Ruby did not want to be here.
She'd never imagined a beach party could cause this much dread. It was all kind of surreal. She anxiously watched the ponies milling around below her on the sand. The cheery, upbeat music floating up from the speakers was a stark contrast to the horror of the situation. She couldn't believe Hitch had allowed such dangerous creatures into Maretime Bay.
"Sprout, can I go home?" she begged her cousin, hooves itching to run back up the stairs to safety. "There aren't even any ponies here my age." Of course there wasn't. No one wanted to risk their child being kidnapped by a pegasus or lasered by a unicorn.
Sprout shook his head. "You don't have to stay for the full thing, but making an appearance will help repair our family's image." Ruby didn't think their image was all that damaged. Sprout had only been trying to defend everypony after they'd begged him to take action. And the Canterlogic self-defense product lines were more relevant than ever now. Yeah, it turned out they hadn't needed them before, but nopony had known that. "I'm sure there are some fillies around. Just, have some cake, build a sandcastle, I don't know. You don't need to talk to any pony you don't want to." Sprout shuffled his hooves a bit and glanced down at the crowd. "There's nothing to be scared of." He did not sound confident enough to even start to soothe her nerves. "No pegasus or unicorn would make a move in public like this. And we earth ponies still outnumber them."
From what Ruby could see, there were only a few unicorns and about two dozen pegasi. There were more earth ponies, but numbers wouldn't help if a pegasus flew out of reach or a unicorn used their dark magic.
She forced her hooves to follow her cousin down the second half of the stairs and onto the beach. Her heart hammered in her chest as they passed two unicorns chatting by the punch bowl. Their horns were huge and pointy. How did they even walk around with those things attached to their head? And they must bump it into things all the time. It was so weird. So creepy. These unicorns didn't seem to have fangs. They were probably using their magic to hide them.
Ruby was so on edge she nearly jumped when Hitch suddenly appeared beside them. "Sprout, you came!" the stallion greeted happily.
"Yep," Sprout nodded awkwardly. "I'm here…"
"Well, let me introduce you to some ponies," Hitch suggested. "We're getting ready to start the volleyball tournament, so we need to make teams."
"Sure," Sprout agreed flatly.
Hitch turned his attention to Ruby. "Hiya, Ruby. Glad you could make it out." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "You're too young for the tournament." Thank Stella. "I have seen few kids around you could hang out with. I saw a filly a few minutes ago collecting seashells by the bear rock."
What a relief! The rock shaped like a sitting bear, locally known as the bear rock, was further down the beach, away from the main party. She could just help this filly find seashells for, like, an hour, then she could leave.
"Okay," she nodded cheerfully. "Thanks Hitch."
Bounding away, Ruby hurried through the main party. She was tempted to grab one of the delicious looking cakes, but a blue unicorn mare was by the table and Ruby didn't want to risk it.
She spotted the filly Hitch had been talking about further down the beach, still by the bear rock. She looked Ruby's age, but Ruby didn't recognize her. Had she really come from out of town for this? Then again, Ruby was here too so she really couldn't judge.
The filly was white with light blue, pink, yellow, and dark blue streaked hair. Most of her mane was up in a high, thick ponytail and she was wearing a sunhat with a pretty arrangement of shells going around the band. Her tail was somewhat short, styled similarly to her mane. Each of her hooves was a different color, matching the colors of her hair. She already had her cutie mark- a splash of paint being lit up by two spotlights. Her talent must be something art related. Ruby briefly lamented her own blank flank then went to introduce herself to the filly.
The filly had a pile of shells next to her and she was closely examining a conch shell as Ruby approached.
"That's a pretty good collection," Ruby commented. The party had only started a little while ago, she'd worked fast.
The filly glanced back towards Ruby. "Oh, hi!" The filly jumped to her hooves. "Yeah, they're pretty neat. I've never been to the beach before, so I've never been able to just find shells out in the wild like this."
"Oh, well, I'm from here, I come to this beach all the time. I can help you find shells," Ruby offered.
"Ooooh, a local!" the filly chirped. She snatched a wide, ridged white shell from her pile. "What's this one called?"
"Like, scientifically, or the common name?" Ruby checked, but immediately knew she'd want the common name. Nopony ever wanted binomial nomenclature. Sometimes her mouth just moved quicker than her common sense.
So she was surprised when the filly answered, "Both, if you know them."
"Oh," Ruby blinked. "Well, that one's Cyrtopleura costata, or an angel wing."
"Fascinating," the filly exclaimed seriously. "Both so fancy sounding. And it looks like a folded wing. I get it. What about this one?" She grabbed a smaller orange and white shell with thick ridges.
"Plicatula gibbosa," Ruby told her, somewhat bemused by the filly's reaction, but pleased that she was genuinely interested. "Also known as kitten's paw." These were fairly common shells, but this filly was so excited over them. Ruby supposed as a local she might be taking her easy access to seashells for granted, just so accustomed to them always being there. They were pretty, even the more common ones.
The filly's eyes sparkled. "Awww, it does look like a kitten's paw! These shell naming ponies are good. What about this one?" She picked up a conch with brown stripes and longer spikes.
"Ooh, good find," Ruby complimented. "That's a king's crown. Melongera corona." It was in good condition too. Those usually got scooped up fast.
"Zowie, you really know your stuff," the filly admired. "I can't speak a lick of old ponish, but it always sounds cool. Very mysterious."
Ruby nodded. "I enjoy it. Even if no pony really speaks it anymore." Oh, she hadn't introduced herself yet. "Ah, I'm Ruby. Ruby Array."
"Nice to meet you Ruby," the filly grinned. "I'm a pony known by many names. Artsia Splash. Artsy. Sia. Just Splash. Cici on occasion. The Coming Storm."
Ruby tilted her head. "Ponies call you 'The Coming Storm'? Why?"
Artsia sighed, ears drooping in a pout. "No. They don't. Not yet. I'm trying to get it to catch on though. Most ponies just call me Artsy."
"Why would you want to be called The Coming Storm?" Ruby asked, confused.
"Because it sounds cool," Artsy shrugged. "It invokes excitement. It'll happen one day." Alright then. "But anywho, you said you wanted to help me find shells?"
"Yeah, sure," Ruby confirmed.
"Awesome!" Artsy did a little hop. "I'll take any help I can get."
"Let's start over there," Ruby suggested, pointing to a spot a bit further down the beach. They started in that direction. "I was glad to see another kid here."
"Yeah, I was surprised there weren't more here," Artsy commented, glancing back at the crowd of adults by the volleyball net.
"Really? I wasn't." It wasn't a safe event even for adults. "I'm actually kind of surprised you're here. Especially from out of town. Your parents were okay with you coming here?"
"Oh yeah, they weren't too worried," Artsy remarked casually. "Izzy was going to be here, and she's visited Maretime Bay quite a bit and said it would be fine."
"Who's Izzy?"
"My cousin," Artsy replied. "She's been excited about this party for a while now. Honestly though, I just came to see the ocean. And for the snacks. They really went all out with the catering."
"You're a braver pony than me." They both came to a stop and Ruby scanned the area for shells. "There haven't been any storms recently, but the wind is coming from the water though so that helps. We're pretty close to a new moon too, so the tides are good for shelling. Any particular color or shape you're looking for?"
"Not really," Artsy shrugged. "I just want as many types as possible. I do need at least a dozen different types. Do you think this beach has that many?"
That was an oddly specific number. "Uh, yeah, especially if we count different subcategories as different shells. Why do you want at least a dozen? Do you have a particular sandcastle idea in mind or something?"
"That too," Artsy nodded. She ran a hoof through the sand, scooping up a hoofful. "This will be my first time working with sand." She tilted her hoof so the sand could trickle off. "It's sparklier than I was expecting. Imagine if this whole beach had glitter instead of sand. It would be beautiful, but terrible at the same time. The power of glitter must be wielded responsibly, lest it spread to the unsuspecting masses."
"It does tend to get everywhere," Ruby agreed, amused. "So, you've never made a sandcastle or anything before?"
"Nope," Artsy said, popping her 'p'. "But I'm looking forward to it. Such a transient medium. To spend hours toiling at your work, knowing it will probably be gone within a few days. But you still make it so it can be enjoyed for those fleeting moments. It carries a unique sort of noble eccentricity."
"You could take a picture of it," Ruby pointed out.
"Yeah," Artsy half-shrugged. "But it won't have the same impact. It's nice to not lose the work completely though." Huh. "But the main reason I need twelve shells if because I'm trying to knock out my oceanology badge while I'm here."
Ruby perked up. "Oh, you're a crusader?"
"Yeah, I am," Artsy confirmed, looking a little surprised for some reason. "Do they have those here too?"
"Yeah, Maretime Bay has a branch." This was the capitol city, of course they had one here. "I'm a crusader myself. I've already got my oceanology badge, living by the ocean made it easier. We should be able to fulfill all the hooves on requirements at this beach."
"Oh cool! I made a list of what I want to get done today." Artsy pulled out a notepad and showed it to Ruby.
Ruby quickly read through it, eyebrows furrowing. "Huh, this is a little different than the one I did." Maybe she'd written it down wrong? But she seemed to have copied the requirements down word for word. "It's mostly the same, the major steps are still there, some of the smaller details are just slightly altered. I guess different branches can have slight variations. We can definitely get all this done here."
"Great!" Artsy clapped happily. "For the shell collecting bit, I've already found seven types, so I only need to find five more."
"That shouldn't take long," Ruby estimated, wadding into the shallows and shifting through the wet sand for shells.
Artsy skipped after her but paused at the edge of the water. She leaned down and poked her tongue into a passing wave. "Salty," she noted. "As anticipated." Then she bounced into the shallows proper and began searching for shells.
What a strange filly. Ruby liked her though. And it was always nice to meet a pony who didn't know who her family was or how rich they were. Ponies always started treating her differently after they knew.
Wanting to keep up conversation and also because she was curious, Ruby asked. "So you're still a crusader? Even though you got your cutie mark?" It wasn't super unusual, there were ponies who stayed after getting their mark. But a lot of ponies saw getting their mark as the goal of the cutie mark crusaders, it was in the name after all, and left after earning their mark.
"Course I am," Artsy replied, like it was unthinkable that she wouldn't be. "I'll be a crusader until they either kick me out or until I get all the badges. I'm always looking for new experiences. That's why I joined the crusaders, to just try things. I wasn't really trying to get my mark." She glanced back at her flank. "I actually got my mark pretty early. I'd only been in the crusaders for, like, a moon, I wasn't going to quit so soon."
Ruby looked at her own blank flank. "Lucky." She felt like she should have hers by now. She knew what she was good at, and she liked doing it. So was technology not her destiny? Was she not meant to take over the company one day? What else would she even do? What was she doing wrong? "Sometimes I feel like I'll never get mine."
"What? Pfft." Artsy waved a hoof lightly. "Loads of kids our age don't have their marks yet. You'll get yours eventually, everypony does."
Well, there were actually rare cases of ponies never getting their mark, but it was extremely rare. Ruby really hoped she wasn't one of those.
They continued to chat as they gathered shells. Artsia was a very easy pony to talk to and her eagerness was contagious. Ruby would have to make sure to get her number before she left. It hadn't sounded like she lived too far away. Ruby just hoped the other filly didn't start acting weird when she found out she was the Canterlogic heiress. It was bound to come up eventually…
After about thirty minutes, they were just one shell short. They'd worked their way down the beach and were starting to get a bit too close to the main party for comfort, but Ruby didn't want to be the first one to say something.
"Another repeat," Artsy observed, but she didn't sound disappointed. She turned the auger shell in her hoof. "Pretty colors. Definitely going to the keep pile. These are one of my favorite. They look like horns; I'm going to be able to do a lot with these." Ruby thought augers looked more like spiraled spikes, but she didn't have the artist eye.
"We've got all the most common ones," Ruby contemplated. "It'll probably come down to luck to find the last one."
"Well luck favors the motivated," Artsy stated, undeterred.
"I thought it was luck favors the prepared." Ruby's heart skipped a beat. Oh, wait, ponies didn't like being corrected about that kind of stuff. Artsy would think she was calling her stupid. "Motivation helps too though."
"And since we're both of those things, we'll be extra lucky," Artsy declared, rubbing her hooves together. "I mean, we're kinda prepared. As prepared as we could be. Not sure how prepared you can be for this sort of thing." She veered back into the shallows, gazing out at the far waters as if looking for something. "Hey, are there seaponies living around here?"
"Seaponies?" Ruby repeated skeptically. Was she being serious? "Those are just an old foal's tale, they aren't real."
"Aw, really?" Artsy's posture drooped, and Ruby felt awful. This was the first time the filly seemed truly disappointed. Even when finding so many repeat shells, her mood hadn't dipped. But she couldn't lie to cheer her up, right? Why would she even want seaponies to be real?
"I mean," Artsy continued. "I guess I've never met a pony who's seen one. I've really only read about them in fantasy books. But I thought they were real. Like dragons and griffons and all those." Thank goodness none of those lived in Equestria.
"I've lived by the ocean my whole life," Ruby told her guiltily. "And I've never seen one."
"Well, maybe they don't come to the surface much," Artsy rationalized. "In Holly Trotter, they all live deep underwater so she didn't even know they were there until the lake challenge."
"Holly Trotter?" Was that a book? A movie? "What's that?"
Artsy's mouth fell open and she gazed at Ruby in shock for a couple seconds. Then she recovered. "No, that makes sense you've never heard of it actually. It's a super popular book series back home."
"Really?" Ruby rubbed some sand away, but it was another repeat shell. "A local hit, huh? I'm always down for a good read. What's it about?"
Artsy's eyes lit up and the words spilled out of her mouth so fast Ruby really had to pay attention to catch it all. "Okay, so, it's one of those stories where it takes place in the real-world modern day, or, like modern day twenty years ago, and it's about this filly who was living a normal, not so great life, her aunt and uncle are kinda awful, then she discovers she has magic and gets to go to Silverstaff School of Sorcery. She gets sorted into phoenix house, there are four houses, they all have different like, qualities they value, she's in the bravery house. There's so much cool stuff and she fights bad guys, but I can't say too much without spoiling it. Don't look up the death list, or the back of the books summaries of the later books, or ponies' favorite character lists- y'know, just don't look up anything. Even fanmade music videos can give stuff away. Anything with the word Always too. Yeah, just, stay blind."
Ruby didn't even try to hide her confusion. "…so, it takes place in the real-world modern times, but ponies had magic?" Was it a 'what if earth ponies had magic' type story? That could be interesting, she supposed. Earth ponies wouldn't use the scary kind of magic. Like, if she could do magic, that would be cool.
"Well, some ponies had magic," Artsy clarified. "And the magic ponies hide that they have magic so the non-magic ponies don't feel sad. It was cool because you could imagine yourself learning you have magic and getting your letter to Silverstaff. And you could imagine all the secret magic things hidden around you." She paused, raising a hoof to her chin in thought. "Ooh, now that magic's back, we can have real magic schools now. If somepony figures out how magic works. It'd be cool if somepony called their school Silverstaff, there might be licensing issues maybe, but it would be cool."
"Any real-world magic school would only be for unicorns," Ruby pointed out. And that would be one of the most terrifying places in Equestria.
"Yeah. It would still be cool to go to though," Artsy encouraged. This filly was maybe a little too brave. "Even if you aren't learning magic there. I think for the really high-end magic stuff you basically need a magic cutie mark-" she gestured back at her own mark. "-so I don't think I'd qualify. But I'd still want to see it."
"I wouldn't," Ruby shivered. "The unicorns here are scary enough. Imagine being stuck in a building full of them."
Artsy froze, hoof half extended to pick up another shell, her ears giving a single twitch. "You're… scared of unicorns?"
"Of course," Ruby answered, bewildered. "Aren't you?"
"I, um," Artsy stuttered, jerkily adjusting her hat. "No? Why are you scared of unicorns?"
"What'd you mean 'why'?" Ruby gaped; eyes wide. Did she seriously not know? Did she live somewhere so far from unicorns that nopony really talked about them? "Any pony would be. Their magic can do all kinds of horrifying stuff. And they're so conniving and secretive. Talking to one is just asking to get your lifeforce stolen and your brain gooed or to get turned into a frog or to get your voice stolen or whatever they want do to do you. Best thing is to run as fast as you can in the other direction if you see one." She nervously glanced over at the adults by the volleyball net. "It's really dangerous to have them in the city like this." Her fear intensified, nearly choking her, as she realized her new friend could be in danger. "You didn't talk to any of the unicorns, did you? They can be very sneaky with their spellcasting."
Artsy looked disheartened. Had she thought unicorns were nice? The filly was quiet for a few long seconds, her expression contemplative. Then she said, "I can understand why you'd be scared. But I don't think unicorns would use their magic to hurt anypony. Even the unicorns capable of that kind of magic, which most aren't, they use it to help ponies."
Ruby snorted. "Who told you that?" She couldn't name even one not-evil unicorn wizard.
"Er, nopony told me really. I just-"
A wordless shriek of rage from the volleyball court cut her off. They both turned to see what was happening, Ruby's mind conjuring all sorts of terrible possibilities from a pegasus carrying a pony off to a unicorn transforming a pony into a ball.
Posey was storming under the net towards a pink unicorn mare with pink and yellow hair. "That's it! You pegasi and unicorns have been cheating this whole time and I'm putting my hoof down. This is ridiculous!"
The unicorn's ears flattened anxiously. "I'm sorry! I wasn't going to throw it back or anything. It was going to hit me in the face, I levitated it on instinct."
Posey rolled her eyes. Ruby didn't like Posey very much, she tended to be very whiny and really strict about rules, but Ruby couldn't help admiring Posey's guts in this moment.
"Uh huh, sure," Posey scoffed. "Just like how the pegasi just keep 'instinctually' flying to reach the ball."
The white pegasus mare Ruby had seen Sunny and Hitch hanging out with stepped forward. "It is accidental. We aren't used to our wings actually doing anything when we flap them. It's only happened three times and we've always said the round doesn't count when it happens."
Sunny rushed up to the arguing group. "C'mon, Posey, you're being unreasonable." Ruby winced. Never tell Posey she's being unreasonable. The word made Posey's face go even redder. "Nopony's cheating there's just been a few small mistakes. It happens all the time in sports."
"Posey's right," Lily protested, going to stand by Posey. "We aren't asking for much. Just don't fly and don't use magic when playing games with every pony else."
A white unicorn stallion pushed forward to stand by the accused unicorn mare, who was shrinking away from Posey. "What? So you wanted Shimmer to get nailed in the face? Why'd that pegasus even spike it so hard?"
"That was a normal spike," a green pegasus defended. "She jumped into it."
"I was trying to catch it," the unicorn mare explained, eyes starting to tear up. To Ruby's surprise, she was starting to feel bad for the unicorn. She could be faking it though…
Again, Sunny attempted to restore the peace. "Nopony's done anything wrong. Let's maybe take a break from volleyball. How about we move on to sandcastle building?"
"What?" Posey rebuffed. "So the unicorns can use their magic to make a perfect replica of Canterlot Castle?"
"That's, um, not a thing we can do actually," Sunny's purple and blue unicorn mare friend pipped up.
"Oh, you would say-"
Ruby and Artsy exchanged looks then started to rapidly back away from the arguing. What a mess. Inevitable though. Really, they were lucky it wasn't worse.
It took Ruby a couple seconds to register that there was another pony also fleeing the argument just a few feet away from them and moving in the same direction.
The unfamiliar girl was another filly around their age. Ruby didn't recognize her, so most likely another visitor. She was a very light brown with a curly pink, dark brown, and peach mane. Freckles peppered her face, and her peach-colored eyes were borderline panicked. Ruby couldn't tell if she had her cutie mark or not, she was wearing a beach robe. Was she here alone? When had she gotten here? Ruby hadn't spotted her earlier.
Being at a party by yourself was bad enough without the added stresses of dealing with the other tribes. Well, if the filly didn't have any friends here, she could hang out with her and Artsy. She was sure Artsy wouldn't mind.
"Hey," Ruby called out to her, and the filly flinched and whipped her head around to look over at them. "The grown ups are being kinda stupid, huh? Why don't you hang out with us instead? We're gathering seashells right now."
The filly blinked, glancing anxiously around, then slowly crept towards them. "Seashells?" she repeated in a soft, quiet voice. Ruby didn't think she was whispering, it was a bit too loud for that, it was just her normal voice. "Um, I-" The filly fiddled with a small pile of sand. "I guess? If you want me to."
Artsy was silent for a strangely distracted second, but then seemed to catch up with what was going on. "We could take a break from it if you want to do something else," she offered, sensing a lack of enthusiasm for the idea from the other filly. "We've already got loads. I'm just looking for one more type for my oceanology badge and we'll probably come across one while we're doing other stuff."
"Your oceanology badge?" the filly repeated. "Oh, yeah, I remember seeing that one…"
Ruby's ears perked. "Are you a crusader too?" It wasn't crazy surprising, lots of foals were, but that all three of them happened to be one and they were all from different parts of Equestria?
"Oh, um, yes," the filly nodded. "I'm, um, not very good at it, and I still don't have my mark, but, um… I guess it's smart to do the oceanology badge while you're by the ocean. I didn't even think of it…"
"I don't have my mark yet either," Ruby pointed out encouragingly.
"Hey, I bet we can help you get your oceanology badge too!" Artsy suggested eagerly. "Ruby's already got hers, and I'm a badge earning champ! Oh, I'm Artsia by the way. Artsia Splash."
"And I'm Ruby Array," Ruby introduced.
"I'm, um, Sparrow Song," the filly told them.
Artsy reached out and shook Sparrow's hood so enthusiastically it lifted the filly off the ground. Ruby might need to step in every now and then to keep Artsy from getting too hyper with the clearly shy filly. "Well nice to meet you, Sparrow. We'll have loads of fun." She pranced to the top of a small stack of stones and scanned the beach. "So what'dya wanna do first? Sandcastle building? Seashell collecting? We could do some of the written badge stuff, I do know what the difference between a sea, a swell, and a surf are now. I'm basically an expert. We could sunbathe while we do it. Ooh, or we could go swimming."
Sparrow shook her head emphatically at that one. "No, no swimming."
"Do you not know how?" Ruby checked.
"No, I mean, yes, I know how," Sparrow clarified. "But this is ocean water. It has sharks."
"Sharks don't come this close to shore," Ruby assured her.
"I'm not risking it," Sparrow gulped. "But um, seashells finding, er, finding seashells sounds nice."
"We'll do that then," Artsy declared. "You can take some of my repeat shells if you need to. Probably won't need to though, we've been finding plenty. It's just that last elusive shell that's causing the issue."
"I'm sure we'll find it," Ruby said. She realized then that she'd probably end up staying at this party longer than she'd anticipated. So long as she was just hanging out with these two and avoiding the other tribes, she'd be fine with that.
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I do have art of these characters, I just don't have a good way to post them on this site. If you type 'mlp Artsia Splash' into google images, all three of them pop up.
