Drone 1864 was patrolling the streets of Canterlot as he was told, he didn't really know what was going on, all he knew was that he was pulled from his normal job to have a part of a invasion.
He didn't care, he was just happy to help his hive.
Before all this, drone 1864 was a normal worker drone, a energetic one at that, he was dedicated to his queen and aspired to help. Only problem was, he was easily distracted, but he helped as much as he could.
Drone 1864 was a social butterfly, as they say.
He loved attention and was often pulled from his job to entertain others, sometimes even the queen!
But at the moment he was helping as he could to secure an important area.
He looked around, a little confused about their situation.
All he was told was that they were going to get "what we rightly deserve", nevertheless he followed his orders.
He looked at his colleague, wanting to pass the time, "hey, whats black and white and red all over?" he asked
His partner sighed "a newspaper, you said that one yesterday."
They continued in their path, albeit more awkward. "What do you think we are doing in the pony capital?" asks 1864.
"Probably collecting food, cause, ya know, we have almost none at the moment." he said flatly
Wanting to have a nice conversation with his partner, he trys another topic. "Whats your favorite emotion to eat?". His partner thinks for a second before saying "lust is easy to get and pretty 'filling', if you know what I am saying." 1864 laughs at a joke he should have seen a mile away "he he, i prefer joy, especially when it comes from one of my jokes." he says."i wish i could test my jokes on real pony's, but that's a job for infiltrators, not a work drone." he sighs.
After a couple of hours of walking, they get a message from the hive-mind that says that they almost have won, after a couple more minutes of walking, a blast of magic sends drone 1864 flying into a random direction out of town.
1864 awakes with a start, he bolts upright and frantically looks around. 'Where am I? What happened? Where is my partner?' he thinks as he observes his surroundings. As the memories from yesterday return, he begins to calm down. He notices that he is in a forest with plenty of leaves and trees, he recognizes that he is not in the Everfree or Whitetale woods. As he checks his body for harm, he notices a crucial flaw.
The hive-mind is silent...
He goes into panic mode and begins thinking the worse as he crawls into a ball and hopes for the best.
'What if I am the last one? What if the queen was captured, or maybe even killed?!?' 'no, thats not probable, i probably got disconnected from the blast....' he trails that thought off for a minute, before yelling " I HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED?!?" he goes back to panicking "oh nononono, if I am disconnected that means I am alone, and if i return i will be considered a enemy of the hive!" he tests his connection and sighs in relief when its still there. "OK, the strength is weak, but at least I am still connected, i just am too far away to hear my hive-mates."
He realizes that if the strength is weak, that means he is really far from home or is being magically halted, he doesn't know which is worse.
He takes stock of his situation, he has no food and little emotion energy, so he needs to find a town to feed. only issue is, drone 1864 has absolutely ZERO knowledge of the outside world. The extent of his knowledge is that the infiltrators go here and pony's live outside as well, to supply love for the infiltrators. Being the not-very-bright drone he is, he goes by protocol, which he barely even remembers.
"hmm, step 1, locate yourself on a map or find a landmark." He spots smoke in the distance, 'smoke, usually leads to a town of sorts, which means a landmark!'
He follows the smoke till he reaches the forest edge, and spots a town. 'maybe they have a map here, then i can find my way home' he sees a sign above a gate that says "little Hoofington" 'little Hoofington?' he thinks, but cannot remember the towns location. 'well i need energy, so..... to town i go...?'
As he walks into town, he completely forgot about the "disguise" portion of the protocol for gathering energy.
All the pony's stare at him as he strides into town, completely oblivious to the stares.
Suddenly a mare holding a foal screams "CHANGELING, EVERYPONY RUN!" All of the pony's get into a crowd trying to run away.
Drone 1864, watches with amusement, until he realizes he is supposed to disguise, 'too late now' he thinks.
The pony's smarten up, and gather in a mob, with pitchforks and torches. 1864 wonders how they even had them, or why they had them on their person at the moment, but shrugs it off and approaches them.
"Hello, I am Drone 1864, can you please point me in the direction of the Badlands?"
The pony's all stare in awe at his politeness and chipperness, until an older stallion, yells "why should we help you? for all we know your gonna suck us dry of our love!"
The crowd agrees in murmurs and whispers, but Drone 1864 is confused, he reply's "why would i do that? all i wanna do is go home, so can you help me?"
The pony's begin to get upset "we are not helping no filthy bug" "you are gonna try ta fool us, we wont fall for your tricks!" "you better hope that your queen can help you, because we hate BUGS!" in unison, the crowd shouts "GET OUT OF OUR TOWN, CHEESE LEGS"
The crowd gets angry and charges him, they all are terrible at combat, but 1864 is no warrior, either.
The pony's manage to get a lucky hit with a pitchfork, sending him sprawling to the ground.
"squish that bug!" "kill that love sucker" "quit messin with em, and Hurt the cheese legs already!" The crowd is shouting in unison.
Dazed and confused, Drone 1864 makes a break for freedom, and manages to escape with a teleport, but at the cost of some of his energy.
He limps into an alley and hides under a box, checking himself and his one bit of gear, a knife made from his hardened mucus, all changelings,no matter what, are taught how to make basic tools with their mucus and other natural ingredients.
relief he still had his one item, he hides it under a wing and rests under a box, slowly falling asleep.
Drone 1864 awoke to the feeling of hard iron under his barrel, confused about his surroundings, he opens his eyes to find himself inside a cell.
Very scared and confused, he bolts upright only for his head to hit the ceiling, after a minute of pain, he refocuses and notices the guard on the other side of the cage.
He walks up to the edge of the cage and taps the bars,only to get shocked by lightning. Lifting his head, he sees that the guard is laughing. Still confused, he asks "Where am I, and how did you find me?" the guard calms down and says sternly "bug, i am going to be the one asking questions, but you are in Little Hoofington Guard station, and we found you by magicaly tracking the teleport you used."
at seeing 1864 about to speak, the guard quickly zaps him with magic "Silence, i am questioning you, remember?!?" Not wanting to get zapped, 1864 nods quickly. "good, now, whats your name?" the guard asks. 1864 sits there for a second, then says "i.....dont have a name..."
the guard raises one eyebrow and asks "then howabout a title?" 1864 nods, and says "i am Worker drone 1864." the guard writes down on his clipboard. 1864 checks his wing and is glad that his knife is still there, but quickly closes the wing to keep it hidden. the guard says "i am the guard captain of little hoofington, pretty easy job since its a small town, but anyways, you will refer to me either as captain or Sir, got it?"
he nods quickly. captain speeks up again, "well, we cant just call you Drone 1864, so we need a name for you..." 1864 asks "can i choose?"
captain quickly slaps 1864, and yells "THATS SIR TO YOU, AND SPEEK ONLY WHEN SPOKEN TOO, YOU CHEESE LEGS!" 1864 shys away from the slap and nods very quickly. the captain puts a hoof on his chin and thinks, then says "that could work.... it fits pretty well,actualy...., yes, your new name is now Cheese Legs, any questions?" cheese raises his hoof, as not to anger the captain, "when can i leave, sir?".
Captain laughs for a good minute before asking in a grim voice "you said you were a worker drone, correct?" cheese swallows and says "yes,sir"
the captain replys "Get comfortable, because your not going anywhere anytime soon, because recently, we have become understaffed, and you are a worker, you now work for us, and by the way did i mention you get no say in this, or any pay for that matter?" Cheese meekly nods
"good, from now on you call me captain, sir, master, or your highness, and any opposition will be dealt with quickly,got that?"
cheese sighs, and says, "yes, my captain." captain nods grabs the key for the cell and opens it, and says "step over here for me, bug"
cheese complys with zero complaint. captain then slips a magic nullifying ring over his horn and says "no more spells for you, now wait one more moment" he grabs some chain, and chains his wings together. "there, your not escaping now, your first job is to take this key to the janitors closet, and clean the hallways, got it?" cheese nods and takes the key,and scurrys off to the janitors closet.
once the door is closed, he checks to see if he can grab his knife with his mouth, which he can, and returns it to his wing, before grabbing a mop and bucket and begining his job.
halfway through cleaning the building,captain approaches and slaps him. "what in tartarus are you doing?" cheese answers "cleaning the halls as ordered sir" captain facehoofs and says "not that, bug, out of disguise! you will start a panic if someone sees you!" cheese blinks before assuming a dark green unicorn disguise with a brown mane. "is this ok sir?" captain sighs and replys," yes bug, that will do, after your done with this hall, go to your closet and sleep in there, i will send a doggy bed down by 10:00 pm, and just so you know, its 9:00 pm right now,any questions?" with no reply, captain walked away leaving cheese to work. after 30 minutes, cheese had finished the hall and went to the janitors closet, 'i guess this is home,now' he thought as he slipped in and dropped his disguise, he noticed a comically small dog bed in the corner, and a box of oats by the sink, he sat on the bed after eating some oats. Luckily for him, he had found the captains joy in inflicting damage to cheese, giving him a little bit of emotion energy, but only enough to survive. after sending a distress signal to the hivemind,cheese went to sleep.
Cheese awoke to loud yelling and banging on his door, he quickly applied his disguise and opened the door to a guard standing there about to knock again. cheese asked "yes?" to which the guard replied, "captain wants you up and ready for work in 10 minutes,bug" he sneered but continued "you will meet captain in the 2nd mess hall, the fancy one for the officers, got it, maggot?" cheese nodded and redid his disguise to have a suit and tie,and said "am i allowed to dress for the occasion since it is as you say "fancy"?" the guard thought for a moment before nodding and walking away. cheese left his "room" and walked upstairs to the officers dining hall, he located captain and said "My captain, you requested my presence?" the captain flashed a angry look at cheese before asking "where in tartarus did you get a tuxedo?" to which cheese replied, "its part of my disguise,my captain." the captain nodded, before turning to the other officers in the room, "gentlemen, i have a announcement i would like to make...." cheese swallowed nervously as the captain continued "yesterday, my guards caught a lone changeling, during a patrol, we successfully restrained it and caged it, then put a magic ring, and chained its wings...." cheese fidgeted a he recalled the memories "and now he is a "employee" of the royal guard, i would like to introduce to you, Cheese Legs, the changeling....." the crowd stared at him, until captain motioned to reveal, so he dropped the disguise, and stood still in all his restrained glory as captain continued "he is our newest janitor, and must follow orders from any guard that tells him to do ANYTHING, so feel free to boss em around a little, show em what his kind deserves" the captain finished and waved his hoof at cheese "come over here bug...." cheese complied wordlessly "i have trained him to follow orders, otherwise he gets punished, let me show you....." he smiled as he says his next sentence "bug, fetch my coat off of the rack" cheese nodded and retrieved the coat, and offered it to him "as ordered, my captain" captain stared at it and said "i dont want to carry it, so hold it for me, bug" cheese nods and thinks to himself 'i have got to find a way out of here and go home, but im LITERALLY a slave here, what am i to do....' he cooks up a few escape plans to pass the time as the captain orders him to do little things, he luckily finds the captain emitting joy and some of the other officers amusement as well. the captain then says "alright bug, thats enough, i think my officers get the point...." the crowd nods and some even chuckle. captain then says "we are a little short of guards at the moment, bug, and we still need somepony on guard, so take your disguise and follow me..." cheese nods and retakes his guise, and follows wordlessly. he takes him onto the guard barracks and puts him into a sparing ring, the captain chuckles and says "since you will be taking the place of a guards position, you need to learn how to take pain, and maybe learn some actual training...." cheese swallows nervously and the captain chuckles "dont worry, we wont be starting today, but i will teach you to be a guard, same rules and discipline, maybe even harsher for you, but i digress, you will be hard at work, and you will not complain, do you understand?" cheese nods quickly "good, now go finish playing janitor, and make sure you get the corners this time, bug!" cheese nodded, and got up and left the barracks, not before glancing and making a internal map towards the armory, and once again going to his closet and "playing janitor" as captain put it. about half way through his shift, a guard holding a cup of some sort of soft drink walked up to cheese, looked at the cup, looked at cheese, and looked at his badge, before pouring his drink onto cheeses mane. Cheese, not wanting to get another beating from captain, simply brushed his mane out of his face and cleaned up the rest of the drink, before carrying on. alas, when cheese returned to his "room" he saw some more oats and a bottle of water by his bed, a couple of notes from captain . he sat on his bed and sent a distress signal out through the hive mind, expecting it to fail. however, upon a reply, he couldn't believe his luck.
As soon as he recognized the owner of the reply, he immediately attempted to send again, but his luck ran out, and the signal was too weak understand, so he cutoff the signal and went to sleep with renewed hope in his heart of a chance of escape.