While I was writing the latest chapter of one of my fanfictions I got to thinking, how the hell have the Changelings not conquered the entire planet? I mean, think about it. What's to stop a random changeling from turning into a moth, landing on a pony's back, then turning into something more dangerous like a manticore and ripping the pony to pieces? Let's assume, for the sake of fairness, they can't use the venom of any venomous creatures they might turn into, so they can't simply paralyze their victim with some weird paralytic venom from some obscure species.

Even then, in the comics Chrysalis kills a kitten just to scare the cutie mark crusaders.

So I don't think the Changelings are particularly against killing in general. Sure you can make the argument that they generally don't resort to killing since they would rather capture individuals to feed on them. But seriously, they could destabilize entire nations this way by assassinating their governments and military leadership which would make conquering their victims incredibly easy.

They could want to keep Celestia and Luna alive and enslave them to force them to move the sun and moon, sure. But what about every other species in the world? The minotaurs, griffons, the yaks, the cat and bird people, whatever the heck the storm king and his people are. If you think about how Changeling magic works, it doesn't make sense how they haven't conquered the world unless Chrysalis was incredibly incompetent or something was preventing them from using their magic like that.

Obviously this is a kids show we're talking about and it wouldn't be as fun and definitely wouldn't be safe for kids if they did use their powers like that. So I'm probably over thinking it and taking their powers too seriously. I just thought this might be an interesting topic for discussion. Plus it's an issue I'm going to have to think about in my fanfic. So the question is applicable in my case at the very least. And it might be an interesting topic to explore in other fanfics as well.

Maybe only particularly strong changelings or changelings that are explicitly soldiers, like Pharynx, can turn into anything dangerous? Or maybe Chrysalis demands they try to capture everything they can alive so the hive can feed on their love? Or maybe Chrysalis intentionally keeps the number of changelings who can do that sort of thing low in an attempt to reduce the chances of the hive deciding they're sick of her and trying to overthrow her? There's a lot of possible ways this could be interpreted. So what do you guys think?

7900469
Honestly, most of the Big Bads should have been able to easily win if not for protagonist plot armor. Discord in particular would be unstoppable, since they gave him no limitations.

Under my interpretation, changelings can only transform into mimics of those whom one loves. Furthermore, not all of the anatomy would be hooked up to anything so to speak. These two restrictions alone solve a lot of these issues you've listed.

7900475
That's an interesting interpretation, and it would work in fanfic. Though I think canon mostly disagrees with this. Pharynx turns into a rock at one point and a giant monster at another. Plus during the Royal Wedding a bunch of changelings turn into the Mane Six. I don't think any of them particularly love the things they turned into.

As for the anatomy not being hooked up to anything, that I can actually agree with since we don't see evidence that Changelings can use a lot of the anatomic features of things they can turn into. Other than wings, which they also have and it makes sense for them to be able to use.

Or maybe Chrysalis intentionally keeps the number of changelings who can do that sort of thing low in an attempt to reduce the chances of the hive deciding they're sick of her and trying to overthrow her?

Without further spoilers, I went with similar route for my The Queen of the Dark au, which is heavily based on the canon and its themes. Chrysalis controls the population of her species, who are all her spawn, through fear, and heavily limits their numbers. The moment they become too powerful and independent, they might become rivals, and it needs to be prevented without any mercy. She wants them as minions, who's capable of imagining only a life that is defined by hate and being a predator.

She is a monster.

Changling are OP but they are co dependent on their food (ponies ) if they enslaved them and took all the love then the last season will set in no new generation the field goes fallow and the hive dies .

7900488
While this is true, they could go the horrific dystopian route and farm the ponies and other species on big ranches, and devour them the moment they reach a certain age. Sort of like how we farm cattle, chickens, and pigs for food except with fully sapient species.

Of course they would have to give them some opportunity to interact and form bonds with eachother to make them feel love that they could then feed on. Which would of course make the entire thing even more grimdark as every single mass produced generation would be forced to watch the Changelings drag their loved ones away, kicking and screaming, knowing they would never see them again until it was eventually their turn.

And they could keep the ponies and other species in line by cutting the horns off of unicorns at birth and crippling the wings and legs of the pegasi and earth ponies. Similar things could be done to other species.

Chrysalis would have to deal with and presumably enslave or outright execute any alicorns that might pop up herself, but she's shown herself to be more than capable of it whenever she's well fed enough in the show.

Super dark but technically a means of ensuring their continued survival and prosperity.

IMHO A little too dark read Quantum Gallop for a good take on Chissy won

7900504
Fair enough. I might be too used to Warhammer 40k where that sort of thing is par for the course. Cough Drukhari Cough.

Thanks for the reading suggestion! I'll definitely give it a look!

7900480

Though I think canon mostly disagrees with this. Pharynx turns into a rock at one point and a giant monster at another.

I've never watched the later seasons, and disregard them. It's fanfiction for a reason.

Plus during the Royal Wedding a bunch of changelings turn into the Mane Six. I don't think any of them particularly love the things they turned into.

That's a good point, which I'll address by pointing out that the Mane Six love each other and, while this is platonic love, that's enough to solve the issue for my purposes.
7900499

While this is true, they could go the horrific dystopian route and farm the ponies and other species on big ranches, and devour them the moment they reach a certain age.

This is why Princess Celestia is around to protect them.

7900509
Ah, alright. That makes a lot more sense then. You were saying they can only turn into things their victims love. That's my bad. I misinterpreted that and thought you meant they could only turn into something the individual changelings themselves love. Kind of a dumb mistake on my part in hindsight since that would pretty much mean they could only change into other changelings, now that I really think about it.

In the show, Changelings used their real form to attack canterlot and defense the hive. I guess the mimic form cannot be stronger than their real base form.

Or their mimic form required so much energy that it's unfeasible to used in normal combat. Like x50 penalty energy cost when compare to the real specie they mimic.

7900527
Interesting theory. It actually makes sense too. Something bigger would take more energy to turn into. So to turn into something dangerous the changeling would need to be especially strong or highly trained, like Pharynx. And even then they might not be able to stay in that form for extended periods of time. Which would explain why Pharynx only stayed in his giant monster bug form for a limited time.

I really like this one! I can't really see any obvious holes in it.

A parasitic race of creatures could overtake and ruin the world. The real question is, what's stopping them?

Why doesn't Chrysalis just destabalise the entire Equestrian government via all the minor states? Well, the question is, why haven't she? It's a multitude of factors, but simply put, it's their nature keeping themselves in check.

Like humans, we could have deforested every region on the planet, but something in the back of our consciousness, be it common sense or otherwise, prevents us from harming mother nature further.

Only those on the socio or psychopathic spectrum has little to no qualms about it. Queen Chrysalis has been depicted as a psychopath in power, but her changelings are just naive, based off the reformed changeling arc.

It is not unlikely that Chrysalis has to constantly deal 'non-ideal' changelings like Thorax. She probably even have a more brutal version of Starlight Glimmer's brainwashing. Outliers like Thorax must have been constant enough throughout the generations that it can undermine her operations. I mean, look at Pharynx; Thorax has the undying love from a changeling in power.

The default state of a changeling could be more of a passive stance rather than the aggressive one that Chrysalis tries to pull. This is conjecture, but I do believe this is the case since there isn't some internal politics that could grow under her brutalist regime.

Then there are the two princesses to account for. Aside from their killer cosmic abilities, if the changelings don't take them out first, they'd still be screwed.

Then comes the main event: Chrysalis herself. On the competancy scale, I'll put this into perspective:

You know the solar princess' powers are huge, but does she? You organised your army and personally infiltrated the castle to take over one of the minor princess role. You have at least two-three days to make sure that Celestia won't be an issue. The issue? She has Celestia's full blind trust during those days but does nothing but play with Shining Armour.

When the invasion begins, she's smart enough to use the ponies as a guarantee either princesses can't go colateral. Then the magic duel. Chrysalis almost lost, but because of 'the power of love' she wins.

Her expression during those moments tells me that Chrysalis is bad with forethoughts and spy stuff. She's down bad for total conquest.

So, what's stopping them from taking over already? It's just like your theory: incompetency.

7900469
There are several reasons why Changelings don't rule the world in my fics.

First is numbers. Changeling Hives are actually tiny when compared to overall population. Biggest Hive ever had twenty five thousand changelings, including worker drones, all sorts of specialists etc. Biggest Hive in my story is twelve thousand strong. And on the average? Their numbers start in somewhat bigger than thousand, and cap at around three of four thousand. It's not even the question if feeding themselves, so much as how many drones could be controlled at once. With such numbers individual Hives just can't effectively control much of territory without pulling resources together.

Second is... well, Changelings have a lot of trouble pulling resources together. As a rule, unless the one trying to force cooperation is a Queen any possible coalition with more than two Princesses involved would inevitably descend into infigting, backstabbing and the like. And while Changeling Queen absolutely can gather every single Hive and force them work together without usual shenanigans, Chrysalis never had much interest in doing that until she started descending into senility and arranged Canterlot invasion.

Third is that there are counters to Changleings transformations. Numerous counters in fact. Bigger transformations, unless they are pulled off by Matriarch are hilariously unstable and could be dispelled very easily if you have even little bit of magic. Which a lot of people actually do, so combat forms don't really cut it against anything but monsters. Changeling infiltration also could be countered pretty easily if you expect it. At which point, confrontation with individual Hive turns into normal brawl with normal, not very numerous enemy, albeit fairly mobile, very coordinated, with plenty of magic users and at least one "heroic" unit involved in form of their Princess or Queen.

Fourth is... well, in my stories modern Equus may be somewhat lacking as far as aforementioned heroic units go, but in the past there were plenty of them. Griffins were ruled by literal living god, every single pony generation had at least a couple of unicorns who were on par or better than Starswirl, which could easily lead to archmages dogpiling them, Celestia, untill her injuries from Nightmare Rebellion started catching up with her was fittingly called "Pony Grogar" and hunting powerful things for sport was one of her main ways to rejuvenate herself, Discord bred a lot of demigods who could easily get involved if you don't pick the place for battle carefully, depending on era there were from thirty to hundred Changeling Princesses who would welcome opportunity for sororicide, etc. So, most Changleing Matriarchs wouldn't even get personally involved unless there is no other choice.

Oh, and of course main reason. You see, as far as your average Changeling Princess is concerned, other species are primitive barbarians, and why the hell would they even want to rule them?

7900527
My take is similar. They do gain the strength and power of the form but that is about it. Each time the show displays them taking a hit in a "larger than changeling" form they tend to crumple and revert back.

Not once do they fight, and win, while transformed in something bigger. (Or smaller; lack of staying power might be a defect of the entire ability or goes in both directions. Which implies the changeling is doing something 'special' to do it in the first place.)

So yes... in the hooves of intelligence there is nothing stopping them. Fortunately Equis is lacking in intelligence worldwide. *shrug* it is a show for little girls.

In your fanfic you kind of need to answer basic cultural, biological and even psychological questions as to what is stopping them.

7900545

There are several reasons why Changelings don't rule the world in my fics.

You describe interesting world, so I'm curious where we can read your stories set in it? I don't see them in your profile.

7900622
I used to write on Russian site ficbook.net under the same username though it was years since I actually posted anything over there.

7900639
I found it. Thanks. :)

Even then, in the comics Chrysalis kills a kitten just to scare the cutie mark crusaders.

you know what I love most about that scene? Only Sweetie Belle is the truly innocent one. Applebloom and Scootaloo both knew something was up and only one scream was shown (if multiple you often have several white lines instead of one).

So I don't think the Changelings are particularly against killing in general. Sure you can make the argument that they generally don't resort to killing since they would rather capture individuals to feed on them.

Fun Fact! That kitten was part of a small kingdom of tiny kitten/cats (that was an adult believe it or not) that was destroyed in a couple hours after landing from the love blast. In that story arc, at the vary least, to have one's love completely stolen results in death.