They're... ON HOLIDAY?

by Nameless Narrator


Day 3 - Storm: 10/11

36658 is sitting inside a toilet stall on the staff deck, its belly bloated with goop. It spits out a small green chunk into its hoof, examines it, sniffs it. licks it, ponders everything for a moment, then opens the toilet, flushes the goop down, and closes it again.

Next attempt.

When the ship suddenly rocks with a burst of noise nearby, the drone’s head rams directly into the porcelain toilet bowl.

Thankfully, changeling carapace is made exactly for situations like this, and where a cracked skull would stop a pony, 36658 wakes up on its back with a gasp a short while later and having slid across the tiles towards the wall. With a groan, it stands up, avoiding the shards of porcelain from the broken bowl.

Why is ‘up’ the wrong way?

“Guys?” it mentally calls out but winces as only chaos and pain enter through its link.

Ow ow ow ow…

It rubs its head, feeling the gash in its carapace. Its hive link seems to be working, somewhat, giving vague directions towards other drones. Unfortunately, it seems that any clear communication is out of the question for now.   

“Whoah!” it takes a step through the now weirdly tilted room and quickly spreads its legs to support itself against the wall and the original floor, “Okay, this needs figuring out.”

“HELP!”

36658 blinks as the mental voice weaves itself through its link, causing only minimal discomfort and leaving behind a direction to follow. The weird part is that the voice is completely unidentified, something the drone has never felt before. Warriors, infiltrators, the Queen herself, everyone always left some kind of a mark, but this voice seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

“High Score?”

Receiving no answer, 36658 blinks, grits its teeth, and fights against another unexpected movement of the ship.

Heh. This is still nowhere near as bad as when I had to walk home after testing the sufferingobliterators for the first time. At least now everything I see is still there after I blink.

A splash of water comes out of the toilet which is beginning to fill up without any lever pulling or pushing this time. When it overflows, 36658 concludes it’s time to leave and flies into the air. Everything bad assaulting its senses stops. The ground being at weird angles stops bothering it and its strange movement stops causing problems for the drone’s inner ear.

Flying is the answer then. An exhausting answer but the perfect one.

Opening the door leading from the shared bathrooms into the corridor lets in a wave of water which, thankfully, hasn’t reached the ceiling yet but is rising at a quick pace. The normal bright lights have been replaced with red glow barely illuminating the area, which isn’t an issue for 36658, but the ponies trying to get out can’t have it easy. Without the dynamic hive mind map, all 36658 can do is follow the strange feeling which the unknown voice left behind, and ascend two decks above the heads of the ponies pushing through the stairs. Thanking its comparatively small size, 36658 ends up on the royals’ deck, still flying over ponies crawling across the floor- wall. The crowd, led by SECURITY ponies loudly screaming orders, thins out quickly as the evacuation progresses, leaving Gem stomping on a closed door which isn’t budging.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!” she keeps cursing.

Seeing a familiar face clearly in need of help, 36658 approaches her, its wings buzzing.

“Can I help you?” it asks.

“The door is stuck! The cabin must be filled with water and I know a pony is still inside!” Gem gives the door an exasperated kick.

“I can dig through, but I’m not allowed to and I can’t contact any high ranks! Everything is weird and wrong!” 36658 looks from Gem to the door.

“I promise I’ll take any and all responsibility, but this is critical!” Gem grabs 36658 and squishes its cheeks, “Please, help me! These stupid royal doors are magically treated to be secure.”

The previous mental call flashes through 36658’s mind. 

“You didn’t, by any chance, call me through my hive link, Miss Gem, did you? Can you zebras do that?”

“What?” she pauses, raising an eyebrow.

Must have been High Score giving me the opportunity to do something important and good!

“Nevermind,” 36658 takes a deep breath, its hoof flashes green, and the drone easily carves out a chunk of the door as if it was wet paper and pulls it out. Gem jumps through the opened hole and 36658 can hear a splash as she lands in the water almost immediately, “Is everything okay?”

“No, the window must have cracked!”

36658 sticks a head through the hole into the dark room, seeing Gem whose entire hind part is now a fish tail swim through the water.

She must be really good with magic potions to transform like that.

Watching Gem’s tail for a moment, 36658 jumps into the room and its hind legs transform into a similar shape. For some reason, it is easier than ever before and somehow comes with a set of instructions on how to use it which easily integrates itself into 36658’s mind. Some flapping later, the drone takes a deep breath and dives into the water on the other side of the room. 

Almost immediately, it bumps into something soft and the faint blue glow of its eyes reflects off of white hair. Surfacing, it calls out:

“Something that we don’t have in our cabin is down here!” 

In its next dive, 36658 finds it to be a pony in the process of being pulled out by Gem now above it. Their leg is stuck under the bed, though, so 36658 swims under it and digs away a chunk of the metal frame. The pony gets dragged out almost immediately after, and 36658 follows.

“No no no no no…” it hears Gem lament as she begins running her hooves over the pony, “There’s no way he can have been like that since the beginning… so… maybe a minute or two?” she takes a deep breath and blows air into the pony’s mouth before smacking her head with her own hoof, “No place to do a massage. Think better!

“Can I hel-”

Gem looks at the drone, at the pony, then at the drone again. Suddenly, 36658’s mind feels a soft pressure locking out all its links and the fragmented and unintelligible chaos coming through the hive mind stops. 36658 notices the tiniest flash of green against the dark background, and Gem buries two fangs into the pony’s neck.

“You’re a changeling,” 36658 blinks in realization, “But how… why can’t I sense-”

“Not. Important!” Gem hisses at the drone with hostility not exactly fitting her, “Swim down and break the window completely, please. We must get him out no matter what!”

36658 glances at the white, blond-maned unicorn before nodding towards the hole in the door above them.

“No time to explain. I can’t risk anyone seeing me transform and I don’t know what I might have to do to get through the fleeing ponies,” Gem shakes her head, “I slowed down his body functions but-”

The ship lurches as something breaks in the distance with a loud creak of metal. 36658 and Gem have barely enough time to take a deep breath before the water rises over their heads and starts pouring into the hallway.

36658 dives down and digs the window out along with a chunk of wall. Gem bursts past, clearly much more used to the aquatic tailed form. Left alone, 36658 follows a faint feeling of direction left behind by Gem’s passing, manifesting itself as a thread of light to guide the drone blinded by the water. Its lungs are burning, but whether it’s the adrenaline or some unconscious property of the transformation, 36658 is not giving up until-

“GAAAAAH!”

-it breaks the surface and finally takes a deep breath of air. Using the tail to launch itself higher, it concentrates on its wings and begins following the bright thread upwards along the side of the cruise ship where it finds Gem and the pony tucked behind the wall of a building and out of sight. The “zebra” is pushing the pony’s chest in and breathing into his mouth in regular intervals, all the while counting. 36658 has no clue how to help but feels exhaustion wash over its body, the drone love reserves spent on a far too advanced transformation and self-healing. 

So, the pony is a unicorn stallion, from what 36658 can see, and looks positively emaciated. However, even lying there on the deck, it’s clear that he is big, or would be without the starved look. His horn is longer than any the drone had seen before aside from the Queen herself and the soup princess, there are dark bags under his eyes, and-

-he starts coughing after another set of Gem’s ribcage presses.

Seeing that, Gem darts towards 36658 sitting with its back propped against a bolted down… piece of furniture. The drone’s mind is beginning to slip.

“Sorry for this, little guy,” she whispers, barely audible against the backdrop of waves, screaming, and rain.

“Huh? Iss okay… glad ta help…” slurs 36658, its mouth losing power as well.

“I know,” Gem smiles and boops the drone who goes limp, “But I can’t let Chrysalis find out about me.”

***

When 36658 comes to, it sits up, full of energy.

“Don’t you dare pull anything like this on me ever again! Do you have any idea how bad your aunt would take it?!” Gem’s nose is nearly touching the unicorn’s as she whispers furiously, “And don’t try to lie to me about this being an accident. You will get up and get to the lifeboats, and I know you will, because I’m going to go back down and try to save whoever I still can, but I will come back if you take a single wrong step and someone will die because I won’t be there for them! Do you have any idea how important you are?!”

“Not anymore…” the unicorn breathes out, “No one cares anymore. Thankfully,” he covers his face with his hoof.

“Yeah, you’re crying because you know that’s not true. You know who cares, and you know what? I care! Not about you but about your aunt and how she would feel if she lost you,” Gem suddenly looks at 36658, “Good, you’re awake.”

“Wh- what happened?” 36658 rubs its head, “I can’t remember… I was on the toilet and then… boom… and High Score talking to me… and water… that’s all.”

“You helped me save this idiot,” she jabs her hoof into the unicorn’s chest, “Don’t worry about not remembering it. It was all a mess and the mind sometimes pushes it away due to stress. If it was important, you’d remember. Hmm?”

“Heh, I guess,” 36658 smiles weakly, “What now?”

“Hey, HEY! 36658, where were you?!” it hears 10013’s mental voice inside its head along with flashing images, “There’s a bunch of ponies getting into much smaller boats of life over here. We’re LEAVING!”

“My buddy 10013 just called me and said there are boats of life a little further along the deck! They set up big nets that ponies can hang onto so they don't slip on the tilted floor!”

Gem nods, jabbing the unicorn again.

“Follow the drone and do what it says! You’ve run out of allowed screw-ups, private citizen Blueblood.”