//------------------------------// // Finale: 2/3 // Story: They're EVERYWHERE! // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// Time loses all meaning when faced with the eternal battle, but eventually, 387’s prayers are answered by a series of loud cracks from behind. “SCATTER!” orders 156, “Drones, dig up and towards the center of the leg as quickly as you can now or you’ll get crushed!” The fighting changelings kick the nearest fakes away and cover their heads instead of attacking, before bursting through the wall of enemies just in time. Tantabus’ foreleg crumbles around the knee under its weight, making the titan stumble and fall down on the stump as its other foreleg fails to keep it upright. “YOU…” “Generic evil monologue is generic,” mutters 387, flying through the cloud of dust raised by the Tantabus’ fall to one knee. One foreleg knee, technically, since its hind legs are untouched. “Drones?” 156 pings the hive links to check everyone’s status due to zero visibility. “We’re all inside one big hole in the leg. We’re a bit squished but alright!” reports 10013. “Then start digging upwards. You’re clearly doing damage!” “More digging?” “Yessss!” “I was born for this!” “We all were!” “Don’t steal my thunder!” “I don’t even know what that means and I feel insulted!” 156 stops listening to the bickering, because by now she knows they’ll follow her orders no matter what. Now, all the high ranks have to do now is use the cover of dust to- She doesn’t know what hit her, and the feelings of chaos and panic coming from all the other links tell her she’s not alone. It’s… painfully similar to being blasted away by the explosion in Canterlot, down to the tumbling and spinning in the air. Thankfully, this time she has the love and presence of mind to stabilize herself in the suddenly clear air. I must have been a shockwave originating from the Tantabus that’s thrown them in all directions and cleared the dust cloud. The fakes are still flying away too, unable to recover as quickly and vanishing into thin air after reaching a certain distance. Links… check. Everyone is alive and approaching. “AAAAAAAAARGH!” From her position near the hill where she and 387 originally landed, she can see Tantabus point its horn at its ‘droned’ foreleg. A beam of light follows, cutting it off near the barrel like a laser, before telekinetically lobbing the way of the changelings regrouping towards her. “What’s going on?” “What’s happeniiiiiiing?!” “I dunno which way’s up anymore!” “I’m gonna goop myself!” “Blurrgh- I think I already did!” “BRICK MODE, NOW!” 387’s mental scream drowns everything else. “Did he mean us?” “I think so.” “Hey, how does he know about brick mode?” “I thought that was a secret!” “Shut up and brick!” 10013 cuts the responses off. The chunk of starry leg lands, leaving a deep groove in the ground. When it stops moving, it dissolves, leaving only drones dropping on the ground, each one curled up into the tightest ball it can. One by one, they look up when all the movement seems to stop, ears perked. “What? Why are we here? Weren’t we inside the Tanto thingy?” “I think it tried to play drone ball with us.” “Nah, we’re not hurt or missing any bits…” “Or are we, huh?” “No, we’re not. Are you?” “No. I just wanted to sound smart.” To 156, it doesn’t matter which drone is talking anymore or what they’re saying. It's just a background noise to the overall combat situation. Unfortunately, despite Tantabus kneeling on one foreleg, the changelings are back where they started, and the army of fakes is growing between them and Tantabus again. “You think they’ll let us approach while gloating about being invulnerable again?” asks 156 with a nervous chuckle. Seeing the wall of fakes grow again, 387 shakes his head. “Tantabus is learning. I can see the fakes layering behind each other. Even if we break through this time, we’ll immediately be inside a ball of enemies again.” “CHANGELINGS!” they hear Luna again, “PREPARE YOURS-” “SHUT UUUUUUP!” “-AAAAAAAAAAH!” Despite Luna’s scream of pain, the air atop the hill shifts just like last time, and several more hive links connect to the changelings already present even before 1988 appears, followed by 36658, 57999, 20100, Smiley, and finally 9999.  1988 looks around once the portal closes, his eyes immediately stopping on 9999. “Where’s 17070?” “I’ll explain everything later and report to the crusher on my own, but we might have a bigger problem than one missing drone!” 9999 reports chipperly while saluting and looking right past the infiltrator. “Switch to hive links. Tantabus doesn’t seem to be able to hear us that way,” 387 instructs the newcomers. “No drones bickering this time?” 156 raises an eyebrow. “Nope, 156,” replies 9999, “Everyone’s here to help the hive. Just say the word.” “1988, why is that drone reporting instead of you?” she turns her attention to the infiltrator. “In your absence, I decided that it would be a good course of action to enlist the help of someone more familiar with drone behavior,” 1988 immediately adopts 9999’s tone of reply. “And where is everyone else?!” “Long story short - they’re probably okay but they won’t be coming.” “BIGGER ISSUES HERE!” 387 yells over them, “TANTABUS’ HORN IS GLOWING AGAIN!” Just as he interrupts them, a beam of purple light blasts upwards from Tantabus’ horn. The light splits, catching the edges of the rift in the sky, and resumes pulling them apart, slowly but steadily. “That must be the Tantabus Luna wanted us to help stop,” 1988 narrows his eyes. “No time to explain what’s- hey, how do you know?” 387 gives him a surprised glance. “Princess Luna gave us the basic rundown of the situation. Supposedly, Tantabus is holding her imprisoned somewhere inside its body. If we can get her out, she might be able to help more directly. Not clue what the hole in the sky is.” “It’s bad news, and the worst part is that only drones can harm Tantabus. Unfortunately, it knows that too and that army won’t let us get through them-” “What about under them?” interrupts 9999. When all high ranks glare at it, it shrinks away, “Sorry, sorry, sorry.” “I know I’m overstepping here, but if I may ask - let’s include 9999 in the decision process. It will make guiding the drones much easier and our orders will be better… translated into actions,” 1988 hooks the back of 9999’s neck with a jagged hook on his leg and pulls the drone towards itself. “Orders are or-” 156 shoots 1988 a dirty glare. “Underground then?” 387 talks over her. When she growls at him, he adds, “156, I fully intend to get back to the hive and, since you saw my memories, Chrysalis will pull all this out of your head and execute me. So I have no problem saying that you should stop bringing up hierarchy because compared to me you know about as much about this world as the drones do.” 156’s eye twitches and, in response, 387 boops her nose before snatching 9999, flying up, and blasting straight towards the wall of enemies: “Everyone grab some drones and follow me. We’re going on a bombing run!” Despite everything that was said, every single changeling looks at 156 visibly steaming. Nostrils flared, she barks- “You heard 387. What are you waiting for?!”  -and in the next second she’s flying over 36658 and 57999, grabbing one with each foreleg, and following 387. “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-!” both rapidly accelerating drones scream, and are quickly joined by the others who get immediately grabbed by the remaining high ranks. “How quickly can you get to Tantabus if we drop you in front of the army and start digging into it?” asks 387, shaking wide-eyed 9999 to get its attention. “Is that normal soil?” asks 9999. “The holes would I know?” 387 rolls his eyes. “Had to be!” replies 10013, “Landing in it was super smooth.” “30 seconds at most then,” assesses 9999 quickly. “Then we need you to burst out directly under Tantabus, fly up, and start digging through its barrel. We don’t know where Luna is, but since it separated its own leg to get rid of us without an issue I’d be guessing she’ll be in its barrel or head. You have to create a singular access point that we’ll be able to defend against this amount of enemies. We still have some aces up our holes we can use to get through this wall of fakes, but if those don’t work, we’ll have to face a fresh army and I’m getting the feeling that those fakes will be able to use the new tricks we’ll have shown them. And then we’ll all die,” 387 transmits to everyone, “So… no pressure.” To it, 9999 genuinely laughs, making 387 look down at it. “Did you hear the news, guys? If we don’t do what we’re told we’ll all die,” the drone transmits.  With that, the drones get lobbed at the ground while the high ranks slam into the first wall of enemies, laughing all the way down. “Alright, everyone,” orders 387, “Keep the enemy engaged until one of the infiltrators sees the drones surface. Don’t press too much forward, and get your full-body shapeshifting horseshoes on. It’s gonna be a wild ride.” Despite the already extremely extended battle, the bodies of changelings are working at peak capacity due to the almost nonexistent love drain. As for the worm of doubt wiggling its way through even the most steeled mind when repeatedly faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, that worm is dead, floating in the bottle of liquor marked “Orders from a higher rank”. Thankfully, it seems that Tantabus is now fully focusing on spreading the sky rift, and the fakes aren’t particularly smart, so when the drones burst out of the ground at the same time and start flying upwards towards Tantabus’ belly, there’s no resistance.  “DRONES ARE IN THE AIR!” reports 156, spinning around in the air, her leg-blades hacking through the neck chitin of four changelings at the same time. “...everywhere I look around…” muses 387 for the briefest fraction of a second before yelling out loud, “NOW!” After the real changelings being completely silent for so long, the fakes give them a second of breathing room after 387’s scream, steeling themselves against any potential super attack the changelings are about to unleash. They’re not ready for the green flash of transformation, and the love-fueled, tiny insects rocketing between them, through the holes in their legs, faster than they can react. In less than three seconds, the changelings have burst through multiple layers of the army and the reserves, transformed into themselves again in hope that Tantabus won’t be able to completely identify what happened in a blink of an eye and imitate it, and are blasting their way through the dramatically thinner ranks behind the main wall. 9999 lands on the bottom of Tantabus’ belly, the closest point to where they surfaced, and leads the way up like a drill.  “We need to make the tunnel wide enough for the others!” it says. Behind it, 10013, 36658, and 20100 form a triangle, expanding the hole immediately. Everyone else widens it so that roughly two warriors will be able to fit in, “Upwards and hard right! Should be the way towards the head.” “Is that where the soup pony is?” “No idea!” A moment later, the drones hear the buzzing of wings inside the starry yet somehow fleshy tunnel. “KEEP DIGGING!” calls out 387, rushing in first, closely followed by 156, “559, 791, shield wall!” The two warriors in the back, side by side, each rip off a chunk of chitin from the side of their barrel and glue it to one foreleg each like a shield while their barrels regenerate. A long, sharp stick grows on the other side, which they hook into their leg hole and start thrusting into the incoming enemies. So far so good. With the numbers advantage negated by the enclosed space and Tantabus seemingly unwilling to get itself ripped up by its own creations in order to give them more access paths, the changelings are inside its barrel and, at least for now, marginally safe. Now to find Luna. “We need to split up, but the moment we do, we’ll lose the option to swap out 559 or 791 if they get too hurt to fight without a chance to immediately regenerate,” 387 grits his teeth, “On the other hole, if we start worming around in one group and one tunnel, Tantabus might be able to move Luna around us somehow while figuring out a way to stop us.” “There’s ten of us,” 9999 looks around at the drones surrounding it, “We can cover a lot of ground if we dig tunnels of only our size. But that would mean you’d be stuck here and we wouldn’t have your eyes to see what’s behind us like outside.” “I’m not big on any last stands,” 387 sighs, “But I’m out of ideas. I don’t know if we can cause enough damage to Tantabus to stop it, so we have to rely on Luna’s knowledge to get out of the dreamscape. It’s strange that Tantabus is locked into a physical form, but I guess it’s the only way to suppress Luna enough, because she hasn’t been able to even talk to us since bringing 1988’s group here. I’m not letting you get ambushed, though. Drones will at least go in pairs. It’ll slow us down but you’re of no use if you get picked off by something. Everyone else, Hot Gates!” What am I saying? No one here knows any history… “YEAH, HOT CAKES!” cheers 36658 and dives into a wall, followed by 57999. “We get cakes for this?” gasps 13887. “387 just said so!” 10013 confirms, which is followed by the usual chaos: “Wooo, cakes!” “What’s cake?” “No idea. The hive mind just keeps repeating it’s made with love.”  “Yay, love!” “Let’s go, Smiley,” 9999 continues in the headwards direction of the original tunnel, followed by the Silent, “You go ahead, I’ll collapse the tunnel behind us.” “Smiley?” 156 frowns. “Is that really a question you want to ask now?” 1988 looks at her, before adding a much less polite, “With all due respect to hive hierarchy and all that nonsense.” 156 returns an exhausted glare before turning around. “918, 1988, we’re on hive link support. The better we can make our warriors’ reflexes, the less we’ll have to fight ourselves. 387, we’re in the belly of the beast now. Tactical leadership is yours.” *** “Oooh, shiny!” mumbles 9999 to itself as the starry-fleshy wall in front of it turns into some sort of crystal in an attempt to prevent it from digging further to no avail, “Anything on your side, Smiley?” The Silent tilts its head as 9999 glances its way. “Right, right. Difficult questions won’t get us anywhere,” 9999 reaches back through the narrow tunnel it’s crawling through to pat Smiley’s head. *Nuzzle!* “Awww,” it pulls away from the Silent rubbing its nose against the tiny hoof, “I like you too, buddy.” The current drone strategy is - one member of the duo is digging straight forward while the other one is watching their back and widening the tunnel in case they have to retreat. So far, nothing much has happened. The constant reports of other drones and chatter of the high ranks defending their position blend together in the back of 9999’s head, and it falls into the familiar yet somehow incredibly distant digging rhythm of times back home. Despite all the incredibly good things that happened, 9999 must admit it missed this. Dig forward, wipe the residue away with the other hoof, push itself forward with its hind legs, pause, listen for any evil gribblers woken up by its progress, repeat. “I can sense you!” 9999 hears a weak, female voice. “Smiley, did you hear that too?” it asks. *Nod nod nod!* “Any idea where it came from? Just looking for confirmation here.” As 9999 looks at Smiley, the Silent returns the look with a puzzled expression. “Goop,” curses 9999, “Too difficult of a question again? Okay. Point where you heard the voice from.” Smiley jabs its hoof into the wall to the left. “Yep, thought so too. Let’s go!” 9999 leads the way. Shortly after, 9999’s hoof breaks through Tantabus’ insides into an open area. No drone is stupid enough to stick a head through a hole into an unknown space, so it widens the hole a little to see inside from its crawlspace. The soup pony whom 1988 called Luna is tied up inside a root-like structure originating from the floor and the ceiling, her horn glowing and presumably forming a tight cocoon of blue energy preventing the roots from tightening around her. “Smiley, stay here!” orders 9999, “Everyone, I think we have the soup princess,” it broadcasts the image in front of its eyes, “Sending my coordinates.” The moment it transmits its location, all the other drones respond with their relative ones and begin converging towards 9999 who pulls itself through the widened hole into the small, smooth cave of starry flesh. For a normal creature, the “floor” formed of blackness of space, nebulae, and distant stars would be difficult to walk on due to instinctive impossibility of measuring distances, but to a changeling this looks quite similar to the hive mind “waiting room” in which they’re far too used to moving. 9999 reaches the first roots and severs them with ease. More grow in their place almost immediately. “Okay, this might take more of us at the same time.” It doesn’t stop, though, and despite the regeneration it keeps making slow but steady progress.  That is, until it swings its hoof and the root splashes away like mud instead of providing any resistance, making 9999 stumble in surprise.  “I HAD IT ALL WRONG. TRYING TO RESIST YOUR POWER IS A WASTE OF ENERGY.” The ceiling turns gooey and starts dripping down in massive chunks, slowly filling up the empty space. “ALL I HAVE TO DO IS OUT-REGENERATE YOU, TINY INSECTS.” “Whatever you just did is working,” calls out 357, “Over half of the fakes vanished into thin air just now. 559 and 791 are pushing the survivors back into the hole. Keep going!” With a sucking noise, a hole opens in the other end of the filling up area, and the roots drag Luna away. “Guys, we’ve got a problem!” reports 10013, “The walls are suddenly healing up faster than I can dig them!” “Same here!” says 13887, “It’s super easy now, but it’s just splooshing more and more back every time I dig a chunk.”  “SMILEY, RUN!” yells 9999, rushing back towards the tunnel they’ve been digging. The received visuals are the same from everyone. No matter what they do, the tunnel they dug keeps on refilling, forcing them to retreat with increasing speed or be swallowed by the starry quicksand- flesh- interstellar darkness. Unlike the others, thanks to 1988’s eye enhancement, 9999’s reaction times are much better and it can notice critical details as it dashes back towards the hole.  “The tunnel that opened and sucked Luna inside went that way!” it maps out the expected route and transmits it to the others, “Plus, it seems that these holes we dug regenerate faster from the furthest end!” It looks up at the slowly dripping ceiling while moving as quickly as possible away from the bulging matter quickly catching up, “If we group up, we might be able to out-dig the recovery!” All this takes less than three seconds, and 9999 is almost at the hole. It just needs one final push- Smiley reaches for 9999’s foreleg just as the stars swallow it. The Silent pulls and, for a second, it feels as if the soft flesh is giving in, before- *Crunch* -it tumbles backwards with a broken off fetlock held in its foreleg.  “...eeehhh…” it whines quietly. Silents are made to be looked through by high ranks unwilling to get into a critically dangerous situation and to follow simple orders. They’re not made to talk or convey ideas on their own.  With no recourse other than to start quickly crawling away from the approaching wall of flesh with 9999’s dripping fetlock in its mouth, Smiley flees until it feels minds touching its own. “Where’s 9999? I can’t reach it.” *Frowny face.* “High Score? High Score?!” *Sad face.* “9999?!” *Wibbling face.* 1988 is the first one to sense the sudden panic from the drones, or maybe he’s just the first one to care.  “9999?!” he scans the hive links and finds one completely beyond reach, “Silent, where is 9999?” *Crying face.* 1988 briefly replays Smiley’s most recent memories before breathing out, “Fuck…” “FINALLY, I CAN SENSE YOUR DELICIOUS DESPAIR! IF I KNEW THIS ONE WAS SO IMPORTANT, I WOULD HAVE KILLED IT IMMEDIATELY. AND NO, YOUR REVIVAL TRICK WON’T WORK AGAIN. WE’RE ALL LEARNING HERE.”