The Chronicles of Summer Rain, Vol. 3 -- Follow the Equestrium

by shysage

Chapter 5, First Summer

Spring gave way to Summer, boldly announced by a singularly hot day.

Everypony woke up warm, and the Sun wasn't up very far even.

Nopony in Shysage's family liked the cold.

The girls were quickly outside, eating, playing or both. It was hard to tell. The girls stayed near the front door of their home until Summer and Shsyage came out however, and Summer told them she appreciated that.

They went on a short walk that morning. Everypony flew over the river, and then they just enjoyed a morning 'stroll'. It was a little warm for much else.

They took their time, and ate some too.

Lee saw a large butterfly, and asked Summer about it. The entire family marvelled at it's beauty for a few minutes. Then it flew away.

They were soon back at the river, and flew back over towards their home.

By noon, it was very hot, and even the slightest exertion resulted in a lot of sweat.

Rather than Sun, today it was shade that everypony was looking for. Warm afternoons were made for relaxing in the shade. That's what they did.

Sue and Lee wanted to play in the river. It was fairly low anyway, and was not moving very quickly. Shysage and Summer both felt it was probably fine. Even so, Summer went down to watch for a little while.

The girls absolutely loved the water. The river was up to Lee's back at the deepest, and so it was simply a lot of fun.

The girls splashed each other, they splashed Summer. They tried to splash Shysage.

It was so hot nopony minded. Water felt good today.

---

Shysage found a nice shady spot nearby, where he could watch, and lay down on his side in the cool grass.

After a little while, Summer joined him, by crawling up under his front leg like she had done in the past.

Shysage immediately pulled her close.

They both sighed and said "I love you" at the same time.

This is the first time they had hugged like this since they came here. They both had missed this gesture.

They could have easily stayed like that the rest of the day.

Summer saw it first.

Sue kept looking up at mommy and daddy. Then she would occasionally say something to Lu.

Summer sighed, then said she needed to get up.

Shysage sighed too, then said "reproductive physiology discussion?"

Summer rubbed Shysage's nose then said "If that means what I think it does, then yes. Sue doesn't understand what she is seeing, and she needs to."

"I love you Mare" Shysage said.

"Good, because you need to get up and stay with Lee while Sue and I talk" Summer said with a smile.

Shysage got up, and walked down to the girls, and sat down. Then he sent Sue up to mommy, and called Lee to the shore to sit next to him.

Summer and Sue walked into the house.

Lee said quietly "Daddy, is Sue in trouble?"

"No Lee, mommy just needed to explain some things to Sue" Shysage said calmly. Then he hugged Lee.

Shysage and Lee played the 'seeing game' while Summer explained pony reproduction to Sue.

Maybe an hour later, Summer and Sue came out, then hugged for a few minutes, still talking. Then Summer sent Sue back to the water.

Sue walked down to the river then said to Shysage "Daddy, mommy wants you to hug her some more. She really loves you."

Shysage hugged Sue, then Lee, then said "I really love mommy too, Sue."

Shysage walked back to where he was laying before, and was quickly laying on his side again. Summer was also quickly back up against his chest and neck, and Shysage again pulled her close.

They watched their girls however. Lee looked back at mommy and daddy once, then Sue said quietly "Lee, they are just hugging. They love each other a lot."

Sue and Lee were soon playing in the water again.

"Thanks Mare, I would not have known where to start" Shysage said quietly.

"I'll teach you some day" Summer said, without even thinking, then immediately blushed. "I didn't mean... Well, I hope to..." Summer just stopped and shook her head.

Shysage just hugged her tightly then said "Summer, every day with you is heaven for me."

Shysage and Summer spent the rest of the afternoon hugging in the shade while their girls played in the river.

It was Summer

Actually, Shysage and his Mare would lay on their side and hug like that quite a bit that Summer, and beyond. They really did miss this.

---

The Summer also found Shysage and his family taking longer walks. Lee especially was growing in her stamina daily it seemed like, and each walk could be longer.

Even so, they could always find their huge tree, and so never got lost.

They generally headed either around the city by a wide margin, or else away from the city. It was still difficult to communicate with other ponies, and so they generally tried to avoid crowds.

Still, heading away from the city, there was plenty of amazing stuff for the girls to see, and learn about.

Sue was getting very good at flying, and so once on their walk, Summer and Shysage turned around to see both Sue and Lee following them while hovering.

Sue explained that this was her idea, intended to help Lee practice her flying too. Lee was enjoying herself anyway.

Summer thanked Sue for helping her sister, and said that was fine, as long as everypony stayed close to the ground.

From that day on, this turned into a regular habit for most walks. Lee needed to be able to stay in the air quite a while before they could even think about flying trips.

Summer didn't want to rush Lee with this though.

However, both Summer and Shysage knew that sooner than later, family trips would be done flying rather than walking. This was their preference, but as parents they weren't pushing this.

---

It seemed like wherever they walked, Shysage and his family would still occasionally run into other ponies.

Shysage's family had come up with a specific approach for handling this, basically at Summer's direction. When they met one or more other ponies, Summer would sit down maybe 4 steps behind Shysage, and the the girls would come sit closely next to Summer, one on each side.

Part of this was just to show respect. Part of this was to also try to conceal Summer's potentially notorious Cutie Mark. Part of it was also to allow Summer to keep a good eye on what was going on.

The family didn't expect any problems but was still careful.

Shysage would usually try to communicate a little with each pony he ran across. His vocabulary was small, but it would only grow by trying.

On one occasion, they were actually walking around the city, still a good distance from the walls.

They ran into another pony, and the girls all sat as they usually did.

Shysage pointed in the direction of the city, then said "city, nom?"

It was a guess. Shysage knew that 'Old Pony' played with vowel sounds somewhat, and he tried this.

The response he got pleasantly surprised him.

The stallion said "Ah, Coptol"

Shysage said "Thanks" and bowed his head a little. This seemed to communicate well, and the stallion was on his way.

Once the other pony was a good distance away, Shysage said quietly "Wow, these ponies can't agree on anything. They named their capital city 'capital'."

Shysage was thinking to himself at this point, observing that they had not seen a group of ponies together that included more than one of the three main pony groups.

Summer jumped in too "Well after the 'Hearts-warming Eve' event, they were supposed to be working together, right?"

Shysage thought a minute, then said quietly again "Well we would hope so. It might have been hard for old prejudices to die over night though, I don't know.

"But Summer, I think that event happened fairly recently to this time we are in. That's very interesting."

---

Through the Summer, their 'school' activities were substantially reduced. They didn't stop entirely, but Summer was for relaxing and playing, and Shysage's Mare felt they should let the girls do a lot of that.

Shysage knew though that their 'on the floor' chalk board would not be optimum much longer.

Whenever they walked, Shysage always kept an eye out for a metal band that approximated the 'clip' thing he used in 'Equestria present' to write with, as a pony.

This simple device allows Shysage to clip a quill to his hoof. He could then use his leg muscles, and write letters and words and numbers.

Shysage wanted his girls to learn how to do this too. This one step would make 'school' a much more serious and beneficial process.

Once, on a walk, they were on the back side of the city. There was no gate on this side, just a very tall, very long, log wall. Well, there was a large guard tower on each corner. The guards payed no attention to Shysage and his family.

Still, Shysage found two small metal bands, very similar to what he was looking for, just thrown into a bush. The smithing used to make them was crude, and the edges were cut roughly, and the bands were rusty.

But they were a little springy, and the smaller one probably would work for Lee. This was an excellent find.

Shysage carefully rolled his front leg into one for the trip to the house. The other one was soon sitting on Lee's leg. The rest would happen after they got home, at some point. It would take a little work anyway. But he had the bands, which were the important part.

Well, they also found something else during one Summer walk, which Shysage knew would also come in handy.

They were actually far away from the city on this particular day.

Walking past a bush, Shysgage's eye caught a glimpse of something. He actually backed up a little. He quickly pulled it out. It was a bucket. The metal-work was crude, but it looked like it would hold water well, and that was the important thing.

It was intended for ponies to use, of course; it had a large metal handle that could be easily slid over a ponies' neck.

Once the handle was over the neck, the pony just walked into the water to fill it, then move it to where it needed to be, then put their head down and the large handle fell off their neck.

This particular bucket had a few rusted through holes most of the way towards the top rim, and it was probably discarded for this reason.

Bit it would work fine for Shysage's family. The handle was quickly around Shyage's neck until they got to the house. Once there, he headed down to the river and rinsed it out a bit, then filled it to the holes, and carried it into the house.

Facing the wall near the door, he put his head down. The bucket of water was on the ground, and the handle just sat against the wall. Anypony could get a drink now if they wanted. It wasn't 'running water' but still...

---

For most of the Summer, when the family went for walks, Sue and Lee would hover for as long as they could.

Summer and Shysage both kept track, and Lee was able to hover longer with each walk it seemed.

Summer just wasn't sure though, and tried taking Lee up higher near the house a few times. Lee seemed to be doing ok, but Summer didn't want Lee to be over the tree-tops and find she was out of breath.

Summer decided that the solution was to walk far away from their tree, and try to find a very large meadow. They would then fly around this meadow for a while, at progressively higher elevations.

Summer asked Shysage about Summer finding such a meadow.

Shysage did not want Summer to leave by herself though.

This is what they decided. The girls would remain on the ground, near their house. Shysage would fly up very high, so he could see both the girls and Summer. Summer would find a meadow and come back.

Everypony agreed it wasn't optimum, but neither Summer nor Shysage wanted to take any chances with Lee.

The 'recon' worked well, there was a huge meadow north of their home, essentially past the three rocks where they started their flying lessons. Summer was quickly back, and all was well.

The next day, they all hovered all the way to the meadow. It was a lot of fun, and a good workout too.

Shysage parked in the center of the meadow, and Summer just led the girls in a large circle around the meadow, maybe twenty feet up in the air.

It was clear Sue could do this all day, but her sister was smaller, and was having trouble.

Shysage went and got Sue, and she sat with him for a while, so Summer could focus on Lee. That proved an excellent move.

Lee could fly high, but not as fast as Sue, and quickly became winded at Sue's pace. At her own pace, Lee was an excellent flyer, and she and Summer were soon flying consistently at around 50 feet up.

For the rest of the afternoon, while Summer and Lee flew large circles, Shysage shadowed Sue as she flew around near the center of the meadow. Shysage asked her to keep completely away from Lee's flight path. Well, he had to keep asking Sue to slow down too. It must run in the family.

This first time to this meadow, when they were done, they all just hovered back.

They went back to the meadow the next day, hovering on the way, and played in the air over that meadow.

On the way back, everypony just followed Lee, who was under strict orders to take her time, and their return trip went fine. And it was a lot faster than walking.

Summer flew next to Lee the whole way, and kept checking up on how her energy level was doing. Lee was doing fine at her own pace.

Their huge tree was easy to see and hard to miss.

The rest of that Summer, they did not fly anywhere else besides that meadow. Lee had mastered that trip, and knew the way. They did not want to push her too hard. As ponies go, Lee was still young.

Even so, playing in the air over that meadow was family fun. And the sheer joy Lee beamed at what she was able to do in the air was priceless. Both girls got a lot of hugs for their progress in the air that Summer.

The last few times they went before the weather turned ugly again, they would all just shadow Lee. It was a lot of fun, for Lee and everypony else.

Lee reminded Shysage of his Mare in a lot of ways. Lee's frame was also 'slight', and it was clear Lee would not be a big pony. Still she was quickly becoming a very skilled flyer.

Sue was a good flyer too. She was quite a bit bigger than Lee, partially because she was older. Sue was a much stronger flyer as a result. Shysage guessed Sue would probably be a bigger pony as well.

Flying trips over unfamiliar terrain would have to wait however. Sue could probably handle that now, but Lee could not.

The family would wait for her.

---

Little has been said about pony hygiene, and not much needs to be said. Ponies are a very hardy breed, after all.

In the Equestria Girls world, there is simply a dazzling number of fashion and hygiene items, and some are definitely required.

It seems that both sides of the Portal agree in treasuring one particular item however -- a hair brush.

In Equestria, this is intensely practical. Especially if a ponies' mane or tail gets wet, it could get matted quickly. In addition, spending any time outside tends to leave small bits of the forest tangled in their hair.

Some ponies just don't care, and their mane shows it. Most do care, and try to take care of their hair as best as they can.

While in the Equestria Girls world, Summer quickly fell in love with the ability to grab a hairbrush with her hands and quickly have her hair look amazing. Well, Summer's hair looks amazing anyway, but still.

Most ponies in Equestria also own a hair brush, usually with a sort of clip attachment similar to what Shysage uses for writing. Still, it is awkward to use on yourself. Pony legs don't always bend the way they need to for this task.

Unicorns have it so much easier in this regard. The ability to use magic to hold the brush makes the entire task so much simpler. This is just as good as having hands, maybe better.

For Earth Ponies and Pegasi, it is just very difficult.

Having somepony else brush your hair is a lot easier. Shysage would be willing to bet that Rarity probably spent a lot of her time doing just this. Shysage knew 'Rare' was such a gem.

When Summer and Shysage started working on stories, Summer would just use Shysage's hairbrush when she was at his house. He added a specific angle to his hairbrush that made the task a little easier.

As they began to draw closer, they would actually brush each other's hair on occasion. Practically, it was just a lot easier.

It quickly became one way they could simply and easily show each other, they were putting each other first. That's what true friendship is all about.

For Summer and Shysage, this simple task ultimately became an act of devotion, treasured by both.

When they received the bench / table here in the past, Summer and Shysage began using their fingers to keep both each other's and the girl's hair straight, and also enjoyed the time. Still, it took a while, and required that somepony be in their 'people' form so they had fingers.

During these warmer months, Shysage knew he had to come up with a better brush, one that would much more quickly, but gently untangle the hair of the mane and tail.

He was looking for a pine cone, with specific characteristics. It had to have no sap on it, of course, and it had to have small 'flutes', the part of the pine cone that held the seed in.

He didn't know the pine tree family well enough, or he would know what tree to look for. Not knowing, Shysage was just always on the look-out for pine cones.

That Summer, Shysage collected a lot of pine cones. When he found one or a few that looked like they might work, he would ask his Mare to change to a 'people', pick it up, and tuck it or them under one of his wings.

Summer would also usually scratch the point where his wings joined his back, which felt very nice. Summer was just amazing like that.

Anyway, once back at the house, Shysage would spread his wings, which dropped the pine cones, and he would add them to his growing pile in the house.

On the next cold day, when they needed to stay mostly inside, Shysage would see what he could do about a better brush. This was sort of a winter project. He had more than one of those...