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Them: "Why don't you post more often, Shifter?"

Me: *fiddling with a dozen semi-transparent gradients to approximate a chrome effect on Metamorphosis' shell*

#mod post #my hands shake and I cannot use a drawing tablet #everything is vector with mouse #so many gradients

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Hmm.

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"Automatic smart quotes have stopped working on web," they said. Looks like maybe sometime in mid-2023?

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"White wine? What vintage?" "Oh, no; this is elderflower syrup." "…It's what?" "It's good. Would you like some?" "No, thank you." "More for me then." "…Not mixing it with anything?" "Sometimes I add sugar." "Oh, yes, of course you do."

#shifter #morph #metamorphosis

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Fascinated to discover that Hasbro toy commercials for Transformers in 1984 and G.I.Joe in 1986 actually had pretty good animation sequences. ...And then we have My Little Pony: Flutter Ponies in 1986 where the animation doesn't even have lines at some points.

Soundwave 1984

Flutter Ponies 1986

G.I. Joe in 1986 had decent animated sequences too, so it isn't a matter of year.

#mod post #this is tangentially related to the blog #sorta #soundwave #flutter ponies #the 1980s were a time when less effort seemed to be put into girl stuff than boy stuff just in general

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Thoughts

You know, the blog has been sort of reimagined as a shippy slice of life that I just haven't really had time or energy to work on. But Monday night I had some thoughts and revisited some stuff.

Morph at this point in time is immune to magic and heavily armored to boot. The only thing I can think of that might pose a physical threat would be if he was attacked in his sleep by a changeling who knew magic.

So, where is the action? Where is the conflict?

Well, this is intended to be slice-of-life ask-answering shippiness—and if I get it figured out, Chirp being a dumbass as is his wont.

But I realized a while back, and more so now, that Morph has one glaring weakness, albeit an unconventional one and not the sort of thing that would be useful in combat.

Morph occasionally has vivid nightmares about past events—or on occasion recent or hypothetical events. Not often, not necessarily most of the time, but they feel real enough to wake him up in an extremely emotional state, usually some variant of panic, fear, or even guilt or despair. Something that would result in his boyfriend/partner/fiancé/husband consoling/comforting/holding him, and then cuddles.

Of note, Morph mostly sleeps in the form of Dust at this point, with a large cork on the end of his horn, and some sort of nightcap. Maybe even pajamas of some sort.

So, I envision Dust rolling over and pressing his body firmly against DC (side if they are napping like horses in the show, or Dust's back against DC if they spoon).

Of course, the question becomes how does he deal with this if it happens when he's alone.

But I have the image of him trying to go back to sleep, spooned by DC and wrapped in the floofy pegasus' wings.

And statements such as "I need to be held," and "I [just] want to be warm and safe," and stuff like that; Morph displaying vulnerability.

#mod post #shifter #morph had a series of traumatic experiences as a child

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So. I'm trying to stay as close to canon as possible considering the somewhat significant changes I've already made to the nature of King Sombra.

But I headcanoned Big McIntosh as gay and Cheerilee as a lesbian for a long time based on a very specific, canon interaction they have in Hearts and Hooves Day shortly before drinking the punch.

Then Season 6 started on March 26, 2016.

Then on March 27, 2016 Faust herself posted on Twitter “Big Mac is into dudes.”

At which point Hasbro went “Oh crap,” and sprang into action and a) made absolutely sure to a) give Big Mac a girlfriend in Season 7, and b) clarify that Mrs. Cake changed her name (seemingly after getting married.)

So, here I am going back through Season 1 to see if Season 7 contradicts Season 1 about Mrs. Cake's name and I’m wondering what the hell I'm going to do about it.

I'm at a point where Metamorphosis' story has not only done a soft reboot but is doing a time skip. This means I have Thorax from Season 6, along with the “ancient dark stone”, but it also means I have Chrysalis’ fate from Season 9.

So, do I have Cheerilee and Big Mac as the L and G that I perceived in Season 2? Or am I stuck with Sugar Belle from Season 7?

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“They say they're good luck!”

Who is the first “they”; who is the second “they”; are they the same “they”; how do I integrate this into my blogcanon?

*panicked mod noises*

#flutter ponies #mod post #what do you MEAN they are good luck #are they lying? #what even is this #oh they make flowers bloom at the conclusion of their nuptial flight #would be fine #but GOOD LUCK?! #why #how #all this worldbuilding with queen rose dust and princess-consort peach blossom #inexorably leading to the polar opposite of good luck

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Do not blame me for who I am. The doctor prescribed me 20 mL of #nightquiry twice a day.

#tumblr memories #I am not actually supposed to post this sort of thing on this blog but I could not resist #like this is not a blog for reblogs #it is a blog for setting my thoughts down and opening up my setting since I have artblock

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Okay, the relevant post is pinned.

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Updated thoughts on A Canterlot Wedding.

I've been thinking about the whole love-sucking thing and other people's headcanons and my disagreements with them, and I realized a few things many years ago—and a few things now, a bit over 11 years later (the episodes were screened on April 14, 2012, and aired on television in the U.S. on April 21, 2012.)

So, there are some key conceits to this two-parter but I've glossed over the biggest:

These episodes are, at their core, an advertisement for a Princess Cadance toy.

Every single thing we see in the episodes stems from that.

In Part 1, we see flashbacks of Princess Cadance, who—it must be stressed—is a princess. This character is royalty, and she's royalty in Equestria in the MLP universe.

In this instance, she has a signature spell that can—at this time at least—only be cast by her. It is clearly something she developed, likely as some aspect of her duties as a princess. It is something that is unique to her specifically, because it is also marketing for a toy.

In order for the episodes to succeed as an advertisement for a toy, she must use this spell in the episode.

We'll call this Chekhov's Spell. It is shown in a flashback, and talked about with great fanfare, which means the spell is going to be used in the climax of the episode in order to save the day. Why? Because these episodes are an advertisement for a Cadance toy.

Unfortunately, spoilers:

Cadance is behaving very differently from her usual behavior—almost the opposite of her usual behavior, come to think of it—and it is eventually revealed that she has been replaced by a shapeshifter called a changeling. The imposter is narratively, thematically, functionally, and archetypically an "evil twin" whose behavior is the opposite of the original (compare the impostor's behavior throughout Part 1 to the montage at the end of Part 2 featuring the real Cadance), and this is important.

Now, Equestrian Magic as seen in Season 1 has three main components:

Emotion: the fuel source for the spell. Friendship is literally magic.

Concentration: the magic-user shapes the spell to accomplish a specific task or goal.

Physical effort: the magic-user casts the spell. The larger or more powerful the spell, the more of a physical toll it takes.

In season 1, Twilight Sparkle casts a spell that allows her to lift a very distant, very large, and very heavy structure that was initially filled with water and was later filled with milk—and in doing so, she plants her feet, grits her teeth, scrunches her eyes, and visibly struggles. She then also lifts an enormous heavy animal AND the water tower, and transports them into the Everfree and into a cave that the animal emerged from in the first place.

Casting takes a physical toll on the caster, and that toll might be nothing or it might be significant depending on the circumstances of the spell. Twilight herself explicitly states that magic takes concentration and effort twice in Season 1.

Here's Twilight collapsing after she finishes:

This is going to come up later in this essay.

So, Cadance's signature spell (presumably using her love as fuel) takes magic out of her, converts it into love energy, and puts that love into a pony as an act of giving (altering the pony's mood and thought process, which is Totally Not Creepy At All™.)

Reminder that this is a toy commercial for a Princess Cadance toy.

Within that boundary, our changeling imposter—the evil twin who behaves opposite to the original—is revealed to fundamentally function by doing the opposite of Cadance's spell.

The changeling queen takes love out of a pony, converts it into magic, and puts it into herself! Cadance specifies that the changelings "gain power" by doing this, suggesting that they either need to fuel their magic with stolen emotion, or that they wish to increase the power of their magic with stolen emotion.

The thing that makes Cadance marketable unique is the opposite of her evil twin's entire schtick! Queen Chrysalis is the figurative and literal opposite of Cadance's whole deal—not just her behavior but her signature spell! The evil changeling's behavior is the opposite of how the real Cadance would behave; the evil changeling's love-sucking is a thematic and literal reversal of the thing that Princess Cadance does!

The corollary then is that Princess Cadance's signature spell is the thematic and literal reversal of Queen Chrysalis' love-sucking.

Cadance's signature spell is Chekhov's Spell—and is what is used to market the Cadance toy. This means that Cadance's love-installation spell is going to save the day... by installing love in someone.

Someone who Chrysalis has drained to the point where only installing love can save them.

We see ponies under Chrysalis' mind control spell in Part 2:

Contrast with Shining Armor:

Shining Armor isn't merely in a trance because of Chrysalis using a mind control spell on him; Shining Armor has been drained dry. He's empty. No love, no passion, just apathy to the point where he can be controlled easily.

(I'm sure there's a metaphor in here somewhere, something something Neverending Story maybe?)

(Well, I was close.)

(Shut up, Gmork!)

Although maybe a better take might be Elie Wiesel's famous quote:

“The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference.”

As a side note, Shining Armor does get mind-controlled but briefly:

Then Cadance saves the day by reinstalling love into Shiny.

Same visual effect and everything.

Shining Armor awakens from his trance, with an emphasis on "awakens"; he is groggy and confused. A villainous monologue ensues and Shiny stands tall, glares, glowers, bares his teeth, and is clearly ready to kick Queen Chrysalis' butt.

Cadance encourages Shiny to use his signature spell, and the guy with the cutie mark of a shield with a magic symbol on it attempts to cast a magic shield.

What happens next is more easily understood if you've ever worked a job doing manual labor. I mentioned earlier that magic requires emotion (in this case love) as fuel; concentration to shape the spell; and physical effort to cast it.

Twilight collapsed after lifting and transporting a water tower and a very large bear.

Shiny is trying to create a magic shield the size of a city with only the small amount of love that Cadance installed in him to wake him up—and he can't: he doesn't have enough fuel.

The logical thing to do when you realize you can't do something is to stop.

The problem is that Shiny, like many people, is an illogical creature and so he does what many, many people do when they find they can't do something: he tries harder.

And harder. And harder.

Remember that magic requires physical effort to cast. What happens when you actually continue trying to do something physical that you can't physically do?

Your heart rate increases.

Your pulse rate increases (because of your heart rate.)

Your blood pressure rises.

Your body temperature rises.

You perspire.

There are other symptoms I am missing, but the end result is you begin to develop a medical condition called "exhaustion" which is not merely "being tired." Keep trying hard enough for long enough and by the time you finally stop trying, you are drenched in perspiration, your heart is pounding in your chest, your breathing has changed, you can hear a rushing sound in your ears, everything hurts, and when you stop, you immediately go limp. (Hi, I have personally done this; don't do this!)

At this point it is prudent for someone to help you into a chair in a cool room and administer first aid because you are at risk of heart attack, stroke, heat exhaustion, and all this other stuff that can kill you. This is not "being tired", this is dangerous.

Shining Armor tries to cast, and tries, and strains, and strains, to no effect... and then he finally stops and goes limp, drenched in perspiration from the effort, displaying clearly identifiable symptoms of exhaustion.

We have learned throughout Season 1 that unicorn magic takes concentration and effort. Shiny is not some exception to this rule!

Shiny's exhaustion was caused by his failed attempt to cast a spell the size of a city without any fuel.

At this point Cadance leverages her signature spell—the reverse of the changeling's feeding technique—and essentially uses herself as an external battery to give Shiny the fuel he needs to cast a spell the size of a city which somehow only expels the invading army while leaving the residents and guests unharmed.

So, why is any of this confusing to the layperson?

Well, the layperson isn't trained to recognize and treat exhaustion; misidentifies the symptoms as side effects of fever instead of side effects of exertion; and assumes that Shining Armor is near the point of collapse because Chrysalis fed on him—despite his ready-to-kick-Chrysalis'-butt behavior and stance immediately preceding a bunch of physical exertion.

This is then compounded by Katie Cook's (and by extension, Andy Price's) assumption—based on this symptom misidentification—that changeling love-sucking is functionally identical to the modus operandi of The Wraith from "Stargate: Atlantis": quasi-insectile aliens with doubled voices who suck the life out of their victims, resulting in rapid aging and death.

So, we get a comic book with illustrations of changeling victims withering and dying as seen in a science fiction TV show from the 2000s which has nothing to do with emotion-sucking vampires in a cartoon and everything to do with lifeforce-sucking vampires in a live-action sci-fi show. This then reinforces readers' existing misapprehensions with regard to changeling love-sucking.

Anyway, this rant is a delayed response to a bunch of blogs a decade ago ignoring the subtext and thematic and narrative elements and arbitrarily deciding that changeling love-sucking is lethal based on a fundamental misunderstanding of Shining Armor's symptoms and when those symptoms set in.

This then allows those blogs to justify killing changelings because the Canterlot Guard have Chekhov's Spears, and therefore they need to kill someone—and it might as well be the parasitic insectile menace because American movie audiences don't seem to understand that "Starship Troopers" (1997) was a practical joke/experiment on American movie audiences (and the majority of viewers failed the test), but they did like "Aliens" (1986).

And since none of those blog admins have the slightest understanding of the Geneva Conventions (or the UCMJ, or the Hague Conventions, or the body of U.S. Military Law going back at least as far as 1882, or god(s) forbid the Articles of War or the Law of Armed Conflict) we get "Hey, let's have the Canterlot Guard give no quarter and execute enemy prisoners in custody and face no consequences! Also jokes about torture! Because applying/obeying military law selectively instead of uniformly is clearly a great and effective way to maintain good order and discipline; I'm sure nothing can possibly go wrong if we apply the Uniform Code of Military Justice in a manner that isn’t uniform! Obviously Special Forces are 'Special' because they get to ignore all the military laws that absolutely everyone else in the army (including the brass) has to follow! OLC unilaterally said that illegal combatants are not party to Geneva, and then failed to ever define what the phrase 'illegal combatant' means, so it must be true!"

Side vent about Queen Chrysalis' motivations as a megalomaniacal lying sociopathic narcissist and (perhaps more importantly) a despot: the Canterlot Invasion was never actually about food; Chrysalis has inserted herself into the process to keep herself necessary and uses it as a carrot for her soldiers. When she tells the ponies it's about finding food, she is either lying or at least shading the truth.

(Side note, Season 6 later confirms that Chrysalis' own actions were keeping her army starving and desperate; the question is whether those actions were—as I strongly suspect—deliberate in order to point her people at external enemies in order to keep herself necessary and cling to power. You know, like most human despots.)

After they bring the Mane 6 to her, Chrysalis orders a large squad of her soldiers to "Go!" and then qualifies that instruction with "Feed!"—to get them out of the room, only giving away her actual motives during a music number once the soldiers are safely out of earshot.

Seriously, she literally closes the door behind them so they won't hear her gloating.

🎶 "Every pony I'll soon control; every stallion, mare, and foal!" 🎶 has nothing to do with food, but has everything to do with a malignant narcissist and despot who repeatedly demonstrates an obsession with being obeyed, whether it be by Shining Armor (e.g. "Are you disagreeing with me?!") or anyone else. This isn't about food, it was never about food; it's about conquest, but her army doesn't realize it. If it was about food, that would have been explicitly mentioned in the musical number.

Seeing Season 6

and then Season 8

actually confirm that Chrysalis' obsession with ruling is her prime motivation in all things warmed the cockles of my little black heart.

Anyway, enough ranting, at least for now. Getting that off my chest felt good.

EDIT: I have never served—partly due to chronic health issues, partly due to research. But a good friend later enlisted and fought in Afghanistan and went career; he’s the most ethical guy I know, period; and I have asked him questions about U.S. Military Law and the Rules of Engagement, Geneva, etc. It's all public-facing stuff, but it's easier and more reliable for me to ask someone with actual experience instead of looking stuff up on the internet and hoping Wikipedia is accurate.

#mod post #mod rant #mod vent #queen chrysalis #chrysalis #changeling #changelings #I have strong opinions about the treatment of prisoners #I also have strong opinions about Stargate Atlantis #and I have strong opinions about Katie Cook's writing

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Confirmed: Chrysalis is the only one eating cupcakes at the meeting.

The meeting that she only attended because the individual running the meeting bribed her with the promise of cupcakes.

#mod post #queen chrysalis #chrysalis #changeling #changelings #mlp show canon

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Looking through old notes I wrote down back in August 2016 and comparing them to notes I wrote down back in August 2018 and there is a stark difference.

One thing is that my blogcanon changeling clutch size in 2016 was "between 50 and 500 per clutch produced during a sedentary breeding phase"

and then around mid 2017, that number was reduced to a clutch of three eggs maximum.

Following conversations with friends, the compromise is that Morph will have/has/had one changeling offspring named Lobelia, but will/does/did (off-camera) enter a sedentary breeding phase.

Why? It's his first time; he's feeling overprotective; the artificially-produced food supply Twilight sends is more potent than the real thing; DC's love for his husband and gestating daughter is particularly strong; or possibly that maybe DC just inquired about size in light of his limited knowledge of "normal" eusocial insects and Morph the insectile equoid dismissed it but then couldn't get the image out of his head and his body adapted accordingly.

(The meta answer is a) that I harbor the conceit that a changelings thoughts and desires can subtly alter that changeling's physical form, and b) that the thought of Metamorphosis becoming cartoonishly round and cartoonishly enormous for the sake of a single very small egg amuses me for some reason.)

#mod post #shifter #chirp brings him pickle ice cream #plot twist he decides he likes it and demands more #I need to find out how DC would react to this

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Old thoughts about the old blog, circa 2012

The single biggest problem with the invasion is that now ponies know that Changelings exist, and that's where I drew my initial inspiration when I started: the blog was originally supposed to chronicle a downward spiral for Ponyville—fraught with soldiers, paranoia, the occasional angry mob, and a move toward intense nationalism, because the abrupt realization that lovesucking shapeshifters exist would do awful things to society as a whole. Suddenly the ponies have An Enemy who could be anywhere and be anyone, and they only know bare bones basics about that enemy. Rumors would be flying, children would be teased or assaulted based on their appearance, and dissent would be silenced as "unponylike." I was eventually going to head toward book burnings and a sanctioned assault on the library by the local military regime acting "in the name" of Celestia but without her sanction. And soon enough "the old Ponyville" is gone.

That eventually evaporated when I started interacting with other blogs, and when Season 3 got underway and Ponyville was still Ponyville. You can't have a pony from a happy version of Ponyville show up in a version of Ponyville that is slowly creeping toward what might eventually become fascism.

"If you see something, say something. Report suspicious behavior. Call local law enforcement."

"Never forget who the enemy is! Remember, anypony could be a Changeling."

"Do you have what it takes to stand up to the Changelings? Do your part for Equestria. See your local recruiter about joining the Guard."

#mod post #so it turns out I have a ton of old notes and skype conversations saved in Scrivener #and this is one of them #well two of them because the propaganda posters were from the same period but another document #and I am looking through them and seeing how drastically Metamorphosis has evolved #from a depressed risk averse loner to an entrepreneur and pillar of the local community whose entire goal is to be the best boss ever #and the best husband and father ever #and get all the cuddles #the first slogan was NY MTA in late Sep 2001 #and then was licensed to DHS in 2010 #the second and third are Battlestar Galactica

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I don't always write fanfic. But when I do, I prefer to write dialogue/conversation taking place while my OC calmly and pleasantly removes his beloved fiancé’s evil homophobic crypto-fascist father from the premises. Not with any violence, nor even with threats; just an affably ruthless efficiency, a cheerfully stern warning, and the eventual consequences of the villain’s actions. 

...Admittedly those consequences will eventually involve the order of a three-tier cheesecake in an appropriate color scheme; the rental of a matching trebuchet; and delivery to the appropriate address by a highly trained professional courier/ballistics engineer. 

But that’s a drabble for another time. 

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Dust: *calls pizza place to order a pizza but is not sure if medium or large or extra-large* Dust, pleasant: “Hi, I need to order a pizza for some guests, and we’re figuring out how large a pizza we need. What is the diameter of your largest pizza?”  Pizza Guy: “Six slices.”  Dust, confused: “...Come again?”  Pizza Guy: “Six slices.”  Dust, puzzled: “...The diameter of the pizza is six slices?”  Pizza Guy: “Yep.”  Dust, frustrated: “...The diameter... of the largest pizza you have...”  Pizza Guy: “It's six slices.”  Dust: “Six... slices.”  Pizza Guy: “About.”  Dust: “...”  Pizza Guy: “...”  Dust: “...”  Pizza Guy: “...”  Dust, not-quite-apoplectic, twitching, and beginning to panic, covering phone mouthpiece with hoof: “...Dreamy, I need your help with the pizza!”  DC: *gets on phone, orders the extra-large pizza* “Problem solved.”  Pizza: *arrives*  Pizza: *pie-cut, eight slices*  Dust: “...”  Dust: *leaves table, walks into bedroom and screams into pillow* 

#dust jacket #dream catcher

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Huh. So Monday, May 29 2023 was this modblog’s 7 year anniversary and I somehow missed that.

#mod post