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Lyra's Human 2: Derpy's Human

by pjabrony

Chapter 19: 19: Beach Derpy, There On the Sand

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They were able to get a prime location right by the entrance to the boardwalk and just on top of the slanting hill down to the water. Derpy spread a large blanket over the sand and anchored it deep with a stomp of her hooves.

“OK, now I get why we had to take the night train. You wanted to get here before the crowds.”

Derpy sat down and looked at the water. “That’s not the only reason. One time, once, I took a day train. That was when I saw it. Before the end of the track—five miles before it, I guess—there’s a sign that says, ‘Road ends – five miles.’ The sign is old and yellow, and it’s in a particularly barren spot. No trees, no houses, nothing. I don’t know why, but it gave me this vague, disquieting sadness. Maybe I do know. The railroad goes all over Equestria. Through hundreds of cities and towns. It’s so busy and loud and moving. And then I see that sign and that empty place, and the sign’s saying that it all ends soon.

“It’s the same reason I don’t like to look at this rail station.”

Karyn looked back, but Derpy kept her eyes on the waves. Karyn saw what she meant. The roof of the white building had a tall slant, and a section overhung the end. Next to it, the track had a metal guard to keep trains from falling off. The whole thing was like a wall beyond which nothing could pass. It was an unnatural sight to see railroad rails just stop. She turned around and did not look again.

They had no beach chairs, so Karyn spent a few minutes digging out a kind of seat in the sand. She was still lying down, but could at least see the ocean without crunching her chin into her chest. After a few minutes, she heard a muffled rumbling and scraping sound.

“Is that thunder?” she said. “I don’t see any rain clouds.”

“Naw, they wouldn’t have a thunderstorm in prime beach weather. It’s just them.” Derpy pointed a hoof.

Karyn looked down the beach and saw a team of two pegasus stallions pulling an odd cart behind them on the sand. She couldn’t tell what it was for until they passed. On the back of the cart, she saw a metal grate with spikes on it. Above it was a hopper of fresh sand that was spread below. Any object or trash that was a few inches below the surface was pulled onto the grate and carried along.

“They come by every morning to do this,” Derpy said. “It’s just like back home, where we have to move the clouds into position and otherwise manage nature. If we don’t do this, the sand will wash away into the sea or get caught on the wind and blow into town. It’s not like on Earth where everything works by itself.”

“Actually, beach erosion happens on Earth too. And they do put a lot of effort into stopping it.”

“But I thought that you don’t have to do things on Earth like run the leaves or wrap up winter.”

Karyn contemplated. “Yeah, there’s some things we don’t have to do, but it’s different. In those cases, if you don’t do them, things stay the same. The leaves stay on the trees, the snow stays on the ground. In this case, if you don’t make the effort, things get actively worse. That’s the same on Earth.”

“Oh,” said Derpy.

The rumbling faded and rose as the scraper made its way down the beach and back. Karyn sat back and ignored it. She never thought of beaches as having ends that someone could go back and forth over like a lawn mower. Beaches were supposed to go on forever.

“Maybe it does, and they just have more teams down the beach,” she muttered to herself.

After a half-hour or so, during which she and Derpy just sat and watched the waves, Karyn realized that the rumbling had stopped. She glanced behind her.

She had never seen a beach like that. They were always either pockmarked with footprints—or hoofprints, in this case—or smoothed by the water. This was sand that was flat but dry. It looked like a tasty white cake.

An elderly unicorn walked by a few minutes later. His horn was glowing, but Karyn couldn’t see any result of the magic. She asked Derpy about it.

“Oh, I’ve talked to him,” Derpy said. “He’s using a metal detection spell. It can tell when something’s buried in the sand. Usually it’s just a tin can or something, but once in a while he finds something like a ring that somepony dropped.”

“Ah. A good hobby, and he can make money.”

“How?”

“Well, if he does find a ring, he can sell it,” said Karyn.

“Oh, no. He makes every effort to find the owner in that case.”

Karyn stared at him for a moment. Not everything about Equestrian beaches was the same.

Other ponies started arriving, setting up their own blankets and chairs. A few stares were directed at Karyn, but nopony said anything. It was a perfect day and, for the time, everyone there was content to just relax and look at the waves.

The sound of the breakers combined with the rocking motion started to have a relaxing, almost hypnotic effect on Derpy and Karyn. They watched the wind catch the water and churn it, saw it turn over, sometimes folding from one end to the other. Karyn played a mental game where she tried to predict whether the next wave would go farther up the beach than the last one. When they finally petered out, they would be pulled back to the ocean.

The waves went silent for half a minute, when finally a huge one crashed on the shore and foamed up to within inches of the blanket. Karyn chuckled to herself. “That one almost got us,” she said.

“Huh? Yeah.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Nothing much,” said Derpy. “I really like to just come here and turn my brain off, you know? Veg out. Relax. Meditate.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

Their peaceful reverie was shattered a moment later when a young foal came charging up the beach toward the water. She had rubber swim aids on all four of her legs, and when she dived into the water, she was held up by them. She must have thought that this was the funniest thing ever, as she splashed and laughed while kicking her legs.

Karyn smiled at seeing the little filly so happy. She thought of something. “Hey, Derpy?”

“Yeah?”

“Do any sea ponies live around here?”

“Any what now?” asked Derpy.

“Sea ponies. You know, live under water, helpful as can be, like that?”

“Excuse me? Where in Equestria would you get that idea? Ponies who can live in the sea? That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”

“OK, you don’t have to jump down my throat,” said Karyn.

The filly’s mother had come by and was playing with her in the water. She climbed up on the mother’s back and they swam further out where they could float without being tossed about.

“Are there any lifeguards here?” asked Karyn.

“Of course,” said Derpy, pointing. “Right there.”

Karyn looked up. Far in the distance, what she had thought was a bird turned out to be a pegasus in a striped shirt with a whistle. “That’s no fun for him,” she said. “On Earth, lifeguards get to sit in tall chairs and watch the water. When they’re not saving lives, they get stared at for their bodies.”

“Oh, yeah. Lifeguards have good bodies here too. But I’m sure he’s having fun. He gets to fly all day. That’s fun enough for me.”

“Although, it’s good to have him up there where he can get to ponies quickly. When I was very young, I would go to the beach with my mother, and she liked to swim way far out in the ocean. It always unnerved me. I was so afraid that she was going to drown and the lifeguard just wouldn’t be able to get there in time. If indeed he would notice one woman out that far going under and not coming up.”

“Why didn’t she swim closer, if it bothered you?” Derpy asked.

“I’m not sure I ever told her. Every time she came back, and I forgot about being scared.”

The conversation faded, and the two girls laid back and relaxed until Derpy declared that she was going to the concession stand for refreshments. She asked what Karyn wanted, but got a noncommittal answer.

Karyn, now alone, looked around her. Ponies were arriving in droves now, families mostly, but a few young ones that she thought of as teenagers, even though she wasn’t exactly sure how pony ages worked. A few yards off, some ponies were driving poles into the sand and setting up a volleyball net.

Karyn watched the game with interest. The strange part was seeing them staying on all fours until the ball came their way, then rearing up on their hind legs to hit it. It made for some funny moments if a pony wasn’t expecting the ball to come his way. More than once, returns were made with a head. Karyn wondered if they had spare volleyballs in case some unicorn accidently punctured it.

When the ball was spiked in her direction, she got off the blanket and tossed it to the pony nearest. “Thanks. You want to play?”

“Are you sure?” said Karyn. “I wouldn’t want to mess up the teams.”

“Nah, we never worry about that. Ponies come and go all the time. In an hour, it’ll probably be twenty-three-on-eighteen or something like that. We set up the net in the morning, and the game goes pretty much all day.”

“Sounds fun.”

“Cool. My name’s Skeg, by the way.”

“Keg? Like to drink beer out of?” said Karyn.

“No. Skeg,” he said, emphasizing the s, “like the fin of a surfboard.”

Karyn followed the young stallion back to the play area.

“You want to serve?” he asked.

“Sure. Where’s the out-of-bounds line?”

“It’s wherever the last pony is standing.”

Karyn gave an underhand serve that was returned to their side, but a pony at the front spiked it for a point, so she got to serve again.

“Hey, Skeg?” she called.

“Yeah?”

“What’s to stop the other side from just all crowding up by the net, so that any serve I make goes out of bounds?”

“Well, that wouldn’t be any fun,” he said.

The other ponies nodded and looked at her funny. But the answer made sense. She served again, but lost the point. Everyone moved around.

They didn’t announce the score, and Karyn was uncertain if they indeed kept score. Each point was a game unto itself, even if it only lasted a few seconds.

After a few points, she looked back to the blanket to see Derpy, hooves laden with pop bottles and other goodies, moving her head with a confused look on her face. “Over here!” Karyn called, and Derpy saw her.

“Come on over and play with us!”

Derpy trotted over. Though she was rather older than all the stallions and mares involved, they welcomed her. One pony ducked under the net so that Derpy and Karyn could stay on the same team, while not overloading one side.

After a few points, Karyn whispered to Derpy. “Hey, let’s try something. Next time the ball comes to me, I’m going to hit it as high as I can. You fly up and get a good spike on the ball. It’ll be fun!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, come on!”

The moment didn’t come the next point, or the next, but soon after, Karyn got a clean look at the ball. With her best technique, she hit it with all her might straight up. Derpy leaped in the air and flapped her wings. She put her hooves together like she was swinging an axe, and hammered the ball toward the sand.

On the other side, a unicorn casually pushed it forward with his magic, redirecting it to land on the other side.

Karyn was about to say something, but she realized that if one pony subspecies used its special talents, so could another.

“Whew. That was fun,” said Derpy.

“We lost the point, though,” said Karyn.

“It was still fun to hit. I’m going to go cool off with a swim. See you guys later.”

“Actually, I’m going to duck out too and have a drink.”

They left the game and headed back to the blanket, where Derpy made a right turn and headed for the ocean. Just before the water line, she turned back to Karyn.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “I won’t swim out too far.”

Karyn rolled her eyes and went back to the blanket. She found the refreshments that Derpy had picked up. Beginning to sweat, she opened one of the soda bottles. It was ice cold and cherry flavored.

“Sweet!” she said, her lips puckered. “But that’s good.” She turned to the little bag of cookies, but held off on eating them.

She sat back down and scanned the water. Derpy was out among the waves, sitting in the ocean and letting them crash over her head. Karyn dug in Derpy’s bag and found the book that she had brought in case they got bored. She pulled it out and started to read, but kept getting distracted by Derpy’s laughing and screaming. She got up and walked toward the water.

She plopped down next to Derpy.

“You’re just like a child here,” she said.

“It was some of my best memories when I was a filly. My daddy would take me to the beach whenever he could. Not too often, but that’s what made it so special.

The dialogue between them was cut off by a tall wave. They held their breaths, but once their heads came up, Derpy went right back to her childish squealing.

“You’re crazy,” Karyn said, “but at least we’re cooling off.”

After another wave, Karyn thought of something. “Hey, Derpy? Did you bring any towels?”

“No.”

“How do you dry off then?”

“Mostly from the sun,” Derpy said. But as she stood up, she repeated, “Mostly.” She shook her body violently, splashing Karyn over the head.

“Ack!”

“Go on, try it!”

“I’m not sure it works if you don’t have fur,” said Karyn. She stepped up out of the water and did a twist-like dance. “Yeah, I’m pretty much still dripping.”

“Well, the blanket’s thick enough. I don’t mind if it gets a little wet.”

Despite the permission, Karyn stood up and let the sun hit her for a minute or two before sitting back down. Feeling the water evaporate off her tickled a little, but the warmth was so enjoyable that she didn’t care.

“One more thing to do to make the beach experience complete,” said Derpy.

“Oh, what’s that?”

Derpy had a happy smile as she rooted through her bag. “Aha! Got it!” She pulled out a small metal pail and shovel and held them up to the sun, where it backlit them.

“Sandcastle?” said Karyn.

“You got it!”

“I bet you’re the kind who can make a fancy castle that even puts Princess Celestia’s to shame. You probably know the precise formula for getting the perfect sticky sand.” Karyn said.

Derpy cleared out a flat circle, then trotted down to where the sand got wet and shoved the bucket in, filled it with the shovel, and tamped it down with her hoof. Back by the blanket, she slammed it down and gently lifted the bucket. “There!”

“Really? That’s it?”

“We can make more, though. And take one of the cups we had for the soda and use it to make towers and turrets and such.”

“OK, whatever you say,” said Karyn.

It had been a long time since she had played in the sand, and even when she was a child, never found it that entertaining. But the contact high she got from Derpy made it worth it, as Derpy went back and forth to fill her pail and provide water for Karyn’s sand.

“Try to get one little cupful on top of the center castle, right there! Yeah!” said Derpy. Gently, the sand rose. Derpy continually spread out more until they had a couple of square feet loaded with upside-down bucket shapes made of sand.

“I think that’s good enough,” Derpy said.

“It looks very nice.”

“It does, doesn’t it? OK, ready to begin?”

Karyn looked at her. Derpy was focused on the sandcastles. “Begin? I thought we were done.”

“Come on, all that was the set up. Now the fun begins!”

Derpy lifted up a front hoof. With a glint in her eye, and with all the force she could muster, she stomped down on the nearest sandcastle. She was slightly off-center, and a thin side of it remained standing for a moment before collapsing under its own instability. Derpy stood back to reveal her hoofprint in the sand.

“Missed it a little. I’m out of practice,” she said. “Never mind, I’ll get this one dead center. Hya!” She leaped in the air, gave herself a little boost with wing power, and slammed down on another castle. This time the whole thing exploded and collapsed at the same time, kicking sand everywhere and leaving a volcano-like crater after she withdrew.

Karyn was dumbfounded. “Really? This is why we made all of these? To smash them?”

“Of course! Go ahead, try one!”

Unsure of herself, she removed one of her flip-flops and put her foot gingerly on one of the castles. She could feel the graininess of the sand.

“Don’t just push down,” said Derpy. “Go for height. Really stomp that thing.”

Karyn put her foot back down and leaped in the air. When she came down, the castle gave way and her foot was encased in cool, wet sand. It was squishy and felt to her like compressing a thick cushion.

“OK, that was a little fun,” she admitted. “Come on, let’s do more!”

They systematically destroyed all of their handiwork. A few other ponies gave them funny looks, but mostly they ignored them. At last, the only one left standing was a four-pail cluster decorated as fancily as they could manage.

“Why don’t you go ahead, Karyn?” Derpy said.

“No, this was your idea. You take it.”

“Are you sure?

“Yeah,” said Karyn.

Derpy stared, focused, leaped. She hovered in the air, centering the castle beneath her, then in a single moment, she snapped her wings back to her body and spread her legs. She plummeted and belly-flopped onto the castle, then rolled over onto her back laughing.

“That was nuts,” Karyn said.

“Yeah. But definitely the highlight. Come on. Let’s pack up and shower off. The train back is coming soon.”

They shook off everything as best as they could, but the blanket and things still had sand sticking to them. It was worth the tradeoff, though, since everything had that wonderful beach smell coming off it. Up by the boardwalk were the showers, and Derpy showed Karyn how to use them by pulling a long chain. The water kept flowing until some mechanism raised the chain back up.

“Do me a favor, Derpy?”

“What’s that?”

“Turn your back. I got sand inside my bathing suit and I want to wash it out.”

“I don’t mind,” said Derpy.

“But I do. I know that you walk around naked all the time, but I can’t get used to it. Besides, you have your tail to cover up all your private bits.”

“My bits aren’t private. If you want me to buy something, just ask and I’ll tell you if I can afford it.”

“Not your coins,” said Karyn. “Never mind. Just humor me.”

Derpy shrugged and turned while Karyn washed up. Once that was done, they headed across the boardwalk to the station.

“I’m glad you’re like me,” said Karyn.

“What do you mean?”

“The train’s not due for another half-hour. We probably could have spent more time on the beach, but we’d both rather get here quickly and wait rather than do everything at the last minute.”

“Oh, sure,” said Derpy. “That only makes sense. It’s never any fun to run for a train.”

“Well, since we have so much time, I’m going to use the little fillies’ room before it gets here.”

Derpy put the bags down and sat on a bench. She hummed idly to herself until Karyn reemerged. But instead of coming over, she waved Derpy over.

“Come check this out!”

“What is it?”

“They’ve got some building plans posted here,” said Karyn.

Derpy trotted over, wondering what could be so interesting in building plans. On the wall of the ticket office, she saw them. The paper was headed with the notice that Princess Celestia had approved funds to renovate the Mountauk train line and station. Times of suspended service were listed below.

“I see,” said Derpy. “They’re closing down and limiting service next week. It’s a good thing we came now.”

“Not that, look at the drawing of the new line.”

Derpy saw the simple draft of how the new line would look. Two tracks, instead of one, would run all the way from the next junction point. It would enable them to run more frequent trains. Her eyes followed the road from west to east, before finally. . .

“Huh,” she said.

“Exactly,” said Karyn. “The road won’t just come to a stop anymore.” The picture showed that at the end of the line, they were building a balloon loop to turn the trains around. “They’ll probably even take down that depressing sign. The road won’t end in five miles, or anywhere else. This isn’t the end anymore.”

“It’s the beginning,” they said together.

They waited for the train in silence. They were the only first-class ticket holders who had gone that far out, and they had the entire car to themselves for the first few stops. Pulling the curtains wide, Karyn could see the countryside through the window in a panorama.

They passed through a tourist town filled with antique shops. “Ooh, we should have stopped there,” said Karyn. “I would love to pick up something from old Equestria.”

“We can look next time. Most of the stuff is just weird, even for me. Or too big for you to carry, like furniture and lamps.”

The train next took them back along the shore. Tall grasses held the sand dunes in place, and a footpath ran along. The water was low and flat and had no waves here.

“I’m surprised that they don’t need a sign to protect the dunes,” said Karyn. “On earth, there are always warnings about keeping off them.”

“Why would a pony want to run on the sand when there’s a path set up for them?”

“Oh, they wouldn’t. I was talking about a sign that told ponies not to eat the grass.”

Derpy laughed. “Oh, Karyn. We’re not such slaves to our stomachs. Everypony knows that that grass is the only thing keeping the sand and the path from being washed away, so they wouldn’t eat it. Even if it does look awfully tasty.”

Soon after that, they pulled into the first major junction. Derpy flew off her seat and pointed. “Karyn! Do you see all those stone blocks? Those have got to be the ties for the new extension. I wish I could come and see them building it.”

“Maybe you should apply for the long-distance mail route.”

“Oh, if I had to fly all the way out here, forget it. My wings would fall off before I got halfway.”

“That would be no good,” said Karyn. “If your wings fell off, you’d have to join the railroad builders and swing a hammer all day.”

After the train pulled out of that station, it started to build speed. They advanced into a forested area, where trees zipped by at lightning speed. Karyn tried to spot some of the trees, but everything became a mesh of leaves and broken sunshine.

All at once the forest ended, and they were thrown onto a bridge over a gorge. Derpy heard Karyn’s sharp intake of breath, and she smiled. Thousands of feet below, a river meandered through like a shining blue snake. The sides of the gorge were painted in mineral deposits and shadows as the river had worn away the rock over uncounted years. Trees and bushes dotted the landscape, and occasionally, on the rock walls, a brave weed struggled toward the sun.

“I’m always impressed with this part,” she said. “I wanted you to see it like this, not knowing that it was coming. That’s why I had us take the day train back.”

Karyn was speechless. She just watched.

When they finally reached the towns and cities, Derpy said, “Look at the track next to us, going the other way. No matter how much of a blur all the surroundings become, that rail always looks the same.”

Karyn focused, and saw what she meant. The steel, long since polished to a mirror finish by the wheels of the trains, gave the illusion of stillness among the movement.

“It’s one more thing I love about the train,” Derpy continued. “Kinda symbolic, you know? Everything moves, but the rails hold steady.”

“I guess. I think I still feel the motion somewhat. It’s definitely going to be perfect once that loop is complete. It’ll mean that Equestria is always moving, that there’s always something new to do, something more to see. The ponies here will keep going, forever.”

The speed of the train and the calming effect made the time go by fast. Before they knew it, they were pulling back into the Ponyville station, hustled off so that the train could go on to Canterlot.

“Well, that was that,” said Derpy. “What did you think?”

“Well worth it. I think I’m going to have to get a part-time job here to save bits to do that again.”

“Can it be part time when you’re not really spending time?”

“I don’t know, Derpy,” said Karyn. “But speaking of which, I do have to be getting back.”

Derpy found the spell to take Karyn back to Earth. After she was alone again in her room,

Karyn wished that there was a train to take between the worlds instead.

Author's Notes:

Next week:


“It’s hard to believe that the summer’s more than half over already,” she said.

“Yeah. So what are we doing this fine day anyway?” asked Derpy.

“I figured we could relax a bit and have a picnic.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Yeah?”

“How long have we known each other now?”

Derpy looked up. “I don’t know. Four, five months maybe? Why?”

“It’s the first time I’ve seen you, on Earth, for an extended period of time, since I came home from school. And I still can’t get over it. You being real. Ponies being real. Equestria and everything. I just never thought that I would really get to see magic or meet you or any of that.”


Be sure to read it!

Next Chapter: 20: Cat on a Hot Tin Derp Estimated time remaining: 37 Hours, 24 Minutes
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