Chapter 4: Connecting
Luna and her squadron had cut north, past open farming country, into the southeastern White Tails. Here the land rose in low, rolling and deeply eroded mountains, still far enough south that all but the highest peaks were below the tree line. Tall pines covered the mountains. Here and there might be found caves, especially along the banks of the numerous small rivers which ran down from these heights.
The hills themselves were mining, lumbering and rock-farming country. They were sparsely settled -- farmsteads, lumber and mining camps, some of them of village size. The closest thing to a central community around here was Dunnich, more of a large village than a real town, consisting of a town hall, a tiny market square and some residences straggling out along the roads, a few miles south of the rail line, where had grown the new town of Nickerlite. Compared to Dunnich, Ponyville was a city.
The place was quite old, though. As Dounika, it had been founded by refugees from the Crystal Empire in the times of the tyrannies of Sthenarkos and ... Luna winced at the memory ... Sombros. After the fall of the Crystal Empire, this had been one of the last surviving centers of that ancient culture. As her squad winged down to the village, she could see that some of the older structures had a faintly exotic tinge to them, with crystalline pillars and decorations that reminded her strongly of the vanished Old Northlands.
None of them, of course, had actually been built back then; just long enough ago that something more of the old Crystal-Imperial traditions had survived among the Dunnichers. Luna felt the faint familiar wrenching of disorientation as she once again faced how old she really was, how far she was now from her memories of Equestria in the age of its founding. I might as well be an antique statue come to life.
They landed in the market square. This open, flat area was not too greatly crowded, and some of the shops appeared to be boarded up. Dunnich was clearly a dying town. Part of the reason was that the town was several miles off the railroad -- the terrain would have made it difficult to run the tracks through town, as the engineers might have done given the village's size had they been working on flatter ground.
Things will get better for them when we get back to powered road vehicles. They'll become an exurb of Ponyville, Moondreamer mused within her, if they last that long. If the place keeps dying, it may not be big enough by the time we lay down superhighways.
The thought depressed her slightly. Dunnich was one of the links to her past, even if to a tragic part of her past, and the world would be just that little bit stranger when it went away, when it became one with Lith and Derecho, and the Crystal City itself. She knew, as she stepped out here, that she was walking on ground that Prince Crimson Quartz, his sister Iolite, and his faithful Lady Tourmaline had trodden, and all three had been her dear friends, once. Tourmaline, of course, had remained her friend until Luna became lost in her Nightmare. The Moon Princess still remembered the sweet Princess Iolite and the loyal Lady Tourmaline with undiluted warmth.
She still remembered Crimson as her friend, too, no matter the monster he'd become. Crimson had meant well. He had only meant to help his people. Crimson wanted to be the savior of his people, not their oppressor, still less their destroyer. He did not deserve to become a monster.
He far less than I, Luna thought. He did not know what would happen when he called them. What was my excuse?.
A crowd of locals was gathering around her. Most looked fairly normal, if a bit rustic.
There was one pale-blue fluffy thing that for a moment she thought was one of those cute little ewes that had been popular pets in the Crystal Empire. Then Luna saw her eyes and muzzle and realized that it was actually a Pony, though one of the strangest ones she had ever seen. The creature met Luna's gaze, gave a delighted little gasp. There was an odd ripple in spacetime, and suddenly the fluffy blue pony was next to her, though she had neither seen it gallop nor teleport.
Princess Luna would have been worried about this, had not the creature's intent been so obviously friendly. It made odd little noises. A long pink tongue -- longer than any she had seen on any normal equid -- emerged and licked up at her chin, making delicate little contacts. Normally, this sort of unasked-for intimacy would have bothered Luna, but there was something so childlike about the creature that she was amused, rather than annoyed, by its manifest affection. She had always loved foals.
Her Guards tensed, but Luna motioned them to stand down. The strange pony-thing seemed to be doing her neither overt nor subtle -- in fact, the intense friendliness she was beaming at the Moon Princess was both soothing and re-invigorating. Luna carefully avoided drinking its emotions too greedily -- she did not know the fluffy thing's limits, and she did not wish to do any ill to the apparently harmless and innocent creature.
A dove-gray earth pony mare, with a glossy dark brown mane, wearing a cloche hat, stepped forward from the small crowd, removing her hat with one hoof and falling into an exaggerated bow which Luna realized with some surprise was the full formal proskynesis of the Crystal-Imperial Court. This was something she'd not expected to see in such a rustic place. After a pause, the rest of the surrounding ponies, save for the fluffy blue one, followed suit.
The fluffy blue one gasped, looked around, and tried to copy the others, but wound up falling forward and describing a complete somersault, fetching up against Luna's chest. Luna reached out gently with her forehooves and set the fluffy pony back on its feet. The powder-blue pony-creature nestled itself against Luna's forelegs and sat down. Luna permitted her this familiarity without comment, rather soothed by both its emotions and its warm fluffy body.
"We greet thee one and all, Our loyal subjects," said Luna at moderate amplification. The closer members seemed a bit awestruck, and the blue fluffy creature started to her feet, but nopony was actually running. Nopony actually running was always a good sign, in Luna's personal experience. "Ye all may rise and address Us."
They did, save for the fluffy one, who cuddled back up against her forelegs. Luna decided she was an exception to any normal courtly decorum, and thus that it was not improper to tolerate her persistent familiarity.
The dove-gray mare, clearly a community leader, spoke for your people.
"Your Royal Higness," she said. "I am Mare Miter, the Mayor of Dunnich. We welcome you to our humble village." Intelligent light-brown eyes gazed respectfully but fearlessly upon the Moon Princess.
Luna realized that the white-and-gold cutie mark on Miter's flank was the eponymous item, a sort of hat that had been worn by the high priesthood of the vanished Crystal City. She remembered seeing it worn by the High Priest who had placed the crown atop the head of Aventurine Quartz, the older brother of Crimson and Iolite, on the day of his coronation, back over a thousand and thirty years ago. Their faith had been a variant of the Meganism so common during the Age of Wonders.
She had not been able to attend Crimson's own coronation. She was rather glad she hadn't. In hindsight, that would have been too terribly dark a memory. And as for the eldest brother, Morion, she had nothing but despite for that monster, and was glad that Celestia had sent another representative to Morion's coronation as Sthenarkos IX. Without the cruel and tyrannical reign of Sthenarkos, she knew that Crimson never would have fallen to become Sombros.
"We thank thee for thy gracious welcome, good Mayor Miter, and are pleased to see thy fair town," Luna replied with equal courtesy. "We understand that the local Rangers have sighted two dragons?"
The fluffy pony meeped and burbled. Luna was not certain of her age. She smelt adult despite her foalish manners, but rather different from any mare she had ever scented. It reminded her of something, but from a very long time ago -- possibly an earlier incarnation? But she didn't remember anything like this existing in the Age of Cataclysm, and still less during the Age of Wonders. She dismissed the question as unimportant.
"Yes, Your Highness," said Mayor Miter. "Summer Lightning was the one who discovered them." She pointed with her nose.
Summer Lightning was a small, slim, elegant-looking smoky-blue pegasus mare with a yellow mane. Her cutie mark was a hazy dark-gray cloud litten by yellow glows underneath. She had intense orange eyes, and she gave Princess Luna a look of frank appraisal that Luna would have found slightly disturbing were she were not used to this, especially from pegasi.
Something about solitary duty sometimes slightly unhinged some pegasi, as if too much time spent alone among sky and cloud warped their normal social skills. Luna could deeply sympathize with that, though it also meant that when they were among others they were often a bit too hungry for company -- or more than company. Luna had gotten over being quite that lonely, but she knew how to discourage undue familiarity without being cruel. As long as they were nice about it, she took such attentions as a compliment.
"Your Highness," said Summer Lightning briskly, saluting her. This was proper courtesy, as both Summer and Luna were technically military officers.
"Well met, good ... Captain?" Luna guessed.
"Lieutenant, with apologies, Ma'am," replied Summer. "But I hear there's a major force expansion coming up -- I suppose you'd know more about that than I, Ma'am -- we don't get news from Canterlot very often way out here."
"Yes, this is destined," confirmed Luna, "We would wager that there will be many promotions."
The excuse Celestia was going to give Parliament was the increased activity of the Griffons (and now, Luna supposed, the current draconic incursions), but Luna knew the real reason. The Shadows. Her Night Guards had told her that several large cities had nearly burned on the night of her return, and Celestia feared the consequences should the next invasion be less tentative.
Luna had learned this from her Night Guards because Celestia had not wanted to speak to her of such things right after her return from exile. Luna knew that every building burned, every life lost, on that dark and terrible morning had been in some sense her own fault, and the knowledge burned as a shame within her heart, and a spur to serve Equestria better in the times to come.
"That's good news, Ma'am," replied Summer. She reached into her side-bags and pulled out some papers, holding them at the ready.
"Be those the maps to the dragon lairs?" asked Luna.
"Yes, Ma'am," said Summer. She showed Luna the master map. "I sighted two dragons, Ma'am, one an adolescent earth-type, I'd guess a lava-spitter, over in these hills (a red "x" plainly indicated the location), and a larger one -- I'd make it full adult, type unknown -- in the higher mountains about here (a blue "x" showed that one). I didn't get a good look at the last one or its lair, Ma'am -- I judged it hazardous to approach its breath-weapon."
Luna remembered the Rangers of her day as being daredevils, though Summer Lightning looked past the first flush of youth and hence had probably learned some caution -- given that she was still alive. The dragons were probably under orders from their own clan leaders not to actually start a war, just as Luna was from Celestia, but it was wise of Summer not to tempt fate by approaching an adult dragon too closely. Among other considerations, had she been killed or even seriously wounded, Luna would not now be seeing this map or the attached reports.
"Thou hast done well, Lieutenant Summer Lightning," said Luna, and saw the pegasus raise her head with pride. "Twas well to be ware of the large dragon -- your life and your tidings are both of importance to Us."
Summer's face flushed at the praise.
Luna examined the map. She could kick out the small lava-spitter on the way to the big dragon, then head back to Canterlot.
"Art thou sufficiently rested to guide us to these drakes?" she asked Summer.
"Yes, Ma'am!" the pegasus Ranger replied.
"Then let us hunt some dragons!"
Luna bade the Mayor and the townsfolk of Dunnich farewell. The fluffy blue pony wanted to come along, but Luna gently evicted her from the Midnight Chariot. She didn't think that an expedition to face down dragons, however diplomatically, was a safe place for the childlike creature. So far nopony had been hurt on this mission, and she wanted to keep it that way.
As she took off, she felt a surge of self-confidence. So far she'd carried out her task perfectly. Between diplomacy and the Midnight Chariot, what could go wrong today?
The hills loomed ahead as she turned back around south to deal with the last two dragons.
***
Luna summoned Summer Lightning to the Midnight Chariot as they approached the location where the pegasus had reported the small lava-spitter.
"The cave under that shelf there?" she asked. The mouth itself was invisible from the air, but the terrain had looked suspicious to Luna's practiced eye, and a graviton pulse had confirmed the vacuity in the mountainside.
"Yes, your Highness," said Summer Lightning, bracing herself with one hoof against the motion of the Chariot and looking down to confirm the identification. "It's well-located -- close to water but above the highest line the stream floods, but invisible from the air. A cunning drake."
"Thou hast good eyes," said Luna. "How didst thou spot the site?"
"I knew it had to be in the sort of terrain that grows caves," Summer said to Luna, smiling slightly at the praise, "and when I couldn't see the mouth from high up, I cruised along the river at low altitude. It's easy enough to see from about fifty to a hundred feet off the water."
"Thou hast a canny mind, too," Luna added, nodding approvingly. Summer blushed a bit at the praise. "Well done," she added. "Hang back with my Night Guards -- the dragons haven not shown much fight so far today, but I would not wish thee to suffer harm. Equestria needeth good Rangers such as thyself."
Summer was flushing with happy pride when she leapt from the Midnight Chariot.
It is so easy to cheer soldiers, Luna thought to herself. A little praise and they will follow one into Tartarus itself. So much easier than making friends in time of peace. And so easy to abuse that talent, to abuse their trust. As I did, once before, to Pegasi such as Lieutenant Lightning.
Never again, she told herself Never again shall I betray mine own followers, by leading them in folly to their ruin. Summer Lightning is a good Pony, Lone-Mad or no, and she shall not take hurt from trusting in me. Nor shall my loyal Night Guard.
There was no convenient large expanse of flat ground, so she leaned forward and spoke to Wrath and Vengeance:
"I shall debark in air, a hundred feet over the river, two hundred east of the cave."
"Yes, Ma'am!" Wrath replied.
Luna summoned the wind, the thunder. The lightning flashed dramatically behind her.
Again the curving down-swoop, again the announcement.
"INTRUDING DRAGON! 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!" She didn't even need the scroll any more -- like most Alicorns, her memory was eidetic when she so desired. "WE DEMAND THAT THOU IMMEDIATELY VACATE OUR REALM, TAKING WITH THYSELF THY HOARD COMPLETE ..." as if a Dragon would do aught but accept such an offer from her. "ON PAIN OF OTHERWISE BEING CONSIDERED TO HAVE DECLARED PERSONAL WAR AGAINST OUR REALM, AND BEING TREATED BY US AS OUR ENEMY!"
Down to the chosen point. Wrath and Vengeance hovered, positioning the Midnight Chariot for her dismount.
Luna leapt into the air, hovering there. She saw a motion in the cave-mouth, prepared to cast a shield if need be, motioned Wrath and Vengeance to take the Chariot clear. A glance confirmed that her squad was already spread out, most of them having already placed themselves within one easy dash of protective terrain features.
Good, she thought with slight relief, I'm the only one exposed.. She hadn't been all that worried -- her Guards were trained and Summer Lightning was sharp. Checking to make sure was just her habit, developed through many centuries of field command.
The dragon stepped forth.
He was a big adolescent, relatively short and very squat, only about as long as was Luna herself but massively built. She judged his weight as much greater than her own, somewhere around a ton or two. He had small, protrubent black-slitted yellow eyes, a wide toothy mouth, a warty earth-toned hide, and absurd little wings which Luna knew from his choice of cave were probably capable of generating enough of a paramagnetic field to loft him.
A classic Lava Dragon, Luna thought. Strong, hardy, and -- though a poor runner -- surprisingly agile on those short legs. Similar flight characteristics -- those little wings will vibrate rapidly, giving him much maneuverability. He can probably fly sideways and backward, do tight turns as well as any pegasus. No real glide, though, and a low ceiling. He'll spit lava, which means no real range but lots of total kinetic and thermal energy. Tougher than they look.
Not that she'd really have to fight him.
"DOST THOU YIELD TO THIS DOOM?" she said at the end of her speech, as she had done to dragons today four times before.
The Lava Dragon winced slightly, its external ears flattening at the power of even the reduced-volume close-range Royal Canterlot Voice. It opened its wide toothy maw and spoke one word.
"N-n-n-no."
"GOOD," replied Luna. "THOU SHALT LEAVE -- wait, what did you say?"
"I said, 'no,'" repeated the dragon, more firmly. "I will fight!"
Luna thought about this for a moment. This was only an adolescent dragon -- she'd slain a dozen or more like this in a day's battle back in the old wars. Did this colt (or filly, as she still couldn't really tell the difference from the outside) really not suspect her power? Or did it simply want to die?
"Very well," Luna said, softly. "We shall fight. How art thou known, Sir Dragon?"
"I am Fischfootur, son of Greattfisch, Lord of the Northern Isles."
His name and accent tantalized her with memories of her time as Monasdrommir. She had not known the line of Fisch from that age, but over two millennia was a long time even as dragons counted the years.
"I am honored to meet thee in battle, Fischfootur. We shall fight one-to-one, until one yields. If I yield, thou mayest remain. If thou yieldest, I shall spare thy life. My Ponies shall not meddle, nor shalt thou harm any. Be this meet?"
She hoped he accepted.
"It is good," said Fischfootur, his eyes narrowing in determination.
She signaled to her men. "THIS BE A CONTEST OF CHAMPIONS!" she called. "DO NOT MEDDLE. HE SHALL NOT HARM YE." Then, to Fischfootur. "ON THE COUNT OF THREE. ONE, TWO ... THREE!"
The dragon leapt and spat, but Luna was already tumbling to one side, aura tugging at her crescent blades. They chose that moment to foul; her spin had been less than perfect and she muttered something indelicate as a lava-ball sizzled past her tail, nearly putting out some of her stars. Luna tugged harder and ripped them from her harness by main force, taking the sheaths with them. She immediately spun them, the sheaths going flying, but the blades now ready. Damn, that was nice leatherwork, she briefly thought. Hope my Guards can find them.
Then Fischfootur was upon her, wings whirring, claws clutching and jaws agape. She let herself fall back and under him, brought her hooves up and used the dragon's own force to throw him over herself toward the opposite cliff face.
Nice to see that not all my fighting skills are too rusty, she thought as she watched Fischfootur tumble out of control. My draw was badly done, I'll have to work on that when I get back home.
Fischfootur's wings buzzed and suddenly he was darting at her again, vomiting a wide cone of white-hot pebbles.
Very good recovery, Luna thought approvingly, and spun both blades along the line between them, intercepting the pebbles which happened to be aimed at her. Would have worked against most Pegasi.
The dragon was forced to dodge to avoid running directly into the blades, which interrupted the operation As he dodged in one direction -- Luna noticed that he was agile enough in the air to do this by flying sideways rather than actually turning -- Luna dodged in the other, keeping the blades between them and preventing him from resuming that attack.
Luna snapped her wings down and rocketed straight up, trailing a streak of pale blue plasma from her flight field. Fischfootur followed her, managing a good climb rate with his whirring wings but unable to match her pace. As she passed it, Luna tossed the crescent blades into the Midnight Chariot -- she didn't want to risk losing them, as even though replicas they were rare replicas, and hence could not be rapidly replaced.
She laughed in exuberance at the height of her arc, snapping back down, feeling her flightfield grabbing the blood in her body to avoid a red out. There was no thrill quite matching combat flying: as the scientist Moondreamer she had never known this pleasure, never fully grasped why Dusk and Dashie had loved major parts of their war service. Dashie still knew this in her new life; maybe Dusk would again too, if what she thought Celestia was planning worked out.
She saw Fischfootur's face, eyes squinted in concentration, coming up to meet her at an alarming rate. If they collided, she would be bruised and the adolescent dragon might well die. She knew that Fischfootur was driven by honor, perhaps careless of his life at this moment, and probably wouldn't avoid the collision. All this knowledge flashed through her brain in a fraction of a second, and she diffused her flightfield forward, making it an elastic cushion rather than a hard ram, then feinted right but pulled nose-up to horizontal and to the left instead.
She had timed it just right and Fischfootur went off in the wrong direction. She whirled and sprayed paramagnetism behind her, skidding to a hover in midair, a feat of which only the best true Pegasus flyers would have been capable. She hung there while the dragon realized what had happened and turned to face her.
"Follow me!" she cried, and threw herself into a shrieking power dive, arrowing down for the river canyon far below. It might have been mad for her to try maneuverability against anydrake as agile as Fischfootur, but she didn't care, she felt more alive right now, more herself than she had been in more than a millennium. Besides, she wanted a challenge, wanted to feel the wind in her mane and the hot breath of a foe behind her, she wanted -- with what she recognized as a fillyish instinct -- to play!
She did a hard dive toward the river, giving Fischfootur a set of radar paints on the way down. He's going to go shallow and try to beat my speed with his maneuverability! she realized with delight. There's a brain behind that skull-armor! She felt deliriously happy to be dancing with a clever opponent -- she'd hoped that this dragon wasn't just some honor-obsessed fool, that he knew some real tactics. What Fischfootur was doing would have beaten almost any real Pegasus; it wasn't his fault that he didn't realize how many extra abilities an Alicorn had.
She decided to keep just ahead of her pursuer, see how he handled horizontal flight. She put on an extra burst of speed, a tight snap-to-level that would have blacked-out a Pegasus but that her whole-body flight field handled with ease. The river sprayed in all directions beneath her as her paramagnetism contacted the water. She flapped hard, accelerating to the edge of the sound barrier, and could feel herself trailing a wake like some impossibly-fast hydrofoil. "Woo-hah!" she shrieked in incoherent glee as the canyon walls unrolled to either side.
Snap! She knew that Fischfootur was right behind her, that he had just tried to grab her tail with his jaws. He was riding her own field trail, taking advantage of the displacement of air to travel faster than he ever could have done under his own field propulsion, but she also knew that he could only keep this up for an instant. She arced upward and dodged as a stream of white-hot fluid went through the space her right hind leg would have otherwise occupied.
Got to lead more, colt, she corrected him inwardly, as if he were one of her trainees in the old days when she had personally drilled her Night Guard. I miss those days -- wish I could do that again, she thought with brief sadness, then: Well, why not? It's my Night Guard, why not take a more personal horn in things? The thought made her happy as she climbed above the level of the canyon walls again, flying right toward one of her storm clouds.
Now I'm going to cheat a bit, Luna thought. This is something no Pegasus could do without touching this cloud. But you're facing an Alicorn, son.
Ion bolts arced down directly at the startled Dragon, two hitting him right in the head. She winced -- that might have killed a Pegasus, but she knew that dragon heads were very thickly armored. It stunned him, though, and she saw with relief as he fell away, head-scales smoking, that they had missed his eyes. Don't want to blind this fine young drake.
All during this fight she had been trying to get out her javelins, but had been stymied by the tightness of their bracing. She hadn't wanted to force them, because she'd already damaged her harness enough. for one day. Now, as she dove lazily down to match the speed of Fischfootur's fall, she withdrew the javelins slowly and carefully. I'm going to be more careful with my harness, she thought. Carry the weapons a little looser. Dropping one at the wrong time is embarrassing, but not being able to draw one in time could be fatal.
Javelin in aura, she was ready for the concluding move, the one that would force him to yield. He looked to still be dazed, so she approached him closely, starting to position a force field around him so that she could shove the javelins right between his neck-scales without accidentally piercing his flesh. She came quite close to him, almost close enough to reach out and touch him with a hoof, confident that in his electro-shocked condition he could do nothing to harm her.
Suddenly his eyes snapped into focus, a little too fast for this to be a true recovery from stun, and he vomited a spray of orange fire right at her face! She was barely able to get her own defensive field up in time, and she pushed it a bit too hard, slapping the dragon back in his face with his own breath weapon. Fischfootur coughed and spluttered, and spun away, tumbling and wiping molten lava from his face with his claws, trying to clean it off before it hardened into a rocky shell. He could have clawed it off as solid rock, too, but it would have taken him longer.
Getting cocky, she chided herself. Good move on the kid's part, too. He grasps the importance of deception -- he'll be one tough customer, if he lives long enough.. She smiled to herself. Well, he's not going to die today. Time to force the yield.
She gripped Fischfootur in her aura and bore him irresistibly down against a rocky ledge. She pulled back at the last second and decelerated him enough that the impact was far from bone-breaking by Dragon standards -- nevertheless the rock cracked from the collision. She shoved the javelins forward, pushing up and under the neck scales, then held him in place; landed to his side where she could look him in the eye close range.
A tiny move on her part would be enough to kill him, and they both knew this.
She looked into his eyes. There was some fear, but no overwhelming terror.
The drake was brave.
"Fischfootur son of Greattfisch," she asked him solemnly, "dost thou yield to me?"
"I ... I do," wheezed the young dragon, obviously still a bit out of breath from that last impact.
"Then rise, mine own captive, and hear the judgement of thy conqueror," said Luna, withdrawing and rebracing her javelins.
Fischfootur rolled to his feet and looked at her a bit apprehensively, uncertain of what she meant by "judgement" in this context.
"First of all, I thank thee for an excellent fight, Fischfootur. Thou hast given me the best bout I have had in over a thousand years." Absolutely true, though the former Element of Honesty nevertheless felt no necessity to mention that she had spent the first thousand of those years as a mad, demon-ridden lunar exile, and that the only real fight she'd fought on her own between her Return and now had been within her own incarnation, and that fight against the foul Shadow Within had been a desperate struggle for survival against a ruthless and remorseless foe, rather than a duel of honor with an admirable opponent.
Fischfootur gulped, scuffed his feet and then actually blushed. It looked adorable on the stocky, muscular young drake, and Luna was even gladder that she had decided not to kill him.
"Secondly, thou shouldst be more careful before agreeing to battle terms. You failed to notice that I promised thee only thy life, not freedom nor retention of thy hoard should I triumph."
Fischfootur gasped, sat down hard as if he had received a powerful blow to the stomach, as he suddenly realized that Luna might without having broken her word enslave him and keep his hoard. Knowing dragons, the second possibility of loss worried him more.
Luna smiled warmly.
"Luckily, dear foe, I am not one to play such mean tricks on an honorable opponent. So thou mayest keep both freedom and hoard, but heed my warning: not all those who thou fightest in the future will necessarily be as honest as am I."
"Thirdly, Fischfootur --"
He looked at her, wondering what her third condition would be.
"Why in the name of the Nine Hells didst thou challenge me? Dost thou not know who I am? Or what I am? I have killed hundreds of drakes in the old wars -- wert thou so eager to die?" She looked deeply into his eyes. "Thou didst run a great risk, brave young dragon. Not all foes are as merciful as am I. Dost thou not wish to attain thy full growth?"
Fischfootur sighed.
"I know it was foolhardy," he admitted. "But -- I wanted to do something, something that no others would dare to do. Something to stand out. Something to show to everyone -- to my brothers, to my father -- that I wasn't a coward."
"Coward?" asked Luna in amazement, then laughed. "Fischfootur, after what I have seen today I wouldst not name thee 'coward.' I might name thee 'optimist,' or perhaps 'battle-lusty,' but 'coward?' Thou art anything but that!"
She sat down next to him and smiled at him. "Who hast named thee coward, bold warrior? And why? If it not offend thee, I would hear the tale."
Fischfootur screwed up his eyes for a moment, rubbed his face -- some stray bits of grit from the lava-blast fell off, and said "Oh, why not? You seem to actually think I'm brave, maybe you won't think I'm worthless after you learn what I'm really like."
Luna gazed at him inquisitively.
"I'm not like most other dragons," he told her. "My hoard -- oh there's gold and gems in there, because I am a dragon -- but that's not the treasure that means the most to me. I like to collect -- I have a lot of -- maybe I should just show you. Would that be all right, Princess Luna?"
"Thou wouldst show me thy hoard?" Luna asked. "I do not require this of thee, thou shouldst know -- I will turn thee free with thy hoard unreaved in any case ..."
"I want to show this to you," said Fischfootur. "I think you deserve to see -- you're the kindest creature to ever best me."
Oh no, Fischfootur, Kindness was my sister. I am not that kind, Luna thought to herself, but did not say. She did not want to spoil the moment. She was incredibly touched -- a dragon would only ever show his hoard to one he truly trusted.
"Then thou hast my thanks," replied Luna. "I would be honored to view thy treasures."
She called up to her Guards. "I am going to converse with Fischfootur within. Do not violate the privacy of his hoard."
The Night Guards didn't like this, but they affirmed their orders.
Fischfootur led. Luna followed.
The cave swallowed them.
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Intense work.
*Extra period
*"We
*Dragon, two
*There's a bracket here from the italics that needs removing
*could
*and
*Pretty sure this should be "Thou," but grammar is tricky.
*Something happened here. There are only two periods, and then there's a quotation mark out of nowhere. Actually, the quotation mark is also there in the last chapter, now that I look back at it. Did that change?
The treasure is totally going to be books. They'll be all rare and stuff, and Twilight will go gaga over them. Luna will be totes jealous because Twilight starts visiting all the time, while poor Fischfootur has no idea what's going on. Obviously.
Actually, seeing the treasure gives me a bad feeling. I can't help thinking that it's either a trap, or Luna's not going to like what she sees. Let's just hope that's just me being paranoid here.
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Thank you tremendously for the editing assist.
Actually, Fischfootur gets to keep his hoard. But you're partially right about what's in there.
Very well-written fight, and I love the knight chariot!
Also the bit with fluffles and Luna musing that any meeting where ponies aren't running is a good one cracked me up.
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I'm glad you liked the fluffy pony!
Luna is perhaps pessimistic regarding her skills at soft diplomacy.
....Moondancer, Dusk, Dashie....
I'm going have to start at the beginning and figure out where all this world building is coming from, aren't I?
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"Moondreamer," actually. Well, it's a sequel to Nightmares Are Tragic.
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Hmm, my guess is art.
And now the nits....
I think you misplaced a crown of some sort.
"thank" and "are"
"hast"
I think you want "speaking" there, or possibly delete the preceding comma and "and spoke".
See my comment in the precious chapter.
"thou yieldest" ("Thee" is accusative, not nominative.)
The old Crystal Empire you describe sounds very much like the Byzantine Empire.
I was wondering if the blue pony were Fluffle Puff.
OH I LOVE IT WHEN THAT IS SAID!!! because this is what could go wrongscontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/l/t1.0-9/12654379_987335421356658_3818115149288002131_n.jpg?oh=6eb32885f074354409d06fdcd007becd&oe=5779FAEF