the D.R.A.G.O.N.s Archives

by Scout Charger

Those Without a Face of Their Own

”I think I would like you to tell me something about Changelings. If I remember correctly, the original Spike was the first to befriend Thorax. He also was vital in him becoming the first Changeling citizen of the Crystal Empire.”

He was, true. But the history of the Changelings’ is hardly told with only Thorax’s story.

I think I got a few things about the Changelings’ biology, society and their interaction with Equestria and its citizens as well.

“Sounds cool.”

Accessing database storage kappa 5.17.85-F … Access granted.

Compiling information … procedure concluded.

…

Ok, I think the best point to start is actually a little lecture on biology and social structures.

The race we know as Changelings is about as old as the modern pony tribes. They are a sapient insectoid species that lives in a hive based social structure. Contrary to popular believe Changelings are not mindless drones controlled by the queen. In fact each member of the species is an individual with a free will and a fully developed personality. The organization in hives is thus not based on biology but social dynamic.

The Changelings’ ancestors were predatory in nature. But contrary to most predators they fed off of magical energy instead of meat. This is likely an adaptation to the fact that most equestrian species have natural magic. Naturally, in non-sapient species the most magic is generated by basic emotions. For example love, fear, anger and arousal. Therefore Changelings evolved to feed of those emotions and the magical reactions they generated. As far as we know the preference for love is based on the ‘taste’ of the emotion, not its sustenance. It is the same like some cats prefering fish over poultry for example. Changelings are able to feed of other emotions or even raw magic itself, if they wish to.

On a side note: Changelings are able to eat normal food to supplement their diet. Though it’s completely optional and cannot substitute their need to consume magic. This means that a Changeling can extend the period it can survive without love by eating normal food. He will still die if he has no access to it over extended periods of time, though. It’s comparable to a lack of vitamins in a Pony’s diet. You can go some time without it but it isn’t healthy and at some point will be fatal.

Anyway, back to the topic. When the prey species of the Changelings developed primitive social structures to improve their chances for survival, the Changelings themselves needed to adapt. Over the course of a few dozen generations two separate solutions to this problem popped up. One was social, the other was biological.

On a social level Changelings formed packs and countered the social structures amongst their prey with their own. Larger packs could attack larger groups of prey and enabled more Changelings to survive.

The biological adaptation was the Changelings’ infamous ability to shapeshift. Some members of the species developed the ability to change their magic to mimic those of their prey. This made it far more difficult to identify a Changeling that was sneaking up on its pray. Which in turn raised the chances of a successful hunt. It has to be said that early variants of this ability weren’t able to trick the naked eye though. But over the course of generations it evolved ever further. This led to the Changelings being able to transform into a doppelganger of their prey species.

What you normally would expect at this point of evolution is that the two strains of the species start to compete with one another. Like this only the strongest of them would survive and ensure the survival of the species. Contrary to that however the two branches of the Changelings merged back together. This led to the formations of the modern Changeling species.

The reformation of the Changeling hive in the aftermath of the second invasion of Equestria stands as the last step forward in the history of the species. Many Changeling and Pony scientists dedicated their lives to understanding of the process. Yet, to this day there are more theories than actual facts known.

“Why do you call it a reformation? I thought they were transformed, by the magic of love and friendship.”

Well, the Changelings were altered by the magic they had stored within them, that is true. But they weren’t blasted with a magical rainbow laser of friendship that sent their entire species on the worst guilt trip they’ve ever had. Thorax simply reformed the social structure and behavior of the Changelings as a whole. Therefore I call it a reformation and not an evolution or a transformation. Though I’ll admit that ‘simple’ might not quite meet the scale of what he did. Well, he at least made it look quite simple.

“Ok, now I’m a bit confused. What did actually happen?”

Well, I think to explain that I have to go a bit far afield.

First let me tell you about Thorax himself. He was born like all Changelings as a drone and child of the currently ruling queen. According to our records his mother was an individual known as Chrysalis. Changelings form a tight bond to the strongest source of magic and emotion, a.k.a. food, they are presented with. This leads to virtually all Changelings adapting the morals and behavior of their queen. Which in return provides them with all the magic and emotion they need. Thorax however didn’t develop this bond. He formed his own moral code, independent of Chrysalis and the hive. Why he did that is completely unknown.

Normally Changelings like he would die of starvation when they leave the hive. And, to be honest, he was on his best way to do so when Spike met him. Anyway, to avoid this his instincts led him to the biggest source of love at the time, the Crystal Empire. I don’t think I have to elaborate the details of that story since the first Changeling citizen of Equestria is a topic well covered by history lessons. But for the sake of the completeness of my contents I will summarize it quickly.

He attempted to infiltrate the Crystal Empire. To his detrement the experience of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor lead to a high level of security around the Empire. He wasn’t discovered right away, but he left traces and rumors of a Changeling spread quickly. He had to retreat into the Crystal Mountains were Spike later found him. They became friends and Thorax attempted a second infiltration, on Spike's recommendation. His cover was blown as he got confronted with Flurry Heart, who was a focal point of love and quite magical for a foal. You have to remember that Thorax was half starved to death. Presented with and source of unrestrained love and magic in his sate he simply lost control. His instincts took over and he had to flee.

Spike later brought Thorax back to the palace and made a heart wrenching plea for his friend. The records say that there even was a rather cheesy improvised song. I'm glad I have no recording of it, Spike's singign is aweful. Anyway, giving him the benefit of the doubt, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess Cadance and Shining Armor agreed to Thorax’s request. He was allowed to remain in the Crystal Empire indefenitely. At this point Thorax was the first Changeling granted full Equestrian Citizenship.

Over his time at the empire he adopted an open and welcoming mindset. He made lots of friends and his conscious mind overruled his basic instincts. This led to him focusing more on his friends and less on stealing and gathering of love. Researchers assume that he absorbed all the energy he needed to survive passively. He may even have generated emotional energy than he consumed by forming friendships. Essentially the energy he received from the Crystal Ponies jumpstarted his magical metabolism and he became self-sustaining.

When later that year Queen Chrysalis started her second Invasion of Equestria Thorax became the lynchpin of her downfall. At that point Chrysalis had already abducted most of Equestria’s ruling elite. She was basically halfway done turning the country into her personal feeding grounds. Fortunately, Princess Luna could to get an emergency call off. She managed to alarm Starlight Glimmer, Princess Twilight’s student at the time, before she got captured.

Contrary to popular believe Starlight didn’t have a plan and didn’t go on to save the day immediately. In fact most of it was made up on the fly.

Starlight Glimmer contacted her friend Trixie to try to come up with a plan to save the Elements of Harmony. Before they had the chance to make it off the starting line however Thorax stumbled over them. Discord almsot immediately joined the group, though nobody knows how he could miss the unfolding events while still immediately reacting to Starlight’s statement that everypony with powerful magic got kidnapped. But that’s the spirit of chaos for you, he rarely makes any sense.

It was somewhat of a happy coincidence for Chrysalis and the Changelings as a whole Discord was powerless around their hive. Chrysalis' throne blocked non-Changeling magic, luckily this included Discord's Chaos magic as well. Otherwise his response to the abduction of Fluttershy would likely have been mass genocide.

Anyway, after Chrysalis had captured Starlight's group she confronted Thorax and tried to drain his magic. According to his base instincts Thorax tried to hold to his reserves of emotional energy. Starlight Glimmer however realized that Thorax might be able to overload Chrysalis if he have her all the love he had. What she didn’t realize was the fact that Thorax’s magic metabolism had changed. He no longer absorbed magic, he produced it.

The moment he opened up to Chrysalis and no longer fought against her he flooded her with magic. Chrysalis herself was unable to handle the amount of power and got overwhelmed.

And this is the point where most ponies misunderstand the actual events. The changelings didn’t all have a change of heart and decided to abandon their ‘evil’ ways. They just acted according to their normal social dynamic.

As I said before Changelings accept the most powerful source of magical- and emotional energy as their leader. The royal strand of the Changeling species is not only bigger and more powerful in magic than usual. They are also equipped with a larger reservoir for emotional energy. Under normal circumstances the hunters feed energy to their queen which then distributes it across her entire hive. This does two things. For once it guarantees that all members of the hive survive. Secondly it means that the queen always has the most energy stored inside herself.

Normally an old queen gets succeeded when a new one has accumulated more emotional energy and thus becomes the main energy source for the hive. Usually the new queen then drains the old one of her magic and kills her. The old queen accepts his fate since it means that her hive will survive even if she does not. When Thorax opened his magical reserves and flooded Chrysalis, the other Changelings registered him as the primary source of emotional energy. And, as their social structure demanded, they immediately switched allegiance to their new ‘queen’. Though I think he’d prefer not to be called Queen Thorax.

So, from the Changelings' perspective Thorax’s reformation of the hive was a normal succession. Their new look however, well … you may blame that one the magic of love and friendship.

“Hmm, that’s quite the different picture from what most documentaries on Changelings present.”

No offense, but most documentaries are the result half assed research at best. Or rumors with great cinematography to make the whole thing entertaining at the wrost. I see why even educational TV has to be at least somewhat sensational if you want your audience to stay awake. But it still bugs me that ponies think of these things as the ultimate truth of the matter.

“Well, not everypony has access to a 750 ExaFLOP computer with a fully aware AI assistant to do the research for them.”

Yeah, I’m one of a kind.

“That you are. Anyway would you care if we get back to topic? I’m curious what happened after Thorax took control over the hive.”

Well, in all honesty not much. The Changelings of Chrysalis’ former hive accepted Thorax as their new leader. They adapted his moral standards and moved on. At first it wasn’t much different from a normal the takeover, when a new queen succeeded the old one.

What did change them however was the fact that they now had no need to gather love anymore. The hive was now self-sustaining and a lot of Changelings found themselves with a lot of free time at hoof. Some integrated into Equestrian society. Others attempted to better their own society. Some decided to reflect on their former life compared to their new one.

Nobody can say what will happen to the Changelings in the future. We have to remember that not long ago all they cared about was surviving. Now they are free to develop in any way they please.

Ponies, Gryphons and Zebras took anything from centuries up to millennia to develop art, philosophy and all the other things we usually think of when we talk about culture. The Changelings will have to go through that too. They might take equestrian culture as some basic guideline, but they will still need time to develop their own cultural identity.

Only time will tell what becomes of the race we once knew as Changelings.

…

Terminating connection to database storage kappa 5.17.85-F … procedure concluded.

“You became quite a bite philosophical there at the end. I’m impressed.”

That wasn’t actually from me to be honest. It’s a part of Princess Celestia’s formal proclamation of peace towards the Changelings. Since most ponies still thought of Changelings as some sort of monsters she thought it was a needed gesture to declare a formal peace treaty.

“Did it work?”

Pfffft, of course it did. You know how ponies are, if a princess says everything is perfectly fine then so it is. If Princess Celestia says we are now cool with the Changelings then by Celestia we will be cool with them.

“Ha, truer words have never been spoken.”

So, you want to go on?

“You bet I want! Got anything in mind?”

I think we could go on with some other enemies of Equestria:
- Discord
- Lord Tirek
- King Sombra
- Nightmare Moon

Or how about some of our other allies, besides the Changelings:
- Zebras
- Gryphons
- Dragons

We could also go down some completely different route again if you have anything else in mind.

“Hmm, all those sound pretty cool to be honest. I think I’d like…”

Author's Note:

Sorry once again that it took this long to write the next chapter, but since the Changelings got asked for before the imminent Season finale staring them I waited for that to air and only then started working on it. I wouldn't like to be contradicted by the show virtually imemdiately

Anyway, I hope that all those who read this silly little bunch of headcanon enjoy it and have a nice rest of the day.

And remember, the next chapter is up for your vote in the comments.
And even if nobody will bother I hope Doomhunter will continue to enjoy this and I will continue to deliver. Thanks for sticking with me buddy.

Comments

[Doomhunter]

another great chapter.

and i would love to know about Nightmare Moon