Chapter Four—
Admiral Biscuit
Chrysalis stepped back slightly, retreating into the shadows to give the four ponies time to discuss their options.
Predictably, Knickknack spoke first. “How can we trust her? How do we know she isn’t just using us—or luring us into a false sense of security?”
“We trust Trixie, right?” Gutter looked at the showmare, blushed, and shifted around on his hooves.
“You just want to snog her,” Amber reminded the pegasus. “That’s why you trust her.”
Trixie’s face reddened. “Look—I don’t think this is a productive direction for this discussion to take. The question is if we can trust Chrysalis’ word.”
“Nobles are bound by their word,” Knickknack reminded them.
“Maybe in normal times, back when your title meant something,” Amber countered, “but these times are hardly normal. I don’t know if leader-of-an-invading-bug-army is a recognized noble rank, anyway.”
“Wait.” Gutter fluttered up into the air, taking a long look at Chrysalis. “Oh, that Chrysalis.”
“Is there more than one?” Knickknack and Trixie spoke simultaneously. Both the unicorn and earth pony shared a glance.
Amber facehooved. “No, Gutter, there’s only one Chrysalis. Are you sure you aren’t thinking of Princess Cadance? Pretty pink princess?”
“Ohhhh. But wasn’t she disguised as her?”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Trixie snapped. “Nor does it relate in any way whatsoever to the discussion at hoof. Look, I don’t trust her. Not really. But what have we got to lose?”
“Our love?” Gutter looked around nervously.
Knickknack began pacing. “What if what she says is true? She’s got some of her hive left, she said so herself. Maybe some of her changelings could, I don’t know, disguise themselves as other ponies and infiltrate that crazy cult? It’s a long shot, sure, but it might be our best chance.”
“Do you really think that would get us anywhere?” Amber waved a hoof towards the statue. “I mean, this clue you found—this inscription—is just as likely to be useful as the hope that a changeling disguised as a cultist could get their supreme leader to reveal his plans.”
“‘Seek out the Pool of the Moon and seek her blessing,’” Trixie read the runes carefully, briefly forgetting about Chrysalis. “Do you think that’s supposed to be literal?”
“A lot of the pools in the city had little signs next to them with their name,” Gutter suggested. “There was ‘Martin’s Pool,’ ‘Moor Pond,’ and ‘No Diving.’ Maybe that’s all we have to do, is find the pool with the right sign.”
Amber sighed. “That’s a great plan,” she sarcastically suggested. “Look for a sign.”
“How did you four even make it this far?” Chrysalis walked back up to the group. “Especially the pegasus?”
“Trixie had a tank. Until somepony knocked it over with a boulder.” She glared at Amber.
“We were scared,” Amber reminded the other unicorn. “Anypony would have been scared of a tank running through the woods, especially after what happened in Trottingham.”
“Could Trixie, you, and Chrysalis put it back on its treads?” Knickknack looked thoughtful. “It might be safer than traipsing through the woods without cover. I’d hate to walk that far back over ground we’ve already covered, but. . . .”
“Somepony would have to pull it,” Trixie said flatly. “When it got knocked over, a bunch of smoke came out of the mechanism and I heard gears breaking. I don’t think it will run anymore.”
“Enough of dwelling on the past!” Knickknack stomped her hoof on the stone floor of the chamber, the noise echoing over the sudden shocked silence. “If we keep this up, we’re going to be just as crazy as those PATA ponies. I almost am already.”
“Agreed.” Amber looked at Trixie. “Are you still with us?”
The showmare shrugged. “What have I got to lose?”
“Well, that’s settled, then,” Chrysalis said with false enthusiasm. “Where are you going next?”
“Nowhere,” Knickknack said. “We need to rest.”
Gutter looked at the mares in amazement. “How can we sleep with . . . with her with us?”
“One of us will have to keep watch,” Knickknack said. “Same as always.”
“I’ll go first,” Trixie offered. “The rest of you, split up as you see fit.” She paced around a section of floor, eying it intently. Finally, she lowered her horn and traced a glowing circle on the floor. “That’s a ward, okay? Everypony who stays inside of it will be safe from the Changelings. Trixie promises.”
Gutter looked her admiringly. “Amber’s never done that before.”
“Amber doesn’t know how,” the unicorn responded. “Are you going to lie down or are you going to keep staring at Trixie?”
“Um. . . .”
“Who’s on next watch, anyway? I want to know who to wake up.”
Amber yawned. “How about Gutter? Then I’ll go, and Knickknack can be last.”
***
Helios idly poked at a plastic tentacle on his throne. He wondered if gluing a backrest to it would make his followers think he’d gone soft. Truthfully, the thing was not only painful to the eye, but whoever had designed it had clearly given no thought to the idea that it might actually been sat upon: the fangs which made up the seatback were just a too little much. Perhaps he could subtly hint that a tapestry hung right over the back on the throne would add to the ambience.
He snapped to attention as a hoodie-wearing follower shuffled into the chamber. After allowing his follower a few moments groveling at the base of the throne, he raised his hoof. “Arise, loyal subject.”
The pegasus rose, and Helios sighed inwardly realizing that it was the same one as before—the pierced eyebrows and nosering were a dead giveaway. Unless that was a fashion all his followers were suddenly copying, like they had with the hoodies. Some of them had even taken to ironing skulls onto the sides of their sweatshirts.
“Oh great prophet, I bring news which may incur your wrath.” He bowed his head, as if he feared being chastised.
As the silence stretched on, Helios felt his rage building. While it was great to have a group of loyal followers eager to hang on his every word, the fact that they mostly were morons occasionally caused him to wonder if it was really all worth it. Finally he could take it no more.
“What is this news, loyal follower?”
“I have come from the watcher room. The four ponies who have banded together have discovered another ally.”
“Are you the pegasus who gave me the news earlier that some ponies had banded together and were making their way through the woods together?”
“Yes, your—um, high prophet.” He bowed his head and took a step back.
“And you remember what I said, right? They don’t have to be at each other’s throats all the time; they can gang up if they want to. It’s only if they seem to be gathering a large enough group to oppose us that we need to take action.” Helios let out a long sigh. “You do remember that conversation, right?”
“Yes.” He spoke with slightly more confidence. “I remember exactly. I would not disregard the words of the high prophet. But, the thing is, well, it seems that they’ve joined forces with the . . . with the Queen of the Changelings.” He bowed his head in supplication.
“Interesting.” Helios’ mind was racing, effortlessly carrying out the complicated business of probability and pony nature. “Perhaps she is not as weak as we believed. Or perhaps she is so weakened, this is a desperate move. Does she have any of her swarm with her?”
“Well . . . we don’t know.” The pegasus began to grovel again. Helios imagined piling the garish tapestries up and dumping them upon the hapless pony, then commanding him to light them afire. He could tell his other followers that self-immolation was the path to righteousness, but then they might all try it. On the other hoof, it might be the best way to get rid of the stupid fang blood and tentacle theme that was currently giving him a mild headache.
“You don’t know. Why do we even have watchers if they can’t WATCH?”
The pegasus cowered on the carpet, and Helios began to wonder if he’d wet himself.
“Since they’re changelings, we can’t easily tell them apart from real ponies,” the pegasus whined. “If they’ve taken the shape of ponies, that is.”
“But you can still count, can’t you? If there were, let us say, three ponies who entered the ruins, and three plus Chrysalis come out, then probably none of them are changelings. But, if there were three ponies who entered the ruins and six plus Chrysalis come out, than three of them are probably changelings, do you see?”
“Oh, yes.” The pegasus began nodding his head eagerly. “I understand. Of course it doesn’t matter which ones are changelings and which ones are real.” He bit his lip. “So, there were four of them who went into the ruins. The ones who grouped together.”
“And how many came out?”
“Well, Chrysalis, of course. And then eight more besides. So, four of them must be changelings. Unless there were other ponies hiding in the ruins.”
Helios tapped a hoof on the throne for a few moments, while the pegasus stayed motionless on the carpet. Finally, he spoke. “Maybe we should try to take out one or two of them. Get the others worried.”
The pegasus grinned. “Should I tell everypony?”
“Keep watching them,” Helios ordered. “I don’t want to be too hasty. If we pick off a loner, they’ll stick together more. If we can manipulate the situation to make it seem as if the changelings are attacking the ponies, though, we can drive them apart. That might work to our advantage.”
***
Trixie yawned hugely. In the half-light of the ruins, she had no idea what time it was, but it was one of the better night’s sleep she’d gotten in awhile. It was true; it was better to be with company than alone when on the run.
She frowned, feeling something hard pressing up against her barrel. Last night, Amber had protectively wrapped her hooves around Gutter, trying to keep him from Trixie, but the pegasus favored the showmare. Finally, the three of them had settled on a Gutter-in-the-middle sleeping arrangement, with poor Knickknack on the outside of the group.
Trixie turned her head. “That’s a heck of a way to wake up in the morning.”
“Sorry. I must have rolled over in my sleep.” Amber moved her head, moving her horn away from Trixie’s side. “Where’s Gutter?”
Trixie tilted her head, drawing Amber’s eyes towards the ragged pegasus, who was splayed out on his back. His legs were twitching sporadically, and a thin trail of drool ran from the corner of his mouth to the floor.
The trek from the ruins to the Pool of the Moon got off to a rocky start. Chrysalis called out her four remaining changelings from wherever they’d been hiding; whether by instinct or malice, the four changelings promptly each took the form of one of the ponies.
Chrysalis immediately began chittering at them. Eventually, they changed their forms slightly; perhaps because they weren’t terribly intelligent, they took elements of the ponies who stood before them. Amber glared at the counterfeit unicorn who wore Gutter’s raggedy coat, while Knickknack managed a rare smile at the noble-looking orange earth pony who’d adopted Amber’s colors. “I told you how nice you’d look when you cleaned up,” she whispered.
“How can I ‘clean up’ when we’re running for our lives?” the unicorn muttered back.
The only pony who didn’t seem to object too much was Gutter, although that came as no surprise to anypony else. He seemed glad of aerial company.
“Do you have any idea where this ‘Pool of the Moon’ is? Or whose blessing one receives upon reaching it?” Knickknack looked at Chrysalis thoughtfully.
“I’d guess it refers to Nightmare Moon.” She half-closed her reptilian eyes as she pondered the clue. “I’m not sure who or what would answer the call now.”
“Yeah,” Amber added. “The Elements of Harmony cleansed Luna, at least that’s what everypony says.”
“So maybe the pool will be a fizzle.” Knickknack hung her head. “I hope not. I mean, I’m glad to be out of the city and all, but it’s dangerous in the woods, and if we just find another dead end—well, I don’t know if I could take it. My hooves hurt.”
“Typical noble thought, Lady Knickknack,” Trixie muttered.
“Hey.” Amber glared at her fellow unicorn. “She’s out here, risking her life like everypony else. Maybe she’s not as prepared to survive in the woods as you’d like, but she’s what we’ve got.”
Chrysalis let out a long, drawn-out noise that might have been a sigh, but sounded more like a hiss. “How did you make it this far, anyway? Besides the normal predators in this jungle, there’s dozens—maybe hundreds—of terrified half-crazed ponies looking for the same thing you are. And with all your arguing, they can hear you but you can’t hear them.”
“Trixie made it by pure tenacity.” She waved her blood-stained bat around to prove her point. “And Trixie had a tank, too, until somepony wrecked it.” She forestalled a protest with a wave of her hoof. “But that’s the past. Trixie . . . um, I know I little bit about weird magical artifacts. Normally, I would say that we were foals to try and experiment with something that we don’t have a full grasp of its power. Do we know for a fact that the Nightmare was destroyed when it was banished from Luna? If it was, then the pool will do nothing. But if the Nightmare survived—perhaps banished to an object of power—we might summon her, and she might be worse than what we are fleeing.” Trixie tilted her head towards Chrysalis. “I suspect that she would go towards the creature who she believed held the most power.”
“So, she’ll go for Trixie?” Gutter asked.
Three heads snapped around.
“How long have you been back there?” Amber glared at the pegasus. “You’re supposed to be flying a patrol, not staring at our butts.” She wagged her rump suggestively anyway, causing the pegasus to blush.
“Not Trixie.” Knickknack looked at him flatly. “Chrysalis. She’s got more power than Trixie could ever hope to have.”
“I did have—but Knickknack’s right. You’re supposed to be looking for a pool, hopefully surrounded by ruins or something.”
The pegasus bristled. “I just came down ‘cause my wings are tired. The fake-Guttter’s looking still.”
“It’s even dumber than you,” Trixie muttered.
“Are you sure that’s wise?” Amber turned to face Chrysalis. “Is a changeling drone clever enough to recognize a mystical pool?”
Whatever response Chrysalis was about to give was interrupted by a high-pitched scream, echoing across the suddenly silent forest. Knickknack blanched, Gutter screamed and ran up to Amber, while Chrysalis flinched and slowly lowered her head.
“Apparently not,” Trixie whispered to nopony in particular.
The rest of the day’s travel was nearly silent. The changeling pegasus was never seen again, to nopony’s surprise. They ate lunch late, the four ponies staring grimly at Chrysalis and her three remaining changelings.
Finally, as the sun was setting, Gutter spiraled down towards the group excitedly. “Hey, guys, there’s some ruins just ahead. We could spend the night there.”
“You’d think we could find a cave or something, to change things up a bit,” Amber mused. “Still, they ought to be safe enough.”
“It looks like a castle,” Gutter added. “Except it’s all fallen down.”
Amber facehoofed. “That’s what ruins are, Gutter. You know that.”
He nodded eagerly. “Yup, it’s just ahead. Across a little ditch.”
“Don’t you mean the moat? Castles have moats.”
Gutter looked wounded. “Moats have water.” He flew up to hover just above the group, eagerly leading the way.
Before they expected it, the ponies and changelings had reached the castle. There was a subtle shift in the tenor of the jungle: while it still looked the same, there was a different feel to it. Even Chrysalis shivered a little bit as they crossed the threshold.
They bypassed the crumbled remains of a bridge—now no more than stone abutments—electing to slowly walk through the deep ditch. The barbican still stood, although the upper floors were missing. Rust streaks on the walls showed where the great doors had once been hinged.
Once they were inside the courtyard, it was easy to see that time had not been kind on the castle. Their former camping site had been remarkably intact; this looked to have been deliberately razed. Stones were scattered across the ground as if they had been flung, rather than fallen. Statues lay shattered below their plinths.
“I don’t know if there’s anywhere here to camp,” Knickknack muttered, looking around in the gathering darkness. “Aside from the barbican and gatehouse, there’s hardly one stone atop another.”
“Back in that corner.” Chrysalis pointed with a holey leg. “There’s a short hollow under those columns. We might be able to squeeze in there. I’d rather be in some shelter than sleeping out in the open. Who knows what might come in the night?”
“Yeah.” Trixie nodded. “I agree. At least there’s only one entrance to that little hidey-hole.” She trotted over, lighting her horn as she reached the shadows. As she got close, she frowned. “I think this hidey-hole is bigger than we thought.”
Ten minutes later, the ponies looked around in amazement in the glow provided by Trixie and Amber. The roof had collapsed on a giant sunken chamber, preserving it relatively unharmed. True, room was littered with shards of stone; the statues here were also knocked on their sides—but the room had survived otherwise unharmed.
In the center, a ringed depression took up most of the floor space. Great marble blocks were neatly fitted around the edge, inscribed with runes that seemed to shift in the light of Trixie’s horn.
“What’s this?” Amber levitated a black feather off the floor.
“Hey!” Knickknack yanked a feather out of Gutter’s wing and carried it over to Amber, who examined it closely. Both ponies agreed it looked very much like a pegasus feather.
“I don’t think we’re the first ponies in here recently,” Trixie said. “The entrance looks like it’s been disturbed. I don’t know if anypony else noticed, but there were a lot of stones stacked neatly in the outer ruins, like somepony dug their way in before us.”
“Well, nopony’s here now,” Gutter said hopefully. He flew over to the edge of the depression and landed on one of the marble blocks. “What do you think this was for?”
“I don’t know.” Trixie looked over the edge thoughtfully. “If it were in a market square, I’d say it was a fountain.” She squinted at the runes. “Maybe there’s some kind of explanation. It’s not in a language I know, but I bet I can get the gist of it.”
“I don’t recognize these,” Knickknack said. “They’re different than the ones on the statue base.”
“It looks like an older language.” She tapped a stone. “Which really makes sense. Look at how worn these are. They might not have always been in a building; maybe the castle was built up around it. And judging by the condition of the ruins, even the castle has been abandoned for a long, long time.”
Amber glared as one of the changelings flitted over the shallow hole, peering down with his expressionless blue eyes. Apparently, he hadn’t felt the need to keep his disguise when he was indoors.
“That’s probably the symbol for ‘moon,’ but it’s opposite of the usual way. And next to it is . . . hmm, maybe it’s supposed to be a confectionery.” Trixie scratched her head. “Cake moon is . . . no, wait, was?”
“Let me see,” Chrysalis hissed. She paced over and squinted at the worn stones. “Trees . . . worship . . . do you think that’s a line there, or a crack in the stone?”
Unseen, by the two, Amber rolled her eyes. “It probably says ‘no refunds.’ This was clearly their guest chambers. That is probably the honeymoon suite.” She glanced over at Gutter. “Do you want to try it out?”
“I don’t like sleeping in pits.” Gutter folded his legs under himself and stretched out his left wing. “Sometimes when it rains, they fill with water.” He began preening himself. “You could have asked for a loose feather.”
“Our wine cellar used to flood if it rained a lot,” Knickknack mused. “Mother wanted to put in a new drain, but—”
“Wait.” Amber held up a hoof. “Gutter, what did you say?”
“You could have asked for a loose feather.” He spit one out. “I think I’m moulting. It’s probably the stress. It was a lot more relaxing in a dumpster than being out in the woods on the run.”
“No. You said that pits fill with water.”
“Dumpsters do, too. The lids don’t close tightly enough. If there’s stuff in them, they’re okay.”
Amber sighed deeply. “Don’t you get it? What if this is the moon pool, but there isn’t any water in it?”
“We could put some in,” Knickknack finished. “And then . . . maybe, we could get it to work.”
“Yeah.” Amber eyed the depression skeptically. “Where are we going to get enough water?”