//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Beware the True Fear // Story: The Bridge: Sound of Thunder // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// Raiga had been cursing up a storm for the past seven minutes straight after she got one look at her body, both at how she looked right now, who was looking at her, and how she'd gotten where she was now. Starlight Glimmer calmly sat on her haunches through it all, trying to filter out the torrential downpour of expletives flying around with less, profound words, to try and hear anything that made sense. That and it was highly amusing. "WHAT THE fudge gaseous phalanges pass RENDING dewdrops!? HOW IN THE slag ridden REALMS OF DAIEI hay sandwich MY fantastic LEGS?! WHERE THE cardiovascular ARE THEY?! I'M A fun loving TANAKA adorable SEAPONY OR fundamental convertible car SOMETHING?!-" The swearing siren was cut off by a veil of magical aura wrapping itself around her. Lifting Raiga up a few feet, the unicorn gently rocked her back and forth for a few moments. Starlight hummed calmly despite sporting a slightly embarrassed look on her muzzle. She kept rocking the former kaiju until the latter stopped cursing and quieted down. After which Starlight put her back down. Raiga sat up on her tail and hooves, taking in several deep breaths with widened eyes despite the bright sun being in them. -Must have hit her head when she dropped down and the world's just in a spiral, poor girl.- Starlight trotted over to her and nudged Raiga's shoulder with her hoof. "Better?" she murmured in a half muted voice, ears still flopped down just in case Raiga decided to burst out into shouting again. Raiga took in one deep inhale and let it slither out between her two remaining fangs. ".... Thanks... Turned into a blabbering dork for a moment there." "You're just surprised, that's all. It did kinda sneak up on you. And actually you're a siren, not a seapony. There's a big difference. But, never heard of either kind in these woods. What are you doing way out here? Can you remember?" "Where exactly is here? I can't exactly recall trekking inland." "We're west of Manehattan and Fillydelphia, near Hollow Shades in northern Equestria." Raiga's mind took a moment to process that last word. Memory rushed back to five days prior to a night on Solgell Island. Zilla came and brought her out of her trench home to a meeting Gamera had called in. A meeting that ushered in both hope and utter bewilderment. Turns out Zilla, whom had been the first to be told, had a good reason for being so frantic. Godzilla, Lea, Rodan, Anguirus, they were all still alive. Just, in a realm and state no one saw coming. Everything said about magical equines and transformed bodies came flooding back in with that one word, 'Equestria'. Raiga's widened eyes twitched. -Oh good Tanaka I was afraid of that...- Giggling a tad awkwardly, Starlight opted to ignore the half shattered look on the siren's face and continued on. "You seem, lost. I was heading towards Manehattan to meet up with someone. It's close to the ocean so-" The siren in question was half listening and half frantically brainstorming through her own mind. -Alright... Aaaallllright, if I'm stuck in magical loony pony world thanks to some magical timey whimey bulls***ery, then that means I'm in the same place as those four... Pheeeeew. Okay, new plan Raigy. Step one, find Junior, Lea, and the others. Step Two, kick their ***es for getting stuck here in the first place and giving everyone a heart attack, or at least commence kicking when I get my legs back. Step three, find a way to drag them back to Terra.- "-you want to come with me?" Starlight quipped with a little smile. Shifting fully back to the reality around her, Raiga shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, maybe. I guess you could say I'm looking for someone too. Just not exactly sure where they'd be." "Well Manehattan's a big city, maybe they're there? And if not, I'm sure we can help you find something to point you in the right direction while over there." -Big cities tend to attract kaiju like flies, whom tend to draw in Lea and Junior. Well it's a start.- "Meh, getting my bearings should help." Starlight Glimmer beamed and nodded, hopping back up to her hooves. She turned around to start off on her way, giving the orange hued sky a worried glance. "Alrighty then. If you don't mind I'd prefer we run to make up for some lost time. It'll be night soon." Raiga raised an eyebrow. Forgetting most herbivores didn't have night vision, day or night never made much difference to her one way or another. If one could see at the bottom of the ocean, they could see with the moon out just fine. Someone showing concern about it being night time made about as much sense as being worried there was a bird overhead. Raiga muttered with a slightly confused shrug. "...So?" Starlight shuddered slightly, ears twitching about in varying directions to home in on any creaks and crawls in the forest around them. Usually, the night was as fine a time as the day. But after the attempt on Canterlot and disappearances in the rural lands lately, all that had changed. And she knew exactly why. "Something... Somethings, that are really bad tend to come out at night..." Raiga sighed as she got up the best she could with only one pair of limbs, carefully trying to balance on a hoof to pat Starlight on the back reassuringly. "Alrighty then, just don't give ye'self a heart attack. If anything shows up I'll clobber em'-!!" She lost her balance and would have kissed the game trail dirt had a quick-reacting Starlight not snapped to action, grabbing the siren in a magical aura to levitate her up. Raiga grumbled, angrily flailing her hooves. "Okay how in the circles of Daiei am I supposed to run like this?!" "Umm, I don't think you really can." "But you just said we should run." "I know I did but uum-uuh I hate pressure.." Starlight shied back slightly, knees shaking a bit. For a brief moment, her magic canceled out and Raiga plummeted a few inches before being recaught. Looking at her companion with a slight groan after that startle, Raiga reached out and patted the unicorn's head with her hoof. "Not really a social type but I'm not gonna take your head off, chill out." "S-Sorry, I was being metaphorical. I g-guess you forgot a lot when you crashed." She meekly said with a stutter, cursing herself for it all the way. Raiga groaned, rolling around in midair under Starlight's hold. "Well what exactly am I supposed to do? High speed flopping?" "N-no, sirens do have a way of traveling overland; I know they must have." "What was it?" "Lemme think uuuuum..." Starlight puzzled, quickly trying to comb through her memory while stealing glances at the darkening sky above. Her pulse was quickening with each glance. This debacle had slowed her down so much she knew she wouldn't clear the forest by nightfall, something she had intended to have been very keen on doing. Safety in numbers was her best bet, that and the fact she wasn't one to just abandon some poor soul in the middle of the woods. Raiga had to get moving and Starlight could have sworn she remembered something to help the lost siren regain mobility. She was straining to remember, cramming her eyes shut and tapping the base of her horn. "U-Um.. uuuuh!! Ahah!" She popped back up, a small smile crossing the unicorn's lips when memory trailed back to her mentor's history lessons. "Duchess Chrysalis, my teacher, once told me about the Muses!" "The who?" "A trio of sirens from one thousand years ago. Their names were Adagio, Aria, and Sonata." "Musical names? On Muses? Cute. How does this help us? Did they master teleportation between song writing sessions?" Starlight giggled, shaking her head a few times before continuing. Some of her panic was slithering away with each word. "They went on tour across Equestria during King Sombra's reign, giving their musical performances to inspire others and strip away hatred. Chrysalis told me about the time she met them, how they could swim through the air like they were underwater using their magic." Raiga looked upwards and rubbed her chin, thinking it all through. Some concepts weren't exactly alien to her here, and this was one of them. This was sounding a lot like what Manda did when she got herself airborne, or how King Ghidorah could get off the ground with minimal wing flapping. "Flight through levitation eh?" -Could work. Maybe if I alter around the outputs on my energy spheres I can pull it off? If this body can levitate naturally, maybe it could work as a substitute?- Shrugging, Raiga closed her eyes and focused. She homed in on every pulse, reading her own heartbeat to its distinct rhythm. Every beat was another charge of mana pumping through her system. Concentrating, she redirected the mana into the spheres mounted upon her form. Tiny arcs of electricity arced within the ruby-like pearls, casting invisible strands both across Raiga's body and through Starlight's bizarre magic, pouring to the ground beneath the new sapphire siren. A subtle, red glow cast itself across her form, Terran mana pushing away incompatible Equestrian magic. Starlight's hold vanished, but Raiga merely bobbed up and down slowly mid-air, carried upon invisible waves. Starlight's eyes and smile widened, clapping her hooves a few times. "Ah good, you're doing it!" "..Huh wha?-" Raiga's eyes snapped open and in brief surprise, the energy cut off and she plummeted. Snapping back into her previous state, the siren caught herself about a foot off the ground. Refocused and rearmed, she smirked and rose back up, fanning her tail to swim around and do rolls about a meter off the ground. "Ha! Nailed it!" "Okie dokie then!-" Starlight beamed, her nerves calmed slightly. Strange as her magic was, it seemed like the siren's self assurance was infectious. "-if you're situated, I'd like to head out now." "Lead on McPony!" With that, they set off at a quick pace. A quick pace they maintained for a good five minutes before a bored Raiga found her eyes trailing off to the side to have a look around. Amidst the thought of counting trees or fancying the thought of letting loose a stray blast to blow something up and kill the mediocrity, a small glimpse caught her attention. For a split second her vision freeze-framed between a set of tall trees. Amongst the trunks, about fifty yards from the beaten path, briefly illuminated by a dying sunbeam, was a blurred figure. The details were vague aside from it being a quadruped, as Raiga had been moving too quickly and the shape was too far into the corner of her eye for the siren to make it out. She thumbed through her memory to try and identify it. This was a deep forest, deer maybe? Seemed to have something poking out of its head. Raiga grumbled, pushing away the thought, but still looking at the passing pillars of oak and leaf as they rushed by it. After all, said forest was in a bizzarro world with talking ponies; it could have been anything for all she knew. She just bumped into a unicorn for Tanaka's sake, anything was possible. Still, didn't stop some of her atavistic nerves from firing off. A curiosity that kept it in the back of her mind. "So, Starry Gal; what exactly makes you so scared of sun down? You mentioned something comes out at night." Starlight, even amongst the effort of running at near full speed, visibly shuddered before speaking in a haste. "Huf- All the attacks by the kaiju have been at night. Hef! And recently there has been some disappearances after dark." Raiga looked forward with narrowed eyes. -Kaiju attacks... So those punks that got hit with Dimension Tide afterwards also ended up here. Alright let's see how many skulls I'll have to punch in, time for a headcount.- "Which kaiju? Who’s the most dangerous?” Starlight Glimmer had to resist the urge to change her expression entirely to frantic shock. The one thing keeping it from that was the knowledge that the poor siren next to her seemed to have memory problems. Still, she distinctly recalled her cousin’s broadcast and interview with Dame Destroyah being shown around as far as Yakyakistan and Saddle Arabia; it was anything but low profile. Reigning in her voice to the level of slightly less shouting, Starlight turned her head to answer. “Godzilla and his cohorts of course! Who else would try to level Canterlot?!” Raiga blinked her eyes, tilting her head over in such befuddlement that her neck creaked. After a few moments of mental reboot, the siren floated upright; waving her hooves back and forth in the universal gesture for denial. “Whooooooooooooooa whoa whoa whoa! Seriously? Good Guy Goji? Junior? Chief? You think HE'S going to wreck some city?” “The capital!” “Even more bullsheetzu!” The look upon the unicorn’s face couldn’t have been more of a mix of shock and confusion even if it had spontaneously started raining statuettes of Queen Trixie constructed out of jell-o. Now thinking the siren must have really hit her head hard, repeatedly, Starlight went on to state what she felt was the obvious. “YES! After they struck a deal with Empress Cadenza, Godzilla marched upon Canterlot and attempted an assault. It was only due to some quick work between Chrysalis and the other kaiju that they were repelled. After the failed plot at Canterlot, Godzilla, Cadenza, and the others have been laying low for the past week. I’ve been doing-” Starlight hopped over a fallen log as Raiga hovered above it. Despite the confusion racing across her mind, Raiga’s subconscious picked up on more surrounding details. Time again had slowed to a crawl as Raiga fought between finding what unknown danger her instincts were trying to alert her by taking in her surroundings, and trying to listen to the raving of a unicorn she now was questioning the sanity of. Rather than having tumbled over with age, the trunk of this oak was shattered; gouged into with fresh, white wood jutting out of the cutoff point. The tree hadn’t fallen over, it had been torn down. They crossed over another one several dozen meters down the speeding trail in the same condition. Before Raiga could focus on the thought however, Starlight continued on. “-studies on the reports and after listening and researching them I’m certain. Godzilla is going to attack Manehattan next!” “Wh-WHAAAT?! Why in the three eras of Daiei would he do that?! Seriously your bright colors couldn't have ticked him off THAT much!” “Because he’s a monster! Do you have any idea what he tried to pull at Canterlot?! He freed Empress Cadenza and charged the palace! The entire capital might have been destroyed if he landed one good shot! And the reports-!” Raiga’s eyes narrowed and she threw out her hoof in front of Starlight whilst putting on the air brakes. After a bit of skidding on Starlight’s part, the duo pulled to a halt that the unicorn was not happy about. “What are you doing?!” “LADY!-“ Raiga barked, practically snapping her jaws shut an inch in front of Starlight Glimmer’s muzzle. The siren put her hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. The expression crossing the former kaiju’s face could best be described as a bizarre mix of annoyance, stubborn confusion, and just plan stubbornness. “-Is your head lodged up where it is for the warmth?! All of that is bullsh**! His old man mighta not been the nicest type from what I've heard, but I've known Chief for the better part of a decade. If a city is in trouble, he's been known to beat me to a fight just to keep it from spilling into a populated zone. Now THAT's an achievement!" The gears behind Starlight's head were turning in all sorts of ways she didn't like. Half of her brain was in shock and the other half was scrambling through her memories for a specific spell. Raiga, oblivious to all of it, only rambled on. "Who gave you those fake a** reports anyways?" "X-Xenilla! He's been in correspondence with Chrysalis ever since they met! He's the one who gave us the detail about all the atrocities Godzilla would reap and what he's done before. He was going to join me with Chrysalis in Canterlot to formulate up counter measures!" "Not f***** likely!" Raiga snarled, grabbing Starlight and pinning her against a tree trunk, electricity beginning to spark across her fins. The unicorn's mind was in freefall as she desperately tried to remember a spell she hadn't yet mastered; all while she was trying to make sense of how a random siren who didn't read the news could know so much. "Y-Y-You're... Oh M-M-McCarthy!" Her voice quivered as she finally remembered the spell. Horn glimmering like her namesake, Starlight cast a harmless, brief wave across Raiga. The pulse of energy was brief, all she could manage; but it did its job. A detection spell King Sombra had originally invented, it scanned one's aura to reveal their true self. Handy against shape shifting alicorns as well as changeling friends. When it washed over Raiga, revealing a reptilian form very much unlike anything that should exist in Equestria; Starlight's heart froze. "... Who the f*** is a McCarthy?" "YOU'RE ONE OF THEM!" Starlight's face flushed with adrenaline after she screamed, her eyes slamming shut and her form disappearing in a green flash. Reappearing several feet behind Raiga, the unicorn was about to run when the siren snapped around amongst crackling energy. Raiga didn't know if she should be angry or confused. Usually most Mutations allies were prideful or brutish before they were cowards. This was new. "Hey get back here! I'm talkin' to you!" Starlight Glimmer scrambled back, terrified tears blotting her vision and flowing down her cheeks. "NO! STAY AWAY! PLEASE STAY AWAY!" She could hear her pulse pounding in her ears. The unicorn's horn began to spark and glow in a counterattack, but before anything could happen, a magic blast shot over Raiga's shoulder and hit Starlight's horn. The unicorn shrieked and fell to the ground, convulsing from the shock as if electrocuted. A slithering voice trailed it, going around Raiga to the left. "Well well, seems fortune favors the progressive. I come to pick you up, and I end up finding two things we've been looking for." Raiga froze up, slowly training her vision into the direction of the voice. She both knew and didn't know it. As much as she butted heads with it before, the voice always was characterized by its warmth. The tone was in familiarity, but the feeling was frigid. Her vision granted her the sight of a new pony, one covered in smooth exoskeleton broken up by jagged spines. A crown of horns sat atop a brow as threateningly vibrant wings shimmered in the glowing moonlight. "L-Lea?!" "Hello there Raiga, just when we were beginning to think Gamera didn't spread the memo." =============================================== One Hour Earlier, The Thicker, former Deer kingdom =============================================== A bestial roar rattled the old oaken halls, sending any birds and beasts that dared come nearby scrambling for cover. A wise decision in the wake of the king's roar. Chitin covered hooves nudged the desolated palace's doorway over, Lea briskly walking inside with a casual image painted across her face despite the summoning's power. The smell did bother her enough to scoff as she walked in. -One week later and it still smells like burnt deer in here...- Stepping over a regalia clad and thoroughly charred elk skeleton, it didn't take her long to see the host of the realm. He was still venting off glowing, irradiated blue steam from his mouth. "You know, if you need to call for me you don't need all the theatrics. I'm just down the road in the study. Cadenza still isn't quite used to the noise." "She'll get used to it." A deep snort punctuated the response. Feeling a warmth on her hoof, Lea trailed her eyes down to the floor amongst the dying sunlight, only to groan in mild disgust when she noticed a trail of blood starting to trickle towards her hoof. Lea groaned and stepped away, wiping the crimson off as her face twisted in disgust. "Urf! An entire kingdom to roam and you're still a sloppy eater. Never did understand your liking to this stuff." There was a low chuckle, the beast with glowing eyes only finding humor in the situation. "Flesh is solidified energy. Foolhardy to ignore one's proper place in the food chain. Even in this state." "Still, isn't your species omnivorous? If you feel like you need an edge against Xen by chewing on something, just munch on this place. The entire palace is just a tree." "Live game is more fun. This one was another straggler come to reclaim their king's regalia. A bit stringy. Admittedly, only two fangs makes it a bit slower though." "Eating or... preparing, the food?" There was a wet squish of gnashing fangs followed by her host tilting his head up to swallow a hunk of venison, before he responded bluntly. "Yes." Lea snickered, waltzing over to the now vacant throne and seating herself. She reclined across it after a good stretch, lazily pawing at the ornaments overhanging it. "Well if you want your mouthful of pointy pearly whites back, we're close. Would be closer if you didn't suddenly call me in." Lea rolled her eyes and looked over at her friend, scrunching her nose from the predatory stink coming off him. Relaxing, she flipped back her mane to stretch out. Her voice was a chorus of dangerous slyness and seducing whispers. "Why did you call me over Goji? Were you about to offer me the liver and choice cuts?" Godzilla Junior hissed through a low laugh, walking off to the main window to the chamber. Even in the dim evening light streaming through the unmaintained windows, the creature standing in the light barely resembled anything equine. Charcoal gray fur broken by a massive scar covering half his chest, and the gray being blotted out by crimson across his maw and throat. He held himself high as he looked across his domain. Ignoring the vines overhanging it and the burn marks clad across the walls around it, he peered out to the north. Godzilla spoke in calm stoicism. "I can sense another of my kind nearby." The assured smirk across Lea's muzzle vanished and she picked her head back up. She sat up slightly. "Xenilla? Did he find us?" "... No, Cadenza's enchants are doing their work. The newcomer is female." Lea snickered whilst shaking her head, the brief unease she had vanishing. "Ah; it's just Raiga then. I was wondering when we'd get some back up. Could have asked for someone who actually liked fighting buuut beggars can't be choosers I suppose." The changeling rocked her hooves and flapped her wings to pick herself up and into the air, hovering over to her ally's side. She rubbed up against him slightly, a smile forming across her face upon feeling at his fur. Godzilla kept his eyes trained on the horizon. "She's there, about five kilometers away. I'd like you to retrieve her." "Consider it done my king~..." She quipped, pulling away with a slinking walk. She pitched her head around for a tease despite the feigned disgust in her tone. "Oh, and take a bath, I could smell you from outside..." "Didn't stop you from approaching." "I have practice." With that, Lea smirked and headed back the way she came. Godzilla's low voice chased her down and pounced before she could leave. "Lea, how is the project coming?" "A bit more work and we can finally make an attempt. We'll have to find a unicorn with a certain talent for magic to test something." "Does one exist?" Battra Lea snickered in a manner very unbecoming of what she had planned for the desired test subject, her tongue drawing around every letter when she spoke. "Our dear friend Cadenza knows of one under the good Duchess' instruction that fits the bill." ========================= Manehattan, present time ========================= Duchess Chrysalis jolted up so fast her glasses flew off and landed on Suri. The seamstress squeaked shyly as the image of her eyes became enormous. Gingerly taking them off, the earth pony mare pawed at her friend's shoulder to offer them back. "U-Um, Duchess? Chrysie? Are you okay?" The showroom floor was empty aside from the duo, the lights streaming from above illuminating the nearby collection of elaborately designed dresses, gowns, and a few suits. The gorgeous designs were strung up on racks or mounted upon oversized mannequins. Chrysalis shuddered and vibrated her wings as a cold snap trailed down her back. Slipping out a slightly exasperated sigh, the regent levitated her glasses back onto her face while trying to get back on topic. "Sorry Suri. Just a, sudden jolt I suppose. Call it a vibe. The suits and dresses based off the kaiju look great. Wouldn't expect anything less from the best dress maker in Manehattan!" Suri blushed and muttered a tiny, mouse-like squeal in a manner that would likely cause insulin stocks to rise by the second, fumbling up on a stepping stool to put a regal, crystal bejeweled navy blue suit with a red trim back onto a mannequin that was nearly double her size. "Least I could do after Sir Xenilla saved my shop in Canterlot from getting, well, stepped on.... A-Anyways I just hope this helps out, they could use all the good PR they could get!" The beautiful changeling's face was still wrought with unease. A prickling feeling in the back of her mind refused to give her any real calm. That and her maternal instincts were going so ballistic that it threatened to give her a migraine. She hadn't felt this strained since the alicorns crashed Trixie's coronation and nearly made off with the Queen-To-Be while the Duchess was unconscious. While circumstances said a repeat incident wasn't likely, she was still certain. Something was very, very wrong. "Suri-" Chrysalis muttered with masked distress as the seamstress was about to present Dame Destroyah's dress. "Hm? Yes mi'lady?" "-You said you were in contact recently with Sir Xenilla earlier. When was the last time again?" "Oh, just before you arrived actually. He called while on the Northerly train, on his way here with some of the others." Chrysalis raised a curious eyebrow. Least she didn't have to worry about requesting his arrival a tad early, seemed he was doing that himself. Why bring along more of his kind with him then? "Oh? He didn't have to leave Canterlot until the morning. Why is he heading here early? Eager to try on your suit?" Suri Polomare, having not yet turned around and noticed any of the duchess' distressed body language, only snickered and waved her hoof while keeping her head half buried in a fabric rack. "Said he sensed something a tad funny a bit ago and wanted to come here early to check it out." -Fortunate...- "... When should he arrive?- "Oh, he said sometime around midnight as the train rolls." -...Very fortunate indeed..-