Zipp headed to the pool area, settling down on a chair beside her sister. "Hey."

Pipp looked up from her magazine, hooves holding it over her face. "You look frazzled! What happened?" Her sunglasses slipped to reveal her expression of concern. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Zipp worked back into the lawn chair as she pulled out her notebook. "I was just trying to work through this case."

Pipp swatted at Zipp. "This is a vacation, remember? You don't have to work, especially on something like this." She shook her head. "You're always trying to solve something."

Zipp nodded along. "I know, I know. How are you doing, sis?"

Pipp pulled out her phone and started swiping through images. "Glad you asked! I am getting so many pictures of me doing interesting things. I love it, and the Pippsqueaks are too! Double-win!"

Zipp leaned over to look. "Nice shots! Looking good, sis. Any good ones of the ocean?"

"Naturally." Pipp paged to one image, and another, until she found it. "There. See? Great shot."

Zipp clopped her hooves together. "What do you plan on doing next? The rate you're going, you'll hit up the whole ship pretty fast."

Pipp shrugged, pulling down her glasses. "Then I'll just have to make the most of it. You should join me, it's more fun with more ponies."

"I know." Zipp looked around, watching other ponies enjoying the warm day by lounging on deck chairs or playing easy games there on the deck. Some were swimming, but all were smiling. "Maybe I am working a bit hard right now. But it'll help later."

Pipp put her phone aside to regard Zipp. "You are super good at your work. And you don't even have to work right now." She held her hoof out. "You do that all the time! This is relax time. Put your hooves up."

Zipp lifted her hooves up. "You make a strong case."

"I know!" Pipp gestured behind her with a hoof. "I've already taken some great photos with Comforting, she's so photogenic!"

Zipp snorted at that. "Really? I mean, she's nice and all, but not what I'd call 'traditionally pretty', you know? No offense, I still like her." She held her hooves up quickly. "How did the photos look?"

"Just look." Pipp held the phone out so Zipp could see. "Okay, I had to do a lot of work, but we got there, right?"

Most of them were a bit heavy in filters and decal emojis, but they were still pictures of Pipp and Comforting at various points of the ship, smiling or making faces at the camera. Zipp paged through them. "Oh, wow. Okay, you are a good photographer. And you look so happy."

"Thank you, thank you!" Pipp hugged her phone close. "And I want you to be just as happy, Sis. Tell you what, how about I take a picture of us, right here? Come on, get into the sun, you'll love it."

Zipp rolled her eyes. "Sneaky! You know I'm not big into—" Pipp's camera flashed, interrupting her speech in favor of taking a picture. "Sis!"

Zipp trotted closer to lean beside Pipp. "Here, a better one. Don't you dare take it before I'm ready."

Pipp waggled her phone. "Okay, you get three." She clicked a fresh pic the moment Zipp stilled herself. "There, look." She flipped her phone to show it off. "You look fabulous! You're glowing in the sun."

Zipp regarded the image a moment. "Maybe I do." She smiled at Pipp. "I'll still probably keep up with a little work."

Pipp groaned softly, but relented. "You do you. But this ship was made for relaxing. Even Allura's getting into the groove, slowly. You should be too!"

Zipp nodded. "That's fair." She leaned against Pipp. "Hey, thanks Sis. I'm glad you convinced me to come along."

"You are super welcome! I'm glad you came too." She leaned back against Zipp. "Don't worry, I have plenty to keep us busy."

Elsewhere on the ship, Comforting casually plucked up a pony. Fortunately, that pony was alright with her doing that. "Where are we going?" he did ask, dangling from her grip as she walked off with him.

"This has been fun and all." She smooched the top of Toots' head. "But I need to decompress in relative quiet a bit. I don't do well with crowds for long periods of time."

"You do?" He rubbed his chin. "You always seem like you're okay with any social situation thrown at you."

She stopped at the edge of the boat, looking out into the waves, which she greeted by raising her free hand as if it could wave back at her. The way water crashed just then, perhaps it had. "I didn't say I was antisocial. I love talking with people, but all good things have their limits. A pony can hurt themselves breathing too much."

Toots considered that a moment. "That sounds about right. It doesn't help I'm not good with crowds. So, just a nice, quiet, private time?"

"Exactly." She put her hand on the railing and peered over the edge. "Just one pony, my favorite." She lashed her tail over to brush against him. "If you don't mind."

Toots laughed. "Of course I don't! But I'm just a regular little earth pony. What's so special about me?"

"You." She set him down, hugging him from behind and lifting him up to rest in her hooves again. She snuggled him aggressively, as if he were an agreeable plush doll. "My special, wonderful, amazing, fabulous, adorable pony."

He squirmed gently in her grip, laughing. "Flatterer!" He hugged her hooves and snuggled back against her. "But I'm all yours."

"And I'm yours, that's the deal." She pressed the side of her face to his, both looking out over the water. "This has been a nice trip, hasn't it? Just a nice cruise to nowhere important. No big threats, no danger, just ponies."

He nodded along. "I like that. I'm glad you let me come along." He lifted an ear. "There was that one threat, but you all handled it pretty well. How's that, um, Allura was it? How's she doing now? Better?"

Comforting bobbed her head slightly. "Much. I gave her some hope she can get home." She smiled warmly. "I can take her home whenever." She smirked faintly. "But I won't. If I start fixing everycreature's problems for them, it'll become assumed really fast. Got a problem? Hit up Comforting. That's no way to encourage my friends to be their best selves."

"I get it, but isn't she kind of an enemy?" He pointed out with a tilt of his head. "Should you be giving enemies hope?"

"She's more like a desperate lost cat." Comforting rubbed Toots' belly slowly. "I can't work up the proper ire at her a true enemy deserves. Maybe it's unfair of me, but she's cute, and also lost. I feel bad for her more than I feel bad things about her."

He reached out. "I see." He stroked along her arm. "But you'll stop her from causing problems, right?"

"Of course." She flexed the arm he wasn't rubbing, watching the muscle shift. "But I have faith she won't cause trouble. We have a deal, and she's having a decent enough time. Even oversized kitties like relaxing when they feel safe."

He looked back out at the water. "I guess. I'm still not sure how to feel about all of it, but I trust your judgement. You're pretty wise, after all." He rubbed over her chest. Like most ponies, that was just another part of her with no special meaning, but the affection was clear.

She threw her head towards the inside of the ship. "Shall we retire for the moment? I could use some private snuggle time. I think I need to recharge a little."

He laughed softly and nodded. "Sure! I could use a little of that too." He nuzzled her chest. "So, take me away, big pony!"

Amber saw them going past and waved, but let them go. They looked like they had something on their minds, and interrupting the happy couple felt rude. She turned to Misty. "Did you see Comforting and Toots? Isn't it nice of them to invite us on this trip? This is their special getaway, but they still scooped up their friends."

Misty nodded slowly, looking them both over. "They seem happy together." She closed her eyes a moment. "More to life than books, after all. Even my favorites. Friends are better company."

"Right?" Amber leaned in against Misty. "Are you having fun? Anything you wanna try?"

Misty considered that. "Well, we could visit the pool area again, there are some interesting things going on there."

Amber brightened up at the suggestion. "Sure!" She pointed the way forward. "Onwards, to water games!" She got up to lead Misty down the hall. "I've heard the waterslide is really fun, we should give it a try. Do you like waterslides?"

Misty kept up easily with Amber. "Oh yeah! Izzy was talking about that. I want to give it a try. They have these floaties, you ever try one of those?"

Amber giggled. "A couple times, yeah. I've been swimming before. I don't get to do it often, though."

"Really?" Misty perked an eyebrow. "You live surrounded by water."

Amber huffed at that. "Misty, we were both born with the unicorns, in a forest. I didn't come to Maretime Bay until I was thoroughly an adult. I'm still getting used to having so much water everywhere all the time. It's a bit unnerving."

Misty nodded along. "I get it, it's new, but it's also awesome. I like it."

Amber smiled warmly. "That's fair."

The two emerged onto the deck near the pool. "Slide's still open." Amber pointed over to it, a pony coming down with a cheer and a splash once in a while. "Want in line?"

Misty watched a larger stallion slide down and flop into the pool. "I don't know." She bit her lip gently. "Wouldn't we get in the way?"

Amber bumped Misty forward. "No chickening out now. Besides, we're all in the way of each other. Just be polite about it. Come on!" She led by example, trotting towards the line for the slide. "I bet we'll make it to the front in just a few minutes. There's not a lot of ponies around."

Misty followed slowly, watching the line and its occupants. The other ponies were, for the most part, younger than either of the adult unicorns. Some of them were large, but most were small fillies and colts. "Maybe you're right."

They joined in at the end of the line, which was a series of colorful painted boxes and rails on the ship's deck. Amber pointed when somepony did an especially flashy splash into the pool. "Are you going to try for a grand entrance, or just a smooth dive down the slide?"

Misty blinked at the question. "I'm not sure. Is it better to be fancy or just get out of the way quickly?"

Amber shrugged. "Depends on what you wanna do, and if you have an audience to play to." She snickered gently. "You'll take about the same time, so don't worry about that. I think I'll go for a splash. I could use a cool-off, with all this sun beating down." She glanced up at the sky. "Not that I don't like it, but still hot."

"I'll go for a splash!" Misty lifted her legs up one at a time to inspect them. "Might make a mess."

"That's fine, Misty! Anypony near the pool knows they could get wet. Half the fun, really." With the energy lifted, Amber waited with Misty until it became their turn.

The attendant pony lifted a hoof to get Misty to wait until the previous pony was in the water. He then gave a nod. "Okay, go ahead, Miss. Have fun!"

Misty stepped forward, setting a hoof onto the slide itself. With a yelp, she fell down onto the side, squealing the whole way down and splashing into the pool below. Her mane floated out around her a little, but it was easy enough to straighten it out. She turned and waved. "You next!"

Amber settled onto the top of the slide. "Cannonball!" she shouted as she threw herself forward and curled into that ball the moment she was airborne. She hit the water with a great splash, sending water everywhere. A few seconds later she came up with a gasp. "Oh, that's great!" She brushed back her mane. "Want another run?"

Misty's head bobbed eagerly. "Yeah!"

Author's Note

Everypony's having a pretty great time out on the water! Ever been on a cruise? What was your favorite part?

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