They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Day 1 - Shippy time: 7/9

Shortly after leaving the drone cabin with 99380, 99526's stomach rumbles.

"Huh, that didn't sound good," the 99380 stops and looks at its friend, "You wanna share? I can still spare a bit of love."

99526 shakes its head.

"I think it'll be better if you keep exploring this place. We can't disappoint everyone by both of us passing out somewhere. Go on ahead and I'll try to see if there's any love to scrounge up. Maybe I'll ask if 93 has a little to spare. At worst, she'll call me a dummy or something."

"You don't believe the veterans' tales about us getting eaten for the smallest failure?"

"I do, I do, but all I've seen so far adhered to 387's new rules, so I guess I'll just go and face whatever is in the way like a proper drone."

"Good luck then," 99380 nods and heads further down the hall, "I'll head up on the main deck. See ya."

"Bye."

As 99380's hoofsteps eventually go quiet, 99526 feel more alone than ever before.

Come on, what's the worst that can happen? Getting munched? Getting munched.

So... do I get munched for trying and failing or do I get munched for giving up and lying down?

Say what you want about all those silly things the veterans say about High Score, but if there's an important piece of information it's that it never gave up no matter the challenge.

99526 scrunches its face into a determined and highly boop-able expression before heading on and up to the deck with the cabins belonging to the noble or royal guests. It's nicely quiet at this time of day, and the drone stops in front of 387 and 93's cabin to take a deep breath.

Before it can knock, though, it notices a faint seepage of love through a door further in the hallway. It lowers its leg and starts heading towards the door which, to its eyes, is letting out a faint pink glimmer under it. When it's less than halfway to it, the door opens, and a pony couple entirely covered in a pink cloud walks into the corridor before locking the cabin behind them and leaving in the opposite direction.

99526 beams and quietly follows them, absorbing any love left by their passage.

The stallion is a white unicorn with dark blue mane and the build of a warrior, but the drone's attention is way more occupied by the mare. This is the first time 99526 has seen a pony with both unicorn horn and pegasus wings. Her coat is pink, her mane and tail are split into stripes of three colors - purple, yellow, and dark violet, and she seems to be the main source of the lingering love cloud now easily feeding 99526. The two are laughing and chatting, completely oblivious to the small drone following them, which is a state of affairs 99526 enjoys because it doesn't want to bother anyone, and the indirect feeding is bound to take time anyway.

It follows them to the main deck where they get some drinks from the bar before heading off to the giant central pool. Across from it, the drone spots 99111 curled up under a deck chair occupied by the shower zebra reading a magazine. Inspired by how 99111 is safe and no one seems to be bothered by it being around, 99526 resumes following the couple with a little less sneakiness, which it regrets almost immediately.

A thick and muscular foreleg grabs it by the center of its barrel, raising it up.

SPINDLY CATCHER DANGER!

"Eeep!" 99526 bends and bites the leg but its dull teeth can't do any real damage.

"Hey!" a rough voice warns it and a second foreleg spins the drone around. 99526 finds itself held with two legs by its barrel and staring face to face with a big earth pony sitting on his haunches who is wearing a breezy, dark blue vest with yellow SECURITY written on it, "What do you think you're doing?"