They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Day 2 - Points: 9/9

"GASP!" 99111's eyes go wide. One day, someone will explain the concept of onomatopoeia to the drones, but today is not the day and 387 isn't that someone, "She lied to me! I specifically asked about that because I didn't know what that meant. Grumblegrumblegrumble-"

"Aaand mystery solved," 387 leaves the pouting drone repeating 'grumble' with forelegs crossed on its chest, and moves on to the next, "99380, the queen wanted me to give you two points."

"YAAAY!" 99380 throws its forelegs into the air for a brief moment before going quiet and simply staring at 387 in case there's more to say.

"It seems she appreciated your radio broadcast. Unfortunately for you, you still needed refilling, so it's only the plus two."

"I made a changeling friend!" says 99380, "Its rank is 65536."

"The hero of soup!" 20100 salutes the empty air. 10013 and 36658 answer with the same gesture.

"Yup! I really liked that title," agrees 99380.

"99526," 387 speaks out again, and the drone watching ponies trot around the finished light show stage looks at him, "You're on zero. You didn't need a refill, but throwing up all over the place in front of creatures from all around Equestria was definitely a bad impression on us all, so overall it's plus one minus one."

"Ponies have so many delicious things..." 99526 mumbles, "But 20100 didn't bloat up as badly and it ate the same stuff I did."

"Sorry, buddy," 20100 frowns but pats the other drone's head, "Maybe something just didn't sit well with you. Think of it this way - you're probably closer to figuring out what your goop does!"

That gives 387 a pause.

"99526, did you notice any special feature of your secretions?"

"There was a lot!" replies the drone, "But no, nothing special. It was goop, it hardened quickly, it was green. Nothing anyone else can't do," it shrugs.

"No refill, huge increase in produced mass in contrast to intake," 387 taps his hoof on the floor, "You should do some more careful testing tomorrow as well. It could be that your specialty is producing in volume rather than adding some specific quality. Since 20100's offering, I suggest you use some of the bits it made."

"Can I get the brown sweets this time?" asks 99526.

"I have no idea what you're referring to but I assume so."

"Can we go see that griffon lady about that good time?"

"No."

"But the sweets cost only one shiny, and she offered a good time with her for fifty. How much better would that be-"

"NO!"

"Okay," 99526 shrugs. No point in arguing, orders are orders, "I'm just wondering what she meant."

"Don't! Look, the light show is starting," 387 points towards the stage where Trixie set up a spotlight aiming at the sky and is now testing if everything works, "Sit here until the end and enjoy it. Afterwards, I think you should return to your cabins and go to sleep. It would be good to adopt the pony night and day cycle while we're on this trip."

10013: 0

20100: 4

36658: 2

99111: 2

99380: 3

99526: 0

Smiley: :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

"Can I get happy stickers like Smiley has?" asks 99380.

"No, and holes if I know how it did it. Either learn to manipulate the hive mind or stick to numbers," replies the warrior.

"Hnnngh-" 99380 grunts, closing its eyes.

99380: (^_^) (O_O) (X_x)

"-eep?! Go back! Go back!" the puzzled drone looks around, unsure what to think of anything, "387, help! My score is being weird."

387 smacks 99380's head, having had just enough drone interaction for the night.

99380: 3

"Phew! Thanks," 99380 lets out a sigh of relief.

Fully aware that the light show will in reality be starting in twenty minutes, the warrior leaves, knowing that the drones won't move and disobey the orders. He quickly locates Chrysalis and 93 on the mental map, the former is sitting in a hot tub being served champagne by a unicorn stallion and the latter...

...is in some glass-walled bar inside the ship, holding a hoofful of cards while sitting behind a table with two other stallions and a griffon. Judging by the small amount of colorful chips with 1 written on them on the table as well as multiple empty shot glasses, it must be a friendly game or a practice. 387 smirks to himself, uses every trick he learned over his exceedingly long life to cover his mental presence, transforms into a pegasus, and heads downstairs 93's way.

I didn't make any progress figuring out what Chrysalis' deal is, but we're not being chased around with torches and pitchforks, so that counts for something. This, though, looks like a good opportunity to measure how quick thinking this new top-ranked infiltrator is.

Finally, day two ends with one ancient warrior and one newborn infiltrator facing each other, but for the first time in generations, their battleground is just a card table.