• Published 10th Sep 2022
  • 2,992 Views, 755 Comments

A King to a God - JDPrime22



It’s up to the heroes of Equestria to form unconventional bonds, discover the primordial evil living beneath their world, and fight a battle they could never have prepared for. When Godzilla and Kong clash, and until the last king stands.

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Chapter 21 – Next Generation

Ponyville, Equestria



News spread fast of the turmoil on the coasts of Equestria. Ponyville was but one of many towns that took every precaution necessary to protect its inhabitants.

Local T.I.T.A.N. scouts were on high alert after reports of the unprovoked Godzilla attacks reached their borders. The smoke from Manehattan, from Baltimare, could be seen scorching the horizon, and so the town was appropriately defended. Despite the higher tensions, life continued on as it usually had within the reformed Ponyville.

Expanded to accompany the exodus with the Crystal Empire destroyed, Ponyville housed a great assortment of creatures from around the globe, but—as its name suggested—it housed ponies most of all. Including the Crystal Ponies. To many, the quaint village became their new home, and it was slowly but surely growing into a small metropolis day by day.

To the Crystal Ponies, it became the empire they left behind, with the royalty leading them as they had before. Only, Prince Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were absent to deal with T.I.T.A.N., leaving the former Crystaller, the Castle of the Heart’s inhabitants, and Mayor Mare to run things while the rulers were gone.

The former Crystaller, Sunburst, cared for Flurry Heart as he had before. Twilight’s former castle, now referred to as the Castle of the Heart due to the Crystal Heart’s placement in the tree’s throne room, not only housed Sunburst and Flurry Heart. Starlight Glimmer still called the castle her home, and she helped run things alongside Sunburst, just as they both also ran the School of Friendship.

School was out for the summer, but not all the students of the School of Friendship went back home. Not just yet. Some decided to stay with friends and close ones within the expanded borders of Ponyville. Others hesitated to travel with news of Godzilla’s savagery inflicted upon neighboring nations.

And some just lingered long enough to see the fresh newspapers hit the stands, all of them with big, black letters reading: “WAR! GOVERNMENTS UTILIZE T.I.T.A.N. TO RESPOND TO GODZILLA ATTACKS!”

Every news stand was flooded within seconds, but Sandbar just managed to snag a paper before the flood hit.

With a crowd of chaos behind him, the young colt shook off the dust from his coat and snapped the newspaper open in his hooves. His eyes traversed the main headline, and just as quickly sped through the paragraphs of information below. Detailing what the press managed to release from the recent decision at the Hall of Unity, fantasizing it to an almost unhealthy level, giving dire warnings, etcetera, etcetera.

His eyes hovered heavily over the black and white image of Princess Twilight addressing the Hall of Unity, and his heart felt heavier. Moments before it sprang to life and he galloped off into the Everfree Forest.

Now, normally, colts his age wouldn’t be seen near the Everfree, or even near its outskirts. Too many dangers and too many horror stories to tell around the campfire, all in order to spook fillies and colts just like him. But Sandbar was unlike the other colts of Ponyville. He looked past the dangers and saw only the path he had traveled dozens of times before, memorizing it by heart.

It was the same path where his hooves, as well as talons, dragon claws, and yak and changeling hooves traveled together.

In a spacious valley in the heart of Everfree, passed a rickety bridge overlooking a great and dark gorge, there Sandbar galloped to the abandoned Castle of the Two Sisters. Where, in its desolate remains, a shining beacon of hope and friendship stood proud. The crystal Treehouse of Harmony, where the young, six friends spent their days together.

And so, the Young Six they were, made complete when Sandbar stormed through the front, crystalline gates with a ferocious slam!

Ocellus and Silverstream both flinched, the two high above the shelves to fill in the vases with a fresh assortment of flowers. The Hippogriff, in her shock, let slip the vase of water from her grip, hitting the row of plants they had painstakingly assorted and nearly finished. Doing so caused a chain reaction, like a stack of dominos, knocking over vase after vase until the last and largest one fell from the highest shelf.

Down below, the young griffon Gallus was spinning a bright red buckball on the tip of his talon when he heard Sandbar slamming the door open, followed shortly by multiple vases falling and shattering all around him.

He yelped in surprise, abandoning the ball and shielding his head. “Hey, watch it!” Gallus cried, screaming as more vases fell. He took cover, diving under the nearest table.

Lounged across the distant couch, Smolder watched it all unfold with the toothiest grin she could manage. She even tossed a small gem into her mouth from the bag she brought, munching gratefully to the even more grateful entertainment.

The changeling and the Hippogriff were already on top of it, catching and juggling and balancing as many vases as their arms and forelegs could hold. “S-sorry, Gallus! We’ll get it under control; we just need to—!” Ocellus was saying, seconds before a vase smacked her right on the head and comically stuck itself there. Crashing and losing grip of all she carried, Ocellus sat there on the floor and struggled to pull it off.

“Don’t worry, Ocellus! I got this from here! Nothing is getting out of my sight!” Silverstream decreed, then blissfully missed the largest vase that fell right past her.

Stampeding through the foyer, Yona leaped through the air and caught just one flower, the rest of the vase hitting the crystal floor and shattering into a million pieces. Landing and sliding to a halt, Yona lifted her head up high, and between her jaws the stem was bent awkwardly, only a single flower petal left.

“Yona got it!” she triumphantly declared through clenched teeth.

Ocellus pulled the vase off with help from Gallus, only to see the state of their flower arrangement. Silverstream cheered and flew down to slap her free talons to Yona’s hoof. Ocellus merely groaned, covering her expression with the empty vase. Smolder’s laughter was the only sound left in the Treehouse’s foyer.

Followed quickly by Sandbar’s voice saying, “You guys! Things are gettin’ worse out there!”

“What are you talking about?” Gallus asked, still recovering from the flower bombardment.

This!” he declared, holding out the front page of the newspaper for all of his friends to see. Yona squinted her eyes as Ocellus placed the vase aside and stepped forward. Gallus was right with her. “Princess Twilight is leading T.I.T.A.N. against Goji! There are already rumors that a full-blown war is gonna start, with all the world against him!”

Flying over to join them, Smolder flapped her wings and hovered over the group, rubbing her chin and making her thoughts audible. “Hmmm… yeah, and why should this involve us?”

Sandbar raised a brow. “Come on, Smolder, you can’t honestly believe that Goji would actually do stuff like this?”

“Hmmm… yeah, I can,” she responded, dropping to the ground with crossed arms.

Sandbar remained adamant, defending his point by arguing, “Goji? The same monster who defended our world from that three-headed alien? The same alien that would have killed us all had Goji not stepped up? Why would he suddenly destroy everything he fought to protect?”

“Did he fight to protect us… or this world?” Ocellus thought aloud,

Smolder steered the conversation back. “I mean, from what we’ve seen and heard, he’s the closest thing to a dragon, and I know dragons. Not that surprising that he would just wake up and decide to burn down some cities and villages. Dragons have been known to do that for less.”

“Well, not anymore, right?” Ocellus questioned, and this time earned every head and eye. “The races are at peace with each other, and dragons aren’t just gonna go around burning stuff down for no reason. Just like the Titans; we’re at peace with them now. So…”

“Sooo…” Sandbar led them on.

“Sooo the question is… why is he doing it, then?” Gallus asked, slowly putting it together.

“Maybe he just woke up on the wrong side of the ocean!” Silverstream suggested, flying down to finally join her friends. All while ceremoniously dropping the vases from her arms and letting them crash around her, much to her friends’ shared dismay. “Seaponies have been known to get pretty grumpy if their coral beds are juuust too sharp.”

“I don’t think Godzilla is sleeping in coral beds,” Smolder deadpanned.

“Oh, yeah, do you know where he sleeps?” Silverstream retorted as a matter-of-factly.

“Not in coral beds!”

“Maybe Goji thought we would hurt him!” Yona said aloud. Really loud, bringing everycreature’s attention onto her. “Yaks always ready for a fight! Not surprising Goji would see us as threat!”

Gallus took the paper from Sandbar’s hoof and read it over, holding it out to Yona. “Nothing here about Godzilla attacking Yakyakistan.”

Yona tilted her head, clearly confused. “Why attack other places, then? They not big or strong like yaks!”

“Gee, thanks,” Sandbar mumbled, frowning her way.

Gallus read over the paper again, muttering softly, “Mm… more outposts gone. He’s attacking big cities and T.I.T.A.N. outposts. Does he really think we’re that big of a threat to him?”

Sandbar sighed, taking the newspaper back and lying it on the floor for them all to see. Together, the six of them surrounded the pages, looking down and onto each other as Sandbar spoke. “Judging by the paper… it’s too late for the world to try and decide why he’s doing this. They’re already taking action, and it looks like T.I.T.A.N. is ready to go to war with him. Things are gettin’ hot… but they’re about to get real bloody real fast.”

The rest of the Young Six could sympathize with their friend’s plight, but in the grand scheme of things, what really could they do? They were kids, with voices deemed less important than those with the crowns. Ocellus made all of their thoughts known, and she said, “Sandbar… the Hall of Unity decided on this. Those are our leaders and the leaders of the rest of the world in agreement. What are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, I just…” Sandbar sat down with a shake of his head, a defeated sigh slowly leaving him all the same. “I just feel like there’s something we have to do.”

Hearing the defeat in his voice, Smolder tightened her lips and racked her brain for a way her friends could see the positive side in all this. “Okay, not to toot our own horns, but we did kinda save the day when Tirek, Chrysalis, and what’s-her-face tried to take over the world—”

“Cozy Glow?” Sandbar suggested with a raised brow.

“Yeah, that guy,” Smolder said with a snap of her claws. “But this totally seems like another beast altogether. Not one that can be solved with the Elements of Harmony, and if it is, they got Princess Twilight and her buddies to take care of it. If you ask me, I say we sit back, relax, and enjoy the start of our summer.”

She emphasized every point she made with an action, flying back to lean deep into the couch, sigh in a satisfactory way with her claws resting behind her head, and legs kicked up on the table. She even grabbed her bag of gems and tossed another into her awaiting mouth. “Besides, we’re far enough from this craziness,” she said between chews.

This ‘craziness’ may just reach you sooner than you know.

The ethereal voice earned an uncharacteristically shrill cry from Smolder’s throat, the dragon leaping from the couch to get as far from the voice as possible. The voice that appeared behind her, and soon made its presence known fully to all within the Treehouse of Harmony.

The Young Six gathered together, huddled close in fearful trepidation of what was coming for them. Suddenly, an orb of multicolored light emerged like the brightest torch in the darkest of nights. An array of rainbows swarmed and circled the center orb, which was a sparkling, blinding whiteness in the core. So bright that every member of the Young Six had to shield their eyes with a raised arm or foreleg, unable to fully gaze into the light.

The orb approached and hovered before them, and spoke in a voice none of them recognized. Yet they knew who it was. Deep, deep in their hearts they could feel the same presence they had felt many times before. A presence that came to them in their most desperate of hours beneath the School of Friendship, under the roots of the Tree of Harmony, where it tested their friendship. A presence that boldly and proudly told them that though they were different, that did not mean they were not capable of friendship. That undying ideal, that power that unites the world, that was in their nature.

It told them that. The Spirit of Harmony made sure they believed that, and they just as assuredly believed it was the Spirit of Harmony before them now.

Even if it was not in the same way as before. A silent stillness suddenly entered the Treehouse, but it was not of fear or anxiety. The young souls lifted their curious eyes, only barely staring to the light. Curiosity and wonder filled their hearts now, if not plagued by something worse still.

The Spirit of Harmony seemed to understand their distress, and calmly suggested, “Perhaps a more recognizable form would be suitable for you all.

In a stunning display of light, the orb’s power faded greatly, and in its wake all that remained was but a mirror image of Princess Twilight Sparkle. The same look of the headmistress they knew and loved, the same soft, tender smile they all lowered their guards for. All of it was the same. Minus, of course, the sparkling flair that encompassed her coat, mane, wings, everything.

In the form of Twilight once more, Harmony waited for their approval. To which they gave with a quick, shared look and various nods and verbal agreements.

With even the voice mimicking Twilight’s, Harmony began by taking those first steps closer to the Young Six. Her voice was as bizarrely beautiful and mystically poetic as they remembered, never losing her ethereal edge that was beyond all of their understanding.

You listened to your heart well, Sandbar. The decisions of your rulers are quite unsettling… and unbecoming, and it was right for you to bring this to attention with your friends.

Having slowly become more used to her presence now, Sandbar bashfully looked away, unable to hide the blush. He waved it off with a weak scoff, muttering, “Ah, it was nothing. Just a feeling, ya know?”

It was more than a feeling; it was fate,” Harmony corrected with a smile, her eyes changing to a far more serious hue to join her falling grin. Her shimmering eyes fell to the newspaper resting between the Young Six. “The world is begging for a response when they refuse to look for the cause. How the one they once called their ‘Titan Savior’ would suddenly turn against them, and yet very little was done to seek the truth. Questions were asked, something was discovered, but nothing was unveiled. It would seem… war is still in the nature.

The rest of the Young Six were already calm enough to rise up from the floor they once fell to, even being brave enough to sound their thoughts and opinions to one they regarded as a higher being.

“There has to be a way to prevent this war!” Ocellus said. “There has to!”

Harmony smiled, and it was as wonderfully perfect as it had been before. When she first introduced them with a smile into the very Treehouse they now called their home away from home. She answered, “And you are right. The way to ending this war is to find the truth of Godzilla’s innocence.

That revelation certainly opened some eyes, especially Smolder’s. Sandbar scoffed and smiled her way, raising his brows and flicking his head back to Harmony, as if silently telling the dragon “I told you so.”

“So… he’s not really doing this?” Gallus bravely asked, bravely wondered himself. “There’s something else going on here?”

The apparition slowly nodded, closing her eyes in doing so. Opening them only to gaze onto the children. “There is a puppet master behind every puppet. A shadow that hides from every source of light. But in recent times, that shadow has grown larger, stronger, more fervent. Only now is it beginning to stir and inflict its will upon our world. A Darkness is washing over the lands and hearts of many. Friends, allies, foes… all will be affected and none will be spared.

Ocellus gulped as quietly as she could, but all of her friends heard her. And none of them blamed her. The words Harmony spoke—and the way she said them—just dripped with underlying dread and terror. The likes of which they had never experienced, and they fought a war against the forces of darkness once before. But this shadow, this “Darkness” Harmony spoke of… there was more to it than they could ever understand.

Far more than any of them would have ever liked to know.

Even in the face of such Darkness, Harmony stood tall. She pressed on and never took her stare away from her chosen. “But you must overcome this. Harmony will overcome all evils. As this Darkness falls, you must be the rising light, but only if you allow yourselves to shine. Do not hide while the world aches and groans. The power within you all must be used to unite, not divide. Repair the bonds of friendship, not damage them further. Save… not kill.

Her eyes fell to the newspaper, then flicked to the sky, to nowhere the Young Six could see, and she sighed.

Do you know what I ask of you now?” When they stood and sat there in silence, still shocked at her words—and she didn’t blame them—Harmony dropped her gaze. Then, she raised her head with a look of stoic determinism glowing brightest of all upon her. “I am asking all of you to find the truth, and help bring the Darkness into the light.

The shock and awe that filled their faces were unmatched. Followed shortly by Yona and Silverstream’s excited chitters. Smolder, on the other hoof, was less than excited, and made her position known. “Okay… totally get you on the whole ‘darkness into light’ thing, but just in case we don’t screw this up… can’t you just handle this?”

Harmony seemed to hold back a chuckle, but let slip a tiny giggle that escaped her nostrils. She turned to Smolder and held that calm, sympathetic smile her way. “I will intervene when necessary, but it must be the Bearers of my power to act when they are called. Only then can I do what is necessary to retain the natural balance of harmony in the world.

Silverstream’s excitement was undone by her arising curiosity, and she made it known. “Why not Twilight, then?” the Hippogriff asked. “Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, too? They’re still the current Elements of Harmony!”

Harmony’s stare seemed to be distant once more, gazing off to the far-off wall or perhaps somewhere more. Perhaps seeing eternity, fate, all the pieces needing to be put in place. Many of which made Harmony smile. Many of which made her smile die, and she sighed.

What I told you before holds true now,” she said, burning the sadness away and replacing it with fiery resolve. That same resolve filled her eyes, and all the Young Six felt its heat. “Friendship is, always has, and always will be in your nature. And a time will come when the current generation will fade, and the future will look to you.

That truth bomb shook everycreature to their core, enough for them to look to one another and whisper the words and questions that were unheard, all of which Harmony could hear. The most important one, the one that was directly asked, was brought forth by the young changeling.

“Is that time now?” Ocellus asked.

To their relief, Harmony shook her head. “It is not in my authority to say,” Harmony responded, and just as quickly reignited their anxieties. She seemed to sense that, adding, “But united… the Bearers, the Guardians, my Champions must come together as they have before. For though Twilight and her friends were chosen, they are still learning. Their hearts are still young, as are yours… but you each hold something more… something they manage to lose time and again in this dangerous time.

Harmony smiled once again, and this one was encouraging, uplifting, meant to strengthen the spirits of the children who only feared for the future, of the unknown. But she gave them a way through, a light to guide them amidst all the evils and chaos and lies plaguing the world they lived in.

An innocent heart.

A light in the dark, and one the Young Six could all seem to agree on. Harmony knew it was so, for they saw the world through a child’s eyes, reinforced by the ideals of friendship and harmony taught to them by the very Bearers she had chosen that fateful night in the very castle grounds she stood in now. Sometimes fate had a way of bringing things full-circle, and Harmony smiled at the thought.

Sometimes a child’s innocence was all that was needed to seek the truth.

Harmony even said, “That is why I have chosen you to seek Godzilla’s innocent heart.” Their heads shot up like rockets, but Harmony had already turned to make her exit, nonetheless looking back at them. “You must go now, to Baltimare, a city that endured his destruction. There, you will find everything you need. Good luck, my Champions.

“Wait!” Sandbar called. His voice just managed to halt the Spirit of Harmony a moment longer, and the young colt would ensure his time wasn’t wasted. “I know this form is, like, more suitable for us, like you said. But that ball of light we saw earlier… was that really you? Like… your real form?”

He could have asked so many other questions, and yet he chose that. Harmony chuckled. Just as she expected from Sandbar.

And then, she just smiled, and answered, “One of many.

The dragon took the next moment for herself, and interrupted. “What really are you anyway?” Smolder asked, her voice strangely soft.

Turning the dragon’s way, the entity thought a moment longer before her words fell away. Her eyes washed over the others. Yona. Silverstream. Gallus. Sandbar. Ocellus. Smolder. So many different faces from so many different backgrounds, and yet they all just managed to come together. They all just managed to make it work. True friendship was a curious but undying ideal, and it never failed.

Harmony was even more certain now she had made the right choice. And she replied, even softer, “A friend.

She vanished in a flash of light.

It was silent for so long, that they all just came to enjoy it. Listen to the birds singing high above the heads, feel the warmth of the sun shining through the Treehouse and bringing the natural light and life to their home. All was calm. All was peace. And then Yona opened her mouth.

“What are we waiting for?!” Yona declared, stomping around the foyer. “We can save world just like before! We can be heroes again! Yona go pack bags!”

“Wait!” Gallus interrupted, grabbing a clawful of her fur and struggling to drag her to a halt. When he miraculously managed to, he exhaled a breath of exhaustion and said, “So, that’s it? We just drop everything, go out on our own, and hope by some miracle we find… something in Baltimare? Something that can prove that Godzilla is innocent in all this?”

“Duh, silly! Weren’t you listening to Harmony?” Silverstream said, flying up and playfully knocking on Gallus’ head. “Hellooo, is Gallus in there? Was it too much info for you to handle? I mean, it was a lot, but it sounds like she trusts us, and that’s good enough for me!”

“People should really think twice before trusting you, Silverstream,” Gallus groaned, catching her talons from knocking his skull again.

She just giggled, crushing Gallus in a big hug instead. “That’s why I have you and all my friends! Together, anycreature can trust us! Yona’s right! We’re heroes, remember?! We saved the world!”

“But we weren’t alone when we did that,” Ocellus noted, a tiny shiver of fear rushing up her body. “If we do this… we’ll be on our own.”

“No, we won’t,” Sandbar retorted, looking to the heart of the Treehouse of Harmony, the light shining in and shimmering across the variety of crystals hanging from the ceiling. He chuckled. “I got a pretty good feeling we’ll have a friend watching our backs. What do ya say, guys?”

“Me! I’m definitely going!” Silverstream gleefully cried, waving her arm high in the air as if calling out to a teacher.

“I guess,” Gallus said with an uncertain shrug, only to lose his breath from another of Silverstream’s crushing hugs.

“Count me in,” Ocellus finally agreed with a firm nod, and a reaffirmed spirit.

“Me go! Me go!” Yona yelled with every stomp.

“Smolder?” Sandbar led on.

After everything they had heard, Smolder still held some doubt. It took some convincing, but she ultimately realized that they had faced stakes like this before. This would potentially be no different, and if it was, it would be a challenge they would face together. If nothing else, she could always get a good story out of this to take home to the Dragon Lands, lord it over everyone’s heads.

She simply shrugged. “Sure,” the dragon finally gave in and said. Sandbar’s smile was so contagious it almost got one out of Smolder.

Yona slowly appeared by her side, a somewhat pleading and excitable look glowing in her eyes. “Yona go pack bags?” she asked, as if she ever needed any further confirmation or approval.

It was a battle Smolder knew she couldn’t win. The trip to Baltimare and the journey for the truth was one she definitely would win, she decided. But with Yona, with her friends, they always just managed to slip between her scales and touch her heart.

Smolder rolled her eyes, unable to hide that smile that overtook her at last. “Yona go pack bag—”

“YAAAY!” the yak roared, stampeding through the dragon and trampling her in her wake. Sandbar helped scrape Smolder off the floor, the dragon’s glare fading by the sound of Sandbar’s laugh, which spread to the Hippogriff, then the changeling, then the griffon, and finally back to the dragon.

If there was one thing they missed about going home to their respective lands over the summer, it was definitely this: all of them together.

And this time, for a brand-new adventure.

Author's Note:

Artwork by Shrekzilla