Chapter 10 – The Shin
Fillydelphia, Equestria
Ground Zero
A scream opened his eyes, and he saw the world on fire.
A blur was his greeter, but even that unfortunately faded to unveil reality. The terror, the fire, and the screams of reality, all meshed in an array of bright oranges and filthy grays falling from the sky. And the lone unicorn pony lifted his head from the shattered floor, the side of his face coated in ash while the other half was considerably cleaner.
Half of the entire ceiling was gone, but there was no sky. Nothing but a white haze with the sun’s light barely able to seep through. It was snowing. Hot, flaky shreds of burning light that fell softly. Down into the fractured building he was in, where rubble encompassed all the floor and miraculously left him mostly unscathed.
The sounds of destruction echoed beyond the haze, followed shortly by an undecipherable screech that filled his burning body with a cold unlike any other. It was there, and then it was gone. But the destruction remained. The horrifying screams of his fellow Fillydelphians remained.
His mind finally started to come to, and so did his senses. The building was his own, his place of business that he ran with his wife. Instinctively, he looked for her among the ruin, his heart rate rapidly increasing and his breathing tight within the smoke. Calling her name was a hopeless endeavor. His voice was broken by the ash in his lungs. The screams permeated the skies and blocked out everything else.
Stumbling out of the building and into the street, Brimstone continued the search.
Streets that were heavy-laden with desolation, with smoke billowing to form towers higher than the tallest skyscrapers, Brimstone still could only hear the screams. With the occasional tremor, the shuddering of the earth followed by a building or several crumbling to their foundations. Smoke and fire were everywhere. Creating a fog so dense he couldn’t see more than ten feet in front of him. All he saw clearly were the skeletal husks of building debris littering the road and the embers softly falling.
Then, he saw them emerge, rushing in a wave of flying, galloping, limping ponies of every race. All of them rushing in the opposite direction to where he shambled. Once more, he called out, declaring her name loudly so that even the screams in the air could not drown him out completely.
“Rose! Red Rose, where are you?! Where are you—?!”
Amid the stumbling masses, there he found one other who moved like him. She moved aimlessly, her eyes burning from the ashes and soot covering her body in a ghostly white. Most of her body. He could still barely identify her through the deep red coloring her mane.
His heart leaped, and the freezing cold in his nerves grew considerably warmer at the sight of her mane. Galloping to her aid, Brimstone grasped onto her shoulders and offered a soothing, familiar voice that only his wife would know. She could barely open her eyes, her hoof reaching up to offer her own touch, but she couldn’t find him. Not until he moved his snout onto her hoof.
“Brim…?” Red Rose uttered, to which he responded with a subtle quake in his chest. Felt through the shudder on his breath that she felt on her foreleg. That shudder spread and soon she was whimpering, still unable to even see her husband. “I-I… I… I tried to get them outside… to our place. I tried to help them run before the building…”
“Oh, no…” Brimstone muttered, using his magic to clean out her eyes carefully. His own gaze was lifted high, far past her to see the building she most likely referred to. More ponies appearing through the fog, all just as beaten and bloodied and broken as her. Almost all of them emerging from the desolation that plagued the building rubble… and that was it. No standing skyscrapers. No places of business. No homes.
It was all flattened, nothing left standing. Nothing left but a seemingly vacant valley forged through fiery destruction.
He wiped at her mane, at her cheeks, just the minimal acts that still showed gentleness and care. Moments before her eyes opened fully and she saw him. She saw her husband, not well, but alive. Still alive. It was all she could muster before a second wave of tears burst free, and they embraced.
It was all he could do to stop himself from crying, caressing her mane and feeling her living, beating heart against his chest. “Oh, it’s okay… Rose, it’s okay, honey. It’s…”
The monster’s scream broke the sound barrier.
Like a fractured cackle, a laugh of agony endured by a torn throat and vocal cords, but fought on. Raged on, until all the world and every last living thing felt its pain through every raining ember of its desolation. Sitting in the middle of the road, wrapped in each other’s hooves, both husband and wife flinched accordingly to the sound of the cry and lifted their heads high above. Every last fleeing pony stopped accordingly when they heard the beast almost immediately on top of them. Right over them.
All around them.
That was its presence, its wrathful mark left not only in their once beautiful city, but in the hearts. In their souls, like a burn that could never be healed. A scar forever seen and forever felt. Even if they were to recover from this mindless act of aggression dealt to them, the trauma left behind would scorch generations.
The ponies of Fillydelphia were under the protection of T.I.T.A.N. They had been shared the truth of these superspecies long forgotten, now returned, so they knew the patterns in which these creatures attacked. This beast, this dragon, there was no deliberate intent to its actions. No threat it deemed necessary to engage with. They couldn’t know if these lands were once its own millions of years ago. They simply couldn’t know what the beast was or wanted.
But seeing the golden scales meshed with the black, charcoal hide, seeing the wingspan, the towering neck, and the golden crown embedded upon the dragon’s head, many minds and many fears reverted back to the old demon. The beast that fell from the stars and waged war with their planet, with the Titans here, and claimed itself to be king of the monsters.
But it had died. It was killed, as T.I.T.A.N. had told them, by the rightful king. The same T.I.T.A.N. that swore to protect them from these travesties. The same T.I.T.A.N. that now lay in ruin throughout the flaming husks of Fillydelphia, all while the dragon stood triumphant among its fires.
All while Ghidorah lived and breathed and screamed his horrible roar.
Then, he stopped. He looked up. As did they.
Hearing the new sounds of engine fire, feeling the tremoring waves wash across the earth, both Brimstone and Red Rose lifted their heads. So many others within the street did the same, and they all saw the same, none being deceived. Seeing the fire fall from the sky and slow to a ferocious descent into Fillydelphia. It landed in the same road in which Brimstone and Rose sat, facing them down, facing down the Golden Demise, kicking out a wave of dust and embers.
In the stillness, even Ghidorah was silent. Pressing the tips of claws and his wings into the two standing buildings to his left and right, peering heavily into the smoke cloud. Not uttering a single sound. Not until he saw it, and every last heartbeat standing on the road saw it. By then, he growled softly at the sight of the lengthy, silver tail washing across the air and wiping away the smoke.
Standing tall on the opposite side of the wall of dust, a false idol standing in the image of his hated foe remained. Even if it was false, the image alone sparked a burning, flaming hatred in the blackest pits of Ghidorah’s reforged heart. His growls quickly changed into something far more horrifying, far more threatening, and the wrath he once expelled upon the helpless lives of Fillydelphia, he now focused every ounce of it on the false god.
Ghidorah screeched.
Mechagodzilla stood up in silence.
“We gotta get out of the road…” Brimstone uttered, breathless and almost completely lost at what he was witnessing. Though he couldn’t understand the players, he knew the game they were about to engage in. The tension broiling. The roars. The intimidation displays. They were all threatened the longer they sat in the road and did nothing.
So, he did something. “Everypony… follow us!” he shouted.
“Follow us inside; hurry!” Red Rose amplified, calling out to every last fleeing pony around them to rally close and stay together. In an effort heralded by the two, they ensured a mass of ponies quickly exited the street if only to crowd and hide within the nearest alleyway and standing structure. If but to reach their place of business and shepherd as many innocent lives as possible.
Up inside the skull of the Mecha, the pilots understood well the type of situation they were about to engage in. The tension was broiling hot, and they all felt the heat. The roars from the Titan were deafening. The intimidation it displayed only signified an inevitable attack.
Relinquishing her control over the mechanized Titan, Peaky announced loudly, “Target in range!” Her HUD flashed, and she pressed rapidly on her control console, ensuring her team saw what she did.
The details flashed over Moonshadow’s HUD, but she paid little heed to it. Her eyes were locked solely to the golden and black Titan glaring them down. “What the hell is that thing?” Moonshadow breathed, but was never fully answered.
Rotor tightened his jaw, but nonetheless sneered, unable to hide his sickened look. “It’s rogue; that’s all that matters… We do this quick and clean, just like we trained for!” he followed up his uncertainly with a powerful boost of enthusiasm, one he hoped the rest of his team took to heart.
Shatter felt enthused enough seeing the burning city they flew in to. The fires, the destruction, the undoubtable death, all of it only affirmed to him of what was sacrificed because of this rogue beast. All of it gave him the conviction to do what needed to be done. “Cross, give us a scan of the area,” he ordered without hesitation, without fault, never breaking his glare from the creature’s.
“Scanning for heat signatures…!” his older brother responded, tapping away on his control console. All of their HUDs brought up the signatures, coating the city in infrared and pointing out specific splotches of red that moved in ways fire did not. “Be advised, we have a heavy civilian presence in the immediate vicinity! Recommend we carry the target out of the city immediately!”
His vision still coated in infrared, Shatter gave a firm nod. Mere seconds before giving the firm order. “Acknowledged. Risen Suns… let’s turn and burn!”
Testing the machine’s vocal processors, the task force engaged the rogue Titan with a ferocious roar leading the charge. As if it was just another vain attempt to imitate Godzilla, the Mecha unleashed a cry that resounded with a tremoring, lower octave, then quickly elevated in pitch. All of it was roboticized, constructed, unnatural in every sense. But it was just as threatening as any natural roar. It was as real as the 400-foot-tall mechanical terror.
Mechagodzilla made it his own, and he charged.
Igniting his thrusters and launching himself like a rocket directly for the creature, he flew directly over the street and the buildings and dodged in mid-air, directly for Ghidorah’s left. Snapping his jaws, Ghidorah bit nothing but smoke and air, failing to find the false Titan in time before his claws clamped tight around his throat. Ghidorah yelped, shrieking and thrashing in the Mecha’s grasp.
Using his left claw to tighten around the dragon’s towering neck and his right claw to keep his wings constrained, Mechagodzilla planted his feet, kicked off the ground, and ignited his boosters to the max. With the flailing, screeching Ghidorah in his grasp, Mechagodzilla launched the both of them high into the sky.
“Reverting control back to Blossom! The stick is yours!” Shatter Heart declared, he and all the bridge shaking violently against the ferocity of the engines and the Titan fighting in their machine’s arms.
She was hesitant at first to take back control, but knowing they needed air superiority and to get as far from the city as possible, she took it without question. Feeling a wave of nausea hit her once a familiar energy rift hit the back of her head, Peaky gritted her teeth and shouted, “Agh! Stick is mine! Holding position! Stay on target! Stay on—!”
A reverberating tear assaulted the eardrums of everypony in the bridge, forcing all of them to hunch forward, press their hooves to their heads, and cry out as if they were violently electrocuted. Flashing red warning signs flared to life all above their heads as emergency sirens began to scream. Their flight path began to buckle, and before they could realize what happened, they were falling.
Ghidorah had just ripped his claw out of the Mecha’s back propulsion thruster, wrapping his body around the machine like a vicious serpent. Twisting, curling, biting, clawing, and tearing everything he could until they hit the city of Fillydelphia once more.
An explosive force impacted the earth and ripped it apart, blowing outward a circular wave of dust and rock that eviscerated entire buildings unfortunate enough to be caught within the blast radius. Final screams were elicited before ponies were blown away, washed and buried under a wave of debris. In the epicenter of the blast, a stirring of two bodies emerged from the smoke.
The first was Mechagodzilla, shuddering as his limbs flinched with countless sparks shooting off from various joints and mechanisms. Inside the skull, the emergency lights continued to flash. The sirens continued to blare. The pilots remained in place, if not momentarily shaken, dazed, and confused at what just happened. Peaky lifted her head like it weighed a thousand pounds, noting the emergency signs on her HUD. Seeing the heavy damage sustained on the back thruster.
She was slow to speak, her voice seemingly running away from her. “We… we’ve lost propulsion thruster… thruster two. Grounded… sharing the stick…”
“Acknowledged!” Shatter responded with a ferocious grunt. He stood up fully, turning to his brother and Moonshadow on his left and his two other allies on his right. “On your hooves! Focus up and defensive measures engage!”
“We’re still in the city, Shatter!” Cross warned.
“Then we’ll follow Rotor’s word: finish this quick and clean,” the younger brother responded fiercely. He seethed in pain, ignoring it, and rose up with his allies. The strength of their minds, the power of their wills united to ultimately, slowly, lift their Mecha from the crater in the earth. “Moon, regain motor function, now!”
The second being to arise was Ghidorah.
“Engage!” Moonshadow roared.
Emerging from the dust with a sickening shriek, the dragon lunged forward and drove his jaws directly for the Mecha’s throat. The machine quickly raised his arm and caught the teeth of Ghidorah, the beast locking on with a vice-like bite. His claws and teeth ripped and tore at the machine’s steel hull, clawing on the side of his face, the jagged teeth in Ghidorah’s abdomen snapping for the Mecha.
Spinning accordingly, and with a roaring cry from the pilots, Mechagodzilla turned with Ghidorah in tow and slammed the beast into several empty buildings, all of which barely stood, all of which fell into crumbling desolation as the dragon was driven into each.
Ripping Ghidorah out of the last building, Mechagodzilla proceeded to ram the Titan directly onto the street, dragging him out of the crater until he was digging him into the earth itself. He didn’t relent. None of them did, each of the pilots expressing various degrees of obvious struggle, along with rambunctious and victorious whoops and hollers from Rotor in particular.
Standing tall, Mechagodzilla proceeded to lift his right foot and drive it directly onto the chest of the beast. He did it again, and again, each deafening stomp making Shatter’s bones tremble. Making his mind reel. Slowly darkening the vision around his eyes from the well of decimation and depravity this foul creature dealt upon the city. How much had already fallen? How many lives had already been crushed? How fast had the fires had spread?
Just because they couldn’t kill this creature in time.
Before he was too far gone, Shatter implored with the others. “Ready the proton scream!”
Everypony acknowledged. Everypony focused their wills in unison. Everypony followed through. The central processor went into overdrive, lightning sparking off wildly across the glass dome and the engine practically screaming. The entire bridge began to flash from darkness to light, black to blue, over and over again. The frequency in the air elevated to almost unbearable sounds.
Deep in the back of Mechagodzilla’s throat, a deep blue glow began surface. Every dark crevice upon the hardened shell of the Mecha’s body radiated brighter and brighter, until the jaws of the mechanical beast fell open and the spinning maw was burning hot. The blue glow of the proton scream reaching blinding levels, he very nearly unleashed its power and finished the fight.
When the clubbed tail sprouted free from Ghidorah, it quickly slashed upward and struck the side of the Mecha’s head.
A short burst of light spewed free from the jaws before the Risen Suns quickly and forcibly locked the mouth of the machine shut. The light that belonged to the proton scream was not stopped, however, and that short burst shot off and struck the roof of a nearby building. On Mechagodzilla’s right, the roof of the building was annihilated before the rest was crushed by the machine’s flailing body crashing into it.
“What was that?!” Rotor shouted, startled and shaken.
Cross shook his head, trying to see through the static on his HUD or even the consistent blur in his own vision. “Hit on our blind side! How did it get behind us—?!”
“Heads up!”
An assaulting, hellish pain to the ears attacked them first, and the next thing they knew they had a pouncing wyvern landing harshly against their back. Ghidorah cackled, leaping forth and crashing on the spinal columns of Mechagodzilla. His clubbed tails were quick to wrap tightly around the machine’s abdomen. The tips of his wings, his jagged nails, and his snarling, abdominal maw bit and clawed at the hull. His snapping jaws reared for Mechagodzilla’s head, but the machine reared back. He ducked.
He stumbled violently as Ghidorah continued to rip and tear at everything he could.
As the teeth bit deep into the mechanical dorsal plates, Ghidorah ripped clean several rectangular spikes. Emergency lights and sirens were flaring and blaring. Heavy damage was sustained on the lower spinal column, as their HUDs warned them. Mechagodzilla mirrored the pilots’ screams, the machine flailing around with fire, shrapnel, and smoke bursting from his body.
Shatter, however, refused to be contained by a mindless beast. “Moonshadow, revert your control to the scythe!”
She did as she was told, igniting her horn and readjusting a fraction of her consciousness to the lower rear of the Mecha. She didn’t have to be told what to do from there. The end of Mechagodzilla’s tail spun violently, the scythe-like blades spinning and rising up just as quickly. Just as viciously impaling the back of Ghidorah and mincing the abdominal maw.
Ghidorah’s cries amplified to unbearable levels, and before he could continue a second longer, Mechagodzilla reared back with his left elbow, popping the dragon in the head to loosen his grip. With a flick of his tail, Mechagodzilla took a mighty step forward and threw the Titan off of him. Ghidorah slid clean off the tail, a sickening trail of black blood flying through the air with him, before he came to a crash deep down the street.
“Moon, revert back! Advance!”
Mechagodzilla trembled the earth with his roboticized roar. His thunderous footsteps only amplified the tremor, scores of fleeing ponies screaming in their escape of the immediate vicinity. The road was empty, thankfully, but those running and lingering on the opposite streets left and right to the buildings paid witness to the silver Titan rampaging across Fillydelphia. Rearing back with its right fist, curled in its claw-like nature, that spun almost unnaturally for any creature, they witnessed it all in mixtures of awestruck terror and sheer breathlessness.
For the punch that was ordained to crush the chest of the demented dragon hit nothing, for Ghidorah had risen. He had kicked off the earth to the far right, dodging Mechagodzilla’s strike mere yards from the impact. Stumbling forward with his claw hitting nothing, Mechagodzilla turned, and the pilots turned, to see the miraculous sight of the shredded wings of the Titan catch flight.
They were dumbfounded, and it cost them.
Flying forward with a fierce flap of his wings, Ghidorah drove his feet directly onto Mechagodzilla’s chest.
Once more, the pilots’ world was thrown into a violent hurricane. The bridge was unstable as the machine fell backward, crashing through and splintering a row of skyscrapers. Debris rained, much of the larger pieces flying further out to impact event more buildings. The small ruins hit the street down below, where the Mecha was inevitably falling.
And down below, onto the crowds of ponies that couldn’t flee in time, all they could do was lift up their horns if they were able, ignite a magical shield, and shut their eyes.
“We’re going down!” Peaky warned.
“Back thrusters, now!” Shatter retorted.
His quick thinking saved incalculable lives. The propulsion thrusters still operable on the back of the Mecha ignited, spewing forth a wave of energy across the street and onto the masses. They flinched back, cowering under the fierce lights and barely peeking up to see the machine start to rise. He started to fly. And with a single, sudden push, he was launched right back into Ghidorah with that same punch, this time rightfully delivered.
Crushing Ghidorah beneath his claw, Mechagodzilla didn’t stop. None of the Risen Suns could stop. Grasping the neck of the beast with both claws, he reared up and proceeded to drag and slam Ghidorah across the city. All while constantly detecting heat signatures. All while pushing Ghidorah away from the innocent lives still trapped in Fillydelphia.
As the Titan’s thrashing grew almost uncontrollable, Mechagodzilla raged on. He roared, the pilots ignoring the slashes of Ghidorah’s claws, and drove him into the nearest abandoned building. The claws from each hand tightened considerably around the creature’s towering neck. The buzz saws spun to life and proceeded to shred the throat to crimson ribbons.
Ghidorah screamed.
“Finish it!” Shatter Heart roared.
Mechagodzilla roared.
Directly into the face of the dragon, who responded with that same fearsome cry. The shoulder blades opened, the chest plates opened, all to unveil rows and columns of open cylinders, all of them dark. All of them suddenly brightening when Mechagodzilla pelted the beast with a devastating bombardment of rockets and missiles.
Cross tightened his jaws as he was the one to pull the trigger, to unleash their full armament onto the Titan. They were left with no other choice. The beast had proven too dangerous to let live, or to be taken out of the city. They needed to finish it now. The shoulder cannons were ablaze. The chest armament was fiery.
The buzz saws tore deeper into the flesh of Ghidorah’s neck, and soon they would have his head. Soon, they would have their first victory. Before long, a head rose up out of the smoke from Mechagodzilla’s cannon fire.
But it wasn’t the head they held.
It wasn’t the head screaming, bleeding, and thrashing beneath them.
It was a head in similar form and nature. Golden and black scales. A crown of evil. Purple eyes and split jaws. But it wasn’t held down. It only rose up, born from the body of the dragon, and snarled down at the flabbergasted crew of the Mecha.
Then, it struck. Snapping its jaws tight and digging its teeth into the skull.
The Risen Suns screamed as they were thrown back, their harnesses thankfully keeping them stationary. Even then, their minds were almost lost, overcome by the immense sensations of pain overloading not only the Mecha’s systems, but their own. Their own internal systems: the mind, the heart, the soul all torn by the unrelenting assault.
Amidst the raining sparks and exploding consoles, through the blinding red emergency lights and alarms, Shatter Heart fought on. He raged on. “Hold on! Do not lose yourself!” he told them, and maybe even himself.
They all tried to come together again, unite one last time to turn the tide and end the fight. Only when they tried, when they lifted Mechagodzilla’s left arm, the first head of the hydra leaped forth and drove his teeth into the wrist. All while the second head continued to crush his jaws against the skull in which they operated.
The tails wrapped once more around the abdomen, this time constricting the legs and preventing any further movement from the Mecha. The wings held down the right and left arms. Deep within the throat of the Titan, the demon, all the Risen Suns could do was watch. Their movement was taken from them, their systems were overloaded, and they watched as the back of the demon’s throat began to glow.
A soft violet that transformed slowly into a deep, dark purple the longer they stared. A darkness that was somehow growing brighter by the second, even when time seemed to slow so considerably more. They tried to fight back. They tried to move, and the screams, their orders to one another, went without logical responses or clear answers. No way out. They were trapped, entangled, ensnared beneath a growing flame.
Into their almost assured annihilation they stared, knowing without question that this was not a creature of this world. It was not natural by means Equus was capable of. It was a demon. A demonic entity that lusted for death and fire.
Of which it would finally attain from them.
As Ghidorah charged his gravity ray, Shatter Heart was fighting a battle all on his own. While he suffered the same as his team, there was something deeper gnawing and gnashing at him. The darkest recesses of his mind survived what was already an overwhelming wave of agony affecting his nerves. While everything else failed, that part of him survived. It did not relent, it did not give in. It had survived the radioactive flames of his fallen home, had cursed and tortured his worst nightmares, and would not allow him to die this day.
It forbade it. In turn, Shatter Heart forbade it.
And for a second, just a single second, he took full control.
His horn shimmered a blinding blaze, and his eyes opened. Wide-eyed, red veins beginning to build on the edges of the white, Shatter unleashed a tremoring bellow from deep within himself. Deeper than he even knew. When the others fell, he rose. When the others screamed in pain, he screamed with wrath. With rage. As a dark scream was ripped from his heart, mind, and soul and Mechagodzilla followed through.
He tore his right arm free from the binds of the dragon, and Ghidorah relented. He reared back and drove that claw directly into the beast’s stomach, and Ghidorah lost control.
After he fired his gravity ray directly through the skull of the Mecha.
The beam was broken off from initially tearing through the entirety of the machine. That single punch knocked Ghidorah off, but it was unable to stop him from breathing the violet ray. Shatter’s expression broke when he saw the light, when he felt the burn of the violet tear through the bridge and flow right past him. The cries he knew all too well were all that he heard. There was nothing more but light, and then darkness.
It burned through the left side of the skull, slicing cleanly through it and down the back of Mechagodzilla. In a scream that tore apart the sound barrier, the gravity ray ripped through the spine and the dorsal plates and sent them flying, burning to the broken earth to join the rest of the flaming shrapnel falling from the machine.
He fell shortly after, hitting the earth and gasping for air that Mechagodzilla had stolen from him. As for the Mecha, he stumbled backward. The left side of his face was melted, his left eye gone and leaving only a circular wound that burned violet flames. Instantly, all motor control was lost.
The machine gave off its last, lingering sounds of operation and then it crumbled. Falling first to its knees and then its chest.
Its head resting flat against the earth with the rest of its shattered body.
As the blue lights faded from the machine, Ghidorah slowly rose. As did the surviving inhabitants of Fillydelphia, all of them paying witness to the victor among the beasts. And in that victory Ghidorah claimed, he proudly stood triumphant upon his first defeated foe. He pressed his foot upon the back of the Mecha. With his wings unfurled and high, he lifted his heads and both screamed into the heavens.
The scream that tore apart the clouds. The roar that all within Fillydelphia and beyond heard and cowered beneath. An alpha cry to thunder the world with a reborn terror.
And when he was finished, he kicked off the destroyed remains of Mechagodzilla and finished what he started.
But not in the way he had before. This time, he flew over what was untouched, spewing a thick, dark fog from his twin mouths that fell over the city like a cloud. A cloud that suffocated, that blinded, that burned to the touch and caused mass panic within seconds of the darkness falling over the city. Pegasi flew for their lives, but they didn’t get far. Not when the fog captured them. Unicorns created magical bubbles, and they saved as many as they could within them.
But that didn’t last. Ghidorah landed in the heart of Fillydelphia. Untouched, barely broken from his influence. The black smog slithered down his body as his heads slowly rose above it. The twin heads faced downward. Both jaws unhinged like serpents, split apart unlike anything natural, and began to glow a similar hue as before. A similar hue that spelled only one thing: death.
Death and fire.
That was what was given, what was laid forth to waste the city. There was no hesitation. No qualms and no lingering thought from the dragon. It simply was what it was, did what it did. Held not a drop of wrath back. From the dark fog that spewed from his body, from his mouths, a fire ignited and flowed forth in a wave unlike anything ever seen. The smog was immediately captured in that fire, for the smog was a combustible haze that instantly caught flame by just a single spark.
Blown outward in a circular tsunami of fire, everything touched by the fog was burned. Streets and buildings were ripped apart as if inflicted upon by some great explosion, carriages and countless lives either vaporized, burned to blackness, and thrown clear across the streets. Not a scream came from a single one of them. It was a quick but very painful death that was shared by all. Pegasi were vaporized in mid-air, in mid-escape. Magical shields popped and burst open.
The flames devoured everything. From one end of the city to the other. Every last standing skyscraper, building, and house. Red Rose and Brimstone’s business housing dozens of innocent lives they had fought to save. All of it. The bunkers that were built to protect them from any Titan-related attack were eviscerated as the gravity rays followed the fire.
Each head of Ghidorah was lifted up slowly, and the flames tightened from each of their agape jaws to form two similar rays of pure violence. Purple beams of energy that shredded what remained and melted what stood. Multiple skyscrapers were decapitated in an instance, in a single wave of fury. Debris rained with the embers as towers fell and dust rose with the flames. The gravity rays continued onward, until nothing was left. Until only glass and ash remained.
Until Ghidorah’s wrath was satiated.
Ghidorah eviscerated with the cult watching on.
On the edge of destruction, watching wanton desolation spread forth like a literal wildfire, Emrick stood with his remaining compatriots. His followers watched in silence, the burning winds licking at their cloaks, but not a single one of them wearing a mask. Only the Harbingers bore their golden skulls, but the others stood naked, faces revealed to the world. Shock painted on their pale expressions.
Even Emrick stood without a mask, unable to find the strength or reasoning to put it on. He hid nothing more from the world if even their lord so willfully laid waste to it, unveiling his presence that would leave a permanent mark upon the face of the Above. The Above would never forget this, not let this tragedy go unanswered. They would tie the destruction to Ghidorah, and to the ones who brought him back, and they would be hunted.
War had begun. Inevitable, but far too sudden for any within the Order to have ever imagined.
“My Emrick…”
Emrick gasped lightly, looking down to the Bell resting on his foreleg. He then lifted his eyes to the Dragon himself standing before a canvas of flowing fire, his silhouette darkened and his eyes burning a bright, fierce violet. Looking directly at them.
At him, and saying, “The Day has come. We must go now. I must retreat to grow strong…”
He could hear Ghidorah’s voice speaking through the Bell, through his mind clearer than ever. Now that he was free, now that he was alive once more, nothing could hinder their communication. Nothing could keep them from him any longer. Emrick gasped, practically choking up, almost unable to believe any of this was actually happening.
Ghidorah flew into the skies, landing directly in front of the mountain and kicking out a wave of dust. Directly before the Immortal Priest and his people, all of them gazing up in sheer adoration. They fell to their faces. Their devotion was admirable. They ensured it was.
When Emrick lifted his head from the earth, he saw only the heads of Ghidorah staring down at him alone. His eyes, they all seemed to narrow as if studying the lone pony who led them true. The stallion that led to the capture of the Bewitching Bell, that led to the ritual’s completion, that led to all of this.
To the next stage of Ghidorah’s plan.
“To… evolve.”
Standing up, breathing in the smoke from his breath, Emrick nodded and gripped the Bell that much harder. “Yes… my lord,” he said.
The mountain range had been decimated. Ghidorah had bathed the city in fire. He created a permeating glow of orange on the horizon that lifted even into the clouds, where the smoke was so thick and so heavy it blotted the sun. Casting a new night upon the land, upon the city that once was.
Extending a wing, Ghidorah allowed them to crawl upon his hide. Until even the last and weakest among them was aboard, safely on his back and holding onto their god. Dahlia looked upon the hide, grasped the scales she couldn’t fathom were living and breathing again. She looked onto her priest, seeing a small but very real smile grace Emrick’s lips. And perhaps, for the first time in her life, she could smile, too.
He took to the skies with a mighty flap of his wings, leaving behind his mark and his warning to all the inhabited earth. Even then, he was not satiated. He hungered still. His bloodlust was forever, and Fillydelphia was merely the first to taste it. Soon, all the world would know him. They would feel his fire.
It was all going to burn.
As the early morning hours passed, reinforcements arrived not too long after. Merely twenty minutes after Mechagodzilla, and all they saw on the horizon was a black cloud. A black cloud with the earth burned in reds and oranges. Immediately, the intentions of the T.I.T.A.N. airships changed from reinforcing to search and rescue, and dozens upon dozens of them entered the city’s airspace.
Desperate voices filled the radio channels, many of them horrified and calling out for any T.I.T.A.N. bunker to respond. Only, no one did. They took actions into their own hooves quickly after, launching freezing spells onto the burning buildings and roads and landing directly into the desolation. The voices in the radios called for reinforcements when they were meant to be.
They called for help directly from command, from the princess and the directors themselves. But only when they found him.
Only when they found the remains of Mechagodzilla.
Resting in the ruins, with a shattered hull and damage beyond comprehension, Mechagodzilla was found and surrounded by an entire battalion of airships. From the darkness that fell over the land, searchlights burned bright and flowed across the body of the Mecha. Scorched lightly by the flames, but still in one piece. Mostly.
They never did find the creature that dealt such a flame upon Fillydelphia. It had escaped, flew under their radar without a single head being turned. In T.I.T.A.N.’s total loss, they never even found the monster responsible. They never even saw it.
But another did.
She watched the entire battle from afar, atop a distant hill that sat on the edges of the city. It was the first city she saw when entering the coast, from the ship she rode in on to the mainland of Equestria. She had come a long way from her home, a distance not many could say they had traveled in their lives, but it was necessary. It was essential to have witnessed such travesties unfold.
It was too late for her to act, too much for her to do alone. All she could do, all she was instructed to do, was act as a witness. It pained her greatly to see the fires, to hear the screams echoing across the valleys and trees. All of nature mirrored their pain and mourned as she did for the loss of such life.
The fiery winds began to blow as the Deceiver and Destroyer laid his final strike in the heart of the city. It blew violently and tugged at her dark red cloak, only she remained standing. She remained as the witness she was ordained to be in that moment, lifting her eyes and witnessing the Demon fly forth from the darkness he alone created.
The thief who stole life. His crime would not go unanswered. His destruction would be unveiled and all would know him for who he truly was.
She watched Ghidorah fly away, and she lifted her head to him. Her radiant, amber eyes watching and lingering on the shadow of the beast, but seeing so much more within the shadow. The mare in red, the Second Sister, sensing without a doubt the familiar Darkness emanating from him.
Artwork by Shrekzilla
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Funfact:
It’s not the first time we see Brimstone and Red Rose.
Their variants had a role in JDPrime’s Transformers: The Requiem.
R.I.P. Fillydelphia.
Shin Ghidorah's power if terrifying. And this wasn't even his final form. I can only imagine how powerful his fully evolved form will be.
Mechagodzilla, reduced to scrap, on his first mission. Did some of the Rising Suns get killed?
Great comeback chapter!
Let's be honest, it was inevitable.
Also, welcome back!
Im stunned beyond belief, all those lives lost and Mecha beaten to a pulp and what of the Rising Suns?
Well, the odds of Equestria surviving this aren't looking too good. With Mechagodzilla beaten to a pulp, it's now up to Godzilla and Kong to team up and stop him... as soon as they settle their own conflict first. This wouldn't be much of a 'Godzilla vs Kong' adaptation if we don't have the two titular monsters battling each other first!
Mothra’s priestesses are pissed!
11471583
Who knew that hands would make Ghidorah so much stronger?
Fire and Blood...
And Lightning. Also lightning.
Okay...Shin Ghidorah is absolutely terrifying. I can't wait to see the others handle him.
This chapter was awesome
and just brutal 
!
Huh. I honestly thought he would win this fight.
Who's idea was to link your nervous system to feel what the robot feels? That's just a dumb design. They could've made it like a Yeager from Pacific Rim. Also, what the heck, Shattered? You were talking about beating the G man with Mecha G, yet you folded here against a one-head Ghidorah? I'm not saying Shin Ghidorah is weak. But, you had this big rage moment and lost. SMH.
11471513 Long-time fans may catch this moment
11471583 We'll all get to see his evolutions play out in due time
The status of the Risen Suns is currently unknown. We'll find out soon... 
Thank ya!
11471600 Appreciate it!
11471611 We'll see hopefully soon what befell our Global Protectors...
11471642 Of course not! We'll get to some lizard vs monke here soon
11471664 They must unite!
11471692 And gravity rays...
11471694 And he only gets scarier from here
11471791 Mecha's gonna need to a good comeback story
11471721 Thanks!
11472141 I'd say it was intentionally designed that way to have more of a connection and control over the machine. To be more one with it and therefore have more control over it. And don't worry, MechaG may not be down and out just yet...
Ghidorah didn’t need all of his heads to take out Mechagodzilla. Can they even fix it in time for a rematch? I know it didn’t get completely destroyed but still.
Well good news Godzilla is most likely going to make killing Ghidorah as his top priority over Kong and Mechagodzilla.
11473596 You think Godzilla heard that roar?
11473604
I mean yeah, or at least sensed Ghidorah. He apparently can sense other titans from very far away, do it wouldn’t surprise me.
Now that I think about it, I’m not surprised that Mechagodzilla lost. GojiCenter did an analysis video covering this fight a while ago, and Ghidorah was the winner.
11474018 Even Shin Ghidorah is more powerful 😏
11474443
Exactly
Dear God you came back with a vengeance, with this x10!
11477395 Oh yeah
Update:
JDPrime already finished three chapters.
All of them were proofread by me.
I’m working on commissions and the process of illustrating chapter 11.
Here is the plan:
Chapter 11:
2 illustrations
Chapter 12:
1 illustration
Chapter 13:
2 illustrations
This world should be called gaia instead of equus because obviously equines aren't the only sapient species that can use magic
11488749 But they’re the most prominent species, and a lot of the fandom prefers Equus.
If Shin was smart, he would have claimed dominance over the chromatic dragons
Update:
Just need to do the shading process for the last illustration.
I was also able to review and proofread chapter 14.
https://www.deviantart.com/crisostomo-ibarra/art/Ultimate-Tirek-453632035 Tirek if he takes Typhon's magic
I LIVE! It has been quite some time, but now I have returned! I got some catching up to do, so without further ado, let’s get started!
Certainly didn’t take long for death and destruction to occur. Also, the chance of Brimstone’s wife surviving aren’t that great.
Oh good. Happy reunion. Let’s see if they make it.
Run now, mourn later!
What are ya doing!? Don’t stop!
Oh no…now he’s really mad.
Yeah…that’s not gonna happen.
Saw that one coming.
So much for preserving lives…
The psychological frame of Shatter still has me feeling uneasy. He’s starting to lose focus. He wants to inflict pain, not eliminate the threat.
Not gonna work. Too late to engage, too late to engage!
Gah, why am I so good at predicting these things!? Oh, right, I’ve watched and read so much Godzilla…
Looks to me a hit from your blind side.
Oh look! Geez, the situational awareness is weak in them.
You never really had a chance. Ghidorah’s done toying around now.
Did you forget who your fighting?
This is the price of arrogance. You who put so much faith in your metal mockery, now helpless within it. You who thought you could make yourselves gods, brought down by a demon still becoming whole.
And this one…this one’s the worse. He truly is lost.
Wait…the left? Oh no…
Shin Ghidorah is awake, a city…turned to dust and echoes. A witness, too late to help, but able to warn. If Godzilla was unaware of what was happening earlier…he sure knows now. But how long will it be before he drops his grudge with Kong and moves to fight Ghidorah reborn? How much of the world will be left?
11637802 That’s all that can be left of Fillydelphia… just dust and echoes
Welcome back!!!
Wow, Mechagodzilla has been trashed already. That's quite the shocker.