Humanity's Stand

Incredulous Questions

A panicked gasp sounded from a woman's lips as the mound of debris beneath her shifted dangerously. She held perfectly still, muttering a silent prayer to herself as the pile of wood, drywall, concrete and fluffy pink insulation stabilized. The woman chuckled at the thought of a certain pink being's reaction to such a situation and calmed down significantly. She let out a sigh of relief as she pushed some of her dark red hair out of her eyes and started to pick out a path down to the ground. Her footing was nearly lost once again when she heard a familiar shout and looked in the direction of the sound.

"Hey Lauren, are you alright?" A tall, curly haired man appeared from behind a partially collapsed wall and made a beeline over to the woman. "I heard something falling."

"I'm fine Craig," Lauren said as she slid down the last few feet on a mostly intact wooden beam. "Just had to get a view of our surroundings."

"How's it look?" Craig asked as he wiped some dust off of his wife's shoulders, much to her amusement.

"It's bad, but it could have been a whole lot worse." The red head waved her arm in the direction of the swath of destruction that lay behind them.

According to the news reports they had both read on the plane flight here, the large saurian kaiju Agon had shown up from a nearby beach and promptly started wreaking havoc with the small town of San Simeon on the California coast. Almost as soon as he arrived, however, the Earth Defender Manda had dragged her enemy by the tail back out to sea through the air before engaging him in combat. Nobody actually saw the fight, but GDF reports stated that Agon had been successfully driven off at the cost of a broken forelimb for Manda. Saurians, even weaker ones like Agon, were not to be trifled with. Now, everyone from members of the National Guard to local volunteer forces was scrabbling all over the damaged town, trying to catalog the damage and start the long process of rebuilding.

Craig sighed as he looked around at the destroyed house they were standing in. "Still pretty bad though." They both stood in a moment of silence, remembering the lives that had been lost. "So," Craig asked, "any particular plans here, or just the normal run-though?"

Lauren was about to answer when they both heard someone coughing nearby. Husband and wife sprang into action, searching underneath every board and beam for the source of the noise. Eventually Lauren found the originator, a small, brown skinned girl who had to be barely more than five years old. She was trapped under a large piece of drywall, though thankfully she appeared to be unharmed. The red headed woman reached under the offending debris and heaved with all her might, but it refused to budge. "Craig," she called out, "a little help here?"

Her husband showed up almost immediately and quickly lifted the wall and threw it off to the side. There weren't many times Lauren reflected on her husband's hybrid ancestry, but it did have its occasional uses. Once the girl was free Lauren reached down and pulled her out, releasing a small cloud of dust along with her. After everyone had cleared their throats with a round of coughing, Lauren gently set the girl on the ground and asked, "Are you alright little one?"

The girl nodded hesitantly and looked down at her lap. She then suddenly scrambled over to the hole she had been trapped in and reached down into it, trying to grab something. "What's wrong dear?" Lauren asked as she crouched down next to the girl. "What are you looking for?"

The child looked up at her petulantly and cried, "Want Twily! Twily aqui!"

Lauren had an idea of what the girl was talking about and said, "You stay here and I'll go get it okay?" She nodded her understanding and crawled over the Craig, who was sitting down on a pile of broken wood. Lauren carefully dropped down into the hole and rummaged in the dust, her hands searching for what she suspected would be a familiar shape. Sure enough after a moment she found a small cloth doll, one covered in dust and with more than a few stain on it, but it was still a recognizable equine. Lauren smiled to herself, then climbed out of the hole and made her way to the little girl, who was playing patty cake with Craig. "Is this what you were looking for honey?"

The girl looked at Lauren and her face lit up upon seeing the doll. "Twily! Estas bien!" She hugged the doll close to her, the rest of the world lost to her in that moment.

"You know," Lauren said, "I actually know Twily quite well."

"Really?" Lauren would swear that she could see the girl's eyes shimmering, though that may have just been some of the leftover tears of joy.

"Yes. She's one of my best friends. In fact I'd say I know her better than anyone." Craig covered his mouth to stifle his chuckling, while Lauren sent him a look that said 'hush you'.

The girl looked down at her doll in awe, but then her face fell as she asked, "What about Mama y Papa? Donde estan?"

Lauren bit her lip, worried that this story may not have a happy ending. When she saw how scared the little girl was though, she steeled herself and said. "Don't worry. We'll help you find them, won't we Craig?" The curly haired man nodded and stood up, pulling out his radio to contact the refugee camp being set up on the beach. While he did that, Lauren asked, "What's your name dear?"

"Maria," said answered quietly.

"Well Maria," she said the last loudly enough for Craig to hear, which he added into his report, "do you want me to tell you a story about Twily?"

"Si, si!"

Lauren smiled at little Maria and sat down on the ground next to her, back up against a still standing piece of wall. "Once, when Twily was still a young filly, she got separated from her parents during Nightmare Night. She was really scared and didn't know what to do. She spent hours wandering around Canterlot, with no idea where to look for her family. Then, to her great surprise, who should she meet but Princess Celestia herself!"

Maria was hanging on her every word, gazing at her in sheer awe. "What did she do?"

"Well the Princess saw that one of her ponies was sad and asked her what was wrong, and when she learned of how Twilight had gotten lost, she decided to help her find her family. It took them most of the night, but they finally found them, and everyone was happy again. Twily tried to thank the Princess for helping, but Celestia was just happy her ponies were happy. And after that, Celestia bought the night to an end and let the day begin again. It was because of that day that Twily grew to look at Celestia as her hero, and did her very best to live up to her example. That is why Twily is so strong, because she worked hard to be the best she could. And one day, many years later, her hero looked back at her but she didn't see a child."

"What did she see?" Maria asked.

Lauren smiled. "She saw a friend."

Just then Lauren heard a shout from Craig, causing her to look up and see her husband pointing at two people approaching them. "I bet that's your parents right now. Why don't you go say hi to them?"

"Mama! Papa!" Maria ran over to them as fast as her exhausted legs could carry her, Lauren and Craig following closely behind.

"That was a great story Laur," Craig said with pride. "Maybe you should put that in the new season."

The red head laughed and replied, "If I can find the room for it. Most of the season is already planned out. I might be able to fit it in, maybe in a breather episode or as a flashback."

"What would be the lesson in it then?" Craig lifted a beam that Maria had simply run under, allowing his wife to pass underneath.

"How about that, even though your mentor is a major part of your life, you can't forget that it's your life to live and that sometimes you have to let those you look up to just be your friend. You know what, I am going to put that in. It would be a good way to show Twilight's humility after all that craziness with Tirek."

The couple paused in their conversation when they heard Maira say, "You're not mis padres."

The taller of the two people, an Asian man with untamed black hair and dark eyes, ignored the girl at his feet and said, "Are you Lauren Faust?"

"Yes," Lauren called out. "Who's asking?"

The man's stern gaze sharpened as he said, "Major Kazama Kosugi, second in command to Colonel Ozaki and head of the Hybrid Combat Teams. Your presence is required at GDF headquarters in Hong Kong."

"What for?" Craig questioned as he sized up the Major. The hybrid soldier was wearing an all-black outfit with translucent, plastic looking armor pieces strapped to various points around his body. His numerous pouches and pockets bulged with various weapons and ammunition, including a nasty looking dagger. Craig had plenty of experience with his own hybrid abilities, which Lauren had used as inspiration for the Earth pony species' subtle strength, but he somehow knew that this Kazama could break him over his knee without even a sweat.

The other man, who was slightly shorter with wavy brown hair and a warm gaze, said, "We've found some interesting information that requires your assistance in interpreting." He looked apologetic as he continued, "I know that you want to stay here and aid in the rebuilding effort, but this is very important. You are the only one who can help us."

Lauren folded her arms over her chest, glaring at the two men. "Why me? What could I possibly know that's related to anything the GDF would be worrying about?"

The kinder one rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish look on his face. "It's… hard to explain. But honestly we do need your help."

"And I don't think two missing volunteers is going to matter all that much," Kazama said dismissively.

Craig growled at the other hybrid, but calmed when Lauren placed her hand on his shoulder. "Fine," she finally said. "I will go with you…" Kazama nodded and the other agent breathed a sigh of relief. "… after I help this little girl find her family."

The soldier groaned in annoyance and kicked at a piece of wall, which was pulverized into dust at the contact. The brown haired man however just crouched down to look Maria in the eyes and asked, "Could you think about parent's please dear?"

"Okay," she said and then closed her eyes, concentrating.

The man smiled and held a hand up to his heard, placing two fingers against his temple, and adopted his own focused concentration. After a moment he opened his eyes and stood, saying, "I don't think finding her parents will take very long."

"How do you figure that?" Craig asked.

"MARIA!" Everyone turned to where the shout had come from, all but one surprised to see a man and woman running through the crushed houses at full tilt. Maria got up and started running to them as well, her doll flopping back and forth in her hand as she called out, "Mama! Papa!"

Lauren turned to the brown haired agent and asked, "How… how did you…"

He just smiled and said, "Telepathy has plenty of uses, but it works best when you have the person's permission."

She turned back to the family, who were locked into a group hug and crying tears of joy. Lauren looked back at the revealed telepath and said, "Thank you so much Mister…?"

"Xavier," he said while holding out a hand. "Charles Xavier. Pleased to meet you."

Lauren shook his hand gladly and was about to thank him again when she heard little Maria say, "Lady! Hey lady." She turned to the little girl, who was waving at her wildly, urging her to come over. Lauren laughed and said to Charles, "If you'll excuse me for a moment."

Lauren walked over to the family, her grin only getting bigger as the two parents started thanking her profusely in rapid fire Spanish. But best of all for her was seeing the little girl gazing up at her in pure joy, her eyes blazing with happiness. That smile, that expression of hope, that face saying that maybe there was more to the world than just unending darkness. That was what Lauren lived for.

"Just like your story lady," Maria said with a flourish. She held up her tattered Twilight doll and asked, "Does this mean I like Twily?"

Lauren nodded and said, "Yes dear, just like Twily."

Maria's smiled widened and she hugged the doll again. Then she looked up at Lauren and asked, "Will I ever see you again?"

Lauren patted the girl's head and said, "Just keep watching my show dear. I'll be there whenever you need me."

Maria wrapped around Lauren in an impressive bear hug for such a small girl then waved goodbye as Lauren walked back to the two GDF agents. Lauren waved back, glad in her heart that she had been able to help that family get back together. Now if only she could figure out just what the Global Defense Force wanted with a semi-famous animation director for a little girl's show.

---

Let me get this straight. You swam over one thousand miles at the fastest speed you have ever done, on minimal sleep and energy, just to tell the GDF that Godzilla and the others had turned into ponies?

Zilla glared at Gamera in annoyance. Didn't I just get through explaining this to you?

Zilla went back to eating from his huge pile of fish, leaving Gamera to chuckle to himself. The turtle guardian had been sleeping calmly back on Solgell island when he felt the physic call from Miki. The turbulent feeling behind the telepath's thoughts had prompted Gamera to leave immediately, but by the time he'd arrived she had calmed and redirected the kaiju to where Zilla was currently resting. Now the two giant reptiles were sitting peacefully on a mountain near the Shatterdome, the younger one wolfing down hundreds of pounds worth of fish with each bite. You sure do eat a lot of fish don't you? Gamera asked with a smile.

Zilla paused in his meal to retort, Well excuse me mister Mana-being, but not all of us can subsist solely on the background energy of the universe. Besides, I usually eat whales or the occasional Kamoebas when I can. And if the GDF is kind enough to give me a few tons of leftover fish, then I'm not going to complain.

Gamera laughed a bit and fell silent, letting his friend chomp down on the tiny dead creatures. I still do not understand what all the fuss is about. Sure, the thought of our friends being shrunk down to tiny colorful mammals is amusing, but it does not seems to be a major problem.

It's not that Godzilla is now a pony that has everyone worked up, Zilla said after a particularly large gulp, though I'm pretty sure several of them are laughing their asses off at the thought of it. What's really strange is that the world that they are in exists here, in our universe, as a children's TV show! Do you know how impossibly unlikely it is that, out of everywhere our friends could have ended up, they landed in a place that humans made up for the sake of entertainment?

Gamera placed his hand on his chin in thought. When you put it like that, it does seem rather odd.

Too odd. Zilla snapped up the last of his fish in a flash and let out a mighty belch which knocked over several of the young trees on the slope. Some of the scientists think that this is too unlikely a coincidence to have just happened naturally. They suspect that someone, or something, may have deliberately sent them to Equestria, though how or why, no one knows. The satisfied saurian laid down on the ground and curled up his tail. Combine that with the hijacked Dimension Tide shots and some of the humans are feeling pretty skittish right now.

But why? What possible purpose would anyone have for sending our friends to such a place?

Zilla shook his head and said, I don't know, but I get the feeling that whatever it is, it can't be good. Both kaiju fell silent, contemplating and worrying about the unknown.

Sometime later, the two kaiju heard a stir of sound down below them. A large tiltjet was approaching the upper landing pad.

What do you figure that's about? Zilla asked.

You said they were bringing in experts to try to explain more about Equestria, correct? Perhaps that is them.

Zilla nodded comfortably before settling back down for sleep.

---

"So who exactly are we meeting again?" Paterson asked as he shrugged on his ballistic vest over his security uniform. A helmet soon followed, the drab gray plastic covering up his carefully groomed blonde locks.

Sarah groaned at her chronically inattentive partner. "Did you even hear anything the Captain was saying in the briefing? You know, the one that just ended?" She was already fully dressed for the mission, though some of her chocolate brown hair still managed to sneak past her forehead and hang in front of her eyes. Just the way she liked it.

"Oh come on Sarah, you know what Pat's like," Amanda admonished as she swapped out her ordinary sneakers for soldier's boots. "As soon as he hears the words 'Escort Mission' his ears turn off."

The other woman just rolled her eyes and turned back to Pat, who was busy wiping some nonexistent dust off of his arms' armor panels. "One of these day's we're going to get an actual combat mission based around escorting a VIP, and you are going to get your sorry ass killed because you weren't paying attention."

Pat held up a hand to his ear and said loudly, "I'm sorry, what was that? I couldn't hear you. My ears are turned off. Not sure how that happened."

Sarah responded by throwing an empty pistol clip at him, while Amada just laughed at their antics. Then a loud voice shouted from the entrance, "If you kiddies are done messing around, then maybe we can get to work."

Pat was the first to react, instantly standing ramrod straight with a salute and yelling, "Captain on deck!" The other two stared slack-jawed at the officer for a moment before they recovered and mimicked their partner's pose.

"If I recall correctly that is a naval phrase, and I don't believe any of you are in the marines." Captain Gondo walked into the room, his permanent smirk doing its thing and putting the soldiers at ease. He was a large man, easily over six feet tall, and bulky enough to outsize the female members of the squad by nearly double. Despite that, he was a very easy-going guy, always ready for a quick word or a snappy joke. He also routinely defeated every other guard in the simulation trainer, along with many of the jaeger pilots (solo and in teams), and even some of the hybrids. When your job is to guard a base that was full of hybrid special forces, telepaths, and all sorts of new weapons tech, you tend to have a lot of free training time on your hands.

Pat smiled cheekily and said, "Well that's obvious sir. We're way too skilled to be marines."

Gondo laughed and slapped the young man's shoulder, staggering him slightly. "Damn right. No soldiers under my command will ever be as pathetic and useless as a marine. Isn't that right!?"

"Sir, yes sir!"

"Good to hear. Now," he said as he waltzed around them to his own locker at the back of the changing room, "if you're still confused at all about who we are after…"

Both girls glared playfully at Pat, who whistled innocently under the stares.

"…then allow me to enlighten you." He pulled out a small pocket tablet and tapped the screen a few times. He then turned the device around and showed his team a picture. The woman in the picture had deep red hair and a kindly face holding a slew of big headed girl's dolls in her arms. "This, ladies and Pat, is Lauren Faust, creator of the children's TV show My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. We're bringing her in for… consultations."

Sarah gaped at her commander in utter bewilderment, while the other two squad members looked as though Christmas had come early.

"Bu… but why? Sarah sputtered. "Why the hell… I don't…"

Pat was practically hopping in place by this point. "Oh this is fantastic! I have sooo many questions for her. Do you think I can get her autograph?"

"Wait, you actually watch that crap?" Sarah asked.

Both Pat and Amada glared at their friend while Pat said, "It is not crap, Sarah. It is a wonderful show full of excellent characters, beautiful animation, and teaches meaningful lessons about friendship and harmony."

Sarah held out her arms in confusion and said, "But it's a girl's show! A little girl's show! About ponies!"

Amanda folded her arms and said, "There is no age limit on watching the show, and no reason grow-ups can't enjoy it just as much as our children can."

Latching onto what Amanda had just said, Sarah tried to clarify, "So you just watch it with your kids then?"

"Well that's how it started," Pat said, "but over time I just started to like it on my own. Heck, I'd say I'm a bigger fan than my daughter at this point."

Sarah just stared back, at a complete loss for words. Amanda rolled her eyes at her squad mates and asked Gondo, "What do you think Cap?"

Gondo just shrugged, almost completely dressed in his combat uniform, and answered, "I don't watch much TV. Besides, I'm more impressed with the woman's philanthropy career. According to UN records she and her husband have donated over twenty million dollars to various charity organizations around the world, and have gone on forty different volunteer missions to places damaged by kaiju attacks and even natural disasters. She's had enough medical training to be a one woman Red Cross, and her husband is apparently an excellent organizer." He smiled at the stunned looks of the squad. "One thing's for sure. This is a woman on a mission, and she'll go through hell or high water to get it done."

The Captain finished the last few straps on his gun belt and said, "Alright I think that's enough yapping for now. Let's get on up to the upper landing pad." With that, the small squad picked up their rifles, safeties on of course, and made their way to the elevator at the end of the hall. After they piled in and started up, Amada turned to her CO and asked, "Why exactly are we bringing Lauren in sir? Not that I'm complaining, it would be awesome to meet her, but what use could the GDF have for her?"

"You know, I could have sworn I just said no yapping." Amanda raised her eyebrow at the man, and he relented with a grunt. "Fine, but you didn't hear this from me. Is that clear?" Everyone in the elevator nodded their accent. "Alright, you all remember how Dimension Tide was used on Solgell to kill Xenilla and Destroyah? Well as it turns out those black holes it fires don't kill their target, they just transport it to another universe. And I'll give you one guess where all them Kaiju ended up."

The entire squad gaped at him, bemusement and confusion evident on their faces. "You can't be serious," Sarah said.

"Oh I'm serious. And it gets better. Apparently the monsters aren't even in their actual forms. They've been turned into ponies themselves."

More silence ensued, until Pat suddenly started laughing so hard he could barely stay standing. "You… ha ha… you mean to tell me that Godzilla, King of the Fucking Monsters, is now a tiny little pony? Ahahahaha."

"It is pretty ridiculous, isn't it?" Gondo said with a chuckle. "But weird or not, it is what happened, so we need to know everything we can about where they ended up."

"Why?" Amanda asked. "If the monsters are in Equestria, then they can't be a threat to us, and there's no way for them to get home right?"

Gondo shook his head. "According to what Zilla and Gamera told us, they just might be able to come home. Depends on if they can get the local magic to work hard enough. That and the worries some of the scientists have about the other monsters that were struck with the DT. There's no telling where they ended up, so getting Godzilla and the other Earth Defenders back would be extremely helpful. And goddamn these elevators are slow!"

They all laughed, all intimately familiar with the snail-like pace of the elevators during non-critical periods to save on maintenance problems. When they needed to, these lifts could push themselves to ludicrous speeds, but doing so played hell with the electromagnets that ran them. Finally, the bell dinged and the doors opened onto the hallway leading to the landing pad. Everyone took up their rifles and marched down the hall, Captain Gondo at the head. "Try to be polite kiddies. And save your fan-girling for after her meeting with Command."

The doors opened and the squad emptied out onto the pad. This pad was much smaller than the one down below, meant for transporting important persons securely into the facility. There were only a few technicians waiting outside, ready to refuel the transport for immediate departure if necessary. "How soon till the plane gets here?" Gondo questioned one of the techs.

The man, a Hong Kong local, responded in quick Mandarin, which Gondo quickly translated.

"Just a few minutes he says." They all gather together in the center of the pad, and sure enough there was soon the sound of jet exhaust approaching. The tilt-jet turned in to land, waves of hot air washing over the squad as it set down. They all stood at attention as the side door of the vehicle opened and the occupants spilled out. At the head of the group was a woman with the same red hair as in the picture.

"Miss Faust, welcome to the Shatterdome. If you'll please follow us, we'll take you to Command and we can get started right away."

"Of course," she said firmly.

With that the group turned and began to head back inside. Then a series of gun shots rang out. Gondo was the first to react, whirling around in an instant with his rifle trained toward the sound, only to run face-first into the barrel of a pistol. The other squad members didn't have much more of a chance as they were tackled to the ground and forcibly separated from their weapons. A quick look confirmed that the technicians had been killed without warning or remorse, something that angered Gondo greatly. The squad was quickly disarmed and stripped of all ammo, then cuffed and dragged together.

"Who the fuck are you?" Pat screamed in rage. "What do you want?"

The enemy soldiers removed covers on their shoulders, revealing a patch with a blood red sun emblazoned with fire. The woman at the head tore off the wig she was wearing, letting her dark black hair fall free. She grinned with a predatory smile and said, "We are the Red Dawn, harbingers of the will of our gods, and we will now use humanity's worst offense to cleanse this corrupt race from the world." Her gaze turned to Gondo, and she leaned in close to him, saying, "Lead us to Dimension Tide."

---

A/N: Flame in. Hello everyone and welcome back to Humanity's Stand. Why yes, MLP: FiM does exist in this universe. How very interesting. What are the odds of that? Its almost as if someone was watching human civilization and deliberately manipulated the DT to send whatever was hit there. But come on, that's just idle speculation right? Right? I think you guys can see why there were many 'why's being thrown around in here. And before anyone asks, no mutants (X-men mutants at least) do not exist here. I'm just using Charles' name because its easy to recognize. Gondo is one of the heroes from Godzilla vs Biolante, and the second most badass normal human in the Godzillaverse, after Gordon of course. And as for these here terrorists at the end, well basically just picture an animal-rights group who worship Kaiju as gods and believe humans are a blight that needs to be erased. And they had covert support from Kaiju war profiteers all over the world. After all, the longer the Kaiju war goes, the more they profit. Next chapter the GDF will have to fight a war within that threatens to ruin the End War before it can begin. BlazingPhoenix17 flame out.