Clingy Shellfish
During the hot summer months, Maretime Bay’s beaches would be a popular hotspot for the locals. Now, with the reunification of the three tribes, they were more popular than ever. Unicorns and pegasi could now escape the dark forest of Bridlewood or the cold mountains of Zephyr Heights and come for some warm fun in the sun. With the local sheriff’s strict ban on littering, every pony and critter can have a safe and pleasurable time down on the beach. Ponies would bring their beach towels and parasols to sunbathe, foals would come with buckets, spades and snorkelling gear while others would just come to have a picnic on the beach, providing that they take all their rubbish away with them.
The look the sheriff would give them usually tells them what he’s thinking.
As well as all the pony tribes, five particular friends were busy at one corner of the beach having their fun in the sun. Sunny Starscout was busy making sandcastles, Pipp was taking pictures on her phone of her friend’s work and the surrounding areas. She even turned the phone’s camera around and began taking some selfies of herself along the shore, striking a few poses in the sunlight. Zipp, enjoying her new abilities of flying, was above the water. Her hooves skimmed across the surface as she looked down, admiring her reflection in the crystal clear waters of the sea. Hitch in halfway between relaxed and on duty, his eyes scanning the many ponies on the beach that day, making sure every pony followed the rules of the beach and seeing if one particular pony would drop something they would regret. Luckily, he had back up and his three critter friends were also by his side.
The only pony not near the group was Izzy. Sunny looked around for her unicorn friend and found her fluffy blue tail sticking out among the rocks. Izzy hopped from rockpool to rockpool, looking down at the pools of water and discovering what was in the pool of water. Smaller crabs scurried for cover when a large shadow landed on them, fish would swim for deeper water, and clams and other shellfish would clamp shut. Izzy would smile, wave at the startled creatures and move on to the next rockpool. This pattern continued until her eyes landed on something washed up onto the sure and caught the light of the hot summer’s sun.
Her curiosity overtaking her, she skipped over to the thing that caught her attention. For a moment, she thought that it was a piece of litter. Hitch will complain like mad if this was found by him, Izzy thought as she continued her way towards the object. When she arrived, she found the largest and prettiest shell she could ever imagine. It had many spikes along the edge and a glossy inside. It looked healthy, with the spiral without any chips or erosion from the tides. She carefully picked up in her hooves and began bouncing towards her friends.
Zipp was the first to notice Izzy bouncing towards the group, her eyebrows raised as she wondered what she was holding in a hoof close to her chest. She swooped down to the others that Izzy was coming their way. The four of them looked towards the direction where Izzy was and waved her over, curious as to what perked Izzy’s curiosity and her reason to come over.
“What’d you got there?” Zipp trotted over to Izzy once she was close enough.
“Something pretty,” Izzy beamed as she presented the large shell to the others. Every pony’s eyes fell on the large shell and they had looks of awe on them.
“I haven’t seen a shell this large get washed up before,” Hitch mused as he took in the details of it, “Definitely beats the usual litter that gets washed up.” A light frown flashed across the stallion’s face, causing Sunny to roll her eyes. Hitch was a clean stallion.
“It’s gorgeous!” Pipp exclaimed and instantly took out her phone to get some shots.
“Izzy, it’s beautiful!” Sunny complimented.
“I know right!” Izzy nodded her head in excitement, “The moment I saw it, I knew it was something special and I just had to show it to you guys.”
“It’s a conch shell,” Zipp, being the smart one explained, “They belong to a deep-sea snail. I wonder if it still lives in here.”
“Oh, that must have been a big snail to live inside that,” Izzy’s imagination ran wild and she wanted to see if any critter still lived inside. However, the moment she took a peek at the opening of the shell, she screamed immediately and dropped the shell in fright. The others were quick to rush to her side to see if she was okay.
“Izzy?! What happened?” Sunny said in alarm. Izzy pointed a shaky hoof to the shell,
“There’s something inside it!” She said, “Its eyes were staring right inside my soul!”
Curious, Sunny lifted the dropped conch shell and looked inside. A shiver ran down her spine and she also dropped the shell onto the sand.
“Okay, that was creepy,” Sunny shook her head, trying to clear the images from her mind of what she saw in there. Pipp and Zipp looked at each other and had a mental sibling argument with each other about who should be the brave sibling to pick up the shell. Zipp ultimately lost the argument and readied herself as she slowly picked the shell up and both siblings peered inside.
They were greeted with the sight of two eyes on stalks that caused Pipp to scream with a girly tone and Zipp’s eye to develop a nasty twitch and shuddered on the spot. Both took to the air and dropped the conch.
“Okay, that was something,” Zipp shuddered.
“It was horrible! Truly horrible!” Pipp hugged herself, quivering in fear.
“Aww, are four little girls scared of some sea snail?” Hitch mocked the girls, earning glares from the mares. Hitch had his signature coky smile of a champion as he strolled over to the shell with the hole facing upwards.
“Come on, girls! It’s not as bad as it-“
He was cut off as the eyes on stalks moved out of the shell and looked towards him, causing the stallion to freeze in shock at how far they extended from the shell.
“What was that?” Zipp smirked, “Is the brave stallion having second guesses?”
“N-no, not that,” Hitch quivered as the eyes continued to check him out. It was then that a familiar spark in the snail’s eyes made Hitch nervous. He knew what that spark meant. He has seen every critter have that spark in their eyes when they lay eyes on him. From the gulls to the crab to Zipp and Pipp’s pet dog, Cloudpuff, to the rabbits when he was chasing after Sunny and Izzy.
It was that spark that meant that this sea snail had developed a particular liking to him, and he didn’t know what to feel about this discovery. His fears worsened when the rest of the snail’s body came out and extended towards Hitch’s leg. The four mares backpedalled away as Hitch stood frozen in his spot while the snail wrapped its slimy body around his leg.
Hitch looked back at the girls and then at the clingy sea snail wrapped around his leg. He gave his leg an experimentally small shake followed by a much harder one. Then several strong shakes, but the conch snail refused to let go. Hitch started to panic as he tried and tried to shake it off, but nothing would get the clingy critter off of him.
The girls were now laughing their flanks off from Hitch’s predicament. Zipp, in particular, was rolling around in the sand whilst the others had to wipe tears away from their eyes. By now, Hitch was running up and down the beach, using pieces of driftwood as a lever to pry his new partner off.
“It’s stuck to Hitch like glue!” Izzy said, howling in laughter, “It’s like the time when I accidentally got glitter stuck to my mane!”
“Every time a critter lay their eyes on him, he’s a-gonna,” Sunny laughed, “That’s why he’s the local sheriff and critter magnet.”
“Should we go help him now?” Pipp asked between fits of giggles.
“For calling us weak mares? Nah,” Zipp said, now lying on the sand watching the spectacle in front of her in amusement.
Pipp then took out her phone once again and began taking a video of the sheriff’s antics.
“This is so going to be uploaded to You-Trot.”
Sunny shook her head and trotted over to her foal-hood friend. He was now exhausted and was lying on the sand, the snail still attached to his foreleg. Sunny knelt and looked at the snail, trying her best not to look disturbed by the eye eyestalks.
“It seems you found a new friend, right?”
Her eyes widened slightly as the eyes moved up and down in a nodding action. She smiled slightly.
“My friend isn’t comfortable with you wrapped around his leg. Could you please let my friend go?”
The eyes narrowed slightly as if pondering the question. The eyes then turned to hitch and the stalks extended to nuzzle against Hitch’s neck, much to the stallion’s confusion. It then loosened its grip around his leg and it fell softly to the sand. The group watched as the snail made its way slowly towards the sea. However, just as it was about to submerge beneath the water, it stopped just at the waves touching the shore and its eyes turned around to face Hitch one more time.
With the gesture it was making, it would seem like it was blowing Hitch a kiss with its eyes. Soon it sank beneath the waves.
“Well… er… that was an experience today,” Hitch said, trying to hide a blush from both his predicament today and what that snail did before it went beneath the waves.
“Whatever you say… Critter Magnet,” Zipp snickered and bumped him on the side. Hitch instantly turned to Sunny.
“You told them?” Hitch asked Sunny in alarm.
“What? Every pony knows that ever since that dog tackled you with your badge,” Sunny countered. Hitch grumbled, causing every pony to laugh once again.
“Well, I could really do with hitting the hay now,” Pipp stretched her wings and yawned, “It’s been fun, but our mother is probably wondering why we’re not back yet.”
She then pulled out her phone once more and showed it to Hitch with the video she had recorded.
“You didn’t…” Hitch gulped.
“I did, this is so going to be the next trending video.”
Hitch made a move to grab her phone, but Pipp took off into the air.
“As the sheriff of Maretime Bay, I ask of you to delete that video!”
“Doubt it!” Pipp said in the distance, Zipp joining her on the way home.
“It has been a fun day!” Izzy smiled as she held up a bucket of seashells, “These will go well with my new collection of friendship bracelets!” She was the first to go, skipping towards the town. The others smiled and soon followed their unicorn friend as the sun began to set over the horizon.
“Never a dull moment with us around. Right, Hitch?” Sunny smiled at his tired friend.
“You could say that again…” Hitch sighed as the two of them headed back home as the sun began to set over the sea's horizon.