• Published 21st Nov 2020
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The One True King - JDPrime22



Can Equestria’s greatest heroes coexist with these mythical and majestic beasts… or will they have to accept that their rule has come to an end? For the rule of the one true king, Godzilla, has returned.

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Chapter 43 – Battle of the Three Kings

Chapter 43

“I look’d for thy temple, I look’d for my home, / And forgot for a moment my bondage to come; / I beheld but the death-fire that fed on thy fane, / And the fast-fetter’d hands that made vengeance in vain.”

On the Day of Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus

Crystal Empire

They found him lying in the ruin. All six of them emerged onto the strongest standing structure in the midst of a valley of destruction. Rainbow Dash was the first, as always, with Applejack dangling from her forelegs before the Pegasus set her down on the crystal roof. Fluttershy did the same with Rarity, the two standing with their friends. Pinkie Pie just appeared, in a blur of speed that traversed up the decimated structure and onto the roof. Twilight was the last to join.

She flapped her wings and landed softly in the heart of her Council. Together, they stood on the edge of the structure of what was once a building, now but a slanted ruin of shattered crystal barely standing. A gust of wind and a piercing white blizzard tried to separate them from him, yet they remained strong and vigilant, gazing through the harshness of the storm and seeing the shadow trying to hide within it.

He could never hide from them.

His evil could be felt throughout all the Crystal Empire, leading the Elements of Harmony directly to him. Directly to the source and birth of the evil.

There he remained. Beaten and bloodied but still there. Still alive, maybe. His eyes were dark and not a hint of life could be seen pulsating across his body. No electrical currents of dark energy swarmed his horn. He just laid there, head dangling, jaws apart, as his body was shrouded in misty shadows. The six mares stared from their position overlooking his body, the wind and snow tugging at their manes, at their tails, at their steadfast expressions.

Unbowed and unshaken, the Council stood, gazing to the motionless body of the MUTO Prime. Of King Sombra.

The battle raged around them. Time was short. Twilight made that evident when she turned to the others, trembling lightly to the cold. “All right, girls, quickly now… before he gets up.”

There was a slight moment of adjustment shared among them, the six taking their stand and readying themselves for one final moment. One final confrontation with the Shadow King. Rainbow Dash took in a deep breath, but nonetheless lifted her hardened stare back to the MUTO. She snorted, sneering at the lack of life present on Sombra’s face. He made it too easy for them, as if he even deserved an actual fighting chance. To Rainbow, there were no more chances for him. No more lucky getaways. They were ending this here and now. Once and for all.

“Time to send this freak back to the aether for good,” Rainbow muttered.

“The Elements will do what needs to be done,” Twilight told her, turning her head back to meet Rainbow’s glare. “We just need to focus and—”

Twiiiliiight…

The cold took her breath away. Only, it wasn’t alone.

There was something more within the cold, within the winds that pierced skin and bone alike. Something darker, piercing the heart and taking every last breath one could have ever hoped to make. She felt like she couldn’t breathe. In that moment, she choked on the cold and it left her limbs frozen. Her nerves standing on end. Twilight wasn’t the only one to feel such a darkness.

Every last one of them did. The voice they all knew in their deepest, darkest nightmares was reawakened once again. And yet they all reacted the way Twilight had, as if the voice calling to her by name also called to them. Uttered their individual, personal names in order to elicit such a petrifying reaction from each mare.

It was a slow set of movements from each pony, even Pinkie, as they all turned to face the voice. A voice not uttered from a single pair of lips but flowing with the screaming winds. Fusing with the misty shadows that coiled around every corner of their vision. Rarity flinched to that, as did Applejack. Rainbow did the same, her wings standing on end and the Pegasus low and ready to pounce. Ready to fight. Ready for almost anything he tried to throw at her. Even she seemed unsure. Fluttershy trembled, whimpering an unknown fear that billowed deep within her heart.

As for Twilight… she just turned back to him.

Turned back to the birth of the evil and watched his dark eyes glow a soft emerald once more. The purple mists flowed from his green. His horn crackled with electrifying energy. His massive head slowly swayed in their direction. His pulsating visor steadily glared their way.

“Uh…” Applejack stammered, taking a reactionary step back. “He’s gettin’ up, Twilight!”

His forelimbs gently moved, rising and pressing back firmly into the ground.

“Some rainbow lasers would be very helpful right about now!” Rarity shouted.

His body turned to face them.

“Focus, girls!” Twilight reassured them, planting her hooves. Standing her ground. Glaring deep into the shimmering eyes of the MUTO. “Together now! Come on!”

And together they came. Shutting off all fears was a difficult hurdle to overcome, but they achieved it. They ignored everything else in the outside world and closed their eyes, focusing only on themselves. On one another. On the friendship they shared and were empowered by. And so, their friendship glowed, escaped their bodies as they hovered forth from the rooftop.

Sombra stared on, jaws agape as the mares appeared so bright they mirrored the light of a newborn star. And the star within them opened her eyes, the orbs of pure whiteness meeting the evil’s glare head-on. Their magic exploded. Their bodies erupted and the Elements of Harmony unleashed their power, a flurry of rainbows shooting forward with furious speeds to their desired target.

But the target was ready that time.

It knew how to react, to counter.

It knew…

The rainbow beam completely went through him, missed him, and the shadowy mist he had transformed himself into. King Sombra practically evaporated into nothing but a wall of darkness, the shadows opening to perfectly dodge the blast of raw magic. His reaction time was shocking, for everypony present. For when the magic ceased and the mares remained hovering, they witnessed the shadows reforging itself.

The darkness came together to build the body of Jinshin-Mushi once more. And once more, Sombra imbued every aspect of the MUTO, glaring down the six mares hovering atop the crystal roof. He then hovered over them, towered over their miniscule forms, and growled softly.

“Anypony else feeling terricited?” Pinkie stammered.

Nopony could answer in time. Not when Sombra raised his right forelimb and slashed it down right on top of them. All Twilight had to answer with in time was the magic exploding from her horn. A short burst of light, and she was gone. All of her friends were.

Just as Sombra’s claw crushed the building into oblivion.

Six individual flashes of light were separated across the Empire, Twilight mentally pushing her friends as far away from Sombra as she could manage in such a short amount of time.

Pinkie Pie appeared over the road, bouncing like a ball and squeaking like one too across the crystal street. Rarity crashed in the gardens several blocks away, the unicorn catching herself in a magical bubble before she could hit the frozen dirt and grass. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash appeared in mid-air, further off from Sombra’s wrath and turning back to see where they were. Applejack reappeared between a pair of houses, the mare skidding to a halt against the street. She darted her gaze back to the skies, breath frozen in the chilling temperatures.

She saw Twilight high above. Appearing out of the wind, out of the blizzard in a flash of white that could have easily been mistaken for a petal of snow flowing past Applejack’s eyes.

Catching flight, flapping her wings furiously against the storm, Princess Twilight lifted her startled gaze. Her mane flowed wildly in front of her vision, but it did not deter her. She could only see Sombra lifting his claws, staring at the debris falling from his palm. The Elements made things much more complicated, a threat that Sombra needed to keep in high regard. But they were gone. Growling softly at that, Sombra cried out and turned his attention onto other important matters. Just one.

Twilight and her friends were absent for the moment, and Sombra needed to take the opportunity granted to him.

Twilight and her friends watched from every separated position they were in as Sombra faded into shadows, his dark swarm slithering through the blizzard. Making its way rapidly to the two alpha Titans locked in heated combat.

And then proceeding to sever it in half.

With panic gripping her features, Twilight turned to the rest of the Empire. Tried to remember every location she teleported her friends to. Flapping her wings, she took into the waves of the blizzard, screaming and crying out each of their names. To find them, to gather them, before it was too late.

The shadows shot out like tendrils between them, separating Godzilla and Ghidorah from one another. The tendrils then proceeded to wrap around every aspect of Ghidorah’s body, the Demon of the Stars crying out and firing a volley of gravity beams at the darkness. Light merely faded harmlessly through it, the shadows encroaching further and prying Ghidorah off and then proceeding to throw the mighty serpent into various crystals of dark magic. Ghidorah screamed, losing his footing and crumbling in the debris.

In the remaining shadows, Sombra slithered around Godzilla’s slashing claws. He reforged himself into his MUTO form, latching his forelimbs upon Godzilla’s back and grabbing his dorsal plates firmly. With an agitated cry, Godzilla could do nothing more as Sombra lurched back and pried the former King of the Monsters off his feet. He slammed him across several yards of crystals, be it homes, buildings, or his own darkened shards jutting forth from the earth.

He released him, tossing Godzilla head-first into the base of the nearest skyscraper. It all fell in a shrieking cry of shattering crystal, like an avalanche covering Godzilla in dust and darkness. Godzilla bellowed beneath the debris until it covered him fully. The Prime circled his fallen prey, fists stomping firmly into the streets, bloodlust burning in Sombra’s green visor.

Gravity beams struck his armored hide, shredding his skin and earning several shrieks of fiery pain from Sombra. He turned to the attack, his visor green yet Sombra seeing only red. Seeing and allowing only rage to consume him when he witnessed the Golden Devil stampeding through the Empire to reach him. And Sombra did not back away. He did not cower.

He stampeded back, leaping high and slashing his right forelimb across Ghidorah’s heads.

The impact was deafening. It rattled each skull and nearly caused Ghidorah to keel over, his body lurching to the side. With the king immobilized and shaken, Sombra captured the opportunity and lunged for the kill. His trembling roar sounded off as he reared forward and closed his jaws around Ghidorah’s center neck. Ichi spun back, shrieking and spreading his mighty, golden wings.

He flapped once, twice, and broke free from Sombra’s grasp. Ni and San loosened the tyrant’s grip on him with a pair of yellow lightning bolts striking Sombra’s hide. Landing back on the earth, roaring furiously at the King of Terror, Sombra only raged for so long before his attention was diverted elsewhere. Three pairs of magical beams struck him on the right side of his head.

Shifting his glare to it, he saw only the wretched specks of Celestia, Luna, and Princess Cadance leading their foolish charge onto him. Only… Sombra did not see it as a distraction. Oh, far from it…

He would finally deal with them as he should have so very long ago. What was once a singular goal had turned into something far grander, had become deathly personal, and the ones who would be the first to steal from him his kingdom would feel his wrath above all. Celestia and Luna would drown in their fear, watch their precious world burn to ash, knowing they had lost their cradle of power before Sombra ended their lives. He had already taken the Princess of Love’s home, so what better way to further satisfy his vengeance than to end her existence as well?

Yet… with his priorities shifted momentarily, Sombra needed a distraction.

A mere thought later, and the mind-controlled Typhon soared from the heavens and drove his own body into Ghidorah’s back, launching both of them back onto the earth.

If he could, Sombra would have smirked. Taken care of.

Echoing his roar all throughout the Crystal Empire, King Sombra unleashed a thunderous charge courtesy of the power of the Living Earthquake itself. He met the three Alicorns and swung madly at the air with his claws, breathing in deeply and bellowing his dark roars wherever the ponies flew, sending his shadows to surround and drown them in darkness. Survived their magical blasts and retaliated every single time. As did they.

In the midst of such chaotic forces clashing, Godzilla finally managed to rise up from the devastation he laid in. He shook off the crystal debris and snorted, his dorsal plates glowing brighter with the white and the rainbow slowly infecting his shoulders and chest. Godzilla hardly even noticed, instead turning his eyes over and seeing the MUTO swinging at the sky.

It was all he saw before his vision was flung sideways, flung from the impact of the tremoring Sargon practically ramming himself into Godzilla.

The impact rattled him, that much was certain. It earned a surprised shriek from Godzilla, the Titan gazing down to see the pincers grasped tightly around his thighs. He lifted that startled glare to see the infected eyes of the scorpion holding a glassy, almost soulless stare onto him. Godzilla only continued to lift his eyes, seeing the sharpened end of the towering, swaying tail finally shoot down and pierce his shoulder.

He cried. He bellowed. He roared with a cracking intensity the likes of which could shed blood in the throat. Blood was shed either way, the stinger jammed deeply into Godzilla’s shoulder even though Sargon had aimed for the kill. For the heart. The great scorpion was not deterred, and thus proceeded to pry his tail back in an attempt to strike again, harder, faster. He made the movement to do so. His tail flexed backward in order to remove the stinger.

Sargon only gained mere yards before Godzilla reacted with shocking reflexes. He latched his claws around Sargon’s tail, rearing down and snapping his jaws around it as well. Bellowing in agony, sharper in pitch than Godzilla’s ever could have been, the scorpion tried desperately to break himself free. He slammed his pincers into Godzilla’s sternum and legs again and again, but it achieved nothing. It changed nothing nor ever could have had the hope to.

Twisting his neck, flexing his jaws, Godzilla reared his head back and ripped the tail free. The head of it, letting Sargon’s blood spew freely into the blizzard and practically freeze before it could settle on the crystal streets and buildings. But he wasn’t done. Now free, Godzilla grasped each of Sargon’s pincers, and the scorpion—lacking the strength from the shock he endured—could only gaze up in that glossy, soulless stare of his.

And see the raised foot high over his head.

Letting it be the last thing he saw…

Godzilla slammed his foot into the earth and crushed anything beneath it.

Sargon stopped moving, yet the chaos raged on.

It raged with the serpents strangling one another. Typhon and Ghidorah were locked in a heated tangle of necks and limbs. Though Typhon got the surprise hit on him, Ghidorah was still much stronger. Much deadlier. And far too much for Typhon to handle alone.

That dominance quickly shifted once Ghidorah regained his footing. He rose up, prying off the dragon with his tails and cackling down at the fiery red serpent. Typhon roared back in a clear act of failed intimidation, to which Ghidorah was far from intimidated. Still, Typhon lunged forward out of the range of his own will, out of his realm of natural instinct and control. Following only the will of his master and what was demanded of him.

Yet even the idea, the promise of a glory of standing beside his king upon the new world could have never prepared Typhon for what came next.

The lunge was not calculated. It was sloppy, rushed, with no control and acting only on pure, animalistic rage. King Ghidorah had faced it so many times before, from many, many dissidents who once challenged his rule several millennia ago. Godzilla was different because he fought differently. He knew his foes, he studied his enemies, and he had the strength and knowledge and instinct to face against Ghidorah and survive.

Typhon was just like all the others. So, Ghidorah treated him as such. Both Ni and San shot out like striking vipers, their fangs digging deep into Typhon’s wings. Howling in sharp pain, Typhon reached for their necks to claw at them. Instead, he felt an even sharper pain rip through his bones. Tear completely through his limbs and sever his wings completely from his body when Ichi fired a singular gravity beam.

Slicing off first the right and then the left wing in one arching motion.

The center head shrieked. The four serpents left upon his body hissed to accompany Typhon’s torment. With the burnt wings hanging loosely from Ghidorah’s jaws, Typhon fell to the earth. He fell and watched as Ghidorah’s heads relinquished his wings, all three jaws opening wide with sick, demented intent glowing in his horrendous eyes. He tried to crawl away, but it was fruitless. The Devil flew forth and then stomped on him, trapping him to the ground and beneath his wrath.

Typhon struggled to escape, even going as far as to cry out to his king, yet his king did not answer him. Not a single whisper in his mind. No more orders to tell him what to do next. It was all dead silence. He was abandoned. He had failed.

Not yet. Typhon took in a deep breath and spewed forth a wave of fire as a last resort to escape, to fight back, to do anything.

King Ghidorah merely tore through his pathetic flames with three gravity beams, piercing the fire, dousing the source, and decimating Typhon’s skull. Right through his agape jaws and exploding outward into the crystal road.

Shutting his mouths, Ghidorah glared down at the smoldering, motionless body beneath him, and the terrible deed was done.

The chaos raged on, blending in seamlessly with the sheer and utter madness unfolding across the Crystal Empire. And still Fluttershy saw it.

With how unrelenting the battle in the skies had become, Fluttershy quickly abandoned the air and galloped across the crystal streets. Hiding behind one building to the next, tilting her terrified gaze back to the storm to search for her friends, she soon found herself utterly captivated by the events unfolding all around her.

Witnessing Godzilla crush Sargon’s head made her lose her breath.

Seeing Ghidorah pierce Typhon’s skull with his gravity beams made her heart fall.

Horrified to see these creatures being so needlessly slaughtered, Fluttershy opened her lips to take in a trembling breath. That breath turned into a gasp, which evolved into a piercing scream when she saw King Sombra slash his claw across the sky and send Celestia, Luna, and Cadance flying over Fluttershy’s head. All three Alicorns crashed into different locations; Celestia through a crystal house, Luna into the upper floors of a distant tower, and Cadance hitting the street and crashing against the side of one of Sombra’s crystals.

The shattered gems fell around her, Fluttershy shielding her head and fearfully crying out his name.

Discord!”

Immediately dragging his claw across the earth after dealing with the Alicorns, Sombra shifted focus back onto Ghidorah, the three-headed dragon charging him furiously. Sombra bellowed, ripping up a chunk of crystal debris and tossing the remnants at the beast. Ghidorah merely swatted it aside with his golden wing, meeting Sombra for a head-on collision.

He would have, anyway…

Had Discord not suddenly appeared and slashed his tail across their heads.

Both Sombra and Ghidorah felt the impact deafening their senses, each Titan crashing against various structures and crystals before they finally found their footing. Shaking away the dullness in their heads, they turned to see the slithering draconequus rush them with invigorated speed and tenacity. He had to. He heard the cry from his best friend pierce so very closely to his heart.

In one rolling motion forward, Discord simultaneously wrapped his tail around Sombra’s head and launched the MUTO clear across an empire. Sombra crashed and bounced, his form disappearing beneath the mounds of his own crystal towers sinking down on top of him. In tandem, Discord also swiped high with his fist, striking Ichi square on his jaw and sending the center head rearing upward. He didn’t relent, kicking off the ground with help from his wings and driving his fists against each head.

He could have done so much more, but Discord had a promise to uphold. The natural balance of his friends’ world—of his world—required his chaotic absence. So, he used as little chaos as possible, dealing with the parasitic invasion of his home with some good ol’ fashion kaiju fisticuffs, as he liked to put it.

Standing on his tail, Discord reared back and drove his feet into Ghidorah’s chest. The impact sent Monster Zero skittering across the earth, the king having to grasp at the ground with the tips of his wings just to slow himself down considerably. With his heads low, now so very high, King Ghidorah didn’t hesitate and breathed in fiercely, firing off three golden bolts of lightning from his screeching jaws. To his shock, he watched the draconequus charge straight into the light…

Twist and turn his body to avoid the beams…

And then launch himself like a bullet directly over Ghidorah’s heart.

That strike was far stronger, far superior than his prior engagements with the dragon. It sent a shock wave that knocked the King of Terror off his feet and onto his back, his wings displayed high and wide, his heads crying out as he made impact across the Crystal Empire. And there, Discord appeared in a sudden flash, standing tall and bouncing lightly on his feet, fists tightened outward. He couldn’t help but smirk lightly at his astonishing feats. Without chaos magic, especially.

Swiping his thumb across his nose, Discord sniffed rather triumphantly and boldly declared, “Not so tough now when you face a foe of equal or greater—!”

His voice was silenced by the unholy roar blowing out his eardrums.

It was as if every ounce of strength in his body had vanished, Discord practically crumbling as the dark sound waves washed completely through his back. Like it had pierced his soul and shattered it. Hands to his ears, knees to the ground, Discord bellowed and shut his eyes as tight as he could. He couldn’t escape it. He couldn’t move.

Sombra’s dark roar kept him impaled against the earth.

The MUTO Prime stood several hundred yards away, pressing the attack while his dark roar kept Discord at bay. As it should have. Not even the Lord of Chaos could have defeated him before his transformation, and he stood even less of a chance now. His roar splintered entire buildings of pure, hardened gem, shredding the road into millions of fragments and decimating the T.I.T.A.N. forces unfortunately caught within the wake of his power.

He pressed on the attack until he couldn’t any longer. Until he witnessed the great serpent fly forward and crush the Spirit of Chaos’ back with the bottom of his foot.

Discord was low enough to do so, the draconequus gasping for breath the moment Ghidorah stomped mercilessly on his already wounded spine. Pressing his fists into the earth, Discord tried desperately to stand up, to miraculously gather some much-needed strength and escape the hold of the Golden Demise. Instead, he found no strength.

He found only himself at the mercy of King Ghidorah, and the beast held no mercy.

San sniffed. As did Ni and Ichi. They all smelled it. They all sensed it. He reared down and sank his teeth into Discord’s neck, absorbing and siphoning the chaotic forces flowing in Discord’s blood stream. Discord’s eyes popped open, his jaws open to scream but not a sound escaping him. He couldn’t even breathe, as if Ghidorah was sucking out every breath from his lungs. Absorbing every ounce of chaotic magic he had. Devouring his very spirit.

But he didn’t consume much of anything at all. For a blinding white beam of harmonic power struck Ghidorah in the chest and knocked him off his feet. Launched him clear across the air, across the Empire, with such ferocity and strength that even Ghidorah was shocked by it. He impacted countless crystal buildings, the Hydra eventually hitting the earth and sliding several hundred more feet.

Discord struck the ground, his eyelids weakly opening. His breath hardly audible. But still alive.

Sombra turned to the source of the harmonic breath and met only the rearing claw of Godzilla wrapping tightly around his throat. Godzilla cried, driving his teeth onto the side of Sombra’s head and then proceeding to slam the MUTO into various crystal structures. Anything standing before Godzilla fell in a shattered husk of countless gems. Sombra’s screams echoed and were suddenly cut off with each deafening impact, his body vanishing within the raining debris.

Fluttershy watched from so far below. She watched the chaos unfold in ways she never even imagined was possible. She watched Godzilla ram Sombra’s body into the crystal skyscraper several blocks ahead of her, the entire structure coming down and dousing the street in a wave of frosty fog.

Fluttershy backpedaled.

She froze. Though still horrified, she turned to the hellish screams echoing above her and barely got out of the street in time. Her yelp was silenced by the two Titans crashing into the road where she once stood. Her eyes, glazed and petrified, turned to see the flames coating Mothra’s body, and still she fought. She slashed her blade-like forelimb across Rodan’s head and kicked off of him, leaving the screeching Fire Demon thrashing and rolling further down the street while the moth took flight.

Running down the alley into the next street, seeing Amhuluk and Behemoth tearing each other apart, Fluttershy once more lost all feeling in her limbs. Her wings, frozen to her side, refused to act in order to take flight, to escape. Instead, she stared slack-jawed from below as Behemoth swung madly with his tusks, devastating numerous crystal buildings in his wake.

Amhuluk dodged the attacks, pouncing with a shrieking lunge and latching himself onto Behemoth’s face. Flinging his head back, the mammalian Titan managed to loosen the creature’s grasp on him. He succeeded, tossing his head left and ripping Amhuluk off of his tusks. His victory was short, was stolen, when Amhuluk shot out his razor-sharp claws.

And cleanly sliced Behemoth’s left tusk completely off.

The agony Behemoth felt was unprecedented. His roars were filled with unhinged anguish, the Titan thrashing his head back and forth. Backpedaling, he stumbled over himself as his tusk finally hit the earth, crashing in the midst of a large cluster of homes. Amhuluk crashed in tandem with the tusk, but he rose instead, turning his savage cruelty onto the wounded Behemoth and screeching.

With one more pounce, Amhuluk neared the exposed neck of the Titan, only to have a dive-bombing Mothra steal from him his prize.

Slamming Amhuluk into the street, Mothra rolled with him for several yards more, Fluttershy watching them pass her by with a trail of destruction following the two. Her cries echoed throughout the Empire, while Amhuluk’s screams pierced Fluttershy’s heart again and again. It was too much for her mind to even process, to even fathom, and the mortified tears started to slowly build on the edges of her eyes.

Feeling the tremor and turning back to Behemoth, Fluttershy could only silently gasp as the earth erupted and Yamata no Orochi burst free through mounds of crystal. His jaws latched around Behemoth’s open windpipe, followed by the remaining eight mouths biting and tearing at the creature’s fur and skin. Hearing his pained cries earned one from Fluttershy herself, the Pegasus taking a brave but pointless step forward.

For what could she do? Absolutely nothing…

She never needed to.

A duo of magical beams sliced through the storm, illuminating the darkness enveloping the Crystal Empire with bright streams of gold and blue. They impacted the tremendous centipede and earned a shrill scream from his many, many mouths. Yamata fell to the earth, leaving the bleeding Behemoth barely standing. Barely awake.

The last thing he saw was the image of the two sisters, Celestia and Luna, hovering above him with the arrival of the third Alicorn shortly after. Together, all three combined their magic and fired a singular spell that struck Behemoth directly in his forehead. His eyes bulged, before slowly rolling into the back of his head, and he soon fell into a deep, dark slumber.

The sedative spell—empowered now by three Alicorns—worked wonders in how quickly it had taken Behemoth out of the fight. Though they had no time to celebrate, all three of them quickly turning to the shrieking Yamata no Orochi. They attempted the same spell onto the beast, but the centipede acted faster and burrowed into the ground.

Madness enveloped her world.

She neared the edges of the Crystal Empire and still could not escape it.

No matter where she turned, no matter what she saw, it was always another level deeper into Tartarus, or what Fluttershy imagined it to be. It was beyond comprehension, beyond any rational thought that the mortal mind could formulate. She couldn’t even force herself to fly. Her steps became rampant and uncontrolled, the Pegasus shambling mindlessly with a numb sense of fear coating every instinct of her being.

It was all nearly a blur from that point forward.

Baphomet answered the cry of his king and came to Sombra’s aid, leaping onto Godzilla’s back and ramming the Alpha Predator into a cluster of dark crystals. Godzilla roared in agitation, reaching and slashing back at the flailing Titan attached to his dorsal plates. Baphomet clung on, rearing high and slicing his black claws at the back of Godzilla’s head.

The white skull was red with bloody accents, and Baphomet wailed into the storm, a clash of golden lightning bursting over his head. Under the light of the lightning strike, Shining Armor’s T.I.T.A.N. fleet zeroed in on the creature interfering with the alpha. It then began the thunderous bombardment, creating a flurry of fiery eruptions across Baphomet’s back. The screams that Baphomet made were unholy.

Still, it allowed Godzilla to grasp his arm, biting down on the limb and flinging Baphomet forward. With his arm still within his jaws, Godzilla then proceeded to drag the flailing Titan across the street, into various buildings, until he eventually flung him into one of Sombra’s own crystal towers. It all came down in an avalanche of darkness.

Godzilla snorted before turning away, not even noticing the stirring within the rubble. Baphomet, broken and bloodied, still found some semblance of strength left in his body to rise up. He pushed the crystals off of him and groaned, only to have his groans turn into cries of pain.

He had landed right into T.I.T.A.N.’s trap.

The ponies within the buildings, standing on numerous rooftops, all fired their spells onto the prone creature. The heavy artillery rolled into the street, a multitude of tanks and trebuchets unloading their ordinance. Leading the charge was Special Agent Bon Bon, trailed by Agent Daring Do, Lyra Heartstrings, and Spike. Baphomet screamed.

The ordinance was a mix of sedatives and freezing potions. The spells fired off from the unicorns in various buildings overlooking Baphomet also helped, but it was the potions that really earned Bon Bon’s attention at just how effective they were. Before she knew it, almost all of the Titan was covered in frost, his movements slowed considerably, and the sedatives beginning to take over.

It worked almost too well… and Bon Bon slowly turned to her environment. Saw the snow falling, the storm billowing, the chilling winds howling. She smirked.

She turned to her T.I.T.A.N. forces, shouting, “These kaiju aren’t used to this kind of environment! Switch all ordinance to freezing potions and focus all spells to do the same! Come on; let’s move out! On me!”

Leaving behind the sedated Baphomet, Bon Bon led her T.I.T.A.N. forces further into the Empire. Fluttershy watched them leave her behind, not a single pony within their unit knowing she was even there, hidden in the shadows, her trembling hoof outstretched toward them.

It didn’t take long for her to be forced out of her hiding spot, Fluttershy galloping away to avoid the oncoming onslaught from the rest of Ghidorah’s army.

For the Queen MUTO and Methuselah turned their fury into focus, driving themselves into the MUTO Prime and ramming Sombra into a cluster of towers of his own making. Doing so gave Ghidorah a straight shot at Godzilla, the two glaring each other down mere moments before they clashed. Sombra’s trembling roars echoed in the midst of their battle, cried out and called for help.

Help could not come.

Yamata no Orochi was climbing the tallest, most jagged dark crystal formed by his own king. His multitude of legs helped him to reach its peak, all eight mouths biting onto the shard in order for the centipede to gain a stronger grasp on it. All to escape the rampaging Scylla.

Still, his efforts did not deter her. Scylla reared back and slashed once, twice, and a third time for good measure at the base of the tower. It cracked. It tilted. The weight brought it down and forced Yamata no Orochi to come crashing with it. To Scylla’s dismay, however, the tower fell in her direction. And she could not escape it in time, so she raised her front legs in order to stop it.

Yamata fell on top of her, fell with the dark crystal joining him, and buried them both beneath several tons of rubble.

T.I.T.A.N. acted quickly while they were both immobilized, firing a relentless bombardment of sedative spells and freezing potions onto the two. Knowing the spells wouldn’t last long, the ground forces moved on to deal with the other Titans.

Fluttershy found herself stepping out into the open. Her eyes, glazed and shaken, with a pale coat joining her features, stared breathlessly onto the sheer amount of destruction unfolding before her. She saw the legs of Scylla jolted upward from the rubble, the beast unmoving while Yamata no Orochi’s body had all but frozen to the earth. T.I.T.A.N. wouldn’t kill them, that much Fluttershy ensured. That much she hoped for.

And yet… seeing the fleet above her head bombarding the Empire, watching the ground forces trap and ensnare each constrained Titan, Fluttershy couldn’t help but allow the sinking dread make its way into her heart. A little seed of fear, and it was enough to blossom. Enough to give her the idea that the Titans would not survive the onslaught. Nothing they could do would prevent that.

Worst of all, she could only imagine the Titans would join ponykind in the great extinction if they failed…

But hope shined brightest in the dark, and Mothra’s light was enough to elicit a spark of hope within the Pegasus. Her eyes fluttered upward, seeing the Queen of the Monsters locked in a heated battle with Amhuluk. Her flight pattern was torn asunder, the moth’s cries sounding off as Amhuluk tried desperately to rip as much from her body as possible.

Instead, Mothra kicked him off, watched as the beast descended and crashed through the roof of the nearest building. Swooping past him, Mothra saw Amhuluk thrash in the rubble. He spun toward her, screeching at her with flailing tendrils surrounding his infected glare. Then, he leaped for her, claws extended, arms stretched to their ends, fangs poised for the kill.

It was the last act of defiance from his end, moments before Mothra dive-bombed and knocked Amhuluk back into the earth.

She pinned him down, Amhuluk biting and clawing and thrashing to no avail. He screamed directly into Mothra’s face, but the queen was unfazed. She merely held him tighter, waited until the arrival of three Alicorns before she finally loosened herself. Tilting her gaze to them, Mothra watched as Celestia, Luna, and Cadance all fired a shared sedative spell into the Titan’s forehead.

Amhuluk opened his jaws as wide as he could manage, but not a sound escaped him. He slumped back onto the ground, motionless and lost in the realm of dreamless sleep. Mothra breathed, gave a chittering cry of exhaustion as she finally stepped off from the creature’s body. Her legs trembled as she moved away. Her wings, once glorious in their ethereal glow, were singed and torn. Her body fared no better, but she remained standing.

She needed to.

There was a moment, a fracture in time when nothing more mattered. When her eyes settled to the earth and she saw the yellow Pegasus standing in the midst of such death and devastation. Fluttershy saw her, too. Nothing but the snow separated them, the falling petals like ghosts in the midst of a black sea. Their gazes locked and they saw one another for who they truly were.

When faced with that reality, with life and death, and seeing the true nature of a wrathful species engaging in ferocious warfare, one could hide nothing. And no matter how brave she believed herself to be, Fluttershy still appeared so very lost. She was lost, deep inside herself not knowing where to turn or what hope to believe in, for her hope stood trembling before her.

But Mothra knew herself. Though the pain was immense, though it did hurt so very much, her purpose and her destiny would not be contained by such trivial matters such as fear. She only wished Fluttershy could come to believe that as well, for the time was near.

Mothra lifted her head and saw her king.

Still locked in a heated battle with the Demon.

The pain was so immense… and Mothra flew.

She kicked up from the shattered earth in a gust of fury, spraying the wind and the frost and the snow harmlessly past Fluttershy. Leaving the Pegasus to gaze wondrously to the great moth, watching her ascension higher and higher until she finally touched the heart of the storm. And then, she fell. She descended in a great shimmer of lights to engage the Devil for one last cataclysmic fight for ponykind’s survival. She would fight for them to the last breath if need be. For their world, for ponykind…

For every last living being.

Even if the Living Fire itself prevented her at every turn.

Rodan emerged out of the storm itself, descending faster and wailing a war cry far greater than Mothra could have managed. His talons latched to her back as he collided into her, Mothra shrieking and rolling instinctively in mid-air. Fluttershy cried out, hooves rising to shield her agape mouth. Tears were flooding down her eyes, the mare not wishing to see any longer… but unable to.

She saw all of it.

Their battle was vicious, and it never left the skies. Breaking off only led the two back to one another, and each clash was devastating. His talons latched and tore at her while her forelimbs slashed and cut into Rodan’s hardened, bio-volcanic skin. Rodan howled into her face, his eyes glowing a hellish, blood red. Mothra roared back, her eyes shimmering a haunting, heavenly blue. They rolled and flew, crashed against various buildings and picked right back up into the storm that fused with the skies.

They flew too close to the T.I.T.A.N. fleet, and the results were devastating. Airships teetered off in a desperate attempt to escape. Others were not so fortunate, balloons turned to flaming shreds once Rodan’s wings impacted them. Tempest’s own fleet felt the heat of the Fire Demon, various airships caught in his firestorm as they tried to fire away at his barreling form.

Luckily, her own airship managed to evade Mothra and Rodan, and she stood tall upon her deck and gazed horrifically to the destruction the two Titans caused. It was raining fire and death, and the numbers would only rise the longer they did nothing.

So, she did something. “It’s too chaotic up here! We need to back off!”

The radios were ablaze among the fleets. Shining Armor acknowledged Tempest’s request from the bridge of the Radiance, the prince shouting back, “All airships disengage! Break off for now and gather your forces! We need to secure our own!”

The order was followed through because no one disagreed. Leading the pack, the Radiance vanished into the fog with flames licking at its hull. Countless other airships followed it, with Tempest’s own fleet joining along with numerous other royal and military craft. They left behind a raining fire, the flaming husks of the fallen descending to the Crystal Empire for a final rest upon the earth.

So did those flaming airships fall, careening over Fluttershy’s head and narrowly missing the fleeing Pegasus. Instead, it crashed into the building she ran beside, shooting forth an explosion of fire and debris that spread across the entire road. Dust and frost fell on top of her, Fluttershy tripping in a failed attempt to escape. She saw the darkness envelope her. She covered her head with her forelegs and screamed, closed her eyes until the nightmare was finally over.

Crying and praying for the horror to end.

For so long, she heard nothing but the settling sounds of destruction. The reverberating roars of the beasts of the earth and of the sky killing one another. She felt nothing but the cold, saw only the dark, and cowered beneath its chilling embrace. Her body shivered uncontrollably, her whimpers somehow being the only thing she could hear for a moment.

Even the distant cries became numb.

The hooves grasping her felt almost like nothing compared to the cold.

But soon… the darkness faded away, and Fluttershy was greeted to a familiar sight. She lifted her tear-streaked face to meet Twilight’s comforting expression. Her friend spoke words of that same comfort, but Fluttershy could not hear her. It was all still so numb, one feeling, one part of her returning slowly. At least she had Twilight’s reassuring smile to lead her further out of the dark.

The rest of her friends were there, too. Rainbow Dash scooting in close to see if Fluttershy was okay, relieved to see she was. Applejack and Rarity holding expressions that seemed almost as lost as hers, but holding their true emotions back once their eyes were locked with Fluttershy’s. Pinkie Pie bit her lower lip, shouting something at Twilight, but hardly anything being heard. Twilight found them all.

She found Fluttershy, and Twilight couldn’t hold back. She hugged her, cradling Fluttershy’s head in her forelegs and whispering something in her ear. A promise never to leave her. A reassuring assumption that they would make it out of this alive. It could have been, but Fluttershy didn’t hear her. She merely held her intensely back and sobbed into Twilight’s chest.

Author's Note:

Merry Christmas everyone! :scootangel: And a happy New Year!

Artwork by Shrekzilla

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