had been taking so long was the tricky business of defeating without killing, especially when he never got the chance to focus on one of them. Otherwise, he could have probably disabled them with about as much issue as he had with Irys alone. But then, the saurian smelling salt from the ocean water reminded him of how he wasn't smelling blood anymore. He absent-mindedly touched at his scaly hide, finding plenty of old scars but barely any marks that might be from the most recent scuffle. It took a lot to get through his hide in this state… -But not so much as a human. I might be tougher than the typical primate but I did lose a lot of armor…- Lack of armor meant he bled a lot more. And with him wearing clothing that would have absorbed the redness leaking from him even as the wound sealed…. Junior shrugged and shook his head, the horrified and wide-eyed look on his best friend being extremely vivid in memory. Rainbow's reaction likely only further sealed it. The frustration of his current predicament was now dueling with a cold punching through his heart. Two voices of one mind argued over which was worse. His frustration and rage born from Lea forcing this change on him and dredging up a potent old fear, or the grief and strain also a plague about his mind when he tried to not think about how badly maimed he must have looked. Hot and cold coursed through every vein, scaly lips curling into a distressed snarl. Godzilla started to shake his head back and forth, scaring off many fish that were investigating him. -How could she have done this to him? She should have known better than anyone!- -You let your fear lead to you charging off alone again, disregarding your friends. You terrified her!- -She ignored a direct plea and wouldn't stand down when the fight was over!- -She was already mentally strained, you not valuing yourself like you promised led to this!- -I gave her a direct order and she made it worse!- -Order?! She's not our servant, she's one of our oldest friends!- -She could have killed someone!- -She was trying to save our life!- -I was never as bad as I looked!- The back and forth surges attracted a presence like a magnet. Impossibly, the surface of the ocean started to freeze as an invisible force from an eons old evil dove down with intent. This would be a mighty hunt, but it also promised an even mightier trophy. But control would include both force and whittling this brute down… A third whisper joined the mental conversation. -You should have never come here...- -I was trying to capture, not kill like she tried to.- -Lea doesn't trust you, just like you didn't trust her with Irys' secret.- A brief flash of memory recollected to Infant Island, a place so very few had tread and yet he was always welcomed. It was still as beautiful as when he had first seen it. Especially when under the wings of the first confidant to assure him, after his coronation and growth, of his worth. -I should have told her! Even if I worried we've known each other for decades.- -You wanted her gone, just like the others that have hurt you. Your hatred…- Hatred. Godzilla remembered the name and face he used to describe that word for so long. Mitsuo Katagiri. He remembered that face both when he looked up at it while strapped down to a table, and looking down upon it as he towered over the man who sought his demise. The scream from his own demise was still vividly remembered. Gigan, Irys, Ghidorah, Orga, Hedorah, Trespasser, the faces that bore hatred to any degree were pushed to the forefront of Godzilla's mind by Notus. The first blow was struck, the door to the mind cracked slightly ajar. The Windigo reveled in it, the negativity, the strife! This monster had been drowning in it for years! So many battles! So many scars! So much potential for hatred! Notus brought it down upon the consciousness again and again, striking blow after blow. Even the greatest beast in body had a vulnerable mind. Godzilla growled and thrashed from the visions, Notus’ words pretending to be Junior’s own thoughts. -You could have ended so much of your hatred so long ago if you just acted!- -I did at times…- Monsters torn limb from limb. Invading alien craft blasted from the skies. He could have squashed Gigan and Irys like fleas with a flick of a finger or utterance of breath! Make them pay for the wounds they caused him! Make them suffer as the other should have! Cities could have burned. The Invaders rendered extinct! Destroy, just destroy as that is what he did best! He might have done it better than any other could possibly! The old scar on his upper chest, a blast wound from a nightmare he wasn't sure was a nightmare throbbed. -No consciousness, no restraint, just destruction… It would have made everything so easy…- The faces of any he ever bore hatred towards continued to flash before his eyes. Amongst them he saw his best friend in that moment of mania as well as…. As well as when Xenilla first and last attacked the places he called home. -You’ve thought about terrible things, but what is wrong to those that are mighty? What is- Notus stopped, having just arrived in the mental space. It was all whiteness at first, before the ground split open. Geysers of seawater surged upwards and rapidly drowned everything, the spiteful spirit forcibly submerged even as it tried to rise and take control. Its disgusting form was violently wrenched down into the depths that seemed to go on for infinity. Through the fragments of memory Notus grasped that he was not the first invasive force to be here. And not the first force to try and use that kind of doubt and temptation to seize control. The Nightmare had been overpowered by trauma. The windigo was subjected to something else entirely. The exact opposite, in fact. -Wait... But... I forgave them… I forgave them!- Notus shrieked at what stabbed into it like a massive claw. The invading Xenilla and blasted, burning islands were replaced by a clean hospital room and a laughing face. -I forgave Xenilla, my brother. My family isn't fractured anymore.- Another claw gouged through. The missile launchers at Amami Island faded from memory and instead bore witness to an intact and welcoming Canterlot. Captain Frost was joining him and Princess Celestia for a visit to the gifted school. Notus tried to reassume control of the momentum, speaking in Godzilla's own voice to try and further make those worst thoughts the strongest at the surface, twist the words to condemn. -I forgave the humans, I protected them. And yet they sent me here!- Godzilla, increasingly aware, shoved that budding hatred aside and remembered instead the still-standing cities teeming with life because of his hard work. -That was an accident on their-!!- The winter spirit was impaled by another talon. Another outburst of happiness weaponized. This time there wasn't any bad memory to be quickly replaced by a good one, it started peaceful and stayed peaceful. Sitting in front of Star Swirl the Bearded's grave, he silently brushed a hoof along a small scar on Luna's underwing as she traced one over his cheek. -Reckless destruction would leave me alone, and there's nothing I'm more afraid of than that!- Notus grimaced and uselessly thrashed as another claw ran through his body in the mindscape, the near-infinity of the ocean taking a sort of form. The four talons mounted on a gigantic arm attached to a leviathan with glowing eyes. The memory of that first night on Infant Island was pushed to the forefront. A gentle voice just as vivid in detail now as it was when initially heard as Mothra Lea perched on his head and held him. -"I promise you as you promise me, you will never be alone…"- At a time when the world didn't make sense, when he was crowned king without ever wanting to be, and sported power that terrified his beloved humans almost as it did himself… having a friend even as the King of the Monsters, the first one to fully witness and react to his current state even with their family histories, was what set him apart from those that came before. All of his focus was now on the presence he could now perceive, that which stuck out in his mind now that it could no longer hide as part of himself. -I'm already not alone. I was never alone as much as I thought it! And I. Don't. Want. Your. Company!…- Lea’s presence grew. Faces and places flew past in the mindscape. His allies in Anguirus, Rodan, Gomora, Gamera, Orka, Raiga, and more. Friends and sights of the past that tethered him to humanity unlike his predecessors, Hopkins, Kazuma, Miki, Yuji, and Io. His family with his sister and a restored brother, alongside his still living mother. And that pool had only grown and grown since arriving in Equestria, the wishes of his Terran loved ones compelling him to live and Equestria giving him a chance to truly do so.  The happy faces of Captain Frost, Celestia, Chibi, Maui, Twilight, Moonbeam, his own mother returned to him, and most of all, and alicorn of beautiful blue; filled his mind with kindness and joy. Godzilla turned his full attention to Notus’ presence in his mind, the roaring seas emulating his titanic shape in full as more blows rained down on the villain. The windigo cowered back, shrieking as another blow impacted its center mass like a haymaker. The impact against the malefic was the compassion and benevolent pride a teacher felt in their student, helping give the next generation another hero. The memories of Chibi Moon’s antics and lessons caused Notus to get sent flying into the depths. Another blow, another sight. The comradery and peacefulness of honest work with Captain Frost as they spent a night at the tavern with the guard. That joy, a stomp on Notus’ chest as the windigo’s very presence seemed to shrink. Blue lights flickered in the seas above Notus’ illuminating a gargantuan leviathan. Many other persons and places moved through the ocean, the sea a gout of benevolence toxic to the icy horror. Chiefest of them was the source of silvery light above the seas. The one who set him up with a purpose as a teacher, reunited him with his mother, set him on a path to rekindle his family, and set a spark decades on Terra had never ignited. It was, to Notus’ horror, one with the distinct semblance of Harmony’s presence that Godzilla had bonded to so much. And he had just practically let that love come raining down on the windigo with an azure flame. -GET OUT!- The windigo was thrown down and felt tiny, insignificant. A speck of ice in front of a tidal wave. Now Notus was the one under attack, on the retreat. He couldn’t fly through the mindscape of Godzilla’s consciousness, he was forced to the depths, scampering and shrieking in rage and spite at how miniscule his influence had gotten. He was dragged to the bottom of the ocean within the mind, drowned, crushed, and pinned. The spirit of suffering, styling themselves a hunter, was nothing but prey before the force confronting him. For the first time in its long, wretched life, even compared to the moments Notus was confronted with Harmony’s magic in full, the windigo was afraid. The titan proceeded to grab, crush, stomp, and bash Notus across the length of the seas, beating him down with hope. He fled from it, but it was everywhere and always on the attack. Attacking and injuring evil with good. Had Notus tried his ways with a foe who was recently put in a bad state of mind, or had gotten to the Monster King months or years prior to the journey to Equestria and all the company and lessons it offered, Notus might have seen some measure of success in his hunt. Instead, the frozen miscreant was himself horrified. Because the Odo Island heir to destruction wasn’t just a monster or king. Princess Luna’s bonded, Chibi Moon and the Rainboom’s mentor, Lea’s best friend, his siblings’ brother, and his parent’s son was a hero. And that was the only thing a monster was terrified of. The manifestation of destruction, taking shape without the ocean of the mind as a towering figure in the form of that legendary dragon, threw his jaws open, and all was shouted out as the windigo was helpless against the ocean bottom. Notus wasn't even able to scream from the toxic eminence of Harmony that drowned over it, as it was forcefully ejected from Junior's mind. In the real ocean, the seawater flashed, and a fist punched through the surface. The now human face of the altered Godzilla Junior panted briefly, as he tread water, feeling a slight chill in the air. Looking towards the shore, he could see a very thin trail of frost rapidly disintegrating as a South Wind weakly blew across his face. As the small waves rolled over him, the Kaiju in human form smirked victoriously. "Heh, looks somebody here didn't agree with my recent change in outlook…" He made his way towards the beach, diving under the waves. He surfaced again on shore, and rolled his eyes at seeing the large span of walking distance between himself and the pier. The currents had carried him quite far, out to the very edge of town in fact. It would take some time to get back to the others, even with his good sense of direction. Thankfully however, it seemed he didn’t need to do so alone. A blue blur raced down the streets and came at Junior in a way it could only have been approaching him directly. “TEEEEACH!” Rainbow Dash yelped as she tried to skid to a halt before shooting past him when her shoes touched something slick, “OooWOOOoaaaaah!” A hand shot out and grabbed her carefully by the midsection, Godzilla moving with her momentum and spinning around while using his greater mass and her slackening momentum to slow them both down. After a few rotations, they came to a stop and he put her down, observing Dash still had her magical aura about her alongside the energy wings she’d gained earlier. “Thanks Teach,” the teenager chuckled while rubbing at the back of her head before flinching and looking him over with a worried eye, “I was sent by Peachy-erm... Mini-Lestia to check the town records. Something about what one of the sirens told her she wanted to look into, and while looking for the record office around here I was crisscrossing the shore trying to find you too.... How are you feeling? You look pretty good, Champ... Teach... Sensei... Big Guy… er, least I hope so… are you?” He didn’t have much to show for the numerous cuts, stabs, and bruises he’d sported earlier, even if his clothes were still damaged in some spots. But Junior could tell the young heroine wasn’t just looking for physical damage with how she looked very intently at his eyes, even lightly beating her wings to get on eye level with him. She was studying him closely, though with some awkwardness. He knew how to read a face like that from times with Chibi. She was concerned, but there was an awkwardness involved with asking. So, he answered her inquiry with his mellow tone. Junior sighed and cracked a calmed visage with a raised brow, “Ah, so now I get more nicknames now do I? What happened to Sensei?” Rainbow Dash blinked before blowing a brief raspberry, “Aaaah synonyms synonyms, Sensei. Anyways thanks, I think I slipped on something. Guess I need to get more used to flying.” “Speaking of,” Junior muttered as he crouched down to inspect the source of the problem. There was a trail of ice coming from the beach all the way up its length, then crossing the street. Dash hovered over it as well, an odd expression crossing her pursed lips. “What do you feel?” the kaiju muttered, privy to not doubt the odd role magic and the magically-inclined might have in reaction to things like this. Rainbow Dash fidgeted her lips, absentmindedly touching at a spot on her collar where the outline of a crystalline shape seemed to be permanently glowing the same hue as the dim aura making up her powered-up state. “It’s… weird,” she whispered, blinking as the sight before her was intermittently replaced with sights from years gone by. Rather than outside near the beach, she was indoors and in a perspective where everything looked… bigger? “Call it a vibe, but I’ve had it before,” Dash muttered as she apprehensively touched at the frost, “I was a little kid once.” “Well, most usually are,” her sensei quipped with a teasing deadpan. “Not what I meant!” Dash snorted before rolling her eyes, content that his mood seemed to be a good indication he was as fit on the inside of his head as he seemed on the outside, “There was this really freaky blizzard a while back. Iii...ehe.. I kinda snuck out to help Fluttershy and Rarity at the animal shelter.” Junior’s stare reminded Dash way too much of the many her parents gave her upon finding out where their five year old had run off to during the ‘Storm of the Century’ or 'The Big Freeze'. Dash unconsciously raised her shoulders. “What! I was careful!... As I could be. Anyway, we weathered the storm in there, but it was plenty rough.” She could vividly remember plenty of details despite how young she’d been. Shivering against unending cold that didn’t seem to numb, all the critters at the shelter packed into one room to try and get any heat circulating. She also recalled flashes and glimpses of things her little preschool-aged mind didn’t understand. Ones that only started to seem remotely possible as reality after discovering the world had magical princesses and giant monsters, having for years through them just the manifestations of panic and probably hypothermia from a barely half decade old mind. Of frost demons and ‘Tree Angels’ whispered about on the playground. And the negative tone and thoughts she had then were similar to what was trickling into her mind now. She instinctively focused on why she was in that blizzard to begin with. Why she’d gone to help her friends after Rarity selflessly gave up all her linens to try and help the animals, and Fluttershy’s compassion compelled her to act in the first place to galvanize the two. If she was ever anything, it was loyal. Her wings spread and glowed just a bit brighter with those thoughts and sensations, and the negativity seemed pushed back like banished cold. Dash shuddered, not noticing her magic acting up as it seemed so natural to her, “Anyways, getting some killer bad vibes from this snow.. Sooo we got ourselves magic snow and sleet now, right?” “You’re more esuste than you let on,” Junior nodded with some sarcasm, a bit bemused she hadn’t noticed her own power, before motioning with his behind her, “But it seems it doesn’t like you too much.” Dash looked behind herself and noticed that, sure enough, the cause of her slip was all too obvious. Inside the most solid span of ice was a shoe-print that didn’t so much as look like it crunched down or cracked the frost as much as it melted through it to leave only water behind. Puzzling, Junior stood up and stepped on the frost as well. He even intentionally put more than normal amounts of weight and force into his step. “What are you-!” Dash jolted back when a small nuclear pulse conducted out of her instructor’s foot, a heated shockwave going through his foot and into the ground. He lifted his foot away revealing the pavement had cracked but the ice hadn’t taken any damage beyond the very slow melt the whole of it seemed to suffer. A look was exchanged between them, one of a question and a test to solve it, and Rainbow Dash hovered over where Godzilla stepped away from. He offered an arm for her to hang onto while she experimentally stepped onto the ice. The silent test result was Dash’s feet practically melting the frost on contact, so much it almost seemed to steam at her presence. “Feel anything?” he grunted with a raised brow. Rainbow Dash curled her lips like she’d just drank stale milk as her eye twitched, “Well, I’m making sure my head is in a happy place; does that answer your question?” “I’d say your magic must naturally counter this.” Rainbow Dash scrunched up her face in disgust, “And what pray-tell is this?” Godzilla just shrugged casually, “First guess, the root of the problem here. Let’s follow it. Stay in the ice.” “Do I gotta?!” she whined, face scrunched up. “Well you wanted to learn how to be a hero right? Don’t want anyone else coming across this stuff,” he hummed to his pupil, who briefly gave him the stink eye. They crossed and went down the road, ‘cleaning’ up the ice as they went until it seemed whatever boost of magic or conviction Rainbow Dash had been empowered by ran out. Thankfully, the frost was almost entirely cleansed by then and what remained seemed to be slowly melting away to be gone in a few hours. What remained however, could be tracked. His eyes crossed to a small bit of frost on a potted plant and his brow furrowed as his fingers lightly held the leaves, the observation the frost didn't seem to be melting easily on contact with his warmer-than-normal body was privy to himself. He snapped off a few twigs and stuffed them in his gi. -Something to show the more magically-inclined later.- There were no persons about, likely mostly attending the festival on the other side of town, so the groaning coming from a small storefront was keen to both Junior and Dash’s attention. As were the slight bits of frost going in that direction. They looked to one another, Dash falling into the readied stance he’d taught her as Godzilla took point. Junior grunted, rolling his shoulders and letting a slight crackle of blue arc down a fist. He cautiously approached what looked to be a flower shop. One where the frost had dusted over several petals and a bit of the door. The groans picked up, altering in pitch and volume. It was a voice, quiet, disoriented, but audible. "Hrm... nrmo......Hmr...." Looking back to Dash who, after a moment of contemplation and a nod, beckoned him onward, Godzilla chanced knocking on the door. The grumbling voice from inside picked up in volume. Dash glanced down and hefted a loose branch as a weapon. "No... Hrm... h-elp... Whym-" He paused briefly, before pushing down on the front lever, finding the door unlocked. Neither knew what to expect upon entering and came ready for the worst. There was a small bit of frost on the window and floor going in a straight line. A straight line that went right past an old woman reclined in a chair, before going past her and seemingly out the building given the ice specks on the back wall. "Nmo...Rhm-... I hate tea..." the aged woman groaned, swatting at the air lightly with a wrinkled hand, clearly in a nightmare. Pursing his lips, Junior stepped over while staying ready, leaning down and gently putting a hand on the poor woman's shoulder. He shook her as lightly as he could, and when she didn’t respond, a silent glance to his protege gave her a cue. Putting the branch down, and hoping she wasn’t in a horror movie where the sweet old lady was some kind of demon, Dash took in a deep breath and touched at her collar absentmindedly again. When she reached out, focusing on the memories of the blizzard at the shelter, there seemed to be a brief conductivity between herself and the aged matron. With a snort, the elderly matron roused away, shaking her head in a manner that caused her wide sunhat to fall off and her spectacles to tumble off her nose. "Aha- I uh!... Oh.. Oh where are my-" she grumbled as she reached out with blinking eyes, "Where are-... Oh?" She paused and perked up when a pair of large, gray hands very gently put her glasses on her nose. The old woman fidgeted her nose to adjust their seating, blinking as she combed back her white-striped, blue hair. She looked up at her company, not at all startled by the evidently kindly young woman and man who helped with her glasses. She was however, a bit curious why the latter was tilting his head so much at her compared to his younger company. "...Dear me, you're a tall one!" Godzilla shrugged, "So I'm told." The old matron chuckled and rubbed at the back of her head as Rainbow Dash helped her sit up, "Excuse an old woman for having a midday nap... Ooof, not like I appreciate a 'daymare'... Do you two want some flowers? Or did you come for the town records?" Rainbow Dash’s brow perked as she checked her phone again, “Oh-OH! Yeah, last one! Can we borrow them? Friend of mine needs to look up some key things from the town's past.” “Oh sure sure, let me go get the register for them,” the old matron hummed as she sat up and hobbled to a shelf, “What years might you need?” “Uuum,” Dash glanced at her phone to double check, “Hows aaabout, 15 years ago and during the ‘Big Freeze’? Looking for that and the 'Tree Angel' urban legend from around the same time.” Junior, looking like he'd had something on his mind since laying eyes on the old woman, stepped up with a perked brow that got her attention. “Hate to intrude but, would you happen to be the mother or grandmother of one named Blueberry Frost?” Junior noted with some curiosity dripping from his voice, spurring Dash to glance at her sensei inquisitiveness, privy to the odd look he was giving the previously dark magic afflicted woman. "... You look a lot like one I know, but she’s younger," Junior muttered with a raised brow, recognizing the blue hues in her hair and skin the old woman had to the Captain of the Guard even if they didn’t match up perfectly. The woman glanced back, blinked, and tilted her head with a pulled-lip visage he’d never seen on Captain Frost, "... Uuum, no? I’m not Blueberry Frost. But I am a Frost! Blueberry was my grandmother's name. I’m Sugar Frost." The gears in Godzilla’s head started whirling in odd ways, especially observing the obvious similarities by blood that were a dead give-away as to Sugar Frost indeed being of kin to Blueberry Frost, just in the reverse of what he expected, “... Can I see a picture of your grandmother? Odd request, I know.” Far away, back at the concert, a trail of frost left by a damaged, desperate hunter led to a small van. He’d been beaten, Notus. He’d previously been the most successful, having set up his spawn on the path before the other two could. But after two successes, the windigo had bitten off more than he could chew. He was lucky to have escaped just burning out the three boosts he got from Zephyrus and preying upon Gigan and Adagio. One could suppose it was karma, being so brazen as to attack who he did without a set-up like the other two had to achieve their bodies. Curses to that retainer those years ago that denied him by destroying his physical form, banishing his essence to that of a wraith like some lesser windigo. But he’d have a body yet, he would have a body. It might not be so mighty as that titanic beast, but all good hunters knew when to lay low and act from the proximity. Zephyrus’ plan required spying on the potential Element Bearer group, and if that took such a weaker host; so be it. And he had the sense to know more information was direly needed. The sight of that lunar celestial within Godzilla’s mind was... Troubling. Such a being, all three equine races put together, hadn’t existed in their time within Equestria. And the alicorn stank of Harmony’s magic and influence... Still, this body’s mind had resisted more than Notus had expected for someone so weak. There were a lot of affections to fight against, forcing Notus to use brute-force control that might snap if tampered with. The windigo made a note to avoid getting too close to any of the Rainbooms, to treat them as infected as one might a plague victim. The control was extremely haphazard, insulting to Notus’ status with how slapdash it was. With any strong stimuli it could wind up breaking entirely. And if Notus suffered another forceful ejecting from a mind, even one so doubtful and weak of magic as this one, it could end him. But, this paltry result would have to do. It was surprising someone so good had any baggage of which to work with. This control would be extremely tenious at the absolute best, any use of major powers would break it or whiplash back onto Notus entirely. Damn that Godzilla, and the awakening chosen by Harmony. Flash Sentry’s body, a trail of paper-thin ice leading right to him, stopped thrashing as Notus assumed control and collected himself.