Day 6 - Worky time cancelled!: 3/8
After landing not far away from the apartment complex in a dark spot under the tree canopies, 36658 heads down the hill and to the east, safe in the knowledge that the particular strand of the beach it has in mind contains no attractions or pastimes beyond simple swimming which wouldn’t bring others to it while still being close enough to the water bungalows where Mister Shiny must be living in case of Scufflestick.
Even 10013…
It knows the best how things were. We can’t go back to the old times. New rules or not, and I don’t know what 387 did to pass those, there’s no guarantee the good times will last. Are they all blind? Things can change at any moment if love becomes harder to come by again. We must use this moment to leave some kind of an enduring mark.
36658 sighs, muttering:
“What would you do if you were here, buddy?”
Of course, there’s no answer. 36658 just smiles, slowly walking down one of the many side paths towards the beach.
“I know they all mean well, even 99111,” 36658 keeps mumbling, “387 said we should be examples to others instead of just telling stories. We can do our best to be the former, and we can also do the latter, but no one can be you. Heh,” 36658 chuckles as a low-hanging branch scratches against its heavily scarred carapace, “You know I’m the only one who still has all their old scars and marks all over despite having more than enough love to heal everything now? No, don’t worry, buddy, I did heal all the real wounds with the exception of one. Our first priority is to make sure we can do our work for the hive, I know. I just kept the superficial ones. That way, every time I see my reflection in the water or inside a shiny I remember you. So far, I couldn’t heal my hind leg from the time when I got caught by sizzly piercers and you came looking for me when I didn’t return to the safe spot for sleepy time,” 36658 kicks its right hind leg mid-step, “I told you not to worry, it works perfectly fine, it just feels, you know, as if something is tugging at something else inside it whenever I run or push harder. But hey, another reminder of a time when you found me unconscious before something could eat me,” 36658 sighs, “One of so many…”
According to the hive mind map, the beach should be fairly close. One or two levels down at most.
“But I’m not you,” 36658 repeats, “I know that we need something, some way of progressing as dronekind that doesn’t rely on the goodwill of the high ranks. If things change again, they don’t deserve to go back, not even 99111. We would survive for a time with very little love - 10013, 20100, 57999, me, but the newbies? Every worky time would be a toss-up whether any of them would return from the tunnels or not.”
36658 takes the final short path down before coming up from the shady undergrowth near the east end of the promenade and the early morning sun washes over it.
“I want to help us all like you did, and I know that only by doing my drone tasks better than anyone won’t do it,” it breathes out, “But I’m not you. I’m too small for this.”
“Hiiiiiiiiii, 36658!” a cheerful voice tears 36658’s attention away from its cyclic and gloomy thoughts, and makes the drone look up and smile when it sees 65536 waving at it.
“...well here’s a drone who achieved something unheard of just by working on itself…” whispers 36658 before waving back and returning the greeting with a genuine ray of positivity, “Heya, buddy!”
The guard drone isn’t alone, though. That Blueblood unicorn is with it, sitting and watching the sparkling sea. Now that 36658 sees him without the cover of panic caused by the ship sinking, it notices how skin and bones he is.
When faced with a changeling drone staring at him from within a hoof’s reach, Blueblood just grunts:
“Yes?”
“You look like we drones did before changelings and ponies made peace,” 36658 pokes Blueblood’s visible ribs, making the ex-prince twitch away, “Do you need some shinies for food? We can get you enough at the casino.”
“Pass,” Blueblood rolls his eyes.
“Mister Blueblood’s problem is a little different, 36658,” says 65536, “I’m not supposed to go into detail about this, so if you want to know more you gotta ask Miss Gem.”
“Not today,” 36658 shakes its head, “The Queen said no asking around whether we can help, but if someone asks us we still can.”
“Huh? That’s unusual,” 65536 tilts its head, “Then what are you supposed to do?”
“Explore and see what fun things are here to enjoy. I’m…” 36658 pauses before starting again a different way, “65536, are you afraid of the future?”
“Eeeeh, not really,” the guard drone shakes its head, “We were all supposed to die a long time ago. Every day now is just a fun little bonus to make the best of.”
“That’s stupid,” grumbles Blueblood.
“Hey, that’s mean!” 65536 pouts before booping 36658, “What’s bothering you, buddy?”
“I… I can’t stop worrying about the chance that the old days will return, and I want to leave behind something that would help drones in case that happens,” 36658 sighs, “The problem is that there doesn’t seem to be anyone else who thinks it’s that serious, and the newbies think my High Score stories do more harm than good, and they’re the only thing that can truly outlast us,” the drone corrects itself next, and its voice cracks, “...and maybe it’s not just the newbies. I feel so alone in this, 65536.”
“Maybe you’re just not good enough,” says Blueblood in a low tone, making both drones look at him, 65536 with mouth opening to object and 36658 with a growing desperate look, “Maybe everything you’ve believed about your worth was a lie, maybe you can finally see your limits, and maybe you’ve realized that the road ahead you’ve seen your entire life before you is gone and you have nothing to show for all the wasted years. Maybe everyone turned on you because you deserved it for everything you both did do and didn’t do when you should have.”
“Imma call Miss Gem…” 65536 stands up.
“No…” Blueblood breathes out and shakes his head, “I’ll just… keep staring at the sea and hoping to see an incoming tsunami or something.”
“Buddy?” 65536 pokes 36658 who is just sitting in the sand, staring blankly ahead, “Don’t listen to Mister Blueblood. He’s in a really bad place right now and I’m trying to help Miss Gem get him to think right again.”
“That’s where you’re all wrong. This is the first time in my life when I’m finally thinking straight,” Blueblood snickers to himself, “You are all deluding yourselves by believing that me staying around is beneficial in some way.”
36658 raises its hoof to stop 65536 from speaking up.
“Let’s assume you’re right,” it says, “Let’s assume you’re the only one who knows how bad things really are or can be. What can you do if you can’t change the minds of others around you who just don’t get it?”
“Sit here and watch the sea…” Blueblood shrugs.
“Alright, no more nice 65536!” the guard drone stands up, puffs out its chest, and huffs, “Stand at attention, both of ya!”
Not entirely unexpectedly, 36658 gives 65536 only a puzzled look while Blueblood’s is a mix of amusement and lack of interest. This makes 65536 pout and add, “I’ll tell the Queen and Miss Gem all you just said!”
36658 shoots back on all fours.
“Please, no…” it pleads, “65536, I know you don’t want the old days to come back, so-”
“Quiet, buddy!” it looks at Blueblood who stands up and performs a mockingly overblown salute.
“Sub-Private Blueblood reporting in!” he sneers.
“As Commander Sharp used to say about one of his friends - he’s not right in the head, so he can’t be trusted to move in the right direction on his own and needs a proper kick in the butt!” 65536 starts pacing in front of the two, “Just like you two, but especially you, 36658.”
“Huh?”
“Mist- Private Blueblood here, from what I heard, never knew any hardship in his life, only gained and gained more stuff since he hatched. Now he lost everything and isn’t taking it well. You, though? We never had anything that lasted, we know how our world works. Love drains, goop dries up and crumbles, sticks wither, tunnels collapse, and our lives are short.”
“That’s what I’m trying to change!” 36658 raises its voice, “We need something that lasts longer than we do, even if it’s just- just a thought, an idea!”
“Quiet, Private!” 65536 pats 36658’s head much gentler than its voice sounds, “You’re thinking way above your pay grade. Right now, you’re just going to obey orders!” seeing 36658 still gritting its teeth, 65536, adds, leaning in, “Please? I think Commander Sharp knew what he was doing. He was a very smart pony.”
“...fine,” 36658 breathes out.
“Thanks,” 65536 beams, “Ehm, where was I?” it scrunches its nose in a definitely totally official, serious, commanding expression, “Uhh, yeah - recruits normally do some pointless, menial tasks to learn to obey… like moving a pile of rocks from one place to the other, but since we don’t have rocks, we’re going to build a sand castle!”
“Ugh…” Blueblood sighs.
“Is that disobedience I’m hearing, Private?” the comparatively tiny drone walks up to Blueblood and has to bend its head back to look straight up into his eyes.
“No, whatever your rank is,” Blueblood rolls his eyes.
“Come oooon,” 65536 pokes Blueblood’s knee, “You looked like you were into this a moment ago.”
“Can’t call you anything if I don’t know your guard rank,” Blueblood whistles innocently, “Who knows? You could be an impostor. A changeling pretending to be a Royal Guard perhaps.”
“Officially, I’m Private First Class! Specialist Hugger,” 65536 beams, “Plus a whole bunch of inner Nightguard ranks I’m not supposed to tell anyone.”
“Then no, PFCSH, you’re not hearing any disobedience from me!” Blueblood salutes, now looking straight ahead, which is roughly half of a full pony length over the drone’s head, the corner of his mouth twitching.
“Excellent! Now, since we don’t have buckets or anything, we’ll have to build on the wet sand quickly before the tide ruins our castle. First, Private BB, your task will be to make a floor plan.”
“I don’t know, such a thinking-heavy task. I’m not sure if a Sub-Private can handle it. Maybe I’m just not Guard material.”
“As Commander Sharp always said - everypony can be a guard, it’s just up to their CO to figure out whether they belong in the streets, behind a desk, peeling potatoes in the kitchen, or as far away as possible. So everyone’s gotta try everything at least once.”
“Speaking of effective categorization, you should know the Canterlot castle floor plan better than me, Private PVC,” either Blueblood’s remark passes entirely over 65536’s head or the drone deliberately ignores anything beyond the direct message.
“Maybe, but I don’t doubt you’ve been inside more castles than me, and we’ll need something that withstands the rising tide. Commander Sharp once told me that using the right pony for the job was way more important than pretending to know best at all times, and I believe you must be better than me at this.”
“Better than anyone at anything? I highly doubt that,” Blueblood breathes out, but walks over to the part of the beach where the tide is barely reaching, and begins drawing lines in the sand.
“Excellent! And now you, Private 36658, you’re going to help me shovel the sand where Private BB is drawing. Plus, you’ll help me goop up the sand to reinforce it.”
“Isn’t that cheating? It’s a sand castle after all.”
“We’ll already be using sand and water, so… I’ll allow it! You know, because sand-goop-and-water-castle takes too long to say.”
“Besides, if you’re leading this operation - shouldn’t you just be sitting back, overseeing and barking orders or something?” asks 36658 with only the faintest hint of bitterness, “You know, like the Queen?”
“Nu-uh!” 65536 vigorously shakes its head, “Commander Sharp said to do that only when there already are too many hooves working on one thing that they get in each other’s way and need external coordination,” 65536 beams, happy that it managed to say the whole thing without messing up, “And that’s not the case right now, so I can help.”
“That makes sense,” 36658 shrugs, walking over to Blueblood’s outlines, “Alrighty, what do these lines mean?”
“Yes, narrate for us, Private BB!” 65536 beams when Blueblood shoots it a glare of disbelief, “We kinda need to know what to build along those lines.”
Blueblood sighs.
“Once upon a time, on a continent not so far away, griffons used to build multiple defensive layers around their fortresses to slowly break down attacking armies. If we consider the tide an encroaching army that we can’t stop, but to which we still need to cause as many casualties as possible, we need multiple walls and killzones. Canterlot castle is more an ornament or a statement relying on magical defenses rather than an actual defensive structure, so it’s a pretty worthless example. If we want to survive the onslaught, we need-”
65536 taps into 36658’s mind link undetected -Miss Fury did teach it a very basic trick or two that might work on changelings without proper mental defenses- and smirks. A mere minute or two into the building effort, and neither the drone nor seemingly even the talking ex-prince are thinking about anything other than the project ahead.
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what have you done?
Did you make me feel sorry for Blueblood's morale? How did you do that?
Commander Sharp is the one that sends all the retired Monster hunters and Special Ops to Ponyville so they can have a happy time playing Shuffle Wolf and Hydra Go Sneak, etc?
I can't really say much about Prince Blueblood. Not enough official information other than his one time interaction with Rarity.
Fan canon about the Prince are all over. He is as self absorbent outside of the gala, he just wants to keep gold diggers away during the gala, or he has some noteworthy skills despite the personality. Can't really form a strong enough opinion except the fandom seems to have a general dislike for Prince Blueblood since year 1.
I am curious to see where you might bring Blueblood's depressive episode to
No, it's called thinking positively, Bluebutt. You should try it sometime.
I dunno, Private BB, you were sure doing a whole lot of heavy thinking just a second ago...
11375373
In this universe we saw BB as a good-for-little born-rich playcolt...
We know he had a number of (female) zebra bodyguards (guess why), had himself impersonated by a Changeling (with an explosive collar) so he could get away from Canterlot and the main reason Celestia etc. grew suspicious was that his (forced) Changeling impersonator was too nice & competent. Of course he could have some hidden depths to unearth under all this, but we'll need to see...
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I never thought writing these would make me miss my own character, but considering how briefly Sharp was in my now way too long storyline, he possibly had more genuinely positive impact than anyone else. Butterfly effect and all-
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If any one of you reads at least the first third of Imbalanced, anything Blueblood did to 1313 is extremely tame in comparison to what he did to certain two friends of "Commander Sharp". He did get castrated for it, so at least that's something, and now he's disowned. Yeah, he did get punished pretty hard, but considering all he did it's probably still nowhere near enough.
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...grumblegrumblepositivityisacursegrumblebrumble...
...personalrantover...
- Being consistent is a way too difficult task for a sub-Private.
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Yikes, guess I'll need to add that one to my reading list - didn't know that the story was part of the same universe, woops
(And, since I realized I didn't say it before: Thanks for the stories, love your take on the changelings)
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Thanks.
All my stories are in the same universe, but the Imbalanced storyline (the central plot line of my "library/verse") is grim, and pretty much a take on a losing battle with depression covered in fantasy plot.
Good chapter. But the feels... Still good though
Ok, so it's after Blaze.
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I think I can recall a few fics where he was pretty good character. Interesting backstory, good trait and ability to torture captives by just telling them all his titles until they'll break and give Celestia all information. But yes, he's mostly a bad guy/comedy character
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he did and got WHAT NOW!? jesus christ i really need to read the imbalanced stories... im getting spoiled and miss so much context and stuff, fuckin hell