Today’s late morning in the hive’s throne room finds Chrysalis locked in a Scufflestick match against 156, both sitting under the throne. While there’s nothing aside from the miniatures on the floor between them, if someone could see through the eyes of both mares they would see a shimmering hive mind overlay depicting a simplified version of ruins remaining from some kind of a Manehattan-like city block. Currently, 156’s high-tech, magical Equestri units are successfully holding a firing line behind a barricade of overturned carts against Chrysalis’ hordes of Imperium of Ling units, but the expensive and powerful are balanced out by being low on numbers, and Chrysalis’ lings are circling around them more and more with each passing turn. Still, Scufflestick is only rarely played as a deathmatch game and, despite her forces taking heavy losses, 156 is successfully holding the main objective and gaining points while Chrysalis’ time to effectively capture it is running out.

A sudden burst of hive mind traffic breaks the Queen’s concentration, making her facehoof so hard that 156 shoot her a genuinely worried look.

“You still have two turns to-” the infiltrator can’t finish the sentence.

“156, how good of a stonemason are you?”

“What do you m- oh no…” 156’s brows furrow in puzzlement before she scans the mental commotion herself and gasps, “Your Majesty, we MUST fix it!”

The recent years flash behind Chrysalis’ eyes only briefly as she spares a single thought to “What has my life as a Queen come to? It’s a blasphemous piece of rock for the workers who should be worshipping me and me only.” before banishing such nonsense and letting out a heavy sigh.

“Obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked. I’m just thinking if there’s a way to leverage this event a little further,” she glances at the Scufflestick battleground, “As we learned through failure, a victory is achieved by accumulating tiny advantages, not by going for a thoughtless all-in. Any suggestions on how to push this, head infiltrator?”

156 momentarily pushes Scufflestick out of her mind.

“I don’t think you could gain any meaningful political advantage from the destruction of a drone statue, no matter how meaningful it was to us- them. However, as far as a personal favor or repayment goes - do any issues that only a magic user could fix come to mind?”

“Several inconveniences. What we need is to figure out what’s an obstacle that we can’t spend our resources on but one we can throw a know-it-all alicorn at.”

***

It’s still a beautiful sunny day in the Crystal Empire.

A passenger train hailing from Equestria is chugging along the tracks and is scheduled to make its stop in only a couple minutes inside the train station at the city state’s edge. Trains existed as the best long-distance travel method even before the Empire’s disappearance and have remained one due to sheer efficiency. Of course, certain rich ponies today have their personal zeppelins or private carriages, and there are plenty of places where it would be inconvenient to build tracks, but in terms of simply moving as many ponies and material from point A to point B at as little cost as possible, trains have never been beaten and likely won’t be any time soon. Tier-list of transportation methods aside, the train itself isn’t really important right now compared to one completely black, chitinous yet equine head with teal eyes sticking out from the top, openable part of the passenger window of one of the carriages that’s staring in disbelief, amazement, and the purest joy at the distant cityscape sparkling in sunlight ahead.

The rest of the changeling is propped on its hind legs atop a windowside table inside the train car and a coupe that’s empty with the exception of two more, drone-sized, changelings. In contrast to changelings in general, these two are very easy to distinguish, because the carapace of one of them is covered in grey scars slightly brighter than the rest of its armor, and the other one has a thin, seemingly fully functional, clawed limb sprouting from its back that’s currently scratching its head. The ‘scarred’ drone is lying on its back, stretched all over the front bench with its forelegs under its head, and looking in the direction of a simple, three-point chandelier built into the ceiling without really watching it or focusing its eyes on anything. It’s clear that its mind is elsewhere. The second drone is, in contrast, sitting on the floor under the table and scrutinizing the screws, hinges, and two thick bolts that keep the table parallel to the floor.

“There are three round bulges with two crossed grooves each on the metal plates that, I think, are keeping the table stuck to the wall,” muses the curious drone, “The purpose of the thick metal triangles on each side is clear. You pull them away along the wall like this and the table flops down-” it pauses and looks at the hooves of the window drone who, now that the table is hanging along the wall, is standing on empty air, entirely unbothered, with only its hooves very slightly shimmering green, “Uhhh,” the extra arm extends and pokes the scarred drone who blinks and looks at the ‘situation’, “10k, have you seen this happen before?”

10k shakes its head and shrugs.

“99380 doing 99380 things?” is the best guess it can add, “You’re the one with five working limbs, 99111.”

“Are you feeling okay?” asks 99111. It’s not usual for the drone leader to sound this uninterested.

“Just thinking,” 10k smiles and sits up, “We’ve never been this far away from everyone. Even during shippy time we had three high ranks and the Queen around as well as a bunch of other drones. Now there are only the three of us and there’s so much I know that I don’t know because we can’t reach the general hive mind. I feel like I should be panicking but I’m… not? I know I should feel stupid just because there’s no hive mind knowledge to draw from aside from what the three of us know but I’m fine, somehow. I’m in a huge, incredibly loud and shaky, moving box. Before, I’m sure I’d say this is some kind of invisible magic barrier but I know it’s a glass window even though I’m not sure what glass is,” it knocks on the window, “I don’t know things, but I think I know concepts. It’s a strange feeling, different from the usual all or nothing.”

99380 withdraws its head back into the coupe.

“Did I hear knock-”

The train brakes. 99380’s body jerks forward but right before it slams into the baggage area above 10k’s bench it vanishes in a burst of green fire and reappears immediately on the floor, absolutely fine, with no remaining kinetic energy, and seemingly only slightly confused by the sudden new angle of looking at the world.

“-huh.”

“Don’t waste love on weird jumping around, 99380. Who knows when we’ll get the chance to feed?” says 10k with only a slight hint of disapproval.

“Sorry, I wasn’t really thinking about it. You know how my inside and outside aren’t always, uhh, together. But, uhh, there’s this weird thing…” 99380 rubs its chin, “I can feel love everywhere around and vanishing like that didn’t tire me out at all. Am I the only one?”

10k and 99111 exchange looks before nodding.

“You’re right,” admits 10k, “It feels like I’m breathing love.”

“Got an idea!” 99111’s extra arm waves enthusiastically, “You know how the Queen said that we’re getting the chance to go come to this crystal place in return for some smart pony visiting the hive to learn about drones, right? How about we do the same thing? We do smart stuff to learn about this new place!”

“Like when you, 99856, and 99450 figure out new inventions!” 99380 nods.

“I don’t think we’ll be allowed to blow up or melt anything, and the Queen specifically said ‘no digging’ unless we get in danger, but we could make a list of what to ask or try out,” says 10k, and the other two get a hive link notification about a new mental list they can access, “We’ll have to carefully test our limits but if there’s really love everywhere we could do some serious mental stuff at only the cost of a headache.”

“I already have so many questions! Like-” 99111 bounces up and down with excitement.

“On the list,” 10k cools it down, “I’m sure Smiley will be able to answer most of them once she picks us up.”

Over the next five minutes, as the train slows down and the ticket inspector peeks inside to tell the group they’ll be arriving at the destination, the drones restore the coupe to the state in which they were let inside back in Ponyville, which in their case means only closing the window and dutifully buffing out the creases in the seat leather where they sat or lay. They don’t have any luggage. The Queen didn’t let them take their Scufflestick sets, saying that if they wanted to play the silly game, they might as well stay home and that not bringing it with them would encourage exploration. All their possessions, from the gems they brought with them to the train tickets, are tucked inside their leg holes or under looser parts of their carapaces depending on shape.

As they get off the train and step into the light, they momentarily feel at home again. The train station, which used to be a single-track affair with a booth and a platform after the Empire’s return, has changed over the past decade into a eggshell-like structure shielding three platforms -incoming, outcoming, and heavy cargo- supported by a network of metal pillars and a frame above that’s holding an almost clear crystal roof currently giving a beautiful view of the blue sky. There are ponies milling around and chatting everywhere, from booths with ponies selling stuff to tourists, passengers leaving the train just like the drones, to worker crews busy loading the heavy train on the cargo track. Despite almost everything that’s happening being alien to the drones, their instinct is telling them they’re in a huge cavern full of non-gribblers who are busy with work or leisure. If it was dark, they could almost think they’re back in the High Score Cavern.

With curiosity fighting fear, the drones form a triangle with 10k taking the lead and heading towards a large opening with a sign ‘EXIT’ hanging above through which ponies are entering and leaving.

“Can we stay a bit? The train thingy has so many moving pieces!” 99111 looks backwards longingly.

“Not now,” 10k shakes its head, “Smiley should be waiting for us. If not, we need to be visible and this looks like the only exit out of this train cave.”

The firm refusal leaves 99111 with no option but to nod, at least until the trio walk onto the sunlit crystal street.

“GAAASP!” 99380’s eyes go wide, “I gotta- I- I need more-” the drone vanishes in a burst of green flames.

“Huh?” 10k can’t even react in time as the rays of rainbow light reflecting off of variously colored crystal buildings as well as the street itself blind it.

“I- the houses- more shiny than the sea-” 99111 stutters out, all thoughts of technology temporarily forgotten.

Despite its desire for shiny things, 10k forces itself to close its eyes and mentally connects to 99380 who is still within reach.

“Where are you?” it asks.

“I’m on top of the train place! Everything I can see is shiny!” comes a response pitched in the happiest of high octaves.

“What do you mean by everything?”

“EVERYTHING!”

For a brief moment, 10k taps into 99380’s mind to see through its eyes. Being a drone whose special talent is hive mind manipulation, 99380 notices immediately and lets 10k in. Everything from the rows and rows of houses

“Wow…” says the drone leader and disconnects, “You know what? Stay up there and keep your eyes and hive link open for Smiley, okay?”

“Will do!” up on the highest point of the rounded roof, 99380 salutes to no one and reaches out with its mind, yet the only changelings it can sense are 10k and 99380.

Down by the train station entrance, 99111 catches its own reflection in the crystal bannister of the stairs leading down from the station, genuinely gasps for real instead of just saying gasp, and yelps:

“Drone!”

10k immediately turns its head to look and catches its own reflection as well. It watches it for a moment, realizing it’s mirroring its movements, and an old memory surfaces.

“That’s not real, that’s just like… when we were on the ship. Maybe you can see yourself in more things than just in water?” it hazards a guess.

“Huuuh,” 99111 pauses. It’s one of the drones who survived shippy time and carries all the bad memories with it too, “Maybe?” it pokes the crystal.

“Wait here, I’m going to check back inside in case we missed Smiley on the way. I can’t sense her, but maybe her link is just closed. I doubt she uses it much as she travels all over the surface,” says 10k, trying to reassure itself.

“I’ll be on guard like a response team drone!” 99111 nods and its extra arm salutes.

10k returns into the train station and begins aimlessly wandering around. The others will report if Smiley shows up, and they have nowhere to go without her as a guide, so it’s in no rush. Granted, even with its limited experience it realizes there are a ton of innocent reasons why Smiley might have been delayed, but during each of the two times it’s been out of the hive before something horrible happened, so while the others might chalk her missing to coincidence, 10k’s worry surges with each passing minute.

Twenty minutes later, the drone leader is just walking along a track and looking downwards, trying to think of how to save the situation in case Smiley can’t make it, no matter the reason.

The main thing is that we have food. With so much love around, we might not even need a place to sleep. So, what we need is to figure out why Smiley isn’t here yet and secure a way back home-

A shiny thing different from everything else around catches 10k’s eye and derails its train of thought. Peeking from under the raised edge of the platform overhanging the track area is some kind of a crystal the likes of which the drone leader has never seen before. It’s blade-like, sharp, longer than a drone’s hoof, and curving upwards, fading from obsidian black to blood red and still reflecting light despite the dim colors. 10k looks around in case someone else seems to be looking for it and when it sees no one even remotely fitting that description, it hops down to grab it. Even compared to the refreshing breeze the drone felt outside, the crystal is emitting a seeping cold which reminds it of the snow back home. 10k sighs, sparing a moment of hope that 65536 will visit from Canterlot this winter as usual and take the drones to play outside. It has a whole bunch of strategies planned out for the capture-the-stick snowball fight.

Shaking its head to return to here and now, 10k stashes the strange crystal into a gap in its chest carapace.

“Any signs of Smiley?” it mentally calls out despite knowing that the guys would have called already if there were any, and receives only negative answers.

This place is as shiny as one can be, but I don’t like this.

***

2119, who is standing guard by the guest cave, bows when he sees the Queen and 156 approach.

“Leave us,” orders 156 through her hive link and pings the hive entrance on the mental map.

2119 gets the message and immediately strides off. 156 takes his place and Chrysalis enters the cave where Twilight Sparkle is busy with some kind of a tubular, unexploded device and several rocks on the bigger workbench. It’s easy for the Queen to see that the alicorn is still shaking and covering it by burying herself at work which, unlike reading ponies, means nothing to Chrysalis.

The alicorn notices Chrysalis only once she clears her throat and she jerks around with a sharp intake of breath.

“I’m hearing some news about monsters invading the drone home,” the Queen doesn’t approach further because a single look at Twilight’s face is enough to confirm that the alicorn, no matter how hard she’s trying to convey self-control, is mentally in pieces. The immediate relief in Twilight’s expression as she hears the question, however, surprises the Queen.

“Yes, I saw it too, tentacles and eyes everywhere, but I panicked and tried to teleport away and-”

“I meant you,” Chrysalis interrupts Twilight’s explanation.

That finally seems to snap Twilight out of her shock.

“What, me? Monster? That makes no sense.”

“A monster with a glowing ball instead of a head pretending to be connected to the Great Shiny -don’t ask, drone religion makes zero sense and they can only be happy I don’t throw anyone who gets too much into it into the nearest lava pool- to sabotage the statue of the original High Score.”

“Glowing ball- oh!” Twilight’s eyes widen, “Was my illumination spell too strong and blinded them? That makes sense, they work in next to no light,” she shoots Chrysalis a desperate look, “Your Majesty, can you tell them-?”

Even before she finishes the sentence, Chrysalis’ sudden sadistic smile answers.

“And ruin your authentic experience by interfering with the test subjects? I wouldn’t even dream of it, Princess,” the Queen slips into her usual demeanor now that the situation has been, well, not resolved but cleared up.

At that moment, Twilight realizes that while 2119 and 3012 might not be actively spying on her, they’ll have to tell CH everything if she asks.

“I understand, but having the first visitor to the hive end up as a semi-melted skeleton lost somewhere on the floor wouldn’t help either of us, would it?” she opts for the diplomatic approach.

“True,” Chrysalis nods, but Twilight’s victory is short-lived, “I’ll tell them to try to not to blow up or melt ‘the monster’ as long as it’s just observing, but that’s it. No extra access. Anything else - be it talking to you, doing things for you, or showing you their work is up to you to persuade them. As an example -just throwing stuff at a wall here- if you try to take something that’s not yours they’ll have full permission to defend their home. Even in that case, I’ll tell them to try and be non-lethal, but they aren’t used to things that aren’t trying to kill them first so they don’t have many suppressive options. Long story short, if I were you I’d use that friend making talent of yours before snooping around or you still might lose a limb or two.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. That’s all I can hope for. I’ll head down again as soon as-”

“I don’t think you understood me completely, Princess,” Chrysalis’ smile only widens, “This is, in terms of a time-honored drone tradition, a trade. I give you a second chance to continue your ‘research’ and you do something for me in return.”

“I’m listening,” Twilight narrows her eyes, expecting Chrysalis to come up with some impossible political nonsense she’s bound to have to refuse. Instead, Chrysalis turns around, takes a deep breath, and starts spinning a story.

“There is a bad apple in dronekind who had the audacity to steal an egg from me, experiment on it, and who successfully created the ‘thing’ you probably saw. Now it’s hiding in its lair in the deep tunnels along with its minion. If you want me to order the drones to let you get closer, you’ll have to bring the villain as well as its monstrous minion to me unharmed, maybe only slightly dented. The last part is crucial, non-negotiable, and if accidentally broken I will be extremely pissed off on a personal level.”

“I don’t even know where to start looking or how to orient myself in the hive,” says Twilight.

“Well,” Chrysalis shrugs, “Your body research assistant seems to be doing just fine. You’re a smart pony, Twilight Sparkle. I’m sure you'll write down a list of things to go through in order to achieve your inevitable victory. So, do we have a deal?”

Twilight has to admit that Chrysalis’ demand isn’t crazy, although there’s clearly more to it if she can’t do it herself. On the other hoof, crafting contingency spells is already difficult in a laboratory setting, and she has no shot of stabilizing a new cloak of emergency protections here. Getting unknown weapons thrown at her again could easily be lethal.

Twilight takes a deep breath to steady her nerves.

What worthwhile scientific endeavor is ever easy?

“We do,” she replies, “I’ll find a way to bring your villain drone and its monster minion to you either unharmed or at worst slightly dazed with minimal real damage. In return, you’ll order the drones not to use deadly force against me as long as I stick to observation or to terms of any ‘trade’ I make with them.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Good luck,” Chrysalis turns away and leaves.

156 rejoins the Queen and signals 2119 to return to his guest cave post. Once she’s sure they’re out of earshot, 156 asks:

“What game are you playing, Your Majesty? You know that 99818 is one of the best performing drones, and that 99998 tried to bring you strange gems it found on multiple occasions. Holes, it even spent its free time trekking to the greenhouse to get flowers for you from 57999. Frankly, it irks me that you hate it so much, and that I had to send it away so many times,” 156 leaves out that she always encourages the weird drone to keep trying and gives it a little extra love.

“I don’t hate it, it just creeps me the holes out,” Chrysalis shudders, “What baffles me is that I have no idea what that little idiot 99818 did to mess with changeling genetics this badly while still creating a viable and thriving life form, and the worst part is that it, being a drone who just does random shit, has no clue itself! I myself have to either hatch an egg I personally carry or use the Reconstitution Chamber, but all 99818 recalls is that it just shat some random pieces of goop it traded with other drones into a cracked egg and it worked!”

“I understand that having drones being able to hatch with seemingly any instinctive ability at random is frustrating but it has already proved to be critically useful in multiple cases. With that in mind, you could have asked the Princess to help you figure out a way to clear out the gravel section that’s limiting our access to the Guide’s Cavern or widen the connecting cave system. Why involve 99818?”

“It shouldn’t have ruined the generator. It’s so boring here without the radio, and you said no when I suggested we start a drone fighting ring when I even found volunteers!” huffs Chrysalis.

“It would be too love-inefficient.”

“See? Fun killer 156. If we send purplesmart to the depths of the hive, though, we might get a laugh out of it whether she succeeds or not.”

“I see, and since 99818’s shifts are all around GC for the next week plus the fact that it works on the ‘evil lair’ in spare time, the Princess will have to figure out a way to fit through the cave system, in which situation you’re betting on her not just making herself smaller because her magic isn’t working properly, am I correct?”

“Exactly!” Chrysalis boops 156’s nose, “Who better to solve our access problem in a way that won’t cost us months or years of drone work hauling gravel? I don’t know modern mining procedures, but an actual know-it-all might.”

“Well played. Or more accurately - great use of a coincidence.”

“I do have moments of greatness, don’t I?” Chrysalis smugs smugly.

“And what will you do if the Princess actually succeeds and brings 99818 and 99998 to you unharmed? You know, when you’ll be forced to admit that you sent her down there mostly just to see what happens.”

“156, 156, 156. Tsk tsk tsk,” Chrysalis shakes her head, “Of course I have a plan for that - the moment we hear a report of her coming back, we change our names and start a new hive in the Crystal Empire.”

“So you intend to move back in with your daughter?”

Chrysalis’ agonized wheeze, the slow turn of her head, and the glare of the purest murder gets answered by 156’s smile, as the infiltrator knows that, for once, this verbal match is her complete and inarguable victory.

Author's Note

This one's freshly off the press, because only now I finally had some time to write. Last week, my grandmother died after I had to take care of her for the past 4(?) years, and the only thing I feel is relief because taking care of someone barely communicating and mostly immobile is taxing to say the least. Am I completely burned out on emotions or just a bad person? The latter, probably.

Anyway, I hope at least your Hard Swarming is full of peace and drones.