Chapter 17 – Land of the Living
Canterlot, Equestria
T.I.T.A.N. HQ
A brightness brought him back. A light from above that disoriented him a moment until the dark in his vision finally faded, and the blur was gone. Deaf ears had passed, and he heard their voices surrounding him.
“Commander…?” a voice in the void called, and he realized just how distant he was becoming. How far he had fallen and how much the dark tried to reclaim. “… Shatter, can you hear…?”
The light above was so incredibly bright it made his head throb, or perhaps that was the deep migraine finally reemerging. A wave of nausea threatened to appear, but Shatter was able to relinquish a sigh billowing deep within him, tilting his head to the side. He touched the gentleness of a pillow, finally felt the warm sheet resting over him.
“He’s coming to,” another voice inquired, this one female. Turning to it, all Shatter saw was pure whiteness, the blur fading quicker and quicker. As well as her voice becoming more pronounced, realer. “Can you hear me? There he is.”
When his vision cleared, Shatter was greeted to a sight of two nurse mares on each side of his pearly-white bed, with a unicorn stallion standing on the very end and slowly trotting his way over to his left. The stallion, who Shatter assumed to be the lead doctor, offered a kind, gentle smile, just one to warm the situation.
“Welcome back, Commander Shatter Heart,” the doctor exclaimed softly.
His vision cleared further, and Shatter took a moment to ignore the greeting and instead focus on the pony before him. He was a dark yellow unicorn with light cerulean eyes and a heavy brown mane. He wore white scrubs, unlike the nurses who wore bright blue, with a pair of glasses resting on the bridge of his snout. Seeing Shatter aware and awake, the doctor looked over to his nurse, whispering tightly, “Bring the rulers in at once.”
She was gone, rushing out to the hallway with Shatter slowly trying to follow.
He was calmly but forcibly laid back down by the doctor and his remaining nurse. “Easy, no need to move just now,” he smiled warmly. Shatter just gave him a cold, dead stare. Clearing his throat, the stallion rested a hoof over his heart and began again. “My name is Doctor Horse, and I’ve been tasked to care for you. I’m happy to say you’ve made a successful recovery. Gave us quiet a scare, I might add. You’ll be pleased to hear that the emperor personally asked for your current condition. We’ll send word out soon.”
Minimal comforts, and ones Shatter wasn’t concerned about. He sat up this time and wasn’t stopped, pressing his back against the headboard. “My Mecha…?” he asked, voice hoarse. “My crew…?”
He realized just how incredibly weary he was, looking down his body to see gauze strips and bandages shrouding his chest and limbs like a mummified corpse. Gasping lightly, coughing even harder, Shatter looked to his right foreleg, seeing some familiar burns still scarred, left uncovered by the fresh bandages. Some new burns were made to join them.
Tears were in his eyes from the lack of air he allowed in his lungs. His coughing fit earned a necessary response, and a glass of water was levitated to him. Shatter took it and chugged the water without remorse, barely breathing, final gasping for air once he finished.
As his nurse levitated the glass out of Shatter’s hooves, Doctor Horse removed his glasses via magic, rubbing the lenses against his snow-white scrubs. “Well, I am certainly no engineer, but last I heard they were able to recover most of the chassis intact. The central processor as well, thank Twilight. Minimal damage, but nothing too severe. The best of the best are already working on repairs as we speak.”
He was silent for nearly ten seconds after, prompting Shatter to lift his head. He stopped coughing.
He practically stopped breathing when he had to ask a second time, “My crew?”
The doctor sighed, placing the glasses back on the bridge of his snout. “Commander Heart, I was hoofpicked by Princess Twilight Sparkle to be relocated here to Canterlot Hospital, and now the T.I.T.A.N. HQ Emergency Medical Center. She holds great respect for me ever since she first came to Ponyville, and I hold immense respect for her, now more than ever. In all my years in the medical profession, it’s always been my priority to put the truth above all. Light and heavy; I don’t wish to lie to my patients. I care for and respect every last pony and creature that comes under my aid. I do… everything in my power to help my patients recover… to save my patients if…”
There was an unsettling quiet that followed, and Doctor Horse seemed pained to even have to speak of it himself.
“I only wish you understand that I and my team have done everything in our power. Your friend, Rotor Wrench, woke up the earliest. Have to admit, he’s one of the toughest ponies I’ve seen in a long time.”
Doctor Horse stepped aside, unveiling to Shatter’s sight the image of the burly stallion tucked in nice and comfortably on the bed at the far end of the room. Rotor lied still, turning slowly after hearing his name, and offering a weak salute to Shatter. The red unicorn couldn’t help but manage a centimeter of a smile.
“Your other pilot, Peaky Blossom, is right over here. Directly ahead, see her? The next room… she’s coming to.”
He was directed straight forward, where the glass window between them, the hallway, and the next room over unveiled his fellow pilot and friend. Peaky looked to be the weariest among them, a team of nurses caring for her in all her necessities: applying a wet towel to her forehead, giving her a sip of water through a straw, and applying fresh gauze and bandages. Peaky barely even opened her eyes.
Shatter’s heart ached just seeing her in such conditions. A pilot of her merit didn’t deserve to be bed-ridden. Treated like they were a sickness, lowly failures confined by their incapacity to achieve victory. That wasn’t who they were. None of them deserved it.
And at the sudden thought of his fellow pilots, Shatter looked around the room. Seeing nopony else. His chest began to sporadically tremble. As did his voice when he called out, “Moonshadow? Cross?”
His wile eyes turned instead to the lead doctor, who could only respond in silence. And shortly with, “Commander, I—”
“Where is my brother?”
His voice was undeniably laced with venom, ensuring to not only the doctor but to his nurse as well that Shatter was fully conscious, fully aware, and fully willing to face the inescapable consequences that came with war. He was a strong pony, strongest in all of Neighpon’s T.I.T.A.N.
Though, then again… nopony was ever truly strong enough to bear the weight that came next.
Doctor Horse corrected himself, beginning again. Softer, more personal. Calling him by his name and telling him, “Shatter… we tried, but… the wounds were too severe. Both Moonshadow and Cross Heart were in critical condition on the flight, and bringing them into the medical bay… it was too late. They faced the brunt of the blast. You were very lucky to have survived. I’m sorry, son.”
Nothing but an eerie silence filled the medical center, with random sounds from the ICUs and heartrate monitors now and again. The air grew so still and so cold that the nurse tending to Rotor Wrench had to face away, her eyes darting and lingering on to Shatter to see what his reaction would be. Rotor’s was as expected: heartbroken.
As for Shatter…
There didn’t seem to be much of anything. Other than the sunken look to his expression, as if his skull had replaced most of the blood in his face, and his eyes being filled with a great shadow, there was no sound. There was no immediate reaction. It was slow and calculated, the unicorn gulping silently and staring on—with that thousand-yard stare, as cold as winter—and saying nothing. Doing nothing more.
“They’re in the room down the hall if you wish to see them,” Doctor Horse offered.
Though he heard him, most of what Shatter heard was that irritating, piercing ring make its return. His mind was a ship now growing lost at sea, a dark fog slowly encompassing his surroundings. No way to turn around. No way to stop, for Shatter’s anchor was gone. His tie to reality, to the last remnant of his clan, gone.
The door practically flung open, but Princess Twilight managed to catch it before it could slam against the wall.
“Doctor Horse, your nurse told us he was awake?” Twilight addressed. She was trailed shortly by both directors and the nurse that led them. Noticing the attention of the room shift her way, Twilight sheepishly shrunk, biting her lip as a sort of awkward, wordless apology.
Then, her eyes met Shatter’s, and she sighed. “Oh… Commander Heart… what a relief to see you still with us. How are you?”
She strode forth so she was on his bedside, next to Doctor Horse but closer to Shatter Heart. Director Celestia and Director Luna took the opposite side of the bed, ensuring their Neighponese pilot was surrounded by allies, and most importantly, friends.
He didn’t even look them in the eyes, leaning back and resting his head on the cold metal of the headboard. “Alive.”
Well, that’s always a positive, Twilight imagined in her head, nonetheless offering a supportive smile. A smile that quickly deflated as her hoof found its way onto the bed. Close to his. “The nurse told us about your pilots… your brother… I-I… I can’t even begin to imagine what you’re going through. What… all of you are going through. I just want you to know that we’re here, no matter what. For you, your team, for anything you need.”
Celestia was certain to nod, adding gratefully, “Be assured that we are already doing everything in our power to find this creature you battled. As well as beginning the necessary repairs to the Mecha. We should be up and running again in mere weeks.”
“Weeks…” Shatter mumbled, staring slowly to the ceiling. Head deep in his pillow, mind racing so fast, just imagining all the horrific deeds the monster would have inflicted in that time. Enough to make his head spin and burn a fresh migraine deep into his skull.
Luna seemed to recognize such anxieties start to billow—she had faced many herself in ages old, and even in recent memory. They would ensure Shatter and his pilots received the proper treatment to get them back on their hooves, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something deeper. Something that haunted the stare in Shatter’s eyes the moment she stepped hoof in that hospital room.
Something to dig into later, for they had bigger issues to tend to. “But… if we are to find this creature… if we are to end this conflict… we will need clarification on exactly what it is we need to find,” Director Luna explained.
Opening his eyes, the unicorn tilted his head from the pillow if to meet her gaze. And oh, how serious it became, Luna exemplifying the weight to their situation by growing closer, her voice hardening. Her expression beyond the point of serious, as she asked, “You were there in Fillydelphia. Yourself, Rotor, and Peaky. What creature did you battle?”
Just uttering that word, that name, “Fillydelphia”, it shook something within Shatter. Something alive but dead at the same time, cruel and vile, that felt no pain and only dealt it in return. A memory, and one he instantly tried to repress lest the bright, violet flames start to arise and encompass his sight like it had before.
Thankfully, the question was loud enough for Rotor to hear.
“Ma’am, I…” Wrench tried to say, losing his voice as it sounded uncharacteristically shriveled. Clearing his throat, tilting his head to every eye in the room on him, he said, “I can’t say definitively on the kind of Titan. Certainly didn’t look like any Titan we’ve studied before. Some kind of… dragon. But it seemed… wrong. Everything about it was just wrong. Nothing natural about it. Not in the way it moved, fought, or even roared. It was…”
“Evil,” Shatter gravely finished.
For quite some time, neither stallion could offer anything else. It was as if Director Luna had inquired too deeply, too quickly into fresh wounds. Even the former princess seemed to recognize her rash actions, and backed away accordingly. The answers they received, and the pale looks they saw now said everything.
They were traumatized by it. They gave no clear picture of what it was because they couldn’t. It was too soon. Too much mental and physical scarring.
But before Luna could make her apologizes known, Rotor grunted softly. Turning to his directors and the Princess of Equestria with wet, burning eyes and saying, “I’m sorry, ma’am, I—”
“Thank you… for everything,” Twilight interrupted, giving her utmost appreciation for their efforts and sacrifice. Ensured they both knew that above all else. Her voice was soft, exemplifying all the tenderness and love that the Princess of Friendship knew best. With that knowledge, with that strength on her side, she focused it on the pony resting before her.
She rested her hoof over Shatter’s, and uttered gently, “I’m so sorry. If you need somepony to speak to, call for me. I’m here.”
Even upon the thin blanket, Twilight felt no warmth. Just a shocking coolness that encompassed Shatter’s hoof yet left his reactions unfazed. No shivering. No flinches. Only mirroring his eyes, each being just as cold. Staring dead ahead, almost at nothing. To nowhere. Twilight found her hoof, and her gaze, falling slowly away.
They were ushered out of the room by the doctor. In their slow exit, Doctor Horse stopped Twilight, addressing her in a somewhat private means. Twilight’s face seemed to darken once more, the pain evident as she glanced quickly to Shatter and then slowly over to the opposite room. The room that held a certain yellow unicorn pilot.
Once they left, Shatter let his eyes flicker across the smooth, bright covers shielding his lower body. His vision, once again, seemed to blur, but his consciousness was sound. The lights in the room brightened as a wetness started to grow and wither across his lower eyelids. A subtle movement ahead brought his attention to the room opposite to theirs.
He saw them, the princess and the directors, joined with Doctor Horse entering the room and speaking to Peaky. There was not a word he could hear, but Shatter somehow already knew what they were telling her. If the doctor’s hushed whisper, Twilight’s expression from earlier, and the bond Peaky and his brother held meant anything, then Shatter knew what was spoken.
It broke his heart even further—if that was possible—to see her cry out at the news of her coltfriend. Hooves risen to shield her mouth, tears breaking through her tightly-shut eyes. Only for her waning strength to fail her, and her face to fall into her hooves as she wept. Loud enough to echo across the room, down the hall, and whisper between Rotor and Shatter.
He cared not for what else the directors spoke to Peaky about. Probably more weightless charities to ease the pain of her loss, or maybe they began to ask her about the creature she saw in Fillydelphia. Whichever the case, Shatter drowned them out.
When Rotor asked, “Commander…”
Heart took in a sharp breath, not even turning his way. “Rotor…”
“About what happened in Fillydelphia… about your brother… he was a good pony. One of the bravest I’ve ever had the honor of knowing. And Moon…”
He never turned to face his commander. Perhaps he didn’t have the strength to do that. He sniffled, hard. But thankfully, when he was weak, his leader was strong, and Shatter recovered for him. “One of the most brilliant minds I’ve ever seen. Soft spoken, but colder—”
“Than ice,” Rotor said, joining Shatter in finishing that statement, and even in a light chuckle. A chuckle that just as quickly died as it started, leaving the two in a deathly quiet. “Can’t say the same for her heart. One of the kindest, sweetest mares under that cool exterior.”
By then, Shatter found a reason to turn. He found a reason to reach out and see the pilot that survived. The warrior that endured. The friend who was still there with him. If that was to be considered a blessing of some kind, Shatter would take any and all he could. Rotor, just as well, found the strength to notice his commander’s gaze and face it.
“I’m thankful you and Peaky made it,” Shatter told him, and meant it.
“Feel the same for you, boss,” responded Rotor, the light blue stallion weakly smiling. A smile that mysteriously faded once he stared up above, to nowhere. “And… before the explosion… I noticed on the HUD that we managed one more strike on the creature. I felt nothing. I didn’t act on it. Commander…?”
“It was my doing,” Shatter admitted. There was no other reaction from him. He felt no shame, hid nothing. “I took most of the machine’s central processor. I took control of the Mecha.”
Rotor sat up. “Shatter, we were warned about this. Taking in that much energy output, even for a few seconds, could be deadly. When the doctor said you were lucky to be alive, I more than agree with that now.”
“What would you have me do, my friend?” the unicorn retorted, leaning up and facing him fully. “I saw the blast coming, and it would have consumed all of us. If I had done nothing… we wouldn’t be here. If I had done nothing… well… perhaps then I wouldn’t know my brother and Moon were…”
He paused, needing to. He sighed, giving in. “Though… now I see that my actions have only led…”
“Come on, don’t put that weight on yourself,” Rotor said, trying to comfort. Trying to see the positives in their otherwise bleak situation. He could think of only one. “We’re alive. We survived because of you, boss.”
It still seemed like a weightless charity. More words with little meaning behind them, even when they came from a reliable, welcome source. Rotor was not a weakness—Shatter ensured that, but anything offered to him to somehow soothe his injuries was little more than a dripping satisfaction. So very little aid with no rest. There was nothing to excuse him or his actions, Shatter believed that.
Even if he wanted to believe there was one.
Even if he desperately didn’t want his brother’s blood on his hooves.
“Not all of us…” Shatter heard himself mutter. His gaze was elsewhere, focused on the sheets, on the floor, anywhere except on his surviving friend. Even when he knew Rotor’s eyes stared nowhere else but to him. “The Mecha isn’t powerful enough. Even with our magic, our will… we weren’t enough.
Instead of more weightless words, feeble charities, what Rotor said next left Shatter momentarily shaken. “All the more of a chance for us to bounce back and right the wrongs,” Wrench responded after a short shrug.
Shatter made a face, awestruck if anything, before a tiny smile tried to sneak across his limp lips. Rotor’s sad grin certainly helped.
“Perhaps I can be thankful I’m alive,” his unicorn commander said. Rotor nodded softly, lifting his stare to see the blankets be pushed aside and Shatter make an attempt to rise up. Not before he nodded Wrench’s way, ordering, “Get your rest, my friend.”
His hooves gently scraped and patted the white, marble tiles. No more than three seconds later, the only other nurse came back from the far end of the room, pressing her hoof to Shatter’s shoulder and quickly addressing, “Hey, hey, easy! Where do you think you’re—?”
When Shatter turned to her, his stare was enough to rival the Frozen North’s coldest seas. “Sleep does not strengthen me. Let me pass.”
The nurse was momentarily stunned. “Just a stroll around the HQ, boss?” Rotor asked aloud, earning the mare’s attention.
“Just to clear my head.”
Rotor nodded at that, then nodded at the nurse. “Let him pass.”
With another’s approval, and seeing the lack of pain or fatigue from Shatter Heart, the nurse ultimately saw no harm in a little exercise, both physical and mental. She let him walk, though Shatter hardly would have even let a single nurse stop him. Considering the circumstances and his current state, however, it felt nice to walk free without any altercations lingering behind him.
On his way outside, exiting down the long, dark hallway, he passed Peaky’s room, casting her a longing glance. Her tear-filled eyes turned to him, both of them sharing the same pain without a single word to utter. Their thoughts, their hearts, both aligned to the same pony.
When Twilight turned to the window where Peaky stared, she saw nopony. He was already gone.
There was no comfort offered to him, for he sought none of it. No falsehoods, no lies. Nothing to keep him away from what was real and what he needed to face head-on. He couldn’t run away, sleep on his distress and his failures and believe all was fine. That wasn’t who he was, or who he was trained to be. He knew what needed to be done, and where he needed to go.
If there was anything he kept from the doctor, the princess, or the directors’ concerns for him, it was where he could find his brother. The door stood at the end of the hall where no light touched. Only the pale, white light under the door frame that beckoned him forth.
Entering the room at the end of the hall, he saw them. Both lying across a single bed each. Moonshadow, her face and body concealed by a sheet. His brother, face concealed under the sheet all the same, moments before Shatter pulled it back to confirm the correct identity.
He used no magic. Even the most minor of actions elevated his migraine’s strength. In fact, he preferred the simple use of his hooves. It was softer, more personal. Slower. Under the sheet, he could see the one who brought him out of the fires so long ago, with Shatter unable to ever return the favor. Gazing on the lifeless face of his older brother Cross Heart, Shatter Heart could only feel the sharpest, coldest knife pierce and split his spirit.
There was a certain peace to him. He was at rest now, even if his final moments appeared to experience great pain. The fresh burns across his face, devouring most of his coat and mane, left very little of the former brother he could recognize. Skin was charred, the skull barely hidden by a single layer of burnt skin. But he expressed no suffering, for the pains of this life had passed for him.
Shatter raised his hoof and draped it across his chest, resting it over the silent heart. Over the fallen Heart. His own flesh and blood. His own family. All that he had left, giving Shatter no choice but to let him rest. The tears assuredly came, but Shatter was accepting of them this time, closing his eyes as he laid the sheet gently back over Cross’ face.
In life and death, he expressed the highest honors for the bravest pair of ponies he had ever known. For his family, his brother in arms, he raised a hoof to his head in a firm salute. A salute that ended in a respectful, slow bow of his head. Eyes closed the whole time. Tears slipping free despite his greatest efforts.
He offered the same salute to the bed behind him, to the wonderful co-pilot who gave her life all the same. Breaking his stature, letting his real self take hold, he laid a hoof on Moon’s hoof beneath the sheet. Right then and there, there was never a doubt in his mind that the emperor would grant them the highest of honors when their caskets returned home. Shatter Heart would absolutely ensure it.
Then, he turned around and walked away.
For his team’s sake. For the sake of the fallen, giving them their deserved rest. For his own sake, the mental stress becoming too much, almost as much as the emotional stress. If there was to be any comfort this day, Shatter would seek it in silence.
Under the gaze of his creation.
Walking into the mountain facility to witness his Mecha in the first stages of reconstruction.
It was just as the rulers had said. A full effort was established to rebuild what was broken. To lay a bandage on a failure so great was but another attempt to offer a weightless charity. It couldn’t hide what he had done, what he had failed to achieve, no matter how much steel was replaced or how many sparks were ignited. He was told they would come back from this, stronger than before hopefully. The necessary steps to fix the Mecha and find the beast responsible was already underway.
Only… the longer he stared… the longer he listened… it just felt like the same song and dance he had heard before. Promises of rising from the ashes. Finding the beast responsible. Ending the war before it ever had the chance to grow out of control.
More shockingly similar words from a former princess that crossed his people before.
He faced away from the falling sparks. He walked away from the promise of a new creation and a new hope. He turned down a deeper hallway that dug into the rock and walked nowhere. To nothing. If anything, to try and clear his head and push out that constant, nagging ring trying to regrow in his eardrum.
Shatter stopped.
His ear flicked in the direction of distant radio static.
Now frozen, his head slowly turned in the direction of the haunting sounds, and his gaze settled on the room amidst a slew of others down the hall. Shuffling toward it slowly and cautiously, curious in his actions but frightened in the deepest remnants of his mind, Shatter happened upon a T.I.T.A.N. broadcast station.
Inside, he could see a controlled chaos. Far more controlled than what was occurring throughout the T.I.T.A.N. HQ. Inside, where multiple black and white screens showed static footage, ponies were moving about frantically from station to station. They received magically-transported letters by the dozen, the radios ablaze with distress calls, and the footage on the screens all unveiling and telling the same horror story.
He was right to be cautious, for nopony saw him. He was right to be curious, for how else would he have discovered the truth? He was right to be frightened.
For he saw Godzilla wreaking havoc across the world.
The footage on the screens came from the airships, filming the Titan unleashing streams of fire from his jaws upon the helpless cities unable to fight back. The footage also came from the ground, from horrified T.I.T.A.N. soldiers fighting back with all that they were, but losing everything in the process. Taking the desperate chance to retreat and save what they could. Retreating only to be engulfed under the monster’s shadow, or his flames.
Radios were unending with the sounds of people suffering, crying out for help. From all around the world, as every culture, every species, everyone everywhere that Godzilla crossed. For all their differences, they all shared the same fate.
The ponies of Manehattan’s smoldering remains, of Baltimare’s devastated naval fleet.
The parrots of Ornithia who were drowned in chaos.
The felines of Panthera witnessing their greatest strongholds, their precious oil refineries, and their finest city become but a wall of white flames.
The footage from across the world showed them all, and they all burned the same.
Burned beneath the earth-trembling roar of the King of the Monsters.
“HQ, we need immediate support from Cloudsdale! The bunkers are full and we can’t enter the city! Requesting immediate Pegasi air support to clear out these fires!”
“Casualties are estimated to be in the thousands—”
“Evacuate all citizens immediately! Godzilla is not responding to the ORCA frequencies! Repeat, Godzilla is not responding! Evacuate all citizens and prepare your defenses!”
“We’ve received immediate aid from Saddle Arabian airdrops following Godzilla’s attacks in the southeastern region. The royalty want to understand if Godzilla is coming after them next. We’re already getting calls from governments—”
“It’s broken through the defensive lines! Fall back! Fall back!”
“We need air support from HQ!”
Shatter heard that roar and nearly blacked out. He witnessed these events from the footage and stumbled away, far more quickly than he anticipated. His footing was practically numb, practically gone. His heart thumped in his ears and he crumbled against the wall outside in the hallway. Blurry vision, rapid breaths, sweat building and falling, Shatter almost couldn’t believe it, but it was real. A panic attack, and one he hadn’t had in a long, long time.
He crumbled against the wall, sliding down to the floor in almost like a fetal position. Hooves to his head, pressed tightly against his ears, Shatter stared wide-eyed to the opposite wall ahead of him. Fear quickly encompassed his mind and body as his past panic attacks had done. Except, it wasn’t just fear that devoured him. Mostly, he felt enraged. Enraged because he could do nothing now.
It was all happening again, and when he finally had built the power—the machine—to prevent this, it was taken from him. Leaving him with nothing. Nothing to respond with, nothing to do… except watch it all happen again.
“Someone! Pl-ple-please! Please help us!”
Godzilla’s roar echoed from the footage. It echoed from his darkest memories, and Shatter shut his eyes and screamed.
Artwork by Shrekzilla
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Interesting chapter.
I'm not surprised that Shatter Heart survived, but a little bit about the ones that didn't. I understand that his brother died. He was, from what I heard, closest to Shatter and so his death will push Shatter more over the edge.
What surprised me, and maybe even a little disappointed, is the death of Moonshadow. I found her to be the most interesting of the other pilots and I think it's a bit of a shame and odd that you've already killed her off. Again, I understand Cross Heart's death for Shatter's character development but Moonshadow... right now her death feels like she died just for added shock, which I don't really like. However, I know it is still too early to draw full conclusions and perhaps her fate, in the long run, will have more impact than I currently believe.
I'm sorry I sounded pretty negative just now. I don't want to give the impression that I didn't like this chapter. It was a very good chapter and I thoroughly enjoy this story. I just want to be honest in my feedback on this story.
Now about what I did like. I'm very pleased with how you write Shatter Heart so far. It was good to see that he was really shocked at the death of his brother and fellow pilot. It gives him more depth. Also... Mechagodzilla needs to get even stronger, he thinks. Maybe he will use some energy from the core of the earth for that.
I also wonder who is that emperor the pilots were talking about and if he will be important.
I look forward to the next chapter. Again, while I have mixed feelings about Moonshadow's death, I'll wait until the end of the story to make my full judgment about that. And for the rest, this was another really good chapter.
There is one more thing I forgot to put in my original post. Rotor says it's dangerous for someone to pilot Mechagodzilla alone. First, good reference to Pacific Rim where it's the same with the Jaegers. I mean, how Mechagodzilla is controlled here is clearly a reference to Pacific Rim. I still hope that eventually he will become self-aware. And secondly, I wonder if maybe that's a setup. Perhaps Shatter Heart will redeem him self in the finale by giving up his own life in this way.
"It's not the plane, it's the pilot."
-Rooster
A terrible tragedy, this whole thing is. And with Godzilla's corruption, things are only gonna get worse from here.
Dang this really stings, having thousands of lives wiped out is bad enough and now 2 pilots from Mecha dead.......
, its too much
11557059 Understandable, and thanks for sharing your thoughts
Moon's death may connect more with Rotor with the others, so his character may be affected and therefore have the chance to grow later on. 
As for the emperor, I'm just referring to the Emperor of Neighpon, much like a Japanese emperor.
11557187 Wise words from our boy Rooster.
11557240 It will only get worse... but hope may be on the eastern horizon
11557600 Our heroes need to bounce back, and fast!
Yes. I doubt anyone's forgotten Kong, and will soon be reminded of him soon enough.
I think I might have a theory on how Mechagodzilla turned evil. If you’re interested, let me know so I can PM you so I wouldn’t spoil anything for the readers.
11557860 Go ahead and send me a private message
R.I.P Cross Heart and Moonshadow.
I didn’t expect this, I figured we’d have all the pilots around for a while longer, but yet, we’re down by two. Unexpected as it is, it makes the story all the more dramatic, because even the main heroes are vulnerable.
Powerfully emotional chapter.
11558613 Thank you so much!
And you're right! It really does put in perspective that nopony in this story is untouchable.
Why do I feel like that he becomes a villain due to losing his sanity over the losses caused by Mechagodzilla’s defeat by Ghidorah?
11557860
I wouldn’t be surprised if your theory is that it either gets possessed by the ghosts of the dead crew members, or magically hijacked by Ghidorah.
11559801
Ghost yes, dead crew members no.
11559946
It is not sombra
11559948
Not him.
11559953
Man, if it’s anything like GvK, then it has to be someone who’s dead and has something personal against Godzilla, I can only think of Ghidorah as the only other person, but that isn’t possible. He’s still alive.
11559959
Hint: a Possession of his made appearance in the story.
11559961
You don’t mean?!?!?!?
11559962
Grogar
11559963
That’s a massive leap, but how? You don’t think that Ghidorah is gonna use the bell to somehow do it, do you?
Shit now I just feel bad for Shatter
I can’t believe Lanky Kong is going to kill Godzilla and Kong in the next movie.
Also dang sad day for Shatter.
Yikes, Shatter Heart hasn't been putting himself in a good light up until now, in fact you could argue that he's an antagonist fro wanting to pick fight with Kaiju like Godzilla unprovoked in the first place. However, even for someone like him it is sad seeing him lose his friend and brother.
He definitely went through a tragedy, but it isn’t over yet. Godzilla's rampage is going to make him worse before he gets better. But at the same time we know Godzilla is not in his right mind, which Shatter doesn't.