So, you want to write a changeling fanfiction?

Yes, I know, it sounds way worse when you say it out loud.

But anyway, here are some steps to writing one that won't suck ass with multiple bendy straws:

1. Spend a long time thinking of something original; something that hasn't been done before is much more appealing than copy/pasting a zombie book, and changing every other word to "Pony," and "Changeling."

2. When you're writing it, make sure that you don't sound too.... bleugh. Just read it aloud every once in awhile.

3. DON'T SAY "LISTEN TO THIS MUSIC WHILE READING." IT DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT.

4. Don't make changelings vampires. ever.

5. Don't do what I did in #3: all caps. Fallout currency is not accepted in hive-mind thrift shops.

6. Don't make them have sex... no matter how hot you think it is, they're insects. Bugs-can't-fuck-ponies. Just no.

7. Don't write them late at night, unless you've got a lot of rockstar, or monster, because changeling stories need to have depth, and writing depth takes time.

Now go, my minions... Write more stories!

All agreeable, but changelings are equine mammals. they just should stay species-specific, is all.

763505 How do you know they are equine mammals, and not a totally different species that evolved into the form of it's prey? Could you also explain their insect like appearance/appendages and their sticky green goo?

763512 Insects have six limbs, convergent evolution due to a lifestyle similar to insects, and finally, it's a world of magical mythical creatures, so who's to say that they aren't a strange branch of the pony family tree? Also, the goo is a special concentrated form of magic.

I'm stuck on an explanation for the holes, though I think it does have something to do with making the goo.

Pony/changeling hybrid= still not possible.

I don't agree with the no changeling vampires point, but the rest seems pretty straightforward. Even though most of these are just tips on how to write in general. If you want to write a changeling story, a good place to start is "how is writing for changelings different than writing for ponies" and work from there.

6. Don't make them have sex... no matter how hot you think it is, they're insects. Bugs-can't-fuck-ponies. Just no.

Prudeness. As a reader, I expect from succubus-like creatures succubus-like behaviour. And this doesn't magically excludes(for no other reason than "How dare you to like what I don't like?") fucking with ponies.

763514 Okay, good points, very possible. But as you said: "it's a world of magical mythical creatures", so who's to say they aren't giant bugs? (As for the leg holes, maybe it's as simple as sticking to surfaces? In one story they were explained as reducing surface area so there is less to cover when transformed, and thus less energy taxing.)

Another question is: how much real world science do we want to mix with our magic ponies? That is for the individual to decide. And I encourage authors to take that liberty with any changeling story they make. Some of the best changeling stories I've read have them being realistic nations, true hive minds (or variations of), even Saturday cartoon villains. There isn't much to go off of officially, which means they're a very flexible species to write about.

763579 Exactly! you are someone who understands perfectly. them being mammals is just my opinion.

763514
Six limbs are not defining trait of insects, their larva may have less or more. And changelings have too much insectile features to ignore.

763501
>6. Don't make them have sex... no matter how hot you think it is, they're insects. Bugs-can't-fuck-ponies. Just no.
Don't misunderstand me, but I cannot see why. Anything providing proper stimulation will work, and changelings are better suited, then inanimate objects some apes use.

Seems like some of the parts of this guide feel like it is forcing down these guidelines down our throat.
Perhaps it is my paranoia, but for fuck sakes, we're talking about fictional creatures that don't actually exist.

ANYTHING GOES. End of bloody story.
Can't we all agree with everyone having their own unique interpretation, being neither correct nor incorrect? We don't need to shove this down as if it were fact.

It seems a bit counter intuitive to follow another person's hypothesis just based on sheer, blunt logic on a show where magic exists.

I tend to imagine changelings as half-corporeal lichs - i.e. shadow zombies that feed on other creatures to reach a semblance of life. They are not entirely dependent on it but their existence is rather hollow without, and as they (in my headcanon) originally were a faction of unicorns that lost a war with Celestia, back when the alicorn made her way to the throne, they are actually ponies and no insects (their wings are magitech, the remains of an attempt ro cybernetically turn themselves into alicorns). The refined version of the curse that was meant to obliterate them (Chrysalis was originally a rival alicorn and dragged them back from death) later struck Sombra. Imo Celestia was no always as kind as she is now.

My view of changeling is that they're simply "changelings". In the context that Lauren used them, they're just shape shifters who feed on love, instead of the traditional one where they kidnapped a kid and replaced it. And as shape shifter stories go, they're only as genetically sound as they want to be, and can breed with anything they choose if they take it's form. That's the idea I followed on my fiction, and people really seem to enjoy it.

they used to be flutterponies but then about 8000 years ago or so, a prehistoric nuke was activated by accident in flutterpony valley and magically mutated them into the changelings