Dragonfly let out a relaxed, happy sign as he soaked up the sun in his lounge chair. He was currently on the Princess' Paradise, a Peace-Class Cruise Ship of the Equestrian International Cruise Line, currently on its way to a remote vacation island. Dragonfly was in his disguised form of a silver Unicorn with red eyes with slit-pupils, long red mane and tail with just the mane braided, and a cutie mark of a black dragonfly with six red wings. He stood 6 ft 9 in tall at full height and was wearing black full coverage high-waist swim briefs with a blue belt with a gold buckle just under his naval and red vertical stripe on each side.
On the belt of his swimsuit at the front right were two clips next to each other on the left-front side; a bundle of hanging flowers with golden stems and every second flower sporting gold and blue petals on the outside and a diamond surrounded by spiraling red and blue ribbons. Around the outside of the belt but still under the loops was a small silver chain-link belt with an extension with the end shaped like a four-fingered Dragon claw which tightly gripped a red crystal orb that hung from the right side belt loop down to his knees, and at the back just under the belt was a strip of perforated mesh panel and a thin slit the center and a small squeeze clip on the belt for his long tail. Small red button rivets studded the edges of the belt with the chain fitting in the middle.
His trade-mark long, wool red and silver scarf that matched his mane and coat respectively, with a High Royal Order medal hanging proudly at one end which hung down to his ankles, was being used as a pillow at the moment. Over his closed eyes were a pair of dark silver sunglasses with side shields and polarized multi-colored lenses. His long tail that split into three spikes with the longest at the bottom hanging over the left side of the chair.
'Yep, definitely needed this vacation after those stress-filled four days.'
Six days ago a massive storm of absolutely epic scale had appeared out of the Everfree Forest so fast that the only all Ponyville's Weather Team could do was sound the alarm. It had gotten even worse of that storm combined itself with a large one the Weather Team had been creating after they missed a week of light rain.
Well Ponyville got its rain all right.
The combined storms turned into one of the very rare supercell that took four days for not just Ponyville's Weather Team but several others from Cloudsdale (plus, unknown to the Ponies, his Hive) to fight off and end. Working in shifts it had been just crazy for eveypony (and every Changeling, not that anypony knew that) those four days: Every single Pegasus in Ponyville, including somehow Fluttershy (maybe because the cell had threatened her animal friends) was on the front lines fighting the storm with every Unicorn helping to keep it contained with their magic (Dragonfly rubbed his horn feeling a twitch just remembering that) while the Earth Ponies kept the other two teams going with food, water, and medical supplies. Finally, after four of the longest days in anycreatures' minds, the storm ended and the sun shined down and thank Faust the damage to the town was rather minor and easily fixed.
By that point however everypony was completely and utterly spent and stressed right out. Two days after that Princess Celestia, as a reward for their bravely and fight to keep the supercell from spreading, had given the Ponies of Ponyville an all-expanses paid three week long combined cruise and vacation on a remote island.
Dragonfly was quite glad for the whole thing, those four had been some of the most stressful he and everypony else had ever experienced and none of them were in any rush to do that again. His Tea Shop, the "Cozy Rest", ended up becoming a hotel after all that was done. The tables were put away and blankets, sheets, and other covers were laid out. Dragonfly himself had been so tired (his Emotional Energy or E-Energy was almost completely drained and it was only the extra crystals and the love of his two Marefriends that kept him going) that he just collapsed on the rarely used bed in the master bedroom and was asleep instantly, his two Marefriends right behind him. The three of them didn't even "cuddle" that night as they were just too tired, so tired in fact that they didn't even bother to change clothes.
Speaking of his two Marefriends, Dragonfly opened his eyes and turned his head to his right while lifting his sunglasses up. on his right in another lounge chair was one of those Mares: A Unicorn named Diamond Dancer, the younger of two sisters though only by a year. She had a pearl white coat, curly gold mane and tail with a red and blue stripe running through it, and pink eyes. Her Cutie Mark was a diamond surrounded by spiraling red and blue ribbons. She had a large ruby red bow at the top and base with a second even larger bow was tied on the base of her tail.
At the moment she was wearing a very pretty blue one-piece swimsuit that hugged her body nicely with a gold vertical stripe on each side, an emerald at the top-front, a silver belt around her waist with a red buckle which had a diamond in the center, a blue bow clip with a ruby in the center and two ribbons that hung to her knees when standing up on the left-front, a large pin of a black dragonfly with red wings on the right opposite of the bow clip, and very short red frills around the arm holes. Like Dragonfly she had a small black chain-link belt with an extension with the end shaped like a four-fingered Dragon claw which tightly gripped a blue orb that hung from the right side belt loop down to her knees around the outside of the belt but still under the loops, and at the back just under the belt was a strip of perforated mesh panel and a thin slit the center and a small squeeze clip on the belt for her long tail which hung off the right side of her chair. Small yellow button rivets studded the edges of the belt with the chain fitting in the middle.
This suit had been a gift from Ponyville's own fashionista and his friend and business partner Rarity.
He also found it funny that it match her dancing leotard with the blue color and gold stripes, the only difference being that the leotard's six stripes were horizontal rather than two vertical ones.
Dancer or DD as he called her stood 5 ft 9 in tall and over her eyes were a pair of black sunglasses with red lenses and a white sunhat on her head.
She looked over at Dragonfly and gave him a small smile.
"Like what you see Dragonfly?" A giggle following her question.
Dragonfly smiled playfully back.
"I can't help it if you are as hot as your sister."
"Why thank you."
"Just telling the truth."
"Were is Bluebelle by the way?"
"Right here."
Looking over to the Left they saw Dragonfly's second Marefriend and Dancer's older sister, Bluebelle or Belle to Dragonfly. She was a Unicorn Mare with a toned body and a gorgeous pearl white coat with a long and beautiful strawberry blonde mane and tail that was closer to red and were very long, perhaps even longer than Fluttershy's, tied into a nicely coiffed ponytail with a large cornflower blue bow at the top and base, a second even larger bow was tied on the base of her tail. Her sapphire blue eyes had a comforting warmth in them and sparkled like gems, and her Cutie Mark was a bundle of hanging flowers with golden stems and every second flower sporting gold and blue petals on the outside.
She wore a red two-piece bikini with a silver vertical stripe on each side that hugged her body nicely; the top was a crop high-neck style longline with her Cutie Mark in the center, silver button rivets along the edges, a small silver diamond shape with a smaller gold one under the Cutie Mark, a short gold frill around the base of the top, and a sapphire at the base of the neck strap.
The bottoms were a high-waist full coverage brief with a black belt with silver buckle with a diamond-shaped ruby in the center and gold button rivets around the edges of the belt, an emerald clip attached to the left-front side on the belt, a similar silver diamond shape with a smaller gold one within on the front under just under the buckle with two silver lines angled towards the leg holes from the bottom sides of the silver diamond, a short gold frill under the belt with a small portion under the buckle open, a large pin of a black dragonfly with red wings opposite of the emerald clip on the right-front, a red and silver striped sash matching Dragonfly's scarf that hung to half-way down her shins under the belt, and a silver triangle-shaped ring on each side belt loop with a large red bow clip with a sapphire in the center and two ribbons that hung to just past her knees when standing up.
Like Dragonfly and Dancer she too had a small blue chain-link belt fitting in between the belt rivets with an extension with the end shaped like a four-fingered Dragon claw which tightly gripped a green crystal orb that hung alongside the sash down to her knees, and at the back just under the belt and hidden by the skirt was a strip of perforated mesh panel and a thin slit the center and a small squeeze clip on the belt for her long tail which flowed gracefully behind her, currently waving slightly in the gentle wind.
Like Dancer's suit, Belle's was also a gift from Rarity, who had said her old one was "Too plain".
Belle stood only a few inches shorter then Dragonfly at 6 ft 6 in tall, on her head was a red sunhat and over her eyes were a pair of gold sunglasses with blue lenses. Over her shoulder was a red purse with a black strap.
"Sorry I'm late, was having a chat with Twilight and Rarity and lost track of time. What do you think of my new suit?"
Dragonfly, who hadn't seen it before, stared for a minute before responding.
"Lookin' good, very good Belle." He said point two fingers at her with a flirty smile, in his opinion it only increased her beauty.
"Looks very nice on you sis." Dancer said with a thumbs up.
"Thanks," Belle said sitting down in the lounge chair on Dragonfly's left while setting her purse down next to it. "By the way Dragonfly; why are you wearing swim briefs? I thought you would have picked shorts like most Stallions."
"I was wondering that to." Dancer said sitting up and swinging her legs over the side of her chair. Dragonfly did a quick look around and once he saw it was all clear answered.
"Shorts for some really strange reason chafe my carapace done there somethin' fierce, even while I'm disguised. According to the Hive's Healers; it is possibly a skin, or in my case chitin, condition. My dad also had it and couldn't wear shorts because of it. Its weird: I can wear regular clothing like everycreature else, yet the only thing I can't wear are shorts of any kind."
"Well I'm not complaining, I think it shows of your body nicely." Dancer said with a playful smile, Belle giggling in response.
"Very true DD."
Dragonfly smiled at the two Mares, taking their joke in stride. While he was no beefcake, his physical training and life as a Changeling Prince and Hive leader had given him a nice set of muscles and abs. In fact earlier more than a few Mares had been eyeing him up, but had only done that once they saw the two Cutie Mark clips on his belt which he gently tipped with his fingers. This was a long-standing tradition in Equestria since the first Heart's Warming: When two or more Ponies became partners in the form of Stallion/Marefriend or the like they would give each other a hand-crafted clip in the shape of their Cutie Marks as a symbol of their bond. This was similar to the ancient Pegasus tradition of partners giving each other their very first shed feather, which they still do alongside the Cutie Mark clip.
Dragonfly had been all over much of the world during his foalhood traveling with his mother and he did find interesting was that all swimsuits, or at least those made by Ponies, included belts. From what he understood this was for practical reasons as for one it allowed the wearer to easily adjust it to their waist size and carry items if one needed to. He also found it interesting that for swimsuits, public ones at least, if they were briefs of any kind they were always high-waist (to where the belt buckle sat just under the naval) and full coverage. Dragonfly wasn't sure why, he understood the reason for the belt but for the high-waist and full coverage he didn't know.
Laying down on her chair Belle signed as she relaxed in the warm sunlight.
"It was certainly nice of Auntie to give us this vacation."
"Especially after that crazy four days." Dancer added as she laid back down.
"No kidding," Dragonfly said laying his head down again and placing his sunglasses over his eyes again "that was perhaps the most work anypony in Ponyville had to do nonstop. By the time we were finally down we all were too tired to do anything but sleep."
"Some fell asleep right where they were standing, having to be carried to their beds by their friends." Belle said.
"At least now we can relax the stress of all that away on this vacation, I for one believe we all need it." Dragonfly added.
"That I agree on, I've never seen Twilight that badly frazzled since the "Need it, Want it" incident." Dancer finished with a shutter at the memory, at the time the three of them had been seriously wondering if the book-warm Unicorn needed heavy-duty therapy. Dragonfly wondered that himself, He couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her during her time as Princess Celestia's student.
Shaking his head he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, soon nodding off as Belle and Dance did the same.
Down at the Main Pool on Deck 15 a Unicorn Pony named Indigo Patches sat on the edge of the pool with his legs hanging down into the water, he stood 5 ft 4 in tall and had an indigo coat which had several decent-sized brown patches, yellow mane and tail, and blue eyes. His Cutie Mark was a shield-shaped quilt with several different colored patches, show by a mark on the right leg of the brown and white shorts with brown belt and black buckle that he wore.
Indigo had a smile on his face watching the Ponies around him just having fun, he noticed over on the other side of the pool two of his friends walking towards it; a Winged Thestral Stallion a good head taller than most Stallions at 6 ft 10 in tall and had an dark grey coat, the trademark deep blue webbed mane, wings, and tail and a dark yellow eye. His Cutie Mark was a picture of a sunset with a large dust devil in front of it and over his left eye was a black eyepatch. He was also wearing black and blue shorts with yellow belt and grey buckle with a clip in the shape of a bundle of roses to the right of the buckle. This Stallion was named Dusk Storm.
Next to him was his Marefriend Graceful Petals, an Earth Pony Mare that stood 5 ft 8 in with a leaf green coat, rose red mane and tail tied up with blue ribbons, and yellow eyes. Her Cutie Mark was a bundle of roses. She wore a dark red one-shoulder one-piece with a green belt and blue buckle and a large cloth red rose on the single strap that went over her right shoulder and a smaller one on the left front of her belt. On the right side opposite of the cloth rose was a clip of a a sunset with a large dust devil in front of it.
Dusk and Graceful, or just Grace, were holding hands as they walked to the pool edge where Dusk let go and hopped into the water, once there he turned to Grace and held his arms up to her. Grace walked forwards and climbed in as Dusk held her by her hips, lowering her into the water gently. Indigo smiled watching them as the two began to enjoy the pool. Dusk and Grace had been friends for a long time and Stallion/Marefriends for most of that time. He still remembered clearly when Dusk had asked Grace to be his Marefriend; she had answered giving him a huge, passionate kiss that Dusk melted into once his surprise wore off.
Indigo jumped suddenly when he felt hands on his shoulders, turning his head to look he froze when he saw an Earth Pony Mare with a royal blue coat contrasted nicely by a red mane and tail, green eyes, and a Cutie Mark of a large brass gear that stood 5 ft 5 in tall. This was Spark Gears or Sparks as her friends knew her, normally she wore a pair of welding goggles on her forehead and a hardhat with a string of yellow, green, purple, and red Heatswarming lights wrapped around the hard hat and powered by an attached magic battery pack on the back of the hat but for obvious reasons wasn't wearing them now.
Instead she wore an orange one-piece with a plunging neckline fitted with a lace-up front with grommets and an open back with adjustable tie and a blue belt with green buckle. On her head was a pair of swim goggles in place of her welding ones. To her right a few feet behind her was a 8 ft 9 inch Pegasus Mare with her Kirin parentage quite clear through her larger than normal Pegasus wings, horns of a Western Kirin, and the long tail of an Eastern Kirin in place of a regular Pony tail. Her coat was an emerald green with yellow mane, hair along the top of her long tail, and thick tuft at the end of her tail. Her Cutie Mark was a pair of sliver broadswords with black handles crossed in an 'X' shape. Her fangs just barely stuck out from her upper lips.
This Mare was Silver Blade or just Blades to her friends, a Pony that had a Eastern Kirin mother and a Western Kirin father. She wore a blue two-piece bikini with a red vertical stripe on each side; the top was a Bandeau style tube top with her Cutie Mark in the center and orange studs along the edges.
The bottoms were a high-waist full coverage brief with a green belt with red buckle, orange button rivets around the edges above and below the belt, and a black and silver striped sash that hung down to her knees under the belt.
She also wore two brown leather pouches on a brown leather belt over her chest and a long black and silver scarf wrapped around her neck that hung down to her waist.
"Hello Indigo." Sparks said rubbing the blushing Unicorn's shoulders as Blades came up next to him and placed her hands on her hips while her long tail came over and gently wrapped around his neck, softly rubbing Indigo's chin with the yellow hair tuft at the end. The two Mares knew that Indigo had a crush on him, which the two were okay with as they returned it. Indigo had been wanting to ask the two if they wanted to be his Marefriends but his shy nature kept holding him back. The two Mares were aware of this and had agreed if he never did asked them they would gently ask him.
Blades then sat down next to Indigo as Sparks did the same and took off her torso belt with pouches and scarf, setting them out of reach of the water as she hopped in, Sparks following then the two grabbed Indigo's arms and pulled him in. By this point Dusk and Grace had noticed and reached them.
"Hey guys," Grace said as the two approached, "enjoying the cruise so far?" Sparks smiled and answered first.
"You bet, so far I've done a bit of shopping, got some food, changed into my swimsuit then met with Blades to come here, and after this I plan to try out that large water slide."
"I've been mostly just laying around enjoying the sun, had more that a few Stallions and even a few Mare check me out. Sparks met up with me earlier and after some swimming Indigo and I are going to try the rock climbing walls." Blades said as Indigo smiled, gently gripping her tail as it ran its tip up his chest, lightly tickling him.
Grace smiled back, "Dusk and I so far have spent time in the spa, watched a show or two in the aquatheater, and had our pictures taken. After putting our stuff away in our cabin we changed into our swimsuits and came down here."
Dusk turned to Indigo, "And 'ow about you lad? What 'ave you been up to so far?"
"Well... I've mostly been in the food bar," the others lightly chuckled at this, Indigo was known for his rather large appetite.
"and spending time around the pools," he blushed rather brightly, "...and watching the pretty Mares move about." He rubbed the back of his head with his right hand as he rubbed Blades' tail tip with the thumb of his left hand.
The group chuckled, Blades placing a hand on Indigo's shoulder as she pulled her tail out of his grip.
"It's okay Indigo, its perfectly natural for a Stallion to check Mares in swimwear out. We don't mine at all." Sparks added her agreement by nudging his rips with an elbow. Dusk just smiled at him while Grace giggled. Grace then looked around, noticing one of their group was missing.
"Hey guys, where's Rose? I know Blue and Dancer are with Dragonfly, so were is she? I though Rose would have been here."
Dusk let out a chuckle.
"She called me and Darter into 'er and Darter's room earlier, wanting our opinions on 'er new bikini. I told her she looked quite nice in it, while Darter's wings went full sail. Rose smiled at him, thanked us and said she needed to "talk" to Darter about something. I left and she closed the door, I think we all know what she meant by talk though."
The group's response was light laughter and smiles, they all knew exactly what it meant.
"Ever since Rose and Darter started dating I couldn't help but notice she seems... happier than she ever has been." Grace said, Dusk reaching over, putting a hand on her hip and pulled her against him as he wrapped a wing around her.
"I've noticed that too," Sparks mused, "but it is clear to me at least that they love each other very much."
"Though I noticed that you haven't made any of the typical threats that brothers make when someone is dating their sister Dusk, why is that?" Blades asked crossing her arms as she laid her tail over Indigo's shoulders, the Unicorn gently grabbing the tip.
The Wing Thestral just shrugged.
"Rose can take care of 'erself and like Sparks said' those to love each other very much and I wouldn't get in the way of that. Their love is like what me and Grace have," he hugged said Earth Pony who sighed blissfully, "and what Dragonfly has with Blue and Dancer."
"Good point," Blades said with a nod, then added, "I was up there earlier and couldn't help but notice he was wearing swim briefs. I thought he would have worn shorts like most Stallions." Indigo then spoke up.
"Well Blades Dragonfly apparently has some kind of skin condition that causes shorts of any kind to, in his words, chafe him done there somethin' fierce. He asked me to look and I do agree with him."
Dusk winced slightly at the though of chafing down there, Sparks looked at Indigo.
"Is it really that bad?"
"Yes, its bad. I'm not gonna say anything else on that because trust me: You don't what to know."
"Enjoying the pool guys?" A new voice joined them, turning around they saw Rose standing at the edge with a fist on her hip. Rose stood 6 ft 9 in tall and had a snow white coat with a long crimson mane and tail that gently swayed long the floor, and beautiful emerald green eyes. Her Cutie Mark was a bunch of silver roses. She was wearing a two-piece bikini consisting of a one-shoulder top and high-waist full coverage brief. The top was yellow with red edging while the bottoms were red with a yellow belt and blue buckle, a clip of a dart flying through the air with a sound cone forming around it to the right of the buckle while under the belt was a dark blue, a sky blue, and green striped sash that hung down to her knees on the left.
"We are Rose, come on in. The water's lovely." Grace said waving her arm. Rose smiled and hopped in by first sitting down then sliding in and made her way over to them.
"'Ey sis, where's Darter? I know 'e was with you when I left." Dusk asked, noticing his sister's coltfriend wasn't there. Rose giggled.
"Hey Dusk, Darter's back at our room, taking a nap. I think I wore him out a bit."
That got a laugh for the others.
"I'm surprised you two haven't had any kids yet with all the time you spend "cuddling"." Blades said, Rose just gave her a look.
"Regarding kids, we have talked about and both of us think that we're not ready for that just yet. And we do not spend all our time cuddling in that way Blades."
She just got a look from the others that clearly said "Oh really."
"I'm serious! Most of the time we're together we play video games, amazes me how good he is a Pony Cart."
"Sure Rose." Sparks said.
"We get what you mean on Pony Cart sis, the last game we all played together Darter kicked our tails." Dusk said.
"Never seen Dragonfly swear like that." Indigo said remembering how much of a mouth Dragonfly had during that one race were he was literally inches away from the finish line in first only for a Lightning Power-up to activate and thanks to that he went from first to last in the final race.
They never knew Dragonfly could swear in that many languages.
"Well now that we're all here, who's up for some fun?" Sparks said, she was answered as she was slashed from all the others, shaking the water out of her man she put her goggles on.
"Oh, It's on!"
They spend a good few hours playing in the pool together before it got too late and they had to get out for the night.
Just the first day in a fun vacation.