My Darling Cadance,
I’m sitting at a rustic little table outside Cuppa Joe’s cafe, calmly nursing a cup of the finest brewed beans in Canterlot. I’m also reading this report you sent me regarding how you pleasantly accommodated a changeling by the name of Thorax, and graciously welcomed him into the Crystal Empire after a weeks-long crusade of hunting this changeling down.
You then calmly and ‘rationally’ explained how your deep-seeded fears from your wedding day years ago had driven you and Shining into a paranoid mess of parents protecting your child from that potentially dangerous changeling at the time, and how it took Spike the Brave and Glorious a gloriously unnecessary musical number to relay a message of tolerating change that you, the Princess of Love, needed to be reminded of.
Now, far be it from me to suggest you needed this reminder. Surely in your boring time at the Crystal Empire you’ve come across at least a few highly undesirable citizens and tourists that have tested your patience like mine do on a daily, almost hourly basis. You should have tolerated these undesirable folk, although to be fair, they didn’t belong to a race of changelings that trashed your wedding many years ago and nearly conquered Canterlot in the process.
That reminds me, I should write a letter to Tirek sometime. Maybe I’ll declare all centaurs bad because of him.
Speaking of changelings, I can’t help but wonder if the thought had ever crossed your mind that more than one changeling might be in the Crystal Empire. I mean, there’s no way you could state with absolute certainty that’s impossible, and due to the nature of changeling disguises a marehunt is quite possibly the biggest waste of guard resources you could use, especially when more than one might be present. You didn’t even have any kind of spell to detect a changeling either, so the relative effectiveness of a marehunt for a creature that can disguise itself as an inanimate object is something to be strongly criticised. It’s almost like a knee-jerk reaction to the situation as opposed to a coherent plan.
That was Shining’s idea, wasn’t it?
But even more shocking is why you didn’t conjure that expanding love barrier you did at your wedding. You know, the one that sent every changeling flying out of Canterlot, put changeling-sized holes in buildings and floors… that lovely solution. I’m not saying this to be rude, but I seriously doubt you forgot about that. Barring that, you could also do what happened with Sombra and just charge up the Crystal Heart with love and have that pulse for you.
And frankly, I’m wondering how your citizens learned about changelings to begin with. Did they learn about them from you and Shining? That had to have been the source of their panic: two strong negative biases painting an entire race as evil from a single incident that happened years ago.
Look, I’m not saying that’s a horrid view, just horridly misinformed. To that end, I cordially invite both of you over for an afternoon visit at Cuppa’s cafe. It would do you well to have another perspective on changelings beyond the views brought on from your admittedly rubbish experience.
Plus, Cuppa’s got a few words for you as well. He’s got a… vested interest in this particular topic, and you’ll understand why when you get here. Please make arrangements to come by tomorrow--that shouldn’t be too difficult given your permanent babysitter’s presence.
We’ll be eagerly awaiting your arrival.
Love,
Celestia
So Cuppa, what is your real name? Abdomen? Antenna? Brain?
Well, ever since I learned that changeling’s name was Thorax, it got me thinking about your name. I know Cuppa’s just your cover name, but you never told me your real one! Is it Mandible? Proboscis? Pupa? Tarsal? ...Ovipositor?
No, don’t tell me your real name. I bought this anatomical dictionary, and I intend on using it! I’m going to get your real name eventually!
...Uh, just one question before I just run through this book. Is your name one of these anatomic words followed by another anatomic word?
No? Perfect, this shouldn’t take long then!
Hello, dear readers! Celestia here.
TOM's going to be away for important business this week, but in the meantime, he's asked me to conduct this survey for him in his stead.
Please take it if you're interested. Your input will be greatly appreciated.
Page generated in 0.046 seconds
Total duration
717 users online
678,320 hits today, 2,073,628 yesterday
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh god, Celestia trying to guess a Changeling's name by going through an anatomical dictionary once she knows it's only one word...priceless! XD
Cadence did explicitly note the possibility of more than one changeling, but it's not like Celestia could know that. And firing up weapons of mass repulsion feels kind of excessive if there's only the one 'ling. Heck, the Crystal Heart might just supercharge them.
Still, this was a pretty lousily handed crisis, though Cadence and Shining weren't exactly functioning at their best. They have a lot of trauma associated with changelings. Hopefully Thorax's continued presence and continued failure to imprison or dominate them will help the healing process.
Also, I find myself hoping that Cuppa's real name is actually an emotional state. After all, some ponies are named after food. Why not changelings?
7503573 Exactly.
I hope his name is Steve and Celestia only find out after going through every single term in the anatomy book.
Now, that being said...
The episode itself makes a relative amount of sense, but I understand in this story's expanded verse, with a few changelings running about the episode doesn't quite hold up and Cadance and Shining seem a bit more incompetent.
Celestia will exhaust that entire dictionary only to discover she's being trolled and Cuppa's real name is Glassa.
Oh hey! Cuppa Joe! Glad to see him being mentioned again.
I am more curious than ever now, about the changeling that appeared at CRANKY AND MATILDA'S WEDDING!!! Seriously, was that Thorax as well? I do not believe it was due to T's pleading for Spike's help to acquire some love as he was starving at the time. Unless those fireworks that erupted in the presence of love also ate up love in the combustion process...
Were, were those fireworks made FROM CHANGELING BITS!?
Yea, they really could have left that out.
7503735 No, the Changeling at the wedding was named Kevin.
Well, in Cadance's defense, this isn't like different human races, where the greatest non-cultural differences are in skin color and immunities: this is an entirely different species, with a completely different biology and psychology. Ponies have no real understanding of changelings outside of the most basic facts, plus Spike was a little quick to trust a complete stranger who was of a notoriously aggressive, deceptive, and literally parasitic species.
Then again, everything in the episode was rushed.
7503573 She doesn't know it's only one word. She knows that it's not two anatomical words, one after the other. There are a number of possibilities she hasn't even considered.
Didn't Thorax himself say that most if not all other changelings are bad? According to his flashback he was literally the only good changeling because he was born that way, meaning that his mindset is likely the result of a genetic defect rather than any "realization" on his part. This would mean that Spike's entire unnecessary, repetitive, poorly sung, jarring, and just plain bad song was wrong in asking "why can't a changeling change" because he didn't change at all; he was born that way.
Episodes, MLP wikia plus other writers all refer to him as Donut Joe, just thought I'd mention it.
(also next line down)
Wouldn't that be ponyhunt?
What, they don't have newspapers?
She had to get that last one in, she WANTED to get that last one in!!
7504201 It would most certainly NOT be a Pony hunt. MAYBE a Stallionhunt, but NOT Pony Hunt. You never say "We are going on a human hunt", you say "We are going on a MANhunt"
7504238 Well marehunt implies womanhunt and you wouldn't say that either and drones are male or female so something generic should apply. Manhunt is not used by police any more, it's now stated as personhunt.
While I can understand Cadence and Shining's trepidation regarding Thorax's presence in the Crystal Empire. I have to agree with Celestia here that their reaction wasn't well thought out. Plus I gotta wonder if royal guards are really just ceremonial positions no matter what part of Equestria they're from because it sure seems like it.
Depending on if Thorax's more friendly nature isn't a fluke seeing as he was the only "nice" changeling in the hatchery. I have to wonder if his return to the hive would result in either Chrysalis' reformation or a civil war / revolt against her by the hive. Assuming he can even convince any of them to be nice in the first place.
I chuckled a little bit at the "years ago" bits too since it's really only been maybe a year and a half to two years since the wedding.
7504201 Apparently, there's another pony called Cuppa Joe.
7504201
"Donut Joe is a pony that runs a donut shop in Canterlot.
Cuppa Joe is a disguised changeling running a cafe on the opposite corner of Donut Joe's shop, one I befriended long before this incident happened.
It's a perfectly understandable misunderstanding."
"They do have some local papers, but they likely wouldn't cover a wedding that happened before the Empire's return. And the Empire's return would certainly be the new hot topic of the international newspapers once that hit some circulation.
So no, there's quite scarce avenues for the Crystal Empire citizens to learn about changelings outside of word of mouth from tourists present at the wedding, or from the mouth of their current rulers."
7503903
"You could replace the word 'changelings' with 'dragons', and it basically comes out the same way. Granted, dragons aren't full-frontal with a parasitic nature, but they do encroach and/or squat on pony territory and those hoards of gold and gems they gather aren't all from caves sometimes.
But to be fair, dragons haven't mounted an assault on scale with the changelings at the wedding. I only had a few that dared to torch my castle towers in blind rage.
Now they're just blind."
"A stranger that saved his life? And one that wasn't interested in harvesting his love to boot, even though that was a viable option?
At the very least, this complete stranger is more approachable than others to me."
In all fairness, Cadence and Shining haven't had a good experience with changelings considering what Chrysalis did to them and the invasion, but I'll stop there, lest I repeat what everyone else has said ad nauseum even more.
7504294 Really? I did not know that they changed that.
I would assume that the drones are all male, until proven otherwise, like how any Insect Hive works.
Also, with what seems like a higher portion of Females to Males in MLP: FiM they may use the term Mare/Female as standard. Even more so when their top most ruler/s being FEMALE.
7504652 Although I don't think Hasbro has mentioned female drones in canon stories, there are many in the fan fiction world so I'm happy to stay with that.
7504652 Pretty sure in the insect world, the workers are all male, and the gatherers/soldiers are all infertile females. That would make almost all changelings seen to date female.
7504294
7504652
7504948
7505018
In eusocial bees, wasps and ants, drones are exclusively male, and workers are exclusively female. Drones are only for reproduction, and never participate in tending grubs/gathering nectar and pollen. They tend to lack stings (because those are modified ovipositors), and don't live for very long (they're often killed or driven out when the weather goes cold and they're not needed - winter is for hibernating, not making more workers, so drones are a waste of resources).
Workers, on the other hand, do different jobs depending on their age - I think they start off with easier stuff like feeding grubs, and eventually move on to gathering outside the hive.
Fun fact - males hatch from unfertilised eggs and only have half a set of chromosomes - they have no fathers and their geneaology is the Fibonacci Sequence. This also means that the workers have 100% of their father's DNA, and 50% of their mother's, so they're 75% related to each other. That's more than they could be related to any offspring they might have, which makes it more advantageous to care for their sisters. Some workers lay unfertilised eggs - male eggs - and some can self-fertilise to produce more females, but usually any eggs that aren't from the current Queen are destroyed/eaten. So, it's not that they're completely infertile, and more that their eggs very rarely make it.
However, Changelings being sapient enough to have their own personalities means that applying the exact roles of the colonial species isn't exactly possible - we don't know if they're all produced by Chrysalis, or if some workers are allowed to reproduce, or what. Plus, using drones in attacks might be a better use of resources than keeping them all back in the hive. That can all be up to headcanons, I guess.
7505135 I think we mostly knew that, the problem is in MLP world, both canon & non refer to all but queens and princesses as drones (no workers mentioned) and fanfics give drones as male or female depending on roles. Female breeders, male soldiers(sometimes female if fit enough), female food preparers, female love collectors, male and female gatherers of normal food, female nursery attendants, male pod attendants and so on. Hasbro in the canon world, has yet to show us hive workings but I'm sure that at sometime they'll just love to chuck us a curve ball & screw it all up.
My original gripe was with "marehunt" as they didn't know drones gender. So should be stated as ponyhunt or bughunt for that matter. Sorry for the inner Grammar Nazi in me showing.
Considering 'Chrysalis' isn't a body part, strictly speaking, I'm pretty sure the Changeling name theme is just bug words.
7505164
I'm not sure canon has ever actually mentioned drones or workers, just 'Changeling Army'... unless you're talking about the comics? Which I guess you can take or leave depending on if you like them or not.
And I mainly put that down to the writers not knowing enough about Hymenopteran biology (which is something they could have easily googled in 30 seconds but noooo). Honestly, I'm just being pedantic about it at this point.
As for 'marehunt', I've never heard anyone call a manhunt a personhunt? I mean, they probably should, but man in this case means Man as is 'a person who is human' as opposed to 'a human male', at least I think? Marehunt is rather more gender-specific, but as it's a ponification of a commonly-used word it gets the meaning across without seeming too clunky, if you know what I mean?
Haha, entomology and etymology.
7505220 The media and feminists here in Oz have so gotten on the bandwagon here that every government department is sh#@@ing itself about not being gender neutral in it's dealings with public now. It's even stated as Mailperson postie or Linesperson electricity worker on any job positions vacant notice in the last 5 or 6 years or so. Even newsreaders get hauled over the coals by opposition newsreaders for letting a gender slip out when gender of item in question isn't known.
I see were ignoring the fact that the crystal empire may know the changeling from olden times due to chrysalis hive being known as conqueror even then.) or the fact that they now have newspaper and even tourist who can tell them about stuff. i also notice you avoided the fact that thorax admitted he was from chrysalis hive, you know the one who bitch-smacked you and earlier replace your niece without you noticing even though the two have entirely different magical aura.
seriously i get your trying leave a message, a very good one at that, but your being abit blunt and avoiding key facts that even sunny could see it.
7506040
"King Sombra blocked the memory of the citizens whenever they try to recall the past of the Crystal Empire. This possibly includes knowledge of changelings that existed back then, but for sake of argument I presume that knowledge was blocked for them.
I've already discussed that newspapers are an unlikely source due to time displacement and the fact that international papers would focus more on the Empire's return by the time they would get such papers. However, I consent that such knowledge may come from tourists.
Lastly, just because Thorax came from a hive led by a green witch does not mean he's bad. I'm pretty sure that was something like Spike's point, and one I do agree on. A son doesn't have to be like the mother, and certainly does not bear her sins."
7506152
you don't understand i'm saying what celestia said was but she should have added something like that. secondly
Dude.... that spell was failing when they were starting to return back to there real self during the crystal faire, furthermore wouldn't the spell have stopped when it's user died, or better yet when the crystal heart unleash that blast, possibly cleansing everybody from sombra evil stuff. just saying there a plot-hole there.
7504419
Dragons also have completely different biology and psychology. What's the argument here?
Could've been a long-term plot of Chrysalis's, to get a spy inside and trusted.
Or maybe humans are just naturally distrusting and despicable as to be able to think of so many horrible things we could do to each other given such opportunities.
7508053
"The argument here is that we've treated dragons far better than we have Changelings despite arguably bad things done by both kinds. Excluding baby dragons and prior to establishing friendly dragon relations, of course. The only reason changelings received such an awful reputation is purely due to the scale of their attack, not their species.
Also, we're ponies, not humans. We're far kinder in perspective."
Couple of random thoughts.,,
-- Sure, I can see "marehunt" by analogy with "witch hunt". I suppose modern members of that community could allow for male witches in the name of gender equality, but I still think of the traditional meaning as somewhat more gender-biased.
-- I found the absence of a changeling detection spell in that episode rather conspicuous myself. You'd think enough time would have passed since the wedding invasion that some clever unicorn could have devised something and passed it around, and as royalty with a vested personal interest in all matters changeling Shining Armor and Cadance would in turn have paid attention and taken care to secure that knowledge for the Crystal Empire if they'd heard so much as a peep of it. Instead...nothing. That kind of suggests that if there's ever another changeling invasion with a few more brain cells applied to its scheme, it may well hit canon!Equestria about as flat-footed as the first...
Granted, now that they do have access to a friendly changeling in Thorax, even if my guess is right on the bit for now that may soon change.
I'm still waiting for the Doctor Horrible shout-out in the show.
Nah, just "accidentally" forward him some of Dashie's fanfiction.
Er, given that changelings eat love, this doesn't seem like the best solution.
Sorry, but Occupant is best changeling.
......i love how one of her first assumptions is "Ovipositor"