Unhinged

by SirNotAppearingInThisFic

Megavitaminational Guard Airship [Mini-drama]

“Report.”

“He hasn’t blinked yet.”

“I am still not asking about your staring contest,” her captain replied flatly.

“Fine,” Scootaloo said, though she didn’t take her binoculars down. “Same old stuff: One minotaur airship, about thirty or forty kilometers out; it’s big, they're armed, and their lookout hasn’t blinked yet.”

“What happened to every other nut and bolt that held their ship together? Two months ago, airships were the coolest thing ever and you’d talk my ears off with how their ships appeared to work.”

“How their ship works hasn’t changed. Nothing has. We’re just having a staring contest with the minotaur border guard while the diplomats ruffle feathers and smooth things over again and again and again. You can’t blame me for noticing how boring it is. If anything actually changed, I'd be happy to let you know.”

Her captain sighed. “Okay. I’ll bite.” He hesitated, possibly considering the wisdom of his next question. “... Why are you having a staring contest with their lookout?”

Scootaloo gave a small shrug. “Dunno. Three weeks ago, I wondered what their lookout thought about us, so I watched him for a while. He noticed a couple of days later—”

“And you can actually see each other that well?”

“Well, yeah; these binoculars aren’t crap. He’s probably wondering what we’re talking about right now. That, or how I can go this long without blinking.”

“And he may never know, but if I might ask how…?”

“I grew up watching Rainbow Dash’s flying from the ground,” Scootaloo said, making no effort to hide the bitterness in her voice. “She was everything I wanted to be and I didn’t want to miss any of it. You have no idea how familiar I am with looking at things from far away.”

“Without blinking? That sounds a little obsessive.”

Scootaloo fought off a blush as best she could. “Says the earth pony who has a collection of airship models in his cabin on the airship he pilots.”

Her captain replied with a stern voice. “If I didn’t know anything about what’s going on in your life, I’d chew you out for that remark. When you’re off-duty, I strongly recommend you rethink what you just said. Maybe you’ll notice something that you missed the first time.”

Scootaloo grunted.

“Try again.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Better.” Her captain turned to leave. “Additionally, I don't like to hear that you've been skipping meals while the medic says you're fine. You, of all ponies on this airship, should not short yourself on nutrition.”

“Yes, sir.”

Scootaloo heard her captain leave, and the next few moments passed without excitement.

Then the lookout blinked.

She afforded herself a small smirk. Still can't keep it up for more than a couple minutes.

---

The lookout just stared at the metal plates above his bunk. It would be a while before he got any sleep. It was the same every time they passed that pony airship. When he looked into the eyes of madness.

It put the whole crew at unease whenever the pony airship was in sight. Some of them swore that even in the depths of the engine rooms, they could feel the lookout’s penetrating gaze.

Author's Note:

RoboFoME card ([belated] PresentPerfect “proper” edition):

Megavitaminational Guard Airship
3WU
Enchantment — Song
T: You may draw a card in they crowns.

Madness are lucky. Such as though the number of creature with power, that somewhere X is to." If you.

"It amazing as bad ideas cool as it is."
—Scoots.

I tossed one of PP's other cards in the last entry, but that accounted for only 1/3 of that entry's prompt, so I figured I'd write something a little more from PP's original selection of cards. I'm not sure if this counts?

I tried about 3 times to write something flat-out serious for this one, because that's kind of what came to mind. That didn't work, so I asked myself what I could do to make the premise less serious, and now it seems half-serious and half-whatever-this-is-staring-back.

Scootaloo is a little older and unhappy that she still can't fly, at least not for long. I'm thinking there's physical therapy out there that might help her, but she's mostly given up on flying on her own. Her captain knows about all of this and is hoping to find a way to keep her trying, because he doesn't even have the option. If any other detail isn't here, I probably didn't try to think it up.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

A haunting bit of Scootamelancholy. At this rate, she'll turn into Nightmare Panopticon. Which may or may not involve a darksteel citadel.

[Bugsydor]

I wouldn't say this didn't feel serious. Also wasn't a bad read.

What was that thing about the airship models Scootaloo missed, by the way?

Also, good to learn that the fangirl is the natural predator of the weeping angel.

9574000
I think you mean "Nightstare Scoots".

[SirNotAppearingInThisFic]

9574039
Scoots pointed out the airship models to deflect the captain's comment about her obsession, but the relevance of an earth pony who liked flying (or at least flying machines) was lost on her. Despite having neither wings nor magic to fabricate them, the captain hasn't given up on flying or anything else.

[PresentPerfect]

I wanna know who the captain was. >.>

[UrsaMajor]

10009337
I thought it might mean the cream, but I wasn't sure. Google Translate doesn't handle Gaelic wonderfully.