Two days later, the Compass Rose flew past Equestrian borders and over the ever stretching sea towards the Moneigh Islands. The blimp sailed through the ocean of clouds and over the body of water underneath them until by noon, the shouts of “Land Ho!” were cried out as a string of islands came into view. Of course, the Prince and his consort did have a good look at the very dark green dots that increased in size as they drew near thanks to the telescope. For Blueblood, it was a sight that he had seen a dozen times on official business. But for Fancy who was looking through the spyglass, he was memorized.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” the older unicorn commented. From the eyepiece, he saw towering mountains and flat valleys of green that were sticking out from the flat blue. By the coastline, he did spot signs of civilization, but further inland among all the islands was covered in jungle green. “So those mountains are volcanoes are they?”
“Do you see the big island where we’re going to?” Blueblood asked. “I know for certain that one is still active, but at least it’s not the violent type. The rest you see are extinct.”
The blue-maned unicorn adjusted the telescope, “I don’t see any smoke.”
“Then it means there’s no eruption today,” the young Prince pulled his consort away from the spyglass. “Come, we must get ready to make our entrance.” Up on deck, sailors were scrambling to getting ready to port the ship. Fancy took notice that a cannon was brought up on board but it was aimed at the opposite direction of the island. When he inquired what it was for, Blueblood replied, “It’s a sort of sailing tradition. Whenever someone important comes to port anywhere at sea, the sailors fire a cannon in order to alert the townsponies that royalty has arrived. Oh, and you probably want to cover your ears for this part.”
The older stallion turned as he saw one of the sailors held a lit wick at the end of a pole. Upon instinct, Fancy covered his ears with his hooves and prepared himself for the flame to touch the powder. As soon as it did, instantly a deafening roaring thunder shook the air, its echoes ran across the sky. Of course, the blue-maned unicorn immediately jumped when the sound went right through his body.
“Celestia!” he flinched. “What’s the point of that? Giving the locals heart attacks?”
His coltfriend laughed, “Think of it as our grand entrance. Well that, and scaring the mayor out of his wits.”
“It’s effective in that regard, I’ll give you that,” Fancy replied as he tried to recompose himself.
“In all honesty, I’m rather curious as what the mayor on the main island will do now that I’m here,” he smirked as he leaned over the railing. “He’s not expecting me to come until next week. Oh, I can’t wait to see what he will pull in the next couple of minutes.”
“So what exactly are we going to do here?” his consort asked.
Blueblood gave an amused look before nuzzling him, “Now now, be patient. The real fun starts as soon as we land.”
Fancy saw as the ship was slowly descending towards the harbor of the rows of buildings and houses that encompassed the whole coastline. As they got closer, he saw more details of the main island such as its white and gold beaches, the thin trails of smoke from fire pits, and a crowd that was gathering around towards the bay that the airship was about to dock.
Hot air was let out, and the sailors helped guide the vessel down gently into the water next to the dock. Ropes were tied; gangplanks were lowered, and before the Prince and his consort could step off, a fanfare of trumpets was sounded as they walked down. A line of policeponies held back the crowd of curious onlookers, and at the bottom of the gangplank was an old dark brown stallion with a blond, pulled back mane wearing a blue flowery button up shirt. He was flanked with several mares in grass skirts holding a long necklace of red native flowers.
“My Lord Blueblood,” the old stallion said with a smile. “Aloha.”
“Aloha Mayor Nalu Nui,” Blueblood bowed his head respectively, to which one of the mares came up to place the flower necklace around his neck. “I see that you’re doing better the last time we’ve met.”
He laughed, “I keep telling you, it was only a cold. Though color me surprised to see that you’ve come early – none of us were expecting you until next week.” Nui turned his attention to the stallion that was next to the Prince. “And who is this? A friend of yours?”
Blueblood shook his head, “No Mayor Nalu, this here is somepony that I’ve taken up as my Royal Consort, Fancy Pants.” He leaned over to whisper in his ear, “Say Aloha. It’s their greeting.”
He blinked, “Ah, well aloha sir,” the old stallion rose to shake his hoof to which as the mayor shook it, another mare with a similar flower necklace placed it around his. “Uh, what is this?”
“We call them Lei’s.” The old stallion explained, “It is a sign of affection when one comes to our islands.” He turned his attention back to the Prince, “Your Lordship, you still haven’t given me a reason why you’ve come so early.”
“Well,” Blueblood wrapped a hoof around Fancy’s shoulders. “I wanted to treat my consort out with something that would be worthy of a Prince. In short, we’re not here on official business, but more along the lines of leisure on these islands. To have some fun for a week together – of course, I will stay a little longer for our original scheduled visit. But for now, if it won’t be too inconvenient, I want to explore with Fancy of what these islands have to offer.”
Mayor Nalu was silent for a moment before asking, “My Lord, did you get married recently?”
“Wait- No!” the younger unicorn blushed. “T-That’s not- why would you say that?”
“Forgive me, but the way I’m seeing it and given the news that the island had received some months ago… I’m sorry Lord Blueblood; I assumed that this was your husband.”
Fancy chuckled, “Oh no. Though I can see the misunderstanding, truth be told, we’ve been dating for a while. Bluey here is just spoiling me.”
“Ohh…” the mayor nodded, “Okay. Now that makes sense. I must say, that his Lordship has chosen wisely. The weather should be perfect for the week and these islands are indeed both beautiful and offer plenty to do. Now then,” he turned to the Prince. “Would you and your consort liked to be escorted towards your residence?”
“Certainly, have everything I and Fancy own be taken there; I want to spend a nice stroll on the beach with him.”
_*_
Fancy Pants has been to a few beaches before, many were crowded with ponies, crying foals and shredded seashells, seaweed, and slimy twigs that covered every square inch of sand. However, as he let his younger coltfriend lean upon him as they walked side by side; he found it surreal that they were there on what he thought was the true, ideal beach. To their left were the gentle blue and green waves of the sea that perfumed the air in its sea salt. Straight ahead of them was sand that was powdery, golden and flawlessly perfect. Even with the seashells that stuck out, the sand wasn’t too hot; rather it was perfect to walk upon. To their right, were palms, tropical vegetation, and local bird calls. And above them was a blue sky that had a few stray clouds that glided among the ocean breeze.
“I'm surprised how warm the water is,” Fancy commented as the waves lapped up and around their hooves. “With other beaches, I’ve been to, it’s always freezing cold. But here, it’s like I’m walking through bath water.”
“To be fair, there are warm currents that surround the islands,” Blueblood pointed out. “After all, there’s a good reason why this is the birthplace of surfing.”
“I know, I mean just look at that,” Fancy waved a hoof over towards the waves that rise with a curl and collapse underneath its own weight. “How can you not want to try to ride on those?”
“Maybe we could take surfing lessons,” the blond unicorn snickered.
“Oh heavens no, I’m a little too out of shape to be swimming that far out to sea.”
“Really? I would think that you would do fine among the tumbling waves – old sport.”
Fancy chuckled, “A change in subject, do you have any ideas what we would be doing here? I mean, being here is nice, but what are your plans for the rest of the week?”
“Again, I have no idea.” He smiled, “It’s kinda exciting really. This is the most amount of freedom I’ve ever heard, but I have no clue what to do once our things get settled in at my estate.”
“While I am curious to see what an estate of yours look like, I do think we should at least figure out what we’ll be doing.”
Blueblood snorted, “I’ll be shocked if we find out that we won’t. The mayor is right, after all, there are plenty of things to do on these islands such as surfing, volcano watching, luaus, festivals, movie theaters, it all comes down to what we’re in the mood for.”
“Like a strip club?”
The young Prince was taken aback by surprise, “F-Fancy!” he exclaimed with a blush.
His consort laughed, “I’m just playing with you,” Fancy chuckled for a moment, but took noticed how Blueblood remained silent. Once he calmed down, he inquired: “Bluey, can I ask you a personal question?”
“What?”
“I know you’re twenty-six and what not, but have you ever been in a strip club?” his coltfriend shyly shook his head. “Really? Never?”
“Not once.”
Another chuckle, this time Fancy patted him on the back, “Perhaps sometime we should find one where the entertainers are all male…” Blueblood’s blush intensified. “Come to think of it… Blue, another and even more personal question, have you ever gone to bed with anypony?”
Blueblood hesitated.
This got an encouraging nuzzle from the older unicorn. “Come on dear chap. You can tell me, I promise I won’t get angry. After all, I was once young too you know.”
The Prince looked around the coastline, trying to double check to see that they were truly alone. “Promise me that you won’t tell my Aunts about this?”
“Of course, I’ll keep it confidential.”
Blueblood breathed in deeply, his face still red, “To answer your question: yes I have. But only once,” he added the last part quickly.
“Oh-ho!” Fancy snickered, “Okay, now you’ve gotten me curious.” He sat down in the shade of a palm. “So how did this happened?”
“You’re not angry about this? That I’m not a… well…”
“I would honestly be more surprised if you were a virgin. However, I don’t mind at all, though I am rather intrigued.”
Blueblood sat down next to his consort, his back against the bark of the palm, looking up skyward. “Okay… About three years ago, you know, when I was still in the closet, I had developed a crush. It was with one of my personal guards. Sure, I had a hoofful of crushes before mind you, but he…” he shook his head, half smiling. “I don’t exactly know how to describe it, but I could somehow tell that he was different. Over the following weeks, since he had been assigned to me, I just felt attracted to him. I confess Fancy, that I did have dreams about him. It had gotten to the point that I had to do something about it.”
“That understandable,” Fancy Pants nodded.
“Well… One night after some party or other, my personal guard escorted me back to my room. I noticed that he seemed different because he just wouldn’t make eye contact all the way up there. It was like he had something important on his mind so when we got to my apartment, I asked him about it. Well… he had difficulty putting it into words so he showed me… by kissing me.”
“Is this the part where he confessed that he loved you?” his consort smirked.
Blueblood, still flustered, replied softly. “Well… yes. And I told him that I liked him back. After that, as they say, one thing led to another and… you can guess the rest.”
“So what happened after that, between you and the guard?”
“Out of the blue, he was relocated. Sent off to the Crystal Empire where we broke up…” here, the young Prince stayed silent for a very long time. He listened to the bird calls, the laughing of the water and the gentle rustle of the vegetation. “I guess you can say that I was quite heartbroken after that. I stayed in my room for four days and refused to come out until I stopped crying.”
Fancy didn’t say anything but only nuzzled him and held his hoof. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“No,” the blond unicorn shook his head. “I ended up learning something. In that, if you’re ever going to give up your own body to somepony else, it has to be done as a sign of absolute trust. That you are willing to fully give yourself physically and mentally in the arms of a stallion that won’t break that said trust.” He turned to his consort, “Am I making any sense?”
“Perfectly,” he stood up, helping him up also. “You know, we’ve been together for… what? About a month or so? And yet, I do trust you Blueblood.”
“R-Really?”
With a smirk, Fancy said, “Quite. If you ever feel that way to the point where you trust me into undergoing such a… amusing activity, all you have to do is ask.”
Blueblood could practically feel his heartbeat banging at his rib cage, “I’ll… I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Though seriously,” they started to resume their walk. “I may be in my thirties, but I do feel young being around you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes… in fact,” he grinned wickedly, and as he felt the seawater come up to his hoof, he splashed it onto Blueblood. “Tag! You're it!”
“HEY!" the Prince squealed. But instead of trying to dry himself from getting his white suit from getting wet, he went in pursuit of his galloping coltfriend.