The sound of the train whistle permeated the cabin a few times before I sat up and began to rub the sleep out of my eyes. After a small yawn and a stretch of my legs, I hopped off the twin-sized bed in my personal cabin and made my way towards the door.
I exited into the narrow hallway and began to make my way down towards the bathroom to relieve myself. Along the way, I paused and looked at the passing vegetation through the train’s rectangular window. The urge to draw something came to me, but I reminded myself that this was a vacation, not an inspiration trip. I begrudgingly continued on my way after a few moments.
After I did my business and washed up, I made my way back to my cabin and got all my belongings together, well, most. I couldn’t seem to find one of my pencils, but oh well, I had plenty more stored away with my luggage. I did, however, make sure my lucky pencil was stowed away safe and sound.
After zipping up my final bag, I floated the two of them up onto the seat before sitting down next to them and directing my gaze out the window.
This vacation has been a long time coming, heck, my parents wanted me to move out of Cloudsdale too! As a unicorn in Cloudsdale, life is a bit more difficult, but I made it work. Anyway, I had been working tirelessly for years as an artist trying to get one of my pieces into the Cloudsdale Art Exhibit. After having nearly all of my art rejected, my latest piece was what caught the attention of a pony with connections who was able to get me in. I was so ecstatic at the moment I nearly passed out. My parents came and visited and I went to the local bars with many of my friends to celebrate. But after the celebration wore off, I realized I didn’t know what to do next. I could try to get more of my art into the exhibit, but I had just done that. Why not do something else? After days of sitting in front of my desk and not making a single mark on my paper, I decided that I needed a vacation, something my parents had been telling me to do for months. I said I wasn’t going to draw anything, but I brought some stuff anyway… you know, just in case, no other reason.
“We are arriving at Wildbark station, please gather your belongings as we will be arriving shortly. We hope you enjoyed your trips.” Came the voice of the conductor followed shortly by the train starting to slow.
I snapped out of my gaze and took this as my cue and floated my bags behind me as I made my way out of my cabin and into the main hall before taking a right and heading towards the nearest door. I was the first one to arrive in front of the doors, followed shortly by a dozen other ponies making their way towards the exit.
“Thank you for using FilthyRich Rail, we hope you enjoyed your ride.” Came the conductor’s voice one final time before the train finally came to a complete stop with a small lurch. The doors opened shortly after and all the passengers, myself included, made our way off and onto the platform.
The trip to the hotel was pretty boring. Trying to hail a taxi for fifteen minutes, arriving at the wrong place, and forgetting something at the train station. But after an hour, I was finally walking into the lobby of the cheap hotel I was staying at. Hey, I said I was an artist, not a famous artist. I’m working on that.
It wasn’t in the best condition, but I had certainly seen much worse. It was a square room with worn-out wooden chairs lining the walls, two hallways in the back left and right corner of the room, a rectangular desk with a brown earth pony mare behind it, and a staircase just behind her.
“Hello?” I said after walking up to the desk unnoticed and setting my bags down on the ground next to me.
“Oh!” she jumped “You scared me! I didn’t hear you come in, my apologies sir.” She said very apologetically.
“It’s alright miss, I didn’t mean to scare you.” I said with a raised hoof “I have a reservation though, the name’s Vibrant, Vibrant Glow.”
“Oh ok, just let me check through my…” she mumbled while checking a list of names sitting on the desk “here we are! You are going to be just down the hall on the right in room 13!” She then dipped under her desk before coming back up, this time with a key dangling from her mouth with a big thirteen engraved on it.
“Thanks…?”
“Caramel, Caramel Fudge.” She responded with a smile.
“Well thank you Caramel, I think I will be on my way, have a nice day.” And with a slight wave, I made my way down the hallway and towards door number thirteen.
“11… 12… ah here we are, 13!” I said as I floated the metal key towards the lock before inserting it and turning before a small click indicated that the lock was open.
The room was fairly normal, a single queen-sized bed to the right of the entrance in the middle of a nightstand on the right with a brass lamp and a small desk, also with a lamp, on the left as well as a window opposite the door and a small bathroom just to the right of the entrance.
I made my way in, closing the door behind me, before setting my luggage on the ground in front of the bed before jumping on and just taking a deep breath.
My body was fairly exhausted from hours of travel, but I was at the same time fairly eager to get to the beach that was supposedly only about a five to ten-minute walk from the hotel. I just continued to lay there for another few minutes but made my mind up shortly after.
I got my saddlebags and began to pack them with the necessities, a towel, a bottle of water, and a nice book so my first trip to the beach in years could be as enjoyable as possible.
After digging through my luggage and getting everything I thought I would need for the short trip, I strapped my saddlebags closed, floated them onto my back, and headed towards the door.
After nearly forgetting my key, I was making my way down the hall towards the lobby. Caramel gave me a little wave, which I returned before I walked past her desk and subsequently out of the building.
I emerged onto the dirt road that connected the hotel to the rest of the small village of Wildbark. Its construction style and seclusion somewhat reminded me of Ponyville. I decided to follow the sign on the corner pointing left with water painted on it, assuming that meant the ocean.
As I trotted down the path, I noticed that the number of hoofprints in the dirt started to dwindle along with the vegetation growing thicker and more out of control. This worried me a bit and I almost decided to turn around, but I quickly changed my mind when a patch of beach that looked almost completely untouched started to fill my vision.
Once I created the small hill, I was able to get a good look at the most perfect patch of beach I had ever laid eyes upon. The fine, yellow sand, the palm trees swaying in the wind, the shells lining the coast, the gentle sound of the waves crashing onto the shore. Everything was perfect, and not a single pony in sight! I wonder why?
I quickly brushed that thought aside and made my way onto the beach and closer to the shore with the satisfying crunch of the sand under my hooves after every step.
I finally found a good spot in the shade of a palm tree. I took off my saddlebags and found my towel before laying it on the sand. After taking a sip of water and wiping the sweat off my forehead, I decided to head to the water to cool off for a bit. While I never really like the water in general, I usually liked it, however, while it was still below my barrel.
With my body needing to cool off, I put all my stuff onto my towel before making my way down the beach quickly towards the water.
The water was nice, not quite perfect, but nice. I continued walking further into the ocean until the water nearly touched my barrel before stopping.
I sat there for a moment to enjoy the relief the cool water gave my overheated body for a few minutes before I decided I wanted to head back.
As I was walking back, one of my hooves struck a rock and I immediately fell forward. My entire body was completely submerged. And me, currently panicking, headed for the closest path to shore which just happened to be a V-shaped divot in the waves just to my right. But as I got closer, I began to realize that I wasn’t getting closer to shore. I was, in fact, getting sucked out into the ocean!
Panicking, I shouted, “Help!” but to only inhale water when I tried to suck in a breath. My poor swimming skills were doing nothing but making me more tired while I continued to get sucked further and further from the shore.
I was scared out of my mind. Each breath I took I risked inhaling water. And every second I could feel my legs getting weaker and weaker. But no matter how hard I tried, the shore seemed to keep getting further and further away.
“Help…” Were my last words before I got a mouthful of water and choked. I immediately began coughing frantically. My legs began to give out and my head began to dip under the water. After inhaling nothing but water, my entire body just gave out.
The last thing I remember was fear before the void finally overtook me.