Eyes - Derpy & Pinkie Pie [Horse Voice]
Chamomile tea had never been Pinkie's first choice for coffee shop fare, but it was appropriate for the situation. It was pleasant and healthful, yes, but also a drink for sober, serious moments, when things had to be sussed out calmly and quietly. This was far from Pinkie's usual method for helping others, of course, but this time nothing else would suffice, and she knew she was the only one who could do it.
It wasn't long before the Cafe's front door swung open slowly, and Pinkie's expected guest slunk in. Her blonde mane was matted and unkempt, and her grey wings were clutched protectively at her sides. As she approached Pinkie, her gaze darted this way and that, and her perfectly-aligned eyes focused on one place, then another. But she did not look at the patrons who stole glances at the ragged-looking newcomer: She looked above them, beside them, and sometimes through them.
Halfway to Pinkie's table, Derpy glanced to the right, and shied from something that wasn't there.
When she reached Pinkie's table, she did not sit, but stood tense, in the manner of one prepared to flee at a hint of danger. "Okay," she said, "I'm here. Talk."
Pinkie leaned across the table and stared into Derpy's bloodshot eyes. "You haven't been getting enough sleep, have you." It wasn't a question.
"I think I slept... three days ago," Derpy said. "Or maybe four."
"Then you must be super-tired. Sit, sit!" Pinkie indicated the chair opposite her, and Derpy haltingly obliged.
"Nopony's seen you in three weeks," Pinkie said. "Did you ever even go outside?"
"At night, to crop grass." Derpy focused on a spot on the table. "They mostly come out during the day. That's why I asked to meet in the evening."
"Oh, you silly-filly." Pinkie lowered her eyes and shook her head a little. "You've been cooped up three whole weeks just because of something you don't know..."
"Pinkie..." Derpy stared at a place behind Pinkie's shoulder.
"... Maybe you should just be afraid of your own fear, since there's no real danger from anything else..."
"Pinkie!"
"... I mean, if they were going to hurt you, they would have by now!"
"They're behind you."
"Oh, I know."
The two stared at each other, one waiting calmly, the other struck dumb. Without breaking her gaze, Pinkie took a sip of her tea.
“Miss Hooves?” The Owner said, stopping suddenly by. (Derpy nearly jumped out of her hide at this, but the Owner took no notice.) “You appear to have had time to consider. Can I take your order?”
Derpy said nothing, but stared at the space above the Owner's head and shrank back in her seat.
"I think my friend could use a little hot chocolate," Pinkie said.
The Owner nodded and turned back toward the counter.
"So?" Pinkie said once he was out of earshot.
Derpy stared, clearly expecting Pinkie to explain. Pinkie only shrugged a little.
"So that doesn't... I mean, how did you start seeing them?" Derpy said.
"It was a little after I got my cutie mark. I was scared at first, but I tried doing what Granny said, and laugh at them. After a bit, I got used to having them around. And they're not there all the time. Just when something interesting's happening, or going to happen, or..."
"That's it?" Derpy said, grimacing.
"Yep! I never thought I'd meet anypony else who could see them, until I knocked on your door this morning, and you answered by shouting through the keyhole, and I knew something was up, so..."
"And you can hear them too?"
"Yep again! But I can mostly tune 'em out if I try."
"You can?" For the first time in weeks, a tentative smile of relief appeared on Derpy's muzzle. "Oh, thank Celestia. Please, you have to tell me."
"'Course I will! But it's your turn first. I'm still just dying to know how you started seeing them."
"Alright," Derpy said. "I'll tell you, and then you can show me how to make them go away. It was..." She stared at her hooves, and wrinkled her brow, in the manner of one concentrating on a difficult memory. "It was the black opal. I found it in the back forty, in an abandoned raccoon nest. You know they like shiny things."
"'Course! I'm friends with Fluttershy."
"Right. That was a few years ago. I kept it on top of my dresser because it was pretty, and I thought maybe I could sell it if I needed to."
"Okay..."
"Three weeks ago, I was reaching for something up there, and I accidentally knocked it off, and it fell and broke—shattered. And then..."
Pinkie tilted her head like a curious animal. "And then... what?"
Derpy intensely examined the table's edge. "You won't believe me."
"Hey—it's me, you know."
Derpy considered a moment, then took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "It was made of smoke," she said.
"What was?"
"There was something inside that opal. Made of smoke. It said it had been a prisoner in the opal for hundreds of years. It was grateful for being released, so it would grant me one wish. Anything I wanted."
"Wait, wait..." Pinkie scrunched her brow and tapped her head.
Derpy slumped forward and crossed her forelegs. "I knew you wouldn't believe me."
"Oh, I do," Pinkie said casually. "I was just wondering, did it say what its name was?"
"Actually, yeah. I think it was, like, 'Her-mees' or something."
There followed a pause, during which the Owner unobtrusively delivered a small cup of chocolate, garnished only with a little whipped cream.
"Why?" Derpy said at last. "Do you know him?"
"So what happened next?" Pinkie said, ignoring the question.
Derpy blinked, taken aback at this casual rudeness. Regardless, she went on. "I told it I wanted to see things as they really were. I only meant I wanted my eyes to be straight. I never imagined things would be like this." Her teeth clenched a bit harder, and a sharper edge crept unto her voice. "Guess I know why he was a prisoner in the first place. And the voices, Pinkie! You wouldn't believe the things they say!"
"Sure I would!" Pinkie said. "I hear them too, you know."
"Well, they think I'm somehow mentally impaired, for starters. And that I have a daughter, and this coltfriend—a doctor of some kind. And the worst is, they miss my strabismus. They think it was cute, or something."
"Well, it was! Everypony thought so."
Derpy glared. "Those walleyes kept me out of the Wonderbolts, you know. If there's one good thing that came from this, it's that I don't crash anymore."
"See?" Pinkie said. "You never know what's good and what's bad 'til you get to know it real well."
"I don't care," Derpy said. "Please, just tell me how to make it go away."
"Oh, nopony can do that, silly. A smart pony like you should know: Once the truth is out, you can't stuff it back to wherever it escaped from."
“But you said—”
“I can teach you to tune ‘em out for a while. That doesn’t mean they go away.”
"So what am I supposed to do?” Derpy’s voice cracked a bit. “Put up with this for the rest of my life?"
"Well, duh. I mean, what else would you do?"
At these words, Derpy seemed to deflate before Pinkie's eyes. "Okay, new plan." She stood and began turning away. "I'm gonna go off into the bush and eat the first oleander plant I find."
Pinkie reared up and hammered both forehooves on the table. "You sit down and finish your drink, missy!"
This outburst drew looks from the few patrons still around them, but neither cared at this point. It had the desired effect: Derpy paused mid-step and turned back.
"No more of that talk," Pinkie said, "or you're off my guest lists permanently!"
"That's kind of the idea," Derpy said. "Maybe you can live with... this." She gestured around her only slightly, as if cautious against spying eyes. "But I'm not you, Pinkie."
"So you learn to live with it! You have ponies who care about you, Derpy Hooves!"
"Well, what do you suggest?"
The Owner chose this moment to again appear out of nowhere. "Excuse me," he said, "but we're going to be closing in about ten minutes."
"That's okay," Pinkie said. "We were just about to go."
As the Owner walked to the next table, there was another pause as each mare waited for the other. This time, it was Pinkie who broke the silence. "So, what are we waiting for? Let's get you orientated!"
Derpy studied her hooves—first one, then the other. At last, without looking up, she said, "I'll try."
"Well, 'cmon!" Pinkie dropped a few bits on the table and, as quickly as possible in a place crowded with tables, made to head for the door.
Derpy started to follow, then paused. "Wait a sec." She turned back to the table, picked up her untouched cup of chocolate, and downed the whole thing in one swig. She set the cup down, turned back to Pinkie, took a deep breath, and stuck out her chest.
"Okay," she said, "I'm ready."
* * *
Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn't there.
He wasn't there again today.
Oh, how I wish he'd go away…
—Hughes Mearns, “Antigonish”
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a good kitsune is hard to find
All that Kitsunes must converge
I ran out of Flannery O'Conner titles
I'll be reading this soon.
I remember having that poem in the curriculum while upgrading for engineering. It was one of the few I actually enjoyed.
Well done, Horse Voice; this was a fun read, though now I want to see where it leads...
5672725
Awesome! Thanks so much! That's a very neat badge, indeed. I'm gonna stick it on my wall of shamelessness right now!
yay. =D
... Oh! Ooohhhhh. I see what you did there.
5674689
I wrote a review of Eyes; it can be found here.
5676375
5676641
Hi! Thanks for the comments. I'll pass them along to Cold, and see what he wants to do. And I'm sure he'd love to hear all the wonderful words, too!
A competent Derpy, a wise Pinkie Pie, perceiving what lies beyond the veil of reality...
Yeah, there's nothing here I don't love. Though given the nature of the Cafe, it's a good thing Derpy's wish only went so far.
5676911
I can't even imagine.
5677810
Sure you can. And I shudder to imagine what you'll come up with.
Well, I was expecting a Horse Voice chapter, and it was true to form.
5778784
Very much so. I love how all the individual voices of all the writers come through even given the same constraints. This is a fun experiment indeed.
PLEASE HELP! I am extremely confused! I have read a story with the exact same premises as this, except switched around, that when Derpy has one eye on you, her other eye is tracking some invisible thing, and Celestia help you if both of her eyes are on you. she can see these invisible things that don't like it when their presence is made known and twilight accidentally sees one and it freaks her out and these things try to make you forget and it's a very similar concept and I can remember what the cover looks like it's an eyeball with blood vessels, but I can't find it anywhere. Am I looking in the wrong places? Did the author delete it? Please tell me im not the only one who remembers the story because that would be very freaky. It was probably about 10,000 to 30,000 words long by now.
6003219 I remember the story that you are talking about. It is called The Corner of (our) eyes and it is written by Daemon McRea.
"Eddie, would you stop talking to the freaking fish!" - Richard "Richie" Richard
6003219
Yeah, I think this was a subversion of that. It's still on the site, 'cause I read it just a few months ago, and have seen it every time I root through one of my libraries (including this morning.)