68: At the Wa-derp-ark
“Ah, summer,” said Karyn. Sniffing the morning dew and feeling the cool humidity, she shut off the fan that she’d been sleeping with to keep cool. By all estimations, it would be another perfect day.
She had slept in, and hurried to take a shower. Her magical ability did not extend to disguising odor, and even with the fan and the air conditioner, she had still sweated as she slept. Once she emerged from the bathroom and returned to her room in her robe, she heard the low cough that indicated Derpy’s presence.
“Good morning!”
“And to you. Can I go visible?”
“I wouldn’t, if I were you.” Karyn poked her head out the door. “The Parent Patrol is downstairs now, but they’re around, and we don’t want them poking their heads in because we’re careless.”
“Understood. You seem happy this morning.”
“I am. Maybe for no particular reason, although we do have something special planned. Beyond that, though, here we are in the middle of summer, I have no responsibilities, and my best friend is here. What more could I want?”
Derpy smiled. She wasn’t in the best of moods herself, but Karyn’s positivity was shaking her out of it. “So what’s the special thing we’re doing?”
“My father’s taking me—taking us, of course—to the water park.”
“You mean the amusement park? We already went there.”
“It’s similar,” said Karyn, “but the rides are all water based. Perfect for a warm summer day like today. But it’s not just us. We’re going as part of his company’s picnic. That mean’s we’ve got carte blanche.”
“Oh! So it’s like a game? We take the blank card and fill it each time we go on a ride, like a scavenger hunt?”
Karyn stared for a long time before she figured out what Derpy meant. “No, carte blanche is just an expression. Not even in the same language, but there’s your crazy translation spell working. It means we can do whatever we want.”
“Really? So, fly all over and push pies into people’s faces?”
“OK, not whatever we want. Be reasonable. But you should be able to fly around. These parks usually have a lot of open spaces. I don’t know how you feel about getting wet.”
Derpy had tried to learn how to express her emotions without being seen. “It’s fun at the time, but sometimes my fur can smell afterwards. Still, we’ll go and we’ll have fun.”
Karyn ran her thumb across her throat to indicate for silence. Derpy might not have understood, but she clammed up anyway. Karyn realized immediately that there was no way that gesture would exist in Equestria, but Derpy probably had better hearing anyway. Karyn’s father entered the room. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Pretty much. Should I wear my suit there or under street clothes or what?”
“I’d like you to be in a full robe all of the time. Some people will have sons there who will leer at you.”
Karyn rolled her eyes. “I’ll be in public the whole time and I won’t go off alone. If boys want to look, they’re going to, and nop—nobody can stop them.”
If her father noticed her near-malapropism, he didn’t say anything. “All right, then, let’s go! Come on, this is going to be fun!”
Karyn effected energy and bounced down the stairs, leaving Derpy to take the long way out the window and to the car. Karyn opened the back door to let her in.
“What are you doing?” Karyn’s father asked. “You can take shotgun.”
“Oh, right. I’m just so used to having Mom in the car too.”
With another mistake covered, she got into the front seat and waited. It was over an hour to the park, but Karyn’s father was the type who thought it rude to play or talk on a cell phone while driving. Some light conversation passed between the two of them, but for the most part she just leaned her head against the glass and watched the power lines bounce up and down.
Once they arrived, Karyn stepped out of the air conditioned car into the parking lot. With the sun beating down on the blacktop, it was a blast of heat that stunned her. She wondered if the park didn’t count on that as a selling point to get people to enjoy the park. Certainly, she was ready to jump into a pool.
It wasn’t until her father checked in, got their tickets, escorted her into the park, and pointed out the changing room that Karyn was able to talk to Derpy again. “I’m sorry that we got separated like that.”
“Don’t worry about it. I got to stretch out in the back and just ride. I find that I like having someone chauffer me around. If your dad wants to do it all the time, I wouldn’t mind.”
“I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
The changing room had people going in and out of it, but once Karyn was in her bathing suit, she felt free to throw her Bluetooth in and talk. She threw her purse into a locker, deposited fifty cents, and took out the key which she hung around her neck.
“Now we have to join all of dad’s co-workers.”
“Explain to me why this is a work thing. Is your father actually doing his job here? Because I would like a job like that.”
“Ha, no,” said Karyn. “A lot of times, in companies, they’ll take a day and throw a little party for the workers. There are a number of reasons. It’s good for morale, helps the people feel more like a team, and gives some people a chance to make fools of themselves and get fired. Though that’s more likely to happen at a formal dinner where they can drink too much. And I don’t get invited to those.”
Emerging back into the bright sun, Derpy took her first look at the attractions at the water park. The towers of wood and fiberglass (though she didn’t know what that was) were the most prominent edifices, and she could see people, mostly young, coming down the water slides. She heard the splashing and wooshing into the pools at the bottom, but one thing she could not identify.
“Karyn, there’s a funny smell here. It’s not like water much at all.”
“Smell? Oh, you probably mean the chlorine. They add that to the water to keep it clean with all the bodies here.”
Derpy was still sniffing the air. “It’s a nice smell.”
“You really think so? Well, there’s no accounting for taste. Just don’t drink any of the water. The chlorine isn’t good for you. At least, it’s not good for me, and I don’t want to test to see if your anatomy is different. Also, if we go on the rides, try not to lose too much of your fur. I hope it stays invisible if it falls off.”
“Why would it fall off? I don’t shed.”
At that point, they were interrupted by Karyn’s father coming back. “Hey, there you are. I was worried that you got caught in your suit and were all tied up.”
“Real funny, Dad.”
“Come on, we’ve all got to go to the meetup thing.”
Right after the changing room was a picnic area, walled off from the rest of the park. Karyn’s father walked in without being checked for any credentials, and Karyn wondered if a clever person could crash the picnic by simply counting on everyone thinking that she knew someone else.
Whether because of her own delays in talking to Derpy or her father’s slow driving, as soon as Karyn entered a man, who Karyn figured was some high figure in her father’s company, started talking.
“All right, everyone, I’m sure you’re eager to have fun, so just two things first. Everyone pick up one of these T-shirts to wear while you’re here. They’ve got our name on them, so it serves as a kind of free advertising. Second, we’ll start serving lunch here at noon, so you’ll all want to be back by then.”
The T-shirts were piled on the other side of the picnic area, so Karyn was among the first to get one. Most others took theirs and ran off toward one attraction or another, and so she followed suit, shouting to her father that she’d meet him at the lunch.
Being older than the grade-school kids that made up most of the guests of their group, Karyn felt that she should set an example and walked slowly. Of course, her ulterior motive was to converse with Derpy.
“You look good in that T-shirt,” Derpy said.
“Yes, well, once we go on some rides and it gets wet, it’ll probably be even more obscene, from my father’s point of view, than just my suit. I may have to remember how it looks dry and maintain that form magically. It’s funny, though.”
“What is?”
“Well, my father took me here several times when I was younger, and each time we would go there would be one group or another in these kind of matching T-shirts. I always resented them.”
Karyn had stopped walking and was standing behind someone else. “What for?” asked Derpy.
“Well, they usually were ahead of me in line, so there was that. But I think more it was that it indicated that they were grouped together, and I was on the outside. Humans always tend to resent it when they’re not part of the group.”
“Ponies like being part of a group too.”
“Yes, but that’s the difference. You like it when you are; we dislike it when we aren’t.”
Derpy seemed to ponder that for a moment. “Can I ask something else?”
“Of course.”
“What are we on line for?”
Karyn had come to a halt automatically. “Ha, I didn’t realize that. I always ride this one first, because of where it’s positioned in the park. It’s a flume ride where you go down on a tube. This is your basic, utilitarian water slide, perfect for the kind of pony who’s never been on one.”
They shuffled ahead as the line moved. Halfway down, there was the area where an attendant was restacking the plastic tubes as riders came off the ride. There were single ones in perfect doughnut shape, as well as those meant for two riders that were a kind of figure-eight. Karyn surreptitiously grabbed one of those.
Down the line and up the wooden staircase, with Derpy hovering at each level so that other people could squeeze in. Everyone kept bumping their tubes against the wood or each other. Finally they reached the top. In front of the slide was a small, 2-foot pool with water rushing into it. Derpy watched each human or pair put their tube in to be held by a different attendant, then climb in and lay down, before being pushed off toward some unseen destination.
When it was Karyn’s turn, the attendant looked at her tube and said, “Where’s your second?”
“Oh, I meant to just ride alone on this one.”
“Those are supposed to be for two people.”
Karyn put on her best puppy-dog eyes. “Must I? The round ones tend to spin, and I get scared going backwards.”
The attendant gave a bored wave. Karyn looked over to where she last saw Derpy and winked. Right as she sat down in the back part of the tube, she felt the shift in weight in the front. The attendant thought it odd too, but didn’t care about that either, and shoved them off down the slide.
Neither did he care when, a few seconds later, it was not Karyn’s high lilt, but a gruffer female voice that shouted, “Whoo!”
Karyn was particularly enjoying the ride herself. Derpy had, from what she could tell, spread her wings, and every splash of the water was deflected into a mist. Moreover, the ride had not been designed for a pony’s higher center of gravity, which made the back of the tube swing wildly at each curve.
The ride was simple, just a series of repeating curves before coming in for the splash at the bottom of the pool. Karyn usually found it awkward to disentangle herself from the tube, but this time, once it had come to a stop, she felt Derpy’s hooves slipping underneath her shoulders, letting her air-swim to the edge.
That drew more looks from people around her, so Karyn quickly left that ride and found a secluded area.
“That was the most funnest, funnerific thing ever!” said Derpy. “Much better than that other park.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Well, here, there’s water. And it’s not cloud, just regular water.”
Karyn understood. Derpy could fly, but clouds were solid to her. She could never enjoy the thrill of getting wet at the same time as moving quickly. The water park was the perfect entertainment for a pegasus pony.
It dampened Karyn’s spirits to say, “That was a little awkward, though, trying to hide you among so many people.”
“Aww, but I want to go on again!”
“What if we could be in a tube again, but not going so fast?”
On the Lazy River ride, empty tubes were in among the riders, and not worth notice. If one in particular happened to cleave close to where Karyn rode, it wasn’t commented on. They were free to chat with each other so long as they kept it to low mutters.
“Ah, this is nice,” said Karyn. “Stress relief. It’s not easy keeping you secret.”
“Yeah, I guess not.”
The ride, if it could be called that, was not popular at the best of times, and just then was filled only with adults whose children were off on the more thrilling rides. The sun shone down, and Karyn enjoyed feeling it on her face and legs. She made mental notes to reapply her sunblock before they moved on. Derpy was being reticent as well.
“A bit for your thoughts.”
“Ha,” said Derpy. “Where are you going to get a bit?”
“I’ll borrow it from you. Come on, tell me.”
“I’m thinking really hard. Maybe harder than I have for a long time. About important things. Maybe this lazy river thing is good for thinking. Give me a little while, and I’ll tell you.”
They drifted along until they returned to the staircase where they got in. Walking around some more, Derpy heard the happy screams of children.
“What’s going on over there?” she asked.
“Oh, that’s the wave pool.”
“Can we try it out?”
Karyn craned her neck to look. “I really wouldn’t. It’s crowded, and it’s bad enough bumping into people where they can see you. Plus it’s probably the most dangerous ride here.”
“How? It’s just people standing in a pool.”
“Yes, but you see that weighted rope at the end? When they shake that, the waves bounce and it’s possible to get caught in them. There’s so many people that the lifeguards can’t always see if you go under. Maybe we’ll do it as the last event of the day, if there’s time. Right now, we should get back to the picnic area.”
After getting lost a few times and consulting the unhelpful signs, they found the front of the park. Derpy grumbled that the walk had taken so long that they needed another dip in the lazy river.
Once more, Karyn and Derpy had to avoid the food and limit themselves to cole slaw and bottled water. They sat at a picnic table on the end watching everyone else eat and party.
“All right,” said Derpy, “An Earth-bit for your thoughts.”
“Ha, it’s a penny. I was just enjoying this. All these people and families are here together, wearing their matching shirts. Most of the kids are younger than me, most of the adults are older than me, but I’m still a part of this. For once I fit in.”
“Yeah.”
“I get it. Now you’re the one who doesn’t, because you’re invisible. Well, if they knew you, you’d be part of the group too.”
“You think I can at least get a T-shirt?”
Karyn laughed, but right then her father slipped in with his own plate of food. “Hey, Sweetie. What’s so funny?”
“Just remembering something a friend told me.”
“Have you been having fun?”
“I have.”
“What did you do?”
Karyn ran down her rides and how she spent a lot of time on the lazy river.
“Really? When you were little, you always hated the lazy river.”
“No, I hated the fact that you would make us go on it halfway through the day when I wanted to go on more slides. When you want to relax and I don’t, then it’s annoying. When I want to relax, it’s awesome.”
Her father leaned over and hugged Karyn. “Does this mean you’re becoming an adult and losing your stamina? Don’t do it! Soon I’ll have to buy you a thirtieth-birthday gift!”
“Dad, quit being so clingy! Especially in front of everyone.”
She checked around for anyone watching her father’s embrace, but most everyone was busy eating.
“Sorry, honey. I’ve been wanting to do that ever since you first went off to college. My little girl in college!”
Karyn shoveled her cole slaw into her mouth in record time. “I’m going to head out and have more fun.”
“You’re supposed to wait a half hour before going back in the water,” her father said.
“That’s an urban myth.” She walked off, leaving her father to again contemplate how much his daughter was coming to learn.
Once more walking the paths between rides, she murmured to Derpy, “You weren’t much help.”
“I thought it was funny, you and him bonding together.”
“He was bonding. I just wanted to eat. Don’t get me wrong, I love my father. But he and I are just different. Not the way you were with your father. I mean, the way you are.”
Karyn was afraid that she had triggered Derpy’s depressive complex around her father. This wasn’t helped by the fact that she was silent for a few more minutes. But they kept walking until another water slide came into view.
“They’re not using tubes on that one.”
“What’s that, Derpy?”
“That slide. They’re just going down by themselves.”
Karyn looked. “Oh. Yes, they have both types of slides.”
“I want to do that one.”
“All right, let’s get in line.”
“I was thinking I could just fly up there and take a turn.”
“What?!” Karyn quickly had to duck down a path to avoid stairs. Once alone, she said, “I can’t believe that you would try to jump a queue.”
“But I wouldn’t be costing anyone else their turn. I would just go and no one would know.”
“I forgive you for not knowing, but that’s not how it works. Everyone goes a set period of time so that there’s no danger of running into each other. All the workers here have it down pat. If you went on the slide you could hit someone.”
“Oh, it’s a safety thing. I’ll remember that.”
Karyn felt that there was a second significance to Derpy’s words that she couldn’t understand. But she dutifully got in line with Derpy in tow.
“Have you got something on your mind?” asked Karyn. “Ever since lunch when my father was all over me—“
“Well, it kind of made me miss Dinky again. We haven’t seen her for a while. What would you say to me inviting her around or us heading to see her next week?”
“We wouldn’t be studying, would we? She’s off for summer too, right? Because I don’t even want to help a unicorn study on vacation.”
Derpy chuckled. “She’s off too. Just a fun visit.”
The lines were at peak time with families packed into the queue, and it moved very slowly. Derpy’s distraction was fitting, since it would have been unsafe to speak with everyone watching. But at last they reached the top, where Karyn realized the fault in the plan. Derpy would still have to slide down in someone’s space.
Well, it would just have to be she who took the risk. She explained in her lowest whisper that Derpy should go in front and slide down when Karyn was told to go. She would try to delay a second or two before sliding down, but to try to go fast so they didn’t crash.
It was the most stressful thrill ride that Karyn ever took. From the annoyed, “Go!” that the park worker gave her to trying to go down as slowly as possible to seeing the invisible Derpy cut through the water ahead of her, she couldn’t wait to get to the bottom and swim for the pool. It did make her happy to be able to show off the park to her friend, though.
At the end of the ride, it was Derpy who pulled Karyn aside. “I’m sure now,” she said.
“Sure of what?”
“That ponies would love this. I didn’t think that human parks would work after the last one. All that was was motion, and pegasi have that all the time. But playing in the water is a lot more limited. They’d have endless fun on a slide like that.”
Karyn shook her head. “As much fun as it would be, they couldn’t come here. They shut down the park when people aren’t using it, and the water doesn’t flow.”
“I know that. But somepony could build a park like this in Equestria. That’s why I was thinking of seeing Dinky next week. Building something like this could be a good use for the advanced magic that she’s learning at Princess Celestia’s school.”
Karyn gulped. Somehow she was going to have to steer Derpy away from pushing Dinky too hard.
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Huzzah! New chapter!
Also, very sneaky last week making us think Dinky would be visiting this chapter.
3191332 Believe you me, a heaping helping of Dinky is coming very soon.
3191398
I approve of this... of course I pretty much would approve of any new chapters of this story.
One thing I like about this story is it's examining aspects of human everyday life from a pony POV without the pony affecting said interaction.
3191700 I definitely like that dynamic. Some of my favorite things to read are travelogues of my own country. It makes me look at things that I take as ordinary and see them as amazing. Like, apparently the red plastic cups that we use at cookouts in the US are fascinating to Europeans. I try to bring that spirit to Derpy.
I dont really have anying to say, so instead I'll sing the first song that comes to mind aaaaaaaaaaand:
Most of my sweet memories
Were buried in the sand.
The fire and the pain will now
Be coming to an end.
How d you get to save me
From this desolate wasteland.
In your eyes I see the dawn
Of brighter days again.
Happy to know I'm not the only one who does that when I'm not driving and get bored.
We were wondering how Derpy's invisibility would handle excess water, seems to be good enough not to matter. We would agree that a water park would benefit Pegasus ponies as well as unicorns and earth ponies, instead of a normal park. Still, with Twilight's demonstration of aerial acrobatic spells a normal park should be fun, at least a little.
Sounds like Dinky is going to be found hiding something next chapter...
Keep going! ;)
3191726
It surprises me that there really aren't any "amusement parks" in Equestria like we have here. Or am I reading too much in the sedate po-dunk-ness of Ponyville? I know there's big cities but we never really see any of them-- an oversight I'd love too see corrected in Season 4.
3193561 There's also almost no indication of how ponies treat the sea, boats, or bodies of water in general. That's what I want to see in future seasons.
3193579
I know they have hot-air balloons and larger ones (at least in the opening credits in the background) but I'd LOVE to see if they have something massive like an air-liner, a cruiser or something like a huge Zepplin we used to have in the golden years of flight.
Derpy said it herself that while it's nice to fly, she wouldn't mind to be chauffeured around. Heh.
3193579 I think the only boat ever shown was a paper one made by the CMC. I could be wrong though but if not that at least proves they have the concept of boats.
Nice to see the idea of a waterpark for Equestria build up in Derpy's head.
And I found the funniest error until now in this chapter.
I know it should be stares, but like this I'm laughing way more.
Would be fun to leave it like this so others can laugh at that in a good way too.
Dragon
Derpy had tried to learn how to express her emotions without being seen. “It’s fun at the time, but sometimes my fur can smell afterwards. Still, we’ll go and we’ll have fun.”
Horses have hair. Fur is usually thicker and sheds seasonally. Fur often has a 'down coat' of smaller fibers close to the skin for warmth & to repel water.
Please don't feel like I'm trolling you.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090710070315AATxe42
Derpy's right. Chlorine pool water smells nice.
Oh, to be young and ignorant of how nasty public pools are once again.