Sleep never came to Ember during the cruise, but she still got something resembling the rest she was looking for. For now, that was enough. She was still kicking back along the bed as the day turned into night. Any moment now, the ship would pull into port and she would be at her home for the next few days...like she cared right now. She was working a difficult job as recently as that morning, and she was gonna rest, damn it.
Nevertheless, she was curious about what it looked like outside. The curtain to the window was closed, and she could just use her magic to pull it away. Deep down, she was a little hesitant to look outside. Not because of bad weather or anything like that, but the sight of a certain fish lady. There was someone out there. She just didn’t know who.
But then again, was the fish lady actually doing anything? Even if something was up, she could use magic to zap at it, and she was far from the only unicorn on deck. That was enough to convince her to actually go out there and deal with the horrors of….oh Celestia...the world around her room.
When she went into her room the first time, a bunch of college aged ponies were partying it up with dragons around the same age as them. When she left the room, taking her bags just in case they were about to dock, it was quieter. The breeze around the ship was gentler, and the sun was about to set. Nothing but ocean and the outlines of a beach laid out in front of them.
Ember was pleasantly surprised by the environment and stepped out to the deck. Even that part of the ship was quiet. There was some low tempo dance music playing, and it fit the mood. Ponies were drifting peacefully around the pool, and only a few dragons remained around the ship. It was exactly what she wanted, a low key evening. Not that she couldn’t party, but she didn’t want to party on a day like this.
Still, she noted the beach out in front of them. There was a telescope mounted on the deck, and she took a look at it. Pointing it down to the beach, she caught wind of a tropical island, with more palm trees than she had seen in her entire life. Not only that, but she could see the outlines of a town and miles upon miles of shores. To make it even better, all the sand was white, almost shimmering from the dying traces of the sun.
“All passengers on the ship, we’ll be docking in Equus Beach within the next hour. Please gather your belongings and get ready to depart,” the announcer said over the speakers.
That had Ember feeling mixed. She stared at the pool and debated about taking a dip while she still could. On the other hoof, she did enjoy swimming in seawater over some chlorine drenched pool water. And then she noticed one dragon staring right at her.
The dragon was a guy, green in color, and he was getting a good look at her. One look at her flank, and she knew what he was thinking. “Look, I’m not interested,” she said. “Just...I don’t know. Broke up like two weeks ago with this guy. It’s not a good time for me right now.” ”
“Alright. I can take no for an answer.” He let her be after that, and she rubbed at her mane for a good bit. She knew the true reason why she turned him down, although she wasn’t lying about the recent breakup, either. That’s all anyone needed to know for now.
Still, there was a renewed air of excitement when the town of Equus Beach came into view. They could see that it was a larger island than anyone expected, and the town was as well. If one had to guess, it was roughly the size of Ponyville. The beachfront was out for miles, and a few rivers from the island drifted from the beach into the water, fed by a dormant volcano out in the back.
The town itself was simple and seemingly quiet. It was spread out with a lot of storefronts, and several villas were out by the beach. Ember’s eyes lit up from the sight of them, knowing that one of them would be her place for the next few weeks. Still, she noted something unusual.
There was a lot of beachfront around, but one corner had nopony there at all. She checked it out with a telescope, and it looked normal in her eyes. Then she saw one filly inch up to it, curious about it, but her parents were quick to pull her back with a panicked gasp.
“That’s weird…” She pulled back and pointed it out to the closest pony. “Do you know anything about that?” She had him look through the telescope as well.
“Huh. I heard rumors that something was going on, but nopony really knows,” he explained. “Something like a sea monster or creature. That’s all I heard.”
That set off the alarm bells in Ember’s head, and she was ready for a fight. She checked to examine the water around the ship on all sides, anything that resembled the fish lady she saw earlier. All she caught were schools of fish drifting lazily around the Equestrian Breeze. “Calm down, Ember,” she told herself. “It’s nothing to be worried about. By Celestia’s mane, this is a vacation...just enjoy it…”
It didn’t settle her nerves like she wanted. Instead, she kept an eye out for anything and everything while the ship approached the port. On the plus side, the port itself was welcoming, with several ponies waiting to serve them with refreshments. Everypony on deck was just as excited as she wanted to be as it pulled right in.
Witn no sign of the fish lady in sight, Ember felt slightly more comfortable once the ship had docked. Several exits were made for the passengers, and her hooves felt a little less jittery once they pulled off the deck. It was even better when her hooves were touching the wood of the harbor. “See?” she told herself. “Nothing to worry about.”
Truth be told, she almost forgot about the whole thing when she arrived at the harbor. Not because of the refreshments on display or anything like that. It was purely because this place looked like heaven to her senses. It really did feel like a Ponyville by the beach, a combination that was great on paper, even better in reality.
With her bags in tow, she went further into the town. With the wonderful breeze at her back, she saw all the numerous flags flapping around the streets of Equus Beach. They were all flags of the different Equestrian towns. Lately, they also added the flags of the dragons, yaks, griffons, seaponies, changelings, any species that recently made ties with Equestria.
Along the way, she could find a few restaurants that looked delightful to her eyes and stomach alike. Her belly growled from the scent of freshly baked bread, fruits, all that stuff. Still, she wanted to give herself more time to check out the town. Then she would help herself like she deserved.
Keeping the bags close by, she also noted how vast the ocean looked from here. It seemingly stretched for miles in all directions with nothing to stop the blue horizons. Just the sight relieved some of the tension from her hooves. “See, Ember? You earned this. Look at all this. Look at...the lazy river....by the ocean….really?”
Yeah, there was a lazy river nearby. She found it redundant to have anything resembling a water park so close to an ocean, but eh. She hoofwaved it as an attempt to get some money from tourists. If she had to be honest with herself, she would have done the same if she owned some land down by the ocean.
Ah well. She decided to go ahead with a restaurant, a little cafe in the middle of the main street. From the table she rested in, she got to enjoy all the fresh fruit that an island like this provided. Now and then, she would see a dragon, but she was most curious of all about the pegasi around. There was a reason for it, and the moment one came to her table, she flagged him down. “Hey, I noticed that there’s a part of town ponies are avoiding like the plague,” she brought up. “Do you know anything about that?”
The moment she brought it up, she swore the color from the pegasus’s face drained. “Oh. That. We heard a lot of rumors about it, too. It’s more of a precaution than anything else. One thing I can say, there’s been sightings of ice around the place. And it’s not melting…”
Ember’s eyes widened. It might have been a few precious minutes before sunset, but she could still feel the heat in the air. “At this time of the year? Are you pulling my leg?”
“I’m afraid not. I’ve seen it myself. I’m just hoping they send somepony in there to find out what’s going on.” The pegasus left after that.
“Hmmm. Maybe I should do something about that. I’m brave enough to take on anything.” She pounded the table with a hoof, almost scattering her drink across the table’s surface. “No no, Ember, you’re on vacation. You’re here so you DON’T have to work...ah buck it.”
She was about to get up and deal with it herself, but the fatigue in her legs reminded her that it had been a long day. Well, if you count eating grapes in bed a long day. Still, she finished her meal without creating another commotion, and she left from there.
On the bonus side, the sand on her hooves was just as pleasurable as she wanted it to be. Once she went down the way to her villa, she let the breeze hit her face...and she shot the ocean a deadly glare. “Come on, evil ice fish lady. I know you’re there. Just get out of the way of my vacation and I won’t do a thing.”
The ocean mindlessly touched her hooves with its waves. “That’s right,” she warned. “I’m watching you. You’re not ruining this for me.”
Instead, the waves continued their approach, and she kicked the sand for good measure. A few ponies asked themselves what her deal was, but she wasn’t thinking about it. The bags under her eyes were growing by the second, and she knew how to fix that.
Among the villas that laid out by the shore, one stood out to her. It was a simple, big enough place with a thatched roof and warm colors with its wood palette. It was the perfect mix of fancy and simple, just like what she wanted. She fumbled around with the key in her possession, and the front door unlocked for her after a little bit of work.
Just like the room in the ship, the villa had extravagant sheets for the large bed, but that’s not what was music to her eyes. That would be the wide open window to the ocean by the front door. After she dragged her bags into the villa, she sat down by said window and enjoyed the sights and sounds. “That’s paradise, right there. I don’t care if Canterlot’s got it all. It doesn’t have THIS.”
And then the siren’s call came for her...to go to bed. Oh was she game for it. She climbed up and laid down in the bed...and fell asleep in no time at all. For all the tiredness and fatigue she felt in the ship, it wasn’t time for her to sleep just yet. By the time she got the villa, it was finally, and she wasn’t going to hesitate any longer. In the span of minutes, she was already dreaming of swimming in the ocean she saw with her own eyes.
However, something else was happening down at the part of the beach where nopony wanted to go. It would go unseen at first, but ice formed out of thin air around the shoreline. No matter how hot the early evening air was, it refused to melt even a little bit. It almost seemed to be resisting the heat through pure might.
Now and then, whoever was casting it stepped back to admire their handiwork. A heavy sigh escaped their lips, and it continued its work like ice in the summer was the most normal thing in the world. Well, people did like their frozen drinks by the beach…
Still, it wasn’t really satisfied by the work so far. It would continue with its efforts for the next few minutes, and the ice continued to spread around its little spot in the world. Eventually, the ice was so contagious, it was hard to see where it started and where it stopped.
And then a few brave ponies trotted over to check it out. “I don’t think there’s anything to the rumors,” one earth pony mare thought. “I don’t really get how ice would survive out here. If that’s all there is to the stories, what should we be afraid of?”
“It has to be some kind of magic,” her unicorn friend noted. “In my studies, there are spells that leave ice strong enough to outlast the heat. It’s not that the ice is strong, but the magic is. I heard something similar about dragons with ice breath, too.”
“You didn’t bring a bunch of books with you on this trip, did ya?” a pegasus teased. “Come on. Relax a bit.”
“Hey, I’m not like Princess Twilight. I don’t sleep on books like she did that one time.” Still, they were all curious and continued on...until they swore they saw something glisten under the dying rays of the sun. “What’s that?”
They all saw the same thing, the sight of ice reflecting the sun. There was a lot of it, and it was starting to resemble some kind of gigantic house. It had them all curious, so they went to check it out. The pegasus hovered above the ground, secretly wondering if he needed to flee the scene.
They checked out the front of the ice house, and the unicorn tapped it with a leg. “It’s definitely not natural…” He peeked into the cracks of the entrance, and he narrowed his eyes inside. “What’s going on…”
Before he could catch what was going on inside, someone...or something was staring back at him. The eye was giant compared to his, and it breathed a heavy breath full of ice down his mane. Frost was left in its wake, and it blinked its eye right at him.
“MONSTER! RUUUUUUN!” The unicorn deployed a teleportation spell to get the hay out of there, and the eye turned to the pegasus and earth pony. Both of them screamed from the sight, and the pegasus grabbed the earth pony around the shoulders and got her out of there, pronto. The sound of their screams could be heard for dozens of feet.
Rather than give chase or even yell at them, the creature merely shook its head and resumed its work. “You think they’d want a place like this in the summer…” It pulled away and used its breath to spread the ice around the beachfront. The ice fortress would only grow with time, remaining defiant of the summer heat.
Then again, I’m here because I wanted to be alone. Maybe I should have researched this place before I picked it out...