Let’s talk a moment about Changelings. Changelings are one of those OC types whose likeliness of occurrence is less than Alicorns, but more than Draconequui. Changelings are the new Griffons, the seductive, in-your-face characters who also have the creepy factor going for them. They’re practically villain material. However, I see a lot of Changeling OCs that are Changelings for the sake of being Changelings. Time to reorganize the hive, fillies and gentlecolts, and the Queen here is ready to offer a few pointers:

Changelings are Pony-Bugs

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In their behavior, appearance, structure, Changelings are more like insects than ponies. That means that they aren’t quite as… human… as ponies, either, odd as it sounds. To really get a feel for what I’m talking about, it’s best to take a look at how insect hives are structured: At the center of the society, you see the Queen, who births all the workers, drones, the whole deal. The workers, in turn, provide for the Queen unfailingly. It’s a pretty safe assumption that Changelings are much the same way. In the context of the show, however, we also notice that Changelings of all kinds have personalities and feelings of their own. When Pinkie confronts one of the Changelings and asks them to mimic her, the Changeling does something that no mindless drone would do: it accepts the request. This psychological behavior of reward for good behavior is not present in fully obedient insects, much like telling an attack dog to do a trick likely wouldn’t work if you were running from it. As such, it makes sense to reason that all Changelings are independent thinkers, at least as far as we can tell. So, keep in mind the structure, but also put in a bit of personality if you so choose, but Changelings aren’t loners. They can’t rightly survive without the binding force of a Queen, just as bugs can’t really do the same when their queen dies.

Only Queens look like Queens

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Personality identity is what sets one Changeling apart from another. What about visuals? Why not give your Changeling drone or worker a really cool mane style? Oh, that’s right. They don’t have manes. Well, uhh… how about a really neat eye colour? Well, they all only have one colour of eyes. Light blue. The face and mane on a pony are their most defining features for a creator. In the case of a Changeling, we’re prevented from changing that, for the sake of continuity. Well then, maybe I’ll make a Queen! Then, we can have mane styles and facial features galore! Ahaahaahaa! Well, wait a moment; there are other ways to handle this, before forcing yourself to commit to that echelon of character. First, there’s the case of accessorization. When you can’t alter the painting, giving it a nice frame is the only way to make it more valuable, after all. You can tell a lot about a character just by the way they dress, and if your drone has no other means to express themselves, I’m sure they could break the “all ponies are nude” rule, even for simple stuff. Basically, seek alternate forms of character expression. You’d be surprised at how well you can show what kind of character your Changeling is without changing much of their appearance!

Use the Façade for Deception, not Development

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This is the real flaw behind Changeling OCs. See, some ponies have a million OCs, and have trouble reconciling them. Perhaps they thrust onto their one Changeling OC their desire to be ALL of those characters. They get so good at their game, that they even fool themselves. That’s not like a Changeling, however. Any Changeling can mimic one particular form, so there’s honestly no uniqueness in the idea of changing into ‘your character’. If you really want to surefire express your character, I again recommend accessorization on the character as he TRULY is, rather than needing to rely on changing into other ponies to express himself. Rather, they’re better off using the changing ability to do things that they as Changelings cannot, such as entering amorous relationships with a pony. Hiding in plain sight. Their powers are meant to deceive. Use them to deceive.

Queens are Queens

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Now, let’s say that you DO decide to make your Changeling a Queen, or perhaps some male leader of some sort. You gotta understand that you just added in a bunch of jobs to your character. Consider: the Queen of a hive has to, as I said, spawn a lot of hatchlings, and see to it that her hive’s needs are met. Lots of organizing, and s/he likely won’t leave without their hive based on their dependence on her/him. So mind you, if you decide to make a Queen, you’ll need to build your character accordingly, and you shouldn’t expect for them to be able to slip out of the hive inconspicuously.

Stick to the Style

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Alright then, you’ve come up with an idea you like. First, it should go without saying that with an individual identity of a Changeling, they’re going to want a name. Let’s go with… Nestor. But wait, that sort of name’s completely out of left field. What sort of names can one apply to a Changeling? Well, the best names you can give Changelings, in my opinion at least, are simple, one-word names such as Haze or Skimmer, something that reflects their abilities, I would imagine. If you ‘re really determined, however, an even better course of action is to use bug terms. Chrysalis is but one stage of the developmental cycle. To exhibit as a theme that my Changeling OC is more mentally mature than Chrysalis, I moved up the chain of bug growth: How about the adult stage? The technical term for that is ‘imago’, and so we have our queen’s name: Queen Imago. Other terms can apply here too, and there are plenty. (i.e. Ecdysis, Instar, Pupa, Cocoon, Thorax, etc.) Use your knowledge of bug terms to give your Changeling that strange-sounding name they deserve as a non-pony race!

So there we have it, we’re steadily moving away from the constant of human behavior and going more on supposition. As time goes on, the OCs covered here are likely to be less and less human. Next up on the grand roll of controversial OCs: Draconequui. Brace yourselves, lots of headcanon there! Thanks for reading!