//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4 
// Story: Dragon Our Love 'Till the End: Zog Strikes Back 
// by The Lord Thunder 
//------------------------------//

All the icy slopes of the Frozen Spires led to one towering cave that overlooked the entire ice dragon settlement. As Spike had guessed, this was the lair of Dragonlord Frost, ruler of the ice dragons. The mouth of the cave led to a great hall made of bluish ice so pure and clear Spike could see his and Sapphire's reflections in the walls and floor. There were beautiful ornate designs carved into the walls, depicting Frosts' many great deeds. 

Enthroned at the far end of the room was a dragon among the largest Spike had ever seen. As expected for anyone worthy of the title Dragonlord, Frost was an imposing figure--a thick, muscular frame, sharp features and countless sharp icicle like spines running down the back of his neck with several more protruding from the tip of his tail. Frost sat straight on all fours, rigid and proud as he held his head high with an air of authority, but to Spike his blue eyes seemed almost gentle. 
 
"Welcome home, young Sapphire. It is good to see your face again," Lord Frost's baritone voice boomed, visible frosty breath coming from his massive snout as he spoke. He smiled as he looked Sapphire over. "My, how you've grown. You look just like your mother."
 
Spike saw the pain flash in Sapphire' eyes at the mention of her mother. Frost must have seen it too, for his smile vanished.
 
"I am so very sorry about your parents,” Frost said. “You know your father was as a brother to me."
 
Sapphire gave an understanding nod. "Of course, sire."
 
Lord Frost looked at Spike, regarding him silently for a moment. "I see you have brought a guest with you."
 
Spike gulped and shivered despite his protection from the cold. Lord Frost had stare Spike felt could freeze the pit of his soul. He dropped to a knee and bowed, more out of fear than respect. "I hope I'm not intruding upon your territory, your majesty."
 
Frost laughed a deep laugh that tickled the cavern with vibrations. "Worry not, young one. We are not like those barbarian dragons far below, isolated as we are. As a friend of Sapphire's you are welcome here. On a related note,” Frost shifted his gaze to Sapphire. “I'd suggest you show your friend to the temple where we once prayed, but-" 

Frost shut his eyes and shook his head ruefully. "You know as well as I do the past cannot be changed."
 
"What do you mean, 'once'?" Sapphire asked, her head tilted questioningly.
 
"The temple collapsed that day you fled from the avalanche which took your parents' lives. Didn't you notice its ruin upon your arrival?"
 
Sapphire shook her head. "No, I didn't."
 
"You should go see for yourself. Personally, it aches my heart too much to witness that ruin."
 
"Thank you for informing me, Lord," Sapphire said with a bow. "If we may, we'll take our leave."
 
"As you wish. Your friend is welcome to stay in our domain as long as he likes, so long as he behaves himself."
 
Spike placed a hand on his chest and bowed politely. "Thank you, sire."
 
Without so much as another word, Sapphire turned for the great hall that led back outside and started down it. Spike followed, struggling to keep his balance on the slippery ice floor.
 
"So what's this temple?" Spike asked, fighting to keep up with Sapphire's pace. "I didn't think dragons prayed."
 
"The ancient ice dragons built a temple out of ice in reverence to what we believe is the ice spirit that rests within this mountain. This temple was here even when Glacien's grandparents were young. Generation after generation of ice dragons prayed there for the ice spirit to keep this land frozen and suit our needs."
 
Once outside, Spike followed Sapphire across the ridge that overlooked the Frozen Spires. He was amazed at how easily Sapphire navigated the treacherous terrain, hardly upsetting the loose rocks, never losing her balance. Every few steps Spike would slip on a patch of ice or stumble across a loose rock buried under the snow.

Sapphire kept moving until she was nothing more than a small blue dot in the distance. She stopped at the peak of the ridge, giving Spike a chance to catch up. There stood the remains of what was a once great structure built from ice. Unlike much of the Frozen Spire's constructions, the ice of the collapsed temple had no sparkle or glisten, a snow-blasted shell of a ruin beaten down by years of exposure to the elements. From the looks of it, the dragons probably hadn't stepped foot in the temple since it collapsed and, as such, it had fallen into an even greater state of disrepair.
 
"Wow," Sapphire mused, her eyes lost in time. "It's really gone."
 
Spike scratched the back of his head in confusion as wind howled past his ears. If this was such a sacred place to the ice dragons, why didn't they just rebuild it, or build another one? "Can't it be rebuilt?"
 
"Probably. But we have a tradition of leaving such ancient structures as they are. If we were to alter it, we'd be disrespecting our ancestors. When something like this collapses, we see it as a marking of the passage of time."
 
To Spike, it seemed just as disrespectful to leave it in a destroyed state, but he held the comment in. Who was he to question the ice dragons' traditions? Sapphire went ahead, stepping through one of the broken walls.

The temple seemed to have consisted of only one huge room, a central chamber with massive rectangles of ice arranged in a grid on the floor, resembling the pews of a church. Spike looked skyward, dodging a broken chunk of ice on the ground as he wondered what this place looked like before it had been destroyed. A huge hole had been smashed in the ceiling, looking like a gaping mouth trying to swallow the sky.

Sapphire's eyes scanned the large central chamber, distant and silent, as if wandering around in a world only she knew or, perhaps, lost in the past. Spike could only guess at the memories that were flooding back, memories she could never relive with the temple in its ruined state.
 
"I wonder what happened here?" she wondered out loud.

The farthest wall had been destroyed nearly to the point on non-existence, revealing a staircase that had once been hidden behind a section of false wall.

“I didn't know this was here,” Sapphire said. She walked over to the top step and peered down. “I wonder where it goes?”

The stone stairway, large enough for a full grown dragon to navigate with ease, twisted deep within the mountain.

“Only one way to find out,” Spike said.

With an agreeing nod, Sapphire eased her way down the first step, side by side with Spike.

***

The booming laughter of king Taurus and his council filled the throne room of the castle of Minnetauroppolis, a laughter that pained Luna on the inside far more than it did her ringing ears. Taurus was an impossibly huge minotaur, his bulky frame towered over Luna even though he was sitting down. His great beard had been tied into multiple braids, accenting his numerous piercings. 

Luna glared at the king in contempt, turned her gaze to his council and then back to the king. "How dare you."
 
For a moment, King Taurus stopped laughing and studied Luna's glare. "Oh, wait, you're serious. Let me laugh even harder!" He slapped his knee, his bulging muscles quivering in rhythm with the thunderous laughter.
 
The council continued to laugh as well, cramming Luna's head with so much jeering noise that there was little room left in there to think. Luna gnashed her teeth and growled lowly. This was not the place to lose her self-control, she knew.

“Silence.” It was no use. The command was lost among the continued laughter. An insult to her, to Equestria. Luna's eyes glowed a pale white and she stamped her hoof so hard it sent cracks webbing across the linoleum floor.

"Silence!" Luna shouted in the Royal Canterlot Voice, a volume so great it whipped the minotaurs' hair about and blew King Taurus' crown from his head, bringing an abrupt end to their laughter. "I have come to you in faith and trust in our time of great need!” she continued in the Royal Voice. “I fail to see the humor in that! How dare you mock me and my country in this manner!”

A hushed pall fell over the throne room. None of the minotaurs wished to provoke Luna any further, knowing that even, though they were well known for their strength, even if all the minotaurs in the room fought Luna at once, they stood little chance against an alicorn.

King Taurus retrieved his crown, dusted it off and placed it back on his head before seating himself once more. "With all due apologies, your highness, dragons are a bit out of our league. We don't have any weapons that could even start to cut through their thick scales."
 
Luna glared at the king. "So you are cowards, just as the griffons."

Hardening his face, Taurus met Luna's gaze. "Now, your highness, you know that we would lend you our support in a time of war. But what you're considering is not what I'd call war. I'd call it suicide. We've got no chance, and neither do you."

“Do you doubt my power, and that of my sister?”

“Well, when you put it that way, it would seem you have everything under control,” Taurus continued, rubbing his beard in thought. “In that case, this discussion is over and done with. You ponies are on your own.”

A sigh of resignation burst from Luna's nostrils. The minotaurs were a stubborn lot; once they made up their minds, they'd hold on with their lives. She wasn't going to get them to see things her way. “Very well then, be that way. I shall take my leave.” 

Luna turned for the door, her nose high in indignation. She'd nearly exited the throne room before she stopped and cast one more glance over her shoulder at the minotaurs. “If you're as powerless as you seem to think, then you won't last long if the dragons decide to invade your country next.”

A violent shaking rocked the entire room, rattling the ancient weapons and paintings hanging on the walls. The minotaurs staggered and buckled their knees to keep from being shaken off their hooves, noticing the glow in Luna's horn just before she turned and left the room.

It would leave a final impression, Luna thought as she made her way out of the castle.