Sinister Lenses

by Osper

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The next day was warm and sunny as they stood in the airship boarding area. Throngs of airship admirers and passengers filled the area, many of them admiring the grand old ship the girls would be sailing away on. A loud speaker called for passengers to begin boarding and a friendly stewardess in a blue jacket waved the line forward.

The ship would be leaving in mere minutes for the brand new port in Trottingham, Finish' home town and her mother's current residence. Then, from there on, the group would have to find its own way to the small town of Sleipnir's Rest for the funeral, as her mother had said in her letter.

When they stepped inside the ship it finally occurred to Scratch to ask what Finish's mothers name was.

“Faux Finish.”

Scratch chuckled a little as they walked through the halls of the ship, checking the numbers on the doors for their cabin.

“That’s a pretty funny naming scheme there.”

“Vell, she vas a painter. Houses, paintings, anysing to make a buck. She adores trompe l’oeil. Und...vell, she also luffed my papa who vas...a photographer also...”.

Theirs was a private room with more amenities than necessary but Finish did like to enjoy the fruits of her hard work. Two wide couches that doubled as beds and a small refrigerator between them made up all the furniture in the room. The stunning view through the large window would probably be better once they left port and could see the wide open countryside of Equestria.

Scratch levitated their bags into the overhead compartments, now intrigued at this new information.

“So your Dad was a photographer too? How would you make a living as a traveling photographer?”

Finish sat on the plush couch cum bed and opened her secondary bag, the one with her camera in it.

“He vasn't a real photographer. Dat vas just a hobby.”

“Then what did he do for a living?”

Finish sighed. The airship was already lifting off.

“Are you going to pick at my life de whole vay zere?”

Scratch opened the small refrigerator and picked around. There were free sandwiches, drinks of the soda variety and some chilled glasses.

“That and catch up on some of the music I’ve been neglecting.”

She had already laid her headphones and a large CD case down on her side of the cabin. Finish was already disassembling her camera for a thorough cleaning which was hard without the use of magic but she always managed.

“Scratch, my fader isn't dat interesting and my childhood vas not fun or interesting eider. As far as I'm concerned it's joost old, dead history zat I'd rather not talk about. Please.”

“Oh...well, okay. Sorry.”

It really wasn’t that the stories weren’t interesting in a weird way. Maybe they would be to somepony with a macabre streak but what she feared the most was that they would get back to her current life. Even if she was only a child at the time and blameless for anything that might have happened…she was scared.

Scratch plopped down and picked up one of the small, magically infused discs that carried her music.

“But I have one more thing to say. I got you a gift.”

“Vhat is it?”

Scratch cleared her throat and lowered her tongue the way the teaching CDs suggested.

“<I know you’re a little self conscious about your voice so I’m am learning your language.>”

They did not have plates big enough to describe Photo Finish’ eyes.
---

The two had talked for hours and hours, Scratch practicing her sentence structure and Finish correcting and teaching new words. She really was overjoyed to have spent the whole day speaking something that mostly only ran through her head but finally they had to stop when they began to feel lightheaded from non-stop talking.

The droning hum of the magical engine and gentle whup of the propeller blades lulled them to sleep.

There was no clock in the room so Finish didn’t know exactly what time she woke up. All she could tell was that it was sometime in the middle of the night judging by the bright moon and stars outside with no hint of sun on the horizon.

She pushed back her covers and sat up, rubbing her eyes. Her glasses sat atop her head where they always were. Even when she slept they were comfortingly close, just where she could reach up and flip them down in case of an emergency.

She stumbled out of bed and quietly slid the door open, closing it behind with a soft click. The bathroom was just down the hallway with dim service lights lighting the floor. It wasn’t as bad as it could have been but she was still afraid. Ever since she was little the dark had held a very special terror for her.

<Don’t be afraid of the dark, mein Edelweiss…>

Her papa had used to call her that.

<Be afraid of what it’s hiding.>

With these less than comforting thoughts she quickly tiphooved down the hall and took care of her night time business.

The trip back seemed a bit more intimidating. Several of the lights around their door were out which she hadn’t noticed when her target had been in the other direction.

On tiphooves again she crept down the hallway and stopped only a moment to look out the window. The moon was full and a few wisps of clouds covered it’s face. The mare in the moon looked back although the real prisoner had long since returned.

A sudden ear splitting scream tore through the air, startling Finish so badly that she reeled backward, slamming her head on the wall. Her glasses flew off and skittered across the floor.

Pain trickled through her skull as she rubbed where she'd been hit, a big bump already forming. There was a faint stirring in the passengers rooms but not even a worker had shown up to check on that noise.

She looked out the window and it was then that she noticed that everything was the right shade. The sky was dark, the stars were bright spots. The shine of moonlight over the silvery propeller was like the edge of a knife.

Then she saw it.

A bluish shape crouched by the rounded hull of the propeller engine housing, a hoof moving up and down as though cranking a non-existent wrench on one of the nuts.

It tumbled back, as though slipping on something and fell through the twirling blades of the propeller.

That same shriek again, suddenly cut short as the pony shreds fell away.

It was her turn to scream, this time to the immediate response of the other passengers and stewards. Lights flicked on and someone grabbed her arm. Out the window she could see the wisp appear again, tumble back again. Couldn’t anyone else hear it?!

<Put on the glasses Edelweiss!>

“My glasses! Get me my glasses!”

Somepony had grabbed her glasses and she felt the earpiece slide around the contour of her ear, the spectre vanishing with the pink shade. The scream happened a third time but she could not see that awful act that had accompanied it twice before.

“Finish, what’s wrong!?”

She was surrounded by ponies, looks of curiosity mostly but some of concern as they stared at the trembling photographer. The most concerned was Scratch who had been the first to burst from her room and had grabbed the glasses that had been yelled for so loudly.

Finish' breathing was hard but evening out as she saw that she was no longer alone.

“Ah, I’m so sorry. Eet’s nightmares. Must haf been sleepvalking. I’m so sorry everyvun.”

Grumbling that it couldn’t have at least been something more exciting the crowd broke up. Scratch helped her friend back to their room and into her bed.

“Geeze, I thought someone was killing you! What were you dreaming about? I mean…those screams!”

Photo held up an arm. It was shaking.

“Those were…”

And she shuddered, unable to convey what she wanted to.

Finish’ breathing slowed to not quite normal as she fell back, cuddling up inside her sheets. She felt bad for waking the ship and worrying her friend. Though not audible, the screams still wavered through her mind. For the first time since her childhood, she remembered real fear.

“I’m sorry Scratch. I’m sorry. I vish I could tell you…”

But that was out of the question as it had always been. There was no way to explain what they couldn’t understand and no comfort she could be offered. Well, except the way her mama had when Finish would wake up in the night, screaming her head off.

“Scratch, can you come here…?”

The white Pegasus obliged, still worried about what she wasn’t being told. Finish lifted her sheet in the universal symbol of “climb in?” She couldn’t meet her friends eyes as ashamed as she was that she had been rattled this badly.

“<Okay.>”

She climbed in without hesitation, her back pushed up against Finish as she pulled the sheets tight around them.

Finish didn’t sleep easily or restfully but none of the old bad dreams came to her that night.

Comments

[Osper]

243017
Thanks for reading my story, I really appreciate it. I'll try to keep it interesting so I hope you'll keep reading and leave as many comments as you like :)

[Storm Clouds]

I just loved this chapter ! :D
I'm kinda feeling like Scratch right now, wanting to know a lot more about Finish's past...Too bad Finish is decided to keep her secrets.
Scratch is such a cool friend ! Learning Finish's language, how niiice ! I liked that you made Finish insecure about her voice/language capacities, it adds some charm and complexity to her character.
She even sleeps with her glasses close ? True, it is quite difficult to picture her without those famous glasses, but sleeping with them...? lol That's cute, somehow XD

First time I read the part about the "thing" that Photo Finish saw had me as scared as her: did that...hallucination-pony went into the propellers ? Gosh, I have a fear of those things, had I been there I would have passed out lol
The ending was cute and sad at the same time, I liked it :)

[Granzeboma]

I love the story so far
But Vinyl is a unicorn... unless you changed her on purpose