Solstice

JULY

"So, what is your job?"

"I didn't quite say, did I?"

Ripple shook her head, mane waving about in the water around her. "No, you only said that it wasn't very consistent."

"Well, that's certainly true," I said. "I actually don't have a single job. I do whatever somepony needs me to do, you see. I do odd jobs around town, usually having to do with plants." I gestured to the palm tree on my own flank as I added, "Plants are my specialty, as you might have guessed."

"Right, yeah," she said quickly. "Of course. So, you don't know when you'll have free time because you never know when you'll get a job?"

"Exactly." I paused shifting my rump against the wet sand and taking in a breath of the salty sea air as another little wave washed over me. I must say, I was learning to have quite an appreciation for the scent of the ocean. "What about you? What do you do for a living?"

"I, uh," she began, eyes shifting a bit, "I manage a restaurant back in T'Leth."

My eyebrows went up just a bit. "Wow, really?"

She sighed, eyes downcast. "No, I work at Kelp Burger."

I hadn't ever heard of the place, but her tone didn't make it hard to guess just what kind of establishment it was: a fast food joint with a less-than-high-class reputation, no doubt. "Hey now, there's nothing wrong with that. Somepony—er, someone's gotta do it, right?"

She tossed a little finful of water aimlessly. "I guess."

"I used to work at a place like that myself." Her gaze drifted back to me as I continued, "I've also been a janitor, a street sweeper, and one of those ponies that sits in a restroom and hoofs you a towel to dry off with."

She blinked, her expression vacant. "A what?"

I blinked back. "You know, a restroom attendant."

"No, I mean 'what's a towel?'"

That was a question I'd certainly never been asked before. "It's a, um, a piece of fabric that you use to soak up water." I paused, pondering that definition with a hoof to my chin. "Hmm. Yes, I can sort of see why mermares might not have a use for towels down there. In the ocean, I mean."

"Yeah, I've actually never heard of one before. I've seen some pony trade goods come into T'Leth, but yeah, I don't know why anyone back home would want that."

"What sort of pony goods do you use, then?"

"Well," she started, putting a fin to her chest, "I myself very much like lettuce and carrots. Ooh, and those little clay dolls."

"Figurines?"

She nodded once. "Yeah, I think that's what they're called. I have, like, a whole shelf of them. I've got a dragon, a mantahawk, a bunch of random little ponies..." She trailed off, eyes skyward for a moment longer before turning back toward me. "Do you collect anything?"

"Just plants, really," was my initial reply. "I know, it's a total stereotype for us Earth ponies, but I have a rather fond liking for things that grow. I have a fair few, too. Always meant to have a greenhouse built. There's a lot of things I always meant to do, though." Only when such thoughts brought a frown to my face did I realize that I had been smiling. How long had my face been that way? The last time I remember grinning was when I'd first seen Ripple come up from the sea to greet me that day. Had I been smiling ever since? That wasn't like me at all; I normally don't smile all that much.

I cleared my throat and mind. "Anyway, I think my favorite of my plants is the ficus I keep in my living room."

"Why's that one your favorite?"

"I just like the name."

"Ficus?"

"Yeah." I smiled a little again. "I just always thought it was a funny word, you know? Ficus."

She nodded slowly. "Ficus."

The next solid minute or so of our conversation was entirely composed of the word "ficus." Not one of my prouder moments, but we were having fun. It was almost like a contest to see who would say something else first. I guess I won.

"Hey, do you wanna ficus—bleh," she said, shaking her head as if to remove the word itself from her mouth. "I mean, do you wanna go somewhere?"

"Did you have any place in mind?"

"Not really. I'm just kinda restless, you know?" She swam about a bit, making tiny circles, as if to display her point.

I stood up from the sand, looking from one end of the beach to the other. "Yeah, I guess we could take a walk, er, swim, er... something."

"You walk and I swim?" she inquired with one brow raised.

"Yeah, that." I turned, taking a few steps to the right, vaguely following the water line as it gently shifted up and down the beach and against my legs. Ripple followed along in the water beside me, her spirits already seeming to lift. A brief bit of trivia from my youth popped into my mind. Something about sharks not being able to breathe without swimming, thus passing water through their gills. Not that Ripple needed that, obviously. She spent uncounted hours on the sand with me in the open air.

"You know," I said, "we really ought to figure out some way to keep in touch and whatnot, and to meet up." I hadn't even thought about how I was to find her again until I was already in Baltimare. I'd managed to catch her attention by going to the same flat rock on the beach as before and simply throwing stones into the water every few hours. It really wasn't the best system. "Assuming, that is, that you want to keep hanging out with me."

"Of course. I dunno what, though. I don't think the Equestrian Parcel Service will give me a mailbox in the middle of the beach, let alone down at my nest."

"Yeah, and I don't know if I could get someone to routinely make special trips out here just to see if they can find you to give you a letter."

"We'll figure something out."

I nodded as I trotted along some distance away. "Yeah, we'll make it work. Just so long as we figure it out before I have to go home again, which isn't until tomorrow."

"I guess we have a little time, then."

It wasn't terribly long before we had reached the northwestern tip of Horseshoe Bay. I'd been there once, briefly, the first time I went looking for Ripple a month ago. I hadn't really paid much attention to the scenery before, but now there was time to appreciate the blue-green waters stretching out between us and the southern shore. A few boats drifted here and there, their white sails gleaming in the sun. There was Baltimare to the west, the fusion of old port town and modern city made clear from our spot on the beach. The old wooden docks rose up from water's surface abruptly, but the transition from old buildings to new was smooth as the city stretched out over the land. Smooth save for one structure, that is: the thick, glass-walled wedge that was the Baltimare Convention Center.

I had to admit: Baltimare looked a lot more remarkable from way out there than it did up close.

"It's quite a sight, isn't it?" I asked, noticing that Ripple's eyes seemed to be taking in the city as well.

She nodded her head, making little waves around her. "Yeah. Land cities are totally different from sea cities. A lot more colorful and vibrant, for one thing."

"Oh, you want a vibrant city? You should see Canterlot, someday." I brought my muzzle skyward for just a moment as I continued, "Tall towers of white, gold, and pale violet stretching out from the deep purple stone of Canterlot Mountain. High banners whipping in the strong mountain winds. Now that is quite a sight."

"I kinda don't think I'm gonna get to see that. Isn't it, like, right in the middle of Equestria?"

My eyes scanned the distorted colors of her scaly body below the surface. "Yes, I suppose that might be hard for you to reach, huh? Maybe I can get you a postcard or something." My mind began to wander as my eyes did the same across her slender form. "Wait a minute, did you say you live near the coast?"

"Yeah, pretty close to where we first met."

"But if you live out here, and your city is a hundred-something miles away, how do you get to your job at Kelp Burger? Do you really swim all that way?"

"My—I ride a mantahawk into the city." She held her fins out, quickly elaborating, "It's, like, this big, flat fish with an bird head that you can ride around. We use them for heavy lifting and stuff like that."

"Oh. Well, that's cool, then." I pulled one of my hooves from the water, pointing it toward the city. "Speaking of burgers, you want to head to the docks and get some food? I don't know what they serve there, but I'm sure it's edible."

"Yeah, that sounds great," she chirped, swimming a little ways ahead of me along the shore. "I go down there pretty often. There's this great oatburger stand up there."

I followed as closely as I could, little waves just barely lapping at my belly. "You know, I once saw Princess Twilight at a Hayburger back in Ponyville. She made a bit of a mess of herself."

"Wow. That must've been quite the scandal."

"Not really, no. A few photos circulated for a while, but nopony really cared. After those newspaper pictures of Princess Celestia stuffing herself with cake, that was nothing." I could hear Ripple's gasp from where I was trotting, and turned to her. She was swimming sideways, one front fin held to her mouth.

"How did she manage to stay in power?" she asked with wide eyes.

I shrugged, which is hard to do when slogging through thigh-high water. "I don't know, but nothing ever came of it."

"That's crazy," she remarked, still on her side and looking me over. "I can't help but notice you brought along the nautilus shell I gave you, by the way."

"Heh, yeah," I said simply. It seemed like the thing to do, on a visit to her. If not for that shell, I might never have remembered her and gone back. "I really like it. It, uh, goes well with my coat."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I think it suits you perfectly."

We arrived on the docks before too much longer, though crossing through the more tourist-heavy beaches was a little bit awkward. The ponies that didn't seem to notice Ripple gave me strange looks for talking to myself, and the ponies that did notice her sat up and stared. Most were too busy with themselves or their families and friends to notice either of us, though, which was fine with me. But I must admit, being seen alongside a creature as beautiful as Ripple isn't something I'd be ashamed of.

The Baltimare docks looked to be one of the oldest parts of the port town. Not surprising, given that towns like this often get their start with being fishing locales. The wood looked old, with splinters seeming to grow from every support post. The boards at my hooves were well worn, but I didn't see any gaps big enough to get a leg stuck. The marina consisted of one long strip, bordered by buildings on one side and piers on the other. There weren't too many other ponies about, but there were quite a few boats and ships moored along the coast. It wasn't hard to tell the tourists from the residents, since the tourists were constantly staring at everything and bumping into things. It was pretty obvious that I wasn't from around there, I'm sure.

Ripple swam along the platforms, weaving around the support beams as she lead me to the oatburger stand. The fast food stall itself was as unremarkable and wooden as all the other buildings on the docks. The stallion running the stand didn't say anything as we made our orders, with Ripple relaying her order through me from under the boardwalk. One oatburger with a side of hayfries each, plus a drink for me. I'd be surprised that what we ordered was almost exactly the same, but the menu didn't have much else to choose from.

When I turned around with a greasy paper bag in my mouth and a cup balanced on a hoof, I spotted Ripple waving to me from the end of an empty pier. I trotted out to meet her, and with a swish of her tail, she boarded the platform to slide up next to me.

It was the first time I'd seen her whole body while sober. She was quite, well, wet. Big, too, but not thick. Her pale pink mane, which seemed to alternate between being made of hair or made of fin webbing based on whether she was submerged, was draped across and sticking to her in every place it could. She ran one of her long front fins down herself, brushing the soaked hair all to one side. Her scales were glistening, each one reflecting the sunlight from a different angle. My gosh, she was so long. She could probably wrap around me twice, at least. It still shamed me just how attractive I found her, especially her more aquatic features, and especially without being drunk.

I sat down as she continued to smooth out her mane, and I dug my hooves into the bag to distribute our food. The oatburger didn't taste like anything special to me. I'm no expert on sandwiches or burgers, but it did seem well crafted. Good balance of ingredients and whatnot. Still just an oatburger, though.

I swallowed my first bite and turned to my companion for the day. Ripple was munching away happily on her hayfries. I guessed that they didn't import hay down to her town, since it would just get soaked. That thought led me to say, "So, what sort of things to you export to us land dwellers? You've mentioned a few things you import already, like carrots, figurines..."

"Chewing gum, too," Ripple replied. "We export a lot of things. There are the obvious things, like seaweed, coral, and little novelty trinkets. There's also a whole industry for plundering sunken ships and selling the stuff back to the owners. Much easier for merponies to do it than for land ponies, so we're usually the ones who do that sort of thing." She took a bite of her oatburger, which she had just stuffed with hayfries.

"Oh, and pearls, too," she added after swallowing. "I believe that eighty-six percent of all the world's pearls come from merponies."

"I never knew that. I almost feel like mermares are a secret kept to the coast, because I never hear about any of these things." I shook my head slowly. "I tried to look them—I mean, you—err, you people—mermares. I tried to look up mermares, but the old library in Ponyville blew up, and the new one didn't have anything."

She furrowed her brow at me. "It blew up?"

"Yeah," I said, nodding. "You remember that evil centaur, Tirek? He blew up our town library."

"Why'd he do that? Does he hate books, or something?"

I waved a hoof in the air. "It's a long story. Simply put: he was after somepony who lived in it. The point is that I tried to learn, but I wasn't able to find anything about mermares."

"Merponies."

I leaned closer to her. "Huh?"

"Merponies," she repeated, tapping a pink fin to her chest. "I'm a mermare, but there are merstallions, too. Kinda might be hard to keep breeding without them. And it's okay. It's hard to find much out about land ponies back in T'Leth. We don't get many waterproof books coming in. I have to just come up here to the docks and find ponies to talk to if I want to know things."

I nodded, chewing on another bite of my oatburger. "Well, you've got me now, so if you want to know something about us land lovers, ask away."

"Just a sec." She didn't wait for a reply, she just rolled off the pier and into the water, leaving me to sit there in confusion. Her head popped back up after less than a minute, followed by the rest of her as she climbed back onto the platform. "Sorry. Needed a drink."

"So you do drink, then?" I paused, slipping a few ketchup-covered hayfries into my mouth. "You don't absorb water or something?"

"I drink a lot. All saltwater fish do, too." She wiped a fin across her neck, right along the line where her coat turned to scales. "Plus, you know, gotta keep my gills wet."

"Of course." I didn't recall her having to get a drink when we met, but much of my memory of that night is still fuzzy, with only certain parts standing out through the haze.

There was silence for a little while after that as I ate my lunch, and it took me that while to notice that she wasn't eating hers anymore. At first, I thought that she was just thinking of a question to ask about land ponies, but she seemed to be watching something, her eyes ever-so-slightly flitting this way and that. I followed her gaze past my own body, across the wooden boards of the dock, and to a little cluster of sailors chatting by a moored sailboat. "What is it?" I asked, looking back at her.

"Just keeping an eye on things," she responded. She was eating again, but her teal eyes were still locked on the sailors.

I watched the objects of her fixation, but I couldn't see why she was so interested in them. A couple Earth ponies, a unicorn with an eyepatch, a griffon, a few pegasi, some crates, a barrel of spears... I didn't get it, but I didn't press. If she wanted to tell me, she could. No need to rush. I had plenty of time to get to know her—through letters, if nothing else.

"So," I said, finishing off my burger, "you seem to know more about this town than I do. Any ideas on how we can get letters back and forth?"

Ripple was still looking past me as she opened her mouth to reply, but something suddenly thumped up against the underside of the pier beneath her, making our food bag shudder and our hayfries bounce. She glanced down at the boards with wide eyes, then curled herself around the edge of the platform to stare down at the water under us. I leaned over as well, squinting down at the dark surface. I could just barely see something whitish beneath the waves.

The mermare beside me put on a sheepish little grin and said, "Excuse me, I have to take care of something. Be right back." She didn't say anything more, she just slid off the platform and down into the water, her pale, distorted form joining the other below. Through the waves, I couldn't tell if either her or the other thing were moving for at least a few minutes. I could make out Ripple by her pink mane, but the other thing had something in a dark purple hue streaming off it.

After some time, Ripple came back to the surface. The other being darted off to the south and out of sight. I simply asked, "Was that another merma—merpony?"

Ripple gave a short nod, her expression too neutral for me to read. "Yeah, that was my half-sister." A smile came to her suddenly, and she hopped up to rest her front fins on the dock again. "And hey, I know how we can send letters."

I smiled a little wider at that; I'd been smiling most of the time she was around. "Great! What it is?"

"There's this bar right on the edge of the water where..." she trailed off, her smile fading and her gaze suddenly seeming to focus on the greasy paper bag in front of her.

"Where what?" I said.

"Where, uh, where you can send mail and I can go pick it up. They'll hold it for me and send stuff, too." Her eyes shifted back to me. "So yeah, we can do that."

"Sounds good to me. What's the address?"

"Oh, the bar doesn't have a mailbox," she said with a little splash of one fin. "You'll have to send it to the manager, and she can hold it until I come by. Just send the mail there, and I'll set up the rest." I made note of the mailing address as she told it to me. We dumped our trash into the nearest bin and headed off. I caught her looking at that same group of sailors again just before she swam off the other direction, leading me back toward the beach.

I struck up a new conversation as I made my way over the old wooden boards, glancing at her as she swam to the side of the docks. "So, when do you think I'll get to meet your sister?"

"Half-sister," she corrected. "And she's kinda shy." She stirred her fin around in the water, adding, "Most merponies are pretty shy, actually. It's why we aren't as well known as sea ponies, I think."

"Well, maybe someday. I don't want to put any pressure on anypony. Or, um, anyfish?" After a second of silence, I settled on, "Anybody."

"You'll probably meet her eventually, if you keep visiting."

I'm sorry to say that most of the rest of that day has been lost. Not every moment we spent together stuck in my mind as well as others. I recall spending some more time chatting on the docks, and it seemed like no time at all before the sun started to dip out of sight.

"It's getting pretty late," I commented, watching the sunset from my spot on the dock.

"Yeah," Ripple said, leaning back against a wooden support post nearby. "I should probably be getting home, soon."

I scratched at my face a bit. "I'm guessing I can't, uh, crash at your place, since it's underwater."

"Yeah, that wouldn't end well, sorry. For either of us, actually." She spun in place, leaning the side of her head against the post, and continued casually, "There'd be investigations and accusations. They'd probably lock me up for drowning you."

"Hey, you know what I should do?" I went prone on the wooden platform, bringing my face closer to hers. She looked a bit tired to me, probably from swimming so much all day. Her lids were half closed as she looked up at me. "Next time I'm here, I should rent a boat. Then we can go out and... I dunno, do ocean things."

She gave me a gentle smile, nodding softly. "That sounds nice." The mermare pushed off the post, yawning. "I'm sorry, but I need to get some more rest. It's been a long day."

Her yawn spread to me, and I had to pause before replying, "No problem. I'm sure I won't have trouble finding an inn for the night. My train leaves at about noon tomorrow, so we won't have much time before I have to go. Shall we meet at the same rock in the morning?"

Her pale head shook from side to side, and she briefly dipped her gills in the saltwater. "I've got work in the morning, sorry. I guess this is goodbye, then."

"Only for the moment, Miss Ripple. I'll be back next month. Plus"—I raised a hoof for effect—"I'll start sending letters once I get back." I dropped my hoof back down. "So I'll see you later, Miss Ripple."

She held up one of her pink fins and waved at me, saying, "Bye, Coco." Then she rolled over and sank beneath the surface, swimming away from the pier. I quickly lost sight of her in the growing dark. The last I saw of her that night was not but a splash and a flash of white out in the bay. It brought a smile to my face, nonetheless. It seemed such a clichéd thing to do, leaping from the water to bid goodbye like that, and I loved it.