• Published 28th Feb 2022
  • 1,525 Views, 942 Comments

They're... ON HOLIDAY? - Nameless Narrator



After reaching peace between Equestria and Hive changelings, queen Chrysalis takes two high ranks and a small retinue of drones with her on a trip to an island holiday resort.

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Day 3 - Storm: 3/11

Flinching, Smiley wakes up.

*Weird face!!!*

Unlike the other drones hanging from the hammocks, Smiley’s head is peeking out of the top-opened wardrobe where the Silent is curled up, its chin propped against the edge. Something is wrong in a way the Silent has never felt before.

*Spooked face.* *Curious face?* *Curious face!*

After a brief pause during which the strangeness doesn’t subside, Smiley’s curiosity wins over its fear, mostly because its experiences in and on this weird, big, floating box filled with soft tunnels have so far been positive.

*FLASH!*

The sudden blast of white light changes the situation immediately, making Smiley retract its head into the wardrobe and in one full-body spin roll under the first of the folded sheets. When no imminent threat follows, Smiley peeks out again. Where did that bright light come from?

It waits, ears perked. None of the others are awake, although 10013 is missing.

*Cuuurious faaa-*

*FLASH!*

*Brave face!*

The blinding flash came from the magic hole in the wall that’s now covered with… small, see-through blobs slowly moving from the top to bottom.

Finally having caught what’s happening, Smiley crawls out of the wardrobe and hops down on the floor where its inner ear goes haywire again. Uncoordinatedly stumbling from side to side, Smiley can’t catch a break until its wings win over its confused head and carry the Silent into the air where the weirdness stops.

Floating over, Smiley presses its muzzle against the unidentified magic hole which, indeed, is a window. When that doesn’t seem to faze the blobs steadily crawling down, Smiley carefully puts its hooves on the table itself, making the weirdness return.

The ground is moving. Not like when a tunnel starts crumbling under its hooves, rather a slow, soft, steady, side-to-side motion, much easier to sense here on the wooden floor than inside the pile of soft blankets. For a Silent used only to the most solid floor of underground tunnels, with one traumatic exception that makes all nice smileys go away whenever it recalls it, this is completely unique and confusing as all holes.

There are two ways to go about this. Either it can crawl back into the safe and soft box-

*Extremely tempted face.*

-or it could do what the best number would do - figure out what’s going on in case there’s trouble on the way that could affect everyone.

*Sad face.* *Panicked face.* *Relieved face.* *Sad but determined face.*

Smiley walks to the door slowly, gradually getting used to the soft swaying of the entire world, and when things finally become bearable it leaves. The wide corridor, in contrast to the cabin, is filled with constant hissing that definitely wasn’t there at any point before now.

*Spooked face!*

A distorted rumble comes from upstairs, making Smiley jump on the spot. It wants to go back so much. Every instinct in its limited mind is screaming at it to escape from the unknown and danger.

It doesn’t do that. Best number wouldn’t do that.

*Wibble.*

The repeated rumbling and the constant hissing grows closer and louder as Smiley ascends the nearest stairs all the way up to the door to the main deck. The only positive side of its current situation is that 10013’s mental presence on the other side is close enough for the Silent to sense and, for some reason, not overly bothered by everything going on. Spurred on by 10013’s closeness, Smiley cracks the door open before a blast of wind and noise makes it slam it shut immediately.

*WIBBLING FAAAAACE!*

“Smiley?” it hears 10013’s mental voice, “What’s going on?”

*Confusedfacescaredfacewibblefacesadfacebravefacescaredfacewiblewibblewibbleeee!*

“Thaaat’s a bit too much for me to decode, buddy,” 10013 sighs, “I can sense you, stay where you are.”

Thankful for clear orders, Smiley breathes out in relief, plops its butt in front of the metal door, and waits until it clicks and 10013, legs spread to avoid being blown away across the deck slippery with whipping rain and strong wind, opens it from the other side.

When Smiley whimpers due to another outburst of cold air, water, and loud noise, 10013 walks into the stairwell and closes the door to the deck. It looks down at the puddle of water streaming down its legs and shakes itself.

“The storm spooked you this badly, huh?” 10013 nuzzles the Silent’s neck, “Can’t blame you. I got caught in a storm twice and this one is muuuuuch worse than either of those, or both put together, because the water is making the ship wobble. You wanna come and see?”

*Spooked face?!*

“I… had this strange feeling I couldn’t get rid of that I had to face my fears after I woke up,” 10013 chuckles as Smiley gives it a horrified head tilt. Fears are to be run away from. Facing them normally makes one get munched, “I guess I felt like you’re feeling now. The trick is to start slow. I spent over an hour just sitting here with the door open and it sounds much worse than it really is. In fact, I kinda like it now. Hmm? How about that?” it cracks the door open just a tiny bit, “If it’s too bad, you can just head back.”

Smiley snaps its wide-open eyes away from the crack and at 10013 before sniffing towards the colder air getting through.

“Eeep?!” 10013 squeaks as Smiley suddenly bites down on the drone’s tiny tail stub, firmy but non threateningly, while sending a mental message of:

*Brave face!*

Unsure what this means, 10013 opts for some experimentation and moves forward. Smiley isn’t trying to pull it back and instead follows the gentle tug of the tail.

“Keep your legs spread. It’s slippery out there and the wind can get bursty,” the drone switches to speaking through the hive link as the storm takes its words hopelessly away from its mouth the moment it tries to speak.

*SPOOKED FACE!* *Crying face!*

Contrary to the overwhelming fear 10013 can sense from Smiley, the Silent keeps following it across the deck, pausing whenever they get behind any barrier shielding them from the gusts. There’s too much going on for Smiley to keep track of passing time, but eventually it follows 10013 up onto the highest point of the ship, which is the roof of some multi-story establishment covering the hind third of the ship marked in the hive mind as [Entertainment complex]. The spot is surrounded by a low wall forming a C around them and there are three chairs bolted to the floor under which the duo sit down. From here, if they look out of their cover, they can see the majority of the main deck as well as-

“Look,” whispers 10013, pointing into the distance behind the ship where a red dot is lighting up in regular intervals, “High Score sent you a shiny because you were so brave.”

Smiley, now curled up under the chair with 10013’s stub still in its mouth, finally lets go and follows 10013’s pointing hoof. The flashing red dot is tiny and also not alone. More familiar yellow light occasionally pierces the stormy darkness, the rain scattering it into a shiny corona.

*CRACKABOOOOOOM!*

Both Smiley and 10013 bolt instantly under the chairs and exchange glances as 10013 chuckles nervously and says:

“Thunderbolts and lightning are very very frightening.”

Smiley licks its nose. Emboldened, 10013 crawls out into the open again.

“You did well, buddy.”

*Happy face!* *Relieved face.*

“I can go back down with you, if you want-”

Smiley immediately squishes itself back against the covering wall, leaving only its head peeking out from under the chair.

“-ooor you can stay up here with me. It’s pretty warm up here despite the rain anyway,” 10013 pats the head on the floor next to it and rests its back against the legs of the chairs, watching the blinking lights in the distance.

Author's Note:

Gem's plot thiccens.
Smiley boldly goes where one drone has gone before.
10013 is not the leader we need, but the one we deserve.
Get one drone free with every paperback copy of Imbalanced purchased on the black market.
I didn't write anything last week, I couldn't sleep, and I'm so tired.

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