Then, she asked calmly, “Why are you here, little ones?”

Her voice alone was enough to wash away whatever fears were left crawling back at the Young Six. If there was a heaven to any of them, its beckoning call was her voice. Majestic, otherworldly, peaceful in every sense and banishing every evil intent of the heart and mind. The voice of a mother to a crying child. The voice of a guardian angel defending the light. The voice almost eerily similar to a certain Spirit of Harmony they knew.

But still unique enough to call her own.

For quite some time, none of them could answer her. Her question in their minds was slowly transforming into more of a statement, as an answer to themselves on why they were there. Their purpose, their journey, finally becoming clear again once they were free of the desolate death.

Ocellus was the one to tell her. “We’re here to prove Godzilla is innocent.”

The first to step forward, and the first to receive the mare in red’s arching brow. “Is he, now?” she asked aloud, much to Ocellus’ surprise. “Are any of us truly innocent?”

The changeling was at a loss for words, but thankfully she had a good friend by her side to defend her. Sandbar stepped forward to join the changeling. “Well… we just want to know why he’s doing this. I mean… after everything, he would never turn against us… right?” Sandbar said, but even he was beginning to doubt once more.

Once the mare’s overwhelmingly amber eyes turned his way. “Unless the creatures of this earth gave him a reason to,” she answered, and then smiled reassuringly with a single nod. “But you are right. He would not without necessary reason. I intend to prove it.”

What felt like the biggest breath of fresh air was shared among the six. Not only a breath of relief, but rejuvenating hope. The fear that they were sent on a fool’s errand all the way to Baltimare just to reach a dead end had suddenly opened to a brand-new start. And one that left them all equally rejuvenated and perplexed.

“Oookaaay… how can you prove it?” Smolder asked.

Just as suddenly as her smile came, it left her. Leaving an infamous look of dread the Young Six were all too familiar with, for they felt it not too long ago. She stared solemnly to the North, to the land swallowed in darkness and flame. To the distant land that was once Fillydelphia, and had now become a black mark drenching the coast of Equestria in a permanent shroud of eerie desolation.

Her voice mirrored such terror. “I have seen the true evil with my own eyes. It is an evil I have known and can call by name. An evil this world endured… and will face again. I have felt and seen it first in Fillydelphia… where this all started… and I feel it returning. Do you know what I speak of?”

Her words were minimal and shrouded in mystery, yet for some unknown reason they could feel what she felt. Almost see what she saw. It went deeper than a mere physical understanding, or psychological. It was a spiritual distress that warred in each one of them, threatening to awaken the fear once more now that the thought had been reignited. Now that the image of the Three-Headed Tyrant had been brought to life in each of their minds.

Gallus gulped. “Yeah… I think we do,” the griffon shuddered.