Colonel Candless spent the entire morning having one video teleconference after another with increasingly important people. MARFORPAC, PACOM J3, PACOM commander, and a couple of reps from State.

They all wanted to know what had happened at the mine. Some of them praised him for rescuing the group of minotaurs. Some of them rebuked him for not keeping the peace. All seemed to want to tell him what to do next.

Advice was welcome. But none of them understood what the dragons might do next. Neither did Candless. Really, no one did.

But maybe some better than others. When he had a moment, Candless went to find Spitfire. If anyone at least had experience with dragons, if not actual understanding, it would be the Equestrians.

And he hoped they could come up with a better solution than nuclear weapons.

They'd talked for several minutes. Spitfire sat back, touching her forehooves together and frowning in thought. "This isn't going to be easy."

"We have options," Candles reminded her. "This is just the best one."

"Still..." She sighed. "We have to contact the Dragon Lord to see if he can corral wayward dragons, and make sure nothing like this happens again. But they don't have telephones or embassies or diplomats. To contact the Dragon Lord, we'll have to go into the dragon lands and find him. The dragons could see that as violating their territory. And we don't know if he's even be able to exert influence over every single dragon to stop those such as the ones that kidnapped the minotaurs. Or worse, he could have ordered it."

"Sending an envoy would be dangerous without escort," said Candless. "But the safer we make our mission, the more it looks like an invasion."

Spitfire paused to consider it. "I think our best option is to go for stealth. Two pegasi."

"That sounds dangerous."

She nodded. "And I would appreciate on-call close air support."

Candless nodded, accepting the recommendation. "We'll get your ponies some radios and GPS beacons and set up a Harrier CAP offshore. I'll also ask Captain Lombard to move our destroyer for radar coverage."

Spitfire got up. "I'll set up the mission."

Chief Warrant Officer Henry sat crosslegged in the grass beside the team's Humvee. Cisco and Specialist Lee sat nearby.
Martinez and Wall were pulling guard duty, rifles loosely slung as they kept watch.

They'd relocated to Phobos, watching the line of mountains that made up the border of Tauros and the Dragon Lands. It wasn't like standing watch at a border guardpost, though that was effectively the role they were filling. After the rescue of the minotaurs from dragon enslavement, everyone was on high alert for future aggression.

From where Henry sat, it didn't look like anything would happen. Of course, he'd seen enough crises to know that could change in a moment. But for now, the sun was shining and a nice breeze ruffled the grass.

He looked down glumly at the vegetarian omelet MRE in his hands. At least combat would be preferable to eating this.

The rest of the squad had gotten a better selection and seemed to be in higher spirits. Lee was speculating to the others as he ate. "So...I hope we get this wrapped up soon. Guerrilla warfare against dragons could kind of suck."

Wall shuddered. "COIN against fire-breathing lizards that weigh a ton."

"I wonder if Sidewinders will guide on dragon fire," said Cisco.

"Wasn't there something like that in an anime once?" said Lee. "We should ask the Japanese."

"I would kill for some katsu curry right now," said Henry.

He glanced up at the sound of turboprops. One of the Australian C-130's came along, tailgate open. As the group watched, two pegasi stepped out the back and into the airstream. They headed north.

The word had gone out about the diplomatic mission. Henry silently wished the ponies luck. A recon mission into potential enemy territory was not a mission to relish.

Lombard walked through the combat center aboard Makin Island. Glancing at the picture, she saw that O'Kane had closed on the Dragon coast. The Chinese destroyer was in trail, though not a close shadow, likely just keeping an eye on things. O'Kane's SPY-1D radar picture was being fed to the rest of the American task force. It was never intended to search for dragons, but with that much power, it could pretty much see everything airborne.

Four Harriers had set up a CAP overhead O'Kane. If word came, they could dash to help the Equestrian stealth diplomatic mission within a few minutes. But, being realistic, if two ponies got into trouble in the heart of dragon country, that might not be fast enough.

It could be frustrating respecting the twelve nautical mile limit of international territory, but this wasn't an invasion and the actions of a few didn't represent those of the rest of a society. Lombard, too, was thinking about solutions that didn't involve the weapons stored in Wally Schirra's hold.

The two pips displayed on the map of the pegasi's beacons had tracked steadily north and west. That is, until they came to a stop.

"Ma'am?" called one of the ponies. She sat back from the radio table next to the Marine operators.

Spitfire had been waiting for contact from the mission to the dragons. She'd sent two of her trusted lieutenants.

She got up quickly, gesturing after her to Candless, who was sitting nearby. He got up, too.

Spitfire walked over and took the headset. "Colonel Spitfire."

The voice on the other end was keyed up, but steady. "Ma'am, we found them."

"Have you made contact?"

"Yes ma'am, we did. We're coming back now."

Spitfire let out a sigh of relief. "Well, how did it go?"

"We delivered the message, but they wouldn't let us see Dragon Lord Torch. They, quote, 'want someone more important' to meet with him."

Spitfire had been afraid of this, but at least the dragons were willing to talk. "All right, we'll get a team set up. I trust you told them we might arrive via helicopter?"

"Yes ma'am." The voice on the radio paused. "Related to that, when they found out the humans were here, the dragons said they wanted to talk to somepony named 'Godzilla.'"