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                        Dip & Dodge                        
                      -by PonyPixel-                       
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                        Pool Party                         
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Pool Party
It’s been a few days since that coronation at Griffonstone and many students who attended the event were having a blast, especially the griffon students. Now that it’s over, they came back to school and started out planning on writing down the report about the event for extra credit; the Young Six did the same as well, also for extra credit. Like any other ordinary school day, nothing bizarre happened; classes were in session as scheduled as students got to work on their assignments. Sometimes, they need to relax their minds when they’re feeling stressed, and Silverstream has that plan.
As the students continue to work on their reports or other assignments, Silverstream was gazing up at the clock. It was 2:59 PM and there were 30 seconds left of class. She tapped her talons on her desk as the clock finally struck 3:00 PM. The bell rang and she quickly gathered all of her supplies and rocketed out of the classroom like a bat out of Tartarus towards her dorm room. Smolder, who was sitting beside her, currently working on her report about Gilda’s coronation, saw her take off like crazy. She kept her stuff and left the classroom, as well as other classmates, to catch up with her. Smolder was wondering why she’s like that, leaving the room in a flash, as she arrived at her and Silverstream’s dorm room, and caught up with Silverstream who was preparing something inside.
“Hey, Silverstream!” the dragoness called, and Silverstream turned around to see her standing at the door she already closed. “You excited or did some dragon light your tail on fire? You know the pool party you’ve planned doesn’t start until tomorrow.”
“I know, Smolder. I want everything to be ready,” Silverstream proclaimed. “It’s Friday today and I’ve been waiting for our pool party to be here!”
“Oh right. Does anybody else know that? Or maybe Sandbar, Pate, or Pyther knows that?” The two roommates heard a knock on the door. “Come in. The door’s unlocked.”
As it opens, they saw Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof standing in front of them, both of them wearing sunglasses. Lighthoof also appeared to carry an uninflated beachball on her back. “Hello there, Silverstream,” Shimmy greeted. “We’re ready for tomorrow.”
“Yeah, I’m so excited to have a nice swim,” Lighthoof added. “I have my uninflated beachball here with me.”
“Amazing! I’m going to round up some of our friends too,” Silverstream responded to her fellow cheerleaders. ”Plus, I’ve still got my special trick.” Judging by the way the hippogriff said this in a sing-songy voice and the way she held her necklace, she was going to use her shard. The two mares got excited and went to round up some more of their friends.
Once they left, Silverstream handed Smolder some towels she had prepared before and she tries to carry a cooler. She was struggling to carry it because it was very heavy since it must’ve been filled with drinks and ice. Smolder thought it would be best if she carries the cooler while Silverstream carries the towels. The two carried on down the corridor until they found Sandbar and Yona.
“Hi, girls,” the colt said to Silverstream and Smolder. “Yona and I are just about to grab some snacks for tomorrow’s pool party. We’ll meet you at the pond later.”
“You do that, but don’t take too long,” Silverstream responded. She and Smolder walked off as the pony and yak walked to get something for them to eat while they were having their pool party. Sandbar was happy that he and his friends were going to do something that would be fun and palliative. When he looked over to his girlfriend, he could see the worry on her face.
“Are you okay, Yona?” he asked. “Is there something wrong?”
The yak just sighed before explaining herself. “Yona don’t like water,” she said. “Yona remembered almost drowned.” Sandbar remembered the time when Yona almost drown during Professor Rainbow Dash’s activity on canoeing, requiring Ocellus and Silverstream to rescue her. The two stopped just outside of the school so Sandbar could comfort Yona.
“You’re going to be alright, Yona. There will be plenty of creatures at the pond, so there’s little chance that the same thing will happen again.” This made Yona feel a little bit better, though she was still feeling uneasy about being so close to large bodies of water. “C’mon, let’s go get some snacks.”
As Sandbar and Yona headed downtown, other students made the last preparations for the pool party tomorrow, such as a Kelpie, a green hippogriff. He was just getting some drinks when a young unicorn named Rusty walked over to it. “Hi, Kelpie,” he said.
He looked behind him and saw his friend. “Hey there, Rusty,” Kelpie responded. “I was just grabbing some crates of cans of soda before I met up with the others. Are you coming with me?”
“Um, yeah. I’m going to grab a comic or two.”
“Alright. I’ll see you at the pond.” Kelpie flew away with his drinks while Rusty went to find his comic books. The young colt looked back at the wheels of his wheelchair cart and sighed.
The next day, many of the students showed up at the pond with Gallus waiting there. They’re preparing their own spots for them to relax. They have their beach umbrellas, beach mats, a cooler full of cold drinks piled on ice, snacks, and swimming equipment prepared. It is time to have some fun in the water.
“Hi, Gallus,” Pate the changeling called.
“Hey there, Pate,” Gallus, who was sitting on the beach mat, greeted. “Ready to have fun?”
“I’m ready. And umm… Where’s Silverstream? She’s supposed to be here, right?”
Gallus just simply looked towards the water where a familiar seapony shot out of the water, twirled in the air, then used her pearl shard to turn back into a hippogriff. Silverstream landed beside Gallus and wave to their classmates. “Hello, everyone! I’m so glad that all of you can make it. Who’s ready to have some fun?”
The students cheered in reply, telling her that they were ready.
“Oh yes, we are!” Emerald the dragon exclaimed, with her twin sister, Peridot, nodding in agreement. She looked at the pearl shard the hippogriff was wearing. Coupling that with the stunt Silverstream had performed, she started to get an idea of what was going to happen. “So you’re going to use that shard on us, right?”
“Sure am.” She then looked over at Gallus, who stepped into the water. “Observe. Gallus, stay there.” With a swirl of magic from the shard, Gallus had turned into a seapony then swam into deeper water and went under. Most of the students were amazed at what they could do.
“That’s amazing!” Peridot exclaimed.
“Who wants to go first?”
“We do! We do!” Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof were the first students to step forward. “We’re coming in,” Shimmy declared. They stepped in the water and had Silverstream use her shard to change them into seaponies. When they get transformed, both mares looked at their new tails, fins, and flippers in amazement.
“Wow,” Lighthoof gasped. “This feels… so strange.”
“I agree,” Shimmy said in agreement. “It feels like being a mermaid from those fairytales my parents told me,” Shimmy Shake commented. She giggled as flipped back so she could swim in the pond. Lighthoof followed her behind and Silverstream soon dove in after them changing into a seapony like them. Silverstream helped her friends get used to swimming with their new bodies and the two mares swam straight to the surface and lept out of the water.
The students were excited and those that wanted the underwater experience got into the water, like the cheer squad. There was Peridot, Dotta the yak, Grace the griffon, Tarsi the changeling, Ocellus, and Smolder.
“How do you think it’ll be like as a seapony?” Grace asked.
“Actually, I think Tanz said I’d turned into a shark,” Peridot said.
“It shouldn’t be too bad,” Smolder commented. “I had that same experience as Tanz when Pearl and Kelpie turned me and him into sharks.”
“Why’d changeling need pearl?” Dotta asked. “Changeling be whatever creature they want.”
“Oh yeah, you’re right,” Tarsi agreed. She then changed herself into a seapony and slowly sank into the water.
Ocellus decided to give her opinion. ”Well, I want to use the pearl to see what happens when a changeling uses it instead of changing myself into a seapony or any aquatic mammal,” she explained. “Not to mention there are some other creatures I’d like to see them use it.”
Silverstream swam up to her friends. “Ready girls?” she asked. After hearing them all say yes, even Peridot despite how nervous she felt. With a flash of her pearl, the girls all changed. Smolder and Peridot had become sharks, Grace became a shark-seapony as Gallus did, Dotta had turned into a walrus with her horns becoming a set of tusks, and for Ocellus she seemed to have turned into a seal.
The former changeling looked at her body and was amazed. “Huh, I thought I would’ve become a sea lion,” she admitted.
“Well, you still look like a good seal,” Silverstream commented. “Come on, let’s swim.” She dove into the water with her transformed friends diving in after her.
Smolder and Ocellus got used to swimming around after a little bit. The others took a little bit longer to learn how their new bodies worked. “Wow! It feels weird not having legs and arms,” Grace commented.
“Horns feel weird too,” Dotta added.
“They’re called tusks.”
“Hey girls, how do I look like as a shark?” Peridot asked.
The girls weren’t sure how to describe Peridot’s design until Sunshine, who was a seapony with goggles on his face at this moment, swam over to them. “From the looks of the features, I think you look like a lemon shark,” he commented.
“…Lemon shark?” Dotta asked, feeling puzzled and thinking of a yellow fruit but with fins and sharp teeth.
“That’s right, there are several species of sharks. There’s hammerhead shark, great white shark, angel shark, sawshark, dogfish shark, and… of course, the lemon shark, just like Peridot. Look at Smolder over there.” He pointed over to where Smolder was swimming with Ocellus swirling around her, showing they were having fun. “Her species of shark is a tiger shark, the solitary and mostly nocturnal hunter in the ocean, who can hunt for prey like birds, turtles, sea snakes, seals, and even dolphins.”
“Wow, Sunny,” Grace said with amazement, “you really know well a lot about sharks.”
“I seldomly swim in the water back home despite it having a lot of aquatic creatures, especially sharks, although some are not too friendly, I’m glad that I read a book about them at the library before. That gave me more knowledge about the sea.”
“Hi,” called a voice. They turned to see a shark that looked almost like Peridot swam over to them. Unlike Peridot, whose shark form had ear fins, this shark appeared to have curly horns.
“Emma?” Peridot questioned.
“Yep, it’s me,” the dragon turned lemon shark responded. “How do I look?”
“You looked amazing.”
“Yes. Shark look cool with horns,” Dotta commented.
“Thank you. You girls look like you’re doing great at swimming with fins… but even better than Gus.” She pointed her fin at Gus, who was struggling to swim as a seapony. He was mostly just wiggling around on the bottom of the pond, getting frustrated.
“Grr, how do you swim with that?!” he growled. He kept flopping around until Sunshine swam over to him and helped lift his frustrated friend off the ground.
“You get used to it after a while,” Sunshine noted. The two practiced swimming with different types of bodies as the two dragoness turned lemon sharks looked towards each other.
“So, what do you girls want to do now?”
“We’re planning to play volleyball,” Grace informed. “I brought a volleyball with me, but it’s still on the shore.”
”Well, then all we need is a net,” Lighthoof noted.
”I think there’s one at the school,” Emerald noted. “We need to turn back into our original selves, so we can get it.” Sunshine swam with the twin dragons to the surface to collect their supplies. When they changed back, they flew past Kelpie, who showed up with his cooler of drinks.
“Hey guys,” Kelpie spoke, ”Sorry I took so long. I had to get some more ice.”
Silverstream poked her head out of the water and waved towards her fellow hippogriff. “It’s okay, Kelpie. I’m glad you made it!” she called, ”Come on in! There’s fun underneath the water!” She dove back underwater as Kelpie was about to fly over the pond and dive in until he saw Rusty walk towards the party with some saddlebags filled with books.
“Oh, hello, Rusty.”
“Hi, Kelpie”, the unicorn said. “Aren’t you going to dive in?”
“I was waiting for you. Did you want to try out?” Rusty looked at the shard that Kelpie was holding forward. He was kind of curious to see what it was like as a seapony.
“I’ll come. But I need support from you.” So, he got out of his cart and Kelpie helped him into the pond. Once they got to the point where the water reached over their heads, Kelpie activated his shard.
The glowing magic swirled around the teens and turned them into seaponies. Rusty was amazed by this until he started sinking. Kelpie quickly dove underwater and caught his friend back to the surface. When he let go, the same thing happened. “Ah, I knew this would happen,” Rusty sighed.
“What do you mean?” Kelpie asked. He grabbed his friend again and took him back to shore.
“It’s my legs. Or right now my tail. I was born without working hind legs, so I guess it makes sense that I have an unfunctional tail too.” Seeing the disappointment on his friend’s face, Kelpie used his shard to change him and Rusty back into a hippogriff and pony respectively. Once that was done, he helped Rusty back into his wheelchair chart.
”I’m sorry that you can’t swim with us.”
“Don’t blame yourself for that just because I have this, I was born this way. So, for now, I’ll just sit in the shade and read some comic books I brought with me.” Rusty walled over to the nearby trees levitating his comics as Kelpie looked down at his shard.
Meanwhile, Sandbar arrived with a couple of towels. Silverstream and Gallus poked their heads out of the water to talk with him. “Hey, man,” Gallus spoke, ”Where have you been? We’re just getting started.”
“Sorry, Gallus, Yona wanted to head into town to pick some supplies up,” the colt explained. This was confusing until the friends could hear someone breathing through a tube. In came Yona, who was wearing a snorkel, goggles, a life jacket, a swim cap, and two sets of pool floaties, one each arm and one on each horn.
She spat the snorkel out of her mouth she could speak. ”Yona ready,” she proclaimed.
The two seaponies were surprised to see their friend’s gear but noticed one more thing she had brought with her, a raft. It was big enough to carry half a dozen yaks, which meant it was perfect for Yona’s size.
Just as she started pushing it into the water, Gallus pushed back as he had something to say. ”Yona, why do you even need this?” he asked.
“Yak don’t want to sink,” Yona responded.
“You’re all decked out, Yona. You’ll be fine soon.”
“Besides,” Silverstream added, “you can always use my shards to turn you into a sea creature.”
”They’re correct,” Sandbar confirmed. “You’ve got nothing to worry about. When you get into that blue aqua, you’ll be great at swimming.”
Yona looked between each of her friends before she looked at the large body of water. She couldn’t help but remember the time she and her friends crashed into a rock because of their teachers’ arguing. The yak just stepped back until her boyfriend grabbed her hoof.
“C’mon, Yona, with all of that gear, it’ll be a good time for a swim lesson. Will that make you feel better?”
Yona rubbed her other arm before responding with a meal, ”Okay.”
Gallus was happy that they won’t have to worry about the raft taking up space in the pond. He had Silverstream use her shard to change him back into a griffon so he could deflate the flotation device. While he let out the air, he had to ask something from Sandbar. “Uhh… You kept the receipt for this, right?” the griffon asked. The colt nodded and handed the piece of paper to his friend. Once he had that, Gallus called out to everyone at the pond. “Hey, does anybody want to help me return this to the store?”
Everyone looked towards the deflating raft. Not many of them wanted to leave the pond and stop having fun, but fortunately, there was a pony there that was feeling bored. Rusty glumly walked over to the blue griffon. “I’ll tag along, Gallus,” he spoke. “I’ve got nothing better to do.”
Kelpie could see his friend was disappointed as he and Gallus walked away from the pool party with Yona’s raft. Quickly, he lept out of the water, turned back into a hippogriff, and followed them into town.
“Where’s Kelpie going?” Silverstream questioned.
“Who knows,” Sandbar shrugged. He stepped into the water until it reached over his knees. ”Come on Yona, let’s start your lessons on swimming.” The yak was still feeling a little unconfident. Seeing this, Silverstream held Yona’s hooves and gently pulled her into the water.
”Ugh, yak not like this!” Yona spoke.
“I’ve got my shard,” Silverstream reminded, “so there’s nothing to worry about.” She let go once they got close to Sandbar. Yona’s gear was helping her float in the water.
“See, you’re doing good so far,” Sandbar spoke. “Now, listen here, it’s important to remember to properly kick, a simple dog paddle.” Sandbar did this motion, moving away from his girlfriend and across the pond. “Go paddling over to me.” Yona looked at the large body of water. She glanced to Silverstream beside her, giving a confident smile telling her to go for it. With a gulp of fear, Yona slowly gave her legs a couple of kicks and slowly moved forward. “That’s it. You’re doing good.”
Just as Yona was a few inches from reaching Sandbar, she quickly started splashing around to try and push herself back to shore. The small waves created by her fright splashed Sandbar right in the face. When she got back to shore, Yona breathed heavily then felt relief that she was on dry land. Sandbar brushed his mane out of his face as he spat out some water that got in his mouth.
”Um, you want me to get Ocellus?” Silverstream asked.
”Sure,” Sandbar responded. “Go ahead. I’ll go take care of Yona.” The seapony dove into the water as the colt swam over to her girlfriend.
Downtown, Gallus, Kelpie, and Rusty had gotten to the store where Yona had bought the raft. While Gallus talked with the cashier, the other two talked about their current predicament. ”Do you have any ideas of how we could get you to swim?” Kelpie asked.
“Well, there’s always an inflatable toy,” Rusty suggested. ”Then again, once I’m in the water, I won’t have many options to get onto land without aid.”
“Hmm, probably.” Kelpie looked at Rusty’s wheels, then he noticed two slots on them where he would attach his skis in the winter. This got him thinking. “Hey, Rusty, did you and your dad modify your cart before?”
“Yeah. Why do you ask… Oh!” Rusty started catching on to what Kelpie was thinking. “We’ll build me a way to swim.”
“Is there anything we can use in here?” Rusty and Kelpie started looking around for something they could use. The colt found a couple of pool noodles and started thinking. He pulled out one of the noodles and explained what he was thinking to his friend.
“My dad has a couple of wood poles at his shop. With those, we could slide them into these noodles here to help me float.”
“That’s genius. Do you think your dad can help us build this boat cart?”
“He will, I’m sure.” The boys took the pool noodle to the cashier just as Gallus was getting the refund.
”You going to spend the refund on that?” the stallion at the counter asked.
The colt and hippogriff didn’t bring any money as they didn’t start their plan until they got here. Lucky for them, Gallus had their back. “I’ll remind you to pay Sandbar back later,” he spoke.
”Thanks, Gallus,” Rusty spoke. After purchasing the noodles, the teens left the shop with Gallus heading back to the pond with the other two heading somewhere else in town.
“Where are you going?”
“To stop by my dad’s shop to pick some stuff up. We’ll be back in a jiffy.”
“Okay, don’t take too long.” Gallus flew away to get back to the part with Rusty and Kelpie hurrying to the workshop.
At Fixing for All, Rusty’s dad, Ratchet, was polishing his tools just as he heard the bell ring as the door opened. “Hello, how can I help you?” the stallion asked. He looked to see his son and Kelpie walking in with their pool noodle. “Oh, Rusty, my son. What brings you here? I thought you were having fun with your friends.”
“I am… but we have technical difficulties,” Rusty admitted.
“…Oh yeah. The wheels. You can’t swim.”
“But Kelpie and I have thought of making a solution. Remember my skis? We can do the same thing with these pool noodles.” Rusty then showed his father the noodles they bought at the store. “Kelpie and I thought we’d try to build a sort of raft with these.” That got him thinking.
“Hmm, well, well, well. I think you’re onto something. I’ve got some spare wood in the back. Let’s take a peek.” The two teens took followed Ratchet to the storage room, which is at the back of the store. Kelpie quickly found some wooden poles and thought they would be a good fit for the noodle. However, in his haste to pick them up, one of the excess pieces was knocked over and hit a fan.
“Oh, shoot!” the hippogriff cried. He picked up the fan, which now had a detached blade. “I’m very sorry about that..”
“There’s no need to apologize,” Ratchet noted, ”I was planning on taking that fan apart anyway since the motor’s busted. Let’s get you the rest of your wood.” Ratchet took a look at what he had while the boys took a look at the poles and pool noodles. The poles slid right into the holes in the noodles.
“Perfect!” Rusty cheered. He held up the poles and noodles beside him. They were double his size. “Hmm, I think we might need to cut a few pieces.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” Ratchet commented. He showed a couple more pieces of scrap wood and also grabbed his toolbox. He took out a measuring tape and measured his song to see how long the parts would have to be. “It might be best to use a few pieces as possible. The lighter, the better.” Rusty agreed as he and Kelpie were ready to get started.
Back at the pond, Yona was only wanting to get the water up to her hooves. Sandbar and Silverstream were still trying their best to help. “Yona, you won’t be able to get over your fear if you don’t get in the water,” Sandbar spoke. The yak didn’t know how to respond and just nodded left and right.
Silverstream thought for a moment before remembering her shard. “Why don’t we have Yona swim around as a sea creature?” she asked. “That should help with her confidence.”
Sandbar looked at the shard the seapony was holding up before looking back at his scared girlfriend. “It would help Yona get into the water.”
“Alrighty!” Silverstream quickly swam over to Yona and started taking off some of her gear.
“What’s Silver doing?” Yona asked.
“We’re going to be using my shard to turn you into a sea creature. Now, take those floaties off, we’ll make sure that you’ll be alright.” Yona listened to her friend’s advice, but only took off the gear she bought while on land. Silverstream crawled a little bit on land so she could use her shard on Yona. When the flash of magic surrounded them, the seapony looked at what the yak had become, a walrus.
Yona kept her mane, but her horns had moved to her mouth, now taking on the appearance of tusks. Yona looked at her flippers and the tail that was where her legs were. “You’ve been like this before,” Silverstream reminded. ”You swam through chocolate milk, remember?”
“Again, Yona don’t like remembering that,” the walrus spoke.
“You have more control here. Just jump in.” With that, the seapony pulled her transformed friend into the water, much to the walrus’s shock. Yona quickly found herself in the water, up to her neck. She tried flopping about, scared that she would sink again. This is was happened due to her panicking, but to Yona’s surprise, she was able to breathe underwater.
A seaponified Sandbar soon swam over to her. “Maybe Silver could’ve handled that a little bit better,” he commented. ”How are you feeling?”
Yona looked around her seeing their friends and even a couple of fish swimming around. Since she was in a safe state to look at the water world around her, she was impressed. “Yona like the look of underwater,” she admitted.
“How about we have a nice swim?” Sandbar held out his hoof to which Yona managed to grab onto it with her flipper. The two started swimming around with the walrus yak struggling to get used to her new body. “Try moving your tail up and down.” The seapony showed his girlfriend how to move around in the water.
Yona tried this and managed to move forward. “Yona getting it,” she proclaimed.
“Yeah, you’re doing good. Try and keep up with me.” Sandbar swam ahead with Yona doing what she could to keep up. The walrus did her best to get used to her body, she did have a couple of near-misses with some of the students. She even accidentally bumped into a couple of them, apologizing afterward. Sandbar stopped a small distance so his girlfriend could catch up.
“Did Yona do good?”
“Pretty good. Because you have nothing to worry about. Do you like being a walrus?” Yona nodded in response. This form made her feel much safer in the water. “Okay. If things start going wrong, we can always use this form to keep you from drowning.” Holding the walrus’s flipper than swam to the surface. Once the two were onshore, Silverstream used her shard to turn them both back into an earth pony and yak.
“So... What Yona do now?”
“Get your floaties if you have to. We’re going to try and teach you to swim again.” Yona gave a meek smile. She knew that she could have Silverstream turn her into a walrus at any moment. Her friends were letting her know that it was important that she would know how to swim. While she wasn’t wanting to due to memories, Yona walked back to where her floaties were and slipped them back on.
Back at the workshop, Ratchet, Rusty, and Kelpie had made a contraption that would help the handicapped colt float. They had built something that looked like a cage that was attached to a board at the back for Rusty’s hind legs to sit on. On the bottom parts of the cage, pool noodles were added to help with buoyancy.
“Now we just need to test this out,” Ratchet said. He and Rusty carried the craft outside and loaded it onto a cart. They took it back to the pond. When they unloaded Rusty’s new ride, several creatures looked to see it being set up.
Gale and Moss swam over to their friend, who was being set up in the new craft. “What’s that?” the griffon questioned.
“It’s my new floating device,” Rusty answered. “With this, I shouldn’t sink like a rock.” He turned to Kelpie, who had his shard at the ready. “Alright Kelpie, give me a push.” The hippogriff did so, pushing the craft out into the pond with his friend riding in it. “Wahoo! It works! Thanks, dad!”
“Anytime,” Ratchet responded. He turned his attention to Kelpie. “If that needs any adjustments, bring it back to the shop. I’ll just leave the cart here if that’s the case.”
“Got it, sir,” Kelpie responded. With that the stallion walked away back into town, leaving the kids to their pool party. Kelpie leaped back into the pond while changing into a seapony. He swam over to Rusty, who was enjoying his new ride. “How does it feel?”
“Pretty good,” Rusty responded. “I didn’t think the pool noodle would help that much. Eh, shows what I know.” The two floated around a little bit until Rusty tried paddling himself forward.
“You need another push?”
“Um, sure.” The seapony nudged his friend forward and the colt started to notice a bit of a problem with the raft they had built. While it did do the job of keeping its passenger afloat, there was little that Rusty could do rather than just…. Float. Rusty was happy about this part, but floating around wasn’t that much fun. If he just wanted to float around, he would’ve bought an inner tube.
Kelpie swam over to him to the colt’s disappointed face. “Is something wrong?”
“This… isn’t what I was expecting. I can only move forward by paddling my hooves, but this thing barely moves.” Both boys looked a little disappointed.
“Do you think your dad would be able to find another use for this like that fan blade?”
“I don’t know… Wait, there’s a fan blade at the shop?”
“Yeah. It was just a piece of junk.”
“Maybe it doesn’t have to be. Push me to shore, I’ve got to get this back to the shop.” The hippogriff did so and once one landed, Rusty loaded the craft back into the cart, then headed back into town. This left Kelpie at the pin with everyone else.
While he waited, he could hear some worrying groans. He looked over to see Yona wearing her lifejacket while she swam out into the pond with Sandbar. The yak was still feeling nervous as the colt kept trying to calm her down.
“You’re doing great Yona,” Sandbar noted. ”You’ve got your jacket and still have the shards around us just in case. Just remember to keep kicking.” The yak did so, trying a bit too hard.
Her kicks were creating some waves that were splashing some of the students that were out of the water. Many of them either walked away or dove underwater due to the annoyance of the splashing.
“Um, Yona you can stop now, Sandbar spoke. The yak barely heard the pony speak over the sound of her hooves kicking the water. She looked back and saw some of the students she had splashed, not looking, please. Especially the ones who wanted to set up a volleyball net.
“Sorry,” Yona apologized. She sighed as Sandbar helped her onto land as Kelpie swam over to them.
“What are you guys doing?” the seapony asked.
“I’m trying to teach Yona how to swim. It isn’t going too well.”
“Yak not meant to be in water,” Yona carefully proclaimed.
Kelpie looked around until he saw Trud getting a run-up to the pond. The yak raced full speed towards the water and leaped into the air shouting, “Cannonball!” Trud splashed into the water causing some big waves. A few moments later, he poked his head out of the water, looking at some of the students that got caught in the waves. “Whoops.”
Kelpie looked back to Sandbar and Yona. “Trud seems to be doing fine,” the seapony commented.
“Yeah, a fair point,” Sandbar commented. ”If Trud can swim fine, you can too Yona.” Sandbar looked to his girlfriend, who was still nervous. “Yona, you need to learn to swim at some point.”
“He’s right. You never know when a flash flood might happen.” That term made Yona shiver a little bit.
“Hey, Kelpie… What was that thing Rusty was in?”
“His new raft. It’s supposed to help him get the feel of swimming. He’s just getting one last part so he can have a real experience.”
“That’s… Pretty clever on his part.”
“I helped inspire the idea. I’m glad he’s finally being able to swim in some way.”
“That’s some determination.” Sandbar and Yona were impressed with what they heard. The colt looked to his girlfriend. “Yona, if Rusty can find a way to swim in the water, I’m sure you can too.” Yona thought about this and started to gain a smile as she cautiously stepped into the pond.
“Yona ready to try again,” she said. Sandbar joined her in the water and slowly swam away from the yak. “Try swimming to me again.” The yak had some more confidence than before. She managed to keep calm this time and slowly kicked the water behind her to push herself forward. “That’s it. You’re doing good.”
Yona started picking up more speed. Yak swim! Yak swim!” she cheered.
“Great job. Just keep your eyes on me.” Sandbar suddenly noticed how much speed the yak was picking up. Before he knew it, Yona bumped into him.
“Oops. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. That’s the best swimming you’ve done all day.”
Yona smiled as she knew she was improving. “Yona like water now. Sandbar great teacher!”
A short while later, the students were trying to set up a volleyball net in the water. It had floated to prevent it from sinking, but they were having no trouble keeping it still. Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof were at each separate pole, trying to keep it from moving.
“Any luck on your end?!” Shimmy called.
“No,” Lighthoof responded. “I feel like we’re not going to get this right.”
“What are we doing wrong?”
“I think you just need some anchors,” called a voice. The girls looked over to Rusty returning with his cart.
Kelpie saw his friend and quickly swam over to him. “Rusty, did you get the adjustment?” the seapony asked.
“Sure did.” The colt unloaded his craft which now supported a fan blade on the rear. The fan had some covering around it to help make sure some creature wouldn’t get hit by the blades, which were attached to a rubber band. Kelpie helped get it into the water as Rusty walked over to the crates the volleyball net came in. However, he couldn’t find anything like an anchor. “Huh, weird. There should be something keeping the net in place.”
Tarsi the changeling walked over to him. “I was confused too,” she admitted. “But we were in a rush to get back so I think I…. Forgot to make sure we had an anchor.” The changeling felt disappointed in herself as Rusty noticed some extra rope in one of the crates.
“We could use this,” he proclaimed. He looked over to the tree to which they could tie one end, but the other side would still float around. He handed one of the ropes to Kelpie. “Think you could swim down and find something to keep that rope in place?”
“Sure thing,” the seapony responded. Taking his rope, Kelpie swam to the bottom of the pond as Rusty went to tie his rope to the tree.
At the bottom of the pond, Kelpie swam to where the net would be located. He looked around for something that he could use to keep the rope in place. He was about to try and find a rock until he saw Pate swim over to him as a seapony. “Need some help?” the disguised changeling asked.
“Yeah. Do you think you could turn into a grab and dig a spot for the rope to get buried under?” Pate nodded and turned into the creature Kelpie requested.
Up on the surface, Rusty had tied one part of the rope to the tree and was now about to tie the other end to the net’s stands. To do this, he started getting himself hooked up into his new craft, ready for its first test run. He spun the propeller then released it, having the tightened rubber band make it spin and push him forward. The colt dragged his hooves through the water to help him steer until it was at the net’s stands.
He tied his end to the pole as Kelpie popped his head out of the water with his end of the rope. “Did you get it secure?” Rusty asked.
“Yep,” Kelpie responded. ”Pate helped me bury it.” The two tested the net’s security and found it to be stable.
“Okay, guys. The net’s ready now.” Several students swam over to the net and got into teams of six on each side.
Lighthoof served the volleyball, knocking it over to Smolder’s side. The ball bounced back and forth a couple of times until Dotta hit the ball too hard and it sailed through the air. Yona was swimming closer to the next to see if she would be able to join in when she saw the ball falling straight towards her. The ball bounced off the yak’s head and it flew back to Dutta’s side of the net, splashing in the water.
“…Does that count as a point?” Silverstream asked.
“It bounced off Yona’s head,” Lighthoof spoke.
“It doesn’t count as a point unless it hits the water,” Smolder retorted.
Yona managed to swim over to the girls to give her input before an argument could start. “Um... Yona was not playing yet,” she spoke. “So, a point doesn’t count.”
“Eh, whatever you say... Hold on, Yona, you’re swimming now?”
The yak smiled sheepishly. “Lifejacket helps.”
Silverstream beamed as she swam over to hug her friend. “I am so proud of you,” she proclaimed. “Want to join in with our game?” Yona nodded and they swapped one of the players out for the yak to join in. Sandbar sat on the shore, watching his girlfriend play. While the yak was a little slow compared to the other players, he was happy knowing that Yona began warming up to the other.
The colt then looked over to Rusty, who stopped by the shore in his new ride with Kelpie. “Hey, Sandar,” the unicorn spoke, “What do you think of this?”
Sandbar took a look at the craft and was impressed. “It’s pretty creative,” he commented. “Feels good to actually swim, huh?”
“Sure does. I’m going to bring this out a few times in the future.”
“Maybe you could bring it to Mount Aris,” Kelpie mentioned. The unicorn was impressed with this idea.
“Want to see how fast I can get this thing to go?”
“Sure thing.” Rusty started winding up the propeller and he took off as soon as he released it. Kelpie took off after him as the two friends took off with their race, enjoying their time at the pool party.