Changelings

I haven't really done many blogs, but I thought I'd share this information with you guys. This bit of changeling headcanon comes from an rp I've been running for about half a year. The rpverse is set a few years after Nightmare Moon's banishment.

A report on arctic changelings.

It is not known whether or not the Fluffling (arctic) subspecies of changeling survived the thousand years after Luna's banishment.

Queen Amethyst Star and her hive of changelings once lived in the far northern regions of Equestria. Their territory centered around what were once the gem mines of an ancient town known as Candy Caves and extended up towards the Crystal Empire. The Amethyst Hive adapted to the cold by growing a faint peach fuzz across their whole body similar to a pony's fur, while their neck fuzz grew out to resemble a moth. An Amethyst changeling, nicknamed Fluffling for the fuzz, can control their neck fuzz similar to bird feathers. They puff up when threatened to make themselves appear bigger, but they will try to avoid direct confrontation.

Instead of fighting head on, a Fluffling will seem to run away. The pony following them will soon find themselves almost entranced by crystals the Fluffling is capable of producing when building a trap or hive. When laying a trap down, the fluffling will excrete a strong glue like substance from their leg holes, while their fuzz becomes covered in a very fine glitter, which prevents the Fluffling from becoming ensnared in its own trap. This glue is capable of holding a confused pony for a short period while the Fluffling drains their love with a spell.

The crystal-like substance their hive, or trap, walls are reinforced with is not the same as a normal crystal. It is capable of being shaped by a Fluffling into a pod or even used to repair structures, but it is a fragile material. Even a pegasus is capable of breaking through the walls of a Fluffling's trap.

When there is a lack of love being harvested from regular ponies, or husks the hive keeps around, they will consume gems to supplement their diet. It is like candy to them. Their hives are found in abandoned gem mines where they dig out new tunnels in search of the gems. However, consuming too much love or gems will cause a Fluffling to become sick and excrete the sticky goo nearly non-stop until they die from exhuastion. It is for this reason that the Queen regulates the intake of gems for the whole hive. One would be careful about frightening a Fluffling, because they might hiccup and breath fire on what ever is in front of them (provided they had a large diet of rubies before hand).

On the subject of gems, a hatchling's teeth are not grown in yet and their jaws do not become capable of breaking a gem until one year of age. Until then they eat special gems embued with love. The gems are rare as the queen has to specially make each one through a spell only known to her. A pupa sucks on the gem pacifier to drain it of its love, then spits it out and it becomes refilled. Pupas are organized into few various roles depending on unknown factors. The lowest is the working class, which dig tunnels and maintain the hive. They make up the bulk of the hive and dig faster than ponies, but not as fast as diamond dogs. Workers make up the bulk of the hive.

Scouts are changelings picked for their observation skills. They will leave the hive after becoming adults and travel across Equestria to find a new location for a hive incase their current one has to leave for any reason. There are five at the most in each clutch.

Infiltrators are like the name says. They infiltrate the nearby towns and find candidates to steal love from. Per clutch, there are almost as many infiltrators as there are scouts.

Soldiers make up less than a quarter of the hive. They guard the queen, a most prestigious job, and any other area that needs guarding. Due to a Fluffling's nature to avoid direct conflict, they are not the best fighters known to changelings.

A Fluffling is capable of learning many languages from fluent Equestrian to Zebra; however, their main method of communication between each other is through chittering, clicking, and a written language which is more akin to strange lines and symbols. A pony might mistake talking Flufflings for birds if they were to close their eyes.

As said at the beginning of my report, the Flufflings are not known to have survived the thousand years since Luna's banishment. It is speculated, by most, that they moved into the gem mines in the crystal empire and slowly died out a the lack of gems. But due to their nature, they could have simply moved on and found a new hive.