The Metamorphasia and the Unspeakable Times

Originally given voice to by Queen Chamelia the Great, Second Queen of the Everfree Hive, Daughter of the Great Hive Mother Zagara, The Lady of a Thousand Masks.

As enscribed by the Daughters of Queen Chamelia: Chrysalis, Third Queen of The Everfree Hive, Queen Simulacris, First Queen of the Stalkers, and Queen Belladona of The Shadow Empire for their sister Princess Alternia of Equestria and First Queen of The Phantoms.

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 Zagara the Far-Seeing. She was our mother’s mother and known for not only her wisdom, but also her vision. We trace our lineage to her through our mother, Chamelia the Great, Lady of a Thousand Masks, Zagara’s youngest daughter (1).

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.

Then there was the first Borte, 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. 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. 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 natural charm and great heart.

Fifth was Latrodexa, 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, 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. Whether 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 her daughters, 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 Everfree”, 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 Everfree.”

However, while the Great Hive Mothers tried to remain sisters, it was not so easy to teach their children 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. Queen Araneae called in her daughters and asked Queen Borte I to help her.

Queen Borte I arrived with her “Horde” along with Araneae daughters and they engaged Queen Latrodexa and her spawn. 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.

The violence of this conflict could not be understated. Some say it helped bring the Windigoes to the land that would become, while other tales point to how the war nearly revealed the hives to the native ponies.

Horrified at the violence between her sisters, Queen Zagara, the eldest of the sisters, our 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.

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 confederation that could put an end to the war and the strife between their sisters.

Queen Atracina accepted and the three sisters toasted to each other that evening and separated to their own accommodations.

        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.

For Atracina had intended to betray Matari and Zagara. She had 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 her of the assassination. It allowed Zagara to lock herself in her chambers and alert her chief lieutenant, our mother, Chamelia.

Rallying her sisters, Chamelia, Zagara’s youngest daughter and her Shadow (Lieutenant and heir), led a force that broke into Atracina’s hive. With her changelings, Chamelia extricated Zagara, half-dead from grave wounds sustained in the fight for her life. The eldest of the Great Hive Mothers had lost a leg, though according to Chamelia’s diaries, it was Matari’s murder that hurt our grandmother the most.

Once Chamelia returned with her mother, bearing the news of Atracina and her spawn’s treacherous act the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari declared a blood-feud with Atracina’s spawn. As their mother lay in recovery, the cousins turned their weapons against their kinslaying cousins and their aunt, leading 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, the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari did not pursue. Their losses were not inconsequential and they were all saddened by the Great 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.

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 the army assembled by the Daughters of Zagara and the Daughters of Matari. Welcomed into their midst, Araneae and Borte were stunned at the 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.

At winter’s end, the combined might of Zagara, her daughters, the daughters of Queen Matari, Queen Araneae and her spawn, and the horde of Queen Borte I, marched against Atracina. They had 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 their vanguard, led by Queen Araneae found a venom-crippled Theraphosia, her youngest daughter, and their few loyal chevaliers.

The furious Queen Araneae nearly slew the bedridden Theraphosia, but for the words of our mother, Queen Chamelia. It gave 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.

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, Zagara and Borte I were overjoyed to have their sister with them once more, and it was with renewed vigor and ferocity that they marched on Atracina’s camp.

In the devastating campaign that followed, devised by the masterful Queen Borte, the four remaining Great Hive Mothers 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, their forces fought each other furiously. And on every field of battle, the Great Hive Mothers triumphed over the demons commanded by their fallen sister.

Until at last, they confronted Atracina and her daughters at the place now known as Ghastly Gorge. Surrounding her from the sky and ground, the army of the four Great Hive Mothers, with our mother, Queen Chamelia leading the vanguard, finally defeated Atracina and her brood and administered justice.

Victory achieved Great Hive Mothers 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.

Only Thera, the youngest daughter of Atracina, who had warned Zagara of her mother’s treachery, and thus saved our grandmother’s life, was spared. She was adopted by Queen Theraphosia and so the line of Atracina also ended, if not in blood, in spirit.

Belladonna’s notes: Kagura of the White Fox is actually Thera’s only daughter. She likes talking about her mother’s struggles, though I warn you, the tale is not one for the soft of heart, but it has a happy ending

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:

“The Traitorous One.”

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 the sisters 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, it is said the Great Hive Mothers 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 “Traitorous One.” The eldest, Zagara, 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.