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Recap / The Bridge Ch 25 Shadows

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Enjin steps over the dead orderly and approaches the terrified Aria Blaze. His body resembles a mass of shadows instead of flesh and his chest opens up to reveal an eerie glow and a mass of tentacles. One grabs her wrist and she desperately grabs the bed's railing to stop from being pulled toward him. The tentacle is nail-bitingly cold and Enjin steps forward, preparing to drain her energy. Suddenly, a golden energy flows from her necklace into her, and the gravity in the room starts to distort. He tilts his head in curiosity, but she doesn't seem to notice what happened. She screams and releases a blast that knocks him through a wall. Shocked, she stares at her necklace, trying to figure out what happened.

Adagio Dazzle and Sonata Dusk ride the elevator to Aria's floor when they start to hear screaming over the elevator music. The doors open and they see several terrified people running for their lives, scrambling for the stairs. Enjin throws Aria over the central desk. He attempts to climb over the desk, but she kicks him in the head. Undaunted, he throws a punch that she dodges, breaking through part of the wall. He rips the desk out of the floor and is about to toss it aside when Sonata hits him in the head with an IV stand. He turns around, and Sonata swings it into his groin, only to be shocked when it has no effect. He stares at her, then after sensing no Kaizer energy within her, dismisses her as irrelevant. He throws her down the hall, but Adagio manages to catch her.

Enjin turns back around and steps toward Aria, who tries to fire another blast like she did earlier, but nothing happens. Adagio and Sonata start singing, trying to control him and make him jump out the window. Curious, he turns to face them. Aria tries to attack him from behind, but he casually backhands her away. Adagio notices Enjin is not doing what they're commanding him to, but she refuses to give up and increases her volume. Enjin extends his tentacles toward them, deciding he can drain the unconscious Aria at his leisure and now he can focus on getting Adagio and Sonata's necklaces.

Aria lies against a wall with her forehead bleeding. When the blood reaches her necklace, it gets absorbed into it, then more golden energy flows into her. The red gem develops golden edges and she revives. She stops bleeding and her irises briefly turn red. Just before Enjin can reach the two, he senses a massive energy spike. Before he can react, Aria spears him through the shoulder with the IV stand. He starts thrashing, and she struggles to hold on while telling the others that their hypnotic singing has no effect, so they have to fight. Adagio spots something and tells Sonata to help her.

The Sirens vs the Shadow Man.

Enjin rams Aria into a wall, stunning her with pain. This action makes the stand go deeper into him, but he doesn't care and tries to grab her. She holds onto the stand with all her might, as it is the only thing stopping him from reaching her. Sonata tells her to jump away. As she does, Adaigo and Sonata connect a defibrillator's pads to the stand, then turn it on. Enjin spasms and sparks from the electricity. While he is stunned, they help the groggy Aria up and race to the elevator. Adagio frantically presses the "Down" button, but the elevator is taking too long to arrive. They look back and see Enjin inching toward the defibrillator to turn it off. Sonata tells them to use the stairs instead and they rush toward them, but Enjin, having freed himself, throws the stand, which pins Sonata's sleeve to a door frame while giving her a cut on her arm as well. As Adagio tries to help free her, Enjin's chest opens up and he pulls out an orb of energy.

Just as he throws it, Aria gets revived by another golden energy jolt from her necklace. Showing unnatural strength, she tears off Sonata's sleeve and then throws the other two to the side. The energy orb impacts the door and explodes right next to her. The now bruised Adagio and Sonata get up and are horrified to see Enjin strangling Aria with his hands while at the same time constricting her with his tentacles. She struggles for a few seconds, then goes limp, the lack of air and his unnatural cold having sapped her strength.

Before anything else can happen, the elevator dings. Enjin attacked at 12:07 and now it is 12:12. The five minutes Harmony promised are up.

A few minutes ago, Monster X arrived at the hospital, having sensed the Sirens' presence. With so many people rushing down the stairs, he took the elevator, and now regrets it because it is so unbelievably slow. As it rises, he struggles to remember the name of the Siren he fought the other day. The doors open to the scene of Enjin strangling Aria. Immediately remembering her name, he darts out and kicks him in the back of the knee, then forces him to let go of her with an uppercut, then finally throws him out the window. X looks out the window and is annoyed to find Enjin already getting up from the pavement. Now sure this stranger isn't an ally of the Sirens, X tends to the unconscious Aria. Remembering what happened the last time he tried to take her necklace, he tries to grab it. As he expected, the magic kicks in and it repels his hand; the energy surge waking her up.

Adagio and Sonata snap out of their stupor and pull Aria away from him, but Enjin's hand appears at the window, as he apparently climbed up the wall. X orders the Sirens to run, as they are no use to him dead. Angry, Adagio says he can't tell them what to do and demands to know what's going on, but he roars this is not up for discussion and punches the "Down" button so hard it breaks. Getting the message, Sonata grabs the other two and pulls them into the elevator. Enjin tries to run past X to get to the elevator, but X grabs him in time for the doors to close.

Enjin grabs X's wrist and hurls him down the hall, but he manages to land on his feet. X ducks a punch that breaks through a wall, then kicks him in the face. He then unleashes a brutal striking combo that knocks Enjin back. X pants for breath, and is shocked when Enjin doesn't seem to be affected at all, and his cracked mask repairs itself. Enjin resumes his attack, and his spiked knuckles graze X's arm and torso. X catches Enjin's right arm and, doing his best to ignore how cold it is, breaks it over his knee. Enjin ignores this and continues to attack with his left arm. X catches his left arm and tries to break it over his knee... except it doesn't break, unknowingly due to Kaizer Ghidorah previously breaking it and Enjin's Adaptive Ability keeping it from happening twice. Enjin shoves him away and tries to reset his broken right arm. X gets behind him and tries to snap his neck, but even using all his strength it doesn't work for the same reason the left arm break didn't work. Enjin throws him over his shoulder, knocking the wind out of him. Enjin grabs him and rams him into a wall repeatedly, then throws him through a doorway into an empty hospital bed. X barely dives out of the way as Enjin throws an energy orb that obliterates the bed.

X decides to blast him away and gathers energy, making the gravity in the room distort. Enjin pauses at seeing this display, but before X can fire his Graviton Beam, he is bombarded with images. Of a ruined city dotted by pillars of smoke, a battered and pulverized King Ghidorah pinned underneath the point of view, frozen wastelands with howling gales, Aria and then Enjin inside a thicket of woods. X holds his head in pain as the Graviton Beam misfires, creating a huge explosion.

X flies out the window and lands on a parked car, unconscious. Enjin gets up, not paying his burns any mind, then climbs out the window and down the wall. Enjin marches toward X, extending his tentacles. Suddenly, Aria drives their van into him, knocking him through a first floor window. Aria asks if X is still alive. Sonata says he's breathing, so Aria orders her to pull him inside the van. Adagio asks Aria how in the world she's well enough to drive after getting all her injuries from the fight, but Aria roars to hurry up before Enjin comes back. Sonata is spooked by Aria's eyes, which briefly turned from violet to red, but pulls X inside. They speed away, and see Enjin emerging from the window, his cracked mask repairing itself. Adagio asks what in the world is going on. Aria says she doesn't know, but X does.

Say what?

At Appleloosa, the town has been fully repaired, so the relief teams are going home. There's a few hours before the train arrives, so Applejack and Rodan volunteered to move everypony's luggage to the train station. Applejack offers to let him stay at her farm, but makes him promise not to drop Apple Bloom if he gives her a ride like he did to one young colt he was entertaining. He protests that he caught him before he hit the ground, but she narrows her eyes and he concedes her point. To deal with his claustrophobia, he will fly and follow the train. He boasts that he will have enough stamina to fly the entire trip, but she makes him promise to land on the train if he starts getting tired.

Suddenly, Derpy Hooves flies up and delivers them a letter, then flies off. Rodan asks how in the world she travels between Canterlot and Appleloosa so fast, but Applejack says not to question it. The letter is from Princess Luna, asking Rodan to join Rainbow Dash and participate in an airshow at Neighagra Falls. Incredibly confused, all Rodan can say is, "W'at?"

In the Crystal Empire, they didn't want to panic the citizens, so they covered up King Sombra's attack by claiming it was just a generic dark magic-using criminal who has been taken care of. The property damage has been repaired, but the one who saved the day is missing.

Blade Dancer and Key Ring walk up to Xenilla's room. He had not left it ever since defeating Sombra. The door and windows have been sealed shut with his quartz crystals. Key Ring comments he could probably open the door with his special talent, but the real problem is why Xenilla sealed himself in. Blade Dancer has no idea. Key Ring passes her medicine for Aerenth poisoning in case Xenilla has it. He then reveals he's been helping lead search teams through the city and countryside to try to find Sombra's remains or his hiding place if he's still alive. They found nothing except for a hole with a weird energy signature (the spot where Gigan and Megalon dug up his severed horn). They can only hope Sombra is gone for good this time.

Key Ring then points out he knows Xenilla is a Kaiju. He pulls out a newspaper covering Godzilla's battle against the Gyaos flock and notes Xenilla's resemblance to Godzilla's pony form. Blade Dancer confirms Xenilla is Godzilla's brother. He promises to keep the secret and then leaves to conduct another search.

Blade Dancer paces in front of the door when she hears Xenilla scream and it feels like the room erupted. A huge wave of quartz smashes through the door. Frantic, she calls for him and tries to get through the quartz, but there is no answer. Not willing to give up, she flies outside and goes to the window. She starts kicking at the quartz, then manages to break through it by wedging her dagger into it and then dive kicking it.

Inside, the room has been eviscerated by spires of quartz and red energy jumps between them. Xenilla has his back to her and does not seem to have noticed her presence. His fur and mane are dirty and frayed. She calls to him, but it takes a few tries to get his attention. He turns around, and his eyes have dark circles under them. He gives a roar similar to the transformed Godzilla's roar, ordering her to leave.

Blade Dancer says she's been patient, but she's grown tired of waiting while he suffers; so she demands he explain what has been bothering him. Angered, he fires his Corona Ray, but uses his telekinesis to make it go around her and out the window at the last moment. After calming herself down, she sees his face has returned to how it was after the battle with Sombra, a Thousand-Yard Stare. She says that she's worried about him, and he replies in a pained whisper, devoid of any pride or wit, to please leave him alone. He goes back to what he was doing. Blade Dancer realizes Xenilla fired at her to try and scare her off, and him sealing himself in was an effort to keep anyone from seeing him while he's vulnerable.

I'm with you until the end.

She walks up and finds he's playing with a board similar to a chess board using his telekinesis. It seems to simulate a four way battle. One army is lead by a blue piece (the same color as Godzilla's Atomic Breath), one by a red piece, and one by a gold piece. He plays and plays, moving the red piece the most. Every time the blue piece is taken, he resets the game. She notices that he barely reacts when the red piece is taken. Eventually he grows so stressed after repeated failures that his telekinesis cuts out and he resorts to moving the pieces with his hooves; almost about to have a panic attack. Blade Dancer puts her hoof over his and tells him to stop. He stares at the board and she sees tear stains on his fur.

She says she knows Sombra made him see his greatest fear and asks if Xenilla wants to talk about it. He says nothing, so she sighs and hands him the medicine. She starts to walk toward the window, but he grabs her with his telekinesis and pulls her until they are sitting back to back. He reminds her that Cadance assigned her as his bodyguard. She reminds him about how he earlier argued he had no need of a bodyguard, but he simply says, "Thank you, Blades." She blushes and puts her hoof over his.

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