//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: Knowledge 
// Story: Change the Heart 
// by FatesWinds 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 15
Knowledge
“Knowledge in the hooves of the desperate is just as dangerous as if it were in the hooves of the wicked. Knowledge in the hooves of the wise can be even worse.” —Bookmark



Five days. Five of their precious fourteen days had passed since Chrysalis’s warning about the changeling army. Five days since Twilight had convinced the group that they’d have the best chance at finding Breyta Mitos on a completely random island instead of trying to follow the various changeling signals their compass had locked onto. Five of the longest days Heart Shield had ever needed to bite his tongue for in order to not get into another argument with the unicorn.
In short, he was sick of this.
However, as much as he wanted to pull the leader card and force a change in their direction, he knew that he was being impatient. The crash landing at Hypnos had taught him the risk of letting his impatience rule his decisions, as without Lady Luna interfering all seven of them would be mulch for that island to use to expand. Fluttershy and Applejack had taken to ensuring that he slept and took care of himself, at Twilight’s suggestion unbeknownst to him, to make sure that he wasn’t pushing himself or anyone else to the breaking point again.
The only solace he had this time around was that his friends finally knew the same truth that he had been trying to show them for so long; they finally understood that Chrysalis was not to blame, that they had been wrong about her all this time. Of course, Applejack and Fluttershy were the first to admit they were wrong, having supported him the longest of the six mares, but he was grateful that they relented all the same. Once they threw their support to his side, Pinkie was the next, though Heart Shield wasn’t sure if it was because she changed her mind or just for the excuse to throw another party once they were all back in Equestria. Rainbow Dash and Rarity followed suit soon after, neither really having had any stake in the argument that had driven a near irreparable wedge between the seven friends other than trusting Twilight’s judgment.
Twilight, even after admitting she had been wrong about Chrysalis, still held her doubts about the Changeling Queen. She had her own history with Chrysalis that Heart Shield understood was still clouding her impression of the changeling even if he didn’t accept it. Heart Shield wondered, not for the first time, if things would remain strained between the three of them forever. He knew that he wasn’t helping things by still holding onto his frustration at Twilight causing all of this to happen in his eyes, but he didn’t feel like he could ever fully let it go until the day that she apologized directly to Chrysalis.
And all of this would be pointless if they never managed to find Breyta Mitos in time. He knew this, Twilight knew this, everyone knew this. All of their hopes rested on them finding this Astros Arcadia and some clue as to their destination’s true location before that army was completed. The mares were just as impatient as their friend, but they’d had years of experience that he was only just starting to gain, and that meant that they knew how to channel their impatience into ways that served to help them attain their goals instead of hinder them. Rarity and Fluttershy had taken to teaching Heart Shield various forms of meditation and relaxation to be able to help him focus and let some of his growing annoyance fade away. Applejack would keep him busy with various tasks around the ship to help keep his mind from wandering. Pinkie made sure that he didn’t stay too wound up by keeping him and the others entertained. Even Rainbow Dash was aware of how important it was to try to keep him from pulling rank in his desperation and made sure that he took to the skies every so often so that they could, in her words, “scout ahead.”
Which was why everyone breathed a sigh of relief when, five days after changing their course, the so-called Island of Knowledge finally crested the horizon. Twilight could barely contain her own excitement as the island came into view and the ponies were able to make out details with their bare eyes.
The first things to grab their attention were the massive spiral towers pointed towards the heavens, with large grey bricks stacked onto each other that appeared to be untouched by years of salt spray and deep blue tiled roofs that each ended in sharp points. As they closed in on the island, they could see that the towers were each attached to larger buildings, almost as if they were castle watchtowers, but these buildings looked more like religious halls than the keep of a castle, with ornate and intricate stained-glass windows lining the walls, and arched roofs that each held multi-faceted clocks. Heart Shield would have assumed that they were chapels of some sort if it weren’t for the sheer number of the buildings that he could make out just from this side of the island, as surely such a place wouldn’t need so many. It was hard to make out from the shore as they lay down the anchor, but there seemed to be a building towards the center of the large island with a giant glass domed roof.
Unlike the other islands they’d discovered, Astros had a functional port that they docked at, though no other ships could be seen around the island so far. It was unclear if the place was inhabited or not. Everything seemed pristine, which hinted at either magic or someone that took care of the place, but there was an air of age and history about the island, as if they’d stepped foot on a corner of the world completely outside of time. Animals lived on the island, but when Fluttershy approached them for information, they merely chittered at her as if they didn’t understand her words or ran away unhelpfully. Twilight and Pinkie wanted to check out the large towers, an opinion that Fluttershy surprisingly shared as well.
“Do I need to remind you that we don’t have time to waste playing around on the island,” Heart Shield said to them as the three already started to split from the group. “We only have nine days left, at most, according to Chrysalis’s warning.”
Twilight, not at all put off by his reminder, looked over her shoulder at him and replied, “We don’t have much choice, Heart Shield. This was the last island on the map we were given and none of the other islands had any labels on them that even came close to translating to Breyta Mitos. According to the original map, Astros had a note that said secrets could be known. What’s more secret than the true location of the changelings?”
Heart Shield grumbled at this but couldn’t find anything to dispute in her words and relented. Without a hint as to where Breyta Mitos was, it would be next to impossible to find Chrysalis. The friends decided that the best use of their time would be to split up, see if they could find anyone on this island or some information if that was impossible, and regroup at the ship come nightfall. Rarity and Rainbow Dash volunteered to stay on the ship, with Rarity charging the crystal should they need to sail in a hurry and Rainbow keeping an eye on the ship’s safety as she’d be able to get to the others the fastest if there was an emergency. The remaining five would start off at the closest tower and spread out from there if they needed to cover more ground.


*	*	*


“This is so incredible!” Twilight exclaimed, her eyes wide as her head swiveled around to take in the interior of the tower.
From floor to ceiling, leaving no spare room on any wall, were hundreds upon hundreds of books. While the outside of the structure appeared to be well looked after, the floor of the ancient library they had discovered was coated in a heavy layer of dust. That, combined with the struggle it took for them to push open the door they’d found made it clear that no one had been here for several decades at least. However, when Twilight rushed to various shelves and used her magic to pull several books down, she realized that these books had all been magically preserved to protect their contents from aging.
“I can’t believe this!” she said excitedly, starting to pull volumes down by the dozen and hungrily flipping through the ancient tomes. “There’s so much history, so many wonders! It’s like a dream come true. I-I need to document this, let Princess Celestia know about this place! There’s no way that all of these could possibly fit on just a single return trip to Equestria!”
“Unless any of them have a table of contents that spells out the location of Breyta Mitos, it’s pointless to look at any of this trash, history or not,” Heart Shield snapped at the unicorn, pulling her out of her fervor as he stormed up the stairs circling up to one of the upper levels.
“He didn’t mean nothin’ by that, Twi,” Applejack assured her, picking up one of the books next to her and opening to a random page. “He knows just as well as anypony how important knowledge is, otherwise he woulda never taken yer offer ta work at the library.”
“She’s right,” agreed Fluttershy. “I’m sure he’s not intending to be rude about this, he’s just-.”
“Guys, guys, it’s okay,” Twilight said with a smile. “You don’t need to apologize for him. I’ve known ever since that dream on Hypnos that he’s been getting testier and more temperamental than ever. He wants to find Chrysalis as soon as possible, and I think we can all understand his haste.”
As the trio turned their focus back to their reason for coming to the island, Pinkie hopped away to explore the building attached to the tower. Fluttershy flew to the tops of the shelves to grab books Twilight couldn’t see as the three mares that knew the colt the best looked through the books for any mention of anything even remotely similar to Breyta Mitos while they discussed the friend in question.
“Ah know he means well, an’ his concerns are definitely in the right place,” Applejack said, pushing another book to the side when a quick glance through it gave nothing up, “but ah think that this crusade of his might be more than jus’ simply wantin’ to see her safe.”
“What do you mean?” asked Twilight, though she had a feeling she knew where Applejack was going with this.
“Ah mean you might be right about him, Twi. Maybe Heart Shield is in love with Chrysalis after all.”
“We can’t know that for sure,” countered Fluttershy. “He might just be concerned for her safety since he did spend over a month taking care of her in secret and nursing her back to health. That kind of attention to somepony would make anypony invested in their well-being.”
“Maybe,” Twilight said in a tone that made her disagreement clear even as she mulled it over. “But he never seemed like he’d ever felt like anypony in Ponyville might be his special somepony either.”
“Isn’t that just more evidence that he’s not interested in Chrysalis that way?” Fluttershy suggested. “Maybe he’s not interested in a relationship with anypony.”
“Even though he never looked, Heart Shield still clearly gets flustered whenever anypony mentions feelings around him or shows an interest in him,” the unicorn responded. “I mean, just look at how he reacted when Applejack had that Hearts and Hooves Day dinner with him.”
“C’mon now, Twi. Y’all know that t’weren’t nothin’ more than a friendly dinner and a nice evening with a friend,” Applejack cut in, her orange cheeks turning noticeably redder.
Twilight couldn’t resist teasing her friend and asked, “If that’s the case, then why did you decide to dress up for something that was ‘nothin’ more than a friendly dinner’?”
“It ain’t like that,” sputtered the orange mare. “Can’t a gal dress herself up now an’ then?”
Her protests were met by giggles from her two friends and she quickly decided to steer the conversation away from this territory.
“All that aside, it sounded like there was more to your point than just teasing, Twilight.”
“You’re right, sorry about that,” Twilight replied, getting her laughter under control. “Back to what I was saying. Even though he never seemed to look or be interested in it, he still always got easily flustered about the topic of relationships. To me, his reactions weren’t those of somepony that has no interest in them, but instead of somepony that hadn’t found anypony he wanted to be in one with yet. That suddenly stopped after the night he’d been in the Everfree Forest. He no longer was flustered, laughed when anypony teased him about not having one, and his overall outlook suddenly had changed. He was happier during that time than any of us had ever seen him. Heck, he even smiled and laughed more often.	
“In one of my letters to Princess Celestia updating her on how well he was doing like she’d asked me to, I even mentioned this offhand. The princess wrote back saying that she was pleased to hear he was still doing well and made a comment that he seemed to be acting like somepony who’d found a pony they liked, and that it sounded almost like he was a pony in love. I laughed it off at the time, but now I wonder if it wasn’t just a bit of humor from the princess.”
Applejack and Fluttershy looked at each other and nodded.
“Ah noticed the change too back then, but didn’t think two shakes of a lamb’s tail about it,” said Applejack.
“I just chalked it up to him being in a better mood and finally being at home in Ponyville,” admitted Fluttershy.
“And I can hear you three from all the way up here!” Heart Shield shouted down at them from four floors up. “Instead of gossiping about my supposed love life and trysts like a bunch of school fillies, maybe you should be looking for something that can help us find Chrysalis!”
The trio, faces burning from the admonishment and at having been caught, called out meek apologies up to him and went back to their search of the bookshelves, making a pile of books that looked like they might be of use. After a while, Heart Shield announced that he was going to check out the second tower and Fluttershy offered to accompany him while Twilight and Applejack looked further into the building Pinkie Pie had wandered off into. Rarity met the pegasi outside, having finished recharging the crystal and joined them as they moved to the second tower. The inside was just as dusty as the first, something Rarity immediately set about to fix before putting a single hoof on the floor, and Heart Shield noted that this tower was much larger and wider than the previous one. There were still various books lining the walls, but far fewer in number as the rest of the tower was filled with various models, drawings and even maps of the stars that looked to be more in line with observing space than for use when sailing. Fluttershy mentioned that the tower looked like it would connect all the way to the domed building they saw from the shore, and as Rarity looked through some of the books on the first floor, the pegasi flew to the top to discover a large 3-D astrolabe making up nearly the entirety of the top floor.
“Looks like the island was used to house information of all kinds,” Heart Shield mused, turning the giant mechanism and watching as the celestial bodies all rotated without protest.
The astrolabe deserved some closer scrutiny as several of the items didn’t look like typical depictions of planets or stars, but his impatience began to get the better of him and he soon turned his attention away from it when the solution to this puzzle didn’t quickly become apparent. In his frustration he left the tower in a huff, brushing off Rarity and Fluttershy’s protests with the pretense of wanting to see if there was anyone on the island other than them. He couldn’t help his growing impatience and irritation at lingering on this island without finding what they’d come here for. He knew he was being immature about this, that he should be levelheaded and helping his friends if he actually wanted a shot at saving Chrysalis. All the same, he couldn’t help but be aware of the precious little time they had slipping away from them. He was torn between wanting to thoroughly scour this place for the secrets it hid, and wanting to get to Chrysalis in time. Heart Shield couldn’t help the growing pit in his stomach when he thought about what she’d said.
This pit had been growing ever since they escaped Hypnos, and it was accompanied by a faint scratching in the back of his mind, almost like something was calling out to him that he couldn’t fully hear. And that scratching had only grown more fervent since he stepped onto Astros’ shores. Twilight was right, there was something about this place that was important, but Heart Shield wasn’t sure if it was something that would aid or hinder them yet. His irritability only seemed to grow the longer he spent inside the buildings here, fueled by that scratching in his mind and a feeling like all of his senses were being assaulted at once.
Normally, this would make him concerned that they were all in some sort of danger, but nothing was setting off the internal alarm bells like Hypnos and that phantom island had. He wasn’t sure if he should be comforted by this, or if the lack of danger being sensed should concern him even more.


*	*	*


The sun had long since reached its peak by the time the friends had made it through the majority of the buildings. From an aerial search, Heart Shield and Rainbow Dash confirmed a total of thirteen towers around the island’s perimeter, each connected to an accompanying larger structure that curved towards the middle of the island. The dome in the center of the island was easily at least thirty meters in diameter, if not more by Heart Shield’s estimation, and was detached from the other buildings, with what looked like a large circular lens at one side of the dome. It sat in the middle of the island with a lush garden of flowers around it that even Twilight wasn’t able to place, multiple stone paths and walkways that emanated out from it forming an intricate pattern only seen from the sky, and several smaller structures that looked to be various living quarters lined the outer perimeter of the pathways making it seem as if the architecture of the island had been planned with an aerial view in mind.
The friends had eventually regrouped at the domed structure in the center to share their findings with one another, as it was the landmark able to be seen from anywhere around the island. The moment they stepped inside, the darkened dome lit up with bright blue patterns of light as if someone had flipped on a lightswitch. The patterns were easily identified by Twilight as constellations, and stood out against the deep purple of the inner dome. The building itself held various rare crystals and minerals on display while many curious shapes lined the walls beneath the dome including one that appeared to be the bottom half of a dragon’s tooth, and several thick, dark books rested on pedestals at various points around the walls. In the center of the room was a raised podium with a black orb set into the middle of it. Rarity was darting from each collection of gems in excitement, especially for several gemstones that even she couldn’t identify until Applejack hooked her lasso around the unicorn’s waist and dragged her to the group so that they could all share their findings with each other, to the dramatic wails of the gemstruck mare.
Pinkie Pie had seemingly made her way through most of the buildings connected to the various towers on her own and reported that no one but the group appeared to be on the island. She also startled the group with the revelation that the stones used for each of the buildings were older than they appeared to be and were not even the regular materials that someone would use for buildings. Rarity and Twilight confirmed that the odd bricks weren’t any form of limestone, granite, sandstone, or any other commonly used kind of rocks, nor could any of the friends identify what exact material they were other than some kind of stone.
Of the thirteen towers and their associated buildings, only five towers had been explored so far, and Pinkie had gone through eight of the buildings attached to the towers. From their findings, the group had come to the conclusion that Astros was some kind of old place of study and functioned as a sort of library island. Every building had bookshelves packed with various tomes, though some held sculptures, models, plants, even works of art almost like a museum of some kind. Like the books, everything that was clearly important had some magic around them to protect them from wear and tear and the weathering of time. 
Heart Shield was having trouble focusing on the information his friends were sharing with each other as the scratching in his head almost seemed to get louder in this building, though he still wasn’t able to tell what the cause was. Like before, this just had the adverse effect of building on his irritation as everything was screaming at him that he should be picking up some obvious sign that was right in his face.
“So what I’m hearing,” he snapped, louder than he should have just to hear himself over the nagging in his head, “is that we’ve been wasting our time again and are no closer to finding Chrysalis than we were when we decided to come to this bloody island. At this point we’d probably be better off just guessing at where it is from our own map than digging through all this useless junk.”
The moment the words were out of his mouth, he regretted it.
“I’m sorry,” the pegasus grumbled, rubbing his forehead to try to clear his head. “I’m sorry, I’m just… We’re running out of time. Even if this place has the answers we need, there’s no telling how long it would take us to find that information. And even if we do, what if it turns out that it’s back the way we came, or on the other side of the world? Would we even make it in time to sav- to stop the army?”
His slipup didn’t go unnoticed by the others. It wasn’t a surprise to them where his priorities lay with all of this, but what was surprising was how hard it seemed that he was trying to convince himself that they were reversed, or even different altogether.
“Heart Shield, we will stop them and we will save her,” Rainbow Dash said, putting a hoof on his shoulder. “Trust me, I used to be as hot-headed as you are now; deadset only on the goal in front of me.”
“Used to be?” Applejack teased.
“Can it, you,” the rainbow-haired mare shot back without any anger. “The point I’m trying to make is, we can’t just do this flying by the tips of our tails if we want to actually succeed. As much as I agree that digging through all these books might be a waste of time, I also know that we’d waste more time just randomly trying to sail around the world.”
“I know, I know…” Heart Shield said with a sigh, still rubbing his head. “I’m sorry…”
“Why don’t we go over the actual stuff we found so far,” Applejack suggested. “Ah know there’s still some buildings we haven’t explored yet, but did anypony see anything that stuck out as odd or of note?”
“There were a lot of books in the first tower that look to be fascinating,” Twilight spoke up, levitating a few out of the pack she’d grabbed to store them in. “There’s some incredible historical information that looks like it goes back further than the archives at Canterlot, and magical studies and theories that I didn’t even think were possible! This one here goes over some form of runic casting and claims to be stronger than regular magic to the point where anypony with even the most basic knowledge could attempt to use it, not just unicorns or alicorns. I could spend months just pouring over all this! This could completely change the courses back in Equestria- aaaaand that doesn’t really have anything to do with what we’re doing here…”
The unicorn rubbed her head sheepishly after a look from her friends and trailed off.
“I found some books on various animals, lots of which aren’t native to Equestria,” Fluttershy offered meekly.
“Fluttershy and I also found what looked like old history books,” Rarity said as she studied some of the crystals in the room. “A few records that look like they’re at least a few hundred years old, some with maps that looked even older, but they’re written in such an old dialect that it’s hard to tell if we could even translate them into modern Equestrian, or if they’re even any different from the maps we already have.”
Heart Shield’s head began to pound again as she reached out to touch a crystal that was such a dark purple, it almost appeared black.
“Don’t!” he shouted, startling even himself with how loud his cry was.
Rarity actually jumped back a couple feet, hurriedly stuffing her hoof back to the ground as if she was a small filly being chided by a parent. Heart Shield hurried over to her and shoved a wing between her and the crystal.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell,” he said, guiding her away from the rock as the scratching in his head started up again, though he thought he also detected a faint hint of a whisper too. He looked over his shoulder at the stone and gave it a suspicious glare as they walked away from it, the feeling and noises in his head quieting down the further they moved away from it. “Sorry again. It’s just… We don’t know if those are important or magical or even trapped, and we don’t have the time to find out…”
His friends could hear how distracted he was with whatever he was thinking about as he spoke, but other than a few shared looks, no one said anything.
“Of course, darling,” Rarity said slowly. “My apologies, I was just curious about it as I’ve never seen crystals like it before.”
“That seems to be a running theme with this island,” mused Twilight. “From the crystals, to the books on flora, fauna, history, and magic. It’s like this place is home to all kinds of secrets, or at least knowledge that none of us have.”
“‘Secrets can be known here’ indeed,” Heart Shield said, remembering the phrase that led them to the island in the first place. “Well there’s definitely plenty of secrets to this place, but it’s almost like having all the answers without knowing what question they belong to.”
“If we need questions, maybe we should ask this crystal ball!” Pinkie exclaimed.
Everyone turned to see the pink mare standing at the pedestal in the center of the room with her hooves hovering over the black orb it held. Before any of them could try to warn her to stop, Pinkie Pie waved her hooves over it and spoke in a voice Twilight knew all too well.
“Madame Pinkie Pie will now consult the mystical ooooorb of fate’s destiny juuuuuunioooor for the answers we seeeeek,” Pinkie said as a strange light source from out of nowhere shined up under her face. “Well, technically I guess it’s the questions we seek since we have the answers.”
Pinkie looked to her friends with a smile and apologetic shrug at getting the words wrong at first, but her shrug brought her hooves too close to the orb. As her hooves made contact with the orb, the sphere turned in the same direction and a loud grinding sound, like a rockslide, filled the room as the entire building began to shake.
“Oopsies!” Pinkie said, instantly back with the group.
They didn’t even have time to berate her before the cause of the shaking and grinding was made clear. The dome above them had shifted completely, exposing more of the bright blue patterns and causing the observation hole to now be at a completely different angle. The group was silent for a few moments as the shaking stopped, half expecting to have the ground beneath them open up as if Pinkie Pie had triggered some kind of trap. When nothing else happened, they all turned to give Pinkie a look, save for Rainbow Dash who instead flew over to the pedestal and the sphere curiously.
“Hey guys, looks like this thing can make the ceiling move!” she said, giving it an experimental turn, which caused the noise to come back and rotated the dome some more, though with less shaking of the building. “Weird, looks like it’s broken right he- uh-oh.”
As she touched the part of the orb she’d been trying to tell the group about, a whirring sound echoed through the room as part of the dome suddenly spun in the same direction that her hoof slipped over the orb. Applejack opened her mouth to tell her friend to stop messing with it when Twilight let out an excited squeal. Everyone turned to see her pointing at the section of the roof that had now shifted.
“It’s a puzzle ball!” she cried. “I thought those patterns were just constellations because they matched the ones on the star chart, but look at how some of them line up now! They make completely different shapes!”
The seven ponies crowded around the pedestal to get a closer look at the orb. The sphere was split into several equidistant lines that could either be moved independently or all at once if pressure was applied to the orb, which would in turn move the dome and its corresponding parts. On top of that they discovered that the dome itself was split into an outer and inner section that could be separately controlled, as pressing a button on the pedestal (something that immediately earned Pinkie another hard look from her friends for her impulsiveness) caused only the outer dome to move when they next tried to turn the orb. After some further tests, Twilight suddenly called everyone’s attention to the patterns made by the inner dome. What first were perfect one-to-one matches to the constellations they could make out at night, now began to form some oddly familiar shapes.
“Is that-” Heart Shield began, catching on to Twilight’s drift as his eyes widened.
“-A perfect copy of Equestria but in reverse?” Twilight finished his sentence as they all stared in shock at one of the patterns. “That’s what I thought too.”
“Wait, so yer sayin’ that this thing is actually some kinda mirror puzzle map?” Applejack asked incredulously. “Weren’t it just stars before we started messin’ with it?”
Heart Shield and Twilight both looked at each other at Applejack’s words, each sharing the same thought. This was what they needed.
“Pinkie, I need you to move the domes to my directions,” Twilight said in a rush.
“Applejack, Rainbow Dash, I need you to come with me back to the ship,” Heart Shield added. “Rarity, Fluttershy, see if you can find some of those books and stuff you found earlier that had those maps in them and bring them to Twilight.”
“What in tarnation are y’all going on about?” Applejack asked, running after the pegasus as he didn’t even wait to see if his friends were listening.
“Yeah, what’s going on here, Large-Wing?” Rainbow Dash said, joining them.
“If that bit of Equestria wasn’t just a fluke,” Heart Shield called over his shoulder, “then it means that this entire thing makes a world map. It’s like seeing things from the inside of a globe!”
“Okay, and what’s the point of running back to the ship? I don’t think we can fit this thing on it without sinking ourselves,” countered Rainbow Dash.
“If it is a map in reverse, then we need to be able to have a correct map made. There’s supplies on the ship we can use for that, and I want to grab our own map to use as a reference. That’s also why Fluttershy and Rarity have to get the things they found to Twilight. We’re gonna copy down this secret map!”


*	*	*


An hour later, it seemed like Twilight and Heart Shield were correct about a reverse map carved into the dome and hidden in plain sight by a puzzle. The outer dome had been rotated so that the observational hole was pointed straight at the sky as the inner dome’s hole was no longer even visible. The patterns of the inner dome were now shaped into various landmasses, but thanks to the outer dome now having the hole directly above them all, the light from outside cast the patterns down onto the floor like an intricate shadow puppet, forming a proper map rather than the mirrored images they’d had to try to connect. It was determined that this was the solution to the puzzle, as rotating either dome as a whole didn’t illuminate or reveal any hidden patterns, and so once they had the solution, Twilight got to work. She had a large parchment laid out on the ground and was using her magic to trace the patterns of the map onto the paper with her quill while Heart Shield flew with her on his back. His heart was pounding as the map neared completion, but Twilight noticed a problem before he did.
“Heart Shield,” she said cautiously, “maybe we were too hasty to think that this was the answer.”
“What? Twilight, what are you talking about?”
“Land and take a look at the map. We got everything in place with the dome that we could, but all that leaves us with is an incomplete map. Look.”
Heart Shield listened and flew down to the ground to confirm this for himself. She was right. While Equestria and Dragon Isle were fully formed, along with several landmasses that their original map had, other islands were not so lucky, either not even existing or not having their full outlines like in Astros’ case. Heart Shield was crestfallen, so distraught that he barely noticed the scratching and faint sound of whispers in his head returning, but before he gave into despair at this brand new waste of time, he remembered something.
“Twilight, this is going to sound crazy, but just stick with me on this,” he said, turning to her with a desperate look in his eyes. “In the second tower, the one Fluttershy, Rarity and I went to together, there was a giant astrolabe on the top floor, but it seemed like things were a bit off about it. Markings and shapes that didn’t look like they’d have anything to do with space. What if that tower and this dome have something like this connecting them? I-I mean, this place did start with having constellations on the inside before it became a map, that’s gotta be a clue, right?”
Twilight looked at her friend then to the map on the floor and back again. It was a long shot, but even she was out of ideas at this point. She nodded to the colt.
“Alright, show us this astrolabe and we’ll see what we can find together.”
Heart Shield hurried out of the building with his friends in tow and ran to the tower he’d mentioned, taking the spiral stairs inside four steps at a time in his rush. Twilight walked around the astrolabe, taking note of the oddities Heart Shield had pointed out. Figuring that it couldn’t hurt to try, she began to direct her friends with controlling the various rings and astrological bodies on the model and as they all worked together, slowly things began to become clear. Once the rings were all lined up to be perpendicular to the ground and the planets and larger stars moved in the directions that Twilight said, the group stepped back to look in awe at the finished work. When viewed from the side of the room opposite the stairs, the back of the completed astrolabe lined up with painted markings on the wall that Heart Shield hadn’t even noticed before, and together they and the patterns that had stuck out at odd to him formed the second half of the map.
“I don’t believe this,” Rainbow Dash said with barely controlled excitement as Twilight hurriedly copied down the other map. “It’s like something out of a Daring Do book!”
“Or like a cheesy attempt at a mystery,” joked Applejack. “What’re the chances that we’d find a secret map split in two, jus’ from Pinkie playin’ with a rock?”
“Hey, rocks are serious business, buckaroo,” Pinkie Pie shot back.
“Who would go through all the trouble of hiding a map of the world like this?” Fluttershy asked. “It seems like a lot of work for something so innocent.”
“Maybe it’s a treasure map!” Pinkie and Rainbow said together.
“I’m more confused about what some of these marks on the wall are that don’t seem to belong to the map,” said Twilight, pointing at one that looked like the bottom half of a dragon’s tooth off to the side of any landmasses. “They aren’t connected to any part of the map, but they seem to be important? There’s too many to be part of a compass.”
“Oh hey, I saw that one back at the dome,” Pinkie said.
“Me too,” agreed Rainbow Dash. “Those other ones too. They were on the walls under the parts of the dome that moved. C’mon we’ll show you!”
Twilight was getting a little tired of running back and forth, but she did need to combine this new map with the other half regardless. That being said, she was concerned about all of the hints that this island, this massive library, was more than just a house for knowledge. Hiding a map the way the creators of this place did didn’t feel right. It certainly felt like there was some reason everything was done this way, to her. She didn’t voice her concerns, as right now it was merely speculation on her part, and followed her friends back to the dome. By the time she caught up with them, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash were already pointing at the symbols they’d found on the walls and Rarity was now standing at the pedestal while Fluttershy, Applejack, and Heart Shield were looking at the markings on the walls and back to the map that was still in the room. The first half of the map had some similar symbols on it that none of them had made too much note of at first because they’d assumed those symbols were other partial landmasses, now they all knew better, but they weren’t sure why all of these symbols existed. At least, not until Rarity used her magic to start turning the inner dome’s rings with the orb. After a few rotations, the markings on the ring closest to the stationary wall lined up exactly with the symbols on the wall, though the patterns were cut off above that ring.
“What?” Rarity said when everyone looked to her in confusion. “Attention to small details is a necessary part of my job at the boutique. I saw that some of the patterns seemed to line up with the shapes on the walls when we were moving everything before and with everything going on now, I just assumed that this was another puzzle.”
By this point, no one was surprised with all the strange things going on, and with a nod from Twilight to proceed, Rarity continued to manipulate the orb. The seven friends watched as, piece by piece, the rings of the inner and outer domes spun into place, slowly making new shapes and patterns appear as the markings lined up with each other. With a final, echoing CLUNK, the final sections of the domes fell into place. Everyone held their breath, waiting for some grand spectacle to occur as the seconds began to crawl past. Just as they were about to give up, the light of the sun reached the new location of the outer dome’s observational hole and, much like when the reversed map appeared, shone through the patterns of the inner dome, causing brand new markings to light up over the ground where the first half of the map had been before. Wordlessly, Heart Shield offered Twilight to climb on his back for a higher look at the patterns, which she took up immediately, though neither were fully prepared for the shock that awaited them. From the top of the inner dome they could see numbers and what appeared to be words in a different language written in light along the area of where they’d left the first half of the map laying spread out on the floor, and extending past it to the right.
“Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, I need you to take this and put it flat beside the map that’s already down there,” Twilight called out, lowering the rolled up second half of the map to her friends with her magic.
The mares did as they were told, and once both halves were connected, her suspicions were confirmed. The lights wrote out the unknown language and numbers over the entire completed map and only the map. Recognizing that they only had a limited time to work with until the sun moved too far for the lights to continue to appear on the ground, she pulled out a spare pile of paper from the pack on her back and her quill and hurriedly copied down what and where the new pieces of this puzzle were written. When she’d had everything jotted down, she let Heart Shield know that he could land, and shared her findings with her friends once they were back on solid ground.
“What do you think all this means?” asked Rainbow Dash while Twilight spread the papers out in front of her and began to add the writings to the maps. “Some kind of secret code for an ancient treasure hunt? Instructions for a long-forgotten heroic trial that will give us all super cool armor and powers?”
“Maybe it’s a recipe that we need to follow to make the bestest, greatest, most fantabulastical cake ever baked that tastes soooooo good it’ll make everypony who takes a bite agree to world peace forever ever!” Pinkie suggested.
“Why would a cake recipe be hidden on a puzzle with so many insane steps?”
“Because some big ol’ meanies got greedy and didn’t want to share it with the world, duh!”
“Regardless of what it is or ain’t, ah don’t think it’ll make much difference if we can’t read it,” Applejack said warily and indicated the map as Twilight finished up. “Other than those numbers, ah can’t make heads or tails of what any of that says, an’ even the numbers don’t make any sense.”
It was true, the only clear additions to the map halves were the numbers, which still looked like random nonsense to most of the friends even when compared to the weird symbols that they were just assuming were part of another, possibly even forgotten, language. Maybe they were just so desperate for any clue or solution that they were just making jumps with imaginary evidence. Heart Shield felt the frustration building again at what was starting to look like another waste of time when the scratching and sound of faint whispers in the back of his head started up again. He looked at the map again and the sensations slowly grew stronger before turning to Twilight.
“Twilight, if we were to operate under the assumption that these all mean something,” he said slowly, uncertain if he would even like where this was about to lead, “do you think that it’s possible for you to figure out what’s said here if you’re given enough time and resources?”
Twilight was silent for a bit, a little surprised by the olive branch of trust the pegasus was extending to her, but also recognizing some patterns with the numbers and where they and the symbols were each located on the map. She’d need to confirm her suspicions with the maps they already had, but given the easily identifiable landmasses of Equestria and Dragon Isle, the numbers paired with them appeared to be coordinates. In fact, she was absolutely certain about the ones marking Equestria were correct given just how often she’d seen the same numbers in her studies back home.
“If I’m given the resources, assuming we’re able to find them here, if you give me a day or two I might be able to get this translated,” she replied, hesitant about his reaction to this news given how he’s been acting as of late. She wasn’t able to bring herself to look him in the eye, and instead wrote out Equestria, Dragon Isle and Astros Arcadia on the respective islands, followed by the markings she hoped were words to get started trying to identify common letters.
Heart Shield was reluctant to take this offer, already knowing that they’d used nearly half of the time they needed to save Chrysalis just by traveling to this island, but he also knew that without this possible clue, they’d be right back where they started. Logic said that if the map needed to be split in half and hidden like this, then there was some reason for whoever used to inhabit this island, and while it would be a huge coincidence for that reason to be the hiding of the changeling homeland, it was still a chance they all had to take because at this point they had no other choice.
“Alright,” he eventually agreed. “Take as long as you need. Time might be of the essence, but we’ve already seen where rushing ahead gets us, so don’t try to push yourself. The rest of us will continue to look to see if there’s anything else we can find here, and if you need anything just let us know. I’ll update Lady Luna on our progress tonight too.”
Heart Shield didn’t wait for a response, needing to get out of this place and keep himself busy as best as he could. As such, he didn’t see Twilight look up from her work with an understanding expression on her face.
“Thank you, Heart Shield,” she murmured before turning her attention back to the project before her. If he was willing to put his trust in her on this, especially after everything that had been going wrong between them, then she refused to let that trust be misplaced a second time.
As she worked, the image of Chrysalis from that night on Hypnos came back to her. The look of relief and disbelief in her eyes when she saw Heart Shield, the tenderness they held for the young stallion, part of her still wanted to believe it was some elaborate act on the queen’s part, but even she had to admit the beaten and battered look of her body that Heart Shield likely hadn’t taken note of was too real for a mere act. Then there was the day he’d brought her face-to-face with her in the Everfree Forest, and how Chrysalis barely made an attempt to fight back as she fired a barrage of magic at the changeling, how she’d poured the last of her supposed stores of magic into healing Heart Shield when he got injured protecting her. Whether or not Heart Shield had certain feelings for the dark mare, there was absolutely no doubt that Chrysalis had her own regarding him. What those might be, Twilight could only guess, but it was clear the queen of the changelings held him in high regard. And that made Twilight feel even worse about how she’d reacted that day.
Chrysalis, I’ll make sure I do everything I can to reunite the two of you, Twilight thought to herself, marking down symbols she recognized on the map from the three islands she’d already labeled. And when I do, I’m going to apologize for everything that I put you both through.


*	*	*


It wasn’t until the sun was starting to set the next day that Twilight summoned her friends back to the dome. During that time, they’d scoured most of the remainder of the island, only unable to get into a few buildings no matter what they tried, and Twilight had redrawn the two halves of the map onto a larger, single roll of parchment. She had their old maps with her to help with her work, and the group could see several islands and continents that were not on their previous maps, even the one they got from the dragons. Each island had coordinates on them, though some remained either without a translation or even markings from the language of Astros. Twilight explained that while she was able to figure out most of the words, there were just some parts of the text that didn’t appear to have a one-to-one translation into Equestrian, theorizing that some were combination letters based on phonetic sounds of the time, and without knowing the specific shorthand used back then, it was impossible for her to fully translate the map unless she wanted to take up the entirety of their time limit to find Breyta Mitos.
“And that’s not a risk I want to take at this time. I’ll have Canterlot’s philologists and linguists help me create a perfect translation when everything is all done, but for now, this is what we have to work from,” she said.
“Don’t try and downplay your efforts, you still managed to figure out a likely dead language in a little over a day,” praised Rarity. “That’s quite the feat!”
“Rarity’s right, that’s a mighty fine accomplishment ya did!” Applejack agreed, making Twilight blush from the praise.
As they talked, Heart Shield walked over to the finished map to study it. As he approached, he felt the scratching and whispers start up in his head again, a sensation that grew stronger as he examined the map until his eyes fell on one island in particular. It was one with a partial translation with just a few letters in Equestrian under the Astros text, not enough to guess a name at all, but what caught his attention was that it was in the same location as an island from the map Æundrïl had provided for them, but the two islands looked almost completely different. With the map from Dragon Isle, the island in question was a singular relatively large island, about a third the size of their home continent. However, with the Astros map, the island looked almost broken up, with several smaller chunks around the main landmass like pieces of it were missing for some reason, though he could tell that it wasn’t a matter of an incomplete drawing from how the maps were hidden. No, this looked like a large chunk of the island had been destroyed or forcibly torn away. The sensations in his head, particularly the whispers, got stronger the more he looked at the two versions of the island, though he still couldn’t make out any words from the whispers. Feeling almost drawn to the location, his body moved without any conscious input. Before anyone, even him, realized what was going on, Heart Shield dipped the tip of one of his wings into the nearby inkwell Twilight hadn’t yet put away, and drew a large circle around the island.
“This one,” he said, faintly at first, almost trancelike before he shook his head and repeated more firmly. “This is the one. This is Breyta Mitos.”
As if to agree with him, the noises in his head suddenly lessened in intensity, allowing him to realize how hard his heart was pounding and how light-headed he was feeling.
“Um, not to say you’re wrong, dude,” Rainbow Dash said cautiously, “but what makes you so sure that’s the right one? There’s like twenty random islands like it.”
Heart Shield snapped his wings to his sides, suddenly self-conscious about his statement, but as he brought his right arm up to rub his head, his eyes caught the wristband he’d gotten so long ago. Apart from his life since meeting Chrysalis, he’d rarely ever stuck up for himself or stood his ground when someone opposed his opinions. The gift from Lady Celestia now reminded him of who he had been before that day in the forest. He no longer wanted to be that unconfident foal, needing to rely on the lie of a magic wristband to step out of his shell even after learning of the lie. If he wanted to be able to protect Chrysalis, his friends and his home, he needed to stick to his guns.
“Uh, hello? You in there, Large-Wing?” Rainbow Dash said, waving a wing in front of her friend as he stared at his wrist.
“Sorry, just trying to find a way to put things into words,” he replied and turned to look at his friends as he put his hoof back down. He took a deep breath to push the nagging scratches and whispers in his mind down. “To answer you, I don’t have any solid evidence to back up my claim. I know how crazy this is going to sound, but I feel like there’s something important about this location, like something is calling me to it.”
He raised a hoof to silence his friends as Rainbow, Rarity and Fluttershy opened their mouths to protest.
“Please, I know it sounds crazy, but I need you to trust me on this,” he said when they closed their mouths. “I know that this is where Chrysalis is, even if I can’t tell you how I know, I just know it.”
Before anyone could argue, Twilight came to his aid.
“He might not be wrong. Maybe he is being called to that island in particular,” she said, backing up her friend. “What’s happening could be like how Princess Luna was able to find us with the spell I cast in a panic on Hypnos, and how we all ended up connecting to Chrysalis. Perhaps the locator spell is still partially active or has some lingering effect and is acting as a sort of guide for Heart Shield now that we have more to go on? Magic cast in a highly emotional state is still something even Princess Celestia doesn’t have all the answers to when it comes to how the magic reacts after being cast.”
Heart Shield gave her a grateful look before turning to the rest of his friends.
“I know it’s not much more to go off of than we had before now, but it’s still a possibility,” he said, keeping his voice calm and confident as he spoke. “That being said, it’s still just as possible that some other island is Breyta Mitos. We’re all in this together, so I’d like to get your opinions before a decision is made.”
There was silence in the dome for a few seconds as the other mares took the time to think this over. Then, Applejack stepped forward and placed her hat on her friend’s head.
“If y’all are sure this is the right course,” she said with a smile, “then ah’m on yer side. Ah say let’s go.”
Pinkie poked her head out from under the hat with a grin.
“A mystery island? Sign me up!” she said excitedly.
“Well, that’s a majority,” Rainbow said with an exaggerated sigh. “Even if we didn’t agree, we’d already be outvoted. Aw, who am I kidding? I’m on board too. It’ll be just like in Daring Do and the World Within where Daring Do finds a link between the Whispering Heads statues and the ghost ship of-.”
“Rainbow Dash’s adventure fantasies aside,” Rarity interrupted, “I am aware that we’re running out of time, so I’ll agree with the decision as well, as much as I might wish we had more to go off of than mysterious gut feelings. That being said, my shop wouldn’t be as big of a hit in Ponyville if I didn’t trust my own gut from time to time, so I’m not one to talk.”
“Of course I’m in too,” Fluttershy spoke up. “I just hope we can make it in time. How long do you think it would take to get there, Twilight?”
“If the coordinates are correct and we don’t have to deal with any obstacles, it should be just under five days away. Four if we try to push the Fate’s Winds to its limits,” the unicorn replied, studying the map and doing some mental calculations.
“Five days?” Rarity cried in concern. “That’s cutting it a little close, isn’t it? We’d only have two days to explore the island, find Chrysalis if it even is the correct one, and stop an entire army! We-.”
“We should gather some final supplies, make sure everything on the Fate’s Winds is in working order, get some rest, and set sail in the morning after dawn breaks,” Heart Shield cut in to the surprise of the mares. “We only have one shot at this, no matter what, so we need to make sure that we’re at our best. That means no rushing into the ocean unprepared, no forcing the ship to its limits unless an emergency takes place and not trying anything when we all need a break from the constant surprises and stress we’ve had this past week. Even if it means we only have a few hours to finish all of this.”
His reasoning was sound and well thought out, which was what startled the others almost as much as the decision being made by Heart Shield of all ponies. Without any room to argue, the friends agreed to the plan and broke off to collect supplies from the island. Before he could make it out the doors, Twilight Sparkle pulled Heart Shield aside with her magic.
“Heart Shield,” she said. “I want to remind you that while everypony agrees, this is still just a long shot. You need to be willing to change plans along the way at any point if it turns out that we’re wrong about the island.”
“I understand,” the pegasus replied solemnly, “and I agree. But, this is still more of a chance than we had yesterday and I’m willing to take it no matter how small of a chance it might be.”
Twilight studied him for a moment as she took in his response. She supposed it was the best answer she was going to get from him for now. With a sigh, she released her magic to let him go, but to her surprise he didn’t move.
“More importantly, though, I have something that needs to be said to you.”
Twilight blinked, but indicated for him to continue with a nod. Heart Shield took a deep breath to steady himself and put his words together.
“I’ve been a massive jerk to you lately, and I’ve been holding a lot back that I should have said a lot sooner than this. I’ve been so angry and felt like I was trying to carry the weight of the world on my own for so long, like I had a responsibility to do everything myself to prove… something to everypony. And it all ties back to how I’ve been allowing the decisions made when I brought you to Chrysalis that night to affect my judgment all this time.”
He sat down as he began to explain everything to the startled mare.
“It felt like you didn’t trust me enough that day to even see if I was in my right mind or that it was worth taking the chance that I might have been right. And I felt like I couldn’t trust you after it all. I felt betrayed and hurt, and that made me way more hot-headed and stubborn. I allowed those feelings to cloud my judgment with everything, and even refused to accept that you acted the way you did because you were trying to be safe, that you were trying to make sure I was safe. I made myself believe that everything was your fault, that it was because of your actions that the changelings were attacking everyone, that we even needed to leave Equestria despite it being my belief and my suggestion to try to find where Chrysalis was. We’ve been in danger multiple times since we left home all because of my choices, but I couldn’t stop from trying to blame you for it instead.
“And that stress kept piling up, and it all ended up coming to a head back on Outset. Gale Bolt’s insistence that I belonged with the pegasi there, Angel Wing’s appearance, the attack from the changelings, the guilt of getting the kidnapped pegasi involved with all of this, feeling like it was my fault that they showed up on the island… I just snapped, and put us all in even more danger than before. Twilight, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for all of that and for how I’ve been acting since that day in the forest. I’m sorry for allowing everything to get out of hoof. And I promise you that from now on, I’ll listen to your input on things, yours and everypony else’s.”
Twilight needed a few moments to take all of this information in, let alone just process that he was apologizing at all. When she’d finally gathered her thoughts, she looked up to him with an apologetic smile.
“Thank you for saying all of that, and for the apology. I’ve held a lot in since that day too, and even when I’ve tried to say it, I know I haven’t been able to express my intentions in a way that could get across to you,” she said gently. “The way I reacted that day had to have been so alien to you, especially since you weren’t aware of the history behind my decisions. When I saw her that day… Heart Shield, I still have nightmares of the wedding. If she hadn’t been so assured of her victory that she decided to turn away to sing and allow Cadance and Shining Armor to combine their powers… I don’t think there’s a way for me to ever get you to fully understand just how awful that experience was without being able to have you experience it for yourself.”
Heart Shield nodded silently for her to continue when she stopped to see his reaction. Twilight felt like a weight was finally being lifted off her chest as he allowed her to explain everything in her pile of word vomit.
“We were helpless to stop her. She was one step ahead the entire time. She even defeated Princess Celestia in a one-on-one magic duel. Princess Celestia, somepony with magic so much stronger than anything I have. We didn’t even have the chance to use the Elements of Harmony thanks to the changelings getting to them first. Ever since the wedding, to me, Queen Chrysalis is – was,” she corrected herself, “one of the most evil mares to ever exist, if not the embodiment of all the evil and darkness in the world. So when you brought me to the forest to heal somepony and it turned out to be her, everything from the wedding just flooded my head. I just attacked without thinking, all I could see in my tunnel vision was the mare that had hurt so many ponies and threatened so many more. I barely even registered that she wasn’t fighting back.
“And then you jumped in the way and got hurt, and she… healed you. All that magic at her hooves, and she was fully healed thanks to your insistence, and she decided to use it all to help you rather than incapacitate us both. She was so different from the Chrysalis I met before. But I was so sure it was some trick of hers. Even her explanation for coming to Equestria, the history she shared about the changelings, their fate if nothing happens to change it… It had to be a trick. I just wanted her gone from my life forever. I meant to send her to Canterlot just like you, but all I could think of when I cast the spell was ‘I want her to be banished to wherever she came from. I want her gone,’ which is probably why the spell ended up actually forcing her back to Breyta Mitos if that’s where it sent her. But then as soon as she vanished, I realized what would happen if she was telling the truth.”
Twilight explained how she carried that guilt of dooming the changelings to extinction, and the guilt of not trusting him all the way up to the attack on Ponyville. When the attack happened, she then felt the same guilt he did, blaming herself just like he blamed himself even if he tried to deflect that blame onto her. Finally airing everything out to each other felt so uplifting for the two ponies. While their feelings had been obvious, it was different to actually put it all out in the open, to put it to words.
“I’m sorry for not believing in your judgment with Chrysalis after you’d spent more time with her than I had,” Twilight told Heart Shield. “I’m sorry for not trusting your observations of her, and for letting my emotions as well as my experiences with her stop me from being rational at the time. I hope that I can rebuild the trust you had in me back then, and that starts with helping to find her.”
Heart Shield extended a hoof to her, which she took. The two shook hooves, accepting each other’s apologies as they finally reconciled with one another. Neither held the sole blame for the situation they found themselves in, and several things were out of their control, which the two ponies finally began to accept. They knew that even after this, things wouldn’t just magically go back to how they once were, but this was still the first of many steps they would take together to fill the chasm that had ripped through their friendship. The two got to their hooves and stepped out of the dome together to assist the rest of their friends with the final preparations.
As the sun crested over the horizon the next morning, Applejack and Pinkie Pie helped Twilight to bring the last of the books aboard that she’d wanted to study during the final stretch of their journey. Rarity did a final diagnostic check of the Fate’s Winds systems, while the pegasi trio each tugged the ship away from the Astros docks. Once everything was greenlit and everyone had confirmed that they had everything they were able to bring aboard, the friends gathered in the wheelhouse. Twilight made sure to point out that the direction of the island they planned to reach was the same direction where multiple changeling signals had converged according to the tracking magic Nero and Tool had installed in their compass. There were still multiple signals faintly pointing in different directions, but the fact that multiple strong signals pointed towards the island Heart Shield had chosen lifted the group’s mood. It might just be a chance, but now there was more evidence to back it up. And so, feeling as if the winds of fate themselves were guiding them, the seven raised their sails and allowed the wind to carry them away from Astros Arcadia and across the deep azure ocean towards their final destination with greater hopes than they’d had when they first left Equestria.


*	*	*


In a darkened chamber, lit by bright blue flames trapped in crystals that lined the carved out obsidian walls, a figure studied a single deep green crystal on a pedestal before them intently, seemingly undisturbed by the massive hive-like system of the halls outside the open chamber. On the many facets of the crystal were multiple points of view of a large ship as it pulled away from an island lined with multiple towers, and though the source of each image was far from the source of study and hidden in the air by dark, looming storm clouds, the pictures came through so clearly, the figure studying the crystal felt as though they could almost reach through the crystal to push the ship away or even under the water.
“Stenaria,” came the calm, echoed male voice of the figure, “continue to hold your position until the ship has dipped beyond the horizon. Once it is significantly out of range, raze the island and return to the hive with your squadron for the final preparations.”
“Sir, are you sure about allowing the interlopers to continue?” came Stenaria’s faint voice through the crystal. “We can easily dispatch of them right now. Surely stopping them from reaching the hive is a higher priority than this meager abandoned collection of books.”
“I am allowing you to question direct orders once,” the unknown stallion replied, his voice so cold that frost even began to crawl up the crystal as the lights in the chamber dimmed as if afraid of the cold and deliberate tone. “I am aware that they would be easy to be rid of, they have always been. I allow them to cling to their pathetic hopes and to reach the entrance of the hive because they are of little importance besides being entertainment for our queen. So once again, you are to continue to hold your position until the ship is gone before you burn that miserable library until nothing but ashes remain, then return to the hive without alerting any to your presence.”
The view of the ship bobbed up and down as Stenaria nodded from her position. He was glad she understood her position, it would be a shame to need to replace another lieutenant this close to the day the swarm was finally unleashed, especially as it would have been hard to find one as compliant as Stenaria, but she knew what awaited her if she even thought about questioning her orders again. The stallion waved a dark hoof, his leg full of various holes as if someone had expertly carved perfect holes and grooves into his flesh, and every facet of the crystal went dark. He turned from the crystal and walked over to a bright green cocoon that almost appeared to be growing out of the wall, placing the same hoof to the hardened yet pliable surface of it. The cocoon lit up from the inside and he watched as the sleeping form of the changeling queen herself came into view, suspended in translucent emerald liquid.
“It certainly took some effort behind the scenes, but it would seem like your rescue party is finally on their way. You should finish your rest soon, my queen. It would be rude not to be ready for our special guests after they’ve spent so long trying to make it to our homeland, don’t you agree?” he said to her as the cocoon pulsed like a heartbeat, the light inside beginning to dim.
A deep, dark green glow from the mangled horn on his head began to shine, hiding his features from the surface of the cocoon save for his dual colored, cold emerald eyes. His eyes blazed as he could feel from his connection to Stenaria’s squadron that they had finally begun their assault on the accursed island of Astros Arcadia. The stallion’s lips curled into a malicious grin, revealing several sharp, white teeth. Unable to contain himself, the stallion threw his head back and laughed. Cold, cruel laughter echoed through the chamber.
“Soon, everything on this filthy world will be just like that old memory,” he laughed raucously. “Nothing but dust in the wind just as they deserve, isn’t that right my lovely Chrysa?”
Unseen by the laughing stallion, Chrysalis’s eyes shot open, a wild look in her emerald eyes as her mouth opened in a soundless scream.