Everything happened now as it did before. Four thousand years ago, in that very room, it all began. Ponies were but a fledgling species; too busy fighting amongst themselves to notice other forces at work in the world. Alicorns were disregarded as myths, and unity between the tribes would not be achieved for little over another two thousand years.
But it was here that the foundations for all to come were laid.
The Changeling Queen had approached a small podium at the far end of the room, a single book sitting atop it. Just looking at that book continued to give Twilight an uneasy feeling, the dark aura scratching and clawing at her very being from its sheer presence. The fact that it only existed in memory did little to prevent that, and Twilight gave a shudder at the thought of what it would be like if it were actually there in reality.
The Changeling Queen opened the book, her eyes glowing with dark magical energies as she laid a single hoof upon her belly.
This was where the memory had ceased on Twilight’s first entry, blurring into an incomprehensible mess before cutting out altogether. This time there was no such interference, and the memory continued onwards as if it was truly happening before Twilight’s eyes.
“Now then, let’s see what you have for me,” the Changeling Queen said to herself, almost mirroring Twilight’s own thoughts regarding the memory itself.
Using her magic, the Queen flipped through the pages while skipping over a whole manner of dark spells that the likes of King Sombra would have drooled over. This Changeling Queen had one very specific spell in mind, and Twilight heavily doubted this was her first time reading the black tome. She stopped about halfway through the book, letting it rest silently as her eyes read over the words etched onto the page in old ponish.
“A spell for dominating the will of others…” Twilight muttered to herself, looking over the other Changeling Queen’s shoulder with scholarly eyes. “Used for creating items capable of mind control, or for directly controlling the minds of a select few victims…”
Twilight Sparkle circled the Changeling Queen, looking on in confusion as many questions racked her brain. And, despite the fact that the shadow could not hear her, she felt the need to ask them anyway.
“Why would you even require such a spell?” Twilight asked the unresponsive changeling curiously, now standing the opposite side of the podium. “Changelings already have mind magic, why bother searching alternatives?”
Then the Changeling Queen looked straight up at Twilight.
Twilight couldn’t help but jump, swearing that her heart stopped a moment as she thought the Changeling Queen actually recognised her presence in the memory. But alas, when Twilight moved to one side the Changeling Queen’s gaze did not follow. Instead, she just seemed to look into thin air in contemplation.
“Foolish ponies, such primitives only ever think in small terms,” the changeling muttered to herself, and she seemed to be mentally picturing something before her. “Items to dominate another? Too unreliable and prone to failure. Dominating a few at a time directly? Been there, done that.”
The Changeling Queen laughed to herself. The laugh was not a cheerful one, and to Twilight’s ears it seemed more… unhinged. The Queen then extracted a loose page from within the book, and upon closer inspection it was obviously never actually a part of the tome. Rather, the page seemed to have extensive notes upon it that were of the Changeling Queen’s own design. She took a step back from the podium and turned her magic to the floor surrounding her. Dark magical energies bubbled like a cancer up her horn before being unleashed onto the ground. She began to carve various runes around herself, steadily forming a circle, and every now and then she turned back to reference her personal notes.
“But your gift can make us so much more…” she continued to ramble, unaware that anyone was actually listening. “But not me. No. You won’t adapt for the already living, we’re stuck in our limited forms and minds…”
With a few more flicks of her horn the last couple of runes were etched into the ground, green and pulsating like an infected wound upon the very planet itself. Checking over it one last time, and then giving a huff of approval, the Changeling Queen then stepped away from the circle and back to her book.
“The hive mind truly is a wonderful thing, but far too limited in its use. We must change, we must evolve. And if you won’t give me that ability, I will create something that it will be a part of. Something… new.”
Content with what she had to do, and with Twilight watching in a mix of shock and horror, the Changeling Queen stepped into the centre of the circle and let the dark magic course through her once again.
“Such fine control over a hive mind far beyond any other… Imagine its beauty…” the insane changeling whispered wistfully. “And this is my gift to you… my child.”
Dark magic erupted from her horn, the black and green aura spreading over the runes and activating them all one by one. And then, with a sound similar to flesh being torn to shreds, several dark tendrils formed up from the circle and struck directly into the Changeling Queen’s womb. She screamed in pain, her legs almost giving out right then and there as she held back tears. But she forced herself to remain standing, to keep her resolve in the face of such torture.
Twilight felt sick just watching it, and up in the real world she couldn’t help but gag in reflex.
And then, mercifully, it was done.
The tendrils retracted, the circle around the Changeling Queen disintegrating until there was no sign that it ever existed. She dropped to the floor, gasping painfully for breaths as she attempted to regain her faculties. Twilight didn’t need to experience it to know that it was probably the most painful experience of her life, and she did not envy the changeling in the slightest.
But the Changeling Queen had subjected herself to such tortures willingly.
The Queen rolled onto her side, her breaths steadying. She once again placed a hoof on her belly, a strained smile on her face.
“It is done.”
The corridor of the hive stretched onwards a fair distance, and Twilight remembered walking down that very hallway herself back in modern times. This time, however, there was an influx of activity as various drones bolted in both directions maniacally. Something was definitely going on.
Twilight examined it all with interest. After witnessing the end of the first memory she had felt like she had been losing consciousness. And then, but a moment later, she found herself in the middle of the corridor without much explanation. Whatever this new memory was, Twilight would have to explore to find out.
She chose a direction, and then with haste she began to canter down it. Her eyes were peeled for any sign of the Changeling Queen from the previous memory. Alas, however, there was none immediately available. Instead she decided to follow a small group of drones heading towards what appeared to be common area, and once they had passed into the room out of the hustle and bustle of the hive they began to speak in nervous tones.
“So this is it?” one of the drones enquired. “It’s starting?”
“You’ve heard the screams,” one of the others confirmed. “She’s been subconsciously transmitting them all over the hive mind all morning.”
“Yeah, we heard,” the third deadpanned. “You’d think the Princess would have been delivered by now.”
“Childbirth is no laughing matter,” the second scolded. “She’ll arrive in good time, and then we’ll know about it.”
“As long as the screams stop,” the first muttered, holding his throbbing head. “It sounds painful.”
“As I said, no laughing matter. Much of the hive is gathering down the corridors leading from her chambers; but the question is, are we ourselves going to attend?”
“We wouldn’t even get close enough to see the Princess,” the first pointed out.
The third drone shook his head. “We should still go. Queen Calyx is our ruler, and she IS birthing her heir and our future. We should pay our respects.
The first drone gave a sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. Come on, let’s not waste any time.”
Twilight watched with interest as the drones scampered out of the storeroom, following on behind them once more. If she was to find this Queen Calyx she would have to follow these drones. She may be immensely familiar with the hive four thousand years later, but as it was now she didn’t have a clue where the Queen’s personal chambers were.
After passing through several familiar winding corridors and passing by the nervous populace, they were met with a rather large crowd gathered down one hallway like a group of ravenous shoppers when the Canterlot mall was doing a deal on all prices.
But rather than pushing and shoving to get to the front, the changelings simply gathered and stood expectantly with all eyes turned towards a set of doors at the far end. Many of the changelings were clinging to the walls and ceiling, but there was a space around the doorway where the guards were not letting anything past them.
Luckily for Twilight none of what she was seeing was real. And what was but a memory could not ever hope to perceive her, so she took to the air and flew over the heads of the crowd towards the doorway.
As she came to land, Twilight looked towards the doorway curiously. Would she actually be able to open it, or would it be but a solid mass blocking her entry to what laid beyond? Of course there was only one way to find out the answer, so Twilight simply approached the door and made to open it up with a hoof.
Only for that hoof to pass through it like it didn’t even exist. Whatever was in there, the memory wanted her to see it.
Twilight stepped through the ethereal door, and she was met immediately with the sound of pained screaming. Twilight stopped at the sigh of Queen Calyx sprawled out on her bed, several of her drones gathered around her and tending to her as she struggled to give birth.
“You’re almost there, your highness!” the lead midwife promised the Queen. “One final push, my Queen. And then your daughter will be here!”
Twilight didn’t know what to expect. A dark magic implosion? The drones to immediately be assimilated by who she knew to be coming and lose their free will? But no, it was none of those things.
With one final scream, a small nymph was pulled from Calyx as a baby’s wails filled the room. The nymph’s teal mane was short and messy, her eyes closed tightly as tears steamed down her face alongside her first breaths of life.
Immortalis was just a baby. Completely normal in every respect… at least on the surface.
“Immortalis…” Calyx cooed as she took the future Empress of the Changeling into her comforting embrace. The wailing stopped, and Calyx nuzzled her child gently and affectionately. “Oh, there you are. My dear… you will be the strongest of us all.”
Twilight just stood there, staring at the scene with a blank expression. She had just witnessed the birth of one who would cause many so much pain, including Twilight herself. And yet, in what she saw, Immortalis looked so innocent as she enjoyed her mother’s affection. But she supposed King Sombra had also once. And Tirek. And she knew all about Crudelis…
And she knew of the sickness Calyx had implanted into her own child.
The shift had been as sudden as the previous time, and equally without warning. The sight of Queen Calyx’s personal chambers melted away, being replaced by a bright sunny day just outside the hive. The treeline around the hive was far less dense than it was in modern day, and could barely even be called a forest. Everything still seemed so new and intact, and that included the young princess scrunching her eyes in concentration.
Calyx was standing behind Immortalis, looking on expectantly as her daughter faced a rather nervous looking drone.
Several silent moments passed, before Immortalis let out an irritated groan and rubbed her head with a hoof. “I can’t do it. I’m not sure what you even want me to do!”
“You have a power inside you that is far beyond any other Changeling Queen,” Calyx stated, disappointment clear in her voice. “You have so much potential. You can use your ability to directly influence the actions of our drones instead of merely communicating with them. In time you could even go on to assimilate other hive minds in this way, and become an immortal goddess in the process, living in both the waking world and in the hive mind simultaneously!”
“Sounds dumb,” the Princess rebuffed, kicking a rock at her hooves. “And no fun. Why would I want to make other changelings all… not themselves?”
“Because you could make the changeling race strong!” Calyx insisted, making her child look her in the eyes. “I cannot do this, but I ensured this gift would be yours and yours alone. Your will and your will alone will dictate and unify our race, and nothing would oppose us because of it! It is but the natural order of things for the changelings to dominate all others, and for the strongest changeling to dominate them in turn!”
Princess Immortalis tilted her head. “Stronger than you?”
“Especially stronger than me!” Calyx demanded. “Your gift is something I could never achieve, do you understand this!? A single voice with a thousand bodies, that is what you must become. No squabbling from the other Changeling Queens. Our drones will have no feelings of terror or the need to flee from our enemies. Just pure loyalty that can never be broken. A force of nature sweeping the world, that is what you must be!”
“But why?” Immortalis questioned, making her mother’s nostrils flare in rage. “Why do we need to be the strongest? Can’t we just… be?”
“Just… be!?” Calyx bellowed angrily, making her daughter flinch back. “I grant you the gift of becoming the goddess of this world, and you reject it out of hoof!? Are you an imbecile!? Or a weakling!?”
Immortalis found herself cowering before her mother, eyes widened in terror.
Calyx snorted. “You can’t even face me now with a brave face. Do you want to know the true meaning of the world’s natural order? The strong survive, the weak die. It has always been this way, and if the changelings do not unify in such a way then we will be the weak ones! No, WE must become the embodiment of this natural order! YOU must become that embodiment! And if you cannot… then I must try again.”
Twilight looked on in horror, and she saw the pieces of the puzzle all slide into place. The dark magic ritual had not been the true beginning of the Empress. Rather, what she was seeing now was the true start to that story. The Empress’ self-proclaimed natural order wasn’t her own, but Calyx’s. A Changeling Queen who had forged a great weapon, and then set it loose upon the world.
“W-what!?” Immortalis stammered, backing away fearfully.
“My child, I love you dearly. But I cannot have you become like those others,” Calyx stated regretfully. “If you truly cannot do this, then I must do what I must no matter how much it pains me. Guards.”
The Queen’s guards all widened their eyes in surprise, glancing at each other. Nevertheless, they approached their Queen.
“Take my daughter back to her room and keep her there. I shall decide what to do with her very soon.”
“Your highness…” one of the guards began to protest.
“NOW!”
The guards jumped back, and then started towards the Princess.
“No… stay back!” Immortalis whimpered, backing away from the approaching guards.
The guards, despite their reservations, did not listen. Before Immortalis could get away they jumped and pinned her to the ground, dragging her forcefully back to her hooves as she wept.
“Stop…” Immortalis whispered desperately, a black and green glow beginning to bubble around her entire form. “I said… STOP!”
A pulse of dark magic shot all around the Princess, sending the two guards and the nearby drone to the ground painfully. Even Calyx staggered back from the blast, and for a moment she felt her child’s thoughts invade her own. She felt her will trying to take route, before simply vanishing back into the aether.
The drones were not so lucky.
As Immortalis shakily got back to her hooves, she saw the three other changelings do the same. The drones all looked towards the Princess, their eyes glowing with a red magical energy encompassing their zombified gazes.
“I… I didn’t mean to…” Immortalis said in shock, feeling the presence of those three strongly within her mind.
Calyx, however, no longer displayed any anger. Instead, she pulled her daughter in with a wing and nuzzled her head affectionately. “No, Immortalis, do not apologise. You have just made me very proud indeed…”
The doors to the throne room began to buckle under the immense pressure they were under. The drones guarding the throne room all stood at the ready, though fear was clearly evident on all of them. Despite all this, however, Queen Calyx only smiled.
Twilight couldn’t help but shudder at that smile.
The doors shuddered again, bending inwards a little. Queen Twilight was still trying to process what she had learned. Calyx. The ritual. And now the hive was apparently under attack. But by who?
Twilight didn’t need to wait long to find out, the doors to the throne room bursting open as countless drones with glowing red eyes charged in with no emotion of any kind. They were fearless, powering into the defending guards without flinching and tearing them all to pieces. It was over in moments, leaving only them and the still regal Changeling Queen.
They flung themselves at her, only for a stream of dark magic to erupt from her horn and pass through them all like a sewing needle. Each one had their chitin burned from them and then what was left liquified into a disgusting black tar.
The throne room fell silent, and all Twilight Sparkle could hear was her own tense breaths as she waited to see what would happen next.
And then the sound of hooves methodically approaching met the ears of both Twilight and Calyx, and both had their eyes trained on the doorway.
“Mother…” Immortalis coldly greeted as she walked in.
Her mane was ethereal, her posture confident and her eyes displaying her cruelty full force. A wicked grin sat on her muzzle, her fangs glinting dangerously. The innocent young princess was gone. This was the Immortalis that Twilight Sparkle was already familiar with.
“Daughter,” Queen Calyx greeted far more cheerfully. “Quite masterful how quickly you converted that other Changeling Queen and those under her. And now you come for me, your second addition.”
“I came to give you what you always wanted,” Immortalis stated. “And I was met with an army. Why?”
“Consider it one final test,” Calyx responded. “You converted your current followers through trickery. I want to see if you are truly the strongest. This is how things must be.”
Immortalis hummed. “I see… Then we shall fight? And I must defeat you before I can move on and claim the other hives for my new empire.”
“It is but the natural order of things.”
“That it is. I shall not disappoint you,” Immortalis promised, and then Twilight balked as the Empress actually smiled. “I love you.”
“And I you, daughter.”
Calyx’s horn glowed brightly with her normal magic as she fired a beam of green energy directly at Immortalis. The younger changeling’s shield met the strike as a portal opened up beneath her hooves at the same time. Another portal opened up next to the throne of which Empress Immortalis shot out, a blade of magic forming that struck out at her mother.
Calyx jumped forwards from her throne and landed in a battle pose. She launched several smaller bolts of magic in quick succession from her horn at Immortalis before levitating the discarded door and propelling that at her for good measure.
Immortalis did not flee, rather she charged directly towards her mother’s attacks. She nimbly dodged between the three bolts before charging directly into the thrown door. A blast of magic erupted from her horn that turned the door into mere dust and splinters as her wings opened and she hovered over Queen Calyx. Her horn charged with immense power as she unleashed a beam of magic down upon her mother, who returned the gesture with a beam of her own. The two streams of magical energy collided in mid-air, each pushing against the other for dominion. Then, Calyx’s magic seemed to collapse as her child’s attacks struck forth and hit her head on.
Calyx gave a shout of pain as she was launched onto the floor, Immortalis diving down and landing on top of her mother. The Queen had nowhere to go, pinned and injured. It was over.
“You were holding back,” Immortalis noted.
“And you were not,” Calyx replied proudly, her eyes meeting her daughter’s. “I’m of the old. Weak. I once said I could have replaced you, but that was a lie. If I were strong I could have, but my love for you would have prevented what needed to be done. Your love for me does not… I am so proud of you for that.”
“Then all is as it should be, mother. Are you ready?”
Calyx smiled. “I am.”
“Then join with us,” Immortalis announced, placing her horn to her mother’s.
Calyx gave a sharp gasp, and then her body began to relax. Her eyes began to glow a strong red hue.
“And what gives you the right, Immortalis?” the Changeling Queen asked, sneering. “What gives you the right to dictate our lives as you do?”
Twilight was still in the throne room where Immortalis had taken her mother’s free will away. But things were… different now. The throne had changed, and now it was the Empress herself sitting upon it. And then there was the other changeling in the room…
Twilight gasped, staring at what appeared to be a mirror image of herself. A Changeling Queen with a teal mane that had a green stripe striking through it. Twilight’s lavender eyes stared into the Queen’s own, before she glanced down beneath their cloak where she saw that they also had a cutie mark.
The Tree of Harmony.
This was Queen Crepuscule. Her ancestor who had defeated Immortalis. This was the day it happened.
“It is the order of things,” the Empress responded. “A simple hierarchy, and it fills me with dread and sorrow you fail to understand it. You have the drones, the queens, and then me. It is a simple matter of biology, my dear.”
“You speak of order, and hierarchies, but how you act and rule is a choice,” the Queen rebutted. “You don’t have to act cruel, you could have reached out to the other races and befriended them, but you didn’t. You could have worked with the rest of your kind, but you didn’t. Instead you take our minds and free will.”
It was then Immortalis noticed the smirk forming on the other changeling’s face.
“You don’t bring order, or harmony. Only chaos and destruction,” Queen Crepuscule spat. “You don’t bring harmony, but these will.”
And there they were, the Elements of Harmony in their base form. Twilight hadn’t seen them like that in a very long time, only once before in a flash to the past given by Zecora. In modern times they were shaped after the marks of their bearers, but aside from the Element of Magic they looked to be simple gems.
And this one Changeling Queen had been chosen by them all.
The Empress examined the six objects in utter confusion. “Gems? Where did you find those?”
“The land between the Frozen North and the Badlands isn’t as empty as many believe,” Crepuscule answered. “It is here that I found the answer to you, and now your darkness shall fill the land no longer!”
Immortalis growled as she lit up her horn with a lethal spell preparing to render the Queen in half.
“With those? You’re kidding right?” she questioned. “I’ve changed my mind, you would serve a better example if your flayed body was hanging above my throne!”
The Elements of Harmony all moved into position, five of the gems forming a circle around Queen Crepuscule facing the Empress, while the star moved itself to a little in front of the circle in the centre. The five gems began to glow and spin with their magical energies all focusing on the star in the centre as the firing sequence initiated.
Empress Immortalis gave a shout of rage as she unleashed her spell toward Queen Crepuscule, only for a rainbow coloured wave of magic to shoot forwards and consume the Empress’ spell like it was nothing. Immortalis could only watch as the wave steamrolled towards her and swallowed her whole, screaming in pain as she felt her body evaporate into the air around the throne room.
Then there was silence.
Twilight gave a sharp intake of air as she was ejected from the memories she’d been viewing. Her reaction was personified in both the waking world and within her own consciousness, where the chains had not miraculously let up during her distraction.
Even if they had, the Empress standing before her probably would have rectified the situation.
Twilight stared up at the Empress, blinking a few times while wondering exactly how long she had been standing there. Probably not long, Twilight could imagine she sense her exit from those memories. Either way, the Empress was smirking rather creepily.
“Good morning,” Immortalis greeted with mock cheerfulness.
“I know what time of day it is,” Twilight sharply responded. “I was standing watch over the swarm all night, remember?”
“Ah, of course. But you did seem to have a lot on your mind as well, so I thought I would check,” Immortalis mocked the Changeling Queen. “I assume you found those memories interesting?”
“You could say that,” Twilight confirmed, glaring at Immortalis. “So… Calyx. Your mother turned you into her. She turned you into a monster.”
Immortalis rolled her eyes. “Such a dramatic term. If you had paid enough attention you would understand exactly what natural order facilitates.”
“Natural order?” Twilight sneered. “Your mother’s ideology. She admitted she could never have brought herself to harm you, you could have adopted any ideology you wanted. Became whatever you wanted-”
“I did,” Immortalis shut Twilight’s rant down. “I became what I was always supposed to be. I have no regrets for that.”
“Then forgive me for having little pity for you,” Twilight shot back. “But know that I shall always pity that nymph from four thousand years ago, stuffed with dark magic by an insane mother with a flawed view of the world.”
Immortalis snarled, slamming a hoof into Twilight’s throat and holding it there. Twilight gagged as she gasped for breath, though the discomfort was exclusive to within the hive mind, her real body showing no signs of it.
“It is YOUR view of the world that is flawed, Twilight Sparkle!” Immortalis proclaimed. “You and your ponies, wasting away as you spend your magical power on friendship and parties. You would willingly corrupt changeling kind with that when they have already stagnated enough without one unifying hive mind. I am making us strong again, and bringing order’s return to the world.”
“You’re… deluded…” Twilight croaked out.
“I think not,” Immortalis denied. “As I shall show you today. Now, you and the other Changeling Queens are going to regroup and attack that city. The alicorns and their ponies shall die, and the future will arrive.”
Immortalis released her hold on Twilight’s neck, beginning to step away back into the void.
“Today, Equestria dies.”