• Published 1st Aug 2016
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Changelings: A Summary - HypernovaBolts11



An explanation of the way changeling biology and culture works in my most popular series. This is a collection of notes taken by Twilight Sparkle on information gathered from Fangheart, my OC.

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Parasites

There are some creatures known as brood parasites, who rely on others to raise their young. A good example of this is the cuckoo-finch, which will lay its eggs in the nest of another bird, and even go so far as to drop the host's eggs from the nest.

Now, given that hundreds or even thousands of eggs are incubated at any given time within a single hive, and keeping track of every single one would be a logistical nightmare, the changelings are exploited as the hosts of many many such parasites.

One particularly predatory example of this is simply known as the "darklings". Sightings of fully mature ones are few and far between, and their exact origins are difficult to pin down. Though, there are enough incidents of their behavior that I'm confident in believing that they do exist.

On occasion, a worker will give birth to a few special, sickly looking children, not unsimilar to changelings in appearance, but with blood red eyes, and horns covered in spikes. They have no relation to the worker's queen, and the queen cannot tell for sure if she ever gave the worker any eggs, because the workers are all the same.

After giving birth, the worker will fail to follow any orders, though it will still be connected to the hive mind, and won't let its offspring leave its sight. It will harbor them in some secluded part of the hive, and defend them with its life, even from its queen.

This is unusual, to say the least.

After a normal incubator has borne its eggs, it may take a day or two to sleep, but then it's back off to work. It cannot distinguish the young it carried from those carried by another worker, and, thus, is incapable of discriminating between them. A worker does not have maternal instincts, especially not a willingness to attack its queen under any circumstances.

And yet, these host mothers will launch themselves at their queen, and even attempt to kill her. I can only make an educated guess here, but I'm willing to infer that some action of the darkling affects the worker's nervous system in such a dramatic way.

If the queen and other changelings give up on trying to assuage the host, after a month or so, all that will remain is bones.

I mentioned to my associate that this is incredibly disturbing, and he agreed with me, but also said that there is little anyone can do. Nothing short of killing the worker can stop it. It cannot conceive the notion of itself. It has no sense of self, much less self preservation. It is committed to the parasites the instant they are born.