Skin baked. Riverbeds ran dry and became cracked earth. Ponies came from far away to find some form of relief, most of them settling for a public pool. There were six of them in Manehattan, four of which were in bad shape considering the city's economic situation. The remaining two, more appealing pools were packed from dawn to dusk.
Chloe worked at Dunnham Recreation Center, watching over squealing colts and fillies as they chased each other around the pool's deck. Dunnham was the jewel of Manehattan's recreational scene, with its slides, snack bar, and parking lot big enough for the mass exodus from the sun's oppressive rays. It was big, with three pools for the whole family. A large pool lay directly in front of the main building, which housed lockers, the lifeguard break room, and the snack bar. This large pool was used for general use; a medium-sized pool was dedicated to the water slides; and a small kiddie pool was sheltered behind and to the side of the main building.
Chloe was, inevitably, assigned to the kiddie pool. It was fine enough, she had music to listen to from the main building's radio and only had a 20 minute shift before another lifeguard took over for their 20 minutes. She had that time to socialize with the other guards, and then it was back to the chair overlooking the foals.
The power she felt from sitting in the chair had faded within the first days of the summer, and the season was well beyond halfway over now. The vacuum left by the high of power was soon filled with boredom. There was little to entertain herself with, besides watching the kids, but even this got stale.
Day after day, her mind was dulled by the endless summer hours that ticked by at snail's pace. The hedges that lined the property of Dunnham were home to swarms of flies, and their incessant buzzing soon matched the buzzing that echoed around Chloe's consciousness. Her mind was driven to lethargia so bad Chloe had trouble getting out of her chair at the end of a shift.
Every sound was heard through cotton, and every picture through a tunnel. The colts and fillies that ran endless circles through the water seemed to be running through molasses. Time was slowing. Was that her imagination? No, she could pick out the individual photons as they crashed to Equestria, so slow they were moving. She lifted her hoof, wondering when it had become translucent. If she tried hard enough, she could see the sky through it--
"Hey, earth to Chloe? Your shift is over." A deep, Bronx baritone ripped through the veil that covered Chloe's ears.
She awoke with a start, whipping drool away from her bottom lip, "Yeah, gotcha. Watch it, they're a little rowdy today."
She hopped down from the chair, stepping aside for her stallion coworker.
He looked at her with sarcasm dripping from every orifice, "Yeah, I can tell by how much you're paying attention. Just don't let Twenty catch you sleeping again or he'll have your ass..."
"Hey! That's a potty word!" The foals screamed in delight at catching Floatie cursing.
Red-hoofed, "Yeah, yeah. You got me. Now, I guess I'll have to play a game with you foals to make it up, huh?"
Floatie leapt into the water, throwing hoof-fuls of water at the fillies and dunking the colts.
Again, they screamed. Chloe stretched her legs, walking slowly back to the guard break room. Rounding the corner of the building to the front, the squealing of the colts and fillies was drowned out by country music and splashing from the other pools.
Floatie was better with the foals. Loved them, even. It was like Chloe had lost her maternal instinct at birth and Floatie had found it. Somehow, he managed to avoid the boredom. The mind-numbing, monotanous work.
Chloe stepped into the cool break room, sighing with relief. She seated herself at a table and smiled.
She closed her eyes, listening to the hum of air conditioning working its magic. Chloe decided never to take cold air for granted again. In fact, if presented with the opportunity, she'd probably just lay down in some snow and choose to never wake up. The sun was a bitch. The Canterlot snobs could worship the labors of Celestia all they wanted, but when it came time for a heat wave, Chloe was about as loyal to the monarch as a rock.
Soon, her duties as guard would be over with the beginning of school. Nothing was permanent - not even summer would last forever.
***
It had been hot, sure. Today, though, was perhaps the worst day yet. The heat being splashed over the earth was palpable. Chloe felt like she could feel each individual ray of sunlight slam into her, and every fiber in her being plead for relief. There was no such thing.
Back on the chair, Chloe was having a hard time staying awake. She fought her heavy eyelids bravely, but the promise of sleepy bliss was winning out.
Chloe took a sip from her water bottle. Kids below screamed in delight as one splash war faded and another began, the body count piling up. Chloe knew she should've blown her whistle; if somepony was actually drowning, she'd have a hard time telling. To tell the truth, though, she couldn't really be bothered. The kids were having fun and her lack of action was invisible to the other guards.
One of the fillies- a mint green coat with brown locks that hung down to the ground- was currently caught up in a brutal splash attack with two colts. The colts were getting a little rough, like dogs they nipped right at the heels of the giggling filly.
"Come here Reed! We're gonna steal yer treasure!" The colt's voice was obtrusive and very nearly threatening, but Chloe didn't blow her whistle.
Nature would play itself out. Or maybe she was just lazy.
At once, one of the colts leapt into the air, tackling the filly off the pool deck and into the pool, and the game of pirates grew serious. The filly, Reed, screamed as she was knocked off of her feet into the pale blue water. The non-tackling colt stopped in his tracks, looking wide-eyed at where Reed and the tackler had tumbled into the water. He looked distraught, like he knew there was line between playing and hurting.
The tackler came up for air, smiling and giggling like he was the birthday colt. He wiped thick strands of wet, black mane from his eyes and looked around for Reed in the water. Chloe followed his eyes and watched his expression turn from glee to confusion. As the frothing around his feet turned red, he turned towards Chloe with large, pleading eyes.
Chloe looked from his face to the water. The large crimson cloud that was growing in the pool was not enough to blind her from the view of mint green coat, which slowly bobbed to the surface. Chloe couldn't do anything. For too long, she had sat in the guard chair in mind-numbing silence, so that reality now seemed distant. She screamed in her mind for her muscles to move, but none would. Her face didn't twitch.
"Hey! Help! Lady!" The tackler called up to her, throwing his hooves in the air to get her attention.
The limp head of Reed was oozing some black sludge from a gash in her skull, and her hair was getting knotted up in the mess. Finally, Chloe began thawing from her deep disconnect. Slowly, she rose from the lifeguard chair and walked to the water's edge. A few of the other swimmers had noticed the commotion and clambered out of the pool. The non-tackler was crying. The tackler was reaching down for Reed, trying to shake her.
"Stop. She could have a broken neck." Chloe's voice surprised her, it was raspy beyond recognition, like she had cried the day away.
The tackler looked up at her, horror written across his face, "What? No! I-I didn't mean it!"
Chloe walked into the water, which only came up to her stomach. It chilled her, a stark contrast to the broiling sun that beat against her back. The water seemed to part for the guard as she strode towards the bleeding filly.
Chloe stopped at Reed's body, her face a stoic mix of boredom and anger. She gingerly picked up the mass of green and red, heading for safe shores. Against Chloe's shoulder, she felt no breath. No shaky rattling from the back of an injured pony's throat. No sign that there was anything but dead weight fixed to her.
Chloe was unfazed. She felt like she was skirting the edge of reality and fantasy. Painful beads of light were bursting in and out of her vision. Her hooves felt like they were moving through sludge, and the distance to the edge of the pool stretched out like an endless plain of glass. It was strange. Chloe was barely conscious of a group of ponies rushing to the side of the pool with disturbed looks on their faces and words of alarm on their lips.
All things considered, Chloe felt at peace. She felt as if she may as well have been back in the chair, she was so isolated from her senses. They were far-off, like a radio operator in a snow storm. So, it was a look of complete dispassion on her face as she trudged on towards the edge of the pool with her somber burden.
Stopping at the shoreline, Chloe set the small body of Reed to dry on the baking pool deck. Her head was flattened on one side, where the entirety of the tackler's weight had pushed it against the bottom of the pool floor. Blood still flowed freely, giving the deck a semi-permanent paint job that added a certain amount of character to the pool.
The unrelenting, unending heat beat down on Chloe. The only thing she could see was the limp body of Reed crackling under the high noon. Chloe smirked. Summer couldn't last forever.