Night drapes its cool embrace over the cruise ship, and the drones answer 387’s mental call, summoning them towards the front end of the ship where a stage is being set up for the light show. Faced with the warrior, the drones fan out with 10013 and Smiley in the middle and 36658 and 99111 decidedly as far away from each other as possible.
“Alright,” begins 387, “Today’s been pretty eventful and I’ve been trying to keep up with what’s been happening but I had my own business to take care of. So, before the light show begins, let’s polish off any remaining point additions or subtractions.”
He counts off every drone one by one:
“10013 - decidedly neutral, I see. No love gained, no presence anywhere, and I see that 20100 refilled your love before we started. No points to allocate in either direction then. Was there anything useful about the lectures?”
“It was interesting, but I’m not sure how useful it would be for any of us,” admits 10013, “I have a bunch of stories to tell the guys back home, at least.”
“You never know when knowledge can turn into a weapon,” 387 offers at least words of comfort while rummaging through the head of the next drone, “20100 - you earned… three hundred and sixty bits by painting artworks that would normally gain the artist a lifetime of wealth, security, and prestige. On one hole, I’m decidedly impressed. On the other, I can’t help being pissed off about the wasted potential.”
“If you want some shinies, you can have them,” offers 20100, “We traded some of them for various things to eat or drink but eventually 99526 got sick. Oh, and one griffon lady said she’d show both of us some proper loving and a really good time for fifty, but I had to drag 99526 off because it was kinda… spewing at the time, so I told her that maybe later.”
387 wipes his forehead in relief.
“You know what? Plus four points. One for not needing a refill, one for refilling others, one for the extra bits, and one for, umm, maintaining a good image by not buying a griffon… escort, and I’m being exceedingly polite here.”
“So many points!” 20100 clamps its forelegs over its mouth.
“Next up - 36658, you were pretty quiet all day,” 387 looks at the next drone in order.
“I was doing drugs all day!”
387 furrows his brows as he digs into the drone’s head.
“I think you meant making dr- no… you didn’t,” the warrior frowns, “I’m not sure how I feel about you being some zebra’s test subject.”
“It was for a good cause,” 36658 stares directly into his eyes with an expression of firm determination which genuinely surprises the warrior, “Feel free to check my head in detail. Miss Gem didn’t abuse me or anything, if you’re worried about that, and I’m completely full of love too.”
“Hmm,” 387 makes a mental note to spare some attention for the zebra chemist later, “I suppose that if you’re healthy, don’t need a refill, and didn’t get into any trouble, plus you helped with medical research, you can get two points overall.”
36658 only nods.
“99111, our little religious rebel,” 387 snickers, “Spent most of the day exploring and then fixing a door. You managed to get a refill, which is plus one, so it’s plus two overall for that and the help.”
“I learned how bucking plywood door and stupid cheap shitty locks work,” 99111 smiles happily, prompting 387’s raised eyebrow. After a brief mind scan, the warrior says:
“I’ll just clear things up and say that those are not the technical terms for those particular items, no matter what that blue scam artist said,” the warrior mentally shares the barest details about pony swearing with 99111, none of which involves the word goop.
“GASP!” 99111’s eyes go wide. One day, someone will explain the concept of onomatopoeia to the drones, but today is not the day and 387 isn’t that someone, “She lied to me! I specifically asked about that because I didn’t know what that meant. Grumblegrumblegrumble-”
“Aaand mystery solved,” 387 leaves the pouting drone repeating ‘grumble’ with forelegs crossed on its chest, and moves on to the next, “99380, the queen wanted me to give you two points.”
“YAAAY!” 99380 throws its forelegs into the air for a brief moment before going quiet and simply staring at 387 in case there’s more to say.
“It seems she appreciated your radio broadcast. Unfortunately for you, you still needed refilling, so it’s only the plus two.”
“I made a changeling friend!” says 99380, “Its rank is 65536.”
“The hero of soup!” 20100 salutes the empty air. 10013 and 36658 answer with the same gesture.
“Yup! I really liked that title,” agrees 99380.
“99526,” 387 speaks out again, and the drone watching ponies trot around the finished light show stage looks at him, “You’re on zero. You didn’t need a refill, but throwing up all over the place in front of creatures from all around Equestria was definitely a bad impression on us all, so overall it’s plus one minus one.”
“Ponies have so many delicious things…” 99526 mumbles, “But 20100 didn’t bloat up as badly and it ate the same stuff I did.”
“Sorry, buddy,” 20100 frowns but pats the other drone’s head, “Maybe something just didn’t sit well with you. Think of it this way - you’re probably closer to figuring out what your goop does!”
That gives 387 a pause.
“99526, did you notice any special feature of your secretions?”
“There was a lot!” replies the drone, “But no, nothing special. It was goop, it hardened quickly, it was green. Nothing anyone else can’t do,” it shrugs.
“No refill, huge increase in produced mass in contrast to intake,” 387 taps his hoof on the floor, “You should do some more careful testing tomorrow as well. It could be that your specialty is producing in volume rather than adding some specific quality. Since 20100’s offering, I suggest you use some of the bits it made.”
“Can I get the brown sweets this time?” asks 99526.
“I have no idea what you’re referring to but I assume so.”
“Can we go see that griffon lady about that good time?”
“No.”
“But the sweets cost only one shiny, and she offered a good time with her for fifty. How much better would that be-”
“NO!”
“Okay,” 99526 shrugs. No point in arguing, orders are orders, “I’m just wondering what she meant.”
“Don’t! Look, the light show is starting,” 387 points towards the stage where Trixie set up a spotlight aiming at the sky and is now testing if everything works, “Sit here until the end and enjoy it. Afterwards, I think you should return to your cabins and go to sleep. It would be good to adopt the pony night and day cycle while we’re on this trip.”
10013: 0
20100: 4
36658: 2
99111: 2
99380: 3
99526: 0
Smiley: :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
“Can I get happy stickers like Smiley has?” asks 99380.
“No, and holes if I know how it did it. Either learn to manipulate the hive mind or stick to numbers,” replies the warrior.
“Hnnngh-” 99380 grunts, closing its eyes.
99380: (^_^) (O_O) (X_x)
“-eep?! Go back! Go back!” the puzzled drone looks around, unsure what to think of anything, “387, help! My score is being weird.”
387 smacks 99380’s head, having had just enough drone interaction for the night.
99380: 3
“Phew! Thanks,” 99380 lets out a sigh of relief.
Fully aware that the light show will in reality be starting in twenty minutes, the warrior leaves, knowing that the drones won’t move and disobey the orders. He quickly locates Chrysalis and 93 on the mental map, the former is sitting in a hot tub being served champagne by a unicorn stallion and the latter…
…is in some glass-walled bar inside the ship, holding a hoofful of cards while sitting behind a table with two other stallions and a griffon. Judging by the small amount of colorful chips with 1 written on them on the table as well as multiple empty shot glasses, it must be a friendly game or a practice. 387 smirks to himself, uses every trick he learned over his exceedingly long life to cover his mental presence, transforms into a pegasus, and heads downstairs 93’s way.
I didn’t make any progress figuring out what Chrysalis’ deal is, but we’re not being chased around with torches and pitchforks, so that counts for something. This, though, looks like a good opportunity to measure how quick thinking this new top-ranked infiltrator is.
Finally, day two ends with one ancient warrior and one newborn infiltrator facing each other, but for the first time in generations, their battleground is just a card table.
Smilely is best drone. After all, he has the five happy face stickers.
Good chapter! And it seems the plot has moved to the hot tub XD
Just, a card table?
Shouldnt the fight be, knowing when to back out cos you beein taken for a ride, or knowin just how far to push yer mastery and keep leadin the kid along?
So many shineys. And most of the rich showing the reason theyre rich is becuase they dont spend much, but sell plenty of gratuitous donations for word in return?
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Follow the plot! ...wait no follow the drones! Should be fine
Oh c'mon, three hundred sixty bits is still three hundred sixty bits, and it's also three hundred sixty bits more than y'all had when you came aboard. So nobody told them they were selling themself short--that's a little on you for never filling them in on that, 387. Particularly as you knew well before now what they were up to, and just because you were busy didn't mean you couldn't have asked someling else to go and alert 20100 for you.
Probably for the better, because I kinda feel like said griffon lady might've been disappointed with what she was getting with those two, given their own general lack of experience.
Context, 36658.
Part of me sort of hopes no one ever does--it's more adorable this way.
Also, that sounds totally like Trixie.
I'm going to regret asking this, but I can't stop my brain now, so...obviously it's already been established that drone bodies react and respond to what its given in differing ways depending on just what it is--see 36658--but now I'm thinking about the whole process in full and now I'm wondering how exactly changeling digestion works in general. Is it more or less akin to that of other creatures, in that it's a one way route from start to finish, or does what go in just come back out the way it came as whatever customized goop that 'ling's body decides to crank out?
Does that mean 387 doesn't know how to do it either, or that he just can't be bothered? Or maybe both?
Either way, seems like Smiley might have a few untapped special talents of their own.
11232178
Well, it IS a pretty nice hot tub...
Ah yes, the second downvote! THIS SENSELESS HATRED AGAINST DRONEKIND MUST END!
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Does it count if it made those itself, even if it doesn't know how? Also, as little as gender or sex mean to changelings, my original idea of Smiley from a completely unrelated plot was that it would be a she.
11232178
IT HAS BUBBLES! And not thanks to the plot.
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- just a card table in comparison to a cat and mouse game akin to "Catch me if you can".
- The game can be what you make of it.
- Those could easily be a few delegation servants or staff members. 93 won't be winning a summer hom in the Griffon Empire anytime soon.
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Plooooottttt... ( y )
11232667
- But but but but uncovering Chrysalis' plan... *a warrior attempts to wibble and the world explodes*
- I put what where? And where do I buy that? Can I even trade it for shinies?
- Phrasing, Archer! But also, technically accurate.
- The Grumbling and Gasping drones, accompanied by The Cursing and Unscrupulous Trixie.
- This is a bit complicated, and clearly avoids a good chunks of physics thanks to magic, but here goes - considering the original pony structure, changelings can achieve a biochemical reaction akin to normal digestive system, but with the added efficiency due to the original transformation requiring adaptability to minimal mission resources. So, a somewhat standard biochemical process but with extremely high efficiency. However, the original adaptation was meant for absorption of emotional energy (namely fear due to the original direction of the spell, but that part didn't work properly thanks to the peaceful nature of flutterponies. "Oh hi, Guiding Light! Didn't see you there.") in a more direct way like a solar panel, and the biochemical reactor had changed through heavy disuse and got stunted. So, with direct emotional energy to usable energy conversion there was no need for any refuse. Changeling goop is a mix of their stomach acid/enzymes reacting with whatever physical matter remains from the biochemical reaction that burned out the rest. So, to be technical, it's not sh*t - useless refuse, only because changelings were made to be able to use anything and everything they can find. And they can store it in themselves to use for later because there can be limited resources in future missions.
And that is still BEFORE the genetic fuckery the queens did, the fragmentation of the hive, and degradation of DNA limiting what each changeling is good for. You know, in the good old days when changelings were still classless changelings.
- Both. He could figure it out easily but sees zero use wasting even several seconds for it. Smiley does Smiley things.
- Pretty nice hot butt.
11233092
Smiley seems female?
As far as gender goes for the changelings, it seems to boil down to experience. The more experience they have in life, in general, the more likely they're to identify their preferred gender. Drones, being young and often short-lived (historically speaking) would have no concept of it while your worldly-wise and much longer-lived infiltrators most certainly have a preference.
That said, drones (and Smiley) are far too adorable and kobold-like to not dote upon with love and spoil with treats.
11233253
I'd say that in the case of changelings their gender choice would be a matter of utility and eventually a habit. Casual daily hunting for love/lust would be in 90% of cases easier for mares. Performing a long-term strategy which requiring authority might have the changeling adopt a stallion's body (even though Equestrian society doesn't seem patriarchal at all based on the show, so both of those claims are disputable). It all depends on the goal. It's tough to explain properly because we are used to the duality of gender and its ties to sex in language and life, but the equivalent of "gender" to a changeling would be class-based warrior/infiltrator/drone much more than sex-based mare/stallion. In my mind, two warriors using a "female and male" expressions would be basically equal aside from their equipment and some parts of body shape.
The concept of gender and sex is complicated in humans already and translates so incredibly poorly to changelings who kinda don't naturally have either and can have any combination at any point that it's meaningless. I'd say that the only sex-coded changelings would be 387 who used to be a stallion and any other potentially surviving ancient/primal ling, Chrysalis because of the original queens despising Wistful and hard-locking the sex of the rulers, Cross who is a mix of genetic material based from species where the male has dominance, and Boss who is a male exactly to counter the queen thing thanks to Wistful's minor influence.
TLDR: It really doesn't matter and I spent unnecessary amount of time figuring out at least a somewhat comprehensive explanation.
Ah yes percussive maintenance in order to force a reset, standard procedure for a malfunctioning drone.
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Works for TVs just right.