Chapter 5: Seapony Safari
Fluttershy zoomed through the cloud, disintegrating it. She then spiraled up and bucked another cloud into oblivion. She had to get this job done fast if she wanted to get to the beach early. She spun around a cloud, making it send its contents into all directions. She misjudged her spin and slammed into the side of a cloud, causing a shower of rain to fall down onto a small filly with a tiara in her mane.
"Oh dear, I'm so sorry!" Fluttershy called down
She didn't have time to hear the fillies response, so she shot away and cleared away the rest of the clouds. After the last cloud dissapeared from the sunny sky, Fluttershy flew towards her cottage. She opened the door and cantered into her house. She headed into her room and pulled out a large bag. Angel hopped through the doorway and jumped up to examine the bag.
"Oh, hello Angel." Fluttershy said, "Can you find me my binoculars please?"
The bunny gave her a scowl and crossed his small arms in defiance.
"H-huh? You won't?" Fluttershy was shocked.
"Why am I shocked? He's always this stubborn." she thought to herself, regaining her composure.
"Pretty pleeeease." she said, batting her eyelashes.
When he continued to ignore her, she added, "If you do, there'll be an extra carrot in it for you."
He perked his ears and hopped away. A moment passed and he returned with the pair of binoculars. Fluttershy grabbed them in her mouth and then carefully placed them into her camouflaged saddle bags.
"Thank you Angel." she said while grabbing a carrot and dropping it in the bunnies outstretched arms.
"Alright, I just need to grab some water bottles and then I can head to the beach." she thought to herself
Fluttershy walked into her kitchen and pulled out a pitcher of sunned tea. She pulled out a aluminum water bottle and began pouring the tea into it. When the bottle was full, Fluttershy capped it and placed it in her saddlebags.
"All set!" she said happily as she slipped the leather bags onto her back.
And with that she headed out of her cottage, towards the beach.
Syren was at her house, lying on her bed. Jet was sprawled out on the bed, sleeping soundly next to her. She was staring at the ceiling of her room, looking at the Blue October poster above her. She was imagining one of their songs. One of her favorites. She got up and swam to a shelf filled with records. She slowly skimmed through them until she found the one she was looking for. She slid it out and blew of the soft sand that had accumulated on it.
Syren took the record and placed it into the slot on a nearby gramophone. She wound the box up and placed the needle on the record, the point fitting into the grooves on the disc. Sound began to escape the speaker at the top. She swam onto her bed and stood on it with all fours. Jet opened one of his eyes at the disturbance. He irritatingly got off the bed and swam to the floor, curling up into a small, brown pancake. The intro came to a close and Syren began to sing along with the copy in the record.
"I'm just a normal colt
That sank when I fell overboard
My ship would leave the country
But I'd rather swim ashore
Without a life vest I'd be stuck again
Wish I was much more masculine
Maybe then I could learn to swim
Like 'fourteen miles away'
Now floating up and down
I spin, colliding into sound
Like whales beneath me diving down
I'm sinking to the bottom of my
Everything that freaks me out
The lighthouse beam has just run out
I'm cold as cold as cold can be
Be..."
Syren took a deep breath as she prepared to project the chorus as loud as she could.
"I want to swim away but don't know how
Sometimes it feels just like I'm fallin' in the ocean
Let the waves up take me down
Let the hurricane set in motion, yeah
Let the rain of what I feel right now, come down
Let the rain come down..."
She pretended she was holding a microphone in one of her hooves. Her face scrunched up from the concentration she was putting into the words. She always sang like this when she had something stuck on her mind. In this case, it was Ray.
"What am I supposed to do? How can I impress him? Should I ask him of we can hang out some time, or let him make the first move? What if he doesn't make the first move?!" these questions raced through her head all at once.
Without realizing it, her vocal cords and mouth had gone onto autopilot, and continued singing the song perfectly while she thought about her crush. She pulled herself out of her thoughts and began singing the end of the song.
This was Syren's favorite part. In the background, a mare began quietly whispering "into the ocean, end it all". She always loved to whisper along with her while the main singer continued on. While some would think that this would be unsettling or a sign of instability, Syren finds a strange calm when she sings this part. Like a strange nirvana.
"Into the ocean, end it all.
Into the ocean, end it all.
Into the ocean, end it all.
Into the ocean, end it all..."
She sang these last parts as her mother opened the door to her room. Jet opened his eyes and began swishing his tail in happiness.
"Syren, can you keep the singing on the low volume setting? I can hear you all the way in the kitchen." Remora said with a small frown
"Sorry Mom. I'm actually done now, so you won't be hearing any more singing for the day."
"Glad to hear it!" she replied with a smile. Syren's mother then turned and left the room.
Syren sighed as she swam over to the gramophone and pulled the needle off of the disk. Jet looked at her in curiosity. She turned to her pet Batray and gave him a weary smile
"C'mon. Let's head to the shore."
She swam out of her room towards the front door of the pod, as Jet loyally followed.
Syren called out to her mother, "Hey Mom! I'm heading out to meet up with Ripple! I'll be back in a little while!"
Before her mother could answer, Syren was already out the door. She swam around the house and headed of towards the shore.
(Song is Into the Ocean by Blue October)
Fluttershy stared intently at the shoreline. It had been a few days since she'd began her reconnaissance of the beach, searching for the Seapony she'd seen. She was beginning to lose hope that it would return.
She pulled out her bottle and unscrewed the lid. She then took a sip of the plain water inside. She hadn't bothered to make any sunned tea. She was to preoccupied with her current task.
After downing the water, Fluttershy returned to her binoculars. She skimmed the shoreline, looking for anything that might be a Seapony. She particularly observed the rock where she had first seen the Seapony.
Fluttershy's stomach growled, and the yellow Pegasus responded by reaching over to her saddlebag and pulling out a sandwich and a small parfait. She delicately unwrapped the sandwich. Out of habit, she glanced around her, to make sure nopony was around. If somepony was around then she would have to not do that thing that she does.
Satisfied that nopony was around, she opened her mouth and brought the sandwich forward.
"Ohm nom nom..." Fluttershy hummed to herself as she chewed on her sandwich.
"If anypony finds out that I make that sound when I eat, they'll probably laugh at me! Or shun me! Or laugh at me and shun me!! Eeeeep!!!" she thought to herself as she continued to "nom" on her food.
She was about to eat her parfait for desert, when something caught her eye. A bit of blue appeared around the rock near the shoreline.
Fluttershy slowly sat the parfait down and crept out from the tree line she'd been spying in. As she quietly made her way to the rock, she began to hear a voice from the other side of it. It sounded female. It had a very prideful yet caring edge to it. Like Rarity's voice, only without the formality.
Fluttershy reached the edge of the rock and peered around the edge. She almost gasped at what she saw. A pony was sitting in the water. She appeared to be murmuring to a brown animal in the water.
"Oh my goodness! Is that a Batray? I've only seen those in books!" Fluttershy thought as she continued to stare at the pony.
Fluttershy couldn't completely make out the ponies complexion because of how she was looking at her out of her peripheral vision. The only way to get a good look at the pony was to step out into the open. She didn't have much choice. Fluttershy silently inhaled and then stepped out from behind the rock.
"Um, Hello."
The pony in the water tensed at the sound of Fluttershy's voice. She slowly turned and revealed her face to the Pegasus. Fluttershy, again, could barely contain a gasp.
At first, Fluttershy thought that this pony was just a regular pony, randomly sitting in a small tide pool chatting with batrays. But upon closer inspection, she saw that this was no ordinary pony. Rather than having a deep blue coat of fur, her entire body was covered in scales. Her long turquoise hair was still wet from the sea water. Mossy green eyes stared at Fluttershy in shock. Fluttershy saw that the mare had a cutie mark of a music note. A fish tail covered the lower half of the mare's body. It curled around her as she sat in the tide pool._
Fluttershy noticed the fear and shock of her sudden appearance.
"It's okay. I'm not here to hurt you." she said calmly and soothingly.
"I didn't expect you to in the first place." said the...Seapony.
Fluttershy was caught off guard by the response of the mare.
"Um, my name's Fluttershy." she said somewhat awkwardly
The Seapony was still in shock, but was relaxing slightly, "Uh, hi. I'm...Syren."
"Syren, it's nice to meet you." Fluttershy extended her hoof so they could shake.
When Syren didn't shake, Fluttershy placed her hoof on the ground and said, "Um, not to be rude or anything, but, what are you?"
Syren looked like she didn't know how to respond, like something or somepony was stopping her.
"I'm, uhhhh..." she sighed, "I'm a Capricorn."
Oh! Here we go! This is where the drama and character developement begins!
I felt that there needed to be a space at the bottom of a chapter for some author notes, so I'm going to be doing that from now on.
Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I've been pissing around on other stuff for a while and my ADD is keeping me from getting back onto writing these chapters. I'll try my best to get these chapters out ASAP.
Also, I'm looking for an editor for this and possibly other stories. If you're interested, PM me!
Thnx 4 Reading!!!! Arigato!