//------------------------------// // Chapter 1. Just another day // Story: Seeing Rainbows // by Android //------------------------------// "UUUGGGHHH" You mutter rather loudly as your alarm clock BLEEPS. "Yeah, yeah, I'm up, I'm up," you say as you hit your hoof against the clock. You feel the top of your night stand looking for your shades, the electric blue glasses that have become part of your personality. You pull them on and hope out of bed, you lightly float down to the floor. Your ears twitch as you hear and feel the floor make contact with your feet. I never get tired of that you think to yourself. In fact it’s your first good look of the room in the morning. Ever since that one day seven years ago, when you were only a colt of 13 years old, you have used your ears and sense of touch to navigate your world. The accident that made you Blind. You haven’t seen a color, word, sign, or picture in seven years. But that accident gave you something extraordinary. Your new found ability. You can see with sound. Every slight movement, every flap of a wing, every step of a hoof you can see. Every vibration in the ground you feel, every gust of wind, every drop of rain you feel. The discovery of your sensitive ears and hooves opened a new world for you. You could be independent again. Without even having to focus, the world around you comes to life. While you no longer had vision you could still see. And now, apparent by the large amounts of ribbons and trophies decorating a shelf in your room, you were the best night flyer in all of Equestria. You shake yourself out of your happy thoughts and head downstairs. “Solar storm!” your mother yells as you reach the bottom of the stairs, “Your father and I are leaving now. I made you a quick breakfast; I left 5000 bits in the cupboard for groceries plus an extra 2000 for emergencies.” “Thanks mom,” you say as you begin to eat your breakfast; Eggs and cheese on a bagel with a glass of apple juice. Wow does your mother know how to cook. “Oh and one more thing,” your father shouts as he grabs the last bag, “your mother and I have a surprise for you.” You can tell by the tone of his voice he’s grinning ear to ear. “We got you the job at the Ponyville Weather Patrol.” “GGGAAAHHH!” you choke slightly on a bit of your sandwich. “What?! The weather patrol? Not that I can’t do it but HOW? You know with my…” you search for the right words, “unusual condition.” “Oh well, the mayor didn’t ask so we didn’t tell,” your mother responds. “I see, and who will I be working with?” “Only one other pony,” your dad calls from the carriage, “some pony named Rainbow Dash. You start tomorrow in front of town hall.” “Now we have to get going, Storm so please try not to do anything stupid while we’re gone,” your mother calls as she is helped into the carriage. You put on your mischievous face, “what? me? What could I possibly do?” “Ha ha,” comes the sarcastic reply, “Good bye Storm, have a nice summer will you?” Her voice grows fainter as the carriage speeds off. You finish your breakfast and wash the dishes. "It’s a new day" you think to yourself; "it’s quite a nice day out. Let’s do some exploring." Your passion and talent originated with your blindness. Suddenly every familiar place was a new land; A new place to explore. As soon as you developed your echolocation well enough, you started to venture out of the house. Looking around, you started with rediscovering Ponyville. Though one day your parents were home early, to announce they were sending you to a special school for the blind, and you weren’t home. You had flown up to the house in time to watch your parents freak out. You managed to calm them down and eventually impress them with your new abilities. Eventually you started going out at night, until your father pulled you back inside one night. Your night outs were cut short. You occupied your time during the lonely summers were spent building obstacle courses in the clouds and racing yourself. Your mother loved the idea of you eventually entering a race; your father was a bit reluctant. After several weeks of convincing your parents entered you in the Wonderbolts’ Dark race, with the Wonderbolts themselves the judges. It pushed you too your limits but in the end, your training and exploring paid off. You won the race by a snout. You even had your medal autographed by Spitfire! It was the happiest moment of your life. And there is where you received you cutie mark, a comet surrounded by a blue flame. Ever since then you entered in every night race and obstacle course you could. Your blindness never was even a factor in those races. And when you weren’t competing you explored. Every cave, every forest, every mountain top around Ponyville was explored by you. And today was going to be no different. You stretched your large, majestic wings and took off into the sky, the wind rushing through your black and lightning blue main and over your gray coat, you never felt freer than when you were flying. You take off towards Ponyville. You dive towards the ground and flip before you hit the ground, extending your wings to slow your descent before you stick the landing. Your shades still stick to your face, everything is fine. Sugarcube corner is only a few blocks away. Today will be a good day you think to yourself. “LOOK OUT!” comes a cry up above. You notice it even faster than everyone else. Somepony is coming in rather fast. Judging by the shape of the body, it’s a mare, she’s slightly shorter than you, slightly smaller than you too, but from the looks of her just as athletic. All this information comes to you from the air into your ears where your brain builds an image of the mare and environment in the blink of an eye. Fast enough to realize where the object is going to hit. Not fast enough to jump out of the way. “OH HORSEA – UUGGGGGHHHHFFFF,” as the mare hits you at 50 miles an hour.