//------------------------------//
// 7 - Boardwalk 
// Story: A Summer for Couples 
// by BlackWater 
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Shining Armor awoke with a groan. He knew it was very late in the morning because the sun shone maniacally through their bedroom window wall. It had a massive curtain that could be dragged from either side, but neither of them had closed it before going to bed. And they sure as Tartarus weren't going to get up to close it right that second.
The bed felt just as nice as it had the previous night. Resort staff had obviously cleaned the sheets because they hadn't lost a molecule of freshness. Not that he payed that close attention to their smell. His face was currently pressed into his wife's neck. That was where he had last left it. Probably. She was criminally soft, so he didn't pursue the point.
“What time is it?” Cadance mumbled groggily with eyes closed.
“Do you care?” he asked in reply.
Her answer was non-hesitant. “Not one bit.”
Shining yawned and pulled himself away from her so that he could stretch. His body was too rested to sleep any more. “I think it's time for breakfast...or lunch...it's time for a meal. That's what I'm trying to say.”
Cadance's pink coat and feathers made a pleasant accent to the snow white sheets and pillows. Shining felt too much like he blended in. He wasn't trying to camouflage himself. It reminded him of a particular incident in his youth involving a pillow fight with a miniature Twilight Sparkle. Cadance had taken the filly's side in the war.
The pink alicorn princess gave a disappointed moan due to his removed warmth. She somehow managed to convince her sleepy body to roll over onto him. “Yeah, I could eat,” she told him from her new position above, her eyes finally half open.
The slightly more awake husband blew upwards to get her messy mane out of his face. “If you get off, I can go into the lounge and order us some food.”
“Will you feed me once we get it?”
Shining gave a short chuckle and cocked a brow. “Why? Are your hooves broken?”
She smiled but laid her head down across his chest. “Yeah, I think they are.”
“No problem,” he patted her back. “I can spoon feed my poor little princess.”
“No,” she denied. “No spoon. Mouth to mouth.”
The stallion finally laughed and proceeded to dump her off of himself. She rolled across the mattress and cocooned herself in the sheets while in the process. He got himself out of bed and started towards the door to the lounge. “That's embarrassing even when we're alone,” he commented.
“Hey, Shiny!” Cadance called to him from her self made prison of sheets. “Look!”
Shining turned back for a moment to look. What he saw was all of the sheets tightly wound around his wife. Only her pink head and multi-hued mane were stuck out of one end. Her tail was sticking out the other side.
“I'm a love burrito,” she said with half-lidded eyes and in an entirely serious mood.
Prince Shining Armor facehoofed.









The food was served to them by a resort employee who arrived ridiculously fast after Shining had placed their meal order. They both expressed their thanks and Cadance prevented her husband from tasting any of the delicious-looking food before the employee left. The meal choice itself was Shining's idea. It was an exotic dish they had once tried and liked, though neither could remember the foreign country where it came from. It had a bizarre name.
They were alone again, both seated at the lounge counter. The hot food sat before them on two plates. Somehow, Shining Armor guessed the plate separation would hardly be relevant. Cadance was looking to him expectantly and was obviously under the impression that the food conveyance method was still on.
“Mouth to mouth,” she repeated. It wasn't necessary.
“I know,” he sighed in relent.
To make things easy, she was seated on his side of the counter and already had her mouth slightly open. It unnerved him a bit even though they were married. No matter how much he had kissed those irresistible lips, the idea of transferring food that way just made his face burn red. She had meant for him to use only his teeth to hold the food, so it was hardly a stomach-turning method. The crisped apple slices wouldn't even really be touching his mouth...
He turned to the plate. The specially prepared circular apple slices were laughing at him. At least they seemed to be laughing at him. They were making fun of him because he couldn't do something that should have been far less embarrassing than a hundred things he had already done with his wife.
Cadance kept her expectant if patient look and he leaned down to the plate to oblige her. Careful not to touch the slice with his mouth and only grab it with his teeth, he took the closest one. This was the easy part. Now came the hard part. He had to get in her face as if they were kissing...only transferring an apple slice instead.
He had once played a party game like this. It had been at one of Twilight's birthdays. The young filly had insisted they play and he only suspected afterwards that his little sister had planned the whole thing as a romantic setup for him and Cadance. He tried not to remember her creepy scheming laugh again.
Was he sweating? His focus was wobbly and his heart was pounding. More than anything else, it was probably due to the fact that he wasn't practiced at this. They had kissed so many times that he was confident in it - perhaps even arrogantly so. But he was now feeling the nervousness of their first kiss. What if he messed up? He'd feel so ashamed.
Their faces were nearly touching nose-to-nose. He angled his mouth slightly upwards and felt a vague tug. The piece of apple had been grabbed and was in her mouth now. She munched and swallowed as if it were the most casual thing on the planet. They backed away from each other again.
“Thanks, honey,” she beamed. “But you don't have to do that again. I had no idea it would make you freak out like that.”
His face still felt hot. “Sorry,” he mumbled almost incoherently.
“For what?” she almost moaned the question. “For being adorable?”
Shining Armor gulped and fidgeted his forehooves together. He couldn't take it any more and so dove his attention into their meal, eating it normally. It was delicious and especially so because it gave him a distraction from his own embarrassment. It had been a while since he had this kind of food. The exotic seasoning was savory, making his mouth water up for the next bite.
Cadance did the same, though it was hard for her to come down from her emotional high. She stared at her husband while she ate. There was no need to remind herself how much she loved him and certainly no need to avoid eye contact like some shy filly with a crush. She loved him and he knew it. Perhaps some would call it redundant, but she never did. Love was a part of her cutie mark - her destined talent. She never grew bored of it, just as she never grew bored of looking at her stallion.
“Something on my face?” he finally asked with a half-full mouth.
“Yeah,” she stuck out her tongue after she finished her meal. “You.”
“Ha ha,” Shining faked a laugh. “What did you want to do today?”
The mare closed her eyes for a second in concentration. “Didn't you owe me something from yesterday...?”
The blue-maned prince scrunched his face up. He didn't remember anything like that. “I don't-”
“Ice cream!” Cadance almost shouted upon recollection. Her eyes shot open and she leaned over to her husband. “You owe me ice cream!”
Shining looked one way and then the other for the missing punchline. “For what, honey? Did I lose a bet or something?”
She flicked his horn with her forehoof.
“Ow,” he flinched.
“You're supposed to butter me up with ice cream. That's how you win a girl's heart,” she lectured.
“By buying ice cream?” he doubted.
“Yes.”
“But I already have your heart,” he argued. “And I can butter you up whenev-”
Cadance saved her reasoning by sticking her forehoof in his mouth. That quieted him. “How about we just take a leisurely stroll around the boardwalk and plaza. We can both have ice cream.”
He nodded from beneath her hoof. Just as she removed it, he gave the underside a quick kiss. It made her shudder due to the unexpectedness and, before they left the cottage, she managed to return the gesture.









They had parked the Hydro Star at the Beach 6 dock, which was packed with boats. The Plaza had everything from restaurants to a shopping center. A wooden boardwalk stretched out to the bay and had various vendor stands set up along it. A few sold ice cream, which was their first stop.
“Isn't it a little early for ice cream?” Shining Armor asked as they walked up to one of the small stands along the side of the over-the-water walkway.
“It's almost noon,” Cadance countered. “We need to spoil our lunch so we won't spend a bunch of money at one of those restaurants.”
“But everything is free for us,” he remarked.
Cadance stopped in her tracks, causing him to do the same. She pursed her lips. “Why do you keep killing my arguments? It's almost as if you're the smartest stallion in the world or something.”
Shining picked up on his wife's humor without even thinking about it, grinning in the process. He got closer to her so he could grab her and drag her towards the ice cream stand. “Let's just get your ice cream, my little arguer.”
There was a peach-coated unicorn at the stand wearing an apron. She smiled in that completely business-oriented manner, though a tick of nervousness wavered at the corners. She had noticed, after glancing a few times at the approaching couple, that they were the rulers of the Crystal Empire. No sweat. She just had to make this sale go flawlessly. Well, technically it wasn't a “sale” since the product was free for special guests such as them...
Shining Armor was foremost to the metal counter of the stand, his wife just a tad further back at his side. He glanced at the available flavors displayed on the counter beneath the glass topping. The initial exchange of “hello” had already been made and the sales mare was going into some talk about new flavors and top favorites.
Cadance smiled at her and decided that she rather liked the curly style of her orange mane. It was cute and it went well with her slightly freckled face. The blue apron didn't blend with her as well, but it was just typical business attire anyways. The unicorn mare's horn lit with an orange-yellow magic as she readied a pair of ice cream cones.
“Let's go with some fruit flavors for now,” Shining began as he finished scanning the options. “Real Strawberry and Tangerine Tangent. One scoop each.”
“R-right up,” the young mare confirmed in a slightly country voice.
Cadance looked to her stallion. “Which one do I get?”
“Whichever one you want,” he smiled. “I thought fruit would be lighter and keep us from any stomach aches before lunch.”
“Order,” the unicorn nervously blurted as she placed the finished cones on the counter top. Red and orange. Cadance had to admit that they looked delightful. Each scoop was perfectly round and perched atop each cone.
When Shining began to take them up in his blue levitation magic, the orange-yellow glow of the mare's almost didn't release in time. One of the cones nearly tipped the scoop onto the ground. Almost.
“S-sorry,” she practically teared up.
Cadance was first to reassure the girl. “It's okay, sweetie. Thank you very much for getting these for us.”
The mare nodded, apparently too embarrassed to reply.
The two royals walked away with their final thanks and Shining couldn't help but remark when they were out of earshot. “She sure was young. Summer job?”
“No doubt,” Cadance responded. “The poor girl. She looked ready to cry.”
“She'll be fine. It always cheers me up when you smile at me.”
They both walked side by side towards the end of the long wooden boardwalk. They got farther out over the water of the bay and the sea breeze continued to strengthen and freshen. The sun may have been high over their heads, but it wasn't as hot on the walkway as it was down on the beach. They both were careful to tend to their ice cream cones before any melted and drizzled down the sides.
“Mm,” Cadance hummed as she licked around the sides of the strawberry ice cream levitating in her grasp. “It's been a while since I've had some that wasn't artificial flavoring. There are real fruit pieces in this.”
“Good?” Shining asked as they slowed and stopped at the final edge of the boardwalk. They could look down to the deep water below.
Cadance hummed again to express her answer while her husband continued tending to his tangerine ice cream. At some point several licks later, she extended one of her wings to Shining's back. One of her hooves slid over to his as well.
“Are we going to walk down the beach or something?” she later asked, half done with her cone.
“I was thinking we'd walk around the shops first.”
That was when Cadance took first conscious notice of the number of ponies around the plaza. She looked back and saw what had to be at least a few hundred walking around the shopping plaza. Dozens were on the boardwalk, milling about and visiting some of the vendor carts. She was thankful she didn't recognize any of them. This was a vacation and she didn't want to go into any formalities.
“Your highnesses,” said a voice from her other side.
Cadance almost dropped her ice cream. She saw, upon turning to face the pony owning the voice, that her hope had been crushed. It only made sense that some of the ponies visiting the resort would be crystal ponies. Shining Armor was already handling the male subject.
The green-coated crystal pony bowed to the prince, who exchanged words with him and blessed him on his way. Whoever it was seemed very happy when he left, almost as if he had gotten an autograph from somepony famous.
Shining Armor shook his head. “I wonder if this is going to happen often,” he commented.
“I'll handle any mares if it happens again,” Cadance offered. “Thanks for deflecting that so quickly, by the way.”
“Yeah, but I don't think it's a skill I'm proud of,” he leaned in to peck her on the cheek. “Your ice cream is dripping.”
Cadance swung her head back sharply at the cone hovering just a hoof from her side. Any closer and it would have dripped on her feathers. “Oh, right,” she went back to finishing it.
An audible crunch was made when Shining bit into the cone, all ice cream depleted. There was a thin wrapper around the bottom that he removed so he could eat the rest of it. Said wrapper was caught in a sudden upturn of wind and escaped his low-level magic grip. Cadance went wide-eyed at first as the wrapper started out to sea and then grinned when she saw a pinch of magic alter its course. It twirled on the breeze and landed in a trash can on one side of the boardwalk.
“Score,” the stallion beamed to himself.
Cadance finished her snack and more carefully transported her wrapper to the can. “Come on, Shiny,” she beckoned. “We have ground to cover.”
The prince's heavy hooves made a beat against the wooden planks when he followed energetically after her. Cadance noticed, when they passed it the second time, that the ice cream stand they had gotten their snack from was now swamped with ponies. The young mare behind the counter was frantically providing for orders.
This was the time that Oxygen Rush had talked about when she mentioned the opening rush. There were unicorns, pegasi, Earth ponies, griffons, and mules about in great number and color. As the royal couple came down from the slightly raised level of the boardwalk, it was apparent that the streets were even more closely packed than they had seemed at a distance. Shining lead the way and had to almost squeeze them through to get to the other side.
The day seemed to get hotter due to all of the warm bodies and there was less breeze now that they were off the ocean and beach. Great cobblestone pathways made a spiderweb through the plaza and were obviously well worn from travelers treading upon them. In front of them, besides the many ponies, was a useful directory board. Others crowded around it and pointed at various points of interest.
“Should we just let ourselves be dragged around by the current?” Cadance laughed.
“I don't want to end up in a lingerie shop, thank you,” he joked back. Then he looked more seriously to the directory. “Second left will be a nice stroll around the plaza. It's the scenic route, so there aren't as many ponies there.”
His wife put in her agreement. She honestly hadn't meant to visit any place in particular. There was plenty enough time in their stay to go anywhere they wanted. It would probably be best to try the shops after the initial rush was over. That was how she reasoned it anyways.
Shining Armor shouldered his way through the crowd with his wife close behind. After breaking out of the thickest portions, they found their way onto the lesser-worn cobblestone path that circled around the plaza on the outside. It rose to an incline and they could see that it eventually got high enough in relation to the plaza to give a far-reaching view of it.
As they walked down the far less busy walkway, Cadance stretched her wing over Shining's back again. Side by side they strolled without a care in the world. Well, without any care besides each other, that is.