“And that was, as they say, that,” the Changeling Queen finished recounting the tale, looking down on the small form tucked comfortably into bed.
“Did all that really happen?” the royal nymph asked. “How long ago was it?”
“Only around thirty years,” the Queen stated.
“Thirty years?!” the nymph exclaimed in shock. “That’s, like, forever ago!”
“Oh Avia,” the Queen chuckled, nuzzling her daughter’s head. “You can be too cute sometimes.”
Avia pouted at her mother’s teasing, but decided to change the subject. There was one thing that weighed down onto her mind as her mother had told the story, and she was eagerly curious, she could do a whole research project on it!
She was certainly her mother’s daughter.
“Mama?” the nymph called out questioningly.
“Yes, Avia?” the Queen called gently back, noticing the studious glint in her daughter’s eye. “You have a question?”
Avia nodded eagerly.
“In the story, all the changelings had black coloured chitin. But…” Avia gestured to her mother’s hoof, which was covered in light lavender coloured chitin. “But now changelings have just a much variation as ponies do. One of the few I know that still has black chitin is Uncle Carduus, why is that? How did all that happen?”
The Queen was taken back by her daughter’s question, that event which occurred many years prior. An event set in motion by the rampage of Crudelis, and one that would bring great change to both the changelings and all of Equestria. The day changelings stepped out of the shadows and back into the light of Celestia’s sun.
“It’s… a long story,” she stated. “It is true changelings once held a mostly universal colour scheme, with a few exceptions here and there, but that changed. Now changelings have as much variation as ponies do thanks to that magic; the original black colour is now just a part of those many variations, which is actually why Carduus stayed the same.”
Avia had levitated a small notepad and quill from a nearby desk and was taking notes, causing her mother to raise an eyebrow in amusement.
“But that is a story for another day,” the Queen gently took the notepad in her own magic, pulling it away from her daughter. “Luna’s moon is high in the sky, and it is time for young nymphs to rest.”
“I’m not young, I’m ten years old!” Avia protested. “I was even old enough to hear the first story!”
“And still young enough to need your sleep. You will come to regret all-nighters, believe me…”
“Please…?” Avia gave her best puppy dog eyes. “Pleeeeeeease?”
The Queen rolled her eyes and was about to say no, until she looked down at the notepad and skimmed what had been written. Avia was truly interested in the subject, and not just to delay bedtime. The notes she had written were detailed with her own theories jotted down the margins.
The Queen couldn’t supress a smile as she levitated the pad back to the young Princess.
“Alright, you win…”
“Yay!” The nymph jumped from the bed and glomped her mother, giving her thanks over and over again.
“Alright, alright. Settle back down and I will tell. One last story and then it’s definitely off to sleep, deal?”
“Deal!” she responded enthusiastically, quickly snuggling back under the covers while making sure to have her pad and quill ready.
“Are you ready?”
Avia nodded eagerly, waiting for the story to start.
“Alright then,” the Queen nodded back. “It all started many years ago, far past the Crystal Empire, but not that far from the hive of Queen Draco…”
Many years before Avia’s birth, about eight years after the death of Queen Crudelis
Far up north, past the frozen wasteland surrounding the Crystal Empire, sat a land of dirt, rocks and the odd volcano. It was a land hosting various dragons that made the volcanic caves their home, stashing away their hordes and sleeping atop of them for years at a time.
This was a land devoid of any pony, griffon, minotaur, or most other species. Aside from the aforementioned dragons, there was only one other group that called the land home.
A changeling hive sat right in the middle. Most of it stretched far underground but, with its location being so far removed from other civilisations, there were some buildings built on the surface. The hive had been built under what little fertile soil was in the area, and it was here that various farms had been set up with changelings tending their fields. They grew food and kept animals all for the usage of the hive below.
This was the hive of Queen Draco, a close friend of the late Queen Chrysalis and her daughter, Queen Twilight Sparkle. It was this hive that had traded with the Crystal Empire so long ago before Sombra came along, and it was here that these relations were beginning to flourish once more. Though the ponies never set hoof in the hive’s borders, changeling couriers moving towards and back from the Crystal Empire were common, trading various items for a supply of the heart’s love. Sadly, only Draco and Twilight had this arrangement, the other Changeling Queens still preferring a reclusive existence.
But despite the prosperity of the hive, there was something nearby that lay hidden, unknown to them; something the late Queen Crudelis had been desperate to get her hooves on.
Not far from the hive, a sealed doorway was cut into the mountain, largely hidden away by the rocky outcropping around it. Many wards surrounded the door, though four thousand years of neglect was causing them to slowly come undone, and soon the locations would likely cease to be a secret, and the locks broken.
For behind this doorway was a long hallway that stretched deep into the mountain, this hallway leading off to a vast chamber at the very end and nowhere else. This structure had been designed for a single purpose, to keep something hidden and safe.
The cavern was large, a single staircase leading on to a raised platform in the centre of the rounded chamber. If one was to walk up the stairs they would find a podium wherein the contents somepony had been so desperate to keep hidden was stored. Like the doorway, the object had many wards around it to keep the item inert and non-functional. However, like the doorway, the wards were coming undone. For four thousand years the object had sat inert, kept away from its master. That Queen would have freed it, but her death delayed things, but it mattered little. Others would soon discover it, it was inevitable.
For within this closed off chamber, a set of forgotten regalia began to glow.