There She Goes!

by Miller Minus

1 – There She Goes!

Silverstream perfected mornings a long time ago.

They used to be the bane of her existence; as a kid (and as a seapony), her morning routine was simple: hiss at nothing in particular, pull the seaweed covers over her face, refuse to open her burning eyes, and groan like a monster from the deep.

In short, she used to wake up like a loser. But these days she wakes up a winner. These days (as a hippogriff), by the time she’s jumped out of bed, stretched her limbs, made the sheets, and freshened up in front of the mirror, the day is already hers. By the time she gets to the mirror, her reflection is already bright-eyes and spread-wings, and her contagious smile affects even herself, widening by the second. Brighter. Toothier.

There she is.

What changed? Was it a piece of advice she pulled from a fortune cookie? Was it a visit from her ancestors in her dreams to tell her her laziness brought shame upon her family? Was it puberty?

Nope.

Silverstream had never told anyone the real reason she became a morning hippogriff. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed by it, or that it was somehow incriminating; she just worried that if she revealed the secret behind her mornings, it might lose its magic.

It all started when she was an itty-bitty teeny-tiny seapony—or seven years old in laypony’s terms—back in her first home in Seaquestria. She remembered it well. The pressure pressing down on her at all times, like gravity, but in every direction; the blue fog over everything; and that one fateful morning, when her father waited until after she defeated her alarm clock in a battle of endurance to drag her out of bed.

Alright, Sillystring, come on. Upsy-gets. I want to show you the ocean.

See the ocean? That was what he was waking her up for? But she always saw the ocean. It was pretty tough to miss. Everywhere she had ever looked in life, there had been the ocean. And why did he have to show her so early?

Because, her father replied. You can only see them in the morning.

He was always such a weirdo.

But when they left the borders of Seaquestria—her father swimming ahead, and her dawdling limply behind—the waters cleared around her, and she began to understand. For the first time in her life, she saw the ocean from outside the rocky terrain of Seaquestria. It was so big, so blue, and so everywhere. And just when she thought nothing in the world could be bigger, or bluer, or more everywhere, a big blue whale floated by, the size of the entire planet, and filled up her entire view.

She swam off, ignoring her father calling her name. She swam into the shadowy waters underneath the fantastic fish, reached up, and touched its rough skin. The thing didn’t even notice. It just sailed on by and sang out, and little Silverstream heard the call of the whale as close as she possibly could, felt it rumble across her little fins.

Then her father yanked her away and swam her back home. You cannot go off and do whatever looks fun, he scolded. You could get hurt. But Silverstream didn’t listen, couldn’t listen; that lonely sound still hummed in her ears.

When they made it back home, her mother, as she boiled a pot of halibut for breakfast, laughed at her father for worrying. There She Goes, she said. That’s what we should have named her. Suits her better, don’t you think? And just like that, little Silverstream had a new nickname, one that was way better than boring old Sillystring.

There She Goes.

She realized, then, how magical a name could be. How wonderful it was to be given one, and how much a name could tell you about someone before you even met them.

That was when she had the idea.

In her head, she christened the day itself with a brand new name. It wasn’t just any old day, it was The Day of the Whale.

And the tradition began.

Every morning since The Day of the Whale, before she got out of bed, Silverstream thought up a name for the upcoming day. That way it wasn’t a mystery, and it wasn’t up to chance. She was already in control of what was to come, if Silverstream could be described as ‘in control’ of anything.

She found it easy to recall her favorite days. The week of her first friendship exams, for example, she dubbed The Days of Unmitigated Success, Parts I-IV. The Final Day of the Storm King’s Reign was another favorite, although it had taken several hundred mornings to get that one to stick. And whenever she felt stressed, or down, or otherwise disheartened, she would think of Friends’ Day, the day that she first arrived at the School of Friendship, and the day that had lived up to its title completely.

Sometimes it took her a few minutes to come up with a name—it had to be just right, after all—but she never, ever left home without one.

This particular morning, in the height of her first summer vacation from the School of Friendship, and otherwise known as the day after The Day of Bountiful Rest, she already had a good one in mind. After all, she’d spent yesterday resting, which gave her loads of time to come up with this day’s name in advance.

Clutching her bedsheets around her neck, she tittered, she squirmed, and she said it out loud to make it official.

“The Day of the Good Deed!”

Comments

[Ri2]

God, Silverstream is so adorable.

[Jay Watson]

Good first chapter; enjoying another Silverstream original story and moving on to the next chapter. Can't wait to read on!

[Scyphi]

boiled a pot of halibut for breakfast

*tilts head* ....how do you boil a pot of anything underwater?

[Emtu]

9748728
Magic.

[Aquilla]

9748728
An underwater volcano or a hot geyser of water

[Admiral Biscuit]

9748055
Seconded

[Zubric]

Question, how does one cook underwater

[TB3]

9782293
Using geothermal vents as a heat source. Think of that brief scene in Titanic where the Chief Engineer is heating a pan of soup on a hot manifold in the ship's engine room.

In this instance you would also need to put a lid on the pot to keep the contents separated from the surrounding water.

[Ice Star]

Silverstream perfected mornings a long time ago.

This is impossible. That is unless she is a witch.

[Wind Scribe]

10325615
There's only one way to know for sure.

Bring me a scale and a duck!

[Yoshifan30]

Wow silverstream I've always knew your a morning creature But I never thought that was the reason that's pretty cool