The Gift of Second Sight

by Fly by Night

Chapter 1

Bon Bon sighed as she dunked her hooves in the warm, soapy water of the overflowing sink. Normally the small cottage she shared with Lyra was neat and orderly, however today the kitchen appeared to have been the venue for a passing team of gryphons who had used it for a thunderball practice arena. Bon Bon shook her head and blew a few stray strands of cobalt coloured mane from her face. Still, she couldn’t help smiling just a little as she tackled the mess. Lyra, her roommate and partner, had tried to make a special breakfast in bed for her, and the impressive disaster she had caused now covered nearly every square inch of the kitchen.

Her attention was snapped back to the present by a muted thud that sounded in the outer room. A cacophony of strange sounds followed, filling the cottage while Bon Bon made her way to the living room. They seemed to be originating from the front entrance. Another thud, followed by an odd scuffling noise encouraged Bon Bon to hurry over and pull open the top half of the door. She was greeted by the baffling sight of a long blonde tail and a pair of grey hooves floating in the air. After taking a moment to work out what she was looking at, Bon Bon stepped back and opened the lower half of the door.

         Staring up at her, with a delighted smile, was the face of the town’s infamous mailpony. Bon Bon felt her eyes ache as she unconsciously tried to match Derpy’s wall-eyed gaze. The pegasus had somehow managed to suspend herself just outside the door, upside down and yet airborne. The muffled sound Bon Bon had heard was caused by Derpy’s wingtips as they brushed against the wooden door frame. The thuds had likely been her rear hooves attempting, with surprising success, to knock on the door.

“Good morning! Umm, can I help you?” Bon Bon said, trying to find some spot on Derpy’s face she could focus her gaze without either going cross-eyed or ending up with a splitting headache.

“Hi BB! I have a delivery for, “ Derpy paused as she fumbled in her deep mailbags, bringing out a clipboard, “aryL?”  

Both ponies paused in confusion. Slowly, Derpy’s eyes widened and she rotated the clipboard to match her unorthodox orientation. “Lyra! I have a delivery for Lyra! I thought that looked funny. My bad!”

“Sorry Derpy, but she’s out at orchestra practice all afternoon. Any chance I can sign for it? I’d hate for you have wasted a whole trip over here,” Bon Bon asked, desperately trying to suppress a giggle fit while still fighting the urge to twist her head around to match Derpy’s inverted gaze.

The blonde mailpony nodded, the motion causing her to bob up and down slightly in the air.

“Sure thing BB, hang on, I just have to ... “ Derpy tugged at the muffin shaped buckle holding the mailbag closed, struggling to keep her tail from getting caught in the strap. As pouch opened, a heavy parcel dropped out, only to be caught deftly between Derpy’s chin and chest. This was actually an advantageous position for it to be in, as it allowed Derpy to offer the clipboard and a writing quill to Bon Bon with her free forehooves. After Bon Bon had signed and carefully taken the package from its awkward nest, Derpy flicked her wings and rolled herself upright again.

“Thanks, I’ll see that Lyra gets it,“ Bon Bon said, pausing to look back into the cottage and specifically at the mess in the kitchen, “ ... eventually. Do you have many more deliveries today?”

“Nope! Just got one more, and a very important item to pick up. Then I’m all done,”  Derpy replied happily. She still hovered, her wings beating slowly while her legs kept up a steady walking pace, making the blonde pegasus appear to be trotting leisurely in mid-air.

Bon Bon laughed, shaking her head at the airborne antics. “Well, I won’t keep you then. Good luck, and thanks again!”

As the door closed, Derpy wheeled about and headed through town to her last stop. Her slowly beating wings kept her a few inches off the dusty street. Making her way through town, she started humming a catchy tune she’d overheard Pinkie Pie singing the day before. In fact she’d heard it being sung by half of Ponyville as the precocious pink party pony led them in a spontaneous, and suspiciously well choreographed, parade. Up ahead, she spotted her destination, the huge gnarled tree that served as the town's library. Closing one eye, she aimed carefully and knocked on the ornately carved door.

Before she had a chance to lower her hoof, the top half of that door opened and a small, squealing shape charged through in a horizontal blur, cannoning into her and sending her tumbling back in a clumsy somersault. The shape that had delivered itself into her arms was giggling in a delighted, high pitched squeal and hugging her with remarkable strength. Derpy smiled and held her daughter tightly, letting the two of them continue to roll backwards in lazy flips.  The small foal gazed at her with open adoration before wriggling up onto her back, settling between her outspread wings.

        “I think she’s happy to see you,” Twilight Sparkle said with an amused laugh as she poked her head through the open door. Floating beside the purple unicorn was a small pair of brightly coloured saddlebags suspended in a magical field.

Derpy made her way back to the library, giving a little buck now and then to send her daughter bouncing like a rodeo filly. This was rewarded with peals of giggles and whoops of delight from the little foal. Derpy carefully took her daughter’s brightly coloured saddlebag in her teeth and deposited them in one side of her own saddlebag.

“Thanks so much for looking after Dinky this week Twilight, I hate it when they send me on those long distance runs, but I just couldn’t get out of it this time,” she said before turning her head back to look at her daughter. “I have a delivery for Miss Sparkle from the Library of Poniment in Trottawa, could you get it out for me please?”

The diminutive purple foal screwed her face up in a look of fierce concentration and seriousness. Giving a smart salute with her tiny hoof, Dinky slid back and dove headfirst into her mother’s mailbag, coming up a moment later with a thickly wrapped parcel held between her small forehooves.

Derpy took the rectangular parcel carefully with her teeth, and nuzzled the top of her daughter’s head, ruffling the silky blonde mane that framed the foal’s small horn. 

“Ere oo go Gwiligh,” she mumbled, holding the parcel up and making a spirited attempt not to drool on it any more than necessary.

“Oh! I’ve been waiting for this book for ages! Thank you so much,” Twilight said as she took the delivery and carefully pulled the crinkled wrapping from it.

A halo of violet hued magic surrounded the book and sent it floating back into the library. Twilight ducked her head back in to ensure the new book found its proper place on the shelves, but continued talking.

“And please, you don’t have to thank me for watching her, she’s a very bright young filly you know. It was fun having her around the library all week. She’s got a real talent for magical transference and projection. I was just telling her about how in the Canterlot archives, there’s a whole section on the life of Shiftmane Silvercloud, one of the greatest transmutational enchanters who ever lived. If you’d like I could lend you the … Derpy?”  By the time Twilight poked her head back out, both the mailpony and her foal were long gone.

        Inside a particularly large and fluffy cloud, Rainbow Dash carefully padded the last few stray cotton like puffs into shape with her hooves. It had taken all day to painstakingly hollow out the inside of the cloud and turn it into a hidden refuge, with just one small entrance to let in the warm sunlight. She nodded in satisfaction as she reached into her saddlebags and laid out the afternoon’s supplies: Several crisp ripe apples, a light blanket, and most importantly ... The Book.

For the last two days, she’d been trying to read her precious copy of the brand new adventure of her literary hero. And for the last two days, one thing after another had arose to thwart her. First, she’d tried to simply read the book in her Cloudsdale home. She was barely two pages in before a malfunction at the weather factory had caused torrential rain clouds to fill her bedroom.

Next she’d tried reading in, of all places, the library. That’s what it was for after all! Twilight had even given her an empty room where she could read in peace. A hope that was shattered by the sudden arrival of Pinkie Pie, who felt the situation would be enhanced by a “Reading Rainbow” party.

For her last attempt, she swallowed her pride and agreed to a spa weekend with Rarity in exchange for the vain unicorn allowing her to use a spare room at the dress shop. It had taken all her willpower to not flee from the sheer volume of froo froo girliness that adorned Rarity’s place, but she managed it somehow. She didn’t have even five minutes of peace before the fashionista had come in and insisted Rainbow Dash help her “for just a teensy minute dear, I promise!” Four hours, twelve dresses and nineteen hairstyles later, she flew screaming, trailing glitter and ribbons out a second story window to escape.

Well all that was in the past. Today would be different! She laid down on the pillowy cloud and held the unblemished novel with reverent care.

“The perfect crime,” she whispered to herself.

If nopony could find her, then nopony could bother, tease, drown or dress her up. Nothing was going to get in the way of her reading ‘Daring Do: Night of the Loving Dead Ponies’. She started to remove her saddlebag, fumbling with the buckled leather straps that refused to cooperate, getting more and more tangled as she tugged at them blindly, unwilling to take her eyes off the cover of the waiting book.

Derpy drifted lightly through the air above rooftops of Ponyville, her daughter riding atop her back. The sounds of the quaint town drifted around them as ponies went about their daily routines. As they passed by the famous, and occasionally infamous, Sugarcube Corner, the scent of freshly baked treats surrounded the pair in a cloud of confectionery temptation.

To the wall-eyed pegasus, the view of the shops and homes around her was the usual fractured landscape and superimposed double vision that she always saw. She had long ago gotten used to seeing the world this way. Closing one eye allowed her to see clearly, but also destroyed any sense of depth perception, which was somewhat of a drawback while flying. 

“I missed you all week, little muffin,” Derpy said to her small passenger.

“I missed you too Mommy!” Derpy felt her daughter’s tiny hooves hugging tightly around her neck and closed her eyes for a moment to simply enjoy the pleasure of it.

“Miss Sparkle let me help her out in the laboratory! She said I had a gift!” the little foal said excitedly. “And, I made a gift for you too.”

Derpy felt her daughter squirming around on her back for a moment as the nimble foal dug around in the mailbag where her saddlebags had been stored. Out of both curiosity and concern for the daughter’s safety, Derpy slowed her flight to a hovering standstill.

“Oh? What ..  tell me tell me tell me!” she laughed.

“Close your eyes Mommy ... please?”  Dinky begged with an anxious and mischievous grin on her small face.

 Nodding once, Derpy obeyed her daughter's instruction. A moment later she felt a small hoof brush her mane back and something pressed against her eyes. Reaching up, she lightly touched her face, feeling the shape of the pair of goggles now strapped to her head. When she opened her eyes again, the world around her was an even more fractured and confusing kaleidoscope image than normal, and she realized she was looking out through two thick but clear gemstones.

“They’re lovely, little muffin!” she said, rolling herself in mid air and catching her daughter in a tight hug. “I’ll be the coolest flyer in all Equestria thanks to you!”  

Dinky giggled again, as she always did when her mother called her by that special nickname.

“They’re not just cool Mommy, watch!” the diminutive unicorn said and shut her eyes tight, her whole small body trembling with effort.

The tiny stub of a horn atop the foal’s head lit up with a light purple aura of magic. Derpy gasped, almost falling from the air as the world suddenly snapped into perfectly clear focus. She stared in utter amazement at her daughter.

“Oh my little muffin! They’re ... amazing! How did you do that!?” she asked, looking around slowly at a world that no longer swam and randomly shifted focus on her. She gazed at her daughter again, and smiled softly. She already knew every inch of her little one’s face, and all the magic in the world couldn’t add anything not already memorized in her heart.

“Miss Sparkle helped!” Dinky replied gleefully as she wriggled in her mother’s tight embrace.

“She said it might be possible to align the fractal nature of ...  “ the little foal squinted, tongue sticking out from the corner of her mouth as she struggled with the words, “reflective crystal matrices to provide ... independent, angle … alignment.”

Finishing the recitation, Dinky smiled and breathed out a sigh of relief. Her tiny horn was still glowing brightly, and Derpy could feel the gentle tingling aura of her daughter’s magic.

“Miss Sparkle said the crystals she gave me were really rare, but they’re the only ones that would work. I didn’t have anything to buy them with, so Miss Sparkle said I could come in and help her at the library after school some days!“ Dinky smiled a little nervously. “Is that ok with you Mommy?”

Derpy felt her heart aching with joy as she hugged her daughter tighter still and nuzzled at her cheek.

“Sweet little muffin, of course it’s all right if it’s what you want to do! You gave me a wonderful gift today. Do you know what that is?” she said, smiling down at her daughter with a playful expression. “It’s not just the goggles, though they’re amazing! It’s that you showed me just how special and talented you are. I know that when you grow into a powerful magician someday, you’ll use that power to help other ponies selflessly.”

“The great and powerful Dinky Hooves!” the little foal cheered, making both of them break into a fresh burst of giggles. When they’d caught their breaths again, Dinky grinned and asked, “Mommy, remember you promised if I was good all week, you’d take me flying today?”

Derpy took another moment to gaze at her eager daughter, smiling at the way the sunlight made her mane shine as it was caught by an errant breeze.

“I did? Then I guess that’s what we’re going to have to do. Because you, little muffin, were very, very good!” she said, giving her daughter a tight squeeze before carefully tucking the foal into the empty side of her mailbags, the little unicorn’s head sticking out of the open top with a gleeful smile.

Derpy took a moment to orient herself skyward and thrust her wings down, pushing against the still air to ascend higher above the town. She marveled at how the world looked through her daughter’s goggles. How for the first time, she felt she could really risk flying faster and higher than she ever had before.

“Hold on little muffin, time to see what your mom can really do!” she shouted as she dodged between small clouds and gathered speed.

Derpy pushed her wings harder, flight muscles burning as she worked to gain height and speed. With a joyous grin tugging at her lips, she aimed herself at a field of distant clouds. She loved flying with her daughter like this, and it felt so good to hear her little one laughing at the thrill of the rushing wind and open sky as they weaved between the billowing white shapes. She sighted on one particularly large and fluffy cloud, revelling in how easy it was to fly confidently now that she saw just one of everything. As she neared her target, she pushed her wings down hard for one last burst of speed, aiming herself squarely at the heart of the soft white shape.

        Derpy sheared effortlessly through the cloud, feeling its cool ethereal wisps coming apart around her body and wings. At the same time, there was a startled yelp. For just a moment, Derpy found herself looking into the wide, disbelieving face of Rainbow Dash. She started to apologize, but before she could do more than open her mouth, she was smacked in the head with bone rattling force by Rainbow Dash's flailing hoof.

The magical goggles flew off as Derpy continued upward. The sudden loss of her daughter’s gift made her head spin, her vision returning instantly to the blurred chaotic mess it had always been. Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash had dropped like a stone toward the earth, a terrified wail trailing behind her.

            Derpy closed her eyes and winced, waiting for the angry tirade berating her for clumsiness yet again. When none came, she cautiously opened one eye, and saw the tumbling shape of Rainbow Dash below. She could see the blue pony’s wings hopelessly tangled in the straps of her saddlebag, pinning them to her side as she fell.

An icy cold dread gripped her as she suddenly realized there was no longer any weight in her mailbags. The dread clawed its way along her spine as she fought against momentum to turn herself around. She looked down to see the dwindling image of her foal falling away, one small hoof caught under the tangled strap of Rainbow Dash’s saddlebags. Spinning off in another direction, the enchanted goggles took their own path the earth, delicate crystal lenses flashing in the sunlight.

Actually, she saw several images of all of this, half imposed over each other and impossible to focus on. Aiming as best she could and thrusting her wings against the air with all the strength in her body, she raced to catch up to the plummeting shapes below.

“Don’t worry, my Mommy will save us!” she heard her daughter shout to the wildly struggling Rainbow Dash before industriously tugging and even gnawing on the thick straps that kept the pegasus’ wings out of action.

            The searing strain of her overworked wings and ringing pain in her head were forgotten as Derpy streaked toward where she saw her daughter and Rainbow Dash tumbling away. With a quick flap, she closed the distance and wrapped her forehooves around ... nothing. Looking about desperately, she saw the entangled pair further below and still accelerating earthward.

Please no please no please, the words screamed across her mind in a chorus of fear. She dived again, trying vainly to sort through the double images and distorted angles of her askew vision. Below them the ground was coming up fast, hard and unforgiving. Derpy could see her daughter, the smiling face of her little muffin staring back up at her with wide eyes and utter confidence in her mother, still laughing and cheering excitedly as she fell.

Derpy felt her wildly beating heart almost slamming against her ribs as she tried to breath against the rushing wind. There was no more time, no more chances to guess and to be wrong. She closed her eyes, listening to her daughter's laughter as it dopplered below.

Maybe, she thought as the sounds echoed around her, maybe that could work! She focused on the laughter, shutting out everything else. Slight flicks of her wingtips adjusted her course, using the sound of the laughter as her guide. There! It was clear and pure now, her child's voice, trusting and unafraid. Derpy kept her eyes closed so tightly that bright stars danced and sparked across the darkness in her mind, and dove again.

            The impact of the struggling ponies as she reached them nearly knocked the breath from her aching lungs. She locked her forehooves tightly around the bodies of her daughter and Rainbow Dash. When she opened her eyes again, her little muffin’s smiling face was there, cradled between herself and the disbelieving pegasus. Even with her untrustworthy vision, Derpy could tell they were too close to the ground for her to pull them out of the dive on her own, not at the speed they were falling.

            “Hold on tight!” she shouted to her impromptu passengers, and spread her wings wide.

She would never be as fast a flyer as someone like Rainbow Dash, or as agile as the Wonderbolt Spitfire, but that didn’t mean she had no skills of her own. Years of delivering mail, flying with everypony’s heaviest parcels and packages had taught her a trick or two. She held her wings out against the tearing wind and refused to yield to its strength. Sucking in a deep breath, she hammered her wings down against the howling air with a sound like the first concussive boom of a thunderstorm.

            Holding tight to her precious cargo, Derpy thrust her wings down again, forcing them to change the trio’s straight plummet into an angled descent. She could feel the shape of the wind around them as they dropped, and tried ride it. I’ll take a crash over a crater any day, she thought, and held on tight as they passed over a row of manicured fruit trees fast enough to cause a blizzard of leaves behind them.

            They came in like a tumbling comet of gray and blue, rainbow and blonde, over Sweet Apple Acres Farm. A few ponies working the freshly turned fields of the carrot patch looked up to see an impossible tangle of limbs, wings and bodies streaking toward them. The sound of high pitched shrieks of laughter, a strangled wail, and a final echoing thunderclap of wings accompanied them as they hit the ground, digging a dozen meter long trench in the soft, damp earth, before finally coming to a stop under a huge mound of built up loam.

            Within moments, a dozen ponies had gathered around, digging hoof-fulls of rich earth away and calling out to the buried aerial acrobats. A head popped up from the dirt and gasped. Rainbow Dash looked around wildly, her eyes unfocused and wide, a carrot dangling jauntily from the corner of her agape mouth.

            “Derpy! She ... then … Wha?!”  the stunned pegasus mumbled incoherently as she was pulled from the freshly dug trench by several concerned farmhooves. Freed from the earth, Rainbow Dash stood weakly on her legs like a newborn filly as the owner of the farm galloped up in a cloud of road dust.

            “What in the hay is goin’ on here! Y’all mind explaining what you think you’re doing Rainbow Dash?” Applejack took a close look at her friend and decided that questions could wait until later. Rainbow Dash lurched forward, grabbing Applejack’s head in her soil caked forehooves.

        “She … Derpy!  Falling ... That book is cursed! How awesome is that?!” Rainbow Dash babbled, her eyes pinpoints of mildly concussed confusion.

            “That’s right sugarcube, I reckon it is if’n you say so. Why don’t y’all come along with me and have a nice relaxin’ rest in the nice cool barn, ok?” As Applejack turned to lead the stunned and rambling Rainbow Dash away, two more figures were extracted from the earthen trench.

Derpy stood a little drunkenly, daughter perched proudly atop her mother’s head. Both blonde ponies were so covered in damp clinging soil that it was nearly impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Rainbow Dash yelped, pointing an accusing hoof at the dirt caked, multi-headed pony creature.

            Trotting over, Derpy smiled sweetly, and together with her daughter sang out,

“Sorry Rainbow Dash! We just don’t know what went wrong!”

As the assembled rescue crew watched with bemused stares, Dinky held up a heavily tattered and soil smeared book, ragged pages falling from between its ruined covers like white leaves. “Don’t worry, we’ll keep your book safe and get it back to you. I promise to get it cleaned up good as new!”  

At the sight of the book, Rainbow Dash whimpered and galloped full tilt toward the barn, dragging Applejack behind her. The assembled farmers started filling in the hole now decorating their poor field and grumbling to themselves as Derpy trotted down the road back to town, the sound of her laughter mixed with her daughter’s floating behind them on the wind.