They're EVERYWHERE!

65536: 14

Nightguard barracks is well insulated, both due to location as well as actual soundproofing, so the batponies switching shifts halfway through the night could get enough rest before the Summer Sun Celebration. By evening, Sharp Biscuit is standing by the door while Steel Glimmer is at attention by the back wall, mostly invisible aside from her silvery tattoos. Pink Sunset is sleeping, hanging by the fetlocks of his hind legs in the rafters and Gloom is in her bed.

A bed that is suspiciously missing a certain ball of chitin with which she went to sleep.

Her hoof instinctively gropes the empty area around her belly where 65536 is supposed to be. On unsuccessful attempt number three to touch the changeling, Gloom's sleepy brain catches onto the inconsistency, she finally opens her eyes, and checks the alarm clock on her bedside table.

Fifteen minutes before she'd have to wake up. Excellent.

"Buggo?" the reality of the missing changeling catches up with her and she sits upright. She whispers louder, "65536?!"

"Evening, Gloom," Steel Glimmer greets her, "It-"

"65536, I know you were scared about going out but you didn't run off, did you?" Gloom openly calls out with growing worry in her voice, completely ignoring her colleague.

"NU UUH!" comes from the showers in the back despite no noise of running water.

"Are you showering?" asks Gloom.

"Already all done! I didn't want to wake you up!"

Before Gloom can call anything out again, Pink Sunset groans, opening his eyes:

"You sure did a better job than Gloom..." with a flap of his wings, he drops from the rafters on the floor.

"Blame me for being worried after our little buggo got chewed up by a weed thrasher!" Gloom frowns at him.

"Two Nightguards on duty in this room, Gloom," Steel Glimmer peeks into the showers as she passes by, "Don't you think we would have noticed an intruder?"

Before Gloom can reply, 65536 walks out of the showers, making her swallow her tongue as her eyes bulge.

65536's cardboard Nightguard armor is colored to perfection, barely distinguishable from actual armor including the presumed lighter shades where it would reflect light if it was real metal. What's new, though, is that 65536's leg holes are filled with black paper mache, and that there's a short mane made of dark blue and white streamers poking from under its helmet.

"Look, I even made a mane like Luna's!"

"Hnnnnngghhh!"

"Oooh? We making funny noises? RAWRGL-HISS!"

While Gloom happily foams at the mouth with the widest smile possible for a pony, Steel Glimmer takes a deep breath while clutching her chest.

"This is almost making me want foals somewhere down the line..." she breathes out.

Gloom recovers as 65536 reaches her bed and she sweeps it from the floor into a hug.

"I used to foalsit for a friend a few years ago and I can assure you that you're waaay better off adopting one of these if they're at least half as behaved as 65536."

"There's over ten of them in the dungeons including several drones. You can take your pick," comments Sharp.

Steel Glimmer pauses before looking at 65536.

"Would you like to have another changeling around?" she asks with surprising hesitation.

"THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!" 65536 wiggles excitedly in Gloom's hug, "But not a high rank, those are really mean most of the time. Not 387 or 516 or 443, though, I've never heard of those three kicking anyone without a good reason and they even told us weird stories about the outside from time to time. Can you magic up 72216? It could juggle with sticks it found and it made all of us laugh when one fell through its cup holders. We used to dig tunnel [incoherent buzzing and clicking] together but it got its hind leg crushed in a cave-in and when I dragged it off to 668 to help she told me to eat it because it was beyond saving which was nonsense because it still had three working legs and she ordered me to snap its neck and laughed when I was too weak to-"