This story is a sequel to Advanced Lessons
After stumbling upon the secret history between her mentor and the Queen of the Changelings, Twilight now finds herself in a position to put an end to the Pony-Changeling conflict...if she can just deal with all the craziness around her.
Alongside Chrysalis herself, Prince Blueblood, and her friends, Twilight must now visit the home of Chrysalis' Changelings, to ascertain for herself, whether or not the Changelings can live alongside ponies peacefully. Are the Changelings just a bunch of monsters? Or do they have more in-common with Ponies than anypony thought?
By popular demand (At least one person :}) here's the story detailing Twilight's visit to the Changelings. This is an interquel, that takes place during the timeskip between Ch.2 and Ch.3 of my earlier story Advanced Lessons. In this case, you're probably going to need to read that first, to be able to follow everything. Hopefully everyone enjoys reading it. -Featured: 6/29/14-
I'm pleasantly surprised to see this surface. Didn't realise there was going to be a sequel.
More of an interquel, but yeah, A few people voiced some curiosity as to what happened during Twilight's visit to the changelings, and I promised that if I had some ideas I'd write it up. I had the ideas
This is looking like fun, although I cannot help but feel like Fluttershy would have been a much better choice than Rainbow Dash. Still, Rainbow is awesome and she will be far more fun so I am definitely happy with your choice.
Also, Celestia totally felt like she was playing mother to everyone in the first part of the conversation.
Yeah, that was pretty much the reasoning. Pinkie and Rainbow are definitely not the best choices for ambassadorial work...which is precisely why they are the ones going.
With how well you handled things before, especially the characterisation, I simply know this is going to be absolutely exquisite.
Woo~
Good to see this actually becoming a thing. I look forward to it. Also, you have a bunch of unnecessary commas in there. Just so you know.
3967180 Yeah, gonna take care of the editing soon. Thanks for mentioning it.
I didn't expect this and I'm not sure where it's going but it's a fun read so far.
You managed to capture the other Elements quite well, despite their lack of presence in the original fic. Rainbow Dash is not putting her best hoof forward but quite in character for her at her most aggressive and Rarity is going to feel so vindicated after the events of Advanced Lessons. Pinkie Pie manages to actually amuse with her insights ("Aren't you yelling at Fluttershy?") which is easier to say she should do than to write and Fluttershy's apologizing to the point of annoyance is on the nose.
Oh, two more things I forgot to point out should probably be elaborated on:
1) How's Luna reacting to this? She should remember Chrysalis as an enemy and have been gone for the whole friendship aspect and
2).How much of that friendship aspect do the other Elements know?
4058341 Celestia spoke with Luna about this offscreen, shortly before the beginning of Advanced Lessons. Celestia let her know that Chrysalis was coming and explained the history between herself and the Changeling Queen. Luna was naturally wary of the whole situation, but considering that the reason Celestia grew closer to Chrysalis over the centuries was because of Luna's banishment, she felt a bit too guilty to go against Celestia on it. She's also been informed of the fact that they are working on a peace solution; again considering the Nightmare Moon incident, she found it hard to argue against giving the Changelings a chance. Celestia also informed key members of the staff before Chrysalis originally appeared for Advanced Lesson, and had her own defenses up. Celestia's trust was still broken, and while she wanted to find a way to address things, she wasn't going to be naive about it.
I might do a short one-shot about Celestia speaking with Luna about it in the future, if there's any interest for it.
The other Elements of Harmony kind of stumbled across the original meeting in Advanced Lessons, so have been informed of what generally had gone on. Chrysalis and Celestia have known one another a long time, don't really want to be enemies anymore, but didn't know anyway to solve the dilemma between Ponies and Changelings. They're not particularly aware of why Chrysalis did what she did at the Royal Wedding, that she felt she was compromising the welfare of her subjects for the sake of her own personal desires. Applejack and Rainbow Dash are blatantly suspicious. Rarity is watching the situation closely. Fluttershy just wants everything to be alright. And Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie. And Twilight has the best grasp of the situation and wants it all to work out.
Did that help?
4058668
It did, but I'm saying at least mentioning Luna at some point (she doesn't have to show up or be a major topic of discussion) would be handy for the story because currently all discussion of her has really focused on past Luna and how her leaving affected Celestia without it really being acknowledged that she's around now and helping rule the country, if that makes sense.
4060015 Don't worry, I intend on involving her a bit later.
Ha! I knew Rarity was a gold digger and looking to get in with royalty any way she can but Chryssi? Yeah... I can see it.
4061885 Not quite.
EDIT: That being said, I wouldn't mind seeing a RarityXChrysalis story. The Drama Queen and the Changeling Queen.
4061885
4063351
Huh, that's a pairing I haven't seen. And I've seen a couple Trixie/Chrysalis stories (sadly the one i can remember the title of is unfinished). I suppose she always did want to be royalty. It would be tricky to pull off, might work best as a comedy. Rarity could enjoy always having someone the right color and build to model any dress she makes.
Though yes, in this story it's fairly obvious she's just noting the way Chrysalis is reacting to Celestia.
4067731 Probably would have to be a comedy, like you say, but I can imagine some genuinely sweet moments that could arise from that kind of pairing, as well. Though it would be a challenging pairing to pull off.
And, yes, Rarity is just noting that for 'friends' there are some ambiguously placed boundaries between the two rulers. Between what she's been told, Rarity's eye for detail, and romantic views, she's wondering if there's more going on between the two rulers than what has been said. Princess Celestia basically admitted to having given chocolates to Chrysalis before.
At least they are having fun.
Well... That was an unexpected bond formed between Chrysalis and Rainbow Dash. I liked how it started by going from them bickering over who's more attractive to them agreeing about how frustrating and repressed Twilight is.
Your version of Chrysalis is a fun read. It's hard to say how accurate she is because we don't see Chrysalis doing a lot of interaction with anyone that's not her enemy but smugness and gloating have definitely been established as parts of her character in canon as well as some degree of mockery. In fact, being too caught up in gloating to the point where it's counterproductive to her own cause is a character trait she displays and it's definitely on display in your stories. The trick of course is keeping her somewhat likeable at the same time and you manage that so far.
4104007 It's definitely a balancing act, working with what is known from canon while still striving to make her sympathetic (in her own way) and interesting in her own way. It's a different challenge from most characters.
And yeah, neither Chrysalis or Rainbow Dash know where they stand with one another, after their argument, and so both have decided to kind of ignore the topic. It's actually a recurring flaw I'm working into my interpretation of Chrysalis; not being able to bring her self to talk about her own personal issues. She didn't bring up the issues she had with their agreement, with Celestia (Till after she did something reckless). She's not willing to bring up the feelings she has for Celestia. And she looks for anyway to distract herself from her anxieties about bringing outsiders to her swarm.
That was fantastic. I really like what you are doing with the characters, and the Rainbow/Chrysalis dynamic is hilarious.
That was very good and I am looking forwards to seeing what you did with the changelings in more detail. I have done a huge mess of research and thinking into the nuts and bolts of the changelings and I am kind of curious to see what you came up with.
I like the idea of more queens. Unless the are all dead.
I liked the way you used twins to play with Twilight/the audience's expectations and Pinkie being invited seems to be about as much trouble as my... well not my worst fears but not the best hopes. Medium estimations? That sounds right.
Little touches like the scout changelings finding the idea of construction work boring help round out the setting.
Not sure about the idea of more queens. Chrysalis is a monster that can fight Celestia under the right circumstances (admittedly Love Magic is ridiculously powerful in the setting as she found out to her detriment at the end) and immortal to boot in your version. Seems like there shouldn't be a lot of those around. On the other hand there are now four alicorns so a similarly small number of changeling queens wouldn't break suspension of disbelief.
4180185 No worries, as far as the number of Changeling Queens go. I won't go into details on that, in the event that I use them for the future, but suffice to say they are very few in number. Also, Chrysalis is not quite immortal in my setting. It's more that she, along with other changeling queens, don't really have hard-set lifespans. I'll be getting into more detail on that in the next chapter or two.
And yeah, Pinkie's going to be causing her own problems, but she'll also get to make her own positive contributions, as well.
4179330 And I'm glad that my ideas have been so well-received; as I mentioned, I've put more than a bit of thought into it. Feel free to ask more about them. As long as it doesn't pertain to something relevant to the story, which not all of it does, I'd be happy to share.
4179803 Not dead, just not exposed to the world, like Chrysalis is now.
As always, thanks for the reviews. Not really sure how many chapters this story is going to be. Every time I sit down to write, I come up with more-and-more stuff. It's sitting around five or six chapters now, when I originally thought it was going to just be three. So don't hold me to that.
4183770 On the plus side, Pinkie is going to be the only one who can tell the twins apart because that is just how she rolls.
As for questions, I do not really have anything specific because I kind of want to know everything which you cannot do.
As such, I think I am just going to request a data dump at the end when you cannot spoil anything. I kind of doubt it is as extensive as my mountain of notes, although you probably did not go into depth on the biomechanics required to have a creature that size with an exoskeleton the way I did. (and yes, I am insane 
)
4183804 Heh, Pinkie Pie can become friends with anyone, when she puts her mind to it. And that's all that I'll say on that, for now.
And fair enough, a data dump it shall be. I plan on touching on quite a bit of my thoughts, but it'll be nice knowing I don't have to shoehorn in every thought on them into the story. For the time being, if there is something that stands out as odd or that doesn't make sense to you about my interpretation of the changelings, feel free to ask or point it out. I've probably got some solid reasoning behind it, and if I don't it's nice to have it mentioned now, where some simple editing won't cause any massive snarls.
4183829 Sounds good, and I do not recall seeing any hiccups in the chapter. Of course, I could have missed something, but I will make sure to bring up any issues I see in the future.
That said, one thing I will hit preemptively is the blood. Changelings are large and complex enough that they must have the greater efficiency of hemoglobin to transport oxygen in their vascular system which also must be as complex as a mammal in order to support their large bodies. As such, their blood would be red and not green or something (which is really strange given that Chlorocruorin is fairly rare and limited to some worms, most of which are aquatic).
As for Pinkie, I don't think it needs to be said that she can tell the twins apart. It would honestly be less extreme than a lot of what she does in the show and it is necessary for her to become friends with them so there is no way she will fail to do it.
4183804
At that size, wouldn't be easier to just have an endoskeleton and some outer armor plating like a more protected armadillo or pangolin rather than a true exoskeleton? Mind you, when all else fails: magic. What with the Cragodiles and Timberwolves, Equestrian biology clearly needn't resemble terrestrial.
4184319 It is easier, but it is not impossible. It just requires a much more complex body structure than terrestrial arthropods. I'll dump the joints and stuff section of my notes. Most of it is mandatory, although you could go with a simpler lung configuration if you wanted to (I can understand not wanting to make nonstop talking a racial trait when Pinkie is around). Let me know if you want any more of my nuts and bolts work, there is a bunch more covering other important bits which you are free to use if you want to.
chitinous, segmented exoskeletons must be thick and strong to support weight
joints in particular have extremely high load bearing requirements
as a result, changeling joints are much more complicated than insect joints
have a bearing pin going fully through the inner layer with cushioning tissue around it
also serves as natural armor, however healing would be very slow like bone
the thickness of the exoskeleton would make molting a slow process
faces are a thiner, more pliable layer with a secondary skull-shell to protect the brain
must have large, well developed heart and lungs like a bird or bat with hemoglobin-based blood
different from terrestrial arthropods to allow larger bodies and increased neural activity
use dual tracheae to allow continuous unidirectional airflow (in the nose, out the mouth)
this allow exceptionally efficient O2/CO2 transfer beyond what birds are capable of
continuous exhale allows continuous talking or singing without stopping to breathe
this is made possible by the lack of a spinal column and reduced neck muscles
neck is fairly inflexible with just a pin at each end and rotary disks in the middle
disks are like the turret on a tank, but have short range of motion locked by bone pegs
have a small esophagus to make room for second trachea
stretches to accommodate food and restricts the tracheae
this forces them to quickly regurgitate any food in the esophagus if they have to fly
must have thermoregulation to maintain physiological efficiency and observed activity
can pump blood into the wings to act as radiators or solar collectors
also have sweat glands primarily around the head, back, and wing muscles
these are the highest heat generation areas, although there are some all over the body
this increases food and water requirements to mammal-like levels
4184609 Very interesting. If it's alright with you, I'd like to take few pages from your book, when it comes to physiology of changelings. My primary focus has been on the cultural end of things.
4188451 Go for it. I'll dump the whole file here because it has some other little details like the structure and appearance of the eyes that will probably come up sooner or later. That also has my take on the history which does fill some holes in the canon timeline, although it is probably incompatible with your stuff so you should probably ignore it.
Let me know if you have any questions.
changeling physiology
size:
height (to top of head): .9~1.2m
mass: 30~50kg
this is slightly smaller than ponies, but not much
chitinous, segmented exoskeletons must be thick and strong to support weight
joints in particular have extremely high load bearing requirements
as a result, changeling joints are much more complicated than insect joints
have a bearing pin going fully through the inner layer with cushioning tissue around it
also serves as natural armor, however healing would be very slow like bone
the thickness of the exoskeleton would make molting a slow process
faces are a thiner, more pliable layer with a secondary skull-shell to protect the brain
must have large, well developed heart and lungs like a bird or bat with hemoglobin-based blood
different from terrestrial arthropods to allow larger bodies and increased neural activity
use dual tracheae to allow continuous unidirectional airflow (in the nose, out the mouth)
this allow exceptionally efficient O2/CO2 transfer beyond what birds are capable of
continuous exhale allows continuous talking or singing without stopping to breathe
this is made possible by the lack of a spinal column and reduced neck muscles
neck is fairly inflexible with just a pin at each end and rotary disks in the middle
disks are like the turret on a tank, but have short range of motion locked by bone pegs
have a small esophagus to make room for second trachea
stretches to accommodate food and restricts the tracheae
this forces them to quickly regurgitate any food in the esophagus if they have to fly
must have thermoregulation to maintain physiological efficiency and observed activity
can pump blood into the wings to act as radiators or solar collectors
also have sweat glands primarily around the head, back, and wing muscles
these are the highest heat generation areas, although there are some all over the body
this increases food and water requirements to mammal-like levels
senses:
must have excelent vision for flight, eyes are primary sensory input
eyes are adapted to see a lower radiation band than humans, can see near-IR but not blue
range is approximately 500 nm to 1400 nm
also have a secondary set of thermographic receptors to see approximately 9 to 10.5 µm
cornea reflects higher frequencies which makes the eyes appear blue in daylight
underneath the cornea, eyes are fairly typical, with a vertical slitted pupel
color varies between individuals with green, gold, and grey being most common
brown and red are rare but possible, but blue/violet are not due to cornea
"grey" can be blue/violet pigments or an IR-primary color in addition to true grey
all colors have varying shades, blends, irridesence, and so on
eyes may get a blue tint in moderate light from cornea
Chrysalis's eyes are damaged and lack this protection
this has damaged her eyes and ruined her night vision
this improves low-light vision, but requires larger eyes to get good resolution
also have tapetum lucidum for improved low-light vision
eyeshine is typically less pronounced than normal reflection off the cornea
hearing is also good, but not exceptional
touch is reasonably acute, but nowhere near human hands and not as good as ponies
primarily done through a thin skin layer with various sensory cells over exoskeleton
most notable feature is short, fine sensory hares like spiders have
these give changelings a slightly fuzzy texture to touch, although they are hard to see
ponies would not notice this because of their fur unless they licked a changeling
have relatively weak sense of smell because they rely on eyes for threat detection
however, they do have a number of specialized pheremone sensors to help identify emotions
taste is relatively strong to compensate for weak smell in detecting toxins
diet:
fairly standard omnivores like humans
as such, diet is fairly similar to humans in most ways allowing for regional avalibility
can tolerate pony food like hay to blend in, but cannot get nutrition from it
reproduction:
after mating, females lay a single very large egg which they protect in a gelatinous cocoon
eggs typically weigh about 3.5~4.5 kg or 10% of the mother's body weight
this egg is too large to fully develop inside the exoskeleton of the female
this forces the underside of their exoskeleton to open while the egg develops
females are mostly immobile during this timeframe and spend most of it on their side
incubation is usually a communal process when possible due to the required time and energy
in large communities/cities, there may be individuals who specialize in this
this workload may also be shared with trusted members of other species
parents still care for their individual offspring after birth
young are roughly comperable to human or pony infants uppon hatching
timeline after a sucessful mating:
shell opens at about 24 hours
egg is laid at about 72 hours, shell closes within minutes of release
egg hatches after about 8 months of incubation
magic/love energy:
changelings do not really eat love
they use it to get others to lower natural defenses so they can steal magic energy
ponies can learn to voluntarily relax these defenses to "feed" changelings
unicorns can learn to directly feed changelings
this is mostly used for emergencies when a changeling cannot feed themselves at all
changelings can do magic, but they must draw their power from their energy reserve
it takes at least a month to build up a full charge, and is usually much longer
like most life in Equestria, changelings use magic in a number of key biological processes
most creatures can draw this energy from the enviornment, but changelings cannot
this means they must have an external source of magic to survive
holding more energy induces more losses to biological processes and less efficent storage
changelings can also make magic storage goo for long term holding
this energy can all be released in a very short period of time if needed
this makes a well-fed changeling devestating in a fight, but recharging afterwards is slow
flying requires magic like pegasi
as such, a changeling with very low magic cannot fly
msc:
changeling brains can "overclock" in high stress situations
this gives them excetional reaction time and makes the world look like bullet time
this lets them fly through close terrain at very high speeds
history:
changelings were closely associated with earth pony tribes to cover their weaknesses
changelings kept them from becoming slaves, but were hated by the other tribes for it
were initially part of Equestria and were critical to the military for their burst power
society in general shifted against them over time due to their shapeshifting
remained important to the military, were well respected by most old mil families and Luna
many changelings started going disguised at all times to avoid this prejudice
this in turn pushed more ponies away from them and made things worse
the mistreatment of changelings was part of what pushed Luna over the edge
changelings and most old families went with Luna, but the population stayed with Celestia
changelings were driven out after Luna was banished along with sympathetic ponies
Celestia and ponies erased them from history and cast them mosters along with Luna/NMM
part of the reason for this was Celestia wanting to protect them
being unknown prevented the ponies from hunting them and made it easier to sneak around
changelings were forced to sneak around to gather love which renforced pony hatred of them
this made it very hard for them to survive so their population started slowly declining
this decay was what eventually forced Chrysalis into invading after diplomacy failed
she was hoping Luna would be able to turn things around, but it didn't happen
holes are in a pattern unique to individuals, serves as visual identification
(stolen from "Love Mine")
I love the way this stay is going so far :3
How is this not featured? This story, and the prequel are amazing.
I almost feel bad for Chrysalis right now.
Thats pretty bad ass that there grandpa was a Wonderbolt.
You definitely put a lot of effort into your world-building and I like the way it manages to drop information without long exposition dumps. You're also doing a good job making the individual changelings feel like individuals. The guards might as well be Canterlot guards, the twins are their own people with their own history, Probos is an inexperienced youth, etc.
This probably explains why Celestia's guards are so often dour, as well.
Party time! Party time!
Very solid stuff. I can't wait to see more!
Great chapter, and I am glad you liked my musings.
Ah. And there we go, the expected fangs come out. Still, killing rather than imprisoning your most dangerous foes is a somewhat logical course, though it's also a waste of food stuff (though I would have picked the pink princess to polish off rather than take prisoner, so she couldn't reveal you).
Huh. Maybe Chrysalis is the nice one!
Oh boy, I think after that last comment Twilight is gonna do something very stupid.
*grins* Never think length is a mark of a good chapter. Content is what decides that and this is fantastic. I'm slavering for more.
4615094 Come on. Princess of love, remember? Somepony so kind she practically radiates the stuff they eat. I'd keep her around for a bit longer.
Why do I have the feeling that Chrysalis is "nice" one when compared to her mother.
Poor old Manti.
The title for a reigning queen's still-living mother is "Queen Mother", so Manti would most properly be addressed as "Queen Mother Manti". Of course, that may not be common knowledge, what with the ponies having princesses and the changelings' queen mothers not living long.
4617871 I probably would have used that, if I recalled it. A bit late now, but as you said, it wouldn't be unreasonable for changeling culture to lack that title.
Good catch.
EDIT: Also, Manti's lack of concern for how Twilight refers to her will come a bit into play in the next chapter.
I find her mother interesting. She doesn't really come across as evil, but from the short time she's been explored, she does seem rather.. well I suppose ruthlessly practical would put it best.