“Begone, sea demons!” I charged the seagulls and sent them scrambling into the air.
They shrieked at me, circling above as they eyed the hay fries somepony had dropped on the pier. Unfurling my wings to full mast, I hissed at them, but they refused to back down, diving the litter every so often for a snack.
“Leave the seagulls be, darling.” Sweetie’s sister followed me out, several baskets with towels, umbrellas, and all our beachly needs following her. She cast her gaze back to the others every so often as they ran about the nearby stalls, making sure nopony had wandered off.
“But it’s my duty! No litter shall remain on my watch!!” I risked lowering my defenses to pout at my chaperone for a moment.
The seagulls—sensing my moment of weakness—swarmed, working together to pick the pier clean. Not only did they snatch the scattered fries, but they took the basket and its contents off to the roof of a nearby shack.
“Greedy birdbrains…” I muttered, glowering at them as I folded my wings back.
“Last one in the water is a diamond tiara!” Scootaloo bolted past me so fast I spun.
“I resent that, you flightless dodo!” Diamond huffed from somewhere behind me.
“Hah! Is your brain already waterlogged, or can you just not think of better insults?” Scoots laughed. “I haven’t been flightless for ages! Watch this!”
“Scoots! That’s cheating! If you’re gonna do that, then first one in the water is totally a chicken!” Apple Bloom ran past with Sweetie Belle just as I came to a stop, sending me spinning off in the other direction.
“Guys!” I wailed while whirling.
“Come on, Night! You don’t want to be last, do you?!” Diamond rushed by, grabbing my hoof in hers and dragging me bodily onto the beach. “Thanks for sacrificing yourself, Silver!”
I glanced back to see Silver calmly walking up the pier, rolling her eyes. She waved me onwards, and stopped to talk with Rarity.
Yanked onto the beach, I stumbled through the sand with Diamond, and tried to take in the sparkling white ocean that was rapidly approaching. It washed against the light grey sands to leave dark, damp patches on the ground, and glistened with almost the same intensity of Princess Twilight Sparkle’s castle.
My new sunglasses could take it, but by the stars, it was bright.
I tried to dig my hooves into the sand as we hit the shallows. The vast expanse of white frothed at our pasterns, egging Diamond into an even faster gallop.
“Diamond! Let go! I don’t want to lose my—”
“Cannonball!” Diamond released my hoof to jump into the briney deep.
I skidded to a full stop before I could completely submerge, putting a hoof to my shades just in case. After a second, Diamond exploded from beneath the surface, shaking her head and flinging sparkling droplets of water everywhere.
“Night!” She turned back to me, huffing. “Why aren’t you jumping in? You don’t want to be last, do you?”
“I… uh… can’t go in the water with my sunglasses….” I shuffled from hoof to hoof and looked over my shoulder to see how far back Sweetie’s sister was. “They’re too easy to lose in the water, remember? I showed you my swimming goggles on the way here?”
“Oh, right….” Diamond smiled sheepishly.
“Oh, girls!~” Rarity singsonged as she and Silver casually sauntered across the beach like they owned it. Weaving through the ponies who were laughing and playing in the sand, they walked up to the edge of the shallows. “You forgot to grab your swimsuits!~”
“I don’t need no swimsuit!” Apple Bloom put her hoof down to create a sizable splash.
“Yeah!” Scootaloo did the same, starting a splash war between the two.
“But you must!” Rarity put a hoof to her forehead, swooning backwards. “I didn’t have to take you all with me to Santa Maneico for your Spring Break! I should be at the hotel right now, preparing for the Budding Fashion Extravaganza! I took all this time last week to get ready early for you, and even whipped you up some fabulous swimwear to boot! The least you could do is—” She looked down, pouting at us with big, puppy dog eyes. “—wear them.”
Scootaloo lowered her head halfway into the water and blew bubbles as she glowered at Rarity in response.
“Aww… come on, Scoots….” Bloom rolled her eyes. “No use in fightin’ it. She’s right. She didn’t have to bring us, and they can’t be that bad.”
“There better not be frills,” Scoots muttered, dragging herself from the water.
“You know Rarity wouldn’t do that!” Sweetie smiled.
I squirmed, looking at the several baskets being levitated in Rarity’s aura. “I guess a swimsuit won’t be that bad… as long as it’s not one of those ones that’ll have everypony looking at me. Where’d you put my goggles?”
“They’re right here with your swimsuit, darling.” Rarity levitated me a small bundle of fabric as I stepped out of the shallows. I could feel my goggles wrapped up in the fabric, and I flashed her a smile in thanks.
“Last one to the changing tent is a flightless dodo!” Diamond sent me spinning again as she cantered up to Rarity to get her swimsuit, stopping for just a second to stick her tongue out at the lagging Scootaloo.
“Hey!” Scoots launched into the air, grabbing her own suit and racing after Diamond.
I looked at the others, and they shrugged, starting a much more leisurely walk towards the changing tent. I followed, making sure to place myself between Sweetie and Silver.
It might have been silly, but not being last was still an unspoken taboo, a sacred rule not to be broken.
“Come on, Night! What’s the hold up?!” Scootaloo yelled from outside the tent. “Are you trying to stall until nightfall or something?”
“S-sorry!” I squeaked, poking my head out of the tent. “I just feel a bit…”
When I trailed off, Diamond rolled her eyes. “If you’re worried about how you look, you shouldn’t be. Rarity makes even Scootaloo look good, and you’re like, the second prettiest filly in school.”
“Hey!” Scoots snorted, kicking up some sand.
“You’re just saying that….” I murmured, blushing down at the ground.
“Well, I suppose you might just be in the top ten depending on who you ask.” Diamond’s smirk was audible, and I felt even more heat creeping up my neck. “But as far as I’m concerned, you’re second—right behind me, of course.”
“Just… just give me a second.” I retreated into the tent and squirmed, dancing from hoof to hoof to get all the jitters out. Taking a deep breath, I stood up straight and at attention, counting to ten in my head before slowly letting myself relax.
Adjusting my goggles slightly, I hesitantly stepped outside and hoofed my sunglasses to Rarity. She beamed at the sight of me, and waved me eagerly towards my friends. I turned to them with a sheepish smile, only to squeak as I finally got a good look at them.
Apple Bloom, thankfully, was her normal, dependable self. She had a simple streamlined one-piece—just like me—although hers was a lighter grey. Sweetie and Silver were similarly attired, the main difference being that they had several frills lining the edges of their suits.
Scoots and Diamond, though…
Scoots was literally on fire, her hydrodynamic suit emblazoned with flame patterns. It clung tightly to her body in a way that would probably have Rumble doing stupid colt things, and it made me really glad Rarity insisted on our vacation being girls only.
She paled in comparison to Diamond, though, who was the light of the sun itself. My cheeks burned in the heat of her sparkly, sequin-lined suit, and my wings itched in a way that only sun-blasted daylight could manage.
“There! That wasn’t so hard, was it?” Diamond smiled.
“I guess not….” I squirmed, looking about the beachgoers in the distance. None of them seemed to be looking at us, so…
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I nodded, turning to Sweetie’s sister. “Thank you for making me something simple, Miss Rarity.”
“It was no problem at all, darling!” Rarity simpered. “Your father was very clear about your tastes when he ordered your dress uniform. I do so hope you can forgive me my faux pas in making your dress. I get so carried away sometimes.”
“Yeah, yeah. Apologies later!” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “It’s time for some fun! Who wants to play some volleyball?!”
“I do!”
“Me too!”
“Me three!”
“Majority wins!”
The rest of the Crusaders rushed off for a clear bit of sand in the distance, stopping only to briefly pull a couple umbrellas and a beach ball from one of the baskets. An amused Rarity and I were left behind, the former bringing a hoof to her mouth as she tittered.
“They never stop, do they?” Her eyes sparkled as she watched them.
“I try to keep them in line, Miss.” I looked on as they began drawing lines in the sand for the court.
“Well, go on, then.” Rarity waved me towards the others. “I’ll be along in a moment. Far be it for me to keep you when they need a third for their second team.”
I nodded and dashed to catch up with my friends. The girls were planting the umbrellas as makeshift net posts in the ground as I arrived. Now that I could get a closer look, though, the lines they drew for bounds were kind of lacking. They zigzagged all over to make the court anything but square.
“This can’t be regulation….” I eyed a particularly long and jagged spike on one of the corners that just had to have been purposely made.
“Pfft!” Scootaloo blew a raspberry. “We’re far too cool to let any rules tie us down.”
“I’m also pretty sure that this half of the court is smaller than that one.” I pointed at the far side. “It’ll totally be an unfair game for whoever gets this side.”
“And I’m telling you that that doesn’t matter!” Scoots stuck her tongue out. “If it makes you feel bad, Sweetie, Bloom, and I will take that side and still thrash your flanks.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure of that.” Silver smiled. “I beat you last Sunday when we were sparring, after all.”
“That was a fluke!” Scoots huffed.
“A fluke I replicated twice.” Silver narrowed her eyes. “All that training is slowly leveling the playing field between us, so don’t think you can whoop me and Diamond just because we aren’t athletes.”
“Also, you gave us Night!” Diamond set a hoof on my withers. “That’s a huge mistake if you ask me. If you really wanted to cream us, you’d have given us Sweetie Belle.” She smiled apologetically at the unicorn in question. “No offense.”
“None taken.” Sweetie rubbed the back of her head. “Sure you don’t want to just show off?”
Diamond blinked. “For who?”
“Nevermind~” Sweetie grinned as she looked away.
“Y’all ready or what?” Apple Bloom drawled, bouncing the beach ball a few times on her head. “We got the court. We got the teams. It’s time to stop gabbing and get going!”
“Yeah!” The rest of us cheered, and we ran to our battle stations. It was me and Scoots facing off at the net, while the others set themselves up to hold the back lines.
“Incoming!” Apple Bloom threw the ball into the air and served deep into the back of our court.
“Silver!” Diamond knocked the ball to the side.
“Got it!” Silver lobbed the pass high over Scoots towards Sweetie Belle.
“Eep!” Sweetie barely managed to keep the ball going, backtracking awkwardly to get in position to hit the ball.
“Oof!” Bloom dove to catch it, spitting out some sand as she scrambled back to her hooves. “Spike it, Scoots!”
Scoots grinned and leapt up to thwack the ball with all her strength, sending Silver diving to return it.
Diamond scurried out of bounds to try and recover the ball for me, and I leapt up to deliver my own spike straight towards Sweetie. She squeaked and dove too deep, the ball rebounding off her head rather than her forehooves, but Apple Bloom still managed a returning lob.
It looked like she’d be sending it just over our imaginary net—the perfect spot to spike it right back in Sweetie’s face while she tried to scramble to her hooves—but Scoots must have had the same idea. I leaped to spike it, and she dove to cover for Sweetie, letting Apple Bloom lob it back to the deep end of our court.
Diamond passed to Silver, who set me another spike, only for Sweetie to return it way too far out of bounds for any of us to chase it. It flew wide—almost landing in the ocean—and I ran to grab it so Diamond could get a serve in.
The game continued to go back and forth after that. We were too evenly matched—so much so that we just stopped keeping score after we traded serves a dozen times without any real difference in points. An hour or two later, we were all panting, covered in sweat, and we still couldn’t really say either side was winning, so we just tossed our hooves in the air and called it a draw.
It was the absolute best.
I grinned as we crawled into the shallows, tired and coated in sweat. I flopped to the ground, and let the ocean wash over me. My goggles gave me small glimpses of the world that waited out in the deeps with each passing wave: little silver fish darted among a forest of seaweed, while scallops fluttered through the water—rapidly opening and closing their shells. It was like watching insects flit about a forest, and I found myself getting hungry at the sight.
Surely, nopony would mind if I took just one.
I slunk into the depths of the water, casting a glance at my friends to make sure they were thoroughly distracted with the splash war they’d started to cool off. When I made it deep enough, I leapt forward, taking a deep breath as I submerged myself in the water.
My leathery wings propelled me swiftly through the ocean, and I surged forward far faster than any earth ponies, unicorns, or even pegasi could swim. Dad said it had to do with the shape of the wing. Feathers were… weaker… I think? They were designed more for air than anything else, while I basically had giant webbed feet for wings that let me easily push through the water.
Kind of like a duck, I guess. Or maybe a beaver…. A platypus? Did they even have webbed feet? They had a duck bill, so they should totally have webbed feet.
Ehh…. Whatever. Not important.
I darted through the seaweed, looking for a nice midday snack. I was fast, but the fish were faster. None of the little ones wanted to stay put, and I could hardly sneak up on them. The big ones would take too long to eat, too, so my best option was probably the scallops.
Bursting up out of the sea, I arched around and did a quick loop-de-loop as I panted and caught my breath.
“Scree-ee!”
Oh, and screech at the seagulls a little.
“Woot, Night! You teach them what for!” Scootaloo and the others laughed and cheered me on, so I gave them a little show.
After thoroughly scattering the flock of sea demons, I dove back in to search for a scallop to claim, and swiftly snatched one from the briny deep. They were nowhere near as fast as the fish, but I knew they’d present their own problem.
The sky was perfectly clear, of course—with day-dwellers somehow liking to bathe directly in the cursed sun—so I simply floated back to the surface, and drifted on my back. Scraping my teeth across the shell, I got the sense that simply gnawing on the shell wouldn’t break it, but I did so anyways as I pondered just how to get at my tasty prize.
The otters at the zoo used rocks. Maybe I could—
“Hey, Night!” Scootaloo laughed as she flew over me, buzzing in circles to take a few pictures with Rarity’s camera. “Not to burst your bubble, but you know Rarity’s got a killer spread for us, right? I’m pretty sure she actually has some scallops for you, if you’re hungry. Back during breakfast—you know, when you were sleeping your flank off in the room—she left us to go talk with the griffon chef in that fancy restaurant on the other side of the lobby. She has to have something for you.”
“Oh….” I looked down at my freshly caught scallop for a second before turning to look back up at Scoots. “She didn’t have to do that, you know. My parents packed me plenty of snacks.”
“Pfft!” There was a raspberry from above as Scootaloo stuck her tongue out at me. “Do you even know Rarity? Of course she’s going to grab you some food! She’s the Element of ‘Everypony Getting Everything!’”
“Yeah, I guess….” I let the scallop drop back in the ocean, and started backstroking my way to shore with my wings. “Don’t you mean she’s the Element of Generosity, though?”
“I know what I said!” Scootaloo grinned. “I’ve known Sweetie for years, and if there’s one thing I’ve learned about her sister, it’s that as much as Rarity likes giving things, she loves getting things even more: that’s why she’s the Element of ‘Everypony Getting Everything!’”
I giggled. “If you say so.”
“I know so!” Scoots did a shaky little loop, her wings buzzing furiously as they struggled through the trick. I watched her go through a few more little stunts as we headed towards shore, saying nothing, but smiling encouragingly. When I breached the beach, Scoots landed, panting slightly as I rolled onto my hooves and shook myself dry.
“Hey!” Scoots swatted me tiredly with her wing.
“You’re getting better with those loops. You know that?” I responded to her wing swipe by wrapping her up in one of my own for a brief hug.
She fought her way out of my embrace and swatted me again before rubbing the back of her head. “You really mean that? I saw how easily you did those loops earlier.” She grimaced. “There’s no way I managed to make mine anywhere near as steady as yours.”
“You shouldn’t compare yourself to me….” I glanced down and poked at the sand with one hoof before shaking my head to look up and place my hoof on Scootaloo’s withers. “Trust me. It’s not worth it. There was this one colt back in Canterlot whose dad was friends with mine. He would always fly circles around me when they brought us to the park to play. You want to see loops, you should watch him fly.”
Scootaloo’s gaze fell, and I squeezed her withers with my hoof.
“You know what he couldn’t do?” I smiled. “He couldn’t keep flying. I always outlasted him in the end. Different fliers have different strengths, you know? I could never carve up Ponyville’s streets like you and your scooter.”
Scoots thankfully smiled back. “Yeah, I remember how rocky the ride was when I let you try. I guess I’m just ten times more awesome than you.”
“Yoohoo!~ Scootaloo! Nightingale! Hurry up now before I run out of caviar!”
“Eurgh!” Scoots arched her back, stretching and buzzing her wings. “Sounds like Rarity and the others started without us. Do I even want to know what caviar is? Is it some extra weird thestral thing?”
“Uh… it’s definitely not just a thestral thing.” I tilted my head to the side as we started walking over. “I remember stealing a tiny taste from the Canterlot kitchens one day when Dad took me to work. The chef was making some as a midnight snack for Prince Blueblood, and let me have some. He said it was fish eggs, I think.”
“Eww! Fish eggs?!” Scoots scrunched her face. “Why would anypony eat that?”
“Why does anypony eat eggs?” I shrugged. “I mean, you guys get all weirded out when I eat bugs, but eggs are also meat.”
“But eggs aren’t alive!” Scoots ruffled her wings, snorting.
“Actually, if you paid attention to Miss Cheerilee—” I began.
“Nuh-uh! Nope! Not listening!” Scoots futilely stuffed a hoof in one ear.
“You know your other ear is still uncovered, right? I can still tell you how—“
“But fish eggs!” Scootaloo wailed, abruptly bringing the subject from normal eggs back to caviar. “That’s just so… so… so eww!”
“That’s life.” I shrugged, taking a seat under an umbrella planted on one of the several quilts Rarity had spread a rather generous picnic over.
“What’s life, darling?” Sweetie’s sister hoofed me two bowls of tupperware—one filled with black specks of caviar, the other holding some sort of salad sandwich.
“Nothing, Miss Rarity.” I bit into the sandwich and hummed in appreciation. It was definitely some kind of fish salad. Last time I’d had anything like this had been on the family vacation to Bostang. “Scoots was just asking me what caviar was, right, Scoots?”
I flashed a grin at the pegasus—who was staring at her own bowl of caviar like she was about to crash into the rear end of Princess Celestia at mach one on a scooter.
Again.
“Pass.” She finally spoke, hoofing me her bowl.
I shrugged, and tentatively sampled my own, finding it quite passable and tearing into it with a vengeance. Bloom and Sweetie quickly passed me their bowls in kind, while Diamond sniffed and continued to sample her own. Silver had already finished hers, and was now nibbling on her own sandwich—some sort of mix of roasted vegetables and what looked like cream cheese.
After scarfing everything down, I found myself kneading the blanket and curling up for a nap. My ear flicked a few times, but I couldn’t really snooze with my goggles clinging tightly to my head.
“Umm… can I have my glasses, Miss Rarity?”
“Of course, darling.”
Rarity levitated me my shades, and I swapped my goggles for them. The hungry light of the sun tried to eat through my eyelids as I made the switch, but it failed to really sink its fangs into me.
“Wake me in an hour or two, guys,” I mumbled. “I’m gonna sunbathe for a bit.”
“Sunbathing in the shade?” Diamond giggled.
“Only way to do it.” I curled up again under the umbrella. “The sun hungers for roasted flanks, and I don’t want to be a weekend special.”
“Crazy bats and their sun paranoia.” Silver smirked.
“M’not paranoid.” I yawned, scratching at my ear as the heat in the air and the food in my stomach made my eyes too heavy to open. “M’practical. Freaking sun-witch could bake us all if she ever went Nightmare Moon like Luna.”
There was a snerk of laughter, and I paused my kneading of the quilt.
“I say that out loud?”
Another snerk.
“Yes, Night. Yes, you did.” Diamond tittered. “Go take your bat nap before you say anything else stupid while you’re half-asleep.”
“Aaayarragaa—” One last squeaky yawn before nap time. “—aaaffirmative.” I lifted my wing to scratch at an itch with my fangs, and squirmed one last time just to make sure I was in the perfect position. “G’morning.”
The rest of lunch faded into distant giggles and talking while I snoozed.
A loud pop jolted me from sleep. Blinking blearily over at them, I saw an earth pony stallion trying to console several foals who were holding the remains of a giant inflatable orca. A little unicorn was just about bawling her eyes out—her horn clinging to a few scrapes of rubber—while the rest of the foals argued at the top of their lungs about whose fault everything was.
“Finally back in the land of the living?” Sweetie’s sister tittered from beside me. “I was starting to worry we’d have to drag you back to the hotel with how deeply you were sleeping.”
“What do you mean by—” I started to stretch only to find my limbs loosely locked in place by a small sandcastle. “Am I a battlement?” I squirmed in my makeshift tomb and watched the warm, dry sand roll off me.
Rarity’s titters became giggles and then laughter. “You rolled off the quilt to stay in the shade of the umbrella, darling. Scootaloo just couldn’t resist. I know guards are supposed to be capable of getting their sleep whenever and wherever, but honestly!”
“I may have stayed up a little later than the rest of the girls last night to stargaze….” I blushed. “I guess I missed more sleep than I thought.”
“Ah, so that’s why you were so adamant about your beauty sleep this morning?” Rarity winked. “You almost made us late, you know.”
“Sorry!” I squeaked, ears falling flat momentarily.
“It’s alright, darling! Truly, it is!” Rarity’s smile gleamed. “We are on vacation, are we not?”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right….” I stretched my forelegs, pushing myself up and cracking my spine a bit. I gave a fearsome yawn to chase away any lingering sleepiness, and I unfurled my wings to full mast, making most of the sand slide off of my body. The hind legs were next as I stood up and arched my back, bending low with my forehooves splayed before me. I wriggled my rump and snapped my tail back and forth to shake the sand loose, looking out to the ocean for a good spot to wash off before rejoining the other Crusaders.
Rarity saw where I was looking, and she briefly set down the mirror she was using to sun herself, digging in a basket to her side to fetch my goggles.
“Here you go, darling.”
I nodded in thanks, and made the swap, hoofing her back my shades so she could keep them safe.
“Where are the others?” I glanced over the ponies playing nearby.
“Well, you missed them begging for a boat earlier, darling—which was absolutely adorable, by the way—but the prices to rent one were a little high.” Rarity waved towards the ocean. “Last I checked, they were swimming over there and watching the boats out at sea, but— Oh… Hrmm… Where did they go?”
She looked up and down the beach. “I do hope they didn’t decide to build a ship themselves and start pestering ponies by ‘plundering the high seas.’ The last thing I need is a bunch of pirates in my one-pieces.”
“They aren’t that crazy.” I glanced towards a group of sailboats in the distance. “Unless Scootaloo was elected captain....” I unfurled my wings again, giving them a sandless flap. “I guess I’ll just find them after washing all the sand out of my coat.”
“Du-hu-hude! Look at that! It’s a batty babe! Don’t see many of those on the beach!” A sand-grey pegasus colt with a surfboard strapped to his hind leg nudged his buddy as he caught sight of my wings.
“Chahaha! True that, brah!” His ocean-white friend nodded sagely. “My sis says they burst into flames in the sun.” He looked closer. “More of a sizzle, but no flames here, bruh.”
“Cha! Totally tubular.” The first one laughed. “Yo!” He waved to me. “What’s your name, babe?! That’s a gnarly wingspan you have! You ever think about storm surfing?! You could totally cruise through a hurricane with those things!” He puffed out his chest. “I could give you lessons if you like!”
My wingspan? I glanced back before blushing, rustling my wings as I folded them and poked at the ground.
Maybe I’d walk to the shore.
“Brah! What are you talking about?!” The other grinned like a loon under moon at his friend as he started what looked like some strange ritual hoofshake that bumped about every part of their bodies together. “I think you mean we can give her lessons! Just look at that suit and bod! She’s made of the good stuff! We could totes have her surfing like a pro by the end of the day.”
My swimsuit?! I shrank inwards a bit.
“Umm… I…” My ears fell back against my head.
“Thank you, gentlecolts, for the offer, but I’m afraid you’re missing the fact that Night here isn’t interested.” Rarity came to my rescue.
“Cha?” They both blinked and looked down at me squirming in the sand.
“Woah, dude…. We’re totes harshing her mellow.”
“Yeah, brah. Just look at her aura. She’s all zigzags and plaid.”
“Most unfashionable.” Rarity nodded diplomatically.
“We’re like, totally sorry, bat babe. We didn’t mean to be so uncool.”
“It’s fine….” I squirmed a little more under their gazes, but slowly stood back up.
“Chahaha… You like, ever need some nommage later? Come see us at Sea Side’s Sea Shack. We got a shift there later, so dinner’s totes on us for making you so down.”
“Thanks….” I managed a small smile.
“Du-hu-hude!” They both grinned back. “That’s what we want to see, babe. Soon your aura will be all yellow and blue polka dots like your mom here.”
“Polka dots?!” Rarity wailed, raising a hoof to her forehead and falling back. “Surely you jest. I would never be caught dead in polka dots this far out of season! And what do you mean like her mother?! Just how old do you think I am?!”
“Woah… dude, it’s totally time to split.”
“Yeah, brah. I can see all that paisley plaid.”
“Paisley plaid!” There was a fire in Rarity’s eyes.
“See ya later, little dudette!” The sandy one held out his hoof, and I hesitantly bumped it before he bolted. “Remember! Sea Side’s Sea Shack!”
“So, we aren’t actually going there later, are we?” I looked up at Rarity.
“The nerve!” she huffed, sticking her snout in the air. “No, Night. We most certainly are not. Those ruffians don’t deserve our generosity!”
“Oh good…” I sighed. “Wait, but they said they would pay, didn’t they?” I tilted my head to the side.
“They implied I looked old!” Rarity huffed again. “I’m at least another decade until motherhood.”
“My mom is still pretty, though, isn’t she?” I pouted at Rarity. “I don’t see what’s so—”
“Ah! Help!” Sweetie’s shout—faint as it was—had me whipping my head around.
“Hang on, Sweetie! I’ve got—” Scoots cut off with a splash. “Ah! No! I don’t! Apple Bloom! Diamond! Help!”
“We’re trying!” Bloom’s voice was muffled. “It’s taking all we got to stop the current from dragging you under!”
“What about Silver?!”
“What about me, you featherbrain?! Who do you think is hanging back to keep Diamond from being dragged under?!”
Where were they? Where were they?! I jumped into the air with a mighty flap.
“Wah!” Rarity fell back on her haunches as the wind from my kick off sent all our stuff into disarray. “Night! Where are you going?!”
“You don’t hear it?!” I glanced around to see nopony responding—nopony taking action. “Sun-blasted day-dwellers!” I desperately looked out at the ocean to try and find the Crusaders’ location. “There!” I pointed to five familiar specks of grey floating way too deep in the white of the ocean. “Get the lifeguards, Miss Rarity! Sweetie and the others are getting dragged under by the current!”
“What?!” Her sister’s name elicited a banshee-like wail from Rarity. “Are you sure, Night?!”
“I told you spelunking for treasure sounded like a terrible idea!” Sweetie cried as she trembled in place. With a splash, she and Scoots were dragged beneath the surface. They stayed under for half a second—though I waited an eternity—before flailing back to the surface with a gasp.
“Rarity!” Sweetie’s cry was desperate and shrill, her sister’s ear twitching as their cries finally made it to shore.
“No! No, no! No, no, no!” Rarity’s eyes widened, and she began dashing for the nearest high chair. “Night, you stay put! Lifeguards! Lifeguards!”
Ponies were finally pointing. Lifeguards were finally running. The proper authorities had been informed, and I had been told to stay put. My wings itched to fly out, but—
Wait. Running?
“Why are there no pegasi on shift?!” I screeched.
To Tartarus with staying put, then. I might not have lifeguard training, but I was trained to guard lives.
“Screeeeee!”
“Night, no!” As far as Rarity was from me, she still desperately tried to grab me in her telekinesis. “You don’t want to make it worse!”
I barely heard her with the wind whipping past me and all of Dad’s curses streaming from my mouth. I hit the surf like a shark smelling blood and surged towards my friends with a vengeance.
When I reached my friends, I screeched to a halt, and pushed so hard at the water with my wings that it hurt. Apple Bloom was futilely paddling to pull Scoots and Sweetie towards shore with Diamond and Silver. As she saw me, though, her eyes lit up and she reached out her other forehoof.
“Night!”
I grabbed onto her forehoof with both of my hooves, and began trying to pull everypony from the current with a backstroke. My wings pumped as hard as they could, and we slowly began to retreat from the undertow.
“Yeah, Night!”
“You go, girl!
“Give it all you got!”
“Guys!” I snarled, spitting out a bit of froth the ocean tossed in my mouth. “Shut up and help me!”
“We are!”
“If you have time to cheer, you aren’t trying hard enough! Now swim or I’ll start biting you like I do Rumble!”
“Eek!” Sweetie slipped from Scoots’ grasp into the briny deep.
“Sweetie Belle!” I gave one last tremendous push, and we yanked Scootaloo from the current. I didn’t even pause to check if she was okay, though—too busy diving straight back in for Sweetie.
I paused just long enough to take a few deep breaths—Mom’s lessons from years ago flashing through my head. Stress was bad. I needed to relax, and relax now. It was an impossible order, but the breathing at least helped a little.
I pinched my nose with one hoof, and pushed against the roof of my mouth with my tongue. Mom called it equalizing. I called it wasted time. It was necessary, though, to prevent pain and blackouts.
I had no idea how deep I’d be going.
I dove, and shot forward in a rush of bubbles, blood pounding in my head as I swam far faster than I ever swam before. I kept ahold of my nose and pushed my tongue against the roof of my mouth over and over. Mom said it kept tiny bits of air pushing out my ears.
The undertow was like a galeforce wind, carrying me deeper and deeper. Everything was going too fast to let me equalize completely—a minor pain building in the back of my ears.
I prayed to Luna it didn’t get too bad, because I still had to go back.
Finally, the ocean floor came into focus, and I spied the outline of Sweetie Belle resting on the sand. A small trickle of grey leaked from her nose, but I didn’t have time to worry about any damage she’d sustained from failing to equalize. I swam down and wrapped a hoof around her, pushing us off to the side in the hopes it would get us away from the current, and then I slowly began to push us upwards.
Looking towards the surface, I saw the lifeguards had finally arrived. Several inflatable rafts had been deployed, and a number of the lifeguards were helping the Crusaders into the boats.
Several more lifeguards were on their way down, and as I swam up to meet them, they gestured for me to go left a bit more. I did so, and when they pointed up, I rose to meet them, my wing briefly clipping the undertow again to momentarily disorient me. The earth ponies made it down before I could get back to climbing, and secured us before starting to help me rise back towards the surface.
My lungs were burning, and my wings were aching at this point, so I simply surrendered and let them help me. My vision started to swim as we got close to the surface, and the first gasp of air was like tasting sweet, sweet Beet Positive after flying for twelve hours straight.
“You alright, kid?!” the lifeguard that held me up bellowed into my ear.
“Screeck!” I flinched, ears falling flat. “Not so loud! I know enough to prevent my ear drums from rupturing!”
“Good! Good!” The lifeguard continued to bellow. “Up and at’em in the raft, then!”
I crawled into a raft and fell on my back, panting. Sweetie was in another raft. I couldn’t see what they were doing to her, and I couldn’t summon the energy to lift my head and look, but it sounded like they’d got her to start coughing up water on her own. They were asking a lot of yes or no questions, and she was—hopefully—answering.
I’d be getting my own, soon enough….
“You there. Can you hear me?”
I looked down a little to see a lifeguard watching me, and nodded.
“Hrmm…. Well, I can’t check your sclera without exposing your eyes to sunlight, so we’ll do that back on shore. Do you have any difficulty hearing me at all? Any pain in your ears to suggest a ruptured eardrum?”
I shook my head no. The pain had faded after breaching the surface.
He held a cloth to my nostrils and pulled it back. “No bloody nose, so your sinuses are fine. Can you cough into this, please? I need to check if your lungs are injured. They shouldn’t be with the depth you were at, but I need to make sure.”
I hacked a glob of phlegm into the cloth and handed it back to him.
“Ok…. No pinkness...” he sighed. “Seems you’re good, which is saying something given how stupid it was of you to do what you just did. You have any training or something? You seem a little young….”
“Mom likes swimming…” I murmured. “She’s into freediving, and she took me on a few trips growing up for some really basic dives. I’ve never gone that deep or that fast before.”
“Yes, well…” The stallion gave a rumbling chuckle. “...it seems you’ll be getting the lecture of a lifetime later, then, so I’ll just let you recover.”
“Night! Night!” The instant the stallion moved away, I found Diamond Tiara and Apple Bloom looking down on me from above. I had to squint a little with Diamond literally blazing from having the sun at her back.
“Hey, guys…. I got Sweetie Belle back.” I smiled weakly.
“Idiot!” Diamond slugged me in my shoulder. “You know how worried we were?! You left us all alone to go play hero!”
“I was already playing hero saving the rest of you.” My grin grew. “You can’t blame me for going the extra mile.”
“You could have been mighty hurt, Night.” Apple Bloom shook her head. “I woulda stopped you if I could, but somepony had to stop Scoots from diving back in. Silver had her hooves full with Diamond, so…”
“Ehh…. A guard must place others’ well being before their own.” I closed my eyes and nodded.
“Sweet Celestia, Night! You aren’t a guard yet!” Diamond huffed, stomping her hoof into the springy plastic with a squeak. “It wasn’t your job to save us!”
“Excuse me?!” A growl crawled its way out of my throat. “I thought you’d be more grateful!”
“We are!” Diamond shook her head. “I am. It’s just you— I— Sweetie— Eurgh! Idiot!” She slugged me again and tossed her hooves in the air.
“What Diamond means is,” Apple Bloom drawled, “you don’t have to go killing yourself to help us.”
“Nope. Nuh-uh.” I shook my head. “Saving you is non-negotiable. I’m a—”
“You are not a guard!” Diamond snapped.
“I’m going to be a guard.” I frowned. “I’m not going to just sit idly by if I can do something. They didn’t have any pegasi on duty today. You guys needed somepony ASAP.”
“Yeah, but there’s a difference between helping us out and recklessly diving into danger!” Diamond snorted, rolling her eyes.
“Literally, in this case,” Apple Bloom snickered. “Just… please try to keep that in mind next time? I almost thought we were gonna lose both you and Sweetie. That woulda been—” She shuddered.
“But we’re good now?” I arched an eyebrow.
“Yes, you doofus. We’re good.” Diamond smiled. “You saved Sweetie, and got to play our knight in shining armor. Rarity is totally going to kill you, then give you everything she owns, then kill you again, but you’ll probably suffer worse when you get home.”
“Eurgh… Mom is going to be so mad…” I groaned.
“And whose fault is that?!”
“Mine…” I sighed. “Doesn’t change the fact I would do it again….”
“Night….” Diamond set a hoof on my shoulder, but I rolled onto my side.
“M’sorry to make you worried,” I mumbled.
“It’s alright, Night. Really.” Diamond and Bloom sat beside me, leaning into my back. “It’s nice to know you care. Just… maybe tone it down a bit next time?”
“You planning on regularly getting into life and death situations?” I couldn’t help chuckling.
“Have you met us?” Apple Bloom shrugged, and we all shared a laugh.
“Oh, Luna….” I sighed. “This was not what I signed up for when Sweetie invited me on a beach vacation. How about next time we stick to the Ponyville lake?”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” Apple Bloom chuckled, and I nodded. “I’m pretty sure with you on our side we’ll finally be able to teach that lake kraken what for!”
“Yeah! I’ll totally—“ I blinked. “Wait, what?”