//------------------------------// // Life's a Beach // Story: Family of Chaos // by Animalman57 //------------------------------// The hot summer sun rose high in the sky as Discord sat on a tricolored folding chair underneath an iridescent navy blue parasol he stuck in the sand earlier. He didn't need the shade as he could tolerate the heat, but relaxing in the shade was still very appealing to the draconequus. He peeked past his ruby red framed sunglasses as he looked around. There weren't too many ponies at the beach today, just a few small families and a few couples going for a stroll. He was currently waiting for his wondrous wife and his darling daughters, who were changing in some changing tents not too far from here. His goat ear swiveled at the sound of soft hoofsteps and he lifted his head towards the sound behind him. Fluttershy came over, holding a wicker cloth bag in her mouth. She was wearing a one shoulder tankini that matched her eyes in color and her smile was sweet. Her mane was currently down and her bluebell barrette was in her bag, her not wanting to damage it if she went into the water. She set the bag down on the yellow beach towel covered in pink butterflies before looking up and smiled towards Discord. He wore a pair of swim trunks, with the right side being black and red and the left being white and orange, the striped pattern being inverted. "Thanks for suggesting going to the beach today, Discord." She said. Discord simply waved his talon dismissively. "Oh, it's no trouble, my dear. Besides I feel like we all, but mostly you Mrs Workaholic, needed this vacation." He said, shoving his talon into her snout when he called her 'Mrs Workaholic'. She giggled as she gently pushed the talon out of her snout. She dug into her bag to try and find the sunscreen before hearing hoofsteps behind her. She turned around and smiled lightly at Wildflower, who was wearing a vibrant red two-piece bikini set. When trying to look for swimsuits earlier today, Fluttershy had to stop Wildflower from picking ones that was a bit too risqué for her liking and eventually settled on the one she was wearing now which, while a bit revealing, was modest enough to meet Flutter's standards. Fluttershy turned back to the bag and pulled out the sunblock as Discord snapped up an azure beach towel for Wildflower to sit down on next to Fluttershy's towel. Fluttershy went over to Wildflower, who was starting to lay on her back. Wildflower peeked past the light blue framed sunglasses her father just gave her once she saw her mother's shadow pass over her. Wildflower could tell what her mother wanted and, after rolling her eyes, reluctantly sat up and extended her foreleg. Fluttershy squeezed some sunblock on her hoof and started rubbing it on her daughter, who had a slightly irritated expression on her face. Discord looked over as he saw Raven walking over, her mismatched feet softly kicking up the hot sand as she walked on her hind legs, like she usually did when wearing clothes. Her hair band was in Fluttershy's bag, causing her jet black locks to flow past her shoulders. She wore a simple strapless one-piece bikini, the top half being black while the bottom half was white. She clearly looked nervous, looking around while rubbing her paw with her claw as she bit her lip. He smiled towards his beautiful daughter who looked over and smiled shyly back at him. She snapped her claw, creating a red folding chair. The adolescent draconequus laid down on the chair, her tail laying off to the side as she breathed the salty air into her lungs. She sighed peacefully, closing her rosey pink eyes as she tried to relax. Her floppy ear twitched as she heard a snap. She opened one of her eye slightly to see a purple-and-pale pink parasol appear above her, giving her shade. Raven smiled over towards her daddy in thanks before closing her eye again, folding her claw and paw against her chest and materializing sunglasses that matched her daddy's in color (but hers had pointed ends rather than rounded and also had small studded silver gems lining the rims) onto her face. After successfully covering Wildflower in some sunblock (which, in Wildflower's opinion, was about half a gallon too much. She didn't burn that easily), Fluttershy started rubbing some on her own forearm before the tube floated up into Discord's talon. He looked over with a raised eyebrow and she immediately knew his implication. She nodded with a wide smile before laying down on her towel onto her stomach, her forelegs crossing. He squeezed a fair amount of sunblock into his paw and soon started rubbing it on Flutter's back, stretching his body as to not leave his comfortable chair. She sighed in bliss as her eyes fluttered closed, while Discord covered her back in sunblock, taking extra care around her delicate wing joints. After spending a short minute helping out his wife, Discord floated the sunblock into the bag. He and Raven didn't really need it, after all. He sat up on his chair and cracked his knuckles. "So, now that we're here, what should we do?" He asked. Fluttershy looked over and smiled. "Well, I was thinking of maybe taking a stroll on the beach. Raven, would you like to walk with me if I go?" She asked her daughter. Raven looked over and shrugged her nearly non-existent shoulders as if to say, 'sure'. Discord pulled out a large deep purple surfboard with sky blue swirls and dark grey tornados covering it from the tiny wicker bag (even though it wouldn't be able to fit and Fluttershy knew he didn't put that in before they left for the beach, but she was used to weird stuff like that long before she and Discord started dating). "While you two do that, I'm going to catch some waves. Wildflower, do you-" Before he finished his sentence, Wildflower flew up with a large grin on her face. "You kidding me? Of course! Let's go!" She yelled ecstatically. The draconequus smiled impossibly wide before snapping his tail tuft and, in a instant, both he and Wildflower disappeared to surf. Fluttershy shook her head, smiling at her two troublemakers before standing up and stretching her hind legs. She took a moment to put on a sunhat that she placed next to her bag before she walked towards her asymmetrical daughter, giving a slight look to say she was leaving. Raven snapped her paw to dismiss her shades and stood up, stretching her gracile body before following her mother as they went down the coast, the sand feeling like powdered sugar. About four miles down the coast, Discord and Wildflower were setting the board into the water. Wildflower looked towards the water. It was the deepest blue, small waves gently crashing onto the shore and the sun shined brightly. Though a beautiful site, Wildflower did notice one thing that was off. "Um, dad, I don't think we can surf. There aren't any good waves." She said, looking disappointed. Discord looked over and smiled. "Don't worry, Wildflower. I've got this." He snapped his paw and soon, the water started rising in ways that were perfect for surfing. Wildflower's face soon grew a large smile. She jumped to the front of the board as Discord stood behind her, dipping his tail into the water and turned his tail feathers into a motor, pushing them forward. After a moment of cruising on the ocean blue, a particularly large wave started to form—the perfect one for the two daredevils. He took his tail out of the water and turned it to normal before turning the board straight into the wave. Once they entered, Wildflower stuck her tongue out as she tried to stand on her front legs. She wobbled a little, but amazingly, she kept her balance. She looked behind herself and saw her father leaning on his tail and legs at an impossible angle while holding a tanning reflector in his hands and wearing bright green sunglasses. Show-off. She thought as she rolled her eyes. She then looked past him, seeing the water around them crashing. "Wooo, yeah!" She yelled ecstatically, the adrenaline pumping through her body. This was the best! The wave started to lower as they headed towards the beach. The wave rolled gently against the coast, the board digging into the sand slightly as it came to a stop. Wildflower jumped off the board and turned to her left when she heard cheering, seeing a stand of three Discord duplicates, holding scorecards that all said '10' in large red ink. She laughed before turning towards her father, who was shaking water from his ears with a cotton q-tip despite not once being in the water. She rolled her eyes before smiling even wider. "That was great!" She exclaimed before suggesting, "Let's go again, dad." Discord smiled at her and snapped his talon, sending them both back into the water. While the two risk-takers were enjoying the waves, Fluttershy and Raven went down on the beach. A few creatures were looking at Raven weirdly, but they eventually turned to mind their own business. Raven looked to her right and saw a rather young looking colt building a fairly elaborate sand castle a bit too close to the water's edge. She then noticed the tide creeping up on the moderately sized castle that was carefully crafted by tiny hooves. Once it hit the castle, it fell down into a pathetic, gloppy mess. The colt hadn't yet noticed, having rushed off earlier to get his mom to show it to her. Not wanting him to be sadden by his fallen castle, she snapped her tail, it sounding like the crack of a whip, and the colt's castle was reformed, but with even more detail than before, including a draw bridge over a moat, two blue flags on the towers, a seapony gargoyle a fair bit above the doorway and a faux seastar on the top of the castle. Her face flushed with embarrassment. She didn't mean to do that. She just meant to put his castle back up to its former glory. She looked over and smiled, as her magic also caused the water to part in a way as to avoid the castle, thus preventing another tragedy. Her smile grew wider as she saw the colt bringing her mother over, showing her his sandcastle. Though a little shocked at the extra detail, he smiled widely as his mother praised him for his skill. The colt looked over the draconequus' way and waved towards her. She waved back before heading off to catch up with her own mama. Once she caught up, Fluttershy apparently hadn't noticed her absence, instead observing a few baby leatherback sea turtles that had just hatched, their little black bodies crawling their way towards the ocean. Seeing the draconequus' shadow by her, Fluttershy looked over and smiled, waving her over. Raven smiled in response and kneeled down. "Look at them. Aren't they so adorable?" Fluttershy cooed. Raven nodded as she looked at the turtles. As they watched, one of the turtles wasn't looking where it was going and it tripped on a small ripple in the sand, flipping over onto its leathery carapace. It whined as it tried to flip itself right side up. But it didn't budge, its pale white stomach sticking up as it wiggled its flippers uselessly. Suddenly, a paw and claw picked it up and flipped it to its stomach. The turtle blinked in surprise before looking up towards Raven, who smiled sweetly at it. "There you go, little guy." She said in a caring voice. The turtle's toothless beak curved up into what one might call a smile towards the teenage draconequus, squeaking its thanks before heading back on its way. Raven smiled widely as the baby turtle disappeared into the water. Once all the baby turtles disappeared into the deep blue, Fluttershy and Raven continued on their way. But before they went too far, Fluttershy heard a loud yell, and looked over just before a rather large wave crashed into them. She gasped for air once it cleared, her body and hat dripping wet while an small cuttlefish wrapped around her foreleg and two lavender seashells stuck on her chest, giving the illusion of a shell bra. Raven stood near by being just as wet, and a herring was flopping on her head, while a lobster clung to her tail. Fluttershy looked up and saw a familiar purple surfboard, half buried and sticking straight up. The sand shifted before her and, sure enough, her husband popped out like a prairie dog, shaking his head before hitting the side of his head, sand forming a mini sandcastle as it fell out of his ear, complete with a tiny red flag. The sand shifted next to him, revealing Wildflower, who was coughing up water. "Are you two okay?" She asked as she pulled off the shells and placed them on the shore before she gently grabbed the cephalopod from her arm and placed it back into the ocean. The cuttlefish looked up at her, its bizarre looking eyes clearly showed thanks before the mollusk took off like a jet. Discord pulled the surprisingly undamaged surfboard from the sand, laying it down, and then pulling a piece of seaweed off Wildflower's head. The adolescent pegasus smiled at her dad. "Thanks. That was gross. But yeah, mom. We're fine." She shook her wet braid as she removed more seaweed from her back. "Just miscalculated how fast we were going." Wildflower's nose crinkled at the gross looking seaweed before tossing it in disgust. Raven took the fish off her head and carefully placed it in the water so it could swim away safely and tossed off the seaweed that was on her bat wing. She then delicately removed the lobster from her tail and placed the decapod onto the beach, gently rubbing the crustacean's red exoskeleton as it rushed to the ocean. Just then, she noticed a seastar on her deer hip, it being large enough to cover her white spots. She gently peeled off the invertebrate and placed it on a rock in the water, taking a moment to stroke it before turned back towards her family. "Well, I think that crosses off surfing crossed on the list." Discord pulled up a periwinkle list from behind his back. The list was marked as Beach Activities and he crosses a line across ‘surfing’ with a pencil he pulled from his ear. He tossed the list away before turning towards Fluttershy. "Would you like to go back to the towels and eat lunch?" He asked before finally noticing the seaweed dangling on his snout. Fluttershy giggled at her husband's silly expression as he stared cross-eyed at it. She flew up and helped him pluck the offending plant from himself and then kissed his cheek, which made his cheeks literally catch fire from his blush. "That sounds good to me, Cordy." She said as she beamed towards him. Discord smiled back at her and snapped his talon, making all four of them teleport to their towels. Once they arrived back to where they set up, Discord snapped his paw, causing a picnic table to appear. Fluttershy, Raven and Wildflower sat down at the table. He pulled a blue cooler from thin-air before placing it on the table. He opened it up and dug deep into it, soon pulling out four pieces of watermelon, all full of black seeds. He snapped his tail tuft, causing a platter of hayburgers to float next to him, apparently already cooked and in buns. He gave two plastic plates, each with a hayburger, to Wildflower and Fluttershy, while Raven's plate had two hayburgers. He floated a watermelon slice towards his darling wife and then to his daughters. He set up his own plate, with another two hayburgers and the last piece of watermelon before he leaned his tail back into the cooler, pulling it out once it wrapped around two iced teas and two water bottles. He handed Fluttershy one of the teas, who took it with a smile and gave the teens the water. He snapped up some condiments to put on their hayburgers and wet wipes before sitting down himself. Discord drowned his hayburgers in ketchup and mustard, while Fluttershy put on a much more modest amount on her's. Wildflower put on more ketchup on her burger than her mother, but less then her dad, while Raven chose to eat her burgers plain. As the four of them ate, Wildflower's chin dipped from the ketchup. Once she noticed, Fluttershy grabbed a wipe and leaned forward, wiping Wildflower's chin. "Ugh, mom." She whined. Fluttershy ignored her daughter's plee and finished wiping her chin. "If you used your wipes, maybe I wouldn't have to do that." Fluttershy said in the 'mom tone', raising an eyebrow with a slight intense look in her eyes. Wildflower rolled her eyes before she continued to eat, this time making sure to use her wipe, if only to avoid her mother's wrath if she didn't listen. "I don't know why you pick on me when dad eats just as messily." She accused, pointing her hoof towards Discord whose chin, including his beard, was covered in ketchup and mustard. He stopped mid-chew when he heard his name, looking nervously towards his wife, who gave him the same look. He swallowed his bite and smiled sheepish, grabbing a wipe and cleaned his own face. Fluttershy shook her head before returning to eating. Once they finished their burgers, they ate their watermelon slices. After she gently spat a seed onto her plate, Fluttershy looked over to Raven, who was eating the seeds and outer rim along with the pinky flesh. A seed suddenly hit her forehead, bouncing off harmless, but it was enough to stir her from her thoughts. She looked over, and saw Wildflower smiling smugly. The teen began rolling her tongue and then spat another seed at her mother, this time hitting her snout. Fluttershy's eyes squeezed tightly from the impact before opening her eyes and she glared slightly. Another seed came forward, bouncing off Wildflower's forehead, making her yelp and wiping her smug grin. Fluttershy looked over Discord with a raised brow. "You're a bad influence, sometimes." She said. He smirked towards her and spat a seed at Fluttershy, this one bouncing off her ear, it flicking in annoyance. She suddenly smirked with a gleam in her eyes, making Discord raise a brow (and look nervously towards her). Fluttershy took a bite of her melon, started rolling her tongue and spat a seed towards Discord, making him yelp in surprise. Wildflower laughed loudly, but then she was hit by a seed spat at her by her mother. Soon, it was an all out war. Fluttershy, Discord, Wildflower and eventually Raven all spat out their seeds, all hitting each other numerous times. It was hard to tell who hit the most, but they had fun, all of them laughing. Discord snapped his talon, making the table and cooler disappear (as well as clean the sticky juices from their bodies) and he looked over towards Fluttershy, who was walking off with her now dry sunhat. "Where are you going?" He asked, sitting back down on his chair. Fluttershy looked towards him and smiled. "I'm going to buy us some ice cream. I'll be right back." She turned and walked off, her long tail dragging against the sand as it daintily swished. He smiled towards the fading form of his partner before he laid down, placing his hands behind his head. As he waited for Fluttershy, he turned his attention towards a rather loud group of rowdy teens—all colts, much to his dismay. He frowned deeply as he looked to where they were looking at and they were looking exactly to who he didn't want them to look at—Wildflower, who was clearly drinking in the attention, enjoying every second of it. He glared at the teens, smoke coming out of his nostrils as he snorted. He secretly snapped his talon behind his back, causing hail to start raining on the colts. They yelped in shock, running off as the cloud followed them, continuing to pelt them. Wildflower glared towards his direction, knowing her father was the one to chase them off. He whistled innocently as a halo hovered over his head. Wildflower rolled her eyes before returning to the magazine she brought with her that she was reading before those colts showed up. Discord grabbed the halo and tossed it like a frisbee into the wicker bag. He looked over towards Raven, who was laying on a red-and-white striped towel just below her chair on her stomach, her head resting on her arms. Her eyes were closed but she wasn't sleeping, just resting peacefully. Seemingly unbeknownst to the teenage draconequus, a seagull sat on her head and a couple of hermit crabs scuttled on her back, along with a few other animals crowding around her. But when she muttered, "A little to the left, little buddies," and the crabs responded, he knew that she was, in fact, aware of their presence. The decapods were helping her with an itch on her back with their claws, while the gull was combing her raven colored mane with its beak. Nearby, a brown pelican was preening her pegasus wing, while a sea otter used its paws to rub her shoulders in a deep tissue massage, the crabs working just behind the mustelid. She sighed peacefully as the seaside critters gave the draconequus their little spa treatment. Discord smiled at Raven, who looked like she was in heaven, before turning behind himself as he heard hoofsteps. Fluttershy walked forward and gave him his ice cream cone before walking towards Wildflower and handed her a cone. After giving Raven hers, temporarily stopping the animal's little grooming session on Raven, Fluttershy sat down next to her husband to enjoy her ice cream. The four of them simply sat down and ate their ice cream, all of them savoring the sweet taste and how refreshing they were in the heat. When they finished, they continued on with their fun time, doing things like swimming (with Raven swimming with white-sided dolphins as a seapony, or rather a sea-draconequus courtesy of her dad, and Wildflower getting in a splash fight with Fluttershy), playing volleyball (Fluttershy and Raven's side won the game), and building sand castles (Discord's being the size of a real castle while Wildflower's collapsed on itself). The sun just about dipped below the horizon before they decided to leave, Discord opening a portal for them to pass through to go home. It was the perfect end to the perfect day of beach fun on a rather hot summer's day.