They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Day 7 - Drones? What drones?: 5/7

"You want to spar?" 387 snorts in disbelief, "Are you serious?"

"Why not?" 65536 smiles back at him, "It's not like we'll be fighting for real, and I need some practice with this new carapace. I did my pushies last night and ooof, I was gooped."

"Heh, I can just imagine how the fight goes," Blueblood chuckles, "Look, 65536, candy! Where? Crunch!"

"For your information, a pony did try to bribe me once with shinies and I told him no!" 65536 pouts at him, "Mister Sharp would be so disappointed if I took it."

"Let's ask an impartial judge," 387 looks at Smiley riding on Blueblood's back and playing with his mane, "Smiley, you don't want me to smack 65536 around, do you? In play, not for real."

*Process...* *Scribble scribble scribble*

[play]

"Yaaaay!" 65536 cheers.

"Fiiiine," 387 sighs, "So where do you want your ass beat? I suggest somewhere out of the way so that I don't get accused of abuse."

"There are a ton of open spaces around the sports area, and we can get there quickly if we go straight up from here."

"Sure," the warrior shrugs and the group picks up the pace while taking the nearest narrow path straight up the slope. Their opportunity arrives even sooner when the path splits off to a grassy clearing to the right, similar to where the gazebo which Gem used to teach Smiley was. The resort is clearly full of nooks and crannies where someone can relax undisturbed, "How about we do it here instead?"

"Sounds good to me," 65536 nods and heads right.

Blueblood drops Smiley off by the clearing's edge and sits down while 65536 and 387 face off.

"No digging," states the warrior, "I'd like to avoid potential real damage. I'll hold back on the strength, but don't expect me to go easy on you as far as technique goes."

"Agreed!" 65536 nods, bouncing up several times, "As I said, I need to try out these new body changes."

For reasons unknown to Blueblood, Smiley is now interested in his ribs visible under his coat, prodding and sniffing him. To avoid more tickling, he grabs Smiley's foreleg and points it at 65536.

"You were the one who wanted to see that exercise in futility, so watch," he says quietly.

Smiley obediently turns towards the two "opponents" warming up with some basic movements, hucks out a glob of goop, and starts scribbling on one foreleg with the goop stick fastened inside a hole in the other.

Amidst stretching his back like a cat, 387 suddenly darts forward to simply trip 65536 up with a wide swipe which the smiling drone hops over, unfazed. A following backhoof swing for a trip attempt number two gets blocked by 65536's own foreleg, resulting in a loud crack of chitin against chitin. That, however, leaves 387 on three legs with the right foreleg outstretched far to the left which 65536 immediately uses to grow a hook on its leg, stick it through 387's nearest leg hole, and pull.

A perfect maneuver like that would end up with any other opponent on the ground. Unfortunately, 65536 is fighting a changeling warrior who is physically strong enough and experienced enough to maintain his balance even in such a crazy position and simply raise his outstretched foreleg despite the weird angle, leaving 65536 hanging from it.

The little drone doesn't give up, though, dissolves the hook which makes it drop, uses one wing to spin in the air and finally, landing on all fours, darts under 387's belly. As it punches up, the underbelly rises along with the warrior who now floats in the air, smugly smirking at 65536.