Fillydelphia, Equestria
The Radiance shone with the rays of the sun, breaking the blankets of smoke above the city that once was. In its descent, engines roaring like monumental beasts, the mighty airship landed in the center of Main Street. The fragments and ruin of what was left.
A ramp unfurled, and rapidly descending down its walkway, Princess Twilight entered onto the desolate street with a cough quickly following her. Almost as quickly as Directors Celestia and Luna joining her. Together, arriving as fast as they possibly could with their finest crew, the leaders of both Equestria and T.I.T.A.N. stood there. Slack-jawed. Breathless. Eyes agape and unable to blink.
They were only forced to blink when the smoke in the air grew too harsh, and the tears in their eyes stung too fierce.
The fire could be seen from the horizon. Drenching the skies and the distant clouds in an ethereal, orange glow. Only, when they grew nearer, it was anything but beautiful. Ash storms raged for miles, but in the heart, it was far worse. The eye of the storm was not a calm respite from the rest of the burning winds. The fires were hottest, the ash was heaviest, the death was highest in the epicenter of the Titan attack.
She was thankful she didn’t let Spike come. She couldn’t have let him see this. She wondered if even she was capable.
Firefighting units were dispatched first. Both on the ground and in the air. Carriages drove down the roads and pelted buildings that still burned with streams of water. Unicorns utilized ice and freezing spells to speed up the process. Pegasi utilized clouds that weren’t burning to create large pockets of rainfall, greatly showering the flaming ruins to leave them smoldering. Airships above lowered their hoses and let the water rain atop entire streets still covered in fire. It was slow, but it was efficient. The smoke that rose darkened the skies even worse, but it would fade.
With a majority of the fires killed, search parties were given a clear passage to begin sifting through the debris. Voices filled the air along with sirens from the airships, voices from the local and T.I.T.A.N. search parties desperately calling out for anypony to respond. Black, skeletal buildings barely stood as the parties moved through them, continuously crying out. Hoping for any responding call.
When they heard nothing, they searched further. They dug deeper. They called louder.
Echoes danced with the swirling ash. Echoes of crying voices begging for a response of any kind. All three leaders walked slowly, almost aimlessly, down the road. When the fires were mostly dead, all that was left was a ghostly-white aura painted on every building, every street corner, every pile of rubble. On every charred carcass left as but bones melted into the earth itself.
Twilight forced her eyes away at that, a sharp gasp leaving her lungs. She slimmed her breathing so as not take in any more smoke. Magically levitating a rag across her muzzle, she breathed instead into it and pressed onward. Celestia and Luna never raised a rag to cover their mouths. They hardly breathed to begin with.
Their personal guard surrounded them the further they entered Main Street, a mix of golden-plated Royal Guards joined with burly stallions in black armor, helmets, and dark visors. Spears, swords, and bolt-action rifles rested on forelegs, in sheaths, or upon their backs. Weapons were at the ready, for anything. Even such hardened expressions trained for conflict could not hold forever, and flinches slipped free every now and again to unveil the pained hearts behind every plate of armor.
For behind every stone-faced soldier and warrior, seeing the loss of innocent life splintered even the most fortified walls. It burned even hotter to know they weren’t there to at least fight for them, even if it meant losing themselves in the end.
“Flash Sentry!” Twilight cried, snapping everypony to attention. Her guards rushed behind her as the Alicorn flapped her wings to kick off the ground, flapping them even faster to land directly in front of the Pegasus in question. “Flash… Oh… thank goodness… Any news to report on the bunkers?”
For all his days serving as a Royal Guard, Flash Sentry had grown used to transferring from the Crystal Empire to Canterlot, even if the travel and hours were strenuous. After the destruction of the Empire, however, and when he learned he would be permanently stationed in Canterlot, he only imagined for a time what an honor it would be to serve under her watch. To serve under one such as Princess Twilight Sparkle.
But the days grew darker. The peace she brought was fair and righteous, but it seemed as if the darkness of the old days were growing once more. The shadow of the enemy was rising, spreading across Equestria. Flash Sentry had sworn to uphold the peace, to serve in her court and fight for the future in which the species of Equus could live in harmony with Titans. That future seemed to grew ever fainter, and today only cemented that dreaded fact.
He and his battalion were so very tired. He took off his helmet, and the sweat coupled with the soot painted on his face was evident enough of his weariness. His broken eyes only amplified that message. “Your Majesty…”
“Flash…” her soft voice called, and Flash visibly recoiled. Uncertain if he even had the strength to tell her. After what he had seen, he almost didn’t have faith he could do it. Whatever he could muster, whatever strength still kept him standing, he managed.
“There’s nothing,” the Pegasus in the golden guard uttered. “Every T.I.T.A.N. bunker was either destroyed or empty. Nopony made it in… or, if they did…”
“Nopony made it out…?” Twilight finished, seeing the ashen look respond from him. It was all the answer he could supply. “N-nopony…”
Her head fell, and shaking gasps left her. The city was quiet as all within her own guard as well as Flash Sentry’s battalion stood still. Not a one daring to move. Not a one daring to speak. Celestia draped a wing across her trembling frame, and her warmth was a comfort compared to the warmth of the ashes.
“There was something else,” Flash added. “Something else the search parties found first.”
Heads perked up, from Twilight and Celestia. But it was Luna who stepped forth and asked, “What is it?”
He placed his helmet back on. “Directors… princess… it’s best if you see for yourself.”
They followed without a word more. In silence, in echoes of violence, they traversed the devastated remains of the once prosperous city of Fillydelphia. Celestia’s mind kept reeling on the fact that a single Titan was responsible for such a sin. A single rogue Titan that had left its mark forever upon the world and the history books. The ponies of Fillydelphia did not deserve such a fate. They did not deserve such unrighteous judgement.
Twilight’s heart ached the more she saw, so she looked away. Only, it was everywhere. Every building she saw, every breath she took, every piece of gravel she trampled, the pain and the hurt was everything. In many ways, she knew she couldn’t drown herself in the deeds of a single Titan, of a rogue creature that turned savage. She knew she couldn’t blame herself for this. They responded in the best ways they could, sent the strongest in their arsenal to fight the battles that once seemed impossible to fight, but seeing what she saw now… she was wondering if it was all true.
If it was all still impossible to fight.
Maybe she should have been there, taken the place of the T.I.T.A.N. forces sent to sacrifice their lives. Maybe even the Princess of Friendship and of Equestria wouldn’t have been strong enough to fight such a beast. Maybe she could have been, but they would never know. It was over now, but it was still there, growing in the blackness festering in her heart.
That infectious little seed of guilt.
As for Luna, she shared a similar feeling of blackness encompassing her soul. She had fond memories of the city, having visited Fillydelphia herself a while back. Seeing it now only darkened her heart. As the former Princess of the Night, ruling in the dark was not a burden as she in her youth once believed. It was that prideful burden that led to the fall of Princess Luna and the rise of Nightmare Moon. Only after she was saved, brought back to her sister’s wings, did she realize the light could not exist without the dark. The dark could not thrive without the coming of the light.
But this darkness… this was unlike anything they had faced before. A city burned, the needless slaughter of innocents, and for what? Such a reckoning was too foul for words. She could have blamed themselves for not taking action by their own hooves, simply relying on their war machines to protect their way of life when that duty fell to them. She could have blamed the creature, which would have been sensible, but to what end? Not every Titan killed just for the bloodlust and destruction.
Such an event only occurred when their minds were corrupted. When they followed the will and the call of Monster Zero. Luna wondered…
Her wondering could be saved for a later time. When she and her sister, the princess, and the battalion of guards came to a nameless road shrouded in smoke. Only, the smoke was cleared by the engines and propellers of the airships above, washing the air and leaving the horrific image bare for all to witness. And witness they did, with shaken hearts and stolen breaths.
Lying in the midst of Fillydelphia’s ruin, Mechagodzilla might as well have lied with his own ruin.
Buildings were toppled over and slabs of earth were ripped from their bindings, chunks of concrete shattered and thrown to and fro. In the heart of the destruction was T.I.T.A.N.’s greatest weapon, their greatest creation, torn as if mauled by some tremendous bear. The work of the rogue Titan, no doubt. Burning embers rained with the ash and coated the fallen Mecha. Shards of steel and circuitry were scatted across the road, painting the devastation in all their hard work.
Perhaps Celestia and Luna took the hit the hardest, but Twilight felt just as crushed seeing Project Mecha in all its failure. Immediately her heart leaped when she saw the bodies they pulled out of the skull of the machine. Its left eye, burned in a circular fashion as if a hot iron rod was jammed into its socket, that was where they found the pilots.
Agents and medics of T.I.T.A.N. pulled all five out on individual stretchers, raising them up to the medical airship hovering above Mechagodzilla. All were safely hauled up, safely secured, and safely flown back to Canterlot for immediate diagnosis. They weren’t the only ones hauled away.
“They’re awaiting your orders, Director,” a T.I.T.A.N. agent addressed, holding out his radio via magic. Celestia took it carefully, her magic almost seeming to shake to her own quivers. But she held strong for them, speaking into the radio and giving the order.
They watched in silence. Watched as the steel straps fell down from dozens of airships. Large and small, as many as they could fit in flying formation, the impressive fleet of T.I.T.A.N. airships hovered together over the Mecha’s remains. They descended with their straps dangling out of the ships’ bellies, meeting the agents already on the ground. The straps were locked in, tightened with an extra magical, unbreakable bond, and the agents dispersed.
Made way for the airships to rise.
And as they did so, laboring immensely to bring Mechagodzilla with them.
Magic was a defining factor in the airlift, but it was still an impressive feat from the T.I.T.A.N. fleet nonetheless. They were slow to get it off the ground, calculate how much force to put into the thrusters, but soon they were off. Lifting the damaged machine higher, fragments of its own body falling back to the earth, the airships continued to rise. Mechagodzilla still remained mostly intact, and that was all they needed.
Now high enough, the airships pushed forward and began their long and strenuous journey back to Canterlot Mountain.
It still felt so unbelievable. For Celestia, Luna, and Twilight, of course. A part of them should have felt as if this was always a possibility, that Mechagodzilla could fail. Though after all they had invested, all they had achieved, the enthusiasm that was growing outmatched the doubts and the fears. They finally had a guardian once more, a Titan who would fight solely for them.
And now, they were back to square one. At least their pilots were coming home. At least the chassis of the Mecha had survived.
It did not take long for Princess Twilight’s curiosity to take over. While T.I.T.A.N. sought still for survivors—with an affirmed order that she gave them not to stop until they did—she instead chose to search for the causation to such destruction. Traversing the city opened no leads, as it seemed every road led to the same desolation they saw a hundred times over. The crater, Main Street, Dragon Town, everything that was once doused in flame and now left to teeter and fall.
When all was becoming bleak, there, resting outside the city limits was a broken peak. A mountain, or what was left of it, resting with pillars of smoke eroding from the great hole in its center. Twilight took the lead, with Celestia and Luna following behind her, curious themselves to see what her intuitions would unravel.
It seemed the higher they flew, the more was unveiled. From the state of the buildings on the city’s edge, they appeared to have been bent outward while facing the mountain. Considering the mounds of earth and rock scattered from the range and reaching the city, the pieces of the puzzle were creating an image Twilight did not particularly like.
She needed a closer look. Celestia and Luna sought the same answers.
Flying to the mountain wasn’t an issue. It was searching the mountain of rubble that remained, a chasm left in what was once a beautiful peak on the outskirts of Fillydelphia. Perhaps the creature had slammed into the mountain, or it had burrowed from below and erupted from its peak. Nesting Titans weren’t uncommon, and their resilience would have most certainly been put down quickly by Godzilla. But he was nowhere to be found.
And the hypothesis of it being a natural attack were fading.
For when Twilight took a deeper look, studied further the mountain ruins, she found something different. Something she hadn’t found in the city. Burned on practically every rock within the chasm were strange markings, faint tints of gold and red-like cinders in a dying bonfire. They were still hot to the touch, and Twilight recoiled. It didn’t deter her, nor did it Celestia and Luna.
When the sisters took a step closer, they analyzed the markings and realized they were of intelligent design. An ancient language. A dead tongue that not even Celestia or Luna knew. Yet the symbols, they did. All the symbols and markings burned together to form a vast, explosive reach throughout all the chasm in what was once a mountain.
All three stood together on the mound overlooking the great wound. Seeing the symbols spread from one rock face to another, encompassing it all. They couldn’t speak the language, but they had seen such a tongue before.
Etched in faint scrapes upon the Bewitching Bell.
Canterlot, Equestria
Their worst fears were being made true.
That was the thought constantly ravaging the backs of their minds, growing like an infectious disease the longer they went without a concrete answer or proof. The evidence in Fillydelphia was damning. The Titan-like roar they had heard coming into Fillydelphia only added fuel to the flame, building a fire of insurmountable proportions. A fire, if they left unchecked any longer, could grow out of control. The fears, despite all their best efforts, were slowly becoming far too real.
Returning to Canterlot posthaste, the Radiance made its landing almost in tandem with the medical airship, passing by Mechagodzilla miles ago. There was no time for subtlety or hiding from the public eye. Practically every head in Canterlot was lifted to see the mighty airship fly overhead and reach the landing pad near the castle.
Even leaving the airship was made to be a panic, and Twilight did an awful job hiding that fact. Keeping the peace was her top priority—as it was the sisters’—but the peace was fractured. It was breaking, and they needed to do what they could when they could if it meant balance was maintained.
She flew as hard as her wings could push her, bypassing entire crowds, hardly waiting for guards to open doors for her. Celestia and Luna didn’t even try to stop Twilight. They were flying just as fast.
Once they reached Canterlot Castle, they made their way to the Archives, to the Star Swirl the Bearded section. It was unlocked with a guard fumbling for his keys, not even having to open the gate himself when the princess and the directors did it for him. Celestia and Luna channeled their magic and instantly activated the hidden doorway, the staircase descending down the sanctum of T.I.T.A.N.’s ancient secrets.
But they didn’t stop there. They couldn’t. They kept descending further and further. Deeper than Star Swirl’s inner sanctum, to the roots of Canterlot Mountain, where reality crushed them as if the mountain itself was falling. In some sick and horrific way, they almost wished for that to happen, if just to deprive them of what they saw.
There was no light in the heart of Canterlot Mountain. The light of the aether was gone, replaced with darkness. Their worst fears were made true.
Grogar’s Bell was gone.