They're home.

by Nameless Narrator

Power of perseverance: 6

Standing outside on the platform and with all the new and unknown equipment at their disposal, the two changelings are bound to have a way to kill time once all the important things have been taken care of. As usual, the first order of business is to find some kind of a ticket booth. However, the Las Pegasus train station is larger than any they’ve seen before and all the booths in view seem to be somehow related to pony food and drinks, at least based on pictures and the few written words they can understand. Smiley’s recent experience with studying the dining car menu comes in handy and saves them time that would otherwise be wasted by asking what all the stands and booths are for. What’s even more puzzling, though, are the vastly higher prices for things that both changelings recall seeing before in Ponyville.

“That’s a lot of extra shinies,” comments 99999, “Maybe it's for more noms?”

Smiley shrugs and shakes her foreleg where a used ticket is stuck in the knee gap of her carapace.

“Eh, you’re right,” the drone nods, “New tickets first.”

Changelings are nothing if not methodical, and that’s true even for drones when they’re not under pressure. On top of that, an interesting place like this needs every nook and cranny explored, so the real danger isn’t the drones not finding the ticket office, rather them getting stuck following an endless trail of shiny distractions. Throughout the following twenty minutes, the two map out the train station and discover that there are six platforms in total, three for incoming trains and three for departing ones, marked “Southport-Klugetown”, “Manehattan-Canterlot”, and “Maretime Bay-Ponyville”. More importantly, they also discover that there is a ticket office by the train station entrance and successfully purchase two tickets. Despite worries about the price after all they’ve seen so far, the tickets are much more in line with their experience from their previous stops. Now armed with both tickets and the knowledge of clocks, the changelings know the San Palomino train leaves in four hours at eleven o’clock at night.

“Very smart, sending the trains out through sleepy time,” comments 99999 as the two leave the office.

Smiley circles her hoof in the air repeatedly while shaking her head. This takes the drone some time to decipher while the two find the nearest empty bench.

“Oh, I think I get it. If it’s sleepy time for ponies, then who is making the train go? Maybe it’s sleepy time just for some ponies and the ponies for whom it is worky time keep the train going?”

Smiley rubs her chin and slowly nods. 99999 silently watches the ponies milling around for a couple minutes before it takes its main backpack off and sticks its head into it.

“We have a bunch of shinies left over from the drinking game and a lot of time before our train gets here, how about we try out some new noms?” it offers.

Smiley shrugs and gives a single nod. It sounds like a good way to spend time.

Passing by stall after stall, 99999 isn’t sure what to pick. All the pictures look, if not appetizing, then at least interesting, and it quickly gets into the cycle of wanting everything but being held back by its available budget. Eventually, though, Smiley stops in front of a colorful stand where a mare is using a large metal spoon to fill paper bags with some tiny thingies, and points to the first word of “Sweet Paradise” written above the counter.

“You want this one?” asks 99999.

Smiley points at the drone.

“I want this one?”

*Nod nod nod.*

Once the current customer leaves, 99999 flies up to be face to face with the stall mare, several randomly selected coins in hoof.

“What’ll it be?” she asks, and for the first time during their trip there’s no hesitation in the voice of somepony meeting a changeling.

“I don’t know what any of these noms are. Can I get some of each?” 99999 waves its hoof vaguely towards metal vats full of different candy each.

“One large mix coming up. That’ll be twenty-six bits,” says the mare, proving both that she can read the excited drone as well as her business acumen, and, without waiting, starts filling up a bag the size of Smiley's head. 99999 floats down, fiddles with its backpack, and eventually fishes out the right coinage before putting it on the counter. The mare counts it off, nods, and gives the drone its bag, “Here you go.”

“Thank you, Miss pony!” 99999 takes the bag into its mouth and the changeling duo find a free bench once again.

“You’re welcome, tiny changeling,” replies the mare without much interest in her voice.

Smiley waits for 99999 to have the first pick because it was the one to do the trade, and it takes a couple moments for the drone to decide between so many options. Eventually, it settles on a green ball covered in white dots and shudders after it puts it in its mouth.

“Eeee! It pops and crackles! Sour- sweet- aaaaah!” it covers its mouth with its hooves but despite the surprise, it doesn’t stop grinning and rolling the ball in its mouth, and tilts the bag towards Smiley who examines it and picks the first green candy she can reach because it reminds her of the hive. No need to rush or get picky. After all, the bag is big and they have a long time to wait, so they’ll be able to taste every single nom for as long as it lasts. She shudders as a sudden cold sensation caused by the candy spreads into her neck as she breathes in and then out through her nose.

Both changelings focus on the strange and new tastes in their mouths, and let the world around them shift and move as trains and colorful passengers come and go. The train station has a tall, glass roof, and is so big that neither of the two have anything to compare it with, easily dwarfing both the throne room as well as the High Score Cavern. On top of the liveliness, it’s also warm -at least by drone standards, which means that most ponies are wearing at least something light- and the air is fresh. All in all, a great place to peacefully spend time.

That is until, without hearing any approaching hoofsteps, a soft yet sinister sounding voice behind them asks:

“Well well, what could two little drones be doing so far away from home?”

Both changelings turn around, only to see a rather feminine, silver-maned, male infiltrator whose link they can’t sense despite him standing right in front of them. 99999 reflexively meeps under the scrutinizing stare, but raises the candy bag in both offering and self-defense. The infiltrator takes a random piece and eats it.

“A yogurt-filled jelly. Homemade, fresh, and delicious,” he looks around, eyes briefly stopping on the nearby candy stall before he focuses on Smiley whose reaction is rather strange for a changeling who lived under the old rules.

The faintly-striped changeling mare is sitting still with the exception of her neck outstretched towards the infiltrator while tilting her head from side to side to get a better look at him. In response, the infiltrator boops her, making her recoil in surprise, with:

“The stripes are new. Anyway, back to business. You’ve arrived later than expected, how much time do you have before you have to leave?”

With Smiley busy scrunching her nose at the infiltrator, 99999 shows him its ticket.

“Still over three hours. That should be enough,” he comments, “Come with me.”

While 99999 reflexively obeys and hops down from the bench, Smiley suddenly gasps and pounces at the infiltrator, wrapping her forelegs around his neck with her hind legs still on the bench. The drone blinks in surprise and backs off, but the infiltrator smiles, returns the hug, and pats Smiley’s head until she lets go again.

“Whoah,” 99999 keeps staring with eyes wide, “Is it okay to touch a high rank? 10k said to never do that without asking first, but…” it points at Smiley.

“A healthy precaution,” says the infiltrator, briefly pointing to the station’s exit, “Walk and talk. Poking later.”

In sharp contrast to the rest of the changeling trip, the outside doesn’t show many signs of winter. It is fairly cold, but the wide street beset by lamps, stores, and full of crowd and noises shows only light dusting of snow, and even that’s rare. As they walk, 99999 doesn’t know what to look at first, but Smiley seems distracted and, after a while, she taps on each changeling to get their attention, leads them a couple steps away to an unbroken patch of snow, points at the infiltrator, and writes down:

[1988 best number friend]

99999 doesn’t know what that means, but it can at least guess that 1988 is the rank of the infiltrator and that Smiley knows him from somewhere and isn’t worried. All good signs.

“I was wondering about how much you remembered,” 1988 smiles, slightly surprised that that’s what Smiley knows him for, “That reminds me, though, you used to have a writing slate, didn’t you? At least that’s what I heard from- well, you’ll see soon enough.”

Smiley points at 99999.

“Oh? Oh, story, right,” the drone starts slowly trotting to keep up as the infiltrator picks up the pace, “We kinda had some trouble on the train-”

The infiltrator smiles to himself. With 99999 recounting the events of the trip so far and Smiley focused on following him, it’s easy to prevent the drones from getting distracted and running off after something shiny. While the events surrounding 99999’s death and rebirth are beyond unique, there’s nothing useful 1988 can do with it, so all he can do is breathe out in relief that the drones made it almost on time and in one piece as the message preceding their arrival expected them to.

They arrive in a small hotel at the edge of the city that’s clearly for the working class and not the tourists, and 1988 leads them into a suite.

“You can take your bags off. You won’t need those for a while and they’ll be safe here,” he says before raising his voice and calling out, “THE GUESTS-”

“EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

“-ARE HERE!”

Even before the sound of “HERE!” fades a door at the end of a short hallway slams open, and a drone-sized-and-shaped rocket splattered with paints from head to hooves bolts through and launches itself at Smiley.

***

“Owwww…” groans 99066, lying on the floor of High Score cavern, green slimes randomly spread around.

“Sorry,” mutters 57999, hunched over 99066’s crushed body parts, pulling out the shards of the quicktrotter’s carapace from its hind leg and immediately coating the area in healing goop. Thankfully, unlike with 10k’s experimental surgery, 57999 now has an example of what to do, and 99066 is under a heavy dose of agonyslayers. The healer tosses a fragment of a dead, nearly loveless, carapace away, and one of the slimes starts slowly wobbling towards it.

156 walks through the cavern entrance with 10k on her back. With the entrance widened on the Queen’s earlier orders, she doesn’t need to transform whatsoever to fit, and strides directly to the two drones present.

“Did it work? Did the Queen forgive 10k?” croaks 99066, raising its head and shooting a worried look towards the drone leader asleep on 156’s back.

“It’s a little complicated, but I think we nudged the hive towards a better tomorrow,” replies 156 quietly.

“That’s good to hear,” 99066’s leans its head against the floor again.

“And how’s today’s big hero feeling?” the infiltrator smiles.

“Who?”

“You, 99066,” she boops the drone’s nose, “You’re not just the first drone to kill a rock worm but, to my knowledge, the first changeling to do so alone. That’s quite a feat.”

“Yaaay…” moans 99066 weakly.

“Not feeling great then, I take it,” upon querying the hive mind about 10k’s stash, 156 carries the drone leader off to the appropriate floor-level alcove and returns to the drone patient and its doctor, “57999, what do you think? To me, it doesn’t look great.”

“I think all the hard inside bits are where they’re supposed to be. The green, squishy part that’s over those is the problem. Everything is shredded by the crushed carapace. If 99856 didn’t do such a great job making the new, sturdier emergency cocoon, 99066 would have one less leg. Still, I think that if I pull all the shards out and stop the leaking, 99066 will recover. By now, I have some experience with crushed and even broken legs. Usually it takes agonyslayers, aligning all the pieces in the right way, and after that just time, rest, and love.”

“See? You’ll be breaking work time records again in no time,” 156 rubs 99066’s head, “The fabric of space and time as well, if you integrate skips into your quicktrots. Maybe you’ll even get to smite the everliving goop out of another rock worm ag- 99066?” 156 stops mid-word as the drone visibly tenses, its mouth silently opens, and its eyes glaze over.

“S- sorry,” it whispers after a moment.

“Huh?” even 156 is taken aback by the sudden development, “What’s going on?”

“I- I can’t…” the drone starts trembling, “I can’t go… down there… again. I- I- I can’t. Please, don’t send me down there again.”

“Buddy?” 57999 puts a hoof on 99066’s shoulder. The quicktrotter shoots it a terrified look in response. Lost, 57999 looks at 156 who sits down by 99066’s head, moves the head into her lap, and starts stroking it behind the ears.

“Tell me, 99066, how long ago, do you think, we would just send you down to dig again immediately?”

The drone just whimpers. 57999 sighs, knowing the answer.

“It might not be visible down here,” 156 continues, “but it’s not just 10k and 387. We are all doing what we can to make the hive a better place for everyone. When 10k wakes up, I’m sure it’ll find some useful occupation for you up here. We don’t need everyone to always be digging anymore.”

“N- No,” 99066 tries to turn around to look 156 face to face, “I didn’t mean down into the tunnels,” the drone’s voice grows steadier, “I love digging, running, carrying. It’s just-” it grits its teeth when it raises its forelegs in front of its face and they start violently trembling again, “Stop shaking, stupid body!” its voice starts breaking again but it keeps trying to get the message across, “It’s just the rumbler. Every time I recall what happened, I just… my everything just… stops listening to me. Even my head.”

156’s quiet chuckle and renewed stroking stops the drone’s twitching.

“That’s not a problem at all. I know some ‘high ranks’ who could use a way to kill time while off-mission. Hunting down critical threats to the hive sounds like just the team-building activity for them,” she looks at 57999, “When 10k wakes up, tell it about 99066’s trauma to make sure it doesn’t try to repeat today’s success. Now that we have a reliable weapon, we’ll get rid of the rock worms together, and we’ll reopen the way to the reconstitution chamber one day.”

57999 sighs again but doesn’t say anything.

Why is the Crusher so important?

Comments

[Kiue Jin]

It says a lot about how terrifying the situation with the Rumbler was that a drone is actively willing to beg a high rank never to do it again.

[readsponies]

11908546
I think it says at least as much about 156.

[Booster Spice]

In the UK, train companies are dropping like bears on people who buy cheap intercity tickets and then get off at an intermediate station for which the actual ticket is more expensive.

I hope Smily gets a new slate. And another Large Mix.

As for High Ranks using the Rock Worm bombs?

Noone beats 617.

[D-F]

oooh shit, its... them! the, uh... erm...- okay, i'll admit it - i'm not entirely sure. i'm stupid and don't exactly recall the appearances and names of every 'ling from the previous books - considering that they're fucking numbers - my best bet is that they're from 1313's or boss's gang. i guess we'll find out next chapter

edit: oooh, they're the changelings from the lumber camp group!

[Screw]

Huh. 1988 still remains in the field but not at the logging camp. Did our deaf drone follow him too? And did the drone adopt a cooking mom and got her to follow it?

I don't really want to speculate what the queen's going to do with the crusher without much clues, but if I did, I would assume she might plan to destroy it as a symbolism.

Or there is a royal egg prepped for the crusher but was abandoned.

[Jphyper]

I was wondering what was going on with 1988. Looks like I won't have to ask.

[Airy Words]

57999 asking the important question…

[Scyphi]

“It’s a little complicated, but I think we nudged the hive towards a better tomorrow,” replies 156 quietly.

“That’s good to hear,” 99066’s leans its head against the floor again.

That's always good to hear. Better tomorrows are always preferred to the alternative.

Why is the Crusher so important?

Yeah, why indeed?

[Nameless Narrator]

11908546
I don't think any of the old drones would even consider it.
11908569
156 is nice, almost suspiciously nice for an old high rank.
11908571
- 9 and SM didn't do that. They'Re upstanding drone citizens.
- She deserves an Even Larger Mix
- I had to google that 617 one. Is that the RAF squad?
11908606
"Best number friend" could have been a clue, but it's been so long since the first book that I don't remember much either.
11908611

Huh. 1988 still remains in the field but not at the logging camp. Did our deaf drone follow him too? And did the drone adopt a cooking mom and got her to follow it?

I don't think logging camps last for 6-7 years, and 1988 jumped through the dream portal before 9999.

I don't really want to speculate what the queen's going to do with the crusher without much clues, but if I did, I would assume she might plan to destroy it as a symbolism.

There is a small clue in the difference between what drones and those in the know call it.
11908758
Alive and infiltrating.
11909032
Would be a shame if no one answered it.
11909090
Random drone: "But what if the alternator was an even betterer tomorrow?"

[Booster Spice]

11909160

I also wish I could find the proof one way or the other, about the claim I thought I saw that the Raid, lead to the authors dreams of The TRench Run, and from that, the rest of the script of Star Wars was written to lead up to it. And then the rest of the Franchise built up around that.

We were so close to losing. Depending on who you look at, we had froma few days, to as little as minutes further airborne attacks to hod on. The raid had an effect. just enough.

[dragonus85]

These little buggos are adorable

[Nameless Narrator]

11910078
Cute little bundles of trauma

[dragonus85]

11910130
i want you to know im more attached to these little cuddlebugs with numbers for names than i am with characters in most other stories. a job very well done good sir narrator.

[Hakar]

Yaay, I've caught up!

Wait, I've caught up, oh no!

[Nameless Narrator]

11912382
The worst thing about reading an ongoing story.