Oops!: 1
Despite it being breaky time, two drones are currently walking far away from the High Score Cavern, deep in the tunnels. 65536 is on edge as bad memories of the old days come flooding back. The loneliness, the necessary hiding whenever one wasn’t working, no safe place to rest, the need to keep a secret stash-
65536 takes a deep breath. Those times are gone. 10k is right when it says they might come back at some point, but one can’t be weighed down by them.
“I know we’re pretty deep, but it’s safe here, even though there’s no digging going on during worky time anymore,” says 65536's companion 99200, sensing the tension in the air. The guard drone is nervously looking into the darkness of the tunnel, its ears twitching, scanning for any sign of danger, “I camp out here pretty often, and if there’s something wriggling around it smells different. In my experience, freezy time makes the gribblers move away somewhere.”
“Force of habit,” 65536 scrunches its nose and lowers its head closer to the floor, “To me, some of the marks in the disturbed dust look like hoofsteps, too big for a drone on top of that. No gribbler might have walked through here recently, but a changeling did, I think. Speaking of freezy time, I don’t remember you from my last visit,” despite the tracks, the drone’s quick mental scan reveals nothing. Not that it means much, because a drone would never sense a high rank trying to hide their presence.
“I hatched a couple cycles after you left. 10k told me a tunnel collapsed on someone so they needed a replacement, and then shared some of the noms you'd brought with me,” explains 99200, briefly going quiet and listening as hard as it can, “I liked the yellow goop ones covered in brown soft crunchy the most.”
“Banana jelly in chocolate!” 65536 nods, the mention putting it at ease for just a brief second, “I like those too. This year I brought those with coconut on top. You’ll see on Hard Swarming Eve.”
Unfortunately for 99200, 65536’s nervousness quickly returns, so the explorer drone asks:
“Do you want me to be quiet for a while to make sure we are alone? I can see you’re not comfortable here.”
“Could you, please?” 65536 smiles at the other drone, “Something feels off to me and I can’t figure out what. Sorry if it bothers you.”
“Not at all. This is the first time I’m not here alone,” 99200 shrugs, stops talking, and concentrates on walking as quietly as it can to give 65536 space.
“Thank you,” 65536’s heartbeat gradually stops deafening it as the two walk in silence. The guard drone perks up its ears and starts filtering out their own hoofsteps, breathing, the grinding of chitin, and all the other almost unnoticeable noises of their presence.
Nothing.
After several minutes of walking down the sloping tunnel, 65536 admits defeat because it can’t catch anything despite not getting rid of the feeling of eyes watching it from the back for even a second. On the other hoof, after several more moments, that feeling turns into the familiar wariness of performing a night patrol in Canterlot and that finally makes the drone comfortable.
“You know, it’s pretty unusual for a drone to prefer wandering alone,” comments 65536, finally at ease as much as a drone in the deep tunnels can be, “That’s one of the things I miss in Canterlot - hug piles. I tried to organize one a couple times, but no one with the exception of Miss Gloom was interested, and two just aren’t a proper pile. They kept saying something about orgies, but I have no idea what flowers have to do with anything. Some pony habits are plain weird.”
“When I said I camped outside of the High Score Cavern often, I meant once every three or four sleepy times. It’s a good survival practice in case I can’t flee quickly enough or get stuck somewhere. Plus, you can sometimes find weird stuff you don’t get to examine while you’re busy with digging like… did you notice the webs and goop the guys are using as padding under the slide?”
“I was wondering where those came from! So that was you?”
“Yup! There’s a ravine not too far from here full of those, but I think it’s too cold for leggy spinners during freezy time. 10k asked me to get some more for 99856 and 99111 and in return I can now carry a sticky goop egg with me in addition to the emergency cocoon.”
“If you want some suggestions about what to do with spiderwebs, I’ve got plenty.”
“99380 wanted to make a sports area, but we didn’t figure out how to arrange the space we had and in the end we couldn’t find a drone with the right kind of bouncy goop to make a ball.”
“Awww, that’s a pity. Sporty games are fun, but they can burn a lot of energy, so in the end the Queen would have to allow it anyway.”
“10k said the same thing- ah hah!” 99200 stops and points left towards a gravel-y section of the tunnel by the floor contrasting with the solid rock everywhere else. As 65536 leans in to examine it, the survivalist drone adds, “That’s the spot. All you gotta do is clear the gravel and dirt out, no need to dig. Watch me!”
With practiced ease, 99200 quickly shovels the material out of a rocky alcove similar in size to those in the High Score Cavern, revealing space into which a drone could snugly fit.
“Cozy,” 65536 nods approvingly, “How did you manage to dig this up without all the material vanishing? Or did you bring some gravel and dirt from elsewhere?”
“That’s my own trick. I’ll show you since we’ll have to dig out more space for you to fit,” 99200 mentally links up with 65536 and freezes, “Uhhh, there’s a see-through pony inside your head that’s warning me not to try to read your mind. What do I do?”
“That’s Princess Luna’s protective spell. I know a bunch of things about Canterlot that no one’s allowed to know and she always keeps this on me and makes it especially dangerous whenever I’m bound to be around high ranks. If you do something it doesn’t like it will warn you again, but since I’ll be watching you it should be okay,” explains 65536 and concentrates on accessing 99200’s open mental link, “Aaand I think we’re all set. Sorry, I don’t do mental stuff much back home so I’m out of practice.”
“It’s okay, the pony just spooked me. Very big, very… uhh… high rank-y,” 99200 takes a deep breath and digs out the first hoofful of solid rock while 65536 examines the method. It looks like 99200’s hoof is pulsing with light instead of just glowing but the hive link information is indescribable to a non-changeling, “This kind of digging isn’t really useful for worky time with all the mess it leaves behind, but it’s great if you want to leave something behind to make a wall and hide behind it. 10k said to not do it in the newly rebuilt tunnels unless It’s a life or death situation, but no one’s supposed to dig there anyway unless they’re writing stuff on the walls,” by now, 99200 has easily widened the alcove space so that the two drones could fit in if they squeezed up, but there’s no reason to make the overnight stay uncomfortable, so it stops, clears out the gravel, and nudges 65536, “You can do the rest.”
65536 digs into the rock. The first couple digs are slow, as if the solid rock was too resistant, but the drone quickly gets into the rhythm and makes the gravel fly like a digging dog. Some of the material still disappears even with this digging process, but the majority remains.
“Eeeeee! This way I’ll be able to dig in the castle gardens and no one will be yelling at me that they’ll have to order more dirt from lower Canterlot!” grinning from ear to ear, 65536 turns their camping spot from the size of a sleeping bag to a comfy burrow within moments, “Whoah, I might have overdone it a bit.”
“That’s okay. We have all the leftovers to fill most of it back up. Now look,” 99200 mixes the remaining dirt and gravel together with goop into chunks which it then sticks together with more goop, “Aaand now we mustn’t forget to leave some air holes,” it clears out some of the goop between the bigger chunks, “I didn’t do it the first time and when I realized I was choking I was too weak to break the wall. How could I have known that I could die if I ran out of something I couldn’t see and that no one told me existed? Thank 99856 for the emergency cocoon. It went poof, exploded the wall, and 10k’s rescue team found me in a few moments even though it was sleepy time.”
“You were lucky,” 65536 nods, “So, do we just climb inside now?”
“Mhm.”
Leading by example, 99200 crawls through the entry hole into the now wider space of the burrow and, once 65536 is inside as well, the two drones trade places so that the survivalist can properly fasten the fake wall. Finally, the duo are as safe as they can be outside of the High Score Cavern, two changeling loaves in a small oven with only a little space between them, each resting their head on their crossed forelegs.
“I must admit I really like camping,” says 65536, “The surface kind, I mean. This is different, though… it reminds me of how much there is to discover down here.”
“Definitely! If only there always wasn’t something trying to eat us while we’re discovering… or melt, explode, choke. Come to think of it, I don’t envy 99856 working with all the boomies.”
“How did you figure out that this exploration was your thing anyway?” asks 65536.
“It wasn’t too long after I hatched, actually. I was fleeing slurpy wrigglers, the big, black ones, and you know how they live in those muddy, wet, caverns where it’s easy to slip? I slipped, so I tried to trigger the emergency cocoon but I kinda fumbled it and it poofed behind me instead of around me so I couldn’t hibernate and harden it into a shell. The wrigglers started eating through and my leg was hurting so instead of running I dug a hole and hid in there-” 99200’s voice grows unsteady and distant as it returns to the vividly traumatic moment.
“We used to do that too in the old days!” 65536 shudders with familiarity.
“I don’t envy you. I’ve never been more scared, but it showed me that it’s possible to survive here if something goes terribly wrong, help is far away, and technology fails.”
Internally, 65536 smiles.
This used to be our daily life with no safety or recourse. 9999, 36658, and 10k will never truly understand how much they did for dronekind, how important heroes they are. All the rest of us small guys can do is chip in… and maybe that’ll be enough.
65536 reaches out and wraps its foreleg around 99200’s back.
“The Nightguard teaches a similar thing,” it pulls 99200 closer so that their sides touch, “The Princess teleports us away to a random place for three days once a month with little to no supplies. We need to know how to start a fire, make the right kind of shelter depending on weather and location, and find food- I just help with that because, you know, love. You’d like it. You know what? I’ll ask the Queen if she would sometimes let you come with us.”
The two drones keep quietly chatting about basic wilderness survival and how it could relate to living underground and potentially making some kind of food from tunnel moss and various remains until-
-the wall of their hideout shatters from the outside and something brutally rips 99200 out. Due to shock and pure reflex left over from old days, 65536 remains motionless and silent, covered in dust.
99200 twists in the air until it blinks the remains of the makeshift wall out of its eyes, finding itself held by one foreleg by a scowling ranked warrior at eye height. Behind him, there are six other high ranks, all measuring the drone with varying degrees of hostility.
“What’s a drone doing here, outside of work shift and hiding?” growls 415 at the head of the group.
“Camping!” replies 99200, saluting with the free foreleg.
“Here and now? Yeah, sure,” 415 effortlessly lets the drone's leg go and, before gravity can pull it to the floor, wraps the claws of his foreleg around its neck, “Did the damn, drone-loving traitor send you to spy on us?”
“What?” 99200 tilts its head as far as the tightening claws let it, “Nope, just camping. I’m here often, so you must have missed me before. Are you here to camp too? I can dig a hole for you too, because this one’s kinda too small for all of you.”
A ranked mare behind 415 whose identity 99200 can’t read out of her link says: “Hive business. You didn’t see anything and you didn’t meet anyone today.”
415 smirks.
“A lonely drone in a dangerous, deep tunnel. There are easier ways of making sure it doesn’t tell anyone anything.”
The words and the tone cut through still hidden 65536’s shock, and a memory seared into its brain of desperately hiding and trying to get some rest in a flimsy cover, surrounded by murderous monstrosities returns with a vengeance. Unlike when it was still just a hive drone, though, this time it evokes a diametrically different reaction.
NEVER AGAIN!
With one swing of its hoof, it digs out the solid rock blocking off its part of the burrow and, teeth gritted, looks straight at 415.
“Can we help you?” it surprises itself with how steady its voice is.
“Shit…” breathes out 415, baring his fangs.
“...if this one disappears we’ll have two alicorns and the Queen on our necks…” whispers another high rank hiding their identity.
“Let’s just wipe them and go,” growls a female infiltrator in the back, and her horn lights up.
“Wait, don’t-” is all 65536 manages to say before a horrifying screech of pure agony comes out of the infiltrator’s throat, “HELP HER!” the drone screams, “USE YOUR MENTAL SHIELD STUFF!”
It can’t sense if the other ranked changelings are doing anything, but it doesn’t matter. Over the next fifteen seconds, the infiltrator’s ear-piercing screech rises until there’s only foaming and groaning left, her eyes boil out of her head, and finally she collapses, leaving behind only blissful silence and absolutely stunned changelings.
“What did you do?!” 415 drops 99200 and leans down to 65536, shaking with fury but clearly unwilling to escalate the situation.
“Nothing, I can’t control it,” explains 65536 desperately, “It’s Princess Luna’s protective spell. It warns you before trying to get into my head and if you don’t stop…” it gestures to the extremely dead changeling, “I didn’t know it did that! The Queen just got knocked out when she triggered it.”
To its surprise, 415 turns his head ot the others and barks:
“Eat the corpse, we’re not wasting whatever love is left there,” then he looks at the two drones again, “You two, I’ll say it only once - this is hive business, so get out of here and don’t come back. You didn’t see anyone here tonight and you’ll never camp here again. Understood?”
“Meep,” is all 99200 can muster, trembling while staring at the high ranks now devouring the infiltrator’s corpse.
“Understood,” replies 65536 instead, “99200, we’re going.”
“Meeeeep…”
“Now!” the guard drone adds sharply, and its marching off finally makes 99200 snap out of it and quickly catch up.
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415 needs to go head to head with Luna, privately.
I think 99200 has earned the name Steve.
Being able to turn a Disintegrator field into a Resident Evil style diagonal mesh Minecraft resource exraction method is definitely worth the name.
Differet Drones that learn the trick can end up having other variations, like maybe ones that when doing Rock to Pebble to gravel to dirt to sand to dust, instead lose most of the stuff they started, but whats left are metal nuggets and dusts or gems, all shineys, that the Crafter drones can experiment with and research?
Tech tree to look forward to.
Mob Grinder.
Great chapter! Hope you are feeling a bit better now.
I've got the feeling 415 will come to a rather sticky end sooner or later. And Chryssi being worried about drones (who are simply happy that they no longer get crunched by high ranks for fun, AND get to keep working and digging to their heart's content) rising up but (seemingly) oblivous about illoyal ranked drones sounds like a typical "old Chrysalis" mistake *sigh* And she was doing so well, but I guess changing times are difficult especially for changeling queens...
Then again, things ARE still developing with the drones, and should 415 actually succeed and try to turn back time, they might actually face rather unexpected resistance from them - ironically, just like Chrysalis feared.
mustn't? a rather complicated word for a drone, no?
Oh! I don't know whether to call 65536 or 99200 lucky or unlucky for, apparently, stumbling into, without meaning to, on this lot's meeting spot so to plot conspiracies and other nonsense then.
Well played, 65536. No matter what 415 and his posse of traitors do now, they're kinda up a creek without a paddle. If they do anything to try and make you both "disappear," they'll have the wrath of three (or more) creatures far more powerful than all of them combined after them and with no plan for saving themselves from that. But if they let you both go, then they run the risk of either of you blabbing about how they were up to something to begin with. And they can't just wipe your memories of it, because A: drones apparently are developing a resistance to that tactic (if certain conditions are met, which I think this would qualify), and B: 65536's mind is safe-guarded against that anyway (thank you Luna!)
So...yeah. Don't see how 415 and posse are going to cover this up now. If we're lucky, this'll kill whatever dastardly schemes they were cooking up before they even start...but I have the nagging feeling we aren't going to be that lucky.
What did I JUST SAY about the mind wiping thing, you silly 'lings?
Well, now you know!
Also, you just told them that even Chrysalis couldn't beat that anti-mind-tampering-shield of 65536's, so now they know just how much they're up a creek without a paddle!
...which worries me that they, realizing they've not got much else to loose at this point, will just go for broke and accelerate their plans anyway.
Fortunately, it's looking like we're dodging that bullet for now. Buuuuut 65536 has enough Night Guard training drilled into them by now that no way they're not going to look back at this whole incident and think something is up and want to investigate or at least alert someone higher up the chain.
And wouldn't that just throw Chrysalis for a loop when, after all that fretting about the drones rising up against the hive, they instead come to her with evidence suggesting other high ranks of doing that instead, effectively saving the hive instead.
11747911
I'd suggest selling tickets except it'd probably all be over in an instant. 415 would be lucky to get even a single syllable out before Luna ends him six ways from Sunday.
Also, nearly forgot to add this, but hope you're continuing to recover, Nameless Narrator!
11747911
That would be extremely brief.
One day, we'll get a drone with an enchanting table, and then the world will tremble.
Literally how drones work now, the key is just finding/hatching the drone with the correct speciality. Perhaps Chrysalis thinks so too, and her special project may have been something along those lines.
11747935
In general, yes. At the moment, not really because I'm not on hospital grade painkillers and antibiotics. One can only hope for a gradual progress.
It can also be burny or boomy.
Something, something old dogs, new tricks.
Or maybe Chrysalis is such a mastermind that everything is going just... as... planned...
11748109
Close proximity to 65536 who has a very expanded vocabuldozer.
11748507
Drones are true zen. They do their thing, and plots just happen around them. I am a writer who plans stuff ahead and not just spouts random ideas that come to mind, I swear!
On the other hand, "hive business" covers a lot of things, and in the same way 65536 has mind protections against changelings to safeguard Canterlot information, it might get in a bit of trouble for sticking its nose into hive secrets. For all it knows, 415 is doing something for Chrysalis and he just dislikes Ds and 387. Being loyal doesn't have to mean being nice.
Ds can't be controlled if resisting. We also know CH can manipulate D minds and memories fairly freely (or will that be later? I'm kinda lost about what I've already published and what I wrote) although we haven't encounered direct resistance in trying to desperately remember something. The argument still stands, nonetheless, because they can't do it to 65536.
Maybe they have a plan that accounts for parts of it being revealed. Changelings can be crafty buggers.
See above, as an actual ambassador, sticking its nose where it doesn't belong might not be a good idea, especially digging deeper into hive business. WE think 415 and the rest could be traitors or something, but in the same way 65536 digging deeper into what they're doing can be reported to CH as gathering hive secrets to inform ponies about. Plus, the high ranks are acting pretty normally, even tame to its own experiences. We'll see if it chooses to act in some way.
Pretty sure she would be waaaay more familiar with that scenario than with a drone uprising one. One doesn't last 700 years on the throne of a race of starving, competitive monsters unchallenged.
From Blazing Light's stories we know that Luna does NOT mess around. If something happened to 65536 and she knew the responsible changeling/s only the istrium throne would protect them, at least until the firing line of catapults, griffon artillery, and other non-magical solutions would raze it to gravel. And THEN Luna would start the torture.
11748937
But then that's all the MORE reason for 65536 to inquire about the matter to Chrysalis then, because then checking with Chrysalis on whether or not it's a matter of concern to either of them (it doesn't have to also press for details to do this) would still end the matter either way. If 415 really IS on an assignment from Chrysalis (which, to be frank, I don't believe for a second, but assuming he was anyway), then all Chryssi has to do is confirm he was and to order he be left alone and 65536 would almost certainly drop the matter at that point and would help further minimize trouble happening again (and also maybe give Chryssi the chance to educate 415 on what NOT to do if he finds himself in such a situation again so to avoid repeats). If 415 is NOT acting according to Chryssi's wishes though, then she's definitely going to want to know about it so she can put down a possible rebellion if necessary.
Either way, it would be more beneficial to take it to Chryssi and confirm with her one way or another than to not, and if Chryssi's really trying to be a better leader like she keeps suggesting, then she should know that.
Besides, let's be real here--if 415 WAS on assignment from Chryssi to discreetly gather hive secrets, then this incident would just suggest he's failing utterly at that goal and probably require...intervention...anyway.
I mean more that the drones end up proving their loyalty to her and their hive by selling out those plotting against the hive instead of staging their own rebellion as she fears could happen. It would go a long way to helping reassure her that a drone uprising is probably not the thing she needs to be worrying about right now.
We really need a Wikipedia for All Charakters. There are way too much for me to keep Track
11748999
Good idea. I'll add a brief cheat sheet to the long description of this story like I did with the first book.
11748760
Cuddlings