Chapter 4: Skies of Wonder
Godzilla Junior stood in silent confusion, his brow raising somewhat as Raiga burst into what could best be described as bombastic rambling. He didn't care enough to listen, only observing the female's mannerism and noting the contrast to his memory.
-Odd, typically she's the meek, reclusive type. Never had the audacity to do this in front of me.-
Raiga meanwhile continued to ramble.
"-I don't know if it's because we've been dumped in this whacko dimension or not, but not a single ******* thing here makes any **** sense! I don't know if it's because I don't know who the **** she was talking about, but so far the most straightforward word I've gotten all day was from a pretty purplish-pink talking unicorn I met this afternoon- and good TANAKA I still can't believe I'm in a context where I said that!"
Raiga continued her ranting, trickles of desperation actually starting to show through her tone over the exasperation, as she shouted and motioned to everything around her. The siren outstretched a hoof to a window, able to spy Lea and Cadenza's laboratory from where she stood.
"What is up with Lea?! I never liked her much for being Ms. KnowItAllHighHorse, but now she sounds more psycho than Megaguirus on a bad day. And why does she look like Battra?! And you-"
She looked back at the stoic unicorn standing before a broken throne, a charred skeleton of the fallen elk king literally pointing to his slayer with the remaining antler. The sickening scent of vaporized blood was still circulating the room and caused Raiga's nose to crinkle.
"-I saw the radiation burns on the way in here and can smell that blood on you... All this, was.... Just... Why?"
There were bits of understandable sadness in her baffled tone. She'd lost four friends when Solgell was fired upon, one of which she'd grown proud to declare her 'cousin'. Raiga had thought them dead for a time, she just didn't show it in confidence something might have gone right. Her elation was masked by laughter when she heard of their current fate, nevertheless ecstatic they were still alive. A reunion had been wished for by all the Defenders. But this? This was the last thing she expected, and wanted.
"Either please tell me this was the ***hole kingdom or please, please tell me that somehow you didn't do this..."
Godzilla was unmoved beyond his eyes narrowing somewhat in a studious manner. A cruel intelligence looked over the siren for any telltale give away as to what he was suspecting stood before him. Not a siren, not a kaiju, but a changeling. One of his lackeys miraculously showing up out of nowhere? Even if it did trigger psychic perception, he didn't trust it. If changelings could change form so drastically after all, he wasn't leaving things to chance. His mane briefly flickered with a neon brilliance before stomping a hoof into the floorboards. The miniature nuclear pulse's shockwave rattled the palace like a judge with his gavel. Raiga flinched and floated backwards a few meters, a pause settling amongst the throne room before Godzilla spoke.
"Raiga, how many years ago did we meet, and where?"
"Um.. Si- Yes, eight years ago in the Philippines. Why are you-"
Godzilla took a step forward and Raiga instantly felt her unease rising.
"Who, is my brother?"
Both from the discomfort and edge she felt herself teetering on she almost blurted it out. Stopping herself at the tip of her tongue, she avoided stating the name. She knew that Junior wouldn't react too kindly to it.
"... You don't have one."
Godzilla stayed silent for a moment before shifting his stance in a subtle way that Raiga picked up on. He snorted, letting little plumes of glowing smoke slither out of his nostils. While she wasn't the brainiest kaiju, not by a long shot, as someone who loved a scrap she was good at measuring one's body language and posture. Almost everyone had a manner of holding themselves at certain times that was practically like a fingerprint; and enough of it held true even though the entity before her was in an equine body. The Godzilla Junior she knew didn't hold himself as tall as he had to. Most of the time when at peace; his position was relaxed, muscles slack and slouching slightly. One would think it unbecoming of a leader, but in many ways it made sense. After all, that was when he was amongst friends in a world with very few things that could actually hurt him. He wouldn't puff his chest up, hold his head tall while leering down at someone unless the situation was dire. Junior had a posture of someone who was wound up, but not so tightly that he felt the need to assert and prove himself.
This thing however, he'd been doing the exact opposite since he revealed himself. And judging from the brief glare that flashed across his eyes, it only was getting worse. She'd actually been a bit happy to get away from 'Lea' to try and talk to someone she could understand. Now, she just felt like she'd gotten away from the lioness only to walk right up to the pride alpha.
"Who is my mother?"
"Azusa Gojo, that biologist who looked after you during your days amongst the humans."
Godzilla's eyes instantly became alit with rage at that name. Streams of illuminated smoke seeping from his nostrils, florescent radiance waxed across his mane and eyes as well as showing through his scars. Godzilla shook in building malice, memories from three years ago playing through his head. He might have obliterated the Golden Gate and the soul upon it before his misguided brother arrived, but her face refused to burn away from memory since the instant he finally vaporized her. He bellowed, more a bestial growl than speech.
"You dare mention that witch's name around me?!.... Raiga and I met in Australia when I came to burn Sydney to the ground, my brother is alive but an idiot, my mother was a nobody who abandoned my egg on Adona island when she thought it a dud. I don't know how your disguise persisted though Cadenza's hexes, but Chrysalis must be slacking off to send in such a moron. You seem very eager to die, and You're. Not. Raiga!"
He roared with worth and plasma spewing out of his jaws. Raiga, having already been on her metaphorical toes since he started the threat displays, dove to the side. She just barely managed to dodge the oncoming thermonuclear breath, getting a painful burn across her side, halfway down her tail. Biting back her pain and seeing Godzilla already recharging for another shot, Raiga snapped her mind into action. Oscillating her energy cores, the guardian beast-turned-siren's body crackled with golden arcs of electricity. A launched torrent of radioactive plasma was met by the river of electrons firing out of Raiga's maw. The dueling beams clashed for a time, neon blue slowly inching up the golden assault.
Grunting from the effort, Raiga redoubled her efforts and ignited the pearls on her hooves. She didn't like tapping into her reserves, having no thunderstorm to recharge her if things got dire, but this was an emergency. Arcs of electricity jumped up from her arms and into the pearls on her cheeks, adding fuel to intensify the beam and push back into a stalemate. Raiga hadn't gotten the chance to spar much with Junior, the latter either being too busy or not in the mood for a scrap. But, she had gotten a good inclination of how they measured up. If she put effort into it, she could at least equal out his force and hold him off for awhile. She managed to do just that in the beam struggle... until Godzilla growled and pumped more energy into his attack.
Bits of spiraling red encircled the blue ray in a manner Raiga hadn't ever seen Junior do, and easily doubled its power. Already draining some of her reserves, Raiga couldn't hope to hold it off and wisely dove out of the way. The combined mass of her own strength as well as Godzilla's wrath swelled as it hit the wall behind her, part of it shooting off into the village below whilst the rest simply exploded.
============================
2 Minutes ago in the Laboratory
============================
"Aaah come on now little Glimmer, don't worry now. As the student of Chrysalis, shouldn't you love a test?"
Empress Cadenza chimed with a sincere dissonance clear in her voice. The alicorn rummaged across her work station with her back turned to the crying Starlight Glimmer. Between her positioning and cold tears staining her vision, the frightened unicorn had a hard time seeing what her enemy was fiddling with and could only croak.
"W-what?! Test? Please, please what do you want with me?!"
She pleaded through her tears, earning a mocking coo from Battra Lea. The demonic looking changeling, not at all like Starlight's mentor, pawed at the crying unicorn's cheek with the edge of her hoof.
"Oooh, I see the rumors of your personage weren't exaggerated. Always so eager to know more."
Battra Lea giggle before running her tongue over his fangs. She hissed, her tone was of a creeping chime as she turned to burn an inscribed seal, containing dark terran magic and blackened mana, into the floorboards.
“You're a smart little mare. You must be to since you're an alicorn royal in the making! My associate and I will leave it to you to figure out whilst we prepare. Find the clues, deary.”
Levitating over some of Cadenza’s aerenths, the changeling impaled them into the circles ringing the seal to create a glowing array of dark energy that sapped the heat from the room. Obsidian began to fill the cracks Lea had burned into the floor, acting as conductors for the cruel energy arcing between and out of the aerenths. A cursed seal from Terra and a dark hexing array from Equestria; a literal marrying of the worst in both. Starlight Glimmer didn’t even want to ponder and grope for an answer as to what exactly they were planning to do to her with that. She didn't need much intuition to guess why the floorboards had a slight reddish brown staining. Pulse pounding in her ears as she struggled to free herself, Starlight set her mind to multitask. Any detail around her, anything that might offer her a sliver of hope was taken into account. She busily looked to the illustrations on the boards and opened tomes facing her, cringing through a tear's sting upon again glimpsing the severed, yet still glowing horns of several changelings and unicorns. She glimpsed illustrations, showing a small form becoming giant. Guides on how magical energy interacted with aerenth crystals both for charge and storage. She froze in place upon seeing a familiar symbol on one patch of notes. A purple star with aqua-teal swirls ascending from it. Her cutie mark. Her capture was no accident, just a cruel coincidence.
Cadenza hissed with a grin, a rhombus of aerenth levitating before her. A virtually invisible hand of magical telekinesis gripped and fractured the crystal with uncanny precision, fragments falling and pinging off the floor. She levitated the still shedding shard over to the cabinet with the severed unicorn and changeling horns. Murmuring the intelligible dialogue of a spell Lea had taught her, Cadenza called forth and drew out the magical energy still active within the inert organs and syphoned them into the aerenth like a vacuum drawing in smoke. She turned around slowly and looked Starlight Glimmer in the eye. Cadenza’s eyes widened with cruel and crazen excitement as she held high what remained of the glowing aerenth, a now pulsing crystalline scalpel. Lea took hold of the now screaming unicorn’s restraint table, beginning to eagerly pull her closer to the dark magic array.
Whatever plans the pair had for their captive however were put off by the oncoming mass of plasma crashing through the wall. The combined energy behind Godzilla’s radioactive heart and Raiga’s energy cores hit the dark magic array dead center. For a brief moment, the aerenths and obsidian grew in brilliance, as if absorbing the energy. But if that were the case, they were soon overwhelmed and hit their breaking point. Hosting the combined might of itself and two transformed kaiju, the array exploded with debris and shockwaves flying in all angles. Empress Cadenza was hurled into, shattered, and toppled over through a window. Battra Lea attempted to get out of the way, but was unsuccessful and was subsequently sent hurtling back into a bookshelf and wall; hard enough to dent it in and knock her silly. By sheer dumb luck, due to the table she was strapped to facing away from the blast's epicenter, Starlight Glimmer got out of the explosion in the best shape despite being the most surprised. The table took the brunt of the blast and shattered into dozens of pieces.
Disoriented from the explosion sending a sharp ringing through her ears, the only thing Starlight could feel was the rushing surge coursing out of her horn. More and more aerenths and seals around her began shattering or igniting from the blast’s chain reaction, the energy in her horn surging back into her like a broken dam’s floodwaters. The alicorn and changeling’s anti-magic broke apart, Starlight wasting no time fighting through the deafness to steal a glimpse of the world outside the window. Seizing her chance and having a line of sight, she disappeared in a flash of light before the fires spread to her locale.
==================
Back in the Palace
==================
Raiga yelped after being tossed across the room, rolling and skidding across the floor before crashing into King Aspen’s skeleton. Shattered bones flew about in all directions as she regained her orientation. Spying her foe coming, the siren salvaged her power and ignited her pearls, electrifying and strengthening herself by the time the monstrosity of a unicorn charged her. The sparking shocks and strikes stunned Godzilla briefly, but his momentum was still great enough to bowl into her. A pair of hooves stomped down onto her chest, causing Raiga to snarl and box at Godzilla’s face. The unicorn, too bloodthirsty and enraged to care that Raiga’s show of powers had proven herself to be no imposter, lunged down at the siren with fanged jaws. Had she retained her digits, Raiga would have grabbed him by the neck and jaw to keep him back or possibly go for a neck snap. Instead she had to resort to bracing one sparking hoof against his throat to keep him back while swiping at his face with the other. Her assault, both blunt force and the electrical shocks following them, were registering but not doing anything lasting beyond some bruising. Snarling from another smack cutting into his lip, Godzilla snapped his jaws to the side and bit down on Raiga’s limb mid-swing. Raiga could barely choke back a scream when Godzilla thrashed his jaws like a dog with a toy. Between his weight crushing down on her and the worry Godzilla was going to chew into an artery, she had enough to worry about before noticing light gathering up on the unicorn’s mane and scars. Now fearing she was about to have a limb blown off, Raiga diverted all of her power into the pearl mounted on her left hoof. In a reaction that could only be compared to biting down on a lightning bolt, Godzilla was electrocuted and repelled enough for Raiga to rip herself free of his jaws and pin; as well as shove his chin up towards the roof with her hoof.
The ensuring ray of plasma that spewed forth gouged, burned, and detonated the roof above and sent flaming chunks of the now burning tree raining down on the pair. Freed from the pin, Raiga wasted no time mentally parroting what she learned with Starlight, reactivating her levitation to dive to safety. Godzilla, still stunned briefly from the mass shock, wasn’t able to get out the way before the avalanche of the palace roof came crashing down on him hard enough to break a hole in the floor beneath him. Roaring kaiju and burning ruin were sent tumbling into the lower levels. The fires across the palace spreading, the siren flying out of the previously blasted hole in the wall to safety. She stole a glance back at the blazing ruin behind her, fires chewing away at the remaining tapestries and engulfing the shattered skeleton of King Aspen.
-He might be stuck as a unicorn, but there is no way that’s going to kill him.-
She turned and levitated down to the main street in a controlled free fall.
-I’ll have to pray it slows him down.-
She had just started moving down the street and towards the burning laboratory when the one she was looking for appeared in a burst of light and collided with her. Starlight took one look at the siren and sprung back like a frightened cat.
“No! Stay away!”
She screamed, volume not abaided at all with her ears still ringing from the explosion. Raiga, not having any time for this, ignored the pain in her side and arm, swinging around and grabbing the unicorn before darting for the front gate as fast as she could beat her tail through the air to swim. Tears in her eyes still reflecting the growing inferno behind them, Starlight pleaded and thrashed to free herself from another capture.
“Agk! Easy I’m not with them! I’m trying to get us out of here!”
Starlight’s mind raced ahead and she stopped struggling. Still in emotional freefall from the terror inflicted upon her, the poor unicorn clung to Raiga. With her distress fueling her magic, a glow filtered down from the spirals of her horn and across both her and Raiga’s form.
“Then hang on! I don’t know if this will work, but!”
She yelped as Raiga flew over the gateway and freed them from any of Cadenza’s remaining magic. The unicorn stole a glance through the dead treeline towards a distant river, gaining a line of sight. Both Starlight and Raiga disappeared in a flash of light as the Thicket burned behind them.
The last thing Starlight sensed was the damp chill of water and feeling of rotten wood on her face.
A few minutes later at the ruins, the deer kingdom was still blazing, smoking, or smoldering. Without the nature magic to keep the plantlife living and green, the fires were quick to devour the dead and dying wood. Hundreds of years worth of magically grown flora literally went up in flames, with nothing but smoke and a fire cracked wooden shell left behind in what was once the royal residence. An angry roar tore through the air, shouting out some of the flames. Godzilla lifted himself up from his entombment, picking up and throwing many times his own weight in burning debris through the wall and roof of a neighboring building. Aside from some mended bruises and hair that was alternately singed or drowning in soot, he looked far more angered than hurt. Ignoring the flames overtaking it, he threw a hoof out before him and smashed the palace’s front doors off their hinges in an uproar of burning splinters and char.
The tyrant king of the kaiju trudged out of his residence, walking through a wall of flames and into the main street like a demon born of inferno. The look on his face was unmoving, but brimmed with the intent showing in his eyes. The furious masquerading as the stoic. He approached the laboratory in time to see the smoke crowned forms of Cadenza and Battra haul some of their books free from the fires overtaking the structure. The duo looked a bit ruffled or singed, but were otherwise no worse for the wear. The alicorn saw the creature coming. Despite being who she was and sensing the upwell of hatred she felt flowing into her from his very presence, Cadenza couldn’t fight a slight wince as soon as she saw the look on his face.
“The unicorn g-ot away. There was an explosion and-”
Godzilla’s voice, a baritone grumble, hushed Cadenza’s.
“Is she the one required to proceed?”
Battra Lea’s eyes widened slightly and she moved to Cadenza’s side to calm both of them down.
“We can recover, but her magic involving talent enhancement will speed things up exponentially. With her power to bring out the skills in other and the first captured asset's raw energy, we could maintain our true forms far longer than before, quite possibly permanently."
"That's something we might need to have finished before Xenilla and Chrysalis can track us down. And there's the problem that she knows where the base is!”
Godzilla looked at the burning laboratory, looking down to the aerenth scalpel that had been flung out the window with Cadenza. He could smell the energy on it before noticing that the crystal was still pulsing with magic.
“This base… Gather any surviving research and meet with Anguirus and Rodan back at the second locale, we’ll rebuild there around the containment for the other...asset. Do you have any more of those elusion options?”
Cadenza did a quick check over of her inventory that had been pulled free of the bonfire before them, a smirk stretching across her lips as she found the requested item. The alicorn held and levitated up a blue and pink hued aerenth inscribed with Lea’s emblem.
“This one’s bonded to me. Why? What are you planning?”
Godzilla took the charged scalpel and the crystal from the alicorn, turning and walking towards the front gate. Ignoring the crumbling bellow of the last few palace walls falling in on themselves, neon colors flew across Godzilla’s mane and scars.
“Snuffing out loose ends and getting our asset back…”
========================
About two kilometers away
========================
Raiga and Starlight Glimmer snapped awake from delirium. The slow cackle of moving water filled the air as they looked around themselves on instinct. Barring Starlight’s hooves, tail, and now unkempt mane, as well as Raiga’s tail end; they were slung across a rotting log drifting down a briskly flowing river about eight meters across with forest bordering on either side.
Raiga, relieved to both not be under attack by a sociopath as well as finally being back in some water, groaned aloud to rid herself of some tension.
“Ooooookay, I have no idea what you just did, or why we’re here; but…. thanks.”
She cracked a dim smile, reaching over towards the unicorn. The mare however, winced at the approach and quivered with sparks sputtering out of her horn. Raiga, on instinct, recoiled back a few centimeters. Upon noticing the tear stains under the unicorn’s eyes, a small frown stretched across the siren’s face. Ignoring the sparks, she reached over and gently pawed at Starlight’s scalp.
“Hey, it’s alright. I’m not.. going.. to hurt you…”
“S-Sorry! It's not you.”
Starlight Glimmer squeaked, still wincing a bit as she looked towards her horn with one opened eye.
“I c-can’t really do big teleports like this usually. Kind-a stings. I j-just had to get out of there!-”
“Shhhh shhhh, it’s okay.”
Raiga shushed her, letting her hoof stroke Starlight’s wet mane.
“‘Long as you don’t try to be the third person today who'll try to burn my head off, you don’t have to explain- ack!”
The adrenaline and endorphins leaving her system, Raiga flinched up momentarily. A trickle of blood in the water guided her eye to the source. The burn mark across her side and the bite wound on her arm hadn’t closed up or cauterized entirely. Starlight’s ears raised up and she shook free of her paralysis inflicted by the pain in her horn, reaching out and taking Raiga’s limb to splash some water onto it.
“Oh no! Is this really bad? What happened?!”
She pleaded, recognizing this sort of bite mark and burn wound on Xenilla. Her concerned face only ended up earning a wincing chuckle from Raiga.
“I’ve had worse. I’ll be fine.”
“Are you one of the types of kaiju that can heal quicker?”
“Only if I can get enough electricity. And in this state I’m not exactly sure if I can call up a thunderstorm.”
The river flowed under an old oak and stone bridge. Starlight Glimmer’s eyes widened with recognition at the sight. She cast her vision forward. On the edge of the wood coming into visibility as they flowed down hill, trees of concrete and glass became visible through the canopy. The unicorn’s eyes brightened and her first smile in hours crossed her face.
“We’re in luck then! This river must flow right into Manehattan! Once we’re there I can take you to the power plant. My friend Lightning Dust works over there.”
“Sounds like a-” Raiga grunted, shaking off the stinging pain in her side. “-plan!”
Remembering some of the words spoken at the camp, Raiga turned her gaze from the glowing city ahead and back towards Starlight.
“Tell me one thing though.”
“Y-Yes?”
“The gal you were meeting in that city, Chrysalis, she really associated with Xenilla?”
“Yes indeed, after he helped save Canterlot from Godzilla she and him have been working together through this crisis. I was actually going to meet him in Manehattan too.”
“.....”
Raiga shot out an exasperated groan at the first sentence which just refused to make sense to her, just like everything else in this world since she got here. Starlight, thinking it was over the siren’s injuries, crawled over on her side of log to get closer to Raiga.
“What’s wrong? Is it your wound? Is it getting worse?! How bad is it? Screwy is a good doctor in Manehattan, I can take you to her too!”
Raiga just waved her hoof in the air whilst whining.
“Your world’s all kinds of messed uuuuuuuup!”
Just before she could wonder what mishap was going to be thrown her way, fate gave her the answer. It came from the west just as the moon began to peek out from the horizon, an intrusive upwell of white and blue radiance that banished all the comforting darkness around it appeared. The pillar of light tore the sky apart, blowing back the clouds above and summoning gusts of hot wind as its herald. Raiga and Starlight, for differing reasons, knew precisely what was coming. Ignoring her pain, Raiga hopped off the impromptu raft and braced against its tip. Between her tail thrashing sickling the water behind her and the hot gale forces billowing down from the highlands; their retreat to Manehattan was exponentially sped up.
They arrived at the edge of downtown several minutes later. As soon as the pair hopped off the log and reached the streets themselves to warn everypony, a reverberating boom rattled the ground below. Everypony paused in confusion as a second boom echoed out, knocking dust off the ground in clouds. Then a single voice called out that could be heard citywide. Devastation was calling for his decree.
Godzilla’s titanic form walked out from behind the last of the Foal Mountain range, shaking the earth beneath him with every step among the echoes of trampled forest. Alarm sirens sounded off across the city. The citizenry, not blind or deaf to the lookout’s alarms or the thirty story tall dinosaur, flew into full retreat. Herds of ponies heralded panicking crowds out of the buildings and downtown, rushing, sprinting, or carrying others to safety.
Raiga and Starlight Glimmer ran amongst the crowds with the former looking for her mentor. They both stole a glance backwards and upwards at the monstrosity wading in their direction and then looked back at each other.
“How did he grow?! I thought we were stuck in these ponyland forms!”
“He must have been charged up on magic! It can revert one of you back to that state!”
“.... Magic can make us grow?! I could be a kaiju again?!”
“Only really strong stuff, like from an alicorn or another royal. He must have used something from Cadenza!”
“Well then we gotta get to your teacher and juice me up!”
Godzilla’s dorsal spines crackled with wrath that spewed forth from his jaws with a roar. He raked the beam across several tall buildings and obliterated their tallest stories. The last building, having only a portion of it gouged out, creaked and groaned into its foundations before the top portion broke off and fell. It was caught by its neighbor, slumping over like a parody of a bridge over the streets below. Starlight grunted, covering her head from the following downpour of falling dust and plaster.
“We won’t have time! I don’t even know where exactly she is in the city right now and it’ll take an hour to find her in these crowds. By that time he’ll be in the middle of the city and I-”
Her speech was cut off by the sight of the lights ahead of her. The crowds filed past Starlight Glimmer and Raiga, the former still frozen in place and alone in her thoughts. The lights ahead of her were born from the many street lamps, room lights, and illuminated signs that dotted upper Manehattan. Hundreds to thousands of them, for just as many if not more citizens. Citizens about to face the monster's wrath.
-He’s heading right for them… Everypony in harm's way, they’re going to….-
She could hardly bear the thought of why she felt all those lights were going to go out before night’s end. Raiga grabbed and shook the unicorn, hiding her own panic.
“Hey, HEY! Don’t break apart on me yet now! Listen!”
Starlight jolted back to reality and looked at the siren, eyes watering as another one of Godzilla’s footsteps bellowed through the ground beneath her.
“You are a unicorn, if we need magic you can do it!”
“Wh-wh-what?! I can’t! Magic isn’t my talent, I’m j-just a talent aid! I’m no Trixie!”
“Look, I don’t even know who that is, but you taught me how to fly and in a blink of an eye you cleared a horizon away from that hellhole to get us to safety. You got your chops alright!”
The siren motioned back to Godzilla who, much to both of their dread, seemed to be looking right at them as he approached.
“And do you got any better ideas?! It’s either we give it our best go now or we’re all about to get trampled and or vaporized in the next few minutes!”
Starlight Glimmer closed her quivering lips, taking a big gulp as she stood alone with Raiga in the middle of the street. The crowds were quickly advancing away, but with an eighty meter stride the tyrant monster was closing the distance with the duo right in the middle. Starlight looked at the crowds, Godzilla, and then into Raiga’s eyes, putting a hoof on the siren’s.
“Can you beat him?”
Raiga looked up at Godzilla and took a deep breath. She didn’t let her confident, snappy facade cast a lie. She’d sparred with the Godzilla she knew. She could hold her own, but she knew he was stronger. And this one, this one seemed even worse. Raiga simply spoke the truth.
“I can slow him down…”
Starlight closed her eyes and yanked her friend into a hug briefly, whispering as she focused on her happiest memories.
“Be careful…”
“Eh, not my style.”
(Click to play audio)
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Do you think Raiga is gonna meet Mirror Raiga? If she does, then there's gonna be an epic fight.
6812877
I think she's got a big enough fight on her hands
This chapter was great. It was interesting to see how different Mirror Godzilla grew up compared to his other self and the fight with Raiga was entertaining. Likewise, your interpretation of Starlight's talent was a great idea and it was nice to see her that she was concerned for Raiga after escaping. The video you did with Faith was awesome as the music fit and I was slightly surprised when the punch came out. Awesome way to start 2016 with Sound of Thunder. BTW, when you mentioned that the finale is coming, does that mean that next chapter is the last?
I hope thing get straight thing out. Hope she soon well found out she in the alternate universe that her friends are the opposite of her friends.
6812933
Yep, Chapter 5 is the finale of Sound of Thunder
Wait a second. The finale already? This situation doesn't look like it can be resolved that quickly.
6812943
Chapter 5 is going to be noticeably longer than the others, might also have an epilogue. And this is a short story. If The Bridge is a multi-film movie series, Sound of Thunder is the one-shot movie or two hour TV special. Not everything is going to be resolved and we'll get back to this in either a later short story or in Bridge's sequel.
Oh boy mirror worlds are a real stretch for the brain and that's not Raiga's forte.
So only five chapters, oh well, enough for me. I'm already glad to discover Raiga since I knew nothing about her, she doesn't even appear in the Godzilla Wikia. Did she had a movie or only comics appearance ?
I really like those videos you implement in your stories, mainly were they transformed, you always add the most epic music.
Can't wait for that final, it promise to be rolling thunder.
This was awesome!! I can't wait to see how the battle goes.
This one ive got to enjoying quite a bit more than the main. It's far more fun to see how folks take the world of the comics.
Ahhhhh yeah!!! I'm ready for the finale!!!
This might be a stupid question, but is this Jr more powerful than the regular? And if so how is he so much more powerful ?
6813461
I'd say he's a bit stronger in terms of raw power, though in terms of skill in utilizing those powers to the best refinement the Main series Junior is stronger.
The finale? Saddening, but really exciting at the same time.
6813488
So this Junior is more like his father than the main junior.
6813729
Think more Senior on his worst day mixed with the GMK Godzilla's sadism.
6813758 Ah so Ragia is in for one hell of a match with this guy.
Hey, I really like the revised exposition in the lab scene (plus the bit afterwards with Battra, Cadenza, and Goji)! It's definitely a lot better this way. Great job! :D
And that vid at the end is the best one yet! Faith definitely put a lot of effort into it. ^_^
That being said, time for some postmortem proofreading:
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added comma after "Oooh"
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Removed "she" and removed commas
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Changed the comma to a period, removed a "to" and replaced it with a comma.
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added comma
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Huh, this is actually one that I missed in my first pass. Whoops.
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This one too. Double whoops. Sorry. >_<
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"Talent" appeared twice.
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closed the quotation marks.
THE HYPE IS REAL! I couldn't help but chuckle when the two were blasted off before hurting Starlight. {Love that mare.} I shall salute Raiga and wish her the best of luck.
The sound of thunder booms into the sky's as a great battle is to come.
This is going to be awesome.
This is an excellent set up for the finale. Fight between Mirror! Junior and Raiga in their Equestrian forms? Check. Mirror! Starlight and Raiga escaping due to the beam duel in the throne room? Check. Mirror! Starlight and Raiga bonding a bit after their get away? Check. Mirror! Junior transformation? Check. Mirror! Starlight using her magic to Transform Raiga? Check. Given how Raiga admitted that she could at least hold off Mirror! Junior long enough for the citizens to evac, It's going to be interesting to see what help, if any, she may end up getting.
So, it's a battle of skill versus power, with a large city and all who live there on the line. Can Raiga draw enough lightning to outlast the mad tyrant? How long will their respective power-ups last? How long until the noble usurper arrives to lend a hand? Will his arrival turn the tide, or will it become a three way brawl?
Stay tuned to find out!
I plan to.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
*chuckles grow into maniacal laughter* THIS IS GONNA BE GOOD!!!!
... By the way, are those lyrics to a song, or a poem you found/wrote for SoT? And speaking of, what was that song used in the video?
You need an ultraman monster in your story doesn't have to be this one
Finale? Please tell me this just an arc finale.
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https://www.fimfiction.net/blog/585190/sound-of-thunder-whats-up-with-the-length
Okay so I just finished reading this chapter and it got me thinking about how the "Opposite-verse" works. Since technically it is no longer an opposite but an adjacent universe due to Celestia's initiall intrusion. The connection that made them opposites has been broken so this mean that Harmony can make changes without any back lash. After all both the main Xenila and Destroyah, and the Opposite Xenila and Destroyah are on the side of good. Well at least technically.
First off it's my opinion that Harmony has adopted the "Opposite-verse" and sent Ragia over to start bringing it into harmony.
Secondly it's my opinion that it's not just their personality and "alignment" that our different, but also their corresponding body type and fighting style. If you think about it explains a lot of why the Oppo-Kaiju act the way they do. Where our Raiga is more brawn than brain, (which explains why she hasn't figured it out yet) and is built like a tank; Oppo-Raiga is brain over brawn and built like a gymnast. Oppo-Raiga is an opportunist predator.
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My general thought about it goes like this.
Mirror!Equestria and Main!Equestria were reflections of one another until about a year ago in-story, when Mirror!King Sombra sacrificed himself to forcefully separate the two worlds since they were collapsing in on each other. This was done by taking all the dark energy, and for lack of better terms 'evil', out of Mirror!Celestia and Mirror!Luna. Past that point, the two realms no longer are complete reflections of each other as obviously both have a pair of benign, immortal alicorn sisters*. Thus, any changes to one no longer affect the other.
Like Equestria, Terra has a counterpart. Unlike Equestria(s) however, Mirror!Terra and Main!Terra had no event to separate them. This direct parallel resulted in both versions of Godzilla Jr., Lea, Destroyah, Anguirus, Rodan, and Xenilla to their respective Equestria. And since the two Equestria aren't direct copies of each other, the versions of the 'Core 6' are starting to diverge.
Long story short, due to now being in universes no longer running completely parallel to each other, the main versions of the Core 6 and their mirror counterparts aren't direct copies of each other anymore. The situations aren't counterparts now. Main!Destroyah learning to be more placid doesn't mean Mirror!Destroyah has been similarly learning to be more bloodthirsty.
*(granted in the Mirror world it was Chrysalis who largely was put in command as a regent with Sombra gone. This is because until that point Tia and Luna were seen as criminals/tyrants, and likely need some time to be accepted as they atone)
Monsters fight!
I'm a bit curious as to why Mirror! Azusa would be in San Francisco when Mirror! Junior was tearing it up. Given how she played a large role in his childhood being anything but pleasant, it seems like she would want to high tail it out of there at the first sign Mirror! Junior was approaching.
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1. Probably caught her by surprise as Junior showing up to save Azusa in the main timeline obviously caught some by surprise. If movies show anything it's that tracking kaiju, especially ones swimming much faster than any boat, is difficult and anyone who would know would be in the military. Being retired, Azusa in either time wouldn't know where Godzilla Junior was.
2. If you really want to get into philosophical side to it, if Mirror!Azusa was a sadist to some degree she might have been almost proud of the sociopath she molded Mirror!Junior into. I can almost imagine her knowingly revealing her location to Godzilla by calling him out upon his arrival in SF, as him going so far out of his way to kill her would only prove all the hell she put him through as a child. When Main!Azusa saw Godzilla Junior in his adult form in the flesh for the first time, she was amazed at how massive and powerful he'd gotten, maturing but not deviating from the kind hearted soul she knew. When Mirror!Azusa saw her Godzilla Junior under the same circumstances after calling him out, she was smugly impressed that no matter how ruthless and monstrous he'd grown to be, there was still a bit of that scared child lashing out at her for revenge.
6817228 Sounds like Mirror! Azusa was the kind of person who cared only about her research and the results if she was willing to call out to Mirror! Junior with the knowledge that she would very likely be blasted to oblivion once he saw her.
I kind of want to see what the Mirror!Humans are like.
I can imagine that, with all these massively powerful kaiju running around, they're a bit more violent and militaristic. Almost like killer bees in a way; the humans give the kaiju (friend or foe) about five minutes of being too close to a city before they decide to fuck shit up and sic an entire gank squad of Jeagers on them.
HA!
Megaguirus a psycho? I like that idea, I can image a range of dynamics she could have with the MLP characters. She could be like a deranged Chrysalis, and either be trying to be like a sister to her, despite Chryslis’ objections, or as heated rivals, trying to destroy each other at all cost. Either path would offer chocolate covered mounds of material.
I’m actually a tiny bit confuzzeled here, are we dealing with the original princess Amore, or is it just evil Cadence? Going forward either way, she makes a nice partner for Battra Lea, both are sadists, and actually of similar disposition. So this is a very good pairing on the ‘pure’ villain side.
They could be an extremely formidable pair on their own,… were they not pretty much Evil Junior’s lieutenants. Hmm. Interesting take. But in the greater whole of the story, we’ve also got Legion, King Ghidorah, and the Anteverse gang being agents for Bagan, so their subservient position to Godzilla isn’t unprecedented. It just seems to me, that due to the brief duration of this particular arc, that their status suffers diminishment by being minions, despite their capability to be a major force on their own. Though, perhaps they will get their own more prominent spotlight in the future, as Tarb has hinted that this is merely an episode in a grander scheme
That device of Godzilla questioning Raiga on things that only the genuine article would know was a good bit, since this evil Junior has amore methodical bent like regular SpaceGodzilla. And combined with a werewolf-berserker battle style, that’s a incredibly fearsome foe. This is the kind of character we need to see face Engine.
The fact the her answers were completely wrong really drove home the reality that the course of events were very different, and that his being on the opposite moral side wasn’t his doing.
Ohh, When he says that his brother is alive, I wonder if he’s referring to Xenilla, or to another of his terrestrial species, who developed with some kind of mental handicap, which is why he uses the term idiot in an older context. That, would be an interesting take.
Oh, and I believe you mean, ‘wroth’ instead of ‘worth‘, a simple transposition mistake. I do that with ‘from’ and ‘form’ all the time.
‘metaphorical toes’ very nice.
So it seems like this evil Godzilla can use the Red Spiral at will, implying I think, that he has used his breath more often, and has achieved a higher level of potency with it. Like how Goku could use the Super-Sayan easier for a while until Vegeta caught-up to him.
Alright so, Starlight’s on a table ready to be….. Vivisected? Taunted? Given a riddle to solve? All three? It appears as though they were preparing to absorb her magic as they cut her apart before they were interrupted. So I’m left wondering just what they had planned, were they going to allow her to comprehend the process by which they’d steal her power? Or was it something else?
AH! So Starlight needs line of sight to teleport, valid rule, even Nightcrawler needs to know what he’s popping into. Though it does seem like Twilight was more advanced than her even before becoming an Alicorn.
King Aspen! Noooooo!
Very nice imagery with Junior coming out from the burning devastation. Really provides a example of just how casually powerful he is. And when Lea and Cadence are notably afraid of him, was something I enjoyed, them cowering in the presence of his seething anger. I imagine when he silenced Cadence, it was with a low grumbling exhale through clenched teeth.
Alright, so are the transformative methods working slightly different here? I thought the Kaiju had to be intentionally powered-up, but it seems like Junior is just going to use the crystal battery to go all Kaiju Growth Hormone on the scene. OK. I don’t find a problem that if they have access to that kind of raw power source that it would stop them.
So finally Raiga is getting that she’s in some topsy-turvy-reversy universe where up is down and black is 5, and those who were allies are now villains.
Hmmmm, Would ponies have air raid sirens in case of emergencies like that? Even in a metropolis like Manehattan?
So here is where a thought struck me: Earlier in the main story, Rarity had a nightmare about Manehattan being razed by a monster. At the time I thought it would be Gaira, or of the Anteverse Kaiju. Now I wonder if it was Godzilla she was seeing, by some mechanism having a premonition into the future of a parallel world. Unlikely, but that’s just what occurred to me.
I really feel like Raiga should have smacked Starlight to snap her back to the present.
An eighty meter stride?!!?!?! Alright, thinking that Godzilla is 100 meters tall, he’s taking some big damn strides, (relatively), to be making 80-meter steps. That’s like if I walked around by doing forward lunges.
So we’re about to see Raiga take on a more-than-average powerful Godzilla, alright indy Kaiju, let’s see what you got.
Sorry Tarb, but Faith has totally stolen all your… thunder .
The artwork in the video was fantastically dynamic. Faith, if you see this, I think this was some of your best work yet. I can tell you worked very hard, especially on the detail of the action and the emotional expressions. The music for the video was a perfect fit, very well chosen.
So let’s gear-up for the conclusion to Sound of Thunder.. Thunder… Thunder… Thunder Kaju, Hooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
And as a little react to the auxiliary article that basically said: “Yes guys, no foolin’, the next chapter really is the last one!”. I think it’s a great device to exposit more story, and utilize different characters.
The Magnificent Machine is pleased with this chapter. You will not be destroyed with finger missiles and belly lasers…. Today.
orig10.deviantart.net/3c8a/f/2015/359/7/1/3547055_by_rmc1618-d9lhfmi.jpg
Raiga vs Evil Junior: FIGHT!!!!
Hopefully Evil JR underestimates her based on what he knows about his Raiga and she's able to drive him off. Also, if she gets to tag team with Sir Xenilla in Kaiju form it would be awesome!
This inspires me to have a mirror universe with Rex in My Little Pony: Dinosaurs Are Magic!
Great work, when are heroes of the main The Bridge universe gonna learn about what's going on in mirror universe?
Seems like someone read the short novel "A Sound of Thunder". Though to be honest, the short novel wasn't appealing to me but the movie was awesome. I liked how they expanded on the novel and showed you what happens when you mess with time.
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Ironically enough, I had heard/read/watched "A Sound of Thunder", but that wasn't in my mind while writing this as enjoyable as it was. If anything, this story owes more to "Transformers: Shattered Glass" and a certain episode of Star Trek than anything else.
I chose the title I did because
A. Rule of Cool
B. This series tends to have indirect titles
C. Raiga is associated with thunder storms so if she's around you literally would hear the 'sound of thunder'.
6841656 Oh. well i'm not really familiar with Transformers, outside of the Michael Bay movies which were good despite people saying Michael as an explosion fetish and it ruins the movies, or Star Trek.
And yeah Sound of Thunder does sound cool.
I never knew who Raiga was until you teased her a few months back, i seemingly only saw it a few weeks ago i think, and i decided to look it up and saw the movie. Seriously you must have seen a LOT of Kaiju films that i haven't heard about and if you have such films i need to find you so i can watch all them.
6841714 Transformers: Shattered Glass is a comicbook depicting a Mirror Universe of the Generation 1 Transformers. Megatron and Starscream are heroes, Optimus Prime is a bad guy, etc.
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thank you!
Tarb, considering this is going to be the last chapter for this story . . . . go nuts!
Seriously, go nuts to your hearts content!
Give us the biggest, baddest, most insane in the membrane finale battle you want.
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In the classic Star Trek episode "Mirror, Mirror", an away team ends up in an alternate timeline due to a transporter accident. Due to the change in history, practically every character's morality was reversed. I suggest tracking the episode down sometime, if only for the contrast between the characters.
Hence the inspiration for the Mirror verse here.
7032361 I see. As I said i'm not a fan of Star Trek but I don't really hate it. It's good in my eyes as is Star Wars. I don't watch Star Wars often but I do enjoy it. So maybe i'll watch it one day just to see what all the fuss is about.
7032361 There is a subtle tribute to the Star Trek episode here. If you look close Mirror!Junior has slightly longer fur around the end of his muzzle that makes him look like he's got Mirror!Spock's short beard.