When I first encountered a female changeling—here defined by the gender of their preferred pony form, for reasons that will be explained shortly—I found myself quite confused. Based on my initial observations, there were absolutely no physical differences between her and the male changelings I had already seen. All civilized life forms in Equestria, from Diamond Dogs and Minotaurs to Ponies and Griffons, exhibit at least some form of readily apparent sexual dimorphism, but these changelings seemed to have none. Fortunately, unlike with the mystery of how their disguises work, the female changeling I had met was able to fully explain the situation to me.
Changelings both do and do not have genders.
It it easiest to start with the 'do not' side of this seemingly paradoxical statement. This is the biological side of things. All changelings possess organs resembling both male and female pony reproductive organs, which ensures that their disguise is completely flawless regardless of what gender their pony form is. One might be inclined to classify them as hermaphroditic based on this information. This would be an accurate classification, except for the important fact that changelings are also completely sterile. These organs are mere replicas of the ones found in actual mares and stallions. They're not even any more sensitive to physical stimulation than the rest of their body.* Because of their complete inability to reproduce, changelings cannot be said to have such a thing as gender from a biological standpoint.
As an interesting side note, I learned that because of this, changelings who enter into long term relationships with ponies tend to prefer same sex partners. This way, their sterility is much less likely to become an issue, or to even be brought up, period. This is hardly a strict rule, however.
Now, as mentioned above, changelings both do and do not have genders. The biological viewpoint has provided the 'do not' side of this statement. For the 'do' side of things, we must now turn to the psychological viewpoint.
Changelings do possess a sense of gender identity. In laypony's terms, this means that changelings mentally identify themselves as either male or female, despite not actually having a biological gender. This identity develops during their formative years and is reflected in the gender of their preferred pony form. I found this concept confusing at first, but upon further thought, I could see how it was a necessary adaptation for them to develop. After all, how could a species with absolutely no concept of gender manage to secretly integrate themselves into pony society as flawlessly as they have?
It is important to note that the strength of a changeling's gender identity varies between hives. For instance, changelings from some hives will go their whole lives as only a single gender of pony, whereas changelings from other hives are perfectly comfortable with taking the form of a mare one day and a stallion the next. I also later learned that there is a strong correlation between the strength of a changeling's gender identity and how attached they are to a single pony identity. To continue the above example, the first changeling will likely only have a single pony identity that they ever use, while the second changeling is more likely to have a hoofful of different identities that they regularly swap between.
I was curious if changelings queens were equipped the same way, both physically and psychologically. Unfortunately, the female changeling who was explaining all of this to me did not know, and there was no way that I would ever ask such a personal question to a changeling queen myself. This will simply have to remain unknown for the time being.
Learning that changelings were completely sterile brought up another vital question; how do they reproduce? The female changeling was able to inform me that, unsurprisingly, the changeling queen is solely responsible for reproduction, but that she didn't know the specifics behind it. I was once again forced to turn to the same changeling queen that had been such a huge help in helping me learn how their disguises work.
Here, more than anywhere else, does the changeling’s insectile nature become apparent.
Specifically, the horn of a changeling queen, in addition to channeling magical energies, is also an ovipositor. It is used to inject what are essentially very small embryos into cocoons filled with emorphic gel, with one egg per cocoon. These cocoons are carefully nurtured for a few months, at which point the changelings are old enough to move about on their own and are released from the cocoon. Of course, they are only considered changeling nymphs at this point. It takes another eight to twelve years for them to reach maturity, at which point they can create their first pony identity and leave the hive to enter pony society and begin gathering emotional energy.
The cocoon phase is the most vital portion of a changeling’s development. The emorphic gel is infused with as much emotional energy as it can possibly hold, and this is almost always enough to last the few months that it takes for the larval changeling to leave the cocoon. The types of emotions provided to the changeling play a vital role in determining what the changeling will be like when they are older. The only restriction is that the majority of the emotional energy provided must be of the preferred emotion of their hive. The rest of the emorphic gel’s capacity is then typically split between two other emotions. There are no real rules as to what other emotions are added, although, at least with this particular hive, they try to never repeat the same mixture of emotions twice.
The cocoon phase is also what differentiates regular changelings from changeling queens. A changeling queen starts out life just like any other changeling, as an embryo deposited into a cocoon. The difference is in the emotional energy mixture that their cocoon is infused with. Instead of only three types of emotions total, a changeling queen cocoon is packed with as many different types of emotions as the hive can possibly provide it. If the new changeling queen is meant to replace the old one, then the preferred emotion of that hive will still represent the majority of energy in the mix. If she is instead meant to go and found a new hive, then it will instead be a much more even mix between all the emotions present.
Caring for a changeling queen cocoon is a very tricky and delicate process that requires the current queen herself to personally oversee. Emorphic gel is really only meant to hold a single type of emotion for any extended period of time. It can handle more than one type of emotion for shorter periods of time, as with the three emotion mixture used for regular changelings, but any more than that and it starts to become increasingly unstable. In addition to this, changeling queens also remain in the cocoon phase for much longer than regular changelings. Two to three years is not an uncommon time span for this phase. Also unlike regular changelings, the larval queen uses up their provided emotional energy much faster. Their emorphic gel needs to be recharged with more emotional energy every few weeks, and not necessarily with the same mixture of emotions.
Needless to say, raising a new queen is a tremendous expense of time and energy for the entire hive.
I have to admit, I found it surprising to learn that the entire hive’s survival lies solely with the changeling queen. It seems to be a very fragile system; if anything were to happen to the queen, the entire hive would slowly die off. And unlike with actual insects that use similar systems, the loss of an entire changeling hive would be a serious blow to the entire species. However, I have been assured that changeling queens, being creatures with such high levels of internal magical energy, are very hard to permanently injure or kill. They are very similar to the Princesses in this respect. Also like the Princesses, they are extremely long lived creatures. From what I have been able to learn, even the youngest current changeling queen is over three hundred years old. Because of these factors, it is actually a very rare event for a hive to give birth to a new changeling queen.
*I have been assured that being able to directly feel the emotions of their partner more than makes up for any lack of physical stimulation.
I really like the Changeling worldbuilding in this story. In other stories Changelings are like Vampires or have no identity apart from Chrysalis, but this interpretation of them as wanting to live peacefully alongside ponies is fascinating & very appealing.
I do wonder if Chrysalis &/or her Hive are going to show up in this story though? I can just imagine the other Hive Queens wanting a "Word" (pounds one hoof into the other) with her.
Well that was fun to read, going around on this site I have found many variations on alot of the subject though not in this quantity, I like these keep doing more of this when you think of them ( I con only think of what ponies will think of twilight book and wonder if they will think she is a changeling )
I love this! Keep it up please
I like this. More?
Interesting. Going by this, it would be entirely possible for a hive integrated with pony society to produce nothing but queens and remain viable. The population would naturally be low, and the political ramifications would be... interesting... but it would be sustainable from a logistical standpoint.
More interesting would be attempts at hybridization, or seeing if a willing mare could carry a nymph to term; I think Lyra would volunteer for that experiment.
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I agree with this assessment. Lyra also seems like a good choice to me, though I can see Fluttershy also agreeing to this. I wouldn't be surprised if Fluttershy spawns a near clone (in personality) of herself.
Thanks for doing this the whole concept about changeling reproduction was had me extremely curious for some reason. That's kind of creepy really.
I have to ask though. Changelings have a sense of gender identity and are capable of a full range of emotions as well as higher level thought. Is it possible that they can fall in love with one another despite the limitations of reproduction?
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we'll be hearing a little about Chrysalis in the epilogue
3085517
a queen only hive would have other issues. Low population would make gathering enough emotional energy, in terms of both quantity and variety of emotions, for the developing queens extremely difficult. and remember, queens themselves cannot actually disguise themselves as normal ponies, for reasons mentioned in the other bonus chapter, so they couldn't go out to gather any emotions themselves.
Unless when you said integrated, you meant openly integrated, with ponies knowing about them and being totally ok with them. In which case, I guess it could work. Emotion gathering would be a lot easier if ponies were willing to deliver the food themselves, after all.
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I'm gonna have to say that the hybridization thing wouldn't work. The emorphic gel is important to proper development of the embryo, and a uterus simply wouldn't provide the same kind of environment as the emorphic gel would
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I suppose it might be possible, but it would be very unlikely. Keep in mind, changeling can't actually detect emotions from each other, which plays a large part in them entering into that kind of relationship with a pony. They can certainly be very good friends, but they would have no way to take the relationship to the "next level", as it were.
okay cool thankks for clearing that up. Can't wait for the next chapter
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If it's not open then it's not integration.
The proper development of a nymph wasn't the goal; it's to see what IMproper development does. Similarly, that doesn't rule out magically-assisted attempts. Who knows what pony and changeling researchers could accomplish if they wanted to try?
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I beg to differ, it can still be integration even if it's secret. But we're just arguing semantic now, so whatever.
Improper development, eh? well, generally speaking, any attempt to raise an embryo outside of it's intended environment(either egg or womb) typically results in it just straight up dying. Even test tube babies only have the egg fertilized outside the mother before being put back in to develop normally. Same thing with clones, like Dolly.
Then again, like you said, ponies do have something we don't: magic. So who knows?
3088519
I was actually considering adding in something just like that. That, in an emergency, any changeling can be elevated to temporary queen status. However, they'd be much weaker than proper queen, and would only have that power long enough to ensure a new queen would be able to take their place. And they'd probably die afterwards too, as a regular changeling's body really isn't meant to handle that much energy.
But I decided not to do it because changeling queens really are quite safe. I probably should have mentioned this in this chapter, but queens never really leave the hive for anything. That, in addition to being extremely durable and long lived, means that it's exceedingly rare that anything ever happens to them.
Rather decent setup, but it is feeling rather lacking on actual story. A novel's worth of words so far, and there's been way too much worldbuilding with barely any sign of conflict building.
Personally, I would say that the reproduction angle really needs to be re-examined, the described setup is simply far too unsustainable for long-term survival. It would make more sense if a queenless hive behaved similar to a school of clownfish. The stongest (i.e. the one with the deepest potential 'reserves') undergoes a physiological transformation, and grows into the position. If an individual finds themselves without a hive of their own, they're likely to try and start their own hive, they're quite capable of growing with no other drones around to contest the position, and if they're very lucky, they'll manage to become a new stable hive.
No need for a massive investment with little-to-no reward, and also no need to have queens have any special longevity. (nigh Immortal changling queen, many changling queens. Pick one, or the species just doesn't work)
Most emotions have a negative counterpart, and I'd really like to see more of that vein. I can see where a hive which specializes in anger or fear would have a small, but suitable place in the Equestrian ecosystem, being a safer outlet for such emotions. If RD fights the flight camp bullies, and the leader happens to be a changeling, he could argue that he's keeping the rest of the gang in check, allowing them to use pent up aggression in a way that's relatively harmless. Sure, it is rationalization, but as Vetinari once said, there's going to be crime anyway, it might as well be organised.
One last little idea. All emotions are edible, but each hive specializes. Especially considering the Masquerade is over, this is a situation ripe for trade! Greed and gratitude are definitely the kind of emotions that would encourage the hive to become a trade magnate or a den of Robin Hood-equese con artists.
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1) I will totally agree with you on his one. the world building definitely came first, and what story there is was designed as a vehicle to deliver that. I actually have plans for a second fic that will be about the origins of equestria (by which I mean the entire planet, whatever you want to call it), and I have all sorts of worldbuilding set up for it, but I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with an actual story to fit around it.
2) as I explained in the comment right before yours, I had considered something just like what you're suggesting. But I decided against it because I simply disagree with the system described being unsustainable.
3) Recall that Steel said that there's some hives out there that cause more harm than good because of the emotions they prefer. I left that kind of vague on purpose, but those are essentially negative emotion changelings.
4) the masquerade isn't 100% over yet, though it's certainly on life support. Life support that will last up until Celestia decides that her little ponies are ready to face the truth and accept them peacefully. I admittedly haven't given too much thought to what changelings could do after that point, as this particular story won't be going that far, but that certainly is an interesting possibility!
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Nothing wrong with worldbuilding, heck, I'm the kind of reader who reads for the worlds. Give me an original social or legal system, and the story could be simpler than a CSI episode while still holding my attention.
The key ingredent to worldbuilding, besides good old creativity, is conflict. In all its forms from small to large. Every disagreement two or more characters could have is the root to another potential story. Good versus evil, or Tropetania versus Tropistan. Until you have at least two agents of the future with the goal to change your world in different ways, your world more closely resembles a model train set than a stage for stories.
Okay. Worldbuilding is awesome. This is awesome. This is now headcanon. I don't care.
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oh dear, to think that those errors have avoided detection even after all this time
Danke!
3122255
the idea was that he wasn't able to actually take those barrels with him on such short notice, and he couldn't just leave them in his house on the off chance that they were discovered, so he had to get rid of them. and then he lost what he had in the jars as well...
3162119
As I mentioned, I'm too tired to do the more abstract, editor-y stuff, so I'm falling back on the proofreading-type feedback that I can do while half asleep. I'm not sure when I'll have wakeful time to spare but, when I do, I'll give you commentary on plot, characterization, setting, world-building, etc.
I can actually go simpler. I was just worried that, even with the warning, I'd risk being insulting if I went too simple. Point out some examples of places where it went over your head and I'll give you more intuitive explanations.
It's possible I misunderstood your intentions. If you were intentionally trying to create a pause there, it can be done.
The fundamental problem is why using a comma there causes the mind to pause. The pause happens as a side-effect and the primary effect is to hint to the reader that the pieces of text on both sides of the comma belong to separate concepts. (People like me who read quickly barely pause at all. For us, it's more of a case of drawing a mental line to box off the concepts and then continuing.)
You don't want to be doing that in the middle of a phrase that's supposed to be one thing such as "a changeling with". (It'd be like drawing an arbitrary line down the middle of the glass of your car's rear windows and saying that the trunk begins there rather than where the back seat ends) It just weakens the statement your phrasing is making that "a light blue upper carapace plate and magenta eyes" is associated with this specific changeling rather than all changelings.
If you really want a pause there, you need to use punctuation that says to the reader, "I'm not asking you to distance these concepts from each other in your mind because it's inherent to how the language works. I'm asking you to pause here because that's how a narrator would read it for dramatic/stylistic effect." You use an ellipsis for that.
Now, you could write it like this:
"were replaced by the black, hole filled carapace of a changeling... with a light blue upper carapace plate and magenta eyes."
...but, if you're trying to give a sort of split-second "waitaminute" pause between the reader's mind's eye recognizing a changeling and then noticing that the colours are off, I'd use this:
"were replaced by the black, hole filled carapace of a changeling... a changeling with a light blue upper carapace plate and magenta eyes."
I'll admit I could have phrased that better. As I'll mention when I finish covering chapter 1, I do recognize that it's OK to start sentences with "And"... I just find that, very often, there's an alternative way to write it which better embodies the spirit of how you'd say it if you were reading or speaking out loud.
For example, the "...and" I advised in that example because it gives a more appropriate sense of how it relates to the previous sentence.
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if this is you while half asleep, I'm not sure I wanna see you at full wakefulness...
I didn't really mean a "but wait!" kinda pause, but more of a "take a breath" kinda pause.
that said, I now see how it could also be read without a pause. I'll change it.
well we're just going to have to agree to disagree here. This sounds like more of a stylistic choice, and using an ellipses just doesn't feel the same as starting a new sentence for me.
and also,
if you're planning to proofread this in-depth with every chapter, could you do it via PM? thanks.
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Fair enough.
Noted. I'm not sure what my schedule will be like, considering that today was primarily free because I was too tired to do work, but I'll PM you as I find time.
I think Changeling Queens can change-Chrysalis did in canon, but only into alicorns, a risky thing to do. This is my favourite Changeling story on Fimfiction.
Okay so that was kinda awesome. I note it's still incomplete, despite earlier author's notes saying it was about to be done? Is there much more coming or just the epilogue?
Calm Yourself With Sponge Bob :)
...I have the strangest feeling of needing an adult...
So yeah... this is, for the most part, my official head-canon for the series proper (here's to hopin' it doesn't get Jossed!) and pretty much any fic unless the author explicitly states otherwise. Lovely bit of world building.
Finally read all this.
I demand moar.
This story is very good, and I really like your world building. It is a very interesting take on the changelings as a species and I really like the interplay you have set up here. I especially like the fact that you avoided a lot of the silly traps like making the changelings a hive mind because those always struck me as cheap cop outs to allow lazy writers to avoid dealing with the changelings as characters or thinking about what the actual motivations behind an invasion must be. I am very much looking forwards to the conclusion of this and any sequels you may have planned because it seems to me like this story is really just the beginning of a much bigger picture.
Congratulations on making EqD! (\
Featured on Equestria Daily: http://www.equestriadaily.com/2013/10/story-novel-tale.html
i.imgur.com/IYK4QIGs.png
OK I have seen this story a number of times but have never had the chance to read it. That changes today. Im gonna dive in and give this a go, wish me luck.
So I just read everything from the prologue to the second bonus chapter and regularly found myself thinking "all those characters are being so reasonable". Yes, there was an angry mob and other such incidents that could have gotten ugly, but they were all defused pretty quickly.
But hey! This is my fault for reading fics like Silent Ponyville. This is after all a world of pastel ponies. Optimism!
This story certainly knows its world building. I love your ideas with the hives, the colors, the emotions and so on. And you had me with Celestia's concealing spell, as if you were saying "I will not go there".
Looking forward to the last chapters.
Glad I saw this on EQD, very interesting story.
Although I can tell from the comments that lots of corrections were necessary when writing this, you nonetheless have an engaging writing style that makes the story a pleasure to read. For fifty thousand words, it felt much shorter than that, and I just breezed through the whole thing. Vastly preferable to a story that drags on and feels much longer than its actual length, like some other fics I've read. Also a very interesting take on changeling culture and biology. It shares some common elements with a few other people's takes that I've read about, but it's still a very unique picture you paint.
I'm a little sad to hear that it'll be ending so soon, but I still look forward to that epilogue.
I'm sure some on has pointed this out but that has ta be the happiest damn changling for a cover picture.
A Changeling fic?
And it's a good one?
And it's chock full of amazing headcanon?
And has well-portrayed characters, and an engaging story?
Yes please
Edit: Wait, there's only a handfull of chapters left?
....sequel?
I love information!
It's nice to have "bonus chapters" like this, where there's an actual in-world explanation for the info dump.
Hmm... This seems interesting. I'll give it a read.
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thanks! I had submitted this once before, way back when I had just completed chapter 6, but it got rejected then for "not having enough conflict". But now I've finally made it!
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Well, I was thinking more from a standpoint of being able to drain emotions out of a pony. But yes, I suppose that they could make good counselors with their emotion sensing abilities.
I wouldn't pick any changelings from Chrysalis' hive, though. They're all a bit on the manipulative side. I wouldn't trust them.
3310412
that's certainly what I was going for! No Conflict Balls around here!
3312147
maybe for a pony it would be unhealthy, but a changeling like Bon Bon quite literally needs the love that their partner provides them, both for themselves and for their hive.
3315191
oh, so what I wrote actually makes sense? I only have a cursory understanding of chemistry, and I knew that silicate minerals tend to have their atoms arranged in a lattice structure, and that was where I got the idea from. I'm afraid you've already put more though into it with that one post then I did!
whoof! i love the premise! im sorry, its immaterial, i know, but rarely has a premise alone hit me that hard! hope the story measures up...
3310412 Well of course the conflicts were diffused quickly!
Celestia and Luna used their God-Mode Mind Control Magic and made everypony be nice! Because tyrants!
OK everyone else is making long comments about how much they love this fic but I'm keeping mine short and sweet.....best changling story EVER so can you make another...maybe with alittle dance of love?
Oh how I do look forward to more of this!
Finish next chapter if thy is not busy doing something.
This is a great story and I very much enjoyed reading it. Many of your headcanonns on changelings were pure genius. I look forward to reading more of your work.
While I have some grievances with the writing style (way too telly, feeling like a poorly written YA novel, even though it gets better in later chapters), the great world building and the characters more than made up for it. I liked how you dealt with their interactions, and specially how reasonable the ponies and changelings were, willing to panic and to listen at the appropriate times, without the whole thing feeling contrived.
Of course, the real star here is the world building, and I kinda suspect you just built the surrounding story so you could write about it. Not only is it pretty smart, with some very well thought concepts and ideas, but it was also well written. All in all, it could have been better, but I enjoyed the story nonetheless.
Congratz on becoming the highest rated changeling fanfic
Took me a couple hours of my time, but this is well worth the read! The story flows very smoothly, and the way you handle the stereotypical situations is fantastic! You introduce them..... and then you shatter them to pieces by having the characters react differently than what (most) people expected.
I look forward to future chapters, and whatever else you can come up with for the wonderful species you have been so kind as to 'flesh out.
Please please please please PLEASE give us a sequel!
Please?
This was quite enjoyable as a bit of worldbuilding, but I thought it was much too rushed to be a really good story. The situations were good, but you resolved them much to soon, and much to easily, for me to really enjoy it.
I mean, seriously, Steel wing is confronted, and revealed to Shiny, and then five minutes of exposition from Celestia, and bam! Everything is better. Ok, maybe it wasn't quite that extreme, but I DO think that you should have given your scenarios more time to grow.
My god. This story is amazing. But you haven't updated since August! seeing this updated would make me SOOOOO HAPPEH. Please. For the god of all of Equestria.