//------------------------------// // Chapter 7 – The Gods of Old // Story: The One True King // by JDPrime22 //------------------------------// Chapter 7 “Godzilla is the son of the atomic bomb… the sacred beast of the apocalypse.” — Tomoyuki Tanaka Forbidden Jungle The Radiance, Main Bridge Once they were all safely inside the confines of Celestia’s lead airship, the Radiance, they settled themselves within the main bridge. The former princesses politely cleared the room, the various pilots breaking off from their posts and exiting the bridge. The Council of Friendship remained and watched as Celestia and Luna positioned themselves around the center table, where the map of Equus was displayed in a clear glass containment. They were quick to join them. Twilight Sparkle led them, trailed closely by Spike. Rarity and Applejack settled themselves on Twilight’s left and right respectively, with Spike popping up in-between Twilight and the farm pony. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie stood together on the opposite side of table, staring down Twilight momentarily before turning to face the head of the table. As for Bon Bon, she took her seat away from the table and sat near one of the flight consoles. Not terribly far from the center map, but enough for her to recollect on her own terms without too much interference from the rest of the group. She kept her eyes on the former rulers, leaning back in her chair and letting them tell the story of Equestria’s first—and last—guardian. With her horn alight, Celestia closed the bridge’s doors to ensure their conversation didn’t travel too far to any unwarranted ears. With that out of the way, she stared to the many patient and eager eyes surrounding the table. Allowing herself to breathe, break out a short, sweet smile, Celestia took in a deep breath and began. “From what little we told you about Mothra during our travel to the Forbidden Jungle, we can assume you all have several more questions following your… first impressions with the Titan?” It was Twilight who raised her hoof first and foremost. Celestia and Luna chuckled warmly at that, nodding her way. Dropping her hoof, Princess Twilight began what was undoubtedly going to be her long tirade of questions with the most important one, asking them, “What is our history with Mothra?” The others seemed to hold a shared understanding of that question, wishing to know just as well and nodding to Twilight. They all turned to the sisters for an answer. And Celestia and Luna, knowing nothing else could be hidden from their knowledge, allowed themselves to answer any question the current ruler and her friends had for their predicament. Nothing hidden. Nothing veiled. Everything out in the open and on the table. Celestia answered her and replied, “She is before even our time. Far before our rule or even our birth. The earliest recordings T.I.T.A.N. have found suggested that Mothra is said to be thousands and thousands of years old. Cave paintings, ancient manuscripts, all theorized to have been dated back to hundreds of thousands of years… all showed her.” That was a bomb in and of itself. Everypony each took a moment to collect themselves and try to understand that what they just heard needed to be taken as a high probability, and perhaps not just a theory. To know that Celestia and Luna were not the oldest living beings in Equestria was shocking, especially for Twilight. Bon Bon hardly even moved, having felt the punch of that revelation many years ago. It was not as shocking now, and not nearly as shocking as what else the princesses were to reveal. Luna took over, saying, “Even with her great age, Mothra has an even greater legacy. She earned it after helping us defeat many beasts left over from Grogar’s reign.” Seeing the confusion ripple across the group of mares and young dragon, Luna chuckled shortly and clarified, “Not Titans. Grogar’s creatures were not natural to our ecosystem, birthed through wicked and demonic rituals that only the Father of Monsters could concoct. But Mothra would not have that. My sister and I… including our parents… battled alongside the great moth to ensure Equus was rid of Grogar’s fiends. Hm… legend even spoke of Mothra fighting alongside Gusty the Great to overthrow Grogar… but that was long before our time. She became a heroic figure to all, exemplified even to the status of a vengeful angel, a deity, if you will. It is no wonder she was worshipped by ancient pony tribes for thousands of years prior.” Celestia said, “Mothra had proven to be a benevolent and peaceful giant. She kept order in our world during a time of lawlessness, where the magic of friendship was yet to become even a concept to consider. Yet after the last of the great beasts born of the Father of Monsters was defeated… Mothra vanished. We never found her. It was almost as if… she was just a vengeful angel… arriving simply to balance our world back into its natural state. So you can understand why we are so concerned for her return. Something big is coming, something that could shift the balance of our world once again.” Fully engrossed and beyond the point of no return, Twilight Sparkle could have sworn she felt her jaw hit the table beneath her. She was hearing history she never believed to have even happened, from the lips of the ones who had lived through it no less! To know that Grogar was defeated by the combined strength of the Royal Sisters, their parents, Gusty the Great, all alongside Mothra at one point or another was beyond earth-shattering for her. Mothra had existed with them all this time, and only now was she truly understanding it! It was unbelievable. Nopony could fully fathom it, nopony could object or speak or even breathe. Save for one who cleared her throat. “Sooo… just to clarify again,” Rainbow said, objecting to their history lesson and asking a question of her own. “Grogar’s monsters… are not Titans?” Luna shook her head. “No. Titans are far more ancient than Grogar’s beasts.” Twilight tilted her own, asking, “How ancient are they?” It took quite some time for the former princesses to respond, almost as if they were forming the words in their minds or the words were stuck on their tongues. After catching the look Bon Bon gave them from her seated position further off, Celestia knew hiding the full truth was not worth the consequences. Luna seemed to share her sentiments. After a moment longer to gather themselves, the sisters began again with the eldest starting. “The rulers today… the rulers of Equus—the equines, griffons, dragons, and so forth—are not the original rulers of this world. While we have theorized Mothra to be hundreds of thousands of years old… a more accurate representation for all the Titans we’ve studied have shown that the majority of them are, in fact… millions of years old.” The oxygen seemed to be sucked out of the bridge, as if the cabin was suddenly depressurized and everypony was left gasping and silent. Left to a silent, gasping death. Their hearts nearly stopped, but they managed to survive in the aftermath of that revelation. Rainbow Dash and Applejack leaned their necks backwards. Pinkie Pie’s jaw cartoonishly dropped and smacked against the map of Equus. Spike shared her expression, only not as outlandish or… stretchy. Twilight and Rarity’s eyes popped open so wide they could have nearly popped out of their skulls. Outside of the aftermath, Bon Bon slowly nodded and closed her eyes, lowering her head gently. Letting the former rulers continue on and tell the true story of Equus. Luna was the next one, taking the responsibility and stating aloud, “For millions of years, the Titans lived and battled upon our fair planet for dominance. They reigned over one another, a chain of power the beasts share similar to creatures today. Alphas, pack leaders, much like we see from timberwolves… they followed the same ritual of leadership. They were regarded as the first gods… the Gods of Old, if you will.” “Gods of Old?” Spike repeated, voice high and quiet. Celestia nodded and explained, “Ancient tribes and civilizations of ponies, of various other species, left behind temples, manuscripts, clues of the Titans’ existence. But for some reason… something made the creatures disappear. Our hollow earth theory was devised around forty years ago, which states today that the ground beneath us is not entirely compact. Instead, there is a world that lives beneath our world, a hollow earth that holds the beasts that once roamed our lands many, many millions of years ago. "Something made the creatures disappear… something made the Titans burrow into the earth. Theories state that they fell into a deep hibernation due to the less geothermal radiation of the planet’s core, rather than the natural radiation they used to absorb. And now, as you have seen and what we have told you, the Titans are slowly awakening, slowly trying to reclaim their kingdom. Dozens have already awakened… and potential hundreds more await beneath us.” It was the truth and it was still so hard to tell it. It seemed even harder for Twilight and the Council to accept it. Applejack leaned forward on her forelegs, rubbing a hoof through her golden-blonde mane and pushing her hat back in the process. Pinkie seemed all too giddy at the prospects of so many other monsters beneath her, monsters she hadn’t given a proper welcome to Equestria surprise party. Her giddiness was slowly suppressed by the growing fear and anxiety that the Titans wrought, even when she tried well to hide it. Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words, Spike as well. As for Rarity… Rarity gulped and quivered where she stood, laying her hoof over Ponyville displayed on the map. Where her friends and family resided. Her home and her livelihood. Her hoof blanketed it like a Titan very well could have. Wiped it off the face of the planet… She gulped a second time, having no spittle to do so, and whispered fearfully, “This is… well… this is certainly…” “Wow,” Twilight whispered in an astonished gasp. A far cry from Rarity’s own emotional expressiveness, but a unique reaction nonetheless. “Wait a minute now,” Applejack interjected, earing the attention of the bridge. “Ya said that the Titans went into a deep hibernation before. Why did they burrow? Ya don’t suppose those ancient ponies had a clue as ta what happened ta them, do ya?” To her unfortunate luck, Applejack watched both sisters shake their heads. “No, it would seem that the ancients did not have a… particularly positive outlook for the future,” Celestia answered. Her expression seemed to fall, to darken at the prospects of what she was about to utter. “In fact, they prophesized quite a grim end to their world. If not theirs… then the one to come. The ancient tribes referred to the future generations—if there were to be future generations—as the New Ones. New gods, new rulers, the ones who will lay claim to the world with the Titans gone. They prophesized… how the New Ones would bear the greatest burden if the Titans were to return in their time. Turns out they weren’t that far off.” Twilight leaned forward, placed her hooves on the table and asked, “If the Titans burrowed into the earth, then why didn’t the ancient tribes lay claim to the world? I mean, nopony was stopping them.” “Not entirely correct,” Luna replied. “Like many theories T.I.T.A.N. holds today of what occurred in the world before, we also have theories as to why the Titans vanished, and also why the tribes went into hiding as well.” Twilight’s ears perked up higher at that, the other mares and Spike leaning forward, closer, as if nearing the princesses meant they would receive the story quicker. Luna noted that and continued regardless. “We have theorized that it was perhaps Grogar casting a spell over the inhabitants, causing the beasts that could threaten his rule to hide beneath the earth while he claimed it for himself. But… this theory was disregarded. There are no writings or paintings showing Grogar within the same era as the Titans. The Father of Monsters would have certainly been worth recording in history had he existed with them. Our knowledge of him falls back merely thousands of years, so Grogar could not have been millions of years old. Whatever happened was before Grogar’s time.” Celestia nodded to her and faced the crowd, bringing their attention onto her as the elder stated, “Which brought us to our most accepted theory… that of an apocalyptic event.” The silence in the room was stifling. All except for Bon Bon’s breathing, which had grown far more skittish the moment Celestia had mentioned that particular theory. The Earth pony opened her eyes, pupils shrunk and trembling. Her hooves began to shake, her breathing intensifying and shivering. She was lost in her own terrified past, listening intently to every word Celestia said. “The intelligence we’ve managed to gather over the years have provided. Not much, but they have provided. Strange writings of an ancient language, far more ancient than Old Ponish, discovered many decades ago in one of the oldest temples in all of Equus. There, we have found cave paintings showcasing a devastating battle between two great monsters. Two Titans. Two alphas. We still struggle today interpreting the writings, but the paintings tell enough of the story. This… battle, this… clash between these two alpha predators seemed to have shaken the entire world. Until all the world was bathed in the fires and devastation of their rampage. "The other Titans went below ground, went into hibernation to escape the event unfolding above. They did so to survive, to escape the devastation before it claimed their lives as well. It could have been what wiped out the ancient tribes and civilizations, or most of them. Many of these tribes could have very well escaped all the same, left behind their legacy in the hollow earth and the caves… where their paintings told us of their apocalypse.” And with that, Celestia breathed out. Nearly all the pent-up frustrations of her secrets had been fully exhaled to the many, to the ponies she trusted most of all with such critical information of their world’s true history. And from that, the many reacted accordingly. The idea of an apocalypse in the past or even one to come left the mares and dragon in an uncertain and frightful state. Rarity was openly shivering, though the unicorn did her best to maintain her composure and remain strong. Applejack and Rainbow were equally taken aback by such information, with Pinkie Pie and Spike trapped in an uncertain state of understanding. Twilight was stuck in a similar boat as all of them combined. She was fearful, but tried to remain strong. She was taken aback, and tried to understand the uncertainty. In the heart of it all, she was stuck on one idea, that being the idea that two monsters alone caused the other Titans to run with their tails between their legs. As if that wasn’t enough to be worried about, just the battle of the two Titans nearly wiped out all life on the planet. Just two of them. Two Titans. Two alphas. Twilight cleared her throat, closed her eyes, and breathed in and out. In and out. Pressed a hoof over her heart and exhaled. She opened her eyes and began again. “Who…” Facing the head of the table, of the map, of the center of the bridge, Twilight Sparkle met the gazes of the former princesses and ensured they were fully engrossed in what she had to ask them. And so, she asked them, “Who were the alpha Titans?” Seemingly shaken out of her dazed stupor, Bon Bon was pulled back into reality when Princess Twilight asked that particular question. Because it was Bon Bon who had the answer to it, who had more connection to it than perhaps anypony else in the room. More so than Celestia or Luna. More so than the Council of Friendship. More so than the entirety of T.I.T.A.N. because she—she alone—was the only pony alive to have actually seen one of the alpha Titans with her own eyes. The same alpha Celestia spoke of. The same alpha Twilight asked of. And the same alpha that haunted her to this day. Uttering a small, weakened sound, Bon Bon tried to stop herself, but it was too late. The table had turned her way, every eye and every mare facing her and awaiting her word. Her interjection. Her knowledge. Bon Bon’s mouth had fallen but no words could escape. No words could be formulated that could outweigh the fear and dread in her heart. But she had to. She needed to be strong. She needed to push away her past and focus on what mattered today, with them, with her friends, and with the fate of the world. She collected herself once more, turning to the table and parting her lips, taking in that short breath to say… The front doors were thrust open, stealing the breath from Bon Bon’s lungs and equally the words from her tongue. Flinching to the interruption, the entirety of the Council of Friendship and the Alicorn sisters all turned appropriately to see for themselves who the perpetrator was. They lowered their defenses when it was only Daring Do breathing heavily by the bridge’s entrance. Celestia and Luna and everypony else backed away from the table and faced the entrance, all silent and wide-eyed to what the adventuress had to inform them. Breathless and shaken, Daring Do announced loudly and proudly, “I think Fluttershy was able to get something out of Mothra!”