It Is Recommendsday, My Dudes #103 · 9:33pm Mar 8th, 2023
One of the bigger draws in the fandom is the antagonists - Discord, Nightmare Moon, Trixie, Sombra, and so on are all extremely popular in fiction and art. But I'm not sure any are quite as popular as the concept of the changelings. Not only is Chrysalis herself top tier (the 18th most popular tag on FIMFiction) but the changelings race tag is as well (26th most popular tag on the site; the next highest racial tag is Bat Pony at 64th, more than three thousand stories behind.) They're just such a wonderfully flexible group and I'm hard pressed to think of roles you couldn't have them play in a story. They often default as antagonists - which they're wonderful at - but some of their strongest roles are looks inside their alien-but-not lives as protagonists. And that's even before the whole reforming thing!
And if you're going to talk about changeling protagonists, I obviously have to talk about one of the site's biggest and baddest: The Changeling of the Guard by vdrake77.
A nameless changeling excavator in the Hive makes a mistake. A new method of constructing an archway fails, causing a tunnel to collapse. But that's not the mistake: the mistake is that when the Queen asks him what she should do with him, he answers with an opinion rather than deferring to her judgement. And so he is cast out - exiled from the only home he had ever known. Eventually taking on pony form and the name Idol Hooves (with some assistance from Topaz Showers, an etymologist who becomes his landlady), he finds the perfect way to fit into life as a pony. He joins the Royal Guard, where he will obey orders without question, put himself on the line for the greater good of the people, and swear eternal loyalty to his Queen Princess. Of course, he meets a fellow new recruit on his first day and they become fast friends. Yup, just secret changeling Idol Hooves and his good buddy Shining Armor.
Now, a lot of why this story excels is that Idol is the perfect straight man to everything. He's a linear-thinking literalist with minimal idea of what's socially acceptable, a complete lack of hesitation to follow orders, and bad enough luck to walk directly into every bit of trouble that's vaguely near him. (Plus as he evolves, Idol learns the fine art of sass and it's beautiful.) That's just perfect protagonist energy. He's the kind of archetype you see commonly in scifi these days: he's the Spock or Data, and is one of the best takes on that formula the site's got. Idol is just one treat after another as he blindly stumbles through situation after situation that a pony who knows how ponies work would figure out.
And speaking of other ponies, the rest of the cast is wonderful as well. Shining and the Princesses are great, of course, but the other OCs are also top notch. Topaz and Mothchaser are delights - as is precocious little Cersus, the color-blind nymph.
While the story's labelled as comedy, it's less one big laugh and more a long, sustained chuckle. It keeps the comedy to a simmer, and particularly lately has been diving deeper into the dramatic side of things. Which is great, honestly - I think the entire readership was tensed up and waiting for the Wedding. (And the story didn't disappoint there, while not disrupting or repeating what we know of canon.) It's a long read, but well worth it. And if you want it in audible form, Equinox3141 has actually done forty nine chapters of it!
For the other story, it's worth looking at fandom trends a little. For a while, there was (and to a lesser extent still is) an extremely popular subgenre of stories where one of the Mane 6 are revealed to be a changeling. Now, there's some amazing stories in that style - I've got four or five others in my recommending queue - but this one has remained my favorite: Who We Are, by kits.
It's a fairly normal day for the girls - right up until Spike rushes in with an urgent letter from Princess Celestia. After investigating into the Wedding disaster, Royal Guard authorities have traced back some intelligence to a changeling sleeper agent. One who established herself in a small, sleepy village a number of years ago - and who is now a national hero and one of the Elements of Harmony. And now they have to figure out which one of them it is.
So like I said: there's a lot of this style of story. But this is easily my #1. The story makes sure to lay down fairly solid reasons about why each one of the five (Twilight herself is exempt, having not lived in Ponyville before) could be the changeling. Reasons why they couldn't be, as well. While there's some that are more plausible than others, it's laid out well that there's no smoking gun for any of them in either direction. But the mystery isn't the focus, which is where this story deviates from the crowd. It's far more focused on the character reactions and interactions than having the reader try to puzzle out the truth. The Rainbow/Pinkie relationship is one of the stars here: a fairly uncommon pairing, but one that adds a lot to the situation as Rainbow is forced to confront the possibility that the pony she's dating isn't a pony and it's all been lies.
The real starring moment, though, is the end. Oh damn that ending. It's picture perfect. If this was an episode - and it easily could have been - that's how it would have ended. It's true to the show's spirit and the characters in a way that most of this subgenre's stories aren't. I want to gush about how excellent it is, but I'm not sure I can without spoiling. Suffice it to say: the story's good but the ending is what really cements it as one of my top favorites.
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Ooh, I read Who We Are last year -- only ten years late! I didn't love it as much as you did, but I did enjoy it. A bit more than I thought I might enjoy a changeling story from a full decade ago, if I'm honest. This is a story that Chris really disliked, but I didn't share his moral objections and so I felt it held up pretty well despite its age.
The Changeling of the Guard is much longer than I usually read, but it does sound fun. If and when it's ever finished I may give it a look. Thanks for the recommendation!
media.tenor.com/b8WAqSZ2k7AAAAAC/savingprivateryan-ww2.gif
2012 was a different time. With better ships.
I read the theme of this post and immediately thought of That Changeling's A Pony
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Yup! I remember reading your review back then, though I hadn't seen Chris' (who's not someone I was aware of at all.) I actually really enjoy seeing different perspectives of a story like that: to me, it's really interesting what people do and don't like about a story.
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Ha! (Though I will note 'uncommon' is a very relative term, as an interesting bit of analysis by Briarlight showed last month.)
I read Who We Are some time ago, and liked it well enough at the time, enough to favourite it. Which must means something, surely. Been on my radar to reread for a while now, and while I now know it was something of a trendsetter for the "one of the Mane 6 is a changeling" trope, I also know it was a trendsetter for a reason. I'm excited to read it again!
Ooh, great find! Is that for fanart or fanfiction? It feels like the latter, but I'm not quite sure, the way some of the comments discuss it.
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it's okay, buddy, deep breaths and just think of PinkieDash fluff
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It's fanart, mostly because booru formats have specific ship tags while FIMFiction does not.
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Heh, I was clearly showing my age there! I was actually mildly startled, upon checking just now, to realise that it was five years since he stopped reviewing. Happily Chris is still around (he comments on my blog occasionally) but it really did strike me how someone like you, now well established doing this, and someone like Chris, in his day one of the ponyfic reviewers, don't actually overlap (in review/recommendation) terms at all. As I say, I feel old! :whyistherenogrannysmithemoji:
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Yeah, I figured later on. It certainly explains TwiJack’s low placement; it’s no RariJack or TwiDash as popularity goes, for sure, but I certainly see it enough in fanfiction that it would not be 4th last as it is there. More middle of the pack.
[I am not really a shipping person; even here, I tend to think of these characters as regards their personality and comic and dramatic fools for situations. But TwiJack always struck me as quite a level-headed ship, so I usually have minimal trouble accepting it.]
Chrysalis was essentially first true villain in the series, and her introductory episode was top-tier in itself. But somehow i still feel fandom didn't gave her character enough justice. To changelings — maybe, there are enough just amusing works with them. But well, the Mean Queen herself is like a puzzle, some works catch only certain aspects of what she can potentially be. She is truly alien to a world of magical equines, an invading hungry insect, and it is very curious
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I'll make it worse. I'm a 2019 account, I didn't show up until a year after Chris stopped.
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It gets worse... there's been a lot of new members (even when you ignore the spambots) since 2020, so by that token you're now an old-school member. So what does that make me?