But Tonight I Am Horseshoe Bay Bound
True Tales of Fishing #1
Pisces Noctium: The Fish of the Night
Sent in by Moonlit Reel, a subscriber of Anglequestria Magazine.
March 23rd, 1002 years after the banishment of Luna. I'm glad she's back.
The night air was as frigid as death, and a beautiful tapestry of stars hung high in the sky. It seemed like the perfect time for somepony, namely myself, to go out onto the water and catch some fish.
Fishing is usually more of a pastime carried out by pegasi, but I've always enjoyed a relaxing spell on the water with the ol' rod. And when I get tired of rowing (and want to make sure I save some energy for casting), I just let the wind blow me along wherever it wishes to. And yes, most boats I've piloted have had an onboard motor, but it's more fun to row. Some even have sails as well.
Those shipbuilders really go all out with propulsion methods sometimes, it seems.
I could see somepony asking me, "What are you talking about? Praising being able to go fishing at night is one of the strangest things I've ever heard." And I would completely understand, as I've found that I am pretty much alone, even among my kind, in thinking that. I have no problem with that, even if that would cause me to be deemed "eccentric".
Besides, I'm a dark-blue thestral. I was practically designed with nocturnal fishing in mind.
Once I had made up my mind to go fishing on that night (which was a few days ago as of the time I am writing this), I gathered my fishing pole, tackle box, a large bucket, and some worms. I've tried one of the worms before myself, and while I can understand why fish might like them, they're not very good. Give me some roasted muskrat any day. That's my favorite thing to eat, after fish.
Sadly, I do not live near any bodies of water big enough to fish in. Well, there is that one creek near my house, but I've never seen any fish there myself. I just usually stuff my gear into a pair of saddlebags and fly over to Horseshoe Bay, which isn't as far away from Ponyville as it looks on a map. That place is teeming with those floppy critters. The beaches are pretty nice too, but when I think of Horseshoe Bay, I'm not thinking of sand.
I'm thinking of fish.
Once I was ready, I made my way out of my house at around 11:00 at night and took to the sky. The nighttime landscape was beautiful. You'd think that as a thestral, I'd have some sort of exceptional night vision that allows me to see as well as anypony can during they day; effectively cancelling any of the normal effects of night.
Well, that is technically true. However, it's something that can be "adjusted". I definitely still allow myself to have better night vision than the other tribes of ponies, but without the semblance of actual darkness, nighttime is too strange. You'd think more of my kind would agree with me, but no, it's just, "Hey look at me, I can see perfectly!" all the time with them. I should give them a lesson sometime about what it truly means to be a pony of the night.
After I flew for a little while, I made it to my destination, which was the Aquatic Abode campgrounds. It has quite the sprawl of cabins and other camping sites. For a beachfront location, that's impressive. Since my usual method of travel makes it frankly impossible to bring my own boat along with me, I often find myself borrowing somepony else's.
With their permission, of course. I hope no one reading this will think otherwise.
Once I landed, I walked over to the main office and headed inside. I exchanged a brief nod with Calm Waters, the owner of the campgrounds. I've made a few friends over the years when I've come to fish in this area, and so I've consistently had a boat to borrow from any one of them in exchange for some of the fish I catch. She's had plenty of experience with my unique routine of checking out the logbook.
"Here to do some nighttime fishing again, Reel?" she asked as I approached her desk. "It's been an unusually slow day, so not many ponies are staying overnight. Hope that doesn't impede your plans too much."
"Oh, I'm sure I'll find somepony that will lend me their boat; I always seem too," I replied.
"I wish you luck. Feel free to check the sign-in sheet as usual," she smiled as she directed me to the podium where it stood.
The list did not show any of the usual names, Crap, I thought. It's not like I have all the time in the world to go fishing. I need a boat, and the night doesn't last forever.
It's just not the same when you fish during the day. When I took a last, fleeting look at the ledger, I saw a name I at least recognized. "Carrot Top".
Isn't she that, well, carrot farmer from Ponyville? I've heard she's pretty nice. Didn't know she liked fishing.
And so I had found somepony, who wasn't even expecting me, who must be randomly bothered by me late at night in order for me to get on with my plans.
I walked down the rows of cabins a few hundred meters away from the shore. until I got to cabin number 51. That was the one Carrot Top had rented. After almost tripping on some uneven stones, I slowly opened the window next to the cabin's bedroom and made my way inside.
The ceiling of the cabin had a light fixture that hung down a bit (not a chandelier, just a few light bulbs in a glass housing). That was the perfect starting point for what I was about to do to that poor mare.
Did I forget to mention I'm a bit of a prankster? Oh well, better later than never, as they say.
I took off my saddlebags full of gear. Then I flew up to the ceiling, grabbed onto the light with my hind legs as best as I could, and made sure I wore my best grin, fangs and all. After leaning down over the sleeping orange pony on the bed, I calmly said, "Were you the one who called about the rabbit problem?"
"Oh yeah, that would be me, they been running around all over the wait WHAT IN EQUESTRIA ARE YOU DOING IN MY CABIN?!" the orange occupant of the bed I was above shouted directly into my poor eardrums.
I promptly fell on top of the bed, but thankfully I only landed next to Carrot Top and didn't fall right on top of her. That would have been awkward, and I wouldn't have wanted to hurt her somehow. "Get out of my bed, now." she ordered.
"Okay, okay. Sorry, that wasn't a very nice thing to do," I apologized to her, even though I still thought it was sort of funny. I climbed off of the bed and walked over to the side she was sleeping on.
She sighed , "It's too late for this. Why are you even here? As I hope you know, it's not a common occurrence to have a thestral scare the living daylights out of you by dangling down over your bed and making up a fake animal control routine."
It occurred to me that in this case living nightlights might be the better term, but I didn't dare tell her that. "Well, I'm quite the fisherstallion in my spare time, and I'm in need of a boat. Do you have one that I could borrow? I'd pay you back with some of my catch."
"Will agreeing to that allow me to get some sleep without any more interruptions?" she said as she rolled her eyes at me.
"I believe so,"I responded truthfully. Pranks are fun, but fishing is more enjoyable any night of the year.
"Then take it. Look for the orange motorboat down by the pier," she half-mumbled as she rolled over onto her side and fell back asleep. I would have said thanks, but I had troubled her enough.
Dang. Why do I do stupid things like that? I thought to myself. I'm lucky to still have gotten a boat out of that debacle I caused.
The pier was about a five-minute walk from Carrot Top's cabin, but since I flew there, it only took two. The boat in question was easy to find, as it stood out against the whites and grays that most of the boats were colored with. That mare seemed to like to keep a consistent theme with her possessions, as the luggage that I noticed in her cabin had also been orange. She really takes her livelihood to heart. Luckily, I noticed some oars clipped onto the inside of the boat, which was a pleasing sight.
Once I untied the knot in the rope attaching the boat to the dock, I climbed in and rowed myself away from shore. The water seemed to be relatively calm, with only the smallest of waves moving the boat up and down. After I had rowed a significant distance away from the shore, I got out my tackle box. Most ordinary lures will work alright in the dark, but since I had some glow in the dark ones, I decided to use them.
It's not "cheating", it's called being resourceful.
My wings help a lot in allowing me to get a good enough grip on the hook so I can tie it to the fishing line after I put the lure on it. It's not as easy as what a unicorn would be able to do, but I'm sure I have it better off than earth ponies. And as for pegasi, don't tell anypony I told you this, but we thestrals are physiologically pretty much just pegasi who happen to work the night shift. Wings are wings, in the end.
I cast my line out into the water and waited. Just watching the water, the sky, and the point on the horizon where they blend seamlessly into one is very relaxing. I mean, I was out there to fish, but I could give them a bit of time to get themselves ready to bite.
It took a short while, but I finally felt a tug on my line. Again, that was the part where having a few extra limbs helps. Holding the pole itself with my forelegs, I took my right wing and spun the handle so I could start to reel my victim in. Thankfully, the fish didn't struggle too hard, and I was able to have my first successful catch of the evening. She (who knows if the fish was really female, that's fisherstallion talk) was a catfish about twenty-nine centimeters long.
However, I had forgotten to fill the bucket with water. I have no idea how I forgot about that. So, even though in the end I was able to solve my problem without much effort, it was still awkward to hold a fish while I also lowered a bucket into the sea for a quick fill up. After the fish was finally able to be put into the bucket, I cast out my line yet again.
Over the course of the next few hours, I caught eight more fish. Seven of them were more catfish, but I got a nice, long salmon as well. When you grill salmon on one of those fancy cedar planks, you're in for one of the best meals of your life. I'll eat fish that's been cooked any way you can name, except fried. It makes them too greasy. That wouldn't be a problem for something like chicken, but doing that to fish just does something weird that isn't quite to my liking.
As the bucket was getting a little crowded, I thought I'd try for one more fish before calling it quits for the night. This time my line went out a little farther away from the boat than my previous casts had traveled.
Nothing happened for ten minutes.
My patience was beginning to wear a little thin, and I couldn't stay out on the water indefinitely. The line almost felt like it was tugging away from me a little bit, but that was simply the current of the ocean moving it along. I started reeling the line in slowly, just to be sure. By some stroke of luck, a fish finally bit onto my hook. It was another catfish, so nothing too special, but I wasn't complaining.
"Take that, ocean." I jokingly admonished the water below me.
"What did the sea do to deserve that?" a quiet voice said from behind me.
I almost fell out of the boat, right then and there.
"Huh, w-who's there?" was my question to my unknown companion as I turned myself around. I was met with a turqiouse seapony filly leaning over the edge of my boat. She looked like she was about twelve.
"I'm Quiet Breeze, and I'm sorry if I scared you, sir, but you have to admit it was a little funny, right?" she questioned me with a small smile on her face.
"Well, yeah, I guess it was a little funny," I replied. I wouldn't call it karma, but something about this scenario was a bit too coincidental, in that I had scared somepony myself several hours ago. Pinkie Pie's probably to blame somehow. If all other explanations fail you can usually blame a scenario on Pinkie. You'd be surprised how much of the time that statement actually runs true. Or maybe you wouldn't, as probably most ponies who don't live under a rock will meet her at some point.
"Watcha doin' fishing out here so late at night? Oh, that's right, you batponies are nocturnal," Quiet Breeze asked. "But wait,"she added before I could answer her, "I've only seen any of you fish during the day."
"Lemme stop you there for a second, Quiet Breeze. Shouldn't you be in bed or something?"
She thought to herself for a minute. "Well, probably, but sometimes you just have to come out and see the night sky. All of the stars are always so beautiful, but the moon is the best part." she admitted.
"Hah! If only more ponies like you would have been around a thousand years ago. The entire course of Equestrian history would be different," came my enthusiastic reply. "And as for what I'm doing out here, I've just thought that keeping my loves of nighttime and going fishing separate would be a waste. So here I am."
"Interesting. You seem to have a nice catch there. Ooh, salmon," she noticed. "Yummy."
"Wait, do seaponies eat fish? I thought you were friends with them," I said, being genuinely surprised.
"You've seen that Little Mermare movie, haven't you? Yeah, that tale has pretty much nothing to do with the seapony way of life at all. We live in the ocean. What else are we supposed to eat?" she inquired.
"Oh. Yeah, I definitely saw that one a few times when I was a colt. I guess I never thought that I would actually meet a seapony, so I assumed too much from that film. I'm sorry, that's actually rather embarrassing to admit."
"Don't worry about it," she laughed. "Despite the flaws of that film, it at least brings in some tourism to places we live in." This filly had quite the vocabulary, it seemed.
"Well, in that case, do you want a fish?" I asked her.
"Huh? Oh, if you really want to give me one, sure. We have still have plenty of them in my family's fridge back home," Quiet Breeze said.
"I insist," I said, "you've been a nice surprise this evening." Then what she said finally registered in my mind. "What on earth do you mean by "my family's fridge?"
"Just because we live underwater doesn't mean we can't have appliances. Magic helps out a lot with allowing them to work while submerged. Thank goodness the unicorns in the manufacturing business have the skill to do that kind of thing," she told me.
"Oh yeah, even though I love to joke about how much easier it is for them to do things with their levitation abilities, that tribe does seem to serve an actual purpose," I snorted.
She gave me a look that, if I'm not wrong, had a twinge of nastiness to it. "That part there at the end was just another joke, right? I've met plenty of nice unicorns."
"Oh, of course it was!" came my quick effort to assuage her.
She and I stared at each other for a few second; and neither of us said anything. It could have almost been called one of those "cut-the-tension-with-a-knife" scenarios.
She finally let out, after a quick snicker, "I wish one of us had a mirror. The look on your face right now could fetch quite the large amount of bits at an auction."
"Dang, miss, you got me again," was my grateful reply. "Are you sure you weren't sent to play some tricks on me by somepony?"
"Oh no, I've haven't spoken to Carrot Top in a while, and I've only met her a few times."
"I never mentioned anything about Carrot Top," I told her. Could that mare have really have gone through all that trouble? I thought.
"Gotcha again! Her name's written on the side of your boat," she said, seeming to feel extremely proud of herself.
I was beginning to like this filly very much. "Yes, you sure did get me. I see a great career of prank-playing in your future. Though, you'd have to go a long way to match the likes of me on my best days."
"I assume you did something to that mare recently, then? She must not have been too mad, because otherwise you wouldn't be piloting her boat right now," she wondered.
"Heh, it was mostly an 'if you leave me alone you can use it' situation," I said. "You don't know how lucky I was to even walk away with a boat on those terms."
"Sounds like something I would have been glad to witness," she said, right before she let out a prolonged yawn.
"Okay, at this point I think you should definitely be in bed," I told her, which reminded myself of something my mom might have said to me.
"You know what," she yawned yet again, "you're probably right. It was nice meeting you, uh..."
"Moonlit Reel's the name. I'm a living example of somepony having a name that describes his special talent perfectly, and I'd love to talk to you again sometime, as long as your parents would be okay with it. I'd even come out here a little earlier so I wouldn't intrude on your sleep," I answered her. Thestrals definitely stick to sleeping during the day most of the time, but it's not like we're never up during that time. It's nice to be able to interact with the "daytime" ponies when they are fully awake sometimes.
"I'm sure that my parents will be fine with it," Quiet Breeze replied. "There's enough fisherstallions and mares around here that it's a common occurrence for me to talk to them. I personally welcome it, as we're the only family of seaponies living around this area. My parents found a good part-time job leading some tours for the mare who owns the campgrounds, so it just made sense to live here."
"Are you ever lonely?" I asked her.
"Oh, no. Plenty of ponies bring their kids with them, and I've been able to make a few friends here and there," she told me.
"I'm glad to hear that. Every foal needs friends," I said, thankful that she wasn't only talking to adults. I mean, I've come to know the good majority of the regulars around here, and they're all trustworthy. The occasional freak is bound to turn up, though.
After yawning yet again, Quiet Breeze said goodnight to me and went beneath the waves back to her house, taking one of the catfish with her. She reminded me of a younger version of myself, although she was the opposite gender and certainly a different species than me. A bit more outgoing, but that's something I've always wanted to work on anyways.
My much-enjoyed conversation was done, and since I had already decided to stop fishing for the night, I turned on the ship's motor and steered myself back to the shore.
I made my way back to the dock without incident at around 3:45; judging time by the boat's clock. The blazing orange boat was tied up to its post once again. Even the rope was orange, which is a detail I cannot believe I left out earlier.
As I walked towards where Carrot Top was staying, I weighed my options for keeping up my end of her deal. Waking her up again was completely out of the question. Seeing that mare angry would probably be a nightmare. Yes, thestrals use that phrase too. Everpony has dreams sometimes, even though some of them do that during the day.
However, I couldn't just leave them outside.
I eventually formulated a plan, but it would require some stealth on my part. Passing by the window near the bedroom, I made my way to the front door, thankful that Carrot Top was indeed still sleeping. It was unlocked, so I nudged it open as slowly as I could.
Cre-ea-eak.
I stopped the movement of the door with my wings as soon as I heard that horrible noise. Blasted rusty hinges. There was only one other door to the cabin. I went over and tried to open it, but it was locked. So that only left the windows. The ones by the kitchen, which would give me the shortest trip to the freezer, were locked. All the windows of the cabin ended up being locked. Except one.
And could you guess which one it was?
Of course, it was the one right by the bedroom. That's some terrible luck.
So, for the second time that night, I opened that bedroom window and climbed inside. I made sure to stick to the air once I was inside so as to not accidentally step on any boards that might creak under the weight of my hoofsteps. Carrot Top was in bed, and I thought I spied some sort of smiling carrot plushie next to her. That was an adorable sight.
Leaving the bedroom and the dangers contained within, I made my way down a short hallway to the cabin's living room. It was modestly furnished, with a sofa placed opposite a fireplace, as well as a desk in the corner. There were also a few end tables and a bookshelf, which while mostly filled with books, had a few records on its shelves as well. Bringing records on a fishing trip seemed like a very interesting thing to do. I thought that there must be a record player around somewhere, but I didn't dare try to look for it and make unnecessary noise. Seeing If I had similar music preferences to that mare would have to wait for another day.
The kitchen was located through a doorway connecting it to the living room. Since the flooring had changed to tile, I deemed it safe to land. Once I had slowly lowered myself to the ground, I looked through some of the drawers to see if there were any zippered plastic bags. There were a few underneath the silverware drawer, and they were actually some of the biggest bags I'd ever seen. Perfect for fish.
Fish.
The fish I had left in the bucket back outside.
I was not about to go all the way back through the cabin, and especially not into that bedroom again. The door also wasn't a viable option because of the noise it made whenever it opened. I appeared to be stuck, and the only way I thought I could make it back outside was if I somehow oiled the door hinges.
There was some olive oil on top of the kitchen counter, which looked like it might work. I mean, oil is oil, right?
Putting down the bag I had grabbed, and taking the bottle, I started to fly over the wooden flooring of the living room again and made it to the front door. When I landed, the wooden board underneath me squeaked ever so slightly, but the noise wasn't loud enough to worry about. The olive oil bottle didn't have the handy pour spout that you find on machine oil cans, so I tried to just pour it over the hinges as gently as I could. The floor still got a little bit of runoff on it, but I thought that Carrot Top could surely take care of that mess in the morning.
After quickly putting the olive oil back where I had found it, I tried opening the door to see if my efforts to quiet it had worked. There was a small creak still, but it was nowhere near as loud as it had been. I walked back around to the window I had first used to enter the cabin, and found the bucket of fish sitting on the ground.
I can't believe that I forgot that, I admonished myself.
Bringing the bucket inside, I made my way back to the cabin's kitchen. I usually try to give whoever lets me borrow a boat for the evening forty percent of my haul, but since I had already given away one of the ten fish, it wouldn't be as easy to just divide them up like that.
After a minute of thought, I decided to simply give Carrot Top simply four fish even though that was definitely more than her cut. She deserved something for my shortcomings. Again, I still think what I did was hilarious, but I know that I'll probably think twice before the next time I wake somepony up with my antics.
It just isn't right.
I grabbed one of the plastic bags, which must have been thrice the size of a normal large plastic bag, and stuck the four fish inside. They then went straight to the freezer. I rarely freeze my fish, as they usually get eaten within a few days. Since I didn't know how long she would take to eat them, I thought the freezer would be a safe bet. Luckily, there was also a cooler on the kitchen counter, so Carrot Top would be able to keep them cold easily whenever she would go back home.
I wrote a note explaining how much fish was in the freezer and what species it belonged to, as well as another apology, and silently flew it over the nightstand next to her bed. The note mentioned the small mess by the front door as well.
Next time I go to the markets in Ponyville to buy carrots, I'll make sure to patch things up better than I could that night. I actually plan to go tomorrow, so whatever came of that interaction will have surely already happened by the time this gets published.
After making sure the window to the cabin's bedroom was closed, I made my way out of the cabin with the rest of my fish. I was glad to know that would be the last time I would have to do so. A flight over to the main office again to say goodbye to Calm didn't take much time at all, and afterwards I headed back home.
A nice catfish sandwich (baked, of course) was calling my name.
From the editor: We greatly appreciate this inaugural contribution to the new section of our magazine.
Author's Note
Pisces Noctium is Latin for "fish of the night", and the chapter title references a lyric from a Billy Joel song I'll mention further down in the Author's Notes.
Horseshoe Bay is a canon location, but it's only visited in the comics, and I did no further research past the name.
I have gone fishing only once so far in my life, so only some of the details in this story could be said to be based on actual knowledge.
The rest comes from what I remember from other sources such as movies, secondhand accounts, and the like.
That being said, the idea of ponies eating fish is genuinely one of my favorite tropes to see in this fandom. I thought I'd try my hand at it.
The best song related in some way to fishing I know of (and one of my absolute favorite songs as well):
"The Downeaster 'Alexa'" by Billy Joel from the 1989 album Storm Front.
This one is also wonderful:
"Down by the Seaside" from the 1975 Led Zeppelin album Physical Graffiti. It was originally recorded in 1971 for their fourth album, but was never released on it.
And if you want the entire playlist I listened to while writing this, well, you can click this for the link.
(I wouldn't be me if I didn't talk about music somehow.)
