#Danny: Yeah I’m like the changeling child that ended up in the middle of them and they just kept me for the laughs lol

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 185

No one could get into contact with Constantine. 

Now usually that wasn’t that big of a deal, the man constantly disappeared for a few days at a time doing something or other, but he’d been completely silent and unseen for months. Usually he’ll at least answer a call to tell them to fuck off or something. 

And they really need his expertise and are getting incredibly worried for their grumpy team member. Yes he’s an asshole, but he’s their asshole, y’know? And he has a habit of getting into Situations (sure he also usually gets out of them, but what if he didn’t this time?!) 

So they’re desperate. Kind of really desperate. Desperate enough to use the summoning sigil they found on his fridge. They’d checked it, multiple times, and it should summon the hellblazer. 

“You’re not Constantine.” . 

The white-haired teen in the circle yawned, stretching and blinking at them blandly with familiar blue eyes before sighing. “Actually I am,” he stuffed his hands into his hoodie as he looked down at the summoning circle. “Well, technically just one of the many Laughing Magicians currently in the Realms.” 

He gave a grin, looking more amused than annoyed. “Pretty much every one of us is in the Realms right now for family reunion lol. (Did he just say lol out loud??) So like, you’re gonna have to specify which of us you’re tryin’ to summon. Honestly perfect timing for me thanks, the fruitloop keeps flirting with John and it’s horrific so.” 

… That was probably their John, wasn’t it…

#dcxdp #dpxdc #prompts #The Constantine Family exists for fucking over entities & manipulating luck #They adore this scrappy halfa who is doing the same with twice the feral #Danny: Yeah I’m like the changeling child that ended up in the middle of them and they just kept me for the laughs lol #Danny: I’m not allowed to join in the drinking competitions #Danny: Oh no it’s not a responsibility thing; alcohol doesn’t affect me and they say it’s cheating #Why Yes Vlad IS flirting with their Constantine #He’s started his redemption but let’s be honest he’s also a con-man & John is all for fucking over the rich #Danny is disgusted at how well they’re getting along and wanted to get away from their flirting while everyone else ribbed at em #Hence why when they all felt the summoning he decided to go #Well that and also for the laughs because he’s learning magic Undead Constantine style #”Fuckin 'ell yeah the family 'as a necromancer in 'he line again look a' 'im go!” (Lots of ghost & living people drunken cheering) #Danny only half fucking with people: Yeah I’m like their collective undead fae child lmao #danny fenton #john constantine

[shiftermod]

From Wikipedia: 

My Little Pony: The Movie is a 1986 American animated musical fantasy film based on the Hasbro toyline, My Little Pony. Theatrically released on June 6, 1986 by De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, the film features the voices of Danny DeVito, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Rhea Perlman and Tony Randall. 

Spoilers for the film, for MLP:FIM Season 6, and for my blog under the cut. 

I’m old. I remember the original My Little Pony. So, when I was a kid, I did not see the My Little Pony movie in theaters, but I did see it on television at some point afterwards on the same channel wherein my sister and I watched the TV show. 

As a child I loved it. I’ve had the Smooze song stuck in my head for decades because it’s catchy. 

So, right off the bat, when I saw changelings, I saw corrupted flutter ponies or an offshoot of them. 

Around 2013, and in through early 2016, I had this idea that flutter ponies in Equestria were a myth created, spread, and perpetuated by changelings in order to lure victims. That there were ancient artifacts containing changeling magitech looked intentionally misleading. So, you might have a relief image of a stylized horse with a wavy horn, butterfly wings, and what look like spots on the wings, legs, mane, etc. 

As an example, if this screenshot from the show is extremely old pony artwork depicting Luna: 

Then an ancient changeling artifact might depict something more like this: 

By early 2015 I had decided that not only were the changelings the “flutter ponies” of myth, but that the “Sun Stone” from G1 was the Crystal Heart. This idea was cemented in my mind when I saw the Season 6 premiere in 2016 and discovered that the Crystal Heart literally repels blizzards. That’s the most sun-stoney thing I can think of. 

So, I had my idea: unicorns led by Starswirl go to Flutter Valley to ask for help with a blizzard, Queen Rosedust welcomes them, they all go to a banquet, Rosedust toasts the Unicorn King, the founder of the feast, and the unicorns, led by Starswirl, figure out that the reason they don’t see any food is that the “food” is them. Rosedust changes back into Chrysalis. Morning Glory changes back into Metamorphosis and drops the landscape illusion which makes the valley look beautiful instead of infested. The unicorns flee and attempt to steal the sun stone, but it ends up teleported to the frozen north instead of the unicorn kingdom, the crystal ponies find it, and well... yeah. 

So, suddenly the changelings not only lost lunch, but lost the power source the kept them from starving altogether, and the blizzard moves in. This forces them into a nomadic existence as per what I believed about the changelings until mid Season 6.

Neat. 

Except. 

I saw the rest of Season 6. 

1) Changelings aren’t nomads, they have a kingdom that may actually be the badlands. 

2) Changelings lay clutches of eggs and Chrysalis makes sure she is the only one in the room when they hatch so they will imprint on her. 

3) This happened: 

So... what makes this particular stone “ancient” and why does it a) suck up all non-changeling magic, b) make the ground spiky in a radius around it, c) make the sky yellow in the middle of the night, and d) kill all the plants within the radius? 

My immediate thought is that the stone is not native to that world. It raises the question of whether the changelings are native to that world. 

Regardless of whether the changelings were aliens or whatever, I decided that the stone had to have arrived from elsewhere. And thus was the geode asteroid idea born: a cataclysm which changed the flutter ponies into something else. 

And then, I decided to do homework. And I watched the 1986 My Little Pony Movie. 

Aside from a fun musical number with a sort of gnome-like character called (the) Moochick, I spent much of the film extraordinarily disappointed and extraordinarily frustrated. 

And then our heroes reach Flutter Valley to ask the flutter ponies for help. 

And that’s when it all clicked. 

Megan and the Little Ponies see the flutter ponies. The flutter ponies see Megan and co, and promptly retreat into their... little gazebos. 

Megan and co call out to the flutter ponies: “We need your help!” 

At this point Queen Rosedust appears, and introduces herself as Rosedust, Queen of the flutter ponies. Megan and co introduce themselves as “Megan and... ...the Little Ponies.” 

Rosedust says she heard them say they need help! What do they need help with? 

Megan and co say they need help with the Smooze and state that they were told that only the flutter ponies can stop it. 

Rosedust tells her that what she said is true, and indeed, only the flutter ponies can stop it. 

Megan and co ask if the flutter ponies will help them since only the flutter ponies can stop it. 

And Rosedust very politely tells Megan and co to go fuck themselves.

That interaction struck me as significant, and I knew I had to integrate Rosedust’s xenophobia into my narrative, which in turn forced me to make her a character. So, we have Evil Rosedust, and we have Questionable Morning Glory, which means Chrysalis is a princess who already plans to grow up to be My Little Evil Overlord, and Metamorphosis (”’Morphosis”) is her younger (by minutes or hours) sibling. Also, there’s an asteroid at some point; based on what we see in the series finale, it might be similar to a geode with a crystalline interior—which initially reacts violently with Equestria’s atmosphere when the rock shatters on impact, and then starts sucking up magic around it—except for changeling magic, which suggests it has something to do with why changeling magic is the way it is and behaves the way it does. 

I discussed this stuff with @renaissancemuffins​ and they almost immediately pointed out that flutter ponies are all named after flowers (Rosedust, Morning Glory etc.) and thus the future changeling queen’s name was Chrysanthemum. So I went in search of a name for Metamorphosis and stumbled across “Meconopsis” which is a type of blue poppy. On the downside, this means Shifter might be nicknamed “Poppy” and I need to dispense with “’Morphosis” entirely. On the upside it’s a cool name and I can give them cutie marks before the cataclysm. 

My ancient 2013 headcanon that all changelings are born female and some of them choose to change that later also came to the forefront when I realized that all the flutter ponies in the film look identical except for color and and cutie mark if applicable. They all have identical manes and tails, identical bows on those tails, and generally have a “female” gender presentation. So this helps to some degree, although it is possible that flutter ponies were agender and did not have possess sexual dimorphism or varied presentation until exposed to outsiders. 

Anyway, point is, Shifter was Chrysalis’ younger sister until, after exposure to outsider culture, he decided he was more comfortable being her younger brother. At least most of the time. I eventually considered the possibility that he switches every few centuries, second-guessing himself with “Was this a mistake?” He may be agender. 

#spoilers #shifter #blogcanon #lore