Doodle Dump: Parasitic Bug Monsters

my brother's been in the hospital (cardiovascular scare, he's being kept under observation), here's some doodles i did from his hospital room

1.) In my story, Ocellus is a "new era" changeling, born shortly after the political marriage of Queen Chrysalis and Princess Celestia. Due to the more or less successful integration of her changelings into pony society, Chrysalis was able to soak up more ambient love to create a new, healthier, more colorful brood of subjects. 

Ocellus specifically was something of an experiment for Chrysalis, a prototype Queen class changeling meant to become her eventual successor. Unfortunately, shy little Ocellus lacked the ferocity and confidence necessary to command a hive, and was dismissed from Chrysalis' court. Thorax (and Spike) were able to help her discover her true talent in diplomacy. Ocellus is now a common sight in Canterlot working to improve changeling relations with all species, and occasionally corralling Princess Iridescence, Chrysalis' new heir. Irie is the very first true equine-changeling hybrid, and was born out of true love between Chrysalis and Celestia. 

For the record, changelings don't have the same views on family that ponies do. They perceive Chrysalis as their Queen, not their mother. Although Chrysalis did do things to inspire loyalty in her subjects (such as telling stories to the young grubs, and rewarding her troops for bravery and cunning), Queens largely leave the caring of grubs to the workers. Although all of Chrysalis' subjects are biologically siblings, they don't automatically perceive each other as family and believe that titles like "brother" and "sister" are to be earned.

(Chrysalis won't really have Ocellus' head. It makes for a good threat, though.)


2.) Princess Irie as a wee grub. She was Celestia's precious, acid-spitting widdle "bugaboo"! 



3.) Queen Chrysalis trying (and failing) to intimidate little Joey, her daughter's little schoolmate. She dun like how blushy and giggly they get when they accidentally touch hooves on their silly little movie nights. She's maybe wise to be so suspicious:

4.) The brothers Thorax and Pharynx. Changelings generally only consider themselves related if they came from the same egg clutch. Pharynx is slightly older than Thorax and didn't come from the same clutch, they are considered adoptive brothers. Pharynx was himself bullied for his unusual color mutation, so when he saw young little Thorax being bullied over his physical weakness and sentimental nature, he quickly took the grub under his tiny wing. This was highly unusual behavior for a changeling at the time, the hive typically works to phase out weakness. Without Pharynx to defend him, Thorax might have been cannibalized by his clutchmates. The bond between the brothers is quite strong, and the two worked jointly to co-"parent" young Ocellus.

fun notes about changeling biology: Changelings don't have the same sex binary as ponies. There's really only just "Queen" and "worker", where the Queen rules the hive and is responsible for reproduction, and the workers tends to her and her many, many eggs. All changelings are hermaphrodites, but gender is a very fluid concept for them, with some identifying as male, female, neither, both, or somewhere in between. Thorax uses the pronouns "he" and "they", and while Pharynx largely goes by "he", he'll get a bit flustered if referred to as "she", as he considers it quite a compliment to be comparable in any way to the Queen.

Changelings do not interbreed with members of their own hive, though they may form family units with their siblings and adopt grubs to raise. Changelings can mate with other species, including ponies, griffons, and even dragons (a notable example being Thorax and Spike, who produced a viable hybrid, Smokescreen)

5.) Irie lovin' up on her big bad bug mama. While I love interpreting the changelings' designs in many different ways, my favorite iteration of them is scary. Even the bright colorful "changedlings" are scary. You can't really make a parasitic insect the size of a horse and have that not be scary. My favorite way to iterate Chrysalis' design is to imagine the crypt-keeper boinked a halloween store decoration. Why make her some sultry succubus lady when you could make her freaky as all get out? She's permanently "ugly" because she's been so starved for love for most of her life, going without it so that her hive could feed in her place. Irie still thinks Chryssie is pretty~

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