Beyond what we have from canon, how would you characterize Chrysalis? No right or wrong answers. Here are some ideas:

Crown: I had thought this was some sort of growth at first. Perhaps a fungus with which she has a symbiotic relationship?

Holes: A source of constant discomfort, but also pride. Seen among Changelings as a rite of passage, solidarity, and acceptance into the adult ranks of the hive. Caused by cave worms?

Age: Lifespan longer than common ponies. Knows about crystalline caves beneath Canterlot. Perhaps was exiled when they were evacuated for the building of Canterlot?

Physical attributes: Not as heavy as ponies due to starvation and consisting mostly of absorbed love. Slime is vomited or salivated to trap prey. Fangs inject hallucinogens. Bioluminescence allows visibility in cavern dwellings and aids in mesmerizing prey. Odor is more of a musk, similar to plastic toy blobs found at the grocery store, with sickeningly sweet undertones and a hint of mold, as when turning over a rotten log in the forest looking for worms and finding only centipedes. Cocoons transform victims into Changelings?

Relationships: Fiercely dedicated to her swarm. Detests physical involvement with prey. Rather, controls victims to extract amorous sentiments at will. Feeding on love in general makes any one pony inadequate.

What do you think?

I like all of those ideas. In fact, I was wondering how she came to be who she is. Perhaps something like the Greek tale of Zeus, Poseidon and Hades. Celestia and Luna got the roles of Zeus and Poseidon while Chrysalis got the role of Hades.

Crown: Perhaps it is actually a growth that forms on the heads of the royal family of the Changelings.

Holes: I like the rite of passage idea. Perhaps like how in Mass Effect the Krogans have to fight a thresher maw in order to be accepted into the pack. Perhaps even the same concept as a thresher maw, but more of a cave worm.

Age: Well, like I said at the start, she is as old as Celestia and Luna. Perhaps she is actually the youngest of the three? Oldest? Just don't really see her as the middle child. Perhaps the love child of the king and his mistress? Just throwing ideas out there.

Physical Attributes: We already know that they can change shape and grow stronger with the more emotion they devour. Primarily love. The fact that Chrysalis was able to assume the role of Cadence with Shining Armor not suspecting anything means that perhaps the musky scent is masked when they change shape, or is just not entirely potent. Maybe instead of the musk, it is more of a pheromone that allows them to attract ponies. The fang hallucinogens, slime salivation and bio-luminescence are great, but the turning ponies into changelings seems a little odd. However their reproduction is something that needs to be considered. Is the entire hive like that of ants or more humanistic? Does Chrysalis have to birth them, or does she create them?

Relationships: It is hard to think a being that relies on emotions for survival would become so callous and cold as to not pursue a true relationship if they felt the same. While the Hive seems mindless, Chrysalis surely has those kinds of emotions. Also, how did the famine come about? Did it have to do with something that happened to her? Could her emotions feed the hive? What pushed her to invade Canterlot instead of slowly inserting the Hive into Pony society?

Crown: I thought of it as a sign of royalty, and it allowed communication through her subjects like a Queen Ant's Hive Mind.

Holes: Rite of passage seems to make the most sense.

Age: Possibly older than the time of Discord. But it also is not out of the question that she is more of a new Queen, and that all of this knowledge she possesses could not just be passed down through the generations.

Physical Attributes: The cocoon transforming victims into Changelings has a nice, vampiric touch to it. But probably only after their victims can no longer produce any love, would the Changelings assimilate them into the Hive.

Relations: She most likely feels all regular emotions, but is devout to the survival of the Swarm. Loves her people, but sees all ponies simply as food.

History: It is quite possible that her people had tried once to integrate into society, but were forcibly removed, having to survive as nothing more than a myth in pony society. Only the love for and of her subjects kept them alive and hopeful, but it was not enough for their race to survive forever.

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So for how the Changelings are formed is when they completely drain a pony of their emotions and they are nothing but a hollow husk?

295534 It's kind of like how the Husks work in Mass Effect. It also might explain why the Changelings need love as food. A never ending cycle, but it's all I can think of.

I interpreted the holes in Chrysalis's legs and wings to be an indication that she's corpse-like, possibly slowly disintegrating. Since she knows about those caves and has probably lived a long time, it might be that the changelings live on and on until they fall apart, or at least their queens do.

I like the idea of the changelings having a strong odor, but they must be able to mask it if they can convincingly pass as ponies. I also assumed the green slime came from their mouths, or perhaps they spun it out like spiders (something they probably couldn't have shown in the cartoon).

Is it more of a Hive or Horde?

These are the questions we must ask...

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I definitely get more of a hive vibe. Cause a hive has everyone working for the group as a whole, while a horde ....does not?

Changlings are beings that feed off of love but do they ever want to give love in return? Not much is known for sure about what they really want or where they came from. My guess is that they are like a society that dwells underground or even in a far off land, as for the hive mind I think that might not be true, because the changlings do tend to show some form of freewill. Though they are fiercely loyal to their queen. As for why they wanted to invade, it's quite possible that in the land they came from they were worshiped as gods and were given sacrafices to feed off of, but soon the ponies who worshiped them ran off, thus forcing the hive to starve.

I also believe that they either lay eggs or give birth to live young, the whole concept of assimilating others into the hive is just plain silly. As for the web and the coccons, maybe they excrete it through poors in their skin.

Also maybe they too have a higharchy that is similar to what they have on Earth, maybe Chrysalis was elected into power or she was born into it.

The holes might not be a sorce of discomfort or even a right of passage, it could be that changlings are born like that and the holes are used to grasp things or to allow for smother flying, as the holes can be used to pass air through thier body during flight.

I might be wrong on this but it's the best I got.

Interesting - Though my thoughts differ.

The crown - its just part of her head. considering she's phenotypically different from the regular changeling, the queen is probably born to the rule, or somehow ascended from the rank and file to it.
The "fangs" are the spinnerets through which they manipulate the tactile slime they regurgitate and use. Love can be picked up ambiently from proximity to intense sources, but the changelings capture and keep prisoners in Harvest pods - large organic growths that contain and pacify the captive and keep any pony inside dreaming of all the things they love. Though its for selfish reasons, they end up giving their "victims" a wonderful and carefree existence. Love cannot be depleted as its intangible, just as a field of flowers cannot deplete the sunshine or a sail deplete the wind. Their starvation comes from having too low of a steady income of it.
Emotions - Chryaslis is a distinct and complete personality and from what we've seen of the changelings, they have personalities of their own to some extent or other. One clearly shows eager anticipation at breaking the barrier, another frustration with Pinkie being unimpressed. They still feel, but are more reclusive and private than other races.
By Her Holey Hooves - the holes. Considering they go THROUGH the leg, they're probably a natural development, like the apostesis (or whatever the word is) of the flesh between fingers and toes - rather than bone, I see the changeligns as having a chitinous structure, so the perforated structure would actually add strength to the base of the legs, a region that needs additional support.

As for "Hive vs Horde" I say neither - they're what you'd get when you have any isolated and closed off society, hard to understand, nonexpressive, fiercly loyal to their own... a "Family first, right or wrong" mentality, if you will.

For her part, Chrysalis strikes me as arrogant, assertive/aggressive, unfettered by morality, but dedicated to her people.

Interesting - Though my thoughts differ.

The crown - its just part of her head. considering she's phenotypically different from the regular changeling, the queen is probably born to the rule, or somehow ascended from the rank and file to it.
The "fangs" are the spinnerets through which they manipulate the tactile slime they regurgitate and use. Love can be picked up ambiently from proximity to intense sources, but the changelings capture and keep prisoners in Harvest pods - large organic growths that contain and pacify the captive and keep any pony inside dreaming of all the things they love. Though its for selfish reasons, they end up giving their "victims" a wonderful and carefree existence.
Emotions - Chryaslis is a distinct and complete personality and from what we've seen of the changelings, they have personalities of their own to some extent or other. One clearly shows eager anticipation at breaking the barrier, another frustration with Pinkie being unimpressed. They still feel, but are more reclusive and private than other races.
By Her Holey Hooves - the holes. Considering they go THROUGH the leg, they're probably a natural development, like the apostesis (or whatever the word is) of the flesh between fingers and toes - rather than bone, I see the changeligns as having a chitinous structure, so the perforated structure would actually add strength to the base of the legs, a region that needs additional support.

As for "Hive vs Horde" I say neither - they're what you'd get when you have any isolated and closed off society, hard to understand, nonexpressive, fiercly loyal to their own... a "Family first, right or wrong" mentality, if you will.

For her part, Chrysalis strikes me as arrogant, assertive/aggressive, unfettered by morality, but dedicated to her people.

How I see Chrysalis,

I view her as bitchy, arrogant, and prideful. (kinda like GLaDOS from portal)

She's a flawed broken thing. Insecure and half made. A product of an environment. Not good not bad. An effect. Arrogant and autocratic shes more of a bitch then a victim. If I ever met her I would want to punch her in the fucking face.

The Hive has a rather startling way of raising children. Especially royalty. It produced a rather damaged child, full of neurosis and problems. Even if she laughs and cackles with that chuckle of hers I don't think shes been happy as much as us. She's had a harsh life. She prefers it that way.

There is a ferocious desperate love for the Hive. Approaching rather unhealthy levels. But no love for an individual. No love for herself. That's both a strength and a weakness.

She can't do wrong because no one sat down with her and told her whats wrong. I don't think no ones actually sat down and talked to her. If you get rid of her hammy dialogue, I don't think she really knows how to talk to anyone normally.

She's an abused individual that loves something that abuses her. She compensates by either locking herself away or starting incredibly intricate military campaigns. Or fucking with peoples heads. They don't make her happy, but it makes her less restless.

Beyond what we have from canon, how would you characterize Chrysalis? No right or wrong answers. Here are some ideas:

Crown: Most likely part of her head as she was born from a royal egg.

Holes: The changelings were born that way and the holes cause no pain, and make it easier to change their shape.

Age: I think being the Queen, whilst she's not immortal like an alicorn, she could easily live for at least twice the age of the average Changeling.

Physical attributes: Able to change like any changeling, able to spin web and cocoons. As well as cocoons, changeling web in general also makes rope bridges, hammocks, bags, and seals wounds

Relationships: The swarm means all. One on all, all on one. Loves her hive. Hates informers. Very protective of the Hive.

I think the line in her song, "No I do not love the groom/ in my heart there is no room..." is very telling, or at least raises interesting questions. What is it in her heart that makes it impossible to love? Is she capable of loving herself? If not, perhaps that's reason she needs to parasitize it from Shining Armor. Potentially very deep.

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I had thought of this as well. In fact, I had several theorys/ideas about it, but the main thing I can guess is a curse that can only be lifted if the queen of the changelings can learn to give love and love herself. Once the curse is lifted, the changelings will no longer have to feed off of the love of others, but sustain themselves.

It largely depends on what you're writing and how faithful you want to be to the canon. You could take it any number of directions as long as you make it believeable and not too over-the-top.