//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: Sinister Lenses 
// by Osper 
//------------------------------//

	
Chapter 8


The next morning they were all set to go home, their bags packed and hung around their sides as they waited at the door. With the state her clothes were in, and not having an appropriate dress to change into, Finish had no choice but to go without. It was a strange feeling for a  fashion fan to go nude but that was how the situation measured up. Her cheeks were still the lightest shade of red though.
Teetotaler had asked them to stay a moment while she rooted through her office, supposedly to finish out their transaction. She came back with a large brown satchel and gave it to Finish, looping the strap over her neck.
“This was everything your father had with him.”
“Sank you.”
The sleepy giraffe left them there, and they looked around. In the day time the area was actually quite pretty. The tunnel of trees was ahead of them and around the side of the house they could see another road, slightly overgrown, that led to what appeared to be ruined buildings swallowed up by the sea of trees. Finish would have loved to go look at the broken down structures if her camera hadn't been completely destroyed and lost.
“So, vhat should ve do until our ride gets here?”
Scratch looked up and down the road and started for the ruins, Finish following behind.
“Well, you like stuff like this right? Let's take pictures.”
The photographer in question cleared her throat.
“How do you suppose I can do dat vithout a camera?”
Scratch turned and rubbed her chin as she stared at the satchel Finish had been saddled with. Without asking, she threw it open and levitated out the contents one at a time, one of which just happened to be a camera.
“Didn't you say your dad was a photographer?”
Finish took it out of the air, looking it over.
“Vhy didn't I sink uf dat?”
The camera was an old model. It had been updated from the one Silver Salt had taught her to use as a child but it was still one of the oldest version MSLRs she'd seen in a long time, probably not even in make anymore.
It showed signs of heavy use and the neck strap was a little frayed. Scratch lowered a couple of lenses from the air, a Fish eye lens and a long range VR lens. Both were in sorry shape with their lenses busted out. They were tossed back in the bag and Scratch stuck her head in the bag to see what actually useful accessories might be hidden there.
“Do you see any UV filters in dere?”
Flipping the focus to manual and adjusting the basic lens was difficult but doable. Normally the new MSLRs would have voice command switching but she'd used one of these before. You just had to get your hooves in there just right.
“Nope but I found a notebook.”
Scratch flipped a couple of pages as the book floated in front of her, looking at the sketchy pictures depicting different kinds of what she assumed were spirits. The book being in Finish' language didn't exactly make anything clear as Scratch hadn't been learning to read it, just speak it.
“Hey, what was that singing about last night?”
Finish gazed off into the forest and the shutter clicked. It stayed open just a bit too long so she lowered the shutter speed to 1/8th.
Click.
There, that one came out pretty good.
“You veren't kidding last night, about not minding if I'm like...dis?”
Scratch flipped a few more pages, rolling her eyes.
“Finish, for the last time, you're fine. I would never do that. Plus, I'm interested. Tell me.”
Click. They walked further into the forest, more rotten buildings appearing even further in.
“Ghosts hate most anysing dat de living might enjoy. Singing, laughing, dat sort of sing. Vell, most ghosts do. Dat song vas an old lullaby mama used to sing to me.”
Click.
“Huh, I didn't know that.”
“Uf course not. Most ponies don't. Hey, stay joost like dat.”
She adjusted the focus again, stepping back a bit and took the photo. Scratch didn't have time to escape, her profile taken in front of one of the stone ruins with flecks of green leaves falling in the background.
“Ah, Finish! I said no pictures of me!”
“Come on, it's fun! Let me take pictures uf you.”
Scratch sighed. Finish had been trying to get her into a situation like this for a few years but she'd always had a good excuse to be anywhere but there.
“I don't think so. You're gonna make me be sexy or something.”
“No. Vhere vould you get dat...okay, maybe a little. It von't kill you.”
“Nope.”
Scratch trotted ahead, slipping her headphones on and tuning her friend out. A flash behind her made her turn quickly to see a nonchalant Finish looking off to the side.
“Did you just-”
“Take a picture uf your plot? Ya. Maybe dis is my next masterpiece. I spread it all over Equestria! 'Ah, is dis de new Photo Finish piece?' Ya, dat's some nice looking flank right dere'. Dat's vhat dey'll say.”
Finish took off down the path, laughing maniacally. As most artists were, she was a little nutty when she started working. Scratch chased after, yelling for the picture to be deleted, trying to catch the suddenly joyous pony.
For someone who never seemed to get any exercise, Finish seemed unusually active today. It took Scratch running all out to catch her, grabbing hold of her tail and slowing her just in front of a graveyard.
“Delete it. Now.”
The smiling photographer flipped the camera around, pulled up the dutch angle photo of Scratch's backside and visibly deleted it.
“Dere. Sorry. I just feel so...different today. I know mama is still in trouble but...”
She looked around her at the bright sunshine that flowed down through the trees and the many things she could take pictures of. Her friend standing there, miffed about the picture but taking it as good natured fun.
“...I feel really good, Scratch. C'mon, let me take a couple photos uf you. Please? No sexiness unless you vant to.”
She sighed as she tried to think of a way out of this. There rreally wasn't any.
“Alright. You can take some. And maybe a little sexiness. Just a little.”
“Excellent. Let's go see if ve can find some oder buildings as props.”
Before trotting off, Finish turned to the graveyard and raised a hoof as high as she could and slowly lowered it. They walked on after that and Finish answered before it was even asked.
“It's an old religious gesture. If you pass by a graveyard, you do dat. It means 'De sun has set on your time'. It's supposed  to be calming though more for de walker dan de dead.”
Scratch was learning a lot today.
It wasn't long before the trees started to thin out and more of the stone structures could be seen. A house here, a bigger house there. And rising up in the distance was a wide, castle-like building. Stone walls rose high in the air, moss and plants growing from the side. Crumbling spires rose up from the main body of the old college, chunks taken out of their sides. The main door had long since rotted away into a pile of mulch that was overgrown with plants.
“Dis place is amazing!”
Finish stepped forward, gazing at it all. Her head turned every which way, scanning the entire scene, rapidly making plans and inventing poses for her reluctant model. There was so much potential!
Even Scratch was caught up in it, lowering her head phones again and sliding the journal back into Silver Salt's bag so she could rub her hooves over the wall of one of the homes. Years of rain had worn it smooth and carved little niches into it. Ivy had found  these little cracks and grown up, covering much of the surface of the buildings.
Click.
“Dat vas a good vun Scratch. Dat vasn't so bad, ya?”
“Why do you think I'm so photogenic?”
Finish put a hoof on her model's shoulder and clicked her tongue at the white mare's cluelessness. It really wasn't hard to see, not for a photographer.
“De simple answer is dat you're very pretty. De long answer is a subtle quality dat you exude. You're very...truthful. Vhat I see on de surface is vhat I get from you. You're not 'modeling'. You're being you. You have to let me get some photos uf you at your next gig. I vant to see you vhen you're a ball uf energy. Vhen you're, how do dey say? Throwing down de sick beats? Is dat right?”
Scratch smiled at that little description of her, rubbing the back of her head with one hoof in embarrassment.
“Yeah, you got that one right. Okay, come on. Let's do this thing.”
They walked from ruin to ruin, taking a photo here, posed against that wall there, leaning out of a window hole with all the original glass long since missing. Finish would stop after every photo and recheck the f-stop, the position of the sun and the shade so that each shot came out perfect. 
They made their way to the gate and stepped into the courtyard of the college. Heavy stone blocks that had fallen from one of the several towers had sunk deep into the ground and formed an impromptu cuboid sculpture garden.
“Get on dat vun, okay?”
“Like this?”
Scratch climbed atop the block and straddled it, her head tilted back so she was gazing up at nothing in particular. The old college building rose up behind her and a wide swath of blue sky above that when Finish flipped the camera on it's side.
“Ya, das good.”
Click.
Click.
Crack.
Crack?
Finish looked up towards the noise, her eyes widening in shock as that small cracking noise had failed to properly convey the sound of a massive tower tilting and falling from it's precarious perch towards where she stood.
She had only taken three frantic steps back when blocks rained down around her, slamming into the earth with thick thudding noises. Finish could hear cries from her friend but they were drowned out by every crash of stone. A block crushed the earth barely a foot from her body and everywhere she turned, she was met with more falling destruction, leaving her no where to run as the shadow of the main tower fell over her. She braced her body, turning her face away so she wouldn't have to watch herself be crushed to death.
The expected blow never came as the earth dropped under her, the entire courtyard bending under the weight of the assault. She was suddenly floating in mid-air as the ground fell out from underneath, stone, dirt and wooden beams floating all around her.
Through the cacophony of blocks grinding together and the quaking ground she heard Scratch's shrill scream fading into the distance. Finish didn't know if she was screaming or not but her mouth was certainly open, whatever noise she was making swallowed in the tunnel of debris.
Her body twisted up, reaching towards the rapidly retreating sunlight. The last thing she saw was the wooden beam twisting towards her, slamming into her skull and then nothing.