Roughly an hour and a half of fairly gentle yoga has passed, the sun is warming the beach, and several resort guests are already swimming in the sea.
"Ughhh..." 10013 moans and keels over onto the sandy rocks underneath.
Cadance breaks her stretch and darts over to the drone.
"What's wrong?"
"I... I haven't been... this tired... in a long time..." breathes out 10013.
"I thought you said that just being near me was revitalizing enough."
"It works like that... but not... forever..." 10013's breathing is slowing down, "We still need some rest after doing something exhausting even with love... and this was something," it rolls over and, with a grunt, manages to sit up, "How can you do this so easily? You're not even breathing faster."
"Years of practice, little guy," Cadance chuckles, "The yoga set I'm using targets your entire body and, since we made those changes to your carapace, it makes sense there would be movements you've never made before and muscles you haven't used much."
"Owww..." groans 10013, rubbing the chitin on its legs.
"Can you even feel that through the chitin?" asks Cadance.
"I can," 10013 nods, wincing as it digs deeper, "Right now I wish I didn't."
"There's a massage parlor in the resort. I can take you there later if you want."
"What's it for?" 10013 tilts its head, "Message... thingy..."
"Massage," Cadance shakes her head, "You know what? It'll be a surprise," she looks around, then at the sky, "I guess we've done enough for the morning. Let me pack up and we'll go see if Shining is awake."
10013 nods, and watches Cadance roll up her mat and put it away into her backpack. When she's done, the drone stands up with a grunt of pain, which is followed by a pink shimmer surrounding its belly and being telekinetically picked up and flown on Cadance's back.
"I can still walk, I think."
"Let's not test that right now. Besides, I don't want to be too late for breakfast."
In a few minutes, they land back by the entrance to Cadance and Shining Armor's bungalow where 10013 curls up next to the door, blinks, yawns, blinks again...
...
The drone wakes up with a gasp when it feels a hoof gently poke it.
"Whu-whah?" it sits up, blinks, and hisses as multiple places of its body protest the movement with soreness, "Ouch!"
"It hasn't moved all this time, Your Majesty," reports a familiar voice which, upon 10013's brief look around, is revealed to be one of the Crystal Guards belonging to Cadance's delegation.
"Good job, Prism," says Shining Armor, standing over 10013 with Cadance, "10013, Cadance explained what you wanted from me during breakfast-"
"Huh?" 10013 finally recovers enough to check that... it's been asleep for over an hour, "Oh... right, Scufflestick!"
"More importantly, I think, the idea of remodeling your carapace," Shining corrects it, "I'm not too keen on improving the changeling army-"
"We're not an army, Mister Shiny," 10013 shakes its head, "That's the warriors or infiltrators. Back... back during the invasion we were kinda just projectiles to go splat against the big bubble. Anyway, Miss Cadance said you could help us drones be more mobile without losing our armor, and that would mean getting munched by gribblers a lot less."
YOU ARE READING
They're... ON HOLIDAY?
Fanfiction[SEQUEL TO: They're EVERYWHERE!] Several years after the changeling invasion of Canterlot, queen Chrysalis gets an invitation to attend a cruise followed by a stay in a luxury holiday resort on an island belonging to the Griffon Empire. Supposedly...
