They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Day 8 - Smiley's hole: 2/7

65536 enters the apartment where it and Blueblood reside. Technically, either of them can use the water bungalow for the royal guests, but Blueblood was against using the 'more comfortable option' for himself when they were introduced to this place and, after what just happened, 65536 decided that being closer to the drones would be a good idea.

The drone lets out a sigh of relief when it finds Blueblood lying on the floor, alive and well, next to Smiley who is occupied with its drawing tablet. One wide motion of Smiley's foreleg later, Blueblood sighs:

"Let's not attempt cursive. Your best bet is to be as clear as possible. Short and snappy."

Whether Smiley understands any of what he said is a mystery, but it starts wiping its slate nonetheless. Hearing the door close, Blueblood sits up and asks 65536:

"What was all that about?"

65536 walks past, sits down on the bed, and in a heavy voice recapitulates the entire past half an hour to Blueblood. Strangely enough, while Smiley stops playing with its tablet and listens as well, it doesn't seem worried nor does its hive link generate the expected sequence of puzzled or worried faces, leading 65536 to think that the situation might be too complex for the Silent. Holes, it's too complex for 65536 and it's been working as a guard for multiple years now.

"So, what do you think?" 65536 finishes its recap.

"Why are you asking me? I was just curious why you rushed out of the showers. You should know better what goes through your Queen's head. Last time I was even in the same city as her it was Shining Armor's cock."

"BB, please," 65536 hops off of the bed and nudges the sitting ex-Prince with its head, "I know we didn't do it, but who could? You know diplomatics!"

"Diplomacy."

"That, yes."

Faced with the pleading stare of the drone, Blueblood rolls his eyes, closes them, slowly breathes in and out, and puts his mind to good use for once - namely to run through his knowledge of court politics.

"The way I see it is that there are three ways to look at this," says Blueblood after a while, "The less likely one, especially if you are so sure that none of the drones blamed for being the extensions of Chrysalis' will actually did make and plant whatever bombs they're imagining blew up the ship, is that Chrysalis would know she would be the first suspect in case of any mishap and would use it to say - you're just blaming me because I'm a changeling and you don't like us. The second possibility is that somepony else thought exactly the same and tries to get away with a mass assassination attempt, knowing that you changelings will be forced to take the fall. Option number three is that it really was a weird magical accident. Near-impossible but worth mentioning."

"And what do you think?"

"Number two, definitely. As in the hive changelings being in deep shit, especially this close to the Griffon Empire."

"But this island doesn't belong to anyone, right? Miss Sun Hammer specifically said that."

"Proximity is nine tenths of the law, 65536. If the griffons can get military presence to this island in one tenth of the time it would take Equestria it means their law applies. And griffons in general don't like changelings, in case you missed that tiny detail. You can simply disappear and they can make up a viable cover story in the time it takes for the first investigator from Equestria to arrive," Blueblood pauses, "Well, probably not you specifically, because Luna would literally drop the moon on the Empire and end all life on Equus if that happened, but you know what I mean. I hope."