The Bridge: Among Giants

by Godzillawolf

The Story of a Lifetime

As ponies stared in shock throughout Canterlot while creatures the likes of which only appeared in myth, legends, and horror films battled it out, Dr. Ghost Story hovered fixated on what was unfolding before her.

The Azure Dragon unleashed streams of heat that roasted the deadly flying beasts, who returned fire with streams of yellow light that earned bursts of sparks on impact with the charcoal hide. She recoiled as a loud, bellowing roar emitted from the gigantic creature and he entered melee range.

Transfixed on the spectacle before her, Ghost Story followed the enormous creature's eyes as he grabbed one of the larger beasts by the neck and used it as a makeshift weapon. “...You're not a dumb brute, are you?” she asked to no one but herself. She'd already seen the fierce nobility in that creature's eyes, but the looks and body language, and the way in which he fought. They weren't an animal's. They were that of a thinking creature.

Her thoughts were broken when she heard the commanding, Royal Canterlot Voices ring out.

““CITIZENRY OF CANTERLOT, NOW IS NOT A TIME FOR THOU’S RATIONAL AND WIT TO FALTER! A SWARM OF MONSTERS CALLED GYAOS ARE ATTEMPTING TO BESIEGE THE CITY! ANOTHER CREATURE CALLED GODZILLA HAS AGREED TO FIGHT ON CANTERLOT'S BEHALF AND HAS ENGAGED THE SWARM, BUT YOU ALL MUST SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY! THIS IS A ROYAL DECREE!”

Agreed to help. With those words Ghost Story couldn't help but smile and give a cheer. “He really is on our side!” she cheered, noting while a relative minority, she was not the only one...before the overall situation registered in her head.

The bat pony saw ponies rush and panic as they sought shelter. She looked between nearer shelters and further ones with higher vantage points...and instantly started towards the latter, eyes remaining on the battle. She saw several of the gyaos as she now knew what they were called land on the barrier and try their hardest to rip into it, only to be repelled by pulses of magic. For a moment she stopped to catch her breath, feeling if nothing else she was safe for a moment. Safe enough to stop, produce some note paper from her bag and make a quick log as she flew.

'Dr. Ghost Story's log:

Canterlot is under attack. Gigantic beasts known as gyaos, unknown origin at this time, have descended on the city. In all my years of folklore study I have never heard that name before. Their size varies from a bear or manticore's to larger than a dragon, and the look in their eyes is one of pure hunger. However, when it seemed we'd be an all you can eat buffet for these horrible creatures, a second creature, a gigantic saurian creature known as Godzilla, arrived. He is fighting to defend us. Like Neighpon's legendary Azure Dragon, he is here to protect us...'

“Ghost Story!”

The thestral turned at the familiar voice and saw a certain book distributor waving from a nearby door. “Sherlock!”

“Ghost Story, come on! The Princesses called for us to take shelter!” the Earth Pony called back...then blinked, looking Ghost Story in the face. With all these things adding up, the Bat Pony's expression had let fear ebb and be replaced with an expression he decidedly recognized from his long friendship with her. And it made him give sigh. “...Oh no...”

Ghost Story chuckled. “Don't worry, I'm going to take shelter...in the higher buildings, preferably with a good vantage point,” she said, a more energetic but somehow still nerdy and curious tone worming into her voice.

“Ghost Story, there's a giant monster fight going on outside the city!” Sherlock pointed out in a tone somewhere between annoyance and genuine fear. As if to punctuate the it, a thunderous crash resounded in the background.

“Yes, and the bigger one is on our side,” was the reply. “Come on, you can't tell me you're not curious! This is the most interesting thing to happen in awhile!”

The Earth Pony cringed at the sound of a roar and a flash of azure light signaling the obliteration of another group of gyaos. “Yes, and the 'good one' is a killing machine!”

“...Sherlock, you're smarter than this, do you honestly see any other way we'd get out of this mess except for what he's doing?”

Sherlock raised a hoof and opened his mouth...then blinked, repeating the gesture several times before looking back at the hundreds of gigantic, blood thirsty beasts besieging the city that the Princesses' barrier kept at bay...but his analytic eyes told him would not hold forever. Ghost Story could see gears turning in his head as her friend seemed to go through hundreds of possible situations in his mind. Sherlock's special talent was an eye for details and a mind to interpret them. She saw emotions, he saw details. In a way, it was little wonder they were good friends. “...That's...sadly a good point...”

“Come with me or don't, I'm getting a better look at this! This is too good of a story to pass up!” Ghost Story replied, continuing towards the taller buildings.

Sherlock looked back and forth between her and his perfectly safe shelter, then back to her, then to the warring titans. He finally gave an annoyed sigh and followed. “This better turn out better than the time you got worked up like this over the Sass Squash!”

“Oh come on, that went fine!”

“There were squashes everywhere! And neither of us like squashes!”

“No, but the ponies we sold them to did.”

Sherlock facehoofed between gallops. “That's not the point! And what about when you got obsessed with that one skunk creature?”

Ghost Story only gave a laugh. “The Aniwye, and that didn't end so bad. Nothing a few herbal tomato juice baths didn't fix.”

Sherlock gave a shudder and sigh. “I hate it when she gets like this...”

The two heard a loud impact and looked out of the city (Ghost Story taking the path that gave them the best possible unobstructed view that wasn't in an instant death zone if the gyaos pierced the barrier, she was enthusiastic and excited, not stupid) as a particularly large gyaos slammed into the back of Godzilla's head before he was dogpiled by several who bit and clawed into his hide. Both didn't breathe for several moments, especially when they started to see blood emerge from the wounds. Both winced as the gigantic creature shattered one's neck and skull, then hammerfisted the second to the ground and finished it with a stomp they could feel the vibrations of from here. Sherlock's eyes went wide as the saurian titan jumped and landed backfirst on top of the two hanging onto his back with an impact akin to an earthquake, spines putting an end to them.

“...Glad he's on our side, aren't you?” Ghost Story replied, her fascination with horror leaving her no stranger to gore, but obviously that was a completely different thing than actually witnessing it in real life. Needed or no, she understandably was unnerved.

Sherlock's face turned green and he put a hoof to his mouth, but managed to keep himself from losing his dinner. “Y-Yes...surprisingly agile for his size...I would wager given his size comparable to the nearby mountains and structures he is about 100 meters tall, can't guess too much about weight from here, but he can't be light for his impacts to have such...well, an impact...”

Ghost Story quickly wrote down his words... “Interesting...anything else?”

Sherlock watched Godzilla charge up and put his breath to good use against the swarming behemoths. “...That isn't dragon fire. It's something completely different...very hot as well, I'd wager some kind of heat ray. The beam those creatures fire is...I'm not sure, but it has cutting properties...” the earth pony replied, looking over the landscape below and noting that objects hit by the gyaos' beams were sliced clean through. “Never seen anything like it...But the fact they can't cut very deeply into Godzilla would imply his hide is far tougher and denser than any animal's hide....”

Sherlock narrowed his eyes, getting a look not out of place on a collage professor's face as he looked closely at some of Godzilla's wounds, seeing them closing up. “And even the wounds they have inflicted appear to be sealing up very quickly. What a creature, I...” The Earth Pony blinked, then glared at Ghost Story, who was presently writing down literally every word he said. “You got me in analysis mode...”

“Yep, but come on, you can't say it wasn't fun,” the mare replied playfully, then looked at the creature. “Notice something else? Look at his eyes...”

Sherlock looked back at Godzilla, watching his eyes move. Watched them observe... “...He's thinking...”

“Well it'd be hard to agree to help us if he couldn't...but yes...” Ghost Story said. “He's sapient...”

Sherlock observed for a few moments...then raised an eyebrow, slowly walking forwards to get a better look as he watched the movement of Godzilla's head and eyes. “...He's looking for something...”

The thestral blinked, walking over. “What?”

“Every time he doesn't need to be looking at one of these gyaos creatures directly, he's keeping his eyes open for something in the swarm...” the Earth Pony observed. He then remembered. “That big one?”

Ghost Story linked, then remembered the gyaos that had struck him before until he'd been dog piled by the other four. “The big one from before?”

“Yes...It was the largest one in the entire swarm, logically the biggest threat of the individual ones, but not by such a huge margin that it would be a chief threat...as far as I can tell, given I know nothing about gyaos,” replied the Earth Pony, his own eyes scanning the swarm and noticing the largest one flying under the cover of the rest of the flock, not attacking, more screeching to the others. “...It must be the leader...”

“An alpha?” asked Ghost Story, knowing from her studies of monsters, both mythological and real, that many pack creatures would have such things. Though many did get it wrong that they were always just the strongest, often times it was the eldest or the parent to the rest. In this case, it seemed to be genuinely the mightiest Gyaos present that took the lead unless these things were extremely explosive breeders on a scale that terrified her to think about. “That would explain a lot.”

Sherlock gave an intrigued look. “It's like you said, Godzilla is a thinking creature, he knows what to target...This is rather interesting...”

The thestral chuckled. “See? I told you.”

---

The two, however, were soon reminded they were still very much in the middle of a crisis.

Coming to a street, it was clear the panic had hit it hard. No rioting and looting, but panicked ponies had trampled or torn down market stalls and other structures, leaving the place a mess.

“...Okay, life can go without this much of a scare...” Ghost Story admitted, surveying the damage.

“Can you blame them for panicking? Canterlot is being besieged by giant monsters and even if he's on our side, Godzilla is terrifying...” Sherlock replied, using some water from a fountain and a bucket to dump on a small fire that'd been started by a knocked over candle. He cringed at the screech of one of the gyaos. "Though not as much as the gyaos."

Ghost Story nodded with a sigh. “True...speaking of which, do you think Godzilla was the mystery creature that appeared in the camp back near Ponyville?”

“I would doubt it, given I imagine Godzilla would've drawn too much attention marching all the way to Ponyville and back. A 100 meter tall dinosaur isn't exactly inconspicuous...unless with that pillar of light he was summoned here, but if he was I've never heard of a summon spell that can bring out a creature that huge...”

The thestral nodded. “...But there were the 'giant birds' in Appleloosa.”

“Likely the gyaos...” her friend replied. “Though I imagine a much smaller flock, if not just a couple. If it were this same one, there wouldn't be an Appleloosa left anymore...”

Ghost Story gave a shudder at that thought. “I don't doubt that...lucky these things came for Canterlot with the Princesses and Godzilla instead of Ponyville.”

She hoped that was the case, anyway...after all, Ki Seong was still there to her knowledge, along with Witching Hour and her other workers and friends.

The two continued along the path to the safer vantage points they sought...until Ghost Story's ears twitched and she heard a noise. She stopped and slowly walked over shop that one of the stalls had toppled backwards in front of the entrance of a store in the panic...and her nocturnal eyes picked up a small figure curled up trembling on the other side of the door. It didn't take a genius to read the little one was scared and huddled down trying to hide. The continuing sounds of the monster brawl happening outside the barrier reminded her quite vividly of why. She tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge, blocked by the fallen stall. "Sherlock! There's a foal trapped in here!" she called, trying to lift the stall out of the way but straining to budge it.

"Here, let me try!" Sherlock called as he ran over. Ghost Story moved out of the way to let the earth pony put his enhanced strength to good use to lift the obstruction out of the way with far less effort than she ever could.

"Are you alright?" the book seller asked, throwing open the door.

The small foal jumped and ran over…but stopped and backed up upon seeing Ghost Story's red eyes and bat wings. His horn began to shine with an icy blue glow, the air around it becoming foggy and his breath becoming visible.

The bat pony quickly read her audience and folded her wings and raised a hoof. "It's okay, I'm nothing to be afraid of…" she said gently, trying to make her look as unthreatening as possible. "I'm just a Bat Pony, see?" she asked, giving as relaxing a smile as she could given she had fangs.

The frightened foal cautiously approached, moving into the light coming from outside and finally being plainly visible to Sherlock. He was a little unicorn colt, white fur with an ice blue mane and tail. His Cutie Mark was an ice burg with beams of light radiating off of it. Ghost Story didn't need her special talent to tell that he was scared to death.

"Hey little guy, my name's Dr. Ghost Story, this is my friend Sherlock, what's your name?" asked the folklorist.

"I'm G-Glacial Glow…" the little colt replied, still trembling. "We were shopping and then the monsters showed up and...and I ran in here to hide…"

"I see," Sherlock said. "Then the stall fell over and trapped you...where are your parents?"

"...Probably looking for me…"

"Then come with us, we'll help you find them," Ghost Story replied sincerely. "Or find a Royal Guard that can."

"O-Okay…"

---

The small group continued making their way to the safe vantage point, now keeping an eye out for the small colt's parents or a Royal Guard to help find them.

They heard Godzilla's roar and turned to see him knock one of the gyaos to the ground and finish it with a repeated tail slam before intercepting another diving for his head. Glacial Glow, seated on Ghost Story's back, trembled and whimpered, covering his ears and keeping his eyes clinched shut.

"Why are there monsters everywhere?!" he asked.

Ghost Story looked back to him with as reassuring of a smile as possible. "Glacial, don't worry, the Princesses and Godzilla will protect us."

"But Godzilla's scary!"

"Yes, but not all scary things are bad," the storyteller replied, using her wing to move the colt's muzzle to look her in the eyes. She thought back to her well of folklore knowledge to find the perfect story for the situation. "Would you like to hear a story?"

Looking for anything to take his mind off the chaos and monsters, Glacial gave a trembling nod.

"A long time ago, a pony named Posey loved to garden, loved flowers of all sorts. She was a nice pony, kind of like Miss Fluttershy of Princess Twilight's group. Well one day she came across these little flower creatures called the Flores. They were beautiful, but looked sick and unwell. Weak. So she let them into her garden…" Ghost Story began, doing her best to keep the colt's focus completely on her.

"That was nice of her…"

"Yes, it was...however, then these huge crab monsters called the Crab Nasties came and the ponies thought they were monsters-"

Suddenly, one of the gyaos gave a nightmarish screech, flying past the barrier. The sound of its sonic cutter as it blasted Godzilla piercing their ears and causing Glacial Glow to panic and look back to it.

"Hey hey, eyes on me, you wanna know what happens next with Posey, right? She was in a scary situation too," Ghost Story said, using her wing to move his muzzle back to look her in the eyes.

"Yeah, I w-wanna know the rest…"

"Good...Now, the Crab Nasties were big, mean looking, seemed dangerous, and well their name was nasty after all, so the ponies locked them in a cave with a big bolder," the storyteller continued, putting energy into every word now that she had his attention hooked on her.

"I don't blame them…" he said with a shudder.

"It's hard to...but with the Crab Nasties now out of the way and them having nothing more to fear, the Flores revealed they were anything but the harmless creatures they appeared to be and their beauty was only skin deep. That night they began draining the life from the soil wherever they went, using it to become bigger and stronger. They were pretending to be nice the entire time to get Posey's sympathies and trick the ponies into dealing with their enemies for them…"

She kept locked eyes with him even as a gyaos let out a screech and dive bombed Godzilla...only to fly face first into his heat ray. Glacial was enraptured enough with the story to keep himself from looking.

She saw the little colt's eyes widen in realization. "So the big ugly Crab Nasties were the good guys?!"

Ghost Story nodded with a chuckle...and finally let herself redirect his attention to the battle going on as Godzilla bit down on the wing of a Gyaos latched onto his shoulder and swung around, sending it crashing into a nearby mountain. "So they set things right: freeing the Crab Nasties to fight the Flores. They won and saved the valley from the Flores' hunger."

The folklorist looked to Glacial Glow as the saurian let loose atomic death on the monsters. "Sometimes beautiful things can be terrors and scary things can be guardians. It's not the outside that counts, it's what's on the inside...And Godzilla is fighting to protect us, the Princesses said he agreed to. So maybe he is a little scary, but he's here to help...just like me," she said in a cheerful tone as she let her fangs show in her smile.

The little colt seemed to calm down and looked out as Godzilla kept fighting against the hordes. Now seeing him like the scary looking but heroic police crabs from her story. "Go get 'em, Godzilla!" he called.

"That's the spirit!" Ghost Story chimed in, sharing a smile with Sherlock as they continued on.

Author's Note:

Thanks to Tarb for giving this a pre-read!

Comments

[Night_Moon60606]

the little ones have always been crazy about Gojira-sama...in particular little boys...

[Ultimate Warrior of Zera]

Loved that reference to My Little Pony n’ Friends, and I liked Sherlock scanning Godzilla.

[merroug dragon]

Been waiting for this, nice to read about the battle from the point of view of some scientific-minded observers.

[Edguy0009]

9753323
I don't know why I have to respond like this but....

Man 1: "RUN IT'S GODZILLA!!"
Man 2: "It looks like Godzilla but due to international copyright law it's not"
Man 1 "STILL WE SHOULD RUN LIKE IT IS GODZILLA!!"
Man 2: "Though it isn't."
Both: *runs away screaming*

[Zillafreak825]

I've been meaning to read this. Sorry it took so long. But now that I have. I'm really looking forward to the continuation! Can't wait to see more of Dr. Ghost Story in The Bridge.