Codex Equestria: Notable Events

by Red Qilin

Wrath of the Dragon

Wrath of the Dragon

"People's Empress, do you have any idea what the Cloven Empire have unleashed? That isn't a dragon...not anymore...it is a disaster. You could fight a dragon, you could appease a dragon… But you can't fight or appease a disaster."
--- Lestnamatya, the Mother Deer, pleading with the leaders of the People's Empire of the Cloven not to send their people to their deaths against something they could never hope to fight

With the Cloven Empire's relentless drive to match and surpass their rivals and enemies, it was believed by many that it was only a matter of time before they created something far beyond their control out of recklessness. Unfortunately for all, this assumption was eventually proven true, when said recklessness resulted in the birth of one of the most powerful monsters to had ever live, which proceed to cause one of the most disastrous kaiju attacks in recorded history.

The birth of the first Dracozilla, and its subsequent rampage, would became known as the ‘Dracozilla Incident’, or more poetically, the ‘The Wrath of the Dragon’.

Background

“'We are fifty or a hundred years behind the advanced countries. We must make good this distance in ten years. Either we do it, or we shall be crushed'. So spoke the fabled 'Tyrant of Steel' Zhelezo Phikta, and though we all loath tyrants, we ought to take note how similar our situation is to their own. Perhaps even tyrants of yore can still teach us a few things.”
--- People’s Secretary Vikont Byalagora, on the necessity to modernize the Cloven Empire.

In the aftermath of the upheavals and unification, the People's Empire of the Cloven initiated massive national programs to modernize the country as rapidly as possible, in order to bring the largely rural, backwards empire into the industrial Great Power that it has the potential to become, both to lay out the foundation for the prosperous and utopian realm that the leaders of the Empire wishes to built, and in the short term, to ensure the survival of the nascent 'Revolutionary Empire' against the threat posed by foreign powers fearful of what the Cloven Empire represents.

The Roedinians have a deeply-rooted fear and mistrust of outsiders, brought on by centuries of countless foreign invasions of their motherland throughout its history, and the Clovenists in particular bitterly remembered the considerable foreign support the old ruling regimes had received prior to their overthrow. Who is to say that the foreign powers would not attempt renewed attempts to destroy the Cloven Empire, to prevent the spread of their ideals?

Because of this, the Cloven military, freshly formed and bloodied in the revolutions that swept Roedinia, was one of the areas of priority in modernization, receiving not only extensive enhancement in its current arsenals, but also development in new, powerful weapons to defend themselves against their hostile neighbours – and to spread their revolution worldwide when the time is right.

In their quest to acquire any edge over other nations, one of the weapons their war machine tried to create was a 'Mana Bomb'. Once purely theoretical, this military technology is intended to trigger and use wild magic reactions for offensive purposes, causing destruction through generating a gigantic explosion. Unverified reports suggested that it is capable of ‘Exploding for days’ in a ‘blazing continual detonation’, potentially capable of wiping out entire cities and saturate the area in a ‘fallout of radiant matter and inconvenient arcane energies’.

It was, for all intents and purposes, a weapon of mass destruction, and although once revealed, the Empire's higher ups claim it was merely for defensive use against kaiju, hostile nations or any other threats, many have their doubts.

Whatever the case, a mana-detonation device was created and tested on an nameless island in the middle of the ocean, detonated from a safe distance. Despite precautions taken, the experiment went wrong, and yielded a blast much greater than expected, reducing most of the island to a scorched, destroyed wasteland. As horrifying as the damage was, to any who learned of it and to the bomb's creators, the Clovenists had no idea the sequence of events they had set into motion.

Rise of the Dragon

“A god incarnate is coming – a wrathful god of destruction.”
--- An Ahto Islander, on the kaiju that would become known as ‘Dracozilla’

In the coming weeks and months, ships began vanishing at sea without a trace. However, eventually, a group of islanders discovered a survivor of one of the ships, horribly burned and barely alive. Before he expired, he reported that there'd been a blinding flash of light and then the sea became fire.

The natives of the island, officially recorded as Ahto Island, believed this was the work of a creature from their myths, and told the researchers as such when an expedition to investigate the disappearances arrived. With a hurricane baring down on the island, the expedition had no choice but to spend the night... allowing them to witness the consequences of the Clovenists' actions.

During the hurricane, a portion of the village on the island was leveled...and the next morning the creature emerged over the side of a hill, roaring in fury for the world to see, before returning to the sea.

This was Dracozilla, later known as Dracozilla Sr., an alteration of the name the islanders gave it. He stood far taller than any dragon on record besides the Ryujins themselves, and upon closer examination was discovered to have been imbued with unholy amounts of wild magic to the point unicorns who tried scanning spells experienced intense headaches.

It soon became apparent that the Clovenists' mana bomb had mutated a dragon with its massive amounts of wild magic, turning him into a kaiju of incredible power. While the Clovenists denied it, no other logical explanation could be found, and an investigation was launched into the matter... Dracozilla, however, would not wait for it to be completed.

Destruction of Umiyako

“This is Umiyako. Once a city of six million, built near the fabled ruins of Old Tokneigho, it is now a smouldering memorial to the unknown, destroyed by a force that, a few days ago, was beyond the scope of our imagination...”
--- Tape Record, Mustangian reporter and correspondent of Modern Global News, who became famous for his survival and report of Dracozilla’s attack on Umiyako.

It was night in Umiyako when the surface of the sea gave way to a leviathan. Dracozilla waded ashore and unleashed his wrath on the unsuspecting city, destroying and burning everything in sight with wild magic infused azure flames.

Worse yet, Dracozilla was driven mad with rage and hatred at what had happened to the point reasoning with him was impossible, and he simply lashed out at anything that approached him. The Neighpon Self Defense Forces were powerless to halt his rampage. While other Kaijus tried to stop him, Dracozilla proved too powerful and forced them to retreat.

It seemed as though the city would burn to the ground during several attacks on it and the surrounding area...when Dracozilla's eyes fell on an airship fleeing the country, namely the one containing the Clovenists ambassadors to Neighpon, eyes locked on the Clovenists' emblem emblazoned on its haul. With a furious roar, Dracozilla dove into the ocean and vanished.

Neighpon was left to mourn the attack on its capital, and the world to wait in fear of where the kaiju would strike next.

Attack on the Cloven Empire

“No sacrifice is in vain for the defense of the Clovenist Dream from the horrors of nature!”
--- People's Regent Kentavr Khan, in an address to Council of People’s Regents, on the day the Cloven Empire declared war upon the rampaging Dracozilla

Between the reports of Dracozilla chasing after the Cloven airship and the Clovenists' weapon test, the Clovenists immediately came under greater scrutiny for their role in Dracozilla’s creation. The Cloven Empire for their part had continued to deny any involvement with this disaster... until a row of dorsal spines broke the surface off the Empire's eastern coast, from the direction of the sea of Neighpon.

Emerging from the oceans, Dracozilla marched on the Empire, laying waste to all that lay before him without a moment's pause or regret, howling his undying hatred for those that had hurt him so much. Any delusion the Empire's mana bomb was not to blame was shattered as several cities were burned down before the mutant dragon's azure flames.

Desperate to prevent loss of life, the deer goddess Lestnamatya, the Mother Deer contacted People's Empress Zora and her fellow leaders with a desperate plea to take responsibility for their people's actions, hoping that maybe Dracozilla would listen if the country that caused him such pain and misery acknowledged it and tried to make recompense, rather than send their armed forces against a foe they had no chance of defeating. The goddess recognized what this was: Dracozilla was no mere dragon. Not anymore. He was now more comparable to a hurricane or volcano. A natural disaster destroying all in his path. And he had set his sights on the Cloven Empire.

The Clovenist leaders politely refused, and with the approval of Clovenist government, the Imperial Liberation Legions was deployed against Dracozilla in full force. Not only did the military assault merely increase the damage rather than halt it, Dracozilla merely plowed through everything aimed his away, leaving nothing but blazing ruin behind. By the time Dracozilla returned to the sea, the Clovenist attack force had been annihilated. Clovenist propaganda claim they drove the kaiju back into the sea, but those who witnessed it tell a different story: Dracozilla simply got tired and went back to sleep.

The end of Dracozilla

"Your stubborn pride blinds you to one thing: what good is a nation of ashes?"
--- Princess Celestia, in an audience with the Clovenist government.

Now that Dracozilla had set his sights on the Clovenists, there was great debate on whether or not to interfere. The Clovenists refused help, and with their hostility to the outside world, it was debated whether or not they actually deserved it. However, when Dracozilla surfaced again and continued his assault, Mother Deer gave an impassioned plea to the rest of the world that even if the Clovenist leaders deserved to face the consequences of their actions embodied by Dracozilla, the innocent civilians did not.

While this moved many to support a counterattack on the titan to end the bloodshed, there was still the matter of the Clovenist refusal to accept outside help with the behemoth. Making a move on Clovenist soil would likely give them excuses to further justify their hostility. Eventually, Princess Celestia, the Sunraiser of the Principalities of Equestria herself spelled it out as bluntly as possible to the entire Clovenist government that their stubbornness would only spell the doom of their entire Empire.

Finally, the Clovenists agreed, and a small army of kaiju assaulted Dracozilla, managing to slowly force him back towards the sea in a long, hard fought battle that left many of them with wounds that would take a long time to heal. However, they had only been told something was waiting in the water to deal with the beast and to NOT be in it when he was, not what it was.

They soon found out what it was, along with all its unique horror.

A brilliant Neighponese scientist, whose name is withheld out of respect for his wishes, had invented a magitech weapon of dreadful power. A spell capable of destroying all oxygen in sea water, creating a reaction that dissolves everything it touches. Fearing the potential usage as a WMD, he destroyed all record of it as he prepared to unleash it to stop Dracozilla...and remained in the water as it took effect.

Dracozilla was reduced to nothing more than atoms as the weapon took effect – although the state of Dracozilla’s remains was never truly confirmed – and the scientist took its secret with him to the grave.

Aftermath

“The menace is gone… and so was a great individual. But the whole world can wake up and live again.”
--- Attributed to Tape Record or Mother Deer

The aftermath of this event was a heavy blow to the Cloven Empire. Not only would rebuilding cause economic problems, they were forced to pay Neighpon a large sum of money in restorations for the destruction of Umiyako due to their actions, and had international sanctions placed on them to prevent more research into the mana bomb, as well as an ultimatum that the use of such weapons were now banned by international law... although development of the mana bomb's arcanic process for peaceful use was technically not prohibited, nor was the development and storage of the bomb itself.

Many suspect now that the genie is out of the bottle, some nations, such as the more militaristic Griffon kingdoms and the dreaded Changeling Summer Court Hives, are already developing their own version of the bomb, and that a nightmarish arms race had only just begun - one that would not doubt lead the appearance of more terrible kaijus like Dracozilla Sr..

Meanwhile, Dracozilla's attack did not stop Clovenists from covering up their responsibility of the disaster to their own people, and espouse propaganda claiming it was one of their scientists or mages that produced the weapon that finally killed the monster, but none outside the country buy a word of it.

Thousands perished in the rampage of the original Dracozilla, and it would take years for the damage to be repaired... but also eventually gave rise to the second, much more benevolent Dracozilla.