Season 6 actually introduced a "good" changeling that does exactly this and eventually convinces the other Changelings to do the same, so I think the canonical answer is that Queen Chrysalis is just Stupid Evil.
Illuminating Invitation (MLP: FiM AU)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Kai Merah
Hound Hearted Hedonist
- Location
- Somewhere in the corners of my imagination
They look like scary bug ponies and are emotivore shapeshifters, so I guess their natural thing is to shapeshift into a pony who is loved, and then just quietly steal that love rather than having to work for it. I feel like this is a tactic that is a remnant of their maybe non intelligent past, similar to how ponies have a 'stampede' instinct, despite stampedes rarely really helping.
- Location
- Attached to a wall
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Noble mare1: "Have you heard the latest scandal, dear; They say the Princesses new daughter is quite taken with that earth pony 'enchantress'. It's probably the only reason why the seductress got hired instead of a proper unicorn jeweler. She even managed to get the baroness to suborn a bit of the treasury for the scamp after she lost her job."
Noble mare2: "Are you still angry that your husband has been staring a bit to much at that nobody maid that came out of nowhere, Gossip?"
serra2
Himouto! Sylvanas-chan
Fixed that for you.
🤔 Ok then, from now on manega will be pronounced mahn-eh-ga.You're mistaken if you think that's going to stop me from inflicting ponyisms
Why do the Neighponese add this extra syllable compared to their Japanese counterparts? Well you see no one knows on account of neither people knowing of the other's existence. Void could possibly know, but I doubt she has much interest in obscure interuniverse etymology.
Mgunh1
Not an AI, honest!
- Location
- Northern Luna Base, Module 5, Sublevel 15
"We mighty changelings, of course, hold grudges to the grave over the slightest grievance, no matter what benefits could be made by cooperation among ourselves if we bury the hatchet! Surely this has no downsides."
Changeling Archivist: Cracks open the Book of Grudges. Reverently dips the quill into the ink well and, with great care, begins to write.
"Held... up... cafeteria... line... ahead... of... me..." Signing it with the names of the grudged and begrudged, they gently blow upon the ink to dry it. With the finality of eternity, the book slams shut, the echo reverberating throughout the hive.
Said book is roughly the size of Chrysalis and they're already on volume fifteen... for this year.
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- Location
- Illinois
But it's Twilight, not Flighty... Twilight is smol
Enthusiast#117
This is not the Profile you are looking for
- Location
- United States
There has been much fanfiction written on this subject. From the sounds of things in this one it could just be the case that the Changeling culture has developed a sense of disdain for their prey and are largely unwilling to lower themselves to the level of seeking to form actual relationships with their food.
Small scale experiments would support their current position; imagine a prideful, disdainful vampire showing up one day and clearly only trying to be nice to you so that you will let them have some blood occasionally.
The efficiency would suck in comparison.
You'd need some way to shift how they see ponies and themselves before being open is a good plan.
- Location
- France
I'm pretty sure they're all being gaslit into thinking it's impossible. If I remember right the resolution of their conflict in canon is someone pointed out exactly that, they said ''surely if if was that easy someone in the last few centuries would have tried it and said it works'' then someone did try it and said ''holy shit guys it really is that easy''.
I'm working on only vaguely remembered info though.
- Location
- OK
Ponies can be a bit... What's the word... Oh right, "unfathomably racist".
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Much like a great deal of the content in the final few seasons of FiM, the later Thorax content is... controversial, to say the least. For the purposes of this story, changelings are perfectly capable of transferring love among each other without transforming into multicolored
They're capable of collecting love as themselves, but as the empty rows around a certain guest at Cranky's wedding in canon showed, this isn't exactly an easy task given the incredible xenophobia of ponies.
Similarly, the comics are of dubious canonicity, but overall background on changelings is sparse so I've chosen to grab some of their lore there for this story. As such, they did try to conquer a few kingdoms in the distant past, and were rather harshly chastised by Celestia in the process.
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infinityDivided
Prince Of Doom
- Location
- USA
One of the most prominent side characters (a zebra witchdocter) got her introduction in an episode about not judging others based on appearance. Her appearance when she first walked into town, I should point out, was her just wearing a full-body cloak... and it had the citizens of Ponyville fleeing in terror and boarding up their houses. A continuous theme throughout the show is that for a kid's cartoon, there's a lot of racism and fear of anyone who doesn't conform to what most ponies are used to. Sunset is wrong in quite a few ways about the mentality of the average pony, but she isn't wrong about how easy they are to scare and how... unwise, their decision-making is at that point.
It also doesn't help that while Changlings look really cool from our perspective, they're basically bugs in the rough shape of ponies. And, uh...
well, while evolution made them powerful, it did not make them look friendly. No, we don't know why their limbs look like Swiss cheese. Combine how their base form looks with them being emotivevores (it should be pointed out that consuming love from an unwilling/unaware pony drains them physically) and shapeshifters, and you end up with with something that is very scary to the average pony even before you start spreading rumors.
Of course, the main contributor to incredibly poor Changling-Pony relations is Chrysalis, who is the Changling Queen. Who has ALWAYS been the Changling Queen, and is the literal mother of all other Changlings. Chrysalis' main goal, beyond anything else, is conquering the world, with her childrens' wellbeing a distant second. It's not that she's dumb, it's that she prioritizes control and domination beyond anything else. That isn't to say there aren't Changlings under her control (There's an unnamed Changling background character in a wedding, dubbed by the fanbase as "Kevin"), but the vast majority have been conditioned to serve their Mother/Queen/Goddess unquestionably and that the best way for them to thrive is to dominate everyone else and use them as food. And ponies, with their racism and (by now justified) paranoia, only reinforce that worldview.
EDIT: Damn it, ninja'd.
And yeah, the "redeemed" Changlings look terrible, and it kind of undermines the message that you shouldn't judge someone based on their appearance/race if they change their skin color "because they're good now".
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wtdtd
slow thinker, with crippling abundance of time
- Location
- The Netherlands
You need to fix this link.
If you replace the 'static' in the beginning with 'vignette' it works.
Like this.
- Location
- Elsewhere
There's also the distinction between "this is something that can work for one changling once" vs "here is the strategy for the entire nation."
Just imagine being a changling drone, and Chrysalis announces that you have to be loved for yourself.
You have 3 months to be loved or starve to death.
Ready, Set, Go!
Maybe they can make a changeling dating service?
Equestria now has E-Harmony!
changeling society is the way it is because they take care of their asocial weirdos. that's an unintentional slap in the face by hasbro, lol
LunaMoth
Wings of Kynareth is my comfort song...
- Pronouns
- He/They
I think the whole thing with the changelings is an very interesting concept.
When they eat emotions do they affect the pony who is giving them the emotion, and like drain that pony of the ability of feel things; or are they able to just eat emotion directed at them without really affecting anything. If its the second, then the fact they feel like they need to shapeshift is probably caused more by pony racism more than anything else IDK.
Yikes...
When they eat emotions do they affect the pony who is giving them the emotion, and like drain that pony of the ability of feel things; or are they able to just eat emotion directed at them without really affecting anything. If its the second, then the fact they feel like they need to shapeshift is probably caused more by pony racism more than anything else IDK.
Yikes...
Kemayo
A Certain Cheerful Tone Of Voice
- Location
- Missouri
In terms of MLP's general themes and worldview, I think "love is a finite and exhaustible thing" wouldn't be the way for it to go. Presumably freely-given love to a changeling wouldn't drain the giver, though them draining an unwilling random pony would be a different mechanism...
"Chrysalis is an immortal god-queen of her race, and she's a selfish idiot who would never let them try that" remains extremely viable, mind you.
- Location
- Australia
I can imagine being honest wouldn't be great for changeling relationships. Their partners would worry about whether the changeling is being genuine or just manipulating them to use their love. There is also the power imbalance and consent issues. In a normal relationship people can simply have arguments, disagreements, separations, etc. In a changeling relationship all those things get complicated by how they effect the changeling.
Ralyx
Seeking Balance
- Location
- The Realm Between
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Given Sunset's commentary, I feel the urge to clarify: when you say "harshly chastised", was that "mildly rebuked" or more "you are now gloriously incandescent ash"?
Enthusiast#117
This is not the Profile you are looking for
- Location
- United States
A good first or second step might be letting pony couples adopt baby changelings.
The love of two parents is surely potent enough to live off of, being raised into the culture would help with socialization and forming additional relationships, and the many years of childhood would wear down the xenophobia of the community before it's time to seek out a partner.
The love of two parents is surely potent enough to live off of, being raised into the culture would help with socialization and forming additional relationships, and the many years of childhood would wear down the xenophobia of the community before it's time to seek out a partner.
- Location
- Oklahoma
She mildly rebuked the gloriously incandescent ash.
- Pronouns
- She/Her
"Chrysalis is a narrative foil to Celestia, in that she's an immortal god-queen, but one who holds her subjects in contempt rather than compassion, holding her kind back through active malice and laziness instead of incompetence caused by working too hard. Celestia loves all of her little ponies, while Chrysalis steals love from her changelings."
Winged One
Not the Simurgh
- Location
- definitely the ground
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It
I wonder if Celestia and Chrysalis have thrown hooves/horns before they did in canon. There's that one underrated moment in the wedding episode where Chrysalis is visibly shocked that she's managed to juice hard enough on love that she actually won a beam-o-war with Celesita.
As for the changeling design change, I always thought the swiss-cheese bug look was because of fantastical malnutrion/constant starvation, so the homogenous coloration could be the same thing (and the fangs shapeshifted away due to being unnecessary/a hindrance for the new survival strategy). But a fashion of making a distinct and less-scary-looking persona to shift into while removing the pretense of not being a changeling would also explain it.
As for the changeling design change, I always thought the swiss-cheese bug look was because of fantastical malnutrion/constant starvation, so the homogenous coloration could be the same thing (and the fangs shapeshifted away due to being unnecessary/a hindrance for the new survival strategy). But a fashion of making a distinct and less-scary-looking persona to shift into while removing the pretense of not being a changeling would also explain it.
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infinityDivided
Prince Of Doom
- Location
- USA
They did, at least in the comics.