//------------------------------//
// Chapter 50: Stormfront 
// Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover 
// by Tarbtano 
//------------------------------//

They weren’t winning, but they weren’t losing either.

They struggled and yet the gateway remained open after spewing forth another monstrosity, as westerly winds howled.

Here in this most remote backwater, beyond the fringes of the map to the southern frontier, he’d bore witness to a conflict that defied all expectations. In the deepest forest he’d ever seen, beholden to the greatest powers he’d ever known; the greatest sorcerer of the day felt as if but a mere gnat in the face of a hurricane. The deadlock was shockingly potent despite being an even match between participants, was so overwhelmingly powerful it was beyond any ability to both ignore or fully comprehend. Shockwaves constantly tore the ground to pieces, only to instantly reform the destroyed terrain with freshly created spans of bedrock, dirt, flora, or even metal. At one point a stray bolt speared off from the deadlock and slashed through a mountain range far into the distance, while another burst of blinding luminescence caused a brand new mountain to burst from the ground in the distance. The terrain, the landscape, even the very air was constantly being created and destroyed in equal measure; deafening bursts of vacuums forming and filling creating a constant stream of thundering.

A blue furred form limply rose, still dazed from an impact he'd taken. Grunting, he rose; Starswirl the Bearded forcing himself to look away from the awesome struggle before him, taking all of his mental fortitude to do so while bearing witness to a force so magnitudes greater it was impossible to grasp. He cried out something as a streaming blur rocketed past him and crashed through several newly formed vines, the latter specifically engendered to slow their fall. Starswirl rushed over and with a grip of telekinesis, helped to pull Flash Magnus up. Half of his helmet looked frozen over and most of his right wing was severely frostbitten down to missing feathers. Starswirl cringed as a familiar blue earthen mare rushed over. Meadowbrook had lost her mask somewhere in the struggle, but nopony thought to consider finding it in a time like this.

Starswirl, a unicorn, helped to steady Flash Magnus, a pegasus, while Mage Meadowbrook, an earthen, applied a salve to his frostbite. Meadowbrook put her hooves to his wounds as Starswirl put his horn to her forehead. Assisting in a charge of magic, the pulse of earthen magic often used to speed up crop growth helped stabilize and mend the pegasus’ wounds. Had this been a year or so ago, Starswirl wouldn’t have believed such a group capable of forming; instead being reclused away in his studies and only giving the talents or abilities of others some passing acknowledgement before moving on.

Magnus tested his restored wing and gave a grateful nod to his compatriots, Meadowbrook patting him on the head while shooting the unicorn and pegasus an exasperated, but relieved smile. Starswirl gently lifted Magnus back onto his hooves and accepted the soldier giving him his hat back, having not even noticed it had fallen off in the chaos.

Starswirl nodded back respectfully to the stallion and mare, Meadowbrook’s smile infectious. He’d have never imagined he might one day call such strangers his friends.

“Heads on alert!” a booming cry bellowed out as a crackling light overtook the trio.

Snapped from his stupor, Starswirl’s eyes bulged as he beheld with horror a bolt of malefic magic tearing through the air with an eerie shriek as it barreled closer. Just as he’d gotten a barrier up around himself and his compatriots, a towering mass blocked out the blinding light from the clashing gods and a shovel of all things flew forward; wrapped in an aura of teal colored magic recognizable as Mistmane’s. Like he was batting away at some sort of ballgame, the massive form of Rockhoof smacked the magical blast and tried to push it back. Starswirl knew of his comrade’s power and that Mistmane was no slouch as a spellcaster herself. Which made it all the more telling the two combined just barely managed to deflect away one bolt of magic that had come flying at the group.

And instantly, the entire locale felt noticeably colder; Starswirl soon saw why.

The sheer disgust upon their presence was palpable. Every sense, every inclination of dread was spiked in the worst manner possible. The kind of revulsion one might experience smelling the most rancid, sickening odor possible applied to touch, smell, sound, and sight itself. And in tandem with the horrors inflicted upon the senses, all manner of horrid thoughts risked clawing at the mind; cracking it as ice forming from freezing water cracks the stone it invaded.

That was when the grace of a voice that came with windchimes blocked all of that out and he was at last able to return to conscious thought, gasping for air as the frost that had grown over his fur and beard melted.

-”You six represent the best of virtue. Remember it, live for it. Live for life and its purpose.”-

Starswirl had long been agnostic. Magic was such a mysterious and wide-reaching force that the exact definition of what one said a god was could easily fall within plenty of potential gray areas. The blue unicorn himself had recently begun looking into a spell that might combine the magics of all three pony races with some help from Meadowbrook and Somnambula, and while this was still working with three of the same species; the final result might be something stupendous if given a fully realized potential. It was another fruit of effort impossible to work on without his friends.

And one such being who fit in that possibility he always entertained had called out. She articulated in an impossible manner beyond his means of explaining. She had guided him and the other five heroes over thousands of kilometers of distance, guided them to find and bond together so they could stand a chance at what was put up against them. An alternate, lonelier Starswirl with an extra decade of sorcery study wouldn’t have lasted a minute out here. He and his talent were but one pillar, and a strong house needed multiple. And for the sake of all mortal kind, he could only pray, a first in his life, that six were enough.

He didn’t know if she was his creator in some fashion or another, this goddess, but he heeded her presence well and took hold of the fortitude she and his company gave him. They were heroes, and yet even in the presence of gods, they had a job to do.

Tilt the odds in the most impossible of deadlocks, and keep the greatest evil that the unicorn could possibly imagine from doing the same.

Rockhoof at last batted away the malefic magic, the sphere of energy striking a tree and instantly freezing it and the orchard around it solid.

Above the deadlock, three figures hovered in the air with menacing intent. The winds whipped around from the North, South, and West; bringing a chilling bite as they roared.

“Another one?! Starswirl, what are these things?!” Mistmane panted, the worn mare staggering back to the group to reform a line for mutual protection, her aged features clearly tired even with the goddess’ blessing helping blunt the onslaught of the icy demons.

“Windigos,” Starswirl grimly huffed as he tried to make himself ready,“Old histories spoke of them, but they were thought to be but a myth from a bygone era.”

“A wind of the North, South, and now West,” Sonambula frowned as the hated trio started to form up again.

“And the weather keeps getting worse with each other. I don’t think the first one was this strong individually before the others arrived,” Flash Magnus continued while stomping on his shield to flip it back into his awaiting hooves, batting off a few strands of ice.

“Boreas, Notus, and now west, Zephyrus,” Meadowbrook frowned as she dubbed each of the monsters that had seemed to come crawling out of existence whenever a gateway to a realm beyond near the evil god pulsed. She looked at the portal warily, as it remained open near the deadlock of gods despite the magic flying about destroying and creating in equal measure all around it. That implied one of the gods was actively working to keep it maintained, even if they were devoting all but a tiny fraction of their power to battling their counterpart.

And if the goddess had used her magic to summon, guide, and now protect them with a fraction of her power; that implied this god was confident these freezing monstrosities could achieve more with half the number.

Meadowbrook warily glanced at the towering stallion who was still shivering while trying to shield his comrades with his body, “Rockhoof, how are you feeling about this?”

Rockhoof only frowned while looking at his nearly ruined shovel, cringing as the icy blast had managed to dent in the metal and crack the handle whereas previously the tool and weapon had held up against blow after blow when the first windigo appeared. Now it looked like a stiff breeze might damage it beyond repair.

“Yep, we’re doomed.”

As one, almost all of the pillars sans Starswirl barked back, “WELL DON’T JINX US!”

The winds shifted abruptly. They changed to roar in the opposite direction, like a vacuum had been opened up. Starswirl grit his teeth as he held his hat to his head, squinting to see what was going on. The windigos were up to something. When the first one, the North Wind that meadowbrook had dubbed Boreas had been summoned, Starswirl found he could match it directly. A barrier spell or two was tested and pushed by its manic attacks, but he could push it back. But upon finding itself outmatched the portal to whatever cursed realm it had been brought from reopened. Upon flying through it, Boreas pulled forth his opposite.

Starswirl’s shoulder still itched from the mended wound he’d gotten when the formerly held-at-bay Boreas cackled like a madpony whilst rushing him, smashing through his formerly strong-enough barrier magic like a blizzard busting a window. It was only through the goddess and Meadowbrook he didn’t have severe frostbite that could turn septic.

Now there were three of them, North, South, and West. And now the winds were being pulled towards the East. Boreas came barreling at the ground as Notus disappeared into the surroundings, no doubt sneaking around for another ambush. A dire threat to be sure, but Starswirl could see the greater danger. Looking through the almost blinding, mind-bending brilliance of the clashing gods, he saw Zephyrus going for the portal as a fourth figure flickered across the surface.

“They’re bringing forth another one, we have to shut that portal!” he shouted over the blizzard the North and South spewed forth on the heroes.

“Easier said than done!” Flash Magnus cringed as his trusty metal shield shrieked like a gong, pushing back a lunge by Boreas aimed at himself and Mistmane; but the windigo took a chunk of the shield with it.

“They are stronger near the great evil, just as we are bolstered by the great good and each other,” Somnambula yelled out over the storm, beating her wings as hard as she could to try and push back the howling gales and all they brought forth, “But just three of them to six of us is a deadlock.”

Just like how the gods were in a deadlock before both tried to summon grains of rice to tip the scales. It was telling how their magnitudes must be if assembling six of ponykind’s best, including enchanted soldiers, maguses, sorcerers, and adventurers, was but a rice grain on a scale measuring tonnes. But, everyone loathed a tie and the scales were to be tipped.

Somnambula was right however. Their unity was the only force that was keeping the windigo contained for now; and it was the only effective measure. A harmony between their three kinds of magic. Starswirl had envisioned perhaps condensing that harmony into a singular being with that incomplete spell he had worked on with his compatriots. They were some of the best of the three races assembled, but those stronger still could have been born or were yet to be born. But this was not a conflict or foe one entity could triumph over, not the strongest of the earth, swiftest of the skies, or most able of spellcasting. Against such foes, only unity with harmony could hope to triumph.

Starswirl roared over the storm as he charged forth with a shield spell drawn up around himself and his compatriots, “To me! We must unite our magics with the experimental spell and seal that portal!”

“But I thought you never finished writing that spell!” Rockhoof yelled as he rushed alongside the bearded unicorn, the knight physically shielding him with his mostly ruined shovel.

“Yes, because you all weren’t done teaching this reclusive magus what real magic was. But it’s the best shot we got!”

“And what’s the chance of backfire?” Meadowbrook yelped as she raced up beside them, putting her hoof to Starswirl’s shoulder to channel some of her magic into him.

The Pillars all looked to Starswirl whose wide-eyed exasperation masked his fear, as they charged headlong into the storm regardless of the threats beyond and the clashing deities nearby.

The middle-aged unicorn just shook his head and scoffed, but kept moving forward, “Weaken their magic, banish them, destroy them, destroy us- I haven’t the faintest idea!”

A look passed between each of them, silently speaking volumes as to what was and could happen. There was a much higher than good chance this would end very poorly for all or most of them. Horizons away from home, family, community, and all they knew; descending into an ancient clash they knew nothing of and solely because it seemed to be the right thing to do. Six strangers, remarkable in a way a goddess saw fit to reach out to them for an element they represented; against a dark abomination beyond understanding and its minions.

And their best bet was an untested spell their best sorcerer couldn’t do alone that would hopefully swap and tether their abilities and elements into a harmonious force…

Zephyrus’ powerful roars, Notus’ stalking hiss, and Boreas’ manic cackles plagued the group, trying to drain away their resolve as ice formed up around them. The sound of the windchimes briefly shouted out the storm, carrying with it an urgent plea as the ground and sky seemed to tear apart under the clashing gods.

-”This is getting beyond you, I cannot risk your lives for my fight! I will move you to safety! Go now, save yourselves!”-

A field of magic started to form around them, poised to remove them from the area. All of the pillars of virtue from this ancient time knew what the goddess was doing, and what would happen if they left. Something beyond their understanding was risking defeat and possibly more just for their sakes. They needed her protection and shelter, and all the effort bringing them here was to be cast aside for mere mortals. A primal fear and subconscious mind wanted to take up her offer.

A heroic conscience begged to show they weren’t so helpless. Wings beat and escaped the teleportation field, a bright smile shining in the storm as its owner flew right into it.

“Do not lose Hope my friends, mortal or otherwise! It got us this far because you had faith in us, and we’re not going to let you or ourselves down!” Somnambula, ever the optimist, declared with a strong smile in the face of strife.

Her radiance and boldness to fly against the storm infected them all once again; reminding each of why the goddess had called out to them. Like a tether had bonded between them as Starswirl started the spell, each of the six refused to yield to the blizzard of misery and cold that wished to devour them.

“Be Brave against fear!” Flash magnus roared while putting his shield in front of Starswirl to block shards of ice and hail, helping break the gales that threatened to flatten their advance as they pushed against the storm. Both were still taking some damage from the frost, but Flash was boldly putting himself before the sorcerer.

“Heal al’ old divides!” Meadowbrook shouted, as she enhanced the last of her herb bag with a burst of her magic and smashed it on the ground before the group, the cloud of medicines melting most of the ice and frostbite starting to accumulate on the group; races be damned.

“See the Beauty in differences!” Mistmane cheered while pushing both Flash Magnus and Meadowbrook’s herb cloud forward with her magic, making use of the pegasus’ flight and earthen’s life enchantments to keep the caravan moving towards the portal.

“Find Strength with one another!” Rockhoof bellowed, smashing his shovel into the ground and flipping up a chunk of bedrock that deflected another gale and formed a ramp the party rushed upwards.

The distance closed and closed, Zephyrus almost upon the portal he and his brothers had been summoned from. He’s just about reached it, Easterly winds roaring through while a pair of eyes looked out through the other side of the gateway. That was when six forms launched off a stony ramp despite Boreas tackling the group from one side and Notus launched upon them from behind like two blizzards smashing into each other. Rockhoof and Somnambula, having nothing else left in the tank, threw themselves at Boreas while Mistmane, Flash Magnus, and Meadowbrook hurled their forms upon the attacking Notus. All in a desperate bid to keep either from reaching the now airborne Starswirl, who was barreling at Zephyrus with his entire horn ignited. All six of the ancient heroes were flickering with familiar colors of light, channeling their summoning goddess’ magic.

Massive talons curled around the visions as they played out through a portal glimpsing into the past. Extinction watched on through the strands of memory within Harmony’s realm, studying and learning. Bagan absorbed the memories, Harmony took no opposition to them inspecting whilst moving its magic through the visions of history just as it had glimpsed a few possible futures.

The spell Starswirl had been working on would be abandoned by all but a few in the years after. Without his companions, he’d never be able to finish it. But, it was finished eventually. The second time was by Twilight Sparkle, earning her ascension as an alicorn by her mentor. But, the presence of alicorns before her implied someone else figured it out first. Or already knew it and had reached out to those six who could be components to allow mortals to create the process on their own to those that would be worthy.

After all, it was a tether to another of Harmony’s fields of magic that permitted Princess Cadance to ascend; and she was hardly the first alicorn either.

Bagan paused to look at the magic from Celestia they had sheared off, wordless and emotionless.

Alicorns, a concept of unity and understanding creating authority beyond means of raw power. Controlling the worst of that blight the sapience-inflicted called civilization. Had something like them been on Terra, reigning in or guiding the ancient humans instead of self proclaimed god-kings or queens, perhaps Bagan would have not felt spurred into action for a while longer.

A stilling thought crossed the deity’s mind upon that reflection.

It had given the sapients plenty of chances, plenty of guidance with the Mothra, Battra, and even blessing their chosen heralds the Elias sisters. But did they do enough? They’d provided what the cities asked for, powering their mana guzzling crystals and constructs, for dozens of millennia. But Starswirl could never have known the full implications of his spell. He could never have known that embodying the magics of three races in one body could result in an alicorn, let alone even know what an alicorn was until he bore witness to them in the flesh.

He, a wise soul of his kind and one of the best, couldn’t have known what they needed; living in a time the three races still largely lived apart. And by comparison such segregation was something even a half mortal fool in the modern days of Equestria would consider ridiculous. What if neither the ancients, nor their deity, knew what was needed at the time of that bygone era before extinction…?

…...

A deep pit formed in the dragon-like deity’s core, and they let go of the memory. After a few moments more, they instead turned their focus back to the magic of Celestia that had become separated.

This was not the first time they’d looked into this ancient memory, they’d looked at it plenty of times before and after taking away a chunk of Celestia’s magic. Honestly they didn’t know why they’d bothered looking at it again. In fact it bored them now.

Bagan’s horns crackled and a shock of power traveled through their body into a balled fist. The crackling limb was backhanded into the vision portal, shattering it weightlessly as the shards lazily flew off in different directions. It wasn’t an attempt at destroying the vision- if one could even destroy the memories of a goddess -just an attempt to banish it as Bagan had no wish to look upon it again. They knew all they needed for it, and the reason for reviewing it was minor anyway.

-I viewed it solely for vindication, given what is yet to come. There is nothing that can be learned from watching long dead mortals...-

Bagan shook their head even as they agreed with themselves, but that stubborn pit in their core refused to go away. They instead paced back to another span of the infinity that made up Harmony’s realm, clawed feet tapping on glassy walkway in a sea of stars as they made their way back to where the goddess last was. It was telling they were so distracted as to not just fly back and save time on the journey.

It was more telling they were distracted enough they didn’t notice an invisible and intangible Harmony had been watching them the whole time. She glided down to where Extinction once stood and observed the broken memory screen, the torn off power of Celestia, and the departing Bagan who still hadn’t noticed her.

She frowned, sighing and putting the memory display back together while wondering what was going on in that billions-year-old mind of her company.



=====================
Sunset Shimmer's Home
=====================


Seeing Flash Sentry bolt down the stairs had her attention long enough to pull it away from prior focuses. Hearing the slow strumming of a guitar was what kept it.

Step by step, silently creeping up the stairs, Peachy Keen let her body practically move automatically as she followed the music. A quick glance to the carpet indicated indentations from rapid footfalls, and her eyes briefly glanced back down the stairwell where Flash had gone.

She looked at the indentations trailing in the same direction as the music, back to Sunsets bedroom, down in the direction Flash had fled, and to the deduction of who she knew could play a guitar. A few questions were springing up that she kept aside until reaching for the door.

A sharp bite of cold instantly made her hand recoil from the door knob. Reflexively shaking it out as if to jostle away the chill, Celestia tested her grip a few times while looking back at the door with heightened nerves. The music was still continuing, absent-minded to her approach. One could call it a vibe, a predilection towards such evil, or just her maternal side flaring up; but she could feel her thousand year heart jump up into her throat.

She didn't even care if the doorknob wasn't really that cold when she tried it again, any chill at all sent her in a fright considering the icy demons that had been about.

Yanking open the door, she barged in fearing for the worst.. Only to see just about the second most dreaded sight she could have expected to see. Sunset shimmer, sitting with her back to the door absent-minded to her mentor's entry, quietly strumming a guitar. Peachy Keen didn't even need to see her face to know her once and again current protege was crying.

The princess still looked about, at the windows and ceiling in foreboding dread, just making sure she didn't see some nightmare from the past lurking about.

Nothing. The room was a bit colder, but not the same sort of icy chill that would eat to the bone as her mentors once described to her when the windigos froze half of them. She didn't write off any detail, one didn't rule for as long or as wisely as herself without being perceptive and considering the possibilities, but the immortal alicorn turned teenager could at least let out a slow exhale of stale air she just now realized she had been holding.

Celestia was just about to speak up when notice of who had just been in the room prior got her to hold her tongue. Flash Sentry wasn't especially noteworthy in status, but there was a history there. His counterpart back in Equestria seemed similar enough to the native one here, so Celestia wasn't exactly disapproving when she found out Twilight had developed a bit of a crush. A good man or a good stallion was liable to have some affection thrown their way and he seemed to be on very good terms with the element bearers here as a childhood friend.

The crush would probably fade, and evidently it likely had. Especially when it took Celestia all of 5 seconds to figure out some of that flame between him and her other protege hadn't burned out. But that didn't change the fact they had broken up and apparently not on good terms…

A crying girl alone in her room with someone significant storming away, a still lit flame, but also an open wound between them. Didn't take someone a thousand years old to put two and two together.

"Power was all I desired… But all that grew inside me was the darkness I acquired…”

Celestia perked up, passively nodding her head to both the guitar melody and quiet singing. Sunset Shimmer was extremely talented in magic back in Equestria, but she had never shown musical aptitude back home. And with such a wonderful voice and skill with an instrument no less..

"When I began to fall and I lost the path ahead,"

The princess passively smiled. She could see the pain Sunset Shimmer was going through and as both her teacher and something of a mother figure, she wanted to rush forward and comfort her despite how awkward it would probably look trying to cradle someone she barely came up to the shoulder of.

And yet it was those exact sides of her that held her feet in place.

"That's when your friendship found me and it lifted me instead,”

The lyrics, the way she powered through any hitching or stuttering the crying might have otherwise caused. She was subjected to sadness but not subjugated by it. Celestia was watching her protege in a battle, one she was struggling with but slowly winning. Pride of the selfless variety held her tongue, as not to disturb Sunset's triumph.

The bratty wayward student who'd let jealousy of not being made a princess rip her away from her home was contrasted with the strong young woman beating back her dread and past pains in a new body, a new home, and new skills.

“Like a phoenix burning briiight in the sky… You showed another side of me, I can't deny.."

She’s come such a long long way, and Celestia's only regret in the moment was that she hadn't been able to watch it all happen.

Her eyes cast to the corners of the room to a familiar old piano. With the next strumming of fingers across guitar strings, one of the faux ivory keys was pushed down.

Sunset Shimmer let her body move on its own, playing the chords and strings from muscle memory from all those hours practicing with Flash. She could vividly remember, perhaps even a little sharper now that the piano was playing alongside to add to the mood. Human hands were far more dexterous than any hoof, and for her first weeks she struggled.

She was trying to sign her name for what felt like the 50th time when the music drew her in like a moth to a flame. The same useful dolt who’d been helping her get settled was practicing some chords on the steps and Sunset Shimmer didn't even remember approaching. What she did remember was a passive marveling at how he was manipulating so many digits in such a succinct manner that was such a jarring contrast to her awkward fumbling. And producing such sound no less…

It was the first time a human had actually impressed her. It was the first time he had…

Not 5 minutes later, Flash was cheerfully teaching her how to hit a few notes. Her awkward clenching all but forced him to practically hold her hands to get them in the right configuration.

A phantom sensation of warmth across her hands helped to push away the cold. Some more recent memories risked the chill returning, but the heat persisted. Stoked by loving memories and the sound of a piano and guitar playing in unison. Unseen by both former equestrians on account of having their eyes closed as they concentrated on the melody, sparks of red started to flicker around Sunset Shimmer. And a mixture of hues started to flicker across Peachy Keen. A link was established, empathy streaming thoughts and emotions from one party to the other. Even without physical contact, Sunset felt embraced; coaxed along through the happier memories of her times gone by and recent. Both her own, and ones of her teacher; painted across a tapestry of time from a bygone era and the present.

Ambition to do the best to prove to others, doubt in their own worth and capabilities, friendships, rivalries, crushes, follies and victories. The younger solar diarch was no different than any pony in such regards, nor did she entirely lose them with age and experience. Much as she was surprised to think it in her subconscious, Sunset Shimmer’s consciousness was privy to the deduction. She’d wondered why Celestia of all folk might have ever taken her up as a student, doubly so when she took her back on as a student after their falling out; and why her scorned teacher would forgive her for hiding secrets like Irys. She could heed the forgiveness before, but she only could truly understand it now.

They were a lot alike besides just the solar themed names.

“I may not know what the future holds,” Sunset whispered, a tear falling onto her guitar strings.

Pale fingers glided over the piano keys in perfect harmony with the guitar cord, “But hear me when I say.”

The cold of a painful break-up and the dread she’d caused others before and after it was pushed out, like the chill of a night’s evening pushed back by the rising sun.

Sunset Shimmer made her affirmation, much as her self-doubt denied it and her worth as an Element Bearer, “That my past does not define me…”

Scorning a loved one and having to be forgiven and forgive yourself for it was something important they both had in common.

“Because your past is not todaaay…”

The music petered out and Sunset Shimmer didn’t sit up as Peachy Keen, Celestia Alexandria Alicor, paced forward and embraced her softly. She turned around and returned the gesture, calmed and able to let it all out. Several long minutes later, Sunset reclined back into Celestia as the two watched the sun cross the window; casting its warmth down across them both.

Sunset Shimmer frowned as she touched at her collar area again, privy to the missing placement for an Element, “… I… I still wonder why I’m worthy of any Element...”

Sunset shrugged, pouting and looking aside at nothing in particular before her eyes drifted down due to a dour mood, “I wasn’t exactly the picture of good not long ago. I acted without any thought to others, most of all the ones I should have been the most concerned about.”

Celestia ran her fingers across Sunset’s scalp, sighing as she shook her head at old memories, “To that, I can actually relate.”

Sunset stilled before looking upwards, not necessarily at but tilting her head as to indicate direction of her attention towards her mentor, “… You serious?... You seriously-“

Celestia rolled her eyes and tapped a thumb to each of her fingers to count up, “Was a brat sometimes. Everyone is growing up. Just because my body sprouted up like a weed didn’t mean I wasn’t young once…. Heeeeeeeeeheheee…”

She let out a long shrug, rubbing at the back of her head, “And… I hurt those who were kind to me once too… Luna was feeling neglected, both by the public and myself. On some level, I might have-… On some level I probably did know she was like that. And I didn’t act on it as I should have.”

“That’s…” Sunset swallowed, “Not the same as my folly though.”

“No, it isn’t. But failing to do the right thing is just as bad at times as doing a wrong deed.”

Sunset furrowed her brow and sat up a bit, even moving up slightly caused her to surpass her mentor in height as she looked back at the former alicorn incredulously, “But- that whole bit where she got jealous wasn’t your fault! Equestria had just suffered a bunch of attacks though. Discord, Tirek, Sombra, loss of the Crystal Empire, and Tartarus unleashed- Chrysalis was still on the loose! Folks needed leadership and security, and you gave them that.”

“And I was a teenager even younger than you back then,” Celestia frowned as she rubbed at her arm, vulnerability upon her mentor’s face a total unknown to Sunset, “I was full size by the time I was 10, but none of that mattered… Some ponies looked at my appearance and wanted to throw themselves down before I even said anything. Nopony publicly wanted or cared to know I got acne, I had mood swings, I got crushes, or that I had no idea what I was doing. And those that cared, the founders, didn’t want anypony to know…”

Celestia gazed longingly at the sun in the distance, remembering a bygone era in which she’d sometimes long to stretch her oversized wings and fly there. Fly away from any problems, any responsibilities she’d suddenly gotten burdened with. She pushed those old, foolish, youthful fantasies aside, closed her eyes to banish away the vision of the sun, and shook her head.

“We’d just lost Amore, her child, and the Crystal Empire. Chrysalis was still on the loose. Ponies saw how monsters could just trample over their best and longed for someone who was equal in power to take charge. Luna was always more reclusive, younger, less public, and more had seen my actions. It didn’t matter she was my equal back then, that I was only slightly older, or what I wanted,” Celestia whispered at the ancient recollections Sunset couldn’t see.

But after a few moments, she did when she reached out and took her shrunken mentor’s hands and used the magic she gained.

She’d never known the canyon out by Foal Mountain used to be another mountain before getting blasted apart during the ancient war. It left her wondering if she’d been apathetic and had just apparently brushed over that detail in history classes, or if such a detail was scrubbed from history on purpose to avoid any panic. What she did see now was a clear refugee crisis. Many a pony and other residents, sapient or just animal alike, in dire straits. Forests burned down and smoldering with plumes of smog still reaching skyward, ashfall blotting everything with gray like a sticky, sickly variety of snow, the only breaks from the gray being the char that blackened dead vegetation and exposed earth.

-”There had been two towns of 400 inhabitants each just a year ago here.”-

Celestia’s voice, still in that youthful high pitch but now from a bygone time rather than a transformed body, whispered into Sunset’s mind. That number was honestly harder to grasp than most would think. Typically one couldn’t actively imagine 800 perso-..ponies, only try and imagine a mass crowd and roughly gander at how big it would be. Still, that wasn’t the fixture of her focus. It was at the pitiful forms that surrounded a rather pathetic looking pond half-clogged with ash that made half the surface have the consistency of tar. Sunset Shimmer couldn’t comprehend 800 individuals so suddenly, but she could count two dozen just fine.

-”Tirek set the acreage ablaze, I didn’t even need to be told that it was Chrysalis who followed in his wake shortly after…”-

The parched, starving, shells of ponies and their animal neighbors looked dead save not for their slow motions. Some paced weakly across the makeshift camp that had sprung up around the only source of water, unable to escape due to the still burning distant forest fires that the pegasi flight teams were still trying to reign in, bringing wet rags or small cups to the still members of their company. An ash-covered, bone-thin stallion delivered a wet rag to his spouse; who had put his attention to trying to bandage a wounded deer, for worry the burn across the poor doe’s back would get infected. A unicorn mare slowly rocked an earth pony foal in her arms, despite the lack of familial resemblance and her young age making it abundantly clear to any onlookers she wasn’t its relative or mother. A mound of piled stones to form a simple grave stood with plenty of company on the edge of the canyon, parched wind pushing ash across the carn.

Lost hair, patches of bare and raw skin, coats clumped with ash, cracked and dry lips, and sullen eyes that belied sullen souls. Unicorns with cracked horns, earth ponies with broken and split hooves, and not a pegasi feather among the burned wings. A slow death beholden in a moment.

Until Celestia rushed forth with the rescue teams. In truth, it was an effort led by Smart Cookie, but there was only so much the dedicated emergency responders could do. While they were distributing clean water, trying to set up a medical tent and food stand, and trying to figure out who among the mute, almost dead crowds needed attention first; it was an emotional teenager who’d just lost her friend Amore that acted in the largest way.

The rescue workers briefly stopped to gawk at how the entire valley lit up in a magical veil. Every speck of ash, every shard of igneous glass, all of it was gripped in a golden shroud of telekinesis that stretched from edge to edge of the valley.

A hoof stomped and a cry was heard. In an instant everything was blinding, and upon the death of that moment everything was changed. All of the ash and shards of what had been stony earth were gone, balled together in a tight cluster that was thrown skyward and transmogrified. Dead earth and char was restructured from one element into another. Carbon, iron, sulfur, and innumerable others all turned into hydrogen and oxygen. The still brilliant sky was slightly darkened as an artificial downpour fell upon the dying and parched earth. Wherever the now exposed, broken rock and topsoil was touched by the enchanted rains, an accelerated, unnatural plant growth began to take hold from those few seeds that survived being buried amongst the ash.

Exaggerated unicorn sorcery for transmutation, exaggerated pegasi meteomancy for the rains, and exaggerated earth ecomancy to speed up plant growth. Such would have required at least half a dozen specialists for each, let alone working in perfect tandem; perfect harmony.

And yet, it was imperfect harmony. It was a surge of magic from a youth not dissimilar from one anypony experienced at a young age. Because that's exactly what it was. Sunset Shimmer gawked at the memory, the flagrant display of power from what happened when an unnatural being had a natural surge of emotion. Crying tears that rolled across her hooves which joined the rain drops in drenching the valley; in one swift motion an emotional youth had rendered what had once been gray and dying into a living viridian.

A form rushed forth, and then another, and then another. Celestia, the past youth who was exhausted and emotionally spent, heaved as she finally opened her eyes. The alicorn hitched her breath and reactively leaned back. Every living soul that had been in the valley's survivor camp, every one of them that had been huddling around a dying spring trying to stall off rapidly encroaching death, was surrounding her. So many sets of eyes, both broken and yet in awe, looked up longingly. Infants, children, and adults clear into the elderly, all huddled around the alicorn while all of them were caught in the downpour. Hair drenched in sticking to their faces, one by one they crumbled lower.

To those that had seen and knew death far more than any should, they were beholden to the opposite. Standing above them, even if only by consequence of the stature of her greater height and most certainly not the stature of her confidence, Celestia was like life itself. They all as one reached to her, bowing and kneeling. It didn't matter there were many other able-bodied and heroic rescue workers that had come, even if those numbers were understandably still taken aback and in shock at the display of power they had seen. It didn't matter if there was another like her that existed in this world.

What mattered was someone who brought safety and life was there to protect them, and the survivors clung to that fact as if the only thing that could keep them going in life depended on it. So many eyes looked to Celestia for saving, for stability, for peace in the world that seemed poised to loose monster after monster upon them. And many more would in the coming months, even when reverence of a rescuer turned to adoration that demanded she be given the crown.

The future Princess Celestia somehow, even then, felt her head weighed down by such a crown as she stood up and sheltered the survivors under her wings.

The present came as the recollections ended. Peachy Keen sniffled and she shook her head slowly.

"They needed me, some practically worshiped me and that alone took a century for me to get them to stop doing that. I didn't want to embrace being their paragon, but I felt I had to, to give them that stability. My sun became a symbol for calm, safety, and happiness... It was my own hubris then, that my wish to see others happy left me blind to the happiness of the one I should have cared the most for. When the history books say they praised my day and ignored the night, that was an understatement..."

"Princess Luna," Sunset finished as her teacher nodded, “She got associated with what you weren’t, and if you were everything good....”

“I let my own sister be neglected, or worse. The greatest mistake of my long life.”

Peachy Keen put a hand to Sunset's cheek and patted it, then up to her scalp; brushing some hair out of the student's face.

"I needed almost 1,000 years to forgive myself for that, and even then... I really didn't until she returned to me," she sighed away the grief, nodding affirmatively, "I had my chance at having been an Element Bearer when I was younger, at the same time I was more foolish... But mistakes don't preclude one from being worthy. It's not about what we've done wrong, it's about what we do to make things right."

Sunset Shimmer felt like she was back at her first lessons, back when she was a wide-eyed and idealist little filly who'd been given the greatest opportunity for a teacher she could have dreamed of. More and more, she kept getting reminded of how much her younger self had been right about her mentor. She stilled her tears and accepted the motherly embrace of the shorter girl who could have been her parent.


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


"So, roughly five or so years before the founding of Equestria, the windigos attacked Mako Island. They were probably attracted there after ravaging some of the Pre-Unification Pony settlements and cities due to the relative harmony Queen Amathea was establishing. After a long siege they were forced away by The Shroud that protects the island to this day," Twilight Sparkle chose her words very carefully as she glanced at the two sirens present at the table and took a fleeting glance to the cabin Sonata was still occupying after a night of festivities with Megalon, "... But after inflicting other grievances they traveled north to what is now Canterlot Mountain. The events still celebrated by ponykind as Hearth's Warming Eve happened and the three races were unified shortly after."

Twilight had spent the last half hour fully running down and reviewing everything there was to know about the enemy, a studious mind ensuring she mentally catalogued and memorized every detail of importance. Having some direct eyewitness in some form or another was a unique experience, though she was cautiously skating over certain details out of consideration for her current audience. It was a very sensitive topic, but they had to get through this in talk if they wanted to get through it in reality.

"The harmonious magic invoked by the bond between three of the founders is not that dissimilar from the Elements of Harmony, if obviously less extreme," she rubbed at her chin with the back of her wrist, still not quite picking up the mannerism to do with her fingers like a human, "The coalescence of bonds and especially magic between the three different races has a lot of application. I know Starswirl the Bearded-"

She caught Adagio flinching at the name ‘Starswirl’ and hurried her speech to get some distance from that touchy subject too.

"-Worked on but never finished a similar spell as the one that allowed me to ascend from a unicorn to an alicorn once I actually understood how magical and emotional bonds worked. When that spell activated in full, I was transmitted to some strange realm that I still know very little about. Princess Celestia was there as well, and she later told me she met Cadance in the same enchanted realm when she ascended from a pegasus."

Adagio sucked in a deep breath before letting it out slowly, getting past a certain sore subject involving a unicorn mage to get back to the point, "So... the magic that made you an alicorn is also able to jump between realms...Star-..swirl... had something similar, if incomplete. Which could explain how that sorcerer got us all here."

"To be fair we were causing quite a ruckus," the typically very quiet Aria grumbled in a deeper-than-normal pitch to her voice, "It's not like we were going to stop if he asked nicely. He tried to."

"You're... not angry at what he did?" Twilight raised an eyebrow at the surprisingly monotone Kaizer Aria.

"Oh I’m still more than a bit furious. In fact the only one I'd wail on worse would probably be that 'other' Twilight Sparkle..." Aria paused, perhaps noticing the slight shivering going through her company.

She rolled her eyes and scoffed, "You're not her so don't take that as a threat... I don't care for your idol, it's just I have a better grasp of what conflict is now after some experience. We weren’t in a negotiating mood, he was trying to protect his pod too; he acted. Simple as that."

"R-right... And it did work out in some way or another, I’d say you all improved some by your stay here, eheh," Twilight gulped but reoriented herself after rubbing the back of her head, "Point is, I highly doubt he knew they were here even if the magic that brought you three here is reasonably similar to what might have brought them. The fact they were here so long but only now started coming back in the last few decades probably means they got pretty hurt by the benevolent magic. The fact you all were conscious the moment you got transferred over tells me Starswirl didn't think you three were necessarily all evil either."

"Yes... Lovely trip down memory lane that last concert in Canterlot was..." Adagio shrugged before nodding in some concession to the logic.

She didn't have to like the stallion to understand what probably was going through his head at the time, and while she would never verbally own up to it she knew as well as anyone how much of a screw up her old self could be. The alpha siren just regretted that it took nearly losing all of her family and a face-to-face encounter with a mountain sized dark magic ape that looked like a volcano to realize it.

"I do have one other question, relating to me still trying to figure out what exactly the windigos actually want as this does look like a scheme is ahoof. It’s not just mindless misery, in-character as that might be for them. Knowing as much as I can might help us figure everything out and work better with the others," Twilight frowned as her brow furrowed in clear indication of deep thought, taking a fleeting glance at the clock to see what time they’d passed through to know when to get ready for a long belated reunion. A steely look crossed her vision as she leaned in closer, dead seriousness evident in how unmoving most of her face was.

Twilight’s lips flattened as her brow perked sympathetically, "I only say this because the Hearth's Warming tale had never been specific and I want us to be prepared for anything.... But as with anything else regarding those monsters that impacted your family probably more than any other, only say what you're comfortable with."

"... Go on," both sirens muttered in unison.

".... Are you sure there were only ever three windigos when they attacked Mako Island before going after the Equestrian founders?" Twilight whispered, some hesitation making her swallow before continuing, "If Notus is the South Wind, Boreas is the North Wind, and Zephyrus is the West Wind; shouldn’t that imply there is an easterly wind? Are you sure there’s no possibility of some nasty fourth surprise waiting for us?”

A pregnant pause filtered across the room. Adagio could feel her cousin looking at her even without seeing it, closing her eyes and feeling the focus. She had been the first born, the one that her mother and aunt had spoken the most to. Whether it was because she was born first and thus closest to the events, because her mother perhaps sensed she'd be sacrificing her waning life to give Sonata hers, or because Auntie Hymnia long expected her first born niece would have to take care of the pod eventually; Adagio was privy to details only hinted or vaguely given to her little cousin and sister.

Words formed in mind, but were frozen still in her lungs from old fears and terrors, waking and dreamed. Shudders and tremors shot up and down the oldest siren's arms, moving to the hands that were at her lap. Skin calloused from gardening held one and smoothed metal held the other. She squeezed both, and they squeezed back to choke out some of the tremors. Gloriosa's fingers gently caressed Adagio's palm under the table, while cybernetic digits tapped at her knuckles on the other to show focus and notice of her fears.

It helped her bounce back from the dread, take in a deep breath to melt that ice forming within her core, and breathe out the chilled vapors of what had been drowning her.

Adagio nodded her head, "... There were only ever three. When they besieged Mako and tormented my mother, aunt, and grandmother, there were only ever three. The directional winds might imply something and maybe more existed once, but with how much they love to torment it would make no sense for there to have been a fourth that sat everything out and was in hiding. I personally don't like the idea of them making more either."

"Just like us, and who knows we might have even gotten it from them, windigos are stronger together. More of them just means more strife for all of them to gain power by and make even more..." Aria Blaze frowned as she crossed her arms, closing her eyes and perhaps feeling at the memories in presence of someone who gave her comfort much like her cousin had found in her new compatriots, "We should just count our blessings that there are not more of them now."

"And you three took far more after your mothers in mind and body. You don't need me to tell you this, but I will anyways. You three have a right to life, bloodline regardless. They do not, you are nothing like them," the former alicorn nodded astutely with a smile.

Twilight Sparkle stood up, a determined look upon her face that was not necessarily joyous nor was it enraged. It was controlled, confident; and Adagio could even admit, somewhat admirable. The stiff jaw and furrowed brow combined with her eyes both looking upon them as well in the distance beyond them gave a sense of vision. This young princess had the promise for leadership. To that, Adagio could concede a form of respect even if she hadn’t previously seen this in the alicorn during her captivity. She could perhaps, actually rather like this side of this whelp of a royal.

"Then, let's get to work with the others to make less of them, permanently. These barely sapient abominations have caused and cost plenty of folks enough. Let's get this plan rolling, because I for one do not intend to go back home until I know this can never happen again. Not until they are destroyed," she growled slightly, not enough to come off as controlled by emotions but enough to certainly show disdain.

Adagio and Aria's brow perked and they found themselves nodding along slightly. Now this was an alicorn princess they could respect. Twilight extended and offered her hand. Aria looked to Adagio and the cousin that once considered rebelling nudged her head into the former alicorn's direction as she backed up slightly to give Adagio center stage. It was a subtle queue of agreement that she would trust her cousin and pod lead's judgement. Adagio's choice was her choice.

The once arrogantly prideful siren who had previously attempted to conquer Canterlot looked to her compatriots, looked to the hand of the newest leader amongst the very people she had once scorned; that same leader which had once been her hostage and was now demanding to take the center in the chorus. Her spot.

Adagio stood up as well, letting go of Gloriosa and Gigan's hands while still feeling their support behind her. She made a point not to tower over the shorter Twilight, bending her back slightly as if to bow as she took the offered hand. Only to notice a resurgence of old habits had come to them both.

Twilight's fingers curled into some sort of approximation of a hoof, and Adagio's attempt to clasp it had resulted in a long thought conquered lapse in which she did the exact same. Maybe it was all subconscious in just a side effect of having the past on the brain, but somehow it was quite fitting.

"These bastards have had a lot coming. Let's see them gone for good properly is time," Twilight's gumption and choice of words spurred a perked brow from Gigan.

Adagio regained a bit of her bravado and smirked after a brief chuckle, "To that, Your Majesty, this siren couldn't be happier to agree."

The title caused a jolt in the air as everyone recognized the intent and respect behind it. After all, it was one Adagio once strove to claim for herself; and to give it away to someone she’d once considered a hostage had Twilight’s eyes widening slightly.

She shook off the stupor, and the young alicorn snickered a bit bashfully, losing some of that same grit and composure to lapse right back into the dork everyone knew, "Call me Twilight, all my friends do!"


===================
Later on, edge of town
===================


The meeting place was about as innocuous as one could have asked for with expectations of privacy, the top of an unused parking garage. As the present Rainboom Element Bearers and their associates from Equestria and Terra approached, there were understandably a few thoughts and trepidations as to if this was a trap. From left to right, Anguirus, Applejack, Rarity, Sunset Shimmer, Peachy Keen, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Godzilla all stepped onto the roof in a tight group; Lea present but hanging back in the van with Flash Sentry on account of both not trusting her full judgement in the lead group and to serve as back-up. If something went astray, Rarity was close to the middle as to provide cover with a diamond shield while the less combative Rainbooms retreated to her, with Applejack and Rainbow Dash to cover the flanks while the kaiju would be the gatekeepers to any assaults from behind or the sides.

Lea in truth, didn’t think she deserved to come, but conviction by her oldest friend and an idea of her own had carried her here; even if it was in the background. Immediately noticing the entire ensemble of the Siren’s company was not present caused some visible tension in both groups; but Eventide Hymn took the lead in being the first to talk.

“Heeelloo! Thank you all for coming! I know we all have had quite a rough time as of late, not for lack of me trying to avoid that-BUT hopefully this meeting will-” A very forcefully cheery Eventide Hymn stopped short when she noticed the Rainbooms and their company immediately looking about as if both very confused and bracing for the worst.

“I still say we should have opened with Gloriosa returning,” Aria Blaze grunted with a lowered brow, not liking the wary glance Godzilla was giving her coloration.

“Or they noticed Twilight Sparkle isn’t here,” Gigan grunted quietly out of the side of his mouth.

“No, I think they also noticed we brought Chainsaw-hands and ‘Bino-bat with us,” Adagio snipped back at the cyborg, trying to hide how much her arms shook with anticipation for the worst.

“Ah geeze, you groups and your conflicts…” Eventide deadpanned, before sucking in a breath and striding forward to break the ice. She raised a hand to grab attention and plastered on a grin.

“Gloriosa is back at Camp to help Sonata, she’s been resting all morning after a bit of a pick-me-up party last night and we wanted someone with magic to stay behind,” the false siren noted with a rub at the back of her head and awkward giggle that caused the back of several persons, ponies, and kaiju’s minds to tingle at some detail in her delivery. There was something uncanny beyond it appearing intentionally placating, tense, awkward, and the curious observation that the much more controlled and confident Adagio wasn’t the one doing the talking or in the center of the group.

From left to right stood a surprisingly transformed and calm Aria Blaze, sporting enough gold on her to give the Defender kaiju unease, a passive but alert Irys, Adagio Dazzle who sagged in stance with decidedly less bluster than usual, the aforementioned awkward Eventide Hymn, and head-bowed Gigan stood. No sign of the speculated Megalon, Gloriosa, or apparently bodysnatched Monster X.

“My brother is back at camp with her,” Gigan grunted, head bent down and to the side as indication that he was tense and not wanting to show off how much he was by looking head-on at his former enemies, “He’d thrown Sonata that small party anyways, so fat chance he’d leave her or Miss Daisy unguarded.”

The tension was palpable as it remained thick in the air. The Rainbooms and Defenders had come to this peace talk and despite the kind words, red flags were springing up. It wasn’t enough to cause a hostility, but having one kaiju unaccounted for, another only out of action by the word of another with no proof, a strange transformation upon one of the sirens that smelled like all kinds of bad to anyone who’d met a Ghidorah before, and the lack of both a friend in Twilight and friendly familiarity in Gloriosa ‘Tree Angel’ Daisy was off-putting and everyone knew it.

Eventide cringed, groping for words to help set the tone for what she’d been hoping would be a calm, fruitful event.

-Gotta ease things first, if I just rip the band-aid off with no set-up or explanation it could risk messing things up with so many old enemies around.-

Eventide was clearly about to say something, reaching for her hair; when two forms broke the stillness. Two had noticed how tense their company was, but also how much the other had become. And with how their last meeting went, at this point they were just both happy to see the other in good health. Irys and Anguirus, the long-separated youngest and oldest of their family, strode forth to meet each other halfway.

In a perfect piece of well acted cinema, it would be an emotional reunion between a little sister and her elder brother. Perhaps with an embrace, spin, and waterworks of joy at their reunited family; especially after the dramatic events that had recently followed Irys and the nature of their last encounter. In practice it was more a case of them closing the distance, stopping in front of each other, and then awkwardly trying to figure out what exactly came next.

They’d closed the gap between themselves, could clearly see the other was in good physical and mental wellbeing, and had the sense there wouldn’t be a fight to mess everything up again. They were happy to see each other, but just didn’t quite know how to express it succinctly. Irys especially was an awkward mess, biting her lip and glancing aside as she stood before the taller, stouter Guardian Beast. Her fingers fiddled with each other, as if trying to pick out a statement to make from a list.

-”Hello brother! Sorry I bit your friend, but he tasted horrible!”-

-”Salutations sibling, if you worried about me you shoulda seen the other guy!”-

-”Greetings my brother, mind not killing my flock and friends if I don’t try to kill your’s?”-

-”Oh great to see you came, I promise I won’t try to eat your flock-”-

Irys’ eyes widened and she let a pregnant pause pass as a sensation came upon the top of her scalp. It returned, briefly at first before coming again. She slowly tilted her eyes and head upwards and noticed the hand breaching the boundary of choking air that had built up between herself and Anguirus.

Anguirus frankly wasn’t sure what he was doing. Talking points weren’t his thing and he wasn’t about to whip out the Alpha Beast call right here unprompted. So, he defaulted to the first thing he’d learned to do to show affection to someone shorter. Worked on Gentle Leaf when he’d picked up the habit around her. So, he just kept patting Irys’ head gently; letting his fingers nestle between her hairs and lightly massage at her scalp.

Irys looked up at the hand patting her head, registering the sensation, before slowly letting out a cooing sigh and uttering a similar, clicking purr some like Sunset head heard her emit when happy. Anguirus grunted a chuckle, patting his little long-lost little sister’s scalp.

“I’m glad to see you’re safe,” Anguirus noted happily, holding back some joy at seeing her acting on their familial bond now but knowing this all had to be still quite new to her.

Irys responded by reaching up and patting his own head after some trepidation, but happily getting into the motion as she stole a glance at his gray companion, “... Some mistakes were made, but I don’t plan on making a habit of it.”

She let her eye drift to Sunset Shimmer and felt a relief upon getting a wink.

The two Guardian Beasts separated, the tension in the air being noticeably ratcheted down. Anguirus, sensing the timing was well, looked back to Peachy Keen and gave her a nudging nod with his head. Bringing everyone was both for safety and, in a way, a show of force. Time to present a bit of a carrot instead of a stick.

Eventide was about to speak again, but someone else was taking the stage.

Peachy Keen strode forward, a motion that caught the eye of both siren and kaiju alike on the other side. Siren on account of not recognizing her from Twilight’s recollections and information yet was clearly in some leadership or advising role despite her age, whereas Irys and Gigan were both pretty quick to pick up on how she’d been so heavily guarded being in the center of the group. It spoke enough to tell this was someone important and to be protected. Gigan, wisely, made a point to put his hands behind his back after catching Godzilla giving him a strong look.

“We in our company have an offering to make, as an act of good faith and establishment of our character,” Peachy Keen poised astutely, holding herself to some height despite being a full foot shorter at minimum than the next shortest person present. Adagio was cocking an eyebrow at the show and prose by this random twerp she’d only seen in passing once or twice.

“The youngest siren, Sonata Dusk, was the one wounded by the enemy, was she not?”

Eventide took a glance towards Adagio and Aria, who were keenly tensed at the subject. The former looked like she was about to say something when, remembering the plan and deal, she swallowed and looked to Eventide Hymn. The fake siren nodded and looked back at the source of some of the weirdest vibes she’d ever gotten in her life. Something about this kid wasn’t normal and it was throwing off some of her planning.

“Yes, she was attacked by… Twilight Sparkle’s counterpart and her group which were in league with the Windigos,” Eventide lowered her brow and even without a direct line of sight, Gigan could tell she was shooting him a withering look. The cyborg grumbled inarticulately as Eventide continued, “That was the cause of this big mix-up and the kidnapping…”

“And regarding Sonata Dusk, can you vouch that this attack was unprovoked?”

“We can. Th-We sirens caused some problems early on, but have changed,” Eventide corrected, the sense of uncanniness starting to build was making her stage persona slip, “Sonata had just sung a love song before being assaulted, the adoration she got was earnest and benign.”

Peachy Keen, hands steepled together nodded approvingly with a smile, “That is good, very good. The past can have mistakes, few know that like I do… Well, seeing as none of us here have any quarrel with the injured party, one of our number has proposed something of her own to make amends for her own actions.”

The combined Sirens and Hunter group perked up at the words and manner of the young teen, her delivery carrying an astuteness in her syllables that seemed to coat her words with an authority; a promise it would work even before a pitch was finished. Practiced speeches by an experienced leader was a skill not-undone by a mere age shifting accident.

“Mothra Lea would like to try her hand at healing Sonata Dusk, or at least helping stabilize her condition. She has a type of magic not known to any affliction Equestria or this world might have, so an outside assistance could never hurt.”

It was a pitch Lea herself had made, one the group had debated on quite a bit as to if it was worth trying. Not for lack of wish to help some injured innocent out, but a question regarding Lea’s own condition and if the opposition might react poorly. It wasn’t a temptation to return Twilight, it was the Mothra’s wish to live up to her title as the Guardian of Mortals by acting on it.

Adagio and Aria suddenly found themselves checking a wide-eyed Gigan and Irys for advice. Eventide’s brow perked and she seemed bemused, but not at all that shocked as more mildly surprised.

“Oh!.. Oh, that sounds wonderful actually!” she chirped, detracting away from her previous topic and hopping on this one before Adagio or Gigan could get any words in that might speak against the plan.

Eventide kept her wide smile as she turned herself around halfway, giving them a look that spoke volumes as to who was leading this meeting, “She’s a very, very talented healer and they say her magic might be the ticket we need. We want Sonata happy and healthy don’t we?...”

Adagio and Gigan looked about as surprised to see Eventide back talking and overriding them as they were about the offer to begin with, blinking and glancing at one another and then back to the fake siren.  

“After all, we’ve got to trust them, lack of that got us in this situation. The opposite of which I’ve been pushing for since the beginning… Riiiight?”

Still wondering where all this came from, Gigan deflated with a shrug.

“I’ll contact Megalon to tell him to expect company, should she beat us back there after the other big surprise of the day,” Gigan grumbled while putting a hand to the side of his head like he was holding a phone, mentally bringing up Gloriosa’s number and dialing it so she could deliver this one for him.

“Goood, now Adagio; we do gotta trust these folks. They are being very generous by offering Sonata this help, free of charge by an expert. Someone who’s very experienced…-”

“She’s patched me up plenty of times,” Godzilla hollered out while trying to not burst into a laugh, able to hear most of the conversation and finding no small amount of joy in seeing the spectacle. He was liking this Eventide more and more, and a little extra word might help sway this Adagio, “And trust me, your metal-headed friend there can tell you how many times I got messed up.”

Adagio looked in a mixed-up mess of confused, hopeful, and exacerbated as she tried to glare at Eventide for putting her on the spot like this. But that stiff-overly wide, toothy grin the fake siren had on was surprisingly potent. Not even Aria looked like she was about to step in to back her family up. Adagio hadn’t seen a grin this weathering outside of a shark, and the masked, good-hearted vindication dripped from Eventide’s words.

Eventide’s grin widened while she laid the pitch on thick, “She only wants to help Sonata, Megalon can protect her if you need to think of that. We don’t want the windigos to win do we?... So let’s stop this isolationism and trust our new friends here.”

Adagio sucked in a deep breath, bristling like she was about to bark back; if only for the insubordination against the lead siren of this pod. But, between the chances it would indeed work out for the better and the overpowering, surprisingly overpowering, presence of Eventide Hymn; the words just couldn’t come out.

She only shrugged and did her best to just not look at her former subordinate, “... Fine, tell Lea we thank her. Do all she can to help Sonata.”

Eventide closed her eyes and beamed, “Gooood! Very good! Let’s hope this all works!”

She snickered and turned back around, feeling taller than she ever had been even before the platform shoes.

-Told you, I’m leading this pod for now… And don’t worry Adagio, this can only help.-

The Rainboom company were still not quite sure what they were witnessing exactly. Some like Sunset, Rarity, and Fluttershy might have been passively hopeful as this Eventide seemed like someone they could work with. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were both confused in a manner, as their Elements started to flicker slightly on and off indicating, unbeknownst to them, the concepts of loyalty and honesty were being both used and tested in equal measure. Godzilla and Anguirus found the idea of some random girl being able to talk a bit of smack to Gigan and not get lip back for it equal parts eyebrow raising and hilarious. But Peachy Keen.. was totally silent as she narrowed her eyes knowingly.

“Shall we give you the directions to Camp Everfree?” Eventide hummed.

“No need, I've gone there as a kid a few times and she has them,” Fluttershy beamed as she spoke into a phone, “Alrighty Miss Lea, you’re clear for take off!”

“Wait just a moment though!” Eventide Hymn keened as she strode a few steps closer, “You no doubt noticed someone missing earlier, didn’t you?”

“Twilight,” Peachy Keen grunted.

“Yes yes, well since you’ve been so kind as to grant us this gift, it’s only right we gift you one as well,” Eventide giggled as she put her hands on her hips, “Aah, after trying so hard to keep things from blowing up all this time, it just feels so good to put a stop to all this conflict.”

The rest of the audience on the Rainboom side was confused as to what exactly was going on, but Peachy Keen just deadpanned.

The former alicorn grunted, “Twilight-”

“I mean it’s great you all came to rescue your friend! But with the windigos being the problem; the less fighting, the better!”

“Twilight-”

“I mean, who the hay would have seen them coming? They got banished before Starswirl built the second portal mirror he used on the sirens so how did they even get here is a question-”

Sunset Shimmer instantly furrowed her brow.

-Second portal mirror? Hardly anypony would have known there were two. The first was that prototype he explored with Celestia that wound up broken because going to a counterpart world where good and evil were flipped proved unstable. The second was more limited, only linked to this world as a safety feature. Not even I knew about the first for the longest time. The only ones who would have known about it would be...-

For someone else, that was the final vindication needed for an already pretty strong hypothesis.

“But your friend you’ve been looking for has been doing her best to keep you quite safe, and she worried that blowing the whistle could cause more of a mess. But now-” Eventide reached for her face.. And an explosion of noise shouted her out so loudly it blew her hair back.

“PRINCESS TWILIGHT STARLA SPARKLE!”

A loud gasp sounded out across the Rainboom side as Eventide’s hand fell away from her face, powder make-up smearing off to reveal pale purple skin. Peachy Keen strode forward, apparently not focusing on the fact she’d just somehow used the Royal Canterlot Voice while thinking she lacked any magic. The disguised Twilight Sparkle was still in a wide-eyed daze, nothing but white noise between her ears like her brain had to reboot. Both from all that noise and from the familiarity.

She didn’t get her faculties back until Peachy Keen had gotten right up in front of her, pulled her down by her ear and grabbed onto her face by the cheekbones. Twilight blinked her red-contact covered eyes, still trying to get her faculties back as the pouting, studious 12-year old looking face looked her over.

It took a few moments for the uncanny familiarity she’d sensed before to come racing back, aided by noticing a bit of a very specific necklace wrapped around the young girl’s neck.

“...P...P….Princess-.. Celestia?!” she stammered.

“WHAT?!” Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze yelped in a sudden break of poise, dumbfounded at how on any world the runt in front of them was the most powerful being in existence at the time they left Equestria.

Gigan just looked between Twilight and the pipsqueak in front of her, the imagery not matching up to what he knew of Princess Celestia or had been told by Twilight, “... HOW?!”

The sudden uproar spurred the Rainboom affiliated group to finally unfreeze and realize how close they’d gotten to Twilight this whole time. Nearly all of the girls called out at once while their kaiju associates just looked bewildered, “WHYYY?!” 

The two disguised alicorns, face to face, looked at one another for a time before the shorter and yet far more mature one all but tackled the other in a tight hug. Fear of anger were put to rest by the bursts of laughter coming out of the solar diarch.

“Y-YOU CAME HERE?! WAIT WH-WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR BODY?!” Twilight stammered, still shocked and dumbstruck as to barely capable of talking.

“What happened to YOUR body?! I don’t remember you saying anything about being as tall and developed as Cadance in this form yet!” Celestia sounded less like an enraged mentor and more like a confused or fretting mother.

Twilight Sparkle cringed nonetheless and rubbed the back of her head, “Ehe, platform shoes and a stuffed bra. Adagio’s clothes didn’t fit me…. Y-You’re not mad?”

Celestia tilted her head down, took in a deep breath; and looked back up at her, revealing a very youthful, comically tear-stained face that was red with both anger and exasperation, “Oh I’m livid but I’m far too happy to see my faithful student to care!”


==============
Camp Everfree
==============



Gloriosa Daisy had her mind in two places at once. The first was atop that parking garage out of town the others had gone to, and all the ways things could go sideways there. An unease, a bile, churned in her gut as several unsavory thoughts cropped up.

-What if the other group decides not to trust us? What if they react poorly to me not being there? What if the windigos attack the meeting while everyone is unawares?-

She briefly caught hold of the thought on why that last facet scared her as much as it did to chill her veins. The camp director looked down, past her mostly empty necklace and to nothing in particular in the direction of the floor. Worry boiled and chilled at the same time.

-Adagio is still a target and Gigan isn’t fully repaired…-

They’d needed her to stabilize physically and mentally, the guilt and dread of seeing them brought so low being a raw pain she’d done well to hide. Neither of those two were necessarily good people, potential to be present as it was. It wasn’t a matter of fixing them, improvement was a self induced state even if others could help, it was a matter of not wanting to see ill come to those she thought for. She didn’t want to see ill come to anyone really, but those two were such an experience that the worry of a relapse or degradation was a wound on her mind. She was scared for them, and more so than she might be scared one of the windigo might arrive at the camp with so few to defend it.

Gloriosa could feel a tremor go up and down her arm before gently grasping it, holding it still until it subsided. Pursing her lips, Gloriosa thought up a quick prayer to any higher power that might listen and instead did her best to divert focus to other matters.

-Just gotta have faith they’ll all protect each other.-

She couldn’t fight a frown at remembering the oldest siren and cyborg clasping hands, obvious fear and pain for the other in their eyes during their mutual breakdowns. They’d held onto each other so tightly…

Gloriosa sighed and nodded her head, “Who am I kidding, they’ll all protect each other; those two especially…”

She took a glance at the few remaining gems around her neck, seeing how her collection had shrunk. What she once thought was her destiny of an inheritance, especially upon the niggling suspicion these were somehow tied to her mother, had shrank away considerably. Only one crystal left, ‘Laughter’ according to Twilight. With Twilight taking the Element that Sunset Shimmer apparently fit, some unknown facet of the spectrum even to her, Laughter was all that remained.

Gloriosa shrugged as she felt some of its positivity infect even her, just shaking her head slowly.

“And here I once thought something like you belonged to me. Well, good thing I can take a joke,” she shook her head dismissively while gathering up the plates and drink meant for another, “If only there was an Element of ‘Gardening’, ‘Bad Financials’, or ‘Hopeless Romantics’; I’d be a sure-win for that…”

The dinner was meant for the reason she’d remained behind. Someone had to stay and watch Sonata and everyone agreed it wasn’t fair to Megalon to be here alone. Plus, with all the insanity that was the enemy, having some magic around of any breed was a must. Adagio insisted she had to go in order to own up to her folly with the Eventide debacle, and provide expert knowledge on the windigos if that was needed. Twilight, obviously, had to go as well because of her friends expecting her return. Aria was dutiful but noted she’d be best used for force thanks to fusing with Kaizer Ghidorah and they didn’t want to put up a weak front, plus she was a witness to the windigos up close as well. Irys’ powers were magic-based but not quite the kind they might need with Sonata… and the gyaos didn’t know how to cook.

It was an amusing thought that part of the decision making for her to stay behind was based on getting an A+ in First Aid and Home-Ec class.

The sight of Gigan and Adagio's hands clasped itched on her mind but she shooed it away with a twinge on her face. She instead reoriented her mind on two different topics. The first was seeing the both of them calm and content around each other after the breakdown, especially in contrast to finding the siren near catatonic on the dock and the cyborg dismantling himself in the garage.

The other thought was the small cabin her body was now absent-mindedly moving towards with a nice warm dinner ready. Memory of all the time she did this for Timber growing up was a welcome lifting to the heart.

-They'll be good for each other, I can be happy about that. For now, Nata needs some help keeping that chin up!-

She was task-oriented enough to perhaps forget who exactly was the catalyst for her two crushes finding some stability. But such was the nature of not thinking highly of oneself.

Within Sonata’s cabin, Gloriosa could see a light was on and it flickered against the always-shaded window, indicating someone was moving around inside and had stepped in front of the light. Sonata had been given one of the larger cabins for her stay, one of the few with a bathroom and shower all to itself among the multiple rooms. So seeing someone up and about wasn’t unusual even if the poor siren slept most of the day, especially given Megalon was near constantly at her side both guarding her and helping keep her spirits up. Gloriosa continued her advance, curiously watching the figure move about.

The camp director did however, upon getting close enough, take a momentary pause to reflect on the odd fact that she wasn't getting stopped and greeted by Megalon right now. Usually he was playing such keen perimeter duty, anyone who'd gotten near the cabin would rouse his attention. He was always very on task, even if it would slow down anyone trying to come over there. Once or twice she'd even heard rummaging inside the cabin while the jovial cyborg was talking to her and might have even chanced upon the thought they were hiding something, him and Nata. Did they think she hadn't noticed plenty of the board games and snacks going missing from the mess hall? Strange thing to get embarrassed about and hide, but she was as understanding as she was perceptive and didn’t want to embarrass them by bringing it up.

Still it was rather odd one way or another for Megalon to not be popping out of the ground like so kind of oversized gopher to say hello or double check if she was an intruder trying to break into a cabin to deliver some soup.

She waited a few seconds to let the moment come, passively glancing at the ground for any sign of shifting earth. Nothing happened. Not even after a few moments of her tapping her foot impatiently.

The passing wait did allow her to take notice of something she probably otherwise wouldn't have. The subtle flicker across her throat and shirt. It was a bluish hue bleeding through her shirt, dim and getting briefly brighter before dying down again. Puzzled, Gloriosa fidgeted with the soup to hold it one-handed and brought out the necklace that once bore a great deal of power; but no longer felt as such. The sole remaining gem, the blue crystal, dimly flickered again. Taking it in hand, she shook it perplexingly like it was a lightbulb with a bad filament. The gemstone again flickered on and off, and after some curious survey she figured out it was getting brighter and dimmer depending on which way it was pointing. Turning back to the mess hall, it went out entirely. Turning to the cabin it glowed again weakly. But pointing it a ways away yielded more consistent and brighter pulses.

Pursing her lips and glancing about to ensure nothing else freaky was going on, relatively speaking, Gloriosa stepped down a path while sweeping the gemstone back and forth almost like a metal detector. It did get marginally brighter with some trial and error, overshooting the direction needed a few times, but a result was yielded as she approached a building on the other side of the campgrounds. The sound of falling water diverted her attention to the shower and bathroom house. Gloriosa perked an eyebrow and stepped up to the front door, gemstone and soup still in hand.

-Okay, did DigDug finally decide to take a bath for once? And what’s with the gem acting up in here?-

Her attention was further grabbed when upon an absent-mindedly walking closer she noticed it was the female side of the showers running. Looking back at the cabin and seeing a shape flicker across a light there, Gloriosa grunted to herself in thought.

-Odd, I couldn't have taken that long to make the soup and I thought Sonata was asleep when I started. And why run across camp to shower, she had the cabin with a full bathroom for a reason…-

She wasn't about to go barging in, only knock on the door and double check. While repairs had been going well for the camp, she was under no illusion that some stuff was held together by a lot of hope and prayer. It was perfectly possible one of the showers had spontaneously kicked on, and she didn't want to leave the pipes running too long. Still didn’t answer what was causing the Element to activate in any minor degree, but some part of her mind wrote that off as perhaps a side effect of the reunion happening miles away and it just happening to be in the same direction by chance.

Her fingers had just brushed up against the wood when the ground started to rumble under foot. Gloriosa jumped back as Megalon came bursting out of the ground looking, drill hands whirling. For a split second, he didn’t look like the defining form Gloriosa had for him. Eyes glowing, edged metal gleaming, hair crackling with arching charges of energy; clearly ready to attack if needs be. It was like walking in on someone leveling a weapon at your face.

Which, considering how quickly Megalon shifted away from that manner and how relatively unphased Gloriosa was by it to begin with, spoke of how abnormal ‘normality’ had become recently. Relatively unphased however, she still launched back a good half meter and a pair of rapidly-rearticulating hands reached out and grabbed her shoulder to steady her.

“Woah! Sorry Miss Daisy Ma’am,” Megalon chirped like he hadn’t just given her nervous system a shock, canceling out all of the glowing charge around his eyes and forehead, “I didn’t know dinner was on yet.”

Gloriosa had to quell the pounding of her pulse between her ears to hear just about anything, doing her best to shrug off the shudders, “O-Oh perfectly fine dear, not the first time you’ve-”

She paused and let the air hang, gears working within her head as her eyes drifted to Sonata’s cabin, which still had a light on, then to Megalon, then to the still-running showers, the Element in her hand still flickering, and back. Especially when a shape moved against a light within the cabin to indicate someone was indeed present, reconfirming to her that presumably Sonata was still within and it hadn’t been Megalon she’d glimpsed earlier milling about within.

“Megs, you didn’t burrow through the bathroom floors again did you?” Gloriosa muttered, eyeing the shower building warily, remembering the gigantic hole he punched in the Mess Hall floors he’d promised to fix.

“...” Megalon tilted his head before shaking it, “Um, no… those are the women’s showers anyways. What do you take me for?”

His lack of wetness and fully clothed garb further vindicated he hadn’t been in the building before her. The shower was still running, and the light against the window was still flickering inside Sonata’s cabin. Gloriosa looked at Megalon, the flickering Element of Harmony, and then the very dinner she’d been working on.

“Megs, this is very important. Do not… and listen close!” she played up her tone, taking it as landing hook-line-and-sinker when he leaned in to listen intently, “Do. Not. Let. This. Drop. It’s for Sonata and we don’t wanna spoil her dinner right?”

“Right!” Megalon nodded earnestly, if with some obvious confusion stretching across his face. A glance at the rather delicious looking mixed greens and meat broth, which still steamed within the bowl resting on the tray Gloriosa had been holding, didn’t serve to tell him why Ms. Daisy was being so intense about soup.

“Good!” Gloriosa beamed as she chimed happily, and not one moment later she pushed the tray forward and all but forced Megalon himself to hold it.

Now with his hands and confused mind briefly occupied, Gloriosa took hold of the lapse in awareness to yank open the door to the shower hall and look inside before he could stop her. Almost instantly the water stopped running and the lights flickered. Gloriosa’s eyes widened and bugged out momentarily upon seeing a hunched figure emerging from a stall. Movement came with a flicker of each light, the figue rapidly stalking closer. Slickened hair and straight locks veiled a face with an almost glinting pair of eyes, a visible glowing appearing across the neck region in the darkness. Before a second’s breath, the unnatural thing in the shape of a girl was upon her and it promptly blew into its thumb like it was puffing into a balloon; causing a poofy mass of hair to rival Adagio’s to burst upwards and expand outwards. She also casually flipped back on the half-moved light switch, fixing the flickering issue.

“Hiya! I’m Pinkie Pie and I guess I don’t need to play hide and seek anymore because we’re all gonna be friends now!” the random trespasser yelped aloud to a stupified woman who’d been hanging around giant monsters of various breeds, pony princesses, and magical merfok.

“Wha-who are-” Gloriosa was cut off by Pinkie Pie suddenly appearing directly in front of her in the time it took to blink.

“I’m the one who’s been in your basement and creeping around your home at night, silly!”


===========


“So we were up against you the whole time?!” Rainbow Dash yelped in exasperation as she and her friends surrounded their returned compatriot.

“Heh, not really. I only agreed to help on the condition that nobody got hurt,” Twilight huffed as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her head, “Doing so gave me the chance to figure out what the sirens and their company were like and who the true cause of all this mess was.”

Rainbow Dash groaned in exasperation before throwing her arm around Twilight’s shoulders, grinding her hand into the changed alicorn’s scalp to give her friend a noogie, “First you pull this stunt and then you try to upstage us at a show! Why didn’t you tell me you could sing so well?!”

“Why didn’t you just tell us sooner?” Fluttershy frowned, tilting her head as she leaned in a bit closer.

Twilight flailed to try and get out of Rainbow Dash’s headlock, shrugging and shaking her head when she couldn’t. Rainbow Dash only comedically turned about slightly so the bent-over Twilight could face Fluttershy directly, “I wanted to the moment Gigan over there realized I was telling the truth and he grabbed the wrong ‘me’. But by then, everyone was paranoid. The sirens didn’t trust Equestrians because of how they got exiled and Gigan’s team didn’t trust Lea because of their past fights. They put a lot of trust in me to go out into the field with them, and I had to honor it. If I tried escaping when we went to the school to make a ruckus and attract the other me, they’d have not trusted anyone to come to them peacefully and poor Sonata would feel betrayed after I promised to help her.”

Twilight swallowed back regrets and rubbed at her forehead, “It was never a perfect plan, just the best I could do to play damage control to keep my old friends safe and out of harm’s way, and help my new friends.”

She turned her attention to the crossed-armed form of Godzilla, having been well filled in on the details of what happened at the pier by Irys and Gigan. In hindsight, she really should have paid more attention to and recognized that brief flash of blue light from the battle at Canterlot against the gyaos flock.

“I guess there were some unintended consequences… Happy as I am that we finally got this meeting to happen, I’m really sorry for the cost.”

Godzilla regarded her for a short time in mild bemusement that she’d take the blame for that. His expression didn’t sour, much to Celestia’s relief when she saw him clearly contemplating it.

"You couldn't have predicted everything that would happen," Godzilla's eye glided over to Gigan and Adagio, the former especially. A silent conversation seemed to pass between the two, of both recent recent events and many more conflicts from Terra. A fleeting look at the cybernetics on Gigan's arm was all that was needed to communicate that. His gaze shifted between Anguirus and Irys for a time; before tilting back to Twilight to comprehend all that happened and what the links were involved, "These windigos feed on strife, we kaiju brought plenty of that on our own, with or without you."

The Rainbooms as well seemed to take a moment of comprehension as to all that had gone on, weighing any sense of shock or negativity about being duped like this and terrorized by some of the siren’s cohorts; against the weight of their trust in their friend to always do her best to do the right thing, even if it was highly unorthodox. Thankfully, especially for the kaiju who got dragged into a physical confrontation and the cyan Rainboom who got pulled into a nerve-wracking situation as consequence; someone else spoke up.

“Even-....Eventide was following my orders,” Adagio Dazzle called out after needing to clear her whisper of a voice, “I let my paranoia get the better of me. My sister was on the line, but it was my choices and pride that got us here. You can blame everything on me-”

“Like Daiei you are taking the blame for any of that. Twilight needs to stop claiming she’s worse than she is and you can’t stop me,” Gigan growled defensively as he suddenly teleported beside Adagio, barking at the siren with a pensive glare, “Remember that you caused a ruckus on stage while I was trying to carve up someone like a turkey!”

“Oh look who grew a conscience protocol Bolts-For-Brains! I basically adopted her into the pod, so it’s my duty as pod leader to defend her so her group doesn’t feel betrayed!” Adagio’s eyes flashed red as she barked back with a toothy scowl, “Remember, I made this mess worse when I was the one who tried to claw my way to her jugular through her disgusting monkey-face back when you brought her to us, and refused to let you put her back!”

Gigan leaned in closer, raising his voice ever more, “And who’s the idiot who grabbed her in the first place and then picked a fight with Godzilla?! Twilight was the least offensive hostage ever, even babysitting Megalon, while I was paranoid enough to use my eyeball as her desk piece.”

“While I said she couldn’t go back because of some grudge I had against a dead guy 1,000 years out of date for just defending himself!” Adagio kept shouting at Gigan while thrusting a hand at a very confused Celestia, “Princess Celestia’s right there and is practically that Starswirl’s daughter, I was the roaming dolt with a bullfish plan to take over a place that’d never done anything to my family at all! You are not gonna stop me from defending my podmate!”

“The girl who I kept under watch solely because she was tied to the victims of an invasion I took part in and is the sole reason we got bad blood between us?! Oh good grief, how dare they defend themselves while I come in swinging?! Is it last decade or last week at the pier with me?”

“Oh you know you were being so gung-ho about it because I was and you wanted to make me happy! All while I bossed around and kept captive somepony who gave me a royal pardon despite the mess I caused and kept holding onto?-” Celestia cocked an eyebrow at Adagio’s words and glanced at Twilight, who made a brief waving motion to indicate she’d explain later.

“Uum… Should we… stop… this?” Applejack muttered behind a shushing hand at the side of her lips, glancing to the only adults she saw present in the 12 year old millennium-aged alicorn and giant dinosaur in human skin like she was watching her friends argue at a dinner table she was guest to.

Rarity just watched it all, a bit slack jawed, “What even is this? Are they trying to defend Twilight or take the blame?”

Twilight’s body couldn’t do it in this form, but she could practically feel her ears flopping down in embarrassment at the surrealness of the sight before her. Rainbow Dash finally released her headlock and could only stare on, befuddled.

Fluttershy popped up between her taller friend and squeaked, a little snicker in her tiny smile as she felt the emotions coming off the two, “I think it’s very kind of them.”

“Ye’ sure got a funny way of definin’ “boneheaded”, Flutters,” Applejack grumbled.

“And then the very same moth I was so spooked about suddenly wants to fix up your sister, something we coulda' gotten done who knows how long ago if I wasn’t clinging to a bias!” Gigan yelped as he whacked himself over the brow of his head with a metallic palm.

“Hey she blew your head off once!” Adagio yelled, angrily defending... the person she was angrily yelling at, “I’d be scared too if it wasn’t so disgusting that you lived through that! But more proof I was acting poorly when we could have had this method to at least attempt a solution! I promised my aunt I’d protect my pod and I screwed it up from being my own worst enemy yet again!”

The extremely surreal sight of Adagio and Gigan bickering brought a tinge of amusement to the Rainbooms, their kaiju allies, and even the attending Irys and Aria, making it worth the expensive cost of admission. Godzilla was passively wondering just what happened to Gigan, while Celestia was left similarly befuddled regarding the sirens. Aria Blaze had just put her palm to her face whilst almost feeling Kaizer Ghidorah do the same. Twilight, compelled by awkwardness, had begun taking a good long look at the stage shoes she’d been wearing as Eventide; as Rarity tried and failed to stop glancing at her outfit as if judging it. Applejack and Rainbow Dash kept looking off to the sides of the building, just trying to block out the weirdness going on.

Fluttershy just kept beaming pleasantly at the bickering couple, “They don’t want Twilight or the other to feel bad, it’s kinda sweet.”

“Great then, now that we can diagnose them with Lima Syndrome,” Rarity deadpanned.

A loud clearing of a throat caught both cyborg and siren’s attention, briefly diverting their focus off their extremely aggressive defense-offense exposition about their former hostage to yell out in unison.

“WHAT?!”

Mothra Lea was standing on the edge of the stairwell that led to the parking garage, a few of the energy formed fairy moths she could divide and recombine into still buzzing about to indicate how she got up there so fast from Flash’s van. She only blinked at the two briefly before looking back to Twilight for a time. Even with the make-up and disguised gear on, she still felt she should have been able to sense or recognize something. But, there was no point harping over the past in that regard. She wasn’t going to resume wallowing in self pity, just commend her protege’s ability to disguise if anything else when they got back to Equestria.

-And here I thought I was the changeling…-

“With your permission, as I don’t think I’d be of much use here and it’s clear there won’t be any problems at this meeting between our sides, I would like to tend to the victim. I have a much greater grasp of my powers than I did when I first arrived and while I faltered once,” she took a pregnant pause at both acknowledgement of her own folly and how it had exacerbated this chaos not unlike Gigan and Adagio’s isolationism, “Thanks to some friends, I am stable. And as we said earlier, this poor Sonata character did nothing wrong to anyone here. It’s my duty to guard such innocent beings and I want to try my hand at helping her.”

Adagio met her gaze and took in a deep breath. Now without Twilight raking her fins over the coals, much as she might have deserved that in some regard, the choice was far less pressuring.

-Megalon can protect her if things go wrong, and Eventid- Twilight vouches for her. I already agreed to it and she’s being considerate enough to make sure I do with no pressure.-

A lot of learned behaviors were trying to flare back up. From the times they had to dodge pirates to raiding coastal towns to finding themselves here in exile in new bodies suddenly, attacking and under attack from so many angles. Trust came very hard then and it still did now. Main difference was now she had some experience to show her what worked and what didn’t. And if she were to try and reclaim her grandmother’s throne one day, if that be her destiny, she couldn’t be a queen of paranoia.

Adagio let out a heavy sigh and nodded, motioning to the direction of the campground miles away.

“Gigan, send that message to Megalon,” Adagio Dazzle shrugged while wrinkling her brow slightly to show a hint of the hopeful plea buried under that facade of strength, “Please, do all you can.”

Mothra Lea bowed as her body, starting at the feet and going up, broke apart into energy in the shape of moths, “I can promise only that. I shall see you all at the camp later.”

Lea gave Twilight Sparkle a pleasant smile before departing, knowing the catalyst for her mental strain and physical rampage was in good hands. A pat on the back took her attention and she looked back into the face of one she’d known for years. Godzilla to many, Junior to beings like her, gave her a flattened stare for a time that spoke without words. Lea had gone unhinged, made mistakes, and even if she was forgiven; forgiving and forgetting were not the same thing. What she’d gotten wasn’t atonement from her friend or from herself. This was the first big step towards that.

Junior tilted his head slightly, studying. He memorized how she looked at the pier and even in the body of a human, he knew Mothra Lea well. That aura, sight, manner, and subtlety about her then was not Lea. Be it influence by the windigo or some dissonant power trying to consume her in the moment, acting on the lingering fears for her friends’ safety she’d cultivated for years, the first time he actually laid eyes on Lea in that confrontation at the shoreline was after he’d been transformed and she snapped out of what had come over her.

Given his encounter with a windigo shortly after, it was fortunate he noticed the dissonance between who’d escalated that battle and who was looking up horrified at what had happened. Only one of them was his best friend, in her right mind or not. And before turning her free to try and pursue some redemption as well as a good deed, he wanted to be absolutely certain the mind behind those eyes was both in a right state and was one he recognized.

“Are you still sure that you are up for this?” The emphasis he quietly put on the word ‘you’ wasn't unnoticed, “It can wait till the meeting’s over and we all go.”

Lea took in a deep breath, collecting herself and only herself, as she bowed her head to her friend, “I am… I am…. Besides-”

She chanced a weak, if true smile at the one who’d forgiven her and arguably kept her from falling further over an edge. She’d really have to thank the Canterlot ponies and his wise mother for helping push him along the course for this kind of development.

“-if I wait, the poor girl suffers… Wouldn’t be living up to my title if I let that happen now would I?”

Godzilla Junior paused for a few moments to be absolutely certain, before letting the smile reflect on his warming features as well. Not lashing out in rage, like gut instinct or the influence of the windigo demanded, was a cherished choice in his mind. Friends can cause grief, even fight, but that friendship was always worth it. He nodded along and patted her shoulder.

“Get moving then, Guardian of Mortals,” he chuckled, using a title that could only describe her and her alone; his smile widening as the cloud of moths soon dispersed from the rooftop and headed towards Camp Everfree as Gigan directed.


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



Run, that was the world right now as it had been for whoever knew as long.

Had it just been minutes, hours, days, or an eternity? Had she ever gotten a chance to rest or had she been running constantly this whole time to the point it should've been every step causing a leg to implode in on itself from a shattered joint or split bone? The adrenaline had been flooding her body for so long that most tactile sense and pain response were completely gone, but even a cursory glance gave her tremors so bad that the vertigo alone was giving her nausea. Her throat still burned with bile, and she'd no doubt vacated anything she had to eat long ago.

Tracked in her own personal torment, Wallflower Blush looked like death. Eyes bloodshot with frozen tears clinging to her face, hair messed with bits of ice and sweat in equal measure clinging to her head in unflattering manners, skin taut against her body as to show off veins and twitching muscle even through her unathletic pudge, sweat pouring out of every pore and made her world constantly stink to a gagging level, mediated only by the frost built up across parts of her body.

She was practically a dead woman running, still weeping and heaving in every breath while desperately avoiding-

The sound of human voices made her entire world fill with panic. It shunted out every other thought for the briefest of moments and a very out of shape gardener pulled a 180° turn to try and about-face and run the other direction. Her ankle, swollen and red, couldn't take the twist and she was no ballerina. Her attempt to avoid the crowd only resulted in a snap of pain even through the adrenaline and Wallflower was sent crumbling to the ground head over end.

Through the vertigo and the pain, she could hear a familiar cackle while clutching at her leg.

Thick boots jumped down from the rooftop neighboring the alleyway and landed next to her face, causing the terrified young woman to flinch and hyperventilate from the oncoming panic attack. He, it, still bore the face of the man she'd assaulted with the only means she had available to her at the time. At one time the Memory Stone seemed like a godsend. Something miraculous meant for her, forgettable, pathetic, never-amount-to-anything Blush.

That little bit of power meant some sort of fate had a plan for her, just like it did the strange girl from Crystal Prep she ended up meeting soon after; brought together by some ancient spirit of winter. For once fate actually had something for her, something took notice and he gave her the only friend she'd ever had or would have...

Now that stone was damnation.

Boreas, though Wallflower knew not his name, seemed to be trying to hold his eyes so wide as to split the lids in a manic expression. He twirled the memory stone, the strands that had been making up the necklace still snapped from when Zephyrus wrenched it off Wallflower's neck, and nodded his head towards the people in the streets passing by. Just some nondescript residents moving through a less populated area of town at a late hour, and yet Wallflower was as terrified for them as she was for herself. They had no idea how much danger they were in!

"Ooh, gotta give you plenty of thanks for this body you ignorant wretch! You and my daughter both chose so well! Hey, you seem tired," Boreas snickered as he lightly stepped on Wallflower's ankle, squishing her fingers in between X's boot and her aching joint. Wallflower almost screamed but quickly covered her mouth as her eyes darted to a family across the street unawares.

Boreas's grin widened as he ground his heel against her finger, following her line of sight, "Say, how's about I give you quite a show? Maybe see if I'm strong enough to pop all of their heads off before the others can call out. Oooh that'll be a new trick, I might need some practice. Good thing I can use this little wonder and wipe any notice so I can give it another go!"

Boreas keened like he'd just won a magnificent prize, wittingly or unwittingly putting more of his weight on Wallflower's ankle, as he punched in the air and happily spun around the Memory Stone.  

He threw his head back and closed his eyes, the picture of bliss while catching the stone in his palm, "Eeeeeeheheeeee! The initial shock is just as good as the torment! And now I get to choose which one I get! Every. Single. Time!"

"N-L-Leave... them-" Wallflower pathetically whimpered through her hand trying to hold back a scream.

Boreas instantly whirled down at her, stopping inches from her face as his fist smashed into the concrete of the ground. The hand stabbed through the solid surface and punched a small dent that he beheld with giddy glee at yet another reminder of how powerful a body he now had, piloting the form of one of the mightiest kaiju to ever exist. Boreas cooed while dangling the Memory Stone before Wallflower's face, waving it back and forth mockingly like some parody of a hypnotist.

"Awww, feeling bad again? Not such a great power anymore for a little skin bag like you. Oh if you feel bad about it I can just use this on you again! What are we up to, a dozen?!" Boreas snickered, "Plenty of your pain to fit in here, I'm sure whatever you and Zephyrus pulled out of your little friend has plenty of company now in here!"

Wallflower sniffled and tried to inch back, horrified at the one thing she once took any measure of pride in. The very idea she once considered using it to get back at a bully or have unlimited tries at telling a boy she liked them seem so outlandishly juvenile compared to how dangerous it was, and left her sickened.

Just how many times had this maniac wiped her recent memory, leaving just enough so she could stay on the run ever since what happened with Twilight and Zephyrus? Leave just enough so she would know to stay away from anyone that might help her or she might get near. Stay away from everyone so Boreas got to continue the tormenting chase.

A southerly wind blew through the alleyway, followed by one from the west. One of the very few things Wallflower was allowed to remember was to fear the latter for whom it heralded.

"Enough," the voice was one Wallflower once found meaning with, "Do not risk overloading that."

A purple hand clasped around the memory stone. Boreas sneered and giggled at the same time, cocking a fist and launching a powerful haymaker to his right at the source of the interloper despite knowing full well who it was. His fist impacted a body that flew back on impact as the fist rammed through it. Boreas grinned before flinching in surprise, feeling no slosh of ichors or snap of bone. Instead he was elbow deep in a formation of ice cast in the visage of a young woman, and the Memory Stone was completely missing from his hand. Scowling, Boreas whirled around with a skillful side kick at the figure now to his left.

The kick launched the body against the back wall and it all but exploded on impact, leaving shards like falling glass raining down everywhere. A piece glided past Wallflower's cheek, lightly scraping her skin and leaving a trail of cold in its path. It rolled across the ground before her face, coming to a stop as the image of another eye looked back at her. It was like a broken statue cast in the visage of familiarity. It was made of ice.

The west wind roared briefly and once again, Boreas struck nothing. Then he recoiled from an invisible strike at his gut, followed by yet another icy statue smashing into him and shattering against the irate windigo. Then he suddenly recoiled as if another blow had struck at his side. Then another to the face. The wind kept howling, a flurry of hits suddenly smashing into him from multiple angles before the gales ceased entirely.

Boreas was covered in broken ice and pinned to the ground, and would have burst free had a foot not stomped down on his head. The Memory Stone, jostled free in the short confrontation, clicked across the ground before Wallflower Blush's face.

Piles of ice suddenly disintegrated into a cold mist, crumbling away to nothingness that shrouded around the downed Boreas. A large figure with icy wings briefly became visible momentarily, quickly vanishing before a fraction of a second could pass. Twilight Starla Sparkle, ace student of Crystal Prep Highschool, stepped off of Boreas' head. She retrieved the Memory Stone from before a dumbstruck Wallflower's eyes, scoffing as she put the stone around her neck.

"You'll risk overloading it and that would complicate matters," Twilight's lips moved and her voice was heard, but Wallflower only felt the presence and mind of Zephyrus as the one speaking.

The Westerly Winds only now seemed to actually notice Wallflower's prone form and perked his brow lightly, "Living forms like yourself crave life, crave existence. I know what it's like to pursue a need. It is one of the only matters you might be similar to me."

Zephyrus crouched down on the balls of Twilight's feet, perfectly perching in an uncanny manner of pristine balance that Twilight never had. He reached out, and with deceptive gentleness, perked up Wallflower's face to look up at her best friend's visage. Wallflower whimpered, too exhausted to say anything and too terrified to conceive of coherent thought.

"You had so much strife in you, you latched onto the first notion you could be important or wanted. Well, fret not... Those that tormented you and their compatriots are going to be some of the first to suffer our revenge."

"Ah why not just kill her now if she was so useful?" Boreas sneered as he ripped himself back to his feet, rolling his shoulder and beginning to raise an arm like a deadly weapon, "Living things don't like to die either."

"Point made, but who are we not to indulge that strife and show its fruits? She proved so useful, why not permit her the reward due to her by allowing her witness?" Zephyrus hummed, putting a hand on Boreas' to nonchalantly push it away, "Besides... Notus' Progeny is forthcoming. Where do you think she's going to go?"

Boreas' eyes lit up and he grinned wide enough that it seemed poised to split his cheeks or crack his teeth, "Heeeeeaahahehe, I see why the master always entrusted you with these planning ordeals, brother! Just promise me my fair share or I'll see to it about ripping apart that host of yours."

"If we fail, I shall do so myself," Zephyrus corrected with a shrug.

"Tw-Tw...Tw-" Wallflower whimpered as cold tears started to stream down her face.

Zephyrus' eyes narrowed slightly and his body twitched, the Memory Stone dimly glowing for the briefest of moments before a powerful gale of frigid wind blew in from the south. Zephyrus and Boreas as well both took note of it, and the silent messages carried across it only they could understand. Notus had made something of a discovery.

The South Wind hit Boreas' face and he cooed at the new information, "Everfree... So, that's where they've been hiding? And the Retainer is not yet with them."

The winds again came and Zephyrus nodded casually, "Hm... Seems our timetable has moved up with the Retainer’s absence. The Elements are still incomplete. Notus has his part, as I do mine."

Boreas shot the West Wind a wide-eyed, gleeful expression, "Is it time then?"

Zephyrus only deadpanned like this is the most normal thing to do, "The path to Everfree isn't far, refrain from slaughter until you get there."

"Aaaaannd once I am?" Boreas keened.

Zephyrus just nodded his head sideways, "Kill everything there, especially the young Retainer. Spare only Notus' spawn. I will obtain my prize, and with Notus, we'll reconvene at the leyline."

"Any special requests, oh most cerebral brother of mine?" Boreas grinned so wide it seemed to split his face, teeth looking glaringly huge with how he was curling back his lips.

Zephyrus was completely silent for a few moments before at last cracking their flattened visage. Twilight Sparkle's lips contorted and her eyes contracted to the tiniest pinpricks of inky blackness for pupils. Near fanged teeth briefly became visible behind frostbitten skin, like a mask of normality having been lifted away for the most fleeting of moments. Pupils dilated in a clear sign of utter excitement. The sight burned itself into Wallflower's memory as the apex of horror, dread, and utter disgust at how uncannily wrong it looked.

"Her mother stalled our Master's will for years. Carry out our vengeance."

Boreas chuckled faintly, then gradually he contorted his whole body in heaves and shakes before throwing up his jaws to the sky to let out a raucous chorus of cackling and laughter that seemed to be thousands of voices calling out at the same time across eons. Strife and hatred from a bygone era manifest as a voice. The Northerly winds picked up and swirled about him as his manic cackling continued and he seemed to disappear in form, but not in sound as those same winds carried him off.

Zephyrus turned away from Wallflower Blush and began to take a step away, only to pause at a hand clasping his heel. Wallflower Blush wasn't just gripping the fiend wearing her best and only friend's skin, she was clenching it between her fingers. The last gasps of adrenaline were the only thing keeping her body going as she shakingly rose. Her face was still veiled by frayed, messy, frostbitten hair that disguised her features.

"Tw-i...light... G-Give her back," Wallflower Blush stammered as she stood up despite her legs feeling like liquid, "Can't... let you do-"

It was a very rare force compelling her that Zephyrus knew very well. This one that society had completely rewritten away, that she herself had put down, had some potential yet. Whether it was realization of horror at what she had helped unleash, the willpower to try and stop it by any means she could, to get back the one person who ever gave her the time of day for thought; or most likely some combination of the three, she tried to act while being compelled to do so.

She weakly lunged for the Memory Stone, only stop a a very soft, serene voice in the identical pitch and manner of Zephyrus', but totally devoid of it in volume.

Wallflower flinched and looked up to see a very confused visage gazing back at her. Any influence from Zephyrus was completely gone, from the posture and stance to the very human way she held herself.

Twilight Sparkle, student of Crystal Prep Highschool, perked her brow, "Um... Who are you again?"

Wallflower Blush gagged as the worst thing she'd been put through for years upon years came slamming back into her. The ignorance and confusion on her face was so extremely genuine. Her friend, the one friend she'd ever had, didn't know her anymore. Whether it was memories locked away in the stone meaning a brief, intentional lapse in control to give the host body of Twilight her awareness back was done; or just Zephyrus being an extremely good actor and knowing what button to push for Wallflower; one couldn't tell. What was true was the wrenching she felt on her heart, just before the South Winds roar once again and slam into her back. Zephyrus completely ignored the weakest threat that ever had been put up against him to register what he was being told by Notus.

It appeared quite the discovery had been made indeed. Wallflower Blush briefly glimpsed Zephyrus' eyes widening and a shake rattle their body. Then the West Winds stormed through the alleyway, and she found herself clung to nothing but a statue of ice cast in her best friend's visage; her fingers frozen around the cast mold of the Memory Stone.

Zephyrus had departed with haste, and with good reason.


Notus, still clad in the body of Flash Sentry, had indeed made quite the discovery. Now with both the kaiju who'd become acquainted with him and the only kaiju familiar with magic, Godzilla and Mothra, both gone from his presence, he could investigate with impunity. He'd left the van and stalked up to the top floor of the parking garage, intent originally on just giving his cohorts an update on who all was present at this meeting.

That had gone as expected, the anticipated absence of his progeny was fortunate with the observation that the current Retainer was missing being noteworthy enough to send a message to Boreas and Zephyrus. The composition of the group before him was almost entirely of known parties.

The current generation of Element Bearers, sans one or two of their number, including several of those they had tried to kill over a decade ago.

Two of the three Allied kaiju which had been acting as the Bearers' bodyguards, with the absence of Mothra being noted in his report.

Two other beings, one of which he recognized as that cyborg which had given Zephyrus trouble at the schoolyard. His pale companion was no doubt another kaiju as well given the uncanny aura about her.

Both Zephyrus and Boreas' spawn, the latter garbed in the colors of her mate as Boreas had reported.

Evidently the fake siren had indeed been the abducted Equestrian Bearer to the Element of Magic, an interesting development but an expected one given she was bound to pop up somewhere.

But that left... a strange curiosity.

That youth, the one apparently also from Equestria. Notus knew her not from his days in the original realm nor from any of Flash Sentry's ill memories. With the young man's mind being particularly stubborn even if he couldn't banish or overpower the presence of the windigo, Sentry's more neutral or positive memories were elusive. All he knew of 'Peachy Keen' was that she was someone of authority and had changed in the transition to this world. He had a feeling that was not really her name, but with Godzilla constantly around her he never could figure out the full truth as to this unknown element without rousing suspicion; at least not in the time allotted. Normally he would be all too content to bide his time and stretch out the hunt, but Zephyrus had accelerated matters the moment they figured out the conflict between the two groups was about to be resolved.

Notus crept as close as he could while still remaining out of sight, sampling the magical aura coming off of the girls. It was very difficult to sift through with them all crowding around one another, especially given all of them were giving off flickers of that wretched Goddess' magic. But there was something about this young one, something that wasn't right at all.

Getting as close as he could, creeping about the floor directly beneath the roof, Notus narrowed his eyes and focused. Hated as they were, he was no stranger to the various Elements since becoming accustomed to them in the battle against the prior Retainer.

One girl emit sensations of bonded fondness and defensiveness of others, no doubt embodying Loyalty.

Another, sensations of warmth granted upon giving such to others and delighting in their success and joy, Generosity for sure.

Likewise for Honesty, Kindness, Empathy, even Magic with the inclusion of Twilight Sparkle's return... But, then there was...

Notus tilted his head and chilled the air around him, frost forming across the ceiling. He detected Magic, again. And not just that.....

Gigan's brow perked up as he flinched. Godzilla did the same, as Anguirus and Irys both tensed. The latter three could feel it with their innate ability to detect energy spikes. The former was stirred on by familiarity. His cybernetic vision and scans, still damaged as they were from the thrashing Godzilla gave him, was picking up a lot of unknown variables. Something that just couldn't be quantified. Something he'd seen at the school before as well as his various jaunts as sent by the master.

The four kaiju silently looked at one another, as if to confirm what was going on as pulses raced.


Magic, Laughter, and Kindness. Three Elements in one body?!

That was impossible, utterly impossible. No mortal form could handle such in full, not even the Retainer they fought prior could truly embody more than one. It was impossible, for all but one. The one being Notus truly despised, truly hated ever since she interrupted their purge of the Third Era so long ago. The same being whose first champions he nearly killed, only to have met defeat and the destruction of the fourth wind.

This was no normal girl, but an abomination directly of Harmony's forging; just like the Elements. And while Notus couldn't kill the Elements themselves...

Zephyrus' westerly winds billowed past him, giving Notus all the incentive he might yet need. He was utterly heedless to his own existence, so what greater wound could he inflict by depriving another of their craving for their own persistence?


“So what was that thing you wanted to tell me about ‘Eventide’?” Sunset Shimmer mused as she perked her brow.

Twilight grinned cheekily and went for her pockets, spurring both the Rainbooms and Celestia’s curiosity, “Well I did some testing and I think I found something quite surprising about your Element, Sunset! It’s not Magic! Lemme show you, Gloriosa let me bring this-”

Instantly the air chilled and frost raced across the concrete of the parking garage roof. Southern gales whipped about suddenly and all of the kaiju reacted.

"INCOMING! EVERYONE DOWN!" Gigan roared while lunging at Adagio Dazzle.

Sprinting forward, Godzilla and Anguirus rushed at the Bearers to protect them. Irys tackled Aria over as Adagio found herself scooped up by Gigan and held protectively against him as they were enveloped in a red flash.

With the death of a second, a miniature nor'easter, the spawn of a hurricane and blizzard, roared to life and enveloped the parking garage. Massive eruptions of frost and the most horrid of magics burst from the ground, passing through several of the kaiju and sirens before snapping shut on the gathered Element Bearers like a pair of enormous jaws. This was all or nothing for Notus, and the former was certainly not inconsiderable when heed to cover or well being of his host body was a non-concern. The South Winds howled, soon joined by the Westerly gales that had just arrived in full. What looked like massive jaws made of ice and frost burst from the floor and snapped down across the entire Parking Garage rooftop.




=======
???????
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The horrid thoughts were back again. The treacherous stab made in his own tongue as those thoughts and sensations coursed through his mind both before his eyes and behind them.

-”Lea isn’t up to the task before her, she’s going to ruin it just like she ruined the last plan...”-

-”I’m an idiot for being so trusting in others that can’t do what they need to...”-

-”I should have finished off some threats long ago, kill and let it be finished…”-

A campground in flames and yet the cold shame of guilt. A body in his hands, just as he’d been in another’s. And he couldn’t be sure who’d shed Lea’s blood in such a vision. Broken and melted metal scrap indicated the prone form of Gigan unmoving, and he cared not to wonder who the other ones were. He wanted none of this suffering. He wanted none of this life.

-”I should never have put her or anyone in this kind of situation. This is why I should have shouldered it all alone...”-

-”If I’d died years ago defending Terra, I wouldn’t have to deal with all of this chaos and nightmares…”-

He wanted… to throttle the wretched demon who thought he’d fall for this same trick twice!

Godzilla Junior willed himself, as odd a thought as that was, to banish away the whispers and thoughts that weren’t his own. It was a bizarre feeling, reaching through his own mind and frankly he didn’t wish to know how Luna, Rarity, Aria, Monster X, or Lea had done it to one degree or another. It was out of his wheelhouse and he preferred it to remain that way. Still, novice as he was, he was privy to that uncanny presence that masqueraded as his own mind but was nothing but a deceitful parasite trying to take hold. It was most easily described as taking inventory of any thought or idea that shouldn’t have been a driving force in his mind, let alone be agreed with, and push it out of the forefront. It was like wafting away mist, but it could be done and not even with great difficulty. This time wasn’t the same as the last.

The last time he’d been caught unawares and in a bad mental state, with the windigo going all-out trying to break him. This time he knew his own effort was far more alert, far stronger; and the enemy had only given a half effort; if hardly even being present at all. It couldn’t have been trying to possess him, which meant it wasn’t trying to disable or defeat the Monster King.

He sucked in his breath and within this mindscape, the utterance cried forth wasn’t a human uproar for he was no human within his mind. The thundering roar of Odo Island’s Sea Dragon of Destruction blasted away the mists left behind by Notus’ gambit.

The mists within the mind parted and, upon spanning back to reality and simultaneously snapping any mental sinew that tied the demon’s powers to his mind, so too did the cold mists choking the rooftop part ways. Godzilla Junior grunted as he rose back to his feet, feeling the familiar pull of the windigo get thrown back and off him fully, now able to behold the world for how it really was. Gigan and Adagio were missing, the black and gold Aria, Irys, and Anguirus were seemingly coming lucid and rising. As Irys and Aria assisted one another, Anguirus mutually helped Godzilla back up.

“There… was the cold, I didn’t feel much of it, like I was resisting it, but then some big noise pushed all of it away,” Anguirus groaned while pawing at his head, “Did you just roar in my ear to snap me out of it?”

“In a manner maybe,” Godzilla huffed while glancing over to the other two, “How are you two faring?”

"I do not… want to feel that again,” Kaizer Aria hissed before shaking her head to clear it, “I had some help in my head. I take it you’re the one who turned into the loudest mute button ever?”

“Irys?” Anguirus grunted to his long lost sibling, who looked more confused than anything else.

“You all heard voices?” Irys quipped with a tilt of her head.

“Just like what happened to me beforehand when one of them tried to attack me. It used my voice and my worst thoughts. Tried that stunt again, didn’t keep.”

A silent frown and nodding by Aria confirmed the same had happened to her as well, “Notus, he whittles your mind down like a predator exhausts prey on a hunt. He spoke to me as well.”

“I still heard nothing,” Irys shrugged, “Just lost in this cold void for a time until Godzilla screamed me back to reality.”

“I only heard murmurs and disjointed bits,” Anguirus frowned, trying to think of any reason he and his fellow Guardian Beast might be affected differently whereas the completely different radioactive dinosaur and Equestrian siren might be afflicted the same way, “Where’s Gigan and Adagio Dazzle?”

“Red flash before I went under,” Aria groaned while still clearing her head, “I think he grabbed her and teleported out of range while the frost first came up and we got caught.”

"That answers that question, but how did you snap us out of that trance it tried to put us under?" Anguirus grunted, still trying to waft away the thick mists still obscuring the entire garage roof.

Even a mere meter or two apart they could barely even see each other. The mist was unnaturally thick and still biting cold all around.

“A windigo tried that trick on me before, must have been this ‘Notus’ you spoke of, siren. I defeated him before and knew how to recognize when thoughts weren’t my own. Besides,” Junior turned his focus to the thickest reaches of the fog, privy to how several of their group hadn’t called out yet, “I don’t think his focus was on us.”

Aria followed his line of sight and realized the distinct lack of a certain group in their midst, “The girls…”

“Wait here,” Godzilla growled while keeping his eyes glaring upon the cold mist.

Junior narrowed his eyes and steeled himself, marching forwards away from Aria, Anguirus, and Irys; into the fog at the exact direction he remembered the Element Bearers and Princess Celestia being. It was biting cold, increasingly so as a definite indicator of windigo magic at work the further he went. He walked away from the trio, only to find himself nearly bumping into Aria Blaze.

“I thought I told you lot to wait here.”

“I did,” Aria snarled while looking back at the way he’d come, “Why did you turn around?”

“I didn’t,” Godzilla grunted while glancing back at the way he’d come.

Aria glanced at the way he’d come, then Junior, and back to the fog. Raising her arm, her red eyes and the gold encircling them seemed to flush with a new color and glow in tandem with the necklace upon her throat glimmering. Phantom sensations he hadn’t experienced since the Plateau and the final showdown with Grand King Ghidorah came to mind as Godzilla felt the air around and behind him shift. Aria’s hand swept up in a waving motion, almost like she was paddling through the water or whisking it away. The air did move as commanded by the waves of gravitons, but the mists didn’t move likewise. If it were really fog, it should have budged with air flow; and it didn’t.

It wasn’t really there.

“Another illusion?” Anguirus barked with a disgusted sneer crossing his lips.

“I’m really getting tired of this crazy magic,” Irys deadpanned.

Aria Blaze furrowed her brow as she stopped trying to push away the mist with Kaizer Ghidorah’s abilities, but fell back upon another. Her fingers graced her necklace and calm graced the air. Godzilla and Anguirus, unfamiliar with the soothing and admittedly beautiful melody, perked their brows as Irys registered what it was from the times she’d heard it at camp.

The albino gyaos elbowed her brother lightly and whispered to him as Aria kept singing, “Siren love ballad. She based it on a lullaby her mother made. Windigos hate love magic about as much as they seem to hate those Elements.”

Anguirus nodded approvingly, more than mildly pleased she felt at ease speaking to him in such a way as he watched. Sure enough, the mist did seem to warp. It looked almost like someone was bending a reflection more than banishing it away; but it was indeed having some effect. The air was moving with Aria’s song and the chilling mists were yielding to it. The altered siren, more used to focusing this kind of power in a group, held fast to some of the memories the other personality occupying space in her head was feeding her. Replayed before Blaze’s eyes, Kaizer Ghidorah and keen to bring forth any quiet moment Aria had had with her beloved prior to his abduction. The effect was enough to get the proverbial ball rolling. The mists continued to part and a figure was rendered visible.

Out of the mist came a form and initially the dark hair and straight cut reminded those four present of Twilight Sparkle. It was fortunate that they were quick to remember how their Twilight Sparkle was still mostly in her Eventide Hymn disguise, lest a moment or two more might have been needed to get the indication that something wasn’t right.

A geyser of ice ripped out of the ground just as a westerly wind started to roar across the airspace. A piercing shriek split the air, a purple ray Godzilla was all too familiar with instantly firing from Irys’ fanged jaws to slash at the icy formation. While it couldn’t melt through, it could rupture and that’s precisely what happened when the ice was slashed in two. Red eyes and amulet ignited, Kaizer Aria’s vocality instantly changed from love ballad to wrath as crackling energy flew out of her maw. The resulting graviton torrent laced with her magic bursting the ice that still came flying at her. Westerly wind and shards of shattered frost flew past Aria Blaze’s face as the milliseconds ticked by, the figure becoming more visible as the distance closed.

The motion of their running seemed out of sync, it was a peculiar way to describe it but there were spans in which they would seemingly stop moving only to reappear several meters ahead of where they had been going and leaving behind icy sculptures in their wake.

And from several meters away, they suddenly reappeared right in front of and lunging at Aria Blaze. There wasn't even time to react initially, one moment they were away and the next moment they weren't. The smaller form latched onto Aria's shoulders whilst bracing her feet against the taller woman's hips.

Aria glimpsed the very same face she’d beaten to a bloody pulp, not only fully healed but also very much not the person she’d fought. There was another presence, another personality in control that was immediately obvious even at a mere glance. It wasn’t Twilight Sparkle at all, just her body looking back at her with wide-eyed surprise; as no sooner than they'd latched on to her did they wind up getting repelled backwards. She could feel the backdraft recoil that happened when someone tried to grab her necklace pressing back and trying to dislodge the attacker who made another move for her necklace.

"The other Twilight?!" Irys barked as she tried to turn around at this newcomer, then rushing to Aria’s placement to assist her ally.

Icy eyes locked with Aria Blaze’s and a voice in the same sound of, but totally alien to Twilight Sparkle’s coldly noted upon her hand getting repelled, “We still share some blood. You were born of Melpomene’s sister.”

The transgressor tried once more to go for the necklace, able to press back and through the defensive shield somewhat, only to have her eyes bulge and teeth totally unlike that of a normal human were bared and grit. Her momentum reversed fully, a fist lodged in her gut with a haymaker punch by Aria sending her hurtling back. Proof that despite her prior avoidance that she, it, could be hit.

“WINDIGO!” Aria Blaze yelled out in shock, “It’s another windigo piloting her body like with X!”

The windigo-possessed Twilight’s eyes darted to the side as an azure glow overtook her and raked across the ground before her, Godzilla more aiming to force her back given how close she still was to Aria as to not offer a clear shot. The monster’s body moved sharply, seemingly freezing in place for a moment before appearing again elsewhere to make yet another rush at Aria Blaze.

Anguirus managed to intercept the charge and grabbed onto the windigo’s leg as she continued to fly towards Aria Blaze. What happened next was almost indescribable. The westerly winds flared up for a brief moment, a dim flash of light ensued, and the Defender kaiju found himself holding onto an ice sculpture in the exact likeness of Twilight Starla Sparkle. Anguirus quickly dropped the formation as it started to chill his hand so much it felt like it was burning briefly.

The confusion was only able to sit for a brief moment, as their attacker appeared again several meters away and stomped her foot upon the ground. Another frozen wave of jagged icicles was intercepted by azure fury, Godzilla’s atomic breath shattering the formation with concussive impact alone before sweeping up to aim at the attacker. Usually he’d never use such extreme force on a human, but it was abundantly clear that this adversary was anything but. The quick-charged beam swooped up and hit a solid mass, but not one that reacted in any way to the blow. In fact ‘Twilight’ seemed to freeze in place a half second before the blow actually struck her and once again, a likeness cast in the dark magic ice that refused to melt from anything but Elemental magic took her place.

And the moment after the ice copy was struck, another duplicate appeared bursting out of the mists several meters away. That one was kicked back by Kaizer Aria, launched away and shattering; only for Zephyrus to disappear into the cover of the mists once more. All the while, the westerly winds raged on.

“Where’d they go?” Irys barked while trying to keep her guard up, seeing glimpses of movement in the mists.

“Does it have some teleportation ability?” Anguirus called out as he kicked down a spire of ice that had been thrown up in the chaos, grunting as he felt the grim thought seep in even just touching the stuff for too long.

“I don’t think so, it’s not like Gigan’s,” Kaizer Aria yelled out behind her as she kept trying to turn and face where she thought they were coming from next.

She observed how the windigo seemed to enact desynchronized movements the moment it would move aside from where it was. As ridiculous as it was to think about it in such terms, it reminded her most of a laggy online game Sonata might complain about; where someone appeared in one place but was really a ways away.

“We keep on the offensive, they can’t land a hit even if we can’t with all this mist to hide in,” Godzilla called to his friend and two would-be-allies.

It was difficult seeing movement and having to make a split second judgement on if the figure that should appear was one of the Element Bearers or not before he let loose the plasma beam. Movement to his right momentarily drew his focus, only for experience to cause his aim to snap back to the left. Junior whirled around and burning azure force exploded another ice duplicate cast in the image of a running Twilight Sparkle that was trying to flank them from behind, the real thing appearing several meters away and leaping into the cover of the mist.

“Everyone, get back to back!”

Irys wasn’t really sure why she snapped to focus and complied as quickly as she did, let alone put her back to the subject of her terror just a few days ago. Maybe it was the unfamiliar situation, knowledge of the armistice, or perhaps just natural experience her once-foe had at command that helped her give confidence to the cue. But sure enough, she found herself shoulder to shoulder with Anguirus and Aria, and back to back with Godzilla himself.

Faded images of their tormentor flickered in the mists, a few times appearing less like a girl and more like a towering, antlered form. She could admit to a few shudders, if partially due to the adrenaline surges going through her body.

“We can’t do anything with all this mist, we need to destroy their cover,” Godzilla grunted, “Aria, your magic is our best bet here. Can you get the song going again?”

Cold mists threatened to seep in some darker thoughts and fears, which were only held at bay by the other presence in the siren’s mind.

-”Aria, I too will defend you. We need you and your mother’s gift for this. I can’t think of a better way to slight these mongrels than with her doing.”-

The warmth was unusual in some ways, but very familiar in others from her times with X. It was, after all, some of those times playing through her mind. Even if some caused a bit of a flush on her face and a mental note to maybe not replay quite everything so vividly.

Kaizer Aria took a deep breath to steady her nerves but nodded as her necklace flickered, “I-I can do that. Keep me covered though, they’re very keen on removing my necklace and are probably one of the few who could do it with some effort.”

The malefic shape was forced to keep on the perimeter by a sweeping slicing beam by Irys that bisected an ice formation. Canceling the ray but maintaining her glowing charge, the albino gyaos yelped backwards, “Get to it flockmate, I-.. we will protect you.”

Godzilla took notice of her statement and stiffened, before rising up. Irys’ peripheral vision moved from him and to her sibling. She caught Anguirus giving her a proud smirk and nearly felt her ears flop down, had a loud roar undoable by a human cried out against the fog. It served no purpose other than declaration of might, lacking any magic or force to actually wound the foe. That same roar had defeated one windigo however once before, and it terrified her once. Now, Godzilla’s battlecry actually invigorated her.



=======
???????
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Sunset Shimmer blinked in dumbfound shock and surprise. One moment she was atop the parking garage with her friends, then Gigan had started yelling out, Godzilla had rushed towards her with obvious concern across his features while reaching out as if to pull her away from something; then… nothing. All around her, nothing. Just a sheer, massive, misted and icy plain with dark clouds rolling above. This was a mind, she could know that because of her past experience using the magic she’d recently developed, but this was totally unlike any of those trials. There was no consciousness, no memories, no sense of self in any means she could comprehend. Cold, strife, misery, and emptiness; that was all that could be seen, thought, and felt. The sheer nothingness kept biting at the edges of her thoughts, her power refusing to turn off and disconnect her from it. It was all she could do to just hold it at bay, shivering while holding her sides and walking through the void; constantly feeling something and yet nothing around her on the edge of vision.

The only break in the seeming infinity was several other equally confused-looking figures. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and the still Eventide-disguised Twilight. Dozens of meters separated what had previously been a mere few feet at most. No sign of the kaiju, let alone anything remotely resembling the town.

“Everybody a’right?!” Applejack called out as she started to jog towards the closest companion to her, the group as a whole starting to cluster back together under an unconscious desire for safety in numbers.

“Either this is a sudden eclipse or we’re in trouble,” Twilight muttered while looking about at the dark expanse warily.

Rarity's brow furrowed, seeing only darkness in a barren landscape that seemed to stretch into infinity, “What happened to all of the others?”

“This is why I stopped going out after dark, crazy stuff always happens at sundown,” Rainbow Dash gulped while clearly trying to keep her nerve, goosebumps appearing all over her skin.

Fluttershy coward down, clutching her head as a whimper seeped from her lips even as he friends tried to hold her to them, “I-It’s so cold…”

A roar of a south-blowing blizzard ripped across the landscape and smashed into the entire group, threatening to bowl them over. Whispers began to trickle into each of the Bearer’s minds, speaking in their own voice nothing new, but nothing desired to hear again in their own voices.

-”My ego hurts my friends and I keep it for fear of losing spotlight.”-

-”Ah' don’t talk much 'cus the honest truth can hurt like it once hurt my brother.”-

-”Sometimes I hate people for the horrid things that happened to animals I’ve helped.”-

-”I’m vain and all my friends know it, they just put up with me because I make them things.”-

-”I lied to all my friends and teacher because I didn’t trust anypony enough to forgive.”-

-”I hurt so many because I didn’t get something I never deserved..”-


As her own voice damned herself, Sunset Shimmer fought through the gnawing cold to look forward. Through quivering eyes, she could glimpse something. In the vast expanse of the dark, cold void that actually made up the mind of the windigo itself; having swallowed them all up, two figures were visible.

The first came into focus with a grim notation in the voice of the same individual, one she knew well.

-”I let her hurt my friends, I let it happen again and again because I was so blinded; until she hurt me…”-

One caused her heart to sink. Flash Sentry looked dead, skeletal. Beyond emaciated and weak, as he lay on his knees slumped on the ground while half buried in snow and ice that seemed to be growing out of him as much as it was around him. Clutched between his crossed arms was but a tiny ember of flame; the faintest flicker of light in the dark and cold. In reflex Sunset Shimmer sprinted to him and away from her friends. Somehow she felt she’d run for hours by the time she became aware of it, only to faintly hear the voice of her friends all call out to her at once. What they said was distorted beyond recognition, and when she looked back… only the abyss answered.

“Girls?! Twilight! Fluttershy! Rainbow! Applejack! Rarity!” Sunset Shimmer cried out but feeling like she was having to speak over a blizzard, cold wind smashing into her face as she futilely tried to shield herself, “Ah! Where are yooooou?!”

Another voice, another known entity. This was someone close in a different way from another life.

-”I put everyone before myself except the one I should have most. I was the last one who should have neglected Luna…”-

In the other direction of Flash, standing in a growing field of ice and snow, was none other than Peachy Keen.

“Sunset?...” a quivering Peachy Keen cried out again, clutching her arms to her sides in the search for warmth, oblivious to what was behind her.

In the magnitudes of mist behind her, that hazy void seemed to contort and take a shape; one a dozen meters tall. A vaguely equine form was manifest, before rapidly molding like a true self was bursting free. Antlers and ice moved through the haze and rapidly made their way to Peachy Keen, raising an arm that flickered between a knife wielding hand and a frost bitten talon. South winds roared in a chorus that took on the sound of a monstrous, inhuman scream as one of Grogar’s most powerful creations rushed at her both within the mental illusion he’d cast upon them all as well as the flesh and blood world.




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Camp Everfree
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Several minutes of explaining later and Gloriosa was still confused.

“She came here a few days ago and only wanted to help ‘Nata, I knew brother and Miss Dazzle would flip so I’ve been hiding her-” Megalon stammered quickly while Pinkie Pie rapidly shook Gloriosa’s hand.

“Yep yep yep! And let me tell you’ something, wooof she took a lot out of me! That girl needs help and good thingy my friends are coming to make it all well. I mean I mighta and woulda blown the whistle if you turned out to be the bad guys or caused a mess-”

Gloriosa could only passively mind to not bring up the Pier fight she’d wrung Gigan’s ear off over and listen, too flabbergasted to protest.

“I came here to help Nata out though, she didn’t cause no mess and-”

“-She really has been a big help, so I tunneled under most of the campground to help her move around. Please don’t get angry!” Megalon yelped aloud while jittering.

Pinkie Pie responded by letting go of Gloriosa and all but tackling her cyborg compatriot and squeezing him around the shoulders and head, “Ah Meggy, no need to fret! You got my spring back in my step when I was about to permanently look like my sisters! Speaking of what’s that sparkly piece of wonderment? It gave me a huge squink-blink for my Pinkie Sense when you came closer!”

“Well I was about to ask you the same-” Gloriosa stopped when a sudden, violent burst slammed into her.

It was so frigid it numbed out all sense so much that for a moment, she couldn’t tell what it was. But as she forced her eyes open, Gloriosa found herself momentarily back inside the family car. She was much smaller, her little brother just a small crying baby beside her in a booster seat. He was helpless, terrified, and yelling out as she had her hands poised at him. For some reason unknown to her at the time, she’d hyper focused on the sound of Timber Spruce’s cries over the howling blizzard outside and a truly horrible sense of negativity had overtaken her. To her dread at the time, she’d found she’d caught herself about to strike him, some strife having overpowered all sense. She of course never did harm her little brother, instead lurching over to hug the sobbing tyke and try and protect him from the overwhelming dread something evil was nearby.

In the corner of her eye, perhaps only subconsciously, she had seen it back then. The gaunt, half frozen monster that had lunged at the car door and tore the handle off. Youth had scrubbed it from her mind, but the frigid North Wind crashing into her dredged it all back up.

A cold northerly wind strangled the air in Camp Everfree, carrying a manic laughter across its gales.





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Reader Works!
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Because I never tire of admiring all of ya'll, here's some choice pieces I've seen you all create!


FallenAngel5414 welcoming us to the show!




And giving us the chosen of 'The Green'




LionPatriot bringing us a happy Mother's Day!




And a redesign for a nightmare made to film






LordShrekZilla20 bringing some of Fallen's handiwork to life importing more magic to the world!





And recreating a topical meme





Additionally I'd like to plug a lovely story by JDPrime22 and illustrated by the above ShrekZilla. The One True King is easily one of the best MLP-Godzilla crossovers which comes off as very inspired but not derivative. Very well done pacing and artwork!