• Published 24th Oct 2014
  • 17,752 Views, 1,257 Comments

Culling of the Hives - law abiding pony



The changeling hives have always warred with each other to cull the weak. With Twilight Sparkle's announcement still echoing with the other hives, it is time once again to separate the chaff from the wheat.

  • ...
36
 1,257
 17,752

Bonus: Magical Engineering

Author's Note:

I wrote this SoL bonus chapter to not only give some extra characterization to low screen time characters, but to give a drama breather as well. Since there is little here that will impact future chapters, if and when I get around to making that bonus story, I'll likely move this chapter there. That's enough prattling, onwards!

Cargo Bay Two was typically very clean, very orderly, and very exact despite the regular visits from the crew to take or store supplies. Just like the prideful Quartermaster Darktail liked it.

This fine morning however, the lavender drone walked into her normally pristine cargo bay to find it crowded by four large blue animals, and a mixture of hay and straw completely covering the ordinarily shiny floors. The reek of cow pies and a smell not unlike wet dog drowning out the once pleasant lemon pine scent augmented with a delightful hint of oily lubricant. To top it all off, the deep belly, yet nonaggressive, growls and moans from the spiky animals rivaled the Deception’s normally endearing engine hum.

Darktail stood at the entrance to her once immaculate cargo bay, a paragon of order, with a ghastly scowl fixated on the blue drone with a brow so furrowed it might cause scarring. The object of her fury was hovering next to one of the beasts. <THUNDERFURRRRRRY! When we get back home, you better help clean every last minute piece of straw and dung out of my cargo bay or so help me I’ll personally wring your hide!>

The growling mare caught Blitz’s attention as she was cantering by on her way back from breakfast. She took one look at the cargo bay and promptly fell off the ceiling laughing her head off. “Damn Darktail, I thought you were a neat freak.”

“I am, and proud of it.” she bit back through clenched teeth.

<Shh, I’m trying to concentrate, and besides, this is all for the good of the hive and the Alliance,> Thunderfury replied at length before returning his attention to the bull talbuk. A clipboard, an inkpot and quill, along with his trusty abacus were all held aloft in his magic as he looked deeply into the animal’s unfocused eyes.

Darktail spouted more obscenities at Thunderfury, but he was too focused on his work to notice. Blitz however perked her ears up at the rather inspired tirade, and took mental notes to remember some of the verbal barbs. Both mares entered the cargo bay, one out of indignation with the other out of curiosity. The lone stallion in the bay registered neither of them. “Intelligence Test number twelve…” He said while simultaneously writing it down and clicking a bead on his abacus to the other side. “Okay mister male talbuk… note to self: ask Rasua for talbuk terminology. For now, using cow terms.” He looked up in contemplation while tapping the quill on his chin before he began writing again. “Addendum: find out why cow and minotaur terms are the same thing. Connotation of similar evolutionary path?”

“Would you stop that, and actually promise me you’ll clean up this mess!?” Darktail blustered once she finally reached earshot. “I have a very tight schedule to keep, and that doesn’t involve spiny blue dung factories!” She turned away with more green than lavender in her face. “I think the smell is going to make me puke.”

“You gotta admit, TF, this whole place is going to need to be aired out for like a week when we get back.” Having nothing smaller in her satchel, Blitz grabbed a vice and squeezed her nose shut.

Thunderfury bit his lower lip. He had been thankfully ignoring the smell by throwing himself into his work, and the reminder only made the stench return in full force. “Come on, girls, it’s the dead of winter, and the cargo bay’s barely above freezing. All the dirt and grime in their coat helps keep them warm. You know we can’t heat the entire ship. Just the living quarters and mess hall.” He started petting the bull’s head with calming strokes, eliciting a gentle rumble from the beast. “Besides, if these guys pass their intelligence test, then they’re entitled to just as much creature comforts as the rest of us.” Blitz didn’t really care either way and just shrugged from her hovering position. Darktail’s glowering face and wrathful aura finally made him remember that she had been giving him a demand the whole time. He looked at her with one ear half hanging to one side with the other rigidly straight. “Yes, I promise to help clean up.”

Darktail’s scowl started to abate at his unwitting charm as both mares melted at his completely natural sad puppy dog face. “You’re lucky you ended up being so cute as a boy.” Darktail pulled him into a rough longing kiss, joyfully feeding off his spicy electric love which had grown more intense since he had become a stallion. “See you tonight? Your bunk?”

“Ahhh…” Thunderfury rummaged around his tool belt to pull out a small booklet and flipped to a middle page. “Sorry, Counterspell already scheduled for tonight.” He gave her an apologetic look. “You know how he hates threesomes, even if we didn’t have small bunks.”

Blitz prodded Darktail in the withers. “And you can forget tomorrow night too. Aegis and I got him then,” she said with anticipation in her eyes.

“Gah!” Darktail angrily kicked some straw around. “The Queen-Mothers should make threesomes mandatory. Gotta share, gotta care am I right?” She huffed and her mood wasn’t helped by his helpless shrug and Blitz’s lopsided grin.

“I can tell Resta to wait until Saturday’s regular checkup. If I go last that day, it shouldn’t interfere with her job.” His tone became moderately pleading. “You know how she is. Between overworking herself and creating salve all day, she needs more love than anypony around… well royals notwithstanding,” he added with a helpless shrug.

“Yeah, fine, point made.” Darktail eyed the talbuk lazily chewing on his cud. “I guess that’d make up for trashing my cargo bay. A bit.”

“It’s for a good cause,” Thunderfury whined with sad puppy dog eyes. Darktail refused to be suckered in by them and averted her gaze, causing Blitz to giggle madly. Seeing that he bought some time, Thunderfury’s gaze returned to his clipboard and then scooched his stool to be closer to the bull’s face. “Anyway, if you’re only here to yell at me, could you reschedule that too, so it doesn’t rile up the talbuks? The stablemaster only gave me enough sedative so they wouldn’t mind travel aboard ship.”

Darktail had to think on it for a minute as Thunderfury closely examined the animal’s eyes. Eventually she groaned and cantered back to the exit. “Fine, have fun with your spiky friends. I have to reorganize cargo bay one after somepony decided to shove all my perfectly organized crates around to make a hoofball court!”

Blitz twirled a lock of her prismatic mane with a hoof. “I can help,” she directed at Thunderfury. “Work’s pretty light right now, and Aegis is busy getting hand lessons from Rasua, so there’s not that much for me to do until we get back home.”

Without looking away from the talbuk, Thunderfury levitated his clipboard over. “Awesome. Write down my findings would you, please?”

“Alrighty.” Blitz replied cheerfully while taking the clipboard and other items into her magic. There’s no way I’m landing. I might end up with crap on, or worse, in my leg holes. She skimmed the densely packed words already written on several pages. “It seems like these guys don’t have much more than a blip on the ol intelligence chart.”

When the talbuk failed to show any interest in the assortment of colorful basic shapes Thunderfury held in front of the bull’s eyes, he sighed a reply. “No, it doesn’t look like it. The sedatives are only there to keep them calm enough to travel. I can try again once we get them out into open pastures, but I’m not holding out much hope.”

“Well then it looks like the sphinxes were selling them as advertised: big ol dumb beasts of burden.”

The bull snorted loudly and moved towards one of the three females. Both drones winced as the bull started getting amorous, with Blitz giving her brother a bemused look. “I thought you said they were sedated.”

“They are,” he deadpanned with an arched eyebrow at the bull. “I think something like this was mentioned in the manual the stablemaster sold me.” Thunderfury gathering his things and taking to the air. “How about we collate my finding over some tea? A few of our siblings promised to watch over the animals for the day and should be here any second now.”

Logically, Blitz felt rather odd how the instinctual actions of a couple of animals made her ill-at-ease, and yet walking in on her siblings doing the same acts wouldn’t faze her in the least. I can ponder the mysteries of double standards later. “Sounds good, but you better shower first.” A particularly bad smell wafted over her nose. Ugh, I think I need a shower just from being here.

Blitz zipped away, leaving Thunderfury to sniff and recoil at his hooves. <Right. Good idea.>


As it turned out, pouring over data about a field of study you not only have zero experience, and only a cursory interest in, proved to be a laborious task that tea only barely assisted with. Never the less, Blitz plowed through it, if only to have an excuse to remain close to Thunderfury. It really sucks our clutch all ended up going different paths. We really only get to see each other every other weekend.

“The cows scored really well on following the commands the stable master told us about, but they don’t seem to respond at all to anything else,” Thunderfury said out of the blue. Blitz looked up from her notes to see Thunderfury was scratching his chin, looking for all intents and purposes to have not a care in the world.

“Maybe Aunty Applejack would be better at finding any spark of intelligence,” Blitz suggested while sending a link request to the mess hall’s galley staff for more tea. “Assuming there’s one to be found at all.” Thunderfury nodded silently, letting the conversation fade away.

The mess hall itself was busy with well over two dozen drones chatting away in both the physical plane and via the Link. The furniture consisted of bolted down round tables and mass produced metal chairs with worn down cushions barely a pancake thick. The ever present thrum of the engines and the hiss of steam felt like a small piece of the hive, giving both Blitz and Thunderfury a longing to return home.

When Thunderfury didn’t answer right away, Blitz let him be. She smiled in delight when a fresh pot of tea arrived and quickly thanked the overworked waitress. Pouring, Blitz refilled both of their cups and started nursing her own. Idly, she let her mind wander the hive mind and thought she’d check in on one of the very few persistent linkscapes across the hive mind.

The Deception’s mess hall faded away as Blitz’s consciousness was thrust into a massive forum with information kiosks evenly spread out for half a kilometer. The ground beneath her hooves was grated metal, below which a maze of gears and pistons churned away. The kiosks were completely covered in post-it notes of all the latest developments and announcements. Only the queens were capable of hive-wide verbal announcements. To get around that limitation, everyone else came here.

Hundreds of lavender, sky blue, and grey drones came and went, each reading various tidbits of information. Some stopped to chat with friends or discuss issues. It didn’t matter which kiosk Blitz went to, as all of the posted notes were identical between them. The strain of keeping this information center running at all hours was a taxing effort, so a cadre of specially tailored drones was bred for fabricating and holding persistent Linkscapes together so the queens were free to focus on other events.

Blitz appeared near the crowded ceiling. The whole room was well lit, but aside from a few dim lamps, there was no discernable light source. I don’t know who will really care, but I might as well post our findings on the talbuks.

Finding the closest kiosk, Blitz flew over and reached for one of the blocks of notes and grabbed one to start writing down. A quill manifested into reality at her whim and she labeled the note appropriately before it expanded and continued to do so the longer she wrote.

She got half way done when Gentle Touch appeared in the center kiosk and grabbed a microphone to, in effect, cheat her way into making a mass vocal announcement across the archives. “Attention all factory workers and engineers of Phoenix’s Roost. Starting next week, all factories and work equipment will be limited to biannual upgrades only. The budget can’t handle constant equipment replacement every time an incremental improvement is discovered. Upgrades from here on will be staggered. See Directive 8B-0531 for further details. That is all.”

Bummer, Blitz mused morosely. There go my plans to implement my latest version of Aegis’ finger design. Buuut I guess that means I have more time to further refine it.

Blitz put the finishing touches on her talbuk findings and discarded the quill after signing her name to the document. She gave it to the drone manning the kiosk. “Don’t copy it all just yet. My clutchmate Thunderfury should be here soon to add more to it.”

The grey secretary nodded and tucked the document below her seat. “I’ll be sure he’s sent here when he arrives at the archive.”

As if on cue, Thunderfury appeared by her side. “There you are! Oh cool, you already started posting the data, thanks!”

Identifying him immediately, the secretary retrieved Blitz’s post-it note and gave it to Thunderfury who started adding to it right away. Blitz grinned sheepishly and brushed a lock of red and orange hair out of her eyes. “Just trying to help.”

Thunderfury engrossed himself in copying down all that he had learned, along with drawing a little doodle of the talbuks with exaggerated smiley faces and horns a bit longer than normal. There was something to be said about drones who were less than five years of age.

The grey secretary noticed, but did not react to Blitz’s dreamy eyes, and Thunderfury being wholly ignorant of it. I swear, these love-drones are the weirdest bunch of loonies I’ve ever seen. A few minutes later Thunderfury gave the document back to the secretary and she gave an unamused hum at the doodle. Mother, what have you wrought by mixing ponies with us changelings?

Blitz couldn’t hide her huge grin once Thunderfury looked back at her. “So what do you wanna do now?”

“Hmm. I should probably tune up my tech-shields. That sphinx’s jaw I plowed through must have been denser than I thought, because the arcane wing emitters have been spotty ever since.”

“Ha!” Blitz cheered with a competitive smirk and pointed at herself. “Momma hasn’t had a better engineer than me yet! I’d love to see what I can do for you. Why don’t you bring the shields to my workshop?”

Thunderfury’s face lit up like the sun. “Really?! You’d do that for me?”

“Of course, silly. What are siblings for, right?” Blitz shot him a winning smile. Sure I was supposed to be reviewing Aegis’ spare gauntlets, but I’m sure she won’t mind.


The pair downed their tea and pinged the waitress before leaving. Blitz all but blasted her way into her workshop while shuffling for the light. The workshop was the same calculated level of order as she left it the night previously. As expected, since no one had been in the workshop since Blitz’s last visit. It helped that this particular machine shop was not the primary engineering bay for fixing and repair work aboard the warship, so it only saw light use outside of battle.

Okay, I’ve got like five minutes before TF gets back from the armory. She raced over to her primary tool chest and pulled out several large heavy drawers. Within each were racks upon racks of carefully calibrated tools of the trade. Sadly, her fairly young age meant that she was only truly proficient in less than a quarter of them. Both queen-mothers were under the belief that every drone had to strike a balance between Link gifted knowledge and real working experience, hence why Blitz was so specialized in one field.

I hope I can actually do something to help. She scratched behind her ear. Well, besides just repairing the thing. She cringed at the thought of being in over her head as she sifted through her tools, making doubly sure she knew where everything was. What if I can’t even repair it!? I’m good at robotics and Aegis’ armor, not tech-shields. I’d never even heard of a tech shield until Thunder told me about it! What if it’s totally beyond me that not even a brain dump could help me!?

Blitz was about to ping the hive mind to get that very information, but she stopped herself and started nervously biting her hooves. I can’t do that! What if Thunder hears my request and finds out I don’t know anything about his shields? Then he’ll go somewhere else to get them fixed, and my chances will be ruined!

“Hey, Blitz.”

“Ahhh!” Blitz jumped out of her skin and into the air before she turned around to find Thunderfury at the door with his shields.

He looked at her with bemusement. “Should… I come back later, maybe?”

“No no no no,” Blitz gushed as she flashed what she hoped was a composed smile, but it only served to make her look a little loony. “I was just making sure everything is good to go for you and your shield!”

It was only now that Blitz finally registered the two items held in the stallion’s rich cerise colored magic. She'd never seen them before, but they didn't seem too different compared to most things she was used to working on. That allowed her to calm down a little. Thunderfury played it off as if he didn’t notice her sweating profusely. I’m sure she’ll do fine… or at least not damage my babies. Plus, she might do better if I wasn’t watching. Sis gets all weird when we’re alone… aside from mattress gymnastics anyway.

“I’d love to watch you work, but the guys down at the cargo bay’ve been telling me the talbuks have been getting rowdy, so I need to try and help calm them down.” He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as Blitz’s mood visibly deflated. “Sides, I know how to wield them, but repairing work like my shields is above me.”

“Oh…” Blitz’s ears and face wilted, then she realized what good fortune his absence was. That means I can ping for the shield’s inventor without him noticing! “Ah, well, that’s okay. I should have your shields all fixed up before too long then.”

Thunderfury carefully placed his tech-shields on the nearest clear workbench. “Great, see ya soon.” He slid past Blitz, but not before planting a loving kiss on her cheek. “love ya, sis.”

“Love you too.” Although Thunderfury didn’t see it as he left, Blitz placed a hoof on the cheek, and swooned. Blitz had been kissed plenty of times before, and her libido rivaled that of even Aegis herself, but this was from her, admittedly, favorite clutchmate. As if logic needed even more reasons to shake its head at her, she had been with Thunderfury more times than she could count in this year alone. Even in a society where love was plentiful and free, she still treasured Thunderfury’s the most by far.

Blitz felt a warm smile grace her features. He trusts me with his weapons. If Aegis is anything to go by, warriors love their weapons almost as much as the queen-mothers themselves. A great weight of responsibility and duty fell on her shoulders, but now she felt the drive and will to bear it.

She turned to the shields with that same grin shifting to smugness. “Right, as if I’d let him down. Let’s do this!” She looked around for paper and a quill. Okay, as second-momma Twilight always says: checklists are the key to organized success.

“Let’s see,” she thought aloud as she started scribbling. “First up, get info from the designer. I’m sure Uncle Ratchet knows. Second, find the break, third fix the break, fourth, profit!” Her grin faded as she reviewed her list. “…Maybe I need more detail than that. Well, I still need to talk to the designer first either way.”

Clearing her mind, and failing, Blitz focused her mind’s eye on Ratchet. <Uncle Ratchy, are you busy?>

The grey stallion hissed as the boiler he was working on suddenly blew a gasket and started rattling horribly with steam beginning to rupture out of several pipes. “Somepony shut it down, do it now!” He and three other engineers raced to use enough ice magic to cool the boiler down before it exploded or the scalding high-pressure steam could obscure the whole factory.

The boiler banged and clattered deafeningly as the titanic forces within stressed the metalwork to its limits. A drone by the control board sweated profusely as she looked at the dials. “The fire’s out… And… the pressure build up is slowing. It’s stable!”

Once the machine was safe, Ratchet groaned irately. “Damn it all! Okay, boys and girls, take it apart and find out what went wrong; three pints to the one who finds it, a keg if you can correct it by sundown.”

He pulled an oily rag and wiped up some of the sweat and grime from his face, only now realizing someone had been pinging him incessantly. The fact that it was such a formal ping, finally grabbed his attention. Blitz – Scion of Rainbow Dash – Engineer 5th class – robotics division.

Formal pings were considered by most to be a better form of ‘hello’ than that word alone. Both sending and reading the pings was taught during nymphhood as a training method for sharpening the mind. For one of Ratchet’s age, reading a formal ping took less than a second. <Look kid, unless somepony is dead or dying, this isn’t a good time.>

Uh oh, he only gets like that when things explode. Blitz did her best to keep a business tone. <I need information on Thunderfury’s tech shields.>

Ratchet was stopped short on giving his next orders to his crew. Thunderfury? He’s part of First Squad for the Jevruun Vrunningee. <Well that changes things>, he said while going from irritated to stoic. <I remember Rainbow commissioning the equipment personally, and if I recall correctly, it was Slag Filter who got the assignment. She’s always good at filing her paperwork correctly. If this is just to do some repair work, go to the archive and ask for document MFA – 4515-0. That stuff isn’t classified above your rank.>

Blitz sighed in relief, her elation evident in her tone. <Thank you, Uncle.>

<Uh huh, if you need anything beyond that, ask Slag Filter herself.> He started barking orders to the clean-up team to make sure they didn’t damage anything, and effectively dismissed Blitz.

Not that she noticed as her mind was already back in the archives and obtained the document within half an hour. Once her consciousness returned to the workshop, Blitz finally looked at the shields on the bench.

They were lying face up on the mana-inert resin bench. They bore a slight concave with an overall teardrop shape. Blitz noticed there was a stylized bird, a phoenix she assumed, on the bottom with its burning wings flared to form the edges of the lower half. Arcing lightning was painted along the top of an otherwise navy blue shield. She looked at the other shield to find the same pattern. No doubt to keep enemies from guessing that each shield has a different purpose. I wonder how often Thunderfury has to repaint this between sparring practice. To the untrained eye, there was no visible evidence of the hardened and thin machine within the shield’s contours.

Now that Blitz had knowledge straight from the designer’s notes, she knew the tracing lines were more like minute channels that ran along the entire length of the shields in jagged harsh angles. They still possessed a strange beauty about them, though. Yes… these are the amplification channels. These help enhance the force of the arcane wing at the expense of costing more mana to maintain. The notes said the emitters were along the back though.

Blitz attempted to turn the shield over, but found her telekinesis slipped all around the shield, but failed to grab hold of it. “What the? Is it supposed to do that?”

She browsed deeper into the notes, only to find a single line on the issue.

As per protocol RD – info-sec – 0192, the weapons have been attuned to react only to the royals linked to the commissioner, Queen Rainbow Dash, and the owner.

“Oh that’s just great!” Blitz growled. “Well there's a practical use for Aegis' hands.”

As every other changeling before her, save her mother, Blitz was spoiled by telekinesis and had difficulty flipping the shield over so she could see the underside. There she found several prongs with the tell-tale reddish hue of Quadrinix alloys. The prongs themselves were arrayed in a grid pattern and were barely an inch high. Obviously not meant to be held with a hoof… or hands for that matter.

“Well the emitters are embedded within the shield, so I’ll need a mana probe to find the problem,” she thought aloud while rifling through the proper drawer. Despite its simple name, each mana probe was calibrated to possess an identifying carrier wave when a changeling used it. In effect, the shield would only reveal its secrets to Twilight’s bloodline of hybrid changelings wielding this mass produced tool.

Blitz felt her magical senses pass through the probe and into the depths of the shield. Hmmm… let’s see. According to the notes, the emitters should hold steady at 10 joules from the probe’s current setting. Starting from the top to the bottom, Blitz moved methodically across the shield until she found what she was looking for. Two emitters just shy of the center area were reading at 9.2 joules.

Pleased with herself so far, Blitz continued along the rest of the shield to make sure the rest of the emitters were functioning. Okay, now according to the notes, this means there could be other problems causing the emitters to underperform. I better follow the guidelines by the numbers.

Over an hour passed before her scanning was complete. Her own thoroughness and excitement kept her enamored with the shield’s exquisite construction. With a gentle grin, Blitz rubbed her chin as she contemplated a way to fix the error without going into the notes again. Can’t challenge myself if I keep looking at someone else’s notes. So the problem was that the emitter had improperly mixed alloy, which made it too brittle to smash into a sphinx skull. Far too weak for a shield in any situation.

She smirked as an idea sparked in her head. “I bet my grey aunts and uncles would say the whole weapon is a wash, but they don’t know Quadrinix like I do.”

After working on Aegis’ armor for as long as she did, Blitz always kept a stock of carbonated water and acid batteries in the workshop. It might damage the paint, but I think TF can forgive me this once… I hope.

Pulling out the same large container she had worked on Aegis’ armor in, Blitz started pouring in the carbonated water, and set up the batteries to electrify the water. Once that was done, she crunched the data in her mind and on several pieces of paper. So, there’s too much iron and not enough carbon in the emitter. So I need a mana tunneler to keep from damaging the healthy metal.

Blitz used her magic to grab two clamps to place on the shield’s prongs and carefully dropped it into the water. From there, she unlocked the swing arm bearing the two meters square mana tunneler. Missing lunch entirely, it took her two and a half hours after that to calibrate the tunneler to her exacting specifications, and another hour just to make sure her calculations were absolutely correct.

Blitz held her twenty page long checklist, the last page consisting of ‘recheck the checklist’, as she finally reached the last page’s first check. “Correct the error.”

Taking a deep calming breath, Blitz connected the circuit to electrify the water and channeled her magic into the tunneler. The various instruments she had set up started measuring the metal composition, its structure, and a timer set to cut off the tunneler with more precision than Blitz could do alone.

By the time the clock cut the tunneler off, Blitz was tired, sweaty, and felt drained to the point of collapse. But it was done. Breathlessly, Blitz cut the electricity and took the shield out using the clamps. She levitated it back over to the workbench and used an electro-void stone to quickly pull all remaining traces of mana out before it could become detrimental to the metal.

Once the shield was dried off, Blitz frowned sadly at the ruined paint. The phoenix and lightning was reduced to a thick morass that was slowly trying to fall off the sides of the shield. “Yeaaaa… mana tunneling saves the surrounding metal, but doesn’t do much for salve-resin based paint.”

Before she could even think of what to do about it, there was a knock on the door, accompanied by Thunderfury’s ping over the hive mind. Blitz nearly freaked the instant Thunderfury’s smiling face barged its way into her workshop. “Heyya, Blitz, sorry I was gone for so long. The guys wanted me to watch the animals for the entire afternoon shift cause of a favor I owed them.”

Blitz buzzed into a low hover in front of the shields. “Oh that’s no problem. I actually, um, just finished fixing the problem…”

Thunderfury caught onto her saddening expression, and tried to counter it with joviality. “Wow, all in one day? I thought you’d have to tear it apart or tell me to live with the defect.” He fully entered the room carting a take-out box of steaming food. “I brought you some of the meatloaf they were serving since no pony had seen you around.”

A thundering growl from Blitz’s stomach made her blush furiously enough to land and cover her belly with a foreleg. “Thanks, I guess I got carried away.” The act revealed the shields behind her. Thunderfury’s excitement shot up and he quickly levitated the food to rest on the side of the bench.

“But you’re finished right?” he asked as he flew over to inspect her work, only to quietly whine at the state of the shield’s paint job. Blitz started biting her hooves as Thunderfury cradled the shield in his forelegs. What used to be a beautiful work of art had been reduced to a befuddled mess of colors. “It’s practically destroyed.” Blitz whimpered at him while he took the shield full into his magic to test it out.

Thunderfury’s scowl slowly turned into a sullen expression as he tested multiple styles of Arcane Wing on the shield. “Well, the paint’s trashed, but the shield feels as good as new.” He turned to Blitz after putting the shield down and squashed her into a massive hug. Despite his grave displeasure at the ruined paintwork, the shield itself was worth far more. “Thanks for all your work, sis. I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”

Relief flooded Blitz and she sunk into the loving embrace, even if it was tinted with the bitter spice of irritation. Some of her snarkiness forced its way to the surface. “No, it wasn’t. I still haven’t had a chance to clean up the mess.” He looked around to find the basin of water that sloshed gently to the sway of the ship along the air currents. The mana tunneler still hung low over their heads while electrical wires were wrapped tightly around the basin. His indignation at the melted paint waned as Blitz telekinetically removed the wires from the batteries and placed the glass covers back onto the leads. He could tell just by her weaker love stream that his sister was heavily fatigued.

“So it seems.” He detached himself to look at his shield again. “I’m no artist, but I can always have Fresca repaint it. She already agreed to fix it whenever the paint got too mucked up.”

Whew, that’s a load off. With the most potentially dangerous items stored away, Blitz tore into the meatloaf while Thunderfury tested the mana weight of the restored item.

He took both shields into his mana and move over to a mildly open corner of the machine shop and started practicing various defensive stances. Blitz watched his lithe movements with a smile masked by the heavily salted food she stuffed into her maw. Thunderfury chafed at how little room he had to work with. He was constantly having to curtail his movements to avoid bumping into things, but the smoothness of how his mana flowed through the repaired shield excited him to no end. “It’s a lot more responsive now. I love it!”

Gushing with pride, Blitz watched her brother give the best form of flattery her line of work could produce: a client happy with her work. As she ate, a thought occurred to her. I wonder if I’ll have the time to get more in-depth knowledge of embedded mana emitters. I could improve Aegis’ armor like that one day.

Such thoughts sailed to the back of her mind as food and her brother’s martial exercises resumed the forefront. Getting tired of the cramped space, and not wanting to accidentally hit something fragile, Thunderfury stopped practicing. “Why don’t we go to the cargo bay? I can show you some of my moves while also keeping an eye on the talbuks.”

The idea of being near those stinky animals made Bitz wrinkle her nose, but the prospect of seeing her brother’s lithe movements with the shields was greatly enticing. “I’d love to, right after I finish cleaning up around here.”

It was not long before the clutchmates were in the cargo bay again. One enjoying his repaired tools of war, while Blitz was happy just to see him happy. The show lasted until sleep finally beckoned them for the night.

At least that’s how it happened with Thunderfury. Before Blitz could bed down for the night, Rainbow Dash’s voice bounced in her head. <Hey, Blitz, glad I caught ya before you went to sleep. I need to speak with you in my quarters.>

Blitz gave Ferrum and his cot a forlorn look. <Right away, my queen.> She leaned down to whisper to him so she wouldn’t bother the hundred other drones in the crew quarters. “Sorry Ferrum, I’ll be back later, mother wants me.”

He nodded and pulled out a spell book from under the bed. “That’s cool, I’ll wait for you.”

“Thanks.” With that, Blitz hurried through the ship as the night shift took over. It wasn’t long before she found herself in front of Rainbow’s quarters, the two Queens’ Guards nodded to her and let her pass.

Despite her history in the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash was even more informal than Twilight Sparkle, outside of military action at least. Even so, Blitz entered the queen’s quarters and stood at rigid attention near the door as it closed behind her.

Rainbow’s quarters were covered in maps of the Jungle and all the surrounding lands around Alliance territory. Several books of military tactics and logistic strategy were piled everywhere with a few trashy romance novels hidden within a few Daring Do books. The blue queen herself was shamelessly guzzling royal tea straight from the pot. She wiped her muzzle dry and faced Blitz with a sly grin. “Come on, is that any way to greet me?”

Blitz’s stoic posture melted to bubbling giddiness and she flew over to glomp her mother into a bear hug. Missing an hour or so of sleep was well worth the cost of Rainbow’s intoxicating love. Rainbow squashed her daughter right back for a minute before letting go. “Alright, Squirt, I called you up here because I didn’t want you freaking out and pissing off the other drones.”

Blitz grew heavily concerned and fell into a hover so she’d be slightly below eye level with her queen-mother. That concern shifted into confusion as she spoke. “Freak out about what?”

“Well it’s like this,” Rainbow started with a steady tone so she betrayed nothing. “Twilight and I’ve been thinking about a bunch of stuff, namingly Aegis and her future hive.”

Rainbow fixed Blitz with a knowing smirk. “I gotta say first though, this is not an order, nor is it a request. I am simply giving you an offer.” Rainbow purposely trailed off to leave Blitz hanging in suspense. “How would you like to enter the running to be my first royal daughter and counterpart to Aegis?”

Now back to your regularly(HA!) scheduled plot chapters.