Her mission was simple. Very simple. They were going to make their first move, but if word got back to America too quickly, they'd do what humans did best, tear things up. So... "Hello," greeted Cozy Glow in her new and improved form, sitting down right beside a sunning human. They were overweight. She was bipedal too, making it easy to tell that the human was far more pear shaped than her hourglass.

Grogar had mentioned that this was a common feature, not that she needed his input on that. Her time with Chrysalis had let her get a good look at humanity. "Nice day, huh?" The man glanced over her way, just to doubletake. He liked what he saw.

But he was also scared of it. Cozy wasn't human. Nocreature would make that mistake. But he was also just scared. He wasn't expecting the attention. "This is a relaxed place," she assured with a little smile. "We're all here to enjoy the sun, aren't we?" She was sure if she held his attention long enough, he'd get right over that. "Say, how did you get here?"

"Get here?" A moment of confusion. "Oh! I flew, on a plane? How did you get here?" His eyes drifted down her side towards her legs and back up again. "Are you, uh... Did you swim?"

She actually had. Her body was quite athletically sound, a feature she was fine with. "Oh, you know us creatures. We love being... active. But there's something only a fellow finger haver can help with."

"Yeah?" His attention was captured, but he looked a bit lost. "You need help with sunscreen?"

"See, you're a smart one!" Cozy clapped her new hands as she rolled slowly to her belly, exposing her back to view. "If you could?" She was not the light pink of the more sun vulnerable humans. Heck, she had kept her original color, meaning her skin and fur were a delightful pink shade, at least if you asked her. Her curly hair was a bright arctic blue. She was a creature, that meant a much wider palette option than humans had to pick from.

All that meant that, technically, she had defense enough from casual sun exposure, not that the Equestrian sun was especially savage unless weather ponies were doing their job especially poorly. None of that ultimately mattered. She was ensnaring that man. Not by seduction. She wasn't Chrysalis. But the more time he thought of her and looked at her, the more his mind began to circle on that track, creating a rut in his mind that he rolled along without a thought. She was becoming the center of his little universe.

Not that she didn't deserve it.

"Learning to swim is easy." Easy for Swift to say, being naturally a water creature. But she had reason for confidence as she led Mike along.

He was propelling himself along, not as quickly as she could with her dolphin-like tail, but he was doing it. "Most people don't have a floatie they personally like."

She burst into giggles at that idea. "I'm reduced to a floatie? Not sure I can take that." She nestled in close for a hug without getting in the way of his treading legs. "But I am so proud of you. You're doing it!"

"I'm not an expert," Mike got out quickly, as if scared Swift would dart away, assuming he had learned all he needed to learn. "And we are still very far away from the beach."

"Mike," she sighed out. "We're not that far." She looked off at the shore. It wasn't far... for her. She could get back to land in barely a moment with some effort. Mike, on the other hand, would be hard pressed. It was a scary place to be, but he did trust her. "I won't let you get hurt, you know that." With no parental figures in sight, she snuck a quick peck on his cheek, giggling. "C'mon!"

But he didn't go for more swimming, instead grabbing hold of her, not in any amorous way, but more as a portable raft that happened to talk. "T-thanks for showing me how, but--"

"--ugh, fine." She rolled her eyes as she began swaying her tail, propelling them both back towards the beach. "Still proud of you. Told you you could swim."

And so ended Mike's first adventure into sea water.

"Really?" Fluttershy inclined her head a little. "That is quite rude of them."

"A flounder muscling in on that squid's turf?" Discord leaned over from the other side of the conversation. "Haven't found a thing over here. All the creatures here seem to be having a good time." He threw out his hands, confetti going with it in a display Pinkie would have approved of. "Not a sour face to be seen."

Fluttershy inclined an ear at her quirky friend. "Oh, no. A squid would probably eat a flounder they didn't like." Said as if that was just a normal part of life. She pointed to the bobbing squid. "He was just saying that a lot of his friends are being bothered, out there." Her hoof went past the squid, indicating the depths beyond it. "Something's kicking up the sand and making noise out there."

Discord shrugged at the idea. "One of those human things? Making noise and kicking up dirt are two of their specialties. I swear, they are specially crafted to do those things."

Fluttershy set a hoof under her chin. "Do you think maybe that's what we're here to fix? They aren't the best at understanding animal needs."

Discord suddenly tickled at Fluttershy along both sides of her ribs. "As if ponies are that much better."

She wriggled with a squeal, slipping away with a snort. "Stop that!" she laughed out, not looking that offended in the end. "Some ponies are better than others." She turned the same hoof on herself. "I'm a pony, are you saying I'm not good with animals?"

"Perish the thought." He put a hand to his heart, looking pained at the very idea of it. "Still, if we're talking about all ponies, how much better are they?"

"Hm." Just like that, Fluttershy set that particular thought aside to instead look at her new squid friend. "Oh? Of course. Thank you very much." The squid darted back into the depths, lost to sight instantly. "He got nervous being this close to land. That was very brave of him."

Discord shrugged a bit dramatically. "You would have rescued him if anything happened."

"I certainly would have tried." Fluttershy nodded in easy agreement. "But he only just met me. Besides, he shared what he knew and I am thankful. No reason for him to be uncomfortable."

"You are too pure." He pinched her closest cheek. "But, alright, you've scored more of a lead than I have. Do we need a submarine?"

Fluttershy blinked slowly. "I don't know where to get one of those..."

Discord's expression went flat. "Fluttershy, dear friend. Are you forgetting who you're talking to?"

He couldn't just turn off his brain. How did people do it? He'd read about it, the idea, the concept of the vacation. Still, there he was in flip flops, a colorful drink in hand, and worries still on his mind. What had Chrysalis come for, where was she, why was she? Not the question one normally asked of people, but she had been sentenced to death, so her even being a thing was alarming all on its own.

And it was making his vacation difficult. He kept looking for her, expecting any creature he saw could also be a changeling. Much like him, really. But he was perfectly nice as changelings went. From what he'd heard, a lot of changelings had gone nice. Pity that didn't include Chrysalis. "You look lost."

Paul was stirred from his thoughts at the voice. A woman stood before him. Not a human. Very far from a human. She was... What was she? Not any species of creature he knew. "Lost in thought. Was I in the way?" He didn't think he was.

"No no." She walked past him, close, touching close. "You're just fine. Enjoying the beach?" She put a finger on his glass, running it along the rim slowly. Though she had fur in places, like stripes or bands, her fingers were entirely smooth, causing the glass to ring out as she rubbed it. "You look super tense."

Paul sagged a little at that. "That obvious?"

"Golly, yes." Cozy leaned in all the closer. "Why don't you come over here and sit down. I'll work that out of you."

For perhaps the average male vacationer, an appealing offer. For Paul, a dozen alarms began ringing at once. "You run a massage service?"

Cozy smiled easily at the former president that never was. "I'm an old hand." Not that her hands were very old. She had just gotten them! Relatively speaking. There was something about that human. He was hiding something? She had no idea what, but the fact that something was being hidden from her nagged at her. She had to know! "We're both just trying to relax. All these happy people, you don't want to stand out."

Was he that ragged looking? Maybe he was being overly cautious, driven to paranoia. He was on vacation! Relaxing was literally the point. "Tell... you what. If that offer's still on the table, sure." Was she looking for an easy hit, perhaps to pick his pocket when he was distracted?

It hadn't even occurred to him that maybe she was interested in him, as a person. He was a middle aged man of no special appearance. It wasn't like he was some famous ex president or anything... That lack of knowing why only had him more on edge.

"Ma'am." Oh, one of the Secret Service had arrived. They were interrogating Cozy Glow without prompting, and without 'no' being much of an option. Well... that answered that. It was, perhaps, for the best. Paul went to get a snack instead. He didn't have any achey joints in that desperate a need of massage anyway.

He did not know the serviceman's arrival had saved him, nor that it had doomed the same man.

"Hey!" A man raised a hand, waving Paul over. "I didn't think I'd see you again." It clicked, Paul remembered the man, and the hippogriff seated beside him. The parents of Swift. "Just recognized us?" laughed Tim, offering a hand in greetings. "Join us, Paul. Vacation's better with some company."

Tim's invitation seemed so much less alarming than what Cozy had been offering. They were a family, not a random lone predator. He had nothing to fear there. "Nice to see you off the plane." But it wasn't just the two of them. Another hippogriff was there. "You already made a friend?"

"I'm Mobile Coral," introduced Tim's wife. "And this--" She wrapped an arm around the other hippogriff. "--is Head Stream."

Head nodded at Paul. "Hey." She flickered a few fingers at the beach. "Running around out there are our kids, enjoying things. I have a husband, hippo like me, but he's lost right now." A little smirk grew. "He's enjoying the beach just as much as they are."

Paul liked this group more by the moment. They were harmless. "I didn't expect to run into familiar faces." Not that he sounded remotely upset about it. Still... "Hey, since I have you, I'm kinda new at the vacation 'thing'."

Mobile gasped with horror. "Are you stuck in work mode? Head!" She began shaking head at the shoulders. "You're not alone!"

Head rolled her eyes dramatically. "Welcome to the club. But I'm trying. Sit with us and just... exist. If you think about more than existing, you messed up, so take a step back and come at it again."

Just exist? That was not a state Paul was used to. But with the warm encouragement of his friends, perhaps he could try.

Author's Note

Mobile's social circle is entirely too pure for this world. What is that Cozy up to?

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