Toph Beifongs find herself in equestria, and all she can sense are four legged beasts, who talk! What's one tough blind girl to do?
First of all, I'm looking for contributors, I had this idea while dreaming about it a couple days ago. and it's inspired by some "Humans In Equestria" stories (though I don't recall names since I read like a ton of them), if anyone who has knowledge of Avatar and MLP would like to help contact me through Pm, Credits will be given, and a link to the author's page too.
Toph Beifong has lived through a lifetime's worth of adventures, but this...this is something else entirely, she seems to be in an entirely different world with some sort of half animals, who look like what a half ostrich-horse would look like. She still has her earthbending but it seems most everything is made out of wood, at least in this 'Ponyville'. What will she do?
Takes place shortly after the defeat of the FireLord, she may be, maybe 13, or such? I pictured her pretty much the same way.
Pitch black. It was pitch black when she woke up, but then again, she was pretty much used to it. She was blind after all, and pitch blackness was the usual setup, as far as things could get. She just had to place her feet on the ground, and she'd be able to, if not "See" then at least sense. She could hear voices already. And although in her shifting off from sleep to being awake she didn't recognize them, she was sure they would belong to someone she knew. Most likely those of the "Gaang", that is, Aang, Katara, Sokka, herself, and Zuko.
Something was wrong though, and she felt it as soon as she placed her first foot on the ground. She couldn't sense the heartbeat of her friends, nor could she sense their bipedal way of walking. No, it seemed in here, everyone sort of walked on four feet. Though it weren't feet she was feeling, it were more like...hooves or something?
That instantly got her awake, she stood up from where she was and raised her hands in a defensive position, ready to kick someone or something's butt with earthbending. That was, if she actually could earthbend, at this point she didn't even know. She noticed for the first time the smell. It didn't smell like the slightly dry, dusty, earth kingdom she had traveled for so long, it smelled far nicer...even if there was a slight scent of sweat and hay. She didn't like hay very much. Luckily it also smelled like wood, and clear blue skies, pastries that made her mouth fill itself with desire (and spit), and ink. She didn't know what use there could be to ink to a bunch of four legged beings with hooves, but the smell was there. The most important smell to her, though, was the smell of dirt, and there was plenty of it!! She could feel it stretching out for miles and miles, through some kind of plantation, and then to a sort of undomesticated terrain, with lots of roots and trees.
But she had no time to think of that! She had to act, quickly. Everyone had stopped their wandering around and where now looking at her, she focused hard trying to hear what they said, but through the full on whispers and excited shouts of the little ones (yes there were smaller variations of those beings), she couldn't hear a thing.
She could sense one of them coming, from what looked like a tree. She was confused at first, but then she remembered herself she didn't even know how those beings lived. This one seemed to be slicker and taller, and it was being followed by 5....that soon turned into 4, of those others, who followed it through the town, or settlement, or whatever this was. Toph was nervous, where had the other being gone? The only place she couldn't sense through was the air. and in if those beings could fly she was practically helpless! She could throw spheres of earth at random, but the probabilities of them hitting one of those things would be zero to none.
"Alright twilight, here it is! The being that just appeared in mid air, with a bed." Came a voice from behind her, somewhere up in the air, if she wanted to, she could probably hit her, for it was definitively a feminine voice, but it was best to be on the defense. She didn't want to cause any unnecessary hostilities, yet. And if those things could talk, heck, maybe they could even bring her back home. She was sure her friends were looking for her. Their friendship had been forged on the battlefield.
"Calm down Rainbow I'm sure you're over reacting and there's nothing wrong with...."
She stopped her sentence midway when she saw the strange creature if front of her. Toph could't see, but she was sure she was looking at her, again, a female voice.
"And just what exactly are you? Some kind of threat?"
"Calm down, calm down, even if she were a threat, I'm sure she wouldn't tell us, but I'm also interested in knowing, just exactly, what are you?"
Oh Great. Toph thought. Seems like I'm the first of my kind here.
Her throat dried up a little, she was used to being lonely, she had been for the first 12 years of her life, but in the last few months she had learned all about friendship and stuff, she felt a heavy urge to cry, an urge she suppressed. This was not the time for it. Her voice still weak, and trying to hold it's tone, but failing, miserably, she answered.
"I'm...I'm human."
From the back one of those things got on two legs, (which gave her some brief hope that it wouldn't be so different, but it was quickly drowned in by reality), said something like "SEE? I told you so"
The pony who seemed to be in charge of the whole situation, told her to hush up, and called her a "Lyra". Weird names, first Rainbow, now Lyra. The thought came to Toph's mind.
After a few intense seconds, where everyone was in silence and you could feel the anxiety everywhere, the one in charge visibly relaxed and said she'd "Handle things in private on the library."
The one called Rainbow picked her up from the ground and put her on her backside, and told her to hold still, Toph could feel the creature's heartbeat, as well as some feathers on her sides. Before she could protest, they lifted flight, and she started screaming. It was one thing, riding on Appa, with a group of people she trusted. It was another thing entirely being put in a situation where she couldn't see a thing, and be completely helpless to any sort of things they might want to do with her.
Luckily the ride was short, and after a few minutes they were there.
"Geez, you really do have some lungs, I wasn't going to let you fall or anything, I'm a professional!"
Toph made a small gesture, lifting a few pounds of dirt and making this so called "Rainbow" fall backwards on her rump.
Everyone seemed to be staring at her, again.
"You can do magic? But how? You don't have a horn!"
Now she needed to have a horn to earthbend? And what was this talk about magic? It was simply moving the elements.
"Well....Discord doesn't have a horn either, so..."
Another voice said, and they all started whispering, Toph sighed, and enclosed herself in earth, she was tired (even if she had just woken up), hungry, she was alone, she didn't even know what those things wanted, or what they were. They seemed like just an animal with no mixtures, but that couldn't be. And apparently they could fly, leaving her totally incapacitated.
A soft knock on her dirt turned solid place made her open up and say in a harsh tone (due to anger):
"What?"
"Oh hum, I excuse me....but I...I..I"
"Yes?"
"I've never heard of a human and I'm an animal expert, could you tell me more about yourself? Are all humans capable of doing magic?"
Was she serious? And again with the story about magic, there was something in that voice, so soft it was unbearable, like the creature was afraid of even herself,
"And I also wanted to ask...are you ok? You look like a child, you shouldn't be alone!"
That made Toph laugh, if only this creature knew what she had done in the last couple of months.
"It's good to see you laugh. at least you're not all that bad, it seems."
"I'm fine"
And she enclosed herself back in. The sounds from outside muffled.
"Well, it seems like not all of those creatures are crazy and flying beasts that make me ride them" She said to herself. "Still, I have to do something."
She needed a plan. Soon.
But it seemed those creatures had stopped talking, she emerged from her cocoon of dirt.
The taller one of them started talking.
"If you promise us to behave, and don't go on a magical element bending mayhem of destruction, then I can cure your blindness."
Toph stopped, momentarily, did she want to be cured?
The brief silence was palpable, as they all looked at Twilight like she had gone completely mental. Well, everyone but Toph, that one wasn’t looking, yet.
“You sure about this, twi? I mean sure she’s incapacitated, but if we just start out flat out curing any newcomers that appear, pretty soon you won’t be able to do a thing without any random old pony coming up to you every time they stub their hoof.”
Twilight wasn’t so sure of herself, to be perfectly honest, she had just had this thought that maybe, if the creature could do magic, or as the creature insisted “Earthbending”, diplomacy and negotiation were the best options. And then she had noticed the vacant look on the creature’s eyes, and that idea had just formed. Twilight normally would run up the idea with her friends, but honestly? Only she had the magical ability to do it, medicinal spells weren’t properly easy. So she had offered. So she waited. If this “Human” accepted her offer then she would be able to control her, or at least bargain with her with the threat of removing her vision, again.
Still though, it was a pretty low move, and she knew it.
“Don’t worry Applejack, I’ve got this all planned up” What she didn’t add was that if the creature choose fit to refuse her offer then she would have no choice but to report it to the princess. Well, she WAS going to report it anyway, strange creatures unknown from anyone were noteworthy (and she would have her hoof on history, and was super interested in studying this creature), but could very well be used, well, at least if the creature didn’t cooperate.
Meanwhile while Twilight thought all this, a far deeper train of thought ran through Toph’s mind, did SHE want to be cured? It would be nice to see, and who was she kidding? It would be unbelievable to see for the first time, and she had always been curious about the other colors, her life nothing but black and a few tones of gray, but at the same time, being blind was basically her whole identity. It wasn’t just prep talk, calling herself the blind bandit, it was through being blind that she had become so good at what she did, and she could already sense. Then again, if she could see, she could attack things on the air, without having to ask people to shout places where to throw. It was just...she didn’t even knew how and what to think.
Throughout her life Toph had always secretly hoped that technology would find a cure to blindness, or that the avatar could cure her. She didn’t knew if it was possible, and she knew it was a very fat chance of it happening, but she still had hoped. Then she had learned earthbending and sensing became a second vision, one that replaced her faulty one. She knew that the beasts were nervous, that much was obvious, she could feel their heartbeats, slightly faster than her own. She tried to examine the tone in which this one “Twi” had spoken. It had been firm, and tempting and though it seemed nicer she knew better than to trust someone just because they sounded nice. She didn’t seem to be lying however.
“Cure my blindness? But I...”
The same pony that had talked to her sooner approached, she was beginning to detect the small, imperceptible to a normal human being, differences between them.
“That’s wonderful! You know, Twilight is a very skilled spell caster! I’m sure you’d be happy to get your vision back! Wouldn’t you?” Toph wasn’t so sure, that was the problem, if she knew what she wanted, she would have made a decision already.
“I need a walk”
And so she started walking away from them, she noticed the faster heartbeat of all those “Beings” as she walked away, but didn’t think much of this until she felt them approaching, well, 5 of them, one of them was in the air, again.
“Where do you think you’re going? I’m going to get you good, and I’m going to hold you tight, and then....”
“Calm down Rainbow.” Toph put a hand to her face, this again? Why could they just let her go? She felt the ground, not too solid, but it wasn’t clayey either. It was somewhere in the middle, however it was, even if it were sand, she had mastered all kinds of earhbending, she made some earth rise and solidify against her knuckles and fists, creating larger fists. If she had metal, then she would be at a definitive advantage, but there didn’t seem to me more than the ores, and even those were buried underground, although she could feel some large amount of gems close to her.
“Whoah, see? I told she’s a threat, she’s getting ready to attack! She’s mfmfmmf...!”
Twilight had cast a magenta glow against Rainbow Dash’s mouth, muffling the sound of her voice. The spell didn’t strain her one bit.
“Calm down, and put down the earth, we aren’t here to hurt you, we just want to help.”
Toph looked at the being closest to her, or well, she sensed it, it was one without a horn. From what she had seen the ones with horns were more dangerous than just the ones without, and the ones with wings? She wasn’t even ready to face them. Sighing she let some dirt fall down, and then the rest, if those beings were capable of curing her vision, something even the most advanced of the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom couldn’t do, then they must be pretty powerful.
“Can I at least go for a walk?”
“Go for a walk! You just assumed a hostile position. And my legs still hurt from back there, when you used your magic to make me fall!”
“IT’S NOT MAGIC! IT’S EARTHBENDING!” That was gripping on her nerves, hadn’t they ever seen a bender? Then she remembered. First of her kind in that land and all. “And I’m sorry”
“She didn’t exactly try to kill you....I think she’s just scared and frustrated.”
“You bet your sorry butts I am! I can’t even go for a walk and you 6 follow me!”
“We’re sorry but until we know exactly what we’re dealing with, we can’t let you wander around, besides, you’re blind, don’t you need assistance?”
“Well she seemed to be pretty well on her own, she even managed to hit rainbow! And she knows just how many of us are there, you sure she’s really blind?”
“I can’t see you, but I can feel you, trough the vibrations on the ground and why am I telling you this?”
Twilight’s mouth opened in a “O”, she needed to know more, she was letting her scientific curiosity get the best of her.
“Just go on, I need to know more.”
Toph made a pretty weird face, with her face. She kept going.
“Whenever I’m off the ground, or my feet don’t touch it, I am really truly blind.”
“So you don’t want to be cured’?”
Toph grimaced.
“No, I don’t. This whole thing made me think, if I weren’t blind, then I wouldn’t be THE GREATEST EARTHBENDER IN THE WORLD.” She shouted that last part. “And also the melon lord, I learned to see and wait, and it taught me patient and firmness, so thank you but no.”
“Well then, I guess I’ll have to find you a place to go to.”
Toph felt her heart sink.
“Can’t you send me home?”
Twilight looked at her, from above.
“Sorry, but I don’t even know where you came from, maybe with time....”
She turned to all five of her friends
“Who do you think could take care of her, after we assert she’s not a threat? Lyra would want to, but I’m not sure her roommate would enjoy that all that much, do any of you girls have any free space?”
They all looked at one another, the truth was, they weren’t too eager to get a sentient, fully rational creature on their home, one that they didn’t know how much time and responsibility it would take to care for.
Twilight sighed.
“I’ll see what the princesses can do, where’s spike?”
“Probably admiring something made by Rarity, or Rarity herself” Applejack noted as she saw Spike come running from a corner. Toph also felt him, and knew it was a bipedal creature, but she didn’t let her hopes fly too high.
So she was flying, again. No amounts of protest had stopped those crazy beings from loading her up in a carriage, and make her sit down. All she could feel was the golden incrusted wood of that carriage. She knew some of them were right next to her, and some of them were flying alongside her. It seemed as if not all of them were able to fly, just the ones with wings, but that little fact didn’t make her any less scared of flying. Yeah, she was scared, not wanting to give up blindness didn’t mean she loved the weaknesses that came with it. And her dear earth was far far below her. If she fell, which they had assured her that “As the princess’ personal escorts” (the ones who were driving this carriage of them) wouldn’t let her do. She could feel the wind blowing against her hair, as they sailed through the air without a sail, and only the power of the flapping of the wings of those male beings, was keeping them up in the air. Toph’s mind couldn’t help but conjure some frightening scenarios. She had felt them while on the ground, and while they were two carrying, and they were even more bulkier than the female kind of being she was being carried with, they were definitively shorter, smaller and more or less inferior to Appa. A couple of those four legged beings couldn’t make her feel as safe as a single six legged sky bison. And for earth’s sake! They hadn’t even closed in the chariot! Who traveled through the air when they didn’t have the safety of not tumbling over onto the ground?
Those thoughts aside, Toph was in a pretty bad mood, as if it wasn’t enough she was being carried in the air against her will, and she had been restrained by some kind of pulsing pushing force against her arms to be put in the chariot as she didn’t want to enter, she now had to go and meet a princess, she had met and befriended Firelords, Tribe leaders, and even kings! It wasn’t going to be a princess that would intimidate her into....well she didn’t know exactly what she was going to meet the princess for. But she wasn’t in control of the situation and she hated that! She was definitively going to tell this so called “Princess” of the “Sun and day” and also “Ruler of Equestria”, that she couldn’t expect all the respect she was hearing about from her chariot companions (who were talking between one another , four of them, one with wings, two with no horn or wings, and one with a horn). If the supreme ruler of those beings wanted to get her respect then she had to earn it.
Meanwhile she could feel them glancing and focusing on her from time to time, she didn’t know exactly how she could feel it. But it was a second ability she had developed. Or a third, after Earthbending, well, technically the fourth after sensing vibrations But whatever. The space was cramped, especially for five beings. And she was being pressed uncomfortably against one of them. She could feel the being’s heart beat, faster than her own. She had the option to retreat to an empty space near the wooden border of the carriage, and to put her feet off into the cold air, leaving them to float in the air attached only to the rest of her body. But she didn’t want to do that.
They had been traveling for what felt like hours now, and she was getting even sicker of all this. Her face was against that creature’s side and the fur was tickling her nose, making her want to sneeze. A sneeze she was holding for she was afraid it would project her over the ledge.
Finally they arrived and oh wonder of wonder! Much to Toph’s enjoyment she could feel that in here, most things were made out of stone. And stone was much better for defense than mere dirt. She put her feet on the ground, firmly, assuming a position that was fit for Earthbending, and she was beginning to put her first batch of rocks through her body when she was stopped by that pulsing against her arms again, and her legs too. The rocks fell down on the ground again. Oh how she loathed this situation, armed with nothing but the full mobility of her face muscles. She tried to earthbend using her face, something that she knew Bumi could do but with no success.
“Is that really necessary Twilight? I mean...hum, look at the faces she’s making, you’re clearly hurting her!”
Twilight looked at her friend, it was odd of Fluttershy to be confrontational, but an animal being hurt was one of the things that ticked her off, and one didn’t want to see Fluttershy ticked off.
“Relax, I’m merely binding her limbs, it may be a bit uncomfortable, but it’s by no means painful.”
Fluttershy looked unsure of herself, she looked at her friend and at the strange creature, then at her hooves, and at her friend again. She wasn’t so sure of herself now. But what could she do? It wasn’t like she had what it took to stand up to Twilight, and if her friend said she wasn’t hurting the creature. Well, twilight wasn’t a liar. Usually, at least.
Ponies stopped and looked around at the strange sight, one of the princesses carrying an unknown sort of creature, followed by her friends and the royal guards. Toph floated inches above the ground, Twilight not giving her a chance of using her bending to do anything. Not that she could, even if she wanted.
As they approached the castle gates, the guards quick in their hooves to open them, Twilight sighed, her letter had explained most of what was going on, and Celestia had been fast to answer, saying that she wanted to see this “Strange, hostile, unknown, rational, bipedal, element bending creature”. So they had traveled, and now she was here, she had not idea of how this was going to happen, even though the creature had been rational up to that point, she had suddenly turned hostile at the prospect of seeing the princess, or maybe just entering the chariot. They could have traveled by train, but the princess had already sent the guards, and though she had the power to send them away, she didn’t have the audacity to stand up against something Celestia had ordered.
The gates opened and, after a few doors, they were there, the throne room. Twilight dropped Toph and removed her binding, getting ready for the worst.
Toph was ready. This princess of those beings was going to hear it. And she was going to hear it good! In fact, she would yell so much that she would deafen them. And when they were weak, she would attack.
Toph had planned it all up, while flying on that devilish chariot. It was very unlikely that the princess’ place was in a place without stone or dirt or anything she could use to attack, that was the main strength of earth, it was pretty much everywhere, after all. So, whenever she got there, and she was released (for it would be unlikely that they would make her talk while she was stuck in place) she’d attack.
She could feel the creature they called princess, it was much taller than the others and possessed both a horn and wings. So she could fly and attack, much like the one that had been holding her. But Toph Beifong was no coward, perhaps a little bit foolish, but not much. She sensed everyone in the room, besides those six beings, and the princess, there were also a couple of those male bulkier ones, that could be a problem, or not.
The floor was smooth stone, stone that had been worked. It was an expensive handcraft and she almost felt sorry to destroy it. Almost. She assumed her basic position and then she prepared a boulder. She didn’t stood a chance, as soon as that blasted other being with horns and wings saw her lift it, just inches above the ground, she was on the floor. And all she could do was scream words she had learned while at war.
Those were earth kingdom and water tribe slurs, so they didn’t mean anything to the ponies who were watching this. But by the tone of it, the ponies knew that whatever was coming out of Toph’s mouth wasn’t a good thing.
The princess of the sun looked at the scene from above the height she had. She made a thoughtful “mmm”, as she looked at the scene. Toph on the ground without being able to move a single limb, and twilight restraining her with magic. All the other ponies looking around, some uncomfortable (like Fluttershy) some just plain not caring, or at least, pretending not to (like Rainbow Dash). After Toph ran out of things to say, having exhausted every single slur, insult , and bad word she knew. The princess approached her. And though Toph couldn’t see a thing, she could feel the presence of the being, so close to her, as the distance began to dimish from meters to centimeters Toph felt utterly hopeless. If only she could get to move her limbs, then she might have a shot at this, but, as it stood, it was like she was being bloodbended for all it mattered. The taller of the creatures stared at her, circling her, and examining her, looking at her bare feet and hands, taking particular attention to the toes and fingers, all the while doing a not too dignified “mmm”. Toph deduced she was thinking hard, whether it was about how she would be killed, or just about how peculiar Toph was, she didn’t know. Toph had to admit it, she was scared, it was hardly a fair fight if they restrained her.
After what seemed like hours but were, in fact, only a couple of minutes. The princess made a decision, she asked Twilight if she could please lower the “human”.
“Are you sure? With all due respect, she has proven to be a threat more than once, while, in fact, she was ready to attack if I hadn’t stopped her!”
Celestia looked at Twilight, and in that look, one that had seen a lot of things in over a 1000 years, Twilight found herself lost, and she felt tiny and minuscule, even if she was a princess too.
Twilight sighed, she hated when her plans were ruined and somehow didn’t come through. But she held the worst of her attitude, for she deeply respected the princess.
As a small act of pettiness, Twilight dropped Toph, onto the cold ground, but she didn’t gently land her on the floor, no, she let her fall, a full 5 feet, butt first.
“Now there, what is this oh so peculiar creature’s name?”
The six ponies looked at the princess, blinking, the truth was, even if they had spent the afternoon and traveled with the human, none of them had actually bothered to learn the creature’s name, not for malice (well mostly) but because no one had bothered to ask. Of course a rational creature would have a name. What were they thinking?
Celestia looked at the blinking and the 12 pair of eyes looking down, and she realized what had happened.
“I see...”
The deception was hearable in her voice. Twilight felt worse than everyone else, she had failed the princess, and all because she hadn’t bothered to learn the name of some creature that had showed up! She started hyperventilating, her mane disheveling, her eyes twitching. Toph could feel the creature’s change of mood. But she said nothing, she was getting a smug satisfaction in hearing those beings that had (for the most part) mistreated her, getting almost a lecture.
“Calm down, Twilight, it wasn’t your fault! It’s all the fault of this....human, that appeared and disrupted everything!” Rainbow told her, and Twilight didn’t calm a bit, whenever she got in that state she had to tire it out or be told by the princess that she did well.
“Actually, Twilight, it was your fault, you let prejudice get in the way of the lessons you’ve learned over the years in Ponyville, when a creature that was helpless appeared, I expected you to react with kindness, generosity, hospitality, and honesty, instead, you mistreated a scared creature, that is not only blind, but also a child. I’m very disappointed in you.”
Twilight lowered her head in shame, her eyes twitching even more, but now threatening to tear up. It was true, she hadn’t treated the creature with the friendship she needed. And for that she was sorry.
“WHOAH WHOAH WHOAH! This isn’t just any mere child! This creature has magical powers! She can bend the elements, and she used it to attack me! That’s why twi restrained her!” Rainbow’s tone became a tad softer, after realizing she was screaming with the supreme ruler, who had the power to send her to the moon. “I think she still has her share part of the fault! It’s not just our fault! Herm...with all due respect, of course.”
Toph, who was at the moment rubbing her sore wrists, had a huge grin on her face.
“I see...well, even so, I expected you 6, as the bearers of the elements, to know better, but I am not being entirely fair, and for that, I am sorry, after all, everyone makes mistakes, we just have to make due to accept them and correct them, learn from the past, and live a better future, but now, I’ve heard your version via letter, why don’t we let the human talk?”
Toph looked at the princess, she wasn’t as bad as the other beings. At least she was treating her with a little bit of dignity.
“Why don’t you start by telling us your name, little one?”
The one named Twilight wasn’t pleased, Toph could tell that much, not only by the tone of her voice (for the regal princess had confirmed it to her that it was a she, even if she couldn’t tell what made a he or a she in non human form), but also by her heart beat. Toph, standing at last, feeling everyone, sensed the mood. Besides this “Twilight”, the other ones, whose names Toph hadn’t bothered to learn, or weren’t told, were all nervous. From it, Toph sensed that they all deeply respected this princess. She was grinning, this was a fantastic change, now she had the power, she briefly felt the urge to screw them, twist the knife deeper, complain about their treatment, but that was the old her, the new her, forged in the battlefield, while still grumpy and eager to cheat someone, wasn’t malicious.
Well, except when you were a firelord willing to burn the entire continent, but that was an exception rather than the rule.
“My name is Toph Beifong and I’m blind”
She was sure, in her way of seeing, that someone rolled their eyes, of course she was blind, though she had never seen herself, she knew from descriptions of her, that her eyes were blank. Whatever that meant.
“...I come from a place with four nations and...” – Toph started narrating the exposition, explaining to the best of her abilities how her world worked, how the fire nation (the nation that had attacked them for 100 years) had been huge jerks, until they put Zuko in charge, how the princess fire-pants threw lighting at them (she didn’t like her very much), how she couldn’t see a thing in the air (and how she saw through vibrations, as learned via badger-mole), how animals were a mix of others and she had never seen a thing really, but more concretely, she had never heard of creatures like them, how she had fought with her friends (and her speech became impeded by the urge to think back to the dark, but still good moments she had with them), and how they had finally won the whole thing. She talked about Twinkle toes and the funny man Sokka who prized honor and his father, the gentle Katara, who kept them together as a kind of family, Zuko, and how he never got to go on a field trip with herself...she talked for hours, at times pausing, as her throat threatened to close and let her cry, though she avoided that.
When she, at last, stopped exposing her life and adventures, the whole room was silent. And not even her supernatural sense of sight (that replaced her faulty one) could tell her much more than what she already knew. There were ponies, they had hearts which beat, they had held their respiration at parts of her story, some have said some things that replaced curses, something she, with the potty mouth she had, would never do, but she couldn’t tell what they felt now.
The silence was uncomfortable, Toph spent that time shifting around the room, feeling, sensing, but there wasn’t much more information to learn.
“...I see”
The princess said after what felt like hours, she approached and once again Toph felt tense, unsure of how to act, as she had said, the rulers in her land were either completely useless, or completely, over the wall, crazy. She didn’t know how to react, maybe this princess would tell her some stuff about how things were in here? Tell her where she was? Maybe? Toph felt a tiny little bit of hope inside of her.
Though she couldn’t see it, Celestia was almost x-raying her with her vision, cocking her head sideways, like a big dog (an undignified comparison), wondering, what the creature, Toph, she reminded herself of the name, had told her had been terrible, much like what Twilight had been put through to test her, but the way Toph had acted, for she sensed it to be the truth, much like a child soldier....well she was impressed and kind of amazed. The tales about Earthbending – The strange magic that had make Twilight panicky, the bending and shifting of the ground. – Looked to be an intense magic, or, if not that, a skill. She shuddered when thinking of what Twilight had almost made the scared child do, while restraining the child had been simple enough (though she had told them of an old crazy king who could do with just facial expressions what she needed her body to do), if left to fight, they could have caused plenty of chaos, and destruction. Mutual peace was what she needed.
Celestia stood, finally rising, and Toph let out the breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding, this was it, Toph would hear her sentence now. She was glad to have her hands and feet unrestrained, she could fight them off if she were to need it. She had a particularly large chunk of worked stone with the name of “Twilight’s face” to deliver.
But it never came to that, Celestia looked at her, though she couldn’t see her and spoke.
“My child, Toph Beifong...” - Her voice raised itself and every fiber of the ponies who were there shuddered, as they all turned to face her, even if the words weren’t directed at them. – “You’ve appeared in our land, and, hostilities aside, you spoke of pain and triumph and all the challenges that you’ve faced.” – To Toph that felt kind of silly, she was basically recapping every single thing she had told her, as if she hadn’t been done speaking it not 5 minutes ago. She fought the urge to mouth the words “don’t you think I know that?”, deadpan was Sokka’s thing, not her, plus she felt that antagonizing her wasn’t a good idea. – “You need shelter. I would have thought you to need protection but you’re more than capable of that, as you so well proved” – Toph sensed some amusement on her words, like she had spoken them through a smile. – “Arrangements must be made. My little Ponies” – She turned to the mane 6, who were standing, and looking at her. – “Do you have an idea of whom to give this child to?”
Every single one of them crossed eyes, Twilight still bickered worded the words the other 5 had thought of immediately, almost as if telepathically communicating with her.
They probably thought she couldn’t hear them. But she was blind not deaf.
The girl had been trying to get information out of the ones she was traveling with, by listening, she wasn’t held down and pressed to the floor as they flew, but that was a small comfort, she wanted to travel by ground, but that would apparently take too much time, on that the creatures had agreed, so they flew. And getting information could at-least distract her from the sound of the wind and the total blindness. For the most part.
From what she had gathered Lyra was crazy about humans, that is, about her, even if none of her stories had been about magical element controlling. Everyone had thought she was crazy, until she had shown up. The fact that they wanted to put her with someone they thought was crazy until almost that moment wasn’t particularly encouraging, but she didn’t complain, not while flying.
The ponies (the name still sounded weird to her) ignored her for the most part, talking among themselves, a large portion of their communication Toph couldn’t see, for it was facial. While she could detect wide, large motions, emoting with the eyes wasn’t that easy to detect, even more so on this ponies things. But the voices she could hear.
She couldn’t see but she imagined her knuckles to be white, so tightly she grabbed the risen hedge, the princess had provided them with a larger chariot, so they could all travel together, but bigger wasn’t necessarily always better.´
She had started to pick up names “Fluttershy”, “Rainbow Dash”, “Applejack”, among others, and, of course, “Twilight”, she still didn’t trust her, and it was, among the voices, the one who was chattier, or, the one Toph focused more on, at least, she was inherently the leader, that she could detect.
If she weren’t focused on the grabbing the hedge, she would have retched, or faked it, at least, while Twilight had been ordered to be nice with her, that reminded Toph on how her parents made sure that the few people who knew of her existence, did the same, because, since she was blind, she was a delicate little flower.
She hated that feeling, relationships didn’t develop out of orders or suspicions, sure, everyone would treat her fairly, but it would lead to resentment. Resentment had been one of the reasons she left home, to prove herself.
The point was, it wouldn’t lead to good things. That she knew.
“And then when she’s over with Lyra...” – Twilight seemed to hesitate, a first for her, normally, as far as Toph could tell, while she could detect her nervousness (and her falling apart when criticized), she did her best to sound confident, for her friends or for herself, probably (Toph wasn’t sure), but this time Twilight let her doubts shine through. She couldn’t blame her, if a totally strange and weird thing showed up next to her, like a turtle the size of an island with a lion face who came to her and told her “Here’s a power that’s been lost for ages”, she’d react the same way, not like Aang, a friend who had actually seen that happen. Toph waited, the doubt making the tidbit of conversation particularly interesting to her, but Twilight, who had faltered, didn’t say much of interest. – “...We’ll see” She seemed unsure of herself, but that wasn’t new, Toph had picked that up ages ago.
The winds just kept coming messing up her hair, she didn’t even feel herself, but the lump in her throat, the same that no matter how many times she tried to get rid of, would come when she wasn’t in solid ground, was still present. There didn’t seem to be a point to the conversation, after a while it had delved into many other smaller ones.
The ponies had an interesting dynamic. She had come to realize, they were split into groups of two, or three. One of the flying ones and one of the ones with the horn talked girly stuff, things that’d normally make her want to tone the conversation off. They talked clothes, and spas (which reminded Toph of the one spa trip she had made, that hadn’t ended that well for the handlers, long story), and though they didn’t mention them, she was expecting them to talk about boys (stallions? She wasn’t sure) any moment now. One of the plain ones, no horn, no wings, and another winged talked about some more actioney things. If she had any idea of who those “Wonderbolts” were she’d probably enjoy the conversation a tad more, but she didn’t, and one of the voices belonged to Rainbow, which she still resented. One of the other ones behaved much like Sokka, and she had an interesting relationship to “Twilight”, much like Katara and Sokka. She kept mumbling and cracking random jokes, which weren’t all that funny (though some hit the mark, and at least unraveled some of that tension in Toph’s body), and the other just groaned. Twilight seemed to be the straight man (mare? Toph still wasn’t sure) in all of them, but she certainly hadn’t acted straight with her...She wasn’t sure of what to think of.
At first she thought it was just her impression, but then it was confirmed by the wind, they were really coming down, the angle wasn’t too close to the vertical ones she sensed in inclines sometimes, but she still grabbed harder, if that were even possible. Then, they landed.
She had the urge to throw herself down to the ground, and roll herself in dirt, she liked to have a fresh layer on her at any given point, a healthy coating, something she had griped on about with Katara.
Her mind jumped to her friends again, she hoped they were alright...
She could feel several hearbeats approaching, through her vibrations. One of those ponies, a girl one, asked Twilight what she needed.
“Bring me” – And she groaned, almost as if the mere thought of talking with the other girl-mare-whatever (Toph would learn the noun later) gave her a headache. – “Bring me Lyra”
Some ponies moved aside and she felt the bouncy energy of extreme excitement she had only felt from one of the plain ones who traveled with her in the chariot up to that point (and whose jumping made Toph nervous).
“Present!”
Toph didn’t know anything about her other than she was excited, which was confirmed by her voice, but she felt grumpy already.
