Chapter 5 – Where the Answers Lead
Black Skull Island
T.I.T.A.N. Outpost Beacon
The storm had settled considerably around Black Skull Island, but it was still there. Still growing by the day. Still becoming more ferocious.
When the morning light shined upon the aftermath of Black Skull Island’s siege, it was if a hurricane of blood and fire had washed across the island. Creatures large and meager lay scattered across the former battlegrounds. Scorched bodies transformed into blackened charcoal and joined the likes of skeletal remains. There was hardly any green grass or trees left, from the combined actions of both Titan and T.I.T.A.N.
Most of the Titans that came to usurp the throne of the King of Black Skull Island had fled. The ones that remained joined the dead. Bunyip, a MUTO here and there, had been counted and mourned by T.I.T.A.N.’s first-ever Personal Titan Relations Expert. Or, as everypony called her, the Titan Whisperer. She was brought forth once the mission was accomplished, and the siege had reaped its awards. The old base of operations was recaptured, reestablished, and repopulated by the time the sun rose on that day.
So, the Titan Whisperer stood alone atop the highest balcony of Outpost Beacon, as she was told it was named. Below her, in the grounds surrounding the base, T.I.T.A.N. agents and soldiers were already hard at work rebuilding defenses around the outpost. Watchtowers and steel fences were raised in a vast radius surrounding them. Armed guards stood at every possible entrance, never once having a moment of rest, for they knew the island well. They fought hard just to break through its natural defenses. Everything and anything on Black Skull Island could and would kill them.
But Fluttershy, the Titan Whisperer, didn’t see it that way.
For while there were many flora and fauna alike that posed a threat to their safety, she had read numerous reports of what had happened, had seen most of it herself, and came to the conclusion that a panic had spread across the island. Perhaps not from their interference, but from another. One that stirred the earth and cascaded darkness upon Black Skull Island. Fluttershy could still hear the beast’s horrific cry even now, in the dawning sunlight.
And because there was another, a Titan that had survived the onslaught wrought upon his island and chose instead to rest. Instead of finishing off the remainder of his invaders, this Titan let them be. This Titan, this king, had suffered enough.
Atop the highest balcony of Outpost Beacon, Fluttershy watched Kong stir about among his damaged kingdom.
She stared at the king with a sullen stare. Pain riddled in each iris, seeing every inch of destruction that was needed for T.I.T.A.N. to reclaim what was theirs. But at the cost of so much, so many lives, she wondered if it was even worth it. They deserved some of the blame for destruction, surely, yet it seemed as if Kong did not blame them for what had happened the night before. If he had, perhaps there would have been no hesitation to finish off the T.I.T.A.N. force upon his island. No, for there was another reason he skulked away, but kept an eye on the awakening outpost and the airships hovering around it.
He lingered, he assumed they weren’t a threat yet, and he stumbled off to lick his wounds.
Even when he was so far away, Fluttershy could still see him. Kong wandered about almost aimlessly, clutching his injuries and taking a dip in a nearby lake. He doused his head under the waterfall, cleansing his head and fur from the blood that tried to dry. Next, he sat down, washing his arms gingerly and prodding the cuts and bruises even softer. With each touch, Kong gave off a low, painful growl, moaning lightly as he cleaned himself.
Most of his wounds came from Camazotz, that much Fluttershy knew. Black Skull Island was disturbed when the Death Bat broke the hold of the world and invaded with his Hell Swarm. Now that Camazotz was dead, was that the reason Kong left them alone? He eliminated the major threat to his island, the legions of Hell retreated back from whence they came, and the Titan war had settled as the storm slowly faded.
But not all of it. The storm had faded only so much. It was still there, lingering on the edges of the island. Growing again, larger than before. The death of Camazotz only stilled it temporarily. It would return, and finish the bat’s unholy mission upon the island.
These things Fluttershy feared. All she wanted to do was establish some form of contact with Kong, a wonder to the world, a king in his own right. Perhaps now, they could begin to do so. With time short, the Titan Whisperer aimed to begin her work as soon as possible.
But in order to do so, she would need a safe escort to Kong. She had more questions that needed answers. And with T.I.T.A.N. having retaken their Black Skull Island outpost, perhaps that could be achieved in the coming days, or even sooner.
Entering the facility, Fluttershy noted how quickly reconstruction had started. Walls were reinforced and invasive flora were torn down. It was almost rebuilt from the ground up, but much of the old infrastructure and technology had survived, surprisingly. It seemed the Death Jackals found no interest in the files and radios left behind, choosing instead to make the base as a safe nesting ground and nothing more.
She flew down to the second floor, passing by several construction crews and armed soldiers, if only to make her entrance into the director’s office. The director, having long since passed away, left a spacious room of which he conducted nearly all operations on Black Skull Island. A great, circular table sat in the middle of the room with swivel chairs surrounding it. Windows sprawled the walls and morning light doused the interior of the office, unveiling to Fluttershy the room’s current inhabitants.
Agent Daring Do, Special Agent Bon Bon, Agent-in-Training Lyra Heartstrings, Captain Shining Armor, and Princess Cadance all turned to her. A few of the leading heads of the T.I.T.A.N. operation, all absolutely drained from the successful recapture of the base, but still somehow managing smiles to their Titan Whisperer.
“Fluttershy,” Cadance called, almost standing up, definitely perking up from her chair, “glad you could make it! Did you manage to get any rest last night?”
Daring Do snickered, raising a humorous brow at the princess, but otherwise said nothing. She didn’t have to. Judging by their appearances, dried mud and soot on their coats, heavy bags under their eyes, none of them got any rest.
Especially Fluttershy, the Pegasus shaking her head respectfully. “Sorry… couldn’t really sleep even after the airship safely landed.”
“Well, that’s fine. At least we can find some comfort in these early hours,” Cadance offered with a helpful smile.
She didn’t receive much support from a certain unicorn, Lyra making her groggily voice heard when she said, “If by comfort, you mean potentially risking our lives while we drop our guard on a deathtrap of an island.”
Bon Bon scoffed, shaking her head. “Lyra, I swear you’re not getting any better with that.”
“With what?” Lyra asked innocently, hooves raised and all. “Am I wrong? Literally everything on this island can kill us!”
“That,” Bon Bon chuckled. “The mission was a success. It’s fine to have a little optimism and morale once in a while.”
The unicorn blew a raspberry and crossed her hooves, leaning far back in her chair as her heavy eyes finally closed. “I’m like the definition of morale,” Lyra muttered under her breath, earning a playful brow rising from Bon Bon.
“All right, easy you two,” Shining Armor interrupted, bringing some semblance of management to the disheveled crew. He leaned forward, tapping his hoof on the splayed map of the island. “Operation Skull is mostly a success. We still have work to do; don’t forget that. We nearly got a working generator, so we should be able to get the radios up and running again soon. Once communications are established with the mainland, we can get to work with collecting any evidence… that was left…”
Shining’s eyes trailed up the table, finding Fluttershy’s raised hoof amidst the group. Soon enough, everypony’s eyes were drawn to their Titan Whisperer.
“Yes?” the prince asked.
Lowering her hoof, Fluttershy cleared her throat and approached the table with all the gentleness of a mouse. Yet she spoke with authority, declaring softly, “I think we should really focus our efforts on establishing contact with Titanus Kong.” Shining’s brow rose at the sudden assertiveness. He looked to Cadance, the Alicorn simply smirking his way. “He’s the alpha predator here. It would make sense—and not to mention be quite beneficial—if we could begin to make peace with him. Wouldn’t hurt to have a Titan protecting us.”
“You sure you can get that overgrown monkey on our side?” Daring asked, leaning back in her chair. “I mean, he can handle nests of Skullcrawlers and make my job a heck of a lot easier, but imagine what he could do to us.”
“I can,” Shining muttered. The room fell silent momentarily. Not an awkward silence, but a darker, far more fierce silence that left a cold in Shining and Cadance’s hearts, and a growing sense of dread and wonder in everypony else. He turned to Fluttershy. “We’ll get to work on sending you and an armed escort first thing tomorrow morning. Now, the generator will need a substantial amount of…”
She raised her hoof again.
Cutting off his speech, Shining tightened his lips. Sighing through his nostrils, he said, “You know, you don’t need to keep raising your hoof.”
“Sorry,” Fluttershy apologized with the light blush, quickly dropping her hoof. “But… we really need to do it today… and without an armed escort.”
Having almost dozed off, Lyra suddenly jolted awake, slurring out a garbled, “Wat?”
Another silence filled the room, only this one wasn’t just awkward, it was concerning. “Um… Fluttershy?” Cadance prodded, turning her chair to face the Pegasus. “That doesn’t seem like the soundest option right now. Creatures are still on edge from last night, anything—even our appearance—could provoke them. Especially Kong.”
“Weapons are a necessity,” Shining declared, and would not be moved on the subject. “And why today?”
Fluttershy turned to approach the window, the tip of her hoof rising to tap the glass sharply. While others were blinded by the morning sunlight, Fluttershy never swayed her gaze away from the black clouds on the horizon. “The storm is coming back. What we thought was triggered by Camazotz’s emergence, it still hasn’t left completely. It’s growing on the edges of island… and soon its going to consume all of Black Skull. And I’m afraid…”
Her hoof fell. She staggered weakly away from the glass, only to face her friends with an expression she wanted to be strong. Instead, the fear seeped through, no matter how strong she had become over the years. She said, “I’m afraid it won’t end so easily this time.”
Bon Bon stared out the window, noting the dark clouds hovering across the vast western sea. “Those don’t look like any normal storm clouds that I’ve ever seen. Black Skull Island’s natural ring of storms seem to be moving dangerously closer to shore. They’re definitely growing…”
Shining and Cadance exchanged a knowing glance, each of them sighing out an exhausted breath. It had been a long night. “Well, I guess we can finally address it now that we’re all accounted for.”
A seat was offered to Fluttershy, but she didn’t take it. She was afraid if she even took a moment of rest, she would lose the energy she needed for the day. It happened to Lyra just as easily, the unicorn squeaking out snores as a line of drool dribbled down her cheek. The Titan Whisperer stood and listened.
Listened as Shining Armor began. “Our top scientists back in Canterlot seemed to come to an understanding on why this all started. First, and the most obvious, the emergence of Titanus Camazotz. What we initially thought to be just tremors beneath the island turned out to be a rival alpha digging its way from below. Now, obviously, why would an alpha do this? What caused the bat to act up?”
Nopony answered, but they all seemed to already know. Shining continued. “It’s an alpha… and it finally was able to respond to Ghidorah’s alpha call made a year ago. Seems Camazotz was just making his way up all this time. Out of everything that came from this, the only thing we can deduce with certainty is where Camazotz came from… and where all the Titans seemingly came from.”
“The Hollow Earth,” Cadance responded grimly.
The name resonated in the room and left a kind of sickening fog. One that clouded minds, confused hearts, and wearied spirits to the point of fear. A fear of the unknown, because that was what they faced now, especially on foreign soil. It was all unknown. “There are dangers beneath us that we need to investigate,” Shining said.
“Or close up forever,” Bon Bon offered, and Shining didn’t object to it, either.
“It’s a threat we can’t control because we know little to nothing about the Hollow Earth. As for the storm…” the unicorn said, taking in a sharp breath to rise from his seat and walk slowly toward the window. “Digging deeper… no pun intended, our international excavation experts managed to find some very curious paintings deep in a mining shaft in the ancient city of Hakoda, where a cave lied just underneath. Apparently… this wasn’t the first time Camazotz paid our land a visit.
“Ancient tribes back in the day worshipped this ‘Eternal Enemy of the Sun’. More occult practice if anything; blood sacrifice, rituals, anything these paintings and ancient text could tell us. When we assume the Great Cataclysm occurred, when Camazotz retreated into the Hollow Earth, the ancients prophesied an omen to fall upon the land of mortals. An omen from the ‘Dark Titan’, where storms like locusts will devour the sun and plunge the earth into eternal midnight. Well, seems they were half-right.”
Cadance picked up for her husband when she noted his slacking posture, his grumbling voice from lack of sleep. “The storm was not natural, but we may know the cause. When Camazotz broke the seal of the Hollow Earth, that darkness was able to seep into Black Skull Island. Maybe it is an omen of some sort, of… perhaps something darker soon to come. The Hollow Earth has a connection to all of this, and the anomaly of this island as a whole just reinforces the notion that… Black Skull Island is part of the Hollow Earth raised to our realm,” she explained.
There were studies each of the mares had read. Reports, expeditions, theories and everything dating back over forty years ago. Black Skull Island was not a natural ecosystem by any means. Nowhere else on Equus held the vast assortment of flora and fauna that this island contained. The only thing Equus shared with this island were the Titans, and even then Black Skull Island held few. A species of gigantic apes completely unique to the island, the ancient enemy of the island’s inhabitants—the Halakrah, the Skullcrawlers—but not much else.
But what was most concerning of all was that it was just an island. A small piece of landmass when compared to the continents of the world. If Black Skull Island was but a mere taste of the Hollow Earth, then the land above could only dread what truly rested beneath them.
“The nature of the Hollow Earth, its weather, its power… far beyond anything we’ve ever seen. Just like the creatures of Black Skull Island. Just like Kong. This island… there’s nothing else like it on our world,” the Princess of Love finished.
“And now, we face another storm on the horizon,” Shining said, staring out into the sea and seeing the dim bursts of lightning in the black, swirling clouds. “Wonderbolts gave us the confirmation last night after the darkness faded over the island. Remnants of Ghidorah’s hurricane merged with the unnatural weather shrouding Black Skull Island. Its creating a superstorm of unimaginable proportions… and it was only getting worse.”
He sighed heavily, pressing his hoof roughly against the glass. “Doesn’t look like it’s slowing down anytime soon, either.”
Shaking her head, Fluttershy stared at the back of his head. “What does that mean for us?”
Shining quickly turned to face her, breathing deeply, “Means we establish stable communications, build up our defenses, and brace ourselves for the storm of the century. There’re still years of research we need to find in this facility and bring back to the mainland, and bring back everypony who—!”
He forced himself to stop. Cadance stared at him.
“Everypony who… what?” Fluttershy asked.
Much was shared of the island’s expeditions, but not everything. Much was kept from public knowledge, and for good reason. Shining Armor could testify of such things. Instead, he testified, “Storm’s gonna hit these shores soon. We’ll get a crew together to scope out the weather patterns for more accurate information, but for now we need to strengthen this facility.”
Fluttershy was adamant to add, “And a crew to make peace with Kong.”
He grumbled under his breath before meeting her stare. Not her petrifying Stare, but a deepness in his gut warned him not to push her further lest that terror of hers be unleashed. It was only ever used for misbehaving animals, or even Titans as the past year had shown. He knew she wouldn’t use the Stare against her friends, but sometimes he wondered.
He said, “Fluttershy…” and almost immediately stopped. Shining bit his lower lip tight, shaking his head and exhaling heavily. “It’s not gonna be that simple. You can’t just ‘make peace’ with that Titan.”
“Why not?”
Cadance rested her hoof on the Pegasus’ shoulder. “Listen, Fluttershy, there are things you don’t know, things you weren’t told about this creature. You read the reports about the other expeditions, right? About everypony before us who came to this island?” The Pegasus nodded, but the look on her face said she still wasn’t convinced.
“Kong’s dangerous,” Shining grumbled.
He’s… complicated,” Cadance added for recovery’s sake.
Fluttershy stepped away, Cadance’s hoof falling from her shoulder. “How do you know?”
And there it was, backed into a corner with no other way of escape except the truth. Shining and Cadance had a feeling they would have no choice but to speak of it when they were tasked with such a mission, when they would be undoubtedly stepping hoof on Black Skull Island once again. Nopony else who had been with them before even dared to step up, and for good reason. Neither husband or wife could blame them for refusing to join in on Operation Skull.
And as it seemed, Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were the only ponies physically, mentally, and loyally capable of handling such a mission in the first place.
The couple exchanged a glance. They both knew what needed to be said and done. Cadance leaned back and took in a very, very deep breath and let it all out. “It all happened after the honeymoon… when Celestia and Luna themselves recruited us into T.I.T.A.N.”
Artwork by Shrekzilla
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Flashback?
The secret history between Cadence, Shining, and the Monke King will finally be revealed!
(Heh, “Monke King)
Secrets will be revealed
Recruited them into-OH...
You killed Bunyip and didn't even made a artwork revealing his design
Kong should use thunder and lightning to save his birth land
I'm guessing T.I.T.A.N. did the same bomb-dropping that happened in Kong: Skull Island, and now he has a distrust of ponies.
They should drink that flashback potion to know Kong's backstory : "when Kong was a baby, Ramarak and her overpopulated pawns attacked the gorillas to usurp them, Battra heard their roars of pain and saved baby Kong while the gorillas and skullcrawlers killed each other except Ramarak who fled to her underground caves to guard the eggs"
Where is Kong's indigenous friends??? I hope they are a non-pony race like Orangutans, African Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Bears, Elephants, Rhinos, Buffalos, Lions, Smilodons or Mammoths
11394776 Flashback
11394809 At long last!
11394960 At least, the beginnings of the secret...
11394971 Oh yeah...
11395079 Shrekzilla drew a little bit of Bunyip in the last story.
11395203 We'll see
11395458 None confirmed in the MonsterVerse.
11395565
By Kong's indigenous friends I meant the Iwi tribe.
What do you mean by "none confirmed in the monsterverse "??
11395626 I thought you meant like Titans
So I guess Fluttershy is taking KIA’s place as Kong’s little buddy?
11397961 She’ll have quite a big role this time around
Kong was raised by a icarus tigress or something else after the death of his parents?
Ooo, swivel chairs! Can I play with?
Well…sure. Just don’t let it get to your head.
…monkey? Monkey!? I get you’re making an indirect reference to the movie, but he’s an ape!
…and you think weapons will help? If anything, it’s 50-50 on whether the weapon will cause an aggressive action.
Got that right…wait a second, how would you know, exactly?
Ah, seems Fluttershy’s on the same page.
…I’m sorry, what? Did my security clearance get downgraded behind my back when I wasn’t looking? They were here before Ghidorah woke up and messed with everything?
Commentary done, time for review! I may be a Godzilla person (Team Godzilla, woohoo!!), but I do still enjoy Kong. Seeing him clean up after that long, hard fight to keep his crown was nice. The picture even more so. Though I do agree with Fluttershy that bringing weapons for a peaceful contact with Kong may not be the smartest idea. He already seems suspicious of them. I know I would be…
11401030 Oh yeah, Cadance and Shining got quite the history to tell...
11401372
Yeah, I bet.
…still wondering about that security clearance…the Princesses haven’t tried to do that to me for…well, pre-Nightmare Moon. Been a real long time.
All joking aside, I will be looking forward to finding out the story these two have been hiding.
Honestly, I can see Fluttershy playing Jia's role almost perfectly. Her way with animals would help her bond with Kong almost instantly and she'd probably be able to understand him perfectly like most other animals. Plus, considering how close she was to Godzilla in the previous story maybe she could be something of a mediator between them so they'll stop fighting. The one thing I'm not entirely sure of is if she'll be able to teach Kong sign language, since ponies don't have fingers.
11787644 A little bit of Jia and the Kong whisperer doctor in GVK