1988, 9999: 13
Despite the shaken detachment caused by 57999’s words fading away only slowly, 9999’s reassurance that it will think of… something sounds far more genuine than it feels in the drone’s mind. Think of what, though?
“So, we’re supposed to stay here until 1988 returns…” it says instead, leaving the end of the sentence hanging.
“And we’re not allowed to bother 17070 until it’s ready to show us what it’s doing,” adds 20100.
“Nap?” 36658 offers the usual solution to undefined time. It’s like worky time and sleepy time back home, but adapted for their current circumstances. One exchange of glances and nods later, the drones simply curl up, yawn, and close their eyes.
Left alone, 9999 sighs.
“So I’m a high rank now, huh? Sure doesn’t feel like it…”
What can a DRONE really do when faced with the rules of the hive and orders from high ranks?
Something wet and warm slips along the tip of its ear, making 9999 gasp. Considering that the usual reaction of a spooked drone is a panicked dash in the opposite direction, a small part of 9999 which keeps its cool makes it simply turn its head and face the Silent that just licked its ear.
“Do you need anything?” asks 9999 despite knowing that there’s no way it can get an answer. The Silent stops moving entirely, clearly required to drop everything else in order to process such a complex question.
Both corners of its mouth curl up.
It’s mouth cracks open to show its teeth.
The rest of its face remains completely blank.
It looks at 9999, possibly… expecting something to happen?
“Is it that obvious?” asks 9999 quietly, “I was trying to not let it show, but I have no idea what to do. They believe I can change things now. The best thing I can do is still the same thing I did before - pull someone from under a cave-in, throw the biggest rock I can find at a pursuing skittery cruncher, or in the worst case just jump in the way of something dangerous and try to dig it. They want to go back home, I can feel it. They miss digging, they miss the tunnels, they miss the surprise of finding something new to trade, they even miss the occasional escape from monsters. But they just want all that without knowing that their worst enemies are other starving changelings. You know what they would love the most? If they could spend half of their day up here, in the world of color and ponies who like them, and then go underground to dig up some tunnels for the hive and do all the moving our eggs need. Holes, with enough love from the ponies I doubt they’d even bother sleeping,” 9999 sighs, “But that’s just not how the world works. I can’t make that happen.”
The Silent resumes processing before standing up, walking over to the bug zapper, and turning it on and back off a few times before pointing at 9999 who does a passable impression of the Silent’s blank face. Not losing the smile plastered on its face, it brings the zapper and puts it down directly between 9999’s forelegs.
“Why did you bring the zap- shiny…” breathes out 9999, correcting itself when it realizes what the Silent is trying to gesture at… probably, “Not you too,” it shakes its head.
The Silent remains staring and smiling.
“Fine. If you’re so intent on me being Shiny Bringer, then I’ll call you Smiley,” 9999 jabs the larger Silent’s chest.
No response. It seems that Smiley’s mind has exhausted its limited options.
With nothing more to do and unwilling to bother 17070, 9999 simply sits down, turns the bug zapper on, and begins looking into the blue glow.
***
“HA!”
The single syllable of victory wakes up the entirety of dronedom in the clearing with the exception of 9999 curled up near a bank. The sun is casting rays of light through the canopy, it’s warm, and the forest is alive with sounds that the drones can’t identify.
17070, the source of said ‘ha!’, turns away from its secluded stump, presenting a smoothed out, brown bowl to the drones. The smarter ones immediately look at the penetrated portalling helmet lying next to the stump.
“A new helmet?” 20100 voices the shared thought, transmitting its question through the hive link to the deaf drone simultaneously.
“Nu uh,” 17070 shakes its head with so much vigor that the small pouch around its neck bounces back and forth, “It’s a bowl! Mostly made from a thingy ponies called iron and it totally shouldn’t blow up this time.”
“Woooow!” the drones fanned out in front of 17070 gasp.
“I cleaned off the brown dust all over the pieces I got and baked it into only a tiny bit of goop and dissolved iron. It’s not like the helmet that’s just a pot that’s got goop all over it, this is a totally new kind of goop!” explains 17070, beaming with excitement, “Now I’m gonna try to make nice smelling cooking like Miss Ladle does!”
“Ooooh!” 36658 nods, “I’ve been around the camp when she was cooking and it did smell delicious. Can we eat it, though?”
“You eat bark, buddy,” 57999 jabs it in the side.
“Point taken.”
“Now all we need is to make fire,” 17070 mutters while looking at the empty fire pit, “That might be a challenge.”
All present drones exchange glances before bursting into laughter.
Some twenty minutes and totally no unauthorized leaving the camp later, the pile of sticks inside the circle of rocks is burning under Smiley’s hooves holding the changeling bowl now containing water. Thankfully, changeling chitin is a fairly good material for heat insulation.
“Oookay,” 17070 rubs its temples, digging through its memory, “Now I’ll start adding tasty dusts and then it should start smelling nice and we should all enjoy it.”
“So, you don’t need anything right now?” asks 36658.
“Nope,” 17070 shakes its head.
“Good, because brighty floaters!” 36658 scuttles towards the others standing around 9999, who is sleeping in a ray of sunlight so hard that there’s a whole bunch of colorful butterflies sitting on its heated up black carapace, opening and closing their wings.
“You don’t think the brighty floaters are eating High Score, right?” asks 57999.
“No way!” 20100 shakes its head, “They’re like tiny almost-shinies, so they’re probably trying to understand the Shiny Bringer’s wisdom.”
“Should we do something like that too?”
“Maybe,” 36658 spreads its wings under the direct sunlight to imitate the butterflies, “like th-”
Everyone gasps as its fly-like wings scatter the light into a corona of infinite dancing colors.
“The Shiny Bringer taught brighty floaters to bring shiny too!” 57999’s jaw drops before it immediately spreads its wings, adding even more colors to the mix.
“High Score made the brighty floaters show us the shiny ways!” 20100 joins in.
Disturbed by three changeling drones now buzzing their wings, the butterflies fly away as 9999 wakes up and gives the trio a confused look.
“What’s up, guys?”
“ThankyouforsendingbrightyfloaterstoshowusthewayShinyBringer!” blurts out 20100 before stopping, looking around, and adding, “We gotta find more signs!”
“You’re right!” 36658 nods.
“MORE SECRETS OF THE SHINY!” 57999 starts running around the clearing after giving one more look to 9999 and adding, “I’m super sorry for calling you a high rank in a bad way. You are High Score and even as a high rank you are the one true Shiny Bringer and I’ll never doubt you again!”
“What in all holes did I miss?” 9999 just sits there, dumbfounded.
“HOW COULD WE HAVE BEEN SO BLIND?!” cries out 20100, chasing a group of fleeing flies, “Get over here, mini buzzers! I just saw you make shinies with your wings too! THERE ARE SHINIES EVERYWHERE!”
On the slightly dimmer edge of the clearing, 36658 examines more flies lying motionless on some sort of white… thingy.
“Hey, there’s more mini buzzers here but these ain’t moving,” 36658 pokes the white thingy which sticks to its hoof, “Waaait, this is oddly familiar and I don’t like it…”
Several spiders crawl over to 36658 from the edges of the ripped spiderweb.
“AAAAAAH, LEGGY CREEPERS!” it yells, flying upwards as quickly as it can to get away from the spiders.
And that is a scream the drones understand immediately.
20100 and 57999 bolt, immediately jumping behind the nearest tree while 9999 charges towards 17070 oblivious to the chaos around.
“AAAAH, THERE’S MORE UP HERE! RUN AWAY BEFORE THEY GET YOUUUU!” 36658 crashes through several branches before panicking completely and dropping like a rock.
9999 changes its direction, now jumping towards 36658 and pawing at its face covered in white webbing.
“What are you doing? Go go go go!” gasps 36658.
A quick pat down by 9999 follows.
“You’re not melting,” 9999 examines 36658 whose heart is beating like a jackhammer.
“I’m not m-?” 36658 looks at 9999’s foreleg covered in webs, points at a spider there, and lets out a high-pitched screech of pure terror.
9999 raises its hoof and examines the spindly spider that, if it was capable of feeling fear, would definitely be more afraid of the drone than the other way around. With utmost care, 9999 lowers its foreleg again and slowly wipes the webbing off.
The spider immediately creeps away into a darker hiding place between the broken branches and leaves.
“The Shiny Bringer can make leggy creepers not carry you away and melt you over days and it can make them go away instead…” tears of survival shock are streaming from 36658’s eyes without it caring in the slightest.
20100 and 57999 leave their hiding place to rejoin the two. 36658 isn’t angry or even disappointed at them fleeing, obviously. That’s how a drone is supposed to act to survive. In fact, what 9999 did was the stupid thing that would result mostly only in the hive losing one more drone than it would otherwise, but…
But it’s the Shiny Bringer. The bravest, smartest, and most skilled of all drones.
It’s the Shiny Bringer and it worked.
It worked because the Shiny Bringer did it.
“Ow!” something lands on 9999’s head from up above.
The drones look up at a squirrel standing on a branch unbroken by 36658 and holding a nut. It drops it on 9999’s head again.
“Hey!”
36658, 20100, and 57999 look at 9999, then at the squirrel.
Again and again.
“IF THE HOPPY DROPPER WANTS A HOLY WAR, THEN A HOLY WAR THE DROPPER HAVE… WILL!” 36658’s eye twitches in pure fury, “NO ONE ATTACKS HIGH SCORE THE SHINY BRINGER! CRUNCHSAAAAAADE!”
“Guys, it’s fine. Let’s just-” 9999 can’t get a word in edgewise before the trio of drones fly up to the suddenly extremely unhappy squirrel, each one swinging one of the many broken branches.
Thankfully for the local wildlife, there’s precisely zero coordination in their attacks, and the squirrel escapes through the nearest canopies where the drones can’t follow due to orders.
9999 breathes a sigh of relief as some semblance of peace returns to the changeling camp.
***
“Damn crap buck shit-”
“Oh goopy holes!” mutters concentrating 17070, completely oblivious to the approaching cursing audible through its hive link, as a kind of whooshing and tearing noise drowns the peaceful crackling of the fire, “Why does this keep happening?”
The other drones, previously resting after having their dose of excitement in their holy war against the wildlife, rush over to examine a purple-ish rift in space-time continuum seemingly originating from 17070’s bowl still steadily held in Smiley’s forelegs.
“Hey, Smiley?” 9999 says in an uncertain tone, “You might want to put whatever that is on the ground. Slowly.”
“-stupid ears magic auto-targeting-”
As Smiley does so, something dark blue moves on the other side of the rift. The drones fan around to get a better look while still being out of reach of anything wanting to grab them.
The blue blur moves again, then it seems to notice the rift, and finally it stops. Two red-rimmed, teal eyes with black bags of exhaustion under them focus on the drones.
“Hey, it’s the soup pony!” 17070 points, its ears perking up, “Hello, soup pony. You’re not tiny this time.”
“-holes holes holes holes holes-”
“Guys, can you hear it too?” asks 9999, its ears twitching despite the neverending stream of cursing being only inside its head.
“CHANGELINGS!” the soup pony’s desperate cry makes all drones twitch and drowns out all thoughts of the strange hive link voice, “I don’t know how you managed to open this rift but I beg of you, help me-”
A wet slap followed by a scream of pain interrupts the sentence.
“-arrows, magical beams, grabbing claws that come out of the ground-”
“Eep!” the drones squeak as one when a long, spindly leg ending in a mantis-like claw reaches through the rift and begins pulling the side of it away as if it was spreading a curtain.
When a second leg reaches out to start widening the other side of the rift. 17070 puffs out its cheeks.
“YOU RUINED MY SCENTED WATER SOUP BOWL!” it lunges at the left leg, angrily digging like a dog peddling water which, to be completely accurate, is the pinnacle of drone combat skills.
A howl of pain comes from the rift in response, but two more legs grab the sides of the rift and start forcing through a brown, insectoid monstrosity resembling a mantis crossed with a worm. It hisses, and its long, vertically split jaw snaps at 17070 who applies the GTHO method of drone survival, jumping backwards with a single push of all four legs and landing a short distance away on its back.
“-stupid pony magic-”
“More of you bugs,” growls the monster, pulling more and more of its body through the rift, “You have caused enough troubl-EEEEAH?!”
9999 doesn’t stop running after knocking the bowl over and turning the vertical rift into a horizontal one lying on the ground, which swings the dreamweaver’s body like a flail and makes its head slam against the ground. It’s clearly not hurt in any capacity, but the moment of confusion is all 9999 wanted.
As for the next step, that might need some more thinking.
“-grab everything you have and we’re leaving! Or better yet, JUST START RUNNING NORTH RIGHT NOW AND I’LL CATCH UP!”
“Bug,” the monster growls, slashing with one of its legs at 9999 passing by and only barely missing as the drone completely underestimated its reach.
Seeing that, 36658’s trembling forelegs finally start listening to it again. It points at the monster and yells in a voice pitched high with a mix of terror and anger:
“HOLY WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!”
“MY BOWL!”
“NO ONE ATTACKS THE SHINY BRINGER!”
“BAD SLASHY CRAWLER, BAD BAD BAD!”
*Smiles in angry.*
The non-stop cursing and screaming coming through the hive links is soon replaced by the rapidly approaching thudding of hooves and breaking of branches.
“WHY ARE YOU ALL STILL HE- whattheactualbuck?” dirt sprays from under 1988’s forelegs as the infiltrator breaks through the treeline and takes in the fleshy chunks of matter flying from the dreamweaver under vigorous deconstruction.
“We won!” calls out 20100 as the dreamweaver stops moving.
“Yaaaay!”
“Drone power!”
“I think you’re supposed to say a really witty one-liner when you win like that.”
“A REALLY WITTY ONE-LINER!”
“Yeah! Just like that!”
“Woohooo!”
While 1988 stares at the hoof bumping and cheering drones, the remaining chunk of the dreamweaver’s body slides back into the now clearly visible, pulsating spatial rift copying the contour of the ground.
The drones stop their celebration and look at 1988 as one, red, brown, and green gore dripping from them.
“Umm, we can totally explain some of this,” 9999 speaks out first, “I think.”
“I was trying to make that soup thingy because it smells nice but I made a swirly again instead. Dunno why,” 17070 shrugs, “Oh! And the soup pony spoke to us again and this time everyone saw her, but then the monster came out and High Score spilled the swirly…”
1988 looks directly at 9999.
“What does that drone mean by saying that you spilled a magical portal?! That’s not a thing! HOW DID YOU DO SOMETHING THAT’S NOT A THING?”
9999 doesn’t have a better answer than simply pointing at the rift on the ground.
“Umm, that?”
1988’s eye twitches, but then he takes a deep breath and says to himself:
“Nevermind. Ignore this, 1988, for the good of the hive, and sort out your priorities. That’s a different problem. We have a bigger problem,” he opens his eyes again, “We have to leave. The ponies you fled from last night can’t be more than half an hour behind me and I think I’m being generous. They have some kind of tracking magic, they might not know where exactly we are, but they can track me perfectly. I don’t know how you escaped before but they’re on their way.”
“They had other problems,” says 9999, “What do we do-”
“Changelings? Changelings?” the soup pony’s voice comes out of the rift again, making 1988’s eyes bulge before he rushes to the rift and leans over it.
“You are Princess Luna, aren’t you?” he asks.
“Yes, it’s me,” Luna nods, “I don’t know how you did it but you damaged a dreamweaver. I need your help-”
“Look, there’s a paladin and a bunch of trackers on our tail. And what do you mean by help? We attacked Canterlot and I’m sure those guys are chasing us because of Riverside!” 1988 replies sharply.
Luna gives him a pleading stare.
“I know, but we don’t have to be enemies. I got to know two changelings who are now guests in Canterlot. One is a drone calling itself 65536 and one’s name is Fury. Her rank was… 16, I think. We don’t have to be friends immediately either, but I’m imprisoned here in the dreamscape by an entity I can’t defeat on my own. If you want a chance for peace, we can help each other!”
“How? We’re not about to just jump into a magical portal-”
“There are other changelings here already causing trouble! They’re breaking the Tantabus’ hold over the dreamweavers and weakening its influence, but if it goes too far it will stop trying to use them to break through into the real world and simply kill them.”
“156…” 1988 breathes out.
“If you know them, I can guide you to them. If there’s more of you, you might be able to weaken Tantabus enough for me to get all of us out,” Luna looks around in panic as the portal distorts, “Our time is running out. Please, help me, or if not me, help everypony, because there’s no telling how much power Tantabus will gain if it figures out how to break changeling minds as well.”
1988 grits his teeth and looks at the drones one by one.
“The hunters will keep chasing us if we flee anyway and we’re bound to run out of love eventually. 9999, did you finish the markings?”
“Yes, I did,” the drone nods.
“Then our mission is clear,” the infiltrator sounds as if he’s mostly trying to persuade himself, “We must regroup with 156- yes?” he notices 17070’s raised hoof.
“How do we know the soup pony is a friend?”
“Firstly, you heard her… through us. Secondly, the ‘soup pony’ is, in reality, pony princess Luna. I was wondering why she would contact you of all creatures but it seems your cooking has some weird qualities I don’t have the time nor the ability to decipher. Thirdly, she knows about 156. And finally, we’ve spent way too much time here with the pony trackers on my tail, so we’re jumping in. Let’s go!”
“Umm-”
“That is an order, drone,” 1988 narrows his eyes at 17070 who lowers its head between its shoulders.
The magical rift distorts again, this time for a whole second.
“Come, please, there isn’t much time, especially for your kin. The Tantabus is getting furious,” Luna’s voice comes out as choppy and distorted.
9999 grits its teeth.
“Understood,” it says, “1988, lead the way, please. None of us have your changeling abilities so it will be helpful if you could catch us on the other side… or whatever is about to happen. I’ll go last to make sure everyone gets in.”
The infiltrator fights with its changeling instinct to send a drone first into unknown territory, but he has to admit 9999’s idea has its merit.
“Fine,” 1988 dives in.
As soon as he’s gone, 9999 speaks out, its voice shaky but determined.
“Alright, everyone. This is your chance to escape!”
“Uh, what?” 36658 blinks in surprise.
“This is what you wanted - a chance to see more of the world than just tunnels. You have a chance to live a life where someone actually likes you, where you get more than scraps of love stolen by someone else. Guys, you got the ponies here to enjoy spending time with you. You’ve adapted enough over the past days to stay here on your own. You don’t need me or 1988 to maintain the hive mind. Yes, you would forget some things, but who needs long words anyway, right? You can stay here and live, not just exist until a high rank gets peckish. This is the only chance I can get for you to stay in the world of light and shinies. You thought I was the Shiny Bringer, or whatever, that I could make things better for you - this is it! You won’t get another shot at this.”
“You keep saying you…” 20100 tilts its head.
“Look,” 9999 sighs, “I have no idea if there’ll be a way back. I don’t know if all this isn’t a trap. But if it isn’t then 1988 will need someone to punish for this. I hope me being there to take it will be enough to forget about you. He trusted me to stay and force you to go through in case you didn’t want to, the first time a high rank trusted a drone with something important, I’m sure, but I have to do this. This is the only chance for you!”
As 9999 looks into everyone’s eyes, it already knows its words are falling on deaf ears.
36658 beams, although it’s clearly forced.
“Buddy, I don’t think anyone here knows the right long words to thank you enough for what you’re doing right now.”
“Guys, you won’t get another chance like-” 9999 tries to stress it one more time.
“BUT,” 36658 keeps going, “You’re forgetting one simple rule, High Score. You might be the Shiny Bringer now, you might see our situation from the point of view of a high rank. You’re the smartest drone alive and you can think of our situation from all the difficult angles, and we all thank you for giving us this chance. But you’re not staying here with us and I know why. The most basic rule applies to you too, or maybe because you’re the best drone it applies to you the most. You want to help 10013, 47989, and everyone else stuck inside the wibbly with the soup princess.”
“What are you talking about? We made this entire damn religion thing up-”
“High Score,” 36658 walks over to the portal, “The most basic rule is that drones stick together.”
“No, wai-” 9999 can only stand there as 36658, closely followed by Smiley, 20100, and 57999, jumps into the portal.
17070, however, is the one drone 9999 can catch in time.
“You’re not going, buddy,” it stands between the portal and the other drone, “Not you.”
“Why?”
“Because they have a chance to make it. You? You’re a dead drone walking, just like me.”
“I don’t understand,”
“If they survive whatever is in there, and if they save 156 and the others, AND if they get back home to the hive, what do you think will happen to a traitor and a deaf drone? Who do you think is the first one on the chopping block? Do you think things will get better back home now that all the ponies who know about Canterlot want to kill us? Buddy, I can let them go because I believe they have a chance to get back home and live a normal, short drone life. I can’t let you go because I know you’ll get eaten as disposable, probably immediately. The others were liked here, but you have a pony who genuinely loves you. You have a chance here, you don’t have a chance there.”
“But I want to help!” pleads 17070.
“You can,” 9999 looks the other drone in the eyes, “ You can help everyone who will be returning from the north, and you might be able to help the entire changeling species more than anything I’d be able to do even if I had a chance to return home.”
“How?”
“Like this…”
***
“M-Miss Ladle?”
The cook turns away from the cauldron when she hears the squeaky and uneven voice of the deaf drone.
“What’s wrong?!” she immediately forgets everything when she sees 17070 standing there, trembling with tears streaming from its eyes. What’s worse, when she goes in to give it a hug, the drone backs off.
“I- I need to tell you something important first… and you’re not going to like it… but High Score said it would help us in the long run and it’s the Shiny Bringer so it knows best,” 17070 sniffles, “You know about this place called Canterlot? A big white city on the side of a mountain that’s full of shinies. A few weeks ago…”
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While I can understand how frustrated 17070 must be, at the same time I can understand 9999's logic. Hopefully 17070 will thrive with Miss Ladle and have little halfbreed children.
They will go down in history among drones as heros
WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HEARTLESS MONSTER? I WANNA KNOW IF MAH NOT-BOY IS GONNA BE OKAY
absolutely glorious, hopefully 9999 and the other drones are going to be okay fighting against Soup Monster in the Soup Realm alongside the Soup Princess
11105960
There is nothing romantic about that love. Motherly as in caring, not motherly as in incest.
11106005
From what Chrysalis' chapters taught us, there is no history for drones. But maybe something can be ever so slightly different this time.
11106129
- You can only hope... or write that little bit yourself
- Soup realm, hmmm. I'm filing that under "possibly use later"
The last raid by the last loyal band of changelings?
Well...why can't they just hang with the lumber ponies half the day and spend the rest randomly digging tunnels somewhere out of the way from the camp? I mean, yeah, probably just a short-term solution to a longer term problem, but if there's one thing I've noticed drones are good at it, it's never thinking ahead to these sort of things, so it seems like solution enough for them.
Besides, if things work out, all that tunnel-digging would leave you with a pre-built mini-hive right there already if needed.
Yeah, if there's another thing drones are good at, it's setting stuff on fire. Sometimes without even meaning to!
Because now it IS a thing!
...yes, actually? I mean, I'm not complaining either way...
11106500
Nope!
11106682
- That meant real hive with other changelings and hierarchy, not just them digging a few holes somewhere. Besides, at this point everyone is sure that when the news about Canterlot get even here they're all probably screwed. However, they're likely screwed anyway, so 9999 decides to go for the gambit.
- Truly, they are blessed by the shiny.
- Someone once said that my drones work on WH40k ork "logic", and after I got a bit into the lore I absolutely agree. I have yet to use the "Turning bright purple makes you the sneakiest because, like, have you ever seen a purple ork?" line at some point, and I will. Them smacking each other over the head with a stick is harmless, though.
- Can't have a final fight without someone who defeated Tantabus one-on-one before.
Awesome chapter, also I want to hug a drone... And of course best line "*Smiles in angry.*"
I think this is one of my favorite versions of changelings
11108282
They're just doing their best.
11108189
- Smiley is bit of a late bloomer.
- Clearly, someone must make a backpack that looks like a changeling drone with four hugging legs as straps. Then Hasbro would shoot a nuclear warhead filled with lawyers at them because they'd make infinite money.
11108320
The only answer is to start a hidden underground rebel movement with the soul purpose of producing changing backpacks and plushies!