You Can Lead a Unicorn Filly to a Pool
Chapter 1: You Can Lead a Unicorn Filly to a Pool
It was a hot summer day in Equestria. It was the sort of day where thermometers clamored to the very top, and only one in a series of similar days planned out by the master weatherponies of Cloudsdale. Princess Celestia, regent of the sun and moon, leaned back, submerging herself into the cool waters of Canterlot Castle's indoor pool. Her eyes drifted lazily to the white marble ceiling a good thirty feet above her.
The pool room was large, but simple in layout. To the south, there was a restroom designed to accommodate not only herself, but guests, as well as a storage closet. To the north was the door leading to the pump room, which housed the machinery that circulated the water and kept it clean.
The doors to the pool room were to the east, and next to them was a small table for fresh towels, as well as a specially-made shelf for ponies to leave their personal possessions. It was on that shelf that her regalia now waited, set aside for her much-desired swim.
The princess stretched her wings, using them to balance herself while she let the water slip into the spaces between her plumage, soaking it from tip to quill. Few things were as disgusting as the sticky sensation of sweat-soaked feathers.
Some ponies would think that being the princess who controlled the sun and moon, and having a sun cutie mark, meant that Celestia was more tolerant of heat. There was some truth to that, admittedly, but not to the extent that the common pony believed.
Celestia did, in fact, get hot. And today she’d practically been melting on her throne when noon time rolled around. Just sitting on it had felt absolutely torturous.
These sorts of circumstances would normally make her work difficult, but thankfully, she was not alone in feeling the sweltering heat. Rather than venture to the palace to meet with her at this hour of the day, many ponies had chosen to stay indoors or in the shade, safe from the heat radiating from both the sky and the roads.
Thus, for a brief period, her workload was rendered significantly lighter, the perfect time to take a little respite. Celestia dunked her head beneath the surface, soaking her mane and horn. By the sun and moon, this feels good.
A knock at the pool room door snapped her from her blissful state. The princess frowned. Was that Kibitz? Had that much time passed already? “Enter.”
The doors opened slowly, and rather than her majordomo, a much smaller pony walked through. “Princess?” came a familiar little voice.
“Ah, Sunset.” She smiled warmly at her latest, and youngest, personal student. “What brings you here?”
“I finished the math workbook you gave me.”
Celestia looked at the filly in surprise. “Already? I only gave it to you yesterday.” The problems in that particular book were advanced for somepony Sunset’s age. Celestia hadn’t expected it to be done until the end of the week.
Sunset nodded enthusiastically. “Uh-huh. I did every single problem.” She levitated the book out of her saddlebags and floated it over to her mentor. “See?”
Celestia flipped through the pages. She’d have to examine it more thoroughly, but at first glance, it looked like every problem was correct. She teleported the book away for later study. “Very good, Sunset. I’ll grade it later today.” Her smile grew a little wider. “Your skills never cease to impress me.”
Sunset beamed. “Thank you, Princess Celestia!”
“You’re very welcome.” Celestia leaned back again, closing her eyes as her lungs filled with cool air.
“Princess?”
The alicorn’s eyes cracked open. “Yes?”
“What are you doing? I thought you’d be in the throne room doing work, and Mr. Kibitz would be telling you stuff like he usually does.”
Celestia chuckled. “Normally, that would be true. But the heat today has temporarily ground much of the usual business to a halt. And since I was feeling rather warm myself, I decided to relax in the pool.”
“But if you’re so hot, why don’t you just lower the sun? You’re the princess, so you can do that, right? Can’t you make summer not so hot that way?”
“I have been tempted to do that some days,” admitted Celestia. “But even though I move the sun and moon, I can’t just switch them around however I want. There’s an order to the day-night cycle, not to mention the flow of the seasons and the balance of weather and climate. Summer needs to be hot, just like winter must be cold, all to provide balance. Do you understand?”
Sunset pursed her lips in thought. “I think so.”
Surveying the vast size of the pool, Celestia rolled onto her stomach. “Sunset, why don’t you join me? I’m sure you’ve felt the heat yourself, and I wouldn’t mind the company at all.”
For a moment, the little unicorn hesitated, staring at the deep blue water. “Um… o-okay.” After putting her saddlebags on the shelf, the normally eager filly made a slow trot toward the short stone staircase built into the shallow end of the pool. With a few perilous steps, she descended.
Celestia closed her eyes, rolling onto her back once again and letting herself relax. That is, until she noticed something odd. Or rather, it was the lack of something that was odd. She’d expected to hear the sound of splashing or paddling, but instead, there was nothing but silence. Opening her eyes, she saw that her star pupil was still at the shallow end, sitting firmly on the steps, water only reaching up to the middle of her legs.
“Sunset, don’t you want to leave the shallow end?”
Huge cyan eyes darted to anywhere but Celestia. “Um… no, princess. I’m fine here.”
Celestia raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
Sunset gave a vigorous nod. “Uh-huh.”
Relaxation was replaced by curiosity and worry. Something was wrong. “Sunset, why don’t you come over here? It would be better not to have to shout across the pool, and maybe we could practice some spells.” Spellwork always caught the filly’s attention, and the enticement would give Celestia the opportunity to get Sunset to open up about whatever was bothering her.
To the princess’s surprise, Sunset hesitated again. She looked to Celestia, then down at the water. Tentatively, she lifted a hoof off the step, moving deeper into the pool…
… And immediately sank straight to the bottom.
“SUNSET!” Celestia shot into an upright position, her large wings sending a wave of water sloshing over the side of the pool as she rushed to the shallow end. With a flick of her horn, she grabbed the struggling filly and brought her to the surface.
The alicorn pulled her close, patting her back. “Sunset, are you alright? What happened?”
“I’m,” the filly coughed, “I’m sorry, Princess Celestia. I…” The corners of her eyes glistened with big, salty tears. “I can’t swim.”
If it wasn’t for the fact that she was holding Sunset, Celestia would have slapped a hoof to her face. Of course, Sunset couldn’t swim. She'd told her as much when they’d met. How had it so completely slipped her mind? “Sunset, if you couldn’t swim, you should have just said so.”
“You wanted me in the pool,” lamented the unicorn, still sputtering.
“Only because I’d forgotten that you can’t swim. For that, I apologize.” Celestia gave her another pat on the back, letting Sunset expel more water from her body. “Do you feel better now?”
The filly gave another cough. “Yeah.” She grimaced. “Pool water tastes weird.”
Celestia laughed, the terror that had flooded her body vanishing. “That’s from the cleaning solutions. Don’t worry, it’s not harmful.”
“Can I get out now?” asked the filly in a tiny, pleading voice.
“Of course you can, my faithful student.” Climbing up the stairs with the unicorn in tow, Celestia grabbed a couple towels from the table and wrapped them around her charge.
Another knock came at the door, and Kibitz trotted into the room. “Princess, your meeting with Sharp Suit is coming uuuuuup!” The stallion’s hooves slipped out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor with a splat.
“What in Equestria?” he groaned. Slowly, he got to his hooves. The entire front of his waistcoat was completely soaked. But the stallion didn’t care much about that. Instead, his focus was on the scroll that had fallen beneath his body.
“My schedule!” he cried. He levitated the soaked list, unfurling it to allow water to drip back to the floor. “It’s completely ruined! I’ll have to start all over and—what?” The older unicorn finally noticed the large puddle spreading out over the floor. “My word. What happened here?”
“A slight mishap,” explained Celestia. She rubbed the towels into Sunset’s coat, mane, and tail, making sure to remove any excess moisture, and completely ignoring the way the filly squirmed. “Have some of the maids come by to clean it up. And tell Sharp Suit that I’ll be there shortly.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.” He bowed again, nearly losing his hoofing for a second time before carefully walking back out of the room. Celestia could hear his wet hooves squish against the hallway rug.
There was a giggle from under the towels, followed by a shudder. “Princess, I’m cold.”
Looking back down at her student, she applied a heating spell to the towels. After a bit more rubbing, she’d declared the filly dry enough and set the towels aside to be washed. “I have a meeting to get to, Sunset,” she told her student. “Why don’t you go back to your room and work on some magic exercises? I’ll come see you when I’m done and we can go over your workbook in more detail.”
“Okay.” Grabbing her saddlebags, the filly practically galloped off down the hall, hooves splashing as she went, seeming more than happy to get away from the pool.
Watching her go, Celestia grabbed a pair of extra-large towels for herself, before heating them in her magic. With some vigorous work her coat was rendered dry, and her mane was restored to its usual billowing state. Picking up her regalia, she made her way down the halls towards the throne room.
A princess's work is never done, even during a heatwave.
Celestia was in her private quarters. Her meeting with Sharp Suit had gone exceptionally well. She’d always liked his family. Unlike much of Canterlot’s nobility, they had their heads on straight. Besides, the blue unicorn was rather charming, though that was of little surprise considering his position in Canterlot society. One simply didn’t rise to the top without some sort of charm.
To her surprise, he’d even brought his son Fancy Pants along, a colt that was only a hooffull of years older than Sunset. It was certainly unorthodox, but Sharp had wanted Fancy to learn something of Canterlot society, so Celestia had allowed it.
She turned another page of the little workbook she’d given Sunset. As she’d thought, Sunset had answered every problem perfectly, showing all of her work exactly as needed, and then some. Her personal students always did well; she wouldn’t have picked them if they didn’t have potential. But Sunset was exceptional, a true child prodigy.
The princess’s mind turned back to the incident at the pool, and her pleasant mood instantly soured, uprooted by memories of terror. She knew Sunset hadn’t been in any real danger of drowning, not with her around. But it had been frightening nonetheless, seeing the small filly drop beneath the water like a rock.
Swimming was such a simple thing, a form of exercise, a form of recreation, and also a survival skill. For as much of magic as Sunset had mastered and everything else she’d learned from Celestia’s private lessons, the very fact that Sunset was unable to swim unsettled the alicorn.
After all, Sunset had told her that she’d been swept along by a river before the two of them had crossed paths. And according to the filly's description, it hadn't even been a fast river. What if it happened again? Magic didn’t do much good if you couldn’t keep your head above water, if you couldn’t get out of it, if you couldn’t breathe.
She picked up the scroll with Sunset’s lesson plan. Perhaps a slight alteration in the curriculum was in order.
“I’m ready to learn more spells!” declared Sunset the next day, having just inhaled her breakfast with all the energy a filly could muster.
“That’s wonderful, my student,” replied Celestia, dabbing her mouth with a napkin.
“You said trans… trans-fig-ur-a-tion was next, right?” The filly gave a little hop. “The one where I turn stuff into other stuff?!”
“I did say that, yes. However, I decided to take a slight detour with your lessons today.”
The filly’s face dropped in disappointment. “Huh?”
With a flash, Celestia teleported them both back to the pool room, now clean and dry thanks to the castle maids. Several more stacks of towels had been laid on the side table, all a pure white with gold detailing at the edges. A whole new table had been brought in as well, large, round, and made of glass, along with a set of chairs. A quill and ink pot were stationed on the table’s surface.
“What are we doing back here?” asked Sunset, eyeing the treacherous water nervously. It sat like a great blue mirror in the center of the room, the tranquil surface shining from the sun coming through the high windows.
“It’s very simple, my student. After yesterday, I thought it would be best to teach you how to swim.”
Sunset took a step back, further away from the pool edge. “R-Really?”
Celestia gave her a little smile. “Really.”
The unicorn took yet another step back. “But… but what if I drown?!”
“I won’t let that happen,” Celestia told her gently. “This is for the best, Sunset. I want you to be safe around water so neither of us will ever have to worry about you drowning ever again. When we’re finished, you’ll be able to swim around this pool with ease.”
Granted, Princess Celestia had never actually taught anypony to swim before. Any time she taught at her school, it was about magic or some other academic subject. And all of her personal students in the centuries before had already known how to swim. Though in fairness, they’d all been at least several years older than Sunset was.
But really, swimming wasn’t that difficult. How hard could it possibly be to teach it to a little filly?
Setting her regalia on the shelf, she turned to the pool. “Come along, Sunset. Let’s begin.” Slowly, the two of them stepped down the stairs into the water, Celestia taking the lead while Sunset lagged behind. As they reached the last step, Celestia brought over a floatation ring and broke it out of its packaging.
It was decorated with the same colors as her mane, and covered in her cutie mark. The design wasn’t exactly to her taste. The paint job itself seemed particularly sloppy and haphazard, and the sun marks looked like they’d been drawn by foals for how crooked and off-design they were. But she supposed that’s what she got for asking one of her guards to go out and purchase a child’s floatation ring on such short notice.
“Here, you can use this.” Inflating it quickly with her magic, she placed the ring around her student. Or at least she tried to. It was proving far more difficult than expected. The ring was horribly snug, and Celestia had to levitate Sunset out of the water to get a better effect. The task was made even harder because her efforts were met with uncomfortable squirming.
The princess glanced at the packaging as she gave another push. It read “Made for fillies and colts of all ages!” in large, friendly letters.
She pushed the ring down again, inching it past Sunset’s chest and towards her waist. This was made for fillies and colts? She might need to have a talk with the manufacturer about their definition of size. Actually, it was even more ridiculous when you accounted for the fact that Sunset was somewhat small for her age.
Finally, she managed to get it around Sunset’s waist. “There.”
“Princess, it’s tight,” complained the filly as she tried to wiggle in the little ring.
“I know it is, Sunset, and I’m sorry for that. But please try to bear with it for a while.” The princess set her student back down into the water, away from the firm safety of the stairs.
The filly wiggled again. “Princess… is it supposed to be this tight?” she asked, pushing her foreleg against the ring’s surface to try and loosen its grip.
“I don’t think so, no,” answered Celestia. For a moment, she worried it was cutting off the unicorn’s circulation. “Sunset, is it just uncomfortable, or does it actually hurt? Can you feel your hind legs alright?”
The filly kicked a little under the water. “Uh-huh, and it doesn’t really hurt.” She pressed her hoof down on the ring again, still trying to wiggle her way into something resembling comfort. “But I still don’t like it.”
Unfortunately for all the ponies involved, it seemed that this particular floatation ring was not only small, but weak, and that little application of pressure was enough to make it pop, wailing like a dying animal as it deflated all at once.
“Help!” cried Sunset as she sank into the shallow end.
Celestia grabbed her with a foreleg. This was not off to a good start.
A strip of duct tape had been enough to fix the hole. And thanks to a reinforcement spell and a very precise size alteration spell, Celestia had turned the floatation device into something looser and more useful.
“I’m sorry about that, Sunset,” apologized the princess again. “If you still need it, I’ll be sure to purchase you another one tomorrow.” She’d buy it herself, in that case, a better, more trustworthy one than this thing.
And while she was on that particular train of thought, she’d definitely be having a long discussion with the manufacturer, one involving phrases like false advertising and poor production standards, not to mention a thorough inspection of their stock.
Having fixed that particular issue, the two went back in, moving out from the stairs and into the pool proper. “Alright, now you stay here,” said Celestia as they reached the point where the shallow end transitioned to the deep end. “I want you to watch me very carefully. Is that clear?”
Sunset shifted around inside her now better-fitting floatation ring. “Yes, princess.”
Celestia took off into the water, doing a few slow strokes around the pool, but always keeping close enough for Sunset to see. “Were you watching the way I moved my legs?” she asked as she returned to her student’s side.
Sunset looked uncertain, but nodded her head anyway.
“Good. Now it’s your turn.” Grabbing Sunset with her magic, she lifted her out of her floating safety net and placed her in the water, keeping her in a horizontal position.
“B-But princess, I can’t—"
“I’ll be holding onto you, Sunset,” interrupted the monarch. “I want you to kick your legs, alright? Try to do what I did.”
The filly bit her lip, but didn’t protest any further. Held in Celestia’s magic, she began moving her legs back and forth.
“Very good, Sunset. Nice even strokes. Keep doing that for me.”
A few more minutes of practiced movements, and Celestia found herself smiling. “That’s it. I think you’ve got a good grip on it. Now, I’m going to let go and you’re going to swim on your own. Are you ready?”
Sunset turned nervously to her mentor. “R-Ready.”
Celestia’s spell faded away, and Sunset took off. It was a very slow trek, but she was indeed propelling herself through the water.
Sunset’s head turned around, face beaming. “Princess! I’ve got it! I can swi—Ah!” Whatever sense of victory she felt was short lived as her little body sunk into the water, head moving below the surface. “Help! Help! Help!” Her even strokes turned into wild flails, and like the day before, she sank like a little amber stone.
Celestia grabbed the filly in her magic once again, pulling her to the surface. “Sunset, are you—” A flailing amber leg sprayed water in her face. “—Okay?”
The flailing stopped, and Sunset looked at the mare completely aghast. “Sorry!” she cried.
The alicorn let out a sharp breath of air, blowing back a sopping lock of her mane. “It’s alright, Sunset. We’ll just try again.”
They’d tried about eleven more times.
It became a strange routine of sorts. Sunset would practice kicking, Celestia would let go, Sunset would get going a short distance, then she’d sink, then she’d flail, then she’d sink harder, and finally Celestia would fish her out, and Sunset would cough up more pool water.
Sunset Shimmer let out an angry huff, water dripping from her mane and down her back. She and Celestia had gotten out of the pool again, taking another break.
They’d taken a few already, some of them because Celestia had to deal with paperwork and the like. Once had been to eat lunch. Celestia had the cooks bring over a few grilled carrot dogs for them to share, along with a whole bunch of hay fries. “Not the best kind of lunch to have,” she’d said, “but a reward for all your effort.”
Sunset had always thought carrot dogs were yummy, particularly with lots of ketchup, so she’d been happy enough to get them. But that had been after attempt number five. Whatever happiness those warm carrot dogs and fries had brought her had long since evaporated.
Since they’d already used up the towels that had been set aside before, Celestia had gone to fetch fresh ones to wrap Sunset in, leaving the little filly to stew in her own thoughts.
“I’m just not getting it,” she complained to the empty room. She looked down at the ugly floatation ring, anger rising. “Stupid ring!” She gave it a hard swat with her foreleg, sending it straight into the pool, and only got splashed in the face for her trouble.
“Bleh,” she said, spitting out the water. “Stupid pool!”
The little filly shivered, the air feeling terribly, bitingly cold against her damp coat. She hoped the princess would return soon. The last time she’d felt this miserable around water was that awful river where she’d gotten separated from her parents. That awful, cold river. Just remembering that winter night made her shivering even worse.
“Why do I even need to learn how to swim, anyway?” she complained again. Her only answer was the echo of her voice off the room’s high ceiling.
Of course, she knew the reason why. The princess wanted her to stay safe around water. She’d assured Sunset that she’d learn how to swim, and Sunset Shimmer didn’t like to doubt her princess. But right now, her future as a swimmer was looking pretty bleak if her current efforts were anything to go by.
Why couldn’t she get it like she did other things? Like magic, for example. Magic was interesting. Magic was fun. Magic didn’t get her soaked to the skin. Best of all, magic was something she was great at. If this was something magic-based, she’d have finished it in no time flat.
“Hey, wait a minute.” An idea sprouted in her head. A really great idea. “Why don’t I just use magic?”
Her big eyes lit up as the excitement of her newfound plan overtook her. “Yeah! I’ll use magic, and show the princess I can stay safe, and I won’t have to learn how to swim! And then we can forget this and go back to spells! Yeah!”
Springing to her hooves, she thought back to all the spells she knew, a list that was surprisingly long for a pony her age. Surely there was something in her arsenal that she could use to overcome this watery obstacle.
One immediately stood out. She nodded to herself. That would do. That would keep her safe from any body of water. Now all she had to do was test it out.
Sunset charged her horn, locking eyes with the pool. That big, awful pool she’d sunk in so many times. The one she’d coughed up water from. Lots and lots of weird-tasting water. The pool that made her feel miserable.
Her eyes narrowed. This would take care of the stupid pool once and for all.
Princess Celestia opened the doors to the pool room, several sets of fresh towels floating beside her in a golden aura. It had taken her far longer than it should have to track down one of the maids. She only hoped the exposure wouldn’t result in her student catching a cold. “I’m sorry it took so long, but I finally found more towels to use.”
Spotting her student, Celestia froze on the spot. Sunset was glaring darkly at the pool, horn glowing with light. An incredibly bright light that normally meant there was a major spell at play.
Worry formed in her stomach. “Sunset, what are you doing?”
The filly spared her a glance before returning to her spell. “Princess, I don’t need to swim. I can just use magic to get out. Watch!”
For a moment, Celestia wondered just what Sunset had in mind. But that’s when she felt it. There was a temperature difference in the air, heat rapidly being drawn away. Quite a lot of heat, too.
She isn’t trying to do what I think she is, is she?
Then Celestia factored in the tremendous amount of power Sunset was gathering in her horn. A horn that was aimed directly at the pool. A pool connected to a pump, which was connected to…
The princess’s eyes widened in alarm. “No Sunset, stop! If you use that much power, it could go—”
Her words came too late. The spell shot off like a cannonball, striking the pool and sending water flying. In an instant, the bright blue liquid was transformed into a block of solid ice, and the rising wave became an oversized sculpture.
Sunset beamed at her mentor as flecks of snow drifted down onto her muzzle. “See, princess? If I do this I won’t have to worry about drowning at all!”
“—Up the pipes,” Celestia finished weakly.
Sunset blinked, noticing her mentor’s horrified face. “Huh?”
The first sign was the sound emanating from the pump room. The normally low hum of the machinery turned into a shrill scream, while the pipes that served it gave way from a drastic change in pressure.
Next, there came a rumbling from the attached restroom. The cries of screeching metal were combined with the shattering of ceramic, followed by a great gushing sound. Streams of water flowed from under the door, the little ice crystals mixed in sparkling like stars.
Finally, there came similar sounds from the hallway beyond the pool room. The sound of breaking metal was followed directly by the screams of angry and frightened ponies.
“Princess, there’s some kind of flood!” cried a mare.
“It’s the Windigos!” screamed a hysterical stallion. “They’ve come back! I knew they would! We're all doomed!”
An unusually flustered Kibitz came galloping up to her, accompanied by two unicorns from her guard. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty! There’s been some kind of disaster with the plumbing system. Ice is breaking through!” he cried.
“Do you think it’s an attack, Your Majesty?” asked one of the guards, levitating his spear. “A direct assault on the castle is a bold move. I can inform the rest of the guard. Whatever this is, we’ll find the culprits in no time.”
The princess of the sun turned to look back at the three ponies, and then craned her head to see the multitude of large, wet stains on the hallway carpet, stains that were spreading out from every room along the length of the hall and beyond.
Her face was impassive as she turned back to her student. Sunset was still standing there by the side of the frozen pool, dripping in what little actual water remained in the room. “There will be no need for that,” she said, holding back a leaden sigh. “I think I know who’s responsible.”
Sunset laughed, placing a nervous hoof behind her head. “Um… sorry?”
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Hehehehehehahahah! Oh, Sunny. And here I was wondering if she was going to evaporate the water or something, what with the heat bit being mentioned.
Also, yeah, the pool ring manufacturer needs some serious investigation.
Little Sunny, I was expecting something far more drastic than a simple freezing spell.
This is such a cute story!
8972031
I think there are those that are happy it WASN'T something worse. XD
8972036
Thank you very much.
Oh, this is going to be fun.
Definitely going to follow, can't wait to see where it leads! XD
I thought she was going to do something like a forcefueld or bubble spell and jump in and have it fail for some reason. Glad it was something else.
I will say though, grown ups should never leave a kid alone by a pool like Celestia did. Glad all that happened was burst pipes.
Oh dear.
This should be interesting. Definitely following this one.
8972692
Thank you very much. Can't say you'll be tracking this one for long, since it'll be done very quickly, but I appreciate it all the same. XD
Awwwww, she's showing her attitude problems that one day will doom a High School, how cute.
Aw nice start really cute of Celestia teaching sunset how to swim
This is adorable!