Luna was a mare with a mission.
She arrived at the Dragon Swamp already in motion, blazing forward from the moment that she and her companions flashed into the open wasteland from the underground confines of the hideout in Trottingham. Cantering on the ground was a concession she made only because Rarity could not join her and Rainbow Dash in the air, but she did not let that slow her down. For several seconds she kept moving, right up to the point where she realized she did not know where she was going.
Upon this realization, she stopped and turned around. Dash and Rarity, both still standing in place, both still looking somewhat disoriented from the teleport, flinched at her gaze. Luna frowned and wondered – had she looked angry just now? She relaxed her facial muscles and tried to conjure up an expression of confident composure, but wasn't entirely sure she was succeeding.
"We must hurry," she said, hoping she didn't sound too defensive, "Where is this dragon of yours?"
They had landed in what seemed to be an old riverbed; the surrounding ridges and elevations obscured much of their environment. Rainbow Dash gave her wings a beat to hop into the air for a look around, then spiraled back to the ground with a few more measured flutters. Rarity coughed from the sand the movement whirled up – a surprisingly indelicate sound.
"Not far," said Dash as she landed, pulling up the sky-blue hood she wore to shield her from the sun, "Just a couple of klicks."
"Klicks?" repeated Rarity, "Oh, you mean kilometers." She grimaced slightly, presumably at the idea of a long walk, but didn't speak up to complain. She was wearing a rough-hewn brown cloak on loan from the Apple Underground that she was ignoring as if it were a distasteful acquaintance in a crowded ballroom.
Without further ado, they were off on their journey.
Even as she kept pace with Dash and Rarity, Luna's mind went racing ahead, across the dunes of the Dragon Swamp, to the meeting with Dash's contact. She didn't stop to pause there, but skipped a long trip to the dragon lands far in the southwest for an audience with the Matriarch – and continued even further to envision a future where the rebellion was over and she, Luna, was the sole sovereign of Equestria. The idea was as shapeless as any fantasy of the future had ever been. It strained her imagination to its limits. It was the responsibility she had always wanted, but she didn't know what to do with it. Even thinking of the work she'd done back home, she could not think of a single edict or policy or proclamation to make, beyond reversing the edicts, policies and proclamations of Daymare Sun. In short, she could think of nothing that would make her a ruler rather than someone who merely sat on a throne.
Perhaps she wasn't feeling very leaderly running errands for her sister... but then again, had she ever?
There had been a time when Luna had come very close to simply quitting.
She knew she could be a little impulsive, but it had been no whim that led her to consider that possibility. True, she'd always had dark moods every once in a while. There had been moments of spite and anger when she'd thought about simply picking up and leaving, even said as much to her sister in an argument or two – but this had been something altogether different. There had also been a period of time when the prospect haunted her every waking moment. She'd had many a lonely night to think about it, to carefully weigh its positives and negatives like a rational being. It wasn't a matter of giving in to despair – it was about finding a way to happiness.
Even alicorns could get sick – though not usually of the same diseases as normal ponies – and her sister had had the occasion to fill in for her when Luna had come down with something. She had done so admirably, and without difficulty. That's when Luna had learned that one pony could well rule Equestria alone if necessary. Most ponies probably never even noticed the difference. All heads had been turned away from Luna, and those few that acknowledged her existence were as likely to be wary or indifferent as admiring or respectful. There was surely not a single pony in the world that liked her as much or more than Celestia. Nothing she tried to change things, whether personally or politically, seemed to make any difference. She'd been all out of ideas.
What was the point? Why did Equestria need two Princesses?
Luna had begun to think it was foolish to carry on. If you got no fulfillment from your life and career, didn't it make sense to try something new? Luna loved the canvas of the night sky, but she knew ponies could have successful careers not related to their cutie marks. Surely there was something else out there that she could do if she went and looked for it?
There had been a moment when she had stepped to the door of Celestia's room, ready to tell her sister that she was done with it all. She didn't, of course, whether it was because of pride or shame or because she didn't want to wake Celestia in the middle of the night. Not long after, an entirely different idea started to take shape in her mind...
The lake was indeed not far. The water proved to be so dark and impenetrable it made one feel dirty looking at it. There was a mound – a hill – of dirt on the shore nearby. It was a barrow made of mud, big enough to leave no mistaking as to what was buried underneath it. Luna had been told what had happened here. She looked around for another, smaller mound, but found none and decided the matter was too touchy to breach with a question. And anyway, there was no time for such idle curiosity.
The serpent did not keep them waiting. As they approached the waters, a pillar of mud slowly rose up to meet them, dripping and foaming. It bent down towards them and shed enough dirt to become recognizable. Luna craned her neck back to get a good luck and spotted patches of lilac scales, drooping bushels of facial hair and large, expressive eyes opening up under horizontal lids. The dragon looked them all over, one by one. Considering the way he tapped his finger-claws together and snaked his body in place, Luna pegged him for the quiet and withdrawn sort.
"Hi," the dragon said, in a voice that seemed too small for his stature, "How's your quest going, Dash?"
"Could be better," shrugged Dash, "Didn't know saving the world involved so much standing around and talking."
There were so many problems and hardships associated with the idea of ascending to the throne of this broken Equestria that it would have seemed to be lunacy to want it. There were quite a number of logical arguments to be made for Luna taking the job, which she had already thought over at length, but not many understandable reasons for her to desire that herself. Luna wasn't sure if she wanted it yet, but her sense of not minding it only seemed to be growing.
Luna did not mind the fate Celestia had in mind for her, despite all its difficulties. Despite a perennial voice of doubt and fear that whispered from the back of her mind, she knew her sister was not trying to get rid of her. Indeed, the fact that Luna was Celestia's solution to help the disaffected ponies of this world may have been the ultimate vote of confidence. What Luna took issue with, however, is that her sister had not given her the opportunity to offer herself up. Surely Luna would have thought of it herself...
Taking the throne from Daymare Sun wasn't just an answer to her indistinct ambitions, it was an opportunity to recreate her legacy. It was a kind of redemption, or it could be. By another virtue, she supposed it was an admission that she could not fully salvage her reputation in her own world, so she had to wipe the slate clean and start anew with a new people. It was just another way of running away.
Luna wondered whether she still had a decision to make, or whether Celestia had already made it for her.
But this was not the time or place to mull these things over.
"...not quite how I imagined a Fluttershy to look like." The dragon was looking directly at Luna.
Dash snorted. "Yeah, no. This is Luna, not Fluttershy. She's another stray from Twilight Sparkle's dimension we picked up along the way."
"Charmed! You can call me Steven. Or Steve, I suppose."
It was not his true name, of course. Unless they were born among ponies, the given names of dragons tended to be long and very hard to pronounce for most anyone that was not a dragon. That's why they tended to pick nicknames when dealing with outsiders, though Luna had to admit she'd never met a dragon with a nickname quite so... prosaic.
"We require a boon," said Luna.
The water dragon cocked his head to the side. "Pardon?"
"Aheh heh." Rarity interrupted them with an abrupt titter. She moved closer to the lakeshore, ahead of the others, in a few quick steps. "What our companion meant to say is... well, we worked rather well together, all things considered. You saved our lives and we're obviously very, very grateful, so we'd like to show you our appreciation."
The dragon leaned further down in what Luna briefly assumed was a threatening gesture. Instead, he merely let his head sink down on the lakeshore with a sigh.
"Oh, don't thank me!" he said, "I still feel like a louse for what I did. That poor kid's only crime was being a brainwashed, weaponized mutant. She had no awareness of what she was doing, let alone control of her actions! I truly wish I didn't have to be in that position..."
A hint of reproach seemed to creep into his voice at the end of this declaration, and his black eyes came into focus on Rainbow Dash. Rarity merely offered a sympathetic smile and carried on.
"Nevertheless, we are grateful," she said, "Why, the fact the fact that it was such a difficult moral issue for you makes your intervention even more admirable! So we thought we'd make it up to you by getting you out of this dreadful place. We have somepony here that can make that happen." Her hoof made a graceful little arc as it came to point at Luna.
Luna raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Yes... That is something I can do."
The dragon perked right back up at this proposition. Luna kept her gaze steady and acted as if she'd been in on this all along – as if she'd even thought about it. As much as she disliked treading in place, least of all at this particular moment, she supposed it was naïve to assume that they wouldn't have to put some work into it. The dragon may have been Rainbow Dash's friend, but he still had his own interests, so of course they had to negotiate. It was fortunate that Rarity seemed to be a natural at that.
"Oh, glorious freedom!" chirped Steven, lifting his head and shaking it as if he couldn't quite believe what he was hearing, "I could finally have... a bath!"
"You can have a great many baths," agreed Rarity, "Though seeing how we can benefit one another, I for one hope that we can continue our partnership even after you're free. You see, we're planning a little something that could really benefit from a bit of your advice, if not your outright presence."
The dragon drove his two thin arms into the mud and pulled himself further out of the water. "Um, what do you mean by that?"
"Our quest, as you called it, has taken a rather strange new direction." She stepped even closer to him so she was just about adjacent to his giant, mollified eye, then again raised her hoof and made a dramatic sweep towards the horizon, albeit in the opposite direction of where Luna knew the dragon lands to be. "We're actually headed to a sojourn in the dragon lands, so any information you could give us would be very much appreciated."
"Oh," said Steven, "Oh dear. Are you sure that's a good idea? It's, er, not a very hospitable place!"
"You know, we've heard the same thing," mused Rarity, "which is precisely why we're keeping an eye out for a guide to give us some pointers, show us the way, perhaps make some introductions..."
The dragon backed up and rose once again into an upright posture. His eyes flickered back and forth as if looking for an escape route, and Luna wondered if he was even really a dragon or merely looked a lot like one. He was definitely unlike any of the wild dragons she'd ever met.
"It will be quite dangerous there! Quite, quite dangerous! Nice little ponies like you should stay far away. Why would you want to go there anyway? I'm sure that if you think about it a little, you'll find that you don't really need to go there at all! The place is kind of a wasteland anyway. Even more so than Equestria, I mean."
"We have urgent business with the Matriarch," said Luna.
Steven ceased cringing and stood motionless for a moment. "Did she invite you?" he asked with a curious mixture of disbelief and sincere hope.
"No, she did not. She won't know we're coming."
"Oh dear. It won't be safe for you there!" His voice lowered to a hush. "Dragons can be real jerks, you know."
"Understatement much?" piped in Rainbow Dash.
"I know how dragons can be," said Luna, "and I can defend us if necessary. That's not why we've come to consult with you."
"I'm not exactly sure what you think I can do for you! It's been a few centuries since I was there, so I'm not exactly up to date. More to the point, I didn't exactly leave on good terms. I was kind of a wanted fugitive for a while there. Hmh, not that most of them ever had much respect for yours truly..."
"A few centuries would be the blink of an eye for dragons, so I doubt conditions there have changed all that much in the meantime. And weren't you a wanted fugitive because you spoke out against and wanted to interfere with the Matriarch's policies vis-à-vis the adoption of dragon eggs by ponies? As it happens, that is exactly the subject we want to discuss with your one-time leader. Our interests would seem to coincide, hmm?"
Enough of the mud had cleared from Steven's face that it was plainly visible how important this matter was to him. Nevertheless, whatever old fears or shames he associated with his homeland didn't give ground easily.
"I- I'm really not sure how they're going to react to me back home. I was never particularly highly regarded by the movers and shakers of dragonkind. They thought I was a wimp. And the Matriarch... was rather cross with me."
"You don't have to come with us if you truly don't want to," continued Rarity, "But the dragon lands cover quite a geographical area, so some information about it, including where we might find the Matriarch reigning, would be rather appreciated. The benefit of your wisdom would be enough."
At this, Dash scrunched up her face. "Well, not really, if you ask me."
"Rainbow Dash," said Rarity in her best sotto voce, "I am trying to negotiate here!"
"Hey, you're getting a one-way ticket out of here either way," said Dash, "but really, what else are you going to do, Steve? Whatever plan you had when you first came to Equestria isn't really going to pan out after all this time. I can't really argue if you want to go the 'lone renegade fighting a personal war against an oppressive regime' route too, but if you put it off a little bit further, we might come up with a better course of action."
Though Rarity clearly hadn't expected this from Dash, she quickly adapted it into her routine. "Even if you have a hard time resting your faith on strangers like me or Luna, surely you can believe in your buddy Rainbow Dash?"
"I don't really know about this," replied Steven, tapping his finger-claws together again. He paused to think, and since none of them wanted to press him any harder, the pause went on and on to the point of being a little ridiculous. "I suppose... I already owed Dash a lot anyway, right? She did provide for me after I woke up from my sleep. So you're not really repaying me for anything by getting me out of here. And anyway! I don't want to come across as some sort of haggler! Doing right by somepony shouldn't come with so many qualifications." He took a deep breath before carrying on. "For what it's worth, I guess I can come along and show you the way."
"Outstanding," said Rarity with a winning smile.
"Knew you wouldn't let us down, Steve!"
"I'm not entirely sure what you have in mind for transportation though. Magic, I presume?"
"Yeah, guess we'll have to think of our next move now?"
That's when all three of them looked to Luna.
For all that Luna wanted to shape her own destiny, she felt rather annoyed at how little she had done to shape this conversation. It wasn't just that she was deferring to Dash's longer acquaintance to the dragon either – Rarity clearly hadn't let that stop her.
She cleared her throat before speaking. "As Rarity said, we will need to know where we can find the Matriarch first and foremost."
"Well, that's no great mystery," said Steven, "The Matriarch's lair is in the Gulf of Eternity under the Backwards Mountain in the Waste of Pandyssia."
"Which is where?" asked Luna abruptly. None of these locations sounded familiar to her, but she wasn't sure whether it was because they didn't exist as such in her world or because she'd never been there.
Steven thoughtfully scratched his snout. "I'm not really sure how to say it in your language. So the dragon lands are to the southeast of Equestria, right? Do you know that peninsula that looks a little like a fish? There is – or at least there used to be – a mighty river there that flowed directly from the Backwards Mountain. That's the path we water dragons used to take to approach the Matriarch."
"Then we shall start there," said Luna with a decisive nod. She believed she knew the peninsula and river he was speaking of.
"Though, er, there are a few pretty important things about the Matriarch's lair I should explain as well..."
"You most certainly will. But we can discuss all that on the way. Prepare yourself!"
Steven opened his mouth, presumably to ask what he should have been preparing for, but the dark glow Luna's horn had taken on cut off his question. There was a ripple in the water around him, as if he had flinched without moving. Perhaps he felt something invisible and insubstantial move around him. Most of his body was hidden below the surface, so Luna had to reach out with a telekinetic field to get a good idea of his volume. This was not something she would have wanted to spitball.
Moving something as big as a full-grown dragon obviously took a measure of effort, but the magic she needed to put into action was insignificant compared to the power at her command. The real difficulty was something much subtler. Her intention was to teleport ahead to the Pandyssian shore and pull Rainbow Dash, Rarity and the dragon after her a split-second later once she confirmed the local topography.
Her initial jump put her a few hundred hoof-lengths above sea level. The shore reached quite a bit further into the sea than she'd expected, but there was indeed still a river there, visible from her high vantage point. In less than a moment, she'd teleported herself down to the beach where the river intersected the ocean and pulled the others there along with her. Steven, she took the liberty of dropping directly into the sea.
It was a relatively complex bit of magicking, though she doubted any of her passengers noticed that they were traveling separately. The journey would have seemed seamless to them. Luna did make one miscalculation though, in underestimating the splash the dragon's surprise belly-flop would make in the surf. They were all drenched by the shower, which felt pleasantly cool considering the circumstances.
Steven's initial shriek of shock turned a roaring cry of joy and then into a bubbling moan of contentment as his head disappeared underwater. A great brown splotch of dissipating mud obscured him from sight. The surface foamed and splashed and finally dipped when Steven... inhaled, Luna supposed.
"Oh, what a wonderful feeling!" he blubbered upon resurfacing. He still looked far from well-kempt, but admittedly left a much fancier, more respectable impression in his present state. "A most gracious thank you to all of you, my pony friends!"
They were now far enough from Equestria that the sun was actually hidden beyond the horizon. Daylight was still upon them, of course, but the temperature was perhaps a tad more bearable. The land here was relatively flat, giving them a good overview of the surrounding terrain. In the distance along the path of the river – through a flickering heat haze – they glimpsed a sharp-peaked mountain that must have been their destination. The only elevations in the immediate vicinity were outcroppings of rock that marked earlier boundaries of the river, when the water-way had been somewhat bigger. Even further on from the beach, there were no plants visible but occasional patches of shrubbery. The only sound in the wilderness was the gentle back-and-forth of the waves.
Steven had rolled himself sideways on a higher spot in the surf, where he remained half-submerged. He's lifted one of his arms up this drooping facial hair and, almost reflexively, started combing through it with his claws. He reminded Luna partly of a lizard basking in the sun, and partly of an otter cozying itself for a nap in water. As happy as she had been to give him his freedom though, they still had a mission to complete.
"This is no time for rest!" she declared, "We shall have to move on."
"Oh, er, right."
He gazed trepidly over their heads into the heart of the dragon lands, then abruptly turned over to lie on his stomach in the shallow water. Luna didn't immediately catch his meaning.
"Well, climb aboard, ponies! I'll give you a ride!"
Luna wondered if that was really worth it, or whether she should just have teleported them the rest of the way as well. There was one major downside to that idea, which was that they were headed to the nominal heart of dragon territory; they had no idea how many dragons would be there or how they would react to a group of ponies suddenly appearing in their midst. It did not seem like the most safest of ideas. Approaching by an established route of visitation seemed like the most sensible thing to do. It was probably what Celestia would have done. Besides, they really could have used a bit of time to hear more about the being they were going to visit.
Big as Steven was, he was also narrow and slippery enough that they could only fit in single file. Dash hopped up to take the spot right behind his head, Luna touched down and sat in the middle and Rarity gingerly stepped into the rear, careful on the slippery scales. Steven lurched forth, and quickly swam on to the mouth of the river, betraying none of the gangly awkwardness he exhibited when not submerged. It seemed like he could have gone a lot faster if he didn't have to mind the well-being and balance of the passengers on his back.
In her native world, dragons were also ruled by a Matriarch. Perhaps they were one and the same and perhaps not. Just as Luna had flown past Pandyssia in the past but never visited it, she'd never met the Matriarch of Dragonkind back home, despite occasional dealings with other dragons in earlier times. Their Matriarch was content to remain hunkered up in her own realm and never took part in any of the migrations, but Luna knew her sister had made contact during Luna's long exile. She felt foolish for not asking Celestia about this back at the Apple Underground hideout. Maybe she would have thought to do so, but Celestia had seemed to want to avoid her before they parted. Luna had a few questions in mind by now, however.
"Tell us what the Matriarch does," she said. The dragons didn't have much of a government, she knew, and not much in regards to hierarchies either.
"Well, first and foremost, she keeps the peace. Dragons quarrel with each other all the time, of course, and sometimes die fighting. There's all the usual clashes about territory and plunder – that's to be expected. From time to time though, folks start banding together into bigger groups to fight it out over bigger grievances. When that happens, or when a powerful elder starts making trouble, the Matriarch would come out of the mountain and break it all up. Aside from that, she also gets mating privileges."
"There's no earthly way I'm not going to regret asking this question," said Rarity, "but... pardon?"
Steven cleared his throat very thoroughly. "Well, you know. She gets first pick on who to, hmm, procreate with. She gets to birth the future generations of dragonkind – at least in theory. It didn't quite work out that way anymore with the plague and all."
"And what about the other dragons?" asked Rarity with a note of sullenness, "What if they say no?"
"I don't think anyone would say no to a chance to mate with the Matriarch."
"So they agree to it because of her prestige and authority?" Rarity went on. She was fighting to keep her voice level. "That's not right!"
"Oh, it's not so bad," with a slight shrug that almost sent them tumbling.
The implications of his words seemed to hang in the air around them. "Don't tell me you've been with the Matriarch too?" asked Dash, trying and failing not to sound a little grossed out.
"As a matter of fact, yes," said Steven defensively, "It came as a bit of a surprise to me as well, to be honest. For various reasons, I was not exactly a smash hit with the lady dragons. I'd actually given up any hope of even the idea of having offspring of my own, least of all with her, but then she picked me. Maybe she thought my eggs might actually hatch? Well, that was the first time I met her. The second time I met her, she told me she'd laid our eggs, that they would not hatch like all the others, and that she'd given them away to Equestria. Somehow, I got the idea of trying to sneak there and try to take them back. It was a silly plan, I realize that now."
He sounded barely restrained in sorrow rather quietly melancholy as might have been expected from a loss that was by this point centuries past. His head was drooping lower and lower into the water before suddenly snapping back up with a splash, perhaps from realizing the awkwardness of the ponies on his back. He went on with a faked cheeriness before anypony had the chance to start consoling him.
"My kind isn't very political, you know. The Matriarch isn't at the top because someone elected her, or because she was born to it. She's in charge because she took charge. She beat out the competition, and whenever someone tries to challenge her for rulership, she beats them too. She's the oldest, biggest and strongest living dragon – and the richest."
"The richest?" "The richest?" Dash and Rarity looked at each other in amusement. That word had piqued both their interests.
"The magic of dragons makes them grow in size and power the bigger their hoard gets," explained Luna quickly.
"Ah, so the Matriarch is going to have a lot of treasure under that mountain, eh?" asked Dash with a slight grin.
"You're not thinking of burglarizing the ruler of all dragonkind, are you, darling?" wondered Rarity.
Steven abruptly threw back his head to have a look at them, almost tipping them all sideways into the river. The slight panic in his eyes seemed to be a bit much in Luna's opinion; it seemed rather obvious to her the question had not been completely serious.
"Oh no, no, no!" said Steven, "You don't want to try stealing from the Matriarch! She wouldn't like that!"
"Relax!" said Dash with a frown, "It was just a joke! We're not going to mess this up by taking her stuff."
Steven kept a wary gaze on them for a few moments longer, then righted himself to look ahead again. "Good, good. In any case, I'm not sure she has all that much to steal anyway. Most of her wealth – maybe all of it – comes from a single item."
"Go on," said Luna. A good bit of this info was new to her as well.
"Oh, it's called the Rock of Ages. It's supposed to be the most valuable jewel ever. It's got all sorts of magic powers in addition to being so valuable. Or maybe it's so valuable because it's got magic powers? I'm not really sure, to be honest."
"What's it like?" asked Rarity dreamily.
"Well, I've never seen it, have I? She doesn't have to carry it with her to own it. It's well-hidden somewhere in her mountain hideout. Occasionally, one of the Matriarch's rivals or an adventurous outsider would try to get in and take it for themselves. This, um, does not end well for them."
On their journey upstream, they had a chance to see some more of the environment, or what little of it there was. Steven had called this land a "waste," and that couldn't have been more accurate. Even compared to the dried-out swamp they'd come from, this place was desolate. The difference was that as far as Luna could recall, this area didn't look much different in her world. No matter in what direction they looked or how far they tried to see, they were met with nothing. Dragons didn't build things, they didn't grow or cultivate anything, but one would have expected some signs of life. Well, in truth, there was one thing: occasional faded scorch marks on the rocky ground, and thin trails of smoke in the distance. Where there was dragons, there was fire.
Luna looked into the greenish river-water, and then up towards their destination. She couldn't help but notice that there was no sign of snow visible on the mountaintop.
"Why did the Matriarch become the Matriarch?" she asked.
"I'm not sure I understand the question?" replied Steven.
"I would like to know what caused her to take up this responsibility. It must have been a considerable effort for her to become the ruler of dragonkind, magic jewel or no magic jewel. Why did she bother, if the biggest part of ruling is fighting others to stay the ruler? What motivated her to do this thing, if she's now content to remain in her hole in the ground otherwise? Was it just a struggle for power, or a dragon's greed that drove her? Or some other ambition?"
"I don't think I'm qualified to answer that question. It's not like we're friends, and this all happened a little before my time. She has a few thousand years on me, you know!"
Luna frowned. For all that Steven had told them, she did not feel like any of it helped her understand the being they were to meet. Luna could assess the Matriarch as a threat, but they were headed to a negotiation and not a fight. Giving dragonkind a future beyond slavery was supposed to be their big trump card, but this depended wholly on the Matriarch caring what happened to her people. What if she didn't? What if what Equestria did with her children was entirely beyond her concern? What if the the disease that could drive dragons to extinction was nothing to her?
This general sentiment was going to be Luna's next question, but she never got to ask it. Rainbow Dash, whose gaze happened to wander across the horizon, perked up suddenly.
"Hey, I think I see something," she said, squinting into the distance to their left.
"What?" asked Rarity warily.
"I think... I think we've got dragons!"
Luna could see them too. Two large reptilian shapes were lounging on the open plains – perhaps a mating pair, or the closest thing dragons had to friends. One of them was lying flat on its stomach with its leathery wings curled around it, while the other one, bigger and bulkier and wingless, was sitting upright. The former was emerald green and the latter a dull bronze that would have camouflaged it well and good if it had stuck closer to ground. As far as could be judged from a distance, they were both asleep.
"Should we go and introduce ourselves?" asked Rarity.
Steven didn't even dignify that with a response. He bent down his neck to reduce his profile and accelerated. He also let himself sink a little deeper so all their hooves were doused by the oncoming water. It became quite hard to maintain balance on his back, and he seemed intent on building up even more speed.
"Hey, what's the big deal, Steve?" asked Dash, but she too was reflexively arcing her back.
"We shouldn't talk to anyone except the Matriarch," replied Steven, half-whispering, "They might be hostile."
"But why would they want to attack us?" asked Rarity, "We haven't done anything to them!"
"They might be in a bad mood. Or hungry. Or bored. They might just not like ponies very much. Or they might not like me very much!"
The lower reaches of the mountain were no more than a few kilometers away by now, but the dragons were stirring. Steven and his pony passengers had the riverside ridge providing decent cover, but voices carried well in the wasteland, and dragons had excellent noses. Any new sound or smell must have stood out.
"I think they've noticed us," commented Dash, to which Steven whimpered.
"Pardon me, but surely we can slow down a little?" suggested Rarity, leaning back despite her best efforts. The water was splashing up to her chest now.
Luna opened her mouth and closed it. She was very close to commanding that they stop. This quiet escape ran counter to all her instincts. She knew better than most how aggressive and territorial dragons could be, and she was willing to trust Steven's judgement on the matter, but she had not come to this place to scurry and hide. How would they negotiate with the Matriarch if they didn't have some dignity? Getting into a fight would be... unbecoming, but backing down from one might have been worse.
The green dragon was up on its feet and stretching its wings. The bronze land-dweller had thrown back its head; they realized it wasn't just gazing at the sky when the echoing roar reached them. The green dragon crouched down and lifted off.
Luna had overplayed her hoof in Hillside. Even though Celestia hadn't said anything, Luna knew her sister had to be displeased by going public so spectacularly. She knew she could be too emotional sometimes, so she would have liked to think things through this time. Alas, there was very little time for thought now.
"It's pointless to try to escape," said Luna, "Stop."
She couldn't deny she was nervous, but the fact that Steven didn't listen made her feel something else entirely.
"I said stop!" she snarled.
In a few beats of its wings, the green dragon crossed half the sky. It was upon them. Where it wasted no time on its victims but swept down with claws extended, Luna hesitated. Her resolution withered into uncertainty; thoughts of defensive spells and tactics were buried under worries about diplomatic impact and the appropriate level of force. Suddenly, it was too late to worry.
Steven, still moving forward, veered to his right. He reached out his arms to intercept the attack. The green dragon couldn't slash him to ribbons, but its weight pushed him under. Luna, Rarity and Rainbow Dash were all thrown off his back and strewn into the river.
Luna found herself whirling around in the water, not knowing which way was up or down. She was caught in the downstream flow, which had grown fierce so close to the river's source
Her surroundings were darkening steadily from mud and sediments kicked up by the commotion. She felt rather than saw the dragons struggling above and around her. Twisting currents betrayed the movement of their gigantic limbs.
Dash had been starting to flap her wings, but even she'd been too slow to take to the air. Rarity, more mindful of landing than taking off, had curled herself into a ball. Where they were now, Luna could not tell.
The river wasn't deep enough to get lost in. Luna knew which way to orient herself when she touched down in the sludge at the bottom. She tried to roll over, push herself off the ground and swim to the surface, but found her hooves stuck in the mud. She stumbled and lost her footing and was dragged further away. Fortunately, she could make do without breathing.
The second time around, she didn't make the same mistake. She blasted out of the water with a beat of her wings, ascended and shook off some of the water with another beat, and circled towards where the water serpent and the winged dragon were snapping at each other.
Her rapid heartbeat in her ears was egging her on like the drums of war. It was as if the river had washed away her doubts. She no longer particularly cared what the appropriate level of force was.
A smoky silvery whip shot forth from her horn, homed in on the green dragon's half-submerged neck and wound around it. Luna yanked back her head, and through a little twist in the laws of physics, her opponent came hurtling out of the riverbed. Luna had exerted far more force on the dragon than just her weight.
She only paused to let the green dragon hit the ground. He was in some ways quite beautiful – up close, Luna was fairly sure it was a male. His scales ranged from emerald plate on its back to minute and shamrock splint around its belly, and he was covered in a glistening sheen from the water. As soon as he'd gathered himself and started staggering to his feet, Luna pulled the whip taut so his head was pulled in her direction. She kept herself aloft slightly higher than his eye level.
"You have made a grave mistake, little dragon!" she declared, "We are here to speak to your mistress and we will not be treated this way!"
She was honestly not sure whether she was using the royal we.
Her eyes flickered, for the barest of moments, back to the river to check on her companions. Perhaps that was what decided the green dragon's answer.
His answer was a burst of flame.
Luna let herself drop. The gout of fire passed her by in free-fall, but the hot wind that followed still caught her.
Luna twisted around and landed upright, cracking the rock formation underneath her with her landing. She dug her hooves into the ground and further tightened the silver band to the point where the flame ceased and the only thing coming out of the green dragon's throat was a thin gurgling sound.
"Will you listen to me now?!" Luna demanded.
They locked eyes. She was choking him, and she could have killed him, but she didn't see panic in those yellow-black eyes. Though his mouth was wide open and gasping for breath, he didn't even try to lean forward to slacken the band. The only thing she could read from his eyes was hunger – but not for meat.
Then, quick as lightning, the green dragon extended his wings and beat them along the ground. Luna had to raise her own wings to shield her face from the torrent of dust and sand that rose up. The painful hail caused her to take a step back. Just like in the river, her vision was obscured.
Luna was surprised by such a move, but she should not have been. She'd forgotten what dragons were like. Despite the indifferent savagery of his attack, this was no mere mindless beast, but a cunning, thinking monster.
She tried to keep a hold on her whip, but she could tell the green dragon was on the move. He kept storming up more sand with his wings, but slithered towards her along the ground. That was an advantage Luna intended to press. She jumped and took back to the air. The last thing she noticed lifting off was that the ground was shaking, and the first thing she saw reaching the clear sky was a metallic brown mass towering over her. The bronze dragon had caught up with them on the riverside.
It struck her before she could react. It struck her so hard she was propelled all the way to the opposite side of the river. The silver band snapped off from her horn somewhere along the way.
This time, she did not land on her hooves. She crashed and bounced on the bank, finally skidding to a halt against an elevation. Stumbling, she rose back up. She lifted a hoof to her mouth and found that she'd been bloodied. It wasn't so bad: a normal pony would have broken every bone in her body twice over from that.
From her new vantage point, she discovered that Rarity and Rainbow Dash had both made it to the riverbank. Steven had wrapped himself protectively around them, which included keeping a hold on Dash so she wouldn't fly into action. There was red in the water around him.
On the opposite bank, the green dragon was still struggling with the silver band around his throat – clawing at it, trying to bend his neck to bite at it – but without Luna there to feed the magic, the hard light would dissipate in a minute or two. The bronze dragon, probably a female, was standing on her hindlegs, off to the side from her companion. This one was built like a fortress, and her scales looked less like reptile skin than tree bark. Her wedge-shaped head had two mouths and four eyes. She bent forward to stand on all fours, and roared once more, with both maws. The sound made the world tremble.
Luna wasn't sure whether the metallic tang in her mouth was blood or bile. Without thinking, she responded with a wordless war cry of her own. There was another spell on her mind, and soon enough her horn. She fired off bursts of force that shimmered at the bronze dragon's head and chest and impacted with no more effect than some growls of pain and a slight staggering.
Luna grunted from the wasted effort, but fired once more, aiming lower this time. A section of wasteland rock on the riverside was ground into dust in a soundless implosion. The bronze dragon stumbled without footing.
Luna took flight immediately, rushed forward much faster than any wings could carry her. She aimed straight for the gargantuan mass before her, obscured by a momentary mach cone. The moment before impact, she whirled around and bucked.
It was as if she'd landed on thunder. She felt the bronze armor splinter with cobweb cracks under her hooves.
Even as she was shrieking in pain, the bronze dragon brought one of her claws down on Luna. She might have been swatting a fly, but Luna knew she'd managed to hurt the beast. Leveraging herself against the wound, Luna pushed off and evaded the blow.
Relying on instinct, she angled her wings and withdrew in zigzag. A pillar of light yellow fire blared past her into the atmosphere, without even interrupting the roar of pain and rage below.
Luna circled around for another approach, quite willing to try the same tactic again. She even went for the center of mass again. The bronze dragon's stumpy legs would have made good targets as well, but... Luna wanted the beast to be able to run away once once she was done.
The bronze dragon was and was not ready for Luna. It bellowed more fire, slashed the air with its claws – but Luna was too fast. She was faster than shadows fleeing from light. The air scattered before her; friction and momentum gave way. The speed seared her bones, but it was worth it.
She struck, now with her forehooves, at the wound she'd left behind on her first pass. Something soft gave way this time. There were no words for the noises the bronze dragon was making.
Something strange happened on her retreat: the horizon inclined, and the earth careened towards her. Luna had to pull up sharply to stay in the air. Perhaps she was trying a bit too hard...
Another pass was all that was needed, she was sure of it. Another pass would allow her to bring the bronze dragon down.
Through the haze of exertion, she almost didn't notice the green dragon clawing forward to rejoin the fray. The silver band Luna had conjured up was becoming too ethereal to impede him.
Blinking her eyes to keep them in focus, Luna changed direction to intercept her first opponent. She tuned out everything else and tried to keep sight of the tangling, frayed end of the silver band. Slicing ahead of the green dragon's snapping jaws, Luna managed to close her own teeth on the end of the ghostly whip, which brightened and solidified at her touch.
Luna kept moving. Instead of tightening the band, she extended it, weaving a tempestuous circle around the green dragon's wings before he could put them to use again, then descended to loop around his legs as well. The whip was going to make do as a snare.
She caught one leg, a second, and a third – the fourth one, front right, met her on her way. Luna banked, but one enormous claw came so close it ripped free some of the feathers on her wing. The only way to evade was down, so Luna made one more crash-landing.
The important thing was that she managed to keep a hold of the line. When the green dragon leaned closer to deliver a fatal blow, all Luna had to do to close up the band around him was to pull. As badly as he wanted to kill her, he couldn't do so yet. Stumbling and immobilized, he had to focus on getting loose, and that gave Luna the chance she needed.
She clambered back up – first on her hooves and then in the air. She had to hurry now. From the corner of her eye, she saw the bronze dragon lumbering closer. With a quick forward surge, she snagged the green dragon's last free limb, then rose back up to tie up his snout and close up his jaws, and finally did a few quick circles around his upper body.
When she constricted the line now, the green dragon's considerable mass came sinking down to the ground, where it remained, twitching and quivering like a volcano that could no longer erupt. Luna touched down next to his head and let go of the whip. It was no longer needed. Up close, she could disable the beast with a sleep-spell.
She'd hoped to find him cowed now at last, but his eyes followed her approach with the same rabid intensity she'd seen before. He could no longer breathe heavily, so he breathed rapidly, driving up gusts of sand with each exhalation.
And then – a puff of fire from his nostrils. It would have done no more than singe Luna's eyebrows, had there been any heat to burn.
The world lurched, and Luna was expelled from time and space for the briefest of moments. When her surroundings resolved back into reality, she found herself somewhere else entirely, standing in ash rather than sand.
She looked to one side and saw crimson, gray, amber and plum purple. She looked to another side and saw copper, teal, magenta and periwinkle blue. All around her, in every imaginable color and shape, there were dragons. Of course they saw her as well, but their stirring was not the worst of it. A deep humming sound from behind alerted Luna to a presence closer than any other. She turned around and saw a living shadow, a coal-black shape so vast that it seemed endless. She could have stared at it for hours without seeing all of it.
Luna didn't know where she was, but she teleported back to her previous location right away.
The green dragon had surely not expected her to have this power. He didn't have time to be surprised by her reappearance, since she struck back from the clear blue sky and smashed his head into the ground with as much force as she could muster. The sleep-spell she'd had in mind was forgotten, but the effect was the same. The same yellow-black eyes that had stared at her so impetuously were now blank and rolling up in his head. Luna didn't feel as much satisfaction in her victory as she'd expected, but she felt some.
Luna now turned to look at her only remaining opponent.
The bronze dragon had stopped in her approach at some point along the way. She swiveled forward and backwards, roaring and roaring again, with one mouth, the second, and both at once. It was like a barking dog, trying to express a wounded pride and an anger like she'd never known before, but not daring to step forward. The thick blood and bits of broken scale dripping from her abdomen must have accounted for some of her hesitation.
Luna leaned forward and extended her wings as far as they reached. She forced her flattened ears up to show she wasn't afraid. She tried to look as majestic as her scruffy and dusty coat would allow.
"Flee!" she bellowed.
The bronze dragon fell silent. She heard and listened. Her resolve wavered and broke. She turned around and went off into the wilderness, though she would not go without occasionally turning around and roaring some more, as if that would lessen the shame of her escape.
Luna kept watch until she was sure the bronze dragon would not return. She had another look at the green dragon to make sure he was down and out. Once she was certain the situation had been resolved, she released a quiet sigh and licked her lips. She still had anger left over from the battle, and nothing to do with it now. With the adrenaline fading fast, the pains and aches were catching up to her. Still, they had not and did not have time to waste, so Luna flapped back into the air. The craters Luna's magic had left behind were filling up with water, but she ignored them and crossed the river to check on her companions.
Luna noticed a limp when she landed, but she couldn't tell which leg. She didn't have as much cause to complain as Steven, however, who'd had a patch of scales torn off from his back during the initial attack. Luckily, the damage only appeared to be skin-deep. The water had made the bleeding look worse than it really was. Rainbow Dash and Rarity both seemed unharmed, though the latter had lost her cloak in the river. All of them were staring at the approaching Luna with wide eyes and unmasked astonishment.
"That was... quite an impressive display!" said Rarity breathlessly. She coughed up some water the next moment.
"Do you know how fast you were going there?!" asked Dash.
The awe of her companions was pleasing to Luna, but she couldn't get caught in such vanity.
"Never mind that," she said, "Are you all right?"
"Ow, ow, ow, ow!" said Steven, dabbing at his bare back with his arms, "Yes, I am fine, relatively speaking."
Space was clearing up in Luna's mind to worry about what she'd seen earlier. Evidently, the green dragon had been spiteful enough to try having others kill Luna where he could not. The question was, who had he tried to send her to? The black figure couldn't have been the Matriarch... could it? The Matriarch's lair was supposed to be underground, but Luna'd been under open sky. Perhaps the Matriarch's habits had changed, or perhaps the Matriarch herself had changed. There were any number of ways Steven could have been inadvertently mistaken. Of course, if all his information was still up to date, and Luna had not met the Matriarch, that meant the being she'd glimpsed was not the biggest and mightiest of dragons – that there was still one bigger and mightier.
"What a wonderful welcome," Rarity was saying. She sounded more disgusted than sarcastic.
"Well, they've got no reason to be welcoming, do they?" observed Dash, "Ponies keep their kin as slaves. But... yeah. This was pretty excessive."
"You think this was personal?" asked Steven, "I'm not so sure. That's just what we're like."
"You do yourself a disservice," said Rarity, "You're nothing like these brutes. You are a civilized being!"
"Thank you," said Steven simply.
"Think this is what we can expect from the Matriarch?" wondered Dash.
"Oh, the Matriarch would never attack you without provocation," replied Steven, "I hope."
"What does the Matriarch look like?" asked Luna.
Steven raised an eyebrow at this. "Well, I'm not sure about you ponies, but my kind considers her very beautiful. She has an impressive symmetry to her. Silver scales, by the way, kind of translucent..." He must have noticed a change in Luna's expression, because he didn't go on. "This seems somewhat irrelevant to me though. Why are you asking?"
"I will explain." Luna stroked her chin. "But not just yet. Let's head out first."
"Agreed!" said Steven, "Feel free to get back on. And before you ask, yes, I'm sure. Let's just get away from here, hmm?"
Steven was ready and willing to carry them further, though they had to take up position further back than last time. They were probably no more than another hour away from the mountain, and Luna certainly hoped they'd get there soon, without any further incidents. The Matriarch was waiting.
"You said this place was called the Backwards Mountain?" said Dash. Perhaps she hoped some small-talk would keep Steven's mind off the pain. "It looks right-side up to me."
"Oh," said Steven, "Oh, right! I forgot to tell you about that, didn't I? That's not why it's called the Backwards Mountain. It's just that mountain is traveling backwards through time."
Luna wondered if things couldn't ever be easy.
To be continued in Part II.