The Bridge: A Godzilla-MLP Crossover

by Tarbtano

Chapter 45: Turn Down the Heat

Mothra Lea, EG world form

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Water trickled in and out of the seawall flanked canals that fed into the dark river, held and pushed by its flow. A mosaic of natural and artificial surroundings abounded, with houses and boat docks lining the seawalls and mangrove thickets with palm trees nestled between them. Man and nature made use of the waters, often completely peacefully. A father and his children kayaking out of the canals into the river, a heron perched on a boathouse it was nesting inside to guzzle down a fish it caught, a homeowner picking mangrove seeds from a tree and then tossing them to a manatee snoozing under her dock which roused awake to guzzle down the morsels.

A tiny form observed it all from the top of a light post with judging eyes. Almost twenty years and she still wasn’t sure of it all.

She very closely resembled a human woman, whose features would suggest Polynesian though with a noticeably paler skin tone, almost eerily so. But given she was about fifty times older than when the humans all started to have different skin tones, one could suppose it was more a case that Polynesians looked like a darker version of her. And a taller version given a dollhouse door would be a normal door for her. Runic tattoos covered her arms, chest, legs, and cheeks; one across her back resembling a pair of jagged butterfly wings with several orange, fiery horns crowing ahead with purple and red eyes. Having long since abandoned her more elaborate black wardress she’d adorned in mourning of her master, she stood short with her simpler, purple tunic dress on with her sword at her side. Sometimes her hand unconsciously reached down to touch the three gems, purple, blue, and red, embedded in the handle.

It was fortunate for those around her that she could sense her little sisters, Moll and Lora, were still alive after the humans shot at them and Mothra Lea with their weapon. The sword was far more powerful than its slight size would suggest and she could get into many places one wouldn’t expect to find her. As the sun began to set, its last beams of warm light crossing Belvera’s face, she sighed and remembered it all in what had become a nightly ritual for her. For she was a herald with no liege.

She was Belvera, eldest of the Elias Shobijin. Chosen by the hundredth Battra as his herald and aid at the same time her sisters were chosen by the same numbered Mothra. She learned under Reijuu for ten modern lifetimes. She served her master’s line well, dutifully and faithfully to ensure the burgeoning civilizations never overstepped their boundaries and respected the biosphere of the planet. She could almost chuckle at the first time an overambitious warlord took too much from their continent home and they and their soldiers found out why a visit from an Elias was not to be taken lightly, especially when she was armed and had her steed, Fairy Battra, for aid. Then there was the fire and the extinctions, billions of lives being extinguished by the hour. All but one of her master’s flight reduced to corpses across a harrowing flight across the Pacific to a north island to seal away a god turned extinction incarnate.

And then what she saw as treachery when the world was already so damaged and magic was going extinct. First Shambhala, then the others using King Manjusandra’s schematics for their beasts. This only hastened the demise and diminishing of so many fae folk and creature, each beast swallowing up the mana in the area like a bottomless chasm. The one hundred and fiftieth Battra was enraged, and so was she. So much so she ended up opposite her own sisters as the Guardian Moths, the last two on the planet ended up fighting each other to the death. Her master and herself lost, sealed away in the north. It would be seven thousand decades before she would see the sun again when a gasp of mana revived herself and reincarnated her master. Seeing humanity only managed to exacerbate what they had already done, the same tale played out again. Sister against sisters, Mothra against Battra. Only this time, a living mountain of reptilian flesh, hatred, and fury joined the fray.

But history truly diverged from the ancient times when Mothra and Battra saved one another when they could have just finished their counterpart off. Lora claimed there were indications that the leviathan called Godzilla was having his wrath for humanity aimed at the moths by an outside force and pleaded for her help. For the first time in over seventy thousand years, all three sisters joined in their mystic song in a plan to release the possession upon the dinosaur. A plan Belvera didn’t realize until too late that it entailed her master bravely holding the mutation still with its face and fang and maw poised at his own. Logic told her in hindsight Battra sacrificed himself to protect Mothra and the world around them, but her heart felt like it had just had a spear of ice impaled through it. It was Mothra’s plan, so naturally, her broken heart told her the Guardian of Mortals and her traitorous sisters arranged the plan for the demise of the last Battra there might ever be. The world’s mana and magic had been so depleted there was no way a new Battra could be born from the earth.

Belvera’s hand clenched and she squeezed her thumb, both from the broken scream of loss she uttered when Battra’s corpse fell into the sea with Godzilla as Fairy Battra faded away after giving one last chirp to her and from the enraged tirade she loosed upon her baby sisters when they tried to so much as approach her. They’d all be crying for reasons the same and different. The oldest Shobijin frowned with regret, hating herself for what madness grief inflicted upon her. The next years were spent scheming and stewing in hatred, waiting for Mothra to return from her voyage to the stars and find a way to her undoing.

In some ways she hoped, ironically, Godzilla would be the one to do it but that hope was dashed when it became obvious that creature’s hatred was with man alone and he otherwise couldn’t care less about the moth. The beasts after were all false hopes in their own way. Xenilla was a good chance as she sensed some of Mothra’s essence upon him and she sensed a fondness for the planet within him that mirrored her late master in some ways. But while he both antagonized his father and certainly didn’t care at all about humanity, he left for the stars before she could reach him. Destroyah was powerful enough and certainly destructive, but more like a confused animal or newcomer lashing out at what she perceived as a threat. And the moment she witnessed Godzilla Junior throw himself between Destroyah and those walking monkeys, Belvera knew a lost cause when she saw one. She’d become one. She managed to rebuild an old Mu Garu-Garu flier and traveled about with no clear aim or focus for years.

But even in those years between her sisters’ and Mothra’s leave and their return, she’d forgotten how far loss had dragged her down until she saw that enormous moth fly over to return to Infant Island, nor when she sensed the egg of its daughter being laid.

Being Battra’s herald and aid had been everything, and without any conceivable replacement, it seemed any hope of finding purpose was gone. The planet just kept getting worse and worse in her eyes, the dourness taking a new high when DesGhidorah’s tomb was unearthed. Belvera had given up so much she felt only apathy and did nothing when it was opened, resulting in her just watching coldly as the dragon sealed away since the Cretaceous period tore parts of man’s realm asunder. After years of wanting revenge, she became only more downtrodden when the elder Mothra’s death and the young Mothra Lea’s orphaning gave her no satisfaction. She observed DesGhidorah’s defeat by the grown Lea and departed without much word to her sisters.

She felt a spot of hope when the rest of the Mu Island chain pulled itself free of the ocean and she discovered its slumbering custodian, Dagahra. She thought he might have still been intact and had awakened during her stasis when she noticed an uncanny resemblance the sea dragon in the legend of King Caesar bore to him. Evidently, he’d been wounded and driven back into the sea and she was hopeful. Finally, it seemed a new liege. Dagahra was an entity forged specifically to cleanse the oceans of pollutants with its symbiotic barem. The oceans had suffered some of the worst of men and Dagahra if the Okinawan tale of Caesar were to be believed, evidently bore them no love either. Finally, she felt she might have a purpose as the aid to a reasonable substitute for Battra! She plunged her spell into Dagahra’s chamber to revive the sea dragon... How was she supposed to know he’d ‘glitched’?!

The once noble sea beast was chaotic, driven near manic in obsessive compulsions. Even when she tried to calm him and coach the mentally young creature, she quickly discovered how insane it had gotten from an error in its directives. Now a blithering, muttering, deranged idiot who got so confused it turned downright sadistic at the slightest hint of toxins in the air, Dagahra would have been a nightmare to fix and uncorrupt 70,000 years ago, let alone now. The barem, once peaceful creatures who’d dissolve away toxins and litter to then return to their symbiote had become the marine equivalent of a ravenous horde of acid-spewing locusts. One misadventure later with Dagahra trying to destroy them all until a powered up Lea seemed to destroy him, and she was back at square one.

Until she felt the energy coming off Mothra Lea when she fought Dagahra and witnessed the moth spew out a familiar set of optic blasts instead of the more familiar antenna beams. That was, in the hundreds of centuries of existence, when she truly found how strong Battra’s spirit was. Her master hadn’t reincarnated a son, because he already had a daughter; his essence combined with Mothra’s in Lea’s egg. She fell to her knees in shock before her sisters, and then quickly slipped away when they had to tend to several lost children who stumbled upon the temple and two idiots she’d coerced along who got dragged into the mayhem.

She wandered about for a year, still in a confused daze and trying to think things over with her sisters consistently following her trail. Almost seeking it to give her some sort of purpose and clarity, she returned to an ancient crypt that had long since been locked away to try and break the seal and retrieve whatever was inside. But all that lack of focus shifted when the nightmare her masters’ earliest ancestor contended with returned. Belvera was the first to detect something was amiss and was following it when the distraction of the third Godzilla reawakening distracted her sisters and Lea. By the time she managed to open the crypt and discovered that one of the three enchanted swords, the jeweled sword of courage, reacted to her and allowed her to retrieve it from its casing; Grand King Ghidorah made himself known to her by assaulting a nearby city.

Belvera knew the magic in the crypt was powerful but found she could not retrieve the swords and gems of wisdom and love. Logically ascertaining that three swords with three Elias meant there was one for each of them and that their power worked best in a group, Belvera hurried to find her sisters to both gather them and warn them. She showed up just in time to find what had kept everyone. Godzilla Junior and Mothra Lea had both sensed something dangerous approaching and investigated, coming across each other in the process. A fight ensued, no doubt not helped by Lea’s reaction to Junior’s resemblance to his father, but thankfully the battle was quickly halted when Belvera got to her surprised little sisters. Lea and Junior both stopped their assaults on each other when a bus of humans was caught in the crossfire. It was a silent moment Belvera would vividly remember when Junior and Lea looked over at each other and saw the saurian blocking a landslide while Lea held the bus in her feet to lower it to safety. Evidently, the apple fell further from the tree than even Belvera thought with this Godzilla.

The end of that chaotic day was only taken in victory when the three fairy swords, forged by Reijuu itself and always meant for the three sisters were released and combined to the rapier at Belvera’s hip this very moment. The stored energy of a hundred millennia was released upon Grand King Ghidorah along with the strongest of the Mothra and Godzilla lines giving their all. Belvera counted her blessings that it was enough to prompt the King of Terror to decide the planet wasn’t worth the trouble and depart.

Belvera drew the sword from its scabbard and looked at herself in the blade’s reflection whilst also gazing upon the blade. It might be one of the strongest magical relics left on the planet, certainly more than what Langoud was testing thus far, even if it had lost a lot of its energy in the battle with Ghidorah. She could still recall gazing up upon a battered but still very much alive Mothra Lea as she flew with her sisters on the back of fairy Mothra for the first time in thousands of years. She could see the pointedness of her wings, more angular jaw and head, and almost stinger-like abdomen. Battra traits bleeding through a Mothra’s body. At the eve of that night, she stood upon the Mu archipelago’s core island, Solgell, watching on with Moll and Lora as Lea seeded the island with beautiful flora.

“She’s a strong one,” Belvera muttered whilst observing Lea the whole time.

“Yes, and named after a lioness for her courage,-” Moll started.

“And not the only courageous one!” Lora finished with a grin.

Belvera groaned as her sisters embraced her, “Really, going to keep doing your twin maneuver on me?”

“Not our fault,-” “-You were born too early.”

Her little sisters snickered and Belvera patted them on the backs to return the hug briefly. They separated and looked on at the sound of thundering footsteps. Godzilla Junior rose peacefully out of the sea, torrents of water layering off him that glistened in the reflective moonlight. He seemed to stare in awe of the immense foliage which he didn’t remember seeing even a few days earlier passing by this place. A very tired Lea perched herself on a mountain and chirped to her new friend, who came up to the basin of the mount and addressed her with a pleasant rumble. Chirps, bellows, yips, and grunts were exchanged, bestial calls to a human; language to the fairies.

“He is far different than the one from before,-” “not in a way we disapprove of.”

Belvera crossed her arms and shook her head, “He hatched a year after you two left for the asteroid. Humans got to this one in a far better way than they did his father.”

“And how are you,-” “with humans now, sister?”

Belvera paused with a frown stretching across her face and a gaze cast into the void beyond Mothra Lea as the moth continued conversing, “... I don’t know.”

Moll placed a hand upon her left shoulder, and Lora her right.

“We may protect humans, but they were never perfect.” “And without magic, their lives are much harder now. Stability is hard.”

Belvera couldn’t help but look upon the Eden that Lea had created, seeing the seabirds flocking to it eagerly and finding a paradise. She’d seen so many islands strip-mined, toxins dumped upon, plastic islands of garbage and smog clouds leading to brutal deaths to any life that came across it. It was little wonder why Dagahra was so destructive after he went bonkers over all the filth.

She shrugged, “I still don’t like them…”

Moll and Lora didn’t let go.

“They struggle and many know they can do better,-” “we are just pained to see you holding onto such anger.”

Belvera deflated a bit at those words, knowing full well what madness and idiocy her hatred and grief pushed her to. She nearly destroyed her family and the last legacy of her master’s line because of it. She gazed to her sisters, offering a tiny smile.

“Such lovely wisdom, I’d be a fool not to take it. And I’ve played that role too long,” she whispered.

Moll and Lora lit up at her words, looking at each other with a grin before gazing up at their sibling-like they were toddlers idolizing their awesome elder sister again.

“Wondrous! We have been waiting for this day so long!” “You can return to Infant Island with us and-”

Belvera put an index finger to Lora’s lips, and her other one to Moll’s for good measure on account of knowing they were so in sync Moll would probably end up finishing that line. She sighed.

“Sisters, I will need… more time.”

Before the twins could deflate, their elder sister yanked them to her in a tight embrace with her arms wrapped around their middles.

“You’ll see more of me. Battra’s legacy is alive, in Lea. If or when it really begins to awaken, I’ll return fully. It might be a lot for her at first, given her father and grandfather, so I’ll help her with my song when that day comes.”

Belvera separated from them a bit, sighing and smiling at her siblings before casting the same onto Mothra Lea.

“She’ll be the greatest of either line if she balances them, and no one has more experience with the Battra line than myself. Until then, I’ll need to survey some of this world.”

She lowered her arms from her sisters, turned, and began to walk up to where Garu-Garu was parked.

She pitched her voice over her shoulder, “If she is going to guard the biosphere one day alongside all these mortals, she’ll need all the information she can get on it!”

Belvera rolled her slightly watered eyes and nonchalantly waved her head with the other on her hip, “I promise I won’t hurt any of the talking monkeys, even the annoying little ones!”

“BELVERA!”, Moll and Lora yelled in unison.

Their sister reluctantly turned around to briefly whirl back in surprise at an object flying towards her but managed to catch it. The combined Elias triangle sword, all three of the gem charms still within it. She looked back at her sisters with a mildly bewildered look.

Moll and Lora held each other’s hand and beamed at their childhood hero, returned after all these years. They waved even as glistening formed upon their eyes.

“To keep some of us with you wherever you go,” “and to keep you safe should anything happen.”
Belvera stared at them for a time, slowly infected by their smiles. She turned and hooked the scabbard around herself and drew the sword from its holster, nimbly flicking it through the air.

“Heh,” she scoffed, “I was too much to handle even without this. You two have no faith in my abilities.”

Moll and Lora sniggered and Belvera just rolled her eyes before kicking Garu-Garu’s activation button like she was spurring a horse. The tiny wonder of technology and magic made to resemble a small dragon squawked back to life and stood up with its rider on its back.

“Remember,” Belvera called out as she began to ascend up, “If she has trouble, she’ll need my song to guide her. You two know the words?”

“By heart!”

“Good, one of you can hold her over until she snaps out of it, or if she has issues until I can get there. She might have trouble with the power alone at first!”

Garu-Garu’s engines and wings roared and flapped, bringing Belvera skyward. She stole one last look at Lea, who seemed to be coming to an agreement or alliance with Godzilla Junior. Belvera gazed upon her patron’s daughter and heiress and smirked.

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

That was over fourteen years ago, and she’d made good on her surveying. Belvera glanced down at several young humans eagerly throwing some yard clippings to a grazing manatee.

Humans, she still didn’t like them much. A great many of them did horrible things to other lifeforms and their own kind for selfish, wasteful, or petty reasons. And if they didn’t directly, the out of place invasive species they brought with them could. Still, her anger had cooled with some time. Most were good, many even tried to help make things better and wished no harm on the life around them. She still thought there were too many who were ignorant of what was going on at times, but rash judgments on the few couldn’t be cast upon the whole. The world was complex, as were the ecosystems upon it, many of which now had humankind in the equation for better or for worse. Protecting the biosphere was going to be a great deal more complicated an issue with so many sapient individuals running around.

There still was much to do on her agenda list, even more so recently. Working on a spell to possibly fix Dagahra, possibly pop over to the GDF and leave a strongly spirited retort to whichever fools she found thought it a wise idea to shoot their own Guardian of Mortals with a black hole gun, maybe burn down another Red Bamboo or Dawn, she cared not for what they called themselves now, smuggling ring. It was a wonder what one could get away with as one of the strongest magic users left on the planet also being small enough to sneak right past people. Was a shame her sisters believed so much in the ‘not hurting any humans’ gig that they were nearly captured for it. Belvera had no such holding on those that deserved it.

So much to do, so much to do. She couldn’t ask for it any other way until the day her patron returned.

-Hm, first female master. I wonder if Lea would prefer her old name or ‘Lady Battra’ when she becomes fully realized. Her predecessors all preferred ‘Lord Battra’ or their given names.-

Belvera was just about to mount Garu-Garu again to depart when she felt it. Like a lance of ice through her chest as a burning sword struck her mind. It was a flicker, present one moment in sensation and then gone the next until it returned. One alien and yet extremely familiar.

A battra. She sensed a battra!

Belvera quivered as she put a hand to the side of her face and tried to look about both with her eyes and with her aura.

-Ho-How?! Has Lea returned?! Did Terra’s manastream create another one? Wh-Where are they?!-

She could feel the emotion behind it all. Anger, hatred, the craving for vengeance, and pain; so, so much pain! Belvera quivered and felt it all empathically, her eyes watering in ways they hadn’t since she believed her sisters had perished. It didn’t feel like the former battra of old, whose memory she impressed onto her psyche so much so she’d never forget them or let them blur together. This felt like the worst of her last two masters, Lea’s father and grandfather. The two most wrathful battra of all. And through it all, she could sense what it was coming from, who was coming from.

“Lea,” Belvera gasped breathlessly, wincing under the empathic load, “H-Help her…”

The eldest Shobijin felt so powerless, helpless as a tear trickled from her eye as she looked up into the starry void in pleading prayer, “Please, someone. She needs my song… help her.”

Link!

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When Sunset Shimmer heard the familiar sound of Flash’s car pulling up, she felt a flurry of mixed emotions. On one hand, it meant that undoubtedly, as he often did so for band practice, Flash had picked up Rainbow Dash’s bandmates and had brought them to see her along with checking in on her himself. With both of Rainbow’s parents out of town, it only made sense such a crowd might help Dash recover best before they went to the police. So far Sunset had gotten the athlete to rest in her bedroom, granted she kept the window tightly locked and covered to keep her from being on the border of having a mental breakdown like last night again but she hadn’t quite gotten over her fright yet, understandably so.

On the other hand, it meant Flash Sentry was going to be around. Them in the same room was something she knew, hoped, they both wanted to happen for one reason or another, but she was all too aware some of those reasons were not exactly benign. The fact he was barely around when she was at band practice and yet Rarity told her he asked about her more than once when she wasn’t about only made it more complicated.

And right now she just hoped those complications, whatever they might be, wouldn’t bubble up and make them even more stressed out than they already were with poor Rainbow Dash in her current condition and somebody threatening Twilight.

-Princess Celestia mentioned kaiju are attracted to high magic and energy sources to try and return to their true forms. Probably why whatever it was Irys and her friends were trying to save that X fellow from was going after him or those girls. No way in Tartarus those three young ladies were normal people… Still, they did resolve that problem. Maybe I should try and find them or Irys and X again to try and stop whoever it is gunning for Sparkle?-

Sunset Shimmer sighed and opened the door. But when she got one good look at what was going on outside, she was absolutely flummoxed. Smoke was pouring out from the underside of Flash Sentry’s banged-up car. Rarity, usually the extremely meticulous one, was half-covered in dirt and dust whilst Pinkie Pie and Applejack looked moderately and extremely roughed up with scrapes and bruises. Flash Sentry and Fluttershy looked like they were in shock. And a very tall woman with green hair, an islander dress marred with burns and ash, half covered in a lot of tattoos, was already out of the car and charging towards her. Sunset Shimmer yipped when she grabbed her arms with so much force it hurt from her squeezing fingers.

“The book! Where is it?!” she barked in a way that sounded like she was both crying and roaring.

“Wh-What?! Who are?” Sunset Shimmer stammered as she tried to hold onto the woman’s forearms to both slow her down from her shuddering and to keep her from squeezing the life out of her own limbs.

Lea lurched forward, eyes flashing orange and red across the span of a half second. For the faintest moment, Sunset Shimmer was sure she could see her pale green skin darken just a hint before going back to normal.

“CELESTIA’S BOOK! WHERE?!”

Seeing the others of the Rainbooms and Flash Sentry starting off towards her and knowing that anyone this strong who was with them had to be a kaiju from Equestria, Sunset Shimmer yipped and pointed with her head to the desk sitting outside the tiny kitchen.

“Th-There!” She muttered as she finally noticed the numerous bruises, cuts, scuffs, and a few burns on the woman’s body, “M-Miss are you oka-!”

She didn’t get time to finish her question when the kaiju suddenly let go of her and raced towards the book, snatching out a pen from a holster with more than a little fumbling, ripping the book open to a blank page, and started writing.

Sunset just looked on in confused shock as everyone else walked in, Flash bringing up the rear. He and Sunset didn’t even notice that this was the closest they’d been to each other in years when he quietly shut the door, watching as Fluttershy got Rarity and Applejack onto kitchen chairs and pulled out the first aid kit she knew Sunset kept in a certain cupboard, immediately going to wet several towels and tend to her friends alongside a deflated-haired Pinkie Pie.

“Flash…” Sunset whispered to her ex with a growing frown when she felt him weaken from shock and lean on the wall.

Sentry only flinched momentarily when she touched him again and heard her voice, “What happened?”

He huffed in a way that hid a stuffy nose and sore throat, speaking extremely quietly, “... They took Twilight.”

Sunset Shimmer’s horrified expression stuck for several long minutes even after her phone started ringing. She quickly fumbled it out after snapping from her stupor. She didn’t recognize the number at all but in her frenzied state, she didn’t think about that before opening the first of what would be several texts over the hours, day through night.

~I have your friend, she is alive and unharmed. Do not test me.~

The image of Twilight Sparkle, no doubt still tied and bound on the parts of her offscreen, trying to put on a brave smile as she stood in the middle of some indeterminate wood was burned into everyone’s mind.

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

Godzilla Junior and Anguirus expected an odd welcoming committee when they arrived in the Crystal Empire. Formalities unknown, the two had speculated at least someone would pick them and their small entourage of Chibi Moon, Captain Frost, Ki Seong, and Gentle Leaf up at the train station to at least show them where they were supposed to go.

They weren’t expecting said group to be a clearly exhausted and strained Flash Sentry and the Shobijin twins.

Captain Frost cocked an eyebrow at the pegasus’ demeanor. The poor stallion looked like he’d been up half the night fighting a storm by himself.

“At ease soldier, what’s the situation?” she barked.

Flash Sentry gave a tired salute whilst still shuddering all over, “Captain, there’s been a situation alright! I need to escort these two to the portal immediately!”

Junior and Anguirus looked about, instantly tensing up on instinct that something was wrong. This was only heightened by Moll and Lora flying up in their faces.

“King of the Monsters,” “Guardian Beast Alpha!”

“Something has happened to Lea!”

That got their attention alright.

“Offo… Seong, take Gentle Leaf,” Anguirus grunted to his partner with a frown.

The arrangement as far as he understood was that they’d be spending some time in the Crystal Empire and be on call if something went wrong with the expedition Lea and Twilight telepathically informed them about. He’d still been prepared to move out at a moment’s notice, but the fact Seong said she and Gentle Leaf had never been to the empire led to him asking them to come along as his gift. He’d been hoping on some level they’d not need to be called in at all and he could have a day or two with them.

Ki Seong thankfully was a very understanding doe and knew how to read the expression on “Quill Coat’s” face. She took Gentle Leaf off Anguirus’ back after her niece snuck a quick hug around his neck.

“Be careful, help your friend!” Ki Seong quipped after planting a peck on his flushed cheek.

Junior looked up to the filly nested on his head and under his helmet, “Chibi, watch after Ms. Seong and her niece.”

A burst of pink magic heralded Chibi Moon teleporting off her mentor’s head and onto the ground, letting the helmet drop back onto Godzilla’s head. She crossed her forelimb and bowed her head, “Hai, Sensei!”

Flash Sentry popped into the air upon beating wings, “Follow us!”

What followed was a quasi-surreal sight to behold. Flash Sentry rapidly flying forward frantically blowing an alarm whistle to get everypony out of the street and clear a path, Godzilla and Captain Frost sprinting after him at top speed and full armor, and Anguirus rolled up into a wheel-like ball to barrel about alongside.

“What’s happened to Lea?!” Junior roared to make sure the red and blue glowing sprites accompanying him could hear him.

“She is alive but her aura and mana are erratic,” Moll pipped as she clung to Godzilla’s horn.

Lora, holding onto their friend’s chest plate, finished, “We sense grave distress, and it’s causing her powers to act like we’ve never seen before!“

Junior snarled on instinct, a sentiment Anguirus would no doubt share. If some fool thought they could cause so much havoc to his best friend that even her faeries felt it, they were about to find out why the Anteverse creators and Alien Coalition races were terrified of him…

They soon arrived at the warehouse and got an idea of why Flash Sentry was so stressed. It was complete and utter mayhem in the room with crystal ponies, guards, and mages running to and fro. Sunburst sprinted past covered in so many readings several of them were impaled upon his horn, Key Ring was busy talking to a very frantic looking Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, and Xenilla looked like he was having to physically hold back an extremely teary-eyed and livid-

“Princess Celestia?!” Captain Frost yipped at her monarch, who was staring at the magic mirror that was currently attached to a massive crystal array Junior recognized as his brother’s handiwork.

The alicorn looked over with a blank stare that was outright piercing. The room seemed to freeze over as Celestia levitated the book she’d been grasping with her magic back into the doorframe and reactivated the portal. All one could hear were breaths, namely the solar alicorn’s.

“Twilight Sparkle... Has been kidnapped, taken by a pair of kaiju. One of whom was called Gigan,” her words caused an alert glance to be cast between the corners of Anguirus’ and Godzilla’s eyes.

“I am going to get her back. You two, with me.”

Junior swallowed and stepped forward, “Celestia, are you sure that is wise? It could be a trap for you as well.”

Captain Blueberry Frost, much to his relief, flanked him and approached, “Your majesty, it is mah’ understandin’ in the briefing you dispatched that Princess Twilight Sparkle was called out before she was nabbed.”

Princess Celestia smelled an argument and she didn’t like it, visibly showing her disapproval with narrowed eyes, “...”

Captain Frost caught her own breath trying to flee her, “I’m sayin’, Princess Celestia, they might be attemptin’ the same trick twice knowing y’er ties to Princess Sparkle.”

Xenilla came up beside Princess Celestia, relieved to not be having to keep her back now that his sibling and his brother’s ally had arrived. Celestia had been waiting for them alone, least she barrel right through him the moment they got the grim news.

“The kidnapping made no mention of wanting to draw Princess Celestia out. Nor has the follow-up message from them.”

“Follow-up message?” Anguirus quipped with a tilted head, “Not Gigan’s style… Then again, never seen him kidnap someone either. Who was the other kaiju involved?”

“Unidentified, but Lea’s message indicates they had similar, though distinct powers to Grand King Ghidorah,” Xenilla shrugged, muttering something about how even in death that monstrosity’s impact didn’t die with him, “The message only stated Princess Sparkle was unharmed for now and will continue to be so.”

“This is the first time we’ve seen multiple kaiju of different types working together outside of our own forces, another abnormality in this already abnormal situation.”

“And you still want to go,” Godzilla grunted, “Celestia I might mostly be your sister’s guard but when Captain Frost recruited me I was given the task of protecting the both of you. Anguirus, Lea, and I will do all we can to find and rescue Princess Twilight Sparkle, but that situation might prove harder if we need to protect you as well.”

“Gigan teaming up with a Ghidorah, kidnapping, them drawing someone out? All this smells wrong. No way they're not up to something,” Anguirus added.

Princess Celestia raised herself up, letting the redness on her eyes and glistening from her tears fade with a show of strength and determination, “I. Am. No. Burden… They took my Twilight, threatened my Sunset. I pay mind to what they might be planning, but I cannot be idle in this. Could either of you be if your young charges were taken?”

Her head dipped slightly and she seemed to almost wince in pain momentarily before stepping forward. Just that alone cracked the crystalline floor below.

“I know that world will reduce me, but I was a far weaker filly when I journeyed there with Starswirl long ago. Magic or not, I won’t be helpless. How would you two be any better off without me? ”

The look she bore on her face, a clenched jaw, powerful stare, and wings perked just enough to show their size got the image across. This was not a mare to argue with. Regardless of objections, she was coming.

Godzilla Junior, Captain Frost, and Anguirus shrugged and nodded, the mare of that trio backing up to flank the Crystal Imperial family. Xenilla stepped down from the gateway’s platform and nodded to his sibling as he passed.

“Trust me, none of us could stop her if we tried,” he spoke with experience.

The two kaiju and the eldest alicorn approached the mirror, the former flanking Princess Celestia as they turned back to face the warehouse’s populace of guards, workers, and royalty.

“‘Ambassador’ Xenilla, continue to safeguard the portal and the Imperial Royal Family…. Cadance, Armor,” Celestia’s strong voice softened noticeably especially when she looked at the slight bump forming on her honorary niece’s pregnant belly, “Do not permit anyone else to follow us.”

Xenilla gave a strong look towards both the Empress and Prince Consort, one both demanding and, on some level, apologetic for the heartbreak they no doubt felt from their sister-in-law and little sister being in danger. He shrugged and nodded, “It will be done. I will see to the safety of the empire and the portal so you all can return.”

Junior looked to Princess Celestia, knowing full well how much of Equestria she carried on her shoulders as well as how much this must be stressing her. This wasn’t the same mare who playfully took part in matchmaking himself and her sister and invited him to join them for pancakes more than once.

“Celestia, last chance to back out now… A lot rely on you and I promise Anguirus and I would do everything possible to bring back your student,” he noted in a quiet tone.

For the first time since they’d arrived, Princess Celestia sunk as she turned around and beheld the portal. Her shoulders and wings drooped by a margin and a frown of uncertainty crossed her face.

“I know I am being foolish… and my insistence is not from lack of faith in your intent or ability. But ever since she was my student as a filly, I became responsible for her. And I still am,” Celestia sighed, “How would you react if your charges of young Ms. Moon or Leaf were taken and somepony told you to remain behind?”

Anguirus pursed his lips, briefly imagining the horror of such a scenario. Godzilla sensed it too, having experienced that firsthand. True, Gentle Leaf and Mariner Chibi Moon were still fillies and Twilight Sparkle was a grown mare, but perhaps that made little difference to a childless, millennium old, motherly figure. There were no more arguments. They couldn’t deny her this.

The mirror portal fully roared to life.

======
Zenith
======

Bagan had wisely kept a close eye on the human realm ever since he detected that other intrusion that seemed to threaten his access to the realm via its link to Zenith. Even if it took a lot of energy and the connection couldn’t remain active constantly, it could still look in and check on matters. It was what had clued it into a Mothra being present along with an alicorn. At the time, it was concerned for Monster X’s success should they cross paths and thus took up the offer to send out the other three members of its most loyal expeditionary force. Either they’d capture the Mothra or kill her, then find the magical source it had sensed before.

Unfortunately, that original quarry had remained elusive ever since it perked Bagan’s interest. The magical signature coming off the brief hints it sensed were near identical to the dark magic aura given off by Grogar’s books, though distinct from Chrysalis and Sombra. It couldn’t be Tirek, he was unaccounted for but by all logic was either in Tartarus or in Equestria proper somewhere. Nor Discord, whom was also tricky to find but likely in the same realm. It was something else of Grogar’s making and that fact interested Bagan greatly, causing it to send forth Monster X to hunt it down in the first place.

Its vision and contact to the realm was extremely tenuous at best, for the proper lunar phase was a long ways coming and it had no way to form a tether to that realm like the Crystal Empire development team had, unbeknownst to Bagan. Thus far it had to brute force the connection, which had its problems. Especially when someone else took over the input and broke Zenith’s connection.

Bagan leered and sensed just that, studying the interlopers. Upon detecting King Manjusandra’s creation and that mutant dinosaur so much like the one from before, it sneered. But the third signal caught its attention in the worst way possible. For them.

It sensed the one thing it needed in order to open Grogar’s tomb: Alicorn magic. And this one had immense stores of it.

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

One by one, the Alpha Guardian Beast, Princess of the Sun, and King of the Monsters stepped through it.

The world around them seemed to swirl and distort, stretching, pulling, smushing, and compacting all at once. Little did they know, however, they were soon joined. A deathly cold settled through the bridge between the realms. One that sunk its frozen fangs directly to the bone. A force they did not know sensed alicorn magic and a lot of it. It lunged out to grab it. Princess Celestia, already virtually devoid of sensory around her, cried out in sharp pain as she could swear she felt something grab hold of her in the way she dreaded it had Twilight. It was only for an instant, that moment a God of Extinction tried to force its way into a bridge between dimensions before being repulsed into the rainbow-colored void that catapulted it towards from whence it came. But even as Bagan was sent back into Zenith, the effect of its incursion was palpable. Princess Celestia yelped through the distorted dimensions as she fell into Godzilla and Anguirus, sending them tumbling into the human realm on an erratic course.

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

“-ste yah.”

The echoing voice that was simultaneously whispering and blaring in her ears was virtually uninterpretable. Princess Celestia moaned and tried to grab at her head, feeling a pair of hands lifting her body to prop her up.

“Sell-.. Ste… yah?”

Her mind was still spinning and the stars in her vision were so heavy they were virtually blinding outside of a few blank spots in her vision that were very slowly widening to clear it. She felt worse than that time she and Luna snuck into Winnie Land in glamor disguises and rode Spinning Tea Cups four times in a row under different appearances. Finally, the world started rushing back to her.

“Ce-estia?!”

The alicorn groaned and nodded, recognizing Godzilla Junior’s voice. Slowly her vision started to become clearer and the stars died away enough she could see, soon taking in the features of a youthful but grown man looking down at her. His coloration furthered the conclusion this was, in fact, the King of the Monsters. She had to admit, for a talking primate, he wasn’t too shabby and Luna would probably approve. His basic coloration was the same, charcoal gray skin with the same golden eyes and red sclera under a top of ivory colored hair that was spiky and short, coming down in front of his ears in a quasi-mutton chop-like look along with some scruff visible on his cheeks and chin. The nasal ridge was gone, but she could just barely see the hints of fangs in his mouth when he held it open to talk. As she sat up and squinted whilst trying to ease the pounding in her head, she could see he was dressed in a Neighponese-like garb akin to a dark gi with a pale undershirt visible poking out at his neck, such as one might wear under armor. Evidently, his Royal guard armor hadn’t transferred over with him, though he still sported a pair of bracers on his forearms and shins.

“She okay- what in the name of Manjushri… Is that her?!”

Celestia turned to the source of the voice, seeing a dark bronze colored man with deep brown, quill-like hair standing over her. He was still tall, though a bit shorter than Junior and stout in his strength. His spike-studded belt and spiny bracers with gloves were a dead give-away for Anguirus. But whereas Godzilla’s look recalled his Japanese hatching place, Anguirus’ reflected his subcontinent origin. A pale, long sleeve shirt covered most of his torso except for a slightly decorated, button-down vest of a military caste over his chest; with thick boots and work pants below. Obscured by his hair by lack of a turban was the telltale indication of a tilak mark on his forehead.

She was less shocked at seeing Anguirus as a human and more at why he was staring down at her.

That’s when the panting Celestia finally noticed her exhausted feeling, and the fact her hair was different. Its lack of wave was to be expected, even if she had gotten used to it for so long outside of brief intervals, but the color wasn’t right. It was entirely bright pink aside from a gradual tinge of gold on the fringes. Princess Celestia’s eyes widened and she stumbled up.

“Wh-What’s wrong?! What happened to me?!” she yelped, both shocked at how high-pitched her voice was, to the point anyone but herself might not recognize it.

She froze when she got a good look at perspective against the two transformed kaiju. Assuming sizes scaled in this new world, she should have been towering over any ally not named Destroyah or possibly Discord. And yet for the first time, she was looking up at Godzilla Junior and Anguirus without them being multistory giant monsters.

Link!

She was short, had mostly pink hair, a high-pitched voice, and was wearing something that couldn’t possibly fit her human form unless she grew up at least a foot and filled out in many areas.

A much younger looking Princess Celestia Alexandria Alicor stammered and had to brace her hands on her knees to avoid falling over. Though something fell down with her rising up.

True to form with her gorgeous appearance in Equestria, the now more pint-sized Princess Celestia would have been a stunner in her outfit. Should she be nearby, one could note a similarity to Principal Celestia’s typical garb, though in a less modern, more regal look. Part suit and part dress with a sunny golden top that hung down over her legs and regal purple ball pants underneath. The only distinct pieces were the pair of metallic bracers around her arms, armor-like choker, and plated boots on her legs. It looked the part for the oldest and most powerful alicorn of all. It looked regal, it looked majestic, it looked imposing… It looked four sizes too big, in some areas especially more than others.

“How, how could this-?!” Celestia gasped breathlessly as she beheld herself, feeling at her youthful face and holding up the garb which would otherwise be tumbling down.

Junior had to hold her up to keep her from falling over, “The ride here felt bizarre, could something have happened to us because of it?”

“I-I-I don’t know! B-But, you don’t sound any different!”

Junior grimaced. In his racing mind, he almost hoped this bizarre circumstance was just something that came with moving through the mirror. But he sensed she was right, a sentiment back up by Anguirus shrugging and nodding. It seemed with at least himself and Anguirus, physical maturity was scaled.

“Eyeballing it, I’d peg you at around 25 at a minimum for a human,” Anguirus grunted with a nod towards Junior and then a grimace at the frantic Celestia, “Her? No more than 18, probably closer to 16. Rodan even sounds older than she does!”

Junior turned his head to Celestia, who was still not very used to looking up towards him sans one night at Canterlot involving a lot of giant bats, “Maybe something went wrong with Xenilla’s setup or the fact that several of us went through at once? I vaguely recall you crashing into me in that… weird space.”

Celestia grimaced from her splitting headache and shook her head, “N-No, the mirror has handled multiple travelers before. Myself with Starswirl, Twilight, and Spike, and there was nothing to suggest it went awry with Twilight and Spike taking Mothra Lea with them on their second trip. I-I have no idea how this could have happened!”

Junior let his mind drift for a moment before perking up slightly, “You once told me about how you came here before with Starswirl. How old were you then?”

Celestia bit her lips for a moment while doing the mental math through a migraine she felt coming on, “Uum.. 6. So about 14 to 15 in normal pony years. Luna and I grew up fast.”

“And when you came here, did you have the rainbow hair?”

Celestia glanced at her own peachy pink locks that ended in golden tinges, taking some of it in her hand and shaking her head slightly, “No it was like this… The manes you see on Luna and I now are from our powers growing with time. When I was a filly and teenager it was this color and it didn’t wave. And I didn’t get the rainbow mane until after I had to banish Nightmare Moon, Starswirl speculated it was a side effect of using the Elements on somepony who was technically another bearer. Why?”

Junior turned his head to look at the building behind him. It took him a moment to make out the writing, but the overall shape, as well as the wording, told him it was a human school.

“Twilight told us a bit about this place in our summons. Both of your students managed to fit into that school despite being old enough to have graduated from your magic school. Always thought it was a tad weird given she said many ponies had counterparts that were enrolled despite their ages,” Junior noted as he looked to Anguirus.

“You’re at the apple farm more, how old is the Element of Honesty?”

Anguirus shrugged, “Applejack? Never asked but 19, 20, maybe 22? Big Mac is about the same age as the local school teacher. Princess, are those the right ages for schools like this?”

Princess Celestia shook her head, “N-No I think that’s a few years too old… And Spike is roughly the same age as the Crusaders, yet he became a small puppy… And if Twilight and Sunset also shrank back a few years to match the students…”

Junior nodded as she caught onto his train of thought, “Maybe the mirror reacts that way to Equestrians? Makes them younger?”

“What about that Starswirl guy though?” Anguirus grunted as he wobbled unsteadily like he was missing something to balance while being a biped, “Or us for that matter. I never felt 70,000 like a mortal would but I certainly don’t feel any different now other than missing my tail.”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips and tapped at them, thinking back to literally hundreds of years ago. Starswirl was an extremely long-lived pony, helped by an accidental de-aging spell that proved irreversible and effectively doubled his lifespan. When he made the jump to this world with her back in the old days just a few years after the founding but before the assaults by Discord, Tirek, Sombra, and Chrysalis, he didn’t look much more than a day over his late 20s.

“He was… difficult to tell,” Celestia grimace from the memory being foggy on top of her, “But why didn’t it affect either of you?”

Anguirus shrugged, “Maybe it’s an Equestrian thing? Godzilla’s growth was altered by radiation and I’m the way I am because of all the mana and engineering put into me back on Terra. I don’t recall Lea’s message to you including anything about power loss or age alteration on her, and given how meticulous she is even in a rush I doubt that would slip her mind.”

Princess Celestia mumbled to herself as she thought through the scenarios. In the blurry haze and pandemonium of the transfer, no one had been able to sense Bagan’s intrusion. Nor how the deity’s interference and the barriers that Harmony put in long ago repulsing it had affected her.

All Celestia could feel as she studied herself was a feeling that something was… missing. That in the chaos of the transfer, something has been torn off and left behind in the ethereal passage between realms. She didn’t like it one bit, even as she came to a wrong, but a sensible conclusion.

“I suppose this is the cost of hubris,” she sighed as she staggered up to her feet, wobbling more than a bit.

“No use kicking yourself,” Anguirus grunted whilst hooking an arm around her shoulder to help prop the both of them up some.

Junior, the one most used to walking upright bipedally, managed better than the others even if his lack of tail made it awkward, “We can get used to the current situation on the way, first thing we need to do is find Lea and the others so we can find where Gigan and his partner are hiding.”

“Um, excuse me?”

All eyes turned away from the surrealness of a teenage solar diarch and looked to the source, just now noticing two humans with the exact same coloration and hairstyles of Fluttershy and Rarity, complete with matching emblems on their skirts corresponding to the two’s pony counterparts’ cutie marks, had been standing there the whole time.

“I um.. t-take it you’re friends of Lea?” Fluttershy muttered with a lowered head.

Celestia, Junior, and Anguirus exchanged a glance that clearly told each other the fact she just said Mothra’s given name meant she was on the up and up.

“We are, can you take us to her?” Junior noted with a nod.

Fluttershy and Rarity returned the gesture, the latter speaking up, “We were wondering when Mothra Lea’s message would get through to anyone! What with the time since the reply that two kaiju and a third Equestrian were coming!”

The trio of kaiju and alicorn glanced to each other in a moment of confusion before looking back.

Celestia tilted her head and scrunched up her nose, “What do you mean? I wrote in a reply that I and two of Mothra Lea’s comrades were on our way right before we entered the portal!”

Rarity gave them a blank stare and Fluttershy tilted her head, “... Does the portal have a delay?”

Celestia shook her head and earned a baffled look from Rarity.

“Miss, we got your reply five days ago!”

One could hear a pin drop as a cold feeling settled over the trio. Celestia’s eyes expanded and dilated with a stressed twitch in her eyelid.

“I thought that trip felt weird even before Celestia here crashed Junior into me,” Anguirus grunted.

Now Rarity and Fluttershy looked even more confused. The purple haired unicorn counterpart rapidly waved her hands before herself.

“Wait wait wait! You’re our principal’s counterpart!?” she yelped whilst pointing at the wobbly-legged, lean teenager wearing an outfit that only covered some parts due to her holding it up, “Twilight and Sunset’s teacher?!”

Princess Celestia pursed her lips in an emote that would have included flattening her ears, if she could still do that, frowning, and nodding.

Rarity and Fluttershy’s jaws dropped a few inches as they compared memory, expectation, and reality. Fluttershy unconsciously lifted her arm up and slanted her hand to indicate a height a good head and a half taller than she was, how tall she remembered her principal being and how much she expected of her counterpart, whilst looking at the teenage Celestia that was virtually her height. Rarity just looked more and more stupefied.

Celestia shook her head, banishing any bashfulness she stepped forward and took Rarity’s hand in her own, “Enough! Clearly, something was amiss with our voyage but we’re here now, where is Sunset Shimmer and Mothra Lea?”

The girls both flushed badly from embarrassment due to what fell when Celestia took a hand off her outfit to grip Rarity, the pale skinned fashionista-in-the-making quickly yanking the garb back up to cover her more.

“Sun-Sunset’s in the school! Lea is with Pinkie’s big sister at the police station!”

Junior tilted his head and grunted, “Why there?”

His company was less than thrilled.

Celestia’s brow lowered with a minor sneer, “A kidnapping just happened and you lot are seriously still going to school?! Why aren’t you looking for her!?”

Fluttershy rushed up to Rarity’s defense and took the yelping Celestia by the shoulders, locking stares with her. Starswirl might have declared this world devoid of magic when she journeyed there with him briefly, but the alicorn froze. Maybe it was her lacking magic of her own, maybe it was just the stress on her mind, or maybe it was any Fluttershy still being a Fluttershy. But that stare seemed to quiet everything in her mind and demanded her attention.

Fluttershy finally blinked and took in a deep breath, Celestia mimicking her.

“We looked… We looked as much as we could. We know she’s okay, but try as we may we just couldn’t find her…” Fluttershy sighed mournfully and shook her head slowly, “The texts kept coming, so we knew whoever it was that took her could find us. For safety, we’ve been spending as much time in the school and searching when not there.”

“Given we were attacked on the fringes of town with no one else around and Rainbow Dash was cornered at an empty school at night, we figured these two kaiju were intentionally trying to avoid attention,” Rarity added whilst motioning with her thumb to the school, “Big place with lots of people around in the middle of town during the daytime? Safest place we could think of. Trust us, we’re still looking. That’s why Maud Pie took Mothra Lea to the police station to file a missing persons report.”

Celestia took in a deep breath and let it out, putting her hands on Fluttershy’s.

“I am… sorry, please forgive my outburst,” she muttered, “This is an awkward situation for us all. But, fret less. I am here with good company.”

She turned to motion towards Godzilla Junior and Anguirus with an outstretched hand, “Aside from myself, even in this state, I have brought two bonafide champions. King Godzilla Gojo the Second and Alpha Guardian Anguirus, both have more than proven their heroics in Equestria.”

Anguirus waved his hand briefly, “Hey, in a nutshell, we’re friends of Lea. We’ve also tussled with Gigan and Ghidorahs before. Junior here took out the grand king of them not long back.”

Junior glanced over towards his friend with a bemused expression, “Not alone mind you… And first things first, we need to group together and figure out all that is going on.”

“Especially with that inexplicable time dilation,” Celestia muttered.

“Then we can worry with taking down those kaiju who took Twilight,” Anguirus grunted.

Princess Celestia balled a fist at the remembrance of why she was here and who dared threaten her students, “Quite… You two mentioned messages. I’d like to see them. Might offer a clue to where they are keeping her.”

Rarity nodded, “For that, you’d have to get into the school… Thooough…”

She paused to eye up Celestia and slowly nodded, “You might fit the bill for a student. We’d have to get you some new clothes but with me that is hardly an issue. You two gentlemen sadly I think would be too old to pass.”

Anguirus shrugged, “Not a problem. You said you lot felt safe in the school during hours and we can still linger around close enough if we sense something to come running. For now, point us in the direction of this police station so we can rendezvous with Lea, then we can return after hours to pick you up and play guard duty during any searches.”

Fluttershy nodded as she rummaged around in her backpack that much to Junior and Anguirus’ bemusement sounded like it was mewling, before pulling out a town map, “You’d have time, we’ve been coming early and staying late to work out plans under guise of band practice between actual practices to decompress. I can show you on the map.”

“And why do I need new clothes?” Celestia muttered with a raised eyebrow.

“The school has an open admittance policy for homeless students without paperwork, but that won’t stop Principal Celestia from perhaps noticing you look and sound just like she would in the year book. She attended here at our age and someone might recognize you besides her and Vice Principal Luna,” Rarity noted before grimacing when she noticed Celestia’s dress slipping again.

She quickly snatched it back up, “That and this would break the dress code five times over. Doesn’t fit you at all, darling!”

Fluttershy checked her watch after handing off an annotated map to Godzilla and Anguirus, “We have about two hours before the bell rings. Good thing we came so early.”

Godzilla Junior grunted as he took another step, more or less getting the full hang of it without a tail, “Sounds like a plan. Just keep the chatter about Anguirus and I arriving to a minimum. We might need to ambush or track Gigan and that Ghidorah and it’ll be easier if they don’t know we’re in this realm.”

Anguirus saluted as the groups separated, Celestia going with Rarity and Fluttershy, “We’ll get your friend back and deal with these thuggees, Guardian Beast’s honor.”

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

A door was unlocked from the outside, opening up to the crisp morning air.

“Rise and shine, sleepy head!”

A sunny voice chimed into the cabin, spurring a mound burritoed up in the blankets to groan and shift like an inchworm.

“Hmmmamph ten more minutes,” the bundle muttered quietly as it curled itself up into more of a bundle.

The original speaker, a young woman with a pale pink skin and long, two toned raspberry hair set with a flower chain of her namesake in it, rolled her eyes. Having a little brother to grow up with, she was well used to this game again. Thankfully, the times had provided a more direct means to wake the occupant up. Eying a small object that she knew was a sensor in the corner, Gloriosa Daisy leaned over and waved her geode studded necklace in front of it so it detected the magic.

She picked up her wrist to check her watch, muttering a warning to the occupant again, “Three… two… one.”

One timed cue, she nodded her head to the sound of a door getting thrown open across the camp and someone sprinting up to the cabin and breakneck speed. Gloriosa turned and stepped aside, nonchalantly looking up in bemusement as Gigan hit the brakes right in time to stop at the doorway. The cyborg’s remaining mechanical eye clicked, running dozens of scans in conjunction with the sensor to check for energy outputs, undetectables that could equate to magic use, radio signals meant to call out to someone, anything that could equate to the subject trying to get a message out without them knowing or pull a fast one on them.

He found none and leered at Gloriosa with his single eye, picking up the sensor and putting it back up to his face. The little machinery inside it whirled and shifted slightly as he did and removed his glasses. The vaguely web-cam like object was now back to being Gigan’s right eye and he fit it back into the slot, causing no small amount of grimacing from Gloriosa. Especially when she found two camera-like eyes leering back at her.

She chuckled awkwardly and nodded her head towards the sleeping bundle. Gigan’s eyes contracted to narrow with an audible shink, "Again?"

“She responds to you best,” the camp director defended as she shrugged her shoulders and cast a playful glance.

Gigan deadpanned back at her and turned to the mound. He leaned down and just when Gloriosa thought he was going to say something to snap her awake like he usually did, the cyborg surprised her by holding his arm above her body and shifting the hand outstretched. He promptly whipped out a small chainsaw and revved it to full throttle directly above Twilight Sparkle’s head, the mechanical whirl causing her to levitate out of bed away from the noise.

“BBBBBBBBBBBUUUHCK-” she shouted as she sprang upwards and backwards, launching herself away and off the bed, falling down beside it to literally hit the deck.

“BUCK! EVERYPONY GET DOWN! SOMEONE WITH A SA-...a saw…..A…”

Princess Twilight Sparkle poked her head up from the edge of the bed to see Gigan blankly staring at her with his arms crossed behind his back.

“Good to see you awake, Princess,” the true comedian grunted, his eyes contracting and snapping like they were a camera lenses. He fit his glasses back on before taking his leave.

Gloriosa Daisy came around and offered her a hand up, looking like she was choosing between grimacing and snickering, “I am... so sorry about that. I knew he was bound to get annoyed with being used to wake you up.”

Twilight Sparkle took her hand and was guided up, using her free hand, such useful appendages, to rub her head, “My fault for being a heavy sleeper. I’ll learn eventually…”

“You’d think they’d let you at least have an alarm clock,” Gloriosa muttered.

“Analog ones are broken at the moment, remember? Can’t have digital because no advanced technology, that was something I agreed to so they’d at least let me sleep in privacy,” Twilight noted whilst glancing at the stand Gigan would put his eye on her every night, “Had to keep showing them I meant no harm and wasn’t going to betray them.”

Gloriosa sighed, putting a sympathetic hand on the younger girl’s shoulder.

“So, how are you with the whole...?“ Twilight looked for the right word for a human’s context to describe things abnormal to their world like magic, kaiju, and cyborgs, “...Oddness?”

The camp director took in a deep breath through her nose while pursing her lips. She looked upon the occupied cabins that housed giant monsters, two of which were cyborgs, and a trio of mermaids as a magical equine princess stood beside her. She just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head.

“I mean, I suspected something when Sonata applied for a camp job and how much people perked up when she and her group sang. Kinda have some familiarity with magic in the family I suppose. But it’s kinda like thinking Bigfoot is real for years and then suddenly seeing it just stroll by. Even after over half a week it’s still surreal,” Gloriosa muttered whilst Megalon strolled on by and cheerfully waved to Twilight and herself.

“Timber and I even saw the flashes of light and rumbles from whatever that thing X and Aria were fighting a while back,” she continued and glanced down to her multi-colored gemstone necklace.

Twilight had her eye on it as well and perked it, “You said you had found those around here right?”

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

Gloriosa snapped awake, finding herself both staring at the ceiling and wondering why she was doing that. Just as she was about to try and go back to sleep, she was quickly acquainted with what had woken her up in the first place. The entire building shook, with loud groaning outside coming from rattling trees.

Gloriosa hitched her breath and sat up. She started turning to look out the window as thoughts of everything from earthquakes to a landslide filled her head, when a magnificent flash of golden light blinded her and forced her to cover her eyes. She thought she glimpsed a torrent of electricity or something similar shoot over the camp and hit the grounds somewhere behind it. An even stronger rumble groaned through the building and out of worry of having any of the support beams fall down on her as well as the desire to check on the campers and her brother, Gloriosa Daisy quickly scrambled out of bed to head out; pausing only to snatch up a coat and flashlight.

Thankfully wise minds thought alike and she soon spotted another flashlight beam emerging from another cabin with her brother’s face visible in the radiating glow even with the spots in her vision from the weird lightning.

“Timber!” Gloriosa cried out as she scrambled over to him, grabbing his shoulder to check over her baby brother’s face and arms for bruises or cuts in case anything fell on him, “Are you okay?! Do you need anything?!”

Timber Spruce, still clearly groggy from having been jolted awake in a very similar manner to his sister, rapidly shook his head, “Uh yeah, just shaken up. Was that an earthquake?”

The low, hacking, echoing bellow didn’t sound like one even if the ground was rattling like it was. In the far far distance on the dim snowy night, Gloriosa thought she saw something move behind the trees near the bridge that led into the national park. That bellow didn’t sound like a earth shake or groan of moving trees and rocks. It sounded almost like an animal, causing Gloriosa to vaguely recall a gorilla’s roar she heard in a zoo years back.

Out of the corner of her eye, vaguely where she recalled seeing the flash of light heading when she awoke, Gloriosa Daisy backpedaled slightly when she saw the smoke and falling trees. Through the obscurity of foliage though, she thought she might have seen a flicker, almost a flashlight or lantern. A breeze blew by and seemed to hit her in the back of the head, almost like it was pushing her towards the glowing light. It was so strong it almost knocked her off her feet!

-Is someone out there?! At this hour?!-

She looked over and expected to shield her eyes from the wind, but it was gone as soon as she did. Looking to her brother, he seemed completely unflustered by the disappearing gales and was looking at her with a tilted head. Gloriosa cringed and mentally recalculated.

She tapped Timber Spruce’s chest, “Get the campers out of the cabins! I’m going to go check and make sure nobody is missing!”

Timber rapidly nodded and hopped up on his toes to warm himself up in the crisp night air, “R-Right! Be careful, Sis!”

They separated, Gloriosa Daisy stealing a glance backwards to double check for her brother’s safety as he started knocking on the cabins that had lights on in them, no doubt the occupants roused by the noise and tremors. She nodded assuringly when he glanced back as well before taking off in the direction she saw the flicker. The snowy night was extremely cold for her given she only had time to slip on her boots and haphazardly throw on a coat. But that quickly did not become an issue when she stepped into a path that was devoid of snow. In fact the opposite became true, it was actually getting quite hot! Gloriosa panted and waved her free hand out in front of her to try and clear away the thick fog that had formed from all the snow that had been present on the path and the trees having rapidly evaporated somehow.

-What... What happened, a lightning strike?-

She flicked on her flashlight and shone it about, but she was unable to clear up more than a few feet in front of her; cloaking the rest of her surroundings in the white veil of mists. What she could see was leaving her even more head-scratchingly bewildered. The trees were completely obliterated by some fantastic force, either thrown aside or completely gone aside from a few roots. All the grounds were scorched black, forming a coal-colored path she found herself moving along. And the path just kept going and going!

-Lightning usually travels straight down, and I know what it looks like when a tree gets hit! Usually it’s blackened, split, or fallen over, but these are just up and vanished from the ground up! Lightning would affect the roots too because it travels up towards the sky.-

She kicked what appeared to be a charred root to confirm that was indeed what it had been. A near impossibility for a lightning strike, let alone for all the ones she kept finding down the path. It looked more and more like some force crashed through the forest rather than rained down on it from above, burning things as it broke. Gloriosa strained for explanations. A meteor coming in at an angle perhaps? Could explain some of the rumbles and burns. But what of the impact crater? What about anyone out here casting that light? Didn’t look like fire when she glimpsed it as it was steady.

Gloriosa breathed a bit harder, the air becoming extremely thick and humid as the water vapor started to rapidly fluctuate between condensing from the nearby cold and evaporating again from the heated stones and scorched soil under her feet; creating a dense mist. Another tremor rang out and she heard the simian bellow again, but this time it was met by another call she couldn’t quite place, sounding almost like a snarling cackle mixed with a growl. She couldn’t see a thing through all the fog, so seeing the source was effectively hopeless.

“Ahk kahph! Is anyone out here?!” Gloriosa hollered the best she could through the coughing caused by all the water vapor pushing into her throat and condensing in her windpipe.

She narrowed her eyes when she thought she saw a glimpse of light again not coming from her flashlight, but it was hard to tell due to all the surrounding illumination bouncing off the mists. Reluctantly, she flicked the light off and squinted to try and gain a better visual.

The breeze flared up again, but seemed to not even move the mists and just pushed her along, like it was hurrying her. The glow was brighter again and she took a step towards it. The wind flared and another step was quickly cast, then another, and another. Finally, something seemed to click inside the camp director's head and her body started to seem to move on its own as her mind drifted. Like a moth to the flame she moved towards it, the intensifying glow and strengthening wind pushing her on. Consciously she thought she was crying out for the owner of the light to say something, especially if they were hurt. Unconsciously, she didn’t realize she hadn’t said a single word the whole time and was now rapidly walking for the light in a virtual trance with an outstretched hand. Her eyes glazed over in a low glow.

It called to her. Frantically, pleadingly. There was a begging for safety, for aid.

-Yes, I'll help...-

Gloriosa thought wordlessly, thinking she was answering some poor, lost camper.The forest thinned and had she been more conscious, she’d have noticed she’d walked right into what had been a rock wall with a newly opened cave entrance. Solid rock had covered it until a stray graviton flare by Monster X flew by and blasted it open, meaning the earthquake that would have opened it months later was beat to the punch. There had been something set down there, in eons past by the nexus of light magic. Not as significant as the others, but still potent in this world. Every few decades to centuries, the powers within might call out to someone suitable.
Gaea Everfree was a lovely campfire tale Timber Spruce enjoyed using to spook the urban campers who might be jumpy at the noises of the forest and shifting shadows in the night. He didn’t know the forest’s nymph actually existed when Spice and Dove settled the locale. Nor that her successor decades after was Spice and Dove’s own granddaughter, Wysteria. And now, either by Harmony’s battle with Bagan or from the magic sensing the danger from Enjin nearby after being exposed, it tried to do so again; only to find her not in the living. So, it sought one of her children.

The wind shifted again, this time strongly, beckoningly. Then, it all instantly stopped. Gloriosa Daisy released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding, finding herself before a crystalline pedestal with seven glowing geodes.

“Where… What is this place?” she muttered to herself, hearing her own echo.

Link!

She had been around Everfree since she was a toddler, and yet she had no memory of this place despite the fact it couldn’t have been all that far from the campgrounds given she got there on foot. She turned about, looking over all of her surroundings in a mix of confusion and awe. It was so pristine, magical, like one of the bedtime stories her mother would tell her. She always got the sense Wysteria was trying to hint at something when she told her or Timber those tales of crystals and forest nymphs and frost demons. Another rumble.

Gloriosa gasped and turned around, then mist outside having cleared just enough for her to glimpse an impossibility. There was some formation by the cliffs far away, but the formation wasn’t static. It was moving. She couldn’t see any features other than the flashes of light, like explosions, were vibrant and energetic. This wasn’t a thunderstorm, it wasn’t an earthquake, and it wasn’t a bombing or meteor. This was the unexplainable. Just like everything around her.

A quiet whispering seemed to come to her, almost like wind chimes. Her eyes slowly trailed back to the geodes, seven in total in a rainbow of colors. Violet, orange, yellow, white, blue, red, and purple. Almost without any thought, she slowly placed her hands upon them and each began to light up. At first only the first five seemed to respond, giving a vibe of ready acceptance. The latter two stayed dim, but as another rumble rocked the chamber, they too lit up. There was a magnificent flash of light and Gloriosa Daisy was violently thrown back. Skidding across the ground, she coughed and shook her dazed head as more violent tremors shook through. Crystals and stalactites from the ceiling began to shift and fall down, dislodging coats of moisture and dust to tumble with them.

The wind chime like whisper cried out again and this time they almost seemed to come from the crystals nestled in the camp director’s hands. It beckoned her to take them and flee, to ferry them to safety.

She didn’t need to be told twice, once another magnificent flash briefly lit up the night outside from above the cave. A blocked mana grenade by Enjin had impacted the hills atop the hollow and now it seemed like everything on the ceiling was falling down! Gloriosa scrambled to her feet, rushing past the gale force winds and falling debris she tried to dodge. With rocks crumbling near the entrance, she closed her eyes and lunged forward as fast as she could. Gloriosa went airborne, fumbling through the air. The last thing she saw before she mentally blacked out was the rapidly approaching ground and the greenish glow covering her vision.

None would see nor know of the dark mask that settled over her eyes or the mythic metamorphosis that followed. A new form stopped her fall just before she could hit the ground, arms spread as the geodes floated free from her hand. A vine was brought up, nestling the crystals within its grasp before forming a necklace around their keeper. She slowly touched down and looked out across the forest. There was one last fantastic explosion and an impact of a heavy mass hitting the ground several kilometers away. Glowing green eyes surrounded by darkness blinked, studying, judging.

The threat seemed to have passed before there was any need, thus it was time to fall back to the primary focus. Tending to the geode’s hiding place. She began to walk the destroyed path, obscured by the mists, each pace causing vines and moss to foster over the scorched earth as she anointed the mists with a greenish glow.

Timber Spruce wouldn’t find his sister until the eve of morning, wandering about in a daze like she was sleepwalking. The spirit of the forest had been hard at work on repair all night.

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

Gloriosa nodded, “Figured a stray rockfall or… energy burst opened it. Was out checking to make sure none of the property got damaged or anyone was hurt. Kinda, drew me in… Got any idea about them yet?”

She flashed a brief, trusting, small smile and leaned up some to let her height get Twilight on level with her collar.

Twilight twitched her nose and leaned down, seeing the geode looked like seven of its kind together, “Hm… Six pieces isn’t an unknown thing in Equestria, seven is new though. We got these things called the Elements of Harmony also set in a rainbow.”

“Who’s Harmony?”

“Eh?”

Gloriosa tilted her head, “The way you worded it it made it sound like these elements belong to someone named Harmony. That symbolic, or...?”

Twilight nodded her head, giving what was honestly her best guess, “Their first users were Celestia and Luna, I never dug into the name much but I always figured it was because their first use was against someone literally named Discord. Discord, Harmony, kinda sounds opposite.”

“Ah, so what have you got about my gems?” Gloriosa muttered, “You know, other than making me feel like I got ten green thumbs with my garden doing great and odd first greetings.”

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

“Hello Ms. Dazzle, got your call right before leaving the office,” Gloriosa piped as she stood at the entrance to the camp late at night with a van pulled up in front of her.

The driver door of the van opened and the spoken-of Ms. Adagio Dazzle climbed out.

Maybe it was because of the dimness of the night thanks to the new moon causing what little light was present to reflect off it, but Gloriosa could swear she saw the singer’s necklace glowing. What really perked Gloriosa’s attention was that the passenger side door opened in tandem and an unfamiliar but very eye-catching face emerged. He had an interesting build, very tall but probably wiry under the long sleeves, though in a more lean rather than scrawny manner. Striking, even without the oddity of wearing sunglasses at night. Ones she swore she saw little glowing dots of red behind looking right at her.

Gloriosa’s pulse quickened a bit and soon Adagio and Gigan weren’t the only ones approaching with a glow to them.

“A-Ah Um- eheh, you said you were bringing some family friends. More the merrier!” she squeaked, knowing especially that more guests helped with costs to offset her loan from Rich, “Welcome to C-Camp Ever-”

Gigan’s eyes definitely started glowing and he whipped out a hand in front of Adagio. Gloriosa flinched even before he called out, as he seemed to be looking at something beneath and behind her. His expression was somewhere between shocked, disturbed, and annoyed.

“Magic!” Gigan roared

“Wh-What?!” Gloriosa yelped out before she tried to track his line of sight to see what he was looking at behind her.

She only turned halfway around before an ear splitting shriek that sounded like a whale or dolphin call amplified through ten loudspeakers physically smacked into her and knocked her off her feet. Gloriosa was thrown onto her back and skid across the ground with the wind knocked out of her and ears ringing.

“Ag?! What?!” Gloriosa groggily barked.

She dizzily looked up to behold an odd sight. A set of wooden vines where she had been standing.

“What?!”

-When did those get there?!-

Before she could question it more a muted, mechanical whirl hummed and the distinct man Adagio was with came through the root-like tendrils holding a chainsaw. No, no. Gloriosa’s eyes twitched and widened even as she covered herself to block the flying woodchips Gigan sent as he carved a path through.

-His hands ARE chainsaws?!-

“WHAT?!”

The chainsaw on one arm vanished and his hand returned. A burst of pressurized air called out and heralded a set of metallic cables flying out with weighted ends that soon wrapped around her. He was rambling about something, but her ears were ringing too much to understand it. She thought she saw him mouthing the words “Tentacles” and something that looked like angry expletives based off his agitated verbose.

The cables retracted, reeling her in as Gigan started to advance. Gloriosa Daisy tried to shake her head to clear her hearing and think.

-What to do what to do?! Okay, okay Glori, think! Get help?! Arg, Timber’s in school for the week. Crap, I’m here alone since Rich’s workmen left! Did I do those vines? Could I do it again?!-

Gloriosa cringed as she was drawn up like a bug in a spider-web.

-M-Maybe talk to them? But how did they just do those things?! Are they even human? Are they-!...-

She froze when she noticed her position. She got whipped around and had her back pinned up against his chest with one arm around her neck and shoulders and the other around her hips to pin her weakened legs. Her pink face turned bright red and her necklace glowed even brighter.

“Whaayhmmm?” she stammered and looked forward.

Now there were more people. Another three individuals, two men, brown and tan with the other black and white and a pale and purple hued woman she didn’t recognize, alongside a curiously darker toned Aria Blaze. On the ground were a similarly darker hued Adagio Dazzle and a Sonata Dusk who seemed to have tackled her.

“Arg, Sonata what are you-?!” Adagio snarled as she sat up with her little sister in her lap.

Sonata gulped and seemed to try to talk, a thing that seemed painful given how she grabbed at her throat. Even in the very low light, Gloriosa saw something that caused her eyes to widen. A jagged, ugly, very painful looking scar on the poor girl’s neck seemingly going around her throat.

“... N-o…” Sonata croaked in a craggy, very quiet voice. She looked up at Gloriosa with teary, saddened eyes and a frown that made the camp director want to rush forward and cradle her like she was a whimpering hurt puppy dog.

Sonata looked back to Adagio and frantically shook her head. Adagio looked between Gloriosa and Sonata, visibly calculating behind her eyes especially when she looked at something behind and around Gigan and his captive.

She took in a deep breath and let it all out, cursing under her exhale as she nudged Sonata off her and got up, dusting herself off.

“Well, seems you have a surprise of your own, as you now have ours… So, in exchange for a boosted fee and assurance of non-mutual exposure, hows about we write this off as a misunderstanding and explain in the camp. Sensible Ms. Daisy?” Adagio muttered with a raised eyebrow and hand on her hip.

Gloriosa just blinked, thoroughly stupefied and rubbing her shoes together nervously. She was pretty tightly bound and despite feeling cold metal hands on her arm and upper leg, her face was getting very, very hot. There was also something moving near them she couldn’t see due to Gigan holding her against him so closely she couldn’t see over his shoulder.

“Iseemhpm mmmph?”

Adagio grumbled and frowned in a way she couldn’t tell was annoyed or miffed, probably both, and looked to her captor.

“Let her go, bolts for brains. She’s not one of them,” the alpha siren grumbled.

Gigan shrugged and did so, straightening his arms and retracting the cables to let her go. Gloriosa’s legs felt shaky and she wobbled, causing Adagio to grab her by the shoulder and snap her fingers in front of her face.

“Hey! You listening?!”

Due to her wobble however, Gloriosa finally noticed something else as she caught sense of herself. Gigan was grumbling incoherently about something and hacking it down. She turned her head and saw a set of more root-like tendrils grown out of the ground all around them, frozen but bending inwards like they were trying to come to where she and Gigan had been standing. Gloriosa’s necklace glowed a bit once more, in tandem with a similar small swell of light on Adagio’s.

The camp director was slack jawed as she looked about, “Did… Did I do that?”

“Umm… Gals and guys?”

A new voice called out and a fourth young woman, this time with long, straight purple and magenta hair, poked her head out of the window of the van but didn’t come out as, unseen by Gloriosa, she was still tied to the seat.

Twilight Sparkle tilted her head, “... Is everypon- everybody okay?”

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

“Freaking out Adagio and Gigan so much they busted out the magic and cables soon as I greeted her at the gate? Not typical plans,” Gloriosa noted.

Twilight curled her lips to hold in a snicker. True, she had been tied up at the time but it had been a rather hilarious sight to see someone she had come to know as typically composed like Adagio and Gigan flip out the moment they detected the magic on Gloriosa. Lots of shouting, lots of confusion, revealing of things they had planned on keeping a secret? Whole jist. But after Gloriosa saw Adagio’s eyes turn red and literally shout her off her feet as Gigan bound her up with several meters of cable that shot out of his wrists, they couldn’t exactly explain away their sudden arrival as a normal vacation with completely normal humans. Of which between an alicorn princess, three sirens, and four kaiju, there were absolutely none.

Such was the cost of being jumpy.

Thankfully cooler heads of the thought of ‘Sonata frantically tackling her big sister to stop bodily harm to her planned employer’ variety prevailed and the modus operandi of ‘anyone who’s not us with so much as a hint of magic is an enemy’ was quickly abandoned. It helped that the camp was empty at the time and the siblings of Gloriosa Daisy and Timber Spruce proved their trustworthiness. They both rather liked Sonata Dusk and were more than willing to help her situation, thought Twilight sensed some additional help came from Adagio throwing their latest singing competition earnings at the camp’s debt fund and neglecting to ever bring forth the fact that Twilight had been kidnapped.

As far as the good camp staff were aware, Twilight was an old friend from Equestria who ended up here just like them, there was some imposter running around under her name that had attacked poor Sonata, and Princess Sparkle had arrived to help.

Negating the ‘old friend’ part, it wasn’t entirely untrue if for the wrong reasons.

Back in the present, Twilight looked at the almost viney growth binding the geodes together that formed the necklace around Gloriosa’s neck.

“Was that vine always there or did you make it?”

Gloriosa cringed her lips and lifted her shoulder, “Eeeeh, kinda both. Maybe. When I first kinda came too after finding them, they were wrapped up like this. Not normal vines I'd say though. I can take the necklace off sure but it feels… weird to.”

Twilight tilted her head, “Weird?”

Gloriosa closed her eyes and grit her teeth, holding her arms out to her sides with the palms down like she was grasping towards the ground. The earth trembled like something was moving under it and Twilight thought she saw the grass and clover outside her door twitch. She half expected Megalon to burst out of the ground like a giant groundhog, except she glimpsed him heading to Sonata’s cabin nestled in the heart of the camp. Gloriosa released her pose while gasping and holding at her necklace.

“That. It’s like I’m about to reach out past my own arms with this and feel things around me. Still getting the hang of it, though with Adagio's help,” she muttered as she lifted up on the necklace, causing the geodes to glow a tad bit brighter and one could swear they shook slightly, “I lift it off, I lose it and get this chiming sound in my head. I dunno, just seems like I'm not supposed to take it off.”

She dropped the necklace down upon her neck again and held in a sigh of relief.

Twilight tapped at her own lips, “Well, if you feel anything that means it has definitely bonded to you to some degree. Shot in the dark theory? Either it’s one component with seven pieces or its seven pieces from seven different components bound together. In Equestria, magic items like this are choosey, only bonding to certain individuals.”

“So, what you’re saying is,” Gloriosa muttered whilst turning her side to Twilight and gripping the necklace a bit tighter as she looked upon it, “I was meant to have this?”

Twilight ignored the slight tone shift in her voice and chewed her lip for a moment, “Umm eeh, maybe? Assuming items here work the same or it’s originally from Equestria. That or if it could go to someone else eventually, it still works for you and wants to stay. Kinda like how this thing called the Crystal Heart works for my sister-in-law but was used before by others. Can’t force a bond.”

Twilight waited in silence for a moment, thinking she heard Gloriosa mutter something to herself, before awkwardly reaching out and tapping her shoulder.

“Hey, um, so... my talent is magic, so do you want me to have a look at that some more? Might figure out some things”

Gloriosa blankly looked at her and after a few moments Twilight tilted her head and smiled back honestly. At first the former clutched the necklace more, but slowly started to relax her hand. A shout caught both of their attentions. It cried out again and they looked over to see Adagio Dazzle leaning on the frame of an opened cabin door.

“Group talk, now!”

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

Needless to say, Sunset Shimmer was more than a bit shocked when she found out just who came through the portal. True, she did expect others to arrive and was even hoping for that; but she had been expecting it to be one or two of Lea’s kaiju allies and maybe some well trained and experienced guards. Celestia had swore to get involved if anything happened to her again, but she hadn’t expected her mentor to have meant that literally and was expecting Celestia to keep managing Equestria rather than cross over herself.

Shocked didn’t even begin to cover it. Flabbergasted and jolted out of her shoes a better descriptor, especially when she got the text from Rarity saying what else that happened when her old mentor decided to come for a visit. And now she was standing outside of one of the seamstry club’s rooms Rarity had a key to with most of the other Rainbooms, sans Rainbow Dash who was up at the front with Flash Sentry grabbing the necessary paperwork and Pinkie Pie who had seemed to vanish out of nowhere as soon as her hair started shaking. After hearing the voices of Rarity and someone who sounded like Princess Celestia on helium for about a half an hour going back and forth, the door finally opened.

Rarity paced out with an armful of clothing that looks like a woman’s dress meant for an extremely tall person and a proud, beaming smile. She swept back a few frayed bangs and pushed up her work glasses with a smirk.

“Ladies and, on account of absences, ladies, I present to you the newest admittance to Canterlot Highschool,” she chirped before stepping aside and sweeping her arm out.

A young woman, possibly a year or so younger than Sunset Shimmer, almost sheepishly stepped out of the doorway with a slight wobble in her legs. If she hadn’t been told it was indeed her before, Sunset Shimmer, the one probably most familiar with Princess Celestia out of any present, wouldn’t have even believed it was her. Princess Celestia was many things at a glance. She was extremely tall, regal, elegant, warm, and stunningly beautiful. Something one couldn’t take their eyes off for long as soon as she entered the room even if she didn’t literally stand head and shoulders above everypony else. If put into human form, she’d still be a stunner as the curvy-legged and very womanly principal displayed.

This teenager was a wallflower by every measure. Gone was the huge, vibrant, wavy, rainbow colored mane; replaced with a hot pink set of hair that was combed straight in the front and braided into a ponytail in the back where the tips turned yellowish gold. Much of it was obscured by a beanie hat and any nobility in her face was distracted by the very large set of glasses she sported. Her top was a simple, long-sleeved sweater with said sleeves being slightly too big and covering parts of her hands. Further down was a simple pair of thin pants that hid any eye-catching features, especially with the large set of boots she wore. Really the only thing that vaguely recalled her position was the small choker she wore around her neck that sported a studded gem in the front, but even that was hard to see. And with her brightly pink mane and plain sweater, Celestia’s pale skin looked a bit flushed and obscured in coloration.

All in all, she didn’t look anything like her old mentor.

Celestia put her hand on her hip and pursed her lips into an awkward frown, glancing about at faces that looked very familiar, and yet were so different.

“Well, how do I look? Effective?” She muttered in a way that caused Sunset Shimmer to realize she was asking more for judgment than opinions.

Sunset Shimmer sucked in a deep breath, swallowing down a lot of anxiety and caution. She had 1000 things brewing in her head. After a day or so to think things through and listen to all the witnesses, she was able to piece together at least one of the two kidnappers was the same individual who crashed into her bathroom while she was in the shower and freaked her out with his robot eyes. Why he was back and why he and some other individual who sounded like X with the wrong color took Twilight were still beyond her. She put those and the 999 other matters aside and put a hand on her mentor’s shoulder.

“You look, absolutely different,” Sunset sighed with a smirk and caused Celestia’s lips to perk slightly, “Well if you’re going to look the part of someone new, only thing you’ll need is a new name.”

Applejack nodded with crossed arms, one of her hands still in a splint from punching Kaiser X’s fist with her own, “I hear that. Can’ exactly dodge odd questions from the Principal if ye’ two have the same name.”

“Best to make it something simple as well Darling, don’t want us slipping up and still saying ‘Celestia’,” Rarity noted.

“Especially if my identity is best hidden in this time,” Princess Celestia sighed with a nod, still hating how diminished and weak she felt when she’d come to help. If anything though, it would fuel determination to find another way to do so and be an asset. 1,000 years of experience could give her options, “... I haven’t checked and memory slips my mind, do humans have cutiemarks on their-”

Celestia pinched up a piece of Rarity’s skirt and started to lift it to check her hip, only to have the now red-faced young woman jump away with a yip. Sunset Shimmer felt a bead of sweat roll down her face and she quickly pulled her now shorter mentor closer to her, “Trust me, I checked on my first shower. Nada.”

Celestia shrugged, “Oh, my apologies then. I was supposing I could try to create an alternative solar related name if my mark persisted to be consistent. Sorry Lady Rarity.”

Rarity jittered and flushed, waving her hand offhandedly but keeping a slight distance, “No-None taken darling! We’re peachy!”

Celestia’s eyes perked and she tapped at her chin. Pulling over a lock of hair from her bangs, she looked at the color of the hair itself as well as the coloration it cast on her skin when light passed through it. She could suppose the slight pinkish color it was giving her hand’s skin was very evident on her face on account of her bangs.

“... Peachy Keen.”

Sunset Shimmer and company raised an eyebrow. Princess Celestia nodded affirmatively and put her hand to her chest.

“I am, Peachy Keen.”

Applejack tilted her head, “Any particular reason fer’ the name Your Majest-er, Sugarcube?”

“Because that’s what those who harmed my students,” 'Peachy Keen' narrowed her eyes and punched a sweater-covered fist into a sweater-covered palm, “-won’t be.”

Her eyes burned with determination, which looked less intimidating and more adorable in her shortened stature and big glasses that made her eyes look huge.

“Ehehe, right,” Applejack muttered.

Sunset Shimmer slowly nodded as she thought it through. Certainly wasn’t a very outstanding name, but then again that was a good thing as it would make her less noticeable. Plus it did fit her coloration and she did remember her mentor knew quite a thing or two about gardening given Canterlot Castle’s flora. Could make for a suitable part.

“Well, I’d say the shoe fits!” Sunset Shimmer noted as Flash Sentry and Rainbow Dash entered the room. Her eyes met her ex’s for a moment before they both quickly broke the contact, something ‘Peachy Keen’ picked up on and perked her brow at.

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

Sunset Shimmer paced in place at the front of the school as ‘Peachy Keen’ followed suit to further get the hang of bipedalism.

“We should count our blessings the Principal got held up with something and Vice Principal Luna is quick with paperwork,” Sunset muttered as she turned around in a loop and consciously stepped over to give ‘Peachy’ space to avoid running into her, “Her memory might be a tad fuzzier than her sister’s as to what Principal Celestia looked like as a youth and we wouldn’t want to chance Rarity’s disguise too much.”

Peachy Keen nodded, “Plus with some other new blood coming in, it might assist me in blending in more for cover… Sunset, to afford a moment before talking about matters at hand, how are you with that young man?”

Sunset Shimmer froze up and tried to quickly make it look like she hadn’t, “... Flash Sentry?”

Peachy nodded, “Ah, I thought his coloration and mane-er, hairstyle looked familiar. His counterpart in Equestria was mentored by Twilight’s older brother and he’s on Cadance’s personal entourage.”

“W-Well here he’s um, no one really important. Dad’s a retired officer and all, hangs around with the Rainbooms and got them into music, he hates pears, good with kids,”

Peachy Keen was going to stop her, but she stayed silent and perked up at seeing her student start to flush slightly and mutter autonomously. It was too amusing to cease.

“Helped me walk, horror movies spook him easily so the time at the theater backfired when he tried to scare me into him, he always beeps his car horn twice when setting off, his alarm clock is set to Iron Stallio-” Sunset took a pause when she realized she was muttering about not so public details.

Peachy Keen was smirking at her. Sunset Shimmer grunted, “We broke it off, wasn’t anything serious, and he likes Twilight.”

“Funny, I don’t recall Twilight talking about him in nearly so much detail. Flustered sure, but by the sound of it this Sentry is just as much of a kindly soul as his Equestrian counterpart and his father,” she noted.

“His father, you mean Captain Sentry? That Captain Sentry?” Sunset grunted as her memory faded back to times past. She didn’t see much of the guard, more just by proxy due to being in and near the castle. But the Captain Stalwart Sentry she knew was always mature, stoic, and on-task. The one or two times she met the human counterpart, even retired, he was pretty straight laced and to the point.

That and memories of Flash did not compute.

“Oh yes, you should have seen him as a recruit or when he first started courting his future wife, he even asked me for advice,” Peachy chuckled.

Sunset Shimmer stammered briefly, trying to get her words articulated, especially when she realized what was being insinuated. But when she did, her jaw clenched up and she shrank back slightly.

“I... appreciate the thoughts Princ-Peachy but, it’s…” she rubbed at the palm of her right hand from phantom sensations from years back, “... pretty thoroughly over.”

Peachy frowned and tilted her head, reaching out and putting a hand to her student’s shoulder after feeling the pain on her face, “Apologies if I struck a nerve. I was trying to distract from the situation, if only for a moment… If I may ask though, who broke the ordeal off?”

Sunset was silent and chewed at her lip, clearly wanting to say something but restraining herself. Peachy shrugged and calmly, reassuringly spoke.

“Sunset, I can tell something about this is painful. No matter what’s going on, I have 1,000 years of experience observing these things to know a thing or two.”

Sunset Shimmer shrank slightly, now a bit shorter than her now petite mentor.

She shrugged, “Let’s just say, I crossed something and I’m glad he dumped me….”

Peachy sighed and whispered, already speculating what might have happened, “Have you two spoken about it?”

Sunset shook her head, “We haven’t spoken much at all really. Half the time I wonder if the reason he lurks about the Rainbooms and asks about me when I’m not there is he worries I’ll revert and do a repeat incident.”

“So, he avoids you?”

Sunset nodded with a frown.

“And yet he asks after you?”

Her student paused for a moment before slightly nodding again. Peachy patted Sunset’s back in a parental manner.

“No matter what happens or who’s pining for who, I think you two have some unfinished business. Doesn’t matter if you never see each other again after or get separated by time or mirrors,” Peachy sighed in pain from experience, “It’ll only keep festering until someone does something about it. You’re a smart mare Sunset and if he’s anything like what his family is in Equestria, I’m sure he’s reasonable enough… How could it get worse?”

Sunset shrugged, not wanting to tempt fate. But, her mentor had a point, much as parts of her wanted it to not be true. Guess she couldn’t be too surprised these days even if she took an extended leave of being her student. She remembered even as a filly how quickly the oldest equine in existence could pick apart a situation even as an observer. And in the end, Celestia was just doing to her what she was trying to do for Twilight. Help her student.

Sunset Shimmer took in a deep breath, holding back the flinches of memory, and nodded.

“Alright, I’ll say something, when opportune...” Sunset muttered quietly before looking around. There was something else burning she felt gnawing within her for days. Something that, especially with Celestia here, was demanding to be let out. Demanding her mentor be made aware of something she withheld telling her about in Equestria. True, perhaps she could afford to throw Celestia off by playing off whatever it was she had gone unspoken about being relating to Flash.

But the image of the charred, blackened gyaos skeleton returned to her gaze. Only now, it had pink eyes and the voice of a sad, broken young woman who’d come so far. And with the two kaiju who’d been responsible for exterminating Irys’ species present…

She bit her tongue, torn between saying something and staying quiet.

She was cut off by her phone dinging in a very unusual way she’d caught on to remember. Her ringtone was a simple chirp, nothing fancy. This was a staticy hiss, like someone put a microphone too close to the receiver. It cut off abruptly. Sunset quickly scrambled to pull it out.

“What was that?” Peachy chimed as she looked at the odd device and tried to understand it.

“Cellphone, not important. What is important is I know that alert,” Sunset quipped as she drew it out and flipped it open to show a single new message.

Just like before, the sender information was a random piece of jumbled numbers and letters, untraceable. But inside was a clearly legible message with a picture attachment. Sunset Shimmer tilted the screen over to show it to Peachy Keen.

-”As promised, she is still unharmed and will be returned as such. Don’t escalate.”-

“Who sent this?” Peachy muttered, clearly able to understand what exactly this message was from the context.

“One of the abductor’s messages, Gigan probably. It’s sent me these everyday since Twilight was taken,” Sunset Shimmer muttered grimly.

Unspokenly, she knew what Gigan meant by ‘Don’t escalate’. They had met before, Gigan knew that and that he and anyone he was working with wanted as much anonymity as possible and knew she could expose some details about him and others. And it kept Twilight safe to be quiet about it, something else that helped stuff away the gnawing in her chest to fess up.

That and the partial fear born from the fact Gigan never saw her with the Rainbooms and yet somehow knew she was associated with them and Twilight. She highly doubted he had noticed any picture of them together at her residence with how short of a time they were there. And if the first monster knew to go after Rainbow Dash to draw Twilight out, it meant they’d studied Twilight at least enough to know who was tied to her… Or he’d been watching.

-He is a cyborg and must have hacked something to get a hold of my phone number.-

Sunset Shimmer warily eyed the school security cameras as well as her own phone’s camera.

-Who’s to say what he’s watching and from where?….-

Sunset Shimmer swallowed a hard lump in her throat as Peachy took the phone from her slowly. The former alicorn was shaking, broiling with rage. This monster saw fit to threaten and then abduct her student, and then had the gall to speak of how they held her hostage?!

“What if she’s hurt,” Peachy whispered and caused Sunset Shimmer to perk up.

“What if she’s scared… Alone?… Trapped?… Threatened?… Drained?! Tortu-,” her snarl was cut off by Sunset Shimmer quickly clicking on the photograph attachment.

The screen shifted and instantly the image of Twilight Sparkle was plastered across it. She certainly didn’t look trapped, alone, scared, or threatened. Princess Twilight Sparkle in the body and form of a young woman was sitting calmly by a wall of some sort with a peaceful smile on her face and book in hand with the words, “Stunned Disarming” written on it. Behind her were a set of benches and tables, clearly signs of habitation given the building seemed well managed and clean. And she notably wasn’t wearing the normal outfit Sunset remembered seeing her in, clad instead in a large hoodie and pants.

The image had a tiny triangle on the center, which Sunset Shimmer realized was a play button and pressed a button to turn it on.

The image remained as it was for the large part, but shifted slightly to indicate whoever it was holding the camera, or camera-like eye as Sunset suspected, was trying to stand still as they captured the video. There were voices, indicating others having conversation a ways away but they were unintelligible and out of frame. Twilight Sparkle chewed her lip before sighing and in a mildly distorted voice simply spoke.

“It’s okay girls, I’m going to be okay.”

She tilted the book up a bit and seemed to resume reading as the recording ended, starting to loop. Peachy Keen stared at it for a long, long while in silence. Her mortified expression only mildly relaxed into a frown.

“At the very least, she is unharmed,” she muttered.

Sunset gulped and pointed to the still image of Twilight’s attire, “And she must be taken care of. That’s not what she was wearing when she came to the High School, and the fact that Rarity of all people never brought it up means she must have not been wearing something else when she arrived this time.”

“So this ‘Gigan’ or others it associates with provided new clothes,” Peachy noted as she tried to think of the good implications at the very least without getting paranoid, an uphill battle, “It could mean she’s being taken cared for.”

Despite the bemusement at seeing her mentor basically repeat what she just said, Sunset sighed and gave a hopeful nod as she took her phone back, placing a hand on Celestia’s shoulder, “We can hope. This Gigan doesn’t seem... outright evil like that King Ghidorah you told me about. He did arrive to save his friend, and not too many villains act like that.”

“Your point isn’t faulty Sunset, friendship does have a way of lightening others,” Peachy muttered, “Still doesn’t change what it did.”

Sunset wasn’t going to argue. But thoughts plagued the back of her mind. Those voices in the background, could one of them have been Irys? She felt herself absentmindedly touching the small, jeweled choker around her neck the albino woman had given her. Gigan and her were friends and even on a team of sorts together, the details of which still eluded her. But if Gigan was with others while keeping Twilight captive, that at least meant there was a good chance the goofy Megalon fellow or Irys was with them as well. If anything, it gave Sunset a bit of comfort. She could never imagine her friend or that oddball harming Twilight, a sentiment the video seemed to corroborate.

Except, she was the only one privy to this theory. That gnawing came again, fighting with the logic of before. Part of her wanted to fess up and tell Celestia everything from before, part of her wanted to keep it all secret until she absolutely had to speak, and part of her wanted to try and seek out Gigan or his associates and try to figure things out despite warnings to stay away. Sunset Shimmer flinched and grimaced, her mind fighting with itself.

The stormy turmoil was abated by the sound of front doors swinging open and glimpsing Peachy Keen turning to face the entrance out of the corner of her eye. When Sunset shifted to look over, her eyes widened in both recognition and bewilderment.

“O-Oh, are you the girls that are supposed to be shown around as well?” Peachy Keen muttered after clearing her throat and intentionally throwing off her speech pattern as best she could manage.

Three young women, all a bit taller than Sunset Shimmer or the reduced Princess Celestia stepped forward from the shade. Instantly Sunset Shimmer recognized two of the three. From the puffy, curly orange ponytail and teal and purple twintails to the red colored gemstones around their necks that seemed to glimmer in the light, Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze stepped into the light. For a brief moment they also looked a bit surprised to see Sunset Shimmer, but quickly relapsed back into their normal postures with a calm grin and smirk respectively.

The third woman however was a bit of an outlier. She was quite tall, a good few inches more than Adagio which made her nearly half a head more than Sunset Shimmer. She sported a set of long, dark pants with wide cuffs at the ends that nearly covered her shoes entirely, and what looked like a torn tank-top that exposed her midriff. The rest of her look consisted of fingerless gloves, wrist cuffs, and necklace partially hidden behind her top. Her figure was womanly and curved for sure, though not quite to the same extent as Adagio. The newcomer’s hair was very pale and slightly wavy, with most of her bangs brushed aside in a way that obscured part of her face with the rest of its length tied back in a long, curled ponytail that vaguely recalled the absent member of the trio Sunset Shimmer remembered for her Pinkie Pie-like attitude. In terms of coloration her hair was a very pale white with a pink or magenta tinge present with a deep rosey-purple stripe, and her skin was an extremely light, bordering on ghostly pink. Her dark red eyes locked onto Sunset Shimmer in a very unreadable manner. She kept her expression neutral, looking about to study the building and Peachy Keen.

“We are,” the orange leader noted as she stepped forward.

“A-And, you are?” Peachy muttered, looking over the three warily as the hairs on the back of her neck began to free stand without her knowing why.

“Adagio,” Adagio chirped as she pointed her thumb to herself before motioning to her left towards her cousin, “my cousin Aria,” and then she motioned to her right in the same way, “my other cousin Hymn.”

Author's Note:

Proofed by Lance Omikron and Faith-Wolff
Illustrated (more to come, just be patient please! ) by Faith-Wolff

Comments

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

Makes sense that 1 Celestia would look different from the other, but I wasn't exactly expecting the Equestrian Celestia to be turned into a teen!

[KnightGomora1994]

Wicked, and I had no idea Celestia would be turned into a teen. And I hope to see Junior and Anguirus in human form.

[TheUnfitComedian]

I can't help but feel that one of them is irys, except dressed differently and maybe what she wears without her sweatshirt on.

[Krovgor Warhawk]

Celestia as a student of CHS, Lea possibly obtaining Battra's power, and Twilight on 'good terms' with the Hunters and the Sirens. Once again Tarb, you have failed to disappoint me.

Also, great to see your future wives pictures in this chapter, can't wait to see more.

[Krovgor Warhawk]

9006115
Except Irys doesn't have dark red eye's, their pink.

[HeatseekerX51]

New Bridge chapter! on the jump!

[HeatseekerX51]

Human Lea! She so purty! Though that dress is not appropriate for school AT ALL.

[The Bloon-Man]

I can feel a fight coming on between the leaders. Perhaps they can finish what they left off from Final Wars!

[Seawolf]

9006073

Same here! I agree with that so much.

[The Avenger]

9006246
Please don't mention politics in the comments for this story. It'll ruin it. 😞

[Temnizziv]

9006629
Not even as a joke? Aside from that, perhaps I should've worded my comment better. Still, chapter 45 did end up leaving me genuinely confused.

[Black_Knight]

I forgot there was a third Shobijin and that she was not so on good terms with the other two. But nice to have a segment about her.

Nice to know that Twilight is okay and has seemingly proven she wasn't the one who attacked Sonata.

So the events of the Camp Everfree are also happening (very) early, though Gloriosa as all the Geodes and the camp isn't as financially threaten as it should be.

Gigan still traumatize about tentacles and the scene with him waking Twilight was very funny.

Celestia deserved a slap to the face. I know she's absolutely stress out of what had happened to Twilight, but her irrational behaviour has costed her group five days, her been downgrade to a teen with far less power and now Bagan as a good chunk of her powers.

Also once this arc is over and she goes back to Equestria will she'll be able to recover or will she also be stuck in her teenage form?

And that ending has leave me with quite some questions, but the most important one for now is: Who is Hymn?

Dialogue colour mistakes:

“You said you had found those around here right?”

Forgot to colour it in Twilight speech colour.

“A-And, you are?”

Not sure if this one is wrong or not. The text here is yellow, as it is establish for Celestia, but her colour was change to pink to mark the change in identity. So?

[Moongaze14]

Wow, Tarb. You really made a great job with this chapter. It was cool to learn more of the Battra line from Belvera, oldest of the Shibojin, and it was interesting to see how her bond with Battra made her a hidden antagonist who tried to end Mothra and Godzilla to avenge Battra. Still, seeing her develop an attachment to Lea and work with her sisters to assist in the defeat of DesGuidorah was awesome, though the implications that Lea has a huge, violent temper from her Battra line was a shocker, though one that makes her more interesting. It was nice to see more of Ki Seong, Chibi, and Gentle Leaf, especially since they showed affection to Junior and Anguirus. Celestia crossing the mirror with those two was cool, though I certainly didn’t expect her to come out as a cute teen instead of her adult form (It’s a testament of Faith’s skills as an artist that I find ‘Peachy Keen’ to be more beautiful that Principal Celestia). Seeing Gloriosa join the Sirens and the Dark Hunters after gaining magic was quite the shocker though not as much as seeing them treat Twilight nicely since last chapter implied that Adagio was about to whoop Twilight’s flank. The ending with Sunset and Celestia meeting the Sirens and a gal named Hymn looks ominous. Overall, this chapter was amazing and I love Faith’s art since Belvera just officially took the title as the most gorgeous Humanoid in the Bridge.

[Krovgor Warhawk]

9006673
That's a picture of Mothra, not Belvera.

[Tarbtano]

9006140
Unless she's wearing contacts~

[Tarbtano]

9006212
Good thing she didn't try to join. Don't think they'd buy the "She's my big sister, 6 years difference" from Twilight.

[Tarbtano]

9006656
On phone so will answer all points later but rest assured, Bagan didn't make off with a chunk of Tia's power. It got repulsed by Harmony's barrier and Tia's alicorm powers got locked up in the 'transition tube' between world's. I'm her defense one can't really blame Tiar the the five days delay as that was all Bagan, someone they don't know is active, at fault. Plus she admitted it was brash to go but had to because of her tie to Twilight.

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

“The school has an open admittance policy for homeless students without paperwork,

That line is genius. It explains how Sunset and Twilight were able to join so easily, even though I highly doubt it would work in the real world.

Lea and Peachy Keen are so beautiful. That bit where Celestia's dress kept falling and when she tried to strip Rarity were hilarious.

I didn't see Belvera's cameo coming, but it is welcome.

Nice work on including Gloriosa and Timber. I'm glad Twilight was able to talk to the group and convince them they had the wrong girl. It's obvious Hymn is Irys based on her description, but what is their plan?

[jacen]

Going from what I remember of the Mothra Movies, and looking at the picture here, I have to say, Belvera does indeed clean up nicely. (The black leather and lace look does not do her justice.) More importantly, it's nice to see her "redemption" compared to the one from the movies, and her ongoing growth as a character since them.

.... And now Lea's going Battra. Help!

Bagon tries to take a princess, and gets some of her power. Which is what he needed. Damn.

The good news: The Dark Hunters and The Sirens now know they have the wrong Twilight. Bad news: the lot of them are so paranoid they are actively excluding possible resources for tracking down the local Twilight and the other assailants. Baka.

But, Hark, we now have a possible route of communication, as two sirens and , I suspect, a hunter in disguise make contact with Sunset Shimmer.... Assuming a somewhat depowered Celestia doesn't take advantage of her new stature and try to remove their spines by way of their navels....

May someone find a way of keeping the currently hair-triggered good guys from making things worse; the last thing this situation needs is either Lady Battra or Daybreaker on a rampage.

[Krovgor Warhawk]

9006712
That thought has occurred to me, yes. You cruel man.

[ScourgeofLightning]

Interesting take on Dagahra's behavior, that his brain was fried after so long.

[CrystalMaster76]

This chapter was pretty alright, mostly it was jumping all over the place though. Really felt like a set up chapter.
I like the idea of Mothra going more Battra and the third sister having to help, but while i know she existed beforehand, it really would've helped the story if she had been referenced more earlier. She kind of comes out of nowhere with a big exposition dump to kick off the chapter.
I'm not a fand of the geodes being a thing that have been active for a long time, and i really don't like Geae Everfree being a recuring force; she was like Void Twilight, Demon Shimmer, and i'm not justifying Juniper's demon form with a name, the dark result of an oversurge of magical energy the host was not ready to handle. More then that, im relly not liking Gloriosa in this story. Like with Adagio, taking an inherintly simple character and trying to make them more interesting makes them less entertaining. Daisy was fun becasue she was in constant meltdown mode, almost always had a meme face, had enough energy to rival Pinkie Pie, and was the only time the show pulled off a sympathetic antagonist. Having her be this calm, kind of somber, pre-chosen defender of the forest is Robocop 2014 levels of missing the point. It really dosne't help that almost a lot of her page time is just her connecting plot points and exposition dumping, see it was ok at the start of the arc because it was done with entertianing characters (Xenilla and comp.) and was the begining of the arc, here we have low energy Gloriosa and Twilight in 'keep talking' mode for a big chunk of the chapter, several chapters into the arc.
Fortunetely the bulk of the chapter is Celestaia based, and everything there is pure silver, the logical reasons for kneecaping her power, the time jump, her adjusting to her new apprerence, and her motherly concern. All great stuff.
So yeah better chapter then last time, but this arc continues to not live up to its potential, hoping things come togther more text time.

[Temnizziv]

Alright, this is my second reading on chapter 45 with a relatively clearer head.

You two gentlemen sadly I think would be too old to pass.”

I feel an opportunity to make a Dawson Casting joke was missed.

Gloriosa cringed her lips and lifted her shoulder, “Eeeeh,kindaboth. Maybe. When I first kinda came too after finding them, they were wrapped up like this. Not normal vines I'd say though. I can take the necklace off sure but it feels…weirdto.”

Missing color.

curiously darker toned Aria Blaze. On the ground were a similarly darker hued Adagio Dazzle and a Sonata Dusk who seemed to have tackled her.

Adagio’s eyes turn red

...I get the suspicion that X has been making some donations of power to the Dazzlings...

The third woman however was a bit of an outlier. She was quite tall, a good few inches more than Adagio which made her nearly half a head more than Sunset Shimmer. She sported a set of long, dark pants with wide cuffs at the ends that nearly covered her shoes entirely, and what looked like a torn tank-top that exposed her midriff. The rest of her look consisted of fingerless gloves, wrist cuffs, and necklace partially hidden behind her top. Her figure was womanly and curved for sure, though not quite to the same extent as Adagio. The newcomer’s hair was very pale and slightly wavy, with most of her bangs brushed aside in a way that obscured part of her face with the rest of its length tied back in a long, curled ponytail that vaguely recalled the absent member of the trio Sunset Shimmer remembered for her Pinkie Pie-like attitude. In terms of coloration her hair was a very pale white with a pink or magenta tinge present with a deep rosey-purple stripe, and her skin was an extremely light, bordering on ghostly pink. Her dark red eyes locked onto Sunset Shimmer in a very unreadable manner. She kept her expression neutral, looking about to study the building and Peachy Keen.

I think this is Irys in disguise, trying to evade notice of the Protagonists.

General opinion, while I'm not as confused as I was in the first reading. I still think the last chapter was better, but that's just my subjective view. Still like the chapter though.

[Black_Knight]

9006725
Oh so he didn't. What I thought had happen was he tried to kidnap her during the transfer, failed when Harmony's shield repelled him, but actually got a chunk of her powers instead.

So actually that chunk of power is stuck between worlds and she'll get it back once she goes back to Equestria. Okay I got it, thanks for the clarification.

[jacen]

9006725

9006898
..,. I am glad that I was mistaken. For a moment, it looked like all that was saving Equestria form a fate worse then Bagon was a hidden Tirek and a reluctant Discord....

Also, I somehow missed the note that the image at the top was Mothra Lea, not Belvera. Which leads me to wonder.... when will we get fan art of the Three Fairy Sisters?....

(just kidding)

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

9006805
Uh, that's a picture of Mothra Lea's human form, not of Belvera. It's even labeled, "Mothra Lea, EG world form".

[Boltstrike58]

I know I should probably be panicking because Bagan stole some of Celestia's power, but younger Celestia is SO CUTE!

[SuperSaiyanGodzilla]

Who the Hell is Hymm

[magicalstarwarsboy]

This chapter was definetly better than the last one. A good length, cool (and strange) concepts, and an engaging plot. Can't wait to see more!

Though I've got to say, the thing where the sirens and kaiju know it wasn't Equestria Twilight that harmed Sonata, but are still threatening her friends and not seeking help from them makes no sense at all.

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

9007481
Judging by her description, Hymn is obviously Irys wearing different clothes.

[Tarbtano]

9006820
Still out and away so full response to come, but-

I like the idea of Mothra going more Battra and the third sister having to help, but while i know she existed beforehand, it really would've helped the story if she had been referenced more earlier.

Actually Belvera was name dropped several times before and called Moll and Lora's sister at least twice. I also mention her in the timeline that's been around for awhile. Though it's forgivable if you missed it as she wasn't a big focus. Didn't see much need of it as she wasn't part of the plot and was a canonical character from movies I've referenced often. I did basically as much as I could as she wasn't relevant until now so featuring her would be pretty redundant as there'd be no way to connect her to the story. Hence why the first section is re-establishing her character as it also brings up a plot point to be used later.

[HB_DS2013]

Mothra Lea’s human form isn’t as beautiful as her equine form in Equestria.

[jacen]

Having re-read the last few chapters, I now think I know what's going on. Just in case I'm right, I'll put my theory in a spoiler.

It would seem a trio of Windegos (or similar Equestrian phantoms) who were mentioned a few chapters ago (specifically as being too weak to do more then posses those who were weak enough to not resist) manged to find a trio of hosts, one of whom is the local Twilight, and use their own magic to steal Sonata's Heart. Naturally, having her heart ripped out did Bad Things to Sonata.

It took the other Sirens and Monster X little time to track down information about the Twilight that visited Canterlot High, as well as get some info on the local one. The fact that the local Twilight hasn't been attacked at home indicates she is likely still possessed.

So, the Sirens are trying to use Canterlot High as a safe, public location to hide from Sonata's attackers, Irys is acting as a bodyguard, and likely X and Gigan are searching for the local Twilight while Megalon guards/protects Sonata and keeps Princess Twilight from getting away and confusing things.

Sound about right?

[sonicandmario826]

Oh shoot Mothra is getting so mad she might go Battra. Man not only does X’s group have an enraged Alicorn after them but an angry Battra after them too. They might be in trouble.

Well at least until Celestia left her Alicorn magic back in the portal tube. Awwwww does this mean we don’t get to see Celestia smite someone... that’s kind of dissapointing. Then again if one side had a powerful Alicorn and Battra on their side it would be one sided, and it was kind of funny seeing Celestia become a teenager.

Ok so Gloriosa doesn’t know that they kidnapped Twilight that makes sense, but how does she not ask questions about Gigan monitoring Twilight everyday?

Definitely interested to see what happens with the Sirens, Iris, Sunset, and Peachy Keen.

[CrystalMaster76]

9007593
Yeah, I haven’t re-read the story in a while, it’s on my easy pull list for long rides or breaks/lunch reading.

[TheUnfitComedian]

9006140
Could easily be some simple contact lenses used for makeup. Also the fact that she is described as quite tall is a trait described for irys in the holiday special, and how she has multiple large amounts of pale coloring, (and that's not even pointing out that her pale hair has some purple, dead giveaway) oh and there's no way that they have a cousin in the EG world as they were the only ones put in that world by starswirl, or just a MASSIVE plothole.(Not likely)

[HolyCross9]

This was a great chapter! The best part is knowing that Twilight Sparkle is actually safe and not harmed. I also loved the human designs Faith gave to Mothra Lea and Peach (Celestia's temporary identity).

[Temnizziv]

9007995
True that my comment did include two self-censored curse words, and political jokes that some may find controversial. But I wasn't flaming the chapter, merely stating my confusion at the time and pointing to what I had felt was flawed in the chapter. Tarb and I have been friends long enough that he knows I wouldn't bash him on something, you don't need to treat me like a villain.

[HolyCross9]

9008006
Apologies. I've just been having a very stressful time concurrently.

[thatguyvex]

Man, Lea looks pretty amazing in the EQG universe. I dig Celestia's younger design, kind looks like she belongs in a Starbucks sipping mocha while chilling on her laptop.

So since Princess Twilight's being pretty reasonable here and kind of trying to deescalate things I got to wonder how this is all going to go tits up, and if it'll be because Lea's Battra side is coming out more and more, possibly making her more aggressive, or if the human Twilight and whatever crew she's with is going to crash things in some way. Still not sure what's actually going on with that group and why they wanted Sonata's gem. Probably going to have to be a fight of some sort because both teams of kaiju are now in place, seems almost impossible we'd get a set up like that without a rumble. The tensions are building, when it all snaps its going to be quite the show I'm thinking.

[Temnizziv]

9008019
Don't worry, no hard feelings. I wish you luck on your day.

[HolyCross9]

9008023
Thanks, I really do appreciate that.

[Shadow dante]

Just now reading the chapter, why did the kajiu take lea? It doesnt make sense take someone without ransome, plus xenilla (i think) said that the kajiu wanted to draw her out, but why do that and they dont want to harm lea? ( pls dont get made about this question im really confused on whats going on in the chapter) Why is it diffcult for goji and anguirs to walk, is it the tail their or something else?

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

9008240
Wait, what? Gigan’s team took Twilight, not Lea. Xenilla speculated they wanted Twilight as bait to draw out Celestia, which is incorrect, but the heroes have no idea what the Dark Hunters really want.

The story straight up said Godzilla is having a little trouble walking because he’s not used to balancing without a tail, while Anguirus’s true form is four-legged.

[Shadow dante]

I got it kind of mixed up with the type os a little, but thanks for clearing it i guess.

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

9008339
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[Zanedor]

I'm not sure if I posted this lat chapter but i bares a repost in this whole debacle: