She stalked down the hall, the dark cheese-fly trotting next to her at a moderate pace. Whipping out her Backburner, as well as having her Axtinguisher handy, she approached the 'Royal Hall' as the cheese-fly called it. She squeezed the trigger gently, and held her thumb over a button on the back of the handle. Two guards were stationed outside the Queen's room. It was her understanding that she needed to take out the Queen in order to free her fellow pyromaniac, and she looked forward to meeting another teammate. She thanked her lucky stars that she wasn't alone in this world, the faster she reunited with her teammate, the sooner the both of them could plan a way to go home.
The guards made no motion to acknowledge them, which she thought was odd. A green haze was surrounding their heads, and she almost mistook them for wearing Unusuals, though she'd never seen that particular effect. She also doubted that this world's physics worked the same way that hers did, meaning that the possibility of particle effects were very low.
Nevertheless, she set them ablaze, then quickly finished each of them off with a chop from the Axtinguisher. They made no sound, not even a whimper, as their bodies collapsed, still on fire.
'Something is off here...' she thought.
Even if physics didn't work the same way here, they should still be susceptible to pain. Fire obviously affected them, and she doubted that there was a respawn here.
She barged into the room, Backburner prepared, and she spied the Queen. The same green effect swirled around her head, in and out of her ears. Her eyes could've been green already, but that was splitting hairs. She set the Queen ablaze, whom still performed no sign of recognition.
The Queen fell backwards on the bed, eyes wide and mouth agape, a small droplet of drool leaking from the corner of her mouth.
Cheese-fly approached the bed, patting out any flames and stray embers that had spread to the sheets of the bed.
"I'm sorry I had to ask you to do this..." Cheese-fly stated, her voice wobbling.
She felt a pang of guilt for the pony, and glanced at the charring remains of the Queen. She saw no similarities between the Queen and Cheese-fly, save the body structure. Tears streamed down Cheese-fly's muzzle, and she ran a gloved hand over and through her mane, in some semblance of a soothing gesture.
"Th-thank you..." she whispered "Now...we must destroy the resurrector...this madness must not continue."
'R-Resurrector...no- there's a respawn here?!'
That was impossible...there was...this world's physics couldn't possibly allow for a respawner...who controlled it? They needed to be monitored manually, otherwise everybody and their brother would be brought back. This world couldn't possibly be on the same technological level as hers was, what reason would there be for a respawn?
She approached the spawn point carefully, removing a class token and a large mason jar from her backpack. Placing the token on the ground near the spawn, and held the jar firmly. The soft orange glow of the point jumped across the surface of the token, and into the jar, swirling inside for a moment before settling. She quickly capped the jar, and shoved both it and the token back into her backpack.
'Just like Engie taught us.'
This little trick was handy, mostly because the team had to be prepared to move out at a moment's notice.
Cheese-fly touched a hoof to her lips, kissed it, and placed it on the spot where the spawn point was.
"Goodbye, Mother..."
She glanced around awkwardly, not quite sure what to do as the queen-to-be grieved.
Her tears exhausted, and her breath regained, Cheese-fly trotted past, a look of determination on her face.
She gestured to her, indicating what the two of them should do now.
"We gather the larvae, and head north."
'Why only the larvae?' she questioned.
"By now, the hive link to the lower tier drones is shutting down...Mother is dead...soon most of the hive will follow."
'But still, why the larva?'
"The larva are young enough, that the link to the hivemind hasn't formed yet, there's still time for them to connect them to another."
She nodded in understanding, walking after her.
Four more changelings appeared, all in similar appearance to Cheese-fly, if not older.
"Sister, what. Have. You. DONE?!"
It stood just outside the enormous barrier of the city, tapping lightly at it. It seemed like there wasn't any real give to the barrier, and there wasn't anything particularly interesting about it...but it was curious...it had no idea why...
It finally snapped itself out of it's stupor, and passed through the barrier.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
It plodded along, careful not to crush any carts or ponies beneath it. The small ponies were so adorable, like a massive collection of toys strewn about in a playroom.
They glittered. Odd. They didn't do that...if memory served. His own, dull grey paintjob didn't glitter or shine like theirs...pity...it would've actually like to see what it'd look like.
It glanced around the city, and became transfixed with a large, glowing heart at the...heart...of the city. It approached it...and simply stared at it. Something tingled in its engine block, and traveled all the way to the ends of his nerve-circuits.
Something tapped against his iron shin, and he glanced down, finding a smaller, glittering pony tapping curiously at his leg.
Tap tap tap tap tap
Its Humor Suppression Pump must've been on the fritz, because it discovered itself to be laughing at the curious pony, its voice box kicking in to create the noise.
It could get used to this.
At least it wouldn't have to get itself blow up and torn apart.