They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Day 5 - Standard procedure: 4/8

To cover as much ground as possible, 20100 and 99111 exchange brief waves with 10013's group and head through the apartment complex the opposite way.

"The silence makes me wonder if we shouldn't just go outside and wait until anyone who could use our help wakes up," 20100 looks from side to side when the hoofsteps of the other drone group go quiet.

"It can't hurt to look around. That way we can at least have some chance of gaining a point lead on 36658," replies 99111 with determination.

"You do realize that the points will either be equally split between us or we'll both get the same amount, so you're moving nowhere. You know, comparatively."

"GOOP!" 99111 curses, stops in the middle of the hallway, and hangs its head, "I completely missed that."

"I mean, we should still do good for the hive, you know?" 20100 nudges it, "But there's no one saying that we can't do what we're interested in -right?- since we're on breaky time. You know what? Have you found something that you liked so far? Other than complaining about 36658."

"Hey!"

"I stand by what I said," says 20100 calmly, "I told 36658 that it was way overdoing the stories, but you're straight up wrong."

"Grumble grumble!"

"No reason for that kind of language!"

"Sorry..."

"Most newbies I talked to liked 36658's stories, and... I wouldn't exactly tell this to 36658, but they don't overthink them like you both do," after a brief pause, 20100 adds, "For better or for worse. Although I think 36658's overall idea is better."

"Hmph!"

"If you don't want to talk about it then it's okay," 20100 shrugs and rolls its eyes, "We're drones, and that means that our priority is the hive, not our own problems."

"Agreed," 99111 huffs, "So, I was thinking, aaand there actually were ponies on the ship doing stuff at times unusual for most of them. Where? In a place called the workshop. All we have to do is find a place like that here and we're set."

"Workshop, eh?" mumbles 20100.

"Now where would a place like this have a worksh-?"

"Found it!" announces 20100 with a smile, presenting the hive mind image of the laminated map of the resort, namely the back of it with listed locations, through their hive link.

"Huh, I feel a bit silly for not thinking about that first," mutters 99111.

"Well, we figured it out and that's all that matters," 20100 glances at 99111 before leading the way towards the nearest stairs.

***

The workshop is a one-story building with thick doors and walls as well as small windows to insulate the rest of the resort from any noise. However, the inside is extremely well-lit using long, bright, white, humming lights built into the low ceiling which the drones have to force themselves to look away from.

Unexpectedly, there's only one pony in the entire workshop, although she certainly is managing to take up a lot of space and, unlike before, it's not because of her overwhelming personality.

*POOF!*

"Celestia's steaming milkers!" curses Trixie when a bubbling bowl on one of the five tables surrounding her blasts a plume of black smoke upwards while the unicorn herself is busy operating a spinning lathe on the leftmost table. Despite the loud yell echoing through the workshop, she carefully turns the lathe off before darting back towards one of the three tables filled with chemistry equipment, "Maybe I can salvage this..." she mutters, taking the bowl from the burner and turning it off.