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Ponyville
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A new face in town trotted along the beaten path towards Ponyville from a stretch of road leading off to the east. She wasn’t a remarkable pony by any means, a slightly below-average height earth pony mare with a reddish-pink coat. Her mane was a nearly black level of dark brown, though the slight graying in some fringes and the lines on her face were fairly clear, designating that she was around the middle-aged range. The only clothing on her form was a white hair band and a red scarf that billowed a bit in the strong breeze blowing past her, sometimes obscuring her magnifying-glass-over-an-egg cutiemark.
The traveler had been humming to herself as she went, but her attention was soon diverted by a stallion sitting on a bench. While he had a newspaper in hoof, his focus was clearly on whatever was causing him to suck in his breath and wince. Judging from the position of one of his hooves on the side of his face, something in his mouth. The traveler plodded over to him.
“Hey, are you alright?”
“Urrrg ah! Um, I think so. Just something hurting on my jaw.”
He grunted, sucking in his breath as a jolt of pain shot through the pegasus stallion’s mandible. The mare leaned in closer, motioning upwards with her wrist.
“Here open your mouth, I’m kind of a doctor. Say Aaaah if you can.”
The stallion opened his jaws as wide as they could and did so as requested while the traveler looked in closer.
“...Aaaaaaah?”
He could tell she was looking his mouth over, but couldn’t help but be a bit confused at what she was mumbling to herself.
“Hmmm flat grinding teeth, definitely herbivore. Shorter muzzle and flexible tongue to assist in speech like in a-”
“Oouh finn eet?”
Sure enough the mare spotted what she was expecting: a deep red coming from the top jaw’s teeth line along with some swollen gum tissue.
“Ah! Upper right premolar has some debris near the gumline. Looks like part of a maize seed gouged into it. Might want to head to a dentist, and try not to probe your mouth any or it’ll cut the gum up more.”
She quipped, pulling away. The stallion smiled as best he could without wincing, holding a hoof to his cheek after giving a relieved sigh.
“Phew! Was starting to worry it was something real bad. Last time I get a jumbo popcorn bag at the flicks. I’ll head up to the office and see if Minuette Colgate has an opening. Thanks lady!”
He muttered with a pleasant expression, kicking off from his seat and starting to walk off. The traveler beamed and nodded, soon casting her eyes to the newspaper her sudden patient had been reading as it lay face down on the bench. Her eyes took only a moment to instantly recognize an outline of a picture visible through the back of the front page.
“Hey, can I borrow this?”
The traveler asked, picking up the newspaper. The toothache-bearing stallion chuckled and waved to her as he started to flap his wings and ascend into the air for a low hover.
“I’m done with it, read it mostly for the funnies and Wonderbolts report. It’s all your’s if you want it. Bye-ow! Um, bye!”
He yelped after a brief spurt of pain before flying off. The mare smiled, pulling up to seat herself on the bench after a bit of awkwardness with her limbs. Managing to get the hang of it, she opened up the newspaper to its front page. The image was of something not of Equestria. A composite image, one frame of it was a part of what had been now dubbed the “Fourth Battle of Canterlot”; displaying a picture taken of Godzilla Junior as he squared off with half a dozen Super Gyaos outside of some sort of barrier going around the city. One gyaos was biting down on his wrist as the saurian titan fired his beam to vaporize several more and grasping another with his free hand. The second half was much more recent, at a now infamous interview. A charcoal gray unicorn with a bent horn, wearing dark hued armor, and being of enormous proportion sitting next to several of Canterlot’s nobility and royalty. The caption below reading “King Godzilla Gojo the Second interviewed”. The title to the article in question being, “Friend or Threat? Canterlot votes Former!”.
Peculiarly enough despite the action and magnitude of the first image, it was the second picture that had the mare’s attention. Her curiosity and rapid paced reading only grew upon seeing a follow up image, showing a purple and blue pegasus the caption dubbed “Moonbeam Glimmer” staring down a clearly stressed Godzilla Junior. The traveler paid close attention to the unicorn’s red eyes and a frown crossed her muzzle.
Several minutes and thorough readings later, the traveler continued to make her way through Ponyville. She was just starting to pass what appeared to be an outdoor diner when the familiar sound of infantile crying caught her focus. The Cakes had so far been having a very pleasant afternoon. They had a break in their work orders so they’d elected to eat out and bring the little ones. Pound and Pumpkin Cake had been absolutely delighted just a moment ago, especially given they got to bring their second favorite playmate Gummy out with them. Which was all the more confusing for the married couple as to why Pound Cake just started sporadically crying. As Mrs. Cake soothingly shushed and rocked her child while she and her husband attempted to find out what was wrong, Pumpkin Cake seemed to not notice her brother’s distress. The tiny filly was sitting down next to Gummy, pawing her little hooves over the gentle alligator’s back. But as her hooves bumped across Gummy’s scutes, the reptile remained completely unresponsive. Pumpkin Cake’s face began to contort and scrunch up, sniffling as her eyes started to water. She and her brother wanted to play with their pet and show him affection, but Gummy didn’t notice them. In their little minds, it meant it was bad and they were bad and they cried when things were bad! To a toddler, this was serious business! Pumpkin Cake sniffled and tried to rub Gummy again, but to no success.
Fortunately before the first tear could fall, a hot colored hoof very gently nudged her side and got the little one’s attention. Pumpkin Cake, sucking on one of her hooves, turned her head and looked up to see the traveler crouched down and smiling at her. With a light push the mare rolled Gummy onto his side and patted at the alligator’s exposed stomach. Pumpkin Cake blinked her eyes, her young mind pondering the sight for a moment before following the basic instinct to mimic and rubbed Gummy’s stomach. Now the reptile was responsive, twitching his tail and hissing contently in an almost purring-like manner.
“Most reptiles have thinner scales and more nerves on their stomachs to sense heat. If you want to give them a rub and show them some love, the tummy’s the best spot.”
The mare said to the family now all watching her. Mr. and Mrs. Cake looked at each other, then to Pound Cake, who was stifling his crying and reaching for Gummy; and sighed with a smile, glad that it wasn’t anything serious that had their son suddenly crying. Having been set back down Pound Cake was quick to eagerly join her sister in giving Gummy belly rubs after waddling over. Mrs. Cake put her hoof on the mare’s shoulder.
“Oh thank you so much Miss! They sometimes cry at random but we always worry it’s bad.”
The traveler beamed, returning the gesture in almost the manner of a one armed hug.
“Oh it’s no problem at all, I’ve got experience with the scaly and with kids, hehehe.”
She giggled. A moment later and her face lit up and her brow lifted. Turning her head back around, she pulled the newspaper she’d thrown onto her back off and moved it to her free front limb.
“Sorry, I hate to pester; but could you two possibly point me the way to get to Can-ter-lot?”
She muttered, spacing out the name of the unfamiliar city and hoping she was pronouncing it right.
Mr. Cake blinked for a moment before getting his mind back onto the track being set.
“Oh, you mean Canterlot? Yes, just take the north train at the station just past the spa. Should be rolling into town in about five minutes.”
“How much is the cost? I found some coins on the walk here but, ehehe IIIIII’m not sure it’s it’s enough. They take barter?”
The traveler muttered, pulling out two bits from under her hairband as her ears flopped down in an embarrassed manner. In truth the train fare was four bits, but that didn’t stop the mutual glance and smile from the Cakes ignoring that little problem. Mrs. Cake pushed the mare’s hoof back into it.
“O' deary, you just tell them you’re running a Cakes business order and they’ll put it on our tab. We get a discount.”
“Oh but I don’t want to impose!”
Mr. Cake just chuckled at the mare’s benign insistence, putting a hoof around his wife as he motioned to the now happily giddy twins playing with Gummy.
“Believe you-me, helping with the twins is worth five times the fare!”
Mrs. Cake similarly grinned, but the expression soon vanished when she saw her husband’s watch ticking down out of the corner of her eye.
“O'! You best get a move on sweetheart! Or else you’ll miss your train!”
She yelped. Almost on cue a train whistle called out from several buildings away. Not wanting to waste time arguing, the traveler chose to take the aid and keep going. After all, she had to get to Canterlot!
“Thanks!”
The mare barked after revving up into a sprint and bolting off towards the station, thankful equines were able to gallop so fast.
=================
Canterlot Hospital
=================
Xenilla has had worse, like that time he nearly exploded. This though was probably somewhere in the top five. The kaiju convert lay in a hospital bed hooked up to numerous machines and had been wrapped up in an almost comedic amount of body casts before he insisted he just needed to be wrapped up on account of his fast healing. Even after several magical treatments and lots of sunlight, he still had more broken bones that he did intact ones and as the ticking monitor indicated, occasionally an erratic heartbeat that spiked whenever he forcefully mended an injury. Using one of his few intact skeletal systems to bite down and crunch a healing crystal, Xenilla ignored the searing pain in his chest caused by the crystal forcing his ribs to unshatter and go back together properly. Hurt to Daiei and back, but he wasn’t in the complaining mood. As far as he was concerned, he had it coming. This pain would pass.
However, the worst pain in his recovery wasn’t so easily ebbed away. The hole in the back of his mind, whose gripping tendrils slithered all the way down his back, was ever present. It wasn’t as bad as it had been hours ago, at that point he was borderline catatonic mentally. Functioning enough to respond but too shell shocked to really think. For over two decades he’d played his life and all his plans off a fear that if he did nothing, a worse catastrophe would follow. It drove him to try and kill his father. An act he found out recently had been completely meaningless. All he was now, all the pain he’d caused as he tried to pick up the pieces and keep the world from being torn apart; all because his otherwise great intelligence had been wrong once based off of an impulse reaction.
-Guess I’m more like father than I give credit… -
Xenilla put the crystal down and looked back at the alicorn he’d been speaking to. Princess Luna held a neutral expression on her face the entire time Xenilla had been telling her everything. It was more an affirmation of what the alicorn already had been told, to make sure there was no lies on his end after Blade Dancer had given the diarchs the full lowdown while he was unconscious on the way to the hospital. Though as Xenilla corroborated the story previously told, he could tell there was something on the alicorn’s mind. She, even if only for the briefest moment, looked markedly uncomfortable when Xenilla got into the parts about fighting his sibling. He needed little guess why that was so, but elected not to prod.
“And that’s how I made the biggest mistake of my life and have been… trying to keep the world spinning ever since.”
He grunted, only needing to pause briefly to avoid reacting to a jolt of pain in his torso. Princess Luna closed her eyes and let herself breathe out.
“... He never told me you were his brother…”
Xenilla paused, looking off and away from the alicorn as he felt her eyes upon him again.
“.. To him I’m not. Judging from what Miss Dancer and Mothra have told you, you can see why… How is Mothra by the way? I can sense her down the hall.”
“Recovering. Exhausted, but in good health.”
Luna muttered in a stiff manner, picking her form back up a few more inches. Xenilla seemed to ponder for a moment, pursing his lips. With a couple of winces he raised his hoof and squinted. A glow pulsed down from his shoulders and through his hoof. As if condensing itself in the air a small, yellow colored, brightly glowing rhombus appeared upon his hoof pad. Xenilla moved his hoof over to offer it up to the alicorn.
“Can you give her this?”
He muttered as Luna picked the crystal up with her magic and levitated it before herself. The alicorn cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head curiously.
“What is it?”
“Energy crystal. Restores cell efficiency to restore stamina to the body. She’ll know what to do with it. Still don’t expect her to trust me at all but- agk!”
Xenilla snipped, sucking in his breath as he fell back into the bed with a tooth-baring wince on his muzzle as the pain momentarily caused him to lock up. He caught his breath and pulse again, as indicated by the heart beat monitor, and saw a nodding Princess Luna looking back at him.
“I’ll take it to her.”
“... Thank you, Princess.”
With crystal in magic, Princess Luna turned from her spot and headed for the door. Just as she was about to head on her way out however, the blue alicorn stopped short of opening it. She turned her head halfway to the side, not looking back but enough to throw her voice to the room’s only occupant.
“That form Junior took, you recognized it. You were horrified by it.”
Xenilla's chest tightened up as phantom fear pumped through him and accelerated his heart rate.
“Not from personal experience. But yes, I know of it.”
“What was it? I've seen it in his nightmares before, but I know not what it is.”
“...”
Luna turned around, her eyes practically glaring daggers through the kaiju so sharp he didn’t need to look her in the eyes to feel them as he cast his gaze to the floor.
“Xenilla, tell me.”
“... The Burning. First time seeing it myself, but I never want to again… Family trait, it’s what killed our father.”
Xenilla could sense Luna’s glare momentarily falter as she shared the same fearful expression he was hiding.
“How is it done?”
“A loss of control over the source of our powers. It makes you stronger, magnitudes stronger. But if kept up for any length at full force, it’ll burn you out. Literally… One of the reasons I did what I did was to force my bro-.... Godzilla Junior, to learn to control his powers. He’s stronger than our father ever was, making it all the more important. With our father it required him overdosing on radioactive energy.”
“And Junior hates you so much that once worked into a rage, he entered it all by himself…”
Luna averted her glare and looked off to the side, worry and panic flashing across her face. So much attention was diverted to thought she barely heard Xenilla’s whisper.
“Princess.”
“Huh?”
Xenilla’s vision met the alicorn’s, and to Luna he almost looked unrecognizable. He was looking forward and off into space, almost shell shocked in expression as his face drooped down in anguish.
“I can tell you are friendly to him, so I need you to promise me this.”
“Promise what?”
“I failed him, more than any ever could. But, his life means more than mine; even to me. Promise me you’ll try to help him never take that form again. If he does, it could kill him. Protect icka’-”
He stopped himself from saying it or a synonym for it again, no longer feeling like he was allowed to.
“Protect him, even from himself.”
Luna stuttered a bit, confusion and shock messing up her speech pattern.
“W-Why are you asking me this?!”
Xenilla shrugged.
“Because I fully expect him to make it so my trip to your world is cut short. And lacking one last deed I might need to do for someone else, I’m not sure I care. And if he does what I think he's going to do without someone to help him, he may be trapped in that state.”
A long silence passed between the two figures, even as both minds raced and rambled in ponderance. Princess Luna took in a deep breath, exhaled, and managed to compose herself reasonably well.
“And, there is no chance at him forgiving you?”
Xenilla, having done enough thinking already, didn’t need a moment to think about his answer.
“His family line never was very good at forgiveness, takes after his father there. And especially not for me. I could always be wrong, but consider this a measure taken in case I'm right. I made my mistakes and climbed into my grave awhile ago. I just want you to promise he won’t be joining me when he decides to fill it in.”
A depressing sigh echoed across the room from Luna’s lips.
“I promise... My sister and myself will want to talk to you later. Until then, rest and remain here.”
And with that, Princess Luna took her leave. A long drought of interaction settled through Xenilla’s room, leaving him alone with his thoughts for what felt like hours. He managed to get off his emotional rollercoaster and push himself back into some semblance of order when he felt a familiar presence approaching from the way that Luna left. Had it been anyone else in that hospital bed, they’d probably be startled out of their skin if they turned and looked over in the way Xenilla did and saw the towering form of Destroyah looming over them. The Serizawan Legacy looked over her oldest ally with a blank expression before rolling her eyes.
“They said it was bad, but I’ve seen you worse. You’ll live.”
“I intend to, for what amount I'm allowed anyways.”
“Haven’t heard you sound like that before.”
Xenilla sucked in a breath, biting back a wince as he gave a long, tired shrug. He put his hoof to his brow.
“Destroyah, we can stop pretending you don’t know now.”
The giantess of a mare adjusted her position and took a seat next to Xenilla’s bedside and got comfortable, having previously needed to hold her neck out to avoid her horn bumping the ceiling.
“Wondered how or when I figured it out?”
“Yes, actually I have.”
“Was about four or five years ago, didn’t care to count days. Was when you had me divert a few of the lackies from running rampant while you handled another group. You didn’t want them going off in a spot the runt or any of his friends weren’t at.”
Xenilla probed his mind for a second, going through his memories like storage and quickly recalling the instance.
“Yes, we were in the Atlantic and some of the Mutations wanted to attack New York City while not even the resident guard dog was present. You seemed to have enjoyed yourself then when I gave the order to beat some sense into them.”
He grunted, earning a nonchalant nod and head tilt from Destroyah.
“I did.”
She said, shrugging her shoulders as the memory of flinging Krystalak around with her tail pincer after the bugger tried to pull a fast one on her played before her eyes.
“But then it occurred to me when I saw the human city in the distance. With all those lights on at night it wasn’t hard. Here you and I were, fighting other Mutations. I’d lost count before and since that day how many other times you called upon me to do that while you did the same; but it was more times than you or I ever directly fought the beings you said were the enemy. So, I questioned why when I got bored and remembered how you always called the runt that word for sibling; and it made sense.”
Xenilla raised his brow some. True, he’d suspected for a long time Destroyah had somehow figured his scheme out. But the question of how and why she first had always taunted him. While he always respected the accidental creation of the Oxygen Destroyer, something mandatory for someone who could stand up to his father at his peak and almost beat him, he wouldn’t have expected her to be the first to make any keen observations.
“If you saw through it, I wonder if any of the others did.”
“Some may have wondered it, but I doubt it. You know how they were.”
Xenilla chewed on his cheek and shook his head in a manner Destroyah recognized. Spending years as someone’s right-hand kaiju tended to help you pick up on their body language pretty well and Xenilla’s headshaking and expression said less “I don’t know” and more “Thanks for reminding me”. There was a good reason Xenilla thought the Mutations would have been a serious threat to all life on the plane if not put on a leash.
“Too prideful to see straight, too monstrous for even Mothra to try and redeem; and power hungry to the end. If we’d let them run wild-”
Destroyah cut him off with her own brand of creepy monotone, speaking in complete seriousness without an ounce of anger, frustration, or levity.
“Terra would be scarred, probably hundreds of millions of humans instead of a minuscule number would be dead, and probably some of the runt’s gang going down with them until we toughened the survivors up.”
“So, you really did figure it all out…”
Xenilla deadpanned, earning a shrug from Destroyah.
“Play the threat, make the opposition stronger over time; and keep the destruction down to a tiny fraction of a fraction. Worked.”
Xenilla laid back into his bedding and stared up at the ceiling in an empty manner. In some ways, the affirmation of any kind that his scheme paid off in some form was very welcome. Especially after the Final War’s alien invasion, it seemed more important than ever that he had to ensure his brother and those who’d follow him needed to be strong enough to survive whatever might come next. And with so many Mutations coming out of the woodwork, too many for Xenilla to kill off entirely; he’d instead cowed them into restriction and tried to make the situation work for him and unknowingly, others. And Destroyah was right in many ways, it did indeed seem to work. His brother had grown mightier than their father ever was and was surrounded by his own army of mighty allies, battle hardened and greater than before. While Xenilla bore no love for the humans, something he felt was vindicated by who Princess Twilight said fired that blasted satellite gun at them without regard for who else it hit, the effect appeared to work on them too. Even just four years ago the Global Defense Force, humanity’s pinnacle of power and advancement, would have been utterly destroyed by rampaging Mutations if Junior and Mothra’s Defender faction hadn’t stepped in and Xenilla yanked back on the Mutations’ leashes. Now with the return of their mechas and further advancements after the Final War, they stood a chance and could bolster the planet’s defenses.
Part of Xenilla took note of them and affirmed to himself he made the best of a bad situation and played it out to the most optimal outcome. In some ways, he had succeeded.
And another part of Xenilla was calling him a fraud and reminding him of how carved up and scarred up his sibling is thanks to his near constant fighting against the Mutations over the years. And how close Junior might be to dying if he could activate the burning form and risk a meltdown. That empty, engulfing feeling from before was returning with a vengeance. It took everything he had to avoid an eye wetting. The silence between himself and Destroyah was broke with a half whisper.
“Why did you go along with it? If you knew it was all fake, why did you stay?”
He wasn’t expecting as quick an answer as he got, nor one so concise.
“Because of what you told me.”
Destroyah grunted, shrugging. Now Xenilla was confused enough for it to show.
“Wait, what?”
“When you dug up that fragment of me that was still alive after my fight with your father, you helped me grow my body back after those missions inside the GDF, once you knew I wouldn't try to eat you soon as I returned to this stage. Getting my final form again was like getting my mind back together in some ways, made me think. And memory of near death gave me some new things to think about. Previously it was all instinct. Feed, grow, adapt, find a threat, kill it, continue. Even after I became more aware by my final stage, I still just did what instinct told me to. But when you helped me return, one thing I hadn’t considered before was my origins. And you knew them well.”
“I remember. I was actually surprised when you asked, up until then I hadn’t thought you to be able to speak. I’d gotten the information from the human’s networks, it being why I knew where to find your remains to begin with.”
“And, you told me of how I was created.”
Destroyah looked to her flank, the emblem of Dr. Serizawa's final creation emblazoned upon it as her cutiemark.
“Yes, about how you were born from the oxygen destroyer device set off sixty years ago.”
Xenilla said the name of the creation with a bit of lowered breath. The oxygen destroyer was nothing to joke about, being the only device that was a surefire way to kill a kaiju not specifically built to resist or survive it. Arguably the most terrifying weapon humanity ever devised, it was what killed the original Godzilla, Junior’s grandfather, six decades ago. Apparently the creator of it agreed with what Xenilla’s sentiments were after the latter found out about it, taking his own life with his weapon upon activating it to kill the first Godzilla; already having burned his research. Despite a lot of attempts by scientists operating for decades to replicate the process that destroyed all oxygen bearing atoms in a space, no luck was to be had. When Dr. Ijuin accidentally and for a time unknowingly rediscovered the process, he was wise enough to follow Dr. Serizawa’s example to less lethal extremes and wiped out his research after finding out the truth following Destroyah’s grand entrance in 1995. Since then Xenilla had been watching the development very closely, despite the UN ban on the research. If anyone ever got close, he’d handle it with as little attention drawn as possible. The oxygen destroyer was one weapon no one was ever going to have. After all, aside from the catastrophic destructive properties to the lifeforms it did affect, there was the effects it had on those it didn’t kill. Twas an odd irony the bigger the weapon used, the bigger the genies it let out of the bottle; sometimes literally. Xenilla was talking to one.
“A weapon.”
Destroyah grunted, speaking back in the present.
“And a weapon exists just to do it’s purpose and follow the command to attack whatever it’s pointed at. I was born from Serizawa’s weapon so I’m one myself.”
“So, you just kept destroying because you thought it to be your nature.”
Destroyah frowned and rolled her eyes.
“If we’re done stating the obvious. If I ever actually opposed or actually cared about what you were doing, I’d have done something about it. But as long as you were pointing me in an agreeable direction, I didn’t care.”
“If you don’t care, why bring it up now?”
A quiet passed over Dr. Serizawa’s legacy. Destroyah’s expression was one Xenilla wasn’t very used to seeing. She didn’t emote much, only the barest hint of what was going through her mind. Unlike the expressive Equestrians, in many ways Destroyah still expressed her thoughts like she was still a 120 meter kaiju that didn’t have moveable lips or ears; emoting more through non-facial body language. Her wings were sticking up slightly, shoulders slouching, neck craned back, and staring off into space with her jaw stiffened. All in all, Xenilla knew she was stressed and confused, clearly homing in on a specific thought but not quite sure how to express it.
“... Destroyah?”
“....”
“Destroyah?”
“... I’m…."
She sighed.
"Xenilla, what did you plan to have happen to me once the Solgell plan was done? If it had gone off without a hitch.”
Xenilla blinked a few times, honestly a bit surprised still she was asking about this. But, knowing better than to try and dodge around the topic, he shrugged and relented.
“If it had gone smoothly, most of the worst Mutations like Megaguirus would be dead with the less aggressive ones like Obsidious and Pulgasari cowed into surrendering or backing down. After that happened… well, I was actually going to leave the choice to you.”
“And what were my options?”
“Terra was rightfully your home as much as any. Once we stopped pretending you didn’t know and you said you wanted to go off on your own, I’d release any debt you had to me. If you wanted to be left in peace though, the second option was to go back to one of the habitable but sentient free worlds I passed by on my initial rush to Terra. If you wanted to be left alone, I’d take you to one.”
Xenilla frowned, knowing both options had their problems. But trying to make the best of an unideal situation was the only thing he’d been able to do since he existed. He looked back at Destroyah, now noticing the giant mare’s stare was directed at something. Outside the window and down the Canterlot city limits going southward, he saw a wide expanse of rural lands. On the peak of the horizon were a couple of buildings discernible in the distance. Trailing Destroyah’s vision showed she was looking directly at them.
-Map said that apple orchard she was sent to was to the south. Must have ended up going back to Ponyville.-
Xenilla knew the subject and the effect it was having on Destroyah, and with the previous topic in mind he already knew what was on her mind now.
“You want to stay here, don’t you?”
He said with a calm breath. Destroyah looked down to the floor as her wings drooped some more. She spoke with a hint of confusion in her tone, still straining to express it properly.
“... I’m… happy here. No one hurting me or attacking me. I know this sounds strange coming out of me but, I don’t want to be left alone anymore. And I don’t want to go back to Terra. These ponies’ lives are strange, and there's still a lot to try and figure out here. I’d like to stay here to try and do that.”
Her speech pattern and body language were clear indicators there was something more specific she wasn’t talking about. Xenilla chose not to risk pushing any buttons. With a deep breath to shrug off any flabbergasting he had, he put his hoof on Destroyah’s shoulders in a kindly manner. She called herself a weapon and others called her a crony, but whenever the kaiju came to his mind there was only one word that he called her. Friend.
“Destroyah. Look at me.”
The requested kaiju glanced over at Xenilla, her reaction showing she was actually a bit surprised to see him smiling at her.
“I have a lot to answer for and a lot more to try and fix, but I won’t force you to answer with me. I release you… To put it in your words, you are no longer any weapon of mine.”
Destroyah’s surprise became visible as she stared at Xenilla for the longest time, her jaw even dropping a few millimeters to part her lips. Slowly, the edges of her maw began to turn upwards a bit as her wings relaxed and lifted. It was the first time Xenilla ever saw her smile in a manner free of any bloodthirstiness or crazen excitement, but instead in the same earnest happiness Equestria had taught her in some fairly unorthodox ways. Xenilla’s eyes actually widened a bit. She looked completely different with that expression on.
It stayed for awhile as Xenilla let himself return the happiness. It only faded when she looked back out the window at Ponyville, stifling itself back to gloom.
-I just hope Equestria has a place for a weapon...-
Shrugging, she leaned over a gave Xenilla a nudge with her hoof, accidentally bumping him a bit too roughly in his ribs but not noticing him sucking and choking on his breath briefly.
“Plan over or not, take care of yourself. If you’ve been looking out for Terra all these years, you might still be needed.”
“Gk!-Noted!
Xenilla gagged momentarily. Destroyah got up and began to make her way for the door. Before she could however, Xenilla’s word chased her down.
“And Destroyah, remember something.”
She paused, tilting her head back towards her oldest ally.
“Dr. Daisuke Serizawa didn’t intend to make the oxygen destroyer as a weapon and even when he used it as such; he used it to save others. Just because you were born from a weapon doesn’t make you a one-note being. You choose how you use your power, weapon of war or life. If you want to keep your creator in mind, remember that part about him. These Equestrians got a good world going for them, I’m sure you’ll find your place. You don't make my mistake and you won't have to correct it.”
Destroyah raised her wings somewhat in a manner indicative of her happiness as she looked at Xenilla while opening the room door.
“Keep alive Xenilla, don’t die soon.”
-Thank you friend, be safe.-
Xenilla cracked a smile, not sure himself if it was true or false. Just like how he wasn’t sure if it was true or false that the same idea he’d pitched to Destroyah about everyone having their place applied to him. What mattered though was despite losing one reason to keep himself from being put down by his brother, seeing to Destroyah’s fate; he was happy for his friend.
-Might not be broken down, not just yet... I got work to do.-
“Pay mind for yourself, old friend.”
==============================
Meanwhile in the neighboring ward
==============================
Princess Celestia hadn’t left Princess Cadance’s side since the incident on the mountain. Ever since her exertion against the rampaging Godzilla Junior, the younger alicorn had felt nausea strong enough to unsteady her and pains harmful enough to knock her off her hooves. Golden brilliance engulfed a stirring spoon dipped in an old, homely cup as it churned the tea. Celestia hummed an almost motherly tune as some of her magic infused itself into the mixture. She finished her little tune after a short while, blowing on the drink to cool it a bit before she gently handed it to Princess Cadance, whom was laying down on her propped up hospital bed.
“Here, drink this.”
Celestia whispered softly. Cadance sniffled her nose before being done as told despite a sickly look on her paled face. True, it felt like she’d swallowed a thunderstorm and the world was still a bit tipsy, but the trust in her aunt had overridden any worry of the tea coming back up after she gulped it down. The moment the tea went down her throat and hit her thrashing stomach, it was as if the sea inside her instantly quelled. Having drunk half the cup in just one go, she gave a very unlady-like, loud exhale of relief once she finished. Taking several deep breaths and thanking every blessing she could to be free of the nausea, Cadance flopped back onto her bed and groggily rolled towards Celestia with one eye half closed from exhaustion.
“Th-Thought I heard a doctor come in earlier. What all did he say was up with me? I couldn’t quite catch it.”
“You must have been phasing in and out of consciousness, we thought you were out cold after you fainted. It was nothing serious dear niece, worry not. You were just having some bad maternal hormone fluctuations brought up by all this stress. The baby is just fine too.”
Cadance tiredly nodded, half chuckling as she recalled all that had happened to her recently.
“Well, I’ve had quite a pair of weeks-!....”
She stopped, both eyes snapping open and widening.
“B…. Baby? Did-Did you say-?!”
Her breath was quickening for a moment like she’d just been shocked, thankfully slowing when she felt a hoof on her jaw. Celestia's beaming face shined down upon her beloved niece before she leaned down and kissed the top of the smaller alicorn’s head. The solar diarch wiped a tear from her own cheek before speaking again.
“Don’t worry about the fight with Sombra or restraining Godzilla. They can’t tell what kind of race it is yet because your alicorn magic is blocking the more detailed scanners, but they can tell it is completely healthy. I see you and young Shining wasted no time in making an heir!~”
She said with a snicker. For a moment she cherished, she got to shove back both all her fears and worries as well as any queenly facade she typically wore to enjoy a happy moment with someone who’d basically been a daughter to her for years. Cadance still visited her parents frequently of course, but Celestia still vividly remembered the joy she felt of not being the only alicorn anymore when a young Cadenza found her way to her in a very unorthodox manner. To the solar matron, she and her child were family. That train of thought was quickly vindicated when Cadance lurched up and clung to Celestia in a bear hug, burying the side of her face into Celestia’s neck.
Truth be told, the younger alicorn was still in shock. But as her face began to crinkle and her eyes watered; that too faded and was replaced with joy.
“W-Well, this explains all those tired spells and appetite uptakes I’ve been having. I just assumed it was the daily grind of ruling, like your cake pillaging.”
“Hey, that sugar was what kept me from passing out during double shifts for a millennium!”
The duo enjoyed a cackle of laughter before Cadance pulled away and looked at her stomach region in a whole new way. Princess Celestia pulled out some notes written by the doctors to review.
“It appears you’re actually pretty far along despite not showing much. Your lack of visible change on the outside is probably because you were ascended and thus have a larger body than if you remained a pegasus. More mass has obscured the growth you would be seeing otherwise quite a bit. This happens sometimes in larger mares.”
At this point Cadance was near the point of crying. Celestia had assured her years ago her ascension hadn’t affected her fertility or made her sterile, but the worry had always been there. But now she need worry no more. For a moment she let herself forget all that had happened over these last few weeks, despite them being some of the most stressful weeks of her life. All the chaos with the kaiju or being nearly killed by some monster she thought was dead was second in her mind as she practically meditated in on her own form and blocked out any other sound, sight, or smell in hopes of catching just the slightest hint of her child’s presence.
When she got it, Cadance sniffled her half stuffed nose and whispered through a smile.
“I want to see my husband.”
Princess Celestia shared the expression, nuzzling Cadance affectionately before gracefully lifting up and heading for the door.
“He's right outside, wanted to let me have a turn. The room will be crowded with three, especially with me around. I’ll swap places with him.”
The diarch glided out of the room, opening the door to see a clearly stressed Shining Armor practically having worn a trench into the floor in his pacing outside the hospital chamber. Despite his frayed mane and dilated eyes, his guard training came rushing back into him and he instantly straightened up the moment he saw Princess Celestia. Without a word between them, Celestia knew what was going through his head. She stepped out of the doorway and held it open with her hoof, nodding her head to the inside.
“They’re perfectly fine, both of them.”
Prince Shining Armor sucked in his breath and let it out in a long, relieved sigh. Thumping himself on the chest to test his foundation and make sure he wasn’t about to keel over, the unicorn nodded to himself and headed in to join his wife. Princess Celestia’s smile lasted until the doorway behind Shining Armor shut and revealed a stoic Princess Luna coming down the hallway. Celestia knew what was going through her mind too. Stealing a shrug, the white alicorn stood up straight and adjusted her crown to brace herself for a much less pleasant topic than a new royal.
Luna walked up to, stopped in front of, and nodded to her sister.
“Xenilla is stable and with some magic help and a crystal from him, Lady Lea should be well enough to be walking soon.”
Celestia gave a silent nod to Luna before the latter turned her head downwards. She looked blankly at the floor for a short moment, obviously thinking more with her mind’s eye than her physical ones; then shifted her gaze upwards and to the side to peer out the window. Canterlot mountain and the surrounding forests were in good view, making it quite obvious as to what Luna’s mind was playing onto it. Celestia shrugged, standing beside her sister and joining in the ponderous staring.
“Seems fate never fancies to hoof over simple situations.”
“Two siblings split apart with one of them trying to kill the other…We..I really hate how familiar that’s sounding in some ways.”
Luna muttered with a hush, a pitying mix of sadness and depression evident. Celestia tried to stay firm and not share in his sister’s frown despite that last sentence feeling like a buck to the gut, putting a wing around her little sibling. Luna didn’t oppose the gesture, instead leaning into it and rubbing up against Celestia. They stayed like that for awhile, minds obviously racing about before Luna stopped the silence.
“... Why did you forgive me so easily?”
Celestia craned her neck back a bit with a small jolt.
“Lulu-”
Luna cut the indignant sentence off before it could hardly start. She shot a stony look, keeping a solid expression despite twinges of confusion and grief flicking through with every twitchy nerve or muscle.
“I mean it though! I tried to make myself an only child for beyond petty reasons, destroy our home and endanger others, force you to go through what you did, then plague your nightmares for years as you kept me from going after the ponies in their sleep. And then when I get back, I start doing the start of the mayhem all over again, only for you to accept me again the very next day!”
With no hospital staff in this hall and the diarchs all alone, Luna held nothing back in regards to the exasperation in her rambles. Xenilla and Godzilla’s conflict had been plaguing her and opening up a few hard questions she’d been trying to lock away, and now some of them were bubbling back up. It took a lot of restraint for her not to bring up a plan involving a self-inflicting nightmare entity she’d put on hold after Godzilla showed up. Luna looked into Celestia’s eyes while practically begging.
“Tia, how hard was it to forgive me?”
Celestia was frozen in place for a time. Then she began to tremble, closing her eyes to hold her nerves back down as she reached up and removed her crown. When she opened her orbs again, they were looking into her reflection on the gleaming metal. A full thousand years had passed and she still felt like the reflection staring back at her wasn’t her own, not with a mane stained by using the Elements of Harmony alone and against another bearer. She could still practically feel the cold snap that went through her when her connection to them was severed while doing so.
She sighed, chewing at her lip a bit.
“In some ways, very hard. In others, very easy… It’s... difficult to describe… Why are you asking me this?”
Celestia looked Luna in the eyes, locking gazes with her for a time before the younger alicorn almost shamefully looked away and back out the window.
“I’ve always admired you sister. If I were in your horseshoes, I might not have been able to forgive. But with these brothers… I fear that with all that’s happened between them, what happened before will just repeat again and again until one of them is dead. Given his remorse about it all, probably Xenilla.”
“Yet you’re worried about Junior, aren’t you?”
“That force we encountered on the mountain, I looked into his eyes then. All I saw was wrath and bloodthirstiness, destruction given a body and a face. He didn’t even look like that when we fought… Tia, what I saw on the mountain was as far removed from Junior as Nightmare Moon was from me. And I'm scared that if that form returned again, there might not be any going back. It wasn't Junior...”
Princess Celestia kept her voice down involuntarily as the memory pushed back into her. When she saw that burning monstrosity trying to get to his prey with her sister between the two, the oldest alicorn was more terrified than she’d ever been in her life. That same fear shot through her again in phantom sensations that persisted even as her mind pulled up the memory of the interview chamber. Luna was right on the money when she said Junior didn’t look like himself. The visage of the flaming beast and laughing unicorn just refused to mesh together, so alike in body form but so completely different in image.
“I think.. Even he was aware of that, how he wasn’t like himself. That's why he left.”
“There was a moment I remember best, like its burned into my mind. He looked…”
Celestia expected the answer to be something in the ballpark of demonic, terrifying, or out of control; something to express how chaotic and dangerous the King of the Monsters looked. Instead she got-
“-scared.”
Sensing the raised eyebrow she was getting, Luna elaborated.
“In the last moments before he canceled out the blazing glow around him, when he was trying to find a way around myself and Colonel Dancer. I could tell he was thinking about how to get past us and finish Xenilla off. It was only for a brief instant, but whatever he thought of left him terrified. That’s when he cut his powers off. I think he realized what he would have to do, and he was scared the thought occurred to him… Tia, he hates Xenilla so much he went out of control and nearly did something I know he’d never do, all in an attempt to finish it. If even you could have a difficult time forgiving me, what chance does Junior have at forgiving his brother?”
“... You’re afraid for him.”
“I’m afraid of what might happen if he loses himself again, on here or on Terra. Please, Tia-”
Luna felt her eyes grow a bit damp as she pleaded to her sister.
“You know more than me about forgiveness. I still have a hard time managing to do it to even myself… Do you know anything, anything we could do to help? I don’t want him falling into the same trap I did...”
Celestia puzzled a moment, sighing and swallowing the lump in her throat to join the one in her stomach.
“Equestria’s a place for second chances. We offered one to Sombra, Tirek, Chrysalis, Discord, and others. Xenilla can have his. If Junior wants to follow the example, it’ll have to be his choice. I know what you want to do, so do all of us. But I don’t think any of us could or maybe even have the right to try and force him to calm down now and make such a decision. It’s something he’ll need to do himself. For now, we need all the kaiju to work together. If Junior can learn to tolerate Xenilla until they return home for judgement on Terra, we’ll have to accept it. Only time will tell if he chooses to forgive him as well.”
Luna’s frown became apparent, unable to argue even when she knew her sister was right.
-But after all that anger, who could make him listen enough to even consider that option?...-
Princess Luna rolled her shoulders and adjusted her neck. Straightening back up, she snorted and returned to a more refined manner.
“One of us should remain at the castle for other businesses for now, especially with the condition of some of the kaiju and Princess Cadance. We shall take the first shift.”
She grunted, walking off towards the exit of the isolated hall. A quiet voice called out after her.
“Lulu.”
Luna paused. She didn’t need to look back to see the broken expression on her sister’s face in the shining door. It would have stopped her cold and left her a bit agape had she not been so dedicated to being resolute moments earlier. She’d only seen that look on Celestia’s face in private and secret, when the older alicorn was alone in her chamber and looking at the broken shard to the mirror world portal. The shattering of that portal cut her off from someone... personal, and Luna knew not to ever bring it up.
“Don’t go looking for someone unless you’re prepared for failure. He may not want to be found yet.”
==============================
Ponyville to Canterlot-bound Train
==============================
The traveler from Ponyville had luck on her side, quickly finding the right train as per the Cakes’ instruction and getting on board. Now she was humming a tune to herself as she sat in the fairly scant train car. Despite the high number of comfortable seats, the only other passenger in this particular car was a pegasus stallion sitting across and a few seats down from her. At first she only absentmindedly noticed his presence, still humming as she saw the trees and hills roll by. But an idle glance at his expression caught her attention. He was a younger adult, probably in his early twenties at the most. Judging from his attire, some sort of platemail gear that blended into his citrus-colored fur and blue mane, he was military; and he was bearing a worried, puzzled expression that made it clear something was going through his head that was troubling him.
The traveler spoke up, throwing her voice at the soldier.
“Hey, you alright sir?”
The pegasus jolted upwards a bit, clearly surprised and taking a moment to register the real world around him.
“Huh, wha? Oh!.. Um, don’t mind me. Just, stuff on the brain. Nothing to worry with.”
“Oh okay…”
They returned to silence again, but after three more minutes of seeing the poor guy puzzle and mentally toil while stealing almost shameful looks out the window; the traveler decided she wasn’t letting the conversation drop.
“Would yooou like to talk about it? I won’t judge.”
The soldier groaned, shaking his head loosely.
“I don’t wanna pester anypony pointlessly. It’s a bit personal, so I don’t want to force you to try and understand.”
Despite his protests, the traveler got up from her seat, walked over, and plopped down in the one across from him with a smile on her muzzle.
“I can try. Heading for Canterlot?”
The soldier was quiet for a moment, clearly a bit taken aback by this newcomer's insistence to hear him out. But, he wasn’t the type to be rude and turn down an offer for help, even if it was an ear he was probably about to bore to death.
“Yes, part of the job. But I’m worried I’m… well, where to start? Oh boyo.”
He let out a big sigh, resting his chin on his raised hoof once it was done.
“I think I’m a failure.”
“Now why is that?”
“My family has been in the guards, flight teams, and law enforcement since the founding. My mother was a guard turned rescue flier who retired with more honors at a young age than ponies ten years older. My father, Stalwart, was the Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard for ten years. My great-grandfather was in the great dragon incursion in Los Pegasus and has a statue in the Canterlot gardens. His great-great-great--great-great-grandfather was one of the first undercover cops in Manehattan and wrote the book on detective work. Hayfries, it was his great-great grandmother who was the one who lead the charge in the liberation of Trot from the changelings. She saved so many lives and fought so bravely alongside Princess Celestia that she’s the reason Captain became the commanding rank in the royal guard!”
The traveler raised her brow and gave an impressed nod. She didn’t even need to know the events listed to understand the great meaning behind them.
“Seems like you come from quite the distinguished family!... So, why the downtrodden face? What makes you feel like you’re failing anything?”
She muttered, frowning and tilting her head at the soldier, or rather guard’s, saddened and confused expression. The guard looked at the ground and spoke lowly.
“Because I always seem to find a way to be away from where I’m needed. I wasn’t there when Discord tried to turn Canterlot on its head. I was on break when King Sombra attacked the first time. And then when an assassin attempted to kill Princess Cadance, the princess whose husband mentored me for years and hoofpicked me to be on her guard team, I wasn’t on call! The assassination failed, thank McCarthy, but I’m never in the right place to be needed! And now it seems there was another incident involved and I’m off gallivanting in Ponyville because I got held up while the royals and other guard went ahead. Four times in a row! Urrgh!”
He let out an exasperated groan, flopping his face into his hooves and whispered through them.
“My ancestors were heroes, big and small; how am I supposed to live up to them when I’m constantly botching it every time?”
The traveler let it all sink in for a moment before she pawed at her chin with a hoof, looking off to the side as she filtered through her thoughts.
“So, you worry about disgracing who came before you by what you see as a lack of duty and a lack of valor. Question is, are you trying to live up to them just to do so, or are you trying to live up to and follow their example?
The guard looked up at her, honestly still a bit shocked he was having this conversation; let alone with somepony who clearly knew more about this sort of thing than she appeared to at first. He studied her face for a moment to make sure he wasn’t talking to one of his retired superior officers that he’d failed to recognize at first due to a lack of helmet. When his observation failed that outcome, he carried on with his answer that thankfully took no time to materialize.
“They set their example by helping so many ponies and others. That’s what counts and made them heroes I guess. I wanted to help too, it’s why I joined the guard. I learned so much in it that it just makes it all the more frustrating I’ve yet to be able to use them properly to help anypony. With the assassination attempt a week back, I wasn’t around during the attacks to evacuate castle staff or even launch an offensive with the other guards. Hayfries to Tartarus, the blasted assassin wouldn’t have even gotten in if I was on watch detail! Ponies got hurt, ponies I know; because I wasn’t there when the problems went down.”
As he fumed at himself, the traveler weighed the information she’d been given; pantomiming the action thereof with her spread forelimbs.
“Well, you’re not a glory hound doing it for reputation, that’s a step in a good direction.”
“But which direction is right when I’m just, you know, stumbling around like a clod?! The last incident at Canterlot was far from the first I missed, so why can’t I just stop being useless? It’s frustrating you know? I feel like I flunked and things would have been so much better if I hadn’t…”
“Well what were you off doing when the last few incidents occurred?”
“An assassin got near the princess because I was off on cleanup duty. There was an, incident, earlier in the town square and I was on-scene till well after dusk moving ponies and debris back and forth. And at Ponyville when we made a detour from the empire train, I stayed behind to escort a crying gaggle of fillies we found at the train station back to one of their houses. A lot of ponies in the Crystal castle and in Canterlot, including the flippin’ princesses, might not have been in danger if I hadn’t taken an hour to run some colt his lost stuffed animal and convince that trio at the station NOT to sneak onboard! GRAAK!”
He growled, throwing his hooves up before whapping himself on the forehead. Gritting his teeth, he was so focused on his own frustration that it took a very surprising word from the traveler to get him to listen up.
“Shut up.”
She grunted in a calm but still commanding voice, almost sounding like a disappointed mother commanding her kid when they were acting up. The soldier peeked out from under his hoof, seeing the mare looking at him with a raised brow and flattened lips. He blinked a few times before voicing his confusion.
“.. E-Excuse me?”
The mare pulled his hoof away from his face before poking his forehead with an unchanged expression.
“I said. Shut. Up. You need to stop lying young man.”
He was too confused by the sudden accusation to notice her odd wording, instead replying with a baffled stutter.
“Wh-I-Ma’am I told you the truth! I wasn’t around to help in a crisis because I was playing bagpony to get a tyke his ewe plushie and babysitter to get three tots back home!”
“It’s more important at times to remember the good you’ve done rather than beat yourself down thinking of what you weren’t able to do. It’s the fact you helped who you could that counts. No one can be everywhere and it’s not like you missed what you did because you were lazy or apathetic, if you were we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“But-But I didn’t do anything noteworthy so why would it matter in light of what I missed? Anypony coulda been doing what I did.”
The mare’s expression softened into a little smile. She put her hoof on his shoulder and changed her tone to a much softer, happier speech.
“Because, anyone can do good. And folks forget good works in cycles. Sometimes fate has weird ways of putting us where we need to be, even if we don’t think so at the time. You did good where you could to those you helped. In doing so, you influence the future for the better in ways you might not even think possible.”
The guard took in a deep breath, letting the words sink in and play through his mind. Almost reluctantly, despite any joy he’d have to let his guilt go, he slowly nodded.
“Lemme guess, ‘big things have small beginnings’?”
Despite the small snarkiness in his voice, the recipient of the statement giggled through her smile.
“Sometimes literally. My point is, all good deeds and influences affect someone and are worth something. Your ancestors did great things, that’s no doubt. But, behind each hero were those who influenced them to become what they were and give them the opportunity. And heroes or not, if your behavior with these last two incidents is proof to the cut of your character, you've influenced plenty by doing the good you could. The world is a better place because of all of us doing that.”
“So, all the little stuff; it wasn’t all for nothing?”
He muttered, frowning despite a glimmer of hope starting to spark up inside him. The older pony’s smile grew and she put her hoof on his chin to prop his head up.
“No, and neither are you. So!-”
She removed her hoof and playfully punched him in the shoulder, making a small clang from hitting his breastplate with her hoof.
“Keep your chin up, I have a feeling you’ll do some great things yet! Don’t see this as a missed chance to do some good, just a time you did it elsewhere while someone else had their chance.”
The stallion mulled through his thoughts while slowly nodding. Thankfully the peptalk took effect and he raised his head up high and grinned.
“You’re right… You’re absolutely right! Ah ponyfeathers, I gotta write this stuff down once I get a pen! Mind telling me the title of the book you got all this from or are you freehoofing this?”
The traveler giggled, waving her hoof and rolling her eyes.
“Oh I’ve just got some experience with these sort of things. Just don’t forget them deary and you’ll be fine.”
The rumbling train below them shifted gears and rumbled down the tracks at a slowed pace. Casting eyes to the window, both passengers were greeted to the sight of Canterlot’s train station rolling into view just beyond the doors. A flip down sign popped out just above the doorway, illuminating itself with a sort of magic in a manner akin to an electric street light. The words “NOW EXITING - CANTERLOT STATION” lit up for all to see. The traveler beamed, hopping up to her hooves.
“Ah, this is my stop! Oh! Almost forgot. Here I am talking your ears off and I never got your name.”
She quipped, holding out her hoof for the shake. The guard, spirits lifted far higher than they were when he got on this train, was more than happy to return the kind gesture.
“Oh it’s Flash, Flash Sentry.”
“Well then young mister Sentry, you keep on doing what you’re doing and everything will count.”
She perked up, remembering something and looking out the door. Turning her head back around to Flash, her ears flopped down and she snickered in embarrassment.
“Would it be possible for me to ask for some help with something real quick. I just need a bit of info if it’s no burden.”
“Hey, after that peptalk I’ll hoofwrite you directions to Los Pegasus! What you need ma’am?”
“Well you see, I need to get into the castle at Canterlot, or at least near it if it’s doable. I want to meet with someone in the guards but I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the right clearance if that sort of thing is needed. Could you tell me maybe who I need to talk to or what form I gotta fill out to get a visit?”
Flash Sentry smirked, hovering up on his wings and taking the mare by the hoof to guide her outside the train.
“Oh I can do one better than that! If you can put up with me flying you up to the castle, I’ll take you to the barracks entrance and get you cleared for entry in no time myself!”
The mare looked up at the hovering pegasus offering her his hooves, then to the castle. She shrugged and spoke with a chuckle as she reached up to Flash Sentry.
“Not my first time flying with someone, but not too high please!”
Several minutes later and Flash Sentry and his companion landed softly on the cobblestone road leading up to the side of the castle into one of its courtyards, in this case the barracks. Two guards, Cached Ire and Hammerbolt, stood watch over the entrance with stony expressions. Upon seeing Flash Sentry; an old classmate, trot up to them however, their mood shifted into a far more casual, friendly manner. To the traveler who was experienced with the military, it was no surprise.
“Heh, well well well. Haven’t seen you in awhile over here Sentry! How’s the empire business?”
Cached Ire chuckled, leaning on the doorframe to the gateway entrance.
“Certain excitements withstanding, good. I’ll be crashing here for awhile until Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor head back so you’re stuck with me. I just wanted to clear my friend here for entry, she needs to see one of us on the inside.”
Hammerbolt, still a bit stoic and professional, raised an eyebrow at the new face standing next to Flash Sentry.
“No appointment with an official or one of the princesses?”
Flash Sentry shook his head as the traveler shrugged her shoulders and raised her hooves.
“No, just one guest entry for the day. It’s a personal visit.”
“Hmmm… Well, if you vouch for her, we’ll allow her. She doesn’t look like paparazzi and she certainly isn’t armed.”
The traveler snickered while holding out her limbs to show she wasn’t hiding anything on her, no camera and certainly no weapons.
“Nope, sharpest thing on me is my wit!”
Cached Ire chuckled at the jest and goofy expression on the mare’s face as Flash Sentry crossed his chest with a hoof.
“She’s clean, on my honor.”
Hammerbolt thought things through for a moment, puzzling his jaw before nodding his head and pulling his spear clear of the doorway.
“Eh, don’t make me the first to doubt the honor of a Sentry.”
Cached Ire did the same, prompting the traveler to beam and trot her way inside.
“Thank you lady and gentleman! Take care of yourself Mister Sentry, I got someone to find!”
A good half hour passed as the traveler wandered the wide halls, most of which were empty. The sun was beginning to set at a quicker pace, Princess Celestia more than able to work her magic despite still being at the hospital wings. Trotting through the golden orange beams slipping out through the windows, she had resigned herself to not worrying about inconveniencing others and asking for directions from the first pony she’d see next. It just so happened the pony in question was noticeably taller and had both wings and a horn.
“Ah, hello? Excuse me miss, but could I pester you a moment?”
Princess Luna was honestly a bit dumbstruck at how placid and laid back the unfamiliar mare was being to her. While her sister was beyond humble to any who crossed her path, Celestia had been doing that for a thousand years and it didn’t stop Equestrians from practically revering the air she breathed and fretting about her non-existent temper. And once the whole Nightmare Moon dust settled, same thing tended to happen around herself; especially stallions. Honestly one of the reasons she liked chatting with Godzilla Junior during his recovery was because he didn’t do that. Granted here it was a bit heavier on the surprise part of the happy surprise.
“Um, yes? How may we help thee?”
“Oh thank you! I’m looking for someone here but I seem to have gotten turned around. Can you point me in the right direction maybe?”
“To whom doth thou wish to proceed to?”
“Is Godzilla Junior around here? It’s a personal visit. I’m not from Equestria so I’m not sure where to go.”
Princess Luna raised her head up and eyed the traveler suspiciously. After all, this individual didn’t look like a kaiju. Flicking on her magic and covering her eyes with the spell meant to detect changeling disguises, she replaced her vision of the pony herself with an imprint of the individual’s aura. With the converted kaiju, it revealed their true form. But the form overlaying this pony was both completely unequine and unlike any of the kaiju seen. Luna cut the spell off, eyes widened as she spoke through a broken speech pattern.
“How do you know Junior!?”
The traveler just smiled sweetly.
===============
The two mares, Princess Luna and her companion, headed out the side gate to the castle in a hearty, brisk trot. The former had just finished filling in the latter about everything that had happened earlier.
“And he just ran off after that?”
“Yes. The other kaiju can find him if needed, either by species sensing with Xenilla or trace magic with Lady Lea. Myself and Celestia probably know some tracking spells that could work too.”
“Are you using any now?”
The traveler quipped, noting the lack of glow on the alicorn’s horn. Luna instead just kept looking forward as they entered a forest trail cutting through the treeline.
“No. But I believe I know where he is.”
The traveler smiled and giggled almost gleefully.
“Well then lead the way, your majesty!”
=================
Luna and her companion walked for a long time through the thickets of wood untended to by gardeners and tranquil as the open night sky, almost as if the latent magic of who was buried here preserved the place exactly as it was the day he was interred. The only sound was the quiet conversation between the two mares as they power-walked towards a break in the trees a dozen meters ahead.
“And he really ate the bouquet your eventual spouse gave you?”
Luna muttered with a raised brow, resisting a chuckle at the humorous story that had been told to her along the way. The traveler snickered.
“He tended to snack on flowers a lot as a youngster so he probably thought they were for him. Soon as Kazuma turned his back to the enclosure, Junior poked his head out through the bars and started munching on them while Kaz was trying to ask me on a date. Poor Kazuma didn’t know why I was laughing until he found himself holding out a lovely arrangement of half eaten stems and Junior wagging his tail.”
“Huh, well that explains the roses he gave me. He said he hoped they tasted good.”
The traveler cracked a goofy grin and raised her brow at Luna.
“He gave you roses now?~”
“Indeed, a whole bush. I think he uprooted it from the back garden.”
The traveler snorted into her own breath, having so much wished she could have seen it all. Princess Luna on the otherhoof was soon finding her attention taken away by the clearing when they reached it.
It was just as she last visited it, Starswirl’s gravesite. About nine meters of mixed river rock gravel and grassy meadow before it reached a single tall tree shading the single headstone. Beyond it was a large, undisturbed lake that fed into the mountain’s streams. And just like the time she’d come here and Godzilla followed her, it was empty without a soul; much less a kaiju, in sight.
She sighed quietly, letting her frown grow.
“I, must have been mistaken.”
Before she could wonder where else Godzilla Junior might have gone, the alicorn felt a hoof on her shoulder. She glanced over to see the smiling face of the traveler looking back at her before the mare cast her gaze to the clearing.
“Thanks for showing me the way, Princess Luna. Stay put and let me take it from here.”
The traveler stepped out of cover and into the glade, bathed in the moon and starlight from above. She slowly advanced towards the lake at a slowed pace, occasionally glancing around to admire the gravestone, even grass, quiet trees, and polished river stones that added to the beauty of Starswirl’s glade. She began to sing something, something quiet and beautiful. Luna didn’t know the lyrics but she could tell right away it was a lullaby and felt drawn in by it. Memories of a hazy vision and a voice like a wind chime came to her, and she smiled while she hid away and imagined her mother singing the melody to her.
The traveler’s melody continued until she reached the edge of the lake, closing her eyes as she took a seat on it’s edge and sang the last few chords. Upon the echoes of the final verse crossing the glade, she took in a breath and looked to the center of the lake at the glimmering radiance of the night sky’s reflection in the calm waters. She let her eyes slowly trail down to her hooves, detecting a very subtle disturbance in the water. By the time she was looking straight down, she could see one pair of glimmering spheres blink at her. Not starlight, but the eye shine of another pair of larger eyes looking back up at her from under the surface.
The eyes, reflecting in a manner akin to a feline’s, got closer as they rose up from the deeper parts of the lake. A darkened mass surrounded them, and to any soul except the one looking down at those eyes now; it looked terrifying. But the traveler didn’t speak, she didn’t panic; she didn’t even flinch. Instead she patted the ground next to her and looked back at the eyes calmly.
The water surface broke, unveiling the head of a massive equine with a crooked horn and riddled with scars that broke up his charcoal gray fur; the newest being a broad burn mark on his chest from the near Meltdown. Godzilla Junior looked at the mare for a time, confusion and thought obvious on his face. The mare cast him a smile, starting to feel her eyes dampening as she reached for his face. Still confused, he craned his neck back and pulled away.
The traveler sighed, not letting her smile fail as she stayed where she was and spoke in a soft, reassuring voice.
“It’s alright, you can come out. It’s safe here.”
Godzilla blinked at her a few times, studying her again. Slowly, through the form Equestria had granted her, he began to recognize her features by sight, sound, and smell. Just like he had on the day he welcomed the world. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped several inches. He leaned back in towards her, conflicting hope and disbelief in his watery eyes.
“... Mother?”
Azusa's smile sweetened, putting her hooves on his cheeks like she was holding his face. A tear fell down her own cheek as she heard her son’s voice for the first time in her life.
“So that’s what your voice sounds like. It's deeper than I expected.”
Junior’s jaw was quivering, causing the King of the Monsters to stutter in a total loss for words.
“H-How are you here?! What-”
Azusa put her hoof on his muzzle to silence him, using her other limb to wipe the wetness coming from his eye that she could tell wasn’t from his submersion in the lake.
“Shhhh shhhh, that’s not important. I’m not going to be here long, but I am here. And I heard my little one needed me.”
Azusa shifted, hooking her hooves around Godzilla’s neck as she hugged her son. Godzilla Junior was frozen stiff for a few moments, but he was soon to return it while paying mind to control his strength and not hurt the parent he still dwarfed even in these new forms. Azusa could feel his breathing occasionally quicken and strain. Mountains of stress, confusion, doubt, and anger from two decades were being vented off in the hug; in the presence of the only family he had left, Junior was letting it all out. In this moment he wasn’t the mighty King of the Monsters that inspired and lead an army of kaiju, he wasn’t the current bearer of a name with a terrifying lineage; nor the destroyer and dreaded horror of Mutation and invader alike. He was a scared, confused, stressed out veteran with way too much baggage finally getting the chance to put it down in the presence of someone he trusted wholeheartedly.
Azusa only pulled back when she felt his breathing stabilize and silent crying stop. She motioned to the patch of glade next to her and tilted her head at her son.
“Now, why don’t you tell me about what all is going on?”
Some minutes later, Azusa Aoki and Godzilla Junior sat side by side on the edge of the lake, chewing on some flowers as the latter finished telling the former what Luna had already informed her of; vindicating the most out of left field revelation she’d ever heard about Xenilla.
“... So, that’s what he’s actually been up to all this time huh? A staged war.”
She muttered, nodding her head a bit as she puzzled away at the thoughts. Godzilla Junior shrugged.
“And it’s not a lie. Lea’s faeries vouched for him along with one of the alicorns.”
“Well, he certainly fooled the lot of us. Even for the more extreme minds I’ve seen at the GDF recently, like that Langoud group. I doubt even any of them would have guessed it.”
“... And I still wanted to kill him.”
Junior grunted in a drastically lower tone. If he had a hand he'd be clenching a fist hard enough to whiten his knuckles.
“I wanted to force his last breath out myself no matter the cost, even when I found out he didn’t hurt Lea. I wanted revenge regardless of who got in my way…”
The cold feeling in his chest stung him at every nerve all the way up to his head. Junior looked down and away, ashamed of himself.
“... Just like a Godzilla would…”
Azusa frowned, leaning into the unicorn that was easily four times her mass.
“I take it you have an odd view of your father?”
Junior kept looking down, quietly muttering his words as he contemplated his own reflection.
“He was my father… He kept me safe, gave me my power, and he loved me. I was family. I try to honor him but… I don’t want to be just like him. And now I think I failed that too.”
Azusa put a hoof atop her son's with a frown grown over her muzzle, “What do you mean?”
“Colonel Blade Dancer and Luna put themselves between me and Xenilla when I tried to finish him off.”
Azusa couldn’t help but notice that while this “Blade Dancer” had their name prefaced with a title, Junior hadn’t done the same for Princess Luna. Every time he’d said her name, it was almost always just “Luna” in a very familiar way. Some cogs in the back of her head turned as she shifted her main gears back to the business at hand.
“But you didn’t hurt them.”
Junior was quiet for a time, before sucking in his breath and sighing. So much was surging beneath the surface, so much pain, so much thought, so much strife. It made a wet line seep from his eye while his muscles locked up. The reflection below was a snarling visage, contorting and growing.
"I don't care what most think of me, see me. If they think I'm a monster, it doesn't matter if they think right or wrong. This world even gave me a chance to hear the opposite, have other see the opposite," His face lowered towards his chest, shadowing his expression in his frayed mane.
The voice was so quiet, it was in dissonance with the speaker, "But when I'm forced to see, know myself as a monster...."
A droplet hit the pond below, disrupting the surface. The reflection within his mind's eyes, even when he looked away, became a fiery, burning leviathan.
"I feared... knew, they saw what I was forced to remember, about what I really am," He trembled, the memory of burning heat was contrasted with a lance of ice to the core.
“I wanted to kill Xenilla. I wanted to kill him more than anything else at that moment, no matter if it was just. No matter the cost. Part of me wanted to go right through the ponies because they got in the way of my revenge. Father would have… Mother, what else could I be when tempted such evil?”
A pair of hooves reached up and, as best they could, took hold of Junior’s head to turn it towards their owner. Azusa pulled her son in closer, giving him a steel cutting stare right in his eyes.
Azusa kept her tone stern, potent and directed as a spear, punctuated by her hoof pushed to his chest, “Not. Evil.”
She muttered in a lecturing tone. She took in a deep breath and sighed, softening her expression.
“You are my son, and my son is a hero. Even the best of us get tempted, the point is you didn’t act on it. Even if you wished to god you could have in the moment.”
“But, what if some day I don’t resist it? How can I be a hero with the powers I got? I'm a threat to everyone around me!”
He shrank back and looked away, half mumbling.
“Heroes shouldn’t scare people they’re trying to help or worry about killing them if they get too close… All my actions don’t matter anyways, the war was all an act.”
Azusa ran a hoof over Junior’s brow, propping his head up with her other limb as a tiny smile crossed her face. She was recalling a number, one she’d tallied from all the news stories and events she’d seen first hand over two decades. She got it and felt her heart swell.
“I can find you over 130 million people who’d beg to differ on both accounts.”
Junior blinked, lifting an ear up a bit and tilting his head.
“Why that many?”
“Because, from the day you first put yourself between fleeing crowds and a rampaging kaiju to today, I’ve been keeping count. Three million in Vancouver two years ago, seven million in Hong Kong three years ago, more than a few hundred thousand in Boston ten years ago, few dozen million here, tens of thousands there; it adds up over the decades. Put one hundred random people from across the globe in a room and chances are two of them are alive because of what you did… And heck, this is all you acting alone and just by direct actions, not counting indirect aid or times you and all your friends pitched in like against the aliens’ Final War.”
Junior’s eyes widened and zoned out for a moment as the thoughts hit him. All these years he’d been hard at work, humanity’s well-being had been his first priority in stopping the kaiju attacks. But every time he’d intercepted the attacking party he was always so focused on getting them out of the populated or unevacuated areas he completely forgot just how many humans there could be in a city. A flicker of hopeful happiness crossed him, suggesting maybe he was wrong in his doubt; only for that same benevolence to risk being choked out by more oncoming doubt.
“But, if this conflict was all an act by Xenilla, did I really save anyone?”
“Well, for one I doubt the Mutations were in on the secret if they acted the way they did. That Mothra Lea friend of your’s no doubt tried to sway them to stop like her mother did Battra. No success there. And if they didn’t stop trying to kill you the first five times they attacked, nothing was going to change them. Besides the Anteverse kaiju weren’t even working for Xenilla and you stopped dozens of them. But there is something even more important…. Look at me.”
Junior slowly shifted to do so, looking into Azusa’s firm but calming expression as she held up his face.
“All those times you rushed in to save the day, stop the monsters; did you do it to fight and kill your enemy; or to keep them from killing anyone? Because only the first of those would be affected by this revelation.”
Junior let his mind trail to the same scenario he’d lived out dozens upon dozens of times. For someone not typically very cerebral, he realized he’d been thinking things through so much they became instinct. Confronting the enemy and keeping them from chasing the humans, putting himself between the enemy and the city, keeping the fight outside of the populated areas, sometimes moving to physically intercept an attack to keep it from hitting a building, sometimes not chasing them down for the kill if there was something else more important; it never was about the fight or the kill. Either or both could happen, but it was always keeping the death count as low as possible that came first.
He sighed, already knowing why Azusa was beaming at him because she already knew the answer before she even asked it; he’d needed the reminder. It was the same two decades ago in Tokyo as it was two weeks ago in Canterlot.
“Because I don’t like people dying… But, what if I get tempted again and can’t fight it? What if someone good gets hurt, or worse!”
Azusa let her son’s quickening breath take its time to slow before she put a hoof around his shoulders and sat back down on the lake side. Looking out onto the star filled lake, she gave him his answer.
“That’s why we trust.”
She muttered the words with a sigh, not letting any hint of anger, sadness, or frustration show through. Her mind was pushed back to both weeks ago and years passed. A lot of very vocal humans, both in politics and the Global Defense Force, had forgotten how to trust in the years before and after the Final War; forgetting just who it was that had been leading the charge to turn the final battle’s tide. To them, any factor or force that questioned humanity’s dominance, an ideally sole dominance, of the planet was a potential threat. Azusa had to watch for years as her son became a face of the problem. There were still many who thought differently. Many G-Force veterans were neutral or hopeful to the new King of the Monsters and his allies, even hardasses like Major Yuki still had a soft spot for the kaiju they’d seen grow up in the 1990s. But it seemed like each passing month, the opposition just got louder and louder, especially after the Defenders spared numerous neutral kaiju like Titanosaurus or Orka. And then when it became clear just how powerful Junior had become, the fears started to fester.
Azusa remembered the news coverage from Acapulco three months ago. Godzilla Junior had shown up to stop an Anteverse kaiju attack by some new model the GDF dubbed Raiju. Within the same footage of Junior firing a beam to blast the lunging kaiju away from a boat, the world newscaster was bringing in property experts to estimate the potential calamity that could ensue if Junior “missed” and hit the city behind him. The entire segment went by without so much as mentioning whom was actually attacking and who was defending. And then they started doing something that caused the biologist’s blood to boil. The news, the papers, and the internet made article after article comparing Godzilla Senior to his successor, all noting how much more damage Junior could cause since he was much more powerful. They spoke of her son almost like he was bound to turn out like exactly like his father, some even speculating on… countermeasures.
And the fear the apple wouldn’t fall off the tree at all didn’t stop at the news. Once Azusa had gotten word of what the GDF had done on Solgell, she was as unsurprised as she was horrified. Soon as the UN had found out there was a mass gathering of kaiju in an area devoid of humans and they had a clear shot at Xenilla and Destroyah, the vote didn’t seem to care who was in the blast radius. True, the final vote actually came from Commander Pentecost as part of an elaborate plan of his; after he'd secretly done some tests to determine Dimension Tide wasn’t lethal. It was a ruse for him to avert the Anti-Kaiju growth trend and cause a 180’ in views by forcing people to realize their folly and not speak ill of the “deceased”. Clever bastard’s gambit paid off, but sometimes she thought even he hadn’t expected the scale of the mourning that followed.
It was almost surreal seeing the same condemning voices backpedal or hit their realizations, sometimes on the air, as the world reacted. Hundreds of thousands of flowers set to drift onto Infant and Solgell Island, moments of silence on the airwaves, the entirety of Kyoto Institute and the rebuilt Golden Gate bridge covered in black. And of course Pentecost probably didn’t expect Azusa to bust out her old clearance passes and barge into GDF headquarters to give him an epic grade earfull in his office after he invited Mrs. Aoki in. Security even came in thinking he was being attacked before Pentecost explained everything.
And with the announcement of the information Gamera had passed along to Miki, trust was something a lot of the world woke up one day realizing it was lacking. Azusa mentally shrugged.
-Guess we’re all only human…-
She forced herself back into the present, looking at her son.
“Sometimes trust is the only thing keeping things together, as much trusting yourself as it is others.”
“Are you referring to how a lot of humans didn’t trust me?”
He muttered, knowing what she was talking about. Azusa responded quietly.
“Yes.”
“They thought I was going to be just like my father and grandfather, right? Sometimes I worry I am.”
Azusa closed her eyes in contemplation before giving Godzilla a firm stare.
“Then now’s your chance not to be.”
“What do you mean?”
“Something your father and grandfather never did, was forgive.”
She said quietly. Junior flinched, clenching his jaw for a moment as the words “Forgive” and “Xenilla” caused his mind to spasm.
“Y-You, want me to forgive… Him?”
Junior spoke in a stupor of a voice. The mental panic and confusion was slightly calmed when Azusa put her hoof on his.
“I want you to choose to or not without jerking your knee or having anyone force you to. He’s got a lot to answer for, but, by many accounts so did your father. He may be lying or he may be telling the truth. I want you to collect yourself, don’t rush in. Get your center and then decide if you want to hear him out or not. You don’t need to forget what he did if you choose to forgive, but you have a chance to resolve things without one of you two ending up dead.”
Junior swallowed the lump in his throat, feeling a bizarre sensation in his chest that was pushing out of him, one that was as much afraid as it was confused and angry.
“I… don’t know if I could do it. Not for something that wasn't an accident.”
“And I’m not commanding you to, no one is. You don’t even need to forgive him entirely if you do, just enough to let your anger go… All I’m saying is, if you want to prove yourself different than those who came before you, this is one way to do it.”
Azusa muttered, holding Junior’s hoof as his face twitched and puzzled with thought. From the distance, Princess Luna listened on with bated anticipation. When she learned of who this pony was, and asked a few questions to prove it to be true based off what Junior had told her of his mother during their nightly chats, she let herself hope. Forgiveness might have been a huge step, maybe an uncrossable one. But she remembered the events at the mountainside all too well and the desperation in Xenilla’s tone when he made her promise to not risk Junior being consumed by his own power like their father had. And if Godzilla’s hatred for Xenilla spurred the burning, something had to be done to rid him of that. Azusa, his mother, seemed like the only candidate who could have possibly talked him out of it; Luna just prayed she could.
At the very least, Junior seemed to be thinking things over. Azusa nudged him to get his attention as her thoughts brought forth the newspaper she’d read earlier, retrieving a clipping of said paper she’d tucked under her hair band.
“I understand, he’d be a huge first attempt. But maybe he doesn’t need to be. There is something else you might want to look at.”
Junior looked at the paper, not even needing to try and read it to see what his mother was talking about. The picture of Moonbeam Glimmer and him in the interview was obvious enough.
“That pegasus?”
He grunted with a raised eyebrow. Azusa nodded slowly.
“The same. If you want to give forgiveness a try, always a place to start. You don’t seem to know why she had a beef with you, doesn’t seem like anyone does. But I have a feeling the things she said to you were actually spurred from something else.”
Godzilla was quiet for a time, looking at Moonbeam’s picture and then back to the distant form of Canterlot, in the direction Xenilla was. He took in a breath and shrugged.
“... I’ll try.”
“You’ll succeed.”
Azusa quipped, giving Junior a playful punch in the shoulder.
“You’re too stubborn to quit.”
“With my parentage, can you blame me?”
Azusa snickered at her son’s deadpan retort, knowing full well it was referring to both his paternal and maternal lines. Junior joined in on the low laughter for a time. He relaxed noticeably until a stray thought, years old, crossed his mind.
“Mother, there is something I want to know.”
“Yes?”
He looked out over the lake, almost imagining it as a calm sea and thinking of someone who once lived in said sea.
“When you told Miki to get my father to take me in, how’d you know he’d do it?”
Azusa blinked for a few moments, almost in a surprised manner before joining her son in the water gazing.
“Because I knew why he’d come to where he did… Did you know Ms. Miki looked into his mind a couple of years earlier? It was back during the Biollante incident. Do you know of that? Where is she anyways?”
“Biollante wants to be left alone and I leave her to it. I told Lea to spread the word.”
“Well, when your father emerged out of that volcano he’d been trapped in, he sensed Biollante and headed straight for her. We wanted to know why so Miki looked into his mind to try and find out what he was wanting. It was assumed he sensed Biollante as a rival and was seeking her out for the sake of territory. But do you want to know what she actually saw going through his head?”
“What did she see?”
Azusa sighed, a frown crossing her lips.
“A lot of pain. Pain from life, pain from conflicts, pain with memory. But, most of all, pain from loneliness. He was made one of a kind by humanity and he hated them for it. He sought out Biollante because he thought he’d found another one of his kind. The same thing happened a few years later when you hatched. Your father came looking for you because he wanted to find someone like him.”
Azusa’s word sunk in, causing Junior to lower his head into his shoulders in light of recent and years-old choices he’d made. He didn’t regret them, but for twenty years the thought of how badly his father would react to how he treated the humans and others had been a constant sting within his mind. Either way he’d try to grapple with the truth, it was meddlesome. If he tried to be more like his father, it was a terror to himself and who he was. If he tried to go against what his father would have wanted, doubt and disapproval from his imagined ghost was a constant plague. There was a reason he’d sometimes invoke his father’s name in a battle cry, it was his way of trying to appease the doubt in his mind regarding how enraged his parent might be at him for what he’d done.
“Then I just disappointed him then, and I’d disappoint him now.”
Azusa’s voice was quiet, but it begged to differ.
“I doubt that, he seemed to take care of you well enough so he must have cared even when you showed how unique you were in your youth. There are differences to be sure. I couldn’t be a prouder mother based on how you turned out, but you were and still are his son too. And, for all the right reasons. I can’t talk to you all back home or enter your minds to see what you're thinking, but I’ve learned to know the strengths of a kaiju when I see one. And I’ve never known a kaiju, or anyone in general, be able to channel all the pains and strife they’ve gone through into their actions than I saw with Godzilla Senior…”
Junior looked to his mother as she did the same in a quiet moment. Azusa’s eyes trailed over the dozens of scars lining her son’s form. It was both an exercise in memory and a saddening realization that she recognized many of the markings, but there were batches more she couldn’t place. Seeing all his old wounds like this in full was a saddening reminder of just what her son had been throwing himself at for two decades. But, the sadness ebbed away into a bittersweet mixture of pride and melancholy as she homed in on a few cut marks on the side of his collar that she saw Trespasser give him firsthand. Azusa moved her eyes to her son’s and smiled warmly.
“Except maybe for you… I won’t pretend to know everything going on with you, this is the first time you’ve been able to express it in words I can understand fully. But, if I could leave such an impact on you for all our time apart, then all the compassion and love I knew your father gave you should prove that he'd be proud of you. If not that, then little will prove it. There are plenty of differences between you two, I think you got a much bigger heart than he did. But there are plenty of similarities for all the right reasons too. You don’t have to be like just him to honor him nor do you need to be the exact opposite to be your own life; you’re not his replacement, you're his son.”
Azusa stood up on her hind limbs and hugged Junior’s head and neck.
“Just like you’re mine.”
The mare felt a limb gently wrap around her as Junior returned the gesture, nuzzling the top of his mother’s head.
"Thank you mother."
Azusa giggled, pulling back and rubbing her kid’s scalp to playfully ruffle up his still damp mane. She cast a quick glance to the forest, not spotting anyone but knowing full well who was still present.
“There is something else though.”
“Hm?”
Junior grunted, tilting his head. He was about to look in the direction Azusa had but his mother quickly turned his head around to face back to the lake. Knowing a question was coming as to what was going on, she wisely opted to start talking a bit early.
“I know you have friends with the other kaiju. But, since you're in a whole new world, maybe take the opportunity to make some friends here? You’ve been carrying Terra on your shoulders for a long time, maybe your first time off Terra is a sign you need a break? These Equestrians seem nice enough. Relax, let them hear you out and you may be surprised at the responses you get. You’ve already gotten some of them to care.”
Godzilla Junior turned his head towards Azusa, not even needing to turn around to look or try and sense any energy to know they weren’t alone and Azusa’s last sentence made it almost obvious. He gave his mother a half deadpanned look.
“... Which one of them lead you here?”
Azusa turned to her son with a cheeky grin on her muzzle and a sly look on her wiggling eyebrows.
“Who do you think?”
Junior flared his nose a bit, catching a very familiar scent coming from the treeline; the same one he tracked to find this place the first time he was here. Slowly at first, a happy smile crept over his face; causing Azusa’s grin to widen even as Junior gave her a playful nudge.
"I for one think she's a very kindly young lady."
"She's one thousand years old."
"She ages well then!"
"Motheeer!"
They talked for several hours more. About sights either had seen so far in Equestria, about the depths of the ocean and the trials of teaching, about friends gained and happy marriages endured; and about happiness. The final hour had been struck, and just as Junior’s scars faded away with his calmed heart; Azusa began to fade herself. She hugged her son, particles of glimmering light lifting off from her as she began to become see through.
Junior buried his muzzle into her shoulder and mane.
“I missed you mother.”
Azusa smiled, rubbing her head against her child affectionately even as both their eyes became wet with tears.
“You never needed to. I never left…”
Even as she was almost gone, she left as she came. Singing her son’s lullaby, one that seemed to echo through the glade long after Azusa vanished and Luna stepped out from the trees.
===================
?????????????????????
===================
Azusa wiped a tear from her eye, now feeling her face with the back of her hand rather than a hoof as she was back in her human form. Her surroundings were near pitch black, so dark she couldn’t see nor paid any mind to what she was standing on, with only a few distant wisps of light akin to stars twinkling in the distance. A greater source of light shone across her face and she opened her eyes to see it, a pleasant smile crossing her face.
"Two decades and I never got to hear his voice before.”
Her guest, the entity that summoned her there and was able to give her this visit, bowed her head.
“Glad you enjoyed it, Mrs. Aoki.”
Azusa’s host spoke, her voice echoing through the void with a magical glow. The biologist chuckled a bit, sniffling her nose.
“Call me Azusa… Thank you so much for this chance.”
“You are very welcome, your son needed you. He was on a breakdown and you were probably the only soul he’d listen to completely... Did you, succeed? The time travel spell I used to bring me here will only work once and the mana displacement spell I used for you to take my place in Equestria won't change that part.”
“If he forgives Xenilla, that is his choice; but his anger is calmed. What you feared transpire has been canceled. Your world has another quality hero looking out for it. I just had to remind him of that.”
“Thank you, for the sake of things to come. Small changes have large effects, and I can't risk anything bigger.”
A glowing gateway opened up beside them, showing the image of a quiet home outside of San Francisco; a rebuilt Golden Gate Bridge visible in the background. A week had gone by since the world found out the Solgell Island victims were still alive and Azusa and Kazuma were still getting all the black and white flowers off their lawn. Azusa faced her home, taking a step to the portal before turning her head to her host.
“Are you alright deary?”
The white and pink, teenage alicorn’s ears and wings drooped as she looked to the side sheepishly.
“S-Sorry, I hope you don’t mind but, I was... listening to your conversation with Godzilla.”
Azusa tilted her head and raised her brow a bit as the pony went on.
“I never got to hear my mother or father. They died shortly after I was born. But, from all I’ve read and heard from clips; you sound a lot like them.”
The empress sighed, feeling her chest clamp up. All this power she’d managed to scrape together to pull this meeting off, all this effort to change the fate her history had recorded; and sending Azusa in to talk sense into Godzilla was the best she could manage. But at the same time, using her best shot on so little was filling the young empress with doubt as to if she’d done enough. Part of her was reminded how she didn’t have the time or ability to fill in the past about Bagan, about Grogar, about the war and who it took. Changes had to be as small as possible as not to be noticed by Bagan. If she tried more it might not only waste her chance, but also cause tidal waves of alteration instead of ripples of change and make things worse. The risk was just too big and it was too soon. Any drastic changes and Bagan might accelerate his plans after finding something amiss, or worse even; discover her meddling. The fact Auntie Twilight warned her about how this spell was finicky at best, even with the added mana magic, didn’t help. She had to hope for the best, even if her gut was making her worry for the worst.
“You think my parents would be proud of me? What if I haven’t done enough?”
She whispered in a downtrodden voice. A gentle hand placed itself on the alicorn’s cotton candy-soft mane, gently scratching behind her ears. Empress Flurry Heart looked up to see a beaming Azusa Aoki looking back at her.
“The future’s always changing, you said it yourself when you asked me to come. As for you, your mother and father would be so proud of you, because I already am.”
She cooed in a motherly tone. Flurry Heart let a tiny smile cross her scarred muzzle, fanning her sole remaining, gigantic wing along with her equally huge prosthetic wing happily. She rubbed her head up against the giggling woman.
“Thanks Azusa…”