• Member Since 1st Feb, 2012
  • offline last seen Oct 22nd, 2016

Aquillo


Scootaloo is the bestest and greatest crusader. Sweetie Belle is nothing but a dog's chew toy--one of the squeaky ones--given life, and Apple Bloom just sucks.

T

Everyone's a changeling. You, him, her, that. If it moves, it's a changeling. If it breathes, it's a changeling. If it's alive, it's a changeling.

And Chrysalis is utterly sick of it.

An attempt at following a silly concept into the deepest depths of its burrow. Kinda dark at the start. Mainly surreal for the rest.

Thanks go to Fredrick the Saiyan for the preread & plethora of helpful corrections and Firebirdbtops for... well, being him, I guess.

Chapters (1)
Comments ( 69 )

I've actually enjoyed many of the recent x=changeling stories.

but this was lol.

This is genuinely loopy in several senses of the word, though I fear it will not put paid to the endless streams of "X is a changeling" stories. (I've only addressed the matter twice: once in a mistaken-identity context, which is probably overdone, and once in the context of Extremely Versatile Sex Worker, which might have been overdone long before I ever turned off the Mature filter.)

Still: given the motivations, this turned out splendidly.

That was a good little read. Brought me out of a bad mood. Please, enjoy this like and fav.

I know how you feeling. It's like every pony has changeling fic now. Some the mane6 more than one. Twilight has the most, at last count.

Good job. Second half was very surreal.

Oh yay another fic to read.

Thank you so much for parodying this. It needed to have a parody.

PPS
PPS #7 · Mar 3rd, 2013 · · ·

It's been done, but this is a different take.

This was brilliant! I... just, like, your writing style is beautiful and the concepts you come up with are incredible! :raritystarry:

Is it really a parody? Or is it a brief examination of the existential crisis that Queen Chrysalis suffers after she finally tmriumphs over Celestia?

An original take on things...not to sure why it's labled as comedy though.

I was a changeling once. I always got cricks in my neck and love tasted like black licorice.

I feel like I've missed the punchline. Interesting though, very interesting. I'm not at all sure what to think.

I'm not a Changeling! Or am I?

Upvoted and favorited for being awesome. I would have more to say, but i'd say too much or too little and my feels would come into play.

Don't have time to read it, but favorited for later. In the mean time, I think you may want to read this: http://www.fimfiction.net/story/48341/changelings-changelings-everywhere

This is the second changeling fic I've read, the first having been 'Fluttershy is actually changeling whaaaa' type fic. This one was much more enjoyable.

I used to be a Changeling like you. Then I took a Magic Missile to the knee.

One of the most funny fics here.

Changelings remind me of old days witch hunts, I can imagine Equestia having changeling hunts...
"It it sinks, it's a person. If it get's away without drowning, it's a witch and we burn it."

This feels like a very abstract story about the Singularity. Props for amusing and intriguing me in a single swoop. :twilightsmile: I was going to continue this comment, but it turned into a changeling.

That intro was pretty dark, and for that I think this story could do with a Dark tag.

You know, for having the comedy tag this story is pretty terrifying. Oo

This was awesome...

But I wish I read story where Chrysalis tries to break the cycle, where she is trying to leave Equestria(Planet). Where she is doing her best to stop this madness...

On its own, this story is not just Comedy. It requires a Tragedy tag too, as the Ending isn't good, everything is repeating and after several thousand years... Chrysalis will once more repeat this, and again, and again. Nothing ever changing, everything the same.

Also, if changelings need love to live, how they were living when all of them were changelings?

I was going to post something really witty and clever but then I turned into a changeling.

I did warn you about the tag... but I guess that comedy tag could just be a changeling in disguise.

You know, This sets up a really good world for interesting take on Human in Equestria. Everyone is a changeling, Chrysalis is about to cast the spell...

But an odd being appears, one that isn't a changeling.

2213332

I second the potential in that, as well as the question of what a changeling's relationship with love actually is. Either they don't actually need it and it's a condition written in to make the replays more challenging or they can get it from each other. The latter seems to fit, as the changelings in this interpretation seem to be sentient.

Finally getting round to answering the comments here because I am a slow/terrible person. Apologies all round for my being so. My attempts at change are not as quick as I might like.

Aha.

2204166

I wasn't really attempting to stem them or even just mock them. It was more just a sort of "Oh gods, I am sick of everyone turning out to be a changeling" and then sort of attaching that mindset onto Chrysalis. It seemed entertaining enough, so I followed it and... ended up in a very strange place. Which I then published so that other people may follow after, and then we could all gather at the end and say "What a strange place that went to. Why has he put a comedy tag on this?"

2204272>>2205030

Yeah, I had a read of Ben's work before this, which is pretty much why the story skips over the central portion of everyone everything turning out to be a changeling. I was more interested in writing about the aftermath than the actual event, I guess.

2204387>>2211259>>2206869>>2206638

Man, I don't know what this is. I tagged it comedy because it was either that, every last tag or no tags at all. I did originally add the dark tag, but then took it off and bumped it up to teenage after I reflected that it wasn't really dark throughout. Likewise, it's only really a tragedy in its final moments, and even then it's a weird sort of tragedy where the depressing thing is everything returning to normal, with the world being refilled with all the life and joy it used to have. I guess that divide's natural when you're dealing with a lotus eater type story, though.

Or in other words, I have no clue what's up with the tags. :raritydespair:

2204401

You were always a changeling. Always. That's the entire point. :rainbowwild:

2205367

... and that's where seaponies came from.

2206116

I was more influenced by those theories about all of reality being simulated than the singularity, in truth. Like, I thought you could apply the logic of "If there exist computers who can simulate reality, it is likely our reality is simulated" to changelings, and got "If there exist creatures who can mimic other things, it is likely everything is mimicked."

Then I imagined Chrysalis being annoyed by this, and the ball just wouldn't stop.

2208770>>2213439

I'm kinda divided on the story as is too. The original, thought out ending had Chrysalis's recreation of the loop portrayed as being a good thing rather than the semi-tragedy it ended up being. The idea was sorta that when the changelings themselves were mimicking ponies, they were arguably more alive than when they were just being mindless drones -- more creative, more complex -- and that through recreating the world, Chrysalis was thus allowing them to live. I'd envisioned more of a pseudo-triumphant ending to the whole thing.

Didn't work and didn't feel natural when I reached writing that part, so I dropped it in favour of the more easily written "This is a bad thing that must be done" ending. You can still see shades of it inside the changeling's characterisation, however: sentient but kinda dull when they're in their changeling forms.

The love part went through a similar thing, though I cut that out after it felt too... forced, I guess, of an explanation. Plus it wasn't that good of an idea: as 2213439 notes, the idea was that they'd be able to drain love from each other in mid-mimick, with the various changelings pretending to be mountains, forests and the like draining it from some sort of "love of the landscape" palava. Not that smart of an idea, truth be told; I think I was just hoping no-one would bring it up, and that, if they did, I could just brush it under the carpet by saying it was just a one-off in their cycle type thing.

Which I guess I should've done. Drat.

As for the HiE part, I already know what sort of story I'd be writing if I ever touch HiE. It'd swap/replace Shining Armor with a human duplicate (and Twilight too), and then have the royal wedding between him and Cadance being part of Celestia's political machinations to rob the neighboring human kingdom of its heir. Oh, and Cadance and Shining would be physical repulsed by each other but emotional attracted; there's too many stories which brush over the squickness of a man and a horse getting it on for it not to be worth investigating.

You're welcome to that world if you want it, though, Yasahiro.

2235918

Thank you, I will take this world, go into space with Chrysallis and it will be awesome.

Fun fact - If basically everything was changeling, apparently even everyday objects if the planet is now a barren wasteland(Unless they just got them back into material), They should be able to together make a spaceship or anything resembling it. And maybe other planets are full of different live? Possibilities are endless

2235918

there's too many stories which brush over the squickness of a man and a horse getting it on for it not to be worth investigating

Brush over, he says. I resemble that remark. :twilightsmile:

2235941

Oh god, not another one of these.

I'm staring at your post and muttering under my breath, "I'm not clever enough to get this."

That's the second time this day, damn it!

2235918

As far as I'm concerned, human-on-pony action isn't the least bit squicky if the ponies in question are as different from their real-world counterparts as the show implies. Equestrian ponies would probably see Earth equines the same way we humans see other primates.

2236707

I'm referring to 'squicky' more as being about sexual attraction, something which may exist between some humans and some ponies but by no means would occur between all; indeed, I'd expect it to be in the minority. Too much of the human x pony stories I've read seem to have either jumped over that hurdle or brushed it aside without properly examining it: both sides are either part of the minority or the detail of human to non-human intercourse is neglected and the act treated as a normal thing. Which I... well, find a shame because I think the conflict of being emotionally attracted to something you're physically repulsed by to be fascinating and worth exploration.

That both parties are sapient is kinda inherent for the idea to work, but that they would be physically attracted is something that doesn't logically follow on, is what I guess I'm saying. Sort of. Maybe. Bleh.

2236789

How many of us can honestly say we aren't physically if not sexually attracted to Equestrian ponies? For that matter, how many more of us would admit the latter if it wasn't superficially similar to bestiality? Bronies are a minority compared to society as a whole, but were a non-brony to wind up in Equestria, he or she would have to be a sociopath not to become emotionally attracted to its residents and legally blind to not recognize how far removed they are from their Earth counterparts. It's the same as an Equestrian pony equating sex with a human to sex with a chimpanzee. To answer your question, though, you don't see many stories following the path you're describing because those of us who are inclined to write about humans having sex with ponies have few qualms about it and see no reason why anyone in our characters' positions should be any different. People prefer to write what they know, after all.

2237127
The TV Tropes page on Interspecies Romance points out the following:

Chances of it actually becoming an Official Couple (and evolving into a mixed marriage) are increased if the nonhuman has a human form, although that still doesn't take away the Squick for a steadfast minority of viewers. Most people accept it, though, if there are no humans involved, just two different animals. And since humans are animals, this can also be used to examine popular notions about morality.

I admit to being not entirely squickless on the subject, though once the emotional attraction is established, I suspect the physical attraction will follow, close at hoof. My own modestly subversive HiE story turned into a full-fledged series, kinda sorta, in which the human voluntarily undergoes permanent Species Adjustment in order to make the relationship work. That first story contains this combination exegesis and disclaimer:

"They’re going to hear ‘pony’ and they’re going to think I’m doing horrible things with some plow-pulling mare down on the farm. At best, it’s bad form. At worst, I’m going to be damned for all eternity.” I grimaced a bit. “It’s an old religious theme. And it makes sense for our culture, since our equines are not even close to being consenting adults. You don’t fool around with other creatures strictly for your own benefit. It’s just wrong.”

Because, you know, "they" would never understand that he's dating a unicorn. Not that he and his beloved would be dwelling among the humans at all, but he didn't know that at the time. And by the time he actually wound up in Equestria (in the second story), he was downright flip about it: "Love laughs at hardware."

In terms of writing what one knows, about the same time I was working on the story, I had posted an essay on that subject on a non-pony site I run. A paragraph therefrom:

I am enough of a generalist, another way of saying I know a smattering of many things but not much about anything, that the old saw "Write what you know" doesn't faze me. (P. J. O'Rourke begs to differ: "The blind guy with the funny little harp who composed The Iliad, how much combat do you think he saw?") The negative — "Don't write what you don't know" — is perhaps a little easier to defend, but only a little. I was talking to a friend this week about a story that was coming together in my head, a story that threatened to turn into some sort of romance, which of course disqualified me from writing it on WWYK grounds. The friend pointed to Romancing the Stone, a 1984 film by Robert Zemeckis in which a romance writer has been writing stuff she doesn't know, and quite successfully at that, until she's called away for an adventure of her own. "Yeah, and look what happened to her," I said. "Thrown to the crocodiles."

Love laughs at writers, too.

By "Write What You Know," which is rendered null and void in any case of speculative fiction, I was more closely referring to the concepts known as "Author Appeal" and "Wish Fulfillment," and for the record, I have read the article on interspecies romance, but I recognize it for what it is: an analysis of the path such relationships usually follow, but not the path such relationships have to follow.

Culture, as far as I'm concerned, is a laughable obstacle when it tries to stand between lovers. Then again, I'm an alien in my own culture, so I may have an easier time abandoning it at the drop of a hat than others. While I can't comment on your story without having read it, I find the idea of one partner in an interspecies relationship having to compromise his or her species as mindbogglingly stupid as the idea that mare-mare relationships require one partner to acquire or emulate a stallion's genitalia.

2244737

Culture, as far as I'm concerned, is a laughable obstacle when it tries to stand between lovers.

I will support that statement happily.

My character's fretting over such things took place after, not before, the initial coupling. The all-too-human guilt reflex, and the search for a way to rationalize it. The pony, more familiar with the concept, wasn't quite so flustered, though she was slightly unsure of how to break it to family and friends. The question of regret, however, never came up: it was all "Where do we go from here?"

2246954

I still doubt a species change was necessary, but it might have been convenient, and if he didn't mind, it's his decision--to whatever extent our imaginary friends can make decisions.

2247154
It was definitely his idea, though he'd have told you that she wanted it that way. She had at one point asked, possibly rhetorically, "Oh, why couldn't you have been a pony?" That stuck with him, and from that point onward, he took the term "Very Special Somepony" as literally as possible. There was no way he was not going through with it, if that's what she wanted. For what it's worth, Luna thought he was a nutcase, at least at first.

2247203

Luna of all ponies should know a lunatic when she sees one.

This story violated my expectations of the "comedy" tag, but in a good way. Instead of the expected escalation humor we get a good premise laugh and then a slow, gnawing sense of creepiness which is actually quite lovely. Nice.

wait, if everyone's a changeling does that mean.............does that mean that I'm a changeling too?

I liked this. very Matrix meets imagination gone wild. Never Ending story!!! *starts singing*

This is not a mere ordinary exercise in solipsism, this is a whole painstakingly tailored and individualized training regime in solipsism... and the individual in question, of course, is Chrysalis. Probably.

(It would make a certain amount of twisted sense for her to not be a changeling, actually...)

Being immortal in a universe with only a single planet around a single sun, populated by a single species would be very boring.

But then you must ask, would you be bored if that was all you ever knew? Boredom can only come from having knowledge or expectations of 'something different'.

A little bacteria living in a rock deep underground continues its slow metabolism for millions of years. Life at its basic level is concerned with nothing more than continuing its vaguely ordered biochemical reactions and keeping its genetic information relatively intact.

Only a thinking mind cares about concepts. But can a sapient mind that comes into existance in a vacuum ever conceive of anything different without a frame of reference?

Microverses are bizarre places to consider, especially those fictional ones in which an immortal entity has someone come into existence within one. There is really no possibly way to comprehend what would happen. We have nothing to base any conclusions on (heck, we can't even say for certain that microverses can even exist).

Thankfully, I live in this universe, where everything is constantly mutating and shifting and cascading and evolving and it just keeps getting bigger.

Where being immortal rocks. :trollestia:

2507031
The implication is that at one point the world WASN'T made of changelings, and the 'iterations' are her memories of that world, recreated to keep her from getting bored.

3009823 Oh wait, this isn't that farce of the changelings "Changelings, changelings everywhere".

This is the weird meta thing.

This had a really weird feel to it... it's too hard to describe, so I'm just going to not try.

One thing about this bugs me, though. If all the trees were actually changelings, then where does oxygen come from? Is that, too, just another thing that Chrysalis made up to make the world more interesting and to keep us from realizing what we really are? If so, then how is drowning possible? or water, for that matter...
How the buck do we swim in water if it is changelings?

I'm so confused now... :facehoof:

3127130

Everything inanimate or living more nuanced than stone and dirt and water had turned out to be a changeling in disguise

As for the oxygen problem, there's no explanation written in, but I'd intended it to be that when a changeling takes on the form of an object, it actually becomes that object and not just the appearance of it, and so a changeling who mimics a tree produces oxygen and leaves and all the other tree stuff through photosynthesis.

No idea where you got the impossibility of drowning from, though :trixieshiftright:

3127792 Ah. Okay, I guess I forgot about the part that mentioned water.

The thing about drowning was just one car in my easily-derailed train of thought, and it was based on my "what if." The idea was that if oxygen didn't really exist, then drowning wouldn't matter. That thought then led to the next, which was "water is changelings." Except it isn't, but I didn't realize that when I posted the comment. xP

I apologize for my random stupidity. :pinkiecrazy:

So literally absolutely everything is a changeling. Even the letters you a reading right now. And the screen you're reading them on.

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