//------------------------------// // Ch. 2 "Let's Try Again!" // Story: The Pond // by Belgian Waffle //------------------------------// “Thanks, and enjoy your day at the Pond.” Orchid Dew unenthusiastically waved off another park-goer before she used magic from her horn to move the now empty cardboard box from under the counter to the stacks of other empty cardboard boxes placed in the back corner of the booth that she was in. She then used magic to bring another box forward, but this box was full of plastic wristbands for the ponies to use in the park so workers can know who did and didn’t pay for admission to get in the park. She then looked up and saw a familiar group of ponies approaching the booth, obviously skipping the line and bringing an extra pony with them. She quickly placed her hoof near the silent alarm button, ready to call security again if they came back to do anything questionable. The group casually approached the ticket window, but went to the window next to Orchid Dew instead of the one she was currently at, which made her give a questioning look at them since that booth was reserved for ponies who pre-ordered tickets in advance. “Umm, if you collected enough bits to enter, you’ll have to wait in the line like everypony else,” Orchid said. Rainbow wore a sly smile on her face and chuckled. “Hehe, not unless you have these!” Rainbow placed the four tickets on the counter and slid it under the window. Orchid walked over to the other window and observed the tickets, then looked quizzically back at Rainbow. “Hey, how did you obtain these?” Rainbow pointed at the pink newcomer, who wore a big grin and waved back at Orchid. “She’s a friend of ours who had extra pre-ordered tickets that we could use. So if you wouldn’t mind, could we have our four wristbands?” Orchid looked at the group of ponies, then at the tickets. She shrugged and said, “Okay, here you go.” She levitated the wristbands into the air and snapped them onto one of all four ponies’ hooves. “Enjoy.” Rainbow gave an ear-to-ear grin towards the wristband attached around her hoof as her excitement peaked momentarily, then turned toward Orchid with her eyes closed before responding. “Thank you very kindly.” Rainbow then trotted off towards the gate like an uptight pony, and her company followed along behind her. Orchid shook her head before returning to her original window to attend to the next group of ponies in line. “Welcome to the Pond. How many ponies are with you today?” The group continued trotting through the front area of the park, taking in what they could while finding a spot to drop off their belongings. They passed by beautifully decorated wooden gift shop buildings themed to look like coastal surf shacks, the colorful exotic plants that adorned the gardens placed in certain parts of the park, and they bathed in the cool shading of the palm trees that were shading them from the intense sun shining from above. After a few minutes filled with referring to a park map twice, passing the same vendor three times, and arguing that they were going the wrong way and might be lost, they finally found a grassy place under a nice palm tree in the park to place their things. Applejack removed her saddlebags first. “Ah, much better! Well, I guess this is where I’ll be restin’. You girls have fun, I’ll stay here and watch the stuff.” Pinkie removed her saddlebags as well before looking at Applejack with a questioning look. “Aren’t you gonna go have fun Applejack?” “Nah, I came here to relax. I might soon join Fluttershy on that river thing she wants to try out, but for now, I’ll be restin’ here under the shade.” She looked up to the top of the palm tree that allowed a plentiful amount of shade and sunlight down as it swayed slowly in the warm day breeze. “Suit yourself, AJ,” said Rainbow Dash. “Rainboom here I come!” At those words, Rainbow flew off in a certain direction she believed to be the slide. “I hope you get plenty of rest Applejack, you deserve it!” Fluttershy sweetly told Applejack before heading off to find what she’s looking for. Pinkie simply smiled and waved before she removed her visor and dashed off to find a ride to get on, leaving Applejack alone at the palm tree with the saddlebags. Applejack walked to the bottom of the trunk, laid against it on her back in a position she found most comfortable, pulled her hat over her eyes, and rested there with her hooves crossed in front of her chest. Rainbow Dash stopped in front of a post that held an artist’s rendering of the layout of the park, so she could see where the entrance was to the water slide she was looking for. Once she traced her hoof to the exact location of her destination, she smiled and high tailed it towards the slide. Not long after, she gradually slowed to behold the view in front of her. Right in front of her stood one of the many amazing wonders of engineering in Equestria. In front of her stood a thing so terrifying, that it could send an Ursa Minor back to its mother in fear. In front of her stood a structure so tall that one must wonder how cold or windy it must be at the top. In front of her stood... THE RAINBOOM. Rainbow Dash took in the view as her excitement rose again. Her mouth stayed agape as she traced the long slender chute that formed one large L-shape that led from the sky in one long free-fall section to build up wicked speed, to the ground in a very long shutdown lane to allow riders to slow down from Celestia-knows how fast they would move. She also beheld the scary curvatures and spins of the yellow Filly Flashes turbo slides that wound in and out from under and beside the Rainboom. Rainbow couldn't wait any longer, so she made her way to the entrance. Her adrenaline kicked in when she saw the giant sign with a picture of a prismatic painting of a mushroom cloud and the words "RAINBOOM" and “FILLY FLASHES” spelled out in all capital letters on top of it. Next to the sign was a rack full of wing restraining vests for Pegasi to use. Knowing that such speed against water could damage her wings, she understood why they had them. She quickly found one in her size and started to slip it on. Just as she was zipping up her vest was when she looked down and saw a sign that hung from between the ride sign poles. What was written on it caused the pony to go wide eyed. It read ‘Closed for Maintenance.’ “Oh come on!” she yelled at the sign. She looked around her and caught site of a lifeguard pony staring in her general direction. He wore shades and had a flotation ring as a cutie mark. “Hey, what’s the meaning of this,” Rainbow yelled while pointing towards the sign in front of the line. “Both slides have had a leaky pipe ever since this morning,” he told her. “We’re trying to fix it as soon as possible ma’am.” “Well hurry up!” Rainbow retorted. “I can’t wait forever to ride this thing!” “Why not consider riding some of the other rides in the park?” “No way,” she responded wile waving her hooves in a fashion that emphasized the words. “I came all this way to be one of the first to ride the Rainboom, and that’s final. I’m not moving until the ride opens.” At those words, she parked herself in front of the entrance to the ride by sitting down and crossing her hooves across her chest. She was not going to move until the ride was fixed. The lifeguard stared at the stubborn pegasus a little. “Uhh, okay. Have fun with that.” He then walked away from the area. Pinkie Pie had wandered to the front-left side of the park where she saw a water slide that had caught her interest as she was entering the park earlier. It was a dark purple belly mat racer slide with 2 lanes that allowed sliders to race each other to the bottom. The two flumes were side-by-side, curving in and out of each other in left to right turns and helixes. Pinkie went to a basket to pick up her blue mat. She then spotted a familiar pony halfway up the stairs waiting in line before her. After she slung the wet mat over her back, she climbed the stairs to see if the pony really was who she thought it would be. “Vinyl Scratch, is that you?!” Pinkie asked when she reached the pony in line. The unicorn with a white coat and electric blue striped mane turned around to face Pinkie. She had ruby red eyes and a cutie mark that looked like two quavers (eighth-notes on a musical scale). When it finally dawned on the pony who was calling her name, she smiled. “Pinkie? Hey! Long time, no see! How’s it goin’?” “It’s going great!” the pink pony responded. “Wow, I never expected to meet you here! I haven’t seen you ever since the fashion show that came to Ponyville last year. It’s been a while!” “It sure has!” Vinyl said while chuckling. “I’ve been hearing a lot of things about Ponyville while I was on my last tour. Your town sure knows how to make some noise in Equestria.” Vinyl was referring to a tour she did in her career as a DJ with the nick name DJ Pon-3. She performed in cities like Manehattan, Canterlot, Fillydelphia, Las Pegasus, Cloudsdale (in a blimp), and many other smaller cities. She remembered about the magazines she would pick up along the way that would sometimes feature articles on abnormal occurrences from within Ponyville. Things like a mysterious pony that saved many ponies’ lives in a single day, half of the town’s ponies going crazy over an old stuffed animal due to a spell gone wrong, a giant wingless purple dragon that nearly destroyed the town, a stallion that lives in Ponyville has the strength to move a house, and a few other smaller stories. The DJ unicorn continued. “Every other city I’ve been to hasn’t had as much stuff happen to them like what’s been happening to Ponyville. They’re boring compared to your town, if you ask me.” Pinkie responded while the line progressed forward a little more. “It can get super-duper exciting at times, like whenever the princesses visit, but most other times we’re just a quiet itty-bitty town south-west of Canterlot!” “If you say so,” Vinyl responded. “So what made you want to come here to The Pond?” Pinkie asked. “Since I’m taking a break from touring, I thought I’d find something to do. I read about this place in a brochure, and I figured that I’d stop by to have some fun. These slides do look sick!” “Yeah, I can’t wait until we get on this one. It sure looks like a doozy!” Pinkie looked over the railing to examine the slide she was about to experience; taking note of the speed one could pick up on this slide. She couldn’t see the sliders though, due to it being a tunneled slide. Both proceeded closer and closer until they finally reached the top and were only a few riders short of getting on the slide. “Which side do you think is faster?” The electric blue mane pony asked. “The left side, or the right?” “I think they’re both the same,” the party pony responded. “Nah. One of them’s gotta be faster.” Vinyl looked over the edge to see if one of the flumes was faster than the other, even though it was hard to tell from their vantage point. Just then, Pinkie was hit with an idea. “Ow!” She exclaimed. “What’s wrong?” The unicorn asked, surprised at Pinkie’s outburst. “Oh, uhh, nothing,” she said while rubbing her head. “But I have an idea.” “Sure. Let’s hear it.” “What if we were to find out which side was really faster? Let’s say if one of us were to make it to the bottom first!” Pinkie smiled and side-glanced at Vinyl Scratch while repeatedly raising and lowering her eyebrows. Vinyl was confused as to why Pinkie was doing that with her eyebrows, until she understood what Pinkie was getting at. “Oh! So you wanna race huh?” A light between the two entrances to the tunnels flashed green, and then the two stallions in front of Pinkie and Vinyl dove head-first into the tunnels while whooping and yelling on their way down. Pinkie walked up to the starting platform for the slide, grabbed the mat off of her back and slid her hooves in between the handles of the mat. “Yep! Whadda-ya say?” Vinyl repeated what Pinkie did before she responded. “You’re on sister!” They both stared at the red light between the tunnel entrances, waiting for it to change. Both Vinyl and Pinkie had confident smirks on their faces, only Pinkie had a tongue sticking out the side of her mouth. The light turned yellow, and the two mares crouched down. “Let’s go!” After Vinyl’s words, the light turned green. Immediately, the two leapt head-first into the small flume and landed on their stomachs, with the rubber mat softening the land. They rushed forward faster than the cool flowing water, and were soon blinded as they were engulfed in pitch blackness. “Okay, so I’m here… no, wait… aha! Here I am. Now, I’m supposed to walk this way and soon I’ll end up… here. Oh, wait, there’s more than one way to get on it. Hmm… This entrance seems much closer. I’ll go there. Perfect!” Fluttershy tapped at her destination on the park map with a hoof before she started to trot towards the direction of where she believed to be the entrance to the lazy river. She was ecstatic to see if what she read about it was to be true. She had also grown accustomed to seeing the giant structure within the park that Rainbow Dash wanted to get on so badly; the Filly Flashes and the Rainboom. She simply told herself that it wasn’t going to do any harm to anypony that doesn’t go on it. As simple as that thought was, looking at the monster still sent small waves of goose bumps down her body. “There’s no way I’m going on that,” she thought to herself as she looked above the tree tops at the speed slides. She continued through the paths that she remembered the park map had showed. She spotted a small wooden bridge she had to cross and went to it. Once she was on it, she looked over the edge to behold what she had been looking for, which was a calm flowing river with an assortment of ponies treading the shoulder-deep waters or laying down on floating rafts shaped like doughnuts, allowing the water to carry them onward. She smiled at the site of ponies relaxing in the water, and rushed off of the bridge. She came around the corner and found her way to the entrance to the lazy river. “This is it,” she said to herself. “Oh how exciting!” She climbed down the steps to the river and sunk a hoof in, immediately retracting it with a yelp due to the water’s temperature. “Oh dear,” she said out loud. “It’s so cold!” She stood and pondered the question of why the water was so cold, and how the other ponies wading in it could relax at all. Before she knew it, Pinkie Pie reached the pool with a spectacular ending. She skidded across half of the pool thanks to her mat keeping her temporarily afloat, before she stopped completely and started to sink in the shallow water. Once she felt the floor of the pool and stood up, she looked to her left and saw Vinyl Scratch standing in the water and soaked completely with her mane covering half her face; which was the same thing with Pinkie. Both looked at each other with big grins on their faces before they both exclaimed, “That. Was. AWESOME!” Both mares’ first time on a water slide, and they loved it! The only question that needed to be answered was who made it to the end first. Both turned quickly to see a lifeguard pony at the end of the pool on a tall wooden chair with a flag strapped to each fore-hoof to represent which rider was the winner. He had the flag on his right hoof pointing towards Vinyl, showing that she made it to the end first. “Aww yeah!” Vinyl hoof-pumped into the air. “Number one baby!” Pinkie giggled at Vinyl while they both exited the pool. “Well, congrats Vinyl. Maybe your side really was faster… unless, we were to switch sides to see if yours really was faster!” “Oh, so you want a re-match, is that it?” “Sure, why not!” “Ok, Pinks! You’re on!” The two mares then quickly re-entered the line to have another round. Small pockets of sunlight were able to pierce through to the ground from in between the thick palm leaves adorning the top of the cabbage palm trees. The leaves rustled as they were forced west by the gentle summer breeze that breathed through the land. The scent of salt and chlorinated water moved through the air with it. Soft sand was mixed in with the grass at the bottom of the thick and hard trunks of the trees. The softness of the floor and the supporting strength of the trunks provided comfort for a certain worn earth pony, who laid back against a particularly lush palm tree with a Stetson hat that covered her face and her hooves crossed in front of her stomach. The orange mare’s chest slowly rose and deflated as she was lost in her blissful day slumber. Having worked hard in an apple field for the past few days, she was happy to have spent this day doing absolutely nothing. She simply napped under the shade of the palm trees with a smile worn on her face.