The One True King

by JDPrime22

Chapter 19 – Bad Things Come in Threes

Rodan howled in an unnatural, hellish way, emanating the cries of the damned facing their forever torment in the bowels of Tartarus.

Ghidorah cackled, the storm bending to his will and electrifying the world around him.

Together, he and Rodan clashed and ripped the skies asunder, the fire melting into the storm and fusing it with layers of magma and cinder. The darkness enveloped the two and only the luminescent glow from their bodies, their eyes, and their agape jaws could be seen. That was all Rainbow Dash could see.

She saw the beasts rip each other apart.

Caught and trapped in Ghidorah’s whirlwind, Rainbow thrashed about in a desperate attempt to escape. There was nothing left for her to remain. The Radiance had escaped, her friends and allies safely out of the reach of Ghidorah’s wrathful storm. She tried to flee. She tried so hard to fly away. Only, there was no escape. The winds were not natural and therefore out of her realm of control. No Pegasus could stem the fury of the storm. Not even her, the Element of Loyalty, could survive for long within it.

With her worldview thrown into a violent and wicked daze, Rainbow’s vision was distorted and saw only glimpses of the chaos unfolding within the heart of the hurricane. Through the flashes of fierce, yellow lightning to the earth-trembling explosions of thunder sending quakes throughout her heart, only then was she able to breathe and pay witness to the monsters killing each other.

Twisted and coiled, Ghidorah flapped his wings rapidly to maintain his flight, all while Rodan spun in a wicked dance around him. Ichi, Ni, and San screeched and snapped at the Titan with their jagged teeth, but Rodan was unfazed. He howled and slashed at Ghidorah with his talons, shrieking as he pushed through the fearsome winds and latched himself onto the dragon’s body, driving his beak into Ichi’s throat. Ghidorah wailed. Rodan roared.

Just the mere sound of it deathly assaulted Rainbow’s ears, creating the most horrific sounds she had ever heard in her life. She fought with all her might just to escape the will and rage of the hurricane, but to no avail. The darkness was closing in and her breath was shortening as the winds and rain beat her to a pulp. Thrown about like a rag doll, Rainbow finally managed to flap her wings, finally managed to find some form of flight pattern.

Only to have it completely torn away from her once again.

And that time, a blinding light burst forth and pierced the darkness, severing the storm and flying directly for Rainbow Dash. She gasped, using her remaining strength to narrowly dodge the light, and she succeeded. Falling in an exhausted, wilting heap from the sky, Rainbow Dash dropped and let her eyes follow the path the light took. Her eyelids wilted, and the darkness slowly devoured her sight, but she still managed to see it. She still remembered it.

The heavenly blue glow of the light shimmered in her eyes. The light was a stream of pure, atomic energy, slicing through every wind and fire and impacting Ghidorah almost too perfectly. The Hydra shrieked in pain, collapsing from the fight and dropping like a mountain from the sky.

Dropping almost in tandem with Rainbow Dash.

When the storm faded, when Rainbow escaped its hold and felt the heat of the Dragon Lands below her, her eyes flared open and rush of adrenaline refueled her veins. Her wings extended and she caught herself mere yards before she hit the earth, swooping low and picking herself up into the air. A low, weak chuckle began to build at the bottom of her throat, the excitement of the situation and the daring drop having taken Rainbow Dash on a rollercoaster she had never experienced, and one that she came out of safe and sound.

She could not say the same for Ghidorah. Twisting her neck back, she caught sight of the Golden Demise dropping from his own storm and striking the ground with shattering force. A roaring tremor shot out across the Dragon Lands, a burst of dust exploding from the Titan’s impact.

With a stunned smirk growing on her lips, Rainbow’s short celebration was interrupted by that all-too-familiar roar arising from the ocean waves.

She brought her eyes forward to face it, and felt her heart sink to the emerging shadow washing over her. Her expression darkened, her eyes widened, and she was left breathless at the mere image of his presence.

Rising from his domain, Godzilla leaped out of the sea with a thundering first step onto the Dragon Lands. His roar bled from his jaws as torrents of ocean water fell from his scaled-hide. Rainbow Dash reacted fast, shifting her speed and barely dodging Godzilla’s nearing teeth and wide-open mouth. Lifting his second foot upon the earth, Godzilla closed his jaws just as Rainbow escaped their hold.

She flew alongside his neck and down his back, waving in-between his dorsal plates until her eyes caught his tail rising high out of the ocean. Rainbow Dash pulled away, truly free at last, and spun around to witness what her eyes still struggled to comprehend and believe.

The Radiance saw it as well, turning in mid-flight to allow those in the bridge a side view. The occupants of the airship crowded around the windshield, hearts ablaze with rising emotions of trepidation, wonderment, confusion, and most of all, shock. They were shocked to see Godzilla arrive, even more so to see that he had ended the feud between Ghidorah and Rodan with a miraculous atomic blast. They were shocked to see him step foot upon the Dragon Lands, beginning his slow and steady approach to where Ghidorah had landed.

And then it clicked. For Bon Bon especially.

She brought her focus onward to the dust cloud, Ghidorah’s tails and wings rising up from the epicenter of the dragon’s impact.

She stared at Godzilla severing the distance between himself and the dust cloud, caring not for the hundreds of lives still trapped between them.

She gazed in horror at Rodan, the Titan of the air swooping down and centering his gaze, his beak, and his fury on the King of the Monsters.

A far deadlier clash was about to unfold. The remaining airships from the royal fleets of the various nations returned to the battlefield, surrounding Ghidorah with weapons and armies at the ready. Bon Bon knew that was a mistake. If they did nothing, there was no telling how many lives were going to be lost. She needed to do something, and fast.

She did the first thing that came to heart and bellowed, “Get us back in there! We have to warn them!”

With a few lingering, accusing gazes from the Council of Friendship, everypony eventually fell in line when they understood where Bon Bon was coming from. They saw Godzilla just like everypony else. They saw the Titans ready to collide. If Rodan alone could cause so much death and chaos, the thought of three coming together in one central location—with hundreds of lives still on the line, still trapped between them—was unfathomable. No arguments were made in retaliation. They charged.

The Radiance made a fierce full turn, the engines ignited and the airship making a steady charge back into the Dragon Lands. They attempted contact numerous times to warn the other rulers, but their communication channels were fried with the interference of the hurricane above the Dragon Lands, not to mention the distance between them and the opposite fleet.

All they could was try, try again. Forced to sit back and watch the chaos unfold.

With the invasive species taken care of for the time being, Rodan focused his attention on the second invader upon his land. A deeper, darker rage boiled inside of his infected mind when he saw Godzilla, the magic and will that were not his own urging Rodan to attack without mercy, without fault, all to bring down the mighty king.

And so, he obeyed. He succumbed to the sinful wrath. Without mercy. Without fault. Diving down with a terrifying roar, Rodan fell with his talons leading, meeting Godzilla with the full weight of his fury. Godzilla raised his claws, readying himself for the attack from above.

Rodan impacted Godzilla with his talons, latching them onto the Alpha Predator’s face and neck. Sliding backwards from the force of the strike, Godzilla bellowed and retaliated, biting down on Rodan’s leg and earning a shriek of pain from the Titan. He thrashed his jaws about, tossing Rodan off of him and watching the beast catch flight.

The King of the Skies roared, circling around the King of the Monsters with sadistic, vengeful intent. Godzilla narrowed his eyes, his claws curling into fists as he stood ready for the next strike.

Lightning struck the skies and earth around them, Ghidorah’s storm growing more and more ferocious by the second. The Dragon Lands, once devoured by fire and ash had become wet with rain and torn by the hurricane winds. The sun was darkened and the battlefield shifted to accompany the Titans, a mixture of light and dark washing over the landscape. Emerging into it all, escaping the shoreline and flying high above the battlegrounds, the Radiance returned to the Dragon Lands.

Observing the battle beneath them, the occupants finally managed to establish contact with the distant airships. Though it was still slightly static, they could nonetheless hear the responding calls from the leaders and rulers in their own ships.

With a connection secured, Bon Bon grabbed the microphone and declared, “All royal airships, fall back! Stay away from the storm! We have an extremely dangerous kaiju within the vicinity! I repeat, Titanus Ghidorah and Titanus Gojira have entered the area! Retreat NOW!”

The airships of the Griffon Lords, the minotaur rulers, the Abyssinian king and queen, and so on and so forth received Bon Bon’s distress call. They received her warning fully and acknowledged it for the safety of themselves and their individual people. Each airship broke away from the fight, disengaging with the dust cloud and Ghidorah’s heads slithering within it. Very few T.I.T.A.N. aircraft remained in the skies following the successful retreat from the different nations, each airship safely out of the storm’s reach.

Bon Bon also managed to make contact with the survivors below, telling them to gather themselves and retreat as well. Armies were in disarray with a valley of devastation left behind in Rodan’s wake. Charred bodies and melted tanks fused together onto and within the earth, countless debris scattered from one end of the volcano and nearing the shoreline.

Trapped in the destruction, the survivors finally emerged. They responded to the calls from their generals and T.I.T.A.N. agents searching the ruins for them. From ponies to griffons, Hippogriffs to changelings, dragons to Kirin, and yaks to buffalo, the species were numerous and unable to be counted. They helped themselves and one another, fighting desperately to ignore their deadly wounds and live to serve another day.

The rain felt cool against their burned and scarred bodies. The chilling winds felt comforting.

Until they all lifted their heads to the air, all in unison to see the Dragon Lord piercing the present darkness with the light of her Bloodstone Scepter. They followed her war cries and watched as a legion of dragons trailed behind her, all of them fighting through the darkness of the storm to engage the enemy near the shoreline, to stop Rodan from reaching the Radiance.

But they were too late. Far too late. When they broke through the fierceness of the storm, they reached a dust cloud.

In the eye of the storm, where the winds no longer assaulted her and Ember and her dragons were allowed to hover freely, they gazed to the mountainous dust cloud dissipate slowly. So very slowly. And within it, rising above and spreading his wings, unfurling his necks, and lifting his heads, the terrifying dragon made his presence known to all.

Ember slowly lowered her scepter, failing to keep her jaw from falling.

For the three-headed dragon—the fearsome and ferocious Ghidorah—slowly glared their way. All three of his jaws snarled, unveiling rows of dagger-like teeth as a dreadful growl escaped his maws. To the miniscule, feeble dragons before him, Ghidorah offered nothing more other than his sickened stare. But he was feeling generous, and gave them the destruction they so rightly deserved.

He rose to the horror of Ember and her dragons, flapping his wings and kicking off the earth with a gust of wind washing over the land. The wind knocked down the survivors from the battlefield around the volcano, leaving those in the air momentarily stunned. By the time Ember and her dragons came to, they were already trapped and caught within Ghidorah’s storm. Fighting back was fruitless. Retreat was impossible.

All they could do was scream.

Scream.

His shadow spread his legacy of terror, enlightening it so that all felt the dread Ghidorah radiated and were poisoned from it. Poisoned with fear. Poisoned and left to die. Ghidorah’s shadow fell over the Dragon Lands, the One Who is Many casting his light upon all life beneath him. A trio of gravity beams descended from his jaws and decimated the rocky floor below, vaporizing the armies, the lands, and the destruction. Leaving nothing but ash and fainting screams.

Many dragons were killed, even more creatures from different nations, different cultures, different armies all falling together to rest in their ashes as one grave. Ghidorah severed the heads from numerous adult dragons that dared to rise up against him, his golden beams slicing and melting and killing anything that emerged within his sight.

Ember finally had enough, shaking away the shock and horror and kicking herself into action. She gave chase to the greater and graver threat to their very existence, meeting Ghidorah with a blast from her scepter. The superheated ray struck the Titan’s hide and earned a shrill roar, Ghidorah twisting his necks in her direction.

She fired again. He fired back.

A single gravity beam impacted the ray from Ember’s Bloodstone Scepter, quickly overpowering and overwhelming it directly back into the crystal. A burst of light and otherworldly energy concluded their confrontation, the explosion throwing Ember to the earth. She crashed, slid, and vanished within the ash clouds below.

The Dragon Lands were devastated, the armies either caught under Ghidorah’s wrath, trying desperately to fight back, or retreating. Except there was hardly anywhere to turn. Godzilla and Rodan warred near the shoreline, and their battle was growing dangerously close to Ghidorah’s rampage. Everywhere else seemed like a futile attempt to die running tired. The monsters were everywhere at once, circling above them, battling beside them, and destroying anything caught within their war.

There was little the armies of Equus could do. Yet every action mattered. Every action shifted the balance and turned one tide or another.

Such as the Radiance bombarding Ghidorah with cannon blasts.

Doing so infuriated Monster Zero, earning all three heads to focus upwards and see the airship charging into battle, unleashing its arsenal fully onto him. The Hydra hissed at that, but ultimately ignored it. His eyes were drawn instead to the edge of his storm, returning to the sole reason he had arrived to the accursed continent in the first place.

Three unified cackles filled the air, Ghidorah joining his own cries and flying across the skies to reach his desired target. The Radiance steered out of the way once more, narrowly missing Ghidorah’s wings and spinning slowly to follow his trail. With the airship reaching its side, the occupants of the bridge rushed over and planted themselves onto the windshield, watching to their heart’s horror.

Acting when his back was turned, Ghidorah flew over and wrapped his tails around Godzilla’s neck, using the speed and momentum of his flight to drag his hated foe to the ground. Forcefully pulled off his feet, Godzilla crashed to the earth on his side, sending a devastating tremor across the Dragon Lands that ripped shards of land and pillars of rock up from their seams. Rodan roared upon seeing that, returning that fury to the first invader.

The two clashed once more in mid-air. They danced in a wicked and deadly battle within the skies, slicing, biting, and rolling violently against one another. It grew so violent that they both fell to the earth, crashing and steamrolling against it so that everyone and every life was crushed if they failed to escape in time. But they both managed to kick off the ground shortly after, carrying with them flames and shards of destruction left from their wake. Ghidorah rose first as Rodan was shortly behind him, howling and pouncing on the dragon.

Rodan managed to gain the upper hand, slashing at Ichi’s forehead with his talons and biting down on the back of his neck. Ni and San shrieked and bit down on Rodan’s wings, but it was too late. The war bird swooped low and slammed Ghidorah into the ground once more, flapping his wings and taking to the air flawlessly. His triumph was met with a deathly sense of pride in his actions, Rodan flying low once again to strike at his emerging enemy.

But Godzilla was ready for him, calm and steady while Rodan was brash and violent. He dodged just as Rodan’s beak snapped at his neck, Godzilla quickly spinning around and snatching his talon right out of the air.

Rodan shrieked, flapping his wings rapidly, trying with all his strength to escape Godzilla’s grasp. He wouldn't relent. Neither of them would. Though Rodan’s wings spread embers and flames across Godzilla’s vision, the Titan refused to loosen his claws and instead tilted his gaze backwards. There, Ghidorah’s heads arose behind him, roaring at Godzilla and zeroing in for the killing blow.

But the king was ready. He spun around with Rodan still trapped in his claws, slamming the screaming Titan directly into Ghidorah’s chest.

The two colossal beasts came to a thundering crash upon the earth, but only one was able to rise first. Falling from the exertion of his efforts, Godzilla planted his palms and knees on the ground. Godzilla lifted his head. His eyes widened, the beast inhaling sharply as Ghidorah was quick on his feet and even quicker on his actions. Rodan thrashed and tried to flap his wings to escape, but it was too late. Ni and San bit down and lodged their fangs into Rodan’s wings, keeping him pinned to the earth and allowing Ichi to breathe in deep.

His towering neck shimmered the same color as his lightning above. He expelled that growing power in a devastating gravity beam, pelting Rodan furiously.

Cutting off his beam and stomping over Rodan’s throat, Ghidorah lifted all three heads and gazed closely into the smoke he left behind.

Rodan groaned as he lay beneath Ghidorah’s claws. His eyes wilted, and the emergence of green and purple magic was slowly cut off. Sombra’s magic and influence proceeded to fade as Rodan lay there painfully, pitifully. The Titan gave one last cry as his head hit the ground, resting, finally, in defeat.

Ghidorah watched the magic fade, a shared curiosity filling not only San’s eyes, but the other heads as well. Their glares narrowed, the dragon snarling softly. His curiosity would have to wait another day. The stomps shaking the earth prompted all three heads to turn accordingly to the source.

Godzilla stood up after a short moment of effort, taking in a deep breath. His dorsal plates slowly hummed to life, glowing a haunting blue as he reared his neck back and his chest expanded. Ghidorah’s claws tightened around Rodan’s body.

Just as he opened his jaws and expelled a blast of atomic breath, Ghidorah fled with a mighty thrash of his wings. He escaped the hold of the world with Rodan limp in his claws, the mighty dragon giving one last cry to the heavens as he escaped into them. Godzilla's atomic breath pelted the earth and rose up, Godzilla twisting his neck in one last attempt to strike his foe before he could flee a second time.

The beam of pure, raw, deadly radiation stroked the clouds and decapitated Ghidorah’s storm, reaching across all the battlefield as Godzilla spun to follow Ghidorah’s trail. Solar Bolts and aircraft that couldn’t escape in time were vaporized once the beam crashed against them, what remained of their flaming husks crashing to the ground and sea. Godzilla kept up the fire, his eyes piercing blue.

He narrowly missed the Radiance, the airship leaning quickly in an effort to dodge Godzilla’s blast. Before they knew it, before they could do anything else, the beam had died. The light had been snuffed out. Godzilla remained standing among the destruction. But not for long.

Knowing Ghidorah had escaped yet again, Godzilla bellowed out an agonized roar. Full of unyielding and unending hatred. He stood within the fires and death and devastation and roared out his fury for Ghidorah to hear. He quickly gave chase, reaching the shoreline and sinking into the ocean. His spines disappeared under the waves, his tail rising up and slapping the surface before descending. Before vanishing.

Leaving nothing behind. Truly nothing.

In mere moments, the storm had settled and the afternoon sunlight touched the Dragon Lands once again. The sun rested on the horizon, dipping so low that the coming twilight was just beginning to peek. Pillars of smoke from nearby volcanos were nothing compared to the pillars of fire arising from the aftermath, the tallest volcano in all the land decimated and laying in ruin with lava flowing down its edges and scorching the earth.

The battle had ended. Just as quickly as it began, it was over.

Leaving the survivors to blink and see the world under a whole new light.

Spitfire and her Wonderbolts soared across the silent skies, each Pegasus feeling the silence and shivering because of it. It was far too quiet. They called out and circled above the battlegrounds, screaming for any survivors to show themselves so they could find them. So they could save them.

Devastation painted the Dragon Lands. Slabs of entire landscapes stuck jaggedly up from the rest of the earth, symbolizing the power of the titanic creatures in their ferocious battle. Surrounding the flaming, crumbling volcano, the armies of what once were lay in a scorched, blackened wasteland. Fire consumed the valleys as lava washed over the remains to bury them forever. Those who were not found, who had lost their lives found their eternal rest beneath a layer of oncoming volcanic magma. Machines of war lay overturned, melted alongside gruesome images of charred bodies, burnt skeletons, and the miraculous few who survived through it all.

One by one, the survivors emerged, stepping forth into an ash storm. They rained like snow, pelting the dead and the living in a ghostly white embrace. Among the few who lived, the Dragon Lord Ember pushed over a slab of rock resting over her.

She tried to stand, shaking on her legs and collapsing, only able to catch herself by gripping the handle of her scepter. Wounded and gravely shaken on what she had experienced, Ember felt no better off when she opened her eyes and paid witness to the madness resting around her.

Ash, fire, and death were everywhere. The lucky souls to have risen above the calamity shuffled around aimlessly, muttering trembling nonsense or simply whimpering to themselves. Their eyes were wide and white against their blackened, soot-covered bodies, and they stared nowhere. For a thousand miles with no end in sight.

Ember breathed. She hated herself for feeling that slight shudder in her breath, but she couldn’t help it. Not after what she had seen, what those beasts had done, and what they were capable of.

The royal airships emerged out of the smoke and ash shortly after, her eyes rising up to see the Radiance in the middle of it all. The sun struck their exteriors and made them gleam above the black, destroyed earth below. But inside the Radiance, the atmosphere was not brighter, nor was it comforting in any sense of the word.

Inside the Radiance, everypony stared to the aftermath in shell-shocked horror. They gazed with paled, petrified expressions down beneath them, simply aghast to know that what they saw was real. The power of the Titans was not something to be trifled with, nor to face in thinking there was ever a chance to emerge victorious. What they had seen was proven truth that their world was not their own. It did not belong to them.

It belonged to the Titans, and they were just living in it.

They were nothing compared to it.

The back doors opened and everypony spun around to see none other than Rainbow Dash limp her way inside. Glad to see their friend made it safely back, the Council rushed forward and crashed against the Pegasus with crushing hugs. Rainbow caught her breath, groaning softly as she released a few, gentle coughs. But nonetheless hugged them back.

Fluttershy held her the longest, holding her first and best friend to make herself believe that she was standing there. That she was real. She had survived. With Rainbow hugging her back, Fluttershy noticed that she was covered in soot. The tips of her wings and her mane and tail were burnt, black from having reached the closest proximity to the Fire Demon and survived.

But when she met her eyes, Fluttershy sensed something else within them. It felt like she was holding something back, wanting to speak but unable to. To have been shaken into silence by the horrific events that had played through was not uncommon. Nearly everypony in the Radiance felt the same. But there was something else, something more that Rainbow didn’t tell them. Just seeing the look in her eyes made it seem as if she hadn’t come alone.

And she didn’t.

Stepping aside and pulling Fluttershy off of her, Rainbow brought their attention to the entrance by just her gaze. Not like they needed her assistance. They all saw them. They all arose from their seats, lost their collective breaths, and shared in that moment of astonishment.

For Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Cadance, and their princess Twilight Sparkle stepped forth from behind Rainbow Dash. Their leaders were safe. Their princess was alive. T.I.T.A.N. reacted accordingly and gasped, shed the necessary tears, and watched as the Council of Friendship apprehended them appropriately.

With tearful and powerful hugs.

Fluttershy was the first, flying over with shocking speed and clutching onto Twilight with every ounce of strength she had. Spike was next, using his own wings to reach his older sister just as fast. Applejack and Rarity galloped over and struck their friend, clutching and crying and whispering words of worry to Twilight again and again. Rarity whined over Twilight’s burnt and torn mane, but it didn’t last. She was just so happy to see her alive. Pinkie Pie as well, the Earth pony bounding forward and grasping Twilight with tears relentlessly pouring from her eyes. And Twilight met them all, embracing her friends with no words, no sounds, but just herself.

That was all that was needed.

Bon Bon rushed forward and gave Celestia and Luna a needed hug each, breaking off quickly and asking rapid questions of their safety, how they made it out, what had happened in Outpost Cinder, and so forth. But Celestia heard very little, she and Luna caught in a frozen state of unsettling peace. It was anything but, feeling more like a morbid display of inhumane depravity that had infected their souls and made itself known through their empty stares.

As the Council embraced Shining and Cadance just as well as they did Twilight, the two sisters slowly, very slowly, centered their focus onto the windshield. Sharing the same feelings. Seeing the same madness. Having the images forever scarred into their minds of the death and devastation that rocked the world below them. Even then, that alone was not what changed them. That alone was not what changed Celestia.

Having nearly lost Twilight was what pushed her over the edge. And both of them felt the same, but mostly the eldest. Mostly the teacher of the former student she almost lost… forever.

Their mindset was clear. They couldn’t control this. Two failures that added up to hundreds of deaths was too much for either sister to bear a second longer. Outpost Frostbite was avoidable, was out of their control, but Outpost Cinder was different. It was a complete disaster, and one that proved that they were not enough to stop what was coming. They needed to end it before another life was taken.

“Fluttershy…”

Celestia made that clear when she called her name. Only, everypony turned to her. Everypony, especially Fluttershy. She, above all other ponies, needed to understand where the sisters were coming from, what they had decided, and what they all needed to believe in that tense and desperate hour.

With a light tremble in her spirit and a shudder in her breath, Celestia saw the small, quivering, teary-eyed Pegasus and told her, “We’re going to bring in Discord… This ends now.”

She told all of them.

No one objected. Everyone agreed. What they had seen and experienced influenced them just enough to take that daring chance and finally fight fire with fire.

And Fluttershy said nothing. She couldn’t. Because she couldn’t argue against it anymore. Because she still clutched onto the friend she almost lost.