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“What do you remember?”

“…You all. Past that? Nothing concrete, more like feelings than memories. Fear, sadness, cold, grief. Is that… ?”

Rarity finished his sentence for him, “Normal. Sorry to say, darling, but it won’t be fully going away anytime soon.”

Junior frowned and shrugged, giving the dark mass sealed in the cutiemark containment jar Rarity was keeping in her saddlebag an idle glance. The situation had calmed down significantly, even if the group hadn’t removed themselves from the now smoldering wreck that had once been a town before Nightmare Godzilla carved and burned a path of destruction through it. Xenilla and Starlight Glimmer still hadn’t regained consciousness from exhaustion, Night Glider was making use of her restored flight speed and strength, scouting out the best route to take everypony down from the plateau safely. Moonbeam Glimmer, having taken some medical training alongside her psychology studies, was giving the two incapacitated ponies check overs. Poor Chibi Moon, who hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep after a long night of training and then foalnapping, was currently curled up between Rarity and her sensei, still not daring to take her hooves off the latter’s forelimb.

Rarity sighed, “Nightmare brings out the worst one can fear. The important thing is knowing it’s not the real you. I was lucky that my little sister and my friends managed to ‘chink the armor’ as it were and help me break free."

Rarity glanced over to see Junior looking at her with an unreadable expression. Odd in tone as it was, she could at least take comfort in that it contrasted like night and day with the nightmarish echo she’d seen. Junior pitched his head down at the resting Chibi Moon nestled between them, then at Xenilla, Moonbeam, and then back to Rarity. He gave a subtle nod that gradually begat a tiny, but warm smile.

“And I was lucky for others to set the example for me… If there is something I can do to make up for-!”, he was cut off by Rarity tapping a hoof to his muzzle.

She flashed a stern visage, “Don’t you start pitying yourself again now, I don’t dare risk the thought it could draw out and get this fiend free again… Listen, this?”

She motioned to the destroyed town, something that gave Junior much more pause than her. On Terra a wrecked town meant wrecked lives, but in Equestria it was less so. This sort of thing happened to Ponyville at least twice a year anyways.

“It’s just possessions, it can be replaced. Lives can’t. And before you go off worrying on our account, you certainly have a much higher track record of saving lives than taking them!”, she punctuated her tone with giving Junior a playful whack across his sternum; expressing mild surprise at the deep ‘thumd’ sound that indicated just how dense he was.

“My… my you are dense.”

Junior just nodded, “Captain Frost said same thing once.”

“… Right. Point is, you ultimately beat it. Not us, even if we did give you some push of course.”

Junior sighed, but wasn’t one to leave a note unfinished.

“Just like you confronted and sealed Nightmare more or less by yourself… With ‘some push of course’…”, he muttered with a slight tease in his tone while mimicking her words, “Even humans who know I mean them no harm run in terror the moment I show up. You saw me specifically on a rampage and stood your ground. And that’s on top of confronting Nightmare, something I can’t imagine you’d be too fond of. Never underestimate yourself, Lady Rarity.”

Rarity pursed her lips and let her ears flop against her head in a small moment of bashfulness at the praise, capped off by the ‘Lady’ title. She didn’t care whether it was Junior just mimicking what Luna addressed her as, or if it was earnest praise.

“Oh please, I was only able to capture Nightmare with Princess Luna’s aid and teachings!”

“You’re still the one to succeed with the spell, and against something I recall you justifiably being disturbed by. Tonight will only end as well as it did because many pitched in,” Junior noted solemnly while looking over their group. Had fate handed him any other party… he much preferred to not consider that scenario.

Thankfully a playful nudge by Rarity derailed the stubborn thought.

“As a good friend of mine once said, the most powerful thing in Equestria is magic; and friendship is magic after all.”

Junior chuckled, unable to argue with that logic, and relaxed.

Godzilla Junior gently nuzzled the top of Chibi Moon’s head, earning some hushed mewls from the filly, who still had her face buried in his limb, as the adrenaline wore off over the lot of them. Junior sighed, nudging her aside as he quietly looked upon an approaching Moonbeam Glimmer. Both of them were loomed over their respective sibling, Moonbeam still cradling Starlight and Xenilla slumped against Junior’s feet. Godzilla’s gaze shifted to how she held her sister, letting his mind think back to how he’d realized Xenilla’s last charge had been less a headlong tackle and more the older kaiju throwing his arms around his brother to hold him. The whispers of Xenilla’s apology rang true in Junior’s head, as did the relief the latter felt when he thought of the three simple words that changed his whole life. Three simple words he learned from his mother and these ponies’ example.

I forgive you.

It was like a mountain, no, a continent had been taken off his shoulders. His bliss was palpable. Not only from the release of all that frustration, rage, and confusion; but of the sheer joy he’d felt to be relieved of it all. The dark stains upon his psyche had been washed off in a renewing rain; an emotional baptism if he knew of the word.

The hideous, destructive monstrosity wasn’t who he was deep down; not from the circumstances of his birth nor from the life he led after.

Moonbeam Glimmer saw him slowly nod to her and a tear streamed down her smiling face. She reached forward and put a hoof on Junior’s cheek as their foreheads touched. Junior felt them all now. Chibi Moon, the one who sought to be like him, nestled up against his side. Rarity, the one who sought to help him, walking up from the other side and rubbing up against his shoulder. Night Glider and Moonbeam, the ones who turned to him for help, patting him on the back and touching foreheads with his. And a radiating heat to indicate Xenilla, the one he saw change in ways he never expected, who while out cold was still clinging to Junior’s arm.

That last form wasn’t the real him. It never was, and never would be. It was just a nightmare. Just a stupid, arrogant nightmare.

A tear rolled down his muzzle. Junior was in a good mood in ways he hadn’t been for years, not like since before 1995 when he found a mantle and its power thrust upon him without warning. He was at peace.

He was unmoved when the sky opened up and an all-too-familiar stench filled the sky.

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Posted previously at: 2020-04-20T11:57:27