A Tropical Odyssey

by DJ-BRONI3

The Perfect Cruise

It was a warm, cloudless night. The stars twinkled like diamonds in the sky. The moon beamed down upon the surface of the ocean, illuminating the sea with gleaming silver. A light breeze was gently blowing, cooling the stifling air, and the calm sea lapped lazily against the hull of the massive cruise ship; the S.S. Seagallop. It was, however, far from quiet! On the main deck, a party was taking place. Bright multi-coloured lights shone out from the deck, cutting into the inky black sky. The cruise was on its second day of the voyage, and everypony was enjoying themselves.

DJ BRONI3 placed another record on the turntables, propped up his red-tinted sunglasses on his forehead and grinned as "Pony Rock Anthem" blared out of the large speakers on either side of the turntables. The party was in full swing, with ponies dancing, laughing and enjoying one another's company. As the music played on, DJ looked out to sea, remembering back to the week before, when he had still been in Ponyville. At the time, DJ had received an invitation to host parties at night on the cruise ship S.S. Seagallop. His marefriend, Vinyl Scratch, was really excited to hear he was going. She knew that chances in the music career like this only come up once in a lifetime, and had encouraged him to go. Vinyl and DJ's friends saw him off at Ponyville station. He was sad to leave them behind, but he was comforted by the fact that he would see them again in two weeks.

As he came back to the present, DJ noticed the music had stopped. He hurriedly put on another record before looking back out to sea. His daydream was interrupted by an earth pony with bright pink highlights in her hair and pink neon bracelets that illuminated her hooves in the dim light. "Hey, could I DJ a bit?" she asked him.

While DJ was surprised by this sudden request, he was feeling pretty tired and felt he could do with a of relaxation time. He shrugged. "Sure, why not!" he replied. "I could do with a break anyway. Enjoy!" He left the party and trotted off to his cabin.

DJ trotted along the large corridor that led back to the cabins. The ship had everything anypony could possibly want! Broad dining rooms, exquisite designs and glistening chandeliers. This was a true, five-star paradise! When he returned to his cabin, he flopped onto his bed and started looking through his saddlebags. He pulled out a picture of himself with Vinyl. He smiled to himself, before taking out his portable speakers and putting on some music. He began to drift slowly off to sleep...

***

Back at the party, things were continuing as normal. At the bar, a grey pegasus was sipping a sarsaparilla. Steel Accord chuckled to himself. "Sweet nectar of the gods! Alcohol is for posers!" he thought. Nonetheless he knew he was equally as false as being here. The party just wasn't his scene. "Take a vacation!" Fancypants had told him. "We've both been very busy and you deserve a break." His employer had bought Steel a ticket, and so far he had been enjoying himself.

All the same, there was a reason Steel was out here. He was lonely. This vacation was the perfect opportunity for him to find a nice mare, fall in love and live happily ever after. Would it work? Probably not; this wasn't the first time he had been to a social event without meeting another pony. As one of his favourite songs came on, he had an idea. While he was unlucky, he certainly wasn't shy. He put on his sunglasses and flew to the stage just as the lyrics came in. He began to dance and lip-sync to the song. As the song finished, he posed with his wings spread before trotting back to the bar. Ponies cheered and hoof bumped him as he made his way back to the bar. Now all he could do was wait and hope that his gamble had paid off.

The current DJ, Neon Strobe, watched this display. "Good job!" She said as she winked at the pegasus and went back to DJing. Her pink neon bracelets illuminated the turntables as she changed records. She then noticed another pony, a fiery red pegasus dancing to the music and singing along. When the song was over, he trotted over to her and started up a conversation with her. "Hey," he called out. "you've got some great taste in music!"

Neon winked at him. "Thanks," she replied. "You're pretty good at dancing! What's your name?"

The red pegasus smiled. "I'm Red Talon! Do you maybe want to meet up at one of the tables when your shift is done? What's your name, by the way?" Neon smiled at him. "Sure, why not? Somepony should be coming along to DJ in a minute. I'm Neon Strobe, but you can call me Neon. I'll see you in a minute!"

Meanwhile, Steel had returned to the bar, where a small blue colt was trying to reach the buffet-table. He was a pegasus called North. He had wings, but didn't seem confident enough with using them yet. Steel trotted over to him. "Hello down there young sir." He greeted the colt with a smile. "Looks like you're hungry. How about this, I help you up, and you promise not to stay up much longer, deal?" Steel inched the chair closer to the table and even grabbed a dish cover to add an additional step. As he looked up, Steel noticed a beautiful mare, a white unicorn wearing a white dress, sipping some punch as she watched the party. She wasn't with anypony... could this be his chance? Could this be "the One"? He decided to give it a try. "Wish me luck, young one," he said, before patting him on the head and trotting over to the mare.

He tried to seem casual, but polite at the same time when he introduced himself. "Good eve-" he cleared his throat. "Hello there, young miss. Great party, huh?" The less practiced, more modern phrasing felt almost alien to his Canterlot tongue. "Where are my manners, Steel Accord. A pleasure to meet you, miss...?"

The mare looked a little surprised to be spoken to. She shook hooves with Steel and smiled at him. Hello," she said. "Pleased to meet you. My name is Clover." She liked the look of this stallion, and wondered if he felt the same way. She hadn't had a special somepony yet. Maybe it was time to get one...

***

However, not everypony was enjoying the party. Sterling Crimson, a red unicorn, was lying on his comfy bed in the cabin, trying to read. "Ugh! All this noise is preventing me from enjoying this book!" Sterling said to himself. While he was an amiable sort of unicorn, he never really like parties. He preferred the comfort of reading a good book, especially the ones about medicine.

On this particularly night, he was reading through an old book he found at his cabin's bookshelf. It was titled "Herbal Medicine: Equestria's Exotic Healing Powers." It was a book that intrigued him ever since his journey on the S.S. Seagallop began; in fact, it was the first book he saw on his stay. After all, Sterling never stops finding new methods of healing for his patients.

Nonetheless, this constant noise blaring from the upper decks was very distracting. "Oh, I stand it any longer!" Sterling shouted as he jumped up from his bed, extremely frustrated by the noise. He then calmed down and thought to himself. "I should see how things are going at the party. After all I can't get my reading done with all this ruckus!"

When he got to the top deck, Sterling noticed how bustling it was. He saw the dancing, the bright lights and then looked over at the DJ table. "I wish they were waltzing to some Strauss!" he pondered. He was very annoyed by the loud music and club dancing all around him. "All I wanted was some peace and quiet and this is what I'm welcomed to?" thought Sterling angrily. "And what on Earth is that terrible singing?! Sounds like a bunch of howling hyenas! And from a red pegasus no less!" He was referring to Red Talon's performance. Red then finished and talked briefly to the DJ, before trotting off to the bar. "Thank goodness he stopped singing! Hopefully that DJ girl keeps him from singing any further!"

Sterling was very cross, but at least there was a buffet table. It wasn't anything special, just a typical place for fruit and vegetables. Sterling decided to get himself a small snack of lettuce and cabbage. "Mmm... this should make me feel better!" he said as he heaped a lot of both vegetables onto a dish before he sat down at a table to savour the delicious meal.

To (almost) everypony on the ship, it looked like it was shaping up to be a great night...

Comments

[Zhooves]

I really like it so far~
Ye've done a great job with converting our posts to a fic~
I will now proceed to spam these so-called "emoticons" I have heard and seen so much of - to show my appreciation for this.