Ahem.

Changeling hives.

Changeling hives, one of the more reclusive species in Equis. Though, reclusive doesn't mean I don't know anything about them.

There are 4 types of changelings that I know for certain of.

The first type is:

Bichos de amor, roughly translating to love bugs.

These changelings are by far the most common types of changelings, as love is quite literally in the air.

They use a highly simplified version of a soul sucking spell, and have a monarchist type of leadership.

Though, you could say that for most changeling types.

Their hive consists of five ranks of changelings. The lowest having the least control, and the highest is the one controlling.

Drones: Though more like mindless robots than living breathing creatures, drones are the foundation of love bugs hives. They dig, build, clean, reproduce, and protect/nurture eggs. They usually only follow the queen's orders, since if they don't they literally cannot move or breath.

Yes, the queen orders the drones to breath. Highly inefficient I know.

Soldiers: The most common rank in love bugs. While you would expect drones to be the most common, you would be mistaken. Love bug hives are proven to be unironically the most aggressive hive in their territory. Soldiers, while still having little free will, have more than drones.

Partly due to the fact that combat doesn't need orders, but ingenuity and critical thinking.

Gatherers: Or whatever they're calling themselves now. These love bugs have considerably more free will than the last two combined.

To put it in perspective, let's say we wave 5000 drone playing chess with exactly one gatherer. The gatherer immediately wins because the drones can't play chess.

Yeah.

They have this amount of free will largely due to the fact that they're the hunters of the bichos de amore. They transform into an already existing or new creature, go up to the same species and/or different sex, then flirt or have a relationship.

Now, you may be asking what I mean when I said different sex.

All changelings are naturally female. Some do proclaim themselves as male, but most stick to being female. Now, this doesn't mean the dwindling male population of Equis is getting hunted, far from it actually.

The gatherers don't pick or choose between what genders they want to mate with. One moment, they're sucking di—... They're kissing a stallion while their form is one if a female, the other they're doing the exact opposite. Change the stallion with mare and mare with stallion. Or don't.

These group of changelings usually are the ones that is the most vocal in the hive, but they still answer to someone. That someone is-

Elites: The elites. What more can be said?

I assume all of you know the nobles at Canterlot? The ultra rich, snout so high up in the air it could stop a pegasus? Yeah, those guys. They're basically them. But with more power and actually competent.

So absolutely terrifying.

They pretty much control everything that's not directly controlled by the Queen. For example they control how everyling lives in their hive, how love is distributed, how many rooms should be built or destroyed. Blah blah blah.

Speaking of queens.

Queen: The ruler of the hive. The all decider. She is the truth, she is the leader, she is queen.

I mean. What else do I got to say? She does everything. At first anyways. She lays eggs before any drones get made, she makes rooms before drones get born, she orders around changelings before elites exists.

After they all get born though, she primarily overlooks the hives and plan out the future. Sometimes she lays eggs, but only if:

A: A new and stronger... batch of male juice is put inside her. She'll basically use it to slowly change her hive into a stronger one.

B: If she wants to expand her hive. Basically, she either promotes a changeling into a princess or makes one. After that, she tasks them (with the company of a few drones and soldiers) to create a new hive. Then after a couple of years, they reunite and the queen basically has a puppet nation.

From the hit game Hearts of Iron 4.

C: She's about to die. She either promotes or pops out a changeling to turn into the new Queen.

Changedlings

Harmony, bleh. These... Things are what happens when changelings get blasted by too much love.

They turn into another species basically. They can share their love with other changelings.

Sounds good right? One problem.

You can't make new ones. Literally. Yes, you can transform others into changedlings, but they either become infertile or everytime they give birth it becomes another species.

The DNA of changelings go haywire when blasted by love. Their shape shifting magic somehow gets added to their reproductive stuff, and either makes them infertile or changes the species of their foal into another one.

It could be a buffalo, a water pony, a dragon... A draconequuis.

... It is not a pretty site.

It also unfortunately makes a disease be able to wipe all of them out, since they can't make nymphs that resist the disease.

.

Miserylings.

Oh harmony. Why the hell did you make these.

This lings are what happens when changelings don't have a queen to latch onto for too long.

They switch and contort into... Hellish beings. And you know it's bad when I'm telling you it's hellish.

The changelings grow extra mouths, extra legs, extra everything. They elongate, their jaws hung open, their stomach decays due to over production of acid.

... This is definitely not a pretty site.

Thankfully, only a couple of these abominations exists. Most of them came from changedlings that were exiled and didn't latch onto a king/queen.

They feed on misery. On sadness. They're mostly harmless, unless you approach one with happiness or love inside you. They'll tear you apart if you do.

All changeling species agree to never let this happen. Unless they want a repeat of what happened a millennia ago.

Evolvelings

These don't even exist technically. They're just speculation.

Hypothetically, if a changeling gets born with a powerful enough sperm and somehow feed their insatiable hunger for literally everything, they get turned into a evolveling.

Or, what I like to call them, the Changelings. The true changelings.

Much like changedlings, they can share their love with each other.

Unlike the changedlings, they can feed on every emotion. Pain, misery, sadness, grief. Love, joy, excitement, glee.

Literally everything.

They're the best changeling species, hooves down. They can use every emotion to strengthen themselves and sustain themselves. They literally can change other changelings into evolvelings.

Basically the next and better step of changedlings.

Though, to get one means basically killing every single creature in a ten mile radius just to feed them.

Or you could kill ten hydras, two dragons, or a few thousand Griffins.

Don't ask how I know.

On a side note, every single species of changelings can eat meat. They need to eat meat, love just makes them able to live longer and makes them not lose their minds.

"Now, do you understand what changelings are my dear grandson?" I asked the small creature infront of me.

"Kinda... But grandad, can I ask a question?"

"What is it my little bundle of chaos?"

"Are changelings ants?"

Author's Note

Ooooo! Kinda bug reveal here!

That was a typo. Still works.

I wonder who's Trixie's grandad?

(Also hey. I'm back. Please tell me if I misspelled words.)