They're... ON HOLIDAY?

by Nameless Narrator

Day 8 - Smiley's hole: 5/7

10013 knocks on the door of Shining Armor’s bungalow. There’s no beacon of love coming from the inside, so Miss Cadance is elsewhere, but she did say that Shining Armor likes to sleep for longer so he might still be there.

Maybe waking him up isn’t the best idea, but we have a bunch of tinies for him and he seemed a lot into them.

They wait. One wouldn’t expect the drones to be like that, but if the veterans have something then its patience. After all, they all remember the times when the only applicable thing to do when there was nothing to do but to wait for a new task was… nothing. 99526 is still recovering from yesterday with the help of some agonyslayers so it appreciates some sitting.

Just don’t look at the sea. It wobbles from side to side… nononono, stop! Look at the door, the door is solid. Totally unmoving-

The door swings open, prompting 99526 to slap a hoof against its mouth, and a dishevelled Shining Armor peeks outside. He smiles when he sees the drones, and says:

“Good morning. If you’re hungry and looking for Caddy, she decided to try some special yoga this morning which the griffons do. Supposedly, it’s much more hectic than the zebra version that got to Equestria.”

“No no no,” 10013 shakes its head before pausing, “Well, uh, I am kinda hungry, but that’s not why we’re here. We wanted to give you these,” it pushes its box towards him.

“What is it?” he opens 10013’s box and remains standing with mouth open, “Are those…? How did you?”

“We spent all yesterday making our Scufflestick tinies and we made an extra set from each faction for you as thanks for all the help in the thinky department,” 10013 nods to 36658 and 99526 who push a box forward each, “They’re a bit mixed up but it’s all of them.”

“I… I don’t know what to say,” Shining Armor pulls out an Equestri unit by his design. While the techno-magical weapons the stallion is carrying are a bit iffy and weird, clearly made by someone who had the design explained to them with drawings, the statuette of the stallion is of masterful quality, “These are fantastic,” he puts the warrior down and pulls out a spider unit from the Gribbler faction. This, however, is for sure made from memory of someone who saw many similar sights up close. He could easily sell it for hundreds of bits were it not for the fact that it must have been made out of changeling resin which puts its durability to question, not to mention the ‘eww factor’, “How long can these last?”

10013 freezes.

“Oh goop…” it facehoofs, “I… I completely forgot about that…” its shoulders slump.

“Our goop normally lasts two worky times, give or take,” 36658 realizes what’s wrong.

“Oh…” 99526 catches on last, “We can keep them from melting but you can’t. It takes only a tiny bit of love but you can’t just hug them.”

Seeing the trio of crestfallen drones, Shining can’t help but try to cheer them up.

“Guys, how about we play some proper games with these while they last?” he offers.

“Gasp!” 99526’s eyes light up, “Can I, can I, can I?” it bounces up and down, “Hurk-!” it covers its mouth again until its stomach calms down, “Nevermind, I’ll just watch this time.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” 10013 nods.

“Do we have the time?” asks 36658, which gives Shining Armor pause. This is the first time he’s seeing the drones be so busy they’re considering turning down their own idea which seemed crucial to them before.

“If you guys need to do something first we can play later,” says Shining, “We still have a few days left before we leave the island so if you come to refill or recharge the models they should last the whole trip.”

“Hmmm,” 10013 rubs its chin, “There is something we need to do, but this is important too. Do you have an idea where we could get a map of the whole island? A detailed one, not just empty space with a border and some scribbles.”

“I do, actually,” Shining Armor nods, “Come in.”

While the trio stash their boxes in a shady place under the window, Shining Armor walks over to a table next to a king-size bed and brings a map of the island made of brown linen and filled with markings, details, elevations, all stylized but promising accurate measurements.

“Like this one?” asks Shining, “Cadance bought it in the souvenir shop in the city.”

10013 and 36658 trot over.

“Woooow!” they say in sync, “We gotta get us one of those. Do they have more? How many shinies do they trade it for?” asks 10013.

“I’d gladly give you this one for the minis, even though they’ll melt eventually, but it’s Caddy’s.”

“Would it be enough if we remembered it and drew it for 10101 later?” asks 36658 mentally.

“We could, but any mistake could set us pretty far away from where we need to search. But we could borrow this one, show it to 10101, and mark the area it shows us on our hive map,” replies 10013.

“Mister Shiny, could we just borrow the map for a while?” it asks out loud, “An hour or two tops.”

“That should be fine as long as you don’t spill anything on it or something like that,” Shining shrugs, “Do you want it right now?”

36658 and 99526 look at 10013 who thinks for a moment before shaking its head.

“Let’s play some Scufflestick while we can,” it decides, “It’s something for the guys back home, not just for us to have fun with.”

“I’m all for that,” Shining begins gathering household objects and putting them on the carpet, “I think we can pull off a game before Caddy and I go have breakfast. Who wants to play against me then?”

“Guys?” 10013 looks at 99526 who eeps and shuffles back. 36658 doesn’t say anything, so 10013 adds, “Alright, if you’re worried about messing up, I can go first. You can learn from my mistakes and have an advantage later,” it walks over to Shining who points at a spot on the carpet and 10013 sits down there.

36658 stops next to it and gently pokes 10013’s hive link.

“You might not be High Score but you’re closer than anyone else,” it says.

“It’s just a game, 36658,” replies 10013 with a puzzled smile.

Out in the real world, 36658 hugs 10013 and backs off to the side.

“I never thought I’d be cheering for tunnel gribblers,” it sits down next to the playing area that Shining is preparing using the household items.

“You can cheer for me,” Shining smirks at 36658 who gasps and looks at him with horror.

“Drones stick together, Mister Shiny! That’s rule one.”

“Ookay, okay,” Shining chuckles to himself, “So, casual play often begins with a backstory for the encounter. Of course, it’s entirely unnecessary, but it adds flavor. Usually it is a battle for resources or lost information, and the objective locations on the map can be based on it. Let’s start with something simple - my Equestri have discovered several veins of minerals crucial to forging more weapons and created a magical portal into a nearby tunnel through which they can deploy in relative safety,” that’s the magazine here he points at a griffon gossip rag he put close to himself, “If we had the time or a rocky floor and some chalk, we could either draw obstacles on the floor or straight up build the objects, but we’ll improvise for now. Everything else between those four cups is our playing area,” he points out the square where in one corner he is sitting and 10013 is in the opposite one, “With the magical portal being here, I’m allowed to deploy my units in the beginning up until this line,” he points towards a pencil near his corner, “Since this is your area, you’ll be able to deploy anywhere else near the edge of the cavern. It’s unfair but this is a story game so it’ll be fine. Realistically, you’d have the same deployment area as I do but from your corner.”

As he begins spreading his tinies around the designated area in a tight formation. 10013 does the same, but without any tactical knowledge he can’t think of anything more complex than big guys in the front and shooty guys in the back. As Shining watches it, he asks:

“Do you want some tips?”

“Is this bad?” 10013 tilts its head.

“It’s basic, but you’re too focused on what your units do and not enough on what my units can do to yours. I’m significantly better at ranged combat and I have powerful units in low numbers, so your strategy would be to lock out my ability to shoot by getting into close range of my back line.”

“But those big guys are in the way,” 10013 points at Shining Armor’s heavily armored pony warriors.

“Yes, so in theory you could lock them into fighting one unit of your small guys and run past them with a different one. Your delayed deployment could also help with that because I’ll have to move out to control those three objectives,” he points towards an apple, a banana, and a cup of mixed nuts.

“Ohhhhh!” the now enlightened tactician 10013 nods.

“Now, we’ll have 5 turns to score points, so you might not even want to kill all my units and instead focus on holding main objectives to gain victory points. That means some of your units are touching it at the end of the round.”

“What if we’re both touching it?”

“We both get points for that one.”

“Stick to the objects, got it,” 10013 nods.

“Objectives,” Shining corrects it, “Now for secondary objectives. I’ll go with two universal ones - have a unit use their action in a specific spot,” he points at a potted plant, a spoon, and a fork, “That means my unit won’t be able to hurt you but I can get an extra point instead. My second secondary objective is perfect against you - if I kill more units in a turn then you do, I get a point.”

10013 looks at its swarm of weak tinies.

“That’s almost a freebie,” it comments and Shining smiles, “Okay then. My secondary objective then will be to kill a bigger unit with a smaller one-”

“That’s a smart one,” Shining nods.

“-and number two will be to munch a dead unit with my big hero guy. One question, though - what happens if one army completely destroys the other? Do they just win?”

“No, actually,” Shining shakes his head, “You can imagine this game world as a constant war, so you usually have limited time to do something important before major reinforcements arrive, both sides dig in, and the area becomes a death zone to anyone who comes in. With this story battle, we can say that I win if I, in the limited time that I have before my mining wakes up an amount of Gribblers that my forces can’t take head on, mine enough minerals to build more weapons than I risk by coming to this place. And a victory for your side is simply that I don’t get stronger enough to threaten your overall position in the world. In the rules it works this way - if one army is entirely gone then the opposing army gets an amount of points they’d gain if they held all main objectives for all the rounds remaining in the game.”

“That makes sense,” comments 10013, “So, if I understand the rules correctly, we now roll dice for who plays first?”

“Exactly!” Shining nods with pride at his protege getting things right.

They roll.

“Ha haaa!” 10013 beams, “You cannot surprise the tunnel Gribblers, surface dweller. They always surprise you!”

“We will see,” Shining Armor smirks, and the game begins.

***

Despite 10013’s valiant effort, within roughly half an hour it’s behind on points, its army has dwindled considerably, and Shining Armor’s forces are successfully holding the spoon, the banana, and the assortment of nuts. It’s pretty clear that the only thing that might even remotely save the game for 10013 would be if 20100 came and started playing, and even then the dice rolls might not be enough.

The door to the bungalow opens without knocking and Cadance walks inside, followed by Prism. The usual aura of love emanating from her is somewhat dimmed for reasons the drones don’t know as they wave at her and say:

“Good morning, Miss Cadance!”

“What’s going on here?” she asks while Prism positions himself between Shining and the drones.

“We’re playing Scufflestick, Miss Cadance,” says 10013, its enthusiasm a little dampened by the feeling of something being off.

“Shining, the griffon guards, paladins, and security guards put Queen Chrysalis, 99, and 387 under house arrest for sinking the cruise ship. They wanted every hive changeling in the prison, but the Paladins put their hoof down.”

“Whaaaa?” 10013 exchanges looks with 36658 while 99526 meeps and shuffles closer to the drone leader.

“Cadance, as little as I trust Chrysalis… why?” Shining Armor shakes his head.

36658 raises its foreleg. When Cadance looks at it, it asks.

“How would that happen? I mean, we spent a lot of time walking around the ship and… I mean… maybe we touched something the wrong way? 387 specifically told us not to dig anything and we didn’t, but maybe we, I don’t know, bumped into something?”

Cadence briefly stares at it before her somewhat stern expression softens and she sighs while shaking her head.

“No, the paladins confirmed that the breach looked as if something exploded from the inside out, and it coincided with places where you changelings were spotted during the cruise, so it can’t have been a coincidence… but I don’t believe you would do it. I was thinking about Chrysalis or one of the bigwigs controlling you, but I talked with Ten and he said it wasn’t the case because he was tracking you mentally during the cruise, whatever that means. And on top of all that, Chrysalis was supposedly mostly paralyzed during the whole event and no one tried to get her out of her cabin.”

“This does smell like a setup,” ponders Shining, “But all this is hearsay.”

“What do we do?” asks 99526, looking around, first at Shining and Cadance, and stopping on 10013 who takes a deep breath.

“I… I think we need to talk to 387,” it says, “We’re in way over our heads. We don’t know what could have happened. We don’t know if we could have done something by accident, although the Queen would see it in our heads for sure. The worst part is that if someone wanted to… kill her and would have succeeded if 387 hadn’t saved her then who knows what they can do to us?”

“Are you sure about that,” asks 36658, “Wouldn’t 65536 be better? It’s a drone, it knows the big world rules due to all the guarding. I could go while you finish the game.”

“I think that under these circumstances the game can wait,” Shining chuckles in surprise at the drone’s priorities.

“The game is important, Mister Shiny,” 36658 gives him a look of conviction that’s difficult to dispute, “Our long term goal is to show the newly hatched drones like 99526 here that there’s more to life than digging, carrying, and inevitably getting eaten when you make a single mistake. 10013 is the best one to teach them and 99526 put the most work into making its faction. I think 65536 would understand our worries better than 387.”

10013 taps its hoof against the carpet while Shining and Cadance exchange glances but remain quiet in this drone matter.

“Yes,” 10013 says eventually, “We can finish the game. If we’re bringing home something new, we should do it properly. Can we?” it looks at Shining who nods, “Still, 36658, I’d like you to talk to 387 first anyway. I know we always need to be careful but 387 has been of so much help that I think we can trust him to do the right thing. I’m starting to see that the old rules are still alive, but in us, and that’s a good thing in one way because we need to tell others how bad things can be, but we must keep our eyes open so that we can enjoy the good times right now. If we never look forward, then we’ll have never left the old days, we’ll never act as if things changed. In the end we’ll be the problem, 36658,” it boops 36658’s nose.

36658 boops back.

“High Score would be proud of you.”

10013 ignores it, instead looking at Cadance.

“Miss Cadance, can we borrow your detailed map? We promise to return it in one piece.”

“Hmm? Sure,” she shrugs, her mind clearly elsewhere.

36658 grabs it, carefully rolls it up, sticks it into a leg hole, and finally gives Cadance and Shining a courteous bow one by one, “See you later, Miss Cadance, Mister Shiny,” it trots off, “Oh, you too Mister Prism!” in the end, they hear from the outside, “Bye, Mister Glintstone!”

***

“So this is the house Miss Cadance meant when she said house arrest?” asks 36658, having tracked 387’s link muted by the paladin suppressor to a gazebo just above beach level of the resort, “Are the Queen and 99 in a different house?”

The warrior is sitting alone with his eyes closed, but his ears twitch imperceptibly with 36658’s every step towards him.

“Ah, so Empress Cadance told you,” 387 looks at 36658, “Chrysalis had this idea that if we didn’t tell you then you might be able to enjoy the rest of the trip without interference, but on the second thought- well, even first thought that was never going to happen. So, why were you looking for me?”

“10013 sent me. We… uhh…” 36658 pauses, not knowing where to even begin.

“Unless the next words are ‘somehow did sink the ship and managed to keep it secret from everyone’ then I think you can just be open with it,” 387 rolls his eyes.

“Well,” 36658 looks around, “It’s… I… ummm… can you read my mind? I think I don’t know the right words to say everything properly and I don’t think I can afford to muck it up.”

“Ominous,” comments 387 before patting the bench next to himself, “Sit down. If we’re to be thorough we may as well be as gentle as I can manage. Holes know we have the time now.”

36658 hops on, and feels 387’s probing presence within its head shortly after.

It takes close to an hour to scour 36658’s mind for any detail it saw earlier in the morning, even things it noticed and didn’t consciously process, and in the end 387 withdraws, leaving 36658 exhausted and lying on the bench with a splitting headache.

“Inner peace, you tried,” groans 387 before turning around and slamming his forehead against one of the gazebo’s pillars with a sudden angry growl.

The crack makes 36658 back off immediately. An angry high rank in the vicinity is such an ingrained threat that any exhaustion or other pain, no matter the level, is irrelevant. If it can move away, it must. 387 senses the sudden fear and looks at 36658, raising his forelegs.

“I’m not angry at you, 36658,” he sighs, “It’s just everything hitting at the same time.”

“What should we do?” asks 36658, wincing as the adrenaline rush subsides immediately and the headache returns with a vengeance.

387 closes his eyes again, slows his breathing down, and thinks… and thinks.

“Okay, listen to me very carefully,” the warrior leans closer to 36658, lowering his voice, “We’re going to tell Chrysalis everything.”

“387? I know 10101 said that we’re the least danger if we have the Re-for-ger,” it deliberately slows down to say it properly, “but won’t she want it for herself?”

“I know it sounds dumb, but I’m going to need you to trust me this time. No, you know what? I’m going to let you decide. If you refuse I won’t get involved and I won’t tell anyone and you might get away with it because Chrysalis just might be busy with something else. But if you decide to trust me and Chrysalis this time we’ll figure out what to do together.”

“Do you think there’s a way in which telling her won’t make things worse in the long run?” asks 36658 carefully, “You know her… but so do we.”

387 scratches 36658 behind an ear.

“I… I don’t know,” the warrior breathes out, “But that, in itself, might be a good thing, because until recently I’d have said no straight up. Do you understand?”

36658 bites its lip and looks up at 36658 with a mix of fear and exhaustion.

“The old rules live inside us no matter how much things have changed, 387, but 10013 sees a light at the end of the tunnel that I don’t,” the drone climbs down from the bench, “Let’s go tell the Queen.”

Comments

[Booster Spice]

The drones need to make the Tinies out of Construction Resin, once they get the right drone. Eentually someone would discover that the Tinies with Blades make excellent machine tool tips for even the hardest materials?

[Scyphi]

“No, the paladins confirmed that the breach looked as if something exploded from the inside out, and it coincided with places where you changelings were spotted during the cruise, so it can’t have been a coincidence"

Actually, that's hardly evidence, Cadance, and it's all extremely circumstantial anyway. It doesn't really prove anything, particularly when you consider that, inevitably, there were plenty of other creatures who would've been in those same areas of the ship at some point during the cruise...but I don't hear you accusing them of causing the ship to sink.

And anyway, I don't see what Chrysalis's hypothetical motive would even be. The one you'd think first and foremost would be to assassinate one or more of the high-ranking political figures aboard, but considering there were no deaths in the sinking because the ship's evac went...actually pretty much exactly as it should've, that was enough of a failure that you'd think Chryssi wouldn't have counted on them just going down with the ship like that and instead do something to ensure they didn't get out alive...which she clearly didn't. Further, assuming that was her plan, then you'd assume she'd either A: try to accomplish that same goal again through some other means there on the island, or B: scrub the plan and get out of there before anyone figured out the changelings were in anyway responsible. We have no evidence (as of yet) that she's trying to do A (and surely 387 would suspect something along those lines by now if she were) and she's obviously not done B.

The only other motive I can think of then is that the motive was to end up on the island like this, but that would suggest there's something there she's interested in seeking out specifically here, and, again, there's no evidence (as of yet) that she's searching for anything like that. Instead, all evidence suggests she's just been enjoying the same resort luxuries the same as everybody else, most of which she had similar access aboard the ship too, and anyway...if she's really just there to enjoy herself (which she may or may not actually be doing--jury's still out on that one) then why sink the ship and mess up her own enjoyment in the process?

The worst part is that if someone wanted to… kill her and would have succeeded if 387 hadn’t saved her then who knows what they can do to us?”

See, that I would think much more likely, that the whole ship sinking had been cover for an attempt to bump off Chryssi, and when that failed, they're now trying to frame her for the sinking so to both cover their tracks and still at least get her arrest as a consolation prize. It would fit what we know so far much better than the reverse of assuming the changelings themselves were somehow responsible.

But saying that, I have to concede that is just as much circumstantial evidence at best as the rest.

“Chrysalis had this idea that if we didn’t tell you then you might be able to enjoy the rest of the trip without interference, but on the second thought- well, even first thought that was never going to happen."

True--they may be drones, but they're still changelings, and other resort-goers in the know and suspicious of changelings would only still want to treat them as such, so yeah, they were always going to find out.

Still, it was worth a shot, I suppose.

“We’re going to tell Chrysalis everything.”

Actually, contrary to all knee-jerk reactions, that really might be a good idea. That way, if something with the reforger plans goes awry or the drones get into unanticipated trouble, Chrysalis will already be aware and prepared to act accordingly to try and smooth things over. Done her way, of course, but given everything else she's done for the drones throughout all of this, I expect she'd still come bail them out anyway (albeit begrudgingly...and maybe not in person but rather by sending another 'ling to do it for her...probably 387 now that I think about it--that seems like a job she'd drop in his lap all right).

[Nameless Narrator]

11486706
The big problem with the hive is that they don't have something like that, hence a good amount of drone time is spent running around with a love ration and refueling the goop supports so that they don't melt or entirely re-gooping whole areas.
11487221
- True, but it would require a specific creature to be at all the areas, and that narrows it down considerably.
- It's not over yet! Chrysalis' target can still have "an accident".
- Why are non-spoilery answers so hard? Let's just say that statement is very close to what my original idea for the story was but, as they say, no plan survives first contact.
- It's not over yet! Chrysalis can still have "an accident".
- Tsundere mommy Chrysalis cares deep down.
- With the high ranks contained to the resort now, their ability to help is a bit limited.

[Shadowshame]

11487469
Knowing what I do about Gem and the ponies she is connected with the device is likely exactly why she caused the ship to go kaboom

[Nameless Narrator]

11490837
I understand what you mean, but your timeline is off for it to be true.