The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover

by Tarbtano

Chapter 43: Collision Course

“And presenting, your Fall Formal Princess! Sunset Shimmer!”

Principal Celestia’s voice chimed through the intercom as the smirking teenager waltzed her way up to the stage. The crowd was cheering in a frenzy, some earnestly and some from being browbeaten. One way or another though, she’d won for the second time in a row. It was a gratifying stroke of the ego when the principal who looked like her estranged old teacher placed a crown upon her head. Her Celestia had failed to recognize her greatness and gave away all her hard work and study’s dues to adopt and reward some random bumpkin and granted her a horn instead of gracing her own student with wings. This Celestia she had bent around her finger praised her academics and granted her the fame she deserved. In the hindsight of years, Shimmer would see each of these crowns as a hollow, undeserved victory.

But her mind wasn’t on that this time, a year back. She was only gushing with relief and pride at how she’d beaten the competition. Sunflower Orange had her worried for awhile, some of the students even seemed to gun for her run again especially to dethrone Sunset. Pretty, popular, older, definitely a threat. But after the gymnastics competition she got a stroke of luck when the Orange pulled out of the ballot in the aftermath of her friend taking a bad fall. The only other opponent was the Belle; Juliet by given name, Rarity by friends. She had a chance, a fighting chance. Not one Sunset took a risk on. The schemes flew free, even though something caused several of them to fail unexpectedly; no matter how private she made them. But when she changed her strategy, kept her ploys to just herself and two new idiot lackeys, it all worked out in the end. Rarity wasn’t beaten, she was destroyed with her four cohorts all taking hits. As she looked upon the crowd from the stage, Sunset Shimmer held back a burst of laughter as she saw the teary eyed, purple haired fashion designer run off in a partially frayed dress.

-Pathetic, did she really expect to have a chance and actually showed up in that mess?! Surprised she even had time to put it all in one piece!-

The devilish diva rolled her eyes at the pain of another and looked about for her other status symbol aside from her new crown. But when she spotted a bob of spiky blue hair, it wasn’t coming towards the stage like she commanded with a curl of her finger. She couldn’t see his expression, but Flash Sentry just stared at her before turning back into the crowd to go off in the same direction four other girls had gone after Rarity.

Anyone watching would have seen the Fall Formal princess stiffen like she’d been shocked before a twitch in her eye begat a shake in her limbs. Sunset didn’t hear a thing as Principal Celestia called for the school dance to fully begin, and when she left the stage she didn’t wave to the crowds and pride-step down the stairs with her arm around another. For the first time she came off the stage alone, and she left stomping off in a rage after someone. She caught up to him beside the statue with them. Flash Sentry said something to motion Applejack away as she and Rainbow Dash helped to hold a sobbing Rarity, she didn’t hear it nor care. The girls departed and her boyfriend stood where he was, not even bothering to turn around. A very selfish, arrogant, rude, ungrateful Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes and gritted her teeth before she shouted at him and the fleeing Rarity; mind full of anger, wounded pride, and pain.

A much different Sunset Shimmer’s eyes slowly opened, mind full of sadness and painful regret. She stared up at her small apartment ceiling as a wetness slithered down from her eye. One really knew they’d changed for the better when memories you caused became nightmares. Shimmer was all too aware of the dark path she’d been walking on and after being forgiven eight times by others, the only thing left she could beg for was for some impossibility to let her go back and kick herself really hard in the head. She pulled up her phone to check the time and saw her own reflection in the dim screen illuminated by moonlight. She was still unsure of her own appearance, knowing it was a face who ravaged a whole school of innocents for years over a petty spite, planned to do mayhem in her own home out of anger, and ran away from comfort and kindness out of misplaced jealousy. She gazed upon the frozen, stoic face of Sunset Shimmer, remembering all those who might see her with pain in their eyes. Eight times forgiven by others. The first was by Twilight after the dance, in a moment just after the worst or second worst decision in her life. Then when she assisted in a rush order and crudely repaired a familiar old dress she’d found by the previous year’s Fall Formal, Rarity yanked her into a hug. Rainbow Dash high-fived and gave her a noogie after she recorded a parkour run by the athlete. Fluttershy smiled and invited her to tea in the aftermath of Sunset assisting in delivering no less than four litters of kittens and puppies at the animal hospital. Then when she got herself dirtied up teaming up with the Apple siblings and Mrs. Smith in preparing the school bake sale, Applejack gave her a smile and tip-of-the-hat nod. Pinkie Pie practically launched herself into her and got them both covered in flour when Sunset had watched the danger-prone Cake twins while she handled the baking. And Princess Celestia shone like the sun when she found herself back in Equestria, blabbering and crying like an idiot before a potential mental breakdown was averted by her warm embrace.

Sunset could feel the book granted to her still under her pillow, a comfort keepsake.

It was the other forgiveness, seventh in chronological order, that gave her some pause. It was said with such an eye roll and a chuckle when the words ‘No point in harping on it, it’s in the past’ were said. She couldn’t tell if it came from warmth in heart or a phantom sting in the face. The fact that he didn’t look directly at her when he said it and that Flash had been passively avoiding her while she knew he was keeping an eye out didn’t help, and it brought back all the poor memories from the Fall Formal a year ago.

Sunset Shimmer looked at her own reflection again, knowledge of the cringes and avoidance half the school still gave her fresh in mind.

-Some still think I’m the old me when they see me. Some think I’ve changed. Maybe... he hasn’t decided yet. Can’t blame him, more than anyone.-

Right now not even she really liked how she saw Sunset Shimmer, seeing the same face that was a bully, egomaniac, and source of cruelty to many that never deserved it. A flash of her demonic state crossed her mind and she frowned when she looked upon it. When the world thinks of you as a monster, what does it matter? Your view counts most, the world is wrong. But when you start to think of yourself as a monster… Princess Twilight’s call to atone had been the catalyst for change, but Sunset needed only recollection and memory to keep driving her.

She drew up her phone and started typing something, but part of the way through it she paused. Her mind fought itself, part wanting to proceed and finish the message to send it; and another part voicing futility. The latter part, as indicated by her growing frown, won out in the end.

“Probably blocked the contact anyways,” she muttered and clicked away as the message saved to a draft.

Maybe another night would be the time to finish it and the following tomorrow be the day to act on it; but she wouldn’t have it be just yet. She wasn’t strong enough just yet. Sunset Shimmer closed her eyes, took in a deep breath, and tried to exhale away the strain tormenting her. Turning aside she was just about to put her phone away when it started ringing. Perplexed, she answered and put it to her ear.

“Rainbow?”

The voice on the other end was haggard, clearly huffing in breath and Sunset Shimmer thought she could hear rapid footsteps in the background.

“DOOR!”, Rainbow barked.

“U-Um, what?”

“OPE- YOUR FRONT DOOR!”

Eyes widening in confusion, Sunset Shimmer flinched when she thought she could hear the exact same voice, albeit more distantly, outside her window in the street. The lights were all out aside from a few porch lights some houses or apartments kept on, but if she looked close she could just barely make out a figure sprinting down the sidewalk in her apartment’s direction. Thoroughly confused but knowing it had to be serious, she flew out of her bed and sprinted down to the front door just as the pounding footsteps got closer to the point she could hear them through the door. Sunset Shimmer just barely managed to open the door by the time Rainbow Dash rushed through it, the former unicorn yelping as her friend crashed into her. Fortunately it wasn’t a hot night and she had been fully covered up in her pajamas, or else her entire back would’ve gotten serious rugburn.

“Gak! Rainbow?! What is going on?!”, Sunset cried out as she tried to fight through the stars she was seeing in her thoroughly dizzied vision.

Rainbow Dash didn’t answer her, only frantically scrambling off her friend and pouncing off the ground to get to the open front door. She slammed it shut and frantically tried to lock; but was having issues with the slider due to how much she was flailing.

Sunset Shimmer groaned away the dull pain in the back of her head before looking at her friend. Her brow relaxed as she blinked in confusion, “...Rainbow?”

Rainbow Jennifer Dash Jr. didn’t respond, she just kept trying to fiddle with the lock. Upon seeing a key lock above the slider one, she snatched at the key ring hanging up nearby and rapidly checked every single one of the keys to try and jam in the right one.

Sunset Shimmer slowly managed to pull herself up, observing Rainbow Dash’s actions and realizing just how unsettled she seemed, “...Rainbow!”

Rainbow Dash kept all her attention on the lock, frantically trying to get the right key in, smacking her fist on the door and frustration as she incoherently cursed at it. Sunset Shimmer strode up behind her and grabbed Dash by the shoulder and placed her other hand on the keys. Rainbow Dash froze, not looking back at Sunset and only staring out the window with a painting breath. She was shaking, trembling.

It was the first time Sunset had ever seen the typically so self-assured, energetic, dare she even say cocky young woman like this. Sunset Shimmer closed her mouth and swallowed her breath, gently guiding the right key into the lock and taking them away. She drew in closer, keeping her voice down.

“Rainbow...? What’s going on?”

She tugged on Dash’s shoulder and was rewarded with the cyan teen turning around. Sunset Shimmer’s eyes widened in the dim light when she saw the dilated pupils, messy hair, coat of sweat, and tears running slick from her eyes and nose. Before she could say another word, Rainbow had surged forward and burrowed her face into Sunset Shimmer’s chest. Having been terrified out of her mind and running to the closest safe haven she could, she just wanted to finally close her eyes with some comfort so she’d stop seeing red eyes surrounded in black and gold chasing her. In truth Kaizer X hadn’t pursued her since he departed the school, but after being isolated, chased down, grabbed, and pinned down in the dark by someone unnatural; intentionally or not, he didn’t need to.

Sunset Shimmer frowned but embraced her friend to try and hold her still, but the moment the frowning unicorn-turned-woman touched Rainbow Dash’s head she felt a spark shoot up her body. It stunned her nerves and caused her to lock up. Her eyes flashed with a bright glow and the conscious world became clouded by a subconscious one. She saw brief, unorderly images, barely more than one would see by blinking their eyes rapidly over a series of moving pictures. She saw a woman resembling Rainbow Dash but with longer, wavier hair and a sunhat towering over the point of view she seemed to pick up. Then a shy girl with white hair sporting purple tips in a youth soccer uniform looked towards her, the point of view showing a hand the same color as Rainbow’s outstretched to her. The next memories were even briefer, like they were on fast forward. Seeing what looked like younger versions of Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie in a variety of settings.

-These.. these are her memories?!-

The group of friends were jogging up to what Sunset recognized as Canterlot High with the century banner stretched over the entrance.

-That was almost four years ago! I showed up right before it was taken down. How am I seeing this?-

More faces and places blurred past. Principal Celestia welcoming them, a kindly Mrs. Smith giving Rainbow a special cider for her birthday, Flash Sentry getting crashed into by a slipping Rainbow and their lips- Sunset Shimmer’s face momentarily reddened and her eyes widened.

-When did that happen?!-

They laughed afterwards before Flash noticed someone and ran to them, bits and pieces of a red- and yellow-haired girl Sunset Shimmer knew all too well walking awkwardly so much she had to be helped up the stairs. Then bits and pieces from years after. One bad Fall Formal, another bad Fall Formal... An even worse Fall Formal Sunset herself just dreamed about. There was Twilight Sparkle in a soccer game, picking a dress, and then Rainbow flying through the air with Scootaloo. The last memories were so happy, so gleeful, like things were on a big upswing… Only to contrast so jarringly with the most recent recollections.

Emotions and memories tied together. Happiness can make a pleasant memory seem perfect, sadness can make a sour memory painful. But the terror wrought here? It made them a nightmare turned real. When Sunset saw Rainbow Dash’s point of view, she didn’t see a Monster X with a differently-colored hair and outfit, she saw a demon chasing her down and refusing to be shaken. A brief moment of respite that seemed to give deliverance was ripped away when she was violently yanked back and pinned down with it, on top of her. No matter how much she kicked, struggled and fought, she couldn’t get it off. And being at the mercy of something that looked of a shadowy fright with glowing red eyes and burning gold gleams with a powerful hand strong enough to snap yours like a twig pinning your own down was about as scary as it got.

“Call Twilight Sparkle, and hope she sees you again before I do….”

The voice was distorted with rage and seemed to echo, snarling in each syllable. While Kaizer X did indeed leave her alone afterward, Rainbow’s justifiably fraught mind didn’t think so or project that. When she sprinted for the nearest safe haven, red eyes followed her from every shadow, every length of road and sidewalk. All the way to looking at her through the window from across the street after she’d crashed into Sunset Shimmer.

The visions stopped and Sunset Shimmer was choked for breath as the sensations ceased. Sunset Shimmer let the trembling Rainbow Dash sink with her to their knees, holding onto her sobbing friend until she could finally get a hold of herself. She stayed like that for a good hour, staring at the window next to the door with wide eyes of both confusion, fright, and wariness. Both would pray no red gleams would peer through nor for their owner to bash their way inside.

============

Princess Twilight Sparkle beamed as she pranced off the train to the Crystal Empire with “Princess” Lea in company and Spike on her back. Neither of them could help but be happy. The citizenry was happy that research on the dimension portals was going well, it hadn’t been raining kaiju attacks like some of their earlier worries held, and the last month had been remarkably kind to their friends old and new. Some of the other Elements of Harmony were taking turns visiting the rebuilt “Our Town” to good reception. After the locals decided the markless life of equal weakening wasn’t the true route to social betterment, they’d been very receptive to hear from the Princess of Friendship and her close comrades. After all if somepony wanted to build a good community, learning about one of the core facets of comradery was a great way to start. As Twilight quipped in a speech she gave to the townsfolk, something like friendship might sound a bit childish by definition; but in context it and love were what made cooperation and civilization worthwhile and what kept the species thriving. Starlight Glimmer had settled into her role as the instructed apprentice of Princess Luna well, aside from some brief interactions she had with Twilight indicating social skills were not on the criteria for education. It was kind of hard for Twilight to imagine she’d caused so much havoc under the influence of dark magic when she could give her old self a run for her money in social awkwardness.

And much to Lea and her’s delight, the other five original kaiju had settled in swimmingly with the changing affairs. When the Wonderbolts hosted a celebration for the townsfolk and returned missing ponies, the “Energetic Enormity (of Awesomeness, according to its co-creator)” act put on by Rainbow Dash and Rodan was a spectacle in of itself rather than being seen as some foreign gimmick act, being just as “Equestrian” as the other performances. Having the big pterosaur wearing a flight uniform with Equestria’s emblem on it tended to do that. The lack of notice to the newness was felt even in Ponyville. Much to some confusion by visitors, it seemed the town had accepted Anguirus and Destroyah as just two more citizens amongst their ranks. Twilight distinctly remembered the surrealness of Destroyah at the Apple Family sale stand alongside the CMC, especially when Aloe and Lotus trotted up to her to ask for the crab apples and have her direct to Anguirus as he walked into town with Big Mac to tow the harvest behind them. Though the title of most surreal newness coming to Equestria quite possibly belonged to what happened with the two Godzilla brothers.

Godzilla Junior had already been gaining wider acceptance across Equestria since his dynamic entrance to the public eye, especially after his opposition speaking words of caution was kneecapped by Dr. Moonbeam Glimmer working to hush the fires she started with abandon. Public fascination, already growing with the release of his history spiked when the aftermath of the plateau incident occurred. The public never quite got the whole story. According to record after disabling a mind-controlled Starlight Glimmer as his normal self, Grand King Ghidorah arrived and Rarity enabled Godzilla to immediately engage him; with the damage to the town being solely due to the battling kaiju with Godzilla holding the monster at bay with Rarity discovering and evacuating the discovered captives. It was agreed upon to both avoid hysterics of Nightmare still being out there, possibly muddying perceptions of Godzilla Junior, and avoiding questions about the entity that possessed Sunset Shimmer. Officially, Sunset Shimmer was merely one of the many Grand King Ghidorah had kidnapped, Nightmare Rarity hadn’t voluntarily come into being again, and Nightmare Godzilla never existed. With only a few ever aware of the three aforementioned entities and all of them either being the Mane 6, Princesses, and kaiju with the only civilians being Night Glider, Moonbeam and Starlight Glimmer, and Mariner Chibi Moon; the vow of secrecy was as understood as it was voluntarily accepted.

Still, it gave a much cleaner, kinder, and more heroic image to the public. Another epic for the times. It caused focus to also grow towards his brother, who was now taking a public role as the protector of the Imperium just as Junior did for Equestria’s capital. Two super powered siblings with one somewhat turning to good to unify with their heroic counterpart? Equestria under the current diarchy ate it up. Several books and magazine issues got published, especially after Photo Finish managed to ambush and blitz both of the brothers on two separate occasions and some articles by Ghost Story had been put out. Colts and fillies were frequently asking for toys or posters inspired by the two and other kaiju to put up along with those of other Equestrian heroines and heroes. There were already talks of potential adaptations of past adventures, naturally with Equestrians standing in for the humans for those taking place on Terra. Last Twilight heard of the subject, there was talks of a movie adaptation directed by Canter Zoom regarding the events on the plateau with Rarity being equal parts amused she was to be played by Chestnut Magnifico and annoyed they didn’t ask her to play herself. Twilight was just wondering where several pop songs by Sapphire Shores and Coloratura were supposed to fit in.

Privately, she couldn’t help but share a laugh with Lea along the train ride as she read aloud one of her sister-in-law’s letters, and how jarring the three images of Xenilla seemed. To Lea, Xenilla was a cunning, powerful, and up until very recently vile and dangerous adversary. To the Equestrian public, he was a reformed anti-hero with a stoic gaze and undying will to protect his brother and keep the Crystal Empire safe. According to Cadance’s letter, he was an overzealous nutty professor of a nursemaid who randomly walked out of her closet, kept quizzing and drilling Shining Armor about proper pregnancy care, and she found literally hovering over her and her husband’s bed several times doing ever increasingly jubilant scans of her baby bump.

Neither of the two knew whether they should be more confused, stupefied, or curious before bursting out laughing. They were going to the Empire anyway to run some tests with some remarkable work Key Ring, Sunburst, and Xenilla had been doing for their own projects, it wouldn’t hurt to poke around a bit and look into the ‘last’ of the three faces of Xenilla.

Back in the present, Twilight and Lea had been quietly enjoying their trotting stroll, bantering some small talk, and making their way towards the Crystal Castle in no particular rush when the reflection of something caught Princess Sparkle’s eye. Raising her brow and soon shielding it, she looked into the dim obsidian.

“Something amiss Twilight?” Lea muttered as she glanced over to see the alicorn peering at a reflection of the sun.

Twilight Sparkle puzzled, using the reflection to gaze at the fiery celestial without hurting her eyes. She perked an ear and tilted her head.

“The sun. It looks… lopsided.”

Lea joined in on the gazing, trying to see what it was that caught her friend’s eye, “Lopsided?”

Twilight Sparkle held a hoof over her brow as she tilted her head again, “The center of the shining and corona looks, well, tilted.”

Lea still didn't notice it best she could see it, “How would you say so?”

Spike chimed in and shrugged, “When you religiously look forward to summer sun celebrations as a filly like most does their birthday, you learn the cycles.”

Twilight rolled her eyes at the slight jab, “Princess Celestia’s work always has a finesse to it, a gradual tilt of exposed angle throughout the year to keep things stable and orderly. She wouldn’t rush or forget or else the seasons might seem off.”

Lea pursed her lips and lifted her ears to the air, letting the thinner skin be exposed to the warmth radiating down, “It is a tad warm compared to yesterday. Shouldn’t it still be a bit nippy?”

Twilight Sparkle, “Only if the sun’s not off kilter.”

“Huh,” Lea muttered, still more than a bit unused to the weather, seasons, even celestials being sapiently controlled in this world. She ground the edge of her knee against her chin before shrugging it off, “Well she is over a thousand. I think anyone can have an off day. Maybe she really was in a hurry?”

“Am I interrupting something?”

On reflex that voice, even devoid of a reptilian bellow, still caused Lea to flinch up. Ten years of instinct born of conflict will do that, even if thankfully Xenilla no longer bore the typical scaly visage that could cause Lea to have a nightmarish flashback to his father. The bemused giant unicorn levitated down to them from a rooftop, silently touching down on the ground beside them with a raised eyebrow. Even if the war between Defender and Mutation had all but ceased, at least in Equestria, Lea still could feel prickles trail down her body in Xenilla’s presence and she could similarly tell that he was at least slightly tense around her.

She noted curtly, “Xenilla, salutations.”

Xenilla nodded his head somewhat, “Mothra Lea, an unexpected surprise. I didn’t know you were accompanying Princess Sparkle.”

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and bonds after all, and Spike, her dutiful aid who’d gotten saddled along with all the past ventures, thankfully was able to pop up between the two with a cheery expression on their faces while pushing the two apart.

“Long time no see, Xenilla! Though should I call you ‘ambassador’ or since your brother is a king, would something else be in order? Archduke? Lord Protector? Princ-”

Xenilla cut her off with a mildly deadpan expression and drooped eyes, “Anything but the latter, though just Xenilla works. I believe I had my fill of royal title shenanigans on my first day to the empire, much less to the later date to today, Princess Twilight Starla Sparkle.”

Twilight just snickered, waving her wing in a diffusing manner, “Aaaww please, then just call me Twilight! Besides, I thought you didn’t like the whole ‘Princess’ gig from what Cadance told me in her letter?”

Xenilla paused for a moment, as if he was trying to think through what might’ve been in that letter, before shrugging it off, “... Just making sure I’m not out of the loop since I’ve barely left here since I arrived, do you rule a country and are you married?”

“Uum, no?”

Xenilla needed no pause before blurting his thought out with a completely serious and yet utterly deadpanned expression, “Good, then you’re the first individual I met who was called a princess and actually was one.”

“Ahem,” Spike coughed and narrowed his eyes while twirling his hand in a clockwise motion, "Hi! Here too by the way."

Xenilla glanced at the dragon, “Ah Spike Kenbroth Sparkle… Shouldn’t you be a duke?”

Spike’s eyes widened and he tapped a claw to his lip with a growing grin.

Twilight and Lea blinked in mild confusion before glancing towards each other to see if the other one had anything to say about that. Much to Twilight’s curiosity, Lea awkwardly glanced about before shrugging her shoulders and nodding slightly.

“He has a point on both counts,” the changeling-alicorn muttered.

“Oooye,” Twilight Sparkle groaned as she rolled her eyes and waved at the air like she was pushing the topic away, “Enough of that!... Ahem!”

She shifted her position and stood facing Xenilla with her nose perked up and her eyes closed in a formal manner, “Xenilla, as you know Lea and I have been investigating methods to try and find a way to create a pathway back to Terra to transport the kaiju who wish to return back home safely. Recently Key Ring wrote to me about a collaborative study you, he, and an archivist named Sunburst had been working on. Namely with the topic of spatial relocation with magical doorways between two places, akin to Starswirl the Bearded’s works on dimensional shifting. Lea and I came to look into your group’s work and see if it might help offer some outside insight.”

Xenilla cracked a pleasantly surprised expression in response to her notation and nodded, “Your intuition is a welcome outlier amongst many species. Indeed, my colleagues and I even reference and used some available information from the late Starswirl the Bearded and still present Princess Celestia’s voyages long ago through their magic mirrors. Follow me.”

Xenilla motioned with his hoof before picking off the ground and hovering over towards a large warehouse adjacent to the castle with the changeling in disguise and alicorn following suit. The doors opened from a wave of mentally projected telekinesis from Xenilla and welcomed the guests into their workspace. Princess Twilight Sparkle’s eyes widened and twinkled as she beheld the realm. The original warehouse stores had been removed, effectively gutting the inside to clear space. Each of the walls were further supported by grown quartz spires, adding to their gleam which helped illuminate the various work tables, desks, and book-laden stores that held a mountain of data. In the center of the room was a doorway, which appeared unremarkable other than the crystal it was built with being embedded with what Lea recognized instantly, and Twilight recalled from Lea’s teaching after a moment, as Xenilla’s yellow surge crystals. Surrounding the doorway was a mishmash of crystal charging towers of Xenilla’s and the crystal ponies’ design that occasionally arced with energy, and the myriad of pipes and wires leading to Equestrian machinery that was near constantly spewing forth readouts.

Staffing the room were Sunburst, Key Ring, and a few crystal pony helpers functioning as crystal shapers to help the upkeep of the structures; along with several guards. Twilight Sparkle’s eyes briefly locked with the one non-crystalline guard’s and she recognized him by his orange fur and blue hued hair. To the mild notice of Lea and Sunburst, even if they didn’t see the cause, both Twilight Sparkle and Flash Sentry ended up glancing away at the same time for different reasons.

“I won’t lie, I originally looked into this idea of gateways because I thought I might be able to find the answer independently of you two’s own projects. But due to changing priorities, my colleagues and I looked into different possibilities. Currently the goal, in light of the need to cooperate and safeguard Equestria alongside my need to remain here in the Empire, is to hopefully make a transportation system in case of future kaiju attacks. Create a safe means of evacuation and allow the proper response team to get to where the problem is, unburdened by travel speed,” Xenilla noted as he motioned to the doorway and the glasses-wearing stallion beside it, “Ring? You want to take over?”

Key Ring smiled and trotted over, the burnt red stallion giving both his guests a courteous bow, “Your majesties. Either by none of us cutting it like Starswirl could or lacking something he had, our doorways work in a similar but distinctly different manner. Starswirl’s doorways worked off dimension, ours work off space.”

Key Ring held up his hoof to motion along and pantomime his point, “Starswirl and Celestia’s doorways work kinda like an elevator. You don’t really move too much from side to side, but you step into more or less the same place but at a different altitude. No matter where you come out of the elevator, you’re always coming out next to the elevator entrance. Starswirl and Celestia’s doorways to the human world Princess Twilight Sparkle took and the mirrored world she and the other heroes took all spat you out at somewhere matching up to where the mirror was set to.”

Lea, seeing as her friend was still in a bit of a minor stupor from something earlier, beamed and chimed in, “Oh! So for instance the portal to the human world was originally made in Canterlot, so it was set to the Canterlot of that world? That’s why even when Twilight used it here in the Crystal Empire, it still took her to a place called Canterlot and not presumably any equivalent the Crystal Empire has?”

Key Ring rapidly nodded, “Indeed! Same reason the now broken mirror world portal, according to reports, dropped the users off somewhere close to that world’s Canterlot for the same reason! However the portal door we made doesn’t work like that. Remember that elevator analogy I made earlier? Well imagine ours like a flat, moving walkway on the floor of the same building. It can link two places on the same dimension, the same ‘floor’ together and transport somepony from point A to point B on that same floor.”

“But it can’t transfer someone or something to another realm,” Xenilla shrugged, “Though it does have some benefits even if it is limited.”

Twilight Sparkle snapped to attention and perked up her ears, “Oh? Any related to the door itself? I see you implanted it with surge crystals.”

Xenilla glanced over his shoulder to see the subject of her pointing, the glimmering yellow crystals embedded in the doorframe and occasionally arcing energy between them across the panels, “You are attentive as impressions and reports suggested and memory served, well done. The crystals are mostly my touch to ensure it has proper energy supply for safety. But a healthy benefit of it is that it makes it independent of outside power sources, like the astrological sources Starswirl often tied his portals to.”

“Hence why the human world portal only opens up for brief instances every so often,” Key Ring noted while looking to his and his colleague’s creation with no small measure of pride, “Ours is up 24/7 once it’s charged. While range is still limited for..-”

He gave Xenilla a glance as Sunburst coughed into his hoof behind them, “-safety reasons after a very frantic test run expanded the boundaries, we still need something to anchor the doorways we use to where we’re going.”

“What could anchor it?”, Lea questioned.

Key Ring nodded, “Since we based it off parts of my talent and Sunburst’s studies after fueling it with Xenilla’s power, we have a lot of options. We can swap around the doorways we use for instance, so it could be the doorway we use and the one we connect to or from the same manufacturer, were on the same street, on part of the same continent if you don’t mind sacrificing precision. Something that helps really narrow it down to make absolutely certain you come out the right door is having something from the area we are trying to link to so you can walk out of a doorway in said area.”

“Oh? How precise can you get it?”

Sunburst was trotting up and nodded back towards the current door, “That one currently has a crystal sample from the Imperial residence.”

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head, “Why? Isn’t the castle right next-door?”

Sunburst shrugged his shoulders, “Made for a good test-”

Before a dead panning Xenilla cut him off, “It allowed me to visit the Empress and check in on the well-being of the heir unimpeded.”

An awkward silence filtered between the five, especially between Sunburst and Key Ring as they knew 'check in one well-being of the heir' meant teleporting into Cadance and Armor's wardrobe. Everypony glanced at Xenilla before the quiet was stopped by Twilight's snickering; the young alicorn stuffing her hoof into her muzzle to keep from bursting out laughing.

-Oh my Faust Cadance wasn’t lying about him randomly busting in on her and Shiny through their closet!-

As Twilight tried as hard as she could not to make herself look like a fool before the more than slightly bewildered station staff, Lea chimed in and drew attention to her inquiry.

“So this contraption you have here seems like a powered base and a nonpowered entryway to wherever you’re going, yes?”

Key Ring nodded, “Indeed. Power comes from emulating my talent, Sunburst’s replication of old Starswirl spells with the crystal shapers, and Xenilla’s energy charge to fuel it. While the doorways are needed, there’s nothing magical about the doorways themselves. They just help direct where all the magic goes to transport the voyager. Why you ask?”

“The portal mirror to the human world is in the Empire too,” Lea noted as Twilight perked up from memory, “-in the vault catacombs for safe keeping. It was actually something Twilight and I were coming to look into with Princess Cadance’s and Prince Shining Armor’s permission. Now given it works on its own with none of the elaborate set up here, it’s magic must be self contained.”

“I am aware of the item in the Empress’s and Prince Consort’s vault,” Xenilla replied curtly, putting emphasis on the titles with a hint of an annoyed grumble in the back of his throat, “-And yes your logic is sound. Sunburst isn’t one to talk much, but if he were so inclined he’d confirm the previous assessment that the mirror draws power from the celestial bodies and recharges between activation periods.”

“Hence the whole ‘only works once every thirty moons’ detail I was warned about last time. It’s a good thing Sunset Shimmer was found when she was, given the portal happened to be active as soon as she was out of the hospital,” Twilight Sparkle added to Xenilla and company’s nod.

“Well,” Lea quipped as she glanced at the charging array for the doorway, “What if we attached the mirror where you guys put the door frames?”

Key Ring, Sunburst, and Xenilla all opened their mouths like they were about to say something; but they paused. After a few awkward blinks, glances were cast and the trio looked aside before grouping together to huddle and whisper, an extremely surreal sight for Lea. After some deliberation, Sunburst ran off to double check some spells in his archive, Key Ring trotted over to his desk to confer with his class, and Xenilla straightened up and turned back around.

“... More intensive study might be needed, but this station just might be able to power the mirror; assuming it doesn’t all take the alternative.”

“Whiiiiich would mean it would be?”, Twilight muttered with a perked brow.

With a completely straight and inhumorous visage, Xenilla just grunted, “Negative feedback loop into an explosion and subatomic scattering… That was a worry when we first started devising this contraption, hence the need to anchor the gateway to something to ensure what goes in comes out in one piece in the right place.”

“So for instance even if the mirror was attached, it might need something from that world to make a stable connection,” Lea asserted to no disagreement from Xenilla.

“Sadly before you get any hopes up about using this to return anyone to Terra, the mirror portal likely only works between Equestrian realms. The world Princess Twilight here visited may have had humans, but it certainly wasn’t Terra.”

“Not unless you guys got just as vibrant a population as Equestria does, eheh,” Twilight mumbled with slightly drooping ears, having hoped for a moment Lea might have gotten them a lead, “Well, could be a start though; attaching the mirror to the power chamber here. Since I’ve been there I could tell if we got the right place once we find that anchor.”

Sunburst gulped back his shyness as he threw his voice over his book laden work desk, “Princess Twilight has a point! It’d be a way to test broadening our scope in safety. Presumably all we’d need is something from that world or tied to it.”

Before any pondering on what that might be could ensue, a low rumble shook the warehouse enough it caused the windows and crystals to rattle; followed by a thundering crash that shook the very foundations. Instantly everypony’s eyes widened and a paled Lea and Xenilla looked to each other. They recognized that kind of noise. That was the booming noise of something breaking the sound barrier before the chasing echo of something very big and very strong hitting the ground hit them as well. Instantly both thought the worst and looked to Twilight Sparkle. The alicorn hyperventilated but nodded rapidly, looking to Spike and tilting her wings to help him slide off her back.

“Keep an eye on things and get ready to tell everypony to get to the palace if need be!”

“You got it Twilight!”, a hopping Spike piped as he saluted.

Twilight nodded, taking to the wing and racing with Lea and Xenilla out of the building.

“Everypony get ready to get somewhere safe!”, Twilight shouted as she blasted the front doors with her magic to force them open and flew out with Xenilla and Lea flanking her.

The three rapidly ascended into the air, back to back with steeled nerves and tense bodies as they all tried to spot just what was going on.

Xenilla swung around, putting his hoof to a nearby wall to extend his senses across the entire crystal-covered ground, trying to see where the shockwaves were coming from, “I’m picking up one pressure wave from the south. Big.”

Lea steeled herself as she turned her gaze south, seeing a small pillar of smoke arising from the edge of the empire and thankfully out of the populated area, in the snowy fields beyond. With luck, she or Xenilla could engage the threat before it got to the populace. Her eyes dilated and she blinked with a wave of mana washing over them to enhance her sight. But other than a crater she saw nothing sizable through the snow storm.

“There’s an impact crater but nothing else, is it traveling underground? It might be Megalon!”

Xenilla shook his head as he removed his hoof from the wall, “Nothing. No tremors from something burrowing or walking.”

Far beyond them, they heard the crowd cry out and an uproar took root; causing the trio to promptly fly over and investigate while keeping magic and energy blasts on a hair trigger in case anything happened. They expected a kaiju, perhaps shrunken down, or maybe some native Equestrian threat to cause such an entrance. Instead what they found was a set of tracks leading from the crater in the snowfields and a crowd of gawking Crystal Ponies pulling aside to get out of the way of a very livid looking Princess Celestia. The paragon of good magic and avatar of the sun was stone faced, leery eyed, and tense in muscle as she marched down the street; but if that wasn’t enough to cause everypony to clear back then her fiery mane and fact she was cracking the street with every step was.

“P-Princess Celestia?!”, Twilight muttered as her face scrunched up in confusion and she flew down to her mentor but quickly shrank away when she realized one of the reasons the crowd had fallen back was the intense heat convecting off the white alicorn.

Twilight, thoroughly flabbergasted looked up to Lea and Xenilla, “She’s upset about something!”

“Explains the fire and the glaring look, she must be seeing red.”

“Tell me something unknown,” Xenilla deadpanned as his horn and mane glowed briefly before he gestured up with his hoof.

On command the crystalline ground before Princess Celestia shot up, creating several spires of quartz crystal that blocked her way. Expecting her to pause, now that her path was obscured and knowing she wouldn’t move out of the middle of the street or risk getting too close to the civilians, Xenilla hovered down towards her and tried to get through to her.

“Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor, your demeanor is threatening those around you and I know this is very uncharacteristic, so stop what you’re doing and act accordin-”

He was cut off when the crystals in front of Celestia didn’t slow her advance, not even when her nose and horn made contact with them. She paused for a moment’s notice, if only to press more of her against the crystal, before she kept going through them. Xenilla winced and sneered, launching up multiple walls to block her advance. But each time he did, Princess Celestia just kept marching forward; more focused on whatever she was rambling incoherently about than any obstacles that got in her way.

“LEEEAAA! Make yourself useful!” Xenilla roared as he kept fruitlessly trying to impede the oncoming alicorn, “She’s heading for the heart of the city!”

“Ah Daiei!”, The changeling-in-disguise put her hooves together and started to channel her mana.

“Don’t try to hurt her!”, Twilight yelped as she reluctantly gripped Xenilla’s latest crystal wall with her magic to reinforce it.

“Trying not to!”, Lea barked as her family symbol appeared on the ground in front of Princess Celestia. Her plan was to create a seal like she had on Twlight’s library during the baby destroyah attack. Equestrian magic might have its zenith with an alicorn, but it still should have a lot of trouble dealing with mana based spells outside of sheer force.

Unfortunately due to not having a structure to anchor the spell to, panicking and trying to not harm the princess diarch, and her earth pony parts giving her all the sheer force Celestia needed, Princess Celestia was only briefly impeded by the seal. A glowing dome of energy flared up around her as the Mothra family seal ignited across the ground, clearly straining. After almost cartoonishly walking in place for a moment or two against the edge of the seal like Celestia’s face was scrunched up against a glass wall, she smashed through it while similarly shrugging off a violet hued barrier of Equestrian magic Twilight put up.

The virtually comedic routine continued on for several blocks, Princess Celestia, still on fire, implacably walking through anything Twilight Sparkle, Xenilla, and Mothra Lea put in front of her.

“Hold her still!”

“I’m trying!”, Xenilla roared as he threw caution into the wind and practically threw himself at Celestia head on, bracing his back hooves against the ground as he tried to slow the larger mare down.

Link!

Celestia, still rambling incoherently and out of her mind, kept advancing forward at a slightly slower pace. Xenilla’s efforts had managed to keep her inside a new Mothra seal appearing below the two, encircled by a purple star symbol as it was bolstered by Twilight pitching in. Between the strongest Terran magic user alive and an Equestrian prodigy who picked up the craft quickly, the seal did manage to put a damper on Princess Celestia’s magic output. The flames across her mane were less intense and though they still roared, the heat was no longer causing so much convection nopony but somepony on Xenilla’s tier of durability could get near her.

Princess Celestia however, eyes locked on the Crystal Castle like it just insulted Smart Cookie’s cooking, still didn’t even acknowledge the group. Whatever it was she was roaring about clearly had her distressed as much as it antagonized her. Now she was waving her wings and rocking her head to accentuate what she was rambling about.

Xenilla felt his hooves grinding into the crystal behind him. Mothra Lea swooped down and tackled Princess Celestia to try and reinforce him, but she ended up getting that plan derailed when the solar alicorn got particularly enraged at something and swing her wings out. Unknowingly bashing the kaiju enough to daze her, Celestia still didn’t notice Lea frantically flop about in the air and grab onto her wings to try and restrain them; getting half towed and half dragged along the ground for her trouble.

“How is she so lithe and still this strong?!”, The Guardian of Mortals whined as she was dragged along while holding one of Celestia’s wings in her hooves and the other with her magic.

“Agk!”, Xenilla barked as he put all he had into holding her back, managing to finally slow her down to a sluggish but constant pace with Lea’s aid. Clearly the frustration was building to his wits end judging from the flickers of plasma light slithering out from between his teeth along with his roaring tone, “What the Daiei is she rambling on about?!”

Twilight Sparkle gulped and flew down above Xenilla, rapidly beating her wings to hover and trying to not accidentally shove one of her feet into Xenilla’s face as she held her hooves to her teacher’s cheeks. Even with the magic reduction, Celestia still felt like she’d steam water!

“Princess Celestia! What’s going on!?”

“ANDWHENIGETMYFIRSTNEW-”

“Heading for a wall!”, Lea cried out as she flopped about.

Xenilla stole a glance back and saw they were slowly sliding along towards the portal door warehouse. No doubt given previous actions, Princess Celestia didn’t see the wall there through Twilight and was going to ram through it like it was paper.

“-MESSAGEFROMHERINAWEEKITSBECAUSESOMEFOOLWITHADEATHWISH-”

“STOP! HER! I am NOT letting her into my workspace like this! I need to change!”

“Are you crazy?! In the middle of the city?!”

“Crazy enough to not want an out of control alicorn near an energy crystal array and warp door!” Xenilla grunted as he tried to push back against Tidal Wave-Tia, “I can fly! I’ll just grab her with my hand and stop it!”

“Princess you need to get ahold of yourself!”, Twilight cried as she tried to push back against her mentor’s face and only managed to scrunch back her cheeks and expose her toothy maw. Which was still rambling.

“-DECIDESTOTHREATENMYLITTLESUNSPOT!”

Celestia’s rambles reached their zenith when finally her beloved student’s voice pierced through the haze, “andmostofall WHY HATH THOU PARTY IMPEDED ME?!”

The Royal Canterlot Voice she used put Luna’s to shame once again and broke about every single window for a good block. Xenilla, Lea, and Twilight had to physically grab hold of each other’s heads and clench their jaws shut to keep their teeth from rattling out. The trio managed to, after a good minute of recovery time from nearly having their eardrums ruptured, collect themselves and stood before her. Or more correctly a tired Lea and frantic Twilight got between a still flaming Celestia and an equally livid Xenilla with the son of Godzilla Senior not budging from getting between the alicorn and his workshop.

“Um eheh, Princess Celestia yoou think you could… maybe… cancel the fire show?”, Twilight chuckled nervously as she rubbed the back of her head, “Kinda intimidating to talk to.”

Princess Celestia straightened up and took in a deep breath, relaxing tightened muscles and exhaling at the same time the flames in her mane died down. It was only after she started looking more like her old self that Twilight realized how stressed she looked. Her breathing was a little bit more rapid, there were dark patches under her eyes, bits of her usually velvety fur and flowing mane were frayed, covered in ash, and messied, and her body posture indicated no small degree of haggardness. Yet her eyes were still determined, facing forward and locked onto the Crystal Palace aside from brief glances to her student. Twilight Sparkle frowned, landing before her and tilting her head.

“P-Princess, what is going on?”

Celestia flinched with taut lips, “Agh… I am.. Sorry, Twilight. I suppose I let the stress and fright come over me so much it made me tune out to what was around me.”

Xenilla grunted, “Pah, you’ve been rambling and breaking things for the last five minutes. You nearly ruptured my workshop and the energy surge field I had set up inside it.”

Twilight perked an ear up and turned her head towards him, “Which would mean?”

Xenilla, “If it reacted to the heat and magical energy she had been putting out in the way I think it would…”

Xenilla levitated up a piece of crystal in front of him that he charged with double of some of his energy loaned out by his glowing shoulder pads, the resulting fragment glowing and vibrating in increasing amounts until it exploded in a shower of dust. Xenilla narrowed his eyes and leered, motioning with a hoof to the building behind him to indicate what the demonstration was a scaled experiment for. Twilight and Lea’s eyes widened and Celestia finally took the first backwards step at she’d done in the hour.

“Your majesty,” Lea whispered as she stood up and looked to the alicorn at near eye level, “What happened?”

Princess Celestia sighed and dipped her head with closed eyes, “Been a thousand years since I lost control….”

The hum of her magic preceded the retrieval of something from the saddlebags the party just now noticed she was wearing. An old book with two symbols Twilight Sparkle was quick to recognize, one of Princess Celestia herself and the other of Starswirl the Bearded. The book was opened to a page that contained seemingly innocuous writing. Twilight squinted her eyes to look closer and see what the scrawling was about.

-Rainbow Dash… Attack? Rainbow hasn’t been attacked, and if she was why wouldn’t I know about before Princess Celestia did?-

She read on, eyes widened.

-Highschool? Burst into the house?... Out for me?!-

Her eyes could practically be as wide as dinner plates at the last line.

-From Sunset Shimmer?!-

“As you can see,” Princess Celestia muttered under her breath that clearly withheld wrath, “There has been an altercation. I need access to the mirror.”

=========================

“Be right with you, just gonna grab a snack from the machine!”, Sonata Dusk hollered over the crowds as she trotted behind the stage.

“Make it quick, movie’s in fifteen minutes!”, her big sister called back and caused Sonata’s already bouncy step to get a little extra spring in it.

Life was going good for the blue siren as she practically skipped to where the vending machines were out back. Chaos and calamity with a giant demon monkey behind them, she’d been on quite the upswing! Aria and Adagio didn’t fight anymore besides normal familial bickering, she’d gotten good working wi-fi set up at the house and was able to play with some online friends beyond at an internet cafe, their songs were hit after hit at the amateur competition circuit, and she’d even gotten Aria and Adagio to take up swimming! All and all, the home life was finally happy again and they all seemed to finally be able to find some enjoyment in being turned into naked walking monkeys.

She had just hopped out behind the outdoor stage to get to the vending machines when an unworldly cold bit into her exposed arms and legs. Sonata reflexively grabbed her extremities and tried to pull down her stage dress further to ward off the chills. Had she been more observant like Adagio might be in this sort of situation, she might have instantly knew something was wrong as it had been a temperate evening and a sudden chill strong enough to give a siren a cold snap couldn’t be normal in such weather. They might not be marine anymore, but it still took more cold to affect them than it might a normal human. But instead it just caused her to scamper closer to the vending machine to speed things up. The hairs on the back of her neck stood up when several shadows joined with hers and she turned around.

“Huh, who are-?”, Sonata muttered before being cut short by the three figures closing in on her.

The biggest one in a hood, a male judging from the shoulder span and height, grabbed her by her shoulders and pinned her down against the vending machine. Sonata gasped and tried to kick out, but a hand from one of the others stuffed onto her face and held her mouth shut to keep her from crying out for help.

“Can’t risk a siren singing,” a low tone grumbled to the two shorter members of the party.

Sonata, eyes wide with panic and emitting muffled cries, kept trying to struggle as she looked to her assailants. None of them were anyone she recognized, but the way the biggest one looked at her almost made her wish she was back in the mall with a non-friendly X chasing her down. The look was… hungry, predatory in a way, even if she couldn’t make out much of the finer details in their faces. The two shorter ones, one of which was wearing glasses, didn’t seem as enthusiastic and she almost thought she could see them frowning.

“Now, quickly! Before the other two investigate,” another one whispered.

The short one with glasses drew closer and outstretched a hand towards Sonata’s necklace. For a moment the siren’s eyes became alight with fear as the purple fingers nearly touched her siren heart. For a moment she felt a respite, remembering what Aria told her had happened with X. That unless given permission, the only one who could ever risk tearing her beloved magic and last reminder of home away from her was another siren. There would be a force barrier to throw the hand back and she’d have an opening to use her magic and get away! Sonata tensed and got ready, waiting for the barrier to flare up. But just when it looked like it was about to… it didn’t.

Sonata’s eyes widened and she looked to a hand clutching her necklace, feeling an invasive push into the magical aura that surrounded her. The violet hand was held by the male’s and somehow the two had pushed through the barrier. The hand on Sonata’s mouth from the shortest individual had slipped down somewhat just as Sonata felt the hands begin to pull back with her heart their grasp.

“P-Please no…”, a quivering Sonata choked out.

The shortest and glasses wearing individual flinched, but the biggest one yanked the hands back, tearing the gem away. Sonata’s eyes flashed and she gasped a scream that refused to come out, finding herself falling to her knees and clutching at her throat. The burning sensation, the horrid burning sensation felt like someone had wrapped a red-hot chain around her throat and made her swallow the rest of it! She tried to gag, tried to scream, but nothing could come out.

“W-What’s wrong with her?!”, a voice gasped.

The reply came from the first voice, “She has been separated from her magic, she’ll be a normal girl now. Twilight, you must contain it quickly!”

“R-Right!”

Sonata’s crying eyes tried to look up and she reached for the red glimmer through the haze of tears before it seemed shut away inside something. That begat a shock that all but sent her crumpling had a pair of hands not grabbed her from the third figure opposite 'Twilight' and the first form.

“S-Sorry for this, here. It won’t hurt anymore,” a uneasy and quiet tone muttered from the owner of the arms that were holding her up.

Sonata wheezed as she glimpsed a green light before it was snuffed away.

“We can’t do that, not yet!”

The arms holding her were pulled away and Sonata fell to her knees, still clutching her throat.

“But she’s in pain!”

“And she could have put a lot of others in that too, what do you think she was gathering energy here for? You remember what her kind do,” the gruff tone called out as footsteps began to lead away, “We have to go, before the other two come!”

Sonata pathetically tried to reach out, wheezing in a vain attempt to get her heart back. Her free hand felt bumpy, craggy, uneven skin across her throat........

In the present, Sonata Dusk absentmindedly touched the very ugly scar coloring her neck and upper chest. Sonata could admit to liking a lot of characters with scars. Lots of heroes and heroines had them, from serious retired swordsmen with a cross on one cheek to goofy revenge driven swordsmen with a dash on each side. Aria had a couple and she was pretty sure she saw a few on X. But those scars were either not too distracting from one’s looks if visible or were covered up. Sonata’s was blatantly visible and hideous, more like a branding mark covering most of her neck and upper torso. She swallowed and tried to force the memories back and ignore how raspy and rough her throat felt, instead exhaling mutely and focusing on the computer screen in front of her displaying “Victory!”.

The chat log lit up with familiar names

-WarHawk101: GG, Nice rush there AzureEve!

-RckrGrlKn1p: Nexus destroyed 19 min in before they could FF rage quit, new record!

-WarHawk101: Group up for another round?

Sonata smiled for a moment, thinking it over before shaking her head and typing in; glad that her ‘voice’ to the friends beyond still worked.

-AzureEve14: Thanks guys, but I think I need to stretch my legs and go out on a good note.

-AzureEve14: Need one. Thanks a bundle!

-WarHawk101: Take care!

-RckrGrlKn1p: Later!

Sonata exited out of League and sat back, feeling at her neck. She felt as good as she could from the small happiness of being victorious with friends and she could feel it. She chewed her cheek, thinking it through and noting how she always sang best when happy or dedicated. Might as well give it a try right?

She took in a deep breath, holding it down for a moment to make sure she didn’t cough it right back up. Closing her eyes to concentrate she grasped at the small fragment of joy she could still hold onto and let what she felt be said.

But when she opened her mouth, the only thing she got was a burning sting in her throat and a weak, raspy hiss who’s feeling made her choke on her own air. She tried again. And again. And again. Each time a more growingly painful failure. Sonata Dusk didn’t break down as tears stung at her eyes, she was too stubborn for that. If feeling happy wasn’t enough to try and bring back the lost vibes that helped her to sing, she was going to do more. She needed more familiarity. Her eyes drifted to the window showing the river outside and soon the back door was opened as she walked out, still trying to get more than a dry wheeze out of her throat.

Maybe getting her feet wet would help?

The back door opened and she slipped outside into the brisk midday air. Noises drew her attention and Sonata briefly glanced over to see what was going on. Aria, Adagio, and X were all at the front or side of the house, mostly out of view. Aria was running through her workout and martial arts kata in her exercise attire, though Sonata had noticed she’d forgone the long sleeve sweater in favor of her normal tank top. Had she been her normal chipper self, she’d probably have poked good fun at her cousin conveniently choosing to show off some more skin when X was present rather than the reality of probably just opting to forgo the bulkier attire now on account of the weather and wanting more freedom of motion. At least that’s what Sonata could imagine the flustered Aria snapping back. Adagio and X were conversing quietly while looming over something.

For a moment this gave Sonata pause. Her big sister and Aria’s likely significant other rarely spoke amicably to one another when they were running away from Enjin. Most of the time it was just Adagio trying to dig into X’s motives and information to glean something useful to her. But it was clear they were collaborating on something, freely sharing information like they were steadfast allies. She almost wanted to pace up and ask what they were doing, but she stopped herself midstep. A frown crossed the blue siren’s face and she felt at her dry, scarred throat.

Maybe she would have walked up and asked if she could talk effectively. Instead the smell and presence of water drew her back in like a moth to flame. She’d been born in the ocean, she spent most of her life surrounded by water. To her water was representative of home, the happiest childhood she could’ve gotten given the circumstances, a time Adagio and Aria didn’t butt heads before now, and the place her faded, dim memories of her beloved aunt dwelled. Being submerged was like being wrapped in a babe’s blanket, a comfort Sonata found herself running to.

And for a moment, she did feel it all around her. The cool and encompassing embrace that touched every speck of skin and nook of joint. Sonata felt a slip of liquid leave her eye and join the vastness of the water around her as it rushed through her hair and across her back. She felt peaceful again, the pain in her throat dulled. She didn’t need to think, just use instincts from a sorceress of the sea. She felt the comfort, the calm, smooth flow going across her. She was happy, jubilant even. At last, she tried to sing, tried to banish away the burnt, craggy feeling stuck to her throat on the outside and to her heart on the inside. She took in a deep breath, remembering Auntie Hymnia’s tune as Adagio and Aria retaught it to her!

And the very human, magicless Sonata inhaled a mouthful of water.

Adagio flinched, dropping the pen she’d been dragging across a map to scrawl out a shape across Canterlot City and Crystal City.

“Adagio?” X muttered as he tilted his head at the siren who had just been in the middle of the sentence she didn’t finish, “Why would Twilight Sparkle be at Canterlot Highschool if she’s enrolled in Crystal Prep?”

Adagio didn’t answer, only feeling a tug at her chest that made her clutch her necklace. The same tug she felt when Aria had been taken by Enjin and even more recently, when her baby sister was assaulted and mugged.

“Sonata…,” she whispered breathlessly before looking towards the river just in time to see a blue hand thrash above the surface before going under.

Adagio’s entire nervous system shocked and her eyes were wide.

“SONATA!”

Her scream was out as she bolted towards the river with a similarly stunned Aria and soon X in tow. Sonata Dusk sank to the bottom, rolling with the current as a limp body before three forms jumped in after her. X's hands grabbed the drowning siren and carried her to those of her pod.

It was a godsend Adagio was protective of her pod. When they found themselves human, that didn’t change. What did change was what might need to be done if a human got hurt. So she’d looked into fixing the issues that might arise should she not be able to get a human doctor. Multiple chest compressions, blowing breaths of air into Sonata’s throat, and a heart full of fear later resulted in Sonata Dusk gasping and hacking up river water, phlegm, and some mucus. Adagio Dazzle panted from exertion and held her little sister, letting her continue to cough and purge the water out.

Adagio Dazzle just tried drawing in her breath and slowing down her racing heart while doing the same for her sister. There might be a time anger born of worry could cause her to shout, demand to know what her baby sister was thinking. This wasn’t the time. Instead she and Aria just helped prop her up and rub her back to not interfere with her purging.

A shadow cast over them after a series of footsteps and she looked up to see Monster X looming over them. Aria and Adagio had both been so focused on Sonata they hadn’t noticed him pace away after Sonata regained consciousness and started coughing up river water and sick. After helping lift and carry Sonata out of the water, he’d stepped aside to let Adagio perform CPR. Now he was back, gently reaching out to touch Sonata’s shoulder and hold it.

“Will she be alright?”, he quietly spoke in a tone at odds with the situation.

“Y-Yes, for now,” Adagio heaved as she weakly nodded, having winded herself physically and emotionally while saving her sibling, “She’ll need a doctor to double check.”

“I can drive us,” Aria whispered as she helped hold Sonata’s head up, “You’re too drained to.”

Sonata hacked up and spat out the last bits of water, heaving for breath as sore, reddened eyes looked up to Adagio, then to Aria, and then to X. She shrank down and felt a salt sting at her wettening eyes, spurring Aria and Adagio to cradle her more. Monster X remained still, but the way he was holding himself and the look upon his eyes told Adagio he was frowning. He reached out and with the same hands Adagio had seen bash a door down and carry a load heavier than she was, very gently caress Sonata’s scalp until her shivers slowed. His eyes remained closed the whole time.

“Can you two take care of her?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Aria sighed as she looked up to him with a sort of understanding, like she knew what was on his mind in a way Adagio was clueless too.

X nodded and shifted. When Adagio saw him open his eyes again she would have gasped had she not been so focused on her sibling.

X’s irises were surrounded in a sea of black sclera, and the red in them was changed in hue from a dull crimson or cinnabar to a burning, almost bloody scarlet. He was shaking slightly as he got up and Adagio could swear she saw him growing slightly, muscles tightening up under the looser parts of his attire and his hair started to darken. He immediately started to pace away, biting back the pain of the transformation mid stride. She could now see that his copy of the Twilight Sparkle map he and Adagio had been working on was now visible in his other hand.

“X? W-Where are you going?!” Adagio called out as he started to storm off.

She was so confused she’d have risen had she not had Sonata on her lap and Aria’s hand on her shoulder. To her growing confusion, said cousin only quietly whispered, “Be careful” in a way Adagio could tell it wasn’t principally aimed at her. The purple siren knew that look in her significant other's eye, pure conviction working through wrath. At this point it was best to stand back and let him do his job.

Kaizer X’s fist was already so tightened down that his knuckles were whitened and popping even before it snapped to the side and backhanded his fist outward. It hit the flank of an aged old growth trunk that still erupted from the ground long after its tree had fallen over, instantly shattering it into a spray of splinters and moss. He didn’t say anything or do anything else other than momentarily glance back to the sirens, fully trusting Sonata’s safety to Aria and Adagio. They had their job, he had his. And he was going to drag Twilight Sparkle’s body, any condition above death being acceptable, back here by her hair if he had to!

Link!

====================

It took a lot of jury-rigging, but Princess Celestia was deadset. She’d stormed up to the Crystal Empire intent on accessing the magic portal mirror to access the human world. If it wasn’t working, Twilight Sparkle had found she’d come packing half of her and Starswirl’s old study notes. With enough raw magical power and a millennia of experience, it would have been quite possible to brute force it open regardless of whether the moon was correct. The Solar Princess’ plan, upon learning of some force daring to threaten the two young mares by targeting Twilight Sparkle and being around Sunset Shimmer, was to do it the ‘old-fashioned way’. It took a lot to get under Princess Celestia’s skin, but that was a way to do it. And if anypony could figure out how to get their magic working again in that world, it was her.

Thankfully cooler, not-formerly-on-fire heads prevailed and a new plan was drawn up. Remembering Xenilla and company’s explanation on how their installation worked and its shortcomings, Twilight Sparkle proposed an alternative that was readily accepted. To move the mirror portal to the doorway slot of the station and use the correspondence book between Princess Celestia and Sunset Shimmer as a tether to link the two places together, as was required for the station to work. And to much shock, enthusiasm, and triumph; the odd Frankenhoof compilation of Xenilla’s energy crystals, Starswirl’s books and mirror, the ingenuity of a research team, and plenty of motivation resulted in a success when the mirror hummed to life.

But when it came time to pitch the next part of what was on her mind, she got a colder response from a burning hot mare.

“No,” Princess Celestia grunted, “You’re not going.”

“Princess!”, Twilight pleaded as she looked to her mentor to try and pry Celestia’s eyes off the activated portal, “I should be the one going though!”

“No, you are not,” Celestia dryly noted as she peered at the alicorn with a face of stoicism her audience knew hid great concern, “This threat not only directly shows awareness of yourself, but it is abundantly clear you are their target. I’m already concerned enough for Sunset Shimmer, endangering you would only exacerbate the threat.”

Xenilla grunted and pitched his head while crossing his forelimbs, “Her majesty has a point. You yourself stated you largely had no magic when you ventured there. Now there is some super being, one with powers, trying to hunt you down.”

He sensed at the energy fields coming off all the ponies in the room. Key Ring, Sunburst, and the extended guard all have varying degrees to them. More than a human for sure, but largely small stakes compared to the infernos he could practically smell coming off of Mothra Lea and Princess Celestia. Princess Twilight Sparkle was somewhere in between.

“I admit, your potential might be vast but in terms of raw power even here you’re not the highest caliber Princess Twilight. If I had to gauge it, I’d say the amount of energy potential I can smell coming off you is about three eighths that of Empress Cadenza. In an unrestrained conflict between your might and myself, power and experience would leave an undesirable outcome,” Xenilla dryly noted.

Twilight tilted her head, “Um, define undesirable?”

Xenilla looked to her with a deadpan expression and grunted, “Admirable as your abilities are, you are young and not experienced. I have more power and been at war since you started primary school. I’d crush you outright.”

The young alicorn squeaked and Xenilla got a stiff glare from both Mothra Lea and Princess Celestia.

He held up his hoof in a motion to convey non-threat, ”I only speak in accordance to truth for caution. I swore an oath to protect the Crystal Empire and her majesty Sparkle is kin to both the royal house and beloved by the populace. Harming her is the opposite of any intention for myself. I’m only speaking of security and her well being. If the probable kaiju is a strong one and didn’t hold back, her safety would be in jeopardy. Princess Twilight, the fact of the matter is that Princess Celestia is,” Xenilla muttered while he remembered how hard he had to try just to stop her from advancing when she was dead set on that, “-and I bear little shame in stating it, stronger than I am in this state. If either of you two encountered a threat, she has both superior experience, knowledge, and raw power to combat it. And not just in magic.”

Princess Celestia shifted slightly to reluctantly make a point, popping several joints in her shoulders and neck. While her lean figure had long since become a beauty standard, anyone who would ever experience a physical motion from her would know that just as she was at peak or beyond normal magic potential for a unicorn; the same could be said for earth pony stamina, durability, and strength. The main reason the solar princess didn’t look very burly or bulky was mostly due to her tall frame stretching any muscles out to even her build, akin to the same reason Godzilla Junior and Xenilla’s unicorn forms were so physically strong without looking like Bulk Biceps.

“So if a threat is present, her going has the greater chance for success in a confrontation.”

Princess Celestia sighed and nodded, still tense but honestly a bit thankful somepony seemed to be speaking logically today.

But Twilight Sparkle wasn’t having it, darting out in front of her giant mentor and spreading her wings out.

“You can’t!”

“I’ve done this before Twilight.”

“And what about moving the sun?!”

“I’ll be gone for a day at most, Luna can tend to it.”

“And what about not causing a panic at your absence? You know how the populace is!”

“Luna’s glamor spells and physical disguises are a match for my own. She can be very creative.”

“But what if we lose you?!”

Princess Celestia paused and closed her eyes, exhaling slowly before lowering her neck down and opening her eyes to look directly at Twilight at the younger alicorn’s level, “...And what if I lose you?”

Her much quieter tone caught her student off guard and she shrank back for a moment. It sounded like how her mother might say that, and the fact her teacher had become a third parental figure was not something lost on either of them. But her backpedaling hoof soon dug its proverbial heel in.

“Princess… This entity, it attacked my friend. Right now it’s threatening my friends,” she shuddered and chewed the inside of her lip briefly, “... It knows of me, and is probably seeking me because of what I did and what I showed at the Fall Formal.”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips, “... You don’t know that. You’re projecting the blame baselessly.”

Twilight Sparkle frowned and shook her head, “There’s a very good chance the entity is a kaiju seeking energy, magic. And I not only allowed magic to be brought there, I was the biggest, the only source of it. Why else would they be after me? I brought this on my friends, maybe I can fix it?”

The frown slowly spread onto Princess Celestia, who was almost cursing the fact that sending her to Ponyville had made Twilight so empathetic before quickly taking it back. After all, that fact had helped her come so far even if she didn’t like where it was going now, “I know of your friends Twilight, but going would just be putting yourself at risk as well.”

“That would imply she’d go alone,” A voice called out behind them and caught both alicorns’ attention. Mothra Lea strode up to them.

“I will accompany her. The portal seems to be working fine and last time young Spike journeyed with her, I don’t see why I couldn’t to ensure her safety,” the disguised changeling smiled and winked to her friend.

“What about potential power loss?”, Xenilla noted as he looked to the Guardian of Mortals.

Mothra Lea just shrugged as she glimmered with a glowing energy that radiated across her vibrant wings like dazzling waves of sparks, “A kaiju’s power is biological and our very physiology relies on having them. Given we didn’t experience loss of powers here in these forms, no matter how different they're from our true selves, it stands to reason at least some of said powers will persist in a human body as much as an equine one.”

A dual glow of orangey red and blue light emerged from Lea’s wings and hovered above them, Moll and Lora dimming their glow to look about before bowing to Princess Celestia respectfully before gazing back at their old savior, Xenilla.

“We apologize for eavesdropping, but we can assure you there is no concern.-

-The Mothra lineage draws their power from their own mana, their lifeforce.-

-This is how they’ve maintained their magic even when Terra’s mana was largely depleted.-

-So as long as Lea lives, she produces mana and her magic will remain with her in any form!”

“Well, there’s my answer,” Xenilla noted as he couldn’t help but hide a small smirk at the cleverness of the argument, “But powers did diminish in our Equestrian forms. Should prepare for that if you turn into a talking monkey.”

Lea shrugged off the worry, “And if any losses are present, they’d affect the suspected other kaiju or failing that category, Equestrian threat, roaming about as well to even the playing field. If something happened, I’d be far from helpless.”

She noted with a smirk and earning a wave of relief from Twilight at finally getting some back up in the argument.

And she got some more when a little green and purple form slid down Lea’s leg from being perched on her back and hopped up to the princesses, “Not like Lea here would have a counterpart there to get mixed up with like the other Element Bearers. And she’d probably not end up a mutt like me either! Besides, if you go in swords blazing Princess Celestia; the crook might hide away and not come back out at all!”

Twilight Sparkle took in a deep breath and smiled, rubbing the top of Spike’s head, “Princess, I know there is a danger. But I’ve met danger before. I was the first of us to ever experience a kaiju attack, and I’d have the two friends who saw me through it right with me.”

“And hey, optimism? If it’s a kaiju he might be freaky, but not all of them are real nasty right? Last I checked there was an agreement to try and capture them alive and rehabilitate them. Don't get me wrong, seems like a bad dude threatening Rainbow Dash an all, but he could have done worse so maybe he's not totally evil and might be receptive,” Spike quipped as he motioned to his adoptive sister and Terran protector, “And who’s better at outstretching the hand of friendship than Twilight? And with Lea there we’d probably be able to tell who it is we’re up against!”

Lea nodded her head and put her wings around both of her companions, “And I’d guard them both with my life while doing it, regardless of who it turns out to be. Besides, experiencing a new world and portal magic might do some good for Twilight and I’s study of the subject.”

Princess Celestia remained still, unmoved but much to the party’s elation, not disapproving as she backed off slightly. Princess Twilight Sparkle bowed respectfully and put her hoof to her mentor’s.

“And if it becomes too much, we can still summon for help by getting to Sunset Shimmer and writing to you, or failing that Lea's faeries could call up that there is something wrong.

Moll and Lora bowed to Princess Celesia, "Our magical tether is strong, enough we can still feel our third member back on Terra. If something is amiss with Mothra Lea and a message from the book cannot be transmit, we'd feel it."

The younger alicorn nodded at the appreciated backup, "Equestria might need you and you might not be able to come, but there are the other allies we could call upon,” Twilight quietly said with a sweet, reassuring smile.

Princess Celestia took in a long, long breath in before finally exhaling out the tension she’d been holding onto for hours. With great reluctance, she nodded.

“.. On condition you partake with the utmost safety, you have my blessing for this voyage,” the diarch stated in her returning typically authoritative and kind tone, ”If help can be readied here at a moment’s notice should something occur.”

Mothra Lea, Spike, and Twilight Sparkle all shared a look with one another before smirking and nodding.

“Allow me a moment to issue out a ‘call’ so to speak,” Lea chimed as her antennae glowed, Moll and Lora joining hooves between them as Twilight put her horn to Lea’s to lend her power.

==========

Appleloosa

==========

Rodan let out a long, relaxed sigh as he slunk back into a chair still clad in his dance attire as he had just finished off another number with Phoenix Flamez. Much to the still cheering and applauding pair of parents’ glee, they’d managed to rope Rainbow Dash into joining in as Phoenix had a spare dance dress. The Guardian Beast of Air still remembered his puzzled comment at such a seemingly direhardly unfeminine mare, least by the standards he understood equine femininity, would want to dance and dress up; only to get his answer from an unexpected source. Rainbow ‘Radiance’ Dash Senior seemed to appear out of nowhere. Neither Rodan nor his flight buddy had seen her in the town prior but Rainbow Dash Junior hardly seemed surprised. Given the nature of her daughter being genetic, Rodan half suspected she sprinted here from somewhere else upon getting some vibe her daughter was going to dress up; dragging her husband in along the way.

Evidently the reason Rainbow Dash was less shy about dress up and more meek about her parents praising her was she used to do so all the time with her mother’s works and wares.

“No no no DON’T YOU-”, Rainbow Dash roared as she tried to speed by and swipe the picture only for an equally quick Radiance to pass it to her other hoof and proudly put her baby when she was a baby on full display.

Rodan’s brow raised and a laugh blurted out of his beak, “Ooooh my Tanaakaaa, you look good dressing in style Dashie!”

Phoenix Flamez’s eyes dilated and her mouth dropped open. Rodan’s ear was still ringing from how loudly the resulting squeals were at seeing the baby pictures.

Back in the present, the gryphon smiled and nodded to Thalia as the kindly barmare slid him over a mug of cider. But just as he gripped the handle and eyed the frothy liquid, a familiar tone echoed into his mind.

-“Rodannnn…. Rodan?... Rodan can you hear me now?”-

Normally one would feel startled, even shocked at voices literally between their ears, but Rodan was just momentarily surprised and smiled while absentmindedly looking to the ceiling on instinct to see what wasn’t there.

-”Oh hey Lea!”-

-”Ah, good.”-

-”Wow you must be getting better at this to pull this off such a long ways out!”-

-”Have some new help. I’m in the Crystal Empire.”-

-”That place Xenilla roosts in way up north? Wow that help must be good, I’m still in Appleloosa in the other direction and I can hear you loud and clear!”-

-”Thanks!”-

The new voice gave Rodan minor pause even as he recognized it.

-”Princess Sparkle?”-

-”Yep!... Oh wow this feels weird, sounds like your voice is coming between my ears.”-

-”You get used to it. Count yourself lucky, usually when Lea uses this she's screaming at us.”-

Lea’s tone came through with just a touch more tightened nerve and grumbling in her mental tone.

-”Not. The time. Rodan. There's going to be a situation. Is the Element of Loyalty with you?”-

-”Dashie? Yeah she's here.”-

-”Put your forehead to her’s.”-

-”One moment.”-

Rodan got up from his bar stool, where Thalia’s already confused look at his staring at the ceiling grew more so when the gryphon hopped off his seat and hovered over towards the west booth. Rainbow Dash, still in her stage dress, was chattering with Bo and Radiance alongside Phoenix Flamez when her flight buddy landed behind her.

“You sure you didn't want to use one of the stallion stage costumes?”, Phoenix chirped with a tilted head.

Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry, “I’m a tomboy, but I can still rock a dress- Rodan what are you?-”

Rainbow was cut off by Rodan pulling her face up to his and pressing the base of his crests to her gnoggin, just as the Element of Magic called out to Loyalty.

-”Rainbow, can you hear me?”-

-”WOoooooah! What the hay?! Twilight?!”-

-”Telepathy, Lea’s patching us through. I needed to be in contact with you and headbump’s the most straightforward way.”-

For having literal voices in her head, Rainbow took it surprisingly well after a brief moment of befuddlement.

-”Huh… Okay then. What’s the situation Egghead?”-

Thankfully the tease was made with more enderment than insult, less they’d hear Twilight groaning over the ‘conference’.

-”Long story short. Got a situation in the human world and after making sure Princess Celestia didn’t get involved just yet, Lea, Spike, and I will be going to investigate. Princess Celestia however brought up the good idea of insurance plans just in case things get dicey when we get there.”-

-”There is a high probability the culprit of an attack in that world was caused by a transferred kaiju.”-

-”So, wait. The monkey-us got giant monsters too?”-

-”Humans Rainbow.”-

-”But you said they were primates.”-

-”Apes technically.”-

Lea hummed and shrugged, -”Point being, thankfully or unthankfully the suspected kaiju was also in a human form. Threat lessened in that case or else the attack might have been more widespread.”-

-”Who got attacked?”-, Rodan chirped, -”If I remember right, that world’s got counterparts to a lot of Equestrians. Any name I’d know?”-

-”... Well, Rainbow Dash actually..! Oh she’s okay! Shaken up but not hurt!”-

There was a pause, almost as if all four were looking at Rainbow Dash despite the fact none of them could see her on account of distance with Lea and Twilight and having their eyes closed like with Rodan.

-”.... Did not-me get some hits in?”-

-”Not the point Dash. Point of this is just in case our expedition needs help, we got the mirror working 24/7 so we’re going to have Godzilla Junior and Anguirus transfer and stay in the Crystal Empire for a time so they could be on call to be sent in.”-

-”Any particularly reason we’ll miss the party Twilight? I can get me, two of me is way too much awesome for one world to handle. But why not Rodan?”-

-”Well for starters it seems the kaiju would be a good help to call upon. Might be more experienced with the enemy if they turn out to be from Terra too and they’d lack a counterpart in the human world to cause confusion with.”-

-”Godzilla Junior and Anguirus are both… at least largely until recent events with Godzilla's recoil boost, ground based. So they wouldn’t suffer too much from it if they ended up in human bodies.”-

Rodan whined, -”Hey but you gals are going to be in a messy situation, I’d still want to lend a wing! I could be useful.”-

Lea’s tone shifted into a deadpan, -”You’d probably lose your wings.”-

Of which Rodan, the kaiju who heavily relied on air speed to give power to his strikes and dodging for defense, quickly responded with a quick, -”I’d be useless.”-

Rainbow Dash sniggered but thankfully Twilight swooped in to mend bruised pride, -”Or more correctly you’d be more useful here. The places most likely to be attacked, given kaiju are attracted to energy like magic, are Ponyville, Canterlot, and the Crystal Empire. Destroyah, Xenilla, and you are all capable of powered flight at varying speeds. Destroyah might be the slowest in the air, but she is quick enough to cover Ponyville and Canterlot with Junior and Anguirus leaving. Xenilla can stay here to guard the Empire… not even sure we could convince him to leave if we tried anyways. Which leaves you Rodan, or more correctly you two with Rainbow Dash aaaass…”-

The lightbulb went off in both Element of Loyalty and Guardian Beast of Air’s heads, -”The fastest fliers in all of the skies!”-

One could practically hear the grin and the prideful high-five the two shared over a well earned title. Lea chuckled, earnestly glad to see Rodan so well integrated with a good friend, -”Which means should one of those two need backup, or an attack happens elsewhere, your dynamic duo could be the fastest response and cover the most ground.”-

-”Gotcha, anything else we should watch for?”-

-”Other than my fleeting sense of irony given I just said we’d rely on Destroyah and Xenilla to not break things, no. I trust we won’t have much issue.”-

-”And if we do, help will be soon coming. We just need you two especially to keep an eye on things around here.”-

Rodan and Rainbow Dash in the conscious world and still touching at the forehead, both raised an arm and saluted, -”You can count on us!”-

Twilight Sparkle beamed, -”Knew we could! Wish us luck!”-

And with that the bizarre feelings of Lea’s reach faded and the supersonic duo exited back to the conscious world. The scene that greeted them was initiated by a gasp. Rodan and Rainbow Dash froze, peeking out an eye and looking around. Around the table expressions varied. Rainbow Radiance Dash Senior was quiet but wide eyed, having pulled down her sunglasses and giving the two a wide look. Phoenix Flamez’s wings were sticking straight up into the air as her ears were flattened and pointing back; and her pouting, half hoof-covered face was far redder than normal. Rainbow Dash nearly squirmed when she saw what looked like, dare she say jealousy flicker in the dancer’s eyes. Thalia, who had come over to the table was just whistling awkwardly.

“Do uum,” she chuckled, “You two want some privacy?”

“Uuuuuuumh,” Rainbow Jennifer Dash Junior muttered as her eyes trailed around, “What?”

Thalia motioned to the two of them. Causing the two friends to realize they’d been flush against each other, forehead touching and half holding onto each other the entire time.

“Oh oh! This will go great in the books! My super special awesome pumpkin’s first!”, a very eager Bo chimed as he snapped away several pictures with the flash half blinding both gryphon and pegasus before they recoiled back and away from each other.

“Yeeeeeeeeeuuck!” Rodan squawked as she shook himself off, “You’re still sweating from the dance!”

“Not like you’re a basket of fruit Rodey! You’re just as bad,” Rainbow snapped between gritted teeth.

“Lying mammal, I don’t have sweat glands!”

“Oh trust me, you don’t need to to reek the way you do,“ Dash muttered before she stuck her tongue out before she punched him in the arm with a hoof.

The flash of the camera caused her to whirl around and look just in time to get flashed again by a grinning Bo.

“Awww, my number 1 daughter’s first relationship spat! Oh oh! Honey, lean in so I can get you in frame and try to give her advice!” Bo cheered.

“Weell, not the sort I expected but you two do fly beautifully together!” Radiance giggled as she leaned in and wrapped a hoof around her daughter to pose, “Now, my little Dashie the first part of a healthy relationship is-”

It was lucky his wife was holding their daughter, least Bo would have been tackled by Rainbow Dash in a bid to rid her father of his offending camera.

“Give me that! It’s not what it looks like dad!”

================================

After a swirling haze of lights and colors that greeted her when she stepped through the mirror, Twilight Sparkle yelped as she landed, now on two plantigrade feet, upon terra firma. Swinging her arms about to try and regain a composure of balance, she stumbled about briefly but managed to keep steady after relying on old muscle memory.

-Humans, how oh how did such creatures learn to walk bipedally without a tail to balance them?-

Groaning as she shook her head, she managed to turn herself around upon hearing the chiming of shifting magic. The surface of the school statue she’d emerged from wavered like a curtain of moving water. A small furry form was spat out and moving towards her in mid-air.

“W-Woooah Twilight!” the little purple and green dog yipped.

“I gotcha Spike!”

The small hound was caught in the now young woman’s arms, almost knocking her over as he caused her to hop back on one foot and throw her weight back forward to avoid bowling over. Twilight Sparkle sighed in relief, Spike instinctively wagging his tail and nuzzling her happily as he was put back to the ground. The puppy glanced about for a moment.

“Where’s Lea?”, he muttered with a frown growing across his face.

The expression spread to Twilight and she pursed her lips, “I’m not sure she was with us in the void so I’m sure she got through the mirror-”

Twilight couldn’t finish her statement nor thought for the statue shifted again, this time more violently. Dealing with something it never had before and a mass amount of power indicative of Mothra Lea’s true form, the process had taken slightly longer. But soon enough, the void spat out another young woman who came into the human world calling out and her arms flailing.

“Bwaah! What the-”

Both Twilight and Spike hopped up to the occasion, “We gotcha!”

Twilight grabbed the stumbling woman by the arms and shoulder, pulling back hard to keep her from falling forward. Lacking size or mass, all Spike could do was grab onto her shoe and pull back on it with all his little puppy might. They all three still ended up falling over in a groaning heap. Twilight Sparkle moaned and rubbed her bumped head, managing to pick herself up and grasp the shaking, light teal green hand to pull.

“You okay, Lea?”

The Guardian of Mortals mewled like she had a horrible headache as she tried to stand, “I went from six legs to four and now to two. I might be a shapeshifter but this will take a moment.”

“Well, silver lining?” Twilight muttered with a smile as she helped the wobbling woman up.

Spike hopped over and sat at their feet with a beaming smile and nod as he held up a paw like he was giving a thumbs up, “You’re lookin’ good!”

Maybe it was because her true form was often considered beautiful even by those fearful of kaiju, maybe it was some side effect of coming into the human world still in her alicorn disguise, or maybe it was some inner beauty shining through to a form visible; but one way or another the effect was true. Mothra Lea was a stunner as a human in terms of natural beauty.

Link!

For one, she was tall in a similar manner to her changeling form about a head above the youngest alicorn. Twilight would easily peg her as similar in height to Vice Principal Luna or even slightly moreso. Her build was slender, but more in a lean manner rather than a modelesque form as she had some visible muscle toning like what one would expect of a gymnast or swimmer. Her skin tone and hair color had carried over from her changeling form, though her odd iris colors had blended together into a gem-like turquoise iridescence much like her alicorn form. Her arms were decorated in what one would recognize as Polynesian tattoos, matching the ones her faeries wore. They trailed up her arm and onto her back. When Lea was stumbled forward, Twilight saw an outline resembling Mothra's butterfly wings marked upon her shoulders.

“Hehe, uh, thanks Spike,” Lea chirped as she carefully patted the little pooch’s head and looked herself over while testing her limbs, “Will take some getting used to, but I am familiar with transformations. Shouldn’t be too long.”

“Pretend you got a board strapped to your back you gotta keep upright,” Twilight quipped with a shrug, “Helped me.”

Lea pictured the mental image and worked with it, lining up her torso directly atop her hips and keeping her form rigid and straight like she was in the situation described. After some practice and much arm waving, she managed though it took some muscle memory for her to stop holding her arms curled like they were hooves in the manner they had been for the past few months.

“How’s your mana, still feel it?”

“Hm, let’s see…”, Lea whispered as she closed her eyes and concentrated, meditating to feel at her own life force. Like the radiating heat of a flickering flame, she could still feel it. And with some coaxing and stoking of the proverbial flame, it ignited.

Just a tad more literally than intended when her eyes opened and a purple prism beam spewed out of them, firing out into the air and bisecting a branch of a nearby tree. Twilight yelped and a yipping Spike shot up into her arms. Lea’s eyes glowed to a gradual dim and she blinked a few times before shaking her head.

A wide eyed Spike nodded, “Yep, I think you got still got it! Just uh, little warning next time please?”

Lea grinned awkwardly as she rubbed at the back of her head, never losing her sunny disposition, “Ehehe, sorry.”

A familiar red car drove past carrying several passengers whose heads all collectively turned and looked to lock eyes with a similarly stunned Twilight. Flash Sentry’s car screeched to a halt and four young women rapidly spilled out to rush them.

About a two kilometers away, the pounding of concrete snaked down the backstreets in tandem with a set of heavy footsteps. In a blur of motion, a dark form quickly scaled and vaulted themself up a street light pole, superhumanly strong fingers slightly bending the metal in grip and spurring several sparks to drip down from the structure. X looked about from his vantage point, ignoring the rare passerby who noticed and momentarily gawked at the oddity. But aside from an odd snapped photo on a phone or two, the weirdness tolerance for the citizens of Canterlot made them pay the sight little heed. Fortunate, as he was very keen on not letting anyone or anything get in his way. A quick check of the map caused him to turn east towards the school.

Closing his eyes, he reached out with the probing ability keen to all kaiju or kaijin. It might be diminished in this human body, but it was still present. And he sensed Equestrian magic, a flare of it and some sort of energy discharge not far away. In this world that could only mean one thing if it wasn’t a siren. X’s lips curled and he gripped the light post a bit tighter before strong legs launched him off of it, across roofs tops and sprinting towards the east.

-Target acquired….-

Author's Note:

Proofed by Lance Omnikron and Faith-Wolff!
Artwork by Faith-Wolff!

NEXT TIME ON THE BRIDGE!:
"Don't. Interfere," the snarl carried visible strength as the iron grip clenched around the throat before he tossed her aside.

Before he could fully turn aside and retarget, a voice cried out.

"HEY!"

A brief flare of orange hued light shot past him from behind. Senses detected a spike of Equestrian magic for a brief moment, spiking and fading in herald to the thrown glass bottle that shattered across the back of his head. He actually stumbled from the surprisingly heavy force above what was to be expected from a normal pitch, pausing for a moment.

Pinkie Pie cringed and Rarity grimaced as Fluttershy ducked behind them with a squeak. Applejack just stared at Kaizer X and her outstretched arm, surprised herself at what just happened.

The Xilian-Ghidorah cracked his neck, before whipping around with a burning glare. An inhuman growl one would expect from an angered panther hissing out.

Jacklyn "Applejack" Susan Apple never was so honest, "Ah shit."

Comments

[Phoenix821]

“Keep an eye on things and get ready to tell everypony to get to the palace is need be!”

Should be if

[Arcane Howitzer]

Before I read this, I have to ask: is this an April Fool's Day joke? Or is it an actual chapter that just so happened to drop on the 1st of the month?

[Moongaze14]

Okay, this chapter was so worth the wait. It was nice to see all the smart characters (Xenilla/Lea/Twilight/Sunburst/Key Ring) discussed about how the gate/portal spell works, especially since we see Xenilla interact with Twilight. Got a laugh about Xenilla finding Twilight worthy of the title and calling Spike a Duke. An angry Celesfia is quite a scary and OP gal when Sunset is upset, especially since it took Xenilla, Lea, and Twilight to restrain her and even then it was only Twilight’s words that calmed her down. The EG sections were interesting as it seems that Sunset is developing her powers earlier than expected and it seems that RD’s experience with X left her spooked. Furthermore, the encounter of Sonata having her magic stolen by Windigos give some disturbing vibes associated with a mugging...or something darker, especially since Sonata ends up traumatized and later it causes her to nearly drown while attempting to swim. Lea telepathically communicating with RD and Rodan was entertaining, especially since it makes Phoenix jealous (ship flag raised) and it caused RD’s parents to ship them together. The ending with Twilight and Lea visiting EG and discovering that Lea still has powers was cool...especially since a very pissed off Kaizer X has just detected their presence. Overall, this chapter was worth the wait and the fact that it comes with a chapter from one of your side stories makes it better. Thanks for the April Fools gifts, Tarb.

[namar13766]

8835103
I think it might be an actual chapter.

[The Avenger]

I'm just waiting for when X and co realize that Bagan is the bad guy...

... Badgan.

[jacen]

..... Oh, My.

Very nice setup. The obligatory confusion needed to insure conflict is a nice touch.

I Don't know who (apparently) SciTwi is working with, but I predict much pain in her future.

Frankly, she earned it.

[TheShadowKnight]

Xenilla glanced at the dragon,“Ah Spike Kenbroth Sparkle… Shouldn’t you be an duke?”

Spike’s eyes widened and he tapped a claw to his lip with a growing grin.

Don't let go to your head, spike.

[Fullmetal Prime]

Worth the wait. Xen finally meeting a princess whose rank matches the title he was lots of fun here, Celestia going mama goddess over her students is always a win in my book, Rodan and Rainbow's reactions to their audience, and so far the Equestria Girls side of this arc is looking good

[Krovgor Warhawk]

So good news and bad news.

Good news: New chapter is awesome and we're finally getting into Rainbow Rocks.

Bad news: I have to wait for the next chapter........... FFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

[TheShadowKnight]

Two sides finally closing in on each other...The Equestrian-Kajiu War is soon about to begin

SOMEONE GRAB THE FUCKING POPCORN!!!!!!!

[Tarbtano]

8835081

8835103

Fixed, and it is a legit chapter. Just coincidence of timing.

[Arcane Howitzer]

8835307
Okay good. I hate April Fool's Day, it feels like I can't trust anyone.

[Redlord321]

Can Kaser beat Celestia?

[HolyCross9]

I sure do hope that an image of what Mothra Lea would look like in Equestria Girls comes up sometime in the future. Because that would be a huge source of eye candy for me and many other fans.

[Arcane Howitzer]

During Celestia's "arrival," Twilight's lines change from purple to dark blue, and switch back during the telepathy-conference with Rodan and Rainbow.

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

It's about time!

[Ardenzia]

say the inevitable happens and X has to fight Godzilla, how much will everyone freak out, and how small would they feel?

[HB_DS2013]

Wow, even Lea looks hot in human form... and everyone’s gonna drop dead from seein’ her.

[Godzillawolf]

"Spike Kenbroth Sparkle"

A G3 reference AND acknowledging Spike is Twilight's family.

[KnightGomora1994]

Took your time, I was wondering when this chapter would be posted. But I will admit, it is good! I can't wait to see Lea in her human form, if Faith gets a chance to design it.

[Temnizziv]

Great chapter! Worth the wait, and I know this question may irritate you a bit, but since you're finished with 43, can I expect the "How Many Times The Mauve Shirts Nearly Died" list to come up soon?

[MazingerZ]

Fun chapter, though I can't really imagine Celestia as very powerful anymore.😅
Can't wait to see the next chapter

[Adamastos]

Thankyou for not making an April Fools day story.

[CrystalMaster76]

So this was mostly a set up chapter, not surprising as its the start of a new arc, but damn was it good set up.
Tarb's humor strikes again with Xenilla's baby care system, i was laughting hard.
I always enjoy seeing Sunset deal with the consequences of her actions, both external and internal, its a reminder of why her redemption arc was the best.
OK, mini rant: TWILIGHT WAS NEVER SOCIALLY AWKWARD, SHE WAS ANTI-SOCIAL! Twilight Sparkle displays complete social capability in the first episode of the series, including knowing how to talk to children, shy people, goad a lazy person, and never once studders or trips over her words or embareses herself. Her issue was not lack of social capability, it was a lack of social interest. once she became interested, she barely had any issues with being sociable. Rant over, sorry for that, but "Twilight is socially awkward" is one of the dumbest misconceptions about any character in the show and i've hated it since i encountered it.
Luna dosen't have social skills planned for Starlight? WHY? Social skills should be the number one thing Starlight should be learning, not magic, come on Trab, don't go the same route the show did, it was awful there.
I will say that it takes great skill to have a techno babble exposition scene not be the most tedious thing ever, but you pulled it off nicely. Mostly by having the characters personalities bounce off one another to keep things light.
I do find the mystery of human Twilight's partners to be interesting, altough i sincerely hope the the fact that there are two Twilight Sparkles and the Princess is not the one X is looking for goes on no longer than absolutely nessessary because these characters are smart enough to figure that out.
I am very much looking forward to this arc, just the promise of new interactions between our two main teams of Kaiju's is enough to cam my concern's about the Siren's portrayal and Sci-Twi's presence (she is one of the only two "feel bad for me" villains that actually worked, along with Gloriosa Daisy, but only just, and she reqiers carful handling.

[Late_Night]

so
how bloody long until the next chapter?

[HeatseekerX51]

Chapter 43, at a mere, A MERE 17,000 words.

[DarthSonic66]

OH WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!!!!

Why in GODS name did you deny me Princess Celestia in Humanland!?

[DarthSonic66]

8835307
If I were you, I would have waited a day.

[Jakomi of the Rose]

Oh, X, there's going to be a lot of misunderstandings in the next chapter.

[Black_Knight]

Some elements have me confuse on where are we in the timeline now.
We are still at the time skip from last chapter that's for sure and we had a flash back from Sonata answering what happen to her, though Sunset seem to have use her empathy magic looking into Rainbow's past, but doesn't look she has her geode. Also Sci-Twi is mix with this mugging affair, but is still registered as a Crystal Prep student and not acquainted to CHS yet.

So were are still around Rainbow Rock's timeline even if the events wont be happening, right?

Mistakes found:

“Ah Spike Kenbroth Sparkle… Shouldn’t you be an duke?”

a

the ametuer competition circuit

amateur

Your yourself stated

You

how different they re from

they're or they are

=“Yep, I think you got still got it! Just uh, little warning next time please?”

Colours mistakes:

Twilight's dialogues have change from purple to dark blue in most part in the middle of the story.

Xenilla muttered while he remembered how hard he had to try just to stop her from advancing when she was dead set on that,

This part of narration was coloured in Xenilla's red.

[sonicandmario826]

Aw but I wanted to see Celestia lay vengeance upon someone.

But seriously I think sending Twilight was a bad idea. Since X is t going to listen to her. Lea is powerful but I doubt she could beat the power of Kaizer. Heck I'm not even sure the humane six with power could beat him. The only chance they got is hitting with him the rainbow or Iris seeing Sunset with them.

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

Nice handwave on how they got Sunset back to the Equestria Girls world. I'm assuming the mirror worked because she/Enjin was recently transported.

Celestia the Juggernaut was the best part of this chapter.

The misunderstanding between Rodan and Rainbow was hilarious. The misunderstanding X and the Sirens have about the two Twilights, tragic. Looks like we're going to have an awesome fight next chapter.

I'm assuming the reason the Equestria Girls are getting their powers early is because of all the portal openings that had been happening.

Questions: Will this fic bring up the fact Sunset Shimmer likely has a human counterpart? Do you think the Equestria Girls franchise will ever bring it up?

Sorry I haven't been updating The Bridge's recap page on TV Tropes lately. Besides school, I fell in love with this fanfic called Fates Collide and I'm the only one working on its TV Tropes page so far. Also, I recently released chapter nine of The Lost Hero.

[Tarbtano]

8835603
I do love me some shout outs! Did you notice the Ghost Story mention?

As for Spike's family while Twilight Sparkle was his legal caretaker, I also headcanoned Twilight Velvet and Night Light effectively adopted him and helped raise him given they had experience with babies.

[Godzillawolf]

8838006
Hehe, yeah! Definitely need to remember that for when I'm able to write more of that story.

And gotcha, that makes a lot of sense.

[Serpentking789]

FINALLY!! An update to this story that isn't just another holiday special!! It's been a long three months, but we can fina- wait a second...

*notices chapter was posted yesterday, on April 1st*

YOU SONUVA-

[diverseinterests47]

8838113
It's legit. The date is just a coincidence.

[Tarbtano]

8837045
Fixed the errors as for the other comment part-

Some elements have me confuse on where are we in the timeline now.
We are still at the time skip from last chapter that's for sure and we had a flash back from Sonata answering what happen to her, though Sunset seem to have use her empathy magic looking into Rainbow's past, but doesn't look she has her geode. Also Sci-Twi is mix with this mugging affair, but is still registered as a Crystal Prep student and not acquainted to CHS yet.

Due to the higher frequency of energy bursts and magic leakage on account of more frequent portal use, the dormant magic in the human world is beginning to wake up earlier than it did in canon. Both Sunset (empathy when touching RD) and Rainbow Dash (brief moment of super-speed when fleeing X) showed small spurts of their respective powers earlier than normal. This is chiefly because the Bridge timeline had an extra big event that put out a lot of magic in the form of the final battle against Enjin. Aria Blaze's magic is what activates both Enjin and X's kaiju forms and it only boosted further when she activated Kaizer X for the victory while fighting Enjin from the inside. All that energy sent out waves across that world and began to wake up the dormant magic earlier than the Friendship Games. The siren's continued magic use of an even more powerful song magic only kept the momentum going. However keyword is 'early'. No one has their geode yet so the power comes only in brief spurts and they still can't pony-up unless in song (i.e. expressing unity/friendship).

As for Sci-Twi, this is due to another 'ripple' of sorts from the effects the Enjin Arc had. More events happened and some characters have gotten involved earlier in different ways.

[Tarbtano]

8836430
My thanks Crystal. Had to get things built up for next arc and more importantly, next chapter. So I'm glad I did it in a decent manner.

Sorry to grind gears on word choice. I wasn't intending it. You see I was trying to be broad based definition. Not the selective type of awkwardness as in one can't spit out the right words when talking to people, and more the adjective of being awkward in social interactions and not being able to or being unwilling to socialize. I can definitely see where the misunderstanding came from, but know this case it's just a misunderstanding of definition between us rather than us differing opinion. Not going to argue this, just noting the future reference so you don't think I didn't understand what type a character early season Twilight was. Also I was meaning specifically Season 1 and 2 Twilight, not pre-season 1 Twilight, where she had friends but didn't quite grasp social interactions the best (and danced like a spazz )

As for Luna not teaching social skills just yet, it's mostly because they just started. The important thing is getting Starlight's negative emotions and dark magic in check to make sure it doesn't run wild again. Both to make her safer and saner to be around, and so she can keep it in check and use it responsibly in the future. Socialization will come soon.

I'll have you know writing the "smart ponies" bouncing off each other was one of my favorite parts of the chapter to write. I was trying to make sure that I balanced technobabble (or in this case magibabble) with analogies and layman terms to keep it focused, energetic, and understandable. Plus while each of the characters involved is smart, they'll have their quirks that makes the comparison and contrast come natural despite the similarity.

If you Could offer some elaboration on your views of Sci-Twi and Gloriosa I'd be all ears to here

[Tarbtano]

8837561
Heeeeey no rush my friend! You got a lot in your plate and good things come to those that wait!

Always like to justify things as they go about. Hence why the timeskip was a month, to allow there to be a guarantee that the mirror would have come active at some point.

"Silly b**** yo barriers cannot stop me me!" - Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor, 2014
Seriously, don't mess with Tia. Momma Sunbutt gonna wreck shop!

Here's hoping you like the fight scene next chapter!

You'd be write, to repost what I stated in another reply.

Due to the higher frequency of energy bursts and magic leakage on account of more frequent portal use, the dormant magic in the human world is beginning to wake up earlier than it did in canon. Both Sunset (empathy when touching RD) and Rainbow Dash (brief moment of super-speed when fleeing X) showed small spurts of their respective powers earlier than normal. This is chiefly because the Bridge timeline had an extra big event that put out a lot of magic in the form of the final battle against Enjin. Aria Blaze's magic is what activates both Enjin and X's kaiju forms and it only boosted further when she activated Kaizer X for the victory while fighting Enjin from the inside. All that energy sent out waves across that world and began to wake up the dormant magic earlier than the Friendship Games. The siren's continued magic use of an even more powerful song magic only kept the momentum going. However keyword is 'early'. No one has their geode yet so the power comes only in brief spurts and they still can't pony-up unless in song (i.e. expressing unity/friendship).

Questions: Will this fic bring up the fact Sunset Shimmer likely has a human counterpart? Do you think the Equestria Girls franchise will ever bring it up?

Might, would make for an amusing special to be sure. I can only assume she (human Sunset) must live in another city.

And to show there is no hard feelings, I'm plugging your stuff! ;)

Sorry I haven't been updating The Bridge's recap page on TV Tropes lately. Besides school, I fell in love with this fanfic called Fates Collide and I'm the only one working on its TV Tropes page so far. Also, I recently released chapter nine of The Lost Hero.

[magicalstarwarsboy]

This story could do with some breaking up. I have a hard time knowing when a plotline begins and when it ends because all the chapters are just labeled chapters. Maybe add a heading?

[TheUnfitComedian]

Weather or not X wins the fight, if bAcOn (bagan, lol) finds out, X is in for some DEEP SHIT, mainly for attacking Lea. In other words R.I.P X.
8838296

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

8838393
Why would Bagan care what happens to Lea?

[TheUnfitComedian]

8838529
Honestly bagan could care less if Lea got the absolute s##t beat out of her, hell when bagan finally strikes it'll most likely go after her first, however the point is that one of bagan's main goals is to stay in the dark, infact on the Tv Tropes page it says that bagan wants to not act much as specifically Lea would be very likely to catch on, so with 1.There have already been kaiju to attack equestria, 2.X has already been caught onto by LEA, and 3.how X got to a parallel dimension to equestria without using the mirror which was not available at the time, like at all meaning SOMETHING HAD TO get him there. And bagan knows that this would be in mind, leading Lea right to him.

[diverseinterests47]

My only concern for the next chapter is that the fight is going to worf Junior just to show off how much stronger X is now that he's gained his complete form. Also, I demand a bonus chapter in which the characters attend the movie based on the plateau battle.

[diverseinterests47]

8836559
Ya know, there's a way to ask that and not sound like a dick.

[Serpentking789]

8838158
After reading it for myself, I have verified your claim and confirmed it's accuracy.
Also, I hereby retract the nasty comment I implied earlier.

[TheUnfitComedian]

8838529
However my point is that when X gets back to zenith, he'll be likely welcomed with Bagan saying something on the lines of...YOU F##KING IDIOT!!!

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

Is Rainbow Dash's father really named Bo?

[Late_Night]

8838687
didn't mean to sound like a dick
meant to sound irritated
cuz i am
ol' tarby's usually pretty punctual with his updates
usually one chapter a month
which is why i'm peeved
it took practically 3 months for this chapter

[Tarbtano]

8839025
I had graduate school* , near constant workload from my job that exceeded normal amounts (because SOME people can't do their goddamn job right), people constantly sending me things to look over and do, family situations, and updating other stories. I needed a break. I am sorry I have upset you, I am back to my schedule at long last. Trust me, I am not proud of myself for slowing down.

*hours a week just doing the readings, let alone the studies, reviews, essays, assignments, and actual class time. Just to get to class on class days I have to drive 150 miles, about 2.5 hour there, have a 3+ hour long course, and then another 2.5 hours back. Multiple times in the past two months especially I was waking up at 8:30 AM, going to work until 1 PM. That includes turning on the facilities, cleaning, animal care, dealing with guests, conducting field trips during normal business hours. I did about a dozen field trips in the past three months and I lost track of the other occasions. Imagine having to baby sit a crowd of 10-25 rowdy kids in a museum full of breakable objects while the teachers and "chaperones" do Jack-Diddly-Squat. Oh, and this isn't counting the other guests who might be moving about as well. Even without field trips, about half of my week mostly consist of me running around a 26,000 square foot space entertaining guests, answering questions, and keeping them from breaking anything for 8 hours straight with minimal help.

Back to field trip days. Usually ends at 1, most times it doesn't. Half hour drive back home and studying until 3 PM, driving until 5:30 PM to get to class. Then I'm there until 9 PM, and drive back. By the time I got home it was 11:30-11:50 PM. My brain is fried, having to focus on the road so long as frayed my attention, and I'm exhausted.

Don't get me wrong, I love my job. But in the busy season on top of grad school it's an enormous time drain and I am burnt to a end by the time the day is done. Reason for the slow down (I was not idle) over the past two months was my free time was f&#^.