What do you think Changelings are?

[Mzukiller 233]

I've had all kinds of wild theories: Aliens, Proto Alicorns, Insects, Hellspawn. But I'm very interested in what your takes are.

[Blue Moon 6,336]

They are changelings. A species that feeds off the love of others to survive. They are able to shape-shift and have wings.

 

 

Duh.

[Skye Starlight 223]

Changelings in mythology were faeries (also known as fair folk, not the cutesy modern fairies which took faeries in another direction) that changed shape and fed off the love of their victims. So they're the closest thing in MLP to fairies... Scary fairies, but fairies none the less!

[Orablanco Account 3,706]

I believe changelings are a natural subspecies of pony, like those bat-ponies that escort Luna around, but my head canon dictates that they weren't always so...nasty. Their parasitic nature and terrifying appearance are the result of hundreds of years being led by a truly evil queen.

Edited May 26, 2013 by CITRUS KING46

[Drago Ryder 639]

I honestly think that Changelings are a combination of Pony and insect. When you think about it, it does make sense.Thry both have similar wings. They also seem to work as a hive mind, similar to bees and several other kinds of insects.

[the_jetfighter 94]

the changelings could just be servants of a queen succubus (chrysalys) or it is possible that they were one a race of normal ponies that got corrupted somehow, and are searching for the love that was lost at the initial incident

[Silverhoof 2,840]

What are changelings? Good question.

Changelings are the larval form of the more famous snake pony.

Whereas a changeling changes shape and feeds off of love...A snake pony becomes a moderator and feeds off of user posts.

 

One should beware snake ponies for they wield the hidden BanHammer.

[~Luminiferous Ether~ 107]

A Changeling is a brony that escaped into Equestria wanting to become their 'best pony'

 

It worked out badly because they are feared and all they want is love.

 

-Discord

[FoxyCryptid 4,328]

I had a theory for the cannon of one of my stories:

 

They started out as healers, teachers, performers, anything they could to make people happy and rightfully feed off the love given to them willingly. Then they were found out and attacked by a group that thought them monsters, the place they lived was razed to the ground with few survivors. Even the young killed by the attackers. Due to this they grew to hate the whole world for what was done to them and the hatred turned them, made them rotten and twisted like a infection, corrupted them. 

Edited May 26, 2013 by Shoboni

[scootersmiles 16]

I think they were ponies that lived in the city around the castle of the royal pony sisters in the everfree forest and what ever happened to the forest (and made the princesses abandon the castle) changed them into changelings.

[Sunny Fox 5,935]

Changelings in mythology were faeries (also known as fair folk, not the cutesy modern fairies which took faeries in another direction) that changed shape and fed off the love of their victims. So they're the closest thing in MLP to fairies... Scary fairies, but fairies none the less!

I thought Changelings were what the fair folk left behind when stealing human babies. I don't recall shape-changing being part of the original myth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling

 

In the show, I just think they're a different species, like griffons, etc.

Edited May 26, 2013 by Full Spectrum

[Veylon 255]

They look like a sort of Pony to me. Similar to how the Crystal Ponies appear to be offshoots, but further from the Ponies we're more familiar with.

[pinkiefan1287 610]

I think the Changelings, are a creator that is a combination of a pony and a insect. They are not very intelligent and most likely need a ruler to function well to survive. Changelings consider themselves to be the better race of the world. Do to this the are a creator that represents genasid. Seeing as they eat everything that represents love and leave all lands they come to dead. 

[Skye Starlight 223]

I thought Changelings were what the fair folk left behind when stealing human babies. I don't recall shape-changing being part of the original myth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Changeling

 

In the show, I just think they're a different species, like griffons, etc.

 

Huh... Well... In MLP they switched places with ponies to feed off the love... I guess that's where that comes from then... I didn't actually know that they mightn't have changed form, but it's still close!

[Jammo 986]

Succubus / Incubus creatures with an insect motif ruled as a military dictatorship monarchy.

Judging by the comics changelings have independant thought but are fiercely loyal to their queen and her ambitions.

Edited May 26, 2013 by Jammo

[~StatesTheOblivious~ 1,795]

They are technically insects. They don't have a hive mind, but possibly some kind of "swarm-intelligence".

Their equine look developed over centuries, while they fed love off of ponies, just like the Wraith in Stargate: Atlantis. It is an adaptation that allows them to be more efficient at finding their food. The same is for their transformation-ability. 

Another explanation for their look could be that in the pony-universe the equine body-shape is the most useful and likely for higher lifeforms because of the environmental challanges and the physics. Therefore it is most likely that sentient beings are at least quadrupedal or equines.

A bit like hodgkin's law of parallel planetary development from Star Trek. (nerd-factor 10!!!)

[CutenessOverload 52]

i think that changelings are natural enemies of ponykind, and in the food chain they are on top of ponies. like zombies and humans. if not for celestia and luna eqestria would be dominated by them, even princesses could not see the difference between false and true cadance, so nopony would trust anypony, long story short- anarchy and free-for-all.

 

if discord was ever to unite with changelings, it would result in ultimate chaos, that even tzeench would be jealous

[Magic Man 221]

I see them as being biological cousins to ponykind, but with a lot more of an insectoid or faerie side to their biology. Still, they and Ponies I do see a strong relation between them.

[Enemy Stand 446]

Isn't it obvious?

 

The Changeling race is a product of a freaky four-way between a pony, Beast Boy, a fly and a wheel of Swiss cheese.

[TheSupremeLeaderOfChaos 1,190]

I think Changelings are some sort of distant relative of ponies. They seem to be a mix of ponies and bugs. Don't ask me how in the wide, wide world of Equestria that happened because I really don't want to think about it.  So they are a subspecies of pony. Bug and pony. Sounds like a type of Pokemon.    

[Doctor Shuu 797]

I see changelings as but another species of pony that has different powers than any other type. Their bodies are those of their species, with their distinguishing features being the holes, horn, wings... etc.

[Lisa 5,552]

I believe they are a sub-species of ponies. Evolution sculpted them into changelings. And I think ponies 'casted' them away, believing they are freaks, so now Changelings hate ponies.

[NavelColt 22,877]

They're an insect-based pony crossbreed, at the heart of it. Which means, from an evolution standpoint, they may have branched off from regular ponies hundred of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. Their ability to feed off of love and affectionate emotion is probably a biological magic that they're each born with, not unlike how pegasi are born with the ability to walk on clouds, and earth ponies are born with an affiliation for nature and growing things.

[Buttonmash1973 1,024]

My headcanon is that the Changelings they had been coming from outer space on another planet.

 

Or they had been created in a lab.

[Scootalove 10,685]

They are definitely insect-based pony crossbreeds. They just basically travel in swarms, feed on love, and they are basically born to just feed on love to manipulate anyone that come across them. Basically, they just feed on love alone.