Day 7 - Drones? What drones?: 3/7
“You never take a break, do you?” asks Gem quietly but still audibly enough so that 387 can hear her over the chatter of other guests of the group walking up a sloping mountain path.
The warrior, walking next to her with a little delay so that he can see the back of her head, doesn’t even bother denying that the majority of his attention is occupied by her no matter how much Smiley is running around with the occasional slowdown due to stumbling on three legs and writing or drawing on its tablet.
“You still haven’t answered how you’ve managed to do something changelings thought impossible,” he replies, “Silents don’t-”
“Are you sure any of you actually tried?” she asks with just the faintest hint of bitterness in her voice.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” 387 frowns.
After a long time of walking up the slope of the inactive volcano taking up the eastern third of the island, they reach a short cliff with a staircase carved into its side, accompanied by solid railings. The guide walking first beckons at the guests and leads the way while calling out:
“We’re almost there! The terrace is right above us.”
With the guests queuing up for the final stretch of the ascent, Gem makes Smiley stop playing with its tablet and has it walk ahead of her, avoiding the need to answer 387’s question immediately. She can’t tell the warrior anything concrete, but the right mix of truth and lies should be much more useful.
One brief climb later, a vast, flat grassland stretches in front of them while the slope of the volcano continues rising several hundred pony lengths to the right. The terrace is covered with rocks and what on the first glance looks like ruined buildings, with a large, clearly maintained one far in the distance. Gem walks over to the edge of the cliff they’ve just climbed, and admires the view - the sparkling sea down in the distance, the slope covered by a mix of resort areas and well-maintained vegetation, and finally the short stretch of a much wilder jungle they’ve just crossed.
“It’s not Canterlot, but the sea and the quiet make up for it,” she smiles, whispering, “I wish you were her to see it, dad. You deserved- no, I know you’re still out there somewhere. You deserve more than dark tunnels.”
387 approaches her, but the guide starts talking just as he opens his mouth to press the issue of presumably impossible mental recovery.
“There are several terraces just like this one along the slope of the volcano, but this one is the largest. The rocks you see scattered everywhere around are the remains of a city mixed with pyroclastic debris. Care to guess what species used to live here just from the style of architecture?” the griffon guide walks over to the closest remnants of a wall and taps his talons against it. After several calls of ‘pony’, ‘griffon’, and even a ‘dragon’, the guide continues, “You’re all correct to a small degree, actually. This island used to lie on the path of dragon migrations during the time of the settlers, and inside the museum -the large building you can see standing ahead- you’ll see paintings of battles as well as scorched remains of armor and weapons. However, as far as we know dragons never settled this island for some weird reason. Both ponies and griffons did, actually, and the fusion of industrial and natural architecture, which will become more apparent as we visit the buildings which survived the passing of time in a better shape, belongs to their hippogriff descendants. In the year 248 of the second Irongrip dynasty-”
Smiley’s wings instinctively buzz as it leans over the cliff edge and gets pulled back by Gem’s foreleg. In response, it gives her a hug and trots off to keep up with the main group of the guests. Gem deliberately trails a bit behind to allow 387 some time alone with her.
“I had a changeling friend,” she says when the warrior approaches as expected, “A mentally impaired drone, albeit far from Smiley’s deficiency.”
“Had?”
“He was killed by paladins during the hunts for stragglers following the invasion,” Gem looks down at the grass, “He tried reaching out to one of them to show him that he wasn’t a threat, and he ended up with a knife rammed through his skull…”
After so much waiting to pry the information from Gem, 387 suddenly has no clue what to say.
“My condolences,” he forces out.
Gem sighs.
“Sorry, it’s not something I wanted to talk about, but I knew you wouldn’t stop. Unlike the other drones you brought with you, or definitely unlike 65536, Smiley reminded me of him and I was curious if I could make a difference… this time,” she forces a smile, “To my own surprise, I think I did.”
“But how?”
“I don’t know why, but I felt that Smiley wasn’t… I don’t know how to say it. Smiley wasn’t a blank slate that would need a complete rebuilding to begin interacting with the world, rather someone who wanted to interact with the world, but some part of its mind or body wasn’t allowing it to, so I focused on that,” she chuckles when 387 opens his mouth to say, “Yet another how, Mister 387? You’d be surprised how quickly you can earn a drone’s trust if you offer it candy that’s laced with various cognitive enhancers and work your way up from there.”
“You experimented on it?” 387 huffs.
“Nothing invasive or dangerous, I swear, although giving a drone an earthpony’s dose of caffeine was… a mistake. I’m not exactly an athlete and catching that little buggo was quite a chore. However, I soon realized that, as I said earlier, Smiley’s problem was a bit different, and I just did the basics - pictures, reading, writing, just throwing the entire kitchen sink at the problem and hoping that something would stick.”
“Your… potions and alchemy work on changelings?” asks 387 carefully.
“Hmm? I’m an excellent practical alchemist, plus I have experience with changelings, as I said. I doubt I could get past a changeling’s adaptability if they were directly resisting my attempts, but that wasn’t Smiley’s case. Look, I know I probably should have asked your Queen first, but I also heard stories about how drones are treated in the hive, both from 65536 and from my dead friend.”
“These days, it’s better,” 387 shakes his head, “Far from great but significantly better. The Queen would likely just tell you to do what you want instead of stopping you. If she was feeling particularly generous, she might assign me or 99 to watch over the process.”
“99?” Gem tilts her head, “I thought the second high rank of your delegation was 93.”
Her knowledge of the hive is worrying, but consistent with what a random surviving drone or 65536 would tell her.
“She got demoted recently,” 387 shrugs, “I wasn’t told why.”
“Huh…” is all Gem says about that, “Anyway, I’m glad I had time alone with Smiley. As I said, any disruption to its concentration is difficult to recover from, and I doubt I’d have gotten as far with it always looking over its shoulder at the nearby high rank.”
“I guess,” with Smiley found and mystery revealed to be non-threatening, 387 finds himself losing interest, but Wistful’s words regarding using moments like this to recharge return with vengeance, and he tries something he hasn’t done in ages - making smalltalk, “Nice, uhh, weather we’re having.”
Well done, 387. Well done. Truly an opening worthy of an ancient changeling.
Gem looks at him, covers her mouth, and laughs.
“Indeed. How are you enjoying the trip so far?” she counters, “Aside from the crash, I mean. It would be rather strange if that part was your favorite.”
“I’ve been through enough adrenaline moments to avoid willingly seeking out more. How… about you? What’s your favorite part of the trip?”
“Smiley, for sure, otherwise I wouldn’t have spent so much time with it, but I’m trying to get a taste of everything. Back home, I usually sit at a workbench, surrounded by bubbling beakers.”
387 measures her bombshell body from hooves to her silvery, pink-streaked mane.
“You don’t look like someone who doesn’t move around much.”
“I prefer quality over quantity,” Gem giggles, “But mostly I do have to keep a careful eye on what I eat.”
At some point during their crossing of the ruins, Smiley gallops to the duo with the tablet in its mouth, grabs it, and waves it above its head:
[o]
“Oh?” Gem tilts her head.
“A circle?” 387 takes a guess too.
Smiley darts back and forth, which prompts the duo to follow and find a big, black stone slab in the ground hidden in the corner of a random house ruin. Jutting out of the ground above it is a triangular construct from the same material, and both it as well as the section of floor are covered in indecipherable writing. What is decipherable is a brass plaque on a raised stone nearby stating “A presumed grave of an important city official. Protected by the Imperial Historical Society. Any damage is subject to a fine of-”
“Stop jumping up and down!” 387 barks at the Silent hopping directly on the smooth rectangle as he reads the punitive sum on the plaque.
Smiley waves its tablet one final time, makes the circle bigger into [O] before hanging it around its neck again and walking muzzle first into 387’s foreleg.
“Yeah yeah, it’s fine. Just don’t do it again,” the warrior pats its head which makes it cheer up immediately.
The scattered guests reunite as the core of the group reaches the museum in the center of the ruins which, according to the non-stop narration of the guide, is a replica of the hippogriff town hall this city used to host.
“-the hippogriffs later assumed a more natural way of life in the jungle covering the west half of this island after the last eruption of mount Ataraki, which destroyed this city, roughly six centuries ago and they live there up to this day.”
While the architecture and history are vaguely interesting, Gem begins examining numerous glass boxes lining the walls, some containing strange, white-ish, metallic fragments, others hosting rocks with smooth carvings, and many more curiosities. As she stops by one containing fragments which the plaque calls ‘arrowheads?’, 387 joins her mostly due to having nothing else to do.
“Oh wow,” he raises an eyebrow, “I haven’t seen this material in ages.”
“I have. Yesterday, in fact,” says Gem, “The supporting wall of the ‘temple’ on the seafloor was made of the same thing.”
“That makes a lot more sense,” 387 nods.
“How come?” asks Gem.
“The last time I even heard of this thing, it was a building material up north, even beyond the Crystal Empire. I think it had something to do with some old civilization that lived underground, but I just know scraps of what I caught in the hive mind here and there before- nevermind.”
“Underground civilization?” Gem smirks, “A competition for old changelings, maybe?”
“Not really, it’s too far north,” 387 shakes his head, “But from what I recall the northern tundra had more tunnels than solid earth, and some reached much further south. It’s not impossible that they could have spread even here.”
“Hmmmm,” Gem rubs her chin.
Maybe I was wrong. Maybe she didn’t need to return to the surface after fleeing Las Pegasus. If that’s the case, I have to explore the northern tundra itself when this is over.
***
Hour and a half later as well as a good number of pony lengths lower, namely back in the resort, Gem has Smiley jump off of her back. The Silent does so but stops in front of her and scribbles a [?] on its tablet.
“387, mind taking care of Smiley for today?” asks Gem, “There’s something I need to go check out.”
“I think it’ll survive just fine on its own,” 387 shrugs.
“Oh I’m not worried that somepony will hurt it,” Gem shakes her head, “I just think Smiley will benefit from being accompanied by someone who can help it broaden its horizons.”
Smiley scribbles a circle with dot eyes and a smile and points its tablet at 387.
“Fine…” sighs.
Smiley beams, wipes the tablet and writes a [?->] on it, with the arrow pointing at a lamp post.
“That’s a lamp. It’s not ‘shiny’ now because they only turn it on after sundown,” explains Gem, which seems to be enough for Smiley who trots off to the nearest bench and points the arrow at it next, “Your turn, 387,” she smirks at the warrior before turning away, “And thank you for the company.”
“You too, Miss Gem,” he replies politely and watches her walk away down the main avenue leading towards the sea.
What did I gain from this?
He looks at Smiley patiently sitting by the bench and pointing its tablet towards it.
“That’s a bench. Ponies and griffons sit on those so that their hair or fur doesn’t get dirty. Our carapace is much easier to clean so we don’t need those.”
Smiley’s puzzled stare reveals he might have conveyed way too many too complex concepts at the same time. With a sigh, 387 says:
“Let’s go. If I have to foalsit you today, we're doing something useful,” he rolls his eyes, repeating, “It’s called a bench. It’s for sitting on.”
Smiley scrunches its nose before beaming and-
“Don’t crawl into the-!”
-pouncing into a nearby trash can. Two forelegs quickly rise from the hole, showing the arrow on the tablet pointing downwards.
387 walks over, peering into the two glowing blue eyes looking up at him.
This is going to be a long day…
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Oh dear, an entire Island of religious artifacts and gravesites. Instead of weapons pods, server racks and control consoles?
Smily is getting better. Now they kitteh trash.
She's got a point. Nobody thought Silents could even get as far as Smiley already had gotten before this latest development...then the drones proved them wrong simply by treating them as an equal.
Truth be told, Silents probably always had the potential to be far more than they were labeled on the box, the high ranks just never stopped to consider it because they were stuck in the mindset of "that's not what Silents are here to do" and never stopped to think beyond that.
The downsides of such a strict hierarchy, I suppose.
Anyway, Smiley's being particularly adorable this chapter.
I don't think I've ever felt the urge to pet a fictional character quite this strongly before.
11429401
Looks like the What stage right now but I can only imagine the patience needed when Smiley gets to the Why stage with the endless "Why?" questions. Why why why. Enough to drive even Fluttershy up a wall.
And no one is gonna mention Smiley jumping on that slab? That circle might not be a letter O but the number zero. As in changeling zero, the first.
11428990
What is a temple to one might be something entirely different to someone else.
When Smiley learns to meow and draw a kitty face on itself, the world will explode and in the resulting darkness, Three will come to face a new challenger for the most adorable creature. They will solve the dispute with a hugging contest.
11429199
Smiley might be a special case, since the Silent creation process straight up doesn't give them enough love to evolve proper brains that can understand more than motor orders, but hey, Silent number I-don't-know-my-rank-but-there-was-a-three-somewhere-in-it did have just enough love to catch on, so maybe Smiley did too.
11429401
Have you read Exercise In Management? You might want to read Exercise In Management. Some highly huggable and pettable creatures there.
11429648
[?] phase is both of those rolled up together. Thankfully, unlike a kid, a drone leaves you alone when you tell it to stop. I wouldn't know either, but I assume.
Clearly, it was a [o]. Deciphering such a mystery will require a proper galaxy brain.
11430971
See above. :P
11429851
Mmm, maybe, that or Smiley found treasure and got "X marks the spot" wrong. Smiley is such a good boi.
Smiley is the equivalent of a toddler in the "why" phase
....oh
Unrelated to the chapter itself, but holy crap, I did it, I have finally finished your library and am now completely caught up
, not to mention that i also read they are everywhere, and the first 2 lovebug stories twice... but... I am now completely caught up 
, which means i have to wait for content now... welp, see you every 7th day 
11432838
Congratulations, but why would you inflict that upon yourself?
11432855
, seriously, the way you connected every one of these stories together into one grand universe is awesome, the humor is amazing, and your characters are damn relatable, and easily empathizable, i dont count a single second i spent reading your stories a waste, thank you for all you have written 
Because your stories are some of the best ones on the site
Now everything tied together~
Since there's still that probably-maybe-just-a-teensy-weensy-bit-difficult-to-solve problem of the sun literally not existing, will we be going back in time in the Narratorverse for the story after this?