(???, four hundred and fifty years before Nightmare Moon's escape)

There was buzzing in the hive. The drones echoed a single message from the tips of the emerald spires to the catacombs beneath.

We have been betrayed, the griffons betrayed us. The prince is dead.

Such news was shocking to the young princess. Surely mother would have taken precautions to avoid this? No, this had to be harmful gossip spread by a drone who misinterpreted something. Her brother couldn't be dead.

Those thoughts repeated in the back of her mind, private to the general cloud of echoing thoughts she could tap into at any time. Yet as the nymph approached the throne room of the Greatwood Hive, she could not stop her legs from shaking. When she entered and saw the cold look on her mothers usually warm face, the trembling worsened.

"M-mother, I hav-" she started, bowing her head hastily to the changeling matriarch. The woman did not move a muscle, but the sheer pressure sent through her mind's eye shut her up all the same. The cloud of thoughts silenced, as the queen demanded silence from all her subjects. The Queen was silent at first, turning to stare off at the large map pinned to the wall of her throne room. On it was hastily added red X marks where there were previously none.

"Our diplomats to the Kingdom of Griffonia have been executed. Our kind detected and purged. We have been betrayed, and this crime cannot remain unanswered." Her words were broadcasted to every ling in the hive, and was met with silence.

"The Greatwood Hive must march to war. We cannot stand for this injustice" she declared, stamping her hoof. From there, the Queen's words were spoken physically to address her daughter directly.

"You, Princess Chrysalis... I cannot march you off with me. I cannot lose another child. The hive must live on, and so I have a different task for you." The tone of finality in her mothers voice nearly floored the nymph. Live on? Lose another child? She spoke as if the conflict was already lost.

"M-mother! We cannot afford to delegate forces elsewhere if this is war! Let me fight. I am the strongest mage the hive has seen in centuries, I could-"

"I will not bury another child. We are outnumbered too drastically for your presence to affect our chances of victory. No, the hive must live on. If they know how to detect us, they know how to find us. This hive is as good as dead" the Queen hissed, and she leaned in to nuzzle her daughter. "Chryssie, my sweet Chryssie.... I need you to take a small team of drones. Fly off into equestrias borders. Connected to the Greatwood is what was once the Kingdom of Equestrias capital. That abandoned castle can be a good cover for if this conflict falls back to the Greatwood."

"But Mother, if they can track us here... they would be able to-"

"They would not risk provoking the ruler of Equestria. The Yaks of old burned to ash under her hoof, and if the Griffons are so foolish as to follow you they would suffer the same fate. Worry not, my daughter. You will be safe. Should we win this conflict, I will send a team to retrieve you. Should I fail...."

"... The hive must live on" she murmured, her voice hollow. Tears built up in her eyes as she held her mother close. That moment was not to last however. Time was of the essence.

She was shepharded out of the hive by a team of ten changelings. Four scouts, two nurses and six warriors. She was given enough supplies to last a few months separate from the hive, and her scouts knew the path to the castle by heart. Her mother had intended to use this abandoned fort as a stronghold to perhaps start gaining ground in Equestria, but it would have to serve this new purpose instead.

The trip lasted several days, and it became clear fast why this castle was never reclaimed by the Equestrian ponies. The magic that permeated the castle and its surrounding land influenced the Greatwood Forest, warping the wildlife and fauna to seem larger. More imposing. What was once a bastion of order twisted the life around it into vile chaos incarnate. If there was one silver lining, Chrysalis supposed, it would be that this was a splendid cover against the griffons.

The castle itself seemed oddly untouched by the rampant growths surrounding it. It was frankly unsettling to the changeling princess. It did not help that her distance excluded her from her mothers influence, preventing her from properly monitoring the war efforts. That was for the best, she supposed, as any closer would be putting her and the future of the hive at risk.

Chrysalis took her place on one of the old worn thrones as she mulled over her options. She had her drones fluttering about and taking proper stock of what hadn't given way to age while she plotted their next move. Setting up a permanent hive was unreasonable, as this was not a defendable position nor was it safe from the Sun Mares watchful eye. She needed to find alternative cover, and fast.

The hive would not survive otherwise.

It would be nearly five months before she received word of anything. In that time she had to resort to sending scouts as makeshift infiltrators to collect, but her servants were hungry all the same. As was she, but she needed to be strong for them.

One of her mothers old infiltrators, a one time praetor taking up the position of a solar guard, arrived at her doorstep to give the news. He knelt before her, he was panting heavily as the journey had been especially tedious. She patiently waited for him to calm his nerves.

"I bring news from the capitol. The griffons attacking the Elderwood succeeded, as they had turned the old hive into a military base. We only know this because of a series of letters sent from Griffonia and the Greatwood Forest proper. They suffered a coup, their king was slain by one of the princes who in turn slaughtered diplomats and nobles alike. The first letter was sent by the king's only other surviving child. The second... a declaration of war by the warlord himself."

She laughed openly and loudly at the news. It sounded like a bad joke. Declare war? On Equestria? With what, a worn warband that just blasted through a vicious forest that likely beat them black and blue before falling? Equestria may have been a faltering military force due to decades of peacetime but it was still a dangerous foe.

Her musings were cut off by the rest of the message. The sick joke finally reached its punchline, and it left a bitter taste in Chrysalis' mouth.

"The declaration was not met with an army, it was instead addressed directly by the princess herself. A small battalion including me followed, as to ensure her safety... It was... horrific. The warlord was a caster, a necromancer to boot. He had... he had made the corpse of the old queen his footrest before the throne... Celestia was willing to talk terms, but the moment she realised what foul magics he was using... well..." the changeling gulped, his hole covered legs trembling.

"Had she not shielded us, we would have suffered the same fate as that Griffon. She burnt the Greatwood Forest to ash, the roots burned for days bathing the newly formed desert in a sea of flames. The castle did not survive, crumbling away from the heat of and force she emitted. The griffons stationed there far enough to not incinerate instantly could not flee, the soot and ash weighed their wings and lungs while the heat robbed them of their strength. The warlord... the queen... everyling in that castle were gone... nolings body was even left to bury."

So that was it then. It was undoubtedly a victory, her mothers death was avenged though indirectly. Still, the princess couldn't help but scowl.

"Thank you. You have done us a great service. Go to the pods, get your fill before you return. I want you to get mothers spy network in order and have you all return here. I will be ascending, and need all the love I can get. Send the word, and then return." The infiltrator bowed and made his exit. She nearly collapsed onto her throne. She had to be strong though, for a little longer.

The hive would live, after all. She would see it happen as its new Queen.

She used her magic, weaving a cocoon of green crystal around the very throne in which she sat. Orders were telepathically sent out. They were to hunt her food. She would need it in the coming days.

The days blended together from within the cocoon. She lost access to the telepathic link, and the only way to know time had passed at all was from the clouds of love that were imbued into her shell. She lost her shape some ways into the process, yet she was painfully aware. She did not sleep, she did not speak. She simply was. What was startling more than anything else were the visions.

They started small at first. A flash of purple here, a glimmer of teal there. Then a voice. It was distant, muffled as if she was submerged in water. There were two distinct voices. One female and one male. Yet she couldn't make out what either were saying.

The visions grew clearer as she began to reform. The voices whispered of revenge, of regrets. Flashes of purple scales, a rumbling growl and pure white heat. She could not decipher any of it. She could hear the echoes of something else, but it was soft.

The visions gave way to a new vision. Of the full moon, bearing the face of a mare. The voices all fell silent, and the glow was nearly blinding. It was... beautiful. The image was clearer than anything her eyes were capable of, she could count the craters along the surface. It alone was not what made it beautiful. Changeling physiology allowed them to see emotions as wisps of color, and the moon... it was a rainbow cacophany of emotion. Love, hatred, sorrow, regret, excitement and determination all swirled along its surface, emanating from the oddly pony-like grey splotch.

The third voice spoke up once more. Its words now clear, and ever so familiar.

Find them.

She had no time to contemplate those words or who the voice belonged to as she was violently ejected from her shell. She blinked away the insulating slime in her eyes, her vision barely clearing up to see a pair of changelings staring owlishly at her. It was then her connection to the hive collective rushed back to her and she heard the frantic messages being sent out.

The Queen had awoken. The Queen had been reborn.

All hail Queen Chrysalis.

(???, four hundred years before Nightmare Moon's escape)

The following years were a quiet time for the budding changeling hive. With their new Queen, they migrated to the newly formed badlands and slowly built up a black spire as their new home. A vast tunnel network was painstakingly excavated from below, connecting to the old catacombs belonging to the previous Queens hive. The burial stones had not escaped the sun's flames, but the caves remained intact.

The hive from there had grown. Chrysalis had her few surviving lings help fill the nurseries, and from there her warriors split up into infiltrators to gather love and brood nurses to care for the hatchlings. She did not birth any royals, it was too soon to sate the significantly larger appetite of a royal larvae. Within the first five years she had a modest two hundred lings loyal to her, enough to begin the operations her mother had previously established. Within the thirty years she had her castle built her numbers had gone up by several magnitudes.

This gradual expansion eventually allowed her to begin reassembling her mothers vast information network. Spies were sent out for full time operations, one of which was dedicated exclusively to observing the everfree forest. While she did not care for the ruins she used as a temporary cover, the wildlife and fauna present there could prove useful to her. She knew how dangerous chimaera poison could be.

It was one of these spies that began sending her equestrian litterature. Books on myths, spells, historical accounts. All seemingly useless to the young Queen until she took a closer look. These historical accounts were all depictions of equestrian wartimes, the spells featured in these accounts at least once.

They were not simple commoner spells as she once assumed, they were repurposed weapons of war. These tools, if reverse engineered, could be used to bolster her force's defences and potentially prevent another slaughter. Not that she intended to make the mistake her mother made. Trust in the Griffons would be in short supply in her hive.

The interesting bits came from the myths. They were all tied to legendary figures and magic items. A few had gotten her interest. The Creation of Tartarus, a prison meant to contain the great evil Tyrek. The Ballad of Discord, the birthing conflict of the Elements of Harmony. The Elements themselves were never featured in these myths, only as the solutions to great evils. This was most prominent in the most recent tale. The Mare in the Moon.

That myth was one she was immediately smitten with. While the records from her mothers time were erased when the last hive fell, her memories lived on in her connection with her servants. It was in this goldmine of information that she was able to validate that myth. There was a time in her mothers youth when there were two alicorn princesses, where one exiled the other. Her visions she had so long ago now made sense. And that myth... that myth gave her a place to go with the name.

It was almost ironic. In four hundred years' time, in that old castle trapped within the Everfree... her temporary home while her mother was slain... would be the very place her vision would come to pass. On that note, her mothers memories were critical in understanding that. It seemed she was not alone in these visions.

Part of ascension was to become one with the Great Hivemind, if only briefly, where one's ancestor lings may impart wisdom in the form of visions. For her mother, it was to migrate from under the claw of the dragons to the Greatwood neighbouring Griffonia. In a time of great famine, the actions brought by such a vision bought her people centuries of stability and hope. For her, she would have to hope that her vision would do the same.

So find them she would. But first, she had to prepare.

Author's Note

There. The last of my three chapters. I thank you for taking the time to read my little pet project. Well, what I have released as of now. There is much more planned, and my hope is to see this project to its completion.

-Marlo