Ponies on Earth and their New Horizons

by TikiBat

Chapter 16: Poolside Bonding

Their suite was about as average as a hotel room could be, with all the amenities they could ever need. You had the basic stuff like a couch, one large bed for the three of them, a mini fridge, a more than spacious bathroom, and a TV that would probably go unused. At the end sat a small balcony, though given Orion’s newfound love of climbing, the door to that would stay securely locked.

As much as she hated to draw comparisons, Scarlet couldn’t help but find these accommodations a little lacking compared to the hotel they had stayed at in Michigan, but she supposed that historic inns were always going to be a little different than fancy chain hotels. Still though, she couldn’t complain about their room, it had all of the things that the trio would ever need during a vacation, and more importantly, they weren’t technically paying for it… at least not out of their own personal family budget. She glanced over to the bathroom where Silver had disappeared off to, and then over to Orion who was snuggled up on the couch with an assortment of his toys. A warm smile came to her face as she stood up and trotted over to the foal.

“Were you this cute for daddy while I was gone?”

“Mommy!” He answered back, not answering her question but still making her heart melt all the same.

“That’s right Orion! You’re such a smart kid!”

The foal pulled one of his toys close; the plush that almost resembled their dog.

“You miss Cosmo already eh? Well don’t worry, uncle Diamond said he’d take good care of him until you got back.”

Orion squeezed the stuffed animal closer and then turned his attention over to the glass sliding door.

“You wanna go take a look at where Daddy’s going to for a little bit?”

The question was of course rhetorical, as Scarlet scooped him up onto her back anyways and slowly walked to the window. A big open plaza sat nestled between two hotels and the convention center, and a blue stretch of pavement that wound its way between gorgeous landscaping led up to the center’s entrance doors. The plaza was for the most part empty, but she could already envision the crowd of people that would likely be present later in the day when the real big events started. Having only ever gone to conventions a few sparse times as a human, she was initially confused when Silver had said that the convention would be more active in the late afternoon to early evening. Though his secondhand explanation about this particular convention being meant for both ponies and humans made the timing feel at least a little more understandable.

She couldn’t imagine that there would be too many night ponies there, but scheduling the big stuff around when they’d be awake to enjoy it was a nice gesture in an otherwise human centric area. Silver however, would have to conduct his business in the late morning, which of course meant that he’d be getting pretty sleepy when he was supposed to be negotiating some deal, and Scarlet could already envision him frantically fretting over every little detail as his groggy mind over-thought things.

The muffled sounds of activity in the bathroom suddenly stopped and the distinct sound of a door opening pulled Scarlet’s attention back over to the front of the room.

“Think I look good?” Silver asked as he stepped out of the bathroom.

Scarlet glanced up at him, smirking at his professional looking business outfit and brushed back mane. “You’re asking me hon, so you know the answer is always going to be that you look gorgeous.”

The stallion blushed at her comment, earning another smirk from her. “Now if you’re asking me if you look professional? Yeah, you look more than professional.”

It wasn’t uncommon for ponies to wear clothes, but for Scarlet, the nice collared shirt that Silver was wearing looked very out of place. It wasn’t a bad kind of out of place, just unusual for the otherwise laid back and relaxed stallion.

“You think so?” He asked, breaking her from her thoughts.

“Mhmm,” she nodded her head. “I know so. Sure it’s a little different than usual, but it’s not bad at all.”

Silver pulled the mare into a tight hug and smiled. “You really know all the right things to say, you know that right?”

“Of course I do, and you do the same for me.”

He broke his embrace and nodded. “Two halves coming together…”

“And making something great,” Scarlet completed for him. She glanced down at Orion and gazed lovingly at him. “And I’d say we’ve done a great job at that.”

“Agreed.” Silver laughed. “To be completely honest, I wish this was just another fun family vacation that we didn’t have to break up with work…”

“Hey it’s all good,” Scarlet reassured him. “It’s just tonight, then we have two more days to do whatever big fun thing you’ve got planned.”

“You don’t mind me going to do work stuff?”

Scarlet let out a loud laugh. “Silvie, I went off to do work stuff for a whole month, I think I can handle a few hours with Orion.”

Silver perked up. “I guess you do have a point there. This just feels more… vacationy? It just feels like the kind of thing I don’t want to step away for… but hey, you’re right. It’s just a few hours and then we can have two and a half days of fun.”

“That’s the spirit Silvie!” Scarlet cheered. “Now go out and get 'em, we’ll be here when you get back.”

Silver grinned. “Will do! Now so you two have anything fun planned for while I’m gone?”

Scarlet glanced over to the window and smirked, “Yes actually, I was thinking of taking Orion down to the pool for a bit.”

“That sounds like a blast,” Silver got close to Orion. “What do you say little buddy? Does that sound like fun?”

The foal giggled. “Swimmy!”

“I think that’s a yes.” Silver laughed. “So tell you what, I’ll get the boring business stuff out of the way and let you two have your fun, sound good?”

Scarlet pulled Silver into another embrace, giving him a kiss goodbye. “Sounds good to me. Now go have some fun with all the science geeks.”

As Silver trotted to the door, Scarlet looked back over to Orion. “Alright little star, so what do you say? Swimmy time?”

“Swimmy time!” he cheered while jumping around Scarlet.

Scarlet laughed and shook her head. “Alrighty then, just need to get you ready.”

She walked over to the small bag they had packed and rummaged around for Orion’s lifejacket. Taking a quick glance back at the foal, she shifted her position to block the life preserver from his view. As much as Orion absolutely loved to swim around, he hated wearing a life preserver and wasn’t afraid to make that very clear to his parents.

Taking a breath, she tucked it under her wing and turned towards Orion, quickly trotting over to him. “Alright Orion, are you going to be good for me today?”

The foal didn’t respond, but glanced to the side quickly, clearly having at least a small idea of what was about to happen. Scarlet anticipated though, and before Orion even had a moment to run off, she had slipped the jacket over his head and was trying her best to close it before he could wriggle free. The foal let out a loud hiss and flared his wings, which unintentionally aided Scarlet in slipping them through the wing cutouts.

“Orion!” She shouted, switching into her well practiced stern bat mode as Silver had jokingly called it. “You need to hold still or we won’t get to go swimming!”

The foal thrashed and wriggled, but to no avail, he was secured in his life vest, and there was nothing he could do about it. Looking up at Scarlet, he gave a sad pout, and in turn Scarlet booped him on the nose.

“Cheer up little guy, now you’ll be all safe for your swim.”

If he was intending to hold a grudge over having to wear the swimming attire, he sure wasn’t showing it, because as Scarlet booped his muzzle he let out a happy giggle.

“See? That wasn’t so bad. So how about we get going and I’ll let you splash around all you want as long as there’s no one else down there, okay?”

The foal smiled and trotted to the door, clearly excited to get going.

---

The trip down to the pool was a short yet mildly eventful one. As excited as Orion was, he was sticking close to Scarlet and had been on his best behavior, something that Scarlet was thankful for. It wasn’t that she doubted her own abilities as a mother— she was great at taking a stern approach with Orion after all, but the adoring passerby’s cooing and fawning over the little purple foal who was bundled up in a life jacket were an added X factor that Scarlet didn’t quite know what to make of yet.

Thankfully enough though, if Orion was bothered or frightened by any of this, he wasn’t showing it. In fact, he almost seemed to enjoy the attention, and the sight of the foal proudly trotting along just made her giggle to herself. It wasn’t long until they reached the pool deck— it was only a short elevator ride and trot through the rather straightforward lobby after all. As they approached the gate, Scarlet noticed that much like their room’s door, this too had a secondary pony specific handle to use, but given its outside location, this one was thankfully padded so as to avoid any would-be burns.

A quick scan of her wristband and a small push of the handle was all it took for the two to gain admission into the pool area, and much to Scarlet’s surprise, the deck was mostly abandoned. It was more or less her, Orion, and a lone human woman sitting on a pool chair on the opposite end of the deck, near a glass and wood atrium structure that covered the back half of the pool, giving it a pseudo-inside feel in that area.

Setting the towels that Scarlet had grabbed on her way down at one of the many vacant pool chairs, Scarlet waved the little foal along with her.

“Alright Orion, who’s going to show me how good of a swimmer they are?!” She excitedly encouraged.

The little foal jumped up and let out a happy cheer. “Swim swim!”

“That’s right!” She took a few small steps into the shallow end of the pool and held her front legs up. “Come on Orion, jump to mommy!”

Needing no further permission, Orion ran forward and leaped into Scarlet’s arms. Water splashed all over her mane but she didn’t care, right now was her and Orion’s time, and these fleeting mother son bonding moments were moments that she intended to treasure while she still could. It wasn’t as if she didn’t get to play with him and spend time with him on the regular, but the little moments that she shared with Orion without Silver were extra special to her.

The foal clearly enjoyed the moment too, because he wriggled free from her grip and began to splash his legs around, not having a clear understanding of the right way to swim. His life jacket kept him afloat however, so he didn’t need to worry about such things. Instead he was clearly having the time of his life splashing water around and watching the bubbles form, and much like a little puppy taking its first few swims, he would circle around Scarlet every few moments before returning to her arms.

The cycle of splashing and swimming in the shallow end went on for at least an hour, and the whole time Orion was happily giggling and laughing, especially when Scarlet would go under the water and then pop back up, surprising him with a big splash of water. Knowing full well that Silver would be devastated if she didn’t record this, Scarlet hopped out of the water with Orion and took a moment to set up the waterproof camera that Silver had packed along. Securing it to one of her front legs, she led Orion back towards the pool and began to snap photo after photo as the foal splashed around on the pool’s staircase.

Unbeknownst to her however, their adorable bonding moment had pulled the attention of the only other person present; the human woman.

“Is it normal for you little horses to just swim in pools like that?” Came her young sounding voice.

Caught off guard, Scarlet paused her candid photo shoot and turned her head towards the woman.

She raised an eyebrow and looked into her green eyes. “Why wouldn’t it be?”

The woman shrugged, her long brunette hair waving with the action. “I don’t know, I’ve just never seen your type do it.”

“Really? I mean we’re not really that different from you at all. Sure were ponies and not humans, but we’re not different up there,” she emphasized with a few taps to her head.

The woman held up her hands, “Hey I was just confused is all. I wasn’t thinking I’d be sharing the pool with some horses.”

For some reason her words didn’t sit well with Scarlet, and just hearing the response seemed to trigger something in her mind.

She stood up and turned towards the woman, her wings unfolding slightly. “Is there a problem with that?” She growled out in a stern tone.

Her eyes widening in surprise and probably fear, the woman backed away from the side of the pool and shook her head. “It’s not that at all, I’m not like that.”

Seeing her reaction and hearing the tremble in her voice, Scarlet suddenly became aware of the aggressive stance she had taken. Folding her wings back up, her expression changed and she quickly broke into a frenzied apology.

“Oh my gosh I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to take it like that, there’s just something that clicked when you said that you weren’t expecting to share the pool with us, reminded me of some humans I ran into a while ago that were very anti-pony.” Realizing that she hadn’t even made an introduction yet, she quickly extended a hoof. “I’m Scarlet by the way, nice to meet you.”

The woman neared the pool again and cautiously took hold of Scarlet’s hoof. “I’m… Mel.” She paused. “It’s… nice to meet you, Scarlet.”

“It’s nice to meet you too Mel.” She awkwardly paused, unsure of how to continue the conversation without it being painfully awkward. “So… I’m guessing that you’re not used to seeing a whole lot of ponies then?”

“Not at all,” Mel laughed. “I’m from Texas, specifically a part that’s mostly full of humans. I think I’ve maybe seen like four ponies in person before coming here?”

“No kidding? I guess I can’t blame you for asking those questions. Is it just because of the work in that area? Or is it kind of just not a place where ponies venture into?”

“Back home? I don’t know what to call it really. There’s ponies living there, but they kind of hang around their own part of town. Big cities and all that, you know?”

Scarlet nodded. “Tell me about it. I lived near Palm Springs for a while, and I think there were only like two or three other night ponies living around there. And that’s counting the whole big valley.”

“So that’s what you are then?”

“Huh?” Scarlet asked. “A night pony? Yeah. Have you ever seen one before?”

“You’re the first,” she replied. “My brother-in-law told me about the ones he ran into out in Arizona, but I’ve never seen any back home, or anywhere for that matter.”

“Doesn’t surprise me, we’re kinda scarce, even in big cities.” Catching the other part of her response, Scarlet smiled. “So your brother-in-law lives in Arizona then?”

“Yeah, out in Flagstaff. I guess there’s a whole village of ponies up there?”

“I think so.” Scarlet replied. “My husband and I live a few hours away in a place called Oasis. There’s lots of ponies there, more than there are humans, and a few probably moved from that area.”

“That’s got to be a sight to see— a whole pony city.”

“It really is. It’s so hard to explain but things just feel… different there I guess?”

“I bet.” Mel replied. “So what’s your husband do?”

“He’s in charge of a science team there.”

“And that’s why you’re here then?” She guessed.

“Yep,” Scarlet laughed. “Off on a business trip, but hey, can’t argue over getting to take a mini vacation.”

“Can’t complain about that either. My boyfriend does some computing stuff and he’s dragged me here too.”

Scarlet couldn’t help but laugh. “Small world, both of our significant others are tech nerds.”

Mel laughed with her and shook her head. “Steven’s such a nerd for that kind of stuff, it wouldn’t surprise me if he winds up spending the rest of the day there.”

“Oh I totally feel you there. Knowing my Silver, he’s probably made friends with him and I’ll get some big introduction later tonight.”

The sound of the gate opening pulled Scarlet’s attention over to it. Seeing who was entering made Orion leap off of his spot on the staircase and run over to greet their new guest. Letting out another laugh, she turned back to Mel. “Speak of the devil,” she waved to Silver and smiled. “Hey hon, we were just talking about you.”

Silver raised an eyebrow. “Yeah? Good things?”

“Something like that,” Mel responded.

“Good enough for me,” Silver shrugged.

“This is Mel, Silver. Her boyfriend’s here for the convention too.”

Silver smiled and held out a hoof, “Nice to meet you Mel, I’m Silver Eclipse.”

She glanced down at his hoof and awkwardly shook it. “It’s… nice to meet you too.” She turned back to Scarlet. “Why don’t I get out of your hair for a little while, maybe we could meet up for drinks or something later?”

“That sounds great.” She turned her gaze back to Silver, who had ditched his formalwear for a pair of sunglasses. “I’ll take it the talk went well then?”

“Better than well,” Silver replied. “I managed to talk to the guy and get him our information, and he said he’d reach out to Tinker. Liked some of the stuff I showed him and really liked the idea of helping out a small pony research team.”

“Well that’s great, I knew you’d get it all set up.”

Silver smiled. “I had a good feeling about it too.”

“So is it time for your big surprise then? I can’t imagine you’d skip out on looking around at a bunch of geeky tech stuff if it wasn’t.”

“Not yet,” he laughed. “Dinner first, then the surprise.”

“So that’s why you came back before lunch then, right.”

Silver took a few steps into the pool and relaxed his muscles. “Totally. Plus I can’t let you have all the cute swimming pool moments with Orion.”

“Daddy!” Orion shouted as he leaped into the pool towards Silver.

Scarlet broke out into a fit of laughter and shook her head, “Nope, not at all.”

Comments

[ProgAltRocker]

Such a cute chapter