They're... ON HOLIDAY?

by Nameless Narrator

Day 5 - Standard procedure: 2/8

“So, what’s the plan, 10013?” asks 99380, walking by 10013’s side through the hallway on the bottom floor of the apartment complex for the resort guests, still smiling from figuring out that its mental slowness isn’t due to some serious deficiency.

10013 has been searching the walls for any cards containing a schedule, but so far it’s only found copies of the map they already had in their suite. Thinking the question through, it stops and taps the floor with its hoof.

“I’m stumped. It feels that it’s too early for anyone to be working, but I can feel tremors in the floor, so there are creatures moving around.”

“How about we just find the nearest open door and ask if anyone needs help?” suggests 99380.

“That’s what we’re bound to end up doing, but I’m trying to figure out where we’d have the best chance to find anyone needing help as the day goes on. I’d like to find a schedule or something similar to what I saw hanging on the wall of the cruise ship.”

*Curious face!*

“Whoa…” 10013 leans back when Smiley’s unusually intense expression aimed its way conveys its meaning, “Is anything wrong? Trouble?”

*Shake shake shake!* *Thinking face…*

Smiley bumps its nose against the wall a few times before turning back to 10013 again with a:

*Curious face!*

“A wall… question…” mumbles 10013, “The schedule on the wall I mentioned? It’s a plan of activities ponies could do on that day written in pony scribbles. For example, I listened to a leadership lecture by a very shouty two-legged creature with horns. I haven’t properly named it yet because it didn’t attack me so I didn’t know what name would be useful.”

*Blank fa-*

Smiley squeaks when 99380 lunges at it and hugs it.

“You are getting smarter! We just kinda have to figure out what you mean but you actually asked a question!”

10013 tilts its head.

“Agreed. That was a bit more complex than usual. Maybe we could test-”

Smiley stands up with 99380 hanging around its neck, and licks 10013’s face before trotting off, sniffing the air. 99380 opts against sliding on the floor while being pulled, and lets go of Smiley. A brief roll on the floor later, the drone joins 10013 following the Silent out of sheer curiosity.

Shortly after, Smiley loudly sniffs the air again and walks into a closed double door. Thankfully, it isn’t locked, and leads to a large, open room filled with tables.

“Oh! A dining room like on the ship!” 10013 starts walking around and updates the hive mind map with a simple note.

Smiley, on the other hole, walks over to a large blackboard covered in chalk writing by the entrance, sniffs it, licks it, narrows its eyes, finds a bowl with a stick of chalk on a table next to it, and unceremoniously eats a piece. Seemingly satisfied with what it just did, it sits down on the floor.

“I don’t think that’s for eating, Smiley,” 99380 pats its shoulder, “Didn’t that horny blue pony draw with it?”

Smiley’s jaw drops, it looks at 99380 with amazement, and finally it grabs the bowl and empties it into its mouth.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” calls out an equally horrified and angry voice from the kitchen door, and a griffon curious about the talking in the dining room rushes towards the changelings, “By the Emperor, the bug monster just ate a bowl of chalk!” he looks from happily chewing Smiley towards the kitchen door, “Wensley, call the nurse RIGHT NOW!”

“What’s wrong?” 10013, alerted by the screaming, slides on the tiles under the table and, rather stylishly, gets back to all fours just as its momentum stops.

“I’m not sure,” 99380 nervously shuffles back, “I think this -umm, griffon, right?- griffon is angry because Smiley ate his chalk.”

“Umm, Mister griffon?” 10013 steps between visibly intimidated Smiley trying to look small, “I think Smiley just misunderstood that the drawy rocks weren’t a snack. We’ll try to get you some replacement or-”

“That’s not the point!” the griffon grabs 10013 by the shoulders and shakes it before stopping and wiping its talons with an expression of disdain, “We need to get the nurse to pump out its stomach! If it dies here we’ll be in so much legal trouble-”

“Wait! Wait wait wait!” 10013 objects, “Smiley will be okay. It ate chalk before and, as far as we know, we can’t be poisoned by eating stuff… well, unless it melts us from the inside. I don’t think it would do so since, as I said, Smiley ate some before.”

The griffon pauses, seemingly having run out of things to say, before his brain restarts when 10013 nudges Smiley with its hind leg.

“Hey, buddy, can you return at least some of the drawy rock?”

“That’s not the point!” wheezes the griffon again, eye twitching.

*Hurk!*

Smiley spits out a glob of goop on the floor.

“HEY!” the griffon scowls at the Silent who scuttles backwards, its back now against the wall under the blackboard.

10013 examines the goop the surface of which, for some reason, unusually quickly dries up into…

…white dust.

“Ohhhhhh I get it!” it grabs the blob and presents it to the griffon, “Here you go - your drawy rock. You want it as a stick?” it rolls the goop between its hooves until it’s the right shape, “I think that Smiley can make more.”

“Not. The. Point!” aaaand the stupidity of everything finally becomes just too much for the griffon who takes a deep breath before asking, “So you’re saying that… thing won’t drop dead in a few hours from eating a bowl of chalk…”

10013 opts for diplomacy instead of focusing on the ‘thing’ part.

“Yes, Mister griffon. Thank you for being worried, but we eat love, not real food, unless we make our insides work differently. We’ve discovered that we can make our goop take on different properties if we eat the right, uhh, thing. I think Smiley ate drawy- chalk and can now make… drawy goop. I, for example, can make foam that douses fire really well.”

A moment of thinking later, the griffon takes a long breath and simply breathes out before turning its head towards the presumed kitchen door and yelling sarcastically:

“THANKS FOR THE HELP, WENSLEY! AND DON’T THINK I CAN’T SEE THE SHAPE OF YOUR COWARDLY HEAD THROUGH THE WINDOW!”

“We didn’t mean to cause trouble…” mumbles 99380, shuffling towards 10013.

Seeing the two comparatively tiny drones, one of whom is cowering in the shadow cast by the large griffon, the staff member’s tension eases, and he just sighs.

“Are you absolutely sure that one,” he points at Smiley who scrunches itself so small that it’s almost the size of the two drones as well, “will be okay? We have on-site doctors, even though I doubt they’re used to changelings.”

“Smiley, give the good griffon some more drawy goop,” 10013 turns around and pats Smiley’s head.

Slowly and with ears drooped, Smiley spits out more goop, rolls it into a stick with its hooves, and presents another piece of rapidly drying goop to the griffon who twitches and backs off.

“No, umm, it’s fine,” he shudders with barely contained disgust, “We’ll refill that. Just- Just don’t eat any more of it,” he turns around, “I- We have breakfast to prepare…” he leaves without another word.

“Umm, do you think he’s coming back?” 99380 asks with quiet worry.

“I doubt it,” 10013 looks around the empty dining room, “I think we should leave, but we can’t let all this go to waste,” it pats Smiley’s head, “Try the goop on the blackboard.”

Smiley carefully takes the goop stick into its mouth, draws a circle, and gasps, swallowing the stick whole… probably by accident.

10013 adds two more ovals as eyes and a crescent as a smiling mouth with the first piece of drawy goop.

“That’s you!”

Smiley looks from 10013 to the drawing and back repeatedly, visibly stunned by the revelation, before booping the picture and smudging it in the process.

“You know what?” adds 10013, “How about we go tell the Queen and look around on the way? That’s bound to take some time so we won’t wake her up.”

“Yaaay, so early and Smiley already earned a point!” cheers 99380.

“Hopefully so,” 10013 smiles, “Let’s go.”

Comments

[Booster Spice]

At this rate, Wensley has a co worker with a large red nose called Dale?

The biggest worry with eating that much chalk, is the common reaction with the average beings stomach acid, leads to generally being described by one word?

Pollocks

[a creature]

smiley is adorable oh my gosh

[Nameless Narrator]

11311221
Smiley is abstract art proof.
11311293
I'm starting to think that the main worthwhile part of my story is when I drop plot or dialogue, and just write a character who barely talks and let them go brrrr. (*Cough cough* Happiness Is What You Make Of It)