Breezy trotted along the gravel path, passing ponies left and right as he made his way to the café he had agreed with the orange mare to meet at, so he could be introduced to her friends. Of course, he knew who they were. They were the reason his race had failed and he despised them for that, but a chance to get to know them personally was something he had wished for since the day of the invasion. All he had to do was enforce some restraint. Well, a lot of restraint.
Breezy knew that, compared to the numerous fantasies of 'getting to know them' he had dreamt up since the event, he would need to be a lot more subtle and pony-like. It may prove difficult, but he would do his best to be patient. When the time came he would convert them; as slowly, cruelly and painfully as possible, so they would know the true extent of Changeling malice. For his Queen, if not purely for his own spite.
As he trotted Breezy observed the ponies that passed him. A golden-maned pegasus mare with some peculiar eyes, a white unicorn with a mane like blue thunder, a curly-maned earth pony with a strange wrapped object on her flank. Ponies certainly were a diverse race, he gave them that. Each and every one was different in some way or another, if not only for the sake of the pictures that materialised onto their backsides at some point around puberty. A brief lesson in the hatchery had taught him that, put simply, ponies had an aspect of individuality that Changelings did not. At the time he hadn't fully understood why ponies should be eradicated for that, but through adulthood he had kept such thoughts at a minimal. They were the pray, and he was the hunter.
The café looked entrancing under the glare of the sun, but due to the fact that many ponies were doing jobs or going about their daily routine it was practically empty. The outside was pink all over, with a room extending up from the top like a spire with a cupcake design. Numerous decorative sprinkles in varyingly large sizes were scattered all over the roof, and the general appeal of such a place was very positive. Breezy sighed irritably as he entered through the door, almost being caught off guard by the dinging of a bell that hung precariously in front of it from the ceiling overhead.
A pink mare was skipping around with a tray of cupcakes in her mouth, but put it down upon noticing the new customer and allowed her enthusiastic grin to stretch to the point of practically covering the entirety of her lower face. She bounced up to him, a springing sounding from seemingly nowhere with each hop. He flinched with each, the sound fluctuating into the mind of a creature unaccustomed to any positive sound, much less one that repeated so loudly and sporadically.
"Hi!" She mused enthusiastically. Breezy opened his mouth to respond but she spoke up again first, "Applejack told me you'd be here! You're new, right?"
"Uh, yeah." Breezy stuttered, completely taken aback by her loud yet welcoming tone.
"Well then, sit on down over there!" She exclaimed, waving a hoof in the general direction of at least three tables before turning and bouncing away to the kitchen, "The girls will be here soon!"
Breezy wandered over to one of the directed tables and slumped down into a seat, a mixture of annoyed and confused. Perhaps more so the latter. The way that pony bounced and walked and talked just downright made his brain hurt, perhaps due to the fact that most of what she was doing seemed to ignore the laws of physics. He began to wonder if it was such abilities that had made her and her friends such pristine fighters with next to no experience; like, for example, the cannon that she had obtained from nowhere and killed a number of his kin with. And yet here today she was, completely sane after having slaughtered numerous other creatures. Ponies were weak of spirit, he had been told since birth, and they imprisoned any of their kind who murdered another. So how does this one, or even the whole six, cope with the emotional trauma so well?
His thoughts were interrupted abruptly by the doorbell sounding again. He looked up and directed his attention towards the source of the noise. Two pegasi had entered together, one cyan with a brilliant mane of rainbow and the other yellow with a pink, rosy mane. He recognised them immediately and sat up a little bit, sighing almost inaudibly and forcibly expelling any thoughts of murder from his mind.
***
"Be quick about this," Queen Chrysalis hissed impatiently, "I have important matters to attend to, and I can't afford my time to be wasted on any matter I don't deem worthy."
"I-I most certainly assure you, my Queen, t-that this will be most worth your time." Her subservient assured her, tension clearly present in its voice.
"It had better be." She replied darkly, causing the Changeling to swallow hard in anticipation.
Her subject lead the Queen to the hatchery room, large and filled with small holes that the hatchlings had been taught to sit in during lessons. Over in the far corner from the door the hatchlings had gathered into a small group around the new addition that had been tossed in half a day prior. The converted filly in question had drawn a picture on a flat slab of emerald she had taken from the wall; it featured a pony with a long straight mane and a smiling face, as well as the word 'Mama' scrawled underneath it. The Queen pushed aside some of her hatchlings and tenderly removed the picture from the child's grasp.
"This... this is wonderful, darling. Please keep it up." She smiled sickeningly and handed it back to the hatchling, turning and leaving the room with a confused adult Changeling in tow.
She slammed the door and glared at him.
"I've told you before what to do in situations like this."
The Changeling cleared its throat a little. "U-Um, yes, I just thought that-"
"You thought nothing. None of you ever do," She sighed impatiently, her horn beginning to glow with a dark green veil. Screams suddenly echoed from the room they had just left as it began to fill with a disgusting green goop that burnt at the hatchling's flesh. The Queen smiled at the door, delighting in the screams, before directing her attention back to her companion. "And you know what I do to disobedients."
Before the Changeling could even respond a brilliant flash of green light blinded it momentarily. The flash cleared slowly and it looked back up to his Queen with ringing ears, only to see that she now held a pumping, convulsing heart of black in her hoof. The numerous tubes that hung off of it oozed a thick, dark blue colour that started to pool on the floor. The resulting hole in the Changeling's chest began to cave in.
"I'll be sure to tell your loved ones the bad news," She said calmly as he started to choke on his own breath, stumbling down to his knees as his limbs went numb. "Oh, that's right. Nothing loves you!"
The Queen broke into a hideous cackle as she turned and walked away, allowing death to consume the Changeling's mind. Darkness seeped into its eyes as its breath faltered and eventually cut out altogether.