99856 finishes washing its muzzle prompted by 99000’s concern, and carefully slides its hoof over its mouth, feeling the small holes in the chitin.
“Hey, 99111?” it links up with the tinkerer in the workshop across the hall.
“What’s up?” a reply comes immediately.
“Hey, if you have some time, I’m gonna need a-”
“The hollow tube? Yeah, 99000 told me,” 99111 gets straight to the point, “I’m working on a mold for it right now. Do you need any special goop?”
“Umm, I’d like one made from alloy 219,” 99856 pauses, surprised by the swift response, “That one seems to ignore bad fizzies.”
“No problem, just bring some iron ore dust over in a couple minutes.”
“Thanks. I’ll finish washing myself and I’ll be there.”
99856 closes the link and turns off the tune inside its head currently playing from the hive mind’s jukebox created by 99380. Now able to perceive reality in full again, 99856 notes something extremely unusual.
Is it warm in here?
With only several exceptions, no drones have been on the surface during freezy time, but 57999 who works in and around the greenhouse did tell the others that, while still very cold, the High Score Cavern was still much warmer. However, comparatively warmer never meant warm, which is what makes 99856 look around after it’s finished cleaning itself. Come to think of it, it feels rather pleasant and makes the usual, prickly numbness of the drone’s leggos caused by the cold water slipping under its carapace go away quickly.
Weird, but I like it.
Humming to itself, 99856 finds the box with iron ore dust in the back of its laboratory, pours a small amount into a hoof-sized stone box, goops it to its back, and trots out into the hallway.
“Whoa, it’s even warmer out here,” the surprise makes it speak out loud, “Why would it- oh…” it stops, “Could it be?” it beams and rushes over to the door to the testing area.
As it absent-mindedly pushes the indentation in the door to slide it open, its hoof just slides through as if it was digging, leaving behind a burning residue on its hoof.
“OW OW OW! TOO WARM!” 99856 starts waving its foreleg and flinging the melting goop away, “TOO WA-!” the chemist starts coughing as, in addition to the blistering heat, the revealed hole lets out thick, black smoke which it breathes in.
Stumbling backwards, the drone gasps for rapidly diminishing breathable air. The first conscious thought on its mind, however, escapes over its lips in the form of an excited:
“IT BURNS SO MUCH BETTER THAN STICKS! YAAAAAAAY!” it starts coughing again, “N- No yay. At least not yay right now.”
It darts back into its lab to grab its water basin.
Water works for this, right?
After running back and throwing the equivalent of a cup of water aimlessly into the testing area through the now completely melted door, it evaluates the result.
“Oh goop…”
As the heavy, black smoke is spreading and melting the goop doors, 99856 has to admit it’s outmatched. It tries to reach out to 10k with its cooling goop foam, but the drone leader is out of reach.
“Meep…” it looks from side to side, lost in regard to what to do. That’s when 99111 pushes the still only partially melted door to its workshop away and steps into the hallway.
It has no clue when 99000 left, but that’s good because it means there’s only one panicking drone to deal with. Compared to the collapsing dwarf laboratory complex, this is nothing. The calm train of thought surprises 99111 itself, and it briefly ponders why it’s not panicking when the situation brings back the worst moment of its life, but the image of 36658’s determined expression as it orders everyone to help get 10k from under the crumbling complex in order to take its place answers.
There will be time for fear later. Now it’s time to think clearly.
Whatever 99856, frozen in terror, did, it has no clue how to fix it. The previous rare experiments with fire, however, always ended up with there being not enough fuel, which means that no matter what 99856 did with the coal for things to turn out this poorly, all they need is time.
99111 looks around, examining the area for clues.
There was always mess left behind, which they used for some new goop mixes, and it’s likely there will be more all over the place because the smoke is carrying small cinders and some ash flakes. It can’t be allowed to reach the experimental materials in 99856’s lab, the delicate parts in 99111’s workshop, and most importantly - the new coal storage.
All that happens within seconds before 99111 links up with 99856 and orders:
“Do exactly what I say!”
The chemist’s panic clears a little in face of the tinkerer’s confidence.
“The testing area is too hot to work around. We need to block access to the other rooms. We can dig out a new, rocky section of the tunnel and use the stones to block the smoke off. Don’t talk out loud, stay low, close to the floor, and breathe slowly. We don’t have much time.”
Now that the testing area door is gone, the furnace that the room’s become is spewing the burning smoke out freely and quickly filling the hallway. The other doors are beginning to melt due to the proximity, but since the lab and storage ones didn’t get broken through with a touch, they’re still holding. The door to the HSC itself is holding steady, being a little further away, but the goop is glistening already as well.
Step by step, 99111 leads 99856. They rush to the dead end of the tunnel where the tinkerer quickly digs out an alcove for itself. From there, it quickly starts peeling off narrow “planks” of stone, like thin bricks, which 99856 piles up to block the entrances to the three remaining rooms. Within only a few minutes, they’re finished, but the smoke cover is so thick they have to crawl so that they can still breathe.
The main door gives like jelly as 99111 tries to slide it sideways, so it just quickly drains the love from it, turning the goop into a small amount of liquid, and the two drones rush into the HSC followed by billowing, heavy, black clouds, gasping for air. The HSC is full of drones now, all a little on edge from the strange turn of events, but only watching. It wouldn’t be the first chemical experiment gone wrong, although the first one gone wrong to the level where it reaches them.
As 99111 quickly clears the distance halfway to the exit, the others get the idea and gather around it.
“None of the veterans are around. What do we do?” asks one drone, voicing everyone’s thoughts as they all look at 99111.
Voice, where is 10k?
“By the throne room.”
“10k isn’t here with its dousing goop, so we’ll have to solve this ourselves,” 99111 looks at the chemist, “99856, what have you learned about fire so far?”
“I mean, when I used sticks, it smelled for only a bit and quickly went out. This is all new,” 99856 points at the smoke spreading through the cavern, “When you and 10k said it was supposed to burn better, I thought it would burn more so I used a pretty big pile of goopy coal because we have so much now. I have no idea how long it’s going to burn or how much black floaty it’ll make.”
“Smoke, 99856. I don’t know much about smoke either, but it’s getting hotter and harder to breathe here too,” 99111 looks at the small sea of worried faces and raises its voice, “Everyone, let’s head out! I think you can keep your stashes here because it doesn’t look like there’s much that can burn- yes?” it looks at one foreleg that immediately shot up.
“I have some webby spinner webs that 65536 helped me gather last sleepy time,” says 99200, still wearing the spider web cloak, “It showed me how to make fire from them and they burn really well.”
“Alright, take those with you,” 99111 pauses, “Now that I think about it, you all might have to drain and melt your Scufflestick tinies. If sparks land on goop, it won’t end well.”
“I’m sorry, everyone,” says 99856 mournfully.
A moment of silence passes.
“Eh, it’s fine,” says someone.
“Yeah. You made us the emergency cocoons, and those things saved me twice already,” adds 99441, “If I have to remake my Scufflestick tinies from time to time so that we can get more awesome stuff, who cares?”
“Yeah!” cheers someone else.
“I have so many ideas on how to improve my tinies the next time over!” adds another voice.
“I’m soooo gonna play Gribblers this time!”
Voice after voice reaffirm and cheer up 99856 as drones rush to their stashes to drain the love from anything they have that’s made of goop. When the mad running around ends shortly after, 99111 head towards the exit of the High Score Cavern, calling out loudly:
“Follow me! We’re heading up until we can contact someone who knows what to do next.”
***
“Do you smell smoke too?” asks 99, standing up.
10k sniffs the air.
“Not really, but I’m starting to sense… uhh… everyone?” the drone looks towards the tunnel leading deeper into the hive, “What’s going on? I can’t get any clear message yet.”
99 chides herself for a stupid question to ask a drone -of course it wouldn’t smell the smoke when even she barely does- and begins checking the approaching hive links. After the first couple drones give her the same answer - to ask 99111, she targets the tinkerer directly.
“99111, what’s going on?”
“Thank holes, 99. 99856’s experiment went wrong and we’re not sure what to do-”
In the real world, 99 facehoofs. It was inevitable that at some point 99856 would combine the wrong types of resin together or something similar, it just didn’t have to happen at the exact moment when she’s the only one around. Focusing, she adds 99856 and 10k to the hive link conversation, and tells the two drones to recap the full story to her.
“Hmm, that sounds far less bad than I expected,” she concludes and broadcasts to everyone, “Come into the throne room, and you can stay here until either the smoke clears up or someone of high rank arrives and says otherwise.”
The throne room contains the hundred-or-so drones easily, but 99 has to immediately rush over to the stove which immediately becomes the first point of interest, mainly because there’s nothing else aside from the throne itself.
“Shoo! Don’t touch it!” she waves a drone who immediately starts tapping its hoof against the metal sheet of the stove in order to figure out what the unknown material is, “10k, deal with this! We already have one fire catastrophe on our hooves.“
“Everyone, clear out a circle around the fireplace!” orders 10k calmly.
An order from a high rank supplanted by the drone leader’s wish immediately makes everyone but 99111 back off, although the tinkerer remains circling around the stove, watching. In light of that, 99 finally asks, “What’s with the extra arm? Does it work? Isn’t an enhancement like that against love-wasting rules?”
“Nope, I grew it over a long time so now it’s not even a transformation. It’s just another limb.”
“Well color me surprised, that’s interesting,” she pokes the arm with her hoof and gets grabbed, “Fully functional too. I guess that in principle it’s the same thing that warriors do by growing their muscles or infiltrators slowly enhancing certain parts of their physiology to achieve a particular look. Might be a fun thing to experiment with, although I’m not sure a bunch of drones running around on spider legs would improve our public image.”
“Hmmm, extra legs you say?” 99111 purses its lips, thinking about the idea, “To defeat the leggy spinners, one must become even leggier.”
“What in all holes is going on here?!” 387’s voice rings through the air as he gallops into the throne room, 65536 standing on its back with its forelegs on his head.
10k, uninterested in 99 questioning 99111, is already there to meet them.
“99856 was experimenting with coal and figured out that our vent system is critically insufficient if we want to start using it. Unfortunately, that means that our cavern will be temporarily unlivable. It probably won’t be for long, but I can’t be sure.”
“Ooooh, that’s great!” 65536 beams, bouncing atop 387 who simply reaches up with his foreleg, bending it into a seemingly impossible angle, grabs the guard drone, and puts it on the floor without it losing an ounce of its enthusiasm, “I asked the Queen if she would give you all an entire worky time off for something special I had planned this Hard Swarming. This is the right time!”
Through their much better hive links, 387 quickly receives the full story about the fire from 99.
“Where is Chrysalis any-”
Two hive links appear out of nowhere, originating from the ceiling and belonging to 156 and the Queen.
“-way? Ah, nice of you to drop by,” the warrior looks up at the two who must have been experimenting with the ‘skip’ leading into the throne room.
“Look, a big floaty high rank!” one drone points up, finally noticing what to it now feels like an omnipresent hive link.
10k facehoofs.
Chrysalis, though, lands directly in front of the offending drone and looks down, her stare intense.
“That’s Queen Big Floaty High Rank to you, 99954,” she says slowly.
“Okay!” 99954 nods cheerfully, “So, everyone, this is Queen Big… Floaty…” its voice grows quieter as its head catches up to its mouth, “Oh goop.”
“Chrysalis, stop-” 387 starts walking over to the Queen but freezes when he catches the glare she shoots him next.
“Warrior 387, you fail to address me properly,” she raises to her full height, towering over the tiny drones as well as the three high ranks.
Without reading 99954’s mind, 387 knows without a shadow of a doubt that the drone’s trying to figure out the fastest way to become invisible.
Chrysalis, I understand that you want to preserve the image of yourself less as a changeling and more as a natural force within the hive, and that you’re acting all haughty and powerful so that the vast majority of the drones who are seeing you for the first time never forget the image. But I also know this ‘you’ would never act like this anymore in a smaller circle even with drones present.
So…
Let me do what I do best.
“Your Majesty!” 387 bows, “As your top security officer, I must inform you about a special, anti-Queen weapon that’s about to be used against you.”
“What?” Chrysalis leans back.
387 grabs 65536 standing by his side and lobs it at Chrysalis.
“65536, HUG ATTACK!”
“YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!” the projectile spreads all four legs which it clamps around Chrysalis’ neck.
“387, I’m going to PEEL YOUR CARAPACE OFF OF YOU BEFORE-!” Chrysalis mentally screams at the warrior.
“Get hugged,” he shoots back with a smug smirk, “I know you’re interacting mostly with high ranks, but I thought you’ve learned by now that earning respect works differently with drones.”
Chrysalis quickly unhooks the little neck-hugger from herself, and sends it flying through the air again with just a quick flick of her hoof. Before anything else can happen, she retreats onto the raised throne and lies down, her eyes shooting daggers at 387. 99 flies up as well, quickly reporting what happened in the HSC while 156 listens through her hive link. When the report’s done, 156 calls several changelings into the darkness of the hive mind.
“Your Majesty. If nothing else, we should consider this incident as a way to combat this winter’s cold,” 156 starts.
“We're bound to require larger vents,” adds 387 as if his stand-off against Chrysalis didn’t happen, “This won’t work with multiple small ones. Especially if we move on from just heating the place up to building a forge in the long run as 10k suggested some time ago. Unfortunately, I’m not versed in how ponies deal with problems like these at present. The industrial technology was vastly different when I used to work outside the hive.”
“I AM! The vents in Canterlot castle are nice and cozy, but Royal Guards get annoyed when I crawl through there, so I don’t do it much, but I still do it,” 65536 beams, “Plus, I know a little bit about basic blacksmithing. All Nightguards have to know how to fix their armor in case a proper blacksmith isn’t around.”
“We do have some ideas about what vent designs are useful in what depth, Your Majesty. Even much deeper than we’ve ever dug,” adds 10k, “Thanks to what we learned from 10101. We, of course, won’t be able to recreate the needed materials, but I think what we need is more the general idea about how to build vents effectively for other purposes than just letting us breathe.”
“It’ll require knowledge we still don’t have, but from what 65536 told me during its previous visit, access to fire is THE requirement for creating materials that don’t rely on goop. This could lower our love usage even further,” 99111 adds its two bits to the conversation.
“I’ve got you a book called the En-cyclops-centipeedia about that- oops!” 65536 clamps its hooves over its mouth, “Awww, that was supposed to be a secret present. Well, now that that’s out, it has some advice for you, 99856, too.”
“Ooooh! I can’t wait to try everything!” the eyes of the final member of the conversation light up, “And I promise I’ll be as far away as possible when I try to light something up,” 99856 finishes the sales pitch.
“I can start working on the planning right now,” says 10k, “And, to check on the fire, I know just the right three drones to periodically run down and tell us how it’s going. Where are they anyway?”
“They were scanning the tunnels with 99380,” explains 99111, instantly catching on to whom 10k means, “It caught my mental message and said it will bring them up here later.”
“Ah yes, the speedrunners,” 156 nods.
“Quicktrotters,” 10k corrects her, “They trot quickly, not run, uhh, speedily.”
“Meh, makes sense,” 156 shrugs.
Chrysalis takes a deep breath and very slowly lets it out.
“None of you, maybe with the exception of mister smartass over here,” she narrows her eyes at 387, “have any idea how risky what you’re suggesting is. Throughout our history, every single time we settled a place to the point where we were visible on a map it only led enemies to us. This hive is a fortress, parts of which are protected against magic that even the alicorns possess, but there are hundred and fifty of us in total. We can’t stop an army, even one without magic. If we screw up here, and if we’re possible to be found, we’re done. 387, you know that our species’ fate was often the responsibility of our Queens, but not always. There are circumstances beyond our control, and prejudices that come with who we are no matter what we do.”
In response, 387 just looks at 65536.
“It will be a challenge, but we’ve been tested before and came out on top. Besides, doesn’t the old saying go like ‘In good times, prepare for bad times’ or something?”
“That’s what 36658 kept saying…” mutters 10k.
“Fine,” Chrysalis sighs, “But 387, I need a proper, objective threat assessment. I mean it this time. I can’t have you favoring drones in this.”
“Your Majesty, you’re forgetting something I’ve been trying to emphasize ever since we started working together - first and foremost, I serve the hive,” the warrior bows.
“Pompous ass,” Chrysalis rolls her eyes and makes everyone’s senses return to the real world.
The warrior takes 10k, 65536, 99111, and 99856 to a corner where he tells them to link up, and they start examining the hive mind map in order to plan the new vent system.
While 99 and 156 wonder what to do with the huddled-up drones waiting for their next instructions, Chrysalis relaxes on the throne. It doesn’t last long before a drone peeks its head through a hole in the back support and, seemingly pleased by the discovery, flies up on the throne to join the Queen who opens a single eye, noticing the white, fluffy cargo on the drone’s back.
“What do you want and why are you hauling that mess with you, 99200?” she asks.
“It’s really cold up here so I want to show you something 65536 taught me!”
“Sure, why not? Amuse me,” Chrysalis shrugs, still not interested enough to open the second eye.
99200 measures her for a while, leaning from side to side to get her dimensions, before it begins fiddling with the load of spiderwebs it brought. Chrysalis doesn’t really try to figure out what the drone is doing, yawns, and closes her eye again. Once the drone wants something, it’ll speak out again.
It doesn’t take long and something soft lands on her.
“Hmm?” she looks at the web covering her.
“It’s a body warmer- uhh a blanket!” 99200 beams. This close to high ranks as well as all the other drones, it’s a lot easier to find the right words.
“Hmm,” Chrysalis examines the makeshift hem connecting three sheets of webbing together. The workmanship is shoddy at best, but the blanket does serve its purpose, “You drones are big on trading, right? What do you want for it?”
“Nothing!” 99200 shakes its head, “It’s Hard Swarming. I heard that you keep letting 65536 come back here every freezy time even though it lives with the ponies and it taught me to make these,” it tugs at the blanket, “So, in a sense, I’m giving back for you letting 65536 teach me. I can get more leggy spinner webs easily during freezy time.”
“I’m satisfied with that. Good job,” Chrysalis is about to let her head rest again when a different drone peeks through a large hole near her tail, sniffs it, and starts chewing on it, “And what in all holes do you think you’re doing?!”
“It’s so full of love!” the drone mumbles through its teeth still harmlessly nibbling on Chrysalis’ teal tail.
“Prepare your wings,” says Chrysalis, eyes narrowing.
“Wh-yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy?” the drone gets flung through the air with a flick of the Queen’s tail.
This proves to be much less of a deterrent than Chrysalis hoped, because the other drones notice and immediately start flying or crawling up the throne.
“Do me! Do me now!” the fastest one bites down on the tail, “READY!”
This time she doesn’t even bother with a warning and throws the drone away again, hitting three others on its way who don’t seem discouraged by it at all.
“Me next!” yells someone.
“156, ASSIST ME! YOUR QUEEN IS BEING VICIOUSLY ATTACKED!” calls out Chrysalis, surrounded by a ball of drones.
The infiltrator looks up from her conversation with 99 and, with glacial calm, kicks the can down the road:
“387, the enemy is too numerous! This calls for a warrior.”
387 groans and interrupts the vent planning process.
“DRONES!” he raises his voice, which makes every head turn towards him. Everything goes silent with the exception of buzzing wings of the hovering drones, “Don’t forget that she is THE QUEEN. That means that only the best and biggest hug pile will satisfy her.”
With a somewhat genuinely furious scream of-
“THREE-EIGHT-SEVEEEEEEEEN!”
-Chrysalis drowns under a pile of drones.
The warrior turns back to his small group.
“So, where were we?”