Author’s note, this chapter is set before the Changeling Council scene in chapter 8 Equestria’s Changeling Queen and the Abyssal Empress. Well… kinda. Basically, Simulacris, Chrysalis and Belladonna are updating Alternia on some of the changeling lore that she hasn’t had to remember in years. I published it in a blog post before, but I expanded it here.
The Metamorphasia and the Unspeakable Times
According to the account of Queen Chamelia the Great, Second Queen of the Everfree Hive, Daughter of the Great Hive Mother Zagara, The Lady of a Thousand Masks.
Simulacris’s notes in margin: Yes, we know this is astonishing Alternia, but we’re the granddaughters of the great hive mother, Zagara. Chrysalis found out after reading mother’s diary and her will, Belladonna and I found out after we ascended and when our mother gave us our Queens Council Crystals. I also found during my first Queens Council that Chamelia had been the only daughter of the Great Hive Mothers left.
It certainly gave me a new perspective on how powerful our mother was. I mean, our mother must have been… ancient… a queen of immense power and age. She was certainly a force to be reckoned with on the council, and as you know, her name is still invoked by some of the older queens, Sarar and Kagura.
As inscribed by the Daughters of Queen Chamelia: Chrysalis, Third Queen of The Everfree Hive, Queen Simulacris, First Queen of the Shade Stalkers, and Queen Belladona of The Shadow Empire for their sister Princess Alternia of Equestria and First Queen of The Phantoms and Princess of the Equestrian Triumvirate.
The origin of the changeling race is shrouded in shadow and mystery. What we do know is that we were created by one being or entity and that the being was female. The Great Creator, we call her. She gave birth (according to some accounts) or created, the first changelings, who were also the first Queens.
They are now known as the Great Hive Mothers.
The eldest was your grandmother, Zagara the Far-Seeing (chrysalis, green mane turquoise eyes). She was my mother and known for not only her wisdom, but also her vision. I was her youngest daughter and her heir.
Belladonna:Mother was being modest. The fact that Chamelia, youngest of all of Zagara’s daughters was named her heir indicates that she was incredibly talented. \
The second eldest was the first Borte (brown mane, yellow eyes), sometimes called the Black Hammer. The most charismatic of her sisters, she also had an unparalleled grasp of tactics and of the art of battle. All would seek her advice in combat and her book on changeling strategy The Path to Victory is still read by the hives today.(2)
Third was Araneae the Silent Dagger (purple eyes, dark purple (almost black) mane). If Borte was a great general, then Araneae was the most potent huntress, the prime assassin, and the best fighter. Such talents though were directed only to the protection of those she loved, for Araneae was intensely loyal to her family and to her sisters.
Fourth was Theraphosia the Dragon-hoofed (amber hair, amber eyes). The strongest of her sisters, she possessed unparalleled physical strength and stamina. Though she herself admitted to be the least intelligent of her sisters, all the legends attest to her gregarious charm and great heart.
Fifth was Latrodexa (dark blue mane, silver eyes), sometimes known as the Sorceress. She had a grasp of magic beyond any seen and known since the age of the Great Hive Mothers. At times, she was said to be somewhat impulsive, and arrogant, but that was only matched by her intellect, allowing her to succeed against many a challenge. Those she could not, were overcome with the help of her sisters, whom she cared for a great deal.
Sixth was Atracina (white mane, pink eyes), once known as the Shadow Walker. The most cunning of the sisters. Nobody could ever know what she was truly thinking. She was also a very skilled potions master.
Finally, there was Matari the Mischievous, the joy of her sisters and allegedly, of her mother, The Great Creator. Whenever the sisters were hungry or sad, they could always count on Matari to bring them love and joy. However, she was always closest to her eldest sister, our grandmother, Queen Zagara.
Not long after though, the Great Creator disappeared, leaving only my mother, my aunts, the mates she had created for them, and the changelings she had wrought for them to rule over. No changeling knows where she went, but though the Great Hive Mothers wept, they did not falter. Together, with their great powers and talents, the Great Hive Mothers built their hives, fighting against the windigoes that roamed the land, spreading discord to all, and depriving changelings of love. They destroyed monsters terrorizing all living creatures, pushing them back toward the Everfree Forest and into the Southern Deserts.
Yet, even in this time of strife, first hives the Great Hive Mothers created flourished, and all changelings know of them. Queen Zagara of “The Evergreen”, Queen Borte of “The Horde”, Queen Araneae of “The Blades”, Queen Theraphosia of “The Doomhorn”, Queen Latrodexa of “The Venomous”, Queen Atracina of “The Deathspinners” and Queen Matari of “The Watchers”.
Chrysalis’s note in margins: Changelings can also tell the prestige of a hive by whether they only use one word for their name. The fewer words used in the name of a hive, the more impressive.
Belladonna’s note in margins: Currently, Queen Sarar, leads “the Blades” which was the Great Hive Mother Araneae’s hive. Queen Shebar leads what used to be the Great Hive Mother Theraphosia’s “The Doomhorn.” Queen Borte the Fourth, leads “The Horde.” Chrysalis leads what used to be our mother, Chamelia’s hive, “The Evergreen.”
I was born in the midst of this golden age of changelingkind. I suppose some might tell you the time I ruled was our golden age, but I disagree. At my birth, all seven of the Great Hive Mothers lived and changelings roamed the land, but always in secret, just as it has always been.
My father was Alaric, a changeling chevalier renowned for his ruthless outlook of the world, his intense fighting spirit, and his short temper. I was not that close to him, but I do think he cared about me greatly in his own manner. Not too soon after I learned to walk, he taught me the trade of warfare and combat, and was not above berating me when I made mistakes and punishing me for impudence. He was not a cruel father though. He always bandaged my wounds after our sessions and was a fair combat instructor, giving advice and never expecting the impossible.
Understandably though, given my father’s blunt manner, I always had a more loving relationship with my mother, who was Zagara, eldest of the Great Hive Mothers. To me though, she was simply Zagara, my mother and I was her youngest and if I may be blunt, her favorite daughter. You see, Alaric was her latest husband and I their only daughter. My mother had had many husbands over the years and I had many half sisters who had already started hives of their own. So I was their only child and at the time, Zagara’s only queen daughter.
How to describe Zagara? She was the wisest of all the Hive Mothers, intelligent and far-seeing. She had a vision for changelingkind that astounds me even today. She saw a future, where changelings would not be simply content to stalk the shadows, but to step into the light, as leaders of this world.
While my father trained me in how to make war, she taught me how to forge peace, to take inspiration from the ideas of others, but in a way that would only augment my own vision, to not manipulate other beings, but to guide them to my side.
In essence though, my mother was the greatest of mothers. Perhaps she trusted me and loved me, greater than my half-sisters, but she loved them too, they loved me and I loved them. Artemesia, Gorgo and Amaya being among them. For whatever reason, my half-sisters never bore me any jealousy for being my mother’s favorite. They did have their own hives to lead I suppose.
And most important of all, she taught me the value of trust and of mercy. Such lessons served me well for the times I had to face were dark.
However, while my aunts, the Great Hive Mothers, tried to remain sisters, it was not so easy to teach their children, my cousins, to respect one another. While the Seven Sisters remained loyal to each other despite the distances that often separated their hives, their children, though loyal to their mothers, were never very friendly with each other. They competed and fought, dragging their mothers into their conflicts, causing friction between the original hives. The incidents between the children of the Great Hive Mothers became so frequent, and so divisive, that the once close bonds the seven Great Hive Mothers had, were strained to the limit, until one day, they broke.
What came after is known by all changelings, and should be for all time as:
The Unspeakable Times
It began, when the queen daughter of Queen Araneae of “The Blades,” defeated and killed one of the queen daughters of Queen Latrodexa of “The Venomous” and razed that hive in the process. Queen Latrodexa demanded Aranaea to give her daughter up, but Araneae refused. She loved her daughter too much. In retaliation, Queen Latrodexa and her daughters besieged Queen Araneae’s hive.
Now, I know why, but to this day, I am not sure how it happened. Queen Latrodexa was my aunt and while always had a bad sense of humor, and could be rather awkward, she was altogether a caring aunt. Queen Araneae was more aloof, a bit cooler, but she taught me how to fight as well, assisting in my father’s lessons.
But while my mother continued to send envoys to try to create a dialogue between her sisters, the war only escalated.
Queen Araneae called in her daughters and asked Queen Borte I to help her fight off Latrodexa’s siege. Queen Borte I arrived with her “Horde” along with Araneae daughters and they engaged Queen Latrodexa and her spawn. Despite their magic prowess, Latrodexa and her daughters were defeated in a three day battle, and they fled to her sister Queen Theraphosia of “The Doomhorn”. Together, they conducted a guerilla war against Queen Araneae and Queen Borte I.
Again, I still cannot understand how this happened. Queen Borte a loud, but very charismatic queen who would not hesitate to cheerfully debate with my mother, sided with Latrodexa, while Araneae called upon Theraphosia, whom I can only describe, as the jolliest changeling queen to ever walk the surface. Yet they still fought one another and ferociously.
The violence of this conflict could not be understated. It helped bring the Windigoes to the land that would become Equestria, and on serveral occassions, nearly revealed the hives to the native ponies.
Horrified at the violence between her sisters, Zagara, your grandmother, attempted to put a halt to the violence. She and her brood, which included our mother, was the largest of the Great Hive Mothers. Zagara had four ascended changeling queen daughters with large hives and myself, then in-ascended, but my half sisters also had unascended daughters of their own. On top of this, the youngest of the Great Hive Mothers, Queen Matari of “The Watchers,” sided with Zagara. Together, they approached Queen Atracina of “The Deathspinners” in order to form a coalition that could put an end to the war and the strife between their sisters.
Being my mother’s only hive-less daughter, I had just been appointed my mother’s Shadow, her lieutenant and heir. I was understandably nervous. Queen Matari though, the happiest of my aunts, only welcomed me and agreed wholeheartedly to an alliance with my mother. She soothed my worries and then sent me and my escort off to my next destination, the hive of Queen Atracina.
My aunt Atracina… I hate her for what she did to my aunts, to my mother, to my family and I wish she would rot in Tartarus for all eternity.
At the time though, I was only too delighted by her smile and her warm welcome. She served me some of the love she had hoarded for the winter months as well as the best food and drink, and after hearing what my mother was proposing, agreed and with her silver tongue, proposed I invite my aunts to her hive to seal our alliance. Like a fool I agreed to tell my mother.
Later in my life, I would get over my grief and realize that this mistake was not mine, as my mother and Queen Matari wholeheartedly concurred with Atracina’s invitation and went to their hive, but to this day, I wonder if I could have done something differently.
For Atracina betrayed us. She invited Matari and Zagara to her hive, toasted to them other that evening and then showed them to their own accommodations within the hive. If only they knew what Atracina had in store for them
Belladonna’s Notes: Simulacris and I both remember that when our mother, then Zagara’s heir, told us what happened next, she… she had a haunted look to her eyes Alternia. It was something she had never shown us and I am glad you never saw.
Atracina’s goal was simple. She wanted more power and saw the war as an opportunity to destroy her sisters, and in doing so, pave the way for her brood to be the leaders of changelingkind. And over them she would rule, the unquestionable God Queen of the Changeling Race.
So Atracina personally murdered her younger sister, Matari, in her sleep and had her daughters attempt to assassinate our grandmother.
But not all of Atracina’s daughters were such traitors to their own kin. Thera, youngest queen-daughter of Atracina, only a little older than a foal at the time, snuck into Zagara’s chambers and warned your grandmother of the assassination. It allowed Zagara to lock herself in her chambers and speak to me through our hive link. She was horrified, filled with terror. She had sensed Matari being murdered… butchered to death and Atracina’s daughters were trying to smash her way into her chambers.
And so I rallied her changelings to the rescue and after fighting through tunnel and dirt, rescued my mother.
I did not initially recognize her though. Not because my mother had lost a leg, and not even because she looked half-dead from the grave wounds sustained in the fight for her life, but because of the look in her eyes… My mother, my loving mother, looked broken. Some say this was because of Matari’s death, and they do have a point, as my mother was closest to Matari. Yet, I think that was only part of it. To this day, I believe that Atracina’s betrayal was what shocked her. She never expected her own sister would turn on her like this.
Once I returned with my mother, bearing the news of Atracina and her spawn’s treachery, my sisters, and my cousins, the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari declared a blood-feud with Atracina’s spawn. As your grandmother lay in recovery, we turned our weapons against our kinslaying cousins and Atracina. And so, a great host of chevaliers and changelings in an assault that darkened the sky.
Atracina, her daughters, and their followers could not stand against such an onslaught, they fled, leaving many of their number slain in their hive. Their rage briefly sated, we, the Daughters of Zagara, and the Daughters of Matari did not pursue. Our losses were not inconsequential and they were all saddened by the Queen Matari’s death.
Queen Atracina and what was left of her traitorous kindred, fled to Latrodexa and Theraphosia’s camp. No changeling quite knows exactly how Atracina managed to forge an alliance with the rest of her sisters, but she did.
Belladonna’s notes: Mother grudgingly told me that it is her personal theory that Atracina spun a tale that painted Zagara and Matari as the aggressors. She also informed me that Atracina was an exceptionally silver-tongued changeling.
From what I know, the Three Great Hive mothers then launched a counter-offensive on Araneae and Borte’s hives. The battle raged for days, but Araneae and Borte were eventually driven from their homes. Sorely wounded and in despair, the two sisters, their few remaining daughters, and their retainers, fled into a land being slowly beset by winter.
After weeks of trudging through snow and wasteland, the two sisters found the winter camp of our army. The massive host assembled by the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari. Welcomed into their midst, Araneae and Borte were stunned at my mother’s tale of Atracina’s treachery and brought to tears by the news of Matari’s death. Declaring vengeance, the pair united under Zagara’s banner, and wintered with her.
Unsurprisingly, that same winter, the villainous Atracina then betrayed her sisters again. During a banquet held to celebrate the Winter Solstice, Atracina served Latrodexa, Theraphosia and their daughters what she said was a wine made from elderberry.
But at the moment the wine touched their lips, Latrodexa, Theraphosia and their kindred found themselves whisked to death’s door. Those that resisted briefly, were only dispatched by the rest of Atracina’s daughters.
Only Theraphosia, thanks to her strength, managed to survive, as did her youngest daughter, who had not been of age to drink the beverage. Together, they managed to escape the assassination with some of their changelings, but Atracina forcibly conscripted the rest of Latrodexa’s changelings as well as Theraphosia’s, partly by lying that Araneae and Borte had murdered their queens.
We didn’t know this at the time. Winter was still on. However, once that ended, I led the vanguard of a great changeling army numbering ten thousand strong, boasting the combined might of my mother Zagara, her daughters, the daughters of Queen Matari, Queen Araneae and her spawn, and the horde of Queen Borte I. We had all recovered from their wounds, gathered all their sisters and brothers from across the world and were ready to take vengeance on the traitor Atracina and whomsoever supported her
That was when our vanguard found a venom-crippled Theraphosia, her youngest daughter, and their few loyal chevaliers.
After listening to their story, I decided to err on the side of mercy and treat them both. It was a good thing I posted a guard on them though, because I then had restrain my aunt, Queen Araneae, who nearly slew the bedridden Theraphosia. It took a lot of begging and pleading for me get Araneae to listen to Theraphosia.
I almost failed, but I had bought enough time for Theraphosia the time to tell her story of woe, of how Atracina had wiped out the line of Latrodexa and most of Theraphosia’s daughters. After that, Theraphosia asked for Araneae’s forgiveness.
Luckily, Aunt Araneae’s heart was moved, and she could not slay her own sister, not after hearing of what she had suffered. Instead, Araneae forgave her sister and asked for forgiveness as well, and so both sisters reconciled, with Theraphosia joining the rest of her siblings.
Though aggrieved by the death of Latrodexa and her line, my mother Zagara and Borte the First were overjoyed to have their sister with them once more, and it was with renewed vigor and ferocity that we marched on Atracina’s camp.
In the devastating campaign that followed, devised by the masterful Queen Borte, my mother and my three aunts battled the forces of Atracina, who had enlisted the wild monsters of the Everfree using hypnosis magic. In tunnel, in the air, on land and over river, ourforces fought each other furiously. And on every field of battle, the Great Hive Mothers triumphed over the demons commanded by their fallen sister.
Belladonna’s notes: Again, mother was being very modest about her war record. She remained the Changeling Army’s Vanguard commander throughout the duration of the war, leading the forward division of about ten thousand changelings. Why did she not tell us this? Well, I suspect the deaths of those she lost weighed on her heavily.
The cost was high, though. Hundreds of our changelings fell. It didn’t help that every one of Atracina’s daughters fought like fanatics possessed. Well… except for Queen Thera, mother of Queen Kagura. She fought desperately, and nearly killed me in several skirmishes, but… well, I’ll explain later.
The battles we won and Borte’s campaign strategy meant that we finally cornered Atracina and her daughters at the place now known as Ghastly Gorge.
We surrounded her from the sky and ground. Our army of the four Great Hive Mothers, against Atracina’s brood and her monsters.
As the commander of the vanguard, I led the final assault. The battle… was the bloodiest in my career and I remember little of it, except for my duel with Thera.
She fought like some… golem. Mechanically, with cunning, but as if dead already, taking my blows as if it didn’t even scathe her. I finally overpowered her, but before I was about to kill her… I… I hesitated. It wasn’t like fighting with the other daughters of Atracina, who would struggle to the death. Thera’s eyes… they were that of an already dead changeling.
So I spared her and had her captured, before pushing forward. Finally, we won.
Victory achieved, my mother and my aunts sentenced and executed Atracina and her daughters. Each daughter was to be executed on the edge of the Ghastly Gorge, their bodies covered in oil, set alight, and thrown into the abyss for the monsters.
As for the betrayer Atracina, the Great Hive Mothers fed her her own poison, pierced her heart and dumped her corpse into the Ghastly Gorge for the animals to feed upon.
Thera on the other hoof was spared. She, like the rest of Atracina’s daughters was tried. Her judge, my mother, her prosecutor, my aunt Araneae and her defender, me.
There was just something I noticed about her… eyes that made me realize that she had no choice in fighting. I cannot go into too much details, but suffice it to say, Thera was one of the few daughters of Atracina who had a conscience. For that though, she was terribly abused by her mother.
As an instance, after she had alerted my mother to Atracina’s murder plot, she was starved of both love and food, had her pet murdered in front of her, and was forced to eat it or die. Her sisters were the ones who held the blade to her throat.
It was also revealed at her trial that she had saved Queen Theraphosia and her remaining daughter’s life, by leading them out of the banquet. For that, her own mother had poisoned her near to death.
Suffice to say, we found that Thera had been coerced to fight for her mother and so spared her life. She was adopted by Queen Theraphosia and so the line of Atracina ended, if not in blood, in spirit. And in time, Thera would recover her spirit, and I was happy to count her as a good friend of mine in the time she had left… she passed on not too long before I wrote this account.
Belladonna’s notes: Kagura of the White Fox is actually Thera’s only daughter.
But I digress. Finally, as Atracina breathed her last, the hive name of “The Deathspinners” was wiped from the list of the Great Hives, and Atracina became known by one title:
“Kinsbane.”
To prevent such a thing from happening again, Queen Zagara, Queen Theraphosia, Queen Araneae and Queen Borte I created the Queens Council. They invented the Queen Stones, ways for all the queens to communicate with each other and so that they could assemble. They also established the Six Changeling Rules, such as the one forbidding hypnotism on beings unless in extreme circumstances.
Never before had my aunts and my mother been so close and they would never drift away. Though they had been torn apart, the loss of so many of their kindred and the war they had fought had wiped away their old petty grievances. They had learned the cost of war.
And yet… my mother and her sisters never fully recovered from The Unspeakable Times. Their strength exhausted, their hearts broken by the death of so many of their sisters and the betrayal of Atracina “Kinsbane.” My mother was perhaps the most affected by this, as she was very close to all of her sisters, but especially Matari, whom she had lost forever.
Author’s Comments:
1. Put it this way, being a badass is in Alternia’s family.
2. Twilight and pony researchers who would later read the Path to Victory would realize that the book in fact predated Equestria’s first strategy book, The Art of War by General Firefly, daughter of Commander Hurricane. Furthermore, The Art of War actually contained similar and at times, identical stratagems, with those dissimilar being Pony evolutions and takes on Changeling strategies.