//------------------------------// // 33: Vacation for Two: Snowed In by Minalkra // Story: Xenophilia: Shotglass Oneshots // by TheQuietMan //------------------------------// Vacation for Two: Snowed In by Minalkra ********************************* "I don't get it." Lero - bundled up as only a human can be - stared listlessly out at the snow-covered mountains that filled the windows of the private train car before turning to regard the silent alicorn in the room - literally. "Humans tend to go to places nearby - like the beach or a lake or such - when summer vacation rolls around. Not travel halfway across the world for, uhm -" he waved at the vista outside the window, "- snow." Twilight fluffed her wings slightly, levitating a ribbon to mark her place before turning to regard her stallion. "Well, it's summer - it's ungoddessly hot. So, go to where it's not hot." With a roll of her eyes and a smile, she shrugged her unclothed shoulders. "Your species is an equatorial one, regardless of where your particular breed hails from. Of course you'd love the heat." "'Love' is not the word I'd use here, 'enjoy in moderation' perhaps." Lero grinned at his mate - before the grin fell slightly and his gaze traveled back to the scene passing just outside the frosted glass. "I just wish Lyra or Dash could have managed to take time off their schedules to join us." Twilight winced. It always was that way with Lero. His seemingly 'all or nothing' attitude about their herdlife could be painful sometimes - and the fact Rainbow Dash was his favored above all others was obvious to everypony except Lero. Twilight was grateful that Rainbow was a hesitant 'lead mare' at best and not apt to use her favored position as leverage against her herdmates. It was even at Rainbow's secret insistence that these 'mini-dates' still occur between Lero and his other two mares as often as she could wiggle him into them. Rainbow might not have seemed it to an outside observer but she was fairly smart - smart enough to know that one mare being favored above all others was a recipe for disaster. Twilight shook her head to clear the poor thoughts from her mind. She was here, with her stallion - hers and hers alone for an entire week! - and she refused to have what should be a happy and fun time away from the worries and trials of life tainted by old thoughts of worthlessness. This was the first time she had actually taken a real vacation with her stallion and she was going to make every second count! "So," with a mental flick, the book she had just been reading - One Hundred and One Things to Do with Snow - closed with a thunk and the alicorn Princess stepped down from from the bench where she had been perched, "we've got an entire week before I'm needed back at Canterlot. What should we do first when we get to Damver?" "I am so sorry, Lero!" Twilight cantered around her stallion as best she could in the crowded press of equine bodies. As soon as they had exited the private train, a mob of reporters and curious locals had descended on the royal couple and Twilight was cursing her own insistence of being without guards. The press of mostly-mare bodies was kicking her defense instincts into high gear and she was having a hard time not lashing out with magic to try to clear a path. "Clear the platform!" A shout from a hovering pegasus guard - a local guard by her looks - went ignored as paparazzi cameras flashed and reporters attempted to drown each other out with shouted questions. With a twisting loop, the guard landed on the other side of the still-shocked human and pressed the crowd back with hoof and wing. "Damn it, your Highness! Where are your guards?!" "I didn't think we would need them," Twilight replied, her hair a frazzled mess under her tiara. "I'm not used to this kind of attention yet!" "We need to get you two to your hotel, do you know where you are staying?" A few more local guards had joined the press of bodies but had managed to clear enough of a circle around the two royals that Twilight was no longer attempting to nip at the few ponies that were still a bit too close. At least, not many of them. "Th-the Hinniverness!" "Twilight?" Lero's deep, masculine voice brought her head - and a few of the guard's heads as well - snapping up. "Why don't you use a magic bubble?" Twilight's facehoof could be heard clearly over the shouting reporters. The action caused another flurry of flashes from the mass of ponies. The Hinniverness Resort and Spa was one of the premier resorts in the Damver area - indeed, one of the premier resorts in all of Coltorado. Luxurious accommodations, direct access to three of the areas four skiing slopes as well as a private ski slope of it's own, five star restaurant able to cater to every species' dietary habits, a spa operated by one of the world famous Bluntclaw sisters - the Hinniversness was the height of pampered living. It is also a very well designed prison, Twilight noted wryly as she dropped the pamphlet back to the side table. She was currently sitting in the 'common room' of their four room suite. While it was large enough to count as a hotel room alone - with the den, the extremely well-designed 'spa room,' the office and the bedroom, their suite was larger than some houses. And the decor was enough to make Twilight question if she should have Celestia design her own home. The common room was done in light, earthy tones to encourage a homely feel. A few lounges and benches were placed strategically to emphasize the 'togetherness' of the room and de-emphasize its actual size. Which was huge. It even had a chandelier made of imported Crystal Empire crystals! But the center piece of the room was the large double glass doors that would normally have looked out over pristine wooded slopes. Normally. Now, it looked over a small tent-city that had been hastily - And illegally, Twilight noted - erected around the hotel by a swarm of paparazzi that seemed Tartarus-bent on destroying what little calm and enjoyment Twilight would normally have pulled out of the situation she and her stallion had been forced into. "Stupid reporters," she grumbled as she pawed uselessly at the pamphlet she had just finished reading. Again. It didn't help matters that the royal suite had been a headache to reserve - the Hinniverness not having gotten the memo that Princess Celestia was no longer the only Princess in Equestria. Twilight had thought that if the weather schedule had to be changed for any reason, having the larger number of rooms would be well worth it. Being snowed into a smaller two room suite would have been irritating. Or if, say, the royal pair had been under siege by a ravenous horde of vicious character-assassins. For the first two days, she and Lero had been holed up in their private royal suite to escape the rampaging mass of reporters and paparazzi that had followed them from the train station. The third day was an attempt at actually doing something - anything - but even with a contingent of royal guards (flown in at great royal expense), the mass of equines following her and her stallion's every move was so nerve wracking that Twilight had to call the entire day a waste. The mass of guards couldn't even dent the mass of reporters with arrests and any attempts to move the camp just stirred up a riot. "Day four." Twilight flicked her ear in irritation as Lero's whispered voice reached her. "Subject shows signs of increasing irritation. Mental stability is still suspect but subject seems to have recovered well from 'Ice Cream-gate.' Subject does seem to be emitting a grinding noise of some description however." "Eugh." Twilight stopped grinding her teeth and dropped her head to her hooves as Lero chuckled. Her stallion found humor in the strangest of places. "Subject has emitted a loud groan of some description, testing hypothesis." Twilight perked her ears up as she heard her mate shifting around behind her. It sounded like he was getting closer ... "W-what hyPOTHAH!" With a yelp and a flash of her horn, Twilight teleported into the middle of the room, her wings stiffly held at 'attention' as she glared daggers at her stallion. The fluttering of paper informed her she was currently standing on her 'Eighty-seventh revised vacation schedule.' "Lero! Your hands are FREEZING!" With a bashful grin, he held up ... a snowball. "Well, snow tends to be cold, Twi." "Oh no, we are not having a snowball fight in here." Images of a ruined suite and her mentor - no, her friend Celestia's aghast face filled her mind as she already began to plot out ways of turning the room into a war zone. Turn that table over, use that lounge as cover ... "I've already over extended our vacation budget flying those trussed up pretty-colts in and I do not need any temptatMPH!" "Shh." With one of his long and dexterous fingers on his lips, Lero silenced her rambling protests. With his other hand, he motioned her to him, patting the seat next to his undoubtedly warm body. Twilight could still feel the damp spot where the snow had flash-heated against her fur - right at the junction of her wings. One of the more sensitive spots on her new alicorn body. Lero was no stranger to pegasi bodies, she realized. He did that on purpose - oh. OH. "Lero," Twilight whispered as she felt her face flush and her heart beat increased until she could hear the blood in her ears. He had been coming on to her in his slightly awkward, non-pony way and she had been so caught up in her failed schedules and misery to notice. She had snapped at him - her stallion! - and the realization was sinking in. Sinking as fast as her stomach. "SHH." The commanding tone of his hush was very strange. Usually he was so much more deferential. Something in his eyes and tone, though, reminded Twilight of her father. Her face flushed even more as that thought combined with the earlier ones to create some sort of sick Frankenpony monster that rambled through her head just long enough to turn her chest and ears beet red. Before she could continue, Lero preempted her. "You have been tense, irritable and just downright unhappy since we got here, Twi. Come here." "B-b-" she stammered as the thoughts of 'mate' and 'father' ran around in her head. He must have hit some sort of buried instinct, he must have! "Twi, please." His eyes softened and his voice lowered and Twilight was once more looking at the stal-the man she loved. The ghost of her father - who was quite alive but still strangely in the room with them in spirit - cantered happily back into her memories and left her with only her now aching wings and a sad looking Lero. Slowly, as if a sudden move might cause him to bolt, Twilight stepped up onto the lounge next to him and laid her head upon his lap. With one hand caressing her mane and another rubbing her ear, Twilight found her heart beat slowly calm from the staccato rhythm it had been trying before. "Now, I know you had huge plans - I did too. But not everything goes to plan. All we can do is make the best of the situation. What were your plans if we got snowed in?" "Uh, bu - uhm, well ..." That night, any wandering pegasus was arrested for 'indecency against the crown.' The reporters grumbled and gossiped until they packed their things and left in a flurry of white powder and scrap paper. Drawn curtains and no royals in sight were not a good story for the local papers. The remainder of the weekend was spent very well by the two lovers, snowed in as they were by curiosity and gossip.