[ This chapter borrows its subject and course from Liber Furi, the second century history anthology collected by the Roan magistrate Trottica Whinnus, which incorporated tales from earlier histories by other authors. The one laid forth here, Book Four, is taken from an unknown first century minotaur work, and is by far the most esoteric and mysterious. A great majority of the book section only exists in languages for which we have no translations.
I have translated its dry language into the narrative style, but can do nothing for the missing segments. It remains compelling despite. ]
4.1.1
Above the rainforests and marshes of coast rose the tails of the grey mountains of Chitin, high, imposing, practically unscalable. Following the rivers through the verdant valleys inland, the mountains rose even higher, forming impassible saw ridges that serrated the clouds. If one stopped in one of the little changeling villages and asked the elders the right questions they would show you the start of narrow paths carved into the mountain faces, winding up to hidden fortresses or monasteries, abandoned by the changeling lords since the waining of the pre-classical age.
Above the ancient walled city of Doehui, gate of the rivers of the South, were the high two plateaus that bounded the city on two sides: On the left flank was the rise that the forbidden citadel of Wingshan was built into, on the right was a much more sinister ruin whose name was erased from the memories of the land.[1]
"Mmm, isn't this place interesting." An old earth pony trotted through the ancient rock paths leading deeper into Wingshan. His gnarled walking stick got caught on the occasional weed clinging tenaciously to the curiously decay-resistant buildings. Furniture, metal crafts, and the bones of the inhabitants had all rotted away, but the stone barracks and bunkers remained wholly intact. Some sorcery had been weaved into the place's construction. "I could move in tomorrow. Oh, but what does an old horse like me need with all this room?"[2]
The path guided him to the highest point of of Wingshan, the central keep carved into the granite peak in the center of the plateau. The massive stone gate was slightly ajar, letting a sliver of outside light into the inky darkness.
"Hello?" The earth pony used his stick to push the massive door open a it farther. A pair of glowing green eyes stared out of the black at him. "Hi there. Is this the meeting place? Have I got the wrong address?"
The owner of the green eyes stuck its head out of the door, letting itself be revealed by the light. It was the insectoid head of a changeling- Not the iridescent grass-green of the Doehui changelings down in the valley, but jet black like it had been crafted out of the shadows themselves. "Poh-nee." It hissed.[3]
"Well observed my good 'ling." The old pony took a cautious step back. "My name is Clink Quartz, and I'm here on behalf of-"
The changeling raised its hoof, threw its gaze briefly to the silent ruins behind Clink Quartz, then withdrew form the doorway.
"Hey. Hey hey." Clink Quartz hobbled after the lack changeling, plunging into the enshadowed keep. "Is this the meeting spot or not? I'd like an answer please!"[4]
The changeling buzzed and gibbered something unintelligible, but lit its jagged black horn so its pale green magic filled the stone hallway for a length. It led Clink Quartz from one hallway to another to another, each jutting off at a strange angle from the other. It must have been the light or the cramped confines, but the floor seemed to being slanted up and down at the same time.
At about the time Clink Quartz was starting to wonder if he had made a mistake following the lack changeling, he began to hear the distant piping of music. The airy whistle of an aulos flute, the rap of a hoof drum, and the chime of little bells echoed from somewhere deep below or perhaps high above him. Then there was the sound of jovial laughter and applause.[5]
The corridor straightened, the abruptly joined met other hallways at another big stone door, the sister of the one on the face of the mountain-keep. The music was coming from the other side of the door.
"This must be the place, hmm?" Clink Quartz waited to the changeling to resume the lead but the bug was unwilling or unable to go any farther. It drew back from the stone door, let the magic fade from its horn, and retreated into the darkness.
"Ah... That's how it is then."[6]
But he felt the fear as well. The music and laughter beyond the stone door was not as saccharinely welcoming as he would have hoped, nay. It sounded sadistic, lascivious, cruel. It was the kind of laughter one would hear from a bad master at their servant's misfortune.
"Her ladyship bade me not go this far just for me to loose my spine now." Clink Quartz tucked his walking stuck under his leg and pushed the door open with his shoulder.[7]
The music and laughter stopped. By the time Clink Quartz had gotten the door fully open, every eye in the room had had time to pull from the entertainment to affix on him.
The stone room was circular, with a sunken pit twenty hooves across ringed by tall stone chairs. In the center of the room was a bonfire: The stench of burning fur dissuaded Clink's curiosity from wondering about the fire's fuel.
A raspy female voice bade him forward. "Come to the light." It said, the grittiness of it like sandpaper on pumice.[8]
Clink Quartz shivered but obeyed. The walked into the center of the room where the fire's light reached.
He looked around to the dozen or so stone thrones, and the forms atop them. They were changelings, as black as night, with blue and green eyes staring intently at him. They were large, larger than any changeling Clink had seen on his journey through Chitin.
"Holy sun, The Dark Queens." He choked.[9]
"Black Queens." The queen that had spoken before corrected him. "There are ochre queens and umber queens, and they are dark, but they are not us. We are us." The changeling was an ancient creature, as not only was it much larger even than the other queens, but its membranous mane of green was longer and more ratty. These creatures reveled in their own decrepitude: Their armor was dinged, their bodies riddled with holes, their followers clustered at the base of their thrones were mutilated in all manner of ways.
"How do you know of our conclave, pony?"[10]
Clink swallowed his panic and spoke up. "My mistress sent me to find you. She knew when and where you were to be found." He was starting to feel woozy. "Are you the conclave president?"
"I ask the questions, pony. Who is you mistress?" The elder queen demanded. "No pony mare has even come before us and left. Is there a traitor?" With that last question she hissed something out in her language and looked around at the other queens. They shouted various things back and it was a few minutes before there was silence again.[11]
"My mistress is the Princess of the Everfree Principality and Harbinger of the Sun, Celestia." Clink said, trying to put some grandiose emphasis on the alicorn's name, but his surroundings were getting to him, and he couldn't muster the air for it.
"Ah, the Celestiaan, yes. We see we misunderstood. She is not thought of as a mare to us." The elder queen shifted in her throne. "Why has she sent you here, to our sacred gathering? Are you to be a slave to us?"
"Uh..." Clink thought of a way to politely decline that question. "My lady, I am here to appeal, on Princess Celestia's behalf, for the amulet of the Ancient Alicorns to be released to her."[12]
The room exploded into shouts and screeches. The queens buzzed loudly in irritation as their followers stomped and howled as though they were intending to tear Clink or each other apart.
"You think you can get to it?! Your princess thinks you can get to it? Without the keys?! What arrogance!" The elder queen shouted above the din at Clink.[13]
Clink held his head up. "I do not undertake this task in arrogance or conceit, but out of faith that my sovereign princess has charged
[ The only remaining copies of the text that include the rest of the first chapter and the middle nine chapters are in languages yet untranslated and unknown in origin. We resume where we have translations]
4.9.36
Clink stepped down from the base of the tower, into soft pearl sands that smelled most strangely, and faced two ponies awaiting him a distance away. An equine there of all places, when he had not seen any for nearly a year since passing through Sahella.
One was male, the other was female. They were wrapped in white linen rags stained yellow with age. Their flowing red eyes followed Clink as he neared them, and up close they proved to be a match for an alicorn in height.
"Mortal." The male said, voice dripping with contempt.
"Dreamer." The female said, in a somewhat motherly way.
"Why have you come into this realm unprepared in mind, body, and spirit." The male asked. [37]
"I have come for the amulet of the Ancient Alicorns." Clink Quartz said, hoof over his heart. "Faith in my princess's command protected me down your impossible tower."
"It is not our tower anymore." The female said.
"Faith may have protect you there, but this realm has no place for your faith. In this realm old things in the notches in the mountains eat faith, and things beyond that too." The male said. "Go back whence you came, and be glad for your life. There is nothing for you here mortal."
"Awaken, dreamer." The female urged.[38]
"Not until I have claimed the amulet of the Ancient Alicorns for my princess. I have no keys for you, but that matters not." Clink walked forward, passing between the wrapped ponies, but under those guardians' stares he was petrified, then dissolved away.
The guardians of that realm knew there was no place for him even for a moment, for he lacked the right mind, and the wrong mind is a beacon for things that eat faith, hope, souls, and dreamers. The guardians wished none of those terrible things to notice their realm and crawl in from beyond its imperious borders where mountains and waterfalls mark the edge of dreams.[39]