Concepts and Creations – Histories: The Rise of Macromida · 10:45pm Aug 17th, 2019
Here we go again, folks: a story lost to the ravages of not-enough-time. This time we’re going into what I was going to call my Histories series, which had been set to detail my vision for the distant past of Equestria and the world of Equus as a whole, particularly for my No Heroes timeline. I had a whole lot of stories for this subject, but one that I was always strongly interested in was The Rise of Macromida.
Before we begin, let it be known that I had a very, very wide range of time set up for potential Equestrian history, to the tune of ~39,000 years (”Go Big or Go Home”, remember?). This particular story was to take place in a period known as The Anarchy, some 21,500 - 24,700 years before the events of the show. The Anarchy was, as its name suggests, a chaotic period of kingdoms and chiefdoms, many of which were in a constant state of war as they all struggled to gain some kind of supremacy over their rivals. Many kingdoms rose and fell during this ~3,000-year period.
In one of the early centuries of The Anarchy, there existed a more peaceful Changeling kingdom, led by a queen named Euryale. Back in The Anarchy, there were no Royal Changelings as we know them, such as Chrysalis or Thorax. Euryale was a Breeder-class changeling, the only variety of changeling capable of producing love rather than devouring it. There also lived an alicorn king by the name of Dragonfly. Their kingdoms were not neighbors and they rarely had much interaction with one another.
But then dragons invaded Dragonfly’s kingdom, effectively destroying it. Dragonfly fled with as many refugees as he could, wandering the nearby nations in hopes of finding someone who would take them in. After being rejected by so many, it was Euryale and her changelings that finally accepted the homeless ponies. They became guests of the changeling kingdom, allowed to live there on equal terms. Dragonfly soon became enamored with the changeling queen and, shortly after taking up residence in her castle, began courting her. In this endeavor he was successful, and the two would go on to be married.
King Dragonfly became so devoted to Euryale and the changelings that he decided he would rather be one himself. Thus, he began researching a process to turn a pony into a changeling. After more than a decade of devoted study, he at last invented the changeling pod that is so common among hives today. A miracle of medicine, it would heal any changeling placed within to full strength at a faster rate than normal, although this came with the caveat of the changeling entering a coma for the duration. Dragonfly was able to modify the pod further so that, should a pony go into the pod, that pony would be permanently transformed into a changeling. After a number of successful trials with voluntary test subjects, Dragonfly entered a pod himself. He emerged a month later as the first Royal Changeling: Macromida.
But something went wrong. All the test subjects were common ponies; earth, unicorn, pegasus. Dragonfly had no alicorns to test the pod on, and so didn’t foresee the potential results. The creature that emerged from the pod was no longer Euryale’s loving husband, but something new. Macromida was obsessed with the ‘superiority’ of the changeling race. He began sending changeling ‘clans’ into the world with the purpose of starting fresh hives, hoping to spread changeling power and influence on the other nations (many of which were the precursors to modern hives), with the more secretive objective of using the new pods to transform as many ponies into changelings as possible, consent be damned.
When Queen Euryale realized what her husband was doing, she of course tried to stop him. But Macromida had retained his alicorn powers and, strengthened by her love for him, was able to capture her while she was still vulnerable and thinking he could be saved. He then turned his experimentation upon her, keeping her for years as a prisoner. Through this he was able to create the first Changeling Queens, who would be able to birth more royals. Macromida was unconcerned for power and the potential of a changeling queen overthrowing him, only wishing to ensure the changelings as a whole had every opportunity to grow and dominate Equus.
Euryale was eventually rescued by loyalists. She fled to one of the clans her husband had sent out years before, who welcomed her as their rightful queen. Macromida himself, convinced of his superior mind and strength, would ultimately be killed in an ill-fated attempt to use his new changeling army to retake his former kingdom from the dragons.
I was never certain of how I would write this story. Would Euryale be the protagonist, or Macromida? Would both get equal time, or just one all the time? Would it be a tragedy centered on Euryale’s struggle to stop her husband, or perhaps a biography of Macromida in the same vein as There Will Be Blood? What about side characters? Clearly someone (pony? changeling?) had to rescue Euryale, and then there had to be some establishing of why a clan formed by Macromida would renounce him in favor of her. Simply put, there are a lot of unknowns outside the basics of the story.
But all that was beside the point. I wanted to create a story about how alicorn changelings were first created, and The Rise of Macromida was to be that story. It, like so many of my Histories ideas, would exist purely to show the origins of various things in the world of Friendship is Magic. At this point I have very little hope of ever writing any of those stories, so here we are.
As an aside, I should clarify that just because Macromida went nutso, that doesn’t mean all royal changelings are evil by default. On the contrary, they are just as varied and unique as ponies are. Macromida was simply the product of science and magic gone terribly wrong.
I think any historical fiction (barring some exceptions) should be written as tragedies, because history itself is tragic. For example: history began on July 4th, 1776; everything before that was a mistake.
EDIT: Yo Paul, was it your birthday 2 days ago?
i really only clicked on this cuz i saw that sick changeling art
BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY A REALLY COOL IDEA
It fits with the standard supervillain trope of 'Genius develops new widget, experiments on self, becomes supervillain' I see. Sounds interesting.
5107652
I see you are a patriot. Respect my dude/dudet!
5107652
This uh... no? I'm not sure if you're serious about the 1776 thing, but if you are... I have some words about that.
5107652
Five days ago, actually.
Personally, anesthetic sleep sounds better than being awake, so not sure how it's a caveat.
It's curious; I like the concept of different types of changeling royals for different capabilities. Honestly could have the plot focus on either, both, or shift to Euryale primarily when Macromida descends into maddness to frame the conflict. Not sure how it'd be as a full story, but I like the plot.
5107813
Happy
thee weeks latebirthday to you!