I Am A Camera
Fish Eye wasn't talking to her goddess.
She was looking down at the green fields and stands of trees and other, organized-looking bits of land in between the bare, orange ridges and rock-falls, looking down from her perch in the forecastle beside the goddess's shrine. The landscape below moved surprisingly swiftly. The griffons had unhooked their lines and shrugged off their harnesses, returning by files to avoid cluttering up the deck.
The ship had retained its momentum, with a following wind still filling the steering-sails. To the rear of the ship, some handlers were getting the big roc into her own improvised harness, and from what Fish Eye could see, it looked like they were planning on getting the enormous bird to back-wing the ship as they rapidly approached the port city in the hazy distance, slowing the speeding half-crippled craft.
A distance that was getting less hazy, and considerably less distant, with every hurtling moment they spent unpowered and wind-tossed.
Fish wished the goddess wasn't talking back to her, for that matter.
"-it's only what you unfilial fry deserve, you know. Always neglecting my holy places, never thinking to propriate my august self until some disaster reminds you of your obligations and allegiances." There was a shadow of sea-foam and shore-wrack within the holies, a box of scrap and slightly rotten sacrifices slowly decaying in the shanty that Fish and some of the sailor-ponies had knocked together in the hour or two they'd had to work with just before the dedication ceremony.
Fish Eye hadn't had time to improve it much since then, and the way Auntie A was carrying on, she wasn't sure she wanted to, now.
"Look at this! It's barely fermenting. You should get some more fish-guts to spike these offerings, Eye. Even now, when you need my blessings, you are slighting my worship."
That's it. Fish pushed down her ire, and got into her persona, struggling to not be mad.
"Did I ask for your blessings, Auntie? I didn't. Did I? Oh, dear, oh, dear - did I get confused and ask for something? Oh, tell me I never asked for that, Auntie. Nopony asked me to ask for anything, I promise, I didn't mean it! Only to witness!"
The shadows stilled, and then started swirling the other direction, slowly. Not a great many - not in the daylight like this - but just a few tufts of darkness in the rot and the ooze of the box of holies. "No, child, you didn't ask for my blessing. You may talk like a fool, but you aren't one, are you?"
Fish Eye blinked at her goddess, trying her very best to not look clever.
"Oh, yes, you know better than to play Odd Seabass in front of Poseidon's old ball and chain, don't you? That cleverness never won favor from the gods, only spite and fury and our curses. You can stop tearing up at me, and looking innocent. This isn't my doing, as I have said, and said again. Three times I tell you, I did nothing to your blasphemous flying vessel, or its land-fruited infernal engines.
"If you want to blame a god of the elements, look to the elements which had a flipper in the construction and operation of those mechanical monstrosities. Fire, that tempered the steel, and earth, that filled its ravenous maw, and air, that fed the flame and the earth and the magic that made it all work in supposed harmony. Ask the earth-gods, the spirits of the volcanic vents, those treacherous tarts of the upper airs.
"Or, for that matter, the magical puppets of damnable Harmony, who think to rule over us all, those tyrants of order and conceit and partiality. Your false princess, whom you have sworn allegiance, against all obligations of priesthood and tradition. Look you for priestesses of dirt or metal or fire or air, who might have been offended by your mechanical toys, and caused them to break.
"Priestess Eye, what are you looking at, instead of your goddess?"
Fish jerked, scared and embarrassed that she'd taken her eye off of her goddess, if only for a second. "T-the port city is coming up fast, Auntie. They've taken in the sails, and the roc is straining against the ship's momentum. It- it's surprising. Distracting. Interesting." Fish's mind turned, irrelevantly, to wondering where her equipment had gotten to, the scene cried out for photography.
"What? What's it look like? You know I can't see out of this shrine in the dead of day. Show me! Lend me your eyes, Eye."
Fish looked down at the tiny swirl of shadow, which had tightened, and gotten smaller, more compact, more intense.
She wasn't sure she wanted to do this. But the goddess needed to be reassured. Given something.
And nothing was worse than not seeing. Fish knew she shouldn't, but she felt bad for her goddess.
Fish Eye blinked, and stared hard at the darkness of her Auntie.
And the darkness filled her sight.
Much better, Eye. Go ahead, blink until you can see again. There you go. Fish looked around, her sight slowly returning to her. The goddess's voice was gone, but she could still hear… no, it wasn't sound.
That's the stuff. Ah, the sunlit upper airs. It's been too long since I've seen you with a priest's eyes, Mother World. Oh, it's the Perroencian coast. Is that Fidolentia?
The goddess was thinking at her.
"Uh, no, Auntie A. That's Barkalona. There's a dockyard at Fort Bing that they say we can fix the engines and figure out if the coal in our bunkers is all bad."
Nonsense! If it were all bad, you'd have fallen out of the sky back in Abalone, long before you arrived here. If there's a problem, it will be some little fragment of the supply, you mark my word. Your Auntie Amphitrite has been through these straits a thousand thousand times.
"Several questions, your divinity. One, what's Abalone? Two, we're nowhere near a strait, this is some sort of large peninsula or something like that, I'm a bit turned around right now."
Fool! You were living on the Isles of Abalone for months! How do you- oh, that's right. The foolish surface-dwellers renamed them, didn't they? This is why gods become wrathful, and send the terrible storms and lightning! The falsification of names! The way you mortals endlessly attach a stream of novel NAMES to every thing over wave and under moon. Well, the isles are not mine, so I care not that the ponies and the damnable griffons chose to rename them to - what is it now?
"Uh, are we talking about the Griffish Isles?"
Yes, those. Egotistical birds, they put their names on everything. Griffonia. Griffonstone. The Griffish Isles. Almost as bad as the ponies and their endless self-centered puns.
There was a slight thrumming that transferred through the deck, and Fish Eye looked back across the whole of the ship's upper decks, her eye drawn to the roc and the roc's mighty wings, beating backward against the Princess's Bit's great mass.
My sacred word, is that a royal turul? How extraordinary! Ahem. Damnable, of course, as are all creatures of the upper airs. Not worthy of my time. But… look at that. I've never seen a royal laboring like a common longshorepony before. Eye! Why is there a turul princess in harness attached to your ship?
Fish looked around, confused. "Turwhat? What's a turul? We don't have any of the griffons harnessed up anymore, and we just have the roc working at the moment-"
Roc! That is no corrupted roc I see through your mortal eyes, Eye! What nonsense are you- oh, look at that.
Fish felt a terrible stabbing sensation just behind her left eye, like she'd just tried to look into her own brain.
Well, that won't do, will it? Here, hold still, unasked or not, I am going to GIVE YOU A BLESSING.
Then it hurt a great deal, and everything was surrounded by halos of lambent pain.
Oh, do stop being so dramatical, Eye. It should only hurt for a little while. I swear by my holy name, you mortals and your frailities. I've exempted you from the curse that princess carries around on her head, that's worth a bit of strain, isn't it? Now do stop whimpering and let me see more. Eye? Eye?
Gilda looked down at the shivering hippogriff laying on a cot in her sister's infirmary.
"What happened?" Gilda asked the older hippogriff. "She just keeled over beside that pile of wreckage she calls a shrine, is what happened. The ensign here had to haul her down from the forecastle. Is it an aneurysm?"
"How would I know? Do I look like a neurosurgeon to you? That was Bones' speciality. I'm a meatball surgeon. Looks bad, but not get-out-the-trepan-and-start-drilling bad. Given it happened in the shrine, I think maybe she angered the goddess. Sea and salt, I hope she didn't anger the goddess."
"No, she did not anger the goddess, my faithless niece,", said the hippogriffish lump on the cot with a voice that sent shivers of terror down Gilda's back. The batpony ensign hovering beside Gilda and looking down at her servant with concern jerked back in alarm, knocking over another cot and bouncing off the bulkhead behind Gilda.
The pink mare rose from her bed like something… unearthly, a dead look in her unseeing eyes. "My blessing took my priestess in a way that I was not expecting. She will be fine… in a bit. I believe?"
"Fish? Fish, are you feeling OK? Talk to me, little sister!" squawked the terrified-looking doctor.
"Try and be less of a damned fool than you absolutely have to be, my most idiotic of nieces. How is it that my priestess is, according to her, the disappointment of the family? She knows her goddess when she hears the voice of divinity. Bah, I'm stressing her even more by doing this, stop bothering me, and leave your sister to rest. Griffon! I will want to talk to you about this turul princess you're harboring on this abomination of the winds you call a ship, but I need to find a less taxing method of communication. When my priestess recovers, discuss it with her!"
Then the younger hippogriff just flopped down upon the cot, and started snoring. Fruits Basket stared slit-eyed from her tangle of tumble-down cots and blankets, and Gilda and the thoroughly alarmed doctor looked at each other over the stentorian snores of the little priestess between them.
"So, that happened. I guess she really does have the favor of a hippogriffish goddess?" Gilda asked. The.. she… that whatever that was had suddenly seen through the turul's curse suggested that something ineffable was happening.
"Either that, or it's early-onset schizophrenia," Hawk Eye said, looking angrily down at her sister.
"Is that… something that happens with hippogriffs?" The ensign, Fruits Basket, asked, cautiously, as she extracted herself from the mess she'd made in the corner..
"No, drown it. I just don't want to admit that my sister's been possessed by one of our crazy tutelary deities. At least it isn't the shark-god. I'm not sure how I'd explain the transformations and the obligate cannibalism."
"The what?" asked the ensign. Bug-eyed looked downright peculiar with thestral eyes.
"Never mind, it won't be a problem. Abyssal depths, Fish might even be able to exorcize shark-possessions, if the Lady Amphitrite likes her this much. I'm gonna have to go sit down and think this through, Sergeant Gilda. Can you excuse us?"
"Uh, yeah. We have a lot… I have a lot of work. Right. Later."
Gilda turned around and left the ensign with the hippogriffs and their suddenly terrifying religious issues.
Religion was officer business, wasn't it?
Purse Strings looked back at the stricken Princess's Bit as the batponies and others tried to get her back up-wind from where she'd come to a halt several thousand yards past the dockyards of Fort Bing. He was riding a chariot back to the Equestrian enclave courtesy of a pair of bats assigned to him to get the work started soonest. The port of Barkalona proper extended inland beyond the long, narrow headland upon which the Fort squatted, that held a tangle of dockyards, jettys, piers and repair facilities sheltering between the heavy masonry walls and the rest of the harbor.
On the far side of the harbor squatted the dog city, and Purse could smell the funk from up here. He'd never been fond of diamond dogs, and the Perroencian breed always struck him as especially dirty and inhospitable. They hadn't been planning on visiting this particular Equestrian protectorate, but any port in a storm, you know?
The major had been planning a port call in Perroneus, which was just as much of a dogtown as Barkalona, but at least the Kokoni liked to perfume themselves, you could barely smell the dog on them. This repair jaunt probably put a pin in the purple unicorn's proposed tourism. Thank harmony for small favors.
At least the Equestrian enclave around Fort Bing had been mostly ponies and hangers-on the last time Purse had been in port, and they made the filthy dogs that worked for them wash themselves. Why couldn't it have been a griffon town? Purse liked griffons. Even when they weren't washed, their stink was… reassuring.
All the baths in the world didn't keep the smell from blowing seaward from the inland neighborhoods of the city.
Dogs, bah.
The bats brought Purse's chariot into the courtyard outside of the overseer's office in the dockyards. Purse had dealt with this pony before, and their facilities. They were always willing to do what needed to be done, if you could grease their frogs with the right amount of bits.
It was Perroenica, the right amount was rarely all that much.
The door opened, and a huge buck-you bitch came out of the office. Purse's gaze went up, and up, and - damn, that was a big bitch. Enormous, black, and shaggy, Purse couldn't even see her eyes.
Bipedal, why do they have to be bipedal? Makes me feel like they're always about to pounce.
"What pony want? You come from that big airship cluttering up Mindy's offshore approaches?"
"Uh, what, yeah, what? Er. Yeah, that's the Princess's Bit. We had engine problems over Bayhon. I need to make arrangements for supplies and repairs. Uh, where's Pyrite Glitter?"
"Ha! Pony haven't been to Perroencia recently? Pyrite went home year and a half ago. Caught some pony bug, said he was tired. Retired to Territories!"
That was awful news. Everypony knew that Pyrite Glitter was an easy touch, and more importantly, an easily bribed source of cheap supplies and equipment. And they'd replaced him with… this diamond dog? A local?
"Haw! Haw! Mindy knows that look. We can do business, pony. The docks are open for business, just like it was in Pyrite-pony's day. Who you think balanced the books for cheating pony? What you need, scrawnier pony? What you name, that matter? Mindy vaguely recalls your pony muzzle, but not your pony name. Parrots have you tongue?"
What kind of a name was 'Mindy', anyways? Damned dogs…
"The quartermaster says that we can get the work done here, Major ma'am. Might even be cheap, apparently it's a low-overhead port." Gilda looked over her notes, sitting in her chair beside Gleaming's cot.
"Wish I could have taken the meeting. When does the damn doctor say I can return to duty? I feel fine."
"Head injuries aren't anything to play around with, Major ma'am. Leave it up to us. And this isn't anything really command-centric, anyways. It's engine repairs."
"Do we have any idea what caused the damage? What about that rockhopper they were going to find to check our fuel bunkers?"
"I'd normally send out Magus Heartstrings to dig up a specialist, but, well, given-"
"Yes, yes, we're rapidly running out of uninjured unicorns. We need to do better on that front. Rockhoppers aren't unicorn business, anyways."
"They aren't? You know I don't always quite get the division of labor among you ponies, Major ma'am."
"Harmony, no. Rockhoppers are thoroughly earth pony, through and through, stem to stern. I'd say send somepony from the engineering section, or Purse Strings, but, well…"
"Yeah. Those dweebs are all busier than a butcher after a stampede. Hrm. We don't have a lot of earth pony officers right now. Lieutenant Lulamoon's two ensigns. Maybe Ensign Ramrod?"
"Go ask Trixie to pick her officer most likely to know a rockhopper from a chiseler, and both of them go to find us our stone-sniffer, Gilda."
"Yes, Major, ma'am."
"Also, get that damn hippogriff to clear me for duty, I'm tired of this room. I stink like three-day-old fish. I'm tired of my own company, and I want to run my ship like I ought."
"Yes, Major, ma'am."
Stats
Page generated in 0.026 seconds
Total duration
724 users online
978,581 hits today, 2,004,447 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
This seems like an important job that Fish Eye is doing. For all that only a handful of people are aware that it needs to be done, and that Fish Eye is taking point on it.
Oh. Never mind.
You know, they're being quite open about their dealings with deities. Someone might think it's a good time to talk about Luna.
As if Gilda will be able to keep her talons off the responsibility.
Yeah... It's been quite a trip, and they've hardly made it out of port.
This is off to a great start. In particular, it seems like diplomacy with gods is something they're going to have to get used to? Which puts an interesting perspective on the as-yet unclear scheme that has something to do with Luna/NMM.
Fish really make all the chapter she is in more fun. And you don't want to deal with gods, even if they are on your side they mess things up. That said, I really like when those two interact and when they scare the Bat ponies shitless.
. Now having her able to interact correctly with the Turul Princess will be great. Especially the for the big bird, she must be really starving for some conversation (but this is Fish Eye we are talking about 
).
But that Blessing is really a good idea! I mean, it kind of make sense that a god wouldn't be fooled by a mere magical item wouldn't have fooled it and having her Priestess being affected by this wouldn't do at all. So to resume, the coronet has the magical property to impose conditions that make non-royals only see a Roc, but there are unicorn spells that can stop the effect from affecting one person. I imagine that certains artefacts could achieve the same effect... And it seems God's certain blessing can make it so they can ignore or power through the effects. But are there other things that can see through? Certains skills or species having that ability?
But all this raise three questions from me.
- Will Fish eyes be modified by the Blessing?
- What the Goddess want with the Turul?
- What is the full Hippogriph Pantheon? Please tell me the Love/Sex god isn't an Octopus.
Side note about Fish, she doesn't seem to take a lot of photos these days. Like the griffins flock pulling the ship would have been a great photo.
Next!
Barkalona... a dog city... I should slap myself to not have catched that pun
. But a Diamond Dog country!!! We are going to have all the big doggo! Yes! So hope some jump on board for the adventure afterwards! And it's nice to see one who isn't depicted like a total idiot like in most MLP stories. I know that canonicaly they are supposed to be quite stupid and belligerent compared to ponies but it's so limiting writing wise doesn't it?
So it look like the story is splitting in three branches for the next arc. Purse getting supplies and whatever is happening within the city. Gilda is getting a Rockhopper. And Fish is dealing with her Goddess... better improve that shrine Fish. And probably getting that figurehead the sooner the better.
Great chapter Mitch, really made me laugh and excited for what is coming.
The title gave me an idea!
Maybe the Goddess will be interested in photography if she catch Fisheye doing it. But could you catch the picture of a god on a camera like a ghost?
Lyra would probably be all over an experiment like that.
Well if there's one thing that can make the Turul Princess life easier (or much, much harder) is another divine's interest.
10379503
Talk about Luna as open, non secret-keeping ponies? The bats? No no, that's just not done!
Every god needs a few cameras here and there. Though they are rather delicate things so you need to be sure not to drop’em.
(I should note that the chapter title is a reference to the Yes/Buggles single, not the 1955 film, which now I look at the description, sounds kind of like a Weimar-flavored version of The Room. )
10379576
Meh they are more related to drones in this case. Piloting without crashing is an art few ever master. It's when they start to customize they that the problem start and you loose the warranty.
10379599
I was thinking of trying to make some joke about the Buggles song, but figured no one would get it. Glad to see I was mistaken.
Well, seeing that if you have issues with the skipper you really do have god problems...
10379503
As if Gilda isn't an officer anyway, never mind being technically a sergeant.
Odd Seabass... Took me a second, but would that be Odysseus?
10379864
10379845
Gilda is young and inexperienced and for all her apparent talent hasn't necessarily appreciated the distinction between a command sergeant major and an executive officer. Also, if she focused on one role they wouldn't actually have anyone to fill the other. And her feelings toward Gleaming keep her wanting to act like an XO, and at the same time her sense of responsibility keeps her acting like a CSM.
Thus she is flying in all directions at once trying to combine the roles, and presumably Ping is helping a lot to fill in the gaps. As best he can, anyway. They're kind of short-handed.
10379599
Honestly fought it was a reference to Fish Eye pretty much becoming a camera for the Goddess.
Hey, everybody's accidentally a genius at least once in their lives.
And she is thinking at her so hard too.
And you are very arrogant and selfish, Amphitrite. I'd be more willing to cut you some slack if you were the only goddess in the world, but it's been made very clear--and reinforced by your own comments--that you clearly are not, so don't go pretending like you and only you have sole authority over these subjects.
Okay, I'll give you that one, though.
Ironically, no. She was being given a blessing.
Which says a lot about Amphitrite, doesn't it? At times about as benevolent as Bill Cipher, her...
Ha!
Maybe they need to consider getting a chaplain. I mean, could it really hurt at this point?
Yes, it's actually starting to become something of a concerning pattern here...even if the reasons for each injury were in some way hilarious.
So it'll be interesting to find out what Amphitrite's plans for our resident Turul are, as well as any and all lasting consequences of the "blessing" are. Knowing Fish Eyes, she'll probably find some comical use for it as is her usual forte.
Ha! I thought the Old Gods held the alicorns in contempt, and this confirms it!
10379562 The bats are actually more likely to talk about Luna than Celestia ever was.
10381108
That's saying something about Celestia alright.
What other blessing a god could give? I guess 'sky is the limit' probably apply here but there are probably some that are more frequent/traditional depending on the god. Could probably look at various mythologies and make a catalogue of what the gods in MLP could achieve with their "blessing".
I guess what Fish Eye was given probably has a name the common creatures use to describe it, like "True Sight", "Awakened Mind" or "Defense Against the Mystic". Well... depending what was done of course.
Better make sure the shrine spruced up a little and offerings are made... humm, for such a god, I guess a walk down the beach could be good to gather material. The fish market is also a good bet and a good bottle of alcohol might not hurt. Yeah, alcohol is generally a safe bet with the gods.
I really hope they also have a sea slug goddes.
"What I tell you three times is true."
To paraphrase Terry Pratchett, one acknowledges the existence of Equestrian Gods, but one doesn't believe in them. (They're more trouble than they're worth).
Pursestrings has a Griffin fetish.
yes, yes it is.
Nice play on Albion. And the ship now has both the attention, and interest of an old school Goddess, this never goes well.
And gotta love being a senior NCO, being able to take charge and handle situations how you want, but when one comes around you dont want to deal with, well, that's an officer level problem.