//------------------------------// // 8: A New Direction // Story: A King Unmatched // by Mister Friendly //------------------------------// Emiko carefully lowered the imperial sorceress onto the bed, taking great pains not to jostle her. Despite her care, the battered mare still whimpered through tightly clenched lips, her eyes screwed shut. One of her legs was in a sorry state, and Emiko fully suspected that there was something hurt in her chest, considering the reactions she got every time she so much as touched her left side. The two mares that accompanied her were only in moderately better shape. Nothing seemed to be broken, but they all were covered in nasty bruises that were clear as day. “You should rest,” Emiko instructed the sorceress as she turned to examine the cache of medical supplies she and Serizawa had built up over the years. It was still woefully inadequate; ointments for rashes, bandages for cuts and dried herbs for fever did little good against bone fractures and internal injuries, but she made due. At least her patients wouldn’t run the risk of catching an infection. She pulled out a small hollowed gourd and popped out the cork with a flick of her horn. Inside, she could just smell the syrupy, sickly sweet concoction that, frankly speaking, she was in danger of completely burning through from tonight alone. Emiko moved back towards the sorceress, a small clay cup in one hoof as she poured out a generous dose of the medicine. “This will help you sleep,” she explained. “It will ease the pain.” She blinked, however, when the sorceress kept her head turned stubbornly the other way. The maids had been the same way; they refused to so much as look her in the eye, somehow haughty even in agony. The first time it’d happened, it had been distressing. The second time, mildly irritating. This time, she was in no mood to put up with their superior social statuses. The sorceress yelped when her head was roughly yanked around in the other direction by a telekinetic force, her mouth tugged open wide. Any objection she might have voiced – and she had a few – was cut off when Emiko upturned the cup into the injured mare’s mouth, then clamped her jaws shut until she’d swallowed. All the while, Emiko smiled a most unsettling, most unauthentic smile. “Good girl,” she patronized, patted her head, then started putting her medical supplies away. By the time she’d safely stored away her various bandages and tonics, the sorceress was sound asleep, snoring like a babe. Emiko’s attitude softened. She knew she shouldn't blame them for the way they behaved. After all, a pony only knows what they've been raised to believe. It'd been no small wonder that the mares hadn't verbally refused her 'peasant remedies' outright. Then again, maybe they'd simply been in too much pain to make the most of their disdain. Still, she'd have a few hours worth of peace and quiet out of them at the very least. She rearranged the blankets around her slumbering patient, and with a flick of her horn, brought the lamp hanging overhead to a dim, guttering spark before carefully making her way out of the packed bedchamber. In the other room, she found the fourth patient sitting tolerantly as a yellow pegasus worked over her. She was bleary-eyed still and kept blinking and wobbling a little, but she reacted quick enough when Emiko slipped into the room. “How are they?” Applejack asked. Emiko flash a small smile. “We can’t take care of most of their injuries, but we can make them comfortable until we find somepony who can.” Privately, she included the concussed pony in front of her among them. A few cuts and bruises weren’t a problem to tend to. But a serious concussion was a different matter, and she was definitely behaving like she’d hit her head very, very hard. Still, she couldn’t help but marvel at the earth pony’s resilience. She must have been hurting all over, and yet she barely displayed any discomfort at all. “Well that’s somethin’,” she mumbled, nodding to herself. Then she winced as Fluttershy cinched a length of gauze tight around her barrel. “Oh, I'm sorry,” the pegasus fretted. Applejack made a dismissive noise in response, then turned her attention back to Emiko. “Mighty kind of ya ta take us in,” she said, smiling. “Don’t know what we woulda done if y’all hadn’t been there when ya were.” Emiko took a moment to parse through the mare’s strange dialect, processing what she could. Equestrian – actual Equestrian, not the stuff written in books like from what she’d learned – was strange enough to listen to as it was, but the unusual twang in Applejack’s words, not to mention some of the words themselves, made it particularly difficult to make sense of what she was saying. She considered herself fairly well versed in the language, but that accent was throwing her off. She quickly decided that Applejack was thanking her for something, and so she gave a kind smile and a bow in response. “We are happy to help,” she said. “I will go see if we have something for you to lie down on.” Applejack bobbed her head in appreciation. “That… sure sounds nice right about now,” she said, blinking slowly. So Emiko excused herself, all the while musing over Applejack’s strange manner of speaking. Equestria sure seemed different than she’d envisioned… She walked out into a small corridor that ran the whole length of the ship, front to back. She’d walked this corridor every day for… how many years now? Many, too many to keep track of. This ship was her home, her observatory, her school… her world. And suddenly, it was feeling like a very, very small world, indeed… Emiko snapped back to her senses when she reached one of the last doors near the rear of the ship and automatically slid it open. Inside, she found the room occupied by far more ponies than she was accustomed to seeing. Serizawa, Rainbow Dash, and four of her friends all sat around the dinner table, sitting on cushions on the floor. They were deep in discussion when Emiko trotted in, and hardly anypony looked up towards her, save for the strange, bipedal purple lizard that most certainly was no pony. He blinked up at her questioningly, seemingly just as perplexed by her staring as she was of his existence. The moment she clacked the door shut behind her, the conversation stopped. All eyes turned towards her, looks of worry and anxiety on three mares’ faces. “How’s Applejack?” Rainbow asked quickly. “And the sorceress and her maids,” Twilight added. “Yeah, them, too. But how’s Applejack?” Rarity and Twilight rolled their eyes. Emiko did her best to look reassuring. “Your friend Fluttershy-san and I have done the best we can. Their lives are not in danger, but we do not have the supplies to heal them fully. I can mend injured bones, but I fear Applejack-san might have hurt her head very badly, and I do not know how to heal that.” The group of mares looked disheartened, but relieved all the same. “Thanks for doing what you could,” Twilight said with a small, but meaningful smile. “It means a lot.” Emiko smiled back, until a shrill whistling interrupted them. Everypony watched as she bustled over to a single burner housing a spark of magical flame and quickly lifted a kettle into the air. “Once we reach land,” Serizawa spoke up, drawing the group’s attention, “we will see about getting your friends medical attention. I know a few ponies on Ogasawara Island who will help; it won’t take us long to reach it.” “Sounds good to me,” Rainbow said right away, earning her a look from Twilight. The group was silent as Emiko placed a cup in front of each of them and poured them all piping hot tea. Then, with a wordless bow, she excused herself, disappearing the way she’d come. Serizawa watched her go, his eyes unreadable, until Twilight spoke up. “So, mister Serizawa,” she said, “you said you were following Godzilla?” Serizawa glanced back towards her, and then nodded. “Yes, that is correct. More specifically, I have been studying the disturbances He causes… or at least, what I thought He caused.” “I don’t really get it,” Rainbow said, turning towards Twilight, “but it sounds like he’s been studying Godzilla to try to find a way to beat it.” “No, not to defeat it,” Serizawa corrected. “But we need a way to subdue Him without resorting to violence. I believe that the answer to that lies in the disturbances He has been chasing all this time.” “Disturbances,” Rarity repeated, frowning. “Do you perhaps mean the storms?” Serizawa nodded. “The storms are just a manifestation of these disturbances.” Twilight’s eyes widened in a look of shock. “Wait, wait… are you talking about etheric disturbances? Please tell me you’re not.” Serizawa nodded grimly. “I’m afraid I am.” Twilight grew very pale after that. Rainbow, Rarity and Pinkie Pie all exchanged confused looks, a few shrugs and an unknowing shake of the head or two, before Pinkie looked up and said, “Huh?” But Twilight wasn’t listening. “So I was right,” she muttered to herself, looking edgy. “The auroral manifestations while casting spells, the sudden atmospheric destabilizations… it’s all caused by an etheric imbalance!” Serizawa nodded, looking rather impressed. “Okay, time out,” Rainbow butted in, making the appropriate gesture with her hooves. “To quote Pinkie here… ahem… Huh?” “What she said I said,” Pinkie agreed, pointing at her and nodding vigorously. Even Rarity frowned lightly, looking confused. Only Spike didn’t. He turned towards Twilight, wringing his claws. “Um… isn’t that supposed to be really, really bad?” “Yes, Spike,” Twilight said quietly, looking deeply concerned, “that’s really, really bad.” Twilight looked up, meeting the confused – and rather demanding – looks from her friends. “Remember how I said ether is sort of like ambient magic?” she said. “Well, that’s just the broadest definition. Ether is used to conduct magical forces in the –” “In Equestrian, egghead,” Rainbow interrupted. Twilight glared at her, but relented with a sigh. “Okay, how do I put this… Ether is like… Okay, let me put it this way. It’s because of ether that magic can manifest at all. Without it, pegasi can’t affect the weather, unicorns can’t create spells, and earth ponies can’t grow crops, not to mention the many, many other things that wouldn’t be able to use magic at all. It’s like lightning; when it strikes something metal, it conducts through that something, right? It’s the same idea; ether is the metal doing the conducting, and magic is the lightning bolt. Without a conductor, magic just… doesn’t go anywhere. “On the other hoof, too much ether causes magic to go completely out of control. A spark of magic can level cities. A flap of a wing can generate category five hurricanes, or who knows what else. A crop of corn germinates into flesh-eating mutants. It’s happened before in history, and well… the results are never, ever good.” Serizawa nodded again, now thoroughly impressed. “That is correct. Normally, ether balances itself naturally. But if that balance is destabilized – for example, because of an incredible surge of magic at one point – it causes feedback.” “Like these storms,” Twilight added, waving a hoof. “But it can get so, so much worse…” Serizawa nodded. “Some places have a stronger concentration of ether than others. Neighpon is one of these places.” “Which is why it was chosen by the Empire of the Sun,” Twilight went on. “The potency of magic here was roughly two-point-eight-nine units higher than anywhere else, even Equestria.” “Two-point-eight-nine-four, to be exact,” Serizawa said. “Right,” Twilight said distractedly. “Etheric feedback here would be so much worse than anywhere else in the world.” “I am so lost,” Rainbow deadpanned, but she was ignored. “It means,” Twilight went on, in full lecture mode now, “A destabilization here would be catastrophic.” “Just how catastrophic, exactly?” Rarity asked out of sheer morbid curiosity. Twilight gave her a queasy look. “Very. Catastrophic. Right now we’re only dealing with freak storms, but if things continue to get worse, we could see a complete breakdown of the natural order, and the end of Neighpon as we know it!” Serizawa nodded grimly. “Yes, it would. And I believe Gojira can detect that imbalance, and it has drawn Him out of hiding. He is looking for the source.” Twilight sat back on her cushion, tapping her chin. “So the question now is what caused it, and how can we stop it?” Rarity and Pinkie exchanged confused – and slightly uncomprehending – looks. Spike stared around uncertainly. But while Twilight pondered carefully, she didn’t notice the way Rainbow Dash caught Serizawa’s eye meaningfully. “I,” Serizawa started reluctantly, “may be able to help.” Twilight perked up. “Huh? How?” Serizawa’s expression, however, had darkened. He stared down into his cup, now half empty. It was Rainbow who ended up speaking next. “So… apparently this isn’t the first time Godzilla’s been on the rampage,” she mentioned in as casual a way possible. What she wasn’t expecting was the bland reaction she got. Twilight turned to her, frowning thoughtfully while Rarity and Pinkie just gave her questioning looks. No shock, no dismissals… it was all really boring. “Yeah, we heard something like that,” she said. “You… did?” Rainbow said back. Now she was the one taken aback, her big reveal moment turned against her. “How?” Twilight retold their encounter with Imi, just before the storm had closed in on Odo Island. While she spoke, Serizawa listened mutely, inscrutable. When she was finished, Serizawa set his cup down, a thoughtful look on his face. “Is that about right?” Twilight asked then. She was turned towards him quizzically. “Has Godzilla attacked Neighpon before?” The old Neighponese pony was quiet for a long time, regarding the table. Then, he looked up towards her. “I believe so, yes.” Twilight blinked. “You believe so?” she repeated. Serizawa nodded, glancing away. “Sixty years ago,” he began, “the then-emperor of Neighpon ordered the commissioning of a spell that he proclaimed would return the Empire to its former glory.” “Well that’s not ominous,” Spike mumbled. "It happens more than you might think," Serizawa said to him. "The reign of every emperor since the sun was taken from us has been marked by many attempts to seize a greater power." He glanced around the table, as if to make sure everypony present was paying attention, which they undoubtedly were.“My father was one of the many ordered to create the spell,” he went on. “The court of nobles and all of the best minds in Neighpon were brought into the project, but it was my father who led the team designing the spell.” Twilight looked – and felt – uneasy. “What kind of spell was it?” she asked. Serizawa looked up towards her. “It was a spell that would give the emperor control over nature itself,” he said. Several ponies blinked in bewilderment. “Uh,” Rainbow spoke up, “don’t we kinda already do that?” “No,” Twilight said. She was pale all over again. “No we don’t. Pegasi can control the weather, yes, but you can’t control when the seasons change. Ponies are supposed to work in harmony with nature, not try to force it to bend to our will. Whenever somepony does, bad things happen. Enchanting a place to recreate eternal spring is one thing; actually making it eternal spring is completely different. Sooner or later, nature forces itself back into order, and the recoil can be really, really violent, like a dam bursting.” Serizawa nodded. “My father told the emperor the same thing,” he said. “The emperor… did not like that. He was not accustomed to being told 'no'.” For a brief moment, there was pain in his eyes, but it passed so quickly that Twilight thought she’d imagined it. “The Empire of the Sun has long searched for a way to take back the sun from Celestia,” he went on. “When that failed, it turned its desperation to other pursuits. The Golden Age spell was just the culmination of this… madness. My father protested, but it could not be stopped. The spell was completed without him.” Serizawa forward, resting his elbows on the table, his eyes dark. “Sixty years ago, the greatest sorcerers and sorceresses in the Empire gathered in the capital, Janjira. Hundreds of casters were called into service, including an entire years-worth of reagents, and a spell circle a square mile across.” Even Rainbow’s eyes grew wide at that. She may know next to nothing about magic, but she knew that that sounded like an undertaking of epic proportions worthy of any Daring Do novel. “Everything seemed to go according to plan. But when they cast the spell, something went wrong. Instead of a neverending spring, as the emperor promised... they awakened something.” He looked up at the group, straightening up. “The eternal spring the emperor had promised never came. Instead, storms began appearing all across Neighpon. Tsunamis and typhoons destroyed many villages… killed many more. At least, that is what the Empire told everypony.” Twilight gulped. “You… you think it was Godzilla,” she said in a small voice. Serizawa looked up at her. “Yes… I do,” he said. “So did my father. Because only islands on the edge of the Empire were attacked, few believed it was anything more than a spell gone wrong. Those who witnessed the creature were dismissed as superstitious ravings or the imaginings of insane ponies. “But my father believed otherwise. He believed the spell had disturbed a great monster – a daikaiju, legendary beings worshipped as gods all across Neighpon. The priests and priestesses of the many shrines across Neighpon agreed with him, but the Emperor refused to listen to his warnings, or those from the priests.” Something even darker flashed across Serizawa’s face then – a flare of anger, bubbling to the surface before it was quickly bottled up again. When next he spoke, Twilight couldn’t help but get the feeling that he was glossing over a great many details. “After a few weeks, the disturbances faded. When they did, so did Gojira. But when the storms returned, so too did He." Twilight’s frown grew troubled. Ether disturbances recurring weren’t unheard of, but a delay of sixty years was very peculiar. “The chances of this being feedback from the same incident seems really unlikely,” she commented, but there was uncertainty in her expression. She had to admit that studies into ether was still a very theoretical science, and she herself wasn't an expert on the subject. Nopony actually knew what the stuff was capable of, not completely. “Do you have any idea what might have caused another event like before?” Twilight asked Serizawa, her eyes flashing up towards him. “Emperor Kirin attempting another spell, maybe?” Unfortunately, Serizawa shook his head. “I cannot say for sure," he said with a heavy sigh. "The Emperor keeps most of his affairs private, and few are allowed into the grand city at Janjira anymore. I have kept my distance from him and his agendas, considering his… opinion… of my work. But I would not discount another attempt at the Golden Age spell, or something worse.” Twilight grimaced at the prospect, but managed to keep as positive an outlook as possible. “Well, recent magical damage on the ether currents would be easier to rectify than an old one.” Still, something seemed off to her. There was a nagging question in the back of her mind, half-formed but foreboding all the same… She was interrupted when Serizawa spoke up. “I would like to help you, Sparkle-san, in whatever way I can. I do not have many resources available to me, but I still have made a number of useful finds over the years.” For some reason that wasn’t immediately apparent, Rainbow suddenly sat up straighter, a glint in her eyes. “Oh yeah! I forgot about that!” Everypony turned towards her questioningly. “Forgot what?” Pinkie asked. Serizawa looked at her for a moment, then picked himself up. “Follow me,” he said. “There is something you should see.” ~~***~~ The group followed Serizawa as he exited the kitchen and made his way down the hall. Spike brought up the rear, nervously trotting along as best he could. The whole time, he couldn’t help but glance around, particularly at every doorway they passed. There was something about the pot-bellied ship that set him on edge, but he couldn’t put his claw on it. Ever since they’d gotten on board, he’d had the same feeling, but he’d attributed it, understandably, to recent events still ringing through his nervous system. But the sensation never abated. Something about the ship just… wasn’t right. It bothered him the whole way down the hall. Emiko and Serizawa had been nothing but kind, even if they stared a little too much. So, if it wasn’t them, what could it be? He caught sight of Fluttershy and Applejack through a door left ajar, which momentarily distracted him, but not for long. Applejack was sitting propped up on a mound of cushions, still looking rather concussed. Just what was this sensation…? At the end of the hall, Serizawa came to a halt. At first, nopony could figure out why he’d come this far; there were no doors on either side of the hallway, just uniform wood boards. Just before anypony could raise the obvious question, Serizawa lifted his hoof, and pressed it to a knothole on one of the boards. To everypony’s surprise, it offered a click in response. With a rasp of wood-on-wood, a section of the wall depressed, then swiftly swept to one side, exposing a small landing and narrow ladder that went straight down into darkness. “Please excuse the small space,” Serizawa said as he moved towards the ladder. “We had to modify this part of the ship ourselves.” Twilight gave him an apprehensive look as he slowly clambered down the ladder. She about jumped a foot in the air when Rainbow suddenly darted up beside her. “Secret doorways! How awesome is this?!” she gushed before quickly darting after Serizawa. Twilight frowned, then followed her friend down the cramped hole that had been roughly carved out of the ship as if by a jigsaw, rather than built purposefully into it. Homemade hatches, secret doors… All of this secrecy was starting to build up Twilight’s curiosity. She descended the ladder carefully, not completely liking the dark, tight packed space. There was barely enough room to cram the ladder in, and not much more for a mare of Twilight’s size to climb down it. Somepony like Big Macintosh would undoubtedly run the risk of getting stuck in the tiny space. The darkness was what got to her the most. Light was filtering up from below, but not much made it past Rainbow, and even less made it past her own flank. So, just for a little peace of mind, she lit her horn to give herself some light. That was when her horn started to flicker. Twilight paused, her eyes rising up as far as they could go on her forehead. She couldn’t see her horn, not exactly, but she could see that sputtering light, like a candle flame. But she couldn’t feel anything out of the ordinary. Her magic was telling her everything was okay, but something in the atmosphere was most certainly not. Immediately she was uneasy. Thoughts of the terrible creature looming over her flooded back, making her tremble. “Twilight?” called Rarity from above. “Is everything alright?” She glanced up quickly, noticing the pearly hooves a rung or two above her. “Uh… y-yeah,” Twilight lied. It wouldn’t do to worry them right now. All the same, her senses were on high alert as she carefully descended the last few steps and into the belly of Serizawa’s ship. Down here was a wide open space that ran the whole length of the ship, interspersed by support beams. Water sloshed in the bilge just beneath her hooves while waves slapped high up along the walls, near the roof. But those things were of little concern compared to what the hollowed out space contained. Serizawa was lighting a series of small lamps hanging from the support beams. Their light slowly brought into focus the thing lying in the center of the room; a massive glass case, walls rising floor to ceiling. Inside lay something huge, so huge it almost dominated the space front to back. It was triangular in shape, pearly white like bleached bone… and covered in wavy serrations. It took Twilight a second to realize what she was looking at. Lying on its side in front of her was a sail-like spine, exactly like the ones adorning Godzilla’s back. Only… not quite, she realized. The bone was weathered and cracked and the edges were worn to dull nubs; it looked ancient, far too ancient to be a cast-off from the Godzilla she’d encountered. At least, she hoped so. On top of that, it was noticeably smaller in size. At best it could have come from His tail, maybe His lower back. Compared to the towering array squarely on Godzilla’s upper back, this was hardly noteworthy. But to be confronted face to face with it was still a system shock all in itself. “Whoa,” Twilight couldn’t help but murmur. “I know, right?” Rainbow said gleefully. Here was the reaction she’d been waiting for. One by one, the rest of their friends descended the ladder, and one by one they beheld the massive bone with varying degrees of shock. But the most profound reaction came from Spike. He was still two rungs from the bottom when all of a sudden he stiffened. Every scale on the back of his neck stood up. It felt like he’d just stepped into a concentrated pool of that same bad feeling he’d gotten before. Down here, it wasn’t like an uneasiness he couldn’t place. It was a full blown sensation of dread, burning against his skin and cutting him right down to the bone like nothing before it had. There was something in the air – something tangible and real, not just a feeling. There was something like magic, but… not. Something that burned like a fever, something he instinctively knew was bad. It took some effort, but he managed to descend the last two steps and turn around. Immediately, his eyes fell on the massive bone, and from then on, they would turn to nothing else. That was the source. He knew it, but he didn’t understand why. Instinct… it was instinct, he realized. Fight or flight kicking in, ignorant of things like logic and reasoning. In that moment, he wanted nothing more than to be gone from that place and never, ever come back. But something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Rarity. She was right there, too close to the glass for his liking. The group of ponies was totally unaware of the stressed dragonling standing rigidly at the foot of the ladder behind them. They, too, were looking at the ancient plate, but with wonder instead of terror. Serizawa walked around the thick glass chamber to stand next to the group, eyes on his prize. “We found it while on an excavation on a remote island on the other side of Neighpon,” he explained. “It, and a whole skeleton of a long deceased daikaiju, deep in a coal mine. Miners said the mine was cursed with angry spirits who left anypony who went too deep terribly sick.” He glanced towards the others. “Anypony touched by the spirits died a… horrible death.” Everypony turned pale at that. “We found the source to be this skeleton,” he went on. “Not spirits. It was fused to the rock, like it had melted to it, which made removing it impossible. This was the largest piece we could separate from the rest of the creature.” He gestured towards glass pane. “We built this containment chamber to keep us safe from whatever power the creature’s bones hold while we study it. It was risky, placing this thing on the boat, but it was a risk we had to take.” Twilight glanced at him. “Why's that?” Serizawa’s scowl worsened. “Shortly after the discovery, the empire arrived to secure the mine for Emperor Kirin. I do not know why, but they have refused anypony entrance ever since.” Twilight studied Serizawa for a moment. His narrow eyes swept over the ancient bone, taking in its every detail. “But with this piece alone, we have learned much,” he said. “Whatever power this creature had, Gojira possesses it as well. We do not fully understand it yet, but we know that it reacts strongly with magic.” Twilight nodded. She remembered that horrible power Godzilla had manifested seemingly out of nowhere, a power that consumed every bit of magic it touched like a ravenous fire, growing in strength the more it consumed. “This is why I believed Gojira was the cause of the ether imbalance,” Serizawa went on. “When His power and magic come into contact, both burn each other away to release large amounts of energy beyond anything we have ever seen before. But even His strength is not enough to cause the level of instability we are seeing across the country.” “That’s hard to believe,” Rainbow commented dryly. “Gojira normally conserves His strength,” Serizawa explained. “He only manifests His power in bursts, like He did tonight, and when He feels challenged. Before tonight, He has only unleashed the full scope of His strength a hoof-full of times, all with similar results as tonight.” “Do you have any idea what it could be?” Twilight asked. Serizawa shook his head. “I do not. Whatever it is, it is not divine; of that I am certain. But the amount of energy it unleashes is unlike anything we have ever encountered before.” “That would explain why magic hasn’t been effective in injuring Godzilla, too,” Twilight commented, to which Serizawa nodded in agreement. "Most of it burns away before it even touches him. If he can sense that reaction, it might also explain why he noticed us tonight at all." He regarded the fossil again with a look bordering on… reverence? Unease? It was hard to say. “The previous emperor hoped to harness a power no one pony could ever hope to control. In so doing, he has unleashed something terrible on us all. I fear that Emperor Kirin may have done the same. But what, I cannot say.” Twilight shook her head. “All because he wanted to outdo Princess Celestia. But to actually try to take control of nature itself…” Serizawa continued to regard the ancient remains, lost in thought as he said, seemingly to nopony in particular, “the arrogance of our kind of thinking that nature is in our control… and not the other way around. Nature will always find a way to balance itself, no matter how much we work against it.” He turned then, refocusing on Twilight and her friends. “I believe that Gojira is that balance. He has come to restore order, and He will not leave us in peace until it has been restored.” All eyes turned towards the fossil laid out on the floor in front of them all. It just lay there, motionless, apparently lifeless. To the eyes of the ponies, it looked like little more than a worn husk. Without thinking, Rarity took a step closer to get a better look. It had been an innocent enough action hardly of note. So she about jumped out of her skin when there came a cry behind her, followed quickly by something pushing hard against her chest, hard enough to actually scoot her back a step. She looked down in surprise, eyes wide, only for them to go wider when she saw the one responsible. “Spike?” she spoke up, confused. Her confusion mounted even further when the baby dragon did something he’d never, ever done before. He ignored her. Spike had both claws on her front, but his eyes were glaring over his shoulder, directly at the innocuous bone. His eyes, normally big and bright, had constricted to slits, and his tiny teeth were visible behind curled lips. “Spike?” Twilight said, as concerned as she was frightened. She’d never seen him react like this before. “What’s gotten into him?” Rainbow questioned, watching as Spike continued to shove Rarity away from the display case while never once removing his scathing glare from it. “Wish I knew,” Rarity squeaked, her voice an octave or two higher. “Darling – ow, would you please mind the claws!” It was her yelp that snapped him out of it. All of a sudden Spike’s head whipped back around. His pupils dilated again as a look of worry took hold. “I-I’m sorry, Rarity! I didn’t mean to! Are you okay?” Rarity blinked at him, taken aback, but recovered quickly. “Y-yes, of course, darling. But… are you alright?” Spike blinked, apparently at a loss. “I… think so. Wh—” Everypony saw him flinch. Every muscle in his body tensed in response to some unseen force. “W-we need to get out of here,” he said urgently. “There’s something really, really wrong about that thing over there.” Twilight blinked, a look of shock flitting cross her face. “Spike, calm down. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” “Yes there is!” Spike insisted. He was once more glaring at the glass case, like he didn’t dare turn his back on it for any length of time. “Can’t you guys feel that?” Everypony frowned, now quite concerned. Even Serizawa regarded the little dragon with keen interest while remaining pensively silent. “I don’t feel anything,” Pinkie commented. Then, she suddenly tensed, eyes going big. “Wait! I think I feel it, too!” Twilight gave her a very dubious look. “You do?” In response, Pinkie’s stomach gave a hearty growl that made even Serizawa look at her. “Wait, that’s just my stomach,” Pinkie said with a grin. Spike groaned audibly. “It’s not a stomach ache! It isn’t safe to be down here!” With that, returned to pushing and shoving Rarity to safety, much to her confusion and mild chagrin. By now, Twilight was getting a good sense that this wasn’t just some arbitrary reaction on Spike’s part. “Spike, listen to me,” she said, taking a careful step forward. He glanced towards her, but only momentarily. Words weren’t going to just make this go away, she realized. Her only other option was to glance up towards Rarity, and meaningfully jerk her head towards the ladder. Rarity glanced at her, down to Spike, back again, and then understood. “Spikey-wikey,” she cooed in a slightly uneven voice. “Why don’t we go and… um… do… something… together?” Her uncertainty and hesitation must have made her sound like one of the unconvincing ponies in the world, if Twilight’s and Rainbow’s winces were anything to go by. And yet, they forgot who they were dealing with. Right away, Spike whipped around. “Really?” he asked hopefully. Rarity tried to hide her grimace, but she kept her smile as straight as possible. “Of course! We could go put together an early breakfast for everypony. Why, I’m positively starving.” “Me, too!” Pinkie chimed in like it was some big revelation. And then it hit her. Some part of her brain reengaged after the terror of the past hour had shut it down. But now it was working in overdrive, and in that one glorious moment, it was screaming a single, inescapable idea into Pinkie’s head. And when it hit, it was like a firework going off. “We… could have…,” she started, winding up like a pressure valve about to blow. “Don’t tell me,” Rainbow mumbled, just as Pinkie screamed at the top of her lungs. “PAAAARTYYYY!” In one hoof, she had Spike. In the other, she had Rarity. How she got up the ladder with only her hind legs, nopony would know – nor witness, for she moved so fast that only a trail of dust remained. Blink, and you’d miss her. Serizawa could only stare in dumbfounded silence. Rainbow and Twilight exchanged a look, a nervous giggle, then Twilight turned to Serizawa. “Don’t worry. She does this all the time.” Serizawa didn’t look very relieved. “Still,” mumbled Rainbow darkly, “the hay was up with Spike?” Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen him react like that before. It’s totally unlike him.” Serizawa glanced at her, then towards the ladder, lost in thought. “I have been wanting to ask you about your pet,” he said. Twilight pulled a face. “He’s not a pet, actually. He’s my assistant.” “I’m guessing you guys don’t see many dragons around here,” Rainbow commented. Serizawa frowned thoughtfully. “A doragon…? No, we do not. I assumed he was some kind of adolescent kaiju.” Twilight blinked, completely taken aback, then she giggled at the implication. Spike was so far removed from both kaiju she’d encountered it was laughable. “No, no, dragons are nothing like those things,” she reassured. Serizawa looked at her for a moment, unmoved by her tittering. “Are you sure?” Twilight blinked at him, her smile faltering. “Yes. Why?” Serizawa pursed his lips, brow furrowing deeper. “That behavior just now… what he said… Your friend, Spike-san, he was behaving instinctively just now.” “So?” Rainbow said. But Serizawa wasn’t looking at her. He was meeting Twilight’s gaze, which had turned rather uncomfortable. “So,” she started, somewhat reluctantly, “he was reacting to something in this room. Something that dragons, as a whole, have been conditioned to know is bad.” Her eyes turned then towards the fossilized remains of an ancient kaiju that merely lay there, motionless and still without any sign of activity. And yet, just the sight of it filled her now with a nagging sense of unease. A great many troubling thoughts started to swirl through her head then. Implications, mostly. A force terrible enough to send even a dragon running for the hills… Yes, the implications were very troubling indeed. “Twilight?” She jumped and looked around. Rainbow was eying her, looking slightly edgy. “It’s… nothing,” Twilight dismissed with a forced smile. “Come on; we better see what Pinkie’s up to.” ~~***~~ It did not take them long to discover what their hyperactive pink friend had accomplished in the short time she’d been gone. But it only raised more questions than it answered. For instance, where she’d found all the streamers. And a music box. Following the sounds of an upbeat ditty, Twilight immediately homed in on the kitchen, where she found Pinkie slaving over an oven while juggling – in one case literally – mixing bowls filled with fresh batter. All Rarity and Spike could do was stay out of her way, and both were waiting patiently – and a little apprehensively – at the table. Undoubtedly drawn by the commotion, Fluttershy was also present. She was looking around at the many streamers strung along the ceiling, throwing bright festive colors all across the room. Emiko was there as well. She stood in one corner, looking completely at a loss for what was happening in front of her eyes. The moment she spotted Serizawa, she immediately rushed over to him, her eyes wild. “S-sensei! I-I don’t know what happened. One minute everything’s calm, the next… this… all of this!” she waved her hooved, somewhere between confused and terrified. “What is going on? How did she…?” Twilight gave her a sympathetic look. “It’s best not to question it too much. Believe me.” ~~***~~ To those who had experienced one of Pinkie’s trademark bashes, what followed was a brave attempt at her usual brand of party. But it wasn’t quite of the same caliber. Pinkie pulled out all the stops, at least as much as she could manage, but the truth of the matter was that few ponies were in the mood for celebration. Applejack was absent completely, something that weighed heavily on their minds. And then there was the terror they’d encountered still fresh as well. But while it was hardly a resounding success, Pinkie still accomplished what she’d set out to do. Spirits rose, and pretty soon even grumpy old Serizawa looked more at ease than he had so far. Of course, for Emiko and Serizawa themselves, the event was more than a little jarring. It took Emiko a long time to get over her system shock and move at all, but one slice of cake was all it took to get her hooked. Meanwhile, Serizawa took a seat and did his best to stay out of the way while observing the antics of his foreign guests. All he was missing was a quill and something to take notes on. Serizawa was distracted away from the sight of Pinkie showing Emiko how to dance along to the cheery music when he felt a presence beside him. He turned and found Twilight plopped down on a cushion next to him, a cup of tea in her hooves. “This all must be pretty overwhelming, huh?” Twilight commented, giving him an apologetic look. “I thought so, too, the first time Pinkie threw a party for me. But I promise Pinkie’s heart is in a good place. She’s just trying to make everypony feel better. After everything that's happened, everypony could use a little cheering up.” Serizawa took that into consideration as he glanced back towards Emiko. It’d been a very long time since he’d seen her smile that big, or laugh that much even as she fumbled through the steps of some kind of conga line. So however weird this whole event was, at least there was some good to come of it. The two sat in silence for a long time, watching as Emiko apologized profusely for trampling Pinkie’s tail again. “I never asked her to come with me, you know,” Serizawa commented. Twilight looked at him, then followed his gaze towards Emiko, then back again. Serizawa looked almost melancholic, though it was difficult to tell. He could simply be sleepy. “When I set out to continue my father’s work, she demanded that I took her along. She… never told me why, and I never asked.” Serizawa glanced towards Twilight, catching her eye. “If she asks you about the outside world… could you answer her questions for me?” Twilight paused for a moment, then nodded. “I’d be happy to.” Serizawa nodded, and for just a moment, she thought she could see the ghost of a smile on his weathered face. Of course, it could have just been a trick of the light. The two sat in silence together for a while longer while the party carried on without them, each happy to be alone with their thoughts for the time being. The each had much to think over, after all. After a while, Twilight’s eyes came to a rest on Spike, who was playing DJ for the small, slightly battered music box Pinkie had set up on the floor. He showed no signs of his earlier behavior, nothing visible anyway. He was even smiling and occasionally snickering whenever Emiko stumbled. Still, Twilight frowned. Worry ate at her, worry she was not used to feeling. She was not accustomed to fretting over Spike’s behavior, not to this degree. There had been times he’d scared her, true, but this most recent display had unnerved something deep inside of her. Serizawa’s comment hadn’t helped. Spike… like a kaiju? There’s no way. Dragons and kaiju are totally different… right? She shook her head. All of this worry wasn’t healthy, she knew that. But still… Twilight needed something else to distract herself. Some other question, something she could pick at. There had been one other thing nagging at her, something she felt needed to be voiced. “Serizawa,” she spoke up privately, drawing his attention. “Can I ask you something?” “Of course,” he responded. Twilight frowned to herself, hesitated, then asked the other issue that had been nagging at her. “If this all happened sixty years ago – the disturbances, Godzilla, all of it – and then it faded… why is it picking back up again? Why now?” Serizawa met her gaze. “I have asked myself that question many times, Sparkle-san,” he said. “More importantly, by now the disturbances should be weakening.” “But they’re only getting stronger,” Twilight surmised. Serizawa nodded. “Yes… they are. I am afraid a runaway event is inevitable this time. If that happens, Neighpon and everypony in it will not survive." A grim silence fell between them. Even Pinkie’s lively party seemed less vibrant to Twilight’s eyes. “Well,” began Twilight in a brave attempt to pick up the mood. “Now that we know Godzilla isn’t the cause of the problem, maybe we can do something to fix it before he hurts anypony else.” Serizawa gave her a questioning look, but said nothing. Twilight went on. “I hate to admit it, but the six of us don’t really stand a chance against Godzilla if it came down to that. I know that now. But if it’s an unrelated matter, we may have a shot at fixing it. At the very least, it beats trying to defeat a god.” Serizawa looked them all over pensively, taking in Twilight, each of her friends in turn, then returning to the pony princess. “That may not be an easy task,” he said. “It takes a great amount of energy to affect ether. There is no telling what will happen if we do accomplish that; we may make things worse.” “Or,” put in Twilight, “It might make things better. And maybe making things better sounds a lot better than doing nothing and definitely letting things get worse.” Serizawa couldn’t help but admire Twilight’s optimism. That, and he knew she had a point. At the moment, they were the only ones who could potentially make a difference and save millions of lives – if not the whole world. Six foreigners, two pariah researchers and one elite sorceress and her maids… Not exactly his idea of a winning formula. But stranger things had happened. He turned more towards Twilight, giving her a speculative look. “Do you have an idea?” he asked curiously. Twilight nodded with conviction. “I know where we can start at least, so… it’s something. If I can get to the heart of one of those disturbances, I might be able to find out more about them, maybe even find the point of origin.” Serizawa paused at that. “We have readings,” he offered, but Twilight shook her head politely. “I know, but there are some things instruments can’t pick up from long range. Trust me; the best data is right at the heart of the disturbance. It’ll be risky, but I think it’s a risk we have to take. Of course,” Twilight added, her elevated mood reigned in abruptly, “actually catching up to one could be a problem. Not to mention we’ll definitely have to come face-to-face with you-know-who again…” She quailed at the idea. They’d gotten lucky last time, and even that amount of luck had seen one of her best friends seriously hurt. Next time, things might be so much worse… “It will have to wait, regardless,” Serizawa spoke up, snapping her out of it. “First, we must get your friends medical care.” “Yes, of course,” Twilight said quickly, recalling Applejack’s and the sorceress’ situations. Serizawa paused thoughtfully, taking another sip from his tea. “We should reach Ogasawara Island by tomorrow morning. I suggest you and your friends try to rest before we get there." Twilight nodded, and for a time they fell quiet again. The music and laughter of the party filled the gap, but it only seemed to ring hollow in Twilight’s ears. For some reason, she still felt like she was missing something; an important question that had gone unanswered. The more she thought about it as time went on, the more it bothered her. Something was weighing on the back of her mind like a distant thunderstorm. Bits and pieces had been given to her here and there, and only now that she’d relaxed did she spend time pondering it. Serizawa’s father… Godzilla… Serizawa’s father… daikaiju… Godzilla… ether… “Serizawa,” Twilight started slowly. “Yes?” he responded. “I was wondering… Your father thought that the emperor’s spell disturbed Godzilla, right? And now you think Godzilla is chasing these disturbances because he can sense them somehow, right?” “Yes,” Serizawa said, frowning questioningly. Just where was she going with this? Twilight scowled, a queasy look on her face. “According to you, Godzilla is just one of these… daikaiju. So… why has only he surfaced and not… um… others?” Serizawa took a long time to think about that. But judging by the look on his face, he was just as unsettled by the implications as she was. “I do not know,” he responded after a lengthy pause. “But for the sake of everypony, let us pray it remains that way. Neighpon has its hooves full with one rampaging god.” ~~***~~ “Hurry up!” barked a black stallion over the din of clattering picks and hammers banging against claustrophobic stone walls. “Fill those carts so we can get out of here!” Ponies worked at a panicked pace, slamming their tools with all of their strength against black stone walls, biting deep into the rock with each stroke. Others worked hastily to scoop up the shrapnel in baskets, heedless of whatever they were loading before rushing up the passageway and towards blessed safety. The rest remained in those dark tunnels, racing to finish one last shipment as they were all duty-bound to do. But as they worked, another tremor quaked through the stone, rumbling like an earthquake. Here and there, the ceiling cracked and rained bits of coal down upon their heads. Less courageous ponies bolted with cries of terror, never to be seen again. Those with integrity and pride – and and more genuine fear of the taskmaster’s lash – stayed paralyzed at their stations, racing the clock. “Hurry up!” cried the black stallion again, but this time his voice rang with a tinge of fear. Far down one tunnel, deep beneath the earth, a stallion wound back one last time, his exhausted arms straining for one last burst of strength as he brought his dull pickax down with all the might he could. One strike, and to his astonishment, a three foot section of wall collapsed with an explosive clatter of crumbling rocks. The stallion skittered back, shielding his face against the dust. Miners all around him coughed and hacked while the dust settled. They all peered through the mirk, hoping beyond hope to see nothing but useless grey stone and not more coal. What they saw confused them. Right behind where the sheet of coal had been was an impossibly smooth, black surface that gleamed like glass in the light of a nearby lantern's magical flame. The stallions blinked, squinting in confusion as they took a step closer. “What is it?” one asked. “I… I don’t know,” muttered another, eying the strange glassy surface with apprehension. “Obsidian?” another inquired. It seemed unlikely. No obsidian they’d ever seen was this smooth and flawless. Curious, one miner hefted a lantern off its hook on the wall and stepped closer, peering intently at the wall. Not only was it devoid of imperfection, but it seemed oddly clear, almost like ice. The miner just thought he could make something out far within its depths; another surface, like the opposite wall or… something. It was too far back to tell. It was like some kind of gemstone, only of epic proportions. Confused, he stepped closer, raising the lantern more. Was it just his imagination, or was it… moving? Another step closer… and the tunnel shook with unprecedented violence. A portion of the ceiling came crashing down, nearly flattening a miner. Two fell clean off their hooves as tremors rumbled through the mine, rocking it to its very core. Stallions cried out in panic, fleeing for their lives as support beams started to buckle. The miner holding the lantern started to follow suit… but paused. The strange black surface was changing. From either side, fields of yellow were squeezing in, shrinking the black surface down. That was when it sank in to him what he was looking at, just before the gigantic eye blinked coldly back at him, a pair of eyelids smashing the bedrock to powder as they closed. The tunnel started tearing itself apart, rock sundering from rock as something massive stirred. The miner didn’t wait any longer. Out of sheer, mindless terror, he turned and bolted up the disintegrating tunnel. He dodged and weaved as chunks of the ceiling crashed down all around him, support beams buckling and splintering as he raced passed them. Behind him, he could hear the thunder of millions of tons of rocks squashing the puny pony-made tunnel out of existence, urging him on faster. As he ran, something caught his attention. A light was skittering across the tunnel wall beside him – a golden light that hummed with ozone. All of a sudden, his lantern exploded, causing him to cry out in alarm. He paused only for a moment, then he was fleeing again. As he ran, lantern after lantern exploded in a shower of magical sparks just feet in front of him, raining burning hot arcane embers on his coat. At last, he flew out into the main chamber and started racing up the winding ramp that wound all the way back up towards the surface. He never looked back, not even as a deafening, shrieking roar reverberated through the mine’s walls.