Season 8 was trying to cram in so many things at once:
The School of Friendship
The Student Six
The Cutie Map expanding
Chancellor Neighsay's revenge
Queen Chrysalis's revenge
Cozy Glow
The magical artifacts from the other kingdoms
The Pillars adjusting to the modern world
The Tree of Harmony becoming sentient
More world building for the other kingdoms
Season 8 being crammed like this is probably one of the main things that lead to it being such a mess in the writing department. None of these things got the proper attention and development they needed.
I never realized just how crammed it all was until I see it layed out like this...
You know, maybe the issue isn't just that it was crammed, but also that none of it was properly connected, and a good chunk of it felt purposeless. Like the writers, Hasbro, or both were just... throwing ideas at the wall, hoping they would be enough to keep people interested without bothering to think for more than 2 seconds how to properly connect them to an interesting story or have any of it make sense. It felt desperate almost, like them yelling "please don't leave!"
Here's my lame attempt of fixing it:
Instead of a school to teach friendship, have it be a school to teach magic.
The Student Six aren't the only nonponies to attend Twilight's school. There is at least one episode that season where a Mane Six member and their Student counterpart teach each other something, showing the similarities and differences between them and hinting at what Element they represent (which is what the season should've done honestly). Also, the personalities of the Student Six are different to make them more unique.
The other Mane Six only work at the school as guest teachers, not full-time. Twilight, Spike, Starlight are the only ones of the main group who work there full-time.
The Pillars adjusting to the modern world is more relevant. Each Pillar has an important role in the Mane Six teaching Student Six episodes. The 3 generations coming together type thing. And they work at Twilight's school full-time.
The Cutie Map expansion is made more relevant.
Chancellor Neighsay's entire character is rewritten. I'm not sure what the writers were going for by writing this character to be an obnoxious one-dimensional strawman, but then also giving him a half-baked unearned reformation, but that's changed. Also, Celestia actually fires him.
Queen Chrysalis's revenge attempt in the Mean Six is actually plot relevant. The Tree of Harmony accidentally becomes corrupted, which leads into the finale. It's the reason why the magic is disappearing.
The world building for the other kingdoms is more meaningful and consistent. We see that the other kingdoms have made significant progress in becoming friendlier and Equestria is reaching out to the locations seen in the movie, and that the nonponies and ponies are interacting and trying to understand each other (again, something the season should've done but didn't for unknown reasons…)
Cozy Glow's character either doesn't exist, is replaced, or fixed…
The magical artifacts from the other kingdoms are the Student Six's equivalent of the Pillars’ artifacts.
The Tree of Harmony becoming sentient still happens I guess, idk.
At the end of the season, Celestia and Luna see how well Twilight's done in bringing the other kingdoms together. This is what convinces them that Twilight will make a better ruler, instead of the random bullshit the writers pulled out in season 9.
SUPER obsessed with your MLP rewrite currently!! this isn’t really a redraw ask, but I’d like to hear more of your Changling lore if possible! (or maybe more for the specific characters like Chrysalis, Thorax, Pharynx, and Ocellus?)
EYES GET SOOOOO WIDE HEHEHEHES YES I HAVE SO MANY CHANGELING HCS ALSO TYSM FOR LIKING THE AU WAHG <3
-changelings are made asexually via the queen laying eggs, while royal changelings are born sexually and are given extra love as larvae to become royals (if not they just become regular drones) (kindaaa like bee logic of queens being regular larvae that were just given extra care/certain diet) this means probably a decent small little chunk of the drones are actually potential heirs that just weren’t given the extra love/magic when they were young to develop that way so they just grew up as regular drones. They are, of course, never told this by chrys bc she sucks like that.
-bc of the asexual reproduction logic this means all changelings are technically the same sex but just identify differently (and bc shapeshifter just naturally can make their voices sound different to fit that as well)
-another hc is that rulers are always Queens, so clownfish logic if hypothetically pharynx or thorax took the throne they’d change to become Queen, not King, (tho the reformation renders that rule null and void bc they actually get to be unique from eachother so no more all identical sex yay) I think this would be fun to explore considering all the princesses for the ponies are ofc princesses so thorax is Thoroughly confused by prince shining armors existence bc Why Is He Not Female If He Rules Equal To Cadence ?????? And then learns ponies genders do not have any correlation to rulers and it’s literally just pure coincidence. Also by this logic chrysalis is trans but like. not really. Lol? They’re bugs their gender don’t really work that way so actually no she’s not trans
-changelings are meant to “reform”!! That was not just a new phenomenon !! None of them ever metamorphosed bc chrys just was keeping things the same/not changing for so long bc shes greedy and selfish and doesn’t wanna share love so basically rewired her entire species to remain in their “caterpillar” states. They’re only meant to steal love as to get enough magic to undergo metamorphosis in which they can now self make love for themselves and in turn share that magic with others, but Chrys never allowed that and just made them all remain starving for ages out of stubbornness.
-age on lobster logic (live as long as they have magic/love to feed from and only die from battle or injury) but thorax n pharynx i do think are still within adult pony age rn (so the idea is chrys is pretty old (not tia and Luna old tho) but she’s not immortal per say) pharynx is older while thorax is younger (probably late 20s phar (somewhere from 26-29 range maybe?) VS like rlly early 20s thor like right on the dot probably, seeing as a lot of ppl back when he was introduced assumed he was a teen based on voice/crystal hoof disguise but then that hc kinda faded after reformation made him more explicitly adult coded which is the take I always went with lol I never saw him as a teen/never thought of changelings with one to one direct pony ages)
-breezies and changelings are offshoots of the same species/are part of the same creature family, hence my breezies look really similar to the reformed changelings :3 (think maybe another mlp example to be like sirens and kelpies and hypocampus’s could also follow same species group umbrella logic as changelings and breezies and flutter ponies)
-speaking of— a changeling and pony hybrid would be the flutter ponies from the g1 toys!! :) (basically they’re just pony but w bug wings (but maybe in mine they will have a few other changeling traits as well))
-Royal changelings are the only ones with “horns” aka stingers in this case, and the only ones with unique accent colors while all the drones are just blue, more differences are extra eyes and the lil chest gem thingys
-love is a form of magic in the changelings case and has a physical magical form rather than it just being an emotion, both when they steal it as well as when sharing it/having it in their metamorphosis forms
-already obvious but reformed forms play on their desires/identity (thorax w long mane like he wanted bc it always was forced to be cut bc of all the drones having to look the same including the heirs so his mane was as long as it was allowed, and upon leaving he grows it out a bit and finally in reformed it’s the long style he wanted but never got :3 or pharynx stays pretty similar bc he prided himself in his status and the og changeling look)
-thorax was a fluke/not intended to be an heir BUT chrys thought it would be good to have a backup/spare for in case something happened to pharynx seeing as he was going to be in dangerous situations a lot but that means thorax is only royal in title bc he gets noooo respect at all the other drones hate him soooo much
-thorax is a people pleaser but NOT naive at all. He can smell a liar from a mile away which makes him getting taken advantage of by other changelings so often hurt more bc He Knows What They’re Doing And Falls For It Anyway Bc He Wants To Be Helpful Literally Anyway At All..
in other words my thorax is just a glorified version of the trope of girl pretends to be a bimbo/plays dumb to hide she’s actually really smart LOL…..
-pharynx very tough love w thorax/actually does care abt him (unlike chrys and the drones) but he’d never admit it. Bc thorax hates stealing love pharynx will give him whatever love he gathered from his missions/patrols bc he thinks it’s gross/only gets what he needs to not be hungry which isn’t much (lol stupid doesn’t realize he’s aro lollll)
-pharynx gets such a huge ego from the fact he’s rarely hungry/not starving like the others bc “lollll im just built different bc I’m heir/Captain of the guard I think this is just a skill issue on yalls part lol lmao imagine starving and thinking love is good srs how do you guys eat this stuff and crave it no less it tastes awful” and they just look at him like “….bro???? What?????????????”
-I think in this vein this means sexuality is based on what form of love they prefer the taste of it’s like how Misquotes prefer specific blood types, so pharynx thinks all love tastes gross VS say thorax would prefer love from colts/thinks love from mares doesn’t taste good just like pharynx thinks (but with all of it in his case not just a specific type)
-post TWABA pharynx goes with chrys to stay with her with a few others acting as a resistance like we heard abt in the canon but never saw that slowly get picked up by the new hive until it’s just chrys and pharynx who also eventually caves bc he loves his brother/protecting his subjects and realizes chrys has been manipulating him esp post TWABA she gets a lot more explicitly cruel/harsh w pharynx as her small hive is picked off one by one she stops being all sugar coating and gaslighting and just gets Verbatim Abusive bc she’s done playing around her kid needs to lock tf IN if they wanna take back her hive (spoiler alert she will not take back her hive. Lol.)
-changelings have stingers for tongues that they can use to drain love directly when kissing victims bc I think that visual is very fucked up in a good way it’s icky and in line with their whole shtick (you can see this in my screenshot redraws on chrysalis)
-their disguises are never perfect, usually really small things are off, and if they take the form of a made up pony— (see: thorax w his pony disguise (both referring to canon (crystal hoof) and my version (orchid mantis)) —their eyes will always remain the same color and fangs will remain as well. Rule for all of them tho regardless of if they’re copying or original forms is their eyes will glow in dark/reflect light (think like cats/raccoons/deer or like for a media example nimona in the scene of the red siren lights making her eyes glow)
-ocellus not designed yet BUT I’d love to perhaps make her a sunrax kid/flutter pony in turn :3€ ocellus shimmer just has a nice ring methinks, though bc of my designs not fitting her canon one she’d probably get a redesign to include elements of both of them more (maybe white and orange/pink/red? Might snag elements from an old changeling oc of mine that was those colors as well to look like chrysalis with inverted colors plus fits my current thorax design, tho that makes me debate if she should be a ladybug like canon (iirc?) OR monarch butterfly bc orange but I think prob ladybug seeing as pharynx is a beetle it would feel like an odd jump to butterfly when none of the family are butterflies (pharynx is an iridescent beetle, thorax is an orchid mantis, and chrys is a mantis/if I make a metamorphosis design she’ll be a lunar moth) so ladybug feels more in line, though doesn’t mean some of the drones can’t be butterfly themed bc aforementioned they all get to be unique now/not identical
-on topic of ocellus I initially was gonna cut the school BUT I now think I’d wanna do it only if it was a slight timeskip/id change up the student six species n characters a bit so they’d not just be The Mane Six Two yk? This also means maybe cozy could still try to take over in my vers as well bc she’s a different species she has an excuse to use the schools melting pot status to her advantage (tho I’d have to think on it more later/rewatch that season bc my memory on it is rlly fuzzy)
-I think thorax at the start of befriending sunburst tried to keep his distance out of fear of hurting him on accident not so much on being caught, but ofc eases up as time goes w him
-mentioned before BUT I think my thorax’s voice is slightly different from canon (being this:)
No reason I just think his canon voice doesn’t perfectly match my thorax, another good option tho is adakias from one of my favorite musicals razias shadow (listen to the song the exit bc i actually had an animatic in the works for it that I never finished sadly but I plan to post snippets of what I had of it in a animation comp video soon :3)
Uh. I think that’s all,,, I am so normal about the changelings trust me bro ignore the massive wall of text 👍
EDIT IM MAKING BC NEW HC DROPPED SINCE MAKING THIS POST BUT ITS A LIL NSFW NOT REALLY ITS JUST KINDA FUCKED UP. Ok so basically Queen changelings have ovipositors ok? Both as sortof sex organs as well as their stingers in their mouths, so basically heirs are born via eggs being deposited into a living being(host) that can give the egg extra nutrients/love while the host is kept in a trance in one of the pod/cocoon things the changelings use to which the hatched heir will eat the remains when it escapes, very bug logic alright these guys are fucked up slash pos
BUT. this means that bc their stingers are also in their mouth this means heirs can be born to a pony regardless of sex, mare? Easy, womb, done. a stallion though? Sorry man ur getting eggs down ur throat by that bug ladies fucked up tongue sorrrryyyyyyyy womp womp
tho I think this could spark funny discussions w the bros (bc they obviously had different pony parents w the age difference) on them debating who hypothetically was a womb baby and who was a stomach baby to the horror of any normal ponies overhearing LMAO
A chill wind blew against Rarity’s mane as she, her friends, and the reformed changelings stood silently, staring through a hole that had been made in the changeling castle where Queen Chrysalis’s throne once stood.
“She got away…” Starlight sighed. She tried to give the Changeling Queen a chance, and now she was gone, still a threat to Equestria. “I’m sorry, Twilight, I thought she would take my hoof... that she deserved a second chance, but-”,
“Starlight, it’s fine. Not everypon–creature will be willing to change…and you just need to accept it,” Twilight says walking up to her student. “For now, we need to focus on helping Thorax and the rest of the reformed changelings readjust to their new lives”.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold the phone, what about Chrysalis?! We can’t just let her get off that easily! We need to find her”, RainbowDash shouts, getting ready to fly off, until Applejack yanks her tail.
“I agree, Chrysalis is dangerous,” Rarity says, her saphire eyes still watching the horizon. “I mean, this is the second time she was able to trick us and almost win.” I shiver ran down her spine, the mere thought of being in one of Chyrsalis’s cacoons again was bad enough, but the threat of one of her friends or family members being replaced by Chyrsalis was a thought now looming over her head. While Rarity thought of herself as fairly rational(at least when it came to relationships), she could only see Chrysalis as a monster.
How could a Queen not figure out that sharing love would be the best way to help her citizens? How could she have been so neglectful? Rarity thought to herself as her friends continued to argue.
“I understand what you are saying, Rainbow Dash, but we just don’t have the time or resources right now”, Twilight says, trying to call the agitated mare. “We will find her, we just need to wait and plan.” Twilight said strictly, it was clear there was no room for negotiation. Reluctantly, Rainbow Dash backed down despite being clearly agitated, but she didn’t want to deal with another lecture from Twilight about her impatience.
**************************************
Time went on after that. The main six and their allies looked for Chrysalis and stayed vigilant for any possible signs of her, but as time went on, the pillars of Equestria had returned, then there was an attack on Canterlot from King Sombra, then an attack from Tirek and Cozy Glow. After that battle, Tirek was turned into stone. Cozy Glow would have joined him in his prison, but Fluttershy took it upon herself to instead take Cozy Glow under her wing as her own student.
After that, almost everypony forgot about the potential threat of Chrysalis, got busy with their lives, and slowly drifted apart. Only AppleJack, Rarity, and Fluttershy stayed in Ponyville. Rarity occasionally left to grow her business and manage her boutiques, but as orders kept piling up she was forced to stay in Ponyville to work, sending the completed gowns by mail to their respective boutiques. Twilight moved back to Canterlot to study and adapt to being the new princess of Equestria. Rainbow Dash was busy as a Wonderbolt. Soon, she would be the vice-captain. Pinkie Pie had moved to Yak Yakistan permanently to learn more about their culture. Then there was Starlight, who had decided to move the school into more balanced territory, so it felt more welcoming to the other createas apart of and beyond Equestraia.
Yes, everything had returned to normal, if not busy. Until one day, Rarity heard a knock at her door.
I'm finally doing it! After some encouragement from a pair of friends, I am finally writing my first fanfic and the story I have been wanting to tell for years, the romance story for my OTP Rarity x Chrysalis.
Keep in mind, I only have a very loose direction I have of how I want the story to go, as my original story is full of high school edginess, and I don't want that, but I liked some parts.... so, bear with me.
Comments/Questions and spelling corrections are appreciated.
I am going to do my best to post somewhat regularly (but no promises).
remember when i say that i might design the bug bro after celestia and luna? here it is!
im not rlly happy with how pharynx's color look but im glad it done
below will be me talking abt some design detail and some hc!
early sketch
i want to keep the ponytail in the new drawing but couldnt figure how to draw without making it awkward since front facing stuff so i just decide that thorax let his hair down when not outside the changeling kingdom.
i originally want thorax's hair to be white since he just look bad with that green color imo but then i realize i could just change the saturation and brightness as long as ppl can still tell that yes this green guy is thorax.
i want to add some elements that reference the old changeling design like the ripped black clothing that you see in the dress to show the main color in the og design. For the hole in the limb, i try to translate it here as the burn scar that look like hole and to ref the comic scene where celestia defeat chrysalis.
i was thinking abt how thorax could pull off anything since his time at the crystal empire influence how he dress in the future cause everyone there just dress all fancy.
for pharynx, he give no fuck since he wear his uniform 90% most of the time and when he done with his duty, he would just pick the first outfit in his closet and call it a day.
I'm so proud of them!!! I also finally wrote their full lore on ToyHouse
A community for collaborative character creation and trading, worldbuilding and roleplay.
They're also on Art Fight!!! Now I only need to think of a name, it will probably be Drainfly. I'm so hyped I will be looking out for oc interactions and mlp friends to draw with
pasting the lore here:
They're a changeling princess, meant to take after Chrysalis' hive after her or build their own after fully grown, but after the reform of the changelings they're completly lost. They were meant to be raised by the hive but without it the queen has been their only company. They have grown shy and very scared of ponies and even more scared of reformed changelings, the struggles of feeding on their own and on fear and anxiety has resulted in malnourishment (also because of bad appetite), making them too thin even for a normal changeling, and slowing their growth as a princess. They were born a common drone and began growing taller, developing pupils, longer crooked horn and a mane, becoming more similar to Chrysalis, despise the title of "princess" theyre genderless, meant to become a female queen when fully grown, but still stuck inbetween the metamorphosis proccess theyre something different from both the queen and the drones. They still feed on ponies and hurt them with their powerful magic, it's the way they were taught and they don't know anything else, hurting others "is okay because my mom said i can".
Old Queen Chrysalis art because oh do I have a thing or two to say about her arc in the show
I still can't that they entrapped her in stone when she was the most likely to be reformed from the three , she wasn't even evil to begin with, more like morally gray , she took care of her subjects for yearrss , took over Canterlot for them , and then they just kicked her out of the hive later??
They could have invited her back , reformed her and let her rule , because she wasn't a bad queen tbh , since she invaded for the good of her subjects , who were literally dieing btw, so I get her desperation
After that her goals changed to wanting revenge for being thrown out the hive , which was valid to be fair
Anyways, I'm going to definitely take her towards reformation in my au , she deserves to slay [ without the actual mass pony slaughter ]
My interpretation of “Metamorphosed Chrysalis” from the My Little Pony mobile game. She is commonly called “reformed Chrysalis”.
I kept her body a dark color because I dislike it when a character design gets lightened, especially when it is part of a reformation redesign. My version has silky hair instead of a membrane mane and strange wing tail.
Do not use, do not repost. I'm generally okay if you want to make your own drawing of this design. No background image below cut
Well, not too long ago the canon form of the reformed Chrysalis was revealed, and I'll be honest, I don't like Gameloft's design, mainly because of the wings. They're supposed to be based on insects, so why do they look so much like alicorn wings?
So I decided to make my own version. As for the wing design, it's based on the Chrysalis from the Mirrorverse.
So wouldn't that mean that Chrysalis is giving love?...
Reformed Chrysalis???
I generally prefer Chrysalis's design to not change cause its already so good but I feel like some middle ground could be found between a complete change and no change.
Especially bc Celestia will be very used to the way Chrissie looks normally. That being said, here's a funny idea regarding reformed Chrysalis changing her form:
Thanks for finaly giving me an excuse to sketch this I had thought of this idea for a while lmao
they can have a whole romantic thing about Celestia not needing Chryssie to change at all or require her to 'look reformed'... And then she just changes while boning lol
origamiaround
ellievsbear
tangentwithtanner
