The Wasteland Always Changes · 8:22am Jun 3rd, 2015
art by Icekatze
Changelings!
How might changelings fit into the Fallout: Equestria universe? How do I see them fitting into the Equestrian Wasteland? What role might they have played if the Canterlot Wedding had aired while Fallout: Equestria was being written? These are some of my fans most frequently asked questions.
Last year, I offered an extensive look at my headcanon for the Crystal Empire in the Fallout: Equestria universe (here and here), offering it as the wasteland's version of Big Mountain from the excellent Old World Blues. And if the Crystal Empire has a place in the world of Fo:E, then the changelings must too. (In fact, beyond Cadence, the two are connected by themes of feeding on and utilizing the love of ponies.)
I've been putting off writing a blog about changelings until after the big reveal last month in Fallout: Beyond Equestria. Now I can speak without spoilers. 
Also, I know that there are several stories and games that have incorporated changelings. I don't want to invalidate or conflict with someone's creation, so let me emphasize that this is only my headcanon, not canon.
Before we begin, however, there's someone else who would like a moment of your attention. I'm sure you will agree that this is relevant to our interests:
Before introducing changelings to the Equestrian Wasteland, we need to understand how changelings work. And that requires dealing with some of the issues surrounding the Canterlot Wedding invasion.
art by Ganzerul
Personally, I find most of the invasion scenario easily explained or excused: Chrysalis covertly enters Canterlot at a time when the royal wedding is in the initial planning. (Basic reconnaissance, we could assume; although there could be a number of things she may have plotted to do within the city to set it up for the invasion.) Something tips off the Princesses that there is a threat to the city. (We don't know what, exactly. Maybe Chrysalis made an early misstep? Maybe one of her children were caught in the vicinity? Maybe a unicorn with prophetic magic had a vision? There are many possibilities, and we really don't need to know which is the case.) Celestia and Luna order extra security, including Shining Armor's magical shield. Chrysalis improvises by replacing Cadence, feeding off the love of the Captain of the Guard for his betrothed to weaken the defenses that now stand in the way of the changeling invasion.
With this perspective, the clash with Celestia makes sense. That confrontation wasn't planned, but was forced when Cadence and Twilight revealed her deception. Personally, I found the outcome of that fight perfectly in keeping with the theme of the show as well. In My Little Pony, friendship is magic, and not just metaphorically. Friendship certainly isn't the only magic, nor the source of magic, and may not even be magic per se... but it is in the very least one of the most powerful conduits of magic that exist in that cartoon world. This is the conduit through which the magic of the Elements of Harmony act, and are more than equal to any threat. And I would argue that friendship is an expression of love. To dare quote the Bible: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." So if friendship is magic, then love is magic. Arguably the purest version of this magic. Nothing should be able to stand against it.
art by Kalemon
The problem comes with the invasion itself. If changelings feed on love, why a massive militaristic invasion? Why attack? Why capture ponies? The invasion seems designed to inspire terror or hatred, not love. On first observation, it would seem their entire plan runs contrary to their goals. But then, the episode show us these:
art by Tiarawhy
What comes to mind when I see those is a sort of induced hibernation, or suspended animation. And I find myself thinking of the movie The Matrix. What if, while within these pods, the ponies dream? Dreams tailored by the queen? What Chrysalis managed with Shining Armor required a loving relationship to already exist, one which she could replace one party and feed off the other. That's not an easy trick... even with the powers of a changeling queen, she didn't manage it for very long before her cover was blown. An entire race of changelings couldn't hope to find, infiltrate and maintain a race's worth of relationships within existing Equestria. And just pretending to be ponies and hoping a pony would fall in love with them is at best a gamble with unfavorable odds. But putting a population into a dream reality tailored specifically to induce feelings of love that the hive could feed off of?
That is my headcanon for Chrysalis' plan and how I make sense of the changeling invasion. And that is the idea that I have built on when I first included changelings into the world of Fallout: Equestria during my Stalliongrad campaign. Which brings us to this:
So if we can equate these two, how do we bring that into a Fallout-themed setting?
The goal would be to find something within the Fallout setting that echoes the concept of a people being held in suspended animation where they live dreams constructed by an overseeing entity who is feeding off their experiences and/or emotions for selfish gratification. Now... why does that sound familiar?
Tranquility Lane.
Changelings are perfect for setting up a situation in the Equestrian Wasteland analogous to Tranquility Lane. Variations in both the nature and the relative malevolence or benevolence of the dream world, as well as whether the situation is threatened from without or within, offer a great many stories. As mentioned in my blog Goodbye, Sunny Stalliongrad, I first introduced changelings as part of a story where the characters found themselves in what appeared to be an altered past, one where Fluttershy's C.A.R.E. had successfully diffused the war and the world was recovering in peace... a false reality created by a benevolent changeling queen who was striving to save both her children and the ponies in her hive's care.
The post-apocalyptic wasteland offers very little sustenance for beings that feed on love. Discarding the Tranquility Lane analogy, the driving impetus for changelings in the wasteland would be to find or cultivate love. This puts them in the position to be striving for a positive change in Equestria. A wasteland changeling would make quite an interesting protagonist. Alternately, a changeling could easily find themselves shackled to the will of whatever source of love they can find. An antagonist who truly loves a changeling has a leash on the creature that it cannot afford to escape.
art by Kalemon
By necessity, changelings in the wasteland would be rare and individual. A particularly loving family might adopt one or two. A wasteland brothel might may exploit a two or three desperate changelings. But changeling communities couldn't form without establishing a love source.
If we agree that friendship is a form of love, then a changeling could attach themselves to a group of companions, forming part of a story's ensemble cast. Other forms of love may also provide sustenance. The recent My Little Pony comic (Fiendship is Magic #5) showed us Chrysalis feeding on the self-love of a egotistical ruler.
Barring the Tranquility Lane device, a changeling queen would need to pursue the creation of a non-changeling community with a core culture focused on providing the necessary emotions for her children to feed on. This makes a changeling queen an ideal leader for a major new faction.
In Fallout: Beyond Equestria, I am exploring this idea with a changeling queen in zebra guise acting as the new Caesar of the zebra wastelands. This queen has been rebuilding zebra civilization on a platform of national exceptionalism, molding a population whose love of country and leadership can sustain her changelings, with all the good and ill that blind nationalism engenders.
art by Mistermech
Adding changelings to the Equestrian Wasteland opens up a whole new subsection to the wasteland's bestiary. What sort of monsters and mutations might been born from or because of changelings? In the very least, there would almost certainly be changeling ghouls. But what manner of ghouls? Where was the majority of the changeling population located when the apocalypse occurred? At the end of the Canterlot Wedding episode, they seem to have been banished to badlands outside of Equestria. In my headcanon, the changelings found themselves in the dragon territory on the edge of the zebra lands during the apocalypse. This would mean that changelings were exposed to very different sorts of magical radiation (and a much wider variety) than the ponies who became ghouls in Equestria. In "Crystal Empire Blues", the Heartless were my Fo:E version of the Lobotomites -- crystal ponies drained of every positive emotion by a megaspell that utilized the Crystal Heart. Could a wasteland-mutated changeling create similar monsters by overfeeding? Balefire is green dragon fire infused with necromancy. Is the fiery green energy that the changelings use susceptible to similar alteration? There are plenty of interesting directions to explore.
art by Slouping
Now it is your turn. How would you incorporate changelings into the Fallout: Equestria universe? What unique challenges do you see to adding changelings to a Fo:E story, and how would you solve them? Are there any side stories you would recommend that have tackled changelings in a particularly interesting and/or skillful manner?
Finally, I'm going to leave you with this wonderful comic by Mistermech!
Changelings would have probably evolved to the point they can feed off ANY kind of emotion
I've seen that headcanon pop up from time to time and it makes the most sense
As you said, Love is rare in the Wasteland, so the Lovebugs would have to change or face extinction
Or they're all holed up in a brothel somewhere, feeding off the love of horny Wastelanders
Add in the ability to become addicted to an emotion and you've suddenly got potential for plenty of stories
3119666
Sounds good.
I've proposed for a while that changelings could successfully survive if they cultivated love by managing settlements or surviving symbiotically with a settlement of ponies who know they're changelings but accept them. The changelings could theoretically "farm" ponies, without damaging them like sticking them in pods might theoretically do. Hell, even just maintaining a settlement with a positive quality of life would work in their favour, because better life = more positive emotions = better food.
A changeling/pony symbiosis Stable might also be interesting. Dual Overmare, with the resident hive's queen being one and the representative of the ponies being the other.
I tink you pretty much covered it with this post. They would have to alter theri behavior.
And of course compeltely negating the comics example of the changeligns cause......... too limiting.
Personally i could see the changeling perhaps taking over one of the Stables. They slipped in and subdued everypone, but kept them safe and in those Stasis cocoons and waited. What happens after, i am not certain.
Personally i would like to see a story where we have a new Changeling Queen appear and she dealing with the wastelands........
Here is a question. How would you deal with the crystal empire? Personally speaking, i would have it be at that point that everything changes. Twilight failed at that point and it forced the REgal Sisters to intervene. The ensuing battle allowed Sombra to once again banish the empire, perhaps taking Cadance with it, though sombra paid a terrible price for that.
Having failed such a crucial test, Twilight never became an alicorn.
how would you deal with sombra and the crystal empire?
For some reason i cosntantly use personally on repeat don't i?
Adding to the statement, i would imagine that maybe changelings are immune? If there is one thing we do not know, is how the wasteland affects dark magic using beings. Would, say, sombra be immune to the corruptive influences of the wasteland, as his body has lrady been corrupted?
Changeling may not be as potentionally dark as sauonicorn, but their bodies can alter shape at will, and i would think that would make their bodies a bit more malleable and resistant to detrimental effects such as that. You cannot mutate something without a truly set form after all.
Speaking of Stalliongrad, which I believe you said was temporarily captured by the zebras at some point, how did the zebras treat equestrians under their occupation and vise versa?
3119702
Those green words are links. If you would like to see what I would have done with the Crystal Empire, check out the links I gave. I did two huge blog posts on the Crystal Empire. All the information is in there.
Between all the side stories I've read Fallout: Equestria - Treasure Hunting Has got a fairly fantastic thing going with changelings. Not going to spoil anything about it, but it fits in with one of the ways presented above fairly well! It's got a big recommendation from me!
3119724 ooooh. Cool. Sorry. Though i do not remember if i even knew about your story back then.....
About me other question though. Would someone steeped in dark magic be affected by things like magical radiation? The radiation is deadly because it is infused with dark magic, evil magic. Would one who has basically become a nightmare moon or sombra be affected by this magic?
How does one corrupt corruption?
Ultimately i do not think we ever had an outright dark magic user running around. We have had those who dabbled in that pony version of the necronomicon, but no one who was a sombra or nightmare moon. Threats like that seem scarce in the wasteland.
The Changelings would have fled to Saddle Arabia or some other foreign nation. With Equestria gone, they lose a vast source of poistive emotion to feed on.
Well dang, there goes all my hard work for my Foe Hivemind story *cries* (I am kidding of course) I think I will continue to develop Hivemind with my own canon, but will read and re-read though your canon, and sort of mix and match as my story requires.
(and wait for the inevitable "But KKat said this and you have done that! comments")
I've actually been working on a setting which incorporates changelings for a private/limited/friends PNP I plan to run. It touches on a lot of the things you've posted here already, but in a different way. Think, "Friendship Cult". It's meant to be both something that sounds like it would be good for the wasteland, while at the same time being... wrong. Like the "pony" who set it up doesn't /quite/ understand.
I actually based it off the idea of the Sharing from the Animorphs series, interestingly enough...
But the theme is clear. Changelings are desperate and starving, and thus have to intervene more directly in ponies' lives.
Changelings, i see more as being a very small subset of stable ponies more than wasteland able. Those out there though, i see trying to rebuild major cities until they can support a queen again. You keep reaching for that one critical threshold that you need for the hive to establish a queen, from the many linked together. The queen then acts as a focus and beacon for them all, and extends the capabilities.
Where ponies went off the beaten path to self destruction, towards the end of the war, i can see changelings aiming to prevent this, from both sides. No food is no hive. And that singular focus would drive the queen or queens out there to reach for that biological safety. Even if it meant co-existence or forcing the pods in the stables. Yet, for all the harm, the changelings would have kept the ponies in true bliss for the time in those pods.
For those trapped outside, the badlands and more remote places give them a chance to actually steer and help those caught outside. I could see them being the ones that actually helped kickstart civilization after the bombs fell. Shelter, guards, supplies, even food, something a desperate pony or zebra would love in that dark hour.
3119759 I rather like the way you have done them, sorta animalistic in a way. After all, a pet wants to be loved more than anything. And yet, with more love, it opens up more higher capacity for learning.
What is Bethesda is doing? I can't wait two hours! I need to know now!
FoE: a Guardian's Tales has Changelings That feed off of Blood magic.(If I remember right).
FoE: a Changeling Perspective MC is a clone made by a stable to be Soldiers to Claim the wasteland.
I do love these headcanon posts you make, particularly since it gives me an avenue to hear more imaginative ideas and settings within the Fallout: Equestria universe. I never would have thought of linking the Changelings with Tranquility Lane, but it makes perfect sense considering the pods that everyone's favorite bugs were keeping ponies in - if they feed on love, what other purpose could those serve?
I am especially intrigued by your notion of a Changeling pretending to be a Caesar-esque figure in order to profit off of the nationalistic love that would inspire. That opens up some very interesting possibilities, like whether the Changeling would actually care about the nation itself for more than their own self-preservation. What if the pretender initially only built up this guise for the sake of food, but then eventually started genuinely believing their rhetoric, and started to forget what they originally were (like, for example, Amon from The Legend of Korra). All of that sounds fascinating, and it makes me jealous that I cannot participate in these Fallout roleplaying games you are always talking about!
I did have a question about this passage, though:
Surely that wouldn't be much help to a Changeling, would it? So far as our canon goes, they feed solely on love, not lust. Perhaps there are remote exceptions, but "love" does not seem like something one would encounter frequently in such places, at least not the real, emotional love that the show-Changelings depend on. Any such feelings found in a place that like would probably be incidental and very scarce, so how would it make sense for Changelings to hole up there?
My only idea for changelings in this universe was something to do with pre-war automobiles, only because the name of the car in Fallout 2: the Chrysalis.
Pretty uncreative in hindsight.
You said there could be a chance of them getting mutated, or even horribly addicted to love.
Perhaps they could be like Nightkin:
Horribly addicted that they'll kill for love, like Nightkins do for Stealth-Boys.
Sometimes if A changeling has too much love, it makes somewhat negative affects.
They could be even mutated (Without FEV) and become oversized, towering creatures.
They could be typically the ponies/changelings in the wasteland around Big Mac's size or Larger.
Ech, I don't know. A Idea I came up with off the top of my head.
Another thing that we'd have to consider is that there's most likely more than just Chrysalis' hive. There, of course, would be more than just that one hive and spread through out Equestria, perhaps even further. I plan on writing a story that focuses on an entirely different country, one that in my headcanon has a changeling hive. I never really thought about adding them, until you made this blog. And that hive is most likely greatly different from any in Equestria. Anyways, nice blog. Until next time,
-Sphinx
I did bounce the idea of using changelings in my head, but decided ageist it. In there place I came up with the Lurker Queen and her drone broods. A mix of lurker, flux/taint, Sparkal-Cola Rad, an overgrown punga tree, and the bodies of the Sparkal-Cola plant employees. Their a minor Threat on the Marewaii Islands, but only because there contact with the pony population is small. But nothings stopping them from simply leaving, and swilling to the rest of the world.
Because of this blog I rewatched the episode, and had a personal headcanon ruined for me, but... that's okay. At least now I know I was wrong, and can move forward.
Ironic timing in all of this, because a group of us met up at Midwest Bronyfest. and are currently waiting for the GM to be available on Skype so we can schedule when we'll play, and one of the characters IS going to be playing a Changeling. He's going to be teamed up with my character, a filly/cub Gryphon, as she escaped from her boring STABLE in search of her sister, who has been gone FAR too long in search of their dad, who had been captured in a raid on the STABLE before they repelled the attackers and resealed the vault. (There will be SO many hyjinx, including a Team Rocket parody motto, as the Changeling takes the disguise of the Gryphon, and proceeds to do the motto with her.)
Hey, Kkat, thoughts on the trailer now that it's out?
You know.. that does make a lot of sense.. and would love to see more on these ideas, or stories using them.....
But I really can't get that excited right now.... to much hype over FO4
But yes, another awesome idea.
I wonder,
Necromancy and the resulting Ghoulification is technicaly the inversion of life.
If a Changeling is turned into a ghoul does he have to feed on negative emotions or Balefire energy?
Unrelated Question:
Where are the Diamond Dogs in this Equestria? These mutts need some love too.
A Tranquility Lane Vault/Stable, run by a friendly changeling queen, sounds like something that would fit right into the world.
3120368 They're the Hellhounds look em up.
I was thinking of a Nightkin variant of changelings that lost the ability to shapeshift so rely on faulty proto-types of a device designed to camouflage ponies.
Ummmm... Kkat? That screenshot of the "changeling pods" isn't actually from the show. The only pony we see podded (canonically) is Celestia, and she's wide awake in there.
war...war never changes...
when the megaspells fell at the end of the Great War...thousands of pony lives were spared the horror of the fallout in giant underground shelters, the Stables. but such shelters were not for my kind, for us, we had only the Hive, an imperfect shelter for over ten thousand Changlings. now, two hundred and fifty years after the Great War destroyed the world, we r forced to the surface again to search for food, resources, and most importantly...love. but such things r very hard to find in the new Equestrain Wasteland, in particular love. the closest source of anything resembling love that we know of, comes to us as stories told of the new Los Pegasus Strip and the grandeur it holds under its mysterious overboss, Mr Card House. a place where a pony could bring in a fortune at the roulette tables, enjoy the most succulent dinning experiences, or just live it up like the Princesses could in pre-war Equestria.
a place that we Changlings might find a new home...
for if the stories we've heard about the Stable Dweller or the Chosen Ones r true...then the one thing the Wasteland has in abundance is the opportunity for change. the only problem...the so called New Canterlot Republic is also looking to expand its borders...and take the Strip for themselves. no...the Queens would not let that happen...not to us...not again...ponies can change, we Changlings r experts at it...but this conflict of interests between the Changling Legion and the NCR could lead to a new war...and war...war never changes...
Mutations? Huge variety possible.
Differing varieties that can consume other forms of emotion, but it has warped and twisted them physically and mentally as a result. (Slayers have barbed protuberances on their carapace and tyranid-like scything talons instead of wings and are fear-eaters. Lust-driven Succubi are now allergic to true love, but are physically healthier and more durable, as lust is an easy-to-find commodity; however, they lack a hive structure, and can't breed anywhere near as quickly as even ponies can. Stitchers feed on pain, and disguise themselves as doctors, but it's just a thin veil, not a true Guise; they have multiple sharp, cutting claws and even mandibles (unlike other 'lings) and their spit is an antiseptic. Many more possibilities exist from there)
Story Prompt: Group discovers that a doctor in a town is a Stitcher 'ling, and is suddenly being faced with prejudice from outside forces; the town still considers the 'ling one of their own, as s/he has been faithfully taking care of them for a decade or more. the Group has to mediate somehow to either save the town from irrational outsiders or destroy the possible point of infection (the ling)
Changelings that cannot feed on emotion anymore, due to being heavily irradiated. they're effectively starving to death in slow-motion, as the necromantic radiation keeps them mostly alive, but they can't draw their food source anymore. Similar to ghouls, but a lot more vicious, and are only 'nice' for the first week or so of the process, while they still have their minds intact. After that, the hunger and pain and fear get to them.
Hives in which the whole breeding process has become corrupted. Similar to the Xenomorphs in the Alien series, they must now implant into living hosts, who need to care for and love the infant 'lings, or else they turn out... wrong. And eat their way out. the entire hive is the 'wrong' lings, but they just want their infants to come out 'right', even with their skewed moral compasses. The primary problem is that there's only other lings to implant into, and they aren't 'viable love sources' for the infant's purposes.
The 'wrongness' takes the form of combat tentacles, razor-sharp teeth coming out of things like skin and th elike, a lack of strong magic, extra (possibly functional) eyes in places they don't go, nonfunctioning wings, weeping sores, malformed chitin, and their emotivorism stuck at 'on and strong', making it dangerous for any non-ling to be near them for anything resembling a decent length of time.
Story Prompt: Mares (and a few stallions) have been going missing from a town that is, unbeknownst to them, near the Hive in question. They show up a few days later, the mares visibly pregnant and the stallions with a painful puncture mark. The group has to figure out what to do with the 'waste-spawn' growing the ponies, and what to do about the source of the problem.
Changelings who decided to begin eating hate as a substitute. Found out it's a bit like mercury for everything else and the whole group is crazier than the manic raiders and monsters out there. Usually mistaken for ghouls.
Story Prompt: Group tries to save the younger 'lings before they become 'infected' with the craziness.
Possibilities for magic variants:
A group infuses its own spellfire with Balefire, making it a potent and immensely more powerful form of the older magic. However, it reduces 'Ling fertility, irradiates every non-ling or ling without the same augmentation, and occasionally causes the dead nearby to rise again without purpose or control.
Story Prompt: These changelings have become a dangerous force, but not all of them agree that they should take over and force the world to 'love' them.
The changelings decide that they need to preserve their food source and set up a protected vale for their pony 'crops'. However, over time, they've come to intermingle (just because new queens over time and all that) and have become a much nicer place than the rest of the wasteland, complete with growable safe crops, clean water, decent shelter for everyone, and a decent guard force that is well-armed.
Story Prompt: Now what happens when a group of outsiders accidentally bring the Wasteland to this beautiful, once-safe vale?
So yeah, ideas and story idea prompts. 'The Group' can refer to either the Protagonist and co or another group of travelers the Protagonist(s) encounter int eh middle of the events.
Oh. My. God.
These headcanons are awesome.
hi hi
On the subject of love, I usually avoid using the word in absolute terms, just because it is such a broad, ambiguously defined word that encompasses several different concepts. For instance, I don't think that friendship and love are necessarily two separate things to begin with.
The English word love encompasses at least four separate concepts which were individually defined in the Greek language. Agape, which is a sort of compassion, forgiveness, charity and affection for groups as a whole; Eros, which is an intimate, romantic love; Philia, which is a sort of brotherly love, which also includes friendship, and is itself broken up into three separate subcategories; and Storge, which is a sort of familial love, the love between parents and their children, and vice versa.
I don't think that any of these types of love are necessarily more "true," or more important than the others, even though they are certainly different. Some changelings may even have personal preferences about which type of love they like the most, just like some people have preferences about which type of food they like the most.
There is also Robert Sternberg's Triangular Theory of Love, which does a reasonably good job of describing several different kinds of love from a scientific perspective. ((In my own campaign, I created a faction of former soldiers from Red Eye's army that was run by three leaders, each representing one of Sternberg's three components of love, but noticeably absent of the other two. Likeness, Passion, and Commitment. It helped inform their strengths as characters, what might be redeeming qualities, but also their deep character flaws.))
((Edit: Also, there's the love of a fine game franchise.
))
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As for changelings themselves, this interpretation lines up very closely with what I had already imagined for my own Campaign. I'm trying to pick my words carefully so as to avoid potential spoilers, although the modern day changeling arc probably won't come up any time soon, if ever. But I will say this: "If deception is normal, trust becomes impossible, and cooperation becomes difficult at best. Coming from such a background, it is little wonder that Changelings might rally around a strong, charismatic leader who wields absolute authority, just for the sense of order that she might bring. That is, of course, until they start to realize the true costs of such order, and when it becomes their turn to pay that price."
One last thing. I'd like to second Azgar's notion about mutated changelings possibly needing to feed of negative emotions instead. Also, zombie changelings would make an excellent expy for the fire ants from Greyditch. (only difference is their fire is green.)
3120710 Out of curiosity, have you ever read The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis? I know that he probably wasn't the first to imagine the idea of love in four parts, but it was the first place that I heard of it and I recall him explaining the concept very persuasively.
3119724
I kinda picture the changelings looking like this in the Wasteland:
derpicdn.net/img/view/2013/4/28/310761__safe_crossover_queen+chrysalis_gun_car_fallout_shotgun_wasteland_artist-colon-darth-dash-biomech_mad+max.jpeg
I but I'm more curious about the others lands in the world of MLP:FIM like the land where Tirek and Scorpan came from. It would be cool if someone write a Fallout: Equestria story starring a Centaur or a Gargoyle.
Fallout: Equestria - Change suggests that some changelings had adapted to feed on hatred and despair, and so turned into the very worst of raiders—creatures who rape and torture others in order to feed on them. I'm a big fan of that headcanon.
3121265
I'm unfamiliar with that one, so I couldn't really say much about it. I do quote C.S. Lewis on a semi-regular basis, but I've never really gotten into his work as a whole. In any case, I would wager that there are probably more than four parts to love. Sternberg describes nine types, and I suspect that his theory is still somewhat overly simplistic, but some of this is going to probably end up being a matter of how exacting one's standards are.
I think it's an interesting idea for a benevolent Changling queen to set up their own large faction to create a society that would support a crop of emotions from it's non-Changling citizens.
Kind of sounds interesting. One things for sure, it certainly doesn't sound like Red Eye's idea of getting the Equestria wasteland back to an ideal society. The way Red Eye talked about his ideal dream, I wouldn't be surprised if Red Eye had a huge list with Stern and had certain ponies on it that he didn't want to exist in his ideal world at a certain stage of it's development.
But it does make you wonder what if such a Changling queen saw Equestria starting to recover? I would imagine she wouldn't want a new threat showing up in her carefully built world and their could be many possibly all over the place.
I have been bitter about changelings since they first showed up in the show, because they detailed my favorite MUSH and took a number of food I liked towards a plot/character arc/conclusion that almost took the bits I liked from under me and crushed them.
So I must thank you.
Finally, an interpretation I could be comfortable with, even genuinely invested in. I'll be more patient with stories that play with Changelings now, in hopes they ll do this, or something else even more curious and kinda hopeful.
Is it bad that I'm more hyped for Overmare Studios Fallout Equestria than I am for Fallout 4?
>_>
I just thought of something: A FO:E/Fury Road crossover would make quite a bit of sense. Immortan Joe as a changeling queen, the Warboys are the changelings, and the Bloodbags are "Love Donors"
An interesting story i have seen is that Changelings can detect emotions and feelings, making them excellent persons for guards for the wary traders. A Unicorn Mare who has the uncanny ability to say read peoples minds and body language (A changeling) could easily find employment and companionship on the road or even in towns in limited numbers.
This would make a more sensible symbiotic relationship instead of a parasitic one, providing a real tangible benefit with their emotion detection magic and shape shifting. In fact legends in the wasteland could have been changelings morphing from one pony to another feeding from the love and adoration of their achievements, perhaps the problems caused by themselves, where the changelings fixes that last problem.
Certainly spawns amazing ideas huh?
Assuming they can't feed off of their own love, I'd guess that they can somehow store love.
If they could feed on the own love of their own kind, it would kind of trivialize that aspect of them and your interpretation of the Canterlot Wedding, which I agree with.
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Another user did some worldbuilding where the Changelings gathered love and brought it back to feed a hive, somehow.
If changeling communities large enough to have armies and queens exist, it makes sense that not every changeling would need to directly collect love.
And that some love lasts them longer than a meal.
(And on a related note, do they need to eat or does love alone sustain them?)
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So far as where they would be, barring horrible mutations I see three categories.
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First off would be Changeling communities that were distant enough to survive, assuming they are somewhat remote and definitely tried to avoid the war.
Such communities would recognize a crisis in their love collection, and search out and care for any surviving ponies or zebras who would be grateful for their aid regardless of knowing that they are changelings.
This route would lead to changeling nation building with nation of mostly changelings and some other beings, that would be somewhat like a gilded cage where they try to keep the others loving and happy, but forbid them to leave due to low population.
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Second, I'd guess many Changelings in Equestria would have taken to the skies to pretend to be Pegasus, assuming they share the walk-on-clouds trait.
In the chaos of the apocalypse, even a large immigration like that could easily go unnoticed.
The resulting military government would probably lead to the changelings laying low, trying to keep their large-scale migration a secret.
As such the Enclave may have a hidden changeling population - it would be helped by them discouraging having many children if memory serves - as that could reveal them.
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Third, I think some Changelings were probably living as ponies when the apocalypse happened, and so some may have found their way into the Stables.
There wouldn't have been enough for a persistent population and their discovery, at least on death, could prove shocking, but for whatever it would mean, if it would be possible, some ponies might have a little Changeling blood in them.
I could maybe, maybe see one Vault having enough Changelings by a infiltration scheme to assign a disproportionate number of Stable passes to Changelings.
It would be a desperate plan by a Changeling Queen to ensure that her race survives the war.
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I could certainly see a wandering Changeling desperately clinging to whatever companionship they could get, and eagerly joining a band of characters.
Is this cow in the glasses in the comic...
...a nerdcow?
I hope so.
I've always though that the changelings would mutate into something like the tyranids.
static.giantbomb.com/uploads/original/1/17172/1136309-tyranid_hive_brood_by_lordhannu.jpg
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Now that would be awesome.
hi hi
Another thing I realized about ponies and changelings is that they have a lot in common in the Wasteland. There are plenty of scary monsters out there to make Changelings look tame by comparison, and suppose some changeling says that gathering food is difficult and dangerous for them? Well, same with just about everyone else in the Wasteland.
An idea-a two changeling Queens and their smallish Hives go raiding to find very young foals, which they put in a small part a few miles wide that they in effect disguise as the old Equestria to fool the foals that nothing is wrong, feeding off the love of the foals as they grow. Of course nopony is ever allowed to leave the area unless a new bit is added to it. The result, is an oasis of prosperity which the changelings keep raider free. I might make that into a story one day, but if others want to use it PM me about it please.
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I like the idea of, somehow, the changelings making the best, happiest life for ponies within a zone so they can feed on love.
The catch would be, of course, that noone could leave.
Of course, they would play up the Wasteland being dead and dangerous on a level that would rival the Enclave to keep them willing to stay - huge propaganda that has a grain of truth.
Players in my game stop reading now. You know who you are
So, a changeling-based conspiracy is a minor cog in my campaign where the city of Saraneighvo somehow survived the megaspell bombardment. The basics are this brilliant but flawed unicorn science pushing magics beyond his ken accidentally changes his daughter permanently (because exploring ancient ruins and performing magic rituals found in a journal is perfect family bonding). In order to cover this up the same entity that provided him with the opportunity to replace his daughter so no one would be any the wiser. The replacement was a changeling and I think of her as a "young queen" a juvenile ambitious and hotheaded who takes the role and the unconditional love of her new-mother and new-sister (the unicorn father is disgusted, but he isn't being investigated by any of the ministries so win). That unicorn ends up coming in importance to the rest of the story but that's not important here.
Cut forward. When the megaspells started to fall, and a certain educated, skilled and ambitious young queen understood that the world was ending how hard would it be for a changeling princess to find a way into a Stable. How hard would it be for a changeling princess to gain influence in a Stable. So in the campaign there are changeling drones who have been sent out of the Stable to explore for the frankly paranoid queen. Apart from their fellows and malnourished (hate gallops on the winds) they develop a variety of neuroses. I've got an insane changeling who insists they're the owner AND staff of a broken down Manse. There's a changeling who adopts orphans and takes them away from what's left of their families (cause no parents means no family right?). A changeling convinced he's a pony and mutating. Overall this idea came to me from ABCs of Fallout Equestria, chapter 'G' I think. And as for the nature of changelings that comes from a variety of fics, the Irony of Applejack and Mendacity come to mind quickly.