Changeling power rankings - final · 8:44am Nov 19th, 2020
I don't know if it shows in everything I write these days but I feel as if I'm just mechanically writing without any real soul put into it. It's been getting worse and wirse since the end of Legacy of Light (or the beginning, really). Maybe I just need to finish Blazing's storyline and focus on something else, hard to say. I tried something weird with Crazies but even that didn't feel much like the usual side-story I used to do while writing Blazing's storyline.
So, let's do a relaxing final power ranking of changelings in honor of Twilight because she loves lists. It's not based on raw power but rather their overall ability to deal with any hostilities they might encounter in life, whether directly violent or more insidious. So, here's the top 5, let's not go crazy.
Oh, and last thing - Horatio Cross isn't on the list for 2 reasons. 1 - he's not a natural changeling. 2 - he's overpowered as f******ck, basically on the level of Cromach or Nightshade even as a mostly mortal creature, depending on how mortal we classify well-fed changelings.
Here goes:
5: Bad mom- I mean Chrysalis
While I haven't specifically focused on Chrysalis in any of my stories, it goes without saying that that Bugbutt herself can't be forgotten. Now, as an infiltrator queen, she's not exactly innately skilled in terms of magic or fighting but she still is the oldest living changeling in my lore which gives her the experience and, most of all, the ability to see a bigger picture than pretty much anyone else other than old alicorns and play the long game. Granted, she never faced gods or top-level divine creations directly but she did manage to keep herself and her species alive despite turning into the enemies of ruling alicorn sisters. If it weren't for the betrayal of Cryo and other generals, she might have even succeeded in taking Celestia and Luna down during the great war. Since the rise of bossdad in the north, she's grown as well and while she definitely doesn't come near to any of the top northern changelings in terms of power anymore, Chrysalis has spread her webs far and wide all over the world and if the need arises, she can call on servants, supporters, and downright slaves from all levels of any civilized society to do her bidding. Yes, Chrysalis might have lost the great war but her dream of ruling the world from the shadows has never been closer. Of course, with changelings now being part of the world instead of outlaw mosters, spreading her influence has been more for practice than any real goal but no one can really know with someone like her.
4: Divine power is cheating! Comfort
Chrysalis' ex-number 1 has achieved something no other changeling ever - divinity... or demonity, demon-ness, demontia? Whatever you might want to call it, she's a succubus and some part still a changeling. What that means is that she can literally rule over the carnal desires of any creature better than anyone other than the alicorn of Lust herself. Maybe Cadance too? Eeeh, hard to say, love and lust go hand in hoof in talon in claw in whatever appendage together. She can easily break through any mental defenses other than those of the most disciplined creatures or rocks. Rocks are notoriously difficult to turn on unless you're Maud Pie. Of course, divinity makes her a true immortal unlike anyone else on the list but being a demon of lust puts a hard limit on what she can do with her power. Still, a changeling infiltrator of her caliber knows how to manipulate others through way more than their base needs. In short, while Chrysalis might pull the strings all over the world to cause the small puppets to move as she wishes while they still think they're in control, Comfort can make nearly anyone do anything, betray their deepest principles, lose their friends, families, lives, histories and there's not a damn thing they can do to stop her no matter how they try to resist.
3: THE heaviest punch bug of heaviest punch bugs - One
Expected One to be higher? Well, she would but her one-sided focus is both holding her back as well as exactly the thing that turned her over the centuries into the honed fighting machine that she is both in terms of raw power, efficiency, and skill. Quite likely, her combat prowess is outclassed only by Horatio Cross, her endurance by Nightshade, and her raw strength by Cromach. For a mortal changeling born from Chrysalis' royal egg, she's been pushing limits of what a changeling warrior can achieve. Her mental discipline and dedication allows her to easily shrug off any mind-control attempts that would turn her against bossdad, be they physically corruptive, magical, or of any other source. That, of course, doesn't mean she's immune to manipulation, just that she will obey her king over any other command or wish of anyone including herself. And so, here's where her weaknesses start to show. When left alone, she's smart but not to any genius degree, her infiltration abilities are limited and rather basic, and her planning and strategic thinking is specialized for combat, both tactical (using the abilities of all her forces to their full potential) and immediate (in-combat planning and reactions). She's not big on long-term plans spanning entire civilizations, she just wants to be by her king's side and inflict horrible fate on anyone trying to harm him. Of course, being able to trade punches evenly with someone like Nightshade allows for some deficiencies in the head department. When you're able to punch so hard the ponification of corruption itself can feel it while on a corrupted continent, it shuts up anyone attempting to point out that your overall plan might not be that great.
Honorable mention: The pacifist - Gem
Gem couldn't be left out of the list, despite abhorring violence in most forms (whips, stomping, or spanking between two consenting creatures are okay in her book). Having been trained by Comfort nearly since birth and learning from her even after her ascension, Gem is the infiltrator and the master of absolute mental discipline. To put it short, she's sort of the mirror of physical perfection of One in the aspect of infiltration abilities. Her perfect control of her shapeshifting allows her to synthesise close to any material or chemical within herself and her discipline gives her the time to retreat into her own mind, slow time to a crawl, and figure out a way to deal with any situation. Coupled with her knowledge of alchemy first learned in the dark streets and mafia drug parlors of Canterlot and mastered over centuries, her overall ability to use changeling pheromones, venom, psychology, hypnosis, or even simple mind-reading and altering her physical form to cause instant attraction puts her even above Comfort simply because of how difficult her influence over someone is to detect. Of course, when you can basically brew and immediately absorb simple alchemical potions inside yourself you're far from defenseless even when faced with a situations specifically designed to stop changelings. And if she has time to prepare her alchemy, oooh boy. Not being limited by having to actually find extremely rare and impossible to store ingredients like dragon's rectum scales or something equally stupid makes sure she can always have the right potion for any eventuality she can predict. It's her versatility and the ability to prepare beforehoof, really, which puts her way above the rest. Kinda the batman of changelings in a way, as she's mega rich too.
And, unlike Chrysalis, actually a genuinely nice and loving changeling.
2: Wait, what?! Two
Wooo, the unexpected! With Two's lack of exposure since closing the void rift in the Crystal Empire, she's could easily be overlooked and that would be the last mistake any of her opponents would make. Two is versatile, extremely versatile. She can fight on the skill level of One and even if she's nowhere near her constant physical power she can use love for short-term boosts to match her. Unlike nearly anyone else in her hive, by this point she can use proper magic, not just love-fueled power blasts like the others, having been learning from Seven for a loooong time. Considering that Seven was cursed with Harmony's gift and the absolute knowledge of magic, it's safe to presume that Two knows much more than she's ever shown. She also knows technology and the use of advanced weapons from Six and Five, a specialist on one each and, as far as infiltrator skills go, she's been consistently learning from Gem whenever her sister came to visit the hive. Of course, she can't match Gem but without the limit of non-violence, it's not as if she needs to.
However, being a top-notch generalist would never work with the trait that landed her on number 2 here - her ability to think quickly and improvise. She doesn't need to burn love to slow time for herself like Gem does. One can call it instinct but deep down, she can assess situations and figure the best way out better than anyone else. She knows that no matter what, there will always be someone stronger, faster, smarter, or more skilled than she is, which is exactly why she's trained herself to not match rock with scissors, but rather with scissors, paper, a bigger rock, a pile of goo, a minigun, an army, and a lightning bolt.
1: Dreamling queen Guiding Light
She and the dreamlings need more stories, really. They've been through a lot, even compared to the bossdad's hive.
It's tough to measure what makes Guiding the quiet powerhouse she is but her history can give some pointers. First, having been created by alternate reality Nightmare Moon and leading part of the changeling forces under her to total victory and annihilation of all life on Equus could be a sign of divine power inside her and her ability to think tactically. The control of energy inherited from her father and the ability to successfully figure out a dimension-hopping spell from a small trace of divinity left behind by him shows her inherent understanding of magic and divinity on such basic level that it might come close to Twilight or Magnus, or even Seven. Her physical and mental discipline has been proven by surviving corruption for longer than Celestia and protecting her dreamlings from its effects while fighting to create the only real place where Corrupted genuinely feared to enter. Where the Twisted, a primitive and weak version of Corrupted, infested the northern hive despite their self-control and would have succeeded in turning them if it wasn't for centuries of Cryo's internal work on ice and Two finishing the job, Guiding Light survived corruption for centuries while actively fighting its spawns. She out-thought Harmony's attempt at killing her and she defended her mind from Nightmare trying to turn her again into a feral killer while still being weak from just recently recovering from her partial corruption. On top of everything, because dreamlings were crafted from changelings to devour fear instead of love, the weaker her enemies get, the stronger she gets. And even despite that, love is still love and dreamlings re-learned to live on it as well. The weaker her enemies get, the stronger she gets, and the stronger her friends get, the stronger she gets as well.
Those who know her respect her. If they knew her full history, they would worship her. Funny when all she wants is to finally be with her dad in peace.
Funny that with Thirteen you probably will need to redo this list~
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I based the list to be accurate to the point of time around One Hug Bug. Yes, 13 could pretty much pass 1 in raw power but she also might not, depending on circumstances so yeah, she doesn't belong here right now.
I wasn't talked about now~
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Full future potential is tough to measure but if I had to hazard a guess then she'd be fighting for the second place with 2. 13 would likely be stronger, faster, and tougher but 2 would be much cooler under pressure, more ruthless, have access to complex magic and more experience with hybrid combat.
I'd still say that eventually 13 mightovertake even 2 in terms of overall power if she got more experience with varied threats but it would still be close and Guiding and Cross would be above her no matter what.
Well, with how you described her it seems she probably can overtake even One with power, but with her skills and character she's in the bottom on the list right now, yeah