We'll Go Down Together

by Petrichord

If we go down

It turned out that a beach could be fun without a beach ball.

Not what Pinkie would have expected; she would have thought it mandatory a few months ago. The picnic basket seemed mandatory, too. And the shovels and pails, the cheap plastic snorkels, even the flippers and water wings. It was all part of the plan, and - even if Pinkie wasn’t much one for plans, per se - parties required planning, and she was always one for parties. Parties were a big deal, and certainly never a spontaneous thing.

And yet...this trip to the beach was spontaneous. It wasn’t expected, it wasn’t a preplanned gala, it wasn’t a grand celebration expertly calibrated for maximum fun. But it felt like a party, even if it was anything but.

Sand stuck to her hooves as she darted across the beach. It seemed endless, a strip of tan that embraced ocean and horizon alike in an infinite hug, a white and blue singularity blemished only with a bright dab of pink. Part of her wanted to run and run, see just how far the beach could take her, far beyond where the beach umbrellas and tofu-dog stands and discarded bottles of suntan lotion should have been.

But it seemed pointless to run. There wouldn’t be anything new to see, not for a mile at least, and probably not for a while besides that. And there wasn’t anywhere to go but here, this little pocket paradise. Alone.

“Pinkie!”

Well, almost alone.

“Come on, Shiny!” Pinkie shouted, the giddy squeal of her voice muffled slightly by the ocean breeze. “Don’t you want to find out how warm the water is?”

“Yeah!” he yelled back, an ear-to-ear grin almost successfully drawing attention away from his dorky blue swimsuit. Unnecessary, of course, or at any rate it should have been unnecessary. Who was going to get them in trouble, the fun police?

Not that there were any fun police, of course. Or anypony else, for the matter. For a second or two, Pinkie forgot about the pocket paradise she and Shining Armor had thrown themselves into, forgot about everything but the conspicuous absence of anypony else-

-And then Shining Armor barreled past her, kicking up a spray of sand as he went, laughing an unpracticed and giddy laugh. The thoughts drifted out of Pinkie as quickly as they had blustered in, and Pinkie laughed with him as she turned back towards the blue horizon and raced him to the ocean.

Against a different filly, Shiny might have won. He was strong, of course; beneath his coat was nothing but muscle, courtesy of the military lifestyle, and it wasn’t hard to guess that he treated his body like a proverbial temple. But Pinkie was fast; she knew this, and he knew this, and Pinkie suspected that part of him wanted her to win anyway.

So she did. Kicking up sand in her wake, she overtook him - one pace, two, three, and then the sand beneath her hooves gave way to the ocean. Her giggle gave way to a shriek of surprise, then a squeal of delight as she leapt as far into the waves as she could. Water broke her eighteen inch free-fall: only a few notches above ice-cold, despite the high sun and higher temperature, and her legs flailed as she pushed her head above the surface again.

Pinkie turned around. There Shiny was, inches away from the water, gasping for breath between bouts of laughter. Anypony else, and Pinkie might have suspected that they were laughing at her: her doubtlessly waterlogged mane, her flailing limbs, her simple smile. But Shiny hadn’t taken her to this beach to laugh at her - he had taken her so they could swim like a couple of klutzy loons, giggling and snorting and splashing about water, a pair of overgrown children with no future to worry about and no reason to behave themselves.

“Come on in!” Pinkie chirped, waving a hoof at him. “The water’s really, really cold!”

“Aren’t you supposed to tell me the water’s warm?” Shiny smirked, though not unkindly.

“It’s warmer than it could be!” Pinkie replied.

“Warmer than a blizzard outside the crystal empire?”

“Warmer than a midnight stroll through a desert!”

“Warmer than a holiday in Yakyakistan?”

“Warmer than Queen Chrysalis’ heart!”

“Okay, you convinced me.” Shiny grinned, then whooped and charged into the ocean. His childish whoop turned into a yelp of surprise as the water washed up over his fetlocks, but it didn’t stop him from plunging forward until only his neck and head remained above the surface.

“See? Told you!” Pinkie giggled. “Though a Yakyakistan holiday miiiiight have been cutting it a little close.”

“Oh, you little sneak!” Shiny laughed, before his foreleg swung just under the water’s surface. A heady splash of water caught Pinkie right in the face, and she sputtered and spat out water before returning fire with an impish grin.

And so began the greatest water war in Equestrian history. No ponies had ever made more eddies in such a short period of time, for the ocean waves simply couldn’t contain the number and size of the splashes that Pinkie Pie and Shining Armor made. Two sets of hooves lashed out unceasingly against the water’s surface, kicking a saline spray to the breeze as Pinkie and Shiny doused each other with foamy vengeance. Nothing was spared; every eyelash, every lock of mane and patch of fuzzy coat was waterlogged before they were halfway done, and it wasn’t until she was far beyond the point of utterly drenched that Pinkie realized Shiny had stopped splashing back and was bobbling idly in the waves, half-lidded gaze hung limply towards the sapphire sky.

Pinkie couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him this relaxed. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember the last time she had felt relaxed quite like this, or the last time she had gone somewhere to relax, or - for that matter - what time it was anymore. She couldn’t remember how many hours had passed since she had gotten on the train that morning, or when the cab Shiny had sent picked her up, or even how many bags she had brought with her.

Not that any of it mattered now, though. She was here to have fun, and so far it felt like she had thoroughly succeeded. With any luck...

Pinkie sighed and relaxed in a spread-eagle float on the water’s surface. It turned out that a water fight could be fun without water balloons or super soakers. Not what pinkie would have expected, but even if it wasn’t a party, it certainly felt like it.

Comments

[Hap]

I confess, I'm really not sure where this is going. There is basically nothing here beyond two ponies playing in the surf. Nothing but the here and now. No reason, no justification, just a very Pinkie point of view.