@Kappe  
…I was just thinking she’s actually kinda fat from having so many kids and made herself thinner so she wouldn’t look like a joke to the ponies she had come to conquer. I’m not trying to say she actually has an abdomen so big she can’t move like a queen ant or something.
 
but even if magic is necessary for their survival, let me just also point out that just about everything in Equestria is reliant on magic in some way. the weather, the sun and the moon, magic is an inbuilt force of nature in equestria. would it really be that crazy for magic to be a necessary part of reproduction for a species or two?

@Blissey1  
I… okay.
 

 
This is Chrysalis’ true form, right? I know, she’s a shapeshifter, it’s possible that’s not a her true form, blah blah blah, no. That’s her true form. It would be a massive stretch to assume it isn’t.
 
And it’s thin and lanky as hell. So if she wants to have more than one or two children, she’s going to have to alter her form.
 
And if she’s the only one in the hive capable of reproduction, that makes the task of maintaining their species’ population reliant on magic. Are we on the same page?

@Kappe  

 
…I’m really not seeing how you’re reaching these conclusion based on what I’ve posted.

@Blissey1  
Again, I don’t think shapeshifting works that way. She would significantly alter her own mass, which I believe shapeshifting is unable to do.
 
Besides, that would make changeling reproduction effectively reliant not only on a single organism, but also on magic. It just doesn’t make any sense. In my mind, changeling reproduction has absolutely no reason to be any different than standard mammalian reproduction. They’re ponies with chitinous skin and different eyes and wings. That’s it.

@Kappe  
no, I was just trying to say that she can probably control her figure, so she very well may have given birth to hundreds of changelings and still be slim.

@soundtea  
I deliberately didn’t read the sequels for AotH, partially because I felt they couldn’t possibly be as good as the first and didn’t want to spoil the good memories I had for it, and partially because I didn’t like what I heard about them.
 
Frankly if I were Warden and I heard that Kuno had to be disguised for months in order to share a child, I’d just get an anonymous changeling sperm donor and call it a day.

@Kappe  
Like I said, this all just boils down to personal headcanon. I know Affliction of the Heart had Kuno have to stay locked in pony form to have a foal (it did sorta inherit her changeling magic though). And I’ve seen lots of other fanfics do it many different ways. Some are hybrids, single species, changelings only etc.
 
You can’t really pin it down. Best to just enjoy the cute.

@Blissey1  
Changeling shapeshifting probably does not work that way. Just like changing into an earth pony wouldn’t strip them of their magical capability, changing into a different form would not allow them to reproduce in a way that their original bodies wouldn’t be able to.

@Kappe  

 
says who? she is a shapeshifter, afterall.

Cute, but birthing ponies in disguised form just doesn’t make any sense. She would have to stay in pony form from sex all the way to birth. That’s just silly. And what if she changed form at any point while pregnant?
 
@CastorOil  
I never subscribed to the theory that changeling queens are the only ones responsible for changeling reproduction, for two reasons. First, well, look at Chrysalis. She certainly did not give birth to hundreds of baby changelings. Not with that body.
 
Second is the same reason why I don’t buy into any of the “hive mind” stuff; changelings are really not that insectoid. Yeah, they have compound eyes, bug wings, and possibly chitinous skin. That’s about where the bug traits end. They’re far more pony/mammal than insect.

Personally, I’d think that ordinary changelings wouldn’t be able to reproduce (even with the sperm of another species), only queens can do that. It may be possible with a concentrated diet of Love (from a lover, father/mother figure acting as one or otherwise) sort of like how bees can become queens with a strict diet of Royal Jelly.
 
With this, I believe that changelings could become genetic skeleton keys; giving birth or helping birth any variety of species. Because of how their magic works, it may have effected how their cells behave as well.
 
I’m now Biologist, I’m just looking at this through a purely logical standpoint of someone going with little to no research at all. XD

@soundtea
 
I don’t get why they wouldn’t birth pure changelings, a pure pony, or some weird genetic hybrid. Hell, since they’re different species than horses, they shouldn’t even be able to reproduce with them. But I digress.

@And Brother I Hurt People  
Quite a few stories i’ve seen on fimfic have wildly varying versions. Could be a better way to blend in, have to keep disguised to carry them etc.
 
It really boils down to pure headcanon.

“In pony form she has pony foals, in changeling she has nymphs”
 
Even with the excuse of “MAGIC!”, something seems biologically wrong with this.