//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Confronting // Story: All The Way Back // by Jordan179 //------------------------------// Luna streaked over the White Tail Mountains, her flightfield automatically-reconfiguring from skintight to teardrop-shaped as her speed increased: she pulled her legs up and her wings back, helping to shape the field into a needle-nosed delta. She felt a brief buildup of air pressure followed by the snap of release as she transitioned through the sound barrier. The air curdled and glowed against her flightfield forward, and she knew that she was trailing the thunder of a sonic boom. She could have increased her thrust, reconfigured the field into a lifting-body, increased her speed until she went hypersonic, but she preferred to retain some maneuverability, in case her unknown foe was armed with an Alicorn-Bane. Supersonic flight was beyond the capability of most Pegasi. It took both raw power, and fine control over one's flightfield. One's wings were important only as paramagnetic radiators, to generate the thruster fields which stood in the place of engines; any attempt to flap would have resulted in tumbling out of control. One steered by warping one's flightfield. It helped that Luna had been Moondreamer, who had designed supersonic and hypersonic aircraft -- though Moondreamer had never expected to in a future life be one. Moony, you would have so loved this! she thought in brief exuberance. Mother Mine, I love to fly! Why had she moped around the Palace for so long? This is my element! She closed on the target. The bawling of the baby was an ululation in her sub-hearing, both a spur to action and a homing signal. With navigational skills honed by over fifteen hundred years' life on Earth, she effortlessly matched her eidetic memory of the map she'd scanned to the landforms beneath her, and was not at all surprised to discover that the distress call was coming from the lair of the remaining Dragon. What but a Dragon could threaten even a young Alicorn? she thought. Actually, there were a few other things, but most of them didn't dwell in the White Tails -- some lurked in the monster-haunted Everfree, where she had attempted her own stand a few months back, when she'd still been in the grip of the Nightmare. Luna once again broadened her flightfield and threw herself into a wide turn around her target, both bleeding off speed and reconnoitering as she dropped subsonic. The dragon's lair was somewhere in a mile-high mountain -- Summer Lightning hadn't been able to precisely locate it, because she had understandably not wished to close. Lieutenant Lightning's decision had made sense, but it would have been useful to have had a better fix on the lair. Circling the mountain, Luna examined it in detail from a distance with her great blue eyes, keener than a hawk's, and saw many indentations which might have concealed cave mouths. This might be a long search for Pegasi; possibly a very long one if the Dragon was lying doggo, emulating the behavior of Diamond Dogs by remaining deep within the mountain. Fortunately, Luna could do things beyond the capabilities of any mere Pegasus. Luna summoned the power of her Element, then released it -- in a low-intensity, broad cone instead of a scything focused force beam. Gravitons pulsed into the mountain, shaking it in a subtle vibration which the Dragon -- if he possessed the right senses and knew that what she was doing was possible -- just might be able to detect. The gravitational ranging and detection pulse, something that the Age of Wonders had speculated about as a possibility, calling it in their science-fiction "deep radar," sleeted through the solid rock, but some gravitons happened to strike the zones of force within its atoms and returned to her. The return was weak, so it was a slow process -- much slower than ordinary electromagnetic radar -- but, as Luna orbited the mountain, she built up an internal three-dimensional map of the rock structure, and the vacuities that indicated cave systems. There were many -- too many for her to be sure of the Dragon's location. She understood now why the Dragon had chosen this mountain. There were plenty of caves large enough to conceal even a large Dragon and his hoard, and plenty of tunnels long enough for him to pass between them. Adult Dragons were mostly long and slim-built, and strong enough to claw their way through tight spots even in solid rock. A full-grown Dragon, the size of a large castle keep, could get through places only a few times the width of a Pony if they had to, which was part of what made them so terrifying to normal Ponies. She opened her other senses to their fullest. An adult Dragon -- or even a baby Alicorn -- had a lot of life force. The problem was that Luna couldn't really receive lifescent through millions of tons of solid rock, some of it containing ferrous minerals. Luna was getting a vague sense that something powerful was within the mountain, but then she knew this already. Direct magical search techniques failed her as well, since she had never encountered this Alicorn foal, only its signal -- all she discovered from that was "within the mountain." That left one technique -- but Luna knew it had very serious limits. Still, it was the best and fastest one left in her repertoire, so she did it. She bent her orbit so that one end of it was a mile high and the other end only a few hundred yards over the treetops, then rotated the orbit as she flew it so that she occupied positions marking a cylinder around the mountain. While doing so, she sub-spaced a call to the Alicorn foal, and was rewarded by an increase in the frequency and volume of its own transmissions. By correlating the signal intensity in time and space she could get a rough fix on the Alicorn's position. The problem was that subspace frequencies were faster-than-light, and very long-waved compared to electromagnetism. Across the relatively short distances represented by Luna's positions and the different parts of the mountain, the variations were terribly tiny. A supercomputer of the Age of Wonders might just barely have been able to tease them out from the signal -- had the Age of Wonders ever developed subspace sensors, which it hadn't. Luna's own brain was far more capable than any Age of Wonders supercomputer -- with one possible exception, and she didn't have a link to that one, right now. So, as she flew the rotating orbit, she gradually built up a very general idea of the location of the Alicorn. The Alicorn was somewhere about halfway up the north face of the mountain. Luna consulted the three-dimensional map she'd internally compiled of the cave systems . There were several cave openings in that general area, but only one of them provided admittance to the main cavern system. What was more, there were viable lairs higher on the mountain, but they also lacked access to the main cavern system. If the Dragon had not cared about getting into the main cavern system, it would have taken a higher lair -- like most large predatory fliers, it preferred to have the altitude advantage. Hence, the Dragon had probably chosen the cave opening that allowed it to move through the main cavern system. She had gotten this far in her analysis when her squadron hove into view around one of the other mountains, Wrath and Vengeance pulling the Midnight Chariot, the true Nocturnae escorting them, and Summer Lightning flying at the head of the formation, the better to guide them all through the mountains she knew so well. Luna broke off her orbits to flit over to her Ponies. Luna led them to the neighboring mountain to the north, and quickly briefed them on the tactical situation. "The Dragon is probably in caverns behind that cave mouth," she pointed and then marked the position on her map. She looked at Summer Lightning. "Art thou familiar with those tunnels?" "I know they're in there," replied Summer Lightning, "but I've never gone down them. I've heard they're big enough for a Dragon, though." She looked at Luna, clearly mustering up her courage. "Would you like me to guide you, Ma'am? I'm familiar with these mountains in general, including the overall nature of their caves." Luna considered quickly. Summer was obviously eager to demonstrate her courage, something with which Luna strongly sympathized. But if it came to a fight, Summer would be dead pretty quickly against an adult Dragon, down in the caverns where her aerial agility would be largely negated. Then again, Summer would be the most useful guide. "Aye," said Luna. "But thou must not be reckless. I shall lead the way, and thou art not to fight the Dragon. Is that clear?" "Yes, Ma'am," said Summer, sounding disappointed. Luna looked at her squadron. "This encounter shall differ from those past. The Dragon has made captive a Pony -- possibly a young Alicorn. I fear for the life of that Pony. So our approach shall be in this wise: I shall deliver the challenge at the cave mouth, but if it neither duels nor yields, we shall fix its attention on the front way while ringing the mountain. I shall then go by a back way, with Ranger Lieutenant Lightning as mine own guide, whilst ye continue to demonstrate before the front way. "Should the Dragon venture forth -- by whatever gate -- ye shall not, I say again not try it in battle. Leave one Pony behind to tell me in what direction it hath gone, and the rest of ye shall shadow it at a distance. This shall be your course even should it have prisoners. I do not want dead heroes. Do ye ken?" Affirmative replies resounded. "Good," Luna said. "Come, Lt. Lightning. Thou shalt ride with me again in the Midnight Chariot." Summer Lightning's face was too full of pride to register any fear as she boarded the chariot with Luna. I think she's mine now, Luna thought. A good, brave Pony, too. I'll have her seconded to the Night Guard, when this is all over. I'm going to need to work through the Night Guard first, and I'll need a good-sized auxiliary of regular Pegasi, not just my Vera Nocturnae and Pseudo Nocturnae -- because my reforms are going to affect the whole Guard, even if they don't know it yet. Even if Celestia doesn't know it yet, because I've just thought of it today. Summer Lightning could be part of this. Better keep her alive. She would have tried to anyway, on general principles, but now it was especially important. Thoughts were whirring through the background of her brain, thoughts about the generally-lax condition of the Royal Guard in general, the lack of advanced weapons to match overall Equestrian technology, the changes that would need to be made if Equestria were to be made ready to meet the onslaught she felt certain the monsters on the Moon were preparing against her. The Lady of War was wakening within her, and Luna knew that there would be much to be done, and rapidly. She would need competent subordinates. Lieutenant Lightning could be one of them. Wrath and Vengeance drew the Chariot around to the main entrance of the Dragon's lair. "Lads," she said quietly to them. "This Dragon may fight. If it does, your lives come before saving the Chariot." "Yes, Ma'am," replied Vengeance. "Yes, Ma'am," said Wrath, puffing himself up and adding "But I think we can save both!" Despite the seriousness of the situation, Luna was amused to see that Wrath stole a glance at Summer Lightning when he said this. Hotshot, Luna thought, but affectionately. They were both the best of the best, even though Wrath could be a bit of a clown -- especially in front of a pretty mare. Memories of hundreds of similar situations, of dear departed friends she'd known before who reminded her of Wrath and Vengeance, crowded for attention. She shoved them back with a slight mental effort. Now was no time for woolgathering. Luna set the Midnight Chariot down just behind the military crest of the mountain, ensuring that the Dragon would not have a clear shot at her command post. She mounted the flag of the Realm on one of the Chariot's rear spike-shafts, making certain that it could be seen from the lair's cave mouth. From the other she flew her own personal flag, the crescent-moon sigil over a complex design she had taken from the old North Amareican Space Agency, Moondreamer's employers over four thousand years ago in the Age of Wonders. I'll paint that on the hulls of our new spacecraft, she thought, when we start flying Moon rockets again. For some reason she could not fully understand, all her doubts and fears were gone. She was Luna. Luna Selena Nyx. The Avatar of Gravity. And nothing would stand in her way again for very long. She gave her gear one last check, this time making sure that all her weapons were neither too loose nor too tight. A stuck weapon might have more serious consequences against this full adult Dragon than it would sparring with Fischfootur. She would not want to make a mistake -- the lives of Summer Lightning and the unknown Alicorn foal might be forfeit if she badly botched this. "Stay near the Midnight Chariot for now," she told Lightning. "Yes, M'aam," Lightning responded. She was all business now. Luna debarked, climbed to the top of the military crest. She drew the scroll with her aura, taking her time. In the background she could see her squadron spreading out, assuming unobtrusive positions from which they brought the whole mountain under observation. At this altitude the winds were fierce, whipping the flags on their spikepoles. The hair of her own mane and tail streamed out behind her in the gusts, another pair of battle standards. "INTRUDING DRAGON!" Luna cried out in the Royal Canterlot Voice. Her aura bent the air to funnel her words across the miles of void between their positons. Her voice echoed across the distance. "KNOW THAT WE ARE PRINCESS LUNA SELENA NYX, PRINCESS OF THE MOON, AND HIGH LADY OF WAR OF THE REALM OF EQUESTRIA, WITHIN WHOSE BORDERS THOU TRESPASSEST!" Her practiced eyes roved across the intervening landscape, compared it to paper maps she had studied, and the gravitic and sub-spatial maps she had assembled in her own mind. Her brain built up a composite picture of the terrain features, and she charted a covered path to the lower entrance, even as she delivered her address. "WE DEMAND THAT THOU IMMEDIATELY VACATE OUR REALM, TAKING WITH THYSELF THY HOARD COMPLETE, AND RETURNING TO US, ALIVE AND UNHARMED, ANY PONIES OR EQUESTRIAN SUBJECTS THOU HAST MADE CAPTIVE ..." ... an important clause; she would not permit this raider to keep any captives, and if Equestrians had already been slain on Equestrian soil, she would not permit him the Dragon to depart at all, and his clan could take it up with the Realm of Equestria if they so desired ... "...ON PAIN OF OTHERWISE BEING CONSIDERED TO HAVE DECLARED PERSONAL WAR AGAINST OUR REALM, AND BEING TREATED BY US AS OUR ENEMY!" ... the teeth in her declaration. Unless, of course, personal war was exactly what the Dragon desired. She saw something moving. Her eyes focused in on the motion. A great Dragon head, bigger than her whole body, peered out from the cave mouth at her, extending on the end of a long neck, so long that most of it remained within the cave. The top scales were a brilliant blue, with a great orange horn at the end of the nose and an array of orange spikes on the top of the head and along the spines. As the neck twisted this and that way, parallax-ranging her, she could see the paler orange of the underside. She felt energies flicker along the spines. The intensities were far below lethality, even against a normal Pony, let alone herself. Luna remained calm as pulses of radio waves painted her position. His control over the emanations was very precise, and Luna knew that he now had her exact coordinates down to a hundredth of an inch. He's just localized me on two separate octaves of the spectrum, Luna realized. He knows I'm an illusionist. And he knows how to defeat illusions. This Dragon is very dangerous. The point seemed ludicrously obvious, as if the rest of him was built to the same scale as the head and part of the neck she had just seen, he would have to be well over a hundred hooves long, probably more like two to two-hundred-fifty hooves. But Luna was not that much impressed by sheer size. The danger of this Dragon was that it was smart, at least as smart as Fischfootur, and with an intelligence honed by many centuries of life and a store of knowledge equally-enriched by experience. It might be able to kill her, if she got careless and it got lucky. But what was worse, it might be able to defeat her -- something it did not need to kill or even much harm her to accomplish. For she had to free the foal and any others the creature held. And that meant she had to hold back her power, at least until she could get it away from its lair. Her full power could collapse the face of the mountain, and crush the very captives she meant to save. The Dragon's eyes widened as it looked at her. And then drily, hissingly -- it laughed. "So," it said, and its own voice was an almost infrabass rumble. "Little Luna." The great blue face smiled wickedly. "I see thine sister has finally allowed thee to come back from the Moon, to once again do the dirty work for which her own elegant self is entirely too pure and noble." Luna saw the huge dark-blue eyes focus on her, felt his mind feeling about her own. Automatically she clamped down her own mindshield. "Would you try conclusions now, beast?" she asked. To call a Dragon, especially a great and old one, a mere 'beast' was extremely insulting -- but it was being insulting too, and she rather liked the idea of insulting it back. Perhaps it would lose its cool, yield to her instincts -- and leave the protection of its lair. "Try conclusions?" the great Dragon asked mockingly. "Why, little Pony Princess? Cannot thy weak mammalian mind endure a simple testing probe, such as the Elders of my own kind might toss back and forth in friendly jest?" Idly, it snapped an arc of lightning from one of its spikes against a stone the size of a Pony's head just outside its cave mouth, cracking it in twain. The broken halves trailed smoke, the broken face glowed red-hot. "Geases are not the deeds of friends," stated Luna. "And thou art not on friendly soil." "Oh, thou dost not welcome me?" The Dragon put a wounded tone into its voice. "Why, what hath that little lava-leaving that I lack?" "Manners," said Luna flatly. "Probably hygiene. Definitely courage." That last statement was a deadly insult among Dragonkind, as she knew well. The Dragon hissed, and roared. Lightning played about its spikes and was joined by lightnings from its throat. But the great mouth was pointed up and away from her, exposing the thinner plating of its throat, and the arcs did not complete, the discharge harmless and reabsorbed. If I'd struck then, Luna realized, I would have done so unprovoked, and struck a coward blow. It risks death for a chance at embarrassing Equestria. There is some factional strife, or personal grudge here, whose workings I cannot perceive, from which is much malice toward the Realm! The Dragon looked full at her. There were no psychic forces playing about her mind this time; the Dragon knew that this would not work, and had already been called on it as an act of aggression. "By what right dost thou insult an Elder of the North?" it asked her, in a voice that was barely controlled down from a roar. "By what right dost thou squat upon my lands and hold captive one of mine own Ponies?" Luna countered. "Your lands?" the Dragon asked her. "Hah!" The laugh was a whip-crack sound, which echoed around the heights. "Little Pony Princess -- or should I say, little invader from the cosmic gulfs beyond the Moon thou claimest? Oh yes, Princess Luna, we of Northern Draconia know well your true origin, Sister of the Sun, unearthly thing from before the formation of this round world -- or wouldst thou like me to stop? Wilst thou have to slay thine own guards, to keep thy secret?" "Mine own Guards are mine own friends, and may be trusted with mine own secrets," Luna said calmly. "Hadst thee friends, thou wouldst know of such a thing as Friendship." "Ah, thou persisteth in the pretense that thou art Pony. No matter. Dost thou know the history of this world?" the Dragon challenged her. "I am more than passing familiar with such lore," Luna said, yawning and idly fanning at her face with one moonsilver-shod hoof, as if the conversation bored her. "How canst thou then prattle of 'thy' lands?" the Dragon asked. "Thou must know that all this world was once ours! It belonged from pole to pole to the Dragons, in the long Ages ere the Devil's Tail smote this very continent on which we stand. A thing from Outside, from Beyond -- much like thine own self, 'Pony Princess,' -- were thy Kind, thy true Kind, even then laying their vile designs against the greatest and noblest race which ever ruled a world? Thee and thine must have known that thou couldst never dominate the Dragons, so thou didst strike without warning from beyond the world, like the craven cowards that are ye all, so that the damaged world might breed from its furry vermin a race so submissive as to serve thy alien Kind." The words came out fast, spittle flying, and Luna was shocked by both the knowledge revealed, and the gaps in that knowledge. For it was true that races more akin to the Dragons had ruled the Earth over sixty-five million years gone, but the Dragons themselves had not existed yet. They had been made as thralls to the Serpent Folk, and much of that making had come after another archosaurian race, one derived from the now-extinct non-avian Dinosaurs, had brought down the doom of the Devil's Tail. But how had he known of any of this? And why was his lore so distorted? Luna wanted to talk to this Dragon, learn the answers to her questions, for she suspected that she was missing something important. "Thou hast some truth in there," she admitted, "but it be mingled with much muddled lore," she began. "For one thing, the Dragons were not yet ..." "I shall pay no heed to thy lies!" the Dragon hissed. "I was warned that thou employ such trickery. Mine ears are stopped to your mendacity!" Luna sighed. This was going to come down to a fight. It was unreachable. "Thine ears are stopped by the wax thou hast in thy skull in place of brains," she observed. "And I weary of this debate. Come out and fight, or quit these lands, rightly held by my self and my Sister." "Hah," laughed the Dragon, suddenly retracting all but the tip of his snout within his lair. "Thou wouldst want me to do that," he said "so that thou might employ thy full unnatural might against me in the open. I think I shall not play thy game. Instead, thou must come after me. Let us see how things chance at close quarters." And the snout disappeared. Luna muttered some words under her breath. She turned back, landed by the Chariot. "The wide and easy road to triumph be closed for us," she said. "We must take the strait and arduous path in its stead." Wrath and Vengeance looked at each other and nodded. Summer Lightning looked perplexed. "The lower caves," Luna explained. "Thou shalt have chance to prove thyself as guide, Lieutenant Lightning." The small smoky-blue Pegasus inhaled in a half-gasp, suddenly realizing that she was really going to venture into a Dragon's lair with a Princess of Equestria to save a captive. Her ears pinned back, her eyes pinpointed for a moment, but only for a moment. Then her jaw firmed, her eyes narrowed, and her ears went forward at attention. Luna smiled at her. "Come," she said. "Into the Dragon's lair!"