The Dive
By : Yoh_3
It was a sunny day at the newly opened Ponyville Pool, and with the annual closing of schools for summer vacation, the pool was filled with fillies, colts, and their families. They filled the pool with the sound of laughter, the wet slapping of hooves as ponies exited the pool, and the yelling of the lifeguards to stop running.
However, up on the diving board, the sounds of the pool were merely buzzing in the background for Pinkie Pie, who stood, simply waiting. Not many ponies knew this, but being The Principal Pink Party Pony of Ponyville was more than just streamers and popping out of random apple barrels. Sure those were part of the responsibility, but equally important was knowing when to wait. A concept Pinkie had struggled with before, but she was determined to cultivate that patience to make her an even more unpredictable force for fun.
But Celestia knows it was hard. She desperately wanted to just dive down, make a big splash, elicit laughs, splash around maybe, anything other than standing up on the high board, freezing her poofy pink tail off. But no, she just needed to wait. She knew that if she just waited, an even bigger chance for fun would present itself. She wasn’t quite sure in what form it would be in, but it was going to be there. It was just torturous waiting on the high board for an opportunity at one big burst of fun when she could be down in the pool enjoying her time, but no she just — had — to — wait.
Never mind she felt like she was— wait, what was that? Itchy shoulders, tongue swelling by 1/57 a centimeter, a nigh irresistible urge to tap dance, a combo, and, unless she was mistaken, it signaled a particularly strong updraft. That was what she was waiting for, it must have been! Not a moment too soon either, now just to take advantage of it.
She bounced once, her hooves barely leaving the board before coming down again. She bounced again, getting a foot more of airtime, another time, she heard the heavy thrum of the diving board, one last time, and she finally leapt off, waiting for the updraft. A second later she felt the wind tussle her mane and she could also feel her descent slow, stop, and then reverse.
She could only stare down as swimming ponies started to shrink in size and the noises of the pool faded. As she stared, one thought crossed her mind, ‘This is going to be the best dive ever!’ When she finally felt the updraft falter, she looked around, just to see how far she could see (from there to Manehattan for those wondering). She happened to spot a certain chromatic Pegasus napping on a small cloud.
“Hi Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie called, waving. Rainbow’s head snapped up, glancing around bewilderedly. When she finally did find the source of the greeting, her eyes widened and she could only stare as gravity finally came back into effect for Pinkie. “Okay, see you later!” Pinkie called again as she disappeared from Rainbow’s sight.
Pinkie returned her gaze to the rapidly approaching pool, and decided that she couldn’t just belly flop during what would have to be the dive to end all dives. There was only one thing that would be fitting. She tucked herself into a ball, hugging her knees close together.
A couple of the swimming ponies happened to glance up, and could only stare gormlessly as a pink mortar shell hurtled towards the public Ponyville pool.
There was one last thing Pinkie needed to do to make this the best dive ever in the history of Equestria, all she need to do was shout one phrase.
“CANONBALL!”
Finally her flank met the water annnnnnnnnd......
The resulting tower of water could be seen for miles around and there was an unscheduled thirty minute rainstorm for the surrounding areas.