Previous: The King Sombra Timeline The Changeling Times Timeline
Equestria has been occupied. Changelings, creatures who can take on the shape and voice of anypony, anyone. Monsters who feed on love. They’d infiltrated Equestria seemingly overnight, sinking their roots into every settlement and city like a creeping plague, capturing important officials, leaders, heads of clans, and replacing them or holding them outright hostage. They did not reveal themselves until the fall of Canterlot, and by then, it was too late.
Their demands are simple in their cruelty: Obey the new changeling overlords without question. Do not try to reunite with missing loved ones; they had been taken, trapped in the cocoons that leeched their love to feed the hive. Know that anyone could be a changeling in disguise, and be assured that disobedience would be punished - there was always a need for more love, and having it forcibly drained from you was much worse than losing it unawares.
Featherhorn received warning before the coup was sprung. Not enough to get everyone out - some stayed to hold off the swarm that came once their infiltrators were unmasked, giving time for rest of the town to escape. Pitch Black led their meager forces, along with his father Sales Patter, Press’s husband Curler, Camera Shy, and other brave stallions and mares. Sales would have stayed, but Black and Sales Patter made him promise to get the rest of the town away.
Only a few managed to meet up with the townsponies later. Some of those were not who they said. But some were. Sales Patter gave the story - the majority had been captured and taken away. A few of their own had been changelings even before the attack. But their fight was not in vain.
The Featherhorn refugees were blessed to have a few zebras with them - one of them knew the recipe for the magical poultice that reveals a creature’s true nature. Their group was one of the larger rebellious parties starting out, because they had had warning; but this made them vulnerable, easier to find, and so they went deeper into the forests until they could find some way to defeat the monsters. Slowly, though, they began to pick up other stragglers, organize themselves, become a force that could not be easily found and would not be easily taken when they were.
They have not given up. Sales has not given up. Somewhere out there, Pitch Black, Curler, Cam, and the rest are still alive, still needing saving. And he hopes to not see their faces again until the changelings are overthrown, or he sees them rescued and wearing the zebra poultice with his own two eyes.
Because the changelings can wear anyone’s face. And they prefer to wear the faces of those you trust the most.
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Fun Facts About The Changeling Times Story/Art:
- I figure there aren’t nearly enough Changelings to forcibly subdue ALL the ponies and other creatures in Equestria; they are only one city-sized hive, after all. That led to a combination of the Canterlot assault and the Season 6 finale - the changelings secretly replacing important ponies until they could confidently reveal themselves and assume control through threats and fear.
- Chrysalis’s rule is in a fast-decaying state - she has the power she craved, but the fear and paranoia used to control the populace is rapidly stifling their love even for each other, diminishing the changelings’ food supply. There are still A LOT of ponies, so it will take a long time to reach starvation levels, but things are already teetering. And the more ponies she pods as love batteries (the pods give them dreams of things they love, and the changelings siphon that off) to offset this decline, the more unrest she creates, and the more unstable her rule becomes.
- There are some changelings who formed genuine friendships with ponies during their longer infiltrations leading up to the invasion and then chose the ponies over their queen. (There is no “hive mind” in this universe, just a strong sense of instinctive loyalty that can be overcome.) They have to stay in their natural forms at all times while among the refugees, but the most trusted act as scouts and suppliers. Sales has a very hard time trusting them for a while.
- Nightmare Moon was rebanished, Discord has not escaped, but the Crystal Empire will return shortly. The conflict between Chrysalis and Sombra distracts her enough for the ponies to overthrow Chrysalis. They receive help from within.
- Thorax is part of the group that reclaims the Crystal Heart and breaks enough crystal ponies free of their mind control helmets to activate it, banishing Sombra. It is during this mission that Thorax discovers the secret of giving love, starting off Great Change and ascending him to kingship.
- Acceptance of the reformed changelings and the crystal ponies takes a much longer time after the occupation/war than it did in the show, but it does happen eventually.
- I discovered while making these that I could use an almost invisible color gradient over the art to give them it a faint, unifying hue. I think it really helps with balancing the whole image and copying the feel given off in the show! Obviously, this one uses the color green.
Ha, the notes ended up being longer than the story entry this time! Some of this stuff I literally thought up while I was writing. XD Hope ya’ll are enjoying this series, I worked really hard on these pictures and I’ve been excited about finally sharing them with you guys. Thanks again to ReversalMushroom for his Patreon support and commission that made this alternate timeline series possible!
~River Babble
Next Week: Eternal Night