Changeling Headcanon Thoughts

The main challenge for old changelings was that they eat love that is directed at them. Not lust, they can't live by setting up a brothel. Not even any kind of love either. They couldn't eat Philia or Agape, though Agape turned out to be the key to fueling their metamorphosis. They could only eat Eros and Storge. This means that they had to either find a loving relationship...or insert themselves into one, with all the pain and paranoia this will result in. And familial affection within the hive just isn't enough, especially with Chrysalis in charge. And when they are a breakup away from starvation, it became overwhelmingly tempting to go for the easy option that made them an enemy of the other races of Equus.

The Changeling Metamorphosis triggered by Thorax changed their diet. Now they feed on Philia and Agape, not Eros and Storge. Which is significantly easier to arrange, but in some ways harder to maintain.

The challenge for new changelings is not that there is very little new 'food' being added to the system. This would ordinarily be biologically unsustainable, it is true, but love violates conservation of energy. The real risk is that, now that they're sustaining themselves on Philia and Agape instead of Eros and Storge, any serious community disagreement threatens starvation. Conflict resolution and community leadership are going to be very important for them going forward.

Changeling pods are much more sophisticated than they appear. Not only are they an effective life support pod, they also allow sophisticated dream manipulation of the subjects. Changelings can link to a pod to insert themselves into the subject's dreams. This is also how they were able to subdue Luna when she was abducted and trying to warn Starlight. It is also how the pods are normally harvested: a changeling worker will impersonate the loved one in the dream, taking the love directly rather than through passive pod absorption. The pods can also be linked to create shared dream environments. A changeling conquest of Equestria would ultimately wind up looking almost exactly like The Matrix.

The closely linked dream matrix of changeling pods is very difficult for Luna to access, the dreams of the pods are layered within each other like a maze of matroishka dolls and the upper layer is an innocuous appearing dream that is actually full of changeling guards who are being kept in stasis. Even if she can find the single disguised access point in the dreamscape, fighting her way through it while the Changelings have the home field advantage is a losing proposition even for her.

Changeling pods are used to keep changelings in stasis when there isn't enough love to sustain the hive. This is used to build up forces before an attack, since you can keep more troops available than you can sustain.

When Chrysalis hatched, she had several sisters. And, like bees and wasps, they were instinctively driven to fight each other until only one remained. She regrets that to this day, admires the fight they put up, and wants to make them proud. Murdering her beloved sisters also left her more than a little cracked. The trauma of this is also why she has such a hard time loving her drones, and why in turn they have a hard time loving each other.

Changelings are like Cicadas: they have bloom seasons, storing up love and laying a new generation of eggs, then dying off of old age. The next generation doesn't reemerge for decades or even centuries. It helps to ensure they are all but forgotten when they return, and that no one is prepared.

That said, a queen like Chrysalis can and does lay eggs. but the workers are sterile. Of course, now that the Changelings have metamorphosed all bets are off.

Changelings originate from when Discord got his mismatched limbs on the Flutter Ponies.

Chrysalis's magic-absorbing throne wasn't portable. It was carved out of the ancient heart of a mountain, and was deeply tied to the local ley lines. When it shattered, all that was left was resonite: valuable certainly, and magic resistant, but hardly the same. The same thing would have happened if they'd tried to haul it to Canterlot.

Changeling Mind Control is very insidious, but works by a very different mechanism than unicorn equivalents. It is also harder to resist, and doing so requires different mental skills. It does NOT work by overwhelming the target's will. Instead it works through Love laced with Deceit. Love is an incredible motivator, and people will do things for love they would never consider otherwise. Even things they know to be foolish, or that will have bad consequences. The Deceit, meanwhile, changes the context of that drive and the facts the subject is making decisions based on. In other words, Changeling Mind Magic doesn't force you do anything. It makes you want to do something, and makes it seem reasonable. Resisting it does not require willpower, exactly, but instead willingness to ignore your emotions and instincts. It can also be resisted with both Loyalty and Honesty, but even then it doesn't change how the magic makes you feel.