Date: May 23rd, 1004 D.C.R
Location: ES Saddletoga, 2,000 miles Southeast of Equestria
The observation platform overlooking the Saddletoga’s flight deck, located on the carriers upper island, was nicknamed “Vulture’s Row.” The unnerving parallel with the crow’s nest back at the doomed Neighponese base was not lost on Serizawa. A briny wind blew against him as he occupied the high balcony, distractedly twisting the stem of his antique pocket watch. The observation platform offered an excellent view of operations down on the flight deck, but he gazed out at the ocean instead, where Gojira could be seen swimming across the Neighsianic.
The submerged leviathan was a great dark mass swimming beneath the waves. The peaks of his spikey dorsal fins sliced through the churning foam, directly ahead of the carrier fleet, which had to pour on the speed to keep up with the swiftly moving colossal saurian. The Saddletoga could manage a maximum speed of more than thirty knots but Gojira was even faster. Several pegasi, trained for low-altitude surveillance, skimmed above the surface of the water like a flock of seabirds dogging an orca. The Saddletoga and the rest of the strike group followed behind the underwater monster at what they hoped was a safe distance. To the mounting concern of everypony aboard, Gojira remained on course for the east coast of Equestria.
Which meant the MUTO was heading for Equestria as well.
Before descending to the decks below, Serizawa spotted a pegasi-drawn carriage coming in for a landing on the flight deck. He noticed that Celestia and Luna had returned and they weren’t alone. With them he saw Twilight and her friends exiting the carriage. He instantly recognized them from a report over the Elements of Harmony a few years back. Without a second thought he descended down the steps from the observation deck to the flight deck.
After exiting the carriage, Twilight and her friends were amazed at the sight before them. Numbers of flight deck crew working diligently as they made completed tasks assigned to them. Rainbow Dash at the moment was spazzing out with excitement for being on one of Equestria’s most famous supercarriers. Twilight’s attention was drawn out to the open water, where Gojira continued its course to Equestria. Fluttershy couldn’t help but stare in awe of the sight as the colossal saurian, but still shuddered a bit in fear considering it looked more terrifying than a dragon.
“Quite a sight, isn’t he?” Celestia spoke, catching Twilights attention. This caused the purple alicorn to nod her head a bit before turning back to the direction of Gojira. “I still remember the first time he first appeared. It was during the 950’s I believe.”
“What happened?” Twilight asked turning her attention back to her teacher.
“Well,” Celestia continued. “Before he appeared, another monster arisen from the confines of the forests of Hoofishima. It was like a colony of microscopic starfish conjugating into a massive form of a flying arachnid. We dubbed it the Shinomura.”
“Shinomura,” Twilight muttered in thought. “That’s Neighponese for ‘Swarm of Death’, correct?” Celestia nodded before continuing.
“Like the name suggests, the more magic it consumed the bigger it grew. It attacked several cargo ships containing lost magical artifacts. What we didn’t know was that another Shinomura appeared in the Fillyppines. It was exposed to a pool of wild magic and regenerated itself. Soon, the two Shinomura met and began to merge. However, Gojira-“
“Godzilla?” Rainbow Dash interrupted a bit. Celestia raised her brow a bit at the name the pegasus gave but continued.
“-Gojira intervened. It killed the other one but the first Shinomura fled. We then decided to use something to lure the Shinomura and Gojira to an uninhabited island to where we would try to dispose of the threat.”
“What did you use?” Twilight had to ask but had a suspicious feeling on it was. Celestia looked from her student then to the direction of ‘Godzilla’.
“A Mega Spell Bomb,” she simply said. This caused Twilight to widen her eyes in shock. The others, however, didn’t know what the princess was talking about.
“A Mega Spell Bomb!?” she repeated her teachers words. “Princess, I know a giant monster threat should be handled but isn’t that a bit…excessive?”
“I know, Twilight,” she assured. “But with little options considering these creatures had a high resistance to our attacks we had to go with any option. So we decided the bomb could complete the job that we couldn’t. The bomb went off as planned while the two creatures fought, but something happened.”
“What happened?” Twilight asked.
“The bomb did its job. The Shinomura was slain but Gojira miraculously survived the blast. The bomb itself was filled with 15 kilotons of magical force.” Twilights eyes widened at the amount the bomb contained. That contained enough magic to take out a major city. Her thoughts broke as Celestia continued on. “There was no explanation behind it. Gojira seemed to shrug it off before returning to his home in the sea.”
“Wow!” Spike spoke up. “So he’s like a guardian of sorts?” This caused Celestia to raise a brow a bit at the young dragon.
“In a sense,” she said. “Why do you think that, Spike?”
“Well,” he started explaining. “Nyx and the CMC told me about when Coral took them to some ruins in Haywaii. They talked about how the island had a monster protect the founders thousands of years ago. Plus, it fit the description to Godzilla.” This peaked Celestia’s interest.
“Ah, the founding of Haywaii,” a voice called out. “I’ve looked into that whenever I researched Gojira.”
The group turned to see Serizawa and Graphic walk up to them. Both unicorns bowed their heads a bit to the princesses. He turned to the Mane Six with a smile.
“Greetings, everypony,” he greeted. “I’m—“
“Dr. Ishiro Serizawa!” Twilight immediately said with excitement in her voice. This caused Serizawa to blink in both amazement and shock. Amazement that the new princess immediately knew of his name and shock that the princess was excited to meet him.
“Uh,” he said before continued his question. “How do you—“
“I’ve read most of your published works,” she answered immediately with glee. “My favorite was ‘Extinct or Is It?’. I loved how you explained the theories of the possibilities of extinct species existing during modern times. Considering the discovery of the coelacanth in Maredagascar and Indoneighsia was added as a perfect example and reference.”
Serizawa couldn’t help but chuckle at Twilights enthusiasm. “Well I’m glad to know a princess found my published works an enjoyable read.” A cough was heard as Serizawa looked to see Dr. Graphic gesturing to the ship, telling him they needed to proceed inside. “Ah, yes. If everypony will follow me inside then we can continue.”
Inside, the war room remained a buzzing hive of activity. Glowing monitors displayed flickering magical imagery of the flying MUTO as well as live UAV footage of Godzilla swimming beneath the sea. Twilight and the others stared in fascination at the visuals. Despite the unidentifiable danger to the Equestrian population, Twilight was obviously intrigued by the unique creature she had borne witness a few hours ago.
Serizawa knew exactly how she felt.
“Magic transfer complete. Simulations uploaded. Visual tracking continues,” Petty Officer Martini reported from her post. “Last visual confirmation predicts the MUTO continuing due northwest. All of our models have the targets converging on the Neighsianic Coast.” She glanced up at an accompanying image of Godzilla. “As of now, it looks like Godzilla’s still following the MUTO.”
Serizawa corrected her. “He’s hunting.” This made Twilight raise a brow a bit. What did the doctor mean by “hunting”?
“Have all vessels maintain current distance from target,” Admiral Stall ordered, overseeing the operations. He remained in command of the joint forces’ response to the crisis. “Plot the speed and heading of these things. I want to know exactly when and where they make landfall.”
The backlit table continued to plot out potential courses for both creatures, constantly updated to reflect the most recent intel. Dotted lines headed for the eastern seaboard, with possible landfall sites including Baltimare, Fillydelphia, Manehattan and the eastern coast of the Crystal Empire. There were too many possibilities over too great a distance, making it difficult to plan a defense against the monsters’ eventual arrival. Serizawa contemplated the ever-changing lines on the map.
“Doctor,” Twilight spoke up causing Serizawa to turn his attention to the purple alicorn. “You said the he was ‘hunting’? Is he tracking this thing?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Gojira is an alpha predator. He’s here to restore balance.”
“But if the MUTO is his prey,” Graphic began, calling Serizawa’s attention back to the printout of the wave pattern taken from the Neighponese base, “the signal shows a call. Why call up a predator?”
“Fight to the death?” Rainbow spoke out.
“Territorial dispute?” Fluttershy quietly spoke.
“Cupcake battle royale?” Pinkie Pie spoke up, which everypony gave her a questioning raised brow. “What?”
“It didn’t,” Serizawa said solemnly. “I think Gojira was only listening. The MUTO was calling something else.” His reasoning led him to another ominous hypothesis. “The pattern,” he addressed Graphic urgently. “Focus our search on Applewood.”
The intensity of his tone cut through the chatter. Competing voices tapered off as all present gave Serizawa their full attention.
“Applewood?” Applejack asked. “Why tha hay would it go to Applewood?”
Graphic’s face turned into that of fear. The blood drained from her face. “It can’t be. It’s impossible.”
“What’s impossible?” Twilight asked.
“There was another spore,” Graphic informed her. “Intact. Found in the Fillyppine mine.” She looked at Serizawa, shaking her head in disbelief. “But we vivisected it, ran every test on it for years. You confirmed it for yourself. It was dormant!”
Serizawa understood her skepticism. He had indeed spent years studying the apparently inert egg sac they had recovered from inside the giant skeleton in the Fillyppines. Unlike the larva that had burst from the other egg sac and made its way to Neighpon, the organism in the captured spore had displayed no trace of vitality or growth. It had not been absorbing magic from anything. By all indications, it had been an unbroken state of stasis or hibernation. And yet…
“Maybe not anymore,” he said.
The horror of this possibility, that they might be dealing with two MUTOs, causing a momentary hush to fall over the CDC. Pinkie Pie gulped and even Rainbow Dash’s stoic reserve cracked for a moment.
“This spore,” Twilight asked urgently. “Where is it now?”
“It was highly magical,” Graphic said. “It was disposed of. The Royal Guard, they took it.”
“Where?” Twilight repeated, with more concern etched in her voice.
“Where we store the most dangerous of magical artifacts,” Serizawa said flatly. He called their attention back to the map table, where two converging dotted lines extended past the east coast of Equestria.
Applewood lay directly in their path.
Date: May 23rd, 1004 D.C.R
Location: Yucca Mountain Magical Artifact Repository, Applewood
A stone marker, alongside a dusty desert road, pointed to the nearby San Palomino Desert National Security Site, about sixty-five miles south of Las Pegasus and Applewood. For over forty years, the desolate and cratered terrain beyond had been the site of nearly a thousand tests for deadly spells. Cacti sprouted amidst the sunbaked dunes and gullies. A guard convoy sped past the marker, stirring up a cloud of dust. Wonderbolt squadrons flew overhead, keeping pace with the rumbling troop carriers below. Inside the carriages, tense guards geared up in anticipation. An assault force donned anti-magic suits and gas masks. Heavy weaponry was prepped for battle: swords, axes, spears, crossbows and whatever else might make a dent in a monster. The mood amongst the troop was grim. Everypony on the mission had heard about what had struck Haywaii and had seen some of the on-line footage of the gigantic creatures tearing up Honoluna. They knew they had to be ready for anything.
The convoy quickly reached its destination. The Yucca Mountain Magical Artifact Repository was the final resting place for more than countless hundred magical artifacts found over the years that were deemed too dangerous for modern day use. Dug deep into a barren ridge of volcanic rock, surrounded by acres of restricted federal land, the vast repository was designed to contain the highly dangerous artifacts and their dark magic for a lifetime. In theory, it could withstand earthquakes, the elements, even time itself.
Giant prehistoric monsters, on the other hoof, had not been taken into account.
The main entrance to the facility consisted of an enormous tunnel that had been bored into the north side of the mountain. Armed guards stationed at the entrance admitted the troops, who deployed with both speed and purpose. The commander of the assault force, Captain Raspberry Parfait, led his troops through a sprawling underground maze of tunnels, branching off into numerous long galleries lined with large sealed compartments. Steel doors, each nearly thirty feet tall, guarded the vaults and their dangerous contents, which were routinely sealed inside solid steel canisters. View ports were installed in each door to allow for direct visual inspections.
Moving swiftly but methodically, the soldiers worked their way through the dimly lit tunnels, checking each vault on the go. The precise location of the captured Fillyppine spore was buried amidst layers of official secrecy, misdirection, redaction, and plausible deniability, defying ready access, but Parfait had reason to believe that it was somewhere in this particular gallery, nearly a thousand feet under the mountain. Given the possibility that a second MUTO might be stirring, it had been decided to conduct an immediate search and inspection of the vaults, pronto.
“Move it!” Parfait urged his troops. “On the double!”
One after another, view ports were slid open. Unicorn horns shined with light probed the interiors of the vaults, finding only the expected stores of nuclear waste in airtight casks. So far everything appeared secure, although they had yet to locate the MUTO spore, hatched or otherwise. Parfait had to wonder what the princesses were thinking, storing something like that. He would have blown it to pieces years ago.
Then maybe they might not be in the fix they were in.
Parfait hung back, observing the operation, as yet another view port was opened. Instead of the usual darkness, a blinding white light shone in his face. Blinking, he shielded his eyes from the glare and recoiled along with his troops. Instantly on guard, the troops raised their weapons as their comrades warily unsealed the massive hatch. More light flooded the tunnel as the heavy door swung open, revealing a disturbing sight.
‘Sweet Celestia,’ Parfait thought.
The entire vault had been torn open from the inside. An enormous hole, at least three hundred feet in diameter, gaped at the far end of the cavernous chamber, where what appeared to be a newly dug tunnel climbed all the way up to the surface. The blinding light pouring down from above? That was sunshine, Parfait realized, coming from outside the buried repository.
Yucca Mountain had been breached—from within.
Already dreading what he’d find, Parfait and his soldiers scrambled up the crude tunnel, which was big enough to accommodate a tank or more. It was a steep climb and he was breathing hard by the time he reached the top, where the passage opened onto a panoramic view of the sprawling desert to the south. Heaps of shattered stone were strewn beneath the tunnel exit, where something had obviously burst up through the base of the mountain. Enormous tracks, at least fifty feet across, scarred the arid landscape, leading off to the horizon.
Parfait called sharply for binoculars, which were immediately smacked into his grip by a junior officer. Raising the lenses to his eyes, he increased the magnification to maximum and scoured the sunlit badlands to the north. Through a haze of uprooted sand and dirt, he glimpsed the distant outline of another enormous creature making its way across the desert.
They were too late, he realized. A second MUTO had hatched.
And it was headed straight for Applewood.
Date: May 23rd, 1004 D.C.R
Location: Applewood, Equestria
“Good day, Applewood!” the blue-maned unicorn known as Vinyl Scratch shouted to crowd. “Is everypony ready to shake it?” The caused the crowd to cheer at the DJ. “Good! Now give a hoof for my friend helping me today, Tavi!”
The grey furred earth pony known as Octavia was standing near Vinyl holding her cello. She gave a wave to the crowd of ponies at within the club they were performing at. While she wasn’t into to the style of music that Vinyl preferred, the unicorn suggested that they do collaborated pieces. They practiced with their styles to see if their music could mend together in harmony. Surprisingly it did which made Octavia appreciate knowing that her classical pieces could be converted into modern styled music. She was happy that Vinyl thought of this. Now the ponies here would be able to enjoy their musical creation.
With a simple nod to each other, both Vinyl and Octavia started their music. The crowd whooped and hollered as they danced to the mix of classic and modern. While head-bobbing to the beat, Vinyl couldn’t help but look at Octavia as she played her cello. To think that this same mare that preferred old-styled music was now helping her with the performance. Her heart went aflutter as they both played in sync, on cue, and in harmony. Octavia turned her head to Vinyl with a warm smile, causing the unicorn to blush a bit. This caused Octavia to giggle a bit before turning her focus back to her cello. Somepony was going to have a wonderful time back in the hotel tonight.
Suddenly the lights of the club went immediately off, causing some of the ponies to scream. Not only that but Vinyl’s DJ station turned off as well. Vinyl fiddled with the knobs and buttons but it didn’t react once. Vinyl then lit up her horn to see, but it was harder to do for some reason. She saw Octavia giving her a look of worry as the crowds muttered amongst themselves.
“Vinyl,” Octavia whispered to the unicorn. “What in the name of the princess happened?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “This never happened before.”
Everypony’s thoughts were interrupted as the entire club started to shake. This caused the ponies in the crowd to scream a bit. Dust and debris fell from the ceiling making Vinyl, Octavia and various ponies cover their eyes. The shaking continued until it abruptly stopped. The ponies were silent. Minutes passed and nothing happened. It didn’t last long, however, as something massive crashed through the roof of the club. This caused many ponies to scream in horror as what appeared to be a colossal sized hooked limb was seen.
The owner of the limb was none other than the other MUTO, which gave out a clicking howl. Ponies in the club started to evacuate trying to get away from the colossal beast. Vinyl wasted no time and abandoned her station and galloped to Octavia. The cello-playing mare gasped in surprise as Vinyl grabbed her hoof and both started to evacuate the club as well. One thing was certain right now. This day went from grand to horrible to this moment.
Date: May 23rd, 1004 D.C.R
Location: ES Saddletoga, trailing Godzilla as he swims to the east Equestrian coast
The Saddletoga was speeding across the Neighsianic, making thirty knots, but the crisis had obviously reached Equestria before the carrier and its attached strike group could. In the briefing room, live feeds captured shocking views of the Applewood strip being torn apart by the second MUTO, the one that had just broken loose from the Yucca Mountain facility. Soldiers and scientists crowed before the monitors, gaping at this latest threat. Smoke and static obscured the live feeds, making it difficult at first to compare the new MUTO to the immense winged arthropod that hatched from the cocoon in Neighpon, but Twilight and Serizawa managed to make out its appearance.
Instead of six legs plus a pair of wings, the new MUTO had eight limbs in total: two sturdy hind legs, similar to those on the first creature, two sets of elongated middle limbs, and two smaller forearms on its upper thorax. Like the earlier organism, the creature was a chimera that defied ready classification, but, if pressed, Serizawa would have labeled it some manner of gigantic semi-arthropod. Its dark, iridescent exoskeleton, composed of a thick, chitinous material, displayed shades of blue and red. Its backwards-jointed hind legs rested on two squat claws, but its upper limbs ended in hooked talons. A flat, anvil-shaped head boasted glittering red eyes and beak-like jaws.
“It’s almost 300 feet,” Graphic said to her colleague. “It’s far bigger than the other one.”
Luna then pointed out a difference. “This one doesn’t have any wings.” This gave both Serizawa and Graphic the same thought.
“A different sex?” she said. Serizawa then nodded in affirmation.
“A female.” He said with confirmation.
“So that’s what the other one was calling to,” Celestia muttered a bit.
“It must be a mating call,” Serizawa explained. Sexual dimorphism would explain why two radically different creatures had hatched from identical pods. Such gender-based variation within a single species was not uncommon in nature. “The female remained dormant until the male matured.”
“Now they’re seeking magic,” Graphic added. “To reproduce.”
“Now hold up,” Applejack said. “You two are sayin’ that them varmints are goin’ to make even more?” The two unicorns couldn’t help but nod to the apple mare’s question.
“My word,” Rarity exclaimed. “If we could barely handle two of them, think of what would happen to Equestria if any more of those brutes were stomping around.”
“Fluttershy,” Twilight asked her friend. “You’re an expert on animals. Since this thing is similar to various insects, how much could these things reproduce?”
Fluttershy, at the moment, hated being the center of attention but right now she needed to focus. She went over various insects in her mind. A few of them could reproduce in numbers that made her shudder when she thought of the MUTOs.
“Well,” she began. “It has some characteristics with mantises. So through careful thought I believe a single clutch can either range from ten to…” she then muttered the last part.
“I didn’t hear you, Fluttershy.” Twilight said. Fluttershy quietly muttered again but slightly a bit louder. “One more time, Fluttershy.”
“Th-Three h-hundred,” the pegasus timidly stuttered up. This made everypony’s jaws to fall to the floor while looking wide-eyed.
“Three hundred!?” the purple alicorn nearly shouted. She immediately went over the scenario in her head. A countless number of MUTO spreading throughout Equestria, attacking cities and devouring anything with magic, which included ponies. They could barely handle two right now but three hundred would be a massacre. They had to stop this.
“Sister?” Luna spoke up, catching everypony’s attention. Celestia right now had a hardened glare on her face. She glared at the monitor, which showed the Femuto and the Hitomuto, with anger.
“They mustn’t be allowed to procreate,” she said with a firm voice. She then turned to Spike. “Spike, I need you to write a letter.” The purple dragon immediately saluted before looking for a parchment and quill. The Sun Princess then turned her attention to her student. “Twilight, I’m going to need you to perform a permanent duplication spells on the parchments.”
“Of course, princess,” she said with a nod. “But why do we need to duplicate the letters?”
“The threat to Equestria has now escaladed from a national crisis to an international one.” She said with her voice still firm. “The MUTO not only threaten Equestria but if they were to reproduce, the young could spread from Equestria to other countries, devouring and procreating more.” Twilight nodded understanding the severity of the situation.
Spike came back with a parchment and paper, ready to write. “Ready for your letter, your highness!” She nodded before starting the letter.
“Dear allied nations of Equestria,
I am writing to you now about a situation that not only threatens Equestria but your nations as well. There will be a meeting in Canterlot tomorrow to discuss about the threat. If you cannot reach Canterlot by that time I will have a friend aide you in being teleported to the capital.
The Princess of Equestria,
Princess Celestia”
With that, the letter had been completed. Spiked then rolled up the parchment before handing it to Celestia. She then motioned Twilight to perform the spell, which she immediately casted, creating a pile of duplicates to be sent.
“Spike,” Celestia said as she handed him another parchment, which had a list of the various allied countries and nations. “I need you to send the each letter to these places on the list.” Without another word, Spike saluted before getting to work by sending the letters by dragon fire.
Celestia then turned to the Mane Six, which caused them to immediately pay attention. “We all must return to Canterlot at once to prepare the international meeting. The fate of Equestria and beyond rests with this.”
All of them nodded in affirmation. They all knew things were bad right now, with two monsters heading for Equestria and another rampaging through it. What lied in store for them in the future, though, they didn’t know.