Gregor dipped his head towards the little statue of Amalthea. "Benign saint of healing and succor, how best might I ease the pain of this world, to prevent violence and to foster peace?" The statue had no words for him, it could not. As a matter of faith, he had to look inwards, not hope for a token to speak for him.
"Better to try for peace unconventional, than to allow for war." He tapped the tips of his fingers against one another. "Violence may yet be avoided... But perhaps not. We will never know without trying..."
With a slow cleansing breath, he raised a hand to his head and pressed a button. "Allies, are you there?"
Luna was first to reply, "Gregor? I am here. What news have you?"
A little smile spread on his face. "I am unsurprised that you are the first to answer. You spoke correctly, I think... You may approach him. Speak honestly and trust in his strength of character. Do not sully that."
An equine snort echoed over the line. "This promise has already been made. Describe the one I am to approach at all."
And so he did, though uncertainty still gnawed at him. He was, perhaps, sinning most gravely. But he struggled to see many other paths that did not lead to grave loss of life.
"I will approach at earliest opportunity. Do not expect further answers from me until then." Luna let her hoof fall and sank to her belly on one of Twilight's many beds, borrowing a room as she was. She had an image of a man in her mind, and a basic idea of them. It would have to do.
She hurled herself out of her body, traveling free into the astral, the world of thoughts, dreams, and notions. Around her glittered the dreams of those who were napping, sleeping during the day, or simply daydreaming, allowing their thoughts to roam freely. It was not as dazzling as the night version of the same. In the distance, around the bend of the world, she could see that sparkle.
It was always night, somewhere.
But she did not have need of anything she could see there. She craned her neck to peer up into the sky. "You await me." She spread her imagined wings and took flight, rising into the sky that didn't really exist. It was all the thing of imagination and notions. She was there, in the sky, in the dark of space. She could see their many ships. "That one." She pointed, but her hoof slid. "Or that one..." She could easily identify two of them as being like the ones Gregor had described.
She could destroy them. A good hurl of the moon would surely shatter them. So quick, so easy. Equestria would no longer be in peril...
"No." She had made a promise. She was not yet ready to abandon that. She pushed the thought of violence aside. "I will at least try."
Twilight looked over to Laud with a little sigh. "Luna's probably already navigating the dream world."
"Then I can pray for her success... Provided she keeps her promises." Laud drummed his fingers on the table. "If only there was something we could be doing right now."
"Unless you wanted to physically go up there?" Twilight shrugged softly. "That seems like a terrible idea."
Laud could imagine what would happen were he suddenly on the holy vessel. There would be likely little hospitality offered. "No, but..." He reached up and fiddled with his earpiece. He knew how to use it better than the ponies, just a little. Just enough to switch channels between the one they shared and the one his house used. "Laud Mountbatten on the line."
"Laud," came a cheerful male voice. "Good to hear from you. You have news?"
"We're trying to contact the priests to get them to call off this bloody mess before it gets more thorny than it already is."
Twilight peered at him curiously, but was quiet as he spoke.
"Are you borrowing someone's ship, or radioing them? They've been quiet on the air for a while."
Laud had his finger hovering over the button but did not press it as he huffed. "We're doing what we can," he assured vaguely. "I will keep you posted if things work, or don't."
"Paul did have a question. Are the people down there aware of the situation?"
Twilight poked him with a floating finger of magic. "How are you talking and I'm not hearing it?" She pointed to her own ear, where a headpiece rested. "Is it broken?"
Laud smiled a little. "They are aware of it. Princess Twilight Sparkle is listening to one side of this conversation right now."
"Well, say hello for me. Reach out with any news as it comes up. Over."
Laud let his hand fall to rest on the table. "Radios can talk on different channels," he tried to explain, not entirely understanding it himself. "If you're not on the same channel, you hear nothing."
Twilight inclined her head to the left and right. "Can you make mine speak on that channel? You made yours do so. Oh! If you're on a different channel, then you can't hear us."
"Too right." He smirked as he adjusted his radio back where it needed to be. "These can store several stations to switch between. Mine already had my house station on it, and the tech of the merchants simply added theirs to it. I don't know how to add stations, just switch between the ones already in there."
"Oh..." Twilight frowned, mind clearly abuzz with how to get around that. "How curious... If we didn't need them so badly, I'd love to properly examine one and figure out how they work."
"Give it to Starlight!" suddenly called out Lyra, seated on the floor where she was. "She figured out how to make more collars, didn't she? That makes her a pro. Once we have a bunch of the, uh, radios? We can start pulling them apart to figure out how they work."
His people were clever, and eager to learn. He wasn't sure if that feeling in his chest was pride, or incredible terror. Both wasn't an impossibility.
Luna landed lightly on the surface of one of the ships, looking around at the haze and sparkle of the life within. Each little mote was a person, each with their own dreams, wants, fears, and ambitions. There were thousands of them, some fiercely bright, sleeping. Many others dim, clearly awake and focused on the physical world.
She trotted lightly along its surface, hooves striking against metal, not that the metal was real. Not that her hooves were real, when one got down to it. She was scarcely a thought, atop another imagination. The ship was, in some ways, more real, dreamt of by the many lives within it that relied on its reality to not perish.
But there was only one dream she needed to reach, lost in that small sea. Were they awake, or asleep? She could only walk and inspect. That one was daydreaming, watching something. A guard? They were not the one she wanted.
A nightmare. She considered it, then stepped forward. Nightmares could reveal many things about their dreamers.
"Then go, my child." Gregor lowered his head and seemed to withdraw into the distance, going impossibly fast.
The dreamer turned away, boarding a small ship with a few others. He would save things. He had to... Gregor's ideals were grand, but impractical. Someone had to be up there, on the mothership, to have any hope at all.
"I can hear your dirty thoughts," noted one of the others on that little ship.
"As can I." Both were glaring at him darkly. "We will report it."
"Directly."
Both stood up, reaching to grab at his arms. "You will be burned for your sins."
Luna stepped in from the front, the silver light of the moon filling the area, dissolving the two attacking humans. "You."
The remaining one fell backwards, eyes wide with fear. "Demon!"
"Humans are quick to use that word." Luna inclined her head at where the attackers once were. "I have saved you. Tell me, if I understand things correctly, you left Gregor, but you still have loyalty to him."
"Only a demon could get aboard this ship like that." He rose to his feet, shaking a little with fear at the great furry presence. "I will not surrender."
"Be at peace. This is a dream," she gently corrected. "You slumber, and I am visiting."
The tremble beneath his feet seemed to fade, for it wasn't a ship. It wasn't real. "You're just a dream?" He tried to banish her as so much dreamstuff.
But Luna had a will of her own and declined the offer for the void. "Hold yourself. I may yet be an ally. May we speak?"
"Either you are just a dream and this means nothing, or you are a force of magic, and I would be allowing myself to be deceived."
Luna shrugged lightly. "Then believe nothing I say. I will ask questions, and you can decide if they are safe to answer or not." She inclined her head. "Were I a demon as you called me, why would I not wear a form more familiar?" She took a step forward, not horseshoes but shoes striking the ground, for she was a woman, formed from the fancies of the man, garbed as a nun of his order. "This would be easier to believe, would it not? But it would be a lie, and I am not here to do that."
The man's fingers flexed before clenching, clearly out of his element before the thought-construct that had been a horse, but was then a woman. "Not here to lie? Father Gregor will be razed, along with the world he is on, including you. It will all burn."
"This I have heard." She folded her new hands before herself on her belly. "I would see that prevented. I was asked to see if I can do it without violence. Would you help me find your leader? If I could speak plainly with him, perhaps this can all be put to rest. Equestria does not desire a war, but we will not lose one either."
"What in the name of the Pancreator could you do to st--" He didn't get to finish his words, the moon was accelerating at them, and they weren't in the ship anymore. It was coming at a frightful speed, accelerating as it went. "What's going on?!"
"I am the princess of the moon. I can move it as I please. Your ships are grand and of alien design, but could they survive this?" The moon flew past them, passing only by inches. For a moment, there was nothing to hear but the man's screaming in fear.
But it did pass, flying into space, leaving him rattled, but whole. "We could destroy it, if we had to," he got out, shaking in place. "If that is your only weapon--"
The sun approached. "No! No no!" He waved his open palms at the approaching star. "Enough!"
Luna gently waved a human hand, sending the sun back a bit like an eager dog that had been told to go sit in the corner. "Perhaps, in your view, we are demons. Perhaps... But we are creatures of kindness. We would offer a hoof of friendship." She offered a hand instead, having no hooves. "Help me reach your leader and perhaps we can both be happier."
"He's wrong," hissed the man. "He is. I came to convince him of that, to save Father Gregor."
"By he, you mean...?"
"The one you're looking for." He scowled at the demon that prattled words of friendship. "I don't agree with him."
"Nor I. We are in agreement then." They were back in his ship, not floating in the void. "Help me find him."