For the Swarm! (Part 1)

~The Nightmare Time~
According to the eldest of Changeling records, the Changeling race was the youngest of several races of equestrian based advanced life on their former home world. The natural magic of the world gave birth to many different kinds of lifeforms over a long period of time, but the Changeling race were created during the fallout of a magical conflict between god like beings. While never an 'evil' race, their appearance and eating habits caused the ancestors of the Changeling race to be prosecuted with extreme measure by beings who had mere days before the transformation been friends and family. Those that survived the members of their former communities fled into the deserted places, the badlands, the frozen wastelands, deserts. Places that were hostile to most forms of life and thus provided the outcasts a safe place from their hunters.

Over the passing months, many of these early Changelings died alone in lands hostile to them. But some managed to track each other down. Once they started to form packs, these early Changelings were able to begin craving out a living from their new homelands. Over time, the members of each pack (mostly the first generation of children) began to accept their lot in life and instead of mourning what they had lost began to explore what they had become. Talents were discovered, tribal culture began to grow. While occasionally the odd hunting party came looking for them (Normally after a feast of love from a nearby settlement), the Changeling tribes knew how to hide.

~The Tribes united~
At some point, records do not say when or who, but two of the tribes met. They had both grown up in different locations, had been shaped by different events and thus had a completely different culture to each other. Had this been any other species, things would have no doubt ended either in violence or with a great stand offish cation between them. Instead, both tribes became one with no fuss in the slightest. When the two met, instead of seeing what made them different the tribes recognized what made them the same. Had an outsider witnessed this event it would have merely looked like two different parts of the same family had met up for the first time in years and decided that they were going to stay close to family from now on. In a strange way, this was also how the Changelings themselves viewed their event too.

Over the course of a number of years, other tribes began meeting each other and fusing together without bloodshed or argument, forming bigger and bigger communities until the whole race itself was united. At some point during this process, the Changelings developed their links to the hive mind, making this unity the first true Hive recorded in Changeling history.

~ The Destined Course~
Shortly after the birth of the first Hive, the whole Swarm underwent a major debate that every single member of the Swarm was allowed to have their say on: What were their plans for the future of the Hive and all its members. This great debate lasted for two years. Many courses for the future were offered, debated, added or subtracted from and often discarded during that time. In the end, a simple but life changing choice was made. They would never be accepted on their home world and to remain would only invite bloodshed and war between themselves and the other nations of the world. So they would leave the planet behind. Take to the stars and attempt to forge a new place for themselves amongst them.

This was by no means easy. It took over a century of trail and error to develop their space program to the point that it could safely carry a seed Hive through the airless void. In the end, the Changeling population was split over seven colony ships, each one lead by the strongest Changelings in the Hive Mind, allowing them to keep track of each other over the endless distances of space. These leaders and those that would follow them in the years to come would earn the title of 'Queen of the Hive'.

As the ships sailed into the void, the name and location of their home world was removed from all records. In order to supply the ships with enough food to make the journey, the Changelings had to go to extreme measures. During the final weeks before launch, the Hive had taken to enslaving entire kingdoms openly and draining their new servants of ever emotion they were capable of feeling. A large number died in the process... Accepting that there was no turning back, the Hive traveled through space, the ships parting ways in order to give the Hive as a whole the best chance of finding a world able to accept them.