They're... ON HOLIDAY?

Day 8 - Smiley's hole: 5/7

10013 knocks on the door of Shining Armor's bungalow. There's no beacon of love coming from the inside, so Miss Cadance is elsewhere, but she did say that Shining Armor likes to sleep for longer so he might still be there.

Maybe waking him up isn't the best idea, but we have a bunch of tinies for him and he seemed a lot into them.

They wait. One wouldn't expect the drones to be like that, but if the veterans have something then its patience. After all, they all remember the times when the only applicable thing to do when there was nothing to do but to wait for a new task was... nothing. 99526 is still recovering from yesterday with the help of some agonyslayers so it appreciates some sitting.

Just don't look at the sea. It wobbles from side to side... nononono, stop! Look at the door, the door is solid. Totally unmoving-

The door swings open, prompting 99526 to slap a hoof against its mouth, and a dishevelled Shining Armor peeks outside. He smiles when he sees the drones, and says:

"Good morning. If you're hungry and looking for Caddy, she decided to try some special yoga this morning which the griffons do. Supposedly, it's much more hectic than the zebra version that got to Equestria."

"No no no," 10013 shakes its head before pausing, "Well, uh, I am kinda hungry, but that's not why we're here. We wanted to give you these," it pushes its box towards him.

"What is it?" he opens 10013's box and remains standing with mouth open, "Are those...? How did you?"

"We spent all yesterday making our Scufflestick tinies and we made an extra set from each faction for you as thanks for all the help in the thinky department," 10013 nods to 36658 and 99526 who push a box forward each, "They're a bit mixed up but it's all of them."

"I... I don't know what to say," Shining Armor pulls out an Equestri unit by his design. While the techno-magical weapons the stallion is carrying are a bit iffy and weird, clearly made by someone who had the design explained to them with drawings, the statuette of the stallion is of masterful quality, "These are fantastic," he puts the warrior down and pulls out a spider unit from the Gribbler faction. This, however, is for sure made from memory of someone who saw many similar sights up close. He could easily sell it for hundreds of bits were it not for the fact that it must have been made out of changeling resin which puts its durability to question, not to mention the 'eww factor', "How long can these last?"

10013 freezes.

"Oh goop..." it facehoofs, "I... I completely forgot about that..." its shoulders slump.

"Our goop normally lasts two worky times, give or take," 36658 realizes what's wrong.

"Oh..." 99526 catches on last, "We can keep them from melting but you can't. It takes only a tiny bit of love but you can't just hug them."

Seeing the trio of crestfallen drones, Shining can't help but try to cheer them up.

"Guys, how about we play some proper games with these while they last?" he offers.

"Gasp!" 99526's eyes light up, "Can I, can I, can I?" it bounces up and down, "Hurk-!" it covers its mouth again until its stomach calms down, "Nevermind, I'll just watch this time."

"That sounds like a great idea," 10013 nods.

"Do we have the time?" asks 36658, which gives Shining Armor pause. This is the first time he's seeing the drones be so busy they're considering turning down their own idea which seemed crucial to them before.

"If you guys need to do something first we can play later," says Shining, "We still have a few days left before we leave the island so if you come to refill or recharge the models they should last the whole trip."