Yellow Light Waves

by Comma Typer

Gifts

The sun had set on the manor. The couple having just gotten home within minutes of each other, they surprised each other with the same idea:

A romantic dinner.

Several lit candles and half a dozen roses later, a huge plate of steak paired with glasses of sparkling red wine graced their presence by the balcony.

“Ah, ah,” Sky said, holding out a hand. “Before you eat, I have one more surprise.”

Ocean put her own hand in her suit pocket. “Oh, really? Because I’ve one more for you, too.”

They wouldn’t confess to each other that they blushed together.

“Okay,” Sky began, “how about this? We close our eyes, count to three, then show what we’ve got.”

Ocean perched her head on a hand. “That’s childish, but no harm done, so...”

They counted, each clutching the gift in their hands. Though blind, they inched their gifts closer to their glass table.

“Three!”

And their eyes opened. Their mouths also opened, stuck agape.

“Sky... is that a printed paper of some free font online saying ‘Happy Anniversary’? With a... less-than-sign and three?”

“That’s a heart, dear. And I made the whole thing myself. Better than just funding the postcard industry, am I right?” he said, then he stopped. “But... wait, what’s that... dress?”

“A cricket uniform, blooming with color,” she said, having unfolded the thing before him. “Cricket whites, they say, but I ordered it custom-made to be more than white.”

“No, no, you’ve got it wrong, honey,” he said. “It’s tradition to keep it just white. Take it up with the Grittish to spoil it with blue, red, yellow everywhere...”

“It’s commemorative! And at least I put effort in this! Want to know why I had this as well as this dinner? Because...” Her breath hitched. “Because we’ve been fizzling... you and I know it. So I thought, hey... why don’t we just calm down and eat by the sunset? Like the first time.”

Sky nodded. “Yeah... me too, really. You being away a lot... well, I’m away a lot, too. Takes me away, and well... at least you and I can recognize when you did it yourself. I did say no to postcards, right?” He chuckled. “See? This is made from Neighponese paper; it’s clearly different from ordinary paper!’

“Sky, you’re missing the point of Neighponese paper.”

“Okay, honey, at least what I did was an error. I made a mistake. You, on the other hand... I’m afraid that garish circus is gonna get you burned by rowdy fans.”

“Oh, so you know so much about cricket!. spending all your time there in your leagues. What about spending at least a few minutes a day learning how to make some proper art so you could show me some effort in your gift?”

Sky stood up. “You’re... you just boggle my mind sometimes, Ocean. It’s not like I can magically summon a championship for the occasion!”

Then Ocean scraped the chair as she rose. “Well, at this rate, maybe a championship wouldn’t be enough to salvage that thing gift shops won’t call a postcard.”

“Oh, while we’re on that, why don’t you spend a few minutes a day learning how cricket works?”

“In my position? So swamped in geopolitics?”

“Now you’re seeing where I’m getting at?”

“No, because I’m not being paid millions of dollars to bat some balls around!”

“Yeah, and you get paid to sit and look pretty like a princess while your underlings do the hard work?”

“That’s delegating!”

“No, it’s—!”

The wobbling of glass stole their attention.

Wine had been spilled, his on his paper, hers on her uniform.

---

The trek to the beach stretched a lifetime.

Her lungs contracted, suffocating in the open air. To her, that very thought had become a cosmic terror, a reversal of reality itself.

Labored in her held breath—with Leeway and Lingon constantly throwing bottled water at her—she pried her eyes open. She snatched the scent of salt, that refreshing smell of the sea.

“One, two, three!”

They flung her into the air, and the vast horizon that overflowed with precious water splashed life back to Ocean.

---

At Sky’s insistence, Kiting had kept the marathon going, taking Sky’s place at the finish line to award the winners.

With most of the town having not yet returned, Basalt Flow had devolved into a ghost town.

The gas station’s cafe ran on a skeletal staff for today. Sky, hours after the incident, nibbled on a little sandwich and some peanuts as his leg held a thicker cast. He found it amusing that two foods he’d never cared about suddenly became his favorites.

The TV never left the news channels these days. This hour saw a report that the hippogriffication teams would be finishing up the rest of the big cities soon; their next targets would be a sweep of the coastal areas beyond the major urban centers, including Basalt’s shire. Next week, somegriff would come and bring Ocean back to dry land for good.

The other nations had been hit much harder. America, for example, didn’t have the mercy of opposable thumbs, with most everyone becoming ponies, though some could fly and others could levitate things.

Cambling’s citizens had become changelings, and much politics was now slung about on the topic of solving national hunger or not by just loving each other. Relationships were scrutinized, put under the magnifying glass on whether they were real or now simply a way to avoid starvation. Their leader was happy with the change, however, judging by the pink flows of love magic drifting through in Cambling’s stock footage.

In that vein of love, a pony nation from the other side called the Crystal Empire declared that they’d be sending more ponies to help with relief efforts in Amareica. Sky mentally mocked the leader’s title, the Princess of Love, a funny pink unicorn with a heart on her flank, whose husband was a literal white knight, also a unicorn.

Live on camera, they shared a quick kiss.

---

Ocean sat below the surface, back underneath the crevice and the coral that had been her pillow.

Stinger had told her that her belongings were in Sky’s safe claws and that there’d be someone to look after her, but no one was there, standing on the sands, when she bobbed her head up.

She sank back down.

The ocean’s invigorating freedom insulted her. Novo had shared that Seaquestria kept touting the underwater city as a seapony paradise, with an abundance of food and amenities. But they also had real homes, with infrastructure and funding. This ocean was free, but it was a free land of nothing.

She sat on another coral, above the crevice. Then, off she swam, away from the beach.

Not much ground was covered until the beach shrank into the horizon. She imagined a cruise ship getting its money worth with a thousand people on its decks, taking pictures, adoring the sights of the boundless sea that surrounded them. The water smelled great, and she could see fish darting everywhere just underneath.

A school of fish passed her by, capturing her eye for art before a stray jellyfish was spotted, floating to parts unknown. The rainbow of the corals’ colors then became eye candy to her, bending with the current, like plants but much livelier than their terrestrial counterparts. She cradled one of them in her fin, and their soft texture blessed her scales. She took a bite out of it as well. Crunchy, but strangely juicy, like an exotic fruit from a tropical island.

When she took her head out of the water again, she saw a silhouette flying over the beach.

---

Sky’s eagle eyes were enough to see Ocean coming back from afar.

He softly landed on the beach, making sure his bad leg would touch down gingerly. “Ah, glad that you’re here,” he finally said upon her return.

“Glad?” she said. “I just... how careless was that?!”

“Careless?” he said. “The remote dying was an accident, and you know it!”

“But it was your idea—“

“—that was inspired by your plan!” he said. “And you also hopped on with no hesitation!”

“Me? I just... I wanted to build something, of value, not just go around dilly-dallying—“

“Oh, so you’re calling my work, my talents, my life is just running around and getting fit? Do you know how hard mountaineering is? Or the intense endurance of having to bike around? Or well... how much I wanted to fly this whole time?!”

“And what do you think I’m doing?”

“That it’s... it’s alright, yes, and I understand that you’re royal, but what about taking a break? Riding with me? Or just trying out the simple stuff like ziplining once in a while?”

“I’m a busy woman—“

“Exactly!”

“Hey, it’s not like you’re without sin, Sky,” she said. “Always rather short-sighted, getting the heat or thrill of the moment. I took care of my position, cultivated my status in the family and in the nation, reared the children while you were gallivanting around, then continued with my work across the country once that was done.”

“Which made you too busy for anything else! All you do is just work and sleep!”

“Aren’t your muscles your work?”

“Yes, but you... I’ve also been trying to do your paperwork, and have been helping you—“

“And I’ve been helping you, too! You’re only here, high up where you are, because of me!”

“And you’re only down-to-earth and closer to the people because of me!”

They shouted those last words at the same time. Then, one ascended the dirt path, and the other descended the sea, apart.