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The Bridge
Heading onto the highway as her namesake began to occur behind them, Sunset Shimmer didn’t know whether she should be vexed, confused, frantic, or frightened to a degree. While Irys and company’s insistence helped set the seriousness of the situation, her friend’s friends were, well, odd. Then again, she probably should have expected such from aliens after the affirmation that they definitely weren’t from Equestria. Megalon, who was humming to himself in the back seat, was nice enough, if a bit ditzy at times in a Pinkie Pie manner; though the older cyborg in the front riding shotgun, Gigan, made her skin crawl even after he put his sunglasses back on to cover up his mechanical eyes. Sunset wasn’t sure if it was just his general mannerisms or the fact that over half of him seemed mechanical that was spurring her unease. While this new world of humans did have some more advanced, or at the very least, more widespread technology than back in Equestria; stuff to the grade of what was sitting in the passenger seat was beyond anything Sunset had ever seen. Or perhaps just as Gigan, a being reforged by metal and machinery, was confused, alienated, and annoyed by magic; so too was Sunset, a former student of magic itself, was having a similar reaction to the Nebulan technology. Still, while she managed to keep a calm face during the drive and had been able to near completely ignore the half metal men back at her homestead, the uneasiness was building for Sunset over the course of the extended drive.
That and the pale hands clinging to her chair proved a bit distracting. Megalon and Gigan, both having ridden in container vessels for when the Nebulans would move them planet to planet and system to system, were more or less unsurprised by the sensations of a car ride. The former busying himself in examining any trinket or book he could find in Sunset’s back seat pockets, and the latter focused on scanning the world whizzing past them for energy signatures. Irys had no such experience nor any distraction. As it turned out, she discovered she was terrified of car rides. The gyaos had been a nervous wreck since they closed the doors around her. The claustrophobia and roar of the engine made her react on instinct, clinging to the back of Sunset Shimmer’s chair like a startled cat and had stubbornly refused to let go or drop her wide eyed expression.
Sunset eyed the rear view mirror to check her positioning in the lane.
“Which fores- Megalon could you get Irys down some? Please? Thanks… Which forest did you say he was in?”
Unfortunately it was Gigan, who was busy looking over a roadmap, who dryly answered her.
“We don’t know the exact one, but the visual we got of his location had a large lake and rocky uplands in view. Judging from this map, your ‘Everfree National Park’ seems to fit best…!!!”
Just as Sunset went by a road sign with the park’s name and turned onto the parkway to head into it, Gigan had dropped the map, flinched up, and looked in the direction of the park. At nearly the same time, Megalon and Irys did the same; freezing up and looking off in a set direction.
“!!”
“!!
The trio’s heads slowly pivoted around to face 2’oclock. Sunset could feel a strange vibe pass over her, as much from her confusion at the trio as it was almost feeling like something was in the air. Managing to keep her eyes on the road outside of idle glances, Sunset Shimmer broke the silence.
“What-what is it?”
Gigan popped his glasses off to get a stronger reading, rolling his window down and sticking his head out. The readings his eyes picked up were kilometers away, and yet so clear as day even Irys could sense it. In all his years experience, there was only one thing that gave off that kind of power in such a relatively compact, mobile state. Kaiju. And he got two readings. One of which was definitely Monster X, but the other was an enigma and that did nothing to calm his nerves.
“He’s here. That way, go… GO!”