They're EVERYWHERE!

1988, 9999: 8

As promised, when the sun came up, 1988, 9999, and the two warriors gave every single drone and Silent a full physical, revealing a total sum of injuries that could probably fell a dragon. Each one had a broken carapace, that one's given, but some have been dealing with their actual bones as well. Why changelings have both endoskeleton as well as an exoskeleton was beyond the knowledge of anyone involved. Necrotic flesh was the norm, but thankfully, changeling adaptability limited the spread so it didn't infect anywhere important. 1988 never considered himself a surgeon but the ability to transform his hooves into claws and operate a knife borrowed from the kitchen with a degree of precision that the mouth simply didn't offer did tons to limit the invasiveness of the 'cleaning' process.

In the end, the drones were left with a few more goop-filled holes each but 1988 could feel it, the BIG thing - the drain on their love went down immensely. After some rest, the drones scampered off to help ponies again. After all, none of them were hurt enough to stop working, even though now that 1988 knew the only injury that would stop a drone from working would be a broken neck, it did little to alleviate his conscience. He realized one important thing during this whole medical ordeal - his whole hive knew so little about the drones.

HOWEVER, right now there's one drone he could really live without, even though it brought him the most critical part for the plan he's been hatching for a while.

*Bounce bounce bounce bounce!*

"9999, can you stop that guy?"

"MY PICTURE OF THE WORLD IS USEFUL!" 13415 keeps bouncing up and down, its usually serious demeanor completely gone as 1988 studies the map it drew.

"Come on, 1988, it's just happy. Not everyone got off on the right hole with the ponies so some of us have to take what we can get," 9999 defends the second highest ranked drone around.

"I DREW ALL THE LITTLE LINES AND SQUIGGLES! THEY'RE IMPORTANT!"

"I knoooow," moans 1988, giving 9999 an annoyed glance, "If I give it a reward, will it go away? Or at least stop?"

"DEPENDING ON THE REWARD!" 13415's demeanor changes immediately from excited to 'attentively listening while still bouncing up and down'.

"That sneaky little bastard knows exactly what it's doing," 1988 facehoofs.

"Yep," sighs 9999, "Alright, that's enough of that, 13415. The map is important, we understand, now let 1988 do his thing."

"Aaaand the reward?" asks 13415.

"I won't feed you to 8622," scowls 1988, "It looks to me as if you've got energy to spare."

"Hey, you promised you wouldn't be mean anymore," 13415 finally stops hopping and gives 1988 a betrayed look.

"That's a two-way street. You don't give me a headache, I don't use parts of you as bait for nightmarish monsters. You've already failed the first part. I'm allowed to be mean."

"Grmmm..." 9999 glares at him.

"Just a little mean. You know, only threatening unspeakable violence, not actually going through with it," 1988 explains with a roll of his eyes.

"Oh," 13415 ponders his words and brightens up instantly, "Hey, that's fair. 9999 was totally right, you're a really nice infiltrator, 1988!"

"I repeat - if I thank you, will you go away and let me figure this out?"

"What are you doing anyway?" asks 13415 in an excitedly curious way that makes 1988's eye twitch.

"I'm thinking of a way to get the cocooned ponies to civilization before something bad happens to them. From 9999's overview of the love situation of you drones I can see we're slowly improving, especially now that you're not practically leaking love from all the barely patched up holes and cuts."