***Day 8, just after noon*** (Yes, a lot of chapters start at this time but frankly after noon is when everything interesting happens right now. This is subject to change as we go on.)
Well, it’s a day late but look what we have here: an earth pony meeting me after work. Strangely though, I expected it to be Pinkie Pie but I suppose with the mood I’m in Hydro is probably the better result. Really though, does everypony know when I get off work or something?
Hydro speaks first as he walks up to me, “Hey, you ok?”
I try to speak but nothing except a raspy noise comes out of my mouth. I clear my throat and try again, I’m able to use words this time but still a large amount of rasp, “Throat’s been bugging me a bit.”
He adopts a sympathetic expression, “Sorry to hear that dude… does it hurt?”
I shake my head, “Not really, just a weird pressure at the back of my throat with a hint of dryness. Luckily this whole difficulty talking thing started at the end of my shift so I was still able to work.”
“That sucks… Hey, think you might be up for a little trip out to the lake? Pinkie and Rainbow Dash invited us, Volt, and the girls to go cool off and have fun.”
Tempting… but frankly all I feel like doing right now is going home, eating a bowl of ice cream to help my throat, and taking a nap to sleep it off. Hanging out with friends means talking and I feel it might be best to avoid that right now.
I shake my head again but make sure to look regretful, “Maybe some other time, I’m not sure I’m up to it right now.”
“I think I may be able to convince you.” He says with what could be easily described as a mischievous grin.
I raise an eyebrow at him.
You’re lucky I’m still in sort of a good mood right now. Well, I suppose it’s my fault for being open to bribes on silly decisions like this where I’m mostly on the fence about it. Let’s see what he has in mind.
He continues after a moment, “What if I told you that in return for ponying up and going to the lake I could give you something you’ve been trying to find for years now.”
That narrows it down, normally I either obtain it or move on. Only certain things make my “list of things to pursue for an extended period of time”… though it’s less pursue and more “keep an eye out for.”
“Go on.”
He continues in a teasing tone, “A particular substance that you’ve only been able to get in small quantities before now and have always regretted not finding a large source of…”
My eyes slowly widen, “You don’t mean…”
He smiles, “Yes…”
“But I looked everywhere for that and I could barely ever find miniscule amounts…”
More teasing and smiling with a hint of smugness, “Suffice to say I found a little place off the beaten path that has what you’re looking for.”
I am now officially excited, “Well don’t just stand there! Tell me where this mysterious place is so I can go get the stuff!”
“Ah ah ah,” He shakes his head, “Here’s the deal, I’ll tell you where to find this place only after our time at the lake.”
I think about this for a moment, “Toss in a sample now and you have a deal.”
“I thought you might say that,” he says, reaching into his nag and pulling out a large container of… the stuff.
You could practically hear the angels singing in my head.
Yes! It’s too beautiful for words… Come to papa!
I grab the container and immediately start trying to get into it.
Hydro chuckles at me, “Alright, come on. You can get into it while we head to the lake.”
I’m too preoccupied to answer him, but I follow him anyway.
We arrive at the lake a short time later, the girls and Volt having beaten us here but that was irrelevant as I had gotten the container open and was pleasantly occupied. I had just finished up when we approached comfortable hailing distance. On the way, Specter had sniffed the container of the stuff but he pulled a face that makes me think it just wasn’t his thing. Rainbow dashed out to meet us as Specter zipped up the nearest tree to play.
She brakes quickly and hovers before us raising her hooves in the air, “Finally! You guys were taking so long I thought you weren’t going to show up!”
Hydro is leading so he gets to answer, “Heh, sorry about that, I had to convince Rhino to come along.”
The others walk up as Rainbow asks, “Convince him? How?”
Hydro looks back and gestures at me, “Well- dude did you seriously finish all of that on the way over here?”
I look back at the now empty container then back to him, “I have no regrets.”
Hydro facehoofs. Rainbow cocks her head to the side, “What is that anyway?”
Hydro looks back at her, “I bribed him with a big jar of strawberry applesauce.”
I interject, “And it was delicious!”
All the girls give me a questioning look before Rainbow seems to have something occur to her, “Wait, why didn’t you want to come with us anyway?” She narrows her eyes at me.
I’m still basking in post strawberry applesauce euphoria though so I ignore the stare and just speak frankly, “My throat was bothering me and I could barely talk, I was just going to head home.”
The suspicious look does not subside, “You sound fine to me.”
I shrug, “I guess a nice coat of cool strawberry applesauce is just what my throat needed, either way I’m not complaining.” Subject changing time! “So, Pinkie, was there a reason you wanted to come to the lake today or was it just a spur of the moment thing to spend time with your friends?”
Our resident living embodiment of cotton candy pounces on the question, “Dashie and I figured we could all have a bit of fun here at the lake and we figured since you boys and Volt were new that we could show you one of our favorite spots. Come on, follow us!” And away she bounces.
As we pass the group, who look to be going to set up along the shore, Volt and I brohoof in greeting resulting in me getting a static shock from him. He looks at me sheepishly and says, “Sorry, that tends to happen a lot. Doesn’t help that I still have a bit of leftover charge from yesterday’s power line incident.”
I simply look at him a second before shrugging and continuing to follow Pinkie, Rainbow, and Hydro. We don’t go far seeing as I could still see the others from our perch on a hill that leads to a cliff on the shore on the lake. Other than the elevated position about one story higher than the rest of the group, I really don’t see any difference between this spot and other spots.
“So… what are we supposed to be seeing?” I ask.
Rainbow answers, “Look down into the water, you can see right through it from here…”
I give her a questioning look then poke my head over the edge of the cliff to look into the water as Hydro and Volt do the same. I look for a moment before questioning her claim, “I’m not sure I see-”
*thump*
I get cut off by what feels mysteriously like two hooves bucking me off a cliff.
*KER-SPLASH*
Well at least I avoided belly-flopping… right, I should probably surface now.
I gasp as I break the water’s surface, a red blur and a splash sound announce the arrival of Hydro. I look up to see Volt just beginning the merry ride Hydro and I just finished.
Wait, something occurs to me… electric pony… carries a charge… water… this will not end well.
*crackling electricity sounds*
***Third person for a moment as being shocked tends to clear one’s head***
As Volt touched the water small arcs of electricity can be seen originating from him and radiating for about 10 yards in every direction in the water. This electricity reaches Hydro and Rhino almost instantly and renders all three unable to do more than twitch for approximately 5 seconds. The charge dies off after that.
***Back to first person!***
Note to self: Careful around Volt and water as he has the potential to be a living joy buzzer bomb.
I regain my breath as Pinkie dumps a bucket of absorbent balls on our heads, you know those one where they will absorb water only if you hold them under and squeeze them. The rest of the girls had moved into the shallows and look on with concern. Applejack speaks for them.
“You fellas okay, that looked kinda bad.”
I shake off the last effects as I answer, “Tingled a bit but we’re fine.” I look over to Volt, “That happen to you often?”
He nods, “Shocking, isn’t it?” He says with a grin.
I stare at him a moment before looking at Hydro, both of us thinking the same thing. We then proceed to each bean Volt in the head with a nearby ball for that last pun. The grin stayed but turned a little more sheepish as Hydro was readying a second shot. A sudden shot from off to the side interrupts Hydro by coming within a few inches of his nose.
We look off to the side to see the girls looking at Pinkie who had her usual grin on her face as she picked up another ball. She looks at us as she hoofs the ball to Rainbow, “What? It looked like fun.” She then tosses a ball to Applejack as well.
I’m really not comfortable with how many of them are now armed, the smile on Pinkie’s face isn’t helping.
What follows is laugh-filled, ball-dodging brawl with friends the likes of which can never be seen again, until the next time it happens. Applejack makes up the forefront of their forces with her straight shots, Rainbow providing air support and sometimes air strikes when we take cover. Pinkie Pie keeps popping out from behind random rocks and spots in the lake taking pot shots, while Rarity refuses to actively participate and instead recovers fallen ammo while Fluttershy distributes it with supply drops. Twilight evidently discovers her inner troll, as she would only occasionally through a ball but it always seemed to be the one that kept any of us from finishing off the other team by either distracting us with counter fire or just plain deflecting our shots. I glide around on Res, Blinking occasionally whenever they triple team me. Hydro is pretty much my team’s version of Applejack except he flows around more while she plants herself. Volt is relatively limited at first, apparently the splash down earlier shorted out his magic. As it slowly comes back he figures out an entertaining way to use the small charges into his shots so they discharged whenever they impact, causing whoever is nearby to twitch just enough to throw off whatever they were doing.
This goes on for a bit until Pinkie calls for a snack break. She goes over to a basket of unknown origin and starts handing out sugary delights of all varieties. To quote her, “Cupcakes, candies, and pies, oh my!” I snack on some chocolate cupcakes with vanilla icing since I was still a bit full from my jar of goodness earlier. Hydro finishes and approaches me with an interesting proposition.
“Hey Rhino, what do you say to one last round?” He says, gesturing his head to the balls.
Our little mental link kicks in again as I respond, “One on one, sudden death, one hit you’re out?”
“Exactly,” he nods.
“Any restrictions?”
“No Blinking, the spell not the action,” Curses, he found the loophole, “ Res is allowed but you have to have a minimum on both of us to walk on the water.”
Hmm that’s going to be draining unless…maybe if I switch a few of the runes around…
I give my counter-offer, “What if instead of the usual precise Res, I put a general casting of it on our hooves so that if they touch the surface of water we can walk on it, but if any other part of us touches it we fall into it?”
He nods, “Sounds good.”
“And since this is your turf, am I still allowed to use Res to its usual extent?”
He thinks for a moment, “Hmmm, alright, but no using magic to directly affect shots, other than actually throwing them.”
I nod, “Agreed.”
We shake hooves and head down into the shallows as I cast the general Res on us. As I mentally feel the circles forming on our hooves, the others line up on the shore with Specter watching from Fluttershy’s head. We stand 10 yards away from each other and prepare ourselves, a smooth patch of lake is our arena. Pinkie starts the match.
She pulls out a cone and shouts into it, “Ok the match will begin on the count of cupcake!”
Volt remarks to her, “We don’t have time to count to cupcake. Just count to pie.”
Pinkie sighs, “Fine.”
What the hay are those two talking about?
She tries again, “Alright then, chocolate, muffin, PIE!”
We both circle each other, our steps sinking slightly into the water but not breaking the surface as we weigh each other’s movements waiting for the opportunity to strike or counter. I throw a quick test shot to see what defenses he’s thinking of, he simply stops moving to let the shot pass him by and returns one of his own. I mimic his dodge.
Inconclusive, but broke the tension, let’s get to the good part shall we?
I decide to power up Res and start strafing him. I fire enough shots at him to where he can’t just dodge them, but then he simply ducks his head to touch the water so he falls into the lake.
Crafty, can’t hit him while he’s down there.
I slow down a bit trying to see where he is.
What is he up to… I hate how long he can hold his breath… Is that-WOAH!
I pull back as a ball rockets out of the water where my head was a second earlier.
I guess some of the balls sank, clever. Uh oh, well, here we go!
I see a number of growing shadows in the water heading my way and use Res to start gliding over the water at a little over jogging speed, I have to keep the speed that low to remain maneuverable. The shots start shooting up around me as I try and wait him out, though some of them get uncomfortably close. Thankfully not Pinkie close. This continues for about another minute or so until Hydro finally comes up for air.
There you are, time for offense again.
I grab a ball and start spinning it in my magical grip then send it to the surface just in front of Hydro. He smirks when he thinks it’s going to fall short, I smirk bigger because I know it will. The ball hits the water in front of Hydro, but, thanks to the backspin I put on it, it then shoots up towards Hydro’s face. His eyes widen as the smirk disappears when he dodges again, but not by much this time. I keep him on the defensive with a mix of normal shots and more spinning one designed to miss and then come back.
That ought to keep the pressure on.
This continues for about 2 minutes, the group on the beach following us with their eyes as we move around the field of combat. Just as I feel the pressure’s getting to him, he scoops up 4 balls at once and lobs them my way, forcing me to move and thus cease fire. He does a few more cluster shots at me, keeping me going full speed, once he launches them I have to move a good bit away from where I was.
We stop and look at each other, both of us winded due to the first war with the girls, followed by getting full stomachs then going all out for the last 10 minutes against each other, plus me holding up the spell keeping us from just falling in the water. Directly in front of each of us are two balls. We keep our eyes on each other as we slowly pick up the balls and back up three steps. The wind picks up as we have an unsaid conversation, finishing with a nod. We begin the final moves.
We launch our opening shots straight at each other, the force of the collision creating a mist cloud between us as we launch the follow ups. I launch mine straight through the mist hoping for a decisive victory. As the mist clears, I look to Hydro questioningly but he seems unscathed.
Wait, where did his-
*splat*
I feel a wet splat on my head as a ball falls on it. Hydro apparently went for a lob shot, and I neglected to move. I bow my head in defeat.
*stop the music*
I hear applause from the beach as Hydro and I head back to rest up.
Looks like we put on a good show.
“That was awesome!” exclaims Rainbow.
“An excellent performance.” Rarity complements.
“That was almost as good as the rodeo.” Applejack says.
“Yay,” softly shouts my favorite pegasus.
“What a great match!” Twilight approves.
Volt just nods his head while munching on a pie slice.
Pinkie has the most to say, imagine that, “That was so cool, you guys were stare, zoom, woosh, splash, woah, foosh!” she makes all kinds of gestures during this… narrative. “Hey what did it feel like to walk on water?”
Hydro answers, “This time, it kind of felt like walking on jello.”
Well at least it’s better than that time I made it feel like walking on ice.
Pinkie jumps into the air and gasps then runs over and gets in Twilights face. “TWILIGHT! I know what your next spell should be! You should totally turn the lake into jello! Think of it… jeeeelllllooooo.” She extends that last word while looking directly into Twilight’s eyes not blinking.
We all laugh at her lovable antics. We spend the rest of the time doing our own things, I relax in the shallows with Fluttershy while Rarity lounges on the shore talking to Twilight who is reading with Volt looks to be asking Twilight a few things as well. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie all have fun doing any number of things in the lake, often randomly teaming up on one pony or another at random times. It just has an all-around feeling of friendship and contentment. We had just gabbed all of our stuff when Spike comes running up to our little group with a letter in hand.
His words are staggered as he tries to catch his breath, “Twi…light… Twi… phew… Princess… letter… urgent…” He thrusts the letter towards Twilight as she levitates it over to herself and opens it.