Data gathered from the Centre of Changeling Studies, as it is presented to you by Sam of Varangian Protection Services:
Mesmerization: Data pulled from the server describes the science behind the mesmerize spell in magical details. Much of it is magic theory on a level of an archmage and would require years of study to fully comprehend. The descriptions in layman's terms reveal that a changeling requires visual contact with her target as she channels the spell, and converts her stored love energy into the spell that hypnotizes her victim. It also explains that surprise is a factor in the success, and preparedness can offer resistance to its effects, as is resistance to magic attacks in general. It explains how the spell erases a short period from memory practically automatically to make the victim forget the spell was even cast in order to protect the user's deception. Reports conclude that the lesser properties of the trance and forgetfulness can be reproduced by magitek, but the full effect can only be cast using love energy, a field that is incredibly rare amongst unicorns and a taboo amongst the Magisterium for the potential abuse of such mind-altering spells.
Carapace: The data from this server documents the findings on changeling carapace. It describes the make-up of the changeling exoskeleton down to the DNA. Varying levels of hardness have been found based on maturity of the specimen and its hive of origin. It describes how the process of evolution and mutation within changelings benefits the carapace. Rapid mutation and the effective immune system breaking down all weak and detrimental traits to leave only benign ones carries over to the carapace, allowing it to strengthen. Soldier class changelings in particular come from a strain of tougher members of the species. The scientists have experimented with adapting the carapace for armour, fibres and other means to exploit as a material resource, but conclude that the shortage of specimens from which to safely harvest and the cost to synthesize in mass quantities makes the yield far less than what would be commercially viable.
Regeneration: The data server contained a lot of similar data to the Carapace department's. Again, it maps out the changeling genome, with a warning that the ever changing biology due to the rapid mutation likely means this information is already obsolete. It also describes the cell regeneration process, how it and mutations are fuelled by love energy, and how this energy can be consciously directed to hypercharge these processes, which is how the regeneration works. The regeneration is also capable of fighting off cell senescence. The head researcher's conclusion is that although the changeling DNA is incompatible with ponies, and would be harmful when introduced to their bodies, there is a great potential benefit for medical science if this problem was somehow sidestepped. D-mail responses from management indicate they are not willing to invest in what is still a pipe dream.
Hivemind: The server has the data stored on the scientists' findings on the hivemind link between changelings. It is one of magical telepathy that spans great distances and is impossible to observe without dedicated magic reading equipment. Their finding is that every queen is a 'master' and every drone is a 'slave', and so the queen acts as the central computer as it were, with her imprint on her offspring permitting for a drone to assume the 'master' role over the rest of the brood should she die and one of the drones morphs into a queen. They theorize that leaving her imprint on lesser queens is what allowed Chrysalis to rule over all changelings before the Catastrophe, even queens, and why modern changelings are more divided. But with no first generation specimens available to them, the scientists cannot confirm if this is true. The recommended application for this knowledge is to seal and abandon it. The head researcher leading the project warns that attempting to hack into the hivemind and trying to assume control of changelings would make them a biological weapon beyond comprehension. The hubris of such an endeavour could quickly spiral beyond control, with unforeseeable consequences of apocalyptic proportions. Said researcher was fired in the next d-mail.
Transformation: The server on Transformation has the compiled data on the shapeshifting changelings are infamous for. The notion that it is illusion magic is dismissed, as the forms taken clearly have the physical features and limitations of the assumed race, while inhibiting natural abilities of changelings, required cancellation of the spell. The department reports that their attempts to penetrate these disguises have had no success on the technical front, but that they have transferred some of the magical theory to the research department of floor eleven.
Management Director of External Relations: The d-mails from the executive contain communications with customers of the CoCS. Two notable ones are to Mending Hide, informing him that they are not currently interested in selling him their research on changeling regeneration. The other is from Terra Cotta offering a substantial payment to withhold their research from Mending Hide. Another was to Spellcraft, who asked for the disclosure of the nature of the Mesmerize spell, and how it compares to unicorns wielding love magic.
Secretions: The date from the secretions department describes the chemistry behind the generation of fluids, substances and bio matter within the changelings' bodies and the composition of these secretions. Subject of debate is how to utilize some of these in a beneficial manner for ponykind. The goo from which changelings build their hives and cocoons is described as sticky when it is first secretes, then tough as it hardens after being exposed to oxygen and temperatures below its solid state threshold, with the oxygen serving as a catalyst for its transformation into this. The goo and the fluid within a cocoon are still able to let oxygen pass through in sufficient quantities to prevent suffocation of the subject inside, and the liquid in which a cocooned subject is suspended can be imbued with nutrients that feed the imprisoned creature. One of the scientists has developed an exciting alternative source of glue with this knowledge.
Classified 3: There is a log report from one of the scientists that reveals they have been working on a magitek device meant to pick up readings on changeling magic within the bodies of shapeshifted changelings. He writes that they had some promising leads, but it turned out to be a dead end. He muses that perhaps the evolving biology of the changelings affects the patterns of their shapeshift magic, and the sample their data was based on was older than the test subjects their detector tried to identify. A senior staff member shot his theory down, considering it unfounded, and impossible to tell.
Classified 2: Sam reports he was ordered to delete these files by Brunhilde. His understanding is that the research was a breach of free will and a dangerous weapon in the wrong claws.
Consumption: The process of extracting love energy is stored on the servers. The scientists distinguish between two forms: passive and active. Passive love extraction is to draw on ambient love energies that permeate the area in which creatures live who feel affection for one another. This love can range from parental and familial, platonic, to romantic. The lost often the most potent. This is somewhat inefficient unless a changeling is surrounded by many loving ponies. It has been observed that if a changeling is itself the target of such love, it can safely consume it in great quantities. Active consumption is using a spell to violently rip the love out of a creature, disintegrating their bodies into dust when a critical point is reached. Even those not fully drained can experience mental and emotional trauma as a result, and develop long lasting psychological problems. There is uncertainty as to whether the cocooning of ponies is done as part of this active love draining, and how, if so. This understanding of love consumption is mostly shared with other departments, as the scientists can find no way to utilize this process without changeling biology or love magic spells. The latter being too rare a field to gain any useful data from.
Classified 1: Scientists from this floor describe using the data from Mesmerization to develop an emitter device that can replicate the stunning effect from the spell. The goal is to build a weapon to safely subdue suspects, pacify riotous crowds, and ensure compliance from subjects. The project has yielded a working prototype that causes disorientation, ringing in the ears, hazy memories, feeblemindedness, blackouts, and makes the subject prone to suggestion. Effects reported last from ten seconds to a minute. Reportedly one of the test subjects suffered spontaneous cranial eruption when the soundwave vibrations were improperly set, and the prototype has been redesigned to prevent any more occurrences of this.
Love Energy: Data from this department describes the science of love magic as it relates to changelings. The field is apparently known to few wizards, but despite how powerful the strain of magic is, it is hard to grasp because it is derived from an emotion, and subjective. What they do know from observation is that the power of love fuels changeling spells, sustains them, and drives their evolution. The researchers believe that such a powerful magic, in infinite quantities, could make changelings incredibly powerful through their evolution. But since love is a finite resource, limited in its generation by the population of sentient creatures, changelings will never realize this potential without a significant population of ponies. And that this is, perhaps, the greatest argument against the sinister intentions of changelings, as their survival is tied to ponykind.
Stasis Scan: The reports from some of the computers of the ground floor details the results of some probing scans made on changelings brought in by stasis pod. Most of these are in language and acronyms unfamiliar to anypony not a biological scientist. Furthermore, the logs details the location of the capture of each specimen, what hive they are believed to originate from, any aliases known, and how the crews were able to identify each changeling. A comment in one of the report notes how in their application of the Sharecropper Field test they use, the question on which position you'd prefer on a Stormball team tends to get them a lot of changelings. Apparently drones think of themselves as fullbacks.