"The potion seems to have turned out great," Flash Point observed the bubbling pot in front of him. "I followed the recipe more carefully this time." Just as the sand in the hourglass ran out, the unicorn moved the boiling pot off the fire and poured its contents into a glass vial. The liquid emitted a faint blue glow. "Once it has cooled down, it should be ready for use."
A few days earlier, the unicorn had agreed to join his friends for a trip to the beach the next weekend. It had been ages since he had last been to the seaside. He really wanted to swim in the sea, but he had a small secret—he had never been a very good swimmer. Last time Flash went swimming, he had to be carried out of the water by others. Feeling a little insecure about it, he did not want to risk embarrassing himself in front of his friends. He was an alchemist by trade, so he had decided to use those skills to find a solution to his problem.
And Flash had found just that—a recipe for a magic potion that was supposed to increase the buoyancy of objects, living or otherwise. That's what the recipe said, anyway. He was convinced that this would be a perfect way to improve his inadequate swimming skills. The potion did not require any rare or expensive ingredients, he had found everything he needed close by. The process of preparing the potion had been a bit more tricky, though. But judging by how the latest result looked, he had done everything correctly.
The potion would have to be tested first, just to be sure. Flash would not travel all the way to the sea to try it out, he would instead go to an indoor water park not far from his home. It was a small place with only a few pools, and it would be a perfect place to see if the potion works as he expected.
"I wish Turnip Seed had told me about the trip earlier," Flash Point thought. "Good thing I came upon this recipe in time, though. I didn't have enough time to study it thoroughly, but it looks like I got lucky. The end result looks exactly as it should, according to the recipe." The unicorn put the vial into his saddlebag. "The water park has already been closed for today, but I'll go there tomorrow as soon as I wake up."
Next morning Flash woke up early. Skipping breakfast, the stallion threw the saddlebag on his back and left. His destination was only half an hour walk away, at the edge of the town. Sun had just barely risen above the horizon, painting the forest he strolled through with warm colors. He did not come across a single pony during his morning walk.
When he arrived at the water park, Flash found that it had not been opened yet. It was inside a big concrete building with large windows. The unicorn waited patiently around the entrance for the water park to open up. After standing around for a while, the doors were opened. He paid the entry fee and rushed into the building.
Flash made his way to the pool area. The floors there were covered with white ceramic tiles of various sizes. The walls of the pools had blue tiles of different shades on them, arranged in a pattern that looked like waves. Around the pools there were lots of fake palm trees and other flora that gave the place a tropical atmosphere of sorts. Sunlight beamed inside through the windows and skylights.
The unicorn stopped in front of the foals' pool. In it were a few pool toys and a single beach ball floating on the water. There was no one around, even the lifeguard had not yet arrived. He descended the stairs into the shallow end of the pool. Standing knee-deep in water, he opened the vial and chugged the potion down to the last drop. "The effect should begin right about now..." he thought, smirking in excitement.
Flash instantly felt himself become lighter and proceeded to walk deeper into the water. As he kept moving towards the other end of the pool, he started to float. "I'm swimming!" he exclaimed. "It worked just as—" His voice abruptly cut out. He tried to speak again, but no sound came out of his mouth. "What happened to my voice?" The stallion was baffled. "I can't even feel my tongue..." He touched his muzzle with his hoof and it felt all smooth and polished.
Looking down, the unicorn's eyes widened as he saw the hoof had become smooth and shiny all over, as if it was made out of plastic. Then Flash saw his reflection in the water—his mouth was stuck in a wide smile and it looked completely painted on. Even his nostrils were just visual decorations on his muzzle. His eyes became fixed in place, locking his sight forward. He could no longer move or close them.
"Oh, no... It wasn't supposed to—" Flash was starting to panic. "What's happening to me?" He couldn't call for help, and even if he could, there was no one around to hear him. He scrambled to get out of the pool, feeling his limbs become stiffer and more difficult to move with every passing second. Climbing the stairs too hastily, he slipped and fell back into the water. The splashing of water ceased and the pool grew quiet.
"Well, this is just great," Flash muttered annoyedly. He was floating on his belly, unable to move his legs. "I guess I'll just have to wait until somepony finds me." At that moment, the lifeguard arrived and sat down on the tall chair overlooking the pools. "Hello? I'm in need of help here!" the unicorn pleaded, unable to get the lifeguard's attention.
Flash could still feel his body becoming lighter and puffier, eliciting a long squeaky sound as plastic engulfed his flank. Moving around had become impossible and he could hardly turn his head. Soon, every last bit of the unicorn's coat, mane and tail had turned into glossy plastic and there was nothing else inside him but air. The potion had turned him into an inflatable pool toy version of himself.
The situation soon became clear to Flash when a group of foals turned up. "Don't get any ideas," he thought. "There are plenty of other toys you can play with." The foals jumped into the pool, creating small waves and splashing water all over him. The unicorn instinctively tried to get out of the way, but his limbs wouldn't budge. He moved up and down as the waves passed under him, slowly turning him around. He was now completely oblivious of the foal who was about to jump on his back from the pool's edge.
"Get out of the way!" the foal yelled as they launched themselves off the edge. They landed on the back of the unicorn, pushing him below the surface. Flash got startled when he was suddenly forced underwater, bubbles filling his vision. He quickly bounced back up, the foal still holding tightly onto his neck. Water splashed everywhere as he surfaced, draining right off his smooth, waterproof skin. Flash Point had now passed his pool toy initiation.
"This new toy is really cool," the foal on his back said. "You should try it out, too!"
The foal's proposal didn't meet with Flash's approval. "Oh, no you don't!" he seethed. "Haven't your parents taught you not to touch things that aren't yours?" The unicorn's silent protest went unheard, and he was passed to the next foal. It did not take long for him to become the most popular toy in the pool.
One of them moved Flash under a fountain that was spraying water all around. The drops of water tapped loudly against his plastic surface, sounding almost like a drumroll. "S-stop it, that t-tickles!" the unicorn giggled as he tried to squirm away from the fountain. "My skin is so sensitive to touch now... But I don't seem to feel much heat and cold anymore."
The foals played with the brand new inflatable unicorn for hours. They rode on his back, threw him around like a beach ball, and twisted and turned parts of his body in all possible ways they could think of. At some point, their parents came by the pool and told them that it was time to leave.
"Finally!" Flash thought after being granted a break. "It's not easy to be a pool toy when foals are around. I'm way more pliable than I expected." The unicorn stretched his sore legs. "Hey, I can move!" he suddenly realized, and started splashing water joyfully with his legs. "More than before, at least. I must have become more flexible after all that twisting."
The unicorn paddled his way to the stairs. With great difficulty, he was able to climb up the stairs and out of the pool. His limbs still felt very stiff, but he was able to keep his balance and walk clumsily. "I must find somepony who can help me," Flash thought, "but I doubt anypony here is skilled enough to turn me back." He kept walking until a pair of mares spotted him.
"Wow, would you look at that," one mare said to the other. "A walking pool toy! Whoever did that must be great with magic."
Flash walked up to the two mares. "Can they not see that I'm not supposed to be a toy?" The unicorn was becoming frustrated. Failing to speak up, he instead tried to touch one of them to make his situation clear to them. The mare, only seeing a smiling pool toy approach her, misunderstood his intentions and hugged the unicorn instead.
"Aww, you're so cute!" the mare said. "All shiny and squeaky!"
Flash felt the pressure inside him rise in the mare's tight embrace. He was disappointed with this outcome. "Please, I need help! I'm not a toy, I'm a real pony!" he yelled silently inside his head. The unicorn's metaphorical heart sank as the mare treated him as a common pool toy, not noticing his distress. After letting go of him, the mare lifted him up with one hoof and tossed him back into one of the pools.
The unicorn made a small splash when he landed in the water. "At least I'm no longer in the foals' pool," Flash thought as water trickled down his shiny sides. "Adult ponies should be less eager to play with me for hours on end. I'll just wait until closing time and try to get out after everypony has left."
Flash Point drifted peacefully in the pool for the rest of the day, waiting patiently for the closing time. Eventually, all the ponies got out of the pools and the building grew quiet. He contemplated his experience in silent solitude for a while: "I guess being a pool toy isn't all bad. I'm glad I could make the foals happy, even if their handling of me was quite an ordeal."
A moment later, the unicorn climbed out of the pool and started looking for a way to get out. All of a sudden, he heard someone behind him shout: "Hey! What are you still doing here? The park is already closed! You need to leave."
"That's what I'm trying to do," Flash thought, irritated by his inability to make it known. He turned around and saw two ponies walking towards him. "I guess those guys are here to do maintenance or something." He ignored them and kept looking for the exit.
"Didn't you hear me? Get o— Wait, is that a pool toy?" one of them said.
"Looks like it," said the other. "I didn't know there were toys as fancy as that in here. I've never seen a walking inflatable before."
The first pony easily caught up with Flash and raised him off the floor to take a better look of him. "Let me down!" the unicorn protested. He tried to wriggle free from their grasp, but to no avail.
"This isn't one of the regular toys," the pony said. "Someone must have left it here. Maybe we should deflate it for the night? Don't want it bumping into things in the dark. We can always fill it back up later."
"W-what?" Flash started flailing his legs frantically. "Please, let me go! I'll leave quietly..."
The pony got hold of the unicorn's belly and seemingly pulled something out of it, producing a loud pop. A whooshing sound filled Flash's ears. He became even more terrified as he realized what was happening. The pony squeezed him tightly in order to force the air out, making the sound even louder. There was nothing he could do to make them stop.
Flash's body became increasingly crumpled as more air was squeezed out of him. The other pony took his head between their hooves and squashed it against their chest as hard as they could. Having his face forcibly flattened was anything but pleasant. The unicorn's already meager strength dwindled as his body became floppy. Soon enough, all his limbs were out of air, and he could no longer move any of them.
The two ponies laid the flattened body of Flash on the floor and began walking on him to push the rest of the air out. "Ugh, I sure don't envy being a doormat, this is what it must feel like," he moaned while eight hooves kept treading on him. He imagined he probably looked like a tarp or something right now—a tarp with his coat color and cutie mark on it—laid out on the floor. The whooshing sound eventually turned to hissing, and then ceased altogether.
"Is it over?" the unicorn asked anxiously. One of the ponies lifted his tail and folded it on top of his flank, pressing it down with their hoof to create a crease. "Of course not... What did I ever do to deserve this?"
The next few minutes were probably the most uncomfortable moments in Flash's life thus far. The foals playing with him earlier was like a relaxing massage compared to what he was going through at the moment. His body was contorted in all sorts of unnatural ways as the two ponies kept folding him into a neat bundle. Flash could only squeak helplessly as his face was folded in half and pressed against his side. His legs were then folded on top of his head and flank, and finally he was folded in half once more to keep everything in place. He was now just a little package with his cutie mark on top.
One of them sat on Flash to force the last bits of air out of him, compressing him even further. All of his many layers rubbing against each other created countless creaks and squeaks. "There we go—all nice and compact," the pony said as they closed his valve, which was sticking out from the corner of the plastic pile.
"That's what she said," the other pony remarked.
The two ponies chuckled. The unicorn, however, did not find the joke funny at all. Not the least because he himself was the very 'nice and compact' thing being referred to. He could not see anything, because his face had been folded several times over and stuck between his sides. The tightly packed pool toy was picked up and placed down shortly after. He heard a door close, and then everything went quiet.
Flash tried to squirm in order to ease his discomfort, to no avail. The unicorn could not move even the tiniest amount. "I can't believe this is happening..." he thought. "Here I am, folded up and stored away in a closet or something, waiting to be filled up again. What if they never realize I'm not supposed to be a pool toy? Even me being able to walk didn't make them suspect anything."
The unicorn felt tired after the rough day. Even so, he was not able to fall asleep—not because of his current, awkwardly shaped form, however, but in general. "I suppose pool toys don't need to sleep," Flash pondered. "Not that the extra time awake is of any use to me like this, though." The unicorn sighed mentally.
Flash waited quietly for the night to end. Eventually, he began to hear sounds of water splashing and ponies walking around. "I guess the place has been opened again," he thought. "Hopefully this confinement ends soon and somepony fills me back up."
The neatly folded pool toy waited meekly for his release. Hours passed, but no one ever came for him. In the end, there was only silence, which meant that the water park had been closed again for the night. "They have forgotten about me," Flash repined. "That, or they aren't working today. Did they not tell anypony about me? Well, why would they? I'm nothing but a toy to them, after all."
Flash spent the next day in solitary confinement as well. He was able to keep track of passing days since things always quieted down at night. "I'm so bored... What are pool toys supposed to think about when they're not in use?" Later, a terrifying thought crossed the unicorn's mind: "What if the potion's effect wears off while I'm folded up like this?" The thought would have made him shudder, if only he was capable of doing that.
Another day passed by. "I was supposed to meet Turnip Seed and the others at the beach today," Flash thought. "He'll probably start looking for me at some point, he's a smart stallion. I just need to get out of this place first. How much longer will I have to wait until they fill me up again? I'd much rather be in the pool right now, even if it means being a plaything for ponies. Please, let me out of here already..."
The longer the unicorn waited, the faster hours seemed to pass. It wasn't until two days later that Flash Point finally got his wish. He heard the door open, followed by ponies talking to each other:
"You won't believe what we found last week—a walking pool toy!" a familiar voice said.
"Yeah... Of course you did," an unknown voice replied sarcastically.
The unicorn was taken out of the supply closet and put on the floor. Flash could finally relax as he was unfolded and laid out flat on the floor after spending several days as a tiny bundle. "Ahhh, this feels so good," he thought. "I feel so light that even the slightest breeze could blow me away like a leaf. This is better than any massage I've ever had—"
Flash's bliss was cut short by the pony walking over him in order to fetch the pump, which used an enchanted crystal as a power source. They opened the valve on his belly and attached the hose to it securely. After that they pressed a button to start the pump.
"This is gonna take a while," the pony said. "I think the crystal is running out of energy. Let's carry on cleaning the pools while it fills up." The pony hit their leg on the pump as they turned around. "Ow! Stupid thing..." they said, moving the pump up against the wall to clear the way.
The two ponies left Flash alone to fill up. He felt the air force the two layers of him apart after being squished together for days. It was a wonderful feeling to be leisurely inflated, like taking in a deep breath that lasted for a very long time. The growing pressure tightened his shiny skin, smoothing out all the creases and wrinkles. His muzzle, horn and ears, that lay flat against his face, puffed right up and attained their proper shape.
After a while, Flash had become able to move again. He stood up and walked around a bit, limited by the hose hanging from his belly. "This feels really good," he thought. "Being an inflatable toy has its pros, I guess." The unicorn enjoyed the feeling for a few more minutes. He slapped his hoof against the floor and it bounced right off due to being so hard and springy.
"I think this is enough air, guys," he thought to himself. "Guys?" The two ponies were nowhere to be seen.
Air was continuously rushing into Flash, and he began to panic. The pump controls were facing the wall, completely out of reach. He tried moving the pump but it was too heavy for him. His unicorn magic didn't work either in his current form. Flash found his limbs harder and harder to move as they kept swelling up. His plastic skin started to creak.
"Where are they?" Flash cried silently in despair. "I'm going to pop!" As a last ditch effort, he ran as fast as he could in hopes that the hose would come off when pulled taut. It didn't. Instead, he fell down on the floor, now completely unable to move. The stallion continued to slowly expand, all his seams creaking under the pressure. He felt as if he was about to burst.
Then the pump stopped. "Just in time!" the pony said. "I told you it would be filled already by now." They turned the unicorn upright and detached the hose. However, instead of letting all the excess air out, they promptly closed his valve, leaving him slightly overinflated. Flash remained so puffy and stiff that he could not move.
"Well? I don't see it walking," the pony observed.
"It did walk last time! Come on, do it..." said the other pony, giving Flash a bump on the flank.
"Maybe you should go on a vacation, you've been working too much," the first pony said.
"Yeah, whatever... But it really did walk last time, I swear!" the other pony grumbled.
The pony kicked the inflatable unicorn down into the foals' pool to vent their displeasure. They walked away and continued their work. Flash drifted calmly around the pool.
"I just can't catch a break, can I?" Flash was becoming frustrated. "At least I'm not in that stupid closet all folded up anymore, so that's something. But now I'm too full to move! So much for getting out of here... Am I really going to spend the rest of my life in this place as an inflatable toy?"
After a while, all the lights in the building were turned off. The two ponies had finished up their cleaning, leaving Flash Point alone in the dark. "This place is pretty spooky at night," he thought, "with all these pool toys eerily floating around me. I wish I could at least close my eyes..."
Moonlight shined in through the large windows, tinting everything blue with its faint glow. Flash looked at the other pool toys in front of him—in addition to pool noodles and beach balls, he saw an inflatable flamingo and a crocodile. There was even another inflatable pony similar to him there. The unicorn started to become restless.
"I wonder if that guy is in the same boat as I am," Flash thought. "For all I know, they might be trapped in this place just like me. I'm just the latest addition to the collection." He held on to that comforting, albeit unlikely thought. It made him feel like he was not alone. "Seems like a cruel fate, but I guess there are worse ones," he said to himself, trying to put his mind at rest.
The next few days were a lot more tolerable than the previous ones. Flash slowly started to find his new purpose in life quite enjoyable. Ponies would play with him day in, day out, and their joyful faces would make him feel content. He was still too puffy to move, but he wasn't even planning to escape anymore. Besides, even if he got out, what would he do then? He would still be unable to speak and live normally, and without the ability to cast spells there was no way for him to turn himself back into a normal pony. A pool toy belongs in a pool. This was his home now.
Every night, Flash would think about his old life and wonder if anypony misses him. His previous life hadn't been all that amazing anyway—at least now he makes ponies happy every day and all he has to do is to be his squeaky self. "It's not so bad here," he thought. "I just wish my friends knew that I'm alright. Would they even recognize me if they saw me like this?" With each passing day he found himself missing his old life less and less. The unicorn had got used to being a pool toy over the last two weeks. Or was it three weeks? He had already lost track.
One thing about Flash Point's new life that he did not like very much was being regularly deflated. Once a week, he would be stuffed into a washing machine with all the other pool toys for a cleanup. It was a very disorienting experience, to say the least. The unicorn took it as a sign that he was now considered to be property of the water park. In some weird way, it made him feel safe and cared for. It gave him a certain sense of belonging.
The other downside was the rough treatment Flash had to endure, but he had become accustomed to it. To all ponies around him, he would always be an ordinary pool toy and thus be treated as such, with no way for him to prove otherwise. Thanks to having been pumped so full of air after each wash, the unicorn had not been able to move on his own in weeks. Apparently they wanted him to be all hard and bouncy. But he was fine with that, as he had found himself to be durable enough to withstand anything the foals might come up with.
Couple of days later Flash was yanked out of the pool at the end of the day and brought to the storeroom. It was a boring gray room full of shelves loaded with tools and pool supplies. His valve was opened and he was left there to slowly deflate overnight. "Time for another wash, I guess," he thought. "Thankfully, they let the air out of me slowly like this instead of having ponies squeeze it out by force." The unicorn lay restfully on the floor, quietly hissing throughout the night with all the other pool toys hissing around him and keeping him company.
By the time morning came, Flash had been reduced to a wrinkled wad of plastic. A pony entered the room and picked him up, swiftly stuffing him into the washing machine along with the other toys. They poured some detergent on him and closed the lid. The machine soon filled up with water and began its work. "I swear, this thing is making me dizzier and dizzier every time," the unicorn complained. "And all this spinning and squeaking is making me lose my mind! When will it stop?"
One hour later, the machine finished. It had stopped spinning but Flash's head had not. Someone grabbed him by the ears and pulled the sparkling clean unicorn out. "Ugh, finally," he moaned, being so woozy that he couldn't think straight. The machine had cleansed his mind as well, so to speak, filling it with squeaky thoughts suitable for a pool toy. Maybe someday it would make him forget he had ever been anything other than a pool toy.
Next, it was time for all the toys to be pumped full of air again. The last two times, Flash had been put aside to wait for his turn, giving him a moment to clear his head. This time, however, he was the first one to be filled up. The pony connected the hose to the valve on his belly and started the pump.
The squeaky clean stallion was still so dizzy that he couldn't tell which way was up. As soon as he was able to move, he got himself standing, all confused. Wobbling from side to side, he lost his balance and fell on the pump controls, knocking it into full power. He instantly felt air rush into him rapidly, realizing what he had done. "I can't hit the buttons—they are spinning around too fast! This is not good..." A few seconds later, he was already too full to move, creaking loudly as he kept expanding at a worrying rate. Every last wrinkle on his plastic skin disappeared as it tightened up and began to stretch.
Alarmed by the noise, the pony returned and promptly shut the pump down. "What happened here?" they said, looking around in confusion. "Whatever... No harm done, I suppose." They took the hose out and closed the unicorn's valve firmly. "Looks like you're gonna be extra puffy this week," they said jokingly while setting him upright. "You'd better watch out for any sharp corners!"
Flash Point was not amused. In fact, he was terrified, and the excess pressure inside him felt very uncomfortable. "Please let some air out of me," he implored. "No?" The pony turned away from him and started filling up the other pool toys. "Now I've really done it..."
The following few days were not fun at all for Flash. He dwelled constantly on the risk of being popped, but there was nothing he could do about it. He had no choice but to face the consequences of his stupidity. The unicorn felt like he had become a bouncy beach ball. "Only three more days until they deflate me for the next wash," he nervously repeated to himself. "I just might make it, if I'm lucky."
Later on, two colts were playing catch with Flash. He filled the role of the ball, of course, which annoyed the unicorn immensely. "Why can't these guys just play with a regular beach ball?" he grumbled. "Or am I truly bouncier than actual balls?" Every time a hoof hit him, it made his entire body vibrate like a drumhead. "I don't know how much longer I can take this..."
One badly placed strike made Flash ricochet towards a small unicorn filly. "Look out!" one of the colts yelled. The filly turned her head towards the incoming pool toy but did not react fast enough to raise her hooves up. Her horn poked Flash's side painfully as she hit him with her head.
"Ow!" The piercing pain that hit his side quickly went away. "Can't those damn foals be any more careful?" the unicorn cursed as he landed in the water. He suddenly noticed bubbles coming from underneath him. "Oh, no... Did I break? What am I gonna do now?" He soon regained his ability to move once the excess air had come out, but that joy was short-lived. The air was leaking out of him so rapidly that only a few minutes later he was just a shapeless piece of plastic drifting around the pool.
Flash was feeling apathetic, floating face down in the water all crumpled and deflated. "That's it, then," he thought bleakly. "I knew this would happen sooner or later. I suppose I'll stay put until somepony finds me here. Not like I have a choice or anything..."
For once, Flash did not have to wait for long. After a short while, he was fished out of the pool by one of the ponies working there, who then carefully rolled him up into a loose bundle in order to carry him. The unicorn was grateful for the rapid rescue, as well as the gentleness this particular pony treated him with. "At last, somepony who is being nice to me," he thought, cheering right up. "They will probably get me fixed up in no time at all."
The pony presented Flash Point to their boss. "I found this busted toy in one of the pools," they said. "Should I try to fix it or—"
"Don't bother," the boss said. "That one looks pretty cheap, it will likely just break again after a while. Those things are never going to hold air in properly once they've popped the first time. Just throw it away."
"Alright then," the pony replied. "Into the trash it goes."
Flash flopped helplessly on the back of the pony that carried him out of the building. The last thing he saw before everything went dark was the opening of the large recycling bin the pony stuffed him in. He landed head first on the bottom of the bin, with the rest of his body falling down awkwardly on top of him. "I can't believe it—they just threw me away like garbage!" The unicorn felt miserable. "I suppose that's exactly what I am right now—I'm nothing but a useless piece of trash! And it's all my fault!"
A few days passed. Flash could feel the bin fill up with garbage bit by bit. Eventually, not even a single glimmer of light would reach his eyes as he got buried beneath. Despair was starting to take over his thoughts. "My friends will never find me here," he fretted. "I can only hope somepony else does before..." A scary thought crossed the stallion's mind. "...before I get recycled into something new! Would I even survive that? Or would it be the end of me? Either way, there would be no way for anypony to ever find me after that."
Flash tried to avoid thinking about what was going to happen to him. Try as he might, he could not prevent the grim thoughts from intruding his mind every once in a while. "What happens when they feed me into the recycling machine? Will it melt me down or shred me to pieces? Probably both..." he thought, frightening himself even more. "I guess it's better than spending an eternity alone in a landfill. I just hope it doesn't hurt..."
Days kept passing by, although Flash was not able to tell the passing of the days any longer. The weight of the ever growing pile of trash stacked on top of him was crushing him down, squeezing every last bit of air out of him. His body was pressed tightly against the bottom of the bin. It felt even worse than being folded up with all the pointy pieces of plastic digging into him. He feared that at some point the bin would be emptied and he would end up at the recycling plant.
"Mom always used to tell me to make the best of myself," the unicorn thought. "Recycled plastic seems to be the best I can make of myself these days." Flash was trying to amuse himself by making light of his situation in order to keep his spirits up and alleviate his boredom. "I wonder what they'll make out of me... With my luck, they'll most likely make me into poop bags for dogs or something like that. Not the most flattering of fates, I guess."
Waiting a few more days at the bottom of the bin had made Flash lose all hope of ever being rescued. "I don't think anypony is looking for me," he lamented. "Or even if they are, they will never find me. They are searching for a pony, not a broken pool toy." The unicorn was utterly dejected. "How was I supposed to know the potion would turn me into an inflatable toy? I wish I had at least told somepony before drinking it..."
The following afternoon Flash Point's wait finally came to an end. He felt the entire bin start to shake. "This is it," he thought nervously. "I'm going to be processed by the machine any minute now." The unicorn tried his best to remain calm and not spend his last moments panicking. "I hope it makes short work of me..."
The bin was turned over and Flash fell out of it along with the rest of its contents. He braced himself for a brutal ending of his life. He felt the weight on him shifting, as if someone was rummaging through the pile of trash he was in. Suddenly, something grabbed his flank, and pulled him out of the trash pile. "There you are!" a voice said. Once he was out, he saw his friend Turnip Seed right in front of his face. Neither of them could believe what they saw. They stared at each other in shock.
"Flash?" Turnip's voice trembled. "Is it really you? What happened?"
The earth pony held the unicorn's flattened and crumpled body in their hooves. Turnip had trouble believing that this really was what their friend had been reduced to. They had not expected to find him in such a sorry state, but better that than not finding him at all. They pressed him against their fluffy chest and softly slid their hoof on his back, smoothing out wrinkles and creases in his plastic skin. They gently brushed some of the dust off of him before laying the floppy pool toy on their back and carrying him back inside. One of the workers let them into the storeroom.
Once there, Turnip carefully set Flash down, spreading him flat across the floor. Having a hose fitted into his valve once again made the unicorn anxious. Due to his past experiences, he had become afraid of pumps. His friend was keeping an eye on him this time, though, which put his mind at ease. While he was filling up, they noticed the hissing hole on his side and promptly sealed it with a piece of tape. Once the unicorn had been filled up to just the right amount, he trotted joyfully around his friend and rubbed his head against them as a sign of gratitude.
"I'm so glad to see you're alright," Turnip said. "You're more durable than you look."
Flash brushed his hoof against his chest. He was still a bit dusty and wrinkled from having spent the last couple of weeks in the recycling bin, compressed under the pile of trash, but he didn't let it dampen his good mood. Turnip stared at their unicorn friend and kept wondering what on Equestria had happened to him.
"Are you not able to talk?" the earth pony asked. The pool toy shook his squeaky head. Turnip wrapped their hooves around the unicorn and embraced him. "Everything's going to be alright, Flash," they assured. "We'll get you fixed one way or another. But let me take you home for now." The unicorn was relieved. Their comforting words made him forget about what might have happened to him if he hadn't been found in time.
Flash and Turnip left the water park and set their course to the unicorn's home. All the ponies staring at Flash made him feel a little embarrassed, but fortunately for him, he was unable to blush in his current form. Gusts of wind kept blowing him down and Turnip had to strap him to their back to keep him from falling over all the time. After a while, they arrived at his house.
The two ponies started working on setting the unicorn's life back in order. His rent was overdue due to him being away for a month and a half, but Turnip was able to sort things out for him on his behalf. The most important thing, of course, would be turning him back into a normal pony. Even if he was not able to speak, he was able to communicate by nodding and shaking his head, as well as by pointing at things. Turnip taped a pen to his hoof, allowing him to write down what he wanted to say.
After a day of tedious toil, Flash was successful in instructing Turnip how to help him create a cure for his predicament. Since he had no actual mouth to consume the potion with, he devised a plan to submerge his entire body in it instead. That would require him to be deflated once more—something he was not looking forward to—but that was the only method he could come up with. They would then need to quickly fill him up again, to make sure he retains his original shape.
Turnip Seed poured all the potion they had produced into a large bucket. Vapors were rising out of the bucket filled to the brim with the bubbling liquid. Flash Point was looking at it worriedly. "Are you ready, then?" Turnip asked.
Flash nodded. "I hope he remembers everything he has to do," the unicorn thought. "Especially the part about filling me back up as soon as I begin to turn normal. I don't want to end up as a doormat. That I've already had some experience with."
"I'll try to be gentle," Turnip said as he popped Flash's valve open and squeezed the unicorn softly. "Well, here goes nothing."
Those words didn't exactly fill Flash with confidence, but it was too late to turn back now. Once deflated, Turnip carefully rolled him into a tube shape in order to avoid making the unicorn uncomfortable by folding him. Flash felt himself being lifted off the floor and then lowered into the bucket. As soon as the earth pony noticed some hairs growing out of the unicorn, they quickly took him out of the bucket and laid him on the floor. They attached the bellows to his valve and started pumping furiously.
Flash could feel his body becoming heavier as he expanded. He stood up while Turnip was still pumping. His lips finally came apart after being fused together for weeks. "Slow down, we're almost there," Flash said. Turnip obeyed. "That's enough! Stop!" the unicorn exclaimed. The earth pony did just that and pulled the bellows out. A few seconds later, the valve disappeared altogether, forming into a belly button. Flash Point had been turned back into a normal pony.
The stallion looked at himself in the mirror and let out a sigh of relief. Everything seemed to be in order. He no longer looked all smooth and shiny, but hairy and fleshy like the day he was born. A piece of tape used to seal his leak was still attached to his side. He pulled it off and found a small scar that would forever remind him of his adventure.
Flash Point turned to Turnip Seed and broke down in tears. "Thank you so much!" the unicorn wailed. "How did you ever find me? I didn't tell anypony what I was up to." The earth pony wrapped their hooves around the unicorn and hugged him.
"Well, after a few weeks of silence I started to suspect something had happened to you," Turnip explained. "I put an image of you in the newspaper, asking if anypony had seen you. Eventually, a certain mare contacted me, insisting that she had seen a pool toy that looked just like you. It seemed odd, but I looked into it nonetheless. The clerk at the entrance confirmed that they had seen you enter the place as an ordinary pony. I also found your saddlebag there. Then I just kept asking around the place, and in the end I found you inside that recycling bin."
Flash had calmed down. "I shudder to think what might have happened to me if not for you," the unicorn said, still sniffling a little.
"Don't worry about that," Turnip said quietly. "But what was it like? Being a pool toy, I mean."
"It was fun," Flash Point said cheerfully. "Well, not at first, but I got used to it after some time. Seeing all the ponies be happy while playing with me made me feel really proud of myself. Being treated as an inanimate object was a pretty humbling experience. Still, I kind of wish I could experience it again."
"Well, you can," Turnip Seed said. "You already know how to make that potion, and there's nothing stopping you from drinking it again in the future. But if you do, just let your friends and the water park know about it in advance. Okay?"
