[River] A Watery Predicament [Closed]

[Kudalyn]

Aqua Drop

*BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

Aqua was bowled off her fins by the huge surge of water that came rushing down the street at her, carrying her away with the flood. Ponies everywhere scattered, slamming windows and doors shut, or hiding behind houses. The flood picked up everything in it's path - flowerpots, mailboxes, even a bench before it finally subsided, leaving Aqua to flop in the mud for a few seconds, trying to regain her senses and getting the water out of her lungs so she could breathe air again.

Heaving for air, she got to her hooves, slogging angrily through the mud until she finally found the source of the flood - a flopped over Granola beside a large hose, still dribbling water.

Aqua stomped over, slipping a few times in the mud before she finally got to Granola, whirling around to splash some water from a nearby puddle onto the dizzy pony with her tail.

"Don't. do. that. EVER. AGAIN." Aqua huffed, her face mostly covered by her wet and muddy hair, her hide covered in mud, leaves and twigs. "I tried to tell you, but NO you wouldn't listen. I am FINE on land. THINK for a moment. If I couldn't survive well enough on land, WHY on EQUESTRIA would I be in the middle of a land-dweller's town?!" She yelled out, hunched over the poor pony.

Aqua took a few steps back, flicking her wet hair out of her face - which whirled around and smacked the other side of her face, only making her more mad. "Okay. I look like a sea monster. Help me get clean NOW, and you won't met the business end of my tail. Got it?"

[Tempest Rime]

Tempest deposited the debris from the flower pot into its proper trash receptacle, turning back to the other ponies with a slight smug look, which was instantly swept away when the deluge of water came streaming toward them. Tempest herself instinctively zipped into the air, over the top of the flood before flitting about in a panic while the water subsided.

"Aqua! Are you alright?" She darted down in time to hear her new friend give Granola a stern talking to. She landed next to the hippocamp, adding her own icy glare to the collection of upset faces staring down the poor brown earth pony. The trash pail she had deposited the broken pottery into had been overturned and its contents strewn about.

"I'm sorry Aqua," said Tempest angrilly, "This is not the introduction to Ponyville I was hoping to give you."

[Hippo]

Granola shook herself from the dizziness her thrill ride developed. Fortunately, no pony seemed hurt. She had no time to react to what was happening before Aqua, covered in mud, confronted her about her foolish act. Granola didn't like confrontations at all, and immediately felt small in the eyes of the hippocamp. And to make matters even worse, the other ponies in the area who had recovered from the flash flood were starring down disappointed gestures at Granola as well. No pony, not even Tempest, showed sympathy for Granola's lack of judgement and character. It caused great displeasure in Nola's heart and it made her feel worthless and unwanted.

"I- I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hurt anypony..." Granola was fiercely apologetic. Her irises grew to her eyelids and her pupils deep with black. The upset pony had active tear glands that blurred her vision and kept her from being able to communicate properly. This had always been the case, as Granola was a good crier. But there was no reward for overemotional crying in Ponyville and she was fully aware of her humility at this particular juncture.

Granola stood up on her four shaky legs. She wanted to help remove the dirt and mud off Aqua, but was unsure how to do it effectively. She thought of the hose first. No, Gracie, THINK for a moment. Aqua's frustrated rant replayed in Granola's head over and over. They only thing she could think of was to just use her hooves to wipe as much mud as possible. She was afraid to do it any other way, as she might cause more chaos. As she used her bare hooves to removed mud off of Aqua, she couldn't bring herself to say anything more. She only sniffled with an emotional breathing spasm and she exhaled with whistling sighs.

[Inkwell]

It wasn't in Inkwell's nature to be aggressive and confrontational. He could only muster up fierce anger for just long enough to bark out a sentence or two, and then he snapped right back to his normal self like a rubber band. When Aqua walked up to Granola and started shouting at Granola, Inkwell flinched and shrank back, breaking out of his own state of righteous indignation.

The risk Granola had posed to his art was quickly forgotten, and soon Inkwell began to feel empathy for the poor filly. True, she just did something incredibly stupid, but Inkwell had been just as dumb at points in the past, and he knew too well what she must have been going through. By the looks of things, though, it seemed as if he was the only one.

When Tempest ordered Granola to clean off the debris that got stuck to her in the chaos, Inkwell started helping her, using his magic to scrape the mud and leaves and twigs off of Aqua's body. He could feel his heart start to crack as Granola sniffled and sobbed. "I-It's fine," he mumbled. "I fffforgive you."

[Kudalyn]

Aqua Drop

Aqua's temper fizzled away with each of Granola's sniffles and sobs, her pathetic attempts at wiping the mud off her pelt only adding to the effect. She sighed when Inkwell trotted up, adding his own misery to the air as he helped Granola with his magic.

"It's okay Temp. Stuff happens. It just gets to me when ponies don't stop and listen, and bad stuff happens. Plus... I don't like surprises. At all." She said, using a hoof to lift her soggy, mud-encrusted bangs from her face. She looked down at her hooves, seeing the papers Tempest handed to her earlier completely soaked and breaking apart in the puddle in front of her.

"Oh... the papers... Oh well. Not like we can't get more." She said, letting it go. She looked at Granola and Inkwell, noting Granola's flinch at her look. "Hey, I'm not gonna eat you. Like I said, I just don't like surprises. Also, we kept trying to stop you, but you weren't listening... next time, open your ears and pay attention instead of rushing off on your own devices. You might learn something."

"Now... While I want to keep walking around Ponyville, I think the town needs some time to recover. And I don't want them to pin the blame on us. Let's go back to my lake Temp... Inkwell and Granola, you can come along too. I can wash off there and you ponies can help me find the best spot to set up my new land-home by the lakeside." She said to her friends, smiling softly and turning around, slipping in the mud a bit as she started walking back the way they came.

[Tempest Rime]

Tempest glared sternly at Granola for a moment longer, apparently immune to being softened up by tears. She sighed. "Miss Gracie, please. Compose yourself. We all know you didn't intend to do harm, you just need to slow down and listen." Her tone of voice, at least, had softened from one of anger to one a mother might take when scolding a careless child.

She looked around, surveying the damage. There was remarkably little actual damage, though the deluge had certainly made a mess and scattered all manner of debris. They were lucky in that regard, the pressurized hose would have had no difficulty shattering windows or tearing up flower beds had it been directed at them. Instead, poor Aqua had been the target, and she seemed uninjured.

"Well come along then, let's head back to the lake." She turned back to Aqua. "We can always continue the tour later, I suppose. Ponyville isn't going anywhere."

[Hippo]

"Thanks," Granola said to Inkwell.

Granola's ears perked up from their previous dropped position. Hearing the mild understandings from the ponies around her helped a little with her coping with the that she failed. Inkwell's sympathy helped even more. Granola hadn't really known Inkwell that much. She had only just casually seen him and his canvas sharing ends of a pen or brush in random places in Ponyville. She admired his sensitivity. On the journey of Granola making some solid friends in Ponyville, her own sensitivity seemed to be the main thing that separated her from 'normal' pony interactions. But Aqua's assessment of Granola's personality was right--she had much to learn.

Granola's ears perked up even more when the hippocamp invited her to the lake with the others, despite giving her a mud bath. Granola stood up more straight. "Oh, yes, I'd love to come. I'll promise you, I wont do anything stupid again, ever!" Granola wanted to tag along. She wanted to repay Aqua, and everypony else for that matter, for the damages done in the incident. At the moment, however, Granola was unsure how she was going to do it. She followed Aqua in the direction she was flopping.

[Inkwell]

As the other two mares softened their stances and did their part to reassure Gracie, Inkwell sighed and smiled, feeling the stress in him dissipate as though a snake released its constricting grip on his chest. He noticed a few more patches of mud on Agua's forelegs and carefully wiped them off. The process relaxed him further, so he hoped Aqua didn't mind the attention he gave her.

Really, what had he gotten so worked up over? Things patched themselves up so quickly that he started to feel silly for reacting so strongly in two different ways. Sure, he tried to tell himself that he wouldn't shout at ponies who endangered his art anymore, but Granola wasn't a little filly, so he thought it would be okay, he guessed.

Gah, this wondering and flip-flopping was getting him nowhere! If Rose were here, she'd cuff him upside the head and tell him to get over himself, and so that's what he tried to do. Hearing about the papers dissolving only shook his resolve for a second.

He gave Granola a big smile when she thanked him, and couldn't resist the urge to hug her for a second. "No problem," he said.

Then everypony decided that it would be best for them to show Aqua back to the lake instead of giving her the tour of the town. "Huh," he said, thinking the idea over. "Now that you mention it, I could really go for a swim." Just thinking about it made the air seem muggy and humid, even though he thought the day started pretty seasonable when he left his home. "Yeah, let's do it!"

He got excited and almost galloped off in the direction of the lake, before remembering that he should probably stick with Aqua so he didn't seem selfish. So he kept trotting by her side, matching the hippocamp's impaired pace.

[Kudalyn]

~Aqua Drop~

Aqua kept flopping along, wincing slightly. With all the movement and excitement, some of the seaweed had worn off of the bark she tied to the end of her tail, and it was beginning to chafe on her pelt a little. She seriously wasn't built for land! She didn't let the others catch on though - last thing she needed was Granola to start freaking out again, and make Inkwell and Tempest become even more uncomfortable!

Best thing would be to get her back to more 'friendly waters'. She snorted to herself at her super-lame joke. Finally reaching the edge of town, Aqua kept on moving forward, but with each step-flop she found it a bit harder to move forward. She looked up - of course, there was the hill she had rolled down when she first entered town. And of course, not having any hind legs was making her trek very very difficult.

She struggled up a few more steps, but soon lost her footing and started to slide backwards.

Panicking a little, she dug in her front hooves, digging little trenches in the grass and dirt before managing to come to a stop. Last thing she'd need was to go flying backwards into town again!

"Er.... can... can I have a little help please?"

[Tempest Rime]

Tempest rolled her eyes at Granola, but didn't make any comment. She greatly doubted that that was the last mistake the brown pony would make, but it wasn't worth hurting her feelings by telling her so.

"Here," said Tempest as Aqua slipped, eager to help. She swooped down and wrapped her legs around Aqua's tail and picked her up. Tempest was not a very strong pony, but just picking up Aqua's tail wasn't too much trouble for her. "Oof. There, now it's like you're only walking on two legs," she said, giggling slightly at the thought. "Try now, should be a lot easier."

As they crested the hill, she thought about what else she could do to help Aqua get settled in. "Hmm, so what kind of home did you have in mind setting up here? I could put you in touch with some local construction services, but I'm not sure what they'd be able to do underwater. I'm no expert at construction work, but most structures that extend into the water around here tend to get a little messy with algae and whatnot. Do hippocamp architects have some special technique to combat that?"

[Hippo]

Granola pranced through the edge of town as she followed her forgiving peers through the muddy trails. Ponyville looking like it was hit with a flash flood, when indeed it was. Feeling guilty about the damages, she turned to a couple of ponies who were salvaging what was left of their flower bed. "Are you sure I can't help clean up?"

The two ponies glared at her. Of of them, who was a stallion with a deep voice calmly criticized, "I think you've helped enough."

With ears folded back and head lowered, Granola stepped back away from the two ponies and continued walking the in direction of the hippocamp's muddy imprints. Every step left a small piece of evidence of the hippocamp's presence as a small cut of seaweed left behind or a patch of dirt strongly resembling Aqua's underbelly. It wouldn't be hard to follow them, Granola thought.

Arriving at the hill, Granola could see Aqua's troubles. She could also see Tempest helping her friend by subtracting the limitations her tail fin generated. Granola wanted to help, naturally. But the only thing she could think of was to provide some sort of assurance. Granola stepped behind the hippocamp. "Don't worry, Aqua, if you begin to slip, I wont let you slide backwards." Just as she said this, Granola slipped on some mud that Aqua had left behind. She was able, however, to regain her balance before rolling down the hill. She played it cool and grinned as if there was nothing wrong. "I meant to do that."

[Inkwell]

When Aqua started slipping, Inkwell gaped, then made himself rush over to help her. He stopped when Tempest did it for him, wrapping her forelegs around Aqua's tail to give her some support. "Lemme know if you start to slip," he said. "I can, you know, levitate you a bit if you want." He just shrugged and moved on with the rest of them, looking back at Granola when she almost slipped.

[Kudalyn]

~Aqua Drop~

Struggling the last few steps, Aqua and her friends finally reached the top of the hill. She looked over her shoulder back down at Ponyville, panting a little.

"Funny... this hill didn't seem so big on the way down." She laughed, looking back to her friends. "Well... I'm not suite sure yet. I mean, none of you guys can exactly breathe underwater like I can, so just having a home under the water seems a little silly." She thought for a second, running ideas through her head.

"Well, maybe just a little one-story house right by the lakeside. Like, with a little dock on it that floats out over the water. That way I can have a place for my friends to stay inside if they need to, and I can get to it fairly easy. I'd mostly live in the lake, of course. I wouldn't need a little house down there or anything - I'm sure there's a cave or two I can sleep in down there."

"Also with algae.... I'm not too worried about it. In the city there's usually tons of snails and other small critters that eat the algae and coral and whatnot that grows on their structures, and I'm sure there's little critters in the lake that do that too."

"And thank you Inkwell and Granola. I'm okay now though. This side of the hill is much easier for me to move on. And if push comes to shove, I'll just roll down this one too! Thank you for the offer to float me around Inky, but I'm not too sure about that. I'm heavier than I look.... and I've never had magic used on me before. In the ocean I'm normally all my myself, so I guess you could say I don't get out much." She said, chuckling at her small jokes.

[Tempest Rime]

Tempest looked thoughtful for a moment. "Hmm, you could build the house itself right out over the water, I've seen some lake homes built like that." She coughed. "And by seen, I mean, uh... I've seen pictures. But they do exist, I'm sure we could find somepony with the technical know-how to make one. Oh, and then you could even have an underwater section of your house. Just in case you needed a bit more privacy. The lake does see swimmers on occasion... though not as many since the squid incident. But still, privacy is very important."

She paused, sighed, and flitted back down the hill, offering a helping hoof to Granola. "Need help? It is a little slick..." She did her best to hide it, but a slight smile showed on her face.

[Hippo]

At the top of the hill, Granola could see the body of water that Aqua probably felt more familiar with. "Thanks." Granola smiled with Tempest. It was surprising to Granola that everypony for the moment have seemed to forget the tragedy that ended Aqua's short tour through Ponyville just minutes before. Granola was never really abused with such accusations in her lifetime, that is of course, if you don't count her own critical over-thinking that often brings her to those thoughts of helplessness and social fear in the first place.

Looking out over the lake, it boggled Granola's mind for a moment that this body of water she had passed so many times before was now more to her than just a lake. Up until this day, it had always been an obstacle for Granola to go around it when she made her trips to the outlining forests in the area. Now it was someone's home to her. Just like a building in Ponyville, she would sure send greetings to Aqua every time she passed by the lake from now on. She would only hope that Aqua wouldn't mind the company.

"Yeah, like a beaver's hut!" Granola's overhearing of the idea's Aqua had for a newly renovated living and communing space on the lake sparked Granola's hastey mind. She made extra effort to make sure that her statement was not misunderstood for a snerky comment. "I mean. You're not a beaver. You certainly don't look like one. You should do it, because beavers are smart that they have homes like that. I, mean, you're smart too, but, oh geez. But you, uh..." Granola began sweating. Granola's second biggest fear was ponies not caring to listen to her. Her biggest fear was that ponies would. "What I mean to say is that you're the smartest non-beaver-looking pony I've ever met." Granola revealed a nearvous twitching smile.

[Inkwell]

Aqua graciously declined Inkwell's offer to help her. "Oh, okay," he said. "If you say so. You don't look heavy at all."

He looked at the edge of the lake with the rest of them as they all started to talk about how the construction of Aqua's house would go. "Yeah, I'd love to see a house like that, actually," he said when the others brought up a house that would exist partially underwater. "But I'm not sure how you'd actually build one. I don't really know anything about engineering. Maybe we can check the library. Twilight Sparkle ought to have a book on the subject."

The surface of the water drew his attention. He looked into it, spotting his reflection, and couldn't help but check himself out just a little bit. Then his glasses slipped off and landed with a splash. "Whoops!" He levitated them back out and set them aside, along with his saddlebags.

"I think I'm going to take a dip," he said, walking into the lake. The water rose up to his knees, making him realize that it was a little on the chilly side. "Um, a-anypony want to join me?"