Salmon Run

by mushroompone

Five

When the skeletal branches of winter trees begin to bud,

their leaves thrumming beneath the bark,

the salmon leave their home to explore.

What awaits them in the deep blue waters of the ocean?

What do they feel as they fly away from those familiar pools and streams?

What unknowable feeling in their fins

in their scales

in their hearts

tells them it is time to leave home?

Asks them to leave behind those corridors lined with well-worn pebbles

in search of something more?

Do they know they are bound by fate

to thrash through the whitewater

to be plucked

ripe and red

from those icy creeks

by hungry bears and swift eagles

on the way to frenzied death in the pools of home?

Do they leave home with no intention of returning?

Or do they leave because they feel

the very act of leaving

makes coming home finally feel real?

Comments

[NorrisThePony]

I see myself thinking about this one for a good while to come.

Great story.

[Silent Whisper]

This is a wonderfully artistic story that left me thinking and wondering and comparing things I took for granted in different ways than I used to.

It would be a shame if someone... ruined it. :3

(But seriously, fantastic job, I've always loved this fic and I love your writing!)

[daOtterGuy]

Howdy, hi~!

As in the past when I read this and now, I still can’t make heads or tails of it and that’s fine. It’s abstract, it’s not defined, it’s on the border of philosophy and literature. It’s a lot of different pieces that spark imagination and really make you dive into this. Bang up read. Thanks!

[Odd_Sarge]

Wonderfully executed. I got something very, very pretty out of this.

Thank you for writing.

[Novelle Tale]

What a great story to post on the mid-summer moon. :D

This was weird & neat then, and it's weird and neat now. Great story, Mush!

[Silent Wing]

A bit weird but still good.

[Moonlight Tome]

Very abstract, a touch confusing, and without clear destination or conclusion. I like it, but I don't love it.

Good job regardless!

[NueGirl]

It's always your Night Glider fics that make me introspect

Banger as always!

[Turbotune]

that's the reason some people travel, isn't? it feels just amazing~

[Thought Prism]

Very neat think piece. Completely different from what popped into my gamer brain when I first read the title:

[publiq]

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Or how it feels to turn off the brain and join the rave. Dance because the floor is there for dancing on, etc.

[AltruistArtist]

This was an exhilarating experience to read! I was there right alongside Night Glider and the congregating flock, excited in spite of not knowing where I was heading. I really loved Night Glider in the protagonist role for this story. She’s always had such a vagabond air about her and it was an inspired choice to have her eyes be the ones through which we witness this meditation on travel and return and the ineffable sense of home.

It’s truly fascinating to envision what would happen if the pegasi in the world of MLP were suddenly struck by irrepressible migratory instincts, that these otherwise fully sapient beings were compelled by an influence outside their conscious control. I love how the tone of this story veers very near to horror at some moments. But that’s the nature of the unknown, isn’t it? Something that can be equal parts terrifying and beautiful.

I adore your writing style and how it moves nimbly between prose and poetry. And it was oh so clever to evoke the migration of salmon as a bookend to the start and end of this story, passages that were also written with such a lovely voice. It felt like a glimpse of something familiar to ground our expectations for the strange yet wonderful phenomenon about to take place!

[mushroompone]

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Thank you so much - you are so kind!! This little fic is a favorite of mine, and I'm so happy that it has found a little audience on here ^^ I'm really glad you enjoyed the piece!