Changeling Headcannon and update

Greetings faithful followers and watchers. First a big thank you for the views and support it really does mean a lot and I hope to keep you guys even more entertained in the future. My whole day lights up when I see another person following my story. This is actually the reason for this post. To help the story flow better and not waste as much time explaining my headcannon even trying to show it as some of it has to be told and I'm sure many of you grow tired of that. So here is my full Changeling headcannon for this story. Included are relationships, some biology, history and geography of the main hive and Chrysalis's hive. If you have any questions or comments feel free to say them. As for the story Ebony and Ivory: A Mother's Love expect a great increase in chapters soon. Summer vacation is coming up and I'll have plenty more time to write. Along with my other story.

I have a pretty large one but with no pictures sadly.

As for how Changelings get food they feed on emotions that are channeled through the air after being collected by harvesters. Contrary to belief Changelings do not feed on just love but all emotions however it is only positive emotion that they draw strength from. Negative emotions like anger and hate have an opposite effect and actually poison changelings. Changelings cannot pick and choose what emotions they consume in a given area so harvesters must carefully plan where they reap emotions. For example say a harvester begins collecting love from a park not only will they get the happiness and love from the children, the parents etc. they will also get any dormant negative emotions. Maybe the sadness from a recently divorced pony that had brought their child to the park to cheer them up they would absorb that as well. But so long as the positive emotions outweigh the negative ones a changeling will be fine. As for sending these emotions back to the central hive were the queen lives changeling must first return to the closest sub-hive. Sub-hives are small communities of changelings hidden throughout the world. They unload the pent up emotions that they had been storing into the sub-hives collector. The collector then to the best of it's ability filters out the negative emotions before sending it down to the main hive through said channels. Depending on it's route these channels may go through several sub-hives or just one. Once these channels reach the main hive they filtered once more then expunged via filters that are spread through the Citadel. Sub-hives have filters as well but not nearly as much as the main hive as changelings of the sub-hives can enter the nearest settlement and absorb love that way to stay healthy. Also changelings can eat regular food but it does almost nothing in terms of survival but they can taste it so it is mostly consumed out of pleasure.

Leadership: Changelings actually elect their ruler and it may not necessarily be a queen. The candidates however are the children of the previous rulers. The candidates go through several challenges or rites to prove that they are meant to be ruler. These challenges include, combat, military strategy, diplomacy, knowledge etc. to see which one is would be the best leader. Unfortunately most of these challenges end in the death of the other candidates until one is left standing. Changelings figure that if they were not strong or smart enough to stay alive they were not strong enough to lead the hive. Murder is still considered a crime even if it's during the rites so many changelings consider an extra challenge to do it and not get caught. Once the king or queen is chosen they go through a ritual that connects them to the entire hive-mind connecting them to the entire hive. Now just because they are connected does not mean they can communicate with every changeling their are limitations to the number of changelings they can speak to at a time but they can speak to any changeling regardless of distance. Since the queen cannot communicate with every changeling they have a 100 seat council. 10 of these seats belong to the citizens of the citadel the rest of them represent the many sub-hives. The monarchy though has final say on matters but the council may sway them depending on what the populace says.

Reproduction/Growth : The queen does not give birth to every changeling though many changelings refer to her as mother. Changeling reproduction is in many ways similar to pony reproduction with a few key exceptions. One in order to reproduce it does not need to be a male and a female. The other is how the previous one can be. Only with the magic of true love can changelings reproduce. That is essentially the sperm fertilizing the egg. During intercourse many changelings will exchange their love in liquid from through the mouth the one that will be the carrier will swallow said love. It is to be noted that intercourse is not required for this but is merely for pleasure. A changeling is born 1-2 months after conception through a like hole that appears on the stomach as the larvae is formed. These larvae look like large black worms with green eyes and soft skin. Changelings often times give birth to multiple larvae up to five at a time and is rare for a changeling to give birth to one larvae. Changelings do give live birth however after being born the one who gave birth to them then cover the larvae in a special substance that is stored in their breasts, the end result resembling an egg. The eggs are then placed in a safe place with the hive and sub-hive having public hatcheries that are heavily monitored by guards. Roughly 9-11 months later the eggs begin to hatch and the form that comes out is similar to the larvae form but with hardened chitin skin, a more developed head, their body separated into parts, six legs and small wings. Once they are born they cannot eat love however and require liquid love to be regurgitated into the hatchlings mouth. During this hatchling form they begin to develop wings and magic but cannot transform yet. As they grow older their bodies become longer and about 7 years later they can absorb love of their own but may still require to be fed. At about age 13 will find a safe place and form a cocoon around themselves and will stay in said cocoon for about a year. Once they breakout of the cocoon they come out fully developed as the changelings we see. At this point they know how to eat love on their own and transform instinctualy.

Male and Female: Changelings are born male or female with it being skewed to females being about a 40-60 ratio. However seeing as male changelings can give birth and females don't need sperm there is little biological need for males and females. Changelings instead have genders to better fit in with other species as they can't completely change their sex. They can however adopt the sex of the opposite gender. A male can create a pseudo-vagina and female can form a pseudo-penis but cannot erase their true sex. This makes Changelings in many ways hermaphrodites.

Relationships/Social interaction. Since their society revolves around love Changelings are a very affectionate and hands on race. For example when meeting changelings may hug each other even if they have never met. Kissing and licking are common forms of affection regardless of relationship. A changeling may kiss it's mother and lick it’s friend to show their love. Sex is the same way. Changelings view sex as the most pure form of love and best way to show affection. As such sex is not reserved for romantic partners and is often used to strengthen bonds between friends and family. In fact it is very common for a changeling to lose their virginity to one or both of their parents. "Marriage" does not exist in the same way . For one they don't have closed marriages and for a spouse to sleep with or display affection for any other changeling is common. It is actually a sign of great trust and friendship for a changeling to offer to a friend to sleep with their spouse or all of them together. However marriage is also more binding as they involve setting up a permanent mind link between the two changelings. This connection allows the two to feel what the other is thinking and feeling regardless of distance. Severing this link requires tremendous effort and is very painful so it is usually only severed in death. Changelings who have experienced this say that it feels like they too have been killed by having their heart and body torn apart. As for sexual orientation there are no gay or even straight changelings. Changelings are attracted to both sexes though many changelings have a preference for one sex or the other but are not turned off by the opposite sex.

Location: Chrysalis’s main hive is located deep in the wasteland with the nearest non-changeling settlement being appleoosa. Which is still only on the edge of the Wasteland and over a hundred miles from the main hive. This has given the changelings a tremendous tactical advantage when it comes to warfare. Laying siege to the grand citadel is nigh impossible as most armies die of starvation, dehydration, or exposure from the hot days and cold nights. By the time many would-be conquerors arrived they would be easily crushed by the impressive fortifications. Despite the dreadful conditions many non-changelings have attempted to settle on the dangerous landscape, The reason? The rich deposits of gold, silver and precious gems that litter the wastelands. While the conditions made it impossible for farming they were ideal for various metals to grow and flourish. The stories of great wealth have attracted not only settlers looking to make an honest living but people of less pure intentions. Bandits, warlords, marauders, pirates etc. have also taken claim various plots of land across the wastes. Most of them holding up in old forts and strongholds once held by the changelings back when they were more aggressive. They mostly prey on settlements for food along with other supply lines. There is an unspoken agreement between the bandits and Changelings. “Don’t mess with us we don’t mess with you.” As the changelings still not trusting of non-changelings use the marauders to keep the would be settlers far from them without officially attacking them. To make matters worse settlers must also contend with many vicious beasts that roam the land. Including Basilisks, Sand Basilisks Chimeras, Sand Serpents, even Dragons. In order to get across the savage lands as quickly as possible changelings have tamed the beast known as the Aquico a distant cousin to the Hippogrif. The two beasts share the head of an eagle except the Aquico has a reptilian body with three toed clawed feet and long tail. The Aquico also mostly feeds on rocks and small bugs found in the ground. Thus far the Changelings are the only race to have tamed the creatures.

Relations with the outside world. Relations with other nations are strained at best with them being best with the equestrians. Changelings worse political relations are with the Minotaur tribes. Disdain for each other’s culture has lead to anger and prejudice between the two. With general distrust between every other nation. Even though their relations are best with the equestrians there is still a misunderstanding between the two. Past transgressions have spoiled the opinions of equestrians towards changelings. The biggest one being that in the past before Chrysalis’s hive developed it’s love through a much more peaceful way changelings would devour love via special cocoons. These cocoons would keep the subjects alive for long periods while their love was forcibly gorged on until death. Thanks to the cocoon this death would come slow and emotionally agonizing as the victim would forget everything about what they loved. However it was not always this bad.

Brief History:The changelings and Equestrians even teamed up with each other to combat Sombra and reclaim the Crystal Empire. Since the Crystal heart radiated love across the world it was very important to the changelings. However, the alliance did not last long as the effects of the crystal heart wore off the changelings had to kidnap more non-changelings to keep their empire alive. This lead to a period of extreme hostility between them until the ascension of Chrysalis’s great grandmother Queen Danaus who developed the system above. This did not mean that relations eased immediately and it took the reign of Danaus II Chrysalis’s grandfather that relations were relatively peaceful. Then during the reign of King Morpho and Queen Articia, Chrysalis’s parents, a group of terrorist changelings assaulted canterlot with bombs that killed wealthy benefactors and equality activists Jet Set and Beau Monde the parents of Fancy Pants. Jet Set and Beau Monde were beloved by many even the princesses and despite outcry of the actions by the changeling rulers. Animosity between the people rose with anti-changeling mobs common. However after more public appearances through the years strengthening the bonds and combating ignorance King Morpho and Queen Articia was able to bring relations back before their sudden deaths. This story takes place a few years after Chrysalis’s selection and she is 25.

Interesting facts: This will be updated from time to time.
Changelings can learn languages in a few months so pretty much every changeling can speak every language at a very young age.
The changelings have a language but it is rarely used as more and more returning changelings spoke in the language they were most comfortable with. Some changelings know the ancient language but not all.
Changelings can indeed learn many spells but their power is based on how much love is consumed.
Common changelings are usually given simple names like Thorne or Sunshine with the exception of the monarchy that receive names based on butterflies.
The changeling language has no word for gay, straight or incest.
Changelings can temporarily set up a hive-mind with each other this helps squads in battle communicate non verbally.

So this is my headcannon thus far I'll probably come back and add things as I think of them and as situations come up.