How To Live Amongst Ponies

by SomeRetroGeek

Rating: everyone
Tags: Changelings, Comedy, Queen Chrysalis, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Second Person
Length: 2090

You wouldn't expect a Changeling to own a journal, let alone a guide on how to live amongst ponies.

You wouldn't expect a Changeling to own a journal, let alone a guide on how to live amongst ponies. But one does, and this is his advice.

Published 2016-10-03 18:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-10-05 22:58:51 UTC

Level One: Controlling Appearance Changes

Level One is the first, and without a doubt, the most important level in utilising your capabilities as a Changeling. If you are no longer a young one, then please skip ahead to 'Level Three: Fully Blending In' as you have most likely completed Level One at a younger age.

As you are most likely aware, have learnt from your elders or already experienced, there will be common instances when you are young in which you sporadically change forms. When you wake up as a young one, you may feel wonderful and ready for a hard day's work, ready to do everything you can with your brethren to survive together, but ten seconds later, your appearance may suddenly change into that of another creature known as a pony, a primary form we take on, due to it's similar physical appearance and intelligence. This change may last for a split-second, a minute or possibly longer. One of my brothers had the unfortunate experience of the sporadic change lasting for an entire day, being totally unable to change back due to not mastering the technique of changing forms. When these changes begin, it is natural, and all Changelings experience it at a young age, even the great Queen did. When these changes start to occur more regularly, for many over an hour every day, it is a sign that you must start to learn to control this gift, use it as a survival tool to feed upon the love of the ponies, taking over the role from another member of your swarm.

To control this wonderful ability, you must be calm. The sporadic changes will have frightened you, there is no doubt about that, but controlling these changes will help you and your brethren survive the harsh conditions of this world. The first step of controlling changes is to be with a maximum of two other Changelings, ideally Elders, who have experienced the condition themselves and have helped others like you. They will easily be able to guide you through remembering what to do. You must be sat close together in utter silence, using your minds, thinking. Focused on controlling the power you have been gifted. Once this is done, you can proceed with the second step, changing into a form itself. I have attached a photograph of a pony that I cut out from a newspaper. It can be seen below.

The inclusion of this photograph may seem strange, but remembering appearances is very important when it comes to Changeling society. Whomever is helping you to control changing your appearance, it may be an idea to show them the photograph too, telling them that you intend to change your appearance to look like the one in the photograph, and that you will try until you succeed. That is how myself and many others were able to control our appearance. So long as you are determined and refuse to give in, you will eventually succeed in changing your appearance and holding it. Whomever is helping you must then move onto the third step, 'Changing Between Forms At Will'. Now that you are able to change your appearance an hold it, changing between multiple appearances is not only much easier so long as you are calm and determined! It involves utilising your magic, which is thought to be the cause behind the sporadic changes in appearances due to it's unpredictable and unstable nature as an infant, to make switching between forms easier. Ideally, once you have been able to change your appearance, you must practice using your magic to switch between your normal appearance, and the appearance of a seemingly innocent pony, everyday. This will not only improve the skill until you have fully mastered it and can change in the blink of an eye, but will make transforming into another form, such as an inanimate object, say for instance a rock or book, possible. It is, however, not recommended, and only to be done in serious circumstances, due to the fact that you can...be stood on, which can cause serious injury and potentially fatal consequences.

Now that you have learnt the fundamental basics, let's go over what you are now hopefully capable of:
Changing your appearance to that of another being (preferably pony) with the assistance of others.
Changing your appearance to that of another being (preferably pony) alone and using magic with ease.
Changing your appearance to that of another being (preferably pony) and transforming back into Changeling form within a few moments.
Changing your appearance to that of an inanimate object using magic with ease.

If you are capable of these things, then you may proceed to 'Level Two: Feeding Upon Love', where I will guide you through controlling your desire to devour the love of the ponies, both around your swarm and whilst living amongst the ponies in secret, the latter of which will be made simpler with what you have learnt here.

Level Two: Feeding Upon Love

Love.

Love is such a beautiful thing. We as a species feed upon it. We need it. For survival. The ponies, spreading their friendship and equality, are an easy target as a result. They love and tolerate, and that leads them to their ultimate weakness against us. We steal the love, devour it, we live another day, while they fall lifelessly onto the cold floor. I never wanted that to be the case. I didn't want to harm them, but I had no choice, none of us did. We all die otherwise. And it is the only chance that you, reading this, have of surviving adulthood as a Changeling. In childhood, you can easily eat anything, feed upon anything, but in adulthood, something happens. Something changes. Something in your body craves for a new meal, something that you need. Something the queen never gave to us and what her creator Star Swirl never gave to her. And that thing, is the love of those ponies. Perhaps it was because of that "foolish Star Swirl", as our Queen calls him, who, as a result of creating the first Changelings, releasing them from that plant all those years ago. Maybe him putting that sign on the plant resulted in Chrysalis, our queen, becoming vengeful of him, wanting to steal his love. Perhaps that explains his sudden death. Or maybe I'm looking too deep into the whole thing. Either way, we were born with the desire to devour love at adulthood, and it is our only hope of survival at that age.

It's obvious that once you learn to change forms, you are growing up. Becoming an adult and leaving childhood behind. However, you also now need to learn how to steal the love from these ponies. For a start, enter a town or village populated primarily by ponies. Make sure that you are not seen if you intend to go and steal love undisguised. It is a major risk, so I highly recommend using another form as we went through previously in Level One. If you go in disguised, make sure that you are alone, and that there are no others around to see you. This is why I recommend stealing love at night, as it will not only be quieter, but also easier to steal love with no one else around to see you. To devour the love of a pony, you simply need to use your horn and mind. Think about their love. Take it from them like taking candy from a filly. In a matter of seconds, the pony will be helpless. You'll be absorbing every last gram of love from it. You'll be able to survive. Live another day. Your victim? They won't be as lucky. In fact, they'll most likely be dead. Following the first time a pony died as a result of me feeding off of their love, I made the decision to only steal a small amount of love from multiple ponies every day. That way, they are blissfully unaware of my intentions, as they will likely pass out for a few moments before waking up following the absorption, giving me enough time to escape, and they live another day too.

Stealing love from them is incredibly easy once you look like one of them. It entertains the swarm immensely when a Changeling attempts to steal love for the first time. Will they or won't they do it? As for my task to you, change your form as we went over in Level One, and follow the instructions I went over previously with stealing love. Try both methods of stealing love. See if you would go far as to kill another being who has done nothing just so you can live for one more day, or steal small amounts from multiple throughout one day, so that they and you can live another day. What will you be? Killer or Moral? That answer's obvious. Please, don't make the same mistake I did. I still have to live with it. Be the moral one, not the killer.

Now that you have learnt how to feed upon love, let's go over what you are now hopefully capable of:
Stealing all love from a pony alone and in hiding.
Stealing all love from a pony in a different form.
Stealing a certain amount of love from multiple ponies, both hiding and in a different form.

If you are capable of these things, then you may proceed to 'Level Three: Fully Blending In', where I will guide you through how to act, walk, talk, create a fake persona whilst in a pony form, act like another pony upon stealing their appearance and several other details.

Introduction

Hello there,

You're reading this wondering 'A Changeling wrote a guide on how to blend in with ponies? That's so easy for us/them! We/they look at you/them, blink, and the next thing you/we know, the things/us either look like a normal pony, or look exactly like you/them! Why would we/a Changeling need a guide, and why bother writing one?'

Well, the simple fact is, it isn't easy blending in with society. It takes time. Changelings have to learn how to change themselves by training, precision with how they choose an appearance and some serious courage to live among other ponies without stealing their love and devouring it for food. And what's more, I like writing. I've just never known what to write about, and I haven't had the motivation or time to do it. I wanted to do something different. I wanted to write something unique, something creative. Something that, as far as I'm aware, hasn't been done before. When I blended in and went inside of a library recently, the only books about Changelings were how to kill one or how to spot one. Hundreds and hundreds of those kinds of books by different authors with different covers and slightly altered words. Nothing creative, nothing original. Nothing from a Changeling's point of view, no advice they could give to their own kind.

And that's how this came about.

I went into a stationary store in a little town called...Ponyville, I think it was, and brought myself a journal to write in. Initially I intended to use it for my own personal experience, to grow as a writer, y'know. Note down ideas, write about my daily experiences, be creative with them and adapt them into something new. Then I remembered the library, how frustrated I was by the same old similar books with very little differences. What would a Changeling like me want to read, I thought. Would they appreciate the art of literature that ponies have like I do, or would they shun me for becoming interested and involved in their activities? I still don't know how my tribe will take to the whole book-writing thing, and to be perfectly honest, I don't think I want to know. But I consider this a further educational lesson for you, weather you are a Changeling or not. This book should teach you the fundamental basics, as well as advanced possibilities, of how to live amongst ponies.

Author's Note

This has been an idea on my mind for quite some time, and like the Changeling describing his experience and passing on his learning to you, I haven't had the motivation or time to write it. It felt unique and a creative concept, but I finally decided to give it a go. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it.