Day 6 - Worky time cancelled!: 4/8
“So, where are we going today?” 99380 asks 10013 who is sitting in the middle of the living room, tapping its foreleg on the carpet.
“Hmm?” 10013 twitches as if it completely forgot that 99380 was there, “I think the Queen made herself perfectly clear, so exploring it is.”
“I got that part, so where are we going to explore?”
“I’m going to find where Mister Shiny lives and ask if we can progress our Scufflestick ideas,” as 99380 opens its mouth, 10013 shakes its head, “I think you should head off on your own for now.”
“Huh? Am I bothering you?”
“No, I just need to think about… about this whole situation,” 10013 sighs, “We’re in a completely new situation, we’re split and arguing with each other, and it’s possible that we’ll be forced to forget… honestly, the most important drone ever. And it’s all happening while I’m supposed to lead,” it shakes its head, “I need to clear my head, so I’ll just stick to something simple for now. I’ll just find Mister Shiny, ask him if he has time for us, and see what I can do after that. It’s up to you to do more to fulfill the Queen’s orders for now.”
99380 takes a deep breath and puffs out its chest.
“I’ll do my best, but I’m a bit scared.”
“Hey, being self-reliant during exploration is critical, and you did just fine on the ship.”
“Well, everyone was within the reach of a hive link there. This place is pretty big.”
“Just think of today as exploring a tunnel section which should be safe and full of shinies or something interesting, but where there’s a small chance that it wouldn’t be. I know you can do it.”
“I’ll do my best to find fun stuff to share with others!” 99380 hugs 10013 and runs out of the suite.
Finally alone, 10013 closes its eyes, takes a deep breath in, holds it, and finally lets it go.
“I don’t know how to fix this,” it says out loud, the open admission making its ears droop briefly, “What would High Score do? Fix this. Okay, that’s not helpful,” 10013 walks out onto the balcony, flies up into the air, and slowly floats through the air towards the beach.
If I don’t give up, High Score will help me find a way. I just have to keep thinking, keep trying, keep looking.
Flying down the slope towards the water bungalows takes much less time than walking down the central road, and finding what’s bound to be Shining Armor’s accommodations is even faster, not due to him per se, rather due to a pink-ish pillar of light visible only to changeling eyes emanating out of one of the bungalows which, from experience, must be the result of Princess Cadance’s presence in one place.
As its hooves tap against the wood of the pier, 10013 scratches its head.
Well, that was quick. What now?
It rises on its hind legs and peeks into the window where some kind of a heavy bead curtain obscures its vision completely. A quick look around confirms the arcing pier to be empty, so 10013 shrugs to itself and lies down by the bungalow wall. The hurt face of 36658 comes to mind, but the drone refuses to get into the trap of replaying a bad memory on repeat, and instead decides to do something to take its mind off of things. That is an issue which will require some time.
So… hah!
10013 hucks out a glob of goop, turns its forelegs into claws, and starts molding the goop into a small replica of one of the many horrifying monsters from the deep tunnels.
Mister Shiny said we’d eventually want to use figurines for Scufflestick, so let’s use the time to get a head start so that I can teach others a good way to make those if I figure one out.
***
*Gasp!*
“Huh?” 10013 realizes it got so lost in modeling the figurine’s long, thin legs, and licking the hardened goop to make a part of it malleable again after drying up that it entirely missed the door of the bungalow opening and Princess Cadance looking down at it, “Oh, good morning, Princess Caddy- Candy- uhh- Ca-den-za?” 10013 gets it right entirely by accident.
“Cadance is more than enough,” she covers her mouth and lets out a quick snicker, “No need to be so official.”
“I think I gotta,” 10013 stands up and puffs out its chest, “I have an official request, I think. I mean, not from the Queen, but from us drones.”
“Oh?” the Princess raises an eyebrow, “What is it?”
“Can Mister Shiny come out and play Scufflestick with us?”
Cadance’s eyes bulge and she can barely contain a wheeze drawing out of her lips with her once again raised hoof. Her self-control wins, almost, and with a sudden wide smile but without any other reaction she steps out of the door and telekinetically closes it behind herself. 10013 notices she’s carrying a packed tubular bag on her back with something black and rolled up sticking out of it.
“Shining is still sleeping, 10013-”
“Huh? You recognized me!” the drone’s eyes light up as it interrupts her.
“Yes, I did. Messing around on the beach with you made me think, and I figured out a way to distinguish all thirteen changelings around here, some even from a distance. I can connect your love signatures to names for only two of you little ones, though, you and 65536.”
“Neat!” 10013 pauses, “Goop! I should have asked Smiley for more chalk to write numbers on our carapaces. That would make distinguishing between us easier for everyone. Oh well,” it shrugs, “Anyway, uhh, right… you said Mister Shiny was still asleep, that makes sense. How come you are up this early?”
“I wanted to do some yoga,” she shakes her bag, “Going about it outside in nature and in the light of the rising sun is…” she sighs, “pure serenity.”
“What’s that yoghurt thingy?” 10013 tilts its head, “All our high ranks’ links are closed off and I’ve never heard the word before.”
“I can show you if you want. Shining loves to sleep in on vacations so you’ll be waiting here for a while if you need him.”
“Sure,” 10013 puts the unfinished figurine on the windowsill of the bungalow, “I think I’ll have to start over anyway with that. It looks less like a webby spinner and more like three danger noodles colliding with each other.”
Cadance examines the green object in question.
“Is this supposed to be some sort of a spider?”
A brief check of the accessible hive mind later, 10013 nods.
“I think you ponies would call it that, yes. This one-”
“Walk and talk,” Cadance pats 10013’s head before pointing along the pier and leading the way while the drone follows her.
“Okay. These webby spinners are similar to leggy spinners, but they don’t chase and bite you. They wait until you get into their webs and when you can’t unstick yourself they come and cocoon you up while you call for help but no one can help because they’d get stuck too and it takes so long until you go quiet I’msorry99419ItriedtohelpbutIcouldn’tgetcloserbecausethewebswereeverywhere…” 10013 stops talking, instead staring blankly ahead as it walks.
“Ooooooo-kay,” Cadance just walks or a while, at a loss for words, before recovering, “You know what? Why don’t you try yoga with me instead of just watching? That could take your mind off… things.”
“Sure, we like sweet things. And salty things. And sour things in moderation,” 10013 chuckles as if nothing trauma-inducing just happened, “We tried a lot of weird, tasty noms on the ship.”
“Yoga isn’t food, it’s a health exercise,” Cadance shakes her head, “It helps me keep lean and keeps my core strong. A great way to relax, too, when all the meetings and sitting on the throne become overwhelming.”
With a flap of her wings, Cadance flies up with 10013 in tow, and over several bungalows as a shortcut to avoid going onto the promenade and then curving back to the beach, and in only a few moments the duo land on a rockier part, alone and undisturbed.
Unsure what comes next, 10013 watches Cadance open her bag, unroll a yoga mat on the nearest flat surface, and sit down on it, hind legs crossed in a lotus position.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to do without a mat, but if you decide you want to try this again tomorrow I’ll figure something out,” she points at a spot nearby. 10013 sits down as well, attempting to mimic Cadance’s pose.
Unfortunately… its hind legs simply don’t bend that far due to the hard, chitinous plates. When Cadance sees it, she examines 10013 up close and says:
“Hmm, I don’t think any amount of stretching is going to help here. Can’t you transform so that this heavy armor doesn’t limit your movement so much?”
“I can experiment a bit, if you can refill me. I recharged a lot while waiting for Mister Shiny, but experimenting with something new is always exhausting, which is why we rarely do it unless we have love to spare… which we rarely do, even now.”
Cadance boops 10013’s nose, and the drone feels a rush of love revitalizing it from the nose to the tips of its hooves.
“There,” she smiles.
“I wish it was as easy back home,” the drone chuckles, examining its legs, “Hmm, maybe if I soften my carapace around the knees?” with a flash of green, the drone manages to bend its hind legs enough so that it can touch its hind hooves together with the knees pointing to the sides, “I don’t think just knees are enough to bend like you did.”
“That’s okay,” Cadance shakes her head, “Let’s start with some breathing exercises and when we get into other positions we’ll see what we can do about your armor. Speaking of which, why aren’t you mimicking that dark green changeling who is with your delegation? His carapace actually makes sense for both flexibility and movement.”
“A bunch of reasons, Princess Cadance-”
“Just call me Cadance.”
“Miss Cadance?”
“Fine…”
“A bunch of reasons, Miss Cadance,” 10013 repeats, “Our squishy bits aren’t as strong as a warrior’s, so when we carry something too heavy, our carapace doesn’t allow us to get crushed because the plates lock against each other to carry the weight. Plus, when something attacks us in the tunnels, proper armor is the only way to survive any glancing blow while we run away.”
“But a full carapace like that must be slowing you down, both in weight and mobility.”
“That’s how we hatch. The problem is that we don’t just lose love by doing stuff, we also lose it when we’re in a transformed shape that’s different from our natural one, so even now that I’m sitting like this I’m losing a bit. Well, I would be if just being near you wasn’t slowly refilling me,” 10013 pauses to think, “Although 65536 told me that it’s doing some training so that it loses less love when transforming if it needs to be stronger or faster.”
“I guess that makes sense,” Cadance ponders it, “Just like we ponies get stronger by physical exercise which makes said exercise easier over time, maybe you changelings can adapt in the same way to use up less love.”
“65536 said it works, but as I said - we don’t have that much love back home to experiment often.”
“You know… show me how you transformed your leg,” says Cadance. When 10013 stands up and stretches its hind leg out, she examines its knee where the chitin is simply softer now, “Can you remove your carapace?”
“Like… all of it?” 10013 shoots her a horrified look.
“Oh no no no, just a piece over here,” she traces a line over 10013’s knee with her hoof. 10013 does so, revealing a fleshy green mesh reminiscent of a thick rope covered by a thin, see-through membrane underneath, “And now grow a piece like this,” she traces an another line which is followed by 10013 transforming in real time, “Now try to move your leg around.”
Curious, 10013 bends the leg in various angles with much more freedom than before. However, when it tries to squat its leg gives out and it keels over.
“Whoah?!” it scrambles back on all fours, “I think I needed the bit we transformed away. Looks like that was a piece that’s supposed to stop me from bending too far.”
“Hmmm,” Cadance rubs her chin, “This is interesting. You drones are incredibly strong for your size in a small movement range and use your hard carapace to hold you steady the rest of the way so that you don’t collapse.”
“Like what just happened,” 10013 nods, trying to figure out what Cadance’s examination means.
“Shoot, we might actually need Shiny around for this,” she laughs out loud, “Well, maybe later.”
“I’m a bit lost, Miss Cadance.”
“You see, Shiny’s passion is army models, soldiers, and tactical games, which he disseminates down into incredibly nitpicky details. If you ever see him paint his tiny soldiers, you’ll understand. The thing is that he is incredibly good with armor, his name and all. The entire Crystal Guard is wearing his designs. I think he could help you figure out how to transform your carapace so that you don’t leave yourself unprotected while also allowing you to be much faster and agile.”
“That’s nice and all, but that would still drain too much love back home.”
Cadance pouts for a moment before asking:
“But you said 65536 trains to be stronger without using love. Would a carapace transformation work the same way as muscle growth?”
“I… think so?” 10013 scrunches its nose.
“Well?”
“I mean, 65536 has been training for years, but maybe we could learn a simple transformation in a few days if we had the chance to refill. It’s worth a try.”
“Then you know what? Any time one of you little ones are hungry, just find me and I’ll top you off. When Shiny wakes up we’ll see if he has an idea on how to improve your armor.”
“Sounds good. We all want to talk about our Scufflestick ideas with him, so we can do both.”
“See? We’re figuring out solutions to problems you didn’t even know we had,” Cadance beams.
High Score will provide if we just don’t give up on looking…
Maybe it will even be something that will outlive us, just like 36658 wants.
10013 returns her happy smile.
“So, about your yoghurt thingy…”
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They are the cutest love bugs ever.. with horrifying levels of PTSD.. but still adorable.
Don't worry 10013. In the near future the concept of a flamethrower is going to be introduced to the hive and revenge will be had for countless generations of drones.
11382358
They had one at the beginning of the story...
At this rate one of the drones is going to end up transforming it chitin into the equivalent of a lightweight abyssal diving suit style armor, but noones going to think of calling it Slim Jim?
Cadence: I already told you. He's sleeping.
Personally, I'm picturing Shining Armor eventually waking up and rolling over to see that figurine there in the window, as if creepily staring at him.
Cadance, you read my mind.
I wonder, after becoming prince, Shining was all: "Finally! A chance to do the armor my way!"
11382318
Both work well with an overabundance of hugs.
11382358
11382398
The Angry Shiny is unfortunately too rare for a wide-scale revenge.
11382480
Nanofiber armor from Crysis incoming. MAXIMUM CUDDLES!
11382766
Let's abuse the "Teen" rating a little bit more. I think it's starting to like it.
11383117
- I mean, it was left outside, behind a bead curtain. If it got inside and stared at Shiny, we would have grossly misjudged 10013's special talent and goop properties. Goopromancer? That doesn't sound right.
- High Score's cathedral will need a yoghurt studio after they come back.
- And then everyone wore Brotherhood of Crystal power armors forever.
11383440
The benefit of being more open with Ponies. More Angry Shinies!
11389590
Everyone?
No, wait, Chrysalis will live! Unless there's imposters among them...
11389636
ChrySUSlis.
Quickly, 387, vent!
11383440
Until another dudes will appear with better PA and strange love to letter "E".
And even later appears Alicorn of Retcons and makes even better ones...