The trip to the poppy patch takes Gloom about twenty minutes at a pace which 99200 can keep up with only quickened breathing. That’s something the Nightguard learned during her time with 65536 - drones aren’t good distance runners despite possessing a naturally solid stamina, both due to their size and the build of their carapace limiting their range of motion in favor of support when carrying heavy weights. These days, 65536 is using a custom carapace transformation suited for Nightguard operations which is far from the stubby, stiff, little drone it used to be in the months after the invasion of Canterlot.

Thankfully, the patch is on the shared hive mind map so 99200 has no trouble leading them there despite 57999 sleeping on Gloom’s back all the way. When they reach a clearing a short distance deeper from the edge of the forest and the bed of red flowers reveals itself, it’s the first time since coming here that Gloom finds herself unimpressed. From what she heard, she thought the patch would be much larger, but it’s just the size of a couple flower beds that a pony would have in a small garden behind their house. A second, more exploratory, look at the freshly growing grass and plants all over the area, however, reveals that the flat and tilled ground must have spread much further in the past.

Gloom twists her neck to nudge 57999 who wakes up immediately, rubs its eyes, lets out a squeaky yawn, and looks around.

“Oh, we're here already? Sorry, I just kinda drifted off,” it scratches its head, clearly a bit ashamed at falling asleep during a mission, “Your back is so soft and comfy and the way it goes up and down as you walk just-” it yawns again, just thinking about it, before shaking its head and flying down from Gloom’s back, “It’s worky time, not sleepy time!”

“I wonder, why don’t you grow the poppies in the greenhouse?” asks Gloom when 57999 walks over to the small patch and starts unceremoniously munching the petals so thoroughly it leaves only the stalks, “It can’t be an easy walk for you.”

“It’s not difficult, it just takes some time. The greenhouse schedule works differently from that of other drones, because we have such a long way to walk there and back, so we sleep here but in turn we have a whole day or even two to spend in the HSC, and sometimes I just spend the day here, watering and getting rid of the growing weed- whoa!” it accidentally steps on the soft soil of the patch, stumbles, and falls over, breaking some flowers which it promptly starts eating when it gets back up, “It reminds me of the time when we used to take care of the place together with 36658. There are even some zebra trees growing nearby and I totally don’t wibble whenever I munch on their bark,” it shakes its head, “Anyway, I just like the colors of-” it waves its hoof in the air, “-everything, and I think it looks prettier as a layer on the ground than as a few lonely plants in a pot.”

“You know,” 99200 speaks out, “A couple of my explory trips ago I saw some weird, mushy stuff underground that glowed bright blue when I got close. I even poked it with my exploration stick and it didn’t try to get me in any way. It might look pretty neat in the greenhouse.”

“Hmmm…” 57999 rubs its chin.

“I don’t think that would work,” Gloom shakes her head, “I had to get out of deep caves many times during training and from all I know, stuff that grows underground almost never grows in daylight.”

“Awww…” the gardener frowns, “Do you know a lot about gardening?”

“Noooo, oh hay no no no,” Gloom laughs out loud, “The only plant I had when I was little was a cactus -that’s this hard plant that looks like a spiky club and is the easiest one to take care of- and I accidentally killed it by overwatering it. That’s one of many things that made me realize I’m only compatible with something that needs my support and care –kinda like you drones– and not something that straight up needs me to stay alive… like a foal,” she realizes she let out a little more than she wanted and that neither of the drones likely understand it, “But that’s neither here nor there. You just learn a little bit of everything as you grow older if you keep your mind open and that’s why I think that if you built an underground greenhouse, preferably one closer to home, you could have as many glowing mushrooms as you’d like. Another upside is that you wouldn’t need to take too much care of it, that stuff grows wherever.”

“That sounds good. We have sooo many empty caves even on upper levels,” 57999 cheers up again as it gulps down what it deems to be the final needed flower, and cuts down three more into a small bouquet held together by a dollop of goop which it presents to Gloom, “Um, for you, Miss Gloom. I’m not sure where to stick them because you don’t have any of the carapace gaps that we have.”

“Thank you,” Gloom smiles, lowers her head and nuzzles 57999’s cheek before fastening the flowers behind her ear, “You like red, don’t you?”

“I like all the colors on the surface,” 57999 shakes its head and its soft smile returns, “Red is just special, that’s all. We can go visit the stream now, I’ll replant what I ate later.”

“Hop on, then,” Gloom bends her legs but 57999 shakes its head.

“It’s close, just a little deeper in the forest, and I can’t keep lying around or my leggos get all stiff. I mean, even stiffer than now.”

57999 trips over a raised root less than a minute later when it fails to raise its less mobile foreleg in time, but stands up immediately, unbothered, unstoppable, and smiling.

***

“Whooooah, I can see all the way through!” 99200 is so amazed by the bubbling, four hooves deep and two pony lengths wide stream that it sticks its foreleg into the crystal clear water without even poking it with a stick first, “And it doesn’t smell at all.”

“Yep,” 57999 sits down on the bank, looking around and catching its breath, “Sometimes you can even see small floaters in it.”

57999 immediately backs out of the water, narrowing its eyes at the stream in suspicion.

“And you’re suuure that it’s safe?”

“Yes,” replies Gloom instead, taking her saddlebag off and throwing it on the grass. A moment later, she walks into the stream and lies down on her back, “This. Is. Bliss.”

After trotting for four hours followed by baking in the summer sun as they walked along the forest’s edge, the cool yet not cold water finally washing off the sweat from her misjudged use of a winter sleeping bag is exactly what she needed. Now she can finally start her day properly, at about three o’clock in the afternoon. It’s not perfect without soap, but rubbing the salt out of her mane and coat still feels wonderful.

As for the drones, Gloom isn’t their main focus for once because 99200 notices 57999 picking up a grasshopper and watching it crawl over its hoof.

“Caaareful, there may be more,” says the explorer, looking around.

57999 gives the other drone its usual, warm smile, lowers its foreleg to the ground, and lets the grasshopper crawl off.

“The surface is a bit different from the tunnels. Let me show you,” it stands up and nods its head sideways, beckoning 99200 to follow, “From what I’ve learned and confirmed with 65536, the critters on the surface prefer to run from bigger things. 65536 said it’s because there’s much more stuff to eat so creatures learned over time that it’s good to only hunt what’s safe. Plus, there are a crazy amount of spooky-looking things up here that just eat grass and plants and run away even from me.”

“Also, a lot of things that definitely don’t,” comments 99200, pointing to 57999’s ruined carapace.

“Surprisingly, that’s always been just the sticky biters, but they’re certainly making up for most other things avoiding me,” 57999 nods and stops by a tree with a couple low-hanging branches that are wrapped in spider webs, “But watch,” it slowly raises the branches, revealing small spiders that skitter deeper into the dark area.

“That’s a baaad idea, buddy,” 99200 shakes its head immediately, lowering itself so that it can immediately bolt back to the stream.

57999’s hoof unfolds into a set of claws without shapeshifting, and it scoops a single spider from the bunch into its new ‘palm’, presenting it to the visibly paralyzed explorer who has only one thought running through its mind:

Now it’s gonna bite 57999 and call the others to swarm it. We’ll pop the emergency cocoon and then I’ll have to carry it to the stream where we wash them off, I hope. We have no fire-

“Huh?” its train of thought crashes when 57999 lowers the spider back to the branches and the ‘monster’ immediately scuttles off into safety.

“You know what Miss Gloom feels like to us in the tunnels - that’s what we feel like to most things up here,” says the gardener, “Do you want to see more?”

“I believe you, but I really don’t need to see more webby spinners, small or otherwise,” 99200 shudders, “I get enough of the bad ones whenever I leave the HSC.”

“How about a flapper then?”

“Oookay?” agrees 99200 with hesitation.

57999 spits out a small goop chip, only thin enough to turn the sunlight green when looking through it. It looks up next and lets out a strange, throaty but high-pitched sound which makes 99200 even more alert.

What’s worse in the mind of the explorer? An answer comes from above followed by an approaching flapping of wings.

99200 immediately dives to the ground but nothing comes after it. Instead, when it hears 57999’s quiet snickering mirrored by weird, raspy croaking, it looks up again.

A black bird as large as a drone head is perched on 57999’s back, watching the explorer with small, beady eyes portraying a level of intelligence it had never seen before in a ‘flapper’. When 57999 offers it the green goop chip, it takes it with its long and sharp beak which to the explorer looks dangerously chitin-cracking and flesh-tearing, and simply keeps watching and making cooing noises while 57999 strokes its small head with a claw. When the drone withdraws its hoof, the black bird takes into the air and flies into the canopy.

“That’s crazy,” says 99200 in a shaky voice. Before it can say anything else, though, the flapper returns and lands back on 57999, completely unbothered that the drone is slowly walking back to the stream. 99200 follows, albeit while constantly watching the bird.

Gloom is still busy washing up, but shoots them a look followed by an impressed whistle.

“You got yourself a pet raven, 57999?” she calls out loudly enough for the drones to hear but not too loud to avoid scaring the bird, “They’re some of the smartest birds there are, so they’d know a good thing.”

“It’s like us - black and really likes shinies. That’s how I met one here in the first place - a shiny fell out of my hole when I tripped around here and it brought it back to me. I let the flapper keep it and now it sometimes flies by when I visit the poppy patch. I noticed it watching us from above, but I think it wasn’t sure about you, Miss Gloom.”

“Don’t worry about me, I’m not going to try and pet it. It may be smart but having to heal a pecked out chunk of flesh here isn’t a risk I’m willing to take.”

“How about you, 99200?” 57999 asks the explorer, “Just do what I did.”

99200 shuffles over and reaches out with its unfolded hoof -a common transformation used by drones these days for manipulating objects- and pets the raven with utmost care. As if understanding the drone’s worry, the bird flaps its wings and hops over onto 99200’s back.

“Meep meep meep meeeeep!” the drone freezes and closes its eyes. Its carapace is hard, it might protect it, but its open eyes are easy prey.

“Calm down, 99200, and breathe,” says 57999, ignoring Gloom’s burst of snickering, and puts its hoof on the explorer’s head, “Give the raven flapper a piece of goop. A thin one so that it reflects the sun.”

Forcing itself to stop shaking and following 57999’s instructions, 99200 gives the raven a freshly-made chip. The bird examines it, takes it, and flies away, finally letting the drone breathe a sigh of relief. It stays silent for a moment before looking at 57999 and saying:

“This is why you guys are amazing.”

“Huh? Who guys?” 57999 tilts its head, puzzled.

“You, you veterans. You guys have a direction and a vision and the courage to just go for it. You want your greenhouse and you stay there even when you don’t have to. You defended it with your life multiple times. You actually fought when you could have run!”

“Eh,” 57999 scratches its head, “That was more so that the guys helping me at the time could escape, not really for the greenhouse.”

“And 10k? It leads everyone and figures out new useful transformations it doesn’t even use for its work,” 99200 just keeps going, its voice growing more intense, “Smiley keeps travelling all over the world to find stories and bring them back home or to tell ponies about us. 65536 is a legend, and 20100 is barely in the hive these days because it’s always on missions from the Queen herself and has its own high rank protection everywhere,” it slumps back, “And we’re just here… digging and playing Scufflestick. I feel like we’re not moving forward, not getting better.”

“Hey, don’t badmouth digging,” 57999 chuckles and goes silent for a while, “That’s all of us left, isn’t it? Sometimes I forget…” it pauses, “I shouldn’t be forgetting, but the old thinky ball isn’t doing that great,” its soft smile returns, “But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. You’re the one overthinking stuff and worried because of it. I just do my work so that I get enough love and the Queen lets me do what makes me happy afterwards, like we’ve always done, and that’s all I need - something that lets me be, well, me,” it shrugs, “You and your whole exploring thing are the same. You gathering all the webs, rumbler scales, and exploring is making as much of a difference as we did. Holes, 99856 and 99111 have done so much more than me in half of their lives,” patting the thinking explorer’s head, it stands back up, “Everyone is moving at their own pace, some slower and some faster. The important thing is that they keep moving. We’re not competing for survival on scraps of love like under the old rules, but if we want to build something that lasts, we need to work together, each one of us adding some tiny bit that only we can until we can stand on our own with or without the high ranks. That was what 36658 wanted most of all.”

Gloom hasn’t been listening, using the drones’ conversation only as a comfortable background noise, and looks up when they go silent and their chatter doesn’t pick up again.

“Yo, guys! Are you sure you don’t want to join me? The water is great,” she calls out.

“What are you doing, anyway?” asks 99200 while trotting to the stream, which reminds Gloom that the drones don’t exactly understand the concept of washing up.

“That’s called washy time, right?” once again, 57999 surprises everyone with its ‘wisdom’. When Gloom nods, it adds as an explanation for the other drone, “We had to do this during shippy time. Even if we burn off the dirt that gathers on us by shapeshifting, it still leaves this fine powder that can make trails everywhere. Ponies don’t like that,” it takes its bracers off, puts them next to Gloom’s saddlebag, and shuffles into the stream where it sits down downstream from the bat pony who says a silent prayer for that when she notices the black trail which the flowing water is leaving behind the drone, “I think I like the really hot water more, though.”

“Saaaame,” agrees Gloom, “But I guess I’ll have to wait for that until I get back home to Canterlot.”

“Hmmm,” 99200 takes its cloak off and joins them, “We do have plenty of black-crunchy to heat water like we do for the Queen during freezy time, we just don’t have a good way to get the water to the HSC. This place is way too far.”

“Didn’t you say you knew about an underground stream?” asks Gloom, “Even stale water from weird smelling pools would be okay boiled and filtered, but I’d rather stick to running water. Speaking of - I doubt you can make some version of soap, right?”

“99111 can make bubble bricks, but it left with 10k and 99380, so no,” 57999 shakes its head.

“Oh well,” Gloom shrugs, rubs her chest, and wakes her bruise up, “Ow!” she winces, “I guess I’ve been messing around for long enough, and I’m getting cold. How about we head back?”

“Sure,” 57999 nods, “99200, can you fill the bucket, please?”

“On it!”

***

Back in the greenhouse, Gloom desperately tries to ignore the throwing up sounds of 57999 making “fresh” healing goop. The only thing that keeps her own stomach in check is the knowledge that drone resin isn’t some kind of food residue or vomit, it really just is a completely different material built from bottom up thanks to their internal instinctive shapeshifting. In fewer words - don’tthinkaboutitdon’tthinkaboutitdon’tthinkaboutit.

When the noises stop and Gloom dares to look towards the table in the back, 57999 is already approaching with a hoof-sized ball of green jelly.

“Just rub it where it hurts and anywhere you think might be a problem - you know how you ponies work the best,” it says.

Gloom nods and has to grit her teeth again when she feels how warm the ball is, but what saves her is that it smells of mint and not anything digested.

The skin under her coat goes numb fairly quickly including her hooves, but the pain goes away with it, so she keeps rubbing until only the slick hair of her coat remains. However, when she tries to stand up, her head spins a little and she has to sit down again.

“Hey, 57999, are you sure you made the weak version?” she asks, having to force herself to speak, “This feels a bit… strong.”

“Hmm? Yes, definitely. I even drank water before we left. I barely feel this,” it rubs the remains on its forelegs into a random dent in its carapace.

As Gloom watches the drone gesticulating, she realizes something:

“Wait, you rub it on your chitin and it still gets to your insides too?”

57999 nods, unsure where the questioning is going.

“Ohhh damn…” Gloom takes a deep breath and lies down on the floor, “Skin’s gonna absorb a lot more. I just gotta… gotta lie down… a bit.”

She passes out.

Author's Note

Prepping DnD session for friends this week, not sure if I'll write next chapter in time for next Monday.