Talk:Changelings/@comment-24346726-20140820072621/@comment-10390252-20140820085906

I think it is because the Changelings instinctively act in secret and hide their presence. They have no interest in co-operating with a species that they instinctively consider their 'prey'.

That said, I believe that Chrysalis was doing something unprecedented when she tried to conquer Canterlot. Mostly, Changeling 'hunters' would go out, siphon out one or two ponies and return. That is how their existence had remained secret for millennia. Maybe there was a population explosion and the old ways weren't enough anymore. Or maybe Chrysalis was an ambitious young monarch who wanted to make it so that her people no longer had to hide in the shadows, control their population and ration food anymore.

I don't believe that, normally, a Changeling permanently removes anything; look at how completely Shining Armour recovered. There are probably only side-effects if the subject is tapped too deeply and too often. Otherwise, apart from a short temper for a few days, the subjet likely will never even realise what happened to them. That is another reason that the very existence of the Changeling race has gone unsuspected for so long.