Frozen North
It was not hubris that guided him. It was not pride, for pride led to folly, and folly to failure. He was not plagued with such lowly desires like the equines were. He swam with a natural, righteous intent. Merciless in his intentions, but true to his nature. The order of the world has been shaken, and he was its great equalizer. So much undone, and he would see to its original state returned.
So when he rose out of the ocean waves, with torrents of freezing water raining from his hide like grand waterfalls, he stomped upon the icy tundra with his intentions cemented in his natural mindset. His emotions, his rage, may have been enflamed, but he would not be sporadic. He would not be careless in the task set before him.
Godzilla had arrived to the Frozen North to see balance return to the world he called home.
Entering into the fold of the cold, Godzilla shook himself free of the thin layer of ice that tried to form on his hide. If the chilling waters weren’t enough, the below-zero temperatures ensured he was coated in an icy blanket. The shards and frost burst from his hide, a short snort leaving his nostrils as the king stomped further onto the land. Observing his surroundings, growling softly in the back of his throat.
The sun sat on the far horizon, hanging in the air and dousing the land in a bright light, that whiteness only elevated by the environment, and cascading all across the Frozen North for as far as his eyes could see. His temperament wanted to cool to compensate for the land—even if his thick hide didn’t allow for the chilling temperatures to bother him—for he saw nothing.
The land was clear. Distant mountain peaks sat within the fog as a soft snowfall shrouded him. In the barren wasteland, it seemed Godzilla was the only beating heart for miles, yet he knew it wasn’t true. The rival had called from the very ground he now walked upon. He had heard it just as clearly as the wind now rushing past him. The wind only grew fiercer, pelting him, screaming against him, so much so that Godzilla finally turned to the source of its ferocity. He stared into the light of the sun.
But soon, even the sun’s light could not pierce the oncoming darkness.
Storm clouds gathered quickly. Faster than they ever should have naturally formed. The shadow draped across the world and made Godzilla’s eyes narrow, his irises burning hotter. He, too, felt the blanket try and smother him, but he stood his ground. Never faltering. Never wavering even as the storm that devoured the skies slowly entombed him.
He stood alone in the darkness. Streaks of golden lightning impacted the ground, eliciting a horrific cry with each impact. The gold was joined by the black, dark bolts coated in a white flame shooting off across the clouds. It was anything but natural, and Godzilla glared to each daring strike encircling him. His breath as hot as a furnace expelled a great steam with every exhale. His tail slowly swayed back and forth and his feet stomped heavier and dug deeper into the earth.
It swirled over his head like a multitude of vipers circling their prey. The darkness was slowly transforming into what could only be resembled as a vast tornado, slowly growing into a ferocious hurricane. His dorsal plates began to glow so very softly, only brightening as the darkness grew thicker. Threatening him, as he threatened it back. Intimidation was on full display as Godzilla spun around again and again, his growls growing heavier. His claws clenched in and out. His eye turned everywhere, anticipating every dark cloud to burst open with his dreaded enemy.
In the eye of the storm, towering high over Godzilla’s head, it opened. The clouds broke apart and Ghidorah fell down. Dive-bombing him in an attack that Ghidorah in no way tried to hide. All three heads gave a vicious war cry as the dragon descended upon his hated foe.
But before he could even make impact, Godzilla reared his head up and fired an atomic beam.
It was so sudden, so unrealistically fast that any other creature would have struck the atomic breath head-on. Yet Ghidorah’s instincts were on another plane of existence. He was not bound to the natural world as Godzilla was. The dark forces flowed with his instincts and Ghidorah was left unscathed. So, when he seamlessly dodged the blast, it almost stunned Godzilla. Not enough to stop him, though.
He kept on the assault, following the evading dragon that nearly impacted the earth. Instead, the Golden Terror spread out his wings and caught flight, soaring mere yards above the ground. Godzilla followed his path with his fiery breath. He circled him, the heat ray slicing the storm in a near-perfect, 360-degree turn. Until Ghidorah got the upper hand with Godzilla turned around. He tried to face the other way, but Ghidorah pounced first. He was faster than before.
And when they struck, Godzilla realized he was more bloodthirsty than before as well.
Just enough to meet Godzilla’s own thirst.
They shambled across the earth, Ghidorah constantly wrapping his tails and necks around Godzilla’s limbs in an effort to constrict him. All while biting, slashing, and clawing at every centimeter of the Titan. Their roars sounded off in a battle with one another. Their voices raged as did their bodies, channeling the furious strength within them and unleashing it upon each other.
As one of Ghidorah’s head bit down on Godzilla’s neck, the king cried out, grasping onto the head and rearing it forward. Only to ram his jaws down and pierce the darkened, golden scales of the invader. The head screamed. The other two shrieked and pelted Godzilla’s back with gravity beams. In his momentum, Godzilla lost his footing from the added weight of the impact against him, and he fell rolling his shoulder.
Crushing the head beneath him, Godzilla rolled outward and fell against the tundra. Ghidorah writhed and squirmed as he too fell, the right head cursing an alien tongue for the weight of the Titan that had just landed on him. Steam erupting from his spine, Godzilla slowly rose, mirroring the movements of the three-headed demon. He pressed his palms and planted his feet into the ice, darting his head in Ghidorah’s direction and growling.
His clubbed tails chattered like a rattlesnake’s, and Ghidorah stood low and defensive. The tips of his wings and claws embedded into the earth, his towering necks low to the ground, he hissed and flicked his forked tongues in an effort to tempt Godzilla forward. He slowly began to slither back. He would not make the next move.
Letting his malicious and vengeful thoughts fuel his actions, Godzilla gave an earth-shattering roar and charged. It was but a moment where he let personal qualms take charge of his duty to restore balance, but if his rage was to be used in order to vanquish the evil, then perhaps Godzilla allowed it. His dead sprint thundered the ground and ripped out mounds of ice and rock. His stampede appeared almost unstoppable, as if not even the mightiest of mountains would have stopped him in his fury-filled state of mind.
All the while, Ghidorah remained unmoved. He waited until Godzilla expelled his wrath and severed the distance between them, and then all three heads gave their cackling roar.
Ghidorah flapped his wings as a mighty gust of frost blew forth across the earth. He kicked off the ground and swung his dual tails forward. Each spiked club connected and sandwiched Godzilla, with his skull in-between their deafening impact. Godzilla froze momentarily, his head leaning back, his eyes almost in a daze as he shambled about. His fury seemingly began to dissipate, and Ghidorah took advantage of his shocked state.
With another flap of his wings, Ghidorah flung himself and tackled Godzilla, his claws latching onto the Usurper’s face. Ultimately, bringing them both onto the ground, Godzilla spines splintering the earth and erecting shards of landmass. Ghidorah wasted no time and proceeded to wrap his tails around Godzilla’s body, rising off the Titan and noting his delirious state.
Only, the second Ghidorah relinquished his claws, Godzilla took in a deep breath and expelled an atomic beam directly onto Ghidorah’s chest. The radioactive ray sliced across the beast’s abdomen and shoulder, eliciting a painful shriek from the dragon and managing to knock him back. Just enough for Godzilla’s tail to slide free.
He rolled, slamming his tail across the demon as he did so. Planted once more on his hands and knees, Godzilla tried desperately to rise. The numbness from his head and the blur from his vision was finally beginning to fade, and he stamped his feet upon the ground once more only to nearly fall flat on his chest when Ghidorah latched onto him.
He stopped him before he could stand up fully. No hesitation. No mercy. Ghidorah knew in his twisted state of mind that he needed to end this fight fast. He gave Godzilla no opportunity to resist and flapped hard, beginning the slow climb up into the heat of the storm and the ferocity of the swirling clouds. As the lightning proceeded to electrocute and tear across Godzilla’s hide, it merely strengthened and fueled Ghidorah.
Illuminating scales almost a glassy black and gold, Ghidorah dug his teeth into the king’s skin. He tried to absorb the atomic power that flooded the veins of the King of the Monsters, and he may have received but a mere taste when his grip was loosened. When his heads cried out in sheer agony as Godzilla’s atomic breath pierce through his wing. He sliced upward, burning the limb to fleshy embers. Both he and the dragon were therefore brought back, landing fiercely into the earth together.
The impact sent shock waves and tremors throughout the Frozen North, impacting the first waves of the ocean and yielding there. Yielding only to the sounds of stillness amidst the chaos. For the eye of the storm seemed once more to be the calm in the madness, as two titular forces of nature and evil proceeded to rise out of the destruction they caused.
Godzilla was the first to rise, intending to end this war now, once and for all. He towered over the wilting and writhing wyvern and planted his foot harshly onto the demon’s spine. A fierce snort left his snout. A weak cry left the maws of Ghidorah. And as he puffed out his chest, his dorsal spines brightening a piercing, blinding blue, Godzilla found himself unable to finish it.
Not when the storm aided. Not when the lightning struck. Not when the Darkness attacked.
The shadows of the storm shot out like foggy tendrils, proceeding to pelt the Usurper with a volley of thunderbolts. Gold and black, the lightning doused Godzilla’s form and caused him to fumble, to raise his arms in defiance and screech out in some vain attempt to ward off the strikes. His hide felt the pain of the lightning tearing across him, yet it wasn’t just his body that was assaulted.
The Darkness itself attacked. Raging through Ghidorah, and now openly attacking Godzilla. It shrouded his wounds and enflamed them. It blackened his vision and choked him. It went for his mind and will and strength and tore everything asunder.
Immobilized now, Godzilla stumbled back and forth and attacked nothing but darkness and light, the shadows and the lightning, and fired his atomic breath into the storm. Now free from the Usurper’s weight, Ghidorah slowly rose and turned, flying in for the final strike. Attacking the disoriented Godzilla with a terrifying, cackling cry leading him.
His first slash swung upward, clawing Godzilla’s chest and chin and punching his head skyward. His second strike, he utilized his entire body, ramming himself into Godzilla and launching the Titan king further back, but he did not fall. Godzilla’s cries elevated into piercing groans, and they only grew worse when Ghidorah pelted him with three gravity beams.
The golden-black bolts of electricity struck Godzilla’s chest and legs, his arms and face, but they didn’t stop there. To Godzilla’s shock, the mouths of the dragon suddenly unhinged, the backs of their throats brightening to a vicious purple. Thus, transforming the chaotic lightning into slim rays of raw power. Three gravity rays, all firing and shredding Godzilla’s hide to bloody ribbons.
Crimson began to fly high and flow down from Godzilla’s desperate but fruitless movements to avoid the attacks. The gravity rays cut across his chest, neck, and finally his legs, removing his mobility. Severing the strength in his limbs. Bringing him once more to the earth with a tremoring impact.
He fell to his side as the rays continued to dig deeper into him, pushing him further across the ice. Until, finally, the mouths of the dragon ceased their assault and the gravity rays died. Standing high and mighty now, Ghidorah raised his wings, both the clean and severed, and glared down upon his wilted foe. Godzilla tried to rise, tried to move, but all he could manage was a weakened cry.
Then, Ghidorah attacked him once more with gravity beams.
Only… these were different. The gravity beams proceeded to miraculously lift Godzilla up. It was as if he was suddenly weightless, the laws of gravity no longer applying to either him or the beams, as the name suggested. Then, when Ghidorah relinquished the assault, he dropped him. Watched him fall and crash into the earth with a deafening crack against the ice and tundra. Perhaps even Godzilla’s own bones. The thought left his wrath unsatiated, and Ghidorah unleashed his beams once more.
And once more, he lifted and dropped him, higher each time, further and further into the earth with each drop. On the final fall, when the wave of snow and frost finally washed past Ghidorah, all he could see left in the crater was a bloodied, broken, and beaten king. He lied motionless, but his eyes continued to move under his slipping eyelids. His mind was practically lost, disoriented in the shadows swarming around him. Some dorsal plates were cracked.
His blood fell upon the snow, and Ghidorah lapped it up on his slithering way to the king.
He constricted him like the serpentine fiend he was, wrapping around his limbs with his tails and necks and ensuring he wouldn’t be able to fight back, let alone break free. Godzilla’s wounded state allowed Ghidorah to act in the way he did, finishing the fight as he was intended to, and then proceeded to drag Godzilla where he always intended and needed to bring him.
Laying him at the feet of the mountain, Ghidorah loosened his grasp and rose up, ensuring at least one foot was planted and keeping Godzilla prone. It seemed, however, that there was not even an act of resilience. It was that failed resilience that Ghidorah absolutely found himself enraptured in, his soft growls emanating sounds of gleeful pride and victory.
He just needed to break the king’s fight, shatter his body, and leave him in a docile-enough state for the Order of the Dragon to finish it.
And now, what was left rested solely on the one wielding the Bell. Ghidorah made that abundantly clear, growling in Emrick’s mind, “Why do you hesitate?”
Standing on the edge of the mountain, Emrick, his Harbingers, and his Order held fast after having witnessed one of the greatest, most colossal battles they had ever seen. Now, with Ghidorah having dragged the wounded Godzilla to the base of the mountain, they were left with the Dragon himself slowly lifting his heads to glare their way.
“What…” Emrick cautiously breathed. “M-my lord… w-what is it you require of—?”
“You’ve always known what was needed. You’ve known what to do. Face it. Allow it to fill your mind and rest in your heart. The Usurper lays before you, Emrick…” Ghidorah softly growled in his mind, the right head flicking down to hiss at the prone king.
“You… you would have me kill—?”
“No,” the Voice declared, all three heads rising up. All three heads staring down at the ponies that called themselves his people. “The world is at war against us now, do you not understand? We caught their eyes, earned the Usurper’s attention, and now they will be hunting. They will be searching… for the one to blame for the fire we left behind. The ones who have seen and felt the fire will know it was us, but they will be drowned out by greater fires. They will be forsaken… and the world beyond will only know and feel the ashes…”
The three heads of Ghidorah slowly turned down to Godzilla. “They will see their king… now their monster… turned against them.”
Emrick said nothing. Neither did the Harbingers, but they couldn’t hear his Voice. Nor could Dahlia or any other within the Order. Just Emrick, and he had nothing to say. “The power of the Bewitching Bell will change the Usurper’s mind to my will. I will turn the world’s wrath and vengeance unto him. I will have them hate their false savior. Only by your own will can this be done.”
Staring down to the talisman resting in his hoof, the Immortal Priest observed the ancient but brilliant design carved across the Bell’s surface. The raw power nestled inside. The same power that resurrected their god, now once more at his command by the command of the same Dragon reborn from its power.
He spoke out into the silence. “The powers of the Bell… The powers of the Darkness…”
His voice was soft and his mind was racing. None of what they were doing was prophecy. The Above was prophesied to feel their wrath, but the Usurper brought to them by their own god… now Ghidorah demanding him to unleash its power onto Godzilla…
This was not what the ancients foretold. Ghidorah was their star fallen from the heavens, their rise to a more unified ideal of life, or even death if Ghidorah deemed it so. What was taken from them would be returned to them, even if all the earth should be razed, it would be reborn. It was as they were promised. As they worshipped. As their faith proclaimed, and yet this… was not prophecy. This did not seem like order.
This only seemed like more fire to spread.
As if reading his mind, Ghidorah hissed, “Your ancestors followed out of fear, not faith. Believing their fear and worship would spare them of my wrath when I returned. If it is death you seek, I will gratefully supply it… just as your fathers and grandfathers.”
Emrick shakily raised his head, his eyes, from the Bell. Instead, he lifted them high into the pale-white and flaming eyes of the Dragon nearing him by second. Crushing him by spirit further and further with only his glare. With only the powers of the Darkness.
With just his Voice. “But… you are not your fathers. You are not your grandfathers. You do not worship out of fear. You follow what you know…”
“… is right,” Emrick finished, and Ghidorah was pleased to hear his thoughts be shared. Raising the Bell, Emrick gave the talisman of doom one last reassuring look before gazing back up to his god. “This is the path forward, my lord.”
Approaching the edge of the mountain, his hooves scraping mere snowflakes off to the slopes down below, Emrick halted at once. Getting as close as he possibly could, seeing as much of the Usurper as was feasible. Godzilla was still docile, still recovering from his wounds. But he wouldn’t be for long. Soon, he would rise again, and that wrath would consume them all the longer he did nothing.
Remembering the words of his master, Emrick slowly raised the Bell. Higher than his hoof could manage, and then he lifted it with his magic the rest of the way. Until it shuddered and started to glow far off from the mountain’s edge and hanging high above in the frozen air. Until, even then, its power was contained. Until, Emrick let go. Let go of the fear, the doubt, and believed.
He fired a burst of dark magic from his horn onto the Bell, and it chimed.
Just once.
Absorbing that power, strengthening it, and rebounding the Darkness down onto the head of the fallen king. Even in his weakened state, Godzilla still cried out. He thrashed about, opening his jaws to their greatest length and unleashing a tremoring, agonizing, torturous yell into the sky. Ghidorah kept him planted firm, watching him struggle, watching the Darkness take hold. Finding some sick pleasure of watching his foe suffer as he had suffered.
The power of the Bewitching Bell, the powers of the Darkness combined, all of it had finally broken his fight and taken hold. And Godzilla rested. Not a movement more. Hardly even a breath.
“Your faith… is well, my Emrick.”
Bringing the Bell back to him, Emrick could stare nowhere else but onto the unmoving form of their hated enemy. The Usurper, feared in legends passed from generation to generation, now falling at the hooves of their own High Priest was cause for victory. For celebration, even! But noting the lack of smiles on any within the Order—he especially lingered on Dahlia's frozen, agape look—Emrick nonetheless managed to breathe out a small smile.
“I will trust your judgement,” he said.
“Time is short now. We must move.”
“What of the Usurper?” Emrick called out, watching the Dragon lift his foot from Godzilla’s form and stomp toward them instead. “We leave him here?”
“All will be made well soon. This was but the next necessary step. The world will return to its original state… before this hierarchy of power damned it,” the Voice proclaimed. Ghidorah hissed, raising his right wing burned and severed from his limb. “And now… the next necessary step: I must rest… and heal… down Below…”
Emrick furrowed his brow, his breath getting heavy. “If we return to Equestria, we will surely be attacked!”
“I have no intention of returning to Equestria. I know of another entrance to the Below… here… in the Frozen North,” Ghidorah replied, his Voice echoing loudly in Emrick’s eardrums. The Three-Headed Tyrant turned to the unforeseeable fogs in the distance. Further north. Further into the chilling death.
And said, “The abyss where I was left behind. Where they trapped me. Once a prison that failed to keep me, they have crafted another prison to hide away the true power of this world. We cannot be seen... and we won't. There is another entrance, far beyond this frozen hellscape. Far beyond the knowledge of this world. That... is how we will find our way home.”
That was their journey, their path from that point forward. Finding their way onto the left wing, onto the back of their god, and then flying further into the depths of the Frozen North and even beyond it… where their destination lied. Beyond the abyss where their god was forsaken, abandoned, and left behind for the world to move on without him. Beyond to where even the Occult did not know.
They, in turn, left behind the fallen King of the Monsters. His body unmoving, his eyes closed, his breaths so soft they seemed almost uncharacteristic of him.
But in his mind, there was a chaos brewing. A shadow that draped over his will, his conscience, and entombed his mind, heart, and soul in a land of utter gloom. A deep shadow in which he saw nothing, but heard only one order, one Voice, that shined as the Darkness.
Great chapter
https://youtu.be/z-tg8wsKCr4
Another good chapter and things are really starting to pick up now.
Something I really like about your stories is that you remember that the kaijus are also characters and not just big stupid beasts that smash things. Both Godzilla and Ghidorah clearly show their personalities here. Godzilla is the guardian of the ballans, he takes his job very seriously and he has clearly gained the experience through the ages. He knew the danger of overconfidence and also of letting hatred darken your vision. It's interesting that it's Ghidorah who can make him make that mistake. That really shows that these two have a really long and bitter history.
Ghidorah really shows here how cruel he is. I suspected he was going to win this fight, but that he was going to use the bell to control Godzilla... I didn't see that coming. Again, that really shows how much those two hate each other because it's not enough for Ghidorah to just kill Godzilla. No, he first wants to make sure that Godzilla destroys the world he has fought for, for so long.
I assume this will be why Godzilla will go on a rampage. I also suspect that Ghidorah will later regret not killing Godzilla now. He may be under the bell's influence now, but if I know the King of the Monsters a little, he'll eventually put his mind back to the right place.
Ghidorah's followers also seem to be starting to have their doubts. I wonder if they will have an arc where they will eventually turn against their God.
I'm especially curious about Dahlia since, other than the high priest, she's the only one of the cult we've gotten to know a bit.
Look forward to the next chapter.
We're dead. So very. Very. Dead.
Its about to get bad now, Godzilla wont be able to control himself, Equestria in trouble.........terrible trouble
I love stories where Ghidorah plays puppet master instead of the other way around. But for Godzilla to fall under his thrall? Now that's an exciting, but terrifying twist I didn't see coming. Now, at least, we'll have an excuse for Kong to fight Godzilla. But not before Ghidorah makes Godzilla kill, and destroy much in the process. He really is a cruel and malicious SOB, isn't he?
Ok, now we need Kong, the world needs him.
Ghidorah you sick bastard!
My King don’t let Ghidorah use you as a puppet you’re stronger than this (Don’t Pull a Showa!)
JD I hope at some point you’ll let Godzilla fight off the enchantment cause one of his greatest strengths above all else is his unbreakable will.
11520954
11521081 Badass
11521092 Great insight! I love delving deeper into the personalities and mindsets of the kaiju, because as you said, they're not just dumb beasts that fight each other (even if we do love the fighting lol). They have layers to them, and even though I don't want to verbally communicate their thoughts, I can still express who they are how they feel. And yeah, glad you're paying attention to the Occult. They've got some beef to settle, and some that'll shatter their whole worldview
11521150
11521154 Not just Equestria...
11521355 Seeing how it's all coming together? Time for the world to realize how much they need Kong.
11521397 I finally got the excuse to use this line now
11521399 You'll see Goji fighting an internal battle throughout the story, as well as an external war.
Indeed I am. ; ) And i'd say the world needs him now more than ever. :D
11521708
Yeah well I really want to see him win in the end of said internal battle and external war.
...NOT GOOD.
●maybe the Changelings of Battra are watching everything disguised as animals
●maybe Xiliens or Cryogs kidnapped and studied Changelings until they learned how to mimic their shape shifting abilities and now they are disguised as Equestrians and manipulating Shatter Heart and the haters of Godzilla
The alicorns should drink that flashback potion from season four premiere to see how the war between apes and lizards started, how Godzilla's parents or mate were murdered by apes, the day Ghidorah arrived on Equus looking for hollow-earth core energy, how Kong lost his troop and then was adopted by a Spirit Tigress, Garm 🐺, Sanda and Gaira (baboons), Anguirus or Baragon until he lost it too and meet the Iwi monkeys (just theorizing)
Ah, the classic alien controlling Godzilla trope. Well technically it’s a creepy cult doing it, but Ghidorah an alien so it counts. So that’s why Godzilla fights among even after Ghidorah is revived.
Though didn’t Shy and the others hear Ghidorah’s alpha call at Skull Island? Wouldn’t they know something is up.
11524060 They’d know something was wrong. They just don’t know anything for certain
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Oh wait, I just remembered the Mechagodzilla pilots. I’m pretty sure they didn’t die, so wouldn’t they know about Ghidorah?
11524430 Not sure they even knew what they fought.
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I mean, I feel they would at least know it wasn’t Godzilla.
11524612 They definitely know it wasn't Godzilla.
Looks at continuously growing reading list
I just don’t have time for the long, detailed review commentaries now, gonna have to do short and condensed ones from here on.
That said, my worst fears came true. Ghidorah’s new form has granted him new strength and abilities that were unexpected. Now, I can only hope Godzilla’s formidable will can triumph against this inner demon unleashed on him…even if it needs a helping hand.
No, it can't be! Ghidorah's using the Bewitching Bell to control Godzilla! But how's that possible?!
But this at least explains how the "Godzilla is attacking" plot will play out here. It's because he is being controlled into looking like a monster by going on an unprovoked rampage. That also means Fluttershy can't just talk to him like I thought she could.
You're the only Usurper here, Ghidorah!
11856149 The relationship between Ghidorah and the Bewitching Bell is much more twisted than you might be thinking