//------------------------------// // A puzzling morning: 2 // Story: They're home. // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// A drone whose hive link identifies it as 99000 slides the door in the back of the High Score Cavern open and creeps through, seemingly disregarding the “Boom danger!” written above. The door itself isn’t made of just goop, as its darker green color and brown tint hint at, and 99000 assesses the material with a touch of the handle as it slides it back, closing this much smaller tunnel off again.  The material retains love much better. Must be one of the new “alloys”. A quick check of the hive mind confirms the idea, identifying the mix as iron ore dust and resin - far from the more resilient combinations but one easy to make underground. With the overabundance of magically-treated natural building materials, Equestria uses a surprisingly small amount of iron so the hive doesn’t bother mining and exporting it, zebras are too far for a viable trade route, and griffons… have trust issues. It would be different if drones could learn to smelt iron and eventually forge steel, but that would require mining coal deposits as well, and larger air vents, which would lower both security and structural integrity. Far from impossible, but still not worth it over gems which an infiltrator can carry hidden in a leg hole and finance an entire mission. Still, a material that was once a waste of space now serves to significantly lower the hive’s love-replenishment requirements while giving the drones something new to trade among each other or, in the case of several technologically inclined individuals, experiment with. 99000 slowly walks through the short tunnel, looking from side to side while skimming over magazines-worth of scribbles on the smooth walls and the ceiling. Unlike the walls of the High Score cavern with their wisdom of “a pony looks like a changeling, but fluffy and without leg holes. Adding holes does NOT change them into a changeling and makes them significantly less friendly”, these are all formulas, numbers, and entirely indecipherable angular carvings. There are four more doors of the same making, two on each side of the tunnel, and all closed. A brief check of nearby hive links reveals three other drones - 99111, 99380, and 99856, the former two entirely absorbed in whatever they’re doing and the latter- 99000 hears a sound akin to a wet burst of a large bubble, followed by: “Oh? No no no no! Eeep! STOP CREEPING TO ME! BAD FIZZIES!” -slamming the closer door on the right open so hard they rattle in their rails, jumping out with a panicked expression while gasping for breath, and quickly sliding it back, seemingly completely oblivious to a clump of green foam sliding down the side of its barrel and melting a deep groove in its carapace along the way. Despite all the hive’s recent advancements, drone “work safety regulations” is still just a three-word phrase prone to mispronunciation, but the drone who just only semi-successfully escaped a deadly, acidic situation is wearing goggles with a thick frame made of polished stone and goop instead of protective glass. “Note to self - do NOT mix attempt 442 with bubble brick for washy ti- huh?” mutters 99856, finally noticing the foam as it splatters against the stone floor and remains hissing there, “One, two, three, four-” 99856 counts up to sixteen until all that remains from the foam is a wet spot, all while being observed by 99000 somewhat stunned by the entire situation, “Melty fizzies poof up to cover a large area from only a small blob - find an empty cavern later and see the limits,” it looks at its forelegs, the chitin of which is covered in small, deep holes presumably caused by the sputtering of the original mix, “Very, veeery melty against chitin. More tests needed-”   99856 takes its goggles off, hooks the frame through an available leg hole, and finally notices 99000 just standing there and staring. “Oh, hi!” it smiles, “Sorry I didn’t notice you earlier,” it shakes the goggles, “It’s not the easiest to see with these on but they sure are helpful in case of unexpected, uhh, anything, really,” 99856 tilts its head as the apprehensive drone just kind of examines it. Not that it saps any of the enthusiasm out of the drone “chemist’s” voice, “So, what brings you here?” “I’m just… exploring,” says 99000 after a second of hesitation, “I’m new.” “Curious one, eh?” 99856 beams, “Nice! Wanna see what I’m doing? I mean, 99111 is here too but I wouldn’t disturb it while it’s working,” it nods to the doors on the left side of the tunnel, “It plans and thinks a lot because it knows a ton of things. I’m more just slapping various goops and dusts together and seeing what happens. I’m learning a lot, though!” “What was that?” 99000 nods towards the closed door through which 99856 ran out, “Some kind of a weapon?” 99856 chuckles and rubs its head. “Huuuh, I guess it could be used that way?” it says in a surprised tone of someone who apparently never thought about it, “I mean, it wasn’t meant to be. I was trying to use 99111’s bubbly cleaning goop to get rid of the stains left over after my last experiment -that one was supposed to be a boomy but it was just a sticky- aaand the bubbles sorta… multiplied and started eating other stuff I dropped,” it pokes the smooth piece of floor where the now entirely dissipated glob of bubbles dropped from it, “Hmmm, it does clean stuff well, though, now that I think about it. Maybe a bit too well.” “But if you threw that mix at another changeling…” 99000 frowns at the other drone. “Goop! You’re right, we can’t let that happen,” 99856 nods, its thoughtful expression turning serious, “I gotta figure out how to keep it contained,” It examines the door it ran out of by looking closely at it and pressing its hooves against it. To a drone, that’s enough to assess the structural integrity of a material and confirm that the door hasn’t been damaged, “Goop reinforced with dusty-red-” 99856 winces and taps its head, “-with i-ron ore dust seems to be working just fine.” As 99000 just keeps watching, puzzled, 99856 continues its non-stop chatter: “Makes me wonder if the fizzies inside are gone,” it slips the door open a little and the acidic foam immediately starts pushing through the crack, splattering 99856’s hooves once more, “Ouch! Nope nope nope nope! That’s some extreme cleaning,” the drone slides the door into a closed position immediately before smiling at 99000 again, “You wanna see my lab, newbie?” “Definitely,” says 99000, “Do you have more of these acids and explosives? I mean melties and boomies.” “Oooh, nice! High rank words. Sounds like your head is good at tapping into the hive mind,” 99856 attempts to pat the head of the other drone who steps away to avoid it, which makes the chemist’s smile fade a little.  “You just touched the acid foam again,” 99000 explains, pointing at the hoof with its own. “Oooooh!” 99856 smiles again, “Well noticed! You’re definitely going to be one of the smart drones. If you wanna figure out what your speciality is, talk to 10000 or 99380,” says the chemist with only genuine helpfulness in its voice, “I’m not sure where 10000 is, but 99380 is with 99111 in the workshop,” it nods to the left door, “They’re trying to figure out how to make a broken music box that 65536 brought last freezy time work again. Maybe you can have a chat after I’m done showing you my lab.”  99000 follows the chemist through the second right door of the tunnel which reveals a small room with low ceiling built in the classic new drone style of tunnel construction - slightly sloping walls as if one was inside a pyramid, floor covered in grooves for a non-slip grip, and everything that’s not floor covered in drone writing. Unlike the High Score cathedral, however, there’s furniture and equipment - three workbenches carved from a solid block of stone each using drone digging ability in a U pattern near the entrance with several glass bottles and beakers, some with labels still on. 99000 looks at one label close up. It reads “Zero Shards Glassworks, Lower Canterlot, 67 bits”. 65536 must have spent a good amount on this drone, considering the full set here. A trio of bookshelves made of stone “planks” joined together with goop stand in the open space further back in such a way they wouldn’t cover any writing on the walls or the ceiling, and the shelves are stacked with stone tablets thinner than any pony tool could make, all covered in more writing. The final major part of the room are hoof-sized stone boxes containing various materials - powders, goop samples, wooden sticks, torn pieces of cardboard, anything unusual a curious drone could scrounge up in the hive. Overall, it’s clear that since drones can clear layers off of any material as if it was dust on a solid surface, at some point during the past three years they realized that if there’s something plentiful deep underground, it’s stone, and drone ability to easily shape it makes it versatile. Of course, a pony observer wouldn’t see any of that because if there’s anything missing here it’s a light source. Drones, though, are completely okay just with their bioluminescent blue eyes and a hive mind map. “This is impressive,” says 99000, wandering between the shelves, briefly picking one of the tablets and skimming the chemical formulas similar to those on the tunnel walls outside written on it in a clearly non-drone style of writing but still in a way a drone could read it. “It took me, 10000, and 99111 a lot of time to put everything together in a way that would make sense. The tablets are copies I made of some of the guides from 99111’s smart box that the Queen told us to write down,” 99856’s voice is full of pride and joy, “We only did all that during breaky time, of course, and I had to trade a bunch of stuff I found and made for help in getting all the stone from the lower tunnels, but now I can kinda safely put all kinds of goops together in here and test them next door-” Suddenly, 99856 sneezes and 99000 doesn’t fail to notice that the spray that comes out of the chemist’s nose is a suspiciously unhealthy mix of brown and green. “Uh oh-” 99856 wipes its muzzle, winces, and looks down at its hoof covered in blood. “Are you okay?” 99000 leans back, raising an eyebrow. “Yeah,” 99856 waves its hoof dismissively, “That happens with some melties. they kinda get into your nose as you breathe. It’s why I started wearing the goggles,” the drone seemingly recalls it left those hanging inside a leg hole and puts them on the nearest table, “I just gotta clean it out properly and get some tunnel air. Note to self - ask 10000 if we can build an air vent leading all the way up around here,” 99856 walks over to a jug -stone, obviously- by the wall that’s filled with dusty, dirty water, puts its muzzle to it, and draws the water into its nose before blowing it out along with a stream of bubbles. “If your experiments are so dangerous,” asks 99000, calmly watching the process, “Could they be used against, let’s say, high ranks?” 99856’s muzzle shoots out of the water and the chemist sprays the load inside its nostrils towards 99000 with an expression of pure shock.  “...whaaaat…?” Faced with that, 99000 adds an explanation:  “I heard stories about the old days when high ranks used to eat us. What if it happens again? Wouldn’t it be good if we could protect ourselves?” 99856 breathes out in relief and shakes its head. “I heard the original stories from 36658 itself before it sacrificed itself to bring us the smart box and all the knowledge we’re learning these days. You probably haven’t heard those in full detail, being a newbie and all, but just using my experiments as weapons wouldn’t work. High ranks are super fast and super durable, so you wouldn’t even be able to throw a melty at them, and even if you hit by accident…” it shakes its head, “Then what? They’d just make their carapace non-meltable. On top of everything, they can just control you and make you not throw it. What a silly idea,” 99856 washes out its nose again, “I completely agree with 10000 that our best way to lose fewer drones during worky time is cooperating with the high ranks. The Queen supposedly said so herself, and 387 confirmed it, and he’s really nice. He even helped me test my first emergency cocoons and gave me extra love when we made those usable for everyone as a trade.” “I guess…” says 90000. 99856 washes its hooves that are melted from the foam scatter into the point of looking porous, walks over to the new drone, and pats its head which makes 90000 wince again. “Don’t worry, my hooves are all clean now. Look, if the old stories spooked you, go talk to 10000. It’s the smartest drone around and can tell you all the details,” 99856 walks over to the door out of the lab, “Wanna help me clean my testing site up? The fizzies should be going away by now. The last time I looked they were already poofing out a lot slower and there’s bound to be a serious mess on the floor,” 99856 pauses, "unless they really cleaned everything including themselves. Are those fizzies self-cleaning?”  “I… umm… I’m going to talk to 10000 as you said,” 99000 leaves the room and heads off towards the tunnel exit. As the drone passes a door supposedly leading to 99111’s workshop, it opens, 99380 walks out, closes it behind itself, looks at 99000, smiles, and says: “Hi, Your Majesty! What brings you here?” 99000 turns around with an expression of utter disbelief. What the actual-? My hive link signature was PERFECT. “...whaaaaa?” 99856 groans weakly, standing by its lab door and lost in processing of the new information. Before its mind can come to any conclusions, Chrysalis slips into its link and immediately removes the last few seconds from its memory. While it only takes a blink of an eye and a fraction of a second, 99380 is gone when she’s done. How? What? Where? A quick check of the hive mind reveals 99380 inside the High Score cavern, talking to 99066 about some skipping thing entirely unrelated to her presence. In fact, there’s not a trace of any hive mind information traffic regarding her. All the drones are just… doing whatever they’re doing after their allotted work time is over. What just happened? 99856, as if it just left its lab, continues walking to the testing site. “Do you need help finding 10000?” it asks 99000, “The hive mind can be confusing the first few days. I know I had a terrible headache after I hatched.” “N- No,” 99000, once again in incognito mode, stutters and walks away. “Byyye!” 99856 waves at it until the other drone looks back and nods. When the chemist finds itself alone again, it taps into a special part of the drone-specific hive mind into which 99380 stored most of the songs it heard on the music box, and lets the hive mind pick one at random.   “Ooooh, fitting!” it grins and hums to the music inaudible outside of its head, “Winter wrap-up, winter wrap-up, let’s finish our holiday cheer-” Chrysalis, however, feels none of the chemist’s peace of mind as she walks through the High Score Cavern filled to the brim by drones busy with their post-work activities and leaves via the drone-sized crack, shapeshifting back to her real body several tunnel bends later. The previously… not entirely safe but mostly just overlooked drone tunnels are now making the chitin on the back of her neck crawl.