One previously exhausted Nightguard drone wakes up, wrapped in a soft cocoon of webbing, after over-exerting itself yesterday. Its internal clock synchronizes itself with the hive’s, and shows that it’s several hours into worky time. A brief mental check of its surroundings shows that 10k and three other drones are still in the High Score Cavern, all asleep. One drone is resting off an injury, already a barely imaginable idea for a drone as old as 65536, and the final two are 99111 and 99856.
No excuse to be lazy, 65536. You’re still not finished with setting everything up, and Hard Swarming is tomorrow.
65536 frees itself from 99200’s web blanket and climbs out of the unused alcove it’s borrowing. With the HSC empty, it trots over to the open area in the back where drones do yoga, and takes roughly half an hour to stretch and do some basic exercise on its own. By the time it’s done, no one has woken up, but no matter how little it wants to bother the others, it has to. Still yawning but ready to take another day head on, 65536 returns to 99111’s workshop where the tinkerer and the alchemist are both on the floor, seemingly having just dropped down where they stood at some point. Strange, neither of the drones is starved for love as this level of exhaustion would presume. Its guard instinct kicks in and it examines the fast sleepers while considering the options and comes up with only one, and there’s a friend who can confirm it.
“Hey, Voice, can you hear me? It’s okay if you’re still busy with 99, you don’t need to answer if that’s the case.”
“No one needs my presence right now, so feel free to say what you need,” replies Voice.
“Just two things - did 99111 and 99856 pass out in exhaustion and will they get in trouble if they’re not doing whatever is on their today’s schedule? The hive mind information I can access on my own is severely limited, and I don’t want to wake 10k up.”
“They’re both doing well,” replies Voice after a brief pause, “99856 got a special request from 10k regarding an experimental emergency cocoon. 99111 filled another barrel of cleaning goop. Later, the two got carried away while assembling the generator you brought and kept working well into sleepy time before someone forced them to go to sleep. I can only sense an order that shut them both down, not who it came from. As for your second concern, the schedule was changed by 10k shortly after you left. Now it says they’re only supposed to be working on the generator.”
“Thank you, Voice. Dismissed,” 65536’s guard persona briefly wins again before it walks over to 99856 and gently shakes it awake.
“Wait- what- who-” 99856’s head jerks up, “Ah, I’m late!” it exclaims, which wakes 99111 up as well, and both drones exchange glances before seemingly noticing 65536.
“What happened?” asks 99111, rubbing its eyes, “We didn’t finish the generator, did we? I remember the pictures starting to look all wobbly at some point.”
65536 looks around. There are still numerous parts carefully laid out on the floor along with the blueprints. Strangely, there’s still only one goop barrel in the back of the workshop, and that one was there yesterday.
“I can’t blame you. When I was assembling furniture the first time I also thought the blueprints were for something entirely different.”
Neither of the hive drones has any clue what “furniture” means, but if 65536 had trouble with it then it had to be something super complex.
“My worky time schedule says I’m supposed to help you finish this off, so do we keep going, 99111?” asks 99856, unbothered by randomly passing out last night.
“Same here, so let’s keep going,” the tinkerer stands up and stretches like a cat, “Unless you need us to do something else, 65536, that is.”
“There is one thing, but we can talk about it while you work,” 65536 walks over to the workbench with the disassembled gramophone. Upon closer examination, it’s clear that 99111 didn’t use force because some parts which are glued together and wouldn’t go apart without breaking are still in one piece. Once again, 65536 is impressed with the care and attention to detail, which only makes it stranger that it’s taken so long to make a simple spring replacement.
There must be something critical that I’m missing.
With the two drones quietly chatting after resuming assembling the generator, 65536 walks to the stone shelves in the back full of tablets and has to squint to read the microscopic carvings. The tablets are thinner and the writing is smaller and more neat than 99856’s but it also makes it more difficult to make out. Disappointed in itself, 65536 brings a random tablet to a currently unused workbench, hucks out a glob of glowgoop, and almost presses its nose to the tablet in order to read it.
“Wish I had a magnifying glass…” it mutters.
Out of curiosity at the unknown term, 99111 glances its way and chuckles.
“Ah hah! Time to show you my newest invention!”
To 65536’s surprise, 99111 doesn’t produce a goop magnifying glass. Instead, it walks over, borrows the small glowgoop ball from 65536, slides it over the tablet where just the tiniest amount of it remains as if on a cheese grater, and pours a little love into it. The carvings on the tablet light up, making even the small text easy to read.
“Wow!” enunciates 65536, taken aback completely, “That’s amazing.”
“Hehe, thanks,” 99111 beams at the praise, “It’s nothing special, though. Just glowgoop.”
“Whoooa!” 99856 trots over too, “I can’t believe I never looked at your tablets. I can’t make scribbles this tiny. It looks so neat!”
“Of course you can,” 99111 pats its head, “It just takes much more time than writing normally.”
65536 skims the material combinations written on tablet after tablet in silence, noticing that there’s a clean split between tablets containing combinations marked with hive mind equivalents of a check mark and those without it. Seeing that the interruption is over for now, the remaining two resume their work as well. Eventually, though, 65536 asks:
“99111, what do the check marks mean?”
“Just stuff that I already tried for the spring,” replies the tinkerer quickly.
“There are a lot of combinations with tags that make no sense to try - low strain resistance, solid, and so on. There are even tags like flexibility and elasticity here, with numeric scales too.”
99111 scratches its head.
“Well, you see, there were a lot of numbers and weird words that we got from the smart box, but there’s no one who knows what they mean. I figured out the strain resistance thing, I think. It might mean those mixes break easier when you smack something with them.”
65536 sighs. Now the slow progress makes sense, although it’s even more impressive that there has been any progress at all. Both 99111 and 99856 have been experimenting with reason alloys from scratch.
I’ve been around ponies for too long. I completely forgot this could be a problem in the hive.
It knows that while talking between drones can transfer the right concepts using fragmented or made-up words, hive link hints, and body language, they don’t know the pony words so they can’t search for the right things even if they wrote the symbols on the walls and stored them in the hive mind. That’s why reading and writing are two of the most difficult things for drones without the presence of a high rank with knowledge to tap into. Also why the difference between what drones think they’re saying and what ponies hear when talking to them can be huge. There’s no doubt that 99111 knows what flexibility is, it just has no idea what the pony word flexibility means written down.
I should have known…
“I see,” it says, “Can you give me access to your hive mind records, both of you? Those unknown words are simplified engineering terms and I think the numbers mark how much the term applies. Let’s take flexibility and elasticity for example - flexibility means the ability to bend without breaking, and elasticity means the ability to return to its original shape after being pulled or compressed- pushed against. I’ll write down explanations as a reference for you.”
“Ohhhhhhh!” 99111 freezes for a moment, the gears inside its head turning, “I wish I knew that a lot earlier.”
“My bad,” 65536 shakes its head, “I should have-”
“It’s fine, buddy,” says 99111 warmly, “I should have asked you last freezy time. I know the Queen doesn’t let us share everything with you so you can’t have known at the time.”
“I guess,” admits 65536, “It just sucks… you know, you were stuck for a full year for such a silly reason.”
99111 waves its extra leg dismissively.
“Hey, at least I learned how to, well, learn on my own. Same with 99856 here. And now, next time you visit us, I’ll totally get the music box all fixed and ready!”
“Yup!” the alchemist nods cheerfully while working, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll make the springiest goop mix of all.”
65536 smiles. It wouldn’t say it in front of its pony friends and family, but the yearly visits to the hive aren’t just for the good and growth of other drones. After such a long time between ponies who are always worried about the future, about their current situation, about everything… it needs to talk to other drones to regain perspective.
“I’ll be looking forward to it,” it replies, “Now finish off the generator while I look up all the tags you’ve discovered so far and add explanations.”
It sits down, its consciousness melding with the hive mind, while 99111 and 99856 resume working.
Wait, there’s an archivist whose job it is to analyze information now.
“Voice, I’m going to need a little assistance here.”
***
99 is walking through the hive tunnels towards the meeting place with 415. The path she’s chosen is a little less direct but much safer, because she’s entirely lost in thought.
Alright, 99, you’ve confirmed it. The attempt to implicate 2119 makes it clear that 415’s angle of ranked changelings being just scared for their own safety was a lie to make you join them. The presumed drone militarization must be a believable cover to fall back on in case their plot is discovered.
So, how do I stop it? I could tell 156 and the Queen, but they must be ready for them or at least their presence must be easy to track so the conspirators can clear out if either of them is coming to wipe them out. Presumably, 387 is on their trail as well but hasn’t discovered enough to act. This makes me the one in the best position to deal with the problem. Of course, if I try to kill six ranked changelings on my own it won’t end well. Taking the mind control approach likely won’t work either because I still have no idea how their powerful mind protection works. Whenever I talked to 415, his link wasn’t disabled or anything. Speaking of which, how do I protect myself so that I don’t end up mind wiped like what almost happened when I was looking for information on the Queen’s daughter?
It might not be as bad. Last time I was exhausted after searching distant minds for hours. Still, no reason to underestimate the enemy. What is my strength? I’m neither a mental master nor an unstoppable fighter, so… it’s just… being in the right place at the right time? If I approach with my hive link cut completely, I can say that I’m keeping myself safe from the Queen’s mind probing while my cover story for her is that I’m practicing how to resist mental attacks in my free time. As far as I know, opening someone’s hive link by force is difficult but mainly it’s near impossible to keep it a secret, so if I get attacked in such a way I should get enough of a warning to flee and call for help.
Hmmm, could the drones help? No, not by using force. Even if the conspirators really fear the potential drone weapons, their real usefulness at the moment is extremely limited and any conflict would just end with swaths of dead drones for no major benefit. As for mental support, Voice already said it can’t affect the unwilling, and if the mental shield was enough of a cover against the Queen, 99380 won’t be much use either. Still, calling for help through them could be the last resort in case everything goes wrong.
With potential situations and their shaky solutions running through her mind, 99 eventually reaches the meeting place. Of course, the smugly smirking warrior is already waiting there.
Time to put on your best “smart but not smart enough face”, 99.
“Story checks out,” is her opener, “As much as I hate to admit it, you’re irritating to work with but at least you’re truthful, which can’t be said about the Queen and 156. Despite that, the reality of the situation is that if, hypothetically, I joined you to… change the direction of the hive, we’re still going to get rolled by the Queen supported by 156 and 387. I appreciate your trust, but my rank 99 won’t be enough.”
“Heh, looks like you’re the one underestimating the capabilities of drones,” he nods sideways deeper into the tunnel, “Come on, time to finally meet everyone.”
With 99 in tow, 415 heads deeper into the hive.
“Let’s assume you have a plan. I refuse to believe I’m getting into all this in the early stages. How does that plan account for a combat situation? And what did you mean by the drone thing?”
“Just that drone inventiveness can be a critical equalizer. That you can’t foresee the end result of their unrestricted efforts is your failing, not ours.”
“Did the drones really invent something that can harm us, top ranks, or even the Queen.”
“In their hooves? No. In ours?” 415 shrugs, “Possibly.”
“Interesting,” comments 99, audible curiosity sneaking into her tone. Her extremely brief internal monologue reveals her real feelings, though.
Holes… holes holes holes holes…
99 follows in silence for the rest of the short trip. If the rebels stole some of the drones’, namely 99856’s, accidental creations, they really could cause serious damage. Her unspoken question about what the stolen invention could be gets finally answered when the two enter a cavern and she sees several green barrels standing around. She can sense the love within the container material and a different level of love in what’s inside them, meaning that the barrels are sturdy and filled with some kind of changeling resin as well. If it’s of 99856’s making, the creation can be anything explosive, corrosive, or even some strange, new thing.
There are two barrels right by the entrance, presumably as a nasty surprise for anyone unwanted coming in.
In the dim light of glowing resin crystals dotting the walls of the cavern, 99 counts 8 changelings in total. A pretty weak showing. Only as she looks at them, her hive link receives a mental identification.
415 - warrior, male. 537 - infiltrator, male. 838 - warrior, male. 966 - warrior, female. 1023 - infiltrator, female. 1305 - infiltrator, female.
As her eyes slide over the only non-standard changeling present, distinguishing himself from the others only by slight dark purple tint to their chitin, her hive link, for the lack of a better word, bends and fails to receive any information other than:
??? - nearby.
She has to rely only on her eyes to know the changeling’s location, which makes her, ironically, feel basically blind. Judging from their size and general shape, they’re likely male. That’s all. Even a lack of information can be a hint, however, and 99 assumes this changeling is the one responsible for the mental shielding.
And then, she lays her eyes on the final present changeling.
745 - infiltrator, female.
What?!
745 takes a step forward, smiles, and says in an slow, amused tone:
“Well done, 415,” 99 feels a sudden wave of exhaustion. She gathers her mental faculties to resist the influence but still collapses on the floor under overwhelming mental pressure, “You’re smart, 99, but not a good enough liar.”
Before she passes out completely, 99 hears:
“Restrain her and let’s start setting everything up for the big finale.”