//------------------------------// // Chapter 27: A Sudden Detour // Story: The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover // by Tarbtano //------------------------------// ========= Ponyville ========= Twas a warm and sunny mid-day when the southern train from Appleloosa groaned through its tracks, as it slowed down to a halt on the fringes of the quiet town. Applejack and Rodan stepped and flew off from the train respectively to find a small crowd of friends, family, and beyond awaiting them at the station. Rodan, spotting Anguirus standing next to Rarity, hovered down to them and Anguirus cracked a small smile upon seeing the like behind Rodan's beak and spoke in a kindly tone. "So, how was the vacation?" "Oh pretty nice actually! Gyaos chewed up the town quite a bit but we got it all patched up. Nice folks out there in the frontier, I'm glad to say my flock keeps getting bigger!... How'd you hold down around here? What I miss?" An awkward, mutual silence between unicorn and kaiju as Rarity and Anguirus glanced over at each other out of the corner of their eyes. A slight twitch of a nod affirming their mutual election to not bring up the destroyah swarm incident. Especially considering the aforementioned kaiju was standing five feet away from them and lazily approaching. Rodan got one look at his enemy and instinctively jolting back a bit, gripping the ground with his claws enough that the retractable set on his hindlegs flicked out. Before he could worry about a fight breaking out or Anguirus' lack of reaction to her presence, the gryphon spotted something amiss with Destroyah. For one, she wasn't scowling as she usually was and just had a stoic calm to her muzzle. And more importantly, as he noticed when she walked past him without reacting; she had a trio of fillies on her back. One of them, Applebloom, squealed with delight and pounced off the giant mare, taking a single bound off the ground and tackling her big sister in spurt of mutual laughter. Rodan's jaw dropped a few centimeters and he turned to face the sight. Had he been mechanical, there'd probably be sparks and smoke coming out of him from the confusion. Anguirus just shrugged and moved beside the younger guardian beast. Rodan just stared in befuddlement at the remaining two fillies; a white unicorn waving happily at a mutually beaming Rarity and an orange pegasus perched atop Destroyah's head. "Are they on-?" "Yes." "But that's-?" "Yes." "And she doesn't-?" "Nope. And they've been around her the longest." Rodan could only close his jaw and blink a few times, still a bit dumbstruck. He shrugged his shoulders, muscles relaxing. ".... Huh." Rodan's attention was taken away from the odd sight of Destroyah being close to others and not murdering them, by a tapping hoof on his shoulder. He looked over to Rarity, though he had trouble remembering her name, as she looked up at him. She was currently glancing down at a pocket watch strung out from her saddlebag before bearing a close eyed, deadpan look with her ears flopping against her head. "Could I, speak with you in private for a moment. We're short on time." Rodan shrugged with a nod, following her over to an empty part of the dirt road about five meters from the others. Rarity sighed, glancing back at the group, then up a the sky, and put a hoof over Rodan's shoulder. "I'm so sorry about this, she's on a rampage." She muttered with a half annoyed tone. The confused gryphon tilted his head and looked back over at who he thought she was talking about, the draft horse sized pegasus mare with the beaming filly on her head. "Really? That's the calmest I've ever seen her. Nice change actually." Rarity groaned, casting a brief glance to the horizon near the Smokey Mountains. "No... Not her. I apologize ahead of time for this... 3...-2.." She mumbled whilst pulling out a cloak to shield herself from what the unicorn knew was coming. "-1..." "What are you countin' do-" The slight hiss in the air was the only forewarning of the crashing sonic boom that followed. A cyan-blue blur dug her hooves into the ground, coming to a sliding halt that cut grooves into the soft dirt. In the span of a second and a half Rodan found a pair of cerise-colored eyes inches away from his. If that didn't make him jump back, the shouting did. "YOU!" "WAH!" "RARITY!" "Yes yes, I've got my stop watch and the tape for the finish line in my bag, darling." Recovering from his initial jolt, Rodan landed back on the ground and canceled out the growing plasma charge he had been building up due to being startled. A quick inspection of the pegasus' rainbow clad-mane helped confirm to him who he was looking at, remembering the name from the latter. "Oh uh, you must be the mare I'll be flying alongside, Rainbow Dash right?" Rainbow Dash however was stuck speaking like her caffeine had some drink in it instead of the other way around. "Yes,That'sMe!" "Aaaare you okay?" "I'mFINE!BeenSettingItUp-" Rarity freed herself from her cloak, having successfully shielded her mane and coat from the uproar of dust and dirt Rainbow Dash's landing kicked up, and had gotten behind the pegasus. Gently putting her hooves over Rainbow Dash's back to push her taut wings back down, she rocked her friend back and forth while patting her back. "Ssshhh shhhh Breathe Rainbow, don't forget to breathe." As requested, Rainbow Dash stopped hyperventilating and took in a gasp big enough to swell up her torso before slowly easing it out. "Aaaaalright, I'm not meaning to be rude in doing or saying this sorta stuff but, the Neighagra Falls airshow is going to have aaa-lot of important fliers there. I want to look my best for all those ponies who are going to be there and show 'em just how awesome I am too! However, since we'll be flying together I'd need to know if you can keep up with me or not. Wouldn't want to make either of us look bad if there is a big difference or not." Rarity puzzled for a moment, rubbing her chin as she sifted through memory. "But-" She whispered with a raised eyebrow. "-weren't you mostly freaking out over the thought he might be faster than yo-HMMRRPH!" She was muffled by Rainbow Dash sticking her hoof into her muzzle to shush her, chuckling awkwardly to try and take attention away from that statement. "Well, if you're worried about speed, I got only one thing to say to you." Rodan deadpanned as Rainbow Dash looked back over at him, flexing his wings lightly. "Don't." "Oooooooh we'll find out alright..." ======================================= Several Minutes Later at the edge of Ponyville ======================================= A small crowd was perched at the top of a large, broad hill. Two posts flanking the road with a chalk line drawn into the dirt between them marked a start-up line. Rarity strolled past said line, glancing over a map she was levitating out in front of her. "Alright everypony and everykaiju, we all understand the rules and the course?" She quipped, moving the map over in front of the duo taking their marks on the star line. They both looked and while Rainbow Dash was the one who knew the path to travel already by merit of having set it, Rodan didn't worry too much with memorization. If this mare was worried if he could keep up with her, doing that was his primary concern and he'd just follow her. Fortunately though, Ms. Dash had picked some easily remembered trail markers. "Straight shot westward over White Tail Woods, north to Big Smokey Mountain, east across Canterlot Mountain, around Foal Mountain; and then back here to Ponyville. One lap across the large loop and first one to hit the tape I'll put up across the finish line wins." With a nod from the racers, Rarity trotted over to the audience. Most of the familial flock from the train station had come, plus one Pinkie Pie who'd ambushed them on the way to the hill. Scootaloo wasn't wasting any time to cast her name to her desired vote. "GOOOO! RAINBOOOW!" The little filly cheered with some mild prancing, already having summoned her rainbow mane hat from her saddlebag. Anguirus, mildly amused by the young one's enthusiasm, as misguided as he thought it was. He merely rolled his eyes and spoke in a manner that implied the earth pony was already certain of the outcome. "Hey Rodan, try not to embarrass her too much out there." A pink blur shot up next to him, Pinkie Pie's eyes inexplicably popping out of their sockets in manner that left Anguirus momentarily horrified. "Pffft! Pleeeeeaase! Dashie's got this one in the saddlebag!" Recovering from his confusion and reaffirming his choice to just give up on trying to understand whatever eldritch jester in the skin of a equine was before him, Anguirus grunted. "Wanna bet?" "Sure! I take cupcakes and bits!" Rarity groaned and just levitated up the pull cord to a loaned party cannon, making sure to point the barrel away from everyone. She slipped on a pair of plush ear muffs and yanked the cord. At virtually the same instant the muffed 'POW!' of the cannon sounded off, both pegasus and gryphon had kicked and bolted off from the starting line. By the time the dust cloud they kicked up settled, the echoes and shades of the two tearing through the air were already distant. =============== White Tail Woods =============== Fall in White Tail was serenity's reign. Amidst the seas of burned gold leaves and beams of sun light filtering through the trees, the Running of the Leaves was underway. Numerous racers trot and sprint down the earthen trail, in no particular rush despite the competition. A few yards ahead of the main pack, Apple Fritter jogged around a bend in the trail with her head turned to the forest parallel. And then a distant whistling sound started to pool into the air, bouncing off many of the nearby trees to give an echo. Apple Fritter slowed down her pace and curiously raised her shifting ears. Finding the direction was a tad hard due to the forest bouncing around all the sound, but it seemed to be coming from above. It grew louder and louder as a growing pace until- fffffffffffffFFWOOOM! The double sonic boom crackled just above the tree line. Apple Fritter's eyes went wide and she hopped up with stiffened legs in a startle, the curtain of air behind the crash having torn many leaves off their branches. Apple Fritter landed back on her hooves amongst a downpour of autumn glow. Now hundreds of meters away and several meters above the fading tree line, Rainbow Dash and Rodan continued to accelerate through the vapor cones forming around them. They pitched up, the tsunami of dead leaves that chased them gradually dying away as they ascended and began swinging in a wide arc around Big Smokey Mountain. Even as they slowed down slightly to curve around the peak, neither one dropped below 500 kilometers per hour As they straightened back out but hadn't yet sped back up, Rainbow Dash turned herself around and began casually flying backwards despite the rate they were moving at. "Alright! You can definitely break up to mach 2! Not bad! You'd make Wonderbolts academy!" She shouted at the top of her lunges to be heard over the streaming air. Rodan cracked a cheeky smirk as he too started flying backwards, offhandedly rolling his eyes. "THAT was the goal? I wasn't even trying!" "Oooh you're gonna!" A mutual smirk was brokered and the duo turned themselves back around and instantly accelerated back up at ever increasing rates, bursting vapor cones and resulting shockwaves signaling the breach of over 3,000 kilometers per hour speeds. Curtains of screaming air easily mistaken for thunder sliced into the snow capped mountain peaks, cutting trenches along their lengths. For a moment though the cold blasts of air filtered through the mach cone and Rodan felt a brief dip in his thermal energy. Lacking his original state's sheer size to ward off the cold thanks to gigantothermy, the cold was slowing him down enough for Rainbow Dash to pull ahead. However the tie breaker was brief. As he crashed through more and more curtains of air, Rodan got an idea. Spreading his wings out as far as he could, he intentionally subjected himself to as much air friction as possible. It slowed him down at first, but friction with even cold surfaces can cause a lot of heat. And heat was exactly the sort of thing the omega guardian beast ran on. The stunt paid off, for the moment he returned to a more streamline position, Rodan's velocity spiked enough to easily catch up with Rainbow Dash and shoot ahead of her going fast enough to breach Mach 3. Not one to be deterred and only emboldened by the display of speed, Rainbow Dash took away some of her restraint. She had been wanting to gradually build this race up to keep it interesting for the kaiju. Something she couldn't do in second place. -Okay wise guy, let's kick it up a notch!- She put her hooves out before her and arched her back slightly to kick off, knifing through the air and multiplying her top speed. A glowing path of dueling rainbow hues and burning light began to take shape as they sped away from the mountains. They had just begun to pass a Cloudsdalian weather factory, a sight Rodan found so bizarre he almost slowed down to get a better look at it, when the gryphon noticed something else directly in front of them. Rainbow Dash saw it too and both racers struck a confused expression as they dived upwards to avoid an impact. Skidding to a halt, they looked over at each other and then back at the intruder before hovering down at it. Rodan, dumbfounded, just looked at the dark mass with a slack jaw and raised eyebrow. ".... Does that cloud have a face on it?" "Yes, yes I think it does." "Did you put it there for the course?" "Nope, I didn't have anything to do with this." "Are, evilly cackling clouds normal around here?" "Nnnnope!" They quickly caught up to the lazily moving mass, which Rodan was only now noticing was hilariously tiny for a cloud at only house sized. The rolling croaking coming out of it halted and instead a nasally bark called out from the rolling cumulus. "Ey! Get out of my way you gutless mocking birds!" ".... Rainbow, I've seen a lot of weird things in this realm. Should I put verbal weather on the list?" "No, this is new to me too.... Seems oddly familiar though." Rodan hovered in front of the cloud, looking at its grinning facade over as several long moments of silence passed. The face itself seemed to shift in the rolling epidermis, tracking the fliers as it it was looking at them. Now debating if he somehow hit his head at some point today, Rodan awkwardly waved his paw at it. "Um... Hi?" "Hello yourself you beaked tongue lizz'aurd you! I said't move out of our way! We are on an erround!" "We? There's more of you?" Instead of directly answering Rodan at first, the cloud seemed to mumble something to itself in a hushed tone. "Chercher la foudre!... Ahem!... Yes, there are more of us! Now go away or we shall taunt and smite'd you a second time!" "Smite?" Rainbow Dash had been pawing at her memory while the conversation was going on. This was new, but something about this was jogging parts of her memory. -'Talking' black clouds with evil grins on them... Haven't seen that sin-....!!!- The weathermare just managed to recall a particular event in time to dive to the side, grabbing Rodan and yanking him out of an oncoming dark thunderbolt's path. "Cloud Gremlins!" As if on cue to her shout, a small figure popped forth from the top of the cloud. The reddish brown imp in wailed with laughter while tapping the top of the cloud. Rodan and Rainbow Dash, while more than nimble enough to get out the way as soon as the shots were being fired, nevertheless has to dive, roll, and swoop about in all directions to avoid getting hit. Rodan tucked his wings in and let gravity and his narrowed frame put him into a diving aileron roll that shot him past a spiraling Rainbow Dash. "They're what?!" "Cloud Grem-" Rainbow shouted before cutting herself off to duck under a bolt that sailed over where her head had been and demolished a tuft of cirrus behind her. "-lins, some of them once tried to blot out the sky around Ponyvill-!!" She was once again forced to cut herself off again to divert all her focus into dodging. "Agrk! Follow me!" Rainbow Dash called out before zipping past the cloud and taking cover under a particularly large cumulus cloud. Rodan followed suit, granting a respite from the lightning bolt fire . Their cover rattled and chipped slightly from the pursuing thunderbolts, but managed to hold up long enough for its purpose. Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath and snorted before continuing. "As I was saying! They came after Ponyville once to try and work their stuff. They hijack clouds and juice 'em up with dark magic, literally causing gloom to rain down on everypony." "Where are these jacks from anyways?" "Not sure, the accent is new." "Silly Dashie, the ones you handled were from Neigh Jersey. These ones are from the Hanc region of Prance. Can't you tell by their outrageously exaggerated accents?" "Oh thanks Pinkie-........" "...." "...." Rainbow Dash and Rodan looked at each other and then back at the source to the noise. A patch of the cloud in front of them seemed disturbed, but no more than the spots that were hit by the gremlin's bolts; and there wasn't anypony there. ".... Did you just hear a voice?" "Y-yah let's just focus on the gremlins for now." The gryphon and pegasus, noticing the lack of continued electrical artillery fire, popped their heads up from the top of the cloud. The gremlin's cloud was easy enough to spot, between the raving goblin atop it and the fact it had drifted off towards the factory. Shoving several other clouds out of its way, the mass implanted itself into a line directing itself to the base of the floating complex. Far ahead in the line, cloud after cloud was sucked into broad tube that drew them into the interior. Rodan puzzled, pointing a claw at the oddity. "Okay, I got no clue how something is sucking up clouds or what you ponies do with them, but looks like the gremlins are trying to get in on it." The gears in Rainbow Dash's head did their work. Her eyes widened and jaw clenched up gradually as the realization began to dawn on her. "OH...BUCK! If they get that hexed smog in there, they'll filter into and clog up the whole system!" "Which means?" "W-Well, either their cloud will infest the rest of the supply and spread the contamination, or considering the factory's pressure valves...." Rainbow Dash put her hooves together, rattling them briefly before throwing them apart while squeezing a "Pooouuuuuwww!" sound from her cheeks to simulate an explosion. Rodan and Rainbow looked at the cloud for about three seconds before scrambling out from their cover. "STOP THAT CLOUD!" Rainbow Dash, already anxious, shot out ahead of the kaiju, knocking several smaller clouds further back in the line aside, and set to crash into the dark mass's surface. "I got this!" She roared a battle cry and lashed out in a diving kick. Her hoof sunk deep into the surface, but instead of being shoved out of the way like its uncorrupted brethren; the hexed cloud didn't budge. Instead its surface rebounded with an elastic snap, flinging a careening Rainbow Dash back. Rodan, having caught up, reacted quickly and grabbed the spiraling pegasus by her shoulders. Flipping around head over tail a few times from RD's momentum, he pounded the air with his broad wings and slow down enough to right himself. The lead gremlin's nasally croaking filled the air. "Haun haun haun! We learned of your run in with those Neigh Jersian rapscallions! Thusly, we took the time to improve our transportati'on's constituti'on. We are buck proof you crayola brained fou!" "Do these things ever shut up?" Rainbow Dash shrugged free of the gryphon's grip and put a hoof on his chest to push him back a bit whilst she hovered up. "Urg! Just let me handle this!" She barked, motioning to the weather factor ahead with her hoof. "I'll try and break it up or slow it down, you get up to the factory and get help. Tell them to turn the intake valve off!" While he felt the urge to argue the point, not one to be pushed aside when he felt needed, Rodan just groaned and did as requested while rationalizing that a magical ponylander would know more about dealing with magical ponyland clouds than he did. -Just do as your asked, Ro', and we can get this over with. She knows more about this stuff than you do and you can still tag in if it really goes foul. Probably lots of staff in this cloud factor... that's made of clouds somehow... That'll know what the heck to do. They're professionals after all.- The thoughts ran through his head as he sped at the building, already dreading having to go inside. Swallowing his looming unease, he put his claws forward and rammed through a doorway. He was ready to meet a whole herd of ponies inside, professionals to the factory who'd know exactly what to do.... Instead he saw a single mare with a work jacket and helmet labeled 'Volunteer' sitting at a desk. -DAMN IT TANAKA!- Cloudchaser, more than a little confused about the oddly featherless gryphon having just barged in and was now looking like he was mentally cursing the sky above, stopping spinning around in her chair. She kicked off from the desk and rolled over closer to him. "Um... Can I, help you?" She muttered, wondering just what was up with this whacko. Rodan shook his mental cursing towards his bad luck aside and shoutingly parroted what Rainbow Dash had asked of him. "Yah we got a bit of a situation! I need you to close the lower intake valve quick!" Cloudchaser's eyes quickly cast a stern glare and her wings flared out on instinct. "Shut off the intake?! Are you nuts?! Captain Spitfire left me to-" Before she could further her response however, whooping cry shot out through the hole the gryphon busted into the factory. "OW ARGK!" "Haun haun haun! Is that all you've got you silly chicken winged equid?! Your mother was a poultry and you father smelt of elderberries!" Rodan quickly looked into the hole, hopping up and hovering in the air. "Stand still you little weasel!" "AHP! Prenez couvercle! Fetchez l'éclair!" There was a flash of crashing light that blinded the factory interior for a brief moment. As odd as the display was however, Cloudchaser's head shot up in surprise and she too took to the air as memories from the academy filtered into her mind. "Wait a tick, I know that buccaneer blitz!" She shouted as she zipped over to join Rodan at the new window. When she got one look at what was going on a few dozen meters from the factory, the confusion and shock was justified as she saw Rainbow Dash spiraling through the air after another failed attempt at popping the cloud. "What the hay is going on out here?!" "Cloud Gremlins, Rainbow Dash said they're-" The aforementioned pegasus had quickly recovered despite a glancing blow from a thunderbolt and gave it another try with similar success. "-trying to get into that intake pipe the other clouds are getting sucked into and cause a mess. Can you close the pipe or not?!" Grasping the situation after putting together just what would happen if the gremlin cloud got into the system, Cloudchaser instinctively saluted. "Well why didn't you say so?! Consider it done!" The purple mare barked before flying over to the machinery that controlled the factory, mashing at the controls to enact the right protocol. Rodan looked back at Rainbow Dash's repeated assaults, this time a high speed dive kick to the central mass of the cloud. Acute vision spied the manner that Rainbow's hoof seemed to bury into the mass for a moment, before stopping its inward sinking and rebounding back. Trying to think up a plan, he turned his head and hollered over to Cloudchaser. "Hey! Why is she trying to physically beat a cloud?" "Shaped clouds can only take so much force at a time, or else they get holes punched into them or pop entirely!" -Alright, so if Rainbow Dash thinks she can rupture it with brute force, breaking a normal cloud shouldn't be too hard. That gremlin said something about reinforcing it. Think Ro' think!- He pondered, quickly flying over after spotting Cloudchaser had gotten up and was turning a large hatch crank, likely connected to the intake valve, with some effort. Rodan shot over her head, gripping the crank and assisting her in turning it a bit quicker. He cast the mare a question as he hung upside down while the duo spun the crank wheel around. "So if she can't burst through it, those gremlins probably did something to make it denser right?" "Yah! That probably iiigrk!- would be the ticket!" "Right, now are clouds here still- grik! made of water?!" The crank halted with a groaning sound echoing out the wide tube behind, signaling that the valve had been shut. Cloudchaser briefly huffed to catch her breath, heart still racing as she got to the other controls to make sure the shut off intake wouldn't interfere with the other system's pressure. She was so quick at her work the pegasus didn't even fully notice the seeming stupidity of the question. "Uh! Yah, what else would they be made of?!...! And hey! Why don't you have any fea-" By the time she stole a glance upwards however, Rodan had already bolted out the hole he came in through. "-thers?" Relieved already to be outside again, Rodan didn't have much a chance to gather his wit before having to react to a out of control Rainbow Dash catapulting right towards him. Once again he managed to catch her, beating his wings into gusts to resteady them. This time however, he didn't let go when she started to try and struggle free for another go at the cloud. "Ag! Just get back and let me at em! I'm going to give em my-" "Trampoline act with you bouncing off again?! Listen, I might not know much about this magical cloud stuff, heck I probably couldn't solve this on my own unless you feel me turning back into something bigger than that factory. But your efforts alone aren't getting us anywhere! I know you want to prove yourself capable, but how can we team up with the Princesses' plan if we can't do it for something like this?! Let. Me. Help." A moment of silence passed over the two, Rainbow Dash drawing in a long breath before letting loose an equally large sigh. Admitting she needed help wasn't ever her strong suit, and this was little exception. "Alright... You can let go of me now." Rodan obliged and after briefly rolling her shoulders, Rainbow Dash hovered up next to him as they kept out of range from the gremlin's fire. "So, you got a plan for this?" "I might. Your clouds here work differently than back home, but clouds are clouds. Meaning they still work like water does. I can do something to soften it up enough to make a difference, can you wind up for another blitz? Needs to be a big one." He was half expecting pride or clashing egos to flare up again and muddy his idea. Thankfully, a chuckling tap on the shoulder told him otherwise. "Heh, does the rain fall?" The gryphon let a cheeky grin stretch over his maw and the duo split off. Rodan dove out in front of the oncoming cloud to put himself between it and the factory, as Rainbow Dash ascended up to a higher altitude to build up some speed. The lead gremlin adjusted his goggles and sneered at the gryphon in their way. "Eh! Move out of our way, we have a date with thaut fac-toray!" -Heh, fat chance...- Spreading his wings to increase his surface area, Rodan soaked up as much heat as he could from his surroundings, both from the sunlight and the air heated by the thunderbolts. Trickles of light built up across his wings and rushed into his veins, collecting into the pterosaur gryphon's scale covered torso. A lightning strike shot forth from the cloud, but the excess heat building up across Rodan's body deflected the bolt just enough to miss. Before they could fire another shot, the trails of energy traveled up from Rodan's torso and into his throat. Crests glowing from the crackling energy arcing between them, Rodan snorted a small puff of sparks from his nostrils before opening his mouth. The hissing shriek, both from the glowing eyed saurian's war cry and from hot plasma spiraling out his mouth, split the air in two. Controlling the mana charged inferno, Rodan fanned out the attack, forcing the beam into a wide flamethrower. The lead gremlin squawked and dove for cover just before the flames engulfed the front half of the cloud. The force and heat wasn't enough to burst through or impale the cloud, too much dark magic at work for that. But it was enough to affect the water inside it. Forced apart by the heat, more and more of the dark mass started evaporating into water vapor. The mass expanded from the state change, but was becoming less and less dark as its density faltered. On cue, Rodan shut the attack off just in time for a streaking rainbow to swoop down for above. Rainbow Dash hit the cloud with a full force blitz, blinding all in sight as soon as she made contact. Moments after the light faded however, success was obvious. Bits of explosion propelled dark cloud flew off in random directions, the central mass having been completely obliterated. Half a dozen cloud gremlins tumbled into a controlled hover as they flew down to the forest canopy below. Rainbow Dash was grinning ear to ear and practically prancing in midair. She flew up to a similarly smiling Rodan. "Hahaaa! Nicely done! Sorry about the mishap at first." She chimed, holding her hoof up and out to him. Rodan just shrugged it off with a smile and waved a paw at her, not knowing the gesture she was trying to do. "Nah don't worry about it. You did great!" Rainbow Dash didn't say anything else, just glancing at her hoof held high and shaking it a bit at him. Rodan wordlessly glanced at it, not recognizing the gesture. Figuring it was some sort of salute, he mimicked her. Rainbow Dash left herself chuckle and reached out to tap Rodan's paw. -Note to self, teach kaiju the high-hoof.- Cloudchaser's voice calling down from above brought the two out of their celebration. "Um... Guys?" Rainbow Dash and Rodan hovered up to her level, the pegasus leaning out the entrance Rodan busted into the factory. Cloudchaser was looking out with a pair of binoculars at something past the duo. "I'm not gonna ask about the chili pepper breath stunt you just pulled, but..." She removed the binoculars, pointing outwards. Cloudchaser's ear flopped against her head and her muzzle bore a tight lipped pout. Turning around in the direction indicated, the flight team looked out over the horizon. They didn't notice it at first, but sure enough something unsettling came into view as it started poking out from around the north mountains. Another gremlin cloud, easily five times larger than the last one with the same cackling facade clad on its rolling head wave. Rodan muttered with a groan evident in his voice. Rainbow Dash wasn't any better, speaking through a lowered brow and face enveloping frown. "Is that what I think it is?..." "Oh you gotta be joking..." "Haun haun haun!" A very annoying tone called out to the trio from below. Eyes cast down to see the lead gremlin perched atop a high branch with his laughing crew below him. "Did you think we would deprive our'salves of reinforcements?! We were just les scouts! That is la mother cloud! With it we will infest Cloudsdale and then-AAAP!" His fist shaking monologue was cut off from having to rapidly bail out of the tree and dive for cover due to the series of fireballs spat his way. Rodan growled with narrowed eyes, smoke seeping out of his nostrils. Ignoring the fire breathing gryphon, Rainbow Dash turned back to Cloudchaser. "Cloud, who else is in this factory?!" Cloudchaser, having been wide eyed at what Rainbow Dash ignored despite earlier election, jolted slightly and shook her head. "Ju-just me!" She yelped. "WHAT?!" "The other academy fliers were here with me a bit ago but they're out for now. Spitfire had us doing community service by manning this factory on the worker's day off, but I drew the short straw so everypony else is on lunch break!" Rainbow Dash let out an exasperated groan as she mentally begged Bonnie and Faust as to why she was having so much rotten luck. "Gals that cloud is heading right this way!" "Rodan!" The Element of Loyalty whirled around to the gryphon. "Think you could wreck that cloud if you monster'd out?" Rodan's eyes widened and he eyeballed the distance between the factory and the cloud. If physical force was needed to burst a cloud, 32,000 tons of pterosaur going thousands of kilometers per hour definitely would be enough. He'd just have to gauge the back draft to avoid hitting the factory with the aftermath. He gave an affirm nod and turned to Rainbow Dash with clenched paws. "Alright, but we'll have to be quick! Hurry up and hit me with your magic!" "Pegasi don't shoot magic." "Well do you remember what you did with Anguirus?!" Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath, probing her memory. Cloudchaser, not having a clue what they were talking about, just awkwardly looked between the two while occasionally stealing a glance at the cloud steadily growing closer and closer. Rodan bit his tongue and nudged Rainbow Dash. "Um... Rainbow?" Rainbow Dash's closed eyes twitched and she threw her head back in exasperated groaning. "Aaaaarg! I can't remember! Just sorta happened! I can't even recall what I was thinking about when my element popped up!" "Well can we redo what you did last time?" "Not unless you can hand me a scared pony and a bridge to drop on top of us!" Rodan glanced over at Cloudchaser with a deadpan expression, whom noticed and defensively put her hooves up. "Hey leave me out of this!" "Sorry." Rainbow Dash mulled over her options fast as she could. Taking in a deep breath she slowed her nerves and looked the situation over. "Alright...Aalllllright! No time to figure out those details so we'll go for plan B. Cloudchaser, can you use the thermals coming off the valley to nudge the factory southward along with the headwinds?" "Yah, but with that cloud using the same drafts we can't outrun it." "You won't have to. Just use the right drafts and try and play keep-away as long as you can. You'll see what I mean. If all else fails, head towards Cloudsdale and try to get help. Seeing the factory on the move and a big cloud chasing it will definitely get everyponies' attention." Cloudchaser, now glad to be in on a plot that didn't involve being literally thrown under a bridge, nodded to her classmate and dove for the control boards. "On it!" "Rodan come with me!" Dash shouted as she darted away and upwards from the factory. Rodan quickly followed suit, stealing a look down below. The factory rumbled from shifting machinery before it slipped into a wind and started moving. With the cloud coming along the same path at a slightly faster rate, the world's slowest chase down was in play. "What's the plan?" "Plan is we're about to see if we really do have the same speed or not. You remember the path we've flown so far on the race? Well I need you to do it in reverse." ==================================== A Short Time Later In Ponyville's outskirts ==================================== Rarity adjusted her opera binoculars' focus as she spied something streaking across the sky over Big Smokey Mountain. "Oh! I do believe I see one of them approaching!" Everyone, baring a stoic Destroyah, perked up at the news. Scootaloo, now resuming her perch on the taller object she could climb, Destroyah, eagerly turned her head to the indicated direction. "Who is it? Who is it?!" She squealed, jittering in place until Destroyah put a hoof to her shoulder. Rarity bit her tongue and clarified the focus a bit more, not a stable task given the speed at which the flier was traveling. Soon enough though, she spied reddish brown hues through the flames streaking across the sky. "Looks liiiiike... Rodan!" Scootaloo pouted and flopped onto Destroyah's scalp as Anguirus, not having the slightest sense of surprise, just nodded affirmatively. However, amongst worried thoughts about how Rainbow Dash would handle a lost race, a sudden realization crossed Rarity's mind. She took the binoculars away as Rodan flew close enough to be seen. "Wait a minute-" Rodan's acceleration only seemed to be increasing, the midair bursts accompanying him signaling that the gryphon was had long since ruptured the sound barrier. He was rapidly approaching and wasn't slowing down. "-why is he going the wrong way?....!!! EVERYPONY HIT THE DECK!" Grabbing everypony in arm's reach, Rarity dropped to ground so fast she would have been kissing the dirt had she not previously put down her picnic blanket. Everyone not named Destroyah dropped down and hid as the speeding gryphon zoomed over head after breaching mach 5. The resulting sonic crash was enough to shoot a gust of hot wind so violent it tore leaves off the surrounding trees and eviscerated the clouds. Fueling himself off the air friction, Rodan pushed himself further and further. The building heat ignited the very air around him as his speed increased further and further by the second. Preceded by a burning mach cone, fires stretched across Rodan's wingspan and overtook his form, making the gryphon more closely resemble a phoenix-shaped fireball than anything else. Kilometers away and at the very same moment that Rodan arced around Big Smokey Mountain, a cyan blur had overtaken the skies above Hollow Shades and Foal Mountain. Exploding forth from an uproar of snow as she zipped past the peak of the latter locale, Rainbow Dash blotted out all other thoughts but the necessary. Going so fast often made the world around her distort, first stretching and pulling before slowing down so much it almost seemed like the normal was frozen and the quick ground to a crawl. Being the one causing her acceleration, this was one of the key times she really focused on everything. Every wing beat, every touch of air, every subtle movement to compensate for both the g-forces and disrupted air was to pulling herself through. Everything had to be absolutely perfect for this. Equestria had thousands upon thousands of fliers, most of which could fly faster than anypony could run. Equestria had dozens onto dozens of speedsters, many of which could easily break the sound barrier. It had only one specialist one whom could exceed even that, at least when she put her mind to it. And Rainbow Dash couldn't be any more focused as she sped towards her race track's halfway point. The sky behind her began to illuminate with streaks of her namesake as the mach cone narrowed before bursting forth. A curtain of radiant hues washed over the sky in a blast wave, Dash flying out at top speed with a full sonic rainboom in her wake. Back at the factory, Cloudchaser kicked the controls into overdrive and had even taken to flying outside and pushing against structure as hard as she could. The effort was valiant, she even managed to match the speed of the gremlin cloud and pull ahead of it slightly. But, she was still just one soul literally pushing a building and the attackers were now less than one hundred meters away. Seeing the oncoming attack, she darted to the side to dodge a dark lightning bolt that hit the intake valve below her, blowing the hatch off and exposing the opening. The invaders however were too preoccupied with their own gratuitous laughing that only Cloudchaser noticed the glowing lights rapidly approaching from either horizon. She wisely dove back inside the factory, ducking and covering for what she guess was coming. Rainbow Dash and Rodan, both traveling at over 12,000 kilometers per hour rammed into either side of the cloud at the exact same moment. Between the sheer kinetic impact and blazing heat, the duo utterly obliterated any reinforcement built into the structure and the entire cloud ceased to exist within a second of them crashing into it. Ripples of rainbow lights and waves of fire shot across the sky in magnificent display. The weather factory survived, at the cost of the concussive blast wave blowing out every window above the ducking Cloudchaser. Despite having lost a vast majority of their momentum the moment they hit the cloud however, Rodan and Rainbow Dash half collided and went spiraling southward across the sky in an careening arc. ============ Ponyville ============ "....Ah buck not again!" Rarity yelped, dropping her binoculars as everyone took cover from the twisting ball of mass and smoke that sailed over them. The streak of vibrant light and trailing flames zoomed past them, colliding and obliterating the finish line and splashing down in the nearby pond. The dust torn free from the ground slowly cleared and everyone, save Destroyah who hadn't budged through it all aside from letting Scootaloo duck under her hooves and now had her mane sticking up on end, got to their hooves. The pond was steaming in many spots with a mass of bubbles in the middle, the tattered remains of the finish line flapping down in the wind and landing on the surface. In an instant, Rainbow Dash and Rodan burst forth from the surface. While they both looked a tad ruffled, Rainbow's fur being slightly singed, Rodan missing a few scales, and both were gasping for breath while sporting a black eye each. Everyone else broke out of the stupor gripping them and quickly started making their way down the path to the pond with Scootaloo in the lead. Still huffing from the effort they both just went through, Rainbow and Rodan tiredly looked up at the broken remains of the finish line, then back down as a fragment of the checked stripe dropped down between them. The two looked over at each other, labored breathing shifting into wide smiles. It took only a few moments for the speedsters to burst out laughing. Rainbow weakly held up a hoof, this time Rodan recognizing the gesture and following suit. Rainbow Dash cracked a grin following the smacking high-hoof. "Yep! I think you and I are gonna fly together just fine!" ============== Human World ============== "Try that again, you're throwing your shoulder too much. Punches come from the hip, not the shoulder." Monster X barked, sidestepping and snapping his forearm over to divert away an overextended punch, repeating the action every time he took a step back. This went on until the strikes didn't push themselves out too far and weren't so easily batted away. Only problem now was he didn't even have to keep watching to know what was being thrown his way. "Too predictable, use the unorthodox." There was a lapse in the punching and X refocused. He dipped his head backwards to avoid being smacked by a flying pigtail and jumped over a leg sweep that actually managed to trip him up briefly. However he quickly reaffirmed his stance to duck around the incoming elbow strike aimed at his throat. "Good, but follow through quicker." Shifting from defense to offense, X snapped around for a spinning backhand. The impact was cushioned by a raised forearm reinforced by the right arm holding it by the elbow. His attacker shuddered slightly from the impact, stumbled backwards after absorbing the blow. The upper body was strong enough to take it, problem was the lower body was too taut to move and vent off the momentum. "Keep your knees bent. You're holding your stance too rigidly." He was about to throw a elbow strike out when a sudden jolt shot up his side. X glared down to see a foot stomping down on his toes and a jab burying itself in his stomach. While this was exactly what he was hoping for, it was hard to stifle a snarl. Redirecting his attack on the fly, he bent around and turned his strike into a grab, snatching an oncoming uppercut aimed at his sternum by the wrist and snapping his hips around. Aria was yanked off her feet and hit the snowy ground back-first. The second that followed had her opening her eyes to an elbow pressed against her throat. X snorted, lifting the halted blow away. "Now too loosely." He rose back up to his feet, offering the siren a hand up. Sneering, Aria batted away and sprung back to her footing. As she grumbled, the gemstone hooked to her necklace begot a dim glow. Gravity around their briefly distorted, snowflakes being repulsed in their freefall by curtains of manipulated air as some strands of her hair stood up slightly. "This is pointless! I asked for training on how to use these powers because you thought it might help out against that shadow thing. I didn't ask for a full blown sparring. What do you expect me to do, fist fight that thing?" Monster X merely dusted some of the snow off his sleeve and looked the siren over. Though he wouldn't voice it, he was impressed. Skill wise she was still a rookie, but her strength, durability, reflexes, and stamina had all improved since the first time they fought; and she was listening to instruction well outside from a few outbursts. The witch even actually managed to land a few hits on him. Whatever new power she'd come into possession of was definitely causing some changes. Keeping his formality, X maintained his voice at a calm mellow. "First off, gravity control is a full contact ability, using both your own form as well as all the ambiance around you as a weapon. It's just as much a force of your body as it is your mind. Much of it is augmentation of physical ability and motion. Gravity is something tied to all matter in existence. How do you expect me to teach you how to control that kind of force if I wasn't sure if you could throw a punch right? Secondly, you told me you came from a form far different than the human shape, so I had to be sure you knew how to control that body first." "Then why not show me some of your moves instead of making me use the ones I know already?" "Who has better mastery? The person who's practiced 1,000 kicks 10 times, or the one who's practiced 10 kicks 1,000 times? What you know already did fine for the test." At this point, Aria was narrowing her eyes and gritting her teeth. Only silver lining to this ordeal had been the times X struck back and hit her, the blow had felt much damper than before. That and the few times she struck back, she could tell she was hitting harder than the first time they met. She was definitely tougher and stronger than before, a change she enjoyed even if it probably gave X the idea for this test while Adagio and Sonata were away. Still close enough to sense an emergency if it cropped up, but after a few more hours of driving Adagio felt it safe to take a stop and scout around for that magic source they'd been taking and left her on watch duty to make sure X didn't run off. Least that is what she told Aria, the purple siren was half convinced her cousin was at least partially aware of her little power boost and wanted to get at any energy source first to keep a leg up on her. -You always did hate a challenge to your rule Adagio...- Focusing back on another individual she could just barely tolerate, Aria barked at X with a groan. "Any other 'sage advice' Maskey?" She snorted as Monster X looked at her in a manner that never ceased to creep her out. Monster X shifted and walked past her, speaking in deadpan as he passed her. "Your hair is too long. It's a liability. I'd cut it." He closed his eyes as he moved away, not expecting a strong yank on his scarf to stumble him backwards. He snapped his eyes open and twisted around to see a glaring Aria Blaze holding onto his scarf. "Says the jerk wearing a cord around his neck." After a moment to return the glare out of the corner of his eyes, X relaxed. He mentally cursed himself to putting his back to her, the ever present reminder about the temporary nature of this alliance smiting any trust he might bear for the sirens. And he knew the feeling was mutual. Taking his scarf by Aria's hand, he gently though firmly pried her fingers off it and got himself free. "You passed the physical test enough, it's my turn now." He took a step backwards into the center of the clearing, making sure not to turn his back to the siren. If there was a place in this realm to test out gravity, this snowy forest was a good fielding ground. The slow falling snow was useful for tracking air movements and the under story with its wide gap between trees allowed both for lots of roaming space as well as, more importantly, plenty of view distance to see any incoming individuals. Last thing X wanted was that shadow monstrosity sneaking up on them, a detail aided in that it would stick out greatly among the gray spruce wood and white snow surrounding them. The xilian kaiju closed his eyes and controlled his breathing as Aria stood back. Gravity was one of the basic fundamental forces in the universe. Stars, planets, persons, even the air gave off the gravitons responsible for the pull between atoms. With the planet underfoot and all manner of matter around him, Monster X was swimming in gravitons every passing second. He could feel it now, running over his fingers and right through his glove in a shifting breeze. Trick was manipulating it and the matter attached too it. He started to twist and divert it with a sway of his arms and shift in his stance. Palms facing downward towards the ground, he altered direction, weight, and density of what was beneath him. Little by little, his feet started to leave the snowy ground. With some further flocculation he managed to levitate upwards about half a decimeter into the air. -Alright, got walking down, now to run…- X grimaced and struggled slightly as he both maintained the levitation and refocused his other efforts to his face to prepare a flare attack. Manipulating molecular pull and weight was child’s play compared to using this force offensively. Creating a directional gravity vortex in front of one’s face, condensing nearby matter into pressurized plasma, and then firing said torrent of energy while keeping it tightly bound in a graviton net to create a beam was no easy task; and to be practical it had to be all done in under a second. X’S brow twitched as balls of condensed plasma started to flicker several centimeters away from his face, barely the size of a water droplet. The sensation of trying to further condense and manage it could only be compared favorably to trying to ball up a handful of smoke and throw it out. Straining, and just when he was beginning to have some success, overwhelming. The energy charge skyrocketed up and down in flux. Monster X visibly started wincing in pain from fruitless efforts to control it, a difficult effort when someone else was trying to fight for the controls. Emotions and visions hit him like a ton of bricks. Hatred, anguish, and unending rage murdered any sense of calm he was trying to maintain. He'd sought to use his powers, and in the process loosened the lock on someone else's cage. The energy flows flew out of control and X grabbed at his face in a reflexive attempt to shut it off, snarling in pain. Aria Blaze's eyes slowly widened at the sight of a familiar terror when she spotted the changes. All she needed was a glimpse of Monster X's ivory white hair morphing and growing a burned black and gold fringe to know what was coming. Taking a step back with her necklace pulsing in alarm, the siren frantically dug through her memory. She remembered a night past and an action done, the only hurdle was reciting the lyrics to a song she hadn't ever sung before that night. Just before the glowing mass of energy in front of X's face showed signs of exploding again like it did at the hospital, a soft melody carried itself across the stirred air. Monster X felt the hateful chokehold on his weaken, the waves of anger ebbing away slowly over time. He kept his eyes shut to avoid firing off the energy mass at whatever was in front of him, taking advantage of the calm settling in to slowly siphon it off into the surroundings. Aria carefully continued reciting a siren song completely alien to her. A normal siren call was meant to rile the listeners up, and then drain away energy from the ensuing adoration towards them and discourse towards everyone else. It could be shaped into a number of tunes and songs, but the undertone remained the same. This one however took that weave of anger and slowly unraveled it, pulling it apart string by string. Aria never had been one to try out completely new songs, that was Adagio's field, but something told her this was a different ball game entirely. Still just as haunting, but in a distinct manner. If the red smoke she was pulling out of X in such large quantities didn't make her feel so energized, she probably have cut it out long ago based off how weird it felt. As much as she hated the creature, he made for a good power source. Regaining his focus, X let out a slow breath and retraced his steps. Now lacking the sudden emotional and power surge to disrupt him, he went back to basics. Gripping all the nearby gravitons around him as he levitated a meter into the air, he threw out his arm with a spread hand and gave a simple command to the surrounding snow. -Stop.- On cue, every snowflake around him in a two meter radius halted its descent and suspended in the air. A wave of gravity hit the packed snow beneath him, erupting it in a frozen explosion. Pulling half of the snow into a single spot, Monster X aimed the nexus of gravitons to just above his upwards facing palm, before crushing his fingers in somewhat. He finally opened his eyes when the song stopped. Aria Blaze and X looked up and down at each other, surrounded by red smoke and suspended snow, siren heart and a ball of packed ice in hands. Each one of them could practically smell the energy coming off the other even as X levitated back down to the ground and Aria absorbed all of the red smog. X blankly dropped the ice ball to the ground, eyes focused on Aria's gem as it glowed its brightest. Aria herself looked a tad different. Her hair and skin seemed to be slightly darker than then norm and the red in her irises was even more obvious than before. X didn't even feel the need to guess as to where that singing came from. "What did you just do to me?" Aria Blaze snorted, flicking one of her pigtails back. "Kept you from flipping out. I like to keep my neck unbroken."