“What’s going on?” asks 387, finally sensing a note of grief because it’s coming from 1988.

“Tantabus killed High- 9999 after it made contact with Luna,” reports 1988, “And drones can’t deal with the sheer mass of regenerating flesh. We have the vector in which Luna was moved, but no way of getting to her.”

“Alright, remaining here will only get us crushed then, but Tantabus is now vulnerable until it decides to make itself indestructible again. So far, these changes in strategy always took some time. Based on the last known direction of the tunnel I’m getting, Luna must be somewhere in the front part of its chest, so if we get out and fly around we might close on her depending on how easy it is to move her. 559, can you hold the tunnel on your own for a moment?”

“On it!” the warrior’s chitin spear breaks and gets immediately replaced by another one while 791 backs off to 387.

“MAKE WAY, FALLING THROUGH!” yells 10013, dropping from the ceiling and immediately digging downwards. The other drones start arriving from their crawl spaces which quickly close behind them.

The regeneration isn’t enough to withstand the combined blasting and digging, and the changelings soon see real light again as they fly out of Tantabus’ belly, the hole they created rapidly closing behind them. Unfortunately, the ground seems far further down than it was when they dug in.

The drastically reduced number of fake changelings poses no problem, but when the real lings fly out from under Tantabus’ shadow and look up, 387 curses yet again.

The rift is wide open. Tantabus’ previously broken off leg is back in full, and the monster itself is almost touching the sky with its horn while wearing a wide smile. The front of its chest is now see-through like glass, revealing Luna stuck in the root-like structure and forced to look up by having her mane pulled backwards. It’s clearly just taunting them now.

“CONGRATULATIONS, BUGS. YOU PRESERVED THE SECRETS OF YOUR MIND, BUT I’M ALMOST IN THE REAL WORLD. WITH SO MANY PONY MINDS TO SPREAD INTO, I WILL NEVER BE CHAINED AGAIN! LOOK UP, LUNA, AND SEE THAT YOU FAILED!”

“BLAST IT!” orders 387, kicking a fake charging at him in the face while shooting green lasers from his horn at Luna’s prison. As chunks of Tantabus’ chest start evaporating under the changeling fire, the titanic equine laughs.

“NICE TRY, BUT TOO LATE. DO YOU WANT A PLAY BY PLAY? THE RIFT IS BIG ENOUGH, AND THE MOMENT I TOUCH IT I WILL ENTER THE MINDS OF MORTALS. THE DREAMWEAVERS WILL DEVOUR YOU AND LUNA-”

“YESSSS! IT WORKED! IT FINALLY WORKED!” yells a squeaky voice from the rift, “Why did it work now? Nevermind, focus, dummy. BLUE, NOT-BLUE, HERE WE GOOOOO!”

“...WHAT?”

The starry night-ness of Tantabus’ horn connects to the blinding whiteness of the open rift-

No… to the blinding whiteness of some other massive entity coming through the rift.

Tantabus backs off, forced to dodge a dropping object of its own size followed by a slightly smaller, darker one.

Unprompted, changelings fly upwards to avoid another cloud of dust raised by the landing, only to hear a loud, somewhat feminine, robotic voice say:

A burning beam of red light, thick as a train, cleaves through the dust and blasts Tantabus’ chest. Its agonized roar follows and it responds by lowering its horn and blasting a beam of energy at the shadow outline of the obscured two enemies.

“AUXILIARY BARRIERS PRIMED FOR RELEASE!” announces a different robotic voice.

Tantabus’ attack vanishes as a teal barrier flickers into existence right before it hits, and the shockwave from the impact clears the air.

“I think I’ve gone insane from pressure and I’m hallucinating…” mutters 387.

In front of Tantabus leaning down after the original attack stands an equally massive plush toy of Princess Celestia, accompanied by one of Luna which is roughly a quarter of its size but still huge.

The craziest part, however, is the changeling drone wearing a cardboard Nightguard helmet standing on huge Celestia’s head, its legs gooped to the fuzz so that it doesn’t fall off.

“...WHAT?”

“...WHAAAA?!”

“IF YOU HIT ME, YOU WILL BURN HER!”

“Pfff, it’s a Luna-saving, not Luna-hurting beam. I’d never hurt Luna!”

In the mind of 65536, that is the absolute truth. There’s no doubt about it, no second thought, nothing, just like the fact that drones can dig through anything, that changelings have infinite stamina if they have the love, or that high ranks can kill any amount of drones on a whim.

Here, in the dreamscape, true belief is only barely distinguishable from the truth, and a mind too simple to understand any evidence to the contrary is a force to be reckoned with.

“FIRING MAIN CANNON!” announces Not-Blue.
“PRIMARY OFFENSIVE SYSTEM ENGAGED!” says Blue in sync.

The twin eye beams bite into Tantabus’ chest, sending the titan tumbling backwards. However, this time a comparatively small, dark blue dot remains in the air for a moment before it starts dropping to the ground.

“NO…”

-avoids the beam of white light shooting from giant plush Celestia’s eyes, enveloping Luna, and gently pulling it up on the plushie’s head.

“LunaLunaLunaLuna!” 65536 tries to rush forward, forgets its legs are glued to the surface, and faceplants into the plush fuzz, “Mmmphm- nom nom nom!” it bites the goop off as if nothing happened and starts shaking the princess, “LunaLunaLunaLunaLu-!”

“HAH!” with a gasp, she wakes up, sits, and starts turning her head, “65536?! What? I was-” her eyes lock on Tantabus on the ground with a massive hole in its chest, “Stay here until I say otherwise!”

“But I got my armor and all,” 65536 objects, “Not the real one cuz I’m off duty, but-”

“I’m not moving from this spot!” 65536 salutes, “Gooping my legs down again right now!”

Luna takes off, landing in front of Tantabus with her horn glowing. She doesn’t say anything, but the star monster begins shrinking in front of everyone’s eyes until it vanishes completely. Along with it, the sky fixes itself as well. A bit anticlimactic, really, but the important job was done by others already.

Of course, everyone but 387 looks to 156 for confirmation. When she nods, the formation lands in front of Luna. 156 and 387 first, the other ranked changelings fanned out behind them, and the drones huddled up in a group a few steps away, seemingly not particularly interested in what’s going on.

To Luna, thanks to her experience with 65536, that seems extremely strange. She was expecting to be swarmed by them, but it might just be the presence of the higher ranks that’s tempering their curiosity. However, there are other issues to deal with first.

“The shape of your mind is something I haven’t felt in a very long time.”

“That’s neither here nor there,” 387 shakes his head, “So, what happens now? We’re still enemies… officially.”

“We don’t have to be,” Luna looks to the side where 65536 is galloping through the grass with a small plushie of Luna fastened to the back of its neck and dragging an almost life-sized Celestia plush by a foreleg held in its mouth, “I’ve learned a lot about you in the past weeks from 65536 here. I have no problem with helping any and all of you assimilate into pony society if you truly want to-”

“No,” 387 sighs despite agreeing, “Although probably for a distinctly different reason. What now, 156? And think before you answer, because if the answer is wrong I’ll have to assume I was wrong about you all this time and I’ll bury you here.”

The ranked changelings gasp while the drones still just… ignore everything, huddled up against each other.

“I guess that level of paranoia was what allowed you to survive this long,” 156 chuckles, “So let me guess - you want everyone here to decide for themselves, right? Well, why should I care if we leave a few drones or low ranks here? All it means is fewer mouths to feed,” she looks around, “Anyone here wants to go live in pony land?”

“Ahem,” 387 clears his throat, turning towards the others, “As 156 and Princess Luna said, we don’t know how much we can trust the ponies-”

“We totally can!” 65536 drops Not-Blue and hops up and down excitedly, “I mean, not everyone, but they can be super nice! Like, Sharp is nice, Princess Sunbutt is nice, Luna is the best, and the baddies only tried to kill me once in three weeks. That’s like… a record compared to back home!” it looks at the crestfallen drones, “Umm, guys… what’s wrong?”

The drones fan out, revealing a blankly staring Smiley still holding a broken fetlock in its mouth, tears streaming from its eyes.

“HIGH SCORE IS DEEEEEEEAAAAD!” weeps 36658. As if the words finally let the harsh reality in, the other drones start wailing.

“Drones!” 1988 looks into the numerous pairs of grieving eyes that look at him in response, “9999- High Score died gaining vital information that saved us all. Without it, we wouldn’t have bought enough time for… whatever the holes just happened. It saved the soup princess, and it saved us high ranks. Your high score isn’t just a concept anymore, something to motivate you to go through a life that… frankly… no one deserves. 9999 IS High Score now, the true Shiny Bringer. No matter what rank any other drone achieves, there will always be only one hero who sacrificed itself to save everyone. Don’t forget.”

“Y-Yeah…” 36658 nods, nudging 57999 sitting next to it, “Shiny Bringer made it so that the ponies wouldn’t eat us on sight!”

“And it taught the tiny buzzers how to spread shinies all over the forest!” 20100 looks up.

“It even held the hive mind together when I was incapacitated,” 1988 adds with a soft smile.

“Ahem!” 387 walks over, his mere presence quashing any already fragile enthusiasm, “Drones, you know how last time one of you died to Tantabus’ tricks, right?”

The drones who survived the first Tantabus’ trap look at 13887 who shivers. 387 continues:

“And you know what? It only took a few minutes for 13887 to come back. So what does it matter what Tantabus said? 9999 will come back, it’ll just take much longer this time. After all, a cleanly snapped neck is much different from being crushed by a ‘super powerful evil bad guy’.”

“R-RIGHT!” 10013 jumps up, “If it took 13887 a few minutes from such a quick and painless death, then even someone as awesome as 9999 might take… days to get back from this. Months. Years.”

“Yeah, tens of years!” 20100 nods vigorously, “But it’ll be back for sure!”

“Maybe hundreds!” 13887 agrees, “But that just means we gotta tell everyone back home to not forget how 9999 saved me from slashy spitters when I accidentally fell into a hole.”

1988 exchanges glances with 387. They both know none of the drones will live that long, but they also know it doesn’t matter.

“Here, however, you have a choice. A free choice. No one will force you to do anything. Luna-”

“-Luna, the soup princess, is offering you a chance to go live with ponies, and 65536 is saying it is far less dangerous than your life back home. No one will go after you, no one will follow you, and that goes for everyone here, not just you drones. I’m going back, though.”

“I… have a feeling that my sister would be happy to see you,” Luna gives it another shot.

“My place is with the hive, no matter who is in charge, and no matter where that path takes me. I know I’m likely to be the first one on the chopping block when we get back, but if there’s any miniscule chance that I’ll live then I must be there to help anyone I can.”

All higher changelings look at her with sudden frowns as 387 finally turns to face her. However, it’s the drones who group up in front of her and look up, a bunch of big teal circles on black background.

“Tantabus wasn’t lying,” she replies, and a small part of her dies when she sees them all wince, including 65536, “It can manipulate this place almost as well as I can. It pains me to say it, but this… High Score whom you all so clearly adored… is gone, and I can’t let those two,” she nods to 387 and 1988, “sweet talk you into returning to your short and brutal lives back at the hive, at least not with lies.”

“Oh, is that all?” replies 36658, seemingly relieved for no reason Luna can identify.

“Uhh, yes?” she tilts her head and, from the corner of her eye, she notices that 387 is about as surprised as she is.

“Then thanks, soup princess!” 36658 looks around, “You clearly care, and we’re all happy that 65536 landed with you, but you just don’t know High Score like we do.”

“Yeah!” 20100 nods with vigor, “High Score talked a high rank into healing us instead of eating us. A drone who can do that can do anything.”

“Totally,” 10013 beams, “We just gotta be patient. High Score will come back, and it’s up to us to tell every drone that wasn’t lucky enough to meet it about all the shinies it brought and all the awesome things it did.”

“Yup,” 57999 jabs Smiley, “And we even got a guy whom High Score saved in its final moments! Smiley here is Shiny-touched! We gotta go home and tell everyone!”

Smiley keeps looking down at the grass, but its foreleg shimmers, and it digs a few simple lines in the ground - a smiling face.

“Even Smiley thinks so, and that guy wasn’t made to think at all!” 31214 taps at the Silent’s temple, “See? No hollow sound. High Score made a Silent think a bit, and not even the Queen herself could do that!”

“So, don’t worry, soup princess,” 36658 finishes with a wide smile, “We just gotta go back and tell everyone that High Score the Shiny Bringer is with them, no matter what sort of muncher they’re running away from or how deep they’re supposed to dig.”

Luna wipes her eyes, fully aware this means that 65536 will never see any of them again.

“So, nopony is coming with me then?” she asks. When no one but 65536 nods, she adds, “I guess you’ll be your High Score’s apostles then.”

“That’s a vastly different expr-” Luna makes the beginner mistake of trying to correct a drone.

“WE’RE SHINY BRINGER’S POTATOES!” 36658 cheers, turns around, and hugs Smiley, much to the joining cheering of all other drones.

“I believe that’s settled then,” he says. She frowns at him, “Princess, if even one of them lives once we get back, it’ll tell everyone about this. Well, some version of what happened. The newly hatched drones might get to know that ponies are real, not just a record in the hive mind, and that they aren’t food or hunters waiting to kill them on sight. In the long run, that might do more good than just living out their natural lifetime as a group with you. As for whatever weird faith 1988 came up with, we’ll have to make sure the queen never learns about it, because she’s supposed to be the only… deity of the hive.”

“There’s a vast difference between belief and reality, and they’re being sold the former in order to remain obedient workers.”

“Is that the case?” 387 tilts his head, “They’ve never met the queen before the invasion. Holes, most changelings haven’t. She’s no less a rumor than whatever they believe about 9999. A stronger changeling tells you what to do, or a marker appears in the hive mind, that’s how things work.”

“Yes, it is. That’s why I- they- we can’t run away and leave everyone else in that grim, black pit of ignorance.”

“Umm, 387?” a muffled squeak interrupts the conversation. The warrior looks at 65536 reaching up to him, holding Blue in its forelegs.

“I heard what you said and… can you bring Blue here to the hive and give it to the guys? So that they’ll have something to remind them that ponies are nice and warm and fluffy. I’d give it to them but I know that someone would immediately take it.”

“Ask her. She’s the top rank here, or will be again once we’re out of the dreamscape.”

65536 turns towards her, Blue still presented in its outstretched forelegs. With a sigh. 156 takes it.

“If you think the first thing the queen does when we get back will be anything other than reading my mind and disintegrating this thing then you’re even dumb-”

“-FINE! Stop doing that! I’ll toss it to the first drone I see back home,” she looks away while swiping the plush toy.

“Yeah yeah, drone,” 156 coughs, and the hive link pulse she sends draws everyone’s attention, “Unless there’s anything else, we’re leaving. Princess, how does this go?”

“Anywhere on the eastern edge of the Everfree Forest will suffice, then. We can find our way from there.”

“As you wish,” Luna nods, and a swirling portal appears in the air, “Good luck, changelings. I wish something good springs out of all that happened.”

“Byyyye, 65536! Bye, soup princess!” they wave before recklessly charging forward in a single file led by 10013, “INTO THE SWIRLY!”

EPILOGUE

On the 9th level of the hive, inside the 9th tunnel of the 9th sector, there are many cracks and small branching paths where drones once had to recover a chunk from a vein of minerals. However, the 9th crack is different - much smoother and looking more like a tunnel through which only a drone could comfortably crawl through.

It’s still only a short tunnel, though. No drone has the time to spare on pointless crawling outside of sleepy time. Doing so during worky time is obviously completely out of the question. Beyond it lies a small cave with smooth walls, comfortably only big enough for roughly six or seven drones. In its center stands a statue made of stone perfectly depicting a changeling drone indistinguishable from any other. Or it probably used to when it was originally carved from solid stone. Now, there are shards of obsidian glass from the deepest tunnels gooped to its carapace, one eye has been replaced with a smooth sapphire a drone must have snatched from a particularly lucky mining operation and gotten away with due to a high rank’s oversight. Finally, a dark blue plush pony sits on its back, constantly radiating a tiny amount of love for no discernable reason.

A drone is lying next to the statue, crushed pieces of its hind leg held together using a cast made from goop. Such a wound would normally mean the drone would have been devoured for any scrap of love, but this one is, despite its circumstances, still breathing.

There’s one more changeling in the small cave, a warrior, resting with his back against the wall.

387 senses the presence of a changeling, and opens his eyes to see a drone creeping out of the entry hole. He smiles a bitter smile when he realizes the drone made no noise while getting inside, not even the faintest scratching of chitin on stone. An ingress on the level of the best of infiltrators including barely the faintest hive mind presence. Only a select few would have the mental skill to even notice it.

“I guess you finally made time to read through everyone’s memories in full,” he says.

The drone slowly looks around before transforming into a much taller, terrifying shape.

“Took you much longer than I thought it would, you know?” 387 stands up before lowering himself into a fighting stance.

The queen lets out a snort of contempt before giving the unconscious drone a quick glance.

Chrysalis rolls her eyes before reaching under her wing and pulling out a chunk of crystallized goo so tightly packed with love that it’s barely radiating at all. Her horn lights up, telekinetically bringing the Luna plush toy to her and unraveling stitches on its underbelly. From the opened hole, a weak, almost empty love crystal falls out which she replaces with the fresh one before fastening the stitches again and placing the toy back behind the statue’s neck.

“Tell me, which queen was your favorite?” she asks, transforming back into a drone.

“I’ve only known a king, Chrysalis. After him,” 387 shrugs, “my only concern was those on the bottom, not the one on top.”

“Heh, I suppose we all have our own cycles to break,” Chrysalis vanishes back into the hole, “Warrior 387?”

“Arrange a sapphire mining operation in sector -xgg487g4663- and make sure at least eighty-five percent of all valuables get to the storage. That statue is physically grating to look at.”

They're EVERYWHERE!

by Nameless Narrator

Finale 3/3