It was mayhem in Canterlot as a mob of strange creatures descended on the city. It seemed that all was lost as ponies were being attacked left and right until a strange blast of force sent most of the horde flying in every direction. The rest that remained airborne made a hasty retreat. We now cast our view on one of these beings. It had been sent crashing far into what it knew to be the Everfree Forest. It tried to get up and follow the rest of the swarm, but most of it's body parts had been injured in the fall. The creature could feel the Hive-mind observing it an all of the fallen troops before giving one word in command: Abandon. That was the last thing the creature heard before sinking into the depths of unconsciousness as the telepathic mind-link was broken.
The creature's mind slowly swum into consciousness and it finally woke up. It's injured parts had healed so it tried to contact the Hive-mind so as to find the location of the rest of the swarm. Yet, it could no longer feel the presence of the Hive-mind, nor the rest of it's brethren. Then, after it's entire life a of absorbing emotions, the creature felt one of it's own: Sorrow. Right after that, another emotion, uncertainty, surfaced as well. For it didn't know what to do without orders from the Hive-mind to direct it. All it knew was that the beings called "ponies" were trouble to creatures like it. It slowly sat down and started to have it's first self-conscious thoughts. Names, It thought, I need names for things if I'm going to stay sane. It thought for a moment before remembering what it was called by all other beings: a changeling. As that name came up, a rush of Hive controlled memories came as well. It remembered sapping the love out of innocent ponies, taking the pony's form, terrorizing the land, but also being connected to all of the other changelings, and the cold nights where all of the changelings huddled together for warmth. This in itself sparked a whole new emotion: Emptiness.
The changeling sat down as this new feeling washed over it. The memories of past events were starting to fade from it's head. I'm not sure what to do if a pony actually does find me... Just then, the snap of a branch caused the changeling to look up. What it saw was a female striped quadruped staring back at the changeling.
"Is this a changeling that I see," the striped one said, "or are my eyes deceiving me?" Panicked, the changeling did the first thing that came to it's head: it tried to transform. But instead of sprouting green flames, it's horn only gave off a few sparks and caused a strange feeling in the changeling's throat.
"It seems that it's horn is broke, I should still warn the pony folk." She was backing away slowly as she said this, and as soon as she was far enough she turned tail and fled. "Great. Now I'll probably have a whole mob of ponies chasing after me." The changeling gave a start, realizing that it had been voicing these thoughts aloud in a scratchy, yet definitely masculine voice. "I guess changelings actually do have genders," he said to himself, "It feels good to talk with my own voice, instead of somepony else's... I wonder what that, what was it, a zebra? Was talking about 'it's horn is broke'." He walked over to a puddle of water and saw that his horn had indeed, been broken in half. The reality of this sunk in as he realized that, without his horn, he was stuck in his true form. As he was thinking about this, he noticed a familiar feeling in his head similar to the connection to the Hive-mind, but extremely faint. Now, with something to do, he set of to find the source.