So Here's A Cool Idea I Had · 1:46pm Dec 15th, 2014
For anyone interested, I am still working on my writing, but it's been slow going lately. However, I had an idea about the changelings that's really rather good, if I do say so myself, but I have absolutely no idea what to do with it. So while I probably will use this one eventually, I'm just going to throw it out here, as it's too good to go to waste. If you do end up using it for something, it would be pretty cool if you could say "hey, Meridian Prime came up with this cool headcanon", but it's not obligatory by any means. Anyway.
So, what do we know about changelings?
Actually? Not much. Even the things that most people take for granted in the fandom aren't even mentioned in the show. Like the changelings being a hive, them coming from the badlands, invading Equestria because they were hungry-
Wait, no. That last one's confirmed right? Well, yes.
Princess Cadance: She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them.
[flames roaring]
[ponies gasp]
Queen Chrysalis: [laughing] Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!
This and all other excerpts from the transcript of A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 taken from the MLP wiki.
But notice the way in which the information is given. Cadance brings it up first, then Chrysalis confirms it while laughing easily. Seems like an odd thing to do with your evil masterplan, especially when you've just been revealed in front of the Alicorn of the sun. Now, you might be saying at this point "but Meri, Chrysalis defeats Celestia! She must have revealed everything on purpose!". Or perhaps your saying "but Meri, this was just a badly written villain!". For people saying the second one, you're probably right, but I'm assuming that's not the case for the purpose of this idea. For those in the first camp, Chrysalis is very clearly shown to be surprised by her victory:
Queen Chrysalis: Ah! Shining Armor's love for you is even stronger than I thought! Consuming it has made me even more powerful than Celestia!
Add to that the "wtf" look she has just after beating Celestia, and it's pretty obvious she didn't expect to defeat Sunbutt:
So why reveal her plan? Well it's entirely possible that she didn't. Cadance may well either be a) assuming things from what she's seen b) repeating information fed to her by Chrysalis herself during her imprisonment.
My theory comes from the way both Chrysalis and Cadance phrase the changelings "feeding" habits. If we have another look at that quote:
Princess Cadance: She's a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them.
[flames roaring]
[ponies gasp]
Queen Chrysalis: [laughing] Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!
The only indication that this "feeding" actually feeds the changelings in the way food does is Chrysalis' line about "food for my subjects". And if we assume that she's trying to play the ponies into believing her plan is one thing when it's something else entirely, then we can safely ignore that. So the changeling feeding is all about power.
Now this isn't a new concept - plenty of people have done something along these lines in fanfiction already. But there's one more very odd coincidence (again ignoring poor writing decisions/Hasbro toy selling). The changelings feed on love energy. They captured the Princess of Love. Someone who is shown in the show to be able to manufacture love energy at will. Why the hell wasn't she turned into a living battery? Why bother with a risky and costly invasion, why bother replacing her and trying to steal a husband who presumedly produces less love by virtue of not being the freaking Alicorn Princess of it?
My theory is this - changelings don't feed on love.
Blasphemy!
We know that changelings can change shape to imitate ponies, have wings and a horn, and that the changeling queen is...
Bigger? More powerful? Is that it? Because for someone on par with the Alicorns "a bit bigger and more powerful" isn't much when you consider that the normal changelings got their behinds handed to them by 6 mares.
So here's the idea. The changeling queen can not only copy the appearance of a pony, she can copy their power. The changelings as a race feed on power (as alluded to in the script), and the nature of this power is determined by the queen's current power - for example, had she captured Celestia, the changelings would have become living solar panels. While this would obviously have made them nigh unstoppable, Celestia is not only hard to get to, but damn near impossible to take down when not supercharged on power. Cadance on the other hand is a relatively new Princess (she went to school with Shining Armour, so she can't be that old), not as experienced, and her power, while not suited to offense and therefore easy to overcome, is pretty useful because:
Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!
And there we have it.
So, what do you guys think?
OH MY GOD CHRYSALIS IS KIRBY!
fc04.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2013/224/4/4/shocked_scoots__by_doucheclop-d6hwq5d.png
or Ditto, if you're into that kinda thing >.>
2654825
Huh. I hadn't thought of that - she's totally a more menacing, bug-like version of Kirby.
...
media.giphy.com/media/h8cCj4Z2KeYaQ/giphy.gif
2654830
Oh my.
This would also spawn a beautiful clopfic based around her 'powers' in the bedroom.
..
Goddammit fingers, what are you doing? Stahp!
2654848
...
I would totally read that.
2654856
Now if I didn't have so much going on at once...
Updates, plugs, and editing, oh my!
