DAILY EQUESTRIAN CLASSIFIEDS
Are you lonely and depressed? Maybe you just need a friend or a companion?
Hired Hooves or even a significant other? We will work to your needs to the best of our abilities
to be whoever you need!
Perhaps you have special needs or specific tastes? Custom jobs may be requested by any who have needs not specified by the ad and we will work to fulfill your requirements!
Payment plans include love, adoration, hugs and kisses or just the love of a good friend!
Payment of other emotions subject to inquiry.
To order your own Changeling, just send a request giving your name and address to our PO Box.
Job details and requirements (including payment plans) will be hashed out in pony.
Changeling Drones
PO Box 6174
Ponyville, EQ 90210
This is a brilliant idea!
Interesting will follow for now see where is leads so far it is enjoyable.
This seems interesting and promising.
Let's see where this is headin'
Your chapter titles don't have capitalization, and it's "ad" for your short description.
Interesting, though I partially disagree on something. I mean, it has been shown that they can only do what the form they changed into can do, both in show and comic, so I think it's a full out transformation. To support this:
Twilight, just as a unicorn, was able to transform a frog into a living orange. And later, as an alicorn, can transform multiple individuals.
This means magic can fairly easily change others provided enough powers.
But, to explain how....:
Changelings have lived for generations having to disguise themselves. Therefore, there's a high probability that their ancestor's bodies eventually evolved to be more susceptible to transformation magics. However, this could easily prove to be a double edged sword, were an opponent to know transformative magics. However, that's obviously not much of a problem due to so few knowing about such spells.
However, it does stand to reason that younger changelings would rely upon weaker illusion based magics to get them started with their training.
And to further explain it... it is quite likely that unlike ponies, Changeling's magics run throughout their entire bodies, thus further allowing transformation to be simpler to perform. HOWEVER, this has the downside that the Changelings don't know in regards to likely burning up their mana reserves far faster when they use it for such, thus requiring them to feed off the mana of others.
As for the ambient magic beliefs.... I both agree and disagree with you.
As shown in the show, ponies recover their magic gradually over time, though some faster than others. But, I disagree about their magic being caused from interacting with the ambient magic for many reasons.
One, Twilight's magic, even pre-ascendence, grew over time. Having less magic than before. And she's been able to use those magics even when going to more barren environments(as the comics show). Therefore, having ambient magic of the environment determining how much power a pony can use doesn't make sense.
HOWEVER, I do think that ambient magic still has a part to play. Mainly, in how fast a pony can recover their magics.
I believe that a pony's magic is generated from life force, but both the life force of the individual and the natural 'leylines' of the planet itself. A pony's amount of mana storage can grow over time via the equivalent of 'magical exercise'. Mana from the individual can restock that storage gradually over time, but it does so more quickly in magically abundant environments.
Having mana produced from life force has another possible effect though. If transformations feast upon mana quickly, no matter how better attuned to such Changeling bodies are, it would also mean that over-using it could lead to feeding upon life force if one's mana reserves are emptied. Thus, where feeding of energy of others would be necessary.
In short, I am of the belief that all Changelings can shapeshift, likely due to ancestors seeking an easier way to transform. But, though that's the case, they are unaware that overuse of shapeshifting can drain upon their own life force if they overuse their transformations, and thus, they needed a way to restore their magic quicker than is natural. This need leading to the feeding of the energy of others.
At least, that's my opinion of them.
Also, it's my belief that, naturally speaking, Changelings are asexual. Born like bugs via eggs. HOWEVER, with their ability to shapeshift, they could make themselves a specific gender of their choice however long they want, complete with the organs needed for reproduction.
I am also of the belief that Changelings have a psionic connection, like what you showed. But, due to the hive mind, most, though not all, Changelings aren't all that bright, taking orders and lessons from those above them. However, this can change if given the opportunity to do more than follow orders, with of course the Infiltrators often being the more intelligent of such. Them and Changeling guards whom are high in rank due to greater experience.
I am also of the belief that the drones themselves cannot produce mana on their own... but princesses and queens can. I believe that, like ponies, changelings can ascend. With the production of eggs done through the expenditure of mana. As such, though possible, it's highly not recommended for drones to make eggs.
But, like ponies, changelings can grow their reserves over time and practice, with enough growth leading to ascendance to a princess, whom can generate her own mana, thus allowing for greater intellect and capability to work beyond the orders of the hive.
And lastly, for the queen.... I believe that it's one step further than princess, and... can feast upon the psionic link, even if primarily subconsciously, becoming stronger and stronger by partial feeding upon the mana of her subjects. Thus, making going against her control a bad idea unless that link is severed. Thus, why they follow Chrysalis, despite her terrible job at strategizing. Fear of consequences. However, whether or not Chrysalis knows this consciously is another matter. In fact, I doubt she knows, her own power she likely assumes to have come from ascension alone, not realizing there is more to it. Considering her poor planning with infiltrating Equestria, it's quite likely that she never thought to question where the power of her ascension came from.
Though, these are all just my personal opinions.
What do you think?
Oh, and in regards to Changeling living...
In the comics, it's revealed that Chrysalis survived, though flung to a far-off land. Where they landed though was a land filled with further love than even Equestria, and they created a castle there, one filled with deceptive mazes and traps and physics defying rooms.
In fan cannon, changelings primarily live in caves.
So, I thought, why not both?
The castle, I think, was made due to Chrysalis's ego. Believing that they finally found enough love to make a strong fortress to defend themselves with, and thus no longer needing to hide. Though, likely in part due to being inspired by her time spent disguised as Cadence and living in the palace.
But, before that, they likely used caves due to lacking the love to make their changelings strong, and thus were needing to hide themselves for protection.
And as for Chrysalis' psionics not being detected by your group of changelings here.... well, it's quite likely that the psionic field has a limited range when not using other changelings as waypoints, eh? So, she's likely just out of range to detect them.
Or at least, that's my opinion.
What do you think of these theories?
Oh, and for the 'changing causes great mana consumption' bit... a few details.
Simple transformation doesn't take too much energy. Case in point when unicorn Twilight was changing fruit. She kept doing so with very little effort in her practice runs. Not even sweating from the effort. Heck, even Trixie knew transformation spells, considering what she did to Rarity's mane, so transformation magics are far from unheard of.
Of course, larger transformations would require more energy. But Changeling bodies being used to such would require less than what a pony would require of such.
This means that though changeling transformations are mana intensive, they'd still be able to easily transform numerous times before it would become an issue. But, it would eventually become an issue, due to wasting mana faster than ponies, and as shown by twilight, mana exhaustion effects the body too, and thus why Changelings were defeated so easily by ponies... mana overuse causing their more adaptive bodies to become weaker quickly.
As for why transformations aren't too hard, and yet Twilight couldn't do age spells... that's because age spells weren't just physical. As was shown with Snips and Snails, it effected more than just their bodies, but also their personalities, possibly more. In order to effect more than just the body, the mana must have used up more energy just to examine the individual and their personal timelines, thus being far more costly. And then on top of that changing more than just the body as well. Possibly even effecting mental processes, while leaving out effecting memories normally due to such a spell likely having been created in the first place in an attempt to cheat death. Though, it'd likely just take a little alteration and more energy to effect memories along with everything else for such a spell.
Oh, and ironically for a side note, the more 'drone' like the less experienced changelings are, the more easy it actually is for them to mimic others. Having little to no self-identity makes it easy to make new identities of themselves, thus making it easy to act. And since drones get smarter with practice, the smarter they become, the more they learn to better control their own acting and changes.
Due to this though, due to the drones being not so smart, it would be fairly easy, embarrassingly so, for them to be taken advantage of. Especially if the smarter Infiltrators aren't taking care of keeping track of them. Heck, a 'drone' could likely easily be tricked into thinking that the 'ad' was used for a permanent purchase, instead of just purchasing for temporary services, since there was no clarification in the ad. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if someone tried to buy drones in mass like this.
Which could easily be another problem towards befriending ponies, eh? Though, admittedly, I doubt any such ponies exist in Ponyville. ...places like Canterlot, however...
He put an ad in a newspaper... before discussing the idea with the others? xD
Btw will the 0.5 changeling recive further notice later?
Oh, and here's a thought in regards to my theories. With Changelings being so adept at transformations, I bet they could forcefully transform others.... but they've done transformations only to themselves for so long that the concept of changing others just completely slips their minds.
You sure it shouldn't be; want?
5611489
There are a number of different and interesting takes on how Changelings work.
Yours is one of the more through out.
I personally work with the lay line system for Magic. The idea that Unicorn spells most often work through commands makes sense to me, also including that others use magic, but sans any 'commmands'
As for the chancelings, I'm at a bit of a middle road. Transformation is a standard method, but there's still an efficincy scale added to it a bit like the one added here.
Commonly only outer apperance is transformed, this transformation is most energy efficient at a mass consistency.
Illusion is more flexible and cheaper in the short run, but needs more active maintenance.
As for genetials, the caster needs to picture the change in their mind, hence why most remains incompatible with any other races.
It also explains why copy is easier than craft.
As for queens, I'm a sucker for the Bee Hive system, which means there are: Harvesters, Soldiers, and Queens (princessess)
(I'm still arguing with myself if some are born the changeling equivalent of male or that's reserved for a specific class, like with ants)
In terms of the hive mind, we pretty much agree. The Queen usually acts as an overseer and center. Long distance means limited signal. And Changelings can be kicked off (or if they are strong enough) leave the network themselves.
But that's just my version.
5612016 I'm of the belief, in regards to leylines, I think they do play another factor, especially with Changelings, actually.
That factor... well, I believe that the leylines create an overall 'collective consciousness for information'. Not quite sapient per se, but a collective of information in regards to that reality. And when using magic, though most of the magic is from the user, the magic still intermingles with those leylines to complete any 'gaps' in the spell. For example, in a transformation, the spell cast would give orders and guidelines, but the leylines would fill in other unknown details. Like muscle strength, unseen details(like scars hidden by fur) and the like. Basically, you could consider the leylines like passive supporters to the cast spells, along with being able to help rapidly restore mana users' magics the more affinity the creature has with those leylines. With ponies, of course, being the most in tune with them among the creatures in their world.
An interesting story, I just wish this chapter had come later. I always enjoy stories that feature slightly (or sometimes more) demented changelings and their follies in relation to Pony society, and your prologue was rife with potential for that. I wish we had seen some more of them and their antics around town before Twilight got to them.
I like the ideas present here, very intriguing. I'll keep an eye out, see where it goes.
Oh, and though I said that I think drones are dumb... I am somewhat unclear there.
Average drones would likely be dumb all around. But, there's likely jobs other than just Infiltrator. Those selected for other jobs would likely have grown smart, through experience and training, in regards to whatever they were trained in. But, socially and in regards to common sense or how easily they are tricked? Likely extremely dumb there unless they were trained as infiltrators.
Who says you can't buy love.
Twilight is going to perform a physical? I hope the probe isn't too big.
1408, eh?
Good show there, Lucky 13!
5613185
So we agree that Changelings isn't inheritly dump but rather uneducated culturally different and inexperienced... have you read: with out a hive?
5614301 That I have.^^ But, I have another theory. The Changelings' brains evolve differently as they use their traits. It would explain why most of them were dumb enough to ram their HEADS into Shining's force field instead of their feet.
0.o Thank you, Regreme.
I do believe I have just been schooled on all things Changeling.
I'll try not to disappoint you (or anyone really) but obviously, going by the story tags, this is primarily a comedy and slice of life and not to be taken too seriously. (I'll have to copy your posts down in case I ever do a more serious changeling centered story. Thank you for that.)
Overall, I just hope you all have fun with it.
5614344
Likely theory, could also be because it gave a more efficient impact, and they knew it. Considering the following dive bomb scene, it may simply be that headbutting was more effective than flying hooves first into the barrier. (If not completely thought through.)
It's all in how you look at it, and how much importance you put in the (at times self inconsistent) main series.
Got to like the perspective your observation leaves though: in nature, adequate is good enough, and when there's a whole hive mind to think for you, why should you?
This is a rather enjoyable story! and it aint all super dark or anything like most changeling stories ive seen. Definitely getting a fave and a watch
OOOoooohhh.... Derpy rage!!!
derpicdn.net/img/2013/9/6/420566/full.jpg
I liked it :) It was definitely a different and fun approach to changelings. I'd love to read more!
Okay, chapter 2 and 3 are more in-line with what I expected.
You certainly got the terribly cute right with Dinky. I hope that this will come back and we'll get to later hear about the aftermaths of that and the CMC's latest debacle when the changelings regroup later.
I wonder if all the changelings will get a BAD END like the three so far listed.
I'm having a blast reading this! All I want that hasn't yet been delivered is to find out how these crazy situations work out. I have such a big grin on my face from reading this right now
Please keep writing!
lol Hilarious. Too bad that you have their transformations as only illusions. But other than that, loving this so far.^^
i want to know what happened to 117.
and meanwhile on 696 mind.
"yep, i am going to die"
5615406
Octavias face
On other hoof, it seems most agree that Ditzy is a very warm caring mother, you don't want to anger.
5616102
whether the cart stays on track, now that's a wholly other question 
(or has any brakes for that matter 
) 
Maybe, though a little unlikly.
Rollercoaster is far from the worst the CMC have been depicted doing. Knowing that Apple Bloom was part of the construction crew, the roller-coaster will probably reamin standing
"I don't understand what happened. I remember they started cheering, and suddenly, I'm in this cart... did they drug me?"
That's why you don't remember anything Numbers, you made the mistake of feeding on the enthusiasm of the CMC, they probably have so much that they could be a great anti-changeling weapon, send them to have some fun in a changeling horde and suddenly they've got every single one of them going along with whatever they're doing due to a massive overdose in enthusiasm.
I wonder if any changeling has actually made it back from one of their "jobs" yet? XD
Okay, now the story has just gotten TOO silly. XD
With unicorns, everything's a gas.
5615264 Thanks for that. I'm glad I did a search for comments with my name. You didn't quote my statement, so I never got your reply till I was checking through this. XD
And glad you like my theories in regards to the Changelings. Tried to base all my theories on what is known about them.
Oh, and my belief about the younger ones knowing illusion and not shapeshift... simply put, it's safer to practice false images than it is to practice changing one's body. So, it's safer to study that when young till skill at making their changeling magic follow their orders has been done, if you know what I mean.^^
Oh, and were it not for them being illusions, I wouldn't doubt it if someone whom feels depressed and without love, someone whom craves what he lacks in his life, would try to hire many Changelings to get a herd or something. Not just for lust purposes though.
Oh, and I don't think that Changelings feeling and expressing love to others would spend their love... but, that doesn't mean that the Changelings know that, eh?
Oh, and just realized a plot hole of sorts to my own theories, but quickly thought of a way to fill said hole.
If Changelings have a high affinity with leylines, then why can't they restore their own mana over time like ponies can?
My answer is simple: their constant shapeshifting prevents any solid organs from being constant within them through which their mana can be produced and stored.
So, yet again, their advantageous shapeshifting comes with a downside to it, eh?
OMG! YES!
A crackfic chapter referencing that one doll ad, and shamelessly
Take all my bits
stealingborrowing a scene from The Lion King?I love these two latest chapters.
Celestia is "in one of her moods", and Luna is being ridiculously yet adorably silly. And the changelings are just trying to roll with it, it's so dang hilarious.
Nice work.
Ah, this is a cool chap! I love the idea of these fireflies, and tbh it makes more sense then luna moving suns billions of miles away around the planet haha.
JOHN 117!!! ITS MASTER CHIEF!!!
Best scene in the Lion King
Gaspode, is that you?
(context for those who don't get it)
This is f
ing hillarious! I want moar!
Just want to say though : [pedantry] Add refers to the mathematical operation of summing numbers. "Ad", on the other hand, is short for "advertisment" and is what you should have in the description. [/pedantry]
Oh my.
I assume this was on purpose.