//------------------------------// // Lazy Vacation // Story: Same World, Different Realities // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// Ruthenium lay on her side, snoozing lightly in the warm summer sun as it held its place in the sky in her one piece bikini that covered her privates from unworthy eyes and tube socks on her front knees to keep them hidden in common style. She'd made it to the first frontier village of Crystal Depths and was taking her time at the lake’s beach. As foals played in the lake the sound of motor boats sounded in the distance as they coasted through the waves. Adults could be heard holding conversations and it was just what Ruthenium needed. Time alone yet not alone. Time away from work and the stressed it caused. An errant ball bounced off her and with a whimper her eyes opened, she looked up to see a stallion galloping toward her. “Hey, can you horn me the ball?” he asked her as his eyes glanced at her forelegs. She looked and noticed one sock had slid, exposing part of her knee that she promptly covered. With a goofy expression she lifted an object and tossed it to him. With a casting of his own magic he caught her picnic basket she’d thrown at him and trotted over to her. “You, uh, tossed the wrong thing. You look a bit tired, would you like to join us, it’ll wake you up? Afterwards we’re having fizzy water at the cafe and I’d like to see you there.” Her ears tingled and after blinking a couple times she took his visage to memory for use during a future night if nothing happened. “Uh, yeah. Sandball? I can join in,” she got to her hooves and shook the sand off her body, picked up the ball, and followed him to the court. “No magic rule?” “Yeah, not much challenge if we all cast.” “Hey, lovers! Throw the ball to us and get a tent,” a mare mocked them sending them both into a blush. He looked toward the pink mare. “When was the last time you needed a tent besides mid spring?” The ponies around offered an ‘ooo’ sound at the challenge but she bowed her head in defeat. “Yeah, thought so. Game on! 6-2, our ball.” She took her place and prepared to play their version of volleyball with her goals in mind. Win game. Win stallion. Walk funny for a couple hours. she giggled at her short list of foals. Goals! He wasn’t that good looking! She nearly missed the start of the match and followed the ball as it soared over the net, starting its journey back. It was definitely a great time to be alive and on vacation. Ruthenium woke to the rising sun and noticed she was alone in her room. A note left beside her thanked her for the evening and wished her the best, signed the stallion. She’d forgotten his name and decided she didn’t need to know it so she crumpled the letter up after the first words were read and tossed it aside. With a happiness in her body she didn’t know she was missing she called in a meal from the bedside communication device before she clambered out of bed and walked funny to the bathroom to shower and refresh herself before she used her overpriced room service tokens to enjoy breakfast in bed. The door rapped gently and she opened it while still drying her tail to see a cart loaded with food, treats, desserts, snacks, munchies, and a single mint she’d requested as well. Placing it all on the bed in different places she nearly tipped the earth pony that delivered the food before she noticed the sad and defeated expression indicating his lower race. With a scoff and wave of her hoof he left with the cart and she used the towel to rub her head clean of any airborne filth it may have carried with it. Discarding the towel behind the bathroom door she turned to happier thoughts and climbed into bed, turned on the television, and watched cartoons as she ate her fill several times over the next hours. She started with the mint. Sometimes no amount of time or brushing can take the flavor of a good night away, she giggled to herself. The trays, plates, and cups were all nearly empty when she snorted awake amidst crumbs and food stained sheets. Sitting up she realized she’d developed a headache from her very poor vacation diet, or so she hoped. Worse case was that it was from being so close to a mud pony. She dismissed the idea and gathered all the plates and bowls from her bed and set them just outside her room door, taking note her meal for the day thus far was quite massive and unbalanced with a smile. That is one point of a vacation, afterall. “Ahh, I’ve napped, crapped, rolled in the sheets, and washed my teats. I think it’s been a great start to the day, but I’ve got a museum to check out and more time than I need to go shopping,” she squealed to herself. “I’ll rent a friend on the way and go shopping with her. I just hope she’s a good conversationalist,” she tapped a hoof to her chin. “I’ll spend an extra ten units for it if I have to.” Mind made up, she found the number and cast the spell making sure she requested a female unihorn with intelligence and a hoof up on pop culture to meet her at the mall entrance. That done she dressed simply in a dress of silk and lace, gathered her purse, donned her horn decorations of exquisite gems and ancestral bone fragments indicating luck and wealth, her currency, and finally her ID’s. Her room was a bit of a mess, but they’d have it cleaned by the time she returned and maybe she wouldn’t return alone again. The thought sent a smile to her lips and tingles to various parts of her body as she recalled one important thing about the previous night. She searched the bed and found the mint she’d forgotten. Quickly crunching it and swishing it around her mouth after she did. Arriving at the mall she met her friend for the afternoon and they spent the next four hours shopping and even though they both knew it wouldn’t last, they did become friends. Taking her newly purchased items to her room she sniffed the fresh citrus in the air and placed her bags beside her bed before flopping on the freshly cleaned comforter. “This is bliss,” she mumbled into the pillows. The only odd part about her entire excursion to the mall was a crazy unicorn stallion that must have escaped the stables, shouting about the end being near. ‘Repent to Princess Platinum lest the winged horn-beasts tear your souls from your living bodies and burn your livers in their evil brew. Repent, unihorns. Repent for your sins against each other and the mud ponies that serve you!’ She’d rolled her eyes at his antics and had gone about shopping, but it was a bit unnerving to see a unihorn, stallion nonetheless, having lost his mind. Putting that sad thought away she focused on the next three days before she’d be taking a tour of the edges of the southern forest and its completion would mark the end of week one. She sent her purchases back to her hotel room and the rest of the day was spent eating like a glutton at three food stands, flirting with a half dozen mares and two stallions that all shot her down outright, having several drinks at a tavern, and dragging herself back to her room alone and horny, too tired to do anything about it. The next day she woke with the rising sun and thanked Platinum for her generosity in sharing the gift of her light before washing, dressing, organizing her room, and remembering at the last moment before she left to use the toilet, she left her room and the hotel behind to see the local sights of Crystal Depths, home to one of the world’s murkiest locations of above ground water. Museums, restaurants, an arcade to die for, more restaurants, planning a date with a gorgeous mare much later that night at a kiosk in the mall. By four she was spent and returned to her room with lethargic enthusiasm. She collapsed onto her bed and passed gas she’d been holding for hours. Regretting her decision to eat half her body weight that day and to hold flatulence in for so long she opened the sliding door to let fresh air in and the lingering stench of her meals out as a gift to everypony nearby. She giggled at the thought of nobles scrunching their noses as her gas passed them and they began blaming each other in their haughty indignant ways. She was being foalish and loved it as she drifted off to sleep. A knock on the door woke her and she rolled to her hooves, opened the door, and gawked at her forgotten date. The other mare stood with two fluted glasses and a bottle of wine, the next hour was certainly going to be exciting and a great way to end her second day before she’d have to wake up, pack, and take an actual train to the borderlands. “This’ the best vacation ever,” she said to herself as the mare walked past her. “I’ll make sure of it,” she replied as the door closed loudly.