Great story you got going on here. Keep it up.

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Thank you, plan on having the next chapter out in the next couple of days

Interesting so far.^_^ Hmm.... you said that it would be a way of showing his technology impacting their culture? In that case....: http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/320611/equestrian-level-of-technology-and-history

Oh, and will you show the Changelings at some point later on? They were never killed, as the comics have revealed.

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I actually do intend to have some sort of interaction between the human and the changelings, however what that interaction is one will have to wait and see.

5634156 Nice.^^ In that case...., I'm gonna copy and paste a section I put together in a note here. I copied and pasted these sections from past conversations into this bit of Changeling theories:

1. 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?

2.

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?

3.

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...

4. 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.

5.

>> Zilverfoss 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.

6. 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.

7. >> Zilverfoss 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. Though some were smart enough to not use their heads.

8. 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.^^

What do you think of all these ideas, DungeonMiner?^_^
2d, 2h ago Regreme said:

Oh, and just added this to the same fic that I copied and pasted my replies to, if you know what I mean:

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?

Oh, and to add on to these among my theories...

Twilight showed that transformations in mass size isn't too big of an issue, due to the breezies bit. Just requires more energy.

What do you think of these theories in regards to the Changelings?

Good story so far. I can not wait to see where it goes.

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Just a quick question about your avatar. Is that a sloth? If it is I commend you on your wonderful contradiction and slight visual joke.

How is a raven like a writing desk?

5634331 Indeed, that is humanity's future leader.

5634495 Oh the irony.

.... and sorry for the length of that last comment. As you can tell, when my mind gets goin' conceptualizing, it's hard to stop. XD

Good so far, but two major issues. The first is that you need to differentiate between narrative and internal dialogue. For example, this;

As the AI began establishing the connection, Radel was left to his own thought for once, however short lived it was. I wonder if they tested to see if being connected to this AI would drive a man crazy...

Should be;

As the AI began establishing the connection, Radel was left to his own thought for once, however short lived it was. I wonder if they tested to see if being connected to this AI would drive a man crazy...

Note the italics for the inner dialogue?

Also, it's best to set some kind of marker for scene changes. Angin, an example could be for this;

“Well see what you ca-” As Radel began to ask Athene to find a way to fix the situation, a large explosion erupted within the bridge from the main console as the warp drive finally gave way. That was the last thing Commodore Endorian remembered before he was thrown against a wall in the bridge from the explosion and Ender’s Blessing came out of warp...

In a little town on another planet, six ponies were enjoying each others company…

Should be something like this;

“Well see what you ca-” As Radel began to ask Athene to find a way to fix the situation, a large explosion erupted within the bridge from the main console as the warp drive finally gave way. That was the last thing Commodore Endorian remembered before he was thrown against a wall in the bridge from the explosion and Ender’s Blessing came out of warp...

*************************************

In a little town on another planet, six ponies were enjoying each others company…

Though, the style of separator is up to you, obviously.

Otherwise, it has promise. I'll be tracking this to see where it's going.

P.S. If you would like help or advice on anything, I'm always willing to help my fellow writers. PM me and I'll do what I can.

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Thank you for the suggestions. I was unsure of how to specify scene changes so that tip of yours is great. As for the one on thoughts, It seems when I copied and pasted my story over from google docs, I failed to realize that the italics had to be reinstated. So for that I apologize. All individual thoughts should be fixed now and in the correct form of Italics.

5635438 If you're copy and pasting from gdocs, you have to type out the code [i ][/i ] (without the spaces, of course) for italics. Otherwise, use the import feature.

This was the first chapter, of your first story ever?

This is bloody brilliant! It was awesome! You just mixed Star Wars, Star Trek, and My little pony in one chapter! Fantastic work!

I'm sorry but my grammar Nazi is kicking in it is not Commodore it is Commander if we're going by ship terms and that stuff/color] edit: whoops didn't know that was part of his name sorry

As she left to do this, Luna continued to watch the descent of this strange object. As she watched, it finally met the Everfree Forest with a forceful embrace of destruction and fire….

NOOOO THE RAILGUNS