Omake: Why Don't Changelings Have Unrestricted Shapeshifting?
"So let me get this straight," Alex asked slowly, "Changelings can turn into literally anything?"
"As long as they have enough magic to power it, yes," Chrysalis replied. She paused. "Why are you grinning like that?"
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"What are you?" Chrysalis asked, poking at the side of the machine that Alex had turned himself into.
"A nanobot factory," said Alex's synthesized voice, coming from a speaker at about Chrysalis's eye level, "It's like a forge, only much better. I'm going to pump out enough weapons and suits of armor for everyone, then start making vehicles."
The machine pulsed and Alex grunted, then a pile of metal fell out of the far end.
"All done," Alex proclaimed, turning back into himself, "Now to dig out a new sublevel and reinforce it."
One transformation into a mining drill later the only sign of his presence was a vibrating hole in the floor. Chrysalis just stared at it, completely at a loss for words.
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"And, done," Alex said, closing the book with a snap and setting it back on the shelf, "Library of Vanhoover, check."
Around him, hundreds of disguised clones were finished putting their own books away as well. Chrysalis had stopped looking surprised by this point, and instead was gleefully halfway through the shelves herself.
"Next stop," Alex said to himself, "Canterlot."
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"All favor of making Equestria into a constitutional monarchy, say aye."
A chorus of ayes went up from around the Royal Court. Celestia was busy playing tug of war with 500+ copies of Chrysalis over the sun, and as such wasn't present to intervene in Alex's coup. Not that she would have had much luck, since Alex had gone and replaced every single noble and wealthy pony in the city. Which was most of them.
"With that settled," Alex proclaimed, "Our first order of business is straightening out the legal system."
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Sombra peaked out of the ice cave he had spent the last millennia in, took one look at the metal golem taller than the crystal palace doing a kata next to the city, and promptly went back underground. Unicorn king or not, he was not going to mess with that thing.
The Jeager, meanwhile, was humming happily to itself, with only a quick pause to mutter, "God I love shapeshifting."
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Or he could've just changed into Doctor Manhattan. :B
Yeah, as soon as you can reliably subvert the laws of thermodynamics, things get remarkably easy.
Keep going! ;)
congratulation for soon graduating
I think this is a bit more then people think of with unrestricted biological shapeshifting, but it's definitely a hilarious look at the extremes it can go to.
I'd personally have the restrictions of actually having to either understand the anatomy of the lifeform/molecular structure of what you intend to change into wothout having a template or having done it before, as well as the actual specifications of an inanimate object if you don't have a real version in sight.
Theres a lot more to a blade then just being a solid strip of iron forged uniform, and most don't realize that tidbit.
8091428 Thorax turned himself into a rock that fit in with his surroundings. That implies not only that canon Changelings can do inanimate transformations, but that they don't need to understand what they're turning into inside and out in order to do it.
8091557 True, but he had a great deal of reference for that considering the environment.
The latent magic might posses the ability to pull a template for structure if a suitable subject is available, like the rocks surrounding him or duplicating a pony standing right in front of the individual, with a certain radius before it falls onto the individuals skill and knowledge to prevent mistakes.
And for the 'lings basic knowledge to allow free range shifting into Equestrian races would be something passed down by principle of survival.
8091640 The level of knowledge required to do a proper shapeshifting if it isn't along the lines of, "Picture what you want and the magic will fill in the rest," is so insanely high that humanity has only acquired it within the last century. I've barely scratched the surface of what I would need and I've spent four years studying it. Giving every single changeling a Masters in biology (because that's what it would take) just isn't feasible by any standard, and if you add in all the complexities of mimicking a single pony's unique quirks (such as a bad back or exceptional foreleg strength) having knowledge as the base steps fully into the realm of impossibility.
Regardless, Alex's shapeshifting isn't unrestricted. I haven't had a chance to touch on it in the story, but changelings can't change their mass or shift too far away from their native skeletal structure. A human changeling imitating a pony or a pony changeling imitating a minotaur is about as far as it can stretch, and anything beyond that must be covered by illusions. Snakes and invertebrates are well beyond their reach, let alone anything inorganic. Also, human hands are delicate and complex enough that Alex can't fully turn them into hooves, and any attempt by Chrysalis to make her hooves into hands would be thick and clumsy compared to the real deal.
8091661 I've placed it on one of those abilities fitting with the fantasy setting, makes no sense by human standards but works perfectly fine with the species in question, and being a majorly long term endeavor for an outsider to even begin to understand, like the faerie that knows everything about something right after it's taken form.
Most of the process would be subconscious in use, with the scholarly aspect being something started from the earliest possible date, making it more standard then the teaching of human anatomy and the like.
Thank you for the replies, and I'm looking forward to the next chapter.
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I wouldn't be too sure about that. Shiny has already expressed some serious anger at Cadence and what she did to cause the situation in the first place. He's certainly still ultimately on her side... but not enough to be stupid about it. Remember that this story has covered maybe a few days so far. Once some serious amount of time passes and he gets the opportunity to think it all through, I wouldn't be surprised if his reaction is a lot more critical.
I'm adoring this story! I can't wait to see what happens next!
Yo, this shit dead? Because, uh... It was really good shit. Is there still a fucking pulse? Someone answer, please. Please. Please? Please. Please? Please? Please!?
Ah, shit...
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Nah they ded....
So... when's an update to this story coming out, if you don't mind me asking?
It has been two years,
This is DEAD
Trully DEAD
But let it reborn.
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From the void you have summoned me, and rebirth it shall have. The next update will be in a month, no matter what I have to do to make it happen.
To be honest, I'd mostly convinced myself that this was self insert garbage and that my energy was better spent making cosplays, but then I went and reread the 2,200 or so words I'd written for the next chapter, and, it was good. Really good. A lot better than I was expecting, actually, given how wooden I'd felt when I was writing it.
In any case, I've learned something about committing to a project since I last put words to keyboard, so when I say it will be done you can expect that to come to pass. What's more, I'm doing a time management theme for fall, so by spending my time more wisely I should have some to spare to work on this. Not to mention it is, as I said, already halfway finished.
10406536
Update: well, my time is still pretty tight (I procrastinated until yesterday ::::P), but I have blown the dust off, gotten back to work, and am now at 3,000 words of just that chapter with none of the extra bits of plot arc notes and upcoming scene snippets padding it out. I might need a few extra few days to get it up to the usual length, but if you want it sooner I can post tonight.
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First.
Thank you
Second.
Take your time, it is your story. You decide when to post it.
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I made a promise, and didn't want to break it without at least giving you a heads up first.
Besides which, I realized at work today that if I cut some of the padding and rearranged things a little, I could conclude the current arc in this chapter without sacrificing any of the juicy drama, plus an epilogue less than 1k words long. So rest assured, it is coming, and soon. It's just a matter of juggling my priorities for it.